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TREK Vets Brent Spiner and Jeri Ryan Back for STAR TREK: PICARD, Plus: Frakes and Sirtis Returning Too!

In a surprise announcement at San Diego Comic Con today, we learned that Star Trek: The Next Generation star Brent Spiner and Star Trek: Voyager actor Jeri Ryan will be making appearances in the next iteration of the Star Trek franchise, the Patrick Stewart-led Star Trek: Picard which is currently in production and just dropped a big trailer.

Spiner, who played the android Lt. Commander Data for seven years on television — as well as in the four Next Generation feature films, and in a voice cameo during the Enterprise series finale — marks the first of Stewart’s former Trek castmates to join him in the next chapter of the franchise, as Star Trek: Picard returns to the former Enterprise captain some two decades after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis.

While the actor’s android alter ego was notably killed during the climactic ending of Nemesis — as Spiner felt he could no longer portray the ageless artificial life form after inhabiting the role for nearly 15 years — he did leave behind another member of the Soong-type android ‘family,’ a less-developed model known as B-4 (also played by Spiner).

Spiner as android B-4, with Stewart, during the final moments of “Star Trek: Nemesis.” (Paramount)

By the end of the film, though Data has been destroyed, it is hinted that his archived memories live on in B-4, as the prototype android begins to mutter the words to the showtune Data performed at the Riker-Troi wedding from the beginning of the movie.

Spiner returns as Data (?) with a slight hint of ‘First Contact’-era uniform shoulders.

As for Jeri Ryan, the story of liberated Borg drone Seven of Nine seemed to conclude with Voyager‘s 2001 series finale, “Endgame,” arriving home to Earth with her shipmates to a world she didn’t remember — but after “four glasses of champagne,” she joked after a surprise arrival to the Comic Con stage, she was convinced to join the series and return to the role after nearly twenty years away.

Seven of Nine seems to have loosened up quite a bit since her return from the Delta Quadrant nearly two decades ago, given her demeanor with Picard in the new teaser trailer, and Ryan certainly seems to be falling right back into the part with delight:

Jeri Ryan returns as Seven of Nine.

Ryan isn’t the only former Borg coming back to Star Trek, however: joining her will be Jonathan Del Arco, the two-time Star Trek: The Next Generation guest star who portrayed Hugh, a young drone who recovered his individuality, in “I, Borg” and the two-part “Descent” episode in the later seasons of the show.

Del Arco said on stage that he wasn’t sure about getting back into the heavy Borg makeup again, but had longtime friend and “Borg mama” Jeri Ryan along for support which helped his concerns.

Jonathan Del Arco as Hugh.

Finally, while they did not appear in San Diego, series showrunner Michael Chabon revealed that both Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis will return as Riker and Troi — both married off and headed for the USS Titan after the adventures in Star Trek: Nemesis — later in the season.

Lastly, we learned today that while originally planned for a “late 2019” arrival, the premiere of Star Trek: Picard is now set for a 2020 debut — but so far it seems like it’ll be worth the wait.

Keep your sensors locked on TrekCore for all the latest Star Trek: Picard news as it drops out of the Nexus!

Here’s the First Full STAR TREK PICARD Trailer!

Debuting just moments ago at San Diego Comic Con’s Enter the Star Trek Universe panel, the first full trailer for Star Trek: Picard is here — returning Patrick Stewart to the 24th century for the first time since 2002.

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We’ll have more to dissect about this trailer soon enough — and we’ll continue to update this post with globally-available versions of the video as they become available — but in the meantime, give us your thoughts in the comments below!

Star Trek: Picard is set to debut on CBS All Access later this year for viewers in the United States, Space Channel in Canada, and on Amazon Prime Video in all other global regions.

First Look at STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS Character Artwork

For the first time since the the show was announced in October 2018, we’ve finally got the first real details about the upcoming animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks, thanks to today’s Enter the Star Trek Universe panel at San Diego Comic Con.

Series co-creator and showrunner Mike McMahan was on hand to lead the Lower Decks section of the event, where he debuted the first details on the cast and crew of the upcoming animated show, where four primary characters — all ranked as ensigns — serve aboard a very unimportant Starfleet vessel in the year 2380, just after Star Trek: Nemesis.

Tawny Newsome plays Ensign Mariner.

Jack Quaid plays Ensign Boimler, a very book-smart character who always wanted to be a captain — but while he can always pass his exams with ease, he’s not so hot when it comes to shipboard responsibilities.

Noel Wells plays Ensign Tendi — a huge fan of the Starfleet service. She works in sickbay aboard ship, and the series starts during her first few days aboard the .

Eugene Cordero plays Ensign Rutherford, who just got a new cyborg plant and he’s getting used to it. He’s an engineer, but unlike Geordi, he doesn’t always managed to solve his problems by the end of each episode.

Meanwhile, the command crew of the Lower Decks starship — the USS Cerritos, a new Starfleet design, called the California-class — is Captain Freeman (Dawan Lewis), Commander Ransom (Jerry O’Connell), Lieutentant Shax (Fred Tatasciore), and Dr. T’ana (Gillian Vigman), who is a Caitian (like the classic Animated Series‘ M’Ress).

Dr T’ana is not good at talking to people, we learned, but solves all the scientific problems for the crew — and while a member of the cat-like alien race, she has no tail.

…and at the Star Trek Universe booth where CBS has been running a virtual transporter room for visitors to experience, a pair of Star Trek: Lower Decks character pins were available for fans to collect.

Star Trek: Lower Decks will debut on CBS All Access in 2020.

New SHORT TREK Tales Include Three Pike Crew Stories

Just breaking out of San Diego Comic Con is news that the next round of Star Trek Short Trek stories will include not one, not two, but three entries all centered around Captain Pike and his crew of the USS Enterprise.

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Joined on stage by Ethan Peck (Spock) and Rebecca Romijn (Number One), franchise boss Alex Kurtzman announced that three of the upcoming six Short Trek tales will be Enterprise crew tales, including Spock’s first arrival aboard ship as an ensign, the Vulcan’s misadventures with Number One in a turbolift (written by “Calypso” scribe Michael Chabon), and a new story which bring those fuzzball tribbles to Pike’s ship… with guest star H. John Benjamin along for the ride.

Number One (Rebecca Romijn) and Spock (Ethan Peck) aboard the Enterprise. (CBS)
Captain Pike (Anson Mount) aboard the Enterprise. (CBS)

In addition to these three live-action Enterprise shorts, the next Short Treks will also feature a Star Trek: Picard prequel tale, sent about fifteen years before the upcoming series to give backstory to Jean-Luc Picard’s time away from Starfleet — and the other two Short Treks will be the Discovery-related animated tales first announced in January 2019.

The new Short Trek episode titles are: “Ask Not” (series unknown), “Q&A” (Chabon-written Enterprise story), “The Trouble with Edward” (Enterprise tribble story), “The Girl Who Made the Stars” (series unknown), “Ephaim and Dot” (series unknown), and “Children of Mars” (likely the Picard tale — Mars is the father of Romulus and Remus in Roman mythology).

Keep it locked to TrekCore all day for Star Trek news as it breaks!

SUPERGIRL’s David Ajala Joins STAR TREK: DISCOVERY Cast

Breaking just ahead of today’s San Diego Comic Con Enter the Star Trek Universe panel, it’s been officially announced that the next season of Star Trek: Discovery will feature a new addition to the cast: Supergirl vet David Ajala.

Joining the series next year, after the Discovery crew jumped ahead nearly 900 years from the 23rd century, Ajala will play Cleveland “Book” Booker, a character the crew encounters in the far future.

David Ajala as Book. (CBS)

According to the casting announcement revealed on Deadline, the character will be “smart and capable [with] a natural charisma and devil-may-care attitude that tends to get him into trouble as often as it gets him out.”

Also released is a photo of Ajala in character, with the photographer credit listed as Lilja Jónsdóttir — an Icelandic name if we’ve ever heard one, which certainly ties back to our reporting that Discovery has been shooting part of the upcoming season on location in Iceland.

Ajala also joined the Discovery producers and series lead Sonequa Martin-Green at the SDCC panel, where it was revealed that when the Discovery crew makes it to the other side of that millennium-spanning wormhole, Michael Burnham will find herself separated from her ship and crewmates.

In these brand new photos from the Iceland filming of Episode 301, Burnham has her first encounter with Book an a far-flung world:

There’s lots more Star Trek news yet to come today — keep checking back for all the latest updates!

STAR TREK Franchise Reunification May Help Nudge Expected CBS-Viacom Corporate Merger Forward

We’re about three weeks away from the next corporate earnings reports from CBS Corporation and Viacom — who each own part of the overall Star Trek franchise — and this time, the long-rumored merger between the two media giants may really be happening… with a little help to a franchise you may be familiar with.

Here at TrekCore we’ve been watching the on-again-off-again rumors and business reports about a potential corporate joining between CBS, who owns Trek on television and the majority of related franchise holdings, and Viacom, who through Paramount Pictures owns the rights to Star Trek film development (and the back catalog of features from 1979’s The Motion Picture to 2016’s Star Trek Beyond).

Could ‘Kelvin’ and ‘Prime’ find their way back together?

The two companies, as many of you know, broke apart shortly after the end of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005, ultimately resulting in the Kelvin Timeline series of films starring Chris Pine and company. Now, it seems that we may be on the cusp of formal announcements as The Hollywood Reporter now says that August 8 may be the day Star Trek fans have been waiting for.

In 2005, the parents of Star Trek divorced, with CBS winning custody of the TV shows while Viacom got the film franchise, courtesy of its Paramount Pictures. It’s all but certain, though, that a reconciliation is in the works and an announcement of their intended reunification, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter, is due Aug. 8, the day each is set to report quarterly earnings.

And this time, Star Trek seems to be one of the many driving factors in bringing the two companies back under one corporate roof: turning Trek back into a unified film-and-television franchise in the days of the record-shattering Marvel Cinematic Universe and ever-growing Star Wars landscape — each Disney properties, tearing up Hollywood’s competition — along with the massive expansion of streaming content being developed for consumers is a no-brainer, and THR‘s sources agree:

Some insiders — only on deep background, but with a straight face — say that putting Star Trek back under one roof is, indeed, one important reason to reunite Viacom with CBS, much like Disney has worked hard to keep as many Marvel characters as possible in its singular House of Mouse. For that matter, Mission: Impossible also could use some continuity, as Viacom has the films while CBS ran the original series from 1966 to 1973.

Broadly speaking, the industrywide shift to streaming is driving the need for CBS and Viacom to merge: CBS needs more content to feed All Access and its Showtime direct-to-consumer products in order to chase Netflix, Amazon and Hulu and to keep pace with Disney, WarnerMedia and Apple, each of which has its own Netflix competitor in the works.

The THR report goes on to break down the compatibility of the two companies — each having strenghts the other lacks, and how CBS’s financial assets would lead them to be the the one to buy Viacom out — and notes that this would also bring Nickelodeon (currently a Viacom holding) into CBS management, which would be a boon to the forthcoming kids’ Star Trek series destined for that cable network.

CBS All Access could become the home for the ‘Star Trek’ film catalog as well.

It also would likely resolve the revolving door of finding your favorite Star Trek films on streaming services, and the combination of the two companies would allow CBS All Access to immediately grow into an over-the-top source for all of Paramount’s massive film library.

While this may end up being a good thing for Star Trek fans — and it’s something to be hopeful for on that front, of course — any merger between the two media giants would still result in likely redundancies in the resulting ‘new CBS’, though hopefully not to the scale of the massive round of 4,000 layoffs seen in the recent Disney-Fox buyout earlier this year.

We’ll keep you posted on all the latest developments on the CBS-Viacom situation as things move along, so keep your sensors locked at TrekCore for news as it breaks!

Early STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE Talks Underway for a New DIRECTOR’S EDITION 4K Remastering

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Robert Wise’s big-budget theatrical outing that launched the crew of Captain Kirk’s Enterprise from a television cast to the stars of their own movie franchise — and it wasn’t until 2001 that the director had a chance to truly complete his vision of the film.

Released on DVD, Star Trek: The Motion Picture — The Director’s Edition was a hit with fans, trimming down overly-long scenes and enhancing unsatisfactory visual effects with then-state-of-the-art digital updates…. but in the 18 year since The Director’s Edition arrived, fans have been hoping to see that version of the movie upgraded to a high-definition release.

DVD cover art for 2001’s DIRECTORS EDITION release.

To date, The Director’s Edition has only been available in standard definition — the 2009 Blu-ray release of The Motion Picture is the older theatrical cut of the film — and due to the required cost of redoing the DE’s visual effects for today’s ultra-high-resolution screens, it’s been a bit of a long shot to think we’d ever see a return to that version of the film.

Until now, that is: announced yesterday at the “Inglorious Treksperts” panel at San Diego Comic Con, Director’s Edition producer David Fein shared the news that official talks with Paramount is in discussions with the DE team to bring the long-awaited 2001 cut of The Motion Picture to an all-new 4K Ultra HD presentation.

DE visual effects supervisor Daren Dochterman, who was also on hand at the event, shared his excitement on Twitter:

Now, just to be clear: talks are not guarantees — while it’s definitely a positive sign that Paramount was okay with this sort of news being shared publicly, we all know how long things with Star Trek films can take, if they happen at all. (Still waiting for the 4K Blu-ray release of the remastered Wrath of Khan from 2016, guys!)

That being said, we can all be happy to hear that the studio is even considering taking another pass at The Motion Picture, something long overdue from a company that seems to revel in repeated re-releases — like the “Anniversary Edition” of The Motion Picture we’ve started to see scheduled for a September 2019 release, a repackaging we expect to have no new content on the included disc.

UPDATE: Our friends over at TrekMovie spoke with Dochterman after yesterday’s SDCC panel, and gleaned some additional information from the producer about the status of things:

The team returning to work on the project also includes Mike Matessino, who was the Restoration Supervisor. Dochterman said they also hope to bring in additional members of the team who worked on the original DVD project. “We want to get as many of the original people as possible because they know their stuff and know what they did,” said Dochterman.

According to Dochterman, the team is currently “figuring out the details” on how to move forward, and Paramount “is interested and wants it to happen.” Work has yet to start, but one thing that will be of big help is that the original team have kept all the assets from their work on the Director’s Edition DVD.

A timeline has yet to be worked out. Dochterman thinks it is possible that their work on the project could be completed this year if work started soon, however, he does not expect everything can be completed in time to allow for a Blu-ray release this year.

We’ll keep you posted on whatever news we learn about this project — and in the meantime, keep those fingers crossed that we’ll get this long-awaited release come to reality.


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Star Trek: TMP
Director's Edition DVD!



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Star Trek: TWOK
Director's Cut!


 
 
 

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Star Trek VI
Special Edition DVD!


Inside Comic Con’s New STAR TREK: PICARD Prop Gallery

For the third year in a row, the team from CBS has brought along to San Diego Comic Con a big collection of Star Trek props and costumes to showcase in the nearby Michael J. Wolf Fine Art gallery — and this time, it’s all about one man: Jean-Luc Picard.

The free-to-attend exhibit, titled Jean-Luc Picard: The First Duty, reflects over the long Starfleet career of the two-time Enterprise captain, with a mix of props and costumes from the character’s time in Star Trek: The Next Generation (and subsequent feature films), but also showcases items built for the new Star Trek: Picard series, many of which are intended to be part of Picard’s own personal history during the 24th Century.

From the moment you enter the gallery, you’re surrounded by familiar sights from Picard’s previous television adventures, starting with a number of Starfleet uniform costume seen throughout the TNG era.

There are also a number of Picard-centric props on display, from a collection of Data’s paintings retained by the now-former-Admiral after the android’s death in Star Trek: Nemesis, to his prized Kurlan Naiskos from “The Chase,” to the remains of the eviscerated Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact.

Also included are a set of Dixon Hill hardcover novels (new props not seen in The Next Generation) bearing titles known to those who are familiar with the fictional detective series, each ‘written’ by TNG writer Tracy Tormé, the creator of the holographic character for early Next Generation episode “The Big Goodbye.”

Several large-scale models from Picard’s service in Starfleet were also present, including all three of his starships — the Stargazer, the Enterprise-D, and Enterprise-E — as well as the Cousteau “captain’s yacht” used at the Ba’ku homeworld in Star Trek: Insurrection.

Around the gallery are a series of framed images from Picard’s life, including artistic renditions of a young Jean-Luc Picard from his time aboard the Stargazer and earlier (no sign of Tom Hardy’s Starfleet Academy photos seen in Nemesis, phew!), plus stills of his family back in France, and his crewmates from the Enterprise-D.

Also on display is the Picard family album — seen in both Star Trek: Generations and Nemesis, featuring photos and certificates from the man’s younger days.

Turning to the new builds from Star Trek: Picard, the Starfleet diplomatic and command services of Jean-Luc Picard are on display in a series of awards from groups — and alien species — from around the Alpha Quadrant, painting the picture of the honorable and dedicated public servant we know from the time of The Next Generation.

Some of these awards are dated with years set before TNG, going all the way back to Picard’s days at Starfleet Academy, and others were given to Picard for actions we’ve seen on screen: a Vulcan award for stopping the Romulan invasion seen in “Unification”; a Federation award for stopping the Klingon Civil War seen in “Redemption”; a Bajoran award for service at the end of the Cardassian Occupation.

Others, however, seem to be from events we’ve not seen before: a Vulcan award for peace negotiations in 2386 — seven years after Star Trek: Nemesis, and a trophy from the people of Andoria after Picard’s retirement from Starfleet.

From the Picard family vineyard, a case of Chateau Picard (vintage 2386, the year Picard returned home) is on display — along with branded drinkware — and the one new costume featured in the gallery, a civilian outfit worn by Patrick Stewart circa 2399, bearing a lapel pin in the design of the Picard family crest (available to gallery visitors throughout Comic Con weekend).

Finally, a pair of Klingon weapons were mounted on display, the first being a d’k tahg knife said to be gifted to Picard after his participation in defending Worf’s honor in “Sins of the Father” (though this seems to be a new build compared to the TNG-era production).

The more notable item, however, is a surprisingly-familiar bat’leth sword, stated to be a gift to Picard from Worf in 2381 — two years after the events of Nemesis — which is nearly identical in design to those seen during the Rick Berman-era of Star Trek production.

While there are two minor additions to the blade’s curvature, a pair of extra indentations at each end, compared the wildly-different bat’leth redesign used in Star Trek: Discovery is our first sign that Klingon elements seen in Star Trek: Picard may be much closer in style to the designs maintained by the franchise up through the end of Enterprise in 2005.

Unfortunately, there was no sign of the Star Trek: Picard-era Starfleet uniform seen in leaked set photos from earlier this summer, nor the long-awaited reveal of the 2399-ish Starfleet combadge design, so it seems that CBS is still keeping as much of the series under wraps as it can before their planned reveals at Saturday’s big Enter the Star Trek Universe panel.

Keep checking back to TrekCore throughout San Diego Comic Con for all the latest Star Trek news — and be sure to follow us on Twitter for live coverage from the show floor, including the Saturday afternoon Hall H panel as it happens!

IDW Brings the Crew of STAR TREK: VOYAGER to the Mirror Universe in MIRRORS AND SMOKE Comic

The last few years of Star Trek: The Next Generation comic tales have spent a lot of time exploring the role of the Enterprise-D crew as part of the last remnants of the Terran Empire, and now IDW Publishing is crossing over once more to explore the Mirror Universe lives of Kathryn Janeway and her familiar USS Voyager crew!

Announced today at San Diego Comic Con, Star Trek: Voyager — Mirrors and Smoke is set to serve as a one-shot comic tale starring the intrepid crew of Voyager, the first time this set of alternate-universe characters has appeared in IDW’s comic series which started with Star Trek: The Next Generation — Mirror Broken back in 2017.

Written by Paul Allor and and featuring art from longtime IDW mainstay J.K. Woodward, the one-off comic tale will be the first of a multi-month series of Star Trek Mirror Universe storytelling, each release set to focus on a different crew from the Star Trek franchise.

Here’s how the Mirrors and Smoke story has been described:

‘Mirrors and Smoke’ introduces Captain Janeway of the Voyager, a rebel ship stranded in the Delta Quadrant, far from the ruins of the Terran Empire. When Janeway crowns herself Pirate Queen of the Quadrant, the locals – including scavengers Neelix and Kes – won’t give up without a fight. Amid this conflict, the crew of the Voyager has a second problem on their hands: just who is the Terran calling herself Annika Hansen, and can she be trusted?

After the Mirror Voyager tale debuts this October, future issues in this series of Mirror Universe one-shots will include tales centered around the crew of the original Star Trek series, as well as one focused on the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine cast — revisiting the characters seen in the televised trips to the alternate universe.

‘Star Trek: Voyager — Mirrors and Smoke’ cover art by J.K. Woodward

In addition to the J.K. Woodward cover artwork pictured above, there will also be a special retailer-exclusive variant by frequent IDW contributor George Caltsoudas.

Watch for our review of Star Trek: Voyager — Mirrors and Smoke when it arrives in October, and keep checking back to TrekCore for all the Star Trek news coming out of San Diego Comic Con!

New Details on STAR TREK: PICARD Ahead of SDCC Panel

Saturday will be the biggest day yet for Star Trek: Picard, where we’ll see Patrick Stewart and the rest of the series cast join showrunner Michael Chabon and the show’s producing team on stage at San Diego Comic Con — but ahead of this weekend’s event, some new hints about the show have been revealed.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, franchise boss Alex Kurtzman did confirm that the former Starfleet officer will be headed back into space during the series, even though all the promotional imagery seen so far has been much more terrestrial in nature, showing Picard in retirement at his family vineyard in France.

“Events began [sic] to unfold that conspire to take Picard back to the stars,” said Kurtzman, “but not in a way that anyone expects.”

We know from the first trailer released back in May that Picard has left Starfleet by the time of the Star Trek: Picard series, and Kurtzman noted how that may have changed the former officer.

Because he’s no longer in Starfleet, he no longer carries the weight of that behind him. In some ways, it’s easier to be [a great man] when you’re a captain. But it’s an entirely different thing when you don’t have an army behind you.

When you want to get something done and fight an injustice, how do you do that when you’re really only one man?

As has been suspected, the first season of Picard will be a serialized story — the norm for Trek television these days — but showrunner Michael Chabon confirmed that will be the case for the new show. Chabon also went on to expand on how time has changed Picard since we last saw him:

He’s a lot older and we’re not shying away from that at all — we’re dealing with a man who’s in a very different place in his life. It was terribly important to us that he remains fundamentally Picard.”

Meanwhile, Kurtzman expanded on his quote we reported on yesterday:

You will not see a version that betrays the man we loved from Next Generation. We’re not doing that. But we wanted to put a character with that level of morality and leadership and who always does the right thing no matter how hard the circumstances…  we wanted to put that to the test.

Finally, the new release from Entertainment Weekly also included a good high-resolution version of the first-look photo we shared with you last night, with Patrick Stewart (and dog pal) on location in the Picard family vineyard.

Keep checking back to TrekCore throughout the weekend for more news out of San Diego Comic Con as it drops!