Star Trek-fiction's largest franchise?

Enola Straight · Post by **Enola Straight** » 2004-04-27 07:43pm

3 years worth of TOS ep.s
7 years worth of TNG ep.s
7 years worth of DS9 ep.s
7 years worth of VOY ep.s
2 years worth of ENT ep.s

10 motion pictures.

You also have (non-canon) 2 years worth of animated series, Technical manuals, encyclopaedias, and novels.

Are the (canon) collected works of the Star Trek universe the largest "universe" in fiction?

I figure, the only fictional works that are larger are serials like comic books and soap operas.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2004-04-27 08:00pm

Define 'largest'. Trek is certainly one of the most widely known, but if you're going for the 'most material published' route (as I'm gathering from your post), I can beat you fair and square without even leaving the realms of SciFI:

Germany's 'Perry Rhodan' series.
A new issue every week ever since the series' beginning in 1961.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2004-04-27 11:03pm

I'm pretty sure Dr. Who handily beats out all of Star Trek with regard to sheer amount of footage and material.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2004-04-28 01:27am

I was thinking Perry Rhodan, but Dr. Who is also up there. And bejeezus if there ain't a lot of SW books.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2004-04-28 03:36am

Uraniun235 wrote:I'm pretty sure Dr. Who handily beats out all of Star Trek with regard to sheer amount of footage and material.

Indeed. Dr Who has been on the air since 1961 to 1987. That is longer than all the Star Trek shows put togather.

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » 2004-05-02 09:45pm

Who would win if you wanted to know which franchise has brought in the most $$$?

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2004-05-02 09:55pm

evilcat4000 wrote:
Uraniun235 wrote:I'm pretty sure Dr. Who handily beats out all of Star Trek with regard to sheer amount of footage and material.
Indeed. Dr Who has been on the air since 1961 to 1987. That is longer than all the Star Trek shows put togather.

Actually 1963 to 1987. Twenty-eight straight years of production.

Super-Gagme · Post by **Super-Gagme** » 2004-05-02 10:15pm

Defiant wrote:Who would win if you wanted to know which franchise has brought in the most $$$?

Star Wars obviously, just look at Lucasfilms/arts/THX etc.

Solauren · Post by **Solauren** » 2004-05-03 12:41am

If Star Trek isn't in the top 5 for material, it's in the top 10

For material over all, it has to be Dr. Who or Perry Rhodan

Star Wars is probably still a little behind Star Trek over all in terms of sheer published material (there are something like 300 Star Trek novels)

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2004-05-03 07:58am

Solauren wrote:If Star Trek isn't in the top 5 for material, it's in the top 10

For material over all, it has to be Dr. Who or Perry Rhodan

Star Wars is probably still a little behind Star Trek over all in terms of sheer published material (there are something like 300 Star Trek novels)

Star Wars can't be far behind that. For a start there are the Bantam post RotJ books, then then Young Jedi series, then the NJO, then you have the novesisations of the movies, there are quite a few technical manuals etc, plus add in that there are more Star Wars Games then ST i think it's actually closer than you think.

DoctorObvious · Post by **DoctorObvious** » 2004-05-03 02:30pm

Patrick Degan wrote:
evilcat4000 wrote:
Uraniun235 wrote:I'm pretty sure Dr. Who handily beats out all of Star Trek with regard to sheer amount of footage and material.
Indeed. Dr Who has been on the air since 1961 to 1987. That is longer than all the Star Trek shows put togather.
Actually 1963 to 1987. Twenty-eight straight years of production.

But every season only produced 6-8 episodes. TVtome.com gives us a total number of episodes at 159. TNG had 178, DS9 had 176, VOY has 172, TOS had 79, and ENT is still running with 76 at the end of the season. That gives a running total of 681 episodes.

Now, let's adjust these episodes for actual length:
Dr Who was approximately 25 minutes long, which gives the total series run about 66 1/4th hours.

Star Trek's shows were approx 44 minutes long, giving us just under 500 hours of goodly scifi fun.

(note: I'm assuming that TVtome's episode length refers to the beginning of the teaser of an ep to the end of the credits. Since Dr Who was BBC, I assumed it wasn't spliced up for commercials. I didn't bother to check if it actually was, because the numbers wouldn't have made all that much of a difference.)

Post by **NecronLord** » 2004-05-03 02:39pm

DoctorObvious wrote: But every season only produced 6-8 episodes. TVtome.com gives us a total number of episodes at 159. TNG had 178, DS9 had 176, VOY has 172, TOS had 79, and ENT is still running with 76 at the end of the season. That gives a running total of 681 episodes.

One hundred and fifty nine stories, each of which were serialised and consisted of between three and twelve episodes.

DoctorObvious · Post by **DoctorObvious** » 2004-05-03 05:11pm

NecronLord wrote:
DoctorObvious wrote: But every season only produced 6-8 episodes. TVtome.com gives us a total number of episodes at 159. TNG had 178, DS9 had 176, VOY has 172, TOS had 79, and ENT is still running with 76 at the end of the season. That gives a running total of 681 episodes.
One hundred and fifty nine stories, each of which were serialised and consisted of between three and twelve episodes.

BZZT. 159 separate televised episodes. Subdivisions within each episode are irrelevant to my point.

Jawawithagun · Post by **Jawawithagun** » 2004-05-03 06:12pm

DoctorObvious wrote: BZZT. 159 separate televised episodes. Subdivisions within each episode are irrelevant to my point.

Each of which is three to twelve times as long as one Star Trek episode. Who wants to count minutes?

DoctorObvious · Post by **DoctorObvious** » 2004-05-03 11:18pm

Ah, I see my mistake; I misinterpreted TVTome's explanation of a 'serial'. I thought a serial was a season, not an episode. Whoopsies.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-05-04 12:42am

Doctor Who actually ran from 1963 to 1989, with a short ~one year hiatus around the mid 80s. The actual total episode count exceeds 500.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2004-05-04 04:42am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Doctor Who actually ran from 1963 to 1989, with a short ~one year hiatus around the mid 80s. The actual total episode count exceeds 500.

Does not Star Trek have around 600 episodes ?

Post by **NecronLord** » 2004-05-04 07:52am

evilcat4000 wrote:Does not Star Trek have around 600 episodes ?

That of course, depends on what one calls Star Trek. But yes, the ST franchise has more screentime than Doctor Who, though that doesn't change the fact that Dr Who is still the longest running Sci-fi series.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-05-04 09:17am

NecronLord wrote:
evilcat4000 wrote:Does not Star Trek have around 600 episodes ?
That of course, depends on what one calls Star Trek. But yes, the ST franchise has more screentime than Doctor Who, though that doesn't change the fact that Dr Who is still the longest running Sci-fi series.

that wasn't the question though. Total material is. When you add in the novels, Wars and Trek eclipse Dr. Who easily.

on a side note, I never really could get into Dr. Who, mainly because it really isn't shown here that much. Conversely, You can find an assorted trek episode, or a Star Wars movie on television at any given time somewhere in the world.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-05-04 09:24am

Doctor Who also has quite a bit of material when you count the novels and audio dramas...

DoctorObvious · Post by **DoctorObvious** » 2004-05-04 12:27pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Doctor Who also has quite a bit of material when you count the novels and audio dramas...

Do you want us to bring up all the Star Trek novel drivel?

Post by **NecronLord** » 2004-05-04 12:37pm

DoctorObvious wrote: Do you want us to bring up all the Star Trek novel drivel?

Well, they've already been included. And yes, there are a lot of Who books. A hell of a lot in fact. Certainly more than there are Wars books (not counting comics. I have no idea how many Wars comics there have been.)

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-05-04 01:59pm

DoctorObvious wrote:
Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Doctor Who also has quite a bit of material when you count the novels and audio dramas...
Do you want us to bring up all the Star Trek novel drivel?

Um, tell me where in my post I stated that the Who books and audio dramas were "drivel"?

I like Slipback quite a bit, actually.

Solauren · Post by **Solauren** » 2004-05-04 06:05pm

Lord Pounder wrote:
Solauren wrote:If Star Trek isn't in the top 5 for material, it's in the top 10

For material over all, it has to be Dr. Who or Perry Rhodan

Star Wars is probably still a little behind Star Trek over all in terms of sheer published material (there are something like 300 Star Trek novels)
Star Wars can't be far behind that. For a start there are the Bantam post RotJ books, then then Young Jedi series, then the NJO, then you have the novesisations of the movies, there are quite a few technical manuals etc, plus add in that there are more Star Wars Games then ST i think it's actually closer than you think.

Yes, I know that.
Seeing as I own all of them by the NJO books (my girlfriend owns those)

Star Wars has a formidable novel liabrary, but Star Trek has a larger one, and always will, because Star Trek puts out something like 10 novels a year, vs Star Wars's 1 - 2.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-05-04 08:08pm

You know, earnings could be another alternative measurement than amount of published materials.