‘Star Trek’ Unveils First Looks at ‘Section 31,’ ‘Strange New Worlds’ Season 3 and ‘Lower Decks’ Season 5
The “Star Trek” Universe uncloaked a litany of first looks during its epic panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, including panels for the third season of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” the fifth and final season of “Star Trek: Lower Decks” and the first television feature film in the franchise, “Star Trek: Section 31.”
“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”
The Footage: “Strange New Worlds” stars Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn and executive producers Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers and Alex Kurtzman debuted an extended clip from Season 3 of the series, in which several characters — Pike (Anson Mount), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) and Chapel (Jess Bush) — are transformed from humans into Vulcans. The chief engineer, Pelia (Carol Kane), also attempts to transform into Vulcan, but the process doesn’t take for her, much to her dismay.
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Immediately, all of Spock’s now-Vulcan compatriots zero in on the fact that Spock is half-Vulcan, much to his consternation — and, naturally, hijinks ensue. Martin Quinn, as a young version of future Enterprise chief engineer Montgomery Scott, also appears in the clip — and Myers revealed he will be a series regular this season.
In an interview at the Variety Studio presented by Google TV during Comic-Con, Peck said that he enjoyed seeing his castmates become Vulcans.
“To see them in Vulcan makeup was really endearing,” he said. “I did hand out a little bit of advice, but people really brought their own flavor and ideas to it.”
Myers told Variety that the idea to transform Pike’s hair into a rigid tower came from Mount entirely. “We were talking about what different types of hair to do, and he said, ‘I have this one idea.’”
What We Learned: Season 3 of the series, which premieres in 2025, will bring back another legacy character from the original “Star Trek” series: Dr. Roger Korby, who will be played on “Strange New Worlds” by Cillian O’Sullivan (“In From the Cold,” “Vikings”). Korby is introduced in the first season of the original series and has a complicated history with Nurse Chapel.
Goldsman also revealed that while they aren’t currently planning to reprise the musical episode from Season 2, “You’ll be interested to know that we are in the very stages of exploring whether or not we can bring a version of that to the stage.”
“Star Trek: Lower Decks”
The Footage: Stars Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells and Jerry O’Connell, and executive producers Mike McMahon and Kurtzman debuted the teaser trailer for Season 5, which debuts Oct. 24. As per usual, the trailer filled with a litany of jokes with very little context behind them — although at least one included an alternative universe USS Cerritos in which Newsome’s character, Lt. Jr. Beckett Mariner, meets Becky Mariner, captain of…the USS Cerritos.
The season will revolve around the crew of the Cerritos traveling through the galaxy to fix “space potholes” that are causing all kinds of shenanigans and tomfoolery.
Most Pointed Moment: During the fan Q&A, several people asked why “Lower Decks” was ending. McMahan first noted that the series finale will be the closing of “a chapter” but not the conclusion of the story of the characters. After one person asked what fans need to do to get a Season 6, McMahan had this to say, with a wry smile: “My safe answer for this is watch the hell of the season when it airs — watch all of ‘Star Trek’ when it airs. And if you’re really loud and vocal about your support, after we air, I’ll think of other things to say when I don’t work for these guys.”
“Star Trek: Section 31”
The Footage: Stars Omari Hardwick, Sam Richardson and Kacey Rohl, director Olatunde Osunsanmi and executive producer Kurtzman appeared at Comic-Con to discuss the first “Star Trek” streaming movie, which stars Michelle Yeoh reprising the role of former Mirror Universe tyrant Philippa Georgiou from “Star Trek: Discovery.” Yeoh couldn’t attend the panel, but she appeared via video to introduce the trailer, which provides the first look at the Federation black ops team at the center of the series. In the panel, Hardwick described the vibe of the film as “‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ on steroids.”
What We Learned: The teaser revealed that the film will include a depiction of Georgiou when she was younger, as played by Miku Martineau (“Kate”). Richardson also revealed that his character is a Chameloid, the shapeshifting alien species originated by Iman in 1991’s “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.”
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