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…
About the author
A Fistful of O’Brien
Entering the Star Trek world as an unnamed extra with a few bits of dialogue, O'Brien soon became a fixture on the Enterprise D as it's transporter chief before moving to Deep Space Nine to head up engineering and operations on what was thought to be a backwater outpost before it became one of the most strategically important stations in the quadrant!As the only enlisted or non commissioned officer to feature in the main cast of any Star Trek show to date, O'Brien stands as the only working class hero in the Star Trek universe with a vast and varied career taking from the front lines of the Cardassian war as a soldier, to the front lines of the Dominion War as an engineer, retrofitting DS9, keeping the Defiant from blowing itself apart, and even sniping Dominion troops. All in […]
[Q2&A] Career Track
SFC has always structured it's internal reward and recognition system on the command structure of Starfleet on screen. Newbies are cadets. When they become full members, they become Ensigns. And those eager to take on a leadership role can rank up to Commander or Captain. Even the board of directors are mirrored within the theme as Commodores and Admirals! It's always been the way, but the path of an officer isn't for everyone... Despite the original idea of all star ship personnel being highly trained astronauts, therefore nullifying the need for enlisted crew, the enlisted ranks have existed in some form since the original series. More defined in the film era, particularly under the revision of style and structure in The Wrath of Khan, they have been slightly more prominent since. Most notable of the enlisted members of Starfleet was […]
[Retro Review] Space Seed
By chance, the Enterprise comes across an ancient Earth ship drifting through space. On board they find a whole bunch of people held in suspended animation, wake up the leader of the gang and accidentally unleash one of the most iconic villains of the franchise. Being coy with his identity at first, ship historian Marla McGivers becomes fascinated with a glimpse at the past while Kirk and the rest of the non-historians figure out that he just happens to be one of the most notorious war lords in Earths history... Star Trek, Season 1 , Episode 22 For all the action and adventure of deep space and the idea of using alien make up to mask more down to earth stories, Space Seed gives the first real glimpse of Star Trek's history. Khan is a relic of Earth from long […]
Resistance Is Optional: Choose Your Adventure!
Our trials of bringing the fleet together have been hit and miss with scheduling and dates being a bit slim. So we're opening the floor to the fleet to pick the next date and theme! You can make your selection below on what works best for you ahead of our next fleet event! The final outcome will be shared at Europa on Facebook and in Fleet Alert in the Officers Hub as soon as we have a comfortable number of notes. For more information or to get direct updates on non-Discord online events, you can the subscribe to Twitch channel, visit twitch.tv/sfcq2. Google Meets events are hosted by our google account - you can add sfcquad2@gmail.com to your whitelist to ensure direct notification. Info and invite confirmations may also come from jt@sfcq2.com directly.
Sixty Year Mission…
It's been a really weird year already for the world of Star Trek fans. We started 2026 with a new venture into a strange new future with Starfleet Academy. Then just as the show had won people over, we found out it's the latest in a long list of recent productions to get a cancellation order, is a bit of a weird way to start the 60th anniversary of a legendary franchise. The past few years we've kind of spoiled. Growing up it was exciting to have Deep Space Nine run alongside the Next Generation. In modern times we had multiple shows going at once with Discovery's launch spawning a new world of story telling from revisiting Picard in his post-Starfleet years, to animated comedy with Lower Decks, to finally telling the story of Captain Pike and even a peek […]
[Retro Review] Let This Be Your Last Battlefield
Often shown in highlight reels and quoted in discussions about Star Trek's more forward thinking messages, Let This Be Your Last Battlefield is at it's simplest, a story of the ridiculousness of segregation. En route to a vital mission of mercy, Kirk and his crew end up in the middle of a political minefield. Interrupted in the mission by a stolen Federation shuttle carrying an injured alien, Lokai from the planet Cheron, they're soon further interrupted by Commissioner Bele, an official representing Cheron who announces Lokai as a political traitor and demanding custody. One asylum request later, Kirk's stuck between the two trying to find the right course of action knowing he has orders to follow beyond the situation. The separation between Belle and Lokai is a simple context. And also a strangely charged one looking at it from a […]
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