Star Trek’s big return to the small screen is having issues making the jump to warp speed after CBS officially pushed the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery back from January to May 2017.
Debuting the new series from executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Bryan Fuller in January with production slated to commence only two months prior in Toronto, Canada always felt overly ambitious. The extra five months will give producers time to ensure post-production and what are expected to be numerous visual effects aren’t rushed and corners aren’t cut.
CBS has been positioning Star Trek: Discovery as a draw to help boost CBS All Access subscriptions, which currently sit at roughly one million. It’s possible that pressure from CBS to meet the January date and subscription goals eventually succumbed to the reality of creating a quality show first and worry about the numbers later in order to achieve success.
Here’s the official joint statement from Fuller and Kurtzman:
“Bringing Star Trek back to television carries a responsibility and mission: to connect fans and newcomers alike to the series that has fed our imaginations since childhood. We aim to dream big and deliver, and that means making sure the demands of physical and post-production for a show that takes place entirely in space, and the need to meet an air date, don’t result in compromised quality. Before heading into production, we evaluated these realities with our partners at CBS and they agreed: Star Trek deserves the very best, and these extra few months will help us achieve a vision we can all be proud of.”
Now the first episode of Star Trek: Discovery will premiere on the parent CBS network sometime in May 2017. Additional episodes will go straight to CBS All Access at a cost of $5.99 a month with commercials or $9.99 a month for the new commercial-free version.
Source: StarTrek.com
