More fanish than Phase II
To be honest I don't really find this as a very professional production. While Camera angles, the lighting, and acting in general is mostly excellent, storywise it's rather lame and rather boring. So far 3 throwback episodes to past moments in TOS and only one original episode?
The stories are not that well thought out either or written that well either.
Episode 1, While it was nice to see Micheal Forrest make a return playing Apollo, the whole story is badly thought out. If there is a god organ in Apollo why wasn't it detected in the original episode this one is based after? Why did they go the whole jesus Route of him doing good to gain powers? And helps him stay young? Why did they put him on a strange planet where he can be labeled a god because of the good deeds he does and uses his powers for those deeds? And why the changing of the wigs? Yes I know the wig thing was answered by some of the staff to represent him gaining and losing power... But if it's going to require me to have to find out from the staff for what it means, it means the idea is badly thought out and needed more work to properly incorporate the idea into the story.
Episode 2, the only original episode they have. The bad part is that it plays out exactly like a TNG episode.Why is Kirk got to go through consultations with his senior staff? Why is Kirk having to consult starfleet? It's the final frontier, he should be using his gut, not consulting starfleet. In fact any message he would send to starfleet should take weeks unless they are near a starbase which they shouldn't have been at all. They should have also kept out the whole flashback scene. It plays out like a rape scene. Just show us Spock himself acting out the emotions that are through the girls head and memory and describe what is happening, like classic TOS. And While it's ending is somewhat original, it's a more modern day staple rather than a 1960's staple of 1960's television. What's worse is I don't even feel connected to the Lolani character and I don't even feel upset that she died at the end.
Episode 3, the Mirror universe episode, while interesting plays kirk off like a lunatic like archer in Enterprise, Nothing interesting there... And the whole spock story of him taking over the enterprise is to short and doesn't explain a lot. If a bit more was added to the episode it could have done more. To be really honest about it? Spock's Putsch should have failed especially if they don't want to look like they are referencing later stuff in Trek.
The most recent episode has to much going on to make me care about it. It's teaser runs to long, it's got to much filler that obviously as it shows, makes Kirk an emotional wreck and yelling at people, obviously unfit for command. All the filler is just filled with so many past interests that you just don't care about them. If we had just gotten the one from the Farragut which was original, I think it would have been interesting, instead of throwing everything including miramee's unborn child and the kitchen sink, it would have been good. Also keep out the holodeck. The holodeck, while an interesting concept itself, it forces the story to revolve around the holodeck and not the character Kirk or the world that they should be helping.
Nothing about this fanfilm series is that interesting. Can we get something actually like Starship Exeter?
Out of all the TOS fanfilms "The Tressaurian Intersection" Still stands out as the best ORIGINAL TOS fanfilm with both acting and script writing.
The other fanfilm groups like Continues and Phase II, they just feel like more circle jerking the same old idea's and concepts from TOS that we've already seen.
Yes it's wonderful you can recreate the lighting, camera angles, and acting from the day, but when it comes down to the actual scripts... They are worse than Season 3. Let's not forget season 3 was the more forgettable season of TOS, not to mention getting caught up in the Phase II circle jerk of revisiting old characters and old worlds we've already seen.
I hope they stop trying to write there own scripts and actually try and get actual sci-fi writers involved like TOS S1 & S2, and get actual editors to rewrite the scripts in case they don't have the TOS feel to them. And I don't mean have Vic Mignogna edit the scripts... God keep him away from them.
We've already seen what he's managed so far with the last several episodes, and it's garbage to say the least.