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Star Trek: Invasion – Guide and Walkthrough

Playstation.

Guide and Walkthrough (PS) by War_Doc

Version: 1.23 | Updated: 12/13/2004

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• User reviews

Star Trek: Invasion

You're a hotshot pilot who must uncover a plot behind deadly events that are leading the universe toward a doomsday scenario. Strap in, as intergalactic combat goes warp speed. You're a hotshot pilot who must uncover a plot behind deadly events that are leading the universe toward a doomsday scenario. Strap in, as intergalactic combat goes warp speed. You're a hotshot pilot who must uncover a plot behind deadly events that are leading the universe toward a doomsday scenario. Strap in, as intergalactic combat goes warp speed.

• James Swallow
• Patrick Stewart
• Michael Dorn
• Judi M. Durand
• 2 User reviews

• Capt. Jean-Luc Picard

• Lt. Cmdr. Worf
• (as Judi Durand)

• Hur Q Commander

• Kam Jahtae Commander

• Typhon Engineer

• Klingon Captain
• Kam Jahtae Pilot
• Captain Brennan

• Commander Cates
• Ensign Cooper

• Captain Blackwood

• Cardassian Commander
• (as Anthony Korotko)
• (as Matt Morton)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Connections Featured in Playstation Underground: Issue 4.2 (2000)

User reviews 2

• Oct 3, 2003
• June 30, 2000 (United States)
• United States
• Warthog Games
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

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Star Trek: Invasion

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• Activision Publishing, Inc.
• Warthog Plc
• #327 on PlayStation

Description official descriptions

It's the end of the Dominion Wars in the year 2377. Borg ships have been detected in the Titan system and are encroaching on Klingon space. Starfleet are mobilizing a squadron to repel the attack. One of the ensigns assigned to attack is Ryan Cooper, a rookie ensign just out of Starfleet Academy. But when a new force, the Kam'Jahtae, descendants of the Klingon enemy Hur'q, attack in hopes of reclaiming the space they once had, Ensign Cooper and his crew under Lt. Commander Worf inside the USS Typhon are in a race against time to save the galaxy from invasion!

In Star Trek: Invasion , you play as Red Squadron ensign Ryan Cooper, and fly the new Valkyrie fighter ship through thirty missions. Up to six versions of the craft are available in the game: three training versions that are only used in two-player modes, and three "Marks" versions that you fly during the game. (The higher the Mark, the more powerful it is.)

As you fight against the Borg, Romulans, Cardassians and a new enemy known as the Kam'Jahtae, you'll also chat with your fellow crew members, including Trek favorites Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard) and Michael Dorn (Lt. Commander Worf).

• Console Generation Exclusives: PlayStation
• Genre: Simulation - Space combat
• Inspiration: TV series
• Star Trek licensees

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99 People (83 developers, 16 thanks) · View all

Average score: 77% (based on 15 ratings)

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 14 ratings with 0 reviews)

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• MobyGames ID: 3895

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Grant McLellan .

Additional contributors: Plok .

Game added April 23, 2001. Last modified October 11, 2023.

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Star Trek: Invasion

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The Borg are once again invading Federation space. Their target? Sector 001, Earth. You are part of an elite flying team known as Valkyrie squadron, commanded by none other than Lieutenant Commander Worf of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame. You'll fly through different territories and encounter familiar races from the popular television series, including Klingons, Romulans, Borg and a new enemy known as the Kam'Jahtae. There are twists and turns throughout the game as you protect convoys from enemy attacks, engage galaxy class starships, and go on solo retrieve and rescue missions. The storyline is accented by the voices of actors Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard) and Michael Dorn (Lieutenant Worf). Your ship is outfitted with phaser cannons and photon torpedoes, both of which you will have to master in order to succeed in your battles with enemy crafts. Users can play from a view behind their ship or from a first-person view inside the cockpit. The game supports analog control as well as force feedback, and uses up one block of memory on the standard PlayStation Memory Card to save progress.

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Star Trek: Invasion Review

Despite the game's fluid control system and innovative lock-on features, its pacing and repetition simply mar the gameplay experience.

By Frank Provo on May 17, 2006 at 3:09PM PDT

Despite a proliferation of Star Trek titles for the PC platform, as well as journeyman attempts on other consoles, the PlayStation has been left in the cold when it comes to Mr. Roddenberry's signature franchise. Thanks to Activision and its recent release of Star Trek: Invasion, this discrepancy has come to an end. Forget drawn-out sims and tedious point-and-click FMV, Invasion is about blowing stuff up in the purest sense. But it remains to be seen if Star Trek: Invasion does the franchise justice, and if this 3D shooter can hold its own against the likes of Colony Wars and Wing Commander.

Similar to the Colony Wars series, Invasion starts you out as a lowly ensign, a new recruit in Starfleet's illustrious Red Squadron, a group of skilled fighter pilots that are both revered and reviled across the galaxy. Throughout the game, you, as ensign Ryan Cooper, will participate in a variety of missions and battles. Do well, and you'll increase in rank and acquire better ships. Fail, however, and your ashes will be scattered throughout the vacuum of space. Unlike the unfamiliar confines of Colony Wars, this is a Star Trek title, and, as such, contains a storyline that's initially a bit more inviting.

It seems the Borg have been acting up, assimilating entire galaxies of peaceful life-forms. Even worse, they're on their way to our solar system. To counter this threat, Lt. Commander Worf has been assigned to command a fighting ship, the USS Typhon - a ship that boasts a compliment of 24 Valkyrie fighters and a warp drive that would make the Millennium Falcon jealous. As you might have guessed by now, you've been assigned to his ship. Thus, the game's storyline leaps out of the starting gate with the two things Trekkers love most: the Borg and Michael Dorn. As you complete each mission, the story will pull you through Romulan uprisings, Cardassian pirate skirmishes, and even introduce a new threat - the Kam'Jahtae. Regardless of the Kam'Jahtae's heinous similarity to the Protoss in Blizzard's StarCraft, Invasion's plot is robust, never seeming silly or contrived. For Trek fans, the many plots, subplots, and intricate twists will be enough to pull them through even the toughest of the game's missions. However, if you're a fan of Colony Wars' story branching or Wing Commander's role-playing aspects, watch out. Other than secret levels and a few sidetracks, Star Trek: Invasion is as linear as they come. Your ship will be upgraded and you will gain in rank, but the end, my friends, is only a mere 20 levels away.

More surprising than Invasion's quality storytelling, though, is its gameplay. Warthog's development team, allied with a couple former Psygnosis veterans, has succeeded in delivering a 3D shooting experience that's spot on. Every button on the PlayStation pad is used to control the ship, but the control scheme is never counterintuitive. The D-pad controls steering, the main buttons fire the weapons, and the shoulder buttons serve as thrust and evasion controls. Selecting between weapons, locking on, firing, performing rolls, and warping away are processes you'll need to perform frequently, and as far as Invasion goes, it lets you pull them off without a hitch. Of special note is the game's lock-on system, which not only allows you to automatically target an enemy, but it also shows how far ahead of them to aim in order to account for distance delays. Nice.

Unfortunately, there are a few problems to be found in Star Trek Invasion's gameplay. First, the ship oversteers like mad, but only in third-person view and only with the digital D-dad. Unless you toggle to one of the game's two cockpit views or stick to the analog stick, it's going to take awhile before you acclimate to the default view. Second of these problems, and more notable, is the poor collision detection. It's one thing to get bumped around by a ship that's packing an energy shield, but does the same have to hold true for asteroids, space junk, and unshielded vessels too? There are times when the game calls for precision stopping and maneuvering, but thanks to its iffy hit detection, this is aggravating.

Star Trek: Invasion's final major gameplay issue is actually a combination of two things - difficulty and tedium. If you've played Colony Wars 2 or Red Sun, you'll find Star Trek: Invasion a smidgen easier, but only just. If you're not a dyed-in-the-wool 3D shooter fanatic, prepare to die, a lot. Admittedly, the majority of this difficulty stems from smart enemies and the need to apply strategy when fighting, which, on their own, are good things. However, the game simply keeps throwing enemies at you, on and on, more and more, as the storyline progresses. Sure, protecting a pod or defending a cruiser is something shooter fans are used to, but is all this insanity necessary? Compounding things, the game is just boring to play. Sure, the story is nice, but the battles drag on forever. Protecting a convoy to a warp point or retrieving a distressed ship is one thing, but doing it twice with four battles in between is a bit much. All told, the game begs for pacing.

Visually, though, who's complaining? Warthog somehow managed to come up with a game engine that delivers crisp, high-resolution visuals and a speedy frame rate. While the spatial locales aren't as diverse or obstacle ridden as Colony Wars, one can't help but be impressed by Invasion's ability to simultaneously display more than 30 ships - as well as asteroids, fully detailed moons, and a command ship or two - on a single screen. Even the game's two-player mode looks good, exhibiting none of the loss of clarity and detail that seems to plague split-screen games. Furthermore, the game's FMV is rendered using the game's own graphical engine, and it looks so crisp at times that you'd bet you were watching digitized video.

Invasion's sound also happens to be exceptional. Mission briefings, subspace communications, and computer voices are all perfect renditions of their TV and movie counterparts, while Michael Dorn and Patrick Stewart's voice acting performances are top-notch. The game's sound effects are stellar as well. Phaser sounds, torpedoes, tractor beams, and explosion effects all sound crisp and clear, while remaining faithful to the franchise.

So, then, what do you have? There is no doubt that Star Trek: Invasion's storyline, visuals, and sound are of the utmost caliber. However, despite the game's fluid control system and innovative lock-on features, its pacing and repetition simply mar the gameplay experience. If you skip the side levels, you'll probably enjoy the game much more. Unfortunately, though, the game is over twice as fast if you do that, and since there's no path branching, there's no reason to pick it up again. The two-player deathmatch and cooperative missions may offer an extra diversion for those with gaming friends, but even those features can't lift an average game to stardom.

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Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki

A friendly reminder regarding spoilers ! At present the expanded Trek universe is in a period of major upheaval with the continuations of Discovery and Prodigy , the advent of new eras in gaming with the Star Trek Adventures RPG , Star Trek: Infinite and Star Trek Online , as well as other post-57th Anniversary publications such as the ongoing IDW Star Trek comic and spin-off Star Trek: Defiant . Therefore, please be courteous to other users who may not be aware of current developments by using the {{ spoiler }}, {{ spoilers }} OR {{ majorspoiler }} tags when adding new information from sources less than six months old (even if it is minor info). Also, please do not include details in the summary bar when editing pages and do not anticipate making additions relating to sources not yet in release. THANK YOU

Star Trek: Invasion!

• View history

Star Trek: Invasion! was a miniseries of novels published in 1996 . The four volumes were later collected into an omnibus edition and was published in 1998 .

• 1 Publishers description
• 3.2 Connections
• 3.3 External link

Publishers description [ ]

Invasion! cover art by Keith Birdsong .

The ultimate Star Trek saga, spanning four thrilling adventures!

Long ago, even before the days of myth and legend, our world belonged to them. Now, across time and space, comes a fury that will test every one of Starfleet 's greatest heroes...

Star Trek - First Strike by Diane Carey

The Invasion begins when Captain James T. Kirk receives a desperate plea for help from the Klingon Empire . A mysterious starship has invaded Klingon space, but the worst is yet to come as Kirk discovers that this ship is only the vanguard of a vast alien fleet intent on conquering the entire Alpha Quadrant !

Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Soldiers of Fear by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch

After a century of peace, the Furies return, more powerful than before. Now their arsenal includes a way to project incapacitating fear into the minds of their enemies. To defeat the enemy and save the Federation , Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew must first conquer the darkest terrors of their own unconscious minds!

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Time's Enemy by L.A. Graf

Millennia ago, the Furies were first driven from the Alpha Quadrant, but what became of the enemy that drove them out? The answer may lie in a mysterious starship found frozen in an icy cloud of cometary debris. Now Captain Benjamin Sisko must discover the secrets of the past to ensure the future of the Federation!

Star Trek: Voyager - The Final Fury by Dafydd ab Hugh

Far from the Federation, now under assault by the Furies, Captain Kathryn Janeway discovers the very source of the Invasion itself. Now, at last, USS Voyager takes the battle to the enemy -- for the sake of a home they may never see again!

Collected at last...the bestselling Star Trek epic of all time!

Contents [ ]

Invasion! poster art.

• First Strike by Diane Carey
• The Soldiers of Fear by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• Time's Enemy by L.A. Graf
• The Final Fury by Dafydd ab Hugh

Appendices [ ]

Connections [ ]

External link [ ].

• Star Trek: Invasion! article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• 1 Cheronian
• 2 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
• 3 Eclipse class

Star Trek: Invasion!

• View history

Star Trek: Invasion! was a four-part series of thematic crossover novels released by Pocket Books in 1996 . The books spanned all four major Trek television tie-in novel series (at that time), including TOS , TNG , DS9 and Voyager . An omnibus edition collected all four installments in one volume.

• TOS #79: First Strike
• TNG #41: The Soldiers of Fear
• DS9 #16: Time's Enemy
• Omnibus edition

External link [ ]

• Star Trek: Invasion! at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works

Star Trek: Who Is Agent Daniels?

The Star Trek franchise can be a massive network of TV shows, each of which could stand on its own. They aren't often that episodic, at least not in the modern era. Like most massive entertainment brands, part of the appeal is constant references to previous outings. One of the most interesting new developments in Star Trek: Discovery is a cross-over concept tying the series to Enterprise . Specifically, the show just revealed that Dr. Kovich has been temporal agent Daniels all along.

One of the unique elements of writing a TV series is real-time feedback. Showrunners, writers, and directors can see the reaction to a new batch of episodes before they finish the next few. That allows creators working on programs like Star Trek to assess the popularity of story elements and decide which stories to focus on. Star Trek: Enterprise tells several stories, many of them separated by years, but its most notable arc is now an ongoing concern.

Star Trek: The Next Generations Timescape Explained

The time-freezing Season 6 classic is more than an excuse to yet again destroy the USS Enterprise.

Where did Daniels first appear?

Daniels first appeared in the eleventh episode of Star Trek: Enterprise . It's the second entry in the series' Temporal Cold War arc . Daniels would return for seven episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise . Daniels posed as a Starfleet crewman aboard the Enterprise in 2151. He pretended to be a steward, serving food to the other people aboard the vessel. His true assignment came from the mysterious temporal agents. Daniels worked with enigmatic forces from the far future, working to combat all sides of the Temporal Cold War. Unbeknownst to contemporary people, many military groups from the future sent emissaries back in time to rewrite history in their favor. Daniels was one of many agents working to prevent tampering with the timeline. His first known mission saw him hide in plain sight aboard the Enterprise to ambush and capture the leader of a terrorist group called the Cabal. The Cabal got its orders from an unnamed voice from the 28th century. Daniels worked with Captain Johnathan Archer to capture the Cabal's enhanced commanding officer, Silik. Unfortunately, Silik shoots Daniels, seemingly killing him.

Daniels returned a year later, unwilling to explain how he'd survived. He interfered with Enterprise business several times over the following years. Daniels accidentally traps himself and Archer in the 31st century after fleeing through time to avoid a Cabal attack. The knock-on effect destroyed Daniels's civilization, forcing them to employ elaborate trickery and innovation to get home. Daniels later gave Archer and T'Pol a time-travel mission that involved marking things out of place in 2004. They got the job done, allowing Daniels to place them back in 2153, only moments after they'd left. Daniels next dragged Archer to watch a 26th-century conflict between the Federation and the Sphere-Builders. He explained that the Sphere-Builders used time travel to arrange an invasion by the Xindi to trick Archer into a suicide mission, altering the timeline so that the Federation would never come to be. This convinced Archer to push for a treaty and make peace with the Xindi. Finally, Daniels brought Archer to an alternate 1944. The Na'kuhl accidentally trapped themselves on Earth during World War II, prompting them to partner with the Nazis. Archer and the Enterprise crew destroy their time machine, fixing all the alterations that caused the Temporal War. Daniels leaves the Enterprise , promising Archer that the war is over.

Who is Kovich?

Doctor Kovich is a mysterious Federation official, physician, and cognitive scientist who appears in Star Trek: Discovery . He seems to have several skillsets, but his enigmatic presence in the show remains vague. The final episode of Discovery reveals that Kovich is an assumed name and that Doctor Kovich is actually Agent Daniels. He's lived several lives in various locations, many of which must have placed him in contact with Starfleet. Operating as Kovich, he sent Burnham on a mission to find the alien organisms that created human life. He developed a strange adversarial relationship with Burnham, eventually deciding to reveal his secret to her. His big reveal could have massive implications for future Star Trek shows.

Who plays Daniels and Kovich?

Matt Winston portrayed Crewman Daniels in Enterprise . Winston is the son of special effects legend Stan Winston. His acting career began in the 1990s with roles in slashers like Wes Craven's New Nightmare and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later . He recently appeared in Harbinger Down and the TV series Raising Hope . With over 100 credits under his belt, his career is fascinating. Decades later, beloved horror director David Cronenberg picked up the mantle by portraying Kovich. Cronenberg needs no introduction. He's the filmmaker who made body horror one of the most prominent and iconic film subgenres in modern media. He's best known as the director of classics like The Fly , Scanners , and Videodrome . Cronenberg regularly acts in his own films, but he also has small parts in dozens of other projects. He has central roles in Alias Grace and the fourth season of Slasher .

Daniels is a fascinating character who pops in on several occasions. Tying the mysterious Doctor Kovich back to this forgotten figure certainly made a splash among Star Trek fans. Daniels is essentially a time cop for the Star Trek universe. His return to the franchise could be a bizarre new curveball for future outings.

Star Trek: Voyager - How Did The Ship Get Home?

In Star Trek: Voyager, a 70,000 light-year journey home is a trial that just might require bending space-time itself.

Screen Rant

Star trek is finally ready to embrace the real final frontier (not space).

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Star Trek Is "In Great Shape": Jonathan Frakes Discusses Trek's Future, Including Legacy

Seven of nine just delivered star trek's sickest burn, star trek confirms doctor phlox's fate centuries after enterprise.

• Star Trek introduces a horrifying new universe with exciting implications for the franchise as a whole.
• The multiverse concept plays a significant role in Star Trek , with alternate timelines and realities explored.
• Future Star Trek shows should embrace the multiverse concept to tell strong stories and expand the franchise.

Warning: contains spoilers for Star Trek: Defiant #14!

Star Trek ’s famous opening sequence calls space “the final frontier,” but there are frontiers in the franchise that stretch beyond the galaxy and even the entire universe. Star Trek has utilized the multiverse concept since its earliest days, leaning into it even more in recent years. In Star Trek: Defiant #14, a new (and horrifying) universe is revealed, although it has exciting implications for the franchise as a whole.

Star Trek: Defiant #14 is written by Christopher Cantwell and drawn by Angel Unzueta. Worf and the Defiant’s crew are facing a potential invasion from the “Conspiracy” parasites. Spock attempts a mind meld to learn more, but he is taken over and leaves Worf. Spock makes his way to the Starbase’s power center, cryptically mentioning “the door” opening. As the issue unfolds, it is revealed that the parasites are not from the same universe as Worf and Spock.

Instead, they are from a reality where they are the dominant life form.

The "Conspiracy" Aliens Are Only the Tip of the Star Trek Multiverse

In addition to multiple universes, star trek has many alternate timelines.

Introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation’s first season episode “Conspiracy,” the parasites wormed their way into Starfleet’s upper echelon. Picard and the crew of the Enterprise are able to stop them, but the episode ends on an ominous note: the parasites sent a signal to…somewhere. The episode never received a follow-up, and became one of the franchise’s biggest dangling plot lines. Previous issues of Star Trek: Defiant hinted the parasites originated from outside the universe, and this issue seems to confirm that. It adds an even darker layer to the parasites, making them even more alien.

This revelation also serves as a reminder that a multiverse exists in the Star Trek franchise. Star Trek has, on many occasions, played with the concept of alternate timelines. Episodes such as “City on the Edge of Forever,” “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” and “Year of Hell” took this particular concept and spun gold out of it. The entire Kelvin series is also alternate timelines. Star Trek has sometimes used the terms “universe” and “timeline” interchangeably. Some refer to JJ Abram’s films as either “the Kelvin Universe” or “the Kelvin Timeline.”

What distinguishes the two is that, with a few exceptions, the Kelvin Timeline unfolded in much the same way as the Prime did, in terms of personality and career choices. Shortly after the first Abrams’ Star Trek film in 2009, IDW launched a series that reinterpreted classic episodes using the Kelvin crew, meaning that events unfolded in both universes in similar fashions. However, Star Trek has also shown realities where everything is completely different, such as the popular Mirror Universe.

Star Trek's Mirror Universe is A Pop Culture Touchstone

Star trek's mirror universe has been featured in the comics as well.

Introduced in the episode “Mirror, Mirror,” airing during Star Trek’s second season, the Mirror Universe has become one of the most endearing in the franchise, and Spock, with his menacing goatee, has become the stuff of pop culture legends.

Introduced in the episode “Mirror, Mirror,” airing during Star Trek’s second season, the Mirror Universe has become one of the most endearing in the franchise, and Spock, with his menacing goatee, has become the stuff of pop culture legends. In the episode, an ion storm sends Kirk, Uhura, Scotty and McCoy to the Mirror Universe. They are horrified by what they found: the Enterprise was not a ship of peace and exploration, but an instrument of evil used by a fascist empire. The episode ends with Kirk placing the seeds of revolt in Mirror Spock’s brain.

The Mirror Universe returned during DC Comics’ Star Trek comic. In The Mirror Universe Saga, running through Star Trek #9-16 and written by Mike W. Barr and drawn by Tom Sutton, the Federation faces an invasion from the Terran Empire. Spock did not go onto implement reforms, and instead doubled down on his fascist ways. Thanks to Kirk and the recently revived Prime Spock, the Federation was able to defeat the Terran Empire, and the story ends with Mirror Spock finally joining the side of good.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Flipped the Script on the Mirror Universe

Idw's star trek comics gave fans mirror jean-luc picard.

While this would seem to bring the story of the Mirror Universe to a close, the concept proved too good to let go, and it returned during Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s second season. In the episode “Crossover,” it was revealed Spock’s reforms worked—all too well. It left the Empire in a weakened state, and it was quickly overrun by the Cardassians and the Klingons. It would go on to appear in two episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise and was a major part of Discovery’s first three seasons and will play a role in the forthcoming Section 31 movie.

The Mirror Universe was still not finished, however, and the comics once again picked up the story. In 2017’s Star Trek: The Next Generation: Mirror Broken, the Terran Empire still exists in the 24th century, albeit in a dilapidated and broken state. Now confined largely to Earth’s solar system, Captain Picard of the ISS Stargazer learns of a new and powerful weapon the Empire is building, one that may be able to restore its former glory. Picard, desperate to make a name for himself, steals the weapon, revealed to be the Galaxy-class Enterprise .

The Star Trek Multiverse Is a Scary Place

Between the "conspiracy" aliens and the mirror universe, it is a truly dangerous frontier.

Most heart-breaking of all was Barclay, who, in the Mirror Universe, was a scheming and cold-hearted man, seeking revenge on those who wronged his family.

IDW released several additional Star Trek: The Next Generation comics set in the Mirror Universe, and they painted a befittingly bleak picture. Deanna Troi, the ship’s empathic counselor, was reframed as the Inquisitor. Standing by Picard’s side, Inquisitor Troi scans everyone, ferreting out the loyal and the dissidents with ruthless efficiency. Most heart-breaking of all was Barclay , who, in the Mirror Universe, was a scheming and cold-hearted man, seeking revenge on those who wronged his family. The Terran Empire was no longer as mighty as it once was, but was still terrifying and disturbing.

The revelation that the “Conspiracy” parasites come from another world in the multiverse might seem to make the concept a terrifying one in the Star Trek mythos. Between the evil Mirror Universe and the utterly alien and disgusting parasites, it would seem the multiverse is full of unsavory characters, and the Federation would be best advised to abandon any research in this area. Yet this need not be the case, and indeed, it could open up new vistas in the Star Trek universe to explore. The franchise is built upon the concept of exploration, making this a logical next step.

Future Star Trek Shows Need to Lean More into the Multiverse Concept

The multiverse is a potentially infinite frontier.

The “Conspiracy” parasites emanating from another universe shows the strength of the multiverse concept as it pertains to the Star Trek franchise. The Mirror Universe has been a key component of the mythos for over 50 years. The “Conspiracy” aliens have been a part of the Star Trek universe for over 30 years, and making this established race part of the larger multiverse shows love for the concept. Future Star Trek media can use the multiverse as a springboard to tell some of the franchise’s strongest stories.

Star Trek: Defiant #14 is on sale now from IDW Publishing!

You know these four celebrities. You may not know they were part of the D-Day invasion.

You’ve seen the black-and-white D-Day photographs taken under fire on the Normandy beaches during Operation Overlord, the pivotal World War II invasion that led to the defeat of Germany in 1945.

Perhaps you’ve visited northern France and looked out over Omaha Beach, trying to imagine the carnage of June 6, 1944, or walked among the gravesites at the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer .

80 years later: D-Day vets head back to Normandy .

Map of invasion: Where Allied troops landed .

Les Americans débarque: Grandmother’s diary documents D-Day opening .

Looking back: Why D-Day is still important today .

All D-Day survivors carried memories for the rest of their lives, even those who went on to careers in films, books, sports and television. Despite later becoming celebrities, they remained deeply affected.

Here are four men you may recognize. They were there. Here are some of the memories they couldn't forget.

James Doohan , actor

Why you know him: James Doohan played Chief Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott aboard the starship Enterprise on the original "Star Trek" TV series.

Where was he on D-Day? Juno Beach landing.

Unable to view our graphics? Click here to see them .

Military branch: Doohan was an artillery officer in D Company, Winnipeg Rifles, 14th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, Royal Canadian Army.

What happened: After crossing Juno Beach, Doohan shot two German snipers in the French village of Graye-sur-Mer and was shot at least six times – not by a German, but by a nervous Canadian sentry – at about 11:30 that evening. He was hit by four bullets in the leg, one in his hand that took off his right middle finger, and one in the chest that was stopped by a silver cigarette case.

Did he ever talk about D-Day? Doohan wrote to Steven Spielberg to praise the director's film "Saving Private Ryan," which opens with a depiction of the invasion on Omaha Beach. "I suffered through the first 25 minutes of the movie," Doohan later told The New York Times.

Doohan died in 2005 at age 85 .

J.D. Salinger , author

Why you know him: Jerome David Salinger is the author of "Catcher in the Rye" and other stories.

Where was he on D-Day? Utah Beach landing.

Military branch: 12th Infantry Regiment, Fourth Infantry Division, U.S. Army.

What happened: Salinger was drafted into the Army in 1942 and became an officer with the Counter-Intelligence Corps. He was in the second wave of the Utah Beach landing. After Normandy, he was at the liberation of Paris, fought at the Battle of the Bulge, and helped liberate prisoners at the Dachau concentration camp in April 1945.

Did he ever talk about D-Day? Salinger committed himself for psychiatric evaluation of battle fatigue after Dachau. He was honorably discharged in 1946. He rarely spoke about the war, but his wartime experiences appear in a number of his stories. “You never really get the smell of burned flesh out of your nose entirely, no matter how long you live ,” he once told his daughter.

Salinger died in 2010 at age 91 .

Yogi Berra , baseball All-Star

Why you know him: Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra was an 18-time All-Star baseball player and cultural icon who was a catcher for the New York Yankees and later a manager and coach. He was part of 10 World Series championship teams.

Where was he on D-Day? Offshore at Omaha Beach and Utah Beach.

Military branch: U.S. Navy.

What happened: Seaman 1st class Berra was a gunner's mate on the USS Bayfield , an attack transport. He was aboard a Landing Craft Small Support boat that fired bullets and rockets at enemy positions on the beaches before Allied troops landed. He was injured by enemy fire and was awarded the Purple Heart.

Did he ever talk about D-Day? Berra was interviewed by NBC in 2004 about the invasion. "I sit and I thank the good Lord I was in the Navy," Berra said. "We ate good, clean clothes, clean bed. You see some of these Army men, what they went through, that's the ones I felt for."

Berra died in 2015 at age 90 .

Charles Durning , actor

Why you know him:  Charles Durning was a popular character actor who appeared in more than 100 movies, including “The Sting,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Tootsie” and "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas." He was nominated for two Academy Awards and nine Emmys.

Where was he on D-Day?  Omaha Beach landing.

Military branch:  1st Infantry Division, U.S. Army.

What happened:  Durning was drafted into the Army. He was in one of the first waves to land on Omaha Beach. He was injured by a land mine at Les Mare des Mares nine days after D-Day, for which he received his first Purple Heart. He recovered, returned to combat, and was later stabbed by a teenage German soldier , whom he killed with a rock.

Durning was captured during the Battle of the Bulge and survived the Malmedy massacre in which German soldiers opened fire on prisoners of war on Dec. 17, 1944. He entered Germany with the 398th Infantry Regiment and was shot in the chest. He recovered and was discharged with three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star in 1946.

Did he ever talk about D-Day?  Durning was reluctant to talk of his wartime experiences but spoke at a Washington event observing the 60th anniversary of D-Day , Reuters reported. "I forget a lot of stuff now, but I still wake up once in a while and it's still there," he said. "I can't count how many of my buddies are in the cemetery at Normandy."

Durning died in 2012 at age 89 . He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery .

Source USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Reuters; news.va.gov; army.mil; military.com

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Star Trek: Discovery tore itself apart for the good of Star Trek’s future

And it helped set the tone for where Star Trek is now

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If you were to jump directly from the first episode of Star Trek: Discovery to its finale — which just debuted on Paramount Plus — the whiplash would throw you clear out of your seat like your ship had suffered an inertial damper malfunction. Since its first two chapters premiered on CBS All Access in 2017, the series has moved to a different ship and a different century, and has acquired an almost entirely different set of characters. Moreover, Discovery has received a radical tonal refit, evolving in fits and starts from a dark and violent war story to a much sunnier action-adventure serial.

Though it never won the mainstream attention or critical acclaim of its spinoff, Strange New Worlds , nor the gushing fan adulation of Picard ’s Next Gen reunion , Discovery spearheaded Star Trek’s return to television , the franchise’s maiden voyage into the frontier of premium streaming content. Like any bold pathfinder, Discovery encountered obstacles, suffered losses, and made some major course corrections. But, if you ask the cast and crew, the adventure has been more than worth the tumultuous journey.

Tacking into the wind

“We were on wobbly legs for a long time,” admits star Sonequa Martin-Green, whose character, Michael Burnham, has had the rug pulled out from under her a number of times over the course of the series. In the first season and backstory alone, Burnham lost her parents, saw her mentor murdered, was tried for mutiny, discovered that her first love is a Klingon sleeper agent, and was betrayed by not one but two Mirror Universe doppelgängers of trusted Starfleet captains.

Move over, Deep Space Nine — this was instantly the grimmest canonical depiction of the Star Trek universe on screen. Season 1 of Discovery was rated TV-MA and featured more blood and gore than the franchise had ever seen, not to mention an instance of graphic Klingon nudity. (Actor Mary Wiseman recalls seeing her co-star Mary Chieffo walking the set wearing prosthetic alien breasts and thinking, What the hell? ) The corpse of Michelle Yeoh’s character is cannibalized by Klingons off screen, and her successor, portrayed by Jason Isaacs, turns out to be a manipulative psycho from the Mirror Universe who tries to mold Burnham into his plaything.

The bleak, adult-oriented tone was not the only sticking point with Star Trek purists, as Discovery would take place a decade before the original 1960s Star Trek but have a design aesthetic much closer to that of the 2009 movie reboot, leading to some irreconcilable clashes with continuity. The show’s serialized, season-long arcs were a far cry from the familiar “planet of the week” stories of most previous incarnations of the franchise. Then there was Burnham’s backstory as the never-before-mentioned human foster sister to Trek’s iconic Vulcan Spock , a creative decision that has “clueless studio note” written all over it. Even ahead of its debut, Discovery faced vocal opposition from the fan base for straying so far from their notion of what Star Trek was supposed to be. (Not to mention the revolting but quite vocal faction of fans who were incensed that Star Trek had “gone woke,” as if it hadn’t been that way the whole time.) Many of Discovery ’s detractors flocked toward The Orville , a Fox series starring and created by Seth MacFarlane that was essentially ’90s-style Star Trek with the occasional dick joke thrown in. The Orville offered fans alienated by Discovery ’s vastly different approach to Star Trek a more familiar (but far less ambitious) alternative.

The grim Klingon War story was the brainchild of co-creator Bryan Fuller, who had been a member of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Voyager writers rooms before creating cult series like Pushing Daisies and Hannibal . Fuller would end up departing Team Discovery before production even began, asked to resign after a string of creative differences with the studio. New showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg carried out a version of Fuller’s plans without him, and then oversaw the show’s first major pivot. Discovery ’s second season was immediately brighter, more colorful, and cozier with established Star Trek lore. (This is the arc that would introduce the versions of Pike , Spock , and Number One who now lead Strange New Worlds .) But things weren’t so sunny behind the scenes — Harberts and Berg were fired midway through the season after writers accused the duo of creating an abusive work environment.

As different as Discovery would eventually stray from the HBO-style drama of its first season, co-creator Alex Kurtzman feels that the mission of the series has never changed.

“One of the things that we set up in season 1 is that we knew that Burnham would start as a mutineer and end up a captain,” says Kurtzman. “What was exciting about that is that we knew it would take time.”

Captain on deck

It was after Harberts and Berg’s departure that Kurtzman, who had remained involved but been primarily occupied with the development of the growing television Star Trek franchise as a whole, took the helm of Discovery himself. Before long, he would promote writer and co-executive producer Michelle Paradise to the role of co-showrunner, which she would retain for the remainder of the series. Just as the late, great Michael Piller did during the third season of The Next Generation , Paradise brought a sense of stability and confidence to Discovery , which reverberated onto set.

“I commend Michelle Paradise and the rest of the writers because this show evolved ,” says Martin-Green. “Our initial showrunners, Aaron Harberts and Gretchen Berg, they made their impact and that’ll never be erased, but landing where we did with Michelle co-showrunning with Alex Kurtzman, jumping farther than any Trek had gone before, I feel that’s when our feet were solid on the ground and when we really established our identity.”

Season 2 fell into a steady rhythm that felt more in tune with Kurtzman’s “movie every week” philosophy, never far in tone from the reboot film trilogy on which Kurtzman served as a writer and producer. The steady presence of Michelle Yeoh’s deliciously amoral Emperor Georgiou was a major boon, essentially becoming Star Trek’s answer to Buffy ’s Spike or Dragon Ball Z ’s Vegeta. However, Discovery was also undeniably borrowing clout from legacy characters Pike and Spock, and the constant friction with established canon wasn’t sitting well with Kurtzman or the audience.

The season ended with a surprising twist that resolved the continuity problems but also changed the entire nature of the show. The titular starship and its crew would be propelled 930 years into the future, past the furthest fixed point in Star Trek’s continuity. No longer forced to tiptoe around the sacred canon, Discovery was free to sprint in a bold new direction. Once again and in a more tangible way, it was a whole new show.

“If the folks who came in had sort of taken us off the rails that would have been a very different experience,” says Anthony Rapp, who portrays the prickly Commander Paul Stamets. “But Michelle Paradise came through as such a shining light and a beautiful presence in our lives. She took the show into this territory of being able to have the heart in its center in a way that felt very grounded and meaningful, and really helped us to make that transition.”

An open sky

Season 3 of Discovery offered Kurtzman, Paradise, producing director Olatunde Osunsanmi, and the rest of the creative team a rare opportunity to completely rewrite Star Trek’s galactic map . Not since the launch of The Next Generation in 1987 had a writers room been able to venture onto such “fresh snow,” as Paradise puts it. In the 32nd century, beyond the furthest point explored in the established Trek canon, the righteous United Federation of Planets has all but collapsed in the aftermath of “the Burn,” a mysterious space calamity. Some longtime friends are now adversaries, and even Earth has become an isolationist state. The USS Discovery, displaced in time, becomes the means by which to reconnect the shattered galaxy. It’s not hard to read this as a mission statement for Star Trek as a whole — a relic from another time, back to offer hope to a bleak present.

Season 3’s 13-episode arc restored a bit of Star Trek’s space Western roots, with warp drive a rare and costly luxury in the ravaged 32nd century and half the galaxy dominated by a vast criminal empire known as the Emerald Chain. Michael Burnham spent much of the season out of uniform, having found a new purpose as a more roguish freelance courier alongside the sweet and savvy Cleveland Booker (David Ajala). This is arguably the most interesting version of the show, as Michael questions whether or not Starfleet — the institution whose trust she has worked so hard to restore — is still her home.

By the end of the season (and right on schedule with Fuller and Kurtzman’s original plans), Michael Burnham finally accepts her destiny and becomes captain of Discovery. More subtly, this altered the premise of the show for a third time, as the central question of “Will Michael ever become captain?” had been answered in the affirmative. But, since she’d already been the central character and a figure of improbable cosmic import, the change was mostly cosmetic. And symbolic — Martin-Green considers her presence “being Black, and a woman, and a captain sitting in that chair” to be her greatest contribution to Star Trek. After three seasons of struggle and uncertainty, Burnham could now be as aspirational a character as Picard , Sisko, or Janeway .

The tone on which the show settled at the end of season 3 would be the one that finally stuck. Where the series had initially been bloody and brooding, it was now squarely an adventure show featuring a cast of characters with a boundless and demonstrative love for each other. The crew would face mortal danger each episode and a galactic-level threat each season, bolstered by very expensive-looking visual effects and a rousing score. At the same time, many conflicts both large and small would eventually be resolved by characters talking through their feelings and finding common ground. This was exhausting as often as it was compelling, but it was consistent. For its final two seasons, viewers could finally know what to expect from Star Trek: Discovery .

Discovering itself

This “feelings over phasers” approach was not for everyone, but it was never intended to be. Even from the outset, before Paramount began pumping out more Star Trek series to target different facets of the fan base, Discovery was never meant to be a definitive Star Trek experience that checked every box.

“You’ll never be able to be everything to everybody,” says Michelle Paradise. “The goal was always to make the best version of Discovery . It’s a different kind of Star Trek. It’s serialized, it’s fewer episodes, it’s a movie every week. That’s a thing that will appeal to many people, and for some people it won’t be their cup of tea.”

Discovery has bounced up and down my personal ranking of Star Trek series a number of times during its run, more than any of its past or present siblings. I have begun each season of the show with great excitement, and that excitement is frequently exhausted by season’s end. Most Trek series have good years and bad years. To me, Discovery suffers from being simultaneously brilliant, innovative, lazy, cringe, inspiring, and eye-rolling at all times, only in different measures. It features the franchise’s strongest lead actor since Patrick Stewart, and a supporting cast that has never been leveraged to my satisfaction. In my career, I have written more words about Star Trek: Discovery than any other television series, and I still haven’t made up my mind about it. For as many cheerleaders and haters as the show must have, I imagine there are many more viewers who feel the way I do — it’s a show that I wanted to love, but never fully fell in love with.

As Discovery disappears in the aft viewport, some will bid it a fond farewell, some will be blowing it raspberries, and some will turn away with total disinterest. But regardless of how well Discovery itself is remembered in the coming years, it has already made a substantial impact on the franchise. It paved the way for every Trek series that followed, including three direct spinoffs. Its second season was the incubator for Strange New Worlds , now the most acclaimed Trek series in a generation. Michelle Yeoh had such fun in her recurring role on Discovery that, even after winning an Academy Award , she was still keen to return for the upcoming Section 31 TV movie . Discovery ’s 32nd-century setting will continue to be explored in the new Starfleet Academy series , leaving the door open for some of its characters to return.

Even the new shows that have no direct relationship to Discovery have benefitted from the precedent it set by being different from what came before. Lower Decks is an animated sitcom, Prodigy is a kid-targeted cartoon , Picard is… a bunch of different things that don’t work together , but they are all different shows. Star Trek was one thing, and beginning with Discovery , it became many things. And for Star Trek, an institution that preaches the value of infinite diversity in infinite combinations, that’s a legacy to be proud of.

Star Trek: Discovery is now streaming in full on Paramount Plus.

Star Trek: Discovery boldly goes where no Trek has gone before by saying religion is... OK, actually

Star trek: discovery is cracking open a box next gen closed on purpose, star trek: discovery is finally free to do whatever it wants, loading comments....

‘Star Trek: Discovery’ is over. Now Alex Kurtzman readies for ‘Starfleet Academy’ and ‘Section 31’

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In “Star Trek” terms, and in the real world of “Star Trek” television, Alex Kurtzman, who oversees the 21st century franchise, might be described as the Federation president, from whose offices various series depart on their individual missions. Indeed, to hear him speak of it, the whole enterprise — honestly, no pun intended — seems to run very much on the series’ ethos of individual initiative and group consensus.

The first series to be launched, “ Star Trek: Discovery, ” has come to an end as of Thursday after five seasons on Paramount+. Others in the fleet include the concluded “ Picard, ” which brought “The Next Generation” into a new generation; the ongoing “ Strange New Worlds, ” which precedes the action of what’s now called “The Original Series,” from which it takes its spirit and several characters; “Lower Decks,” a comedy set among Starfleet service workers; and “Prodigy,” in which a collection of teenage aliens go joyriding in a starship. On the horizon are “Starfleet Academy,” with Holly Hunter set to star, and a TV feature, “ Section 31, ” with Michelle Yeoh back as Philippa Georgiou.

I spoke with Kurtzman, whose “Trek” trek began as a writer on the quantum-canonical reboot movies “ Star Trek ” (2009) and “ Star Trek: Into Darkness ” (2013), at Secret Hideout, his appropriately unmarked Santa Monica headquarters. Metro trains glide by his front door unaware. We began the conversation, edited for length and clarity here, with a discussion of his “Trek” universe.

Alex Kurtzman: I liken them to different colors in the rainbow. It makes no sense to me to make one show that’s for everybody; it makes a lot of sense to make a lot of shows individually tailored to a sect of the “Star Trek” audience. It’s a misnomer that there’s a one-size-fits-all Trekkie. And rather than make one show that’s going to please everybody — and will almost certainly please nobody — let’s make an adult drama, an animated comedy, a kids’ comedy, an adventure show and on and on. There’s something quite beautiful about that; it allows each of the stories to bloom in its own unique way.

Do you get pushback from the fans?

Absolutely. In some ways that’s the point. One of the things I learned early on is that to be in love with “Star Trek” is to engage in healthy debate. There is no more vocal fan base. Some people tell you that their favorite is “The Original Series,” some say their favorite is “Voyager” and some say their favorite is “Discovery.” Yet they all come together and talk about what makes something singularly “Trek” — [creator] Gene Roddenberry‘s extraordinarily optimistic vision of the future when all that divides us [gets placed] in the rearview mirror and we get to move on and discover things. Like all great science fiction, you get to pick your allegory to the real world and come up with the science fiction equivalent. And everybody who watches understands what we’re talking about — racism or the Middle East or whatever.

What specific objections did you find to “Discovery”?

I think people felt it was too dark. We really listen to our fans in the writers’ room — everybody will have read a different article or review over the weekend, and we talk about what feels relevant and what feels less relevant. And then we engage in a healthy democratic debate about why and begin to apply that; it seeps into the decisions we make. Season 1 of “Discovery” was always intended to be a journey from darkness into light, and ultimately reinforce Roddenberry’s vision. I think people were just stunned by something that felt darker than any “Trek” had before. But doing a dark “Star Trek” really wasn’t our goal. The show is a mirror that holds itself up to the times, and we were in 2017 — we saw the nation fracture hugely right after the election, and it’s only gotten worse since then. We were interpreting that through science fiction. There were people who appreciated that and others for whom it was just not “Star Trek.” And the result, in Season 2, Capt. [Christopher] Pike showed up, Number One showed up, Spock showed up, and we began to bring in what felt to people more like the “Star Trek” they understood.

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You’re ending the series after five seasons. Was that always a plan?

You know, we were surprised we didn’t continue, and yet it feels now that it was right. One of the things that happened very quickly as streaming took off was that it radically changed watch patterns for viewers. Shows that used to go 10, 12 seasons, people would tap out after two — like, “I got what I want” — so for any show to go five seasons, it’s a miracle. In ways I don’t think we could have predicted, the season from the beginning feels like it’s the last; it just has a sense of finality. The studio was wonderful in that they recognized we needed to put a button on it, we needed a period on the end of the sentence, and so they allowed us to go back, which we did right before the strike, and [film] the coda that wraps up the series.

“Discovery” is a riot of love stories, among both heroes and villains.

There’s certainly a history of that in “Star Trek.” Whether or not characters were engaged in direct relationships, there was always a subtext of the love between them. I believe that’s why we love the bridge crew, because it’s really a love story, everyone’s in a love story, and they all care for each other and fight like family members. But ultimately they’re there to help each other and explore the universe together. If there’s some weird problem, and the answer’s not immediately apparent, each of them brings a different skill set and therefore a different perspective; they clash in their debate on how to proceed and then find some miraculous solution that none of them would have thought of at the outset.

One of the beautiful things about the shows is that you get to spend a long time with them, as opposed to a two-hour movie where you have to get in and out quickly and then wait a couple of years before the next one comes along. To be able to be on their weekly adventures, it affords the storytelling level of depth and complexity a two-hour movie just can’t achieve in that way.

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It’s astonishing how much matter you got into these things. Some storylines that only lasted an episode I remembered as seasonal arcs.

The sheer tonnage of story and character we were able to pack into “Discovery” every episode was kind of incredible. The thing to keep in mind is that “Discovery” was made as streaming was exploding, so what I think you’re also seeing there is a lot of writers who were trained in the network world with an A, B and C story applying it suddenly to a very different kind of storytelling in a much more cinematic medium. And when you have that kind of scope it starts to become really, really big. Sometimes that works really, really well and sometimes it was too much. And we were figuring it out; it was a bunch of people with flashlights in the dark, looking for how to interpret “Star Trek” now, since it had been 12 years since it had been on a television screen.

Are you able to course-correct within a season?

Sure. You get people you really trust in the room. Aaron Baiers, who runs Secret Hideout, is one of my most important early-warning systems; he isn’t necessarily in the room when we’re breaking stories, but he’s the first person who’ll read an outline and he’s the first person who’ll read a script. What I value so much about his perspective is that he’s coming in cold, he’s just like, “I’m the viewer, and I understand this or I don’t understand it, I feel this or I don’t feel it.” The studio executives are very similar. They love “Star Trek,” they’re all die-hard fans and have very strong feelings about what is appropriate. It then goes through a series of artists in every facet, from props to visual effects to production design, and they’re bringing their interpretations and opinions to the story.

Did “Strange New Worlds” come out of the fact that everybody loved seeing Christopher Pike in “Discovery?”

I really have to credit Akiva Goldsman with this. He knew that I was going to bring Pike into the premiere of the second season of “Discovery,” and said, “You know, there’s an incredible show about Capt. Pike and the Enterprise before Kirk takes over; there’s seven years of great storytelling there” — or five years, depending on when you come into the storyline. I said, “We have to cast a successful Pike first, so let’s see if that works. Let’s figure out who’s Number One, and who Spock is,” which are wildly tall orders. I hadn’t seen Anson Mount in other things before [he was cast as Pike], and when he sent in his taped audition it was that wonderful moment where you go, “That’s exactly the person we’re looking for.” Everybody loves Pike because he’s the kind of leader you want, definitive and clear but open to everyone’s perspective and humanistic in his response. And then we had the incredibly tall order of having Ethan [Peck] step into Leonard [Nimoy’s] and [Zachary Quinto’s] shoes.

He’s great.

He’s amazing, just a delight of a human being. And Rebecca Romijn‘s energy, what she brings to Number One is such a contemporary take on a character that was kind of a cipher in “The Original Series.” But she brings a kind of joy, a comedy, a bearing, a gravitas to the character that feels very modern. Thank God the fans responded the way they did and sent that petition [calling for a “Legacy” series], because everybody at CBS got the message very quickly. Jenny Lumet and Akiva and I wrote a pilot, and we were off to the races. Typically it takes fans a minute to adjust to what you’re doing, especially with beloved legacy characters, but the response to “Strange New World” from a critical perspective and fan perspective and just a viewership perspective was so immediate, it really did help us understand what was satisfying fans.

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What can you tell me about “Starfleet Academy?” Is it going to be Earth-based or space-based?

I’m going to say, without giving anything away, both. Right now we’re in the middle of answering the question what does San Francisco, where the academy is, look like in the 32nd century. Our primary set is the biggest we’ve ever built.

So you’re setting this —

In the “Discovery” era. There’s a specific reason for that. As the father of a 17-year-old boy, I see what my son is feeling as he looks at the world and to his future. I see the uncertainty; I see all the things we took for granted as given are not certainties for him. I see him recognizing he’s inheriting an enormous mess to clean up and it’s going to be on his generation to figure out how to do that, and that’s a lot to ask of a kid. My thinking was, if we set “Starfleet Academy” in the halcyon days of the Federation where everything was fine, it’s not going to speak to what kids are going through right now.

It’ll be a nice fantasy, but it’s not really going to be authentic. What’ll be authentic is to set it in the timeline where this is the first class back after over 100 years, and they are coming into a world that is only beginning to recover from a cataclysm — which was the Burn, as established on “Star Trek: Discovery,” where the Federation was greatly diminished. So they’re the first who’ll inherit, who’ll re-inherit, the task of exploration as a primary goal, because there just wasn’t room for that during the Burn — everybody was playing defense. It’s an incredibly optimistic show, an incredibly fun show; it’s a very funny show, and it’s a very emotional show. I think these kids, in different ways, are going to represent what a lot of kids are feeling now.

And I’m very, very , very excited that Holly Hunter is the lead of the show. Honestly, when we were working on the scripts, we wrote it for Holly thinking she’d never do it. And we sent them to her, and to our absolute delight and shock she loved them and signed on right away.

And then you’ve got the “Section 31” movie.

“Section 31” is Michelle Yeoh’s return as Georgiou. A very, very different feeling for “Star Trek.” I will always be so grateful to her, because on the heels of her nomination and then her Oscar win , she just doubled down on coming back to “Star Trek.” She could have easily walked away from it; she had a lot of other opportunities. But she remained steadfast and totally committed. We just wrapped that up and are starting to edit now.

Are you looking past “Starfleet” and “Section 31” to future projects?

There’s always notions and there are a couple of surprises coming up, but I really try to live in the shows that are in front of me in the moment because they’re so all-consuming. I’m directing the first two episodes of “Starfleet Academy,” so right now my brain is just wholly inside that world. But you can tell “Star Trek” stories forever; there’s always more. There’s something in the DNA of its construction that allows you to keep opening different doors. Some of that is science fiction, some of it has to do with the combination of science fiction and the organic embracing of all these other genres that lets you explore new territories. I don’t think it’s ever going to end. I think it’s going to go on for a long, long time. The real question for “Star Trek” is how do you keep innovating, how do you deliver both what people expect and something totally fresh at the same time. Because I think that is actually what people want from “Star Trek.” They want what’s familiar delivered in a way that doesn’t feel familiar.

With all our showrunners — Terry Matalas on “Picard,” the Hagemans on “Prodigy,” Mike McMahan on “Lower Decks,” Michelle Paradise, who has been singlehandedly running “Discovery” for the last two years, and then Akiva and Henry Alonso Myers on “Strange New Worlds” — my feeling is that the best way to protect and preserve “Star Trek” is not to impose my own vision on it but [find people] who meet the criteria of loving “Star Trek,” wanting to do new things with it, understanding how incredibly hard it is to do. And then I’m going to let you do your job. I’ll come in and tell you what I think every once in a while, and I’ll help get the boat off the dock, but once I hand the show over to a creative it has to be their show. And that means you’re going to get a different take every time, and as long as those takes all feel like they can marry into the same rainbow, to get back to the metaphor, that’s the way to keep “Star Trek” fresh.

I take great comfort because “Star Trek” really only belongs to Gene Roddenberry and the fans. We don’t own it. We carry it, we try to evolve it and then we hand it off to the next people. And hopefully they will love it as much as we do.

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'Star Trek: Discovery' ends as an underappreciated TV pioneer

Eric Deggans

Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham. Michael Gibson/Paramount+ hide caption

First, an admission: Though this column will offer a lot of discussion and defense of Star Trek: Discovery as a pivotal show, it won’t spend much time talking up the series’ current, final season or its finale episode, “Life, Itself,” dropping Thursday on Paramount+.

That’s because, for this critic, the last few seasons of Discovery have been a bit bogged down by the stuff that has always made it a tough sell as a Trek series: overly ambitious, serialized storylines that aren’t compelling; new characters and environments that don’t impress; plot twists which can be maddening in their lack of logic; big storytelling swings which can be confusing and predictable at once.

'Star Trek: Picard' soars by embracing the legacy of 'The Next Generation'

The show’s finale features the culmination of a sprawling scavenger hunt which found the crew of the starship Discovery bounding all over the place, searching for clues leading to a powerful technology pioneered by an alien race which created humanoid life throughout the galaxy. Their goal was to grab the technology before another race, ruthless and aggressive, could beat them to it, laying waste to everything.

It's no spoiler to reveal that Discovery ’s heroes avoid that nightmarish scenario, wrapping its fifth and final season with a conclusion centered on Sonequa Martin-Green’s ever-resourceful Capt. Michael Burnham and fond resolutions for a multitude of supporting characters (there’s even a space wedding!)

Still, this good-enough ending belies Discovery ’s status as a pioneering show which helped Paramount+ build a new vision for Star Trek in modern television – breaking ground that more creatively successful series like Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds would follow years later.

And it all began with a singular character: Michael Burnham.

A take on Star Trek for modern TV

Discovery debuted in 2017 on CBS All Access — the streaming service which would become Paramount+ — facing a serious challenge.

As the first new Trek series in a dozen years, it had to chart a path which offered a new vision of the franchise without going too far — carving out a new corner in the universe of Capt. Kirk and Mr. Spock not long after the release of Star Trek Beyond , the third feature film produced by J. J. Abrams featuring rebooted versions of those classic characters.

Producers set Discovery ’s story 10 years before the days of Kirk and Spock (originally depicted on NBC for three seasons starting way back in 1966). The new series wouldn’t be centered on a starship captain, but its second in command: Burnham, a Black woman who also happened to be the hitherto unknown adopted daughter of Vulcan ambassador Sarek, Spock’s father (she would get promoted to captain of Discovery much later).

A Black human woman who was raised among the emotionally controlling, super-intellectual Vulcans? Who Trek fans had never heard of over nearly 60 years? Before I actually saw any episodes, my own feelings ranged from cautiously intrigued to cynically pessimistic.

But then I saw the first episode, which had an amazing early scene: Martin-Green as Burnham and Michelle Yeoh as Discovery Capt. Philippa Georgiou walking across an alien planet – two women of color marking the first step forward for Star Trek on a new platform.

People once sidelined in typical science fiction stories were now centerstage — a thrilling, historic moment.

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou and Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham in the very first episode of Star Trek: Discovery. Jan Thijs/CBS hide caption

And it got better from there. Back in the day, Trek writers often felt hamstrung by creator Gene Roddenberry’s insistence that, in the future depicted by the show, humans were beyond social ills like greed, prejudice, sexism, war, money and personal friction. The writers chafed, wondering: How in the world do you build compelling stories on a starship where interpersonal human conflict doesn’t exist?

But Discovery found a workaround, putting Burnham in a position where logic led her to mutiny against her captain, attempting a strategy which ultimately failed — leaving humans in open combat with the legendarily warlike Klingons. Discovery also featured a long storyline which played out over an entire season, unlike many earlier Trek shows which tried to offer a new adventure every week.

'First, Last And Always, I Am A Fan': Michael Chabon Steers Latest 'Star Trek'

The show’s first season had plenty of action, with Harry Potter alum Jason Isaacs emerging as a compelling and unique starship captain (saying more would be a spoiler; log onto Paramount+ and check out the first season). Fans saw a new vision for Trek technology, leveraging sleek, visceral special effects and action sequences worthy of a big budget movie, with design elements cribbed from several of the franchise’s films.

Later in its run, Discovery would debut Ethan Peck as Spock and Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, classic Trek characters who eventually got their own acclaimed series in Strange New Worlds . So far, five other Trek series have emerged on Paramount+ from ideas initially incubated on Discovery – including a critically acclaimed season of Picard which reunited the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Not bad for a series one TV critic eventually called among “the worst in the [ Trek ] franchise’s history.”

Discovery’s unappreciated legacy

Unfortunately, Discovery has taken some turns which didn’t work out quite so well. At the end of Discovery ’s second season, the starship jumped ahead in time nine centuries – perhaps to remove it from Strange New World ’s timeline? – placing it in an environment only distantly connected to classic Trek .

And while Discovery initially seemed cautious about referencing classic Trek in its stories, later series like Strange New Worlds and Picard learned the value of diving into the near-60-year-old franchise’s legacy – regularly tapping the show’s longtime appeal, rather than twisting into knots to avoid it.

There are likely fans of Discovery who would disagree with this analysis. But I think it helps explain why the series has never quite gotten its due in the world of Star Trek , initially shaded by skeptical fans and later overshadowed by more beloved products.

Now is the perfect time to pay tribute to a show which actually accomplished quite a lot – helping prove that Roddenberry’s brainchild still has a lot of narrative juice left in the 21st Century.

Marvel (Sort of) Gave Us the First Four Minutes of ‘Secret Invasion’ on This Hidden Website

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Marvel Studios is gearing up for a gritty spy story with the upcoming Secret Invasion series. In true spy fashion, the studio released some cryptic tweets and soon deleted them. But eagle-eyed fans noticed the address of a new website theinvasionhasbegun.com . Upon entering the website, a password is required, after piecing the clues in various images together, the password turns out to be RSD3PX5N7S.

The website then takes you to a new four-minute long clip that sees Everett Ross ( Martin Freeman ) in present-day Moscow meeting an agent called Prescod, who then informs him about the “chaos” that’s coming their way in the form of the Skrulls, and establishes that Nick Fury ( Samuel L. Jackson ) is needed on Earth , before attacking Ross. The thrilling clip sets up the events of the upcoming feature in the best possible cryptic way.

What is Secret Invasion About?

Nick Fury has been long missing in action, and we really don’t know what happened after he came back from the blip. We see him briefly at Tony Starks’ funeral, and in Spider-Man: Far From Home wherein Talos had taken his place on Earth, while Fury himself took it easy in space. The seeds for Secret Invasion were sown with Captain Marvel , which saw Fury promising the Skrulls a new home. However, decades later when he’s unable to provide one, a new generation of those Skrulls have decided to take over Earth. The new clip suggests these Skrulls are behind the tensions escalating throughout the world. With previously released trailer and images , it is certain that no one can be trusted even the characters we thought we knew can eventually turn out to be a Skrull in disguise and Fury will have to fight this fight alone.

RELATED: Don Cheadle Calls ‘Secret Invasion’ a Political Cold War Story

The cast and creators behind secret invasion.

The series brings back Jackson as Nick Fury, Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, Freeman as Everett K. Ross, and Don Cheadle as Rhodey. The series also cast a new slew of characters including Kingsley Ben-Adir as antagonist Gravik, Emilia Clarke as G'iah, Olivia Colman as Sonya Falsworth, a high-ranking MI6 agent, and Dermot Mulroney as Ritson, the President of the United States. Further, rounding off the cast are Charlayne Woodard , Killian Scott , Samuel Adewunmi , Christopher McDonald , Katie Finneran , and Carmen Ejogo – all cast in undisclosed roles. The series is created by Mr Robot fame Kyle Bradstreet and is directed by Ali Selim .

Secret Invasion is scheduled to premiere on June 21. You can check out the trailer below:

• Secret Invasion (2023)