The two became friends and this led to Theiss hiring him as an intern in the costume department of Star Trek: The Next Generation (ST:TNG).

Using money earned from his thriving career performing as Elvis, Cawley began building some of the ST:TOS sets in a former car dealership in Port Henry, New York and then he and a group of Star Trek fans began filming fan episodes based on ST:TOS, which became Star Trek: New Voyages.

[2] Cawley and the New Voyages cast and crew shot and released eleven episodes of the show online, but then discontinued the series when Paramount introduced stricter rules about fan productions.

His sets, props and costumes have also been used by Star Trek: Enterprise in the episode "In a Mirror, Darkly" and in the fan film Of Gods and Men in which Cawley also plays one of Captain Kirk's nephews.

[5] In addition to producing more episodes of Phase II, Cawley appeared in the cameo role of a bridge officer in the new Star Trek movie.