In disappointing news, the creators of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ have announced that the series, which was slated to debut in January has now been pushed back until May 2017, in order to avoid “compromised quality” and to allow the creators to “achieve a vision we can all be proud of.”
The show has been mired in controversy since it was announced that after airing the pilot episode on CBS, the remaining episodes would only be available through the network’s pay VOD service CBS All Access. Unfortunately, even with the delay, that is still the plan. After airing the pilot, all 13 episodes will be available for streaming.
Not that there is much overlap in fanbase, but CBS is bumping its new spinoff of ‘The Good Wife’ to February from spring to compensate. Like ‘Star Trek’, this series will premiere on regular TV before switching to All Access.
Executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Bryan Fuller issued a statement stating:
“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.”
CBS Television Studios President David Stapf, added:
“The series template and episodic scripts that Alex and Bryan have delivered are incredibly vivid and compelling. They are building a new, very ambitious Star Trek world for television, and everyone involved supports their vision for the best timing to bring to life what we all love on the page.”
Does this surprise ANYONE? Maybe they should have gone into production before setting a premier date? This show was announced early last year with updates coming sporadically and usually offering little information, at least in terms of progress.
These VOD shows are all made available at once, meaning unlike television shows, they can’t shoot a few episodes beforehand and continue filming once the show has started airing. There are supposed to be 13 one hour episodes of this show, and it’s ‘STAR TREK’ a SCIENCE FICTION show. You know with a ton of special effects? Did anyone think they were going to have these all done in (give or take) FOUR months? They can’t even make a two hour ‘Star Trek’ movie in four months! There hasn’t even been a single casting announcement!
There was already a lot of bad will directed at this VOD-only series. I’m sure this won’t help. But optimistically, maybe it will be worth the wait.
What do you think? Are you happy that they are taking their time with this?
Source: TV Line
