Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Gates McFadden is about to take on the frontier of podcasting. We have exclusive details and a clip of her conversation with her TNG co-star LeVar Burton.
InvestiGates arrives in May
Today NacelleCast, the people behind Netflix’s The Toys That Made Us and the upcoming History Channel Star Trek docuseries The Center Seat, announced that actress, director and choreographer, Gates McFadden, will debut her new podcast InvestiGates: Who Do You Think You Are? through Nacelle’s podcast network on May 12th.
Gates McFadden InvestiGates: Who Do You Think You Are? is a limited podcast series where Gates invites some of her best friends such as Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Wil Wheaton, Brent Spiner, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, John de Lancie, Robert Picardo, Michael Westmore, Nana Visitor, Denise Crosby and more. Each show is less interview and more one-on-one intimate conversation. NacelleCast promises that InvestiGates will feature “never-before-heard stories” from the stars and creatives behind Star Trek.
“I can’t say I know the ins and outs of podcasting, although I am learning, but I do know how to be funny and silly, serious and truthful, and ultimately, how to have lively conversations with my extraordinary group of close friends from the Star Trek series. An no, we don’t dissect the episodes, we speak about our lives,” said Gates McFadden.
TrekMovie has an exclusive clip from Gates’ chat with LeVar Burton to give you a sense of what is to come.
Gates is also working with The Nacelle Company as an executive producer on The Center Seat docuseries. The company recently opened NacelleCast Studios, a state-of-the-art podcast studio next to their production offices in Burbank, which serves as the main podcast studio for all NacelleCast productions.
“We’re deeply honored to be releasing Gates’ first podcast! I’ve been a Trekkie for over 35 years, and I’ve learned more from these shows than the last 100 conventions I’ve gone to combined!” said Brian Volk-Weiss, Founder and CEO of The Nacelle Company.
InvestiGates will be available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Podbean, Amazon Music and more starting May 12th.
I always thought Gates was probably the best actor on TNG besides Stewart, but she rarely got utilized fully.
Wow. I honestly thought she and Marina Sirtis traded off week by week for title of worst actor on the show.
Actor. Not character. Underutilized as an actor.
I agree Baxter. And you can see the same issue in pretty much all the series, except DS9. They succeded having a great balance between pretty much all of the main characters. :P
Always loved both Beverly and Troi. Always will.
Finally someone who shares my view! In every scene she was in she was present, understated, and grounded. You always felt like she was in the room and her character was really living and working through the issues of the day rather than just spouting lines. She made medical technobabble make sense, and when she had to do “real” acting and had something to do, she made the most of it – see in The First Duty when she was really antsy about sending Wes’s medical records to the academy, or in the one where Spot scratched Riker up and she was all “I would be…honored…” about babysitting spot. She made up for the bad writing by making the character her own.
As for Marina, I will take her side and blame the fact that Gates always had cool props to work with, whereas Marina had to just stand there. Thankfully they gave her a ton to do after the show was over, with her great drunk bit in First Contact and her Voyager eps where she actually got to be a counselor, and then of course in Picard where she was just absolutely awesome.
Frankly, Marina Sirtis was riveting even if she WAS just standing there. Was to me, at least.
She was at a Trekonderoga event a few years ago. (Star Trek Set Tour)
She was wonderful. She mentioned that she wanted to have intellectual discourse about her acting, the writing and while she didn’t say it- I think it may have rubbed Gene Roddenberry or Maurice Hurley the wrong way and they fired her. I’m glad they brought her back in season 3. If she’s ever at a con in your area? Go see her and say hello.
I met her at a con once and she was lovely.
Yes, ma’am, I will absolutely listen to that.
These people from TNG are all the best, top notch actors because they took advantage of their camaraderie with each other. It shows in spades on screen, and everytime they do something together now it’s always remarkable. TNG, DS9, and Voyager (In thst order IMO) are all visual novels.
I hope she gets to Patrick Stewart as well. But I will give this a listen!