TNG Comes To WGN America + More Changes For Trek On Cable

Not everyone can afford to own DVD sets (especially for every series and every season), so cable reruns are where you can get your Trek fix. This winter season brings changes to Trek’s cable line-up with the big news being WGN America adding Star Trek The Next Generation. See below for a full breakdown of the Trek on cable schedule.

Changes for Trek on cable
There is a mix of good news and bad news when it comes to the state of Trek on cable TV. First the bad news. TV land has reduced airings of Star Trek The Original Series to just one episode a week. The Remastered version is still in broadcast syndication (check local listings), but the only ‘new’ episode will be the Remastered "The Cage" airing in May (and yes the TM review is coming). Spike pulled reruns of Deep Space Nine off its schedule in the Fall and it still hasn’t come back. Voyager also has been diminished on Spike to three episodes a week. In general the schedules for VOY and DS9 have been very volatile at Spike and it is always a good idea to check their schedule regularly. Enterprise continues to run on SciFi five nights a week and is back again at HD Net with two episodes every day except Sunday.

The biggest changes are with Star Trek The Next Generation. The show is still at SciFi, but is now reduced to just one episode a week. However, WGN America has picked up the show. Starting this week WGNA will be running a three-hour block every Tuesday night, plus additional episodes Wednesday in the early AM and Saturday at noon. In a statement, Tribune Broadcasting President  Ed Wilson said of the addition of TNG:

“Star Trek” The Next Generation has an extremely successful track record and has proven to be popular with all audiences. The addition of the Emmy-award winning series will anchor WGN America’s Tuesday night lineup, and we will continue to add compelling content to our schedule.

WGN has added a special Star Trek TNG page on their site, check it out.

Full breakdown of Trek on cable below, click channel links for more details.

Star Trek on Cable (US) – as of January 2009 (all times EST)

    Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
TOS TVLand             6a
TNG SciFi         7p    
WGNA   7,8&9p 1a     12p  
VOY Spike 3a 3a 3a        
ENT SciFi 5p 5p 5p 5p 5p    
HDNet 1&2p 1&2p 1&2p 1&2p 1&2p 1&2p  

all of the above is subject to change, always good to check your local listings

TOS Online
Although The Original Series is barely on cable, you can actually watch any episode you want any time you want for free, streaming online at CBS.com (US Only). Some Remastered episodes are also available in HD.

MLK Day ENT Marathon on SciFi
This Monday (Martin Luther King Day), there will not be an episode of Enterprise on SciFi at the usual 5 PM, but there will be nine episodes of Enterprise, starting at 8:00 AM. Here is the full list.

8:00 AM CARPENTER STREET
09:00 AM CHOSEN REALM
10:00 AM PROVING GROUND
11:00 AM STRATAGEM
12:00 PM HARBINGER
01:00 PM DOCTOR’S ORDERS
02:00 PM HATCHERY
03:00 PM AZATI PRIME
04:00 PM DAMAGE

 

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well, at least they are still showing them on tv

*cough* dont even think about Google’ing my name to find Trek episodes you can stream for free on the internet *cough*

Deep Space Nine was still running on Spike up until maybe about two weeks ago for what it is worth.

I know this really had nothing to do with the entry but there is all kinds of advertising on ESPN.com about the film.

I love watching the Enterprise marathons on SciFi even though I have every season of all Trek on DVD; except TOS-R but I won’t be buying those.

Spike was fantastic back in 2005-06, 2 DS9 episodes starting at 12 and then 3 TNG. Wasted so much time that year watching trek instead of writing papers at school, will have to buy the DVDs i guess.

SEAN4000 – Same here. Watched the much longer ENT marathon last year on MLK holiday. Glad they’re at least doing something this year, even if it only goes thru 5pm. They went well into (and maybe beyond) prime time last year and I saw some episodes for the first time. That when I bought the ENT DVD set.

ENT is a product that has definitely gotten better with age. IMHO, many who initially bashed it, and are not watching it with fresher eyes (not coming right off of Voyager) are probably enjoying it in silence.

Mister Bigggs

this makes me sad… DS9 was my fave =(

No DS9 and No Beer make Homer go SOMETHING, SOMTHING…

Every time I see a Trek on TV story, my heart jumps ahead of my brain for TNG HD… gotta learn to calm that feeling.

Own all the episodes anyway… :)

CBS also made TOS available on veoh.com a while ago…watched an episode earlier today ^_^

I’ve been wishing I could KILL whoever it is at Spike that keeps knocking Voy & DS9 around.

ENT has grown on me finally. I refused to watch it when it first aired.

wait…the remastered The Cage is available on season 3 remastered box set…I watched it the day I bought it…

Also, correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t TNG filmed on video??? Not film? So, wouldn’t Hi Def conversion be an impossibility? Right??

nope it was shoot on film but edited on video. So they would have to redo all compositing effects and maybe cutting as well. That’s what they did for the last show of Enterprise.

All I have is TNG and the movies! Maybe I’ll have to buy DS9?

and ENT ;)

they run all the series’ on SPACE in Canada everyday. That includes early morning, afternoon and evening. The only thing we don’t have airing here is the remastered version.

#7

Uh…NO!

14-15

I’d enjoy seeing a remastered TNG. I’d bet it will happen eventually.

As much as I enjoyed seeing Orian Slave Girls again, when it comes to “Enterprise,” IMHO there were only two episodes (guess which?) that caught my attention. Besides the omission of that Gods-awful, Michael Bolton-esque singing at the intro, the “Mirror Universe” characters were so much more interesting than their white-bread counterparts. I wish there could have been a continuation of that storyline.

“Not everyone can afford to own DVD sets (especially for every series and every season), so cable reruns are where you can get [your trek] fix.”

Hasn’t anybody on this site heard of torrent files? ;)

yay for enterprise marathon!

i have all the dvd’s but somehow it seems more fun to watch a broadcast knowing other people are watching, too…

carpetner street was very good, but carbon creek was one of my fav’s, pure trek, surprised it didnt make it for the marathon…

#14 tng was always shot on film, then converted to video, it wasnt until enterprise, i believe, that digital cameras finally matched film quality.

Also, every episode of remastered TOS is on Netflix. (at least the first season)

Blake is right – Season 1 of TOS is on Netflix. I have one of those Blu Ray DVD players that also picks up Netflix. I was thrilled to see the remastered episodes and even more thrilled to discover they were in high definition! They look great on my big screen. Thank you Netflix – now, how about making season 2 and 3 available?

21 – I haven’t. But then I’m an aging poop and not very tech-savvy. What are they, please, if you don’t mind explaining (in lay person’s terms)?

You know, this no streaming outside US business from CBS (and many others) has put such a bur in my saddle I’ve decided not to purchase a single DVD until they allow the rest of the world to view these streams. I think that’s a fair response to being excluded from all the fun.

We need more HD runs of the series(‘s?). :(

I do hope plans are in the pipe to hi-Def the other 3 series and bring them to cable, at the very least. As much as I love Enterprise (especially in HD), I can only watch each episode so many times.

The Enterprise episodes on HDNet rule!!!! They are uncut and look really awesome in Hi Def. A Must see in my humble opinion

Ugh, my frikin’ cable system doesn’t have WGN :-(

I recently found that I can watch ST:TOS Remastered in HD thru my Netflix/Roku setup! The episodes are instantly downloaded on demand, and look absolutely amazing! The difference from Standard Def on regular tv to HiDef is huge!

No love for DS9, at least I have my DVD sets. We need a real Sci-Fi channel that airs old and new Sci-fi, the way Sci-Fi channel used to be years ago.

I remember watching old favorites like The Six Million Dollar Man and Lost in Space probably 10 or more years ago on Sci-Fi. Now they just repeat the same 5 or 6 shows over and over. Even show Sci-fi aired originally like Good vs. Evil or Farscape aren’t even around in repeats anymore.

What a waste.

#29: Here here! I am so glad that HDNet finally came to terms with CBS/Paramount and is rerunning “ST:E” in HD again. Stupid SciFi-HD channel edits the episodes AND doesn’t even bother showing them in high definition. I missed the post-Mirror fourth season episodes and I was really bummed at the prospect of not getting to see them in high def when HDNet suddenly stopped the reruns. Now they’re back–yippee!

#32 — I agree. “Sci-Fi Channel” is a joke, it’s more like “cheaply made monster movie of the week channel” now. With some random real Sci-Fi shows peppered in there every long once in a while.
I’m increasingly annoyed and frustrated with the lack of Trek on cable TV in the US, if you go look at memory-alpha.org’s main page where they list where to watch Trek on TV internationally you’ll see that Canada, the UK, and Australia seem to still care about Trek and have all flavors on routinely. Though not listed I’d bet Germany shows Trek regularly as well.

#26:

Torrenting is a great (albeit moderately illegal) way to download and watch just about anything for free. I don’t want to come off as advocating illegal practices… but I’d recommend checking out the Wikipedia article on “Bittorrent” if you’re interested in it. Your hard drive space and I guess your conscience is really your only limit.

34. Matt Wright – January 18, 2009

“Though not listed I’d bet Germany shows Trek regularly as well.”

Sadly no. Star Trek only runs on – you guessed it – the SciFi Channel, which is pay tv.

As part of honoring Dr. King’s birthday, perhaps Trekmovie.com should do a post on ST alums Brock Peters and William Windom, who both appeared in the classic, “To Kill A Mockingbird”.

Keep in mind that all of the Treks on cable in the U.S. are edited – TOS loses about 6-7 minutes, while the others lose about 2-3. Bummer.

37 – Great idea. One of the finest novels of the 20th Century — perhaps the finest American one — and one of our greatest films. Let’s hope they don’t green-light that one as a remake project.

26 – Thank you for the explanation and the caution about legality. I appreciate it! Have a good one!

Sorry, I meant #35. Thanks again.

#36 — That’s too bad, when I visited southern Germany in the mid-90s I could find TOS and TNG daily.

I play the TOS remastered dvds on my Blu-Ray, so I THINK it bumps ’em up to 760p, it looks amazing…better than they look on broadcast syndication.

I was never able to watch DS9 in it’s initial airing in the 90s,so I was seriously getting into it when Spike first showed it about 4 1/2 years ago.
Then I went on my honeymoon and set two VCRs to record eps while a friend fed them tapes every week.
That’s when Spike suddenly changed their schedule and I ended up with hours and hours of COPS or some such sh*t.
(Sci-Fi managed to show B5 twice through in a year without missing an episode or changing the airtime- it was about the first and last time they managed something like that)
Spike motivated me to buy the DVD sets (of everything, eventually). We started with DS9, then moved through TAS, Voy, Ent, TOS, and movies I-V. Tonight we watch ST-VI and contemplate unwrapping TNG.
Even now I stop to watch different eps when they pop up on Sci-Fi, G4, and even Spike (though I vowed never to watch Spike again).
All I ask is to watch the shows I like at a consistent time, channel, & pace. Whether that turns out to be through my cable box or my DVD player, it doesn’t much matter.

Spike’s 5 year exclusive airing contract is up this spring (2004-2009) that is one of the reasons (that and the CSI invasion, they recent ly got CSI:NY too) it has been pulled, I’m sure CBS is looking for a network to sell airing rights to )if they have not sold them already) .

Voyagers contract window on Spike will be over in 2011, however it does not mean that Spike can’t make a deal with another network to show it, this happened when Spike had the exclusive rights to TNG (2002 to 2007) and allowed G4 to show TNG in 2004.

The Scifi channel is probably the best bet for DS9 IMO. Sci-fi’s rights to Enterprise will probably run out in another year or so, So im sure they may want another exclusive Trek show to air. it is possible that TOS remastered may go to cable channel when the local syndication contracts start to run out (Im gueesing later this year sometime).

Spike’s 5 year exclusive airing contract for DS9 (oops) ^^

I don’t have cable or sky or anything else. Just bog standard tv and don’t watch that hardly ever. Let me see the last thing I watched on that tv was the Dr Who Christmas Special.

Cough, cough you can watch a lot of things on the net.

I want my DS9! For me, no problems as I was fortunate to get the series on DVD one Xmas. I still enjoy watching it on TV. I find the show only improved as the series progressed. After Season 6, TNG just lost something. Fewer memorable stories and more forgettable ones. Nonetheless, TNG is better than nothing.

No WGA America here. :(

I hated and ignored ENT while it was on, but now freely admit it’s my favorite Trek series, closely followed by TOS.

With the exception of a handful of notably awful episodes in the first two seasons, the show was brilliantly-done and a great old-school sci-fi show.

Wish it hadn’t been cancelled.