A new “Star Trek” series is coming—but only for cord-cutters

Back again.
Back again.
Image: AP Photo/Bob Galbraith
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Internet television. The final frontier for Star Trek.

The much-loved sci-fi franchise will be returning to TV on US channel CBS  in January 2017, a few months after the 50th anniversary of the original series. But there’s one catch: the new series is only going to be available on CBS All Access, the TV channel’s online and on-demand streaming service.

According to CBS, the show will be the first original program developed specifically for All Access, which costs $5.99 a month for US customers. For Trekkies outside of the US who have yet to cut the cord, you’re in luck: CBS says the new series will air on “television and multiple platforms around the world.”

Since the original TV show—which starred William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, and debuted in October 1966—there have been a dozen movies made and four more TV series. Now, the next generation (of TV viewers) will have its own Star Trek series.

CBS was tight-lipped on details about the new series, or even what it’ll be called, but it said the show will ”introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966.”

No word yet on whether the show will go where no man has gone before.

The new series’ executive producer will be Alex Kurtzman, who wrote and produced the two most recent Star Trek films; JJ Abrams’s Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness. As long as the show is at least as good as the 2001 Scott Bakula vehicle, then Trekkies should be in for a treat. And it seems CBS’s stockholders agree: At the time of publishing, CBS’s stock price was up nearly 3% on the news.

As the television landscape continues to fracture—Apple’s CEO Tim Cook recently said that the “future of TV is apps”—networks are looking to diversify how viewers can get their content. Great TV shows are coming from e-commerce sites and live sports are being shown on ’90s internet portals, so traditional networks will need big shows on their own online services to keep up.

CBS will be hoping that Star Trek can make it so.