Not A-movie #8: Star Trek Renegades

We end the week of watching B-movies with the final sort that is out there, the Fan Film.  

Star Trek Renegades is an excellent example of how something won`t be left to die, and keep the franchise alive even with the Abramverse that is currently powering warp engines around.

Plot

A decade after the Voyager has returned from the Delta Quadrant, Earth and the Federation are in a crisis.  Planets providing Dilithium to the Federation are literally disappearing, and Admiral Chekov instigates a covert investigation, using the crew of the pirate vessel Icarus to do so.

Technicalities

While the CGI of the space sequences is on par with the real show from the DS9 or Voyager era, the `ground based` special effects are more bland.  It is also noting to see experienced actors along the lesser known fanbase actors, giving the movie a bit of a two speed dynamic on the acting part, but luckily the fans aren`t only the line-less extra`s in the movie.

And there are some serious names on the credits here.  Not only is director Tim Russ, who played Tuvok in Voyager, present, but quite a few other Voyager alumi have signed on, with Admiral Paris, The Doctor and Icheb. Add to this Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov) and you have a serious roster.  But it goes even further, as well known actors are present, like Sean Young, Adrienne Wilkinson, Edward Furlong and Kevin Fry to name but a few.

Opinion

This is a decent movie, actually even better then some official ones in Star Trek`s history, and a nice continuation on the Voyager line, tying up some loose knots the finale left us with. Considering this was filmed with a crowdraised funding of about 400.000 dollars compared to Star Trek: Into Darkness`s 190 million dollars, one can say they did one heck of a job.

Rating

Of all the movies that i watched this week, this one was the only one on IMDb making the halfway mark, scoring a 5.0 overthere.  Being a bit of a Trekkie myself and loving how they returned back to DS9 / Voyager era effects and style instead of the not Star Trek style of the recent Star Trek movies, I`m rating it even higher, with a well deserved 6.0



And so end this week of watching B-movies, whom had some decent evening television movies, but also some of the worst of the worst.  It was fun in a special sort of way ;-) and I hope I`ve inspired you all to pick up some independantly made, not big motion picture box office booms to watch in a free moment.
They might not be perfect, but they sure do have their charme and strenghts!

Okay, bar perhaps Atlantic Rim that is...