Fan Film Friday: Star Trek: Enterprise: The New Generation: Crossroads
Written by Randy Hall on February 26, 2010 – 12:00 pm -
I never cease to be amazed—and impressed—with the amount of ingenuity and energy fans bring to an effort to return their favorite version of Star Trek or other science-fiction series back to the screen.
The latest example is Enterprise: The New Generation, which was produced in the group’s native language of German and then translated into English so others can enjoy the latest adventures of the cast, who in this case are “living dolls.”
Well, we might have called them that when I was growing up, but now they have to sound manlier and are therefore known as “action figures.”
Using stop-motion animation, the group took on the difficult challenge of shooting the miniatures frame by frame with sets built to fit the figures, which were made for the most part by the Art Asylum toy manufacturer.
“Crossroads” begins with the Enterprise getting repairs after the third-season-long struggle against the Xindi. Also, some characters are taking some much-needed shore leave, including Doctor Phlox and Ensign Sato (though I suspect those figures aren’t available in their uniforms yet).
In addition, the Enterprise has been equipped with an experimental engine called “Trans-Warp Drive” that could enable the ship and its crew to finally break the Warp 5 barrier. It does that and more before the engine overloads while achieving Warp 6 and thrusts the ship and its crew into an inter-dimensional rift, where they find a lifeless, unknown vessel.
Archer and T’Pol beam over to the mysterious ship, where they find a human body and a Vulcan corpse on the bridge. But when she touches the Vulcan, T’Pol receives a mental image telling her the ship was destroyed by something called the “Red Empire.”
After the two of them return to the Enterprise, Trip asks Archer to come to Engineering, where he shows the captain evidence of sabotage. “Someone onboard this ship wanted this test to fail,” the engineer states.
Meanwhile, T’Pol continues to receive visions of what happened to the other vessel from the Classic Trek crew via the episode “Mirror, Mirror.” Communicating telepathically through the Mirror Spock, the Mirror Kirk explains that the Red Empire is made up of machines from another dimension with one goal: the destruction of all biological life (and they happen to look like figures from Terminator).
But for the Enterprise to get back to its dimension, the ship must take the warp core from the Red Empire vessel, which means getting that ship to drop its shields.
T’Pol uses a “fascinating” method to find out if Trip is the saboteur: She kisses him, then explains that the mental bond they share would not be apparent in someone else.
By the time Trip and T’Pol arrive on the bridge, the Enterprise is caught in the crosshairs of a Voyager-style ship. “I’ve never seen a vessel that heavily armed,” Reed states.
After taking a moment to determine that the captain is really Archer, T’Pol warns her shipmates to protect the vessel’s data core, which has information the Red Empire would use to attack that universe.
While the Empire begins downloading that information, they also attack the Enterprise just as another ship called the Titan (and manned by Mirror versions of Kirk and company) comes to the Federation vessel’s defense, though the battle still leads to the destruction of one of the Enterprise’s nacelles.
The Titan then rams the Red Empire ship, giving the Enterprise an opening to beam its warp core onto that vessel. As Archer and his ship leave the area, both the Red Empire and the Mirror vessels are destroyed from the explosion caused by the impact, which returns the Enterprise to its proper dimension.
In a curious twist, before the rest of the crew regains consciousness, a small sphere of light emerges from Mayweather’s station and causes him to download the information from the ship’s computer.
Four days later, the Trans-Mix Drive had been installed and the Enterprise is headed back to Earth, leaving Archer to ponder just who the saboteur was.
Where did I leave my miniature other-dimensional Clint Eastwood hat? Ah, there it is!
The Good: Eine Jurgen Keiser Produktion and Limited Faith Productions have made an episode that hails from a largely unexplored part of the Trek universe. I thought Enterprise should have gotten at least one more TV season, so it was very satisfying to see the crew in action (figures) again.
Also, I was greatly impressed with the folks who provided the English version of the story. I was really convinced that somehow, Scott Bakula had returned to the Archer role. Instead, it was Paul Sieber (who has played Henry Prescott in Starship Farragut and Star Trek: Phase II) at the helm.
Other “blasts from the past” featured several folks revisiting Phase II roles: Charles Root as the Mirror Scotty, Julienne Irons as the Mirror Uhura and John Lim as the Mirror Sulu. The part of Mirror Kirk was done by well-known voice actor Vic Mignona.
Others in the stellar cast included Meghan King Johnson as Commander T’Pol, Ron Boyd as Commander Charles “Trip” Tucker III, Rex Duis as Lt. Malcolm Reed and Ralph M. Miller as Ens. Travis Mayweather.
The Bad: The only qualm I have about the story was a restriction you get when you use action figures. Rather than walk, they sometimes have to “slide” to get where they’re going. Still, I noticed these folks kept that to a minimum.
The Ugly: Whoever designed or approved the T’Pol figure should be knocked upside the head! Jolene Blalock was great as the Vulcan crew member in real life, and every time I see this figure of her character, it’s at best hard on the eyes. Perhaps some custom figure maker could provide another head to replace the one that looked downright awful in “Crossroads.”
You can see a teaser for the episode by turning your Web browser to the group site’s top, right corner. And you can catch the whole show by scrolling down to the page’s bottom right corner.
And the really good news is that the folks behind this fan film are already at work on a follow-up entitled “The Beginning of the End,” which is said to resolve some of the dangling threads like glowing spheres and the saboteur from “Crossroads.” Sounds good to me!
Related posts:
- Fan Film Friday: Star Trek: The Go!Animate Generation: Maiden Voyage
- Fan Film Friday: Star Trek: The Romulan Wars
- Fan Film Friday: Star Trek: Armada
- Fan Film Friday: Star Trek: Dark Armada: ‘Choices’ Trilogy
- Fan Film Friday: Star Trek Phase II: To Serve All My Days [Revised]
Tags: Enterprise: The New Generation, Paul Sieber, Scott Bakula, Star Trek
Posted in Animation, Fan Film Friday, SF-TV & Movie News, Web Productions | 1 Comment »
By SJU on Mar 2, 2010 | Reply
Never heard of ST Enterprise: TNG. Thanks for the link. Sounds interesting.