This 40-minute episode takes place in today's New York. It introduces the STAR (Search for Terrestrial Alien Residents) detective agency. It consists of private investigators Allen Brown and Karen Oakley, who are so professional that they can pay their bills with the occasional normal detective work, while concentrating their efforts on uncovering clues for the presence of aliens on Earth. Through a happy accident they collect a lot of evidence related to Star Trek episodes that involved time travel into the 20th century:
Assignment: Earth (1968) and
Storm Front (2004).
The TOS episode Assignment Earth was originally intended to be the pilot for a spin-off series around Gary Seven, a time-traveling secret agent. There is a lot of potential here for episodes that play in the present and tap into the Star Trek universe in Dr. Who style. With the present episode, the Federation Files have started to make use of this potential, though taking it in a different direction.
Not unusual for the Federation Files live action series, this episode has very high production values for a fan production. Of course there are no Star Trek actors here (except in phantom images), but otherwise only the leisurely pacing and the lack of (dispensable) special effects for shape-shifting makes this episode instantly recognizable as a fan film.
For the IMDB rating it is necessary to compare this film to the mainstream commercial productions, not just to other fan films. Thus I am rating this episode a 7 on the normal scale. Basically that means it is on the list of Star Trek episodes that I will include when partially rewatching old series.