Star Trek Day: Lower Decks mid-season trailer and news on Section 31 and Starfleet shows

Any Trekkie fan knows that September 8 is Star Trek Day and this year, Paramamount + pulled out all the stops for a celebration day that live-streamed panels with stars and crew from all the Trek content universe, released trailers and sneak peaks, as well as dropped plenty of premiere dates so we could all mark our galactic calendars.

History of Star Trek Day

Marking the day that Star Trek: The Original Series (as it’s now known) aired on NBC 55 years ago, changed the way we see science fiction forever, and ignited a powerfully passionate fanbase, this year’s Star Trek Day live-steamed from the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles on Sept. 8. The fan event was hosted by Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Wil Wheaton and Mica Burton and showered fans with interviews, live performances, panel discussions, and tons of exciting announcements centered around the five active Star Trek shows: Lower Decks (currently playing), Prodigy, Discovery, Picard, and Strange New Worlds.

Star Trek: Prodigy, Discovery, and Picard unveiled premiere dates (or at least timing) and trailers (except for Discovery). Prodigy even went one step further and revealed that beautiful opening sequence video. For Strange New Worlds, we were introduced to the fresh actors taking on beloved, legacy characters. You can check out the detailed posts that I have on all these shows.

There was also a very cool legacy panel that featured Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s son, Rod Roddenberry, who is the CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment. Joining him were George Takei (Hikaru Sulu), TNG’s LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge) and Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher), and was hosted by The Ready Room’s Wil Wheaton.

Lower Decks not to be left out

Although the second season of Star Trek: Lower Decks is currently playing on Paramount +, the breakout animation hit still got its own reveal at the Star Trek Day celebration, with a mid-season trailer that continues the fun chaos we love about the show.

Kurtzman gave an update on Starfleet Academy.

Alex Kurtzman, the lead executive producer for everything Trek, talked about his approach for managing the vastly expanding Trek content universe, in an interview with TNG’s Wil Wheaton.

“The goal for us has been to really try to make sure that each Star Trek show has had its own identity, its own individual reason for being,” said Kurtzman, according to Variety, who also said he’s “not in a hurry” to dispatch any more series in the near term. However, he did weight in on a developing show that centers around Starfleet Academy.

"“I know there’s been a lot of conversation about Starfleet Academy, which we are very excited about,” he said. “When we talked about, there’s this new generation that’s going to inherit the problems of the old generation, what are they going to do to make the world better to solve it, how are we going to avoid the mistakes of our elders, and how are we going to learn from the wisdom of our elders — that’s a really wonderful thing to consider when you think about something like Starfleet Academy.”"

You can read more detail on how the Academy is being featured throughout the various series here.

Is there hope for Section 31?

The only project left out of discussion was the Michelle Yeoh vehicle, Section 31. Production enthusiasm has teetered back and forth for this show that was supposed to follow the operations of the covert defense organization. It was in development, then a writer’s room was selected, and Kurtzman said earlier this year he remained ‘optimistic’ about it going forward.

However, we got radio silence on Star Trek Day. Hopefully that doesn’t mean that it’s shelved for good.

Stay tuned here for more star t news. You can also check out the Star Trek Day live-streaming event in its entirety on Paramount +’s dedicated YouTube channel. Live long and prosper!