Star Trek’s San Diego Comic-Con Hall H panel was a 90-minute, jam-packed part of the Saturday schedule that would have made any Trekkie/Trekker laugh, listen, and cry as our favorite actors waxed poetic on funny behind-the-scenes stories, cast and IP announcements, and the history of the franchise.
Starting off, the panel got right to business with a 60th anniversary celebration as a jaw-dropping list of actors crowded the stage. This part of the panel was an inspiring conversation about the richness and the importance of diversity and seeing other viewpoints from people from all walks of life. They smartly featured actors spanning the whole franchise; the legendary George Takei, Michael Dorn, and Robert Picardo appeared along with other franchise actors including Doug Jones, Michelle Hurd, Dominic Keating, Cirroc Lofton, Jerry O’Connell, Christina Chong, and latest franchise addition Karim Diané.
Of course, each of their respective series (Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy) was discussed, and Starfleet Academy got a new cast member for Season 2 in the form of Ruaridh Aldington. This part of the panel went to places that this writer couldn’t have expected, especially for a Hall-H mainstay, but more on that later.
The panel also featured a dedicated Strange New Worlds segment, where co-showrunners and executive producers Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers and executive producer Alex Kurtzman joined their troupe of actors, Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, Ethan Peck, Celia Rose Gooding, Melissa Navia, Christina Chong, and Paul Wesley. One quote from the panel that rang true after watching almost four seasons of this series is from Mount who stated: “if Kirk represented the machismo and Picard represented the intellect, then I want Pike to represent the heart.”
Another funny moment involved Wesley and Peck who talked about a moment where they went to get coffee and dropped a portmanteau of Kirk and Spock: “Didn’t we go on a coffee date to talk about Spirk?” All in all, you do not want to miss SNW Season 4 (streaming now); there’s going to be an episode with dragons and puppets. If you saw the musical episode in Season 2, you know what kind of magic to expect.
Trek for your little tykes is in their future too! There was a small preview of the second season of Star Trek Scouts which debuts September 8 (aka Star Trek Day) on the Blaze and the Monster Machines YouTube channel.
Getting back to the 60th anniversary segment, one of the most fascinating parts of the 90-minute panel was how much the cast talked about diversity and its importance. For those familiar with Star Trek lore, IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations), these people actually mean it and walk the meaning of the phrase. For a day that’s steeped in excitement across IP previews, fandom comics, and the love of storytelling, this segment was important to witness because you were able to see the history of the franchise through the experience of these actors, you can trace not just 60 years of Trek but 60 years of changing race relations and American culture.
And it was also important to be reminded of where we are currently at as a country in terms of diversity, equity, inclusion, or the short hand that we all know DEI, which partly stems from the fear of the unknown.
Picard star Michelle Hurd summed it up best when she didn’t hold back and stated “Say fuck you to fear and hatred and lean into love”” to a crowd that fully got behind her message and cheered when she said it. George Takei brought a tear to my eyes, when he dropped this paraphrased nugget of knowledge about IDIC:
As someone who has been saddened by the current state of the world and our country, and who has worked on and been a huge fan of Trek, this panel was one of the highlights of the day. From Celia Rose Gooding talking about taking on the huge task of portraying Uhura to hearing how Wil Wheaton congratulated Jerry O’Connell on joining Lower Decks (“Welcome to Starfleet, Commander”), and seeing the amount of history and diverse backgrounds converge in one franchise over 60 years makes me excited for the next 60 to see how boldly they continue to go where no man has gone before.