All Access Star Trek Dives Into NYCC ‘Discovery’ And ‘Prodigy’ Reveals And ‘Lower Decks’ Season 2 Finale

All Access Star Trek podcast - Episode 61 - TrekMovie

[Lower Decks review starts at 28:08]

Tony and Laurie start off with the biggest news of the week: William Shatner is now the oldest person to go into space. They are both moved by what a profound experience it was for him. They also cover the latest on the possible IATSE strike, recap the New York Comic Con panels and video from Star Trek: Prodigy and Star Trek: Discovery, give a production update on Strange New Worlds, and review Brent Spiner’s new book (and audiobook featuring the TNG cast), Fan Fiction. Then they dive into their review of the Lower Decks season 2 finale, “First First Contact.” They wrap up with a look at Clint Howard reminiscing about being on Star Trek as a kid on Late Night with Seth Meyers and an article that draws connections between Star Trek and The Good Fight.

Links:

Watch William Shatner Launch Into Space… And His Emotional Return

Hollywood Braces for Disruption and Hardship as IATSE Sets Strike Deadline (Deadline)

Kate Mulgrew And NYCC Panel Reveal How ‘Prodigy’ Will Guide New Fans Into Star Trek

Watch A ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Clip; Robert Beltran, Jason Alexander, Jameela Jamil, And Daveed Diggs Join Cast

Watch ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 4 NYCC Trailer

NYCC ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Panel Reveals Season 4 Theme, Federation President, And More

Watch Anson Mount’s ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season One Wrap Message To Fans

Review: Brent Spiner Spins A Yarn Worth Reading In ‘Fan Fiction’

‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ Cast Reunites For Audiobook Of Brent Spiner’s ‘Fan Fiction’

Sci-Fi Icon Brent Spiner Goes Boldly into a New Genre (Vanity Fair)

Sonya Gomez (Memory Alpha)

Trekbits: 

Tony: Clint Howard talks TOS on Late Night with Seth Meyers promoting “The Boys” (YouTube)

Laurie: The Good Fight is the Star Trek of legal dramas (Polygon)

Let us know what you think of the episode in the comments, and please post your suggestions for topics we should cover in the future as well as guests you’d like us to have on.


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Question for the deep Trek tech nerds: What exactly is the function of cetacean ops? What are the dolphins doing on the ship? Do we know anything beyond a vague notion that it has something to do with navigation?

They are there because in Star Trek IV humanity recognized that cetaceans are the other sentient beings native to Earth.

So, they need to have the opportunity to be represented in Starfleet.

My interpretation of the Belugas for this ship is that the Cerritos is relatively small, so its cetacean crew need to be a smaller species.

We’ve heard navigation mentioned, but no one’s said how it works.

Being a HUGE fan of the first two seasons of SeaQuest DSV, the addition of intelligent whales and dolphins to Starfleet vessels is just so neat!

The people over at TrekCulture have been begging on their knees to finally see Cetecean Ops on screen which had already been mentioned on TNG but was never shown. So funny how Sean Ferrick and Adam Clery celebrated that massive event. :-)

There are many great Trek channels over at YouTube but Sean and Adam may be my favourite hosts on the planet… in the universe… in the multiverse. So much fun these two guys and so, so positive about everything Trek.

I heard it was along the lines of their natural abilities to echo locate over vast differences made them natural navigators. Something akin to the Medusans being natural navigators. Or, if you rather, like the guild navigators in Dune

Fun theory, but not all that practical in the event of a crashing saucer – see Star Trek Generations. How do you suppose they got those whales out of the crash site?

How would echo-location work in space?

Well if you’re going to go down that thread, then STIV essentially established that humpback whales can communicate with objects in space, so their form of communication and perhaps their echolocation is more than just sound possibly including a subspace component. So there you go.

Fair enough.

Seems like everything has a subspace component these days: dilithium, whale songs… ;-)

Great podcast and great review. You summed up my LDS feelings exactly when you said that “you couldn’t be happier” with it. I wonder if between now and the 3rd season you might get a chance to interview some of the cast and crew. The in-depth interviews you’ve done in the past have been brilliant. Thanks again.

Thank you for the feedback. We do hope to have some of the LDS people back. Especially Mike would be good to talk to about the season. Certainly when the Blu-ray release comes out in a few months would be a good time to talk to him.

In the short term, you get expect some interviews related to prodigy and discovery which we’ve actually already conducted but are currently under embargo.

Thanks Tony. I look forward to those interviews.

Hi,

If you like audiobooks narrated by TNG cast members, try Carl Sagan’s Cosmos on audible. Levar Burton does an amazing job narrating a book about astrophysics for the ordinary person.

S2 of LD has been one great hit after another. The finale had what I call the greatest rescue mission in Star Trek history. The animation was stunning.

I didn’t expect anything from Sonja Gomez showing up. I was just like, “hey cool I remember her.” That was it, but yes her appearance was underwhelming. But the Obena class ship was super cool!

I think you two are doing a terrific job analyzing the episodes. I’m looking forward to hearing your reaction to the Prodigy pilot.

Live Long and Prosper!

Great podcast guys. There is a lot of great topics here. I agree with most things said EXCEPT I had no issue with Gomez’s voice on the show. I thought the actress did fine! It never occurred to me it wasn’t good until you guys said it but each their own.

But you made a GREAT point about Tendi and Rutherford in the finale. It never occurred to me they were really talking about themselves and not just the Cerritos. I’m really convinced by the end of the show, we’re going to see them married and have a few Orion-Cyborg babies together. Hope so! :)

And lastly, this is a correction on one of your assumptions concerning Boimler and Jennifer being a couple next season. That ‘s not happening. I read an interview today Mike Mamahan gave to another site. I don’t know if this is considered ‘spoilers’ or not, but just in case he confirmed:

Spoiler
That Jennifer and Mariner will be the couple next season and will see the ups and downs in their relationship!

So pretty interesting! Anyway, I can’t say anymore how much I love this show at this point. I watched every episode this season again at least 1-2 times and already watched the finale 3 times. It’s so good to be back in the TNG era again and ticks all the right boxes. I can’t wait for Prodigy either, especially knowing it’s going to be a much bigger mystery and more Federation involved than we originally thought.

I really want to know why an Andorian is called Jennifer. There are many ways that could be explained. Either she was raised by humans like Worf or Andorians play an important part in Welsh history :-)

They may explain it as an in universe reason later on the show but the REAL reason is pretty simple and very Lower Decks. Tawny Newsome who plays Mariner ab libbed the name as a joke but the producers liked it and kept it in. And she’s been Jennifer since.

I should’ve guessed that spoiler from something Mariner said… but we will leave it as a spoiler for now.

That spoiler is how I read the final scenes of the episode.

Spoiler
Jennifer seemed very happy to learn that Mariner liked her. She and Mariner also seem to have a fondness for Boimler in common.

Yes, I rewatched that scene after hearing that, suddenly the context looks very different lol.

Forget Boimler and Jennifer, that’s boring, Mariner and Jennifer is the couple I want to see!

I haven’t been able to get into LDS but listening to y’all talk about how much you enjoy it almost makes me want to give it another shot. You’ve also got me super excited for Prodigy to start! And Burnham’s leather jacket we caught a glimpse of in the S4 trailer immediately got my attention. 👀 Can’t wait to see the whole fit!

It’s a lot of fun, and I think they really upped the ante in season 2. As for costumes, I don’t like any of the Disco uniforms, but I always love the non-uniform clothes.

Here’s my conspiracy theory for the next season. Capt Freeman wasn’t really arrested but instead is going to be working with Starfleet Intelligence to figure out what happened. Basing this on the presence of a Nova class ship being the one to take her away. That is a short range science vessel and it doesn’t match Starfleet Security using it for this purpose.

Second is that I can see how they can promote the Ensigns but keep them all together. If the Cerritos is a smaller ship with limited crew quarters (similar to the Defiant), then they could be promoted to LtJG and all share a room (again, like shown on the Defiant). We know the ship doesn’t have too much space as all the Ensigns share a corridor for a room. And a coed arrangement already exists.