How Would A New Trek Series Do On A Major Network?

No modern Trek series has been on one of the really major networks of course.

And I assume that any new Trek series would have to be on CBS if it was on TV at all.

So, how do the people here think that a new Trek series would do on CBS?

CBS seems to do okay with hits one hour dramas at present anyway.

I would say not too well. In terms of the percentage of the population into Star Trek I think Australia is fairly similar to the US. All the modern Trek series were shown on Channel 9 (one of the big 3 networks here) and while they would start off at primetime the ratings after a few weeks would inevitably see them pushed back to 11pm at night.

That assumes any new Trek series would attract a similar audience to the previous series. If they can attract more people as the new movie did then all bets are out the window. That said I don't expect to see a new Trek series made for the next decade at least, until they have finished making movies with the new cast.

A new series should be done on HBO.

If you brought everyone from Abrams Trek back to the small screen, it might stand a chance, but the old timeline is probably dead.

Seriously they should do it on HBO. Keep the episodes down to 13-15 a season and arc it.

I think UA and Zombie have nailed essential points of the only way it could stand a chance. Otherwise, forget it.

Michael C hall as a captain you like that idea asyncritus he plays dexter on showtime.

Isn't he suffering from cancer?

The long break that Trek is enjoying needs to continue. Indefinitely.

I'm beginning to miss it to be honest. To the point where I'm contemplating watching Enterprise. I've only seen a handful of eps, I don't really wanna watch the rest but there's nothing else out there!

I just don't know that there's anywhere 'fresh' to go with the Trek premise. Five TV series and a slew of movies- it's pretty much been done to death, to the point that they were basically rehashing old TOS and TNG eps during the Voyager and Enterprise runs.

In order to make it new and exciting you would have to radically change it- at which point it's not really Trek anymore, but something else bearing the label.

I disagree. What Star Trek (TV) needs is talented people to run the show. Good writers, good producers. And since Roddenberry we've primarily had hacks like Berman and Braga. A more creative team in charge of the franchise could easily work with the traditional Star Trek premise and produce a good TV show.
Don't ask me who would be up to the task though!

It needs to be back in the hands of the fans like it was in the 70s.
New Voyages/Phase II folks are making some decent "new" episodes in the nostalgic vein. Starship Exeter was excellent until it suddenly stopped.
Things like that.

'Cause clearly, no actual industry production will ever be good again.

Someone put it this way.

The original Star Trek series was written and produced by people who actually had lives BEFORE working in television.

Gene Roddenberry was a cop, airline pilot, and in the military IIRC before becoming a television writer and producer.

Original Trek was made by people who had DONE SOMETHING.

Modern Trek has been written and produced by people who have worked in nothing but television most of their lives.

Given all the peopel involved in Star Trek, I don't know if that is true or not.

The best thing about New Voyages is the VFX. The acting and dialogue are painful.

As for TV Trek, I took it all off my DVR record list a long time ago. I just lost interest in watching any of it.

The last show may have been the most tragic of all, because a show about the Romulan War could've been fucking EPIC.

Either that, or do a CGI (photo-realistic, not that Star Wars crap) animation on cartoon network or something.

oh, and Put Rene Echevierria(sp) in charge.

Exactly the way I think of it. Roddenberry was a bomber pilot in WWII, btw.

Adventure stories CAN be written by imaginative, but inexperienced people. But people who've actually HAD adventures have real experience to draw on, and can bring emotion and realism into the script.

What did Berman and Braga do before trying to write adventure stories? Go to college?

Depends. A mini-series could work over A Big Event, but I can't see a weekly Forehead of the Week show working just now. Society has stopped dreaming of a better future, and we're in a somewhat darker period so sci-fi reflects that.

It could succeed in the teen market - a Starfleet Academy series, maybe with a Section 31/Alias slant, would probably do well.

Most of us would probably hate it, but it'd do well.

Section 31 during the Romulan War!!! It's genius!!

So not like this?

Deadwood on Shermans Planet.

That would be a mutherfucker of a good series, and a Klingon Swearengen would be a wonder to behold.

I demand space ships and ray guns.

I agree with the HBO suggestion, and done by Tom Hank's Playtone company.

Al Swearengen: Pain or damage don't end the world. Or despair or fucking beatings. The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man... and give some back.

Al Swearengen: Oh, don't tell me how to talk in my own fuckin' place! Now, here's my counter offer to your counter offer - go *fuck* yourself!

Al Swearengen: Sometimes I wish we could just hit 'em over the head, rob 'em, and throw their bodies in the creek.

Al Swearengen: God rest the souls of that poor family... and pussy's half price for the next 15 minutes.

yeah I good see it.......

The Alphabet Networks delight in killing sci-fi series. They have 12 cop shows and 16 medical shows on each network, but not a decent sci-fi series.

An interesting concept, and better than nothing. the uniform design looks cool and the premise as described is interesting (stepping far enough away from previous series to not be bound to much of any of the previous threads.

But I hope that when/if it's ever done again it's in a sort of "final fantasy" style (when it gets affordable enough) rather than two-dimensional.

Don't do it man. You have so much to live for.

Christ, you can watch those things? It's like dragging nails on a chalkboard for me.

I think that I'd rather watch Voyager, to be quite honest.

It was once said by Berman & Braga that, "There are no new stories to tell in the 24th century."

Balderdash!

Books about TOS, TNG, DS9, and VOY, as well as New Frontier (Capt. Calhoun), Starfleet Corp of Engineers, and USS TITAN, continue to be published, are profitable, and have many followers, and the stories keep coming!

The problem is that just like any industry, Hollywood included, likes a good formula or system, A+B = Reliable, Predictable, Profit. They don't like to take chances.

One other thing I must point out, Gene Roddenberry, the Great Bird of the Galaxy, was an idea man. Sure he pitched and sold, and wrote episodes for shows before Trek, but it was people like Dorothy Fontana and Gene L. Coon who truly fleshed out the Trek Universe as we know it. If you would like proof that Roddenberry wasn't a fantastic writer check out the book rendition of Star Trek the Motion Picture. You won't recognize the main characters as we know and love them, and it's a painful read.

It was the book that convinced me that life is too short to waste on finishing bad books.

Marso may be right, Trek on TV needs to stay on hiatus. I say wait until the talent or the technology is there to do it justice.

In the meantime I'm gonna re-read 2 awesome trek books Tamar got for me x-mas of 2008, I read'em last month, and they're sooooo good, I'm going back to the well!!!!!

Why bother with the major networks?

They've been steadily losing ground to cable networks and (now streaming internet feeds) for years.