[5.0/10] There’s times I think we forget how hard it is to make a movie. When you’re a slave to franchise filmmaking like I am, you end up sitting through a fair amount of well-heeled crud, like the *The Phantom Menace*, or *X-Men Origins: Wolverine*, or even *Star Trek Beyond*, and you wonder how so many talented people could produce something so bad.

But we’re also inured to a certain baseline of quality, in the writing, editing, filming, and performances, that a certain budget can all but assure, that we take those things for granted. That’s why something like *The Room* is so funny. It breaks all the rules, while still spending a good chunk of change, and guarantees basically none of that baseline.

But when you enter the muddy waters of a fan film, you start to understand and appreciate that baseline a little more. A film can absolutely have its heart in the right place, can care (arguably too much) about its characters and about pleasing its audience, and yet if it can’t get the basics right, it can feel undeniably lacking.

That’s the case with *Star Trek: Of Gods and Men*, the ascended bit of cinematic fan fiction that came out in 2007, after *Star Trek: Nemesis* ended the *Next Generation*’s cast’s filmic adventures with a thud, after *Enterprise* went of the air, but before J.J. Abrams’ 2009 reboot rejuvenated the franchise on the silver screen.

Surprisingly, *Of Gods and Men* foresees at least some of the basic ideas of the 2009 *Star Trek* film and even a bit of its sequel. The fan film features an antagonist who goes back in time to try to chop down Kirk’s family tree, and spends the bulk of its runtime in a different, darker timeline where the Federation has gone violent and malicious, and reframes (at least some) of the original cast members as different individuals impacted by the change.

That mostly comes down to Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and Chekov (Walter Koenig) who were, full disclosure, the reason I watched this film. The film features Tim Russ (who reprises his role as Tuvok from *Voyager* and also directs the movie) and Garrett Wang (formerly Harry Kim, but playing a different character here), and so allows for a bit of intergenerational Star Trek crossover. In that, it nicely completes the roster of crewmembers from *The Original Series* getting to interact with their latter-day counterparts, alongside Kirk (Star Trek: Generations), Spock (*TNG*’s “Unification”), Bones (*TNG*’s “Encounter at Farpoint Station”), Scotty (*TNG*’s “Relics”), and Sulu (*Voyager*’s “Flashback).

In contrast to the original series and subsequent films, *Of Gods and Men* gives Uhura and Chekov plenty to do, as they are the protagonists of a film whose perspective and point of view is frequently jumbled. The change in timeline sees Uhura become some kind of elder stateswoman on Vulcan, and Chekov turn into some manner of rough-hewn rebel fighting against a version of Starfleet that’s more akin to The Empire. Koenig can’t quite pull of grizzled revolutionary, and Nichols goes a little over the top with the gravitas, but if you can say nothing else for *Of Gods and Men*, it sees fit to give these oft-neglected actors and characters a chance to have the spotlight.

But it’s a muddled, messy film, with several problems on a very basic level. First and foremost, it’s set after the events of *Star Trek VI* (as well as after the opening scene of *Generations*), but looks and feels as though it’s set in the time period of the 1960s show, creating an immediate dissonance that persists throughout the film. The set is clearly a recreation of the one from the TOS era show, and while the movie handwaves this to some degree, it’s still strange to see a film that wants to embrace all the events of the prior forty years of Star Trek and crafts its story and characters accordingly, nevertheless hew to the vibe of the franchise’s earliest years.

It’s also just a listless, logy film, despite numerous attempts to inject action into the proceedings as much as possible. One of the most underrated aspects of what makes a film great is editing (and relatedly, pacing). The scenes in *Of Gods and Men* take forever, and simply bleed into one another. There is little sense of progress of structure as the film wears on, instead giving us one giant jumble of an adventure that characters drift in and out of as the movie continues. There are events, and even sort of beats in the film, but they rarely build on one another or give a sense of cohesion or propulsion to what’s happening.

The acting is also spotty at best. Tim Russ, pulling double duty as both director and actor, fares the best of anyone, recreating Tuvok with aplomb. But even in a production with professional actors like Nichols, Koenig, and Alan Ruck (reprising his role from *Generations*), this still feels like amateur hour. Emotional moments are overwrought, character interactions are unconvincing, and villains have all the subtlety and believability of an episode of *Power Rangers*. The film is full of talented people who’ve shown off their chops elsewhere, which suggests time, money, or both hampered the ability for all involved to get this right.

But one thing is clear -- *Of Gods and Men* is clearly a labor of love, and that’s the only reason I’d feel comfortable about recommending it others (even if I’d only recommend it to the most devoted of Star Trek fans). It’s clear how much affection those behind the scenes have for these characters and this world. That may lead them to indulge in fanservice a little too much, or throw out cameos for the sake of cameos, or deliver the underdeveloped broad strokes of the franchise without nailing down its substance, but in every frame and moment, you can see and feel how much Star Trek means to the people who created this film, and that gives it something.

Sure, the story is the peak of fan fiction, in addition to creating the “last ride” vibe for Uhura and Chekov, the crux of *Of Gods and Men* features [spoiler]a showdown between Charlie X and Gary Mitchell, from the earliest episodes of *The Original Series*.[/spoiler] It also features extended, ham-fisted ruminations on freedom or power or some other trite encapsulation of Star Trek’s themes. And most forgivably, the graphics are roughly at the level of *ReBoot*, a 1994 series that famed Trek scribe Dorothy Fontana wrote for briefly. *Of Gods and Men* is, in all honesty, a chore to sit through at times.

And yet it’s also the clear expression of those who admire these characters and yearn to remix and imitate their past adventures. The well-meaning folks behind *Of Gods and Monsters* may not have the resources or the talent to pull it off at the level of those they’re imitating, but that affection comes through loud and clear, to where even a flat line delivery, or out-of-nowhere story turn, or bit of stilted exposition can make you smile. It’s not a professional film, and no amount of professionals involved can seem to overcome the Great Fan Film Barrier, but it’s one made with absolute passion for the material, which is more than many of even the most successful blockbuster films can say.