Re: This is why there will be no new TV Trek for the forseeable future
CBS risks a flatline if somebody beats them to the punch with a rip off.
Star Trek fans will be satisfied with a "rip off"?
Not likely. Otherwise "Space: 1999" would still be a viable franchise.
That wasn't a Star Trek rip off. i don't see why CBS can't do a multi part movie for tv as an experiment to see what happens with all new everything - sets, designs, creative people. What's your elevator pitch to Moonves on that one Temis?
I wouldn't pitch that idea to CBS at all - doing a space opera is pricey enough, even without adding to the problem by not amortizing the startup costs by planning a series that can run several seasons. To combine one cost-ineffecient show type (space opera) with another (miniseries) is lunacy. There's a reason you don't see space operas or miniseries (other than on HBO) on TV much anymore.
The only reason anyone would do that is if the "miniseries" is actually a stealth pilot for a planned series, and then that's the same thing as the usual system - do a bunch of episodes for the first season, and if it tanks, cancel it - a de-facto "miniseries" if that's the label you want to use.
Her elevator pitch will probably lay out how she isn't Therin of Andor.
But that's just my guess.
I plan not to use my real name so that when CBS calls security to escort me from the premises, I won't get a bad reputation around their offices.
They just demoted Blood and Chrome back to web status and refused to do practical sets (it'll all be shot green screen, and SyFy ain't Lucasfilm).
Is that dead for real now? I didn't have much hope for it anyway. But that might increase the odds of RHW's space opera series surviving instead, and frankly I think that sounds more promising anyway.
I've never seen any of those (no cable); they are supposedly well-done, right?
Rome was excellent, partly because it was beautifully produced. You could see that big budget on the screen, but even HBO couldn't manage that level of expense. As I recall, the BBC had been co-funding it, didn't get good enough ratings in the UK and pulled out. HBO couldn't continue it on their own.
I saw a couple episodes of
Spartacus. It is definitely not in the same league as
Rome. The budget has to be much smaller, but they used some creative tricks to disguise things, such as a highly stylized (and cool) approach to some scenes that could just be an indoor set somewhere. Making virtue of necessity. But the main attraction as far as I could tell was the insane levels of sex and violence even by premium cable standards, plus the charisma of the lead actor, who sadly has died of cancer. They're continuing with a new actor playing a different character - no idea whether the ratings are holding up.
I haven't seen
Game of Thrones yet, but it's easy to envision what it's like just by the comments of others. If premium cable wanted to do that sort of thing in a sci fi context, they'd probably be more likely to find a sci fi novel series with a respectable following rather than bother with all the baggage that
Star Trek brings to the situation. For instance, HBO is interested in Trent Reznor's
Year Zero series, a politically oriented show about a future dystopia. That sounds more "grownup" than a traditional space opera, and probably would be a better fit for premium cable.
Space opera and sci fi in general is definitely a limiting factor. People seem more inclined to relate to historical characters than to funny looking blue people. But I wouldn't overemphasize that problem. Who would ever have thought that the AMC audience would go for a zombie show? As long as the major characters are highly relatable and human, the zombies are no problem, and same could be true for the funny forehead/blue people.
Maybe something by Peter Hamilton?
I'm not up on all the sf lit at all, so I looked him up. From what I could glean, I couldn't tell if he puts a lot of emphasis on characters, relationships and sex - I think that's what cable would be looking for. Hard sci fi would not be an attraction at all. A show might be based on hard sci fi, and people who know the story might see that, but it wouldn't get "credit" with the general audience.
The models to follow would be the successful sf/f series based on novels and graphic novels -
Game of Thrones, True Blood and
The Walking Dead. A space opera series that has the elements of those stories would be the most likely candidate. Heavy character emphasis, complex politics and character relationships, sex and sexual jealousy, angst and violence.
I don't know if literary prestige would mean much to the cable audience, but it couldn't hurt. But an existing following for the novels couldn't hurt, if it means a bump in new subscribers.
I think CBS is going to see how Mr. 'Untitled''s space opera Star Trek rip off, by RH wolfe, on the Sy-fy channel is going to do first.
I think CBS is not going to care at all about that. They don't have any channel that competes with SyFy. Right now, they are having great success with CBS and Showtime, and while the CW is iffy, space opera is irrelevant to the young female demographic and won't solve that channel's problems. Unless they're space vampires...hey there's an idea...
