For $300,000 (or even $2 million), you need a sparkling script that requires sparse resources. Two guys in space suits walking across an alien vista trying to survive. Not space battles, thirty actors and tons of sets.
I think that is the crucial point. Fan productions have a way of thinking
huge with tiny budgets, and somehow thinking that they can achieve both. Hollywood wouldn't spend hundreds of millions on films if they could be done 85% as well with a million or two. They spend it because that's what that end product costs to make. However much
Trek-loving altruism you have amongst your cast and crew, ultimately sets, actors, props, costumes and effects cost money. The more you have, the more they cost.
If you don't have much money, you look to Netflix originals for inspiration, not Hollywood blockbusters. Small casts, minimal sets, keep the effects to when they're absolutely necessary, and hang your success on writing and editing.
If you took
Renegade's budget and talent and made a bottle show, a small cast who are engaged in a compelling story based on a maximum of two main locations, say a ship and a planet set, you could so something really good for the money. Many of
Trek's best loved episodes have been two or three actors on a couple of sets, and even one of its most successful films was largely a half dozen people with a conveniently invisible space ship walking around modern day locations, but with a great story and tight editing.
