- Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country (Main Bridge)
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Main Engineering)
- Star Trek: The Next Generation (Corridors)
- Star Trek: Voyager (Corridors)
- Star Trek: Enterprise, "In a Mirror, Darkly" (TOS Style Main Bridge)
- Stage 9 Roof in "These Are The Voyages..."
The Stage 9 project was a fan project aiming to faithfully recreate the NCC-1701-D's many rooms and corridors. In the latest version that was available for download, players can visit places like the Main Bridge, Picard's Ready Room, Phaser Range, and the never before seen Main Shuttlebay. Players also had an opportunity to fly shuttlepods and Runabouts around the Enterprise-D, as well as fly the Enterprise herself.
The project quickly gained momentum as one of the primary goals of the project was to bring the Enterprise-D to VR. Over the project's 2 year lifespan, more and more features were added as the developers streamed Q&A sessions over YouTube, and held AMA (Ask me Anything) sessions on the project's subreddit. The developers had many interviews with online news outlets, causing the project to gain more traction and gather more attention.
The type of attention the project finally gained in the end was the wrong type of attention. CBS' legal team quickly sent a formal Cease and Desist order to Stage 9's lead developer. This resulted in the project's website being replaced with a simple "Live Long and Prosper" note. The project's subreddit and Discord server were locked down, and all of the videos were removed from their YouTube channel.
Not much was known at the very beginning when all of that happened. There were wild speculations that the team had indeed received a Cease and Desist notice, but nothing was being confirmed. After weeks of waiting, the lead developer (Scragnog) had this to say:
CBS does have policy, or guidelines, or works derived from their Intellectual Property (IP). Among the guidelines are the following:
- 1. The title of the fan production or any parts cannot include the name “Star Trek.” However, the title must contain a subtitle with the phrase: “A STAR TREK FAN PRODUCTION” in plain typeface. The fan production cannot use the term “official” in either its title or subtitle or in any marketing, promotions or social media for the fan production.
- 2. The content in the fan production must be original, not reproductions, recreations or clips from any Star Trek production. If non-Star Trek third party content is used, all necessary permissions for any third party content should be obtained in writing.
Do I agree with the way CBS chose to handle this matter? No, but I see their point.
Plans are currently in the works to use the existing engine created for Stage 9 to come up with something completely original.
There is speculation among the community that the Cease and Desist was issued because the Stage 9 project, which included VR, was direct competition to Bridge Crew. Especially since Bridge Crew had an Enterprise-D bridge included.
The community surrounding Stage 9 has been extremely supportive throughout this entire ordeal. Some fans have offered to provide funds for a legal team to challenge CBS' reach in this regard. However, only time will tell with CBS will negotiate an agreement with Stage 9. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem likely at this point.
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WRITTEN BY Elnian
EDITED BY Infinity (Lewis Holt)