This year’s Hugo Award nominations, an annual celebration honoring the best science fiction and fantasy writing and literature, have been announced — and today Star Trek: Strange New Worlds now follows in the footsteps of the franchise’s best installments.
Two episodes of Strange New Worlds Season 2 earned Hugo nominations, and they are the ones you’d expect: the Lower Decks crossover episode “Those Old Scientists,” and the musical extravaganza “Subspace Rhapsody.”
LOWER DECKS actors Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid beam aboard in “Those Old Scientists.” (Paramount+)
The category Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) also features two episodes of Doctor Who, the finale of Marvel’s Loki series, and the well-received “Long, Long Time” episode of HBO’s The Last of Us.
Doctor Who: “The Giggle”, written by Russell T. Davies, directed by Chanya Button (Bad Wolf with BBC Studios for The BBC and Disney Branded Television)
Loki: “Glorious Purpose”, screenplay by Eric Martin, Michael Waldron and Katharyn Blair, directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Marvel / Disney+)
The Last of Us: “Long, Long Time”, written by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, directed by Peter Hoar (Naughty Dog / Sony Pictures)
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: “Those Old Scientists”, written by Kathryn Lyn and Bill Wolkoff, directed by Jonathan Frakes (CBS / Paramount+)
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: “Subspace Rhapsody”, written by Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff, directed by Dermott Downs (CBS / Paramount+)
Doctor Who: “Wild Blue Yonder”, written by Russell T. Davies, directed by Tom Kingsley (Bad Wolf with BBC Studios for The BBC and Disney Branded Television)
The Enterprise crew sing and dance in “Subspace Rhapsody.” (Paramount+)
Star Trek has been nominated in many years of the Hugo Awards’ history, with wins for “The Menagerie” in 1967, “The City on the Edge of Forever” in 1968, “The Inner Light” in 1993, and “All Good Things…” in 1995. The first Kelvin Timeline film in received a nod in 2010, Discovery got a nomination in its first season, and most recently, Lower Decks got a tip of the hat in 2022 for “wej Duj.”
Star Trek: Prodigy fans were caught off-guard last week when the animated series’ complete second season suddenly appeared on France’s Okoo FranceTV streaming platform without a warning to the rest of the world.
The Okoo debut came as a surprise to those of us who have been eagerly awaiting the Protostar crew’s return — and was a shock to the creators of the series itself, along with CBS Studios, it seems. Prodigy Season 2 is still unscheduled in all other global regions, where the show now lives on Netflix after its departure from Paramount+ last summer; the show was originally set to return to P+ for Season 2 in late 2023.
Okoo advertises the launch of PRODIGY Season 2 on their social platforms. (FranceTV)
CBS Studios has been known for their strict embargoes on press screeners, and have kept their actors and creatives tight-lipped about anything even close to a spoiler in their general management of the Star Trek Universe over the last several years, so a ‘surprise’ Season 2 unveiling without the slightest bit of studio-backed fanfare is unusual, to say the least.
(We can also share that initial inquiries to CBS about the matter resulted in a request that press outlets “hold on reporting… spoilers or storyline information” while they reviewed the situation with their international distribution team.)
Even the show’s creators, Kevin and Dan Hageman, initially reacted to the Okoo release as a “leak” in a now-deleted post on Twitter/X — indicating they had not foreknowledge of the France release — requesting one fan site “help not spreading” attention to the situation.
A now-deleted message asking to keep the matter out of the spotlight.
TrekCore and much of the Trek and genre news community held even making reference to the situation until some kind of clarity from the studio behind Prodigy was available — especially after the Hagemans continued to express their confusion about why the season was made public ahead of a global wide release.
Apologize for our silence, we still don’t have all the puzzle pieces on this FranceTV thing. Once we get some clarification, we’ll share what we can. #StarTrekProdigy
The Prodigy episodes on Okoo are dubbed in French only — no English-language audio or subtitle track is available — but the surprise availability of these episodes immediately became an explosive source for major spoilers about the next year of Protostar crew adventures. And though it seemed apparent that this was a properly-licensed acquisition of the show, the March 22 release of all 20 episodes of fully-unaired and unannounced content seemed like it had to be some kind of mistake.
Following an inquiry made by French Star Trek fan podcast Le Quadrant Pop, FranceTV shared a statement where they acknowledged that their Prodigy streaming was — as assumed — a licensed presentation for their region, however they did not comment on if the release date was coordinated with CBS Studios in any way.
(Typically, even licensed releases of new content are planned with alignment on broadcasting dates called “windowing,” to coordinate for maximum impact on publicity and viewing numbers across platforms.)
PRODIGY Season 2 on FranceTV’s Okoo platform, with images and regionally-altered episode titles redacted. (No spoilers here!)
For a show that has had surprise mid-season delays, a year between half-season releases, and a cancellation that caused the show to disappear for months,Prodigy has really been through the ringer — and any chance for a Season 3 renewal depends on how well Season 2 of the series does on its new Netflix home, so this “early” release in France has many concerned over a potential impact to those needed viewing numbers.
Now, after almost a week of confusion — and a week of waiting for CBS Studios to release some kind of statement about the situation — the Hageman brothers followed up with their own social post earlier Friday evening, noting a “miscommunication” surrounding the whole mess.
UPDATE: Yes, the obvious is true, it was not a leak. For a show about communication, it’s unfortunate there was some miscommunication. Though it has sold to other foreign markets (YAY!) rest assured #StarTrekProdigy S2 will drop next on Netflix at a TBD date.
All that said, we do still have some additional information about the situation: you can ignore the list of Prodigy Season 2 episode titles that have been floating around for the past week.
Episode titles are often changed for international markets where English is not the primary language — the reported titles for Season 2’s French episodes may have been translated back to English, but we’ve confirmed with CBS Studios that they are not the final titles for Prodigy Season 2’s episodes.
Until the season is officially released on Netflix — where the Hagemans’ comment promises will be the next place Season 2 will debut — fans have been asked to keep spoilers to a minimum to keep the planned story and surprises a secret until the entire world gets to see Prodigy’s next year of adventures. While there has been little other ‘official’ communication from the show’s cast and crew, voice actor Bonnie Gordon asked fans to keep spoilers to a minimum until the worldwide release.
Bonnie Gordon (voice of the USS Protostar’s computer) asks fans to avoid spoilers.
We’ll also be maintaining a strict no-spoilers rule here at TrekCore for any of the Season 2 content currently available in France, so be aware that any article comments linking to or discussing Prodigy spoilers will be deleted without warning.
As soon as CBS Studios releases their own statement about the status of Prodigy Season 2, or they announce additional scheduling information for the worldwide Netflix release, we’ll be sure to let you know.
In the meantime, let us know your SPOILER-FREE thoughts about this unusual situation in the comments below.
Star Trek: Discovery warps back to television screens on April 4, and we had the opportunity to speak to the show’s cast and creative team ahead of the show’s fifth and final season of adventures.
Along with a group of other outlets, TrekCore spoke with series stars Wilson Cruz (Hugh Culber), Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly), and Blu del Barrio (Adira Tal) about the state of the USS Discovery crew, new cast member Callum Keith Rennie, and more.
STAR TREK: DISCOVERY’s Season 5 cast. (Paramount+)
Q: How are things aboard the starship Discovery at the start of Season 5?
WILSON CRUZ: A few months have passed when we meet our heroes at the start of Season 5, and when you look around, I feel like everyone is at a much more stable place — in terms of how they feel about themselves, and their place on the ship, and in the new future. We’ve definitely gotten the kinks out of being 900 years away from everything and everyone we love.
When the season’s mystery finds us, we are well-suited and well-prepared to take on this task. For Hugh, that means he continues to ask existential, big life questions — and as a man of science, it’s always more comfortable when there’s a “Yes” or a “No” answer to these question. So his journey this season is really about finding grace in the unknown, and in the questions that are incapable of being answered.
MARY WISEMAN: Tilly is trying to figure out how to get through to her students at Starfleet Academy, who have become isolated from grown up during The Burn.
BLU DEL BARRIO: Adira is in a much more confident state with their position on the ship, more than we’ve ever seen them. They’re taking on more responsibilities, they’re being given more to do… and being pushed in a bit more, in a way they wanted to be pushed.
On the side, though, they’re dealing with some personal issues, some emotional stuff; Adira does a lot of self-reflection at the start of the season.
Lieutenant Tilly (Mary Wiseman) shares a drink with friends. (Paramount+)
Q: Mary, can you talk about Tilly’s journey and how she’s grown over the series?
WISEMAN: When I first encountered the character, Tilly was a very achievement-driven girl who didn’t have a lot of social graces, but knew that she needed to achieve. There was this big reversal for her as time went on, where she realized she was somebody who cares most about relationships and the community she builds — and wanting to be a captain, wanting to achieve all of these things… that was a relic of the person that she used to be.
After losing so much, leaving the past behind, and going to go to the future, she had a chance to kind of change her mind and reevaluate what would make her happy. That’s led her to become a teacher at Starfleet Academy, and she gets enormous value from being someone who can be present and available for young people who are still developing.
That, for me, is the chart to her arc and I found it very satisfying to play.
Callum Keith Rennie as Captain Rayner. (Paramount+)
Q: How does Callum Keith Rennie’s character, Captain Rayner, fit into the Discovery story?
WISEMAN: I think Rayner brings some much-needed grumpiness and curmudgeon-liness. A lot of us are, like, these starry-eyed optimists, and it’s nice to just have an old battleaxe on the ship! [Laugh]
That creates really fun dynamics between that character and the rest of the crew who are used to working together and run like a clock. Now there’s this person who is highly competent, but has a very different conversation style and problem-solving approach.
Callum is a great actor and really fun to work with — he’s a great new guy to bring into the fold, and I think people will really enjoy his character and the dynamic it brings out of everyone.
CRUZ: He’s so much fun to work with. Aside from the funky ears he brought to set every day, what was fun to watch was how his character has to fit themselves into a new power structure aboard Discovery. The way Burnham runs that ship is unlike the way most ships are run — it’s a ‘soft power,’ that’s the best way to describe it.
How does someone who has an aggressive, combative style of leadership fit themselves into a power structure in which there’s less power coming from above, but there’s more of a center-out structure? It was fun to watch Rayner navigate that.
Culber (Wilson Cruz) and Tilly chat. (Paramount+)
Q: Wilson, what did you learn from playing Hugh Culber over these five seasons?
CRUZ: What I was reminded of, playing Hugh, is that at any given moment, on any given day, we can decide that we want do something differently; that we deserve more from our lives. If things aren’t working the way that you think they’re supposed to, you can decide that you want something different, and change it. Second chances are real, and you can give them to yourself.
As an actor, I feel like this was the first time – ever, really – of seeing a character throughout five seasons. I was on ‘one hit wonders’ before Discovery. It was really gratifying to see him grow and change from season to season.
I knew where I wanted him to end up when it was all over, and despite the fact that we didn’t know this was going to be our last season, I’m so gratified that who I envisioned him to be at the end of the series really shows up here at the end of Season 5.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
We’ll be back after the weekend with more interviews — next with Discovery stars Doug Jones and David Ajala, and then comes our chat with starship captain Sonequa Martin-Green!
We’re just a week away from the return of Star Trek: Discovery, and we had the opportunity to speak to the show’s cast and creative team ahead of the show’s fifth and final season of adventures.
Along with a group of other outlets, TrekCore spoke with series showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise about the themes behind Discovery Season 5, influences on the story, and more.
Q: What can you tell us about the themes of Discovery’s final season?
MICHELLE PARADISE: Thematically, we explore very big things — where we come from, things like that. Any given season, we look to see how those things play out with each character and their particular arcs. I do think that at the end of the day, it will feel very satisfying.
We did get a chance to shoot some additional material to wrap up the series itself, but I think people will feel really good about how it’s wrapping up and that it tells a complete series story for each of our beloved characters.
Q: Could you talk about how other properties like Star Wars or Indiana Jones may have influenced Season 5?
ALEX KURTZMAN: We definitely knew that we wanted to do a quest season, and probably the greatest quests committed to film are the Indiana Jones movies, so I think there was some of that influence there. I don’t know that Star Wars ever came up — that wasn’t part of it — but we definitely wanted the idea of a quest, and putting pieces of a puzzle [towards] a giant reveal.
PARADISE: Internally, we talked about it as an Indiana Jones-type season, because series of films is known for its adventure. Those films make us think of archeological expeditions, and sand, and ruins, and all that; that lead to an idea of a “city in the desert” that we started to play with.
We just wanted to have fun with that, and explore a shifted tonal direction from previous seasons — while of course maintaining all the things that make up Discovery’s identity.
Q: Season 5 was only a ten-episode order — unlike the 13+ episode orders of previous seasons. Did that have any impact on how you produced the season?
PARADISE: The preparation and production are the same with 10 episodes.
When we found out that it was going to be 10 rather than 13, you have to look at the arc of the season, and maybe compress a few things. Maybe there are some tributaries that you would have gone down that now you don’t go down, because you want to focus in on the story.
In terms of the practicalities, it didn’t change much. We still had 10 episodes to do — and each of those episodes is its own juggernaut — so we just worked to make every single episode the very best it could be.
Q: What’s it been like to see Discovery and the Star Trek Universe as a whole grow?
KURTZMAN: When we started Discovery, we weren’t actually setting out to build a universe — we were just setting out to make a new Star Trek show. I think that in tacking along the different roads that Discovery gave us, the fact that we were able to bring Pike and Spock and Number One into the show… Akiva Goldsman said, “There’s a great Star Trek show with Pike in the lead, and the entire era aboard the Enterprise before Kirk takes over.”
I said, “Why don’t we cast a good Pike first and see how that works, and we’ll go from there!” [Laughs] That obviously ended up becoming Strange New Worlds — but that could never have happened without Season 2 of Discovery. Never.
I believe really strongly that every Star Trek show needs to have its own very unique identity. I don’t ever want you to think that you can watch one show and get your fill of Star Trek, and therefore don’t have to watch the others. Each one has to have its own identity, but the key to that is not making one show that’s supposed to please everybody.
If you try to make one show to please everybody, ultimately you’re going to please nobody. So each of these shows are really designed and targeted to access a very specific part of the fandom — and there’s a real misnomer about Trek fandom, it’s not a generic term you can apply to everybody.
There are so many different subsets of Trek fans, and we’re doing this ‘rainbow’ of shows to appeal to each subset without necessarily having to get everybody in the door. Discovery led the way in so many ways. It really pointed us like a compass to what was possible, and that has been incredibly exciting for us.
Now we’re on this wild adventure: we’re in the middle of shooting Section 31, and we’re halfway through the writing on the first season Starfleet Academy, and we start shooting that at the end of the summer… and there’s more up behind that. It’s been pretty amazing.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
We’ll be back tomorrow with our next Discovery interview, speaking with actors Wilson Cruz (Culber), Mary Wiseman (Tilly), and Blu del Barrio (Adira) — in the meantime, let us know your thoughts on today’s interview in the comments below!
Just ahead of Star Trek: Discovery’s final season, today the Star Trek Universe got a bright spotlight shined upon it — and bringing readers a lot of new information about the future of this decades-old franchise.
In a lengthy cover feature for Variety, writer Adam B. Vary talks to Trek’s cast and creative team, visiting the sets of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3, the upcoming Star Trek: Section 31 film starring Michelle Yeoh, and even going inside preproduction on the next television adventure, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
For the currently-filming third season of Strange New Worlds, the Enterprise sets will be expanding with a dedicated laboratory where Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck) will investigate scientific dilemmas in front of a bank of large monitors — and above a water-filled tank which has already led some fans to joke that it may be a live-action Cetacean Ops.
Spock works in his new STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS science lab. (Photo: Marni Grossman/Paramount+)
In this new photo showcasing the new science lab from production designer Jonathan Lee, Spock is seen wearing an updated version of the Original Series’ red hazmat suits first seen in “The Naked Time” — redesigned by series costumer Bernadette Croft for the modern era.
Comparing the new suit with costuming from “The Naked Time.” (Paramount+
Season 3 will also continue the trend of bringing new genres to Strange New Worlds episodes — as longtime Trek director Jonathan Frakes does reveal he’s finished a story “framed as a Hollywood murder mystery” that he describes as “the best episode of television I’ve ever done.”
Moving to the next live-action adventure — Michelle Yeoh’s Section 31 film, which just finished filming last week — the Variety piece confirms that the project shifted from an ongoing series to a one-off movie due to the impact of the pandemic, as well as Michelle Yeoh’s rise in popularity that reduced her availability.
Despite her limited schedule, the actor returned to the Trek fold for this new Philippa Georgiou project, which sees the one-time Terran emperor zapped back in time after departing the 32nd century in Star Trek: Discovery Season 3. But where, you may ask, did the Section 31 agent arrive?
Michelle Yeoh in a new image from STAR TREK: SECTION 31. (Photo: Jan Thijs/Paramount+)
Surprisingly, it seems that the film will be spending at least some time in the 24th century’s ‘Lost Era’ — between the launch of the Enterprise-B in Star Trek: Generations and the launch of the Enterprise-D in Star Trek: The Next Generation — as Variety reveals the identity of one of Yeoh’s Section 31 co-stars.
Kacey Rohl (Hannibal, The Magicians) will be portraying as a young Rachel Garrett, better known to Trek die-hards as the future captain of the Enterprise-C. The character appeared only once, in Next Gen’s “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” leading her ship and crew into a dark alternate future where she died in a Klingon attack before the Enterprise-C could return to its own time. (The older Garrett was played by Tricia O’Neil.)
L: Kacey Rohl (in “The Magicians”), R: Tricia O’Neil as Rachel Garrett. (Photos: Syfy, Paramount+)
The article also mentions that despite its temporal setting, the Section 31 film has repurposed some sets originally built for the now-finished Discovery series — and that the budget is, as shared by Alex Kurtzman, “much less” than a theatrical Trek production.
Kurtzman also noted that his team at Secret Hideout is considering other possible streaming movie concepts, including a possible Star Trek: Picard follow-up, and that Michelle Yeoh is interested in a Section 31 sequel… if the first film is successful.
The cast of 2016’s STAR TREK BEYOND. (Paramount Pictures)
Speaking of Trek theatrical projects, the years-long efforts to drum up a fourth and final outing for Chris Pine’s Star Trek Kelvin Timeline crew continue — I know, I know, you’ve heard that many times before — with the current Kelvin project in the hands of screenwriter Steve Yockey (HBO’s The Flight Attendant).
Also still chugging along is that other film concept first discussed back in January — said to be a prequel to the overall Star Trek timeline — expected to move into active preproduction later in 2024.
As always… we’ll see what happens in this department!
The next big television project, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, has been oddly coy about its place in the Star Trek timeline — and while fans have speculated for months about when the series will take place, Variety has confirmed that the show will be set in the post-Discovery 32nd century era.
Set to start filming later this summer as previously reported, Starfleet Academy has taken over the former home of Star Trek: Discovery in Toronto’s Pinewood Studios. The biggest soundstage in Canada, the series is expected to film on “the largest single set ever created for Star Trek television.”
“Plans [include] the series’ central academic atrium, a sprawling, two-story structure that will include a mess hall, amphitheater, trees, catwalks, multiple classrooms and a striking view of the Golden Gate Bridge in a single, contiguous space. To fit it all, they plan to use every inch of Pinewood Toronto’s 45,900 square foot soundstage.”
As for the still-uncast Academy cadets, showrunner Noga Landau describes them as kids who have “never had a red alert before, [and who] never had to operate a transporter or be in a phaser fight.”
Franchise boss Alex Kurtzman (right) with former Trek producer Heather Kadin. (Paramount+)
Finally, Alex Kurtzman went onto share that he has no plans to hand over the Star Trek franchise reins anytime soon.
“The minute I fall out of love with [‘Star Trek] is the minute that it’s not for me anymore. I’m not there yet,” he says.
“To be able to build in this universe to tell stories that are fundamentally about optimism and a better future at a time when the world seems to be falling apart — it’s a really powerful place to live every day.”
You can read the entire feature piece — truly worth your time — on Variety’s website.
Star Trek: Discovery returns next week, followed by new episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy later in 2024. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is expected to return in 2025. Release dates for Star Trek: Section 31 and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy have not yet been announced.
It’s a rainy Saturday here at TrekCore HQ, but to brighten the day we have a roundup of all the week’s biggest Star Trek news to catch you up on what you might have missed!
First up: the Michelle Yeoh-led Star Trek: Section 31 movie has wrapped principle photography, after two months of filming which kicked off in late January. The news was shared on Instagram by Section 31 cast member Robert Kazinsky.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C4wnAYFI6JX/
There’s still no expected air date yet for the forthcoming film, but with post-production on Star Trek adventures measured in the six-to-eight month range, it’s likely we won’t see the film for quite a while.
That said, we could easily learn more about the project at San Diego Comic Con this July, and may even get details as soon as First Contact Day on April 5 — so stay tuned.
* * *
Star Trek: Discovery returns for its fifth and final season in less than two weeks, and CBS has released four new posters to promote the season — returning to Paramount+ on April 4.
Creation Entertainment has announced three new Star Trek conventions for their return to regional events, following their recent San Francisco con in mid-March.
The Creation “Trek Tour” will voyage next to the Nashville, TN area from September 13-15 (at the Embassy Suites Nashville SE Murfreesboro), followed by a visit to Secaucus, NJ from November 8-10 (at the Meadowlands Expo Center). The circuit will then return to San Francisco, CA in 2025, taking the “Trek Tour” back to the Hyatt Regency SFO Airport Hotel from January 24-26.
An additional event is being planned for the Chicago area (first reported by TrekMovie), however the original October target dates are being rescheduled to account for guest availability.
1:6-scale action figure company EXO-6 continues to expand their Star Trek character lineup with two new preorders: Dr. Julian Bashir from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Ensign Ro Laren from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The two figures, modeled after actors Alexander Siddig and Michelle Forbes, come clad in their period-appropriate Starfleet uniforms along with interchangable hands and multiple accessories tied to each character. Each is up for preorder now at a price of $195 (including a $20 deposit) plus $25 shipping.
The company has offered previous editions of Trek UNO in years past (now out of print), so this will give fans who missed those earlier releases a new opportunity to deal themselves into the game. The new edition of Star Trek UNO is available for preorder today.
* * *
Finally, company Theory11 has released a unique set of Star Trek playing cards with custom artwork merging the Original Series and Kelvin Timeline films together.
Each face card showcases a familar character from the classic starship Enterprise, represented by both actors to portray the officer — for example, both William Shatner and Chris Pine appear as Kirk, Nichelle Nichols and Zoe Saldana appear as Uhura, and so forth.
Keep coming back to TrekCore for the latest in Star Trek franchise news!
The press coverage of Star Trek: Discovery’s final season is growing as we get closer to the show’s April 4 return, and today a lengthy new piece in SFX Magazine offers fans new insight into the upcoming episodes.
The full Discovery special features a lengthy new interview with showrunner Michelle Paradise, who speaks about the Season 5 journey, shares her thoughts about new villains Mol (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis), offers crypic clues about each of the year’s 10 episodes, and more.
During the conversation with SFX’s Darren Scott, Paradise revealed a minor tidbit about one of Season 5’s new characters, Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), which will be sure to scratch an itch to many fans wondering about the large-eared officer’s origins.
“He’s Kellerun, which is a minor planet mentioned in one of the other [Star Trek] iterations… we learn more about his personal backstory and how that plays into who he is, and why he is how he is. We learn about that as the season goes on, and the planet he’s from has a lot to do with that.”
The Kellerunspecies has been seen only once before, in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Season 2 episode “Armageddon Game” — where Chief O’Brien and Dr. Bashir are sent to destroy a stockpile of biological weapons… only to find they are also targeted for execution after learning the science behind the weapons.
Left: O’Brien and a Kellerun (‘Armageddon Game’); Right: Callum Keith Rennie as Captain Rayner.
The SFX spotlight article also include a new interview with Discovery lead Sonequa Martin-Green (Captain Burnham) discussing the show’s ending, and filming the ‘coda’ footage after the cancellation announcement was made public.
You can read the full eight-page Star Trek: Discovery feature in the April issue of SFX Magazine, available for digital purchase today through PocketMags. The issue also features new articles on Amazon Prime’s adaptation of Fallout and Netflix’s Rebel Moon, Part 2.
Star Trek: Discovery returns to Paramount+ on April 4 (and SkyShowtime on April 5).
We’ve got one more report out of Star Trek: Discovery’s final season kickoff from the SXSW conferance in Austin, Texas last week, where the cast and showrunners participated in an hour-long discussion panel focused on Discovery’s upcoming adventure.
With the end of Discovery’s run just a few months away, series star Sonequa Martin-Green (Captain Michael Burnham) shared her thoughts about the legacy of the five-season series that relaunched the Star Trek Universe for Paramount+.
“Speaking of legacy, and impact, and how we’ve evolved… I think about in the very beginning [of Discovery’s run] we got a lot of criticism. From people who loved the show [and who] we really respected and we understood where they were coming from — but they were upset about the diversity. They were upset about me being at the helm. They were like, “Ew, we don’t like that.” [Laughs]
It hurt me. You know, I’ve dealt with racism a lot in my life, whatever. But what I would say to my younger self is, “What I was saying then is going to come to pass.” Because what we all said back then, if y’all remember, was “Well, you know what? We’re pressing forward. We’re pushing the needle forward. Let’s just invite them to come. I know they feel that way right now, but maybe if they come, they will change and they will grow.” And that’s one of the contributions, that’s an aspect of our legacy: the evolution of the characters, of the story, of the show as a whole, and of us with each other behind the scenes.
And it did happen. Because I did talk to someone — and I know he wasn’t the only one – [he was] a white man who said, “I saw myself in you, in a way like I have never seen myself in someone totally different from me. At the end of the season, I finally understood what it means to see yourself in someone different from you – and now I understand how to stop the cycle of racism in my family. Now I understand what I need to do.”
That person was given a second chance, just like all of us on the show… [the Discovery] story is about second chances and becoming who you’re meant to be, and falling forward, and not being defined by your worst moment. It’s so rewarding that we were able to give that to other people, because that’s what happened with all of us that happened in front of and behind the camera.
The fact that it happened with other people as well is such a blessing. I praise God.”
Her costar Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber) also added to her thoughts, emotionally expressing his praise for the show’s diversity and inclusion efforts to highlight traditionally underrepresented groups.
“Every time I think about what the legacy of the show will be for me? The thought that goes in through my head is we can be heroes. Most of these characters are usually not centered [in a show], right? When you think about African-American characters or Latino characters or LGBTQ characters, we’re sometimes [portrayed as] victims, or something is put upon us, pr we are the supporting player, not centered in the story.
On Discovery, these people of who are part of marginalized communities, are the heroes of their own stories. They’re the protagonist of this story, which is so rare to see. So when other members of community of those communities get to see themselves centered and see themselves as heroes, it helps them understand that they too can… be heroes in their families and their own communities. That we have the power of being change makers, of changing the culture in order to represent all of us to, so that we can see ourselves in it and hopefully create a better community, thus a better country and maybe even a better world.
I know that’s lofty, but storytelling can do that. You know, you have to see it in order to be it, and to create the world that we all deserve. And I think that in the end, is the legacy of Discovery.”
Star Trek franchise head Alex Kurtzman ruminated on how Discovery opened the doors for the current lineup of Trek productions, and how he expects fan sentiment may change as viewers look back on the show years down the line.
“I feel very special about the fact that there would be no new era of Star Trek without Discovery. It just wouldn’t exist. Disco was the first wan in the door… and you’re gonna take a lot of fire when you’re the first ones in, right? But you take a lot of that fire so that everyone else can take the hill. And that has been true for Discovery, for good and for bad.
[Jonathan] Frakes said something interesting to me that I never forgot, which is when Next Gen premiered, they just took so much fire. You know, everyone said “Oh, this is not my Star Trek. There’s no Kirk and Spock here, what is this?” 20 years later, it’s one of the most beloved Star Trek shows ever.
So I think that we have a very loud fanbase of people who love [Discovery], and I am certain that 20 years from now, people are going to be looking at the show and recognizing how many groundbreaking things it did in so many different ways – not just for Star Trek, but certainly in the areas of representation.”
Series showrunner Michelle Paradise also added:
“In terms of the legacy of Discovery, I’m not sure. I suppose that’s for people 10 or 20 years from now to [have that] perspective. [But] what is most meaningful [for me] is the impact it has had on individuals.
We come to [events] like this, or conventions, or whatever — and our actors hear this quite a lot – the characters’ journeys have [impacted] individuals who didn’t think they could do something in their lives… but because Tilly did it, or Adira did it, or Culber, you know, that they can do it too.”
We’ll be featuring some new interviews Discovery’s cast and creatives as we get closer to the Season 5 premiere this April, so stick around for all the latest on the show’s final season!
Star Trek: Discovery returns to Paramount+ on April 4 (and SkyShowtime on April 5).
On this week’s episode of WeeklyTrek — TrekCore’s news podcast — host Alex Perry is joined by Justin Avery Smith to discuss all the latest Star Trek news.
This week, Alex and his guest discuss the following stories from TrekCore and around the web:
In addition, stick around to hear Justin’s opinion about why Beverly Crusher is the best Star Trek character, and Alex’s theory about what Paramount has up its sleeve for this upcoming First Contact Day.
WeeklyTrek is available to subscribe and download each week on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify— and we’ll be sharing the details of each new episode right here on TrekCore each week if you’re simply just looking to listen in from the web.
Do you have a wish or theory you’d like to share on the show? Tweet to Alex at @WeeklyTrek, or email us with your thoughts about wishes, theories, or anything else about the latest in Star Trek news!
What in the galaxy happened to Seven of Nine after her return from the Delta Quadrant? Star Trek: Picard — Firewall, the new novel from author David Mack, sets out to answer that very question.
If, like me, you started watching Star Trek: Picard from perspective of a long-term Voyager fan, you must have been thinking about it. So many things about Seven were changed: dropping her familiar jumpsuits for leather, going from champagne to bourbon, moving from male to female love interests, and adding both a tendency to curse and willingness to kill.
If not for Jeri Ryan’s expert acting, it would have felt like watching a completely different character.
Seven of Nine arrives on La Sirena in “Absolute Candor.” (“Paramount+)
On the other hand, if such a reinvention makes sense for anyone, it would be someone who was a Borg drone for 18 years and served on a Starfleet ship for the next four. For anyone wondering how exactly Seven of Nine’s reinvention took place, and what she went through to turn her into the Fenris Ranger introduced in Picard Season 1, Firewall offers answers… well, some of them, at least.
The novel begins and ends with Seven recounting her story to a beautiful stranger in a bar, a framing device some readers will find difficult to believe. Voyager’s Seven was not the kind of person who would tell her story to a stranger — beautiful or otherwise — and Picard’s Seven is even less likely to do so. The world of organized crime and espionage she’s living in at this point (before the events of Picard Season 1) should have taught her that it’s not a good idea to confide your most painful memories to someone whose name you don’t know.
Mack does Seven a disservice here, especially for an experienced Star Trek writer (his works include the Destiny and Cold Equations trilogies) proven to understand his subject matter.
Seven finds a tortured Icheb during her Fenris Ranger years. (Paramount+)
The real story starts with Seven at a low point. Humiliated by Starfleet and the Federation — rejecting her because she’s ex-Borg — Seven is afraid that Admiral Kathryn Janeway is harming her own career by trying to help.
Feeling like like her only option is to cut and run, just like she did in “The Raven” and “Dark Frontier,” Seven lands on a remote industrial colony, doing mindless factory work, dancing in mosh pits and hooking up with strangers. If this sounds out of character for someone who prides herself on her intelligence, hates crowds and is self-conscious about her body (see “Survival Instinct” and “Human Error”), Seven herself soon realizes as much. When a Federation spymaster offers her exactly the life she wanted — citizenship and a place in Starfleet — in exchange for infiltrating a group of outlaws called the Fenris Rangers, it’s an offer she can’t refuse.
The Fenris Rangers, however, are not exactly outlaws. They are the legitimate law enforcement agency of a colony named Fenris, and the only ones keeping order in a sector of space from which the Federation has withdrawn. Fellow ranger Keon Harper mirrors the organization he serves: aging, overworked, running low on faith and resources, but still determined to serve and protect (not unlike the Voyager crew in their Delta Quadrant days).
Seven’s guns-blazing introduction to Harper, and their first adventure chasing criminals through a gritty neon city, are when the story kicks into high gear. Mack’s action scenes make strategic use of his characters’ abilities while also establishing them as a team: for example, Harper pilots the getaway hoverbike because Seven is the better shot (while also teaching her idioms like “cover our six”).
Seven after several years with the Rangers. (Paramount+)
The same gift for strategy also serves Mack when it comes to the bigger geopolitical picture. The Qiris sector, where the Rangers operate, is like Seven: rejected by the Federation, left to survive alone, and in danger of falling to hostile forces. For Seven, those forces are anger, self-loathing of her Borg side and a spy gig that compromises her integrity; for the colonies, it’s a warlord named Kohgish, who starves planets into obedience by controlling their weather.
By challenging Harper and their fellow Rangers to help her stop Kohgish, Seven fights against the kind of suffering that makes people lose themselves. She does this by reminding her new colleagues (and herself) of who they really are, and what the Fenris Rangers stand for: “A firewall to protect the innocent from evil.”
This is, at its core, a story about identity. As a queer woman, she learns what she wants in a relationship; watching her fall in love while fighting crime with forensic accountant Ellory Kayd is one of the highlights of the story. Seven also relearns how to live in a community — having lost her parents, the Collective and her Voyager shipmates, this is the first time she gets to join one of her own free will. The Rangers are flawed and so is she, but they challenge each other to improve: “The real problem isn’t that she’s too hot for us to handle,” Harper tells their superiors, “It’s whether we’re strong enough to give her the backup she deserves.”
Finally, as an ex-Borg, Seven learns to take responsibility for her past without letting others shame her for it: “Never, ever let anyone tell me again that I don’t know my own [expletive] name,” she says, after being called Annika one time too many.
I don’t know about you, but in my opinion, there is nothing more Seven than that.
