I think they should focus on the renegade crews from the beginning, and just put Chekov and Tuvok as the guest stars.
Star Trek: Renegades
- Thread starter Danlav05
- Start date
As far as I know, the VFX team did not get paid, that´s why they did their own fundraising, which did not reach the intended goal.
They said that Chekov will be only there until the third episode, so I think chances are good that they will concentrate on the renegades, hopefully with a stronger main story.
It's also why their uniforms are loose fitting robes.
Should someone start a grading thread - or would that be flagged as flaming?
J. Allen's reviews started the laugh train - but this comment pushed it up to 88 miles an hour.
You two guys have made something far more entertaining than Renegades, and you did it for free!
The thing is though, this was not touted as a fan film. It was touted as an independent film with the hope of being picked up as a new series. That's how they raised the money. That's how they promoted it... until suddenly it was decided, either after people watched the finished product or after they realized it really wasn't going anywhere, that they started saying it was a fan film.
Plus, the majority of the actors here are professionals. They should be used to seeing negative reactions. It's disheartening, sure. But you put something out out there, its going to be judged. And the fact is: It's not very good. It has some promise. But it needs a lot of work before it goes to fan film series.
Looking at this three ways, I rate it as the following:
Solely as a fan film: B-.
As an independent film with top talent: C-.
As a pilot for a Star Trek series: F.
The point is: If this is their A game, I'm far from impressed.
It's also why their uniforms are loose fitting robes.
Should someone start a grading thread - or would that be flagged as flaming?
It also explains the picture on the wall that was discussed earlier, Chekov's grand-daughter taking Poppy for a walk around the grounds.
Anyone able to find other bits of supporting evidence?
I do want to say to the folks involved with Renegades even with it's flaws to me it was a valiant effort and like I said had all the pieces of something that could have been great. 
Thank you for your time & dedication to Star Trek. 
Thank you for your time & dedication to Star Trek. 
What I don't understand is if you have Walter Koenig and Tim Russ onboard, not to mention $300,000, why not build one or two terrific sets, get a pair of tailored costumes that actually fit, and just shoot a two-hander?
The Dirty Dozen cost $5.4 million almost fifty years ago. You're not going to transpose that to outer space and do it justice in 2015 with the relative pittance Rengades raised.
The Dirty Dozen cost $5.4 million almost fifty years ago. You're not going to transpose that to outer space and do it justice in 2015 with the relative pittance Rengades raised.
I'm going to disregard the idea that this was a feasible Trek pilot and just judge it purely as a fan film.
I liked it. Were there negatives? Of course, but no more so than almost every other fan film I have seen. I tried to stick to the positives while watching and found myself moderately entertained.
If the next few episodes can learn from some of the mistakes made here, I'd be quite keen to see what they can do. Renegades was, for me, a huge step up from OGAM.
A huge thank you to everyone who worked on Renegades.
I liked it. Were there negatives? Of course, but no more so than almost every other fan film I have seen. I tried to stick to the positives while watching and found myself moderately entertained.
If the next few episodes can learn from some of the mistakes made here, I'd be quite keen to see what they can do. Renegades was, for me, a huge step up from OGAM.
A huge thank you to everyone who worked on Renegades.
Star Trek:Renegades, A Review ****MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS****
The first question that I ask myself as I write this review, is how should we judge Renegades, as a Fan Film? As an Independent Feature? Or as a Pilot Pitched to a network.
Since the producers of this film, say it was the latter, I am going to judge it as a professional Pilot. So.... I am going to compare it to the various Trek Pilots, and go from there....
First the good.
I really enjoy the concept of the Antihero. This is a pretty big theme in Movies and Television today, from the upcoming Deadpool/Suicide Squad Movies, to even Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead, it seems that our culture has moved passed the cookie cutter boy scout hero, and have embraced our inner darkness. While I like the direction Renegades goes, lets be clear, this is not Your Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek. Gene’s vision for humanity, was one of bright optimism. It was one where, humanity develops so much, that we would never need an organization like Section 31, or a group of “Renegades” doing what Starfleet can’t. And While I don’t believe Roddenberry should any longer be the arbiter of what is/is not Star Trek (the guy hated TWoK) I think we should at the very least consider his vision for the future.
The Ship, I really like the Icarus. This is what the Defiant should have been. Some radical concept that had the appearance of something Starfleet, but a unique configuration. This is actually one of the few Star Trek Ships ,I have seen apart from the Enterprises, that I really dug. It’s better than anything we have seen made for Star Trek Online, and I think it’s better than the Aries (yes I know, blasphemy in Fan Film Circles).
The Heroine (And the Actress who plays her). One of my biggest gripes against Voyager, was that Janeway was a walking/talking female in charge trope. She was irrational at times, very rational at others. She was Mamma Bear at times, and she was an aloof distant commander at others. I don’t put this on Kate Mulgrew who is an incredible actress (just have to see a couple episodes of Orange is the New Black to see that) but rather the writers, who played into female in charge Stereotypes instead of just writing a good solid character. Lexxa, at least from what we see in this episode is a strong woman character. While this film is only 1 hour and 40 some minutes the Character presented is pretty consistent, although you don’t get to know her, or her backstory (Other than who her distant relative is)
The Bad
The Writing. Yes, the writing of this pilot was bad. It in my mind was the worst of the bad. From every trope you could imagine, to just clunky storytelling, it was hard to follow along. A good example of this, is after Lexxa retakes command of the Icarus, she assembles her crew, and starts talking about the mission, and everyone seems to know what is going on with the mission before the meeting even begins. The film lacks expository dialogue, to help keep the viewer up to speed. Because it lacks this expository dialogue, only the die hard trekkies will be able to follow along with the story (even then, I struggled at times). The other gripe I have is the obvious plot hole… You have the space folding device on Earth already, why the sabatoge? Just turn the machine one, and fold Earth away into space/time. This is what I Call the Jack Bauer Syndrome. Every villain in 24 attracts Jack Bauer’s attention into their evil plot by targeting him first, which then causes him to learn of and foil their plot. Most of the evil machines planned on 24 would have gone off unhitched, if the bad guy just left Jack alone. The same could be said here. The Evil energy villain already had his planet folding device on Earth, why start killing admirals, and drawing attention to your conspiracy?
The editing. The film lasted an hour and 40 some minutes, and had some scenes that were unnecessary. The Whole Sub pilot with Chekov’s grand daughter was unnecessary, and forced. The Actresses couldn’t act, looked doe eyed in the camera, and seemed to be reading lines, as opposed to talking naturally.
One of the gripes I have heard was that there wasn’t enough story, and actually I disagree. There was too much story. This entire film should have been played out over a season as an overall Season Arc, with other smaller stories told in between.
The Framing - This was covered in another review, and does a real good shot at deconstructing the poor cinematography of the film.
Thats the free stuff. None of that had anything to do with Budget, or the amount of money that went into the pilot. So, budget has nothing to do with the criticisms above.
Sets - I understand that as a crowd funded pilot, that only raised 350K that the sets were not going to be up to par. I can forgive that, but, in the case here the primary federation sets were just planned poorly. I get that most offices would wind up looking the same, but we have seen over 450 hours of produced Star Trek, and for the life of me, even with the bad 60’s color scheme of TOS, I don’t remember walls being yellow (Doorways, yes, pipes yes, walls no). By not going with a neutral gray or silver color for the walls, it’s obvious every set was the same. No matter how they redressed their set, the yellow walls were there, and on the Bridge of the Archer. Again, this particular criticism isn’t levied against the cost of the set, rather the choices of the production designer.
With that said, even beyond the color, the sets looked flimsy, and while there was a limited budget, the bridge of your hero ship (Antihero ship?) should have had a little more investment. If your goal is to make a series, this is where the drama tends to unfold, and should have been a financial priority.
Costumes - The renegade crew’s costumes were mostly fine (Except the sunglasses on Fixer’s hat) but we are told this occurs 10 years after Voyager’s return, and yet now everyone is wearing Japanese style robes? I understand making Screen Accurate costumes would have been expensive, so they could have rolled out new costumes, but just following the design ascetic of what came before.. not drastically altering it.
Overall, if this was genuinely a pilot of a Network Star Trek Series, I wouldn’t have lasted more than 30 minutes.And before I get slammed saying, “Well this was just a fan film” and “they did their best” let me point out, that they had a professional director, professional veteran Star Trek actors. They raised just under 350K , and we have seen other fan productions to fare more for less. (Phase II/New Voyages cost 20K per episode, STC costs 50K per episode)
I don’t know if I will will watch the second episode, but I can’t imagine myself contributing to this financially, unless future episodes are SIGNIFICANTLY better.
The first question that I ask myself as I write this review, is how should we judge Renegades, as a Fan Film? As an Independent Feature? Or as a Pilot Pitched to a network.
Since the producers of this film, say it was the latter, I am going to judge it as a professional Pilot. So.... I am going to compare it to the various Trek Pilots, and go from there....
First the good.
I really enjoy the concept of the Antihero. This is a pretty big theme in Movies and Television today, from the upcoming Deadpool/Suicide Squad Movies, to even Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead, it seems that our culture has moved passed the cookie cutter boy scout hero, and have embraced our inner darkness. While I like the direction Renegades goes, lets be clear, this is not Your Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek. Gene’s vision for humanity, was one of bright optimism. It was one where, humanity develops so much, that we would never need an organization like Section 31, or a group of “Renegades” doing what Starfleet can’t. And While I don’t believe Roddenberry should any longer be the arbiter of what is/is not Star Trek (the guy hated TWoK) I think we should at the very least consider his vision for the future.
The Ship, I really like the Icarus. This is what the Defiant should have been. Some radical concept that had the appearance of something Starfleet, but a unique configuration. This is actually one of the few Star Trek Ships ,I have seen apart from the Enterprises, that I really dug. It’s better than anything we have seen made for Star Trek Online, and I think it’s better than the Aries (yes I know, blasphemy in Fan Film Circles).
The Heroine (And the Actress who plays her). One of my biggest gripes against Voyager, was that Janeway was a walking/talking female in charge trope. She was irrational at times, very rational at others. She was Mamma Bear at times, and she was an aloof distant commander at others. I don’t put this on Kate Mulgrew who is an incredible actress (just have to see a couple episodes of Orange is the New Black to see that) but rather the writers, who played into female in charge Stereotypes instead of just writing a good solid character. Lexxa, at least from what we see in this episode is a strong woman character. While this film is only 1 hour and 40 some minutes the Character presented is pretty consistent, although you don’t get to know her, or her backstory (Other than who her distant relative is)
The Bad
The Writing. Yes, the writing of this pilot was bad. It in my mind was the worst of the bad. From every trope you could imagine, to just clunky storytelling, it was hard to follow along. A good example of this, is after Lexxa retakes command of the Icarus, she assembles her crew, and starts talking about the mission, and everyone seems to know what is going on with the mission before the meeting even begins. The film lacks expository dialogue, to help keep the viewer up to speed. Because it lacks this expository dialogue, only the die hard trekkies will be able to follow along with the story (even then, I struggled at times). The other gripe I have is the obvious plot hole… You have the space folding device on Earth already, why the sabatoge? Just turn the machine one, and fold Earth away into space/time. This is what I Call the Jack Bauer Syndrome. Every villain in 24 attracts Jack Bauer’s attention into their evil plot by targeting him first, which then causes him to learn of and foil their plot. Most of the evil machines planned on 24 would have gone off unhitched, if the bad guy just left Jack alone. The same could be said here. The Evil energy villain already had his planet folding device on Earth, why start killing admirals, and drawing attention to your conspiracy?
The editing. The film lasted an hour and 40 some minutes, and had some scenes that were unnecessary. The Whole Sub pilot with Chekov’s grand daughter was unnecessary, and forced. The Actresses couldn’t act, looked doe eyed in the camera, and seemed to be reading lines, as opposed to talking naturally.
One of the gripes I have heard was that there wasn’t enough story, and actually I disagree. There was too much story. This entire film should have been played out over a season as an overall Season Arc, with other smaller stories told in between.
The Framing - This was covered in another review, and does a real good shot at deconstructing the poor cinematography of the film.
Thats the free stuff. None of that had anything to do with Budget, or the amount of money that went into the pilot. So, budget has nothing to do with the criticisms above.
Sets - I understand that as a crowd funded pilot, that only raised 350K that the sets were not going to be up to par. I can forgive that, but, in the case here the primary federation sets were just planned poorly. I get that most offices would wind up looking the same, but we have seen over 450 hours of produced Star Trek, and for the life of me, even with the bad 60’s color scheme of TOS, I don’t remember walls being yellow (Doorways, yes, pipes yes, walls no). By not going with a neutral gray or silver color for the walls, it’s obvious every set was the same. No matter how they redressed their set, the yellow walls were there, and on the Bridge of the Archer. Again, this particular criticism isn’t levied against the cost of the set, rather the choices of the production designer.
With that said, even beyond the color, the sets looked flimsy, and while there was a limited budget, the bridge of your hero ship (Antihero ship?) should have had a little more investment. If your goal is to make a series, this is where the drama tends to unfold, and should have been a financial priority.
Costumes - The renegade crew’s costumes were mostly fine (Except the sunglasses on Fixer’s hat) but we are told this occurs 10 years after Voyager’s return, and yet now everyone is wearing Japanese style robes? I understand making Screen Accurate costumes would have been expensive, so they could have rolled out new costumes, but just following the design ascetic of what came before.. not drastically altering it.
Overall, if this was genuinely a pilot of a Network Star Trek Series, I wouldn’t have lasted more than 30 minutes.And before I get slammed saying, “Well this was just a fan film” and “they did their best” let me point out, that they had a professional director, professional veteran Star Trek actors. They raised just under 350K , and we have seen other fan productions to fare more for less. (Phase II/New Voyages cost 20K per episode, STC costs 50K per episode)
I don’t know if I will will watch the second episode, but I can’t imagine myself contributing to this financially, unless future episodes are SIGNIFICANTLY better.
I'd like to congratulate the Renegades team.
For me it were almost 90 entertaining minutes with some flaws, but... overall quite enjoyable.
Yes, you can see variable results where SFX were concerned. It might have been better to concentrate all efforts to the opening 5 minutes of those SFX-heavy scenes - that took me out of the experience at the very beginning. Later on I didn't care so much for the effects but rather on the story and the pacing, The SFX then were of minor importance for me, I didn't find them distracting. But those first minutes? Pity.
And now the great BUT:
Please, don't continue with Admiral Pavel Chekov, if you continue the series. There is just NOTHING Walter Koenig had to add or help improving the tale. His acting is just flat, his Admiral Chekov is poorly conceived as a bitter and bored (and boring) person. It would have been best to not have him in this movie, nor Richard Herd. Equally boring.
Oh, and as good and cool as Picardo is, his role fell a little flat, too.
Some clever twists (like Fixer) and a lot of very capable acting by Wilkinson, Nemec, Russ and Furlong (and damn, I fell for Vic Mignogna's Garak impersonation!).
Could have really used some better editing (yes, shaky cam versus steady cam scenes) and pacing. And what's with the Golden Gate Bridge obsession?
But overall: entertaining! It could have worked much better NOT being thrown into the Star Trek realm, I guess.
For me it were almost 90 entertaining minutes with some flaws, but... overall quite enjoyable.
Yes, you can see variable results where SFX were concerned. It might have been better to concentrate all efforts to the opening 5 minutes of those SFX-heavy scenes - that took me out of the experience at the very beginning. Later on I didn't care so much for the effects but rather on the story and the pacing, The SFX then were of minor importance for me, I didn't find them distracting. But those first minutes? Pity.
And now the great BUT:
Please, don't continue with Admiral Pavel Chekov, if you continue the series. There is just NOTHING Walter Koenig had to add or help improving the tale. His acting is just flat, his Admiral Chekov is poorly conceived as a bitter and bored (and boring) person. It would have been best to not have him in this movie, nor Richard Herd. Equally boring.
Oh, and as good and cool as Picardo is, his role fell a little flat, too.
Some clever twists (like Fixer) and a lot of very capable acting by Wilkinson, Nemec, Russ and Furlong (and damn, I fell for Vic Mignogna's Garak impersonation!).
Could have really used some better editing (yes, shaky cam versus steady cam scenes) and pacing. And what's with the Golden Gate Bridge obsession?
But overall: entertaining! It could have worked much better NOT being thrown into the Star Trek realm, I guess.
In the production's defense Larry Nemeck did mention on Facebook today that the script was going through continuous, and sometimes major rewrites to work around the actors' schedules. Sequences were dropped, or totally reconceived based on who was available to shoot.
That does explain quite a bit in terms of the script. Larry even mentioned that Walter Koenig commented after the official premiere there were times he didn't even know what was going on in the story.
That does explain quite a bit in terms of the script. Larry even mentioned that Walter Koenig commented after the official premiere there were times he didn't even know what was going on in the story.
I'd hate to join the bashing bandwagon but here I am.
I usually don't like to give a letter grade to things I review, because letter grades are so subjective but I'm going to give this a C. Overall this was mediocre, with a few good things coming from it. As others have said, this is like a really poor SyFy pilot. In fact if it was a pilot on SyFy I can tell you I wouldn't be watching the series. I barely made it through watching it, it was overall boring and trite. I was actually more engaged with Captain Alvarez and the crew of the the Archer, then the crew of the Icarus.
I usually don't like to give a letter grade to things I review, because letter grades are so subjective but I'm going to give this a C. Overall this was mediocre, with a few good things coming from it. As others have said, this is like a really poor SyFy pilot. In fact if it was a pilot on SyFy I can tell you I wouldn't be watching the series. I barely made it through watching it, it was overall boring and trite. I was actually more engaged with Captain Alvarez and the crew of the the Archer, then the crew of the Icarus.
Rough is about the only word I can come up with.
Maybe next time around, spend more money on writers, a director, a quality film editor and leave yesterday's Star Trek actors where they belong... yesterday.
It just seems a project like this would be more interesting using local actors that are trying to get noticed.
Maybe next time around, spend more money on writers, a director, a quality film editor and leave yesterday's Star Trek actors where they belong... yesterday.
It just seems a project like this would be more interesting using local actors that are trying to get noticed.
Is that really a good excuse? Professionals make use of shooting schedules all the time. Star Trek Beyond had a week or two where Chris Pine was off shooting Comancheria. They seem to be moving along nicely. Plus you have the options of reshoots and pickups and other such things.
This is the problem with using professionals on fan or independent productions. You can't expect the pros to not go off to make good money when you're only paying them pennies. It's still not a good excuse in my book. Especially when it was being touted as a semi-professional production. (Sorry, I'm really stuck on that.)
YES! It's like I said in regards to Alec Peters casting himself as Garth. There are plenty of good actors out there who need stuff for their reels. Use them.
"Bad" Trek is sometime still enjoyable. This is not. This is boring, the urge to forward through it never ends from opening to closing credit.
Its as though they took all the criticism about "going too far" with OGAM, took it to heart, and made sure this one goes nowhere.
I've been watching this franchise for over 40 years now and I'd rather all the original cast hang it up rather than see this sort of thing again.
Its as though they took all the criticism about "going too far" with OGAM, took it to heart, and made sure this one goes nowhere.
I've been watching this franchise for over 40 years now and I'd rather all the original cast hang it up rather than see this sort of thing again.
Professionals or no, I didn't enjoy Renegades. We can argue the artistic merits and failures to we're blue in the face, but there are clearly those who enjoyed it. While agree, there are numerous artistic reasons why Renegades falls short, I would argue that a degree of personal taste also plays into peoples' enjoyment (or lack thereof).
I always try to be polite in my criticism, and I am all too well aware of the issues that can and do crop up. However, the folks producing Renegades put a great deal of time and effort into telling us what a great, *professional* production it was, and I don't think they should by any more immune from fair, constructive criticism than any of the other fanfilms out there. And frankly, the criticism of Renegades so far has been way more sedate than that of many other fanfilms here.
I always try to be polite in my criticism, and I am all too well aware of the issues that can and do crop up. However, the folks producing Renegades put a great deal of time and effort into telling us what a great, *professional* production it was, and I don't think they should by any more immune from fair, constructive criticism than any of the other fanfilms out there. And frankly, the criticism of Renegades so far has been way more sedate than that of many other fanfilms here.
The bridge of the (Anti)Hero Ship should have had some investments made to it, to make it look GOOD!
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