Yesterday (and two days early) The latest semi profesional Star Trek fan film was released.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l94v4YOqxOc
I'm still watching it now, but I have to say that it's far better than 'Of Gods and Men' (not a slight on that film), and 'Renegades' (a slight on that one though). Also the setting of ENT is a very interesting choice as it's far less tapped than the TOS era (with both 'New Voyages' and 'Continues').
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however the graphics are not half bad but some of the moves of these ships, the shield and warp effects felt far too fast or not trek enough to be useful. the background images are merged with people and some of the agraphically generated crew on the ship do not look that great.
The Tumarr story is half baked as well, a supposed romulan that was the product of an experiement but ultimately her character had no real purpose in the fan film.
in the end it is just another typical fan made film.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Those gripes aside, I kind of enjoyed watching it, and it was something to watch, thanks for sharing
PS Alec Peters kicked in to the kickstarter I think I enjoyed seeing that credit more than anything else
What's with all the overexposed and soft- or un-focused shots? Bit of lens flare wasn't as bad as JJ, but noticeable.
The music was good, a hint of BSG-esque quality to it.
The acting was... fair. The story itself was pretty good, but bogs down with all the touchy-feely scenes.
Overall not bad at all for a fan-made film. Kudos.
As far as I know all the backgrounds (or anything that the actors didn't have to interact with directly) was CGI and the soft focus was an attempt to make this less obvious.
It was a bit over the top in places, especially as productions like the Star Wars prequel trilogy and Babylon 5 have a large amount of CGI backgrounds where after a few minutes you just accept it as 'reality' and get on with the story.
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
#TASforSTO
'...I can tell you that we're not in the military and that we intend no harm to the whales.' Kirk: The Voyage Home
'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
'This is clearly a military operation. Is that what we are now? Because I thought we were explorers!' Scotty: Into Darkness
'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
'I'm not a soldier anymore. I'm an engineer.' Miles O'Brien: Empok Nor
'...Starfleet could use you... It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada...' Admiral Pike: Star Trek
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Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
I watched about 30 minutes of this film and had to turn it off. While the story of the part I watched was good, the acting Fair, and overall I liked where it was going... the Unfocused backgrounds absolutely KILLED it for me. My eyes are still twitching from the haze effects that seem to be on every scene of the interior of the ship. While building sets was likely well beyond the budget of this fan made film, the Gfx need some fine tuning. I thought some of the space battle scenes were actually really good.. and a couple of " nacelle-cam" shots where actually pretty impressive,, but, alas, the haziness, unfocusedness cancelled all that out.
I will give it another shot at some point, because I want to see where the story was headed. Either way Congratulations to the cast and crew of this fan film! If making movies of ANY quality was easy, everyone would do it! As someone who has dabbled in video editing, and filming I can say its NOT easy, and I although this movie is flawed, I will not discount the effort that went into it. Bravo!
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I liked the crew well enough, even if some of the acting may have been uneven.
The thing I didn't really like was that it was another "Save the World" plot in Star Trek. I think that's just become to common in Trek lately.
Captain Hawke, for example, was an incompetent with Plot Armor dialled up to eleven...
"I don't know what this shiny box is, and I know I'm hallucinating, but I won't report to sickbay, I'll smash the box and see what happens..."
Failed to shoot Daekon at the first opportunity...
Commander Brookes:
WTF kind of racist BS and incomprehension is that?? I would've thought that it made sense for an exchange officer to train and certify in the equipment they're going to be using... Oh I forgot, she's a Rommmulannn, and they're all Eeeevil...
Then there was the "I'm sorry I behaved like an unprofessional douchebag, but I have issues, I was bottle-fed and something bad happened to me once, so I can't appologize for everything I said..."
T'mar: Actually an intriguing character, but not sure of Starfleet's rationale in
I liked the Pew-Pew though
The story was fun, the characters felt real (especially being incredible racist to the one exchange officer from the foreign power that they are at war with just felt like how we would react). The effects, camerawork and music indeed had a BSG-esque flavour, which is a very good addition in my book.
And all of that on a budget of $50.000. That is one hell of an achievement right there in my opinion.
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It still amazes me that despite the paltry budgets of the original TOS series how well they have held up against far newer productions such as this which have the benefit of far superior technology and abundance of cheap set design materials/CGI sets.
Even the worst TOS episodes for some reason still feel superior to this production (and that's not a slight at all again the producers of this fan flick).
Even though TOS had what more more like a B-Movie budget, it never 'felt' like that. I guess it all comes down to a certain kind of magic of actor's (even shatner's ham acting 'fitted' in with TOS), writing and direction.
On a production level, absolutely, a hell of an achievement
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
They didn't try to depend on fans watching because they used established characters (unlike quite a few fan films that put actors who clearly are -not- the characters they portray into their films), they didn't try to re-tell established stories, and they didn't try to limit where their film could go so they could only film in their local real-world area.
Another thing I enjoyed, they treated Trek as a serious story, something that has been completely lacking in both 'official' and fan films quite a bit. There is no levity here, but a war story and an interesting glimpse into the Iconian war and its aftermath for the history we know. Add to that the detail for the sets and ships, and I can't help but wonder if the new Trek series will even come close to this.
Most of all, it had that most precious of qualities that makes Trek what it is. The encountering and exploring of the unknown in the depths of space, and the exploration of our own Human limitations. So many Trek series, movies, and even STO (for reasons of playability, I guess) tend to miss this part of what makes Trek special.
No.
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.