"Of Gods and
Men"
Star Trek: Of
Gods and Men
reviewed by Fred Dixon
What if they made a fanfilm and the fans were real actors? We find out with Star Trek: Of Gods and Men. Directed by Tim Russ and starring Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols and Alan Ruck, it is a Star Trek all-star production. Well, at least in the acting department, if not the writing one. Once again, instead of striking out in a new direction, this effort falls into the familiar fanfilm trap of paying homage to the original Star Trek. Where No Man Has Gone Before (Gary Mitchell), Charlie X (Charlie Evans), the Alternate Universe of Mirror, Mirror, and The City on the Edge of Forever (specifically the Guardian itself) are the touchstones of this picture. I must admit that it is always nice seeing familiar Trek actors again, especially personal favorites like J. G. Hertzler, Chase Masterson and Gary Graham, but hey, we get it already. This is Star Trek they're delivering. However, the windup is takes longer than the pitch. It is slow going figuratively and literally because you can only watch this in streaming video—hopefully you will pick a good time to log onto the Of Gods and Men server. (The rumor is that the production team is trying to work out some sort of deal with CBS Paramount to sell the DVD of this adventure. No downloading so as not to ruin to the market.)
Spoilers Ahead!
To review the story —and there’s not much original here —Charlie Evans has come back after 40 years to even the score with Captain Kirk (Just like Khan. Who’s next? Kor? Kang?). But Charlie is too late. Kirk was killed twelve years ago in Star Trek: Generations. Using the Guardian of Forever, Charlie goes back in time presumably to Riverside, Iowa when Kirk was just alive. He kills Kirk’s mother, hopefully before she gave him the dreadful middle name of Tiberius, and the whole universe changes. It’s A Wonderful Life, or in this case, It Was A Wonderful Federation. An alternate universe appears. Something called "The Galactic Order" has taken over to restore, well, order to the Galaxy. (The heavy-handed implication is that it was founded by George W. Bush via the Patriot Act.) Yes, the underlying issue of the story is security versus freedom here. This Galactic Order is lead by none other than Gary Mitchell. It seems that since Kirk never lived, he never killed Mitchell on Delta Vega. Through the starship Enterprise, the Order destroys the planet Vulcan with their latest weapon of terror: the Omega weapon. (Perhaps an homage to the "Omega 13" in Galaxy Quest or the "Omega Device" from an early draft of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.) The galaxy is given a lesson about opposing its will.
Sound familiar? Try the Star Wars saga—an Empire that believes that peace will only be attained when its enemies are completely destroyed, a planet destroyed by a superweapon to rule by terror, a determined resistance bent on toppling the Evil Regime, evil men possessing vast supernatural powers.... We have seen it all before.
I was looking forward to Of Gods and Men. It had the potential of lifting the Star Trek fan film genre up to Hollywood standards. Where a fresh direction might have come, we get derivation. Where consistent action was needed, we get exposition. The acting was certainly Hollywood, but the story was from a hackneyed third rate fanzine. This show was painful to watch and disappointing as high expectations were dashed.
I give Star Trek: Of Gods and Men an A for acting, an A for casting Chase Masterson as an Orion slave girl, an F for the story and a B- for the special effects (admittedly it is hard to stand out here anymore because the special effects in so many fan production are quite good).
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