The Biggest Moments From The Latest Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Trailer

September 8 is Star Trek Day, which commemorates the transmission date of the first Star Trek episode to air on broadcast television, "The Man Trap," all the way back in 1966. This is the 54th anniversary of that momentous occasion, and so, CBS All Access celebrated by hosting a series of free-to-watch Star Trek panels, with cast and crew from every show in the franchise thus far. One of the most important panels, of course, was the one for Star Trek: Discovery, a series whose third season is set to premiere on October 15, 2020. Sonequa Martin-Green, David Ajala, Alex Kurtzman, and Michelle Paradise began the panel by premiering a new, full trailer — which teases a surprising amount of new info.

To be clear, much of Star Trek: Discovery's future has been mysterious, thus far. Beyond the fact that the series has jumped 930 years into the future, after the end of season two, details are sparse. But between the latest trailer, and the panel that followed, fans now have a pretty good idea of where the Discovery and her crew are headed next. Here's the breakdown.

The first, most important part of the trailer is directly related to where the show left viewers at the end of the previous season, with Discovery literally hurtling towards an uncertain future. In the trailer, we see both Burnham (dressed as the Red Angel) and Discovery crash land on a mysterious planet. This imagery is connected with the following lines: "930 years, a one way trip: no going back." There's been a lot of speculation as to whether or not this time travel to the future would stick, but this new trailer seems to remove all doubt. 

In the corresponding panel, executive Producer Alex Kurtzman revealed that once Discovery has crashed on this mysterious world in the distant future, there will be circumstances making it impossible to get the ship back in the air, which require the crew to explore this mysterious planet and find out what's going on there.

Fans have known for a long time that they'd be seeing a new lead character this season, in the form of David Ajala as Cleveland "Book" Booker, as reported by StarTrek.com. What was not known, until this trailer, is that he will be the one to reveal the fate of the Federation: as Book explains to Burnham, in the trailer, it seems that the Federation was undone by something called "the Burn" which he describes as "the day the galaxy took a hard left."

Meanwhile, what was explained during the Star Trek Day panel is that the Burn is not an internal matter. Kurtzman revealed that, "the Federation didn't collapse in on itself," and that "something cataclysmic went down." 

Whether this has something to do with Control, from last season, still remains to be seen. However, the trailer does reveal some pretty big stuff about Book, most notably that there will be some kind of romantic relationship between him and Burnham, if the kiss shown onscreen is anything to go on. Also, Ajala revealed that in Book and Burnham's first interaction, they will "throw cuffs" at each other, and have a fight. This probably has something to do with the fact that, as Kurtzman has explained, Burnham and Book will seem like opposites at first: Burnham seeming selfless, while Book will read as selfish.

The reveals don't end there. The trailer also shows an unnamed alien say, mysteriously enough, "I always believed you were out there, and we were part of the Federation no matter what." 

During the panel, Kurtzman explained that while the Federation is not gone entirely, it is not where it was, and that this third season of Star Trek: Discovery is about "bringing the Federation back." Kurtzman also confirmed that this story was told very intentionally, and is meant to be "about the world we're living in now" and that, "in the darkest of times we have to hold up that beacon of light to bring us back." Producer Michelle Paradise assured fans that the Federation is "still in existence," even though it is "in survival [mode]."

One of the biggest pieces of news to come out of Discovery recently, in addition to all this, is the casting of both trans and nonbinary performers to the cast: Gray (played by Ian Alexander), and Adira (played by Blu del Barrio). The trailer shows the two holding hands, and, later, it displays Adira in a Trill pool (perhaps this is the Saves of Mak'ala on Trill). Kurtzman confirmed that Adira will first appear in episode three, and that Gray will show up one episode later. Kurtzman also acknowledged that Gray is a Trill (ala Dax in Deep Space Nine), but that he couldn't give anything away about Adira just yet.

The new season of Star Trek: Discovery debuts October 15, 2020 on CBS All Access.