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Netflix will stream CBS’s new Star Trek series to nearly 200 countries

By Parker Hall July 18, 2016

star trek 50th anniversary video 1 970x647 c — NBC

Nearly 200 countries around the world will be able to explore TV’s most-anticipated show about the final frontier, as Netflix has announced that it has secured international streaming rights to CBS’ upcoming Star Trek TV series.

The streaming service will partner with the network to provide streaming playback of the new show in 188 countries. Each new episode will be available within 24 hours of its U.S. premiere. Unfortunately, the partnership excludes Canada and the United States, forcing stateside Netflix subscribers to consider signing up for CBS’ new standalone streaming service, All Access, to see the new series.

In addition to access to the new show, Netflix subscribers will be able to enjoy each and every historic episode of the multiple Star Trek TV series — all 727 of them — by the end of this year. The inclusion of the older catalog will also be available to Netflix subscribers in the U.S. and Canada.

“The launch of the new Star Trek will truly be a global television event,” said CBS CEO Armando Nuñez in a statement about the new show. “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.”

The new Star Trek series is set to begin filming in Toronto soon, and will be the first new TV series in the popular sci-fi universe since 2005. CBS promises a new ship, characters, and missions, while adding that the new show will embrace “the same ideology and hope for the future that inspired a generation,” according to a press release.

The new show is unique in that it will feature one extended mission with one crew for each season, so each new season will showcase new members of the Starfleet family.

The first new episodes will launch in January 2017, and are being produced by Alex Kurtzman (Transformers) and Bryan Fuller (Heroes).

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Parker Hall is a writer and musician from Portland, OR. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin…

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The 10 best Star Trek: Voyager episodes, ranked

Captain Janeway gives a speech on the bridge of the Starship Voyager

As much as fans love to praise Star Trek as groundbreaking science fiction, it’s important to remember that, for most of the franchise’s history, Trek was weekly procedural television. Until the streaming era, each series was churning out roughly 26 episodes a year, and by the later seasons of Star Trek: Voyager, some of the creative crew had been in the business of making Star Trek for over a decade. The franchise was a crossover commercial success, the kind of success that the money men like to leave exactly as it is for as long as it’s doing steady numbers.
The operation was essentially on rails, and there was a lot of pressure from the studio and the network to keep it that way, which accounts for the general blandness of Voyager and the early years of its successor, Enterprise. The waning years of Trek’s golden era were plagued by creative exhaustion and, consequently, laziness. Concepts from previous series were revisited, often with diminishing returns, and potentially groundbreaking ideas were nixed from on high in order to avoid upsetting the apple cart.
That’s not to say that Star Trek: Voyager isn’t still a solid television show, and even many Trekkies’ favorite. The saga of Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and her gallant crew finding their way home from the farthest reaches of the galaxy may not be as ambitious as it could have been, but it is steadily entertaining, which is why new and nostalgic fans alike enjoy it as cozy “comfort viewing.” For our part, however, we tend to enjoy the episodes that have a certain emotional intensity or creative spark, that feel like conceptual or stylistic risks. As such, you might find that our list of the 10 best Voyager episodes differs greatly from some of the others out there. We like when Voyager dared to get heavy, or silly, or sappy, or mean. So, without further ado, let’s raise a glass to the journey ...
Like Star Trek? Then check out how do I get into Star Trek?
10. Counterpoint (season 5, episode 10)

Counterpoint drops the audience into the middle of an ongoing story,in which Voyager is boarded and inspected by agents of a fascist government, the Devore. The Devore treat all travelers through their space with suspicion, but are particularly concerned with capturing and detaining all telepaths, who they view as dangerous. Despite the risks, Captain Janeway is attempting to smuggle a group of telepathic refugees to safety, all while putting on a show of cooperation for smiling Devore Inspector Kashyk (Mark Harelik). Much of the plot takes place in the background, obscured from the audience in order to build suspense. The real focus is on the evolving dynamic between Janeway and Kashyk, a rivalry that simmers into one of the Voyager captain’s rare romances. Kashyk works in the service of what are, transparently, space Nazis, but when he offers to defect to Voyager, can his intentions be trusted?
Beyond its intriguing premise, Counterpoint is a particularly strong production with a lot of subtle hints of creative flair. Director Les Landau and director of photography Marvin Rush, who had been both working on Star Trek since the 1980s, shoot the hell out of this story, breaking from Voyager’s even lighting and predictable camera moves to make some very deliberate choices that build a great deal of tension around what is essentially a bottle episode. The makeup team, supervised by equally seasoned Trek veteran Michael Westmore, supplies a memorable and imaginative makeup design for an alien astrophysicist who appears in all of two scenes in this episode and is never utilized again. Most of all, Kate Mulgrew provides what may be her most subtle, human performance in the entire series, embodying Janeway’s famous conviction and strength of will while also granting a rare glimpse at her more vulnerable side without ever straying into melodrama.

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The 10 best Star Trek: The Original Series episodes, ranked

Captain Kirk, upset, buried waist-deep in Tribbles.

It’s hard to imagine today, but back in the late 1960s, the original Star Trek was not considered a hit. The ambitious science fiction series was constantly on the brink of cancellation and was cut short only three years into its planned five-season run.
However, it’s important to put Trek’s apparent failure into historical context as, given that most markets in the U.S. had only three television channels to choose from, even a low-rated show like Star Trek was being watched by about 20% of everyone watching television on a Thursday night, or roughly 10 million households. This year’s season of HBO’s Succession was viewed by roughly 8 million households a week, which makes it a hit by today's standards. Star Trek’s audience only grew once it went into reruns in the early 1970s, and by the time Star Trek: The Motion Picture hit theaters in 1979, it was a genuine cultural phenomenon. Today, the Star Trek franchise is considered one of the crown jewels of the Paramount library.
Though arguably outshined by its most prosperous spinoff, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: The Original Series holds up remarkably well for a vision of our future imagined nearly 60 years in our past. It’s a space adventure series that tackles social or political issues from what was, at the time, a daring and progressive perspective informed by the contemporary civil rights movement, sexual revolution, and backlash against the Vietnam War. Conveying these values through fanciful science fiction didn’t only allow its writers to get away with a lot of subversive messages, it also delivered them in a way that remains fun to watch decades later — fun enough that fans are willing to forgive when its ideas, or its special effects, crumble under modern scrutiny.
These 10 episodes, however, unquestionably stand the test of time, and thanks to the continuity-light nature of mid-20th century television, any one of them could be your first Star Trek episode. (Be aware, however, that the order in which classic Trek episodes are listed varies depending on the source. For our purposes, we’re using the numbering from streaming service Paramount+.)

10. Mirror, Mirror (season 2, episode 4)

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5 sci-fi movies on Netflix that are perfect for the summer

Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine in Star Trek.

We hope you've enjoyed the summer of Barbenheimer, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Because for the rest of the summer, the pickings are pretty slim at the theater. And if the studios start pushing their films back because of the ongoing writers and actors strikes, then the rest of 2023 may be pretty bare as well. Fortunately for science fiction fans, Netflix has a handful of titles that were once box office sensations themselves, as well as a few that hold up very well when compared to the modern blockbusters.

If you're looking to beat the heat and enjoy some science fiction flicks from the comfort of your own home, then these are the 5 sci-fi movies on Netflix that are perfect for the summer.
Star Trek (2009)