Fan Film Friday: Intrepid: Transitions and Lamentations
Written by Randy Hall on July 10, 2009 – 12:20 pm -
Now that the new Star Trek movie has made umpteen gazillion quatloos in the box office, let’s switch to one of my favorite topics: fan films (or independent productions, if you prefer).
Several such projects are struggling to get to the finish line in the fall, but Star Trek: Intrepid recently produced a new episode entitled “Transitions and Lamentations.”
Here’s a bit of background on the series: During the post-Nemesis era, a Voyager-sized starship has been assigned to the distant Charybdis Sector, where a group of Federation citizens are establishing a new colony.
The colonists consider Starfleet’s presence as “overly paternal” and unwelcome, but a mysterious alien menace threatens both the colonists and the Intrepid, along with other starships traveling to and from the colony.
“Heavy Lies the Crown” was the group’s first production, which established Captain Daniel Hunter (played by Nick Cook, who wears many hats in the series, such as producer and writer) and his crew, along with an unknown enemy that uses red starships to attack the planet’s new arrivals.
Other members of the crew include Lieutenant Yanis Caed, a joined Trill played by Lucie Cook (Nick’s wife, in case you were wondering), and Romulan (!) Security Chief Lieutenant S’Ceris, portrayed by David Reid.
Another officer on the Intrepid is Jacen Navar, a pragmatic native of Torothan (as established in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Desert Crossing”) who’s the intelligence officer in the sector (and whose race seems to have trouble eating a hot fudge sundae without spilling it on their chins).
Navar, who’s played by Alan Christison, gets a significant part in “Transitions.” We learn a great deal more about the secretive officer when the Intrepid comes under attack by even more of the mysterious ships while he’s in command. An away team led by Captain Hunter and members of both the Intrepid and the U.S.S. Pandora also find themselves under fire on the planet.
Time to put on my Clint Eastwood hat and get reviewing.
The good: The biggest problem in the Intrepid’s first episode was a nasty tendency for the wind to start blowing while the crew was talking. That’s been totally rectified in “Transitions.”
One of my problems with fan films in general is that the pacing tends to drag while each character gets a long, adoring shot from the camera, which can slow the story down and even bring it to a halt.
Not so here. Many scenes have two to three cameras in play, and the visual motion helps keep the viewer’s attention on the episode, where it should be.
I was also very impressed with the opening credits and music. I won’t give it away, but I really thought what they did was excellent.
Again, the writing, props, costumes and sets are first-rate, and the inclusion of a Klingon and a Vulcan from the Pandora further cements the series in the Star Trek universe.
The bad: That reminds me of something that felt out of place in the story. In the first episode, the Romulan security chief had a skin tone that wasn’t far from the rest of the crew.
This time, both the Romulan and Vulcan characters look like they’ve “yellowed out” over time. I understand the need to make characters stand out, but this had me worried that the aliens were afflicted with some kind of cosmic malaria.
The ugly: Not much to complain about here, but one scene inadvertently made me chuckle.
A discussion between Cook and Navar led the captain to say something along the lines of: “We’re all wearing the same uniform, so we all need to pull together.”
But Cook was wearing a Deep Space Nine-style outfit with grey shoulders and Navar had on a red Next Generation costume, so they technically weren’t wearing the same uniform. Oops.
I’m known to be a fan of New Voyages/Phase 2 as the “gold standard of fan films.” Well, “Transitions” is as good as any other independent production I’ve seen so far, and I hope they keep up the good work. Randy Hall
Tags: Fan Film Friday, Reviews, Star Trek: Intrepid
Posted in Fan Film Friday, Reviews/Editorials, Web Productions | No Comments »