In addition to getting back to work voicing Mariner for the fifth season of the animated comedy Star Trek: Lower Decks, Tawny Newsome is also back in the writers room for the upcoming live-action Star Trek: Starfleet Academy series. In her new interview for TrekMovie’s All Access Star Trek podcast, the actress and writer spoke to us about what it’s like working on the new show and how she isn’t the only superfan in that room.
Academy writers back at work, keeping an eye on canon
When the WGA strike began in early May, the writers room for the show had already been assembled, and then plan was to go into production in 2024. The strike wrapped up at the end of September, and Newsome told TrekMovie they got back to work quickly, saying they have been writing again for “about a month.” She also opened up about what the atmosphere is like:
“We truly have the most fun group of people. Our showrunners Alex [Kurtzman] and Noga [Landau] really assembled just a delightful room of lovely people. I don’t know how they did it, because Hollywood is full of psychopaths and they really managed to find some sweeties who love Trek. I’ve been having a blast and I think that the audience is going to love the show. I really do.”
According to Paramount+, the show will focus on a “young group of cadets” at Star Trek’s famed Starfleet Academy. At NYCC, Alex Kurtzman talked about how the show “speaks to the generation now.” In her TrekMovie interview, Newsome described how this premise opens up new possibilities within Star Trek:
“Yes, it is aimed at a younger generation. I mean, it’s the Academy, all things are possible. Also, I like this era. I like the promise of this show because so often we don’t get to see what it’s like when you’re not quite a fully formed Starfleet officer yet. All of our Starfleet officers have to be so good already. What I think has been so fun about Lower Decks is that we’ve gotten to see people on the less great ship. So I just think that kids in their academy phase, that’s some of the exciting stuff for me. What are you like when you are a teenager who is still figuring this out on the path to becoming these great Starfleet officers?”
Even with the focus on a new young audience, Newsome feels the show still has wide appeal for Trek fans, thanks to those like her in the writers’ room honoring Trek lore:
“I do [feel it will appeal to fans]. I will say that there are some people in that room—I might be one of them—that are real canon hound dogs. We got some real canon-heads in there with very intense conversations about keeping the Star Trek of it feeling really Star Trek-y. So I hope that’ll make everyone who loves Star Trek happy because it makes me happy. I love being a deputy canon cop.”
Paramount+ announcement image from March (NOTE: Not final title treatment)
Honored to be a Star Trek first
Newsome has had a long career both acting and writing in comedy, but this is her first drama. She talked to us about writing for drama and how crossing over from the cast to the writers’ room makes a bit of Trek history. While not the first Trek actor to submit a script to Trek or get a writing credit, she’s the first to get a writing staff position:
“I have done sketch [comedy] before. I have never done a narrative room. I worked at The Second City for many years before I worked in TV and we write all of our own material there. I’ve done a lot of little like, ‘Okay, we are assembling a punch-up room for this draft of this thing.’ I’ve only ever worked in comedy. I’ve never worked on an hour-long drama, not even as an actor. So that’s different for me. And someone told me that I’m the first Star Trek cast member to be in on the [writing] staff of a show… That’s such an honor. And I’m going to be thinking about that. It’s rare that you get to be a first in something that you really care about. That’s, that’s very meaningful to me.”
More to come from Tawny Newsome
Check out our previous interview to see what Tawny Newsome said about getting back to work on Lower Decks season 5. We will have more about what she had to say about season 4 and season 5 so stay tuned to the site and catch the full audio interview in the next episode of the All Access Star Trek podcast.
Keep up with news for the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
Actually, Walter Koenig (Chekov) wrote “The Infinite Vulcan” for Star Trek: The Animated Series, so a Star Trek star HAS written for the show before.
Technically, she says the first cast member to be on staff, so that’s probably still true. I think Walter probably freelanced that episode.
Yes, but he wasn’t on the writing staff. There’s a distinct difference. So the wording in the article is accurate.
Indeed, but as Lorna Dune and the new kid note, I assume Newsome means as part of the regular writing staff of a show.
If it were simply people who’ve both written and performed in Star Trek episodes / movies, there’s a pretty long list of people, including Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Majel Barrett, David Gerrold, Stanley Adams, Simon Pegg…
Robert Picardo for Life Line.
He also wasn’t a member of the TAS cast.
From the story: “While not the first Trek actor to submit a script to Trek or get a writing credit, she’s the first to get a writing staff position.”
Wow, I didn’t know that! And actually that’s kind of ironic considering Chekov wasn’t in TAS!
I’m cautiously optimistic here. My track record for connecting with ‘YA’ shows is shoddy, I’ll admit it. But I’ll give it a shot, because it’s Star Trek, how couldn’t I?
If it’s set in the 32nd century – which does seem likely – it might be a nice little springboard for occasionally revisiting USS Discovery characters after that show’s final season.
You said it right: “But I’ll give it a shot, because it’s Star Trek, how couldn’t I?” I’m like that too. I really have reservations about this one (mostly related to one specific thing), but I’m the same. “Let’s see what’s out there”.
Tawny, if you are reading this, thanks for all your hard work on Star Trek, and I would recommend no animated crossovers or musicals for your new series — we don’t need them, and they watered down S2 of SNW in this fan’s opinion (after a tremendous S1).
And I hope the comedy is kept to a minimum. Lower Decks already has that covered.
Agreed!
I wouldn’t hold my breath. If they were intending to keep the comedy to a minimum, they wouldn’t be hiring a comedic actor for the writers’ room.
We’re in the Roger Moore/Superman III era of Star Trek. Lighthearted comedy rules the roost.
Star Trek IV… Star Trek V… lighthearted Star Trek comedy was always there.
CoonTrek was very lighthearted at key moments too, as a nice contrast to the heavy drama most of his eps features. Dif with IV and V is that it is mostly integral to IV, and mostly applied to V. I can admit that even though IV is not a fave and V is.
Well, this comment may be stepping on the proverbial anthill, but:
1. As I’ve said before, every time I watch TMP, I like it more. Conversely, every time I watch TVH, I like it less, at least the portions set in the 20th century. It’s really stupid, and does an injustice to the characters, to think that Kirk & Co could spend entire careers interacting fluidly with multiple alien species, but that they couldn’t get a read on 20th century humans. To take one example, Spock knows damn well that you can’t go neck-pinching people in public; for all those passengers on the bus knew, they just witnessed a murder. Or to take another, Kirk has never tasted beer before? Really?
I also really dislike the portrayal of the 20th century characters (except for Gilllian) as stupid boors. That was particularly true of the military characters. We didn’t get those vibes from Capt. Christopher, or Roberta Lincoln, or Mark Twain (he sized up the TNG crew pretty quickly, in fact), or Rain Robinson, or even Loomis.
I could also do without the whole “social problems are easy to solve if only primitive people caaaaaaared more” vibe, although admittedly that one has shown up before in episodes like “Past Tense.” Caring isn’t the problem. It’s that social problems are really, really difficult to solve.
The “save the whales” plot is creative, yes, but poorly executed. I continue to like the parts set in the 23rd century. Fortunately, they got rid of the Eddie Murphy characters. Had they retained him, I suspect people would view TFF much more in the vein of Superman III.
2. OTOH, I have mostly thought of TFF as underrated, and I suspect that had they excised the lighthearted comedy bits, like Scotty banging his head on the wall, that view would be more widespread — a lot more widespread. According to William Shatner’s book about the movie, they wrote the comedic bits in to ensure that TVH didn’t “stick out like a sore thumb,” and also suspect that the subject matter of the film was so weighty — finding God! — that they felt they had to lighten it up here and there.
Setting aside the debate as to whether they should have excised the humor, though, for me, it doesn’t remotely dominate the movie the way it does in TVH, again becuase of the religious theme. Hard hats on construction sites as a thing for a reason; they idea that Scotty could suffer a workplace injury isn’t *that* bananapants.
Shatner wrote that he wanted to comment on the televangelist trend that was part of the cultural zeitgeist of the late 1980s. It’s interesting to compare TFF with LICENSE TO KILL, which did the same thing; despite Timothy Dalton’s reputation for restoring seriousness to Bond, I think Star Trek did it a lot better.
I waited a few days, so I guess the anthill hasn’t been disturbed. Anyways, while I agree with you somewhat (along with TWOK, TMP and TFF are my favorite Treks and TVH has been a long decline for me), I do think caring — along with acting — is the problem regarding the social problems theme. Holding elected officials responsible for their numerous misdeeds — and that isn’t just making slaps on wrists, but holding their feet over very real fire — would save so much money and resources we could do well-nigh anything. But instead there’s pork, and now these bad actors are actually being public about their ‘tudes now that at least a third of the country has owned up to being racist/homophobic illiterates who care more about ‘winning’ and letting bratty felonious zilliionaires defy the law than their children’s health and safety.
We keep letting them get away with it. Even when caught, the punishment never approaches fitting the crime (which is true for traditional blue-collar law as well in most instances.) If there’s no accountability, then folks keep on stealing and cheating the system — any system, because ethics seems to be a game they have no interest in playing, except to claim themselves as above reproach.
I had my first and only good experience in my whole life with a lawyer a year or two back, so I can’t say with the old conviction that Shakespeare was right about lawyers, but it is still how I feel, because they seem to be the ultimate enablers for all this crap to keep coming. I once wrote that law is to justice what morality was to true ethics — each of the former are diluted-down versions of the latter. So long as that remains the case, then we’ll continue to plea-bargain away every genuine penance for what to my mind is criminal climate-denialism and every other issue where there is a buck to be made or a new imperial presidency attained at the cost of solving issues.
I’ll say this much, TFF nailed the Trek trinity better than any TOS ep or movie, even ST II, ever has. The Yosemite scenes were absolutely perfect.
IV got it right. V got it horribly wrong.
Season 2 was less good than 1 to me as well but funny enough the crossover was one of the better episodes because SNW got the LD bump with it
I loved specific episodes of season 2 better than some in season 1, but on the whole I love season 1 a lot more, because it was more cohesive (well, season 2 was basically not cohesive enough). I hope season 3 will be better balanced again.
What an insolent comment.
What an inept response.
It’s his opinion and he is entitled to it.
IF the rumors of this being a 32nd century show are true I think cameos from DISCO are all but certain.
Everything about this project screams “epic flop.”
This needs a CGI “Mr. Roper” and an off-campus “Regale Beagle” watering hole.
Yeah, I remember a few who were convinced that Prodigy would be an epic steaming pile of s**t as well, long before anything aired. Academy will do just fine, with our without you.
Yeah, and Prodigy got cancelled because, good as it was, no one watched it.
You have figures to substantiate that claim, so is this just an emotional outburst?
Obviously he is exaggerating, but the point seems likely to be true.
Both of you are likely wrong.
So if the primary reason the series was canceled was NOT due to lower than expected viewership numbers (which is what most reports suggest), can you please share with us what the primary reason was that the series got canceled? Because the rest of us here don’t apparently have your inside connections and knowledge to come up with a different likely primary reason for the cancellation.
I don’t know the reason, and neither do you, so no reason to assume it’s because no one was watching just because you weren’t. Paramount is cutting costs. Maybe it’s an expensive show to produce…
You specifically said it’s likely we both are wrong? What do you have to base that on?
If you’re really going to going to go with the “bury your head in the sand” argument here then you should have said it’s “possible” we are both wrong, but you saying”likely” would certainly imply that you have more information to base that opinion on?
And yes, we do know that the show was expensive to produce, but that’s the same issue because that expense would not be a problem if the audience numbers supported it. The show is expensive in relation to its audience numbers.
We all have brains to use here and it’s pretty freaking obvious that the audience numbers did not support the show continuing given its cost compared to viewership numbers.
Listen, maybe you have no life and get off pissing people off because you can’t stand differing opinions, but I have other things to do and certainly don’t need to justify myself. I’ll leave you with your delusions and the final word.
I’ll take that, given you’re making no sense. By the way, it seems to me like you’ve been singling out nearly every post of mine the last couple of weeks to argue with me, so perhaps take a look in the mirror before you accuse me of doing that?
Thank you!
Here is the thing. I totally get why streaming ratings could be a reason for Prodigy being cancelled. But then why would Netflix dish out the money to pick it up? If it’s such a flop, what would be in it for them?
I think it’s a little more complicated than that. You could be 100% correct but I think the issue was more about demographics and that enough of its demo, preteens, weren’t watching it since it was a Nickelodeon show before anything. And once they cancelled it there wasn’t enough incentive for P+ to keep it around either.
But I don’t doubt lack of views is a big reason it’s gone. I’ve always suspected this show was the least watched out of the five shows, but I don’t think that’s the only or main reason. I think they wanted Prodigy to be a bigger market grower and specifically find a new audience and once it wasn’t doing that and P+ isn’t in the best shape financially to keep it was gone.
I have to admit I thought Prodigy would be terrible… but I gave it a chance and was pleasantly surprised. The first season was actually good, with a stumble here or there.
I hope the second is equal or better.
I don’t know if I thought it would be terrible but I thought nothing I would really like either. Once they announced Kate Mulgrew was coming back I instantly got excited for the show but I still thought it wouldn’t be for me.
But I ended up being totally wrong. Prodigy for me is on par with TNG, DS9 and VOY which are easily my favorite shows. It took a few episodes to completely won me over but by mid season I knew this was going to be my show.
Looking forward to this. The other modern Trek project aimed at a younger audience, Prodigy, has been great, so hopefully we’ll be two for two.
Exactly. And I remember how cynical people were when Prodigy was announced and we were going to follow ‘lawless teens’. People were very skeptical to say the least and that ended being a great show with very lovable characters. If you like that show then I think you should at least give this one a chance as well.
I think the term ‘YA’ has a very cynical connotation for some fans, especially sci fi fans these days, but it doesn’t mean it’s just going to just be love sick teens and melodramatic stories either.
Right… basically when I see something described as YA, it’s an automatic turn-off. So the term itself is tricky to use. Come to think of it, to me, DSC was YA.
Prodigy grew on me and became a great Trek show. Alot of us older gen fans really like it.
But I don’t believe Prodigy did a great job of attracting a new, younger generation of fans to be fair. As a dad to teen and pre-teen kids, episodic TV watching isn’t high on their radar and to be honest, they don’t even want to know/care of Star Trek.
A five year old can immediately point out Darth Vader or Spider-Man but won’t have a clue who Captain Janeway is.
And then the few kids who *are* into Trek are largely so because of their parents (based on online sentiment), and unfortunately, us Trek parents are a small number.
I don’t have any data to back this up but my observations are based on conversations with my kids and other parents in my corporate life. Oh and to add, I work in a large corporate and when having general chit chat with other parents and their kids’ viewing habits, Star Trek has not come up even once.
Many aren’t even aware of the current new shows on the go.
“Many aren’t even aware of the current new shows on the go.”
Yep, I agree with this so much. I used to work on a college campus until a few years ago and part of my job interacted with both faculty members and students. And lots of times we just talk about popular culture stuff, especially with the kids and everything from Marvel, to the Walking Dead, Star Wars, Anime, Stranger Things, Harry Potter, GOT, you name it would be included in the conversion. Star Trek just didn’t exist and this was after Discovery and later Picard showed up.
At least the older people knew what Star Trek was, but it was basically a non-factor in their entertainment and these are the type of people who Star Trek used to draw in back in the old days. But most didn’t seem to have a real interest. With the students you might as well be talking about something from the sixties (which is kind of fitting ;)). With the exception of maybe 2 or 3 I talked to, most knew nothing about it, had zero interest in it or knew there were new shows on. Even the students who did watch some of Star Trek had zero interest in the new shows ironically and yes they grew up in a household where their parents watched it.
That’s why when I hear people saying the new shows are bringing in new audiences or expanding the market, I really call BS on it. Yes, some, sure but the overwhelming population doesn’t seem to know these shows even exist today, much less drawn to or watching them. And sadly the younger a person is, the less chances they watch it. But of course a huge reason is just being behind a paywall and on a service most people also don’t have or care about.
But I bet if anyone went to their neighbor and asked them if they watched Discovery, Lower Decks or SNW it would be a lot of blank stares.
Now all that said, yes I agree Star Trek needs new fans. That’s been the case for 20 years now. It just can’t be fans from the 90s (which is probably the biggest group watching these new shows today) to keep it alive. It’s also one of the reasons I am a big supporter of SFA, because supposedly that’s what it’s trying to do. But my guess is sadly it won’t make a dent to bring in new or younger fans. Maybe I will be proven wrong, but unfortunately I don’t think I will be.
And the reality is Trek has been trying to reach new fans since Enterprise. It’s never really happened on a major level outside of the Kelvin movies and as we all know by now that never kept a lot of the newer fans either, but certainly was the most successful in at least attracting them. Everything created after that I don’t think made so much as a dent outside of some marginal gains.The overwhelming people who are watching these shows are the oldie fans from the 60s through the 90s.
This website makes that abundantly clear when it’s probably the biggest and famous Star Trek board and yet everyone who posts on it sound like they are over 40 and the oldest modern show has only been around for 6 years now. I don’t think a lot of twenty something or even thirty somethings ever come here.
It’s one of the main problems with Legacy – it’s comfort food for fading Gen Xers, but will do nothing to keep Trek alive and relevant in the future. Will Academy be the answer? Probably not, but it at least might make some new fans, as opposed to appealing to a dwindling fan base that has no future for growth.
Let me start by saying that I really want the Legacy show and so completely biased up front lol. Now I will live if we don’t get it either just as long as we get good Star Trek shows which I feel we are getting now.
But I just don’t buy or even understand this argument. At all frankly. And this is for several reasons. #1. There are multiple Star Trek shows on the air. And they are meant to appeal to multiple audiences and demographics. DIS is suppose to appeal to a different audience than PRO which is suppose to appeal to a different audience than LDS which is suppose to appeal to a different audience than SNW and so on. Why does one show have to ‘stay relevant for the future’ when you already have multiple shows already doing that and supposedly already targeted for supposedly new audiences. Can’t you just do both?
And this definitely goes for #2 but wasn’t that the entire point of Picard itself? Wasn’t that show literally made for older fans from the start? You’re hiring a nearly 80 year old actor to reprise a character from a over 30 years ago and who hasn’t played in nearly 20 using story lines from said 30 year old show. Picard wasn’t made to tap into the teen market lol. No it was literally made for the same reason Legacy is a thing and was the strategy to get those fans specifically onboard to these new shows. Again, I wish someone could explain it to me why was it OK to do it for Picard but not for Legacy? The idea only exists because obviously Picard existed.
And finally #3, Legacy is basically what Hollywood has been doing for the last 15-20 years. That’s the direction every old movie and TV franchise is going in. I mean I just watched Ghostbusters Afterlife for the first time on Thanksgiving with my family. It literally could’ve been called Ghostbusters Legacy lol. Same for the Star Wars Sequels. Same for the last Indiana Jones movie. Same for the new Quantum Leap show. Same for the new CSI show. Same for the last Terminator movie. Same for the new Law and Order shows. It goes on and on. They are all these quasi reboots but centered around old characters while introducing new ones. And all the modern Trek has done this basically.
Sorry I went on a rant lol. My main point is most of these old franchises are all trying to do the same thing and that is nostalgia. They WANT the older fans because they seem to think they are important to these old franchises or we wouldn’t be having all these older men like Stewart, Keaton, Ford, Murray and on and on reprising roles they haven’t played in decades.
So no I don’t have a single issue with Legacy. Again, from my POV and after what I just pointed out, it’s a little shocking it’s not being developed now. But that’s also because all the people who will watch Legacy are still watching these other shows too lol because it’s all caked into the same nostalgia regardless right? So yeah.
It’s just a lot harder for Trek – or any other show – to get a foothold these days, unfortunately. There’s no longer a few shows on half a dozen channels to keep an eye on, there’s a barrage of “content”, and almost all of it has a paywall. I can barely keep up with the shows I want to watch, let alone anything outside of that. And Paramount just doesn’t have the studio marketing budget that Amazon and Disney do, so, as has been noted here and elsewhere, getting Trek anywhere close to the cultural saturation it had back in the 90’s is a pipe dream.
That said, I’m not sure the outlook is completely grim. I hang out in a lot of multi-fandom spaces, and about every week someone several decades my junior pipes up with “Why didn’t someone tell me Star Trek was like *this*?!” with a request for viewing order, recommendations, etc. The optimism seems to appeal, along with the tonal mix of morally heavy and light-hearted episodes, the strong bonds of friendship, etc. But the bingeable season has fallen out of fashion, the older series aren’t as accessible as they were just a few years ago thanks to P+ pulling everything back under their roof, shorter modern seasons give this potential audience less of what they’re falling in love with in the older series, and appointment TV isn’t really a thing for most folks anymore, so figuring out how to monetize what youthful interest there is is in P+’s court.
Well, yeah. These “kids” are into fantasy, cartoons and comic books, something TREK is clearly not. Thank god!
I know people are divided on this show but I’m really excited about its potential at least…and I’m nowhere near a big Discovery fan. But I think introducing new and younger characters will be interesting (look at Prodigy). And its 32nd century setting will make it more exciting than an Academy show set in the 23rd, 24th or 25th centuries. And I will say regardless how you feel about Discovery, I do think its great it has created a whole new era for shows like this and maybe others can build on in the future the way the TNG era has given us now with 6 shows and 4 movies.
Imagine being on a 32nd century Earth as part of this show’s setting in a way Discovery couldn’t do. So many possibilities. Very happy Tawny Newsome is a part of it too.
I think having the 32nd century to itself will work in the show’s favor.
Yep! As much as I love the 23rd and 24th centuries, the reality is those eras are pretty much set in terms of how everything is laid out. People like me who wanted to go forward again because it will give us a chance for completely new dynamics. DIS has been doing that but it still feels a bit vague. This show can go much farther with it if done right.
Yeah, it won’t have to so freaking beholden to canon criticism due to that. And I like the ide of DSC characters getting periodic guest star roles as well.
I think they will go the route of the Discovery episode with Tilly and the cadets on a mission. That seems to be the tone they will likely follow.
Yeah, if this show is set more than a thousand years into the future – just think of the possibilities. So many ways for the writers to try and envision the future of humankind over a millennium from now. Also great to hear Tawny is such a Trek fan. Good luck to her and the cast and crew of Starfleet Academy.
Btw, I just read the book When World’s Collide which was written in the 1930s. Very cool to read what science fiction writers from 90 years ago, thought space travel would be like.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Yeah that’s what really excites me about the idea! Because SFA will be the first show about the 32nd century. Because DIS obviously didn’t start out in that period and frankly it could’ve just been a story line for a season and the ship could’ve just went somewhere else either back to the 23rd century or maybe even farther into the future. Neither of those were ever in the cards obviously but the point is that the setting was just a by product of the show (and yes to cover up its major canon problems among other things) but it’s still based on a show with a crew new to that era which I thought was a great premise…in theory.
But this show will have characters whose lives have always revolved around the Burn. And whose lives are from the 32nd century. They can dive in to how different the galaxy really has been for them DIS just scratched the surface on. We can really explore that now.
You know my views on all of this but I constantly rolled my eyes at the narrow minded fans who thought you can never go beyond Nemesis. WTF, are you kidding me?????? You’re watching Star Trek! You can literally go anywhere.. You can literally do anything. That’s what excites so many of us. I’m not watching because I think it’s a documentary about the future. I’m watching it because it can spark the imagination in a million different inticing ways when your premise is exploring the freaking galaxy!
Yes, I’m curious to know how the TOS characters will all eventually end up on the Enterprise by the time SNW is done.I’m also very excited to know how Janeway and the kids will save Chakotay in Prodigy. And yes, if we get it, I would love to see how Captain Seven make her way through a post-Dominion universe in the 25th century. All of that really does sound awesome.
But SFA has the chance to strike up completely new concepts and stories IF done right. If they get this right, then it could make the 32nd century an entire new era they could be exploring for years and maybe decades to come with their own set of iconic characters just like the 23rd and 24th centuries. That really excites me as a fan.
And I had an amazing Thanksgiving DeanH! :)
You know I don’t love the idea but when I do read from others who really does like the idea I do admit it can turn out to be an amazing show.
But I have a hard time trusting anyone who runs Discovery. I still doubt it’s going to be nothing more than a CW drama in the 32nd and such solid plots like the Carsassian girl who really really likes a Romulan boy but don’t know what her parents would think? (I can tell you what mine would think and they would never approve).
Or the Ferengis who keeps having trouble making friends because he keeps stealing from them and so on.
But I thought the LDS characters were going to be bumbling dweeds who can’t do anything right… fortunately they don’t work on Discovery.
LOL!
You know my views on DIS too but I am a lot more hopeful knowing Michelle Paradise doesn’t have her hands anywhere near this. I don’t know anything about the new show runner and I never watched Nancy Drew or it sounds like my cup of Earl Grey. But it has a waaaaay higher audience score than DIS does on RT so that’s a plus, but not exactly a high bar to pass lol.
Obviously we don’t know if we are going to get a great show or just an average one with lots of tropey characters and bad melodrama. But the sliver of news so far has been positive for me. But I can’t remember one single troubling thing they said about Picard before that show premiered so that’s not saying a lot either. ;)
But that’s true about characters from both LDS and PRO. I think many people had in their heads they weren’t going to be ‘Trek-y’ enough and they all ended up being solid characters with strong Trek values and characteristics (I guess the jury is still kind of out on Mariner lol). So another sign they know the type of characters fans really like and we’ll probably get some good ones.
The irony about Discovery IMO is that most of the 32nd century characters have been great. Kovich, Vance, Book and Adira are all solid and interesting characters. Even Zora is great (but yeah a bit emotional like her human masters, but still cool ;)).
I actually do like a lot of the 32nd century characters as well. Vance and Kovich especially. I hope we see them on the new show at least.
Zora is interesting but it’s sad Cry Baby Burnham and the rest of the tear jerkers infected her with the weepy virus.
It’s funny Data spent decades wanting emotions. If he spent a year on that zany ship he would’ve been crying like nobodies business.
Oh I just thought of another possible idea. Maaaaybe the Voyager J will show up and the cadets might end up on that ship from time to time too. It’s a long shot but it would be cool to have two Voyagers on both PRO and SFA, just separated by about 800 years or so. ;D
Something to root for right?
Yeah bro I been wanting to see the Voyager J in action already, so that would be pretty cool if she was part of the show as well.
But knowing these people, we’ll probably get a Janeway descendant running the ship named Kathleen Janeway or something.
Maybe the 31st century Doctor will be there too? 😁
I love Tawny Newsom, but not enough for me to have any interest whatsoever in this show. Her involvement is the only piece of information that has not been a turn off.
Contrastingly, I have to say for the me the overall concept and what we are learning gives me a bit of a woody.
I’ll watch this because I watch all of the shows, but Tilly is one of the most annoying and poorly acted characters of any Star Trek show to date. So I can’t see how a show written around her could possibly be good. It would be like doing a show about Pulaski or Grey or Mayweather or Ezri.
I don’t find Tilly intrinsically annoying because sometimes she is completely charismatic, but that episode with the crashed cadets was weak. I hope it has nothing to do with the future of this show.
Is Tilly really any more annoying than every other character on Disco? I can’t stand the writing on that or SNW, or Picard S1 and 2 – every one of them sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me.
For that matter, do we actually know for sure Tilly will be in it (or even that it’s set in that time frame)? I know from the wording of the official announcement, it certainly sounds like it’ll probably be in the far-future era in which Discovery takes place from Season 3 onward, and it stands to reason that if it picks up in that time frame it’ll have Tilly, and I myself fully expect that, but I don’t think it’s actually been officially confirmed.
Personally, I like Tilly just fine, but I get that not everyone does.
She’s just fine. And it’s so preciously hilarious to see some of the same fans who drool over the middle-school BS humor on LDS act so anal-retentive about Tilly’s brand of silliness,
LOL, but we gotta sort of admire that level of anosognosia-like, self-induced irony. :-))
I’m surprised you didn’t pull your favourite “hypocrite” card here… but maybe you did. I’m far too lazy to look up “anosognosia”, a word I would never use anyway…
Tilly’s annoying traits have nothing to do with LDS humour. What makes her annoying and what makes LDS humorous are two, completely unrelated things.
I mean, you can be annoying as hell, but rarely funny (yah that was a little too much, but I just had to put it in. It just fell into place so nicely).
Seldom has so little been said with so many words.
Deflection is an often used ploy when someone can’t admit his arguments are vacuous.
Your response here itself just proved that — you somehow used the definition of “deflection” to deflect. That’s effing genius dude! We’ll done!
There’s a major difference between how Lower Decks’ approaches humor and how Tilly is written. It’s not even remotely the same thing.
Nah, she behaves immaturely, has self confidence issues, is overly emotional, and has the “look at me” thing going on. She’s not that different from Mariner, the only difference being that she isn’t constantly insubordinate to superiors.
So basically you don’t like anything unless it’s basic TNG LOL!
Albatrossity never implied or said that. He only said he’s not a big fan of the modern live action shows. How do you jump to the conclusion he’s a TNG fanboy just because he doesn’t like DIS, PIC or SNW?? FYI a lot of people are not fans of the modern shows (for the record, I am of most of them, especially SNW) and usually have to do more than being a fan of one show.
Silly Tilly is such an embarrassment it would be a huge eye roll they made her the star.
And having someone from 900 years in the past teaching students is about as nonsensical as having 300 year old Khan building advanced spaceships in Star Trek Into Dreariness. Unless she’s teaching a 23rd century history class, it’s pretty ridiculous. 🙄
LOL true….but welcome to Discovery. ;D
Yeah… indeed.
But that’s to be blamed on DISCOVERY as a whole, not on TIlly or Mary Wiseman.
Uh of course. Obviously I’m talking about the show and the clowns who make it. I’m not blaming it on the actress and has never blamed anything on her. She’s doing what she was hired to do. She doesn’t control the direction of the character or the show.
Clowns… yes I like that!
Actually it’s not even mine, someone else called them clowns on another site but it really fits, doesn’t it! 🤡
Well I agree with everything you say, except the Silly Tilly part. I do like her. Yes she can be annoying but she’s the kind of person you could trust. She has a good soul. This is so rare these days it seems, and I find that endearing…
Not only that, but the demeaning name calling of Star Trek characters (e.g. “Adolf,” “Silly Tilly,” “Crying Michael,” etc) by a few fans says more to be about those fans’ inadequacies as human being than the Inadequacies of the characters/actors they are trying to tear down.
If I remember you used a few choice words when describing LDS or its showrunners… And I’m sure I did describing Discovery. So what?
If that’s the worst things people call characters they don’t like here, they obviously never spend any time on YouTube lol.
Well when you have to complain about something, you just grab anything and go with it. It doesn’t need to make sense apparently… But maybe “Silly” is just too harsh for the ones with thin skin (very thin skin).
I have a feeling Tilly was called much worse in high school.
Silvereyes
November 23, 2023 5:09 am
“Well I agree with everything you say, except the Silly Tilly part.”
Whoops! ;-) I will refrain from using my “favorite word” that beings with H though. :-)
How you could use your favourite word in that context just proves my conviction that you don’t know what it means. You’ll probably look up one of my past posts and take it out of context just to demonstrate your flawed reasoning, since you just can’t deal with being wrong or having someone disagreeing with you.
I would love to have a battle of wits with you, but I see you are unarmed – from my favourite coffee mug, that my wife gave to me…
Not a bad reply at all given your own words put you up Shit Creek without a paddle! I like the effort!
It’s called self deprecating humour. I see you didn’t get the subtleties of it.
Riiiiiight! :-)
Name calling the characters/actors is lazy and reeks of middle school immature behavior. But I’m not saying people can’t do that. I’m just saying it comes across as bush league, punk-like behavior.
And if I specifically did that – and I don’t think I did – I would accept the same criticism.
I will definitely say if nothing else Tilly is a sweet person who cares about everyone so I agree with that.
In some ways I should like her more because that’s why I love Tendi so much. But Tendi doesn’t annoy me at all. Just the opposite I’m always excited to see her. I love her energy and sweetness and she’s a trained assassin. But with Tilly it feels too forced at times if that makes sense? Definitely not a trained assassin though lol.
IDK
Yes those are good points. I love Tendi too. Plus she’s got great hips, but let’s not get weird here… the first time I saw Tilly I was properly annoyed. Couldn’t stand her, but in time her other qualities made up for it. This being said she’s not in my top favourite Trek characters (DSC’s amateur writing is the reason for that) but I still like her.
That’s all fair. Tilly is certainly not the worst character in Star Trek but one of the more divisive ones. But people like her including my girlfriend whose seen only a few episodes of Discovery but think she has ‘spunk’. Not anywhere close to her favorite characters like Neelix but think she’s fine.
Yeah we apparently don’t agree on much though, especially when it comes to Star Trek. 😂
But she absolutely loves Tendi too. Who doesn’t?
Ironically, during the disastrously sub-par first season of Discovery, Tilly was one of the characters I really liked. I feel for the actor Mary Wiseman – the writers and show runners really went off the rails with, IMHO, horrible writing for her character. Regrettably, as one who started off with so much potential, the Tilly character simply became unwatchable over the last three seasons.
I agree with this. I never been a big Tilly fan but I have never hated her as much as I do Neelix but she’s almost as annoying as he is.
The main problem with Tilly is I can’t take her seriously as a Starfleet officer. I’m not even sure how long she would last on the Cerritos?
The first season it worked a bit more because she was still a cadet. And that was her first assignment. But then they doubled down on the cringy ‘quirkiness’ and I just wish they make it stop now.
And she wanted to be a Captain lol. Would anyone take her seriously as one? The same person who hid behind a bar in an episode while Georgiou and Saru fought off some thugs? Maybe she can’t kill everyone with just one hand like Tendi probably could, but she’s still a Starfleet, you have to be able to defend yourself.
And it was that same season they made her a first officer and we see how well that idea went. 😂🙄
That’s why both the character and the show or so bad. Just so many weird unexplainable choices on that show over and over again.
It would be like doing a show about Pulaski or Grey or Mayweather or Ezri.
Although I disagree with you, this comment is freaking hilarious. Well done!
PS: Can you imagine a show with both Grey and Pulaski as the co-leads? LOL
I think I’d curl up in the corner and weep, rocking back and forth.
I’m not much of a Tilly fan either, she always came off more annoying to me too. But you know I’m an optimist and if she is part of the new show they may make some changes where she comes off a bit more mature and a leader. She’s always been super smart (but I guess everyone is in Starfleet) but still comes off like a teenager at times. But if I’m being fair so does Mariner at times, but I like Mariner lol.
I respect what you’re saying and hope you’re right. But one thing that’s going to be a hard sell for me is that a 23rd-century person is somehow qualified to instruct 32nd-century cadets. It’s ludicrous. Imaging a person from the 12th century showing up today–and being made a Harvard professor.
Sigh, looks like the ‘spam’ issues is back.
Are we even sure that Tilly will be the lead? I haven’t seen anything to that fact yet.
Sure, if you cherry pick those two points in time you’re correct. However, if you were to pick AD 300 and AD 1100, a professor from Rome could easily outperform a professor in England or France at around the time of the Norman conquest. Similarly, if you pick 1400 BC (height of the Egyptian empire) and 600 BC (just before the rise of the Greek civilization), you have a similar comparison.
So if you run this comparison you wanna make across history there’s no definite conclusion you can make to support what you’re saying here. In fact my Roman example may be a better fit given the Federation pretty much fell like the Roman empire (which continued in a diminished fashion as the eastern Roman empire – similar to the reduce geography of the federation), with technology and society stagnating to some extent.
But no, you’re completely right. I even agreed with another poster who brought it up. For some reason I never even thought about it until now lol. And if she is part of the new show, it will have to be addressed for sure. And maybe it will be part of the show itself and that she will have to prove herself to both skeptical colleagues and students that someone who is 900 years behind the times is qualified to teach at one of the most prestigious and highly educated institutions in the galaxy.. I always thought of Starfleet Academy as a mix of an Ivy League school and a military academy. You have to be the best of the best to be a student there, so naturally even more so as a teacher. And frankly I don’t know if I buy Tilly would be qualified to teach at the Academy in the 23rd century much less in the 32nd century. So there are definitely problems there.
But knowing DIS (or its makers) they will probably use the Burn as an excuse and that Starfleet is just short on personnel and will need all the able bodies it can get to prepare the next generation of Starfleet officers to go into the unknown. That’s my guess anyway.
Still totally ridiculous but it’s not the first time we seen ridiculous situations like this on this show, ie, Kelvin Kirk, Seven and Burnham all being made captains although Kirk was still just in the Academy and Seven wasn’t even in Starfleet at all. And Burnham was a freaking mutineer lol. But this is how modern Trek rolls I guess.
For the record, I actually wrote this post a day ago but it was marked ‘spam’ and never showed up. I’m just mentioning this partly out of sheer frustration but if that post ever shows up again.
Well, it depends on what she will be instructing cadets. I agree that it would be a stretch to make her a Starfleet Engineering professor or teach 32nd-century interplanetary politics.
But not every planet Starfleet is going to visit (or maybe get stranded on) will be at the same technological level as the Federation. So having someone with a lower-tech background can have merits.
It’s been a long time since I watched season 4 of Discovery but I think they also mentioned that Starfleet Academy was interested in her for her soft skills, i.e. bringing back that spirit of cooperation and exploration that seems to have been lost a bit after the Burn.
I actually quite like Tilly (moreso in the first two seasons, but that’s basically true of most anything about Discovery). Mary Wiseman infuses dramatic performances with a comedic undertone in a way that seems natural, something very few actors can do. (Alan Alda comes to mind as another, as Robin Williams’ performance in DEAD POETS SOCIETY.)
Whether the character could carry an entire series as lead is another question.
I do like Tilly. I think she embodies the nerdy, awkward and introverted side of the caricature representation of the typical Trek fan, and so she’s relatable. She definitely can be annoying but she has a good heart, and this is something I like to see especially nowadays.
This being said, I completely agree with your assessment of Grey, Mayweather and Ezri. Less so for Pulaski.
Hey, I liked Mayweather – he just got absolutely nothing to do. I’d also pay for Paramount+ just to watch a Pulaski show, if it were good.
I used to absolutely hate Pulaski but I did a grand rewatch of the entire franchise back in 2021 obviously including TNG and it was probably the first time in 20 years I watched so much of the season 2 episodes again and I really came to like and respect the character. You saw her evolving throughout the season and became much more likable by the end and a part of the crew. Now, I will still take Beverly a hundred times over her but I wouldn’t have had an issue if we saw her again and I would even be up for a Pulaski show too.
I completely agree. I can see how some people don’t care for her much: On top of replacing a well-liked character, she didn’t have the best first impression. But even over the course of just one season, we started to see her evolve. She started to view Data as more of a person and a friend, and she had her moments with some others as well (like Worf). I’m glad we got Crusher back, but if she had stayed, I could see her adding a fair bit to the show and possibly winning over more of the haters.
I do wish that we had seen Pulaski appear in late TNG again, in the way that Jennifer Lien came back for a single episode of late VOY.
Indeed, as excellent as Caroline Kava’s guest appearance in “Ethics” was, I always wonder what might have been had her character been re-tooled as Pulaski.
Just don’t suck like Discovery, that’s all I’m asking. My expectations are super low, must be honest I kinda have zero interest in a Academy show to begin with.
I’m hoping if nothing else this will be a better show than Discovery. And Michelle Paradise is not working on it, one of the worst Star Trek show runners in history IMO, so that’s a start at least.
Wow, that’s great news if Paradise is not working on it. We dodged a bullet there for sure. She was totally clueless about Trek I agree.
Yeah sooo great! Her name is not associated anywhere with this show, at least not yet. She has made Discovery almost unwatchable and into a tedious melodramatic bore.
Paradise Lost
😂
Oh yeah. If this is anything like DSC I’ll be abandoning it for sure, but will certainly give it an open-minded try.
Fingers crossed on that Danpaine, fingers crossed! ;)
Now I’m hoping the last season will go out with a bang. I have my hopes up but with Michelle Paradise still in charge I have very little faith of the heart it won’t be any better than the last two dreadful seasons.
I’m super happy Tawney Newsome is part of the writers room but that’s as far as my excitement goes so far.
I still see this as being bad as Discovery but maybe I will be surprised.
An Academy show just doesn’t excite me at all. Maybe a little more of it took place in the 25th century but still not that interested.
I’m keeping an open mind. I was not at all excited for Lower Decks or Prodigy, and I love them both. My only concern about an Academy show is that it’s going to end up being a teen-soap CW-style drama. That does not interest me. Young cadets experiencing failures and successes, tested at every level, being molded into Starfleet officers – that interests me, especially if they have great Academy instructors.
If its like that episode of the next generation with Wesly Crusher and the other students covering up their involvement in another students death it could be good. However I really doubt we are going to get that. I will give it a chance, but am not expecting much.
There are a lot of great possibilities with this concept, so I want to be optimistic. As I said, I don’t want to see a CW-style soap, but the more I think about it, I don’t think that’s what it’s going to be.
I am too. You know me I say how I feel but it doesn’t mean my mind is set. And just like you I was ready to hate LDS and indifferent to Prodigy because I never really cared about kid or animated shows. But they ended up being some of the best Trek since Voyager ended.
Same time I knew I was going to love Picard…and yeah.
I’m hoping it won’t just be teen drama in space. Don’t really care it’s in the 32nd century but not against it either.
Canon cops! Lol where were the canon cops for Discovery seasons 1&2 and SNW?
I think they are just saying that. The actors or showrunners say smtg like that every year. Looking at the results the team meeting regarding this must look like: “Hey, fans are disturbed by… (fill in a canon error of a random episode). We need a Canon cop. Who wants to do that? No voluntary? OK, you… are the canon cop, now. Any comments about this script? No, OK so we’ll proceed as always and don’t give a cra*”
Imagine this show being set just after the Dominion War..
I’d rather not….
Why not Phil. Remember young minds, fresh ideas right?
If they *have* to do this show, that would be an interesting setting; it might allow some exploration of the culture clash between people who joined Starfleet to go exploring versus those who joined because they were gung-ho for a fight. (Whether an Academy show is the best place to do this is another question, and I’ve zero confidence that the current producers could pull this off in any event.)
That would’ve been another interesting setting too. And I think most fans would certainly prefer that period vs the 32nd century one, but I still think the latter opens up to wider story potentials.
For a show billed like this, I totally agree it belongs in the far, far future. Then they can basically go anywhere and do anything they want, hopefully with some original and compelling storylines.
Exactly. Even though I understand why everyone is not thrilled with the time period, it really does have the best potential for a show like this. It’s all completely wide open.
Watch them surprise us and this morph into Legacy. There is history of the Enterprise being assigned to the Academy.
It’s pretty crazy that anyone feels they have to say this. I still don’t buy it. You know the easiest way to not have to worry about canon? Tell new stories with new characters, species and places. Novel idea.
But why tell a Star Trek story at all if you aren’t interested in canon? Even if you have a completely new setting (time- or spacewise) you still have to confirm to the basics about the Federation, Starfleet, species, technologies, etc. Canon isn’t just bits like the Tomed Incident and resulting treaty of 2311 – it’s all the details of the whole universe that help make it coherent and more meaningful. Canon shouldn’t be something to avoid.
I thought Disco going to the 32nd Century was supposed to free them from canon. Why would canon police be necessary?
For stuff from the past. They can’t say things like Picard was the Captain of the USS Kirk, etc.
I never got why they just did not say it was set in an alternate universe or something. That way you have a logical reason for cannon not matching up.
Canon “gatekeepers” deemed canon dead a long time ago, there’s nothing to protect anymore as far as they are concerned
At 57, I don’t watch YA shows at all, basically. But since it’s Trek, I’ll give it my usual first-three-episode try out of good faith. And I didn’t think PRO would interest me at all when it was announced, but it turned out to be perhaps my favorite Secret Hideout production thus far. So, I’ll give this a chance.
DIS said the same thing about having canon cops in the room so this doesn’t really excite me
I’m just not looking forward to them writing the next 1000 years of Trek history like DIS S3/4 did which is extremely limiting to current and future shows, if DIS/Academy says XYZ happened in “the past” then that’s it, nobody is allowed to do anything different
This will flop, YA garbage always revolves around budding romances and the friction it brings, plus completely useless drama.
Star trek shines when it’s characters are able to communicate properly with each other, YA and new age trek shows that this is something that they just don’t understand.
Disco is a franchise write-off just like the new star wars are. Picard ONLY saved face because it was so bad they had no choice but to make the final season about the tng crew.
If this show is just teenage angst it’s going to be a bloodbath.
Honestly, I’m really looking forward to this. I’ve enjoyed the streaming shows overall (with Picard being my least favorite, but I still enjoyed aspects of that even before season 3), and I’m very open to different approaches to their stories. And Star Fleet Academy seems like it has a lot of potential to both set itself apart, and keep a fair amount of what I enjoy about Star Trek.
And while I don’t think it should be a requirement for Star Trek writing rooms, I take great comfort in hearing about the excited Trek talks among the writers. My favorite of the new shows are Prodigy and Lower Decks, both of which have very knowledgeable, nerdy Trek fan in the room and you can really feel that in the writing, so hopefully it works as well here.
Really wising for the best for her as well, knowing how much both Star Trek and this opportunity means to her.
I honestly feel out of all the new shows the animated shows have actually carried both the spirit and canon the best. I really do like SNW and it also feels very much like TOS and the Berman era of Star Trek. It seems to get a knock from some people (including me) because of its deep canon issues or that the crew doesn’t always come off professional enough, especially being the flagship of the fleet. Oddly enough Picard season 3 is the complete opposite and why others (like me again) love it. It sticks to canon in a major way but it seems to get a knock for feeling a bit too dark (literally and figuratively lol) and short cutted a lot of its story.
But the animated shows are both very optimistic and keeps to the values of what Star Trek is IMO.
I would love it if SFA really captures the spirit of old Trek but pushing forward in a major way.
“… keeping the Star Trek of it feeling really Star Trek-y.“ “THE STAR TREK OF IT“ says it all for me. So I‘m looking forward to see how many PARTS of it will be Star Trek, beyond the name in the title.
I will check it out,but star trek really needs some one else in charge of it imo. As a fan who has been around since the original series it feels like I am watching big budget fan fiction instead of star trek.
A very astute comment.
I suspect some of this is because the current writers’ room has no experience with military service.
Errr… I mean… I hope this show turns out OK. “Starfleet Academy” just feels like the concept that nobody asked for except studio executives who wanted a show “that appeals to young people, because young people will only watch shows about young people!”
Anyone else get the feeling this show is going to be TREK’s version of Filmation’s “Space Academy” from the 1970’s (Which ironically was a rejected idea for an Animated TREK Series) and/or Tom Corbett : Space Cadet From the 1950’s?
Is this gonna be in the disco time period?
Just do episodes like “First Duty” from TNG.
Of course when she mentions “this era” I truly hope they aren’t referring to the ultra far future Star Trek Discovery was in. But it probably does.
Regardless, at this point with Secret Hideout I’m beyond caring about canon. I just want to see something that is better than mediocre. I know, I know. But hope springs eternal.
I think everyone assumes it would be in the 32nd century at this point. I’m surprised your’re surprised about it now.
Not sure why the 32nd century is assumed. There has been nothing coming from Secret Hideout about that. As far as I know. But then, I’m not actively searching.
From my perspective the chances of the show reaching even mediocre level will be the lowest if that is the chosen era.
As long as they are wise enough not to set up a nonsense story group that advises on canon and supposedly protects it and does nothing like at Lucasfilm for Star Wars.
I’d wager the only “canon” they will be concerned with is that which has been made within their “Disco-verse”.
No.
Just no.
It’s a waist of space and time.
She seems like an absolute sweetheart! But I gotta admit, if the rumors are true that this is a 32nd century show, then my hopes are not high. I HATE what Discovery did to the Federation in the future. Totally the opposite of Daniel’s in ENT.