Back in October when the Star Trek: Discovery spinoff series Star Trek: Short Treks premiered, it was only available in the USA and Canada. Today that changed.
Netflix adds Short Treks
Netflix is the home for Star Trek: Discovery for those outside of the USA and Canada. When Star Trek: Short Treks first premiered in October, it was speculated that Netflix would eventually pick it up after the first season wrapped up in January, which fits more in line with their preference for bingable content, especially since these are are short form content. And that appears to be what has happened. Now all four episodes are available outside of North America on Netflix. The release of Short Treks was timed to come the day before the Friday release of the second season of Star Trek: Discovery on Netflix. Discovery’s second season premieres tonight in the USA and Canada.
You can access the four episodes of Short Treks in Netflix under Star Trek: Discovery, where they are listed under as “Trailers & More.”
Short Treks as seen in Netflix UK
Short Treks being available on Netflix outside of North America has been reported by fans across the world on social media and Reddit. Short Treks remains available in the USA on CBS All Access. In Canada, Space subscribers can see Short Treks on the Space GO app, in addition to being available on Space.ca and participating On Demand channels.
Catching up on Short Treks
To catch up international fans, Short Treks is a series of mini-episodes set in and around the universe established in Star Trek: Discovery. Each episode is around 15 minutes long and tells a standalone story, but some have links to the second season of Discovery. However, at least for the second season premiere of Discovery, you shouldn’t feel you need to watch all four Short Treks to keep up on Discovery.
The four episodes are:
“Runaway”
Written by Jenny Lumet & Alex Kurtzman. Directed by Maja Vrvilo.
On board the U.S.S. Discovery, Ensign Tilly (Mary Wiseman) encounters an unexpected visitor in need of help. This unlikely pair may have more in common than meets the eye.
“Calypso”
Teleplay by Michael Chabon, story by Sean Cochran and Michael Chabon. Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi.
After waking up in an unfamiliar sickbay, Craft (Aldis Hodge) finds himself on board a deserted ship, and his only companion and hope for survival is an A.I. computer interface.
“The Brightest Star”
Written by Bo Yeon Kim & Erika Lippoldt. Directed by Douglas Aarniokoski.
Before he was the first Kelpien to join Starfleet, Saru (Doug Jones) lived a simple life on his home planet of Kaminar with his father and sister. Young Saru, full of ingenuity and a level of curiosity uncommon among his people, yearns to find out what lies beyond his village, leading him down an unexpected path.
“The Escape Artist”
Written by Michael McMahan. Directed by Rainn Wilson
Harry Mudd (Rainn Wilson), back to his old tricks of stealing and double-dealing, finds himself in a precarious position aboard a hostile ship – just in time to try out his latest con.
For more information and links to our Short Treks podcasts and reviews, visit TrekMovie.com’s page dedicated to Short Treks.
Now all the heaters can eat thair,…for saying the Short Treks were too bad, so Netflix didn’t want to pick them up. But everyone is forgetting Netflixes viewers are binge watchers, so the Short Treks without the new season make little sense.
Star Trek fans, or any fans of shows that are serialized weekly, do not wait for the season to end to then binge them. Then why doesn’t Netflix wait until S2’s run is complete in the US/Canada before making it available, too?
These are 15 minute shorts. Hardly worth releasing a 15 min thing when viewers can have all of them in one go and have a more meaty watch from them.
Actually a lot people wait to binge watch serialized shows. For example, I’ll wait until there are 2-3 episodes on my DVR before watching.
I don’t do that for Star Trek, so I agree with you there.
I’m sure CBS gave them to Netflix for free just to help with promotion.
Bingo!
Sure. CBS gives away stuff for free, because that’s how markets work. And Netflix, which absolutely did not want them, now accepts them and airs them. This is ex post facto rationalization. Netflix bought them and airs them a day before the show hits the air to create interest globally. It’s the most sensible strategy.
Frankly, we really don’t know WHY. But that’s as good a theory as i’ve heard considering they were released the same day as episode one.
I also would bet that Netflix just doesn’t like videos under a certain length (maybe their data suggests viewers don’t watch content less than 20 minutes), so didn’t want them out EXCEPT as a way to promote the second season.
Releasing them once a month on Netflix would just piss people off.
Heaters? What gripe do they have with Trek? Mna, CBS are screwing everyone.
Yay!
AND…. You DON’T need to be a Netflix subscriber to see them!!!!!!!!! Go to https://netflix.com/title/80126024 in incognito mode :)
Great news for Non-American and Non-Canadian Trek fans. Watching all four in an hour would be very cool.
“Netflix Site Error – Page Not Found”
Finally! That probably prevented me to do something not quite legal ;) ;)
I’m glad they’re finally available, but who thought putting them in the ‘trailers & more’ section was a good idea? Nobody’s gonna find it there unless they already know about it.
They don’t show up either if you type Short Treks into the search bar!
Nor should they. They should appear under Discovery, but I agree, putting them under “Trailers” is a great way to prevent people from watching them. There should be a seperate season called “Season 1 Shorts” or something.
If it wheren`t for TREKMOVIE.com, I would not have found them. Very strange decision indeed. And for the Search function… OMG why does it not work! I almost gave up after no result
It’s so incredibly funny how the “but Doomcock/Midnight’s Edge told us” clowns are proven wrong over and over again (“Netflix refuses to buy Short Treks”) and yet they never accept that their “messiahs” just feed them garbage and lies.
But it’s good that this shows every sensible person once more just how succesful this modern iteration of Star Trek is.
Bringing them this late in the game is akin to syndication. Bulk deals are like that. And when a show gets the syndication treatment less than a year after it premiered, what does that tell you? But it’s awfully telling how your discontent is directed at the fans of the show rather than it’s creators for the events revolving around the franchise’s cartoonishly absurd decline in quality.
Um, no, bringing them this late in the game is because Netflix is based on a binge model, not that it’s “akin to syndication”.
Yeah. Sure. Buying Short Treks and putting them out in a way that actually creates more interest in the start of Season 2 is a sign that it’s failing. You’re blinded by your hate, my friend. This is actually much smarter from Netflix then streaming them over the last months without people noticing them properly. On CBS All Access it’s sensible, because it’s a draw. On Netflix it would just be one of many things.
Yeah, it’s pretty gross. They make up some nonsensical “story” to fit their ridiculous narrative, and people just accept it because they hate the show so much.
They didn’t say that/ They said CBS had to sell it for a bargain basement price. FACTS!
Discovery is only successful to non-Star Trek fans.
As I said in the comments section months ago, it was likely that Netflix was waiting until all four were released. They’re not in the habit of doing things piecemeal.
Stop listening to those fact-free YouTube channels that peddle nothing but BS.
Preach it!
But they’re so hilariously entertaining Brian!
And so are you!
Unlike peddling ‘CBS’ like you are?
Well, that’s an hour of my evening all taken care of! As if I wasn’t buzzing enough for tomorrow, this really has made me hyper!!!!
Yesss. I had never given up hope. Got kinda hard to avoid the spoilers after a while.
It sucks that our friends overseas had to wait until now for the excellent “Short Trek” mini-sodes, but in the other hand this gives them something to watch while they wait for season 2 to be released tomorrow.
I for one am very much looking forward to 8:30 PM EST here in the United States. STAR TREK LIVES!!
HA! Suck it Midnight Sludge!
Don’t worry, i’m sure they’ll come up with a reason why adding them now proves that Discovery is a failure. (“CBS was so desperate for money they dropped the price they were asking from Netflix”)
They weren’t wrong so suck it Sludgecap Dave!
Anyone else having problems finding Short Treks on the Apple TV Netflix App? Found them on the iPad alright, but not finding them in the same spot on Apple TV
There is no trailer section on the Samsung Galaxy S4 either.
Showing the trailers, alright, just not the Short Treks. Currently feeding the TV from the iPad. 🤬
I had to scroll to the right because there were a bunch of normal trailers for the 1st and 2nd season before the entries for the Short Treks
I’m exactly the same…can’t find them on the Apple TV Netflix app! It even works on the Wii U Netflix app but not Apple TV!!! :)
“Escape Artist” was well worth the wait.
Just what I thought was going to happen.
Well, kudos to Netflix, at long last. International fans have been wanting this for, oh, SINCE THEY WERE FIRST ANNOUNCED
And remember friends worldwide, look under “Trailers and More”
If only Netflix would add the “Trailers and More” section to all versions of the app. I had to watch it in a browser because my app didn’t have it.
Was very excited when I noticed them sitting next to the Discovery trailers. My favourites were Calypso (which raises some really fascinating questions about the future) and The Brightest Star (which gives some much-anticipated backstory to Saru and the Kelpians). So nice to finally no longer be a “Trek Have Not”.
Nah man it’s okay we don’t need it.