How To Watch Star Trek: Picard For Free
Any Star Trek fan who’s earned his or her rank already knows a new series is coming early next year. This is especially true for fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as the new show focuses on Next Gen’s captain the great Jean-Luc Picard.
Watching On The CBS App
If you want to watch it, you will have to do so on the CBS All Access app, as that is currently the only platform Picard will be shown on. This is the agreement that was entered into by the powers that be when the show was still in its development phase.
Picard was originally restricted to the CBS All Access app to make more people buy a subscription to it. Now though, Patrick Stewart has decided to give the entire first season of the show away for free, as a gift.
Patrick explains how to get Star Trek: Picard for free on the following Instagram video accompanied by a moving video about the history of Star Trek…
CBS has traditionally offered television shows that aired on its network through the app as opposed to offering them on demand through a cable or satellite subscription. Streaming an original show solely through the app is relatively new for CBS but it does make good business sense. It has worked out for them with Star Trek: Discovery, which is already a CBS All Access app exclusive. It’s likely this trend of app exclusive content will only continue.
How Do You Get CBS All Access App?
As streaming services go, All Access is one of the most user-friendly apps available. If you are even the least bit familiar with modern technology, you shouldn’t have any problems.
To add CBS All Access to your tablet or phone, start by browsing to the CBS All Access website and signing up for a subscription. You’ll need a credit card and you’ll have a choice between two different plans. You can choose the lowest cost plan at $5.99 per month, but if you want to watch without annoying commercials, you can pay $9.99 monthly. They even give you a free trial for seven days so you can see if it’s a good fit for you.
Once you have paid for your subscription, which is billed monthly, you can access All Access on your laptop, tablet or smartphone by downloading the CBS All Access app. You’ll find it in the app store for your device. Once you download it and sign in, you’ll have access to Star Trek: Picard and everything else offered by CBS including their extensive back catalog of old shows of all types. Yes that means old episodes of Star Trek. The original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and even Enterprise are all there waiting for you to revisit over and over again.
If you’d rather watch Star Trek: Picard on your TV than your phone, you’ll need a Roku, FireTV, Chromecast, AppleTV or similar television streaming device. From there you’ll be able to install the app and sign in to your existing CBS account.
What is Star Trek: Picard?
Titled Star Trek: Picard, this new CBS enterprise has released a few trailers. Here’s the best one:
Picard will not simply pick up where Star Trek: The Next Generation left off. 25-years have passed since TNG left the air and 17-years have warped by since the last Next Gen movie, Nemesis. The writers of this new series have taken that into consideration.
Picard, the venerable captain of the USS Enterprise, has long since retired. Star Trek: Picard finds the former leader what should be his retirement, on the long-fabled Chateau Picard vineyard. The twist is that he gets caught up in a compelling situation which forces him to make a decision. This puts him back into a position to influence key events, but it won’t be from the bridge of the Enterprise. That being said, it looks like there will be plenty of action and some interesting plot lines. In addition, fans will have the opportunity to see some old favorites from the previous series, including Marina Sirtis and Brent Spiner. Jonathan Frakes will also guest star as Riker. He’ll be active behind the camera as well, serving as the director for a number of episodes.
Can You Watch Star Trek: Picard Without CBS All Access?
Most Star Trek lovers will happily pay for a subscription so they can watch the new show. However, some have wondered if it will ever become available on another platform such as Netflix or Hulu. Anything is possible but it isn’t in the cards for now. If you decide to hold out and hope that Picard shows up on something else you already have a subscription to, you might be waiting for a very long time. Star Trek: Discovery is already entering its third season, and has yet to find its way to availability outside the CBS All Access ecosphere. It’s likely that Star Trek: Picard may never become available on any other platform, especially as the market for the various streaming apps heats up even more in the future.
Get moving and beam on to the CBS All Access app now. Star Trek: Picard debuts there and only there on January 23, 2020. See you in the Gene Roddenberry future.
