Every couple of months, we see a return of the old chestnut called ‘CBS and Axanar’ and very recently it made its return.

Every couple of months, we see a return of the old chestnut called ‘CBS and Axanar’ and very recently it made its return though questions have been raised about its accuracy.

Stories about the big bad corporation snuffing out the dreams of fans who want to make fan films having been going around for the last decade, if only the story was that simple, but it is not.

One noticeable thing is that the Axanar story gets paraded around by people who do little to no research on events, anything can be claimed and it is highly unlikely that it would be challenged by the makers but let’s go back to the beginning.

Star Trek fan films used to be made by fans who were amateurs from acting to filming on sets that were really just garages, homes and parks and they made them to have fun and pay homage to the show that they loved but as technology improved, the definition of fan films started to change, it was no longer just about amateurs having fun and paying homage.

Suddenly people started to recreate actual Star Trek sets and then they started to hire professionals both behind the camera and in front of the camera and then came the calls for fans to help pay for each release.

Star Trek New Voyages/Phase II and Star Trek Continues were the forefront of this new era, sure there were still amateur productions, but the professional era was upon us, and this started to cause a very big problem.

Who would have thought that a guy playing Elvis would shake up the fan film world?

Renegades came along and they really amped up the usage of Star Trek alumi and a higher use of professionals and it was clear that fan films weren’t being made for fun anymore but for a different purpose and the rights holders were going to step in at any moment.

Then in comes Axanar, they saw what the others had done and wanted to do more, they wanted a studio too and Axanar was going to lead them all to the promised land after Prelude to Axanar showed it was possible with its army of professionals.

Professionals usually desire to get paid for their work, and a fan film creator had two options, they were either rich and could pay people or they had to rely on donations and conduct the selling of merchandise.

There was just one problem, Star Trek didn’t belong to them, it belongs to CBS and Paramount, and they can decide what they allow and disallow however they want and whenever they want and they decided enough was enough.

Remember that Axanar was touted as being an ‘Independent Star Trek Film’, that is just something you cannot do, you can’t make an independent version of somebody else’s property, how would you like it if somebody makes something independently of your business? You would be furious.

So, there was a legal battle between Axanar and CBS/Paramount and just when it was heating up to the point of detailed examination, Axanar agreed to terms and conditions (settlement) with CBS and Paramount, and they got a sweet deal, they got to keep their Prelude to Axanar onscreen pros putting them a cut above the rest plus other goodies but they did have the two 15 minute restrictions like everything else.

The one thing that many people forget is that if Axanar was in the right and they had legal representation that didn’t cost them then why did they agree to terms? Why not play out the court case to the very end?

Axanar has been giving the settlement the middle finger ever since, little spin off films were made, professionals in the cast that shouldn’t be there, there were settlement breaches here and breaches there and finally CBS and Paramount decided enough was enough, went back to court and won a $292,000 or so judgement.

They did have their stumbling blocks; COVID put the brakes on the production of the two 15-minute parts and the hiring of Paul Jenkins backfired on them, he was told by ‘haters’ to not take the Axanar job but he ignored it and after a lauded start, there was a technical issue with cameras and then there was fighting and then there was legal issues and many years went by before it all came to a conclusion.

The funny thing is that everything was caused by the Axanar production having a bad day, which is standard for productions around the world, a day of shooting can go bad, they just had to saddle up later and do it again but Axanar seemed to have had the ‘measure twice, cut once’ approach to filming.

Fan Films in the present day are doing really well; people have a chance of their fan films being seen instead of being stuck sitting behind New Voyages and Continues etc. because back in the day the big kids (New Voyages etc.) were pushing out the little kids with production quality.

Quite a lot of the fan films these days are way over guidelines and not a thing has happened to them, there are movie length fan films, sure they aren’t the quality of Prelude to Axanar or Continues or New Voyages/Phase II, but they are either close to two hours in length to just over two hours in length.

CBS/Paramount don’t seem to care what people do as long as you don’t create a studio with Star Trek the focal point, don’t do studio tours, don’t hire professionals for the fan films and don’t make money off the fan films through merchandise like Blu-ray discs, shirts and anything else you can come up with.

The old chestnut is brought out just to stir awake the people who think that Axanar should have been allowed to work with CBS/Paramount and that anything Alex Kurtzman has touched is awful and they recite the same old words time after time.

It is said that Axanar’s two 15-minute parts will be released in 2026, that will please those who really hate Starfleet Academy, Alex Kurtzman, CBS, Paramount and whoever else there is to hate and then who knows what is next, hopefully nobody decides to do something monumentally stupid like agreeing to do Axanar spin offs and begin the circus again.

We’ll see.