Star Trek

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.

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.

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.

Disney will buy them and make crossover shows with Star Wars.

What, that money is already spent. And spent well.

SNW is awesome. I signed up because a friend recommended. Picard was also good, not as accessible as SNW but I enjoy it.

On to discovery next!

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.

The real problem, as I see it, is that P+ has gone out of their way not only to gather all that is Trek under their umbrella, but they’ve gone out of their way to ensure their walled garden is the only place it’s found.

Look to file sharing sites and USENET, where the DMCA has been wielded with gay abandon to decimate access to pirated content. It’s impossible to find full episodes on USENET any more and torrent sites likewise.

What brought ST back in the first place, was syndication. It was cheap enough, every podunk broadcast station could afford to air it, thus creating legions of new fans. This is the exact opposite of what’s happening today.

Sadly, if P+ loses enough to start cancelling production of new content, they’d still be sitting on all the copyrighted IP and something tells me they’d try to squeeze every farthing possible out it via licensing before letting another production company touch it.

At this point, I’m buying DVD box sets, ripping them to my raided NAS, reselling them and saying “Yuck fu!” to the controlling millionaires at Paramount.

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.

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 🤷‍♂️.

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.

Star Trek is going to be perfectly fine for now.

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.

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.

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.

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.