Trek TV news from the Comic Con virtual panel
The Comic Con Star Trek Universe virtual panel today gave us a few nuggets of news. Continue below for a new preview of Lower Decks, and updates on Discovery season three, and Strange New Worlds. But first, a whole new show:
The biggest is the reveal of a brand new series title. The Nickelodeon animated Star Trek series aimed at younger views will be called Star Trek Prodigy, and has this snazzy title logo:
And here's the animated version:
Star Trek: Prodigy is beaming in 🖖@Nickelodeon @brothershageman #StarTrekProdigy https://t.co/yu60FDuLLz pic.twitter.com/QZ7tg5JxLd
— Star Trek (@StarTrek) July 23, 2020
The series, set to arrive in 2021, is created by Kevin and Dan Hageman, under Nickelodeon's Ramsey Naito. StarTrek.com describe that the series "follows a group of lawless teens who discover a derelict Starfleet ship and use it to search for adventure, meaning and salvation. "
From the other animated series, Lower Decks, which is due to start just next week, the panel included a short slip from the first episode, Second Contact, which you can see right here. It's great!
In the panel the cast also promised some holodeck hijinx in the first season, and talked about lots of spoilers, but they were bleeped out! Those funny buggers!
The also each summarised their characters: Mariner described as akin to the class clown, "she doesn't always play by the rules, even though she could, because she's good at things". Boimler is "the ultimate Starfleet nerd; he's like a complete fan-boy for all the captains and first officers". Tendi is "excited by everything, she's unflappable, even if there's weird things happening, she somehow turns it into this optimistic point of view". And cyborg Rutherford "loves the fact that he's half mechanics, because he loves the mechanics".
The senior crew also got outlined. About Doctor T'Ana: "she might be great at solving space medical mysteries, but she's also a scary, crusty ally cat, which is why we love her". On Lieutenant Shax: "He is a definite shoot-first-ask-questions-later. He is no nonsense. He is a Bajorian that's got a chip on his shoulder, as he should. He is hardcore". First Officer Commander Ransom: "He has a pretty short fuse. I don't think he's the easiest person to work for, but he does deeply care about Starfleet". And Captain Freeman "She's in charge, and she's gonna make sure everybody knows that she's in charge."
From live action series, the Picard cast assembled to have a good chat about the series, but were pretty coy about anything yet to come. You can watch their enjoyable chemistry in that discussion in the full panel embedded below.
There was a little update on Strange New Worlds; that writing is well underway, with ten stories broken so far.
Anson Mount also talked a little bit about his thoughts on where Pike is going as a character: "I think he's going to wrestle with how he can best use the rest of his life for the good of the universe".
From Discovery, the cast and crew discussed the series, including some hints at what's to come in season three: Michelle Yeoh describes that Georgiou is "pissed off" going into season three, declaring "Michael Burnaham, don't get in my way." Meanwhile Wilson Cruz describes that Doctor Culber takes on new mental health responsibilities in the season, as he continues to develop after his return from death, and also talked about the general theme of the far future season:
I think going into Season 3 we have an opportunity to really have a conversation about the world that we want to create, and how each of us has a responsibility to create it together.
Anthony Rapp (Stamets) also talked more broadly about the season:
To me, one of the great things about season three is that it really blends the personal/family nature of our show, and not just literal family, like our coupledom, but also the family of the ship. It really explores family in wonderful new ways.
Alas there wasn't any new clip of trailer for the new season. Or even a date. Hopefully not too long to go!
Also featured in the panel was a table read of part of Discovery's finale, Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2, with the cast bringing the episode to life via conference call, with various storyboards, animatics, and visual effects process clips illustrating it along the way. It's a pretty cool watch, which you can enjoy in the embedded video below, starting at about the ten minute mark - The read of the whole episode is also going to be made available later.
So here is the whole panel, featuring all the news above and much more discussion and Star Trek love:
The various Star Trek series can or will all be found on CBS All Access in the US, and so far on Bell Media services in Canada. In the rest of the world they are so far split between Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, with news on the newest series' distribution still to be revealed.
To keep track of all the latest Trek TV news, have a look back through my TV tag. And for updates from each of the series, have a look back through my Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, and Strange New Worlds tags, for previews, behind the scenes, tie-in fiction, and other merchandise updates.
Labels: animation, Discovery, excerpts and previews, Lower Decks, Picard, Prodigy, Strange New Worlds, TV
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