A new extended teaser trailer for the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard dropped at NYCC.
It’s all hands on deck for Jean-Luc Picard and his old Enterprise crew in an extended teaser trailer for Star Trek: Picard which debuted this weekend at New York Comic Con. We also have a short first-look teaser for Star Trek: Discovery’s fifth season, currently in production, as well as a midseason trailer for the animated series, Star Trek: Prodigy.
(Some spoilers below.)
As fans know by now, Discovery takes place 20 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. The notable guests of the first season were Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis, who reprise their roles as William Riker and Deanna Troi, sparking rumors of the possible return of other Star Trek: The Next generation characters. Patrick Stewart personally invited Whoopi Goldberg to reprise her role as Guinan in S2, with John DeLancie also returning as Q, eager to host one last trial with his longtime friend Jean-Luc. We even saw the Borg Queen (now played by Annie Wersching), and Wesley Crusher’s (Wil Wheaton) shortest cameos.
At the end of the season, we said goodbye to three protagonists: Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill), who became the new Borg Queen; Chris Rios (Santiago Cabrera), who chose to remain on Earth in an alternate timeline from the past with the woman he fell in love with; and the Romulan Elnor (Evan Evagora), who was shot and eventually died early in S2, but showed up alive in a new timeline in the final moments of the finale.
That goodbye set the stage for the third and final season, as this time the showrunners pulled out all the stops in the name of fan service. In April, Paramount+ confirmed that LeVar Burton (Geordie LaForge), Michael Dorn (Worf) and Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher) would be reprising their debuts. TNG roles, along with Frakes and Sirtis. Brent Spiner reprized his role as Data in S1 before turning into Data’s creator, human cybernetician Dr. Noonien Soong from S2. In the third season, Spiner will reprise his role as Lore, a prototype of Android and Data’s “brother” first introduced in TNG. I think its deactivation in the TNG S7 Prime Minister was not “permanent” after all. Daniel Davis also returns as a guest star as the holographic Professor Moriarty (“Elementary, My Dear Data”, “Ship in a Bottle”).
New cast members include Mica Burton (daughter of LeVar) as Ensign Alandra La Forge and Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut as USS conn officer Sidney La Forge Titan— both children of Geordie. We also get a brand new villain for S3: Vadic (Amanda Plummer), captain of an alien ship called the Shrike. Judging by the teaser trailer, Vadic holds a major grudge against Picard and his crew and seems determined to exact revenge not just on him, but on Starfleet as a whole.
The trailer opens with Picard just trying to enjoy a quiet evening meal in peace, when he is interrupted by emissaries. We learn that he received a distress call from Beverly Crusher: “We are being hunted.” Enter Vadic, who wastes no time opening fire on Picard and his ship, chuckling in delight at the resulting damage. Reason enough to bring the old crew back, though a reluctant Worf lets everyone know that he now prefers pacifism over fighting. (“We’re all going to die,” Riker sighs.) Geordie doesn’t seem too excited about the prospect, either. But Vedic is menacing enough to overcome that reluctance. “We will scorch the earth under which he stands and the night will brighten with the ashes of the Federation,” Vedic declares, picking bits of landscape from her teeth. “But first we will take revenge.”
The third and final season of Star Trek: Picard premieres on Paramount+ on February 16, 2023.
Star Trek: Discovery
First teaser for season 5 of Star Trek: Discovery.
The fourth season of Star Trek: Discovery wraps an arc of two seasons in the distant future. As I have written before, in S3 Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), Discovery, and her crew arrived in the future and were relieved to find that life still existed. But the galaxy was very different thanks to something called The Burn, a catastrophic event that caused all the dilithium in the galaxy to explode, destroying much of Starfleet in the process. In the aftermath, with no warp drive possible, all planets were disconnected and no longer ruled by the Federation.
The Discovery The crew reunited with what was left of Starfleet, discovered what caused The Burn, and managed to defeat a rival syndicate known as the Emerald Chain. In the S3 season finale, planets began to rejoin the Federation – though Earth remained reluctant – and Discovery set out to bring dilithium from a nebula to planets cut off by the Burn, presumably revive the warp drive and once again allow travel between distant worlds. Burnham finally became captain of Discovery.
In S4, Captain Burnham and her crew faced a devastating “gravity anomaly” five light-years in diameter that was propelling across the galaxy — powerful enough to destroy Book’s (David Ajala) home planet of Kwejian in the very first episode. Book’s devastation and grief led him to make some questionable choices and strain his relationship with Burnham. We eventually learned that the anomaly was caused by a new alien species, 10-C, with connected minds and a method of communication beyond the reach of the crew’s universal translators. Burnham et al. finally the day saved, and Earth finally rejoined the Federation.
Judging by NYCC’s first look, the fifth season will usher in a new and rather different storyline: an outer space treasure hunt that seems to have a bit of an Indiana Jones vibe, including a mysterious wooden puzzle box. “The greatest treasure in the known galaxy is beyond,” David Cronenberg’s Kovich tells Burnnham as the teaser opens. “What are you waiting for?” Of course she responds with an enthusiastic “Let’s fly”. This treasure is an “ancient power” that has been lost for centuries, and Burnham and her crew aren’t the only ones searching for it. Two of those rivals are a pair of former couriers turned criminals: L’ak (Elias Toufexis) and Moll (Eve Harlow). Callum Keith Rennie as Starfleet Captain Rayner, who has been described on the gruff side this season, will also join the cast this season.
The fifth season of Star Trek: Discovery is scheduled for release in early 2023.
Star Trek: Prodigy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr7QogRioqo
Mid-season return trailer for Star Trek: Prodigy.
As we reported before, the computer-generated animated series, Star Trek: Prodigy, is aimed at a younger audience and revolves around a “motley crew of young aliens” living in the Tars Lamora prison colony in the Delta Quadrant. They trip over the USS Protostar, an abandoned Starfleet ship, and decide it’s the perfect ship to take them to the Alpha Quadrant. The series is set in 2383 and is set after the events of Star Trek: Voyager. Kate Mulgrew voices Captain Kathryn Janeway – or rather, the ship’s Emergency Training Hologram, who teaches the crew how to navigate the ship through the vastness of space.
Brett Gray voices teenage misfit Dal, who takes on the role of captain; Angus Imrie voices a non-corporeal, energy-based life form called Zero; Ella Purnell plays a Vaunt N’Akat named Gwyn; Jason Mantzoukas plays the Tellarite Jankom Pog; Rylee Alazraqui voices an animal-loving eight-year-old named Rok-Tahk; Dee Bradley Baker speaks an indestructible blob named Murf; John Noble voices Gwyn’s tyrannical father, colony leader the soothsayer; and Jimmi Simpson voices Drednok, the soothsayer’s robotic enforcer.
We haven’t had any new episodes since that mid-season cliffhanger on February 3rd (later aired on Nickelodeon on August 5th). The fortune teller sent a message to the protostar and her motley crew, who offered to free the remaining captives in Tars Lamora in exchange for the ship’s return. Dal and the rest of the crew tricked the soothsayer, who turned out to be someone sent from the future to prevent the destruction of his people. Apparently civil war broke out upon first contact with Starfleet, and the fortuneteller had a plan to destroy Starfleet with the… protostar. He went mad when Zero revealed their true form and ended up in exile on Tars Lamora. Meanwhile, Dal and his crew rescued the colony’s miners and headed for Federation space. And we found out that they were being followed by none other than the real Captain Janeway on the USS fearless.
As the trailer opens, we’re told it’s been weeks since the Protostar and her crew left Tars Lamora for good, and it looks like everyone’s dream of finding a place where they’re truly accepted is about to come true. (“We want to join Starfleet!”). But the Federation doesn’t seem to be so hospitable, as Janeway insists whoever the… protostar must be stopped. “The real me is hunting us?” hologram Janeway observes. “Good luck with that.” They obviously can’t go to Starfleet, but the crew decides they can help others anyway. And no doubt more crazy jokes will follow.
Star Trek: Prodigy returns to Paramount+ on October 27, 2022 for the second half of the first season. A second season is already in production.
Listing image by YouTube/Paramount+
