Thanks for the link to the normal upload. I tuned into the stream around 10:30pm-ish last night and it was just a half dozen people silently zoom-streaming themselves watching something (I'm assuming it was the actual film itself). It would have been nice if it had been playing for all the viewers on screen as well but it wasn't so I bugged out after about 30 seconds.
As for the review... I actually liked it for what it was. That may be an unpopular opinion given the vehemance of this thread traditionally but I have no problem being a thread heel (in wrestling terms) for the umpteenth time. Apologies if I slightly misuse (or use the common vernacular definition of) certain literary/cinema terms but I'm strictly a normy and not a creative myself. Does it have a traditional story structure and/or character development that you'd expect even in a short film? No... but I don't think it was ever intended to. Granted I'm going off of articles Jonathan Lane wrote a year or two ago but this was conceived as an alternate additional scene or version of the Axanar fan film as it was years ago then spun off as its own thing. It was never meant to be a wholly independent creative endeavor so I think it's fine if it doesn't fly on its own two nacelles.
The battles definitely have that FASA RPG style feel that is fun. So, ships firing and attacking is the most fun part.
Agreed. I have some quibbles with the battle (namely that the trio of Klingon ships were so gracious/honorable as to completely stop firing for the entire period of dramatic dialog between the captains so that they could peacefully have their moment amidst the carnage). At least the captain returned the courtesy by setting the maximum yield of his warp core explosion to 1% so as to only minorly inconvience the trio of point blank klingon ships as opposed to completely destroying them as I expected given the range. I see the first half as more of a collection of cutscenes that run before, during, and after a video game style battle scenario straight out of the Legacy pc/console game from about 12-14 years ago. Given the original intent, I think it works quite well when viewed in that regard.
And Alec Peters is a human, right? Not a plank of wood with big buggy googly eyes pasted on? Because it’s hard to tell the difference.
I am Greek? I am Greek!
That's a Guardians of the Galaxy reference/joke in case any Spartans are offended reading it. At one point, I started counting his blinking during the first couple of minutes and, except for one shot, he averages only one blink per shot he is the sole focus of; Teddy Ruxpin might have had better facial animation. Admittedly, his acting improves significantly (in that he is actually emoting at all) during the faux documentary second half from that ultralow bar initially set but he's still by far the weakest link in the whole film. Other than that, I'd say the acting was significantly better than most recent fan films I've watched and better than the previous Avalon offerings. That last part is hard to tell because the Avalon universe purposefully incorporates corny humor and sometimes it's hard to tell whether something feels off or cringey on purpose or by accident. Kudos to the actors and director Victoria Archer for pulling it off IMO better her than in their own films.
Now for a bit of nitpicking/criticism (because it wouldn't be trek fandom without that!). I like the addition of the faux documentary scenes at the end but felt that they went on too long. I'd have preferred if it was just the garth part, maybe one more CGI battle scene with a voice over, and one Admiral Slater part. The additional Slater scenes overly explaining about Ramirez fall into the "show, don't tell" category of things not to do and I'd have preferred if they had just killed Ramirez on screen with a quick few seconds scene from sickbay after escaping further emphasizing the pyrrhic victory. I understand that Tony Todd was one of the first professionals to distance himself from Axanar and that he's never coming back but explaining by third party dialog his sidelining for the rest of the war seemed to be a worse choice than just showing it. YMMV.
As for sound, directing, fx, and editing, I think this easily stands out as above average to one of the best in post guidelines fan films. I have no issues at all with the sound (monotone Garth human emotosynthesizer v2.021 excluded) and my only quibbles with directing/editing are probably more with Producer/Writer Lane's direct and heavy involvement in post. From his own interviews and articles, he was "a perfectionist" and absolutely wanted every minor detail to go exactly to his own specifications and that likely included scenes/lines that I felt dragged or should have been cut so I don't view those as the primary fault of the editor/director. The special effects are top notch for a fan film and better than alot of professionally done indy scifi films I've watched. Some are I think borrowed from Prelude and those released by RMB from his aborted version of Axanar but I think the majority are new so kudos to Jonathan getting them done.
TL;DR: I liked it for what it was. It wasn't a fully fledged independent film but rather a game DLC add-on for the firmly in development hell Axanar Prime film... one that most importantly was actually completed both with minimal internal drama and under the fan film guidelines.
Funny how the spin-off gets made before the main production. I'll watch it though. Hoping for something new and different. Maybe? 
