It’s that time of year again! September 8th is Star Trek Day, which means it’s time to bust out your tricorders and see what the folks over at Paramount have in store for us during their celebration. Read on for the day’s official lineup as well as some speculation as to what news Paramount may share during the festivities.
The event begins at 12 p.m. PT / 3 p.m. ET on Thursday and will be hosted by comedian Paul F. Tompkins and Lower Decks’ actor Tawny Newsome, who voices Mariner on the animated show (you can see the full itinerary and also watch it live at the link here).
The series on the Star Trek Day lineup include Picard, Discovery, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds. There will also be a tribute to Nichelle Nichols, who sadly passed away last month.
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So what do we think we’ll see for each of those segments? Here’s a guess for each, with the caveat that this is 100% speculation and I could be 100% wrong about everything.
- Picard: Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd are the announced guests for this segment, and they’ll no doubt talk about the show’s upcoming third and final season. We don’t know much about Season 3 yet, other than the fact that the OG Next Generation crew will be having a reunion of sorts (including Tasha Yar in some way!) on a starship that may or may not be the Enterprise. Perhaps we’ll get a real trailer other than the weaksauce teaser we got at San Diego Comic-Con? Or at least a premiere date other than “early 2023?”
- Discovery: We know that Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber) will be giving us a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of the Discovery set with promises of “some can’t-miss cast run-ins.” Will Grudge the cat make a cameo? We can only hope. We can also hope that we’ll get an official premiere date for Season 5 and/or a trailer, because we don’t have either of those yet and given that previous seasons usually debut in the Fall, I’d expect we’d get that news sooner rather than later.
- Lower Decks: We’re in the middle of Lower Decks’ third season and we already know the show is picked up for a fourth season as well, so I don’t expect too much new news from this segment. The Lower Decks cast, however, are entertaining to listen too, and we might get some details about some of Season Three’s upcoming episodes, such as that Deep Space 9 episode they teased at San Diego Comic-Con. We also might get some more info about that Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks crossover coming up in Season Two of SNW, though my guess is they’ll save any details about that for the Strange New Worlds segment.
- Prodigy: The first Trek show specifically aimed toward a younger audience is right now in a mid-season hiatus. We’ve seen Season One’s first 10 episodes already, and we’re still waiting to see the remaining 10 on Paramount+. And if that’s not enough Prodigy for you, Paramount+ and Nickelodeon have also greenlit a second season. The Star Trek Day itinerary also promises some “special reveals” and that Kate Mulgrew (“Admiral/Virtual captain Janeway”) and Brett Gray (“Dal R’El”) will be in attendance. Will those reveals include more cameos from other stars in the Trek Universe? Or something else?
- Strange New Worlds: Strange New Worlds is the closer for the Star Trek Day ceremony and will hopefully include more details about its Season Two crossover episode with Lower Decks and/or that the show is greenlit for a million more seasons, because it’s awesome. Sadly Anson Mount’s hair won’t be in attendance but much of the cast will be, including Una (Rebecca Romijin), Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), Lt. La’an Noonien-Sing (Christina Chong), Celia Rose (Ensign Uhura), Melissa Navia (Lt. Ortegas), and Babs Olusanmokun (Dr. M’Benga).
Last but not least, we also have a potential clue about something new being announced tomorrow. The official Star Trek online shop is selling merch with the phrase “The Starship is Landing” on it. Check out a sample sweatshirt below:
What could this mean? Is it the announcement of a potential new show? Does it portend that some Star Trek set is going on tour? Or maybe it’s just general merch with a generic Trek phrase on it? Perhaps we’ll find out tomorrow. We’ve only a few hours to wait.
