News Star Trek Prodigy Cancelled, Season 2 to be shopped around

[Oddish]

I could at least understand not renewing PRO for additional seasons. They're a business, and businesses need to make a profit, and just because a show is good doesn't mean it's going to find the audience it needs. But at least let the Trekkie community keep what's already been made. 40 episodes of PRO are better than zero.

 

[Cyrus]

I was not a big fan of Prodigy, so this is not a big disappointment for me, Picard not continuing and Discovery cancellation were disappointing but not this. I have seen the first 10 episodes and was planning to catch up eventually but I guess that may not happen soon. I will not sign up for another service just for this, so hopefully it ends up on something I already subscribe.

The show must have been doing bad rating wise otherwise it wouldn't be pulled from both P+ and Nickelodeon. But that would limit it's appeal to the potential buyers too.

 

[NCC-73515]

Letting LDS end instead would be better, as it's had a decent run. PRO was just getting started

 

[ananta]

I suspect they didn’t quite pitch the show the right way to capture a new generation of kids. It started off simplistic and fairly fun, if rather Star Wars-y in aesthetic, but as the season went on the plot got significantly denser and Trek lore heavy. Even I wasn’t entirely sure what was entirely going on at some points. Not a criticism really because I think it was a very, very fine balance they had to strike and they didn’t quite get it. Which is sad. So much potential there.

 

[Lakenheath 72]

One of the issues that the streaming services will encounter in the future is one that Netflix is starting to experience now. They are cancelling many shows after one season, and I am reading and hearing that people are being and becoming reluctant to invest themselves into a show if they think it will not last past one season.

 

[Markonian]

I always wanted a toy tricorder as a kid in the 1990s. I now realize that the phone in my pocket can do a gazillion times more than that light up toy ever could.

I’m not saying that when I’m walking an unfamiliar route and use the satnav, I wave my phone in front of me like I’m taking readings…

 

[BK613]

Boo! Bad Mountain!
Guess I'll go binge it again before it's gone....

 

[Photoman15]

They also have Doctor Who now, too. They have upped the budget of Doctor Who to £10 million per episode.

The budget is NOT £10 million per episode. RTD has debunked that (also saying if it were true, he'd be in his private jet, flying around).

Wow I didn't know Disney now owned Dr. Who.

Disney doesn't own Doctor Who. They are a co-producing partner (with not much say, because the BBC/Bad Wold own DW) that bought the rights to distribute Who outside of the UK. BBC America formerly did that (but not as wide scoped as Disney).

 

[Deks]

One of the best newest Trek shows on air and it gets the can.

PIC s1 and 2 were tolerated apparently and kept on the air until it reached S3 (and managed to redeem itself somewhat with it)... but Prodigy with a far superior progressional storyline gets the can after 1 season.

Oh well, since production of S2 is being wrapped up as is, its possible it may get picked up by Amazon (at this point I hope it does).
Heck, if it does that, it might end up being much more popular.

Remember when The Expanse got the can from what's that network name? They got picked up by Amazon and it did really well there.

Most of the critics have said that out of all the new Trek, Prodigy is actually the best of them... and I agreed with that assessment (which is funny because I almost never agree with critics on anything).

 

[Sakonna]

What a bummer. This was such a great family show.

I was literally getting ready to wrap the Prodigy action figures as gifts for my nephew when I saw the cancellation news.

I also just hate seeing what is happening to my former industry overall. The working conditions on TV are obscene. What the crews are asked to give is insane. Then this is the way the product is treated?

I knew the trendlines in entertainment were bad, that's one reason I wanted to escape it, but what's happened has been so much more depressing than I expected.

 

[Sakonna]

I suppose the one silver lining is that, with support on an appropriate outlet, Prodigy could really pop. P+ did a terrible job by Prodigy. The scheduling -- 4 episode here, 5 more there, a year of limbo for the rest to turn up someday... the signals that they didn't care about it were clear. It was the Trek they used as hastily applied plaster to fill the gaps between the other shows, not valued as it's own thing.

If they had left it a Nickelodeon show that eventually made it's way to P+, I wonder if that would have positioned it successfully. I certainly believe the Nickelodeon team is a lot more capable of launching shows for children than P+ is.

 

[herofhyrule]

I wonder if it vanishes from streaming entirely it will still be considered part of Trek canon? I mean, that's Paramount essentially erasing it from existing anywhere.

I wouldn't go that far. The first half of Season 1 is available on DVD and Blu-ray. Here in the UK, the entire series is available through Sky until the 24th of July. It's not quite erased yet, and unless every DVD/Blu-ray copy is rounded up and destroyed, the first half of Season 1 never will be.
EDIT: When I say available on Sky, I mean it's downloadable because it's still being broadcast on Nickelodeon. I don't know if it's all episodes or how long it will continue, plus I don't pay for Nickelodeon so I can't even take advantage of it, but I'm not sure that Prodigy is just going to disappear off of the face of the Earth.

 

[Oddish]

Most of the critics have said that out of all the new Trek, Prodigy is actually the best of them... and I agreed with that assessment (which is funny because I almost never agree with critics on anything).

My opinion is that "Strange New Worlds" is the strongest, but "Prodigy" is a close second. If they were only preserving two Trek series, it should have been those.

 

[TerryTrek]

If there is any show that Matalas may acknowledge in Legacy (if it happens), it would be this. Especially given his comments about wanting Janeway to appear.

However, they apparently intentionally ignored PRO when planning Pic S3 (there was a similar storyline or something like that with the Borg.... haven't watched PRO).

Apparently Viacom had a significant investment in this, so cancelling it now means it really didn't meet the targets.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

So is this lawyer-paranoia going to keep Paramount from mentioning Prodigy characters in another series?

Like, if Legacy ever becomes a thing, will they be allowed to have PRO characters in it?

Not really sure why they have to erase all existence of PRO from the Earth, but hey. Fuckin' lawyers.

Edit: Looks like PRO is still available on iTunes. Since they can't forcibly delete it from your library (unlike what Amazon once did with a Kindle book), may want to snap it up while it lasts!

(and no, that's not what Apple did with Anders da Silva. They deleted his stuff because he bought it in one region, then moved to another.)

 

[herofhyrule]

So you're saying that as long as you have it on iTunes, even if Paramount tries to erase it, you still have access to it?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

So you're saying that as long as you have it on iTunes, even if Paramount tries to erase it, you still have access to it?

I do still have some things in my library that Apple no longer offers for sale. And I haven't even downloaded them to my actual computer. But I can still watch them.

So I can only assume that if I buy PRO now, and later Apple stops offering it, I could still watch it.

 

[Firebird]

But Christ do I feel like the execs are just disconnected from quality entertainment.

One of the problems is a shift in the type of management at the studios. In the pre-home video era, studio CEOs had backgrounds in theatrical distribution, production, or writing. They knew the business, inside and out, cared about the product they put out, and even produced the occasional picture themselves. These days, the CEOs are nothing but Ivy League money men that have never been on a film set and couldn't tell Panavision from an iPhone. It's nothing but another business to them, but they fail to realize you can't apply typical financial acumen to arts and entertainment, no matter how much they try to hammer a circle into a square.

 

[gweeps]

Sucks. Best of the NuTrek after Lower Decks. It is also the most unique Trek series since DS9.

 

[fireproof78]

One of the problems is a shift in the type of management at the studios. In the pre-home video era, studio CEOs had backgrounds in theatrical distribution, production, or writing. They knew the business, inside and out, cared about the product they put out, and even produced the occasional picture themselves. These days, the CEOs are nothing but Ivy League money men that have never been on a film set and couldn't tell Panavision from an iPhone. It's nothing but another business to them, but they fail to realize you can't apply typical financial acumen to arts and entertainment, no matter how much they try to hammer a circle into a square.

Yup and this is becoming more and more common across several industries.