Stardate not given: Following the Archein’s attempt to conquer and colonize Romulan space (see Star Trek: Odyssey’s Iliad episode), the U.S.S. Excelsior and U.S.S. Intrepid land the unenviable task of trying to remove robotic Archein weapons platforms which are trained to instantly fire on any Romulan ships they detect. The Federation ships slip through those detectors – at first – but then they’re fired upon, and key crew members are beamed off of both ships and into the automated control vessel for the weapons platforms. Captain Hunter and Lt. Caed from the Intrepid find themselves stranded alongside two of Excelsior’s crew, watching an “indoctrination” message recorded by one of the Archein’s leaders. Hunter decides that no one in Starfleet uniform will be indoctrinated today, but putting up a fight – even against a completely unmanned automated station – may be more difficult than either crew imagines.

story by Brian Matthews, Rob Caves and Nick Cook
teleplay by Brian Matthews
directed by Jennifer Cole
music by David Beukes

Cast: Risha Denney (Captain Elizabeth Shelby), Nick Cook (Captain Daniel Hunter), Joanne Busch (Commander Robin Lefler), Lucy Faria-Cook (Lt. Commander Yanis Caed), Rick Corbett (Commander Ben Nostrom), Wayne Webb (Lt. Commander Matt McCabe), David Reid (Lt. C’Seris), John Whiting (General Morrigu), Nick Beckwith (Lt. Simmons), Tyler Bosserman (Lt. Commander Andrew Barrett)

Review: This clever little vignette, weighing in at around the 15-minute mark, brings together the crew of Hidden Frontier‘s Excelsior and the crew of the U.S.S. Intrepid, a 24th century Trek fan series made in Scotland (see our review of Intrepid’s first episode, Heavy Lies The Crown). As much as I gripe about an entire story being shot against a chromakey background so CGI “sets” can be inserted later, Orphans Of War points up what may be one of the few advantages of shooting that way: an international cast can be in the same production without a budget big enough to cause an international incident. (more…)

Stardate 61125.8: A massive Archein assault force creates a wormhole from their staging ground in the Andromeda Galaxy to Romulan space. The Romulans are beaten back and their worlds are earmarked for Archein colonization. Now on friendly terms with the Klingons and Federation following the Tholian War, the Romulans turn to their allies for assistance, and Starfleet launches its unmanned Iliad probe through the wormhole into Archein space, discovering a weakness in the enemy’s enormous wormhole-generating gateway. Fitted with a new version of the experimental slipstream drive, the Odyssey and an allied Klingon ship are sent to destroy the gateway and return home. Lt. Commander Ro Nevin is assigned to the Odyssey, while his spouse, Lt. Commander Corey Aster, oversees the slipstream drive on the Klingons’ ship. But their battle plan doesn’t survive contact with the enemy, and Odyssey’s captain and XO are killed during the attack. As the Klingons race back to Federation space using the Archein wormhole, Ro assumes command of Odyssey and uses the volatile slipstream drive core to destroy the gateway. Out of touch with the Federation and Starfleet, out of spare parts, and almost out of places to hide, Odyssey is left under the command of one of its junior officers – and a formidable enemy who will stop at nothing to take revenge.

story by Rob Caves
teleplay by Rob Caves
directed by J.T. Tepnapa
music by Dex Craig

Cast: Bobby Rice (Lt. Commander Ro Nevin), Michelle Laurent (Subcommander T’Lorra), Matthew Montgomery (Dr. Owen Vaughan), Julia Morizawa (Lt. Maya Stadi), Tim Foutch (Ensign John Gillen), J.T. Tepnapa (Lt. Commander Corey Aster), Sharon Savene (Seram Archein), John Whiting (General Morrigu), David W. Dial (Admiral Ian Knapp), Joni Bovill (Proconsul Yeshva), Karl Puder (General Korg), Sterling Greene (Captain T’Lek), Jennifer Cole (Grand Majan Archein), Adam Browne (Caecus), Jacob Hibbits (Jenaan), Hugh Gehrke (Centurion), Jacob Reitz (Klingon Tactical), David O’Neill (Vito), Mark Ashton Lund (Commander Conner), Andrew Foster (Chief Hars Bixx), Sam Basca (Lt. Alex Wozniak), Joanne Busch (Commander Robin Lefler)

Notes: Odyssey is a spinoff from the long-running post-Voyager fan series Star Trek: Hidden Frontier; the characters of Ro Nevin and Corey Aster are carryovers from that series. The character of Maya Stadi is intended to be a cousin of the deceased Lt. Stadi who ferried Tom Paris to Voyager in the pilot epiosde of Star Trek: Voyager.

Review: I’ll admit that I have seen only clips of the fan series Hidden Frontier, Odyssey’s progenitor, and barely have a working knowledge of its plotline, so there are a few things here which seem to be references to Hidden Frontier plot points that baffled me a bit. With this being the launch of a new series, albeit a Hidden Frontier spinoff, I wanted to stumble into the fray with no preconceived notions. Odyssey is a mightily impressive series from a standpoint of production values – almost all of the signature Trek alien makeups are outstanding (especially the Bolian, who looked so authentic that I’d swear Michael Westmore himself made the actor up), the costumes are more than credible, and the exterior space CGI scenes are up there with almost anything that Paramount itself put on the screen under the Star Trek banner. The actors are ready for prime time, and they have some sparkling dialogue to work with. (more…)