Starship Valiant: Legacy - My Thoughts.

Starship Valiant: Legacy is a Vignette. Albeit a long one at just under 20 minutes. The story primarily follows a Commander Jackson K Bishop (Hope I remembered that right) as he deals with the aftermath of an attack on the Valiant, the loss of his captain as well as a-hundred others.

The first scene on the ship didn't impress me. I found the audio poor, and some of the acting to be off. From there, I enjoyed what I saw, though strange audio anomalies are audible throughout. Most notably during the heated discussion between Bishop and his daughter. When the camera changes, all audio from the previous shot is artificially cut. There should be some bleed-through of sounds. For example if someone is finishing a sentence, and the camera cuts to a different angle, we should still be able to hear the very last part of the sentence, even if it was just an exhale of breath.

Okay, I'm going to break it down into:

The Good:

1 - Well acted. Surprisingly so. The characters for the most part were very well realised. More so than pretty much any fan film I have ever seen.

2 - Commander Bishop. I enjoyed the performance. While not perfect, the character was believable. The actor really got down the subtleties of acting. You could see it in his face what he was feeling.

3 - The admiral. I liked the admiral, who we saw on the viewer. She seemed like the type who didn't take any crap from anyone, while also being very sincere . The type where people would mistake her kindness for weakness.

4 - Leeza Kennedy. Like this character. When she steps on the bridge near the end,  I thought the music choice to be odd. More of a Kirk girl music cue. While she doesn't come across initially as anything special, her performance quickly changes all that. There is something passionate and almost 'spiritual' about the way the actress plays the part. She comes across as someone you'd want around if things weren't going well.

The Bad.

1 - Audio as stated got a little clunky, and at times there wasn't any continuity between shots.

2 - I feel we could have cut a lot of dialogue. It's rare to find actors in fan films who I honestly believe could carry a scene on expressions and posture alone. I believe that the actor portraying Bishop could pull it off.

The Unexplained.

1 - Why were the officers at helm and navigation wearing different insignia's? They appeared to be from Starship Ajax (An upcoming fan film project) Did the Ajax send them over as relief? Was the Ajax involved in that battle?

If I were to give this an arbitrary score that means nothing in the long run, I'd give this effort a solid 7/10.

Starship Exeter: The Tressaurian Intersection

The Tressaurian Intersection has been released. A decade after the wrapped up shooting, and about six years since they released act three, they finally went and finished it. It was shot in standard def, so no HD option is available.

Anyway, my thoughts without spoiling.

The acting is pretty good throughout. There are parts here and there that could have used an extra take or two (Mainly with Jimm Johnson/James Culhane, who played Garrovick). The effects are trying to recreate the 1960's feel. What I get from it though is that this is what TOS trek would have looked like with a bigger budget.
The sets are flawless, and the story is engaging and VERY TOS. That's a plus for me. There is an issue with act one being quieter than the rest.

What is obvious is that a lot of love went into this. Especially if what I read about the temperature in the studio is true. You can tell on a few of the actors as they're really sweating at times.

Anyway, as far as fan films go, this is probably among the best.

Edit: The following was added on May 11th 2013

Just re-watched TTI again. I have to add more to what I wrote above.

This is the only TOS fan film I have seen that feels 'right'. The acting may not be perfect from beginning to end, but it doesn't matter because I am able to lose myself in the story of what's going on.

Productions like Phase II and Continues just feel like facsimiles of TOS, due to them recasting Kirk, Spock and McCoy. No matter how well Vic Mignogna can impersonate Kirk in Continues, or no matter how much a like Doc John in Phase II, they'll never be Kirk and McCoy.

As I dislike reading Elder Scrolls stories that feature the Dragonborn, I'm starting to feel the same way about TOS fan films that use the original characters, or where we meet the ancestor's of future characters in the other shows (Tasha Yar's Grandmother in Phase II B&F). I've seen Kirk and Spock in TOS, give me something else. Also don't use stunt casting to try and draw me in.

This is where Starship Exeter's second episode really did it right. They don't have any familiar actors, or characters (Chang was in their first episode which I thought wasn't particularly well done), and they don't mention the Enterprise or Kirk, even though Garrovick has a tenuous connection with them.
His uncle died while commanding the Farragut when a young ensign/lieutenant? Kirk was unable to fire on a cloud creature. You also have the fact that Exeter's previous crew were all killed, and Kirk was the one that found it in orbit of the planet that promised 'eternal youth' with the demented Captain Ronald Tracey.

I feel other fan films would have shoehorned the mentioning of Kirk and/or the Enterprise in, but it's not needed.

Ten years it took to get this out of the door, and I must say that it isn't disappointing. Not in the slightest.