The notion that mainstream entertainment is less intelligent, imaginative and sophisticated than Star Trek is preposterous fannish nonsense.
Take it up with GR who, despite all his faults, worked hard to establish Trek as appealing to a bar set higher than the LCD entertainments of the day, a policy that was continued through all the modern Treks up to the 09 film.
The evidence of history, sir, is against you.
Um, yes and no. Not to be argumentative, but GR modeled it on the Westerns of the times, selling it as "action/adventure" with some "social commentary. Science fiction provided a platform for telling a multitude of stories without being bound to one specific time, society, or place. He could have the commentary that he wanted on society, without necessarily pointing fingers at a specific aspect of of American society (with due respect to fans from other countries).
I think Trek 09 carried forward that spirit with a lot more energy, but I saw action, I saw adventure, I saw commentary. So, it works as Star Trek for me.
Obviously, and rather ridiculous to restate but I will, other people will have different experiences.
I liked Prelude and found the concept to be interesting. My only struggle (and the reason why I watch films) is there were maybe two characters that I liked and wanted to see succeed or (in contrast) see fail.
VFX only does so much as far as my interest goes, so I am hoping for a trailer where I have a more concrete idea of what everybody's role is in the actual film.
Again, cautious optimism, but I've seen many fan productions over the years, and I think caution on my part is warranted. This is not a slam against the production team, who I think are doing a good job, especially with a lot of naysaying and random attacks.
I am looking forward to the trailers, as well.
There are some specific reasons why Prelude was the way that it was, specifically the retrospective documentary and interview style of presentation. Some were creative -- wanted to do something different and fresh to pitch the concept and prove what we could do with the money that we had. Others were practical -- having only the money that we had not being low on the list.
The vast majority of the feedback that we've received from fans, pros, and media has been overwhelmingly positive in the near year since it premiered and was released to donors and YouTube. That said, the coming feature will not only have a much larger budget, but it also has more creative talent behind it, not to mention that it will unfold as a traditional film narrative -- as-you-were-there style -- as any Star Trek film from Paramount has done. Thankfully, and this is only my personal opinion, although it may be shared by many, the feature-length film will be largely practically shot on real sets and that should surely kick things up a notch.
Speaking only for myself, one of my jobs is wrangling the displays on the sets; everything from ordering the monitors and video devices that will play the animations, but perhaps even a few goodies that involve very large touch screens. All of that will be practical effects, too, and we're not using TOS repro graphics. Our in house art department has created a new computer interface system that we believe strongly, after a bazillion hours of development, will bridge the gap between the ENT and TOS designs. They'll be practical though, since we're working from the place that technology is today and not what technology of the future was thought to look like 50 years ago. That said... they'll be very familiar, too.
It's a wild ride, but by the time the film premieres, if we all aren't already on a mental hold from exhaustion, we'll be dropping off the grid for a few weeks to an undisclosed location that doesn't even have soup cans and string for outside communication. =P
Terry,
thank you for your response. I know that the Axanar team has put a lot of time, blood, sweat, tears, money and everything else in to the project, and (having done fan film projects) I appreciate the effort.
That said, I meant nothing against Prelude in my comments. I love the documentary style of Prelude, and think more fan productions would do well to take that as inspiration. I can recall a similar one for Star Wars based around the battle of Hoth. They did a (then) History Channel style documentary, with voiceovers reciting quotes from famous people at the battle.
Also, having done just basics of tracking finger movements for a graphic display, I'm impressed by all the displays that have to be done. Again, my comments are not meant to denigrate the work you all have done. Instead, it is that I am hoping that it is a film that I cannot wait to see, and appreciate the full story, characters, and events.
Thank you for your response and please continue the good work!
