We’re crossing into the second half of the week with non-stop Star Trek right around the corner, and today we have a couple of news bits from both Star Trek: Prodigy and Star Trek: Picard for!

Starting off is a collection of Star Trek Day interviews with the creators of Star Trek: Prodigy — and two of the animated show’s voice cast — from YouTube channel BadCulture TV.

First up is Brett Gray, who plays the purple-skinned Dal on the series; the young actor explains how Prodigy his is first way into the Star Trek world and how that has helped him portray the alien character.

“My audition for ‘Prodigy’ was the first time I ever jumped into ‘Star Trek’… so I still have no idea what I’m jumping into right now, but I’m starting to get an idea that it’s way bigger than I thought.

The first day we were recording on set, I did a captain’s log — and I did it super wrong. It was energetic and I’m like, “Captain’s Log!” I thought about it [and] what I was going to do, and the Hageman brothers — the creators of the show — were like, “Whoa, what are you doing?! Captain’s logs have to be… You’re a captain now! There’s certain duties you have to uphold!”

They ended up keeping them in the cut, just super fun monologues of mine, which is awesome. I think by not watching the show, I have been able to allow some of myself to come in, which I think will really show in the character.

I’ve been trying to hold off on doing as much research as possible, so therefore the pressure is not on me. So, that’s been the best way to do it – because I would be so nervous otherwise.”

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Following is Dee Bradley Baker who voices the fluorescent blob Murf; the voice actor well known to genre fans for his work in the Star Wars animated world, talks about how he approaches new vocal roles with an open mind, how he stays out of the way of his on-screen characters, and more.

“As a voice actor, I care that the audience buys into the story — that they have an emotional connection to it and that it takes them somewhere.

If they want to be aware of my role in that, it’s fine, but I don’t need that… in fact, for the most part, because of the weird stuff that I usually do vocally — like Murf’s very odd — I want them thinking about Murf. I don’t want them thinking about me!

The overall goal is to have the audience involved, and enjoying the story. That’s all I think about.”

He also spoke about his own excitement for the show:

“I think the most exciting thing about where [the ‘Prodigy’] story goes is the adventure that it takes you on. The old, original ‘Star Trek’ is a grown up show, really; it deals with grown-ups. But it starts out [by] setting up that this is a human adventure of exploration — and that’s an exciting idea, to follow our curiosity out into space to see what we find, what we discover.

Sometimes you find something out there, but sometimes you find something [inside yourself], and that’s a good story, and interesting story. So it’s really cool that they have a version now that is of that [same] universe — and I think the tone and intelligence of [‘Prodigy’] very much plays to a grown-up audience, but it draws in kids, too.

[‘Prodigy’] hooks them more into that story, and the feeling of exploration and following curiosity… [and that] we can work things out together [to] move forward to where we want to go.”

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Finally, series creators and co-showrunners Dan and Kevin Hageman addressed how Star Trek: Prodigy can work as a kids show in an “adult universe,” how fast the show’s hero starship can fly, and delicately danced around rumors of legacy Trek vocal talent.

DAN HAGEMAN (L): “Kids today are pretty smart, and we don’t ever want to undersell them — so we kind of looked from the view of someone who may not be familiar with ‘Trek.’ Eight years old, eighteen, eighty-eight — there’s a lot of people out there who want to get into ‘Trek’ but they don’t know how to get into it. We always thought this would be a great entry point show for them.”

KEVIN HAGEMAN (R): “The universe we’re doing is the ‘Trek’ universe — the adult ‘Trek’ universe — just with kids in it. They’re thrust into it and have to survive it, and do the right things, and learn all the beautiful virtues and things we’ve all discovered through ‘Trek.'”

DAN: “Even though they’re kids, we don’t pull any punches. We don’t treat them like kids. They’ve got to deal with adult problems.”

KEVIN: “They fail all the time, but they’re failing forward, right? Just like all of us are.”

As for rumors about previous Star Trek actors returning for voice roles:

KEVIN: “If you only knew what was inside [our] tiny brains… there’s a lot of really, really cool things coming. They’re discovering ‘Trek!’ How are you going to discover ‘Trek’ without the characters of ‘Trek,’ or alien species of ‘Trek,’ or entities, you know, of ‘Trek?'”

Finally, about how fast that special engine on the USS Protostar can really push the ship:

DAN: “It took [Voyager] quite a long time to go from the Delta Quadrant to the Alpha Quadrant before, and I wouldn’t say [the Protostar] can go that fast, but I will tell you that the Protostar does have some kick to it. Maybe that’s for the kids — skip a couple of pages, get to the good parts.”

KEVIN: “Kids like a fast car!”

Star Trek: Picard co-showrunner Terry Matalas, who came aboard the series for Season 2 and Season 3, has been teasing out behind-the-scenes photos and brief video clips from the sets — with some very familiar sights ahead as production continues in California.

First, a pair of red alert animations in action — and a brand-new, old-school LCARS console, clearly signaling a return to a Starfleet vessel or two in upcoming stories.

Matalas also hints at heading back to the Original Series feature film era, with these replicas of a neon sign from the seedy bar in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and an electronic boatswain’s whistle seen in use aboard the Enterprise-A in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Finally, it’s chow time: the producer showed off a close-up view of the menu options on Admiral Picard’s food replicator… along with a guest actor chowing down on his lunch break, while still in full Tellarite makeup.

His teases were posted on dates both when Picard was in production on Season 2, as well as when the show moved into Season 3 production, so it’s hard to know specifically when we’ll get to view the focus of these photos on television — but we are guessing they are from some point late in the show’s upcoming second year.

Guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

Star Trek: Prodigy premieres October 28 on Paramount+ in the United States (and CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada), with a one-hour opening episode to kick of the show’s first season; specific international premiere dates have not yet been announced.

Star Trek: Picard returns for Season 2 in February 2022 on Paramount+ in the United States, CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada, and on Amazon’s Prime Video service in other international regions; Season 3 is in production now.