Trenches is a 2008 SciFi webisode-series available via
Crackle, and at
Hulu, and at
Trenches-online. Unlike a lot of other webisodic efforts that have frankly bordered on the painful,
Trenches manages to be rather enjoyable. It's a good quality military SF series of web-broadcast episodes in the best tradition of
Starship Troopers, which looks like the very real story-DNA that the writers
stole pay respectful homage to in the first few episodes. Later on, around Episode 5: Shallow Graves, it looks like they're diving for the
Starship Troopers Two and
Three direct-to-dvd franchise territory at times, but all-in-all it works. I really liked the first few episodes a great deal. They are fun. Grim, gritty and with loads of explosions and mayhem, but with a bit of that something special that makes it far more watchable than more pretentious crap. The characters are promising. Almost on a par with the Colonial Marines from
Aliens in likability. It's not
Roughnecks, nor even
Space Viking, but it'll do for now and if
Trenches gets some support, some viewers and a bit of feedback, especially now that it is being carried by Sony's
Crackle, maybe the folks involved with this project will get a chance to deliver on some of the very promising potential. It'd be nice to see just what happens next after the big reveal/cliffhanger at the end of Episode 10. I just wish that
Trenches, as with the
Starship Troopers film(s) had brought in the powered armor, but maybe that's just me. With the run-away success of
Iron Man, maybe we'll finally get a real
Starship Trooper movie...
Check out
Trenches.
The Production Company behind
Trenches has made a bunch of
Concept Art, Stills, and other fun stuff available through the official
Trenches website. This is a very cool project. I would like to see more of this sort of thing, especially in terms of developing fresh new science fiction, fantasy and Sword & Sorcery properties. Maybe we'll see someone develop a credible and entertaining webisode series for
Carson of Venus,
Elak of Atlantis or
Eric John Stark...that'd be a Lot of Fun. Maybe with the Disney
John Carter of Mars and the renewed interest in
Buck Rogers,
Green Hornet, and other classic/Pulp heroes/series, maybe that's just a bit closer to reality than ever before.
