I saw someone on Reddit wondering why the community was so sure of Trek going dark again with Paramount not doing so well financially. Seeing the response was unfortunate as most people feel that it might be a bad time for Trek. And I guess it makes sense with the Hollywood strikes as well.
But I was curious what Lemmy thought. Maybe im in denial too but I’m curious if you guys think the worry is warranted.
Studios are not out of money. They just don’t use it wisely. SNW and Lower Decks both have very strong followings. Most of these studios are realizing they make more money syndicating shows elsewhere rather than siloing them on their own service. I’d expect the return of watching shows in lots of places again rather than one single place. The bigger issue right now is the writers and actors strike. The studios need to pay these people and stop being such misers. These are the main drivers of the shows in addition to the crews. Cut some executive salaries. There are multiple series and movies worth of funds being wasted right there.
I feel like even if paramount/paramount+ falter there will still be a demand. It’s endured for so long and is such a massive IP that it’s not going to go anywhere. It would probably just end up being on another stream service like Netflix or Prime where paramount isn’t footing the whole bill.
personally im okay with this. honestly wouldn’t mind seeing it on Max or Apple TV
SNW and Lower Deck are fucking fantastic. SNW is a true to form traditional Trek show and Lower Decks is funny and diverse enough for those who feel Trek takes itself to seriously.
If Paramount runs afoul of finances I am sure someone will buy the IP rights to at least these. TBH, Strange New Worlds needs to be available on TV and streaming.
I don’t want to see SNW on TV. I don’t think they’ll have to change the content directly, but they’d have to fit to the 42-odd minute runtime. We’ve had several episodes near and over an hour long. It’s very refreshing to see them making episodes as long as they need to be to tell the story.
Even if Paramount+ collapses, “Star Trek” as a franchise will be fine. They’ll just revert to the more traditional model of producing shows and selling them to someone else to distribute.
I’m not sure the currently in-production shows would survive that sort of shift, but the franchise would boldly go on.
I think Star Trek is one of Paramount/CBS’ more bankable franchises so will continue in some form. I think for the moment that will be on streaming. I don’t think the movie format works particularly well given the size and ensemble nature of the cast.
As for the future, Discovery is closing out after S5. Not sure if they will try and spin something out of that. Maybe that rumored Star Fleet Academy series?
SNW will get another couple of seasons with Pike in command. After that I suspect it will continue with Kirk et al. If they are smart they will jump forward to the point just after The Motion Picture and pick up there. That gives them the opportunity to lean into The Motion Picture redesign to make it visually different from SNW and a fairly clear 5-10 years of timeline to fill before the red uniforms and ST:TWOK.
I think having 2-3 shows with 10 episodes a season and a season per year is probably the right balance.
Sometimes I’m surprised I don’t have a Starfleet emblem-shaped knot on my face from banging my head on the desk from frustration with how Star Trek gets treated by those in control of it.
My experience with Star Trek's treatment by TPTB
The Powers That Be (TPTB): TNG was a syndication ratings success. It even beat out some network shows.
Star Trek fans: Yes!
TPTB: DS9 and VOY did well in syndication, too. And, TOS is the Star Trek OG of being well received in syndication.
ST fans: That’s right!
TPTB: ENT did good, as well. Also syndicated.
ST Fans: You bet!
TPTB: But, we weren’t rolling in the dough with Nemesis.
ST Fans: We’re talking about series. That’s a film.
TPTB: Maybe fans are burned out on Star Trek.
ST Fans: Never!
TPTB: We’ll leave the property alone.
ST Fans: unhappy noises
– After the Kelvin films –
TPTB: Hey, there are still fans of Star Trek.
ST Fans: Been here since 1966.
TPTB: Happy 2017! We’ve made a new Star Trek series.
ST Fans: Yay!
TPTB: Syndication of prior Star Trek shows worked out well, so …
ST Fans: yesss
TPTB: … we’re going to shorten what’s a considered a season and gate this new series behind a paywall on a new streaming platform.
ST Fans: Wait, what?
– Later –
TPTB: This streaming thing is working out okay. We’ll make some more Star Trek shows.
ST fans: confetti and cheers
TPTB: But, we aren’t making as much money as we’d like.
ST fans: There’s also syndication. Broadcast TV, and you do own Pluto TV which is making bank.
TPTB: If only there was some way to better monetize the IP.
ST fans: More collectibles, toys, plushies, books, comics, calendars.
TPTB: Yeah, we can’t think of a way.
ST Fans: frustrated sighs
I think Star Trek is not doomed. I think Star Trek will continue, and be awesome. I think waiting on TPTB to figure it out will be frustrating. Until then, I’m going to keep on keeping on with Star Trek.
Neither Voyager nor Enterprise were syndicated - they were UPN shows.
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website @transwarp@startrek.website
You are correct, I am in error. VOY and ENT’s first run was on UPN.
Voyager wasn’t syndicated, it launched UPN, which was Paramount’s hope for Star Trek since the 70s. Then Enterprise rode out the network almost to its dissolution. We wouldn’t have had a project ready to morph into TMP without Phase 2 and the planned and then abandoned network.
It was briefly syndicated, I think; I watched the first season on the local ABC affiliate. In my area a tiny little TV station in the middle of a cornfield got the rights to TNG and I honestly think that’s what kept that station afloat. The affiliates fought over DS9 and VOY. There was a UPN station in my region but it was too week for me to watch it OTA.
Paramount’s real problem is that they can’t run a network to save their lives and keep trying it again and again. Paramount+ is just UPN 2: Streaming Boogaloo.
I really like this take. 🖖
It’s healthier than Babylon 5, which is a much smaller property, under the thumb of more incompetent leadership at Warner/AT&T/HBO/Max, and is still coming out with a Blu-Ray remaster later this year.
Trek is fine. There may be some doldrums, but it’s healthier now than in the post-Nemesis (2002) post-Enterprise (2005) landscape. And even then, it was only four years before Star Trek (2009).
Again, there’s a smaller gap between Enterprise and JJ Abrams than there is between Discovery s.1 (2017) and today. Stay calm.
It’s healthier than Babylon 5, which is a much smaller property, under the thumb of more incompetent leadership at Warner/AT&T/HBO/Max
Man, you weren’t kidding. That’s some special leadership to let one dude keep it down all this time.
@akhenaten0 @startrek I’m old enough to be a TOS fan *prior* to the movies, much less TNG, so a time when there are *multiple* Trek shows on at the same time is mind-blowing. I really don’t think it likely that there’d be no Trek anywhere, at least for long.
I think as long as there is a Paramount+, there will be at least one Star Trek series on the air every year. Whether or not that show will actually be good 🤷♂️.
Tales of Star Treks death are greatly exaggerated
Also to be honest, the Star Trek IP being taken away from Paramount’s dumb decisions could be the best thing to happen to it.
Provided it’s not simply subjected to some other entity’s dumb decisions.
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Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I enjoyed Discovery and hope you do. It took some big swings and not all of them were hits, maybe even a minority of them were, but I respect the desire to do something new and push the franchise forward and it has some legitimately good stuff.
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If Paramount collapses Star Trek will get bought by somebody. At this point that would almost certainly improve anything new produced. That said, I think we are at a turning point in TV type media. With the writers strike showing no signs of let up, and Disney, Paramount, Netflix, and I’m sure more streaming services all showing signs of significant difficulties, something big is going to happen.
My hope is that the industry gets together and decides to cut the BS 8 streaming services for random content and change things to be more user friendly. All content on one non-profit service whose income is divided equitably (after running costs deducted) to all content contributing creators based on demand for their supplied material. Something akin to YouTube, but paid with a subscription fee. No selling rights or whatever in that if you want to make money on your show? Publish it to 1stream and get what it earns back at a standard rate / min watched or whatever.
I would probably pay $80/month for 1 service that had everything guaranteed with no problems. Not this subscribe to 1 for 3 months and then another for a month and so on BS.
I would probably pay $80/month for 1 service that had everything guaranteed with no problems.
You’re describing cable, and for years we begged for a la carte options to free us from cable packages. I can’t fathom going back to paying $80/month for a bunch of crap I’ll never watch when I can jump around for a third of that. I’ll never argue that what we have is the best solution, but it’s a damn sight better than where we came from, at least from a consumer perspective. It perhaps peaked when Netflix was the only game in town with both physical and streaming to get me everything I could ever want for $20/month, but 8 streaming services is still better than shelling out for a cable package.
No, Cable is not where I was going with this. Cable is for profit. 1Stream is non-profit. Cable buys rights to display content and charges flat fees/package. 1Stream would be ‘all content media companies want to publish’ with no rights fees etc. You would pay for how much you use the service and media companies would earn based on how much their content gets used. That is not how Cable works at all. Most notably: I’ve said nothing about ads in this mix either although that could be one way for users to pay.
Think YouTube on a grand scheme, but, Steven Spielburg/Paramount Pictures as the CC instead of Pewdiepie
Disney will buy them and make crossover shows with Star Wars.
And Doctor Who
Now that’s wibbly-wobbly!
Wouldn’t most Trek ships and tech be ripped apart with the level of weapon tech in the SW universe?
How do you compare the destructive power of one fantasy laser beam with another?
Besides, even if the Enterprise is outgunned by a Star Destroyer, LaForge will just reroute warp plasma through the main deflector array.
Both franchises are apt to hand-wave science, so who knows? How does a warp drive compare to a hyperdrive? Blasters to phasers? Thermo detonators to photon torpedoes? Star Wars doesn’t seem to have matter/energy manipulation like replicators and transporters, though, so Trek has an edge there.
