This is the 26th entry in a surprisingly long series of posts about Star Trek’s future and its fandom called Crisis of Infinite Star Treks.
Short version: It’s been a while since my last entry in this series. An article by Molly McArdle in GQ about Star Trek fandom spurred me to reflect further about the current state of Trek and Trek fandom.
Here in the Northern Hemisphere, Fall is in the air. And here in the United States, it’s election season: a never-ending, supremely dispiriting election season. I can’t imagine that even the partisans for either major party are anything other than ready for this season to be over.
Sadly, that exhaustion mirrors my feelings towards the Axanar lawsuit, which, amazingly, remains unsettled. Fans and skeptics continue to do postings as we trudge towards the end of the “discovery” period (and you’ll find Axanar discussed in McArdle’s article). As I mentioned back in looking at the defense, I don’t see any way they can triumph over the intellectual property (IP) owners — though the defense did have CBS/Paramount go through the exercise of demonstrating chain of title. For those who want to delve into the Briar Patch, the Axanar Facebook group, the CBS/Paramount vs. Axanar Facebook group, the ever intrepid Axamonitor, and the Fan Film Factor all continue to post (among others, I’m sure). Expect vitriol if you do much digging.
Meanwhile, the latest theatrical voyage, Star Trek Beyond, though received well-enough critically, did not bust blocks at the box office. I’ve seen some people on social media, purporting to be Star Trek fans, cheering this outcome, as if commercial failure will help more actual Trek get made. But that discussion of what I suppose I would call love/hate fandom is for another time.
When you go through McArdle’s article, you see how Star Trek is interwoven with modern fan culture in general — and the fact that more people than ever feel free to let their geek or nerd flag fly. Hey, we just got to hear POTUS talk about his fandom for Star Trek.
So here’s to the undiscovered country that is the future of Star Trek.