Prime Timeline direct to DVD or cable

[SheliakBob]

Without getting into the pro/con rift over Trek XI, there IS a split of rights between Paramount and the CBS studios. I think it'd be a financially viable and generally healing (for some of us) project to present new stories in the prime timeline in direct to dvd projects (Like the Stargate SG-1 post-series movies) or as made for SciFi (Syfy or whatever) originals.

Just a tenth of the budget of JJTrek would produce a very high quality tv or dvd product. Heck, just using the budgets for three or four regular episodes could produce a great mini-series or original cable movie.

Getting name actors from previous series to reprise roles for that kind of money might be hard to do in some cases, but you'd only need one or two to anchor the production and help transition in some new characters.
My personal favorite idea would be to hire Brent Spiner to do a Captain Data in command of a post Nemesis Enterprise E, as per the Countdown comic. They could get around the aging problem by tapping into that favorite modern movie technology, CGI! They're already doing full CGI characters for movies these days, and Data would be perfect for a digital translation. After all, he is an artifical being, so actually doing a CGI version would make fairly good sense. It could help accentuate that artificial skin and not-quite-human mannerisms. Explain it as a new model or an upgrade to the B-4 body necessitated by the Data persona upload or some such.
Spiner could do voice recordings for the character for decades to come. Total win.

New prime timeline stories would help soothe over the discontent felt by a minority over the whole reboot thing, and it would help to keep the tv studio rights in prominent circulation.

Sound like an interesting idea or is it proof of dangerously misaligned brain engramns?

 

[AviTrek]

Interesting idea, but it'll never happen. Direct to DVD is where franchise's go to milk their final money before dieing. As long as CBS see future money in Star Trek, they won't damage the brand by releasing anything direct to DVD.

 

[Broccoli]

Won't happen, especially since they pitched everything a few years back.

 

[Falcor5]

I would love to get some direct to DVD movies like BSG and Stargate do. I dont know if it will ever happen but I would buy the DVDs for sure!

 

[Hober Mallow]

Prime timeline is finished forever. Good riddence. Aside from classic Star Trek on blu-ray, everything else can burn in Stovokor for all I care.

 

[Falcor5]

Prime timeline is finished forever. Good riddence. Aside from classic Star Trek on blu-ray, everything else can burn in Stovokor for all I care.

I would be happy for Direct to DVD JJverse Trek too.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Even tho Star Trek is awkwardly owned by two entities, they would be moronic and self-defeating not to try to work together on what Star Trek needs, mainly smart brand mangement.

Trek's whole problem over the past couple decades is that the brand has been sullied by mismanagement. Now Paramount's strategy of buffing up a valuable brand has succeeded, and they need to keep building on that success.

CBS, like every corporation on earth, understands that the key to success is brand management. Their success in TV has come from their own smart brand management: CBS is the home of the police procedural that appeals enormously to a large, if too-old-skewing, audience. While the other four networks are failing to various degrees, CBS is still strong, as a result of their brand discipline.

CBS of all entities should be capable of taking a good, hard look at whether they are the right folks to be managing such a different type of brand, with such a different audience, than what they are used to, and if they are wrong for Trek, they should be smart about it and sell the property to someone who is right. Or, alternatively, build up the personnel needed to manage Trek as a TV property.

Just because CBS's main brand identity is police procedurals doesn't mean they can't build another competency into their organization, and there's no particular reason they need to link the Trek and CBS brands simply because CBS owns Trek. They could sell the rights to Trek and have it air elsewhere, where the audience is closer to being right - CBS's audience is totally wrong, just as linking the CBS and Trek brands is confusing for both the CBS and Trek audience, and therefore a bad idea.

The difference here is what a corporation does internally and what image they project to the public. Those things don't at all need to be the same and frequently aren't.

But to get back to the topic of the thread, Paramount is also going to want a say in Trek's TV incarnation, because there's just one brand, regardless of the media by which it is conveyed (movies, TV, books, games, action figures, commemorative plates, you name it). The public doesn't distinguish between those things simply because they might be produced by different entities and a poor showing by one will impact all the others to some extent. A TV show would be very high profile and would have a big impact.

The trouble with direct to DVD and basic cable both is that they communicate a brand that is lower in the food chain than the premium image that Paramount has given to Trek via a highly successful blockbuster movie. Paramount would be well within their rights to do whatever is in their power to put a stop to any attempt by CBS to cheapen the brand that Paramount has now invested so much into.

And CBS itself would be stupid not to realize that they have the rights to a brand that has been made more valuable by Paramount, with no effort or expense on CBS's part. It's a free gift, so why would they turn around and devalue it? Like I said, CBS shows every sign of understanding how to turn smart brand management into financial success, so why would Trek suddenly cause them to un-learn what they already know?

Maybe this dual-ownership structure is too unworkable and needs to go. CBS should sell its stake in Trek if they realize that hanging onto it would impede the good management of the brand. That way at least they'll have the cash. I don't know what the solution is, but I do know that these aren't it:

-cheap venues like direct to DVD or cable
-airing a TV show on CBS, with utterly the wrong audience

I would also be astonished if TNG, DS9, VOY or ENT played any role in future movie and TV Trek. Everyone involved no doubt now accepts as gospel that Abrams' approach is 100% right for Trek and Berman's approach was what drove it into the ground. Whether this is fair or not, is beside the point. The revenues flowing into Paramount supports the notion that Berman's approach must forever be buried in a deep, dark hole and in Hollywood it is impossible to argue with money.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Wow. Temis the Vorta's reply was well thought out and seems the real reasons why fans will be waiting for anything on a screen that is newly shot to be at the cinema in 2 years.
As most fans are not gamers realistically we wont be getting a group of actors from TNG, VOY, or ENT doing live-action for cut scenes in a game that would be any good.
There are not too many other outlets I can think of realistically after reading the last post that we will see being released in over the next 3 years.
The discussions in Future of Trek forum will still give us something to hope for.

 

[urbandk]

Maybe this dual-ownership structure is too unworkable and needs to go. CBS should sell its stake in Trek if they realize that hanging onto it would impede the good management of the brand. That way at least they'll have the cash. I don't know what the solution is, but I do know that these aren't it:

-cheap venues like direct to DVD or cable
-airing a TV show on CBS, with utterly the wrong audience

Whom would they sell it to, though? I think you're right that the once-tarnished brand is now golden, so it's not exactly "SiFi" fodder. Is CBS going to sell it to NBC or ABC? It could happen, but I would be surprised.

Also, you mention that CSI skews older than the most expensive advertising demographic. However, CSI is not inherently "uncool." I mean, it's not like Matlock. Star Trek could lead into CSI. There wouldn't be a ton of overlap, but there might be some.

Other than that show, though, you're absolutely right. I can't see anything on their schedule that's remotely friendly to Star Trek.

Then again, though, which major network has a show that would be a friendly lead in to Star Trek? Fox maybe?

I would also be astonished if TNG, DS9, VOY or ENT played any role in future movie and TV Trek. Everyone involved no doubt now accepts as gospel that Abrams' approach is 100% right for Trek and Berman's approach was what drove it into the ground. Whether this is fair or not, is beside the point. The revenues flowing into Paramount supports the notion that Berman's approach must forever be buried in a deep, dark hole and in Hollywood it is impossible to argue with money.

Absolutely, Berman Trek failed repeatedly. Why resurrect a losing formula? And those shows were nothing if not formulaic. People sometimes said that Star Trek had exhausted all its possibilities, but I think it had just exhausted all the hackneyed characters and storylines.

In response to the OP, Paramount and CBS care very little about healing. Their responsibility is to their shareholders. As Paramount has recently noted in their strategy presentation to shareholders, Trek is their new pot of gold. They're not going to tarnish it with less than marquee merchandise, especially since they just clawed out of that hole.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

Prime timeline is finished forever. Good riddence. Aside from classic Star Trek on blu-ray, everything else can burn in Stovokor for all I care.

The irony in this statement is the use of a Klingon Hell, first named in TNG, when you only care for TOS.

 

[SG-17]

I think when he said Classic, he meant Prime Timeline Trek.

 

[galleywest]

I'll agree with Temis on all points but one. I don't think being on cable tv has quite the same stigma today as it once did. Cable tv shows have become much more hip and have ushered in alternative models of the tv season (fewer episodes, split seasons, etc.) that are becoming more popular. I can think of several shows off the top of my head that have helped create an image or brand their stations, like Psych, Burn Notice, Project Runway (though where that's going now is anyone's guess), Deadliest Catch, Dirty Jobs, Law & Order: CI, Monk, and Saving Grace, to name a few.

Now, I couldn't even begin to discuss numbers with you because I just don't know that stuff, I'm just saying that I doubt a cable tv show would really be seen as devaluing the brand, if the show were done adequately. In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised if after a couple more installations of the current Trek incarnation as movies (and the new audience is safely roped in and fewer people are thinking about the Prime Timeline) we see a tv series develop. I have no doubt that anything from this point forward will be the new timeline, with homage to the old timeline ever-present.

 

[AviTrek]

The issue is CBS has very few appropriate cable stations either. The only cable station CBS has that could work is Showtime. While plenty of people have suggested that Trek should be on a premium cable station, it would be a very different show than what we've seen on broadcast TV.

 

[Falcor5]

Absolutely, Berman Trek failed repeatedly. Why resurrect a losing formula? And those shows were nothing if not formulaic. People sometimes said that Star Trek had exhausted all its possibilities, but I think it had just exhausted all the hackneyed characters and storylines.

Well to be fair Berman Trek was around for 18 years, 4 series, and 4 feature films. So I do not think its fair to call it a failure. Most TV franchises would be ecstatic if they had that kind of run!

 

[Lindley]

Prime timeline is finished forever. Good riddence. Aside from classic Star Trek on blu-ray, everything else can burn in Stovokor for all I care.

The irony in this statement is the use of a Klingon Hell, first named in TNG, when you only care for TOS.

Sto-vo-kor is the Klingon heaven. Gre'thor is the Klingon Hell.

 

[Python Trek]

TPTB would fools to dump ClassicTrek just because NuTrek had a hot film. They still wanna sell you DVDs, tees, keychains, comics, coffee mugs, etc. with Shatner and Stewart and the rest. Why dump all that money down the drain in favor of *only* merchandising a new series of films? You walk into a comic shop, for example, you see Batman in many forms on the tees and the TPBs and action figs: he's Adam West, he's the animated Fox/WB guy, he's Christian Bale, he's Neal Adams style, he's Miller style, etc. We'll be seeing NuTrek and ClassicTrek on the shelves alongside each other for years to come.

And as soon as Abrams gets bored with The Franchise, Paramount will put the thing on the small screen in parallel with the big screen, just like the late '80's/ early '90's, when we had TNG and Treks V and VI.

 

[bigdaddy]

It's dead Jim.

 

[galleywest]

The issue is CBS has very few appropriate cable stations either. The only cable station CBS has that could work is Showtime. While plenty of people have suggested that Trek should be on a premium cable station, it would be a very different show than what we've seen on broadcast TV.

Yikes. Well, that's a good point. I don't think I want to see the Showtime version of Star Trek!

 

[Indegato]

I like the new timeline although the choices in actor left much to be desired.

 

[Warp Coil]

I don't think a direct-to-DVD movie set in the "prime" universe would work. The general consensus seems to be that Trek is now alive and kicking thanks to the new Abramsverse. The "prime" universe was old and tired and had lost steam a long time ago. If one were to consider a project set in that timeline, what would be the focus? TNG? The actors aren't getting any younger and you'd never get Patrick Stewart or probably even Brent Spiner to do a low-budget film. And the studio wouldn't consider a TNG project without them. You could try a Titan film with Frakes and Sirtis, but that would have limited appeal and the studio wouldn't want to invest the money. Same would hold true for any resurgence of DS9, VOY or ENT. Those series just don't have the commercial appeal of TOS or TNG. I think from the studio's perspective, the best way to ensure profitability would be to focus on what's hot right now.