Looking for that perfect after-Christmas gift for the fan film aficionado in your life? How about something from the RENEGADES merchandise collection?
The Renegades folks first began producing their own branded perks waaaaaay back in 2012 when they held their first Kickstarter and raised an amazing $242,483 from 2,367 backers. At that point, the perks were fairly simple: a special edition DVD of the completed Star Trek: Renegades fan film (back then, producing DVDs with the words “Star Trek” on the cover as perks was allowed), a CD compilation of the music, and an extra DVD and soundtrack for Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, their first fan production from back in 2008. There was also an “I’m a Renegade” T-shirt and autographed cast photos.
The following year, their next campaign—an Indiegogo that generated an additional $132,555 from 1500 backers—introduced a prop replica of their Starfleet comm badge from about ten years after Voyager‘s return.
By the time they reached their fourth crowdfunding campaign in November 2015—a Kickstarter for the first full episode “The Requiem”that took in just over $378,000 from 3,379 backers—they had added a patch (of course!) and a mini-poster signed by all of the cast. And even though this poster said “Star Trek: Renegades,” remember that this was STILL half a year before CBS released their fan film guidelines (and two months before Axanar got sued for copyright infringement).
Of course, once the guidelines came out, Renegades quickly dropped the “Star Trek” from its branding (becoming Renegades: The Series), and surgically removed all traces of CBS-owned intellectual property from their next production.
The good news for show-runner SKY CONWAY and fans of Renegades is that this change in branding means that these folks can now sell whatever merchandise they want to based on their fan film content and CBS can’t say a darned thing…yay! So if you are one of these massive fans, you can customize your own hoodies and get them sold to other show fanatics.
And sell it, they shall! The loot is all located on THE ATOMIC NETWORK website (that’s where Renegades and other productions from those folks are streaming from). And if you’re a fan of the Renegades fan series (as I am), you’ll find this all VERY exciting!
Here’s what they’re offering (with descriptions taken from their website)…
Renegades: The Requiem on DVD or Blu-Ray
We’re really going to pack this edition full of special features: behind-the-scenes vignettes, deleted scenes, SFX features, and of course a gag reel. DVDs/Blu-Rays will begin shipping once Renegades: the Requiem is publicly released.
[NOTE from Jonathan – For those wanting to view the full Renegades: The Requiem (parts 1 and 2) online, you can stream it from The Atomic Network website. Just click here. You will need to register and set up an account, but the account is free to create.]
Prequel Renegades Novels
Renegades: The Judas War
Autographed by Author Sky Conway!
Before the events of Renegades there was the thrilling, mysterious Judas War. Now you can learn the whole story in the prequel novel Renegades: The Judas War.
The year is 2387, and the Confederation is threatened by a faceless entity bent on the destruction of everything they hold dear: exploration, equality and freedom. A secret cabal of high-ranking officials launches their first attack as they embark on an agenda designed to fracture the very foundation of the Confederation…and set the galaxy on the path toward genocidal war.
Caught in the middle of the conflict is Lexxa, First Officer of FleetCom’s newest destroyer, the Icarus. Thrust into a life she never wanted, she finds herself betrayed and sabotaged at every turn. And is the Confederation even worth saving? Written by Micheal Koogler and Sky Conway
If you love Renegades, we think you’ll love this look at Lexxa’s earlier adventures, and we’re proud to offer this prequel tale to you.
Renegades: Judgement
Autographed by Author Sky Conway!
A year has passed and the Confederation teeters on the brink of annihilation.
Lexxa Singh commands the Icarus where she and her crew of outlaws and renegades have managed to live a life free from the constraints of the Confederation and its laws.
But her nightmares about killing the Admiral have never ceased, and when the Icarus is suddenly attacked by an unknown enemy, she finds herself drawn back into the web of deceit, chaos, and terror the Cabal has woven throughout the Confederation over the years.
Only this time, there is no escape.
[Another NOTE from Jonathan – Also available (for a slightly higher price) are copies of the novels signed by Walter Koenig in addition to Sky Conway.]
Model Kit of the HMS Icarus
Ok, this one is SUPER COOL – a 1/677 model kit of the HMS Icarus. This is a high quality, light-able, limited edition resin model of the Icarus. Our prop masters had this created by a local team of professional model artisans from the digital models used in the creation of the FX for the film. If you’re a spaceship nerd like all of us at Atomic Network, you’re going to want your own model of our distinct, beautiful, bad-ass hero ship.
You can be one of the first and few to proudly own this limited edition of the Renegades hero ship, ICARUS, as seen in Renegades.
- 15.6 inches long.
- Master tooling and castings crafted by professional scale model makers.
- Created using the original digital filming model.
- High detail model kit.
- High quality resin parts.
- Suitable for interior lighting.
- Decal markings included.
- Instructions included: Assembly required.
Star Trek Enterprise NCC-1701-D (Ready Room) Lithograph
In the midst of the hype for Captain Picard’s imminent return, we’re excited to offer you a chance to own or gift a piece of Star Trek history. We have a small collection of 26-year-old, limited edition and certified authentic reproductions of the very painting that graced the walls of Captain Picard’s Ready Room. It’s become one of the most sought after Star Trek collectibles, so this opportunity won’t last long.
This piece was painted by Andrew Probert and Rick Sternbach. Andrew was the original designer of the the Enterprise-D for Gene Roddenberry. Rick is a legendary illustrator best known for his years of art design on Star Trek. Andrew and Rick hand-signed and numbered the series, which was named “Star Trek Art Form The Final Frontier”.
Atomic Network Founder and CEO Sky Conway published this print in 1993 and it sold out almost immediately. He retained only a small collection of the 1,950 certified authentic lithographs, and the rest have rarely been sold on secondary markets. So, it’s unlikely you’ll find these anywhere else.
The Renegades Communicator Badge
An actual prop.. see Certificate of Authenticity.
Rare and highly collectible!
There’s also a set of ten 8×10 photos of the main cast members of “The Requiem,” each autographed. The set comes with a Renegades clothing patch collection. sexlocals.ch
You can visit the following website for pricing (which might raise a few eyebrows for certain items)…
https://atomicnetwork.tv/atomicnetwork-shop/
Remember that the money collected isn’t going into making any kind of business profit (although since it’s no longer a Star Trek fan production, that’d still be okay). Instead, it will be funneled into more productions from The Atomic Network…including more Renegades!
Amazing to see what 10 years of hard work and adhering to the law can get crowdfunding supporters… and now folks can own another piece of that legacy.
Go Renegades
Just remember that the guidelines were written specifically to stop Star Trek: Renegades from producing 12 half-hour webisodes a year, Matthew. Renegades was walking the same fine line that Axanar was, including selling branded Star Trek: Renegades merchandise at their premiere at a movie theater in Westwood, Los Angeles in August of 2015. Remember these two photos? I know CBS does…
At the same time Axanar crossed a million dollars in crowd-funding, Star Trek: Renegades was only at about $800,000. So Axanar got sued and Renegades didn’t. But Renegades gave us the guidelines. Shat happens.
That said, it was inevitable that both outcomes would occur eventually. Whether Axanar, Renegades, Federation Rising, or some future fan production, someone was going to be the first to get sued for copyright infringement. John Van Citters said it himself: there was just too much of a “space race” going on with every production trying to out-fundraise the next guy. Likewise, the guidelines were also inevitable. When you have a production like Renegades, using multiple Star Trek actors reprising their characters in a future set 10 years after Voyager, calling themselves a “pilot” and then promising 12 webisodes a year featuring in-canon characters, professional actors and crew, meticulously crafted props, costumes, sets, make-up, VFX, music, etc…the guidelines were almost unavoidable. And the guidelines weren’t a completely bad thing, but–as I’ve said previously–a few of them went too far into preventing the next Renegades (like the no ongoing series, no paid professionals, and no perks rules).
Anyway, it is what it is. Back in 2014 and 2015, neither Renegades not Axanar knew any of this was coming, and neither was ever told officially, “No, you can’t do X, Y, and Z”–despite both producers being in direct contact with executives at CBS. So each production kept pushing the envelope until CBS finally pushed back.
And you know the rest…
yeah, but Renegades actually produced films, and actually listened to the IP owners and retooled to make ANOTHER film.
Incredible, I know… but they didn’t need to keep raising money.
What do you mean they didn’t need to keep raising money? They needed three crowd-funders to complete their pilot and multiple additional campaigns to finish “The Requiem” parts 1 and 2. Renegades frequently requested (and received) hundreds and hundreds of thousand of dollars in additional fan donations. This blog even linked to some of those many campaigns.
Are you EVER capable of saying true things, Matthew? Or are you locked on “liar” mode?
Jon, you comment that Renagades gave us the guidelines is questionable at best.
The fact is CBS never said what specific (if any) fan film led to the creation of the guidelines.
What we do know is the Axanar got sued and 6 months later the guidelines were released.
So you can either say a number of fan films resulted in the guidelines or Axanar and Alec’s attempts to profit off the Star Trek name (by raising money to build Industry Studios to be used for for-profit films after Axanar) are the direct reason for the guidelines.
But you really can say it’s Remagades fault and expect no one to call you out on it. At best the state is misleading and at worst it’s a bald-faced lie to protect Axanar/Alec.
Obviously, we can’t know precisely what CBS was thinking when the guidelines were written, but there are certain logical assumptions one can make. The first and most relevant to this discussion is that the guidelines were obviously NOT written to stop Axanar. How do I know this?
Simple, really. Axanar was already stopped (in court), and the guidelines would never have applied to it. There were three possible outcomes to the lawsuit…
1) Axanar Productions and Alec Peters would win using a Fair Use defense. If so, then no guideline could stop or touch Axanar, so the guidelines would not apply to Axanar.
2) Axanar Productions and Alec Peters would settle the lawsuit. If so, CBS/P and Alec would negotiate terms, and again, the guidelines would not apply to Axanar because they would be superseded by the settlement terms (which is, ultimately, what happened).
3) CBS and Paramount would win the lawsuit, in which case Axanar would never happen anyway, and therefore the guidelines would not apply to a fan film that was forbidden from being made.
So in all three possible scenarios, Michael, the guidelines would NOT apply to Axanar, and CBS was well aware of this six months into the lawsuit.
– – – – –
That leaves the question of why were the guidelines written the way they were…
Some of the guidelines, such as not using “Star Trek” in the title, including the legal disclaimer, and not attempting to copyright the fan film or charge to see it would apply to almost any fan film. But some of the guidelines were targeted to only certain productions. For example, the “no paid professionals or Star Trek veteran actors” rule really only applied to four or five of the remaining productions at the time: Renegades, Star Trek Continues, New Voyages, and to a lesser extent, Captain Pike (which never ended up happening), First Frontier (already shot), and Starship Farragut (which had previously featured Tim Russ and Chase Masterson in voice-over roles in an animated episode).
Likewise, the $50,000 crowd-funding limit only really applied to two fan productions: Renegades (which had taken in, by that point, about $850K) and STC (which had just done a campaign that raised $200K). All other fan productions, including New Voyages, had not managed to exceed $50K or $60K in any crowd-funder. (Technically, Captain Pike had raised $83K, but that was a combination of two Indiegogos for two 30-minute acts.)
Then there was the “no ongoing series” rule. That one would never have applied to Axanar, since it was a single 90-minute one-and-done feature. The only ongoing fan series that were also using professionals and crowd-funding in large amounts were Renegades, STC, and New Voyages. And Renegades had just announced (in November of 2015) plans to produce 12 half-hour webisodes per year. STC and NV were regularly producing hour-long episodes, once or twice a year. So CBS was definitely thinking more about those fan SERIES than a one-off like Axanar.
Of course, we also have to remember the “no perks” rule. CBS licensing was VERY troubled by fan films releasing their own branded, unlicensed merchandise for “sale” as perks…especially with the words “Star Trek” on them. Kinda like this one from just two months before the guidelines were announced. And of course, you saw the branded “Star Trek: Renegades” merchandise in the photo above, including posters with the words “Star Trek” on them. Compared to that, Kharn Dark Roast Coffee was nothing. So the guidelines were trying to stop primarily Renegades and STC in that regard. To a smaller extent, New Voyages could be included on that list, although they had almost no physical perks with the words “Star Trek” on them.
And finally, certain fan productions were using costumes and props manufactured by/purchased from unlicensed bootleggers. Granted, these were incredible replicas, and well-worth the hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars they cost the average fan who wasn’t making a fan film. But actual licensees like Anovos and Master Replicas and Art Asylum didn’t themselves pay tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees and royalties to have other knock-off companies do the same thing and pay nothing. So CBS decided to put the kibosh on that practice with guideline #6.
So you are correct in that I can’t single out only Renegades as the catalyst that led to the fan film guidelines. We should also include STC and NV…although in my opinion, to a MUCH lesser extent. The one thing we can deduce, however, from simple facts and logic as stated above, is that the guidelines would never have applied to Axanar and therefore were not written in any way, shape, or form to stop Axanar. Axanar was being stopped with a lawsuit that CBS and Paramount, at the time, had already thrown about a half million dollars into. And therefore, no guidelines were needed to do the job that $500K was already doing.
Happy to school you, Michael. 🙂
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