Star Trek: Fortitude

[CeJay]

As usual I'm late to the party here.

You've really put your characters through a ringer here in the first season, and in best Trek fashion it all ends on a cliffhanger.

The fate of the Pekeni was particularly hard to swallow but it certainly set up the End as one big bad enemy, ruthless and quite possibly unstoppable.

Looking forward to sinking my teeth into season 2.

 

[admiralelm11]

I'm almost done with Season Two.

 

[Gibraltar]

Episode 2 Review: A brilliant gamble, bringing Steamrunner back from the boneyards and giving her a new lease on life, protecting Fortitude and 499's backs against the hostiles. The stress of the refit almost permanently damaged Llewellyn's professional relationship with his chief engineer, but a little understanding went a long way in salvaging that.

The crew are beginning to gel, and Llewellyn's forged some good inroads with his crew, most especially the vital relationship with his XO.

 

[admiralelm11]

Thank you for the review, Gibraltar. I wish I could change the topic name to recognize that this is Season One of Star Trek: Fortitude.

 

[Gibraltar]

Episode 3 Review: Fortitude gets underway on her mission of exploration and stumbles onto an alien battlefield. I enjoyed the crew's increasing interdependence and trust, as well as Llewellyn's gutsy choice to spoof the End attack force while collecting intel on them remotely. That plus the End pilot's body they recovered have gone a long way in shedding some light on a potent new threat to Federation security.

I especially like Llewellyn's giddiness at finally getting the chance to explore instead of pulling patrol duty around SB 499. The man is truly an explorer at heart.

Well done!

 

[Gibraltar]

Episode 4 Review: The Dominion's machinations with the Klingons and Cardassians finally catch up to Starbase 499 and Fortitude. Given that hostilities with the Klingons will effectively strand 499 and it's supporting starships from resupply or reinforcement from the rest of Starfleet, they have just cause to be worried.

It was good to see both Llewellyn and his crew wrestling with these new developments, while absorbing the disappointment of their exploratory mission being derailed yet again.

Loved the reckless young Klingon and his bravado! Watching Blackmore and Llewellyn trying to keep a straight face while dealing with the boy was hilarious. Too bad about his ultimate fate, but the Empire doesn't tend to suffer fools gladly. Perhaps it would have been better to give him the honorable death he'd been seeking.

Great stuff!

 

[Gibraltar]

Episode 5 Review: Great intro to the new bridge officer and a nice look at what must be agony for academy cadets in relationships when they graduate and move out into active fleet assignments. As mentioned in the story, these two were very fortunate to be posted together.

 

[Gibraltar]

Episode 6 Review: Llewellyn’s inexperience is showing here. He jeopardized his ship and crew to follow a probe that, for all he knew, had already alerted the End to Fortitude’s presence in their territory. What if that probe had been designed as bait to draw Fortitude into an End ambush in that asteroid field?

Yeah, Llewellyn got lucky this time. Archer should have been the one counseling caution, rather than mutely allowing ship and mission to be risked on a reckless throw of the cosmic dice. Here’s hoping the captain learned a lesson from all this, or someone else will soon be tasked with replacing a tragically lost starship not yet a year out of spacedock.

 

[Gibraltar]

Galen4 and I both live in Vancouver, Wa?

Gibraltar waves from just south of the Columbia River.

 

[Gibraltar]

Episodes 7/8 Review: It's clear that in your Trek-verse, Section-31 is the public face of Starfleet Intelligence, not the shadowy, little-known organization shown canonically. Regardless, this S-31 possesses the same lack of morality, and they clearly used the presence of a Romulan agent to set their sights on Fortitude and it's crew.

Llewellyn was caught between a rock and a hard place, having to investigate his crew while holding Section-31 at bay as best he could. No wonder he lost his cool more than once in these stories, given the amount of stress he was under.

T’Verra's cover was brilliant, as she would likely be the only person in the crew who wouldn't have to report for an initial physical exam.

I fear Llewellyn may have gotten played by Naketha twice, though. The Romulans are unlikely to start a war over a single operative, or even a single ship. If Fortitude had simply disabled the warbird and then beamed Naketha back, it would have demonstrated both the Federation's resolve and mercy simultaneously. Then again, I could be wrong, and I'm not the one who'd be fighting the Romulans.

An excellent two-parter!

 

[admiralelm11]

Thank you, Gibraltar! I like your reviews. Carry on, sir!

 

[Gibraltar]

Episode 9 Review: A mysterious abduction and Llewellyn and Vuro having to fend for themselves against religious zealots. Lots to like here, from the two officers having to fend for themselves, to Llewellyn struggling with his pacifist instincts in the face of militarized brutality.

I've got to agree with some of the other reviewers on Boswell's reaction. A medic doesn't get to just throw in the towel, even if she's already activated the EMH. She didn't do herself any favors with that stunt, and Llewellyn might be better suited to having an MD transfer over from 499.

Great character work all the way around!

 

[ColdFusion180]

Tight, interesting set of stories. Nice job setting up the series and detailing the general situation while leaving plenty of potential for development. Wonder if Starbase 499 was the last stop of the Olympia before she left to explore the Beta Quadrant. Episodes were well written. Surprised Section 31 was mentioned so openly. And that an Intrepid-class ship could take on a D'deridex-class warbird so easily in "Face Value". Maybe it was just a testament to Captain Llewellyn's skill and grit. Good work.

 

[admiralelm11]

Thank you. You should check out the other seasons and the developing story in "Afterburn".

 

[Gibraltar]

Episode 10 Review: It was gratifying to see Llewellyn's crew come to his defense, especially his chief engineer whose harbored reservations from the beginning. Only one thing confused me, mainly how and why a civilian Federation ambassador is placed in charge of this investigation. This inquiry should have been a Starfleet function, a task carried out by the JAG's office or by a special investigator, not an elected official with dubious credentials and a clear anti-Llewellyn agenda. Whomever is pulling the ambassador's strings must wield considerable political power, and must have a significant bias against Fortitude's captain.