CBS confirms weekly release model for new STAR TREK series

CBS have given some more details on their new Star Trek series, in particular how they plan to release it.

The Federation's Excelsior-class was its most powerful and impressive starship design during the rumoured timeframe of the new series.

It was assumed in some quarters that CBS would release the entire season in one go, as with the Netflix model. However, CBS have now confirmed that after the first episode simultaneously airs on CBS and the CBS All Access digital streaming service, the rest of the season (currently believed to be 13 episodes in total length) will air once a week only on CBS All Access. CBS All Access costs American viewers $6 a month, but, controversially, still carries advertising. This distribution model will prevent people from subscribing, binge-watching the whole season in a weekend and then unsubscribing, at least not until the season has finished airing.

The exclusivity to CBS All Access, a rather niche and small service compared to the likes of Hulu, Amazon and Netflix, has irritated some fans who didn't want to pay yet more money and add yet another service to the increasingly long list of services demanding their time and money. It's just fortunate for CBS that there's no way for people who don't want to be hooked into yet another service to get hold of the episodes shortly after airing.

It's likely that the new series will air in a more traditional manner in other countries, but CBS have not yet announced any international partners for the series.

The new Star Trek series is currently in pre-production and should begin shooting in Toronto in the late summer for a January 2017 debut. Alex Kurtzman and Bryan Fuller are running the series, with veteran Star Trek movie writer and director Nicholas Meyer also producing and writing. No further details have been revealed, but apparently credible leaks have suggested that this will be a self-contained, serialised story that will be set somewhere in the seventy-year gap between Star Trek: Generations and Star Trek: The Next Generation, in the original or prime Trek timeline, and will involve Klingons as antagonists. The new series will not be set on a ship named Enterprise. It sounds like CBS are considering an anthology model for this series (similar to Fargo), with future seasons able to jump around to different times and places in the Star Trek universe.