Star Trek: Hidden Frontier

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Star Trek: Hidden Frontier
The USS Excelsior traverses the subspace currents in the Briar Patch. (Full size image: 160K).
Genre	science fiction / fan series
Running time	35-40 minutes approx.
Creator(s)	Rob Caves
Developer(s)	Rob Caves Risha Denney J.T. Tepnapa Jennifer Cole Carlos Pedraza
Starring	David Dial Risha Denney Larry LaVerne John Whiting Joanne Busch Wayne Webb Barbara Clifford Bobby Rice J.T. Tepnapa Adam Browne
Country of origin	USA
Original channel	none
Original run	2000–2007 ?
No. of episodes	45
IMDb profile

Star Trek: Hidden Frontier (HF) is arguably the longest-running of the fan film projects that have become an increasingly common fixture of the internet video scene. Although fan films have been produced for almost as long as there have been film fans, they were generally few and far between before the advent of home video. It is only with the two pronged revolution of digital video production/editing and the advent of internet distribution that they have become something more than a curiosity to be shared by a few intimates.

Produced on digital video, the show's sets are almost 100% virtual, using a green-screen chroma keyed process to place performers into virtual settings.

As is the norm for a fan film Hidden Frontier is set within the continuity of a narrative of which its creators were fans: the era of the Next Generation series. Episodes revolve around the starship USS Excelsior (a sister ship to the famous Galaxy class USS Enterprise), and its home base, Deep Space 12, in the "Briar Patch", a wild region of space introduced in the film Star Trek: Insurrection.

However, what makes Hidden Frontier unique is the volume of episodes (over 42 at the time of this entry), and its focus on character relationships. It is also controversial for routinely incorporating--even highlighting--gay and lesbian characters and sub-plots 1, thereby alienating certain segments of Trek fandom. This was something the various professionally-made Star Trek series and movies for the most part avoided.

Produced by Rob Caves, Hidden Frontier is in its "7th season" and is produced by volunteers in Southern California.

1 Plot
2 Background Information
3 Episode Listing
4 Trivia
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Plot

Based in the Briar Patch (Tikrit Expanse) introduced in Star Trek: Insurrection, on Deep Space 12, a space station in orbit of the planet Ba'ku. It follows the daily life of several officers serving onboard the station and a few of the ships stationed there. Early in the series, a Class III species, The Grey, are introduced and become the primary villain, with a story arc that spans the entire series. Later, secondary villains are introduced including an Andorian trader and later the Tholians along with a man named Siroc.

The crew interacts with many established species from Star Trek, including Andorians, Ba'ku, Klingons, Romulans, Son'a, and Tzenkethi.

[edit] Background Information

Star Trek: Hidden Frontier premiered in 2000, an offshoot of the fan series Voyages of the USS Angeles, produced by the Star Trek fan club of that starship name in Southern California, and for legal reasons only circulated among the cast and crew; no copies of the earlier series are available to the public and no reference to the show is even made on the club's web site. Hidden Frontier inherited the setting, Deep Space 12, and several of the characters from the Angeles series, but quickly went on to establish its own identity. Two later HF episodes made use of footage originally shot for Angeles episodes that were never produced.

Because of the expense involved in building and storing the sets required for all the locations used in the series, the series is filmed in the garage of one of the producers and utilizes a green screen matting technique to place actors into "virtual" sets. As a result, there is often a slight halo around the actors, which many decry, but some audiences apparently have little trouble with. And, while from a technique and technical standpoint the show is behind some other fan films, it shows how far fan film has come in that it is an amateur web based series, with an arc plot and which manages to produce numerous shows per year, whereas most fan films are either one-offs or appear at a much slower rate.

[edit] Episode Listing

For a key to the abbreviations and additional notes, shown thus <1>, see the end of this section. The ratings for "Best of season" come from a series of polls done on the Hidden Frontier forum in January 2006.

[edit] Season 1

1.01 - __/__/00 "Enemy Unknown, Part 1"
1.02 - __/__/00 "Enemy Unknown, Part 2"
1.03 - __/__/00 "Enemy Unknown, Part 3"
1.04 - __/__/00 "Two Hours" Blp
1.05 - __/__/00 "Perihelion" Blp - Voted best of season
1.06 - 29/04/01 "Echoes" Blp

[edit] Season 2

2.01 - __/__/01 "Refugees" Blp
2.02 - __/__/01 "Yesterday's Excelsior" Blp - Voted best of season <1>
2.03 - __/__/01 "Old Wound" Blp
2.04 - __/__/01 "Great Starship Robbery" Blp
2.05 - __/__/01 "Encke" Blp
2.06 - __/__/01 "To the Stars" Blp
2.07 - __/__/01 "Fire in the Heart" Blp
2.08 - __/__/01 "Coward's Death" Blp
2.09 - __/__/01 "Worst Fears, Part 1" Blp

[edit] Season 3

3.01 - __/__/02 "Worst Fears, Part 2" Blp
3.02 - __/__/02 "Worst Fears, Part 3" Blp
3.03 - __/__/02 "Heroes" Blp
3.04 - __/__/02 "In Memory Of" Blp
3.05 - __/__/02 "Modus Operandi" Blp
3.06 - __/__/02 "Santa Q" Blp
3.07 - __/__/03 "Ashes" Blp
3.08 - __/__/03 "Voyage of the Defiant" Blp - Voted best of season
3.09 - __/__/03 "Hell's Gate, Part 1" Blp

[edit] Season 4

4.01 - __/__/03 "Hell's Gate, Part 2" Blp,Prw
4.02 - __/__/03 "Piracy of the Noble" Blp,Prw - Voted best of season
4.03 - 11/09/03 "Addictions" Blp,Prw
4.04 - 28/10/03 "Grave Matters" Blp,Prw
4.05 - 03/12/03 "Crossroads" Blp,Prw
4.06 - 26/03/04 "Entanglement, Part 1" Blp,Prw

[edit] Season 5

5.01 - 02/05/04 "Entanglement, Part 2" Blp
5.02 - 13/06/04 "Imminent Danger" Blp
5.03 - 07/07/04 "Darkest Night" Blp,Prw
5.04 - 04/08/04 "Security Counsel" Blp,Prw - Voted best of season
5.05 - 24/10/04 "Epitaph" Blp,Prw
5.06 - 01/12/04 "The Battle is Joined" Blp,Prw

[edit] Season 6

6.01 - 27/02/05 "Countermeasures" LoRes,HiRes,Blp,Prw - Voted best overall episode
6.02 - 12/04/05 "Dancing in the Dark" Blp,Prw,iPod
6.03 - __/06/05 "Homeport" Blp,Prw,Prv,iPod
6.04 - 12/08/05 "Beachhead" Blp,Prw,Prv,iPod
6.05 - 28/09/05 "Vigil" Blp,Prw,Prv,iPod - Voted best of season <2>
6.06 - 24/11/05 "Her Battle Lanterns Lit" LoRes,HiRes,Blp,Prw,Prv,iPod

[edit] Season 7

7.01 - 17/03/06 "Heavy Losses" Blp,Prw,LoRes,HiRes
7.02 - 29/04/06 "Bound" Blp,Prw,LoRes
7.03 - 23/06/06 "Past Sins" Blp,Prw,LoRes
7.04 - 01/09/06 "Hearts And Minds" Blp,Prw,LoRes
7.05 - __/11/06 "The Widening Gyre"
7.06 - __/12/06 "Things Fall Apart"
7.07 - TBA "Series Finale, Part I"
7.08 - TBA "Series Finale, Part II"

[edit] Keys

LoRes - Low Resolution format available
HiRes - High Resolution format available
Blp - Blooper reel available
Prw - Preview trailer available
Prv - "Previously ..." trailer available
iPod - iPod video format available

[edit] Notes

<1> - Act 1 only available as a Graphic novel
<2> - James Cawley, who plays Kirk in Star Trek: New Voyages, made a guest appearance in this episode as the Peter David character, Mackenzie Calhoun.

[edit] Trivia

The character of Lefler was originally played by Kelly Jamison, but because of work obligations, she had to pass the role on to Joanne Busch.
The villain character of Vorina was originated by Suzy Kaplan, but she had left after Season 5. The role is now played by Julie Anne Gardner.
The recurring villain character of Milo Surgant was originally played by Brandon Stacy, but because of scheduling conflicts, he had to pass the role on to Lorenzo Leonard.
The character of Ro was originally played by Arthur Bosserman, but he decided to leave the cast after five seasons to pursue professional interests in music. The role is now played by Bobby Rice.
Most episodes are released in low resolution, to lessen the risk that the episodes are burnt to DVD and sold, endangering the legal position of the show's producers. At this point only three (originally four) episodes — a special edition of season 1's fourth episode, "Two Hours," season 6's premiere and finale, "Countermeasures" and "Her Battle Lanterns Lit," (which is originally released both low and high resolutions, but it has been later regularized into a single regular episode) and season 7's premiere, "Heavy Losses" — have been released in high quality.
For Seasons 2 and 3, nine episodes were produced each season. The later seasons were reduced to six, as nine episodes seemed too much work for the cast and crew. Nonetheless, Season 7 will consist of at least eight episodes.
Hidden Frontier's theme music is taken from the film Galaxy Quest.
HF's incidental music is generally taken from all Paramount-made productions (both Star Trek and non-Star Trek, with a few exceptions, including TNG: The Best of Both Worlds, and Star Trek: Insurrection for the latter seasons) if only to reduce copyright risks imposed by non-Paramount copyright holders. Nearly all of the episodes used music that is ripped from movie and television soundtracks, as the crew had their short production schedule, low budget, and more specific musical needs. Nonetheless, the last four episodes of HF will feature a completely original score, as the crew now has a longer production schedule and high budget.

[edit] See also

Star Trek fan productions

[edit] External links

Media

Official websites

Star Trek fan productions
Film Projects New Voyages · Of Gods and Men · Hidden Frontier · Intrepid The Pepsi Generation · Star Wreck · Starship Exeter · Stone Trek

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Category: Star Trek fan fiction