If Star Trek could only be one, movie franchise or series franchise, which would you prefer?

[M'rk son of Mogh]

As mentioned in the title, there's a fun debate going on in another thread and it got me wondering, if you were in charge and had to make the decision but could ONLY move forward in ONE way, would Star Trek be solely be a movie franchise or would it be a series franchise?

 

[fireproof78]

Kelvin.

 

[BillJ]

Movies for me. We have close to a thousand hours of filmed material, I’m simply not sure that Trek can take me anywhere that I haven’t already been with the franchise. So, I’d rather just get hyped up every few years for a huge theatrical experience.

This poll is missing video games, which have become a huge storytelling avenue. Unfortunately, CBS is okay with the limited, micro transaction fests that are mobile and online games.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

TV movies is the way I'd go. The whole structure of "ten episodes that are basically one long movie" doesn't work for me in a Trek setting and since we aren't getting 24 episode seasons back AND since I think Trek has had enough of that anyway I'd go with TV movies.

 

[BillJ]

TV movies is the way I'd go. The whole structure of "ten episodes that are basically one long movie" doesn't work for me in a Trek setting and since we aren't getting 24 episode seasons back AND since I think Trek has had enough of that anyway I'd go with TV movies.

I think I’m tentatively looking forward to Section 31, is the promise of a complete story.

 

[Frontis]

I voted for series because for me Star Trek never was really made for cinemas.
Even when some attempts are not bad.

 

[Commander Troi]

Series. I think Trek works best that way.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Series.

Movies are ideal for fast-paced action/adventure stories, but with a series there's so much more time to get to fully know the characters and the world they live in. You get all the finer details that have to be quickly glossed over if not sometimes omitted altogether to fit a 2-hour or so movie. And fast action/adventure stories can still be thrown here and there in the mix of a series too.

 

[Tallguy]

TV. Not that there can't be good or even great Star Trek movies. But the drives of a movie often work against Star Trek. (Especially when The Wrath of Khan is the White Whale that everyone chases.)

SNW has almost hit the sweet spot (for me) in being episodic but with some serialized character stuff. I think they need longer seasons to really pull it off, but I realize the monetary realities that they are up against.

 

[The Wormhole]

TV series. It's where Trek works best. Also, I'm generally biased towards TV shows over movies in general anyway.

 

[Lord Garth]

Series Only. That's the way it's been for the past seven years and I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

 

[Citiprime]

TV.

The reason being that Paramount tends to make every movie in the template of Wrath of Khan.

A big villain who needs to be stopped to prevent a potentially galaxy-ending level threat.

 

[The Wormhole]

TV.

The reason being that Paramount tends to make every movie in the template of Wrath of Khan.

A big villain who needs to be stopped to prevent a potentially galaxy-ending level threat.

Although these days all their serialized storylines in TV shows tend to be about war and/or the galactic apocalypse.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Series for me also. Star Trek just seems to work better as a series. Even with today’s seasons of only 8 - 10 episodes, a series allows you to get to know the characters better, and usually seems to generate more diverse storytelling.

Even simply on a pragmatic level, I’d rather have ~50 hours of Trek content over a seven year span (based on the example of Discovery‘s output) than 2 - 4 hours of Trek content in that same span of time!

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

I love the movies, they're big flashy events all about facing desperate odds to stop dangerous villains from destroying Earth/the Federation/something else we don't want destroyed. Lots of CGI shots of buildings crumbling, spaceships exploding, and etc. Huge emotional moments. Star Trek turned up to 11.

But I'd rather watch 30 episodes a year which have the possibility of some substance and subtlety to them than go on one flashy 90 minute rollercoaster every 3 years. Especially as they can tell stories about things other than a maniac going on rampage of revenge.

 

[somebuddyX]

Series, but ideally I would have them all be like Elseworlds. Some are connected, some aren't

 

[Lord Garth]

Although these days all their serialized storylines in TV shows tend to be about war and/or the galactic apocalypse.

One of the reasons I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

Eight seasons of DSC and PIC and I only have issues with two of them. DSC S3 and PIC S2. But not to the point where it impacted my enjoyment.

From Insurrection onward, I had issues with three out of five movies. INS, NEM, and ID. And it actually was to the point where it impacted my enjoyment. Beyond was okay, but I still haven't re-watched it. Haven't felt the need or the urge. That leaves the 2009 Film which, as I've said before, I treat like a Comic Book Movie.

So, from my point of view, exchanging serialized seasons for a movie that comes out about as often as there are presidential elections makes it a loss. Especially since the odds are against my liking them.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Series. Not even a chance I was gonna say movies. With rare exceptions, Star Trek is not very good at doing movies.

 

[FederationHistorian]

I lean tv, but only because,

• Paramount are stuck on TWoK as the successful movie formula, regardless as to what the script details, and cannot consider anything else outside of the box. Which is big problem as they already seem to believe the only marketable names are Kirk, Spock, Picard and Data.
• Paramount missed the boat in creating a cinematic universe with the Kelvin movies. They could have created a series of midbudget movies forces on other TOS characters in universe sprinkled between the reboot movies, but did not do it.
• Star Trek can still create feature length episodes that are cinematic, or a whole season that is cinematic, while still being episodic in nature.

 

[Paul755]

TV series for sure.

As much as I enjoy them, if we never got another theatrical Star Trek adventure I’d be ok.