Celebrate the first day of contact with this Star Trek: Discovery S4 trailer

Actress Sonequa Martin-Green, who plays a key role in the series, revealed the first trailer for the fourth season of Star Trek: Discovery, during First Contact Day 2021, a virtual event organized by Paramount + with panels, live broadcasts and news from several upcoming Star Trek properties.

(Spoilers for previous seasons below).

Martin-Green plays Michael Burnham, an orphaned human raised on the planet Vulcan by none other than Sarek (James Frain) and his human wife, Amanda Grayson (Mia Kirshner) —aka, Spock’s parents (Ethan Peck). So she is Spock’s foster sister. As I wrote earlier, the arc of the S2 season involved the mysterious appearances of a “Red Angel” and a dishonest Starfleet AI called Control, which sought to eliminate all sentient life in the universe.

The big revelation was that the Red Angel was actually a time travel suit worn by Michael’s biological mother. She accidentally jumped 950 years into a bleak future in which Control had achieved its nefarious goal and was traveling through the signs of time out (the Red Angel’s visions), hoping to alter that future. At the end of S2, Michael wore a copy of his mother’s suit to lead Discovery more than 900 years in the future. The crew of the Property told Starfleet that Discovery he was destroyed in battle and was ordered never to speak of the ship or its crew again.

In S3, Michael, Discovery and his crew arrived in the future and found that the Control plan had been thwarted: life still exists. But the galaxy was very different thanks to something called The Burn, a catastrophic event that caused the entire Milky Way’s dilithium to explode and destroy much of the Starfleet in the process. Subsequently, without the possibility of a warp drive, all the planets were disconnected and were no longer governed by the Federation. Michael managed, however, to locate a single Federation contact on a remote space station with the help of a new ally, Book (David Ajala).

It was another strong season in the series. As Kate Cox de Ars noted in her analysis last year, “S3 is absolutely Star Trek in the classic mold, where problems can be solved, where diplomacy can reign, where Starfleet officers can think about how to escape any trap and where the Federation and its ideals are actually good for this fallen world.

O Discovery The crew reunited with what was left of the Starfleet, discovered what caused the Burn and managed to defeat a rival union known as the Emerald Current, inspiring planets to rejoin the Federation. Burnham finally became captain of Discovery after Saru chose to return to his home planet Kaminar for a spell. And we say goodbye to Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh); there are rumors that a spinoff series is underway.

According to the official synopsis, in S4 “Captain Burnham and the crew of USS Discovery face a threat unlike any they have ever encountered. With the federated and non-federated worlds feeling the impact, they must face the unknown and work together to ensure a promising future for everyone. “

In addition to Martin-Green, much of the main cast is also returning to S4: Doug Jones as Saru, Anthony Rapp as Stamets, Mary Wiseman as Tilly, Emily Coutts as Keyla Detmer and Wilson Cruz as Dr. Culber. The S3 additions book (David Ajala), Adira (Blu del Barrio), Gray (Ian Alexander) and Starfleet commander Vance (Oded Fehr) will also return.

The trailer mentions a five-mile-wide “gravitational anomaly” moving across the galaxy – clearly the formidable threat suggested in the synopsis. This season appears to be another action-packed bonanza (with new Starfleet uniforms), reinforcing the community and family themes so prominent at S3. We have glimpses of Vulcans and Book’s cat, Grudge. Co-host Michelle Paradise said a big question for Burnham is how she will continue to grow and move forward now that she commands a starship and that Adira’s (technically deceased) transgender boyfriend, Gray, will end up being visible to everyone, no just join. Other than that, we’ll just have to wait and see.

The fourth season of Star Trek: Discovery will debut at Paramount plus later this year.

Listing image by YouTube / Paramount +