All Access Star Trek - A TrekMovie.com Podcast TrekMovie.com editors Anthony Pascale and Laurie Ulster

[Discovery 506 review starts at 21:39] With Laurie away on vacation, Shuttle Pod’s Matt Wright joins Anthony to talk about the Trek news of the week, starting with the chaos at Paramount Global with the CEO leaving and competing bids to buy the company. They also catch up on Toronto’s new “Star Trek Stage,” get an update on TeakTrek from PanCAN PurpleStride, and consider the value of Star Trek teaming up with World of Tanks. Matt and Tony also take a look at fan efforts to support (and maybe even save) Star Trek: Lower Decks. Turning to Star Trek: Discovery, they play some audio from Tony’s new interview with Mary Wiseman talking about Tilly’s adventure in this episode and her potential future. The podcast then rolls in Tony and Laurie’s previously recorded review of “Whistlespeak” where they agree it is a rich episode that is a bit of a throwback to classic Trek. Matt sticks around for bits of the week, where we take a look at Laurie’s European adventure with Little Riker and wish veteran Star Trek director Ralph Senesky a very happy 101st birthday.

[Discovery 505 review starts at 17:00] Anthony and Laurie start with a Star Trek: Strange New Worlds production update, then round up the latest on the William Shatner documentary, a new Discovery coffee table book, and IDW’s “Star Trek: Celebrations” comic. Then they play some audio from Tony’s recent interview with Carlos Cisco, co-writer of this week’s Star Trek: Discovery episode, “Mirrors.” After that, they give “Mirrors” a full review; Tony liked it more than Laurie, but they both enjoyed the Moll and L’ak backstory. We also have a quick reminder about the PanCAN Purple Stride walk happening this weekend, which you can hear all about in our supplemental interview released on Monday. They wrap up with two podcast recommendations: first a deep dive into the competing Paramount bids on The Town, and a recent interview with makeup legend Michael Westmore on The 7th Rule.

In this supplemental edition of All Access Star Trek, Anthony and Laurie are joined by Armin Shimerman, Kitty Swink, Jonathan Frakes, and Juan Carlos Coto (Manny Coto’s brother) to talk about the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, the Purple Stride walk on April 27th, the importance of early detection and family support, the improvements in detection and symptoms to watch out for, why there’s hope for the future, and the power of Star Trek fans to do good in the world as a group. They also talk Trek, covering topics like Ferengi makeup new and old, the cancellation of Lower Decks, the definition of “filler episodes,” the differences on set between Star Trek in the ’80s and ’90s vs. now, and more. John Billingsley was going to join the group, but was unable to make it at the last minute. He will be at the Purple Stride walk! If you can, please join Purple Stride, donate to the cause, or both. If you can’t, please spread the word via social media and word of mouth. purplestride.org/TeamTrek

[Discovery 504 review starts at  26:00] Anthony and Laurie start with the good news that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been renewed for another season and the bad news that Lower Decks will end after its fifth. The Trek on TV talk continues with Alex Kurtzman’s description of the challenges of making Trek for streaming networks and the benefit of shorter seasons, plus Martin Quinn’s comments about being the first actually Scottish actor to play Scotty. Then they start talking movies: the announcement that the origin movie has been officially added to Paramount’s production slate and a cryptic conversation on The View about Whoopi’s potential involvement in a Trek film. Next up, the return of the original Enterprise model to the Roddenberry family and the latest on Star Trek: Discovery—and then it’s time for a full review of Discovery episode 504, “Face the Strange,” which Tony and Laurie consider the highlight of the season so far. They wrap up with the invoking of Star Trek at a White House State Dinner and the Trek-adjacent series The Librarians.

[Discovery 503 review starts at 23:00] Anthony gives an update on the Star Trek prequel movie, then he and Laurie dig in to the latest on the Paramount/Skydance talks, talking about why shareholders aren’t thrilled about Shari Redstone’s plans and what that could mean. They discuss the new offerings from the Roddenberry Archive and new Star Trek-branded coffee, then turn their attention to Star Trek: Discovery. They talk about showrunner Michelle Paradise’s reasons for using TNG’s “The Chase” as an inspiration for the season, plus Mary Wiseman’s (not-so) cryptic comments about the Starfleet Academy show, and play some audio from Laurie’s recent interview with Wilson Cruz on the same topic. They briefly chat about the “This season on…” trailer and then dive into their review of Discovery episode 503, “Jinaal,” talking about Wilson Cruz’s strong performance, Trill mythology, the challenges of juggling multiple stories where some are less compelling than others, and more. Then it’s time for their bits of the week: Ernie Hudson’s description of auditioning to play Deep Space Nine‘s Ben Sisko and a podcast about Leonard Nimoy and the early days of Star Trek fandom with Bonnie Moss.

[Discovery 501 review starts at 24:32; 502 starts at 57:35] Anthony and Laurie are joined by Matt from the Shuttle Pod this week! They start with the latest news on a potential Paramount sale to Skydance, Alex Kurtzman’s hopeful statements about Trek “surprises,” the addition of a Deep Space Nine channel to Pluto TV, and Hugo nominations for Strange New Worlds. They also speculate on new info about the Section 31 movie and talk about the “First Contact” score heard at a NATO ceremony last week. After that, they take a deep dive into the first two episodes of season 5 of Star Trek: Discovery (“Red Directive” and “Under the Twin Moons”), discussing the refreshing pace of the show, character arcs, best moments, nitpicks, and play a clip from Sonequa Martin-Green’s interview at the NYC premiere about the Burnham/Rayner relationship and what it means to her.