New Star Trek: Discovery Auction Announced from PropStore

PropStore has announced an auction for Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Short Treks props as Paramount begins to empty their storage spaces of all things Star Trek as they but the TV side to rest for unknown period of time. Unlike a previous auction that was location specific and did not ship anything to buyers, this one is online only so anyone can participate if they have the money. Bidding has already begun on the 340 lots that include customues, props and more. More details here.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Complete Series Up for Pre-Order

The home video release if Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is now available for pre-order. In additional a complete series set will be released. Both are set for release on August 27, 2024. The season five set can be pre-ordered on Amazon in limited edition Steelbook ($47), regular blu-ray ($39), and dvd ($34). The complete series set is also available for pre-order in blu-ray ($63) and dvd ($67).

As for what special features will on the home video release, here you go:

• Audio Commentary (Exclusive to Home Entertainment)
• Deleted Scene (Exclusive to Home Entertainment)
• Being Michael Burnham (Exclusive to Home Entertainment)
• Character Development (Exclusive to Home Entertainment)
• Gag Reel (Exclusive to Home Entertainment)
• Star Trek: Discovery™: The Voyage of Season 5
• A Team Effort
• Discovery’s Creative Force

The Final Episode of Star Trek: Discovery Available Now

A friendly reminder that the final episode of Star Trek: Discovery is now available on Paramount+ for a total of five seasons and 65 episodes. The show was cancelled due to budget cuts as CBS and Paramount attempt to make themselves more attractive for purchase. An unfortunate rough end for a show that started roughly but figured itself out by the third season.

Star Trek: Discovery's Final Season Begins on Paramount+

Friendly reminder that Star Trek: Discovery fifth and final season has its first two episodes available now on Paramount+. Below is a recap of the previous four season from Whoopi Goldberg along with a set tour with Wilson Cruz. The full season is only 10 episodes. A new episode coming out each Thursday morning for the next 8 weeks ending the series run with a total of 65 episodes. The last video below is the full first episode of the season on YouTube.

Star Trek: Discovery Final Season Trailer

Paramount+ has released the first full trailer for Star Trek: Discovery's final season. The series will start on April 4 with its first two episodes. New episodes will premiere each Thursday morning Eastern Time for total of 10 episodes. Synopsis:

The fifth and final season will find Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery uncovering a mystery that will send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries. But there are others on the hunt as well… dangerous foes who are desperate to claim the prize for themselves and will stop at nothing to get it.

Star Trek: Discovery's Final Season Begins April 4

Paramount has announced that Star Trek: Discovery's fifth and final season will premiere on Paramount+ starting April 4. The first two episodes of the ten episode season will premiere on that date with each new episode coming out weekly each Thursday. The synopsis:

Star Trek: Discovery Final Season Clip, Set for April

This weekend the CCXP (Comic Con Experience) was held at Brail's São Paulo Expo. The con has grown to become one of the biggest in the world (285k plus people attend) so Hollywood has started to use it to promote their spring plans. That includes Paramount who released a clip which reveals that Star Trek: Discovery season five is set to premiere at some point in April 2024.

WGA Strike Ends, What Does This Mean For Star Trek?

The Writes Guild of America (WGA) has reached a tentative deal and officially ended the strike. You can read the detailed summary here or the overview summary here. Still some Ts to be crossed but as of now, writers can get back to work which includes TV showrunners who also tend to be WGA member writers. Great news for the writers but for fans don't get excited just yet.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) strike continues on. Without the actors, filming cannot begin. What this agreement really means is pre-production can begin on movies and TV shows. Ideally, with a bit of luck in timing and good planning, the day the SAG strike ends is the day actors can go before cameras as a host of TV shows and movies go into full production mode. Others can finish what filming was interrupted and any post production work that is waiting on the actors can be completed.

Which brings us to Star Trek. Here is a quick summary for each show and movies:

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 - All filming, including reshoots, had already completed for the final season. What post-production work that remains can be completed due to return of the showrunners.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 - Writers can now complete scripts, pre-production work can be completed, post-production work can move ahead. Filming can start as soon as actors are avialable.

Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 - Falls under The Animation Guild (TAG) so writing and animation work not impacted. Voice over work could start but unlikly until after actors strike ends.

Starfleet Academy season 1 - Writing and pre-production can restart, post-production work can move ahead. Casting will have to wait until after strike ends.

Section 31 movie - Script was already completed, pre-production can resume, post-production work can resume. Casting, filming on hold until actors strike ends. With Academy Award winning actress Michelle Yeoh in high demand and her filming schedule blow up by the strike, no telling when production can start.

Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 - Despite Paramount+ inexplicable cancellation, contractual production on the series continued with all 20 episodes to be completed by end of year. Issue is finding a home for the series at whatever fee Paramount is hoping to get for the episodes. The whole situation with this show is just bizarre and seems poorly thought out by Paramount executives who are now unwilling to admit they made have made a mistake.

Star Trek 4 - Somehow its still in the cards? At least that is what script writer Lindsey Anderson Beer is claiming, "It is, it’s still on the tracks. I love that project, and it was another one that I had to hop off of to direct this movie, and that was a hard thing to do. But I love everybody involved with that project.” I wouldn't hold your breath. No pre-production work has been done, no negotioations with the cast can begin until the strike ends (and like Yeoh, their schedules are a huge issue) and for Paramount the cost of making the movie remains their primary sticking point. They want it cheap (relatively speaking), I estimate in the $100 to $120 million range and cast salaries could eat up half that budget.

Release schedule wise, there cannot be one since no idea when actors will return to work. Even if timing and all that works out and all the actors could show up the day the strike ends, there is a whole lot of work to be done, especially since the shows are VFX heavy so that creates a significant post-production period. Since Star Trek: Discovery season 5 was minimally impacted by the strikes, it likely remains on schedule to return in early 2024. After that, its up in the air. Lower Decks season 5 can return this time next year but will be highly dependent on how production is going on the other shows. Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 would have been a great gap filler but that plan was trashed for inexplicable reasons. End result is there is a good chance that only Discovery and Lower Decks will come out in 2024.

SDCC Brings New Trailers, Release Dates, and the Lower Decks/Strange New Worlds Crossover

This weekend is the San Diego ComicCon (SDCC) 2023. While actors had to sit it out due to their strike, that didn't stop Paramount+ from release new teasers, release dates and more. To start, episode 7 of Strange New Worlds is available on Paramount+ now. Called "Those Old Scientists" (TOS as in The Original Series) is the Lower Deck and Strange New Worlds crossover that has two members of the Lower Decks crew end up on the Enterprise (in live action form). With this early release is a slight shift in the schedule as that means the 8th episode comes out on July 27, 9th on August 3, and August 10 is the season finale. Speaking of the 9th episode, turns out its a musical episode with the first trailer for "Subspace Rhapsody" below. The soundtrack for that episode will also be released.

As for season four of Star Trek: Lower Decks, the first two episodes of the season will be released on September 7. The second video below is the official trailer. If the poster to the left looks familiar, its a homage to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home poster. After that, we have a pretty exciting and creative clip from the first episode of Star Trek: Discovery season five. The final season does not have a premiere date just yet but expect it sometime during 2024. The current actor and writer strike is not expected to cause any delays as the season was aleady filmed last year with additional scenes to convert it a finale filmed before the strike.

On the Star Trek: Prodigy front, season two still does not have a new home. However, season 1's second half will get a home video release on September 26 so fans can complete their season set. The entire season is also available digitally. The DVD and Blu-ray set will include episodes 11-20 of the first season and about 45 minutes of special features cast and crew discussing the story, creating the season, designing the ships and more. As for UK and Germany, they will get a complete season 1 set of all 20 episodes with the UK release on September 25 and the Germany release on October 5. No idea what, if any, plans for other regions. You can preorder now on Amazon.

Star Trek: Discovery Cancelled, Final Season Delayed to 2024

For a brief moment, fans thought they might get Star Trek year round but that is not meant to be. The streaming wars chopping block has reached the Star Trek franchise as Paramount+ announced that Star Trek: Discovery has been cancelled. Season 5, now the final season, had completed filming last November for an expected late 2023 release. However, that is now bumped to an unknown time period in 2024. The delay is for re-shoots so a proper ending to the series can be filmed.

The news is a bit of a surprise but at the same time isn't. Despite multi-year plans that knew profitability for streaming services was around five years down the line, Wall Street has been applying significant pressure for that to change from later to now. With it comes significant budget cuts despite all services increasing their monthly fees to customers. With budget cuts comes cancellations and abandoned plans.

Star Trek Teases Upcoming Seasons at NYCC

New York Comic Con this weekend brought out some teasers from various Star Trek shows.  To start with a bang, there is a look at the final season of Star Trek: Picard that reunites the The Next Generation cast together and reveals what character Brent Spiner is playing. New castmember includes Amanda Plummer playing Captain Vadic of the alien vessel the Shrike seeking Picard and company for revenge for unknown reasons. Joining her will be Geordi LaForge's (LaVar Burton) daughters, Ensign Sidney La Lorge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) and Ensign Alanda La Forge (Mica Burton, yep the actor's daughter). Make sure to stick around to the end of the teaser below for one last character that long time TNG fans should recognize.

Star Trek: Prodigy will return to Paramount+ on October 27 to air the remaining 10 episodes of season 1. The second half finds Admiral Janeway hunting the crew of the Protostar as she attempts to find out what happened to the ship's previous crew and Captain Chakotay. For long time TNG fans, Ronny Cox will reprise the role of Captain Jellico, now an Admiral.

Last teaser is for Star Trek: Discovery season 5. The new season will add Callum Keith Rennie as Captain Rayner, whose impressive wartime record of making the orders and expecting them to be followed doesn't work so well in peacetime when he must learn to work with others. Eve Harlow joins as Moll, a cunning outlaw who always has a plan and has not problem going against Burnham and company to achieve her goals. Moll's boyfriend L'ak, played by Elias Toufexis, is willing to do whatever it takes to protect it without a care for the consequences. The ten episode season is currently filming so unlikely to even consider a release date until at mid to late 2023. Synopsis:

In season five, Captain Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery uncover a mystery that sends them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries. But there are others on the hunt as well, dangerous foes who are desperate to claim the prize for themselves and will stop at nothing to get it.

Star Trek Day Teases Upcoming Seasons

Today was Star Trek Day to mark the television premiere of Star Trek on NBC. As part of that, Paramount+ held a few panels and provided teasers to next season of shows along with some news and premiere dates for several shows.

Tribute To Nichelle Nichols - Below is a video that honors Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) who passed away on July 30 at the age of 89.

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 - The final series of Picard is set to premiere on Feburary 16, 2023 with 10 episodes. The cast of The Next Generation come togather to help Picard on one last mission. As the sneak peek shows, it will involve the USS Titan. If the name sounds familiar, Captain Riker was captain of a ship with the same name as seen in Upper Decks. This ship has a more traditional silhouette suggesting its a successor ship to the original Titan.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 - Below is a clip along with news that Carol Kane has joined the cast for the season along with a picture of her in uniform. She will be playing the new engineer Pelia. Below is a clip from the season. No date set for premiere of the season.

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 - The new season will premiere on October 27 which will find the crew of the USS Protostar discovering the ship has a dangerous weapon while real Vice Admiral Janeway is hunting for the ship to determine what happened to her friend Captain Chakotay. Billy Campbell will also return to play Captain Thadiun Okona who played the character on The Next Generation (S02E04) and voiced the role on Lower Decks (S02E05).

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 - The fifth season is currently filming so a release date is at not until mid to late 2023. News was light but Mary Wiseman will be back, how much was not indicated. The story of the season will be a hunt for "an ancient power whose very existence has been delibertely hidden for centuries." Below is a little behind the scenes look of filming.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 - Currently premiering weekly on Paramount+, below is clip that will probably drive Boimler nuts.

Star Trek: Ceti Alpha V - Writer-Director Nicholas Meyer returns to Trek for a new podcast to "examine what happened in the years after Captain Kirk left Khan on the untamed world of Ceti Alpha V." Years ago this was going to be the second or third Star Trek series after Discovery but for unknown reasons the plan fell apart.

Star Trek Announces Series Release Dates, Renewals

For a nice change of pace, Paramount+ revealed most of their 2022 plans for Star Trek today instead of dong it in drips.  The Star Trek Universe of shows have multiple renewals and premiere dates aligned up for 2022.  Per usual, each show will premiere a new episode each Thursday morning. Currently the streaming channel has not announced plans to do entire season dumps for any Trek show.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 To Take Hiatus for Prodigy

It turns out that Star Trek: Discovery season 4 is taking a break after the December 30th episode.  The series will return to finish the season on February 10th.  For now your Star Trek fix will have to come from Star Trek: Prodigy finishing its run starting January 6.  If have not watched the show, its a actually a pretty solid all ages animation show.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 To Premiere Friday Internationally

It seems that ViacomCBS' decision to pull Star Trek: Discovery from Netflix on the eve of its fourth season premiere did not go over well with international fans.  The show went from being available in 190 countries via Netflix to none. The plan was to introduce the fourth season in early 2022 as Paramount+ rolled out to additional countries but even that would be a fraction of its previous count with only 45 additional countries.

After a week of complaints, the company has come up with a sort of band aid solution depending on where located in the world with first 2 episodes becoming available on Friday, November 26, writing "To all of the International Star Trek: Discovery fans: we hear you. We love this series too. We love it for the incredible cast, the hardworking crew, the imaginative storytelling, the groundbreaking, diverse characters who bring the show to life and what it represents to so many people around the world. Star Trek has always put its fans first. We want to do the same." They also tweeted a the message.

For the US and Canada, nothing has changed. For Australia, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Sweden, Uruguay, and Venezuela, they will be available on Paramount+.  For some European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK), ViacomCBS owned PlutoTV will offer the first 2 episodes for free starting at 9:00pm local time. Some countries (such as Russia and South Korea) will be able to purchase episodes starting Saturday.

Star Trek: Discovery Fourth Season Begins Today

Just a quick reminder to North American Star Trek: Discovery fans that the fourth season has started streaming on Paramount+ and I think premieres tonight on Sci-Fi Canada.  For international fans, unfortunately you will have to wait until some point next year as Paramount+ is being expanded to more territories and was pulled from Netflix.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Trailer

Paramount+ has finally revealed the first official trailer for Star Trek: Discovery season 4.  The trailer keeps the story close to the vest in a series of scenes that show off the cast, indicating a dangerous mission to stop some threat that involves entering an anomaly.  Exactly what that means will be discovered as the season begins on November 18.

Star Trek Day Brings Trailers and Release Dates

Paramount held its Star Trek Day event last night where panels were held with various cast members, producers and creators from the various series both past and present.  With it comes new trailers and release dates for the various upcoming seasons including an introduction of the bridge crew for Strange New Worlds.

 

To start the news, Star Trek: Discovery season 4 premiere date is set for November 18. The season description is “Season four of Star Trek: Discovery finds Captain Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery facing a threat unlike any they’ve ever encountered. With Federation and non-Federation worlds alike feeling the impact, they must confront the unknown and work together to ensure a hopeful future for all.”  Seems Paramount+ wants to keep things close to the vest as not even a teaser trailer was released, at least not yet. 

 

Alex Kurtzman To Shepard Star Trek For Six More Years; Backstory on Rise of Alex

Viacom/CBS has extended its deal with Alex Kurtzman and his Secret Hideout production company. The $150 million plus deal means he will continue to remain in charge of all things Star Trek for six more years.  The deal isn't limited to Trek as it pretty much involves anything Kurtzman and his studio decides to make.

The history of Alex Kurtzman and Star Trek is an interesting one. I hope one day an investigative journalist looks into it. Emphasis on investigative so it isn't just a puff piece. The relationship with  Alex Kurtzman's Star Trek actually goes back a way and really started with Transformers. Yeah the Bay film.

First Contact Day Brings Teasers, Release Dates and Casting News

Today was First Contact Day to celebrate all things Star Trek based on the first contact between humans and Vulcans on April 5th, 2063. Paramount used the day to promote their upcoming slate of TV shows that will be premiering over the next year on their streaming service. 

To start we have news for Star Trek: Picard season 2 teaser.

   

This brings up the casting news. Yep, John de Lancie returns as Q. Joining him will be Brent Spiner, maybe as Dr. Altan Inigo Soong, maybe another character. Also returning is Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Michelle Hurd (Raffi), Santiago Cabrera (Rios), Isa Briones (Soji), Alison Pill (Dr. Jurati), and Evan Evagora (Elnor). Paramount has not confirmed that Whoopi Goldberg will reprise Guinan but the return of Q indicates its a likely possibility. Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard is set to premiere sometime in 2022. 

Next up is the teaser for Star Trek: Lower Decks season 2. The premiere date for the series is set for Thursday, August 12 with the 10 episode season rolling out a new episode each week. The show has also already been renewed for season 3.

  

Last but not least is the first look at Captain Kathryn Janeway as the ship's "Emergency Training Hologram" finally explaining how the actress will be on the show. The CG animated series is set to arrive in late 2021 on Nickelodeon. The series will be set in the Delta Quadrant, which is where Star Trek: Voyager spent its series run. However the show is set in the year 2383 which places it years after the events of Voyager and Star Trek: Nemesis. Here is a new synopsis for the show:

[Prodigy] will follow a motley crew of young aliens who must figure out how to work together while navigating a greater galaxy, in search for a better future. These six young outcasts know nothing about the ship they have commandeered – a first in the history of the Star Trek Franchise – but over the course of their adventures together, they will each be introduced to Starfleet and the ideals it represents.

Last but not least, is the teaser trailer for Star Trek: Discovery season 4. The show does not have a release date besides 2021 but I suspect it will be towards the end of the year.