The Star Trek Universe hit San Diego Comic Con today. Hard. The franchise took over Hall H for back to back panels. There was much to discuss — Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Short Treks and of course, the hugely anticipated, Star Trek: Picard
When CBS All-Access announced the panels, they teased major announcements, surprise guests and footage. So let’s get to it!
Star Trek: Discovery
Star Trek: Discovery is coming off of a major cliffhanger for season two.
- Panel started with some big news. David Ajala is a new part of the Star Trek Discovery cast. His character’s name is ‘Cleveland Booker’, Book for short. The Star Trek Writers room tweeted out congrats and called him ‘Book’
- “We’re going 1000 years into the future for season three” but “it’s Star Trek and it will always be Star Trek” They aren’t erasing anything.
- Kurtzman says everything is filtered through Gene Roddenberry’s vision
- Sonequa Martin-Green gave us an interesting piece of information. She revealed that Discovery did not land on Terralysium. And, that filming was done in Iceland — so cold stark planet.
- Ajala said Booker ‘will be a character who isn’t exactly what you expect right away. When they get to the other side of the wormhole, they have big problems”
- Heather Kadin says as a Star Trek fan she’s living her dream as a producer and she gets to bring her A-game
- Kurtzman said a lot of new characters will be in the third season and that the future is complicated but not to worry, the focus is always on characters
- Paradise says season 3 will focus on family of crew
- Kurtzman makes it sound like they land in different places at start of season 3.
Here’s a first look at Burnham and Book. The images lead you to believe that when Discovery landed in different places, these two landed together.
Short Treks
- There will be six Short Treks
- One will be a prequel for Star Trek: Picard. It will show events that happened to Jean-Luc 15 years before Star Trek: Picard.
- Three will have Pike. Including an episode with Tribbles.
- One, written by Michael Chabon will have Spock and Number One stuck in a turbo lift together. It looks really funny
- Kurtzman said that he couldn’t bring Spock, Pike and Number One into future with Discovery or they would have broken canon. The audience cheered that they wanted the trio to have their own series. Kurtzman replied that they’ll think about it.
- Check out the Short Treks FANTASTIC trailer here.
Lower Decks
- will premiere in 2020
- Jerry O’Connell moderated the panel and joked that it was the Downton Abbey of Star Trek
- The animated show revolves around four ensigns that serve on a not so important Federation ship
- Takes place right after Nemesis.
- Lower Decks cast includes Jerry O’Connell, Fred Tatasciore, Gillian Vigman, and Dawn Lewis. The show’s four ensigns are Tawny Newsome, Noel Wells, Jack Quaid and Eugene Cordero.
- Tawny Newsome is Ensign Mariner, a laid back slacker type person
- Jerry O’Connell plays Commander Jack Ransom, “He’s like Riker if you have a little bit of speed and little less shame. Like a California Riker.
- Kurtzman said Star Trek can do more and that means including kids for an audience.
- Kurtzman said about working on these shows at the same time “each of these shows have to be a love letter to Star Trek in their own way
- Here’s some art that was released for Star Trek: Lower Decks
Star Trek: Picard
- Before panel even started, we learned that Picard’s dog is named ‘Number One’
- Patrick Stewart apologizes that dog couldn’t make it to the panel.
- Stewart started with an inspirational quote. He said that one of his lines from the new show is ‘”We never know, do we, when our last moment will be” but he updated it to “We never know when our best moment will be. And it is now.” —- This immediately reminded me of his line from the Next Generation episode “Inner Light” – “Live now. Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again.” Cue the tears. All of them.
- Kurtzman explained that Star Trek: Picard is entirely different than Star Trek: Discovery. Jean-Luc Picard “is questioning many of the decisions he has made.” He added that they are shaking up the character while staying true to who he is. This sentiment seems to be Kurtzman’s through-line for the entire panel.
- Kurtzman said Patrick Stewart ‘challenged’ them (the creative team) in a beautiful way’ when revisiting the character. Stewart regularly visited the writers room
- Allison Pill joked “I’m a researcher and that’s what I’m allowed to say” but she also said that her character is deeply confused about her place in the world. She adds that everybody is pretty broken in terms of their characters. “There are a lot of lonely sad sacks.”
- Akiva Goldman said they “pointedly” did not want to make a sequel for Next Generation and that it’s a bit of a hybrid.
- The amazing writing team that was assembled helped Patrick Stewart make his decision to join Star Trek: Picard.
- The trailer was amazing. It showed a withdrawn Picard, a mysterious girl who may be a threat, a return to action and…..The Borg!
- The trailer had cameos from Jeri Ryan and Brent Spiner who then joined the panel
- Spiner said there was no way to say no to an opportunity to work with Stewart again.
- Watch the AMAZING trailer here.
RELATED: Read all Geek Girl Authority’s San Diego Comic-Con coverage here!
Editor-in-Chief, Founder at Geek Girl Authority
Audrey Kearns is a writer, actor, producer and the founder of Geek Girl Authority. She previously hosted and produced the podcasts Geeky Fun Time, Kneel Before Aud, Booze and Phasers and the live storytelling show, 5 Truths and a Lie. She was also a Los Angeles producer for The Story Collider. Check out her Insta for endless pictures of her dog.
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