Now, wait just one cotton-pickin’ minute! Didn’t I say that the Prime Directive of this blog site is THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A BAD FAN FILM??? So how in the name of the Q Continuum do I justify giving each fan film a rating?
I thought about this a lot before deciding on doing the rating chart. I spoke to a number of friends about it. Wouldn’t it look hypocritical to rate them on a scale of good to bad, high to low, or recommended to not recommended? Isn’t that, by definition or just implication, calling a fan film “bad”?
On the other hand, my friends (almost unanimously) said they’d like to see these films rated for quality…if for no other reason than to know which ones to watch first. Which films are MUST SEE? And let’s face it, even if “there is no such thing as a bad fan film,” that doesn’t mean they’re all equally good. Some fan films really are significantly better than other ones. Some really are “must see.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean the others are inherently “bad.” They’re just not as good as some of the best. And in the end, I realized, that is the solution to my dilemma of having a rating chart. The films on the “low” end of the chart shouldn’t be spoken of negatively in any way. In fact, I’d even label those films as “Decent Effort” because, in my mind, that’s what they are. Somebody or a team of somebodies still worked hard to finish that fan film.
And that’s why I’m not giving any number or letter grades, no stars or smiley faces or thumbs up. Instead, I decided to have a little fun and use Star Trek TOS sleeve ranks. And if you’re thinking that Ensign is still a “low” rank and Commander is better (the three solid braids are for Fleet Captain rank, by the way) and Admiral is obviously the best, then yeah, you’re right. But y’know what? Even the lowliest red-shirted Ensign on the USS Enterprise still made it through Starfleet Academy—a few even helped save the ship!—and that’s something to feel proud of.
So yeah, I have a rating chart. And there’s still NO SUCH THING AS A BAD FAN FILM! Just deal with it and enjoy the blog, folks.