Star Trek: Hidden Frontier – 202 – Yesterday’s Excelsior

2001 Official Site
Directed by Jennifer Cole

So we all love alternate timelines, and we all love Yesterday’s Enterprise, one of the best episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation ever. So Hidden Frontier took that and now we got their own version, complete with their spin on it. A lot of effort went into this episode, changing things while still having them somewhat the same. My only major complaint is I think they did it too early in the life of the show, and it would have had more of an impact in like Season 5 or something. The minor quibble is that the episode follows Yesterday’s Enterprise almost to the letter. But besides that, it is pretty fun and you get to see characters get blown away, so that is always fun. Bring on my alternate timelines!

Part 1 of this episode is only a .pdf file because it used imaged from actual Paramount shows. So here is a synopsis: During Star Trek 6, the NCC-2000 USS Excelsior is trapped in time as Kronos explodes. Thus Kirk is killed by Chang, the president is assassinated, and the Federation goes to war with the Klingons, and wins. Then the Feds don’t have allies they need to defeat the Borg, who swoop in when they did in our time, except they win and the Enterprise is destroyed. I guess because Worf wasn’t there to be useless? Just go with it. Now, the USS Excelsior from this series leads a group of other ships as they flee the Borg and imitate Battlestar Galactica years before the reboot happened! Battlestar Excelsior!

Oh, new opening credits also!

Captain John Edward Knapp (David W. Dial) – Angry’s dead twin brother! In this universe, he is the non-dead one. Instead of being Captain Angry, he is Captain Drunk and Corrupted With Power. Wow, who knew Ian Quincy Knapp was the more level-headed of the Knapp twins? We can’t call him Captain Happy, how about Captain Knappy? Captain James Darwin (Cliff Gardner) – is the first officer in this alternate universe instead of a guy who just shows up in Season Two. That’s evolution for you! Not really, that’s more like Intelligent Design…SHOCKING! Admiral Nechayev (Renee Huberstock) – Commands what is left of the free people of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Except the So’na, who have their own planet still. She is just as angry in this universe and the real one, though she at least doesn’t resort to the bottle. Ensign Jenna McFarland (Adrianne Lange) – Half-Trill, Half-Human, all Navigation. This alternate reality caused her to wear different clothes! That bastard alternate reality! And she is going to be an Ambassador, at least she was until she probably died. Ensign Brad T. Rawling (Tristan Clark) – Ensign Rawling has frosted hair in this alternate timeline as well! The more things change… Rawling doesn’t do much but die. Dammit, Rawling, winners don’t die, they multiply. Lt. John Martinez (Anthony Diaz) – Chief of Security who is still Chief of Security in the alternate reality. Has more loyalty to Captain Darwin than Captain Knapp. That’s what you get, non-angry Knapp. Chief Melik (Larry Laverne) – Bajoran chief engineer who is a genius AND the best actor on the show. Of course he is a guy we have never seen before, and he goes on a ride back in time. Remember when suddenly there was a Bajoran guy in Star Trek 6? Ensign Ro Nevin (Arthur Bosserman) – Science officer and Ro Laren’s brother. He is in the command division despite hanging around in engineering most of the time, and conspiring against his Captain.

Guest Star Roll Call

Captain Sulu (Randall Mark) – Captain Sulu has arrive to Sulu the heck out of the future! Hikaru Sulu shows up a lot in fan films, George Takei even appeared as Old Sulu in a Star Trek: New Voyages episode. This Sulu is all enthused to go home and save the future. Borg Drones (Barbara Clifford and Anthony Diaz) – We are Borg. You will be assimila—* Urk!

Holy retro graphics, Batman! And retro on purpose!

We open as Captain Knapp is telling Ensign McFarland that he is telling Admiral Nechayev that McFarland would make a great Ambassador to the So’na. But they haven’t told Admiral Nechayev. This is all very confusing.

Nechayev comes in and is all superangry about the Tzenkethi or something with food rations, I don’t know but she was pretty mad and Captain Knapp was still happy. So we got Admiral Angry and Captain Knappy.

The bridge detects a temporal anomaly up ahead. Prepare to fire because it might be Borg! Yeah, the Borg are always using temporal anomalies. But it ain’t Borg, it is an Excelsior-class ship. In fact, it is the Excelsior-class USS Excelsior, complete with Captain Hikaru Sulu! He beams over and doesn’t even seem concerned that things are wrong until he is already over to visit. Captain Sulu is also pretty bitter, even before he should be bitter. Then they finally tell him he has been gone 75 years He is in shock, and Knapp says he probably can’t go back, if they try to fix up their ship the Borg will find them, and Admiral Nechayev is all about not staying in one place. Sulu wants to return to his ship, but soon Darwin is giving him a tour of the new one. Don’t worry about Captain Knappy, he’s getting all drunk.

Darwin takes Sulu to engineering, where a Bajoran chief engineer named Melik (who we have never seen before) and Ensign Ro Nevin figure out how to fix Sulu’s ship, and Darwin says they are going to do it in secret. Ro asks “Insurrection?” which I though was funny considering what movie this show is spun out of. Melik is played by a really good actor, and is marching circles around the others.

Captain Knappy channels Captain Angry and is yelling at Admiral Nechayev, he is being very sharp and tells her to get off his ship. What an angry drunk! Captain Knapp tells Darwin he is taking command of the fleet, but Darwin is upset. He yells at Captain Knapp about how he is obsessed with power now! Captain Knapp is going bonkers! He calls security on Darwin and sends him to the brig, but Security cheif Martinez won’t. He instead goes to take the Captain to his quarters, but Knapp starts swinging at him. Martinez zaps him with a phaser.

Oops, he’s dead!

WHAT??? They just killed Alternate Captain Knapp! Wait until Captain Angry hears about this!

The crew meets with Admiral Nechayev and prepare to fix the NCC-2000 Excelsior and send it back to save Khitomer, and Sulu and crew will just not talk about all of this. Right. Somebody ask Tuvok! He’s on that ship according to Voyager!

And the Borg are coming! Because otherwise this wouldn’t be a complete rehash of Yesterday’s Enterprise without the enemy advancing as the displaced ship slowly heads back to its time.

Borg pyramid ships? These must be Egyptian Borg. No wonder the Enterprise-D lost, they couldn’t remodulate the shields to the right hieroglyphics! The Bajoran Chief Engineer is trapped on the NCC-2000 Excelsior as the battle begins. Some Cardassian ships run off and one of the Borg Pyramids chases them. Hey, I guess they forgot to tell us the entire Alpha Quadrant was destroyed, except the races that weren’t because they are sending out ambassadors or something.

Now the Feddies and the other random races fight with the Borg. Oh, no, they assimilated Admiral Nechayev and her four-nacelled ship! Now the Borg will be angry! Take that, Borg! Many ships bite it, including a Breen vessel. The Bajoran engineer is still trapped on the NCC-2000 Excelsior, it looks like he’s going for a time ride! Brad T. Rawling is killed when his panel explodes! Oh, no, he is my favorite character with frosted hair!

The shields are down, and Borg beam over and start assimilating the crew, while NCC-2000 Excelsior returns to the past.

TIMELINE RESTORED!

Captain Ian Quincy Knapp (David W. Dial) – Captain Angry is back, because so is the real timeline! His brother was killed by the Dominion, in case you were wondering. Don’t tell him alternate Martinez killed his brother, because that will blow his angry mind. Admiral Nechayev (Renee Huberstock) – Angry in every reality.

Captain Ian Quincy Knapp and Admiral Nechayev are talking all happy about another peace accord…wait, they are both happy??? THE TIMELINE IS STILL FRAKKED UP!!!!!

Anyway, Captain Knapp mentions his dead brother and how everyone hates Commander Shelby because she is a woman and good looking. Nechevyev’s lines seem to make no sense as she tells him not to be too hard on Shelby in a joking manner.

So, is that Bajoran dude going to show up later as his daughter or something like Denise Crosby did?

Rated 8/10 (ships, ships, ships, ships, ships, oh snap!, ships, ships)

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