Review Detail

This edit doesn't seem to have received much attention overall, likely because the episodes used aren't among the most popular of the series. I must say they aren't among my top pics either: in fact "The Way to Eden" is bottom five material for my tastes (reeks of the "young people written by old people" syndrome, and seems like a hippie scare film even though at that point more and more people except for the squarest types were already viewing them as harmless - except maybe to themselves if they went overboard with the "LDS" - see what I did there?), and "Requiem for Methuselah" is one I like more than Bionic Bob does but less than The Warlord does. I like the central concept and the character of Flint (in a way a forerunner to "Highlander") more than the execution, and it's also weighed down by Shatner's performance appearing annoyed all through, no doubt for off-screen reasons.

This said, as expected from The Warlord, they're very well weaved together. "The Way to Eden" has lost the songs (the jam session remains), which is already an improvement and comes across as less annoying, and segues into the "Requiem" material in a very creative way, by use of "Eden" footage on Flint's monitor (which was yet another prophetic element in Trek - other than being 4:3, it looks a lot like our modern flat TV screens). It feels a bit off that once the "Requiem" segment starts, the "Space Hippies" who died on arrival to the planet aren't referred to anymore, as if they don't matter, but you can only do so much with the material. If anything, I'd reverse the two final scenes, and have the "Eden" epilogue first, maybe adding a shot of a sorrowful Kirk (if available) when Chekov and Irina kiss, and follow it with the melancholic "Requiem" epilogue. But that's personal taste.

And of course, The Warlord's ST edits usually come with a twist, and this one presents itself, as stated in the previous review, in a way that makes it part fanedit and part fanfilm. Which is something that some people might find off-putting, but I got a kick out of it: after all this is Star Trek, the pioneer of fan fiction (the self-insertion kind or otherwise), so this feels a lot like a tribute to that. And I've seen less convincing Shatners among the show's stuntmen anyway, so... Technically, I thought that as tricky as it is to integrate modern video footage into vintage celluloid, this was pretty successful, though the color correction was a bit off: too light in the new footage of Kirk through the nature landscapes, and too red and dark in the opening of "Requiem", as if night was suddenly coming. Color correction is always hard to get spot-on, though.

Video and audio quality is absolutely perfect (even though it's a SD edit). Editing was overall well done other than in a spot 24 minutes in in which an establishing shot of the Enterprise has the fanfare fade out to total silence before cutting to the next shot (the start of the jam session). It needed to overlap a bit, a few milliseconds would suffice in order to not interfere with the scene's music, but as it is it feels edited. Other than that, The Warlord's editing was up to his usual high standard.

Overall this was a lot of fun. The episodes used still are what they are so if you hate them this edit might not be for you, but otherwise this is highly recommended particularly for those like me who have seen the show lots of times and enjoy fresh takes on it with one surprise or two along the way.