Review Star Trek: Of Gods and Men Part 1.

[Tom]

Its here Star Trek: Of Gods and Men Part 1.

To view it please go here:

http://startrekofgodsandmen.com/

We have had some heavy traffic causing issues but we seem to be stablizing now.

Also this is the lower bandwidth version, we plan to put out a much higher quaility version in a week or so.

Enjoy!

 

[JD]

My review, with spoilers

Like I said on the other OGaM page, I loved it. It was definitely one of the best fan films I've watched (the others being the New Voyages eps.), and it was certainly worth the wait. I thought that overall, the writing and acting were between good and great, which is not at all a suprise given who was involved. I am very curious to see what exactly brought about all of the changes we saw in the new timeline. I have a theory about what I think Charlie did, and I cannot wait to see if I am right.
I also just want to say how much I loved getting to see all of these great Trek alumni in one production, and I am very curious to see if anymore suprise cast members or characters pop before the end.
I do have a few questions though, first being how exactly Sulu could have been Gamma Quadrant. I'm also wondering if that was the original Charlie Evans? Judging by the rest of the cast, I'm assuming it is, but I just wanted to make sure. My last question would be who James Crawley was supposed to be?

 

[SeerSGB]

Didn't wow me, didn't disappoint me...it just felt flat and predictable. And a couple of times I felt sorry for the Nichelle and Walter-- as in sorry for them acting in the movie. 99.99% certain I won't fool with watching the other parts.

 

[USS Excelsior]

Compared to watching Star Trek on TV. It did seem a bit rushed, transitioning from the start to the alternate time line.

 

[Tom]

Part 2 slows down a bit with some great acting, part 3 will have alot of CGI action.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The effects were actually pretty good, given a limited budget.

 

[Rattrap]

All in all, not bad. The Vulcan effects were a bit weak, but impressive considering what the crew had to work with (I couldn't have done them better). I do begin to feel that the Guardian of Forever has become a badly overused McGuffin among fan films, which may turn off fans watching ST:XI, even though the general public probably won't share the sentiment.

Also, I realize the entire theme of the story is a "world without Jim Kirk", but to have the timeline changed that much by the movie era, wouldn't the critical juncture had to have occurred much earlier, say during Archer's era? By the time of Jim Kirk, the Federation was already well established, and it seems it would have been a lot harder to change the course of time then. Kirk's actions would seem to have carried more weight during the Enterprise B-E eras.

Then again, all may be explained. I'm willing to wait and see.

 

[AviTrek]

Well, given the age of Uhura and Chekov I think it's pretty clear they are in the Ent-B era. Also, Uhura says the ships are 40 years old.

 

[Danlav05]

On Christmas Day 2008, a new Star Trek movie directed by JJ Abrams will debut featuring a new version of the original cast, but on 22 December 2007, the first part of a feature film taking place 12 years after the Kirk segment of Generations was released.


WARNING: HEAVY SPOILERS


The film is very fanboyish (I’ll use the cleaner phrase) as it features elements from TOS episodes such as Charlie X, The City On The Edge Of Forever, Amok Time and presumably there’s more to come. The show was wonderful and an exciting setup for whatevers to come.

Continuity is payed great respect as one of the first lines is “Nyota!” by Chekov as Captain Uhura confirming her first name. The New Voyages bridge is impressive as ever, and James Cawley plays Commander Peter Kirk, about to have a major role in the forthcoming ‘Blood and Fire’ played by Bobby Q Rice, who I believe actually appears later in the story.

We then beam down to the Planet M622 where, much to my surprise, we see the Guardian of Forever, not the planet from The Alternative Factor as I somehow expected. The matte work is most impressive, and at first you believe the Guardian is actually there. After Charlie walks in and does god-knows-what to Mrs Kirk, then the universe is changed. I wonder what Harlan Ellison will say about the use of the Guardian? It is a non-profit production, so things should be alright. I was equally impressed with the look of the planet Vulcan, with no budget or studio it’s interesting to see how things are realised. My only criticism here is that the exterior space shots looked weak, particularly the Omega Device racing towards the Planet Vulcan.

On a Constitution class warship John Harriman from Generations is Captain, then after a brutal battle with a smaller vessel, Chekov and a friend, both terrorists, are taken to the brig. The lighting by cinematographer Doug Knapp conveys automatically a darker feel, and the crew, featuring Klingons, an Orion Slave Girl and more, up to no good.

The acting from Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols is impressive as they show new aspects to the characters, one of the principle draws to this project for me. Tim Russ looks and acts like if it was yesterday he walked of the sets of Voyager, and Lawrence Montaigne reprised Stonn 40 years after Amok Time, which to me is remarkable. There have been complaints about the Vulcan actors (or rather actors playing Vulcans), but Cirroc Lofton’c character being half-human talking to his mom could be an excuse.

Overall, this is an AMAZING production, very well done, and it is an independent film – not a fan film

BRING ON PART 2 & 3!!!

 

[JD]

Now that I have had a little more time to think about this, I just wanted to add a couple more thoughts.
I keep seeing people ripping on the effects, but I really don't see think it is fair to do this when you take into account the fact that this is a independent film that is being released for free on the internet. I also wanted to add that I think there are a few acting and writting issues in a few parts, but I didn't think any of them were really serious enough to have a big impact on my opinion of it. When I watch something like this, I tend to look more twoards the story itself, and the ideas it is conveying, both of which I really liked in this case. Overall I would probably give it an 8.5/10.

 

[doubleohfive]

It was ok. Not without flaws, but I'm torn between composing a review now, or waiting til I've seen all three episodes first.

 

[sithlord]

For me, part one was way too rushed. There'd be something interesting occuring with the characters and then the plot would jump to warp speed and repeat the process. Uhura's speech about the fallacies inherent with the concept of the needs of the many (besides her interpretation being wrong,) and scenes with her vulcan family grinds the story to a halt when I felt the time spent could have been put to better use reintroducing Harriman.

I'm curious how much time within the film passed between Uhura's scenes with her family on Vulcan and the Harriman's arrival and subsequent destruction of Vulcan. It seemed awfully quick for ships to start evacuating. If any time did pass, the movie did nothing to suggest that.

Otherwise, always fun to see Trek actors at work. Good work all around from the cast. I'm hoping things get explained and developed further in part 2.

 

[Starfleet Engineer]

Taking into account that this is a fan film, so far, it's the best fan film I've seen. I'm looking forward to the story developing. Good job.

Kapla!

 

[STIntergalactic]

Two things...

1) Shouldn't Harriman, Chekov, and Uhura have been shieled completely by the effects of the timeline being on the planet?

2)In VOY, Tuvok gives credit of the "Needs of the many..." to the effect of something Spock once said. So why is it now an "old Vulcan adage"?

Oh, and one more thing, I guess. Was Cirroc supposed to be the son of Uhura and Tuvok? Or just some other Vulcan we have never seen before?

 

[intrinsical]

Pacing and editing are definitely issues, with many of the scene transitions feeling very disjoint and disorganized.

For example, I was expecting alt-Harriman and alt-Chekov scene on the bridge to setup the current situation in this Charlie-X modified universe, not trade philosophical debates on a galactic situation we know nothing about. Unless... we the audience are simply to assume that the Galactic Order is a standard ruthless, two dimensional evil empire?

 

[ozgood1701]

Over all not bad but I have one BIG issue they needed to put about five more minutes of back round scenes to flesh this out. How much time passed from Uhura talking on Valcan to it being blown up? If no real time had passed as the editing suggested. It would seem that Uhura would have known their was a huge space battle going on and said something. If they even would have given a few lines about an armed conflict between the two sides it would of solved a major issue I had with part one. Besides this one point I found the production was pretty good. I just feel the editor and or the script writer got lazy and left out that one part that wold of bridged the two events.

 

[JD]

SantaKirk said:
Two things...

1) Shouldn't Harriman, Chekov, and Uhura have been shieled completely by the effects of the timeline being on the planet?

2)In VOY, Tuvok gives credit of the "Needs of the many..." to the effect of something Spock once said. So why is it now an "old Vulcan adage"?

Oh, and one more thing, I guess. Was Cirroc supposed to be the son of Uhura and Tuvok? Or just some other Vulcan we have never seen before?

I'm pretty sure he was Uhura and Stonn's son.
I thought I had heard references to the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few being an "old Vulcan adage" in one of the other shows too.

 

[ryan123450]

I haven't watched it yet, but how much does this jibe with the Pocket Book novels, specifically "Serpents Among the Ruins" and the other Lost Era novels?

 

[igrokbok]

Not bad for a fan film, but with all the professionals involved I expected more than just another fan film. FUll of contrivances it was fanboy's fanfilm supreme. Other's have already mentioned the film's problems, I'll just leave it at that.

 

[Trekwatcher]

While I certainly laud them for the effort, given the level of the actors involved I felt this was no better or worse than the other Fan Films out there. Overall, a mixed outing. Good to see Nichols, Koenig, et al again. The New Voyages bridge set is getting somewhat overused in fan films (as is the Guardian, btw) but allows us to step into the story without too much trouble (that is, if you can buy the idea of the NCC-1701-M).

To me, this seemed a bit like Film School 101, with an emphasis on "cool" shots but very little attention paid to pacing and editing. The mix of filming styles (stationary and handheld camera) and editing tricks (juxtaposing standard wide shots with some jarring extreme close ups) combined with the clunky plot left me feeling like they were tripping over their own underwear at times.

I recognize that it is sort of unfair to evaluate this with only 1/3 done, so I will defer a final opinion and I am hopeful the rest of this is better put together, but I have to say I enjoyed the Exeter/Farragut/NV offerings more than OGAM as they had a fresher feel, and were just plain more fun for me.