For the nearly 60 years thatStar Trekhas been a science fiction staple, fans have been forced to endure long waits between an initial promise made by the franchise and seeing that story come to fruition.Being a long-running science-fiction franchise almost inevitably comes with fallow periodswhere no new content is being produced. Like fellow long-runnersStar WarsandDoctor Who, gaps between eras ofStar Trekhave sometimes lasted for years, and it wasn’t always certain that there would benewStar Trekshowson the other side of the wait.
The streaming age hasn’t necessarily made things better forStar Trekfans. Shorter seasons mean we spend less time with characters we’d like to get to know. The unpredictable schedules of streaming shows meanit’s hard to know when any given season ofStar Trekwill arrive… or how long it will be when it does. AfterStar Trek’s great year in 2022, when there was a newStar Trekstory nearly every week, the gaps betweenStar Trekstories seem longer than ever. There were, however, much longer waits inStar Trek.
Filming ofStar Trek: Strange New Worldsseason 3 was delayed by the SAG-AFTRA and the Writers' Guild of America strikes in 2023, so 13 months have passed since the Gorn attack on Federation colony Parnassus Beta inStar Trek: Strange New Worldsseason 2, episode 10, “Hegemony”. Some characters must survive the cliffhanger ending to be inStar Trek: The Original Series, butthe fates of new characters like Captain Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano) still hang in the balance over a year later.
To tide fans over for the time being, Paramount provided asneak peek clip ofStar Trek: Strange New Worldsseason 3at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 and teased that the upcoming season would arrive sometime in 2025.As of September 2024,an official release date forStar Trek: Strange New Worldsseason 3 has yet to be confirmed, so the wait could wind up being much longer than 13 months.
Less than a year had passed betweenStar Trek: Discovery’s first 2 seasons, so it was surprising that fans had to wait for 17 months to see what was on the other side ofDiscovery’s wormhole to the future, and how the USS Discovery would fare in the 32nd century.Star Trek: Discoverybenefited from a longer period between seasons sinceDiscoveryseason 3 acted as a soft reboot for Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the USS Discovery crew.
Freed from its 23rd-century setting,Star Trek: Discoverystarted to find its footing. With new missions to reunite a broken Federation and investigate the cataclysmic Burn, a new setting 900 years in the future, and great new characters like Cleveland Booker (David Ajala), the wait forStar Trek: Discoveryseason 3could be overlooked.
The wait betweenStar Trek: Prodigyseason 1 andProdigyseason 2 should have been shorter than the 19 months it wound up being. Fans of all ages who enjoyed the adventures of the young USS Protostar crew anticipatedStar Trek: Prodigyseason 2, originally scheduled to stream on Paramount+ late in 2023. Those plans changed whenParamount canceledStar Trek: Prodigyand removedProdigyseason 1 from Paramount+. It didn’t matter thatStar Trek: Prodigyseason 2 was completed. The show would have to find a new home to be released.
Fortunately, the plan tosaveStar Trek: Prodigyworked when Netflix picked upStar Trek: Prodigy.Netflix addedStar Trek: Prodigyseason 1 to their streaming catalog on Christmas Day, 2023. All 20 episodes ofStar Trek: Prodigyseason 2 dropped simultaneously on Netflix on June 17, 2025, about a year and a half after it was initially expected.
The 24-month wait betweenStar Trek: Picardseason 1 and season 2 wasn’t nearly as long as the 18-year wait between the release ofStar Trek: Nemesisin 2002 and Patrick Stewart’s 2020 return as Jean-Luc Picard inStar Trek: Picardseason 1. After a relatively normal 11-month wait between the first two seasons ofStar Trek: Discovery,the already-long stretch betweenStar Trek: Picard’s first 2 seasons was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
To prevent another 2-year gap between seasons,Star Trek: Picardwas renewed for a 3rd season beforePicardseason 2 even aired, andPicard’s final 2 seasons were filmed back-to-back. This accommodated the schedules ofStar Trek: Picard’s cast and crew, and allowed for the highly anticipatedStar Trek: The Next Generationcast reunioninStar Trek: Picardseason 3.
625 Months
Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 to Season 5
The 24 months that passed betweenStar Trek: Discoveryseason 4 andStar Trek: Discoveryseason 5 were the longest period betweenDiscoveryseasons. On paper, the payoff seemed small, since season 5 wasStar Trek: Discovery’s shortest season yet, with only 10 episodes. This seemed to be the new normal forStar Treksince the count matchedStar Trek: Strange New WorldsandStar Trek: Lower Decks' 10-episode seasons.
9 episodes
8 weeks
6 episodes (15 total)
DiscoverySeason 2
11 months
14 episodes
DiscoverySeason 3
17 months
13 episodes
7 episodes
6 weeks
6 episodes (13 total)
DiscoverySeason 5
25 months
10 episodes
It was worth it, though.Star Trek: Discoveryseason 5 was an action-packed adventure spanning space and time, with deliberate but organic nods to nearly every past era ofStar Trek,and a mystery that paid off another long wait.Discoveryseason 5 finally expanded the story of the Progenitors fromStar Trek: The Next Generationseason 6, episode 20, “The Chase”. Unfortunately,Star Trek: Discoveryseason 5 was also the end ofDiscovery— but withStar Trek: Starfleet Academycoming soon, more 32nd-century adventures won’t be too far away.
From 2009to 2016’sStar Trek Beyond, J.J. Abrams’Star Trekmovies sustained the franchise when it seemed likeStar Trekwas done with television shows. With the premiere ofStar Trek: Discoveryin 2017, however,Star Trek’s streaming era has pivoted attention away from the Kelvin Timeline filmsand sentStar Trek 4into development limbo for 8+ years.
In those 8 years,Star Trek 4has taken various forms, with multiple rewrites and a revolving door of directors, ranging from Quentin Tarantino to its current attached director,Andor’s Toby Haynes.Plot details ofStar Trek 4are still under wraps,though if Abrams’Star Trekmovies continue to pay homage to their Prime Universe counterparts, time travel may be involved. If and whenStar Trek 4happens, it will be thelast Kelvin TimelineStar Trekmoviefor Chris Pine’s James T. Kirk, Zachary Quinto’s Spock, and Zoe Saldaña’s Nyota Uhura.
AfterStar Trek: The Original Serieswas canceled for the third and final time in 1969,there was no guarantee that fans would actually reunite with Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley). A strong showing in syndicated reruns prompted the creation ofStar Trek: The Animated Seriesin 1971, but the Filmation cartoon rarely matched the quality of live-actionStar Trek.
Interest in continuing the Starship Enterprise’s live-action adventures peaked with the success ofStar Warsin 1977, proving that audiences really would come out to theaters for a space-based sci-fi movie. Elements of Roddenberry’sfailedStar Trekspin-off,Star Trek: Phase II, were folded into a new script, andStar Trek: The Motion Picturehit theaters in 1979, 10 years afterStar Trek: The Original Seriesaired its final episode.
312 Years
Star Trek: Enterprise to Star Trek: Discovery
Between the end ofStar Trek: Enterprisein 2005 and the premiere ofStar Trek: Discoveryin 2017, 12 years passed in which fans were unsure thatStar Trekwould ever return to television.Star Trek: DiscoveryrepresentedStar Trek’s rebirth into a new television landscape, with a new format on streaming service CBS All Access (now Paramount+), deep serialization, and a darker vision of the future thanStar Trekhad ever had.
8 Ways Star Trek: Discovery Made Star Trek Better
Say what you will about Star Trek: Discovery, but the divisive show undoubtedly added to the infinite diversity of the Star Trek franchise.
Star Trek: Discoverywas a new and different take onStar Trekthat built off of the way that J.J. Abrams' Kelvin Timeline films reinvigorated the franchise. Despite its rocky start,Star Trek: Discoverynonetheless blazed a trail for newStar Trekseries of the 21st century to follow, just asStar Trek: The Next Generationhad done in the 1980s and 1990s.
After the 1969 cancelation ofStar Trek: The Original Series,Star Trekfans lacked an ongoingStar Trektelevision series for 18 years.The premiere ofStar Trek: The Next Generationin 1987 promised a brand-new take onStar Trek,with a full century separating Captain Kirk’s original Enterprise and the 24th-century adventures of the brand-new USS Enterprise-D crew under Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Although there were purposely very few references toStar Trek: The Original SeriesinStar Trek: The Next Generation, theTNGpremiere, “Encounter at Farpoint”, guest starred DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard McCoy to cement the connection between the old and new series.
Fans were initially skeptical of a new Enterprise and a new crew, not to mention Michael Dorn’s Lieutenant Worf as thefirst Klingon in Starfleet. Of course,Star Trek: The Next Generationendured for 7 years and became the definitiveStar Trekfor a whole new generation of fans, spawningStar Trek: Deep Space NineandStar Trek: Voyageras spin-offs of its own, as well as 4Star Trek: The Next Generationmovies.
158 Years
Star Trek “The Cage” to Strange New Worlds
With the longest time between a pilot and production of aStar Trekshow,it took 58 years to make the show that Roddenberry first promisedwith the 1965 pilot ofStar Trek: The Original Series, “The Cage”. As aTOSprequel,Star Trek: Discoveryseason 2hinted at the voyages of a pre-Kirk USS Enterprise, including Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Commander Una-Chin Riley (Rebecca Romijn), and Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck). Fan demand for aStar Trekseries led byDiscovery’s charismatic Enterprise trio inspired the creation ofStar Trek: Strange New Worldsin 2022.
We’ve collectively breezed past the criticism that “The Cage” faced in its day.
Star Trekitself is responsible for much of the social progress that letStar Trek: Strange New Worldsexist, as we’ve collectively breezed past the criticism that “The Cage” faced in its day.Star Trek’s female captainshave combated the skepticism of NBC executives protesting Number One (Majel Barrett-Roddenberry) as a First Officer.Modern audiences seek out smart storytelling, andStar Trekdelivers, with an ever-expanding franchise that honors different demographics and tastes. The success ofStar Trek: Strange New Worldsproves that some things are well worth the long waits thatStar Trekfans have had to endure.
