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Star Trek: Unity 'Disunity' Review |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Sunday, 16 December 2007
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 A new audio drama came onto the scene on Saturday: Star Trek: Unity. Set between Star Trek: Enterprise and The Original Series, Unity explores a previously untouched era of Trek lore. While they intend to release later episodes of Unity as a fully computer-generated animation episode, the crew put together an audio episode to serve as a sort of prequel to the series. I had the pleasure of reviewing Unity, and I can tell you that it's surprisingly good for a first-run fan production.
The premiere episode of Unity, titled 'Disunity,' follows the time-honored Star Trek tradition of tackling modern social issues. Planning for Unity first began two years ago here on the TrekUnited forums in the wake of the cancellation of Enterprise. Tanveer Naseer and Matt Boardman teamed up with the intention of creating a limited animation series - essentially a cross between a comic (with still images) and an audio drama (with a full audio track), like Afterworld. Eventually, they decided to create a fully animated series, and even though that is still a ways down the road, they still wanted to put out something more than renders of sets and props.
That brings us to today and 'Disunity.' I'm not going to spoil the episode for you, which is full of unexpected twists and turns and even a Star Trek Easter Egg, but I can tell you that for an amateur-acted and produced it is very well done. As with any fan production, the acting isn't quite up to snuff with that of the professionals we see on the silver screen, but it is still fairly convincing and strong enough to draw the listener into the story.
The sound effects are effectively used and period-appropriate and the music is superbly executed, though perhaps a bit overused at times. Bonus points to anybody that can identify the source of the opening music. Overall, the audio is well balanced and the story is nicely paced - with audio dramas there's no visual reminder of what's going on, so you've sometimes got to take it a little slower than you would with a television screen to help you along.
The folks at Unity were also kind enough to give me a preview of their rendering for the new era tricorder, and it looks pretty darn slick.
   
Click on any of the above images to view it at full size.
The premiere episode of Star Trek: Unity, 'Disunity,' presents a compelling story that does justice to the whole of Star Trek while remaining relevant to our modern world. It can be downloaded now from the Unity website. The one hour audio drama is available as a full MP3 file, four separate chapters, and a burnable CD image for listening away from your computer.
View: Star Trek: Unity website
Download: 'Disunity'
Discuss: TrekUnited Forum
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"Rumors of my assimilation have been greatly exaggerated."
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