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| “Star Trek” is coming back to TV in 2017 via CBS Television Studios. Here, the original Starship Enterprise model hangs in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. Credit: National Air and Space Museum |
Set phasers to thrilled. It’s official, “Star Trek” is coming back to TV in 2017.
The folks at CBS Television Studios announced today (Nov. 2) that a new “Star Trek ” series will launch in January 2017, with the premiere episode airing on CBS’s television network. The rest of the episodes to the as-yet unnamed series will air first on CBS All Access, the studio’s digital streaming arm. It will be the first new Trek TV series in 12 years, following the 2005 cancellation of “Star Trek: Enterprise.”
“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,” CBS representatives wrote in today’s announcement .
Alex Kurtzman, a co-writer and producer on the Trek reboot films “Star Trek” (2009) and “Star Trek Into Darkness” (2013), will serve as executive producer of the new TV series alongside Heather Kadin. The series will be produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Kurtzman’s company Secret Hideout, according to the announcement. [Related: Why We Love “Star Trek” ]
It’s a battle as old as scifi: Which is better, ‘Star Trek’ or ‘ Star Wars’? Join the fray and let us know!
“Star Trek” debuted on television on Sept. 8, 1966, with that has become known as “The Original Series” lasting just three seasons before it was cancelled in 1969. The show garnered a cult following, with fans successfully convincing NASA to name its first space shuttle “Enterprise” in honor of the fictional Starship Enterprise featured in the show. In all, “Star Trek” has spawned five television incarnations and 12 feature films, with the next movie entry — “Star Trek Beyond” — to warp into theaters in 2016, a year that will mark the 50th anniversary of the show’s debut.
“There is no better time to give Star Trek fans a new series than on the heels of the original show’s 50th anniversary celebration,” said CBS Television Studios President David Stapf said in the announcement. “Everyone here has great respect for this storied franchise, and we’re excited to launch its next television chapter in the creative mind and skilled hands of Alex Kurtzman, someone who knows this world and its audience intimately.”
Despite following “Star Trek Beyond,” the new TV series will not be related to the upcoming movie, which will be distributed by Paramount Pictures next summer.
First-run episodes of the new Trek series will be available exclusively on CBS All Access, a digital streaming service that requires a $5.99 per month membership. It will be CBS’s first series developed specifically for the digital platform, according to CBS. The platform is currently streaming complete runs of all five Trek TV series to date.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom , Facebook and Google+ . Original article on Space.com .
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