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Star Trek: Lexington releases Teaser Act for first episode |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
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 Another Star Trek fan film has reached the point where it actually has solid product to put into the hands of eager fans. Enter, Star Trek: Lexington, and the teaser act of the pilot episode ‘All in the Appearances.’ Lexington is set in the TOS movie era, unlike many of the other fan films which either explore the TOS series era a few decades prior, or that of The Next Generation and beyond a century later. Lexington first previewed this first part of the first episode at the official Star Trek convention in Las Vegas, now it is available for all to watch online, and of course, free of charge.
Unfortunately, the teaser of ‘All in the Appearances’ falls flat and didn’t exactly leave me wanting more. We don’t meat any of the main characters, we don’t even see the Lexington, nor do we get much in the way of suspense from the slow labored maneuvering of two ships, and only seeing three characters on just one of them. The acting was sub-par at best, overtly overdramatic at worst - but like I said, none of them were the main characters, so it’s hard to judge what the rest of the episode will be like. Plot wise, there was at least one giant hole in the writing in just the teaser, but I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out quickly enough.
Similarly, the title sequence for Lexington, which is destined to play before every episode of the series, was a let down. While we do finally get to see the U.S.S. Lexington, and the model is beautifully detailed, the shots that we get aren’t particularly dramatic and definitely not at all dynamic. Add into that a chaotic main theme of flowing electronic horns imposed on top of a high and faint electronic ostinato that somehow conflicts in rhythm and tempo and you’ve got what ends up being a confusingly dull and cringe-worthy opener. Oh, and let us not forget the awkward phrasing and odd tense shifts of the Lexington monologue (which, strangely, also not given by the Captain) I’m hoping that the slow slide out of spacedock deal will be a one-time thing for this pilot episode, just like the opening credits for Deep Space Nine’s pilot ‘Emissary’ lacked the “wow!” of the wormhole (as it had yet to be discovered).
On a positive note, they did manage one thing that I have yet to see any other green screen based Star Trek fan film accomplish: a camera pan, which either computer control (which is expensive) requires painstaking frame-by-frame alignment of the cgi background with the live action panning.
Overall, while I still hope that ‘All in the Appearances’ will end up being another quality entry into the fan film category, this first glimpse of the pilot has not exactly left me asking for more. The pieces of the plot revealed are frankly old-hat and have been done not once, but twice, in Trek movies already. But, it is Star Trek, so I’m not going to dismiss it out of hand based on just five minutes and thirty four seconds of mind-numbing footage (like I did with NBC’s Bionic Woman last fall). Hopefully it won't be too long until the first act of Star Trek: Lexington's premiere hits the internet - then we'll get a more complete view of what we can expect from this new fan film series.
View: Teaser Act, Star Trek: Lexington - ‘All in the Appearances’
View: Opening Credits, Star Trek: Lexington
Discuss: TrekUnited Forum
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