Second Season Of ‘Star Trek: Short Treks’ Debuts Today with “Q&A”

| October 5, 2019 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 81 comments so far

Announced at New York Comic Con, during the Star Trek: Discovery panel, Alex Kurtzman announced that the next wave of Short Treks starts today. The remaining 5 shorts will be released on Thursdays, leading up to the release of Star Trek: Picard in late January.

During the panel, executive producer Alex Kurtzman also surprised audience members when he announced that the next installments of STAR TREK: SHORT TREKS will begin rolling out today, with the first new short “Q&A” available to stream now on CBS All Access. Written by Michael Chabon and directed by Mark Pellington, “Q&A” follows Ensign Spock’s (Ethan Peck) first day aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, which doesn’t go as planned when he and Number One (Rebecca Romijn) are unexpectedly stuck together in a turbo lift.

STAR TREK: SHORT TREKS are approximately 10-15 minute stand-alone short stories that allow fans to dive deeper into the key themes and characters that fit into STAR TREK: DISCOVERY and the expanding “Star Trek” universe. Following today, the five remaining new STAR TREK: SHORT TREKS will drop on CBS All Access the second Thursday of each month, starting with “The Trouble with Edward” on Thursday, Oct. 10. In the month of December, fans will be treated to a special drop of two short stories on Thursday, Dec. 12.

Release schedule

“Q&A” – available to stream now

“The Trouble with Edward” – Thursday, Oct. 10

“Ask Not” – Thursday, Nov. 14

“The Girl Who Made the Stars” – Thursday, Dec. 12

“Ephraim and Dot” – Thursday, Dec. 12

“Children of Mars” – Thursday, Jan. 9

Preview of Q&A

Press Photos

Star Trek: Short Treks are available in the USA on CBS All Access. Season 2 is available in Canada via CTV Sci-Fi Channel (formerly known as Space) and Crave. Availability for the second season in other regions has not be announced.

Keep up with all the Short Treks news at TrekMovie.

SHARE TWEET PIN SHARE

Related Articles

81 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

So, on Netflix in Europe… tomorrow?

Netflix only ran the first batch of Short Treks after they had all come out on CBS All Access. I haven’t heard anything whether Netflix is going to show the new ones. Some of the Short Treks will also be related to Star Trek Picard which runs on Amazon Prime instead of Netflix. All of this is to say: Who knows?

Netflix at least has announced they will run Season 3 of Discovery (outside of the US and Canada): https://twitter.com/StarTrekNetflix/status/1103033905546813445

Unfortunately, just like last year, though, there is no word on availability of Short Treks outside the US :(

So I guess the first three are Pike, the double feature in December is animated and the last one is Picard?

That’s what we assume.

I’ve been feeling grumbly that CTV Sci-fi channel didn’t seem to be getting Q & A up On Demand, or the new Short Trek trailer. (Ditto crave.)

But there they are on the website, and linked into CTV Sci-fi channel’s Twitter feed as of about 20 minutes ago…with the app running under ‘new’.

Here’s the web link for those in Canada :

https://www.ctvscifi.ca/star-trek-short-treks-season-2/

New episodes of Star Trek: Short Treks will air in Canada on CTV Sci-Fi Channel every month on Thursdays at 9/6p starting October 10

I can’t get it to play. Other past episodes are playing just fine but that one is not. Anybody else having similar problems?

Yes, me too. Others play fine, but this one gives an error message.

Same here

Can’t play it on multiple devices, get different error messages. :(

It wasn’t working for me either, not through the TV app. But it did work just fine when I went to cbs.com directly.

New episodes of Star Trek: Short Treks will air in Canada on CTV Sci-Fi Channel every month on Thursdays at 9/6p starting October 10.

The first one is already up on the website and the CTV Sci-fi channel app.

(My post with the link above is awaiting moderation….hope the TrekMovie team is enjoying NYCC.)

And it’s fun.

I’d like to send out a cheer for Samora Smallwood’s return as Lt. Amin and a new engineering officer Upjohn, who brings some Scots attitude.

It was indeed a lot of fun. When I saw the trailer back in July, I never imagined that we would see the moment that Spock first beamed onto the Enterprise.
That was quite a TREAT!

it was great! watched it 3 times.

It’s such a treasure!

I’ve watched it several times now. It really has the layers and layers that I associate with the best of Trek.

The incredible communication between Number One and Spock through subtle facial expressions in the final scene really makes it for me.

I watched it twice. Peck’s line delivery sounds spot on to Nimoy from the Cage episode. That Enterprise bridge is beautiful. But the singing was really weird, and it almost seemed like they were gonna kiss a few times. But I liked it. Spock did smile and laugh a few times in TOS, so this made sense

SPOILER WARNING – Haha yeah that was my first take on the singing as well until I remembered, Spock was a musician from (TOS) so it seems quite logical to assume that he not only played an instrument but sang as well. In fact, for one so gifted in mathematics it would be almost illogical for him not to have been gifted musically as well.

Does anyone here have CBSAA through Amazon Prime? I can’t find it! I see all the other “bonus” Short Treks but not Q & A …!

Gosh I sure would like to see it. Does anyone have a clue for me?

Its up on there for me. Short Treks seems to be its own show now. It wasn’t under Discovery. I just went to Short Treks, and then picked season 2.

Thanks, I tried Short Treks and all it gave me was the previously “broadcast” ones from S2 …. [sigh]

Did you go to seasons and pick season 2? The ones that were broadcast during season 2 of Discovery are considered season 1 of Short Treks, and this one is considered the first episode of season 2.

This is such a darling little episode. Ethan Peck’s young Spock is so flippin good. But Number One just became my third favorite first officer right under Spock and Riker. Rebecca Romijn just kills it. I needed this Star Trek fix.

This is actually a pretty deeply personal emotional study rooted in Star Trek history, about not letting your freak flag fly too high. A storyline that would have no emotional punch if we didn’t have such a deep emotional connection with the character of Spock. The story simply, and quickly gives deep insight on who Spock was before we met him (dig that first “energize”,) and what he was going through emotionally behind the scenes of his tenure aboard the Enterprise during TOS.

I’m really appreciating the freedom of experimentation that is coming out of the early days of this new Star Trek era. While I don’t think Discovery is particularly thoughtful, although it greatly improved this season, and disclaimer: I am a fan of Discovery, this Short Trek’s episode was very introspective, and very Trekkie. Honestly it was just SUPER nerdy. It was like a celebration of Star Trek’s nerdiest most Trekkie things, like technobabble and general dorkery. But I thought it was very cool that whatever this unannounced Pike series is about, it felt completely different in tone from Discovery, and from Picard. This show is a unique breed of novelty and nostalgia. Oh and did you hear the early tease of the new theme for “Untitled Pike Series” during the end credits? I loved it.

I enjoyed your perceptive take almost as much as the short itself. As a longtime fan of Trek and reader of Chabon’s novels, it’s wonderful how his whimsical literary style and obvious love of Trek lore fuse together in the two shorts he’s written so far, and certainly bodes well for his running the Picard show. One thing you didn’t mention that I did appreciate was that the script didn’t shy away from dealing with Number One’s attraction to Pike, the revelation of which was certainly one of the more memorable moments from “The Cage.” “Q & A” lays on the nostalgia with a trowel while still managing to be fresh and fun, and while that’s not exactly Hugo-worthy I seriously couldn’t have asked for more given the format.

I did notice the music at the end credits i’mpaul.

What stood out for me was that Alexander Courage’s TOS main theme was deftly woven with new elements, different instruments and different orchestration.

I liked it a lot, and felt is really gave Pike’s Enterprise it’s own place as a ship that became the Enterprise of TOS.

By the way, there is a great feature on Russo composing for Trek (particularly the new theme that ran in the Globe & Mail last week. I’ve put the link in a post on the Picard thread.

Picking up on someone’s comments on the Picard thread, I have actually watched rather than listed to the end titles now.

Michael Gianncono was the supervising composer, and Nami Melumad is listed as ‘Music’.

Great to see some greater diversity in the composers.

I hope that this means that TPTB will let the untitled Pike show have a bit of its own creative look and feel.

Phillip Barker seems to have taken the helm for production design for Discovery going into S3.

Perhaps Tamara Deverell will come back for the untitled Pike show once she’s done with her commitment for a movie. She really seemed to welcome the opportunity to create the Enterprise bridge and move forward from what she’s inherited from Discovery’s original designer.

Fun Fact: it was mentioned on twitter that Q & A is the FIRST episode scored by a female composer in the entire history of Star Trek. Nami Melumad composed the score, including the new fantastic Pike theme (wishful thinking!).
I too noticed the excellent use of the TOS main theme, alongside new elements and some influences from Giacchino. What a perfect combination!
The opening titles music is from the previous season, and may I ask, does it really fit with the new and exciting style?

Michael Giacchino has tweeted that he’s “overseeing a group of young composers who are scoring the new Short Treks” .

https://mobile.twitter.com/m_giacchino/status/1180636533998542848

What a great idea!

Bringing in new creative talent with the support and oversight of a successful Trek composer is making fantastic use of the experimental opportunities of the Short Treks.

Giacchino notes that he is himself scoring and directing one of the animated Short Treks: Ephraim and Dot.

Dylan: I agree that keeping the opening title sequence music from Discovery is unfortunate. Short Treks are their own thing now, not just an amuse guele for Discovery. They warrant their own opening theme and titles.

Yes, I love that he does that and can’t wait to see what he brings to the table as a director.

Perhaps CBS is testing some new materials and talent with the Short Treks… I hope this will result in a Pike show!!

Its crazy I thought this would grab more attention so far being the first Short Trek on and about Spock and Number One but it seems pretty low key. I guess either people don’t have All Access again or they don’t know about it yet. And yes it doesn’t seem to be in a lot of places outside of America…at least legally.

But I liked it! Simple but effective. It sort of builds to the Spock we saw from The Cage. And I loved Number One singing at the end and then Spock joining her lol. THIS is the kind of stuff I miss on Star Trek which they did on TNG, DS9 and Voyager all the time. I can’t imagine anyone breaking out into song on Discovery first dire season. ;)

And they had such great chemistry together! I can definitely see why so many want a Pike show. We at least got two more Pike Short Treks coming so something to look forward to on that end at least.

I think it’s because Picard is the BIG story.

Sure, but we still got a few months to wait for it. Meanwhile we got some new Trek, even if its just 15 minutes.

It was only made available in a surprise announcement so whoever is not following closely will not even have realized it’s there yet.
I hope it will make some more waves once the news spread more and people get to watch it.
Also, as you hinted to, it was released only in the US and Canada, but not anywhere else in the world (so far) – I definitely hope us outside of North America will get it at some point as well, we’re eager to get some more Number One (and Pike, and Spock) as well…

Those pesky international agreements between the various corporations [CBS, Netflix, &c.] are keeping fans in Europe and Britain from seeing it! I wish all the companies could make it available for Trekkers internationally.

This is a real shame!

I have All Access through Amazon and could not FIND it. Going to try LegateDamar’s suggestion above and hope I get to see it! Very excited …!

I couldn’t find it on AA either. I found out it now has its own seperate page instead of just being part of Discovery’s page. And it makes sense now that the stories are broadening and not just related to Discovery anymore.

Let me know what you thought of it!

Looking fwd to catching up on these when STP starts up. That’s the deal.

I’m waiting for Picard before restarting my subscription. Will catch the short treks then.

I’ll say it ad infinitum: need more Spock, Number One, and Pike. Enjoyed this short more than anything with the Discovery crew. Just my opinion.

LIKEWISE!!! We need a PIKE-SHOW!! Or should it be, SPICKE (Spock+Pike)

Actually, for want Rebecca Romijn did with fourteen minutes here, there’s an argument to be made for her to have her own show.

Great in the role (though she plays it very differently than Barrett did), and smokin’ besides. What more could you want?

Disappointing that we have to wait for months again in the UK until Netflix or Amazon can sort this out….

Anyone notice the obvious JJ style music in this new episode?

Michael Giacchino was the supervising composer for the music, so it makes sense.

Yes – but you could totally hear the TOS theme in there. I thought it worked really well and introduced some excellent ideas. Check out the work of Nami Melumad (the composer who scored this episode)- she’s the next big thing.

The overall aesthetic is heavily influenced by the Kelvin universe. Doesn’t bother me one bit.

Oh yeah definitely!!

When I first heard it, it SOUNDED famaliar but couldn’t place it. I knew it came from Star Trek and was going through mental notes when I realized it was from the Kelvin movies and smiled. That was really cool

Yep, wondered how they could get away with it, then saw Michael Giacchino’s name in the credits. More, please!

I usually don’t care about canon that much, but I have to admit I would have preferred the single colour gold uniforms for this one. That said, I quickly forgot about the uniforms because this Short Treks episode turned out to be thoroughly enjoyable. Very low key launch by CBS, especially since there was so much buzz around the new Picard trailer, to the point I didn’t even realize it was out until late Sunday morning. IMO it is definitely worth checking out, especially with another one on the way later this month.

SPOILER ALERT – Btw, IMO Spock’s recognition of himself in Number One pays tribute to the creators of TOS who took the character of Number One from The Cage and merged some of her traits into the character of Spock who would later go on to be first officer of the Enterprise. Very well done Mr. Chabon.

That’s a really great meta-point, thanks. :-)

While I enjoyed this a lot, didn’t understand the motivation to begin singing Modern Major General. I watched it three times but still don’t get it. Can someone enlighten me?

Number One had suggested to Spock that while she would never tell him how he should behave in public, it might behoove him to consider how acting out of character (in this case, the smile) might affect his relationships with his colleagues on ship. Her equivalent would be publicly demonstrating her love for singing Gilbert and Sullivan. For such a slight episode it’s actually a pretty decent retcon and insight into what links the two characters, which is just what I’d expect from the pen of Michael Chabon.

Being an accomplished musical comedienne is her “freakiness” that she hides from others, as she suggests to Spock that he may want to hide his tendency to smile.

Not so sure about the specific choice of song, but it certainly seems quite plausible that both of these characters would grow up as intellectual overachievers. Therefore that would also tend to mean there is a good chance that both have an interest in excelling in music – playing instruments as well as singing. We all know Spock played at least one instrument. As for the Modern Major General, I am stumped. Maybe it is simply an homage to TNG which also referenced Gilbert and Sullivan.

“As for the Modern Major General, I am stumped. Maybe it is simply an homage to TNG which also referenced Gilbert and Sullivan.”
In fact, the TNG episode “Disaster” has Geordi LaForge singing a couple of lines from the same song. That episode also has some characters stuck in a turbolift and having to exit through the turboshaft. Coincidence? Homage? Rehash?

How VERY weird! It was listed in Amazon not as, “Q&A” but as “The Escape Artist” — the Harry Mudd Short Trek from last year!

“Q & A” was very enjoyable. Thanks for the search hint, Legate Damar.

I just typed, “Short Treks” and “The Escape Artist” came up, so I said “what the hell, I’ll watch that again, I like that Short Trek” and lo and behold! There are Spock and Number One.

I noticed that too, but Spock was in the thumbnail so I assumed that I was clicking on the right one.

True story, I tried to get Q&A up on my TV but it kept saying ‘error’ (I tried watching like 1-2 hours after it was announced). I got frustrated but decided to watch The Escape Artist again. That short is still just so much fun. Even more fun after you know the twist.

Same thing happened to me. And it is a lot of fun, though Rainn Wilson’s Mudd is nothing at all like Roger C. Carmel’s.

Just watched Q&A, went for too long, whole thing could’ve been sorted out with the Transporter. Screw sitting in a stuck lift when you can be beamed out.

They didn’t intraship beam much back in those days. Or at least they weren’t supposed to.

While I haven’t kept anything like a strict count I’m guessing DSC has pulled that particular trick at least a time or two. Which I suppose you can argue took place under more dire circumstances than getting two people out of a stuck lift — still, it’s a more valid point than it should be.

Enterprise did it at least once too.

They could just turn off the artificial gravity, open the turbo lift roof hatch door and float up to the next floor and exit out. This would be standard protocol for stuck turbo lifts. Should only take a minute or two to get people out from a trapped lift.

Does anyone not think, that after Discovery Season 2 and the Short Trek “Q&A”, that the best thing CBS can do is make a series about Pike and the crew of the NCC-1701 Enterprise based on what has been done to date? It is Roddenberry’s original concept, it has great actors in the rolls of the Enterprise crew, and pretty much everyone loves what CBS did in bringing the Enterprise into the ST: Discovery episodes. It is Star Trek at its best!!

Terrible episode. What they´ve done with Spock??! Dear lord, these writers even ever watched Star Trek?

Apparently you’ve never watched Trek, either.

Remember, Spock in the 1964 pilot The Cage smiled and yelled a lot, plus he showed a lot of emotion. Since this is set before The Cage, it seems to make a lot of sense that Spock would yell and smile. Plus since we know from TOS that he plays an instrument, singing also seems logical. Any other questions?

During the first Trek Renaissance of the Seventies the two leading fanzines were “Babel” and “Trek,” the latter of which had an article which featured the theory that “The Cage” took place during a time when Spock was actively experimenting with getting in touch with his human side, only to abandon the effort for unknown reasons. Who would’ve ever believed at the time that almost fifty years later a prizewinning novelist would write a teleplay dealing with that very issue? What a ride this has been.

Thanks to all for the perspectives and additional info. Now I can watch Q&A for a second time this Thurs when it airs on the newly named CTV Sci-Fi Channel (formerly Space Channel), with the luxury or benefit of all of this shared information.

Have you ever watched “The Cage”?

Damn the bridge, Number One, Spock, Pike… all look perfect!
This should be a series for sure.

Keep em coming, guys. These little character studies are great!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The Enterprise, as seen in “Discovery” and this short episode, has never looked better to me. Every single thing we’ve seen of the ship and crew leaves me wanting more. This IS Star Trek!

Right on!!

Amen!

Agreed. Warp speed!