Where to See the New Star Trek Series

A new series based on the original Star Trek TV series will be coming to the small screen at the beginning of 2017, but it won't be on a screen that many viewers have access to at the moment. The new series is being developed by CBS, but rather than being aired on broadcast TV, the series will be available exclusively on the network's subscription streaming service, CBS All Access.

The new series will be produced by Alex Kurtzman, the co-writer of the recent J.J. Abrams Star Trek films. The first episode will have a debut airing on CBS in January 2017, but after that, all new episodes will be available only on CBS All Access, a service that currently costs $5.99 per month and includes a catalog of CBS' current and past series.

The plan is obviously an attempt to drive viewers to the streaming platform, which CBS sees as a way for the network to compete with Netflix and other streaming services. The question is whether viewers will be willing to pay another $6 a month for yet another ala carte streaming service that offers yet another Star Trek TV series and not much else that you can't watch for free elsewhere. The new Star Trek series will be the fifth live-action spin-off based on the original series, and the most recent of those spin-offs, Star Trek: Enterprise, wasn't exactly a huge hit on the UPN.