Star Trek Discovery: First new Trek series in a decade now available

Star Trek has returned to television more than a decade after the conclusion of Star Trek Enterprise, the last major outing on the small screen for Gene Roddenberry's iconic science fiction series.

Star Trek Discovery aired last night (24 September) on US network CBS, with the second episode following immediately afterwards on the channel's All Access streaming service. For those outside of North America, both episodes will be available on Netflix.

Episodes will continue to be broadcast weekly.

The series stars Sonequa Martin-Green as a promising first officer of the United Federation of Planets raised by Vulcans. Called Michael Burnham, she finds herself caught up in a war that erupts between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.

Discovery is set roughly 10 years before the start of the original 1960s TV series starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.

Episodes one and two are called The Vulcan Hello and Battle at the Binary Stars, and will be followed by six more episodes that will form the first chapter of this first season. A second chapter consisting of seven episodes will begin streaming in January 2018.

Discovery also stars Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Michelle Yeoh and Jason Isaacs. The Office's Rainn Wilson is also set to appear as original series villain Harry Mudd.

For Martin-Green the starring role marks a turning point in the 32-year-old actor's career, having made her name in AMC series The Walking Dead, in which she played Sasha Williams for five years before her final appearance earlier this year.

Over the years there have been seven Star Trek TV series. The original was followed by an animation in the 70s, then by The Next Generation - famous for Patrick Stewart's role as Jean Luc Picard - in the late 80s and early 90s. Deep Space Nine ran from 1993 to 1999, Voyager from 1995 to 2001 and Enterprise from 2001 to 2005.

This includes the big screen outings, which found recent success between the latest two TV series in the form of JJ Abrams reboot of the original canon in 2009, 2013 follow-up Star Trek Into Darkness and last year's Star Trek Beyond.

Also coming to CBS and Netflix is After Trek, a discussion show with special guests which will air weekly after each new episode.