First Contact Day 2021 has come and gone, and what a day it was! Fans were gifted with several livestreamed panels, including a retrospective on the film Star Trek: First Contact, a discussion of representation in Star Trek with several leading women from various shows, and a lovely discussion of makeup and costume design with the creative geniuses behind Discovery and Picard, but among the most anticipated were panels on Picard, Lower Decks and Prodigy!
During the course of these panels, the franchise debuted fresh trailers and information on upcoming shows, including Picard season 2 and Discovery season 4.
Without further ado, let’s fly!
Star Trek: Picard Season 2
In what may have been the biggest and most exciting bit of news coming out of First Contact Day, we learned that Q himself, John DeLancie, will be joining the cast of Picard season 2! This was confirmed not only by Sir Patrick Stewart and Mr DeLancie himself during the Picard panel.
Speaking of the second season and of Q’ return Patrick Stewart hinted that Q would return following a traumatic moment for Picard, whether this means we might be losing someone we all love (Guinan or someone else maybe??) or it might be a play on words and have a tie into the fact Picard is not the Picard he once was after his “rebirth” in the season one finale…
“Q’s arrival is, as it often was, utterly unexpected,” explains Stewart. “But [it] also comes at a shattering moment in the episode. And I do mean a shattering moment. Whether it’s directly connected to Q or not, I am still actually not quite sure. But there is significant trauma. And, in fact, at the moment, I am working on how the trauma of this moment hangs around Picard for quite a substantial part of the episode and then [claps his hands] there he is.”
Also, during the panel with Stewart, de Lancie had this to say about his return…
“I have changed my visage,” [de Lancie mirthfully muses of Q’s current state.] “I’ve aged a little bit so as to be more in keeping of where we are right now.”
Watch the quick teaser trailer below!
The trailer is short and sweet and gives us a tour of Picard’s office at his chateau. There are some interesting things shown, such as this model of a venerable Constellation-class starship…
…which the camera lingered on quite a bit. There was an intriguing shot of an hourglass with the sands moving backwards…
…suggesting a possible time travel plot for season 2. Given the presence of Q in the cast, along with the rumored addition of Whoopi Goldberg’s Guinan, and Picard’s narration involving the nature of time (“Time offers us many things, but never second chances.”), there is very strong evidence we’ll be exploring different time periods in Season 2. We’ll have to wait until 2022 to find out!
Here are a couple more interesting screenshots from the trailer, including a shot of a Bajoran artifact last seen in the DS9 episode “The Reckoning.”
And a nice panoramic view of the office including the painting of the Enterprise-D from Picard’s old ready room and the desk chair with his Mintakan tapestry from “Who Watches The Watchers.”
Picard Season 2 Teaser Gallery
I’ve probably missed a few easter eggs in this trailer, so let us know what else you can find! in the comments below…
Star Trek: Picard season 2 is coming in 2022, exclusively on Paramount+, and is confirmed to include the full cast from Season 1…
Discovery Season 4
Following the Women In Motion panel (which I highly recommend watching if you haven’t seen it yet!), Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green along with panel host Mica Burton presented the first trailer for Discovery season 4!
So much awesome to unpack in this trailer!
First, let’s take a look at the new crew uniforms. The design appears to be the same as the gray Starfleet uniforms that debuted in season 3 when our crew arrived at Federation Headquarters, but the coloring has noticeably changed, with vibrant division colors replacing the gray. Gersha Phillips, during the makeup and costume panel, mentioned that the gray uniforms blended in a little too well with the 32nd-century sets, going as far as to call it “camouflage!”
Notice the red-uniformed character at Captain Burnham’s right. This is clearly a Kelpien at the first officer’s station; could this be Saru, back as Burnham’s executive officer?
Also interesting to note is the updated color and lighting of Discovery’s bridge. It seems a bit darker with more prominent blue lighting. Other shots of the bridge show a deeper copper hue to the bulkheads. Overall, the bridge looks a bit more advanced than before, fitting following the ship’s refit in season 3.
The trailer also showcased two of the new characters introduced in season 3, and here’s a great shot of Adira Tal and Gray. That blue uniform looks fantastic!
We got a glimpse of a representative of another interstellar coalition, possibly a Bajoran-Cardassian hybrid.
A month ago we got some photos from the set of season 4 and on one of the trailers was the name President Rillak. It is possible this character might even be the President of of UFP.
Overall, the trailer gives the impression that our crew’s mission of bringing the Federation back together will take on increased precedence. Paul Stamets describes a gravitational anomaly five light-years across which Tilly elaborates on as potentially striking anywhere without warning. Thus, it may be critically important that Discovery brings everyone together, and clearly, this includes worlds beyond the Federation, as the above representative is part of another nation.
Here is the official synopsis for season four:
Season four of Star Trek: Discovery finds Captain Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery facing a threat unlike any they’ve ever encountered. With Federation and non-Federation worlds alike feeling the impact, they must confront the unknown and work together to ensure a hopeful future for all.
Discovery Season 4 Teaser Gallery
With the full cast returning, Star Trek: Discovery season 4 will premiere in 2021!
Next, we’ll discuss some new tidbits about the upcoming second season of Star Trek: Lower Decks, and unveil the latest information about Star Trek: Prodigy!
