In this age, it is not uncommon for different parts of a large media franchise to crossover with one another. But I don’t really think that anyone could have seriously predicted Paramount announcing that the live-action Star Trek: Strange New Worlds series would have a crossover with their animated Star Trek: Lower Decks series.
The announcement came yesterday at Paramount’s Star Trek panel during this weekend’s San Diego Comic Con.
The crossover will come some time next year during Strange New Worlds‘s upcoming second season and see that show’s lead, Captain Christopher Pike as played by Anson Mount, traveling forward in time nearly 100 years, to Lower Decks‘s USS Cerritos where he will encounter ensigns Brad Boimler and Beckett Mariner as played the animated characters’ voice actors Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome. No real further information about the episode has been announced.
Strange New Worlds is set about ten years before Captain James T Kirk’s historic tour of duty on the Federation starship Enterprise. Mount stars as Kirk’s predecessor on the Enterprise. Lower Decks is set several years after the conclusion of Star Trek: The Next Generation and is a comedic take on life aboard ship for lower ranking crew on board a fairly unremarkable ship of the line.
Comedic episodes have a long tradition in Star Trek, dating all the way to the original series in episodes such as “The Trouble With Tribbles” and “Shore Leave.”
Star Trek: Lower Decks returns for its third season on the Paramount+ streaming service on August 25.
