There are 139 days to go until The 2026 Trekzone Fan Film Awards are here, our fifth awards, will it be our last one? Will people like it? Will there be controversy? Yes, there will be controversy because not everybody thinks or is made to think the same when it comes to awards shows except maybe in North Korea.

It has been a fairly quiet time in fan films, most of the stuff that YouTube offers are AI assisted fan films and it is a bit of a bother to be honest, AI does make it possible to make something you always wanted to make and not have to rattle tins to fund it but some of the stuff out there is a bit mind boggling.

The game Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown is out now, the game is currently considered to be solid despite the lack of voice acting, this game is definitely on my ‘buy later’ list as $50 AUD for one game is a bit high for me at the moment, always buy games when they are on sale, maximize your spending.

‘Polarization’ continues to gather up the views on YouTube; it is now at 11,000+ views, it has moved into Potemkin Pictures Top 40 most watched fan films and there are seven fan films ahead of it in the 12,000-view bracket (12,000 to 12,999 views) and another four in the 13,000-view bracket so it can easily break into the Top 30 in a short period of time.

Farragut 2024 has moved up into the 40,000 views bracket; it has been under three months since it was released.

People are still ripping into each other about Starfleet Academy, apparently Prelude to Axanar ‘HUMILIATES’ Starfleet Academy producers which is about as likely as a bag of money falling from the sky, smashing through the roof and the ceiling of my house and then landing on my desk, it just isn’t happening.

One day, people will be right about Starfleet Academy ending it could be 2027, 2028 or 2029 maybe even 2030 or 2031 but they will be right someday, that’s the circle of television life, a show starts and a show ends.

Speaking of Axanar, Episode IV is expected by Axanar to arrive on YouTube next month and we may finally get to see if it was the greatest thing since Citizen Kane or people waited a very long time to be disappointed (just like fans waiting for the game Duke Nukem Forever and the album Chinese Democracy).

There is a production out there that makes a version of Starfleet Academy that we apparently deserve, it is a very bite sized series, it is definitely fascinating though hampered by a small cast.

‘The series that fans deserve’ is something that you’ll never get a 100% consensus on; you could go up to 100 fans and sit down and go through what fans want in a series and there will be variation to some degree, not everybody will give the same setting, timeline, style, is swearing in or out, do they want gays and lesbians, do you they straight relationships or bi relationships or no relationships at all just focus on the action please, do you want it a serious show or a show that has one liners dished out like Richard Dean Anderson’s portrayal of Jack O’Neill in Stargate SG-1 and on and on.

That’s it for this edition of MTM Wrap, a bit of a pondering edition but variation is always a cool thing.

Time for me to go watch Starfleet Academy and see what caused people to lose a bit of hair this time.

Until next time, be good to each other.