Will 52 episodes a year be enough?

[fireproof78]

I don't expect top tier entertainment, not every week, but if I ever stop hoping for it then I will have lost all faith in the series. Star Trek should always have the resources and the talent necessary to make it a real contender to be the absolute best science fiction franchise on TV.

It should? I guess I don't see that. It's not a matter of hope but just real world pragmatism to me.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

Nah, "Picard" will eventually move to Paramount+. Australia had no P+ when "Picard" Season 1 was ready to premiere.

I know. But I was talking about what happens should some bigger company (in this case, Amazon) buy up Paramount+ as a whole.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I know. But I was talking about what happens should some bigger company (in this case, Amazon) buy up Paramount+ as a whole.

Well for starters, this guy would get his own spin-off series:

 

[fireproof78]

Well for starters, this guy would get his own spin-off series:

Yorktown spin off for the win.

 

[Qonundrum]

The plan set out years ago was for year-round Trek on Paramount+. Every time a season of one show ends, another begins and thus they don't lose the die-hard Trekkie subscriber base.

Discovery
Picard
Strange New Worlds
Prodigy
Lower Decks

And as these shows end, Section 31 and Starfleet Academy (with others rumoured, ranging from a live-action Worf comedy series to a show set in the 1990's) are gearing up to take their places.

But how long is this likely to last? Many fans don't consider animated Trek to "matter" as much as live action, and (with zero evidence) there may be subscriber dips when the animated shows are all that are airing. And there are only so many nostalgia pops left in the franchise to bring back lapsed fans, like Picard bringing back the entire Next Gen cast for the last season. Will we start to see even more overlapping, concurrent Star Trek shows as the existing fanbase begins to dwindle? Two new Star Trek episodes a week does sound awfully enticing...

Only if everything watches every episode of every show, and "die-hard fan" isn't the same as what it used to be... some won't watch any of the new shows, some will wish the 10 episodes from Series X could otherwise be used to make Series Y double in size because that one's better, et cetera, et cetera... plenty of permutations for every facet and faction of the fanbase, for sure.

Now imagine they do 5 episode seasons so they can have double the titles... Indeed, here's a potential one right now:

https://redshirtsalwaysdie.com/2022/05/26/watch-is-there-a-new-khan-star-trek-show-in-development/

Maybe we can get answers to all those impressive questions that prevented us from getting sleep at night or dates or something, such as how Khan knew of Chekov or why no further contact was made or that most gripping 3-parter where the Federation retrieves the SS Botany Bay and sets it up on Ceti Alpha 5 and some dingbat left their spare outfit there (complete with blue scarf), which is why Khan was wearing some of it as bling even before Chekov and Terrell got there, ad nauseum...

So that's 1 down, 4 to go.

Another might be exploring those side characters...

So how about an official Axanar show?

Or "Dr Helen Noel - Space Shrink" - makes for a good comedy, sure... she also knew all the bridge crew from Pike's Enterprise and Farragut as they visited her.

So that's another two down...

A spinoff showing Charlie X's drawn-out life before being stranded on Thaseus might be able to eke out a couple hundred episodes... of course, at 5 per year he'd have to start out as a newborn if not earlier... so double down and show the life of his exciting Earth parents? On Cinemax or Spice channels, of course...

Last but not least, why not address the life and times of Janice Lester and help "Turnabout Intruder" get some background details filled out, since that episode isn't sure whether or not Janice is legitimately insane or if Starfleet was truly sexist until "Star Trek IV" when the first female captain was shown?

Honorable mention: Show the life and times of the Romulan commander from "The Enterprise Incident", something they sorta wanted to do for "Face of the Enemy" in season 6 but were unable to do. That's got to guarantee several dozen million viewers. Actually it might, that one seems kinda cool and they can touch just enough to build up on her interest in Spock as the episodes/years go by after a few seasons of the show building itself up and they explore more of Vulcans onboard Federation ships thanks to the previous encounter from "Balance of Terror" - this small universe stuff almost writes itself, all anyone needs now is an AI script generator...

(What, everyone thought this was a snark-driven response? Well, not 100% of it, anyway... )

 

[Qonundrum]

Lower Decks is proof that more variety in Star Trek series is a good thing... because only 50% of fans consider it their favourite of the current shows! We need things that are different to Lower Decks, if just to keep the rest of the fan base happy.

^^this!

Not every show is going to appeal to all in the fanbase. The lore and legacy and all the other words that start with "L" or twenty-five others that describe the franchise at this point make it impossible. Some shows are orbiting closer to what's been done and DSC maneuvered itself into the far future to become its own thing. Not a bad thing to do because, even as big as Star Trek got in the 80s/90s, they'd run out of material if they didn't do anything new but instead dug up only old characters and baddies and now everyone's been involved all these years and nobody ever knew. It's not moaning as such if one wants to not just rely on just nostalgiabate to keep the franchise invigorated. Something else has to strike the proverbial chord. How many more times can Khan, Mudd, the Borg, et al, be trotted out while appearing fresh? But that's getting into a tangent...