Today is First Contact Day, or at least it will be in 42 years, making this the… pre-anniversary of the day in Star Trek canon when mankind first made contact with an alien race (specifically the Vulcans). Much like with Star Wars Day (May 4) and Alien Day (April 26), Paramount has noticed that there’s a lot of good branding potential in associating a pop culture franchise with a specific day, so it has turned First Contact Day into an excuse to celebrate all things Trek—and this year it actually made good on that premise with a bunch of Trek-related announcements.
First up, we have our first look at cartoon Captain Janeway from upcoming animated series Star Trek: Prodigy. Live-action Janeway actor Kate Mulgrew will be reprising the character for this series, though it is worth pointing out that this is a holographic simulation of Janeway built to train Starfleet recruits, so it’s not really her. We first heard about this series back in October, and though it was billed as a Nickelodeon cartoon at the time, it now sounds like it’s a Paramount+ cartoon produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio. Either way, here’s holographic Janeway:
Next, Paramount announced Woman In Motion: Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek And The Remaking Of NASA, a feature-length documentary about original Star Trek actor Nichelle Nichols and her work getting NASA to hire more people of color and the first female astronauts. The documentary will be available on Paramount+ on June 3.
On the wackier side of things, Paramount announced that season two of animated comedy series Star Trek: Lower Decks will premiere on Paramount+ on August 12, and there’s a teaser trailer to prove it. Season two will kick off right where the first season ended, with Jonathan Frakes reprising his Star Trek: The Next Generation role as Captain William Riker (as seen in this teaser) and John de Lancie reprising his role as Q. (Q fans may want to continue scrolling, spoiler alert.)
Oh, we tricked you. You’re gonna have to scroll even more, because this paragraph is about Star Trek: Discovery, the flagship series of Paramount+’s Star Trek content. Today, Paramount shared a teaser trailer for the show’s fourth season, which you can see below. The new season is “coming soon,” but that’s all we know.
Last but not least: John de Lancie’s Q is going to show up on Picard. The new season isn’t coming until 2022, and this teaser doesn’t have a lot of actual information, but hey, Picard and Q, together again! Facing the endless trial over whether or not humanity deserves to exist! Good times.