Sad but true. Even a die-hard fan like me would be hard-pressed to deny that the "villains" are impossible to take seriously (Jamaican iguanas are the greatest threat the Federation has seen since the Borg?) and that Lexxa has far too much in common with Ebony Dimensia Dark'ness Ravenway for comfort. Q willing the series will Grow the Beard sooner rather than later.
Q willing. Russ and Picardo need to exercise their paychecks and demand, at the bare minimum, a new cinematographer and a better writer.
The main cast is bad but not totally unsalvageable. Kill Lexxxa OR hit her in the face with her incredible obnoxiousness, toss the cardboard Betazoid and the boring scientist lady, demote the Borg to supporting cast, put the Breen in charge because it's (or possibly xe's? Breen don't seem to have gender as we understand it) cool simply by being Breen, and focus on the funny hologram, Tuvok, and the holodoc. Keep the shapeshifting guy, he's OK. Get female characters who are not either cardboard or insufferable. Protip: Write a strong character while deliberately leaving the gender blank, then simply insert female pronouns.
It needs a LOT of work, but IMO it's just salvageable.
Since only one episode is out so far, it's safe to say that character development is on the way.
That being said, it sounds like "Renegades" is not your cup of tea, if you already hate the majority of the cast. Best pass it up if that's the case.
I think I will watch a couple of episodes to see if it gets better. Besides, as dumb and poorly-written as it is, at least it's not as actively offensive and disgusting as Enterprise (specifically, the episodes "Bounty", "Unexpected", "A Night In Sickbay", and "Dear Doctor"). You need to actively WORK to be as bad as "Unexpected", that was an episode-long rape joke.
I am cautiously optimistic for Renegades, however. The problems are blindingly obvious and easily fixed (get a different writer, different filming crew, different lighting crew and get actors who can actually act), so at least fixing it only takes a little time, money, and will.
Ooookay.
Seriously, though; like Voyager, the problems are obvious, easily fixed, and stem from lazy writing and poor production. It's not like ENT, which was a "what the hell were they even THINKING?" from the get-go.
Get someone competent to handle the camera, fire the writer and get someone competent to do that, put all of the cast bar Russ and Picardo through Acting 1 at the nearest college—not hard. Takes time and money, but it's not hard.
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It's like Enterprise as done by Roger Corman
First off, I must note that I was really excited for this project. More Trek that doesn't involve Abrams? Tuvok AND Chekov AND the holodoc? By the guys who did the cheap but well-acted Of Gods And Men? Sign me right up!
I saw it the day it was posted on YouTube, and...I have never been so disappointed in my life.
The production values are right out of a SyFy B-movie. The protagonist is an irritating, arrogant Mary Sue and a Smug Snake. It's telling that I wanted the Nausicaan guy to shoot her and kill her in the scene where she retakes command of her ship; if I hate a main character before 30 minutes are up, then that character is Neelix-level annoying.
The plot makes no sense; some beast-men guys who live in caves are using a space magic thing to make random planets vanish, and they want to kill Earth for some reason. To stop the generic bad guys I couldn't care less about, Admiral Tuvok must hire a gang of crooks and thugs to go on a covert mission—because apparently everybody's forgotten Starfleet Intelligence and Section 31, who could've done the same job a lot more intelligently.
Everybody loves Our Heroine, except for the Lawful Stupid Federation captain, who's more obsessed with catching these crooks than saving Earth; honestly, I kind of sympathize with the guy. He's a jerk, but these losers ripped him off twice and were massive smug bastards about it, too.
And then Grant Imahara is a space cloud guy.
The protagonists essentially bumble their way through the plot. The makeup and costuming really shows the low budget. The lighting is atrocious, there are way too many close-ups done without regard for the plot or pacing, the script is eye-rollingly bad, and the vast majority of the actors are alternately flat or massive hams.
Good parts (yes, there are several): —Tuvok has balls of titanium and Russ's acting is capable as usual. —Robert Picardo steals every scene he's in; then again, that isn't hard. —Walter Koenig, yay! And he manages to convincingly portray a loving great-grandparent despite the actress playing his descendant being flatter than Kansas. Kudos, man.
Final score: 2/10. It's like JJ Trek, but with lower production values.