10 Biggest Takeaways From The Star Trek Day Celebration's Panel Discussions
It was a night of familiar faces, new faces and lots of news! Here is a breakdown of the best!
September 8th, 2020 marked the 54th Anniversary of Star Trek, a feat that was celebrated by cast and crew from both upcoming and classic series. Alex Kurtzman, the current head of Star Trek's franchise, gathered lots of familiar faces together to give the fans a treat, all of which was streamed live on CBS.
The night featured panels from all of the various Star Trek series (counting The Original Series and The Animated Series together!), which made for one of the best exhibitions of the history of Star Trek, all gathered together in a single stream.
The panel events lasted just over four hours, with varying segment lengths, yet the time flew by quickly as the stories from the stars came in thick and fast. The Discovery and Lower Decks panels featured the most reveals of the night, though Strange New Worlds, Voyager, Enterprise, Deep Space Nine, The Next Generation and Picard were all also featured in some form or another.
The hosts for the night were Wil Wheaton and Mica Burton, taking it in turns to moderate the various panels. Here is a rundown of the biggest takeaways from the night overall.
10. Star Trek Discovery Has A New Captain?
The first surprise of the night was a message from Sonequa Martin-Greene, where she dropped the epic new trailer for Star Trek: Discovery's third season. There was plenty of action on show in the short preview, though with that, there was still plenty to see and digest.
The trailer picks up with Burnham and Discovery's arrivals in 3188, the new setting for the show. They quickly find that some catastrophe - The Burn - has taken place which has seriously affected the Federation, causing it to shrink to a far smaller size than before. Showrunner Michelle Paradise describes the Federation as being 'in survival mode'.
One of the biggest reveals from the trailer is the image of Saru, donning command gold in his uniform, with four pips finally on that proud Kelpian's chest. While one could flip a coin between the two of them for who should lead the crew, Saru's ascension to the captaincy feels very deserved.
It is very clear so far that there will be a tonal shift in the third season of Discovery, as evidenced as well by the change in logo going forward.