Is Rhys Darby Star Trek's Trelane? Strange New Worlds Season 3 Teaser

It's not quite April 5th, but the Official Teaser for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season three has just dropped. The first thing to say is that there's more than "a touch of analog[ue]". The framing device is 'retro-slide projector' (with clicks). Even the release date hasn’t gone digital. "Returns this summer" is all Paramount has been willing to say.

These aren't your parents' dull holiday snaps, however. Far from it. As ever with Strange New Worlds, what we have in the teaser is rather exciting, and certainly enough to maintain our appetite after a lengthy wait and only two short clips. Take a pause on the analogue for a second, too. This teaser is very meta. It practically nails 'We're on Star Trek' to the wall!

The teaser opens on a camp, almost cartoonish, take on The Original Series aesthetic. "We want to give audiences a reflection of their own world through the lens of fantasy. You know, science fiction," notes Uhura in the voice-over as Paul Wesley's Kirk performatively falls to the floor of the very colourful — mostly orange — bridge. "All of that with weekly space adventures?" That would be on brand! (USS Callister eat your heart out!)

What comes next might be enough of an in-universe explanation. Spock and La'an are seen standing on… a Next Gen holodeck grid? Of course, during this time period Starfleet only had access to the Rec Room, seen in The Animated Series episode The Practical Joker. The Rec Room paled in comparison to the Xyrillian TNG level holo-tech Trip was demonstrated in Star Trek: Enterprise's first season episode Unexpected, 108 years before the events of this season.

With what La'an is wearing, therein also surely lies the 'Hollywood murder mystery' episode we were teased with over a year ago now. Its director, Jonathan Frakes, told Variety at the time, that it was "the best episode of television [he'd] ever done". No pressure, but there is Those Old Scientists to live up to! Murder mystery looks equally fun.

The teaser then treats us ever-so-briefly to our first look at Rhys Darby in character. Darby was announced as season three guest star at last year's New York Comic Con (NYCC), role unspecified. From his outfit and sideburns alone, it is now pretty safe to say he's playing Trelane, a character who, it has long been speculated, might, in fact, be a member of the Q Continuum. In the clip, Darby can be seen snapping his fingers. If that's not "exemplary Qness," to coin a phrase, little else is!

There's romance, there are landlines, there's a zombie/gruesomely dissolving Klingon with whip? Carol Kane as Pelia is the gift that keeps on giving. Scotty, played by Martin Quinn, had already been bumped up to series regular and will apparently be "mak[ing] a pretty good team" with Kirk this season. That'll never go anywhere!

In bed with Spock, Chapel can be seen wearing an engagement ring. Roger Korby is in this season, too, played by Cillian O'Sullivan. Just sayin'! We'll be getting our first ever live-action Edosian as well — with the perfect amount of arms to shake those cocktails in celebration of the centennial of the Federation!

Near the end of the teaser, we do get a glimpse at the Gorn. The holdover from season two's Hegemony is no doubt the only negative in all this. There seems to be little point in having a high-stakes, 'will everyone make it,' cliffhanger in the first place if it is going to be spoilt in first look and exclusive clips, and now the teaser trailer.

Season three might have lost some of the drama going in, but the rest looks to be the genre-bending visual spectacle we've come to expect and appreciate. We now know, directly from SkyShowtime, that the August 1st release date for that platform "was given to one of [their] members in error and is incorrect". Nonetheless, spring has sprung a lot to look forward to in the summertime.