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

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Comic-Con Gives ‘Star Trek’ Fans A Sneak-Peek Into The Future Dawn Ennis Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I report on the fight for transgender equality and other LGBTQ issues. New! Follow this author to improve your content experience.

Got it! Jul 23, 2022, 04:30pm EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Sir Patrick Stewart returns as Jean-Luc Picard in season 3 of ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved. Note: This post contains spoilers for season three of Star Trek: Picard, for season two of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, both set to debut on Paramount+ in 2023, 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 Deck s , 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 on Saturday. Anson Mount as Pike of the Paramount+ original series “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. ” Photo Cr: .

. . [+] Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 CBS Studios.

All Rights Reserved. Marni Grossman/Paramount+ MORE FOR YOU Stuff You Shouldn’t Say To Disabled People 3 Ways Disability Culture Has Been Changing I’m Right And You’re Wrong: Social Media Sins The episode will be directed by actor and director Jonathan Frakes, according to the publicists. LGBTQ+ representation in Star Trek Putting the LGBTQ+ characters of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ( Nurse Christine Chapel is bisexual ) in the same episode as those from another show will be another first for the franchise.

Star Trek: Discovery, which is in production of season five in Toronto, broke the mold for LGBTQ+ representation with eight out gay, lesbian and transgender nonbinary actors, plus out gay co-showrunner Michelle Paradise. Lower Decks is the first Star Trek series with a lead character who is bisexual, although some fans argue Mariner is actually pansexual. There’s also debate among fans as to how Raffi and Seven of Nine of Star Trek: Picard identify, since they were depicted to be in a same-sex relationship but previously each had partners who were male.

Other fans don’t want Star Trek characters to be anything but cisgender and straight, something that would mean a step backward in terms of LGBTQ+ representation. As S. E.

Fleenor of startrek. com suggested, perhaps it’s best to just call them all “queer” and move on. Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner, Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler, Eugene Cordero as Ensign .

. . [+] Rutherford and Noel Wells as Ensign Tendi of the Paramount+ series “Star Trek: Lower Decks” PARAMOUNT+ ©2021 CBS Interactive, Inc.

All Rights Reserved Star Trek: Lower Decks Returns Next Month 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: 1984” Star Trek: The Search for Spock. Poster for season three of “Star Trek: Lower Decks” Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS.

All Rights Reserved. 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 Mariner, voiced by Newsome; Boimler, voiced by 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. 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 .

He was joined on stage by Stewart and actress Gates McFadden. 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. Michael Dorn stars as Worf in season 3 of ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.

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 McFadden? The actor who played her son, Wesley, on the original series, Wil Wheaton, appeared in the finale of season two .

Gates McFadden plays Beverly Crusher on season 3 of “Star Trek: Picard” Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved. 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. Actor/Director Jonathan Frakes returns as William T. Riker in season 3 of “Star Trek: Picard” Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS.

All Rights Reserved. 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 disease that Federation policy prevented them from curing.

Marina Sirtis returns for season 3 of Star Trek: Picard as Deanna Troi Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved. Blind engineer Geordi LaForge returns without his trademark wraparound VISOR, which Star Trek ditched in the films.

Acting legend, author 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. LeVar Burton is Geordi LaForge in season 3 of “Star Trek: Picard” Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS.

All Rights Reserved. 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.

Jeri Ryan returns as Seven of Nine in season 3 of “Star Trek: Picard” Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved. 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. Michelle Hurd returns as Raffi in season 3 of “Star Trek: Picard” Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.

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. Star Trek: Lower Decks is produced by CBS’ Eye Animation Productions, CBS Studios’ animation arm; Secret Hideout; and Roddenberry Entertainment. Secret Hideout’s Alex Kurtzman, Roddenberry Entertainment’s Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth, Katie Krentz (219 Productions) and Heather Kadin serve as executive producers alongside creator and showrunner Mike McMahan.

Aaron Baiers (Secret Hideout), who brought McMahan to the project, also serves as an executive producer. Titmouse (“Big Mouth”), the Emmy Award-winning independent animation production company, serves as the animation studio for the series. Seasons one and two can be streamed on Paramount+ in the U.

S. , U. K.

, Latin America, Australia, South Korea, and the Nordics and airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada. It will also stream exclusively on Paramount+ in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria later this year. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is produced by CBS Studios, Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment. Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers serve as co-showrunners. Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet serve as executive producers in addition to Alonso Myers, Heather Kadin, Frank Siracusa, John Weber, Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth and Aaron Baiers.

Season one of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is currently available to stream exclusively on Paramount+ in the U. S. , U.

K. , Latin America, Australia, South Korea, and the Nordics and airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada. It will also stream exclusively on Paramount+ in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria later this year.

The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution. Star Trek: Picard is produced by CBS Studios in association with Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment. For season three, Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Terry Matalas, Patrick Stewart, Heather Kadin, Aaron Baiers, Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth, Doug Aarniokoski and Dylan Massin serve as executive producers.

Terry Matalas serves as showrunner for season three. Seasons one and two of Star Trek: Picard can be viewed exclusively on Paramount+ in the U. S.

and is distributed concurrently by Paramount Global Content Distribution on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories and in Canada, airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn . Check out my website .

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