Jonathan Frakes..."CBS turned down my ST TV series"

[Titan Designer]

I think if they were to do a Animated series ala the current Clone Wars Series, that may do well atleast on Cartoon Network. In that format I think a 30minute episode runtime would help as well. That way also you can get the voices from across all of the TNG era to contribute or atleast get some voice talents that are close to the original voices.

I want something new. I don't need for their to be guest appearances from either 23rd or 24th century characters.

Well if they did do a Titan Animated they could bring over Tim Russ for Tuvok. Beside that the only carry over voices would be Nurse Ogawa and Riker and Troi. All the others would be new character on screen. With the animated universe you would be able to animate all of the fun alien characters that are part of the crew.

 

[TrekAlliance92]

Well, that's unfortunate. A post-Nemesis series is what I want to see. Bring aboard Manny Coto, the Reeves-Stevenses, the Okudas and some of the other great Trek writers and producers and you could have an amazing series that both ties in to the previous five series, but also "boldly goes" out on its own.

That would be cancelled within a year.

Ah, but like Enterprise: Season 4, what a year it would be!!! Perhaps, a series of live-action DTVs then, set in various parts of the established Trek universe--somewhat like the DC Universe line, but live action. You could even adapt stories from novels and comics, if you wanted!

 

[CaptainStoner]

There was oversaturation, and of course there is a very high bar set by the TNG series itself. The bar for TNG films was not set by their worst eps, but their best.
So they'd have had to come up with scripts on the level of AGT, BoBW, etc.

Personally I think the writing problem for TNG films began with ignoring the advice and opinion of Leonard Nimoy for GEN. Not that he's infallible, but if Nimoy says, "this script is crap, I want nothing to do with it", you don't show him the door, you ask for his help! Not because he was Spock, but because he had the experience. He'd been through all those hurdles before, was a proven writer & director, and of course knew ST particularly well.

 

[MichaelDornFan]

I don't know if I completely buy the oversaturation idea. First Contact came out after several years of having movies AND two TV shows at once, and did well at the box office.

Then came Insurrection, which was a pretty bad movie, but did okay at the box office. Four years later Nemesis came along and was even worse, and bombed. Personally, I think the poor quality of Insurrection and Nemesis had more to do with the demise of the film franchise than oversaturation.

Voyager also had decent ratings for much of its run. They fell towards the end, but after 7 years on a sub-par network, that isn't surprising. I think I read somewhere that they were UPN's #1 show throughout its entire run, but I can't find where.

Enterprise also had really good ratings for its pilot and first few episodes after that, but they plummeted of course. Because Enterprise--especially the first two seasons--was just terrible.

So overall, I come to the conclusion that the poor quality of Insurrection, Nemesis, and the first two seasons of Enterprise are to blame for the franchise's decline. Perhaps this is related to oversaturation, as the same people made them all and had become exhaused, complacent, whatever, after 15 years.

 

[RAMA]

One way they COULD get around this declaration by CBS not to air movies and tv series at the same time would be an animated show. A devilishly clever producer might just get away with telling them it has a different demographic than the movies and write some great animated stories...

RAMA

 

[sonak]

I don't know if I completely buy the oversaturation idea. First Contact came out after several years of having movies AND two TV shows at once, and did well at the box office.

Then came Insurrection, which was a pretty bad movie, but did okay at the box office. Four years later Nemesis came along and was even worse, and bombed. Personally, I think the poor quality of Insurrection and Nemesis had more to do with the demise of the film franchise than oversaturation.

Voyager also had decent ratings for much of its run. They fell towards the end, but after 7 years on a sub-par network, that isn't surprising. I think I read somewhere that they were UPN's #1 show throughout its entire run, but I can't find where.

Enterprise also had really good ratings for its pilot and first few episodes after that, but they plummeted of course. Because Enterprise--especially the first two seasons--was just terrible.

So overall, I come to the conclusion that the poor quality of Insurrection, Nemesis, and the first two seasons of Enterprise are to blame for the franchise's decline. Perhaps this is related to oversaturation, as the same people made them all and had become exhaused, complacent, whatever, after 15 years.

Yes, First Contact is the outlier in the overall trend of diminishing box office returns, but if you start farther back, with Star Trek V, you'll see a clear pattern.

This was the beginning of Trek movies that were released while there was a Trek TV show on, and no movies released after this point(with the previously mentioned FC exception) did better than any of the first four movies. Considering inflation over a decade and a half, that's pretty decisive.


Then guess what was the biggest hit of all of the Trek movies? XI of course, which came when there had been no new Trek of any kind for four years.


Yes, Voyager did OK in ratings by UPN standards, but not by TNG standards.

And if you want to go the quality angle, DS9 did no better than Voyager ratings-wise, despite that it was a much better regarded show, critically speaking.

Some of the TV ratings decline had to do with changes in television overall, as well as more competition with other sci-fi on TV, but no such explanation works for the mostly disappointing box office numbers from Star Trek V-Star Trek X.

 

[C.E. Evans]

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder" and "Keep people wanting more" appear to be the philosophies CBS is now taking with Trek, IMO, so a new series probably isn't going to happen anytime soon.

 

[TrekAlliance92]

I really don't buy into the oversaturation argument one bit. I mean, there are 3 CSI shows and countless clones running at the same time, and we can't have one new Trek series running now? Please.

 

[Kelso]

Someone has been spending too much time with George Takei.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Ah, Frakes is smarter and a lot less egocentric. He certainly seems to understand the logic of CBS's position.

 

[intrinsical]

I think part of the reason for this over-saturation is due to using the same premise repeatedly with very little modification. Out of the 5 television series, 4 of them are based on the premise of a lone "famous" Starship going where no man/one has gone before. All 11 movies are largely centered on either Captain Kirk or Picard single-handedly stopping evil.

It is a tried and tested formula, but the audience now knows what to expect from the next movie or television series. The starship may have a different/younger crew, be lost in a different part of the galaxy, or it may be set in the past but still, it is just more of the same thing.

Even 007 had to toss in an angsty-Bond-to-be with Casino Royale. Perhaps what Star Trek needs now is something different so audiences won't go "oh its yet another starship adventure with strange aliens and special effects".

 

[Galileo7]

I really don't buy into the oversaturation argument one bit. I mean, there are 3 CSI shows and countless clones running at the same time, and we can't have one new Trek series running now? Please.

Agree

 

[FalTorPan]

How about Star Trek: The Odd Couple Captains? Captains Riker and Sulu together!

 

[DarKush]

I wish they had done a post-NEM series, focused on the Titan, with perhaps a mixed TNG/DS9/VOY crew. I think something like that might have brought in enough fans. I also think 24th century Trek is different enough from what Abrams is doing that it wouldn't result in oversaturation.

I don't completely believe in oversaturation as a reason for Trek's decline. I can't dismiss it out of hand because there was quite a bit of Trek on in the 90s. However, I think quality in terms of writing was a bigger factor. I believe that with VOY and ENT the quality was lacking.

 

[Galileo7]

Now with a new J.J.Abrams Star Trek movie every three years, a new different(than J.J.Abrams movies) concept Star Trek series based on the right television network just might work?

 

[DarKush]

Why not? I think viewers are sophisticated enough to know the difference and to support/ignore what they like/didn't like. I don't get why we think the audience is stupid about some of this stuff, like for example, people wouldn't be able to differentiate different properties.

Also, Trek has done that successfully before, with the last TOS movies during TNG's run and three TNG movies during the DS9-VOY runs. Even despite NEM and ENT, the track record is still on the plus side. Abrams Trek has acknowledged the Prime Universe so what's the deal with seeing more films/TV shows in that universe, it won't have to impact what Abrams is doing.

 

[Saul]

A TV movie would be nice and could gauge interest in future series.

 

[BillJ]

Just give me a decent animated series and this long time fan will be fine.

 

[ALF]

There's no reason they can't run an animated series with a film coming out every 3 or 4 years. You want to walk oversaturation?? Look at Transformers. There are gobs of different storylines, multiverses and films/tv shows broadcasting all the time. Hasbro isn't feeling any pain. They profit from their brand running willy-nilly.

Sure, I know it's primarily for kids and not as cerebral as Trek....

Frakes is a good man. He cares about the Trek fan base. You can tell that he enjoys Trek and gets a kick out of it.

 

[Galileo7]

While J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies are being made a new prime universe Star Trek television series should be launched a.s.a.p.