Who owns the Star Trek universe?

[exyle]

I was at the web cast at the ST convention and Jack said the ST books would be "soft canon," or "inspirational canon." What does that mean? If new stuff is made up does it have to be approved by someone who "owns" the ST universe? Is this really the END of Star Trek as new stuff is added to the universe and the ST world eventually becomes dilluted and meaningless? :confused:

[Prospero]

as far as licensing i believe paramount "owns" star trek

[Wildboar]

I own it

shortly after the game ships I plan to change the name to LatiunumQuest: The search for Profit

[Faith]

I believe CBS owns it.

[Wildboar]

as far as licensing i believe paramount "owns" star trek

winner

been owned by paramount studios since it was bought from desi-lu back in the late 60s

[Talamakara]

I think it's a toss up between paramount and lucas arts... I know hiss hiss. But Lucas Arts owns ILM (industrial light and magic) which does alot of the effects for the series and the movies. So i would have to say it's something in there.

I own it

shortly after the game ships I plan to change the name to LatiunumQuest: The search for Profit

with todays movie industry that be scarily accurate.

[LordDave]

Soft cannon are books that paramount doesn't say is "canon" but it's published with the approval of paramount so it's not unrealistic. It's basically the middle child between Fan-Fic and movie.

[thefrayl]

I'm pretty sure it's CBS, since the news on Cryptics license purchase said it was with CBS...

[Wildboar]

I believe CBS owns it.

Viacom then became CBS. they control rights to it but I believe paramount has publishing right and creative control

[MillerEP]

Yeah CBS owns the ip

[exyle]

I guess my point is, since Rodenberry is gone, we don't have someone like George Lucas to say, yeah that's in the universe or no that's not in the universe. So it's a free for all at this point. Unless there is someone in charge of the boundaries. Like a Trek Czar. ;)

[Wildboar]

I guess my point is, since Rodenberry is gone, we don't have someone like George Lucas to say, yeah that's in the universe or no that's not in the universe. So it's a free for all at this point. Unless there is someone in charge of the boundaries. Like a Trek Czar. ;)

heh I think the closest thing you will find to that is Brennan/Braga..

and from the looks of what happened to Voyager and Enterprise, perhaps that isn't such a good thing :cool:

[Icon57]

Hey all. First post on these boards.

After Roddenberry shuffled off this mortal coil, Rick Berman took over as executive producer for the series. He was exec producer for the later seasons of TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT, as well as all the films featuring TNG crew.

And, well, we all know what he did with the series. Poor guy lost his mind at some point and also lost sight of what Trek was all about.

That can be debated elsewhere. (Looks pointedly at ENT fans :p )

The arrangement of the IP is a little awkward. Paramount has retained rights to the films, whereas the rights to the series has been transferred to CBS (Owned by Paramount and, higher up, by Viacom). I don't believe that Paramount has any sort of creative control over its subsidiary, so the movies and whatever the next series will be will basically do their own thing independently of one another.

Just in case I've opened myself up for nitpicking, I might have gotten the chain of command a bit messed up. I actually don't think that Paramount owns CBS, they're just both subsidiaries of Viacom... but I might be wrong (right?). Not a businessman myself; that kind of stuff just goes over my head.

Cheers,

Icon

[achaney23]

CBS owns your SOUL!

When CBS broke from viacom they somehow ended up with the ST IP from paramount. Business is weird.

[CptKirk]

Dont forget Roddenberry's wife Majel, she has been in control of pretty much everything happening to Star Trek since 1991

She even has a webpage dedicated to the name! :D http://www.roddenberry.com/

[Kristov]

I was at the web cast at the ST convention and Jack said the ST books would be "soft canon," or "inspirational canon." What does that mean? If new stuff is made up does it have to be approved by someone who "owns" the ST universe? Is this really the END of Star Trek as new stuff is added to the universe and the ST world eventually becomes dilluted and meaningless? :confused:

The TV series and the movies are canon. Novels, except the movie versions, aren't canon because they are so inconsistant it's not funny, with stuff ranging from Romulans being an offshot of the Vulcans to them NOT being related to the Vulcans at all, depending on the author of whatever novel you are looking at :) All kinds of things in the novels don't match up to any of the series or movies, other times they are perfectly aligned, other times they mix and match..it's confusing to say the least. Lets see..can't use weapon on a starship while at warp, but the next novel by the SAME author has ships firing at each while at warp :) One of my major gripes with Ent was that Archer was the captain and the ship was a LONG time before it should have been, since there were already a number of novels for TOS and even TNG that covered the very first Enterprise and it's captain, all keeping the same history, but as my buddy, who goes beyond Trekkie/Trekker in his fandom(give him a line out of any series or movie, he'll name it, and he can quote you who wrote it, when it was filmed, when it aired, who was in it, and so on..and he's GOT a real life on top of that!), reminded me, novels aren't canon, so they don't matter if a TV series or movie conflicts with them.

So..novels aren't canon, they are just entertainment, because there's never really been any attempt at keeping the history, timelines and storylines consistant. SW novels on the otherhand, after the first few by various authors(Han Solo At Stars End and a few others) MUST meet all sorts of requirements set by George Lucas so his universe doesn't get all cockeyed like the ST universe.

*edit*
Splinter Of The Mind's Eye..that's the other SW novel I couldn't remember..and there's another Han Solo title that I simply can't remember...been a LONG time since I read those :) They totally conflict with the 'official' SW canon, written shortly after the first movie came out.