Could a new Trek show done in the 90's TNG/DS9 style work today?

[Orphalesion]

I wouldn't call DS9 stale
But I definitely agree that the franchise itself got stale as the 90s continued and the 00s began. The shows just kept copying the same ideas and character archetypes, the same situations and general atmosphere.
In my opinion the writing quality suffered as well, especially in ENT. I remember watching ENT as a child and finding it abysmal even. It seems there was a general lack of n'y perspective to keep the franchise fresh

 

[Noname Given]

While your analysis looks likely to be correct, it's not counter to my post in any way - DS9 never approached the popularity of TNG and viewing figures didn't feature in my (imho) "peak of Trek" comnent.

It's still by orders of magnitude the best Trek show. To me.

Honestly, the response to writing is always subjective. For me, as someone who started watching Star Trek first run on NBC in 1969 (I was six years old and the first Star Trek episode I ever saw was TOS S3 Elaan Of Troyius ); it's still my personal opinion that TOS S1 is still the best season of Star Trek in its 58 year history, and TOS S1 The Corbomite Maneuver is still the best overall Star Trek episode produced, that really encapsulates what the franchise is about.

And while I rate DS9 from its third season on as fairly well written, it's first two seasons were pretty dire.

The same can be said of Star Trek Enterprise, however, I think ENT's 3rd and especially it's 4th Season were well written. In fact until the introduction of the CBS all access/Paramount Plus new streaming Star Trek series, I ranked ENT S4 as the best and most consistently written Star Trek season since TOS S1.

In my opinion the weakest series writing wise in the Star Trek franchise was Star Trek Voyager.

Then again, that's just my opinion.

All the above said I will leave you with this. It's a link to a Star trek.com article that details all of the most watched episodes when the Star Trek franchise was being streamed exclusively by Netflix

It was written/posted at Star trek.com just before the premiere of the first episode of Star Trek Discovery. If anything that shows you what the general public thought were well written Star Trek episodes. I found it rather surprising.

https://www.startrek.com/article/netflixs-top-10-most-re-watched-trek-episodes

 

[DirectorSloan]

I don’t know that it’s fair to lump DS9 in with the generalities of 90s Trek because the people involved weren’t part of what I would call the status quo of Trek. Behr, Pillar, and Ronald Moore really gave DS9 it’s footing and tried things that got past TPTB only because they weren’t paying attention to DS9 because they were focused on the TNG movies and Voyager launching UPN.
Having said that, my humble opinion is that DS9 is the standard that Trek and other shows should be held to in terms of story telling and character development. If I look at the current shows, I’m pretty content with their story telling and character development (Picard is maybe number 3 but it still has it’s moments). But does that mean I wouldn’t like to see a Sisko focused show set in the DS9 universe? Of course I would. So maybe one day.

 

[Omegaphallic]

Your analysis is faulty in that DS9 bled viewers/ratings from it's very first episode, at about the same rate as every other Star Trek series after Star Trek the Next Generation.

There's also the aspect that as Internet viewing and other forms of media viewing options and diversions began to become available for people, syndicated and network viewing overall began to decline as well across the board. The only Star Trek series that gained viewers after it's pilot episode aired was Star Trek the Next Generation.

Every other Star Trek series from DS9 to Enterprise bled viewers at about the same rate. Remember that the reasons that the Starship USS Defiant was added in season 3, and Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf was added in season 4, and making the Klingons the Federation's mortal enemy again in season 5 was all to try and stop the viewership bleed, and see if they could gain back some viewers overall. In the end none of these strategies worked as they had hoped.

Yes viewership numbers were high enough to continue producing DS9 episodes (even though some stations bought at an increase in the licensing fee for season 7, and as a result some of these syndicated stations stopped airing new DS9 episodes for a few weeks at the start of that season while they negotiated with Paramount); again the fact is that every series after TNG bled a lot of viewers after the pilot episode.

ENT probably would have made it to 7 Seasons as well if there hadn't been an upper management change when Les Moonves was promoted to CEO of CBS in 2003, and oversaw the merger of the UPN and the CW. (and remember that Viacom which owned Paramount at the time, purchased CBS in 1999.)

If Les Moonves had been in charge at Paramount at the time of DS9, it probably would have been canceled after it's 4th season and it had made the requisite 100 episodes required for striped indication back in the day. (And in fact that was the only reason Enterprise got a fourth season, as that gave it 98 episodes which was close enough to the magic 100 episode number.)

If he had been directly in charge at that time, Voyager and Enterprise probably never would have happened.

All the old treks have since been vindicated on Netflix, even Enterprise was seen as worth it's weight in gold, unlike Discovery sadly (I like the show, but I won't pretend it's popular).

I think Strange New Worlds might be the first live action show to not lose viewers since TNG.

 

[Noname Given]

All the old treks have since been vindicated on Netflix, even Enterprise was seen as worth it's weight in gold, unlike Discovery sadly (I like the show, but I won't pretend it's popular).

I think Strange New Worlds might be the first live action show to not lose viewers since TNG.

I liked the first two seasons of Discovery, but not 3 or 4. That said, it's popular. Remember the Paramount+ knows exactly how many views the show is getting, and it's not cheap to produce; so if the views weren't there, it wouldn't be getting renewed.

Plus, if it were not seen as popular, Paramount+ would have even considered more streaming Star Trek shows.

Look, I honestly think Voyager is crap, and the worst written Star Trek series overall. That said, on Netflix is WAS popular, and hell, if you saw my earlier post that had a link to the Startrek.com article that listed the most watched individual episodes when all the Trek series were streaming on Netflix, there are a number of highly watched VOY episodes. <--- Yeah, I don't get it, but visible numbers don't lie.

 

[cooleddie74]

Captain Edmund Blackadder: "Personally I thought you were the least-convincing female impersonator since Tarzan went through Jane's handbag and ate her lipstick. Still, you can't argue with the box office!"

 

[Jedman67]

A lot of what DS9 did wouldn't work as an (exclusively) streaming show.
A broadcast show also running on P+ and using the SNW format, highly episodic with low to mid serialization can work, A plot, B plot and maybe throw in a C plot.
In the 90's and early 00's popular shows ran for 20+ episodes a year, with roughly one week of filming per episode, and a very rushed production schedule. Episodes would air 3-4 weeks after filming, 6 if you were lucky.

With the 10-12 episode format the whole season has finished shooting, editing and post well before the first episode airs. There's a lot more breathing time on the production side.

 

[Dee1891]

I don't know if it would work or not. And I don't know if that's a good thing. I don't believe in trying to recapture the past.

 

[F. King Daniel]

unlike Discovery sadly (I like the show, but I won't pretend it's popular)

It's got more seasons than Enterprise

Anyone remember Smallville? Superman fans HATED it passionately, but it had enough viewers to go ten seasons. Online fanrage isn't an indicator of much.

 

[fireproof78]

It's got more seasons than Enterprise

Anyone remember Smallville? Superman fans HATED it passionately, but it had enough viewers to go ten seasons. Online fanrage isn't an indicator of much.

That's hilarious to hear, as I don't follow that show much but it lasting ten seasons always struck me as being extremely popular. Didn't realize it was considered unpopluar.

 

[jackoverfull]

First time I hear smallville being unpopular…Everyone I knew back then seemed to be watching it.

 

[Jedman67]

I watched a few seasons of it and got bored

 

[Markonian]

I saw pieces of one episode. Superhero franchises are too riddled with origin stories.

Looking forward to the Star Trek: Resurgence game to see whether it can recapture the 90s Trek feeling. The IDW comic of the same name got the vibes.

 

[jackoverfull]

I’m hardly a fan myself, I must have watched a season or two as my mother was watching it (and she usually hates super hero stuff!).
Still, it was on and on popular tv and at good hours for a long time and a lot of people watched it.

 

[somebuddyX]

I feel like if you were to ask any of the Trek production guys at any point in it's history they would say they were trying to make a film each week, whether it was the nineties, the sixties, or the noughties. I think you can do stories where it's just something like two people talking in a room but that's a writing concern, not budget.