Modern Star Trek series like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds have 10-episode seasons, which Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise executive producer Brannon Braga likens to being in a “Tinder relationship.”
Almost every Star Trek show on Paramount+ has had seasons consisting of 10 episodes, with exceptions like the early seasons of Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Prodigy, which had seasons of 20 half-hour episodes. Still, fans feel there’s not enough new Star Trek overall.
As reported by TrekMovie, Brannon Braga appeared on stage at STLV: Trek to Vegas at a panel celebrating the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: Voyager. Braga gave his thoughts on the state of modern Star Trek TV, comparing streaming’s “new paradigm” to Star Trek’s 1990s heyday of 22-26 episodes per season. Read Brannon’s quote below:
Brannon Braga: “I look at this [STLV] audience, and I think you’re here because you had a long-term relationship with Voyager. Voyager was 26 episodes a year. Some of you probably keep it on because it’s cozy, and that’s the kind of relationship you had. A lot of shows now are Tinder relationships—eight episodes every two years, I don’t think so. That’s not going to be something you necessarily pass on to your kids. And I think that’s a loss… It’s a new paradigm. And some shows are still doing [long seasons]… NCIS does like 22. But I really don’t know what’s in store for the future of Star Trek, the TV franchise anyway. But I hope, I hope that eventually they get back to a longer, more sustained season.”
Why Brannon Braga Thinks Star Trek & Fans Now Have A Tinder Relationship
Brannon Braga’s comments equating Star Trek‘s short current seasons to Tinder relationships (i.e. brief and not as fulfilling) reflect an increasingly common lament from Star Trek fans, who feel the modern shows are too short and miss having 22-26 episode seasons of Star Trek.
Star Trek: Discovery was originally co-financed by Netflix internationally, and season 1 was 15 episodes, season 2 was 14, and season 3 was 13. After Discovery became exclusive to Paramount+, seasons 4 and 5 were the standard 10 episodes each.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 took a hit from fans, who felt that if there were more hours in the season, the issues they had with specific episodes would have felt less egregious. With less real estate comes the pressure of each Star Trek episode needing to be great and be all things to all fans.
Brannon Braga also hit on another interesting point about whether shorter streaming shows would have the same impact of being passed down the generations, the way older Star Trek series with longer seasons are.
Our Take On Star Trek & Fans Having A Tinder Relationship
Photo by Sarah Coulter
Brannon Braga’s correlation between short Star Trek seasons and Tinder is at the heart of a question it will take years to answer: Whether Star Trek on Paramount+ shows will have the same lasting resonance as the older Star Trek series.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, for example, will clock in at just 46 episodes total for the entire series because season 5 is only 6 episodes. Will Strange New Worlds be passed down the generations the way Star Trek: The Original Series, its inspiration, has for nearly 60 years?
Another topic regarding short seasons is Star Trek fans missing “filler episodes,” which didn’t necessarily drive a season’s main plot, but allowed for deeper explorations of characters and relationships, because there were 22-26 episodes ordered per season to fill.
Whether Paramount+ will ever extend Star Trek series beyond 10 episodes is unknown, but plenty of fans still “swipe right” for each new season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and other Star Trek on Paramount+ shows, no matter how short they are.
Release Date
May 5, 2022
Network
Paramount+
Showrunner
Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman
Directors
Dan Liu, Amanda Row, Maja Vrvilo, Akiva Goldsman, Dermott Downs, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Jonathan Frakes, Jordan Canning, Leslie Hope, Valerie Weiss, Sydney Freeland, Christopher J. Byrne, Rachel Leiterman
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