From this week's Star Trek headlines, we #TrekOut how ViacomCBS is an arms dealer in the streaming wars, Ron Moore’s latest adventures, and rumors fresh off the mill! Then, in Gaming, Star Trek Online gets reactionary with it’s newest Legendary Ship offerings, and we finally break down our review of Anniversary’s featured episodes.

Of course, as always, before we wrap up the show, we’ll open hailing frequencies for your incoming messages

This Week’s Community Questions are:

CQ: Where do you think Captain Archer might make an appearance? Picard, Strange New Worlds, or something new. If so what kind of story do you hope they tell about him?

AND

CQ: Are you getting the 2021 Legendary Ship Bundle, now that all the ships have been revealed and all the updates have been made?

AND

CQ: Will you be using a cloaked torpedo build on your Temer Raider? If not what kind of build will you use?

Let us know on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or by visiting our website!

TREK IT OUT

Ronald D. Moore Makes a Move

As the streaming wars heat up so does the struggle to keep highly talented show creators locked into deals at a single production studio. J.J. Abrahms made headlines recently jumping from Paramount to Warner Bros. and now the Hollywood Reporter is saying Star Trek alum Ronald D. Moore is making a move. Having produced shows for both Starz and Apple TV+ under Sony TV, Moore has secured a deal with Disney’s recently acquired 20th Television where he will start with a recreation of a Swiss Family Robinson series for Disney+. Moore seemed very excited about the move, saying “I grew up loving Disney movies, TV shows, and theme parks, and I still do to this day, so the chance to work on some of the same classic titles like Swiss Family Robinson was an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up.” Moore will remain involved with both Outlander on Starz and For All Mankind on Apple TV+. The latter of which has just premiered its sophomore season. 

TrekMovie.com Gives Us More From Moore

In an exclusive interview with TrekMovie.com, Moore talked about the creation of the show, how they ride the line of an alternate reality space race while keeping it recognizable, and how working on Star Trek taught him how to write for television and the importance of diversity. For All Mankind is set in a fictional reality where a Russian cosmonaut was the first human to set foot on the moon and how that event would affect the subsequent space race to follow. “Star Trek basically taught me everything about writing for television in a lot of ways. And we did a lot of time travel episodes. We talked internally about a lot of history, a lot of alternate history ideas.” One of the biggest changes with this fictional reality is the diversification of NASA astronaut crews nearly 15 years earlier. Moore said that was one of the core concepts of the show, to make a bigger and better space program. “why is it better? We’re creating a better world. To bring it back to Trek, it’s the road to Star Trek. So what [does] the road to Star Trek entail? It entails becoming a better society.” For more information on Moore’s move to Disney and the full interview with Trek Movie, the links are in our show notes.

Bob Bakish Talks Arms Dealing

We’ve been talking on the show for a while now about CBS All Access – soon to be Paramount Plus – and how the broadcast home of Star Trek fits in among the plethora of streaming services out there. One analogy that we’ve overlooked is, perhaps surprisingly, “arms dealer.”

At least, that’s what ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish calls it. We’ve talked in the past about how CBS has been a lot more cavalier with licensing its extensive library to other services. I can still watch star trek reruns on Netflix, for example. However, they’ve made it a habit to sell their new content off as well. According to an article on Bloomberg.com, they’ve sold an Aaron Sorkin drama to Netflix and a movie about Billie Holliday to Hulu. Oh, and that Coming to America sequel? Paramount made it, but Amazon is going to distribute it. And maybe worst of all, they sold a popular Western-themed series called Yellowstone to Peacock. Yeah… Peacock.

According to the article, licensing deals like that account for nearly a quarter of the company’s revenue. And with movie theaters closed and the stiff competition among services, that’s money that they can’t afford to just give up. They can’t even pay to get their stuff back. According to the article, Peacock wouldn’t release ViacomCBS from the Yellowstone deal, so they’re just gonna make a prequel. Because if there’s one thing ViacomCBS and Paramount Plus know how to do, it’s how to do reboots and prequels that everyone loves.

RUMORS!

Well, this week, the rumor-mill was churning out some good ones… But, remember.. These are ONLY rumors and should be taken with a grain of salt! For starters, Drew Dietsch at GiantFreakingRobot has heard reports that Paramount is moving forward with a fourth installment of the Kelvin Timeline --- but, instead of it being a strictly theatrical release, ViacomCBS plans to release it simultaneously via its streaming service and theatres. According to their sources, Pine and the rest of the cast will be involved -- although a new director has not yet been selected. The Plot… they’re going back to the timey-wimey Pine Kirk meets Daddy Hemsworth. As if THAT wasn’t rumor enough, the article goes on to say that the studio is trying to get Shatner to appear as well!

MORE RUMORS!

While we’re on the topic of returning cast: Dietsch has a separate report suggesting that Scott Bakula -- who played Captain Jonathan Archer is Star Trek: Enterprise -- will come back to reprise the role on Star Trek: Picard. According to the article, the studio hopes to //quote// bring Scott Bakula back by having him cameo in another Star Trek show and then leave the door open for him to headline his own solo series. //end quote//

On the topic of filming… while we anxiously await new Trek to grace our television screens, Social Media might help you pass the time. Especially if you follow folks like actors… showrunners… you know… industry folk. You see, earlier this week, actors like Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn posted some innocuous social media updates… random pictures FROM CANADA! Then, unrelated, Star Trek Picard’s Showrunner made a tweet that was quickly removed… In it, he wrote, “Day One of many…” with a little film-camera emoji. So… if we piece it all together, we can assume that filming has begun for BOTH Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Picard. Now… if only we h