Fired ‘Axanar’ director Paul Jenkins tackles societal danger posed by toxic fandom

IN THE MIDST of a defamation lawsuit brought by controversial producer Alec Peters almost a year ago, former Axanar director Paul Jenkins has largely kept silent since he was fired, and while Peters ramped up his public attacks on the well-regarded writer. But with the recent launch of the website, “Into the Wormhole: The Battle for Axanar,” Jenkins hits back, casting his struggle with Peters as a “an incredible journey into the ugly side of fandom,” drawing a “connection between toxic fandom and the increase of intolerance and anger in our society.”

Jenkins granted AxaMonitor a lengthy interview in which he describes Peters’ flawed leadership of the ill-fated fan film as “cult-like,” complete with loyal surrogates doing his bidding by publicly attacking his online critics. Jenkins’ counter suit, and the documentary, are the writer’s response to what Jenkins’ describes as a purposeful assault on his family, bleeding their finances dry as Peters escalates his legal attacks.

EDITED VERSION While the entire interview appears below, an edited, condensed version appears in the AxaMonitor newsletter; all graphics, hyperlinks, subheadings and annotations in both versions were added by AxaMonitor.

DISCLOSURE AxaMonitor editor Carlos Pedraza has served as a consultant to Jenkins’ project, contributing research and documentation.

Q. Why are you making this documentary?

A:  I’ve been working in the entertainment industry for over 30 years and in that time, I felt I had “seen it all,” with regards to fan behavior. I have received death threats for comics I have written. I have seen fans physically attack creators and on at least one occasion I saw a creator get into a fist fight with a fan who had apparently said something particularly unpleasant. I have seen a blogger call into question the parentage of a well-known writer, all because that blogger didn’t like a story the guy had written. And worst of all, that writer, I happen to know, was orphaned at a young age. It’s getting out of control.

We are witnessing a group of very loud, very manipulative people who see an opportunity to control other fans by weaponizing the very things that they love; in other words, we see people who have never created anything of note taking “ownership” of a piece of IP [intellectual property] that they did not create, and stating they are the arbiters and protectors of the franchise. They curry favor with vulnerable fans who may not like the direction a favorite show or film series has taken. And then, they use certain tried and tested techniques to essentially control those fans. It’s one of the oldest and most predictable scams in the book because it creates cultlike conditions; victims are constantly gaslighted, so that they believe they are being persecuted. Then, they are offered “protection” by the very person who is controlling them. As we all know, it is virtually impossible to find a way out of a cult, just as it is impossible to see that you are being sucked into one. You cannot persuade a person they are losing their mind.

On a macro level, Into The Wormhole is a documentary series about that connection between toxic fandom and the increase of intolerance and anger in our society; a problem that is being fomented by demagogues and narcissists. Our series focuses on the roles that social media and disinformation play in the manipulation of certain groups of people. We’ll see how certain vulnerable fan groups have their preexisting cognitive biases weaponized against them by bad actors in the space. On a micro level, we’re going to examine what I believe to be some of the most notorious offenders, beginning with Alec Peters and Axanar.

The first episode, “The Battle for Axanar,” revolves around an infamous Star Trek fan production that my company and I agreed to help after they set up shop in Atlanta, where I live. It is this experience that became the inspiration for the series. We’ll use our experience as a fascinating case study, showing how the Axanar project raised almost $2 million dollars of donor money and yet never delivered what it promised. As Axanar’s issues became clear, I raised a number of concerns; in fact, I raised concerns about the behavior of its “owner,” Alec Peters, all the way down the line.

During my time on Axanar as its director, I witnessed a near constant barrage of online agitation, anger and hatred aimed at anyone who questioned the missing money, or who Peters felt had upset or slighted him. On more than one occasion, I stepped in; I spoke a couple of times publicly about how I sympathized with the frustrated donors, and this put me at odds (although I could not have imagined the extent) with Alec Peters. As the situation worsened, I learned, incredibly, of Peters’ secret Facebook group called the Troll Hunters whose entire existence seemed to revolve around discrediting and attacking detractors of Axanar.

I made it clear I could not continue if these behaviors did not stop, and this, I feel, put Peters in a difficult position because it was now clear my company and I had witnessed a lot of things that he would have preferred we did not see. When we objected to a particularly egregious violation of normal protocols, Peters fired us from the project, made the spurious claim that I had ”done no work,” and almost immediately threatened to sue us if we did not sign a separation agreement he had concocted. And so, we’re going to follow the path of this particular lawsuit and, I suppose, show the hell I have to deal with as we embark on this awful rollercoaster ride. We’ll ask the question, “How much damage can one fan do?” The answer, I think, will upset and potentially overwhelm a lot of people. There are quite a few impactful revelations in our documentary that will surprise even those who thought they knew how bad it could be.  

Q. Exactly what is Alec Peters suing you for?

A: It’s difficult to say for certain. I mean the documentary is about the phenomenon of toxic fandom, of course, and the lawsuit is just one aspect of what we’ll cover. While the suit itself states “defamation,” it has been amended not one, not two, but three times. This is a familiar pattern for those who have been sued by this person – the constant obfuscation and the moving of goalposts seems to be a tactic intended to overwhelm his targets. Peters has been very vocal about wanting to secure the copyright I own in my own derivative work from the project. He has stated on many occasions that he is suing because I “filed a fraudulent copyright.” He has said on his ubiquitous live streams that my filing is defamatory by nature. Now, any objection to my copyright would only be a matter for a federal court, and would really only be something that would be challenged at the US Copyright office, right? It’s not a matter for the Forsyth County courts, but that did not seem to make any difference to Alec Peters. He sued me and my company for defamation. But I think it’s most useful to understand context: I have never, ever said a single word up to this point – it seems a stretch to sue a person for defamation when they have said a grand total of zero words publicly.

It’s also worth noting that Peters originally sued me and my company, META Studios. Yet he has barely mentioned META because this is all about me; it’s a personal issue, clearly. In fact, Peters failed to even follow through with serving META because that was hardly his focus. It’s all about me, and that seems to follow a very familiar pattern if one considers his multiple vexatious lawsuits filed over the years against people he feels have slighted him. Alec Peters is not permitted to file for any copyright in this work thanks to his settlement agreement with CBS/Viacom. He is well aware of this, and since I am able to file my copyright, it essentially renders him unable to actually challenge my copyright or claim any of his own. This appears to be personal, whether I am a participant in any public exchange or not.  

Q. What can Alec Peters possibly hope to gain from suing you?

A: I think it is quite clear from his public statements that he intends to secure the copyright in my written work, and therefore secure the ability to use the material I directed during my time on Axanar. However, as much as this may appear to be about some legal issue or other, I believe it is fully centered around issues of anger, mental health challenges, and the desperate need to dominate others.

That is really what I have come to discover as I have researched this documentary: perhaps 5 percent of the issue in the toxic fandom arena pertains to money. In my opinion, this is about issues of control, narcissism, and a desire to “be” somebody important without actually doing the work necessary to become that person. I believe Alec Peters would be diagnosed by a mental health professional as suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and this is at the heart of almost every one of the myriad issues he surrounds himself with.  

Q. You are countersuing Alec Peters. What are you alleging in your countersuit?

A: I’d like to be clear about something first: I had no intention whatsoever to be in a lawsuit with Peters. Yet he sued me and my company anyway, despite there being absolutely no merit to his case. We had initially spoken to him about removing my likeness from his webpage, but he simply would not do it, no matter how many times we requested it. This followed a pattern similar to his issue with Gary Graham, who left Axanar many months before his departure was acknowledged. At a certain point, this became ridiculous – we were being asked repeatedly if we had left the production because, as it turned out, Peters was going on his live streams virtually every evening and throwing us under the bus. Everyone, it seemed, knew that we were no longer working on Axanar. So, we issued a simple statement regarding our leaving. One aspect of our countersuit deals with that continued misuse of my likeness and brand to raise money.

Then, there is the constant defamation. I think it is pretty clear from simply watching his streams that Peters has simply decided to abandon reason with regards to his defamatory statements about me. The thing that makes this so frustrating – and yet so familiar to us as we go about our lives – is how easily disprovable his various claims are.

For example, Peters claims that I “did no work” on Axanar’s post production, which conveniently ignores the fact that he had no post supervisor, no money, his editor had quit, and there is a giant trail of emails that demonstrates I did all work required for the trailer. The defamation is just incessant – it never, ever stops. It escalates, it seems, depending on Peters’ mood. And that makes sense, I suppose, when you examine the psychology underlying all of this. But it hardly excuses the behavior.

Thirdly, there is the issue of fraud. During META’s time on Axanar we asked frequently about the terms of the CBS settlement agreement. We were told we could not examine it because of “legal” issues, and issues of non-disclosure. This was very worrying, as you might imagine. Alec Peters repeatedly told us that he was complying with the settlement terms.

But once we were able to acquire a copy of the settlement, it was abundantly clear that his statements were not true.

• Peters is not permitted to use the Axanar logo under any circumstances.
• He is not permitted to pay most people to work on his fan film.
• He cannot sell Star Trek merchandise. And the list goes on.

Alec Peters violates the terms of his agreement on a daily basis, and by lying to us he essentially exposed us to the wrath of CBS. This affects us in a couple of ways: I happen to actually work in the entertainment business and my work across multiple media brings me in contact with any number of corporations like CBS/Viacom. I have absolutely no desire to burn any bridge and will never know if any bridges have been unwittingly burned. This is extremely difficult to accept — Peters’ cavalier regard for the truth in this matter might have damaged relationships irreparably.

See also: CBS-Axanar Settlement Agreement

Finally – and I believe most importantly – we are countersuing Alec Peters for his constant vexatious litigation. It is something he brags about frequently. He likes to be in lawsuits. He brags about being in four or five at a time, and crows about his perceived “wins,” real or otherwise. Just his tactics alone in this lawsuit are beyond the pale; it remains a barrage of deceitful and disingenuous maneuvers aimed in our direction. The goal, as Peters has bragged repeatedly in many of his past live streams, is to obfuscate, agitate and cost your legal opponents as much money as possible. The tactic is clearly to wear opponents down, to cost them so much money that they give up. Peters has been very vocal about this as well.

One might ask, “Why take this approach when the truth is so obviously provable?” Well, this seems to follow a familiar pattern, one that Peters brags about on his livestreams. He states that discovery is particularly invasive and has frequently expressed satisfaction publicly about the pain his numerous lawsuits have inflicted on others. I do not believe his goal is to get to any courtroom, it is to force a settlement by means of vexatious litigation.  

Q. What has defending yourself against Alec Peters lawsuit cost?

A: I would rather not say the dollar amount. It is just an awful, atrocious amount of wasted money that might have you asking the question, “Why bother?” Well, a couple of things on that:

• I did not sue Alec Peters. He sued me. And then, he attempted to have me and my company sign a ridiculous, one-sided separation agreement that would have presumably protected him had we chosen to talk publicly about our time on Axanar. Frankly, we would have chosen to say nothing anyway. But once it happened, I realized I had a choice: so many people have been hurt by this person that I felt it just absolutely, fundamentally had to come to a stop.
• For better or worse, I decided that I would try to put an end to this toxic, horrific behavior. If not me, then who would do so? And as we have gone about researching the documentary, I now realize I made the right decision. I have no doubt whatsoever that there is a long line of future victims, some of whom Peters brags about suing when he can. He has threatened to sue and hurt so many people that it boggles the mind, from people at the Axamonitor site to his former partners in a coffee shop, to [former Axanar director] Robert Burnett (again)… the list just goes on.

Added to that, he has actually hurt a number of people via his vexatious lawsuits, and even more people who are owed money via various judgements against him that he has not paid. A recent victim of his vexatious litigation had to file personal bankruptcy. This has extreme consequences. I sometimes wonder if Alec Peters’ supporters ever realize that his victims have families, have lives and children and businesses that employ innocent people. It would be tough to accept that the person you are so deeply entrenched with might be the very monster they have led you to be afraid of, but it’s something that really needs to be addressed. Many of the people unable to exit Axanar’s erratic orbit are also victims, as unpopular as that opinion may be.

Now, added to that is one very personal aspect that has really affected my family and I for some time. I am a married man with two young children. All I ever did was help Peters move his project forward, and all of this work was volunteered and unpaid. I can’t help but think of the next unsuspecting person with a couple of kids who finds themselves in the firing line. Am I supposed to just step back and watch as the next victim comes under attack? I just don’t think I could do that… but that is not where this story ends.

My wife, Melinda, has dealt with a pain condition called trigeminal neuralgia for many years. When I started with Axanar, she had to have brain surgery, and Peters knows just how much she endured. He knows that I was essentially a caregiver for a few months, and I believe he has delighted in knowing this situation has caused so much pain to my family and I. He made a statement that was clearly aimed at my wife, once his lawsuit was in motion. It seems almost unbelievable that anyone but a sadist would delight in the pain of another, but Peters frequently brags about the harm he causes to others.

He delighted in suing Tiana Armstrong, a props dealer. He brags about making money from settlements. My wife may be an elementary school teacher, but she is a tough person. She loathes bullies as much as I do, and so with her blessing, and knowing the physical pain stress causes her, I chose to stare the bully down.

I believe I am obliged to take this on. If I don’t, a whole group of people are in the firing line. As I have told a couple of them, “Don’t exhale because you are next.” And the worst part of it is that they agree. This is the most amazing, most awful situation that I have ever encountered in my life. It seems the U.S. justice system is set up for vexatious litigants to ply their trade. If not me, then whom? If not now, then when? This won’t stop unless someone actually sees it through. So, like it or not, I guess I am the poor bastard who has chosen to face down the bully.   

Q. What do you hope to accomplish with the documentary?

A: It really has three goals. The first is to shine a light on the terrible reality that bullies, narcissists and bad actors are not particularly losing – they are quite often winning. They hurt others as a matter of course. They are empowered by their successes, and the rise of the internet has given them new power. We can literally draw a straight line from the Capitol invasion and Q Anon to demagogues and fascists in one direction and cult leaders and toxic fan leaders in the other. Let’s remember, “fan” is short for fanatic.

Secondly, the “Battle for Axanar” episode of the documentary series acts as a way to look at one particularly outrageous example of this phenomenon. It looks deeply into the history of one such fan endeavor, Axanar, using it as a case study, a cautionary tale. We’ll show a timeline that demonstrates not just what happened when Axanar was funded to the tune of almost $2 million, but also exactly who was walking through the door to be in receipt of that money.

The groundwork had been laid years before in the props industry, which is extremely fascinating and slightly horrifying. When I started researching this work, I had absolutely no idea of the vast amount of evidence we would uncover. As I stated above, I think our audience will barely be able to accept the sheer weight of evidence, the depth of the ongoing antagonism, the cultlike behaviors, and most importantly the fact that this has occurred for so long. As I found myself being pulled into these wormholes, I was hit by revelation after revelation. I sometimes had to pinch myself that this was really as bad as it seemed.

And, I suppose, that is the third part of our story. It’s the story of a creator who finally decided to take a stand. The documentary will follow the twists and turns of the lawsuit we’re wading through. For better or worse, we will turn the camera back and show the hell I have to deal with as this unfolds. I wish I didn’t have to, but it is a vital part of this story.  

Q. Alec Peters has previously sued other people on legally flimsy grounds. For example:

• Suing Rob Burnett in Georgia, after accusing him of theft, when as a so-called “lawyer by training” he must have known Georgia has no jurisdiction over Burnett, a California resident.
• Suing blogger Jason DeBord for defamation after exposing Peters’ shady practices in the prop business, then having the case thrown out by a judge who found it meritless, and a naked attempt to silence a vocal critic using litigation.

Do you see Peters following the same pattern here against you?

A: Yes, this is a pattern of behavior that seems without end. But if it does not end here, then I fear it will not end at all and many more people are going to be hurt. However, let’s clarify what you ask above in your question and put it into context based on our research.

In fact, Alec Peters first tried to sue Rob Burnett in California. But when Peters’ California based attorney was presented with certain evidence that showed he had no case, that attorney dropped the lawsuit. Knowing this, Alec Peters unbelievably sued Robert Burnett in Georgia knowing that it was the incorrect jurisdiction. In fact, Rob Burnett has never even visited the state. That lawsuit cost Rob over $30,000 and Peters has appeared on his live stream and stated how satisfied he was that so much harm was done.

He made a similar statement about Tiana Armstrong, and a similar statement about the cost to Jason DeBord, a props blogger who had the temerity to question Alec Peters’ suspect shipping practices. All of this evidence has gone to our lawyers because the one thing Peters seems unable to do is stop bragging about it on his ubiquitous livestreams. I mean he is by far the best witness we could ever hope for. Is it any wonder why so many people are simply terrified of this person?

Now, consider what happened in the case of Jason DeBord. In a nutshell, Peters was hit with a SLAPP violation ¹⁾ and ordered to pay Jason’s court costs and attorneys’ fees. To date, those fees have not been paid, as far as we are able to tell. And that is yet another incredible aspect to this story: No matter the outcomes, there seems to be no consequence for the continuation of the behavior. That is the primary desired outcome of this episode of the documentary — that we expose the behavior once and for all and put a stop to it before others are victimized.  

Q. Alec Peters’ legal filings have been remarkably free of any evidence supporting his allegations against you. What evidence have you found, and actually presented to the court, in your counterclaim against him?

A: I think the best way to answer that is to simply point you to the incessant livestreams and Facebook posts coming from Alec Peters’ direction. Incredibly, the evidence against Peters is mostly provided by him. It does not exactly take a rocket scientist to screencap a clearly disprovable statement or transcribe something Peters says on his YouTube channel. Given the psychological component of this, there seems to be almost a compulsion to self-sabotage. At the very least, there is a profound lack of impulse control that essentially lines up all the evidence that might ever be needed.  

Q. How are the documentary and the lawsuit related?

A: As I stated above, the documentary is going to follow the lawsuit every step of the way. It’s a daunting task because I have a responsibility to my family and I didn’t particularly feel like making myself the subject of a documentary. I have other things to do with my life. At the same time, I feel a weight of responsibility to protect any future victim. This absolutely has to stop, and I am hopeful that the lawsuit is the tool by which this will finally happen.

We all know that vexatious litigants — people who cause trouble and seek unwarranted settlements — are often rewarded in exchange for going away. It’s something that our society has to reckon with, and I hope our project will have some impact on society, as a good documentary always should. This pain, anger, bullying and sheer hatred within the fan community has gone on for far too long. The lawsuit and documentary together will hopefully demonstrate exactly what has been going on for so many years, from Alec Peters’ days in the props business to the heady days of raising almost $2 million for a fan film that was, of course, never delivered.  

Q. What do you believe elevates the documentary to something the general public might want to support, over and above being a private dispute between you and Alec Peters?

A: I think that is an excellent question and I’m glad you asked it. It’s important to me that people realize the legal dispute with Alec Peters was essentially the catalyst that persuaded me to look deeper into this issue. I could have walked away from the lawsuit simply by agreeing to sign Alec Peters’ ridiculous settlement agreement in return for him dropping his meritless lawsuit. Instead, I chose to stand up to him. That is why the suit and the documentary are in many ways intertwined.

In fact, let’s look more closely at the assumptions made: for a person like Peters it is vital that this be seen as some kind of personal conflict. This allows the bad actor to create a false equivalency: “There are two sides to every story and so if I am in a dispute with Paul Jenkins, or Christian Gossett, or Rob Burnett, then they must have been at fault too.” In other words, it provides a platform for an amoral person to explain away their actions to anyone willing to listen with a fair and impartial attitude. But hey… there are not two sides to a drive-by shooting. There is an aggressor and a victim. What we’re going to show is how certain aggressors use our biases against us. They capitalize on our sense of fair play; they are extremely aggressive with their approach, often repeating false statements over and over again so that we can’t help but entertain their blatant, disprovable falsehoods.

Luckily, there’s one obvious way in which we can provide a level playing field: these people leave a trail that is not too hard to follow. Want to learn about Alec Peters? Take a look at his Facebook page, and especially at his YouTube streams. As I suggest in our "ask" video on the website, look at how many times he says the word, “hate.” Look at the screaming and the posturing. Look at what people say about him. Look at his history across many, many years.

Now contrast that with my Facebook page or Twitter feed. I probably have a lot of posts about my wife and my kids. I probably repost a lot of funny images and stupid jokes. Does that prove anything? Hmm… maybe, maybe not. But once you take the time to look at the totality of it all, how people perceive me and how they perceive Peters you’ll probably know all that you need to know. Do I have a secret Facebook group dedicated to discrediting my detractors? Nope. I have a cat.

Now, what’s interesting — and we’ll cover this as well in the documentary — is the narcissist’s panicky need to seem normal, if not benign. Peters is a “dog rescuer” who makes it a point to tell everyone all the time that he is so.  Again, who do we put stock in: the person who signals their virtuous deeds every five minutes or the person who quietly goes about being halfway decent to others?

So, to fairly answer the question: the documentary uses Alec Peters and Axanar as a compelling case study. Honestly, it is a fascinating story, one that actually affects us all. It is a cautionary tale that reminds us we must all come together. For many years I have tried to sit in between warring factions. I wish people could listen to each other, could recognize the cognitive dissonance tearing their brains apart and find a way to respect and accept our differences. We cannot allow these people to tear us apart.  

Q. Over the seven years of the Axanar project — all without the film ever being produced — Alec Peters has lost three directors, most of his lead actors and most of the original crew from “Prelude to Axanar.” How many of those people will be part of your documentary?

A: Enough of them to make the obvious point that the antagonism, anger, hatred and dishonesty tends to come from one particular person. :)  

Q. You have stated you originally joined Axanar based on the quality of “Prelude to Axanar,” and the desire to finally give supporters what they had paid for, an Axanar film. At what point did you come to believe that wasn’t Alec Peters’ agenda at all? And how did you react to the realization?

A: There was, I suppose, a moment when we began to realize this was not going to go well. Sometime in June or July of 2019 — a few months before our first shoot in October of that year — I sat with Alec Peters and our two producers, Scott Conley and Chris Mills. The objective of the meeting was to go over the budget (and in part to make sure the money was in place for the shoot).

Now, we knew Peters was inexperienced and lacked an understanding of how a production might work. As we went over the various costs, the two producers tried to carefully explain where money might be needed. The shoot itself already felt excessive. There was no requirement for any “action” sequence in the two 15-minute permitted sequences, yet Peters had recently added these. As the director, I told him that this material wasn’t going to be used in the end because it could not be fictionally justified; this was a documentary, so those scenes at best would have been “dramatic recreations.”

Peters wanted them so that he could raise more money with them, and to this day I wish we had objected more strenuously. He was using donor money to raise donor money, and we just didn’t put two and two together.

Whatever the case, at one point Peters stated he wanted an “Efrosian” character in the scenes and this, along with various other useless additions, was really adding to the budget. We reckoned he was unnecessarily adding about $12,000-13,000 to a budget that was already way too big because of the unnecessary action scenes, and so we advised him accordingly. But he was adamant that the money was in the bank and this was what he wanted.

I remember clearly the moment Peters simply turned this fact on its head and began to claim that it was the other people in the room who added to the budget. I mean there were four people in that room and three of us know exactly what happened and how it happened. And yet here he was, claiming something that just was not true. Over time, it was easy to see where reality was simply optional. If you tell enough lies, people will obviously believe some of them just by law of averages.

Q. You have already raised close to 50 percent of the budget for the documentary — more than Alec Peters has raised for the two still-unproduced Axanar short films. Why do you believe people are willing to finance the documentary?

A: Look, I really only have one answer to that (apart from the expectation that they will see a fascinating story unfold): I truly believe it is time for this insanity to end. I need help to do it, to finish the documentary and force Alec Peters into a courtroom at the end of it, because he is most certainly aiming for some kind of settlement.

The entrance to this particular wormhole is strewn with the floating bodies of those who came before me, and I hope those who are sick and tired of the hell being thrust upon us by bullies and agitators will realize it’s time to come together. I took this burden on because I wanted to make a difference and I fundamentally wanted to prevent anyone else from getting hurt. It’s not going to end unless the documentary series shines a light on the toxic behavior that’s tearing us all apart.

Lies should not be an option. Hate should not be an option. Bullying should not be an option. So, this is our chance to remember we all have families, we share a love for things like Star Trek or, say, the Cleveland Browns, or video games. These people should not have power over the things we love because they extend it to having power over our lives and the people we love. Let’s come together and put a stop to it.  

Q. The documentary’s website projects Alec Peters’ taking advantage of so-called toxic fandom against a backdrop of some bigger problems in society right now. How are they related?

A: As I stated above, I think it’s possible to see the techniques that have led to Q Anon and the Capitol invasion are the same as those that lead to the establishment of cults and the manipulation of vulnerable fans. We’re going to open the playbook, play-by-play, and show how it is being done. It is at times fascinating and frightening. We should all be aware of what is being done all around us.  

Q. What’s the endgame for you? Peters famously taunts potential litigants by claiming he has no money to pay damages that any court might award. What can you hope to gain here?

A: I hope that those who have been made victims may get some small sense of satisfaction that this documentary will shine a light on the behavior that has hurt them; that they can get a small sense of connection and closure. More importantly, I want to help close off these loopholes, to cut off the source of people who have no idea that they are about to victimized by this behavior.

And in a perfect world I would hope this documentary will expose the absolute insanity of the U.S. legal system that allows bad actors to exploit those who have no idea they are about to be hit with a drive-by lawsuit.  

Q. Do you believe Axanar will ever be made?

A: I cannot say for sure. But I believe that is not the goal of Alec Peters. If it were, there have been plenty of chances for it to be completed.  

Q. Is Alec Peters dangerous?

A: That’s a question that I think people will be able to answer for themselves. I’ll tell you what is truly dangerous: our inaction. If we let this continue to happen, those responsible are emboldened. In our ask video I paraphrased John Stuart Mill, who first put forth the concept that the only thing necessary for the advancement of evil was for good men to stand by and do nothing. The danger is that we do nothing.  

Q. What has surprised you the most about this experience with Alec Peters and Axanar?

A: I suppose there are “one and a half” surprises. I am half surprised by the level of sheer cruelty that seems so prevalent in some of these online groups and fan forums. The constant gaslighting, the hatred spewed with no fear of repercussion, the anger aimed at random people, or people who are perceived to be enemies. It has genuinely surprised me to research all of the root causes and find that, to some extent, one of the root causes is the weakness of the human spirit. It’s very disturbing and disappointing.

But what really surprised me was being in an environment where one faction was either blatantly lying or twisting themselves into a logical pretzel so that they could believe the lies. Let me explain why this is so concerning and frustrating: I am a person who wants to be relatively measured in how I see people. I live outside of politics, or fandom, or tribalism, for the most part. And I like fairness and impartiality. I have begun to see how that can be weaponized against me. 

I don’t like hearing someone described as a “liar” because that almost always seems like hyperbole. But what if someone is a malicious, pathological liar who counts on my sense of fairness to get away with some of their lies? What if there are career liars and narcissists among us who exploit our kindness as a weakness? Just realizing that we are all being pulled apart by these people — whether we care to admit it or not — is really shocking. I hope this documentary series will give us all a modicum of understanding and a chance to protect ourselves and each other.

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