Every year SDCC brings a load of news and announcements from all around the world of film and television and this year, while Robert Downey Junior unmasked as Doctor Doom and Mark Hamil joins the cast of Spongebob Squarepants, the Star Trek Universe had a few reveals of their own.
From an event of panels and announcements, we’ve picked out top five from the Star Trek Universe…
Day Of The Doctor
Introduced in Star Trek Voyager’s pilot episode, The Doctor was a temporary solution that became a permanent feature. Designed for short-term use, he was a hologram programmed to assist in a medical emergency. Of course, Voyagers medical emergency was that their entire medical staff had died, so he became a little more long term than planned.
Becoming a fan favourite for being a grumpy non entity struggling with becoming self aware, The Doctor returned as a mentor to the misfit crew of Star Trek Prodigy and seems to be back at the Academy for, well, Starfleet Academy! Having joked in the past that he’d often remind writers of his characters immortality, Robert Picardo’s live action return was a pleasant surprise!
Despite Academy being set around seven centuries after Voyager, a copy of the Doctor was reactivated in the 31st century in Voyagers Living Witness and planned to return to seek out Starfleet, though the Universe Panel at SDCC has said this won’t be the copy, but the original still hanging around to help revive the Academy in the 32nd Century.
Beyond Discovery
As a follow up to Star Trek Discovery, and using ‘The Burn’ as a background point, some less surprising but still welcome returns were also announced from Captain Burnham’s world. Having already transitioned to becoming an Academy instructor in Discovery, Mary Wiseman will bring Lieutenant Sylvia Tilly to the Academy alongside Oded Fehr her boss Admiral Vance.
Comedian and fan favourite Tig Notaro was also announced to be bringing the smuggler turned engineer Jet Reno to the series, likely spreading her wisdom and sarcasm to the minds of the next, next generation!
Section 31 First Look
As Academy’s production begins, Section 31 is the next new event for Star Trek as Michelle Yeoh leads a new cast in a spin off ‘spy fi’ action film. We didn’t learn too much from the trailer other than the general style and that it features Michelle Yeoh so reactions have been mixed. But the cast gave their insight focusong on this being a more adventurous creative take exploring a side of the Star Trek Universe we haven’t seen before.
Filled with action, the first trailer is available to watch now though we’ll likely have a lot more information to come for the self contained story and how it fits in to the wider Star Trek Universe.
Strange New Worlds
Section 31 wasn’t the only 2025 release on show as the Strange New Worlds cast and production gave some insight into their third season alongside a clip of the crew getting Vulcan’ed up alongside Spock for one of the upcoming missions.
It was also announced that Martin Quinn’s version of Scotty will become a regular fixture on the Enterprise and Irish actor Cillian O’Sullivan is also beaming on board in a recurring role as Dr Roger Korby. Though producer Akiva Goldsman promised a lot more than casting callbacks as the third season will dabble in exploring more genres including a murder mystery…
All The Worlds A Stage…
The biggest and most surprising piece of news comes in the form of a new show and new format for Star Trek as a new sitcom-style series by Justin Simien and Lower Decks’ Tawney Newsome was announced. In part because we weren’t expecting new series’ while Paramounts for sale, and in part because ‘workplace’ and ‘comedy’ aren’t things we’d usually see associated wit the franchise.
Lower Decks has already taken Star Trek into the half hour comedy format for animation, and even hammered home it’s wider connection to Star Trek thanks to crossovers and cameos, though this time round the comedy is launching as a live action series with THR suggesting it’s closer to The Office format than a regular workplace comedy, but that could still be speculative
There’s not much to say about the show, which was only teased following the Lower Decks Panel – and later confirmed by producers – though the plot was revealed to be an odd couple pairing working on a resort planet who realise they’re part of some strange 25th century reality show.
Needless to say the announcement is a little odd. Especially with the success of Picard and fan interest for more adventures in the 25th century making us yearn for something a little more grounded and serious. And preferably with a reformed Borg in the chair. But praise was heaped on Newsome for her work in the writers room for Academy and Simien’s Dear White People has also gained a lot of praise.
With some weird and wonderful announcements at SDCC, the Star Trek Universe seems to have a full schedule and a franchise that seems to be prospering against the unknown future of Paramount…
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