One of the things I love about “Star Trek” is its sense of history. That’s not the same as the rote devotion to continuity that can make watching the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe production feel like homework. The world of “Star Trek” has an expansive scope that gives it the grand sweep of actual history, with hundreds of years of progress and development, conflict and setback.

Yes, a substantial amount of that history conveniently involves the main characters from the various “Star Trek” movies and TV shows. But it also conveys the larger context, the way that the tides of history carry people along, with change as the only inevitable constant.

The longer “Star Trek” goes on — and the franchise celebrates its 60th anniversary this year — the more that gets added to that history, and the new series “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” smartly builds on what came before, while adding its own new chapters. It makes sense that a show set at a school would have a strong interest in learning from the past, while also preparing its young characters for the future. The six episodes provided for review are sometimes uneven, but they represent “Star Trek” doing what it does best, depicting a hopeful but challenging future with creativity and excitement.

‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ charts a new course for the sci-fi franchise

While my favorite series in the current streaming era of “Star Trek” (“Star Trek: Lower Decks” and “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”) have been set during periods in the franchise’s past, I’m happy to see “Starfleet Academy” move further into the future, taking place in the 32nd-century time period that follows the events of “Star Trek: Discovery.”

That allows the show to take bolder swings as it chronicles the rebuilding of the United Federation of Planets and its exploration force, Starfleet, following a galaxy-wide disaster known as the Burn. A key part of that reconstruction is the return of Starfleet Academy, the training facility for future Starfleet officers.

So “Starfleet Academy” isn’t just about the latest class of cadets to sign up for starship duty, but also the first class at the school in more than 100 years. The show efficiently establishes the consequences of the Burn for anyone who hasn’t watched the later seasons of “Discovery,” then shifts the focus to the ways that Starfleet can move past it. As Chancellor Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) frequently emphasizes, these students have all grown up during a time of great turmoil, and that angst gets added to the typical teen angst of a YA drama.

Not only does “Starfleet Academy” take on a new “Star Trek” time period, but it also takes on a new “Star Trek” genre, leaning into the conventions of teen soaps without leaving the sci-fi behind. While “The O.C.” and “Gossip Girl” producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage were attached to an early version of the show, creator Gaia Violo delivers something a bit more traditionally “Star Trek,” even finding a way for the characters to continue traveling the galaxy while attending classes.

‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ is a character-driven spectacle

The Academy itself is split between its traditional Earth-based campus in San Francisco and the U.S.S. Athena, a starship that allows for hands-on training. The episodes reflect that balance, with a mix of high-stakes action and campus hijinks. In one episode, the cadets face off against the deadly threat of sadistic intergalactic pirate Nus Braka (Paul Giamatti), while in another, their biggest challenge is a Capture the Flag-like intramural game called Calica.

Established stars Hunter and Giamatti are clearly having a lot of fun with their performances, and “Starfleet Academy” brings in some familiar “Star Trek” characters in recurring roles, including Robert Picardo reprising his “Star Trek: Voyager” role as the holographic Doctor, and Tig Notaro returning from “Discovery” as engineer Jett Reno. Both of them are Starfleet Academy professors, and they serve more as mentors and sounding boards for the teen characters than as central figures.

The younger characters who anchor “Starfleet Academy” are a bit loosely defined in the first six episodes, which suffer from excessive focus on cocky bad boy Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta), a former fugitive who is frustratingly talented at nearly every discipline he attempts.

The rotating episode structure eventually gives other characters more screen time, and there’s plenty of potential in Caleb’s fellow students, including exuberant holographic life form Sam (Kerrice Brooks), intense yet paradoxically pacifist Klingon Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diané) and headstrong Starfleet nepo baby Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard).

‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ holds promise for the future

Unlike the episodic storytelling of “Lower Decks” and “Strange New Worlds,” “Starfleet Academy” is more serialized, and these six episodes are a bit bumpy as the creators work out their approach. The soapy YA elements are sometimes cheesy, and the sci-fi isn’t always as crisply defined as on other “Star Trek” series. In particular, the interiors of the campus and the Athena look almost identical, making it less meaningful when the cadets travel off-planet on a mission.

Still, with a second season already ordered, “Starfleet Academy” should have plenty of time to get its unique mix of tones and styles right. It’s not the best launch of the current “Star Trek” era, but it makes the most of a potentially dicey concept, writing worthwhile new chapters in the vast “Star Trek” history book.

“Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” premieres January 15 on Paramount Plus

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Ahead of the show's return, Paramount Plus has treated us to our first look at "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" season 3.

As you can see below, this new teaser begins by tapping into the original "Star Trek" series' campy vibe and fashion sense.

Decked out in throwback jumpsuits — check out those shoulder pads — this meta teaser begins with the crew somehow trapped in an anomaly that takes an aesthetic lead from the 1960s. From there, we get a taste of the 10 new adventures coming our way.

As the teaser promises, we're getting romance, mystery (of the murder-mystery variety) and a touch of the old ways, as the Enterprise gets hooked up to some analog phones courtesy of Commander Pelia (Carol Kane).

Throw in a swelling score and some thrilling shots of deep-space action, and "Strange New Worlds" season 3 looks very exciting.

Sadly, we didn't get a release date for the new season, but we at least know that "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" season 3 will premiere on Paramount Plus sometime "this summer."

What else do we know about 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' season 3?

Per the "Star Trek" website, we have a brief synopsis of the new season.

It reads: "In Season 3, when we reconnect with the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, still under the command of Captain Pike, they face the conclusion of Season 2's harrowing encounter with the Gorn. But new life and civilizations await, including a villain that will test our characters' grit and resolve."

The site goes on to promise "thrilling adventures of faith, duty, romance, comedy, and mystery, with varying genres never before seen on any other 'Star Trek.'"

Cast wise, you'll be seeing Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, Ethan Peck, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Celia Rose Gooding, Melisa Navia, Babs Olusanmokun and Martin Quinn back in action.

Guest stars this season include Rhys Darby, Patton Oswalt as a Vulcan(?), Cillian O'Sullivan, Melanie Scrofano, Carol Kane, and Paul Wesley.

Oh, and don't worry about the show's future, either, as we'll be boldly going on at least one more set of adventures. Last April, we learned that "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" would return for a fourth season.

Need something new to stream in the meantime? Be sure to check out our round-up of the best Paramount Plus shows and movies for more streaming recommendations from the world of "Star Trek" and beyond.

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"Star Trek" has been flourishing lately — at least when it comes to TV shows. Although "Star Trek" started on TV in the 1960s, the iconic sci-fi franchise achieved wider success on the big screen, thanks to a series of movies starting with 1979's "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." A total of 13 "Star Trek" movies were released in theaters, but it's been eight years since the most recent film, 2016's "Star Trek Beyond."

With Paramount Plus going all-in on the veteran sci-fi property as its flagship franchise, though, "Star Trek" has never had a more prominent TV presence. There are three current "Star Trek" series ("Strange New Worlds," "Lower Decks" and "Prodigy"), with two more successful series that have recently wrapped up ("Picard" and "Discovery") and one new series on the way ("Starfleet Academy").

Aside from the kid-friendly animated series "Prodigy," which was picked up by Netflix, all of those shows stream on Paramount Plus, along with the original 1960s series and the 1980s-2000s series "The Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine," "Voyager" and "Enterprise."

That represents hundreds of hours of "Star Trek," while the movies offer a different experience, thanks to their big-screen production values and large-scale storytelling. The casts of the original "Star Trek" series and "The Next Generation" have both continued their adventures in films, followed by a reboot trilogy that reimagines the classic "Star Trek" characters.

Multiple attempts to make a fourth movie in the reboot series have failed thus far, although a "Section 31" feature film starring Michelle Yeoh as her Emperor Georgiou character from "Discovery" is set to premiere on Paramount Plus. There's always a chance it could get a brief theatrical release and mark the long-awaited return of "Star Trek" to movie theaters.

For now, all 13 "Star Trek" movies are available to stream along with the "Star Trek" TV series. Here's a look at how to watch them all, and some different ways to approach your "Star Trek" movie viewing.

How to watch the 'Star Trek' movies in release order

The "Star Trek" movie series began in 1979, 10 years after the end of the original "Star Trek" TV series. Thanks to a devoted fan base that connected via newsletters, conventions and other pre-internet methods, the show's popularity grew in the years after it was canceled, and the original cast returned for a series of successful movies.

Watching the "Star Trek" movies in order of release also places them in proper continuity order, since the original cast handed off the film series to the "Next Generation" cast in 1994 after the final episode of "The Next Generation," and the reboot movies follow their own continuity that branches off from the main timeline.

Paramount Plus has put in substantial efforts to corral almost all of "Star Trek" under one streaming banner, so all 13 movies can be streamed in one place, although they are often available elsewhere as well.

• "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979): Stream on Paramount Plus
• "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (1982): Stream on Paramount Plus
• "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" (1984): Stream on Paramount Plus
• "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (1986): Stream on Paramount Plus
• "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" (1989): Stream on Paramount Plus
• "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" (1991): Stream on Paramount Plus
• "Star Trek: Generations" (1994): Stream on Paramount Plus
• "Star Trek: First Contact" (1996): Stream on Paramount Plus
• "Star Trek: Insurrection" (1998): Stream on Paramount Plus
• "Star Trek: Nemesis" (2002): Stream on Paramount Plus
• "Star Trek" (2009): Stream on Paramount Plus
• "Star Trek Into Darkness" (2013): Stream on Paramount Plus
• "Star Trek Beyond" (2016): Stream on Paramount Plus

How to watch the 'Star Trek' movies in order of series

There are three separate sets of characters who appear in the "Star Trek" movies, each with their own unique appeal. The "Star Trek" movies began by bringing back the cast of the original TV series, led by William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock. These are the classic "Star Trek" films, featuring iconic villains like Ricardo Montalban's Khan Noonien Singh and Christopher Plummer's Klingon leader Chang, plus many of the series' most indelible scenes and quotable lines.

All of the original series movies are available on Paramount Plus and selectively on other services.

'Star Trek: The Original Series' movies

• "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979)
• "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (1982)
• "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" (1984)
• "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (1986)
• "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" (1989)
• "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" (1991)

After the TV finale of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in 1994, the Enterprise crew featured in the show transitioned immediately into their own series of feature films. Although a few original series characters appear in "Generations," the four "Next Generation" movies focus on the crew led by Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard, which includes the android Data (Brent Spiner) and the Klingon Worf (Michael Dorn), among others.

All four "Next Generation" movies are available on Paramount Plus and selectively on other services.

'Star Trek: The Next Generation' movies

• "Star Trek: Generations" (1994)
• "Star Trek: First Contact" (1996)
• "Star Trek: Insurrection" (1998)
• "Star Trek: Nemesis" (2002)

Following a lull in which there were no "Star Trek" TV series or movies, the franchise returned to theaters with a reboot movie helmed by J.J. Abrams. The so-called "Kelvin timeline" branches off from main "Star Trek" continuity to offer new versions of classic characters like Kirk, Spock and Uhura, with a cast led by younger stars including Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana, and a more action-oriented approach.

All three reboot movies are available on Paramount Plus.

'Star Trek' reboot movies

• "Star Trek" (2009)
• "Star Trek Into Darkness" (2013)
• "Star Trek Beyond" (2016)

'Star Trek' movies, ranked

There's constant debate among "Star Trek" fans about which movies are the best, although consensus usually puts "The Wrath of Khan" on top, thanks to its masterful performance from Ricardo Montalban as the villain and the genuine personal stakes for Kirk and Spock. In the past, fans would cite the shorthand that the even-numbered "Star Trek" movies were the best, while the odd-numbered movies were the worst, but that doesn't necessarily hold up into the reboot era, and I think odd-numbered "Next Generation" movie "Nemesis" is especially overdue for a reassessment.

If you're just looking to start with the best "Star Trek" movies or you want to prioritize your latest rewatch, here's my ranking of the "Star Trek" movies, from best to worst.

1. "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (1982)
2. "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" (1991)
3. "Star Trek: First Contact" (1996)
4. "Star Trek Into Darkness" (2013)
5. "Star Trek Beyond" (2016)
6. "Star Trek" (2009)
7. "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (1986)
8. "Star Trek: Nemesis" (2002)
9. "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" (1984)
10. "Star Trek: Generations" (1994)
11. "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979)
12. "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" (1989)
13. "Star Trek: Insurrection" (1998)

Further 'Star Trek' viewing

If you've watched all of the "Star Trek" movies and you're eager for more adventures into the final frontier, the obvious next step is to wade into the world of "Star Trek" TV shows. But there are 900-plus episodes of "Star Trek" TV across dozens of seasons, spanning multiple eras, numerous characters, and a variety of stylistic approaches.

After just experiencing the relatively self-contained, big-idea storytelling of the movies, a good entry point for TV would be "Strange New Worlds," which is set just before the era of the original series and includes some of the characters familiar from the original series and reboot movies. It features largely standalone episodes with lots of stylistic variation and high production values.

On the other hand, if you're ready to dive into more complex (and occasionally uneven) long-form storytelling mostly featuring characters you haven't seen before, "Deep Space Nine" is the best of the mid-era "Star Trek" series, with fascinating characters, some dark storylines in later seasons, and a thoughtful sci-fi tone.

• "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds": Stream on Paramount Plus
• "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine": Stream on Paramount Plus

For more seasoned "Star Trek" viewers who want to learn more about the rich history of this classic sci-fi franchise, there are numerous documentaries about different behind-the-scenes aspects of "Star Trek." Two informative and accessible "Star Trek"-related films are the fan-focused "Trekkies," which delved into fan culture in a time before the sometimes toxic age of social media, and "Woman in Motion," a tribute to the influence that original Uhura actress Nichelle Nichols had on recruiting women and people of color to join the space program.

• "Trekkies" (1997): Stream on Prime Video and Tubi
• "Woman in Motion" (2019): Stream on Paramount Plus, Prime Video, Peacock and Tubi

If you've made your way through all of "Star Trek" (possibly multiple times) and are looking for a bit of outside perspective, the cult classic comedy "Galaxy Quest" is a loving parody of a "Star Trek"-style show and has garnered a devoted following of its own. The "Black Mirror" episode "U.S.S. Callister" has a nastier edge, satirizing the potential for abuse in the starship hierarchy, but both productions are created with genuine affection for "Star Trek" and its accomplishments.

• "Galaxy Quest" (1999): Stream on MGM Plus
• "Black Mirror: U.S.S. Callister" (2017): Stream on Netflix

If you want to keep your budget down when subscribing to the best streaming services, you have to make some tough choices each month, or you could easily end up spending more than your old cable bill. 

A while back, I canceled Paramount Plus, but I'm re-subscribing for April for one — OK, maybe two reasons. The first is so I can watch the final installment of adventures that take place light years across the galaxy, and the second is so I can enjoy one of the last performances from a guy who lives on Long Island. 

Here's why I think Paramount Plus is worth the investment in April.

Let's fly

If you haven't guessed, the first show I'm looking forward to seeing is the final season of "Star Trek: Discovery," which follows the exploits of the USS Discovery, which starts out in the same era as Spock and Kirk but ends up nearly a millennium in the future.    

Unlike the other two current Trek series "Strange New Worlds" and "Lower Decks," which tend to follow the mission-of-the-week format, "Discovery" has had season-long plot lines, which allows Discovery to be a lot more introspective than the other series. We learn a lot more about the characters, their motivations, fears, and hopes — which not only makes them feel closer to each other, but closer to us, too. 

Discovery's exploration of something as expansive as the universe is merely the catalyst for the writers to explore something much more personal — the relationships between individuals. 

Currently, there are three Trek series: "Discovery," "Strange New Worlds" and "Lower Decks," and each approaches the universe in a unique way. "Strange New Worlds" hews closest to the original series and "The Next Generation" with the mission-of-the week format, while "Discovery" has one season-long plot. The comedy of the animated "Lower Decks" offers a wonderful respite and counterbalance to the other two series, while still respecting the franchise. 

In my opinion, Paramount's strategy with Star Trek has been better than what Disney is doing with Star Wars and the MCU. And, because there are only a few titles at any one time, it's avoided the fan fatigue with the other two franchises. I hope that, whatever comes next, Paramount finds a similar equilibrium. 

A rocky start, but amazing cast

When I first started watching Discovery, I didn't dislike the tie-in with Strange New Worlds, but the retconning felt really forced, especially after Discovery jumped 1,000 years into the future. To blend two "Simpsons" memes, Poochie returned to his home planet, and we're never going to speak about him again, under penalty of death. 

But, freed from the constricts of established Star Trek canon, "Discovery" has been able to take some bold leaps that really set it apart from what has come before. 

And, it has a really tremendous cast. As the whole show revolves around her character Michael Burnham, Sonequa Martin-Green has to do a lot of the heavy lifting, so I don't think she's able to have as much fun with her part as some of the other actors. In particular, Michelle Yeoh really seemed to relish her role, and was a delight to watch in every scene she was in. Fortunately, we haven't seen the last of her, as she's due to star in the upcoming Star Trek movie "Section 31."

Tig Notaro basically plays herself, but her dry humor is wickedly funny, especially when employed at the expense of the prickly Lt. Cmdr Paul Stamets (an excellent Anthony Rapp). Doug Jones brings a special tenderness to his role as Saru.  

The fourth season of "Discovery" started laying the groundwork for this one, as some of the main crew started peeling off as they settled into life in the 32nd Century. But, I'm going to miss this crew. I just hope Discovery comes in for a smooth landing.

Sing us a song

The other reason I'm getting Paramount Plus in April is because it's showing the 100th concert of Billy Joel's residency at Madison Square Garden. I've seen Billy Joel live in concert several times, and wished I had the chance to see this show in person (It took place on March 28), but tickets were wildly expensive. Not quite Taylor Swift expensive, but still.

Now, at least, I'll be able to enjoy the concert from the comforts of my home, and no one except my wife, dog, and cat will suffer through me singing along to Piano Man and We Didn't Start the Fire. 

"The 100th: Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden – The Greatest Arena Run of All Time" airs on Paramount Plus on April 14. 

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A new artificial intelligence tool lets you generate a virtual world from a simple prompt. Named Holodeck after the recreational and training facility on the Enterprise in Star Trek, it can generate anything from an arcade to a spa and in the style of your choice.

Researchers from several leading universities were involved in the project. It uses multiple AI models and a library of open-source 3D assets to generate the virtual environment.

As well as building virtual worlds from text, the Holodeck technology can be used to help other artificial intelligence tools learn to navigate previously unexplored environments. This is vital as robots, search and rescue devices and vehicles become more autonomous.

How does the Holodeck work?

Holodeck is built on top of a series of pre-labeled open-source 3D assets. When a user enters a text prompt it then utilizes OpenAI’s GPT-4 “for common sense knowledge about what the scene might look like,” then generates spatial requirements and necessary code.

Once the text has been converted, Holodeck is then able to draw from the 3D assets to create the world. The examples shown in the preview include the “office of a professor who is a fan of Star Wars” and “an arcade room with a pool table placed in the middle.”

Using GPT-4 solves the problem of positioning objects correctly within an environment. It does so by having the OpenAI model create spatial constraints that are fed back into the code.

During human evaluations of the model, those carrying out the tests found that Holodeck performed particularly well at creating residential scenes.

What is Embodied AI?

Embodied AI is basically how AI-powered robots see the world around them. It requires an understanding of ever-changing information that isn't included in pre-trained datasets.

One of the use cases for Holodeck is in enabling these robots to create a virtual copy of the real-world environment they are in and use that to help navigate from room to room.

Yue Yang, a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania and lead author on the Holodeck project explained that “3D simulated environments play a critical role in Embodied AI, but their creation requires expertise and extensive manual effort, restricting their diversity and scope.”

To solve the problem they created a mechanism that builds these 3D environments from a minimal amount of information automatically. Holodeck can match a user prompt and generate a diverse range of scenes, add objects to the scene and change the style of the environment.

What happens next?

This is one of several research projects exploring ways to link the digital and physical worlds. Last week I wrote about a study that uses GPT-4 to allow humanoid robots to create new movements without having someone hardcode the processes.

We are also seeing leaps forward in the way driverless vehicles can use machine learning and computer vision technologies to navigate previously unmapped regions.

This could be the start of a useful metaverse. Not one where humans clumsily hangout in a virtual office pretending not to notice the clunky headset, but one in which virtual agents act on our behalf in a direct copy of the real world.

Either that or it could just be the next step in generating a metaverse "on the fly", similar to Minecraft where a world is created in response to the way you play.

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If subscribing to Paramount Plus isn’t a possibility right now, but you’re still a massive Star Trek fan, then you're in luck. Paramount Plus has just added the second season premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to YouTube, letting you watch the entire episode for free.

Eagle-eyed fans may remember that the entire first season of Strange New Worlds was added to YouTube earlier this month. While that is apparently only available for a limited time, all ten episodes are still live on the Paramount Plus YouTube Channel at the time of writing. That means you can watch 11 of the 12 Strange New Worlds episodes that have been released so far, absolutely free. For the time being, anyway.

The only downside here is that the episodes are only available to watch on YouTube in the U.S. However those geographical restrictions can be circumvented by one of the best VPNs, in case you live elsewhere and can’t get access to the full Paramount Plus catalog.

The show is set in the years before Star Trek The Original Series, following the crew of the Enterprise before Kirk took over the captain’s chair. The idea behind the series was to take Star Trek back to its roots, and recapture the tone and feeling of those iconic episodes from the 1960s. That means there’s a lot less serialization, and episodes largely stand on their own.

And fan reception has largely been positive. Right now, as we sit two episodes into Strange New Worlds’ sophomore season the Rotten Tomatoes score is one of the highest of any Paramount Plus exclusive show. Reviews are still trickling in, and we still have eight more episodes to get through, but that score is still sitting at 98% — alongside an 82% audience rating.

Considering how critical Star Trek fans have been of the recent entries in the franchise, criticism that isn’t always undeserved, it’s incredibly high praise. Which shouldn’t be a huge surprise, considering Strange New Worlds only exists because fans demanded it — aided by the stellar performance of Anson Mount and Ethan Peck in the second season of Star Trek Discovery.

If you don’t believe us, then all you have to do is head over to YouTube and check Strange New Worlds out for yourself. Just remember that the rest of season 2 isn’t likely to be free to watch on YouTube anytime soon — if ever. So if you want to keep on top of the adventures of the Enterprise, you’ll need to subscribe to Paramount Plus. Prices start at $5 a month, or $10 a month if you prefer an ad-free experience.

Star Trek Strange New Worlds stars Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Commander Una Chin-Riley, Ethan Peck as Lieutenant Spock, Celia Rose Gooding as Ensign Uhura, and the usual motley assortment of cast members making up the rest of the Enterprise crew.

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The “Next Generation” crew is back. A new Star Trek: Picard season 3 teaser that just dropped for Star Trek Day (months after the first teaser and poster were revealed at the San-Diego Comic-Con) remind us how many of the returning crew members from Star Trek: The Next Generation are returning.

Cast members Patrick Stewart and Gates McFadden came together on stage to promote the third and final season of Picard that is set to premiere on Paramount Plus very soon. So soon, in fact, that we have all the details on how to watch Picard season 3 online.

Alex Kurtzman, the series’ Executive Producer, said Picard will have to set off to find and reunite his old crew who are spread out across the galaxy in this season. Without revealing much about the main villain in the third installment, he said, “I won’t say much except to say that she’s amazing.”

Here’s everything we know about Picard season 3 so far.

 Picard season 3 release date confirmed 

Star Trek: Picard season 3 will premiere on Paramount Plus on February 16, 2023, as revealed in the below video.

Picard season 3 teaser trailers and posters

The latest Picard season 3 teaser trailer shows Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) sending out a beacon for help from Jean-Luc Picard. Soon, old allies alll come to Picard's help, including Riker himself.  And they all get aboard the Titan, for the final adventure of this series. It even looks like Picard is ready to not be the one who says "engage."

Paramount Plus showcased many of their Star Trek series including the upcoming Star Trek: Picard season 3 at the San Diego Comic-con. They released a trailer and posters of the final season which gives Trekkies a glimpse of what to expect and highlights some quotes from the crew. You can watch the teaser below.

The teaser features the remaining cast of Picard, alongside Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Some of the TNG characters who have not yet appeared on Picard include Geordi, Worf and Dr. Crusher. The teaser gives us some details on them — like Geordi, who appears to be in an admiral’s Starfleet uniform, while Worf looks like he’s wearing the captain’s rank insignia. Dr. Crusher is out of uniform though.

 Picard season 3 cast news 

The trailer and posters give us a glimpse of the cast and characters that will return to Picard in the final season. This includes the titular Patrick Stewart (Jean Luc Picard), LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), and Jonathan Frakes (William Riker). 

They are also joined by fellow Picard co-stars including Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) and Michelle Hurd (Raffi Musiker). This is the first time all of the central TNG characters would have performed together since the 2002 feature film “Star Trek: Nemesis.”

Brent Spiner — who appeared consistently through Picard season 2 and played the android Data on The Next Generation and plays Data’s human brother Alan Inigo Soong on Picard — will also be seen in season 3. 

Picard season 3: Everything else we know

Season 3 of Picard will probably feature a villain that takes inspiration from the "mind games between Kirk and Khan" in Wrath of Khan. This final season will also possibly deal with Picard facing trauma he underwent as a child — that he's been trying to run away from his entire life.

Season 2 finale of Picard also featured Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) who surprisingly entered mid episode to get Kore (Isa Briones) to join the Travelers. But so far by the looks of it, Briones is not in season 3, so it's unclear if the series will follow-up on this plot line.

At the Comic-con Patrick Stewart also teased that he will indeed set foot on the Enterprise-D at least once in Season 3. 

You can also read our guide to Star Trek: Picard's Next Generation characters for handy character bios for Picard.

The Marvel-ization of major franchises — wringing as much IP out of fictional universes, be they Star Wars, DC, and of course Marvel itself — has led to some very uneven results. I’ve been underwhelmed by every Phase 4 production except for Ms. Marvel, while Obi-Wan Kenobi felt kind of unnecessary. 

One happy exception for me has been Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which manages to combine the best of the original series with The Next Generation, while adding in plenty of new twists. It's currently airing on Paramount Plus, and its season 1 finale drops today (July 7).

Spoiler warning: Set your phasers for stunned if you haven’t seen any episodes, because there are many spoilers ahead. 

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds plays fast and loose (and dark, too)

The penultimate episode of the first season saw the untimely death of not just Random Crewmember Whose Name We Just Learned, but also of Hemmer (Bruce Horak), who had played a fairly significant role in the first few episodes. While this presumably sets the stage for the arrival of one Scottish-brogued chief engineer, it was definitely shocking to see a larger figure killed off as quickly as Ned Stark.

Strange New Worlds is not afraid to mix in homages, both to earlier series as well as classic sci-fi movies. The aforementioned episode has some heavy references to Aliens, complete with an orphaned girl in a similar situation. And, it’s no less thrilling. I was hoping that The Serene Squall (episode 7) would show a bit more of Spock taking on the role of Captain Picard/John McLane in the Starship Mine/Die Hard nod, but it certainly offered a great twist — I hope to see more of Jesse James Keitel in future episodes, as she was great, if a little hammy. Then again, William Shatner wasn't known for his subtlety.

It’s also one of the darkest Star Trek series since Deep Space Nine. Apart from the body-dismembering Gorn (which they needed more than a makeshift cannon to kill), there’s also a society whose survival depends on sucking the life out of a small child. And then there’s Pike’s premonitions about his grisly fate.  

That’s not to say that there isn’t some levity mixed in. Captain Pike has some serious dad energy, and the banter between Spock and T-Pring, his bride-to-be, is funnier than any Vulcan has a right to be.

Outlook: Strange New Worlds wins by finding humanity (and Easter eggs) in the galaxy

Mostly, I’m stuck by the — and forgive the lack of a better term — humanity of the series, aliens notwithstanding. A number of the major characters have had a real chance to develop in between the adventure of the week. Rebecca Romijn has morphed into the role of Number One role as easily as Mystique changed shapes, and Jess Bush (Nurse Chapel) and Celia Rose Gooding (Uhura) have also delivered strong performances.

The show is also fairly clever in referencing other Star Trek characters, be it Noonien Singh or Sybok. The only one that seems forced is George “Sam” Kirk, the future father brother of one James Tiberius. 

I should say that while I enjoy Star Trek, I’m not its most obsessive fan. I’ve seen all of the movies, as well as most of the original series, The Next Generation, Picard (season 1 was better than season 2, IMO), and bits of Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. But I wasn’t motivated enough to watch Lower Decks or Discovery, though I’ve heard good things about them. 

While Captain Pike has yet to have his shirt ripped off — though anything can happen in tonight's season 1 finale — this is definitely a series I’m going to beam back to when it returns.

Last week The Umbrella Academy season 3 arrived on Netflix, bringing the Hargreeves kids back for another adventure. An adventure that involves them fighting against another group of Hargreeves children, because time travel.

If you’ve checked any of the discussions about the show online, you’ll know that there’s one major criticism that’s been showing up pretty consistently. The fact that the third season is way too similar to the first two seasons in one key respect. 

This is a big problem, and just so happens to be the same problem plaguing other science-fiction shows, most notably Star Trek: Discovery. Spoilers for Umbrella Academy season 3 and Star Trek Discovery season 4 follow

The big problem with Umbrella Academy

The main plot of The Umbrella Academy season 3 focuses on the fact the Umbrellas, and their alt-timeline siblings the Sparrows, have to save the world from a threat they indirectly had a hand in creating. If that sounds familiar it’s because the first and second seasons did the same thing.

The specifics of the matter differed, but the third season is still very much more of the same as the first two servings. Five even points this out, when he complains about having to spend the past 28 days preventing apocalypses and not getting any chance to enjoy retirement.

If you’ve been paying attention to Star Trek Discovery, you’ll know that it has suffered from the exact same problem its entire run. There’s some sort of huge-galactic threat that the crew of the Discovery needs to solve before time runs out. A galactic threat that gets pretty outlandish each season.

Considering Discovery’s third season is about fuel that could explode, and the fact that it was caused by a traumatized child, it’s almost impressive that the fourth season managed to surpass it in the way that they did. In that arc, we met aliens who use a black hole to mine planets, destroying everything around them, and communicate with smell. Yes, really.

As my colleague Marc McLaren noted, those kinds of world-saving stakes are not entirely uncommon in science fiction. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, for instance, features heroes trying to save the world in every other installment.

Don't accept Umbrella Academy 4 as "business as usual" 

My counter argument to that is that there’s usually some sort of variety. Ok, in the grand scheme of things a genocidal purple alien with magic stones isn't that different from a vengeful Egyptian goddess trying to send evil people to hell before their time. And generic terrorists aren’t all that interesting, but we could critique Marvel villains all day long. That’s not why we’re here.

The fact is both Umbrella Academy and Discovery have just jumped from one giant disaster to another, without any sort of palate cleanser between them. So we end up with a weird issue of escalation, where a season seems to try and one-up its predecessor.

Umbrella Academy is a perfect example of this in play. Season one was a general “stop the apocalypse” deal. Season 2 was basically the same, except it happened in the past so the entire future was also at stake. Season 3 upped the ante even further by putting the entire space/time continuum at risk.

This sort of  progression has about as much  variety as my grandmother’s cooking (None whatsoever, in case that wasn’t clear). The other issue is that escalation only gets you so far. How do you follow a story where the entirety of time and space is at stake? In an ideal world your heroes will have had some downtime in a previous season, so you don’t need to keep increasing the stakes to obscene and comical levels.

Outlook: We've seen how bad this gets 

Just like how Iron Man 3 followed the world-saving events of The Avengers by having Tony Stark battle against a poorly-masked racial stereotype and his own inner demons. It’s not as good a movie, by any stretch, but it calmed things down and let the armor-clad hero partake in an adventure that wasn’t nearly as intense as nearly dying in a nuclear inferno in space.

We don’t know what Star Trek Discovery Season 5 is going to cover yet, but I would not be surprised if it involved something more threatening than the roving black hole of death. Though I would like to hold out hope that the writers are taking some of the cues from Strange New Worlds, and toning things down a bit.

Meanwhile Umbrella Academy season 4, should it actually happen, has the challenge of figuring out what the titular heroes are actually going to do now they saved all of reality itself. Especially now there are no more comics to adapt. Something more grounded I hope, though it’s impossible to say what given the third season finale’s pseudo-cliffhanger.

We’re just going to have to wait and see, provided Netflix doesn’t cancel the show first.

Star Trek fans out there might want to give Netflix the boot once July rolls around. Paramount Plus has slowly been reclaiming the rights to various Trek shows since 2019, and now it’s managed to grab the very last one: Deep Space Nine.

Deep Space Nine first hit Netflix back in 2011, when Netflix acquired the rights to all five live-action Star Trek shows that existed at the time. But that era is now coming to an end, and the last day U.S. viewers will be able to watch Deep Space Nine on Netflix is June 30.

Deep Space Nine was something of a departure for the Star Trek franchise. The show was controversial at the time, given its focus on a much bleaker version of the future than had been seen in previous series. It also opted for a more serialized approach to its storytelling, which was almost unheard of in the days before streaming and catch-up services.

Still Deep Space Nine was received well enough to run for a full seven seasons, and has picked up a dedicated following in the 20+ years since it went off the air.

The news that the show is leaving Netflix was no major surprise. Star Trek is one of Paramount’s tentpole franchises, which is reflected in the fact we now have five ongoing Star Trek shows: Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy and the newly-minted Strange New Worlds.

It’s understandable that the network would want to bring all of Star Trek into the fold, but that doesn’t mean it stings any less.

The great Star Trek reclamation began in October 2019, when Star Trek: The Animated Series made the voyage home. October 2021 saw The Original Series and Voyager make the same journey, followed by The Next Generation in April 2022.

Following the departure of Deep Space Nine, the only piece of Star Trek canon that Paramount doesn’t have is the 2009 reboot — as directed by JJ Abrams. It’s not entirely clear who has the rights to that, but it certainly isn’t Netflix.

Currently international streaming rights are unaffected, and Netflix still holds the rights to classic Star Trek outside North America. The only exception is The Animated Series. However, with international launch of Paramount Plus scheduled for the U.K. and Europe, it’s likely that history will eventually repeat itself overseas. 

Until that happens there’s always the option for U.S. Netflix subscribers to use a virtual private network, or VPN, which are legal, inexpensive and easy to use. Though we should point out that using one would technically put you in breach of Netflix's terms and conditions.

We've tested all the best VPN services, and right now our favourite is ExpressVPN. It's fast, works on loads of devices and even offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. 

Using a VPN is incredibly simple.

1. Install the VPN of your choice. As we've said, ExpressVPN is our favorite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN app. For instance if you're in the U.S. and want to access the U.K. Netflix catalogue, you'd select United Kingdom from the list.

3. Sit back and enjoy the action. Head over to Netflix and search for your favorite Star Trek series, because U.K. Netflix has all the good ones.

We’re sorry to say that Star Trek: The Next Generation is boldly going off Netflix from April 1. That leaves Trekkies only three weeks to get their fill of Captain Picard and pals. 

This won’t come as a huge surprise for Netflix Star Trek followers, as the streamer has slowly been beaming various Star Trek shows off its platform since last September. 

Where once Netflix was the streaming service for nearly all things Star Trek, it lost Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise last fall. And now it looks like the iconic TNG will be sucked into a wormhole to go wherever it is shows yanked from Netflix end up;  perhaps there's an alternate dimension where Netflix is chock full of Star Trek, and where the likes of sci-fi shows Altered Carbon and Another Life are alive and well. 

So if you want to get your TNG fix before April, you’ll need to watch all 177 episodes at warp speed; that’s well in excess of 100 hours of watching time. TNG was around from 1987 to 1994, so it's no surprise there's a spaceship-load of episodes to binge. 

That’s not to say Netflix will be left Star Trek free come April, as Deep Space Nine will remain on the streaming service. But there's a distinct whiff that Star Trek's days on Netflix are coming to an end. 

But if you want to cling-on to your Star Trek fix, then you don’t need to look light years away, as all Star Trek series are currently available to stream on Paramount Plus. The newer streaming service also has a suite of other Star Trek spin-off series such as Discovery and Lower Decks. Perhaps this could be the time to cancel Netflix and explore strange new streaming services.  

If you want a fix of Patrick Stewart’s Captain Picard, you'll find one on Paramount Plus in the U.S. and Prime Video in U.K. taking the form of Picard, now in its second season. 

Also, while we’re taking Amazon, we can highly recommend The Expanse. It offers physics-based hard sci-fi as opposed to phasers, tachyons, and holodecks, but it has an awesome story and some killer ship combat. 

Do remember that Netflix also has a host of movies that’ll leave the service this month, so check out our list of 11 Netflix movies to watch before they leave in March 2022. 

In other TV news, this hit Netflix show just got renewed for two more seasons and Fox just canceled a drama series with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

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You'll get a blast from the past when you watch Star Trek: Discovery season 4 online. The returning Paramount Plus series is starting off with a big familiar phrase: Kobayashi Maru. But we've gotten a report from a reader about another hiccup in actually finding the show, see below in the section about Australia.

The season 4 premiere is titled Kobayashi Maru, and as you probably remember that is the name of Starfleet Academy's typically un-beatable test. It's also the name of the periled civilian vessel in said test, which pushes cadets to try and save a ship that (unbeknownst to them) cannot be saved. Since Star Trek: Discovery takes place before Star Trek: The Original Series, one wonders if we'll learn more about the origins of the mission.

The official description suggests that they may actually be saving the original Kobayashi Maru: "After months spent reconnecting the Federation with distant worlds, Captain Michael Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery are sent to assist a damaged space station – a seemingly routine mission that reveals the existence of a terrifying new threat."

Star Trek: Discovery season 4 is also going to explore the Covid-19 pandemic, in its own way. Specifically, through the lens of a massive anomaly ripping apart the galaxy and destroying everything in sight. This will prove a big test of Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), who has only recently found stability in her role commanding the crew of the USS Discovery.

While Star Trek: Discovery was one of the best Netflix shows internationally, it's leaving this week, and won't be there for the new season. Annoyingly, it's kind-of a Paramount Plus exclusive — something that will push users to piracy in one form or another (I got a reader from South Africa in my Instagram DMs today, and I was sorry for his lack of decent options). Also on Paramount Plus, you'll be able to watch South Park: Post Covid, once it debuts in the U.S. on Thanksgiving day.

Why do I say "kind-of" a Paramount Plus exclusive? Den Of Geek reports that "Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 will begin streaming on Pluto TV in the UK." The series will arrive on Nov. 26 at 9 p.m. local time.

Fortunately, Paramount Plus is on all of the best streaming devices, so no need to worry about accessing it. Unfortunately, Paramount Plus hasn't launched in wider European regions yet.

Check out this new preview clip from the show, which reveals the Archer space dock, a little shoutout to Captain Archer from Star Trek: Enterprise.

How to watch Star Trek: Discovery season 4 online anywhere on Earth

Just because Paramount Plus isn't available everywhere (and it's expanding) doesn't mean you need to miss Star Trek: Discovery season 4. Watching along with the rest of the internet can be pretty easy. With the right VPN (virtual private network), you can stream the show from wherever you go.

We've evaluated many options, and the best VPN is ExpressVPN. It meets the VPN needs of the vast majority of users, offering outstanding compatibility with most devices and impressive connection speeds. It's also affordable at $12.95 per month. (Signing up for longer periods of six months or a year reduces the cost even more.)

How to watch Star Trek: Discovery season 4 in the US 

Set phasers to ... wait, no phasers needed here. Just download Paramount Plus right now. Star Trek: Discovery season 4 episode 1 arrived at 3 a.m. ET on Thursday, November 18.

The following 10 episodes, which run through to the end of January 2022, arrive on the following Thursdays. 

How to watch Star Trek: Discovery season 4 in the UK

Pluto (according to Den Of Geek) will have Star Trek: Discovery season 4, starting on Nov. 26.

If you're visiting the U.K. from the U.S., and want to watch Star Trek: Discovery season 4 when it airs on Paramount Plus, you can simply use one of the best VPN services, such as ExpressVPN, to make it seem like your device is back home.

How to watch Star Trek: Discovery season 4 in Canada

Canadians can watch Star Trek: Discovery season 4 with a subscription to Crave. Episodes should be arriving at the same time as the U.S.

Crave has a 7-day free trial. After that, the Movies + HBO package costs $19.98 CAD per month. 

If you're an American traveling abroad and want to use your Paramount Plus subscription, you'll need to look into the best VPN services.

How to watch Star Trek: Prodigy in Australia

Well, this is awkward. We thought that since Australia has Paramount Plus, our friends down under would be able to watch Star Trek: Discovery season 4. A reader report explains we assumed wrong. Australians are also waiting on this series to launch. Poor form, Paramount Plus.

Star Trek: Discovery season 4 characters and cast

• Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham
• Doug Jones as Saru
• Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets
• Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly
• Wilson Cruz as Hugh Culber
• David Ajala as Cleveland "Book" Booker
• Blu del Barrio as Adira Tal
• Ian Alexander as Gray Tal [Recurring]
• Chelah Horsdal as the Federation President [Recurring]
• David Cronenberg as Kovich [Special guest]
• Oded Fehr as Charles Vance [Special guest]
• Tig Notaro as Jett Reno [Special guest]
• Tara Rosling as T'Rina [Special guest]
• Kenneth Mitchell [Special guest]

So, there's all you need to watch Star Trek: Discovery season 4 on Paramount Plus, which is still trying to find ways to be a must-have. Check out our best streaming services rankings to see the services we recommend.

It's Janeway season once more when we watch Star Trek: Prodigy online. Yes, the Voyager captain is back, but this time in hologram form. The Paramount Plus series is about to make its debut, and it looks to introduce Star Trek to a much younger audience, as the cast is primarily composed of teens and children.

This new crew, which will helm the U.S.S. Protostar is apparently led by the 17-year old Dal (voiced by Brett Gray), who is of an unknown species. The rest of the cast includes Gwyn (voiced by Ella Purnell), a Vau N’Akat raised on a mining planet, Zero (voiced by Angus Imrie) is a non-corporeal genderless lifeform, the 8-year-old Brikar Rok-Tahk (voiced by Rylee Alazraqui), Murf (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), a hungry and adorable blob who cannot be destroyed and Jankom Pog (voiced by Jason Mantzoukas), a 16-year-old Tellarite.

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In that cast, you've already recognized some notable names, including Baker (who's voiced characters in everything from Avatar: The Last Airbender to Star Wars: The Bad Batch to American Dad!) and Mantzoukas (co-star of The League and voice actor in Big Mouth and Invincible). And on top of that, yes, we've got Kate Mulgrew back in the Trek-world.

The series starts off in a cold, desolate way, but hope comes in the form of a giant ship, the U.S.S. Protostar, which is where hologram Janeway lives. Of course, this ship isn't their property, and the rightful owner of it looks like an angry felllow, and wants their vessel back.

Here's everything you need to watch Star Trek: Prodigy online. Plus, watch a sneak peek below:

How to watch Star Trek: Prodigy online anywhere on Earth

Just because Paramount Plus isn't available everywhere (and it's expanding) doesn't mean you need to miss Star Trek: Prodigy. Watching along with the rest of the internet can be pretty easy. With the right VPN (virtual private network), you can stream the show from wherever you go.

We've evaluated many options, and the best VPN is ExpressVPN. It meets the VPN needs of the vast majority of users, offering outstanding compatibility with most devices and impressive connection speeds. It's also affordable at $12.95 per month. (Signing up for longer periods of six months or a year reduces the cost even more.)

How to watch Star Trek: Prodigy in the US 

Set phasers to ... wait, no phasers needed here. Just download Paramount Plus right now. Star Trek: Prodigy episode 1 will arrived at 3 a.m. ET on Thursday, October 28.

Then, the next nine episodes will drop weekly, on the following Thursdays. 

How to watch Star Trek: Prodigy in the UK

The folks across the pond have to wait before they can beam up Star Trek: Prodigy. Paramount Plus is headed to the UK in 2022, and so the show won't arrive there any sooner.

If you're visiting the U.K. from a region where Star Trek: Prodigy is streaming, you can simply use one of the best VPN services, such as ExpressVPN, to make it seem like your device is back home.

How to watch Star Trek: Prodigy in Canada

Canadians can watch Star Trek: Prodigy with a subscription to Crave. Episodes should be arriving at the same time as the U.S.

Crave has a 7-day free trial. After that, the Movies + HBO package costs $19.98 CAD per month. 

If you're an American traveling abroad and want to use your Paramount Plus subscription, you'll need to look into the best VPN services.

How to watch Star Trek: Prodigy in Australia

Not to quote another animated sci-fi show, but good news everyone! Now that Australia has Paramount Plus, our friends down under will be able to watch Star Trek: Prodigy episode 1 on Thursday, October 28.

As with the U.S., the next nine episodes will drop weekly, on the following Thursdays. 

Star Trek: Prodigy characters and cast

• Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn Janeway, who now exists as a hologram, as the series is taking place after the events of Voyager
• Rylee Alazraqui as Rok-Tahk
• Brett Gray as Dal
• Angus Imrie as Zero
• Jason Mantzoukas as Jankom Pog
• Ella Purnell as Gwyn
• Dee Bradley Baker as Murf
• John Noble as the Diviner
• Jimmi Simpson as Drednok
• Daveed Diggs as Tysess
• Jameela Jamil as Asencia
• Jason Alexander as Noum
• Robert Beltran as Chakotay
• Billy Campbell as Thadiun Okona

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Star Trek Discovery season 4 is coming, and it’s coming very soon. The show that helped restart the franchise for television is still going strong, and is making itself at home on Paramount Plus.

This new season continues the adventures of the Discovery after a 900 plus year trip into the future, where they discovered the Federation in ruins and Starfleet only a shadow of its former self after a galaxy-wide cataclysm known as "The Burn."

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Nobody could have expected what the source of the Burn was, but the Discovery crew were instrumental in figuring it all out. What’s more, in the process they found a source of enough dilithium fuel to power the galaxy’s warp drives for years. Something that finally brought Michael Burnham into the Captain’s chair.

Here’s everything we know about Star Trek Discovery’s fouth season, including cast, plot, release date, and more.

Star Trek: Discovery season 4 release date

As part of the ‘Star Trek Day’ celebrations on September 8, Paramount announced that Discovery would be returning on November 18 in the United States. Since CBS All Access rebranded as Paramount Plus earlier this year, that’s where Discovery will make its home in the United States.

Internationally (except Canada), Netflix holds the rights to Discovery, and typically releases new episodes within 24 hours of their U.S. debut. Canadians can watch the new episodes on the CTV Sci-Fi channel, and in the past new episodes have aired on the same day as in the U.S.

In other words everyone, no matter their country, will get to watch new episodes almost as soon as they’re available.

Star Trek Discovery season 4 cast

• Sonequa Martin-Green as Captain Michael Burnham 
• Doug Jones as Saru 
• Anthony Rapp as Lt Cmdr Paul Stamets 
• Wilson Cruz as Dr Hugh Culber 
• David Ajala as Book 
• Mary Wiseman as Ensign Sylvia Tilly 
• Blu del Barrio as Adira 
• Ian Alexander as Gray 
• Oded Fehr as Admiral Charles Vance 
• Oyin Oladejo as Lt Joann Owosekun 
• Emily Coutts as Lt Keyla Detmer 
• Patrick Kwok-Choo as Lt Gen Rhys 
• Ronnie Rowe as Lt R.A. Bryce 
• Sara Mitich as Lt Nilsson 
• David Cronenberg as Kovich 

Discovery has accumulated rather a large cast over the years, including a handful more after the crew jumped into the future. But we do know that all the major players from the previous seasons will have parts to play, including former Captain Saru who was seen leaving the ship during the third season’s finale.

Ian Alexander has also confirmed his character, the Trill Gray, will have a larger presence in the story going forward, despite officially being dead and visible only to his partner Adira — since Gray’s consciousness stored inside the Tal symbiont.

Finally Kenneth Mitchell, who played various different characters in the first three seasons of Discovery, has confirmed he will also be returning in a brand new role. However this role will be “unique” in his words, to account for the fact ALS has limited his ability to move and speak unaided. Since Mitchell’s character Aurellio, the Emerald Chain scientist working to uncover the secrets of Discovery's spore drive, survived season 3 in tact, it’s possible he may also return in some capacity.

Book’s cat Grudge is also returning, which is the most important piece of news of all.

Star Trek Discovery season 4 trailer

While Star Trek Day 2021 didn’t bring a new Discovery trailer along, we got our first look at the fourth season back in April. 

The trailer reveals that there are some pretty high stakes this season (again), and shows off some of the familiar faces returning to the final frontier.

Star Trek season 4 plot

There’s a lot we still don’t know about Discovery’s fourth season, though the trailer revealed that the high-stakes antics of the crew never seem to end. This season is focussing on some sort of gravitational anomaly in space, which seems to have the ability to cause all kinds of havoc. 

It’s also five light years wide, which is pretty darn big, possibly even planet-killing big, should it wind up in the wrong place.

Unfortunately that’s about all we know regarding the season’s plot, and there’s not much to speculate on either. That said it seems likely there’s going to be a lot of action, which Discovery has always been heavy on, and no doubt Burnham will clash with her superiors several times — like she always does.

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Star Trek is in the middle of a renaissance, and there are currently three (soon to be four) ongoing TV series on the air. Among them is Lower Decks, an animated series that’s focussed more on comedy than Star Trek’s usual pomp and philosophy.

It’s also one of the best, possibly even the best, Star Trek shows ever developed. For the simple reason that it is unlike any other Trek show that came before it. 

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When Paramount first announced that it was commissioning an animated Star Trek series, I was dubious. The last time that happened, we ended up with Star Trek: The Animated Series. The animated series ran for two seasons, aired on Saturday mornings, and was… (at least in my opinion) not great. 

I was worried Lower Decks might be more of the same, especially given some of the very valid criticisms people had of both of the other Paramount Trek series': Star Trek: Discovery, and then later Picard. Like both series’ fondness for lame plot twists late in the season, and taking a little too much lens-flare-induced inspiration from the JJ Abrams movies.

But Lower Decks had some great people working behind the scenes, most of all showrunner Mike McMahan. If you're not familiar, McMahan is a writer and producer for Rick & Morty, and creator of the satirical ‘TNG Season 8’ Twitter account:

The very first trailer for Lower Decks also didn’t fill me with much confidence, but it didn’t take long for the show to win me over once episodes started hitting CBS All Access (now Paramount Plus). 

A new hero appears from the background

In fact I know exactly when Lower Decks proved itself to be different to every other generic adult-focussed animated streaming series. Right at the end of the third episode, when it revealed who the most important Starfleet officer was.

No, not Picard, Kirk or any of the other obvious candidates. It was Miles O’Brien, background character from The Next Generation who got elevated to bridge crew in Deep Space Nine. Not a minor character by any means, but certainly not the kind of person who’d dominate the history books.

And I'm not going to lie, the fact Mariner's response to Q showing up out of the blue was to start berating him really tickled me. It's one of my favorite Q moments, right behind that time he got sucker-punched by Sisko.

Humor: The Final Frontier 

It was that point I realized something crucial about Lower Decks - its whole premise is poking fun at the Star Trek franchise. Paramount did what should have been impossible, and made a show that was essentially a parody of itself. And 100% canon to boot.

It’s Galaxy Quest without any risk of copyright infringement, and spread over the course of a TV series rather than a 102 minutes.

Over the past season and a half, Lower Decks has proven that self-deprecating humor is what it’s best at. Because let’s face it, despite the fact it takes itself so seriously, Star Trek can be pretty darn ridiculous at times. 

Do I need to mention that time Voyager turned Paris and Janeway into weird-ass lizards? Because Lower Decks did, and at the same time canonized the series’ ‘VOY’ acronym that’s used to easily differentiate it from other Trek shows on the Star Trek wiki, Memory Alpha.

Lower Decks is not for everyone

Not everyone is going to agree with me and my reverence for Lower Decks. For one, asking nerds to discuss a topic they’re passionate about is always going to get heated. And it did just that when this feature was discovered by other members of the Tom’s Guide team.

They had a number of issues with Lower Decks as a concept, with one of my colleagues declaring that “the only thing that prevents Lower Decks from being the worst Star Trek series is the fact that Picard exists.”

Among the issues my colleagues had with Lower Decks was the fact the show’s episodes generally don’t have any message at their core — a staple of Star Trek since the very beginning. 

Likewise another Tom’s Guide staffer said the fact that Lower Decks fails to offer anything new and meaningful to the canon, instead existing to name-check other things from past series, is the key barrier stopping them from enjoying the show.

Which, ironically, is one of the key reasons why I love the show so much in the first place. I hope I’m not alone in that opinion, especially since Paramount was confident enough to renew Lower Decks for a third season months before season 2 even aired. I just hope it’s not the last.

Fun for new and old fans alike 

Even as a standalone series, Lower Decks is a pretty welcoming space comedy. You don’t have to have watched a whole bunch of Trek to enjoy it, but it does help. Especially given the series’ habit of calling back to characters and moments from the rest of Trek.

If you like Star Trek, you should definitely be watching Lower Decks. It is an absolute treasure of a series, and it’s so rare for any major franchise to be so willing to poke fun at itself.

After all, if The Simpsons and Family Guy can keep going for multiple decades, there’s no reason why Lower Decks can’t last several seasons. Just as long as the show doesn’t fall into the trap of staying past its welcome, when the jokes stop being funny.

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The Star Trek movie franchise has been in limbo the past few years, ever since Star Trek Beyond underperformed at the box office and ended up losing around $50.5 million. But Paramount has finally kicked things back into gear, by announcing a date for the next installment: June 9, 2023.

It’s unclear whether this movie will be a sequel to Star Trek Beyond, and continue the adventures of the Enterprise crew in the rebooted Kelvin Timeline, or something else entirely. I’m of the opinion that it should be different, but not for the reason you might think.

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I’m not arguing against scrapping the reboot because I don’t like the movies. I quite enjoyed the 2009 Star Trek reboot and Star Trek: Beyond. I didn’t like Into Darkness, and the way it just churned out a half-baked remake of Wrath of Khan. I just feel the Trek movies should go back to its roots, and better connect its big and small screen Treks by bringing TV series back to the big screen.

Rights issues squandered the reboot’s potential

Whether there were ever plans for the rebooted Star Trek to cross over onto TV aren’t known. What we do know is that any hypothetical plans would have been complicated by the fact different people held the rights. When Viacom and CBS split in 2005, CBS held onto Star Treks’ TV rights, while Viacom (and subsidiary Paramount) held onto the movie rights.

For that reason, the Star Trek reboot was always effectively crippled by the cycle of moviemaking. While the three movies didn’t come out on a particularly slow release cycle (2009, 2013, 2016), they didn’t have the advantage of utilizing TV’s super-fast turnaround. 

Even if a tie-in TV series didn’t feature the main Enterprise crew as part of its regular cast, it was still something. As Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. proved years later, it was possible to have a companion TV show tangibly related to a big-screen franchise without much in the way of crossover. 

It gives fans something to watch, reminds them that the Star Trek franchise still exists, and helps to market the movie franchise in the process. Plus it could help explore the impact of what happened in the movies beyond the scope of its seven main characters.

The planet Vulcan got sucked up by a black hole? Terrible news, but beyond a few scenes featuring Spock’s anger and grief, it’s never really brought up again in the movies. The destruction of a core member of the Federation would have an enormous impact on the galaxy at large.

There was no way to fill in the gaps, not really. Tie-in books and comics existed, but that relies on fans firstly being aware of them, and secondly going out and purchasing them. A TV series could have done much the same thing, but in a way that is much more convenient to the audience. Possibly more entertaining too, depending on your personal views about reading.

Plus Star Trek is, at its core, a TV series that’s about more than just flashy action scenes. The original ten movies understood that, and they still featured plenty of the themes and nuances that Trek had on TV (albeit in a very condensed form).

The reboot didn’t quite understand that, and ended up feeling very much like a Star Wars movie starring Captain Kirk and co. A TV series would have given space for the reboot more of what makes Star Trek Star Trek. More importantly a multi-episode TV season actually has the time to do it, rather than trying to stuff it all into a two-hour run time.

But the whole rights situation killed off any such idea before it could possibly be conceived. Just like it complicated the reboot’s merchandising rights. And with that whole situation, any real hope that the Star Trek reboot could capture the same essence of the TV show was buried.

Filling in the gaps in canon

Future Trek movies should follow the example set by other big franchises, and use an interconnected TV/movie universe to fill in the gaps of the canon.

Take Marvel. We all know that snapping half the universe back into existence was going to have huge ramifications, but Spider-Man: Far From Home kind of glossed over that fact. Which makes sense, since it’s a two hour movie that has its own stuff to get through. Meanwhile Falcon & The Winter Soldier (and to an extent WandaVision) have the time to explore it properly.

Star Wars is another example. In the movies we only ever saw the start and the end of the Clone Wars. But the TV show Clone Wars was able to explore the conflict in huge detail, and focus on things other than the small group of protagonists in the movie. The Mandalorian is doing something similar, exploring  a part of the 30-year period between Episodes 6 and 7. And in the process giving us an idea of the state of the galaxy in the years following after the fall of the Empire.

Both those stories also feature in books and comics, but they have the same issue as attempting to do that with Star Trek. A TV series is a much more interesting way to get those stories out to a large audience.

Where Star Trek is concerned, the roles are reversed slightly. It’s a TV series that jumped to the big screen, and not the other way around. But you can still fill in the gaps the TV series leaves behind, much like how the original six movies continued the adventures of the Original Series crew. That means you show people what else is going on in the galaxy while the USS Discovery, or Picard are off saving the universe from evil robots.

Tales of future past

Interestingly there are already plenty of gaps in the Trek canon that the TV series either couldn’t, or weren’t able to address. Especially Enterprise, which was cancelled back in 2005 and left Star Trek off our screens for a good 12 years. More importantly the run-up to the never-made fifth season left behind some unfinished storylines that would be perfectly suited for the big screen.

The big plot point of season 5 would have been humanity’s first (official) contact with the Romulans, and the war that it inevitably led to. A war that changed the political landscape of the Alpha and Beta quadrants until the destruction of Romulus centuries later.

Not only is it a travesty that we’ve never been able to see that pivotal moment of Star Trek history, a full-scale war between Earth and the Romulans is perfectly suited for the big screen. More so when you remember that Earth was not the same force that it became by the days of Kirk and Picard. 

There was no Federation, and political alliances between different alien races were tenuous at best. Even with the Vulcans, humanity’s closest extra-terrestrial allies at the time, who also found themselves targets of their distant cousins.

That’s not to say there couldn’t also be stories featuring the cast of other long-finished Star Trek TV shows. Though timeline constraints, and the ongoing Star Trek Picard, mean that there are going to be more restrictions over who can actually appear.

Worf may be one great choice, given the ongoing-popularity of the character and Michael Dorn’s repeated attempts to get producers to agree to give Worf a TV series of his own.

The Picard tie-in novel ‘The Last Best Hope’ revealed that Worf succeeded Picard as captain of the Enterprise-E. Though the details of what the newly-promoted Captain Worf got up to in the 12 years between the novel and Picard’s first season were never revealed. It could be explored in a future season of the TV series, but it’s also the perfect opportunity for new on-screen adventures that are tangibly related to future seasons of Picard.

You have the same Worf, and the same Enterprise (until someone blows it up), which will make it accessible to fans of both Picard and The Next Generation. A whole new crew would also mean you can explore past events without having to worry about the fact actors from previous Trek shows have aged 20 years somehow.

Unless you had a very specific type of alien that could affect actors that way. Like the Krenim from Voyager, who almost exclusively fought with temporal weapons.

Maybe we could see Voyager’s Year of Hell story get a new lease of life? The TV version was pretty underwhelming, and it might benefit from a big screen adaptation with an actual movie budget. I don’t see that actually happening, but it shows there are still things that Star trek movies can explore - even if it means jumping back through the timeline.

Bottom line

Star Trek is uniquely positioned in that its original incarnation persevered past a reboot into the growing TV franchise it is today. Now that the rights to the movies and TV shows belong to the same company, the producers have new opportunities to create something great

Marvel pioneered an interconnected TV and movie universe, more so now that we have the Disney Plus shows. Star Trek is one of the few franchises that can follow that lead. Building on what Paramount did in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and resurrecting the idea that Star Trek movies and TV shows can share the same canon.

With little over two years before the next movie’s release, there’s little chance of something new and exciting happening. But there’s always hope that things might go in a different direction. But hey, at the very least, if Paramount is sticking to the reboot I’d also very much like to see that turn up on TV as well. It would be nice if it was greater depth than Discovery’s random alien cameo though.

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It’s a good time to be a Star Trek fan and watch all the Star Trek movies in order. With three active TV series (Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks) and three more in the works (Section 31, Prodigy, Strange New Worlds), there are more Star Trek adventures airing now than at any point since the mid-90s. 

While Star Trek TV shows have come and gone since the ‘60s, Star Trek movies maintained a pretty consistent release schedule between 1979 and 2016. On average, we got a new film once every three years. But with the fourth move of the Star Trek reboot franchise allegedly canceled, we may be in for a long wait until we see the U.S.S. Enterprise on the big screen again.

Still, there’s one missing piece of the puzzle: Where are all the Star Trek movies? Unlike watching the Star Wars movies in order, you can't see every Trek film on the same service.

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In the meantime, there are thirteen Star Trek movies to watch (or rewatch), either on DVD or your favorite streaming services. I personally bought the Blu-ray collections so that I wouldn’t be at the mercy of shifting streaming schedules, but if you prefer an all-digital experience, these movies are almost always available somewhere online.

Star Trek movies in order of release date

Watching the Star Trek movies in release order is, for the most part, exactly the same as watching the Star Trek movies in chronological order. (There’s some time travel here and there, but the later films still follow “after” the earlier ones.) There are 13 films. The first came out in 1979; the last came out in 2016. 

The only issue is that they're spread out across a number of different subscription services. 10 of the 13 can be found on Amazon Prime Video, and seven of those are also on Hulu. FX Now and Fubo each have one Star Trek movie a piece, each film being a streaming exclusive (you'd need to buy or rent to watch otherwise). And then CBS All Access (soon to be Paramount Plus) and Pluto also have one film. 

• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986): On Prime Video
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Star Trek: Generations (1994): On Prime Video
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996): On Prime Video
• Star Trek: Insurrection (1998): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Star Trek: Nemesis (2002): On CBS All Access/Paramount Plus and Pluto
• Star Trek (2009): On Fubo
• Star Trek Into Darkness (2013): On FX Now
• Star Trek Beyond (2016): On Hulu and Prime Video

On top of there not being one home for all the movies, there are a few small wrinkles in this plan, however. First: The Star Trek movies aren’t completely standalone. They require some knowledge of what happened in the Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation TV shows to fully grok. 

Furthermore, the 13 movies don’t tell one continuous story. Rather, they’re based on three separate iterations of the long-running franchise.

Star Trek movies in order of series

Just like the Star Trek TV shows, the Star Trek movies don’t all focus on the same characters and settings. While there’s a little bit of crossover (which we’ll cover below), the films generally fall into three categories.

The first category is based on Star Trek: The Original Series. This is your daddy’s Star Trek, complete with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, the original U.S.S. Enterprise and Scotty beaming people up. If you’ve ever heard about “KHAAAAN!” or “the one with the whales,” or “Shakespeare in the original Klingon,” this is where they come from.

They're all available on Prime Video, and almost all (The Voyage Home is missing) are on Hulu as well. 

Star Trek: The Original Series movies

• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986): On Prime Video
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991): On Hulu and Prime Video

Next up, there are the Next Generation movies. This is Gen X/Elder Millennial Star Trek, starring Picard, Data, Worf and the crew. The movies start off with the Enterprise-D, but transition to the sleeker Enterprise-E in First Contact. Generations features a crossover with some original series crewmembers, but the rest put the TNG cast front and center, with occasional Deep Space Nine and Voyager cameos.

You'll need at least two streaming services to see all of them.

Star Trek: The Next Generation movies

• Star Trek: Generations (1994): On Prime Video
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996): On Prime Video
• Star Trek: Insurrection (1998): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Star Trek: Nemesis (2002): On CBS All Access/Paramount Plus and Pluto

Finally, there are the “reboot” Star Trek films, also known as the “Kelvin timeline” films. Kirk, Spock and McCoy take center stage again, but this time in an alternate reality, where events play out differently. This is Star Trek for the cool kids, complete with fast starships, pulse-pounding action and soundtracks populated by the Beastie Boys. (It’s not quite as mindless as it sounds — except for Into Darkness, maybe.) For the most part, these films don’t require previous Star Trek knowledge. But they do pick up where Nemesis left off, more or less, before winding the clock back.

This set is the splintered across services more than any of the others.

Star Trek reboot movies

• Star Trek (2009): On Fubo
• Star Trek Into Darkness (2013): On FX Now
• Star Trek Beyond (2016): On Hulu and Prime Video

Star Trek episodes to watch first

Watching the Star Trek movies is an extremely straightforward process, but they may be a little incomprehensible unless you’ve seen at least some of the TV series. (I watched the entire franchise, but that may not be practical for you.) The Motion Picture picks up after The Original Series ends; likewise with Generations and The Next Generation.

As such, here are some episodes you should watch if you’re going to dive into the movies. Generally, the movies stand on their own, but it might help to know about some of the supporting characters and subplots:

Episodes for Star Trek: The Original Series movies

• Space Seed (TOS, S1, E22): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Errand of Mercy (TOS: S1, E26): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Journey to Babel (TOS: S2, E10): On Hulu and Prime Video

Episodes for Star Trek: The Next Generation movies

• Q Who (TNG: S2, E16): On Hulu and Prime Video
• The Best of Both Worlds, Parts I and II (TNG: S3, E26 / S4, E1): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Family (TNG: S4, E2): On Hulu and Prime Video

Episodes for Star Trek reboot movies

• Unification, Parts I and II (TNG: S5, E7 & E8): On Hulu and Prime Video
• First Flight (ENT: S2, E24): On Hulu and Prime Video
• The Xindi (ENT: S3, E1): On Hulu and Prime Video

Which Star Trek movies are good?

If you watch all 13 Star Trek movies, you’re signing yourself up for about 26 hours of screen time. That’s more than a casual fan may want to invest. Luckily (or unluckily?), not ever Star Trek film is created equal. For a long time, fans held that the even-numbered movies were good, while the odd-numbered ones were bad. That trend seems to have reversed with the recent reboot films, though: The odd ones are good, while the even one is, well, not.

In any case, if you want to start with the movies that are really worth your time, here they are:

• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986): On Prime Video
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991): On Hulu and Prime Video
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996): On Prime Video
• Star Trek (2009): On Fubo

I personally like some of the other ones quite a bit (Nemesis is better than you remember, and Generations has quite a few moving moments), but those should at least represent a good starting point.

And once you’re done with those, you can move onto Galaxy Quest: the best Star Trek movie that’s not actually a Star Trek movie.

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We may be living in a golden age for the best animated shows, which is why Star Trek: Lower Decks feels like such an anomaly. This uninspired Trek spinoff feels crass, unambitious and humorless — but the good news is that it’s very much the exception, not the rule, when it comes to animated shows for adults. There are plenty of exceptional programs that push the boundaries of storytelling, humor and visual quality, sometimes even with a dose of genuine heartfelt drama.

The Tom’s Guide crew has assembled a list of our picks for the best animated shows, all of which are easily available on one streaming platform or another. Some are ambitious new shows, blending sitcom humor with genre tropes, while others are beloved classic titles that helped pioneer the formulas we see today. Some of the shows here are suitable for kids; others aren’t. But they all have a sly sense of humor for the grown-ups in the audience.

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If Star Trek: Lower Decks didn’t live up to your expectations, the following animated shows almost certainly will.

Adventure Time 

Yes, Adventure Time's neon colors and sentient candy characters may reek of content that's super kids-only, but this series has surprising depth. Not only is the early-on plotline of Finn's feelings for Princess Bubblegum solid, reaching high peaks in "Too Young" (S03E05), but that's just the tip of the series' emotional core. The series, which follows the questing boy Finn and his anthropomorphic dog Jake, pulls off some seriously great television with how it slowly explains the backstory of The Ice King, the princess-kidnapping creep surrounded by penguins. That storyline has long, intricate developments, and hits a storytelling high in "Simon & Marcy" (S05E14), which is basically what happens if you took Cormac McCarthy's The Road and made it kid-friendly (but still have emotional resonance). I might just be a big fan, but it's always felt like Adventure Time never got the public awareness it deserved, as Cartoon Network never put it on a streaming service. But now that it's on HBO Max, you finally have no excuse to watch the series. — Henry T. Casey 

Archer 

Part James Bond parody and part office sitcom, Archer is one of the strangest and most consistently delightful shows on TV. Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) is an international superspy, but the agency that employs him (run by his overbearing mother) represents a pretty standard nine-to-five job for the rest of his bickering, self-absorbed crew. As such, expect to see adventures about taking down former Soviet warlords and jokes about tax deductions in roughly equal measure. Archer, a surprisingly well-read alcoholic with severe mommy issues, is always ready with a devastating one-liner, and the rest of the team lampoon everything from office bureaucracies to mad science experiments. The later seasons get weirder and more experimental, including one season of film noir and one of sci-fi, but the earlier ones hold up well. You can watch it all on Hulu. — Marshall Honorof

BoJack Horseman 

Who’d have thought that talking animals could teach us so much about the nature of depression? BoJack Horseman is one of the shows that kickstarted Netflix’s push for original series, and it’s easy to see why this one resonated with people. Will Arnett stars as the titular character: a washed-up TV actor who’s also an anthropomorphic horse (humans and talking, humanoid animals coexist in this world, and yes, it’s fodder for a lot of puns). Half the time, BoJack Horseman is incredibly funny, with a mix of silly jokes, quippy one-liners and incredibly smart sight gags. The other half is profoundly sad, dealing with issues like alcoholism, loneliness and death. It’s the unpredictable mix of the hilarious and the heartfelt that makes BoJack so compulsively watchable. — Marshall Honorof

The Critic 

One of the many attempts to build on The Simpsons’ success in the mid-90s, The Critic benefited from having actual Simpsons writers and producers on its creative team. (A memorable crossover episode with The Simpsons didn’t hurt, either.) The show stars comedian Jon Lovitz as Jay Sherman: an urbane, underappreciated film critic, who can’t stand mainstream Hollywood pablum. Unlucky in love and harried in his professional life, Jay falls back on his adoring son, his loving parents and his odd band of misfit friends. The Critic is hilarious, taking aim at every movie that was popular back in the ‘90s, from Jurassic Park to Star Trek: Generations. The show is sweet at times, though, and you can’t help but root for a lovable sad sack like Jay. Both seasons are available on Crackle — Marshall Honorof

Futurama 

Matt Groening’s sci-fi satire is arguably his best show overall. Sort of a more anarchic cousin to Groening’s Simpsons, Futurama follows the adventures of Philip J. Fry: a 20th-century pizza delivery boy who gets accidentally frozen until the year 3000. There, he teams up with the Planet Express crew to become… a delivery boy (but in the future this time!). Not only is Futurama hilarious, but it’s a deceptively smart show, chock full of jokes about math and science. There are also plenty of throwbacks to classic sci-fi, from Star Wars to The Day the Earth Stood Still. For classic Star Trek fans who felt down by Lower Decks, I’d recommend “Where No Fan Has Gone Before,” which reunited most of the Original Series cast for a crossover adventure with the Planet Express crew. The show is available on Hulu. — Marshall Honorof 

Gravity Falls 

Gravity Falls may be a kids’ show, but it puts a lot of adult animation to shame in terms of how funny it is, how gorgeous it looks and how beautifully the story advances. In this Disney channel original, tweenage twins Dipper and Mabel Pines (Jason Ritter and Kristen Schaal, respectively) spend their summer in the bizarre town of Gravity Falls, Oregon. Supernatural stuff is always happening, whether it’s an army of gnomes trying to make Mabel their queen, or a merman taking up residence in the local pool. The show deftly combines recurring gags (Dipper’s unrequited crush on a teenage clerk, Mabel’s situationally appropriate sweaters) with surprisingly deep lore and continuity to create something that feels inspired in equal parts by The Simpsons and Twin Peaks. You can watch the whole series on Hulu. — Marshall Honorof

Harley Quinn 

I'm the last person that I ever expected to recommend a DC Comics-related entertainment property. That's how good the DC Universe original Harley Quinn is. It might not be as good as the Birds of Prey movie, but this series is the adult animated superhero series I've wanted for a while. While it's raunchy and has its own amount of violence, it also packs a wicked sense of humor, and a solid emotional core. Which is to say it doesn't suffer from the dark angry vibe that pushed me away from Amazon Prime Video's The Boys. 

This is due in large part to the friendship between Harley and Poison Ivy that grounds the show in relatable feelings. The series starts out with Harley striking out on her own, and trying to get away from The Joker, but the clown prince of crime does what he does best: popping up constantly to emotionally manipulate Ms. Quinn. Harley's not just joined by Ivy, though, as a strong supporting cast of criminals down on their luck, including King Shark (voiced by comedian Ron Funches) and Clayface. It all ties up into one very strong bundle supporting upward mobility in the ranks of organized crime. And no, it's not just on DC Universe; seasons 1 and 2 of Harley Quinn are now on HBO Max. — Henry T. Casey 

Rick and Morty 

If Rick and Morty isn’t the most successful show to come out of Adult Swim’s late-night animation renaissance, it’s at least the most recognizable. The brainchild of veteran animator Justin Roiland and sitcom mastermind Dan Harmon, Rick and Morty follows mad scientist, Rick Sanchez, and his unassuming grandson, Morty Smith, on a series of intergalactic adventures. Armed with a portal gun, a lot of booze and a penchant for improvisational rambling about totally unrelated topics, Rick’s adventures have taken him everywhere from the far reaches of space, to pocket dimensions that double as car batteries, to a planet that exists solely to house a private toilet. Rick and Morty is deeply silly and weird, but it’s also hilarious and, every now and then, even a little touching. You can watch it on Hulu. — Marshall Honorof 

The Simpsons 

You can’t discuss animated shows for adults without at least mentioning The Simpsons. This sharp satire started in the late ‘80s as a parody of more earnest sitcoms like The Cosby Show, but grew into a cultural phenomenon in its own right. On the off chance you’ve never seen it, The Simpsons follows the adventures of an upper-lower-middle class family in the geographically ambiguous small town of Springfield. The show has run for more than 30 seasons, making it hard to pinpoint individual elements or episodes that make it so good. But generally, we can say that The Simpsons takes a critical eye to American culture, from violent children’s cartoons to unions in the workplace, and lampoons them in ways both hilarious and poignant. The whole series is available to stream on Disney Plus, although only the first ten seasons or so are really worth your time. — Marshall Honorof

We're now four episodes deep in Star Trek: Picard, and the story is starting to hit its stride. While Picard isn't just a direct sequel to Star Trek: The Next Generation, a lot of TNG cast members have started to show up, from the titular captain, all the way down to guest stars from a single episode.

If you find yourself plumbing the depths of your memory to remember what happened on 20-year-old episodes of TNG, Tom's Guide is here to help. I've compiled a list of TNG characters who have shown up in Picard, or whom we've seen in trailers, complete with a short bio and some of their best episodes. This way, you can get ready for the rest of Picard without rewatching TNG's full 178-episode run.

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(This piece has minor spoilers for the first three episodes of Star Trek: Picard. If you consider material from trailers to be spoilers as well, you may want to avoid the "Upcoming characters" section.)

Capt. Jean-Luc Picard

This one's sort of a gimme, but for the sake of thoroughness: Jean-Luc Picard was the captain of the USS Enterprise-D during TNG and the USS Enterprise-E during the later TNG films. He's had a long and storied career, saving the galaxy from the Borg, bargaining for humanity's future with the omnipotent Q Continuum and making a tenuous alliance with the Romulans to fight off an even greater threat. We've already made a list of our favorite Capt. Picard episodes, so check those out if you need a refresher.

Lt. Cmdr. Data

Data, an android who longed to feel human, was one of the most beloved characters in TNG. He served as a bridge officer aboard both of Picard's Enterprises and became one of Picard's closest friends in the process. There's a lot to know about Lt. Cmdr. Data and his relatives, from his oddball creator Dr. Noonien Soong, to his evil brother Lore, to his primitive precursor B-4. But Data casts a long shadow over Star Trek: Picard, as he sacrificed himself to save the captain in Star Trek: Nemesis. Another important episode to watch is The Offspring (TNG S3, E16), which tells the story of Data's ill-fated daughter, Lal.

Dr. Bruce Maddox

While Dr. Maddox hasn't shown up in Picard yet, he's arguably done more to drive the story forward than any other character. He appeared in only one episode of TNG: Measure of a Man (S2, E9). In this groundbreaking episode, Maddox wanted to deconstruct Data to learn the secrets of the android's construction. When Data refused, it sparked a civil rights trial. Afterward, Maddox and Data made a tenuous peace, and it's clear that Maddox's admiration for Data lasted for decades. It's a safe bet that Maddox will appear, in some way, shape or form, later in this season of Picard.

Hugh (Third of Five)

In the third episode of Picard, we learned the Romulan Reclamation site (aka the inactive Borg Cube) has a complicated command structure. One of the project's directors is Hugh, a former Borg drone who reclaimed his individuality with the help of the Enterprise-D crew. Hugh has a unique insight into what it's like to be a Borg and just how difficult de-assimilation can be. He'll almost certainly crop up again as the season progresses. If you'd like to learn his backstory, watch I, Borg (TNG S5, E23), in which Geordi La Forge helps Hugh develop a sense of identity, and Descent (TNG S6, E26 and S7, E1), in which Hugh fights back against the Borg and tries to share what he's learned.

That's everyone we've seen in the show so far, but here are some characters we know are coming, thanks to the trailers:

Cmdr. William Riker

Cmdr. William RikerPicard's loyal second-in-command, Will Riker, is one of the most fun characters in TNG — and also one of the most serious. The main point of contact between Picard and the rest of his crew, Riker is a naturally charismatic friend, a bold leader and a damn good trombonist. Based on the trailers, we know that Riker eventually settled down to a quiet life with his wife, Deanna Troi, and their children. As one of the main characters in TNG, there are plenty of great Riker episodes, but some of my personal favorites are Future Imperfect (TNG S4, E8), Frame of Mind (TNG S6, E21) and The Pegasus (TNG S7, E12).

Cmdr. Deanna Troi

The Enterprise-D's counselor, Riker's wife and Picard's conscience, Deanna Troi is a woman of many talents. She can sense emotions, thanks to her half-Betazoid heritage; she can take command of a starship, thanks to her officer training; and she can help any member of the crew master their own fears, thanks to her psychological skills. Having seen the trailers, we know that she'll show up at least briefly to help Picard along in his latest mission. To relive some of Cmdr. Troi's greatest moments, check out Ménage à Troi (TNG S3, E24), Face of the Enemy (TNG S6, E14) and Thine Own Self (TNG S7, E16).

Bonus: Seven of Nine

Technically speaking, this article is just about Next Generation characters in Picard, but we know that Seven of Nine, one of the main characters from Star Trek: Voyager, will be making a cameo as well. Without rehashing an entire show's plot, Seven of Nine is a former Borg drone who joined the crew of the USS Voyager while it was evading the Borg in the Delta Quadrant. During Voyager's mission, Capt. Kathryn Janeway helped Seven of Nine regain her human identity, and now it seems like she's ready to lend her expertise to Picard and his motley new crew. Some of the best Seven of Nine episodes include The Gift (VOY S4, E2), Dark Frontier (VOY S5, E16 and E17) and Survival Instinct (VOY S6, E2).

Star Trek: Picard is finally here, and it dives headfirst into classic Star Trek lore. Whether you're just learning about the Enterprise's exploits for the first time, or simply need a refresher after almost 20 years away from the title character, I've put together a handy guide.

While watching Star Trek: Picard's first episode, Remembrance, I made a list of references to specific episodes and movies in previous Star Trek series. In some cases, watching these stories is necessary to understanding Picard's plot; in some cases, they add another layer of texture to the story; in some cases, they're just fun Easter eggs.

While this list isn't 100% comprehensive (I couldn't identify the book in Picard's vault, or a lot of the tiny objects in display cases), here's a list of episodes and movies to watch if you want to understand every last detail in Remembrance.

(SPOILERS for the first episode of Star Trek: Picard, for those who haven't seen it yet. We've also got the Picard episode 5 release date confirmed if you're patiently waiting)

All Good Things… (The Next Generation, Season 7, Episodes 25 and 26)

Remembrance begins with a friendly game of poker between Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and Lt. Cmdr. Data aboard the Enterprise-D. You don't have to be a hardcore Trek fan to realize that this is a dream, as both the Enterprise-D and Data are long gone by the time Remembrance begins. But All Good Things…, TNG's series finale, was the first time that the captain joined his crew's weekly poker game.

Family (The Next Generation, Season 4, Episode 2) and Star Trek: Generations (1994)

Yes, Picard's family really has had a vineyard all along! We got our first look at it in Family, in which Picard returns to Earth to visit his brother, sister-in-law and nephew. Here, Picard tries to grapple with the trauma of being assimilated into the Borg collective and forced to attack Starfleet. In Generations, we learned that Picard's brother and nephew died tragically in a house fire, leaving Picard as the sole proprietor of the vineyard by the time Remembrance rolls around. (In All Good Things..., we also see a retired Picard tending to his grapes, suggesting that one way or another, he’s going to return to his homestead.)

Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

Star Trek: Nemesis has a lot of fans and even more detractors, but I think that the movie may get a second life, thanks to Picard. Most of Star Trek: Picard's story follows directly from the events in Nemesis, from the dissolution of the Romulan political body, to the sacrifice of Lt. Cmdr. Data. If you want to know how Data died, where the android B-4 came from and how the Enterprise-E's crew went their separate ways, Nemesis is worth a rewatch. (Bonus points for Tom Hardy as the villain.)

Star Trek (2009)

While the bulk of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot follows the alternate-universe adventures of Capt. Kirk and crew, some very important stuff happened back in the Prime Timeline to kick things off. Long story short: Ambassador Spock failed in his mission to prevent a supernova from destroying the Romulan homeworld. This has had profound consequences for both the Romulan Star Empire and the Federation, as Remembrance explores in detail.

Children of Mars (Short Treks, Episode 10)

In Remembrance, we learn that Picard resigned his commission in Starfleet after a devastating attack on the Utopia Planitia shipyards on Mars. While Children of Mars doesn't give us every detail about that tragedy, it does show how it affected other members of the Federation. We even get a few details about what Picard was up to at the time. And even if it's not your thing, watching this episode will take only 10 minutes out of your day.

Easter eggs in Picard's vault

In Remembrance, we learn that Picard has his very own vault in the Starfleet archives, full of treasured relics from his past. I'm not going to give exhaustive descriptions of each reference here, but these are the artifacts that I could identify:

· The model of the Constellation-class ship represents the USS Stargazer. This was Picard's first command, and you can learn more about it in The Battle (The Next Generation, Season 1, Episode 9).

· The model of the shuttlecraft next to the Stargazer is the captain's yacht from Star Trek: Insurrection (1998). It doesn't play an enormous role in the film's story, but that's where it's from.

· The bat'leth hanging on the wall is a heavy-duty Klingon sword, likely a gift from Lt. Cmdr. Worf. In Sins of the Father (The Next Generation, Season 3, Episode 17), Picard acts as Worf's "Cha'DIch," or "ritual second" during a Klingon political crisis.

· The "Captain Picard Day" banner comes from The Pegasus (The Next Generation, Season 7, Episode 12), where Federation schoolchildren celebrate Picard's accomplishments.

Measure of a Man (The Next Generation, Season 2, Episode 9)

When Picard discusses the fate of B-4 with Dr. Jurati, the roboticist references Cmdr. Bruce Maddox, who was a key player in Measure of a Man. In this episode, Maddox wishes to deconstruct Data to learn how to create more androids, but Data refuses, sparking a trial about synthetic life forms' civil rights. This episode almost single-handedly sets the stage for the "android rights" subplot in Remembrance.

The Offspring (The Next Generation, Season 3, Episode 16)

Are Dahj and Soji really Data's daughters? Possibly. As Picard pointed out, Data always wanted a daughter. In fact, he tried to create one in The Offspring. Data's daughter Lal surpassed her father in a variety of capacities, including her ability to feel emotions. But in the end, Lal's positronic brain was unstable, and Data had to deactivate her. However, Data kept Lal's memories within his own neural net — could Lal live on in one of the biological androids?

Endgame (Voyager, Season 7, Episode 25)

I was on the fence about including Endgame, since there are plenty of Next Generation episodes all about the Borg and Picard's experience with them. However, if the last few minutes of Remembrance are any indication, the Borg will cast a long shadow over Picard's first season. And Voyager's series finale is where we learned the ultimate(?) fate of the terrifying technological collective. After seven long years stranded in the Delta Quadrant, Capt. Kathryn Janeway finally has an opportunity to bring the USS Voyager home. To do so, however, she'll have to have one final showdown with the domineering Borg Queen and her invasion fleet. Whatever happens to the Borg in Picard will have to pick up where Endgame left off.

After Star Trek: Nemesis hit theaters back in 2002, I had no expectation of seeing my favorite starship crew again. Even if the film's tag line hadn't been "a generation's final journey," only three major characters remained on the Enterprise in the end. The series' story was over. The band wasn't getting back together. Star Trek: The Next Generation wouldn't be coming back.

The remarkable thing about Star Trek: Picard, which is available on CBS All Access, is that it abides by those rules. The crew doesn't get back together and pick up where they left off. In fact, they don't get back together at all. Picard picks up more than 20 years after Nemesis ended, and the whole galaxy has moved on. This show isn't about exploring the final frontier; it's about doing the right thing, simply because you're the only one who can.

Star Trek: Picard's first episode, Remembrance, is a strong start to a different kind of Star Trek series: one that's driven primarily by characters rather than big-idea sci-fi. At the same time, Picard does pick up the lingering story threads from Nemesis and the 2009 Star Trek reboot, and it starts to provide satisfying answers for "what happened next?" Remembrance starts off slowly but sets up enough mysteries, and answers enough outstanding questions, to keep viewers hooked for the rest of the 10-episode season.

Speaking of, we've got Picard episode 5 release date details for those already caught up.

The adventure continues — sort of

Before we begin, a word of warning: This review contains MINOR SPOILERS for Remembrance and MAJOR SPOILERS for the original Next Generation shows and movies. The last one came out 18 years ago, though, so I think we're probably OK on that front.

I think it's fair to say that no one turning on Picard for the first time would mistake it for an episode of The Next Generation. The episode begins with a wizened, old Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) overseeing his family vineyard in France, while a young woman named Dahj (Isa Briones) witnesses a brutal murder in her Boston apartment. Picard faces off against an antagonistic TV anchor, who grills him about a decades-old falling-out with Starfleet, as Dahj fights off a group of attackers like the heroine in an action movie. From there, a frightened Dahj teams up with a puzzled Picard as the two try to solve the mystery of who wants Dahj dead and to what end.

One thing is clear right away: This is not the '90s conception of Star Trek, where Starfleet is occasionally hardheaded but ultimately noble and the violence is generally broad and bloodless.

At the same time, Picard is very much a sequel to The Next Generation, in story if not in tone. Longtime fans may remember that the sometimes-villainous Romulans have had a rough few decades, between Praetor Shinzon usurping the Romulan Senate in Nemesis and their whole planet blowing up in Star Trek (2009). The way that then-Adm. Picard chose to deal with the Romulan crisis propels some of the story forward in Remembrance.

Without spoiling anything, the Romulans did not suddenly become Federation allies, nor did Picard's humanitarian efforts go unnoticed. Like the best of Star Trek, Remembrance demonstrates that a middle path is possible and that every sentient being must ultimately decide their own place in the galaxy. (This was a huge theme in Nemesis, which I'm sure was not lost on the new show's writing staff.)

The other major component of the plot involves Picard's lingering guilt over the death of his friend and crewmate, Lt. Cmdr. Data (Brent Spiner). After Data's sacrifice in Nemesis, Starfleet experimented with building other synthetic life-forms, but then those "synths" staged an attack on the Utopia Planitia shipyards on Mars. (See the Short Treks episode Children of Mars for more info.) Now, synthetic life-forms are taboo, which is precisely the outcome that Picard hoped to avoid all those years ago during Data's trial in TNG's episode Measure of a Man.

• How to watch Star Trek: Picard online

Androids and other forms of synthetic life play an enormous role in Remembrance, through both their presence and their absence. Once the story gets going, Data's legacy hangs heavy over the episode, both what he meant to Picard and what he could have meant to the Federation as a whole. Remembrance is a little wistful and a little bitter — not unlike Picard himself.

In fact, the show's lack of easy answers is one of the things I admire about it most. It would be nice to think that, 20 years later, Picard retired from Starfleet as a hero, having saved the Romulans, made a successful case for android rights and tried to rebuild the family that he lost in Generations. It would have been just as easy to say that Data made a miraculous recovery by superimposing his personality on the primitive android B-4, as Nemesis hinted could happen.

Instead, Data is still dead, B-4 has been deactivated, Picard resigned his commission in anger, the Federation fears synthetic life, and the Romulans are scattered and broken. Picard has friends among his vineyard staff, and he has an adorable pit bull named Number One, but it's clear that he could never replace his family from the Enterprise. It's not a happy ending for one of modern pop culture's most beloved characters.

"I haven't been living," declares Picard at one point in Remembrance. "I've been waiting to die."

A colorful future

Then again, giving Picard a happy ending doesn't seem to be the goal of the show — and that's a good thing. If we checked in on Picard 20 years later, having lived a perfect life up to that point, there would barely be enough material for a Short Trek, never mind an ongoing series. Picard deals with many of the same difficult moral issues that came up in the best episodes of The Next Generation, and I, for one, am glad that they're still worth discussing.

Visually, Picard doesn't feel very much like an episode of The Next Generation, but it doesn't feel much like the recent Star Trek: Discovery, either. Picard isn't shot like an action movie, full of harsh lighting, skewed Dutch angles and a dark, distant aesthetic. A lot of Picard is bright and colorful, from the golden vines in his vineyard to the sparkling San Francisco Bay. Even the new Starfleet uniforms are more colorful than the Nemesis-era blue-and-black ensembles, having gone back to the more traditional yellow-green-red patterns. None of this makes Picard a "happy" show, exactly, but it does provide a stark contrast between the warmth of its protagonist and the coldness of the forces conspiring against him.

Stewart's performance as Picard is impeccable, as always. The secondary cast hasn't gotten much of a chance to step into the spotlight yet, so it's difficult to say how well the new characters will compare with old TNG favorites. But at the very least, Alison Pill as the AI specialist Dr. Agnes Jurati is a pleasure to watch, and I can only hope that she'll have a bigger role as the season progresses.

• Star Trek: Picard - Release date, trailer and cast

The show has also demonstrated that it's not at all shy about digging deep into beloved Star Trek lore. You need to have watched Nemesis to understand Remembrance — fair enough; but to catch every last reference, you'll need to know about Cmdr. Bruce Maddox, Captain Picard Day, the Enterprise-E captain's yacht and Data's attempts at creating another android. The show is fairly unapologetic about catering to existing fans. On the one hand, I wonder how it'll play for new fans; on the other hand, catching up on The Next Generation is no great hardship, particularly since you can get all of the episodes on CBS All Access (where Picard also airs, at least in the United States).

Bottom line

There's a scene in Remembrance in which Picard and Dahj, pursued by bad guys, need to dash up a long staircase to the roof of a building. Before Dahj runs on ahead, she stops to help a winded Picard catch his breath and get to cover. This is simply not something that would have happened in The Next Generation — but in TNG, Picard was in the tip-top physical shape required by his rank. In "Remembrance," he's older, weaker and less influential. Some of his best friends are gone, and his grand dreams for the Federation never came to fruition.

In that moment, I realized that Picard is doing something brave by denying us easy answers and satisfying resolutions. I hope that the season continues to frustrate our expectations — and perhaps replace them with an even better story. Star Trek: Picard isn't the show you've been waiting for all these years, but it's also not trying to be that. What it ultimately becomes, we'll have to wait nine more episodes to find out.

Star Trek: Picard airs on CBS All Access in the United States, the CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada and Amazon Prime Video elsewhere in the world. Episodes air on Thursdays at 12:01 a.m. PT, although the exact time may vary by region.

It's been 17 years since we saw Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) in a Star Trek adventure — and even longer since we saw him in a TV show. But fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation can rest easy, as our favorite Shakespeare-quoting captain will be back in full force early next year. Star Trek: Picard will follow the adventures of Capt. Picard as he gets (some of) the band back together as he (perhaps) saves the United Federation of Planets yet again.

Whether you've memorized every one of Picard's impassioned speeches, or simply enjoyed the occasional TNG rerun after dinner, Star Trek: Picard looks like it'll be a treat for both hardcore Trekkies and general prestige TV fans. Check out our Star Trek: Picard review to see why we like it. We've got all the other details you'll need below:

Star Trek: Picard release date 

Stardate -303062.38 — that's January 23, 2020, for those of you who didn't attend Starfleet Academy. That's when the Picard series debuted on CBS All Access in the United States, the CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada and Amazon Prime Video elsewhere in the world. CBS has not yet announced an exact time of day for release, but 8 p.m. Eastern standard time sounds about right. Check out our guide on how to watch Star Trek: Picard online to learn more.

Already hooked? We've got the Picard episode 5 release date, in case you're curious.

Star Trek: Picard trailer

Star Trek: Picard has had two trailers so far: a teaser that debuted at San Diego Comic Con 2019, and a longer, more detailed preview that debuted at New York Comic Con 2019.  Here's the latter:

There's a lot to unpack here, but basically: a woman named Dajh insists that only Picard can save her from a kind of unspecified threat. A somewhat reluctant Picard assembles a motley crew of experts and sets off on a new adventure, somewhat in opposition to official Federation protocols. Along the way, they'll team up with old friends, fight Romulan warbirds and perhaps even discover the fate of the villainous Borg race.

Oh, and Picard has an adorable pit bull whom he named Number One. (Of course.)

What do you need to know for Star Trek: Picard?

There are 176 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and four movies featuring the TNG cast. If you haven't already seen these, your odds of watching them all before January are pretty slim. However, it's (probably) not necessary to have an encyclopedic knowledge of Star Trek to get ready for the Picard series. Let's focus on the big picture. (And be aware that there will be MASSIVE SPOILERS for both the show and the movies past this point.)

Jean-Luc Picard is the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise, a 24th-century starship that explores strange, new worlds, seeks out new life and new civilizations and — well, you know the drill. During his seven years in command of the Enterprise, Picard becomes one of Starfleet's most celebrated captains. This is due in part to his command staff, which includes talented officers like the charismatic Cmdr. William Riker, the empathic Counselor Deanna Troi and the curious android Lt. Cmdr. Data.

Arguably, the Enterprise's biggest contribution under Picard was discovering and fighting the Borg: a race of cyborgs who "assimilate" other species, and strip them of their identities. Although the Enterprise successfully repelled a Borg attack before it could destroy Earth, the Borg first managed to capture and assimilate Picard, remaking him into Locutus of Borg. Picard's temporary assimilation into the Borg collective remains one of his most traumatic experiences.

Picard's ongoing war with the Borg is one major plot point to keep in mind; the fate of Romulus is another. In Star Trek: Nemesis, Picard helped Romulan loyalists defeat Shinzon, a rogue warlord who took control of Romulus after orchestrating a terrorist attack on its senate. (Shinzon was also a clone of Picard — it’s a long story.) Things only got worse in Star Trek (2009), when Romulus was destroyed in a daring experiment gone wrong. Picard's occasional alliances with the now-displaced Romulans will almost certainly play a big role in the upcoming series.

One other thing to know: To rescue Picard after Shinzon's defeat, Data sacrificed himself. Nemesis was the last TNG adventure onscreen, so we can't say for sure, but it's likely that the android's death weighs heavily on Picard.

Tom's Guide has put together a list of the 15 Best Capt. Picard Episodes of Star Trek, if you want a quick-and-dirty primer. We're not sure exactly which episodes will get callbacks, but these should at least give you a pretty solid feel for Picard and his crew.

Star Trek: Picard cast

Who's in the cast of Star Trek: Picard? Well, Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard, obviously — although he almost turned the role down when CBS first offered it.

Thanks to the trailers, we also know to expect a few cameos from prominent Star Trek characters. Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis and Brent Spiner will reprise their roles as Riker, Troi and Data, respectively. We'll also see Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine: a reformed Borg drone who was one of the main characters on Star Trek: Voyager. Sharp-eyed fans have also spotted Jonathan Del Arco as Hugh: another reformed Borg who tried to spread individualism throughout the Collective.

However, these returning Trek characters aren't the main cast members in Picard. Instead, we have:

• Isa Briones as Dajh, a young woman who comes to Picard for help 
• Alison Pill as Dr. Agnes Jurati, who accompanies Picard because they have a common goal 
•  Santiago Cabrera as Chris Rios, an ex-Starfleet officer who flies a transport ship 
•  Michelle Hurd as Raffi Musiker, Rios's partner in crime and intelligence expert 
•  Harry Treadaway as Narek, a Romulan agent 
•  Evan Evagora as Elnor, a Romulan refugee 

The actors playing these characters have been pretty tight-lipped beyond that, but we should expect an ensemble cast and some friction between the various crew members.

That's about it for now. What's next for Picard, his crew and his wonderful dog, we'll find out together on January 23.