461 – Jonathan Del Arco & Strange New Worlds | Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast

This week on Priority One — We ‘Trek Out’ the announcement of Star Trek: “Strange New Worlds” and Akiva Goldsman already has some comments; we learn how filming could restart during the pandemic, and Sir Patrick shares some thoughts on Picard! In Star Trek Gaming, Star Trek Online’s Mudd’s Market floods us with some insanely expensive choices…. And our featured presentation is a sit down with Star Trek’s Jonathan Del Arco!

Of course, as always, before we wrap up the show, we’ll open hailing frequencies for your incoming messages

Let us know on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or by visiting our website!

This Weeks Community Questions Are:

CQ: Would you like to see Jeffery Combs play Dr. Boyce? Why or why not?

AND

CQ: Are you interested in the new Mudd’s Market bundle? What ships would you choose?

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan

On Friday May 15th, ViacomCBS made the OFFICIAL announcement that Anson Mount’s Christopher Pike would be getting his own series. Along with a brief description of the upcoming show, titled “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”, we were treated to a video featuring the show’s three stars – the aforementioned Mount, Ethan Peck, and Rebecca Romijn. In the video, the trio thanked fans for their continued support, and Mount promised ”We’re going to get to work on a classic Star Trek show that deals with optimism and the future. And I guess there’s only one more thing to say – Hit It”

The series Executive Producers include Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Jenny Lumet, Henry Alonso Myers, Heather Kadin, and our very own Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth! The premiere’s story was hashed out by Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, and Jenny Lumet, and Goldsman gets the screenplay credit. Star Trek “Captain” Alex Kurtzman said in a release ”When we said we heard the fans’ outpouring of love for Pike, Number One and Spock when they boarded Star Trek: Discovery last season, we meant it. These iconic characters have a deep history in Star Trek canon, yet so much of their stories has yet to be told. With Akiva and Henry at the helm, the Enterprise, its crew and its fans are in for an extraordinary journey to new frontiers in the Star Trek universe.”

No release date was announced, but the project was given a “series order”, and it sounds like the premiere script is ready to go. WE’RE GETTING A PIKE SERIES!!!

Akiva Goldsman With Variety Discussing “Strange New Worlds”

Did you hear we’re getting a new Star Trek series? One of the architects of the upcoming “Strange New Worlds”, Akiva Goldsman, sat down with Variety to talk a bit more about the project.

Goldsman’s goal is to hew closer to The Original Series ”We’re going to try to harken back to some classical ‘Trek’ values, to be optimistic, and to be more episodic. Obviously, we will take advantage of the serialized nature of character and story building. But I think our plots will be more closed-ended than you’ve seen in either ‘Discovery’ or ‘Picard.”. Goldsman continued ”I imagine it to be closer to the original series than even ‘DS9,’. We can really tell closed-ended stories. We can find ourselves in episodes that are tonally of a piece.”

But Goldsman clarified that this won’t be EXACTLY like the episodic adventures of years past, telling Variety ”I think one thing that we always struggled with [as fans] was that Kirk is heartbroken at the loss of Edith Keeler in ‘The City on the Edge of Forever’ and has to be just fine the next week.  I think what we would want to do is keep the characters having moved through and recognizing the experiences they’ve had in previous episodes, but to be able to tell contained, episodic stories.”

Could Jeffery Combs Show Up in “Strange New Worlds”

Imagine – if you dare – not only getting “Strange New Worlds”, but also getting the incomparable Jeffrey Combs as part of the crew. Star Trek twitter presence “Andorian Soup” has dared to imagine just that.

On May 16th, Andorian Soup – whose avatar is Shran from Star Trek: Enterprise – posted a side-by-side photo of Jeffrey Combs and John Hoyt, the actor who played ship physician and Pike confidant Dr. Phillip Boyce in “The Cage”.

 The resemblance between the two actors is certainly undeniable. So what are the chances that the prolific actor could play the wise Doctor? According to Combs, not high. Replying to Andorian Soup’s Twitter post, Combs himself said ”Thank you. Nice thought, but the chasm between what fans want and what the studios want make the chances of it happening slim to none…. and Slim left town.”. That doesn’t mean the Star Trek veteran wouldn’t be interested. When asked if he’d be open to the possibility, Combs replied ”Of course. I love Star Trek. Star Trek is life.”

Patrick Stewart Teases Picard Season 2

Though we are obviously excited for the newly announced “Strange New Worlds”, there were other interesting Trek nuggets for our proverbial dipping that did not include Pike and the gang. This week, Sir Patrick Stewart sat down with Gold Derby to discuss his experience with HIS Trek offering, Star Trek: Picard.

Sir Patrick reiterated his initial hesitation for playing the legendary Captain again, but revealed that he thought season 1 may be his last time doing so. Stewart recalled reading the script for the series finale, saying ”the writers had been a little bit undercover about that aspect of how series one was going to end. I learned it from reading the script, and when I saw that Picard collapsed and died when he was on that alien planet, I thought, ‘Oh my lord, I’m being written out of the show?” Instead, Picard lives on with an “artificial life inside me, but not a subservient, cruel one like the Borg. Well, we shall see. We don’t know how Picard will with this new condition that has become part of his life.”

Stewart also teased what’s to come in Season 2, telling Gold Derby ”There are startling events predicted in Season 2. I’m so excited about them, because it is taking season one from where we were, we aren’t going to be covering the same ground. And it’s going to be, I think, extraordinary. I’m very excited about it.”

Star Trek Online and Gaming News

by Shane Hoover

Mudd Plays With Time Again… Again?

Well it’s a slow news week for Star Trek gaming, but there’s one very big talking point from Star Trek Online! In a STO News blog posted May 19th, Ambassador Kael announced the latest new offerings from Mudd’s Market. And, according to the blog itself, “it’s one of our craziest bundles ever!”

In the usual Mudd’s Market style, the bundle is listed with two “prices”.  There’s the so-called regular price, which is 29,500 Zen, or nearly $300 in cash. Then there’s the sale price, at which the bundle is available to players until 5/26, which is 14,750 Zen, or nearly $150 in cash. So what does that significant investment get you?

That’s where this bundle gets really interesting.  Because, unlike other Mudd’s Market offerings, this bundle is all about choices. You get to choose THREE of these six items:

• Amarie-class Heavy Escort [T6]
• Temporal Science Vessel [T6] – Account-wide reclaim of faction-appropriate ship.
• Temporal Destroyer [T6] – Account-wide reclaim of faction-appropriate ship.
• 2 Zen Store T6 ship 100% off coupons
• 10x Ultimate Tech Upgrades
• A Phoenix pack Epic prize token which will unlock a character-locked ship

So when you’ve purchased the bundle and claimed your three choices, any ships chosen will be forever reclaimable on all of your characters. You can also purchase the bundle as many times as you want. So, purchasing the bundle twice could get you all six choices. And subsequent purchases of the bundle after that would get you more T6 ship coupons, Ultimate Tech Upgrades, and Epic Phoenix prize tokens.  That is, you know, if you wanted to spend $450 or more on STO. 

STO’s Groupees Fundraiser

We’ve already covered Star Trek Online’s charity fundraiser for Pop Culture Hero Coalition and United Way Bay Area, but it’s worth mentioning two updates tweeted this week to the game’s Twitter account. First, they’ve restocked the $10 bundles, so if you missed out before, now’s your chance. Second, the tweet declared that the Groupees bundles have raised nearly $110,000 for the two charities. So, a big congratulations to Star Trek Online, and to its players, for their efforts!

Tagged as: ViacomCBS, Armada, Del Arco, Roddenberry, Hugh, CBS, Event, Pike, Star Trek, Groupees, STO, Strange New Worlds, picard, stewart, Kurtzman.