Comic-Con Gives ‘Star Trek’ Fans A Sneak-Peek Into The Future

Note: This post contains spoilers for season three of Star Trek: Picard, set to debut on Paramount+ in 2023, for season two of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and for Star Trek: Lower Decks, which returns next month with its third season on August 25.

There is a lot of Star Trek news coming out of San Diego Comic-Con, but by far the biggest headline is that the Paramount+ streaming series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is going where no series in the franchise has gone before: a crossover episode featuring both live action and animation.

According to the news release, fans can expect to see Ensign Beckett Mariner, voiced by Tawny Newsome, and Ensign Brad Boimler, voiced by Jack Quaid, from Star Trek: Lower Decks, joining the U.S.S. Enterprise in season two of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Actor Anson Mount, who plays Capt. Christopher Pike, revealed the news when Star Trek: Lower Decks stars Newsome and Quaid “crashed” his portion of the Star Trek universe panel.

The episode will be directed by actor and director Jonathan Frakes, according to the publicists.

Earlier in the day, Star Trek: Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan debuted the trailer for the third season of his animated comedy series.

McMahan also revealed season three posters depicting the central characters, each imagined in an homage to the third Star Trek film, directed by Spock himself, the late Leonard Nimoy.

Season three kicks off with the conclusion of the cliffhanger that ended season two, with Capt. Freeman under arrest.

The Starfleet crew residing in the “lower decks” of the U.S.S. Cerritos includes Ensign Beckett Mariner, voiced by Tawny Newsome; Ensign Brad Boimler, voiced by Jack Quaid; Ensign Tendi, voiced by Noël Wells; and Ensign Rutherford, voiced by Eugene Cordero. The Starfleet characters that comprise the U.S.S. Cerritos’ bridge crew include Captain Carol Freeman, voiced by Dawnn Lewis; Commander Jack Ransom, voiced by Jerry O’Connell; and Doctor T’Ana, voiced by Gillian Vigman.

Lower Decks is the first Star Trek series with a lead character who is bisexual, although some fans argue Beckett Mariner is actually pansexual. Star Trek: Discovery, which is in production of season five in Toronto, broke the mold for LGBTQ+ representation with eight out actors, plus co-showrunner Michelle Paradise.

The Next Generation Returns

Earlier Saturday, Alex Kurtzman, the man Paramount+ has put in command of all things Star Trek, thrilled fans at San Diego Comic-Con by unveiling a new “teaser” trailer for the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard.

Kurtzman also gave fans a look at new portraits for the beloved characters from the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series who will be rejoining Sir Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard on a brand new adventure.

Almost all of the original cast of the 1987-1994 series is returning for this streaming series, set to debut sometime in 2023.

Worf, an alien warrior raised by humans who becomes the first Klingon in Starfleet, is played by Michael Dorn, and sports a goatee and bushy eyebrows as white as the snow on the prison planet Rura Penthe.

Season two ended with Picard appearing ready to return the affections of Laris, his Romulan housekeeper, played by Orla Brady. No word on whether we’ll learn what happened there, but perhaps the admiral will reignite an old flame with Dr. Beverly Crusher, played once again by Gates McFadden? The actor who played her son, Wesley, on the original series, Wil Wheaton, appeared in the finale of season two.

Frakes, who has been directing episodes of Star Trek as well as other shows and motion pictures in and outside the franchise, returns to Star Trek: Picard as William T. Riker, after appearing in the debut season as well as voicing the part of Riker on Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Marina Sirtis returns to Star Trek: Picard as the half-human, half-Betazed Deanna Troi. Together with her husband, Will Riker, she is raising a daughter after losing their son to a curable disease that Federation policy prevented them from curing.

Blind engineer Geordi LaForge returns without his trademark wraparound VISOR, which Star Trek ditched in the films. Acting legend and Reading Rainbow icon LeVar Burton reprises the role. At the suggestion of writer David Gerrold, LaForge was named after a real-life fan of the original series who was disabled.

Jeri Ryan returns as ex-Borg Seven of Nine, wearing a Starfleet uniform following her field promotion by Picard in the finale of season two. Will showrunner Terry Matalas continue the lesbian relationship Seven started at the end of season one and at times pursued through season two? That’s yet to be seen.

Raffi, a close confidante of Picard, was Seven’s love interest but it’s not known if that relationship lasts into season three, or if Raffi will continue in Starfleet. The Romulan she was mentoring, Elnor, played by Evan Evagora, is reportedly not returning for season three.

What’s season three about? We know there is a new villain, who Matalas said in a tweet is someone fans have “seen a million times before:”

And here is the “teaser trailer” for season three of Star Trek: Picard.