10 Biggest (And Weirdest) Lawsuits In Star Trek History
1. Axanar
The Axanar fan film production is probably the most well-known lawsuit surrounding the franchise. Their website can be found here. Fan productions have existed for years, yet Alec Peter's Prelude to Axanar drew the ire of CBS. Peters released a 21-minute film that was to lead into a 90-minute feature. However, there is more to this than a simple(ish) case of straightforward copyright.
Around the same time that Prelude to Axanar was released, there were several fan projects in production, such as Star Trek: New Voyages, Star Trek: Continues and Star Trek: Renegades. The latter was billed as a new pilot, which was then switched to a web series.
CBS took the Axanar production to court, citing several issues. The scene set on Vulcan, released in 2015, was deemed indistinguishable from the content that they had already produced. Pre-production was underway on Star Trek: Discovery, which certainly shared story elements with Axanar, including the Klingon War itself. Also cited was the use of the Klingon language and ships, along with the Vulcans.
Seeking a settlement, the Axanar team offered the production to CBS free of charge, yet this was rejected. In May 2016, CBS then released a new set of guidelines for any fan production to follow, though the restrictions they imposed were described by Peters as draconian. A short time later, J.J. Abrams spoke at an event promoting Star Trek Beyond, during which he announced that the lawsuit would shortly be going away. However, this did not turn out to be the case.
CBS proceeded with the suit and both parties settled in early 2017, with an agreement that was very similar to the one first proposed in 2015. Though the original plan of a 90-minute film was out the window, two 15-minute episodes were permitted. While the released of these episodes were delayed by over a year due to Covid-19, there is good news to come. In Summer 2021, a full-two hour audio drama of Axanar will be released on their website, read by J.G. Hertzler!