Star Trek benefits from a weekly release as opposed to the Netflix-style mass release

On July 1, 2024, Star Trek: Prodigy was released on Netflix. Though, if you're not aware of this, that's not shocking. With every Star Trek series that has been released since 2017, they've all followed a weekly release format. Allowing for hype and intrigue to build across the release cycle. It's allowed later and later episodes of Star Trek to garner more and more attention throughout a season. It's worked to help get eyes on the product.

Netflix, however, doesn't do it that way. They drop everything at once and then forget about it a week later. It's a bigger service, so more eyes will be drawn to it, but its model isn't conducive to fostering a fanbase. Instead, it's more designed to generate instant interaction from viewers. The name of the game on Netflix is binge-watching, and that's the format they believe will generate more interest than a weekly release schedule.

Even though a weekly release schedule will keep fans around longer, due to the nature of how shows air. Netflix is still the preferred Star Trek home for a variety of reasons, but that doesn't make it perfect. More fans will, over the life of the show, watch Star Trek on Netflix than on Paramount+, but the week-to-week excitement will die. Instead of getting weekly discussions with huge talking points and deep dives into mysterious angles, we'll get instant gratification and quick payoffs to potentially season-long questions.

We're seeing this playout firsthand with Star Trek: Prodigy. Reviews are non-existent right now because everyone's trying to watch and write about 20 episodes in a week if that. There's no build-up between episodes because there's no layoff. There is no potential to build up to a thrilling finale because there's no need to build up to anything.

You can skip all 19 episodes and just see how it ends on the same day the season debuts. That, to me, is beyond stupid. Star Trek works when there's time to breathe. When people have a chance to reflect on the plot and the purpose of the story. When you take that away, you force fans to move on, potentially missing out on the deeper meaning of an episode.

Yeah, you're getting the turnaround quicker, but much like cooking something in an oven as opposed to heating it in the microwave, you end up losing something with such a quick turnaround. In the case of Star Trek, it's the time to reflect. An idea that the show has thrived on for decades.

Hopefully, if Star Trek does begin airing things on Netflix again, a deal can be struck where new episodes are released weekly, so that fans take the journey together, week by week. As it was meant to be.