Re: Star trek kitumba
This was a terrific present to come home to. I enjoyed the episode very much. A few thoughts:
Positives
- The acting was very solid by fan film standards. Cawley's Kirk has been uneven in the series, but he's really grown over time and did a good job here. Brandon Stacy was good as Spock, as expected. John Carrigan's Kargh is always good fun, and Vic Montagna delivered a great performance as the antagonist.
- There were a couple nice dialogue moments for Uhura, well delivered by Kim Stinger.
- The fight scene was very well choreographed and convincing.
- The "do we destroy the unarmed vessel?" moral dilemma was nice, though McCoy got over the "murder" pretty quickly.
- The special effects, as well as set construction and dressing, were top-notch and did a lot to increase immersion. It "felt" like the viewer was right there on the Klingon home world.
- This episode wasn't "The Peter Kirk Show." I was getting really worried after the last few, but he was used well as a familiar support character this time (I thought "Blood and Fire" and "Enemy: Starfleet" were the series' weakest entries, in part because of the oversaturation of Peter).
Negatives
- Some of the acting, notably by the Klingon informant and the Starfleet brass, wasn't great and pulled me out of things a little.
- The audio felt a bit "off" and not up to Phase II's usually-high production standards.
- Similarly, some of the lighting in a couple of the bridge scenes appeared off to me.
- The script has some nice moments, but feels messy overall. There's too many ship-to-planet-to-ship relocations for the main characters; the episode would have benefited from a more streamlined approach to advancing the plot.
Additionally, the script suffers from too much "fan service," a common but not fatal issue shared by many fan projects. The attention to Enterprise continuity (augment virus, mentioning Archer's mission) and reference to the 2009 film ("I haven't seen driving this bad since...") break the immersion factor. Moreover, if the purpose of this series is to make you feel like you're watching lost episodes from 1969, these references hurt that effort.
I also thought the "turn" where we discover the Kitumba's hidden agenda could have been sharper and clearer.
General Assessment
It's obvious a great deal of sweat, love, and talent went into the making of this episode. I really enjoyed it and thought it was a pretty nice "return to form" after the last four episodes, which I thought were somewhat weak follow-ups to the magnificent "To Serve All My Days" and "World Enough and Time."
I thank everyone who worked on this for their love of Star Trek and dedication to keeping this wonderful show alive. I critique with admiration and appreciation. It's clear everyone takes this as seriously as they would a professional production and that they pour their souls into it. Many thanks for your efforts. And, a nice way for James Cawley to go out at as Captain. It's amazing how far he's come in his dream to produce Star Trek's lost seasons.
