| Star Trek: Short Treks | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | |
| Created by | |
| Based on | Star Trek byGene Roddenberry[a] |
| Showrunner | Alex Kurtzman |
| Theme music composer | Jeff Russo |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 10 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
|
| Production locations | Toronto, Canada |
| Running time | 8–18 minutes |
| Production companies | |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS All Access |
| Release | October 4, 2018 (2018-10-04) – January 9, 2020 (2020-01-09) |
| Related | |
Star Trek: Short Treks is an Americanscience fictionanthology television series created byBryan Fuller andAlex Kurtzman for the streaming serviceCBS All Access. Originating as a companion series toStar Trek: Discovery, it consists of several 10- to 20-minute-long shorts that use settings and characters primarily fromDiscovery.
After signing a deal to expand theStar Trek franchise on television, Kurtzman announcedShort Treks as the first such project in July 2018. The first four episodes aired from October 2018 to January 2019, between thefirst andsecond seasons ofDiscovery. The shorts were mostly produced by cast and crew members fromDiscovery, including composerJeff Russo who provided an updated main title theme and original underscore. Filming took place inToronto, Canada, on the set ofDiscovery.
In January 2019, two new animated shorts were revealed, with four additional live-action episodes announced in June 2019. The second season of shorts aired from October 2019 to January 2020, between the second season ofDiscovery and the first season ofStar Trek: Picard, with the last short serving as a teaser for the latter series. The animated shorts were created by visual effects housePixomondo, while a roster of new composers supervised byMichael Giacchino provided the music for the second set of shorts.
The series has received positive reviews and been nominated for several awards, including aPrimetime Emmy Award. Kurtzman expressed interest in continuing the series, but the producers chose not to begin work on any new shorts when theCOVID-19 pandemic began.
Each episode ofStar Trek: Short Treks tells a stand-alone story that explores key characters and ideas fromStar Trek: Discovery and otherStar Trek series.[1]
| Season | Episodes | Originally released | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | |||
| 1 | 4 | October 4, 2018 (2018-10-04) | January 3, 2019 (2019-01-03) | |
| 2 | 6 | October 5, 2019 (2019-10-05) | January 9, 2020 (2020-01-09) | |
The first set ofShort Treks were released between thefirst andsecond seasons ofStar Trek: Discovery.[1]
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Runaway" | Maja Vrvilo | Jenny Lumet andAlex Kurtzman | October 4, 2018 (2018-10-04) | |
Following a discussion with her condescending mother,Sylvia Tilly encounters a young Xahean stowaway, Me Hani Ika Hali Ka Po. Tilly, who is accustomed to taking orders, decides to make her own decisions to help Po return home in time for her coronation. Cast : Mary Wiseman as Silvia Tilly,Yadira Guevara-Prip as Me Hani Ika Hali Ka Po, andMimi Kuzyk as Siobhan Tilly | ||||||
| 2 | 2 | "Calypso" | Olatunde Osunsanmi | Story by : Sean Cochran andMichael Chabon Teleplay by : Michael Chabon | November 8, 2018 (2018-11-08) | |
The USSDiscovery has held position in space for a thousand years, and its computer system Zora has become sentient. She retrieves a passing escape pod carrying a man named Craft. Zora keeps Craft aboard the ship and begins to fall in love with him, but eventually lets him takeDiscovery's last shuttle to return to his family onAlcor IV. Cast : Aldis Hodge as Craft andAnnabelle Wallis as the voice of Zora (with Sash Striga as the hologram of Zora) | ||||||
| 3 | 3 | "The Brightest Star" | Douglas Aarniokoski | Bo Yeon Kim & Erika Lippoldt | December 6, 2018 (2018-12-06) | |
On the planet Kaminar,Saru wants to learn about life outside the pre-warp society of his village, where his people are harvested as food by the predatory Ba'ul. Saru is able to send a distress signal into space that is answered by LieutenantPhilippa Georgiou, who invites Saru to joinStarfleet. Cast : Doug Jones as Saru, Hannah Spear as Siranna, Robert Verlaque as Aradar, andMichelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou | ||||||
| 4 | 4 | "The Escape Artist" | Rainn Wilson | Michael McMahan | January 3, 2019 (2019-01-03) | |
Harry Mudd is captured by a bounty hunter and taken to a Federation ship, but there the hunter finds multiple versions of Mudd already detained. Elsewhere, the real Mudd continues to createandroid replicas of himself, capitalizing on his own notoriety and confounding the authorities. Cast : Rainn Wilson as Harry Mudd | ||||||
The second set ofShort Treks were released between the second season ofStar Trek: Discovery and thefirst season ofStar Trek: Picard.[2]
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 1 | "Q&A" | Mark Pellington | Michael Chabon | October 5, 2019 (2019-10-05) | |
On his first day aboard theUSSEnterprise, EnsignSpock and his new superior officerNumber One are trapped in a turbolift. While waiting for it to be repaired, Spock asks Number One numerous questions and they bond over their similarities. Cast : Rebecca Romijn as Number One,Ethan Peck as Spock, andAnson Mount asChristopher Pike | ||||||
| 6 | 2 | "The Trouble with Edward" | Daniel Gray Longino | Graham Wagner | October 10, 2019 (2019-10-10) | |
On the USSCabot, science officer Edward Larkin tries to solve a planet's food shortage by adding human DNA totribbles, against his captain's orders, creating a species that is born pregnant and reproduces at an exponential rate. TheCabot is overrun and Larkin dies when he is trapped under multiplying tribbles and left behind while the rest of the crew escapes. Cast : Anson Mount as Christopher Pike,Rosa Salazar as Lynne Lucero, andH. Jon Benjamin as Edward Larkin | ||||||
| 7 | 3 | "Ask Not" | Sanji Senaka | Kalinda Vazquez | November 14, 2019 (2019-11-14) | |
When Starbase 28 is attacked, Cadet Thira Sidhu is given care of a mutinous prisoner: Captain Christopher Pike of theEnterprise. Pike tries to pressure Sidhu into releasing him, but she refuses. He then reveals it is a simulated test that Sidhu has passed, allowing her to join the crew of theEnterprise. Cast : Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, Ethan Peck as Spock, Rebecca Romijn as Number One, andAmrit Kaur as Thira Sidhu | ||||||
| 8 | 4 | "Ephraim and Dot" | Michael Giacchino | Chris Silvestri & Anthony Maranville | December 12, 2019 (2019-12-12) | |
Ephraim, atardigrade looking for a place to lay her eggs, crosses paths with the USSEnterprise and is attacked by a repair drone named Dot. When theEnterprise self-destructs, Dot helps save Ephraim's eggs. When the eggs hatch, the pair travel with the baby tardigrades together. Cast : Narrated byKirk Thatcher, witharchival recordings ofWilliam Shatner asJames T. Kirk,Ricardo Montalbán asKhan Noonien Singh, andGeorge Takei asHikaru Sulu | ||||||
| 9 | 5 | "The Girl Who Made the Stars" | Olatunde Osunsanmi | Brandon Schultz | December 12, 2019 (2019-12-12) | |
YoungMichael Burnham's father eases her fear of the dark by telling her a story about a young African girl. In the story, the girl's people fear the dark because of a predatory Night Beast, but she braves the night and discovers an alien that gifts her new light. The girl uses this to create the stars, and grows up to be a warrior queen. Cast : Kenric Green as Mike Burnham and Kyrie McAlpin as Michael Burnham | ||||||
| 10 | 6 | "Children of Mars" | Mark Pellington | Kirsten Beyer &Jenny Lumet &Alex Kurtzman | January 9, 2020 (2020-01-09) | |
Two schoolgirls on Earth develop a fierce rivalry but are drawn together by a tragedy when they see news of Mars and its shipyard facilities (where both girls have family working) attacked by rogue synthetics. During the news footage an image of AdmiralJean-Luc Picard appears, with the network reporting that Picard called the attack "devastating". Cast : Ilamaria Ebrahim as Kima and Sadie Munroe as Lil | ||||||
In June 2018, after becoming soleshowrunner of the seriesStar Trek: Discovery,Alex Kurtzman signed a five-year overall deal withCBS Television Studios to expand theStar Trek franchise beyondDiscovery to several new series, miniseries, and animated series.[3] A month later, he announced atSan Diego Comic-Con that a spin-off miniseries titledStar Trek: Short Treks, consisting of four shorts, would be released monthly between the first two seasons ofDiscovery. He said they would "deliver closed-ended stories while revealing clues about what's to come in futureStar Trek: Discovery episodes. They'll also introduce audiences to new characters who may inhabit the larger world ofStar Trek." The shorts were expected to be around 10 to 15 minutes long.[1][4]
Kurtzman saidShort Treks was devised as a way to buy time so they could get thesecond season ofDiscovery right. The shorts were designed to tie-in with the second season ofDiscovery, but appear standalone at first so those connections would be a surprise for fans.[5]CBS CCODavid Nevins indicated in December 2018 that there would be more shorts released between the end ofDiscovery's second season and the release of the new seriesStar Trek: Picard.[2] A month later,CBS All Access was confirmed to have ordered two new animated installments ofShort Treks to be released in that time period. Kurtzman described the shorts as expanding "the definition ofStar Trek" and allowing them to tell "very intimate, emotional stories that are side stories to characters. So you get the benefit of the experience in and of itself but then when you watchDiscovery you'll see that these were all setting up things" in the main series.[6] Kurtzman suggested in February that future shorts could tie directly into other newStar Trek series, and be used to introduce ideas to audiences and set up mysteries.[7] At San Diego Comic-Con 2019, Kurtzman announced that the second season ofShort Treks would consist of four new live-action shorts in addition to the two animated shorts previously announced, including one that ties-intoPicard.[5]
After the second set of shorts were released, Kurtzman said the series was an interesting way to test both new stories and new filmmakers, with writers, directors, and composers on the shorts going on to work on otherStar Trek series. He also said this short-form story telling was satisfying, comparing the shorts tothose created by Pixar.[8] He revealed that one of the first ideas discussed forShort Treks was a story featuringNichelle Nichols in her originalStar Trek role ofUhura. The short would have seen a youngJean-Luc Picard visit Uhura in hospital and receive a mission related to theBorg. These discussions led to the development ofStar Trek: Picard with an older Jean-Luc Picard, but Kurtzman said this story could still be told at some point.[9]
Short Treks was reportedly ordered for a third season in January 2020,[10] with production scheduled to take place from May to June.[11] Chabon said in March that there were no plans for any shorts based onPicard to be released between thefirst andsecond seasons of that series.[12] No other shorts had begun production by July, when the series received anEmmy Award nomination. Kurtzman said he hoped the accolade would lead to moreShort Treks being made and he wanted to use future shorts to expand the franchise in new directions such as a musical short or a black-and-white short.[13] In January 2021, Kurtzman explained that further shorts had not been made due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, since the restrictions on filming meant they had to focus on what they definitely needed to film for the main series. He expressed interest in making more shorts in the future.[14]
Of the initial four shorts ordered in July 2018, three were set to each focus on a character fromDiscovery:Mary Wiseman's Silvia Tilly,Doug Jones's Saru, andRainn Wilson'sHarry Mudd. Jones's short would explore the backstory of Saru, while Wilson would also direct the short that he was starring in.Aldis Hodge was set to star in the fourth short as a new character, Craft.[1][4] The shorts were produced on the set ofDiscovery inToronto, Canada.[15] In August, Wilson revealed that his short was written by a writer from the popular science fiction animated seriesRick and Morty and described it as "very funny and weird. You see some alien situations you have never seen before in theStar Trek canon, and I am thrilled." He added that in making the short he assumed it was set after his lastDiscovery appearance, "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad", but he was not certain of this since it is standalone and does not directly tie-in toDiscovery.[16] TheRick and Morty writer of his short was later revealed to beStar Trek fanMike McMahan,[15] who went on to create the animated comedy seriesStar Trek: Lower Decks.[17]
Wiseman explained in October 2018 that her short, titled "Runaway", expands on Tilly's character and introduces her mother but otherwise would not affect the second season, so anyone who did not see the short could still understand the main series. Because of this, she did not have an exact placement of the short in the series' timeline though Jones pointed out that Tilly's hair style changes between the two seasons ofDiscovery and her hair in the short matches with the style from the second season. Jones confirmed that his short, "The Brightest Star", is set beforeDiscovery and explores how Saru first joins Starfleet. He said the short has "breadcrumbs" and "hints" for the events ofDiscovery's second season, but the idea was still for the short and the second season to stand alone.[18] NovelistMichael Chabon joined the series as the writer of Hodge's short, "Calypso", throughDiscovery executive producerAkiva Goldsman who he had been working with on a film project. Chabon went on to be the showrunner ofStar Trek: Picard. This short was the first work Chabon wrote for television to actually be produced.[19] "Calypso" is set in the far future when theDiscovery's computer has become a sentientAI named Zora. Thethird season ofDiscovery began building towards this future by introducing an early version of Zora.[20]
AfterAnson Mount was confirmed to be leavingDiscovery with the second-season finale, fans began calling, including through online petitions, for him to reprise his role ofChristopher Pike in a spin-off set on theUSSEnterprise, alongsideRebecca Romijn asNumber One andEthan Peck asSpock. Mount and Peck both responded positively to the idea.[21][22] In April 2019, Kurtzman also expressed interest, saying, "The fans have been heard. Anything is possible in the world ofTrek. I would love to bring back that crew more than anything."[23] When announcing the second season ofShort Treks at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, Kurtzman said three of the new stories would feature theEnterprise actors, with the fourth live-action short being a "teaser" forPicard set 15 years before the start of that series. Kurtzman said theEnterprise-based shorts were a way to bring those characters and actors back now thatDiscovery had jumped into the future for its third season, but they would not preclude a potential spin-off series from being made.[5] When a spin-off series starring Mount, Peck, and Romijn was officially ordered by CBS All Access in May 2020, Dominic Patten ofDeadline Hollywood opined that theEnterprise-setShort Treks retroactively appeared to be "rehearsals" for the series, which was titledStar Trek: Strange New Worlds.[24] For "The Trouble with Edward", Kurtzman brought inCasper Kelly to work on the "faux Tribbles cereal commercial"post-credits scene. This led to Kelly creating the comedic, non-canon shorts seriesStar Trek: very Short Treks.[25]
Kurtzman explained in February 2019 that the first two animated shorts would have a different animation style from the seriesLower Decks. He added that the first short would be directed byDiscovery producing directorOlatunde Osunsanmi and the second would be directed by composerMichael Giacchino (who wrote the score for theStar Trek reboot films that Kurtzman wrote).[26] ProducerHeather Kadin said the animated shorts would answer questions that previousDiscovery seasons had left and "fill in some blanks", while Kurtzman elaborated that the two shorts would have different animation styles from one another based on the story and tone of each installment.[27]Pixomondo provided the animation for the shorts.[28][29]
The ideas for the two shorts were set before Giacchino joined, and he was able to choose which one he would direct.[28] He chose "Ephraim and Dot", which focuses on a female tardigrade and a DOT-7 repair droid.[30]Discovery originally included a tardigrade named Ephraim as a starring character, but the idea was abandoned due to budgetary requirements. A male tardigrade named Ephraim was then introduced as a major character in theDiscovery tie-in novelDead Endless.[30][31] DOT-7 repair droids were introduced in the second-season finale ofDiscovery.[30] Giacchino wanted the short to be like an episode ofTom and Jerry set on theEnterprise. The original designs for Ephraim were based on the tardigrades that Pixomondo created forDiscovery, which looked much more like real tardigrades, but Giacchino asked to add eyes and a mouth to the character model so she could express emotions clearly throughout the short. Similarly, the model for Dot was designed to stretch and move in ways that a real robot would not to help show more emotion from the character. This stretching was part of Giacchino's aim to use traditional animation techniques, such as those seen in the works ofTex Avery, to give the short a moreretro style than modern, computer-generated animation generally has.[28] The short takes place across 30 years ofStar Trek history, and Giacchino was excited to include several easter eggs to other parts of theStar Trek franchise.[28][30] The short recreates scenes from theStar Trek: The Original Series episodes "Space Seed", "The Naked Time", "Who Mourns for Adonais?", "The Doomsday Machine", "The Tholian Web", and "The Savage Curtain", as well as the filmsStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) andStar Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984).[30] Original audio from some of the episodes was reused for these scenes.[28] The short ends with the USSEnterprise labelled asNCC-1701-A, which is a different ship from later in the franchise's timeline. Giacchino acknowledged this mistake after the episode's release and indicated that it could be addressed moving forward.[30]
Osunsanmi's "The Girl Who Made the Stars" originated fromDiscovery writer Brandon Schulze wanting to expand on the character of Mike Burnham, father of that series' protagonistMichael Burnham, as Schulze identified with the character as a black man with a young daughter. Schulze co-wrote the episode that introduced Kenric Green as Mike inDiscovery, and pitched an idea for the second-season finale where Mike would be shown in flashback telling the story of a young African girl to Michael. This would have mirrored the second-season premiere where Michael recounts that story herself. The flashback did not fit in the season finale, but Kurtzman liked the idea and it was developed into an animated episode ofShort Treks with Green reprising his role. The story is based on an actual African legend, but Schulze wanted to bring the ideas of the myth into the world ofStar Trek and embellish the original ideas based on Michael's imagination, which included introducing an alien being into the story.[32] Osunsanmi was comfortable working with Pixomondo for the short after collaborating with the company on the visual effects forDiscovery as a director on that show. He explained that the short was animated to try capture the magical feeling they wanted the story to have, and because of this he did not want the style to be too realistic. The designs of the Burnhams were based on their appearances inDiscovery while the African part of the short was based on images of Africa and African tribes from across the continent.[29]
Star Trek: Discovery composerJeff Russo returned for the first season ofShort Treks. He based the main theme for the series on hisDiscovery title theme, and he was able to produce a different version of it for "The Escape Artist" which is not something Russo had been able to do for any episodes of the main series. Russo approached each short's underscore individually. He was unsure how to approach the score for "Calypso" at first, and whether to have it similar to the music forDiscovery due to that ship's presence or to intentionally make it different due to the different time that the short is set in. Russo was ultimately inspired for the music by the dance sequence in the short.[33] Three cues from Russo's "The Escape Artist" score—"Many Mudds", "Star Trek Short Treks End Credits (Lounge Version)", and "Star Trek Short Treks Main Title (Disco Version)"—were released on the soundtrack album forthe second season ofDiscovery alongside Russo's score for that season. The album was released digitally byLakeshore Records on July 19, 2019.[34]
By the time work began on the second set of shorts, Russo was working on the score forPicard and did not have time to score each of the new shorts, though Kurtzman still asked him to compose the music for "Children of Mars" since that short ties-intoPicard.[35] Giacchino was set to compose the music for his short "Ephraim and Dot",[36] and Kurtzman asked him to provide music for the rest of the shorts as well. Giacchino was busy with film projects at the time, but suggested hiring a diverse group of composers who had not been given such an opportunity which he felt was in the spirit ofStar Trek.[37] Giacchino supervised this group of composers,[36] which consisted ofNami Melumad for "Q&A",[38][37] Sahil Jindal for "The Trouble with Edward",[39][37] Andrea Datzman for "Ask Not",[40] andKris Bowers for "The Girl Who Made the Stars".[30][37] Two cues from Russo's "Children of Mars" score—"Page" and "Children Of Mars End Credits"—were released on the soundtrack album forthe first season ofPicard on February 7, 2020.[41] Melumad went on to compose forStrange New Worlds andStar Trek: Prodigy.[42][43][44]
The shorts were released on CBS All Access in the United States.[1]Bell Media broadcast the series in Canada on the specialty channelsCTV Sci-Fi Channel (English) andZ (French) before streaming them onCrave.[45] The first four shorts were released monthly, beginning in October 2018 and ending in January 2019.[45] At the end of January the first set of shorts were made available to countries outside of the U.S. and Canada onNetflix under the "Trailers and More" section of the streaming service'sStar Trek: Discovery page.[46] The first two shorts of the second season were released in October 2019 in the U.S. and Canada, with monthly releases through January 2020.[47] After the second set of shorts had all been released on All Access, Kurtzman said he expected they would be released on Netflix "at some point".[8] The second season was made available for free in the U.S. on CBS.com, CBS mobile apps, andYouTube from August 17 to 31, 2020, as part of the series' Emmy Awards campaign.[48] In September 2020,ViacomCBS announced that CBS All Access would be expanded and rebranded as Paramount+ in March 2021,[49] with the existing episodes ofShort Treks remaining on Paramount+.[50] In August 2023,Star Trek content was removed from Crave so it could be released in Canada on Paramount+.[51]
The two shorts from the first set that tie directly into the second season ofDiscovery, "Runaway" and "The Brightest Star", were included on theBlu-ray andDVD set of that season alongside all the season's episodes and several bonus features. This was released in the U.S. on November 12, 2019.[52] A home media release collecting nine of the shorts was released in the U.S. on June 2, 2020. It includes the four original shorts—"Runaway", "Calypso", "The Brightest Star", and "The Escape Artist"—the three USSEnterprise-based shorts—"Q&A", "The Trouble With Edward", and "Ask Not"—and the first two animated shorts—"Ephraim & Dot" and "The Girl Who Made the Stars". The collection also includes making-of featurettes as well as audio commentaries with writers Alex Kurtzman andJenny Lumet for "Runaway" and star Anson Mount for "Ask Not".[53] "Children of Mars" was released on October 6, 2020, on the home media set forPicard's first season which includes all of that season's episodes. The release also includes an audio commentary for the short with writers Kurtzman, Lumet, andKirsten Beyer.[54]
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In a positive review,IGN's Scott Collura mostly praised the series after the release of the first four episodes saying, "TheShort Treks have been an interesting experiment that have mostly worked, and it seems with this final installment that theTrek production team was just starting to nail the formula down."[55] In 2020,Space.com recommended watching the short "Children of Mars" as background forStar Trek: Picard.[56]
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Golden Reel Awards | Live Action Under 35:00 | "The Brightest Star" | Won | [57] |
| Costume Designers Guild Awards | Excellence in Short Film Design | Gersha Phillips (for "The Brightest Star") | Nominated | [58] | |
| 2020 | Golden Reel Awards | Live Action Under 35:00 | "The Trouble with Edward" | Nominated | [59] |
| Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series | Star Trek: Short Treks | Nominated | [60] |
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