‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Taking Mid-Season Hiatus After Next Week, Returning February 2022

After this morning’s release of the sixth episode of season four, Paramount+ announced Star Trek: Discovery will be taking a hiatus after episode seven.

Next week is a Discovery mid-season finale

In a bit of a surprise announcement, Paramount+ revealed episode seven of Star Trek: Discovery, arriving next week, Thursday, December 30th, will be a mid-season finale. The series will return on February 10, 2022, with episode eight. Paramount+ has not yet confirmed how many episodes there are in season four. Each of the previous seasons has started with a standard 13 episode order, sometimes adding an episode or two as production got underway. Season three had thirteen, season two had fourteen, and season one (which also took a surprise mid-season hiatus) had fifteen.

Paramount+ also revealed details about episode 407, which is titled “…But to Connect.” It was written by Terri Hughes Burton and Carlos Cisco, with Lee Rose directing. Here is the synopsis:

Tensions rise as representatives from across the galaxy gather to confront the threat of the Dark Matter Anomaly. Zora’s new sentience raises difficult questions.

The announcement that episode 407 will serve as a mid-season finale was made on social media. Paramount+ did not provide any additional details.

Graphic released with social media announcement

What about Picard season two?

There is a possibility, perhaps even a probability, that this announcement could have a ripple effect on the second season of Star Trek: Picard. On Star Trek Day, Paramount+ announced Picard was to return in February 2022. This was also shown in a new trailer released on that day. Paramount+ has not provided any update on Picard as of today; however, it would not be surprising if they moved the season two debut to avoid any overlap with Discovery.

Reminder: Prodigy returns January 6

While Discovery is taking a break in January, there still will be new Star Trek on Paramount+. Star Trek: Prodigy went on hiatus on November 18th after the release of the fifth episode and the animated series is set to return on January 6 with the sixth episode, one week after Discovery goes on hiatus. This will be followed by four more Prodigy episodes leading up to episode 10 on February 3rd, which happens to be one week before Discovery returns. Prodigy will return later in 2022 with the second batch of ten episodes to complete the first season.

Poster for Prodigy

TrekMovie will provide updates as new scheduling information becomes available.


Find more stories on the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.

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Oh great, more waiting. =) Not very wise from Paramount+, these last-minute changes to these productions.

It won’t harm them in the slightest.

Just sold all my stock in Paramount. That’s for the tip, Mr. Buffet. ;-)

It doesn’t change a thing at least for me. Between Trek, Wheel of Time, Expanse, and more, this is the golden age of sci-fi and fantasy TV. I can survive the few weeks without Discovery ;)

I just recently finished season 2 of The Expanse. Pretty darn good. I have season 3 in my que.

An addition to my Que list for the holidays.

Season 3 is also great. Season 4 less so because it’s mostly on one planet and it feels confined even though it takes place in the Expanse. I thought Season 5 was a big letdown with all kinds of personal background stories and we only watched a few episodes.

Good to hear. I found season 4 and 5 just as great as the previous seasons.

I personally found Season 5, while by no means perfect, to be the best of all of them. As of last night I’m still not feeling it for Season Six, but am still hopeful they’ll pull it out and stick the landing.

Don’t they often have a mid season hiatus? If the break and release of season 4b coincides with the roll out of Paramount+ in the UK and Europe then you’d have to say it is a wise choice.

Not always. But considering all the waiting due to the Pandemic and Prodigy (recently), the sudden announcement is a bummer.

Since the merge and the launch of Paramount+, they are not choosing a friendly approach for the fans. They are taking extreme decisions changing what it has been already announced. And I am talking recently, not at the beginning of the lockdowns, which is very understandable.

It has been unexpected, even for the actors and producers.

Glad Europe and the U.K. will soon have access to Paramount+. Wish all countries have access to Star Trek old and new productions on the same day at the same time.

It may help with sampling for Prodigy, I doubt it will hurt them.

Definitely a bummer that Picard will likely be delayed. Been a 2 year wait, which is understandable due to the pandemic. But to delay it more now? That really sucks.

Not Good. Boo!!!!! Was really looking forward to watching this wrap up and move forward to Picard over the winter months

While unlikely, we could see Picard actually move up. With Discovery taking a hiatus after Dec 30, Picard could theoretically start airing the week after, with the final three episodes overlapping with the return of Discovery (if Discovery doesn’t return until Feb 24). I don’t think CBS is too worried about overlapping with Prodigy, as the two shows (Picard and Prodigy) are geared toward different audiences.

A shame and I hate the shows jumping around like this rather than just finishing out. With this and the whole international distribution fiasco, its a very messy rollout.

Maybe they are planning to have P+ ready internationally in February.

Maybe the episodes simply aren’t finished in time similarly to what happened with Prodigy.
If they are postponing Picard and Strange New Worlds as well they could also hope to roll out Paramount Plus in more international markets before SNW premieres. I mean Picard is on Amazon Prime internationally, but SNW will probably only be available on P+ and CTV-Sci-Fi Channel/Crave in Canada.

I like your logic. They might very well need additional time to complete the special effects.

That’s a poor excuse if true. They should not have even rolled it out if there was even a chance it would not be ready to complete an uninterrupted run. This does not instill confidence in the production or P+ or both.

Release dates are often set before a single frame has been shot. It’s nothing new. I mean it took Robert Wise, what, 20 years to finish TMP properly.

They are and while movies and more traditional TV has more hard “due dates” streaming dates are WAY more flexible.

Also, while they cut it close TMP did indeed make it’s release date.

Maybe they DISCOVERed that the series finale doesn’t fit to the rest of the season and want to change it beforer the viewers noticed that they hadn’t plot out the whole season when start shooting.

Settle down Beavis. They already wrap filming. Post Production takes time.

Relax, Mensa. They obviously want to stagger out the Trek shows given the calendar.

I’m wondering if we’ll see the split season thing with Picard S2 (i.e., a mid-season break with SNW first few episodes airing in the interim).

Ugh. Why is Paramount+ jerking around viewers with all of these stupid scheduling stunts? They need to build a loyal viewership and subscriber base. This is not the way to do it.

Disney+, Amazon Prime and Netflix have been pushing several series back as well, so I’m not sure what your point is? They probably need more time to complete special effects and post production on the eps, and also I would assume want to give the overworked production staff the holidays off.. They’ve done quite an awesome job with all of these series we are getting under a COVID environment, and I am certainly not going to whine about a temporary break between seasons.

And welcome to the COVID TV/movie production and corporate, multi-national streaming competition environment. It is what it is.

Do those other services start streaming shows and then half way through just stop them for a month or two? I’m thinking not. There is a difference between delaying a show and starting one then stopping it half way through. It’s not like the old days when they made 24+ episodes a season and stretched that season out over 9 months. Breaks under those circumstances were understandable.

They do sometimes. Money Heist I believe had a mid-season finale on Netflix.

Riverdale on Netflix as well. Not typical, but not uncommon either.

Besides, Discovery Season 1 did it, so it’s not like this is unprecedented.

Riverdale is not a Netflix show. It’s a CW over the air show.

Nearly all international viewers, and probably all US viewers who have moved to streaming get it on Netflix these days. That audience dwarfs the perhaps 242 people still watching it over the air these days. :)

I wouldn’t be too sure. While the trend has been to “cut the cord” most of those who have still have a digital antenna. CW affiliates dot the landscape. Getting episodes of something like Riverdale is pretty easy without the need for a streaming service. At least in the States…

Netflix releases all episodes at the same time. They still do it to this day.

What’s Coming to Netflix Weekly in December 2021:

  • Inspector Koo (Season 1) N – New Episodes Saturdays
  • New World (Season 1) N – New episodes on December 4th & 11th
  • Reflection of You (Season 1) N – Final episode on December 2nd
  • The King’s Affection (Season 1) N – New Episodes Mondays

You were saying? :)

I never heard of any of those. Every single Netflix show I have seen or sampled has all episodes available. Is it possible this is an international thing rather than a US thing?

OK. Just looked up one of them. That “Inspector Koo” thing isn’t a Netflix show, either. The actual title translates to “A Wonderful Sight” and it originally aired in Korea, likely weekly, and Netflix has a streaming deal for it outside the country of origin I would suspect. Kinda wondering how many others on your list aren’t actual Netflix shows? Like Riverdale.

Many shows do this. This isn’t anything new. Netflix does it all the time.

Yep!

This is not “pushing back series”, but rather abruptly announcing that you are no longer showing the season of the show that you advertised and that your customers are literally in the middle of watching. Paramount+ has now done this twice in a row with their Trek series.

Presumably they would have just pushed back the premiere of Discovery if there were some unanticipated production problem, as they have a long lead time to determine whether the series is ready to show or not.

I was surprised how early season 4 premiered. I mean if I remember correctly they only finished shooting end of August.
Paramount Plus has made it clear they want new Trek released year round. Seems they are really pushing the shows to fill that schedule even if it means having to break things up.

I think you are right. This is a glass-half full situation, and some fans need to chill out.

They need to work on their marketing to get people used to that if that is what is happening.

Television networks have been doing mid season breaks for year now. Maybe you just need to get use to it.

Streaming networks don’t usually do it. And if they do, they announce it before abruptly halting the season out of nowhere, as Paramount+ did.

Dude, chill out. It’s going to be OK.

Agreed. Abruptly breaking a show out of nowhere after it started its run is highly unusual for original streaming content. At least back in season 1 they had the awareness to let people know it was happening before they even started streaming the show. Honestly there really is no excuse for laying it on their audience this late into the run.

The silver lining for myself is that I’d rather see Prodigy than Star Trek Discovery. So at least that. But it looks like it’s only going to be a few episodes before they break that show… AGAIN. Sadly Paramount is treating their streaming service like it’s CBS.

TNG and DS9 took breaks during the seasons. There would be a few weeks of repeats then new episodes.
Not overly surprising, really.

I seem to recall that so did Discovery Season 1, right?

Yes, they did have a mid-season break. It was the episode where the ship of the dead was destroyed and Lorca took them to the mirror universe. It left us on a cliffhanger for awhile.

Thanks!

Yes

Well sure, but those shows had 25 episodes a season. They HAVE to take breaks just to keep up with the filming. When those seasons started, they had maybe finished 10-12 episodes by then. All network shows do with 20+ episodes.

I think this is a bit different. They may need more time to work on it, but I think they are just trying to spread everything out as much as possible. We know Prodigy did need more time though, but they also have 20 episodes a season (YAY!!) to work with.

But they had more than 24 episodes in a season and had a specific time frame to air episodes. Streaming shows don’t have that kind of restriction. In fact, I have been told by many that not having that sort of restriction is a GOOD thing. And yet this show still needs to take breaks.

Disappointed, I’ve paid for the whole season via Amazon

Are you going to have to pay extra due to this delay? If you are not, then I’m not sure what your payment reference has to do with this delay?

Basically you could pay per episode or the whole series. They have changed their delivery schedule and its not really on is it. Especially with the farce with Netflix, just before the season kicked off. Its taking the P+

Yea, I get that. I was confused by your post — it came across like somehow this pause would cost you more? No worries.

You pay less when you pay for the whole season. Grow up.

I wished I cared more than I do. Todays episode did not do it for me. And I’m really not a hater…

Picard speculatively moving annoys me. I need more Rafi in my life.

I’m sure the delay is because of post production work not being finished. I’m sad. Disco is my favorite of the New Trek Era. I’ve become invested in finding out who is behind the DMA and why? I’m not ready to switch gears back to Prodigy.

Most of the post for Discovery season four was done through remote work, including the orchestration.

Also, production ended much later than planned.

It could just be the extra burden of COVID production protocols and stoppages, but I find it intriguing to consider that an extra episode might have been added to extend the season.

Filming is over. More likely they need more time for post production.

Personally I’m not disappointed Prodigy will be back. It’s easily the best Trek offering from Secret Hideout. When Star Trek Discovery does come back they are going to need a pretty heavy “previously on..” thing.

 “previously on..”.. sounds like BSG.

I’ll probably rewatch the first half of S4 before it airs again. Now, I’ll need to rewatch Prodigy, but that won’t take long. I did enjoy Prodigy so at least it’s new trek to look forward too.

Great. But I’m not sitting through those episodes again. Because I’m not that invested in the show it would be nice for them to do a recap when they resume. And because I’m not invested in the show I’m not going to go find a recap somewhere on line. (I actually did that for shows I cared about that had overly lengthy gaps between seasons) I actually DO recall where Prodigy left off. But I wouldn’t be against a recap if they did one especially for the casual viewers who aren’t as invested.

Well, at least Prodigy is coming back. As long as we have at least one new Trek show on I’ll be happy.

I noticed over on Box Office Mojo, that Disney has Star Wars: Rogue Squadron releasing the same weekend as Trek 14. So Trek 14 most likely gets rescheduled to 2024.

Didn’t Rogue Squadron get indefinitely postponed recently?

With the executive shuffles at Paramount recently, it may be that the previously announced Star Trek movie is on hold also based on comments that the new Paramount head made when he took over.

It’s been kicked around, but Patty Jenkins was commenting on it recently. I don’t recall seeing it on the Box Office Mojo schedule when Paramount moved ST14 to Dec 2023, but it’s there now. I also can’t imagine Paramount scheduling ST14 opposite another movie that’s likely to crush it like a bug, either. One of these dates will move.

I have a very good feeling the next Star Trek movie will get moved into 2024 regardless. Here we are in December and still not a word about anything for a movie that is now exactly 2 years away. Remember, they ‘announced’ this movie 8 months ago.

It is funny how both Star Trek and (especially) Star Wars are having so much trouble getting their movie productions off the ground but their new streaming shows keep coming at warp speed (or hyperspace ;)).

Thanks for this little movie thread.

LOL, but sadly with nothing to report…

If we are having this conversation again in six months, we can all start thinking about late 2024. Or they’ll do what some of us have been saying for a bit now, that features will make the jump to streaming as well. That wouldn’t bother me at all.

Oh get bent, cbs. What is this, the 90’s?

Luckily for me, I have the Expanse and Boba Fett to watch, instead.

Probably why they’re pausing, they don’t wanna compete with a Star Wars show with the likes of Mandalorian with it’s viewership, orders of magnitude above trek shows..

I cannot imagine that there are more than about 47 people in the entire world who would opt not to watch a Star Trek show simply because a Star Wars show aired the same week.

Exactly. It’s not like this is network TV where they are airing at the same time and you can only pick one or the other. This isn’t the 90’s.

I had a VCR in the 90’s. I actually could watch one show while recording the other.

Got to make the international paramount+ subs who signed up with the 3 month discount pay at least a few months at full price before they go back to paying for Prime Video, I guess

I don’t think its a conspiracy. I think they are probably having production set backs and trying to figure out how to adjust with so many shows. And they will probably be offering multiple discounts anyway. They still offer plenty here in America. I’m now paying half of what I used to pay for the service this year and I been a subscriber since 2017 before they changed it to Paramount+.

I’m enjoying this season so much I am grateful. That is all. If it takes time to complete the work, that’s fine with me.

This news sucks. Not because I have to wait to see more Star Trek Discovery episodes. But that I could have delayed my subscription a little longer. I know, I know. I could delay it quite a bit by just waiting for the very end. But I still would like to not be THAT far behind everything.

I guess the good news is we are getting Prodigy back. Pretty happy about that. But I guess they will go on a 2nd hiatus after they run a handful of episodes, too.

No, this feels like P+ is just doing their best to reduce churn.

OK, this is just my feeling on how things will play out, but I think this is how the line up will go beginning January 6th:

  1. Prodigy episodes 6-10
  2. Discovery 8-(13?)
  3. Picard season 2 (which as stated was announced for February but maybe it will be bumped to March)
  4. Strange New Worlds season 1
  5. Prodigy second half 11-20
  6. Lower Decks season 3
  7. Picard season 3
  8. ??

This seems like the ‘logical’ choice but yeah who knows? It’s just based on what they have already said when certain shows should premiere like PIC, SNW and LDS. But that can all get switched around. I think most of us are curious about Picard now because it was suppose to start in February. Maybe they will keep to that and just have a few episodes overlap with Discovery. OR maybe Discovery won’t actually be 13 episodes like we’re assuming (hence the question mark) and it’s only 10-11 episodes. I think it will be but until they just say that…

Assuming NOTHING overlaps, that pushes everything out through March of 2023 if Picard season 3 is the last show to premiere in the current docket. It’s pretty crazy that’s around 60 episodes (and the most episodes we’ve ever gotten for one year); if you include everything that is currently being worked on or confirmed happening. It could mean we may have a new episode every week of Star Trek all year long next year! They may include a few weeks break between the shows but I doubt it will be longer than 1-2 weeks tops.

So yeah the news may suck, but glass half full. We are on our way to a ridiculous infinite amount of Star Trek. We already been getting it every week since LDS started this year so pretty exciting IF you are excited about all the shows coming.

Gives the crew time for their anti-depressants to kick in.

Regarding that resume you dropped off at the Improv, well trust me, they won’t be calling you in for an interview.

I’ve preempted the mid-season break by finally giving Discovery a complete forever break after Season 4 episode 5.
Season 1 I didn’t mind, even with some lazy writing I mostly enjoyed it as decent sci-fi.
Season 2 was somewhat disjointed, some good episodes, some mediocre episodes, and still some more lazy writing.
Season 3 I thought picked up somewhat, not super but at least we are in the futures future now and the potential for some new horizons storytelling is bound to eventuate.
But along comes Season 4 with some new cliche planet destroying V’ger/Changeling/Doomsday machine thing strolling around again breaking things(“hey Anomaly, of the trillions of planets in all of the star systems in all of the galaxy, why did you have to bump into mine…”) .
And now every character seems to talk constantly in whispering languid tones about how hurt/damaged/frightened/special they are and giving each other insipid encouragement along with head-tilted-forward knowing looks and tiny spiritless smiles. And I realised that Discovery has slowly morphed into a space soap opera full of anguished and wearisome souls, and like a lobster in a pot that is being slowly brought to boil my brain had been coached silently along for four years to a state of moribund dysphagia.
And what caused all of this?
Well I believe it is Alex Kurtzman’s eyeglasses that are to blame. Not directly of course, but the very presence in the Universe of those glasses, their very existence, is indicative of the current Star Trek malaise. Style over substance, pretty like Discovery’s special effects, but in the end just another ill-fitting “lookit-me-everyone-I-look-different-so-I-must-be-coooool” fashion accessory……

I will give Strange New Worlds a look-see though, I already like the Pike, Spock and Number One characters so fingers crossed for me here that the curse of the K-glasses is somehow able to entropy over the ensuing period of time.

Sure, it’s Kurtzman’s eyeglasses, that’s the problem.

(WTF? lol)

I’ll paraphrase – Alex’s glasses and Discovery both bug me in exactly the same way, therefore I believe both are inextricably linked to each other at a quantum level. One cannot exist without the other. If the glasses are destroyed then Discovery show will cease to exist, and vice-versa.

It’s a sign of how much this series has improved this season — at least in my eyes — that when I saw this, my knee-jerk reaction was to be bummed out.

It’s not too lengthy a delay, though.

My theory: they are having second thoughts about giving away DSC S4 for free to international audiences on Pluto TV. So they take a hiatus until P+ is ready to launch in Europe…

Have they announced a start date for P+ in Europe? Discovery is only interrupted for a few weeks. If anything, I would imagine they want P+ rolled out before Strange New Worlds premieres. Picard is still on Amazon Prime.

If the purpose of all this new content was to have Star Trek in its various forms streaming year-round, then why would any ST shows, particularly on a streaming service, need to go on hiatus at all?

Because COVID impacts on production and postproduction are still being felt.

Exactly!

Then they should have delayed the release of the show to begin with. They HAD to have known this before the desired start date. Which also means this decision was kept from the public when it could have been let out. But I think they KNEW they would lose subscribers if they did it. I get they are looking out for the bottom line and they are probably hurting for subscribers. Keeping the money flowing is a very legitimate reason. But I don’t think lying by omission to your subscribers is good business practice.

You could just wait until whole season is released and then subscribe for a month..

Cant fine episode 6 on Amazon Prime/ Purchases

It all looks so improvised…Who is in charge?

(sigh) Just wake me when “Strange New Worlds” starts…

I don’t know if this winter hiatus is such a new thing. I have memories of even TNG actually breaking sooner before Christmas and not coming back until early the next year, presumably to avoid the lower ratings that could come from people not watching due to being too busy with holiday activities.

There are a number of reasons why the over the air network shows took breaks. The main one was because they aired 24 or more episodes over 9 months. They generally are still filming and working on the shows through the winter and early spring. The breaks are there to allow production to catch up, to allow of special programming and yes, even some low viewership weeks. But they for sure run the shows in the Fall and Spring sweeps weeks.

However, none of those reasons apply to short season streaming shows that have no hard deadlines to meet.