Prelude to Axanar 2014

The film unfolds as a single episode of a Federation documentary about a “Four Years War” with the Klingon Empire. Narrated by the fictional historian John Gill (who appeared in Patterns of Force) and featuring interviews from participants on both sides, the events depicted reportedly precede Star Trek: The Original Series by two decades. It opens with the opening battle at Arcanis IV, a flourishing Federation colony along the Klingon border. The Klingons, who did not consider the Federation a worthy adversary, seize the initiative during the first six months of the war, led by their supreme commander, General Kharn, Richard Hatch. The Vulcan diplomatic delegation under Ambassador Soval, Gary Graham, overseeing negotiations with the Klingons, is left with little room to maneuver.

In response to the losses suffered in the war, Starfleet appoints a new Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Marcus Ramirez, Tony Todd, who pledges in a fleet-wide broadcast to defend “the dream of the Federation” against the Klingons’ stated aim to destroy it. Ramirez oversees the creation of the Ares-class cruisers, Starfleet’s first real warships, designed to counter the Klingons’ mainstay, the D6 battlecruiser. The arrival of the Ares turns the tide and makes Starfleet a more formidable opponent, drawing particular attention to Garth of Izar, Alec Peters, the captain of the prototype USS Ares.

To counter the Ares cruisers, the Klingons order the construction of a newer and more advanced battlecruiser, the D7, hoping to restore their edge. In response, Starfleet begins developing its own next-generation heavy cruiser, the Constitution-class, but construction falls behind schedule. To gain more time to finish their new ship, Starfleet approves a plan proposed by Garth to fight the Klingons at Axanar, the planet where Kharn’s spies have reported that the Constitution prototypes (revealed to be the Constitution and the Enterprise) are being built. The narrative concludes shortly before the battle at Axanar, when the first three D7s enter the war, leaving the audience to wonder what actually happened in the clash itself.