Has the Trek franchise exhausted itself

[Voth commando1]

Okay Star Trek recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. But with mixed signals coming from the Discovery team and the often hostile reactions to the Kelvinverse not to mention its financial flopping has the Trek franchise run out of steam?

Is it no longer possible to tell stories and discuss relevant issues under its framework and banner? Is it on its way to being a spent and gasp dead franchise? Except in our hearts of course.

There are still novels coming out but the readership is few and can't sustain the franchise by itself. The kelvin comics have minimal readership and it seems all is coming to not.

Is trek about to reach the end of its life?

I would be heartbroken to see it pass away but as the famous quote goes all good things must come to an end.

PS: I'm not trolling or seeking to throw spit bombs Im interested in how people perceive the future of the franchise and whether or not it's tank is completely out of gas without a million miles so to speak?

 

[Mudd]

Yes, it's been creatively exhausted.

That does not mean it's going away.

 

[Cheapjack1]

Okay Star Trek recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. But with mixed signals coming from the Discovery team and the often hostile reactions to the Kelvinverse not to mention its financial flopping has the Trek franchise run out of steam?

Is it no longer possible to tell stories and discuss relevant issues under its framework and banner? Is it on its way to being a spent and gasp dead franchise? Except in our hearts of course.

There are still novels coming out but the readership is few and can't sustain the franchise by itself. The kelvin comics have minimal readership and it seems all is coming to not.

Is trek about to reach the end of its life?

I would be heartbroken to see it pass away but as the famous quote goes all good things must come to an end.

PS: I'm not trolling or seeking to throw spit bombs Im interested in how people perceive the future of the franchise and whether or not it's tank is completely out of gas without a million miles so to speak?

it would be criminally insane to say so

 

[Overgeeked]

Okay Star Trek recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. But with mixed signals coming from the Discovery team and the often hostile reactions to the Kelvinverse not to mention its financial flopping has the Trek franchise run out of steam?

I'm no fan of the reboot series of films, but they're hardly flops.

2009. Budget: 150 million US. Box office: 385.7 million US.
Into Darkness. Budget: 185 million US. Box office: 467.4 million US.
Beyond. Budget: 186 million US. Box office: 343.3 million US.

Hardly flops.

Is it no longer possible to tell stories and discuss relevant issues under its framework and banner? Is it on its way to being a spent and gasp dead franchise? Except in our hearts of course.

Maybe it's dead to you.

There are still novels coming out but the readership is few and can't sustain the franchise by itself. The kelvin comics have minimal readership and it seems all is coming to not.

People want more TV series and films. Most fandoms don't have higher numbers for the tie-in fiction than the main franchise.

Is trek about to reach the end of its life?

Nope.

I would be heartbroken to see it pass away but as the famous quote goes all good things must come to an end.

PS: I'm not trolling or seeking to throw spit bombs Im interested in how people perceive the future of the franchise and whether or not it's tank is completely out of gas without a million miles so to speak?

If the owners of the IP insist on regurgitating the same old, yeah, it's going to peter out a bit. But if they open things up and allow a more wide range of stories, then it'll be fine. Hell, look at Doctor Who. Something like 99% of the stories are exactly the same and it's lasted most of the last 53 years.

 

[Cheapjack1]

Its an epic journey of discovery and people can only gaze in wonder

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think it's in danger of going back to the well once too often, but I don't believe it's exhausted...yet. Ask again after a season or two of DIS.

 

[feek61]

For me as long as there are good stories it will endure. The problem is the stories now are forgettable and do not ignite imagination.

 

[2takesfrakes]

STAR TREK's certainly become as risk adverse as all the rest of Hollywood. I'm not entirely sure that equates to Creative Bankruptcy, though. Westside Story is an "homage" and rip-off of Romeo & Juliet and nobody faults it for that. It was celebrated in its time and it's still quite good. I'm not opposed to finding different ways of skinning the same cat. That's not an endorsement for boilerplate repetition, on my part, but even the evolution of diversity in Nature often involves very old, familiar genes just picking up new tricks. As long as it entertains, STAR TREK is something that deserves to continue for another 50 years.

 

[KelisThePoet]

I'd much rather see some repetition in the storytelling than novelty for novelty's sake and for shock value. If Star Trek isn't recognizable as itself to some degree, there's no reason to slap the "Star Trek" label on it.

As for the question of whether the franchise has exhausted its popularity, I don't think so. I do think its popularity is limited. For reasons that I don't understand (as a Trekkie with no interest in Marvel), there are more people willing to go to a Marvel movie than a Star Trek movie, right now. But there are plenty of people willing to go to a Star Trek movie, so the creative folks behind the franchise just need to find a way to deliver entertainment that will satisfy most of those people on a budget that won't require an even wider audience. If the budgets keep exploding as the franchise keeps trying to compete with more popular Hollywood properties, Star Trek won't die, but it might lie dormant for many years. Or it might get taken away from the people who currently manage it and given to someone who will try a lower budget approach, somewhat like what happened with The Wrath of Khan in the aftermath of The Motion Picture.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Im interested in how people perceive the future of the franchise

Well if this ain't a Future of Trek thread, I don't know what is. Wormhole!

 

[Voth commando1]

Well if this ain't a Future of Trek thread, I don't know what is. Wormhole!

Sorry I debated about that-wasn't sure here it would fit.

 

[elamigodemiamiga]

no. there is no limit to the human imagination.

 

[Lance]

The franchise was "exhausted" in the early 2000s.

It got resurrected. Some naysayers may not like the resurrection of the franchise, but it's hardly been a failure, financially or critically.

I'd argue writing it off now would be foolish.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Okay Star Trek recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. But with mixed signals coming from the Discovery team

That's just fans panicking over everything, as usual.

and the often hostile reactions to the Kelvinverse

That's just fans fearing change, as usual.

not to mention its financial flopping

That's just fan hyperbole, as usual. It was a box-office disappointment, but Paramounts biggest-money film of 2016 and far from a flop.

has the Trek franchise run out of steam?

There's a fourth movie and a new series coming. I'd say no.

Out of steam is Stargate, after Universe was cancelled, the third SG-1 and Atlantis DVD movies were cancelled, and the more recent plans for a big budget reboot collapsed.

Out of steam is Terminator, after Genisys flopped and plans for two more films and a TV series were abandoned. Even so, a reboot is planned at some point in the future.

If they cancel the next movie, if Discovery tanks after it's second season (the first is already paid for, thanks to the international Netflix deal), then Trek will have run out of steam.

Is it no longer possible to tell stories and discuss relevant issues under its framework and banner? Is it on its way to being a spent and gasp dead franchise? Except in our hearts of course.

I'd say they have been, and that especially Into Darkness was Trek's most on-the-nose allegory since "A Private Little War". But fans can miss the obvious, sometimes.

There are still novels coming out but the readership is few and can't sustain the franchise by itself. The kelvin comics have minimal readership and it seems all is coming to not.

And a new series next year and another movie in a couple of years.

Is trek about to reach the end of its life?

It did in 2005. It got better. But it's unlikely to be two concurrent series' and a movies again, at least not while Marvel and Star Wars are around.

I would be heartbroken to see it pass away but as the famous quote goes all good things must come to an end.

PS: I'm not trolling or seeking to throw spit bombs Im interested in how people perceive the future of the franchise and whether or not it's tank is completely out of gas without a million miles so to speak?

"We change. We have to. Or we end up fighting the same battles."
The Trek you fell in love with isn't coming back, but Discovery is good for at least two seasons and will take Trek in a new direction. Beyond performed below expectations but was Paramount's biggest money film this year, so the movies will continue too.

One day, Trek will die (again). But like everything else, it'll be back. And it may surprise. Who saw Harrison Ford coming back to Star Wars after 30 years? Or Nimoy returning to Trek in 2009?

 

[Balok's Decoy]

I don't think Trek has exhausted itself, not by a long shot. The challenge Trek is facing isn't whether there's more to say, it's whether Trek will evolve to have a relevant voice, addressing the issues of the 21st century. I have high hopes that DSC will do just that. Fans also need to grow with the franchise and not expect it to mirror its past incarnations. When we as fans deride or dismiss Trek every time it tries to do something outside the box, or place our own fence around what we personally consider "real" Trek, we suffocate it and prevent that necessary growth. It's been quoted a thousand times, but I'll quote Nicholas Meyer at the Mission New York Convention: "Get loose."

 

[Voth commando1]

I don't think Trek has exhausted itself, not by a long shot. The challenge Trek is facing isn't whether there's more to say, it's whether Trek will evolve to have a relevant voice, addressing the issues of the 21st century. I have high hopes that DSC will do just that. Fans also need to grow with the franchise and not expect it to mirror its past incarnations. When we as fans deride or dismiss Trek every time it tries to do something outside the box, or place our own fence around what we personally consider "real" Trek, we suffocate it and prevent that necessary growth. It's been quoted a thousand times, but I'll quote Nicholas Meyer at the Mission New York Convention: "Get loose."

But we're not loose. We tight, tense, and stressed. Getting loose is the antithesis of we are.

 

[Nyotarules]

Hard to say when the TOS & TNG generation pass onto the next quadrant will Trek still capture the public imagination? Only if there is a good ongoing TV series on the V.R holobox.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

Hard to say when the TOS & TNG generation pass onto the next quadrant will Trek still capture the public imagination? Only if there is a good ongoing TV series on the V.R holobox.

I do think it's valuable to have new Trek series and films, both to continue public interest in the past and present of the franchise, but also because I think Trek has more to say. However, I don't think TOS and TNG will fade from public memory or appreciation. I was born 20 years after TOS was canceled, and it was "my" Star Trek growing up -- I only got into TNG later, when I was a teenager. I think all of the series and films will live on and have a strong fanbase, even if the franchise waxes and wanes.

 

[Greg Cox]

It seems to me that people have been fretting about whether STAR TREK is dying for as long as I've been a Trekkie . . . and we're talking decades here. As noted, it waxes and wanes at times, but here we are, fifty years and counting . . . .

Most shows from the sixties wish they were this "exhausted."

 

[The Lonely Man]

Was Star Wars exhausted in the early 90's? It had been over a decade since Return of the Jedi and still a long way from the prequel trilogy.
Even once Revenge of The Sith was done we had a long time to wait for a new movie and for the franchise to take off like it has done now.

Until The X-Men in 2000 ( I know this wasn't Marvel Studios), Movies based on Marvel characters were almost non existent. Now they are the most successful movie franchise in history with even obscure characters like Guardians of the Galaxy, Deadpool and Dr Strange breaking all sorts of records.

Trek right now is in a lull. It doesn't mean it will always be that way. It's still a huge franchise with a dedicated and loyal fanbase.
Granted Trek has never quite been held in the same public affection as Star Wars has but as we are seeing now with Disney going all in on Star Wars and reaping the rewards, we need something similar with Trek.
The new trilogy was ok, but even as a lifelong Star Trek fan they never really got much better than Ok for me.
Much like a lot of problems if life, Star Trek can be fixed and reinvigorated by throwing vast sums of money at it.
As that probably won't happen then right now I think we have to pin our hopes on Discovery being successful. With the right people involved I see no reason why this can't happen.
A good critically acclaimed first season and we're off and running again.