Over the past four months in the run up to Star Trek: Discovery’s return, CBS All Access released four excellent mini-episodes under the Short Treks banner. Except they had a problem that was not quite as mini as the episodes: none of them were actually available outside of the U.S. and Canada. That’s finally changing.
As a surprise announcement today—spotted by TrekMovie—confirmed that Netflix will now air all four Short Treks episodes starting...well, right now basically. You won’t find them by searching for “Short Treks” however—here they are sitting all pretty in the “Trailers & More” section of Star Trek: Discovery’s Netflix page in my UK account:
It’s pretty much the perfect way to get set up for Discovery’s season 2 premiere, which drops on Netflix internationally tomorrow, January 18, and in the U.S. and Canada tonight. But even if you weren’t looking for something to get you in the Trek mood ahead of Discovery’s return, you should watch Short Treks anyway.
Each episode was a delightful reminder of the very best Star Trek has to offer—championing Roddenberry’s noble ideals with fun and a sense of intrepid wanderlust, all driven by deft character work and delightful performances. In recapping the series for io9, my only major complaint was that these stories were being treated as ancillary bonuses that not every Star Trek: Discovery fan could legally access. And now they finally are! You really should dive in and see what you nearly missed out on if you can.
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