There is no doubt that ‘The Icarus Manoeuvre’ is a filler fan film to serve Axanar just like Interlude was a filler for Axanar when Axanar needed to explain why Tony Todd wasn’t around Axanar anymore.

CBS Media filed a copyright claim on it, weeks later GeekyKOOL.com uploaded it on their channel complete with a new opening message, this version was online for five days, now it is re-uploaded away from YouTube.

Five days later, this version was taken down and so the video was placed on Ares Studios Patreon, it was also posted on a website well away from the bright lights of YouTube and other major video players.

In this fan film, The USS Ares is on a mission to help the USS Apollo out and it turns into a fight for survival, there’s really not much to say about it as it is a small battle scene that possibly didn’t make the 30-minute cut for Axanar.

It is a really short fan film clocking in at just over six minutes, the first sixteen seconds sets up the story in writing sort of like the beginning of Voyager’s ‘Caretaker’ and the last two minutes and nine seconds are credits, so you are left with just under four minutes of action.

You can hear some of the music to The Motion Picture buried within other music, which is interesting especially when this film is closely connected to Axanar which is watched closely by CBS and Paramount, the music is the highlight of this fan film, it is loud it is very action scene suiting.

The visuals are old, above on the left is from a Robert Meyer Burnett documentary in 2020 about Axanar and on the right is from The Icarus Manoeuvre showing just how old it is (it is years older than 2020), you’ve probably seen the action shots again and again on Axanar’s YouTube channel.

The camera felt a little too close to the actors, the acting didn’t seem bad, but the closeness of the camera took something away from it, they swung for the fences and that’s not a bad thing, but they couldn’t pull it off though there will be many who disagree and will eagerly say it is better than Discovery and CBS and Paramount will be jealous.

One thing I don’t understand is that fans have complained about ‘pew pew’ Star Trek yet goes crazy for Axanar and Axanar related fan films despite them having a story based on war.

The whole thing just felt disappointing after a lot of boasts about Axanar quality, I was expecting something grand, the third version of Interlude was a better visual spectacle, as said this like Interlude was an obvious filler and it showed.

Some of the Executive Producers belong to the Modern Mystery School, a place that has gotten the attention of organizations like Vice as ex-members have described bizarre initiations, sexual coercion, and rampant profiteering going on there which is a little unnerving.

Interesting in the final bits of credits of the original copy that it said ‘Copyright 2024 @Archiereus LLC All rights reserved’ considering an argument in court right now is that you cannot copyright a fan film yet for some reason they put that there.

The GeekyKool channel version has the ‘A Star Trek Fan Production’ added, and the copyright mention has been removed.

It would be interesting to see if somebody puts together Interlude, The Icarus Manoeuvre, the upcoming short and the two-part Axanar to create a complete story.

Rating: 2.75 out of 5.