Star Trek: Short Treks
Star Trek: Short Treks is an American science fiction anthology television series created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman for the streaming service CBS All Access. Originating as a companion series to Star Trek: Discovery, it consists of several 10- to 20-minute-long shorts that use settings and characters from Discovery and other Star Trek series.
Not to be confused with Star Trek: Very Short Treks.Star Trek: Short Treks
United States
English
2
10
- Alex Kurtzman
- Heather Kadin
- Akiva Goldsman
- Frank Siracusa
- John Weber
- Eugene Roddenberry
- Trevor Roth
Toronto, Canada
8–18 minutes
October 4, 2018 –
January 9, 2020
After signing a deal to expand the Star Trek franchise on television, Kurtzman announced Short Treks as the first such project in July 2018. The first four episodes aired from October 2018 to January 2019, between the first and second seasons of Discovery. The shorts were mostly produced by cast and crew members from Discovery, including composer Jeff Russo who provided an updated main title theme and original underscore. Filming took place in Toronto, Canada, on the set of Discovery.
In January 2019, two new animated shorts were revealed, with four additional live-action episodes announced in June 2019. The second season of shorts aired from October 2019 to January 2020, between the second season of Discovery and the first season of Star Trek: Picard, with the last short serving as a teaser for the latter series. The animated shorts were created by visual effects house Pixomondo, while a roster of new composers supervised by Michael Giacchino provided the music for the second set of shorts.
The series has received positive reviews and been nominated for several awards, including a Primetime Emmy Award. Kurtzman expressed interest in continuing the series, but the producers chose not to begin work on any new shorts when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Premise[edit]
Each episode of Star Trek: Short Treks tells a stand-alone story that explores key characters and ideas from Star Trek: Discovery and other Star Trek series.[1]
Release[edit]
Streaming[edit]
The shorts were released on CBS All Access in the United States.[1] Bell Media broadcast the series in Canada on the specialty channels CTV Sci-Fi Channel (English) and Z (French) before streaming them on Crave.[45] The first four shorts were released monthly, beginning in October 2018 and ending in January 2019.[45] At the end of January the first set of shorts were made available to countries outside of the U.S. and Canada on Netflix under the "Trailers and More" section of the streaming service's Star Trek: Discovery page.[46] The first two shorts of the second season were released in October 2019 in the U.S. and Canada, with monthly releases through January 2020.[47] After the second set of shorts had all been released on All Access, Kurtzman said he expected they would be released on Netflix "at some point".[8] The second season was made available for free in the U.S. on CBS.com, CBS mobile apps, and YouTube from August 17 to 31, 2020, as part of the series' Emmy Awards campaign.[48] In September 2020, ViacomCBS announced that CBS All Access would be expanded and rebranded as Paramount+ in March 2021,[49] with the existing episodes of Short Treks remaining on Paramount+.[50] In August 2023, Star Trek content was removed from Crave so it could be released in Canada on Paramount+.[51]
Home media[edit]
The two shorts from the first set that tie directly into the second season of Discovery, "Runaway" and "The Brightest Star", were included on the Blu-ray and DVD set of that season alongside all the season's episodes and several bonus features. This was released in the U.S. on November 12, 2019.[52] A home media release collecting nine of the shorts was released in the U.S. on June 2, 2020. It includes the four original shorts—"Runaway", "Calypso", "The Brightest Star", and "The Escape Artist"—the three USS Enterprise-based shorts—"Q&A", "The Trouble With Edward", and "Ask Not"—and the first two animated shorts—"Ephraim & Dot" and "The Girl Who Made the Stars". The collection also includes making-of featurettes as well as audio commentaries with writers Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet for "Runaway" and star Anson Mount for "Ask Not".[53] "Children of Mars" was released on October 6, 2020, on the home media set for Picard's first season which includes all of that season's episodes. The release also includes an audio commentary for the short with writers Kurtzman, Lumet, and Kirsten Beyer.[54]