Activision sues Viacom over lack of Trek

CaptJodan · Post by **CaptJodan** » 2003-07-02 10:38pm

I know UPN shows Voyager till you want to pick your eyes out with a spoon here, but at least where I live, DS9 is not shown anywhere, so I suppose some places just don't have it.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-02 10:38pm

YT300000 wrote:Then pay the Andromeda guys $100 m, and get them to say Andromeda is the future of Star Trek.

Can't. Andromeda has an entirely unique universe, it's presently unrelated to trek despite originally conceived as a possible distant future of TOS. I do believe that Andromeda was supposed to be made instead of TNG but Andromeda was simply too complex and too amazing.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2003-07-02 11:25pm

Hey, who owns the rights to TOS-era Star Trek? I know Interplay did for some time, but I think their contract expired some time ago.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-02 11:27pm

Paramount owns TOS.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-07-02 11:31pm

kojikun wrote:Paramount owns TOS.

For the games? Because I think that's what he meant.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2003-07-03 12:00am

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear in what I was saying.

Interplay for a time had an exclusive license to produce games set in the TOS-era... hence why Interplay's name was on every game set in the TOS-era, from Judgement Rites to Klingon Academy and Starfleet Command.

But I remembered reading some time ago that Interplay's license would be expiring soon, so I was wondering if they had renewed or if someone else (if anyone) had picked up the rights.

Equinox2003 · Post by **Equinox2003** » 2003-07-03 04:47am

Ok,

Deep Space Nine and Voyager are in re runs, I see them all the time.
As for a Voyager based movie, there are a few things they could do.
Perhaps the DQ is facing destruction and they want Federation help
or something like that. Maybe an enemy from the DQ, Kazon or
somebody attacks the Federation and the Voyager crew serve as
consultants to the defense effort.

For a DS9 movie, perhaps the Prophets send Sisko back to stop
some sort of impending doom facing the AQ. Or maybe Odo comes
back to ask for Fed help for some problem facing the Great Link.
Now, I'm not a writer, the point of all this is just to say that it is
possible to continue movies without the TNG cast.

Oberleutnant · Post by **Oberleutnant** » 2003-07-03 06:20am

I believe Activision's lisence covered all Trek shows.

As what comes to the original topic of this thread, I say that instead of suing Viacom, Activision should concentrate on the quality of its Trek games. With the exception of Elite Forces, the rest of the games have been horrible.

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2003-07-03 01:11pm

Where do you see DS9? I live on the east coast and it isn't on any channel.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-07-03 01:52pm

StarshipTitanic wrote:Where do you see DS9? I live on the east coast and it isn't on any channel.

I get it on my local UPN affiliate.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2003-07-03 02:21pm

Shinova wrote:So, is Viacom being rightly sued or is Activision being a bit too whiny?

Activision is whining. While I agree with them that Activision got screwed because of the declining value of the Trek franchise, the fact of the matter is that whenever you license the rights to produce a product you are engaging in considerable risk. In this case, that risk did not pay out to Activision.

I also doubt that Viacom is deliberately destroying their own franchise, but when you look at the Viacom numbers you realize that the ST franchise really is in trouble.

Equinox2003 · Post by **Equinox2003** » 2003-07-04 01:18am

Deep Space Nine should be on your local UPN channel. Check into it.

Seggybop · Post by **Seggybop** » 2003-07-04 01:22am

We've known for a long time that this was degrading to nothing... the worst substantive news in this is that it's screwing up the Shattered Universe game, which took place in the mirror Terran Empire... noooo....

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2003-07-04 10:58am

I dont know about you guys but I took one read of this, laughed my ass off, then went back to work.

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2003-07-05 12:16am

Weird, I have never caught a commercial for it on UPN...I should go check it out.

Lord MJ · Post by **Lord MJ** » 2003-07-05 09:30pm

In a complaint filed in Californian court yesterday, Activision accused Viacom of not exploiting the Star Trek franchise in the way it did in 1998

Wait a minute... Isn't "exploiting the Star Trek franchise in the way it did in 1998" the reason that many fans are calling for B&B's blood?

Now Activision is suing Viacom for not doing it?

How ironic.....

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2003-07-05 10:03pm

They mean exploit in a good way.

As in develop.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2003-07-06 11:18pm

I thought First Contact (one of the more popular films, it seems) was released around 1998.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-07-06 11:21pm

Old Plympto wrote:I dont know about you guys but I took one read of this, laughed my ass off, then went back to work.

Heh, Personally, I thought that the news post argument between Gabe and Tycho was funnier than the strip that day.

Dark Primus · Post by **Dark Primus** » 2003-07-07 06:54am

Uraniun235 wrote:I thought First Contact (one of the more popular films, it seems) was released around 1998.

1996 I believe is the correct year the movie came out.

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2003-07-08 01:06am

Dark Primus wrote:
Uraniun235 wrote:I thought First Contact (one of the more popular films, it seems) was released around 1998.
1996 I believe is the correct year the movie came out.

Correct. The flop Insurrection came out in 1998.

Johonebesus · Post by **Johonebesus** » 2003-07-08 02:06am

Uraniun235 wrote:But I remembered reading some time ago that Interplay's license would be expiring soon, so I was wondering if they had renewed or if someone else (if anyone) had picked up the rights.

Their license for TMP expired and Paramount did not let them renew it. That's why SFC 3 dropped most of the SFB elements and is set in TNG. I would also like to point out that the SFC series has been consistantly buggy. Every one I have played crashes all the time. The other day I was playing Baldur's Gate and it crashed, and I was shocked. That had never happened before. When SFC locks up, my only reaction is, "hurry up and crash." If they want their games to do well, then they should put out a good product. This seems as bad as B&B blaming TLotR for the failure of Nemesis.

Equinox2003 wrote:Deep Space Nine should be on your local UPN channel. Check into it.

Here it's on the CBS station at one a.m. That was the station that broadcasted it when it was first on, before FOX and CBS did their dance a few years ago. Maybe whatever station had the original broadcast deal still has it.