Continuing our coverage of the Star Trek Universe panel at San Diego Comic Con, we have new information about the upcoming series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. This direct spin-off of Star Trek: Discovery is set in the 32nd Century, as Starfleet Academy is rebuilding itself after the chaotic decades following the Burn. Executive producer Alex Kurtzman was joined on stage by showrunner Noga Landau. Much of the panel focused on the casting, with some amazing news being revealed.
There was a short video showing all of the younger actors playing the cadets– Kerrice Brooks, Bella Shepard, Karim Diané, Zoë Steiner and George Hawkins– receiving the news that they have gotten their roles. There were smiles and tears from all of the young actors.
The casting of Paul Giamatti as the villain of the season– described on startrek.com as having ‘an ominous past connected to one of the Academy’s cadets’- was done at the request of Giamatti himself. He specifically asked to not only be on the show, but to play the villain. It was previously reported that Giamatti was a huge Trek fan.
But the big news to come out of the panel was about the legacy characters that would be joining the cast. Unsurprisingly, as her role was set up in Star Trek: Discovery, Mary Wiseman will be returning as Sylvia Tilly. She will be joined by Discovery alum Tig Notaro (Cmdr. Jett Reno) and Oded Fehr (Admiral Charles Vance). Wiseman and Fehr will be appearing in a reoccurring capacity, while Notaro is a part of the main cast.
The biggest surprise to the casting is a legacy character from outside of the Discovery cast. Robert Picardo will be returning in a main role as the Doctor, the Emergency Medical Hologram from Star Trek: Voyager. This will make Picardo the second Trek alum to be a regular in three separate series, after joining the cast of Star Trek: Prodigy for season three. The first was Michael Dorn (Worf), who was a regular cast member of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Picard. While Starfleet Academy is set over a thousand years after Prodigy, due to the Doctor’s holographic nature he is potentially immortal. In the Voyager episode “Living Witness”, a backup copy of the Doctor’s program was reactivated after seven hundred years.
There is still no word on when Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will be airing, but it will presumably be coming out in 2025, with filming happening this summer.
Stay tuned for more news on Strange New Worlds, Section 31 and check out our previous report on Lower Decks.
