star trek the first adventure

Star Trek: The First Adventure

Star Trek: The First Adventure , also tentatively titled Starfleet Academy and Star Trek: The Academy Years , was a planned movie penned by Harve Bennett and David Loughery that was intended to follow Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , for a 1991 release date, corresponding with Star Trek: The Original Series ' 25th anniversary . The production of this film, which culminated over a period of a year, made it as far as a written script and a few pieces of conceptual artwork.

• 4 Conceptual art
• 5 Development and rejection
• 6 Resurrection

Proposal [ ]

Star Trek: The First Adventure was intended to be a new vehicle to continue the Star Trek movie missions .

According to David Loughery, " Every time they go to make one of these Star Trek movies, the producers and the studio always run into the same problem in getting the original cast together. The reasons for that are money, power, creative differences, ego, health, unavailability... all of those things. Harve [Bennett] always had this ace up his sleeve, which was if we can't get everybody together for one of these Star Trek movies, we should do a prequel. "

Star Trek producer Ralph Winter originally pitched the idea for the film to Harve Bennett at his daughter's Bat Mitzvah. " We had already locked in the Star Trek IV storyline with the whales and I said, 'You know, I have a great idea, let's do a prequel' in the middle of this reception for his daughter. I suggested we develop a series of films to be another franchise, another tent pole that we could open. We could do a prequel and find out how Kirk and Spock met at the Starfleet Academy . When we were doing Star Trek V , we got the studio to approve work on the script. It is an excellent story, but it has been misperceived. It's a great story finding out about this young cocky character on a farm who goes to flight school and meets up with the first alien that comes from Vulcan and how they meet the other characters. It would have been a gift for the fans on the 25th anniversary. "

David Loughery noted, " When I heard about the idea, I thought it was terrific. Not from the point of view of recasting, but from the point of view of storytelling, because I worked so closely with these characters on Star Trek V , that the idea of doing an origin story – where you show them as young cadets and kids – was tremendously exciting. What it was, was a real coming of age story. "

Winter believed that Starfleet Academy would have ushered in a new approach to the Star Trek franchise for the studio in which a coherent plan would be created for producing the Star Trek films on a semi-regular basis as opposed to the sporadic, fitful stop-and-go start-up on a new film every three years with the arduous contract negotiations that initiating each new chapter entailed.

According to Harve Bennett, the film, which could have been made for US$27 million, would also have avoided the hefty multi-million dollar salaries of its leads – William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy – as well as DeForest Kelley 's take-home of nearly half a million dollars and the $125,000 paychecks the supporting players pocketed. ( Charting the Undiscovered Country: The Making of Trek VI )

Premise [ ]

Michael Curtiz 's 1940 film Santa Fe Trail served as an inspiration for what Harve Bennett envisioned as the classic triumvirate's first trek. ( Charting the Undiscovered Country: The Making of Trek VI )

Conceptual art of young Kirk and Spock

According to co-writer David Loughery, this film was intended to be kind of a " Top Gun – Star Trek , in which this rambunctious, willful Iowa farmboy, Jim Kirk , goes to Starfleet Academy and meets up with this misanthropic, misunderstood, brilliant Vulcan , who is the first Vulcan ever to attend Starfleet Academy. " ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country – Special Edition DVD, Disc 2 ) The film was also to have introduced Leonard McCoy , a thirty-year-old doctor who began attending the Academy after having pulled the plug on his terminally ill father and was searching for the meaning of life. ( Charting the Undiscovered Country: The Making of Trek VI )

The premise of the story would have focused on young Kirk's development from a careless youth to a responsible leader, and included the loss of a great love, while at the climax of the story, he and Spock battled slavery on an alien world. ( Trek: The Unauthorized Story of the Movies )

Loughery stated, " In outline form, it was the story of Kirk and Spock meeting for the first time as cadets here on Earth. We've got a young Jim Kirk, who's kind of cocky and wild. He's not exactly what you might think starship captain material might be. He's like one of these kids who would rather fly hot planes and chase girls. Spock is this brilliant, arrogant, aloof to the point of obnoxiousness, genius. It's this mask he's hiding behind to cover his own conflicting Human emotions. He's an outcast, he left Vulcan in shame against his father 's wishes and, like all adolescents, he's trying to find a place to fit in, but he keeps screwing it up. "

Loughery added, " Over the course of this story, which is one year at Starfleet Academy, Kirk and Spock are sort of put to the test and they begin as rivals and end up as friends and comrades who learn that they have to combine their talents for the first time to defeat a deadly enemy. In the final scene, where they say goodbye at graduation and go their separate ways, we're able to see the legends that these two boys are going to grow up to become. " ( Charting the Undiscovered Country: The Making of Trek VI )

Outline [ ]

A script review for this film, bearing the Star Trek: The Academy Years title, was explored by Ain't It Cool News on March 20, 2006. The following is a summary of that review:

Conceptual art [ ]

Development and rejection [ ]

According to Harve Bennett, in a 2006 interview on The Trek Nation website, " We had a green light to picture which was canceled only when there was a regime change at the studio and a concern that we should do something more conventional for the then-25th anniversary. We had 19 months to do it in. 19 months? There's no way to do a special effects picture in 19 months. The best time we had was Star Trek III , which was two years from concept to release date. And the reason for that is, we would write the script normally and that was an easy script, that was six weeks and we were ready to go. But the special effects planning takes the better part of the year. I said, 'It can't be done.' And then my time was up, so I left. " [1]

In a 2010 interview with StarTrek.com , Bennett said, " It was the best script of all and it never got produced. It was at the end of my run. Ned Tanen, who was Paramount's head of production, had green lighted it before he left. We even had location scouts and sent feelers out for the cast. I had an eye on John Cusack for Spock, which would have been great. Ethan Hawke could have been Kirk. There were so many possibilities. But basically it was a love story and it was a story of cadets, teenagers. And, in order to get Shatner and Nimoy in, we had a wraparound in which Kirk comes back to address the academy and the story spins off of his memory. At the end, Kirk and Spock are reunited and they beam back up to Enterprise , which would have left a new series potential, the academy, and a potential other story with the original Trek cast. All the possibilities were open, the script was beautiful, and the love story was haunting, but it didn't happen. " [2]

Bennett's script created a lot of friction between himself and the original cast with whom he had spent the better part of a decade working. Support was marshaled against the film and vociferously denounced on the convention circuit by Gene Roddenberry and the members of the supporting cast.

Roddenberry, who stated in a Cinefantastique interview that " I didn't like it. Who was going to cast the new Kirk and Spock? No one has ever cast a Trek character besides me that's worked. Braggadocio or whatever, that is the history of Trek . It wasn't good. Some of it was like Police Academy . You could hardly do this without the magic of a group of characters tailored for Star Trek , which this was not. "

Walter Koenig shared Roddenberry's feelings, stating that " I think there was a fat chance of that happening. I can't read Harve's mind, but if Starfleet Academy had done well, they would have gone on with that group. If it hadn't, they probably would have abandoned the whole project. "

Once word began to leak about the project, letters began to pour into Paramount decrying the planned feature as heresy. Loughery admitted that " We were really caught off guard and surprised by the fans who reacted so negatively to the idea of this movie. Somehow they conceived it as sort of a spoof or a takeoff. That's where we got off on the wrong foot. The fans had misinformation, which may have been put out there by people for their own reasons. Certainly if we were going to make a movie like that, it meant that Walter [Koenig] and whoever wouldn't get that job a year or two down the line that they had come to expect. I don't know if that's the case, but I do know that the misinformation released had people convinced that we were going to do a cross between Police Academy and The Jetsons . It was never that kind of story. I think it's traditional that the fans have objected to different things. Harve's always been smart enough to double-cross them; given them what they've objected to, but surprise them with something that makes it good and worthwhile. We felt that there was a powerful story there, one that the audience would be interested in. We're always interested in young Indiana Jones and young Sherlock Holmes , and how they started and came to be who they are. This was sort of the way to explain Kirk and Spock and where they came from. "

Bennett recalled that " the only one I'm really furious at though is Jimmy Doohan . He said I was fired and I can't abide lies. My term was up and I was offered $1.5 million to do Star Trek VI and I said, 'Thanks, I don't wish to do that. I want to do that. I want to do the Academy. " Doohan's response was that " I was impressed with Harve when he first came in and did Star Trek II and III , but I think he got a little greedy. He wanted things his own way. He wanted to take over Star Trek for himself. What the heck, you don't do that sort of thing, trying to destroy instead of building. He obviously did not realize the strength of the old cast. The whole thing would have been starting out as if from scratch. " ( Charting the Undiscovered Country: The Making of Trek VI )

While Paramount Pictures studio executive Ned Tanen supported the project, the other studio executives did not. Paramount ultimately rejected the script when Bennett made a make-or-break demand, and according to Doohan, " I think it was [Frank] Mancuso who didn't realize we were not going to be in it. When he found out, [he] said good-bye Harve. "

For Bennett, the rejection of the project was a big disappointment for the veteran producer who planned the film as his freshman directorial effort. " It meant a lot to me because I came out of UCLA film school wanting to be a director and other winds blew me to other ports. It was a desire of mine to direct and it was accepted by the studio and, the fact is, part of the deal was for us to do a Star Trek VI , with the original cast after Starfleet Academy , " which was slated for production eighteen months later.

Bennett added that " My last words to Mancuso before he was asked to leave was if it was a question of anyone's concerns about my directing, I'd back off on that. " In response, Paramount " offered me Star Trek VI and gave me a pay or play commitment to direct and produce Starfleet Academy afterwards. My position was, and I think it was correct, that they would pay me to do VI and make the movie which would have been a real big, fat check for me and never make Starfleet Academy . To be paid off because the movie I might have done, which is being done by others, would close the franchise was not my intention. "

Bennett ultimately quit the studio when he lost, turning down the offer to produce Paramount's version of Star Trek VI . " It wasn't easy to walk away from that, but if your heart is not in something and you've earned the right not to have to do things that cause you pain, then you don't do them. " He maintains that the supporting cast was entirely accountable for the film's demise, however recognizing that " their jobs and livelihoods were jeopardized. "

Bennett later admitted that " because of the way Star Trek VI is being sold, don't miss your chance to say good-bye, it's unlikely that Starfleet Academy , which asks 'Would you like to know how it all happened?' will be made. " He maintained, however, that "Starfleet Academy , like Star Trek IV , would have reached beyond the cult. It would have interested people who had never seen a Star Trek film which did not exclude the regulars, but it simply said, if you don't understand what it's all about, come see how it all began. " ( Charting the Undiscovered Country: The Making of Trek VI ; Trek: The Unauthorized Story of the Movies )

After the idea for the premise was tossed out, the studio was still "not happy going out on V " and still "wanted another Star Trek movie" so they approached Nicholas Meyer on coming up for an alternate idea, which both he and Leonard Nimoy eventually developed into the story that would become Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country – Special Edition DVD, Disc 2 )

Resurrection [ ]

In spite of the film's rejection, Bennett remained hopeful, stating in 1992 that " Brandon [Tartikoff], Paramount production chief is an admired colleague and we've done business together in the past. If he ever called me and said 'I read this script and I'd like to do this,' I would go back. " Tartikoff, unfortunately, died five years later, dashing Bennett's immediate hopes. ( Charting the Undiscovered Country: The Making of Trek VI )

Bennett later admitted that " some of the steam went out of it when my dear DeForest Kelley died. He was going to be in it along with Bill [Shatner] and Leonard [Nimoy], those were the only two regulars, and they were involved in a flashback . That's how we incorporated the three main characters into the prequel: it was a memory. Kirk comes to the Academy to address the classmates and remembers his time, when they were 17. "

Yet in 2004 , Harve Bennett and, then Chairman of Paramount Pictures' Motion Picture Group, Sherry Lansing had a meeting in which Bennett proposed that " now was the time to do Starfleet Academy . " According to Bennett, Lansing "loved it," and " we would have made it, but then she said the television department had asked her not to do it, because Enterprise was being produced and they thought that should be the prequel. Therefore, we did not do that. "

Despite these roadblocks, Bennett still did not give up hope, having expressed interest as late as 2006 in working on the film if anyone was willing to make it. [3]

The 2009 film Star Trek , written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman , superficially borrowed the same basic premise of Bennett's film by returning the franchise to the Academy years of the original crew, how they first met, and how they first came aboard the USS Enterprise . Aside from these surface similarities, the plotlines of these two films are significantly different. When asked about the 2009 film, Bennett said, " I did see it. I'm not the audience for that. Rapid cuts. Explosions. Gore for the sake of gore. Either that makes me a dinosaur or there's a generational problem, but that's not J.J.'s fault. " [4]

• 1 Daniels (Crewman)
• 2 World War III

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Enterprise: The First Adventure

• 1 Description
• 3.1 Characters
• 3.2 Starships and vehicles
• 3.3 Locations
• 3.4 Races and cultures
• 3.5 States and organizations
• 3.6 Other references
• 4.1 Related media
• 4.2 Background
• 4.4.1 Translations
• 4.5 External links

Description [ ]

Summary [ ].

James T. Kirk awakens from a nightmare of the Battle of Ghioghe , in which he lost his ship (the USS Lydia Sutherland ) and his first officer Gary Mitchell was badly injured. He visits the hospital, where Gary is unconscious but recovering, and runs into Carol Marcus . Meanwhile, Spock goes swimming on his last day of leave, Sulu looks forward to being assigned to the USS Aerfen , and on Arcturus , the Klingon renegade Koronin takes possession of a Bird-of-Prey .

Spock goes to Christopher Pike 's headquarters to congratulate him on his promotion to Commodore and thank him for the opportunity to work with him. On the Enterprise bridge, Uhura returns from the Irish Harp Festival at Mandela City and Scotty hands out cigars to celebrate the birth of his niece Dannan Stuart . While on Spacedock , Kirk runs into an old friend, Agovanli , and the two share a few drinks together. Sulu is dismayed to learn that he has instead been assigned to the Enterprise , but his complaints to Spock prove fruitless.

At the reception for the change-of-command ceremony, Kirk meets his bridge crew and learns that Spock will be serving as his first officer . Admiral Noguchi turns down his request for Gary Mitchell to be assigned first officer. Kirk takes his mother and brother on a tour of the Enterprise , where they find an equiraptor in the shuttlebay.

Kirk meets the equiraptor's owner, Amelinda Lukarian . He is surprised and dismayed to learn from Admiral Noguchi that the Enterprise has been assigned for the next three months to transport Amelinda's vaudeville troop to the starbases in the Federation Phalanx in order to boost morale. Kirk tries to argue with the Admiral and speaks rudely to Amelinda. His mother scolds him for his behavior, and his brother tries to reach out to him, but both efforts fail. Later, he apologizes to and makes peace with Lindy.

Kirk postpones departing from Spacedock until McCoy can board the Enterprise . Several attempts are made to track down his whereabouts, but all of them prove fruitless. McCoy, who had been on a rafting vacation without any communications technology, is transported to the ship in time. That evening, the vaudeville troop dines with the crew in the mess hall , where the food synthesizers are malfunctioning. Kirk is late for dinner, having decided to catch up on his paperwork, and McCoy recommends that he get a yeoman to handle it for him.

Janice Rand is assigned as Kirk's yeoman. Although proving capable at organizing his paperwork, she lacks self-confidence and feels constantly frightened. McCoy gives a medical exam to Spock and gets into an argument with him on emotionalism. Kirk assigns Rand to help Lindy design an advertising poster for the vaudeville company. He later calls Gary Mitchell (who has regained consciousness), talks with McCoy about Rand, and impresses Spock by using intuition to solve a chess problem.

Rand shows up on the bridge in a disheveled state. Kirk harshly reprimands her for this, and she runs off in tears. Uhura follows and comforts her, learning of her background as a slave and refugee, and her current situation as a victim of her roommate's bullying. She gets Rand moved into the yeoman's cabin, and later Kirk apologizes to Rand. Lindy contacts a juggler for her act, a Vulcan named Stephen .

Spock has a barely-repressed emotional reaction on seeing Stephen and leaves for his quarters to meditate. Kirk follows him and learns that Stephen is considered a deviant on Vulcan for seeking out emotional experiences. Kirk and Lindy meet with Stephen after he docks with the Enterprise . The ship acquires cometary debris from an Oort cloud to cover the shuttlecraft deck with dirt so Athene can run on it. Kirk and Lindy converse, Lindy telling him the history of her vaudeville troop, and Kirk telling her about the Battle of Ghioghe.

Spock finds Stephen in his quarters and the two exchange harsh words. Kirk goes to the bridge early and meets Pavel Chekov as the Enterprise enters the Phalanx. Later, Kirk has a fencing match with Sulu, rides Athene, and takes Lindy to the arboretum , where she tells him - much to his disappointment - that she thinks she's falling for Stephen.

The vaudeville troop performs for the Enterprise crew. Spock attempts to deduce how Lindy does her magic tricks, prompting her to make him part of her act. After making him disappear, she angrily confronts him backstage. Spock had been concerned that Lindy was claiming to be a real magician, and the misunderstanding is cleared up. The troop's second performance is interrupted when the Enterprise is thrown out of warp by the sudden arrival of a gigantic starship. Kirk and Spock make contact with the ship's inhabitants, who communicate through complex song that cannot be translated. Matters are complicated by the arrival of Koronin's ship, the Quundar .

Beings from the worldship visit the Enterprise . Spock realizes almost too late that the ship's gravity is too high for them and quickly has them transported to the shuttlecraft deck. He mind melds with one of them, but is overwhelmed and loses consciousness. The being learns how to speak from the meld and communicates with Kirk. Spock is taken to sickbay and Uhura tries to learn the beings' song. When Scott objects to Kirk's order to reduce gravity throughout the ship, Kirk goes to engineering to confront him. Athene almost hurts herself attempting to imitate the beings' flying, prompting Stephen to take her and Lindy to the worldship.

Kirk decides to go after Stephen. He places Scott in charge of the Enterprise despite their earlier argument. On the worldship, Athene flies for the first time in her life. Stephen turns down Lindy's advances, as his Vulcan training keeps him from returning her feelings. Spock, believing himself to be one of the worldship people, escapes from sickbay and makes his way to the alien vessel. Koronin also boards the ship and, while trying to get the people to obey her, stabs part of the wall with her blade, causing a small explosion. Her crew captures Spock, and Kirk's team arrives on the ship.

A Klingon warship fleet assigned to capture Koronin arrives in the area. Kirk's party finds Lindy and Stephen and informs them of the situation. On Spock's advice, Koronin takes the Quundar to the worldship's center, believing it to be where the vessel's leaders are. When Koronin sees that the Klingon fleet has found her, she takes off, leaving Spock behind. Kirk, with Athene's help, rescues Spock, although they are injured in the process. Stephen mind melds with Spock, who wakes in time to warn Kirk that if fighting breaks out, the worldship will release enough energy to destroy several hundred star systems. Koronin attempts to ram the worldship's center to avoid capture and get revenge on the Klingon Empire, but is deflected by Kirk's shuttlecraft.

Kirk returns to the Enterprise and Koronin is captured by the Klingons. Kirk receives a call from Admiral Noguchi and Gary Mitchell. The Klingons present Kirk with a medal for his role in the capture of Koronin. Lindy's troop performs for the crew, the worldship people, and the Klingons, the latter of whom do not like the show except for Cockspur's soliloquy, which they appreciate immensely. The worldship departs from the Phalanx, and Koronin escapes from her captors.

References [ ]

Characters [ ], starships and vehicles [ ], locations [ ], races and cultures [ ], states and organizations [ ], other references [ ], appendices [ ], related media [ ], background [ ].

• The stardate is derived from the audiobook adaptation of the story, wherein Leonard Nimoy opens the novel reading a log entry by Spock .
• The cover was presented, in paperback release, as a hidden panel behind a cardstock outer flap, with a cutaway corner showing the Enterprise beneath. Later editions omitted the intricacy and had the cover as one piece, thus only showing the Enterprise . In actuality, artist Boris Vallejo had created a much more expansive painting that was only included in hardcover book club editions as a wraparound cover, showing Chekov, Scotty, Sulu and Uhura on the back, and Kirk, Spock and McCoy on the front with the Enterprise in one corner. Kirk, Spock and McCoy appeared on the back cover of most paperback editions and on the inner flap of the original paperback printings.

Timeline [ ]

Translations [ ], external links [ ].

• Enterprise: The First Adventure article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• 1 Federation starship registries
• 2 Lamarr class
• 3 USS Voyager (NCC-74656-A)

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Enterprise: The First Adventure

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Enterprise: The First Adventure (Star Trek) Paperback – 1 Jan. 1988

• Language English
• Publisher Baen Books
• Publication date 1 Jan. 1988
• Dimensions 10.8 x 3.18 x 17.78 cm
• ISBN-10 0671730320
• ISBN-13 978-0671730321
• See all details

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Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Baen Books; Reissue edition (1 Jan. 1988)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0671730320
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0671730321
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10.8 x 3.18 x 17.78 cm
• 24,221 in Science Fiction Space Operas

About the author

Vonda n. mcintyre.

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Star Trek Enterprise: the First Adventure

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Table of Contents

About the book, about the author.

Vonda N. McIntyre is the author of several fiction and nonfiction books. McIntyre won her first Nebula Award in 1973, for the novelette “Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand.” This later became part of the novel Dreamsnake (1978), which was rejected by the first editor who saw it, but went on to win both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. McIntyre was the third woman to receive the Hugo Award. She has also written a number of Star Trek and Star Wars novels. Visit her online at VondaNMcIntyre.com.

About The Readers

George Takei is an actor, activist, and New York Times bestselling author. He is best known for his role of Mr. Sulu in the acclaimed television and film series Star Trek . Takei has been featured in over forty films and he has made hundreds of guest-starring television appearances. He also developed the award-winning Broadway musical Allegiance . Takei is a proponent of gay rights and is a member of the Human Rights Campaign. He has also won several awards for his work on Japanese-American relations, which includes serving as Chairman Emeritus of the Japanese American National Museum's Board of Trustees; a member of the US-Japan Bridging Foundation Board of Directors; and served on the Board of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission. He is the author of three books, including his memoir To the Stars , as well as Oh Myyy! There Goes The Internet , and its sequel,  Lions And Tigers And Bears: The Internet Strikes Back .

Product Details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (March 15, 1988)
• Runtime: 1 hour and 30 minutes
• ISBN13: 9780743542760

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#031: Enterprise: The First Adventure (TOS event novel)

On 18 May 2018

In Event Novels , TOS

Part of what we love so much about Star Trek , and the original series in particular, is the lived-in camaraderie between the senior officers. But it’s rarely considered by fans and authors alike that those relationships took time to develop and endured a heap of growing pains in the process. Enterprise: The First Adventure , the first instance of what we will come to know and recognize as the “event novel”, takes us back to a time before that rapport was locked in, when the crew we know as legendary were almost torn apart by the vagaries of the rumor mill and each other’s baggage before ever having a chance to become the chums we know and love, and imagines that ragtag bunch thrown together for the first time. Published exactly twenty years after Star Trek made its television debut, let’s join Kirk as he learns on a particularly stressful first outing that heavy lies the wrist that wears the command stripes.

Enterprise: The First Adventure Author:  Vonda N. McIntyre Pages:  371 Published:  September 1986 Timeline:  Before TOS Prerequisites:  None necessary, though major characters from “Where No Man Has Gone Before” (TOS S1E3) and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  significantly inform Kirk’s backstory

As we enter the story, Kirk is closing the book on his relationship with Carol Marcus, hoping for a speedy recovery for his friend Gary Mitchell so he can make him his first officer, and getting wasted with an alien buddy before his own command transition ceremony. Spock is bummed that he’ll no longer be serving under Christopher Pike, who he thought was pretty okay for a human. Sulu thinks he’s about to report to the Aerfen for some frontier action, but he gets a rude awakening when Kirk requests him specifically to be his helm officer, and he keeps getting waylaid in his attempts to get someone to do something about it. McCoy has gone off the grid and is kayaking like he’s the “after” guy in a Viagra commercial when he’s supposed to be reporting for duty. Things go from bad to worse at the party celebrating the transition of command, where Kirk overhears Scotty calling him an “inexperienced tyro” (which, apparently , is redundant).

So no one respects or believes in Kirk and everyone considers him an impetuous noob. That’ll change once he receives an exciting thrill-a-minute mission worthy of his talents, right? Yeah, about that. Admiral Noguchi has hand-selected a real dilly of an assignment: hosting a troupe called the Warp-Speed Classic Vaudeville Company as they tour starbases and attempt to boost morale along the Federation Phalanx, a finger of Federation space that pokes audaciously into Klingon territory. So Kirk has to bend over backwards to accommodate a bunch of carnies specializing in a form of entertainment almost no one in the 23rd century has even heard of, nobody likes him, and his shuttle bay is being rented out as a barn for a pegasus—sorry, an equiraptor (no, not that one ). It’s a little like “Up the Long Ladder” , except far less stupid.

Kirk starts out yelling at Lindy Lukarian (the leader of the company) and resenting her need to keep her stupid eagle-horse comfortable, but things get complicated just as he starts warming up to her when they rendezvous with Stephen, a blond-haired, blue-eyed Vulcan who according to Spock “seeks out emotional experiences”, and not just basic stuff like laughing or owning a cat or adopting a Terran nom de plume , but actual thrills like juggling torches and doing insane stunts in his beat-up shuttlecraft. Spock admits Stephen is brilliant, but naturally disapproves mightily of his choices and feels he’s putting his considerable talents to waste. He also mentions Stephen coming from an “unobjectionable family”. Like, of course Spock knows him somehow. Having read these books for a while now, Spock is getting to be sort of like that offensive stereotype of one person knowing all people of their race, except in his case it’s kind of true. Anyway, if you’ve ever wondered what it looks like when a Vulcan decides to live way off the beaten path, Stephen definitely delivers, but naturally, he’s got a lot of inner turmoil as well, and I really enjoyed just about everything involving him.

Meanwhile, a Klingon woman named Koronin has gone rogue and commandeered a shiny new warship called a … a, uh, “Bird of Prey”? or something? Never heard of it. She has some vaguely vengeance-based plans for it that involve the same thing most generic megalomaniacs in Star Trek get up to: crossing borders, inciting intergalactic war, all that noise. But if you think McIntyre is going to attempt to posit this normally extremely commonplace ship as some unprecedented harbinger of destruction and try to egregiously hype up what would otherwise be a bog-standard space battle, you’ve got another think coming. For one thing, Koronin is one of those “wait and see” Klingons whose subordinates practically soil themselves with impatience, and she does a lot of waiting of seeing before making her play. But also, the Klingons are far from the most important thing going on in this story.

Nearly everything about the Klingons is incidental compared to the real meat of the story, which is a first contact with a group of extremely weird, hyper-sophisticated aliens. We’re talking Duane-level trippy here. They live in a massive worldship that’s so technologically advanced that when it moves, what’s actually happening is that  the universe is moving around it . They’re really nice, albeit oblivious and uncomprehending toward human concerns (understandable, given how ka-ray-zee advanced they are). When they beam over to the Enterprise, the gravity nearly crushes them, and in the process of preventing one from falling, Spock accidentally mind-melds with her, frying his mental circuits and setting up the main dilemma of the book’s second half.

As I mentioned earlier, Enterprise: The First Adventure is the first of what are often called “event novels”, or sometimes “giant novels” (I prefer and use the former). These are books of expanded length and scope that take on subject matter of significantly higher stakes and far-reaching implications than your average standalone novel. From 1986 onward, they generally crank out about one or two a year—more if you include episode and movie novelizations as being within the purview of the term—and they’re almost always (at least, of the ones I read prior to starting this site) of very to extremely good quality. That’s not exactly surprising; despite the inconsistent quality of Star Trek novels (particularly in this era), the folks behind the scenes had a strong sense not only of who their best writers were but exactly which one(s) to choose to write a given story.

Of course, a substantial amount of the story’s conflict derives from the fact that Kirk and the senior bridge crew are very much getting off on the wrong foot. On the most superficial level, this results in wryly ironic lines like “Jim probably would not have much interaction with Commander Spock” (p. 44) and prototypical variations on beloved dynamics (e.g., McCoy’s first needling of Spock essentially boils down to “u mad, bro”). But Vonda McIntyre really rose to an unenviable challenge. Many books have a one- or two-character handicap, but imagine having to write one where no one’s personalities as you and millions of fans have known them for decades are locked in yet. McIntyre’s greatest accomplishment is that despite not having the option of falling back on that comfy familiarity, she keeps everyone totally in character with nary a slip-up, even as they’re grousing and gossiping and generally not really liking each other very much.

There’s nothing really unexpected about Enterprise: The First Adventure  or the way it plays out, but it’s made up of a pretty excellent collection of component parts that keeps the pace fun and buoyant while still leaving room for excitement and suspense when the situation calls for it. And it progresses realistically, by which I mean you don’t make it to the end of the book and suddenly everyone is all chummy and the personalities we’re used to are set in stone. Kirk manages to earn his crew’s grudging respect, if not their total admiration. It’s not a story where everything is supposed to resolve tidily, and it doesn’t. Were I writing this story, I would identify my main goal for the end of the story as putting the characters on a path that provides a clear line of sight to their canon dynamics while ensuring it tracks with everything that came before it. Enterprise: The First Adventure  achieves that goal in the same way that its crew passes their first mission: with flying colors.

Nuggets & Stray Bits

• We need to talk about Janice Rand. Like, what the what? If people are still using the phrase “hot mess” in the 23rd century, they’re definitely calling her one. She doesn’t have her iconic checkerboard beehive , but rather a choppy weed-whacker cut; she lied about her age to get into the Academy because the planet she lived on sucked that much; and she’s ultra-timid and jumpy, has zero self-esteem, and apologizes so much it makes Kirk angry (though to be fair, in this book, a lot of things do that). It’s briefly questioned how someone like her could have even made it through the Academy in her state, although it’s handwaved by saying that basically Starfleet’s recruitment rate is such that they don’t have the luxury of turning down people who want to join, and if a few of them have a crippling neurosis or two or three or seventeen, then so be it. Still, that doesn’t put the question to rest in a satisfying manner. I think of all the character arcs, hers is the only one that when all is said and done is too difficult to reconcile with where we know the character ends up.
• Still, the subplot involving Rand’s cruel roommate is consistently hilarious, since it’s always delicious to see jerks get their comeuppance, especially over and over again.
• Koronin has a pink monkey-type pet she contemptuously names Starfleet, whom she sometimes deigns to feed if he puts his uniform on correctly. Pretty darned on-the-nose, sure, but amusing nevertheless (and he gets a surprisingly affecting redemptive arc).
• In addition to Snnanagfashtalli, a.k.a. Snarl, McIntyre introduces two more felinoids as part of the vaudeville troupe: Tzesnashstennaj and Hazarstennaj, which shorten to Gnash and Hazard, respectively. Isn’t it convenient how felinoid names always shorten to something evocative of violence in English? (A certain doctor would definitely not approve.)
• p. 96: Spock evidently loves avocados so much he has to exercise self-control around them so he doesn’t eat a ton of them. So (no) do you think (don’t) you think (don’t you dare) do you think Spock (why are you doing this) you think Spock has a recipe for (I swear, don’t you do it) ….. Spockamole? [ Deep Space Spines gets abruptly and mysteriously deleted from existence ]
• p. 314: “[The flying people] understood [their worldship technology] so well that they thought about it as often as they thought about breathing. They did not need to think about it. And so they had freed themselves to concentrate on a life of the mind.” I know a guy who’ll show you the life of the mind.

Final Assessment

Excellent.  By no means does J.J. Abrams have the market cornered on Enterprise crew origin stories. A blurb from the Great Bird himself adorns the back cover, and he’s not just whistlin’ Dixie. Enterprise: The First Adventure reminds you why Vonda McIntyre is the one Trek author that gets the lion’s share of the shoutouts and callbacks from other Trek authors. If you’re interested in what a non-Kelvin take on the Enterprise crew’s first mission together would look like, Enterprise: The First Adventure is just what the doctor ordered. (Depending on how charitable your attitude is toward that film, you’re liable to find the book to be the superior take.) Unfortunately, McIntyre’s Pocket Books run has just about reached its end; we’ve got just one more movie novelization to go before that duty gets turned over to J.M. Dillard.

NEXT TIME:  Get ready to man your post for Battlestations!

#030: Demons (TOS #30)

Shore leave #03: choke on my rage.

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I read this book in the mid-90s and remember hating it. The circus troupe seemed really out of place. And once the flying horse showed up and started soaring through the ship? I was done.

Also, I should mention my favorite “first adventure” for the Enterprise crew would have to be the fantastic tale from DC Comics’ Star Trek Annual #1 (1985). Now that was some good, good stuff.

This was the first Star Trek novel I ever read! I bought it and the Star Trek IV novelization at the same time. I was flipping my 14 year old brain out – “THERE ARE NOVELS????!!!”

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Star trek: enterprise: the first adventure.

James T. Kirk is the youngest man to be promoted to the rank of captain in Federation history. His crew consists of a first officer who finds him impetuous; a chief engineer who finds him arrogent; a chief medical officer who finds him trifling; and a helmsman who wants a transfer.

But the young crew, which would later become the legendary space explorers, quickly puts aside their differences when a monstrous starship appears on their nascent flight path.

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In the 23rd Century, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets. In the 23rd Century, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets. In the 23rd Century, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets.

• Gene Roddenberry
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• Leonard Nimoy
• DeForest Kelley
• 278 User reviews
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• 16 wins & 31 nominations total

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• Trivia In the hallways of the Enterprise there are tubes marked "GNDN." These initials stand for "goes nowhere does nothing."
• Goofs The deck locations for Kirk's Quarters, Sickbay and Transporter Room vary (usually between decks 4-7) throughout the series.

Dr. McCoy : "He's dead, Jim."

• Crazy credits On some episodes, the closing credits show a still that is actually from the Star Trek blooper reel. It is a close-up of stunt man Bill Blackburn who played an android in Return to Tomorrow (1968) , removing his latex make up. In the reel, He is shown taking it off, while an off-screen voice says "You wanted show business, you got it!"
• Alternate versions In 2006, CBS went back to the archives and created HD prints of every episode of the show. In addition to the new video transfer, they re-did all of the model shots and some matte paintings using CGI effects, and re-recorded the original theme song to clean it up. These "Enhanced" versions of the episodes aired on syndication and have been released on DVD and Blu-Ray.
• Connections Edited into Ben 10: Secrets (2006)
• Soundtracks Star Trek Music by Alexander Courage

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How To Watch All Star Trek TV Shows In Timeline Order

Every star trek movie in chronological order, to me, william shatner’s movie star trek v is great comfort food.

• Star Trek's timeline is a complex tapestry that spans over a thousand years, filled with time travel and alternate realities.
• Star Trek: Enterprise chronicles the pioneering voyages of Captain Jonathan Archer, setting the stage for the United Federation of Planets.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine continue the legacy of the original series, shaping the 24th century era.

Star Trek has been one of the premiere science fiction franchises in the world for nearly 60 years, spanning over a dozen TV series consisting of 900+ episodes, and 13 feature films with more on the way. Star Trek' s Prime Timeline now encompasses a thousand years of the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet seeking out strange new worlds, and boldly going where no one has gone before in the 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, and 32nd centuries.

Star Trek has rarely told its stories in a straight, chronological line; time travel tropes, alternate realities, and massive jumps into the future are all commonplace. Star Trek is a multiverse of myriad realities, including an alternate Mirror Universe. The Star Trek timeline is a rich tapestry of compelling characters and science fiction parables - and it's still going strong.

Here is a definitive guide to Star Trek' s timeline, primarily centering on the Prime Universe's Star Trek TV series and feature films in chronological order, including the alternate Kelvin Timeline of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies where noted.

An Untitled Star Trek Origin movie reportedly set "decades before" J.J. Abrams' Star Trek (2009) is in development, and may end up preceding this entire chronology.

The Star Trek TV franchise has existed for 57 years and consists of 12 shows (and counting). Here's how to watch them all in timeline order.

28 Star Trek: Enterprise

(2151-2155).

Star Trek: Enterprise is, chronologically, the first Star Trek series in the timeline (although technically the 6th produced) chronicling the pioneering 22nd-century voyages of Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and the NX-01 Enterprise. Archer's Enterprise is Starfleet's first Warp 5-capable starship, which allowed the NX-01 to make pivotal First Contact missions and lay the groundwork for the creation of the United Federation of Planets. Star Trek: Enterprise 's 4 seasons only depict the first few years of Archer's 10-year saga that ends with the first Captain of the Enterprise helping to found the Federation in 2161.

Star Trek: Enterprise

*Availability in US

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27 Star Trek: The Original Series - "The Cage"

"The Cage" is the original Star Trek pilot that was rejected by NBC. However, "The Cage" is a canonical story set 2 years before Star Trek: Discovery season 1 and 12 years before Star Trek: The Original Series . Set in 2254, "The Cage" sees Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) and the USS Enterprise lured to Talos IV, where Pike is held captive the planet's illusion-casting inhabitants. Star Trek: The Original Series turned "The Cage" into a two-part episode titled "The Menagerie", and "The Cage" also laid the foundation for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

26 Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1 and 2

(2256-2258).

Star Trek: Discovery begins with a disastrous meeting between Starfleet and the Klingon Empire in 2256, which leads to a long, bloody war that nearly cost the Federation its soul. Centering on Commander Micheal Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), Discovery deals with the personal prices of war, as well as the themes of redemption and empathy.

Star Trek: Discovery season 1 depicted the Klingon War, while Discovery season 2 brought in USS Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount). When faced with a genocidal artificial intelligence called Control, the crew of the USS Discovery realize the only way to save all organic life in the universe would be to jump to the 32nd century, permanently leaving Star Trek: Discovery' s original 23rd century era behind.

Star Trek: Discovery season 1 also ventured to the 23rd century MIrror Universe for a multi-episode arc.

Star Trek: Discovery

25 star trek, (kelvin timeline 2233/kelvin timeline 2258/2387).

Directed by J.J. Abrams, Star Trek is a reboot that spawns the alternate reality known as the Kelvin Timeline. Star Trek 's main story is set in 2258 of the parallel reality , but the film's branching timeline is made possible by the supernova of the Romulan sun in 2387 in the Prime Universe, which Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is unable to prevent.

The Romulan villain Nero (Eric Bana) time travels back to 2233, and his attack on the USS Kelvin ignites an all-new reality that changes the lives of Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and the crew of the USS Enterprise. After Kirk and the Enterprise defeat Nero, they set forth into the great unknown of their new reality.

In the Kelvin Timeline, Kirk and his friends become the crew of the USS Enterprise roughly 7 years before Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew take command of the Enterprise in Star Trek 's Prime Universe.

Star Trek (2009)

24 star trek into darkness, (kelvin timeline 2259).

Set a year after Star Trek 's events, Star Trek Into Darkness sees the crew of the Starship Enterprise take on Khan Noonien Singh (Benedict Cumberbatch), whose life has also been massively altered in the Kelvin Timeline. Rather than being discovered by the Enterprise in 2267, Khan's derelict ship was discovered much earlier by Starfleet's Section 31, led by the corrupt Admiral Alexander Marcus (Peter Weller). Marcus attempts to use Khan to militarize Starfleet and wage war with the Klingons, but Captain Kirk and the Enterprise defeat both Marcus and Khan.

Star Trek Into Darkness remakes and reverses key elements of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , which takes place 26 years later in the Prime Timeline.

Star Trek Into Darkness

With 13 entries in the Star Trek movie series from 1979-2006, there are a couple of ways to watch the films chronologically.

23 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

(2259-onward).

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds begins in 2259, months after Star Trek: Discovery season 2, with Captain Christopher Pike leading the Starship Enterprise on all-new missions of exploration. Strange New Worlds sets the stage for what will eventually become Star Trek: The Original Series , with young versions of Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck), Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), Scotty (Martin Quinn), and even Lieutenant James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) serving on the Enterprise.

Although Pike's tragic future of being horribly disfigured is inevitable, Strange New Worlds fills in the years before Kirk takes over as Captain of the Enterprise with optimism and an anything-goes attitude. Strange New Worlds ' deftness in adapting to different genres, from comedy, to action, to Star Trek 's first musical episode , makes the episodic series the purest Star Trek show in years.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

22 star trek beyond, (kelvin timeline 2263).

Back in the alternate Kelvin Timeline and 3 years into their five-year mission of exploration , the crew of the Starship Enterprise are attacked by the mysterious Krall (Idris Elba). Krall's mechanized drone army destroys the Enterprise, stranding Captain Kirk and his captured crew on the planet Altamid. Kirk and his friends escape with the help of their new ally, Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), and they defeat Krall before he destroys Starfleet's USS Yorktown space station. At the end of Star Trek Beyond , Captain Kirk takes command of the new USS Enterprise-A.

Star Trek Beyond is dedicated to Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yelchin, who passed away in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

Star Trek Beyond

21 star trek: the original series, (2266-2269).

The Star Trek show that started it all, Star Trek: The Original Series chronicles the first three years of Captain James T. Kirk and the USS Enterprise's historic five-year mission of exploration, starting in 2266. The original Star Trek is an all-time classic, establishing the core tropes of the franchise, from starships, to beaming down to planets, to the unbreakable three-way friendship between Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley). Star Trek: The Original Series would not only be emulated by every other Star Trek that followed, but it would also become an enduring part of pop culture.

Star Trek: The Original Series

20 star trek: the animated series, (2269-2270).

While Star Trek: The Original Series was unceremoniously canceled after its third season, the show would go on to become a phenomenon in syndication. The first hint that Star Trek would outlive its somewhat humble beginnings was Star Trek: The Animated Series , an Emmy-winning cartoon that aimed for a family-friendly vibe without sacrificing what made the live-action original Star Trek work. Star Trek: The Animated Series is essentially the fourth season of Star Trek: The Original Series , and its status as canon has been made official by its numerous references in Star Trek on Paramount+'s shows .

Gene Roddenberry did not consider Star Trek: The Animated Series to be official canon, which made the cartoon apocryphal for decades.

19 Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is the first feature film that launched Star Trek as a successful movie franchise . Set in the 2270s, years after the USS Enterprise's five-year mission ended, Admiral James T. Kirk takes command of his starship once more and reunites his crew to intercept a threat to Earth. Star Trek: The Motion Picture reunited the entire cast of Star Trek: The Original Serie s for a ponderously-paced adventure that had the virtue of dazzling visual effects . But Star Trek: The Motion Picture proved the human adventure was, indeed, just beginning.

18 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, still widely considered the gold standard of Star Trek films, picks up Admiral Kirk's saga in 2285. A sequel to the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Space Seed", Admiral Kirk faces a midlife crisis just as his old enemy, Khan Noonien Singh (Ricado Montalban) steals both the USS Reliant and the Genesis Device super weapon to seek revenge on Kirk. Star Trek II ends with the sacrifice and death of Spock, but opens the door for the Vulcan's resurrection and much more.

17 Star Trek III: The Search For Spock

Set immediately after the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock finds Admiral Kirk and friends stealing the USS Enterprise in an effort to save Spock's katra - his soul - after the wily Vulcan transferred it to Dr. McCoy just before his death. The crew would eventually save Spock, but at great cost; Kirk would not only lose his son, David Marcus (Merritt Burrick) , to a Klingon attack, but the Starship Enterprise is destroyed to prevent it from falling into Klingon hands. Thankfully, Kirk succeeds in bringing back Spock.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is the first film directed by Leonard Nimoy.

16 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

(2286/1986).

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Hom e takes place in 2286 , months after Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . Or, at least, the 23rd century bookends of the movie do. The bulk of Star Trek IV is set in 1986 San Francisco, where Admiral Kirk and the former crew of the USS Enterprise time travel in order to find two humpback whales to bring back to the future in order to save Earth. A delightful, fish-out-of-water, time travel romp, Star Trek IV proved a Star Trek movie doesn't need action, violence, and death to be a mainstream success.

Kirk is demoted to Captain and given command of the USS Enterprise-A at the conclusion of Star Trek IV.

15 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Directed by William Shatner, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier begins with the malfunctioning USS Enterprise-A less than a year out of space dock . But Captain Kirk and crew are still called into action when a mysterious Vulcan named Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill) takes a group of diplomats hostage, demanding a starship in exchange for their release. Sybok would be revealed as Spock's half-brother who seeks God on the fabled planet Sha Ka Ree. When "God" (George Murdock) turns out to be a malevolent alien, Sybok sacrifices himself so that Kirk and Spock can destroy the false Almighty.

William Shatner's Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is a comforting watch with enjoyable banter, a compelling villain in Sybok, and good intentions.

14 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is set in 2293 when the Klingon moon Praxis' explosion leaves the Klingon Empire in dire financial straits. But a conspiracy within the Federation, the Romulans, and Klingons seek to prevent peace, and Captain Kirk is framed for the assassination of Klingon High Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner) . Star Trek VI is the final voyage of Captain Kirk's USS Enterprise crew, and its Klingon-centric story sets the stage for the future friendship between the Klingons and the Federation in Star Trek: The Next Generation .

13 Star Trek: Section 31

Star Trek: Section 31 , which stars Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh, is Star Trek 's first movie made for streaming on Paramount+. While the story of Section 31 is top-secret, the movie is a spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery, taking place after Yeoh's Emperor Philippa Georgiou exited the 32nd century . Georgiou reappears in the "lost era" of Star Trek 's early 24th century , although there could be more time travel involved in Star Trek: Section 31 as Philippa confronts the sins of her own past.

Star Trek: Section 31

12 star trek: the next generation, (2364-2370).

Star Trek: The Next Generation is the pillar and foundation of Star Trek 's popular 24th-century era . TNG follows the voyages of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the crew of the Galaxy Class USS Enterprise-D. TNG is Star Trek to an entire generation of fans, and the series produced some of the greatest Star Trek episodes of all-time . Expanding the universe and canon in myriad ways, and nominated for a Best Dramatic Series Emmy, Star Trek: The Next Generation was a massive hit in first-run syndication and solidified Star Trek as an A-list franchise for most of the 1990s.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

11 star trek: deep space nine, (2369-2375).

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would break new ground for the Star Trek franchise in more ways than one. DS9 starred Avery Brooks as Commander (later Captain) Benjamin Sisko, the first Black actor to lead a Star Trek series. Taking command of a former Cardassian space station Starfleet renamed Deep Space Nine, Sisko would interact with a vast cavalcade of characters that would deepen the Star Trek universe in countless ways. Culminating with the epic Dominion War saga that reshaped the galaxy, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a fundamentally important part of the Star Trek universe.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine began as a spinoff of Star Trek: The Next Generation and carried on in syndication after TNG jumped to feature films.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

10 star trek: voyager, (2371-2378).

Star Trek: Voyager was the flagship series of the United Paramount Network (UPN), and continues the 24th-century era of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , but with a twist: Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and the USS Voyager were stranded in the uncharted Delta Quadrant. Voyager's seven-year journey home created a new generation of fans (girls and women, especially) and saw the introduction of numerous new alien species and characters, as well as the return of the Borg. Voyager ended with Janeway, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), the Doctor (Robert Picardo), and its other characters as bona fide Star Trek icons.

Star Trek: Voyager

9 star trek generations, (2371/2293).

Star Trek Generations ' main story takes place in 2371, months after the series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, Star Trek Generations begins with a prologue set in 2293 where Captain James T. Kirk is believed to be killed during the maiden voyage of the USS Enterprise-B. Kirk survives within the interdimensional Nexus, where he meets Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who is out to stop a madman named Dr. Tolian Soran (Malcolm McDowell) from destroying the Veridian star system.

Kirk and Picard's team-up defeats Soran but results in Kirk's tragic death . Meanwhile, a Klingon plot leads to the destruction of the USS Enterprise-D. Star Trek Generations was a successful transition by TNG to feature films so that the 24th century era of Star Trek continued on television and in movie theaters.

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Star Trek Is About to Boldly Go Where It’s Never Gone Before: Netflix

For Trekkies old and new, the highly anticipated Prodigy Season 2 will be worth the wait.

Dan and Kevin Hageman seem relieved.

It makes sense. The brother duo behind the first Lego Movie and Trollhunters scored a big win back in 2021 when their Star Trek series Prodigy got picked up by Paramount+ and Nickelodeon. But despite signing a two-season deal, Star Trek: Prodigy was quietly canceled after Season 1 — until Netflix swooped in. Now, we’re just days away from the Season 2 premiere , so it’s no surprise that the look on the Hageman Brothers’ faces reads as a mix of glee and exhaustion.

“We’re very excited to be able to tell this story,” Kevin Hageman tells Inverse .

Over Zoom, the Hageman Brothers seem less like siblings and more like two friends who’ve been playing Dungeons & Dragons with each other for decades. Kevin clearly wants to be the DM, while Dan is the guy who wants the quest to get bonkers. When it comes to crafting epic, animated projects, this geeky dynamic clearly gets he job done. But now, it’s up to the algorithmic streaming gods to decide Prodigy’s fate.

“I think it really all rests on the success of the Netflix platform,” Kevin says.

Star Trek: Prodigy began as a newcomer’s introduction to the massive canon of Star Trek, but Season 2 hits the ground at proto-warp speed with most of the main cast — Dal (Brett Gray), Jankom (Jason Mantzoukas), Rok (Rylee Alazraqui), Murf (Dee Bradley Baker), Zero (Angus Imrie), and Gwyn (Ella Purnell) — all, more or less, assigned to Starfleet duties. However, any cozy status quo is quickly up-ended by even more time-travel shenanigans than in the first season. It’s a big, surprising season-long arc, but the Hagemans were determined to sneak in some classic Star Trek standalone stories, too.

Dan Hageman hopes that’s enough to win over not just Netflix’s massive audience but the hardcore Trekkies. He says he’ll know Season 2 was a success “if it really sticks in the grill of the Star Trek fandom.”

So ahead of this historic drop — the first time that 20 new Star Trek episodes will be available all at once — Inverse caught up with the Hageman Brothers to talk about the flavor of Prodigy Season 2, balancing episodic adventures with an epic serialized arc, how the show fits into Star Trek canon, and their hopes for the future.

Star Trek’s Greatest Hits

Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) is back in Prodigy Season 2. But it’s not only Voyager references this season.

“Going into Season 2, we wanted to continue with that idea of what are the greatest hits [of Star Trek]?” Kevin says. “What are concepts and episode ideas that we can introduce to new fans that make up that Star Trek DNA? But we also we found ourselves it is a little more serialized, so the challenge was how to do that and also wrap up a lot of these bigger stories.”

In addition to introducing a new regular Vulcan character named Ma’jel (Michaela Dietz) — who is clearly inspired by Majel Barrett Roddenberry, the late “ First Lady of Star Trek” — Prodigy Season 2 has a slew of Trekkie greatest-hits moments. Without getting into any big-time spoilers, these include parallel universes, some classic aliens for The Original Series , a big shout-out to the 1986 film The Voyage Home , at least one doppelgänger dilemma, and a lot of time travel.

But in addition to creating a diversity of very different stories and completing a bigger arc, Prodigy Season 2 is also a kind of Rosetta Stone for a certain point in the Star Trek timeline. Because Season 2 takes place mostly in 2384, aspects of Lower Decks and Picard canon are fully addressed and integrated. ( Lower Decks occurs between 2380 and 2383, while the earliest Picard Season 1 flashbacks happen in 2385. But the way Starfleet feels in the early days of Picard’s 2380s has seemed a bit incongruous with Lower Decks and Prodigy. In Prodigy Season 2, there’s a very deliberate fix for that.)

“We always wanted Prodigy to embrace the whole canon of Star Trek.”

It’s also worth noting that while Admiral Janeway didn’t appear in Picard Season 3, Prodigy Season 2 elucidates her post- Voyager role a little more clearly. In fact, because Prodigy Season 2 includes recurring roles from Voyager regulars The Doctor (Robert Picardo) and Chakotay (Robert Beltran), it’s tempting to think of the series as a follow-up to that version of Trek, rather than a midquel between Lower Decks and Picard . But for the showrunners, Prodigy’s canonical scope is bigger than either of those options.

“Everyone would say, oh, it’s like a Voyager spinoff, and we were like, no, we’re not a Voyager spinoff,” Dan says. “We are Voyager- adjacent just because Janeway is one of our leads. But we always wanted Prodigy to embrace the whole canon of Star Trek. The things that pop up are things that happen in that timeline.”

Major Trek Twists

Kevin Hageman and Dan Hageman (center), with some of the Prodigy cast including Angus Imrie, Kate Mulgrew, Ella Purnell, and director Ben Hibon in 2022.

The specifics of these events from elsewhere in the Star Trek pantheon range from minor Easter eggs to major events. And some twists and details have been planned since 2021, well before Picard Season 2 or Season 3 aired. The Hagemans reveal that, three years ago, with multiple Trek projects in production, they were in contact with other Star Trek showrunners to make sure Prodigy not only lined up with the rest of canon but also expanded upon a few specific plot points.

“We were all talking and sharing what we were planning and making sure we were all in sync,” Kevin says. “So there was some collaboration.”

By the final episode of Prodigy Season 2, several aspects of Star Trek are fully connected, but there’s also an open-ended notion that the series could continue in some way, shape, or form. But will there be a Prodigy Season 3? The Hageman brothers offer a surprising response.

“Just a lot of dreaming on Season 3,” Kevin says. “Maybe it’s something that happens down the line. I could see something happening in 10 years. Maybe sooner.”

“Maybe there’s a live-action version of it,” Dan adds. “We’re hoping.”

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 hits Netflix on July 1.

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• July 1, 2024 | Celia Rose Gooding Talks Expanding Uhura’s Role In Season 3 Of ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’
• July 1, 2024 | Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Returns With A Bang In “Into The Breach” (Part I & Part II)
• June 30, 2024 | Catch Up On ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ With Season 1 Recap And Season 2 Preview
• June 30, 2024 | Watch: Season 1 Of ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Available For Free On YouTube In USA
• June 27, 2024 | Interview: Dan And Kevin Hageman On How ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Season 2 Is Different, And What May Come Next

Catch Up On ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ With Season 1 Recap And Season 2 Preview

| June 30, 2024 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 15 comments so far

It has been a long road to get to tomorrow’s release of the second season of  Star Trek: Prodigy . The first season wrapped up in December 2022 on Paramount+. Since it has been a while, there is a new short video to remind you what went down on the USS Protostar.

Watch these before season 2

The official Star Trek site has released this nice refresher of season 1, which also includes a few preview bits from season 2.

And in case you missed it, here is the trailer for the new season…

Producers prep for new season

And if you want some extra homework to get ready for season 2, co-executive producer Aaron Waltke has some recommended viewing, which he shared via Twitter/X.

Season One of Prodigy. Endgame. Parallels. Relativity. Past Tense. Star Trek: First Contact. Where No One Has Gone Before. The Voyage Home. Cold Front. Year of Hell. Chain of Command. — Aaron J. Waltke (@GoodAaron) June 25, 2024

For more from Aaron on season 2, check out our All Access Star Trek podcast interview with him from earlier this month.

Co-creators Dan and Kevin Hageman also took to Twitter/X today to thank fans for their support and to also suggest fans be careful of sharing spoilers.

On the eve the of #StarTrekProdigy S2 airing on @netflix , we want to send out a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to everyone blasting out your love for the show. There’s a lot to unpack, so try to hold back on #spoilers — Dan & Kevin Hageman (@brothershageman) June 30, 2024

For more from the Hageman brothers, check out our new interview previewing season 2 . We will have more from them (talking some spoilers) later in the week.

TrekMovie’s Prodigy July Binge-watch

Speaking of spoilers, TrekMovie will be be covering and reviewing Prodigy throughout July. All 20 episodes are being released on Monday so this will be different than how we have covered weekly releases on Paramount+. After talking with the producers about how the season is structured we have decided to binge the show throughout July. For each of the next four weeks, we will cover five episodes with individual (but shorter than usual) recap/reviews for each episode (combining 4 of the two-parters). Each Friday’s All Access Star Trek podcast through July will discuss a different 5-episode arc.

Everything starts on Monday, July 1st with our first recap/review covering the 2-part season premiere (“Into the Breach”). Recap/reviews for episodes 3, 4, and 5 will follow on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday with a discussion of the first 5-episode arc on Friday’s All Access Star Trek podcast. The pattern will then repeat over the following three weeks. This will all wrap up just as San Diego Comic-Con kicks off at the end of the month. We also hope to have more  Prodigy interviews and analysis in July, and beyond.

We welcome fans joining us through July covering 5 episodes each week. However, for those choosing to binge the show even faster, we ask readers to avoid spoilers for episodes beyond the latest recap/review in our comments section.

Season 2 of  Prodigy will stream on Netflix globally (excluding Canada, Nordics, CEE, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Belarus and Mainland China) and season one is currently available on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Central and Eastern Europe with season two coming soon. Season two has launched in France on France Televisions channels and Okoo. TrekMovie is still trying to confirm details on a release of season 2 in Canada.

Keep up with news about the  Star Trek Universe .

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Prodigy, wherever you go, we go!

Can’t wait for season 2 after an excellent season 1. Plan to binge the entire season in a day.

In a day ? Holy moly, your eyes are gonna fall out! Hope you enjoy it. :-)

Well I’m going to try anyway. But maybe I will need a break.

Do you plan to watch it or have a plan on how to do it? I see some people saying they plan to watch an episode a day. Yeah I can’t do that lol.

My health is shaky, so I simply don’t have the stamina to watch the entire season in one day. I can’t really make a plan, either, because what I can do on any given day depends partly on how my health is doing and partly on my husband’s various doctor’s appointments and stuff. (Not that I’m watching with him, just that if I have to take him to the doctor, that might use up all the energy I have for that day. Getting old SUCKS! I’d tell you not to do it, but the alternative is worse. :-D Eat well and get plenty of exercise, and your old age might be slightly more tolerable…)

This really saddens me when I hear things like this. I know you been sick for a long time now but I was hoping you been feeling at least a little better. But you’re right it’s something we all eventually face.

I’m always thinking about you. At least you and your husband are dealing with it together. And I just hope you can keep watching your favorite thing in life. It honestly keeps me going, even when I complain about it lol.

It’s just always nice when we do talk to each other here or the other place. 🙂

Aww, you’re a big sweetie pie! I like talking with you, too.

My husband and I played Dungeons & Dragons last Sunday with a new DM. Our party got surrounded by wolves, who the DM described as enormous and hostile. The other members of the party wanted to fight them, and I said, “I’m Starfleet; we always talk before resorting to violence, and I have a scroll of Talk to Animals.” I gave the scroll to the Druid (my husband), figuring he’d be more credible to wolves than the Paladin I was playing, and he talked the wolves into standing down. The rest of the party was astonished.

Having Starfleet in your soul is useful. :-)

Hope you’re enjoying your Prodigy marathon!

Ten-ish hours in 25-minute chunks? Totally doable. Just hydrate, break for real food, and get up to move around every hour or so. Otherwise, yeah, you’ll feel like death later. Not that I speak from experience or anything… ;)

Thats what I’m thinking. Ten hours is really not that long. I’m thinking to watch 7 episodes, take an hour break. Do another 7, have dinner and then finish the last 6.

I tried to watch an entire season of Voyager over a 3 day weekend once a few years ago. That was 23 hours. Didn’t quite get there but got close enough lol.

Star Trek is the only show I would binge. I’m not a binger, even though I come close sometimes. I like trekmovie plan so that’s how I’m going to watch.

Great plan! 👍

Can’t Wait!!!

Nor. Can. I! I’m so binging it on Canada Day.

I have now watched the first 3 episodes but I need to go to sleep! But so far great. The guys that do Prodigy should write a Star Trek film – as they are better written and more fun that any of the movies.

I knew ‘Prodigy’ would be good when I heard it was the creators of ‘Tales of Arcadia’ doing it.

All episodes, back-to-back binge – 8hrs!!!! Make it so!

Den of Geek

The Star Trek: Voyager Sequel You’ve Always Wanted Already Exists

The story of Star Trek: Voyager continues in Prodigy, the animated series that is as much for fans of '90s Trek as it is for a new generation of fans.

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Star Trek is an ever-growing franchise, with 11 television series, plus two series of shorts and two separate film series. But despite all these spinoffs and spinoffs of spinoffs, only a couple of branches of the franchise have been given sequels. The Original Series has The Animated Series as a continuation, then its run of six sequel movies (seven, if you include Generations ), plus a prequel series ( Strange New Worlds ); and The Next Generation has four films and a sequel series ( Picard ), plus a spiritual sequel in Lower Decks . But Deep Space Nine has had to make do with a single episode of Lower Decks and Enterprise gets nothing but the occasional mention as easter eggs.

Voyager , however, has been more fortunate. The inclusion of Seven of Nine as a main character in Picard has already given at least one Voyager character the full sequel treatment, but some fans might not realize that there is another series that functions as a Voyager sequel in more ways than one— Star Trek: Prodigy .

Prodigy’s Two Audiences

One of Prodigy ’s biggest challenges has been to capture the interest of two separate target audiences. The series was produced with and also aired on the children’s channel Nickelodeon, and is aimed at children and teenagers. This also means it is aimed at new viewers, as no one assumes that children watching it will have seen any Star Trek before. The series introduces core concepts like what Starfleet is and how starships function in the Trek universe to brand new fans, and it does so very well.

However, it is also aimed at existing Star Trek fans of all ages. Season 1 of the show includes many callbacks and references to earlier Star Trek series that fans of those shows can appreciate. The episode “Crossroads,” for example, is a sequel to The Next Generation’ s “The Outrageous Okona”; “All the World’s a Stage” is a sequel to the Original Series ’ “Obsession” and the whole episode is basically an Original Series homage; and “Kobayashi” hasn’t just taken its name from the most overly referenced Star Trek story of all time ( The Wrath of Khan ), it actually features guest appearances from several past Star Trek stars who are no longer with us in the form of original audio clips (Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, and Rene Auberjonois) and a guest appearance from Gates McFadden as The Next Generation ’s Doctor Crusher in newly recorded dialogue.

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Prodigy Features Several Main Characters From Voyager

Most fans will be aware that one of its main characters is a hologram of Voyager ’s Captain and main character, Kathryn Janeway, played by Kate Mulgrew. Janeway primarily appears in the form of a hologram of Captain Janeway at around the age she was when Voyager was lost in the Delta Quadrant (based on her rank, as she was promoted to Admiral not long after they got back, and on her hairstyle, which matches Janeway’s famous “bun of steel” from Seasons 1-3 of Voyager ). This hologram is programmed with all of Janeway’s memories (including post- Voyager , as it would hardly make sense for her to exist like a time traveler who doesn’t know what’s going on) and with her personality, making Kathryn Janeway an integral part of Prodigy from the start.

What viewers who have not watched the series might not know, though, is that hologram Janeway is not the only character from Voyager who appears in Prodigy . As the season goes on, we also get to meet Admiral Janeway—the flesh and blood Janeway we followed for seven years on her journey through the Delta Quadrant, as she is at the time Prodigy is set, which is in the year 2383. (This is just after the setting of Lower Decks , which is set in 2380-2381, and a couple of decades before Picard , which is set primarily in 2399-2401). As the storyline develops, we get to meet another main character from Voyager as well, and a third, Robert Picardo’s Doctor, is lined up to appear in season 2.

One thing grown up fans might not realize is that Prodigy is aimed at middle grade and teenage children. It’s not like some other animated spin-offs of major franchises, like Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures or Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends , which are aimed at pre-schoolers and which, although fun, don’t have all that much appeal to an adult audience. Prodigy may be animated, but it is much more similar to something like The Whoniverse’s The Sarah Jane Adventures ; the lead characters are children and teenagers, but the plot, tone, and themes are all sophisticated enough to be enjoyed by grown ups as well—in fact, Prodigy probably skews slightly older even than The Sarah Jane Adventures .

This means, among other things, that the adult and mentor characters—primarily Janeway—in Prodigy get as much attention and character development as the young leads. The Captain Janeway hologram has a lovely little story arc that builds to an emotional climax across the whole of season 1. But even more importantly for Voyager fans, Admiral Janeway has her own story arc going on as well. Over the course of the season, we see her reacting to a deeply personal loss, and we see some of her most notorious character traits playing out in a new setting—this Janeway may be older and rank higher, but she still leads with her heart, and she still makes mistakes sometimes when she trusts the wrong person, or jumps to conclusions. This is recognizably the character we know and love from Voyager !

Towards the end of the season and in the cliffhanger going into season 2, Prodigy also picks up on one of Voyager ’s best character relationships, which was notoriously neglected in the original show’s series finale—Janeway’s relationship with her First Officer, Chakotay (Robert Beltran). These two were one of the show’s most popular couples to “ship” romantically and the show itself dedicated at least two episodes to that idea (season 2’s “Resolutions” and Season 7’s “Shattered”) though in both cases they decided to stay just friends. Chakotay was paired with Seven of Nine towards the end of season 7, but that pairing was so unpopular with both fans and even the actors that it has never been mentioned again, and a suggested appearance from an alternate timeline version of Chakotay in Picard season 2 was turned down by Beltran .

Chakotay has made several guest appearances in Prodigy , though, including a flashback sequence that shows him and Admiral Janeway hugging, and there is a moment towards the end of the season in which Janeway is seen reaching out towards his image while he is missing in action. Since Prodigy is aimed at teenagers, not young children, it’s free to explore romantic storylines in a family-friendly way, and one of its recurring threads is the somewhat romantic tension between its main character Dal R’El (Brett Gray) and Gwyndala (Ella Purnell), so there is hope for Janeway/Chakotay shippers yet.

Whether or not the show intends to develop Janeway and Chakotay’s relationship romantically, it is certainly bringing their friendship to the front and center of its storyline—he cliffhanger which ended season 1 is built entirely around Admiral Janeway’s determination to find and rescue Chakotay. In other words, all of the tension around the end of the first season of Prodigy is about this central Voyager relationship and is carrying on a Voyager plot thread. Thank goodness Netflix has picked up season 2 after it was dropped by Paramount+, as having that particular carrot dangled in front of Voyager fans only to have it taken away again was just too cruel!

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Prodigy Is Also a Sequel to Voyager’s Plot and Story Arcs

Prodigy also functions as a continuation of Voyager ’s central concept and is able to pick up on other aspects of its story. In Voyager ’s pilot episode, the ship was stranded in the Delta Quadrant, a distant part of the galaxy more than 70,000 light years from Earth, a distance it would take “more than 75 years” to cover, even going at top speed all the time. The series followed the ship’s journey back home, combining Trek’ s traditional theme of exploration with episodes centered around trying to find a quicker way to get back. It featured a crew that had absorbed a non-Starfleet Maquis ship (a resistance group fighting the Cardassians) alongside the Starfleet crew.

The show became notorious for using an episodic style similar to The Original Series and The Next Generation rather than leaning more on its story arcs like Deep Space Nine as many fans would have preferred, and the concept of two conflicting crews working together was largely ignored after a handful of episodes in season 1. However, the ideas were still there, driving the show. There were occasional stories looking at the conflicts between crewmembers in later seasons, like season 7’s “Repression,” and although the format was primarily Space Anomaly of the Week, the journey home was a story that developed across all seven seasons, with multiple episodes focused on attempts to get home more quickly.

The Delta Quadrant setting also allowed Voyager to put a lot of focus on exploration and Original Series -style Planets of the Week, introducing viewers to lots of new alien species that the show added to the Star Trek universe. The Talaxians, the Kazon, the Hirogen, the Vidiians, and the Malon are probably the most memorable, but there were many others, as well as many interactions with Delta Quadrant-based Next Generation baddies the Borg .

The core concept of Prodigy follows on directly from Voyager ’s. In the pilot episode, we meet our motley crew of young aliens in the Tars Lamora prison colony in the Delta Quadrant. They are all of different races and one of them, Gwyndala, is initially an antagonist to the others, just like Voyager ’s two opposing crews.

By the end of the initial two-parter, our heroes have got their hands on the USS Protostar , a prototype for a small Starfleet ship that can travel much, much faster than any others we have seen. The ship was sent out to return to the Delta Quadrant, captained by Chakotay and accompanied by the Captain Janeway hologram, because they are the experts in that part of the galaxy and already have some contacts there, but it was attacked and lost before being found by Dal R’El and the others.

The Show Is Full of Voyager References and Easter Eggs

The action kicks off in the Delta Quadrant, picking up the pieces from a mission that was specifically designed to follow up on Voyager ’s journey. Over the course of season 1, we have seen appearances from the Kazon, the Borg, and the Brenari (a telepathic species whose refugees were helped by Voyager ’s crew in season 5’s “Counterpoint”), and we have heard references to the Talaxians as well as a more obscure Voyager species, such as the Sakari (the species living underground in season 3’s “Blood Fever”). Janeway has even mentioned the events of Voyager ’s most infamous episode, one so unpopular on its initial release that fans thought it had been written out of the continuity, but which is actually really rather fun and entertaining and is now probably one of its best known hours—she mentions that she was “once turned into a salamander,” a reference to her and Lt. Paris’s (Robert Duncan McNeil) transformation into lizards before abandoning their lizard babies in season 2’s “Threshold.”

The writers have even given the Protostar a new feature to fix one of Voyager ’s most notorious plot holes. The USS Voyager was lost in the Delta Quadrant with minimal resources, and several episodes revolved around the search for deuterium fuel. And yet somehow, despite numerous shuttlecraft crashes, many of which were specifically described as having destroyed the shuttlecraft, the ship never seemed to run out of shuttles.

Starfleet ships of this era are generally equipped with two shuttlecraft, as was Voyager , plus they had Neelix’s (Ethan Phillips) ship, which they hardly ever used. In season 5, they built their own shuttle, the Delta Flyer, which they proceeded to crash just as often as the other shuttles, if not more so. And yet they never ever ran out. Entire websites were devoted to counting how many shuttlecraft Voyager had lost and apparently replaced with identical shuttles. Were the crewmembers Janeway didn’t like trapped in the bowels of the ship somewhere, building and re-building shuttles? Why did they build them exactly the same every time, and keep giving them the same names? How were they constantly running out of fuel, having to ration replicator food, forcing everyone to eat Neelix’s hair pasta and leola root stew because they didn’t have energy to spare, but they were able to keep up a constant stream of replicated shuttles? This mystery has never been solved, but the writers of Prodigy thought ahead—the Protostar has a replicator specifically designed to replicate shuttlecraft-sized vehicles.

Voyager is not the only Star Trek series referenced in Prodigy . The show is absolutely bursting with references, easter Eggs, and follow-ups to stories, species, and tech from all of the pre-2017 Star Trek series. But its plot, setup, and story and character development make it not just a “spiritual sequel” to Star Trek: Voyager —it is literally a sequel series to Voyager , continuing Voyager ’s plot threads and further developing its setting. If you’re a Star Trek: Voyager fan and you haven’t yet watched Prodigy , you’re missing out.

Star Trek: Prodigy season 3 hits Netflix on July 1.

Juliette Harrisson | @ClassicalJG

Juliette Harrisson is a writer and historian, and a lifelong Trekkie whose childhood heroes were JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. She runs a YouTube channel called…

Section 31: Everything We Know About Star Treks First Streaming Movie

• Michelle Yeoh stars in Star Trek: Section 31, a first-of-its-kind movie for the Star Trek franchise on Paramount+.
• Section 31, a spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery, delves into secret ops agency history in a unique storyline.
• Set in the early 24th century, Section 31 features a diverse cast and promises a mysterious plot with time travel elements.

Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh stars in Star Trek: Section 31 , and here's everything we know about Star Trek 's first made-for-streaming movie. Section 31 is written by Craig Sweeny and directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi. A spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery , Yeoh reprises her role as Emperor Philippa Georgiou , the former ruler of the Mirror Universe's Terran Empire who joined Section 31 in Star Trek: Discovery season 2.

Star Trek: Section 31 was originally planned as an ongoing series spinning off from Star Trek: Discovery , from a suggestion by Michelle Yeoh. In January 2019, development began on a Star Trek: Section 31 series, which was scheduled to film from May to November 2020. Yeoh's character, Emperor Georgiou, was written out of Star Trek: Discovery season 3, to segue her into Section 31 . However, the COVID-19 pandemic halted Section 31 's production. Yeoh's availability also impacted Section 31 , especially when she won the Best Actress Academy Award for Everything Everywhere All At Once . However, Yeoh used her Oscar clout to put Section 31 into production, this time as a feature film to stream on Paramount+.

Im Excited About Whats Next For Star Trek

Star Trek: Discovery is over, and soon Lower Decks will end, but even with fewer shows, there is still lots of exciting stuff ahead for Star Trek.

Section 31 Is Star Treks First Streaming Movie

Star trek movies enter the streaming era.

Star Trek: Section 31 is Star Trek' s first movie made-for-streaming on Paramount+. Section 31 is also the first Star Trek movie made since Star Trek Beyond premiered in theaters in 2016 . Section 31 is also said to be a very different type of Star Trek story, which is fitting since there's no indication it will be set on a Starfleet starship or space station, and will delve into the murky history of the United Federation of Planets' top secret black ops agency,

If Star Trek: Section 31 is a success on Paramount+, it opens the door for a sequel continuing the adventures of Emperor Georgiou. Section 31 becoming a hit also means the two-hour format for Star Trek on Paramount+ becomes a viable option for future projects. New Star Trek concepts or perhaps other Star Trek fans want, like the Star Trek: Picard continuation dubbed Star Trek: Legacy , could become made-for-streaming movies on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Section 31s Cast & Story

Section 31 includes new faces and star trek legacy characters.

Fittingly, Star Trek: Section 31 's story is shrouded in mystery. It has been revealed, however, that at least part of Section 31 takes place in Star Trek 's "lost era" of the early 24th century before the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Section 31 also involves time travel since Emperor Georgiou jumps back 800 years from Star Trek: Discovery' s 32nd century. The official synopsis of Star Trek: Section 31 is as follows:

In Star Trek: Section 31 , Emperor Philippa Georgiou, joins a secret division of Starfleet tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets and faces the sins of her past.

Joining Michelle Yeoh in Star Trek: Section 31 's cast are Sam Richardson, Omari Hardwick, Kacey Rohl, Rob Kazinsky, Sven Ruygrok, Humberly Gonzalez, James Hiroyuki Liao, Joe Pingue, Miku Martineau, and Augusto Bitter. Although no details about the characters they play have been released, one intriguing aspect that has been revealed is that Rohl plays the younger version of Rachell Garrett. Garrett is the doomed future Captain of the USS Enterprise-C , who was played by Tricia O'Neill in the Star Trek: The Next Generation classic, "Yesterday's Enterprise".

When Star Trek: Section 31 Will Premiere

Section 31 is awaiting a release date from paramount+.

Star Trek: Section 31 does not yet have a release date from Paramount+. Section 31 will likely premiere in 2025, although there's a chance it could also drop late in 2024 after the final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks ends. Section 31 wrapped filming in March, with cast members from Star Trek: Strange New World s joining Section 31 's actors at their wrap party in Toronto. The status of Star Trek: Section 31 's post-production is not known, but the movie will be locked for its eventual premiere on Paramount+.

A lot is riding on Star Trek: Section 31 as Star Trek's first streaming movie.

Star Trek: Section 31 not premiering until 2025 makes since Paramount+ lacks Star Trek content next year. The only other wrapped Star Trek project is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, which will likely also premiere on Paramount+ in 2025. Star Trek 's next series, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy , doesn't start filming until fall 2024 for a potential 2026 release. This means a lot is riding on Star Trek: Section 31 as Star Trek 's first streaming movie, but fans have already learned never to underestimate Michelle Yeoh's Emperor Georgiou.

Star Trek: Section 31

Director Olatunde Osunsanmi

Studio(s) CBS

Writers Craig Sweeney

Cast Humberly Gonzlez, Joe Pingue, Sam Richardson, Omari Hardwick, Robert Kazinsky, Michelle Yeoh, Kacey Rohl

Franchise(s) Star Trek