This column will not be a review or deep dive of a movie or TV series, but I wanted to give a heads-up to longtime readers that there’s going to be a minor change going forward with regards to reviewing content from Paramount+. This includes nearly all of the Star Trek TV shows and movies, as well as the Paramount+ exclusive “School Spirits,” which I’ve become fond of over its past few seasons.

I’ve been a subscriber to Paramount+ for nine years, back when it first began as CBS-All Access. However, some of the streaming platform’s recent decisions have left me wondering if the lanes between their entertainment content and their current alliance with Trump-friendly David Ellison of Skydance Media will remain distinct.

From “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” turning increasingly reactionary to their recent over-promotion of Trump’s grotesque UFC cage match on the White House lawn (which sullied both the office and the people’s White House), the answer became clear. Paramount, and by extension Paramount+, have become media-controlling tools of this current US administration.

I also wasn’t okay with how Paramount+ treated its top-rated late night TV host Stephen Colbert; cutting him loose after thin-skinned Trump snapped his stubby fingers. I wasn’t the biggest Colbert fan (more a Jimmy Kimmel guy), and this decision of mine wasn’t directly related to Colbert. Suffice it to say, Colbert’s firing only confirmed for me the direction that Paramount+ was headed. To be honest, I was more disturbed by CBS/Paramount+’s recent makeover of their long-running news program “60 Minutes,” a show I’ve enjoyed off and on since the 1980s. Under Bari Weiss, that show is dead to me now.

Longtime readers might gather from inklings here and there that I’m not exactly fond of the current administration here in the United States, and I find Paramount+’s new embrace of it too distasteful to continue paying a monthly fee to stream their content into my devices.

After receiving repeated emails promoting Trump’s barbaric UFC cage match, I decided there was one option left: vote with my wallet. So I pulled the plug and cancelled my nine-year old subscription. I plan to do likewise with my HBO/Max (whatever it’s called these days) streaming service after the Warners/CNN/HBO merger with Paramount+. Since I almost never use my HBOMax account, that one will be far less of an adjustment.

I already own most incarnations of Star Trek on DVD and Blu-Ray, so my deep-dives into classic Star Treks won’t be affected. In fact, I might still review newer incarnations of Star Trek once the seasons become available to rent/buy via YouTube Premium or Apple TV. But I no longer want to see Paramount+ pushing promotions for Trump-birthday cage matches or other administration propaganda in my email inbox or in streaming ads preceding Star Trek.

The lesson here is to pick your battles. Most corporate-owned media in the United States are falling into the hands of Trump’s billionaire/trillionaire allies these days anyway, but I’d rather buy individual Star Treks at my own discretion than to have Paramount+ use Star Trek as bait.

A few years ago I received an email reportedly from Paramount+ marketing making an offer for me to review Paramount+ content in exchange for advance screener copies. I politely declined, saying I preferred keeping my site’s relative independence over being biased to one streaming service or being forced to say positive things in exchange for advance screeners. This was well before the Paramount+/Skydance merger, but even then, I got a whiff of something odd about that email, and I’m glad I stuck to my guns.

Even with the last season of Strange New Worlds, it felt like Paramount was actively campaigning for its eventual merger with the Trump-adjacent Skydance. The third season had no visible openly queer characters (unlike its first season) and the substandard “What is Starfleet?” felt like a slap in the face to independent journalism in the form of Erica Ortegas’ kid brother Beto, who was doing an insider story on Starfleet from aboard the Enterprise.

Ultimately, Beto’s valid questions about Starfleet’s ethical issues were scrapped in favor of a positive propaganda piece, once it’s revealed he resents Starfleet for taking his big sister away from home (Jeezus, seriously…?). We learn in that episode that Starfleet had ordered Pike and the Enterprise to weaponize a dying creature in an attack mission against an enemy-aligned planet in an alien war. The only concession made to Star Trek’s core ideals came when Pike finally refused his order to use the dying creature in the conflict.

Nevertheless, “What is Starfleet?” makes Beto out to be the bad guy for questioning what he sees, and for voicing legitimate concerns of the Federation becoming an Empire. This independent media vilification is part of a disturbing pattern I’ve seen that quickly took root in Trump’s first term, after he first dusted off that Soviet-era phrase “fake news,” which he still uses to attack critics whenever they dare to contradict their ‘Fearless Great Leader.’

I will certainly miss “School Spirits,” and I’m still an ardent Star Trek fan, though a bit less so in its current incarnations. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed “Star Trek: Prodigy,” and I thought “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” showed a great deal of promise. Naturally, they were both unceremoniously cancelled by Paramount+. I may buy/rent new Star Trek seasons from other platforms, such as iTunes or YouTube Premium, but minus any Paramount+ pro-Trump spin. I get enough of that guy from reading APNews, GroundNews and Reuters (I’ve long quit corporate-owned cable news).

I also plan to attend the annual Star Trek convention in Las Vegas (STLV) this August, which will celebrate the franchise’s 60th anniversary. This will also be my first STLV in four years. I’m attending mainly because I miss seeing friends of mine who’ll be there, and to celebrate those golden years of Star Trek. I’ve already got my tickets and hotel booked, and I hope to relate that experience to readers of this column, whom I sincerely thank for your readership (without paywalls, Patreon or crowdsource funding).

Rest assured, there will be new Star Trek content coming to this site, though it may not be as timely as it used to be. This is a small price price to pay for taking a stand, right or not.

Live long and prosper!