Will 52 episodes a year be enough?

[F. King Daniel]

The plan set out years ago was for year-round Trek on Paramount+. Every time a season of one show ends, another begins and thus they don't lose the die-hard Trekkie subscriber base.

Discovery
Picard
Strange New Worlds
Prodigy
Lower Decks

And as these shows end, Section 31 and Starfleet Academy (with others rumoured, ranging from a live-action Worf comedy series to a show set in the 1990's) are gearing up to take their places.

But how long is this likely to last? Many fans don't consider animated Trek to "matter" as much as live action, and (with zero evidence) there may be subscriber dips when the animated shows are all that are airing. And there are only so many nostalgia pops left in the franchise to bring back lapsed fans, like Picard bringing back the entire Next Gen cast for the last season. Will we start to see even more overlapping, concurrent Star Trek shows as the existing fanbase begins to dwindle? Two new Star Trek episodes a week does sound awfully enticing...

 

[Alexander Corrino]

I doubt they'll be able to keep this up indefinitely. These shows (especially the live-action ones) cost money to make, and a lot of it. At some point they won't have any new subscribers and no more means to get new ones (you can only play the nostalgia card SO many times), and since they've been doing everything they can to butcher their international launch by angering the international Trek fanbase and treating them like second-class citizens - we STILL don't have an official announcement for Strange New Worlds in Europe - I doubt they're gonna get the subscription numbers they want from that corner either.

What might help is having one of the streaming giants (Amazon Prime seems like a candidate for that, Jeff Bezos is a massive Trekkie) buy them up. I doubt there would be as much Trek coming forward then tho.

 

[Relayer1]

They don't actually need to produce 52 new episodes per year. Leaving a couple of weeks between each new show dropping, and assuming short runs of 8 episodes per show that's five shows per year or 40 episodes. And they could also do longer runs of ten or twelve episodes.

In addition, there's a wealth of cheaper stuff they could produce in parallel with the live action shows - short episodes using standing sets, behind the scenes, making of's, specials on costuming and effects, character and actor profiles, retrospectives etc.

Even without the animated episodes (which for me absolutely don't count) they could probably skate by on four rather than five live action shows of 8 episodes per year and fill the one month gaps with the kind of bonus content I listed earlier.

 

[dupersuper]

Never enough! More Trek! More I say!!!

 

[The Wormhole]

Honestly, a new episode every week for the entire year seems a bit too much. If they want a "year round" thing, something like thirty to forty weeks of new content should still provide plenty of new content and also give the fans a bit of a breather.

 

[Tosk]

Honestly, a new episode every week for the entire year seems a bit too much.

Not for the people who don't watch all the shows.

Oversaturation is always a risk, but so far we've got four Trek shows on the air that are mostly very different from one another? That's something Trek has never done before. Say what you may about the varying quality of the shows, but that's pretty impressive.

In other words, keep it coming! None of us is required to watch it all.

 

[fireproof78]

Honestly, a new episode every week for the entire year seems a bit too much. If they want a "year round" thing, something like thirty to forty weeks of new content should still provide plenty of new content and also give the fans a bit of a breather.

This fan doesn't watch everything. So I would hope other fans could practice a measure of self-control and not watch everything just because "Star Trek" is in the name.

 

[Turtletrekker]

They need to keep it up until they overtake NCIS as the television franchise with the most episodes.

 

[Relayer1]

This fan doesn't watch everything. So I would hope other fans could practice a measure of self-control and not watch everything just because "Star Trek" is in the name.

I would have disagreed with you until I tried to watch Lower Decks.

 

[fireproof78]

I would have disagreed with you until I tried to watch Lower Decks.

I learned this back with TNG and VOY. It appears to be an uncomfortable idea with many fans though.

 

[Tosk]

They need to keep it up until they overtake NCIS as the television franchise with the most episodes.

They're not too far behind NCIS, but I think Trek will only catch up once most of the NCIS's are cancelled.

...But aren't there plenty of shows with way more episodes? Coronation Street passed 10,000 episodes a year or so back. Woah. (And it's a franchise, it's had multiple spin-offs.)

 

[The Wormhole]

They need to keep it up until they overtake NCIS as the television franchise with the most episodes.

Which makes me realize, NCIS itself has already outlasted the entire Berman era by two years (taking into account the twentieth season beginning in the fall). And that's just the OG show, count the spin-offs, and well...

 

[fireproof78]

Which makes me realize, NCIS itself has already outlasted the entire Berman era by two years (taking into account the twentieth season beginning in the fall). And that's just the OG show, count the spin-offs, and well...

And technically NCIS is a spin off as well.

 

[The Wormhole]

And technically NCIS is a spin off as well.

True, which means that franchise has been in continuous run since 1995. Hell, they have the original run of Doctor Who put to shame.

 

[STEPhon IT]

The plan set out years ago was for year-round Trek on Paramount+. Every time a season of one show ends, another begins and thus they don't lose the die-hard Trekkie subscriber base.

Discovery
Picard
Strange New Worlds
Prodigy
Lower Decks

And as these shows end, Section 31 and Starfleet Academy (with others rumoured, ranging from a live-action Worf comedy series to a show set in the 1990's) are gearing up to take their places.

But how long is this likely to last? Many fans don't consider animated Trek to "matter" as much as live action, and (with zero evidence) there may be subscriber dips when the animated shows are all that are airing. And there are only so many nostalgia pops left in the franchise to bring back lapsed fans, like Picard bringing back the entire Next Gen cast for the last season. Will we start to see even more overlapping, concurrent Star Trek shows as the existing fanbase begins to dwindle? Two new Star Trek episodes a week does sound awfully enticing...

I can't see why it couldn't be enough or produce as many Trek shows as CBS can. I mean, it hasn't hurt AMC as they keep churning in as many "The Walking Dead" spin-offs and specials as possible. It's not as if the writing could get any better or worse; if they have the budget to do it and they're making a profit CBS should crank them.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

I think they should scale back the number of episodes to match the number of good writers they can find to write them.

 

[The Wormhole]

I mean, it hasn't hurt AMC as they keep churning in as many "The Walking Dead" spin-offs and specials as possible.

That's a bit different. Walking Dead at the moment has two spin-offs, one of which has already ended. There is another spin-off coming in the summer, plus two others in development. Not to mention, Walking Dead itself will be ending later this year.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Honestly, a new episode every week for the entire year seems a bit too much. If they want a "year round" thing, something like thirty to forty weeks of new content should still provide plenty of new content and also give the fans a bit of a breather.

Like when we had the entire summer to relax between seasons?

 

[Tuskin38]

I would have disagreed with you until I tried to watch Lower Decks.

But Lower Decks is good.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Lower Decks is proof that more variety in Star Trek series is a good thing... because only 50% of fans consider it their favourite of the current shows! We need things that are different to Lower Decks, if just to keep the rest of the fan base happy.