Home Blog Page 92

STAR TREK News Roundup: Hear from PRODIGY’s Producers and Cast, and See New Behind-the-Scenes PICARD Photos!

Ken Reilly
-
4
STAR TREK News Roundup: Hear from PRODIGY’s Producers and Cast, and See New Behind-the-Scenes PICARD Photos!

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.”

*  *  *

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.”

*  *  *

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.

For STAR TREK Fans, Will DENUO NOVO Be an ANOVOS Do-Over?

Alex Perry
-
34
For STAR TREK Fans, Will DENUO NOVO Be an ANOVOS Do-Over?

Star Trek fans with open orders from ANOVOS, the longtime Star Trek high end costume licensee who has been frustrating its customers with lengthy fulfillment delays (to the point of class-action lawsuits) face new complications as the company appears, at first glance, to have closed its doors.

But as with everything in the ANOVOS story, it may not quite that simple.

TrekCore has learned that key staff have moved on to other professional opportunities, and now the ANOVOS website is now automatically redirecting to a new company: Denuo Novo, who launched as a subsidiary of National Entertainment Collectibles Association (NECA) on August 18.

(NECA, who owns Loot Crate, do not themselves have a spotless record themselves in the eyes of Star Trek fans in recent years.)

Unfortunately, however, while Denuo Novo has announced that they have taken over ANOVOS’s Star Wars license, and will begin fulfilling backorders for customers who have purchased Star Wars merchandise, they have not been clear about whether Star Trek will follow.

“Denuo Novo has the license for Star Wars replica costumes, high-end collectibles, [and] the like — which ANOVOS used to have — and as part of us taking on that license we are fulfilling the backorder left behind from ANOVOS,” said Mark Van Ohlen, Denuo Novo’s Brand Licensing Manager, during an interview on the Jedi News podcast in late August.

And while Denuo Novo declined to comment to TrekCore about whether they were directly pursuing the Star Trek license, their team has been responding to some former ANOVOS customers’ requests for information.

“We would love to be able to add the Star Trek license so we can help those customers with their orders,” a Denuo Novo customer service representative told StarTrek.com contributor Ryan T. Riddle by email, recommending that fans waiting on ANOVOS Star Trek products “reach out to your credit card company about a refund on your Star Trek order.”

“People have asked numerous times: are we ANOVOS? We are not,” said van Ohlen in his podcast interview. “We are new, but we do have their liability that we are fulfilling as we move forward with this [Star Wars] license.”

Denuo Novo’s customer service team insists that is not a successor company to ANOVOS, nor did they buy what remains of ANOVOS. But that has not stopped fans from asking questions, not least about the choice of names for the company which strongly implies that it is an ANOVOS successor.

From Denuo Novo’s own website:

denuo (dē-nuō): once more, a second time

novo (noh’-vō): to make anew, revive, change, alter, invent.

And while this all seems cut and dry — in that Denuo Novo has taken over the ANOVOS Star Wars license, ANOVOS is no more, and Star Trek fans will have to wait and see whether Denuo Novo picks up the license for any chance of seeing their orders fulfilled — it turns out that ANOVOS itself is not completely defunct.

When TrekCore reached out to ANOVOS’s customer service email — which is still active, as of this writing — we were told that the company is undergoing a reorganization and that “this lengthy, multi-month expansive change is almost complete and will herald a new day and re-affirmation of our objectives in the fulfillment of your order.”

Their support person indicated a definitive update would be provided in September — but when pushed further about whether Denuo Novo or ANOVOS would end up fulfilling orders placed by Star Trek fans, ANOVOS indicated that was still under discussion. (ViacomCBS declined to comment on the matter.)

“[All] I know is that discussions are ongoing between ANOVOS and Denuo Novo regarding those items,” ANOVOS customer service representative told TrekCore. “Once there is something more definitive (hopefully before end of this September, as previously indicated) the pertinent details will be announced, thus lending greater clarity and a path forward.”

That is surely small comfort to Star Trek fans, including multiple members of the TrekCore team, who are waiting for orders for many products to be fulfilled from the company — but it may signal a realistic path forward for Star Trek fans hoping to get their orders fulfilled, and that not all hope is lost for ANOVOS’ Star Trek customers.

To our knowledge, ANOVOS took orders they have not fulfilled for products going as far back as 2016, including but not limited to the following products:

Of all the items ANOVOS has taken pre-orders for since 2018, only the Star Trek: The Next Generation Captain Picard jacket from “Darmok” was entirely fulfilled. The First Contact-style Admiral’s jacket was shipped to customers last year, but they were told the belt was still on backorder and would be provided later. It too has not yet been shipped and now in limbo.

In addition, it is unclear if any of the studio-scale replicas of the USS Discovery, USS Shenzhou, or USS Enterprise — listed for $9,000 each — were ever fulfilled. Marketing communications from the company, which are now inaccessible due to the website change, showed pictures of various stages of the manufacturing process for these items, but it is unclear if they were ever completed.

Hopefully, a deal can be worked out such that ANOVOS pre-orders for Star Trek items will be fulfilled, but for customers who have been waiting years for their products and are now faced with this significant upheaval and unclear answers from both ANOVOS and Denuo Novo, it is probably a good idea to manage expectations for what may be possible going forward.

And if you can, contact your bank or credit card to see if there is anything they can do to reclaim your money.

We will continue to provide updates if there are new developments that signal a path forward for Star Trek customers of ANOVOS.

INTERVIEW: Co-Author Ian Spelling on Crafting STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES — A CELEBRATION

Alex Perry
-
3
INTERVIEW: Co-Author Ian Spelling on Crafting STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES — A CELEBRATION

This week, Hero Collector releases the second in their new Star Trek: A Celebration line-up, as authors Ben Robinson and Ian Spelling this time head back to where it all began: the classic Original Series.

While Ben Robinson has held author or co-author title on a great number of Hero Collectors’ Star Trek reference works, Ian Spelling joins him for the first time on Star Trek: The Original Series — A Celebration.

A familiar name to many Star Trek fans, Spelling has been covering the franchise for numerous press outlets dating back decades, including many incarnations of official Star Trek magazines, later serving for many years as lead editor of the official StarTrek.com website, and is often seen on-stage at Creation Entertainment’s Las Vegas Star Trek convention.

Following the success of last year’s Star Trek: Voyager — A Celebration, Hero Collector’s retrospective series now turns to the era of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, and we had an opportunity to speak with Spelling about his long association with the Star Trek franchise, his experience writing the book, and what fans can expect to see in this new publication.

*  *  *  *  *

TREKCORE: How did you first get started covering Star Trek as a journalist?

IAN SPELLING: I started watching Trek as a kid, as a teenager back on Long Island — I always loved and appreciated the show, and found everything about it interesting and challenging. I liked the humor and the relationships, and [“The Devil in the Dark”] scared the crap out of me!

The Original Series will always be one of my favorite shows, and when I was in college, I thought I would try to see if I could land interviews with Walter Koenig, George Takei, Mark Lenard, Nichelle Nichols, and whoever else might be at the New York or New Jersey conventions near me — because in the old days, the actors used to stay at the hotels hosting the conventions.

I called up and asked for George, and they just put me right through to his room! “Do you jog?” he asked, and of course I lied and said yes, and so he invited me to go running with him. I kept up for a mile and a half before I to stop and catch my breath, while he ran three more — he caught me on the way back, and then we ran all the way back to the hotel to do the interview.

Interviews with Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett-Roddenberry were some of the earliest pieces I ever sold to Starlog. Mark Lenard sat with me at a convention; Jimmy Doohan talked to me, this college kid. Walter Koenig and his daughter met me at a diner for an interview; it was just remarkable.

This was my first foot in the door to real journalism, and it paved the way for everything that followed; first to Starlog and then the official Star Trek magazines — which allowed me to visit the sets and talk to lots of different people — and later the Titan magazines.

That all led to me editing the official Star Trek website from 2010 through 2019, which was the best gig ever. After all of that, I connected with Ben Robinson at Eaglemoss and their books division, Hero Collector — and while we were promoting the Voyager book, Ben asked me if I’d write the Original Series book with him.

Spelling interviews Tim Russ (Tuvok) on the set of “Innocence.”

TREKCORE: There’s been decades of books written about classic Trek — how did you approach this project, in terms of finding a fresh take on the Original Series?

SPELLING: It was a challenge, to be honest. I mean, if your favorite color is blue, there’s only so many ways to explain why that’s your favorite color, right?

Ben and I had that conversation before we began; he wanted it to be like a living Star Trek convention but in book form. That was the case with the Voyager Celebration book too, a convention on a page.

You’re right that there have been a lot of books about the Original Series — books about the characters, memoirs by the actors, books about designs, collections of photography, and a lot more — but there wasn’t one book that brought it all together. With Celebration, you get the full spectrum of what it took to make the Original Series, the context for all those things.

We also wanted to focus on what the show means to people, so there’s a section on conventions and on the mail campaign to save the show from cancellation — we made sure there was space for that, along with everything else. The goal was to create a book that had some of everything, all in one place.

Part of my concept for things was to find a way to not only make it a book that appeals to fans who know the show really well, but also to be a guide for people who are relatively new to the franchise.

TREKCORE: What kind of things are in the book that might be new to longtime fans?

SPELLING: One of the cool things is all the art in the book — there are a lot of photos and some definitely some people have never seen before. I was at the Las Vegas convention this year, and showing the book to George Takei and his husband Brad, who asked me how I had a photo in the book that they had never seen!

A few private collectors out there who got their hands on the photography, and one of those people is James Cawley, who runs the Star Trek Set Tour in New York. I can’t tell you how much he contributed to the book — he was vital to it, really, because he had stories about [classic Trek costume designer] Bill Theiss, a lot of the original art and sketches, many we had never seen before.

We also did a number of new interviews, where we would push deeper into the impact the characters had on people; for people like Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and Jimmy Doohan, we tried to find archival interview or memoir material. We did the same for Nichelle Nichols, who is still with us but unfortunately not well enough to do new interviews.

Utilizing archival material is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, pulling quotes from old interviews or memoirs, but it helps that I know (or knew) all these people and could put it together in a coherent way. I reread both of Walter Koenig’s books, Jimmy Doohan’s and Nichelle’s — but also went all the way back to an interview I did with Mark Lenard almost 30 years ago; I also reached out to family members like Jimmy Doohan’s son Chris where I could.

Despite some of that archival content, there are still likely to be a few stories that people have never heard before, like a tale about Muhammad Ali visiting the original Star Trek set that neither Ben or I had ever heard — all because he wanted to see Nichelle Nichols.

I also wanted to talk to six-time TOS director Ralph Senensky, who has spoken a lot in the past about his Trek experiences — so we focused on why he actually directed “six and a half episodes” instead just of his credited six, and what happened there. At 256 pages, the book covers a lot of ground.

TREKCORE: What was the most surprising thing to you, as you were going through all of this work?

SPELLING: Really, that there were still stories that hadn’t been fully told before!

That, and, well, the reality that Gene Roddenberry was an imperfect guy who happened to create a perfect piece of entertainment. That’s the key thing here — he’s regarded as the Great Bird of the Galaxy and all of that, and had a vision and he created something that people are talking about decades after his death.

There’s nothing else like it on the entertainment landscape, but the reality is, he was creating a television show and he wanted it to make money. He was looking for ways to make money. I think he would be the first to admit he wasn’t a saint, but he was a big thinker.

He had some great ideas for where we could be in the future and that carried throughout. If the show were being made now, would it get the same reaction? Who knows. If Bjo and John Trimble hadn’t pulled off their magic and helped save the show back in the day, I don’t know if you and I would be talking right now.

TREKCORE: The book is arriving just after the franchise’s 55th anniversary — what does Star Trek mean to you?

Star Trek means a lot to me, more than as just a great piece of entertainment. It’s thought provoking, it’s timeless; the stories that they are so strong, and performances are so good, that it all works despite the foam rocks and the matte paintings and everything else. It was the perfect alchemy of writing, acting, and visual effects and somehow it all just clicked — and it keeps getting passed down from generation to generation.

That’s the magic spice that nobody knows, it’s just unlike anything else out there. It’s the unicorn of entertainment.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Star Trek: The Original Series — A Celebration is in stores now. A third entry in the Celebration series, centered around Star Trek: The Next Generation, is currently in development.

WeeklyTrek Podcast #153 — STAR TREK: PICARD Wraps Season 2 Production… and Launches into Filming for Season 3!

TrekCore Staff
-
4
WeeklyTrek Podcast #153 — STAR TREK: PICARD Wraps Season 2 Production… and Launches into Filming for Season 3!

On this week’s episode of WeeklyTrek, brought to you in partnership between The Tricorder Transmissions Podcast Network and TrekCore, host Alex Perry is joined by by Brooke Horton to discuss all the latest Star Trek news.

This week, Alex and his guest discuss the following stories from TrekCore and around the web:

In addition, stick around to hear Brooke’s wish for the next entry in the the Star Trek Autobiography book series following, and a listener theory about who may be backing the nefarious Pakleds in Star Trek: Lower Decks this season!

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!

New LOWER DECKS Images: “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”

TrekCore Staff
-
7
New LOWER DECKS Images: “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”

This week continues Star Trek: Lower Decks’ second season, and we’ve got a new set of images from “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie” today!

While this week we’re set to focus on gentle chief engineer Lt. Commander Billups (Paul Scheer) aboard the Cerritos, as a royal “Queen Billups” makes an appearance — and it seems he travels with Ensign Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) to the queen’s ship.

The episode’s other story features the return of fan-favorite Star Trek guest star Jeffrey Combs as a sentient computer — who gets stuck with Ensigns Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Boimler (Jack Quaid) after a shuttle crash leaves them stranded on a barren planet.

Here are nine new images from this week’s episode:

Here are a few additional screengrabs from the season trailers which to tie into this week’s episode:

Finally, here’s the trailer for the episode, released last night on social media:

WHERE PLEASANT FOUNTAINS LIE — Mariner and Boimler are stranded on an uninhabited planet with a sentient computer. On the Cerritos, Lt. Commander Billups must prove his engineering abilities to an old adversary.

Written by Garrick Bernard. Directed by Jason Zurek.

Star Trek: Lower Decks returns on September 23 with “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie” on Paramount+ in the United States and CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada, followed by Amazon Prime Video (in select international regions) on September 24.

Star Trek: Lower Decks
Season 1 Blu-ray

Star Trek: Lower Decks
Season 2 Blu-ray

Review — STAR TREK: PICARD — “Rogue Elements”

Alex Perry
-
3
Review — STAR TREK: PICARD — “Rogue Elements”

John Jackson Miller brings us the third Star Trek: Picard tie-in novel this month, as Rogue Elements is one of the most fun Trek novels released in the last decade — and my favorite Picard book so far.

Focusing on Captain Cristóbal Rios’ year leading up to his first meeting with Jean-Luc Picard in “The End is the Beginning,” Rogue Elements uses a lot of elements from the Star Trek: Picard show, but manages to keep things a bit lighter than the television series.

In his acknowledgments, Miller indicates the lighter tone was an intentional choice, because he began writing the novel in the early days of the still-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — and he thought a more fun approach to the story might resonate better with readers in this challenging time.

And boy, was he right: Rogue Elements hit at just the correct time to buoy my spirits, and to provide a nice escape from a lot of the world’s weighty issues.

The novel also gives us something that the show hasn’t yet, really: these characters can have more fun without detracting from the more serious themes that Star Trek: Picard is trying to explore. While there was some of that humor in “Stardust City Rag” — and the Season 2 trailer hints at some more capers for La Sirena’s crew — this book is a good guide for how it can be done.

Since Rogue Elements has been out for a few weeks, I’m going to get a bit more spoilery than I usually do in my book reviews — so consider this your warning!

The new novel explores how Rios came to captain La Sirena, in a story that involves the Iotians from “A Piece of the Action,” Kivas Fajo from “The Most Toys,” and a delightful tie in to the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country that gives this book a sweeping scale.

As I was reading Rogue Elements, I could not shake the feeling that I was watching the Star Trek equivalent of a James Bond movie. Obviously, a lot of the details are different —  Rios is a lone operator, and not an intergalactic super-spy — but in the sense that the novel involved cool locales, a few interesting villains, plenty of quips, and a few casual romantic encounters, the story felt like it had a lot of the elements that make a Bond movie fun.

I wasn’t sure when I read the dust jacket if I was going to like that the gangster Iotians were included in the story. As you may recall from “A Piece of the Action,” the residents of Sigma Iotia II are a planet of mimics who reorganize their entire society around 1920s Chicago gang culture after a Federation researcher accidentally leaves a book about that period of Earth history on the planet.

It’s a funny, out-there episode, but would 1920s Chicago gangsters really work in a 24th century Star Trek: Picard setting?

Hell yes they do. John Jackson Miller does a really nice job of maintaining the parts of Iotian society that was fun about “A Piece of the Action” — including a lot of the ridiculous gangster stereotypes — but also exploring the society in more detail and the how and why of the way that they operate.

There have been a few different interpretations on what happened to the Iotians after their encounter with the Enterprise — such as how IDW’s Star Trek: Year Five comic posits that they reorganized their society to mimic Starfleet after the events of the TOS episode — but Miller chooses to keep the Chicago gang culture intact, and pushes deeper to ask questions about what it means for their society to operate that way while spaceborne.

But that’s not all! In addition to Rios’s partnership with the Iotians — they agree to sell him La Sirena, but he has a significant debt to pay off — we also get a return from a fan-favorite character from The Next Generation: dastardly Kivas Fajo, now a reformed humanitarian?

The collector who tried to abduct Data (“They all try to collect Data!”) is back, now with a large organization that helps supernova-era Romulan refugees sell their valuables to earn money they can use for starting new lives. But as with Fajo’s TNG appearance, there’s a dark side beneath his charitable exterior which slowly gets revealed through the novel.

I thought the Fajo character was well handled, as the curtain gets pulled back for Rios throughout the book and the malice of the Zibalian collector is slowly revealed — and it’s a funny coincidence that Rogue Elements was published the same week Star Trek: Lower Decks revisited ‘collector culture’ with “Kayshon, His Eyes Open.”

And it wouldn’t be a Rios book without two things: his holograms, and several appearances by Raffi Musiker, who we know had a previous working relationship with Rios in the pre-Picard time period. The story behind the creation of the holograms gets told here, and it’s very appropriate for the character and what we know about him.

We also see how, despite his distaste for them that’s obvious in the show, he realizes he needs them too much, slowly accepting them as his “crew.” In addition, Raffi (along with Jean-Luc Picard, in a clever way) plays a minor supporting role in the book that helps tie it more closely to the events if Picard Season 1.

The big heist, which involves a 24th century equivalent of Banksy — and ties into the events of The Undiscovered Country — is a fun page turner, and in addition to having a James Bond feel, the story also adopts a bit of a Dan Brown feel to it as well with the way in which a story about the hunt for artworks becomes exciting.

The pay off at the end is a satisfying one that I won’t spoil any further, and there are also a couple of other fun twists and reveals that I won’t include here because I really liked not knowing them in advance.

Overall, if you like the characters of Star Trek: Picard, but were hoping it were a bit more fun, then John Jackson Miller’s Rogue Elements is the book for you. You’re going to enjoy a delightfully gripping story with a charismatic lead in Cristobal Rios, a cast of fun and interesting supporting characters, and a lot of hijinks and side missions that ultimately feed back into the main plot and enhance the overall story.

This is probably my favorite book that Miller has written for Star Trek, and it gets my complete endorsement.

Star Trek: Picard — Rogue Elements is in stores now.

INTERVIEW — Akiva Goldsman and STRANGE NEW WORLDS’ Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn on STAR TREK’s Pandemic Productions

Ken Reilly
-
53
INTERVIEW — Akiva Goldsman and STRANGE NEW WORLDS’ Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn on STAR TREK’s Pandemic Productions

Like all film and television production that’s been happening over the last ten months of the COVID-19 pandemic, all three live-action Star Trek faced significant challenges during the course of filming — from maintaining strict on-set health and safety protocols, limiting outside visits to the stages, and seriously restricting location shoots.

Back in October, franchise boss Alex Kurtzman spoke at length about the added weight of pandemic planning on television production, and cast members from Discovery have spoken about their their Season 4 filming experience at a few points during the last year.

Wilson Cruz (Hugh Culber, Discovery) talked during Star Trek Day about the anxiety he felt ahead of returning to set, along with the stress of staying in relative isolation while shooting:

While Toronto-based Strange New Worlds production narrowly escaped a major shutdown back this Spring, their peers at Star Trek: Discovery — which also films in that city — had to close down production for two weeks in April after a primary participant was exposed to the COVID-19 virus.

Last week’s Star Trek Day event brought out some of the biggest names in the current era of Trek production to the first major franchise event since January 2020’s Star Trek: Picard premiere — where all attendees were required to show proof of vaccination to get in, and to wear masks (with limited mask exceptions, only for the stars as they walked the red carpet and appeared on stage).

*   *   *

During the Star Trek Day event, we had the opportunity to talk with Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds writer, director, and co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman, and later with Strange New Worlds stars Ethan Peck (Spock) and Rebecca Romijn (Number One, a.k.a. Una Chin-Riley), who each told us about their experience bringing these shows to life during the COVID-19 age.

Rebecca Romijn and Akiva Goldsman during the September 8 ‘Star Trek Day’ event. (Photo: Paramount+)

TREKCORE: Speaking strictly on a production level, were the pandemic shutdowns last summer helpful at all — in terms of providing more time to work on scripts, that sort of thing?

AKIVA GOLDSMAN (co-showrunner, Picard and Strange New Worlds): On Picard, I don’t think the extra time really helped us, because we kept having to shift our paradigm of storytelling to compensate for the shifting paradigm of shooting challenges — at least somewhat. It’s not like we threw everything into the trash and started over, but there was enough of that to really make us wish we could just get started with filming.

There wasn’t as much extra time as one may have hoped when it came to Strange New Worlds — but we have this AR wall now in Toronto, and that’s got a learning curve. So more time with that was really helpful.

ETHAN PECK (Spock): The AR wall stage, you and I were on it together the first day, right?

REBECCA ROMIJN (Number One): Yes! It’s really interesting. It’s a huge room with TVs screens on the walls and the ceiling, so it’s hot, and it’s new so it’s a little glitchy — they would stop things every so often and say, “there’s a gremlin on the wall!,” which means it was time for a total reboot of the system. That would take about 20 minutes to reset.

There was some technical stuff to get used to, but it’s better than working on a greenscreen set where you have to try and imagine what you’re supposed to be looking at – because with the AR wall it’s almost like you’re working with practical effects, like you’re in that world, and you can see what it looks like.

PECK: You share that imagery with your acting mates, too, and that’s really a huge help.

ROMIJN: It gives everything an extra energy, since you don’t have to guess what the world looks like.

The ‘AR wall’ stage in Toronto, here being used for DISCOVERY Season 4. (Photo: American Cinematographer Magazine)

TREKCORE: Were you able to get out on location at all during the season?

ROMIJN: We were able to go on location a little….

PECK: I got out a couple times, but I don’t know about the other actors.

TREKCORE: For Picard, why time travel back to present day Los Angeles? Trek has a long history of bringing characters back to ‘now,’ but was that a COVID decision — to get out of the stages and into ‘fresh air?’

AKIVA GOLDSMAN: Terry Matalas, my co-showrunner on Season 2, the time travel was his idea.

We were just building the very beginnings of the season; it was me and Michael Chabon, and Terry, and he was like, “Let’s do The Voyage Home — how do we do that kind of thing that we all love with Picard?”

But no, it wasn’t a decision that came from the pandemic — it was, actually, a pre-COVID decision that was actually made very challenging because of the pandemic. Even though we were filming outside, you are still so limited in terms of background extras and what you can do.

Anybody shooting during this period is operating on bubble gum, shoestrings, smoke and mirrors, and the hope that you just get through the day. We took it day by day, because plans didn’t typically… like, if one person was sick, it had the potential to take an entire department down. Safety regulations would change.

It was great to have a job, but it was a challenge.

TREKCORE: And now you’re going right into Season 3!

GOLDSMAN: Yes, the show’s shooting back-to-back, God bless Patrick Stewart. We just finished shooting Season 2 about three days ago, and I haven’t seen final cuts on the last two episodes yet.

TREKCORE: That two-season run was certainly a rumored plan before the pandemic; was it a challenge to stick to that decision?

GOLDSMAN: We just wanted to power through. Shooting has been really challenging in COVID, especially Picard — but what was most appealing about shooting Picard in Los Angeles also became the most challenging, because we couldn’t really use the city the way we really wanted.

It was definitely different – I think you’ll be pleased with what you see – but it wasn’t what we expected.

TREKCORE: How would you compare the Picard shoot in California to Strange New Worlds up in Toronto, now that each show has a season of ‘pandemic production’ wrapped?

GOLDSMAN: I think the only difference between the two shows, when it comes to COVID, is that Toronto was in a full lockdown for almost the entire duration of Season 1.

So, I directed the first episode of Strange New Worlds, right? I had to go sit in a room for 14 days [after traveling to Canada.] I mean, 14 days by yourself? I don’t even like me that much on a good day! But that was the truth of how we all got through it.

And even if people would see each other [outside of filming], the world was very small – no one could go out to a restaurant, no shopping, nothing was open. It was very different in Los Angeles, where everything had reopened – there was a whole world going on. But even there, you’re still always on COVID testing protocols, and those are always lagging.

So it’s a little more in flux, doing things in a big city like LA that lifted some of those regulations, where it was probably much lonelier for everyone in Toronto.

STRANGE NEW WORLDS on-set signage. (Source: Anson Mount / Twitter)

REBECCA ROMIJN: It was crazy. We started filming, really, at the height of the pandemic in Toronto. The infection numbers were terrible and every city was on complete lockdown, everything was shut.

ETHAN PECK: It was super weird.

ROMIJN: Our cast wasn’t allowed to hang out with each other outside of work at all, and even when we were on set, we could work together when we were filming — but as soon as the scene was done we had to go back to our chairs, spread out 10 feet apart, and we couldn’t go talk to each other.

PECK: It was pretty dark. The only good parts were interacting on camera, because we couldn’t do much of it otherwise.

ROMIJN: It was the only time we ever got to hang out, coming to work together. We couldn’t even see each other on the weekends. Like, there’s always going to be some comradery – because everyone’s so talented – but at the beginning, I was like, “We don’t know each other!”

I mean, casts usually spend a lot of time bonding outside of work.

TREKCORE: It’s not like other shows that had been operating for a while, then got interrupted by the shutdowns.

ROMIJN: Exactly. I mean, Anson [Mount], Ethan and I had already worked together on Discovery and the Short Treks, you know, so we had spent more time together. But Strange New Worlds has a big cast, and it took a long time for us to start to get to know each other.

PECK: I almost never saw Babs [Olusanmokun, who plays M’Benga]. I saw him on set for maybe, like, three days? It’s crazy. He’s like this mysterious person I’m very excited to get to know.

I’m really interested to see how this season turns out, compared to others; hopefully we’ll get more seasons.

DISCOVERY on-set signage. (Source: Wilson Cruz / Instagram)

TREKCORE: Aside from the self-quarantine, Akiva, what was it like directing the Strange New Worlds pilot — being the one to set the tone of that show in that way?

AKIVA GOLDSMAN: Oh, it was great fun, I loved it. I mean, you know, I wrote the premiere too, so for me that’s really the part where I was setting the tone.

I’m a director, but really, I’m a writer first — so I put things in the hands of those people who know better than me, of which there are many. I’m smart enough to say, “Gee, I wish the scene felt like this…,” but when it comes to the actual visual presentation and grammar of the show, I have such good partners.

Glen Keenan is the show’s director of photography, and he really set the look of things. We had a great team – technicians and artists who build the look for the show, which I’m really proud of – and not just because I started the pilot, but because it harkens back to the Original Series and at the same time, is modern.

It was a really fun thing being part of the team that developed that.

TREKCORE: Rebecca, what are you most excited for people to learn about Number One?

REBECCA ROMJIN: Well, there’s a big reveal that I was very excited about — I can’t tell you what it is, but Akiva told me about it before we started shooting, and I think it really informs a lot of who Number One is, her character, and it really affects everything for the season.

TREKCORE: Ethan, you started out playing Spock as a guest star on Discovery, of course — now that you’ve moved into a lead role on your own series, has that changed how you approach the character?

ETHAN PECK: It feels very different for me, at least, the process of preparing [to play Spock] is very different. It feels like a much bigger responsibility, because there’s so much more nuance I need to bring – because the literal time spent with this character has grown by tenfold, compared to the time I was on Discovery.

TREKCORE: Plus, you don’t have the beard this time around!

PECK: Yeah, absolutely. Without the beard the character does feel kind of raw and vulnerable; there’s no barrier between my interpretation of Spock and the audience.

I think having the beard gave me a kind of ‘soft landing’ into the part… so I hope it works out!

These interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity.

Star Trek: Discovery returns for its fourth season on November 18 on Paramount+ in the United States, CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada, and on November 19 on Netflix in all other international regions.

Star Trek: Picard returns for its second season 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.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is slated to debut sometime in 2022 on Paramount+ in the United States and CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada; additional international distribution has not yet been announced.

STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS Review — “The Spy Humongous”

Alex Perry
-
100
STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS Review — “The Spy Humongous”

The back half of Star Trek: Lower Decks’ season kicks off with “The Spy Humungous,” an episode which ups the ante on the simmering tensions between Starfleet and the Pakleds, while at the same time giving our eager ensigns a fun pair of stories aboard the Cerritos.

The joy of this episode for me was the way in which it told a great story without relying too heavily on Star Trek Easter eggs or references — something which some of you in our comments section were just talking about.

While looking for all the callbacks and references has become a big feature of watching Lower Decks each week, it’s nice for the show to mix up episodes that lean heavily into nostalgia with those that let the Lower Decks characters stand alone. It is important for the show that the “all you can eat” buffets of references are balanced by trying to do and say new things, and this episode succeeds greatly at that.

The Pakled Planet storyline is the closest this show feels like it has come to a standard Next Generation-style episode, with Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) ably navigating negotiations with a hostile race while never seeming to lose the upper hand — and though this storyline has a definite Lower Decks spin to it Freeman is exceedingly competent in her role.

On the ship, Commander Ransom (Jerry O’Connell) and Lt. Kayshon (Carl Tart) make a hilarious team trying to keep the reigns on the less-than-subtle Pakled spy, even if they do think a little too highly of themselves. (But it’s sure great to see Kayshon back in this episode after a few weeks away!)

The senior-officer storyline may play as a joke about the Pakleds’ incompetance, but it reveals what may be the endgame in their conflict with the Federation: the Varuvian bomb which Freeman tricks them into talking about uses the same ore that the Titan undercover mission was all about back in “Kayshon, His Eyes Open” — a substance which terrorists used “to try to blow up Starbase 58.”

This likely won’t be the last time we hear about Varuvian ore this season!

The whole concept behind “Anomaly Collection Duty” is another way in which Lower Decks has taken something about Star Trek and added depth to it. Starfleet senior officers love to do science experiments — even ones that might involve dangerous, mysterious sci-fi stuff.

All those weird artifacts need to go somewhere, and this week it’s up to Tendi (Noel Wells) to collect them, while dragging Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) along despite their growing complaints about pulling such a low-brow assignment.

Anomaly Collection Duty is a neat concept, perhaps most of all because it reinforces the idea that even though the bridge crew may be the “cool” ones on the ship, they’re still all science nerds at heart with their own science labs and experiments.

It sure seems like the Cerritos has some very interesting missions in between episodes!

Meanwhile, Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) gets an interesting opportunity following his return from the Titan, as a group of “cool kid” career-minded ensigns welcome him into their “Redshirts” club. These three egotistical ensigns are everything Starfleet officers should not be — and that’s the point of this story, dear commenters — as their minds are focused only on getting promoted, at the expense of anyone else around them.

The episode does a nice job of showing that, for as ridiculous as the antics of our Lower Deckers can be, our four leads are much more “Starfleet” than some may thing — because they do the work that needs doing, rather than just giving motivational speeches and trying to “be the captain.”

Boimler realizes (at his own expense) that Tendi finds slapstick humor hilarious, so when he correctly identifies an Ataxian mood shifter as the cause of her insectoid transformation, he proceeds to engineer a series of slapstick moments to snap her out her scorpion form.

While he takes action to save the day, all the “Redshirts” can muster is to deliver overlapping speeches — what someone might think happens on Star Trek, if they’ve entirely missed the point. To drive the point home about who was ultimately in the right, while Ensign Casey may have gotten his five seconds of glory up on the bridge, Boimler is the one who got earned real, direct praise from Ransom for saving the day.

Sometimes being a real leader is covering yourself in food, and that’s a point that Lower Decks is uniquely positioned to make.

TREK TROPE TRIBUTES

  • The captain and security chief beam down to negotiate peace on a hostile alien world — only to be captured and forced to bargain for their safety. Any Star Trek episode that starts like that has my attention!

CANON CONNECTIONS

  • Just like the Pakleds mistook both the Cerritos and the Titan for the Enterprise in “No Small Parts,” here they mistake Captain Freeman for Voyager’s Captain Janeway.
     
  • Rumdar references wanting to see the Cerritos‘ “crimson force field,” a reference to the fictional weapon that the Enterprise used against the Pakleds in “Samaritan Snare.”
     
  • “We’re not exactly dealing with the Tal Shiar here,” Ransom tells Kayshon about the obvious spy Rumdar, referring to the Romulan secret police.
     
  • When Boimler gives his mock captain’s speech for the Redshirts, he mentally sees himself on the bridge of a Galaxy-class starship, the first time we’ve seen those familiar beige seats since Star Trek: Generations.
     
  • After he got name-checked back in “No Small Parts,” we actually go back to planet Vagra II to check on Armus himself — the first time the old oil slick monster has been seen since 1988’s “Skin of Evil.” Who ever thought THAT would happen?!

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

  • The Pakled planet is called Pakled Planet. Makes sense.
     
  • The Pakleds are governed by a king, queen, and an emperor each with a helmet larger than the last.
     
  • The USS Ventura is another California-class vessel in the fleet.
     
  • That annoying improv artist, Lt. Winger Bingston Jr., has a one-man show in which he performs as all the moons of Jupiter. What a guy.
     
  • When the Kzinti ensign redshirt tells Boimler his posture is not captain-like, he hunches over in a posture similar to how the Kzinti prowled around in the Animated Series.
     
  • The solution to making Boimler’s uniform look more like a captain is… bigger shoulder pads and skin-tight tailoring. Sounds about right!
     
  • “We work in Starfleet. They work for Starfleet,” has got to be one of the slimiest things we’ve ever heard one Starfleet officer say to another — so I was glad to see Ensign Casey assigned to Pakled latrine duty after that ego trip.
     
  • Boimler’s order of “Birthday cake. Lit candles. Various temperatures!” continues the hilarious joke of making ultra-specific requests to the replicator system about food temperatures.

Writer John Cochran’s “The Spy Humongous” appears to set us on a course for the remainder of the year’s stories, with more Pakled fun as promised.

But Lower Decks never strays far from its core, this week teaching Boimler a really important lesson about what it really means to be part of a team — and what it means to ultimately lead that team in whatever circumstance you find yourself.

We could all do with remembering more often that leadership is just as often about helping others, as it is about making speeches.

Star Trek: Lower Decks returns with “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie” on September 23– on Paramount+ in the United States and CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada — followed by Amazon Prime Video (in select international regions) on September 24.

Titan Comics Celebrates 35 Years of THE GENESIS TRILOGY with Archival STAR TREK Interview Book

TrekCore Staff
-
9
Titan Comics Celebrates 35 Years of THE GENESIS TRILOGY with Archival STAR TREK Interview Book

2021 marks the 35th anniversary for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, concluding the trio of films that began with the return of Khan — and to mark the occasion, Titan Comics is diving into its archives to bring interviews and images from the making of these three films back to the public.

Releasing in a 128-page hardcover format this December, Star Trek: The Genesis Trilogy Anniversary Special will arrive from the publisher will vintage photography, contemporaneous behind-the-scenes features, and archival interviews from the writers, cast, and crew who brought Star Trek II, Star Trek III, and Star Trek IV to life.

Standard, newstand, and subscriber covers for ‘The Genesis Trilogy’ hardcover.

Star Trek: The Genesis Trilogy Anniversary Special

A special in-depth book celebrating the classic trilogy of Star Trek movies, #2 to 4, The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, and The Voyage Home. With classic interviews, behind-the-scenes features, and rare imagery, relive the thrills and excitement of these unforgettable movies.

The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, and The Voyage Home – the Genesis Trilogy of Star Trek movies has a firm place in the hearts of Trek fans of all ages. Taking us from a deadly villain, a tragedy on the Enterprise, and to a heart-warming reunion, this special book explores the making of the classic saga.

Featuring classic interviews, in-depth features and amazing imagery!

Star Trek: The Genesis Trilogy Anniversary Special will beam down from Titan on December 7 — but you can preorder this hardcover now at Amazon.

STAR TREK Returns to New York Comic Con with PRODIGY Premiere Screening, DISCOVERY Cast Panel, and More!

TrekCore Staff
-
13
STAR TREK Returns to New York Comic Con with PRODIGY Premiere Screening, DISCOVERY Cast Panel, and More!

After last year’s event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, New York Comic Con returns to the Javits Center in New York City this October — and like the last several years, the Star Trek Universe will be along for the ride.

Detailed in the convention’s full weekend schedule today, the two shows represented in this year’s NYCC event — Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Prodigy — will be featured on separate days this time around, instead of as one big Star Trek Universe presentation like in years past.

On Saturday, October 9 at 12:45 PM (ET), the cast and executive producers of Star Trek: Discovery will appear on stage to preview what’s to come in the show’s fourth season — returning November 18 to Paramount+.

In advance of the season four return of STAR TREK: DISCOVERY on Paramount+, join cast and executive producers of the hit series as they tease the upcoming season which finds Captain Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery facing a threat unlike any they’ve ever encountered.

With Federation and non-Federation worlds alike feeling the impact, they must confront the unknown and work together to ensure a hopeful future for all. Produced by CBS Studios, STAR TREK: DISCOVERY will premiere on Paramount+ this fall.

On Sunday, October 10 at 12:45 PM (ET), the first public screening of Star Trek: Prodigy will kick off for convention attendees, followed by an on-stage panel with the animated series’ cast and producers ahead of its October 28 debut on Paramount+.

Join Paramount+, CBS Studios and Nickelodeon for a premiere screening for the whole family of the highly anticipated upcoming “Star Trek” animated kids’ series, STAR TREK: PRODIGY. Following the screening, cast and producers will take the stage for a moderated panel discussion.

While there are still some limited tickets available for in-person attendees on Sunday, October 10, as of this writing all tickets for Saturday, October 9 are completely sold out — as there are significantly-reduced attendee counts this year as part of the convention’s health and safety protocols.

That said, New York Comic Con this year is offering an unlimited number of $20 “Digital Ticket” badges for anyone to watch live-streams of the weekend’s events from home, as well as access the panels for 30 days on-demand after the end of the convention.

Specific attendees for the on-stage panels have not yet been announced. While the Prodigy premiere screening will be exclusive to in-person attendees only, we have confirmed that both Discovery and Prodigy on-stage cast/crew panels will be streamed for those of you watching online.

In addition to the two big panels, a few other Star Trek-related events will be happening during the weekend:

  • On Thursday, October 7 at 10:00 AM (ET), a virtual-only panel for Star Trek Explorer — the newly-redesigned official Star Trek magazine — will be held online (more details here).
     
  • On Friday, October 8 at 5PM (ET), Hallmark will be unveiling their 2022 Keepsake Ornaments, which for the last three decades have included Star Trek characters, ships, and settings (more details here).
     
    In addition to the final Star Trek “Mirror, Mirror” Storyteller ornaments, perhaps we’ll hear about a USS Cerritos ornament for next year? Fingers crossed!
     
  • On Saturday, October 9 at 2:15PM (ET), the Roddenberry Podcast Network will be hosting a panel about how Star Trek teaches us to be better members of the local and global community (more details here).

New York Comic Con will run from October 7-10, 2021, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City; any fans attending the convention must follow all published health and safety protocols, including bringing proof of vaccination to gain entry and wearing face masks while on site.

1...919293...330Page 92 of 330

TrekCore.com is not endorsed, sponsored or affiliated with Paramount, CBS Studios, or the Star Trek franchise. All Star Trek images, trademarks and logos are owned by CBS Studios Inc. and/or Paramount. All original TrekCore.com content and the WeeklyTrek podcast (c) 2025 Trapezoid Media, LLC. · Terms & Conditions