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.

  • Value Subtracted@startrek.websiteM
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • skellener@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • AzPsycho@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • Elbrar@pawb.social
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      1 year ago

      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.

  • const void*@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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!

    • hot_guava@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • Underwaterbob@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        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.

      • beefcat@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

  • akhenaten0@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • Riker_Maneuver@startrek.website
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      1 year ago

      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.

    • Michael Gemar@mstdn.ca
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      1 year ago

      @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.

  • oDDmON@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • Riker_Maneuver@startrek.website
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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 🤷‍♂️.

  • angstrom@startrek.website
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • TootSweet@latte.isnot.coffee
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    1 year ago

    If Trek goes dark, that’ll just be a good excuse to watch all of what’s out there now again from the beginning. Or watch more fan-made and non-canon content.

  • gammasfor@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • Nmyownworld@startrek.website
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • transwarp@startrek.website
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • VindictiveJudge@startrek.website
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        1 year ago

        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.

      • regeya@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.