Be sure to divert auxiliary power to the warp containment field, because there’s enough “Star Trek” news here to cause an overload.
This year’s red carpet “Star Trek” Day event saw an impressive line of cast members past and present, including Patrick Stewart, Kate Mulgrew and Robert Picardo, together with Kenneth Mitchell, Jeri Ryan, Michelle Hurd, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Rebecca Romijn, the awesome Celia Rose Gooding and many more.
Here’s our complete, all-you-need-to-know guide to all the news, teasers, images and air dates that were announced this year.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
“Star Trek” Day saw the announcement that Carol Kane will be joining the second season of “Strange New Worlds.” If you’re not familiar with Kane’s work — and many outside of the US might not be — she’s an accomplished comedy and drama actor who’s appeared in epic movies like, “The Princess Bride,” “Scrooged” and “License to Drive” plus variety of television shows, including “Taxi,” Gotham” and “Hunters.”Â
She will play a character named Pelia and, according to the official blurb, she is “highly educated and intelligent, this engineer suffers no fools. Pelia solves problems calmly and brusquely, thanks to her many years of experience.” So, evidently she replaces Lt. Hemmer (Bruce Horak) who took one for the team in the episode “All Those Who Wander” (S01, E09).
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In addition, a new teaser for season two of “Strange New Worlds” dropped, showing Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) excited for a rare away team assignment with Captain Pike (Anson Mount), Lt. La’An Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) and Dr. M’Benga (Babs Olosukomun).
Related: ‘Strange New Worlds’ is most watched Star Trek show on Paramount+
Star Trek: Lower Decks
A new exclusive scene was released from the forthcoming “Star Trek: Lower Decks” episode entitled “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus,” in which Ensign Boimler’s (Jack Quaid) holodeck movie sequel tries to live up to the original, as seen in season one.
In addition, an image was released from the as yet unnamed eighth episode of the third season, which looks like the USS Cerritos is fighting alongside a Sovereign Class starship. Unfortunately, we don’t know yet if these two tidbits are from the same episode.
Related: ‘Lower Decks’ Season 3 is here and you can watch the first episode free
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Star Trek: Prodigy
“Star Trek: Prodigy” will have its mid-season return on Thursday, Oct. 27, and Billy Campbell will be joining the season one voice cast with a recurring role. Campbell will reprise his “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Lower Decks” role as Thadiun Okona, a roguish space captain who’s constantly outrunning trouble caused by his own tactics. According to the press release, “When he runs into the young, impressionable Protostar crew, he’ll soon discover they are in more hot water than he is.”
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“From early on in the writers’ room, we knew we wanted Captain Thadiun Okona to return and become a questionable guide to our impressionable crew,” said executive producers Kevin and Dan Hageman in a statement. “It was so much fun to not only explore where Okona’s outrageous life has taken him in his later years, but to also work with Billy Campbell who effortlessly fell back into the role of Okona like he had never left.”
Okona appeared in the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episode “The Outrageous Okona” (S02, E04) and more recently, the “Lower Decks” episode “An Embarrassment of Dooplers” (S02, E05).
Plus, we were given an exclusive clip from the second half of season one as the crew of the USS Protostar and Captain Okona flee from Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) to protect Starfleet from a dangerous weapon.
Star Trek: Picard
Feeling positively spoiled for “Star Trek” news, Paramount also saw fit to give us a teaser for the third and final season of “Picard” that includes some glorious shots of Starfleet’s “spacedock” space station and the USS Titan. The 10-episode long final season will begin on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023.
Related: ‘Picard’ Season 2 finale will leave you feeling somewhat shortchanged
Joining Patrick Stewart for this final nostalgic return to all things “Next Generation” is LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Worf), Jonathan Frakes (William Riker), Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), Brent Spiner (another Soong variant?), Jeri Ryan (Seven) and Michelle Hurd (Raffi). Sadly, no story summary was given.
Star Trek: Discovery
Finally, since the fifth season of “Star Trek: Discovery” is right in the middle of principal photography in Toronto, we were given a behind-the-scenes video tour with stars Sonequa Martin-Green (Capt. Michael Burnham) and Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber), plus a first look photo from the new season.Â
Will a strange anomaly threaten the entire galaxy? Will billions of lives be threatened? Will Starfleet and the crew of the USS Discovery have to unite and dig deep, facing their own mortality and risking their lives for the greater good…again?Â
The official seasonal story summary is “Burnham and the crew of the Discovery uncover a mystery that sends them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries. Â But there are others on the hunt as well; dangerous foes who are desperate to claim the prize for themselves and will stop at nothing to get it.”
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Will the journey from ‘monster-of-the-week’ to ‘anomaly-of-the-season’ continue unabated? We will have to see. Although no air date has been given, we can expect to see the fifth season of “Discovery” to air sometime in Q1 of 2023. Interestingly, Mary Wiseman is listed as returning cast, in addition to all the regulars, but there’s no word yet of how long the season will be and whether or not we’ll have to endure a mid-season break.Â
Related: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 4 ends with a disappointing finale. Again.
After all of those television series announcements, there were the panels.
And here’s a complete breakdown of everything in that 2 hour and 20 minute video…
• 5:57 Cast interviews with Jackie Cox and Mary Chieffo on the red carpet
• 36:44 Opening
• 40:19 James MacKinnon, “Picard” head of makeup
• 45:25 “Picard” panel
• 56:35 “Discovery” set tour with Wilson Cruz
• 1:04:12 “Star Trek” Online update preview
• 1:08:20 Wil Wheaton interview
• 1:24:29 “Lower Decks” panel
• 1:35:22 Brian Posehn, musician and “Lower Decks” voice talent
• 1:41:35 “Prodigy” panel
• 1:48:42 Tribute to Nichelle Nichols with Celia Rose Gooding
• 1:53:00 Alex Kurtzman, showrunner
• 1:53:30 The Pod Directive season 3
• 1:56:10 Ceti Alpha V Podcast with Nicholas Meyer
• 2:05:38 “Strange New Worlds” panel
Every episode of every “Star Trek” show currently streams exclusively on Paramount Plus in the US. Internationally, the shows are available on Paramount Plus in Australia, Latin America, the UK, and South Korea, as well as on Pluto TV in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel. They will also stream exclusively on Paramount Plus in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria later this year. In Canada, they air on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and stream on Crave.Â
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