brightknightie | No new Trek = No Paramount+ subscription

Paramount has reportedly struck the sets for all its Star Trek properties. The new Starfleet Academy show, which my best friend hugely enjoyed and I haven't yet tried, was promptly canceled, reportedly for not cracking the top ten most streamed shows, though they had already filmed a second season and will presumably release it. Strange New Worlds, which I enjoy and look forward to, will air its fourth season sometime this year, and a fifth and final season sometime next year. (All seasons are ~10 episodes.)

In the midst of this, Paramount+ is raising prices again, even for the with-commercials tier to which I subscribe.

Trek is the only thing I watch on Paramount+ these days. It's always been the main thing. I originally subscribed for Discovery, and, for years, was genuinely content to pay what I thought of as my "Trek tax" through a continuous subscription. If they're not going to supply new Trek, I'm obviously not going to continue giving them money (completely aside from their corporate changes and etc. making them less attractive). The question is, how much trouble is it to unsubscribe and resubscribe and unsubscribe again for each of these final two seasons of Strange New Worlds?

I wonder if this is part of why they don't announce the dates for new seasons much in advance: subscription whack-a-mole. On the other hand, if they would produce 22-episode seasons of desired shows, and release episodes year-round, that would prevent such unsubscribing altogether. (As many have said, I would like longer seasons, with more character development, including "filler episodes," and would be delighted to take vastly fewer and/or cheaper special effects, sets, costumes, and props in trade.)

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It's really a bummer. Not only with Star Trek, but series in general. Do you have any idea why they keep on shortening series? I mean - more show = the longer people will be subscribing. But maybe I'm wrong and people these days with TikTok attention span don't want long running series with great plot arches and character development anymore? No idea. I'm just sad that so many great show's will never get a chance.

In US television, these very short seasons are entirely a phenomenon of the streaming age. We never had short seasons before streaming. And a show not intended to run more than one season was called a "mini-series," setting that expectation. But the UK always did; their "prestige" shows (not necessarily their soap operas or children's shows) were always 6-12 episodes per season (the UK uses "series" to mean what the US calls a "season," of course), as far as I know.

Why? I assume it is money, naturally, but I don't know how it works.

Plot arcs really emerged only in the 90s, anyway. Before that, only soap operas (always soap operas) typically had a story arc that went on beyond a single episode. Having a two-parter was a big deal, and an end-of-season cliffhanger was a very big deal. Typically, each episode was a story unto itself and then the "reset button" was pressed.

FWIW, I think there's evidence that young folks do still want long-running series, from how Suits and Gray's Anatomy reruns/streaming went kind of viral in the pandemic, and how the older Trek shows are watched by younger folks "catching up" on their fannish credibility, but... money? Somehow: money.

Sounds very plausible.

And the re-runs of old shows and "we're going make a sequel to a show that was a success in the 90's/00s" might be the attempt to bring back the audience that watched the original back then.

HBO did short seasons even before the streaming age, but I can't think of any other channel that did. I don't mind short seasons, but I definitely don't retain as much from one season to the next. You'd think with fewer episodes, I'd retain more, but with such long spans of time between seasons, I end up forgetting what I watched a year ago (or even *years* ago) when a new season starts.

Hm. It might be time to get more serious about my Trek DVD collection.

My local public library has all the Trek on DVD for check-out. Perhaps interestingly, you check out a season at a time these days, not a disc at a time.

But so many folks don't have DVD or CD players anymore. I try to loan them things, and they regretfully decline, saying they have no way to play them.

Meanwhile, I still have a VCR! And a cassette player (though I'm not positive that it still works).

>>In the midst of this, Paramount+ is raising prices again, even for the with-commercials tier to which I subscribe.<<

Back when cable first emerged, I warned people that if they started paying for television without commercials, they'd wind up paying for television with commercials, instead of the content all being free and only the equipment requiring a one-time purchase. Nobody believed me. Now look where we are.

>> If they're not going to supply new Trek, I'm obviously not going to continue giving them money <<

Go you!

I don't watch much TV anymore. It's rarely worth the hassle. We watch something over supper and that's it for me. If they don't meet people's needs, then people will find other things to do.

Why on earth would they kill Trek? That makes no sense at all. Like someone else said, time to double check my DVDs. Physical media for the win.

I'm positive that the answer is money, but I'm not sure exactly how, except that they spend way too much on the special effects and sets and costumes, as if they're producing a movie rather than a TV show.

(You know that the Ellisons bought Paramount and are about to scoop up HBO, yes? So it could be money+politics. The recent Starfleet Academy show that I haven't yet tried got slammed for being "woke" before it even premiered by the usual online trolls.)

Of course, nowadays they spend far more on any series of this sort than they did back in the 60s. So, if they don't think they'll recoup the money, they are inclined to cancel and try with something else. On the other hand, the sets are sunk costs: the more episodes they make with them, the less they've spent per episode.

I wonder about their math. But then I wonder about so many things where the TPTB are concerned. They seem to live in their own universe.

Maybe don't bother with the subscription and wait for the DVD release? (if DVDs are still produced in this age).
I'm very fond of Strange New Worlds.
I did watch Starfleet Academy, but it was too short to form a solid opinion. Some of the characters grew on me as the show went on. For others I couldn't care less.
One I liked in particular, but I won't go into details as not to spoil anything for you since you haven't watched it yet.

Strange New Worlds is indeed releasing on DVD, which is very nice for everyone, especially folks who depend on being able to check out media from public libraries.

Most of the big studios do still release some things on DVD, though less than they used to, and with unpredictable schedules. The exception is anything produced by Netflix, where they have a never-broken rule that while they may release their "TV shows" on hard-copy media (so that you will subscribe to them to see the next season of the show), they never, ever release their "movies" on hard-copy media (so you must subscribe to them to see the movie at all).

I'll mention when I've watched Starfleet Academy. I promised my best friend I would watch it, as she liked it so much, so I will share it with her. :-)

Oh that is a bummer. I haven't seen Starfleet Academy yet, but I love Strange New Worlds and was going to catch Starfleet Academy next time we get Paramount Plus.

No new Trek = No Paramount+ subscription

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