As the financial mismanagement of Paramount+ continues to be a problem to the point of potential collapse, we're opting to look back at one of the biggest wastes of money that Star Trek ever produced; Star Trek: Short Treks. Short Treks was the actual second show launched just after Star Trek: Discovery, though, unlike Discovery, this was a series that was meant to be a shorter-form anthology series.
The idea was that each episode would focus on a different part of the Star Trek universe, highlighting smaller, lesser-known characters, with the idea of building up an extended universe beyond the core shows we've been getting. Some of the episodes did a decent job of highlighting specific characters, namely Anson Mount's Captain Christopher Pike, but most of the episodes didn't do much but polarize the fanbase around the concept.
Arguably the most distasteful being "The Trouble with Edward", which featured the incredibly talented duo of Rosa Salazar and H. Jon Benjamin. In the episode, Salaraz's Lynne Lucero mocked the death of Benjamin's character, calling him an "idiot" in the closing scene, which ruffled fans' feathers a bit. It was a distasteful and unnecessary characterization of captains in Starfleet, whom many fans have grown to see with revereance.
Seeing that the writers of these shorts cared more about doing their own thing as opposed to exploring Star Trek's true purpose of deep, hard hitting commentary, fans really grew tired of the series. It never garnered attraction among the fans and it became an afterthought, quietly being canceled.
The series did try and several of the shorts were celebrated, with "Ask Not" being arguably the best of the bunch. An idea so good it could've been an entire 40+ minute episode.
Sadly, while some of the episodes were able to be woven into several shows' lore, none of them added so much to justify the costs. Most of the episodes didn't work and those that did could've just served as parts of a grander episode, which during this time, could've used such moments.
Considering these cost probably several million dollars to make, it seems like the definition fund mismanagement and wasteful spending, especially considering that the streaming service is on the verge of being shut down and merged; assuming Skydance obtains the streaming's parent company; Paramount Global.