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Why We Do Axanar!

TICONDEROGA, NY.: NOVEMBER 3, 2015 -- Kelvar Garth (Alec Peters) and David Gerrold during the filming of Axanar vignettes at the Star Trek New Voyages Studio in Ticonderoga, New York, November 3, 2015. Photo for Axanar Productions by Garth GulleksonNow that the lawsuit is over, I thought we should address some of the nonsense out there about WHY we do Axanar.  As anyone who actually knows us knows, we love Star Trek.  In fact we love Star Trek as much as the fans who have made Axanar the phenomenon it is.  We aren’t doing this to make money or to promote our careers (although doing great work in any field always helps you with that).  We do Axanar, and have fought a long, hard fight in court when everyone else would have folded, because we LOVE Star Trek and love what we do.

Some fans have tried to paint me as someone who wanted to make a business off of Star Trek.  Oh please!  Yes, we raised more money than any other fan film, and yes we were paying people to work on Axanar (you cannot expect anyone to work full time for free, or for a professional to give up paid work to help you on your film).  But trying to make a business off of Star Trek?  Honestly, as a 20 year serial entrepreneur, as well as someone who went to law school and passed the bar, you would have to be stupid to waste your time treating Star Trek as a business to make money off of.

When we always said we were “professional” we were referring to QUALITY.  We were saying, we want Axanar to look like it came from a Hollywood studio.  That didn’t mean is was a PROFESSION.

If you actually have read about Axanar over the past three years, it is pretty clear that we do Axanar because we love Star Trek.  I wrote my first Garth story in the 1980’s when I was in law school.  When James Cawley invited me to play Garth in the episode “Origins” in 2010, I did it because I wanted to bring this character to life in a different way than we saw in “Whom Gods Destroy”.  My decision then, while I was in Port Henry shooting and talking to James, to write a script and make a fan film, had nothing to do with business or a film career.  And anyone who says otherwise is frankly, a moron (or a liar).  I spent almost 4 years working on Axanar before we even shot Prelude to Axanar.  And even then, all I wanted to do was to shoot Axanar on the sets of Cawley’s Star Trek New Voyages.  The studio was never my idea, but that of our then director, Christian Gossett who refused to work on those sets because he didn’t want to work with the fans who worked as crew, and claimed he couldn’t work on the bridge set because there wasn’t enough room to shoot (something Rob Burnett proved wrong when he shot “Origins” there in November of last year.)

Disappointing James, who really wanted us to shoot Axanar in the fall of 2014 was a real bummer and I wished we had shot there, because Axanar would have been done by now!  And playing Garth was something I worked long and hard for.  If wanting to make a profession out of producing films was my goal from the beginning, I never would have played Garth in Prelude and I never would have rented a studio.  Because acting doesn’t help you become a producer and managing a SOUND STAGE is not how you produce films.  In fact the ONLY reason we are trying to rent out the sound stage is to pay the rent.  I really don’t care to be in the sound stage business.

12200640_10153162843185671_2073739519_nAxanar has been my passion project for 6 years because I love Star Trek.  Diana also loves Star Trek and has been a life long fan.  And Rob made a movie called Free Enterprise that starred William Shatner, fulfilling a life long dream for him.  Axanar is that film for me.

What Star Trek fan wouldn’t want to film a Star Trek fan film on an exact replica of the USS Enterprise bridge, with David Gerrold helping you on your script, like I had the great honor of doing in 2015 for the vignette “Heroes”.

And more than anything, I love that you the fans have shared this journey with me.  If I had the chance to make official Star Trek that fans didn’t like, or make a fan film that true Star Trek fans love more than the official version, I know I would choose the latter.

So THANK YOU all for helping me chase my dream, and create a new part of the universe we all love, even when being chased by Romulans!

Alec

P.S.  You can read about the beginnings of Axanar in the very first blog article I wrote here:

https://axanar.com/a-short-history-of-axanar-part-i/

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Join the discussion 20 Comments

  • Ian says:

    Keep up the great work long live AXANAR!!!

  • Jeff lochland says:

    I hope I live long enough to see the movie a bit short one you have a great idea that from whT I see will bear fruit

  • Dennis Castello says:

    Your enthusiasm and love for Star Trek has always been very clear to me when reading your blog posts or listening to your podcasts. I’m really looking forward to seeing Axanar and all the other great work I know you guys will be doing in the future.

  • Eric says:

    Keep it up AXANAR!!!! Ahead maximum warp!!!!!!!

  • tanya loser says:

    Alec, let the story be told. Short, long, or segment’s, tell it.

  • Amil S. Boddie-Willis says:

    Still a crying shame that fight-in-court didn’t get you the 90 min’s I know we all would’ve hoped for Alec, but keep rocking on with this and future projects, all the same, alright?… P 🙂

    • Alec Peters says:

      Agreed! You can’t contain Axanar,so stay tuned!

      • Amil S. Boddie-Willis says:

        Just for the record I would’ve hoped for 100 min’s, if we could’ve gotten that – That would’ve been even better than 90 😉 Still with ya, Alec… P 🙂

  • Timothy Butcher says:

    Live Long, and . . . Axanar!

  • James Beltz says:

    Alec you’ ve done the best work and I’ m proud to support you and call you friend. It was super awesome to have worked with you, Diana and Richard Hatch at SLCC 2015. As Richard had wrote on a photo he gave me….”Keep the faith!”
    So say we all……

  • Brian Heite says:

    Well, give the best you can give, and be proud of your work. Our society has become infected with a noxious view of civility and courtesy, and a distinct lack of truth. Everyone sees a plot in every corner, action, or statement. Ignore them, because inevitably, when you actually do your own fact finding, you end up with “That’s not true”. You reflect the passion that a lot of fans have always held for Trek, the real Trek, that Axanar presents. Go forth and conquer! And feel free to rent the stage to whoever will need and pay something for it, since we all donated to make it, and if the rent isn’t paid, then it was all for nothing. Duh….. BTW, a well written and passionate statement on your place in Axanar and the Axanar team!

  • Roger Robertson says:

    To put it simply & from the heart ……
    #IstandwithAxanar !!
    #IstandBESIDEAlecPeters !!
    I’m proud to be a fan, but more so, to call Alec & Rob, my friends. “As you command, Cap’n !”

  • Harry Quinton says:

    Very saddened that Richard was denied his opportunity to participate in the great adventure. It appeared from here in the UK a spiteful exercise and so damaging to the fan genre. So very much looking forward to the completed Axanar. Thank you Axanar team.

  • Andrew says:

    If it must be in segments, then so be it!

  • Jeff orr says:

    I would love to see axanar become a series on the syfy channel. Would love to buy the DVD when it comes out.

    • Brian Heite says:

      Indeed, it had the basis and the quality to have been the next major ST series, and because it was a totally new segment of history, so many stories to be told! One reason I was so distressed with the lawsuit, and that CBS failed to grasp the possibilities it held, and then joined with the Axanar team, thrown some money at them, and said “Go forth and be fruitful”. Would have been a moneymaking, fan satisfying series. A success. Maybe that was why they didn’t do it, CBS seems rather allergic to success these day….

  • Vincent Cenni says:

    Glad to hear Axanar is moving ahead. Having read the guidelines, and admittedly not a lawyer, I wonder if you could include the parts of scenes you have to cut as deleted scenes among the extras. By doing this you stay within your 15 minute guidelines and also offer a little extra context to scenes that should have been 4 minutes but time constraints forced you to make 2 and a half minutes. I may have missed it or maybe it is implied, but I did not see deleted scenes mentioned. Also, does the well staged Vulcan teaser trailer count towards the time of one of the segments or is it separate from the time frame of the final two segments.
    Finally, thank you Alec and Team Axanar for hanging in there. I have been watching Star Trek since it first aired in the sixties. For the most part it presents a vision of a better future for humanity in stark contrast to most dystopic future imaginings. I hope that vision of a well intentioned, if flawed human race, is the one that Lives Long and Prospers.

  • Isaac says:

    I agree that the loss of the 90 minute time frame is very disheartening, however, from everything i have read. I do don’t see why the movie can’t be broken up in to 6 films that are continuations of one another almost like a mini series. Thinking back to the days of the original Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy that was turned into a movie from the episodes that were aired.

    In any case I know that the passion behind this project will shine through and we the fans will continue to support our love for Star Trek and the Axanar Team!

    • Amil S. Boddie-Willis says:

      Yeah, that makes a lot of sense 🙂 In fact, you should check out Fan Film Factor – We discuss possible revision suggestions that we’re looking to make to CBS, and one of them was of course the restrictive time length – Someone actually suggested doing a 6 episode storyline with each story being 15 min’s – That would in turn add up to the 90 min’s that so many fans would want to see, but yeah, check out the article on Fan Film Factor – I don’t know if I’m allowed to post links to articles from that sight onto this one or not – So, I won’t take any liberties in that regard, but if you find the article I’m looking feel free to drop your 2 cents in, alright?… P 😉

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