10 Ways The Streaming Era Has Improved Star Trek

The current era of television has seen a reduction in the number of episodes per season. There is an ongoing discussion over the benefits, or lack thereof, of shorter seasons. Please check out our article on so-called 'filler' episodes, which goes into the discussion about longer seasons, with episodes that may not play into the overall arc. 

In one aspect, there has been a definite improvement. The budgets per episode have seen a marked increase, with less season competition between them. Where the '90s era saw seasons of twenty six episodes, almost every season since 2017 has had closer to ten episodes. Star Trek: Discovery shortened its seasons as it went, while Prodigy featured shorter episodes, even with a longer couple of seasons.

The result has seen more money go toward CGI. The Vulcan Hello, Remembrance, Strange New Worlds - each of these pilots have had gorgeous visuals. Lower Decks, Short Treks, and Prodigy have all seen th benefit of a bigger financial pot to play with.

Where the streaming era has sacrificed the number of episodes per season, this has at least allowed them to spread their resources a little less thin.