‘Starfleet Command' Teaser, a ‘Khan' Audio Series, and Puppets: The Future of ‘Star Trek' Is Here
Take a look at the teaser for 'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.'
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There are a ton of new faces there for the 32nd Century-set show, as much of the cast is teenage and 20-something newcomers. And it's set in a time period, post-'Star Trek: Discovery' that allows for all-new storytelling completely unrestrained by preexisting canon. But that's also a lot of unfamiliar stuff, and audiences can need a little dose of the familiar to anchor them.
So 'Starfleet Academy' has a couple of top stars — both Oscar winners, no less — to lend the appropriate gravitas: Hell yeah, Holly Hunter should be someone who leads the next generation into the future as the chancellor of Starfleet Academy — who wouldn't trust her with her college-age kids in the 32nd Century or now? And Paul Giamatti adds just the right edge of menace, whistling the 'Star Trek' theme as his 'Klingon hybrid' villain, to let us know that Starfleet better look out.
Then there's a returning favorite in Robert Picardo's The Doctor, who apparently is not just another hologram in his series, but literally the exact same Doctor from 'Voyager' who's survived more than eight centuries to have his story continue on this show. Continuity with his arc from that show is something showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau are promising. (There's also Tig Notaro returning from 'Discovery' as Jett Reno, something she told IndieWire she very much wanted to do.)
And there are a couple of intriguing callbacks to keep fans hooked as well: There's a Jem'Hadar Starfleet officer? (A member of the menacing warrior species from 'Deep Space Nine.') And another mysterious 'DS9' shoutout as well, as a computer display at the title academy seems to have information on it related to the fate of that show's Capt. Benjamin Sisko — did he die at the end of that series, or did he live on? Whether that is just a throwaway moment or a teaser for a deeper exploration on 'Starfleet Academy' remains to be seen.
And across the 'Star Trek' portfolio presented at Hall H, this model of some familiarity being mixed in with the new stuff as a kind of sweetener to make swallowing the unfamiliar more palatable was everywhere.
For the first time ever, 'Star Trek' is making a push into the audio storytelling space with 'Star Trek: Khan,' a podcast about the legendary 'Trek' villain in his years after his introduction on the 'Original Series' episode 'Space Seed' when he and his crew are marooned on Ceti Alpha V. Naveen Andrews, the actor fancast for years as Khan (and should have been cast in 'Star Trek Into Darkness'), will be voicing the character.
Andrews will be joined by a couple of returning vets: George Takei as Capt. Hikaru Sulu and Tim Russ as young Ensign Tuvok. In the years after Khan's final defeat they uncover more information that allows Khan's story to unfold in flashback. This is a canon-friendly way of presenting this story as we know from a '90s 'Voyager' episode that Tuvok served with Sulu aboard the USS Excelsior. Check out the 'Star Trek: Khan' trailer here:
And finally, 'Star Trek' is nothing without a good gimmick, and 'Strange New Worlds' teased that in Season 4 there will be an episode staged entirely with puppets created by the Jim Henson Workshop. Somehow Capt. Pike has even higher, more lush hair here. A little felt is the ultimate volumizer, one supposes. Here's a sneak peek:
That doesn't do anything to counter our charge that 'Strange New Worlds' is maybe veering a little too far into the insubstantial, but it shows the elasticity of 'Star Trek' in allowing for so many different kinds of stunts. It also reminds me of how in 2005 as an April Fool's Day joke, the StarTrek.com website announced that 'Star Trek: Enterprise' would be continuing but only via marionettes to cut down on costs. For a second, teenage me believed that. But I guess I only needed to wait 20 years for some puppet-based storytelling in 'Star Trek' to become a reality.
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