'Star Trek' (kinda) returns to TV in January 2017
CBS has announced that it's going to make a brand new Star Trek TV series that'll begin airing in January 2017. The corporation has shoved a big pile of money in the face of Star Trek and Into Darkness co-writer Alex Kurtzman to be in charge of this new series. If you're eagerly soldering your TV's remote to make sure it can never be switched away from your local CBS affiliate, we'd suggest holding off for just a second. That's because only the first episode or two will air on broadcast TV, with the rest of the series becoming an exclusive for CBS' homegrown online subscription service, All Access.
It's not the first time that Star Trek has arrived on our screens with a non-traditional airing model, either. After all, Star Trek: The Next Generation bypassed a US network and, instead, was sold into first-run syndication. As for the plot of the show, there's nothing for us to go on apart from the generic blurb in the CBS press release:
"The brand-new "Star Trek" will introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966."
Although we're not sure how relevant a new Star Trek will be if it holds onto those same themes that it's been playing with since the mid '60s. After all, when the show first launched, America had deep political tension with Russia, there was an undercurrent of racial tension on the streets and there were questions about how the US would fare in space. Actually, reading that back, never mind.
