Star Trek: Prelude To Axanar - 2014 - 7/10
For the old guard, longing for Star Trek of yore, this was red meat.
Paramount had tolerated, even signed off on independent fan series for decades.
Star Trek Continues, Starship Farragut, Star Trek: Phase II, Star Trek: Hidden Frontier, etc …
Amateur productions in quality and talent.
Axanar, however, utilized actors and production members who had worked on legitimate Star Trek projects, as well as Battlestar Galactica.
The actual film would detail the Four Years War, the conflict between Federation and Klingon, set before the Kirk - Spock era.
This preliminary short floored the fanbase, and crowdfunding money poured in for the feature.
Paramount sued. Were they terrified by real competition to their juvenile formula?
The short, despite budget constraints, is reverent, faithful to the series, and leaves one eager for more.
After a few years, Axanar, losing in litigation, was shut down.
What remains is the original “prelude,” a tantalizing remnant of what might have been.