Following the cancellation of Doctor Who in 1989 there were numerous rumours and supposed attempts at resurrecting it. One thing that never disappeared was the demand for a new series. The BBC realised that they would make far more money on the creation of a new series than simply re-merchandising the old. Of course when we think of Star Trek, we have to consider that there is massively more merchandise available for the old series than there was for the old Doctor Who. Plus at the time, Who hadn't gone global whereas Star Trek has already reached that status. That being said, it makes financial sense to create a new series. Not only would it earn more money than not doing so, but it would increase existing merchandise revenue. Producers can claim all they like that a new series might detract from the takings at the box office for the Star Trek films, but we had nearly two decades of Star Trek both on television and in the cinema and it worked fine until the deadly combination of a lacklustre series combined with a not-entirely-brilliant film. You cannot look at the Nemesis/Enterprise combination as proof that it wouldn't work when equally you could instead look at the Deep Space Nine/Voyager/First Contact combination instead. The BBC listened to the fans who said they wanted Doctor Who back on television and gave them what they wanted. Right now it doesn't seem that CBS is doing the same, and the words of anyone who works on the Paramount films cannot be trusted after all, Paramount doesn't have any say in the TV rights. Ultimately it is up to the accountants at CBS to decide where and when Star Trek will return to television, and they are making a big mistake if they think that the absence of something is somehow better than a new revenue stream. So in the worls of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, CBS make it so. Do you think a new Star Trek show could work with these lessons taken on board? Share your thoughts below in the comments thread.
