Paramount brought everything but the kitchen sink to the Star Trek event at this year’s New York Comic Con.
They kicked things off by screening the full premiere episode of Lower Decks’ fifth and final season, followed by a panel with series showrunner Mike McMahan as well as the cast who voice the four main lower deckers. McMahan said there were no plans to continue past this season but everyone agreed they’d return if they felt the material was strong enough.
This was followed by a surprise appearance by Robert Picardo, Voyager’s Doctor himself, on stage to introduce Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman and the cast of the brand new Starfleet Academy series via video conference on the hall’s jumbo screen. The new show, Kurtzman said, is already renewed for a second season. They also announced Tatiana Maslany would join the cast along with Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti — as well as familiar faces from Star Trek: Discovery: Tig Notaro (Jett Reno), Oded Fehr (Admiral Vance) and Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly).
Carol Kane & Ethan Peck
Then came Strange New Worlds, which screened an exclusive clip showing the immediate aftermath of last season’s cliffhanger in the upcoming Season 3 premiere. This was followed by a panel, which included cast members Ethan Peck and Carol Kane as well as Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonzo Myers.
The last panel was the cast and crew of the upcoming film Star Trek: Section 31. Cast members Kacey Rohl, Omari Hardwick, and Rob Kazinsky joined by EP and Director Olatunde Osunsanmi on stage while Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh video called in on the big screen from Prague. The release date was also finally revealed to be January 24, 2025. Though no new footage was shown, the cast discussed their characters. Kazinsky, a huge fan of the franchise, quoted Benjamin Sisko in the Deep Space Nine episode “In the Pale Moonlight” when describing a central conflict of this darker corner of Starfleet: “Well, it’s easy to be a saint in paradise.”
