Star Trek has reached a truly monumental mark – a combined total of 800 movies and TV episodes over the course of its 54 year duration. With Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Short Treks and Star Trek: Lower Decks all currently producing new episodes, and plans for more theatrical films on the way, the franchise is showing no sign of slowing down any time soon. Even so long after the original series first began airing, Star Trek remains a titan of the sci-fi genre.
While always a major force in the world of science fiction, Star Trek saw a bit of a decline at the beginning of the 21st century. The combined popularity of the original series, subsequent films and The Next Generation made the franchise a household name for decades, but the lesser success of Voyager in the late ‘90s and the relatively poor reception to Enterprise led to a temporary hiatus. That break didn’t last long though, as J.J. Abrams’s film series relaunched Star Trek for a new generation. Now, as Paramount looks to compete with Disney and Warner Bros. in the branded content space, Star Trek is expanding more rapidly than ever.
That expansion hit a major milestone to cap off 2020 – 800 total combined TV episodes and films to date. Star Trek-centric Twitter account @GeekFilter declared the news in a celebratory post, commemorating the franchise’s 10 unique TV series and 13 movies. Simply running for over 50 years is an accomplishment in itself, but it’s particularly impressive given how much new Star Trek content is currently being created and how much more is planned for the near future.
In addition to the four shows currently on the air, Paramount has announced plans for a number of upcoming projects. These new series include Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which will follow the original Enterprise through its early adventures under Captain Pike, and Star Trek: Prodigy, an animated series targeted at younger viewers. With so much new material on the way, Star Trek is well on its way to hitting the 1,000 mark before too long.
Right now, the franchise’s biggest question mark is its film series. Theatrical Trek projects have been temporarily suspended by Paramount, and while several different rumored pitches have floated around, nothing concrete has been revealed so far. Movies have been a cornerstone of the series since before The Next Generation, and they are sure to return somewhere down the line. For the time being though, new Star Trek shows and Paramount+ seem to be the way forward.
Source: @GeekFilter