The Star Trek documentary series announced earlier this year finally has a release date, along with more details on how you can watch the full series.
The Center Seat coming to History Channel… and History Vault
The History Channel is celebrating the 55th year of Star Trek with the new ten-part documentary series called The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek. And today they announced the series will debut on November 5 at 10 pm (ET/PT) on the History Channel. The first four episodes will air on the History Channel each Friday at 10 pm, with the six additional episodes also available on History Vault, the network’s subscription video service.
Narrated by Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Gates McFadden, each episode focuses on a different chapter in Star Trek history, starting with its inception at Lucille Ball’s legendary production company Desilu to the more recent film and television adaptations. The series will also delve deep into Star Trek lore, including The Animated Series and the never-produced 1970s Phase II project. According to History, The Center Seat will offer “The definitive in-depth journey honors the creative pioneers in sci-fi excellency and shares the impactful, sometimes risky, decisions behind pivotal moments in television history and how they ultimately made it to the small screen.”
The new docuseries includes interviews from the cast, crew and experts who worked on Star Trek, including Nichelle Nichols, Brent Spiner, Kirstie Alley, Walter Koenig, Kate Mulgrew, Denise Crosby, Wil Wheaton, John De Lancie, Nicholas Meyer, Ronald D. Moore, Brannon Braga, Nana Visitor, Robert Picardo, Penny Johnson, Ethan Phillips, Diana Muldaur, Nicole de Boer, Roxann Dawson, Robert Beltran, Tim Russ, John Billingsley, John Dykstra, D.C. Fontana, Rick Berman and F. Murray Abraham.
Brent Spiner in The Center Seat
The Center Seat is directed by Brian Volk-Weiss and is produced by The Nacelle Company, the same team behind History’s 2016 50 Years of Star Trek documentary and the popular Netflix docuseries The Movies That Made Us and The Toys That Made Us. The new docuseries promises to unveil “lesser-known stories about the franchise from the importance of addressing timely topics, the creation of the character Spock, the unrelenting fans that kept the show on air, and the reruns that gave it new life.”
You can subscribe directly to History Vault, or add it as an Amazon Channel. In both cases, there is a one-week free trial.
Trailer
Find more news and analysis on Star Trek documentaries at TrekMovie.com.
Any news on whether this is exclusive to the History Channel in the US?
I checked the schedule ahead for the next two weeks for the the History Channel on Canadian cable and this series isn’t showing at all. (Ancient Aliens is in the Friday 10:00 pm slot.)
Since the trailer isn’t geoblocked, it seems like the show should be available here at some point.
History in Canada is owned by Shaw (along with Global, Showcase, HGTV among others). Bell apparently has exclusive rights for Star Trek shows, so this is airing on Sci Fi right after Discovery and will likely eventually wind up on their streaming service Crave.
…was really hoping this would be released on Netflix, like the “…That Made Us…” series. Since History Channel is featured on Hulu, hoping it will be available there.
This looks awesome. I really hope that Gates gets to continue her podcast as well. I’m still waiting for her Patrick Stewart episode since he is the only TNG cast member left to do.
But I am excited about this show
I agree. Gates was a natural podcaster. Many interesting stories I’ve never heard before. The one with Marina Sirtis was especially cool.
Everyone should check out investiGates.
Coolness. And it’s super easy to watch, too.
I will be setting my DVR or this one ASAP.
Do we know if it is a weekly drop on History Vault or will they release all the episodes at once?
Wow sounds really good! And with DIS and PRO both airing in November as well, it feels like we have three Star Trek shows to watch next month! :)
Its nice its such a long documentary series and maybe TM will have a discussion page for each episode. The only thing that bothers me is it sounds like only the first four episodes will be accessible if you have History channel but have to pay for the other six. But if it’s good I’ll definitely pay to watch the rest.
If they ignore the wild ‘n’ crazy party manimal side of Roddenberry, I am kickstarting my own project– enough with the endless repetition of the same old feel-good Treakle.
Well, great, the History Vault isn’t available in the U.K. We fans outside the U.S. are already losing out on not getting to see Prodigy and now this…frustrating. Fingers crossed the History Channel might eventually carry the whole series internationally.
Does anyone know if this series will be shown in the UK?