Dear fans and friends,
For the past nine years, we have been thrilled, as fellow Star Trek fans, to create new audio adventures in Gene Roddenberry's universe. CBS Studios, which owns Star Trek, has bent over backwards to treat the world of fan audio drama with quiet tolerance, as long as we in the audio community uphold the central tradition of all fan fiction: we must be non-commercial.
Since the first fanzine was published in 1967, Star Trek fan productions, in any format, have been consistently non-commercial. Even when fanzine editors had to charge readers for printing and postage costs (a matter of no small controversy in 1980s fandom!), they were careful not to keep a penny of profit for themselves. For decades, this arrangement worked well, and Star Trek's owners have always treated fan makers with enormous trust and respect. From the day in 1968 when Gene Roddenberry made the Star Trek writing staff read Spockanalia and ST-PHILE, to the welcome return of the Strange New Worlds short story contest here in 2016, the warm relationship between Star Trek's owners and its fan producers has been the envy of other fandoms -- so long as fans kept their works non-commercial.
Today, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek and its fandom, the traditional fanzine is long gone, made obsolete by the Internet and the democratization of media production. The lines between commercial and non-commercial have become blurrier than they once were. Despite this new climate, which would spook many media conglomerates, CBS has been profoundly generous to Star Trek fans. Thanks to the marriage of fan passion and studio support, we have just lived through a golden age of fan shows.
Unfortunately, some in our community did not see the blurring lines as a new wrinkle in our old relationship, a complication that would have to be navigated carefully in order to keep the marriage alive. They saw an opportunity to overreach, to test the limits of the studio's indulgence, and, in some cases, even a chance to make a buck. No single man or group bears sole responsibility for this, either. Many of us, *including* some of us at Excelsior, contributed -- at least in small ways -- to the mounting pressures that eventually led the studio to act.
And act they have. Last December, CBS filed a lawsuit against the group that had most seriously violated their trust. Last week, CBS followed up by issuing a set of "guidelines" for fan films. This was followed, a few days ago, by a lengthy interview with CBS Vice President John Van Citters to discuss (and clarify) the new guidelines. (A link to the guidelines, as well as a partial transcription of the interview, may be found here:http://www.trekbbs.com/…/cbss-john-van-citters-interviewed…/ ) These guidelines, according to Mr. Van Citters, apply to fan films only; they expressly *do not* include audio dramas like Starship Excelsior. However, for us to ignore this epochal change in the fan film landscape would only be to invite future restrictions on fan audio dramas, so we have paid very close attention to the situation -- and we have stayed (frustratingly) quiet while we decided what to make of it all.
It is clear, from the guidelines themselves and the Van Citters follow-up interview, that CBS still believes this marriage can be saved. CBS is willing to work hard -- even take some risks -- to keep its relationship with fans alive. For example, the studio has extended its formal blessing to crowdfunding for fan films, in amounts of up to $50,000. This is unheard of, and wholly unexpected. The studio has vowed to raise no objections against shows that operate entirely within its guidelines, creating a completely clear, well-defined, and legally cognizable "safe harbor" for free-form fan films. This is more than any experienced fan producer dared hope.
While it is true that shows which fall outside the guidelines have gained no official sanction, they never had any to begin with; CBS has at least given no indication that it plans to ruthlessly prosecute "violators" of the guidelines. On the contrary, CBS appears to be doing all in its power to build up the fan film community, rather than tear it down, and vows to approach each use on a "case-by-case" basis. Their principal concern seems to be the same as it was fifty years ago: that fan work remain non-commercial. We hope that the dialogue between CBS and the fan film community continues fruitfully, and that our animated friends at Star Trek: Absolution (and elsewhere) will be able to resume production soon.
As for us at Excelsior, we are grateful that "long-form radio plays" are expressly exempt from the guidelines. Few of the guidelines would affect us, since we do not have props, we have never even for a second *considered* getting ad revenue, we don't have nudity (though, I guess, being audio, you'd never know!)... but a clean exemption makes it much easier for us to evaluate our position. We are therefore pleased to announce that we are continuing production on our current queue of episodes, unaltered and full speed ahead!
You can even listen to our newest episode, "Fear Itself," right now atwww.starshipexcelsior.com! "Fear Itself" actually has an official release date of June 22nd, but, since the guidelines came out on the morning of June 23rd, we cancelled our official announcement and usual post-release hoopla out of respect for CBS and the wider fan film community during the initial turmoil. Now that things are stabilizing, you can expect some healthy hoopla for "Fear Itself" over the next few days.
In the meantime, some things will change. Most visibly, we are in the process of changing our name from "Star Trek: Excelsior" to "Starship Excelsior: A Star Trek Fan Production." We've adjusted it in most places, but some widely-used art assets (like our profile picture on the Facebook page) are proving more difficult, since they were contributed by fans years ago and we don't have the original elements. We are working on it.
We are also going to stop promoting our (very occasional) past work with Star Trek alumni, such as Ursaline Bryant in "The Graceful End." Moreover, going forward, any new episodes that enter production (after June 23rd, 2016) will be devoid of Trek alumni and will not be crowdfunded. (This was our plan anyway, but it's good to state things plainly at a time like this.) We may even moderate public comments (at our discretion) that celebrate Excelsior's involvement with those things. We at Starship Excelsior are proud of all our work, including the few episodes where we enjoyed the rare privilege of working with Star Trek veterans, but, at the same time, we wish to avoid needlessly antagonizing CBS at a delicate moment in the fan/studio relationship. So this aspect of our show will be downplayed from here on out. Besides, "The Graceful End" is a great episode because Ursaline Bryant is a crackerjack actress, not because she happened to play Tryla Scott in one episode thirty years ago.
Above all, we will remain, as we always have been, a non-commercial production, created by fans, for fans, without pretense, for the pure love of Star Trek and audio theater. Your (many, many) kind letters of concern and affection over the past week have sustained us through a difficult week. Thank you. Hearing from you in the listening audience is, always has been, and always will be more valuable to us than latinum.
Once again, we are grateful to CBS (and their colleagues at Paramount) for all that they have given to the fans over the years, and especially for their tolerance of Starship Excelsior. It is our firm hope that the release of these guidelines marks not just the end of a difficult, lawsuit-ridden epilogue to fan films' golden age, but the beginning of a new, even better era for Star Trek fan producers -- in every medium, of every age, at every budget. We know CBS and Paramount share that hope. We look forward to making many more years of Star Trek audio drama for you, the best fans in the world.
As Captain Dovan would say... "Hit it."
Ever upward,
James Heaney
Exec. Producer
Starship Excelsior
(A Star Trek Fan Production)
For the past nine years, we have been thrilled, as fellow Star Trek fans, to create new audio adventures in Gene Roddenberry's universe. CBS Studios, which owns Star Trek, has bent over backwards to treat the world of fan audio drama with quiet tolerance, as long as we in the audio community uphold the central tradition of all fan fiction: we must be non-commercial.
Since the first fanzine was published in 1967, Star Trek fan productions, in any format, have been consistently non-commercial. Even when fanzine editors had to charge readers for printing and postage costs (a matter of no small controversy in 1980s fandom!), they were careful not to keep a penny of profit for themselves. For decades, this arrangement worked well, and Star Trek's owners have always treated fan makers with enormous trust and respect. From the day in 1968 when Gene Roddenberry made the Star Trek writing staff read Spockanalia and ST-PHILE, to the welcome return of the Strange New Worlds short story contest here in 2016, the warm relationship between Star Trek's owners and its fan producers has been the envy of other fandoms -- so long as fans kept their works non-commercial.
Today, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek and its fandom, the traditional fanzine is long gone, made obsolete by the Internet and the democratization of media production. The lines between commercial and non-commercial have become blurrier than they once were. Despite this new climate, which would spook many media conglomerates, CBS has been profoundly generous to Star Trek fans. Thanks to the marriage of fan passion and studio support, we have just lived through a golden age of fan shows.
Unfortunately, some in our community did not see the blurring lines as a new wrinkle in our old relationship, a complication that would have to be navigated carefully in order to keep the marriage alive. They saw an opportunity to overreach, to test the limits of the studio's indulgence, and, in some cases, even a chance to make a buck. No single man or group bears sole responsibility for this, either. Many of us, *including* some of us at Excelsior, contributed -- at least in small ways -- to the mounting pressures that eventually led the studio to act.
And act they have. Last December, CBS filed a lawsuit against the group that had most seriously violated their trust. Last week, CBS followed up by issuing a set of "guidelines" for fan films. This was followed, a few days ago, by a lengthy interview with CBS Vice President John Van Citters to discuss (and clarify) the new guidelines. (A link to the guidelines, as well as a partial transcription of the interview, may be found here:http://www.trekbbs.com/…/cbss-john-van-citters-interviewed…/ ) These guidelines, according to Mr. Van Citters, apply to fan films only; they expressly *do not* include audio dramas like Starship Excelsior. However, for us to ignore this epochal change in the fan film landscape would only be to invite future restrictions on fan audio dramas, so we have paid very close attention to the situation -- and we have stayed (frustratingly) quiet while we decided what to make of it all.
It is clear, from the guidelines themselves and the Van Citters follow-up interview, that CBS still believes this marriage can be saved. CBS is willing to work hard -- even take some risks -- to keep its relationship with fans alive. For example, the studio has extended its formal blessing to crowdfunding for fan films, in amounts of up to $50,000. This is unheard of, and wholly unexpected. The studio has vowed to raise no objections against shows that operate entirely within its guidelines, creating a completely clear, well-defined, and legally cognizable "safe harbor" for free-form fan films. This is more than any experienced fan producer dared hope.
While it is true that shows which fall outside the guidelines have gained no official sanction, they never had any to begin with; CBS has at least given no indication that it plans to ruthlessly prosecute "violators" of the guidelines. On the contrary, CBS appears to be doing all in its power to build up the fan film community, rather than tear it down, and vows to approach each use on a "case-by-case" basis. Their principal concern seems to be the same as it was fifty years ago: that fan work remain non-commercial. We hope that the dialogue between CBS and the fan film community continues fruitfully, and that our animated friends at Star Trek: Absolution (and elsewhere) will be able to resume production soon.
As for us at Excelsior, we are grateful that "long-form radio plays" are expressly exempt from the guidelines. Few of the guidelines would affect us, since we do not have props, we have never even for a second *considered* getting ad revenue, we don't have nudity (though, I guess, being audio, you'd never know!)... but a clean exemption makes it much easier for us to evaluate our position. We are therefore pleased to announce that we are continuing production on our current queue of episodes, unaltered and full speed ahead!
You can even listen to our newest episode, "Fear Itself," right now atwww.starshipexcelsior.com! "Fear Itself" actually has an official release date of June 22nd, but, since the guidelines came out on the morning of June 23rd, we cancelled our official announcement and usual post-release hoopla out of respect for CBS and the wider fan film community during the initial turmoil. Now that things are stabilizing, you can expect some healthy hoopla for "Fear Itself" over the next few days.
In the meantime, some things will change. Most visibly, we are in the process of changing our name from "Star Trek: Excelsior" to "Starship Excelsior: A Star Trek Fan Production." We've adjusted it in most places, but some widely-used art assets (like our profile picture on the Facebook page) are proving more difficult, since they were contributed by fans years ago and we don't have the original elements. We are working on it.
We are also going to stop promoting our (very occasional) past work with Star Trek alumni, such as Ursaline Bryant in "The Graceful End." Moreover, going forward, any new episodes that enter production (after June 23rd, 2016) will be devoid of Trek alumni and will not be crowdfunded. (This was our plan anyway, but it's good to state things plainly at a time like this.) We may even moderate public comments (at our discretion) that celebrate Excelsior's involvement with those things. We at Starship Excelsior are proud of all our work, including the few episodes where we enjoyed the rare privilege of working with Star Trek veterans, but, at the same time, we wish to avoid needlessly antagonizing CBS at a delicate moment in the fan/studio relationship. So this aspect of our show will be downplayed from here on out. Besides, "The Graceful End" is a great episode because Ursaline Bryant is a crackerjack actress, not because she happened to play Tryla Scott in one episode thirty years ago.
Above all, we will remain, as we always have been, a non-commercial production, created by fans, for fans, without pretense, for the pure love of Star Trek and audio theater. Your (many, many) kind letters of concern and affection over the past week have sustained us through a difficult week. Thank you. Hearing from you in the listening audience is, always has been, and always will be more valuable to us than latinum.
Once again, we are grateful to CBS (and their colleagues at Paramount) for all that they have given to the fans over the years, and especially for their tolerance of Starship Excelsior. It is our firm hope that the release of these guidelines marks not just the end of a difficult, lawsuit-ridden epilogue to fan films' golden age, but the beginning of a new, even better era for Star Trek fan producers -- in every medium, of every age, at every budget. We know CBS and Paramount share that hope. We look forward to making many more years of Star Trek audio drama for you, the best fans in the world.
As Captain Dovan would say... "Hit it."
Ever upward,
James Heaney
Exec. Producer
Starship Excelsior
(A Star Trek Fan Production)
