'Star Trek: Discovery' Is Being Hit Hard By Piracy

The biggest threat to the crew of the Discovery may not be Klingons, but pirates instead.

And no, that's not space pirates, but real pirates. The premiere episode of Star Trek: Discovery, "The Vulcan Hello," is currently the twelfth most actively pirated episode of television on piracy hub The Pirate Bay.

Discovery's second episode, "Battle at the Binary Star," which also debuted on Sunday is on the list at number 19.

The Pirate Bay's top-downloaded television list is typically dominated by episodes of HBO's Game of Thrones, which has been the most pirated show on television for years, and Adult Swim's Rick & Morty.

CBS has drawn criticism from some circles for releasing Star Trek: Discovery, the first new Star Trek television series in over a decade, exclusively on CBS All Access, the network's streaming service.

"The Vulcan Hello" aired on CBS on Sunday night as a way to entice viewers into signing up for CBS All Access, where "Battle at the Binary Stars" was already available to stream.

The plan seems to have worked. "The Vulcan Hello" was watched by nearly 10 million viewers on CBS and the premiere of Discovery drew a record-high number of new CBS All Access sign-ups.

CBS has put a lot behind Star Trek: Discovery. The series carries a per episode budget comparable to that of Game of Thrones. CBS expects the series to lead the charge in driving CBS All Access' subscription numbers to more than 4 million by 2020.

Star Trek: Discovery is CBS All Access's second original scripted series. The first was The Good Fight, a spinoff of CBS drama The Good Wife, which premiered earlier in 2017. The first episode of The Good Fight also aired on CBS in an attempt to attract attention in the same manner as CBS has done with Discovery.

If Discovery proves successful, more Star Trek series could be on the horizon, including a Star Trek anthology series or the rumored prequel about Khan Noonien Singh.

So far, the reactions to Star Trek: Discovery have been mostly positive. New episodes will stream on CBS All Access Sundays at 8:30 p.m. ET.