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Small Screen: Star Trek: Discovery available on DVD late this year

You have questions. I have some answers.
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CBS has announced Season 1 of Star Trek: Discovery will arrive on DVD and Blu-ray on Nov. 13.

You have questions. I have some answers.

Q: When will Season 1 of the new “Star Trek” series be available on DVD?

A: I was beginning to wonder when CBS might release a set of “Star Trek: Discovery,” which has been used to draw customers to its All Access subscription-streaming service. But the company has announced Season 1 will arrive on DVD and Blu-ray on Nov. 13, with many promised extras including deleted and extended scenes, looks at the props, costumes and production design — and subtitles in Klingon. The second season of “Discovery” is due early in 2019. And, in case you missed it, there is another “Star Trek” series in the works, with Patrick Stewart returning as “Star Trek: The Next Generation”’s Jean-Luc Picard for a show about the next chapter in Picard’s life.

Q: Will there be more of “Call the Midwife”? Love that show.

A: Yes. U.S. viewers have seen seven seasons of the series so far, and two more seasons are planned. Look for a Christmas special and then the eighth season around Spring 2019 on PBS; the ninth season will arrive in 2020. According to Good Housekeeping’s UK website, “At the start of series eight, it’s spring time in 1964 and everyone is excited for the Queen’s Royal birth (of Prince Edward). Violet is holding a Teddy Bears’ Picnic and raising funds through a competition on whether the Queen will have a boy or a girl. With the additions of the two new Sisters, who have been sent to live and work with the team in Poplar, Nonnatus House feels full once more.”

Q: Did they cancel “Bull”? I see advertisements for “FBI” on Tuesdays on CBS. Where’s “Bull”?

A: The legal drama starring Michael Weatherly will be back for a third season on Sept. 24. But after two cozy seasons following “NCIS” (where Weatherly used to co-star), “Bull” is moving to Monday nights, taking over the slot vacated by the cancelled “Scorpion.” That lets “FBI” — the new series from producer Dick Wolf — move into “Bull’s” old Tuesday time, hammocked between the returning “NCIS” and “NCIS: New Orleans.”

Q: My kids watch reruns of “Full House.” Would you happen to know the name of a boy around 10 or 12 years old who performed in school plays with one “Full House” girl and sang on the show. He was really great! Whatever happened to him?

A: That was Blake McIver, at times billed as Blake McIver Ewing or Blake Ewing, who played Derek on the comedy. In addition to onscreen acting and animated-voice work, he has been a model and a musician. He has a stage show, “Blake Sings Barbra,” that is part tribute to Barbra Streisand, part autobiography, and in July appeared in “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical” with the Uptown Players in Dallas. His website is blakemciverofficial.com and he is on Twitter as @BlakeMcIver.

Q: I absolutely love Turner Classic Movies. How is it possible that its wonderful movies can be shown without commercial interruption (for which I’ll be forever grateful)?

A: TCM gets compensation from the cable and satellite companies that carry it — and is likely to be carried not only for its unique offering but as part of a vast media company holding a large batch of Turner channels, also including TNT and TBS, among others. It sells lots of TCM-themed merchandise. And its costs are relatively low; there’s not much demand from other channels for those old movies we love, and TCM has stayed away from more expensive, original programs like the ones you see on channels such as AMC, which went to commercials and originals because it could not match TCM at getting ad-free classic movies. (And that’s a blessing, too, since AMC’s change in strategy brought us “Mad Men” and other fine series.)