Star Trek: Celebrations Pride Special Announced

Star Trek's LGBTQIA+ characters will get the spotlight in Star Trek: Celebrations #1, a one-shot comic book from IDW Publishing arriving ahead of Pride Month 2024. Announced this week via Screen Rant, the anthology comic features new stories starring characters like Star Trek: Picard's Seven of Nine and Raffi, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Christine Chapel, Star Trek: Discovery's Hugh Culber, Paul Stamets, Adira Tal, and Gray Tal, Star Trek: Lower Decks' Beckett Mariner and Jennifer Sh'reyan, and the Kelvin Timeline's Hikaru Sulu. These stories will be written by Vita Ayala, Steve Orlando, Mags Visaggio, and others and will hit store shelves on May 29th.

"What is Star Trek, if not the idea of celebrating the best of us, right?" IDW's Star Trek group editor Heather Antos said. "The best of humanity, and coming together. There's a really great quote from Gene Roddenberry that that's the future he wants to see: a future where we are all not just tolerating one another, but celebrating one another."

She continued, "That is the intention behind Celebrations, and where we get the title from. It's wanting to celebrate the badasses of the Star Trek universe, whether that's Culber and Stamets, whether that's Mariner, whether that's Seven and Raffi... there's so many characters that we're going to get to see explored here by some incredible, incredible writers."

Paulina Ganucheau created the Star Trek: Celebrations #1 cover, which is included above. Here's the issue's synopsis, provided by IDW Publishing.

"Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate but to celebrate differences in ideas and differences in life forms." —Gene Roddenberry

"IDW proudly presents a one-shot anthology centering and celebrating LGBTQIA+ characters from across the Star Trek universe! Join legendary heroes from each era of the beloved franchise in stories that showcase the strengths of infinite diversity in infinite combinations, brought to you by a star-studded cast of writers and artists including Vita Ayala, Steve Orlando, Mags Visaggio, and more!"

Seven of Nine's Story Continues in Star Trek: Picard – Firewall

While fans wait for Star Trek: Celebration #1, there are other places where they can find some of the characters seen on the issue's cover. The upcoming novel Star Trek: Picard – Firewall by David Mack focuses on Seven of Nine, bridging the gap between the end of Star Trek: Voyager and Seven of Nine's appearance in Star Trek: Picard. The novel releases on February 27th. Here's the synopsis:

"Two years after the USS Voyager's return from the Delta Quadrant, Seven of Nine finds herself rejected for a position in Starfleet…and instead finds a new home with the interstellar rogue law enforcement corps known as the Fenris Rangers. The Rangers seem like an ideal fit for Seven—but to embrace this new destiny, she must leave behind all she's ever known, and risk losing the most important thing in her life: her friendship with Admiral Kathryn Janeway."

Star Trek: Discovery Returns For Its Final Season

Four of the characters on Star Trek Celebration's cover come from Star Trek: Discovery, which returns in April with the start of its fifth and final season. Star Trek: Discovery lead Sonequa Martin-Green recently emphasized that the final season's spotlight will shine on the entire Discovery ensemble. "There's no stone left unturned… We dig into some of everything in Season 5," she said.

Ahead of its Paramount+ debut, Star Trek: Discovery Season 5's premiere will screen at the SXSW Film & TV Festival, which takes place March 8-16 in Austin, Texas. Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 premieres on Paramount+ in April. Star Trek: Discovery's first four seasons are streaming on Paramount+ now.