Would you listen to Big Finish produced trek?

[FreddyE]

What are your thoughts about full cast audio dramas produced by Big Finish? They have been doing Doctor Who for ages...the existing episodes to date are in the hundereds. They are high quality, music...sfx...everything and use the "no narrator" style which I actually prefer.

So far there have been two offical audio dramas...the Raffi one and "Kahn". This should be enough for Paramount/CBS to see that trek audio works and a petition may be able to get them to grant Big Finish a license, right?

 

[Turtletrekker]

I would love more audio dramas but we hardly need Big Finish. The people doing the Khan podcast are doing just fine.

 

[James Swallow]

Big Finish looked into licensing Star Trek for audio years ago, but the key issue was cost - and as much I'd personally love to see BF get a crack at the franchise, sadly a fan petition isn't likely to make CBS drop the price. It's far more likely CBS will produce something themselves.

If we want to see more Star Trek audio drama, the best way to get it is to support the Khan podcast and send positive feedback to CBS, Realm Entertainment et al.

 

[Zarm]

I absolutely would. But, I'd listen to it from elsewhere, too. Heck, I created an actual series bible for my own fan audio series- before lack of free time put the kibosh on producing it. So I'm open to quality Star Trek audio from any source, as long as it's well-written.

 

[The Gatekeeper]

I'll have to agree with the above sentiments, even if more Trek audio dramas were to become a thing, why would or should Big Finish take over?

 

[Bad Thoughts]

It's far more likely CBS will produce something themselves.

About as likely as remastering DS9 and Voyager?

 

[Zarm]

About as likely as remastering DS9 and Voyager?

I still wish they would just crowdfund that. I swear the entire remastering project would be covered within a day.

 

[Christopher]

It's far more likely CBS will produce something themselves.

Although it seems that Khan is not produced by CBS, but by Secret Hideout, Roddenberry Productions, and the podcast producers, under license from CBS, of course.

 

[Markonian]

What would be the canon status of such productions?

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Thinking about it for a few hours, I realize that Big Finish would not necessarily be the company I would want to go with. They have produced some great drama, the War Doctor stories being especially strong, and it attracts good talent, including those who played the Doctor before. However, it floods the market with product that appears on the whole to be lower quality. @Markonian asked whether it would be canon. I am not someone who insists on rigid adherence to what has been said and done in every episode that has come before, but among the strengths of Star Trek is that is takes its past seriously. It is much more coherent than Doctor Who. Two or three series every year with the same scope as Khan would be lovely. Would Big Finish adhere to something so modest, and would CBS price the license to make it economically feasible?

 

[Christopher]

What would be the canon status of such productions?

Since it's not directly from CBS, that would essentially make it a licensed production like any other tie-in; although since it's from the other co-producers of the TV shows, the studio CBS subcontracts to make them, I'd say the closest analogy would be something like Sony's non-Spider-Man Marvel movies like Venom or Morbius, something from the licensed subcontractor without the direct participation of the owner. Either that or TAS before Paramount acquired ownership of it, when it was a production of Filmation Associates and Norway Corporation that was simply distributed by Paramount, which is part of the reason Paramount was cagey about acknowledging it back then.

My expectation would be that it's not canonical, or at best is canon-adjacent. But I hardly see how it matters, since I doubt any future canonical work is likely to cover or address the same subject matter and either affirm or contradict it. Of course, canon works are always free to borrow ideas from non-canonical tie-ins, like Star Wars has done with a bunch of characters, planets, and species from the old Expanded Universe. And conversely, canon works are always free to contradict previous canon, like how TNG and Voyager ignored how quickly the Enterprise was able to reach the galactic center in ST V. So really, whether something is canon or not has no real impact one way or the other.

Thinking about it for a few hours, I realize that Big Finish would not necessarily be the company I would want to go with. They have produced some great drama, the War Doctor stories being especially strong, and it attracts good talent, including those who played the Doctor before. However, it floods the market with product that appears on the whole to be lower quality.

I have a similar concern. They've done some good stuff, but they do seem to prioritize quantity over quality.

Also, I suppose it might be harder for a British production to get hold of enough Trek actors who live and work in North America. Khan only has two screen actors and an otherwise new cast, but future audios might make more use of returning regulars. I wondered if maybe they might want to limit the number of regulars they use for reasons of budget, but Naveen Andrews and Wrenn Schmidt are pretty high-profile actors.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Also, I suppose it might be harder for a British production to get hold of enough Trek actors who live and work in North America. Khan only has two screen actors and an otherwise new cast, but future audios might make more use of returning regulars. I wondered if maybe they might want to limit the number of regulars they use for reasons of budget, but Naveen Andrews and Wrenn Schmidt are pretty high-profile actors.

Fair concerns. Looking at the number of actors and writers from Legacy series who give up their time to be on, even produce, their own podcasts, I think they would not be a hindrance.

 

[The Gatekeeper]

What would be the canon status of such productions?

No one's even decided the canon status of the Khan audio yet.

 

[Turtletrekker]

@Christopher -- honestly, and one's mileage may vary on this, but I think it would be very easy to throw in an off hand canonical reference in Starfleet Academy that could intoduce the podcast into the larger canon. A history lecture or even a reference to a textbook titled something along the lines of, "The Truth about Khan Noonian Singh by Dr. Rosalind Lear" would be enough to satisfy me.

 

[Christopher]

@Christopher -- honestly, and one's mileage may vary on this, but I think it would be very easy to throw in an off hand canonical reference in Starfleet Academy that could intoduce the podcast into the larger canon. A history lecture or even a reference to a textbook titled something along the lines of, "The Truth about Khan Noonian Singh by Dr. Rosalind Lear" would be enough to satisfy me.

Obviously they could if they wanted to, and as I said, whether the story is "canon" or not has exactly zero bearing on that, since nothing would stop them from referencing Greg Cox's version of Khan's exile or IDW's version if that was what they wanted to do. Heck, Lower Decks canonized the novels' design of the Titan, and Discovery canonized two bits of terminology I introduced in the Titan novels, "contact specialist" and "cosmozoan" -- while disregarding the rest of the Titan novels' continuity and original characters. Canon is completely unimportant to the decisions of storytellers, because what they put in their stories is the canon by definition, whether it was before or not. (And as the above examples show, referencing one thing from a tie-in does not canonize the entire story, merely the specific element that was referenced.)

But why would they want to? Storytellers generally only put things in stories if they serve the stories being told. Yes, modern Trek writers have an often annoying tendency to throw in continuity references for their own sake, but they're generally references to things likely to be familiar to the TV audience. Supplemental works rarely get referenced because they wouldn't be familiar enough to the average viewer. What matters is not what label you stick on something, but how large its audience is. Unless podcasts turn out to have an audience comparable to the TV shows, they're unlikely to get referenced in the TV shows. No point in tossing out a recognition cue if you don't expect most of your audience to recognize it.

And more importantly, why should we, as listeners, care whether a story is canon? There are three versions of Khan's exile now, and they all have their merits, so why do we need to pick a winner? Every story is "real" within the story itself, but when you're done, you step back from it and allow yourself to enjoy other stories' "realities." They don't have to agree with each other to be enjoyed.

 

[bdub76]

They would know how to produce it and write it.

I wouldn't be opposed to it.

 

[Avro Arrow]

What would be the canon status of such productions?

Does that really even matter? You're in the Lit forum, so all of us here are presumably perfectly fine with getting entertainment value from non-canonical Star Trek stories.

But I hardly see how it matters, since I doubt any future canonical work is likely to cover or address the same subject matter and either affirm or contradict it.

Since you're replying directly to Markonian's question above... how can you say this definitively about hypothetical projects that don't exist yet, so we would have no idea what the storylines would even be about?

 

[Christopher]

Since you're replying directly to Markonian's question above... how can you say this definitively about hypothetical projects that don't exist yet, so we would have no idea what the storylines would even be about?

That's a straw-man question. "I doubt" is obviously not a "definitive" statement, merely an assessment of likelihood. Seriously, how likely is it that any future canonical story would have reason to revisit such a narrow subject matter as the specific details of Khan's exile on Ceti Alpha V? You should be able to reason that out for yourself.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Seriously, how likely is it that any future canonical story would have reason to revisit such a narrow subject matter as the specific details of Khan's exile on Ceti Alpha V?

Ok, you’re specifically talking about Khan. I thought Markonian was asking about the canonicity of any hypothetical Big Finish audios, since that’s the subject of the thread. And TBF you didn’t mention Khan by name in that post until you replied to a different poster about something else.

 

[Christopher]

Ok, you’re specifically talking about Khan. I thought Markonian was asking about the canonicity of any hypothetical Big Finish audios, since that’s the subject of the thread. And TBF you didn’t mention Khan by name in that post until you replied to a different poster about something else.

Oh, I see. We were talking past each other a bit.

EDIT: Anyway, if Big Finish hypothetically got the Trek audio license, they'd just be tie-ins like any other, since they wouldn't be directly from CBS Studios. So that's an easy question to answer -- no, they wouldn't be canon. The reason I thought the question was about Khan was because that's from Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Productions, though not from CBS, so it's kind of in an ambiguous state canon-wise. Though, again, that's a technicality that would have no actual bearing on any future story choices.