Hold your horses—there's no Netflix-CBS "talks" *

Before I get to a look back at FedCon, or Phoenix Comicon…. or a deadline reminder to you about the coming LA2Vega Trek tour and the one-day special we threw in... before all my backlogged videos patiently waiting… I need to address this today.

There's a story up on "Plus.Google" by an unnamed writer—yes, a story without a byline—that quotes me from a Phoenix Comicon panel Saturday saying Netflix and CBS are "in talks" to do a new Star Trek series. "Lucrative" ones, no less.

And that's not true.

I know Trek fans are hungry for new material and hoping that someone "gets it" and gets on with doing one. That's why everything from the continuing novels to fan fiction, to Star Trek Online and other games, to the fan films, to  cosplayers and prop and shipbuilders are all still going strong: People are desperate for new Star Trek—including the new fans driven by JJ or the Bluray remasters and, yes, mass Netlfix availability. And, said desperate fans pounce on every crumb that's out there — as good fans would. Or they even do more, like organizing a Facebook "petition" campaign to get Netflix to produce a "fifth season" of Enterprise.

But this non-bylined writer known only as "Starfleet Intelligence" is too wrapped up in tossing around jazzy phrases of TheBizSpeak in this post, and has the situation blown up way too big —though it makes a nice screaming headline. I wish he or she had talked to me afterward for some real context to the tiny bit I DID mention. (or even got my bio right.) 

So, HERE's some context.

As we know by now, Netflix has changed the TV/media landscape yet again by becoming a platform of clout with original shows like House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black—popular not only with fans, but critics...and now the award shows. It's in Netflix's interest to be casting about for new shows—including those from known franchises. I understand Star Trek is one of them—especially as Trek's 737 hours of "reruns" performs as a top draw ON Netflix. As I understand it, there have been overtures.  But none taken. So far.

That's it, guys. I appreciate the pedestal, of sorts, but this excitable blogger makes it sound as if show budgets and writer's guides for a done-deal Trek series are already floating around in CBS offices. Maybe they are—but not to my knowledge. We all know plenty of people in private and public have pitched show concepts and formats—and on a "channel" that makes financial and distributional sense. And, we do know that one good way to help get Star Trek back is to keep those Netflix viewer "ratings" tickers clicking right along marathon-style, as a barometer, to reveal any and all Trek shows being watched. But inertia and the unanswered questions of who, what, when, where, and how much have, so far, won out. Sadly.

Oh—and someone also needs to tell this "reporter" that Star Trek Communicator is not a current thing. 

Sadly. *sniff*



*Again: That *I* know of.

STV: Why Doug Drexler backs that petition for a Netflix ENTERPRISE

Amid all the hoopla over that movie that came out May 17, or even our little Star Trek Continues ...

You might have choked on your gagh a few weeks back to read about a campaign to get Netflix to fund a "fifth season" of none other than... Star Trek: Enterprise?

It may have even popped up on your Facebook. That's how I first dropped my jaw over the topic. But I find out all about in this vidchat--just below. But first, consider this:

Netflix funding of original series and now the return of "old" series, of course, is a done deal already: new eps of cult classic Arrested Development are a movie lead-in, Kevin Spacey's original House of Cards aired there too—and now a Veronica Mars comeback movie, of all things, is green-lit after zillions of Kickstarter backers.

So look at where we are in 2013!

For the first time, a "dead" show could actually be brought back to life with non-network backing .... even an online streaming service. And the show's still-pissed-off fanbase would actually have a hand in resurrecting it by demand, and continued streaming.

And so that leads us to Jen DeSalle and Robert Bolivar, who decided to launch their own Facebook et al petition campaign to convince Netflix to do the same thing for Enterprise. After all, if zillions got a 20-something mystery drama back in production, surely many times more would stand up for the disrespected and increasingly missed final incarnation of TV Trek?

Then what to my wondering eye should appear than the respected name of Doug Drexler among the "backers" of the petition drive. No fan-flak he, make-up and CGI pro Doug went on to the Battlestar franchise of course and works all over now—but Trek is still his heart and soul. He wouldn't attach his name to this Facebook petition to Netflix lightly—so I had to track him down and ask, given all we know about Trek TV these days...



So the Facebook campaign HQ is here—and I wrote the founders to get more about it.

Jen told me that she was for the campaign to convince Netflix even with the Paramount/CBS "moratorium" on Trek TV. "Trek on TV has consistently done better than any of the movies by far. Now, CBS may not see this in the short term but over time, one of the things we hope to show them, is that the TV side is not only profitable, but, in the case of a series like Enterprise, also cost-effective." And, she adds, the "selfish" chance for a lifelong fan to create a page, CGI mockups and promo banners on such a campaign with Doug and other sites was "too much to pass up".

It was a comment by exec producer Brannon Braga, of all people, about using Netlfix to revive Enterprise as a renewed series or even TV movie that nudged Bolivar to jump ahead with the campaign for fans who feel "cheated" at the early departure of the NX-01. "Network interference, declining ratings and other studio red tape are something that every show has faced," Rob says. "Enterprise was just hitting its stride when it was cancelled. With our Facebook campaign, we are doing something that has never really been done with Trek before. We have gathered the fans, actors, production staff, etc.— all of them in basically the same place to support each other and the cause. Are there hurdles? Absolutely, but we have the ability of hindsight this time around. We know what works and what doesn’t. We know how to keep costs down and with the advances in digital sets; we can film just about anything. I think that Netflix is the perfect medium for this type of endeavor. Enterprise fans deserve this. We just want to see the series played out the way it was supposed to be.

" It's a worthwhile cause, and I hope, and pray that it is noticed, that we are heard, and we get our dream, at least one more season of Enterprise, to see some of what we can do now, and of course maybe the Romulan War wouldn't hurt.," Jen adds. As does Rob: "Streaming media is the future of television, and so is Star Trek."

What do YOU think? Does this really have a chance of appealing to Netlfix, much less persuading CBS to let it be done in the first place?

Or do we truly live in an "all bets are off" media world of change today, and who knows?