Related: I just spent 2 weeks doing a fanedit of STV. I will die on the hill that the plot is good if you can get around most of the silly humor of Shatner (which obviously I removed), as well as most of the weird shit between Scotty and Uhura.
At the core, it is a sweeping critique of religion and charlatanism. Larry Luckenbill as Sybok is one of the great performances in all of Trekdom.
I haven't figured out distribution yet but you can bet I'll be sharing with the community here (even if only for discussion).
Some of my favorite edits are actually in discussions between Kirk, Spock, and Bones. In one scene Bones has weird jokes that don't really fit the tone of Spock's exposition. It was a challenge to get around them, but I think I did it quite successfully, and it adds some needed gravitas to those portions.
Anyway, yes -- it'll be available somehow.
Hell, I love it even with the silly humour.
Bones' bit with Sybok making him relive his pain is pretty beautiful.
I would love to see what the fan edit looks like. I (re)watched it just last week and the theatrical cut is... a mess, to put it gently. There's almost too much going on, with not enough focus on the elements that make the story tick. But there's lots to work with here that would make a very high-production-value 50 minute Trek episode.
Scotty and Uhura's flirting was cute, but it doesn't go anywhere so it's dead weight film-wise. But without it, the characters have even less to say in an already crowded story. It's just sad.
One moment that stuck out to me was the bar fight. Kirk just tosses a Catian stripper, over his head, into a literal "pool" table and she's rendered dead/unconscious floating face down in the water. Either she has bones like a baby bird or Kirk is on 'roids. I can't make sense of that edit unless there was a longer fight that got chopped down somehow. It makes zero sense.
