Star Trek: Renegades

So a crowd funded project has created a possible new Star Trek series called Star Trek Renegades. I'm a big fan of star trek so naturally wish them the best.

The quality of acting varied significantly. The use of close ups to hide what i'm sure were barren sets became quite apparent after a while. However their flaws and limitations to their production quality is something i'm sure they were all well aware of and therefore don't need every little detail to be pointed out. However considering that the web series pilot for Battlestar Galactica Blood and Chrome cost 2 million, what these folks accomplished with just $375k is an accomplishment unto itself and they should be congratulated for that.

But the show's inexcusable problems all begin and end with the script. The show lacks any meaningful character development. Am I supposed to be heart broken when an irrelevant character with two lines has died? I'm not sure and the story hasn't given me many clues. The show lacks all humour whatsoever. Light humour, camaraderie and banter is as essential an ingredient to star trek as phasers and vulcan neck pinches. Everyone needs to lighten up.

And finally, each star trek series has to inevitably focus on the elements that will separate them from the others then demonstrate those differences, and I don't think this quite did that, though they seemed to be trying. The differences should be made apparent enough that I don't have to go looking for them. What makes this space craft different and unique from the others? Is it faster? Does have some intrinsic value?

Prove to me in every way possible that this captain isn't going to be anything like anything we haven't already seen. So far she appears to have a chip on her shoulder and can fight an alien twice her size with ease, though I found that difficult to accept. However I was never sold on her ability to captain a vessel or to lead a team. Is she clever? Is she good at her job? I can't tell. I can't imagine why this crew is devoted to her. They don't appear to care about anything. Frankly I'd rather follow the borg into battle than to follow her.

The only character I had any sympathy for was icheb and even there they did the tragic amateur mistake of "telling" not "showing". At least he had a story to tell which was more than anyone else did.

But I shouldn't be too hard on them. They did an impressive job with such little resources. The core idea gave us a rag tag intimate crew like Firefly in the Star Trek universe, and has some strong potential. I hope this is a proof of concept for what could be a decent program if given a proper budget and a better script.

Where to start on this? Given its shortcomings, one wonders why it is getting attention. That is easy to explain. There are several generations of people who have been brought up on one version of Star Trek or another. There is definite interest in another TV series based on it. This is exacerbated by the huge shortcomings of the recent Star Trek movies which tore the established time line, characters and precepts apart and have lowered, yes lowered, the franchise to the level of the usual overwrought, adrenalin rush, commercially obsessed material that has pushed plot and idea oriented movies far to the periphery. As a result, there are a lot of people who want Star trek: Renegades to work.

The production obviously suffers from a low budget especially in comparison to the fully funded large studio Star Trek productions. The sound, in particular, is really quite bad. But it is not just a lack of budget. The production crew seems to be learning on the job with camera, costumes, lighting, CG, writing, the whole thing. There is a brew of clichés and lack of skill/time going on. That could improve with further efforts but there is a long way to go.

In terms of basic themes and ideas, again, there is potential but problems as well. We have a diverse crew of misfits being used as a covert operations force. Furthermore, there are people who are out to get them. This provides a huge stream future story ideas. It is a unfortunate that the pilot used an specific idea that is very tired and old in the nature of the threat, the inability of the establishment to deal with it and the techno-babble/quasi-magic solution. Nonetheless, it used that idea to effectively introduce a large number of characters which is a prime purpose of a pilot.

That brings us to the acting and the characters. This is very uneven. One hopes it could be sorted out. There is room for both hope and pessimism.

Here is a rundown of some of them.

Chekov - a useful link to the past.

Chekov's great grand-daughter - a weak character that could evolve into an interesting sub-plot but needs to be handled extremely carefully. A wimpy cadet who has a foot in the door to the highest levels of Star Fleet Intelligence could be a disaster. This could be another Wesley Crusher but worse. When in doubt, leave her out.

Tuvok - another useful link. He didn't have much material but he did fine with it.

Lexxa Singh - This is a major character and as things stand now, a train wreck and thus a serious liability for the whole concept. There was not a single thing about this character that was believably delivered. I don't want to dwell on it too much or blame the actress as the concept is flawed from the start. She came across as a semi-emaciated addict who somehow is supposed to be a fierce renegade with strength, leadership, etc, etc. Not buying it for a second. I'd start with changing the costume and make-up and seriously reworking her lines and delivery. Perhaps it can be salvaged but it is not just a matter of minor changes.

Alvarez - This character is very useful as a good guy who is not in the loop and can both bump heads with the main bunch and alternatively work with them. Furthermore, Corin Nemec did well with the material he had. Why they gave him a name like Alvarez is beyond me as he doesn't look like an Alvarez at all.

Lucien - Sean Young looked very uncertain of herself in this role. I am not sure why she wanted to do it. Over time and with better material, she should grow into it. The character is potentially fine. They just need to keep her technical stuff more realistic.

Zimmerman - Robert Picardo can effectively deliver this character in his sleep but there is not much for him to do and I am not sure why he is there.

Ragnar - Not great material to work with but Gary Graham had good presence and one can have confidence in him.

Icheb - another return from a previous series. This is an interesting character although with too many Borg related abilities. Acted well enough given the material.

Ronara - this one needs development but by no means a lost cause. The head shaking with the mental abilities could be portrayed better. Otherwise, she seemed to be the eye candy (no problems there!) and a few fill-in lines.

Fixer - another one that needs development but could work out fine.

The Breen - Interesting but did not do much. There is a LOT of potential there but they have to stay out of the trap of making him a continuous running joke.

The rest of the potentially returning cast had not much to do, were not paid much if at all and it seemed to show.

Because of some of the people involved, the way it is being funded and the effort made on a low budget, the next "episode" of ST:Renegades will be viewed with a good bit of sympathy and again be given the benefit of the doubt by a lot of people. On the other hand, the chances of a major studio picking this up are slight. If one did, the egos involved would rework it and replace many of the people involved and the result would be hardly recognizable. In many ways that would be good but I am sure the studios already have their own ST ideas and if they were thinking of going with a new series, they would follow up on those.

Before I start Picking.. this is a watchable film, though I feel it will please the 'Trekkers', i feel it will fall short for the general Fans. Still good acting, fair FX, and OK story. Definitely made as a Pilot, of what? possible Web series or another movie?

This fan based film is a film directed by Tim Russ and stars many fine actors including; Adrienne Wilkinson, Walter Koenig, Sean Young, Manu Intiraymi. The story takes place nearly ten years after Voyager's return from the Delta Quadrant. Though I found the story good, inconsistencies with the original Star Trek abounds to even the novice. Voyager for one in the final episode was fitted to take on the Borg, yet the one Star Fleet ship shown, the Averez, seems basically powerless and incapable of rapid firing int eh first battle sequence. This is one dozens of inconsistencies a fan will find throughout this film.One scene has a ship cloaking yet it stay visible.

Sets were fairly good, yet somewhat incomplete and dark. An example is Star Fleet where the room is completely dark to the point there is no walls and actors step into the light. There is even one scene where it appears you can see the stage, whether intended or not. This could be 'Artistic Licensee' but one get the idea after a while that maybe the budget need a few more dollars. Definitely a few props would have helped in some of the green screens.

On the digital side where MUCH better than the typical Asylum Film but somewhat inconsistent, being really good one minute and not so good in other scenes. movie. Though it must be said that some are below standard. The Digital FXs are 'Fair' to 'Great.' Again when thinking overall..inconsistent seems to be only fault.

The music fits most of the time, but definitely not scored for this. Like allot of low budget films, the music is off the shelf. Being so it works OK for background but action or emotions the music needed to be, if not scored, at least enhanced. Also a few scene changes are affected when the background music stays the same. in fact some of the scene changes are a bit poor.. but again I am nic-picking

Overall, this is much more watchable than the typical 'B' movies "pre-produced" such as the 'Asylum Line'of films to mimic hot titles, Asylum's Atlantic Rim comes to mind. But still.... Hats off to all involved. This was a good, watchable film, good acting, FX which if not great, where good and a good story..... Should be interesting to see a follow up .. As for fan based.. hope they continue on....I for one can not wait for AXANAR, hope they overcome the 'low budget' problem of having to cut corners. Hollywood, look out...

First off, I'm a backer and I would donate again to see a Star Trek movie made with recognizable Star Trek actors, in the hope that it will spark a good series and revive the franchise (and wrest it back from the hands of Jar-Jar Abrams).

But on to the movie itself:

The aspect that I already knew not to expect much from was production value, as this was a low- budget crowdfunded project. Surprisingly, this is where the movie made a good impression: I fully expected the set and prop quality to be pretty much like it turned out, but I didn't expect a bad-ass Borg hand-cannon animation. That was really good (though the damage done with that cannon in the actual fights was close to nonexistent).

But the aspects I had the most hope for and that this whole project hinged on, really - the script and the dialogues - were really abysmal. The whole thing, from start to finish, felt and sounded like something written by a high-schooler with distant dreams of going to college to study film and maybe, just maybe, become a passable screenwriter or director one day. The over- the-top lines trying to sound dramatic or deep or bad-ass, the perfectly ignorable intrigue, the ridiculous hand-to-hand combat, the ridiculous character development (direct, blatant and boring descriptions of their past), the ridiculous poem-and- flashback stuff... this movie was so boring I walked away from it to do other stuff around the house about 4 times until I finished it.

For the love of all that is Star Trek, please bring in someone who can write and direct next time you try something like this (Tim Russ, by the way, could've stayed behind the camera for all the impact his character had - he barely said anything during the whole thing, he could've easily been mistaken for Chekhov's Imaginary Friend That Only States the Obvious).

And also, since this is a Star Trek review, I feel compelled to add a reminder - because way too many people seem to have easily forgotten - of what true Star Trek is about: "Space -- the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before."

Not war, not spaceships shooting lasers and photon torpedoes at each other, not political intrigue, not special commando teams doing "dirty work" nobody else can or will do, none of this is the essence of Star Trek. These kinds of things can be done under any other random sci-fi title one could come up with. No, Star Trek is about new worlds and new civilizations and about a ship exploring uncharted regions of the universe. That's why they called it a "trek". That's what needs to be brought back to life, not just the "Star Trek" brand name and superficial visual style.

Okay, first off I want to say that as someone who was born and bred in a family of Trekkies( I would have been excommunicated from the family by my Uncles and Mom if they had not seen the love of TREK in meh) I am seriously amused by the critiquing of the sub par acting that is in this made for TV movie. I know most Trekkies want to forget...but the inescapable truth is that Shatner is the biggest HAM of all time, the only one who comes close to his level of HAM is the Great and Fabulous Adam West. You can tear apart this acting all you want, but the truth is this show reflects EXACTLY what the OG Star Trek was all about. I know it isn't done on purpose (hehehehe) but it is still as lovable as any of the Star Treks. I mean Come On Son, if you can find it in your heart to have a Trekkiesque love for Voyager, or delude yourself into thinking Shatner was anything more than a B actor (until his stint on Boston Legal and he owes a lot of that to his chemistry with Spader) than surely you can find it in your heart to show a little love for this Star Trek entry. Clearly it was an attempt to introduce a new series that never got picked up, but it still deserves a little love. It's worth viewing once just for the chance to see Xena's (Love me some Lucy Lawless) daughter playing Kahn's (Love me some Ricardo Montalbon even more) daughter. I've seen WAY better from the Trek Universe, but I've also seen Worse.