Fan Fiction and Kickstarter, a wicked combination.
Star Trek Renegades is a collection of older actors and very bad special effects. The big name stars here are Walter Koenig and Tim Russ, both familiar to fans of Star Trek. Sean Young and several other blasts from the past have roles as well. Time has not been kind to these people.
There is an odd production error early in the film when we see a monument to Admiral Nimoy that should have been to Admiral Spock. Or maybe it should have been to Leonard Nimoy, without any military titles.
Star Trek Renegades had a successful Kickstarter campaign that earned them around $242,000. This is a far cry from the $5,000,000 that an episode of Star Trek Enterprise cost to make ten years ago, and I thought the effects on Enterprise were pretty awful. Needless to say the makeup and effects here are just atrocious. Several characters wore nothing more than poor fitting rubber masks, though I have to admit the Cardassian looked pretty good.
The story is about some alien attacking the Federation and some other alien also attacking the Federation. There were a handful of familiar characters, but none of them were doing things we might expect them to be doing. Since this is not an official Paramount production, things like the uniforms, ships, music, and transporter effects were not the same. The acting was good in spots, but they have very little to work with, so I can’t really blame the cast for not giving stellar performances.
There are a few space battles, a few fist fights, and one or two moments were the story works. It’s clear that Renegades is catering to whoever said they would participate in the project. It has the feel of a Universal Studios audience participation show. Minus the music, sets, and uniforms we are all familiar with.
Star Trek Renegades is pretty terrible. But then, so was The Cage and Encounter at Farpoint. I don’t even remember anything about the first episodes of Voyager and Enterprise. I don’t see this show getting past the occasional fund raising episode.
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