A whole lot of Star Trek coming our way as Paramount + sets exciting premiere dates and renewals

It’s great to be a Star Trek fan since there’s a whole bunch of Trekkie shows beaming into our houses very soon. Paramount + made several announcements this week about the final frontier, not just with premiere dates, but also about some tantalizing renewals that will keep Trekkies sated for years to come. With five series in the works (and a potential two more), let’s set those phasers to stun and see what we can look forward to.

Star Trek: Picard unveils intriguing new poster along with S2 premiere date

The first out of the gate is Star Trek: Picard, following the new adventures of Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, with Season 2 just a few weeks away, set to premiere on Paramount + Mar. 3. I was a bit worried about this one since production on Season 3 was recently shut down thanks to (and much like the rest of the nation) an outbreak of COVID that struck crew members on set.

However, S2 is engaged and will kick off the 2022 premieres with a fascinating plot involving multiple timelines thanks to the mischievous (and extremely welcome) entry of Q from the Q Continuum, delightfully played by The Next Generation’s John de Lancie. By the way, Q is my favorite Trek character across all the multiverse so I’m absolutely thrilled with his re-entry into Picard’s world. The premiere date tweet also came with a fun new poster featuring the alien trickster. And let’s not forget that the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching) returns along with another fan fav, Whoopie Goldberg’s Guinan.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

We got the long-awaited entry into the Trek lexicon of Strange New Worlds, which follows the adventures of the USS Enterprise before a certain Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) swaggeringly sat at the helm. Kirk’s mentor, Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), and his crew, including his first officer Number One (Rebecca Romijn) and a young Mr. Spock (Ethan Peck), will round out this adventurous crew.

First seen on Star Trek: Discovery, anticipation has been huge for this new series, with the 10 episodes set to stream May 5, premiering right after we’ve devoured the second season of Picard. Strange New Worlds will likely offer a fun contrast to the darker universe of Picard, but who knows? Q will also probably make that series more fun if the past experience is any indication.

Led by charismatic Mount, SNW is the most exciting of the series for me, and it’s so good that CBS Studios/Paramount + has already renewed it for a second season even before its debut. Well done, Pike and crew!

SNW will also give us a glimpse at the new Uhura, with newcomer Celia Rose Gooding taking on the iconic role originated by the esteemed Nichelle Nichols in The Original Series.

“I am thrilled and honored to say that I will be playing Cadet Nyota Uhura,” Gooding said about stepping into Nichols’s shoes, via TVLine. “I am so excited to be stepping into this legacy.”

Star Trek: Lower Decks also this year!

Hey, did you need a break from Trek? Didn’t think so.

As if getting back-to-back series Picard and SNW wasn’t awesome enough during the spring, summer will kick off into high gear with our favorite zany misfits from the USS Ceridos, Star Trek: Lower Decks. The 10-episodes third season doesn’t have a specific date set yet, but Paramount + announced that we can expect it this summer. Even better, the hilarious mayhem will continue into the fourth season, which has been greenlit as well.

Adventures and seasons continue for Discovery and Prodigy

We are well into Star Trek: Prodigy, another animated series aimed at younger fans and currently streaming on Thursdays. Prodigy’s 10th episode will drop on Feb. 3, but if that’s not enough for you, don’t worry, we can expect 10 more episodes later in the year (the second half of S1), I’m guessing after Lower Decks’ S3 concludes over the summer. Maybe fall?

Not to be left out, of course, is Star Trek: Discovery, the darling Trek series that ushered in the streaming horizon for the Trek universe. Currently, in the fourth season, Discovery is on hiatus until more episodes resume beginning Feb. 10, and overlapping with Picard in March. ST: D also gets a fifth season (I feel like Oprah here: you get a season! You get a season! And you get a season too!).

"“Four years ago, we made a promise to grow Star Trek into something it had never been before, and thanks to the incredibly hard work done by our many talented showrunners, writers, and directors, along with the extraordinary support of CBS Studios and Paramount+, we’re keeping our word,” said Alex Kurtzman, architect and executive producer, Star Trek franchise, according to Startrek.com.“Now our current shows are set up for the future as we work to build Trek’s next phase of programming for years to come.”"

All episodes will drop weekly to stream on Paramount +.

No recent details on the new Michelle Yeoh series, Section 31, and another project based on Starfleet Academy, but both are still supposedly in development. Fingers crossed on those two, especially Section 31 since Yeoh’s character from Discovery is very sorely missed!