In the Fold

Most of the reviews are pretty negative, but I have to admit that I rather enjoyed this piece of hokum. Someone compared the film to the Hornblower stories and I have to agree, but I'll go one step further and suggest that the Hornblower influence comes via David Feintuch's Nicholas Seafort books, the first of which, Midshipman's Hope, must have appeared a year or so before this film.

The parallels are almost too striking. Junior Officers on first cruise in space, Senior officers killed in sneak attack, one hero becomes captain, sense of honour forces him to execute traitor, overcomes incredible odds, defeats enemy, etc, etc, etc. Leaving aside the hokey teen telemovie elements, this film contains a lot of the classic story elements that you often find the best space operas but rarely find in effects-driven, high-concept, Trek inspired Sci-fi films we are forced to contend with.

Go on, give it chance -- A guilty pleasure.

This Made-For-Tv film is a mish-mash of pulpy cliches, solid military sci-fi and 90210-esque Beautiful American Teens.

I think it would be too easy and grossly unfair to write this film off as 'Bad' which, in fairness, it does approach... But it has that certain something. A lot of the story is pure fluff, feel-good TV with formulaic text, but the actors and actresses who are playing the roles manage to bring a degree of feeling to the proceedings that you don't expect. If you look beyond the shake-and-bake storyline, the tennis-skirted female officers and the slightly poor effects you find a selection of highly emotional scenes that convey their meaning without needing extra... Padding.

My personal favourite is the conclusion of the court-martial hearing. As those five marbles roll out onto the table... The sheer power of that scene still moves me. Of course, that might just be me.

Of the actors, Jay Underwood, Ivan Sergei and Chad Everett provide enjoyable and believeable performances. I don't believe it's fair to judge the actors based on this particular outing. A lot of their talent may have been submerged under the poor writing, but there are times when quality shines through.

This TV-Movie is mostly a cheap, feel-good, sci-fi romp only worth watching if you're feeling low and want pure sacharine. Beautiful Heroines, Square-jawed Heroes, predictable action and a happy ending with all the horrible baddies meeting their maker. But it's also worth watching this if you're willing to look for the hardcore Military Sci-Fi centre. It is there and it's worth watching if you can find it.

But don't take my word for it...

I have to disagree with negatives comments about this movie. I have watched it and to be sure it does not compare to the likes of Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5 etc. However it was a plausible story and the effects while not top notch were adequate. It portrayed the darker side of human nature when one of the cadets shirked from his duties, faced a court martial and then took his own life.

The ladies uniforms were easy on the eye for us men folk however all that was exposed was thighs. It is not as though you lived in fear that one of their boobs was about to fall out. I did not know that this film represented a pilot episode and I think that it would have been hard to make a series out of the film because the story was pretty much closed and I myself was not left feeling that I wanted more. However to reiterate,it was a decent movie and one that I would have no trouble watching again should I come across in the TV listings.

I'm not sure what they were going for when they created this movie, but i'll attempt to fathom it out for some. In the far future we find that a group of students are about to graduate a space academy. But if anyone has closely looked at the uniforms being shown during the first ten minutes, the students are in fact two different groups. Much like the military cadre was breaking down between two distinct ideologies before the outbreak of the civil war in the United States. As the story progresses we learn that there is the possibility of a civil war between two groups of humanity. One bent on exploration and peaceful mindset...and the other group which is bent on expansion by any means necessary.

I also believe this was a failed pilot which never really took off. The show really did surround the youthful ensemble put together. I really didn't believe the character story arcs were ever that strong to begin with, and by the end was more of a coming of age film for the actors themselves and NOT the characters.

And my worst comment will have to be for the space footage, with some of the worst spaceships and video toaster graphics I have ever seen to date. Well, besides the dragons from the Dungeons and Dragons, probably the worst flying tin cans I had a hard time believing could even fly in space.

Listen, I love sci-fi, especially cheesy, not-very-well-done sci-fi, so this movie was great. Good story, good animation, and(yes, I'll say it) good characters. Some of them even had a believable past, a rarity in any movie today. Besides, Jay Underwood hasn't had anything going for him since the Not Quite Human series. Now those were bad, but they portrayed a fresh idea, and even though Star Command is five years old, I still refer to it as a fresh idea. And Jay Underwood's still out of work. Maybe he should have gone to the casting call for Crossworlds instead of Star Command, but there you have it.