[Lower Decks review starts at 26:53]
Anthony and Laurie start with the great news that the WGA strike is over. Although the SAG-AFTRA strike continues, there can still be work done on Star Trek, so the podcasters break down what this could mean for each show, or even the next movie, which has bubbled to the surface once again as “still on the tracks.” They give an update about the swapped-out visual FX shot on the Star Trek: Picard DVD sets, then segue into their recent interview with Picard production designer Dave Blass, who has strong opinions about the urgency of booking Terry Matalas to develop a new Trek show with the Picard cast. They wrap up the news with a reminder about the new Prodigy DVD set.
This week’s reviews start with the latest very Short Treks episode (“It’s Holograms All The Way Down”), written by Prodigy co-EP Aaron Waltke. Both Tony and Laurie loved this one and hope fans give it a watch for all the layers of lore and cameos Aaron crammed into 90 seconds. After that, it’s time for their review of the newest episode of Lower Decks, “Empathalogical Fallacies.” Once again, the All Access team loved the episode. They appreciated that T’Lyn got her own storyline and had high praise for the guest stars and how jam-packed the episode is with little moments, fun nods, and heart.
They wrap up with a recommendation for a fun Lower Decks artist as a Twitter follow and an early TV appearance by a then unknown Brent Spiner.
Links:
‘Star Trek 4’ Screenwriter Assures Project Is “Still On The Tracks”
Star Trek: Picard – The Final Season’ DVD/Blu-ray Sets To Be Updated With Enhanced Visual FX Shot
Terry Matalas on Jay Leno’s Garage showing off his Back To The Future DeLorean [YouTube]
Preview: ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Producers Talk Dreaming Big In Season 1B DVD/Blu-ray Special Features
Pamela Adlon in Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “Who Watches the Watchers”
Bits:
Anthony: Lower Decks artist Phil Murphy’s Janeway/Paris/Salamander “family portrait” [Twitter]
Laurie: Brent Spiner (as Brett Mintz) on To Tell the Truth
Let us know what you think of the episode in the comments, and should you be so inclined, please review us on Apple.
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The thing with this Terry godification is, yes season 3 of Picard was really good. A lot of it worked. But not everything. There were some really meh things I saw (that we mostly forgave them for). And what worked is because he is so deep into Trek. I think his popularity is not that big a deal as his close friends feel it is. I’m also not sure if other studios are lining up to hire him because he’s good at Trek (yes I know, there’s 12 Monkeys).
A lot of Picard season 3’s succes (not ‘his’ succes) was also due to ALL the other people he surrounded himself with. All the legacy people, both in front of and behind the cameras. That all together made something really cool. But as far as the bigger audience goes… yes, Picard appeared a couple of times in the streaming charts. But SNW topped that a number of times.
I’ll be honest, the fact that I’m not the biggest fan of the man (or mostly of the way he handled himself online) might have colored my opinion on this.
I didn’t like the third season. I liked parts of it, and loved parts of it; but overall, Terry Matalas’s idea of Star Trek is seemingly pretty far afield from my idea of Star Trek. I have no interest in seeing him return. Hand a “Legacy” type show over to Aaron Waltke; THAT would interest me.
As to the people around him contributing: definitely they did. But it was Terry as the S3 showrunner who brought those people in. We have seen how the staff of DIS and PIC S1 and S2, who might be capable and worthy of producing other shows, just didn’t do as good of a job producing something that works as “Trek”. It says something about Terry that he knew who should be working on a Trek show to make it feel like Trek. That is just as or more valuable than his showrunner inputs like story creation and writing.
As for the parts that didn’t work as well, I personally (and this is only my impression of the behind-the-scenes info) think that a lot of weaker parts of the season come down to limitations on budget and time. Sure many series have these limitations and such limitations can lead to artistic innovation and success, but they can also hinder a show like this by limiting development time, etc. I think CBS/Paramount/the Suits limited the time and budget for S3 thinking “let’s just get this out the door and be done with it. It’s the end. No need to throw extra money at it.” Not thinking there would be such a big interest in it and a potential continuation. I think they also had significant budget limitations on season 2 which led to its boring and drab “let’s set this season in 21st century American parking lots and buildings” look and feel. Certainly if you compare it to the look, and evident money, that has gone into Discovery for its soon-to-be 5 seasons, PIC didn’t get nearly that much. [Heck Discovery probably wasted the entire production budget of a single bottle episode of PIC s3 on their bridge-mounted-flame-shooters and fountain-spark-generators.]
As for the parts that didn’t work as well, I personally (and this is only my impression of the behind-the-scenes info) think that a lot of weaker parts of the season come down to limitations on budget and time
Yeah, I can imagine:
Akiva: Terry, we are out of budget and the writers don’t know how to end this this thing.
Terry: Return of the Jedi, my friend, it fit’s perfectly.
Yes, except that the worst aspect of PIC S3 was the finale, upon
which was obviously what the greater part of the budget was lavished. The best moment — and it was a truly great one — was the revelation in Episode 4 that played out on a bar set that had already been overused and would continue to be throughout the season. Yes, the trimmed budgets for PICARD’s latter seasons was pretty obvious, but art can thrive on restrictions given the right creatives, as Trek has demonstrated repeatedly throughout its history.
You are correct — he’s both overated and arrogant. Kind of like me, so I should know. :-)
I do think that when it comes to the future of Star Trek, I believe that Paramount should have one flagship live-action series (SNW for now) at 13 episodes a year, and one flagship animated series (LD for now) with two 10-episode halves per year. That give you 33 weeks per year of new ST content. Paramount then could fill in some of the gaps with more experimental/one-off content like movies (S31), limited series (which back in the olden days we called “miniseries”), shorts for the socials (both live action and animated), and fully acted audio dramas that are part of canon (to pull in the podcast market).
They can try different genres, and not everything needs to be $100 million a year projects. I don’t think NCIS costs anywhere near $100 million to produce, and it’s the top drama on broadcast TV. A Star Trek procedural about Starfleet Intelligence or the Department of Temporal Investigations could work quite well. I do believe Star Trek and Paramount would be improved if they got rid of the ST buffet that we have been getting, and instead turn to a good ST dinner instead–focused on a few things, and much more satisfying.
I also agree that Trek has always been much better on TV than on the big screen. There are good ST movies for sure, but the best of ST has been on the small screen.
To Tell the Truth is making my morning. Thanks for sharing this gem!
Love it! Yeah, it was a pretty joyful discovery.
Podcast was great.
But this episode of LDS was just ok for me. It wasn’t bad at all. I just only found the Boimler part funny. I did not find the Betazoid part funny. This is advertised as a comedy. And it’s not super funny anymore. It’s closer and closer to TNG with speedy lines and animation now.
Lower Decks for me is one of the most consistently enjoyable Trek series. I hope they recognize when they have hit their peak and go out with style instead of hanging on for 20 years and becoming lame copies of themselves like some animated series do.
Marc Maron interviews LeVar Burton on his WTF podcast this week. It’s a really good discussion of his career and life philosophy. Trek and Burton’s relationship with Roddenberry are discussed – Burton ranks Roddenberry as one of his great influences and heroes, but also learned from working with him that “all of our heroes are humans”. It’s a good companion piece to Maron’s interview with Shatner from earlier this year.
I had just started that one and got pulled away, but I plan to listen to the rest later. This is older, but check out LeVar’s interview on Andy Richter’s Three Questions podcast too. It’s a good one.
I respect that a lot of people seem to like this series but I, for one, can’t wait for this series to end and be forgotten. Just awful all around in my view.
All things end but it won’t be forgotten.
Tony/Laurie,
Great Podcast!
I want Legacy to happen as long as Akiva Goldsman stays far far far away from it. If it doesn’t happen, I’m looking at swapping P+ for Apple TV after S4 LD finishes, because it seems all the compelling science fiction is happening over there.
When I think about predilection for irrelevancy, I think of the Starfleet Academy show.
Aaron’s very short trek was fantastic! I watched it 10x. Definitely a love of trek in that episode.
Great episode of LD. T’lynn has made the show 10% funnier.
I watched the clip of Brent Mintz. Even with long hair, he looks like Data.
LLAP!