As a new year begins we can’t help but look back at whats been a strangely filled year for Star Trek. 2024 was a bittersweet year with a stunning amount of Star Trek on our screens, all of which was coming to an end in their final and news from behind the curtain about the next steps into the final frontier.
Looking back at the highlights, even with saying goodbye to three separate shows in the wider universe, it’s still been a tremendously good year in the final frontier!
LONE GUARDIAN
One of Star Trek’s biggest surprises in recent years was the animated show built for a teenage audience as a gateway to the franchise and it’s second season was a massive highlight for Star Trek in 2024.
Now protege’s of Admiral Janeway, the outlaw crew became entwined in the search for Chakotay in a story that gave the history of the Protostar, explaining how it became a lost starship in the first season. In telling the story Captain Chakotay was found and saved after being lost in time and living alone on the abandoned ship before Dal and the crew bring hope of escape.
Bringing a new lease of life to Chakotay, and in a way making up for his being lost in the background of Voyages later seasons, the series showed it’s value in using legacy characters to help shape a new generation while giving one of the most satisfying and well-built finale’s the franchise has seen in a long time. Adding Chakotay to the mix without the flashbacks made for an excellent addition to the extended cast while adding an extra layer of emotional nostalgia as he and Janeway were finally reunited.
With the fate of the show now in the hands of Netflix after some studio shenanigans, it’s likely we’ll never see Gwyn’s crew and her officers in training’s first adventure, especially with Ella Purnell’s calendar filling up with other ventures including Sweetpea and Fallout. So if that was the end, it at least ended on a high for the crew of the USS Prodigy.
THE NEW CLASS
With only brief glimpses of the idea in DS9, TNG and the Kelvin Timeline, we’ve never quite seen the Academy in action but it’s an idea thats been floating around for quite some time. Since it became public knowledge that the sixth Star Trek film was almost an Academy-based flashback to bring in younger actors, there’s been a call for Starfleet Academy to become it’s own TV show and now we’re in a world where it’s actually happening!
While the show won’t be released until later this year at the earliest, production began in Canada for the latest addition to the Star Trek world with a surprise batch of cast involved. Mary Wiseman as a guest star was a given, but throughout last year we got more returning cast including Robert Picardo as the Doctor still going strong, a returning Jet Reno and amongst a group of new cadets looking to make their mark, two huge names as regulars in Paul Giamatti and Holly Hunter!
With more announced since then, including Orphan Black and She Hulk star Tatiana Maslani and multi time WWE Womens Champion Becky Lynch, there’s certainly been more than enough news to keep the hype going for the rebuilding of the Academy in the 32nd century!
ENGAGE THE CORE!
Joining an ever growing list of projects that have came to a close, Lower Decks aired it’s final season to close 2024 on the Star Trek calendar. Utilising cameo’s and in jokes aplenty to fuel itself along, Lower Decks had also turned the idea of Star Trek venturing into animated comedy into a bit of a success and even transferred to live action with a Strange New Worlds crossover.
Easily quotable, Lower Decks won a lot of hearts by bringing many fan jokes into the story right up to it’s penultimate episode with the Ensign Kim trope becoming a plot point. But the self deprecating humour of Trekkies everywhere was far from the shows strength as over it’s five seasons it did it’s fair share of character building to make the quirky underdogs into well rounded characters starting – or in one case restarting – their career into Starfleet.
Celebrating everything it had achieved, the finale made a big effort to avoid the old Trek lore and focus on Lower Decks own history to bring the main cast to a satisfying conclusion. With an exciting and engaging adventure that had the Cerritos on Enterprise level duties, we saw the crew rise us to be the heroes of the hour before setting off on new adventures.
TIME TO PLAY THE GAME!
Far from the canon world of the Star Trek Universe, the gaming world based around the long-running Star Trek Online had some fun updates for the expanded gaming media part of the franchise. Long before STO became the dominant game on the video game branch of Star Trek, many others had filled the void from DS9’s Harbinger to the unsurprisingly limited Starship Creator experience. In 2024, now under new management at German-based DECA, STO’s developers decided to play tribute to games of the past byt expanding their fleet with older game assets.
Included in the first bundle was the massive tank-like Typhoon carrier from 2000’s Playstation entry Invasion; Gizmo Games’ entry the Achilles from 2001 PC combat game Dominion Wars; and the Premonition, a Sovereign-styled ship from Blizzard’s Star Trek strategy game Armada. On top of that we even got some carrier pets and the rifle from Elite Force.
Sure, the continuation of the game’s current story featuring Mirror Universe Borg, General Janeway and using our own character as the Terran baddie is also a bonus. Btu nothing beats the nostalgia of grabbing those old ships with new features for Star Trek Online’s expanding force!
FINAL DISCOVERY
Just as The Next Generation had done in the 80’s, Discovery was a complete regeneration of Star Trek even before it launched it’s first episode in 2017. Beginning it’s life as a mystery drama that would tell the tale of Starfleets first mutineer, the show reinvented itself by going beyond any era seen in Star Trek so far to bring the 23rd century idealism into the 32nd.
Often a target for not being an extension of the Next Generations style or format, Discovery suffered from being the first show under the harrowing social media microscope and would make several changes to appeal to fans of both old and new styles. In 2024 we saw the final episodes released, closing this generations flagship show in it’s fifth and final season with a format that perhaps did bring the best of both worlds when it came to old and new styles.
Reviving an old thread that was never revisited, Discovery’s final tale would go back to a loose thread from Picard’s era. In the Next Generations sixth season episode, The Chase, Picard;”s former mentor Galen left enough breadcrumbs that could be followed, leading to the discovery of the Progenitors; an ancient and extinct species who had spread the seeds of life throughout the galaxy leading to the knowledge that many warring planets all came form the same source genetic history.
A fairly large reveal, the story was lost in the episodic format and Picard went onto the next mission after Riker goes a bit mad. Centuries later,t eh displaced Captain Burnham and her crew would be tasked with finding the Progenitor technology before rivals of the weakened Federation did. In doing so Discovery ‘s final season played out in an episodic format as the followed the trail and figured out clues with a story of the week vibe that arched into one giant ten part puzzle.
Like any iteration of Star Trek (or any media, for that matter), Discovery’s wasn’t for everyone. But to see the show pick up a thread from Trek’s past to wrap up it’s final season and deliver a final story of exploring the inner strengths of the crew and their shared adventure made for a fitting end while allowing other shows to develop in it’s place.
About the author
Comms/Comms Relay Revisions from Beta Quarter 2025 Onwards
Following our last released issue of Comms as a downloadable publication, we've been moving to an easier and more accessible format by using Q2's website for various articles and updates throughout the year which has included some carry over features from Comms itself. After some trial and error experimentation, our 2025 plan began with some tests through the first quarter and a new comms line up for the site ahead of any plans by our next Fleet Comms Officer. To mirror the old style, reduce workload and offer some variety to our regular posts, we've broken down the year of updates through our operating quarters and scheduled in a rotation of our regular features to keep the fleet updated, entertained with some positive Trek hijinks and more. The current quarter (Beta Quarter: April, May, June) is the first full use […]
[Q2&A] If I Could Get Serial For A Minute…
With a long history and many people coming to SFC over the decades, there can often be a lot of curiosity for members – both old and new – about various subjects. From questions about our base structure, how to get four pips, how Q2 and Q1 diverged many moons ago.... even questions on the curse of the Daring. Sometimes we have questions where the answers are as mundane as the question. One of the most common.... what is my serial number and why do I have it? Like any account number in the known universe – whether it's your broadband provider or local Blockbusters – your service ID is a unique membership number that helps us identify each member whether we're updating a record or assessing a Fleet Support application form. With our structure and organisational systems based on […]
[Retro Review] Latent Image; Voyager S5E11
Running through annual check-ups and playing around with a 24th century version of a digital camera, the Doctor spots some weird scars on Ensign Kim. Scars that could only have come from a surgical procedure he developed, but has no memory of ever performing. The surgery isn't the only gap in the Doctors memory. What else has he forgotten? And how...? No matter the show or the season, Star Trek loves diving into the lives of it's artificial characters. Data explored everything from his basic rights to the meaning of dreams as he developed to become more of a person. For the Doctor, things had always been a bit more complicated. He was a program developed for short term use. A piece of equipment built into sickbay that could be turned off and on at will. While Deep Space Nine's […]
A New Class: Academy Revisions For The Class of 2402
It's only April and the year has been one for us to take a step back and review our operations to do some much overdue maintenance on our overall performance and offerings. One of the major hurdles for the second quarter is one of the tougher parts of Q2: The Academy. Once upon a time the Academy was a core part of the experience in joining SFC. After singing up new members would pass through the Academy, completing a series of tests before becoming an ensign, joining their unit and becoming an active member of the club. Many people over the years enjoyed the more immersive and playful nature of being part of an organisation modelled after Starfleet. Some didn't. As years went by, the franchise itself evolved, opening it's door to new fans who'd want to reach out and […]
A Fistful of Vulcan Emotions
Being a key element in the Sstar Trek lore from the very beginning, Vulcan mythology can often seem distorted by simplicity. Seen as a stoney emotionless species, their society is built on logic and science in helping them understand and navigate through the complexities of the universe. Though when it comes to them being emotionless, nothing could be farther from the truth. Once a volatile and primitive species, the Vulcan culture came from the teaching of Surak who learned to repress his violent urges and find peace within logical thought. Surak's teachings would become the basis for Vulcan core values for centuries. When it came to the original series, Vulcans were introduced through Spock – a half Vulcan with a human mother who often wrestled with the cultural norm of repressing emotions alongside the human half's more emotional state. Over […]
[Retro Review] Year Of Hell: Voyager Season 4
Embracing all aspects of science fiction has been Star Trek's thing since it's inception and time travel was no exception. Ever since the first time travel adventure with Kirk's Enterprise ending up in the 1960's, we've seen the various crews out of time and desperately trying not to change their own history. In one adventure, history would constantly change around the USS Voyager. One of the most memorable and loved two parters, Year of Hell remains a symbol of how desperate the situation could have been for the Voyager crew. As Janeway negotiations with an alien species for free travel through their region, a small annoyance of a ship interrupts them. Then suddenly, the timeline changed. The aliens, the Zahl, were gone. Erased from history. And the unsophisticated Krenim ship that was no match for Voyager one second was now […]
Related
A Fistful of Vulcan Emotions
Being a key element in the Sstar Trek lore from the very beginning, Vulcan mythology can often seem distorted by simplicity. Seen as a stoney emotionless species, their society is built on logic and science in helping them understand and navigate through the complexities of the universe. Though when it comes to them being emotionless, nothing could be farther from the truth. Once a volatile and primitive species, the Vulcan culture came from the teaching of Surak who learned to repress his violent urges and find peace within logical thought. Surak's teachings would become the basis for Vulcan core values for centuries. When it came to the original series, Vulcans were introduced through Spock – a half Vulcan with a human mother who often wrestled with the cultural norm of repressing emotions alongside the human half's more emotional state. Over […]
A Fistful of Cadets!
Next year we'll be welcoming a new generation of the Star Trek Universe with the doors to Starfleet Academy set to reopen in 2026. Picking up from the post-Discovery era in the 32nd century, the Burn is over, the planets are beginning to align and it looks like even the Earth Defense Force will be lowering shields as the ancient campus reopens to train a new era of hopeful young cadets ready to explore the stars! Following the news that principal photography was all done for the new shows debut season, we thought we'd look back at the cadets of the past who made waves to inspire the generations to follow and who's name may still echo through the halls of the Academy... Saavik: The First Next Generation Long after the Enterprise was exploring strange new worlds, it was merely […]
A Fistful of Star Trek Online’s Best Bits!
This week marks fifteen years since the launch of whats become Star Trek's most consistent and longest reigning video game, Star Trek Online. Developed following the relaunch of a new movie franchise, STO told the other side of the story. While NEro went back in time and created the Kelvin Timeline offshoot, STO focused on the galactic politics following the collapse of the Hobus Star. Customising your player character, you begin at the Academy, get yourself a star ship and rank up as you balance exploration, politics and shooting a lot of things! Over the years the game has changed and developed with expansions, new additions, rotating Executive Producers - and now new owners! - using multiple guest appearances into the mix for story mission while allowing group events, developing annual traditions and generally letting us all play with cool […]
A Fistful Of Bad Romance
As Lower Decks returns for it's final season, it answered one of the unresolved questions from it promised recent history as Jennifer made a return after vanishing from the unresolved conflict with Mariner at the end of the third season. And it went exactly as we'd expect for a Lower Decks romance storyline.
A Fistful of Connections
Connected universe on screen have been a bigger deal now more than ever before now that one of the most popular, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has embraced Marvel's diverse history before it was it's own singular media empire. Shared universes have always been a bit of a cool thing to see on screen whether it was a subtle one such as Michael Keaton reprising his Jackie Brown role as Ray Nicollet in Out of Sight, to spin offs such as Frasier bringing in the old Cheers gang, there's a novelty to seeing the fictional worlds interconnect with each other from time to time.. For Star Trek's divergence to telling a story about another crew, the shared universe began with unsubtle hints that this was the same universe as Kirk's adventures with DeForest Kelly in aged make up as retired Admiral […]
A Fistful of Time Travel Adventures
Time Travel has always been a core sci fi trope for the Star Trek Universe. Whether it's going back to the 1980's to save the whales, or jumping ahead to see the Enterprise-J to avert a time war, it seems the heroes of Starfleet can't fly into space without wandering into a temporal investigations nightmare.
