Let’s be silly: predict the number of seasons Discovery runs; come back later to see if you're right

I think they want to do 7 just to hit that historic milestone, but it might happen with a 16-20 episode block filmed back to back and aired as the last 2 seasons. No other modern Trek show will try to go as long.

 

If it weren’t for the fact that Kurtzman (or was it Kadin?) specifically noted that older shows went for seven seasons, I wouldn’t expect the producers to factor that into their decision-making process. Even now, it’s been acknowledged, but it could have just as easily been their way of saying, “Discovery isn’t ending yet; other shows didn’t end yet, either.”

But hey, who knows. So long as the show makes money, I don’t anticipate CBS/Paramount minding.

I like your point about hitting seven with one of those “expanded two-year season” deals that have become all the rage. If the show makes it past a fourth season and into a fifth, I can totally see them getting out ahead and basically turning “there are 16 or so more episodes before it’s over” into “enjoy even more of this show in 2023 and 2024.”

 

Regardless of when it ends, Discovery will be the first Star Trek series I'll have seen first-run from start-to-finish. Unless Picard ends first.

TOS ended 10 years before I was born. I didn't know about TNG until mid-way through its run. I saw "Emissary" when it premiered, but then I stopped watching DS9 until right after TNG ended. I stopped watching VOY toward the beginning of the sixth season (I would've just stopped watching after the fifth season, but I stuck around for Ron Moore's episodes). And I pretty much skipped out on ENT.

Kind of weird when I really think about it. So Disco really is my Star Trek series.

 

Awesome.

I was born three weeks prior to TNG's series premiere. I "watched" it from start to finish, which of course meant doing baby things or whatever until I was at least five or so and could begin to grasp any of it whatsoever. I also watched DS9, VOY, and ENT from start to finish -- needless to say, I had an easier time understanding their series finales. (Wait, that's technically not true. I still don't fully understand Enterprise's. :P)

But yeah, I was quite young. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve tuning in week after week during DS9's finale arc. I sobbed like a ten-year-old when it ended. Being ten years old, this seems fitting.

Random aside: TOS was basically "the movies" for me until I was in my late teens. My grandmother had them all recorded on VHS, but for one reason or another I never seemed to catch more than an episode here and there of the show itself. I understood, fundamentally, that I was watching the movie sequels to something that was on my queue for a very long time. But they're perfectly enjoyable as-is.

As a result, the middle-aged TOS crew is "my" TOS crew, haha.

 

I guess using this criteria, Enterprise would be "my Trek." I began watching TNG through syndicated reruns in the summer of 1993, meaning the seventh season was the only one of that I watched in first run. Likewise, I began watching DS9 with the second season. TOS I caught at first through VHS releases. I did begin watching Voyager when it premiered, but stopped by the fifth season, though I did tune in for Endgame on the night or originally aired. Then Enterprise, I watched that from beginning to end when it first aired.

 

Why is the reply screen all black?

 

Talk about a split vote. Who knows. I think they have an "ending" in my mind, since on the rumor mill they are thinking about doing a Discovery mill. But that is just a rumor.

 

At least 5, probably 6 or 7 and maybe 8.

 

Agreed, that was an odd one.

 

Spoiler: question

But she left the ship in mid-season, didn't she

?

 

Thus their scratching.

 

We need a silly answer to live up to the thread title, "Let's be silly." Disco will run for 73 seasons.

 

Eleventy Zillion Seasons.

 

I'll give a Sisko kind of silly answer. Maybe it'll last a few years more, maybe it stopped last year...

It is not linear!!!

 

Here you go:

DISCOVERY will run for 1,771,561 seasons.

 

You mean it didn’t even reach 1,771,562?

Kurtzman’s career is over.

 

Before I make my quarter-educated guess: Do we know anything about how long the contracts run, particularly Sonequa's and the other regulars'? That seems to have been a big issue for other shows.

 

It's probably six years, that's the standard (and I think maximum) length for a series regular contract.

But I do think the series could run longer, it pretty much reinvents itself each season so it could make characters leaving (even Michael!) part of the story.

 

OK, I didn't read this thread before I cast my vote.
I settled on 7.

My reasoning:
- From all accounts, it's quite a success, which is the most important factor. It's a business.
- I thought maybe six because of contract re-negotiations (and no, I don't think they'd do the show without Burnham. Without any other regular, yes.), but...
- because of the plague, things might be different, e.g. not as much other work for actors
- which of course also means it could go 8 or more (but the producers might want to explore other trek shows), so...

Bottom line: I have no clue but voted anyway!

 

Welcome to the club.