Geeks and science fiction fans rejoice: Star Trek is returning to the small screen, and it will be accessible to almost every place in the world.
With three blockbuster movies under the belt of the reboot of the science fiction franchise, CBS is bringing “Star Trek” back to TV, almost 12 years since it left.
The original TV series started back in 1966, but since then, we’ve seen 10 movies from the original arc, four series (The Next Generation (TNG), Deep Space Nine (DS9), Voyager (VOY), and Enterprise (ENT)), as well as the three new J.J. Abrams led reboots.
With the original series starting in 1966, that makes this year the 50th anniversary of the franchise, which makes it a fitting time to announce something timely: a new Star Trek series.
As far as production and airing, that is being handled by CBS in America, the network responsible for “NCIS”, “CSI”, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”, “The Big Bang Theory”, “How I Met Your Mother”, and plenty of others, and this means there’s already a place for Americans to tune in: CBS.
Australians, on the other hand, can’t tune into that network, and neither can residents of most other countries in the world. Fortunately, Netflix is coming to the rescue, picking up the slack and airing the new show when it stars in 188 countries outside of the US.
“The launch of the new ‘Star Trek’ will truly be a global television event,” said Armando Nuñez, President and CEO of CBS Studios International.
“‘Star Trek’ is already a worldwide phenomenon and this international partnership will provide fans around the world, who have been craving a new series for more than a decade, the opportunity to see every episode virtually at the same time as viewers in the U.S. Thanks to our world-class partners at Netflix, the new ‘Star Trek’ will definitely be ‘hailing on all frequencies’ throughout the planet,” he said.
The new “Star Trek” TV show is being worked on by some of the crew responsible for previous entries in the franchise, including the likes of Alex Kurtzman (who worked on two of the recent films) and Bryan Fuller (who worked on DS9 and Voyager).
As for what the show will be like, CBS hasn’t revealed much, but the bet is that it will be much like the current crop of blockbuster movies, making it take place in the older original generation of the franchise.
You’ll know more, however, in January 2017 when it launches, and thanks to Netflix, it shouldn’t be too hard to watch, either.
