1701news.com/

Over the last few years, Vic Mignogna has racked up millions of views for his fan series, “Star Trek Continues,” where he plays the character many wish they could be: Capt. Kirk.

But how far back does Mignogna’s love for Star Trek go? All the way back to before he was even a teenager.

“When I was 11 or 12 years old, I had never built any props, and I never tried to build anything, and I never tried to shoot a little home movie,” Mignogna recently told Michael Hinman of 1701News. “I was so inspired by the original series that I got my mom to teach me how to use a sewing machine and to make uniforms. And I dug out my family’s 8mm movie camera and rounded up the other little kids in the neighborhood.”

The sound-less adventures were the closest Mignogna would come to actually being in a mass-watched Star Trek production for decades. But for this little boy growing up in Pennsylvania, it was just perfect.

“I would build cardboard sets out in the woods behind my apartment building, and I would sit around with the kids in the neighborhood and make movies,” Mignogna said. “I would hang models of the Enterprise in front of black poster board and move the camera to make flyby shots.”

Of course now Mignogna has a whole crew that helps him put each and every episode together, and today’s digital equipment is far superior to that 8mm camera.

Here’s a peek of one of those Star Trek episodes Mignogna made as an adolescent. And check back to 1701News on March 11 to get Michael Hinman’s full interview with “Star Trek Continues” star and executive producer Vic Mignogna.