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Paramount+ expands Star Trek Universe

Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Lower Decks will be added to Paramount+, including the upcoming Picard season.

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Paramount+ has forged a new deal with Prime Video globally that sees both Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Lower Decks joining the platform.

The third and final season of Star Trek: Picard will premiere in Australia date and day with the US on Friday, 17 February, with previous seasons of Star Trek: Picard available from the same date.

All seasons of Star Trek: Lower Decks will be available later this year.

Star Trek: Picard will also continue streaming on Prime Video.

Paramount+ is now the home to every series and every episode of the full catalogue of Star Trek. This includes all seasons of the Paramount+ original series Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy, and the newest addition Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Star Trek: Picard features Patrick Stewart reprising his iconic role as Jean-Luc Picard, which he played for seven seasons on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and follows this iconic character into the next chapter of his life. LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd star alongside Patrick Stewart.

The series is produced by CBS Studios in association with Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment. For season three, Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Terry Matalas, Patrick Stewart, Heather Kadin, Aaron Baiers, Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth, Doug Aarniokoski and Dylan Massin serve as executive producers. Terry Matalas serves as showrunner for season three.

Star Trek: Lower Decks focuses on the support crew serving on one of Starfleet’s least important ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos, in 2380. The crew have to keep up with their duties and their social lives, often while the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies. The Starfleet crew residing in the “lower decks” of the U.S.S. Cerritos includes Ensign Beckett Mariner, voiced by Tawny Newsome; Ensign Brad Boimler, voiced by Jack Quaid; Ensign Tendi, voiced by Noël Wells; and Ensign Rutherford, voiced by Eugene Cordero. The Starfleet characters that comprise the U.S.S. Cerritos’ bridge crew include Captain Carol Freeman, voiced by Dawnn Lewis; Commander Jack Ransom, voiced by Jerry O’Connell; and Doctor T’Ana, voiced by Gillian Vigman.

Star Trek: Lower Decks is produced by CBS’ Eye Animation Productions, CBS Studios’ animation arm; Secret Hideout; and Roddenberry Entertainment. Secret Hideout’s Alex Kurtzman, Roddenberry Entertainment’s Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth, Katie Krentz (219 Productions) and Heather Kadin serve as executive producers alongside creator and showrunner Mike McMahan. Aaron Baiers (Secret Hideout), who brought McMahan to the project, also serves as an executive producer. Titmouse (Big Mouth), the Emmy Award-winning independent animation production company, serves as the animation studio for the series.

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  1. It was always a mistake to allow Showtime and other content to be distributed to other broadcasters and streamers while launching All Access, which failed as a result. They have had to buy Discovery back from Netflix and now co-broadcasting rights to Lower Decks and the final season of Picard so that Paramount+ is a onestop streamer for Trekkies. They also failed to appreciate the value of Yellowstone, selling streaming rights to Peacock and other digital distributors.

    1. Apparently Picard s3 is actually good, unlike the previous two seasons and what the show should have always been. With a showrunner who knows and likes Star Trek. So there’s a much stronger incentive to bring it back to their platform.

      From what I’ve read, I don’t think they needed to buy Discovery back from Netflix. It was an expensive show and Netflix footed the entire production budget for season one and were not happy with the results. So there was apparently a dispute where they were not wanting to pay so much for future seasons. Refused to pick up spin-off Short Trek episodes. So it’s very likely they just parted ways.

      1. Another version of the story is that Paramount was struggling to jump start its new streaming service after rebranding its CBS All Access in March 2021, Paramount identified its big Star Trek catalogue as an important part of serving up a ‘ mountain of content’ that brought all of Paramounts assets together from one source. Netflix’s rights to Star Trek: Discovery was one of those titles, so Netflix was allegedly pleased to be rid of it, because of the high cost of production that it had committed itself to making the ailing show.
        Apparently Paramount are still facing issues with licensing deals which means some Paramount+ owned titles are seen on other services like HBO plus and Peacock. This is why ‘1883’ the Yellowstone prequel was made to be an exclusive to Paramount+ and make some short term gains.
        Paramount+ really needs another Yellowstone type success right now.

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