Star Trek: Axanar

[Hartzilla2007]

I'm watching it now, and so far it's pretty interesting....and well paced.

My only major gripe is Soval quoting the infamous Shran: "Don't push the pinkskins into thin ice." As aforementioned in other threads, this is saying that humans = Caucasians. Admiral Ramirez (i.e. Tony Todd) definitely ain't a 'pinkskin'...nor is the black man typing this post.

Aside from that racial blunder, I'm enjoying it.

Why would this be a "racial blunder" if most of the humans the Andorans know are "pinkskins"? Remember, this is drawing from "Star Trek: Enterprise", which depicts Andorans as a bit on the xenophobic side. However, it does bring up a better point: why are most of the leads in these productions Caucasians? Granted, the sci-fi genre is not exactly a big thing in the general audience, but still...

It is a racial blunder because the show is supposedly in an era where humans are a multi-cultural race. Yet, Andorians are written to somehow only see white people, ignoring others of different shades and backgrounds....and we are never told that back in ENT.

Or Andorians just don't give a crap about the differences in human ethnic groups.

I mean why would they we're all a bunch of damned dirty aliens to them.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Why would this be a "racial blunder" if most of the humans the Andorans know are "pinkskins"? Remember, this is drawing from "Star Trek: Enterprise", which depicts Andorans as a bit on the xenophobic side. However, it does bring up a better point: why are most of the leads in these productions Caucasians? Granted, the sci-fi genre is not exactly a big thing in the general audience, but still...

It is a racial blunder because the show is supposedly in an era where humans are a multi-cultural race. Yet, Andorians are written to somehow only see white people, ignoring others of different shades and backgrounds....and we are never told that back in ENT.

Or Andorians just don't give a crap about the differences in human ethnic groups.

I mean why would they we're all a bunch of damned dirty aliens to them.

And, that would have made for some interesting (and challenging) storytelling...

It would be interesting seeing a 'dark-skinned' human - brownskin, dark-brownskin, or yellowskin - calling out Shran or a likeminded Andorian on their racist BS.

 

[wtriker1701]

That was an outstanding experience. Well done, everyone!
The idea, the performances (although with Prelude I'm proven right about the Sheep among Wolves), the execution.
Lovely, the "Narrated by John Gill" wink.

And now I have to be the proverbial serpent in the garden:
How can it be, that this production is listed under "Fan Productions"? Just because there is no other section here on The TrekBBS?
Don't get me wrong! I liked what I saw. I'm just asking, how this Axanar should or could be called a Fan Film. Its production values (Cast, SFX, etc.) clearly point to an Independent Film Production. One that also needs crowdfunding to do, what it does.

STC and Phase2 paved the way, I guess. Hell, even Exeter had its professional helpers from the Industry (Hi Dennis and Maurice!) along the way. But Axanar takes it to another level in my opinion.

It's an honest question: Where's the line drawn between a Fan Film and a Star Trek related Independent Production? When fan participation falls under 20%, 10, 5?

And yes, even Ronald D. Moore was a fan, before he got caught very successfully by the Industry...

However... I was very entertained by what I saw!
Would I back such a project? No! When I spend money for movies or TV shows, I do it for something I watch at a Big Screen or buy the DVDs/BluRays.

A real fan film for me is something done by people from their hearts and enthusiasm - because they WANT it to be done and seen.

Thank you for reading! And yes, I'm looking forward to the final product of Axanar in 2015!

Greetings
Per

 

[BigJake]

An independent film can still be sold commercially. A fan film cannot because the Paramount and the CBS and the lawyers and the mmmmglayven, would be my guess.

 

[Serveaux]

Don't get me wrong! I liked what I saw. I'm just asking, how this Axanar should or could be called a Fan Film. Its production values (Cast, SFX, etc.) clearly point to an Independent Film Production. One that also needs crowdfunding to do, what it does.

"Fan film" is a colloquial term with no fixed meaning - to the extent it has one, it has to do with being based on an existing property which is not owned by the folks making the film.

 

[slappy]

Well done to everyone involved!

I'd like to see what would happen if a film of this magnitude from the same team could be put together with an original property.

The sky would be the limit with that. An original movie on sci-fi? Perhaps theatrical?

I don't know that it could be done without the brand name.

 

[Reanok]

Bravo! This is a well made production. I can't wait to see the complete movie.

 

[DCR]

Looks good - and I'm very glad to see that they pulled off a complete production.

 

[Jeyl]

“They called me queen bi*** wh*** of the Federation”

And the film lost me.

 

[trynda1701]

Nicely done, impressive effects, looking forward to seeing what the full Axanar film brings. My only critism is the shots showing D6's(?) at nearly ground level! Seems strange as it's not till Voyager that atmospheric handling is supposed to be designed into Federation starships. Not saying the D6's are landing, just the concept of starships well in atmosphere is not in my ST worldview!

For some reason, the 21min Kickstarter video won't play on my G4 Powerbook, with OS X 10.5.8, on the TenFourFox 24.7.0 browser. However, the other videos, both short and long teasers, and the behind the scenes videos play fine. Finally watched the Prelude video using Safari 5.0.6.

Mark

 

[Maurice]

“They called me queen bi*** wh*** of the Federation”

And the film lost me.

Word. That was so colloquial (where any strong woman you don't like is labeled a bi*** as the go-to pejorative) that it felt ""today" and knocked me out of the story.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

“They called me queen bi*** wh*** of the Federation”

And the film lost me.

Word. That was so colloquial (where any strong woman you don't like is labeled a bi*** as the go-to pejorative) that it felt ""today" and knocked me out of the story.

They should have had her speak the lines in Klingon without a translation. We would have understood the intention, without actually using the words. I too was totally perplexed by this.

Even with this hiccup, I too enjoyed this. I'm also looking forward to the full project.

 

[Maurice]

It also sounded like a western human 20th century insult, not like something a Klingon would say. I'd have imagined something more like a metaphor to an animal which looks harmless but can kill you just like that.

 

[Basill]

It is a racial blunder because the show is supposedly in an era where humans are a multi-cultural race. Yet, Andorians are written to somehow only see white people, ignoring others of different shades and backgrounds....and we are never told that back in ENT.

Or Andorians just don't give a crap about the differences in human ethnic groups.

I mean why would they we're all a bunch of damned dirty aliens to them.

And, that would have made for some interesting (and challenging) storytelling...

It would be interesting seeing a 'dark-skinned' human - brownskin, dark-brownskin, or yellowskin - calling out Shran or a likeminded Andorian on their racist BS.

Ok... please don't label me a scriptwriters' apologist, but...

Do they only see "white people" or do they only see "pink skins"?

This is pure speculation, but, what if... The Andorians see in a slightly different spectrum of light than humans? I mean, don't we have animals on this planet that see things slightly differently based on their environmental conditions and survival needs?

They inhabit an ice cold moon, and live deep in underground caves. The surface temperature of said moon rarely gets above freezing, and some of their caves and tunnels are actually excavations and hollows within the moon's surface pack ice itself. They seem quite adept to this chilly environment and it might have affected their biology over time. Their body temperatures are almost certainly lower than that of humans. And with regularly being out of direct sunlight, perhaps they developed retinas which react more to slightly shorter wavelengths of the EM spectrum, especially areas of the infrared which we simply cannot see. visualizing warmth in exceptionally cold environments would definitely be the advantage on their world (especially with those hot little worm things dropping out of a ceiling of ice without a moment's notice).

And lets not forget, an entire subspecies of the Andorian race (the Aenar)... is actually blind. I mean, with that alone, we've evidence of some interestingly askew and genetically based dynamics of the ocular going on.

So, even though there is no "canon" proof of this phenomenon (and I care not), I would postulate for speculation's sake:

Perhaps due to a minor variation in visual perception, the Andorians actually see ALL humans as "pink-skins", simply because our average body temperature tends to be far warmer than theirs, regardless of the epidermal pigmentation present in any particular specimen. Maybe even Vulcans are frequently referred to as a different (albeit, derogatorily implied) "<insert hue>-skin" since they are typically even warmer than humans? Of course, they've interacted with the Vulcan's for far longer, and they tend to say "Vulcan" with enough venom already, that it's hardly necessary to highlight their xenophobia even further with that.

"Pink-Skin" might have been Shran's single greatest contribution to Federation culture, since it seems he coined the term, but I would argue... let the Andorians be the bigots they were allegorically written and characterized to be, rather than dropping this on the door step of the writers as a blunder.

 

[Basill]

“They called me queen bi*** wh*** of the Federation”

And the film lost me.

Word. That was so colloquial (where any strong woman you don't like is labeled a bi*** as the go-to pejorative) that it felt ""today" and knocked me out of the story.

They should have had her speak the lines in Klingon without a translation. We would have understood the intention, without actually using the words. I too was totally perplexed by this.

Even with this hiccup, I too enjoyed this. I'm also looking forward to the full project.

It also sounded like a western human 20th century insult, not like something a Klingon would say. I'd have imagined something more like a metaphor to an animal which looks harmless but can kill you just like that.

I agree this was a "hiccup". I found myself instantly trying to rectify it in my imagination, picturing a sudden smirk and her shrugging off the insult with some comment like, "It sounded better in Klingon."

(Sorry for the double post, but the last one took a while to compose before the newer posts appeared to me)

 

[BigJake]

It also sounded like a western human 20th century insult, not like something a Klingon would say.

I didn't really notice it in this sense. A wide range of human languages have insults that translate much the same way on much the same themes, didn't strike me as out of place that Klingons (who kind of narratively function as space-borne expressions of the id) would hit on them too. (Klingons have sometimes sounded a bit like their dialogue was being written by James Fenimore Cooper, I'm glad they seem to have avoided that.)

 

[137th Gebirg]

The pink skin thing didn't bother me too much, especially since it's an established pejorative in the Trek world, regardless of its intrinsic accuracy. I did always want to see a scene with Mayweather get flustered at Shran and say something like "Who are you calling pink skin, ice cube?"

The queen bitch whore thing did seem a bit jarring to me as well, but it still gave me a chuckle. Those things aside, this is by far (IMO) the BEST fan film ever bloody made! Everything was running on all cylinders. Someone mentioned earlier that this was a game changer. I 100% agree. It is going to be the new gold standard by which all fan films are gauged. The bar has been raised and long time coming. Even my wife who is totally not into Trek at all was intrigued. Eagerly waiting the next installment!

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Or Andorians just don't give a crap about the differences in human ethnic groups.

I mean why would they we're all a bunch of damned dirty aliens to them.

And, that would have made for some interesting (and challenging) storytelling...

It would be interesting seeing a 'dark-skinned' human - brownskin, dark-brownskin, or yellowskin - calling out Shran or a likeminded Andorian on their racist BS.

Ok... please don't label me a scriptwriters' apologist, but...

Do they only see "white people" or do they only see "pink skins"?

This is pure speculation, but, what if... The Andorians see in a slightly different spectrum of light than humans? I mean, don't we have animals on this planet that see things slightly differently based on their environmental conditions and survival needs?

They inhabit an ice cold moon, and live deep in underground caves. The surface temperature of said moon rarely gets above freezing, and some of their caves and tunnels are actually excavations and hollows within the moon's surface pack ice itself. They seem quite adept to this chilly environment and it might have affected their biology over time. Their body temperatures are almost certainly lower than that of humans. And with regularly being out of direct sunlight, perhaps they developed retinas which react more to slightly shorter wavelengths of the EM spectrum, especially areas of the infrared which we simply cannot see. visualizing warmth in exceptionally cold environments would definitely be the advantage on their world (especially with those hot little worm things dropping out of a ceiling of ice without a moment's notice).

And lets not forget, an entire subspecies of the Andorian race (the Aenar)... is actually blind. I mean, with that alone, we've evidence of some interestingly askew and genetically based dynamics of the ocular going on.

So, even though there is no "canon" proof of this phenomenon (and I care not), I would postulate for speculation's sake:

Perhaps due to a minor variation in visual perception, the Andorians actually see ALL humans as "pink-skins", simply because our average body temperature tends to be far warmer than theirs, regardless of the epidermal pigmentation present in any particular specimen. Maybe even Vulcans are frequently referred to as a different (albeit, derogatorily implied) "<insert hue>-skin" since they are typically even warmer than humans? Of course, they've interacted with the Vulcan's for far longer, and they tend to say "Vulcan" with enough venom already, that it's hardly necessary to highlight their xenophobia even further with that.

"Pink-Skin" might have been Shran's single greatest contribution to Federation culture, since it seems he coined the term, but I would argue... let the Andorians be the bigots they were allegorically written and characterized to be, rather than dropping this on the door step of the writers as a blunder.

And you probably expanded on the term better than the writers of ENT!

I just think it's one of those things that should be called on - in-universe - maybe by a dark-skinned human to probably see where Shran or likeminded individuals got that term. And, maybe, even have a teachable moment.

Humans come from different parts of the world with different climates, so we will have different complexions. And, I think that's something that should be acknowledged - even by a fictional bigot like Shran.

However, I still think it's a blunder no matter whose 'doorstep' it's on. It's there, but nothing in-universe has expanded upon it.

 

[mos6507]

My wife found the idea of a soft-spoken, articulate Klingon like Kharn a little odd

That's fine with me. That would be more of a Trek VI approach to Klingons.

 

[BillJ]

I liked it, warts and all. Fun stuff and different from every other fan film where everyone dresses up and plays Starfleet vs. Bad Guys (to various degrees of success).