Anthony and Laurie welcome creature designer Neville Page to the podcast this week. Neville has designed aliens and creatures for all three of the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies, Discovery, and Picard, not to mention a few little movies like Avatar, Cloverfield, Super 8, and more—and he has a new Kickstarter project: a book that that’s both a personal and practical field guide for anyone building a career in the creative arts. Neville talks about how he got started in his career, digs into the details on some of his Star Trek creatures like The Torchbearer, Saru, and Krall, describes the challenges of tackling legacy Star Trek aliens, and much more.

John Billingsley, Kitty Swink, Armin Shimerman, Jonathan Frakes, and Juan Carlos Coto join Anthony and Laurie to talk about the upcoming PurpleStride march to raise money and awareness for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. They talk about why it’s so important, plus key changes in research and funding over the past year. Then the gang segues into Star Trek, speculating on the state of the franchise, what caused the end of Berman-era Trek, streaming TV and the era of shorter seasons, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, and Jonathan Frakes’ farting chair.

John Billingsley (Enterprise‘s Dr. Phlox) joins Tony and Laurie to tell everyone about Trek Talks, an all-day marathon of Star Trek panels to benefit Hollywood Food Coalition happening on April 5.  John talks about how donations help the Coalition expand its mission, working with other groups to combat food insecurity and offer other vital services, then gets into the details about Trek Talks 4 and what panels and interviews to expect (as well as the superhero underwear he may be wearing for the occasion). He also talks about his time on Enterprise as #7 on the call sheet, his recent roles on shows like Manhunt and Matlock, and the practical jokes he used to play on Scott Bakula.

Brian Volk-Weiss from the Nacelle Company joins Tony and Laurie this week to talk about the new, deep cut Star Trek action figures his company has up for pre-order, as well their other Trek-related projects like Gates McFadden’s podcast and documentaries. He also gives us a preview of what’s next for the toy line and hints at some upcoming Star Trek docs too. Before the interview portion of the pod, Brian joins in to talk about the latest news, including Strange New Worlds going back into production, an actor update from Starfleet Academy, and high Nielsen ratings for Section 31, and the surprise announcement about the Star Trek: Khan audio drama. We also talk about the possible return of William Shatner to the Star Trek franchise. The pod wraps up with Brian taking a shortened version of our Star Trek Questionnaire.

The Shuttle Pod crew was recalled “by a little known, seldom used reserve activation clause” to record a quick update for our sister podcast, All Access Star Trek, to respond to questions about the Shuttle Pod’s current status and possible future. Since we recorded it, we thought we’d also release it in our podcast feed with a small bonus introduction.

After a quick catch-up on the production status of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and the Inglorious Treksperts’ plans for Star Trek Las Vegas, Anthony and Laurie dig into the questions sent in by podcast listeners. We also get an update from our sister podcast, the original TrekMovie pod, Shuttle Pod.

Anthony and Laurie covered the ‘Section 31’ junket and the NYC red carpet premiere, respectively, so this week they play the audio from their interviews and talk about what the cast and crew had to say, the fan reaction to Paramount +’s first streaming Star Trek movie, and more. This includes a discussions with Alex Kurtzman about the future of the franchise and we also had a chance to talk to Discovery actors Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz and Strange New Worlds actress Carol Kane. From Section 31 we spoke to star Michelle Yeoh (Georgiou), Rob Kazinksy (Zeph), Sven Ruygrok (Fuzz), Humberly Gonzales (Melle), James Liao (San), Omari Hardwick (Alok), and Kacey Rohl (Rachel Garrett).  

Anthony and Laurie are joined by Matt Wright and Denes House. After recapping the NYC premiere event and junket, the group gives an honest review of the Star Trek: Section 31 streaming movie, discussing the movie itself as well as the intention and history behind the creation of Section 31, how the movie fits in to the franchise both story-wise and industry-wise, and more.

For this special podcast—one day early, just for you!—Tony and Laurie are joined by TrekMovie’s Matt Wright and Aaron Bossig (also of the Hungry Trilobyte podcast) plus Tamia Harper of the SyFy Sistas podcast. Together, the group goes through their favorite episodes of the year from Discovery, Prodigy and Lower Decks as well as discussing the Roddenberry Archive “Unification” short film and what it could mean for the future. They also discuss their favorite 2024 Star Trek books, merchandise and events along with some personal memorable moments from the year. The group wraps up with previewing Star Trek in 2025, including the Section 31 movie, season 3 of Strange New Worlds, the 30th anniversary of Voyager (along with the To The Journey documentary) and few other assorted highlights to look forward to. There are also questions and some speculation about how the pending Skydance takeover of Paramount Global could impact Star Trek.

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!