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Web Animation / Star Trek Specter

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Specter_Poster_II_4351.JPG
"Time is not on your side."

"Each of us, at some point in our lives, will face a challenge that will force us to confront the very essence of who we are. How we meet those challenges is what defines us."
— Captain Gaius Reyf

A popular Star Trek fan film set in 2378, being released primarily as a series of Webisodes on YouTube. A leading Starfleet scientist suddenly goes off the deep end, faking his own death to go into hiding. Then, five years later, he returns, meaner and more dangerous than ever. The newly commissioned USS F Scott Fitzgerald scrambles to decipher his plan, only to learn that he's constructed his own fully-equipped starship, a female android who's almost perfect, and even has an Elaborate Underground Base.

Setting out to track the scientist down, Captain Gaius Reyf learns that the culprit is none other than his oldest friend, Dr. Braiyon Garr, who's amassed fourteen of the most advanced machines developed by The Federation, and with them could tear space apart. Reyf follows Garr through an elaborate Jigsaw Plot, discovering in the process that his old friend is willing to go to any length—including using human lives as pawns—to accomplish his goal.

Believing that to be his only problem, Reyf discovers early on that the reappearance of his old friend is stirring up some uncomfortable emotions concerning their history, guilt and remorse that threaten the success of the mission in ways his relative inexperience never could. When they finally meet face to face, Garr offers Reyf a Deal with the Devil to travel into his own past, and Set Right What Once Went Wrong.

Considered one of the best works of Star Trek fanon currently in production, the film is notable for its accurate CGI replicas of the classic TNG and VOY shooting sets, as well as the creative use of kitbashed versions of the Enterprise-D and the USS Voyager. The film introduces a new crew of enterprising young men, heavily implied to be an Expy of the TNG crew (up to and including Captain Reyf's bald head, a trait shared by Jean-Luc Picard).

For the sequel, see Star Trek Retribution.

The cast:

  • Captain Gaius Reyf. The Captain of the U.S.S. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Cultured, stoic and logical.
  • Commander Bradley Prentice. First Officer of the Fitzgerald. A sounding board for Reyf, if inexperienced and a bit impulsive.
  • Dr. Elizabeth Falwell. The Fitzgerald's Chief Medical Officer. She and Reyf are good friends.
  • Lt. Cmdr. Maxwell Garrett. Second Officer/Operations Officer of the Fitzgerald. Red Shirt
  • Lt. Cmdr. Merv Ronston. The Fitzgerald's Chief Engineer. Has a one-sided crush on Lt. Erickson.
  • Lt. Kendra Erickson. Chief of Security. She's unafraid to express her opinions, even when discretion would be better.
  • Dr. Braiyon Garr. Big Bad. A former Starfleet Intelligence officer who was believed killed in 2373, but has reappeared and is collecting exotic technology for some unknown purpose.

Tropes seen in Specter include:

  • "As You Know, two of my officers were recently involved in a collision between Garr's ship and one of our shuttlecraft."
    • One fan even dubbed it "TNG revived after 16 years!"
  • Aborted Arc: It was strongly hinted several times that the gold refit Constitution-class model in both Reyf's ready room and in Garr's office would play some part in the story.
    • Word of God says that the original Scene 38 would've established it as an Academy training ship, which was the first upon which Garr and Reyf trained after they arrived at the Academy. Finding a holosimulation of its bridge would have reminded Reyf that Garr had once described it as "a perfect memory," endless possibilities open and that nothing could compare to that. That in itself would have tied in with Reyf's conversation with Counselor Troi in Scene 20.
  • Action Girl: Lieutenant Kendra Erickson. There's a reason when she beams down to investigate Garr's lab, she's the one with the biggest phaser.
  • All There in the Manual: Overlaps with Word of God; during production, the producer maintained a Wiki as well as a thread on Scifi-Meshes.com, often including trivia and alternate ideas for some scenes.
  • And Starring: "And Introducing..."
  • Animation Bump: Improvements in workflow and technology resulted in substantial improvements mid-film to the quality of animation (the introduction of Rack Focus shots is just one example).
  • Anticlimax: Many got fooled into thinking Reyf's confrontation with Garr on the bridge of the ISS Voyager was the finale. Little did they realize the real climax was still to come...
  • Aside Glance: In Scene 38, as Reyf examines the holoprogram Garr left, he points out the various antique design elements, one of which is "liquid crystal displays." He says it just as he points almost directly at the camera.
  • Asteroid Thicket: Fans everywhere have pointed out that the asteroid belt of Sector 001 isn't nearly that dense. Partially subverted though when Reyf says "He's entering the densest part of the debris field."
  • Author Avatar: Braiyon Garr, when he's playing nice. This is why he alone of the entire cast has glasses—a trait shared by the producer he's modeled after, implied in-story to be just one more manner in which he's different from a typical resident of the 24th century.
  • Awesome Moment of Crowning: When Dr. Chellik, who early on had expressed concerns about Reyf's ability to handle the Garr mission, admits he was wrong and tells Reyf he'll make a fine captain.
  • Back for the Finale: Maxwell Garrett, who hasn't been seen since the scene in sickbay after the first starship chase.
  • Berserk Button: Don't tell Garr that his efforts into something are wasted.
  • Big Brother Mentor: The way Reyf remembers Garr through most of the movie. It's also implied that Reyf serves this function for Lieutenant Erickson and Ensign Hargrove.
  • Bittersweet Ending: So everything in the here and now is back to the way it's supposed to be. But Reyf's actions have resulted in Garr's demise (or so he believes).
  • Big Budget Beef-Up: A curious invocation as the sets are all detailed replicas of the "upgraded" sets from Star Trek: Generations (also known as Star Trek TNG: The Movie).
  • Big Damn Heroes: Painfully subverted with the USS Fairgrieve. Reyf and company arrive on scene too late to help.
  • Big "NO!": Two of them: one at the end of "Garr's Nightmare," and another one while Reyf confronts him on the bridge of the ISS Voyager.
  • Catchphrase Reyf: "Make it so."
  • Catch-22 Dilemma: The Fitzgerald crew can't figure out what Garr intends to use the equipment he stole for until they figure out what his goal is. But they can't figure out his goal until they figure out what he's building with the equipment he stole.
  • Character Development: By the end of the movie, just about everyone's grown up in some way.
  • Chase Scene: Not one, but two. Both involving a pair of cool starships no less.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The story of Frankenstein.
  • Close-Enough Timeline: Some minor cosmetic changes occur as a result of the events of the film, such as the Fitzgerald's bridge at the end now sporting the colors and sounds of the Enterprise-E rather than the familiar Galaxy-class look.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Garr has a thing for the color blue: his uniform, the lights on his bridge (when at battle alert), the hull of his ship, the visual effect of his warp drive...
  • Coming of Age Story: A new captain, an untested crew, and a new starship tossed into a mission where the stakes are incredibly high.
  • Compliment Backfire: Ronston's attempt to flatter Erickson: "Why, Kendra, I never knew you had a softer side!"
    • "Don't go there."
  • Continuity Nod:
    "We're about to go up against the greatest threat to The Federation since Tolian Soran. I hate to sound like Lieutenant Taurik, but where's the logic in this?"
  • Creator Cameo: During the "facial recognition search" scene, all of the photos the computer searches through (except the last one) are actually real-life photos of the executive producer.
  • Darker and Edgier: Most of the movie was rewritten when fans felt that it was turning into too much of a TNG-like offering. The result? Braiyon slaps an elderly scientist just to prove the point that he's alive.
  • Deadpan Snarker. The cast takes turns at this.
    Reyf: "Your advice, as always, is a study in efficiency."
    Erickson: "Obviously."
  • Dedication: Every cut of the movie from the start has begun with a "For Kristie" title card.
  • Demoted to Extra: Deanna Troi, oddly enough, given that she was a cameo guest star.
  • Deus ex Machina: How Garr got back to the ISS Voyager is never explained in actual words, but the implied explanation is that it has something to do with the female android since none of the transporters on the Fitzgerald get used.
    • "How thorough was their examination?"
  • Divide and Conquer: Prentice and Garrett shouldn't have gone on that shuttle excursion.
  • Downer Ending: After everything Reyf went through to redeem his oldest friend, Garr wound up slipping back over to The Dark Side...and Reyf wound up having to use deadly force to stop him.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness. Compared to its sequels, Specter has a very different style of storytelling, writing, voice acting, and editing. This is because it was originally intended to be a one-off story that was self-contained, and it was only after it became a hit with fans that the sequel was planned and written.
    • Despite its popularity, this film is often also referred to as an Old Shame by its producer, who has since stated that any scenes in the second sequel that take place during the events of this film will be handled carefully and would be equal in writing quality to the second and third films.
  • The End... Or Is It?: "Well now, I'll tell you something, Data; on a night five years ago, very much like this, I watched as his shuttlecraft was vaporized by a warp core collapse. He survived that, somehow. And I wouldn't be surprised if, somehow, he survived this as well. Call it a hunch, call it a gut feeling, call it whatever you wish. But I don't think we've seen the last of Braiyon Garr."
  • Ensign Newbie: Hargrove. She's unsure, prone to self-doubt, and panics when Reyf calls her into his Ready Room for a chat after their first encounter with the I.S.S. Voyager.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Every character gets one of these, but they're spread out through the movie.
    • Garr's comes in the prologue when he threatens the starship pursuing him.
    • Reyf's comes when he's shown to be in shock after he sees Garr on the viewscreen.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Braiyon Garr specifically makes sure that everyone gets off the Alcawell Station "alive and well." The only time anyone's hurt is by accident. Except for the occupants of the shuttle he rams.
  • Evil Plan: An unusual one that has We Can Rule Together as one of the main points instead of a settlement. Garr's entire plan is revealed to be one of these near the end when Reyf catches up to him. Garr reveals that that has been his intention all along, in order to get Reyf to join him. It's implied that he's deliberately kept Reyf guessing for so long to keep him out of the way until the right moment.
  • Fake-Out Opening: You didn't really think Dr. Garr was really dead when the shuttle crashed in the Asteroid Thicket, did you?
  • Fan Film
  • The Film of the Book: A curious inversion: Specter doesn't have an official novelization (yet), but its length and elaborate storyline gives many fans cause to wonder if this isn't essentially a novel presented in movie format.
    • Word of God says that it both is and isn't. Although each scene was written like a scene in a novel, the overall storyline wasn't initially planned to develop the same intricacies and level of detail as a novel. Although, the creator has explicitly said he isn't sorry that it worked out that way, and said likening it to this trope is a novel concept.
  • Five-Second Foreshadowing: The clock is ticking down to zero until the USS Fairgrieve explodes and the Fitzgerald gets washed away. Power goes out, and Data restores the warp engines just in the nick of time. One Second Later, the Fairgrieve explodes.
  • Foreshadowing: Basically, everything in Specter foreshadows something coming later.
    • The opening quote from Charles Caleb Colton, which isn't explained until the very last scene.
    • "The human race has evolved beyond the need for such outdated concepts as heroism and villainy. People of Frankenstein's obvious insanity are practically unheard of in this day and age. And you don't exactly see people setting up secret labs trying to play God the way he did."
    • "Time, Gaius. I'll be seeing you."
  • For the Evulz: Garr calling in red alert after Reyf comments that the ISS Voyager doesn't seem ominous enough. Horror ensues.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom/Red Eyes, Take Warning: At several points throughout the movie, Garr's eyes glow red.
  • Hand Wave: In one scene, Reyf and Data discuss how Garr has seemingly pulled off one impossible feat after another. More accurately, Reyf says it, Data agrees, then Reyf gets a call and it's never mentioned again.
  • Hearing Voices: Reyf sees a hallucination of Dr. Garr only moments after the ship's EMH says he needs to rest. Turns out it was actually Garr after all.
  • Idiot Ball: After Garr surrenders to the Fitzgerald, he's apparently left to roam freely about the ship, and even given what seems to be normal quarters. This is despite him being responsible for the deaths of 47 people, his threatening of the very timeline itself, theft of Starfleet property, and various other crimes. Why he wasn't sent to the brig or at least kept under guard is anyone's guess, and these oversights allow him to escape.
  • Ink-Suit Actor: To make the animation for Garr as lifelike as possible, the animator (who also voiced the character) acted out his lines before sitting down to animate them.
  • It's the Journey That Counts: Played straight, because even though the Fitzgerald crew were ultimately shown to have failed to stop Garr from going back in time, the present was still largely unaffected, and the crew are shown to have grown closer together and more mature as a result.
  • Jigsaw Puzzle Plot:
    • Garr's Evil Plan.
    • Reyf growing up and accepting his choices.
    • Erickson and Ronston's love life.
    • The mystery of the female android.
  • Just in Time: During the final Chase Scene, Garr seems to have perfectly anticipated everything Reyf and friends will do, until Erickson remembers the magneton warhead that she and Ronston had designed earlier. They barely get it armed and ready in time to use it...and even then they're still too late.
  • Leave the Camera Running: Fans have likened the "V'Ger Flyover" sequence, with its loving closeups of the details of the nightmare starship ISS Voyager to the insanely long "New Enterprise" sequence from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
  • Left the Background Music On: It's not made clear until Scene 42 (when Garr makes a song selection on a console), but the three "20th century pop song" sequences in the movie fall into this category. In all cases, when Garr is aboard the ISS Voyager, whatever music we're hearing is what he's actually listening to. In Scene 29, it goes from diegetic aboard the ship, to non-diegetic on the station, and back again when Garr is back on his bridge. Justified as those three scenes are all pure Rule of Cool.
  • Leitmotif: Several:
    • Garr (Good): The Voyager theme (used mostly to represent Reyf's good memories of him), first heard when Garr's name appears in the opening credits. It's heard a total of six more times through the movie: the "V'Ger Flyover" sequence, in Garr's office as Reyf reminisces (arguably its most emotional use), when Reyf recounts the full story to Prentice before beaming to the ISS Voyager, a brief reprisal after Reyf board the ISS Voyager and notices how ordinary it looks, and a final time as Garr sees his ship from the guest quarters of the Fitzgerald.
    • Garr (Evil): The Borg theme from Star Trek: First Contact. Ultimately heard three times: as the away team investigates his hidden laboratory, when Prentice and Garrett are investigating the ISS Voyager, and again as the Fitzgerald approaches the USS Fairgrieve.
    • Reyf: The "friendship" theme from Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Nemesis.
    • Kristie: The theme from Titanic (1997) is repurposed as Kristie's theme, heard only twice: once when the Facial Recognition Software turns up a match, and again when the android visits Garr in his guest quarters.
  • Memento MacGuffin: The ever-present photo of Reyf and Garr, which serves a dual purpose through the film. It appears a total of four times:
    • The first time is right after Chellik calls. This is the first evidence that Reyf and Garr knew each other.
    • The second time is in Garr's office when Reyf visits. It was deliberately not shown at any point before now since the first appearance, so that people wouldn't realize (at first) that it had been altered (from the TWOK uniforms to TNG cadet uniforms). Even though it gets a closeup during Reyf's walkthrough, it's treated as if the altered version that's there is exactly what's supposed to be there.
    • The third time is in Reyf's quarters after the temporal shock wave hits. It's very small, on a computer screen that the camera pans quickly past. This time, not only are the uniforms different, but so is the background (changed from Starfleet Academy as seen in TNG's "The First Duty" to the city seen in the background at the end of the Wolf 359 flashback).
    • The fourth and final time is in Reyf's ready room, when his wall paintaing has been replaced by a large version of the "third" version of the photo. The fact that the characters notice that it's askew—but not that the photo has been changed from the panorama of Bajor that we'd been seeing the entire time—is an indicator that the timeline has been changed.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Deconstructed near the end of the movie. Twice.
    • First, when Garr wises up and realizes that in trying to reclaim his innocence in the past, he's sacrificed any chance of redemption in the present. Reyf is able to convince him that he can be redeemed, and thus convinces him to stand down.
    • Then later, after Reyf orders the magneton warhead deployed and it destroys Voyager (we think), he's devastated when he realizes his oldest friend has just been Killed Off for Real—this time by his own hand.
  • Negative Space Wedgie: Several of these:
    • The first one that Garr makes in his lab, that draws the Fitzgerald to the location. This is revealed at the end to have been a mistake on Garr's part, he underestimated how powerful the energy release would be.
    • The one that Garr makes in space, that ultimately destroys the starship Fairgrieve and devours the entire Beta Reticuli star system with it.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Every main character in Specter is based in some way on characters we've actually seen:
    • Reyf's mannerisms strongly favor TNG's Jean-Luc Picard. "Make it so, Number One." With a little Teal'c thrown in for flavor. "Indeed."
    • Prentice's behaviors strongly favor one Will Riker.
    • Erickson seems to share the gruff air, bravery, and ferocity of Lieutenant Commander Worf.
    • Merv Ronston's repeated romantic failures are a dead ringer for Geordi LaForge.
    • The sarcastic and quick-tempered EMH is based on the EMH played by Robert Picardo from Star Trek: Voyager.
    • The performances for Counselor Troi and Lieutenant Commander Data were written with Marina Sirtis and Brent Spiner very much in mind.
  • No One Could Survive That!: Garr, when his ship gets torn apart at the end of the movie. He survives, though.
  • Not Quite Back to Normal: The characters don't notice it, but we can see that the main bridge and ready room of the Fitzgerald are both different than they're supposed to be.
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: Averted with Admiral Thornton, who actually seems to want to help Reyf in his mission rather than impede him, as most Starfleet admirals tend to want to do.
  • Oh, Crap!: Commander Prentice's reaction when the ship's power goes out moments before a massive explosion.
    • "Merv, I need warp power in two minutes or we're going to get washed away!"
    • Also Reyf, when he realizes exactly what he's up against. "All this time, I was expecting a faceoff at Reichenbach Falls, but instead...oh my God."
  • The Only One: Combined with The Chosen One in the persona of Captain Reyf. As the person who knows Dr. Garr the best, it naturally falls to him to intervene and stop Garr from carrying out his Evil Plan. He soon realizes that that works both ways, and Garr can use everything he knows about Reyf against him, and to much greater effect.
  • Patrick Stewart Speech: Reyf delivers three of these:
    • One: the launch sequence. "Looking at this crowd of...strange people I barely knew, it's safe to say I'd never been quite so nervous in my life."
    • Two: after Garr tempts him with the prospect of altering his own history. "You once told me that even suffering has value."
    • Three: on the Voyager bridge when he tries to convince Garr to give it up. "After all that time you spent telling me to confront my pain, here you stand, still running from yours!"
    • Lieutenant Erickson: "...personally I'm proud of you for facing him the way you did. And I don't want to see you lose your confidence, not now. Not after everything we've been through."
  • Permission to Speak Freely: Usually occurs before a With Due Respect discussion. Though at one point Lt. Erickson yells at Reyf for about a solid minute in private before he deadpans "Permission to speak freely is granted."
  • Power Born of Madness: Garr's lack of inhibitions spurs him to do great and terrible things.
  • Power Trio: Erickson, Prentice, and Reyf, with Reyf playing the role of peacekeeper.
  • Put on a Bus:
    • Lt. Commander Maxwell Garrett. He returns for the final scene.
    • Dr. Falwell. It's handwaved that she and the rest of the medical staff are at a conference on Bajor and there wasn't time to wait for them. She gets a quick scene via viewscreen before also coming back at the end.
  • Red Herring: It's heavily implied midway through the film that the reason the chief engineer can't score with the tactical officer is that the tactical officer is already seeing Ensign Mitchell. Turns out they were just friends.
  • The Reveal: Done several times throughout the movie.
    • The best one: "Braiyon Garr...it can't be! You died five years ago!"
    • The first shot of the Fitzgerald docked at Deep Space Nine, when the camera pans past the docking pylon to reveal the shiny new ship.
    • "Edward...is that...?"
      • "He touched me, he slapped my face for God's sake!"
    • "It's an android...a female!"
    • "What kind of ship is it?"
  • Riding into the Sunset: The shot of the Fitzgerald going to warp as the credits roll arguably qualifies.
  • Rule of Fun: This is one reason behind the three "20th century song" scenes in the movie. Combines with Character Development to show that Garr has an interest in Earth's 20th century.
  • Rule of Funny: "The clever fiendishness of this sinister plot..."
  • Rule of Three: There are three "20th century song" montage sequences. And three lead characters on the Fitzgerald (Reyf, Prentice, and Erickson). And three scenes of technobabble. And three nacelles on the USS Fitzgerald itself.
  • Running Gag:
    • Count how many times you hear the number "47" pop up in this movie.
    • The "coffee cup" gag. It first shows up during the "V'Ger Flyover" sequence, when the shuttle flies past the dark mess hall. Then the light catches the metal off the cup and the camera zooms in on it. The same thing happens again when Reyf visits Garr's old office. The implication both times is that Garr had been there recently.
    • Data's rambling. Which Reyf also interrupts every time with some form of "Thank you, Mr. Data."
  • Space Station: Several.
  • Star Trek Shake. Surprising given this is a CGI film, but on multiple occasions the ships "shake" (by means of wildly moving the cameras back and forth on stationary sets), and the actors fall and stumble exactly as they would if the sets were really moving.
    • Parodied during the Wolf 359 flashback sequence. Most of the crew simply swerve when the Goodson gets hit by the blast wave, but the tactical officer on screen left is knocked clear off his feet.
  • Stock Footage: Subverted in that the producer went out of his way to avoid re-using anything from one scene to the next if he could avoid it.
  • Swirly Energy Thingy. The vortex that swallows the Beta Reticuli system and the black hole near the end of the film.
  • Techno Babble: It's simply impossible to be in a Star Trek production without loads and loads of this. Specter involves a technical mystery (two, actually, Garr's mysterious Doomsday Device, and the brain of the female android).
  • Technology Porn: The entire "V'Ger Flyover" sequence is a textbook example.
  • Tempting Fate. Invoked several times:
    Reyf: "Ensign Kal, has there been any word from the survey team Starfleet dispatched?"
    Kal: "No, sir. They are now 28 hours overdue. Should I contact Starfleet for an update?"
    Reyf: "I don't think that will be necessary."
    Prentice: "Can you tell what kind of shape their records are in?"
    Data: "It would appear they are largely intact. I am detecting less than four point seven percent degradation in the memory circuits."
    Prentice: "Finally, some good news."
    (moments later) Erickson: "Commander, I'm getting some strange readings from the Fairgrieve."
    Prentice: "I knew it was too good to last."
  • Theme Music Power-Up: When Reyf finally figures out Garr's plan, for the first time since the launch sequence, we get a piece of upbeat music.
  • This Cannot Be!: Upon being told of the pillaging and destruction of the Alcawell Station, Reyf utters a single word: "Inconceivable!"
  • Title Theme Drop: The Voyager theme is repurposed in the title sequence as Garr's theme (his good side, at least), and can be heard numerous times throughout the movie.
  • Traveling at the Speed of Plot: We're not exactly sure where the Fitzgerald is when Reyf decides to visit Earth. But we can assume it's someplace decently close to Deep Space Nine, since the Beta Reticuli system is said to have been only two hours away from there at the ship's maximum speed. Canon tells us that it takes a while to get from Deep Space Nine to Earth, and yet the Fitzgerald seems to just show up there with little or no time having passed.
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: For most of the film, there are three storylines going; Reyf trying to figure out what Garr is doing; the crew trying to figure out what Reyf isn't telling them; and Garr's sinister plan.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • Averted; many thought that Chellik's mention of a survey team coming to help the Fitzgerald the next day would wind up being a plot hole.
    • Invoked later: the Fairgrieve sensor records that our heroes risked their lives to retrieve don't seem to have made any identifiable contribution whatsoever.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Reyf's crew is aware of their captain's emotional impairment given the mission, but they support him anyway because others had faith in him first, and he knows the villain better than anyone else. They talk amongst themselves about the captain needing to deal with his emotions, and Reyf finally wises up and starts seeing Garr as the threat he truly is rather than the friend he used to be near the end.
  • Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Somehow, Braiyon Garr built a super-advanced Starship of Doom, a super-advanced android girl, and an Elaborate Underground Base, all in only five years by himself with no sign of shipyards or any other support facilities.
  • Whole-Plot Reference: Believe it or not, the basic premise of this movie is taken from an unused concept for Star Trek: Insurrection, which was to have had Picard chasing down an old Academy classmate who had become obsessed with finding the Fountain of Youth.
    • Also references Wrath of Khan with Garr "dying" once in the opening, and then getting Killed Off for Real at the end of the movie.
      • "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few—or the one."
    • Also beautifully references Frankenstein. Kristie (Victor Frankenstein) abandoning Garr left him emotionally disfigured, turning him into a monster (or so he believed); he, in turn, became Victor Frankenstein himself by creating the almost-human replica, whose ungainly metal limb separates her from being truly human.
  • Widescreen Shot: All the recreated shots of Stock Footage from the TV series falls into this heading. Most of them are the original shots, blocked much as they originally had been for 4:3, but with the sides expanded for the 2.35:1 aspect ratio.
  • Xanatos Gambit: Garr rams the shuttlecraft that had been scanning his ship. In addition to erasing the shuttle's sensor logs—thus averting a "two meter exhaust port" situation—this also damages the shuttle enough that the lives of its occupants are suddenly in mortal danger. Rather than pursuing Garr, which is implied to be a futile maneuver anyway, Reyf decides to turn back to rescue his two officers. As Garr knew he would all along.

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