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Saga Of A Crew
01/04/2007 . Source: Michael and Rhian Driscoll 
Region 1 DVD. Daniel R. Christopher Productions, PO Box 1119, Lebanon ME 04022, USA. Time: 69 minutes. Price: $11.95 (US only cos of music use restrictions. Buy Saga Of A Crew in the USA - or Buy Saga Of A Crew in the UK  check out website: www.sagaofacrew.com
In a sense, 'Saga Of A Crew, a low budget Science Fiction film by writer, producer and director Daniel R. Christopher, who also acted in the film, might be considered to have the honour of the longest production schedule in history.
Originally shot between 1981 to 1984, production was suspended until 2004 when Christopher resurrected the project. Many effects shots were re-done using original properties and others were replicated as needed in the style of the original. He makes no bones about this disparity neither, which is not so much arty as distracting. This being the case, I doubt even the most avid film buff would want to sit through this movie unless it was late at night in a dorm room when you could knock back a few beers and heckle the screen.
Set in the year 2187, the story concerns the fate of a small patrol, sent by the Earth 3rd Expeditionary Task Force, to find resources for a depleted Earth. After a mishap, the fleet's supply of Tri-Malisite (think Star Trek's dilithium crystals or StarGate's naquida) is lost. Three men are sent to a nearby planet to get some of this material. They have about 95 hours in story time to get it done, before the fleet will be forced to float on. The movie is about 69 minutes long. It just feels like hours sometimes.
Perhaps, like Burt Gummer's mantra in the 'Tremors' movies, it's a case of 'Doing what I can with what I got.' Everyone seems to be an amateur and either a friend or a relative of Christopher's, which was probably the main qualification to get some camera time. One scene looks like it was filmed in a basketball court and many exteriors look as though they were done in sand dunes. Which, since that part of the movie was apparently on a desert planet, inhabited by nasty squeaking crawling creatures that consist of a head and two arms, that's all right.
It was hoped this movie might have been something in the vein of 2004's 'Sky Captain & The World Of Tomorrow' or the 2005 Pendragon version of 'War Of The Worlds'. Both of which were largely cranked out on a computer, other than the actors who worked in front of blue screens. Maybe next time. After all, since Christopher used family and friends, he had to have saved a bundle on salaries. In that spirit, I took the DVD round to my eighteen year-old nephew Rhian so that we could watch and evaluate it together.
You could call this a very green movie, since so much of it is recycled, because the original story and footage comprise about 90% of the movie. This footage was digitally re-photographed but not restored, spliced together with sequences that were done on video. This clashes rather jarringly with the old stuff. At times, it seemed we were watching two different movies at the same time.
In either case, we both noticed that the audio in both portions is consistently muddled, indistinct and choppy like an old Benny Hill skit, but without the smirking innuendo or humour.
There are also some rather basic continuity errors. At several points, characters wander seem to wander through scenes to no clear purpose, even as they were supposed to be talking on CB-radio type intercoms. This is not a criticism of the level of props, being that it IS a low-budget project but have some care for character motivation, after all.
To be honest, I found this movie slow, but with glimpses of something more. At least, Rhian seemed to enjoy himself. But then again, he fell asleep about 18 minutes into the mission, I mean movie, and woke up just as it ended.
What we have here is a glorified home movie, made by someone who clearly loves the process of putting a story on screen as much as he loves Science Fiction.
I feel that with a little more time and money, Christopher might consider revisiting this project down the road. Maybe he could make something that might grow into the basis for a pretty decent summer film.
Michael and Rhian Driscoll
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