‘Star Trek’ At SDCC: David Ajala Joins Discovery, More ‘Short Treks’ With Pike, Spock & Number One, More On ‘Lower Decks’ & ‘Picard’
Alex Kurtzman, the man behind all things ‘Star Trek’ for CBS, along with a host of other people just finished an epic panel at SDCC today and dropped a stack of info about the various upcoming series. That includes new casting on ‘Star Trek: Discovery‘, the return of ‘Short Treks’ with some familiar faces, more info on the animated series ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks‘, and of course, ‘Star Trek: Picard‘.
Star Trek: Discovery
The first big announcement was a new cast member for ‘Star Trek: Discovery’. David Ajala joins Season 3 as Cleveland Booker, a.k.a. Book, a brand new character, described as smart and capable with natural charisma and devil-may-care attitude that tends to get him into trouble as often as it gets him out.
Ajala is a familiar face to Arrowverse fans, having played Manchester Black in the last season of ‘Supergirl’. He also starred in ‘Nightflyers’, and has popped up in films such as ‘Jupiter Ascending’ and ‘Fast & Furious 6’.
Sonequa Martin-Green also revealed during the panel that Season 3 of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ began principal photography in Iceland earlier this month.
Star Trek: Short Treks
Moving on to Discovery’s little sibling ‘Short Treks’, it was announced that we’ve not seen the last of Captain Pike, Spock, and Number One, as Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn and Anson Mount will be returning to their roles for some mini-episodes. They also showed a trailer revealing the titles, which are “Ask Not,” “Q&A,” “The Trouble with Edward,” “The Girl Who Made the Stars,” “Ephaim and Dot” and “Children of Mars.” Oh, and there are tribbles… lots of tribbles…
Star Trek: Lower Decks
Next up was the new animated series ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’, which focuses on the support crew serving on one of Starfleet’s least important ships.
They announced the cast which includes Jack Quaid (‘The Boys’, ‘Vinyl’) who voices Ensign Boimler, Tawny Newsome (‘Brockmire’, ‘Nobodies’) voices Ensign Mariner, Noël Wells (‘Master of None’, ‘Craig of the Creek’) voices Ensign Tendi, and Eugene Cordero (‘The Good Place’, ‘Black Monday’) voices Ensign Rutherford. You can see what their animated characters look like below:
The ship’s bridge crew include Captain Carol Freeman voiced by Dawnn Lewis (‘Veronica Mars’), Commander Jack Ransom voiced by Jerry O’Connell (‘Billions’, ‘Carter’), Lieutenant Shaxs voiced by Fred Tatasciore (‘American Dad!’, ‘DC Super Hero Girls’), and Doctor T’Ana voiced by Gillian Vigman (‘Life Sentence’, ‘New Girl’).
The also announced that the series is set in 2380, just after ‘Star Trek: Nemesis’, and the ship is called the U.S.S. Cerritos, which is a new Starfleet design, called the California-class.
Star Trek: Picard
https://youtu.be/YhBBXHwEsIo
Lastly, ‘Star Trek: Picard’, which sees Sir Patrick Stewart return to the role of the venerable Jean-Luc Picard. Along with dropping a new trailer, the other huge news was that he won’t be the only familiar face on the series. Jonathan Frakes (Riker) Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), Jeri Ryan (Seven Of Nine), and Brent Spiner (Data) will all be making appearances.
We also got some character names for the previously announced new cast. Alison Pill (‘The Newsroom’) will play Dr. Agnes Jurati, with Harry Treadaway (‘Penny Dreadful’) as Narek, Isa Briones (‘American Crime Story: Versace’) as Dahj, Santiago Cabrera (‘Salvation’) as Cristobal “Chris” Rios, Evan Evagora as Elnor, and Michelle Hurd (‘Blindspot’) as Raffi Musiker.
‘Star Trek: Picard‘ premieres Early 2020 on Amazon Prime in the UK and on CBS All Access in the USA.
