Every Star Trek fan should start collecting physical copies of their favorite shows
Streaming was supposed to make it easier than ever to get involved in shows, keep up with one’s favorite franchises, and more importantly, make everything so much cheaper. That’s not what has happened. At first, sure, but as the years have gone on and everyone wanted their own piece of the pie, the streaming market has become over-saturated.
There are so many services, with so many different libraries, that it’s almost impossible to know who has what and where can you find your favorite movies or shows. This includes but isn’t limited to Star Trek fans.
If you go to Paramount+, which is the rights holder to the Trek franchise, you can watch The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, Prodigy and even the Animated Series.
You can also watch certain films Star Trek 2009, Into Darkness and Beyond. However, Star Trek The Motion Picture, Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, The Voyage Home, The Final Frontier, The Undiscovered Country, Generations, First Contact, Insurrection, or Nemesis; tough luck. They’re elsewhere.
The reason why they’re elsewhere is simple; fans like watching those films most of all, so they can lease them out to other providers and rake in on huge rights fees. Sure, it makes it harder for actual Star Trek fans to find those beloved films (well…the ones that are good), but Paramount+ doesn’t care.
And this philosophy isn’t likely to change either. This is what it was like with cable channels. A channel would buy the rights to a show or movie and hold onto it, it’s why the original Star Wars films are on a Warner Bros. Discovery-owned channel, TNT.
This isn’t a new thing and it won’t end anytime soon, if ever. As long as other companies are willing to over-pay for the right to air a movie or show, streaming services are going to chop off huge parts of their assets, and the reasons why fans subscribed in the first place, just to make a buck.
Star Trek fans need to start gobbling up physical copies to save on streaming services.
Right now if you wanted to watch all of Star Trek, you would need subscriptions to Paramount+, and one of the following; Hulu, Amazon, or HBO Max. That or rent it for a few dollars from YouTube, Apple RedBox, or Vudu.
It makes far more sense to pick up a used copy for a few dollars, than it does to subscribe to a $13 streaming service.
That’s why it’s great to see that old properties are getting re-released. Fans of the Next Generation have a new chance to pick up all four of the TNG films. Fans can now get all four of those films in standard Blu-Ray for $20 or the 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray collection for $69.99.
Each version comes with all four films.