The Star Trek Fan Film That Went Too Far

As Paramount Pictures prepares to celebrate Star Trek’s 50th anniversary with the release of Star Trek Beyond in July, the studio has reason to thank the franchise’s fans. Since almost the first Star Trek TV episode, Trekkies have fueled interest in creator Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction fantasies, spawning their own works, holding conventions, and spurring the creation of 12 movies and five follow-up TV series. “They realize that their fans are their biggest assets,” says Rebecca Tushnet, an intellectual-property expert at Georgetown University Law Center.

Now, the studio says, one fan has gone too far. Alec Peters has made a 20-minute Star Trek docudrama called Prelude to Axanar, recounting a confrontation between the Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. Created with $100,000 raised on Kickstarter, the video has generated more than 2 million YouTube views since Peters posted it in August 2014. Paramount Pictures and CBS, the owners of the Star Trek movie and TV franchise, have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Peters, saying he copied numerous elements from their properties.