Anthony and Laurie happily welcome Gates McFadden back to All Access Star Trek to talk about season 3 of her podcast, InvestiGates. She talks about her guests, the challenges of interviewing people you already know well, having to listen to yourself, the dangers of over-articulating when Brent Spiner is your guest, her thoughts on the chances of a Legacy series happening, and more. Happy holidays, and see you in 2025!
Links:
All Access interviews with Jonathan Frakes, Tom Polce & Kay Hanley, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, and Laurence Luckinbill
Gates McFadden InvestiGates podcast
Gates McFadden’s commercial for Sara Lee croissants [YouTube]
RSC vocal coach Cicely Berry Shakespeare Masterclass [YouTube]
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Great interview with Gates. I can listen to her talk all day, she is just so fascinating. Also, thank you for bringing up her and Wil’s appearance together in Prodigy S2. That was very nice moment for both of those characters. I just recently re-watched Prodigy, and it is so good. If you do end up doing a “Best of 2024” podcast, I do hope you send some love to Prodigy S2, how it broke the expectations of a “Kid’s show”, and for giving Robert Beltran some great stuff to work with, especially “The Last Flight of the Protostar” part 1. Thanks for bringing us these podcasts. Here’s to a great 2025!
We have loads of love for Prodigy season 2! Fear not.
Thanks for this interview! Such an enjoyable conversation…
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks!
I cant help feeling a little bit dissapointed that the podcasts on Trek are better than the actual Trek content we are getting these days……….
I can’t help feeling disappointed that you’ve popped up again to trot out the same old tired complaints that you have already been told to stop repeating by moderators.
Laurie and Anthony, I just had to pop on here to express my joy in having become a new listener to your podcast this past year! I’ve enjoyed this year’s episodes so much that I’ve gone back to listen to older episodes. Thanks for your continued work and to echo sentiments from another commenter, I can’t wait for more Prodigy content because S2 was amazing!
Thank you so much! This makes me so happy!
Great interview. I hadn’t heard her talk much before about coming back to TNG. I’d have liked to have heard more about how she was misled and how the character had changed.
As a viewer, Crusher definitely seemed like a different (and muted) character after she came back.
Muted? My good friend, have you not seen her love scene with that candle? :P
Beverly Crusher, as a character, certainly seemed “muted” when she returned in S3. Her character development from S1 seemed to be forgotten. I realize they had to rewrite some scripts that had the name Pulaski where they subbed in Crusher, but it took most of S3 for the writers to get that character back on track. Also, the “candle” scene was S7.
And this is why I shouldn’t bother with humor at TrekMovie — even with a :P emoji, no one seems to get it.
nevermind.
Gates’ podcast is great. She’s a natural as an interviewer.
I see she’s just as disappointed at Lower Decks’ cancellation as I am.
Yep Gates is one of us! 🙂
Justice for gates after being sidelined in the TNG movi6
Great interview! Sadly I have not listened to her podcasts yet, but I plan to get around to it. But everyone seems to like her interview style and all the people she’s brought on.
I kind of wish you guys went into the issue Nana Visitor went into on her podcast. Very curious now but gives me more motivation to watch it.
Also a little disappointing she thinks Legacy won’t happen now. Obviously that’s probably the the most reasonable conclusion to have…but no one has ever accused me of being reasonable! 😉
On a side note I completely forgot Jeri Taylor write Sub Rosa. She was a great writer and producer but everyone has their stumbles. I love the LDS Easter eggs though lol.
But having her was a great way to end the year! Looking forward to next year!
Nana was assaulted. It’s a horrifying and emotional story and she was very honest about it on Gates’ podcast as well as in her book. You should be prepared before you read or listen (and there’s a warning on the podcast).
And yes, Sub Rosa was Jeri Taylor’s idea but Brannon Braga wrote the episode. It’s nutty.
Go listen to Gates’ podcast!
Wow I did not know that at all and I been listening to interviews she’s given for 20 years now. I will definitely look that one up now and have a watch. Thanks.
That’s funny Brannon Braga wrote it because IIRC Threshold was also Taylor’s idea that Braga ended up writing lol.
I always wonder what is the mood like between writers in the office the day after a bad episode airs and gets slammed as much as those two did?
Oh I have a suggestion for a new feature of the podcast. I have made about a dozen suggestions over the past 10+ years I been here to add features to the board that Anthony has totally ignored nor ever acknowledged but here is one more!
I was thinking maybe at the end of the podcast you can take a few board questions from members here. Questions we can ask you guys every week about your thoughts on Star Trek of course or anything related. Mosts podcasts I listen to usually have some fam questions. Maybe just 2 or 3 a week.
Just throwing it out there. I already have a dozen questions lined up! I guess I just killed that idea.
Give us your questions! I’m intrigued.
What do you and Tony think that this Star Trek “origins” movie is about, and do you think that it will ever be made?
OK great! 😀
But I will only ask three.
The first one is for you but I found just several months ago you were a producer on After Trek and I’m sure you have talked about this plenty in the past but how did you get involved and what was that experience like working on it? And were you surprised it got canceled after one season? Was there any talk of ways to improve it in terms of views?
This one is for Anthony but what ever happened with his niece and nephew watching Prodigy? In the first season I used to love reading his reviews and the thoughts of kids that were both the target age and fairly new to Star Trek. Since that was literally who the show was trying to appeal to it was great for people who don’t have children. But then it just stopped, especially season 2. Did they stop watching it? What were their overall thoughts? But if they did stop watching I guess that’s a sign how hard it is to retain this specific group and the show had the troubleit did.
Last one is for both of you and you probably have said this in the past but if Paramount asked you to give ideas to revitalize the movies and AWAY from the Kelvin characters, what ideas would you have? It’s pretty obvious Paramount hasn’t found any they are super confident in.
Anyway I just think it would be a cool segment from time to time and a way to connect with the members more.
These are great, fun questions. We were talking about this idea and maybe we’ll do an episode that’s ALL listener questions. We could also do it regularly, as you suggest. More discussions to come! Thanks for the idea.
Happy New Year Laurie!
And thank you! I think it will be fun to do at least from time to time (and you know you will get questions from me lol). I know this is a small board so every week may not be ideal but even just an episode that is all Q and A would be great too and fill in when there just isn’t a lot of news or shows on.
Anyway, if you guys decide to do it, I hope some of those questions get answered.
Thank you for this interview. I love the InvestiGates podcast.