The Longer Running Times

[Michael]

I’m wondering, why is it that after three live action spin-offs in this current era of Trek shows they have finally decided to take advantage of the fact that episodes of streaming shows can be longer than the broadcast standard 45-ish minutes and made the episodes of Starfleet Academy clocking in around 60+ minutes. It becomes especially jarring when you remember that some episodes of Discovery clocked in around only 30-ish minutes.

Mind you, I’m not complaining, as I enjoy getting more Trek every week. I’m just wondering what about this show is different that made them decide to go for the full hour. Showrunner Noga Landau said in the Collider interview the other day that there are virtually no deleted scenes for the show and that they put everything they film in the finished episodes. Does that perhaps mean the other shows’ episodes could have been longer as well but that they were more aggressive in cutting the fat in the editing?

For those who are knowledgable about these things: Is there a substantial difference in writing a script for a 60+ minutes show versus writing one for only 40+ minutes of runtime? Is that something a writer needs to be aware of when they write their script?

Also, interestingly, I don’t think I would necessarily say I even notice the extended runtime when watching the episodes. Episode three was the first where I thought a tighter edit could have helped to make the episode better.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I think the general rule of thumb is approximately one page of script to one minute of screen time.

 

[bdub76]

A lot of the shows I have been watching that have come out recently are running up to an hour or more in length. Check out Welcome to Derry as an example. I see this with shows that are around 8 episodes or less.

In the past, shows have been around 42-48 minutes long with the rest of the time available for ads. This is why I pay for streaming without ads, especially with shows that are or have aired on television.

It's also bad for sitcoms. I'm rewatching Who's the Boss, and the show's episodes are about 22 minutes for a half hour show. That's 8 minutes of ads.

Watching TV without ads is why I cut the cord to begin with back in 2013.

 

[firehawk12]

I’m wondering, why is it that after three live action spin-offs in this current era of Trek shows they have finally decided to take advantage of the fact that episodes of streaming shows can be longer than the broadcast standard 45-ish minutes and made the episodes of Starfleet Academy clocking in around 60+ minutes. It becomes especially jarring when you remember that some episodes of Discovery clocked in around only 30-ish minutes.

Mind you, I’m not complaining, as I enjoy getting more Trek every week. I’m just wondering what about this show is different that made them decide to go for the full hour. Showrunner Noga Landau said in the Collider interview the other day that there are virtually no deleted scenes for the show and that they put everything they film in the finished episodes. Does that perhaps mean the other shows’ episodes could have been longer as well but that they were more aggressive in cutting the fat in the editing?

For those who are knowledgable about these things: Is there a substantial difference in writing a script for a 60+ minutes show versus writing one for only 40+ minutes of runtime? Is that something a writer needs to be aware of when they write their script?

Also, interestingly, I don’t think I would necessarily say I even notice the extended runtime when watching the episodes. Episode three was the first where I thought a tighter edit could have helped to make the episode better.

Measure of a Man had a longer cut that they put together on the blurays, but most of the TNG episodes have outtakes and cut material that you can see on the discs. Episodes back then were around 50 minutes, but they still had to trim.

Not having to be cut for TV allows them to be longer - although funny enough, Star Trek airs on TV in Canada so someone somewhere is trying to fit ads into these new shows that run long.

 

[Michael]

Thanks for your responses, guys! I appreciate it. I guess what I’m most interested in is to know why they decided for Starfleet Academy to finally be the show where episodes are allowed to run for 60+ minutes, when it appears as if they would have been able to do that since Discovery, which was almost ten years ago.

Is that just a personal preference of one of the new people on the production team? Did Alex Kurtzman change his mind? Is this something that was mandated by Paramount? Or is it basically accidental and just something that happened because they decided to never cut any fat from the episodes or scripts?

I guess none of that can really be answered right now in the absence of any official statement from the producers. Still interesting to think about the implications for how the show feels. So far it seems like they are using the longer runtime to have more or longer character moments. The show has a relatively large ensemble cast and the added time probably gives them more room per episode to flesh them out.

 

[bdub76]

The most obvious reason to have the shorter run times would be plans to show the show on network television with ads. If you know the show won't be on network television, and you only have 8 episodes to tell your story, then having longer run times gives your story more room to breathe. It makes sense.

If you look at how many episodes were in STO and then VOY and then finally for streaming, it has continuously dropped. The first season of Discovery had 15 episodes, but now we're seeing shows running with only 8. This also means the crew in general is constantly looking for work.