We’re already in a world where there’s enough new Star Trek to fill out half a year of consecutive weekly broadcasts. According to ViacomCBS, well, that just means there’s still another half a year to fit some boldly going into.
Speaking at the ongoing Television Critics Association press tour (via Variety), Paramount+ president of original scripted series Nicole Clemens briefly touched upon the recent news that between Prodigy, Discovery, Picard, newcomer Strange New Worlds, and Lower Decks’ return this summer, Star Trek has been able to block out week after week of new programming on Paramount+ since early January all the way into July. The schedule is so jam-packed that some shows will briefly overlap each other as they release. “The question about ‘critical mass’ on Star Trek, I think we have some fantastic offerings in our always on slate,” Clemens told press, which is essentially a diplomatic way of saying “yeah, what are you gonna do about it?”
Clemens also noted that there are more shows to come — the long-awaited Michelle Yeoh Discovery spinoff, focusing on the Starfleet secret intelligence division Section 31, is indeed still in the works — but beyond that, Clemens said that “you may see a few more very curated additions coming” to the Star Trek slate. “Curated” is an interesting word choice here, perhaps suggesting that series we could see coming onto this already busy slate — which already has larger series like Discovery and Lower Decks in ongoing season commitments, to be presumably joined by Strange New Worlds, already renewed for season two — could provide shorter-form limited options anchored around the bigger ongoing shows, instead of us necessarily getting major new Trek additions to the universe while these major series are still running.
But that’s more speculation that it is fact — after all, there was a world where Picard was originally going to be a one-and-done limited series, and now it’s filming its third, possibly final season. We don’t know the scope of just how vast ViacomCBS’ plans for Star Trek really are going forward, but one thing we definitely know? They think there’s room for much, much more.