Watch ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 4 NYCC Trailer

Today at the New York Comic Con Star Trek: Discovery panel, Paramount+ revealed the full trailer for season four.

Season 4 Trailer

The new trailer was introduced by Sonequa Martin-Green (now Captain Michael Burnham) during the NYCC panel at the Javits Center in New York City. (Trailer also available for international viewers on Instagram and startrek.com)

 

Captain Burnham faces a new threat

Here is the latest official synopsis for the upcoming season:

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 four cast members include Sonequa Martin-Green (Captain Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Saru), Anthony Rapp (Paul Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly), Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber), David Ajala (Cleveland “Book” Booker), Blu del Barrio (Adira) and Ian Alexander (Gray).

Season four of Discovery arrives on Paramount+ on Thursday, November 18.

Analysis to come… but Ferengi Captain!

There is a lot to go over with this new trailer, so stay tuned for the traditional TrekMovie screencap/analysis. But yes, that was a Ferengi Captain seen at Starfleet HQ.

New poster

Paramount+ also revealed new key art for season four.

More to come from NYCC

The Discovery panel featured series stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, Wilson Cruz, David Ajala, Blu del Barrio and showrunner and executive producer Michelle Paradise. TrekMovie will have a recap of all the news and highlights coming up soon. We will also be giving full coverage to tomorrow’s Prodigy panel, along with any new releases. So stay tuned to TrekMovie for our full NYCC coverage.

ICYMI – First Contact Day Teaser Trailer

The NYCC trailer follows the shorter teaser for season four which was released on First Contact Day in April. For more check out our full screencaps analysis.

Star Trek: Discovery streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. In Canada Discovery is broadcast on CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave. It is also available on Netflix in 190 countries around the world.


Keep up with the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.

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Go Captain Burnham!

Let her FLY!!!!

Did they update the Ferengi design? (0:42)

Looks like it. Not a huge fan. I froze on that frame to get a better look.Maybe its how Ferengi look 1,000 years from now? Maybe they have found some genetic enhancement that was profitable. But the tips pointed on the ears look like the original Andrew Probert sketches of Ferengi before TNG production started.

On another note, I hate these uniforms. Too busy and ornate. The insignia has the delta shield barely visible in that oval. Meh.

But I’m excited to see the adventures of Captain Burnham and crew!

After 800 years, the Ferengi genome might well have become mixed with that of other species. This captain may be mostly Ferengi in ancestry, but with a few ancestors from other species (Yridian, perhaps?).

Or maybe Magog :-)

The uniforms actually look a little like a future version of the TOS ones. With the gold and red swapped. Never understood why TNG made that switch but they did. Would be a nice little nod to switch it back since they are in the far future…

It’s my understanding that the change was made because red didn’t work very well with Data’s gold make-up.

and maybe due to the movies using red for command (and everything else)

I have seen early test shots of Patrick Stewart in a gold/yellow uniform, so they did originally plan to use it, but I think they also decided he looked better in red.

They can’t help themselves.

Holly crap… Is THAT what that is? I thought it was some new fangled Star Trek Discovery alien we’ve never seen before.

Yes and it looks great.

Oh my… is that a Ferengi Redesign? eww lol

It actually looks closer to the original design outlined by Roddenberry.

They couldn’t make it work with the prosthetics of the day.

Not sure I like it, but what was originally called for was even more bat-like.

Everyday I learn something new. Very nice they still go back to Roddenberry for the original concept for this Ferengi.

He looks darker. At first I thought he was a Ferengi Klingon. I had to pause the trailer to see what exactly happened. Then I realized the ridges are in his nose. :P

I see a familiar species in his face. Not quite sure which, but looks very familiar.

Not too different. I wasn’t sure about the pointed lobes but I just has a look back at Grand Nagas Zek and he had quite a point on his. So I wonder if its just an older Fereng?

so a world universe threat again and saving the galaxy again and phew phew phew and more fights and explosions.

So don’t watch. Nobody is going to force you to do so.

It’s like it’s an action/adventure show or something.

It’s like virtually every other action / adventure show or something. Now exactly groundbreaking.

It’s like we have a wealth of Trek that has expanded to different genres and we get to pick which shows w/ which genre focus to watch, since nobody’s forcing us to watch them all.

Sort of.

Do we? Those three Discovery Seasons and Picard hat pretty much the same plot, when you look at the big picture. The only real difference ist Picards terrible Production Design, wheras Discovery at least looks good.

The only show that is different ist Lower Decks, which pretty much uses the old Star Trek Formula but doesn’t really have a lot of its own original ideas on top of that (a bit like the Orvilles first season)

Oh well. Guess you’ll have to find a new hobby.

I kinda wish they’d kept the old 32nd century uniforms and updated the bridge to reflect the new era/technologies instead, but I get the real life reasoning that it is cheaper to change outfits than redesign a set.

I also wish Disco would slow down a little. As much as I enjoy it, I agree with others that not every season needs to be about saving the universe.

Yup.

But it’s the chosen one meets galactic threat version of Trek.

It’s a niche, but I hope that Secret Hideout understands that it doesn’t need to be the template for the entire menu of shows.

It’s always go-go-go! One thing I’m enjoying about Lower Decks is that show actually makes time to explore the characters a lot more and not make every episode some level 5 crisis. Now I’ll be fair and say if you look at the episodes individually with Discovery, it’s not a big crisis every episode, but it always looms in the background or they always felt under some kind of threat. That was also the odd thing about season 3, the Burn happened a century ago and yet they still treated it like it had to be solved tomorrow. They could’ve took their time and given us more character based episodes that didn’t have to feel like it was life or death stakes.

I will say this.. The tech in their new time frame feels WAY behind what it probably should be. I mean, things in that era really should be looking like complete magic to us. But that’s yet another flaw with Star Trek Discovery.

Maybe this anomaly will take them to the Picard era. Where their ship will feel more at home.

Awesome trailer. Can’t wait to watch the new season!

Laughed out loud when I saw the new Ferengi design. They just can’t help themselves.
Special effects look OUTSTANDING as usual; espeically that zoom out shot of Discovery entering the black holes things, but I’m not interesting in sitting through another season-long mystery big bad that’s threatening the entire galaxy/universe plot device. Can’t they come up with anything else?

How was anything in S1 or 3 about a big bad threatening the entire galaxy? The Klingons just fought a war against the Federation. And Su’Kal was not a big bad and this accident happened over 100 years ago. Restoring warp capability WAS that “anything else” you are asking for.

S2 and CONTROL, there you are right, but this graviton anomaly does seem to be a different, more natural non-sentient issue.

They cannot just make a season-long storyarc about Book’s ascension or Kelpien drug issues… DS9 had the Dominion War, ENT S3 the Xindi threat… That’s how storyarcs work… they are about a big threat. I’m more than happy if this threat doesn’t always turn out to be a malicious cardboard villain as it happened so often in the movies…

Season 1 it was the Klingons followed by Lorca and the Mirror Universe (season 1 was a mess).

Season 2 it was Control.

Season 3 it was ‘the big scream’.

Season 4 is, well, it’s a bit vague but it’s having a negative impact on everyone and only Burnham and the crew of Discovery can save us all. Again.

So, Trekutopia isn’t wrong and at the center of each story is a mystery or plot twist at the heart of it all.

What might be more interesting is to remove any sense of mystery and focus on how the situation will be resolved. Just put it out there at the beginning of the season. It doesn’t always have to be a threat on a galactic scale, it could just be something that impacts a mission faced by Discovery and its crew and we know what that problem is right from the start.

The running joke used to be that there was an immediate threat and only the Enterprise was within range. On Discovery each season a story unfolds that threatens life as we know it on a galactic scale and only the crew of Discovery can save us all. We all know it’s going to work out because we have no reason to believe that it won’t.

Didn’t Season 1 also have the threat of something big and bad is gonna happen to the mushroom multiverse network and if we don’t stop it all life in EVERY universe will die or something? I vaguely remember that being a trailer line at some point.

I’d almost forgotten about the issue with the spore drive.

Agreed I’m sure they will have a few other things going on as they try and figure out this Anomaly. I also believe that Season 4. Like Season 3 of TNG and DS9 and Season 4 of Enterprise is where this show really takes off. So let’s hope.

The design is not that different at all imo

Ferengi? Meh…..DS9 wore that species out for me. No desire to see them again

So don’t watch.

How is this a helpful reply? I don’t understand why when someone just expresses an opinion about an aspect of something they’re underwhelmed by, the general response is, “Don’t watch the show.” So should people watch something only when they love EVERYTHING about it?

I so agree with you. The “don’t watch” mantra is very cringe-inducing yo me. People should be able to share their criticisms. I enjoy reading and actually responding to other people’s opinions.

It’s Star Trek, no species will ever just disappear. If you don’t like them, understandable, but fans HAVE to accept this one reality: Nothing ever goes completely away in franchises, especially decades old species or characters. People who keep hollering they don’t want to see ‘so and so’ back again like the Q, Borg, Klingons, whatever, it all makes it way back eventually because it’s part of the mythology of Star Trek now. It doesn’t mean they will have huge roles but they will always be there in some fashion.

And also the reality is we haven’t seen a lot of these species in a loooong time, many since Voyager ended frankly. Only the last few years starting with Picard to now are we seeing more of them again. And that’s obviously because we are back in a post-Nemesis time frame so once again you can include anyone you want. When we were in prequel land with Enterprise, Kelvin Timeline and early Discovery, yeah it was harder to present so many. But now the floodgates have been opened again and it’s not closing for a long time.

Was that a half-Cardassian woman?

During the panel Michelle Paradise said the character who also is the federation president is part Cardasian, Bajoran, and Human

Actually that is something I should expect much more of in the far far future. A LOT more mixed races. It just makes sense as more beings start interacting with each other. It’s happening for real here on Earth. My son is a mixed bag. And his kid will be, too. Eventually it will be more the norm than just a single racial bloodline.

Maybe the Ferengi we see in the trailer is also a mixed bag.

I believe she’s quarter-Cardassian. But the UFP president is certainly part Cardassian…

Oh, man. I don’t know why but for the first time it occured to me that Cardassian sounds a bit too much like Kardashian. Oy.

Why does the galaxy always need to be saved?

S1 was NOT about saving the galaxy. It was “just” an interstellar war. If anything it was about winning that war.

S2 turned out to be about saving the galaxy but not the way we supposed to. Instead of the Red Angel, the rea threat was the Terminator stand-in…

S3 was about a disaster that had happpened over a century ago. There was no “saving the galaxy” plot. Restoring the Federation to new power, yeah, but that’s a different thing…

So two out of four seasons actually got a “saving the galaxy” plot.

And THIS one feels a lot like V’Ger on graviton addiction. I like it :-)

But seriously, how can a season-long plot arc not be about something important and big? In order to avoid such stories they’d have to switch to episodic storytelling. I’d welcome that but as long as they do storyarcs, they have to be about something huge…

As I recall, the first season involved saving the universe or multiverse or whatnot from ultimate mycelial destruction, as well as saving the Federation from ultimate destruction. So you can update your figure to 3 out of 4.

“the first season involved saving the universe or multiverse or whatnot from ultimate mycelial destruction”

But that wasn’t the season’s focus but a minute sideplot…

It wasn’t that minute since it impacted virtually everything that would unfold.

When you’ve ditched episodic storytelling for season long arcs, each season has to avoid echoing what has been done previously.

Because it makes good drama. If only the story warranted it and didn’t waste our time on pretty visuals and likable characters , but loud and obnoxious without anything to say. Maybe this season will actually be Star Trek. The last season was so absurd it strained all belief. A crying child blew up all dilithium and almost ended the Federation. I mean okay it is better than another Space Revenge plot, but only barely.

I like Discovery from lat’s say season 2-3 onwards, but please why do they use the same quarry location again, what is it like the 6th time? I know Stargate SG1 used the same Canadian forest for its entire run, but the quarry with the same walkway in the middle,… When I watch a Sci-fi show I like to be taken to another place, not the same one again and again ;)

So, you won’t be cheering when we see the Vasquez rocks yet again in Picard. (I agree they were overused in the classic five series, and it was too coy to locate Raffi’s trailer in front of them.)

Yes, I agree that the Lafarge quarry in Ontario is getting old, but it was only used for the winter environment with the Guardian last season. And it was used only one time in each of the first two seasons.

With the exception of us northern climate types who can convert from clear ground to snowscapes in our heads, I doubt most viewers noticed that the GoF was at the quarry site.

The other rocks we have seen have been various Ontario locations including the Scarborough bluffs in Toronto, some Canadian Shield shots in the Muskokas in fall colours, and the Escarpment in season one.

Much of Ontario has exposed bedrock near the surface. The Canadian Shield is a major geographic feature created by the retreating glaciers. The Escarpment runs from east of Toronto to north of Lake Michigan. There’s lots of variation.

To be fair pretty much every nearby location in SoCal has been used to death since the TV industry was headquartered there many many decades ago. So very many locations have been used over and over and over again. I’ve seen the Disney Ranch, the Vasquez rocks, Bronson Canyon, Toluca Lake, the LA harbor, little valleys near Lancaster… They’ve all been done to death over the decades and I have gotten to recognize them pretty easily.

At least the Toronto locations aren’t quite as well known. But give them more time as they exhaust their locations. As more TV and movie work is done there it will happen too. Unless blue screens with fake backgrounds help them.

Though a popular shooting location, the most recognizable of the Vasquez rocks was only featured prominently in “Arena” and was immediately recognizable by multiple generations of Star Trek fans. That particular location wasn’t featured in a Star Trek series again until “Picard” over 50 years later and that was entirely intentional callback to the original series.

The Vazquez Rocks cover a large area and can be used repeatedly as a shooting location and never look the same twice. For the Lafarge quarry it may be less about the location but a sameness in how director’s choose to shoot it.

Actually the Vasquez area and the caves were used frequently by Voyager and also by TNG and DS9.

But yes, the unique angle of the rocks wasn’t specifically used as much.

Again, the Lafarge quarry was used exactly twice in summer – for the Mirror Universe resistance camp in S1 and for Talos V in season 2. The winter scenes with the Guardian were under snow and from a different angle as far as I could tell.

I wonder what other episodes you’re thinking of.

Other series, not Star Trek specifically. Westerns, sci fi series and a bunch of other stuff.

Looks like more of the same crap.

Then don’t watch it?

Why even watch the trailer? You clearly don’t like the show. Plenty of others do. It’s subjective. I don’t watch trailers for programmes I don’t like/watch and then shit on them. Move on.

warning for trolling

Paused a bunch during the trailer. One thing I picked up on is that – well, I believe, at least – representatives of the Qowat Milat journey into the anomaly alongside the Starfleet crew and prove instrumental in repelling humanoid foes at least once. I’m getting “the MACOs during the Xindi conflict” vibes here, except… cooler?

Wow that’s interesting. I really like the Qowat Milat and would be fun to see them in full offense mode.

New threat = the multiverse of madness

At last, a season where the fate of the entire galaxy is at risk from some unknown anomaly. I feel like this is a first for Trek in general and Discovery in particular!

Explosions and bang bang, CHECK
Burnham looking smug, CHECK
Burnham quivering bottom lip about to cry, CHECK
Burnham about to break the rules again, CHECK
Burnham dominating the trailer and everyone else in the crew looking like lost puppies CHECK
LGBT characters looking like they will have nothing to do except emote CHECK
Tilly to provide ‘comic’ relief LIKELY
Burnham going to single handedly save the galaxy again with her intellect and superior everything, HIGHLY LIKELY

Good analysis, Commander. Looks like all the boxes have been checked. They are ready to go!

The trailer had very little representation of men, so I am guessing now that Stamets and Saru will increasingly be marginalised and phased out.

🤦‍♂️

Is that a joke? I hope it is. Does it really offend you to see women taking centre stage in a trailer?

Warning for trolling.

I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand those who hate Discovery continually watching it and posting in these forums how much they hate it. I can understand to an extent when Discovery was the only new Trek on the air, but that’s no longer the case. There is simply no shortage of Trek at this point.

In other words, if you hate Discovery, just stop watching it! You’ve still got Lower Decks (a fantastic homage to TNG-era Trek), Picard (season 1 certainly had its issues, but it was great to have some stories post-Nemesis, and it’s always a treat to have Sir Patrick Stewart back), the upcoming Prodigy (while obviously aimed at kids, the few looks we’ve gotten look beautiful), and of course Strange New Worlds which very much sounds like a return to some old-school episodic Star Trek.

I think a lot of it has to do with how Discovery has impacted virtually every aspect of Star Trek since it launched. Everything now has to match the aesthetic and story elements introduced in Discovery, retconning much of what had been established in TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager and even Enterprise, from makeup of familiar species, ship design and even character histories (look no further than Picard which shows the retconned Enterprise from Discovery and not Kirk’s from TOS).

I actually tapped out of Discovery after season 2 and my excitement for Picard waned when the series hit the midway point and hit a wall with the season finale (that standoff between Riker and the Romulan fleet was never supposed to be there).

Ultimately, I think there’s just a lot of frustration that Star Trek, which was always the gold standard for groundbreaking, though provoking storytelling, is now just another sci fi show.

Personally I find it a little bit of a middle finger to TOS fans when the Picard holo ships showed his E-D exactly the same but the original E was the Secret Hideout version. I would guess I’m not alone in that.

Oh wow, I didn’t even notice that (just rewatched the scene). Yeah, that kinda is a bit of a middle finger. Not sure if was simply a time constraint issue, wherein a CG model of the Discovery version of the original E already existed whereas the VFX crew would need to redo the original-original E (as the current CG model was a good 10 years old at the time of PIC season 1); a legitimate oversight by the production crew; or an edict by Secret Hideout that this is what the original E now looks like.

I was actually hoping that we’d see a revised E in Strange New Worlds that hews more closely to TOS, so 🤞

My guess is it was more like they wanted to remain consistent with what they showed on Star Trek Discovery. But my point is they altered the original E. Why wouldn’t they alter the E-D? I mean if there was ever a ship that needed an upgrade, that was it. That thing never looked good. But still… It felt like a giant FU to TOS.

I should’ve been a bit more specific in my criticism of…well criticisms. I have zero issue with people criticizing Discovery, but I get frustrated with certain forum members who complain about the same things whenever there’s a Discovery update – things that are just inherent to Discovery and aren’t going to change at this point.

And that’s the crux of the issue for me. Discovery is a known quantity at this point, the things that people didn’t like in the first 3 seasons (its focus on Burnham, some feeling like Burnham is a “Mary Sue,” the constant updates to character design that rub some people the wrong way, the heavily serialized story telling with a focus on a big bad/catastrophic event, etc…) are still things that exist and things that those same people aren’t going to like.

Again, criticize Discovery all you want, but after a certain point you just need to admit this isn’t the Star Trek show for you and move on.

Spot on post. I read the reviews, episode summaries and feedback but after season 2 it just wasn’t for me so I moved on. Reading reactions has proven to be far more entertaining at times!

The forums that existed in the 90s were often dominated by the fans who hated just about everything Voyager and Enterprise, and cursed Berman and Braga’s names as The Powers That Be. Some would gleefully point out flailing ratings every week. But most still kept watching. Doctor Who fandom has had a similar faction living to criticize the lead creatives, no matter who they are, for decades.

For me, I have an overriding love of the franchise which makes me loathe to part ways with it – I still want to know the complete story and I adore the universe. It pains me to see the writing suffer because I want it to succeed, creatively. I try to reconcile the franchise’s need to evolve with what I see and recognize that the shows aren’t just for me, and millions are enjoying what I don’t, which is great for them. But I have such issues with the dark and depressing tone of the shows, the overwrought and portentous emotions, the trite take on identity politics, the Mary Sue characters, the lack of clever storyarcs, the unmemorable dialogue, the overdone VFX and the terrible villains. It’s frustrating that Lower Decks is the only show which has solid characterization and real heart and joy at its core.

Those who write comedy or spoof popular franchises tend to have a far better understanding of the source material,

You hit the nail on the head. For most long time fans (people whose been watching since the 90s and of course many, especially here, has been watching much longer than that), they want to continue to see the universe change or evolve because its been part of their lives for so long. The issue is many are not liking what it’s changing or evolving to.

Personally for me, I did have a LOT of issues with Discovery first season. It actually wasn’t that it looked too advanced or different. I talked a lot about that, but I also said I can LIVE with it because it’s a show for modern audiences and they wanted to do something different. I still think they could’ve just called it a reboot and do whatever they wanted, but I digress. But Discovery did have a lot of problems. People who liked it out of the gate wanted to pretend it was just a small whiny vocal group on the internet but clearly it wasn’t and why just three seasons later it almost looks and feels like a totally different show. First season it was a much darker show with that looked completely different from the past shows and set pre-TOS but with a more BSG vibe than a Star Trek one. Now it has felt lighter, feeling much more like Star Trek IMO and in a more appropriate setting where they can make it as advance as they always wanted but was held back due to its setting. The show is different for sure, but for some fans it’s still not enough.

And frankly it just comes down to the writing is still not great, the characters are growing but still not a lot of fan favorites so far and yes the stories themselves are still pretty bad overall. Some individual episodes has been amazing and has definitely equaled some of the better stories in TOS, TNG, DS9, etc. But it’s still very few overall. And because it’s serialized people focus less on individual episodes like what most of classic Trek is and the season as a whole and where it’s really hurting it.

I personally think Discovery has improved every season than the last, the problem is still not enough to get the naysayers on board and maybe it never will. But not everyone will be won over. There are still naysayers for Voyager, Enterprise, even DS9 and they still watched every episode too. It’s not like every classic show has become beloved with everyone, just more accepted overall and a lot of that has to do with time. Nostalgia just sets in. That may happen with these new shows but it’s also a different time with social media everywhere and some people are just prone to hate things.

But people also have to admit some of the shows themselves could just be a lot better too. Discovery HAS improved but it’s still low on the totem pole when it just comes to basic story telling. End of the day, that’s what keeps more fans interested more than anything, just good stories. Everything else is second place.

Absolutely agreed. The way which Discovery came out of the gate really did set the tone. It’s gotten better for sure, but old habits die hard both for fans and for the production team.

I still get the sense no one besides Bryan Fuller has ever had a handle on how best to handle Burnham, but Fuller’s vision of the show was hardly inspiring based on the pilot. The show has rarely pulled at my heartstrings, whereas I remain totally invested emotionally in the likes of Amok Time/Family/The Inner Light/The Offspring/Reunion/Duet/The Visitor/The Die is Cast/The Voyage Home/The Wrath of Khan/Someone to Watch Over Me/Drone/Twilight/wej duj/ etc.

There were no hamfisted “I love you aaallll” declarations, no forced scenes of applause by crewmen for moments that don’t deserve it, fewer attempts to retrofit character growth when the work wasn’t done (Emperor Georgiou being passed off as a beloved colleague was laughable, and her evolution as a reformed character was almost entirely portrayed in her last two episodes only). Allegories were often blunt, yet subtler than making Gray a walking “We see you” metaphor.

I get a sense the producers think they are making tv consistently as good as the best of the 90s output, just because it’s got a diverse cast, LGBT characters, and they are being given obscene amounts of ViacomCBS’ money to spend. I’m sure it’s a very fun and thrilling show to produce and write, but the actual writing is bog standard anonymous genre fare bereft of a lot of joy, with the occasional moment or two that remind us what good Star Trek can be.

I don’t criticize from a place of thinking I could do better in Alex Kurtzman’s shoes, but I think after so long, I’ve developed a strong sense of what makes for good drama, particularly when it comes to Star Trek. So many simple ingredients are being omitted these days, and it’s frustrating.

Isn’t Star Trek filled with “Mary Sues?” Isn’t that kinda part of the point? Picard or Kirk are among the ultimate examples of one.

I’m tired of the denigration, y’all.

I wouldn’t call a character who has already become who they are to be a Mary Sue. The Mary Sue applies to a character who has things happen to her and without any real hardship reaches full potential. We usually see a Mary Sue’s journey from at or near the beginning. Like Rey in the SW sequels. Kirk and Picard were introduced already having reached their full potential. It was presumed that they started out raw, inexperienced and worked their way into their positions while discovering who they were along the way. If they were Mary Sues it wasn’t shown on screen.

The main character of Lower Decks is pretty obviously a Mary Sue character. I like what you said but Lower Decks suffers from the same as Discovery. There is no solid characterization and there is absolutely no joy in its heart. It’s just one big fangasm. I’ve just started watching season 2. Through a few episodes now and it’s still just an animated “how many old references can we squeeze in” show. While a little clever at times it’s monumentally predictable and and full of failed gags.

Mariner is arguably a Mary Sue, though they do make a point of having her be fallible. Most Trek characters tend to be very good at their jobs, it’s when they’re never allowed to be wrong or vulnerable that it gets ridiculous.

That’s why Burnham frustrates me – Bryan Fuller created her and had a handle on how to characterize her and what her arc should be. Say what you will about his other ideas that didn’t work in Discovery, but he immediately started the show by having Burnham make a terrible mistake that was difficult to justify and come back from. That was daring and different. Every showrunner since has retreated from that decision and ignored it, preferring to make Burnham so infallible, she makes Teflon Janeway look like Ally McBeal.

As for Lower Decks… I would maintain there’s real love and joy at its heart. The characters are bonding, have well-defined dynamics and development now, and beyond the myriad in-jokes and references are small real heartfelt moments that certainly affected me more than Discovery or Picard have ever done. That last episode was a wonder IMO.

Well, to counter that I don’t think anyone has a right to say what people should or shouldn’t watch. Humans are weird creatures, they can like something or not like something and still watch it. Besides I feel like since people here are Trek fans here they feel like they need to watch everything which is kind of understandable in the long run.

I’m not a fan of people telling others what to not watch as well. It’s like telling a fan of a ball club that sucks to stop following the team. Stop watching the games. Someone who says that to another I think just doesn’t understand the concept of fandom.

It’s called being a fan. Just because your team sucks doesn’t mean you stop watching them.

You are right that there is some Trek content on P+. Not a lot. The seasons are awfully short so even though it sounds like a lot of content it really isn’t. But the real problem is that so far nothing that has streamed has been any good. Everything Secret Hideout has made as been sub par at best. Gawdawful at worst. Lower Decks says they are aimed at adults but obviously it’s aimed at children. Picard was bad and the upcoming trailers don’t look promising and this upcoming season of Discovery doesn’t bode well either.

Our only hope lie with the two we haven’t seen yet. SNW looks promising but the final product remains to be seen. And Prodigy looks like it will be far more mature and fun than Lower Decks. But again, we must wait to find out. It I were a betting man I wouldn’t bet very much on either show being better than average.

Well. This looks good. I have high hopes for this season. Some good Trek on the way. Picard season 2 and Strange new worlds. A Good time to be a Trek Fan,

As a Kid Growing up in the 70s. All we had was TOS and TAS Now. We have so much moore.

“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.”

WIth a few tweaks you can use this same synopsis for seasons two and three:

Season 3:

“Season three of Star Trek: Discovery finds Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery in a distant future, facing a threat unlike anything ever encountered. With a diminished Federation and non-Federation worlds alike feeling the impact, they must confront the unknown and work together to ensure a hopeful future for all.”

Season 2:

Season two of Star Trek: Discovery finds Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery under the command of Captain Pike, facing a threat unlike any they’ve encountered; a threat from within and of the Federation’s own design. With Federation and non-Federation worlds alike feeling the impact, they must work with unlikely allies as well as those unknown, working together to ensure a future for all.

Planet of the week has given way to threat of the season.

I wish I could say this trailer makes me more excited about the upcoming season but personally these galactic wide threats are feeling a bit tired. The trailer was fine but I wasn’t excited about it at all. Of course it was an extension of the first trailer we got on First Contact day, but I was hoping it broaden the season a little more. I do like there is no perceived villain for a change (or at least we haven’t been introduced to yet) but it would’ve been more interesting to do smaller stories. Still with an arc but maybe just something about rebuilding the Federation and the obstacles of trying to do that when planets have been cut off from each off for so long. Something that also about, well, exploration.

And to be fair maybe the season will focus on that. I can’t imagine 13 episodes of just chasing down an anomaly so we may get something more. But when the trailer focuses solely on that, it leaves me a little cold. The thing is I really really want to like Discovery. And I do in general, but it’s still so far down the ladder in terms of strong story telling and execution. And I was generally very excited about both season 2 and 3. I couldn’t wait for either. But they both felt disappointing by the end. A big problem being they set up these grand mysteries and both fell flat to me. And here we are, yet another grand mystery, end-of-the-world stakes but this time only feels so-so out of the gate. Hopefully my mind will change when the season begins.

But to end this on a positive note. I do love stuff like having a Ferengi captain and a Cardassian UFP President. I’m hoping we get to see a lot of aliens we haven’t seen in awhile. Little stuff like this seems to excite fans more than the main story line. I truly do love this new setting. This is what I wanted from Star Trek since Voyager ended, so I hope they don’t squander it.

I thought the focus would be about rebuilding the Federation but, nope, no time for that. THAT would make for some interesting storytelling but now the show taking place in the future is merely incidental. This threat will predictably lead to the welcoming of some worlds back into the fold (storytelling shortcut) but it would be far more interesting to have stories where there is a reluctance of former member worlds to return after centuries of existence independent of the Federation. How do you rebuild an alliance which had had no relevance for centuries? And is it possible that some of these civilizations collapsed without the aid and support of the Federation?

This is a playground that a number of former Star Trek writers would thrive in.

Agreed. I think they could’ve done somethin more in this direction, focus on where the Federation is today and how they go about getting it to its glory days. Of course there has to be conflict and problems but I would have liked it to have been on a more social/political basis which Picard SORT OF did in its first season before it went all genocidal by the end.

It would’ve been nice to do what Enterprise did in season 4 and break up the stories to 2-3 parters while having an overall arc. That’s why that season was so good, it was secretly about forming the Federation but all the while dealing with smaller stories leading in that direction, especially the three part Vulcan and Andorian story lines and finally the Demons/Terra Prime finale. That was setting up things really nicely while having the stories feel a little more self contained. Think a little more out of the box, deal with specific Federation planet story lines and build up to a bigger story in the background but not an end of the universe crisis every damn season.

I like the idea of Enterprise season 4. I can’t help but think that the writers have other stories they would like to tackle over the course of the season.

I agree of course, I’m really hoping we’re getting just different stories in general. And I think that’s why people are responding the way they are, it feels like everything will come down to this anomaly. Again, if people didn’t feel so let down the last two seasons in how they wrapped up their big mystery boxes, then maybe it would be a very different reaction overall. I think a lot just feel it’s all going the same direction as before. But I really hope I’m wrong.

But Enterprise season 4 was really done so well IMO. It doesn’t mean every episode was great. Like many, I could’ve done without the Augment Klingon episodes completely. And I try to block out TATV as much as possible (like the last five minutes though). But I just loved how they were quietly setting things up in the background, especially with the Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites and Romulans but still told a myriad of different stories with so many other species and groups. And if you REALLY hated that Klingon augment story or the Alien Nazis opener, you can SKIP those stories and still feel like you got a solid season and some great worldbuilding and character development. With Discovery, sometime it feels like its all or nothing.

Or why can’t the problem be saving themselves from something? I think the problem is deep down producers and writers know that these characters just aren’t good enough to carry a personalized story of any kind. If the issue was the ship caught in some weird void or something with some sort of ticking clock few would care because few actually care about the characters. So they need to come up with stakes that are not connected to characters. Now the stakes must be universe shattering.

Well they should at least try first. But that’s the other problem with the show, characters are just not given personal episodes like the old shows did or at least the spin offs. It’s really hard to do a one off adventure of Tilly and Burnham getting lost on a planet when you’re trying to throw in all the other plots from previous episodes. You may be right and few would care but that’s partly because they never gotten a chance to just do things as a normal character after 3 seasons. It’s kind of crazy but 3 seasons in and we have not seen anything like a simple shore leave episode yet. Because these people never have time for ANYTHING outside of the mission and that’s sad to me. That’s what I mean by they just can’t be normal people with outside lives. Even Picard went on shore leave. Sure he was forced to go but he still had some lol.

Again, people used to complain about the ‘filler’ episodes in Star Trek and those were usually just smaller character episodea that I really appreciate having today. I know, I rewatched over 750 episodes recently. Some were definitely painful to watch but I enjoyed most of them because once you like a character enough you can still get into the story even if the stakes are very low or none at all.

Add to that the one character where they showed something about an off main character was the one they killed her in. Like they were trying to get the audience invested in someone so it would be a bit of a gut punch when she bit it. It didn’t work.

Can they really not think of anything better to do with the Burnham character than “You’re a loose cannon, Burnham!”? How many times can we watch a character go through the same arc about learning not be be a self-centered rogue?

You would need to shake up the writer’s room or bring in a new showrunner.

I really disliked the redesign of the Klingons and hope they go back to a TNG look. However, I do think the redesign of the Ferengi is pretty good. The TNG version wasn’t quite realistic enough and if you watch TNG and DS9 closely enough the prosthetics on many species are easily visible without being in HD.

I appreciate the return to the various department color uniforms. They do look a little too militaristic, but will have to see. People said that about the movie maroons but they were my favorite.

I think the haters keep watching hoping for the series to improve as the other series did as they advanced in years. There are certainly elements of DISC, Picard, and Lower Decks I don’t like and some that I do. Whether the good outweighs the bad is sometimes debatable. If you don’t like the season’s arc it’s easy to give up on the whole thing when there were many good episodes or elements. I really have high hopes for SNW and returning to episodic stories. TOS and TNG both had plenty of good episodes with some not so great scattered throughout. ENT had the Xindi arc that was ok while the series continued improving toward a much better season 4. DISCO season 3 I felt explored the politics and races of the 32nd century very well, however I felt the reason for the burn was not sophisticated enough and detachable nacelles not believable.

I really hope the new take on the Ferengi takes their culture back to their “last outpost” roots

The new Ferengi character is a Starfleet officer. You can’t be anymore different than how we saw the Ferengis in The Last Outpost. ;)

I remember watching that episode when it first aired and thinking, “They seem more amusing than threatening.”

Yeah and probably why they were turned comedic later. Like a lot of people, really didn’t like them until we got them on DS9 where they really developed them and made them completely comedic.

DS9 gave us a much better sense of who they were and one of my favorite exchanges on the series was between Quark and Sisko:

“The way I see it, Humans used to be a lot like Ferengi: greedy, acquisitive, interested only in profit. We’re a constant reminder of a part of your past you’d like to forget…Humans used to be a lot worse than the Ferengi: slavery, concentration camps, interstellar wars. We have nothing in our past that approaches that kind of barbarism. You see, we’re nothing like you. We’re better.”

Ds9 didn’t feature a single energy whip though. Except for the one the Marauder Mo action figure had. I hope this Ferengi captain has an energy whip for a sidearm.

That actually would be fun to see.

The thing that I did like about their first appearance was how alien they acted. They were constantly moving and scattering. Not just standing around like previous aliens were. But the problem was they mentioned the Ferengi in such a way that they created certain expectations. And when they were finally introduced it was a bit of a let down. They probably would have been better off had they not mentioned them at all before we met them.

We don’t know how far they’ve regressed in 9000 years. Maybe the reforms put in place by Grand Nagus Rom ended up with a Ferengi society with no rules to guide it (since acquisition became less important) and the Ferengi had to become feral in order to survive. A lucky few joined Starfleet but even if this particular Ferengi in the trailer was jumping around and hissing and so forth, Starfleet tolerates all cultural diversity so we might see a representation that’s true to Gene’s vision!

Predictions: I’m imagining that this trailer is about the mystery during the first two episodes and that once they start searching the inside of this mysterious anomomly, those adventures will end up taking up the entire season.

I also predict that Saru was left off world on Kaminar to study Su’Kal, and once Saru is will be aboard for the trip – he may be testing out new powers of his own which could be useful inside the Anomoly.

It is illogical to judge a series by the trailer.

I’m excited for S4. I felt S3 wasn’t as good as S1-2, but the sci-fi mystery behind the burn was awesome!

Let’s Fly!

Rejected Burnham catch phrases:

  • Let ‘er rip!
  • Spin that sh*t!
  • Make ship go!

LMAO! I just laughed so hard reading this. And what is with the obsession with these warp out catch phrases? I don’t remember any of the old shows so focused on it. Picard of course had ‘engage’ but I don’t remember Janeway having one. Or Kirk or Archer. I think Archer said ‘Let’s go’ and even then I don’t remember how often he said it if he said it much at all.

Suddenly that’s a thing. Kinda started with “engage” but then Pike said “Punch it” in the Kelvin movie and here we are. I don’t recall Kirk having one. I think he said engage from time to time but often it was just “take us out of orbit, Mr Sulu. Warp factor 2.” And that was that. Sulu just did it without Kirk telling him when to “engage”.

Yeah I don’t think anyone had one in the classic shows other than Picard. And that was just a phrase endeared to the character that they kept using. As you said most of them just told whoever was piloting the ship to go to Warp something or head to a certain direction.

Bur you’re right, Pike used one in the first Kelvin movie and it sort of became a thing from then on out.

Out there, Mr. Sulu. Thataway.

She really doesn’t need a catch phrase.

You should write for Lower Decks. Your post made me laugh harder than anything I have ever seen on LDX. I mean, Make ship go is a perfect fit for Discovery!

LOL. Thanks!

I don’t love the look of the new Ferengi’s lobes, but otherwise its a good design. It will be exciting to see the Ferengi again in live action, anyway.

The Ferengi captain looks almost exactly like Zek, the grand nagus with just slightly smaller/more pointed ears. Hardly a ‘redesign’ at all, since it was already established that all ferengi didn’t look like Quark/Nog.

The trailer was visually stunning, i’m cautiously optimistic. Hopefully the writing is as good as the visuals and we don’t get another dumb thing like the Burn or the Emerald Chain. The cast is fantastic. They keep getting bogged down trying to come up with an exciting story to frame the action on. It hasn’t worked for any of the seasons so far. Last season the plot was so boring and uninspired i really wondered if they knew what they were doing. It is weird since they added new characters who were all well defined and very good. But the entire arc of the season was random, and it went nowhere.

Well… Looks like they are still overreaching with this show. Why can’t they just dial things back a little?

Warning: The following comment is based on the quality of the previous 3 Star Trek Discovery seasons.

Even if the show manages to get into some deep sci-fi Trekky kind of concepts, the core problem is the main characters are nearly all boring and extremely shallow to the point of not really caring what happens to them or what they go through. They are duller than the TNG characters. And that is saying something. The trailer even looks like a sub par show with a huge production budget. The fact that they throw a lot of money to make the show look slick doesn’t mean the show will be good. As season’s 1-3 have proved.

I agree with this, well put.

Ugh, why do they keep changing the design of well established alien races.

That started with the Klingons a long time ago. Romulans have changed. Vulcan ears have been adjusted. Ro’s nose changed in between seasons – do did Worf’s forehead. Trills were introduced with foreheads and then suddenly had spots and we just pretend they always did. Make-up is always adjusted. It has been since TOS ended.

I wonder what aliens would say if they would visit earth in 1900 and 2020. And seeing different cultures on earth.

I finally got around to watching the trailer today and give it an unenthusiastic 3 out of 5. It was okay, but nothing too exciting. IMO, the season long story-arc although it worked okay in the first couple fo seasons, is growing a little tiresome for Discovery. Especilly with both SNW and LDs being episodic (allowing me to tune into to LDs every now and then without missing a big part of the story).

Of course I will watch Discovery S4, but I am really looking foward to seeing SNW S1 and the second season of Picard and the return of Q, even if it remains serielized.

Unless things change drastically for Disco, I think it’s destined to never be a big legacy fan favorite show, but will be the trailblazing and inclusive series that paved the way for Picard, SNW and all the other interations of Trek that follow for CBSAA and P+. I am happy it exists because it opened a new golden age of Star Trek and I am sure it also brought in new younger fans who did not watch Star Trek before.

Picard, SNW, LDs etc., MAY have eventually existed without Discovery, but I doubt we would have got them as quickly as we have.

Ultimately, I hope S4 of Disco proves me wrong. The series has definitely improved since early to mid S1, but for this older fan, not as much as I hoped. There are many episodes I will watch as a repeat (sort of an easy way to know whether or not I like a show), but that percentage is probably lower than any series since TOS. All that said, I will be watching when S4 premieres next month.

I had a hard time following it.

While I feel Discovery has made progress season by season, this isn’t drawing me in.

Anybody do a cliché count on this trailer?

The Ferengi are very difficult to modernize, the makeup was always something of a joke and it certainly doesn’t look good by modern standards. The redesign may not be as successful as the Andorian or Tellarite redo, but I get it and I really like it. There is room for some tweaking, the coloring and bat-tip ears are where things go a little far.

Roddenberry originally described the Ferengi as having bat-tipped ears but the make-up designers couldn’t make them work with 90s tech.

So it seems fairly obvious that this update is a nod to the original direction from the Great Bird himself whatsoever we may think of that.

Looks awesome

Although I’ve already disconnected Discovery’s previous seasons from my own favourite versions of ‘Star Trek’, I’ll still watch it as a stopgap before the episodic stories of the Strange New Worlds show come around.

But this time, I’m going to imagine that this is the FIRST season of Discovery to see how it goes….one which is introducing us to it’s already established ship’s Captain and crew for the very first time….and will hope for a better conclusion to it’s latest season-long ‘galaxy-threatening’ storyline this time around. Hopefully, a lot of the baggage of the previous seasons with be hardly mentioned, and I can look on any ‘call-backs’ as just being (offscreen) ‘background info.’ for Burnham and the crew as it goes along.

By viewing this next one as a ‘standalone’ introduction to these characters, I may just enjoy this storyline more if if it has a reasonably satisfying conclusion this time around! :)

Thanks for the interesting perspective. I too am really looking forward to others shows like SNW and Picard and am just lukewarm to Disco S4. That said, I will be watching Discovery.

Others have also suggested the show should have always been set in the future right from day 1, so perhaps it makes sense that I look at this season as the true start to the series without the baggage of seasons 1-3. I hope that reset and fresh perspective breathes some new life into Discovery, at least for me.

I love a lot of the actors and the characters. But the writing is atrocious. But i will still watch it because i have hope it will improve. I have hope it will finally graduate to being a Star Trek series in more than name. Usually it takes 3 or 4 seasons for a Trek show to get good. So here is hoping.

Another universe ending crisis.

Maybe the galaxy ends this time?…….nah….

I wish I could feel more excited about Discovery. But with all the other Trek now available I just don’t get that hyped anymore. And this trailer really didn’t do much to change those feelings. It felt like more of the same. I’m much more excited about the new season of Picard and the launch of SNW. Although I am fearful that SNW will fall into the same trap that Discovery did by trying to be way too advanced for the period in which it is set. At least Discovery fixed that particular problem, but then they double down on changing classic alien races like the Ferengi. It’s almost like they have an itch to fix what isn’t broken.

Ho hum….another galaxy ending threat. Will it succeed?

Michael is still rocking her braids and still making rebellious questionable decisions. Yes!!! I’m so happy. Stay reckless, Michael!! I am very much looking forward to seasons 4 and beyond.