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Review: The Helena Chronicles, 'Sanctuary Lost' |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Friday, 04 January 2008
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 The latest production from Areakt Productions, the home of Star Trek: Hidden Frontier and Star Trek: Odyssey has landed: The Helena Chronicles. The premiere episode, 'Sanctuary Lost,' reintroduces us to the ship and crew that we met in the last season of Hidden Frontier and continues the exploration of the Briar Patch region of space. The series also continues the story of Corey Aster, a character whose story stretches back to the third season of Hidden Frontier.
In order to quickly re-familiarize us with the story of Aster (J.T. Tepnapa) and his husband Ro Nevin (lost aboard the U.S.S. Odyssey six months earlier), Sanctuary Lost opens with a flashback to their wedding, fading into the ending of Odyssey's first episode: 'Iliad,' where the Klingon ship Aster is aboard is destroyed and he escapes in an escape pod. Edited as if it were an actual television show, the teaser then leads into the opening sequence, which features the typical swooping and pan shots of the starship U.S.S. Helena and a theme composed by Matt Milne, which comes across as rather lackluster in relation to the Odyssey theme, and those of the Paramount-produced Star Treks.
The Helena is investigating the loss of contact with Sanctuary Outpost, described as a greenhouse of sorts designed to protect the last of the Briar Patch's unique ecology. They arrive at the system, finding the station badly damaged and with all the crew dead. I'm not going to spoil the rest of the episode for you, so you’re just going to have to watch it yourself.
The Helena Chronicles builds upon Areakt Productions' track record of top-notch fan film productions. Unlike Star Trek: New Voyages, the Areakt films do not have physical sets, instead relying upon green screens to create the futuristic 24th century Trek sets they need. Building such sets would be prohibitively expensive for a private venture such as The Helena Chronicles, especially when you take into consideration the tens of thousands of dollars New Voyages has spent on the comparatively simple TOS set recreations. The backdrop effects are usually very well designed and realistically lit and oriented in relation to the actors, though on occasion there are misalignments (for example, at one point Dr. Ness opens up a medkit and it overlaps with the wall). Even so, it’s still an impressive effort and the production crew should be proud of their work.
A continuing criticism of mine of all Areakt Productions are the costumes; they rarely seem to fit the actors well. While in reality, that would actually be the case (military duty uniforms are not custom tailored), for a film that already is placing us in a universe that is unlike our own, it takes away from the realism to have the costumes bunching up around the shoulders and to have wide gaps around the collars. Perhaps I'm nit-picking, but it can be very distracting.
In that same vein, on occasion the alien make-up could stand to be better addressed. While I am aware that the focus of Star Trek is supposed to be the story, it can only be so if all other factors (uniform, costume, effects, acting), are believable enough that the viewer doesn’t consider that the lady with the bifurcated ridge down her forehead is an actress with an appliance on her head, instead they just look at her as a Bolian. Often times it’s the little touches that make or break a production.
The Helena Chronicles takes us aboard another class of ship we haven’t seen on television or on the big screen: the Renaissance II. It carries elements of the Excelsior and Nebula classes, along with a dash of home-brew creativity to craft a unique design that helps the Helena stand out next to other ships. The interior sets have a different color scheme than we are used to seeing in Trek, with swathes of golden yellow and green replacing the familiar grays and blues we've come to associate with Starfleet vessels. It is different, and it makes for a nice shakeup of what we're accustomed to (something that Hidden Frontier has excelled at in the past).
Of all the characters in the pilot, Corey Aster is obviously the most developed, having been around for several years. Of the newer characters, my favorite has to be Chief Engineer Arvin Rockney (PK Eislet) – any man who talks to his ship will no doubt be an interesting and entertaining character in future episodes. Doctor Mordan Ness (Ben Euphant) receives an honorable mention for bringing to life the quirkiness that his character seems to enjoy. Unfortunately, the acting of Sharon Saven as Captain Theresa Faisal and Adam Browne as Commander Jorian Dao did not live up to standards set by Euphant and Eislet. The two command officers not only received very flat delivery, but seemed to be static characters. Perhaps as the series progresses they will develop into fuller characters with more emotion to them (they’re a Human and a Trill, not Vulcans), but we’ll just have to wait and see.
Sanctuary Lost runs just under 35 minutes in length and lays the table for more Briar Patch stories to come, with two more The Helena Chronicles episodes scheduled for release this year. The episode is available now for download from the Hidden Frontier website in low and high resolutions (130 Mb and 400 Mb respectively).
Download: 'Sanctuary Lost' preview (34 Mb)
Download: Star Trek: he Helena Chronicles: 'Sanctuary Lost'
Discuss: TrekUnited Forum
Star Trek: The Helena Chronicles, 'Sanctuary Lost'
Starring:
Sharon Savene
Adam Browne
J.T. Tepnapa
Ben Euphant
Gina DeVettori
PK Eislet
Beau Christian Williams
'Santuary Lost' Guest Stars:
David W Dial
Joanne Busch
Karl Puder
Brandon McConnell
Executive Producer:
Rob Caves
| | Producers:
Adam Browne
Beo Fraser
JT Tepnapa
Co-Producers:
Jennifer Cole
Andrew Foster
Writer:
Brian S. Matthews
Director:
Jennifer Cole
Editor:
Rob Caves
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"Brag all you want, but don't get between me and the bloodwine!""I'm a doctor, not an historian."
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