I’m slightly fascinated by the proliferation and seemingly spreading-too-thin-ness of the “Star Trek” franchise by Paramount, Paramount+, and Viacom. Clearly, the franchise has stalled as a movie property; the films cost a certain amount and never recoup the way they should, and that fourth “Star Trek” movie is going to be in so much limbo, it’s easy to foresee the current cast just moving on. So, Paramount and Viacom have clearly retreated to television, putting the franchise all over CBS-All Access (now Paramount+) and seemingly going overboard. Currently, there’s have “Star Trek: Discovery,” the animated “Star Trek: Lower Decks,” “Short Treks” are seemingly over, and also there’s “Star Trek: Picard” (there’s also “Star Trek: Prodigy” in the works and “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds“). None of these series seem to garner much media attention, nor happen to be big ratings grabbers, and one would think the oversaturation of “Star Trek” on TV might kill it. Still, apparently, these shows do the numbers they’re supposed to, and the franchise just keeps on churning.