What might a new merger of CBS and Viacom mean for the Star Trek franchise?
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CBS and Viacom split in 2006, and in the split the Star Trek franchise was torn in two. Viacom’s Paramount Pictures got the Star Trek movies and rights and CBS got the Star Trek television series and those rights. This meant that it was almost inevitable that the Star Trek movies and the Star Trek series would at some point end up going separate ways. It’s sometimes hard to get writers and directors to pay attention to previous cannon, but when that content is owned by someone else… forget it.
Right now we have two Star Trek timelines in the Prime Timeline which contains Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, and the Original and Next Generation Star Trek films. And we also have the Kelvin Timeline which is made up of the three J.J. Abrams produced films.
If the two giant companies were to come back together there would be every incentive to “heal” the Star Trek timeline and bring everything together somehow. How would they do that? Well I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of how the final Kelvin timeline film could rejoin the Prime cannon.
CBS is very profitable, while Viacom and Paramount could be charitably characterised as struggling. Even though the recent Star Trek films have been the most profitable Star Trek films CBS has a lot more material, and profit, coming from the Prime timelines syndication. It’s clear CBS would end up being the big brother if these two were to merge again, and Star Trek’s reunification would be at the top of the to do list since CBS calls Trek their “family jewel.”
In the end this merger and the unification of the Trek franchise would be a great thing for Star Trek. It would allow for a unified promotion of the films and series, and it would put Trek in a position to be to this new massive media company what Star Wars is to Disney.
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So what do you think? Will CBS and Viacom merge, and will it be good for Star Trek? Let us know on Facebook or in the comments below.