Star Trek is a beloved series worldwide and, while some of that is rooted in the recent projects that put it in the limelight, a majority of the fandom was established by the shows of the past. With that, many like to revisit the shows on their favorite streaming platforms. But the days of being able to see Trek on multiple services are rapidly coming to an end. Now, Netflix has announced it’s losing one of the best Trek shows of all time, The Next Generation, and it’s happening soon.
Star Trek: The Next Generation, which starred Patrick Stewart and many other wonderful actors like Brent Spiner and Levar Burton, will leave Netflix after April 1st for those in the United States. This bit of information can be glimpsed by subscribers when they visit the show page, where all 178 episodes are still shown to be active. This means fans have a bit of time to finish all 130.5 hours of the series.
Netflix losing TNG (which has some iconic episodes) means the streamer will now have only one Star Trek series left on its platform for the foreseeable future. And once the remaining series, Deep Space Nine, is gone, fans will no longer be able to see any show on the franchise on the platform.
It’s sad news for any Star Trek devotee looking to keep checking out the show there, though many knew this was coming. Right now, the way you can stream every Star Trek series and movie is with a Paramount+ subscription. In fairness, this is by design so that there's a single place where one can see all of their favorite past shows and check out some of the new ones like Discovery and Picard (the sequel of sorts to Jean-Luc Picard’s story). Considering Trek shows were once available on just about every major streaming platform, it’s possible Paramount+ might finally pull in some of the viewers who weren’t interested in joining at first because they could watch their favorite shows in the franchise elsewhere.
The Next Generation leaving Netflix comes right as Paramount+ is in the midst of dropping the latest season of Picard. Considering that the show features the iconic captain of TNG and a few of its original stars like Whoopi Goldberg, this could be a way to pull in some die-hard old-school fans into giving the new shows (which are growing in number every day, it seems) a chance. While the newer productions certainly have a healthy share of fans, there are definitely groups who still revere the classics and don’t want to watch the newer entries in the franchise for various reasons. We'll see if said people choose to tune in now that there's a consolidated platform.
If you're a Star Trek: The Next Generation with Netflix be sure to check out the show before the month is out. After that, should anyone choose to join Paramount+, you'll be greeted by tons of content, with new Star Trek shows coming up in 2022 and beyond.
