Was “Space Seed” the only episode worthy of a feature-length Star Trek adventure?
“Prelude To Axanar,” an impressive 20-minute teaser used to launch a Kickstarter campaign at Comic Con last month, tells the story of Starfleet captain Kelvar Leonard Garth, who became an idol of James Kirk thanks to the important role he played in the Four Years War that pitted the Federation of Planets against The Klingon Empire.
Star Trek fans originally discovered Garth as the shape-changing madman who menaced Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise in the 1969 episode “Whom Gods Destroy.”
The coming feature-length “Axanar” takes place a decade before Kirk’s five-year mission, long before experimental treatments decimated Garth’s sanity.
Gary Graham reprises his “Star Trek: Enterprise” role as Vulcan ambassador Soval, and is joined by “Battlestar Galactica” vets Kate Vernon and Richard Hatch, as well as Tony Todd (“Candyman”), and JG Hertzler (“Deep Space Nine”).
Producers were looking for $100,000 to produce the feature-length “Axenar” but fans were so impressed with the 20-minute teaser they ending up pledging $638,471 by the time the drive ended yesterday.
It should be interesting to see what producers can do with more than six times the funding for which they were hoping.
