Tax breaks and canon

[F. King Daniel]

So, when a Star Trek series is cancelled and then purged from Paramount+ as a tax break, which is the plan should they not find a home for season two of Star Trek: Prodigy, is that buried show still canon?

I mean, Batgirl clearly isn't to the DC Universe due to subsequent changes to The Flash prior to release. And as a tax break, it can never, ever be allowed to come back. It's permanent. No blurays, no DVDs. Never to stream again. The kind of stuff the Temporal Wars only wish they could achieve. A whole Star Trek series that TPTB will never acknowledge again, which for the second season we may never learn the story of.

If Prodigy is purged, it's no longer canon.

 

[Lord Garth]

"Read my lips! No new taxes!" "We're taking your money and giving it back! We're taking your Canon and giving it back!"

"A tax break means less Canon and more Fan-Fiction in your own pockets!" Sorry bean-counter who actually doesn't give a shit about any of this, I'm still not voting Republican.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Also I have the Prodigy Supernova game downloaded from Steam and am a little concerned it'll vanish too despite my having paid for it.

That'll teach me to give my money to Paramount in any way, shape or form! Amazing way to treat of of the most rabid fan bases out there.

 

[Lord Garth]

I was only going to stick to buying DSC and PIC on Blu-Ray. But now I'll be adding Prodigy to that list. This is why I haven't given up physical media. Once I have it, I don't have to worry about what a streaming service is going to do with it.

 

[C.E. Evans]

It's still canon as long as Paramount can license the property to merchandisers and other interested parties and make money off it. That's the only canon that matters. Everything else is just fans arguing over it on websites that don't mean a hill of beans in the end to those that actually own PROD.

 

[StarMan]

Perhaps an intrepid Trekkie could break into Paramount's vaults and liberate S2 in the event it doesn't find an interested party. How limber is Robert Meyer Burnett?

I assume S1 remains canon (for those concerned by such things) unless Paramount explicitly says otherwise.

 

[F. King Daniel]

It's still canon as long as Paramount can license the property to merchandisers and other interested parties and make money off it. That's the only canon that matters. Everything else is just fans arguing over it on websites that don't mean a hill of beans in the end to those that actually own PROD.

That's the thing about tax write offs. These things are BURIED. They can't be bought, they can't be sold and they can't be streamed. They'll stop selling the blurays too if Prodigy doesn't find a new home. It'll be unmade, permanently. They'd be in huge legal trouble resurrecting a written off property.

 

[at Quark's]

Also I have the Prodigy Supernova game downloaded from Steam and am a little concerned it'll vanish too despite my having paid for it.

That'll teach me to give my money to Paramount in any way, shape or form! Amazing way to treat of of the most rabid fan bases out there.

That would make for an interesting case in court, I think. I suppose you paid for it in expectation to be able to play it for an unlimited amount of time (regardless of whether you would actually do so or not). Now if Paramount suddenly withdraws the game, I'd say a (partial) refund would be in order, for example based on the amount of time you have been able to play it vs. the economic life time of the product, or some such thing. Same thing (but more extreme of course) if Steam itself went the way of the dodo. Or do they already specify somewhere in their agreements that the buyer of a game accepts this risk?

 

[Forbin]

I take it Prodigy has been canceled?

 

[1001001]

So, when a Star Trek series is cancelled and then purged from Paramount+ as a tax break, which is the plan should they not find a home for season two of Star Trek: Prodigy, is that buried show still canon?

 

[Guy Gardener]

So, when a Star Trek series is cancelled and then purged from Paramount+ as a tax break, which is the plan should they not find a home for season two of Star Trek: Prodigy, is that buried show still canon?

I mean, Batgirl clearly isn't to the DC Universe due to subsequent changes to The Flash prior to release. And as a tax break, it can never, ever be allowed to come back. It's permanent. No blurays, no DVDs. Never to stream again. The kind of stuff the Temporal Wars only wish they could achieve. A whole Star Trek series that TPTB will never acknowledge again, which for the second season we may never learn the story of.

If Prodigy is purged, it's no longer canon.

What about a gift?

Can they give it away for free?

 

[fireproof78]

Way more fun.


And yes it's still canon.

 

[herofhyrule]

Quoting what I said in a thread in the Prodigy subforum.

I wouldn't go that far. The first half of Season 1 is available on DVD and Blu-ray. Here in the UK, the entire series is available through Sky until the 24th of July. It's not quite erased yet, and unless every DVD/Blu-ray copy is rounded up and destroyed, the first half of Season 1 never will be.
EDIT: When I say available on Sky, I mean it's downloadable because it's still being broadcast on Nickelodeon. I don't know if it's all episodes or how long it will continue, plus I don't pay for Nickelodeon so I can't even take advantage of it, but I'm not sure that Prodigy is just going to disappear off of the face of the Earth.

To actually answer the original question, assuming they were unable to find a new home for it and were unwilling to put it back on Paramount+, the first ten episodes would still be available on physical media, so definitely canon. And I see no reason why the rest of Season 1 wouldn't be. After all, there's no criterion for canon that says a piece of media has to be legally available to watch. Season 2 is more questionable. Is unreleased media still canon? Does a new series/film only become canon as soon as it is released? I'd say yes, since their impact on the canon can only be assessed when they've been released. Trailers and marketing can be misleading, after all.

 

[Tuskin38]

Also I have the Prodigy Supernova game downloaded from Steam and am a little concerned it'll vanish too despite my having paid for it.

Steam doesn't remove purchased games from accounts.

That Kelvin Timeline third person shooter game was removed from Steam years ago, but anyone who bought it before then can still download it.

 

[tomalak301]

It's part of my Canon. It happened, I loved it. I will never forget it. If it is no longer around, I hope they at least bring up the Blu Ray for the second half of the series and then I can buy it and at least have access to it. Then I might share it with people who might want to get into Star Trek.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Steam doesn't remove purchased games from accounts.

That Kelvin Timeline third person shooter game was removed from Steam years ago, but anyone who bought it before then can still download it.

That's a comfort at least.

 

[Dukhat]

Did CBS make a statement saying Prodigy is no longer canon?

‘Cause that’s the only factor which would decanonize the show. Simply canceling it and taking it off their streaming service doesn’t decanonize it. Only Shari Redstone and Bob Backish have that power. And they don’t give a shit about stuff like that.

 

[matthunter]

I was only going to stick to buying DSC and PIC on Blu-Ray. But now I'll be adding Prodigy to that list. This is why I haven't given up physical media. Once I have it, I don't have to worry about what a streaming service is going to do with it.

Yeah, be grateful those shows are being offered in Blu-Ray format. I won't pay for Disney+ or Netflix but they have individual shows I would buy on disc, yet they aren't offering them because they want subscribers.

She-Hulk, the He-Man Revelations series, Obi-Wan... I'd pay one-off for any of those. At least Paramount had the sense to put SNW on disc.

 

[The Wormhole]

The first season aired and the first half of it is available on physical media. That's canon. Period. The second season I guess could be nebulous if they don't end up airing it at all. But that's IF. Let's not get too ahead of ourselves yet.

 

[Citiprime]

It exists. But it’s not a good look when the IP holder cares so little about it that they’re willing to shelve it.