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This is a fan production story of the initial launch of the Starship USS Enterprise in 2245 under the reluctant command of Captain Robert April. This aspect was somewhat reminiscent of the pathos of Captain Pike to a degree in the original pilot, which as we know was later infused into The Menagerie 2-part TOS episode. Captain April has always been sort of a missing chapter in terms of a movie or series regarding Trek lore, similar to Christopher Pike, whom we barely know as well. This apparently was an attempt to work towards filling in that void.

There were issues with sound in terms of clarity of voices and music and such being too loud during sequences, aliens and graphics that were totally amateurish, and some acting that was a bit stiff... among other issues. Yet despite the many flaws within the story and production, it was still more Trek-like than Discovery or Picard. They were obviously operating on a shoestring budget, based on the Green Screen shots and such, yet you could sense that they were working toward bringing something with the original feel back into production. Thus, music along with visual ship sequences were similar to The Motion Picture and other elements of cannon Trek. What they needed was the Star Trek Continues level of production value to bring this to a much higher level of presentation. Maybe at some point they could team up with Vic and his crew to combine forces yielding better results.

The production for this “movie” may have started before the whole Axanar situation arose, resulting in CBS flexing its legal arm toward “Fan Productions” and thus foolishly limiting opportunities to make fan based series or full length movies, since it runs over the time limitations imposed, or they are simply ignoring those limitations altogether. Not sure, but it would be great if more fan-based productions continued to be created despite the previous threats from those that have shown repeatedly that they do not even care about the franchise themselves. 

On the plus side, it was nice to see an Andorian being brought in as a communications officer… something which Kheren may appreciate.
Having Thy'lek Shran the commander in the Imperial Guard on Enterprise episodes was among my favorite aspects of that series. 

So… watch this if you choose, and please add your thoughts and comments below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAlGf5Wfe4g

As I said in their comment section, this has nothing Kurtzmantrek has: money, distribution, professional support, intersectional politics and socio-political propaganda. But it has everything Kurtzmantrek lacks: respect of canon, heart and most of all, an original story to tell.

Of course the ammateurism is quite glaring; sound mixing is awful, effects are uneven in quality, editing lacks polish and some sequences are just copied out of original Trek. There are also several breaks with canon like not holding the turbolift handles, the helm is on the wrong side of the forward dual station and the holographic handcom is straight out of Star Wars.

However, the acting is adequate, costumes and props are proper to the chosen period, the characters are interesting and even endearing, the plot simplistic yet not all that worse than many classic TOS episodes and there is a definite effort to be original and creative while still within the framework of canon.

Most of all, the emphasis on an ensemble cast of competent people lead by a charismatic leader, instead of one stupid, incompetent, despicable Mary Sue doing everything and succeeding because the universe wants her too, is what makes this feel most like Star Trek. And that this story is all about the people living it, who they are, what they want and what they feel, not about making this a pretentious soapbox or ''relevant.''

And yeah an Andorian officer and a Tellarite captain; that was neat. And some little touches too, like having Richard Daystrom on board, hearing about the promotion of Commodore Nogura, showing the Daedalus class and bringing the Enterprise's sister ship in. These are references that are organically put into the story, instead of these stupid litanies of disconnected references Lower Decks bombards you with.

All in all, a good watch.

It's a human adventure set in space; what Star Trek is supposed to be.

I'm always amazed how amateurs like these people manage to get it right despite no budget and little ressources, only their love for the show. It defies imagination what they could have done with 40 million dollars as DISC got for each of it's upcoming Andromeda rip-off episodes.


EDIT: What may save this movie from being struck down by CBS is possibly it's obvious amateurism. As Alec Peters told about the CBS lawsuit that ended with those idiotic rules for fan productions; when they asked in court why they were singled out like this after decades of amateur fan films never being bothered, CBS answered: '' because no one will ever think THEY are the real thing.'' Axanar's highly professional quality is what got them into trouble... That and the fact that we know now that Axanar was telling the same story they planned for DISC (the Klingon-Federation war)... and that it would have blown DISC completely out of the water.