With 4 TV series (made up of 703 episodes), an animated series with 22 episodes and 11 movies you could think that the audience’s hunger for Star Trek would be satiated by now. Far from that. Quite a few fans are unhappy with the alternate timeline introduced in the 11th movie Star Trek in 2009 and with no new TV series planned by CBS yet, there’s quite obviously an inherent need for more Trek. Independent fan fiction movies are one answer to this hunger for more.
Star Trek: Axanar is a very ambitious project. The storyline is set 21 years before the first Star Trek episode featuring Captain Kirk (“Where no Man has gone before”), in the year 2245. Fleet Captain Garth of Izar, Kirk’s hero, lead the battle for the Federation at Axanar during the Four Years War against the Klingon Empire. Garth’s tactics and actions are required reading at the Starfleet academy, and Kirk himself calls Garth, the model for all future Starfleet’s officers. Captain Kirk notes too (in the episode “Whom Gods destroy”), that Garth’s victory was instrumental in making it possible for him and Mr Spock to work together as brothers.
Star Trek: Axanar features an impressive cast, including Richard Hatch, Kate Vernon, Tony Todd, J. G. Hertzler and Gary Graham. Alec Peter – the visionary leader of the Axanar project – is starring as Captain Kelvar Garth. Last year Garrett Wang joined the cast and will be playing the Klingon Commander leading the first D-7 to enter the war. But more than that, the project has the ambition to prove,that a feature-length , professional film doesn’t need millions of dollars to become something great. Producer Alec Peter is working together with Christian Gossett, the visual artist. Gossett’s first short film won several awards and his second short is said to have Oscar potential in its category. Gossett’s ground breaking graphic novel “The Red Star” includes Ridley Scott and James Cameron as fans. George Takei supported the Kickstarter Campaign of “Axanar” and helped raising the 650.000$ the movie is being produced on.
To get an idea of the movie, I strongly suggest watching the 21 minute short movie “Prelude to Axanar”. The “Prelude” has been nominated for the First Annual Star Trek Fan Film Award. The release of Star Trek: Axanar is planned for 2016. If you want to see this movie on screen, you can still donate at Axanar’s homepage and get great perks by choosing one of the Retroactive Donor Packages to support the making of this movie.
Together with “Star Trek: Renegades” this is my personal favourite in the recent independent film projects, and I am really looking forward to the full movie!
