With respect to that episode, I'd disagree. A lot of it is mannered, but pretty much in the direct line of the original TOS performances.
It is tricky. I'm never overly critical of the actors. You can tell when there is a professional guest star because their performance seems so much richer but these are fan productions - hammy acting is part of the charm! Dialogue can always be a problem in sci fi. Personally, I think aliens can get away with it when human characters can't. Compare G'Kar's with Sheriden. Oratory is one thing but some of the speeches where the human characters are just chatting were terrible.
They need to change their name, they have been Phase II way to long. I think they should go with ReBoot, but thats me.
I'd just have them produce more episodes more often. All that extra practice would help them hone their skills in most areas.
Don't underestimate the difficulty of making these. Frequency is in no small part based on available talent (in all departments), and when you are doing it for no pay, you are at the whim of what the talent's schedules allow. I know for a fact many fan films are shot in pieces, and not all of the actors in a given scene are always there at the same time. It's unfortunate, but it's sort of the name of the game.
In truth, what I would do differently is probably fail altogether. I'd be one of those majority of fan film makers who never produce a fan film. If, on the other hand I could just tweek what they are already doing, I'd bring in Nick Cook to play Scotty, or somebody else from Intrepid. Just because the pros couldn't get a real Scotsman for the part doesn't mean the fan's can't! I would like an episodes which included some scientific commentary about the current set of issues in which science is being repressed in the public schools and replaced by religion. Perhaps the TOS crew comes upon a pre-warp world which has reached an industrialized age but then slips back into an earlier state because they abandon science. In other words, 1960s style but 21st century issues. Another thing fan films, not just Phase II, but several of them, could do is for a TOS-era film to coordinate two-parters with a TNG era film, or even a ENT-era film to coordinate with a TOS-era film, or even a three parter in which you look at a world develop over time, a la the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. A ENT era ship visits the pre-warp planet, which makes bad long-term decisions, we then see the issue as it plays out 100 years later, in which the TOS-era ship comes and sees the planet in crisis, and perhaps even a third, short part in which a ship from TNG era, another 100 years later, comes by and sees the smoking remains of a bad choice. The pros never had different ships from different eras producing stories at the same time and couldn't do this... but the fans could!
It's funny that you mention the "scientific commentary" because I had started writing a script for Starship Exeter that was at heart a social commentary about science in politics, but that was a theme underlying an adventure story and a major character drama. I wanted to do something political without standing on a soapbox. Sadly, what passes for "theme" most days is character melodrama. But I shelved the script when it became apparent no additional episodes were in the offing.
You know I'm not actually Scottish, right? Funnily enough, this is something that some of us have touched on previously, but never got much past the discussion stage.
NICK COOK: OK, I know you're ENGLISH. I goofed. I posted that when both tired (2:42 AM local time) and also celebrating the return of my computer after a month (but the sound system now doesn't work... until I get that up, no fan films)... I'm not from New Jersey, but my sister moved there, and my nephew was born there and is... well, now in California. Is he a Californian? I know, not the same thing. More like my ancestors were thrown out of Judea by the Romans in 140 AD and wondered around the world for 1700-1800 years before becoming full citizens anywhere else... they landed in NY in the late 1800s from Austria. (Even though, when I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s I was still hearing glowing comments about the Austrian Emperor and how much my family loved him but just couldn't find work, when asked my nationality prior to the USA, I say, "Jewish." it helps that I also had ancestor from Ukraine, Turkey, Palestine, Spain, the Germanies, and possibly France. Just way too complicated. Jewish is simple. They were all Jewish.) And you are probably descended from an English king, because, so I hear on the US-run programs from the BBC, almost all English people are (lots of mistresses and such). But there are real Scotsmen in Intrepid. It's just that you can REALLY ACT. And, like the rest of the Intrepid crew (pun intended) every one of you can do the accent... and it's not painful to the ears! Anyway, I still say that there are things Fan Films can do, in addition to franchise crossovers (a standby for Comics since the 1970s) that no pro production could do. But the reliability factor is a serious issue. No one group wants to do 1/2 or 1/3 of a story which is dependent on another group which might never do it.
Exeter was definitely moving in that direction. It's not the only TOS era fan film, though. You might want to shop the idea. Also, if it would work for TNG-era fan films, too, you have even more options.
Barb I know. I was just teasing. And Root does fine, IMO. I would never steal his role. I'm not sure that's a major issue, though it is a consideration. Either way, such a thing will almost certainly happen one day.
Is that the paragraph you meant to quote? Well, I wrote that to possibly replace The Atlantis Invaders, and specifically for Exeter. It could potentially work for another fan-film, but there's only a few of those teams that I think would be capable of pulling it off. I've toyed with turning it into something stand-alone, actually, because I like the theme so much.