'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' 'Lower Decks' Crossover Gets Early Premiere; Unveils Musical Episode
We're tiny, we're toony, we sing a song of Starfleet, and in this cartoony we question all our drinks!
Trekkies, I've only got surprise for you. The Star Trek franchise had its general San Diego Comic-Con panel this afternoon and screened the long awaited crossover between Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks while dropping a lot of news. Biggest of all, non-attending fans wouldn't have to wait until Thursday to watch the episode, titled “Those Old Scientists”.
Instead, the episode began streaming on Paramount+ Saturday night at 7 PM Eastern/4 PM Pacific. As it was the very next episode, that means a five day early premiere, and the three episodes that comprise the rest of the season moved up a week “Under the Cloak of War” now airs this Thursday, July 27, "Subspace Rhapsody" releases August 3, and the season finale "Hegemony" will be released August 10. The portal that brings Lower Decks’ Ensign Beckett Mariner, played by Tawny Newsome and Ensign Brad Boimler, played by Jack Quaid to the Pike-led Enterprise is something Alex Kurtzman alludes to as being the work of an "ancient artifact", but the portal is taken by an Orion science ship. While the circumstances as to how the crossover was achieved in-universe might be seen as baffling, Strange New Worlds co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers said "This is a classic Star Trek episode. You will watch this and feel like, 'Oh, I completely understand, because it’s Star Trek, exactly why this makes sense.' Everything will make sense."
"Subspace Rhapsody" turns out to be a very peculiar episode, as it turns out that it is the Star Trek franchise's first musical episode. It features 10 original songs, plus a special rendition of the series’ main title, with music and lyrics by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce, who both come from Letters To Cleo. A teaser for the episode was also released.
The series stars Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley, Ethan Peck as Spock, Jess Bush as Christine Chapel, Christina Chong as La’An Noonien-Singh, Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura, Melissa Navia as Erica Ortegas and Babs Olusanmokun as Joseph M’Benga. Season two welcomed Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk in a bigger capacity after his debut in the season one finale, and added Carol Kane as the recurring Pelia. This season, the crew continues its journey through space, confronting increasingly dangerous stakes in uncharted territories and encountering new life and civilizations. All that while venturing through personal journeys that will continue to test their resolve and redefine their destinies where no destiny had gone before.
Source: TVLine