Borg War (1994-8)
Silver Age Film; Series (Drama) — Germany
An unauthorised trilogy of live action German films - not to be confused with the seminal Star Trek machinima movie Borg War (2006) - based closely on Star Trek which was shown in German theaters and secretly handed around on videotape for many years.
In April, 2019, British Star Trek fan Danny Lavery uploaded the second & third parts from a copy gifted to him by the late Bernd Felsberger, the composer of Borg War III.
Episodes
Borg War
1 — 45min 00sec — 01 January 1994
Directed by Rene von Bodisco
Currently unavailable online.
Borg War II The Romulan Factor
2 — 01hr 13min 42sec — 01 January 1996
Directed by Christian Luck and featuring the voice of Rolf Schult as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Rolf was the voice actor who dubbed over Patrick Stewart in the German release of TNG Seasons 1-4 and the four TNG movies in Germany.
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/tnewIP79X1c
Danny has created a fan appreciation site of this film in English, here...
https://dannylavery9.wordpress.com/2019/04/21/borg-war-ii-the-romulan-factor
"The aesthetic is actually copying the DS9/VOY era of Trek, so very 90s, and a female captain is made to look like Captain Janeway, hair and all! The lead role is Captain Christopher Riker, played by Bodisco, a Jonathan Frakes lookalike, while the other leads are a human called Admiral Edwards and an alien called Campri. I think that with the Federation and Romulan sets other 24th Century fanfilm makers could take inspiration, as this era is usually represented with green screen." - Danny Lavery
Borg War III Atlantis
3 — 01hr 56min 15sec — 15 August 1998
Set in the year 2378, a team of Atlantis researchers aboard the USS DALLAS does not return from an expedition to a station on the moon Mia-III-Alpha. Starfleet High Command hastily assembles a search party of experienced officers and a group of young academy graduates. However the mission becomes dangerous when the search party is ambushed by a mysterious, overpowering enemy and it becomes a merciless struggle for survival as, back on Earth, the first encounter with an unknown extraterrestrial civilization takes place. Have the visitors come as friends - or enemies?
From the Internet Archive of their long-gone website, "Pre-production for BorgWar3 started in July 1996, the casting for main & supporting roles in December and shooting started on November 6 the following year in Ludwigshafen tram depot. After 30 days of shooting, mostly on weekends, they finished on March 21, 1998, often shooting on the 9 sets until late at night, once for 48 hours without a long break. A total of 100 people worked with enthusiasm and idealism on the cinematic implementation of the 3rd Borg War story, all amateur actors and amateurs behind the camera, for no fee! The production costs, which had become increasingly independent in the course of filming, came to the considerable sum of 70,000 marks."
Directed by Rene von Bodisco, it featuring Willi Wiegand as Captain Sovat. Willi was a well known Leonard Nimoy lookalike in Germany who appeared on German TV and events as Mr Spock - including the 2003 documentary Trekkies 2 and the aborted TOS/TNG crossover movie "Star Trek: Das Vermachtnis" (Star Trek: The Legacy). On his website, Willi Wiegand, says that in 1998 he appeared at the "world premiere of Borg War 3 - Atlantis at Kinopolis-Rhein-Neckar (cinema center) in Viernheim. At this fan movie production I am the Vulcan Captain of the 'USS Hosho'."
German TV news item on Borg War III: https://youtu.be/g5nTL2Wu4F4 (31 Dec 1998)
Internet Archive copy of old website: https://web.archive.org/web/20010405041402/http://borgwar.schlund.de/borgwar/index.shtml (05 Apr 2001)
Entry on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0297805/ (11 Mar 2006)
Release by Bernd Feldsberg, the composer for Borg War III of the film in four parts on his YouTube account before his death.: https://www.youtube.com/user/felsberg2/videos (17 Nov 2008)
