San Diego Comic Con 2019 is upon us, and the first trailer for Star Trek: Picard was released by CBS All Access. If that alone wasn’t enough to awaken our inner fangirl, we received so much Star Trek content this week, we are feeling a bit overwhelmed. Here are five reasons we are losing our minds over Star Trek, right now.
Picard
The fact that Jean Luc Picard (played by Sir Patrick “literally a knight” Stewart) is returning is the ultimate reason why we are losing it. According to the trailer it’s been 20 years since he left Starfleet behind. He is drawn back in to assist a young woman who is later referred to as the Destroyer. Who is this girl and how will it affect Picard? But what really sent our tear-ducts into overdrive was hearing him say, “Engage.” This is not a drill! Picard is really returning to our screens. We are impatiently waiting to hear him say, “Make it so,” or to do the signature ‘Picard Maneuver.’ Is it 2020 yet?
Familiar faces (and places)
The Star Trek: Picard trailer showed us some more familiar faces. It was a stab to the heart to see them open a drawer that held the disassembled parts of our favorite android, as a voiceover mentions Data’s sacrifice. The trailer then showed Data (played by Brent Spiner) playing poker with Picard, which has us questioning how Data is alive. Is it B4? A hologram? Lore? We can’t wait to find out.
But the most surprising appearance for us was seeing Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) from Star Trek: Voyager talking to Picard. However, it all starts to make sense when the trailer flashed a partially built Borg cube. We have also been told that some Star Trek: The Next Generation characters will be making cameos: expect to see William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis).
For the uber Trek fan, there were also some lovely Easter eggs in the trailer, because not only do we see familiar faces, we see familiar locations too. Picard is seen walking through the jagged ‘Vasquez Rocks’ in the trailer, an iconic location where several Star Trek episodes have been filmed.
The Borg
As mentioned above, the Borg are back! The cube-dwelling, cyborg, hive-beings are the most well-known nemesis in the Star Trek universe. The Borg were first introduced 30 years ago and have made extensive appearances in four of the Star Trek series, as well as being the main villains in the 1996 movie Star Trek: First Contact. This species has had such an impact on the franchise as a whole, and with Picard having previously been assimilated by them, it makes total sense that they would be a big part of this spin-off. We can’t wait to see what they’re up to.
Star Trek: Lower Decks
Now that we’ve geeked over the nostalgia of seeing Picard again, we are also getting brand-new content to look forward to. An animated comedy series is expected to be released in 2020 on CBS All Access, and the cast was unveiled at SDCC.
The show will follow the support crew on what’s considered the least important ship in the year 2380.
We anticipate this show to be packed with humor and wit as the creator and executive producer, Mike McMahan, spent time working on Rick and Morty as a supervising producer. And to top it off, we are already in love with the animation style.
Star Trek: Lower Decks. (CBS Interactive, Inc.)
New Star Trek: Discovery content
We don’t know about the rest of the fandom, but we are still reeling from the Season 2 finale of Star Trek: Discovery. The great news is, we are in luck because there are six new Star Trek: Short Treks coming our way. The characters mentioned to be featured are Pike (Anson Mount), Spock (Ethan Peck), and Number One (Rebecca Romijn).
A new character was also revealed for Star Trek: Discovery, named Cleveland Booker (A.K.A. “Book”). Book (David Ajala) is said to be one who breaks the rules a little bit. I cannot wait to see what else is in store for Season 3 of Discovery.
Michael Burnham and new character, Cleveland Booker on Star Trek: Discovery. (CBS All Access)
While it didn’t make our list, a bonus reason for excitement is that Picard’s dog (as seen in the first official Star Trek: Picard poster) is apparently named Number One. How perfect is that?
Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Star Trek: Discovery are available on CBS All Access with new episodes coming in 2020.
