In January 2023, Geek Girl Authority shared 8 predictions for the Star Trek Franchise in 2023. A few of our predictions were right on the money. A few of the others, not so much.
For this week’s Trek Tuesday, we’re assessing our 8 predictions from January 2023 for accuracy. Did your predictions for Star Trek in 2023 come true? Send us a subspace communique in the comment section. And be sure and beam back here next Tuesday, when we make our 8 predictions for the Star Trek Franchise in 2024.
Everyone Will Adore Picard Season 3
Our first prediction for 2023 was that everyone would love Star Trek: Picard season 3. This prediction certainly came to pass. Under the direction of showrunner Terry Matalas, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation returned to the small screen to capture Trekkie imaginations once again.
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Over the course of Picard season 3, the series ranked on the weekly Nielsen Chart of the top 10 streaming shows on three separate occasions. Furthermore, a petition for Star Trek: Legacy, a sequel series to Picard, has garnered nearly 65,000 signatures. No official word on the spinoff has been issued. However, for much of the latter half of 2023, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes made such an announcement impossible. But perhaps we’ll have a Legacy-related prediction in store for next week’s column?
A Musical Episode
Well, we nailed this one. In August 2023, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds released the outstanding musical episode “Subspace Rhapsody.” Even those of us who had been anticipating this development were blown away by this incredibly well-crafted episode.
On top of blowing us away, “Subspace Rhapsody” also secured Strange New Worlds a position on the weekly Nielsen Chart of the top 10 streaming shows for the week of its release. Meanwhile, the episode’s soundtrack rose to the top spot on the Apple iTunes Music Chart, a position it retained for the entirety of August 2023. Only one question remains after the release of “Subspace Rhapsody.” If the hybrid anthology-serialized series is achieving this sort of thing in its sophomore season, what previously unimagined heights will Strange New Worlds reach in season 3?
Unexpected Prodigy
Sadly, this prediction was considerably off the mark. In January 2023, we optimistically predicted that the underrated Star Trek: Prodigy would reach a whole new legion of fans with its second season. Instead, Paramount+ canceled the show in June 2023. All 20 episodes of Prodigy‘s stellar first season were subsequently removed from the streaming service. To borrow a phrase from Futurama‘s Bender B. Rodriguez (John DiMaggio), “Another classic science fiction show canceled before its time.”
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Fortunately, when the Cosmic Koala closes a door, he opens a window – and that window may reveal the imposing Black Mountain just beyond the horizon. In October 2023, it was announced that Netflix would be the new home for Prodigy. In addition to streaming all 20 episodes from Prodigy season 1, Netflix will premiere the highly-anticipated Prodigy season 2 in 2024. It might take a little longer than expected, but perhaps Prodigy will still be the smash hit it deserves to be.
The Black Mountain
Here’s a prediction that did come to pass. We wondered if a major character could find themselves in remarkable mortal peril. This might have included an actual death and a visit to the Black Mountain. In Picard season 3, Data (Brent Spiner) experienced a rebirth in “Surrender.” And later in 2023, Bradward Boimler (Jack Quaid) literally visited the Black Mountain in Lower Decks season 4’s “In the Cradle of Vexilon.”
Finally, we got our mortal peril via the Strange New Worlds season 2 finale, “Hegemony.” At the conclusion of the episode, a full half of the USS Enterprise‘s bridge crew has been beamed away to an unknown location by the Gorn. This includes Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), La’An Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannotte) and Doctor M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun). While Sam and M’Benga appear on Star Trek: The Original Series, that leaves our beloved La’An and Ortegas in serious peril. Furthermore, Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano) is in the middle of being used as a Gorn egg incubation sack. Will all of our heroes survive the Strange New Worlds season 3 premiere?
Live-Action Cerritos
Another unfulfilled prediction was the appearance of Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ USS Cerritos in live action. This one is pretty straightforward. While we love to see the Cali class vessel in its animated splendor, we thirst for more.
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An appearance by the Cerritos in live-action could mean more appearances by the Lower Decks crew in live-action. Considering how well the Strange New Worlds crossover episode “Those Old Scientists” turned out, this seems like a distinct possibility.
Captain Burnham Visits the Kelvin Timeline
This one was far-fetched from the start. And since no new episodes of Star Trek: Discovery ended up being released in 2023, it certainly didn’t come to pass.
It also seems unlikely to come to pass in 2024. In March 2023, it was announced that 2024’s Discovery season 5 would conclude the series. With just 10 episodes to wrap up, it seems unlikely that Discovery will spend too much time on characters from a different iteration of the Franchise. Nevertheless, you can expect some Discovery-related predictions for 2024.
Trek “Avengers” Announcement
This one is pretty straightforward. While we had a crossover between Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks, there are plenty of other possibilities that could allow for multiple Star Trek shows to intersect on an Avengers: Endgame scale. Like, remember all those unresolved plot threads from Picard seasons 1 and 2, including the Jurati Collective and the giant space-time hole at the center of the galaxy?
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In short, no such announcement was made in 2023. However, in 2024 and beyond, it is still possible such a crossover could transpire. There were a few 2023 developments that might support this hypothetical crossover happening in the future. For one, in March 2023, a series order for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was announced. This announcement included the revelation that Tawny Newsome, star of Lower Decks, will be writing for Starfleet Academy. This is sort of a crossover, right? And then in April 2023, Star Trek: Section 31 was announced. This is described as a “special movie event.” Such a format could be well-suited for the hypothetical crossover.
Badgey vs. Discovery
This one is also straightforward: we thought Badgey (Jack McBrayer) might show up on Discovery. Furthermore, we thought he might be accompanied by co-conspirators AGIMUS (Jeffrey Combs) and Peanut Hamper (Kether Donohue). First of all, this prediction was impossible because, as mentioned above, no new episodes of Discovery were released in 2023.
But it also seems unlikely to come to pass after the events of the Lower Decks season 4 episode “A Few Badgeys More.” While that episode did include the return of AGIMUS, Peanut Hamper and Badgey, the former two characters never came into contact with the latter. Furthermore, by the end of the episode, all three characters seem to have more or less completed their own individual redemption arcs. And while it’s still possible a backup version of the malicious Badgey could be revealed, that doesn’t seem to be in the spirit of the episode. But then again, maybe the now-ascended Badgey will return to the mortal realm to deliver some Old Testament-style lessons.
All these Star Trek shows are currently available for streaming on Paramount+ except Prodigy. Find Prodigy on home video, or stream it on Netflix.
https://www.geekgirlauthority.com/star-trek-episodes-that-take-place-on-earth/
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