Hidden Frontier's low budget shows; the green screen effect constantly leaves visual artifacts, the costumes and make-up are often cheap to the naked eye, and the amateur acting is often on-par with the worst Mystery Science Theater ever screened.
The inexperience of the production team shows clearly with the first two seasons, both in filming and creativity. The early time travel story about the Titanic makes a lot of awful written fanfiction look genius by comparison.
So, why is it worth it?
If there was ever a testament to the value of practice and dedication, it's Hidden Frontier. As the show progresses, the writing goes from awful to tolerable to better than the common cookie-cutter cliché driven recycled scripts used in mainstream professional television. The production value increases with every episode. The terrible and nonsensical episodic plots give way to an intriguing story arc that mixes enough familiar elements of canon with original ideas to remain grounded in Star Trek while exploring new ideas and telling a new story; the use of Insurrection's setting as an area of mystery, intrigue and ancient precursors is one of the best decisions they made, surely the best in the beginning long before the series had found it's feet. The consistency through the main plot is such that it would give Voyager-era Rick Berman and Brannon Braga a heart-attack over their old "continuity is bad" philosophy.
Nearly the entire case is made memorable in some way, from Aster, Ro and Zen being the first live-action gay Star Trek characters, to Naros' cryptic past and wit, to Siroc's villainous plotting, to Shelby's command presence. All of the characters grow into roles that fill the niches of a story without becoming caricatures of literary devices. For all of the neon signs Ro makes over being gay, it's easy to see him as a real person with an actual life beyond singular issues, and this trait extends to most of the cast. It is this, above all else, that makes Hidden Frontier so enjoyable; the cast is extremely easy to care about, and tension often comes not from wishing to see what happens next, but wishing to see what will happen to the characters themselves.
Even the acting improves as time goes on, with many long-time cast members getting better over time, and those who come partway through bringing an increasing level of talent; Larry Laverne and Jim Davis as Naros and Siroc are clear standouts with spectacular performances. For my money, I like Hidden Frontier's Elizabeth Shelby better then the Next Generation original.
Another thing the show gets right is having the right balance between"cool" and "practical." Characters are rarely bogged down by technobabble, but the show throws some of the best parts of 'Trek lore at us, with the Excelsior's galaxy-class Dreadnaught refit glimpsed in the Next Generation finale never to be seen again, plenty of the newer Federation cruisers like Akiras and Steamrunners fighting alongside their more-seen brethren, and all manner of small details like having the Tholians as a main antagonist that always seem hidden behind the curtain in official Star Trek, leaving the fans wanting something instead of another run-in with the Borg or Romulans or another plot about Klingon and Human culture clashing; the latter is something Hidden Frontier actually does, but throws a twist even to that.
Is Hidden Frontier unprofessional? Absolutely. But it's important to understand that it goes from being unprofessional in mentality to unprofessional in budget, and a solid experience can be had from something unprofessional in budget when the creators know what they're doing. It won't win you over if you dislike fan-made endeavors anymore than Phase II's real sets would make up for not having the actual original cast. If you don't mind the nuances of a fan-production, Hidden Frontier is a well-crafted epic with a story arc worthy of canon, indeed, a story arc with far more depth and more memorable characters than the episodic nature of Voyager or the thinly-veiled political allegories of Enterprise's later seasons.
The inexperience of the production team shows clearly with the first two seasons, both in filming and creativity. The early time travel story about the Titanic makes a lot of awful written fanfiction look genius by comparison.
So, why is it worth it?
If there was ever a testament to the value of practice and dedication, it's Hidden Frontier. As the show progresses, the writing goes from awful to tolerable to better than the common cookie-cutter cliché driven recycled scripts used in mainstream professional television. The production value increases with every episode. The terrible and nonsensical episodic plots give way to an intriguing story arc that mixes enough familiar elements of canon with original ideas to remain grounded in Star Trek while exploring new ideas and telling a new story; the use of Insurrection's setting as an area of mystery, intrigue and ancient precursors is one of the best decisions they made, surely the best in the beginning long before the series had found it's feet. The consistency through the main plot is such that it would give Voyager-era Rick Berman and Brannon Braga a heart-attack over their old "continuity is bad" philosophy.
Nearly the entire case is made memorable in some way, from Aster, Ro and Zen being the first live-action gay Star Trek characters, to Naros' cryptic past and wit, to Siroc's villainous plotting, to Shelby's command presence. All of the characters grow into roles that fill the niches of a story without becoming caricatures of literary devices. For all of the neon signs Ro makes over being gay, it's easy to see him as a real person with an actual life beyond singular issues, and this trait extends to most of the cast. It is this, above all else, that makes Hidden Frontier so enjoyable; the cast is extremely easy to care about, and tension often comes not from wishing to see what happens next, but wishing to see what will happen to the characters themselves.
Even the acting improves as time goes on, with many long-time cast members getting better over time, and those who come partway through bringing an increasing level of talent; Larry Laverne and Jim Davis as Naros and Siroc are clear standouts with spectacular performances. For my money, I like Hidden Frontier's Elizabeth Shelby better then the Next Generation original.
Another thing the show gets right is having the right balance between"cool" and "practical." Characters are rarely bogged down by technobabble, but the show throws some of the best parts of 'Trek lore at us, with the Excelsior's galaxy-class Dreadnaught refit glimpsed in the Next Generation finale never to be seen again, plenty of the newer Federation cruisers like Akiras and Steamrunners fighting alongside their more-seen brethren, and all manner of small details like having the Tholians as a main antagonist that always seem hidden behind the curtain in official Star Trek, leaving the fans wanting something instead of another run-in with the Borg or Romulans or another plot about Klingon and Human culture clashing; the latter is something Hidden Frontier actually does, but throws a twist even to that.
Is Hidden Frontier unprofessional? Absolutely. But it's important to understand that it goes from being unprofessional in mentality to unprofessional in budget, and a solid experience can be had from something unprofessional in budget when the creators know what they're doing. It won't win you over if you dislike fan-made endeavors anymore than Phase II's real sets would make up for not having the actual original cast. If you don't mind the nuances of a fan-production, Hidden Frontier is a well-crafted epic with a story arc worthy of canon, indeed, a story arc with far more depth and more memorable characters than the episodic nature of Voyager or the thinly-veiled political allegories of Enterprise's later seasons.