Just how bad will the writer’s strike affect Star Trek?

Star Trek will be affected by the writer’s strike, just like everyone else.

The Writer’s Guild of America has gone on strike after the biggest studios in the country have refused to meet their needs. On the table during the strike include pay raises, royalty compensation from streaming their work appearing on services, and limitations on studios using AI creation tools like ChatGPT.

The issues with AI-generated content need to be addressed as it could put hundreds of thousands, if not more people out of work if it’s allowed to be used for commercial purposes. As it works by pulling images, text, and other already-created content into a unique piece, it’s being seen by many, and rightfully so, as a violation of copyright law.

The fear is that studios will just use an AI creation software to create a script, and then hire just one writer to “punch it up”, and make it coherent. Thereby reducing costs significantly. Writers want studios to know they won’t tolerate the use of AI creations as a way of minimizing the cost of shows and movies. As mentioned before, AI works by taking elements of already created works on the internet to create something; thereby illegally using content. Now, if it’s just for fun, no big deal, but the minute you try and monetize that, that’s where the issue is.

How will the writer’s strike affect Star Trek?

During the strike, no writers will end up working, meaning if a script isn’t done before the strike happened, the entire production goes on hold. That means that late-night shows, your Stephen Colbert’s and the like, are already on hold as they produce near-live content on the daily with a script in hand every day.

Other productions are likely to be affected to some degree in the near future, like the upcoming Section 31 project. Other projects, like Star Trek: Strange New World’s second season are already done and on their way, so they won’t be affected.

Essentially if a project is already past the writing stage, that property will remain in production. If it’s not past the writing stage, that property is now on hold until the strike finishes.

It also needs to be stated that the last writer’s strike dramatically affected shows and their episode count. Many series that had 20+ episodes per season were reduced to just 16 or 17. Shows like Supernatural got lucky because they shot their season finale before the strike happened, but a lot of episodes they had for the season got cut due to it.

Another show, Heroes, abandoned whole plot lines due to the impact of the last writers’ strike.

While some may remember shows like Big Shots, Girlfriends, and K-Vile, the biggest show to get canceled due to the strike was the hit USA show; The 4400.

As far as the film side, even the 2009 Star Trek film was affected, with key scenes not being able to be rewritten due to the union status of everyone involved in the project.

So it’s very likely that some Star Trek shows or films get altered, delayed, or outright canceled.