Star Trek Just Announced A New Series, It Has Scotty As The Drummer In A Space Band
Star Trek Day, the anniversary of the airing of “The Man Trap,” is this Friday and the franchise is celebrating by not taking itself too seriously. Fans will soon get to watch Star Trek: Very Short Treks at StarTrek.com and on Trek’s official YouTube channel. The short episodes, as you can see in the trailer below, promise to bring back voice talent from all over the franchise.
The trailer reveals not only some characters meant to be ridiculous — e.g. two Starfleet officers, one with the head of a screw and the other with a literal butthead — but heroes from Lower Decks rubbing elbows with those from The Animated Series.
Mostly using an animation style meant to echo that of 1973’s Star Trek: The Animated Series, which turns 50 this year, Very Short Treks is a non-canonical anthology series. The trailer reveals not only some characters meant to be ridiculous — e.g. two Starfleet officers, one with the head of a screw and the other with a literal butthead — but heroes from Lower Decks rubbing elbows with those from The Animated Series.
Very Short Treks will also feature characters from the TNG era as well as the more recent Discovery era. Different shots in the trailer reveal Neelix from Star Trek: Voyager, Hemmer from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and William Riker of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Animated series and movies give franchises the chance to cast actors back in their beloved roles, without worrying about makeup or de-aging technology.
The official list of voice actors released so far is impressive. From The Original Series, George Takei will reprise the role of Hikaru Sulu. Both Jonathan Frakes and Gates McFadden from TNG will return, as will Armin Shimerman of DS9 and Connor Trineer of Enterprise.
For anyone concerned Star Trek is just being too silly, you can at least take comfort that — like Disney+’s Star Wars: Visions — everything in Very Short Treks is non-canonical.
From more recent Star Trek fare we’ll get Doug Jones from Discovery and Noël Wells from Lower Decks. Strange New Worlds will be represented by Bruce Horak, Ethan Peck, and Celia Rose Gooding.
With revivals of old properties — particularly sci-fi properties — still proving popular, we could potentially see more and more similar animated projects for Star Trek, Star Wars, and the like. Animated series and movies give franchises the chance to cast actors back in their beloved roles, without worrying about makeup or de-aging technology.
It also potentially offers much more tempting projects for certain Star Trek actors. Specifically, those like Armin Shimerman and Ethan Phillips, whose signature Trek roles in live-action required hours of makeup. But in an animated project like Very Short Treks, they never even have to see a makeup artist.
For anyone concerned Star Trek is just being too silly, you can at least take comfort that — like Disney+’s Star Wars: Visions — everything in Very Short Treks is non-canonical.
The first episode will be available this Friday on StarTrek.com and the official Trek YouTube account, and then one will release every week following.
