Star Trek: Axanar takes place in the year 2245.  Don't ask about Stardates, no one knows how those things work.  So how did we decide to set Axanar in 2245?  What is happening at this time?  And how does this fit in the Star Trek timeline, universe and canon?

First we looked at certain key dates.  When was the Enterprise Laucnhed? (2245)  When was the Peace Mission of Axanar? (2250).  We decided to use The Four Years war from the 1990's FASA RPGs as I loved that series.  I wanted Robert April in the script and I wanted the Enterprise to have a cameo.   To accomodate all this, I had to put the last year of the war, when Axanar takes place as 2245.  That is 20 years before Where No Man Has Gone Before (2265) and 21 years before Season 1 of TOS (2266).  That also makes it 8 years before The Cage (2253).

So we know very little about what is happening around this time other than the Enterprise being launched.  What was Starfleet like?  How many ships are there in Starfleet?  What is Starfleet?  What is the United Earth Space Probe Agency (UESPA) and why is it also called Starfleet Command and associated with Earth up through TOS?  Are there separate Vulcan, Andorian and Tellarite ships?  Who is in the Federation?

And then we had to incorporate the few things we know about Garth of Izar from "Whom Gods Destroy".  According to Kirk, he was the finest student at the Academy, the finest Starship captain.  He was the prototype, the role model for a whole generation of starship captains.  He also charted more worlds than any other starship captain, and achieved a major victory at Axanar.  A victory that forged a peace that had a profound affect on the Federation (it is implied this was the beginning of the Federation, but that has been retconned).  We know Garth was a Fleet Captain.

So that is what we had to start with and what we had to answer.  Each writer might take that in a different direction.  I know I have been fundamentally disappointed in every story Garth has been in.  Even the FASA story of Garth had him in a minor role in the events of the war.  The novel I found lacking and short changed his history.  And forget the DC comics, which was flat out absurd.

Garth is noble.  He is historic, a figure of legend.  And his fall years later is only truly tragic if he falls from great heights.

And we will wrap up Garth's story in the time of TOS with a pair of bookend vignettes that tell the story of what happens to Garth after the events of "Whom Gods Destroy", how Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise bring Garth back to Starfleet and how Garth's story resolves.  It will bridge the story of Axanar into TOS in ways you won't see coming. And it will leave you with a smile.

We all love this story.  We think you will too.  Come along and find out about a period in Federation history you know little about and about one of Starfleet's legendary captains.  This is the story of Axanar.

Alec Peters

Axanar Creator