They Made BETTER Star Trek for FREE (So CBS Shut Them Down)

CBS destroyed the best Star Trek ever made. Between 2004 and 2016, fans created productions so good that Gene Roddenberry's son called them canon. Then CBS sued them out of existence right before launching Discovery. Star Trek New Voyages: James Cawley spent $150,000 building exact TOS replica sets. William Shatner visited and said "the proportions are perfect." Star Trek Continues: Vic Mignogna recreated TOS so perfectly that Rod Roddenberry stated "I'm pretty damn sure my dad would consider this canon." These productions featured Walter Koenig, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, and scripts written by D.C. Fontana and David Gerrold who worked with Gene Roddenberry himself. CBS General Counsel admitted Axanar was sued because "it looked too good." John Van Citters said guidelines stopped the "arms race for professionalism." Star Trek Continues won 6 of 9 awards at Independent Trek Film Awards. Prelude to Axanar won 6 of 9 awards. These fan productions were recognized for quality rivaling official content. Meanwhile Discovery cost $8 million per episode and lost viewers every season. The 50th anniversary of Star Trek was 2016. CBS spent it suing fans instead of celebrating. Fans who understood Trek got lawyers. People who didn't understand Trek got budgets. What fan production would you bring back if the guidelines disappeared? Subscribe for the next video exposing the executives who enabled the franchise decline.