And that was it. After the cancellation of
Enterprise (now renamed as
Star Trek: Enterprise) at the close of its fourth season in 2005, there would be no more new official Star Trek for another twelve years. However, if
Star Trek fans are known for one thing, it’s being obsessive, and paying great attention to the tiniest details, to the point where they could make these series themselves. And with no new official show on the foreseeable horizon, that’s exactly what they did.
Some were truly great, others were, well, not. Some garnered praise, and even support from cast members of the official shows, a few of whom actually made guest appearances on one or two. Some of the series folded after a short amount of episodes - it’s hard to imagine the amount of money needed to bring even one episode to transmission, never mind seasons, and remember, none of these had any sort of studio backing, so it was the guys and girls’ own money that got them made, and possibly that of investors and/or advertisers, but looming over all like some disapproving but lazy parent was the copyright holder, and as we’ll learn as we go through these, many of the potential shows were slapped down by CBS in a “dog in a manger” idea. We’re not doing it, so you can’t either.
Some got around what became quite draconian rules in various inventive ways, one even dropping all references to the franchise (yet clearly a
Star Trek show in all but name) and some, sadly, had to be cancelled as they would not be authorised. But good, bad or bloody awful, you have to hand it to the men and women who put their time, efforts, money and perhaps also family and job on the line to bring us even one episode of their vision of where the franchise could go, or their idea of expanding on an already-written show. They all deserve the highest praise, whether they succeeded in creating almost a rival to the official series, or whether they ended up with a camcorder-held film of guys in silly uniforms running through a forest for thirty minutes. To all of them, I say,
ka’plah!
Because all of these shows are based on the originals, there are new categories I'm judging them by, including, perhaps most importantly, one which will measure how well, or badly, the series stands up against the official ones. Believe me, it varies wildly. Explanations, where needed, are given at the end.
For now, it's time to either engage, ahead warp factor whatever or, you know, just get the damn computer to stop rebooting so we can get this show started! Who bought this cheap piece of junk? And whose dog is that? Oh, right, it's mine. Okay. Off we go, crossing the not-quite-final frontier and going where a lot of people have gone before.
The Human Adventure stumbles on...
Introduction
Discounting movies (which I said I would) this appears to be the very first fan-made series, and indeed one of the most successful, running to 50 episodes and, as I noted in the list, giving rise to no less than four spin-off series. Okay well technically speaking it wasn’t the first, as I read the series it span off from itself,
Voyages of the USS Angeles, ran into those legal troubles I referred to earlier, and is not allowed to be available anywhere, so I guess for all intents and purposes it doesn’t exist, leaving us with this as the first series we can actually watch. Set after VOY, it concerns the exploits of the USS
Excelsior during the aftermath of the Dominion War seen in the fourth to seventh seasons of DS9. Another setting used for this series is Deep Space 12, which is located in the area of space known as The Briar Patch.
Series: Star Trek: Hidden Frontier
Season: 1
Episode: 1 and 2
Episode title: “Enemy Unknown”
Original transmission date: n/a
Total seasons (to date if current): 7
Span: 2000 - 2007
Writer(s): Rob Caves
Director: Rob Caves
Basic premise: At the climactic Battle of Lapolis, the USS
Devonshire encounters a new threat: an alien species who can control minds. And look like jawas.
Mood: Sombre, action
Setting(s): Space, Lapolis system
Themes: Power, survival, mind control, aliens, war
Things I liked: The CGI sequences
Things I didn’t like: The acting
Timeline: 24th century
Stardate: ?
Vessel: USS
Excelsior
Class: Galaxy
Registry: NCC-77246
Location: Alpha Quadrant
Mission(s): Originally, part of the Battle of Lapolis, driving back the Dominion in one final push. Later, to track down this new alien species and direct them to the new Star Wars movie stage.
Dramatis Personae:
Main:
Captain Ian Quincey-Knapp
Commander Elizabeth Shelby**
Dr. Henglaar, a Tellerite, CMO
Lieutenant Commander Robin Lefler**
Mura Elbrey, Ship’s Counsellor
Lieutenant William Martinez**
Lieutenant Toby Witczak**
Ensign Jenna McFarland**
Ensign Andrew Barret**
Rayvan**
Ensign Ro Nevin**
Ensign Brad Rawlins**
Lieutenant Commander Rodriguez*
Lieutenant Paul Brickey*
Ensign Abney*
Ensign Jason Williams**
* Part one only
** Part two only
Supporting:
Ancillary:
Starring: (Main cast) David W. Dial, Risha Denney, John Whiting, Joanne Busch, Barbara Clifford, Anthony Diaz, Matt Kruer, Adrianne Lange, Tyler Bosserman, Gregory Allen, Adrian Bosserman, Tristan Clark, John Wallis
Guest Star(s): Jeanne Carrington, Paul Brickey, Rob Caves
Synopsis
The episode borrows from the opening of DS9, with a desperate battle in progress, though this time it’s the Dominion’s last stand in the Battle of Lapolis. During the battle Captain Quincey-Knapp (seriously? They could have chosen any name for their captain and that’s what they came up with?) of the USS
Devonshire is ordered to pursue three Dominion ships which have broken away from the main formation. The Dominion get in a lucky shot however and disable the Starfleet vessel, which has to stop for repairs. Once these are effected, Quincey (look I’m just gonna call him Captain Knapp, everyone okay with that? Tough; I'm doing it anyway) takes his ship into the McAllister Nebula, into which one of the ships vanished, pursued by another Starfleet one.
Inside the nebula they confirm the other ship has been destroyed but there is as yet no sign of the Dominion vessel. Oh wait, the Starfleet ship, the
Rutledge, is still intact, but with no life signs? Anyway they beam over and stick their noses in where they’re not wanted in true
Star Trek fashion, and find there is one member of the crew left, a Betazoid who tells them that the rest of the crew were captured, or rather went with, some alien species who seemed to be able to control their minds. The aliens destroyed the Cardassian ship the
Rutledge had been chasing, took the crew of the Starfleet vessel, and ****ed off. The Betazoid was able to resist their mind control because, you know, she’s not human.
While there, the mysterious aliens come back and try to take the away team, but the Betazoid, um, completely fails to save them, other than the doctor, who’s also alien, a Tellerite apparently. Oh look! The mysterious aliens are Jawas! Sorry guys: wrong franchise! Is that someone’s kid playing the part? Anyway, off the other two go and beam back to the
Devonshire in order to raise the shields, as they realise the jawas sorry mysterious aliens are attacking there too. Dr. Henglaar shoots the jawa (sorry, sorry!) holding everyone in “psionic thrall” and the crew come back to themselves, preparing to defend the ship.
But their weapons are about as much use as the
Enterprise’s were against the Borg cube, so Knapp decides there’s only one thing for it: engage the auto-destruct, head right for the alien ship and get the **** out of there. Abandon ship!
(You really can't fault the CGI...)
Eighteen months later, Knapp is given command of the USS
Excelsior, though he seems to think his crew is far from up to it, as he explains to Jennifer Cole at Deep Space 12. From what I can gather, she’s a captain too and looks to have been the wife or girlfriend of his brother, John, who was killed by the Dominion. The
Excelsior has been tasked with checking out reports of unknown aliens in the area. Knapp goes to visit Rayvan (seriously? Raven?), an Iconian whose people were all wiped out by a secretive race he calls the Grey, who are very long-lived and tend to, he says, emerge from hiding only to attack and then vanish again. He believes these are the aliens Knapp saw when in command of the
Devonshire.
He tells them that the Grey are not a race, but a confederacy of races, and that they are not interested in negotiating. They take what they want, and if you get in their way, as his people did 2000 years ago, you get wiped out. He notes that the metaphasic (I know, I know!) particles in the Briar Patch may be used by them to strengthen their hull armour, which may be why they stay in there, and Knapp realises he needs to find a way to lure them out. When he gets a message that a colony ship has been attacked and destroyed, it’s time for the
Excelsior’s maiden voyage.
Possibly the only one who can actually act - and he ain't even human!
I say this under a triple caveat: one, that fair play to them for trying something and in fact being almost the first to do so, two, that I could never do anything like this so who the **** am I and three, that I assume it will get better, I hope. But. And it’s a big but. Overall, it’s pretty awful. I mean, the CGI is excellent, but the acting? Well, I read that this was all filmed in one guy’s house against green screens, so you can allow for that, but the woodenness of the actors is hard to ignore. The captain seems either totally smug or about to piss himself laughing all the time, the other actors vary between being too serious, stick-up-the-arse-like and seeming not to take it seriously enough. The only one I can really single out for any sort of praise is the doctor, John Whiting, who seems to stand head and shoulders above the rest of the cast.
It’s early days, of course, and there are things I like. The connections to the official Star Trek universe, with things like Ensign Ro Laren’s brother, Ensign Ro Nevin on board, a trill and an Iconian, even someone portraying Robin Leffler, from TNG’s “The Game”, and using her habit of making up rules and quoting them at people, all helps to make this more realistic and authentic. I do have an issue with how, most of the time, one actor talks on screen and then it switches to the next, so that it’s quite clear they’re taking turns in front of the green screen, and even when the ship is in battle all you can see is either the captain in his chair or the helmsman or the tactical station or insert position here, but obviously space is at a premium and they haven’t the facilities of a Paramount soundstage, so I think they do well with what they have.
After a pretty action-packed first part (this being a two-part opener, following the tradition since TNG) the second part is not only slow and boring, but essentially a “meet the crew” deal, where the First Officer literally tours the ship and asks everyone who they are and what they do. I understand what they’re doing, but I think it could have been done less clumsily. It also drags out a mere 18 minutes till it feels like an hour, and then just as they’re about to get to the action, end of episode.
Overall though, for a first effort it’s very impressive, but I expect there are better as we go through the fan series. As I say, I’m sure this gets better - I’ve seen one of the spinoffs and it’s very good - but as an opener this is pretty shaky. The story’s decent and there’s a valiant attempt to set up character backstories, but I think they concentrate so much on ensuring everyone gets their screen time that there’s no time left for action, which is, I think, a mistake.
Still, the USS
Excelsior has launched: now let’s see where she takes us.
Oh wait no we won't: I'm moving on. Still, check the entire seven seasons on YouTube if you want.
Script: 5/10
Acting: 2/10
CGI: 10/10
Mood: 5/10
Faithfulness: 2/10 (live action) 10/10 (CGI) giving an average of 6/10
Soundtrack/effects: 7/10
Costumes: 7/10
Probability of watching more: 5/10
Balance between animation and live-action: 2/10
Gender balance: 6/10