Now on the first look, I really liked Axanar, because it took up the recent (09, into darkness etc) look of trek rather than reminiscing in a perpetual state of nostalgia.
Before I go on, I should state my personal position on Trek in general - just to avoid confusion.
I really love the original series, it's design and it's narrative. I can also get along with parts of Enterprise, and I am a big fan of Armadillo-trek aka. the Starfleet Universe, also I really love the design of the recent Movies (I also dig Andromeda, and hang around on the Atomic Rockets far too much but that's probably a different story).
Meanwhile, you probably guessed where this is going - I couldn't care less about TNG (and it's ridiculous 90s plot-devices) and everything that's further up the timeline. Most of it feels like bad fanfiction to me - something I blame on later series being written by fans of the original rather than by real science fiction authors. If you ask me, it shows. A lot.
Now Axanar would be a great step, that's making the overly dogmatic and entrenched fanbase accept parts of the 'new' timeline, also it has got great production values. This - unfortunately - is where main main caveat with the movie comes in.
It's a war-movie.
A Star Trek war-movie.
To make matters worse, it's defended by fans, that - in the same sentence - like to claim that the recent movies don't follow Gene Roddenberry's vision.
It's a damn Star Trek war-movie.
I haven't heard of anything in trek, further from - what you could call Gene Roddenberry's vision.
Now, while I'm essentially ok with the Idea of a Trek war-movie (I like Armadillotrek, I am already one of the violent ones.), this example shows how broken Trek-Fandom is.
Personally, my main problem is more that the trailer also reveals another time-travelling 90s design from the late 24th century showing up and essentially saving the day. (ok, it's probably more the Constitution class to do that, but at that point I'd just rambling)
This puts me in a tight spot - there's stuff out there, I want to be great, and I want to like, but it all got fanbases attached to it, that are so full of dogma that no constructive discussion is to be had on any related topic. (also my convention-experiences thought me that your regular Trekkie is a rather poor example of a science fiction fan.)
Now complaining without offering a solution always is a bad thing, so here is my offer:
Start over. Not from TOS, but from the Forbidden Planet (which I see as the real basis). This is my personal introduction to a little experiment in Design and "creative" writing.
This is no simple fanfic, I'm planning on re-inventing the wheel. Of course everyone is invited to do the same.
Just pick your source material, and of you go.
[ A link to the project should appear here. ]
