Here’s news a touch happier than word that CBS and Paramount are suing the fan filmmakers behind “Star Trek: Axanar”: the postal service will this year be issuing Star Trek “forever” stamps commemorating the franchise's half-century anniversary.
This is awesome news for those of us running out of the Yoda forever stamps issued a few years back.
As for the fan film “Axanar,” it 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” was to take place a decade before Kirk’s five-year mission, long before experimental treatments decimated Garth’s sanity.
Gary Graham was poised to reprise his “Star Trek: Enterprise” role as Vulcan ambassador Soval, and was to be joined by “Battlestar Galactica” vets Kate Vernon and Richard Hatch, as well as Tony Todd (“Candyman”), and JG Hertzler (“Deep Space Nine”).
Fans reportedly contributed close to $1 million toward the production of “Axanar" via crowdfunding.
Paramount has a movie called “Star Trek Beyond” coming out July 22 and CBS wants Trek fans to pony up at least $6 per month to watch the new hourlong Star Trek series it intends to stream starting in January 2017.
Here's the Trek stamp issued in 1999:
