I haven’t written about any star Trek fan films in a long time, however that doesn’t mean they stopped being produced, in fact more fan films are coming out all the time. Last year, I had to opportunity to become Facebook Friends with Jakob Holy, who was working on a Trek Fan Film in the Czech Republic by the name of “Squadron”. This film would be different in a few ways, #1-it would involve the Dominion War from DS9. This time period was never really touched on by any Trek fan films, so this would be a welcome addition. #2 it would be performed in the native Czech Language with subtitles as opposed to being “overdubbed” in English. If any of you remember the late 70’s Chinese Kung Fu films, the characters mouths would move for 20 seconds, only to have a 2 word English overdub.
The first thing that stood out to me was the exceptional use of lighting for the Bridge Set. by using a different highlight shade, each ship shown was easily recognized as a different bridge.
As you can see, with nothing more than a simple color change, each ships bridge has a rather distinctive look, that makes them easy to identify. You have a white light for the USS San Jose commanded by an Andorian Captain, Purple for the USS Luanda commanded by a Vulcan Captain, Red for the USS Nuuk led by a Trill captain, and Blue for the USS Minneapolis commanded by the Human captain, while also doubling as the flagship.
This is a tightly wound story, involving the Dominion and the loss of ships around a single planet, this limited setting allows for a claustrophobic feeling, along with showing how a single tactical battle can be of strategic importance. We even get references to Clauswitz and Sun Tzu. The fact that the characters go back into Earths history to explain motivations behind the tactics, makes for an understanding of history and how it continuously affects things even far into the future, is a welcome change from the usual fare.
Even with the fan film guidelines of 30 minutes for a film, this film shows you can have tension, good space battles and interpersonal conflict all wrapped up in a neat package. The CGI is top notch, the set design(only 3 sets total) was done perfectly. This film set a high bar, for others to try and beat. The choice of doing it in the “original” language, was a good choice, as each actor sounded at ease with their lines. there are many good performances, so to single any out would be a disservice to the entire cast and crew. Squadron is definitely a recommended Fan Film, in fact I downloaded it and added it to my fan film library.
5 out of 5 stars
