"Star Trek: Hidden Frontier REVIEW" by Troy H. Cheek on Oct 04, 2004

I'm a Trekkie. I love Star Trek. I was conceived around the time TOS (The Original Series) first aired, kept my pregnant mother up late enough to watch the first season for me, then watched the last couple of seasons myself when I'd refuse to go quietly to bed on certain nights. My mother tells me I especially liked watching Kirk do his little speeches, and I always giggled at the starships.

Entirely too many years later, I'm still a Trek fan. I'm also still losing sleep and causing others to lose sleep.

My current obsession is a fan-created video series called Star Trek: Hidden Frontier. This video series is set in the time of TNG (The Next Generation) and, more specifically, after the events as shown in the movie STAR TREK: INSURRECTION. In that movie, Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise save the inhabitants of a planet located in an area of dense gas, gravitic anomolies, and just plain weirdness called the Briar Patch. Insert standard Brer Rabbit joke here.

The premise of Hidden Frontier is fairly simple. The Federation wants to continue protecting said planet, plus maintain a presense in that area of space, plus explore the mystery that is the Briar Patch. Having learned their lesson with Deep Space 9, they don't do anything by half measures. They build Deep Space 12, a full-blown starbase, and deploy an entire fleet to guard it. Flagship of that fleet is the USS Excelsior, a Galaxy-class dreadnought, which looks a lot like the Galaxy-class starship Enterprise-D from TNG with an extra warp engine welded on the back and a few extra weapons wired to the front grill.

Add some creepy aliens, stir, and heat at 350 for five seasons, which is about how long this video series has been running. Actually, they're about halfway through the 5th season as I write this here in September of 2004. Being as I only recently discovered Hidden Frontier and watched all 60 or so available episodes within a few days' time, my perception of the series as a whole might be a tad skewed, so please keep that in mind as you read my impressions.

The crews of the various ships posted at Deep Space 12 are a mixture of characters which have appeared in previous official Star Trek series, relatives and friends of said characters, and some original characters. Some actors play more than one role, and some roles are played by more than one actor. This gets a little confusing, especially if you watch several episodes back to back. (Which I did.)

Acting abilities range from wooden to Broadway, with the average being somewhere just about what you'd expect from a group of dedicated fans who are plainly doing this for love more than money. There are a few "professional" actors, or at least some who have been paid to act in TV or movies in the past, and a few others that deserve to be.

Special effects shots start out as excellent. Every space shot is well-rendered CGI. Ships and planets have plenty of detail. The look is better than what I've seen in many TV series. Unfortunately, somewhere around season 4, things go downhill to merely above average. There is enough effects shot recycling that it starts to get annoying. And what really got me was when I realized that I'd seen a particular battle sequence before... Earlier in the same episode. Shortly after, I noticed two battle sequences which were apparently rendered from the same control file, just with different ships.

That's not to say the effects still aren't good. They're better than good. And there are also some Easter Eggs for the sharp-eyed. A huge alien ship which apparently came through an artificial black hole from "another universe altogether" looks suspiciously like Darth Vader's Super Star Destroyer from Star Wars. Imperial TIE fighters make an appearance in one episode's pitched space battle.

Scripts and story lines vary from positively gripping down to... Well, I can't tell you how low they go, because after a certain point, I just start fast forwarding through the dialog, looking for the next action scene. It's not that I don't like character development, but some episodes should be renamed Deep Space 90210 or Dawson's Nebula. I have just a little bit of trouble believing that senior officers spend a whole lot of time playing matchmaker for their junior officers. I have a lot of trouble believing that junior officers spend so much time working on romantic permutations and combinations among themselves that they let it interfere with their work.

In one episode, Starfleet and Cardassian officers are working together on a bit of research. Tensions are high because, though the United Federation of Planets and the Cardassian Assembly aren't currently at war, they're not exactly the best of friends, either. People on both sides are spoiling for a fight. Of course, it's not unreasonable that some junior officers from either side might, after working together in difficult circumstances under incredible pressure from their seniors, develop some respect and admiration for their counterparts. I can even imagine that a Human and a Cardassian might find themselves attracted to each other.

I draw the line at a Cardassian spending the night with a Human in a Starfleet junior officer's quarters and, when the officer is called away in the morning on an urgent assignment, said Cardassian being left unattended in said quarters. Can you say "security breach?"

Interior sets are nonexistant. I mean that fairly literally. It looks like the actors mostly act in front of a bluescreen (or greenscreen, or orangescreen, or whatever color they're using nowadays) with the sets composited in later. Most sets are computer renders or are images borrowed from TNG or other series. Think "Space Captain and the Galaxy of Tomorrow" and you won't be far off.

Which brings us to editing and continuity. Considering that most actors are filmed seperately or in very small groups in front of a colored screen, it's amazing how smoothly the episodes flow. Judging by the cuts and my own limited experience in theater and television, I'd say that some of the actors have probably never met face to face, but appear to share scenes, exchange dialog, and even shake hands thanks to good editing.

Makeup and costumes... Well, let's just say that it's a low budget production and that it's amazing what one can do with lots of time and effort and imagination and no money. And if they fall short of realism occasionally, it's still obvious they made an honest effort.

All in all, I give Star Trek: Hidden Frontier two solid thumbs up for the first few seasons, and a qualified two thumbs up for the later seasons. Avoid the "character development" episodes and you'll be fine.

Check it out at http://www.hiddenfrontier.com and tell them I sent you.

Update on Dec 19, 2004: Just thought I'd throw in a mention here that I recently received email from someone who claims to be involved in the production of Hidden Frontier. My review was considered fair and it was asked that I continue to watch, maybe even write future reviews. Which is exactly what I was planning to do, anyway, but it's always nice when the very people you're reviewing ask for more reviews.

Update on May 06, 2007: I have again received email, this time reminding me that the series will soon be coming to a close. Due to some technical problems on my end, I stopped watching this series shortly after writing this review. However, thanks to this reminder, I am currently downloading all the episodes I've missed and will hopefully have an updated review in the near future.

Copyright 2004 by Troy H. Cheek. Reprint with prior written permission only. Comments and questions to $mail:theview$