We are starting to get a better sense of what 2022 (and 2023) are going to look like in terms of Star Trek on Paramount+ with the announcement of a number of season orders and premiere dates, both for new shows and new seasons.
Discovery, Strange New Worlds, and Lower Decks get more seasons
The fourth season of Star Trek: Discovery is set to come back from hiatus on February 10th, and now Paramount+ has officially announced a fifth season for the series, which will comprise 10-episodes, bringing it in line with all the other Star Trek Universe shows. No word yet on when the fifth season will go into production or premiere. While it doesn’t come as a surprise as Discovery remains the most streamed original series on Paramount+, fans were eagerly awaiting the news.
Paramount+ also announced a couple of other exciting, yet expected, renewals: They have picked up a second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the upcoming new series starring Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike. Earlier reporting indicated that the season could go into production in February in Toronto, Canada. And finally, Star Trek: Lower Decks has been renewed for a fourth 10-episode season.
Paramount+ had previously announced a third season of Picard and a second season (with 20 more episodes) of Prodigy, so now we know that all five current Star Trek series have more seasons to come.
Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham
2022 Release Schedule – Year Round Star Trek
Currently, Paramount+ has three episodes left in the first half of season one of Prodigy, with the 10th episode arriving on February 3rd. That will be followed up by the fourth season of Discovery, which returns from hiatus with six more episodes, starting on February 10 and wrapping up on March 17th.
Today Paramount+ also announced premiere dates for upcoming seasons:
- Star Trek: Picard season two will premiere on March 3; new episodes of the 10-episode season will drop each Thursday.
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season one will premiere on May 5; new episodes of the 10-episode season will drop each Thursday.
- Star Trek: Lower Decks season three will premiere this summer with a 10-episode season.
- Star Trek: Prodigy season one (part two) will be available later in 2022 with 10 more episodes.
There will be some overlap with the final three episodes of Discovery season four arriving the same day as the first three episodes of Picard season two. And assuming no more hiatuses in 2022, the Picard season two finale falls on the same day as the Strange New Worlds premiere. And as the previous two seasons of Lower Decks debuted in August, so August 2022 would be a reasonable guess for season three.
Doing the math, it looks like 2022 could have up to 51 total episodes of Star Trek (if all 10 of the second half of Prodigy’s first season arrive in 2022). This makes 2022 the first year fulfilling the stated goal of year-round Star Trek on Paramount+. And 2023 could be even bigger, with orders for additional seasons of all five series.
We are still waiting to get a release date for the 4K/UHD remastered Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition, which will debut on Paramount+ this year.
Note: above dates are for Paramount+ in the USA. We will provide updates regarding international release dates as that info becomes available.
Anson Mount as Captain Pike in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Kurtzman promises more to come
In a statement, Alex Kurtzman, the executive producer in charge of Star Trek, talked about the state and future of the Trek franchise:
“Four years ago, we made a promise to grow ‘Star Trek’ into something it had never been before, and thanks to the incredibly hard work done by our many talented showrunners, writers, and directors, along with the extraordinary support of CBS Studios and Paramount+, we’re keeping our word. Now our current shows are set up for the future as we work to build ‘Trek’s’ next phase of programming for years to come.”
Kurtzman’s comment about the “next phase” of Star Trek is intriguing. Looking forward to 2023 and beyond it is likely that some of the current five series will wrap up, opening up the possibility for new shows in this new phase. Kurtzman has previously spoken about development on a Section 31 series as well as an Academy series. There are likely other shows being considered as well.
It’s also possible that ViacomCBS will try to bring the television and film franchises into alignment, starting with the planned release of a new Star Trek movie set for the 2023 holiday season.
Alex Kurzman (CBS Studios)
UPDATE: Announcement posters
Paramount+ released some new posters in honor of the various announcements on social media. There is one for each show. (click on below images to enlarge)
Keep up with the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
Oh, that’s it, Kurtzman is TOOOOOTALY getting fired now!
Bitter vocal fans who can’t move on aside, looks like the franchise is healthy.
I’d say the franchise is alive. Healthy? That’s debatable looking at the quality of the franchise so far.
I knew some lonely buzzkill would gripe at me.
You must be fun at parties.
Just prefer you whine at someone else. Please and thank you.
Same.
For real, for real this time. CBS really, really…..really means it. Clear out your desk, buddy.
Wasn’t he supposed to be fired two years ago?
He’s fired twice a year! It’s a new Star Trek tradition!
Kurtzman is fired once a month. It’s a regularly scheduled thing over at Paramount.
And I guess each time they rehire him with an even higher salary.
“Kurtzman is fired once a month.”
Nah… It happens every episode. It’s just like South Park’s Kenny…
“Oh my god… They fired Kurtzman! You b…!”
A tip o’ the hat to the king of replies!!
Yup. Bit the dust this time. For sure.
The same people who claim Kathleen Kennedy is getting fired every other week, that their is a civil war within Lucasfilm. Claimed there was a Lucas cut of Rise of Skywalker. That every Star Trek post 2005 had to be 25% different for legal reasons. You mean those youtube people. Who do it for clicks.
Glad to see all Star Trek shows being renewed, especially Strange New Worlds where I’m looking forward to its premiere in May.
Absolutely none of this is a surprise but it’s still very exciting!
As someone who DOES like Kurtzman and excited for most of the shows this is great news. We’re finally boldly going in ways I been wanting to see for decades now. I think both PRO and LDS are on fire! Discovery is finally hitting its stride in the 32nd century and Picard has amazing potential for its second season with not only the return of Q which will make huge waves in the fandom, but also a new show runner. And finally SNW can be the most traditional Star Trek show we had in a long time set aboard the original NCC 1701.
The fact ALL these shows are renewed, most before their newer season even airs, either tells you the confidence they have in all of them or that they know how important it is to build out their library for future Trek fans to come. Probably both.
But man, I’m here for ALL of it!!!!! It’s a great time to be a Star Trek fan! :)
It’s not just confidence, the expenditures are diving eyes to the P+ service. I’d be surprised if we don’t get an announcement sometime this year that a feature length Trek will go straight to streaming. When you look at the business Spider-Man did, what the studios saw was that virtually every other movies that came out against it got crushed. In the ongoing Covid environment, franchisee like Trek will go where there’s the best likelihood of a ROI. Into the near future, that’s streaming.
Is it, though? HBO Max seems to have had a lot of success via Warner Bros. going theatrical/streaming in tandem. Boosted a lot of awareness for the HBO Max service. Paramount in theory could do the same; if they had a roster of upcoming films even half as good as WB’s, at least, and as of now they certainly do not.
Plus, as long as there are movies out there that can still do Spider-Man type business in theatres, the other studios are going to chase that success. The trick is to come up with an idea as good as that one. Not sure there is one in Trek, but you never know.
No I think you can still make Star Trek films for theaters too, but just not expect them to compete with the Spider-Mans of the world either. I think that’s what Phil is saying, instead of trying to make a billion dollar Star Trek movie, we have all to face reality it’s a middle-tier franchise and treat it as such. And that it’s probably better to make smaller movies for streaming.
They can still have a small life in theaters just not with the large expectations the Kelvin movies came with either. Put them in theaters for a few weeks so the hardcore fans can watch them there but then move them to streaming; basically what Netflix and Amazon does with some of their films. Those movies get a few weeks in the theaters but then moved over to their sites. I think Netflix is probably kicking themselves they didn’t put ‘Don’t Look Up’ in the theaters for a few weeks because it’s apparently their most viewed film of last year.
The so-called next Trek movie will be interesting in so many ways. Will it have a huge budget ($100+ million) and if so will it be given wide distribution like the Kelvin movies? Or will it just end up on P+ a month later? I’m honestly guessing that latter and why I don’t see it being a big movie. Not cheap, just more modest; especially if it’s really meant to promote Paramount+ more than anything.
I don’t see any advantage whatsoever to making Trek films strictly for streaming. Why wouldn’t you make a miniseries, or an ongoing series, instead? You’ll spend the same amount of money, or less, and you’ll get more weeks and therefore more subscription dollars.
Paramount already said they plan to make movies every month in the future for P+, so I suspect that CAN include Star Trek as well. In theory anyway.
And I think this is just par for the course for streaming in general. HBO Max has said they are going to make DC movies just for their site along with shows.
https://www.businessinsider.com/dc-to-release-hbo-max-exclusive-superhero-movies-2020-12
That’s a company that makes literally a billion dollars off of some of their DC movies but they still see an advantage of making smaller movies for the site too.
Don’t get me wrong, I get your point, why spend the money on a 2 hour movie when you can prolong that to a series and keep people on the hook longer? But then you can ask that for every streaming site out there and yet ALL the big ones still produce movies as they do shows. Netflix makes a ridiculous amount of shows but still spend a lot of money on films too like Don’t Look Up. I think the answer is because there are still people out there who may not want to watch endless shows but will spend extra to watch a movie. Yes WE will watch it all obviously, but there will be people out there who will want to watch only a movie ever so often and those are the people streaming sites also gun for.
So if they are already planning to make a movie a month exclusively for the site, then I don’t see why that can’t include a Star Trek film either? Obviously it would be a lower budget one though. And it will build on their library which is probably more important for the future.
But I still think any Star Trek film that gets made will go to the theater first, even if it’s just for 4-6 weeks. I don’t agree completely with Phil and see one being made exclusively for streaming anytime soon…that’s a lot farther down the line IMO. But Phil has been more right about this stuff than I have. ;)
Streaming is just really changing the entire entertainment landscape. It’s no way we would even have 5 Star Trek shows on without it.
WB/HBO is a weird beast. They do way better with their DCAU (cartoon) movies in terms of quality then they did with the Snyder-verse movies. It’s been that way for like ever with the exception of the Nolan movies.
Every streaming service makes feature length movies, they also drive traffic.Trek has all it’s movies available, why would you not want to add content that drives traffic to those legacy movies as well? It may not be the nest example, but Disney bought Lucasfilm because they saw more value in Star Wars then Lucas did. Recall, he seemed very content to just fiddle around remastering what was already in the can.
Yeah exactly. And one of the biggest issues with All Access at the time was their huge lack of a movie library, in both old and original movies. Every other major streaming site had a decent size library and either made their own films (like Netflix and Amazon does) or made exclusive deals for them to be shown on their sites first.
Because while I agree it’s the shows that keep people tied to a site, it’s really the movies that attract a lot of people in the first place. That’s changing more now since every streaming service is now investing in multiple big branded TV shows like Star Trek but films are probably what attract the masses overall to check them out. It’s the big shiny new toy you can get people to sign up for even if its for a 2 hour movie. But movies can still draw people in ways a TV show doesn’t; especially for people who don’t want to devote themselves to watching hours of multiple shows every month.
That’s why they all invest in movies today with even huge companies like Disney and WB not just relying on theater run films like Star Wars and Marvel, but still feel a need to make exclusive films as well for those sites; even if they are smaller budgeted ones.
It just shows how high the competition is to keep eyeballs on these services when you are spending billions on TV shows and films every year.
How many streaming-only Star Wars movies have they made since then?
I take your point, though. We’ll see what happens! I’d be perfectly happy for them to make, say, a Titan movie or something like that and stream it.
Unless they shoot it on existing sets or it’s basically set in a “forest on an alien planet” (that happens to look just like Canada) a budget far below 100 million is probably unrealistic. I mean, they don’t want their movie to look cheaper than the current crop of Trek streaming shows. That means investing in a lot of elaborate sets, props, costumes and probably also a ton of VFX.
As I recall, Bumblebee was made for about 125MM. I’d expect that to be the budget parameters for a potential new Trek feature.
And it was easily the best of the Transformers movies. Yes, that’s an awfully low bar but it was.
I never suggested it would be a cheap film, just a more modest one, especially compared to the last three. I can still see them making a $100 million film and even above that. I always said these movies shouldn’t be anymore than $120-130 million tops. If Beyond was made for that, we probably would’ve had a fourth film years ago already.
But then again, the new G.I. Joe movie only cost Paramount $80 million (and still bombed) so who knows?
Either way, I just think the new movies are now living in a completely new environment today vs when the first Kelvin film arrived. Paramount was desperately trying to make Star Trek a big deal to the masses and that’s all it was at the time in terms of new content. Now we have multiple shows on and streaming is becoming the priority. I think they will make a smaller film and make it more cannon to the shows like the TOS and TNG films to fit in more on P+. That seems more like the future now and a way to get the film franchise a second life.
Could be completely wrong, but I think trying to make Trek these big tent pole films is no longer the priority; hence when they discussed turning Prodigy into a movie in a few years. It’s just another hint to me where this is all ultimately going now.
IIRC Trek’s II – IV were made combined for about the same money as The Motion Picture. And look how that turned out.
Yes, Treks II-IV were made on the cheap and it definitely shows. That doesn’t mean they are bad.
Getting down to that level of budget would be very hard today. If they decided to shoot a movie using existing sets, props and costumes in Toronto they could probably cut costs significantly. Clever use of the AR wall could probably help as well. But who would that movie be targeted at? You’ve got fans complaining whenever Discovery or Picard seem to take a cost-cutting measure. How would they react to a whole movie that’s basically a re-use of existing assets? Unless the studio outright made a Discovery movie or a Picard movie I have doubts this would go over well.
Audience expectations of what a space adventure movie should be have changed as well.
I’m personally not familiar with fans complaining when Trek tries to cut costs. From my perspective I don’t think fans care that much about such things so long as the production doesn’t sink below awful levels. I think fans are more concerned with overall quality than anything else. And if that can be done for less money I think fans would be totally fine with it.
The only time I’ve really heard fans complain about money is when lots of money is spent but the result just doesn’t support it. Like in STID and Star Trek Discovery.
Oh by NO MEANS am I saying they are bad! Quite the opposite. I was trying to conclude that you can make quality films on the cheap. Sure it would be much harder to do today but when you adjust for inflation I think it would be possible.
I don’t think audiences complain as much about DISCO and PIC because of budget reasons as much as they do breaking canon or reasons like that. Sure, I might gripe here or there that they cut and paste starships but if the story is good I can certainly life with it. Would it look good in IMAX or something like that? Certainly not. But for streaming, it could def work.
Don’t worry: I never read your comment as suggesting these movies were bad. I actually put that sentence in because I didn’t want my comment to sound like I found these movies bad ;-)
That said, these movies were made almost 40 years ago in a completely different environment. We may remember them fondly but that doesn’t mean they can be used as a template how to make a successful Trek movie today.
Oh ok good. Just making sure :).
I do agree in the age of billion dollar movies making a Wrath of Khan isn’t something a studio might be particularly interested in. But the thing is, Trek is never going to be a billion $$$ movie franchise. So if they aren’t content with making lower budget (not cheap mind you, just cheapER) movies, sticking with streaming is probably the way to go.
I mean, heck, they seem to have no issues spending a decent amount on production value on Discovery.
Yeah, mid-budget genre movies seem to have gotten rarer. I can only imagine that now, with COVID still going strong, people are even more hesitant to go to a movie theater unless they think it’s a must-see film.
So that leaves streaming but then the question is: If they can get a full season of a Trek show or a 2-hour Trek movie for the same price, why would Paramount+ decide to make a 2-hour movie?
Just stating that Netflix makes movies as well as TV shows doesn’t count because they don’t usually make movies of their TV shows. It’s usually either or, not both.
Exactly this. I am way more of a Star Trek fan than I am a Star Wars fan or a MCU fan, but the latter 2 are the money makers. Trek is first and best on TV. Trek in the movies have never been huge money makers and they never will be because Trek will never have the mass appeal of the MCU. It just won’t. Even today it is still considered too geeky. Star Trek 2009 was about as mainstream as Trek was ever going to get and that movie didn’t even break 400 mil.
Sad but true! Star Trek for whatever reason will never have the mass appeal of some of those other brands. It started out as an underdog from day one and while it has certainly endured and made millions of new fans over the years, it just can’t break out the nerdy mode vibe regardless.
I mean sadly I don’t know anyone watching any of these new shows in real life. That’s why I spend a lot of time talking about them online. It’s my biggest hobby in life and no one around to talk about it to. Same time, practically everyone I know watches all the new MCU and Star Wars shows. Even if they don’t watch every one of them, they do watch some of them.
As far as the Trek films, you’re right, all the hype the first Kelvin movie got, it still didn’t break $400 million but was considered a big success at the time. But compare that to the first Transformer movie a few years before that one and it made over $700 million. Both films had the exact same budget too. As much as people deride the Transformers movies, the BO says it all. The highest grossing Kelvin movie still made $100 million less than the lowest grossing Michael Bay TF movie.
This is the problem.
Star Trek just has a ceiling. On TV, it’s a pretty high enough one. Must be high enough to have 5 different shows running in a year. But in the world of big budget movie franchises, it’s still pretty low unfortunately and why I’m not holding my breath the next film will even break $400 million if it ever shows up. My guess Paramount feels the same way and why it’s taking so long to get another one made because there is no real demand for one outside of the hardcore fanbase. I think sadly that’s the message they got after Beyond flopped.
Even on TV Trek has a ceiling unfortunately. If you think about it, there has been one and only one Trek show to have a full 7 year run on network TV (VOY). TOS, VOY, and ENT were the only network Trek shows and 2 out of 3 got cancelled.
Star Trek does GREAT on streaming, but streaming doesn’t have competition or Nielsons because you can watch at anytime. You don’t have to tune in at 8 pm on Thursdays or whatever.
Again, I don’t say this out of hate, I WISH Trek was more popular.
I remember when Star Trek Picard was first announced and IIRC Sir Ian Macellan told Sir Patrick Stewart not to do it.
You’re right, that’s true too. Voyager was the only show to go over 5 seasons on a network. But to be fair, UPN was a pretty bad network overall. Not just in terms of content, it wasn’t even broadcasted in the entire country. Fans who wanted to watch Voyager and Enterprise at the time couldn’t because it wasn’t on in their area.
And UPN got itself cancelled a year after Enterprise did. And at least people are still talking about Enterprise and became a vital part of the franchise. That’s the incredible thing about Star Trek, it all endures within the fanbase itself. None of it ever dies, especially now. Enterprise is more popular today 20 years later, probably thanks to streaming.
I think Star Trek has to be put on a more traditional network to see how well it would do. But considering Les Moonves never once considered making a Star Trek show for CBS until All Access came around tells you how much he thought it would do on television sadly.
Streaming has become the perfect home for it the way syndication was when TNG was born. I’m convinced way more people have watched all the classic shows today versus when they originally ran because everyone just has a lot more access to them now with a younger fanbase to boot.
TV is getting more fractured than ever. Cable started this process. Traditional network numbers started falling. What qualified for a “hit” on that medium has steadily gone down. And down and down. Streaming has fractured audiences even further. From what I can see streaming numbers are hilariously low when one compares it to viewership from 20 years ago. But considering how MUCH is out there it’s kinda reasonable that the top numbers be much lower than before.
This is not an editorial on my part. Just stating the condition of the business. So in an odd sense, since much lower numbers on streaming is not necessarily a death knell I suppose that just might be the best place for a niche product like Star Trek. It sucks for people like me who just aren’t fans of streaming. But that’s “progress” I guess…
Personally I would rather spend my money on streaming than Comcast because even though it might mean I am spending a bit more, it means WAY more competition and a beginning of the end to Comcast’s death grip on the media industry.
My beef with streaming is the tech is just not that good yet. Controls are irritating. Apart from Netflix, which has an app on my BD player, I have to cast from my phone to my TV. Which is major pain, too. Streaming just is not convenient. And there is content on cable that I still cannot get from streaming.
For now.
And yes, in theory this should all change. Streaming is a little better than it was a few years ago. But there are still pretty large issues with it.
I suppose that is true in many parts of the US, most certainly the world at large. I just happen to live in the Bay area, California where we have plenty of tech and streaming. I use an Apple Tv and my only gripe is that the SlingTV app is pure trash. All the other apps work great for me.
We are both in the same area. I’m in the Silicon Valley.
I dunno about the more traditional network. It’s still a very hard thing to do. For example, they tried Supergirl on CBS and a mere year later it got moved to the CW. The Orville was on FOX and it got moved to Hulu.
It’s ironic when you think about it because Trek is hard to do on network Tv but a show about 4 Trek nerds (the Big Bang Theory) is one of the most successful shows on network TV. It goes to show that the legacy of Star Trek is much more powerful than the shows themselves.
Well that’s true for today’s television, it really is a different world. In fact I pointed out even though we have 50 space opera shows coming in the next few years, not a single one of them will be on a traditional network. And the few that were in the last few years like the Orville and the Expanse eventually got moved to streaming services.
But its nuts, there are SO many shows on now are rebooted in the near future: BSG, LIS, The Expanse, Babylon 5, Stargate, Orville, Foundation and of course the multitude of Star Trek and Star Wars shows….all on streaming sites. Not a single space show is on a network or cable channel at the moment. Even Firefly might be coming back to Disney+ but that still seems to be in the rumored phase for now.
It proves that these shows are in more vogue than ever, but they carry a price tag the networks really can’t afford or worried it’s ratings aren’t big enough to sustain them. But on streaming services, many of these shows have the potential to go 5+ years now.
So in that sense, it’s not really a Star Trek issue. The genre itself doesn’t have big enough appeal to last on most networks today. I’m not even sure a Star Wars show could last long on a network given the obscene budgets they have on Disney+, at least the live action ones.
I think it proves that those shows are more niche than ever. Back in the day, shows on over the air networks needed more than just the hard core fans to survive. On streaming they don’t need large numbers at all.
Well we wouldn’t have 5 Trek shows on, so I don’t mind. ;)
But one thing these services do is spend the money in ways networks never could, at least some of the shows. It’s no way any of the live action Trek shows could survive on a network with the budgets they have.
Same for Star Wars and MCU shows which are basically movie style budgets, just split up in episodes. Most of the MCU and SW shows cost $100-150 million which is insane, but Disney has the money, so….
Amazon is spending half a billion on the LOTR TV show for, wait for it, the first season only. I thought that was for the entire series (which is suppose to be five seasons) but $500 million for I think 12 episodes is insane. It’s no way that show could green light on FOX lol. But to make it clear part of it cost that much just to get the rights back. Future seasons will cost less but still probably hundreds of millions a season.
And there is competition obviously just not in the way it’s done on networks. These shows can still get cancelled, look at Netflix. But the big brand shows all seem to have enough people watching all of it, but it will get old and people will eventually drop. We’re all super excited about all the Star Trek coming our way but I don’t see this many shows being sustained for years on end. I think it can last a good five years before they may have to pull back but maybe it will last twice that long.
But we got it real good as fans now even if we don’t love every show. And that’s the beauty of it, with so many, you don’t have to!
Yeah. These days it seems like unless you are a sitcom, cop show, or medical drama, your chances of being on Network are nil.
But that has pretty much been the case since… Well… Forever.
When theaters were closed at the beginning of the lockdown, WB going straight to HBO Max was the only game in town. I signed up for Godzilla vs Kong, now a days I toggle between it and P+. Now that theaters have (mostly) reopened, the simultaneous release model seems to be slipping by the wayside. As long as people are cautious about going out, they’ll gravitate to the familiar, as the current Spider-Man movie demonstrates.
Trek is never, ever, going to be a billion dollar box office event. Paramount’s comfort level for a CGI f**kfest seems to be following the Bumbleebee model. When someone steps up and commits to making a Trek feature for 125MM, expecting a 350-450 box office return, a project will get greenlit. Until then, we wait. Or get one direct to P+, which isn’t a bad thing in my book.
I bet somebody out there is looking at the success of Spider-Man and thinking, hey, we’ve got all of the Trek captains still living, I wonder if that’d get us to a billion? And it probably wouldn’t, but I can imagine them trying to anyways. A Kirk/Picard/Janeway/Archer/Pike/Burnham event in which they have to rescue Sisko from the Prophets or something goofy like that. Kirk is played by Pine AND Shatner because why not. Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome have cameos.
Somewhere at Paramount, someone is at least contemplating it, guaranteed.
Oh I agree completely!
I think Star Trek’s future is streaming from this point, both shows and films. They keep saying we’re getting another Star Trek movie but I agree with you it’s probably better to just make smaller budget Trek films exclusively for streaming. I think the best solution is for future movies is to make ones with smaller budgets and run them a few weeks in the theater for that 45 day window and then transfer them to live on Paramount+ from that point on. They can still do blu ray and all of that but I think that’s ultimately where this is all going. So they can still make a modest profit in theaters but streaming is where the bulk of the views would be going forward.
It’s also why I feel the Kelvin movies are dead going forward (at least in their current form) because Paramount is probably thinking to make a much smaller film for 2023 and base it in the prime universe to tie it to the dozen TV shows that all lives on P+. Just keep building that library.
It just makes the most sense to me, especially since Star Trek is never going to be a big property cinema wise. They really tried with the Kelvin movies, but they never took off as they wanted it to. And I think they have given up on that idea or we wouldn’t still be waiting 6 years on for another movie at this point; especially with all the TV content we’re getting thanks to streaming.
Still expecting a moderate budget (100m) No Trek Home/Multiverse of Trekness movie to be in cinemas xmas 23 then hitting P+ asap. Either the kelvin cast encountering various primeverse heroes/villains or vice versa (with kelvin cast saved for the fan pleasing end cameos)
Nope. Last I checked Star Wars: Rogue Squadron also hits theaters that weekend, and that feature is very much in pre-production now. Paramount will not set up even a moderately budgeted Trek feature to get crushed like a bug. I fully expect the “unnamed Trek sequel” will slide into TBA status soon.
think Rogue Squadron has been delayed, which was a reason Trek moved to its December date
I’m sorry I just don’t have a good feeling the Kelvin cast is involved in the next film at all. To me, it seems like the first thing you would’ve lead with in announcing a new movie is that the cast that’s been part of it for 3 films and over a decade would be in it. And it’s been 9 months since and not a peep out of anyone the Kelvin cast is involved. I’m shocked Pegg or Quinto hasn’t been asked about it or has mentioned it which makes me more suspicious they are not part of it.
Maybe I will be proven wrong, but ever since Pine walked away from the last movie, there has not been a single word anywhere he and Paramount resolved it and that was now 3 years ago (wow).
But we’ll see. I think it’s just going to be a different film with a totally new cast to have a smaller budget although it may be another TOS based movie (I really really hope not though).
I could still see them being involved but in a reduced capacity , even just fan pleasing cameos . In which case they wouldn’t be announced
OK, but I just think if they were involved, they would just say that by now. You’re trying to market a coma induced movie franchise, it seems like if you want to get the fanbase talking you would be tweeting Pine, Pegg and Quinto are all reprising their roles after five years and it’s time to get hyped!!!
Of course I understand fans want to see them in another film, I include myself in that. But I’m just a realist too. I think there was a time when they really wanted them in the next movie but clearly that changed once we heard Noah Hawley’s movie was going to have a new cast of characters (which I still hate it got cancelled).
To me it sounded like when they were trying to get the Hemsworth and Tarantino movies off the ground, they were still very viable. But notice after both of those movies were basically shelved we heard NOTHING else about the Kelvin cast being involved in the other projects after that. All these other movies, including the one with the Discovery writer, sound like they were completely separate entities.
And I think it’s for two reasons: budget and wanting to go back to the prime universe now that we have all these shows and legacy characters back in it. Again, only my speculation. But based on everything we know and the fact it will have been seven years since we seen that cast in Beyond, I think they just want a completely new direction to fit in what they are doing with P+ and the shows.
But I’m willing to be proven wrong if someone ever updates on these movies beyond ‘we’re working on it’. Sadly I still have doubts another film will even arrive in the next two years. I’m just all around cynical at this point lol.
Now you mention it is like the Kelvin cast has been slowly ‘phased out’. They were there of course for Hemsworth Trek 4, and Tarantino (possibly as the prime counterparts according to comments from QT, but eventually probably not), then gone for Hawleys pandemic movie (altho not sure if a pandemic plot was ever confirmed) and wernt mentioned for the Disco writer P+ movie(that was for P+ only right?), and for the current marvel writers/director – who knows..we’re not allowed to know anything other than its marvel ppl involved lol
That’s exactly what I mean!
From 2017 through 2019 it was a constant drumbeat of the Kelvin cast involvement in those two movies. It was always ‘yeah its going to happen’, ‘we’re involved’, ‘they are writing a script’, ‘we might be in production next year’ and on and on. There are about 3 dozen articles here with someone from the film constantly updating us about something. Even after the Hemsworth movie fell through you still had them mentioning the Tarantino project and stuff like Urban calling it ‘Bananas’ etc.
But once that movie stalled, it’s been total radio silence since. Not a peep about ANY of these new projects from either the actors or the writers/directors. From 2020 on then it just changed to ‘I hope to do another one someday’ and that’s been it since EVEN though there were other projects going on like the Hawley one and the one with the Discovery writer. But none of the actors ever mentioned those. And you would think now that they have a film which is supposedly coming out next year and (in theory?) start filming in the next few months NOW is the time to let people know these guys are officially back. And yet total crickets.
I mean, why would you announce the writer, director and even mention JJ Abrams will be producing the next movie again but you leave out the one thing fans like us actually care about: the cast? Just seems odd for a movie series that’s been comatose for over 5 years and you’re now trying to get the word out another one is coming.
But I’m willing to be proven wrong. In theory we should know something official soon; at least by Spring. But yeah I have a sad feeling things are (once again) not going to fall into place as people keep hoping they will.
Also, isn’t JJ busy with the next Superman now?
Abrams produced both Beyond and Mission Impossible Rogue Nation while he was still directing The Force Awakens. And to be honest, it’s probably his production company more involved than he is himself.
True. That’s a good point.
Everything I’ve heard about that Superman project makes it sound like the biggest failure ever to me.
Did you ever read the script for the first time JJ Abrams was going to do a Superman movie? There is no chance this is going to go well.
Pine and Saldana are A listers, it would be really hard to do a lower budget movie with them involved.
Which was exactly the issue with Pine’s involvement now. I don’t think of the guy as an A lister at all, but he’s considered one today even though none of his films have been big hits. But that’s exactly why he walked away from the fourth film in 2018. His asking price had already went up by then and Paramount didn’t even want to pay him the money they promised him before he could demand more money thanks to Wonder Woman,
And help me out here, every time this guy gets hired to do a film, it makes headlines everywhere. He’s currently singed on to movies that won’t come out until next year. It seem like coming back to the role that made him famous would be one of the biggest headlining news before anything else. Which is why I have huge doubts he’s in this movie.
IMHO, I think Pine knows that Trek is one of those franchises that can be career killers. It tends to type cast those involve with it and that means if he is going to come back to the franchise, he is going to ask for top dollar.
Well he certainly didn’t feel that way when they first casted him in the role that made him rich and famous, but I digress.
But clearly it’s just a job for him at this point. And that’s fine of course, that’s probably true for most of them. But probably another reason why I wouldn’t be shocked to see them with a new cast. I just don’t see either side begging the other to do it at this point. If Beyond made a billion dollars and not just $300 million, it would be a different story for both sides. ;)
Exactly. If he had never gotten the Wonder Woman franchise or any of those other films it would have been a different story. But he is making comic book movie money now. I mean not Robert Downey Jr money mind you but still.
So, my target date for signing on to P+ looks like the beginning of May. (Yay, yet another streaming service…) Make…it….so.
As the Jem’Hadar and Paramount+ executives would say, “victory is life!”
Wait, I thought football is life?
Err, that too. :-P
To quote Worf…
“Today IS a good day to be a Star Trek fan”!
I may have paraphrased that a little bit 😁
Just over three months until the Strange New Worlds premiere and no word about how it’s going to be released in Europe.
No info about Paramount Plus in Europe since August 2021.
This is obviously just a guess but they did announce that Paramount Plus would start in (parts of) Europe in 2022. It would absolutely make sense to get it up and running for Strange New Worlds. They have already angered quite a lot of international fans by pulling Discovery from Netflix and by not releasing Prodigy. Delaying SNW internationally would only piss people off even more.
10 episodes seasons??? I miss 90s and long seasons ST shows.
We’re also getting five shows in one year too. This is probably a better strategy because it will diversify the audience more and rotate new shows. And Prodigy has 20 episodes a season, at least the first two. But that’s also because it’s being made by a cable channel and not directly a streaming show like the others.
It’s also a great strategy for fans who don’t want everything, all the time. There are plenty of other good shows to watch, books to read and masked friends to shout at across freezing outdoor tables.
Very true. Sure I can watch 100 hours of new Star Trek every year, but I’m guessing I’m in the minority lol. And of course I watch tons of TV, movies or books that is very different from Trek or sci fi in general. It’s nice for the last few years that Trek has become must see viewing again and not just watching reruns all the time.
Which is also why they’re only producing 10 episode seasons. They can produce five series for the price of 2 (animated series cost significantly less to produce).
Honestly, I’d rater have 1 GOOD series of 24+ episodes a season than 4 bad ones and one above mediocre one all with 10 episodes each.
The thing is 1 series with 24 eps means a LOT of filler eps. a series with 10 eps means they can focus on the story and put the money for the show to good use.
Except the short season shows aren’t immune from “filler” episodes. Star Trek Discovery has had a lot of those in their run. And I’ve even seen other short season shows that have had them. It seems to be something that you just can’t avoid. So that argument really carries no weight.
It’s not immune, but it’s less likely. Although, counterpoint to myself, some of the best Trek eps have been “filler” eps so….
True, they do have a proper sized season but the down side is they are taking perhaps 3 or 4 massive breaks in the season. Traditionally there was one large break and a handful of one week breaks scattered in. So props for having a normal season but a wag of the finger for the multiple large breaks.
As Tiger2 said, they will release about as many episodes per year as during the heyday of the Berman era. It will just be distributed over 5 shows instead of two.
So assuming you watch all of them you should get a constant fix of new Trek. Of course, each individual show has longer breaks between seasons.
Actually more! Since Prodigy is 20 episodes a season and the other are 10, we now, in theory have 60 episodes between 5 shows. That is a lot of content.
Pandemic protocols are still a burden on production, particularly in winter.
Discovery season four started production in November 2020, and ran through July 2021 with extra shooting in August. I can understand why everyone involved might like a shorter season. All the more so for Sonequa who has a young son and an infant daughter who need to be cared for in her Toronto temporary residence.
Preproduction notices aren showing up in Ontario yet, so it looks like production won’t start until spring.
That was back in the days of syndication.
The syndication model really doesn’t exist anymore
Yeah, streaming basically took the place of syndication. Although I do miss that certain cheesiness of those syndicated shows of the day. Shows like Hercules, Xena, Mortal Kombat, Tarzan, they were cheesy as hell but they had certain low budget heart and charm to them that made them mighty entertaining.
Also its kind of ironic that Kurtzman himself came from this “syndicated” era as he started off as a writer on Hercules if my memory serves me correctly.
That wasn’t just syndication. That was over the air networks, too.
I miss standard length seasons too. Mini series’ suck. Part of the problem is if the show is not engaging enough or the break is too long we start to forget what the hell happened at the end of the last season. And honestly, if the show isn’t good enough to recall what happened it’s a big ask to demand people re-watch it to catch up. Give me a 24 episode season with a 3-4 month break any time.
Interesting that Pike is in his Discovery Enterprise uniform and not the one we saw in the SNW promotional clip.
I think that header graphic was just knocked together from a Disco S2 screen grab. The shot further down the article is the new uniform.
That’s because it’s a screen-grab from Discovery.
Can;t wait for Strange New Worlds!!! So excited!!!!
Hope they don’t screw that one up!
Wonder if they can have it tie into the Kelvin cast in a movie but in the prime timeline.
No.
God I really hope not. I don’t mind the KU movies at all but let’s just let them stand on their own.
Hell, I’d like to put the Secret Hideout Treks in their own universe as well. Things actually make more sense that way.
Can’t. That would be 2 different Spocks and Uhuras. And if they do have Kirk guest star one day I doubt they can afford Pine.
Years ago, I took part in an online “#TrekBack to TV” campaign, pleading with Paramount to bring Star Trek back to TV, where it belongs. And now, that campaign is getting exactly what we dreamed of. This is it, what we wanted. I’m so glad it’s here!
It is hard to believe it took so long just to get another Trek show after Enterprise was cancelled. I knew we would get another show obviously but I didn’t think it would take 12 years lol.
And now we are getting more shows than we can ever dream of. The days where having two Trek shows on feeling like a big deal is child’s play. We live in a huge franchise world now and it’s become the more the merrier.
It actually makes sense to me. After the Viacom CBS split, the Trek rights were split too. But a Trek show was never going to survive on CBS network television. It barely made it on UPN. So there was just no place to put a Trek TV show because Viacom/Paramount was pretty much out of the TV business.
I agree it just sucked it took so long.
It totally sucks. Movies are great and all but by their very nature they offer WAY less content over a much longer period of time. I needed much more of a fix than that.
Given Paramount’s refusal to show recent episodes of Prodigy in Australia, I’m not holding my breath or taking anything for granted. Can’t afford to get my hopes up any longer.
Exactly, I cancelled my subscription when P+ refused to show any of the latest episodes (after hiatus) of Prodigy in Australia. Very unpredictable roll out internationally
There is litterly no way for much of it in my country to view them so sadly I download them. I actually wouldn’t mind paying for it because star trek is my favorite franchise
Really great to see so much Trek coming our way. I just hope Paramount don’t decide to screw over international fans with Picard and Lower Decks before they arrive on Prime. It’s annoying enough that viewers in Ireland can’t officially access PlutoTV to watch Discovery.
I don’t care about Lower Decks or Prodigy, I hope they put Picard on Prime, if not it’s just going to mean people will find other means of downloading/streaming. As for PlutoTV, the only people who even watch that are the handful of DSC fans once a week who don’t know how to get it other ways. It’s a terrible service that cuts out randomly with titlecards, the ads are timer based so cut in without warning and sometimes, play over the TV programme so you miss what’s going on. Technical problems can run for hours or days because there isn’t any actual staff monitoring the output to even notice.
Star Trek The 90s: Phase II
It’s funny, by coincidence I been reading a lot of the early articles about Discovery back when the show was first announced and reading people’s predictions about that show and the future of the franchise in general. One thing no one really thought at the time is that we would have another show so quickly after Discovery. I think most of us KNEW another show would show up if Discovery was successful but I think most thought it would be 5+ seasons down the line.
And I don’t think many thought we would see legacy characters back like we have now and now three of the five shows stars one of them. But I never thought you could get actors like Stewart or Mulgrew to come back full time either. And lastly I forgot just how much fans were divided on the prequel vs going forward arguments. We acted like it had to only be one of the other and now we have both. We have one prequel show with SNW (but more will probably come), three post-Nemesis shows and one far future show, which I never thought we would have at all.
Funny reading posts from people thinking any show beyond Nemesis would make the franchise almost too unstainable and now we have four of them lol. And they are ALL thriving! I love Discovery much more today for being in the 32nd century than its original period (and I was OK with it by its second season). The show is just a more interesting show today and expanding Trek in ways it hasn’t in decades. So happy it has a fifth season to keep this new of era of Trek alive.
I have to give it to Kurtzman, he saw what many of us saw and that you can really do something new and innovative with Star Trek and why SNW, Lower Decks, Picard and Discovery now all sit side by side with each other and centuries apart while all adding something unique to canon. For me, it’s all really exciting.
Well said! The anti-Kurtzman crowd just like to watch the world burn. When they slam him, they’re not on very stable ground. He’s brought Star Trek back from the dead zone and made it a formidable force to be reckoned with.
I think what he’s doing now is smart by pushing forward with Discovery and the 32nd century to FINALLY do something new and inventive with Star Trek but same time hit the nostalgia notes by bringing in legacy characters from the TOS and TNG eras. For me, this is the best of both worlds.
PIC, PRO and LDS are all unique shows on to themselves but they are all clearly shaped around TNG era stories and legacy characters and giving fans who grew with the 90s shows more nostalgia but still getting new characters and story lines out of those as well.
SNW will clearly hit the TOS nostalgia card and do it in a way Discovery had difficulty doing. Like Picard, this was a smart move in general for people who wanted a direct sequel and if its good it should satisfy all of us TOS fans who grew up with that show too.
But yeah I like what Kurtzman is doing. Discovery is pushing Trek in a completely new and innovative direction while the other shows are feeding on nostalgia in one way but still feeling like something new in other ways.
But I still want future shows to go to other time periods like the 26th or 27th centuries and even new galaxies and universes. But the thing is ALL of that is possible now and what makes the future of Trek more intriguing. I have to thank Kurtzman for that and thankfully just not an endless parade of boring TOS spin offs prequels like I was afraid he would do.
I’m still hoping for made-for-streaming movies and Short Treks to expand into other eras and perhaps give some legacy characters a chance to shine.
There’s an increasingly large array of sets in Toronto that can be redressed and the AR Wall provides opportunities for new settings too.
Completely agree! I mentioned above that I can see Paramount+ investing in Star Trek streaming films too. I don’t think it’s any time soon but I do see it happening.
That’s why I’m curious what is going to happen with the movie that is ‘supposed’ to be out in 2023. I honestly think that film will only be in theaters a short time and will head to P+ after the 45 day window Paramount and others are experimenting with. But if that movie doesn’t do as hot as they hope, I do think the next one after that can be a P+ exclusive.
But I can see streaming movies in the future. Maybe we’ll never get another TNG theatrical movie, but a streaming reunion movie could work for example! Or imagine a two hour Enterprise film dealing with the Romulan war? Or even a special Lower Decks film. Things that may not work on a big screen with a lot of competition but perfect for streaming.
None of this may not happen, but it’s all possible at least. I have a feeling Disney will even make smaller Star Wars and Marvel Disney+ movies too. It’s all a matter of time. There is just so much they can do when they control nearly all of the distribution to something.
I honestly do not see Discovery as particularly innovative. They were pushed into a corner due to bad creative decisions and were left with really one option if they wanted to proceed with their show. They took it. And to this day I think everyone would have been a little kinder to the show had they just said it was a reboot to begin with. Yes, I know. That ship has sailed. Doesn’t make my comment any less true.
Well at least something new and different. They aren’t (anymore) just resting on 23rd century canon, the Spock family line and forging their own new story lines and settings.
And of course they were pushed into it obviously but they didn’t have to go into extremes with it either. As you know I was always skeptical about making Discovery a prequel and I was clearly right lol.
Again, NOT that making a prequel in itself would be bad, but just the way Discovery itself tried to do it, which was just the wrong way to do it from the beginning. They wanted to reboot the franchise in general but tell people it’s still falls in line with TOS and the rest and many fans just couldn’t buy that.
They had 2 options: Make it a traditional prequel as much as possible or as me and you been saying, just make it clear it’s a reboot and do what you want. They went with option number 3 and it was a huge mistake. But I’m not complaining (anymore ;)), it got us a more interesting show in the end even if it’s still a very flawed one.
I wish they went this direction on day one and to be fair if it was up to Kurtzman they may have just done it that way from the beginning. He was just following whatever Fuller wanted to do at the time. But as others pointed out, we may hot gotten a Pike show out of it either so it all worked out in the end.
I still think shipping them THAT far into the future was a tremendous mistake. I just can’t imagine anyone moving that far ahead would be of any use to anyone in that time frame apart from historical knowledge. It would take a TON of time for people to catch up under the best of circumstances. Not with just the tech but with the world around them. Imagine taking someone from 1100 and shoving them into today’s world. Their head would explode. How long do you think it would take for them to even function independently in this society? Even basic language would be an issue. It just makes ZERO sense that a group of people from 900+ years in the past would be the best group to help with solving galaxy wide threats. And then apart from the creative problems described above, the show still has a problem with their writing and producing staffs. The same problem they had when the show was in their original time frame. Nearly everything associated with Star Trek Discovery was a mistake and not one thing they have done to improve the show has helped. Check that, adding the Reno character was a good move. But that was pretty much one grain of sand on the entire beach. I’m sorry but while I still watch out of a misplaced fan hope, deep down I just know that Star Trek Discovery is beyond saving.
I hear you, but it’s still Discovery, so…..
But I just love the setting in general. Even when Discovery is done, I hope they stay with in a new show and one by a crew who was already born there.
But dude no offense, if you’re really this bothered by the show four seasons in, then just take a break. I’m not saying don’t watch, but maybe just wait until the season is over and binge it like others who still hate it but want to keep up with everything. Didn’t you do that with Lower Decks? And you save some money in the process. ;)
I did. I delayed starting my subscription until the season was more than half through. But I never binged it. I don’t binge anything. I would watch perhaps 2 episodes a week. But Lower Decks just feels different from Star Trek Discovery. Maybe it’s the live action part of it but the most I’ve done with it was start a subscription a week or two late to avoid paying an extra month. But what P+ is now doing to avoid churn is working. Everything is lining up with each other and until they run out of Trek it doesn’t look like my subscription is going to let up anytime soon. That hasn’t been the case for the other things I’ve done. It’s been a year since I had D+ and don’t plan to get that until the next Mandalorian season or the Obi Wan show, whichever comes first. I had HBO Max once for a couple of months and haven’t turned it back on since. I might when the get a little more content built up. But because I’m such a huge Trek nerd I just am compelled to keep the P+ for Trek.
Yeah it is getting harder to delay as we get more and more shows. Of course that’s the point. ;)
And yes Discovery has a weird schedule this year sharing it with Prodigy as they go back and fourth. And I didn’t even realize the last three episodes of DIS will share it with the first three episodes of PIC. Soooo much Star Trek!
Well, I agree that it might have been a HUGE mistake going THAT far into the future. Not because of the reasons you mention but the mere fact that they have just wasted 800 years worth of world building for future Trek productions.
The language issues are mute :-) 1000 years ago, people couldn’t read or write. That’s why language changed so quickly. Texts were only written in Latin. English and other popular speech was affected by extremely quick transformation processes due to the lack of literacy.
Federation Standard doesn’t have that issue. It is fixed in written documents and there are always universal translators compensating for any changes.
As far as social changes are concerned: that’s a pivotal question. Society has changed extremely quickly over the last 50 years. But maybe there is a point were we have reached a new optimum and no further fundamental changes are needed? If the 24th century is seen as the golden age of history, people would avoid any drastic changes or even try to return back to those roots time and again…
Change is the nature of all things. Everything always changes. And while the language is still technically the same the use of it does change over time. That’s not insurmountable but it is yet another hurdle for ancient people to overcome.
These folks should never be allowed to do anything they are doing on the show. And that is just one of many plot related issues with the show.
I don’t know about innovative per se but it is most certainly different. There hasn’t been a Trek show like it before.
Well… You aren’t wrong.
Les Moonves (a man of questionable moral conduct) brought Star Trek back from the dead to boost subscriptions for CBS All Access. It didn’t matter how many showrunners they fired or how many execs were pushed out the door, CBS was going to keep Star Trek going for All Access and Kurtzman was fortunate enough to land the gig. All he had to do was deliver the show on time, come in on budget and stay off of HR’s radar for misconduct. Do those three things and there was really no way he could fail regardless of how the show was received by fans and critics or the number of viewers the show was actually reaching.
It’s a credit to AK’s tremendous talent that despite not being able to deliver the shows on time or on budget (Discovery and Picard, previously; Prodigy keeps taking breaks because they’re behind in their production) that he has been able to maintain his position as the most prolific and profitable mogul in Viacom’s stable.
Dick Wolf, Taylor Sheridan and the team behind the NCIS franchise would likely disagree with the assessment of Kurtzman being the most prolific and profitable mogul in the Viacom stable (Viacom would likely disagree as well).
Taylor Sheridan may be a fave but he is a much an outlier in that list as Kurtzman. Love Yellowstone and 1883, but it doesn’t have the huge international numbers, years on air, or amount of shows, as the others… including Kurtzman.
Strong agree. He took a dead, problematic property and made it relevant and profitable.
I don’t know if I would go that far either. Star Trek wasn’t ‘dead’, there were a series of movies happening before Discovery even started (and yes Kurtzman was involved in those too obviously). But I NEVER thought the franchise was ‘dead’, it just needed a break like all franchises do at some point.
But sure I give him credit for taking it in a different direction once they did make more shows again. And I wasn’t happy with the direction of Discovery at all originally (hated it was a prequel and a bad one on top of it lol). But of course that was really Fuller’s idea and I was just happy to have Star Trek back. And I like Kurtzman could admit the show was problematic and took it on a very different course. He gets full credit for that one IMO.
Again, credit Kurtzman for acknowledging there were issues with Star Trek Discovery. But he never FIXED them. Moving the show to another time frame didn’t change the core problems with the show. Those remain no matter what time period they move it to.
I will say I don’t like DISCO in the 32nd century. I like that it is no longer a prequel, but I hate what they did with the Federation. I don’t get why after all these centries they are still relant on WARP drive and dilithium for example. The technology just isn’t nearly as advanced as it should be and a crying baby shouldn’t have taken out the galaxy.
That’s all part of a post I just wrote above. The 32nd century tech just doesn’t feel nearly advanced enough. And yes, still being reliant of dilithium is just idiotic. It would be like we still rely on wind to blow our boats around today. It’s just insane. And on top of that is the bad creative team in regards to writing and plotting and characterizations. They’ve tried and I give them credit for the attempt but when those attempts result in failure after failure that credit sorta stops.
Picard and Geordi were testing “Warp without warp drive” in the 24th century. Voyager introduced the Federation to tech like slipstream drives. The Protostar has some superfast new propulsion. But in the 32nd century we are back to warp 9.999? Have they even left the galaxy yet?
Not dead. Maybe a bit moldy, though.
The time between the last episode of ENT in 2005 and STAR TREK in 2009 was shorter than the interval between SPECTRE and NO TIME TO DIE. That’s hardly a “dead” franchise.
Not only that, I remind people the 2009 movie was actually announced all the way back in 2006 and less than a year after Enterprise was cancelled. I don’t buy into the idea they would pump $150 million into a movie for a franchise that was considered ‘dead’ ten months earlier.
It needed a few years break. I’ve always believed if Enterprise premiered a few years after Voyager it probably would’ve went 7 years like the other shows but that’s my opinion only obviously. But by then, even I was tired and was no no longer excited to watch Star Trek every week after doing so for 15 years at that point.
They shouldn’t have done a prequel it was a mistake. They should have moved beyond Nemesis. Being obessed with prequels consumed George Lucas and destroyed Star Wars.
At least Lucas’ prequels didn’t defy Star Wars canon. I don’t know why Star Trek producers and writers have such a difficult time adhering to it.
And even Enterprise was able to successfully be a prequel. Prequels aren’t inherently bad. They are a little tougher but can still work well in the right hands.
Yes, I said it somewhere else on here. But while Enterprise had modern day tech like LCD screens and such, they made it LOOK less modern than TOS. The NX-01 was made to look much more like a cramped submarine than the 1701. It was smaller. It had the similar rounded nacelles. It had grappling hooks rather than tractor beams. They may have had view screens but they made sure not to see romulans on them.
And for what its worth, the tech from daniels’ time (which predates Discovery) looked WAY more advanced.
I agree obviously, I think it was a mistake to make both Enterprise and Discovery a prequel. At least with Discovery, they had the chance to rectify that mistake early on.
In fact when Discovery was announced to take place before TOS I remember saying it was a huge mistake because fans were going to complain about it as much as they did about Enterprise. I was wrong, they complained about it WORSE than Enterprise lol. If anything it made Enterprise look better since it at least did a better job of feeling like a 22nd century based show than Discovery feeling like a 23rd century based show. So they realized they were in trouble and fixed it thankfully,
With Enterprise, I have since come to love the show and in fact I would like to see another season of it. But yes I think it would’ve been much more successful if they had made a show that took place after Voyager.
I just don’t think the majority of fans cares about prequels, especially for younger people who became fans during the TNG-VOY era. Most of those people wanted to see a continuation of the mythology. I understand some fans want prequels and many on this board, but majority want to see franchises go forward, not backwards.
And clearly Viacom got that message loud and clear because you don’t create four post-Nemesis shows by coincidence while turning your once prequel show into a far future one two seasons later.
I think from here on out most new shows will be post-Nemesis based while SNW will be the one prequel most fans can get behind since it takes place on the original Enterprise and has Pike, Spock and Uhura on it.
Ya know the funny thing about Enterprise is that, although the sets were way more advanced than TOS, Berman et all did a good job making it look less advanced than TOS. The NX-01 had TOS era nacelles. The ship was tiny. It was built like a submarine. They adhered to canon when it came to things like not showing Romulans on view screens etc.
Discovery didn’t even try. DISCO looked WAY more advanced than any Trek that came before it. TPTB didn’t even try to stick to canon (which is why they had to go to the 32nd century). Things like the Mirror universe, the red angel suit, all of it were decades if not centuries ahead of their time.
I understood they wanted Discovery to feel like a modern show and I was fine with that. But same time, you’re dealing with a very fickle fanbase and once you tell them it’s suppose to be in line with the previous shows, especially TOS…and it isn’t, then you’re only asking for a world of pain.
The show just looked and acted waaaaay too advanced for its period. And that’s partly because you had writers who just wanted to write it like any modern sci fi show. But when you are placing it against 50 years of canon, you have to restrict yourself. I remember people arguing that this was a ‘good’ thing for the show and it would stop them from making crazy magical tech and stuff more ‘grounded’ (I still have no idea what that means).
But it was very clear they weren’t going to do that and why it was the best idea to put the show in the far future when the show was doing things that was more advanced than what we saw even in the 24th century. The red angel suit was something out of a comic book that can do everything from time travel and create wormholes to jump to any part of the galaxy.
They didn’t even want to stop using the spore drive, the most advanced drive ever created in the franchise. So instead they created a future where they literally needed it just to get around lol. That just tells you this show should’ve NEVER been a prequel at all. At least not one to TOS. It was a mistake all around.
Without a doubt. The spore drive and red angel suit should have been the 32nd century tech and the 32nd century tech we see should have been the 23rd century tech, they completely reversed everything. And i’m sorry, simply saying, “it’s ok, it was all classified so it doesn’t break canon” isn’t good enough. Voyager was stuck in the delta quadrant for 7 years because “classified”
I agree. Enterprise still looked like a modern show but FELT like it could easily transition into the Enterprise we saw on TOS. The production designer did a GREAT job and I felt that the very first time I saw the show. Today I consider the NX-01 to be my 3rd favorite Enterprise. I recall Manny Coto even saying he was wishing the NX-01 didn’t have a viewscreen and was much more submarine like.
Yeah Enterprise just did it waaaaay better. It really tried to fit in to a more primitive era even if some fans still thought it felt too advance. But compared to Discovery, it’s no contest lol. It’s funny how that show used to get so much grief before Discovery showed up and suddenly people appreciated it a lot more today. And time seems to heal all wounds in the world of Star Trek.
I really love that show now, which is crazy because it was the first and only Trek show I stopped watching after first season. Still not my favorite, but I watch it just as much as the other classic shows.
In fact, what’s funny today is that before Discovery premiered, many people kept saying they were excited for it because they wanted a more ‘primitive’ show again where things were just ‘harder’ although the same group mostly despised Enterprise at the time.
You would hear things like “We don’t want ships that go to warp 9.9999 anymore.” Well, that’s Enterprise, it only goes to warp 5…on paper.
“We want a ship down graded with real buttons and dials and not one that looks like an apple store or a huge luxury hotel.” Yeah, that’s Enterprise, you want cramped, primitive and uncomfortable, the NX-01 is your ship.
“We want a show where it’s all about exploration again.” Yeah, once again that’s Enterprise, every other episode they are on a new planet or meeting new aliens for the first time. They in fact visited more new worlds in their first season than TOS and TNG did in theirs. VOY may have them beat though.
“We’re sick of Star Trek using technology to bail the crew out of every jam.” Hello, Enterprise, these people don’t even trust the transporters. It doesn’t even have a tractor beam.
“We want a show where space feels big again, hard, and you don’t have a thousand starfleet ships at your beckon call.” Uh yeah, that’s Enterprise, seriously. They spent an entire year alone in an uncharted part of the galaxy called the Delphic Expanse and never saw a single star ship that entire season or ever made it back to Earth until after the mission was complete. It was so bad, Archer stole a warp core from somebody because there was nowhere else to repair his. Is this thing on?
“We’re sick of time travel stories!!” Well, uh, OK, you got me there. ;D
But I’m sure everyone felt those things when Discovery showed up with it’s big super sleek ship with previously installed mushroom drive that can get you anywhere in the galaxy in less than ten seconds, but still managed to only visit two new planets in the first season with it. Real 23rd century exploration again!!
Would you consider a post TUC show a “prequel” show? I know I sure wouldn’t. And honestly that is the era I would LOVE to see a new show set in.
I think a post-TUC would be a GREAT era to explore. I’ve said that in the past. It would be a nice lead up to TNG but NOT feel like a direct prequel to that show being 80 years away but you can still include species like the Cardassians and even highlight their first contact. In the meanwhile you can see the fledging relationship between the Federation and the Klingons and how they ultimately became allies by the 24th century. Obviously you can also include the Ferengi too (if you REALLY had to ;)).
We could even have Saavik as a Captain in this time period since they are all about legacy characters leading these shows now. Put her as Captain on the Enterprise B so the fans can salivate more.
So yeah tons of potential there. I still think it would’ve been a mistake to put Discovery in that period based on what we got but for future shows, I think it would be perfect.
I don’t want to give off this idea I think that the 23rd century is ‘done’. Far from it, I just think it’s better to do stories post TOS and not pre-TOS that’s all because there is so much more baggage (but SNW may change my mind on that too). But there are tons of stories you can still do in this century obviously.
I want a Stargazer show with Nathaniel Bacon starring as young Picard :-)
A post TUC show would be kinda tough IMO. Its always been kind of a gray area when peace happened with the Klingons. Was it Camp Khiitomer with Kirk/Spock/Dax or was it after the Enterprise C? There’s like 50 – 60 years in between the 2 where tensions between the 2 factions are totally undefined.
If I were going to pick an era for a new Trek show that is the one I would go for. Back in the 90’s a Captain Sulu show sounded like a good idea to me. Now? Not so much. But I’d like to see a crew on another starship (Not named Enterprise) and follow them around with Klingon peace brewing, and encountering more strange new worlds and going where no one, or no man, has gone before. :)
Well heck George Takei still seems like he is in good enough shape to star in a show.
I know John Cho’s last show failed but he is basically as old now as Takei was during the TOS movie years. They could just cast Cho as Sulu and have the show take place after TUC. I think this could work. Takei could appear as his father.
I think Takei wouldn’t like the idea of a Capt. Sulu show with someone else in the lead. However I think that’s not too bad an idea…
Of course, Tiger2. Star Trek was never officially considered “dead” outside that DOA The Spirit movie. :-) How would it? This was the mid-to-late 00s… shortly before the CBM genre completely took off and other genre franchises such as Transformers experienced huge break-throughs…
The only thing they had to do was taking the comic bookish aspects of Trek and emphazise on those…
Why did we get so many Orions and Andorians recently? Those species used to be old-fashioned TOS tropes back in the 90s… Then Nebula and Gamora happened… Just one example…
Honestly I knew that legacy characters would come back in some way. It was inevitable. And I predicted that if the first show did not perform as well as hoped they would reach out to legacy characters so fast it would make your head swim. I was proved correct. I also figured that Stewart would show up as well provided the payday was large enough. That is not a knock on Patrick. He is in a position to demand the pay and he absolutely should take advantage of it.
And I also think I should repeat that I give credit where credit is due. Kurtzman had exactly the right idea. Produce a larger variety of different kinds of Trek shows. The concept is sound. The problem was he was the wrong person to execute it. He seems to be a VERY poor judge of behind the scenes talent. His bad staffing decisions are reflected in the quality of the programs he is producing. To this day I feel like Prodigy was a Kurtzman accident. Something that has been decent in spite of him. Not because of him. In that respect, I guess he does have something in common with GR. I don’t think Gene was a very good writer or producer looking at his non Trek work. But he stumbled onto Star Trek by accident. It was his idea and his baby but other people raised it into the great thing it became.
” I don’t think Gene was a very good writer or producer looking at his non Trek work.”. Heh. Roddenberry won a Writer’s Guild award for an episode of “Have Gun, Will Travel,” as well as the Hugo for writing “The Menagerie.” Not bad for a not-good writer/producer.
That doesn’t necessarily mean he was good. A lot of those are political. I was judging him based on the work I have seen, too.
Yeah, single-handedly writing two award-winning scripts “doesn’t necessarily mean he was good.” Sure it doesn’t. Harlan Ellison used to take great pride in his WGA wins, even more than all those Hugos and Nebulas he took home, noting that the scripts were submitted to the awards committee without anything identifying the author, and were thus judged wholly on their merits. (And at the time he worked on “Have Gun, Will Travel,” Gene Roddenberry had no ‘political’ capital in the industry to speak of in any case.)
And of course “The Menagerie” is often cited as one of TOS’ most memorable outings. But that fact conflicts with your “Roddenberry was just a hack who got lucky and took credit for the work done by others” narrative, so naturally you just dismiss it.
Correct. It doesn’t. I’ve seen many of the recipients of the Hugo. Many of them just weren’t good. Poo poo it all you want, but such awards, in spite of your snark, are indeed often a political animal.
Yeah, and the burden of proof that either of those awards was “political” and undeserved falls entirely on you, not Gene Roddenberry’s ghost, his WGA colleagues who awarded him Best Teleplay of the Year, or the thousands of fans attending the 1967 World Science Fiction convention who voted him his (second) Hugo. Interestingly, “The Menagerie” was up against “The Naked Time” and “The Corbomite Maneuver” that year, as well as the lovely/awful FANTASTIC VOYAGE and Truffaut’s wonderful adaptation of Bradbury’s FAHRENHEIT 451. Much as I love and admire “The Menagerie” I myself would have a difficult time justifying its win against FAHRENHEIT, but that doesn’t mean that it was in any sense “political.”
You can justify it however you like. I have seen much of GR’s post Trek stuff and it is entirely reasonable to conclude that Star Trek was a mistake for him. And I have personally seen some of the Hugo winners for dramatic presentation and have been thoroughly underwhelmed by them. And in the industry it is quite common for awards to be political. No matter what your rants say. It still happens.
“Honestly I knew that legacy characters would come back in some way. It was inevitable. And I predicted that if the first show did not perform as well as hoped they would reach out to legacy characters so fast it would make your head swim. I was proved correct. I also figured that Stewart would show up as well provided the payday was large enough. That is not a knock on Patrick. He is in a position to demand the pay and he absolutely should take advantage of it.”
No you’re right, I should’ve said legacy actors. Sure they could get plenty to show up in an episode or a recurring role, but I wasn’t sure we would see any of them (the big ones) to star in their own show like what ultimately happened with Stewart. Because many of them has said they had moved on from Star Trek. And I think most meant it, especially since most probably assumed they just wouldn’t return to that era of Trek as we are seeing now, but here we are.
I mean they even got Robert Beltran to come back, who saw that coming lol. But I also think it’s easier to convince others when its mostly voice work versus standing on a set in a uniform again. I still think that was the only way to convince Kate Mulgrew to come back full time as well as Janeway. She never seem all that interested in playing the role again as much as many fans out there wanted her to. So this is a great compromise. If they can somehow convince Avery Brooks to show up in a five minute cameo some day, then they are truly miracle workers lol.
But there was clearly always going to be legacy characters coming back. We got Sarek in the very first episode of Discovery. They were clearly going to milk it as much as they could and as we are seeing with so many showing up in every show now.
I suspect whatever the next show is will be (not talking about Section 31) will also star another legacy actor from one of the 24th century shows as well.
Is Avery Brooks even still acting? Hasn’t he retired from that? If there was one actor who I think there is zero chance of returning at any price it’s Brooks. I believe he said he has said all there is to say of his DS9 time and does he even show up at the cons? I don’t think so. I was a little surprised he even showed up on Shatner’s “The Captains” thing.
Hey Leonard Nimoy was also retired and they still got that guy back. ;)
And he was still showing up in the cons, but it’s probably been a few years by now; but it’s been a few years by most of them given everything.
Amazing News! Now I have something to look forward to every week this year.
I mean. Lots of new Star Trek! Yay? At least there’s lots of 60s,80s,90s, & 2000s Trek to rewatch 100 times.
I’m glad there’s new Trek, and I watch all of it. I’m just bummed it’s not rewatchable like the old Trek. Except Prodigy, that show is amazing
Lower Decks is very rewatchable as well IMO. I think it’s actually the show I have rewatched the most with all the newer shows. I can see myself watching Prodigy a lot too when more episodes arrive. But I watched the last two episodes at least 3 times each!
Exactly! Of Discovery the only ep worth watching again stretches all the way back to the 1st season, “Context Is For Kings’. The format has facilitated a lot of lazy, soap opera-ish writing. That’s why I’m hoping that the episodic format of SNW will result in tighter and better writing due to the imperative of telling a complete story in 50 minutes or so.
Correct. None of the shows are on a re-watch level. Including, Prodigy, the best outing from SH so far. The fact that the bulk of the new Trek has been terrible and only one so far has been above mediocre at best is gravely disappointing.
I’d say Kurtzman based on seasons is 1 for 8 with 5 K’s (4 looking), a foul out, a pop up and an infield hit.
The best just keeps getting better! It’s the Golden Age of Star Trek, folks!
Star Trek was at its peak creatively in the ’90’s, arguably its Golden Age when it was also at its most profitable for Paramount. It was the only decade to feature films and series with the original series, TNG, DS9 and Voyager casts. Star Trek in the ’90’s was, in a sense, the MCU of its day.
For me the 90s and Berman shows will probably be.my personal golden age of Star Trek for years if not decades to come. That was reaffirmed rewatching every show and movie again for my grand rewatch last year. The shows I enjoyed the most were still the Berman shows by far.
And I say this liking the Kelvin movies and a lot of the new shows now. I was fine with Abrams and made clear how much I like the direction Kurtzman is going now. They just don’t have that same appeal or rewatch value for me like the Berman shows do today.
In fact I probably like Prodigy and Lower Decks because they feel the closest to the 90s shows, especially LDS. But the longer those go maybe they will surpass my attachment to some of the older shows too.
But none of this is a competition. I just love Star Trek…all of it!
Yeah… I’d say the 90’s would still be the golden age. Not only did you have TNG, DS9 & VOY overlapping some you ended it with Enterprise (still better than most like to say) and the 2nd best show of the franchise (DS9) was on then. Remember, quantity does not = quality. I’d rather have one good show over 5 mediocre or terrible ones.
I would measure the 90s as a golden age more in terms of how Captain Picard and the TNG crew entered the broader social conversation.
That was however largely squandered by the decision to use the franchise to launch UPN. The fact that Voyager has had so much influence and uptake later, especially for young women in STEM and through streaming, doesn’t mitigate the poor strategic decision to use the franchise to launch a network that had little else to offer.
One can apply the same logic and concern to tying the franchise to Paramount+ and it’s predecessor CBS All Access, however ViacomCBS shareholders have made it clear that the future is either to become a force in streaming or have the share price drop until they are merged into something else. Retaining Trek for ViacomCBS own streamer is a market necessity not a ego dream of senior executives.
However, I would argue that Star Trek on Paramount+ will in the long run have greater reach than it ever had a hope to on UPN, and that CBS and Paramount have more comparable content to offer. They still need to be investing in the development of more original scripted series, but it’s hard to see the UPN debacle for anything positive for the franchise.
Star Trek had an MCU before the MCU was a thing.
This exactly, and it also had the multiverse before multiverse became a thing too.
LOL yeah, that too!
Well he said that. He was only comparing them.
I know. I was just agreeing.
Running the numbers, it looks like this alone gets us to 901 episodes.
A ten-episode Discovery season might be a good thing- tighten things up a bit.
Recounting with all the renewals I count 911, actually. Not counting movies.
Oh, another season of Prodigy? 931.
Agree about Discovery. Always thought 13-15 a season was a big mistake. Hopefully, 10 eps the show will become more focused. I’ll admit season 4 is slowly improving.
That is a good point. I never thought I’d say this, especially about a show with a season long story arc, but Star Trek Discovery has WAY too many filler episodes for a 13 episode season. I wouldn’t have thought that possible. Normally I prefer to expand the season to a more normal total but I think Star Trek Discovery would be helped some by cutting down the number of episodes per story arc.
Just a little nitpicking:
“Star Trek: Lower Decks season three will return this summer for a 10-episode season.”
Nope. It should be
Star Trek: Lower Decks will return this summer for a 10-episode season three.
Makes a difference, especially with regards to seasons of PRO actually being split…
AWESOME news! Makes me very happy that all shows get a new season and that Picard is released partly during Discoverys current season. Star Trek Lives! Unbelievable and just wonderful that Trek is back with a second golden age! Thank you to Kurtzman and the team behind the scences for the vision to take the franchise with multiple series and new Trek every week to new heights. I am really looking forward to each weeks new Trekvand the future of Trek! Let’s fly!
… by the way: I really applaud and appreciate Kurtzmans vision and bold decision to give every show its own style. I was a little confused to hear the idea of an animated comedy show as well as a “kids show. But I LOVE Prodigy and Lower Decks. I like that innovative spirit!
“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season one will premiere on May 5”
May the Fifth be with you
I see what you did there, but I’m going with May the Fifth engage you.
It’s just like angry nerds have been predicting since Disco’s launch in 2017, NuTrek is dead and a total flop. You can tell because of the massive growth and consistent viewership.
Nice to finally get news for SNW. Looking forward to that with cautious optimism only because Secret Hideout finally showed they can get something right (Prodigy) if they get the right people involved and have minimal input from the higher ups at Secret Hideout.
Also hoping that the HD version of TMP will make it to BD this year. Would be nice to get something positive amid all the bad news the last year or so…
Wow, after a shaky and controversial start with Discovery way back when, Kurtzman seems to have the franchise back on track and today’s announcements, although none of them surprising, confirms it.
Funny, if you had asked me about Discovery being renewed just a few short months ago, my response might have been a relatively mundane meh! – especially with SNW on the way. It’s been a long road, but as Tiger2 said above, the show has FINALLY hit its stride in the 32nd century and I am looking forward to seeing what they do next.
Btw as a complete aside, after watching The Center Seat and seeing how much former CBS exec Moonves despised Rick Berman, in retrospect Discovery not surprisingly almost completely dismissed what Berman had created. Perhaps coincidently, after Moonves ran into issues and was unceremoniously allowed to resign back in 2018, things started to change for the better for Trek and now we have 5 shows. Each may target a different and expanding audience, but each of them is now recognizable as Star Trek and each of them are still slightly or extremely attractive to legacy fans like myself.
Maybe there is no connection between the departure of Moonves and the positive changes made to Kurtzman’s Trek shows and there are still some complaints, but there is no doubt that Berman’s Trek universe now has influence both on and off screen. It is great to see Stewart, Frakes, McFadden, deLancie, Spiner, Ryan, Mulgrew, Beltram and so many others reprising their characters. It is also great to see the likes of the Okudas, Matalas and others once again being part of this new universe of shows.
51 new shows over the next 52 weeks!! Yes, indeed it is a great time to be a Star Trek fan!!
At least Picard S2 is on Amazon Prime. I’ve been buying the Disco S4 episodes form iTunes individually. Just under £2 a time. not the end of the world. I’ll try to get a free Prime trial for Picard S2 and watch it all in one go. SNW – it depends.
One day – Discovery is going to come to a natural planned conclusion after 7 seasons.
Then all the haters will be like LOL finally got cancelled !!! Told you so !!! HAHA
My favourite thing about Disco and current Trek haters is – they deliberately watch it and complain about it. So don’t watch it ? I decided I didn’t like Lost or Breaking Bad during the first season. I just decided not to watch any more. Not force myself to watch every episode and complain about it online.
Simple eh ?
It seems that we will never (ever??) see a 24 episode season of any ST show like in the old days. That being said, with what Alex said, perhaps that is the way to get more variety of Trek shows. A section 31 show is not a bad idea as it can lend itself to many intriguing story lines never seen before. You can argue the “ethics” later in regards to their methods/reasons of what they do in S31. With regard to an Academy series… if memory serves, back in 2006 at the Las Vegas CON. The program had an ad for the next Star Trek movie debuting in 2008/9 and it was going to (possibly) deal with Kirk/Spock/McCoy at the academy. It would be nice to see some history there but I have come to the conclusion that going back in Trek history is no popular with fans, witness ENTERPRISE as it did not fair well when it came out. Although my wife and I enjoy ENT immensely and I thought there could have been more Trek canon explored had it gone on for 3 more years. Bottom line is we can have as many shows types or subjects as we can handle if done right.
IS IT JUST ME…or is it utterly absurd that Strange New Worlds won’t premier for another 4 months???
They just want to make sure that EVERYTHING is perfect for the (many, many) canon-driven fans out there…
I think they could probably start it today but are looking to fill the calendar out to reduce churn as much as possible.
It’s just you.
We have plenty of Trek between now and then to keep us busy. I’d prefer they take their time and get it right.
I don’t really care for most of this. I gave up after Discovery Season 3 or Picard Season 1 (whichever ended last). I do enjoy Lower Decks, which I didn’t expect and I will be watching the first few episodes of SNW with low expectations.
But what I find interesting about the schedule is another thing: If they have the resources to produce 51 Episodes of Star Trek in a year, why not make a Show with 21 Episodes a season? Or 26 like old TNG.
I really hate the modern trend to serialise everything and “not have any filler” in a 13 Episode Season, when in reality there’s barely enough story for one episode and most of the 13 Episodes are Filler. You could probably trim down Picard S1 and Discovery S3 to about 1-2 Episodes each and barely lose any of the story. When in the days of 26 episode Seasons you had single episodes, that did more with barely 50 Minutes than modern shows do in 10-13 hours. And the filler and bottle episodes often were the best ones. DS9 had whole arcs about characters not even named in the main credits while after 2 Seasons of discovery I didn’t even know the names of the bridge crew. Watching all 10 Seasons of a show like Stargate feels like you really experienced some of the characters lives with them, which even long running modern shows rarely achieve, since they’re so short and usually only have one story per season.
That’s the end of my rant. Obviously it’s my opinion. I just really would like to have some longer seasons and actual episodes back. It doesn’t mean you have to have almost no character development, like Voyager did for a long time. There must be a nice middle ground somewhere.
Maybe the answer is some sort of middle ground, but the days of 20-26 episodes per season seem sadly long long gone. Even The Orville which tried to live in the past on network TV on FOX with a lower budget show realized this format wasn’t sustainable and Disney/Hulu moved it over to streaming with limited numbers of shows per season in exchange for higher production values and costs per episodes.
Perhaps things will change and we can see longer seasons with more episodes, but I think the days of shows like Star Trek ever being back on network TV – that train has left the station and it isn’t coming back.
To be fair FOX has started to embrace the short season years ago. The Orville was always a mini-series.
Let’s hope the old adage “out of sight, out of mind” doesn’t apply to The Orville S3. It’s been about 3 years since the season finale of S2 and it would be a shame if the show goes off the air at the end of S3 simply because many casual fans have forgotten about it.
The Oreo got cancelled?
Does Disney even care about Orville when they have Disney Star Wars.
It takes more than a year to make a season of Discovery at it’s current season length. I don’t think they would be able to make 26 episodes even if they wanted to. The show just takes much longer to produce. That goes for pre-production, shooting itself and post-production.
The only reason they can churn out about 50 new Trek episodes in total per year is because these are spread across several shows that can be produced in parallel independent of each other.
That might be a “chicken or the egg” thing … if you’re doing – let’s say – 21 episodes on the same budget you used to do 10 on of course the scripts will have to reflect that. You have to do episodes that take place mostly on one set or that not all of the ensemble take part in. You have to have less effects shots per episode. Maybe use some stock flyby and Orbit shots here or there.
I see no problem to make this work if you conceptualise the show in that way. But of course you’re right: there’s no way they could do double the Discovery episodes the way they’re doing them now.
True. But I think they way overspend on Star Trek Discovery to begin with. That show could be done for a LOT less from my point of view and the quality would not drop one bit.
True. Discovery just needs better writers.
Sorry, but that’s bullshit. Better writers don’t make a show cheaper or more expensive. The studio decides how much they want to spend on a show and then it’s the job of the writers and producers to come up with scripts that fit the budget they have. If the studio is willing to pay no writer/producer is going to say: “Hey, I can do it for less”.
maybe picard season 3 finale will lead into a crossover movie or 1 last TNG movie
What a wonderful, charming idea. I hope they make it so!
I can actually see that happening, but I really think that would be more in a streaming format. I don’t know if they want to try and make a big mainstream movie for a cast that hasn’t been on the big screen for 20 years now.
But if it was a streaming option, I think it would work completely with a more modest budget.
It might be time for a new crew and a new USS Enterprise. Wish Riker would take command.
According to the comics (which I admit are not canon) Worf took command of the ENT E when Picard got promoted to admiral.
That would certainly be interesting. But right now I want a show that is just way better than what we got in Season 1. Between DeLance and Whoopie I hope we will get exactly that.
Great to see all these shows renewed in what feels like a “new” age for Star Trek. I’m particularly looking forward to SNW but living in the UK, it’s unclear as to whether I’ll be able to watch when it airs owing to our still being in the dark when it comes to the launch of P+.
Last I heard was that P+ was supposed to launch in the UK early 2022 but I’ve not seen any advertising or information. Surprising considering that the UK is Treks biggest market outside of the US, closely followed by Germany and Australia.
For Star Trek fans like me in non-P+ countries, the announcement is considerably shorter. Picard on the island.
To Disco and her crew and creators. Congratulations you beat the Enterprise curse of being cancelled at 4 seasons. I look forward to season 5.
Not a proper comparison. Enterprise had 97 episodes. Star Trek Discovery, upon completion of this season, is still some 44 episodes behind. They would need at least 4 more “seasons” to catch up to Enterprise.
I love all of the current shows and am looking forward to the new offerings, I do think Prodigy would have been better as a live-action, renegades type show. I would like to see the same formula that has worked in the CW Arrowverse a Show -a-Day formula to play out in Star Trek again. We had this in the late 90s with ST, TNG, DS9, and Voyager all living and crossing with the help of syndication. Just a thought. Note Paramount owns CBS and CW (WB) so the formula is not a foreign concept.
Hasn’t anyone realised there is nothing new for the fall? The only series filming is Picard 3 but that won’t drop until 2023…
It has to be said season 4 does not match up to seasons 2 and 3. I’ve paid to view season 4 thinking it was going to as exciting as the others. How wrong am I. Poor story lines along with poor acting. Has there been a change in the script writers? I hope season 5 will make for season 4.