Fifty-eight years ago, on September 8, 1966, Star Trek changed the game. Never before had there been a mature science fiction TV series with a cast of continuing characters aimed specifically at adults. Before Trek, sprawling world-building combined with self-contained sci-fi storytelling simply wasn’t a part of mainstream TV, at all. While anthology shows like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits paved the way, Star Trek picked up the torch and ran with it. Nearly every aspect of mainstream science fiction in TV — even if it’s a response against Trek — owes a debt to this utterly groundbreaking show.
And now, from September 7 through the 13th, in celebration of “Star Trek Day,” several “first episodes” of nearly every single iteration of the Star Trek TV franchise will be streaming for free. And, in keeping with Star Trek’s generally enlightened view of the future, these free streaming episodes will come with the push for fans to donate or support various charitable causes, including, Code.org, Outright International, and DoSomething.Org. This push, called “Take the Chair,” follows previous charitable drives from the Star Trek franchise in recent years, most notably, the #StarTrekUnitedGives campaign that began in 2020.
But, which Star Trek episodes are actually streaming for free? Here are the details.
Star Trek Day 2024 free streaming episodes
For the most part, the Trek franchise has selected “first episodes” from different series to be available to stream for free, which includes:
- “The Cage” the 1964 original unaired pilot from Star Trek: The Original Series
- “Beyond the Farthest Star,” the 1973 debut of The Animated Series
- “Encounter at Farpoint,” the 1987 debut of The Next Generation
- “Emissary,” the 1993 debut of Deep Space Nine
- “Caretaker,” the 1995 debut of Voyager
- “Broken Bow,” the 2001 debut of Enterprise
- “The Vulcan Hello,” the 2017 debut of Discovery
- “Remembrance,” the 2020 debut of Picard
- “Second Contact,” the 2020 debut of Lower Decks
- “Strange New Worlds,” the 2023 debut of Strange New Worlds
Additionally, several episodes of the micro-series Short Treks will be streaming for free too, including: “The Girl Who Made the Stars,” “The Trouble with Edward,” “Ask Not,” “Runaway” and “Ephraim and Dot,” the last of which was directed by Michael Giacchino! (Really!)
Notably absent here is the debut of Prodigy, the episode “Lost and Found,” which is probably because that series currently streams on Netflix and not Paramount+.
For purists, it should also be noted that although “The Cage” was the first Star Trek episode filmed, it was not actually ever aired in its entirety nor is it really considered the true pilot of The Original Series. The second pilot, which sold Star Trek, was “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” which was filmed in 1965 and aired third overall. For various reasons, the fifth regular episode filmed, “The Man Trap,” was actually the one that launched the show on September 8th. Meanwhile, various scenes from “The Cage” were later recontextualized as a flashback in the episode “The Menagerie,” making the canonicity of the original full-length episode somewhat debatable.
And yet, today “The Cage” is in many ways a rough draft not just for The Original Series, but for Strange New Worlds, too, which further explores that very specific time period on the USS Enterprise. And, if it’s been a while since you’ve seen that kooky, grainy version of Star Trek, there’s never been a better time to go back to the retrofuture of the 23rd century.
The free Star Trek Day 2024 debut episodes stream on Paramount+ affiliates like Apple TV+ and Prime Video, as well as on YouTube and Pluto.
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