‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Team on Season 3 Parody & ‘Strange New Worlds’ Crossover Ships (VIDEO)

Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) are crossing over from the animated world of Star Trek: Lower Decks to the live-action Strange New Worlds, but don’t worry: Brad still has his purple hair.

Stars Quaid, Newsome, Noël Wells (Ensign Tendi), and Dawnn Lewis (Captain Carol Freeman) and creator and showrunner Mike McMahan sat down with Andrea Towers at San Diego Comic-Con in the TV Insider and TV Guide Magazine studio, sponsored by Hollywood unBranded to both discuss that special episode and tease what’s coming up in Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 — especially after that crazy finale!

When Mariner and Boimler join the crew of the Enterprise, “we get to be … in our human bodies, so my dad can stop asking me, ‘When are you going to be a real-life person in something next?'” Newsome shared, admitting, “I also broke a lot of things on the set of the Enterprise.” Quaid added that was the only one who saw.

While there aren’t any plot details about what brings the ensigns over, Quaid did reveal he started “shipping Boimler with Spock [played by Ethan Peck]. We call it Spoimler.”

But first, Lower Decks returns for its third season on August 25. “There’s a lot of amazing callbacks to previous Star Trek, a lot of new aliens you’re going to meet. We’re going to go to Deep Space Nine for a little adventure,” McMahan teased. And after the movie parody in Season 1, “we do a big Star Trek sequel movie parody episode because everyone knows, Star Trek sequels hit different.”

As for the resolution of that Season 2 finale cliffhanger, which saw Captain Freeman arrested, expect to see everyone “take on the charge of trying to prove my innocence,” Lewis said. For her daughter, Mariner, that means, “I’m going to put on a cropped leather jacket and I’m going to steal a starship,” according to Newsome.

Watch the video interview above for more from the cast and creator of Star Trek: Lower Decks about Season 3 as well as the Strange New Worlds crossover. Don’t miss Lewis confusing Newsome as she may or may not reveal a spoiler (and what McMahan has to say about that). Plus, watch everyone’s reactions to McMahan talking about how Earth is in space.

Star Trek: Lower Decks, Season 3 Premiere, Thursday, August 25, Paramount+