Space (channel)

Space (or SPACE) is a Canadian broadcasting channel which is owned and operated by, a large telecommunications and media corporation. Its primary programming includes science fiction, fantasy, and horror-related series and documentaries. The station debuted in October 1997 with an airing of the film.

All six of the Star Trek television shows have been broadcast or re-run on the channel. The channel also airs marathons of the around Christmas and during the summer months.

The station was notable for being the only channel in the world to air all five live-action Star Trek series together on a regular Monday-to-Friday schedule for a number of years. However, other stations and networks such as the United States based Heroes & Icons have since accomplished this.

Star Trek broadcasts
After years of airing all five live-action series (and periodically, ), was dropped in 2007 and  was replaced by its remastered version in November 2009. re-runs ceased in September 2011.

In early July 2012, was removed from the summer lineup, leaving the remastered Original Series and  as the only Star Trek series left on Space. However, The Next Generation began to air again in September 2012 where it replaced The Original Series on the schedule. The first season of The Next Generation began to be shown in its high-definition remastered format at this time.

A marathon of The Original Series was aired on Space in March 2015 in remembrance of Leonard Nimoy.

On 26 February 2016, The Next Generation and Voyager aired for the last time on Space for six months. Both shows' episodes had run sequentially from Monday to Friday starting at 4:00 pm EST and were replayed twelve hours later. This marked the first time that Space had not aired a Star Trek program as part of its regular schedule in many years.

Beginning on 1 September 2016 and culminating on Labour Day, Space aired a ten-hour marathon each day celebrating the franchise's 50th anniversary with airings of each series' most popular episodes. The marathon started with Enterprise which was followed by Deep Space Nine, Voyager, The Next Generation, and The Original Series.

All five live-action Trek series were restored to the channel on 6 September 2016. On weekdays, Enterprise and Deep Space Nine aired in the morning while The Original Series, The Next Generation, and Voyager aired in the afternoon with repeat broadcasts later at night. A movie marathon featuring the first ten Trek films was shown during the holiday season of 2016.

In early 2017, a three hour block of Star Trek episodes were added on Friday nights. These episodes follow a particular theme, such as those involving time travel or a particular species. Episodes of The Big Bang Theory were later added before this block was discontinued.

Further changes were made in March, 2017 when Space removed airings of individual shows five days a week, and replaced them with a four-hour block of shows weekdays starting at 2 pm, with only one show airing each weekday. Enterprise airs on Mondays, The Next Generation on Tuesdays, Voyager on Wednesdays, Deep Space Nine on Thursdays, and The Original Series on Fridays. This was later altered in September 2017 when the block was pushed back an hour, and Enterprise and The Original Series switched days. Daily broadcasts continue in 2019.

The premiere episode of Star Trek: Discovery aired on Space, simulcasted with CTV and CBS. Unlike the latter two, the second episode of the series aired after the conclusion of the first episode. New episodes continue to air first run on Space Sundays at 8 pm EST. As of 2019, Space is the only broadcast network in the world airing first-run Discovery episodes, as in all other regions, the series is available only on streaming services such as CBS All-Access and Netflix. Space generally runs Discovery episodes uncut in an early-evening timeslot (8 p.m. EST, which means it airs as early as 5 p.m. in the western end of the country), which caused problems for the network in 2018 when the station was reprimanded by the Canadian broadcasting watchdog for its broadcast of the episode "Choose Your Pain", which featured heavy violence and the television franchise's first use of the word "fuck". The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled that Space violated rules on language and violence by airing the unedited episode prior to the watershed 9 p.m. cut-off without the appropriate viewer advisory warning. Despite the series airing in the US with a TV-MA rating, Space generally airs Discovery episodes - even "Choose Your Pain" - with a 14+ rating and occasionally even PG.

InnerSPACE
InnerSPACE, Space's daily genre news program, frequently featured Star Trek productions and its cast members. The show also produced the InnerSPACE: Behind The Scenes: Star Trek television special in 2009. The series was discontinued in 2018 after nine seasons.