Header photo: Lizette Azar / CBS

After the two whirlwind Star Trek Universe panels at New York Comic Con this past Saturday, the cast and crew of Star Trek: Discovery made their way to the Paley Center for the Media for a special evening event where a few more details about the in-production Season 3, still filming up in Toronto.

Before that event kicked off — where we learned that Discovery will be visiting the Trill homeworld, and that the Federation is “challenged,” but not gone, 930 years into the future — we had a chance to chat with Star Trek franchise heads Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin about the state of current and future Trek productions, their thoughts on the return of Jean-Luc Picard, and why a kid’s Trek show is right for today’s audiences.

TREKCORE: After filming in Jordan for the series premiere, Discovery has gone overseas once more for Season 3. How did the shoot in Iceland come about?

ALEX KURTZMAN: Well, obviously we jumped to the future, and so we wanted a place that looked very different. I’ve wanted to shoot in Iceland for a really long time, so we looked at a bunch of different options and Iceland turned out to be doable — so we did it!

TREKCORE: Do you think this will be the last time production will be filming internationally?

KURTZMAN: Oh no, I definitely want to do it again, sure.

HEATHER KADIN: It was just incredible. The [Discovery] trailer went online today, and, I mean, it’s just stunning.

(Gestures to nearby ‘Discovery’ co-showrunner Michelle Paradise) You went, right?

MICHELLE PARADISE: I did, yeah.

TREKCORE: You got to supervise, huh? 

PARADISE: (Laughs) Yeah, I had to “work!” It was amazing. The landscape is absolutely incredible, and it feels otherworldly just walking around. The places where we got to shoot were just tremendous and everyone [we worked with locally] was phenomenal.

We felt very fortunate to have been there.

TREKCORE: How long was the shoot in Iceland? 

PARADISE: We did six days there.

TREKCORE: At this point, though, everything else for Discovery Season 3 will be filmed in the Toronto area?

KURTZMAN: Yes.

TREKCORE: Discovery production takes up a lot of space at the Pinewood studios in Toronto. Now that the big new CBS Stages Canada facility is open, is that something you plan to use as things continue in Toronto? 

KURTZMAN: Oh yes. We’ve already locked down some space there.

TREKCORE: For…? 

KURTZMAN: Something. (Smiles)

TREKCORE: Mm-hmm. 

PARADISE: There are always more shows to come. (Laughs)

TREKCORE: Could we talk for a few minutes about some of the things that you’ve already announced for the future?

KURTZMAN: Sure!

TREKCORE: You’ve got Picard coming up in January, it’s wrapped filming and in post-production now. How far along are you on Discovery Season 3?

KADIN: We’re shooting episode 6.

KURTMAN: Yeah, and we’re like writing the last three [episodes] pretty soon. 

TREKCORE: Are you doing thirteen episodes this year? 

KURTZMAN: (Nods) Thirteen.

TREKCORE: Do you see any additional episodes extending the season, like the extra two for Season 1, and last year’s extension to 14 episodes?

KURTZMAN: Not this year. I think we’re going [stick to] thirteen this year.

TREKCORE: Back in February you said that the Section 31 series with Michelle Yeoh would likely start up production after Discovery Season 3 was complete. Is that still the plan?

KADIN: Yes, that’s the plan.

KURTZMAN: Yep.

KADIN: And then Lower Decks!

TREKCORE: Yeah, we’re looking forward to that one — our team got a chance to meet Mike McMahan and his team briefly at Las Vegas… 

KADIN: Oh, great. Yeah, he’s amazing.

TREKCORE: How about the Nickelodeon animated series that was announced back in April? The writers room was revealed on social media a while back… is that something to look for, maybe, in 2021?

KADIN: Looooonger. I was surprised! As someone who makes big, live-action shows, I heard how long it was going to take and I was like, “What?!” Because it’s 3D animation, so just takes that much longer…

TREKCORE: Oh, so it will be more of a digital look, compared to the “cartoon” animation in Lower Decks?

KADIN: Exactly.

KURTZMAN: (Nods) Very different animation style.

KADIN: But the Hageman brothers [come from] Ninjago and TrollHunters, they’re doing it, so it’s definitely going to be more in that visual look.

TREKCORE: Lower Decks was picked up to series with a two-season order, due to the animation work, I believe.

KURTZMAN: Yes.

TREKCORE: Is that the same for the Nickelodeon show? 

KADIN: Yes.

TREKCORE: When do think there might be a title for that series? 

KURTZMAN: We have a title. We’re just not going to tell you what it is! (Laughs)

TREKCORE: The other Star Trek shows are accessible, mostly, to younger viewers, but some fans have expressed a bit of apprehension about a Trek show that’s aimed to be specifically for a younger audience.

What are your thoughts on that reaction, for those who think it might not be the right move for Star Trek? 

KADIN: The reason we went to the Hagemans is because if you’ve seen their work, you know that they’re not writing “Muppet Babies.” It’s not “Little Spock and Little Kirk.” It’s not playing down [to viewers] that way.

Even [with] their characters in Ninjago — they are teenagers — I was able to watch that with my kids and they write with a very epic quality. They tell stories the way we tell stories in live action: serialized, turning over cards…

I think it will be a great way for fans to introduce the franchise to their kids, and for new fans to be formed, because it’s such a big franchise, [it can be hard] to get into as a kid.

TREKCORE: So you expect it to have some ongoing storylines, and not just be an ‘episode of the week’ kids show? 

KADIN: (Nods) A hundred percent, yeah.

TREKCORE: Speaking of the “big franchise,” I’m sure you’ve seen the speculation from fans — and in the trades — about the CBS / Viacom merger and how it might impact Trek.  Has that affected your plans, or have you been thinking about what opportunities the merger might make available to you?

KURTZMAN: (Shakes head) No, it’s very business-as-usual for us. It has not impacted our plans at all. We have a slate of shows that’s going to take us easily through the next five years. So that’s the plan looking forward, and if movies come into play then we’ll be ready.

TREKCORE: You’ve said if often, with Discovery especially, that you’re trying to blur the lines between film and television. If the opportunity presented itself — purely hypothetically at this point, of course — would you want to try bringing the Discovery story to the big screen?

KURTZMAN: I think that question, for me, is more, “What’s the story that is specific to the big screen, and why would it be better told [as a movie]?” And to me, that’s a story better told in two hours, or if you’re looking at the model of a lot of serialized movies these days, it maybe a few two-hour movies that tell a larger story… almost like you do with a season of television, but over the course of five years in the theaters.

I wouldn’t rule anything out, but I also feel like we have to keep forging new ground, and Discovery is such a great place now that we would have to have a reason that inspires us to want us to take it to the big screen.

TREKCORE: With the Short Treks, we have the three Pike ones (“Q & A,” “The Trouble with Edward,” “Ask Not”) and the Star Trek: Picard prequel (“Children of Mars”). The December ones (“The Girl who Made the Stars,” “Ephraim and Dot”) are the two animated shorts, right?

KURTZMAN: Yes.

TREKCORE: You’ve been very quiet about those since you first mentioned them all the way back in January…

KURTZMAN: Well, as Heather said, it takes so long to do the animated ones… we thought they would be the easiest ones, but they turned out to be the absolute hardest, just because it takes time to iterate the animation.

We’ve now seen cuts of both; they’re fantastic.

TREKCORE: And would you say they are Discovery stories, or are they tied to some other part of the franchise? 

KURTZMAN: They’re both tied to Discovery, but in interesting and surprising ways.

TREKCORE: We’re getting the wrap-up signal, but before we go: what are your hopes for what the Picard show is going to bring to the existing Trek audience… and to people who have only heard about Jean-Luc Picard for the last 30 years? 

KADIN: I just hope that it delivers for everyone. I think people have this love for The Next Generation… obviously, people’s love for Trek informs how they feel about Discovery, but we were introducing brand new characters.

And [with Picard] you can tell when we released the trailer, people’s love for [the TNG characters] is so deep and so real, we all felt so obligated to not let people down — which I don’t feel we’re going to — but I think we just really want people to embrace it and love it as much as we have, and they’re so excited about it.

KURTZMAN: You know, we feel a tremendous responsibility to the fans who have loved [the Picard character], and Patrick himself, who took a massive leap of faith with us in choosing to come back and play Picard [after] he said he was done forever.

He also said, “I want to make sure if I come back, if you loved TNG, you’ll feel we’re honoring it, but this is a very different experience.” This is really a very different experience. It looks incredibly different, the kind of storytelling is different, but if you’re someone who’s never watched it at all, it’s been built for you to come into it and get to be dropped into this very emotional story about this captain who’s in the late stage of his life and is dealing with the sum total of all his choices.

It also has an incredible new crew — incredible, to a person, they’re all so wonderful. And we have now started showing it to the studio, and they’re thrilled with it, so that gave us a lot more confidence that we’ve hit the mark.

We’ve now watched five episodes with Patrick and he’s thrilled with it too. Because he was so happy with it, it makes us feel like it honored what we promised.

TREKCORE: And you’re hoping, working, planning, for a potential second season of Star Trek: Picard? 

KURTZMAN: Definitely. Already in the works.

TREKCORE: Can’t wait to see it. Thanks so much. 

So what’s your take on what Kurtzman and Kadin had to say? Do the new details on the Nickelodeon kids’ show pique your interest, or are you more intrigued by the notion of an already-in-the-works Season 2 for Star Trek: Picard… or whatever might be in that “next five years” plan for the franchise? Let us know in the comments below!

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Star Trek: Short Treks continue on CBS All Access with “The Trouble with Edward” on October 10, and with following installments monthly leading up to the launch of Star Trek: Picard on January 23. Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 and Star Trek: Lower Decks will debut on CBS All Access later in 2020.