The Savage Empire

The original Star Trek series may be outdated, may even look corny by today's standards, but I still love it!

This first episode of Starship Exeter has exactly that, a compelling story, acting that isn't all that bad, and an overall feel that honors the original Star Trek series in every way. In some ways Exeter looks better than New Voyages, some of the computerized special effects (in New Voyages) look like they'd be more at home in a computer game than a TV show. And what about the really badly done green-screening that fills Hidden Frontier (do they actually use any sets???). Yuk.

Who needs all those computer-game style special effects anyway??? There's nothing like some real sets for the actors to be positioned in, and a good quality model for the external shots. Sometimes the good old fashioned methods are still the best!

Good on you guys, a great effort.

Can't wait to see more...

One can see that an enormous amount of work went into this project. As is typical for fan films, the pacing is considerably more leisurely than that of a regular Star Trek episode and the acting generally feels less natural.

Since TOS was originally pitched as a space Western, classical episodes typically have a lot of fighting, both with phasers and hand to hand. Fan films often have very little physical combat because that's tricky for the actors. Not so in this film. Although I am not very keen on fighting scenes, I consider this one of the film's strong points. Even better, they use proper special effects for phaser shots.

However, the plot doesn't really make sense, and sometimes the characters act implausibly. This is why I don't want to watch this film again, and so I cannot rate it better than a 4. That's still a very respectable rating for a fan film.

One of two "Starship Exeter" web films that were made between 2002 and 2005.

The cast and crew deserve full marks for the time and effort that was made in putting this together! For no pay! However, this group of people made a second attempt three years later ("The Tressaurian Intersection") and Exeter 2 leaves this first one for dead!

I would even consider skipping this one all together and go straight into the next one.

"The Savage Empire" almost looks like some fancy Cosplay get together and the cameras used are simply not right for all this outdoor filming. Don't get me started on the creature scene.

One of the big strengths of Exeter is the casting of the Captain. So many Star Trek web films go all out getting this and that for the production, then the whole thing sinks because they got a crap actor for the Captain - not so with this one!