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Life in the Federation wasnāt exactly depicted as a vibrant haven of contemporary art and creative expression. Most people seemed to wear matching jumpsuits, and almost every reference to popular culture dated back to the 1940s or earlier.
Who is on the 24th century equivalent of the top 40 list? Why does every play seem to be yet another Shakespeare revival? Could it be thatā¦ artists have been disincentivized from creating new work?? 
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OMG!!! Has anyone in the history of cosplay done a Klinger Klingon Cosplay??? And why not, if they havenāt?
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Thatās exactly what they want you to think.
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Wouldnāt a Klinger Klingon be immediately killed by his peers? Not for cross-dressing, of course- but ātrying to get out of military serviceā just wouldnāt fly in that culture.
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I donāt knowā¦ every now and again, they hint at their cultural oddities. Alexander (Worfās son) comes to mind. He shows back up on DS9 during the Dominion war, is completely inept as a warrior Klingon, but manages to win the crew of the ship over by being so bumbling. I mean, all we ever reallly see on Star Trek of the Klingon empire is the warrior culture, but they have to have other people doing other things on Kronos, yeah? I mean, they are big on family histories, so they have to have some kick ass historians and academicsā¦ who cooks all their gross, wiggling meals, or presses their barrels of bloodwine. Actually, I find it sort of odd that DS9 managed to give far more nuance to Cardassia than they did to the Klingons in the 40 years theyād been on the series by that pointā¦
Ah, jesusā¦ Sorry. I just went full nerd. You never go full nerd. (I love Garak! Do you love Garak? How great is Garak?)
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Since the Axanar production is for-profit, I can understand and acknowledge Paramountās right to defend their intellectual property. But copyrighting Klingon, IMHO, is going way too far.
Nope. Full nerd is how I roll. 
And yes, Garak is awesome.
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Yeah, I canāt see trying to copyright it, especially since I assume that, like most languages, once people start to use it regularly, it morphed and changed. Usage of a language changes it, and how can you actually copyright that?
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Pitching and selling as are not the same thing. Movies in Hollywood are constantly being pitched as a mashup of other familiar concepts. But being pitched as a thing, and claiming to officially represent that thing, are disparate concepts.
So, what āStar Trek IPā are they actually using? Somebody elseās story or characters which have been copyrighted or trademarked? Or is it merely a stylistic claim of āthis looks like Star Trekā?
Suppose my friends and I love a band - say, Metallica. If we copy their style, mannerisms, subject matter, and musical motifs - without actually copying anything directly from any of their songs - have they been infringed? How about if I even say outright āMy friends and I are just 100% inspired by Metallicaā? So long as we donāt actually claim to be them, or represent them, it would seem to me that they would not have a case. It could be argued that the work seems artistically derivative, but not derivative in any commercially protected category.
This is more or less my tentative view of Axanar. But I need to dig, because I donāt know what may or not be protected IP. And honestly, I doubt if anybody - Paramount included - are sure of what might be. I could be wrong, but it seems to me like they are trying to retroactively claim ownership of concepts which have been in use for decades.
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Yeah, Iām not sure who youāre talking about because they clearly established Alexander as a serious, well-rounded non-comedy-relief character in Next Generation and if they ever tried to pull something like that in DS9 I donāt know what Iād LA LA LA CANāT HEAR YOU.
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Oh, he was completely serious. BUT - he had been living on earth with his adoptive grandparents from the time that Worf sent him away as a kid. He came into the war, determined to actually be a warriorā¦ but he kept fucking stuff up, like he forgot to clear the training exercise out of the computer and thought a real dominion ship was heading their way ā but nope. Then he got himself trapped behind a blast door, accidentally, after another battle (since he was sucking hard at ops or whereever he was stationed on the bridge). Poor kid sucked at fighing with a batāleth, too. Kept dropping it. So, he was completely serious, but heād been living with elderly Russian folks most of his life, was part human, and had no real training in the Klingon warrior traditionā¦ so as serious as he was, he was sort of a butter fingers too.
Itās actually a really effective story line, especially around the Worf-Jadzia marriage arc.
CAN YOU TELL IāVE BEEN REWATCHING DS9 LATELY? CAN YOU???
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I donāt like what you seem to be implying about my culture, Madam. IāM part human.
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And if the rest of you were Klingonā¦ well, these guys are just into their own kind, you know. Itās not YOUR fault your HU-MAN, but you knowā¦
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I suppose the off key aspect of the singing is very Klingonā¦
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Full nerd is the only way to go.
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Are you a lawyer?
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We know what Gene Roddenberry said.
He said, āI wonder how much I can steal from Forbidden Planet without getting sued?ā
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In addition to using obvious Star Trek aliens, they even had a character from the show Enterprise, played by the actor who played him on the show (Ambassador Soval), reprising his role. They mention the UFP, they mention Romulans and Vulcans, etc. There may be others, Iām not completely familiar.
Now, they are not the only ones to do this (fan productions have cast everyone from Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig to Tim Russ). And this is not why Paramount has chosen to target Axanar. But itās pretty ludicrous to claim that Axanar isnāt 100% in Star Trekās IP. Theyāre using the same characters played by the same actors!
So why was Axanar targeted and not Star Trek Continues or Star Trek Phase 2 etc? Because they used the Kick-started funds to attempt to build a long lasting movie studio business instead of merely making the single film. Like Wil said, they are absolutely acting in bad faith. And they are absolutely in Star Trekās world.
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