Star Trek Series Leaving Netflix in December

Star Trek: The Animated Series will leave Netflix before the end of the year. A glance at the show’s page on Netflix reveals that is is “Available Until 12/01/2019,” meaning the series will disappear from the service as November turns into December. That means, for the first time in years, that the Star Trek television franchise will not be available in its entirety on Netflix. Though The Animated Series is leaving, Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise will remain on Netflix after The Animated Series is gone.

But for how long? CBS has its own streaming service now, CBS All Access. Star Trek is one of the biggest franchises in the world. Though CBS hasn’t revealed any specific plans regarding the franchise and its streaming rights — at least as far as the series that pre-date CBS All Access go — it would make sense to leverage the franchise to bring subscribers to CBS All Access. All six of the Star Trek television series from 1966 through 2005 are available on CBS All Access, as well as the new Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Short Treks. Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Lower Decks will join the streaming service in 2020.

But these shows are not exclusive anywhere yet. While The Animated Series is leaving Netflix, it is also available on Amazon Prime Video at this time. All five of the classic live-action Star Trek series are available across CBS All Access, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. It will be interesting to see how that changes as “the streaming wars” heat up and following the pending CBS and Viacom merger.

Star Trek: The Animated Series debuted in 1973. The series ran for 22 episodes across two seasons. The series was born out of the popularity of Star Trek: The Original Series in syndication. Most of The Original Series cast returned to voice their characters, including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, and Majel Barrett.

Star Trek: The Animated Series was thought of as the fourth season of Star Trek, covering the fourth year of the Enterprise’s five-year mission. Though it was removed for canon for a time around the same time that Star Trek: The Next Generation brought the series back to live-action television, some references in Star Trek: Discovery have suggested the series is again considered Star Trek canon.

Star Trek: The Animated Series was also the first Star Trek series to receive an Emmy Award. The show’s second season won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Entertainment – Children's Series in 1975.

What do you think of Star Trek: The Animated Series leaving Netflix? Let us know in the comments.

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Source: comicbook.com