Why Is Star Trek So popular ?

[BAYLOR]

Because Paramount wants it to be?

 

[CupofJoe]

I read that ST:TOS benefitted from syndicate re-runs. Small TV networks needed to fill the screen and in the early 70 ST:TOS was cheap filler.
It found a new audience with teenagers and then Star Wars arrived...
ST:TMP was fairly successful, as were the next three and now Paramount had a franchise.

 

[BAYLOR]

I read that ST:TOS benefitted from syndicate re-runs. Small TV networks needed to fill the screen and in the early 70 ST:TOS was cheap filler.
It found a new audience with teenagers and then Star Wars arrived...
ST:TMP was fairly successful, as were the next three and now Paramount had a franchise.

In the mid 70's there was Star Trek Phase II which was aimed at Syndication as well . The Motion Picture ended that before it starred . Probably just as well because if it had gone to series in the 70's it might not have made it past the first or second .

 

[Brian G Turner]

I remember reading an article years ago that put down a big part of its success to extensive syndication, so a huge number of people were exposed to it and it was entertaining enough to watch when it was on. We can talk all we want about great characters, plot, and special effects, but Babylon 5 had the best of all but had very poor syndication, and because of this still remains something of a cult hit rather than a mainstream phenomenon.

 

[Dave]

Babylon 5 had the best of all but had very poor syndication, and because of this still remains something of a cult hit rather than a mainstream phenomenon.

I think that a problem with Babylon 5, but also with DS9, or also with any SFF set on an island, so include Lost or any fantasy island, is that being stuck on a space station or on an island, the stories and the visitors must come to you. With a ship-based story, you can go anywhere the writer's imagination will take you, but more crucially, you can visit a completely different place each episode.

You would expect that after so many different TV series set on a spaceship/starship/TARDIS, that people might be bored with that format now, but obviously not as they are still making them. So, I do think that the ship-based series must work better.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

...but Babylon 5 had the best of all but had very poor syndication...

This was my experience with the show in real time, exactly Brian. There wasn't a lot of quality SF on TV back at that time (early-mid 90s). I'd grown disillusioned with Star Trek TNG after a few years, and was thrilled when Babylon 5 premiered.

But as I recall it, Babylon 5 was very difficult to find on TV for its entire run. It might be shown where I lived (New York) at 1am on an obscure cable channel (so, not a major broadcast network, and one perhaps not available to all potential viewers) Saturday... or perhaps another season on a Sunday, and one year it was on Monday at that time, I believe. One showing per week (as was typical at the time), and I don't remember it being aired on re-run over the summer, as major Network shows were at the time (shows like Dallas, or The Cosby Show, etc).

Star Trek TNG was more of an event show. I believe where I lived it was always on Saturdays, early evening, perhaps 5pm, and on one of the bigger cable networks. I honestly don't know how Babylon 5 survived as long as it did, except that it had a truly loyal, though smallish fan base. I think we were really lucky/blessed to get as many shows as we did.

 

[paranoid marvin]

I think that a problem with Babylon 5, but also with DS9, or also with any SFF set on an island, so include Lost or any fantasy island, is that being stuck on a space station or on an island, the stories and the visitors must come to you. With a ship-based story, you can go anywhere the writer's imagination will take you, but more crucially, you can visit a completely different place each episode.

You would expect that after so many different TV series set on a spaceship/starship/TARDIS, that people might be bored with that format now, but obviously not as they are still making them. So, I do think that the ship-based series must work better.

DS9 obviously agreed, as they brought a face ship into that part way through the run. Which kind of defeated the whole object.

Having a show set in one place can work, but the problem is that many of these series are 25-30 episodes long and over 6 or more seasons. That's way too long imho; sometimes less is more.

As for the popularity of Star Trek, a lot is definitely down to marketing, and getting the show out to as many networks across as many countries as possible. Especially when there were only 3 or 4 channels, the choice between TNG, the News, a soap and a quiz show was really mo contest at all. It did help that Star Trek actually was pretty good, and it wasn't impossible to watch an episode in isolation and still enjoy it regardless of the fact you may not be familiar with the characters or setting.

 

[BAYLOR]

They're doing a Section 31 Project and Starfleet Academy.

 

[Dave]

You would expect that after so many different TV series set on a spaceship/starship/TARDIS, that people might be bored with that format now, but obviously not as they are still making them. So, I do think that the ship-based series must work better.

They're doing a Section 31 Project and Starfleet Academy.

If that was in reply to me, then I would assume that the Section 31 series will stretch across the whole Star Trek universe over multiple different ships, planets and locations. I would assume that the Starfleet Academy series will be more parochial and have stories set within the confines of the San Francisco based academy and medical school, it's classrooms, grounds and the undergraduate's holidays. I think you can see which of those has a greater scope and that I expect will be more successful, and have a longer life. That doesn't mean at all that there aren't good stories to be told within both.