OK. I'm fairly new to this guild. I've read some of the posts but not posted yet. My fave ST series is Deep Space Nine, followed by Voyager.

As many people are aware with Enterprise cancelled we've been without a Star Trek series for ages now. However where Paramount have stopped the fans carry on. I'm sure many of you are familiar with some of the fan series made.

Star Trek: Hidden Frontier is by far the most professional I've seen. It has even had so much coverage that George Takei who played Sulu in TOS has guest stared in Hidden Frontier. It's into it's 7th season, and is currently remastering the 1st season which shows it's age and the amateur learning experience a fair bit in comparison to later episodes.

The website - http://www.hiddenfrontier.com - has the episodes all available for download/watch for free, and due to copyrights, it will always be free unless Paramount request they stop production.

So far the show, although unofficial, and holding no copyrights, has had no opposition from Paramount, but also no endorsement so it cannot be sent via DVD/VHS/VCD or in .iso format for legal reasons and is available only in .mov formats so you'll need either QuickTime or VLC Media Player to watch them.

The timeline fits as such...

Hidden Frontiers Season 1 - Voyager Season 6
Hidden Frontiers Season 2 - Voyager Season 7
Hidden Frontiers Season 3
Hidden Frontiers Season 4
Hidden Frontiers Season 5
Hidden Frontiers Season 6 - Intrepid Season 1
Hidden Frontiers Season 7
Odyssey Season 1 - Helena Chronicles Season 1 - Operation Beta Shield*
Odyssey Season 2 - Helena Chronicles Season 2 - Federation One Pilot Episode
Odyssey Season 3 - Helena Chronicles Season 3 - Federation One Season 1

*Feature Film with cast from Hidden Frontiers, Intrepid and Federation One.

HF, Odyssey, HC, and F1 are 30mins per episode.
Intrepid is 12min per episode, except the pilot which is 45mins.

You can get all the shows except Star Trek: Intrepid from the website above. Only 4 episodes have been released so far, 2 more in post production, 3 more to come after that for a total of 9 episodes per season, downloadable here.
Episode 1 (Pilot) - Heavy Lies The Crown - (right-click, Save As)
Episode 2 - Orphans Of War - (hosted on the HF website)
Episode 3 - Where There's A Sea - (right-click, Save As)
Episode 4 - Turning Point - (right-click, Save As)

OK. Now people know what everything is, how the timeline fits etc. (Obviously this isn't canon, although Gene's son interviewed the producer of HF and said he liked that Star Trek was being kept alive so well).

As far as I know Odyssey, Helena Chronicles and Intrepid are still in production. Federation One is planned to have only one season and is currently in production, 4 episodes long and Hidden Frontiers has stopped production after it's 50th episode, with many of the characters carrying over to the other shows.

I was wondering if anyone else had seen these shows and what they thought of them. I think, if you can forgive the slight amateur special effects and acting it adds something quite good to the trek universe at a time when we simply don't have any official shows to watch (in my opinion HF and Odyssey are better than Enterprise).

Opinions are welcome and encouraged....