With the coronavirus quarantines keeping large groups of people home, streaming services are working to provide incentives to gain eyeballs, and eventually subscribers. WWE Network, earlier this week, took a large amount of historical content out from behind its paywall.

Now, CBS All Access has made an offer of its own, with a deal involving its series Star Trek: Picard.

The offer was announced in an Instagram post by the show's star, Patrick Stewart. Below a two-minute video about the Picard show in which Stewart himself and others from with Star Trek extoll the values-"living honestly, being compassionate" long associated with the Trek universe, Stewart added the text of the offer: Ahead of the first season finale of the show this Thursday, fans can "watch for free on @CBSAllAccess in the US with the code: GIFT."

The offer is somewhat convoluted and has been described in different ways by different media outlets. But it essentially amounts to a one-month free trial that allows those signing up to watch all of CBS All Access, and not just Picard.

After the free month, CBS All Access costs $5.99 with "limited commercials," or $9.99 a month "commercial-free." 

Some also treated Stewart's line about how "I can't wait to reunite with our cast and crew for Season 2" as a news-making announcement, but CBS All Access had announced the renewal for a second season months ago, before the first one debuted.

Picard, which has received mixed-to-positive reviews, is a sequel to Star Trek: The Next Generation, the hit syndicated series that ran in the 1990s, and led to four movies featuring Stewart and the rest of the Next Generation cast.

Stewart, who will celebrate his 80th birthday this July, returned to the Picard role for the first time since the film Star Trek: Nemesis. He stars on the show along with Alison Pill, Harry Treadaway, and Isa Briones, with such Star Trek veterans as Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner and Jeri Ryan also making appearances on Picard.

CBS All Access launched in October of 2014, focused on CBS programming, although its first marquee series was another Star Trek show, Star Trek: Discovery, which debuted in 2017 and will roll out its third season later this year.

Per Statista, CBS All Access had around 4 million subscribers as of February of 2019; following the re-merger last year of Viacom and CBS, the company now announces combined subscriber figures for CBS All Access and Showtime's streaming platform.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. 

Image Credit: Actor Patrick Stewart attends the premiere of "Star Trek: Picard" in London, Britain January 15, 2020. REUTERS/Simon Dawson.