The animated antics of Mariner and Boimler are coming to live-action Star Trek.
In one of the more bizarre reveals of the San Diego Comic Con, Paramount+ announced a unique Star Trek crossover. Two of the stars of the Star Trek animation Lower Decks will somehow intersect with the crew of Strange New Worlds.
The news came when Lower Decks stars Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid gate-crashed the Paramount+ Star Trek panel and Strange New Worlds star Anson Mount confirmed the crossover.
Both Newsome and Quaid, who voice Ensigns Beckett Mariner and Brad Boimler, will play their characters in the live-action show. The suggestion is that the characters will also appear in animated form too.
Quite how this may happen in story terms is a puzzle. Strange New Worlds takes place before the original series, circa 2260; Lower Decks is set in the post-Star Trek: The Next Generation era, around 2380.
All will doubtless become clear in time. What we do know, however, that this special episode’s director is Star Trek legend Jonathan Frakes.
Strange New Worlds has recently finished its first run on Paramount+, Season 2 is currently in production.
Lower Decks Season 3
With the third run of Lower Decks coming next month, their SDCC panel debuted a trailer:
Making a homage to Star Trek III – The Search for Spock, the show is set to resolve its season 2 cliff-hanger. We were left with the USS Cerritos’ Captain Freeman taken into custody, accused of blowing up the Pakleds.
As ever, the trailer also promises a boatload of references up and down the Star Trek timeline. One particular highlight is the visit to Deep Space 9 (making light of that show’s famously ponderous title sequence). We can only imagine which familiar faces they might encounter there!
In addition to Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid, the Lower Decks voice cast includes Noël Wells, Eugene Cordero, Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O’Connell, Fred Tatasciore and Gillian Vigman.
There’s also a terrific set of new character images, combined here by StarTrek.com:
Lower Decks Season 3 lands on August 25th. In the US and Latin America it’s on Paramount+, in Canada it’s on the CTV Sci-Fi Channel and Crave.
In the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Japan and India you can find it on Prime Video.