466 – Stewart, Culpepper, and Quinto | Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast

This week on Episode 466 of Priority One — We ‘Trek Out’ Star Trek’s Emmy campaigning, more “Lower DeckS” news, and non-Simon Pegg movie news – sort of. In Star Trek gaming, Timelines releases it’s newest event, and fleet command takes to the air waves!

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

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This Weeks Community Question Is:

CQ:  If Star Trek’s Next Silver Screen Offering DOESN’T Feature The Kelvin-Crew, What Do You Want it to be About?

TREK IT OUT

by Jake Morgan

Sir Patrick Talks with Deadline

It’s campaign season again, but not Red Hats VS. Blue Waves or any other such nonsense. We’re talking about important stuff – campaigning for Entertainment industry awards. Okay, so campaigning for a trophy may NOT be as important as deciding who makes the policies that govern our lives, but it’s what we cover!

On Saturday June 20th, “Star Trek: Picard” Executive Producer and Star – Sir Patrick Stewart – sat down with Deadline’s Dominic Patten to discuss the series; and make a pitch for an Emmy on “Contender’s TV”.

Stewart, as has become custom, led with the tale of his initial rejection of a Picard revival. He did, however, refer to a project we often discuss on this program – Logan. I compared it to the last movie that Hugh Jackman and I did in the X-men franchise – Logan – which could not have been more different from every single moment in the films that have gone before. And I said,’if you can do something like that – not the same thing – you know -I don’t want to be driving around chanting nursery rhymes in a [EXPLETIVE] old wheel chair. But if you can find that transformation of the man and his spirit, then I’m up for it.

Stewart also talked about his excitement in reuniting with his former Next Gen co-stars before giving away a possible hint about season 2 It was a very desirable and a very emotional experience, to be reunited with Jonathan, with Marina Sirtis. And with Brent who, although he doesn’t appear that often, he has a very significant role in season one, and maybe he might again in season two. But I can say no more than that. Sorry to be so coy.

Hanelle Culpepper Talks with Variety

Patrick Stewart wasn’t alone on the campaign trail. This week, Star Trek director and trailblazer – Hannelle Culpepper – talked with Variety about directing Picard’s first three episodes.

Culpepper discussed her visual approach to the series, saying I wanted it to feel inspired by where Picard was on his emotional journey. He was living in a vineyard; he felt trapped. So I wanted to have a little bit more of a static frame, and then go handheld once his world is rocked [in the pilot]. We switch to handheld cameras pretty much as much as possible after that. It’s “Star Trek,” we have to get those big, cinematic shots with drones and cranes and stuff, but we always wanted to not forget that it’s really a character- driven series with Picard at the heart..

In regards to directing Sir Patrick Stewart, and the cohesion of the writers and actors, Culpepper said Because he was so involved with the writers, a lot of the things that he felt about his character were already incorporated into the script. So for me, it was just about creating the safe space where he could do the things he wanted to do. He was still collaborative with me. But ultimately, it was nice to be in a situation where the actor and the writers are all on the same page for who this character is.

“Lower Decks” Images, a Tease of Cameos

It seems the “Lower Decks”  hype train is leaving the station, which means the show can’t be far behind. This week, Entertainment Weekly discussed the animated Star Trek series with creator and showrunner Mike McMahon.

McMahon once again separated “Lower Decks” from his other hit cartoon comedy, “Rick and Morty”, telling EW ”The fun of Rick and Morty is that it breaks down sci-fi tropes and is told through Rick Sanchez, who has a very specific, chaotic, nihilistic lens,” he says. “Lower Decks treats mythological sci-fi things just as important as a regular Trek show, while finding new stories to tell — just from a different angle. It’s not disassembling mythological sci-fi things. It’s treating them as important for everybody on the starship as it would be in a regular star Trek show.”

McMahon confirmed the series takes place during “The Next Generation”’s  time period before teasing possible cameos, saying ”Next Gen is my favorite era. And as a huge Trek fan, I would definitely want to try to use some of them so that I could not only build out the world, but also work with some of my heroes. But I can’t get more specific than that. You’ll have to wait and see.”

Along with the story are a couple of new stills, one featuring a dirty and torn crew with TNG Type II Phasers pulled, and another with the Lower Decks gang enjoying – what looks to be – margaritas!

Zachary Quinto Done With Spock?

Now, let’s talk Star Trek movies for a second. Before you ask, this is NOT another interview with Simon Pegg, but don’t worry, he’s involved peripherally. 

This week, Kelvin-Spock actor Zachary Quinto was promoting the second season of his AMC series – NOS4A2 – with comicbook.com. The conversation turned to Star Trek, and Quinto was asked for his thoughts on – wait for it – SIMON PEGG’s comments about Star Trek being more suited for Television. Quinto responded ”It’s already thriving in the television format with Discovery and Picard and the spinoffs,” Quinto said. “I can’t even keep track of how many new Star Trek stories are being told since our last film in 2016. All I know is that we, all of us, had an incredible experience making those films. If there is an appetite for more of those stories with us in them, I’m sure that we would all be thrilled to come back and do one more or whatever, but I’m not really attached to it anymore.”

Quinto elaborated on his comment,saying ”I stepped away from any expectation or any real certainty that it’s ever going to happen again. I think that’s the only real way to move through the world, right? If it happens, that’d be great, but I’m not going to sit around waiting for it to happen.[…] I have lifelong friendships from those films and working relationships and a lot of respect and fond memories, so if that’s what it ends up being and I can look back on my life and say that’s what it was, then that’s incredible, and if we get to do more, that’s also incredible.”

Does this mean that the Noah Hawley project won’t feature the Kelvin-timeline crew? No, not definitively. But it certainly doesn’t instill confidence that it will, either!

Star Trek Gaming News

by Shane Hoover and Thomas Reynolds

Star Trek Timelines Event: “Against the House”

June continues to be a big month for Star Trek Timelines players, as the “Before & After”-inspired Mega-Event’s third installment runs from June 25th to June 29th. Kes’s voyage through her people’s past continues with “Against the House,” a Galaxy Event for the Federation and Terran Empire factions. This event’s Ranked Reward is the new 5-star Krenim Guest Chakotay, along with new 5-star Dr. Van Gogh, 4-star Karyn Archer (as seen in the Enterprise episode “E²”), and returning 4-star Krenim officer Obrist as Event Crew. As always, players will receive a high bonus for the Event Crew and the Mega-Event’s recurring Featured 5-star crew Suspira; small bonuses will apply for any variant of the Doctor (EMH) or crew with the Warp Theorist or Caregiver traits.

Star Trek Fleet Command Launches a Podcast

Star Trek Fleet Command has published the first episode of their own official podcast called “Commander’s Hub”. The inaugural episode features a wide ranging interview with game designer Keenser, covering such topics as:

• The impact of COVID-19 on the game’s development
• How they prioritize bug fixing
• Adding a “Black Market” mechanic to the game
• Targeting new content to both low and high level players
• PC game client possibilities
• Game server merge needs and plans
• The lifecycle for Borg Event content

Tagged as: Kelvin, Event, Lower Decks, Roddenberry, McMahon, CBS, BLM, Quinto, Star Trek, Culpepper, Timelines, Hanelle, picard, Fleet Command, stewart, ViacomCBS.