Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the highly anticipated prequel series featuring the classic characters of Spock and Captain Pike, is coming to the UK, and will be available on the Paramount+ streaming service.
The bad news for UK fans: We can confirm that Strange New Worlds will be exclusive to Paramount+, so you will have to wait more than a month – the show is launching in the US on May 5, but Paramount+ is coming to the UK on June 22, 2022.
Until then, the show won’t be available on any other streaming services or VOD stores in the UK, such as Amazon’s Prime Video.
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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a 10-episode prequel series that takes place before Star Trek – The Original Series, and follows the adventures of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), his Number One (Rebecca Romijn) and Spock (Ethan Peck).
These characters were originally conceived as part of the original Star Trek series back in the 60s, with Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike, Majel Barrett as Number One, and Leonard Nimoy as Spock. Following the unsuccessful pilot, Hunter was eventually replaced by William Shatner as the Captain of the Enterprise – James T. Kirk.
The modern incarnation of these characters was first introduced on Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery. Following positive reactions from critics and fans, a full spin-off series, with these characters, was announced – which is how Star Trek: Strange New Worlds came to be.
Unlike the other two new Star Trek shows (Discovery and Picard) that have very linear season-long stories, Strange New Worlds will be similar to the original series in that every episode will have a standalone story (also known as ‘Monster of The Week’ episodes), which will often conclude by the end of the episode.
Paramount+ is a streaming service that started as CBS All Access, in the US, in 2014. From its early days, the channel also produced original shows, such as The Good Wife spin-off The Good Fight, and Star Trek: Discovery.
In 2021, CBS All Access changed its name to Paramount+, following the merger with Viacom, bringing in content from additional partners, such as Showtime, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures.
Paramount+ will be launching in the UK on June 22, at a cost of £6.99/month or £69.90/year, after a 7-days trial.
Star Trek fan site TrekCore spoke to executive producer Alex Kurtzman about the international release of Strange New Worlds, which is bound to disappoint some of the fans:
From the #StrangeNewWorlds red carpet —#StarTrek franchise executive producer Alex Kurtzman comments on the delays on international availability for the new show, which launches May 5 in the United States, Canada, and limited additional territories. pic.twitter.com/V2quqrkODs
— TrekCore.com 🖖 (@TrekCore) May 1, 2022
Star Trek Shows In The UK
In the US, all Star Trek shows (the classic ones and the new ones) are available to stream on Paramount+.
In the UK, things are a bit more complicated – for now. The older programmes (The Original Series, TNG, Voyager, Deep Space 9 and Enterprise) are currently available on Netflix UK.
Star Trek: Discovery used to be available on Netflix (in the UK and around the world – except the US), but right before Season 4’s premiere, all seasons were removed from the service. To appease the angry fans, the Season 4 was then streamed live in the UK on Pluto TV, and was also available to buy on Amazon’s Prime Video VOD store.
But wait, there’s more – both seasons of Star Trek: Picard, the sequel series to Star Trek: The Next Generation featuring Patrick Stewart, are streaming in the UK on Amazon’s Prime Video.
With a third season coming next year, it remains to be seen whether it will remain on Prime Video – or move over to Paramount+ in the UK.
The two first seasons of the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks series are also on Prime Video, with a third season returning in Summer 2022. We don’t know yet whether it will come directly to Paramont+, or remain on Prime Video.
They did this with other franchises like N.C.I.S. had different seasons on multiple channels at the same time.