Star Trek Day 2024 Sets Course For Charity, Pop Up Events, And Free Premieres
Go where no chair has popped up before
September 8 is fast-approaching, which means the fifth annual Star Trek Day is almost here. With the dual strikes now long over, one may expect something of a full-strength event stocked with cast and crew across many of the past and present Star Trek series. After all, just because the event details are short notice for the public doesn’t mean the organization of the event wasn’t. Instead, it seems this year’s festivities will be talent free, and any news and announcements are looking more unlikely.
Instead the franchise announces a global campaign, a social activation called “Take the Chair, Make an Impact,” encouraging fans to “embrace the optimistic vision of a brighter future”, to “give back to the inclusive community of fans” that the franchise has fostered over the years, and the ltake on the mission of giving back”. Star Trek is donating to Code.org, giving every K-12 student the opportunity to learn computer science, DoSomething.org, fueling young people to change the world, and Outright International, advocating for LGBTQIA+ inclusion and equality globally. 25% of product sales in the United States from select items will go to the aforementioned organizations. Fans all over the world will be able to do a digital experience available on StarTrek.com, the franchise’s website.
Several pop-up events will be occurring, including at the Taste of Chicago located in Chicago, Illinois, throughout the weekend of September 6, which will feature the U.S.S. Enterprise captain’s chair. September 8 activations in Berlin, Germany, at the ALEXA Mall and in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the Richmond Centre will feature a modern architectural interpretation of the captain’s chair crafted from sustainable materials.
And finally, the premiere episodes of all Paramount+-available Star Trek series and several Short Treks will be available to watch for free from September 7-13 on Paramount+ partner platforms Amazon, Apple and Roku, its official YouTube page, Pluto TV and, in the United States only, on the Paramount+ free content hub. As last year demonstrated, Prodigy is the one exception. Considering the awkwardness of its glaring absence in last year’s celebratory videos, having to pull the same song and dance would just draw the same deserving sneers. The episodes that are under the purview are “The Cage” of the original series (and not the Kirk-led “The Man Trap”), the animated series’s “Beyond the Farthest Star”, The Next Generation’s two-part “Encounter at Farpoint”, Deep Space Nine’s two-part “The Emissary”, Voyager’s two-part “Caretaker”, Enterprise’s two-part “Broken Bow”, Discovery’s “The Vulcan Hello”, Lower Decks’s “Second Contact”, Picard’s “Remembrance”, Strange New Worlds’s “Strange New Worlds”, and the Short Treks “The Girl Who Made the Stars,” “The Trouble with Edward,” “Ask Not,” “Runaway” and “Ephraim and Dot”.
The more low-key affair may very well be due to parent company Paramount getting ready to formally merge with Skydance, an unwillingness to spend as extravagantly as they did on this event previously. Not even a linear sample of something like last year. Maybe give Prodigy another loop on Sunday. That would be nice. Starfleet Academy has begun production.
