We expect it to be a quiet week for Star Trek developments as we head into the holidays, but before we deck the halls and hang our exploding Veridian star ornaments on the tree, it’s time for a quick roundup of franchise news before we say goodbye to 2019.
First up, following the debut of December’s new animated Short Treks “The Girl Who Made the Stars” and “Ephraim and Dot,” a pair of video features on each entry arrived this week, interviewing directors Olatunde Osunsanmi, Michael Giacchino, visual effects supervisor Jason Zimmerman, and some other creative minds behind the first non-live-action Trek storytelling to beam down since the 1970s.
The last Short Trek episode currently scheduled, “Children of Mars,” serves as a lead-up to Star Trek: Picard and will debut on CBS All Access on January 9.
* * * *
While Star Trek: Picard won’t beam to home viewers until January 23 (CBS All Access) and January 24 (Amazon Prime Video) for fans to see the return of the former Enterprise captain, two big premiere events for the upcoming series have been announced as the series rolls out around the world.
The world premiere of Picard will take place in Los Angeles on January 13, at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood — the same venue where Star Trek: Discovery had its own big event back in 2017 — and like that last premiere celebration, you can expect to see plenty of live coverage from our team who will be on site for the big night.
Amazon’s Prime Video will be hosting their own big premiere for the series in London on January 15, as announced on the streaming service’s Instagram this week in conjunction with a new contest for UK residents to win tickets to the event next month.
80 winners — who must be local residents — will each in a pair of tickets to attend the premiere at Leicester Square in London; the full entry rules can be found here.
* * * *
Finally, breaking through TVLine this morning, we’ve got our first clear look at the return of Jonathan del Arco as former Borg drone Hugh, last seen in 1993’s “Descent, Part II.”
While we got a glimpse of Hugh in action back in October’s Star Trek: Picard trailer from New York Comic Con, this new photo is the best view of his de-assimilated appearance to date.
Clearly visible is the scarring from where his well-known holographic eye implants were removed, with what looks to be an artificial eye implanted in its place, along with vestigial mechanical implants similar to Seven of Nine’s own remaining Borg tech.
January will be a big month for Star Trek — so we hope all of our readers have a wonderful holiday week, a happy New Year, and hang on for the ride as 2020 begins!