Star Trek Day brings new trailers for Discovery and Lower Decks, and much more

Yesterday's "Star Trek Day", to mark the 54th anniversary of Star Trek, brought together actors and creators from across the franchise in a series of virtual panels hosted on StarTrek.com. That included discussion and previews of currently in-production series, and a look back at older series. Continue below to check out all the new trailers and artwork, and for links to all the panels.

Discovery, with it's third season just weeks away, got the most out of the day, with a new trailer, poster, logo, and even a cat!  So first up, check out the trailer, for all kinds of exciting hints of things to come, and the backstory of, Discovery's new far future setting (check it out on StarTrek.com if you're geolocked out of YouTube):



The series now has a brand new updated logo, with sleek new look for the new setting, rather than the apparently Klingon-inspired design used earlier. Discovery is now emphasised over the previously dominant Star Trek too. You can see in action in the new poster:

Another video released during the Disco panel introduces us to another new member of the cast, Grudge, the cat belonging to one of the other new main characters, Book (also on StarTrek.com if you prefer):



And here's Book with Grudge, care of their very own social media accounts: You can find her on Twitter or Instagram!

The panel discussion talked a little about what the new season will bring, but perhaps most co-showrunner Alex Kutzman offered the most in terms of a broad overview of what the season is setting out to do thematically:

Obviously, the Federation is not where it was; and yet our characters enter into this timeline, and our whole season is about trying to bring it back. So you're into a world where it is very reflective of the world that we live in now. And I believe very reflective or Roddenberry's essential vision of optimism - That it is in the darkest times we have to hold that beacon of light up, to guide us back.

In a world where the hope of the end of the 20th century seems to have crumbled into dark place politically, environmentally, and now of health too, Discovery setting out to find hope from a scarred world seems just what we need to inspire the same hope in reality.


On a lighter note, the Star Trek Day panel for Lower Decks also delivered a new trailer (again on StarTrek.com if you prefer):



As you probably spotted in the trailer, there was some casting news for Lower Decks too; that John de Lancie will making his return to Trek as Q.


There was a little news out of Strange New Worlds, but obviously with that series not actually into production yet no trailers. What was hinted is that there will, despite the generally episodic nature of the series, bit some sort of season long story arc as well, albeit maybe more has hints of something rather than a big multi-episode story. As described by executive producer and writer Akela Cooper:

While we'll have like individual one-off plots, the character arcs are what’s going to carry us through in a more serialized fashion. I will say there's probably one plot point that we will be sprinkling through this series, until we actually get to the episode, and that's all I can say about that.

Also newly announced is that the new official Star Trek podcast, now called The Pod Directive, (which was announced ages ago and I had assumed just wasn't happening!), will be launching on the 14th of September, with Lower Deck's Tawny Newsome (Mariner) joined by co-host Paul F. Tompkins to talk Trek with all sort of interesting people. They even released a trailer for it:



Here's how CBS pitch it:

With unparalleled access to Star Trek luminaries, celebrity superfans, and behind-the-scenes creative professionals, Star Trek: The Pod Directive takes a smart, witty and thoughtful look at all things Trek – both old and new. Offering a high-level discussion of the themes, ideas and characters that resonate across the history of the franchise’s storied universe, episodes will also explore the brand’s 50-plus year legacy and influence. Each episode features an in-depth personal interview with a notable guest, coverage of a Star Trek event, or a discussion of a specific topic with one or more guests.

Guests will include Ben Stiller (actor/ producer), Reza Aslan (author/ commentator), Michelle Hurd (actor, Star Trek: Picard), Kendra James (Manager Editor, StarTrek.com), Angelica Bastien (staff writer, Vulture), Mike McMahan (creator/ executive producer/ showrunner Star Trek: Lower Decks), Stacey Abrams (politician/ activist), Tig Notaro (comedian/ actor Star Trek: Discovery), Samantha Cristoforetti (ESA astronaut), Bill McKibben (author/ environmentalist/ activist) and Jeff Russo (producer/ composer Star Trek: Picard & Star Trek: Short Treks). New episodes will drop weekly Mondays through November 9th.

So finally, to check out all the panels in full, check them out below. The TNG/Picard one is particularly sweet. They are weirdly inconsistent about which ones are geo-locked, but StarTrek.com hosts each of them too for all the world to see.

Discovery (StarTrek.com)


DS9 (StarTrek.com)


SNW (StarTrek.com)


TOS (StarTrek.com)


Voyager (StarTrek.com)


Enterprise (StarTrek.com)


Lower Decks (StarTrek.com)


TNG/Picard (StarTrek.com)



The various Star Trek series can or will all be found on CBS All Access in the US, and so far on Bell Media services in Canada. In the rest of the world they are so far split between Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, with news on some series' distribution still being waited on.

To keep track of all the latest Trek TV news, have a look back through my TV tag. And for updates from each of the series, have a look back through my Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, and Strange New Worlds tags, for previews, behind the scenes, tie-in fiction, and other merchandise updates.