Personal Log: Ben Versteegt

I have begun to watch some fan-made movies... well, only three actually. I discovered New Voyages a few months ago, and initially I watched in horror and utter laughter as the crew of the 'old' Enterprise was hideously played by second-- no, third rate actors. It was painfully obvious that these people were acting, and although the computer-created special effects (of space battles, anyway) and the exterior of the ship was enough to make any CGI/StarTrek loving person drool, the acting performances ruined the whole show for me.

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The story wasn't half bad, actually. It had a very TOS-like feeling (although I admit I'm not the one to tell -- I only watched a couple of TOS episodes, unfortunately) and there was a glimps into the future of how Spock and Kirk died, and things like that. But the actors and their performance sent shivers down my spine -- and that isn't a compliment. The music, although terrific, was only great because it was exactly the same music used on the shows (TNG: best of both worlds, DS9: Ways of the Warrior).

Worst of all, Scotty sounded Irish.

I laughed and cried at this 'movie', but I didn't delete it for some reason. The thought of new Star Trek material on the internet in the form of fan-based episodes fascinated me.

After a while, I still couldn't bring myself to watch the movie again -- horrible memories still haunted my mind. I did look back at their website months after seeing the first movie. It turned out that they were making a second one, and that Gene Roddenberry's son had joined the project (okay, I already knew that -- that was one of the reasons to watch the first movie in the first place ;-) ). I decided to humour myself and, also out of pure curiosity, I watched two trailers for their second film: "In Harm's Way". I was stunned. Although it still is about the original cast, the story seems to be very interesting: it's about a war that never had supposed to happen. Apparently (SPOILERS) the crew, together with the crew of another surviving Constitution class Starship, will go back in time to prevent that war from happening, struggling with ethical considerations about changing the future in the process. Now *this* film I would like to see. I'm looking forward to it, even. I have high expectations and I really, *really* hope that the actors have grown into their roles a little more. The special effects (of the trailer anyway) looked nice, and the story seemed amazing.

And so, my interest in fan-made movies was piqued (or peaked... what's the spelling?). While reading some Star Trek related news, I discovered that another episode of the fan-made series "Hidden Frontier" has been released. They're in the fifth season already and seem to be doing well for themselves. I watched the latest episode, and again the disillusion struck me: the poor acting especially was noticeable. Also the music was stolen from Galaxy Quest (which was the cause of a few good laughs). The story felt hastened, but that was probably because they were trying to tell a full story in only 30 minutes. It was about terrorism on a Federation world -- yet they never went into the question as to who these terrorists were. That is another part entirely, though.

This series didn't pretended to be Captain Kirk or Picard or any of the Star Trek crews. These were new characters, which in my opinion is an improvement; a group of amateur actors simply cannot replace Kirk and his crew or any of the crews in Star Trek. "Hidden Frontier" did, however, have a Captain Shelby and apparently (I didn't see her in the episode) a Lieutenant Commander Robin Lefler. Somebody in their writing team has read New Frontier, I guess. Shelby was actually believable in her role as Captain, although the 'real' Shelby would probably have been a little feistier.

The ship that was the center of the series is called the USS Excelsior, a Galaxy-X class vessel. It has a Sovereign class Bridge, a Galaxy class Conference Room and an Intrepid class Science Lab. I find this a little hard to believe, but still, it is a possibility (but for Pete's sake, even the doors throughout the ship didn't look the same as other doors!).

Although the cast was a cast of amateurs (probably), it was clear that they had grown into their roles. The episode centered around the STC, Lieutenant junior grade Matt McCaib (or McCabe), who became the target of a government plot of Vrijheid IV (pronounced as Vridzjhaid... ARGH!!) to strike fear into the hearts of its citizens by overstating the danger of these terrorists. His performance was excellent; compared to the rest of the cast, he was a star actor. His performance made the show fun and exciting to watch. Also, his counterpart of the duration of the episode, a young Colonel Mera something, also played her part wonderfully. The planet's president and to an extent Captain Shelby as well, performed great too. The ship's Commodore, the Starfleet flag officer of that sector, was less fun to see, and the science officer didn't give such a great performance either. Some of the non-speaking extra's (security officers) were terribly unconvincing -- they were just standing there, waiting to be shot -- they didn't do anything besides just standing there. Bad directing, I suppose.

Maybe the biggest downside of all about this episode was that it was terribly clear that the actors were simply standing against a bluescreen; There were white lines around their bodies.

The special effects were CGI, and very nicely done. My compliments on that. But special effects (ships flying in the background, phaser fire) aren't what makes an episode a good episode.

After that episode, I decided to watch the first one -- episode one of season one. The quality of the video wasn't very good, and the acting wasn't incredible either... But it was amusing. It was about the Captain of an Intrepid class starship at the end of the Dominion war. They discover a new enemy who seems to be a lot more powerful than the Dominion. The story wasn't very good, people who were supposed to tap a console just missed them (bluescreen problems, I take it), but the worst part of the episode was a Tellarite (?) with a pig's nose. It looked so fake. The acting wasn't very good either. The good part of this episode was when the plot took an unexpected turn -- in an attempt to destroy the evil enemy that had abducted most of his crew, the Captain ordered an autodestruct. That wasn't very unexpected, but what I didn't expect was that the ship actually did get destroyed as it crashed into the alien ship, with shuttles and escape pods fleeing from the area.

I suppose this holds a lesson: it is the story that counts. Some episodes do hold surprises and the actors tell possibly thought-provoking tales. 'Real' Star Trek is of course much nicer (although I'm not sure about Enterprise :-P ), but these fan-made stories can be nice as well. I'm looking forward to the second film of the New Voyages team, and I'll try to view a number of episodes from "Hidden Frontier" as well. And there are undoubtedly other such fan projects in the works.

This brings me to an idea I once heard; when the Atlantis was not yet a member of our mighty and proud fleet, one of the members, who is part of such a fan based project, wanted to create a film based version of the Atlantis. Captain Essar, CSO Jomorr -- all were going to be resurrected as characters in a real show. The idea is appealing, but I shudder to think how an amateur actor would portray Velden, for example. Even if I were to portray him in a Frontier Fleet movie, I don't think I would be able to play the character in a right way. A movie may sound great, but there is so much involved and so much that a group of amateurs (no offence intended to those who make these kinds of movies) cannot accomplish op simply don't have the money to accomplish.

So as for telling stories, I'm sticking with posts and with stories. While reading a story, the movie simply plays out in my head. I think I can live with that. By writing and reading stories, I discover a whole new world that opens itself up to me -- a world that is as good as, or maybe even better than any fan-created movie.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have stories to write.

Categories: Ben's Logs