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Multiple STAR TREK: PICARD Actors Confirm Departure From Series

TrekCore Staff
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136
Multiple STAR TREK: PICARD Actors Confirm Departure From Series

The second season of Star Trek: Picard debuted its finale episode today, and after the events of “Farewell,” multiple members of the series’ cast have bid their own adieu to the final frontier.

(Don’t worry, Patrick Stewart isn’t going anywhere!)

*** WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! ***

Following Cris Rios’ decision to stay behind in the 21st century in “Farewell” — and Guinan’s story of how his life ultimately ended in that past era — Santiago Cabrera shared the below post on Instagram following the finale, noting “It’s been a hell of a ride.”

While not a “formal” goodbye message, Cabrera joined the cast of HBO’s The Flight Attendant last September, which was filming during Picard Season 3’s time in studio.

After her assimilation as the new Borg Queen, Dr. Agnes Jurati’s story has come to an end as Alison Pill shared with MovieWeb this week that she didn’t participate in filming on Star Trek: Picard’s third and final season.

Jurati (Alison Pill) has her own secret. (Paramount+)

Speaking about the upcoming final year of Picard, Pill said:

“I know that season three will be the end. I wasn’t a part of season three, so I don’t have much to say about it in terms of spoilers. I will get to watch along with everybody else.”

On Instagram this morning, the actor also shared some behind-the-scenes footage of her time doing stunt work in full “Borgati” makeup and costume, from the Jurati-Elnor battle in “Hide and seek.”

Finally, in what is sure to be a disappointment to many, young Romulan cadet Elnor seems to have finished his Star Trek: Picard journey — after being resurrected in the final moments of “Hide and Seek” — as Australian actor Evan Evagora announced through his Instagram account today he’s not returning for the third season.

MAY 6 UPDATE: Soji actor Isa Brones also bid farewell to her character on Instagram today.

While it’s possible one or more of these three departing Picard stars may make a brief appearance in Season 3 — similar to the few moments checking in with Soji Asha in “The Stargazer” this season — it’s likely that “Farewell” will serve as each actor’s swan song.

It’s unknown as of this writing if Laris actor Orla Brady — while the final moments of the finale seemed to indicate she may stick around with Jean-Luc Picard, the actor emphasized the “ambiguity” of that ending in an interview in this week’s episode of The Ready Room.

(Brady also shared photos from London in September and from Ireland in early October when Season 3 was filming — so we’ll have to wait and see on that.)

Both Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) and Michelle Hurd (Raffi) have both made public statements about filming Season 3 with the returning Star Trek: The Next Generation cast.

Star Trek: Picard is currently in post-production on its third and final season — likely to air in 2023 — on Paramount+ the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Amazon’s Prime Video service in most international locations

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Series Premiere Review — “Strange New Worlds”

John Concagh
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185
STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Series Premiere Review — “Strange New Worlds”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds had a lot of expectations to live up to, and it’s safe to say that the series’ first episode met most of those expectations and more. “Strange New Worlds” is both a stellar introduction to the new show and a fantastic homage to the most classic of Star Trek tropes: the Prime Directive dilemma.

The episode opens with a lofty monologue about the wonders of first contact ready by Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romjin) — the Enterprise first officer known best as ‘Number One’ — accompanied by footage from an alien bunker tracking a UFO in their skies. The Kiley, who live in a near-current-day-Earth society, eventually get a clear image of the vessel: a single-nacelled Starfleet ship.

Pike sporting a traditional sure-everything-is-fine beard. (Paramount+)

It’s a tantalizing start to the story — undercut a little by the smash cut back to the frozen fields of Bear Creek, Montana… where an off-duty Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) is spending his shore leave making pancakes, watching The Day the Earth Stood Still on repeat, and enjoying the intimate company of fellow Starfleet captain Batel (Melanie Scrofano).

Captain Pike, in his full beard and phone-call avoiding glory, is still reluctant to return to space after being shaken to the core by the vision of his future imparted upon him back in Star Trek: Discovery’s “Through the Valley of Shadows” — something entirely off-limits to share with Batal, thanks to the super-secret classification surrounding all things Discovery.

She encourages him to get back into uniform, telling him he’s “got better places to be” — and Starfleet Command seems to agree, as soon Admiral Robert April (Adrian Holmes) tracks down the wayward Pike to order him up to the Enterprise. Pike’s hesitant to follow April’s directive, even after he learns Una’s been captured during a first contact mission that’s gone wrong — “You can quit when you get back,” April tells him.

Spock and T’Pring enjoy the sandy landscape of Vulcan — and each other. (Paramount+)

From the winter snow to the sands of Vulcan, we head next to check on a nervy Spock (Ethan Peck) sharing a meal with T’Pring (Gia Sandhu) on the anniversary of their betrothal. It’s an odd scene: they’re clearly both deeply attracted to each other, but it’s still a little disjointed, especially when T’Pring goes from dismissing his Starfleet career as “gallivanting around the galaxy” one moment to proposing to him in the next.

Retconning “Amok Time” is a risky move, no matter how you do it — but I don’t think it’s the worst idea. If anything, having the pair start off as being so close and committed to each other makes T’Pring’s treatment of Spock in “Amok Time” even crueler. We’ll see more of this pair together later this season, and presuming T’Pring continues as a recurring character beyond Season 1, there’s plenty of time for the show to portray the decline and ultimate collapse of their relationship.

As for Spock’s own statements on their relationship: can we really trust a person who has never told a truth about his personal life — ever? I’m cautiously optimistic. They’ve got time to try and get us from A to B, even if they’ve given themselves a lot of distance to cover.

Eventually both Pike and Spock return to the Enterprise — the captain arrives by way a rather glorious shuttle trip up to Spacedock — and after catching up on some ship’s business, we get a very poignant moment where the two reflect on the loss of Michael Burnham (along with the rest of the USS Discovery crew) just a few months earlier.

La’an reports for duty as Captain Pike’s acting first officer. (Paramount+)

It’s really satisfying to see Strange New Worlds treat the series from it was spun off seriously — as we’ll revisit later in the episode — when it really had no requirement to do so (beyond vague references to how Pike received a vision of his future). Taking the time to allow these character to contemplate the effects of their Discovery encounter is a welcome component to the story, even if it’s not critical to the series as a whole.

We are quickly introduced to our new Enterprise crew as the ship prepares for departure: Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) at the helm; young “prodigy” cadet Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) at communications, and stern-faced Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) assigned as an interim ‘Number One’ filling in for Una. The nice moment of Pike’s return to the bridge is, however, marred by his own second-guessing… made more apparent by the hallucination of his future disfigurement reflected in his armrest console.

Eventually, Pike opens up to Spock about the vision seen on Boreth, and how it’s changed him — or, more clearly, how he doesn’t yet know how it will change him. Pike’s fixation on his injury and the feeling that it represents the “death of the man [he is]” is a bit disappointing. Sure, it’s a great plot beat, and the character of a man who knows how his life will end and must face what that knowledge does to him is great — but Pike’s life doesn’t end with that accident.

Pike shares details of his future fate with Spock. (Paramount+)

We know that much, even if he doesn’t and I think by now we should have moved past the 1960s ableist views around disability. I can understand why they didn’t do that; Pike facing the certainty of his death is tonally perfect with the message of this episode, and perhaps the whole series — but it could’ve been handled a lot better.

At the very least, Spock’s advice to the captain  — to use his knowledge to improve himself and his ability to command — is sensible. Pike is going to have to live with his knowledge and learn from it, and that core theme is key clear throughout the episode. Arrival at Kiley 279 kicks off a classic Star Trek prime directive mystery, with an empty starship and strange sensor readings quickly being interpreted as a threat by La’an.

The sparring between her and Spock, which quickly turns into an agreement on the danger, was rather fun and a nice demonstration of La’an’s determination. An attack from the surface confirms Spock’s theory that the Kiley can’t have a working warp drive… but instead, they have something much worse: a “warp bomb.”

Spock’s further conclusion — that the planet is not ready for first contact — means that they must find a way to rescue Una and her crew (all 2 of them, which… doesn’t seem like a lot to run a starship) without causing any more cultural damage.

Classic-style Trek can’t skip a conference room meeting. (Paramount+)

The next stop is sickbay, where the gregarious Dr. M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) and his new nurse, Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) proceed to “mess with their genomes” — providing a fun backstory for the myriad of alien-design disguises we’ve seen many a Trek hero wear. La’an’s refusal to be sedated for the procedure is a mildly overdone moment about how determined she is to always be alert, but it fits — barely.

What follows is almost textbook. After beaming down and knocking out some scientists (thanks La’an’s quick suggestion to nerve-pinch the locals), the trio are outfitted in local garb to infiltrate the Kiley base — though their task becomes classically complicated by difficulties with Spock’s disguise. The solution, to build a more stable disguise from the genes of the two Kiley scientists who were beamed aboard, is stymied when the one they need escapes.

The day is saved by Cadet Uhura, who calms the panicked Kiley down by talking to him about the local sport “tagball,” a nice callback to future-Uhura’s ability to quickly digest the media of planets, as seen in episodes like “Bread and Circuses.”

A cheerful Uhura puts the panicked alien visitor at ease. (Paramount+)

Spock’s disguise holds up long enough for the team to make it to Una’s cell, despite a curious Kiley scientist spotting his fluctuating ears in an elevator. Number One’s rescue delivers two bombshells: first, that she and La’an are well acquainted, and secondly, that the Kiley developed a warp bomb because of Starfleet… after watching the space battle between Control and the combined Starfleet/Klingon/Kelpien armada in “Such Sweet Sorrow” which ended with Discovery flying through a wormhole to the future.

It’s a clever plot twist — acknowledging that there can always be unintended consequences of our actions, no matter how noble they might be — and feeds into the ways in which Strange New Worlds won’t let us forget where it came from.

With this revelation, Pike decides to throw caution (and General Order 1) to the wind and reveals himself and Spock — whose disguise has now rather painfully worn off — to the Kiley. Their leader is unimpressed with Pike’s explanation of his mistake, and only really deigning to listen to his pleas for unity after the captain orders the Enterprise into low orbit to show her “who has the biggest stick.”

We’ve all thought about a scene like this, and it works, somehow, if just for the shots of the Kiley staring in awe at the starship that hangs in the sky — but even with the Enterprise’s intervention, talks between the government and the opposition factional are still breaking down. Pike is spurred into action, however, by a cursory remark from La’an, and returns to the planet to bring an important warning in the form of Earth’s own history… and his own, personal future.

Enough said. (Paramount+)

Pike’s speech — in all its on-the-nose moral-message-of-the-week glory — is, quite frankly, wonderful. It’s uncompromising about the state of our world, and the “power of possibility” to change it. Mount’s delivery, especially of lines like “right up until the end, life is to be worn gloriously,” is brilliant; he sells the classic captain’s speech in just the way you’d expect. It’s a demonstration of how much Strange New Worlds is taking the emotional maturity of Discovery and marrying it to the moral certainty of the Original Series.

Sure, parts of it will certainly aggravate a certain collection of people — using contemporary news footage of the January 6 US Capitol siege is more direct than Star Trek has ever gone before — but there’s nothing more in line with the franchise’s point of view than  beating the bigots over the head with a message until they get the point. Pike’s message, illustrating how in Earth’s history that violence escalated all the way into a world war, sinks in with the Kiley society at large — even if it has apparently ruffled a lot of feathers in the Federation Council.

It’s a nice, round-up ending,  even if Pike and La’an’s discussion about trust and growth is a bit contrived. The character stuff around La’an feels a little off in this episode. I’m not sure it was unnecessary, or poorly executed; Christina Chong sells La’an’s detached, bitter-but-determined personality well, but considering the focus on Pike, it seems a little distracting.

The final reveal of Lieutenant Samuel Kirk (Dan Jeannotte) — who’ll later die on Deneva — joining the Enterprise crew feels even more contrived, especially as someone who’ll report to Spock, but it makes up for it by being a fun twist. We end with a rejuvenated Captain Pike, ready to return to the stars; it’s a triumphal, if expected, ending.

Oh, that OTHER Kirk. (Paramount+)

CAMP NONSENSE OF THE WEEK

There was a lot of classic camp nonsense in this episode, but this week the award goes to Pike’s exasperated “Why is it always an alley?” meta comment after the Enterprise trio beams to the surface. It’s always an alley, Chris, and I don’t know why. No one does.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

  • Like the Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 finale, this episode is dedicated to the late April Nocifora, post-production supervisor on Discovery who passed away in 2021.
     
  • 1951’s The Day The Earth Stood Still was directed by Robert Wise, who also directed Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The climax of that film mirrors the climax of the episode well, with the alien alliance imploring a warring world to lay their arms down and join them in stars. (Also: does this mean that Robert Wise is canon in the Trek universe?!)
     
  • The shuttle which brings Pike up to the Enterprise is named for Star Trek: Discovery scientist Paul Stamets.
     
  • The USS Archer (NCC-627) is the first one-nacelled ship seen in the 23rd century (not counting the Kelvin in that alternate reality); it seems to be inspired by Franz Joseph’s Saladin or Hermes-class designs.
The one-nacelled USS ARCHER, named of course for the NX-01 captain. (Paramount+)
  • Chief Kyle (André Dae Kim) works some wonders with the Enterprise transporter; first equipping the landing party with new clothes and gear in mid-beamdown, then materializing a medical solution onto the surface of Spock’s eye.
     
  • The fact the Kiley are all dressed in clothes similar to mid-20th century Earth — fedoras and all — is a nice touch.
     
  • La’an’s mention of the Gorn — and their rather bloodthirsty nursery planets — represents the first mention of the species in this era; while Terran refugee Lorca kept a Gorn skeleton in his lab aboard Discovery, the species is still generally unknown to the Federation at this point in Trek history.
     
  • From her personnel record, La’an Noonien-Singh’s parents were named Sa’an and Ronu, with a brother named Manu. She is the sole survivor of the SS Puget Sound, rescued as a child by then-ensign Una Chin-Riley of the USS Martin Luther King, Jr.
La’an Noonien-Singh’s personnel file. (Paramount+)
  • The development of General Order 1 into “the prime directive” is a nice nod to the nebulous nature of the rule in Captain Kirk’s time. Kirk’s less-than-strict adherence to it fits with it being somewhat loosely-enforced prior to the 2260s.
     
  • Originally located “100 AUs from Earth” (as of “The War Within, the War Without), Starbase 1 now seems to have been relocated to a near-Jupiter orbit following its near-destruction during the Klingon War; domes filled with forestry and other Earth-sourced nature preserves have also been added since we last saw it in Discovery’s first season. (The Jupiter location feels like an homage to the classic science fiction film Silent Running.)
     
  • It took me a minute to figure out that Sam Kirk wasn’t just Paul Wesley in a moustache.
     
  • While this is his first live-action appearance, Robert April was named-checked twice in Star Trek: Discovery display graphics — as one of Starfleet’s most decorated captains (“Choose Your Pain”) and as Pike’s predecessor on the Enterprise (“Brother”).
We probably should have seen this coming, right? (Paramount+)
  • Nurse Chapel is a civilian on the series (though outfitted in a Starfleet uniform with rank cuffs, questionably); she’s on leave from “Stanford Morehouse Epigenetic Project.”
     
  • Thanks to his half-Vulcan physiology, Chapel injects Spock with her medications in a different location than the human Pike and La’an.
     
  • M’Benga’s sickbay features an “emergency medical transporter” pad.
     
  • Pike’s video presentation includes stock footage of Starfleet Command from Star Trek: Discovery as well as the Starfleet Museum seen in the Star Trek: Picard series premiere.
     
  • In Star Trek history, Pike explains that a second US civil war expanded into the Eugenics Wars, then into World War III.
     
    While the Original Series indicated the Eugenics Wars took place in the mid-1990s, Star Trek: Picard Season 2 took great pains to note that historical records of the early 21st century were extremely fragmented after the devastation of World War III — allowing the current Trek production team to shuffle the Eugenics Wars up into the late 2020s era — but keeping Khan’s creation set in 1996 (as seen in this week’s finale).
Off to the next adventure! (Paramount+)

I’m still unsure about how the writers are treating Pike’s disability. They are admittedly backed into a corner by both “The Menagerie” and “Through the Valley of Shadows,” but there was room for a better narrative here – one about living life to the fullest with a disability, with a less fatalistic (and outdated) perspective. On the other hand, this is just the first episode — they have time to address this more fully, and frankly, I’m willing to give it to them.

As a premiere, “Strange New Worlds” isn’t perfect, but it’s a fun, interesting and enjoyable episode (with a moral message you could probably see from space). This first episode is a clear mission statement about the show’s pacing, style, and message, how much this homage to the Original Series isn’t going to go over the same ground: it’s ready to give us new lessons.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returns with “Children of the Comet” on Thursday, May 12 on Paramount+ in the United States, Australia, Latin America, and the Nordics, as well as on CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada.

Additional international distribution has not yet been announced.

STAR TREK: PICARD Season Finale Review — “Farewell”

Jim Moorhouse
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195
STAR TREK: PICARD Season Finale Review — “Farewell”

In the end, Star Trek: Picard’s journey this season was really about not being alone; it was about opening yourself up to the vulnerabilities of love by accepting and seeking out the strength in others — while also acknowledging the personal trauma and pain that make us who we are.

“Farewell” was a touching and poignant conclusion that expertly wrapped up a half-dozen storylines, while also setting up the much anticipated third and final season of the series.

The major loose threads covered in this satisfying conclusion include Jean-Luc Picard’s essential healing, Renée Picard’s successful Europa Mission (thanks to the ultimate sacrifice from Tallinn), and the official introduction of the new 25th century Borg… as well as two major, deep-cut character reveals that only a cynic would label as fan service.

Tallinn, Rios and Picard discuss Jurati’s prophecy. (Paramount+)

Beyond those major narrative themes, each character’s season-long arc is wrapped up neatly, from famed 21st century medical activist Cristóbal Rios (Santiago Cabrera) to the surprise return of Cadet Elnor (Evan Evagora) on the Excelsior – with all the Seven (Jeri Ryan) and Raffi (Michelle Hurd) love-sandwiched in between. Every character had a fitting swan song.

But, of course, the anchor to this season — and this episode — has been the return of Q (John de Lancie), who was up to his old tricks again in launching Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) into this this season-long journey of self-discovery, all while battling his own mysterious trauma. The scenes between Picard and Q in “Farewell” are among the best of the series, echoing back to their last finale in “All Good Things.”

The episode opens with Queen Agnes’ prophecy about two Renée’s — “One who lives, and another who dies” — at the top of the gang’s mind, as they plot their next steps in preventing Adam Soong (Brent Spiner) from stopping Renée Picard’s (Penelope Mitchell) spaceflight. Seven, Raffi and Rios head to Soong’s evil lair where they solve some high stakes technobabble to take down a few drones that Soong has programmed to target the Shango should he fail in stopping Renée’s launch on the ground.

Renée Picard meets Tallinn face to face. (Paramount+)

Meanwhile, Picard is with Tallinn (Orla Brady), who he has realized is going to sacrifice her life by impersonating Renée to distract Soong. Her plan works to perfection, much to the chagrin of Picard, who Tallinn has helped directly understand that “other people’s lives aren’t up to you, and their deaths aren’t your fault. You can’t control who we lose, and we can’t spare ourselves the pain of it.”

Tallinn’s death — masquerading as Renée to divert Soong’s attack — is handled beautifully in not only the emotional way in which she connects with Renée for the first time and is able to share her respect, love, and admiration for the young explorer — but also in her dying breath in the shadow of the launch when she tells Picard to absolve himself, “or the only life left unsaved will be your own.”

Lesson learned for Picard, but not so much for Soong, who spends most of the episode twirling his black mustache while melodramatically peacocking around the launch site. But not to fear. However heavy-handed those scenes come across in the episode, the final shot of Soong trashing his lab before pulling out a top-secret file referencing Khan was a great payoff — another example of the fun that was injected into this engaging season of Trek.

Dun dun dunnnnnnn! (Paramount+)

As part of the destruction of Soong’s lab, his daughter-slash-experiment, Kore (Isa Briones), exacts the ultimate revenge by hacking into his system and deleting his research. The move catches the attention of someone very special, who apparently already has business on Earth seeing that supervisor Tallinn has just passed on.

In one of the biggest surprises in Star Trek history, a Traveler of all space and time — formerly known as Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) — drops in to pluck Kore from downtown Los Angeles, recruiting her to join the Traveler cadre. The reveal showing Wesley living his best life as a Traveler works on every level.

In-universe, it’s an out-of-the-blue callback that fits perfectly with Kore’s arc (a child who broke free from what she was ‘designed’ for, like how Wesley broke from his expected Starfleet destiny) — but like the other casting surprises which the Star Trek: Picard team has managed to keep under wraps until just the right moment (Seven, Hugh, and Riker/Troi last season), it’s a major accomplishment to have pulled off.

Throughout all of the around-the-edges production beats — the announced return of the Next Generation cast for Season 3, Wheaton’s three years hosting The Ready Room, and his own fan-fiction about what Wesley might be up to these days — it was all just perfect.

A surprise that no one saw coming, one that fits the narrative, and in the end makes you feel great about the way Star Trek’s never ending connective story threads continue to circle back on each other… all of which leads us to the backbone of this season: Q and Picard.

Time for the sales pitch. (Paramount+)

With the crew back together in the chateau, resigned to their fate living in the 21st century, Picard wanders his childhood home to replace the skeleton key hidden in the wall for him to find again as a child in the future. The key played a critical role in his mother’s suicide, and as he did in “Tapestry” 30 years prior, Picard knows that this particular thread is a part of who he is and can’t be unraveled.

As Q signals the end of his latest tribulation for Picard, the two sit down for a moving meditation on their relationship and bond through 35 years. The spectacular scenes open with a tired and pensive Q immediately letting his guard down, coming clean to Picard. Where he once facetiously said “in all the universe, you’re the closest thing I have to a friend” to the Enterprise captain in “Deja Q,” on the verge of his own mortality Q reveals to Picard that those words were truer than anyone ever realized.

He tells him, “I am moving on. I am dying alone,” and then lovingly emphasizes, “I don’t want that for you!” But, as we know, Picard has ultimately been alone his entire life, and now, having freshly fought through his trauma, to see it in a different light, he has finally chosen himself. As Q says, “You have absolved yourself,” and that decision now gives him a chance to be loved.

One last chat. (Paramount+)

Not one to completely believe everything he is hearing from his longtime nemesis, Picard’s heartfelt questions — “Why?,” and then “Why me?,” and then finally, “Why does all this matter?” — hit an emotional crescendo when the omnipotent rapscallion answers with, “It matters to me. You matter to me. Even gods have favorites.” Cue the waterworks.

From there, Q decrees that he is sending the entire crew home as his final, dying act, but before he does — as many fans have been expecting —  Cris Rios steps forward to say he is staying. He knows “he never fit” and “nothing stuck” for him in his life in the 24th century, so now it is his turn to get stuck in the past, where he will remain with Teresa (Sol Rodriguez) and her son.

For one last time, the quintessential Star Trek foil declares, “Farewell, mon capitaine. It’s time for me to go,” to which Picard steps forward to hug him and say, “But not alone. Isn’t that the point of all this?” With a smile and a snap heard around the quadrant, Q whispers a familiar refrain into Picard’s ear, “See you out there.”

It’s a beautiful scene; an expert companion to the emotional swansong that was “All Good Things,” and a fitting end for a character that has permeated the franchise for the better part of four decades. In context now with the whole season, the return of Q was a stroke of brilliance — the only character that could truly push Picard inward on his journey of self-discovery, one which gave us a deeper understanding of one of television’s most compelling characters.

“Even gods have favorites.” (Paramount+)

The end of Q, though, is not the end of the episode, as the snap of his fingers sends Picard and Seven back to the bridge of the Stargazer, where Rios is no longer present — and another fan expectation comes true as the “different” Borg Queen seen in the season’s premiere drops her mask, revealing a fully-assimilated Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) underneath.

That French melody which blasted confusingly across the Stargazer’s bridge ten episodes ago (Edith Piaf’s “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien”) now falls into context, as Picard now understands it to be message of friendship from the new Queen — immediately triggering him to cancel the self-destruct sequence to stop the explosion seen in “The Star Gazer.”

Jurati’s request for help is one Picard honors, seeing his friend still inside the new Queen even after 400 years out in space… and he gives Seven command of the Stargazer, the best expert on hand to begin negotiations with the Borg.

“Borgati” revealed at last. (Paramount+)

As for Agnes, she has brought her Borg cooperative through space and time to protect the quadrant from a massive galactic event because “she needed a friend” to let her harmonize the fleet’s shields with their own.

Picard allows Agnes to take control of the assembled Starfleet taskforce we saw so many episodes ago — and the ensuing sequence on screen is a visual effects extravaganza, with Jason Zimmerman and his VFX crew going full tilt in rendering a glorious smorgas-Borg of ships and shields and spatial anomalies.

It all ends with the formation of a mysterious transwarp conduit created by an unknown threat with unknown intentions (Season 3 set-up, anyone?). With the newly formed anomaly requiring close observation, Jurati and her Borg request provisional membership in the Federation — sorry, but how cool is that! — and they volunteer to stay in position as “guardian of the gate.”

By your powers combined….. (Paramount+)

With the action complete, there is time for one final outing as the remaining La Sirena crew head to Guinan’s (Whoopie Goldberg) in Los Angeles to tie up a few loose ends, including details on Rios and Teresa’s life together, and the revelation that Renée Picard’s space mission lead to planet Earth’s restored climate. With drinks in hand, the gang salutes their present and departed found family as the opening chords from Star Trek: First Contact’s theme swell as part of Jeff Russo’s moving score.

To close it all out, Picard returns to his home to find Laris (Orla Brady) preparing to leave on her own adventures. In putting his new-found perspective to use right away, Picard cuts straight to the chase — while standing in the refurbished solarium — and asks Laris for a second chance to connect.

“While time cannot give us second chance,” he says, “maybe people can,” and with a smile and a nod, the Romulan agrees to his offer.

Second chances. (Paramount+)

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

  • Wil Wheaton. Good for him. This is Wesley’s first real appearance since his departure from mortal life in 1994’s “Journey’s End,” aside from his silent appearance at the edges of Star Trek: Nemesis — all that’s leftover from his deleted scene, a cut about which Wheaton wrote so eloquently back in 2002.
     
  • Wesley reveals that the Travelers oversee and assign the Supervisors to critical points throughout history, connecting once more the story of “Assignment: Earth” to the modern Star Trek era.
     
  • After a season of watching Seven and Raffi slowly rebuild their relationship, their kiss after resigning themselves to a life in the 21st century is a solid indicator that the work is paying off.
Elnor gets a welcome resurrection. (Paramount+)
Living the good life. (Paramount+)

The final moments with Picard and Laris are the perfect beat and resolution to conclude the most unique (and perhaps divisive) season of Star Trek we have ever seen — the first to feature a single, heavily-contained adventure with the vast majority of the narrative (seven straight episodes!) taking place on a modern-day Earth.

The time-travel epic featured robust storylines for Q, Guinan and the Borg, and in the end was an incredible season of satisfying self-discovery for more than a dozen characters.

Bring on Season 3.

Jim Moorhouse is the creator of TrekRanks.com and the TrekRanks Podcast. He can be found living and breathing Trek every day on Twitter at @EnterpriseExtra.

Star Trek: Picard is currently in post-production on its third and final season — likely to air in 2023 — on Paramount+ the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Amazon’s Prime Video service in most international locations

INTERVIEW — Co-Showrunner Henry Alonso Myers Says to “Assume Nothing” About Jim Kirk and STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS

Ken Reilly
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INTERVIEW — Co-Showrunner Henry Alonso Myers Says to “Assume Nothing” About Jim Kirk and STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is still two days away from its Season 1 premiere, but last month’s news that the series is set to bring in legendary Star Trek character James T. Kirk set the Internet ablaze, igniting all sorts of speculation on just how that might work.

The Vampire Diaries vet Paul Wesley is set to inhabit the gold uniform of the future Enterprise captain in Season 2, currently in production, and his participation in the series was announced by Paramount+ after a number of photos from a location shoot in downtown Toronto outed his casting to the public.

We got a chance to chat with Strange New Worlds executive producer and co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers at the show’s April 30 premiere event in New York City, where he advised that fans should “put on [their] thinking hat” when it comes to figuring out how Kirk beams aboard the series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go2OuzF1HP0

TREKCORE: I know you won’t tell me how or why, but I wonder if you would talk about bringing in Paul Wesley as — I’m not going to say ‘Captain Kirk,’ I’m going to say ‘Jim Kirk,’ because I don’t know the answer to that question.

HENRY ALONSO MYERS: All I can say is is that… you’re a sci-fi fan. Put on your thinking hat! [There are] a lot of different ways that we can meet this character. A lot of different ways. Some of them are the obvious ones and some of them are less obvious.

TREKCORE: So, assume nothing until you see the product.

HENRY ALONSO MYERS: Assume nothing. Yes.

I mean, what I would really say is that he’s a guest on our series. He is important to our series. He has big roles on the series. Paul inhabits him wonderfully. But like I’ve said, we’re not trying to change what our series is. Our series is the stories of Pike’s Enterprise, you know what I mean?

But, like, Kirk was around back then! And it would probably be a mistake not to tell — like, you don’t want to leave a story on the table, not telling interesting stories that haven’t been told. We’re telling stories about young Spock, and young Uhura, and young Chapel, stories that hadn’t been told.

At some point, you’re going to have to wonder, “What happened with young Kirk?”

Strange New Worlds‘ ten-episode first season runs through July 7; the show’s currently-filming second season will beam down in 2023.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuts with its premiere episode on Thursday, May 5 on Paramount+ in the United States, Australia, Latin America, and the Nordics, as well as on CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada.

Additional international distribution has not yet been announced.

Paramount+ Arrives to the United Kingdom and Ireland on June 22

TrekCore Staff
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Paramount+ Arrives to the United Kingdom and Ireland on June 22

After a long wait, fans in the United Kingdom and Ireland will finally get access to Paramount+ this summer as the streamer is formally set to launch there on June 22.

While unfortunately not in time for this week’s launch of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the new Captain Pike-led series will be part of the Paramount+ lineup when the service debuts in the UK and Ireland, as the show features in a new video advertising the upcoming arrival.

(Star Trek: Discovery, we assume, will also be included — however we expect Picard and Lower Decks to remain as Prime Video exclusives; no word on Prodigy which just debuted on Nickelodeon internationally.)

From the official press release, Paramount+ will be available both as a standalone app/subscription, as well as through a partnership with Sky.

In the UK, Paramount+ will be available online at https://www.paramountplus.com/ and on mobile and a wide range of connected TV devices via the Paramount+ app, via broad direct-to-consumer distribution through Apple, Amazon, Google, Roku® and Samsung, with more platforms to be announced in the coming months. Users will be able to sign up to the service for £6.99 per month/£69.90 per annum in the UK, after a free seven-day trial*.

Paramount+ will launch on Sky platforms in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Austria in 2022 as part of a new multi-year distribution agreement that also includes the extended carriage of Paramount’s leading portfolio of pay TV channels. Sky Cinema subscribers will get the bonus of Paramount+ included at no extra cost.

The streaming service will also arrive in South Korea by the end of May, and in 60 more regions by the end of the year, including “Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria” (per Deadline’s report). Paramount+ is said to launch in India in 2023.

'Star Trek: TOS Sketchbook'

'TNG Movies Sketchbook'

'The Art of John Eaves'

WeeklyTrek Podcast #178 — LOWER DECKS on Blu-ray and Counting Down to STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS

Alex Perry
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WeeklyTrek Podcast #178 — LOWER DECKS on Blu-ray and Counting Down to STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS

On this week’s episode of WeeklyTrek, brought to you in partnership between The Tricorder Transmissions Podcast Network and TrekCore, host Alex Perry is joined by Peter Hong 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 for a reminder about how to win an exclusive Star Trek Mission Chicago Geordi Bear, Peter’s wish for a continuation of Star Trek: Enterprise — and Alex’s theory about a potential big guest appearance in this week’s Star Trek: Picard season finale!

WeeklyTrek is available to subscribe and download each week on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube, 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!

INTERVIEW: Alex Kurtzman on the Return of the NEXT GENERATION Cast for STAR TREK: PICARD’s Final Season

Ken Reilly
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INTERVIEW: Alex Kurtzman on the Return of the NEXT GENERATION Cast for STAR TREK: PICARD’s Final Season

Fans were thrilled when Paramount+ announced last month that the entire primary cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation are set to return to next year’s Star Trek: Picard episodes, bringing back all of Jean-Luc Picard’s Enterprise shipmates for one final adventure.

While the back half of Picard’s second season has been managed by series co-creator and co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman, writer Terry Matalas (co-showrunner on Season 2 and primary showrunner for Season 3) took over crafting what he’s called “a proper send-off to the TNG crew.”

We had the opportunity to ask franchise head honcho Alex Kurtzman about this massive reunion coming to Star Trek: Picard next season, where he shared how the series required a build-up to such an event — and how the Next Gen cast will have much more than cameo roles in Season 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhX9ozwBb6M

ALEX KURTZMAN: “When you take on Picard, the first thing you think is I want to bring everybody back, right. Of course. But Patrick Stewart, and he really deserves the credit for it, equally wanted to bring everybody back, but I think was insistent from the beginning and saying if we’re going to do that, we have to earn it. We can’t just drop that all at once.

It won’t land in the right way because there won’t have been enough time to set up what had changed about Picard and what had changed about all the other characters in the intervening years. So I think we felt that by the time we get around to Season 3, now you’re like, “Okay, we’ve established the world, we’ve established the characters,” and it makes a lot of sense to bring them back and we have a really good reason to bring them back.

I mean, again, any story is always, “why?” What’s the “why?” And we finally found our “why.”

TREKCORE: And for folks who are worried — not worried, but maybe concerned — that it’s just going to be cameos, they’re just going to be popping in, five minutes in and out… they’re like, real regulars?

KURTZMAN: They’re not cameos. I assure everybody. They can just take that right off the plate.

Returning star Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher) shared on Twitter today that she’d already completed six episodes worth of ADR (dialogue replacement) work in post-production for Star Trek: Picard’s ten-episode third season — who shared a note of support for Matalas’ story idea.

She’ll join Patrick Stewart, along with fellow TNG co-stars LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Worf), Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) and Brent Spiner (playing an unknown role) in the final year of the series.

Star Trek: Picard concludes its second season with “Farewell” on Paramount+ May 5 in the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Amazon’s Prime Video service in most international locations.

Interviews — STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Cast Share New Character Insights Ahead of the Series’ Launch

Claire Little, Executive Officer (In Charge of Radishes)
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Interviews — STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Cast Share New Character Insights Ahead of the Series’ Launch

While the days tick down to the arrival of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, we’ve been sharing moments from our mid-April interviews with the series’ cast on our social media channels — where TrekCore, along with a group of other media outlets, had an opportunity to chat with the actors over video about the new series.

If you’ve not been following us on Twitter, on Facebook, or on YouTube, here’s a roundup of the best moments of discussion from the Strange New Worlds cast to catch you up!

(Start following us on socials if you aren’t yet, as new video content like this will often debut there first!)

*  *  *

Anson Mount describes how his character, Captain Christopher Pike, leads the USS Enterprise crew after learning of his own future:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMyfjeAJ9vE

“You know, we got to see him lead a crew that was not his own on ‘Star Trek: Discovery,’ and now we get to see him and lead his own crew — and I really wanted to flesh out that tremendous sense of empathy I think he has, which is it goes hand in hand with humility. I think that’s partly what makes him such a good leader and captain.

Every time a crew member walks through the doors of his office, the most important thing in the room is not Pike. It’s not even necessarily the question. It’s the crew member. He has to care about them above and beyond his own sense of self.

That’s why his existential crisis at the beginning of the series is not his own fear of death. It’s ‘Can I remain, can I continue to serve as a captain when I’m dealing with this? Am I going to be able to be responsible for hundreds of people who serve under me dealing with this crisis?’

And how do we, as people telling the story, find a way through that, not ignore that, but find a way through that that leads into further development of the character?”

Mount describes his excitement over recording the iconic “Space, the final frontier…” monologue for the series’ opening credits:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GojKnB1uQwM

“I knew I wanted to do that speech! I knew it like I knew I wanted to eat — so I was very grateful when [showrunners Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Goldsman] told me I would be doing it.

We kind of did it on the fly, on set, as a temp track for the editing process, but I really wanted to make sure I got it right. So they sent a bunch of equipment to my place in Connecticut to set up basically a sound studio in my basement.

I was there recording while our tech guy was in New York and our post-production crew was in Los Angeles, all networked. We’re slogging this out, doing many, many takes: combining a sentence from this take, a sentence from that take, making sure everything is sounding the way we want, doing several versions.

This is back in October, and there was a moment when I said, ‘Guys, can we just take a moment here and acknowledge the fact that we are going to remember this moment for the rest of our lives?’

I mean, it is a very, very select group of people who have the privilege to work on this speech. Everyone was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s really cool!’ There was a pause, and I said, ‘Of course… you realize right now William Shatner is in orbit.’

It was also a good lesson for me: don’t ever try to out-do Shatner!”

Rebecca Romijn talks about her character Una Chin-Riley (“Number One”), her relationship with Starfleet colleague La’an Noonien-Singh… and a secret the Enterprise first officer is hiding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxKWyyA2ang

“La’an is like a protégé. Una saved her life early on. You’re going to see more about La’an’s backstory. And I think Una is very protective of La’an, and she knows that La’an had this really horrible childhood and wants to help her find levity, wants to help her find some light in the universe. She’s sort of taken her on as like a lifelong personal project. I think she adores her.

No one loves the stars more than Una. No one loves Starfleet more than Una. And she is extremely good at what she does. And in what we learn about her in episode three, we find that she’s hiding something, and she sort of hides behind meticulous work, and she is slightly intimidating to the rest of the crew to keep her distance so that nobody finds out the secret that she’s hiding.

The writers floated this idea to me pretty early on, and I just thought it was such an incredible layer to the character, and we’re going to keep exploring that in a pretty major way throughout the season. Una was kind of a real mystery — until now.”

Romijn shares why moms love introducing the Star Trek universe to their kids:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxSlbctJbkU

“‘Star Trek’ is such a great platform for storytelling, and because we’re standalone episodes each episode is a different opportunity to tell a new story with important messaging. And we’re now in the middle of our we’re past the middle of our second season. We’ve made 16 episodes, and we’re so excited to finally introduce the show. I mean, it’s like the longest pregnancy in history.

I was introduced to ‘Star Trek’ by my mom at the age of eight — the Original Series. Anson Mount was also introduced to ‘Star Trek’ at the age of eight by his mom. And I think that that’s not by accident. I think moms want to introduce their kids to ‘Star Trek’ because when you look into your child’s eyes — I can say this as the only mom in our cast — you see curiosity.

You see a need for exploration. You want your kids to think universally and think totally outside the box. And that’s what the Original Series did. It sparked a lot of conversation between my mom and me about whether or not we’re the only ones in this universe, about acceptance, about people from all different
backgrounds coming together and working in harmony, about exploration and curiosity. And these are all things that mothers foster and their children.

So I think when I said that at the convention in Chicago, all day long, everybody I passed said, ”My mom introduced me to ‘Star Trek!” I just kept hearing that over and over and over again. And I just love that, and hope we do that for a new generation of ‘Star Trek” fans.

Ethan Peck shares how he’s had to grow into feeling “worthy” to take on the role of Spock in Strange New Worlds, using the early-pandemic downtime to grow as an actor – but also as a person.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj9TnJCiH54

“When I was cast in this role, once I learned what it was, which was towards the end of the [‘Star Trek: Discovery’] casting process, I was faced with this challenge and opportunity to grow. Not just as an actor, but as a person.

I believed I was barely worthy of it at that time, and that’s my own personal thing and my own journey that I’ve been on since. It’s not every day or even every life that you must become more than you are. And the needs of this role, I think, require that of me.

For me to grow as a person as well as an actor and the pandemic [delays], I guess we’ll call that time, really gave me a lot of time to flush out of my self things that were not working for me as a person, as a human being on this planet. I hope that I have been able to rid myself of that. I think, in turn, really informed my work.”

Peck describes the challenges of playing Spock in the new series — and finding a balance between tackling new character moments while still honoring Leonard Nimoy’s classic performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cul7UeOF4I

“Constantly, I’m revisiting Leonard Nimoy’s voice in my head when I’m doing a lot of these scenes, you know, ‘Does this sound right? Does it feel right?’ I constantly am checking in with, I hope, the spirit of his Spock and am channeling it as well. And then there are things that are written for my iteration of Spock that have not been written before, and that is my privilege as an actor and as this Spock.

I’ve done a lot of research, and I’ve now had a lot of experience as the character on set, on camera, and then I’ve got to allow a lot of space for the unknown, which is really uncomfortable, right? I think as creatures on this Earth, we want to be in control of things. In order to feel safe emotionally, I’ve had to do a lot of sort of undoing of that impulse and to welcome chaos and sort of live in a place of the unknown that’s really important to my work.

Also, there’s a lot of opportunity in ‘Strange New Worlds’ to explore and see parts of Spock’s inner world that we’ve not seen before, and there’s really no roadmap for that that’s already been laid out. There is license in our exploration of the character in that regard. There are certain touchstones, qualitatively, about the character that I probably couldn’t articulate to you very well that just feel right and I hope appear in a way that looks accurate in our final product.

I think I’m more comfortable at this point in time with being the custodian of this character, but I still read things in scripts that I get, and I’m like, ‘I have no idea how I’m going to do this or how it will be true to Spock’ — because what’s fun about him is that he does sort of live within these boundaries and then to place him in a scenario that he shouldn’t be in or is really uncomfortable in that’s when I think really cool things start to happen with the character, and I hope in my performance of the character.”

Celia Rose Gooding shares how their take on Cadet Nyota Uhura is informed and influenced by predecessors Nichelle Nichols and Zoe Saldana:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZMd6EZiqcU

“My first introduction to Uhura as a character — my mom is a huge Trekkie, and so she used to take my sister and I to watch the movies at movie theaters (when they were still a thing). I remember running to the front row and watching it by myself and craning my neck up to look at Zoe Saldana.

I just remember being so captivated by… She knew how brilliant she was. It wasn’t something that she had to make a spectacle of. It was just something that when she needed to be that capable, brilliant person, there she was to be just that.

And then with Nichelle Nichols, she had this grace and this glamor, and of course, she had that intelligence and her brilliance. And I think that that’s the thing that I’m trying to carry in this very young version of her. This understanding that she knows even more than she probably thinks she knows, and she’s much smarter than I think she assumes of herself.

But the newness and the unsurety is something that I am weaving through this character as we get to know her season to season. We know where she ends up and we know who she’s she ends up being, but we don’t really know how she got there.

That is something that I’m excited for the audience to sort of mark through the first season. And of course, in the seasons to come.”

Jess Bush inherits the role of Nurse Christine Chapel in Strange New Worlds, paying homage to Majel Barrett while making the character her own in the new series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB6URzlLiaQ

“I watched Majel Barrett’s performance. What I distilled most from that and what I took from that was her candor, and her humor, and her wit, but those things were just little seedlings. And I think that Chapel in [the original ‘Star Trek’ series], her whole plot line was quite connected to who she was pining after.

You know, like, that was a big feature of who she was, and I think that’s different this time. She got this lust for life and this mischievous nature that I love to embody. And I don’t know, she’s like fallible and she’s rough and tumble and she’s been through some stuff, actually.

I think that [showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers] were great. Before the start of season one, we sat down and we chatted about who is she going to be. And they had some points, and they also gave me license to kind of really explore. And we talked about what her backstory might be because I think that wasn’t really explored either.

Her life outside of Starfleet wasn’t really explored. And so she is really curious about other people and what their honest expression is and bringing that out, which I think is a really cool, thoughtful, and kind aspect to her that I think is new.”

Melissa Navia takes the job of Enterprise pilot very seriously in her role as Erica Ortegas — though perhaps a bit too seriously, sometimes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a94MBgRX48A

“For me, the helm console… I was doing, like, these Zoom sessions with the graphics department, with people who have been with ‘Star Trek’ for the last 30, 40 years and asking about the engines, the way everything works. And everybody was just, like, apparently word got out that Melissa is a little loony. Like, she’s like, really think she’s flying a starship.

But for me, it was important to know, like, how am I going to impulse? How am I going to warp? There are times when I’m doing, like, evasive maneuvers where Captain Pike will give me an order and I’ll be like, ‘On it!,’ but it won’t come up on my screen. So I’d be straight up texting graphics, and I’d be like, ‘Can you guys give me something?’ And they’ll be like, ‘Well, it probably won’t play in the episode.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, but it’s playing in my face!’

So they would create all these things for me. And I’d be like, ‘Can we change this screen?’ ‘Can we change that screen?’ Because I also think it’s important for the fans, and I know that they’re going to be fans who know more about the Enterprise than even I do, even though I’ve been doing my research. So for me, it was just kind of like when I’m there, I’m flying.

There’d be times where Anson Mount would be like speaking to somebody on the viewscreen. And I’d have, like, a little quip and I’d miss it and Anson would be like, ‘Melissa!’ And I’m like, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m flying!’ I’m so focused. So I’m the dorky one on the bridge for sure.”

Navia shares how her character is a “cooler version” of herself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY-r1c9U2Tc

“So when I first got the role, the audition for the role, the writing was so wonderful and I felt this connection to Ortegas. I had the breakdown, I knew it was ‘Star Trek.’ The breakdown was that she was a combat veteran, skilled pilot, can handle a phaser, and can also crack a joke when a joke needs to be cracked. And I felt just that the audition sides I got were so much me. And also in the future — I like to say Ortegas is like a cooler version of me in the future. In the future, I’d love to fly a starship.

So when I booked the role, I also got the added element of, this is a brand new character that gets to interact with all these legacy characters, which is going to be a lot of fun for fans. But this idea that she’s so confident but not… She’s cocky, but in a lovable way, right? Not in an obnoxious way, because she is really skilled. Pike trusts her intrinsically and she has such great trust in the rest of her crew, and that comes off. And so when somebody is so good at their job and trusts everybody equally in their workspace, then you’re allowed to kind of joke and play and that really comes off.

Like she loves the adventure of what she does and she also takes it really seriously. We get these episodic adventures where you get to see the toll that it takes when lives are on the line. And so I’ve just been having a blast creating this character and also looking back to all the pilots that have come before that fans are already comparing her to, even though they haven’t seen anything, so I’m trying to make my own mark on it by just bringing myself to it and then also just letting what the writers have created just come to the screen.

I’m also taking a lot of what the fans love about ‘Star Trek’ and putting that into Ortegas. Like she loves Starfleet in the way that fans love ‘Star Trek.'”

We’ve got a lot more interview content coming, as we spoke to the Strange New Worlds creative team — franchise boss Alex Kurtzman and co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers — at the show’s New York City premiere this past Saturday, along with some more of the cast, so watch for that content very soon!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuts with its premiere episode — aptly titled “Strange New Worlds” — on Thursday, May 5 on Paramount+ in the United States, Australia, Latin America, and the Nordics, as well as on CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada; additional international distribution has not yet been announced.

New STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Series Premiere Photos — “Strange New Worlds”

TrekCore Staff
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New STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Series Premiere Photos — “Strange New Worlds”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds finally beams down on Thursday, and we’ve got new photos today from the upcoming series premiere… aptly titled “Strange New Worlds.”

Here are ten new photos from this week’s episode, which reveal little about the plot but give us the first good look at T’Pring (Gia Sandhu), Spock’s betrothed, and Admiral Robert April (Adrian Holmes) who brings the one-time Animated Series character to live-action for the first time.

On the debut of Robert April, Animated Series writer Fred Bronson (who wrote “The Counter-Clock Incident” featuring the character) has cheered on the character’s appearance.

And in case you haven’t seen it, here’s a preview clip from “Strange New Worlds” which debuted in last week’s episode of The Ready Room.

STRANGE NEW WORLDS —When one of Pike’s officers goes missing while on a secret mission for Starfleet, Pike has to come out of self-imposed exile. He must navigate how to rescue his officer, while struggling with what to do with the vision of the future he’s been given.

Teleplay by Akiva Goldsman.
Story by Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, and Jenny Lumet.
Directed by Akiva Goldsman.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuts with its premiere episode on Thursday, May 5 on Paramount+ in the United States, Australia, Latin America, and the Nordics, as well as on CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada; additional international distribution has not yet been announced.

New STAR TREK: PICARD Season Finale Photos — “Farewell”

TrekCore Staff
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New STAR TREK: PICARD Season Finale Photos — “Farewell”

Star Trek: Picard’s second season reaches its conclusion this week, and we’ve got a new collection of photos from “Farewell” to share with you today!

After uncovering the repressed memories of his mother’s death and defending Chateau Picard from Jurati’s Borg-influenced soldiers, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), Tallinn (Orla Brady), and the La Sirena gang must stop Adam Soong (Brent Spiner) before his final attempt to stop the Europa Mission rocket launch can succeed — permanently altering the future.

Here are sixteen new photos from this week’s episode:

The streamer also released a behind-the-scenes photo from the set, catching Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd in a moment of levity between takes.

And in case you haven’t seen it, here’s the official Paramount+ trailer for “Farewell.”

FAREWELL — In the season two finale, with just hours until the Europa Launch, Picard and the crew find themselves in a race against time to save the future.

Written by Christopher Monfette & Akiva Goldsman. Directed by Michael Weaver.

Star Trek: Picard concludes its second season with “Farewell” on Paramount+ May 5 in the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Amazon’s Prime Video service in most international locations.

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