November 30 2020
Axanar is Coming was released on October 31 this year showing eight minutes of footage.
The footage in not all new, a chunk of it has come from the original Axanar production when it was going to be a feature film before the now ViacomCBS launched a lawsuit to protect its property (Star Trek).
You can tell it is from the original as Robert Meyer Burnett had done a couple of documentary parts with the exact same footage.
There is also a legal battle going on which may render all the bridge footage unusable and before anybody gets excited and screams profanities at their computer screen it is actually a legal battle between Paul Jenkins and Alec Peters.
Even if the footage was given the ok to use, it may not be used anyway as the production team is unhappy with the Paul Jenkins era material despite being publicly enthusiastic about it for months which of course is a contradiction.
They are also doing recasts as at least one cast member has left the production since last year when the first couple of shoots were completed, over twelve months have passed since filming began so if they need to do bridge scenes.
The recast is not considered a big deal as the footage of the actress was reportedly lost but if you need to have all the characters back on deck after a year and the original footage is not scrapped, the new footage may look disjointed as somebody may have gained a couple of kilograms or changed their hairstyle etc since late 2019 giving that disjointed look and tone.
The latter half of video is mostly testimonials from cast members about how awesome the set is and all the gushing is what you would expect from actors on a production as they wouldn’t be saying how awful something is when trying to sell the short film.
So what does this eight minute video tell us? It’s really hard to say because if the 2019 footage is canned then all you’ve got is scrapped scenes that will only give people a sense of the quality of the production and leave us with unknowns.
The bridge scenes do look like it matches the expensiveness that the production has racked up so far, it is definitely above the majority of current fan productions who don’t have access to expensive cameras etc but there is still the question of acting quality as Alec Peters is the star of the show and he is not a professional actor compared to those around him.
So there you have it and now we sit and wait to see what 2021 brings us.
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