Star Trek: Discovery available on Netflix South Africa renewed for a third season in 2020 by CBS in the United States.

Star Trek: Discovery available on Netflix South Africa has been renewed for a third season, with Discovery writer Michelle Paradise who was added in the second season who is being promoted to co-showrunner for 2020's third season.

As the third new showrunner on the struggling series, Michelle Paradise, as the third new showrunner, will work alongside Alex Kurtzman on Star Trek: Discovery.

In the United States Star Trek: Discovery is available on the CBS All Access streaming service and is produced by CBS Television Studios and filmed in Canada at the Pinewood Toronto Studios in Toronto.

Outside of the United States the Starfleet set series is available on Netflix.

"The massive success of Star Trek: Discovery's second season launch exceeded our expectations in both driving subscriber growth and generating a phenomenal response from Star Trek fans," said Julie McNamara, executive vice president for CBS All Access originals, in a statement announcing the third season renewal.

"With Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise at the helm, we look forward to continuing Star Trek: Discovery's journey, growing the Star Trek franchise and bringing fans new Star Trek stories for many years to come."

Alex Kurtzman says "Michelle joined us midway through season two and energized the room with her ferocious knowledge of Trek. Her grasp of character and story detail, her drive and her focus have already become essential in ensuring the Trek legacy, and her fresh perspective always keeps us looking forward."

"I'm proud to say Michelle and I are officially running Star Trek: Discovery together."

Beyond Star Trek: Discovery, CBS is also working on a spin-off revolving around the character of Michelle Yeoh working for the mysterious Section 31, an as-yet-untitled drama series with Patrick Stewart who will reprise his role as an older Captain Jean-Luc Picard set decades after The Next Generation, an animation comedy for adults entitled Lower Decks, an untitled Starfleet Academy series, and for Viacom's Nickelodeon channel an animation series.

CBS announces yet another new spin-off Star Trek series in development focusing on the adventures of Michelle Yeoh's Captain Georgiou joining Section 31.

CBS in the United States is working on yet another new Star Trek series, the latest a spin-off from Star Trek: Discovery that will focus on the exploits of Captain Philippa Georgiou, who was played by and will continue to be played by Michelle Yeoh.

The second season of Star Trek: Discovery will start on 17 January in the United States on the CBS All Acces streaming service, with episodes that will once again roll out weekly globally outside of America and Canada on Netflix.

The Michelle Yeoh spin-off will revolve around Philippa Georgiou's adventures after the events of Star Trek: Discovery's first season, that will see her become involved in Starfleet's nefarious and secretive Section 31 intelligence division, first introduced during the 1990's spin-off series, Star Trek: DS9.

The latest series will be produced by CBS Television Studios, Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment with Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt as writers.

"Michelle has shattered ceilings, broken boundaries, and astonished us with her grace and gravitas for decades," says Alex Kurtzman, Star Trek executive producer in a statement.

"As a human, I adore her. As an actor, I revere her. Erika and Boey are remarkable, exciting writers who bring a fresh perspective to the world of Star Trek, and we're all thrilled to explore the next wild chapter in the life of Captain Philippa Georgiou."

"I'm so excited to continue telling these rich Star Trek stories," says Michelle Yeoh. "Being a part of this universe and this character specifically has been such a joy for me to play. I can't wait to see where it all goes – certainly, I believe it will go 'where no woman has ever gone before!'"

Besides Star Trek: Discovery entering its second season on Netflix, the new as-yet-untitled Michelle Yeoh Captain Geogiou series there is also an upcoming new as-yet-untitled series featuring the later life of Captain Jean-Luc Picard after the events of the last films of Star Trek: The Next Generation, with Patrick Stewart again playing the iconic role.

There is also a planned half-hour adult animated comedy series Star Trek: Below Decks in development.

Not available on Netflix South Africa are 5 Star Trek: Short Treks episodes serving as prequel vignettes to the second season of Star Trek: Discovery.

THE NEEDS OF THE MANY. Ethan Peck cast as Spock in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery available on Netflix South Africa.

Star Trek: Discovery from CBS Television Studios and available on CBS All Access in the United States and Netflix South Africa in South Africa has cast Ethan Peck to portray the role of the iconic pointy-eared Vulcan, Spock, in the second season of the science fiction drama series.

Ethan Peck, grandson of Hollywood actor, Gregory Peck, will portray the half-human, half-Vulcan science officer of the USS Enterprise made famous by Leonard Nimoy in the original TV series and will still be working under Captain Christopher Pike (portrayed by the recently-cast Anson Mount) in the short time period before Captain James T. Kirk took over command.

"Through 52 years of television and film, a parallel universe and a mirror universe, Mr. Spock remains the only member of the original bridge crew to span every era of Star Trek.," says Alex Kurtzman, Star Trek: Discovery showrunner in a statement.

" The great Leonard Nimoy, then the brilliant Zachary Quinto, brought incomparable humanity to a character forever torn between logic and emotion."

"We searched for months for an actor who would, like them, bring his own interpretation to the role. An actor who would, like them, effortlessly embody Spock's greatest qualities, beyond obvious logic: empathy, intuition, compassion, confusion and yearning."

"Ethan Peck walked into the room inhabiting all of these qualities, aware of his daunting responsibility to Leonard, Zack and the fans, and ready to confront the challenge in the service of protecting and expanding on Spock’s legacy. In that spirit, we're thrilled to welcome him to the family."

The second season of Star Trek: Discovery will unspool with weekly episodes on Netflix South Africa from sometime early-2019, with no specific release date announced yet.

MAKE IT SO. Patrick Stewart returning to headline a new Star Trek TV drama series as Jean-Luc Picard that will be set 20 years after the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Make it so: Patrick Stewart (78) is returning to headline a new Star Trek TV drama series as his iconic character of Jean-Luc Picard, that will be set 20 years after his last Star Trek film, Nemesis, in the Star Trek: The Next Generation universe.

The new and as yet unnamed Star Trek TV series will be produced by CBS Television Studios for the CBS All Access subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service in America, meaning that the series will very likely also become available at its debut on Netflix South Africa, similar to how the new Star Trek: Discovery starting its second season in early-2019 is available on Netflix worldwide outside of the United States.

An episode order and debut date for the new Patrick Steward-led series that will "tell the story of the next chapter of Picard's life" has not been announced and no scripts have been written yet, but it's the latest in a growing number of new Star Trek television productions from CBS Television Studios.

In June CBS Television Studios expanded its Star Trek: Discovery franchise contract with the series' co-creator and executive producer Alex Kurtzman into a new 5-year deal that will include several possible miniseries, animation and spinoffs, and Alex Kurtzman at Comic-Con 2018 in San Diego in July revealed during a Star Trek: Discovery panel that the first miniseries will be entitled Star Trek: Short Treks.

The new Jean-Luc Picard centred series will not be one of these miniseries but a fully-fledged drama series, taking place in the universe of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the USS Enterprise that ran for 7 seasons and the 4 movies that followed afterwards. The series will be set 20 years after the last film in that universe, Nemesis.

"With overwhelming joy, it's a privilege to welcome Sir Patrick Stewart back to the Star Trek fold," says Alex Kurtzman in a statement.

"For over 20 years, fans have hoped for the return of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and that day is finally here. We can't wait to forge new ground, surprise people, and honour generations both new and old."

In a statement he released on social media, Patrick Stewart says "I will always be very proud to have been a part of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but when we wrapped that final movie in the spring of 2002, I truly felt my time with Star Trek had run its natural course".

"It is, therefore, an unexpected but delightful surprise to find myself excited and invigorated to be returning to Jean-Luc Picard and to explore new dimensions within him. Seeking out new life for him, when I thought that life was over."

"During these past years, it has been humbling to hear many stories about how The Next Generation brought people comfort, saw them through difficult periods in their lives or how the example of Jean-Luc inspired so many to follow in his footsteps, pursuing science, exploration and leadership."

"I feel I'm ready to return to him for the same reason – to research and experience what comforting and reforming light he might shine on these often very dark times. I look forward to working with our brilliant creative team as we endeavor to bring a fresh, unexpected and pertinent story to life once more."

It is an unexpected but delightful surprise to find myself excited and invigorated to be returning to Jean-Luc Picard and to explore new dimensions within him. Read my full statement in the photo. #StarTrek @cbsallaccess Photo: @shervinfoto pic.twitter.com/8Ynuj3RBNm

— Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) August 4, 2018

The new Star Trek series will be executive produced by Patrick Stewart, Alex Kurtzman, James Duff who recently joined Star Trek: Discovery as executive producer, as well as former Discovery executive producer Akiva Goldsman, Michael Chabon and Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.


'Something very, very different with the same passion as before'
The announcement was made to coincide with the latest Las Vegas Star Trek Convention where Patrick Stewart made a surprise appearance after which applause erupted with a standing ovation.

Patrick Stewart revealed that when he was approached to return for a new series, and took a meeting, he knew that it was an offer to which he would sadly have to say no.

Afterward the meeting with producers, he said, "I have spent a lot of time recently watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. And gradually it became clearer and clearer to me, that the power of that show, the success of that show, the benefits that it gave - I have never grown tired of people who stop me in the street or in a restaurant, who say to me 'Your show changed my life".

"Jean-Luc Picard is back. However he may not be a captain anymore. He may not be the Jean-Luc that you recognise and know so well. It may be a very different individual - someone who has been changed by his experiences."

"20 years will have passed - which is more or less exactly the time between the very last movie, Nemesis, and today."

"We have no scripts as of yet. We're just talking, talking, talking storylines. It will be - I guarantee you, something very, very different. But it will come to you with the same passion and determination and the love of the material and love of our followers and fans - exactly as we had it before."

Star Trek: Discovery on Netflix South Africa releases a teaser trailer for the 2nd season; first 4-part characters-driven miniseries will be entitled, Star Trek: Shorts.

One of the several planned miniseries of the revived Star Trek franchise with Star Trek: Discovery will be called Star Trek: Short Treks, with the science fiction drama series that unveiled a teaser trailer for the second season that will start in early-2019 on Netflix South Africa.

With CBS Television Studios that last month expanded its Star Trek: Discovery franchise contract with the series' co-creator and executive producer Alex Kurtzman into a new 5-year deal that will include several possible miniseries, animation and spinoffs, Alex Kurtzman at Comic-Con 2018 in San Diego on Friday during a Star Trek: Discovery panel revealed that the first miniseries will be entitled Star Trek: Short Treks.

Similar to Star Trek: Discovery that is on the CBS All Access in America and available on Netflix outside of the United States, Star Trek: Short Treks will also become available on Netflix South Africa.

Star Trek: Short Treks will have 4 episodes - between 10 and 15 minutes each - and will roll out monthly as it tells specific character-driven stories. Rainn Wilson who appeared as Harry Mudd in the first season of Star Trek: Discovery will be the subject of one of the episodes and will also direct it.

Another episode will introduce Craft (Aldis Hodge) who discovers that he is the only human on a deserted starship.

Another episode will reveal more about the backstory of the Kelpien Saru (Doug Jones), and a 4th episode will chronicle the character of Tilly's (Mary Wiseman) friendship with an unlikely partner aboard the USS Discovery.

"There is no shortage of compelling stories to tell in the Star Trek universe that inspire, entertain and either challenge our preconceived ideas or affirm long-held beliefs, and we are excited to broaden the universe already with Short Treks," said Alex Kurtzman.

"Each episode will deliver closed-ended stories while revealing clues about what's to come in future Star Trek: Discovery episodes. They'll also introduce audiences to new characters who may inhabit the larger world of Star Trek."

The show also released a new teaser trailer for the upcoming second season of Star Trek: Discovery with episodes that will roll out weekly from early-2019, although no specific date has yet been released.

Anson Mount has joined the show as Captain Christopher Pike who takes command of the USS Discovery due to a new mystery - the appearance of red flares across the galaxy - with Rebecca Romijn who will make guest-appearances as the new version of the USS Enterprise Starfleet character Number One that was originally portrayed by Majel Barrett Roddenberry.

CBS Television Studios expanding the revived Star Trek TV franchise into mini-series, animation and possible spin-offs with new 5-year deal with Alex Kurtzman.

CBS Television Studios is expanding the revived Star Trek television franchise into mini-series, animation and possible spin-off series.

The revived Star Trek television franchise currently revolves around Star Trek: Discovery on CBS All Access and seen on Netflix around the world outside of the United States, like Netflix South Africa.

The current Star Trek: Discovery co-creator and executive producer Alex Kurtzman has signed a new 5-year deal with CBS Television Studios to develop the spin-off series and other content.

"There is a very short list of writer-producer-directors that every film and television studio wants to be associated with, and Alex and his Secret Hideout team are always at the top," says David Stapf, president of CBS Television Studios in a statement.

"His talent, taste and ability to shepherd a successful project is unparalleled. Alex has done remarkable work for our studio, dating back seven years to the launch of Hawaii Five-O, and we are thrilled that he will be partnering with us for a long time to come."

Alex Kurtzman says "CBS has allowed us the great pleasure of reintroducing the world of Star Trek audiences new and old, and we are very excited to keep working alongside them to expand that world."

Production drama with impossible deadlines sees new Star Trek: Discovery launch inevitably postponed by months from January to May 2017.

It was inevitable and now the wholly unrealistic launch date of January 2017 of the latest new Star Trek: Discovery has finally been pushed out by months to May 2017.

After CBS and executive producer Bryan Fuller a few months ago announced mind-boggling production dates - saying that filming would start in September - this month - on Star Trek Discovery, it quickly became obvious that the unrealistic deadlines would never be met.

Without any proper Discovery ship designs - let alone actual ship and bridge sets construction (and up in Toronto, Canada where it would be filmed) - with no confirmed cast, with no female lead, with only 3 episodes' actual scripts, artistic issues like the shockingly bad new ship demo that producers suddenly said is not the final version and is being redesigned, and with no established editing and special effects departments, the insane Star Trek: Discovery announcements about when it would do what, started to feel like Hlaudi Motsoeneng's hot air SABC proclamations.

Also remember that Star Trek: Discovery isn't Bryan Fuller's only project - like Hlaudi Motsoeneng constantly darting off to Venda, Durban and Cape Town - Bryan Fuller is also furiously working on other shows like American Gods with divided attention.

With actual filming that had to start now in Toronto while basically very little else exists, CBS and the production company had no choice but to pull the plug on the already chaotic behind-the-scenes production madness to announce a postponement.

And chaotic behind the scenes at Star Trek: Discovery it surely is, although CBS is keeping a lid on what is really going on.

TV's business is also - very importantly - almost more than anything else it is a scheduling business (once again: Hlaudi Motsoeneng's SABC3's local content order is a flopsies because the forced scheduling caused a washout).

CBS plans and schedules better than the SABC. So when it sat down and planned Star Trek: Discovery to start shooting in September and then broadcast a first episode in early January, it did that, working on mapped out production schedules.

So clearly day-to-day deadlines and production deadlines went very wrong and now CBS and the TV show had to backtrack.

It's a big problem, since CBS wanted to use Star Trek: Discovery to launch and relaunch its CBS All Access video-on-demand (VOD) service in America, with Star Trek: Discovery that is being distributed in the rest of the world on Netflix.

Instead of starting in January 2017 as fakely and unrealistically promised, Star Trek: Discovery has now been pushed out by 5 months to May 2017.

Earlier this month, producers already started the process of tempering and trying to adjust down the expectations of the show - which means that they knew they would have a crap product given the production deadlines.

In fact, Star Trek: Discovery might still be - but hopefully won't - be bad, since the producers seemed to hint that the budget isn't as big to fully realise the vision of what Star Trek viewers expect the show to be.

It seems as if producers want Star Trek viewers to tone down their expectations and rather expect a Star Trek: Discovery that's close to the trash-bad Star Trek: Enterprise than the smoother high brow Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: DS9.

Star Trek: Discovery executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Bryan Fuller now say in a statement the show must be delayed by months to mid-2017 "to achieve a vision we can all be proud of".

"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," they say in a statement.

The producers reveal that they misjudged what it would take to ramp up the production machine on the new iteration of the science fiction series that will have a 13 episode first season and suddenly got to a point where they realised it's not possible to film Star Trek: Discovery starting in September.

The actual filming of Star Trek: Discovery will now only start in November - two months later.

"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 TV Studios president David Stapf says in the same statement announcing the Star Trek: Discovery postponement: "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".