Amazon Prime Video limits global debut of Star Trek: Picard season 3

Amazon Prime Video is boldly going where no Star Trek series has gone before, by withholding the premiere of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 from its streaming service in some markets. 

The third season of the Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) sequel, starring Sir Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Jean-Luc Picard, the once proud Captain of the starship USS Enterprise-D, debuted on Feb 16 on American streaming service Paramount+, and was reported to have meant to premiere on Amazon’s Prime Video service 24-hours later, as Paramount+ hasn’t been made available globally yet.

Instead, fans of the latest Star Trek series, which also reunites the cast and crew from the original TNG series, including Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker, Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi, Michael Dorn as Worf, Gates McFadden as Beverly Crusher, and Levar Burton as Geordi La Forge, have not been able to stream the new series on Prime Video.

Brent Spiner, who played the character of the android Data, up to the character’s death in Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) reprises his role as Data’s evil android twin brother, Lore, while TNG guest star Daniel Davis returns as Holodeck character, Professor Moriarty.

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Both the first and second season of Star Trek: Picard, along with animated spin-off Star Trek: Lower Decks are streaming on Prime Video. While Paramount+ is the new home of new Star Trek shows, it is currently only available in select markets, including the US, the UK, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, Australia, Italy, Ireland and South Korea. 

Not all of Paramount+’s original shows are also released on Prime Video, and this includes Yellowstone, a top-rated drama starring Kevin Costner. 

When contacted, representatives for Prime Video did not respond to queries as to why the final voyage of The Next Generation crew cannot be enjoyed by global fans of the sci-fi series.

This article was first published in Geek Culture.