Anthony and Laurie are joined by Shuttle Pod‘s Brian to round up all the latest Star Trek news. They start with a production update: With the strikes over, Strange New Worlds is already back in action and Section 31 has a start date set, plus Prodigy has wrapped post-production on season 2 and Discovery has set its premiere for April. They talk about the latest awards nominations for Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, and Picard, then talk about the latest merch (DVDs and starships!) and what to expect at Trek Talks 3 in January.
The big topic this week is Shari Redstone’s interest in selling her controlling stake in Paramount Global, how that could affect Paramount+, and how that in turn could affect Star Trek.
They wrap up with a 1960s RCA ad featuring TOS, the Delta Flyers watching DS9 with Terry Farrell and Armin Shimerman, and William Shatner on a comic book cover with Batman and Superman.
Links:
Production Begins For ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 3, ‘Section 31’ Movie Starts In January
Podcast: All Access Star Trek Revisits ‘Strange New Worlds’ With Producing Director Chris Fisher
Jess Bush shows off her season 3 cap [Twitter]
Work On ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Season 2 Has Been Completed
What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report [Netflix]
‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 5 To Debut In April; Watch New Clip From CCXP
‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Star And Showrunner Talk Up “Fun” Season 5 And “Satisfying” Series Conclusion
‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ And ‘Lower Decks’ Nominated For Best Series Critics Choice Awards
‘Star Trek: Picard,’ ‘Strange New Worlds’ And ‘Lower Decks’ Pick Up 15 Saturn Awards Nominations
Review: ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition’ Stuns On 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Fanhome Launching New Collection Of Die-Cast Star Trek Ship Models
Fanhome Revives Eaglemoss Enterprise-D Build Program; Master Replicas To Sell Leftover Ship Models
REVIEW: ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 2 Shines Bright On 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
John Billingsley and Bonita Friedericy on The Bob Cesca Show
New Paramount Takeover Buzz Could Impact Star Trek Franchise
Bits:
Brian: 1960s RCA ad with Star Trek [Twitter]
Laurie: Robbie McNeill, Garrett Wang, Terry Farrell, and Armin Shimerman discuss DS9’s “Emissary”
Tony: William Shatner on Batman/Superman cover
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A couple of thoughts:
I think it was Laurie who mention the Trek Critics Choice nominees were up against stiff competition. While the perpetually persnickety will likely disagree, there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging what these nominees confirm, that SNW and LD are quality productions.
This is just a brain fart at this point, but the S31 movie will be a major disappointment if Michelle Yeoh’s involvement is limited to the opening and closing scenes. Streamers do occasionally do a limited theatrical release for some of their feature length productions, lets not assume that won’t happen with S31.
Trek 4 wasn’t really a topic this week, but there is another movie floating around out there that offers up an example of cost-effective movie makings. This is just my opinion, but I’m continuing to see that the very well-reviewed and regarded Godzilla Minus One was made for 15MM. I’m certainly not suggesting a Trek movie should be made for 15MM, but I got to believe that if a creative production stepped up with a concept that could be done for 100MM, that might break up the creative differences’ logjam over at Paramount.
Despite Laurie’s annoyance with it, I want way way way more business talk. Anthony is very knowledgable and I really want to hear more from him about what’s happening with both Paramount specifically and the larger entertainment industry generally. That sort of thing makes way more of a difference to what Star Trek we’ll get to see over the next decade than anything else the podcast covers.
I know Laurie doesn’t like it, but as an audience member every show (not just this one) is going to be a mix of stuff I care about and stuff I don’t. I don’t care about Eaglemoss, awards news or convention news, but I’m not complaining about that because many other people really do care about it.
If the Mods want to dedicate the occasional story or podcast to how the sausage is made, that’s at their discretion. Laurie’s right in not wanting to take an entertainment news podcast too deep into the business news weeds. Outside of needing to know that Shari Redstone wants out, I can probably count on one hand the number of people who want to know why…..and I’d bet my life that her reasons for wanting out have 0.00% to do with Trek.
Not saying you are wrong, just saying what I find interesting vs. what I don’t. And, of course Shari Redstone doesn’t care about Trek. But her decisions matter in way that few others do.
I think if things progress, maybe Tony and Brian could do a deep dive and I could sit that one out. I just don’t have much to contribute to that kind of discussion but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth having on our podcast.
Redstone is nowhere near “fire sale” territory, so if things progress is a sharp observation. Let’s not forget that Paramount has changed hands a few times during Treks almost sixty-year history. The IP is a moneymaker, whoever ends up owning it will make more.
Thanks for the podcast and discussion which I found very interesting. It was also great to hear from Brian who I’ve not heard from in a while. I subscribe to Paramount+ here in the UK and while I found the available content (Star Trek aside) somewhat underwhelming at first, IMO the service has improved a lot over the the last year and I’d be sorry to see it go. As an aside, we (UK) still don’t have the recent upgrade to ST:TMP which is disappointing.
I wonder if the loss making issues with Paramount+ stem from it perhaps being just too late to the streaming market? My feeling here in the UK is that Paramount+ would be a 4th choice subscription for most people at best with again most people only signing up to 2 or 3 (at a push) streaming services at any one time. Your comments about bundling of services were interesting and certainly seem a likely way forward at this point.
I’ll tell you this, the app is still a mess over here. It freezes up, it’s sluggish to respond, and the navigation is frustrating.
Please stop calling it “content”. Please
I generally never use that word, promise. I think the context in which I used it for Section 31 was to differentiate from the other information we have, like we know when it’s filming and who’s directing, we just don’t have any specifics on the story, the time period, etc. But generally, I agree with you! I am a writer, not a “content creator.” (Dammit, Jim.)
Hey Laurie! Thanks for responding, I really appreciate it. I don’t think you used that word but Anthony did several times, when he could have easily used “show” our “new episodes” instead of “new Star Trek content”.
There are three words I’d like to see a lot less of in 2024
1) iconic
2) journey
3) content
Thanks again!
I definitely used it… I felt a pang of regret after I said it! But I think we both used it in forgivable contexts, ha. Agree with you on the others for sure.
I was reading an article about Blue Eye Samurai (which everyone should watch) and learned that one of the main factors Netflix uses to decide whether to continue with a show is how many viewers complete the season. The thing is that you as a viewer only have 28 days to complete a season to have it count. Which given life, and work and stuff isn´t that much.
Why was the CCXP a strange place to announce season 5 of Disco? It´s a huge convention, bigger than San Diego. It´s very US-centric to think it was a strange place to announce it.
Can´t wait for the Tuvix panel!
The only thing I care about in this whole business thing is that we keep getting good Star Trek.
I am wishing both of you, Happy Holidays!
Happy holidays!
I think this could be good timing. This current run of Star Trek has been going since 2009 with JJ’s first Trek movie. We got a lot of Star Trek since then and now might be a good time for the field to lie fallow for a few years. And then let a new team take the creative wheel for a decade or two. With all this Paramount shake up, the current productions might stop after their current seasons, thus ending the Kurtzman era.
Except for Legacy. Give Matalas complete creative control of Legacy for a few seasons. That’s all the Star Trek I need for now.