Star Trek's return to TV has been delayed. The premiere of Star Trek: Discovery, the new series heading to CBS's All Access streaming service, has been pushed back to next May. It was originally scheduled to debut in January.
This is a short delay, but the series' producers say it's necessary to "achieve a vision" they can "be proud of."
Details of the show's first season otherwise aren't changing. There are still plans for 13 episodes, with the first to premiere on CBS itself and the rest to go online through its subscription service. Casting is still in progress, so there's clearly still some ways to go for production.
A short teaser for Discovery was released in July and was criticized by many for having crude special effects. It wouldn't be a surprise if those effects were one of the reasons the network is giving this show more time to come together. In fact, its producers even refer to "the demands of physical and post-production for a show that takes place entirely in space" as one of the reasons more time was needed.
Improving the series' effects seems to be one goal of the delay
Star Trek: Discovery is being headed up by Bryan Fuller, who created Pushing Daisies, which some people think is the greatest show ever to air on TV, and most people didn't watch.
In place of Discovery, CBS is moving up its spinoff of The Good Wife. That series will now premiere in February, instead of sometime in the spring.
All in all it's generally a minor change for CBS. Two of its biggest names for 2017 are still premiering right around the same time it initially hoped to run them. You could argue it's even a show of confidence in Star Trek, too, since it'll now likely premiere during the all-important May sweeps week, when network viewership is judged. In both cases, CBS is still sticking with its plan to have these be primarily online series, in an aggressive move to drive viewers to All Access.
