CHICAGO — Heroes & Icons is boldly going where no television network has gone before — airing all five “Star Trek” series back to back.
Beginning July 24, Trekkies can binge on the original “Star Trek” and its spinoffs “The Next Generation,” “Deep Space Nine,” “Voyager” and “Enterprise” six nights a week on the digital TV network, which is owned by Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting.
Acquiring the rights to all five “Star Trek” series is a major programming evolution for the fledgling Heroes & Icons network, which currently runs a hodgepodge of 1980s cop shows, sprinkled with fantasy fare like “Xena: Warrior Princess” and other eclectic offerings.
“It’s defining for the H&I network,” Neal Sabin, vice chairman of Weigel Broadcasting, said Thursday. “No one has ever been able to put the five ‘Star Trek’ shows on at the same time, same place. We wanted something for this network to really set it apart.”
The original “Star Trek” series launched 50 years ago, following Capt. James T. Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise on a five-year mission to explore strange new worlds. The series, created by Gene Roddenberry, lasted for only three seasons on NBC but found a devoted following in reruns, spawning a franchise that has endured through numerous TV and movie iterations.
“All Star Trek” will play out like a disruption in the space-time continuum, going from sequel to prequel, low-tech to high-tech and swashbuckling to cerebral. It will run as a continuous five-hour block on Sundays from 7 p.m. to midnight, and on weeknights, with each series airing in sequence until their respective missions are completed. The “Star Trek” programming will run indefinitely.
Heroes & Icons debuted in September 2014 and is available in 57 percent of the U.S. through digital subchannels of broadcast TV stations and on cable systems, a platform that family-owned Weigel Broadcasting pioneered with its MeTV network.
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