Star Trek

The future of Star Trek may not divide humanity by nations of Earth, but back in the 21st century, CBS All-Access subscribers in the U.S. may have reason to envy abroad. The new Star Trek series will be made available on Netflix in international markets, with new episodes streaming shortly after their premiere.

Zachary Quinto, Chris Pine and other 'Star Trek Beyond' stars paid an emotional tribute to the late Anton Yelchin during a press junket for the film on July 14.

The poster for Star Trek: The Motion Picture is so dramatic. The faces of William Shatner’s Captain Kirk, Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock, and Persis Khambatta’s Lieutenant Ilia refracted through a rainbow spectrum of light. That image promises excitement beyond imagination. Adventure! Passion! Every color under the rainbow!

Oh my! George Takei is not thrilled with the decision to make the character he originally played in 'Star Trek' gay, but Simon Pegg and Zachary Quinto disagree with him.

Some very cool news about this summer’s Star Trek Beyond, via the Australian newspaper the Herald Sun: They report that Beyond will reveal that John Cho’s Hikaru Sulu is gay. The character is also revealed to be “the loving father of a daughter with a same sex partner. And in typical trailblazing Trek fashion - it’s just not a big deal.” At least the daughter aspect fits with what little the previous Star Trek series revealed of Sulu’s private life; in 1994’s Star Trek Generations, Sulu’s daughter, Ensign Demora Sulu, serves as the helmsman on the Enterprise-B.

It is interesting that, given a reboot could theoretically go off in any direction it chooses, that the relaunched Star Trek has begun to repeat events from the first Star Trek movie series. Star Trek Into Darkness was essentially a revisitation of The Wrath of Khan; the movie not only reintroduced the title character, it also flip-flopped the famous end of Wrath of Khan where Spock dies saving the Enterprise. (This time around it was Captain Kirk who made the ultimate sacrifice ... for about 8 minutes, and then he got better.) Certainly the circumstances of the film are very different, but Star Trek Beyond shares one crucial ingredient with Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, namely the destruction of the Starship Enterprise, and the shipwrecking of its crew on a distant alien planet.

CBS Star Trek boss Bryan Fuller assured us that official details of the new All-Access series would likely emerge around Comic-Con 2016, though a few early reports on the show’s nature and setting may not have been accurate. Not only does Fuller downplay suggestions the new series might predate The Next Generation, but also that Star Trek would go the anthology approach from season to season.

Apart from the excitement of a new TV Star Trek series on the horizon, Trekkies had to wonder how CBS might structure the new All-Access series after its network premiere. Rest assured, CBS intends to keep to the weekly model over Netflix’s binge drop, while network brass hopes to debut even more new All-Access series in the years to come.

The tough thing about using someone else’s ideas to make money is that it’s not entirely legal. This lesson had to be learned the hard way this past weekend by Alec Peters, producer of an independent film titled Prelude to Axanar. The Star Trek fan film drew quite a bit of ire from copyright holders Paramount after a crowdfunding effort on Indiegogo brought this grassroots DIY production over half a million dollars last summer. The promise to make a “studio-quality” film including characters, settings, and other elements from the heavily-licensed Star Trek franchise with no engagement from the relevant studio spelled doom for the Axanar team, and now the chickens have come home to roost.

Captain Kirk is ready to captain a different kind of ship.

Star Trek’s rebooted cinematic tenure under J.J. Abrams has led to diminishing returns, Star Trek 3 just barely making it off the ground, leading many to wonder when Gene Roddenberry’s iconic franchise might return to its TV roots. That time may already be upon us, CBS is reportedly looking to boldly go forward with a new TV Star Trek.

Man, the rebooted Star Trek movie series really has this whole “casting actors we really like” thing down. The latest report from Star Trek 3 has the great Idris Elba cast as the movie’s villain, whose identity remains, for the moment, a mystery.