What channel should a new Trek TV series be on?

[jefferiestubes8]

GhostFaceSaint wrote:

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some positive aspects for Star Trek if they eventually went to show time, some examples are, no commercials, decent budget

BrownShatner also mentioned

Showtime (premium cable) is the only option where the show would have a half-decent budget, and not be immediately cancelled.

GhostFaceSaint it's where you bring up the actual storytelling that I'm losing you

on Showtime it can tell better stories because Trek needs to be less two-dimensional in its depiction of characters, it needs interpersonal conflicts of some kind to be more realistic reflecting human nature like in Star Trek XI, it also needs that same classic Trek humor we saw in XI

Trek TV has always explored the characters with extensive character development over the seasons with recently ENT going that way a lot for the first 2 seasons.
Star Trek XI just cannot be compared in the storytelling way to Trek on TV. Star Trek XI is an action movie! A series 6 Trek is a different animal.
My starting this thread brings up a number of things such as who the actual audiences are of these 5 TV channels. Us Trek fans obviously think the audience of Spike is not the Trek audience.

Temis the Friendly Ghost hits the nail on the head with the Star Trek franchise

perceived as staunchly mainstream

For the poll I chose CW network.
Leslie Moonves President & CEO CBS Entertainment may control CBS , Showtime, & CW but would probably program it on the CW as it's less of a 'risk' on his beloved CBS network tv and CW has generally lower ratings anyway.

If you care to write a letter to him. Here is the business info:
Mr. Leslie Moonves
President & CEO
CBS Entertainment
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
Phone: (212) 975-2824
Fax: (212) 975-6766
Email: audsvcs@cbs.com
according to a 2006 blogpost.

[GhostFaceSaint]

Trek TV has always explored the characters with extensive character development over the seasons with recently ENT going that way a lot for the first 2 seasons.
Star Trek XI just cannot be compared in the storytelling way to Trek on TV. Star Trek XI is an action movie! A series 6 Trek is a different animal.
My starting this thread brings up a number of things such as who the actual audiences are of these 5 TV channels. Us Trek fans obviously think the audience of Spike is not the Trek audience.

Not all Trek over the years has been equal, my friends who don't like Trek have pointed to "Enterprise" as an example of why they don't like Trek, and I think the criticism is fair and legit. Read some of the posts for bad "Enterprise" episodes reviews at The Agonizer and you'll see where even alot of Trekkers/Trekkies are coming from in their dislike for "Enterprise". Voyager also had some problems. Not all Trek has been character based their are a lot of preachy episodes, and tech based episodes, and the tech based ones were worse than the preaching, Technology makes for good short stories but boring Trek.

[Temis the Vorta]

What's interesting, is that CBS may not automatically have the rights to base a new TV series off of Paramount's movie. They might have to pay Paramount to do so.

They'd have no motive to do anything unless they were capitalizing on Paramount's success, which means if they have to pay, it's a necessary expense.

Look at it the other way. Why would CBS give a flip about making a Star Trek series? They are the most successful network by keeping very disciplined about serving their geriatric audience with very standard cop/doctor/lawyer shows. Their attempts to branch out, such as Moonlight and Jericho, have been failures.

Star Trek is not going to be very attractive to them, and if it weren't for Trek XI's stunning success, it would be totally unattractive to them. My hope is that somewhere in the bowels of CBS, somebody is getting bored at the very thought of developing yet another friggen CSI spinoff and is willing to take a risk on Star Trek. That's the only way I see a TV series happening at all.

It may be legally easier (and one less royalty to pay) for a show to be "Prime Universe" based.

The Prime Universe may make the lawyers happy but the bean counters will veto it. What's the point of doing anything if you aren't capitalizing on the success of Trek XI? How are you going to successfully argue that such a series would be any more successful than ENT was? Why should CBS waste time on a series of the sort that flopped on piddly little UPN when they could spend their time on yet another friggen CSI spinoff that's guaranteed 20 million viewers?

There are some positive aspects for Star Trek if they eventually went to show time,

Neither Showtime nor HBO would touch Star Trek. Their brand strategy is to justify charging viewers for subscriptions by offering stuff you couldn't get on free TV. Since Star Trek has already been on free TV, you can't make that argument successfully - people associate it with NBC et al, so why pay for it? HBO is developing sci fi shows, but they are more in line with their anti-mainstream-TV strategy.

[Samaritan]

The CW



S.

[jefferiestubes8]

i just watched "For the Record" on Bloomberg TV and it was a 30 minute interview with Leslie Moonves the CEO of CBS Network.
The host asked him in the last 5 minutes about other shows and mentioned "Star Trek" series and cancelling it and Moonves said "That was six years ago".
The host said it was a big decision to cancel it and Moonves said without missing a beat,
"It wasn't that big a decision when you saw the ratings."

That CEO is a total businessman and only cares about the ratings that bring in advertising revenue.
CBS is not the home for Star Trek with him as CEO as others have said many times.

[jefferiestubes8]

GhostFaceSaint wrote

It wouldn't really be on HBO anyway because CBS owns Showtime I believe (and right now Showtimes networks collective ratings are beating out HBO's a network that has made bad decisions as of late), the producers at CBS are cautiously watching Star Trek's current movie success and future film productions to see if they will be successful and if they are then why wouldn't they follow through with a new series like one producer has said if XII and XIII are successful?

Weather its a regular show on CBS or a miniseries on Showtime (like the "Tudor's"), another Star Trek TV series if executed correctly could succeed where the last failed.

I decided to continue this here as I felt it was a better place.

why wouldn't they follow through with a new series like one producer has said if XII and XIII are successful?

GhostFaceSaint Was this a CBS Television Studios producer? A Paramount pictures producer? what producer? Source? URL link?

[Temis the Vorta]

That CEO is a total businessman and only cares about the ratings that bring in advertising revenue.

If there were any other significant sources of revenue for a network, he'd probably care about those, too. But as of now, the new revenue streams like ad-supported or paid downloads, are too trivial a part of the mix for him to take notice of. He's just doing his job, and any other network head would say the same thing he did.

It is true, however, that CBS is in such a safe and secure place that experimenting with Star Trek is less attractive than it might be, say, for NBC. But NBC being in dire straights might make it less likely to experiment either - can't take the risk.

CBS is not the home for Star Trek with him as CEO as others have said many times.

It shouldn't air on CBS. That doesn't mean it can't be a good business proposition for CBS to make, and license to air elsewhere, where it's a better fit. But it doesn't sound like Moonvies is interested in either.

[GhostFaceSaint]

jefferiestubes8 wrote:

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GhostFaceSaint wrote

I decided to continue this here as I felt it was a better place.

GhostFaceSaint Was this a CBS Television Studios producer? A Paramount pictures producer? what producer? Source? URL link?

I don't remember his name, he is a former Trek producer who did two interviews that were posted on the internet and has said he would like to do a new Trek show if it continues to be succefull in the box office. I will try and track down those interviews this afternoon (Mountain Time US), and post them here for you to read and discuss.
Later

[GhostFaceSaint]

Ok I found one of the interview's already, his name by the way is Bryan Fuller, (you remember him right?) and here is the short interview: TV Squad: Is there Hope For A New Star Trek TV Show.

That was the easy one to find I will try and track down his other but I am not sure where it is. Wish me luck!

[GhostFaceSaint]

Hey I found the other interview (alright!), here it is:

For most writer/producers, working on one television series would be enough. But the busy Fuller can't help himself. Beyond digging into season four of Heroes, he's creating a comic-book series for his canceled ABC series, Pushing Daisies, and dreaming about how much he'd like to be a part of doing a new Star Trek series. "Oh, my God, I would love to do a Star Trek series! I would love it," he said.

"I think Star Trek, since it did so well in the theaters and the movie's wonderful, I think that a Star Trek TV series is probably a couple years away, just to let the feature franchise breathe," Fuller added.

While Fuller is happily committed to Heroes, he does hope things might work out just right if and when Star Trek returns in some form to the small screen. "I'm hoping that by the time they're ready to do a television series that I am available and can participate, because, I mean, even if it's J.J. Abrams' team, I would love to join that team for a new Star Trek series. I think it would be a ball," Fuller said.

And what would a new Star Trek series look like? "I love the aesthetics of the new movie," Fuller said. "I think it has to be set in that world, ... but I think it has to be a different ship than the Enterprise. I think the Enterprise has to be sailing on the silver screen, and I think we need a new ship with a new crew and an entirely new adventure that is in the timeline and the aesthetic of the movie, but it's telling a different story."

The full interview can be read here

[jefferiestubes8]

Thanks GhostFaceSaint I remember hearing about former Star Trek: VOY producer Bryan Fuller mentioning this earlier this year.
He's just a creative though and not a greenlighter-type.
Well thanks for the relevant thought and mentioning him.
TrekBBS will be full of threads on Future of Trek with ideas of what fans want for the next 2 years until we hear what is really in the works and who is on board.

[Supreme Admiral]

Or CBS could launch new scifi-type channel of their own? It would be great idea if they did that.

[jefferiestubes8]

Supreme Admiral wrote:

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Or CBS could launch new scifi-type channel of their own? It would be great idea if they did that.

From what they own not including College Sports Network:
* CBS
* The CW Television Network
* Showtime Networks
o Showtime
o The Movie Channel
o FLIX
o SET Pay-Per-View (sporting and entertainment events)
Maybe CBS will take over another channel [buy] and re-brand it. The TV channel market is so saturated now that I can't see them starting a new channel under CBS ownership for the Sci-fi target market.

Viacom & Paramount co-own a brand new premium TV network Epix which I started a thread about already in Future of Trek which debuts on October 30.
Epix is a joint venture among Viacom, Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate

[AviTrek]

jefferiestubes8 wrote:

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From what they own not including College Sports Network:
* CBS
* The CW Television Network
* Showtime Networks
o Showtime
o The Movie Channel
o FLIX
o SET Pay-Per-View (sporting and entertainment events)
Maybe CBS will take over another channel [buy] and re-brand it. The TV channel market is so saturated now that I can't see them starting a new channel under CBS ownership for the Sci-fi target market.

Viacom & Paramount co-own a brand new premium TV network Epix which I started a thread about already in Future of Trek which debuts on October 30.
Epix is a joint venture among Viacom, Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate

CBS is missing the general interest basic cable channel. Think USA, TNT, or FX. If CBS were ever to decide to launch an equivalent channel Star Trek may be a good fit. I could even see Star Trek being a launch program like VOY was with UPN. This assumes Star Trek could be done on a basic cable budget and CBS has any interest in even trying.

[GhostFaceSaint]

AviTrek wrote:

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CBS is missing the general interest basic cable channel. Think USA, TNT, or FX. If CBS were ever to decide to launch an equivalent channel Star Trek may be a good fit. I could even see Star Trek being a launch program like VOY was with UPN. This assumes Star Trek could be done on a basic cable budget and CBS has any interest in even trying.

Well if the movies that come out in the next few years are collectively successful it would demonstrate that there is a market for a future 'Trek TV show on a new network, but only time will tell.