When I think of the best Trek fan films to date, I think of the ones that have had a good story, a solid script, and good production values.
After that handful of episodes from various productions I would call ‘the best so far’, I find myself thinking of where to put the others. This one had an actor/actress from the original series, this one was first to do (*whatever*), this one was from an original script, etc, etc…
I was thinking about this for a while and finally realized that those episodes are not being judged on their quality, but their merit. For example, the fact that Phase II came first does not make it better than ‘Continues’. Sorry, that is a point of merit and not a point of quality.
Merit is relative; some people will appreciate having an script from the Original Series while others will think having one of the original actors to be of more merit, and thus rate the episode higher. It is just a difference of opinion, based on merit, or novelty…not quality. Moby appreciates when a production can pull off a ‘bottle show’, but that would not automatically make the episode ‘awesome’. Continue reading »
