Star Trek: Hidden Frontier - Background Information

Background Information

Star Trek: Hidden Frontier premiered in 2000, an offshoot of the fan series Voyages of the USS Angeles, produced by the Star Trek fan club of the same name in Southern California. For legal reasons, copies are limited to the cast and crew. No earlier series episodes are available to the public and no reference to the show is made on the club's web site. Hidden Frontier inherited the setting, Deep Space 12, and several of the characters from the Angeles series, however it established its own identity. Two later HF episodes made usage of footage originally shot for Angeles that were never produced.

Due to production expense, the series is filmed in the executive producer's home utilizing a green screen matting technique to place actors into "virtual" sets. Often, a slight green halo appears around the actors, which some viewers decry. While technique and technical standpoints of the show may not be as advanced as other fan films, it shows progress in the milieu. This amateur web-based series contains a multi-arc plot, producing at least six episodes per year. Other productions are often one-offs or released at a much slower rate.

Most episodes are released in low resolution due to potential legal issues. Currently, only five (originally six) episodes have been released in high quality: A special edition of Season 1's fourth episode, "Two Hours", Season 6's premiere and finale, "Countermeasures", "Her Battle Lanterns Lit" (released in both low and high resolutions, modified into a single regular episode), Season 7's premiere, "Heavy Losses" and the two-part series finale.

Several key roles had replacements during the seven year run. The character of Lefler was originally played by Kelly Jamison, later portrayed by Joanne Busch. The character of Ro Nevin was originally played by Arthur Bosserman who left the cast after five seasons to pursue professional interests in music. This role was resumed by Bobby Rice.

For Seasons 2 and 3, nine episodes were produced each. The later seasons were reduced to six episodes, as nine were too much work for the volunteer cast and crew. Season 7, the final season, consists of eight episodes. In Season 6, a short fan-fic author Steve Berman writings were adapted for a memorable scene in episode "Vigil".

Hidden Frontier's theme music is taken from the film Galaxy Quest. Because of the crew's short production schedule and low budget, the music for most of HF's episodes was inherited from Paramount-owned soundtracks (both Star Trek and non-Star Trek), thus confining potential copyright issues to a single studio. Original scores were created for the last four episodes, when several composer fans of the series volunteered to create the music.