What better time to start a new series than now? I mean with Russia trying to ban the U.S. from the I.S.S. which means Russia could operated independently while the U.S. section could not would create a very dramatic climate for a few t.v. episodes. I mean who wants to watch reruns of Castle and NCIS every night? Haven't seen the entire series yet of these two shows? Buy the DVD version because we need to move onto something more interesting and bold.
That may be (in my mind, at least) the biggest reason why we've had no new series from CBS. Why spend the money to produce a (surely expensive) series, when the franchise is making money without one, especially considering they didn't have to make the initial investment of actually producing any of the previous series?
It's very depressing seeing occassionally talented - and often beloved - actors in Fan Films, regardless of where, or how, these projects got their funding. It's like a total admission of these stars being "down on their luck," as it were. And it's embarassing, also, watching them with egg all over their face, as Fan Films generally tend to suck. I remember one time, on another STAR TREK forum, entirely, there was some guy who was trying to solicit money for a fan film he was making that didn't even star known talent. I read this thread of theirs and said, "something's wrong ..."
But maybe there really isn't. If CBS though that a new Trek TV series was a slam dunk profit-wise, it would either already be here or deep into development. They have to weigh risk vs. reward and, apparently, reward hasn't gotten a clear seal of approval from the CBS bean counters. Probably the same thing is what sunk an immediate jump from TNG-R to DS9-R.
Reminds me of something said by Lee Goldberg a while back (and keep in mind I support some fan productions, but do not believe that they are 'better' because they are the 'pure' Star Trek or any such nonsense) : Clueless Morons
It's clearly not a slam dunk, especially with all the variables at play. But at some point in the future, it will be profitable enough. Right now the movies are doing just fine in that regard. I think it will take a successful Star Wars live action series to spur a Star Trek production. Other sci-fi television is going to have to set a precedent first, and there are some hurdles to get there.
I think the worst offender in this category is the nameless/faceless entity trying to get Star Trek Titan greenlit without even talking to Jonathan Frakes or CBS. It's just supposed to magically spring out of the grass-roots as long as you show enough CG fly-bys.
Yep, Its most a guy that lives in the Netherlands that is either a clueless dreamer or a big scam artist, I vote the latter.
True. At some point, a sci-fi TV series of some kind will get popular, rake in tons of money, and the people at CBS will say "Hey! We have that kind of crap sitting in storage! Let's do something with it!"
The fan series I've seen show such a care and passion for the original series that they make up part of my personal canon.
Money isn't the issue, it's lack of direction. The Abramsverse is just that: an alt version of Star Trek designed for the sole purpose of rebooting TOS with modern filmography. As far as a series: CBS has 2 choices: something on the small or something on the epic. Small would be essentially having the focus on a purpose built ship. Examples: 1. Medical Ship. It goes around stamping out medical emergencies, with just enough leeway that it can get some epic stories in there without having devote more than an episode or two to the more epic story. 2. Crime fighting ship. A Crime Scene Investigation ship. (Personally I'm rather tepid about the idea). 4. Engineering ship. Sounds promising. Dunno if they ever got any suggestions on that. The stars are the limit on engineering stories. I'm sure people can find a few more examples of a single ship series which can have plenty of stories without having to step on the toes of prior series. The OTHER option: Do an epic series. TNG and DS9 were both epic series, having plenty of individual stories, and some more epic stories. DS9 took it the next level when they introduced the Dominion War, and made it more of a week to week series, rather than just self contained episodes which could be viewed in any order. (Excluding a few 2 part stories, TNG didn't really have a viewing order for the episodes, and neither did ToS). I'm fairly certain any series that CBS does, it will lend more to the week to week style, since people enjoy that, plus it lends itself to having an audience that is more engaged and likely to watch the next episode to see what happens. Most prime time shows are like that nowadays, and have been for many years.
One thing CBS could do is an epic series, then spin off of the other smaller concepts. That way they could have the EPIC series as the core, and the *spin offs can weave themselves around that core.. occasionally even intersecting with that epic series. I'd say in a much more integrated way than TNG did with DS9... ...yet the spin off series should be able to stand on their own and only intersect when the timing is ripe. *that is the smaller scale stuff like a medical or engineering ship.