Star Trek: Renegades
- Thread starter Danlav05
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I'm really curious what they'll come up with. I'm hoping they have one or two differences with Trek so it's less of a bootleg Trekverse (The Orville has no transporters, for example and the first Renegades novel made Kovok a human genetically engineered by Sector 6 and not just a renamed Tuvok)
I thought Nichelle Nichols health problems precluded her from acting any more? I imagine her role will be a small one.
I thought Nichelle Nichols health problems precluded her from acting any more? I imagine her role will be a small one.
And now it's Black Friday, the paperback of Judgement is super cheap and most importantly, mine
I finished the second Renegades novel titled "Judgment" yesterday. It was as fast-paced as the first novel, but I didn't enjoy it as much. Part of my fascination with "The Judas War" was because it was so novel an idea to me, a media tie-in book for a fan film/web series. For "Judgment", the bloom was a bit off the rose as it were.
"Judgment", while starting with a prologue scene from "Judas War", actually takes place a year after that story and it leads almost directly into the fan film Star Trek: Renegades.
It was fast-paced, the author had a good grasp on the Lexxa Singh character emotionally,
For other good things, the few glimmers, and I mean few, that were given of the Renegades universe were intriguing.
That's about the only positives I had for this story.
I think both novels, but especially "Judgment" suffered from a lack of world building. I got no real sense of the Confederation's history or politics, or galactic politics for that matter, and so I couldn't really understand the stakes.
"Judgment's" story was so lean that it avoided the larger civil war it only mentioned as an aside almost, because the focus was on Lexxa's confrontation with The Admiral.
It made me wonder when both novels were written in the creative process for Renegades. Clearly they had to have been written or changed between ST: Renegades and "The Requiem" to strip out many, but not all, Star Trek references
were taken out. It still felt like to me that the creators hadn't settled on what this universe should look like so they didn't describe a lot of stuff and I think that hurt making the Renegades universe more distinct.
There was far too much telling than showing in this novel. Some stuff was just laid on the audience, seemingly out of the blue and it didn't work for me, like the evil aliens doing something with cloning. I also felt some of the conflicts were resolved too quickly. I thought conflicts-internal and external-were handled better in the first novel.
What was more distinct was the tone of Renegades, and it's much darker than Roddenberry-Berman Trek, but I could see this series being greenlit by CBS All Access.
But because we didn't get the stakes enough it made it harder to care if The Admiral kept the Confederation intact or not. If this had stayed a Star Trek webseries then the importance of the Federation's survival would've been almost a given for veteran Trek fans who already know how important the Federation and Starfleet generally were. Stripping that away, I felt we needed more convincing about the Confederation.
I'm not sure the Renegades universe is one of heroes and villains, but more so villains and antiheroes, hunters and prey.
I still wish they had went back to the drawing board with both books, but especially "Judgment" and just visualized a much bigger, more detailed universe. I still think they should've gone further in renaming the characters. Lexxa being a "Singh" even means little without the connection to Star Trek's Khan, and the actress they chose for the role (who I thought was good) makes keeping that last name a situation like Cumberbatch and Star Trek Into Darkness. The ingredients are there for a good Star Trek-like universe, or even something that stands on its own, but it felt to me there needed to a little more stirring of the soup.
I could see them keeping things close to the vest, saving the big reveals for the webseries itself, but I still think both books missed out on doing a lot of the history and world building that they budgetary or time constraints would not allow them to get to when making a live-action series.
"Judgment", while starting with a prologue scene from "Judas War", actually takes place a year after that story and it leads almost directly into the fan film Star Trek: Renegades.
It was fast-paced, the author had a good grasp on the Lexxa Singh character emotionally,
but I felt he was inconsistent in depicting her physical prowess. I was under the impression that she was still genetically engineered and there were some fight scenes where I wish they had really depicted that. It was mentioned sometimes, but not well shown enough IMO.
I did like that we got some of the ST: Renegades characters that were on the Icarus in this novel. However, I wish we had gotten to see the crew actually meet some of them instead of that stuff happening before this story took place. I did like the friendship between Lexxa and Ragnar though. I also liked that the alien antagonists from Star Trek: Renegades are mentioned here, but unfortunately not much else is done with them.
I think both novels, but especially "Judgment" suffered from a lack of world building. I got no real sense of the Confederation's history or politics, or galactic politics for that matter, and so I couldn't really understand the stakes.
There was a little about Earth's history, but no real explanation why they are now running what appears to be a galactic Confederation.
As the novel went on, I got peeved that "The Admiral" is never given a name.
(I caught "Antosians" in this novel, and if I recall, "warp" was used once),
There was far too much telling than showing in this novel. Some stuff was just laid on the audience, seemingly out of the blue and it didn't work for me, like the evil aliens doing something with cloning. I also felt some of the conflicts were resolved too quickly. I thought conflicts-internal and external-were handled better in the first novel.
We also got no explanation for who or what Captain Woolston really was. Lexxa didn't seem troubled that her captain turned out to be some kind of alien. We also didn't learn much more about Masaru, another alien (not sure if he's from the same species as Woolston), and why they oppose the Confederation, or why Admiral Armstrong is working with them. I got the impression from "The Requiem", which I haven't watched in a long time, that Armstrong and his group were anti-alien, which if so, begs the question why are they working with aliens?
What was more distinct was the tone of Renegades, and it's much darker than Roddenberry-Berman Trek, but I could see this series being greenlit by CBS All Access.
What was interesting to me here was that the Confederation wasn't a utopia, neither was Earth. And The Admiral and Kovok were not completely noble figures.
Instead we got morally gray characters. The Admiral admitted his hands weren't always clean and Kovok manipulated Lexxa as much as helped her.
Lexxa herself had an earned criminal past, however she also had a horrific backstory of abuse. Something hinted at on TNG when it came to Natasha and to more pronounced extent with the Bajoran comfort women on DS9 and depicted with Tyler on DISCO, but more bluntly put out there in "Judgment".
I still wish they had went back to the drawing board with both books, but especially "Judgment" and just visualized a much bigger, more detailed universe. I still think they should've gone further in renaming the characters. Lexxa being a "Singh" even means little without the connection to Star Trek's Khan, and the actress they chose for the role (who I thought was good) makes keeping that last name a situation like Cumberbatch and Star Trek Into Darkness. The ingredients are there for a good Star Trek-like universe, or even something that stands on its own, but it felt to me there needed to a little more stirring of the soup.
I could see them keeping things close to the vest, saving the big reveals for the webseries itself, but I still think both books missed out on doing a lot of the history and world building that they budgetary or time constraints would not allow them to get to when making a live-action series.
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Warp as a description of bending space-time to go fast predates Trek. See: https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=warp
Fair enough, but even the definition you provided says that the word was popularized by Star Trek. That's one reason we don't see other sci-fi franchises, to my knowledge, using warp.
First of all, an escape room on Enterprise sets? Genius!
Second, oh look at all the copyright infringement. They're even using the Starfleet delta badge they digitally erased from Renegades: Requiem.
Second, oh look at all the copyright infringement. They're even using the Starfleet delta badge they digitally erased from Renegades: Requiem.
Ummm... board rules: no crowdfunding links. You better edit that before the mod does.
Yes, watching the ks video raised some serious concerns.
Thanks Eduardo for letting us know about Requiem Part 2 being on You Tube. Finished it a little while ago.
It was really cool getting the multiseries Trek reunion with so many veterans coming back. I also really liked the starships, starbases, and a lot of the special effects. Some of the alien/creature makeup was very well done too. One of the biggest quibbles when it comes to aesthetics was that the Confederation uniforms weren't my favorite, though I like their design more than the 2390 Federation uniforms in Picard.
This episode had a lot of action, some nice space battles, though sometimes I felt the pacing or something was off.
After seeing Requiem Part 2 I'm still intrigued by the Renegades universe and I hope it grows and that it diverges still more from Star Trek. From what I gather from their new Kickstarter that seems to be the case.
I wasn't expecting it to actually bring the story line with the Cabal to an end-or what appears to be an end.
It was really cool getting the multiseries Trek reunion with so many veterans coming back. I also really liked the starships, starbases, and a lot of the special effects. Some of the alien/creature makeup was very well done too. One of the biggest quibbles when it comes to aesthetics was that the Confederation uniforms weren't my favorite, though I like their design more than the 2390 Federation uniforms in Picard.
This episode had a lot of action, some nice space battles, though sometimes I felt the pacing or something was off.
I didn't get why the Admiral was having those flashbacks and how they were tied into the story, and I also felt that for too long stretches Alexxa wasn't taking charge in the middle of a space battle. Also wish we had gotten more Kovok, Jacob, and Admiral Jemison and seeing Kovok and Jacob taking down other members of the Cabal.
After seeing Requiem Part 2 I'm still intrigued by the Renegades universe and I hope it grows and that it diverges still more from Star Trek. From what I gather from their new Kickstarter that seems to be the case.
It's the neural peptide virus from the Voyager episode "Flashback".
And there were no combadges
Thanks. I got that was what they were aiming for, however I didn't see what the flashbacks had to do with the story. I was wondering if they would somehow give the Admiral some insight to help him or the crew save the day but they just felt random. Also, when Renegades separated from being a Trek fan series there was no need to keep those flashbacks in there.
They were recognisably Star Trek and removed, some by CG. In one of Nichelle Nichols' scenes there's a quick shot where they forget to remove hers
And plus Chekov never had a brother.
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