Star Trek - Horizon (Enterprise Feature-Length Fan Film)

[Philip Guyott]

Another odd thing I thought was the treatment of Enterprise, sure this is not a fan film about Enterprise, but why is the newer and less sure of himself Captain, in charge of the fleet, when the experience Archer is on hand to do so, I know why they wanted to keep focus on the NX-04, but having the NX-01 and her crew around, but never really being shown or heard from seemed odd.

I think that Captain Hawk was given command here because he was at Starfleet headquarters when the mission was being planned, whereas the Enterprise was on another mission. The Enterprise was recalled to assist. Also the Discovery crew seem more than capable for the task.

The scene on Earth that literally was in their living room was filmed without it and it made it jar with the rest of the visuals. I'd have kept the style going for that scene to a) keep it in step with the rest and b) hide the very 21st century living room!

I actually liked that. We get to see so little of normal life in Star Trek that it was a welcomed change. Whilst the house looked 21st century people do sometimes like to live in old houses. I myself used to live in a house built in 1905.

It's kind of the visual equivalent of a MySpace profile with animated GIF glitter from head to toe. The color palette consists only of purple, pink, black, and white blooms and lens-flares. It's so dark in the interiors it looks like they're only bathed with light streaming in from the windows. The motion-tracking of the virtual sets is flawless, but the end result is nothing but artificial and unreal because of these super-extreme over-the-top aesthetic decisions--such heavy color-grading.

You might call it artistic.

 

[Amaris]

Oh, he was great, in fact they all did very well, but I'm afraid Lt. T'Mar is my favorite.
Still, I had to laugh when Samuels was explaining the new weapons to Captain Hawk. He was like a kid in a candy store, I couldn't help but love that scene.

Seriously, if you guys do make another one (please), give him some phaser time. I just want to see what he can do with a whole bunch of weapons.

 

[Shaw]

That said, frankly, I can't watch it. The images are so overprocessed + the overuse of blurry focus + shakycam = it's terribly unpleasant to look at to my eyes.

My wife ended up walking away after about 20 minutes, and it took me 4 hours (watching it in segments) to watch the whole thing. I will never complain about JJ's lens flares again after this.

This was a good story that I'd loved to have seen. Hopefully a clearer version can be released at some point as it looked like there was a lot of good work, strong story and characters from what I could tell behind the blur.

Lots of potential here!

 

[Philip Guyott]

Spoiler: Star Trek Continuity

Having 'Future Guy' turn out to be Romulan helped me to make sense of a few continuity issues between the Enterprise series and TOS. For example, in TOS, the Enterprise crew react to cloaking technology as though it was something entirely new.

Captain Kirk: “I don't see anything. Can't understand it.”

Mr. Spock: “Invisibility is theoretically possible, Captain - selective bending of light - but the power cost is enormous. They may have solved that problem.”

Yet in ST:ENT we see that the Suliban and the Romulans already have that technology. Now that we know that 'Future Guy' was Romulan he probably told both races how to build cloaking devises, thus the Temporal Cold War changed the timeline.

Also, it was probably 'Future Guy' who helped the Romulans build the advanced drone ship that was used in an attempt to destroy potential alliances between Earth, the Andorians, and the Tellarites.

I also liked the aesthetic look of the Romulan helmets. I’m assuming that they were used to prevent continuity issues resulting from the humans seeing what Romulans looked like. It’s also noteworthy that in ‘Horizon’ there was only audio communications between the Humans and the Romulans. As Spock said in ‘Balance of Terror’:

“...nor was there even ship-to-ship visual communication; therefore, no human, Romulan or ally has ever seen the other.”

The only flaw I see with the helmets being used as a continuity devise is that the 'Discovery NX-04' was boarded by the Romulan’s and I don’t think they were beamed back to the Romulan ship before it went into warp. The Romulan’s were either captured or killed. In either case surely someone must have removed one of their helmets to see what they looked like underneath?

What do you think?

 

[Amaris]

Which reminds me, I loved the villain! He wasn't a cackle cackle over the top villain. No, everything he did made sense to him. He was definitely cracked, but he didn't see it that way, and his behavior was creepy and eerie enough that I just loved the effect. Nice work!

 

[Willow]

Great work to Tommy and all those involved! I was very impressed with the quality of the film. I watched on my IPad, so I didn't get as annoyed with the glares much as I thought I would.

I was actually hoping that when Samuels was showing off the new weapons , he might mention that some of the upgrades may have come from Reed and Tucker. Certainly, the crew of Enterprise had to come up with new ways of doing things when they ran into situations they never imagined. (I remember Reed and Tucker improvising and improving on things through their voyage)

The war-weariness did come through well though. I felt it!

I really did LOVE this film! But, I'm also a big fan of the relaunch novels, so it took me a few minutes to adjust to the fact that we were seeing Discovery in 2160, when it was actually destroyed in 2155 in the novels. And no mention of the Columbia or the NX-03 (was that named Challlenger?) And then wrapping my head around this version of events as opposed to the novels. It was an interesting contrast to see T'Mar having been surgically altered to infiltrate the Federation, when Trip did essentially the same thing in the novels. No worries though. It was enjoyable. It was obviously a labor of love.

Oh, and it was nice continuity to see Admiral Gardener. Though I will never not miss Admiral Forrest!

 

[Reanok]

Kudos to Tommy Craft for making an amazing Movie. As an Enterprise fan this kind of fantastic story telling I was hoping for. I really liked seeing Admiral Gardner and seeing the Discovery Crew during the battles with the Roulans and the Enterprise fleet with their allies. I liked Lieutenant Tamar is an intriguing character . The actors did a great job bringing this movie to life. It was nice to see a story take place during the Romulan war .

 

[Captain_Koloth]

What an amazing film! I was blown away by the production values, the ability to capture the look and feel of a big-budget production on basically no budget at all, the relatively tight writing, and most of all the acting- far and away the best of any fan film I've seen. I don't even like Enterprise that much but I found myself really enjoying this, much to my surprise. I thought it was a lot better than many actual episodes of Enterprise or Voyager.

I especially liked some of the "character" moments- meeting in the living room, the discussion on the transporter pad- even though I didn't know these characters I found I cared about them a lot more than any other original fan film characters I've encountered. Really raises the bar for what a fan film should be able to accomplish.

A few nitpicks, mostly continuity related- I know we saw the later Romulan in a helmet, but it wasn't clear to me why, if the Romulans are beaming aboard boarding parties, "no human, Romulan or ally, has ever seen the other", as Spock put it. Ditto with the early appearance of cloaking devices as was mentioned above and the lack of "primitive atomic weapons" as mentioned in TOS. Did appreciate the mention of the Battle of Cheron, though I was bit irked when the chief engineer mentioned his time at the "DenEEEva" colony. One figures Star Trek fan film actors likely appreciate Star Trek to no end so such a blunt error I found especially annoying for some reason. I also felt T'Mar was underdeveloped and I had trouble seeing her as a Romulan; she just seemed like another human member of the crew and I thought her story arc didn't really take us anywhere particularly interesting. Some of the details about exactly what the Horizon was and how it got where it was were pretty muddled to me as well- how exactly did the Iconians get the planet to disappear? How did they wrest control of it from their enemies? How did the weapon work? What precisely were the Iconians doing guarding it for so long? I think this segment of the script probably could have used one more rewrite to be honest.

I don't mean these nitpicks to overwhelm my glowing impression of the film, they really are just that, nitpicks, and they really are just here because the balance of the film was so fantastic! Tremendous effort all around, VFX were big budget movie quality, acting was absolutely top notch for a fan film, and writing was much better than any other efforts I've seen thus far. All fan films should aspire to be this good- it's really something you could release in a theater and, in my opinion, superior to several actual ST movies.

 

[ElimGarak.93-99]

Congratulations to everyone involved in Star Trek Horizon!
It is an achievement they can be proud of.

I'm impressed. I had to get used to the blurry background, but that way the focus was constantly on the actors. No background distractions.
The thought of why the Columbia wasn't there did cross my mind, but they could have been busy with something else at the time.
It would have been nice to hear Archer's (Scott Bakula) voice, but I can understand that it probably wasn't possible for many different reasons.
I've read on the website that Tommy Kraft made the beautiful looking uniforms himself.

This feature film really is a tribute to Star Trek Enterprise!

I'm definitely going to watch this film again.

 

[Philip Guyott]

The thought of why the Columbia wasn't there did cross my mind, but they could have been busy with something else at the time.

Apparently it went missing in 2156, four years prior to the events seen in Star Trek Horizon. According to the Star Trek: Ships of the Line book, Columbia crashed on a desert planet in the Gamma Quadrant, and remained there undiscovered for two centuries. It was discovered, intact, several days following the events of "Children of Time", by Ezri Dax and the crew of the USS Aventine.

 

[Kemaiku]

True, but in the same novels, NX-04 Discovery was the first NX class ship destroyed when the Romulans ambushed her over Starbase 1 without a fight. The ship exploded, the crew survived and Mayweather began the true journey of his life as being the guy to jinx all of Starfleet.

 

[Maurice]

You might call it artistic.

One might, but then one would be kidding themselves. Sorry, but the two words that come to mind when I tried to look at this were "vaseline" and "blowout".

 

[MarsWeeps]

Just finished watching this on my iPad and I will say that it's the best fan production I've seen to date. While the "Enterprise" era isn't my favorite, the acting in this movie is top notch. Light years ahead of the other fan productions.

 

[Philip Guyott]

You might call it artistic.

One might, but then one would be kidding themselves. Sorry, but the two words that come to mind when I tried to look at this were "vaseline" and "blowout".

I certainly found it different and I would admit to being uncertain as to whether I would want to see other future Star Trek productions (official or fan made) done in a similar style. I would also admit that there were one or two scenes where I felt that the blurred effect was a bit overdone. Nevertheless, I would call it artistic and in particular found the depictions of the planets rather beautiful. I am in awe of Tommy’s talent.

Perhaps the difference with me is that I have been following this production closely for quite some time and knew from the beginning that it was going to be a different visual style to what we have seen before in Star Trek and had come to accept that prior to watching the film. It’s a shame that you felt unable or unwilling to watch it. You missed out on a good story and good acting. I for one would have been interested to have read your review of this film, even if I disagree with you about artistic style.

 

[wtriker1701]

Though I feel sorry for Maurice's eyes having to endure some minutes of Horizon, my eyes had to stay open for the whole movie... and they survived!

I can have nothing but praise to Star Trek Horizon! That was a fan film par excellence, imho! Kudos!
The movie with its 100 or so minutes of running time was pure entertainment. And once I overcame the experience of "hiding the green screen effects blur" I was in for an almost excellently scripted experience. It had an interesting story and atmoshere, it felt like Star Trek, it involved excellent actors - all I needed to enjoy.
Of course, if I want to I can nitpick about typical fan film tropes, such as tighter editing (via script or in the cutting room), sometimes more than needed character exposition. But that doesn't take away my appreciation for the movie. I've seen worse in professional productions.

Star Trek Horizon is among my four favourite fan films to date (including Star Trek Exeter - The Tressaurian Intersection, Star Trek New Voyages - World Enough and Time and Star Wreck - The Pirkinning).

I love the dedication Tommy Kraft and his team put into that movie. It had action, felt Sci-Fi and presented drama (though the drama part felt like missing some spots here and there, but again: I've seen worse).

The movie has a high rewatching quality. Thanks to everyone involved, especially Tommy Kraft, who presented a hell of a calling card here. When I read, how much alone he put into this, I nothing but pitied AND envied him, as it truly felt like his passion and dedication with this project for the past years were blood, sweat and tears - and all resulted in this jewel of a fan film.

Just great!

 

[Maurice]

^^^Starship Exeter.

And I don't mind something having a distinct style, but that doesn't mean I have to find it watchable. And as I said above, it seems to me that a lot of this "style" is there to hide the seams, not necessarily driven by an artistic choice.

I chose not to watch it because I found it an eyesore. This movie would have to be as brilliant as Fargo to make it worth punishing my eyes like that, and based on the bits I did see, it's a safe bet it ain't.

Anyway, to those who love it, great. I'm not going to argue that.

 

[Steve Roby]

Well. I liked that, and while I totally understand why the visual style wouldn't work for everyone, I was okay with it. If it took some lens flares and odd lighting and occasional blurriness to avoid the horrible look of some of the last Babylon 5 productions that relied extensively on virtual sets, that's fine by me. (Yeah, Legend of the Rangers and Lost Tales were made a fair number of years back, but they were also made with more than $50,000.)

The acting was what turned me off the first few fan films I tried watching. This was generally at least competent enough and sometimes quite good in that respect. The direction and editing seemed better than some fan films (and semi-authorized Doctor Who spinoff films) I've seen. Quite an achievement.

 

[Kitty Worrier]

Apparently it went missing in 2156, four years prior to the events seen in Star Trek Horizon. According to the Star Trek: Ships of the Line book, Columbia crashed on a desert planet in the Gamma Quadrant, and remained there undiscovered for two centuries. It was discovered, intact, several days following the events of "Children of Time", by Ezri Dax and the crew of the USS Aventine.

I thought Commander Brookes said his girlfriend died when something happened to NX-02.... destroyed or disappeared.

Anyway, really liked this movie; the captain and first officer were my favorites. I wish this was a pilot, I want more.

 

[Shaw]

So I was curious about the movie's look... is it there to hide shortcomings or a stylistic choice? So I watched a couple of Kraft's how to videos.

Wow... it was a choice. Watching the video reminded me of that old Microsoft Re-Designs the iPod Packaging from a long time ago.

I'm very much a fan of less is more... even if I sometimes fail to achieve that balance myself in my own endeavors. There were points where I wanted to reach into the screen and stop Kraft from doing more to a shot. It looked to me like he got the shot looking great, and then couldn't help himself and kept going with more and more stuff.

And this was everywhere... the Discovery looked like a leopard. I couldn't make out the name on the model and didn't know that was the name of the ship until later on. And then why add all those hours of work with small details if you are going to hide them with shots like this...

When I saw this I thought the ship and the dock were hit with some weapon and were about to disintegrate.

Honestly, the one thing that would have saved this film would have been a hard deadline. Something to make Kraft stop playing with the effects at good enough.

The visuals in this film are like a cake that is 90% frosting. This is a really good story hiding behind cavity inducing eye candy that is sure to cause hyperglycemic reactions for some viewers.

 

[Maurice]

And then why add all those hours of work with small details if you are going to hide them with shots like this...

Holy... that looks like someone comped some elements together via an Add (double exposure) and slapped a Bloom filter on it. No wonder I couldn't watch it.

Shaw, did he address this in regards to the live action stuff? Because from the results a lot of it looks like it's just blandly shot stationary camera stuff laid into CGI environs and processed within an inch of its life.