So is Star Trek dead, or a franchise revival on its way? No one knows for sure.

And it's not only the fans who don't know; the folks who run Star Trek at a corporate level don't know, either. Not really. Oh, they may bluff and bluster and say they do so as to seem in-the-know, but in reality I doubt that they genuinely do.

We just hear too many conflicting stories right now about Trek's future for there likely to be any single true, clear consensus among the corporate chieftains at Viacom and Paramount as to the fate of the franchise.

Like any large corporation, Viacom and Paramount are not monolithic. And as with any set of office politics, various individuals and factions with a stake in the future of Trek within the companies are vying to come out ahead.

Just consider a couple of recent seemingly contradictory reports.

In one case we hear that Erik Jendresen's Star Trek: The Beginning script has been scrapped.

In the other, former "Enterprise" star Scott Bakula says a new TV series is already in the works.

So what gives?

The most simple answer is the obvious one: Paramount executives have scuttled the film and have decided to launch a new version of Trek on TV instead.

That's one explanation, but not necessarily the correct one. I doubt things are that clear cut.

The rumor that Paramount has killed the Jendressen script, for instance, is attributed to Doug Mirabello, assistant to former Trek czar Rick Berman.

"The TV side is now technically in control of the franchise's future, and [CBS Corp. chief] Les Moonves hates all things Sci-Fi," Mirabello was quoted as saying. "However, I think this is actually for the best--the public needs to want to see Star Trek again. The best way to achieve this is to take it away for a few years and then bring it back and do it right. The franchise needs a totally new creative team, some time off, and a cool new approach."

Moonves once headed all of Viacom, but Viacom has since split off CBS Corp. CBS Corp. today owns Paramount Studios and is in control of Star Trek as a property.

However, a source describes Mirabello as one with a score to settle because his boss was fired from Trek following last year's cancellation of "Enterprise."

Meanwhile, Scott Bakula recently told a reporter with The Baltimore Sun, "I heard there are already plans for a new series in the works. When the dust settles, someone is going to say, 'Do we really want to let this, and all the money that comes with it, go?'"

Bakula made his comments from a stage production in Washington, D.C.

I'm not sure Bakula has an axe to grind anymore, but neither am I sure he's quite as "in the loop" as perhaps he once was, either.

If a new Trek series were even in the earliest stages of pre-production, some details about what it's actually about would leak to an eager fandom: its setting, its characters, casting ideas, something. But they haven't.

Which is not to say Bakula is lying, or even wrong, per se.

It's probably just a case where Bakula is friendly with someone at Paramount representing a separate bloc that pushing their own agenda within the corporation.

The fact is very likely that, as we speak, no real decision has been reached. They probably are not ready to make such a decision yet.

None of the factions with a stake in the future of Trek probably is any more considerably ahead than any others. These various camps within the companies are putting out these rumors as trial balloons as part of a way to jockey for position when the day comes that management is ready to steer a clear path forward for the franchise.

In the meantime, we are likely to hear more hearsay and gossip -- possibly conflicting and contradicting each other -- before we finally hear the real story.

As much as we may want to believe any of them, for now it's best to keep a healthy sense of skepticism. A former entertainment journalist, Scott Nance is a member of the USS Chesapeake, an independent science-fiction and Star Trek club in the Washington, DC, area. He is a columnist for Airlock Alpha, and can be reached at scottnance@airlockalpha.com.