Star Trek: Lower Decks is back for the sixth episode of the new season this week, and today we’ve got new images from “Hear All, Trust Nothing” for your review!
This week, the Cerritos crew takes a trip to the Bajoran sector and revisits starbase Deep Space 9 for the first time since the June 1999 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series finale.
Here are four new images from this week’s new episode, which includes a shot previewed in last week’s episode of The Ready Room; the above header image is from the Lower Decks Season 3 trailer.
STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS — 306: 'Hear All, Trust Nothing'
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HEAR ALL, TRUST NOTHING —The Cerritos crew unexpectedly spends a day on Deep Space 9.
Written by Grace Parra Janney. Directed by Fill Marc Sagadraca.
Star Trek: Lower Decks returns with “Hear All, Trust Nothing” on Thursday, September 29 on Paramount+ in the United States, Australia, Latin America, and the Nordics, as well as on CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada and on Prime Video in many other regions.
In addition, stick around to Caleb’s wish for another Original Series-era Trek show (to follow Strange New Worlds’ eventual conclusion), and Alex’s prediction about how this season of Lower Decks will end!
WeeklyTrek is available to subscribe and download each week on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube, and Spotify— and we’ll be sharing the details of each new episode right here on TrekCore each week if you’re simply just looking to listen in from the web.
Do you have a wish or theory you’d like to share on the show? Tweet to Alex at @WeeklyTrek, or email us with your thoughts about wishes, theories, or anything else about the latest in Star Trek news!
In the last of our Star Trek Day interviews, we caught up with Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas, who took the captain’s chair on the third and final year of the series.
Along with the returning Star Trek: The Next Generation cast, the show will also see Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) formally join the ranks of Starfleet, and a new starship Titan will join the growing Federation fleet.
TREKCORE: What are your thoughts on the Season 3 trailer?
TERRY MATALAS: I think it really signals a call to adventure, going back out into space, and returning Picard to that Starfleet world we love to see him in — and with some friends, like Captain Riker and Commander Seven of Nine.
TREKCORE: And they have a starship!
MATALAS: They do have a starship, the USS Titan. It’s all very much from my heart and soul. It’s the kind of Star Trek I want to see.
The new Titan-A starship seen in PICARD Season 3. (Paramount+)
TREKCORE: So this is a new Titan, right?
MATALAS: It’s the Titan-A, yeah. It’s kind of a refit; in the series we refer to it as a Neo-Constitution-class. It’s a revamped Constitution-class, but we honor the other Titan — Riker’s ship, that we’ve seen on Lower Decks and in the novels.
In the Titan-A observation lounge, there’s a gold model of that ship, so we acknowledge Riker commanded that ship, but this is the newest, latest, state-of-the-art underdog starship of the season.
Raffi (Michelle Hurd) and Seven (Jeri Ryan) work to rescue Rios in PICARD Season 2. (Paramount+)
TREKCORE: What did you bring into Season 3’s story from the first two seasons of Picard?
MATALAS:Picard Season 3 is, in some ways, kind of a whole new show. It’s in the spirit of kind of a final Star Trek: The Next Generation movie — that if they were to hand the keys to me to come up with my Next Gen movie, this was always the story I had in mind.
So in that way, we integrated some of Raffi’s story and Seven’s story the most, to arc and finish those previously-included characters; and we needed some room for some new characters that are coming in — they’re not announced yet — and of course, the Next Gen cast, who all have their own stories.
TREKCORE: Before you go, back in Las Vegas, Denise Crosby said fans will see Tasha Yar — somehow.
MATALAS: I will say… there is a nod to Tasha Yar in the season. You will SEE Tasha.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Star Trek: Picard is currently in post-production on its third and final season, set to debut in February 2023 on Paramount+ the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Amazon’s Prime Video service in most international locations.
The team at Gale Force Nine is back with their latest addition to the Star Trek: Ascendancy tabletop game: two expansions which let players step into the role of the imposing Dominion or the enigmatic Breen Confederacy.
Debuting originally in 2016, Star Trek: Ascendancy is a 4X strategy game where you steer a galactic power to explore the Star Trek universe, exploit its resources, expand your territory, and exterminate anyone who stands in your way. These two new releases bring the total number of player factions up to nine — plus an appropriately ‘automated’ Borg threat.
Such an extensive roster offers endless combinations of how you can battle for supremacy in the Alpha Quadrant — and with the Dominion expansion, the Gamma Quadrant as well!
The theming is strong for the reclusive Breen, who gain powerful advantages when defending their territory. Between chances to automatically destroy ships, reroll missed To-Hit rolls in combat, and deny opponents the chance to retreat from battle, the prospect of going toe-to-toe with the Breen on their home turf is a daunting one.
Players will still need to keep their weapons technology advancing steadily though, as all the advantages in the universe can still be stymied by powerful shields. And speaking of advantages out in the universe, the Breen’s new system discs offer a bevy of Culture and Open slots that offer a lot of value to savvy players while ships are exploring strange new worlds.
One-time allies of the Breen, the Dominion are not to be discounted either. This faction sports powerful combat abilities, led by their Ketracel-White ability to reroll failed attacks. The Dominion’s fleets are geared for battle as well, generating new ships while in flight and overpowering enemies with heavily-shielded armadas.
Their research opportunities highlight each of the three major components in the Dominion’s social structure: the Jem’Hadar generate Command tokens to trigger more combat rerolls, Vorta commanders help to resist Hegemony takeovers by enemy powers, and a novel mechanic allows for the Founders to infiltrate opponents’ systems and sow discord by moving ships out of position or making homeworlds easier to invade.
With the right advancements in place, the shapeshifting Founders can be very difficult to remove after they’ve infiltrated your territory and inflict costly losses — but it will take quite some time before they can put their full apparatus in place, so wise players will strike them quickly before it’s too late. The Dominion’s putative drawback, their inability to suborn another faction’s systems culturally, only means their fleets will be on the warpath all the sooner.
The arrival of the Dominion wouldn’t be complete without their native Gamma Quadrant. This expansion comes with rules for discovering star systems sequestered on the far side of the galaxy – and braving the wormhole can be added to games even without a Dominion player! The tile linking Bajor to the Idran system does a good job modeling the physical and conceptual distance that the Gamma Quadrant represents in the TV series; at the same time, it takes up a lot of real estate on the game area for relatively little value in play.
It’s perfect from a lore point of view, but if you use the Gamma rules at all you may want to leave it as a random event that might replace a phenomenon rather than forcing the Dominion player to start in their own private region.
The Dominion brings not only a new faction from beyond the wormhole, but a new game scenario: team play with the Dominion War. The rules introduce Alliance cards, which players can use to swing conflicts in their favor: deploying fleets, accelerating research, and rushing to the contested front to provide aid.
Several cards can also be used to directly assist your teammates by bolstering their forces or switching cards in your hand with theirs. This helps to add a level of meta-interaction that the alliance format otherwise reduces compared to a standard game. Conspiring with your allies to drop crucial cards beyond the normal flow of play is a nice injection of strategy and variety in what otherwise may feel like a more rote scenario.
The revised win conditions do require conquering at least one enemy homeworld, so a formidable military presence will be necessary in some aspect of your team’s plans. Turtling up and stalling for Ascendancy won’t save you, and there’s much less incentive to engage in table talk when Initiative is always random and there is no possibility of your current adversary becoming an ally of convenience in future turns: it’s a battle to the death.
This has pluses and minuses for different factions; aggressive ones like Klingons and the Dominion will always have a way to deploy their strengths. Others that focus on heavy peaceful interaction — like the Ferengi (limited to only one trade agreement) or the Vulcans (who peddle their ambassadors as helpful observers across a wide area of the boards) — will find their typical playstyle somewhat hamstrung.
On the other hand, Vulcans won’t have to worry about their ‘No Lying’ edict when it’s clear that they’re going for the throat. The Ferengi ability to add spacelanes without numeric restriction may also be particularly handy in a play area that is quite crowded from the start.
Another great addition that the Alliance rules bring is the Resistance deck. In the Dominion War, there is no player elimination. When a faction has their homeworld taken over by an enemy power, they aren’t erased from the map but rather become a sort of vassal to the faction who conquered them. Sending part of their resources off, allowing free passage — and all the while, plotting a rebellion and aiding their remaining allies!
The Resistance cards take the place of the player’s Alliance cards, and allow them to strike a blow against their conqueror, build ships for themselves or an ally, and even liberate themselves outright and rejoin the game with their full regular abilities again (with or without the assistance of their allies to free their homeworld).
The chance to support the team even when your faction is all but vanquished is a terrific addition that greatly suits this style of play.
The initial setup for the Dominion War does accelerate play right to the midgame, with mature empires turning their gazes outward among the other players, who have all made first contact at the start. Full fleet and Starbase complements are available regardless of Ascendancy, and extra starting resources can quickly enable you to spread your ships far and wide.
Removing some of the randomness in initial system draws prevents any one player from being significantly set back by bad luck in dangerous phenomena or resource-poor planets; this also takes some of the thrill of exploration away — and hobbles the Federation’s perk for generating Culture from new discoveries.
There’s less time on average for Research projects to be initiated and mature without the threat of enemy ships bearing down on you, so fewer signature abilities may be brought to bear in some games.
Playing Star Trek: Ascendancy with several first-timers — but long-time board gamers — I found that it hits the sweet spot with simplicity of mechanics while it also maintains enough strategic depth to be highly replayable, which is a great combination in a game that will occupy the better part of your day.
The components in the new set maintain the excellent quality consumers have come to expect from this product line, and the spot-on theming will please any Trekkie eager to turn their eye toward a tactical take on exploring their favorite fictional universe. Pick up the Breen if you’re eager to try a tenacious and insular faction that has the bite to match their slowly-growing ambition.
You’ll want to grab The Dominion for the alliance rules alone, but there’s great value in the introduction of a new way to build your galactic map with the Gamma Quadrant and a powerful faction armed with relentless assault ships and insidious spies throwing rival empires into chaos.
Joining the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds cast for show’s upcoming second season, Kane will portray “Pelia,” a new engineer who is described as “highly educated and intelligent, this engineer suffers no fools; Pelia solves problems calmly and brusquely, thanks to her many years of experience.”
During press time at the Star Trek Day festivities, we caught up with Strange New Worlds executive producer Henry Alonso Myers — along with stars Celia Rose Gooding (Uhura) and Christina Chong (La’an Noonien-Singh) — to talk about how Kane became the newest member of the Enterprise crew.
Carol Kane as new Enterprise engineer Pelia, coming aboard in Season 2. (Paramount+)
TREKCORE: Tell us about Carol Kane joining the Enterprise crew in Season 2!
HENRY ALONSO MYERS (Executive Producer): Well, we needed a new engineer character after Hemmer’s death, and and wanted someone who was very different from anyone who’d been on the Enterprise — someone who had a very different presence.
We wanted someone who was surprising — maybe someone who we wouldn’t expect to see in an engineer’s uniform — and someone who was older, because that’s not something you often see on the Enterprise, which has mostly younger crew.
CHRISTINA CHONG (La’an Noonien-Singh): Carol Kane is the most hilarious person I know.
CELIA ROSE GOODING (Uhura): Yeah, she truly brought an energy to set that we really didn’t have in the first season. She’s such a character and such a light; she has this wiseness, but also this silliness about her that’s so intoxicating.
CHONG: I was literally on set like this [covers mouth] during all her close-ups.
GOODING: Just shuddering, trying to contain our laughter. She’s amazing, and she’s going to be a fan-favorite, for sure.
TREKCORE: How did you land on Carol for the ‘Pelia’ role?
MYERS: Our casting people came up with Carol. Akiva Goldsman and I discussed it, we discussed it with the writers, and thought it was an amazing idea! [Laughs] “Is she interested? Does she really want to do this?” we thought — it turns out she was!
We had some conversations with her, and she was like, “Do you really want me?” It turned out to be a delightful match. I can’t wait for people to see her — she’s a recurring character throughout the season.
Chong and Gooding in “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach.” (Paramount+)
TREKCORE: What can fans look forward to from Uhura and La’an next season?
GOODING: I’m excited for people to see how Uhura is reeling and recovering from the events of Season 1. She went through a lot, and and there’s more she goes through! She’s in an incredibly human, vulnerable state.
CHONG: For La’an, there’s one particular episode…
GOODING: Oh! [Smiles]
CHONG: …one episode in particular that I’m just so excited for. [Sings] We cannot say anythiiiiing! But it’s a very good episooooode!
GOODING: It’s a really good La’an episode. Mmm-hmm!
GOODING: If you loved Season 1, you’re going to love Season 2 because we up everything to like the umpteenth level. We really give it to you!
Tawny Newsome (left) interviews Rebecca Romijn, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Celia Rose Gooding, Melissa Navia, and Babs Olosunmokon at Star Trek Day 2022. (Paramount+)
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 is in post-production now; it is expected to arrive on Paramount+ in the first half of 2023.
Along with regions where Season 1 has already debuted, the first season of the show is expected to arrive on Paramount+ in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria “later this year.”
After a couple of weaker the normal outings, Star Trek: Lower Decks absolutely storms back to form in “Reflections,” a character episode from series creator Mike McMahan which finally provides a look at our engineering ensign’s backstory — one which shines with warmth, humor, and character growth.
It’s so nice to sing Lower Decks’ praises again, and as “Reflections” signals the halfway point for Season 3, here’s hoping the season three upswing mirrors that in Seasons 1 and 2 where the season’s back half begins to absolutely excel.
Ensign Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) is left in a coma when his old personality — which he learns was almost deleted when his implant was forced upon him — attempts to reassert control of his body. We learn that pre-implant, the ‘original’ Samanthan Rutherford was an angry racer who participated in illegal starship races during his first year at Starfleet Academy.
After an accident, Rutherford was given his implant to wipe out both his memory and old personality to cover up a still-unknown scheme — by a high ranking Starfleet officer.
The two Rutherford personalities race each other for control of present-day Rutherford’s mind. ‘Original’ Rutherford loses after his anger and cockiness get the better of him, and he cedes control of his mind to ‘our’ Rutherford. But after that experience, the Cerritos engineer now knows what happened to him — including the fact that someone else chose to give him the high-tech cranial implant.
Meanwhile, the Cerritos spends time back at Tulgana IV (first visited in “Envoys”) after Commander Ransom (Jerry O’Connell) sends Ensigns Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Boimler (Jack Quaid) down to the planet with the unenviable task of manning a Starfleet recruitment booth at a local job fair — drawing the ire of the other vendors nearby.
“Reflections” is a wonderful and surprising character episode for Rutherford, and one that’s also got a lot of funny moments. The episode only begins to unpack some of the implications for Rutherford of learning about his past — who he used to be, how that differs from who he is now, what was done to him.
The ‘original’ Rutherford is a fascinating character, who is so unlike the Rutherford that we’ve come to get to know, and I really like that as a character choice. Eugene Cordero does a great job expressing both versions of the character with just his voice, and making it sound authentic.
And while I might have liked one more scene with ‘original’ Rutherford — considering the implications of what was done to him and his seeming gone-for-good ‘death’ — it does not feel like this is a story arc that ends with this episode.
This episode is also potentially Lower Decks’ most self-referential episode to date. From revisiting Tulgana IV to the Collectors Guild, “Reflections” includes many references to previous episodes of the series. I love that as the show becomes more established — in addition to all the great callbacks to other Star Trek shows — Lower Decks can also start referring back to itself.
It adds layers of enjoyment not just for fans of the franchise as a whole, but for Lower Decks fans in particular. There’s the Data bubble bath from “An Embarrassment of Dooplers” in one moment, a T88 scanner from “Cupid’s Errant Arrow” in the next, and so on.
In addition to pulling back the veil on Rutherford’s backstory, “Reflections” also feels like it’s setting up future story arcs for Lower Decks. Furthering the Rutherford storyline for sure, but Mariner’s encounter with Petra Aberdeen (Georgia King) from the Independent Archeologists Guild — plus the continuation of “Bold” Boimler’s attempts to be more assertive — seem like they are laying the groundwork for much more to come on all fronts.
TREK TROPE TRIBUTES
Visitors to the Starfleet booth on Tulgana IV make jokes about whether Starfleet is a military organization or not — which is completely fair, because even the fans can’t agree on the answer to that one!
When asked about Starfleet uniform changes, Boimler explicitly acknowledges that the California-class uniforms are not used everywhere across Starfleet — and as fans know, different parts of Starfleet where different uniforms (and update them frequently).
Petra Aberdeen, clearly a Vashstand-in, taunts Mariner and Boimler by scaring away a potential Starfleet recruit interested in the transporter by saying that they would spend seven years in a windowless room… referring both to the length of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager (and the fact that all the transporter room sets seen in Star Trek have been windowless rooms).
CANON CONNECTIONS
The Cerritos first visited Tulgana IV in “Envoys.”
When Rutherford tells Tendi that he’s been having bad dreams, Tendi asks if his dream is one where he’s in “a new timeline with Kirk and Spock, and they have cinematic chemistry?!” This is, of course, a wink-and-nod towards the Kelvin Timeline films.
Ransom threatens to have Boimler and Mariner transferred to Starbase 80 if they aren’t successful in sharing the good word of Starfleet at the recruitment booth — the dreaded “worst” starbase was first used as a reassignment threat in “Terminal Provocations.”
When Rutherford’s ‘original’ personality first manifests, he worries that might be possessed by an anaphasic alien — like Ronin, the candle-dwelling specter that tried to, uh, ‘merge’ with Beverly Crusher in “Sub Rosa.”
An Antedian, a Vorgon, and an Arcturian. (Paramount+)
The other booths at the information fair include he Collectors Guild (introduced in “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”), the Archeologists Guild, a group of Wadi (from “Move Along Home”) operating some kind of gaming booth, and a booth operated by Federation scientists who struggle to convince visitors that “outpost science is real science.”
The starship model on the desk at the Starfleet recruiting booth is the USS Stargazer. Boimler affectionately refers to it as the “Gazer” at least once, which is probably something nobody else in Starfleet has ever said ever — but the Star Trek: Picard Season 2 and 3 production crew most certainly did!
Mariner talks through the process of signing up for Starfleet as a non-commissioned officer and attending the Tech Services Academy on Mars. The Starfleet Technical Services Academy was previously mentioned on an Okudagram in “The Eye of the Beholder.”
One of the booth visitors is from Gelrak V, whose love of crystals the Cerritos crew encountered in “Temporal Edict.”
One of Mariner’s catchphrases — to generate interest in the Starfleet recruiting booths — is “Prepare Yourself for Warp 10 Excitement!” which was the log line for the novelization of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Young Rutherford won money participating in “Devron Races” through the Neutral Zone, likely a reference to the Devron system that was established to be inside the Romulan Neutral Zone in “All Good Things.”<
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Rutherford builds his own Delta Flyer for the mind-race, and even wears the flight uniform seen in “Drive.”
Classic flora returns — safely under glass. (Paramount+)
In his meltdown that drives interest to the Starfleet recruiting booth, Boimler references Voyager’s holographic doctor and says “The Doctor didn’t spend seven years in the Delta Quadrant for you to question his agency! He’s got rights!”
‘Original’ Rutherford induces ‘our’ Rutherford to remember how he got his implant by holding a hand against the side of his face like a Vulcan mindmeld, and saying “Remember…” — just like Spock in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khanwhen he transfers his katra to McCoy.
The Starfleet officer overseeing Rutherford’s implant operation is wearing an older TNG-style combadge and uniform, appropriate for the era in which the events were set.
Pose with a pair of Those Old Scientists. (Paramount+)
OTHER OBSERVATIONS
Tendi signed up for Starfleet through a recruitment booth like the one seen in this episode.
Barnes, Federov, Kayshon, and Chief Lundy all appear in this episode, making “Reflections” a veritable who’s who of Lower Decks secondary characters!
Rutherford’s ship, the Sampaguita, really does look like a Starfleet hot rod — or as the ‘original’ Rutherford describes it, “a seat strapped to an impulse engine.”
Sampaguita (or Arabian jasmine) is the national flower of the Philippines; Rutherford voice actor Eugene Cordero is of Filipino descent.
Where our Rutherford hates pears, apparently ‘original’ Rutherford loved them!
The animation for the race between the two Rutherfords is absolutely gorgeous; this is one good looking animated show.
Overall, “Reflections” is fun, it’s funny, and it has important character growth for Rutherford. It’s rewarding to find out more about his backstory — and to find out how surprising it is — and the Boimler and Mariner storyline is both fun and funny.
Lower Decks is a great show, and “Reflections proves why.
Star Trek: Lower Decks returns with “Hear All, Trust Nothing” on Thursday, September 29 on Paramount+ in the United States, Australia, Latin America, and the Nordics, as well as on CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada and on Prime Video in many other regions.
During September 8th’s Star Trek Day event we had the opportunity to chat with series lead Brett Gray and the show’s creative leads — Kevin and Dan Hageman, and director Ben Hibon — to learn what’s coming next for the Protostar crew.
After ten months away, there’s a lot to look forward to!
The crew of the USS Protostar, returning for more adventures in October. (Paramount+)
TREKCORE: What can fans look forward to when Prodigy returns next month?
KEVIN HAGEMAN (Executive Producer): As people have seen in the first ten episodes, our show starts off sort of outside Federation space; outside of everything you know of Star Trek. With each episode, we get closer and closer, deeper and deeper in.
These next ten episodes are going to become even more Trek, and I think people are going to love that.
BRETT GRAY (“Dal”): The first half of the season was the part of the story where the characters were discovering themselves and becoming a crew. Now we’re going to start to dig into who these characters are — in their past, but also who they are GOING to be and what their roles are going to be in the team.
I think it’s going to be cool to watch the obstacles they will have to face as they are coming into their own as a group — instead of just individuals.
BEN HIBON (Director / Executive Producer): We’re all part of a family, right? And Prodigy is trying to capture all the different aspects: the tensions, the conflicts, embracing each other, believing in each other… all of those good things. It speaks to all ages, and to people with different backgrounds.
TREKCORE: And now the Protostar is on the run from the real Admiral Janeway — and they can’t even explain themselves to her!
GRAY: It’s really smart. What better way to set up conflict then to not allow the people who stole a Starfleet ship to speak to Starfleet!
It’s a lot of show-and-tell, as opposed to talk-and-tell — so it’s going to be great to watch our crew really figure out how to navigate this world without being able to contact people, or even being able to know about what Admiral Janeway wants in general. It’s like playing darts, but blindfolded!
TREKCORE: So how did Billy Campbell become involved in the series, bringing back his Okona character after such a long time?
KEVIN HAGEMAN: Very early on in the writers room, we were talking about the “greatest hits,” the characters we love. As a family show, we like the colorful characters, and he was pretty outrageous, that Okona!
We fell in love with the thought of what Okona would be like some years down the road, living this outrageous life…
The outrageous Thadiun Okona throughout the years.
GRAY: It’s showing where the Prodigy crew fit within the larger Star Trek universe. Dal and Okona have a very good, fun relationship that I think people will enjoy — and they learn a lot from each other. I can’t wait for everyone to experience that. It was fun being shady!
DAN HAGEMAN (Executive Producer): And Billy Campbell actually had a lot to say! He was like, “Man, give me an eyepatch! Give me some heft!”
KEVIN HAGEMAN: “Make my belly a little bigger!”
DAN HAGEMAN: Those were Billy’s words — and we were like, “Hell yeah!”
KEVIN HAGEMAN: Yeah, “Let’s do it!” Okona’s little over the hill.
TREKCORE: Meanwhile, real-life Billy Campbell’s as fit as a fiddle.
KEVIN HAGEMAN: He is. He’s a very handsome man.
Murf is going through a… meta-murf-osis.
TREKCORE: Will there be other surprises people can look forward to?
KEVIN HAGEMAN: Oh, there are a lot of surprises… that we can’t talk about!
DAN HAGEMAN: We chose this clip to preview because something’s happening to Murf…
TREKCORE: Yeah, what’s going on with Murf!? Are we going to learn about his Original Series connection?
KEVIN HAGEMAN: Yes! In Episode 11! It is a deep, DEEP dive. I think we only saw ONE person on Twitter guess it.
TREKCORE: Before you go, is there anything you can tell us about the Star Trek: Prodigy — Supernova game?
DAN HAGEMAN: It’s coming out in October and it’s beautiful, everything we’ve seen.
KEVIN HAGEMAN: I just saw some game footage, and it reminded me that not only do you get our actors’ voices in there — no soundalikes, you’ll be hearing Kate Mulgrew as Janeway, Brett as Dal, Ella Purnell as Gwyen, and all the great characters — but they’re also using music from Nami Malumad, our composer.
They modeled the look of it after what Ben did on the series, so when I’m looking at that game, it feels like you’re playing the show.
DAN HAGEMAN: I know it’s been hard for people — the long wait between episode 10 and episode 11 — so when they have to wait longer after episode 20, they can play the video game!
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Star Trek: Prodigy will return on Thursday, October 27 to Paramount+ in the United States, Latin America, Australia, South Korea, and the UK; the series is said to air “later in the year” in South Korea, Germany, Italy, France, Austria, and Switzerland.
The Star Trek universe may be exploding with content on television these days, but that isn’t the only place stories from the final frontier are being told — as longtime Star Trek comic publisher IDW has not just one or two, but FOUR new tales coming for readers starting this month!
While Season 3 of the animated series continues on Paramount+, Star Trek: Lower Decks begins its first print story this month with as a three-issue miniseries written by Ryan North and drawn by artist Chris Fenoglio.
Cover A by Chris Fenoglio, Cover B by Jay Fosgitt, Retailer Incentive by Philip Murphy, Convention Exclusive by Troy Little. (IDW Publishing)
Here’s the synopsis to Lower Decks #1, in stores now:
Soon after leading her crew on a planetary expedition aimed at building bridges and advancing Federation technology, Captain Freeman begins to suspect that the planet and its people are not all what they seem… Meanwhile, the crew in the lower decks take to the holodeck, enjoying some much-needed recreational time-until a bloodthirsty visitor decides to join in on their games!
Cover A by Chris Fenoglio, Cover B by Derek Charm, Retailer Incentive by Philip Murphy. (IDW Publishing)
Here’s the synopsis to Lower Decks #2, coming in October:
While the crew in the lower decks deal with the repercussions of bringing Dracula aboard the Cerritos, the away team grapples with its own unfortunate miscalculation on the planet Qvanti.
Cover A by Chris Fenoglio, Cover B by Robby Cook, Retailer Incentive by Philip Murphy. (IDW Publishing)
Here’s the synopsis to Lower Decks #3, coming in November:
With the Cerritos under attack and Captain Freeman’s away team accused of violating Starfleet’s most upheld principle, can the crew prove their innocence? Or will they end up one of Dracula’s infamous Draquiri cocktails?
***
Star Trek: Picard won’t be returning for its third season until next February, but IDW has launched this year’s between-seasons comic tale, as Star Trek: Picard — Stargazer begins its three-issue run here in September.
As with many of the previous tie-in comics connected to the modern Star Trek era, the Stagazer miniseries is written by longtime collaborators Mike Johnson & Picard co-creator Kirsten Beyer, with art by Angel Hernandez.
Cover A by Angel Hernandez, Cover B by Megan Levens, Retailer Incentive by Liana Kangas, Online Exclusive by Carlos Nieto. (IDW Publishing)
Here’s the synopsis to Stargazer #1, released in late August:
When the U.S.S. Stargazer goes missing near a planet from his past, Admiral Jean Luc-Picard enlists Seven’s help to unravel the mystery and save the Stargazer crew!
Cover A by Angel Hernandez, Cover B by Butch Mapa, Retailer Incentive by Aaron Harvey. (IDW Publishing)
Here’s the synopsis to Stargazer #2, coming in October:
While Picard and Seven seek answers to uncover the mysterious disappearance of the Stargazer crew near Jenjor VI, a bold choice from Picard’s past comes back to haunt him.
Cover A by Angel Hernandez, Cover B by Sean von Gorman, Retailer Incentive by Andy Price. (IDW Publishing)
Here’s the synopsis to Stargazer #3, coming in late October:
Caught in a deadly crossfire between the Romulans and Remans, Picard and Seven of Nine must draw on their combined Starfleet and Rangers skills to save not only themselves but an entire planet!
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Captain Pike’s crew joins the comic adventures this winter in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds — The Illyrian Enigma, a tale set between the show’s first and forthcoming second season.
Like the Stargazer series, this new comic story is also written by Mike Johnson and Kirsten Beyer, with art by Megan Levens.
Cover A by Megan Levens, Cover B by Jake Bartok. (IDW Publishing)
Here’s the synopsis for The Illyrian Enigma #1, coming in December:
With Una accused of unlawful genetic modification by Starfleet, Captain Pike sets out in search of evidence that could prove his first officer’s innocence.
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Finally, IDW’s next monthly Star Trek series kicks off this October with Star Trek #1, a new ongoing tale centered around Benjamin Sisko — after he’s returned from the Bajoran Wormhole — who must bring together characters from many eras of the Trek saga for his mission.
Written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly (who helmed the recently-concluded Star Trek: Year Five series) with art by Ramon Rosanas, this new monthly comic — which is the start of a massive new comic-based continuity.
Cover A by Ramon Rosanas, Cover B by Declan Shalvey, Cover C by David Aja. (IDW Publishing)
As IDW Publishing’s marketing director Keith Davidson puts it:
It’s the biggest initiative that IDW has ever undertaken for the brand in its now-14 years of Star Trek publication.
Essentially, our new Star Trek series is creating a new ongoing IDW continuity, from which we will build offshoots, spin-offs, and epic events for years to come. Benjamin Sisko takes the helm of the Enterprise, supported by a crew of characters pulled quite literally from throughout Star Trek canon — even from The Original Series! Part of the fun will be seeing how the diverse personalities mesh or clash.
Honestly, we’re hoping to channel with Star Trek what Marvel did when they launched their Star Wars comics a few years back — respecting the canon that came before while building a new universe for fans that’s wholly unique, unexpected, and accessible.
Online Exclusive cover by Angel Hernandez. (IDW Publishing)
As writer Collin Kelly described it to ComicBook.com:
They’re giving us a lot of access to all the toys, with the understanding that at the end of it, we will put the toys back in the box. There is about a year and a half here of Star Trek timeline that is untouched, and within this, we can make all sorts of trouble as long as we put the characters that need to be back in the box for Nemesis.
Lanzing also talked about how this new storyline will be canon — until it’s not.
This is as close as we can, on the comic side, to being canon. We will be canon until they un-canonize us. But we are working with the shows. We are in communication with the teams…
We’re taking this as an opportunity to effectively fill [the space formerly occupied by the Trek novel continuity], because a lot of that stuff was created with the understanding there would never be shows again.
[But] now we know that there will be, so we are trying to create new canon that exists inside that space. But these are the characters you know. This is the canonical Benjamin Sisko sequel story. This is the last ride of Data before Nemesis. These are those stories. This is what happened to Tom Paris after he came back from Voyager.
Cover D by Rachael Stott, Retailer Incentive A by Francesco Francavilla, Retailer Incentive B by Ramon Rosanas. (IDW Publishing)
Here’s the official synopsis for Star Trek #1 — coming in October — where Captain Sisko is joined on his mission by first officer Data, medical officer Dr. Beverly Crusher, pilot Tom Paris, and new characters as well.
It’s stardate 2378, and Benjamin Sisko has finally returned from the Bajoran Wormhole omnipotent. But his godhood is failing with every minute. Sent by the Prophets on a mission to the deepest parts of space aboard the U.S.S. Theseus, he witnesses the unthinkable: Someone is killing the gods. And only Sisko and his motley crew of Starfleet members from every era of Trek can stop them.
Here’s the official synopsis for Star Trek #2, coming in November:
Tasked with a mission from the Prophets, Benjamin Sisko enlists the help of an old friend from Qo’noS to track the ship and persons responsible for slaying the gods.
My design of the USS Theseus for the new STAR TREK comic series. I hope you like it. pic.twitter.com/xXt6LSkLpb
Here’s the official synopsis for Star Trek #3, coming in December:
When strange malfunctions begin plaguing the U.S.S. Theseus mid-warp, Benjamin Sisko and his crew must band together to unveil the source behind the mysterious phenomena aboard the ship. But what initially appear as mere technological quagmires and strange happenings become a test that will determine the very fate of the universe.
The world of Star Trek comics continues to expand. Keep checking back to TrekCore for more Star Trek comics news as it breaks!
Star Trek: Lower Decks is back for the fifth episode of the new season this week, and today we’ve got new images from “Reflections” for your review!
This week, Ensigns Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Boimler (Jack Quaid) get assigned to man a Starfleet recruiting booth at a Federation job fair — meanwhile, Ensign Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) considers some of his past experiences.
Here are four new images from this week’s new episode:
STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS — 305: 'Reflections'
1 of 4
REFLECTIONS — Mariner and Boimler work the Starfleet recruitment booth at an alien job fair, Rutherford challenges himself.
Written by Mike McMahan. Directed by Michael Mullen.
Star Trek: Lower Decks returns with “Reflections” on Thursday, September 22 on Paramount+ in the United States, Australia, Latin America, and the Nordics, as well as on CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada and on Prime Video in many other regions.
More than twenty years after the first Star Trek Cookbook found its way home from the Delta Quadrant, Chelsea Monroe-Cassel returns to the galley with a brand-new take on food from the final frontier — and we had the opportunity to chat with the author ahead of this week’s brand new edition of The Star Trek Cookbook.
Learn how to make meals that are out of this world with this indispensable guide to the food of the stars! Perfect for every fan, this updated edition of The Star Trek Cookbook from the New York Times bestselling author comes with brand-new and delicious recipes, tantalizing visuals, and easy-to-follow instructions and advice to make the best foods from the future.
With all-new recipes right beside timeless classics, food stylist and New York Times bestselling author Chelsea Monroe-Cassel’s reimagining of The Star Trek Cookbook presents a visual feast along with complete guides on favorite foods from across Star Trek, adapted for easy use in 21st-century kitchens.
Themed as a Starfleet-sponsored collection of recipes from across multiple quadrants and cultures, and intended to foster better understanding of different species from a human perspective with its Earth-centric ingredients, this must-have cookbook embraces the best of Star Trek and its core message of hope, acceptance, and exploration in the spirit of gastrodiplomacy.
TREKCORE: What was your origin story with Star Trek? How did you become a fan?
CHELSEA MONROE-CASSEL: I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation with my dad, and I love it. I love all of it. I think it’s amazing. I think it’s very cool because it’s such a hopeful view of the future and I love a dystopian story as much as the next person, but when it increasingly feels like maybe we’re living in a dystopia, it’s nice to have your escapism promise you something better!
TREKCORE: This is now the second Star Trek cookbook. The first Star Trek Cookbook, which was released in 1999 and is presented as a cookbook written by Neelix, is still in print today. How do you approach this version of the cookbook to provide something new to fans?
MONROE-CASSEL: There’s definitely room for new take on the idea of a Star Trek cookbook. I think that there’s a lot to celebrate about the Neelix cookbook. So many people love it. As you say, for the past 20 years, that’s been THE Star Trek Cookbook. That’s fabulous! It was really, I think, in many ways ahead of its time in terms of fandom cookbooks. It feels like there’s one for every TV show, but in 1999, that was pretty much it.
That said, I feel like it can’t quite decide what it is. You’ve got some recipes from the actors, some from the characters, and a lot of behind the scenes stuff, which is amazing. I loved reading through all of that especially. At the end of the day, it’s got good recipes, which is what counts.
I think from what I’ve read, a lot of people keep coming back to those recipes. I obviously want to be clear that this new Star Trek Cookbook is in no way meant to replace that one. I think there’s definitely room on a shelf for both of them, if you’re so inclined, or for just one or the other. I didn’t want to copy it. It is its own thing.
I wanted to give a fresh take on it. I didn’t actually really closely read any of the recipes themselves but I did read a lot of the behind the scenes stuff, just for any insights as to how to make my own recipes better, especially with like the Romulan Ale. Tell me anything that is whatsoever useful about Romulan Ale behind the scenes. Just give me a starting point.
With this and with all cookbooks I do, I always start with arguably a ludicrous number of lists. I make crazy amounts of lists. The first one is everything that I know should go into the book, and that fans will expect to see. The gagh, the Plomeek soup, things like that. The next list is maybe things that sound cool. Just reading through the names on Memory Alpha.
A third list could be things I saw on Pinterest that look like space food, and do they match up well with anything that’s on one of the other lists — or do I have to make something new that is still in keeping with the world?
I always try to keep my recipe collections as canon as possible. For example, the Uttaberry Cruffins in the cookbook: cruffins are not canon yet, but Uttaberries are. It’s a little bit of wiggle room, but it’s still, I think hopefully at heart, really rooted in the world of Star Trek.
TREKCORE: How do you approach turning Star Trek food, which was just meant to look good on screen, into an edible recipe that people will enjoy? For example, how do you give fans a recipe that allows them an enjoyable experience of eating gagh without them needing live serpent worms?
MONROE-CASSEL: You hit on exactly the thing with the Klingon food in particular, where if you take something like the Rokeg Blood Pie; I think in “A Matter of Honor” is a bunch of cut up beets with butter scotch pudding and like cranberry juice or something over top, and you’re just like, “Oh yes, not with a 10 foot pole am I going near that as an edible dish.”
The cookbook has a version of the Rokeg Blood Pie that is edible, but still incredibly gruesome looking. My mother stopped by the day that I was making it and she was just absolutely horrified. She normally likes to try what I’m working on, but not this one!
One of my personal rules is that the food has to not only be edible, but arguably taste good. Even when you’re dealing with a lot of alien cultures, it still has to be food. It still has to be edible and it still arguably has to be good food.
It’s all about finding the balance between how it looks, how it tastes, the ingredients that go into it, while still making it approachable to make for most people. I don’t have crazy culinary training and I think that that weirdly works to my advantage in some way, because I’m not going to put anything in the book that most people can’t tackle if they wanted.
TREKCORE: The book is presented as a Starfleet Academy text book about the foods of other worlds. How did you approach creating what feels very much like an in-universe book, but balancing that with you also want this to be a cookbook that people use to make recipes?
MONROE-CASSEL: It’s very funny because as you say, it’s a balance in between getting it to feel in-world, but also be practical. I really wanted it to be not just the Federation, but to embrace that hopeful feeling that’s so central to Star Trek and to see if I could do that with food.
As you say, it’s pitched as “understand and experience other cultures through food.” It’s just the other cultures are Andorians and Romulans and what have you.
TREKCORE: Were there any dishes that you really wanted to include that you never figured out a way of fitting into the book?
MONROE-CASSEL: Yes. The ones that got away! Jumja sticks are on that short list. I made them once and they were perfect. The perfect shape, great texture, amazing flavor, and I did not take notes, and I could never do it again. It makes me so mad to this day. I’m hoping maybe at some point I can tackle that again and a couple other ones for the blog.
Another one was the Samarian Sunset cocktail. I desperately wanted to include something, at least as an homage to that and the way it changes color when you tap the glass. But you can do a cocktail that changes color with fizzy powder and stuff, but it’s over the course of 15 minutes of sitting on the counter and it’s not exactly showy.
The ones that got away still get me. I still think about them. That, combined with the fact that nobody gave me a sneak peek at Strange New Worlds so I didn’t know that Pike cooks in every single episode. There’s some really good looking food in that captain’s quarter.
TREKCORE: Plenty of opportunity then for Volume 2.
MONROE-CASSEL: I’m going to make the argument! A couple more seasons under our belt and see what else he makes.
TREKCORE: Are there any dishes that you are particularly proud of?
MONROE-CASSEL: For comedic value, I really like the Spatchcocked Tribble because the Short Trek “The Trouble with Edward” that gives us the origin story of the tribbles is one of my favorite little slivers of Star Trek, everything. I just think it’s hysterical.
I got a kick out of that one. For that one, I think we zoomed in on the photo, but I made a mock up of a replicator to photograph it in the Original Series era. I did one for Discovery too, but I think they never quite worked for the photography because you needed to pull back too far from the food in order to see it was a replicator. But we now have replicators in the house, so that’s great!
TREKCORE: What recipe would you recommend for the beginner chef? And what about the Star Trek fan who considers themselves as skilled as Neelix in the kitchen?
MONROE-CASSEL: For the most part, all the recipes have a difficulty rating. I think it should be pretty easy for people to pick something that’s within their skill range. There aren’t that many that are crazy difficult.
I think the Uttaberry Cruffins are probably one of the hardest recipes, because you make a little quick jam and you make a rough puff pastry and it’s a little finicky and then you do the weird little shapes. That one I think is pretty good for a high challenge.
The soups are very easy for somebody just tackling it for the first time. Those are really good. I think the Denobulan Sausage is very showy for how relatively easy it is. That’s one of my other pretty easy picks.
TREKCORE: Having just spent a period of time immersed in both Star Trek and food, what’s your reflection on the role of food in Star Trek?
MONROE-CASSEL: Most people, many people, they say, “Oh, a Star Trek cookbook. Why do you need that? They have replicators. You just push the button that’s your cookbook.” I argue that a world with replicators is not a world without cooking.
Even if you loved a dish, every time you replicated it, it would be the same dish exactly and there would be no artistry to it, no nuance. Whereas if you replicate the ingredients and then you assemble them, then you’ve got something interesting. You’ve got a little variation. If you feel like a little more red pepper that day, you can just throw that on top.
I think they touch on this in at least one or two episodes, I think, of TNG, where Riker’s making that really terrible looking omelet using Owon eggs. It looks so bad, but over and over again, we see food in Star Trek as this integral part of it. Whether it’s the replicators in the mess halls and people coming together to eat, or food in the captain’s quarters as an honored guest.
Also off world, every time you send a landing party down, for better or worse, they’re eating the local flora fauna food, various repercussions. It’s comedy too. Lower Decks touches on that a lot. They’re constantly in the mess hall fighting with the replicator if it doesn’t recognize them, or the replicators shooting food out when they malfunction. It’s amazing. It’s so quietly a part of Star Trek, as it’s a part of the real world, our everyday lives.
I think one of the cool things about fictional food is that it takes something that is essential for us to live and it removes it a step or two from what is normal and what is just rote. We all need to eat to live, but isn’t it great if we can eat for fun too, and get a little bit closer to the places and people that we really admire through food?
That’s what I try to do — open that doorway a little bit for people.
