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Stardate 4625.1: After the previous Captain Alvarez has retired, the newly promoted Captain Carter takes over command of the U.S.S. Farragut NCC-1647. Although the ship's crew is not yet complete, it is called off to planet Diotama III to investigate the apparent destruction of the U.S.S. Quintillus by what seems to be a new Klingon weapon. A landing party beams down and runs into Klingon cross-fire. After disabling the Klingons, Carter and his crew discover a cloaking field that hides a huge weapon embedded in a mountain top. After some more skirmishes they manage to overpower the Klingons and free Commodore Broughton from captivity. The rest of the Quintillus crew is dead. Carter overloads a phaser to blow up the ground facility, but the Farragut still has to take care of the actual weapon that was hiding in orbit. After firing all weapons the Farragut barely escapes the shock wave of the exploding weapon. Commodore Broughton is transferred to the Enterprise, while the Farragut heads back to Mars.
I like
the way this first episode of Starship Farragut introduces the troika of Captain Carter, Commander Tacket and Lieutenant Commander Smithfield. Even though
these three overall remind me of Kirk, McCoy and Spock, it is a
good recipe that may work any time again. In any case I appreciate the effort not only to advance the plot but also to work on the character
relationships. Security Chief Prescott, who feels remorse for failing to protect his previous captain and is overzealous since that
incident, always quoting regulations, is another fine addition. He may even be the best worked out character
of the whole episode.
High praise goes to the visual effects of the episode, done by NEO f/x. My favorite VFX scene is a zoom-out from the window in the captain's quarter that ends up showing the whole ship inside the drydock in orbit of Mars. Another highlight is the battle against the Klingon weapon. Generally all beam and explosion effects are top-notch and couldn't be better in a 2-million-dollar TV episode.
On the downside, the episode suffered from a rather bumpy dramaturgy. Only the very beginning with the attack on the Quintillus from a Klingon perspective was really exciting, as was the first phaser fight with the Klingons and the destruction of the ground and the orbital facilities in the end. The rest consisted of a lot of walking through the woods and of random people showing up with phasers or disruptors and turning the tables on the other party.
John Broughton Sr. was little convincing as Commodore Broughton, who appeared to me as a poor reissue of Commodore Decker ("The Doomsday Machine"), and who provided rather comic relief than real conflict. Well, and one general problem of fan films becomes apparent in Starship Farragut too, that some characters and many extras look just like the fans they are and not like we would expect from Starfleet personnel or Klingon warriors. I mean no offense, and I freely admit that I would look just as bad in Starfleet attire!
Regarding the score of "The Captaincy", some passages, especially the more symphonic ones in the end credits and several scenes without live action, are excellent. Some others sound a tad too much like MIDI instrumentation, even if they are technically no MIDI sounds. I needed some time to get accustomed to the score. But in hindsight I have to say it always blended well with the visuals, and only occasionally it tried to imitate the dated style of the TOS background music.
Summarizing, "The Captaincy" is below average and scores 3 points in my review, but only by the high standards that were set by canon Trek. But it is a promising start of the fan film series Starship Farragut created by John Broughton, placing it in the first league of fan productions. The series has a lot of potential, and I will be damned if it the screenplays, the directing and even the acting won't improve with every future episode. Perhaps Starship Farragut will not become quite as distinguished as New Voyages. But I think it was a good decision to create a TOS-era series in its own right, rather than trying to outperform or only to imitate the arguably best fan film series made so far. So other than borrowing costumes and probably set pieces from New Voyages and having James Cawley and his crew appear in a cameo, it looks like Starship Farragut will follow its own path.
Remarkable dialogue: "I suppose you wanna quote to me the regulations on this one." -
"According to regulations, I cannot comment on a conversation I did not witness." -
"There is hope for you yet, lieutenant." - "For you too, sir." (Carter and
Prescott, after Carter has ordered to take the obstinate Commodore to sickbay)
Remarkable prop: We see a new Type-3 phaser rifle, with an embedded Type-2 phaser.
Rating: 3
Stardate 4847.3: The Farragut is the first Federation ship invited to visit Solon Prime. The Solonai have developed a technology that allows to observe history, which they might share with the Federation. But when Captain Carter and a landing party beam down, this technology interferes with their transporter, and they find themselves in Pennsylvania in the year 1776. They meet George Washington, whose men have just retreated from the advancing British troops. In the meantime Batarus, the chief scientist from Solon Prime, has used the transporter in the same fashion to visit Earth's past. But his mission fails, revolutionary soldiers witness his arrival in a "plume of fire" and take away his temperature compensation device and the beacon that would allow everyone's return to the 23rd century. Smithfield and Tacket are working with the Solonai to retrieve the landing party and the renegade scientist. But all they beam back is the beacon. The crew are trapped, and Doctor Holley can't help Batarus, who dies of some kind of fever. Carter decides they have to minimize the damage to the timeline, and he arranges a little demonstration that the "plume of fire" could be a natural phenomenon of ignited gas. Meanwhile on Solon Prime Tacket has managed to open a so far unknown seventh gateway through space-time, and the crew are finally beamed back - before George Washington's eyes. Back on Solon, council leader Alondar explains to the crew that everything they changed in the past has no impact but in an alternate timeline. In the year 1776, George Washington has accomplished the foundation of a new nation, but he muses that he may be meant for something greater...
"For Want of a Nail" is very captivating from the very beginning, and although it is twice as long as a normal episode and has many long-winded dialogues it never becomes tiresome. It is definitely better written than the first Farragut
episode on all accounts. Something else to notice is that the acting has
improved, just as I was hoping for. In "The Captaincy" almost everyone seemed to
be struggling to get everything right, and the performances appeared a bit inhibited, even stiff. In "For Want of a Nail"
the actors are visibly having fun in their roles. It seems that the only thing the two Farragut episodes
really have in common is the walks through the woods. And I have to revise my
first impression that Farragut could not compete with New Voyages, because
already this second episode is right up there with the best fan films ever made.
The character relationships are further worked out. Carter and Prescott are trapped in Washington's camp where quoting the manual doesn't really get them anywhere, while Smithfield and Tacket are struggling to get them back, albeit with different priorities concerning the risk of damage to the ship. Among the other crew members only Doctor Holley plays a significant part though.
It is great continuity when Carter mentions Hodgkin's Law (TOS: "Bread and Circuses") as a possible cause for the parallel development of the plant life that they encounter before they know it actually is Earth, and Holley corrects him that this law is only supposed to apply to cultural developments. Also, I like Prescott's suggestion that the Solonai may just be testing the crew by creating a fake reality (as e.g. in TOS: "Spectre of the Gun").
The revelation that every alteration of the past has an effect "only" in a parallel or alternate universe has gained a whole new relevance since the new Star Trek movie and the "Abramsverse". Interestingly Carter cares about that alternate timeline and the possible damage in it just as much as about his own, and he urges the Solonai not to use their technology any longer. This, of course, is in strong contrast to "Star Trek (2009)", where everything is accepted as if it were God-given. But I am digressing. The best of "For Want of a Nail" is yet to come, in the form of the cue with the apple in the very last shot. It took me about one second of bafflement to understand that I just witnessed the creation of a rather familiar alternate universe. An amazing twist that I had to rewatch several times, although it does not make much sense that the events from the episode would turn Washington or his successors into ruthless dictators. Anyway, it was an in-joke that only die-hard fans would understand, and as such an awesome ending of a great fan film!
The effects were once again superb, although there were no space battles this time. The episode only has some problems with the lighting. While it is definitely great to use a real building instead of a cardboard and plywood set, the windows and the door of the house in Pennsylvania are highly overexposed, which I found quite distracting. There are some minor issues with the lighting of the bridge, but only in some scenes, when there are spotlights on the captain's chair and other prominent places, and anyone who walks off the spot is immediately in the dark. Well, and speaking of shortcomings in the sets, I noticed only one more, that the walls on Solon Prime looked too obviously like cardboard.
Nitpicking: George Washington was a very tall man (a bit more than 6 feet or 182cm) for his time. But Mark Hildebrand, who plays the
general (and who wrote the episode), measures some 2 meters and dwarfs any of the 23rd century crew
members, including Prescott.
Remarkable dialogue: "Now then. Who are you? I expected that a few Europeans might take an interest in our little insurrection. But I must say I'm a little lost as to where you might be from." -
"Franistan, mon général. It's a smaller kingdom near... near..." - "Russia." (Washington, Carter and Prescott)
Remarkable costume: The crew is wearing never-seen-before winter jackets. Well, they were going to beam down to an ice planet, but
the jackets also come in handy for a winter in Pennsylvania.
Rating: 7
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 | Last modified: 10.04.12 | |
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