Could it be that CBS tries to stop Axanar because it wants to tell the same story or at least elements of the story-arc, that is a pre-TOS war between Klingons and Federation, and regards it as a rival or at least a confusion? I mean, the registry number and design of the Discovery as well as the Klingon-influenced music in the trailer point in that direction. Plus, when Fuller said: "You look at what J.J. Abrams did with that 2009 movie, which reinvented Star Trek in such a wonderful way and claimed that territory. So we had to strike new ground that had Star Trek in its DNA at a fundamental level. To make a commitment to the fanbase, who are aware of Star Trek and its iterations—both the shows that made it to the airwaves and the ones that didn’t. So it felt like a really nice way to let the hardcore Star Trek audience know that I have their backs." Talking about hardcore Star Trek fans, is this a reference to the generation that grew up in the 70s and early 80s, during the Star Trek void when there was only FASA and a movie every couple of years, the heyday of kitbash-fandesigns and Starfleet Battles enthusiasm? The one generation which the makers of Axanar belong to? And the same time the McQuarrie design dates back to? More than that, CBS also asked Tommy Kraft, creator of Horizon, to refrain from shooting a prequel to his story set on a starship called Discovery. At least they are into the game of clearing the path for their new show. Please do not comment on Alec Peters and Axanar productions. There are other threads for this. This one here is strictly about plot-speculation.
We simply have no clue to Discovery's time period. It may be contemporary to the Constellation in terms of construction date, but that doesn't mean it will take place in that time. There's part of me that has a sneaking suspicion that the Discovery will be a lost ship.
Like frozen in time and the crew wakes up 500 years in the future,? Or a derelict ship that is salvaged because people forgot how to build warp drives?
I have this idea that maybe Discovery is a long-lost prototype starship found in a post-apocalyptic distant future and launched with the aim being to found a second federation.
I think it's just as likely that it takes place POST Movie TOS (The Undiscovered Country) and deals with the alliance of the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Think about the design of the USS Discovery. It's a mash up of a Klingon Battlecruiser and a Constitution class star ship. Could we see a 50-50 split between a Klingon crew and a federation crew. The story possibilities would be crazy cool.
My suspicions run in a similar direction - the theories i entertain at the moment are either 1.) Post-NEM ship finds the derelict (but functional) Discovery and are then forced to abandon their ship and adopt the Discovery until the end of the season or 2.) pre-TOS Discovery loses warp drive far away from friendly space and their only option is to go sleeper ship and set course for home in relativistic flight (for a few centuries) and when they arrive there they find themselves in said post-apocalyptic times. So i highly doubt that CBS went after Axanar because DSC is set in the same time-period but i CAN see them stopping Tommy Kraft's project because of the name of the hero ship.
it is still unclear as others have said, but its certainly possible its set pre Kirk, in a similar time period as the Axanar film was meant to be covering. Of course this is Star Trek, its possible the ship has been thrown forward or even backward in time, for all we know the series is set in 2017, or 2317.
This thread could quite easily turn into another Star Trek Discovery discussion thread if we are not careful. I can see where you are coming from. However I feel that CBS have made it quite clear that certain so-called fan productions had crossed the line in terms of their fundraising and how those funds were used. I for one hope that DIS will not deal with the Klingon war and/or the battle of Axanar; otherwise we will never hear the end of Axanar fans falsely accusing CBS of plagiarizing Axanar productions! Having said that, it would be a nice middle finder to Alec Peters if CBS did choose to do precisely that. Regarding the ‘Federation One’ fan film (the sequel to ‘Horizon’), I would be surprised is the reason why CBS chose to reach out to Tommy and advised him not to proceed was due to the name of the hero ship being called ‘Discovery’. Perhaps if he had chosen to called it ‘Star Trek Discovery’ then maybe, but that was never Tommy’s intention. After all other fan films often use ships names that feature in official productions. Though speculation I assume that the reason why CBS reached out to him was that the fan film would have been in clear violation of the guidelines (realised shortly afterwards). In hindsight it was actually kind of CBS to put a stop to it before the fundraising had started, otherwise there would have been a lot of disgruntled people wanting their money back. Whilst no John Doe’s came to be announced in the Axanar lawsuit, Tommy Kraft had worked on Axanar and at the time someone at CBS legal may have felt that it was in Tommy’s own best interest for him to keep a low profile and chose to reach out to him. Sorry I commented on Alec Peters and Axanar productions here, but it was necessary to give a response to your questions. If this thread is only strictly about plot-speculation then may I remind you that there are indeed other threads for this in the 'Future of Trek' forum.
It is a shame that Axanar has made it difficult if not impossible for CBS to tell the official version of that story, the production has highlighted something that could make for an interesting film, or short arc on a TV show. Had they not put the Prelude out, its a very different story, I suspect.
Star Trek: Horizon released this year, set on the NX-04 Discovery. It was allowed and is still on Youtube since it's release, Paramount is fine with it because they behaved during it's production. Axanar was canned because of the actions of Alec Peters and his serious levels of delusion, greed, deception and general asshole nature.
I think that DIS should either show or make reference to the battle of Axanar in some way, but change the opponents from the Klingon’s to another alien race. In the TOS episode ‘Whom Gods Destroy” it was never established who the opponent was. Alec Peters only speculated that Garth fought the Klingon’s. He actually stole the idea from the FASA source book ‘The Four Years War’, however FASA is not canonical. Memory Alpha explains pretty well why it would have been unlikely that the battle of Axanar was against the Klingons: By doing this it would make "Prelude to Axanar" inconsistent with Star Trek canon. Now that would upset Axanar fans far more then the lawsuit did.
I definitely think that the new show will be set in the Post ENT/Pre TOS time period, and is the initial reason that both Axanar and Tommy Kraft's movie were targeted initially... the name Discovery being the icing on the cake for him, unfortunately. It is my gut feeling that upon closer inspection they found all the OTHER reasons they had to shut down Axanar, and it went from being "don't taint our new ideas before we even use them" to "these fuckers gotta go NOW"....
No. I don't buy that for one second. But that IS the Kool Aid that Axanar is peddling to the unsuspecting. No. Mr. Kraft had intended to raise some $200K+ via Kickstarter. CBS had previously requested other fan film project to NOT use Kickstarter due to some of their (Kickstarter) rules. As I recall from the public message Mr. Kraft posted, CBS didn't tell him to stop production; they just asked him to not use Kickstarter.
....Sorta like the Destiny in Stargate Universe? I would hope they don't make it like that. We don't need a rehash of the DS9/Babylon 5 war.
This thread is looney tunes, unless the Captain of the Discovery is soon revealed to be Garth of Izar, which is about the only reason I can conjure why Paramount they didn't use Garth in Beyond.
If it was just a funds/Kickstarter issue I don't think Mr. Kraft would have halted production so quickly and cut ties so cleanly, but I could be mistaken. Our memories agree to disagree then. Garth would have been great in Beyond. A shapeshifting, mad with power, former starship Captain.... it could have done for Garth, what the '82 film did for Khan. If Into Darkness hadn't overdone the cliche, a midpoint reveal that he is really Garth of Izar, Kirk's hero, could have beenvery well done. I would have laughed so hard at Axanar. Even more funny would be if they actually didn't use him out of respect for the fanfilm, and then Peters shits all over them and doesn't even make it..
Any similarity to a Klingon design is coincidence. This is essentially a design produced by Ralph McQuarrie in the seventies for the Enterprise. McQuarrie also worked on Star Wars, so I'd argue it's more Star Destroyer than D7.
Could this design be a gag? They show us this shitty underwhelming mock up, and then wow us with the real final product later?