History Fanfic / HiddenFrontier

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View the series and its spinoffs at [[http://www.hiddenfrontier.com the website.]]

* DoingItForTheArt: Both the reason the show exists, and the reason it went on for over fifty episodes, not counting the sequels and spin-offs.

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View the series and its spinoffs at [[http://www.hiddenfrontier.com the website]].

<<|FanFic/FanFics|>>

* DawsonCasting: Inverted; many characters are younger than they should be for the positions they hold. The production ran with this instead of trying to pretend the young actors were older than they looked and {{justified}} it by way of the series starting as the Dominion War ends. Many young officers were fast-tracked to promotion due to the capable veterans dying.

* OffTheShelfFX: Mostly done well. One noteworthy example is a datapad that is clearly an old Series/StarTrek handheld LCD game; given that they have accurate-looking datapads elsewhere which must have been specially made because there was never a datapad toy on the shelf to begin with, this may have been a deliberate gag.

''Star Trek: Hidden Frontier'' and its spinoffs ''Helena Chronicles,'' ''Odyssey,'' ''Federation One'' and ''Henglaar, MD'' are a long-running fan-made StarTrek series in the era of [[StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation.]]

The main StoryArc is set in the Briar Patch introduced in [[StarTrekInsurrection Star Trek: Insurrection.]] Starfleet has established a presence in the area with Deep Space 12, a large space station built in orbit of Ba'ku. From here, exploration of the patch begins as much as it can with the inability of starships to travel at warp speed due to the environmental conditions. A new, enigmatic species that may be {{Precursors}} of some kind, the Gray, are revealed, with anything but peaceful intentions.

** The Excelsior, which is a Galaxy-class refit like the future Enterprise-D glimpsed in the [[StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG finale.]]

** A [[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Horta]] Starfleet Lieutenant.

** In ''Odyssey,'' it turns out that the Archien gods are [[spoiler: also the [[StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Bajoran Prophets.]]]]
** ''The Helena Chronicles'' focuses heavily on [[StarTrekVoyager the Omega Molecule]] and has [[spoiler: [[StarTrekTheNextGeneration Ben Maxwell]]]] as an antagonist.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: No one ever mentions it out loud, but the fact that [[spoiler: Siroc doesn't match up to any species from StarTrek canon]] is not an accident.

* OffTheShelfFX: Mostly done well. One noteworthy example is a datapad that is clearly an old StarTrek handheld LCD game; given that they have accurate-looking datapads elsewhere which must have been specially made because there was never a datapad toy on the shelf to begin with, this may have been a deliberate gag.

* BatmanGambit: Siroc would ''almost'' make [[XanatosGambit Xanatos]] proud. When things go awry, he's ''always'' able to adapt [[spoiler: except at the very end when he doesn't count on the fact that Naros is willing to die to stop him.]]

* PutOnABus: Andrew Barret, and TheBusComesBack [[spoiler: [[BrainwashedAndCrazy with some problems.]]]]

* HilariousInHindsight: There's a certain black humor in [[spoiler: Jorian and Corey's break-up]] if one visits the forums and notices their actors are a long-time couple.

* ShoutOut:
** Two of the Gray ships are a [[StarWars Star Destroyer and Tie Fighter,]] heavily disguised with alien-looking light patterns.
** Deep Space 12 is the Ticonderoga space station from StarshipTroopers.
** ''Hidden Frontier's'' opening theme is the theme from Galaxy Quest.

Exploring the [[TitleDrop Hidden Frontier]] is a long journey with many twists and turns, culminating in an extended and appropriately epic series finale. The sequels, ''Odyssey'' and ''The Helena Chronicles,'' pick up shortly thereafter and take place concurrently with each other.

* CompleteMonster: Siroc's goal is to [[spoiler: return to his home universe. When Naros tells him that it's likely his home universe is dead, and going through the passageway will cause the destructive effect that killed it to spread to ''this'' universe, Siroc tells him that he ''knows'' it's unlikely there's anything waiting for him and he ''doesn't care'' if he's wrong to try, he's going to try anyway.]]
* CrypticConversation: Tolian Naros is a master of this, being an El-Aurian. So is Siroc. When they're both in the same room together, other characters often just throw up their hands if not outright demand they talk normally.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: No one ever mentions it out loud, but the fact that [[spoiler: Siroc doesn't match up to any species from StarTrek canon]] is not an accident, nor is it the result of the make-up artists experimenting with new designs.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: A few, most notably Naros.]]

* {{Narm}}: Mostly in the first two seasons, and most ''of'' the first two seasons, although some honest attempts at drama later in the series still fall flat due to hilarious SpecialEffectsFailure or [[LargeHam overcompensating actors.]]

* OhCrap: When [[spoiler: Captain Maxwell]] orders his task force to destroy the space station [[spoiler: Corey Aster has been kidnapped to so he can research Omega while under mind control,]] the gravimetric torpedoes nessesary to safely destroy [[spoiler: Omega]] bounce right off. [[spoiler: Captain Maxwell]] executes a perfect OhCrap as he slumps into his chair and remembers that the station, which he secretly knew about, has anti-gravimetric defenses that he'd completely forgotten.
* TheOtherDarrin: The show features several canon characters recast, as they obviously weren't going to get the original actors. Ro Nevin goes through ''three'' different actors.

** The opening theme is the theme from Galaxy Quest.
* SpecialEffectsFailure: Most notably the light green hue often outlining the actors, a consequence of cheap green-screening. Heavily improved on in later seasons, but never totally gone. The greenscreen backgrounds themselves sometimes hit the UncannyValley in relation to the actors standing in them. Costuming and make-up is pretty bad early on.

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The exterior starship shots, even and especially the battle sequences. It's all made in-house for the series. The battles in later seasons are truly epic. Costuming and make-up see large improvements in later seasons.

View the series and its spinoffs at [[http://www.hiddenfrontier.com the website]]. (As of this writing, the website is having technical difficulties and does not have downloadable files; the best way to currently view the show is to [[http://hiddenfrontier.com/episodes/indexhf.php look at the name of the next episode you need]] and then [[http://www.vimeo.com/hiddenfrontier/videos search for it on the show's Vimeo page,]] although these uploads are extremely low quality.)

* {{Hatedom}}: The viewers who populate the show's IMDB page can't ''stand'' it.

''Star Trek: Hidden Frontier'' and its spinoffs ''Helena Chronicals,'' ''Odyssey,'' ''Federation One'' and ''Henglaar, MD'' are a long-running fan-made StarTrek series in the era of [[StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation.]]

Compared to ''Star Trek: Phase II's'' replica sets and production values, ''Hidden Frontier'' looks extremely low-budget. The majority of the show is shot in one room, with different backgrounds like the bridge or corridors of a ship, or alien ruins, green-screened in. This alone results in [[SpecialEffectsFailure several problems through the entire run of the series.]] Many of the actors clearly aren't, and the writing in early episodes varies from downright atrocious to merely tolerable.

* CerebusSyndrome: As the show's quality improves, it seems much less outright ''silly'' as compared to earlier episodes, and there's a lot more dramatic tension.

* DawsonCasting: Inverted; many characters are younger than they should be for the positions they hold. The production ran with this and instead of trying to pretend the young actors were older than they looked and {{justified}} it by way of the series starting as the Dominion War ends. Many young officers were fast-tracked to promotion due to the capable veterans dying.

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The exterior starship shots, even and especially the battle sequences. It's all made in-house for the series. The battle in later seasons are truly epic. Costuming and make-up see large improvements in later seasons.