Star Trek...Today - Episode 130

70s Trek: Star Trek in the 1970s

Since 2009 there has been three new Star Trek movies, one new series with another four reportedly in development.

Yet enthusiasm for the franchise among die hard fans is low. What’s going on? We’ll explore what is going on in Star Trek today in this episode.

What's Going on?

When it comes to connected TV and film universes, Star Trek was the first franchise to do it. Not Marvel.

But that might not happen anymore. And it all has to do with who owns Star Trek. But trying to figure out which corporate entity owns the property can get a bit confusing.

And it’s been that way from the beginning.

A lot of people think Gene Roddenberry and his production company Norway were the original owners. They weren’t.

The original owner was Desilu Studios and in 1968 Paramount Pictures, itself owned by Gulf + Western, purchased Desilu and Star Trek along with it.

In 1994, Viacom purchased Paramount for $9.75 Billion! Star Trek was still controlled and operated by Paramount, the franchise essentially had a new owner.

This next fact seems unrelated, but it isn’t. In 2000, Viacom merged with CBS Corporation.

Interestingly, Viacom was created by CBS back in 1952 as the network’s syndication division. Then it was called CBS Films but was later renamed Viacom.

It was spun off into its own company in 1971.

Back to the year 2000, and Viacom was then owned by National Amusements. The majority owner of that company was Sumner Redstone.

In 2005, Redstone decided to break Viacom apart into two companies, essentially undoing the 1999 merger. The entity known as Viacom became CBS Corporation. It owned all TV and radio divisions, along with Simon and Schuster publishing.

CBS would also own all of the television properties, including Star Trek.

The head of the new CBS Corporation was Les Moonves.

The second company created was a new version of Viacom. It held Paramount studios, MTV and BET networks.

Viacom with Paramount, retains the Star Trek feature film library, and according to some, the rights to make new feature films.

But the exact terms of the rights, and who can do what are not clearly known. And this is where things get a bit murky. But you needed this background to follow and understand what’s happening today.