All Access Star Trek - A TrekMovie.com Podcast

Anthony and Laurie asked Fred Bronson to come on the podcast to talk about writing The Animated Series’ “The Counter-Clock Incident” and co-writing the story for The Next Generation‘s “The Game,” and got so much more! Fred talked about co-writing TNG’s “Ménage à Troi” with Susan Sackett, working for Gene Roddenberry and pitching script ideas to him over lunch, pitching to Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Rick Berman, and Jeri Taylor, getting a tour of the Star Trek (2009) set, Gene’s evolving opinions, and so much more.

Anthony and Laurie cover the news first, starting with a first look at the design for the Star Trek float that’ll be in the 2026 Rose Parade. They round up more tidbits from the panels at STNJ and STLV conventions (Uhura! Tuvix! Voyager reunion!), along with a quick update from Marina Sirtis. They talk about a new Voyager game (more Tuvix!), new (fan favorite Eaglemoss rerelease) ships from Fanhome, and a first-time collaboration between Star Trek and Magic: The Gathering. After that, they play Laurie’s recent interview with Robert Duncan McNeill (done for the Star Trek Family fan group) to celebrate Voyager‘s 30th anniversary and raise some money for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. They wrap up with Star Trek getting a legal ruling and some famous Trek names on 24.

On the anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek: Enterprise, Anthony and Laurie are joined this week by writer/producer Mike Sussman, who worked on Voyager and Enterprise, starting out as an intern and eventually writing multiple episodes for both. He talks about how he got the job and his time working in the Berman era of Star Trek and discusses his pitch that would bring Scott Bakula back to Trek, Star Trek: United.

[Khan review starts at 19:42] Anthony and Laurie are joined by TrekMovie reviewer Dénes House this week. They start with a quick look at the news—there’ll be a Star Trek panel and Starfleet Academy experience at New York Comic Con, Ethan Peck and Paul Wesley talk about the Spirk mind meld in the Strange New Worlds season 3 finale, Kate Mulgrew is still mad about the cancellation of Prodigy, Gates McFadden has a fun take on TNG’s “Sub Rosa,” and Jeri Taylor gets honored at last Sunday’s Emmy Awards. Then the trio is ready to talk about the new audio drama Star Trek: Khan. They review the first two episodes with all agreeing it is an excellent new part of Star Trek in terms of storytelling, performances, and production. We also play interviews from Khan co-writer Kirsten Beyer and stars Naveen Andrews (Lost) and Wrenn Schmidt (For All Mankind). They wrap up with bits of the week, including Rebecca Romijn’s Star Trek role as a clue on Jeopardy, the fun Target Audience reaction podcast watching Star Trek for the first time, and Laurie promoting her upcoming moderation of an online panel with Voyager’s Robert Duncan McNeill.

[Strange New Worlds review starts at 24:56] Anthony and Laurie start with the news, talking about Skydance’s plans for the future and Zachary Quinto’s hope they will include a final Kelvin movie. They cover some of this week’s Star Trek Day announcements (Star Trek Lego! A preschool show!), and preview the Khan audio series. Tony talks about the Strange New Worlds screening & panel at the LA Screenings event in LA on Star Trek Day, and Laurie recaps the Trek to New Jersey convention. Then it’s time to review  Strange New Worlds season 3 finale, “New Life and New Civilizations.” They talk about Pike and Batel, Spirk, the Vezda, magic vs. sci-fi, and more, and play the full audio from Tony’s interview with showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, whereupon Laurie goes on a Gorn rant and Tony suggests she focus on celebrating that the end of their storyline has come.

[Strange New Worlds review starts at 17:06] Anthony and Laurie start this week’s podcast with the news, looking for the meaning behind a new Trek promo on Paramount+, digging into new details on Noah Hawley’s shelved Star Trek movie, and getting tidbits on Starfleet Academy. They go through more of the panels from STLV to get insights into Deep Space Nine, Discovery, and Strange New Worlds, then take a look at SNW on the Nielsen streaming charts. Then it’s time to review Strange New Worlds episode 308, “Terrarium,” which they both liked, although they disagree about a few choices. They play Tony’s interview with Melissa Navia (Ortegas), then wrap up the podcast with a Trek-themed political  parody post and a book Laurie wrote a chapter for.

[Strange New Worlds review starts at 23:20 ] Sometimes, an episode comes along that benefits from a little intoxication. To review this week’s Strange New Worlds wacky Vulcan episode, Anthony and Laurie decided that being sober was the wrong way to go, so Tony poured himself some Jack Daniels and Laurie fired up a joint. Before their respective substances kicked in, they covered the latest in Paramount/Skydance news and how Star Trek’s future is looking up, a bit of Starfleet Academy news from Kirsten Beyer, tidbits about Enterprise and TNG from panels at Star Trek Las Vegas, and a couple of upcoming regional conventions. With elevated moods, they then reviewed “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans,” which they both felt missed the mark on both Vulcans and comedy, although they managed to find some bright spots and avoided taking the whole thing too seriously… for the most part. Cheers!

[Strange New Worlds review starts at 26:25] Anthony and Laurie star the podcast by looking to the future, covering Paramount (now a Skydance company)’s interest in making Star Trek movies and the creative people looking to make new pitches for Trek shows and movies. They discuss Simon Pegg’s thwarted plans for a Beyond spin-off, plans for the Star Trek Universe panel at New York Comic Con, Lower Decks‘ wins at the Hugos, and some new Trek games coming our way. They also talk about Jonathan Frakes’ surprise that his SNW holodeck episode has mixed reviews and the strong numbers for the show’s new season, then dig in to their review of this week’s episode, “What is Starfleet?” and then play Laurie’s interview with Mynor Luken (Beto Ortegas).

[Strange New Worlds review starts at 28:26] What happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas: Anthony and Laurie are back from Star Trek Las Vegas with tales to tell! The podcasters recap the highlights of the 5-day convention and go through just SOME of the news that came from the event: Scott Bakula and producer/writer Mike Sussman pitched an Archer show to Secret Hideout, Terry Matalas has 30 pages of a post-Picard script that includes ideas for how to bring back Todd Stashwick, Tawny Newsome and Justin Simien’s sitcom pitch is done and in the hands of Paramount+ (a Skydance Corporation), Simon Pegg thinks Skydance’s David Ellison will be interested in making another Star Trek movie, and Starfleet Academy will show us new sides of The Doctor. NOTE: The podcast was recorded before news broke about the new Paramount’s plans for Star Trek, so we will pick up on that in next week’s pod. After the news, they dig into this week’s episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail,” digging deep into the Kirk of it all, celebrating Pelia, laughing at cat clocks, and seeing Pike at his captain-ly best. They wrap up with Tony’s interview with Valerie Weiss, the scientist-turned-director who helmed the episode.

This is a live, unedited stream of TrekMovie’s “Star Trek Status Report: 2025 And Beyond” panel recorded at the STLV: Trek To Vegas convention on Thursday, August 7, which also happens to be the day Skydance officially took over Paramount. Here is the official description: “TrekMovie editors and podcasters Anthony Pascale, Laurie Ulster, Matt Wright, and Brian Drew will talk about where things stand and where things are headed for the franchise on television, film, and beyond. Please come and say hi, there will be a Q&A to ask any burning questions you have.” This is a supplemental podcast from TrekMovie’s All Access Star Trek and Shuttle Pod podcasts. All Access Star Trek will be posting our regular weekly pod on Friday, August 15th with Tony and Laurie recapping STLV 2025 and reviewing Strange New Worlds episode 306.