8 years ago
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The Star Trek TV Shows That Never Happened
We’re finally on the cusp of Star Trek’s grand return to TV with the impending arrival of Star Trek: Discovery, but there have been many attempts over the year to get Trek on TV that weren’t nearly as successful. Here are four times the franchise tried to launch a new show, but failed to make it off the ground.
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As much as I would love for there to be a new Star Trek series, it doesn't seem like CBS is taking this show very seriously. Thirteen episodes, on their exclusive streaming service (for the US & Canada, International gets it on Netflix 24 hours later), for a fifty-year-old franchise with a massive built in audience, that could easily become the new flagship property (no pun intended) for the network?
I hope I'm wrong, but so far it's not sounding like this show is going to be around very long at all.
That's what they said about TNG. Patrick Stewart was interviewed by Howard Stern last year and talked about it. His agent told him not to "move" to LA, but just plan on renting for a while. So, he was renting a garage apartment during the first season in anticipation of moving back the the UK after the show was cancelled. The rest is history. This is the first I have heard of a new Star Trek and it makes me excited!
That's not really a fair comparison. The franchise in 1987 was nothing like it is today, in either scope or scale. Back when "Star Trek: The Next Generation" launched, you had four relatively successful movies based on a television show that was, from the network's perspective, a failure and that had been off the air for nearly twenty years. Now, "Star Trek: Discovery" is launching in an environment where the franchise has been around for 50 years, has had eight more movies, and over six-hundred hours of television programming. It's a completely different set of circumstances.
As I said, I hope I'm wrong, I'm just not getting my hopes up.
Honestly, I do not understand what you are saying. Not a single point you made would indicate to me that this series will be a failure. If anything, it would be just the opposite.
If I told you that the next Avengers movie wasn't going to be released in theaters, it's going straight to DVD, and only going to be available at Walmart, would you think that was a good idea by the studio? That's essentially what CBS is doing with Star Trek: Discovery.
Instead of putting it on the network which has a much larger audience, and where it would have a chance, with the proper marketing and lead-in, to generate substantial ad revenue and become a very lucrative show (which would help not only Discovery, but help future Star Trek shows get made), they're "sending it straight to DVD" by putting it on their streaming service where not many people are going to see it, and where it's not going to generate much in the way of revenue.
Ah, I see.