Web Animation / Star Trek Redemption

"Time is of the essence."

Lighter and Softer sequel to the popular Star Trek fan film Star Trek Retribution, completed in Winter 2013.

The year is 2399, and the USS F. Scott Fitzgerald is about to be decommissioned, when disaster strikes. A Negative Space Wedgie suddenly and inexplicably starts tearing through the space-time continuum, destroying planets and leaving nothing in its wake. Several of our heroes just happen to be aboard their mothballed ship when it happens, and they courageously set out to stop the disaster. After narrowly escaping destruction themselves, they discover that even Earth is reduced to a Lethal Lava Land. An investigation reveals that Drakus is behind it, and that the whole string of Disaster Dominoes was set off by his going back in time. To prevent the cataclysm, they have to follow him back and stop him.

Like its predecessors, Redemption was initially released onto YouTube as a series of webisodes, with a final full cut posted once it was complete.

A sequel/prequel, "Star Trek IV: Resurrection," was announced in January 2023.

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The cast:

• Admiral Bradley Prentice. Former commanding officer of the Fitzgerald. Mysterious steely-eyed stranger, though he seems content to merely advise rather than take command of the mission.
• Captain Kendra Ronston. Commanding Officer of the Fitzgerald. Still strong-willed and opinionated, but not quite sure of her ability to lead during this crisis.
• Captain Jennifer Hargrove. Acting First Officer of the Fitzgerald. A "captain without a command", who falls in as Ronston's exec to feel useful.
• Lesley Kal. Former Operations Officer of the Fitzgerald. Now a civilian, with a troubled history since leaving the fleet.
• Commander Renee Mitchell. Chief Engineer of the Fitzgerald. Has some history with Kal that led to Kal leaving Starfleet.
• Dr. Elizabeth Falwell. Chief Medical Officer of the Fitzgerald.
• Dr. Braiyon Garr. Omnidisciplinary Scientist who apparently knows everything except the one thing we need to know. Also has very personal reasons for wanting to fix the temporal disaster.
• Drakus. Big Bad. The Dr. Garr from the Alternate Timeline of the previous movie, who is determined to survive no matter the cost.

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Tropes seen in Redemption include:

• Abandon Ship: At the end of the film, the 2399 Fitzgerald is disabled by weapons fire from the Borg cube, and with only minutes to go before the cube self-destructs, Prentice orders this.
• Aborted Arc: For most of the first and second acts, Ronston's Garr seems to be getting set up in more of an antagonist role than one of the good guys. Then, abruptly, as soon as they visit the 2378 Fitzgerald, all of a sudden he's solidly one of the team—though this could also be an example of Character Development.
• Acting for Two: Double invoked; not only is a single voice actor once again voicing all the characters, but this time around he's voicing several different versions of each character.
• Amazonian Beauty:
  • Renee Mitchell, whose shoulders are noticeably broad compared to the other female cast members. More clearly visible during the scene where she makes up with Kal in Ten Forward; the black leather tank top shows she's muscular under that uniform.
  • Kristie winds up being one of these in the epilogue, making Dr. Garr an Amazon Chaser. Word of God says this is Truth in Television.
• A Mother to Her Men: Ronston is revealed to be one of these when she's talking to Kal on the shuttle, and we find out she's been trying to keep Kal out of trouble during her self-destructive downward spiral.
• Anachronism Stew: The Price is Right holoprogram. The basic season 31 daytime Barker set, with the season 35 Race Game Curtain, season 33 MDS contestants' row, season 36 MDS black floors, season 37 camera 5 pad logo, 1994 Davidson camera 5 pad black cover, and the 2002 primetime special stars. And a video wall and stage monitors that aren't actually from any TPiR set.
• Animation Bump: Again over Retribution, the exterior shots of Redemption feature improved visual effects, particularly involving lit objects. Lit objects now feature a Lens Flare, which thankfully is more subtle and tasteful than the ones JJ Abrams used in Star Trek XI.
  • When we get to 2378, we get what looks like a piece of Stock Footage of the Fitzgerald docked at Deep Space Nine from Specter. It is, however, a brand new piece of footage, as the models for everything except the Fitzgerald are completely new, and the scene lighting is vastly improved over the first film.
  • A short time after that, we get a direct re-use of a scene from Specter, but everything about it's been given a facelift: the lighting on the characters is noticeably better than the original, and the background plates of the corridor have been re-rendered at higher resolution.
  • When the 2399 crew is trying to escape the 2378 version of the Fitzgerald, we see the 2378 transporter effect, and it looks a whole lot better than it did in the first film.
• Apocalypse How: A side effect of Time Travel: repeated detonations of Omega particle energy damage the space-time continuum beyond repair.
• Applied Phlebotinum: The means used to go back in time is a green rock, in this case something called "boronite," established in Star Trek: Voyager as a component of the Omega Molecule.
  • Lampshaded by Hargrove, who upon first seeing the ore sample, dryly comments, "It certainly is a big, green rock."
• Arc Number: As with the preceding films and with canon, the number 47.
• Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: Just after arriving in 2378, Hargrove unwittingly floats the idea of boarding the Fitzgerald of that era to get the spare parts they need. When everyone in the room looks at her, she has an Oh, Crap! moment and starts babbling about how dangerous that plan is...just before admitting, "And we're going to do it, aren't we?"
• Author Filibuster: All three films are a bit of an Author Tract for the role of friendships.
• Avengers Assemble: Overlaps with Putting the Band Back Together; the past and present crew of the Fitzgerald gather aboard the mothballed vessel for one last round before it gets decommissioned—and then band together when disaster strikes.
• Ax-Crazy: The 2378 version of Dr. Garr. Compared to his counterpart from 2399, it doesn't take him very long to convince the 2399 officers that he is emotionally unstable. Prentice even comes out and says it after they meet with him aboard the ISS Voyager—"We're playing a dangerous game here." A short time later, he is proven correct when Dark Garr blows up the Alcawell Station for no real reason.
• Badass Boast: Drakus delivers one when the heroes track him down at Beta Stromgren. In response to Admiral Prentice's warning that with three against one, the odds are not in his favor: "A bold statement for someone in your position...admiral." Cue ominous glowing red eyes.
• Badass Crew: The crew of the Fitzgerald. They figure out what they need to do (go back in time), and then they do it. Twice. And stage a raid on their ship's past counterpart.
  • The crew of the 2378 Fitzgerald too, as they follow their 2399 counterparts back in time without really knowing why.
• Bad Present: In 2399, Earth and The Federation have all been wiped out by a massive temporal disaster.
• Bad Vibrations: In the opening of the film, the first sign that something's wrong is when the Fitzgerald begins to shake.
• Become a Real Boy: Drakus tempts Dark Garr with this, saying he's developed a procedure to repair the damage to his tissues. He's too far gone to use it on himself, but he promises Dark Garr that in return for his help, he'll heal the damage and render all that Borg technology (his Achilles' Heel) unnecessary.
• Beneath Suspicion: Invoked and then subverted. While on the infiltration mission to the 2378 Fitzgerald, Hargrove says that she and Kal will be able to move more freely because at this time they're just Ensigns rather than senior staff. But being just Ensigns means they lack the sufficient security clearance to fully execute the plan.
• Big Bad: Drakus.
• Big Damn Heroes: Ronston doesn't even blink at the thought of going back in time. 'Course, Earth HAS been turned into a Lethal Lava Land, so...
• Big Damn Movie: The Federation is wiped out by a temporal disaster, the crew goes back in time to get help from their past selves, and they relive Wolf 359.
• Bittersweet Ending: When it's all said and done, the future is restored and Drakus is dead, and everyone is back where/when they belong—except for Dark Garr.
• Blessed with Suck: Dark Garr's vital life functions are being sustained by Borg technology, which proves to be Drakus' undoing in the future, since by 2399 the Federation has learned how to fight and defeat the Borg.
• Blind Without 'Em. Dark Garr is shown for the first time without his ever-present glasses, and in the moments before he puts them back on, we get a brief glimpse through his eyes (amusingly enough, of his glasses), and the view is horrendously blurry.
• Blooper:
  • That darned problem with the rank pips disappearing when the characters turn certain ways is back.
  • During the shots of the empty ship corridors, one of the wide double doors next to the large MSD display is still dark red from the set's appearance in Retribution.
  • The uniforms were adapted from textures meant for different pieces of clothing, and so the front and back halves don't always line up properly. New and very high-quality uniforms came from a user on DeviantArt. The character animations in the trailer and some of the early scenes had been re-rendered with the new uniforms, but if you look closely in the backgrounds of some shots, you can still spot the original uniforms.
  • Keep a close eye on the characters' lips. To make them appear older here, for most of the shots the lips are made to appear smaller than they originally did in Specter and most of Retribution. In some shots, however, they're at their normal (read: Poser default) size.
  • Commander Mitchell has broad shoulders unlike any other cast member, and the uniform tunic doesn't always fit her exactly.
  • Pay careful attention to the characters' rank pips; when the movie starts, all four of the main cast wearing uniforms have captain's rank, but in later scenes, Mitchell and Falwell both have only three pips.
  • In the pan of Ten Forward in the scene where Ronston visits the 2378 ship, some crewmembers are visible wearing AGT combadges and the "orange" uniforms from the alternate timeline in "Retribution."
  • In 2378, when Garr exits the turbolift into the corridor on deck 11, in the wide shot the turbolift door has "12" on it. (This shot was re-used from Specter)
• Bond One-Liner: After Dark Reyf shoots Drakus, Dark Garr quips, "I guess forever just isn't what it used to be."
• Book Ends: In Specter, the first scene set aboard the Fitzgerald began with Reyf reading in his quarters. The final scene of Redemption shows the same thing.
• Break the Haughty: When our heroes first meet Dark Garr, he's as cocky and arrogant as he was in the first film, but the more he sees of their mission, the less cocky he gets. After the Battle of Beta Stromgren, he even approaches his counterpart to try to show that he's "not the supervillain everyone thinks I am."
• Broken Ace: Dr. Garr seems like one of these at the start of the film, but improves over time. Dark Garr, on the other hand...
• Buddy Picture: A scene in Garr's quarters on the Fitzgerald shows the photo of Kristie from the first film, across from a computer terminal showing the photo of himself and Reyf, also from the first film. It's a bit of foreshadowing about the 2378 Fitzgerald following its 2399 counterpart back in time.
• Bunny Ears Officer: Averted with the Fitzgerald crew in all three films, significant for a fan work. The crew behaves exactly as Starfleet officers should, right down to Hargrove (as acting first officer) objects to Ronston's beaming down to Vandor IV.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Drakus' reaction when confronted about the time fracture he caused, then left to wreak untold havoc on the future.
• Call-Back: Early in the movie, Ronston and Mitchell reminisce about "that night we came in after calisthenics" to Ten Forward, and Merv Ronston was present—a clear reference to a scene in Specter. Likewise, when she mentions that she agreed to go out with him while sitting on the same bar stool, it references the ending of the first film.
  • When Ronston is looking around the bridge, she looks first at the captain's chair (as she is the ship's CO at the time), then looks left to the first officer's position, a reference to the fact that in the previous film she was the ship's first officer. Then, she looks up at the tactical station, alluding to the fact that in the first film she was the tactical officer and security chief.
  • When the shuttlecraft arrives at the 2378 Deep Space Nine, their flyover of the past version of the Fitzgerald is a double invocation. First in that the entire sequence references a similar flyover in the pilot of Star Trek: Voyager, and second in that the BGM is the theme from Star Trek: Enterprise, which was heard in Specter during the launch sequence.
  • When Garr is in the corridor outside the holodeck, Reyf and Falwell walk right by him completely unaware that he's there. The moment is a re-use of a scene from the beginning of Specter.
  • When the 2378 Prentice orders Ensign Hargrove to deploy security teams to the transporter rooms, she responds, "Me, sir? But I'm not—", a nod to the fact that in Specter she was shown to be very unsure of herself.
  • The way the cargo transporter starts to power up, and then abruptly shuts down, is a nod to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Starship Mine," where similar events leave Picard trapped aboard the Enterprise just as the deadly baryon sweep begins.
  • When the 2378 Reyf and company are talking about what to do with the 2399 officers, the EMH tells him that her analysis shows them to have aged by 19.72 years, which when you remove the decimal point is the year The Price Is Right premiered. Both of the previous films featured The Price Is Right set in some capacity.
• The Cameo: The "other time frames are emerging into ours" sequence was written specifically to give Kirtemor's V'Ger 3D model some airtime.
• Canon Discontinuity: Perhaps wisely, there are very few references to Retribution; this film almost comes across as what the "proper" sequel to Specter should've been.
• Captain Morgan Pose: In 2378, Commander Prentice does this to Max Garrett as he scans the ship for intruders.
• The Chains of Commanding: These are poignantly visible with Kendra Ronston, who doesn't seem to be handling all the aspects of being a captain that well. Offering something inspirational to her crew when they need it is one; having several awkward conversations with Kal is another.
• Chekhov's Armoury: It's pointed out very early on that Admiral Prentice originates in "another timeline," which opens up any number of possibilities.
• Chekhov's Gun: At the very least, Prentice is in the unique position of knowing more about Drakus (and about the original version of Dr. Garr) than anyone on the Fitzgerald crew.
• Closest Thing We Got: Kendra Ronston says that Dr. Falwell is the closest thing to a ship's counselor on board, and Falwell unofficially assumes that role from that point on.
• Command Roster:
  • The Captain: Kendra Ronston. Fortunately a Reasonable Authority Figure; she listens to what the people she commands have to say.
  • The Lancer. Jennifer Hargrove is this. Although she has the same rank as Kendra, when things start to go wrong, she assumes the role of Number Two and Communications Officer. Justified in that the crew has so few people.
  • Wrench Wench: Renee Mitchell.
  • The Medic: Dr. Falwell. She's also The Heart.
  • The Smart Guy: Dr. Garr.
  • Seventh Ranger: Admiral Prentice is this. It's lampshaded when 2378!Prentice asks Ronston about it: "Even though he outranks you, he seems perfectly at ease taking orders as well as giving them."
• Conflict Killer: In 2378, news of Drakus' Evil Plan suspends Dark Garr's existing conflict with Starfleet, as he agrees to help the 2399 crew.
• Conqueror from the Future: Drakus.
• Continuity Drift: For a fan work there are surprisingly few of these, but they do pop up from time to time. Most are explained away as time paradoxes.
• Continuity Nod: When the 2399 officers are in the cargo bay on the 2378 Fitzgerald, Kal says something like "don't count your drinks before they're served," a nod to the fact that since leaving Starfleet she's had what Dr. Garr calls several "interesting" occupations.
• Continuity Overlap: The third act of the film overlaps with Wolf 359 and its aftermath.
• Crew of One: Garr with the Mark-I ISS Voyager.
• Critical Staffing Shortage: The 2399 Fitzgerald has just five (later seven) people aboard. Kal has to double as both conn and ops because they don't have a pilot, Hargrove is acting XO and tactical, and everyone has to pitch in to make repairs and stand watch.
• Crusading Widow: Ronston's Garr from 2399; his wife (Kristie) is said to have been killed in the temporal disaster, and his efforts in the film are said to be aimed at bringing her back.
• Cry into Chest: Played with; after they witness the Battle of Wolf 359, Kal is seen sobbing into Mitchell's shoulder in her (their?) quarters.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The Battle of Beta Stromgren. Especially in the revision.
  • And later, the Battle of Wolf 359.
• Custom Uniform: Drakus and Dark Reyf both have these, what appears to be a First Contact-style uniform but with a dark gray undershirt instead of one of the division colors from a standard uniform.
• Damage Control: Renee Mitchell, first as the crippled Fitzgerald hides in the Azure Nebula, then during the Battle of Beta Stromgren.
• Dark Is Evil: Invoked on the Mark-II ISS Voyager. Consider: the Fitzgerald is well-lit on the inside and has a sparkling hull; the Mark-I ISS Voyager has some dramatic lighting on the inside but for the most part looks like a normal starship, blue hull armor notwithstanding (which somehow doesn't look all that threatening). Then we have the Mark-II, with its dark red (blood red) hull and the dark interiors, which seem to barely have enough light to see by and no more.
• Deadpan Snarker: The entire cast takes turns at this, but in particular Garr, Hargrove, and Ronston.
  • Kendra Ronston to her ex-husband when he wants to come with her: "Imagine my relief to have your support."
  • Garr, when trying to "comfort" Mitchell: "You're both as stubborn as a pair of Klingons." *Beat* "Don't blame me, they're your personality flaws."
• Deal with the Devil: Just as Garr did with Reyf in the first film, Drakus tries to subvert Dark Garr with one of these.
• Death Glare: Garr gives his 2378 counterpart one of these when he protests his innocence. "Haven't done anything? By now, 47 innocent souls aboard the starship Fairgrieve have paid for your ambition with their lives."
• Defrosting Ice Queen: In the second film Hargrove was one of these; she seemed to be fully defrosted by the end of Retribution, but by the time of Redemption is just as cold and standoffish as ever.
• Demoted to Extra: Howard Parks from the first film; he's seen exactly twice when we're in 2378, and unlike the scenes in Specter isn't present during the briefing scene in the observation lounge.
• Determined Expression: Kendra Ronston's default expression. Inverted with Admiral Prentice; he seems to be on Valium through most of the film.
• Doom Magnet: The USS F. Scott Fitzgerald seems to be one of these.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Dark Garr on the Borg cube. He chooses to stay behind, going so far as to ensure that Ronston can't beam him away, and then yells for the others to leave without him—right after telling his counterpart, "As long as he exists, then in a way I got what I wanted."
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Overlaps with Special Effects Failure. In the early scenes, the sets were still evolving and so their appearances could change from one scene to the next, or sometimes even from one shot to the next.
  • Same with the uniforms, but for a different reason. The textures for the uniforms were too much for Poser to handle at the usual settings, so the transparency map was removed so they would at least look passable. But some shots are rendered at high resolution, and the uniforms look like they're actually supposed to. What gives it away (aside from subtle differences in lighting and shadows) is the front of the collars: in the "preview" renders, the collars are solid like they were in the first two films, but in the "real" renders, they're parted like they were in TNG.
• Earn Your Happy Ending:
  • Kendra Ronston has seen her ex-husband killed after she was mean to him, only to come face to face with his younger self; been forced to ally herself with Dark Garr, whose motives and loyalties are questionable at best; and been forced to sit by and allow the Battle of Wolf 359 to happen without interfering, listening silently as 11,000 Starfleet officers in 2367 lose their lives to the Borg. When she returns to 2399 to find Merv alive and well and the Federation restored, it's because she persevered through circumstances that would break most people.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: What happens to Alphekka IV when the temporal disaster strikes.
• Establishing Character Moment: Most of the main cast have had these in the previous two films, but several have one in Redemption as well:
  • Ronston gets hers when she sends Falwell to comfort Mitchell.
  • Falwell's comes when she tells Ronston to give encouragement to the rest of the crew. And pretty much every one of her scenes after that follows suit.
  • Merv Ronston's comes when he distracts the Cardassians so his ex-wife (who was mean to him just a few scenes earlier) can complete her mission.
  • Kal's comes when she looks at Mitchell during the first time jump; arguably Mitchell's happens at the same time.
  • Dark Garr's comes almost as soon as he is introduced, during the meeting scene on Voyager he is openly contemptuous—until someone mentions Reyf, which is when all of his Jerkass traits vanish and he demands to know what happens to his friend.
• Evil Counterpart: Drakus is this to Dark Garr and 2399!Garr.
• Evil Gloating: Drakus when he meets his opponents at Beta Stromgren. He gloats about how badly they're overmatched and boasts that once again they've failed to stop him—right before he launches the Mark-II ISS Voyager.
• Evil Is Bigger: Inverted; the Fitzgerald is said to have 47 decks, while the Intrepid class (to which the ISS Voyager and its Evil Twin belong) have 15 decks. Justified in that Intrepid-class ships, being smaller, are both more maneuverable and probably easier to handle by one crewmember.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Invoked with Dark Garr after the Fitzgerald crew from 2399 first meets him; he blows up the Alcawell Station simply because he can, don't forget.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Just listen when Drakus speaks.
• Evil Twin: Drakus and his "better self" from 2399.
• Face Death with Dignity: Dark Garr at the end of the film.
• Face, Nod, Action: Common for this trilogy, the characters will deliver their dialogue, then nod, then exit.
• Facial Dialogue: There's still a lot of this, particularly between the couples.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Overlaps with Trailers Always Spoil. Did you really think they'd reach Earth and find everything was fine?
• Fatal Flaw: Each of the characters appears to have one, but the most important is Kendra Ronston's seeming insecurity; unlike the previous two films, where the burden of command fell on others, this time when she has the captain's chair she's shown to doubt herself more than once, eventually leading to a Heroic BSoD after witnessing Wolf 359.
• Fate Worse than Death: What Dark Garr sees as living with the possibility of one day becoming Drakus.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Kal and Mitchell fit into this category; they could barely even look at each other when the film started, but after battling the Cardassians, going back through time, infiltrating their own ship, and much, much, more, they finally reconcile.
• First-Name Basis: Everyone addresses each other by first names, at least at first, then they slowly begin to settle back into a more formal command structure as the story progresses. Justified in that they all appear to hold the same rank.
  • Inverted however, in that as soon as Prentice shows up, Ronston goes from calling him "Bradley" to "Admiral Prentice."
  • And everyone seems to be a little cool to Garr, since they all address him as "Dr. Garr."
• Fridge Logic. When 2399!Kendra talks with 2378!Prentice on the 2378 ship's Ten Forward, she tells him about 2399!Merv sacrificing himself to save her life. Later, when 2378!Merv confronts her about it, she remarks, "I won't ask who let that slip."
  • In the second holodeck scene at the dam, the water is very clearly moving towards the dam. But looking at the clouds, the wind is just as clearly blowing in the opposite direction.
    • Potentially justified; could be the result of the dam pulling water to its far side for purposes of making electricity.
  • So, Drakus' entire motivation is the fact that the Borg technology keeping him alive was destroyed. Right? Yet, when the Mark-II ISS Voyager is launched, it can clearly be heard making the same sounds as a Borg ship, implying it has Borg technology of some kind. If Drakus can replicate one type of Borg technology, why can't he replicate another?
• Funny Background Event: A somber example; on the bridge of the 2399 Fitzgerald, after the Battle of Wolf 359 and Kal's announcement that "All Federation power signatures from the site of battle have ceased," 2399!Garr moves as though he wants to comfort Reyf, who he knows has just overheard his father's death. Dark Garr stops him, and the two share a nod of understanding as 2399!Garr leaves Reyf alone.
• Future Me Scares Me. Dark Garr says this about Drakus at the end of the film. It's heavily implied, though not stated outright, that 2399!Garr feels the same way about Drakus.
• Genki Girl: The 2378 version of Jennifer Hargrove.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The ISS Voyager. No explanation as to its origins was given in Specter or in Retribution; the question was raised in the first film but then quickly Hand Waved away. Its origins are partially explained in this film (although where the construction yard used to build it came from is still left unexplained).
• Girls with Guns: Captain Jennifer Hargrove. Whenever she goes into a potentially dangerous situation, she grabs a large phaser rifle.
  • Inverted with Renee Mitchell, established as a Butch Lesbian early on. As the chief engineer, she only has a tricorder.
• Godzilla Threshold: Seems like we've got one of these on our hands, since even frakking Earth is laid to waste in 2399.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: Overlaps with Color-Coded for Your Convenience; the villain's Cool Starship is red, the sort-of-good-guy's is blue.
• Hand Wave:
  • So, because the ship is about to be decommissioned, everything is shut down. When the planet is about to explode (read: when there's a good opportunity for jeopardy), it takes forever to get the impulse engines on-line. Yet, when the danger is passed, suddenly there's warp drive available right when we ask for it?
  • Also, when we took that little tour through the deserted ship, all the rooms were shown as empty, including sickbay. Then, when we go to sickbay for a DNA analysis, suddenly everything's unpacked as though nothing happened.
  • And how exactly temporal distortions terrorize planets isn't even addressed.
  • At the very end, Ronston's reaction to Dr. Garr's presence. Since he returned with her through time, why is she suddenly surprised that he's around?
• Happily Ever After. The film's ending strongly hints this for our heroes.
• Hard-Work Montage: Overlaps with A-Team Montage after the Battle of Beta Stromgren, showing the two crews working to repair their ships and find a way to stop Drakus once and for all. "International Code" from the film Independence Day.
• Hero Ball: All of the 2399 main cast. They confront the horrific reality that time has been shattered and untold millions have perished, face off with the Cardassians, use a dangerous method of Time Travel to go back in time to fix things, and then without hesitation make plans to infiltrate the past version of their ship to get parts they need.
  • Dr. Garr, when he transports Kal, Hargrove, and the supplies they need back to the shuttle, with no regard for his own safety.
  • Merv Ronston, who throws himself and his crew into the line of fire to save his ex-wife and her ship from pursuing Cardassians.
• Heel–Face Turn: Dark Reyf at the end of the film.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • In an interesting invocation, Dark Garr has one of these when he learns about the 47 people on the Fairgrieve.
  • Kendra Ronston has a major one after Wolf 359, since she and her crew could've stopped it if they'd chosen to, but the repercussions to history were unthinkable. Her breakdown is so severe that Prentice assumes command in her place.
• He's Back!: Kendra Ronston, after her Heroic BSoD, returns to command after a Rousing Speech by—of all people—Lesley Kal.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Dark Garr, at least when compared to Drakus. This is lampshaded when 2399!Garr and Dark Garr have a conversation on the holodeck.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: Despite being the cause of a massive temporal disaster that basically destroys all of 2399, Drakus is referred to but not seen for the entirety of the film's first two acts. Viewers are taking it on faith that he even appears at all, based on his brief appearance in the trailer. (But remember, Trailers Always Lie!)
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: In a moment of exasperation, Ronston tells a pacing Dr. Garr, "Doctor, for the love of negative ions, sit down."
• Holodeck. The ever-present holodeck makes several appearances in Redemption, first as a means of communication between Drakus and the crew of the 2399 Fitzgerald, then later in its more traditional role as a holographic environment simulator.
• How Many Fingers?: In a nod to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Admiral Prentice poses exactly this question to Dark Garr after the Battle of Beta Stromgren. He responds, "That's not very damn funny."
• I Am a Monster: Dark Garr seems to feel this way when he learns that 47 people aboard the starship Fairgrieve have been accidentally killed as a result of his experiments.
• I Am Not Him:
  • 2399 Garr is adamant that Drakus may look like him and sound like him, but he is not the same. So don't call him "Braiyon Garr".
  • Dark Garr takes the same attitude, saying that his intent was to change his life only and that he was not an Omnicidal Maniac like Drakus.
• I Can't Believe I'm Saying This: Hargrove, when she's describing how risky it would be to sneak aboard their ship's 2378 counterpart, only to reverse course at the last moment and say in resignation, "...and we're going to do it, aren't we?"
• I Hate Past Me:
  • Dr. Garr with his self from 2378.
  • Inverted, at least at first, between Captain Ronston and her younger self; the younger version actually asks for her advice in dealing with the Merv Ronston of her time.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Braiyon Garr (the 2399 and 2378 versions at least). As with Specter, the animator performed his lines live and then mimicked those actions when animating the figure. The result is that Garr's actions tend to be more lifelike than the other cast members.
• Insufferable Genius: 2399 Garr at first, though he gets better with time...just in time for Dark Garr to show up and remind everyone JUST how insufferable he is.
• In Spite of a Nail: In every timeline seen by our heroes in the three films, there's a version of Braiyon Garr, but each one of them is a very different person.
• Intimate Healing: After Wolf 359, Kal and Mitchell are seen hugging in Kal's quarters, as the crew deals with the aftermath.
• I Owe You My Life: Dr. Garr says this about the rest of the Fitzgerald crew.
• I Shall Taunt You: Drakus to his opponents just before he launches the Mark-II.
• It's Personal: Played straight with Drakus, who is very evidently going to seek personal revenge against his opponents this time around.
  • Also with Kendra Ronston after Wolf 359, lampshaded when her away team transports to the Borg ship at the end and she orders phasers set to full power.
• Jurisdiction Friction: There's a little of this between Ronston and Hargrove at first, since they're of equal rank, but after Kendra's Rousing Speech just before they enter Cardassian space, this seems to go away as they turn their attention to the mission.
• Kicked Upstairs: Bradley Prentice; in the last film he was a captain, this time around he's an admiral.
• Killed Offscreen: The Kristie android is neither seen nor mentioned the entire film. Initially this might be taken to mean she simply went down with the Mark-I ISS Voyager at the end of the previous film, but as we go on and see Drakus' increasing insanity, it's not hard to imagine he devised some far more sinister end for her.
  • This is somewhat lampshaded during the epilogue, as Ronston mentions the Kristie android from 2378, but doesn't make any mention of the one we last saw on the bridge of the Iron Vulture at the end of Retribution.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Prentice makes several time-travel jokes, prompting an eventual wry glance from Ronston.
• Large Ham: Dark Garr. "Clearance sale...everything MUST go!" Double invocation because he's alone on the bridge of his ship when he says it.
  • Drakus. "I. AM. Forever!"
• Laser-Guided Karma: Despite a massive temporal disaster, miraculously the USS F. Scott Fitzgerald finds itself unscathed.
• Law of Conservation of Detail: It's not clear exactly how a massive energy release at warp 8.8 will propel our heroes back in time. It just...happens.
• Leitmotif: In Specter, the primary love theme was from the film "Titanic," representing affection between Garr and Kristie. The same theme reappeared in Retribution, serving the same purpose, and was joined by a particular flute piece from the Disney cartoon "TaleSpin," which served as the love theme between Prentice and Kendra Ronston (this changed to the theme from Star Trek: Insurrection at the end, subtly reminding the audience that we're in a different timeline with different dynamics). The third film offers what sounds like the instrumental of Sheena Easton's "A Dream Worth Keeping" (from Disney's FernGully: The Last Rainforest) as the love theme for Mitchell and Kal.
  • This according to Word of God stems from a friend of the producer getting a good laugh from the use of the "Titanic" love theme in the first film as "over the top."
  • The theme for "hope" in this film seems to be the "Hope Lives Again (Arkology Theme)" from Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda. It's heard twice near the end of Act I, once as Ronston gives a Patrick Stewart Speech to the crew, and again during the Time Travel scene.
  • The Adama family theme from Battlestar Galactica (2003) pops up several times during "family bonding" moments and seems to serve as one of the film's friendship themes.
  • In Retribution, the Prentice/Ronston love theme was "Romantic Theme" from Talespin. The same music reappears when Prentice confronts Lt. Erickson in Reyf's ready room about her deployment of security personnel.
  • Reyf's theme in Specter was the friendship theme from Star Trek: First Contact; a soft synth version plays in the background when the 2378 Reyf visits the brig to talk to the 2399 officers.
  • In Specter, the theme from Star Trek: Voyager served as Garr's theme (the good version of him anyway). That theme surfaces again several times in Redemption, though notably only after the crew visits the 2378 version of their ship.
  • The Fitzgerald has its own motif, the instrumental of "Faith of the Heart" from Star Trek: Enterprise. It was only heard once in Specter, not at all in the sequel, but is heard twice in Redemption: once as the shuttle approaches Deep Space Nine in 2378, and again as Ronston looks at her ship from the 2378 counterpart.
  • Anytime Kendra is getting sentimental about her ex-husband, we hear a theme from Disney's Atlantis, specifically that film's own Leitmotif for the Whitmore family.
• "Leave Your Quest" Test: Drakus presents Dark Garr with one of these towards the end of the film, offering Garr the means to restore his damaged physiology to normal, in exchange for a Heel–Face Turn against his companions.
• Let Me Get This Straight...: Invoked by several 2399 crewmembers throughout the course of the movie.
• Limited Advancement Opportunities: In Retribution, Kal, Mitchell, and Hargrove were Lieutenant Commanders, and Ronston and Falwell were Commanders. By the time of Redemption—which takes place ten years later—everyone has moved up exactly one rank. Except for Hargrove, who moved up two and by the end of the movie Kal, who actually lost one.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Kristie was apparently this for Dark Garr, since losing her is what drove him mad.
• Magic Countdown: We get several countdowns in the film, and while most of them make passable attempts to observe the realities of linear time, a time or two there are distinct gaps.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: Justified, in that the 2399 main characters are the only ones on the ship.
• Manipulative Bastard: In contrast to the 2399 Garr, Dark Garr shows signs of this from the very start. His conversation with his counterpart in Engineering has this feel to it, but it goes nowhere since Garr doesn't want anything to do with him.
• Meaningful Echo:
  • When Garr confronts Ronston in her ready room over being left off the away team, at one point he tells her, "At some point you have to step back and take a chance." When their efforts to convince Dark Garr seem to be going nowhere, Ronston says this verbatim back to him, and it seems to get his attention.
  • When Dark Garr is aboard the Fitzgerald explaining Drakus' intentions, he takes a short bow when Falwell mentions his name. Later on, when Drakus visits Dark Garr aboard the ISS Voyager, he bows in exactly the same way when Dark Garr realizes who he is.
  • When Kendra confronts Reyf about his deceitful acts leading up to his following her back to 2367, he says, "Deception and subterfuge won't help any of us," moments before promising that it won't happen again. Admiral Reyf said those exact words in Retribution.
  • In the same scene, Lt. Erickson comments that "It seemed like a good idea, at the time," when confronted by Captain Ronston (her future self) about planting a tracking device in some supplies. Later, when Dark Garr confronts Ronston about withholding Drakus' true identity from him, she says, "It seemed like a good idea, at the time."
  • A scene midway through the film shows us Garr's quarters on the Fitzgerald. Later on, when we see Dark Garr's quarters on the ISS Voyager, many of the same furnishings are visible, including the DeLorean from Back to the Future, subtly reminding the audience that he and Ronston's Garr are different versions of the same person.
  • When our heroes finally catch up with Drakus at Beta Stromgren, he tells them that they'll pay the price for ignoring his warning to stay out of his affairs. Prentice, trying to be threatening, tells him, "That's a bold statement for someone in your position." Hargrove then adds that with three against one, the disadvantage is Drakus'. The villain just grins and says, "That's a bold statement for someone in your position."
  • Prentice himself has two Catch Phrases for situations they face; "We're doomed" when the situation is tense but not life-threatening, and "I have a bad feeling about this" when something MAJORLY life-threatening is about to go down. Guess which one he uses when they meet Drakus and his shiny new ship.
  • Earlier on, we saw Dark Garr blow up the Alcawell station seemingly because he could. After the Battle of Beta Stromgren, Drakus does the same to the Mark I.
  • The BGM actually does this, doubling as a bit of bookending. The first scene in the film—of Kendra Ronston saying her final goodbye to the old Fitzgerald—is backed by the First Contact theme, which plays again through her final log entry, which ends with the reveal of the new Fitzgerald.
• Medium Blending: Seeing the CGI Astrometrics set combined with live-action Stock Footage from Star Trek: TNG.
• Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness: The crew from 2399 interacting with their past selves from 2378.
• Missing Trailer Scene: Overlaps with Never Trust a Trailer. Several snippets from the trailer have already been seen in the actual movie, and they were either very different from what was in the trailer, or else omitted the lines from the trailer altogether.
• Mood Whiplash: We get just a hint of the UST between Kal and Mitchell before the ship starts rumbling, and we go from feeling sorry for the two of them to being AFRAID FOR OUR VERY LIVES!!!
  • Later, we go from Dark Garr's Sad-Times Montage, in which he is clearly sad and feeling sorry for himself, to an ominous and threatening visit by Drakus to the Mark-I ISS Voyager.
  • At the climax of the film, we go from being scared of Drakus, to elated that he's dead, to feeling warm and fuzzy as Ronston forgives Dark Reyf, to hating Drakus for shooting Dark Reyf, to feeling sorry for Dark Reyf again...right before our pulses start pounding again when we realize the 2399 Fitzgerald will have to be abandoned due to battle damage, to confusion (and anger?) at Dark Garr for sealing himself behind Drakus' forcefield.
• Mook–Face Turn: Admiral Reyf at the end, going so far as to shoot Drakus in the back.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate. Drakus, since he started life as Dark Garr.
• Motive Decay: Dark Garr. At first he refuses to join our heroes to help them stave off the temporal disaster, but decides to do so when he learns Reyf's life might be at stake. Then that seems to take a backseat to his desire to redeem himself.
• Moving the Goalposts: First the crew has to go back to 2378; then they discover that they have to go back even farther, this time to 2367.
• Ms. Fanservice: Renee Mitchell. In the scene between her and Garr in Ten Forward, she's wearing a tank top made of black leather.
• Must Make Amends: Although he doesn't come right out and say it, the 2399 version of Garr is acting this way in regards to Drakus; even though the two of them are completely separate individuals, Garr still acts like he feels responsible for what Drakus has done.
• My Future Self and Me. 2399!Garr and Dark Garr on the holodeck.
  • The scene starts off with Other Me Annoys Me on the part of 2399!Garr.
• Mythology Gag: Garr's beloved holoprogram, a replica of The Price Is Right, appears in this film, after being described as his pride and joy in the first film.
• Never Found the Body: Drakus at the end of Retribution, paving the way for his appearance here.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: We'd never heard about this odd computer quirk that alerts security in the event one person accesses the system from multiple locations before...
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: 2399!Prentice is in Engineering trying to distract 2378!Merv from picking up what the 2399!Kendra is doing—which only shows up as "odd computer activity" on one of the Engineering monitors. As soon as 2399!Prentice logs into the computer, however, alarms go off on the bridge.
  • Near the start of the third act, it's revealed that everything would have been fine if not for the 2399 Fitzgerald crew traveling back in time; for Techno Babble reasons, this partially caused the temporal disaster. If they'd left well enough alone, everything would've been fine.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The three Garrs - 2399 Garr is nice (relatively speaking), Drakus is mean, and Dark Garris the "in-between" as the Token Evil Teammate.
• No One Gets Left Behind: Kendra Ronston is this to Lesley Kal, refusing to forget about her even after they had some kind of MAJOR falling out, doing everything she could to keep her out of trouble.
• Noodle Incident:
  • The celebration that Mitchell talks about, which involved non-synthaholic drinks. She had a hell of a hangover the next morning... but wasn't late for her duty shift!
  • There's also the little matter of exactly what happened between Kal and Mitchell. At the end of Retribution they seemed to be getting along just fine, but here they're not even on speaking terms.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Beneath it all, Dark Garr is really just lonely and pining for lost love, a fact he raises with his counterpart from 2399 in an effort to make peace.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain. For most of Specter, fans wondered why the main cast seemed so afraid of Dr. Garr. When we meet him this time, everyone is afraid of him for good reason—and the audience gets a not-so-subtle reminder of why when, after he agrees to help the 2399 crew, he still destroys the Alcawell station, seemingly For the Evulz.
• Not So Stoic: Jennifer Hargrove; after witnessing the Battle of Wolf 359, even she breaks down and actually cries.
• Official Couple: Kal and Mitchell. They were together during the last film, and even though Redemption starts out with the two of them alienated and estranged, it was obvious from the start that they'd patch things up before it was all said and done.
• Off Stage Villainy: Both Drakus and Dark Garr did their evil deeds in the previous two films, and while some are alluded to in Redemption, very little villainy is seen from either of them. At least, until near the end of Act III...
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Just when Ronston, Kal, and Hargrove are about to toast "absent friends," the ship gets hit hard by something and then starts rumbling ominously. Even the BGM knows it's Serious Business. The crew looks out the window, and what used to be a lush blue planet suddenly has fire cracks all over its surface. Very calmly, Ronston says, "Get to the bridge. NOW."
  • The reaction of the 2399 crew when the cargo transporter fails with them still standing on it, and a moment later the cargo bay door opens, and in walks a security team led by none other than Captain Ronston's past self. And she looks pissed.
  • After our heroes get to 2367, and Kal gets the viewscreen working. "This," says Ronston, "I was not expecting." Turns out the "other" Fitzgerald from 2378 followed them back in time, and because of their damaged sensors our heroes didn't pick them up.
  • At the end of the Battle of Beta Stromgren, the Mark-I ISS Voyager is disabled, and Drakus fires some sort of torpedo at it. Dark Garr, trying to make repairs on the bridge, looks up and sees the projectile on the viewscreen. His reaction? "Ohh, shittt..."
• Older and Wiser: The 2399 crew, compared to their 2378 counterparts.
• Omnicidal Maniac. Drakus. And how.
• One Last Job: The crew of the F. Scott Fitzgerald seem about to either retire along with their ship or go their separate ways when disaster strikes. They band together along with their mothballed starship for one last adventure.
• The Only One: After the temporal disaster, our intrepid heroes aboard the Fitzgerald find themselves in this position; The Federation is all but wiped out, and the rest of Starfleet seems to have disappeared.
• Orchestral Bombing: The Battle of Beta Stromgren employs "Retreat," Jerry Goldsmith's Borg chase music from Star Trek: First Contact.
• Our Time Travel Is Different: When the Fitzgerald goes back in time, it looks like the Wormhole Time Travel variety.
• Parental Abandonment: It was established in the first film that Reyf's father was killed at Wolf 359; when he meets 2399!Garr in this film and asks about his future death, all Garr says is that his father would've been proud.
  • At the climax of the film, what prompts Dark Reyf to finally turn against Drakus is remembrance of his father.
• Percussive Maintenance: On multiple occasions, frustrated crewmembers slap their fists against their consoles.
• Permission to Speak Freely: Invoked several times by various crewmembers, but most notably with the 2378!Prentice when speaking with 2399!Ronston. At first she seems taken aback, before realizing this is Commander Prentice and not Admiral Prentice.
• Plot-Driven Breakdown: The damage sustained by the Fitzgerald during the battle with the Cardassians and then on the trip through time leaving the ship all but crippled, forcing the crew to go to their ship's past counterpart to scavenge supplies.

• Precision F-Strike:
  • In the shuttle, when Hargrove and Garr are arguing, just before Prentice breaks them up, Hargrove is very clearly about to say something beginning with the letter "F."
  • Later, when they all reach 2367 and Ronston is in Reyf's ready room, Dark Garr seems to be trying to bait her into an argument. She does the exact same thing—but fortunately Prentice is there to keep the peace.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner. Inverted; the one liner is actually Drakus.
• Prop Recycling: The trusty lighstaber handle makes an appearance, this time as an engineering tool.
  • On the Borg cube, the tool Drakus is using on the Borg drone is clearly Dr. Phlox's medical scanner from Star Trek: Enterprise.
• Quotes Fit for a Trailer: It's hard to imagine how some of the dialogue will fit into the completed film, since some clips seem to duplicate one another.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: Kal says this verbatim about the planet that's about to destroy itself. Mitchell says it again when the ship reaches Sector 001.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Shortly before the writing for this movie began, Unusualsuspex released his Starfleet Museum Annexe mesh, which appears in the first scene. The description suggested that it be used to showcase powered down and decommissioned ships. Word of God suggests this was the inspiration for the first draft of the script.
• Really 700 Years Old: Drakus. At the end of Specter, Garr was thrown back in time, but not by ten years as he'd intended—in Retribution, we learned that he'd instead been thrown back by 78 years. With the "present day" portion of Redemption set in 2399, that means that between the end of Specter and the start of this film, Garr/Drakus aged a total of 98 years.
• Rebuilt Set: Several of the USS Fitzgerald sets to depict the 2399 ship, especially the bridge.
• Recycled Set:
  • Probably comes as no surprise that the starship sets from Retribution continue to appear as the interiors of the Fitzgerald, appropriately redressed of course.
  • The Vandor IV laboratory looks a lot like Garr's lab from Specter. Just with a lot more rubble, and a MUCH better lighting scheme.
• Redemption Equals Death: Dark Garr at the end of the film. Ashamed of what he sees of himself in Drakus, and knowing that the possibility will always exist of himself turning into his Evil Twin, he chooses to remain behind on the Borg cube, and die when it self-destructs.
• Refusal of the Call: Inverted with Lesley Kal, who by 2399 has left Starfleet and leads a shady life, eschewing all her responsibilities in favor of what Garr calls an "interesting" lifestyle. One might've expected her to want nothing to do with duty and responsibility—much less a uniform—ever again...but from the very start she does her part, and then some.
• Replacement Goldfish: The Sovereign-class USS F. Scott Fitzgerald NCC-85107-B at the end of the film.
• The Reveal: Pretty evident by their similar appearance, but the moment when the captain of the Goodson addresses the bald officer as "Mister Reyf," identifying him as Gaius Reyf's father.
• Revenge Before Reason: Inverted with Drakus; before, he put his desire for revenge above all else, but this time, when presented with a perfect opportunity to eradicate his foes on the starships Fitzgerald, he instead goes off to heal himself.
• Revenge Myopia: At the start of Specter, Garr's enemy was simply said to be all of Starfleet; in Retribution, his attentions were focused solidly on Reyf for his actions in the first film. This time around, his loathing is seemingly targeted at Prentice, despite the fact that—technically—it was Kendra Ronston that stopped him in the alternate timeline.
• Right Behind Me: When Mitchell confesses her continuing feelings for Kal to Garr in Ten Forward, she doesn't realize Kal is standing in the open doorway behind her.
  • This is a bit of Fridge Logic to start with. While Garr has a very clear reason for going to see Mitchell (wanting to talk about some shield upgrades), it's not clear why Kal was there, nor is it clear why we (the audience) don't hear the door open or close.
  • It's heavily implied that midway through their conversation, Garr realizes Kal is there, and everything that follows is a deliberate attempt to get them back together. Very possibly serving as setting this Garr apart from Dark Garr (who reappears in the following scene), and from Drakus.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: This is quietly hand waved in reference to the various timelines. We the viewer have now seen three distinct timelines, the original one from Specter, the nightmarish future we saw in Retribution, and now the seemingly peaceful 2399 from the early scenes in Redemption. Prentice seems to recall the Retribution timeline, and indirectly references it once (when he says "The last time I saw him, I deactivated all of them," referring to the scene in Retribution when he shot Drakus with a phaser that shut down his Borg technology). They all seem somehow to be familiar with the Specter timeline as well.
• Rousing Speech: Kendra Ronston gives one of these just before the Fitzgerald crosses into Cardassian terriroty. Even Hargrove seems moved.
  • Near the end of the film, Lesley Kal gives one, trying to convince Ronston to return to duty following a Heroic BSoD. All the other officers present—including Dark Garr—join in.
• Rule of Cool:
  • Why the Fitzgerald shakes when Renee powers up the warp core.
  • The only possible explanation for a number of notable omissions from the story, such as how exactly their Time Travel method actually works, or how the 2378 Fitzgerald is able to follow their future counterparts back through time undetected.
  • Lampshaded in the next scene in Reyf's ready room; Ronston demands to know why Dark Garr, whose sensors were perfectly functional, didn't alert them that they were being followed. His answer? "It's more fun THIS way."
• Sanity Has Advantages: Lampshaded in an exchange between Garr and Dark Garr, in which Garr points out that he has "something to believe in," referring to his crewmates, while Dark Garr just runs away from everything and lives a life of misery.
• Sarcasm Failure: While in the brig on the 2378 Fitzgerald, Prentice quips, "We're doomed," only to get scowls from his cellmates.
• Scenery Gorn: A shuttlecraft flyover of the lava-fied Earth, just to drive the point home that this is not a dream.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!:
  • Despite Starfleet's well-established prohibition against deliberately engaging in Time Travel, Ronston and her crew don't even blink at doing it to restore 2399 to its pristine, un-disaster-fied state. Invoked again later on in the interactions between the 2399 crew and their 2378 counterparts, who let slip little nuggets of information about the future, to alter how their pasts unfolded.
  • Kendra Ronston does this herself a whopping three times: once when she tells her past self that Merv Ronston is "absolutely" worth it, then again when she tells Prentice's past self that Merv is a good man (a subtle hint to Prentice not to pursue her and potentially disrupt any potential relationship between herself and Merv), and a third time when she begs Merv Ronston's past self to stay patient with her past self, no matter what happens. Kendra and Merv said to teach other in the previous film.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The Fitzgerald crew goes back in time to undo a temporal disaster in 2399.
• Ship Tease: Kendra Ronston and Bradley Prentice. It was hinted at in Specter that Prentice was interested in then-Lieutenant Erickson, then again a few times in Retribution. In Redemption, it's said that they tried it and it didn't work, apparently because Ronston still had feelings for her ex-husband. Prentice and Kendra are later said to have "a unique relationship."
• Shout-Out: A number of them even in the film's early stages:
  • The title sequence, for one, strongly resembles that of Star Trek: TNG, right down to the Fitzgerald flying past the camera just like the 1701-D did.
  • The combadges are from the TNG episode "Future Imperfect."
  • Word of God says that Ronston's last look around the bridge was inspired by a similar scene in the TNG episode "Starship Mine."
  • The camera shots of the empty corridors are directly taken from the TNG episode "11001001."
  • "Lesley...how long is this thing between you and Renee going to go on?" sounds remarkably similar to a conversation that happened in the anti-time future of the TNG Grand Finale, "All Good Things."
  • "Doctor, you of all people should appreciate what happens when a heart breaks" is a nod to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, in which Kirk says almost the exact same thing to Dr. McCoy about his past involvement with Carol Marcus.
    • Falwell even responds "Sorry" just like Bones did.
  • "To absent friends," aside from being a real Navy toast to salute fallen comrades, was featured in both Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and in Star Trek: Nemesis.
  • Just exactly what is in those glasses that Ronston and the others are toasting with? The liquid is blue, so is it at all possible that it might be Romulan Ale?
  • Many of the monitors have static displays saying "This Console Under Computer Control" similar to the Enterprise in Star Trek III.
  • The set layout of Main Engineering is a callback to the TNG episode "Parallels," which had the pool table right next to the warp core instead of in the big open area. Likewise, the two alert bars in the back of the bridge are colorful instead of orange, also something only seen in one of the alternate realities in "Parallels."
  • Ronston says "Punch it!" in a clear reference to Star Trek XI.
  • The trip through the solar system has several:
    • The shot of the Fitzgerald passing Saturn is very similar to a shot in TNG's "Best of Both Worlds" as the Enterprise-D races towards Earth.
    • The shots of the Fitzgerald passing by Jupiter are exact mirror images of shots from Star Trek: The Motion Picture as the Enterprise prepared to warp away to meet V'Ger.
  • "That was a waste of a perfectly good heartfelt sentiment" harkens back to a similar line spoken by Deadpan Snarker Jack O'Neill (with two L's) in Stargate SG-1: "That was a waste of a perfectly good explanation."
  • "In my experience, there's no such thing as luck."
  • "Kendra, risk is part of the game if you want to sit in that chair."
  • "We have a problem." "I didn't authorize any problems."
  • When the Fitzgerald completes its first time jump, the visual effect of it re-entering normal space is identical to the one from Back to the Future. Right down to the sound effect, which is taken from the final time shift of the third film.
  • Garr: "Piece of cake. Piece of Alteran crumb cake."
    • And for that matter, the word Alteran.
  • When we see Kal's quarters, a number of allusions to the Stargate-verse are scattered about: the Ancient repository of knowledge, an Atlantis DHD, the touchstone from early in SG-1, and at one point even the Milky Way gate address to Earth shows up as a piece of wall decor.
  • When the crew is trying to convince Ronston to return to duty, Mitchell echoes another chief engineer in that other Star Trek III and says, "I'd be grateful, captain, if you'd...give the word." Word of God says that when the voice actor was recording that line, it came out sounding just like Scotty so many times it had to be re-recorded separately from the rest of the dialogue to get it right.
  • When Ronston and her away team confront Drakus on the Borg cube, the scene is full of them:
    • Drakus greets them by saying, "Well what were you expecting—a disembodied brain in an android body? A chrome mask with blades and a cape perhaps?"
    • Hargrove stepping forward and boldly declaring "Today IS a good day to die!" is both a reference to to TNG and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as well as a rare Call-Back to Star Trek Retribution, when she quoted Chancellor Martok, strongly hinting at some form of Klingon heritage in her. This is lampshaded when, after shooting Drakus only for the phaser blast to be stopped by a forcefield, she swears in Klingon. For bonus points, the curse is a longer version of one she muttered in Retribution.
    • Drakus, chewing the scenery as he shouts, "No more games, no more riddles, no more curtains ONE AND TWO, just PLAIN CURTAINS!"
    • "For our father."
  • In a way, the music for the scene where Dark Garr says his goodbyes to the others is a shoutout. The music is from a scene in Supernatural with the two lead characters saying goodbye to their father; in the same way, Garr is saying goodbye to Reyf, who in all three films has been portrayed as something of a father figure to his officers—while at the same time acknowledging Reyf's own father.
• Shrouded in Myth: Drakus, since in this film's timeline he didn't exist, but Admiral Prentice (who comes from a timeline where he DID exist) is very definitely frightened by him.
• Sliding Scale of Alternate History Plausibility: So the point that seemed to be made at the end of Star Trek Retribution was that the timeline had been changed, and nothing in either Specter or Retribution occurred as we saw it. Yet, when we go back in time in Redemption, suddenly we find ourselves back in the original timeline from the beginning of Specter?
• Sliding Scale of Endings: So, the first film ended on a high note. Retribution...not so much. The trailer seems to strongly hint that this is going to be a damned Reset Button Plot. Say it ain't so!
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: So we have a story in which the "present day" is torn to pieces by the villain's evil deeds. So we go into the past to stop him, and wind up...in the events of the first film?
• Sliding Scale of Unavoidable vs. Unforgivable: It's hard to imagine how this one won't come into play. If we're going back in time and the Dr. Garr from 2378 is somehow going to be involved, if our heroes from 2399 know what's going to happen because of him, do they let him go on his merry way when it's all over, or do they have Something More Sinister in mind for him? Perhaps a Heroic Double Cross?
• Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration: So Drakus seemed to be perfectly fine at the end of Star Trek Retribution... but now, ten years later, apparently he's dying because of what Prentice did.
• Smug Snake: Dark Garr, much more so than we ever saw in Specter. Could also be an instance of Flanderization.
• Space Clouds: Invoked twice: the Azure Nebula, and the supernova remnant at Beta Stromgren.
• Space Is Noisy. A signature element of the trilogy is that anytime an exterior shot of space is shown, some form of wind is audible, in addition to whatever standard Stock Sound Effects might also be in use.
• Star Trek Shake: Seen several times near the beginning of the film when the ship gets hit by shock waves. Seen continuously for about two minutes before the planet explodes. In one case, the Poser camera was shaken and the actors pretended to lose their balance; in the other, it was an effect added in post-production. Word of God says software limitations forced the editor to chop any shots which used the smaller, constant shaking into 27-frame chunks. The math got even more complex for any shots that didn't line up exactly with multiples of 27.
• Still Wearing the Old Colors: After the mission to the 2378 Fitzgerald Kal is still wearing that era's uniform until Ronston has to tell her to take it off. And get back into a real Starfleet uniform.
• Stock Sound Effects: When the planet blows up, in addition to the expected sounds of explosions, we hear...lightning? Not just lightning, but possibly one of the most classic lightning sound effects in history?
  • Not only that, but apparently severe-weather sounds are the "theme" for this film. The sounds of Time Travel in this movie are also played (quite convincingly) by the sounds of thunder, lightning, and tornado winds.
• Stock Trailer Music: Trailers for both Specter and Retribution began with the same cue from Star Trek XI. The trailer for Redemption actually uses a piece of music by Two Steps from Hell.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Jennifer Hargrove. And to a lesser extent, both versions of Dr. Garr.
• Sympathy for the Devil: In the first film, Garr was presented as blinded by his obsessions to restore his lost love, and in the second film as consumed by his thirst for vengeance and unredeemable. But Redemption gives us a much more favorable glimpse of the character: he starts out as unhinged and even Ax-Crazy when he first meets the 2399 officers, but as time progresses he seems more stable and much more human.
• Take That!: Fans complained that Specter took too long to get started, and Retribution was worse since it started with five straight minutes of exposition. So how does Redemption start? A planet blows up. And then things get worse.
  • Also, the end credits—though several meshes sourced from Scifi-Meshes.com appear in the film, in the wake of what happened during production of Retribution, SFM does not appear as a source for 3D models.
• Team Mom: Kendra Ronston in 2399. Justified in that she's the captain of the Fitzgerald by this point, and the people with her are less a unified crew than they are a loosely affiliated group of misfits forced together by circumstances.
• Techno Babble: Largely averted until about two-thirds of the way through the film; except for a few snippets here and there, the scientific aspects of the situation were usually dealt with in only a few words, and often in layman's terms.
• Temporal Paradox: There appear to be several (read: A LOT) of them in this film, but they're basically ignored.
• 10-Minute Retirement: Ronston's Garr has one of these after they visit the 2378 Fitzgerald, something to do with seeing Reyf alive. Kal talks him out of it.
  • He comes so very close to saying it's simply someone else's problem.
  • And Kal snaps him back to reality by reminding him that You Are Not Alone.
• The Hero's Journey: The film is this for Kendra Ronston.
• Theme Music Power-Up: This happens several times; first when Mitchell finally restores power to the crippled Fitzgerald, then again minutes later as they leave the nebula, and then again as they make the time jump to 2367.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Kendra Ronston and Gaius Reyf both say this before they transport to the Borg cube for the Ultimate Confrontation with Drakus, Ronston because she was forced to watch Wolf 359 happen thanks to Drakus, and Reyf because his father lost his life at Wolf 359.
• Time Is Dangerous: Doing too many time jumps in the manner that Drakus does can be hazardous to your health.
• Time Travel: To fix everything our heroes will have to go back in time.
• Time-Travel Tense Trouble: The cast members stumble over tenses several times; Prentice calls Ronston on it once, only for her to admit she gave up trying to keep the tenses straight as soon as they arrived in 2378.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: So we don't know how accelerating to warp 8.8 or releasing 1.21 jigawatts of energy causes them to go back in time. But when they do, they wind up in the events of the first film, which should be an alternate history. When one of the characters brings that up, the point is quickly HandWaved away.
• Tired of Running: After her Heroic BSoD, Kendra Ronston orders the Fitzgerald to pursue the Borg cube (and Drakus with it) to Sector 001. When they catch up to the Borg ship and Drakus beams over, Hargrove immediately questions Kendra's decision to lead the away team to finally stop Drakus for good. Ronston's response: "Because of him, I had to stand by and watch 11,000 good men and women lose their loves to the Borg. One way or another, he's not getting away this time."
• Title Drop: In the very first scene no less.
• To Absent Friends: Ronston toasts this at the start of the film; at first it seems like she's referring to Reyf, but later in the film when 2378 Prentice asks what happens to Garrett and Parks, and Ronston doesn't answer, one begins to wonder just who else she might've been referring to.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The Redemption trailer makes no attempts to be coy about the fact that there will be not ONE, not TWO, but THREE versions of Braiyon Garr in this film. Or that Time Travel will be happening. Or that the crew will interact with their alternate selves from an Alternate History.
• Trilogy Creep: So Specter was originally just supposed to be a standalone, one-off story, and ended that way. Then Retribution came along, and many fans assumed that even though Drakus was making threats at the very end, that was it. Then, less than a month later, the first trailer for Redemption appeared.
• Tron Lines: The ISS Voyager has them...sort of.
• Trouble from the Past: Drakus, thanks to getting thrown back 78 years at the end of Specter.
• True Companions: The crew of the Fitzgerald. The scenes in 2378 show that Prentice and Erickson especially didn't particularly care for one another at first, but by 2399 they've managed to resolve their differences.
• Truth in Television: What causes the away team to be discovered is the fact that if the future selves log into the ship's computer at the same time as the past selves, it'll show up as a potential security breach. In fact, many 21st century computer networks are set up the same way. It's still a bit of an Ass Pull since this has never shown up in Star Trek anywhere before.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Jennifer Hargrove, when she returns with Kal to their disabled ship with the parts in tow. Rather than listen to Mitchell and Falwell's opinions about her decision to leave Garr, Prentice, and Ronston behind, she harshly orders Mitchell to repair the ship, leaving her to murmur softly, "Aye...captain."
• Underside Ride: To avoid detection by their past selves, the 2399 crew docks their shuttle on the hull of the 2378 Fitzgerald in a very obscure place, though it wasn't on the bottom of the ship per se (It was next to "the ventral nacelle pylon," you see). Setting down on the underside of the same part of the ship would have looked cooler, but would have risked discovery from all the ships and work bees flying around.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: DEFINITELY between Mitchell and Kal. The first scene seems to be setting us up for some between Ronston and Prentice as well...
  • Also some residual UST between the Captains Ronston. That little private chat they have in the observation lounge...
• Villains Act, Heroes React: What happens in the Alphekka system is pretty obviously the result of some villainous deed, about which our heroes know nothing until the planet explodes.
• Villainy-Free Villain: Dark Garr comes into the picture with everyone hating him and being afraid of him for what he would have done in the original timeline, and we the viewer not exactly in love with him either. As things progress, however, he shows much more depth and humanity than we gave him credit for in the first two films.
• What Does She See in Him?: In 2378, Lt. Erickson has this conversation with her future self about her ex-husband-to-be. The future self immediately says yes, no doubt a reference to Merv's heroic self-sacrifice in 2399 to save her from the Cardassians.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Despite a plot resolution that was neat and tidy, no mention is made of what happened to Drakus' "starship replicator" from Beta Stromgren.
• What Might Have Been. Word of God suggests that in the film's original ending, the Fitzgerald-B was to have been another Mark-II Galaxy-class vessel, replacing its predecessor in much the same way as the Enterprise-A at the end of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. That idea was ultimately scrapped in favor of the new ship being a Sovereign-class starship. Its bridge is depicted by a redressed version of the Daystrom bridge from the first film, with updated LCA Rs and colors.
• What You Are in the Dark: Garr is shown aboard the ISS Voyager, alone and away from the rest of the cast, feeling...well, lonely. Not at all evil or demented...just lonely.
• We Used to Be Friends: Reyf and Dark Garr.
• Whole-Plot Reference:
  • A ship about to be decommissioned, meant to be run by a crew of hundreds suddenly being run by just a few individuals. Sounds like that other Star Trek III.
  • A movie starting out with cataclysmic events triggered by time travel, with the protagonists also going back to stop it. Sounds kind of like Star Trek: First Contact.
  • A more powerful ship from the future jumps back to a time right before a major battle that will cause severe destruction and loss of life, but could be averted if the future ship intervenes and destroys the aggressor with their advanced weaponry. That's also the plot of The Final Countdown
• Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: Invoked by Hargrove when they finally catch up with Drakus. When they meet, Drakus greets them, but before he can start monologuing, she steps forward, declares "Today IS a good day to die!", pulls up her phaser rifle and FIRES!...only for the phaser burst to hit a forcefield.
• The World Is Just Awesome: A number of small moments spread throughout the film showing Kal enjoying (seemingly) mundane things. In particular, the launch of the shuttlecraft after the Fitzgerald arrives in 2378, crippled by the battle with the Cardassians and the trip through time; her expression is of awe and wonder as the shuttle maneuvers through the Azure Nebula. The significance of that isn't lost on Captain Ronston.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Towards the end of the film, Reyf says this almost verbatim to Dark Garr in his ready room.
• You Did the Right Thing: Prentice assures Ronston of this on more than one occasion.

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