December 17 2021

There are now three versions of Interlude, the original, the one without Paul Jenkins and now this one.

Director Victoria Fox did not participate in this version as she has left Avalon behind for some reason and is now enjoying new challenges.

This third version has cut twenty-eight seconds off the running time of the fan film so the running time is cut down to just under twelve minutes, if you skip the opening credits which run for 44 seconds and closing credits after the film at ends at 9:55, you’ve got nine minutes and eleven seconds of fan film.

There’s a bit of shaking added but it doesn’t do much because while everything is shaking, the people in the scene are not reacting to it.

The music is good, it gives the fan film that little bit more of a punch.

One of the annoying parts about the first and second cuts of Interlude was that the Garth section towards the end had a lot of cuts in it and it was off putting, this section has been changed with less Garth and Admiral Slater visually with shots of the Artemis crew in action with voice overs.

Gone is the Four Years War. 10-Year Retrospective screen between the end of the live action and the beginning of Garth speaking and there are dialogue changes for example;

“Captain Jakande, we were brothers in this war, in some ways his decision was the easy decision…..”

This was changed in the third version to say

“Captain Jakande, we were brothers in this war but thanks to the Artemis we made it back safely to Starbase One, Admiral Ramirez survived but he spent the rest of the war in a hospital bed, in some ways his decision was the easy decision…..”.

Also cut was the lines “we were returning from a high-level briefing on the Axanar battle plan, out of nowhere three Klingon D7’s appear start blasting away, the Klingons couldn’t have known where we were going to be unless someone tipped them off”

There is a bit of an identity crisis with Interlude as Axanar bills it as Interlude – The Axanar Fan Film and Avalon bills it as Interlude A STAR TREK Fan Production – Film Fest Version (Axanar Continuity), officially it is billed as a fan film of a fan film.

So this version is an improved version of the fan film thanks to the benefit of hindsight which we all experience in the creative process of things and rarely do we get the opportunity to rejig a creation.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Pros
Nice Tribute to Barbara Reader
Great CGI
Warren Hawk
Dramatic end to the first half
Christian Gossett got a costume design credit
Tried to add more with the shaking
Changes to the end
Good Music
Not as disjointed as previous versions

Cons
Too short in length for all the hype, money spent and chest beating
Bridge scene acting was too casual in parts
It is a gap filler between Prelude to Axanar and Axanar
Copied Game of Throne’s Starbucks mistake
Engineering is really the Ares Bridge
The continued handling of Paul Jenkins objections
The fan film has a identity crisis

Half Pro and Half Con

Creative ways to get rid of Ramirez and Soval for Axanar, it feels a bit cheap.