By GustavoLeao / 18:29, 18 January 2008 / General Star Trek

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Review by Gustavo Leao

Last night, I have the pleasure of watch the Star Trek animated fan film Borg War, created and produced by a fan named Geoffrey James, working alone at his home computer for 18 months, and in the process creating an exciting Star Trek adventure which runs for 85 minutes.  

You can say that the movie it's a mashup of different Star Trek games, but James talent as a storyteller and director made the movie much more than that. The story is epic and awesome, and turned out to be much superior stuff than official  Star Trek movies from Paramount like Insurrection and Nemesis. At the end, you wish Borg War was a live-action Star Trek movie produced by Paramount.  

The use of the voices of Patrick Stewart as Picard and Tim Russ as Tuvok only adds to an incredible sense of a proper Star Trek adventure to this animated movie.  

Set 15 years after the events of Star Trek Nemesis, Borg War depicts the conflict between the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, and a strain of Borg infected with a mind-controlling, flesh-mutating virus. The incursion of these diseased Borg throws the Alpha quadrant's finely balanced power structures into chaos. As Picard marshals the free races to oppose the Borg, the Klingons and Romulans use the turmoil as an excuse for interracial war. Meanwhile, the Borg themselves struggle against the infection, which is using them as a source for food. It is sort of like "Alien-meets-Star Trek", in a good and original way.

An older Captain Jean-Luc Picard is now the commander of Starbase Unity, but still in command of the Sovereing Class Enterprise-E, but with a all-new crew. Picard's counselor in this mission is Keeyla (voiced by Amanda Winn-Lee), the 18-year old daughter of Seven of Nine. And the Enterprise-E new chief engineer is none other than Reg Barclay (voiced by Dwight Schultz). Helping Picard in this mission is Tuvok, now captain of the powerful Defiant-class starship U.S.S. Dallas (there is a real cool scene in which the Dallas departs Deep Space Nine - again good visual effects).  

In the beginning of the movie, the Alpha quadrant has been preparing for the return of the Borg by investing massive R&D in offensive and defensive weaponry. The Federation/Klingon alliance has worn thin, with younger warriors seeking a return to the old ways. A Borg Cube stumbles onto a Klingon freighter belonging to the House of Mi'qoch, the clan responsible for the Empire's anti-Borg development programme. The Mi'qoch clan sends its mightiest warship to investigate. The result is not good and it is Picard and Tuvok to the rescue. But unknown to then, the Borg has been assimilated by a race of mutant parasites exomorphs, who has dreams of conquest beyond the wildest computations of the Borg.   

According to James, the software to make the movie (including the mid-range video editor) cost about $200 total. Everything that happens was scripted; there was no filmed "game play". Essentially the games - Elite Force 2 and Starfleet Command 3 - were crippled to generate raw footage under control of programming scripts. The result footage is amazing, with action and graphics with high quality (but with somewhat limited motion for the characters, who move like in a computer game). James lifted elements from the plots of the games, like the Romulans wanting to break up the Federation/Klingon alliance.  

Borg War was developed using Machinima, a moviemaking process that harnesses 3D rendering power and audio clips from computer games to create a new type of video entertainment. James created the movie by reprogramming computer games to generate raw footage, which he then edited to create the finished film. As I said, it took him 18 months to complete the project - a really labor of love and the resulted movie is impressive.

For me, the most exciting aspect of Borg Wars is that the story takes place in the post-Nemesis era, 17 years after the return of U.S.S. Voyager and the movie's storyline moves the Star Trek continuity and history foward, more close to the 25th century, exploring the adventures of an older Jean-Luc Picard and his new crew, and I must say James has created very interesting new characters, like Jureth (voiced by Greg Eagles), a klingon who is also a Starfleet officer, just like Worf used to be.  

If you havent seen Borg War yet, give it a chance. The somewhat limited animation takes a time to get use to, but the results are impressive after you get used to it, and the story is really well written, an amazing storyline which brings back both beloved characters and new characters, in a battle to save the Federation and the entire Alpha Quadrant.  

Go see it and thank me later.

7 out of 10

The entire feature is available for download at the official site. 

You can also watch Borg War (in 10 episodes) on YouTube.