star trek fan productions

Farragut Forward: A Star Trek Fan Production

Welcome to the final frontier…

The prologue to Farragut Forward was released January 27, 2022! See it  HERE !

In june 2021, kaotica studios announced a partnership with farragut films, one of the longest-running and most beloved star trek fan productions. .

The result of this collaboration is Farragut Forward: A Star Trek Fan Production, the continuation of Starship Farragut adventures, set in the “monster maroon” world of the 1980s Star Trek movie era. 

Preproduction began in summer 2021 in accordance with the Fan Film Guidelines issued by CBS/Paramount. At this time, several key production decisions were made on the production’s tone and visual style, including the costumes, and an emphasis on filming practical ship models as an homage to the 1980s era of sci-fi filmmaking, and to the early days of Industrial Light and Magic (ILM).

Producer and Farragut Films founder John Broughton had this to say:  Fans can expect a more ‘sophisticated’ version of Farragut…  a darker, more serious side.  After a recent camera/lighting test, Johnny said, “This isn’t your Daddy’s Farragut!”  He’s right, and my expectation is that our fanbase will be highly impressed, wanting to see more with new fans following.

THE PROLOGUE

After pre-production concluded in the summer 2021, cameras rolled on the Farragut Forward  prologue   in October 2021. The single set was a very small room (roughly 10′ by 10′), which was packed full of lights, gear, smoke, and at some points more than 10 members of the cast and crew. 

Filming was originally planned for two days, but thanks to the hard work of the cast and crew, production wrapped in a single 12-hour day, including a full tear-down and rebuild of the set midday. 

The three-minute prologue was a lot of work crammed into a very tight production period. It took many of our actors several hours to get into their costumes, prosthetics, and makeup, so instead of coming back and doing it all over again on the second day of filming, everyone pushed to wrap the shoot in a single day. We even tore the set down at lunch and rebuilt it for the turnaround shots. It made for a very long day, in a very cramped set, but the results were well worth it. 

– Director Johnny K.

With principal photography wrapped, editing began and a rough cut was shown in November 2021 with all cast and crew seeing it for the first time together as a group.  Sound design and visual effects shots were added and finalized soon after, including the filming of the practical  Bird-of-Prey ship model, built by actor and model-maker Michael Bednar. 

The prologue sets up the story for the full Farragut Forward episode, currently in pre-production and to be filmed throughout 2022 and 2023, with an expected release in early 2024. 

Farragut Forward marks the return of of several classic characters from the Farragut universe, including John Broughton as Carter and Michael Bednar as Tacket. William Jay,  Dale Henry, and Matt Henry play Klingon officers. 

The Farragut Forward prologue features the track “War Drums” by Rhythm Scott, as well as music by Austrian composer Martin Puehringer.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Stay tuned to Kaotica Studios and Starship Farragut social media channels for more information!

Star Trek and all related marks, logos and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. This fan production is not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with CBS, Paramount Pictures, or any other Star Trek franchise, and is a non-commercial fan-made film intended for recreational use. No commercial exhibition or distribution is permitted. No alleged independent rights will be asserted against CBS or Paramount Pictures.

Five Star Trek Fan Films You Should Watch Right Now

Star Trek is one of the franchises that popularised fan fiction. When the adventures of Kirk, Spock, Bones and the rest of the Enterprise ended on television, their exploits were kept alive with books, comics and an animated series, before they returned in several feature films. Fans have also kept the series alive by writing their own adventures for the Enterprise crew, or acting them out with their friends. With the rise of the internet, fans have places to show their love for Trek online, as well as upload their own additions to the universe:

Prelude To Axanar

Axanar represents an important moment in Trek history, both in and out of the universe. As the title suggests, this was a taster for a film centred around the battle of Axanar, the Federation’s first battle with the Klingons. Shot as a fictional documentary, it was designed to show that great fan films didn’t need huge budgets, as well as act as a showcase for the film itself. However, Paramount and CBS, who own the copyright, got wind of the efforts and threatened to sue the team. It was eventually settled, after harsh guidelines and restrictions on fan productions were introduced, but meant that the project would now be released as two 15-minute parts, rather than a 90-minute feature.

Star Trek- Horizon

Set in the prequel era of Star Trek: Enterprise, this impressive fan film focuses on the Discovery and its mission to help a Romulan defector and keep an ancient doomsday weapon out of their hands. While not the most original premise, the draw here is that, for a fan project, it’s very impressive. The effects are good for its small budget, and various elements from Trek canon make it feel like part of the universe in a seamless way. A sequel was planned but was reworked into an original project after the fan fiction guidelines changed.

Star Trek Continues

As Kirk says in the iconic intro to the original series, the Enterprise is on a 5-year mission. Although changes to the airing of episodes meant that the dates didn’t always go in order, the series chronicles three of those years. Star Trek Continues shows some of the events of the final year, giving the series a proper conclusion. The look and feel of the original series is lovingly recreated, with sets built from the original blueprints and filmed in the same aspect ratio. It also features a stellar cast including Mythbusters Grant Imahara as Sulu, and the son of original Scotty, Chris Doohan playing the role of his father. Many Trek alumni cameo, such as Micheal Dorn and Jason Isaacs. It also features cameos from other sci-fi projects such as former Doctor Who Colin Baker and Battlestar Galactica ‘s Jaimie Bamber.

A Long Way From Home

The Covid-19 Pandemic disrupted everyone’s daily life, with many people unable to work or leave their houses. Film and TV projects were disrupted, with many films delayed and series shortened. This fan film was made during the 2020/2021 lockdowns in the UK. With only a few actors and locations, this fan film manages to stand alone, whilst also featuring nods and easter eggs to many other series, and films both official and fan-made.

Of Gods and Men

An unofficial 40th Anniversary celebration, this mini-series focuses on Uhura and Chekov (with the original actors reprising their roles) as they find themselves in an alternate timeline where Captain Kirk was never born, as an act of vengeance from one of his enemies. Despite not being officially endorsed by the rights holders, it did have lots of coverage on the official website. As well as several former cast members reprising their roles from various instalments of the franchise, it also credits creator Gene Roddenberry’s son as an executive producer.

Also Read: May The Fan Film Be With You

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Star Trek: Outpost is an internet-based, fan-produced, serialized audio drama series by Giant Gnome Productions that began in 2009. It follows the adventures of the crew of Deep Space 3 and ... Read all Star Trek: Outpost is an internet-based, fan-produced, serialized audio drama series by Giant Gnome Productions that began in 2009. It follows the adventures of the crew of Deep Space 3 and the USS Chimera. Star Trek: Outpost is an internet-based, fan-produced, serialized audio drama series by Giant Gnome Productions that began in 2009. It follows the adventures of the crew of Deep Space 3 and the USS Chimera.

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“I can’t believe I get to play the captain of the Enterprise.”

“Strange New Worlds” is the 12th “Star Trek” TV show since the original series debuted on NBC in 1966, introducing Gene Roddenberry’s vision of a hopeful future for humanity. In the 58 years since, the “Star Trek” galaxy has logged 900 television episodes and 13 feature films, amounting to 668 hours — nearly 28 days — of content to date. Even compared with “Star Wars” and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Star Trek” stands as the only storytelling venture to deliver a single narrative experience for this long across TV and film.

In other words, “Star Trek” is not just a franchise. As Alex Kurtzman , who oversees all “Star Trek” TV production, puts it, “‘Star Trek’ is an institution.”

Without a steady infusion of new blood, though, institutions have a way of fading into oblivion (see soap operas, MySpace, Blockbuster Video). To keep “Star Trek” thriving has meant charting a precarious course to satisfy the fans who have fueled it for decades while also discovering innovative ways to get new audiences on board.

“Doing ‘Star Trek’ means that you have to deliver something that’s entirely familiar and entirely fresh at the same time,” Kurtzman says.

The franchise has certainly weathered its share of fallow periods, most recently after “Nemesis” bombed in theaters in 2002 and UPN canceled “Enterprise” in 2005. It took 12 years for “Star Trek” to return to television with the premiere of “Discovery” in 2017; since then, however, there has been more “Star Trek” on TV than ever: The adventure series “Strange New Worlds,” the animated comedy “Lower Decks” and the kids series “Prodigy” are all in various stages of production, and the serialized thriller “Picard” concluded last year, when it ranked, along with “Strange New Worlds,” among Nielsen’s 10 most-watched streaming original series for multiple weeks. Nearly one in five Paramount+ subscribers in the U.S. is watching at least one “Star Trek” series, according to the company, and more than 50% of fans watching one of the new “Trek” shows also watch at least two others. The new shows air in 200 international markets and are dubbed into 35 languages. As “Discovery” launches its fifth and final season in April, “Star Trek” is in many ways stronger than it’s ever been.

“’Star Trek’s fans have kept it alive more times than seems possible,” says Eugene Roddenberry, Jr., who executive produces the TV series through Roddenberry Entertainment. “While many shows rightfully thank their fans for supporting them, we literally wouldn’t be here without them.”

But the depth of fan devotion to “Star Trek” also belies a curious paradox about its enduring success: “It’s not the largest fan base,” says Akiva Goldsman, “Strange New Worlds” executive producer and co-showrunner. “It’s not ‘Star Wars.’ It’s certainly not Marvel.”

When J.J. Abrams rebooted “Star Trek” in 2009 — with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldaña playing Kirk, Spock and Uhura — the movie grossed more than any previous “Star Trek” film by a comfortable margin. But neither that film nor its two sequels broke $500 million in global grosses, a hurdle every other top-tier franchise can clear without breaking a sweat.

There’s also the fact that “Star Trek” fans are aging. I ask “The Next Generation” star Jonathan Frakes, who’s acted in or directed more versions of “Star Trek” than any other person alive, how often he meets fans for whom the new “Star Trek” shows are their first. “Of the fans who come to talk to me, I would say very, very few,” he says. “‘Star Trek’ fans, as we know, are very, very, very loyal — and not very young.”

As Stapf puts it: “There’s a tried and true ‘Trek’ fan that is probably going to come to every ‘Star Trek,’ no matter what it is — and we want to expand the universe.”

Every single person I spoke to for this story talked about “Star Trek” with a joyful earnestness as rare in the industry as (nerd alert) a Klingon pacifist.

“When I’m meeting fans, sometimes they’re coming to be confirmed, like I’m kind of a priest,” Ethan Peck says during a break in filming on the “Strange New Worlds” set. He’s in full Spock regalia — pointy ears, severe eyebrows, bowl haircut — and when asked about his earliest memories of “Star Trek,” he stares off into space in what looks like Vulcan contemplation. “I remember being on the playground in second or third grade and doing the Vulcan salute, not really knowing where it came from,” he says. “When I thought of ‘Star Trek,’ I thought of Spock. And now I’m him. It’s crazy.”

To love “Star Trek” is to love abstruse science and cowboy diplomacy, complex moral dilemmas and questions about the meaning of existence. “It’s ultimately a show with the most amazing vision of optimism, I think, ever put on-screen in science fiction,” says Kurtzman, who is 50. “All you need is two minutes on the news to feel hopeless now. ‘Star Trek’ is honestly the best balm you could ever hope for.”

I’m getting a tour of the USS Enterprise from Scotty — or, rather, “Strange New World” production designer Jonathan Lee, who is gushing in his native Scottish burr as we step into the starship’s transporter room. “I got such a buzzer from doing this, I can’t tell you,” he says. “I actually designed four versions of it.”

Lee is especially proud of the walkway he created to run behind the transporter pads — an innovation that allows the production to shoot the characters from a brand-new set of angles as they beam up from a far-flung planet. It’s one of the countless ways that this show has been engineered to be as cinematic as possible, part of Kurtzman’s overall vision to make “Star Trek” on TV feel like “a movie every week.”

Kurtzman’s tenure with “Star Trek” began with co-writing the screenplay for Abrams’ 2009 movie, which was suffused with a fast-paced visual style that was new to the franchise. When CBS Studios approached Kurtzman in the mid-2010s about bringing “Star Trek” back to TV, he knew instinctively that it needed to be just as exciting as that film.

“The scope was so much different than anything we had ever done on ‘Next Gen,’” says Frakes, who’s helmed two feature films with the “Next Generation” cast and directed episodes of almost every live-action “Trek” TV series, including “Discovery” and “Strange New Worlds.” “Every department has the resources to create.”

A new science lab set for Season 3, for example, boasts a transparent floor atop a four-foot pool of water that swirls underneath the central workbench, and the surrounding walls sport a half dozen viewscreens with live schematics custom designed by a six-person team. “I like being able to paint on a really big canvas,” Kurtzman says. “The biggest challenge is always making sure that no matter how big something gets, you’re never losing focus on that tiny little emotional story.”

At this point, is there a genre that “Strange New Worlds” can’t do? “As long as we’re in storytelling that is cogent and sure handed, I’m not sure there is,” Goldsman says with an impish smile. “Could it do Muppets? Sure. Could it do black and white, silent, slapstick? Maybe!”

This approach is also meant to appeal to people who might want to watch “Star Trek” but regard those 668 hours of backstory as an insurmountable burden. “You shouldn’t have to watch a ‘previously on’ to follow our show,” Myers says.

To achieve so many hairpin shifts in tone and setting while maintaining Kurtzman’s cinematic mandate, “Strange New Worlds” has embraced one of the newest innovations in visual effects: virtual production. First popularized on the “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian,” the technology — called the AR wall — involves a towering circular partition of LED screens projecting a highly detailed, computer-generated backdrop. Rather than act against a greenscreen, the actors can see whatever fantastical surroundings their characters are inhabiting, lending a richer level of verisimilitude to the show.

But there is a catch. While the technology is calibrated to maintain a proper sense of three-dimensional perspective through the camera lens, it can be a bit dizzying for anyone standing on the set. “The images on the walls start to move in a way that makes no sense,” says Mount. “You end up having to focus on something that’s right in front of you so you don’t fall down.”

And yet, even as he’s talking about it, Mount can’t help but break into a boyish grin. “Sometimes we call it the holodeck,” he says. In fact, the pathway to the AR wall on the set is dotted with posters of the virtual reality room from “The Next Generation” and the words “Enter Holodeck” in a classic “Trek” font.

“I want to take one of those home with me,” Peck says. Does the AR wall also affect him? “I don’t really get disoriented by it. Spock would not get ill, so I’m Method acting.”

I’m on the set of the “Star Trek” TV movie “Section 31,” seated in an opulent nightclub with a view of a brilliant, swirling nebula, watching Yeoh rehearse with director Olatunde Osunsanmi and her castmates. Originally, the project was announced as a TV series centered on Philippa Georgiou, the semi-reformed tyrant Yeoh originated on “Discovery.” But between COVID delays and the phenomenon of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” there wasn’t room in the veteran actress’s schedule to fit a season of television. Yeoh was undaunted.

“We’d never let go of her,” she says of her character. “I was just blown away by all the different things I could do with her. Honestly, it was like, ‘Let’s just get it done, because I believe in this.’”

If that means nothing to you, don’t worry: The enormity of the revelation that Garrett is being brought back is meant only for fans. If you don’t know who the character is, you’re not missing anything.

“It was always my goal to deliver an entertaining experience that is true to the universe but appeals to newcomers,” says screenwriter Craig Sweeny. “I wanted a low barrier of entry so that anybody could enjoy it.”

Nevertheless, including Garrett on the show is exactly the kind of gasp-worthy detail meant to flood “Star Trek” fans with geeky good feeling.

“You cannot create new fans to the exclusion of old fans,” Kurtzman says. “You must serve your primary fan base first and you must keep them happy. That is one of the most important steps to building new fans.”

On its face, that maxim would make “Section 31” a genuine risk. The titular black-ops organization has been controversial with “Star Trek” fans since it was introduced in the 1990s. “The concept is almost antagonistic to some of the values of ‘Star Trek,’” Sweeny says. But he still saw “Section 31” as an opportunity to broaden what a “Star Trek” project could be while embracing the radical inclusivity at the heart of the franchise’s appeal.

“Famously, there’s a spot for everybody in Roddenberry’s utopia, so I was like, ‘Well, who would be the people who don’t quite fit in?’” he says. “I didn’t want to make the John le Carré version, where you’re in the headquarters and it’s backbiting and shades of gray. I wanted to do the people who were at the edges, out in the field. These are not people who necessarily work together the way you would see on a ‘Star Trek’ bridge.”

For Osunsanmi, who grew up watching “The Next Generation” with his father, it boils down to a simple question: “Is it putting good into the world?” he asks. “Are these characters ultimately putting good into the world? And, taking a step back, are we putting good into the world? Are we inspiring humans watching this to be good? That’s for me what I’ve always admired about ‘Star Trek.’”

Should “Section 31” prove successful, Yeoh says she’s game for a sequel. And Kurtzman is already eyeing more opportunities for TV movies, including a possible follow-up to “Picard.” The franchise’s gung-ho sojourn into streaming movies, however, stands in awkward contrast to the persistent difficulty Paramount Pictures and Abrams’ production company Bad Robot have had making a feature film following 2016’s “Star Trek Beyond” — the longest theaters have gone without a “Star Trek” movie since Paramount started making them.

First, a movie reuniting Pine’s Capt. Kirk with his late father — played in the 2009 “Star Trek” by Chris Hemsworth — fell apart in 2018. Around the same time, Quentin Tarantino publicly flirted with, then walked away from, directing a “Star Trek” movie with a 1930s gangster backdrop. Noah Hawley was well into preproduction on a “Star Trek” movie with a brand-new cast, until then-studio chief Emma Watts abruptly shelved it in 2020. And four months after Abrams announced at Paramount’s 2022 shareholders meeting that his 2009 cast would return for a movie directed by Matt Shakman (“WandaVision”), Shakman left the project to make “The Fantastic Four” for Marvel. (It probably didn’t help that none of the cast had been approached before Abrams made his announcement.)

The studio still intends to make what it’s dubbed the “final chapter” for the Pine-Quinto-Saldaña cast, and Steve Yockey (“The Flight Attendant”) is writing a new draft of the script. Even further along is another prospective “Star Trek” film written by Seth Grahame-Smith (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”) and to be directed by Toby Haynes (“Andor,” “Black Mirror: USS Callister”) that studio insiders say is on track to start preproduction by the end of the year. That project will serve as an origin story of sorts for the main timeline of the entire franchise. In both cases, the studio is said to be focused on rightsizing the budgets to fit within the clear box office ceiling for “Star Trek” feature films.

Far from complaining, everyone seems to relish the challenge. Visual effects supervisor Jason Zimmerman says that “working with Alex, the references are always at least $100 million movies, if not more, so we just kind of reverse engineer how do we do that without having to spend the same amount of money and time.”

The workload doesn’t seem to faze him either. “Visual effects people are a big, big ‘Star Trek’ fandom,” he says. “You naturally just get all these people who go a little bit above and beyond, and you can’t trade that for anything.”

In one of Kurtzman’s several production offices in Toronto, he and production designer Matthew Davies are scrutinizing a series of concept drawings for the newest “Star Trek” show, “Starfleet Academy.” A bit earlier, they showed me their plans for the series’ central academic atrium, a sprawling, two-story structure that will include a mess hall, amphitheater, trees, catwalks, multiple classrooms and a striking view of the Golden Gate Bridge in a single, contiguous space. To fit it all, they plan to use every inch of Pinewood Toronto’s 45,900 square foot soundstage, the largest in Canada.

But this is a “Star Trek” show, so there do need to be starships, and Kurtzman is discussing with Davies about how one of them should look. The issue is that “Starfleet Academy” is set in the 32nd century, an era so far into the future Kurtzman and his team need to invent much of its design language.

“For me, this design is almost too Klingon,” Kurtzman says. “I want to see the outline and instinctively, on a blink, recognize it as a Federation ship.”

The time period was first introduced on Season 3 of “Discovery,” when the lead character, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), transported the namesake starship and its crew there from the 23rd century. “It was exciting, because every time we would make a decision, we would say, ‘And now that’s canon,’” says Martin-Green.

“We listened to a lot of it,” Kurtzman says. “I think I’ve been able to separate the toxic fandom from really true fans who love ‘Star Trek’ and want you to hear what they have to say about what they would like to see.”

By Season 2, the “Discovery” writers pivoted from its dour, war-torn first season and sent the show on its trajectory 900-plus years into the future. “We had to be very aware of making sure that Spock was in the right place and that Burnham’s existence was explained properly, because she was never mentioned in the original series,” says executive producer and showrunner Michelle Paradise. “What was fun about jumping into the future is that it was very much fresh snow.”

That freedom affords “Starfleet Academy” far more creative latitude while also dramatically reducing how much the show’s target audience of tweens and teens needs to know about “Star Trek” before watching — which puts them on the same footing as the students depicted in the show. “These are kids who’ve never had a red alert before,” Noga Landau, executive producer and co-showrunner, says. “They never had to operate a transporter or be in a phaser fight.”

In the “Starfleet Academy” writers’ room in Secret Hideout’s Santa Monica offices, Kurtzman tells the staff — a mix of “Star Trek” die-hards, part-time fans and total newbies — that he wants to take a 30,000-foot view for a moment. “I think we need to ground in science more throughout the show,” he says, a giant framed photograph of Spock ears just over his shoulder. “The kids need to use science more to solve problems.”

Immediately, one of the writers brightens. “Are you saying we can amp up the techno-babble?” she says. “I’m just excited I get to use my computer science degree.”

After they break for lunch, Kurtzman is asked how much longer he plans to keep making “Star Trek.” 

“The minute I fall out of love with it is the minute that it’s not for me anymore. I’m not there yet,” he says. “To be able to build in this universe to tell stories that are fundamentally about optimism and a better future at a time when the world seems to be falling apart — it’s a really powerful place to live every day.”

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The Next Star Trek Movie Is More Important Than Ever After A Huge Announcement

It's been the better part of a decade since the last "Star Trek" film hit the big screen in 2016. Fans dying to see what happens next in the Kelvin timeline have gradually felt their hopes slipping away as rumors of the next installment — including scuttlebutt about an R-rated Quentin Tarantino "Star Trek" film — keep failing to pan out. But according to  Variety, Paramount has confirmed plans to move forward with the Kelvin timeline's "final chapter" — and that's just the beginning of the good news for Trekkies. There's reportedly a second feature "Trek" film in the works that's even closer to pre-production. The studio says this film will prove fundamental to the "Star Trek" canon by helping establish the primary timeline's origin story.

The emphasis on the second project's relationship to the primary timeline gives fans even more insight into a storyline hinted at by  Deadline in January 2024, when sources teased a tightly guarded plot that would be set decades before the events of the 2009 "Star Trek" movie. Like the Kelvin timeline films, it will be produced by J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions. On track to write it is Seth Grahame-Smith, who penned "Dark Shadows," "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," and "The Lego Batman Movie." 

Even more promising is who Paramount brought on to direct the film: Toby Haynes, a director whose resume includes "Andor," "Sherlock," a handful of the very best "Doctor Who" episodes from the Eleventh Doctor's tenure, and the critically lauded "Black Mirror" take on "Star Trek," "U.S.S. Callister." Insiders told Variety the origin film will be in preproduction by the end of 2024.

Even more Trek films could be in the works

The origin film is just one piece of Paramount's big plans to continue growing the "Star Trek" franchise in the coming years, which also include a push for more television movies, starting with the long-awaited "Section 31" story starring Michelle Yeoh. A look at the fandom-divisive darker side of Starfleet that first showed up in the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Inquisition," the film will have a decidedly spy-fi flavor that Yeoh compared to "”Mission: Impossible' in space" when speaking with Variety.

With filming already wrapped on the "Section 31" movie, executive producer Alex Kurtzman is more than ready to consider making even more streaming "Star Trek" films. Up for consideration is a follow-up to the "Picard" series. And with all of the "Star Trek" stories currently in production beginning with the 32nd-century-set young adult series "Starfleet Academy," which is currently in its planning phase, who knows where the franchise could be headed?

Star Trek's Big Decision Makers Listen To Fans – Just Not The Toxic Ones

Ah, the wonders of the internet. When humanity first discovered electricity (in the spirit of "Star Trek" nerdery, here's an enlightening fun fact: it wasn't Benjamin Franklin! ), the original trailblazers couldn't have possibly known what they'd eventually unleash upon our species. On one hand, the invention of computers and our entire online ecosystem as we know it means we have easier access to writers, actors, and other artists than we've ever had before. But, on the negative side of the equation, we have easier access to writers, actors, and other artists than we've ever had before. Is anyone else hearing that echo here?

Yeah, let's just put it this way — in a time when studios are relying on popular franchises and IPs more than anything else, the ever-present specter of, ah, passionate fans with strong  opinions looms large over the vast majority of productions. Hyperbolic fandom feedback isn't exactly a new phenomenon, judging by how audiences originally responded to divisive movies like "The Empire Strikes Back" or the casting of major roles like Michael Keaton as Batman, but the advent of the internet certainly helped speed up and magnify the entire process. Like it or not, toxic fandom has become an undeniably real issue with real ramifications.

Trekkies in particular have always had a way of making their feelings known to the storytellers in charge and Paramount's recent output of movies and shows alike are no exception, as current "Trek" figurehead Alex Kurtzman has had firsthand experience with. There have certainly been some bumps along the way, but it appears that the franchise veteran has managed to reach a healthy equilibrium between telling stories as he and his writers see fit versus listening to outside feedback. In short, fandom input is taken into account ... but only to a point.

Healthy boundaries

It's the quintessential "Trek" conundrum about the needs of the many versus the needs of the few. Directors, writers, actors, and everyone in between have a duty to tell the absolute best stories that they possibly can, regardless of how the most hardcore fans might feel about it. But, at the same time, there's the reality that the concerns and thoughts of the more reasonable fans out there might be worth paying attention to on occasion. I personally don't envy anybody in the position of having to make such difficult calls on a daily basis, but Alex Kurtzman seems to have figured out the trick with "Star Trek."

In a new profile by Variety , the longtime franchise writer and producer remarked upon dealing with various different reactions received by some of the more divisive "Trek" shows in recent years. "Star Trek: Discovery," for instance , caused quite a stir by introducing the new character of Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) as the secret adoptive sister to Spock. Meanwhile, the animated series "Lower Decks" shocked more old-school fans with its course language, zany tone, and irreverent humor. So whose opinions are worth giving the time of day to and whose aren't? According to Kurtzman:

"We listened to a lot of it. I think I've been able to separate the toxic fandom from really true fans who love 'Star Trek' and want you to hear what they have to say about what they would like to see."

How's that for a refreshing amount of honesty? The best storytellers know there's simply no pleasing everyone, so at a certain point one must trust their own instincts. That said, it's obvious to see how shows like "Discovery" course-corrected in response to constructive criticism. Hopefully, Kurtzman's balanced approach will be just what "Star Trek" needs.

The Next Star Trek Movie Will Be An Origin Story For The Entire Franchise

W hen a franchise has lasted for upwards of half a century and is still going strong, the decision-makers in charge will inevitably run into one pressing question above all others: Where do we go next? "Star Trek" became a beloved institution among the nerdiest of fans for a pretty good reason, largely because of its wholesale commitment to treading new ground and envisioning a new future. But with the franchise firing on all cylinders these days (on television, at least) and no signs of slowing down anytime soon, writers have become increasingly hard-pressed to boldly go where no others have gone before ... literally speaking, that is, since recent "Star Trek" shows like "Strange New Worlds," "Lower Decks," "Discovery," "Picard," and more have filled in all sorts of gaps in the official canon.

It's no secret that Paramount is eager to get back in the big-screen business for "Trek," however, and one of the more intriguing productions currently in the works seems to have settled on its main focus. We previously knew that "Black Mirror" and "Andor" director Toby Haynes had been tapped to lead an untitled upcoming "Star Trek" movie -- one that's not  meant as a continuation of the alternate-universe (aka Kelvin Timeline) movies starring Chris Pine and the rest of those films' cast. The studio is still playing its cards close to the chest on this, but a new report has shed a little more light on what we can expect from this mysterious motion picture.

The key phrase, apparently, is "origin story."

Read more: What Went Wrong With Star Trek: Nemesis, According To Jonathan Frakes

An Origin Story ... 'Of Sorts'

Variety has the scoop on the future of "Star Trek," unveiling a flashy new cover story covering practically every corner of the (fictional) universe. One tidbit buried among the rest, however, paints a rather interesting picture of what one of the movies in development could end up focusing on. With names like Toby Haynes and writer Seth Grahame-Smith ("The LEGO Batman Movie," "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter") attached, there's clearly no shortage of creative talent looking to put their stamp on future plans for the franchise. Figuring out what exactly that direction should be, however, is another story altogether.

According to the report, fans can expect the movie to "serve as an origin story of sorts for the main timeline of the entire ['Star Trek'] franchise ." What that means, of course, is anybody's guess. In terms of the timeline, the best guess is that this will take place long before the events of the 2009 J.J. Abrams semi-reboot and that of "The Original Series" as well. Discounting time-travel adventures that placed contemporary "Trek" characters on, say, 20th Century Earth, the earliest era of the canon that we've seen was previously explored in "Star Trek: Enterprise," which is set a full century before the likes of Captain James T. Kirk or Mr. Spock ever stepped foot on the USS Enterprise.

Trekkies already know how events like First Contact between humanity and the Vulcans unfolded or how events like the Eugenics Wars ravaged the Earth and set our civilization on a course for the stars, so could this in-development movie tackle the formation of Starfleet and the Federation as a whole? At this point, your guess is as good as ours. We'll definitely be keeping a close eye on this one.

Read the original article on SlashFilm .