[Interview begins at 25:07]
Anthony and Laurie start with the news that the Skydance/Paramount merger is moving forward. They share the sad news that Deep Space Nine‘s James Darren has died and talk about his eclectic career, then shift to discuss the plans for Star Trek Day this year, which are are all about charity campaigns. Production has begun on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, actor Sam Richardson drops a tidbit about his role on Section 31, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez namedrops Janeway (and gets thanked by Kate Mulgrew), Nicholas Meyer talks The Wrath of Khan ad Elias Toufexis talks L’ak on Star Trek: Discovery.
Then they get into this week’s interview, where writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe talks about his original pitch (at TNG) for DS9‘s “Past Tense,” the inspiration for the Bell Riots and the society they took place in, the shot they couldn’t get, the current Star Trek shows, and more. They wrap up with Gene Roddenberry cosplaying in 1966 and memories of Leonard Nimoy from Tom Selleck and Ted Danson.
Links:
Edgar Bronfman Drops 11th-Hour Bid For Paramount; Skydance Merger Set To Complete In Early 2025
‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ Actor James Darren Has Passed Away
Paramount Invites Fans To ‘Take The Chair’ And Join Charity Campaign Celebrating Star Trek Day 2024
Star Trek Day promo running on Paramount plus and YouTube
Production Begins For ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’
Sam Richardson Drops Tidbit About His ‘Star Trek: Section 31’ Character
See Things From The Tribbles Point Of View In Preview Of IDW’s Special ‘Star Trek #500’ Anthology
Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery – The Final Season’ On Blu-ray Comes To A Satisfying Conclusion
‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ Getting A 45th Anniversary Steelbook 4K Blu-ray Release
Avery Brooks’ flying car commercial
This 1995 ‘Star Trek’ episode predicted a 2024 San Francisco crisis with uncanny accuracy [SF Chronicle]
Robert Hewitt Wolfe’s donation suggestions tweet
Bits:
Anthony: Gene Roddenberry wore a Romulan costume to a costume ball at a sci-fi convention in September 1966
Laurie: Ted Danson and Tom Selleck talking about Leonard Nimoy on Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast
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I have only one question for Robert Hewitt Wolfe: When does he resume writing or start producing a Star Trek show again? I am starting a GoFundMe right now if it’s just a question of money.
“That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.”
I know, unfortunately. He probably has no incentive to go back. And the current leadership probably doesn’t even want anyone from the old brass. I am surprised they got Johnathan Frakes back. He is not the one to criticize anyone, but I remember he made some remarks about the Discovery show runners (first or second season) lamenting that they thought they know everything better.
The current leadership does not seem to want anyone of the original authors (from the Bermann-Bragga era) back.
They discarded the fans asking for “Star Trek: Legacy” (suddenly above Kurtzman’s paygrade though they were able to listen to the fans to start with ST:SNW) by T. Matalas, now Matalas is going to work in MCU.
This is a Star Trek of a new era, sadly, less to my taste.
Yes, “Star Trek” [brand] can be [extended – at least by its name/title – to] anything.
But if “Science-Fiction” becomes rather a “(Ridicule) Fantasy-Fiction” disregarding or heavily-bending the canon (because they are supposed to be in the prime-universe with established canon, hence it should be treated with respect, right?), is it still “Star Trek”?
“Fantasy-Fiction” examples:
1) Extremely large interior of Enterprise in ST:Shorts episode where Spock and Una got stuck in the turbolift (the episode was a nice character piece but the interior totally broke my suspension of disbelief).
2) Rather recent preview of ST:SNW – transformation to Vulcans (incl. a sudden off-screen hairstyle change?) affecting their behavior towards seemingly more logical. This is really strange since Vulcans are trained to master their emotions, e.g. ST:VOY Tuvok recalling his childhood in one of the episodes – it required a training to make him master his emotions.
Or perhaps, they were just mocking Spock and I just did not get it from the preview.
3) ST:PIC, the magic piece of technology the heroes were given on Nepenthe, never to be heard of again [or did I miss it?] because it was just a plot-device to allow writers to make their heroes depart by magically repairing the damaged ship.
Effectively basing the portrayal of the new Spock [E. Peck] on Sheldon Cooper… oh my.
If you disliked that, blame VOY; it was a piece of technology acquired by the Borg from a Delta quadrant species.
The whole business of tptb steering well clear of proven and exemplary trek writers reminds me of the old adage about a certain group of desert dweller males who sought companionship only with virgins.. because this group of guys dreaded being compared and judged above all else.
I am not against steering from proven and exemplary trek writers provided that the new ones have enough understanding [of the “landscape”, its history and its internal (though still fictional) rules] and respect for the intellectual property [Star Trek] they work with. Many things that I have seen in post-Enterprise era indicate that at least one of the two is very often missing, IMHO.
Yes would love for an amazing talent like Robert Hewitt Wolfe to be back on this show again. Unfortunately I think his talents would be wasted since so much of NuTrek doesn’t feel anywhere near the level of the type of stories this franchise was writing 30 years ago.
I’m sure he can still write great stories but he would probably have to run the show itself like Matalas ultimately did. That’s probably the only way we would get a quality show. I don’t trust anyone who made SNW, Picard and definitely not Discovery.
Now it’s constant slapstick comedy, generic villains, treating the canon as rubbage, endless melodrama or badly written plots with everyone feeling like they are still in university.
Are you guys getting mixed between the trajector tech on the Borg ship (first seen in “Prime Factors””) and that magic wand repair device they used on La Sirena as a Deus Ex Machina?
The most unrealistic thing about Star Trek is the idea that San Fransisco would even allow entire districts of low-income housing.
The Tenderloin? The on-ramps to 101?
But is this now retconned like the Kahn rise to power in SNW? This is the ridiculousness of trying to tie near 60 years of show lore into the actual real world.🤦♂️
Actually I don’t think it’s reconned in the new shows because we saw a sanctuary district in Picard season 2 a few weeks before the Bell riots were supposed to happen IIRC when that crew time traveled to 2024. Also remember in that same season, Dr. Soong was shown in the last episode having a folder dealing with the Khan program. I think that’s suppose to directly tie in to what we saw with baby Khan showing up in SNW because those episodes are only a year or two apart IIRC and Soong is somehow tied to the eugenics project in the 2020s. And since Akiva Goldsman was the show runners on both shows, it looks like both the new Khan timeline and the Bell Riots just happened together.
And finally, Mariner references the Bell Riots to Boimler when they traveled back in time to the 23rd century on the Enterprise and that’s after when La’an and Kirk time traveled back to Earth; so it’s very much still part of the new timeline. But yeah a lot of time traveling going on lol.
Reference was made to deep sea mining being mentioned in “Past Tense” as a prediction that hasn’t happened.
Deep sea mining is about to become a real thing, and marine biologists and conservationists are concerned about it.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/09/massive-underwater-eruption-may-preview-deep-sea-mining-destruction/
I tear up every time i rewatch when Bill smitrovitch gets shot. My only complaint is that the interiors don’t look rundown enough
Great interview with Wolfe!
I actually remember when DS9 was airing and there were rumors of the upcoming season of an episode that involved Sisko being homeless in Earth’s past. It’s easily one of my favorite Star Trek episodes today and a reason I love the time travel stories so much. I was hoping Picard season 2 had a bigger tie with this episode since that show literally traveled to 2024 as well but I digress. But I learned a great deal about this episode and now can’t wait when they discuss it on the Delta Flyers.
He also gave an interview with Trek culture about the episode this week too. That one was also good but this one did a deeper dive into the episode and more details on how it got made. But he made an interesting side note about DS9 in the other interview that although the show is much more popular today than when it aired, he said in terms of streaming views out of TNG, DS9 and VOY, DS9 is still the least watched out of the three; again according to him. He also suggested that’s why with modern Trek shows we are seeing much more TNG and VOY characters showing up because those shows still get watched more and it’s probably a business decision. And I also think TNG and VOY are much easier shows for new fans to watch as their first show being more episodic and another reason they get more views. DS9 is a show you probably have to know a bit more about the universe to care about it in the beginning. But since DS9 is my personal favorite, I want to see more of those characters show up in time obviously.
It also sounds like Lower Decks is his favorite new show; which makes me like him even more! :)
But great interview. And lastly you mentioned the new Star Trek day video they released on YouTube and that they didn’t include Prodigy again. Actually there is a scene of the show in the video this year. And it’s nice that they remember the Kelvin movies are actually a thing as well. I think last year was the first time those movies were including in these videos too,
Anyway great podcast!
Thanks so much! It means a lot to know you listened to and enjoyed the whole thing.
Yes, always. I love listening to them all. And thinking about Past Tense, it’s kind of crazy to know an episode like that happened in the show’s third season and the series wasn’t even halfway over yet. In fact it was really just getting started before the Dominion War really ramped things up. It just tells you the brilliance we were getting with this show and its stories so early on. I guess that’s why I love it so much.
I do like the modern Trek shows and defend them as much as I criticize them, but I do admit we don’t get many of these types of deep stories anymore; and certainly not at the frequency we got them in the TOS and Berman era of Star Trek.
Agreed. And I was also marvelling at how “Past Tense” was a third season episode. Very ambitious so early on, and it’s always been one of my favorites.
Although a long-time Trekkie, it took me a while to accept DS9. My thought was that Trek is “the voyages of the starship Enterprise” (which, contrary to some purists of 1987, allowed for TNG), and DS9 was not that. (Nor, ironically, was ST IV, except as a bridge between Enterprises, and of course that movie is my favorite and the first I saw and a big part of what got me into Trek.)
The first full episode I saw was Past Tense Part II. That hooked me. I watched every episode after that, and of course went back and watched all the previous ones, and DS9 remains my favorite series of all of Trek. I don’t think I’ve missed one Trek episode since then.
So, thanks.
I finally got to sit down and listen to this but great interview. Past Tense is the kind of story that showed why Trek is so good. I like most of the new shows but none of them have anything close to this kind of level of story telling. I still really miss Berman Trek. :(
Thanks for listening! Glad you liked the interview. This episode is a huge favorite of mine too.
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