April 6 2021
Interlude, the sequel to Prelude to Axanar with a different director and producer was released today surprisingly on the Avalon Universe channel instead of Axanar or Ares Studios.
So here’s the deal, Jonathan Lane is the man in charge of Interlude and he brought in Victoria Fox and Joshua Irwin as Director and Director of Photography and they have great experience and with a story already hammered out they got to filming and they did it in short order.
There were three snafus of various impact, one was the destruction of a green screen owned by Paul Jenkins (it was replaced), there was COVID and then there was mother nature ruining homes and livelihoods so that pushed back a release from June 25 2020 to April 6 2021.
Delays happen all the time, Titanic was massively delayed but it turned out more than alright in the end, probably the best delayed movie of all time.
If you read the comic book, you basically saw the first half of Interlude in illustrated form.
The star of Interlude was without question Warren Hawk as Captain Jakande, there is no question about it and it is a shame that the movie runs for so short a time because it would of been good to have seen more of him.
Alec Peters wasn’t too bad, his face expression at the start was a little unusual as if he was really concentrating on something or was mad about something but he was definitely outclassed by Warren Hawk.
You see a guy on a medical bed playing Admiral Ramirez who was originally played by Tony Todd, this is to set up why the character plays no part in Axanar as Tony Todd left the production a very long time ago (I guess they don’t like to do recasts of main characters).
You don’t know why Admiral Ramirez is on the ship until the second half of the film when Garth explains how they got into the fighting with the Klingons, Ramirez must of hitched a ride to the briefing with the Ares instead of taking a vessel for his own personal command.
I guess that the Ares and the Artemis did not know the Klingons were approaching (typical Star Trek) and Ramirez was having a relaxing time somewhere other than the bridge when the attack began and he was injured on his way to the bridge, if you think the hull breaching torpedo injured him, that was two minutes into the attack.
The Ares First Officer is mentioned in the film as about to be going to Engineering to help out there but you don’t actually see him on screen.
In the first couple of weeks of Interlude being on YouTube, you would see Paul Jenkins as Commander Preston and it was a surprise because with Alec Peters and Paul fighting each other in court his role could of been cut for understandable reasons (the lawsuit) but it was kept in there.
Paul Jenkins reportedly asked to be cut from Interlude in 2020 after a breakdown in relations between Jonathan Lane and himself, this request was ignored and when Paul asked about it in April 2021 upon hearing the set premiere date he again asked to be cut this time more formally and it was denied citing the last minute demand would push back the premiere.
Paul’s face is now blurred on the screen but Interlude will put in a replacement scene with a new actor as Commander Preston.
Look closer at the engineering action and you’ll notice a Starbucks coffee cup but look even harder and you’ll notice that engineering is actually the Ares bridge obscured by a few pipes.
So virtually the first half is all action and drama and the last half is almost completely documentary style, Admiral Slater is no longer a Nickleback character (a photograph) and has come to life and appears in the second half to be the second interviewed Starfleet member.
When the ‘talking heads’ part of the movie is on there are a lot of cuts when Garth is talking about things, some suggest that this is part of the editing process like Alec Peters struggled to get through his lines, Steven Jepson’s scenes had no cuts in them.
It is interesting that Interlude is based on both Star Trek and Axanar according to the credits, that is such a rare thing in fan films to have two based on credits.
It will be well received especially by those who hate ViacomCBS for making Discovery and Picard and those who think Alec Peters is the man of the hour for Star Trek though he didn’t make this particular fan film.
The movie runs for twelve minutes and twenty-five seconds, the first forty-eight seconds is credits and the last two minutes and one second are end credits making the movie run for just under ten minutes.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Pros
Nice Tribute to Barbara Reader
Great CGI
Warren Hawk
Dramatic end to the first half
Christian Gossett got a costume design credit
Cons
Too short in length
Bridge scene acting was too casual in parts
It is a gap filler between Prelude to Axanar and Axanar
It feels disjointed (eg Ramirez’s appearance and injury on the Ares is explained after the action scenes)
Blinking Scenes (cuts)
Copied Game of Throne’s Starbucks mistake
Engineering is really the Ares Bridge
The handling of Paul Jenkins objections
Mentioning Trekkie Mentions 