Shuttle Pod The TrekMovie.com Podcast – Episode 15: The Axanar Lawsuit, Summer Conventions, and Latest BEYOND News

This week, join the Shuttle Pod crew to talk about the latest in the Axanar Lawsuit, the start to a very busy convention season, as well as the most recent news about Star Trek Beyond (of which there isn’t much).

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First up on the Shuttle Pod – the latest in the lawsuit against Star Trek fan film Axanar. Alec Peters, head of the Axanar project and also one of the defendants in the intellectual property lawsuit against the fan film, recently spoke to Matt Miller over at TrekZone Spotlight in a video interview. We released Part One of that interview, and Part Two, in which things appear to get heated between interviewer and interviewee, will come out sometime this week, according to TrekZone.

Let the Summer convention season begin
Summer convention season is already upon us, and there is plenty more of that to come during this 50th anniversary year. On the podcast, Kayla and Jared relate their experiences at the first ever Silicon Valley Comicon and at Salt Lake City’s Fan X.

One of the biggest events of the year will be the 50th annual celebration put on by Creation Entertainment in Las Vegas. Jared spoke a bit about his exclusive interview with Creation’s co-CEO Gary Berman.

What’s up with Star Trek Beyond?
The Shuttle Pod crew takes a moment to lament, as usual, about the lack of Star Trek Beyond PR just 3 1/2 months before the movie premiers. We have had one piece of news with a new official image released of Scotty and a new alien character.

Kayla also talks about her Star Trek film PR timeline, where we compare the advertising schedule of Star Trek Beyond to that of that last film, Into Darkness, in terms of what advertising material (trailers, photos) came out how many days before the film’s release.

Last week, we did a Twitter poll asking: “What are you more excited for?” with options of either Star Trek Beyond or the new Star Trek television series. You’ll notice now that the same poll is live in the sidebar on the website! The twitter results were striking with 73% of 419 of our followers (admittedly a small sample set) saying they were more excited for the TV show.

Screenshot_2016-03-31-12-56-27-2

At the time of writing, the results from our website poll are drastically different with 56% of 154 votes in favor of Beyond. What’s your vote?

And finally…
You’ll have to listen to the podcast to understand why we’ve photoshopped Worf’s head onto the body of OJ Simpson.

Worf_OJ
#WeWantWorfOJ

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Star Trek Beyond
On the positive side – the delay in marketing good mean JJ has something big planned or they are reconfiguring what they want to do – or The plan was not to star marketing until JJ had time to dedicate to this effort ( Star Wars)

JJ (most likely) no longer G’sAF about NuTrek, regardless of their choices for media exposure. SW’s has giving him for more power and glee to pleasure himself for the remainder of his existence. This Lawsuit, win or lose, will ruin the Trek IP…

OK. after listening to the podcast… i’ll adjust my view. If JJ looked at what they filmed and said ‘Wow, what a wonderful pile of poop with my name attached to this” and ordered some re-filming (and mostly the radio silence we’ve had since January), then the resulting product we’ll get in July will mostly be Nemesis, Part II. *shrug*

Star Trek beyond
On the negative side – fantastic four had this same issue. Initial trailers were panned and the campaign started late; well… The rest is history.

I thought O.J. Simpson was number 32 for the Buffalo Bills. I think Worf would have played defense. I am sure he would liked to hit people.

He was.

You guys, Phil Morris (son of the late actor Greg Morris of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, another Desilu Production) also guest-starred on a number of ‘Trek shows, including TOS (“Miri”), DS9 (“Looking for Par’Mach in All the Wrong Places”, “Rocks and Shoals”) and VOY (“One Small Step”).

People should stop complaining about Beyond when all their opinions are formed from a non spoiler teaser trailer that really doesn’t tell you anything. Im sure Paramount have a marketing strategy planned out for summer. As for the TV show I have zero interest in that as yet especially after the previous 2 tv series.

@Sean The trailer tells us plenty. It tells us what the studio wants us to see about the tone and style of the film. It could be completely different but then it’s not the fault of the fans for pre-judging. Its the fault of the studio for releasing a lousy trailer.

There is very little respect for the 50 year franchise. Compare how Star Trek has been handled versus Star Wars. Compare the Beyond trailer to the Rogue One trailer. Night and day. Either Disney is a lot smarter or they just care a lot more…or both.

The first teaser for Trek 09 was masterful. It’s been downhill since then.

@Sean,

Why are you dismissing the new TV series when you have ZERO information about it? It’s ironic that you’re prejudging the upcoming Trek show based on the previous “2 TV series”, while condemning people for doing the same thing with STB!

You should follow your own ‘advice’ and wait for more information before making a decision about the show.

At the risk of sounding terminally cynical, I believe Paramount (movie side) has thrown in the towel on movie-based Trek given the greenlight for the new TV series on the CBS (TV) side. They have no stock in the TV show, only peripheral interest in it’s 50th anniversary, and given the negative momentum coming out of Darkness, and the horrible response to the first trailer for Beyond, they’ve essentially taken a “who cares” attitude going forward. Not meaning to be pessimistic, but I’ve never been quite this apopleptic about an upcoming Trek feature. Oh, well. We’ll see what happens.

Problem with your assertion is that I personally believe that Paramount didn’t have much stock in ‘Trek to begin with, considering how schizophrenic they have been towards it since ST09. Thus, I doubt that CBS producing the new television show has anything to do with STB or the state of affairs of the movies.

@dswynne – I think your opinion is seemingly true. What has Paramount shown to demonstrate their commitment to Star Trek? Aside from funding three films which is, ofcourse, not insignificant. But they seem to want to rely on the movies making X amount of dollars and are taking no risks or making any great effort to truly push the films.

You make the mistake of applying what you hear on fandom sites like this one to the over all picture. The negativity of some disgruntled Wrath of Khan fans, in no way negates the huge box office of Into Darkness, the huge sales of Into Darkness on Bluray and DVD…yes, people that saw the movie, DID like it enough to buy purchase it… or the 5 star user/viewer rating it currently enjoys streaming on Netflix. Sure, there are always a lot of squeeky wheels, but not in any way do they represent a majority.
Also, the “horrible” response to the trailer is usually attributed to these same fans who don’t like the JJ uiniverse anyway. For every fan stuck in 1993, there’s a fan or just causual movie goer that loves the new universe and was excited to see the trailer. And for some, believe it or not, JJ’s films is the only Star Trek they know, and they are ready for more! The movie will do just fine.

You’re applying your own bias to knock fans for their biases. Its not a rumor or speculation that there was an awful lot of less-than-stellar reaction to STID. Regardless of the money it made. We’ve been down this road before – revenue does not equal quality.

Paramount themselves know this from being involved with Transformers and how, even though they made lots of money, the studio was concerned about the quality of the films to the extent they back-tracked and have attempted to assemble a team of creative people to chart a better path forward.

The issue of “fans” rejecting something is, sure, in the grand scheme of things the Star Trek fans who are more hardcore (in wrestling they’d be called smarks) might be the minority compared to the totality of the audience but they have a huge impact on the success of the film.

If you lose your core audience, you’re screwed. The fairweather fans and the non-fans (many of whom saw 09) will come and go. The core fans are the key. And they’ve done a lot to push those fans away. Not all of them, but many of them.

I didnt mind the trailer as much as others. What I didnt like was more to do with the content of the trailer than the music. I thought the song was sort of “cute” for the sake of being cute. And I think a smart marketing person would have realised it didnt play to the traditionalists and would have prepared a second teaser in a more traditional fashion, which would have hit different audiences. That would have been pretty smart.

“You’re applying your own bias to knock fans for their biases. Its not a rumor or speculation that there was an awful lot of less-than-stellar reaction to STID. Regardless of the money it made.” — TUP

What money? If Trek generated oodles of profit for Viacom/Paramount, why do they have to sell pieces of Paramount to keep the lights on? And why are they desperately with ever more convoluted creativity trying to hang onto each and every nickel and dime?:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/paramount-pictures-disputes-being-a-880813

Thats true. Im being “fair”. And taking Bob Orci at his word that the film made a ton of money which is why he gets to keep making Star Trek movies and we….oh wait. Never mind.

“If Trek generated oodles of profit for Viacom/Paramount, why do they have to sell pieces of Paramount to keep the lights on?”

Are you serious? You honestly think that Paramount should have made enough money from one movie released almost two years ago to continue to pay everyone’s salaries, rent on the facilities, budgets for new films, etc?? Does that sound even slightly realistic?

I think you’re smarter than that. I’ve certainly read smarter things under your heading. That level of hyperbole makes having any meaningful discussions difficult, since first we have to wade thru that first layer of BS.

LLAP

My bad – released almost THREE years ago…

nscates,

I beg your pardon. I said nothing of the kind, i.e. ONE movie. I said Trek, as in the whole package.

It has looong been jonboc’s assertion that the Bad Robot’s Treks have been so HUGELY successful for Paramount because it turned around the whole unprofitable mess that ONE film, NEMESIS, turned Trek into for it.

And please note, I contend Trek has always maintained its steady, reliable but non-HUGE profits for Paramount. over the decades. And that the BR films did no harm, but their effect on the Trek bottom lin for Paramount hasn’t been THAT significant:

In other words they’re not in the top tier of most Trek film B.O. bang delivered for buck invested:

http://1701news.com/node/1102/star-trek-films-biggest-box-office-bang.html

What negative momentum of STID? It was the greatest film of all time.

If by ‘great’ you mean stupid, despicable and disgusting you are spot on.

STID’s got a pretty high fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes for such a “horrible” film!
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_trek_into_darkness/

If Paramount had thrown the towel in they would not be pouring a $150 million+ into making ST Beyond. The fact is JJ Abrams made Trek relevant to non fans and made the most successful films in the series if they would’nt have worked I seriously doubt any TV series would be planned. Like Kirk says in TSFS “Young minds fresh ideas be told”

“If Paramount had thrown the towel in they would not be pouring a $150 million+ into making ST Beyond.” — Sean

This EXACT same logic applies to the 2009 film’s production budget where Paramount poured the EXACT same amount BEFORE JJ signed-on to direct. Thus, PROVING JJ’s irrelevancy to Trek’s relevancy to Paramount.

Uhmm….where have there been any credible reports indicating Beyond has anything resembling a $150M budget?

Disregard prior comment about the budget. I thought it was significantly lower. No matter. From a promotional POV, Paramount has basically gone silent on this movie – not even a new trailer. Point is they know what they’ll make, and know (or at least believe) heavy promotion won’t yield any appreciable change in that number.

One thing that ST Continues can do to help raise $$ is to vocally acknowledge Axanar’s problem, assure people that their donation is safe under fair use.
I have donated.

David Gerrold passed this one along on facebook.

Paramount Lawsuit Becomes Studio’s Own Kobayashi Maru?

“To sum up, Paramount is either looking at winning a worthless judgment, or losing millions of dollars, and fifty years of goodwill of the fans, all by pursuing a lawsuit that they may not even have been legally entitled to bring in the first place. Or worse, both.”

https://kryptonradio.com/2016/04/05/paramount-lawsuit-becomes-studios-kobayashi-maru/

They seem to miss the fact that a lot of fans arent on Peters side…

Maybe they (the fans) are hoping for a Sinderella-Quality ending where Peters gets a job at PM or CBS and does Axanar on their Netflix-clone set-up? (either that. or we start seeing videos FROM Disney on Disney.pr0n…)

Nichelle Nichols is in that “Unbelievable” movie with a dozen other Trek vets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw6Q8aoBDxY

Wow, what the hell have I just watched? :-P

Treknicdotes:
1. I was in a business meeting once, and the person next to me actually responded to someone in the meeting, “I think you are taking this matter much too lightly.” I, of course, had to chime in, “I am taking this matter very seriously, it is you I take lightly.” The crowd gasped, then I had to embrace my neighbor (whom I had not met before) and say, “I’ve been waiting 20 years to use that line!” No, my neighbor was not a Trekker; he had said the line innocently.

2. We had created a special part of a new computer system to satisfy a useless requirement of the customer. At one point, one of my teammates said to me, “this code just gives them the illusion of security.” I, of course, responded, “they have illusion, and you have reality. May you find your way as pleasant.” I was met with a strange stare. My coworker is a Trekker, but she had said the line innocently.

How typical IT of you… I bet you are seen as socially maladapted. Those “jokes” are funny only to you, considering the context was obscure at best. You need to realize jokes should be made for the benefit of the listener, not the one making the joke. Also, there is no such thing as “a useless requirement of the customer”. If it’s a requirement of the customer, then it’s not useless. Who are you to second-guess what the customer wants? Are you forgetting that he is the reason you are actually doing whatever you’re doing? I worked in IT for 25 years, now I own my own business, so I see both sides… You are definitely not business-minded.

Trust me on that – we fully understood the customer’s business requirement from all perspectives and knew it was of no value. And, as it turned out, they never used it!

enjoyed and very much liked Prelude To Axanar… regardless of the hate it’s getting… I still want to see Axanar gets made…

Listening to your podcast it is clear you are anti Axanar. Why aren’t you also anto Continues or New Voyages or Horizon or Renegades, etc.? One commenter here said something about Continues guaranteeing your donation under fair use. That is not possible as using the TOS characters as they are in Continues is not fair use. And, do you really think that Vic Mignotta is not enjoying direct financial benefit from his series?

Well the good news is that the Star Wars Rogue One Teaser Trailer was incredible.

Very true!

And no motorcycles or Beastie Boys music anywhere ;)

Gotta give Disney credit for honoring the franchise and marketing it correctly.

Sadly Paramount is clueless as to how to approach Star Trek correctly and build hype and interest for the franchise in it’s 50th Adversary Year.
Yes, Abrams has given it new life and the actors are wonderful in their roles, and the Trek 2009 actually showed promise and hope which was quickly dissolved with STID by taking away things that we liked (Capt. Pike) and ruining honored characters (Khan)
I am sure there will be those who enjoy this new film…I’d be surprised if I was one of them.
But who knows.

One doesn’t even need to love Star Wars to at least appreciate the effort Disney has made. When the new trilogy was announced it was just widely assumed the original cast would return. There was no snarky “oh they are too old and fat” comments.

It was widely assumed they’d try and match the tone and environment of the originals. No snarky “lets move forward” crap.

Respecting the franchise is the key point. Once you truly have that, the changes and advancements that come from it end up fitting nicely.

Terminator didn’t learn this lesson either.

And Warner Bros is learning a whole new lesson about giving one guy too much power with a vision for a franchise and characters that are very beloved and important to a lot of people, a lesson Paramount has learned, although probably too late.

Sorry, “incredible” is being very generous…another 90 lb. bad-ass, female waif, taking on the bad guys, does nothing for me.

Yeah get those gals back in the kitchen where they belong. *shakes head*

TUP April 9, 2016 2:37 pm

Yeah get those gals back in the kitchen where they belong. *shakes head*

I think the issue is more the way that physical types are portrayed, rather than gender roles. The same reaction would be had if there were a cinematic trend of 110 lb weakling men portrayed like Arnold Schwarzenegger-type action heroes. In fact, that reaction would likely be much stronger and more widespread, because you’re allowed to have that reaction. Society deems that reaction acceptable.

I don’t think that people have an issue, for example, when a Klingon female is portrayed as being able to make short work of an average-sized human male in Trek. We don’t think twice about it, because Klingon females are written as bad-asses with super-human strength. And the actors that typically play Klingon females tend to be larger in stature and more physically imposing. By contrast, I recall several instances in DS9 when Kira would render unconscious a male twice her size by just punching him once, and it took me out of the story for a moment. She’s just so skinny that it’s not convincing. If she were a larger woman—a female bodybuilder, for example—then I wouldn’t think twice about it. Because then she really would look like she could kick a big dude’s ass. Personality is part of it, too. If the actor is able to convey that she’s got a fiery temper, that makes it more convincing when she has fist-fights with big dudes. Kira kicking ass was easier to accept due to her fiery temper than she would otherwise have been. But not so much when she’d thrash guys two or three times her size. Seeing Nana Visitor’s pencil-thin arm flailing into some big dude’s barrel chest was a bit much.

nonsense. We haven’t even seen the film. You have no idea how she is portrayed as far as her physical ability to beat up men.

Bruce Willis was cast in Die Hard and everyone went nuts because he wasn’t Arnold or Sly.

Tom Cruise is tiny.

Michael Keaton played Batman.

Liam Neeson is an action star and while physically large he is in his 60s.

When men get cast against type its unique and interesting. When women are given lead roles in “action” movies we get all this garbage.

The 80’s rise of Arnold and Sly made us forget that action stars before them were much closer to smaller or “average” guys.

This is mysogyny pure and simple. We can dress it up any way we want but its male fanboys who can’t embrace a female lead. Over at the Star Wars site its actually embraced more, maybe because they are more in tune with the quality aspect and more accepting. Or there are more nerds who aren’t letting their macho ego get in the way of accepting a woman can be a lead.

Royce Gracie will tell you that the size of ones arms have nothing to do with their ability to defend themselves.

Well, what do you call it when people like Lucy Lawless as Xena the Warrior Princess and various other female action stars, but feel underwhelmed by the Rogue One trailer? Is that misogyny, or is that people entitled to their own taste? Is it misogyny any time you don’t get excited about a female lead actor?

P.S. Another one I’ve been hearing a lot is that it’s misogyny to vote for Bernie Sanders instead of Hillary.

P.P.S. But, what if your first choice would be Elizabeth Warren, but your second choice is Bernie, and Hillary only ranks third. Is that like misogyny-in-effect because Warren isn’t running?

Hi guys. This discussion has quickly gone from Trek to politics. Let’s try to keep things topical!

IDIC, to each his own, and may each person vote for the person they feel is best for the job.

These podcasts keep getting better and better. You guys are into a nice rhythm of back and forth during the discussion — and the intro (and outro) music is always well considered. Is it possible, now that you’re on such a great roll, to upgrade Jared’s tech? When he speaks I need to crank up the volume and then rush to pull it back down when Brian and Kayla speak.

A few other ideas for your consideration:
– Trek-related interview subjects (writers for any of the canon or non-canon incarnation; actors; directors; producers; SPFX folks; composers)

– Q&A from your PodBase of fans

– TrekTech: a segment reviewing some of the Trek related games, gifts, toys, collectibles out there as they come on the market

Thanks for taking the time to prep and record these ShuttlePod episodes; truly enjoyable!