In addition to all the stars and creatives from the new Star Trek series, Star Trek Day also featured panels for all the legacy Star Trek series, with members of each cast reuniting remotely. While not breaking any big news, these panels were a delight to watch and full of powerful memories and fun chemistry. We have gathered them all together here for you to enjoy along with some brief summaries.
Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: The Next Generation
Participants: Star Sir Patrick Stewart and co-star/director Jonathan Frakes.
This turned out to be a very sweet, affectionate conversation, thanks to the relationship between the two stars and the panel’s moderator, Wil Wheaton. Frakes talked about filming his save-the-day scene in the season 1 finale of Star Trek: Picard, explaining that it had to be filmed in Toronto, where he was working on Discovery. Patrick Stewart says it was Frakes who inspired him to direct, and described the challenges (and joys) of directing the TNG episode “A Fistful of Datas,” saying it was “one of the grandest, greatest days of my life.”
After Wheaton told Patrick Stewart how much affection his Picard cast had for him (as he’s interviewed many of them on The Ready Room), he thanked Frakes and Stewart for being his real family during his TNG days, and the compliments from both actors nearly brought him to tears.
At the end of the panel, Wheaton announced that in addition to the second Lower Decks episode of The Ready Room that’s coming, he’ll be hosting weekly editions once Star Trek: Discovery returns.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Participants: Series stars Terry Farrell, Alexander Siddig, Armin Shimerman, Nana Visitor, Cirroc Lofton, and executive producer Ira Steven Behr.
They talked about the origins of the series and the impact it’s had on fans, both old and new. They all felt that the theme of being “other” resonated with the individual actors as well as fans. Terry Farrell said that Spock was her favorite character when she was growing up because she felt out of place, and could relate to his “otherness,” which became an essential ingredient on DS9.
Moderator Wil Wheaton asked about creating the episode “Far Beyond the Stars,” and Behr told him that the original pitch involved Jake time traveling into the past, where he was a writer in the pulp sci-fi world but he was being observed by aliens, who wanted to learn about how humans interacted. Behr didn’t find that story worthwhile, but it struck him driving home from work that it could be Benjamin Sisko instead, writing in the 1950s about a Black captain in the future. Once they locked that in, they knew Avery Brooks would want to direct it, so they rearranged the schedule to make it work. He described filming it as “the most intense and wonderful time I ever spent,” saying that Brooks would call his house every night even before he got home and would be talking to his wife as he walked in the door.
After Farrell, Armin Shimerman, and Nana Visitor compared the experience of walking around the Paramount lot getting stares for their alien get-ups, the panel got serious as well as emotional. Each person talked about the loss of both René Auberjonois (Odo) and Aron Eisenberg (Nog) last year, occasionally getting tearful. They talked about Aron’s zest for life, his acting talent, and his exuberance, and Behr said, “In some ways, Aron was too good for this planet that we live on.”
They all described Auberjonois as “prickly” with much affection and respect. Visitor called him a “deep friend” and got emotional as she talked about helping him talk about what was happening to him when he was ill. Behr said, “He could be prickly as hell, he could be sweet as hell,” and told a story about Auberjonois walking past him after wrapping filming in season 6 and ripping his Odo face off. He handed it, soaking wet, to Behr, saying “A souvenir!” (Behr still has it.)
Shimerman ended the panel with a quote from Shakespeare, slightly altered to include both men:
They were men, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon their likes again.
Star Trek: Voyager
Participants: Series stars Kate Mulgrew, Robert Picardo, Robert Duncan McNeill, Garrett Wang, Tim Russ, and Ethan Phillips.
This panel was a little more boisterous, with Kate Mulgrew and Robert Duncan McNeill joking about how they spoke often because of the salamander children they had together. The group talked about their friendships and how they’re all still in touch on a regular basis. Mulgrew talked about how she didn’t find her footing as Janeway until they were in season 2, and discussed how difficult it was when Ethan Phillips, as Neelix, left the show a few episodes before everyone else.
The panel was moderated by Mica Burton, whose father LeVar decided to crash the panel to say hello to the group. (He directed 8 episodes of the series, and had asked his daughter to let him know when she’d be talking to the Voyager crew.)
Star Trek: The Original Series
Participants: Series star George Takei and the CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment, Rod Roddenberry.
Wil Wheaton moderated this talk, which covered George Takei’s audition for Star Trek and his first meeting with Gene Roddenberry, as well as the moment when he found out he had the job. (It involved a lot of running.) He also spoke with much emotion about what it was like for him and his family when they were put in an internment camp in the 1940s.
Rod Roddenberry said his first exposure to Star Trek as a child was the blooper reels! He started paying attention more when TNG was on the air, but said that the TOS episode that did click with him and made him pay attention was “Devil in the Dark.”
Star Trek: Enterprise
Participants: Series stars Scott Bakula, Linda Park, John Billingsley, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, and Connor Trinneer.
This turned into one big Scott Bakula love-fest as the cast expressed how much they loved working with him and being led by him—he set the tone both professionally and personally, making sure they all loved coming to work every day. Linda Park and moderator Wil Wheaton shared their experiences being the youngest cast members on set of their respective shows.
Connor Trinneer surprised everyone by admitting that he hated filming the Mirror universe two-parter “In A Mirror, Darkly,” because director James L. Conway was unhappy with his first performance as Mirror Trip. Trinneer finally asked if Conway wanted him to do the scene “like a pirate” and was told yes, so he did the scene like that as a joke. Conway liked it and he was stuck doing his pirate version of Mirror Trip for the rest of the episode.
More Star Trek Day coverage at TrekMovie
This wraps our Star Trek Day panel recaps. Check out all of TrekMovie’s Star Trek Day coverage.
And keep up with all the news and reviews from the new Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com.
Bakula 2020
Make Enterprise Great Again
MEGA!
I’m still hoping someday we get something out of this cast again like a TV movie or even a Short Trek. It sucks the show is set so far before everything else you can’t even bring that many on the other shows outside of time travel or something. McMahan even said he wanted T’Pol for Lower Decks but the time span between the shows makes it impossible.
Yes reboot Enterprise, same cast plus Andorian, stick to the concept. Our primitive race almost nuked itself entirely to the stone age. Cochrane has gone missing. Can Archer lead a small team in using the resources of the solar system and nearby star systems to save the Earth and show humanity has a place bringing everyone together? The Vulcans think we are illogical and irrelevant. The Andorians think we are push overs. The Romulans want us as slaves, the Klingons want us dead. Our ships are primitive armed with nuclear weapons and rail guns requiring excessive fuel. There is no subspace communications, Archer must represent all of humanity. No transporters to beam you out in a pinch, you need atmospheric craft to make landings. No phasers on stun. His mistakes and successes set the stage for the next century. Mission impossible? Can his team lead humanity into the final frontier.
First episode – Searching for the lost Zephram Cochrane due to return from the matriarchal society on AC where he was establishing trade ties Montana discovers a mayday from a Vulcan science ship. The Vulcan embassy hears the message and reveals the ship has been captured by the Vegan Tyranny which has isolated this area of the galaxy (explaining the Fermi Paradox). The Vegan Tyranny however is mysteriously disappearing in numbers, leaving behind only highly automated control ships. Archer takes his primitive ship, the Bonhomme Richard in, only to have it essentially blown out of the sky after a week long journey. The crew however spacewalks onto the station (along with thermo-nuclear devices and using rail runs as distractions), saves the Vulcan crew and steals back the Vulcan science ship. As a reward the Vulcans give the science ship to Earth who retrofits the vessel with Earth technology and some defensive capabilities – rechristened the SS Enterprise.
T’Pol for Sexretary of State
Best cabinet meeting ever.
the ds9 panel was awesome… i’d like to say i didn’t cry when they all reflected on aron and rene… and you can see how well they all get along… of all the casts, they seem to have bonded the most since the show ended… the tng cast was always together and it’s a tight family but the ds9ers feel like the closest of friends
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LOL, I wrote something originally but changed my mind to write something else. But then the editing time limit had already relapsed before I finished writing it and couldn’t save it. So I copied it in another post which you can see.
O_o
Man I have to say I was VERY impressed by the day and all the panels. With the exception of TOS I watched them all live. They were were so introspective and added a lot of value on how you think about the shows.Especially with DS9 because that show just lost two important cast members within the last year.
And really like how they all seem to just enjoy working and being around each other. I actually never heard that much with the Enterprise cast as the others since they weren’t around as long but hearing them talk about Bakula and how much fun they had was nice to hear. The show itself had its own problems but they all loved being part of it and proud of the show, as they should be. And yes obviously some of the actors have had their fill of Star Trek like Avery Brooks and Jolene Black but for the most part everyone seem to have not only enjoyed their time being on the show but still spend a lot of time with their cast mates, some decades after the show ended. I know part of that is due to all the convention appearances they make together (like this one) but it’s obvious they are all real friends today.
And while I also know this is really just a clever way to market the old shows (if I had a nickel where one of the hosts kept reminding us we can rewatch the shows on All Access I would have a lot of nickels) it also tells me that CBS does value all of them too and sees them as all important, which for us fans, they are. That is the crazy thing about Star Trek now, no show will ever just ‘disappear’. Thanks to the internet and streaming there will be new fans watching this franchise for the first time every day. There will always be someone new on the planet watching TOS, ENT, TNG, VOY etc for the very first time TODAy and every day for years if not decades to come.And because we are getting so much new Trek in the process, and it constantly references or bring back characters from all the old shows, it keeps the franchise as a whole relevant.
I love Star Trek to my core. I can’t ever imagine a day I won’t be watching it and I have to think all of these great actors and producers for being part of it. And to see it coming back in a way we haven’t seen since the 90s is a big treat!
“it also tells me that CBS does value all of them too and sees them as all important, which for us fans, they are.”
I wonder if they value them enough to give us HD remasters of DS9 and Voyager. Given the difficulties filming shows at the moment and that we know it’s still viable to do effects work, sound editing etc remotely maybe now is the time. Star Trek is clearly important to their plans for CBS AA and if there are going to be delays for new material to be ready to air then this might just be the next best thing.
I would love to say yes of course. At the time, I know remastering stuff like TOS and TNG was because they wanted more blu ray sales, but now since that side of the market is slowly dying off I would think it would still be important to do it for All Access, especially to bring in new viewers.
Or maybe the other issue is that they feel the shows attract enough steady viewers as it is so its just not worth spending anymore money on it. My only guess is that’s the most probable answer. Netflix put out their top 10 Star Trek rewatch list a few years ago and Voyager held 7 of the 10 slots so that probably tells them A. the shows are still really popular (or at least Voyager) and can bring in both old and new fans without the HD treatment and B. adding it would probably be negligible to the bottom line if people are still willing to stream them.
I do think they will both get an HD upgrade someday but that will probably be when it’s much cheaper to do than it is now.
That’s a good analysis Tiger2 and not one I’d particularly disagree with. I guess ultimately the question would be whether weekly enhanced DS9 or VOY episodes would keep fans that cancel between seasons around.
And streaming makes it so difficult to quantify price the way buying a disk or renting something does. People will just watch things since it’s already part of the overall package. I know I watch tons of things on Netflix I would never watch if I had to pay directly lol.
And thinking about myself here, not being in HD hasn’t remotely stopped me from watching tons of DS9 and VOY. I watch a LOT of VOY these days in fact, and last year I rewatched the entire series of DS9. I don’t know how much more I can watch lol. I know it’s to attract more new fans as well, but as said probably enough of them watches already that makes them happy..
But of course love to be proven wrong.
That’s the thing: As long as people continue to watch DS9 and VOY in SD there’s little incentive for CBS to upgrade them to HD. As you mentioned, Bluray sales can’t offset the costs. So the money would need to come from distribution/streaming deals. But would people pay for All Access just to see DS9 or VOY in HD if they can also watch it without extra cost on Netflix (assuming they subscribe to Netflix anyway), even though it’s only in SD there? Or would Netflix pay more to CBS than they do now to get the show in HD (internationally)?
Another issue I think has been highlighted is the fact that DS9 and VOY, in their later season in particular, use lots of CGI effects work which cannot be upgraded to HD and therefore would require completely redoing from scratch.
The live action remastering is also apparently every bit as difficult and expensive as it was for TNG.
Wow I did not realize that at all Datamat! CGI can’t be upgraded to HD? And yes both DS9 and VOY used a lot more since that was the era CGI was becoming more common to TV productions.
For TNG and early DS9/VOY, the spaceship models were shot on film while the whole compositing was done on video. So they could take the film of the models, scan that in HD and “only” had to do the compositing again, e.g. combining different ships on screen or combining ships and backgrounds or adding weapons fire.
When they switched from models to CGI they only rendered the effects in SD to save money. So there simply is no source material with a better quality than the crappy SD shots. Sure, you could scale it up to HD but that wouldn’t give you any more detail.
Really good analysis on your part Tiger2
These reunions are beautiful.
Yeah, I kind of imagined Robert Beltran wouldn’t be around for the Voyager panel. He seems to be the only real sourpuss among that group.
Some of the videos won’t play in the U.K. is there anything that can be done?
The embedded videos in the article are from CBS All Access who tend to geoblock their Trek content. Have you tried the startrek.com website? I think they have all the panels without geoblocking. Note that their site doesn’t work correctly if you use ad blockers.
Cheers good shout
Edit
Oh yes. John Billiningsly at the end. Yes. The main spark is there.
I really thought Billingsley’s comment was great. He asked (paraphrasing) “how are each and every one of us going to make the future happen? what are each of us doing to make this world better?” That is a great question in these times as well as any other.
These panels were so great to view. Its almost better than being at a khan as it seems the panelists are doing it just for you. Picard was wonderful to see how they all enjoy each other over 30 years later. DS9 was very good and it it was heartbreaking to hear them speak of Rene and Aaron so fondly, something us fans may never have known about those late actors. ENT was my favorite I have to say, my wife and I always enjoy speaking with these actors at the Vegas khan. They are a lot of fun, especially when we bumped into JB in the casino. He and his wife Bonnie spent over an hour speaking with us. This show was fantastic because we could see how the early days are/were of the Federation. There is still a lot of history to fill in there and I really wish they could do more. Sure they are older now but none of us are getting any younger. But, “it would be glorious to see more” to paraphrase Klingon Commander Kor. Bring back Enterprise.
I hope that CBS takes note of how well Star Trek Day was received and does this every year from now on on 8 September. That streaming was the best seeing all the different series.
Its always nice when cbs gives a middle finger to international fans by geo blocking youtube videos. way to go.
The TNG panel is not available here
If all these cast members say they are like a family, then pit the casts against each other on family feud. It might be fun to watch.
Interesting but geez Wil… Can you PLEASE tone down the hoovering? It’s embarassing.