Read Part 1 of this blog entry if you haven’t already. Did you do it? Good.
So it was now a few weeks before Christmas, and VANCE MAJOR was ready to tag out and I was ready to tag in to try to get this compromise settlement for STARBASE STUDIOS to the finish line. Vance was exhausted, but he got the runners 90% of the way there. Just a few teensy details left to work out…or so I thought.
Keep in mind, neither Vance nor I is a lawyer. Instead, we were just trying, as friends, to help SCOTT JOHNSON and KENT EDWARDS work out a way where GLEN L. WOLFE would drop his lawsuit against them, and Starbase Studios could continue without fan filmmakers having to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to use the Starbase Studios TOS sets.
By the time I tagged in, there was a full legal settlement agreement already written up by Glen’s lawyer, ready for Scott and Kent to sign. But they still had some issues with it. One of the biggest was that Scott decided that he didn’t want Glen to own 100% of the Starbase sets. But he was willing to split them 50/50. Would Glen agree? Scott didn’t think so. And frankly, neither did Vance.
“Look,” I said to Vance, “Maybe he’ll say no, and we’ll be back to square one. But if Glen says yes, then we’re there! It’s worth it to at least ask him.”
Vance agreed to make the call. Five minutes later, I had Glen’s answer…
Yes.
Glen would be willing to accept a 50/50 split of ownership. YAY! That was easy enough for me to tweak in the contract. Glen told Vance, “Look, just have them make their changes, and I’ll sign.” So I didn’t need to do any real lawyering (I’m a blogger not a lawyer, dammit!). All I was really doing was was playing “copy editor.”
The agreement Glen’s lawyer submitted stated that Scott and Kent would sell their ownership to Glen for $10, and if Glen ever wanted to sell the sets in the future, he had to first offer them back to Scott and Kent for that same price of $10. But now instead of full ownership for Glen, it had to be 50/50. Okay, that was easy to fix. Y’see, Kent wanted out completely, no more ownership of any of the sets. He’d continue to be a principle of Starbase Studios, LLC, but that’s just a production company. The sets are completely separate.
So just have Kent sell his 50% ownership to Glen. Simple! We arrive at Scott and Glen each owning 50%, and Kent owning nothing…as requested. As for that sellback/buyback thing, if ever Glen or Scott wanted to sell, they simply had to offer their 50% stake to the other owner first. Okay, done!
I exported a PDF with all the edits in red, sent it to everyone involved, and they all seemed to be okay. Scott and Kent even signed and notarized their copies. Great!!! I’d just helped Vance Major save Starbase Studios! What a wonderful blog to write to kick off the New Year!!
(You just know something’s about to go wrong, dontcha?)
Glen still had two issues:
- Remember that ownership of Starbase Studios is currently in dispute. If Glen buys 50% from Kent, and Scott owns the other 50%, Glen is pretty much stipulating that he never owned any portion of the sets. That wasn’t acceptable to Glen.
- Glen will be paying $300-400/month to maintain the sets in their new building. Scott, a 50/50 owner, would be paying nothing. That didn’t seem fair to Glen.
Oh, bugger…!
Okay, potentially easy fix for Item 1: just don’t have Kent “sell” anything. The agreement would simply state that, once signed, Scott would have 50%, Glen would have 50%, and Kent would have zero. And if Kent really wanted that ten bucks, I’d drop a Hamilton into an envelope and mail it to him myself!
Item #2, however, made my heart sink. Scott doesn’t have a lot of money. How much exactly did Glen want Scott to chip in? Half of the expenses would be potentially $2,000/year. Scott doesn’t have that! Also, it’s not really fair for Scott, who lives four hours drive away in Oklahoma City, to pay the same as Glen, who will be living close-by in Arkansas.
Fortunately, Glen didn’t want to suck Scott dry. He just wanted a token amount that would assure him that Scott had at least have some “skin in the game.” Maybe $50/month? Okay, I crossed my fingers and took that proposal back to Scott.
On a three-way call with Scott and Vance (no, Vance never tagged out…exhausted though he was!), Scott said there was no way he could afford $600/year. But Vance suggested he could rally the other fan filmmakers who used Starbase Studios to help. Ten of them each giving $50/year would decrease Scott’s responsibility to about $10/month. Yeah, Scott could do that.
I went back to Glen—beginning to feel like a ping pong ball! I told him the situation, and Glen didn’t want to force the other fan filmmakers into such a messy and hassle-filled arrangement. He just wanted Scott to pay something…even if it was just $10/month. Glen was actually very fair and reasonable—at least with me—every time we spoke. (Like Vance, I have no horse in this race so I don’t play favorites. I just want these sets made whole so fans can start using them again and I can write more blogs!)
Okay, $10/month is a go! So we’re finally done, right?
Not quite…
Now Kent had a problem! It wasn’t that he wanted the $10; it was just that he wanted it acknowledged that he was, in fact, a partial owner of the sets before he becomes a non-owner. So he still wanted Glen to buy him out.
Think, Lane, think!
All right…got it! Kent sells his ownership stake to Glen, but the contract doesn’t say how much that stake is…only that Kent winds up with nothing and Glen and Scott each wind up with 50%. Purposefully vague, but it solves the problem.
Anything else? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
My God, that felt like applying to college! To six colleges!!! Okay, I had all the notes…time to make the final edits. I sent the re-re-revised document to everyone involved. Glen just needed to show it to his lawyer, sign it, notarize it, send copies to Scott and Kent for them to sign and notarize, and our long fan film nightmare would finally be over.
Time to finally write up the first draft of the “Starbase Studios Crisis Resolved!” blog entry, right? Actually, no…
This past weekend’s video shoot with the elementary school kids happened, Glen was present, Scott and Kent both had a cow, and suddenly Scott was posting on the Starbase Studios Facebook page:
…it looks like no deal will be reached and now more time has been wasted.
It looks like court is on the horizon.
It seems to be the ONLY option left.
No, Scott, it’s not. Let me explain…
…WHY SIGNING AND SETTLING IS THE ONLY LOGICAL OPTION!
All right, everyone, if this goes to court…
FIRSTLY:
Lawsuits typically cost at least $20,000/month to litigate. Glen told me on Sunday night that his lawyer has estimated about $10,000 to do everything up until the trial starts. Then he has to pay for the trial itself! Likewise, Scott and Kent will also have to find an attorney (they haven’t yet). It’s not a pro-bono kind of case, so Scott and Kent are looking at putting $10,000 up immediately just to get their lawyer up to speed before the case goes to trial in a few weeks…plus another $20,000 if they’re lucky enough that things don’t stretch out more than a few weeks.
SECONDLY:
If Scott and Kent don’t get a lawyer, they lose by default. You can’t just ignore a lawsuit and not show up in court. The would result in an automatic summary judgement by the judge against the defendants. And according to the Legal Summons, Glen isn’t just suing for full ownership of nearly all of the sets; he’s also suing for nearly $29,000 in damages for illegally detaining the sets. So not getting a lawyer means Scott and Kent are potentially out the same amount as getting a lawyer AND they lose the sets forever!
THIRDLY:
Even if they get a lawyer, this is still the Kobayshi Maru for Scott and Kent. If they lose, Glen gets the sets free and clear…potentially with monetary damages, as well.
If they win, they still lose. Why? Charles Pelsor wants his building back…especially after all this drama over the sets. So unless Scott and Kent can find free rent in perpetuity somewhere else, those sets are out on the sidewalk getting rained on by late February.
FINALLY:
I’ve spoken with Glen. If he loses, he’ll just rebuild the sets anyway, but Starbase Studios won’t be permitted to use them. If Glen wins, he isn’t planning on letting Starbase Studios use them anymore either.
But he is willing to agree to it now. Why? Because Glen doesn’t want to go to court. He’d rather spend those tens of thousands of dollars fixing up the existing sets and building new sets. So there’s a very attractive compromise settlement agreement for both parties that essentially says, “Let’s just move forward and get back to making fan films.” But if Scott and Kent refuse to sign it, why should Glen continue to deal with them at all?
So in my opinion, this is a no-brainer situation for Starbase Studios…a let me state this clearly and in ALL CAPS:
IF YOU LOVE TREK FAN FILMS, YOU WANT ALL THREE OF THEM TO SIGN THIS SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT!!!
If they don’t sign, Starbase Studios ends—regardless of the verdict in court—unless there’s another Glen Wolfe somewhere out there with big bucks, offering free rent, and not expecting anything in return. (And if there is, tell him about the Star Trek Continues sets in Georgia, too!) But frankly, folks, I doubt Scott and Kent are likely to find another rich Trekkie from the central U.S. before the first rains come.
If they do sign, then the sets are moved into a modern building with dedicated electrical to light up the entire bridge, flushing toilets (something the sets never had back in Oklahoma City), and space to expand a little to add other set pieces. Oh, and Starbase Studios (and any fan filmmaker going through them) still gets full access to the sets for FREE (or the cost of electrical)…same as it ever was!
Seriously, is there anything NOT good about that scenario? I think not!
I am told by Glen Wolfe that he intends to sign the settlement agreement this week (assuming his lawyer is okay with my latest proposed version), notarize it, and send it certified mail to both Scott and Kent. Then the ball’s in their court. And I do mean “court.” If they refuse to sign because Glen hosted a bunch of 5th and 6th graders at the sets without getting permission first, well, someone’s gonna be writing a very angry and frustrated blog!
But as I’ve said many times in many places, I believe in all of these folks. Signing the agreement saves Starbase Studios. Going to court almost certainly ends it. I have faith that everyone will make the logical decision.
What would Scott and Kent do if Glen dropped the lawsuit and agreed that they owned the sets free and clear, but didn’t agree to house them? As I understand, they’d still have to find a new home for the sets. If they can’t find somewhere to store them that they can afford, then it seems to me that they’d end up loosing even in that scenario.
Yeah, pretty much.
Oy, what a mess! Glen would probably have been better served if he at least had been up front about the shoot. I’m guessing no one actually has a problem with the kids using the set, just that Glen went ahead and let them do it with this unresolved situation hanging over it and not even saying a word about it.
To be fair to Glen, no one checked in with him when Vance Major filmed “Crying Wolf” on the sets a few months ago. Likewise, Glen and Dan Reynolds filmed a turbolift scene for “Extraction” on the sets back in December and never checked in first, and Scott and Kent didn’t have a problem with it. I’m not sure that they actually knew about that shoot, but I did. And if I knew, I’d be surprised if they didn’t. But the point is that all the parties involved had kinda established a precedent where no one had to “apprise” the others before doing a shoot there. Obviously, those ground rules will change if this settlement is signed, as Glen will reserve certain days for filming, and Starbase Studios will reserve other days, and they have to make sure they don’t double-book.
If that was the case, then why the brouhaha over the kids filming?
Scott and Kent are very angry right now at the whole situation, and they don’t have a lot of trust in Glen. They were concerned that even more props and set pieces might disappear” after this past weekend’s shoot, just like they did last August…which is why the locks were changed right after. They couldn’t believe the farmer would let the Wolfe back into the henhouse! (Sorry, couldn’t resist that one.)
As I told Scott on Saturday when he IM’d me non-stop for about 25 minutes, “If you don’t want anything else to disappear, dude, then sign the agreement!” After all, once it’s signed, everything gets reunited. And Scott doesn’t even have to worry about Glen owning everything because Glen was okay with a 50/50 split. So once that happens, neither Scott nor Glen will ever have to worry about stuff “disappearing” again. Scott and Kent just need to look past this 5th grader shoot and concentrate on moving forward.
There’s been a lot of “looking into the rear view mirror” going on, as I’ve had to hear both sides bringing up this and that and that and this transgression and indignity from months and years past. I let them go on, and then I say, “Okay, you can glance into the rear view mirror, but you can’t drive forward if that’s all you’re looking at. It’s time to look at the road ahead and forget about what’s behind you.”
We’ll see if that advice works. Wars not make one great. 🙂
I have no faith in anything reasonable happening here because some of the prime motivation appears to be to give a certain gesture to the other parties no matter what the consequences. Is that logical? No. Is it reasonable? No. Does everyone wind up with hurt? Yes but at least the “bad guy” loses.
Not if I can help it! Up, up, and away! 🙂
Let me say this about that…
If Glenn and come to Scott and Kent and said, “Hey, I’ve got a bunch of elementary school kids who want to use the sets for a school project this weekend. Is that okay with you guys?” Do you think Scott and Kent would have said, “Hell, no!”
I don’t think so! I know I wouldn’t have.
It’s not like he had to ask “permission”, but, rather, just common courtesy to all involved parties. Courtesy doesn’t seem to be Mr Wolfe’s strong suit. Just sayin’…
Finally, (since any smart lawyer will tell you possession is 9/10th of the law) what happens if, after all the parties agree to the settlement, and the sets are moved to their new location, Mr Wolfe decides to lock Starbase Studios, et al out – in effect taking full ownership of the sets?
Since you’ve already indicated that Scott would be hard pressed, financially, to hire a lawyer, what are his and Starbase Studios options in that scenario?
It sounds like you’re trying to create a “worst case” scenario that, frankly, I think is unlikely. I’ve come to know Glen over these past few months, and he’s a good guy. He really just wants to make Star Trek fan films (a noble endeavor if there ever was one!) and have fans enjoy them.
But let’s assume for a moment that Glen does decide to lock out Starbase Studios (as I said, very unlikely). Two things result:
1) Even though Scott and Kents don’t have a personal attorney, Starbase Studios, LLC does, and that entity is a signatory to this contract, as well. Because Scott and Kent are getting sued as individuals, the LegalZoom lawyers (or whomever they used to create the LLC) can’t represent them in the lawsuit as individuals without charging additional money. But if Starbase Studios, LLC signs this agreement (which will happen, since part of the deal is with Starbase), then any violation of the terms by Glen is covered under their legal retainer as breach of contract protection.
2) If Glen does what you describe, he instantly becomes a pariah of fan films. Alec Peters would be seen as Mother Theresa next to Glen Wolfe. And Glen doesn’t want that. He wasn’t even comfortable with the negative press that exploded after the removal of the set pieces last August (which, I have to say, was ill advised on his part). But locking Starbase Studios out of the sets and breaching contract, THAT would make the removal of the sets pieces look like peanuts in comparison.
And by the way, I do suspect that, had Glen gone to Scott and Kent first to say, “I’ll be bringing some kids by in January,” the response might well have been, “Hell, no.” More likely, it probably would have been “They can show up, but YOU can’t…” or “Bring our goddam stuff back, and maybe we’ll let you use it.” I can’t be sure those would have been the responses, but there’s a LOT of resentment right now on both sides of this, George…a lot of feelings of hurt, betrayal, and anger. So I don’t blame Glen for not informing Scott and Kents first.
” Alec Peters would be seen as Mother Theresa…”
Thanks, Jon. That made me smile! LOL
I find that comparison insulting.
Actually, it’s pretty accurate, all things considered. There are some people who, for various reasons, have been completely banned from posting on this blog. They pushed the limit too far and now, when they submit comments, those comments get deleted unread. They lost the privilege of me even reading what they had to say.
But you’re still okay, Blue, and so is Star Trek:L Discovery. That was my point. I disagree with nearly everything you say (so negative…very dark and depressing) and yeah, sometimes it even pisses me off. But I still read all of your comments and approve and respond to nearly all of them…just as I still watch Discovery.
After reading this my impression is the real ‘elementary school’ students are Glen, Scott, and Kent.
And if you can’t learn to play nice together I’m gong to take your sets, destroy them all, and give the building back to Charles. . . .
It’s hard not to feel angry and resentful when there’s a lawsuit. Believe it or not, these three men were actually good friends not too long ago.
Yeah, they forgot the cardinal rule to make a contract when they were still friends before any of this got out of hand. All of this could have been avoided if they had a way to deal with disputes. Sigh.
Well, good luck, hope it all works out.
Most fan filmmakers don’t bother with contracts and lawyers and business agreements because 1) they don’t have the money for such things, and 2) they usually don’t need it. Obviously, the “big” productions like Axanar, STC, Renegades, etc. need to have documentation and contracts. But smaller productions like the stuff from Potemkin Pictures of Starfleet Studios can usually get by without a lot of paperwork. Starbase Studios is somewhere in the middle. They’ve had a little bit of paperwork over the years, but yeah, they probably needed more. Now they know, and hey, no better time than the present to start! 🙂
I learned a long time ago that friends are friends, but business is business.
True dat. But business often requires a different mindset from the “fun and friendly hobby” that is fan films. I don’t blame most fan filmmakers for not always crossing their i’s and dotting their t’s with contracts and legal agreements.
If they go to court, I want my conference room table and sickbay medical monitors and arms. I was never reimbursed for them or paid to make them. There is no reciept for donation or anything. Glen does not own them. They are on loan from me to the studio. As long as Scott is involved in the studio they are on loan. If Scott is not involved, I want them back. You only own what youve bought and paid for. My set pieces were not. Ill show up in court with proof of my ownership.
Yeah, that’s not helpful right now, Christopher.
Seems like folks who made the set pieces have skin in the game too. Especially if they spent their own money making them.
There’s a lot of folks with skin in the game. But right now, I can’t imagine that any of them has single-handedly put in $100,000 or is willing to pay out $4,000/year going forward…indefinitely. To me, that sets the bar quite high. Not that I’m ignoring or minimizing what Scott and others have put in. But I understand Glen wanted a token gesture of $10/month in exchange for 50/50 ownership of these sets that will be draining so much money from Glen and his wife’s bank account.
The man does have the right to have his property returned.
Yep. I’m trying to make sure that happens, Blue. 🙂
Jonathan…..? How, do, you, get yourself, into these, man in the middle scenarios? But, I’m glad you do, because it sure makes for exciting stories! I’m hopeful all the work you and especially Vance put into this, comes out as planned.
As Spock would say…Fascinating.
Oh yah, BTW, it’s : “Dammit Jim, I’m a Blogger, not a Lawyer”
I didn’t want to be TOO derivative of McCoy. 🙂
As for how I got myself into this, David, it was partly Alec Peters’ fault. He’d been trying for weeks to help bring the two sides together and was getting nowhere. In frustration, he went to me and asked me to cover what was going on behind the scenes on Fan Film Factor as a way of trying to light a fire under the butts of both sides. This was many weeks before the video of the damage went public. But it was at that point that I started diving into this whole situation and finding out what was going on and the grievances of both sides. Like others who would later get involved, I thought there might be some ways to come to a compromise…and I didn’t feel it was time yet to use FFF as a “spotlight” or a “hammer.”
The more I watched things get close to agreements and then those same agreements break down, the more frustrated I became…because Starbase Studios is such a special part of the world of Trek fan films and a unique and cherished resource. I became a bit of a cheerleader for both sides, urging them toward a compromise behind-the-scenes. And during this time, I became a close friend to Vance Major…who was becoming very fatigued and frustrated by all the drama. As I saw Vance’s resolution starting to fade, I offered to come in to help and, eventually, become a sort of “relief pitcher” for him.
And why did I decide to get involved in the first place? Well, aside from wanting this crisis ended so more fan films can be made and I can write about them, there’s another sillier reason. I didn’t just watch Star Trek growing up, I internalized many of its messages. And one of the most deeply ingrained for me was the simple message from “City on the Edge of Forever”: Let me help. I thought I could, so I did.
“As for how I got myself into this, David, it was partly Alec Peters’ fault. He’d been trying for weeks to help bring the two sides together and was getting nowhere. In frustration, he went to me and asked me to cover what was going on behind the scenes on Fan Film Factor as a way of trying to light a fire under the butts of both sides.”
Did you ever think that the reason why Alec was getting nowhere was because the two sides hate his guts for what he pulled with Axanar? Even though I resent Scott for various reasons, I can’t say that I blame them for not listening to the man who ruined Star Trek fan films.
Did you also think that by coming to you that he may also have another motive? It’s something to think about.
Nope…totally off. Neither side in this hates Alec’s guts. You project your own pettiness onto others, but Glen, Soctt, and Kent are all grown ups, Blue. You might want to try it some time.
Actually, I have. Unlike some people, I don’t make a habit of breaking civil and moral laws.
Pettiness, huh? That’s a laugh.
I don’t see anyone laughing, Blue.
And by “moral laws,” do you mean the Ten Commandments…like the one that says “Thou shalt not bear false witness”? Seems you’re doing that right now…trying to speak about something that you haven’t personally witnessed and are instead making conjectures that, being an actual witness myself, I can confirm are false.
At the bottom of this Wikipedia entry about this particular moral law, it quotes Matthew Henry as saying one of the four aspects of this prohibition is the following: “Speaking unjustly against our neighbor, to the prejudice of his reputation.”
Seems to me that’s exactly what you’re doing. I wonder why breaking this commandment is so important to you, Blue. I mean, it seems to be REALLY important, as you’re still posting to this blog five days later. I mean, I have to be here; it’s my blog. But you might want to think about moving on with you life. I don’t think anyone other than me is still paying any attention…and you’re certainly not convincing me of anything. Just the opposite, in fact. 🙂
And by “moral laws,” do you mean the Ten Commandments…like the one that says “Thou shalt not bear false witness”?
Actually, I’m referring to the one that says “Thou shalt not steal.”
Jonathan, I’m not going to mince words with you and I’m certainly not trying to convince anyone of anything. You’re going to believe what you are going to believe and I’m going to believe what I am going to believe.
To quote Shakespeare, himself: “The truth is the truth until the end of reckoning.”
SMH. It’s just a shame that the truth has taken a back seat in Star Trek fandom these many years.
Just so you know, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in 1985 that copyright infringement is NOT theft:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowling_v._United_States
But even it infringement is theft, Alec Peters was never found liable for infringement. So “Thou shalt not steal” is completely irrelevant. Alec didn’t steal anything. You, however, continue to bear false witness. I really wish you’d stop, ’cause I have so many better things to do than to keep winning all these battles of wits with you, Blue.
And one final note….something that Robert Montgomery Knight summed it up best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OpxnmeIiUk
Which of us in Bobby Knight, Blue? 🙂
Neither one of us. But I can relate to his frustration in dealing with reporters .
I’ll say this much. The movie Network certainly predicted what journalism would evolve into in the not too distant future.
Like Star Trek and its fandom, journalism has taken a serious nose dive in integrity and ethics.
Man, Blue, is there anything in this world that you DO like???
Oh, hey…I see some kids playing on your lawn. You should go chase them away. 🙂
Well, if you must know, yes, there are some things in this world that I do like.
Actually, I have chased kids off my lawn. Only they were teenagers who were trying to vandalize my mailbox. Talk about a scene straight out of Grand Torino.
Just a point of order here, but as I recall are the bridge sets still not the property of the Johnson brothers and on loan to Starbase? If anyone should be claiming ownership of that part of the set surely it’s Jimm and Josh?
The reason this is headed for court (unless the settlement agreement is signed) is because that question is still not settled in any officially legal way. It’s difficult to trace a clear chain of ownership of the sets. If Jimm and Josh loaned the sets to John Hughes in 2009/2010, then that agreement was never written down and signed (or if it was, no one has access to it). So there’s a question of…
1) Did Jimm and Josh ever officially “own” the sets or were they a product of numerous donations of time, labor, and money and that the sets were “owned” by Exeter Studio (which is no longer a viable legal entity)? But let’s assume that the Johnson brothers did, indeed own the sets, then…
2) When the bridge set pieces were given to John Hughes to take from Austin to Oklahoma City, they were badly damaged and in need of extensive repair. The Starbase Studios folks worked for years improving and renovating those sets. There were also two floods in OKC, each requiring more repair. As I recall, there was also an entire console loaned out (or donated) by James Caweley that was used to replace one of the less viable Exeter console pieces. So is the bridge that exists now the same one that was “on loan” from the Johnsons? How much is still “their” bridge and how much is the result of time, labor, and materials put in by Starbase Studios over the past half-decade?
3) Obviously, there are other sets that have been added to Starbase Studios that never existed for Exeter–like Sickbay, the Transporter, and the Mess Hall. Those are considered a part of Starbase Studios as a whole entity. Who owns those additions? Certainly not the Johnson brothers.
4) When the sets were moved from Oklahoma to Arkansas, John Hughes was paid (I believe) $3,000 from Glen Wolfe (who gave $1,000), Dan Reynolds (who gave $1,000), and Scott Johnson and Kent Johnson (who each gave $500). Glen believes that money was intended to purchase the sets that John has acquired from Jimm and Josh Johnson. Scott and Kent believe it was simply a reimbursement to John for money he’d spent initially to move the sets from Texas to Oklahoma in the first place. Which was it? There’s not enough paperwork to establish one story over the other.
As for Jimm and Josh claiming ownership, I haven’t spoken with them, but I doubt they really want to deal with the costs of legally establishing ownership, then breaking down, transporting, and then storing the bridge set all over again. If they’d wanted to do such a thing, I’d expect they’d have made their intentions known long before now (which, in a courtroom, would be something a judge would consider when weighing the practical question of de facto abandonment of property). And of course, even if Jimm and Josh did manage to lay some kind of legal claim to the bridge, as I said, it’s not all the same bridge. The computers, one or two of the consoles, many of the panels, the chairs…all of that was added later.
So, yeah, Nick…it’s a real mess if this thing ever goes in front of a judge!
And that’s why I’m really hoping they settle. Then ownership is established on paper as 50/50 to Glen Wolfe and Scott Johnson and includes ALL of the sets as a cohesive unit. I’m hoping I can report on that happy ending soon. But so far, I still can’t.
Here is a better way to resolve this. That way all parties will be happy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nZlXngXB64
So you’re saying that even if the core of what Star Trek is, the USS Enterprise NCC-1701, is destroyed…the franchise can continue to thrive, to live long and prosper, through another ten movies and five television series over the course of another three and a half decades? I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGREE WITH YOU, BLUE!!!
(Man, who’d have ever thought THAT would happen?) 🙂