Episode 619- 765874 Unification review/AI discussion

0:04 Charles, Jim Ways Fox Bear look is acting very weird. Captain Pike's this goes Wife King on Sandi after. Like Boimer, Tendy Starbarransom. Is very hard. Sport Drive Black Alert Toorgio has gone perserved, Pezza bad Lath Edward is any is Pakistan warfers were Checkov's wearing red Teeter's cat cam back sat You has had enough for that, PIMMI of make it so everybody, Lets go about the series, he bing aside a phone.

0:45 Now about the series, I'm coming to the series. Services, Now me about the series? How cooks? Me Harson? Now? Well, good evening, Trekkies and trekkers around the globe. It it's Thursday, January twenty fourth, twenty twenty five. I'm your most excellent host, uncle Jim. How you doing? Welcome to episode six hundred and twenty of track talking excellent, excellent, excellent, excellent.

1:27 Before I get too far, I introduce you guys to my incredible trek experts, and we're gonna start out with our very own Paul. Paul's out in Portland. How you doing tonight, Paul? Hey, I'm good man, I'm doing well. It's a wonderful Thursday. It's Friday Eve, so that's a good thing. And also out Portland we have Eric, How you doing tonight? Eric? Well, you know I'm doing. It's been kind of a rough week, doing a lot of stuff going on. My car died today, so I got no wheels. The country's falling apart, you know, little things like that. Snow in Florida. Yeah, whatever we'll do. Yeah, we'll deal with it. And not from Portland, we have Charles. Charles is out in Las Vegas. How you doing tonight?

2:12 Charles? I'm doing good. Maybe not snow, but i'd love to see some rain sin just like California, we're stuck in a drought. But man talk some truck talking. We're going to get some snow here tonight. So I'll take it. And let's jump back to Portland, where we have our very own miracle workers. David, how you doing tonight? David? Yeah, it's been busy, busy, busy. So before I go too far, I want to let you guys know that we're going to be reviewing section thirty one on January thirtieth. Section thirty one actually airs tonight at midnight, so it'll be on tomorrow, so we'll talk about that. Next week, Fanruary sixth, we're going to have the one and only Nicholas Meyer on the podcast, So you guys want to have your questions ready for him.

3:08 And how can you ask him a question you may ask, Well, you go to trek Talking dot com and you click on the little blue talkback mike in the bottom right hand corner and you record a question and we will play it right here on the show and get an answer for you. So go to trek Talking dot com and click on the talkback mike, and that talkback mike is live all the time, not just for Nick Meyer. So you can leave us a comment about anything, tell us what you thought about an episode, tell us what you thought about one of our polls. Anything. We love to hear from you guys. We love to interact with you guys, and we definitely will play your comment on the show, even if it's not a question for Nick Meyer. And on February thirteenth, we're going to be talking about George Decai's book they called Us Enemy. So it's going to be pretty busy for the next ble of weeks. We got a lot on the plate, so bear that in mind. You guys can go over to our YouTube channel. This is the YouTube channel that we used to use when we were doing Trek Talking. What was it, attack Wing, remember those days, Eric, And that's that's that's where we found you, and we had VAX's shipyards and we all had all kinds of stuff going on. But uh, you know, Attack Wing kind of fell by the wayside and the YouTube channel went along with it. Well, I'm bringing it back now, so I'm revitalizing it. So you can find us on YouTube at Trek Talking, and if you go there, you will

4:41 find links to all every single place where Trek Talking is across social media platforms. There will be a link to take you there on our YouTube channel, including our Patreon page, which Charles is running. There's a link to go there. There's a link to our Facebook page. Although I'm really pissed off at the AI crap going on over there at Facebook, which is why we're gonna use YouTube and various other social media platforms because Facebook is being uncooperative. So there's plenty of ways for you guys to get a hold of us. And let's see, I think, oh yeah, how could I forget We talked to the one and only Tim Russ last week.

5:26 Wasn't that fun? Guys? Wasn't that a great interview? Yeah? That was fun. If you guys missed it, you can go to truck talkin dot com and check it out. If you're a patron, you can actually watch the video of us with him. And if you go to our YouTube channel after the month, once a month, I'm gonna make all of those private videos public. So if you're not a patron, you're gonna have to wait a whole month to see the video of us talking with mister Russ. So, without any further ado, I'm gonna turn over our fans shout out to Eric, So take it away, Eric, Yeah, Jim. Our first fan shout out goes out this week to Billy Seru from Guayakil, Ecuador, who sends us a nice, live, long and prosper symbol. Thanks Billy for listening to us.

6:13 We really appreciate your support down there in that beautiful country. We also say hello this week to Stay Mansfield from Edinburgh, Scotland. One of the places I would love to go. Seems like a pretty cool joint and you know, your food is pretty interesting and I but I'm kind of into it. Those frieda eggs are pretty good. I like those. Natalie Delmhorst is saying hello to us this week from Germany. Thanks for saying hello this week. And awesome gorilla art in Berlin this week from there. And last but not least, we're saying hello to Rudy Smet who's from Anthever in Belgium, that country between other countries, which has such a cool mixed culture to it. So thank you all for listening to us. We really appreciate your support here on the PODCAS cast. Charles, who would you like to say hello to?

7:03 Let's start with a warm welcome to Eric Anderson, Houston, Texas. I wonder how the weather is down there. Welcome to Mark arch You Letta from New Mexico. Hey Mark, Redd Green. Welcome to Robert Simpson Reed from Florida. Is up north in the snow, We're down south. Whars is chili? And then welcome to Ed Ferby from Tennessee. Welcome David, who's on your list one. Welcome to Linda Bonne from Minnesota. Give me us that live long and posh pushing, and I have a pop contributor here named Ruth Ven New Van now I think how you pronounce it. She's from Durham, North Carolina, USA.

7:57 And next time my list is a warm welcome to w Cleve Budle come from Salt Lake City, Utah. Last time my list is Jackie Tweving from Texash and Paul, who done your list? Oh you muted, Paul, No one can hear you. Paul, there he goes. Now, I am such a fan of technology, right, It's amazing, the greatest. It makes me so happy to get out of bed every day and live in the twenty first century that is even more evolved than the Star Trek.

8:49 I was promised as a child. A great job, tech bros. You're doing a phenomenal job of executing all this bullshit and it works so well. I mean, this is this is the enlightened future I never would have dreamed of. Thank you. Thank I tried throwing it out the window and bring it back in. Is that the same thing? Well, let's move on. Let's see what happened trying to subtly convey to David. David, your audio is even quieter than mine, so I just want to make sure we heard you, brother. So otherwise, our good friends out in Trinidad and Tobago might not be all to hear so anyhow, it just so happens that we have folks all over the planet who were saying hello to us a trudge talk this week, including Anisha ho sign in Trinidad and Tobago. Double shot of the flags for both lands there, of course, so absolutely wonderful.

9:45 Great to hear from you, Anisha. And then in another part of the world, we're going to go over and say hello to our friend Sharon Maltby in Nottingham, England, which is actually not that far from where my people were from. Nottingham's just up the road and to the northeast of Wolverhampton, where the crazy people are that sired me. So there you go, right in the Old West Midlands there south of Sheffield if you're looking to find anyone. But great to hear from you, Sharon, and thanks for being a fan over there in the enlightened universe of Sweden that I envy tremendously flag unfurled with great pride. Lelan Baka is saying hello to us from Sweden this week.

10:28 Wonderful to hear from you. And let's skip continents yet again and we'll go over to wonderful South Paulo, Brazil, where Maria Lucia Ratz is saying hello to us from down there where it is infinitely warmer than we are. So always great to hear from our fans and viewers and listeners and trek enthusiasts from all over the globe. And that's all I've got. I'm going to go back to the mute button where I'm comfortable and pass it over to Uncle Jim. All right, Well, we'd like to say hello and thank you to Adrian Keeter, who says I'm on planet Earth, within the United States of America, within the great state of Texas, from a little town called Orange, Texas. Wow, that's pretty precise. Thank you for being a fan, Adrian.

11:16 We also want to say hello and thank you to Brian Ferry who's listening to us in Florida, and I hope you've got your boots and your snowshovel down there. And I also want to say hello and thank you to Emily Lenore, who's a rising contributor from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you for listening, Emily. And last but not least, we want to say hello to Jennifer Wolf who's an All Star contributor from Fort Wayne, Indiana. So if you guys would like to be mentioned in a fan shoutout, just head over to our Facebook page, which you can link through Trek Talking dot com or our YouTube channel at Trek Talking and tell us where you're from. And if you notice this awesome slot, I'd show that we're watching that Eric put are not Eric, that our very own miracle worker David put together for us. If you're mentioned in a fan shout out, we can get your picture up here. So not only will the fans know that you're a fan of Truck Talking, but they can see you in your costume. So that my friends wraps up our Star Trek fan shout outs. And now it's time for our Star Trek polls.

12:36 You know me like no Wind, but you thought about the show. Then we try. To share your opinions with all of our minions out there because they listen world. Why so tell us just what you think. Get together we will all Tree, Canara and robylin A. All right, Oh, I got my Leya here wants to be on the show. She's getting in my face over here, all right. So every week we ask I throw out some polling questions for you guys as Star Trek fans, and again you can find those pollcast questions on Tumblr and on Blue Sky on our Facebook page and just give us an answer, tell us what you thought, and then listen to the show to see if the other fans agree with you and Eric, I'm going to turn it over to you and I'm going to go see what's wrong with Leah Awesome?

13:37 Yeah, Jim. Our first poll question this week is in the TNG episode DEJACQ q Q loses his power and asks card for asylum aboard the Enterprise. Do you agree with the car's decision to grant it? So you know, somebody comes see us says can I have asylum? Do you grant it? Obviously? Eighty eight percent of our listeners that heck, yeah, that's the right thing to do. Twelve percent said no, it's Q So yeah, I guess I got to figure ten to twelve percent of Star Trek watchers just aren't cool with human rights or something. I don't know.

14:19 That must be the reason that twelve percent would say no, it's not okay to grant asylum. Obviously it's the correct thing to do. And if you think differently, you're wrong. So actually help noticing that the no option is colored red? Is that correct? Is that just a coincidence color? No, it's colored with green is yes and red is no. And so the question is do colors influence one's decision? I do see red making a lot of questionable choices sometimes, so you know, my answer would be I would choose yes, it's the right thing to do, because otherwise there would be no episode because there would be no conversations with Q because it wouldn't be on the ship. So it's kind of like, you know, a no brainer that yes, you would go ahead and give.

15:05 I mean, I got I think the implication of the question is that kind of ornery Sometimes you trouble deserve asylum, and I would say yeah, I mean, if anybody is being persecuted, they always deserve asylum, no matter what. I would sure hope. So yeah, Well, and once again, if you think differently, you're wrong. Sorry. I mean, if you think differently, you might be a fascist. Might you might be a fascist? You might want to like I feel like this is a new page we should start. You might be a fascist. You might be a fascist. If right, you know, you might want to like check your underarm deodorant or you know, find out like if animals run the other way when you approach any of those telltale signs.

15:52 It just just. Say it, all right, So, well, what do the rest of the truck spirts say? You guys agree? Are you are you? Are you with the fans in green? Or are you with the fascists and you're red? I hope you guys can hear me a little bit better now because I've figured out. So much better, so much better, David. Yeah, my volume for some reason would like turned way down. I don't know why that way, but so yeah, the is I don't know, I mean, did he act for the right thing to do? I I'm trying to reread the question here. Sorry, I had so much that was going on. I was like trying to figure out what whatever was going on? But do you agree with the card decision to grant it?

16:43 The correct answer is yes, just say yes. Yeah, I mean yes, I mean here's a say no. But you need to explain why it would be no. You need to defend your position a lot, right, I need I need a rational realization. So it's just like, you know, you can say whatever you want but I need you know, pony up right, if you're going to say no, how come. I would say yes in the sense that it's humanitarianism that we have to you know, granted chilum to people. But I mean he is an all powerful being, which at the time did they know that he was, that he had lost his power when he granted Sailum That part I don't remember.

17:24 Well, yes, I think if he has powers or not, if he asks for asylum. Well technically it would be a no for me because if they knew that he had powers at that time, he had already met with them all those times in the past. So would they trust you again, It's just like a Peter Krai Wolf kind of thing. So I don't know. I mean, if you had power, not power, you know, it could go either way for me show. But if you had diarrhea, would you still give him asylum? Absolutely not. It's a whole different thing. Right then it's like a hazard and that you know, Jim's like, no way, not a chance.

18:05 I worded the question that way on purpose when I said, hell, no, it's c just just for that reason, because Q has, like David said, he's messed with him in the past, can you truly trust the guy? And you know, as he's just toying with you and he's going to turn you into a Christmas tree ornament, you know, you never can tell with that guy. So that's why I that's why I worded it that way. So what about you, Charles. Well, I believe right in the big end of the episode, Q appeared floating and drops and we can tell from there he didn't have any ability to change anything. So we knew from there he did did not have his powers.

18:49 And I think that we chose even though we didn't trust Q. I felt that was the only thing we could do because we are trying to help others in need, and he was the time in need. In fact, a good lesson learned, a very good lesson in this episode, and we met a one shot time of a very interesting character at Q two. That's right, it was a it was a learning experience for Q as well. And sticking with the Q idea, what's our next question? Eric?

19:30 In the Deep Space nine episode Q less Cisco punches Q. Do you agree with his action? Absolutely? Our fans agree with eighty five percent and no, the card never struck him got fifteen percent of our votes. So let's talk about that. Yeah, what do you think Paul refresh my memory? Why does he punch him? Well, he punches him because essentially what happens is Q's causing shenanigans on the bridge. Q's like, uh, okay, let's settle this like humans would settle it. And so he zaps him into a boxing ring and he punches Cisco like four or five times in the face before Cisco reacts, and he's like, come on, come on, punch me, punch me, And finally Cisco gives him one and in one punch takes him down. Q's like, you hit me. You're much easier to antagonize than Picard was. And Cisco's like, I'm not Picard.

20:36 Well, actually, I think his exact words were Picard never struck me in his typical que you know way. So it's not like he just lost his temper and let him have it. I mean he was kind of set up. If somebody puts you. In fact, they were very clear on Deep Space nine. It's right, if somebody. Puts you in like a submarine, you're gonna go dive, dive, dive, right, But it's like you know he's in a boxing ring with boxing gloves on. Of course he's gonna whack him. He's like being invited to and you got to hit first, right, so you know, I mean that's always what you tell your kids in school, right, It's like if you know the other guy hits you first. It was it was self defense. Yeah, that mustache he's got there, that's great. I haven't seen this in.

21:18 Forever, Yeah, didn't. Didn't David do a great job putting this together. Oh, it's great. I think he did. Notice how he's got two slides on there now instead of only one like we were doing before. David is definitely a miracle worker. He's scotty. What do you think Charles did he do the right thing by punching him? Well, I think he proved himself that he's not per Card for sure, huge sides. He went to challenge challenge Cisco and it's like, Okay, that's not for Card. It's gonna be a different environment to deal with. So I think it was a good choice.

21:59 So it seems like, uh, like the truck Spurts agree with the fans on this one. Yeah, I definitely agree that he I mean, just like what Paul said, you know, he got into his phace and human emotion. He kicked in. All right, So what's our next poll question? Eric, I have no idea. There are no more polls. Yeah, sorry, sorry, there is one more. Are you looking forward to the Michelle Yo led section thirty one streaming movie, and sixty seven percent of our listeners said yes, they're very interested in it and said no, I'll pass. So what do you guys think about that?

22:50 I'm all right, well, I uh, I'm not feeling too well right now. I got it off and so uh, Star Trek drops at midnight tonight and I will be watching it. So yeah, I'm really psyched for it. I love I love Michelle Yo. I love the character of Georgio. I can't wait to see where Carl sent her and what the next chapter of her redemption arc is. So yes, I am very excited for it, and I think, as Star Trek fans, it's you know, it's very rare that we have an opportunity like this, and I'm going to take it for all it's worth. I'm going to enjoy it. I'm going to revel in it, and I'm looking forward to it. And I think it's going to be great.

23:34 So yeah, I'm with the sixty six percent that's waiting to see it. Yeah. Well, our friend Shannon already comment and she got a sneak preview of the movie last night. We threatened her about making any spoilers, but she definitely said she really loved the movie and she plans to watch it again this weekend. So I think it definitely. One of our fans says, hey, let's do it. I think it sounds good to me. I've been waiting to see what they do with this one. Anyway, how about.

24:14 You, Eric, Well, you know, since they started kind of touting it as a Western in space, you know, I like Westerns. There's that kind of how boyish sort of feel that Michelle Yo is supposed to have in this. So I'll give it a go. Absolutely, And friend, let me jump in and say. Our friend Ryan says, let's see how this movie pays tribute to Michael lou Michelle as he says from chat as one of our visitors to the show. That's right. I forgot we have people in our chat room. I can't see them. Welcome to chat, guys. Well, Paul, what do you think are you going to watch it.

25:00 Oh, I would I watch anything that's Star Trek related, right, And I'm always rooting for stuff to work, right, I'm always hoping things will succeed. But I'm never going to be somebody who says, oh, it's going to be amazing if I haven't seen it yet, right, because that's that's you know. I want to sample the drink my bartender's made before I weigh in on their ability to mix, all right, So I'm going to wait until I've seen it. I want to stay optimistic, right, because that's what Star Trek's about, is optimism. It should be what Star Trek is about is optimism. But I'm a little nervous from my perspective, just I'm trying to avoid too many reviews, though I have seen some aggregates this morning, but I was I was not a fan of the trailer. I gotta be honest. It did not look like the kind of storytelling I relate to.

25:53 Let's just say that. So so we'll see. I mean, I'll probably watch it tomorrow night because it drops on Friday. It's just tomorrow. But I really hope they pull it off. But you know, but I'm not going to let the fact that I like Michelle yo free dispose me in advance to thinking that it'll be good. I mean, it means I'm rooting for I hope it's good. I'd like it to be good. But but her presence in it alone does not guarantee anything other than she got paid. That's the one thing. It does guarantee that she was paid. But you know, let's let's be honest, so we'll see. I hope it's good. I want it to be good. I really do. What about you, David h Yeah, I'm pretty much in the same boat with Paul. Like he said, basically, the trailer scared me. Uh and I want to be optimistic as much as possible. But I'm definitely gonna try watching it your tomorrow or shadow day, so which you when I have time. But yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

26:57 So with the with the exception of Shannon, who's a friend of the show, I know two other people that went to see it. One person told me because they had to sign NDA's they can't talk about it so they can't say much. But one person told me that it reminded them of Deep Space nine. It was dark and gritty in the style of Deep Space nine. Take that for what it's worth. And the other person told me that it wasn't what they expected it to be and it was a roller coaster ride, So take that for what it's worth. And we have a couple of stories tonight that I wanted to get in about section thirty one before at premieres tomorrow, which we'll talk about on our news section when we get to it. And I think that wraps everything up. Now we're going to get to the meat and potatoes of our show. And this actually is what Hollywood was on strike about, if you guys recall, and that was the use of AI, and I think it's.

27:56 Is it O toyto? Why is it O? Toy? Studios, in association with Roddenberry Archives, actually made a trilogy of I guess you want to call them short fan films, although I don't know if you would use the word fan films because of the budget that they had, but at any rate, fan films to show how you could use AI and what they could do with it. And this came out last month. The final one is called Unification, but our miracle worker David here took the first one, which was called Mine Meld the second one. No, the first one was called the Wall, which was as a reference to Star Trek, the motion picture when spot Mine melds with Veiger. Then the second one is called mind Meld, and then the final one is called Unification. And David went and put those all together for us into one.

28:54 Was it eight minutes long? David? I think. It's about nine and a half minutes. Okay, So Charles Wynn edited the them, not Charles, David, don't bother the cat. David went and edited to them all together. And we are going to watch all three of them right now. And we're all gonna watch them together, by the way, including you guys at home, and then we're gonna break it down and talk about it. So without any further Ado, David, let it roll. And there's no sound in this either, there's no no, no, there's audio, but there's no talking. So enjoy. I don't hear any sound, David, really, Yeah, the sound is gone. That incredible, that incredible musical score.

29:46 Oh, it's probably could just turned down way download. Okay, how is this is it coming in now? No? Yeah, nope, hmmm. When we when we when we ran the test run, it had sound. Yeah, let me let me see if I can do this one more time. So I folks a little technicalty here, but let me do this. Scott, he's on it. Don't worry. You're right, You're right. Eric looks like he's wearing a Klingon uniform, a t os Klingon uniform. So David and I get together on Wednesdays and we run through all the slide shows.

30:34 We run through. Everything to make sure everything works and everything's in the right order. And when we did our test show, this was working perfectly. Is there a thing in there, David, where it's like on teams? I know, at the beginning, before you start to do anything, there's a button where you have to enable audio if you're having a presentation. Yeah, I thought I enabled that, So let's see I enabled it again. So let's sha if that works? Ready? Cool? Thank you? Try out plugging and plugging it back in there we go.

32:30 Remember the.

35:12 Lad lads, there are always possibilities, Buck said, And if

37:36 Genesis is indeed life from death, I must return to this place again. A com mm hmmm.

40:20 H h. All right, So, uh, Paul, what did you think? I gotta be honest, I thought those were fantastic. Yeah. I thought they were really really well done, very cinematic. I'm not familiar with this prediction particular production group, is it Toyo? Do I am saying it right? Uh? Toy I think, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm there new to me. I don't know them, but I production values are great, I mean, really, really really good. I mean there's that one shot where Kirk is like walking from left to right across the screen to get the badge from I want to say, it's your Is that his name? I think it's your? Yeah? Where in profile Kirk looks not so great, right, I mean in that one that's one shot though, right where it looks sort of like the cg's a little sketchy. But for the most part, it's fantastic, right, and really cinematic. I'm a fan of storytelling that doesn't spoon feed everything to you and explain everything to you.

41:38 This is really something that's, you know, storytelling that's open to interpretation, right, I mean, it's it's a little bit more ambitious. It has a lot more in common with, like, say, the kind of storytelling you see in like the third act of two thousand and one, right where it's like you're you're you're having images and you kind of bring your own context what that meaning is, which I think is great. And good Lord. I mean they they recreated Yeoman cult from from. The cage, right. I mean that's for the benefit of our viewers who don't know this, right, and you're looking at this clip online not being able to see it during the podcast. That number at the beginning seven sixty five eight seven four, that's a reference to Yeoman cults, like service number, right, that they've used to sort of create a thread throughout these these shorts that have been produced with the Roddenberry Group. Right, So that's what that number indicates is it's a reference to human colt and my god, that actress looks exactly like her. I don't know if she's been augmented by CG or what, but her uniform, her face, her expressions looks exactly right her. It is incredibly done. The shot of of you know, original series Eric Kirk right wearing the Velure short, I mean amazing, really really great production values.

42:55 These folks seem to have a really good cinematic sense of storytelling. It's like if I could get into a room with the folks the brain trust over at Paramount Plus. Right, I'd be like, guys, sack everybody who's been making the last two or three shows and hand it over to these guys, right, because they understand how to do a little bit more, you know, mature kind of storytelling that's more like a motion picture, and that doesn't you know, anachronistically dumb things down every five minutes, right, I mean, it's just that's some pretty good filmmaking. I have to say, I'm very impressed by this so and to me it felt like classic cinematic motion picture star trek right and and really I think is it Gino who did the score?

43:40 I think who did the I think did the score for the JJ movies. I'm pretty sure Michael Gikino. H I mean, really really beautiful, evocative. I thought it brought some really great closure to like I think this was originally this last one was made as like a kind of a grace note to kind of tie things together in a way we never really got for generations, right when we saw the passing of Kirk Right, and I thought this paid really nice field eater that and it felt like, you know, to me, this was like the kind of thing whenever you talk about the short tracks they have on Paramount Plus, right, this is the kind of thing I would have hoped that they would have aspired to because this is whoever came up with this and put this together. You know, I'd love to have a conversation with him because they seem to really understand filmmaking. God, if we get him on the show, it'd be amazing.

44:30 But I thought this was great, guys. I don't know if you all did, but man, I sure did really really top drawer. Well. I did a little bit of research on this, and the guy that plays Kirk is Sam Witter, who actually does the voice of Darth Maul on Star Trek or not Star Trek, I'm starting the Star. Wars Wars clone Wars Clone Wars. Yeah, that's great, terrific actor. And so the CGI of he looked just like Kirk. Guys was you guys not agree? Because CG was incredible, so much better than that that shoddy moth talking or Princess Leah that we got. You know that these guys look good. Stock looked incredible and Leonard Nimoy's widow gave them permission to do this, as did William Shatner. So this was completely you know, agreed upon by them.

45:23 I just want to echo on what you just said and add one thing, Jim, is just you know, I mean, we've gotten used to it now after a couple of seasons of Strange New Worlds. Right, but they've had to like modernize everything, right, and soup it up and throw design at it. Right. Everything looks different, right, It's not the same uniforms, it's not the same fielty to detail. They've had to you know, we got to make it new, right, That's what they do now in Strange Worlds. Right. We've we've accepted it, we got used to it. But it was great to see the precise exact uniforms and the precise exact version of the Cage enterprise, right. I mean I I. Would love to see more episodes done in this style of the original series, where Kirk looks like Kirk and the old characters. I think that that to me is I think that's a hunger a lot of fans might have.

46:12 So the reason we see we see Gary from where no man has gone before, we see Cult and the reason why we see them both from what I've been able to find is there was a comic book called Starfleet Academy. I believe it was where coult is sent into alternate realities to fix things. And when Spock mind melds with Nieger in the motion picture, he sees these alternate these alternate futures, and he finds Cult there and so he mine melds with Cult to tell Cult what's going to happen. Then Cult gets in touch with Gary, who didn't die in where no man has gone before.

47:01 He goes and recreates this universe, resurrecting Kirk so that Kirk can say goodbye to Spock. Basically is what the gist of what I'm getting, And I don't know why your is there. I don't get that. But if you look real carefully in the audience, you will see Kovich is standing in the background, which is interesting. And there's also a Wesley Crusher, an older version of Wesley Crusher in the audience watching too. We do see Robin Curtis as Savig from Star Trek three, and we do see the son of Savc and Spock. There was a deleted scene from Star Trek four where where Savac stays behind to have the child, which we all thought I mean, come on, they Pondfard, for God's sakes in Star Trek three, so Kirk gets to meet Spock's sun is the gist of it. So yeah, I thought it was. It was very well done, very creative, and it looked phenomenal. As Paul said, all the cgi looked great, the score was great, and yeah, so I really liked it.

48:16 What did you think, Eric, Well, I think there's no question that it looks amazing. It absolutely has a great soundtrack. I'm of course left with a little bit of what the heck is going on, especially in the first one. I think that multiple viewings is absolutely essential to even start to comprehend what's happening in any of these things. But you know that meme of Leonardo DiCaprio from What's Upon a Time in Hollywood where he, you know, he points because he recognizes something. To me, this feels like that was the spirit within which this was created. It's like they tried to meld for teen different things and bring them together into some sort of comprehensive story that made sense. And personally I found I'm pretty boring. I'm kind of tired of looking at Spock and Kirk. I'm kind of tired of cryptic stories. I'm certainly tired of AI and we're only going to get more of that as time goes by, and so I would have rather seen like cool new stories with cool new characters and cool sections of Star Trek that we haven't seen before.

49:34 So I found it cryptic. I've found it. You have to literally research it to understand what's going on, and I would just rather grow. I would rather see Star Trek change evolve over time. That's the reason Star Trek Discovery was so good was that it actually took a paradigm and it turned it into a twenty first century version of itself. So you know, I mean the Genesis reference, like when he gives that in the movie, it's all about Spock, and yet this movie somehow turns it into something about Kirk himself or something. I don't even know. I don't disagree with what Paul said about the two thousand and one kind of similarities. I mean, the pace is very slow. There's that scene where the multiple Kirks are sort of looking at each other, which is very David Bowman from two thousand and one.

50:27 Great. I did it, Leonardo Ditaprion, I was like two thousand and one, and that was literally the depth of that entire scene to me. So I just found it boring and tedious mostly tell you the truth. All Right, we have a boring and tedious vote, how about you, David? All Right, you're right, I had muted. Yeah, my button didn't work anyways. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I liked it. I am excited about where AI is going. I actually kind of want to see an actual full episode of any genre star trek of like any you know, maybe cook Age, I Guess Era or something, to see like how they do with the faciage voices, interactions and all this stuff. And so it would be kind of interesting to see a full video or episode of like maybe they can continue on with the the cook era of like continuing a five year mission or something. Maybe make season four and five with it or something. I'd be kind of interesting to see. But I'm also a little worried about this AI mechanics because if falling into the wronghand can be pretty bad, especially for those who get their news or like any kind of from somewhere a

52:01 I can really mess things up. I can imagine that happening, but yeah, it can be good for entertainment, I think where I think it should really keep AI restricted too, to be honest, but. I don't know. I mean, it'd be interesting shore what they go with it. There was another comment that I wanted to mention that I kind of way over my head. But to me, though it's it's it's pretty good. I enjoyed it. I just I always wonder, like, how long does it take for them to actually make like even a nine and a half minute like this, for instance, video of just using AI and all that code that they have to put in. That's gotta be a lot of work. Well that's the.

52:52 Kind of like, hey, I don't actually have to code. You just put in what you want and it sort of starts to spit it out. So it's okay. Well then the coach making code, I guess it's. Much less like human centered in terms of how it's produced. And it's we're teaching AI how to destroy ourselves. But I mean, either way, it's the idea that AI is pretty good. It does, and I'm I think that's what I was going to mention that I went open my head that someone mentioned that AI was the region that the Hollywood went on strike.

53:34 Is that correct to my Yeah, absolutely, that's that was one one of the strike was about. Ye, this is digital characters with no you know, with no people involved other than the people who are directing the computers as to how to do things. So you know, who's to say that they couldn't take us from our podcast and take my visage and do whatever they want with it. Actually, actually, now it's even easier because now the reins have been taken off by executive order in the United States. For that to actually happen, I don't know if you guys know that. Or oh, yeah, that could be bad. I can imagine that being shot down pretty quickly, especially for the rights of people who need to you know, the people have rights right. So the idea is that if that goes through, then yeah, that's gonna be really bad. But on the other hand, like I said before, if they keep it to strictly just to entertainment only and maybe only do it to people who are alive that shine consent, maybe that can probably be okay. But I can imagine that they would definitely do it to people who are like, you know, long gone, and they would probably make another type of Aben Costello show or something a black and white AI. That would be probably really easy for AI to do. So yeah, I don't know. I mean, I would definitely put it in a restrictive envelope and shay it can only do a certain things. But that's just

55:05 my two cents on it. But yeah, that's all I gotta say. What do you think, Charles, Well, I've seen a little bit of some of the storylines to it. I hadn't heard all the storylines. I do know the fact that the first video I think the first or maybe the first and second, actually showed up a Star Trek Las Vegas and about twenty twenty three I believe it was now I know I showed this one one of the versions to my Star Trek Club, I think it was November, and I saw a lot of jaws drop on the floor.

55:48 They were very surprised at what could be done. It was interesting. Somewhere I saw a picture and I can't find the picture actually showed Robin Curtis and model modeling her dress for the movie, so she was not at all cgi she was actually filmed. But this. Can't really say there's much a fan film as this is backed by Roden Berry and rod Berry Industries. So they've got a lot of access to a lot of archives which they can get into old Star Trek footage and stuff that normally only the studios can get a hold of. So it'd be interesting to see what they do with it. We do know, as I say David's side of it. Yeah, they could be doing some stuff, but you gotta be careful of what you do. An actor sit there and says, okay, they can come in for a thirty minute shoot. They come in and shoot, take picture, take film from him from all sides, and that's all you get paid for. Was it hours of work?

57:06 Yet they cast him in a full length movie because I use his image, but it's AI. They may say he doesn't get any money from it, So that's taking money away away from actors. So it's a direction you got to be careful of. That's why the strike was being careful of what they do with AI. Having AI computer sit there and write the whole script. Okay, there's no need for a writer. Then do you really want to have a movie with no writer in having Evan computer write the whole thing. Some of the stuff we've seen about what computer's right can be good. Something cannot be so good, so we got to be careful where we're going.

57:59 Well, I just think I saw an interview with Sam would Wear and he said the reason why they wanted to do this is they wanted to keep, you know, the images of Kirk and Spock alive, and they wanted to show that they could do it so that, say, one hundred years from now, they could do a Leonard Nimoy and William Shattner version of Kirk and Spock so that fans could enjoy that and like we do today and see how good they could make it. Now, there was no voices in that one, so you know that was just images. So how would that work? Would we be able to catch it if if they actually made an episode with it instead of just images like they did.

58:44 I don't know. Look at what. Look at what they did with Major Rnberry's voice in the computer. Can I just ask a question of the of the group, which is that so? So most of the stuff that we're talking talking about that we liked about this has to do with either a the way it looks or b the fact that we think it's really cool that they can do it. Does anybody have any comments? On the ethical consequences of doing this kind of thing and where that might go in the future. Well, I think that's what Sam. The whole purpose behind it was. Sam specifically said that they had permission from Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner's estates to do this, and that they actually they actually paid them to do this, and that in the future, if they were going to use the likeness of Shatner or any of the Star Trek actors for that matter, that they would have to pay to do it. And I think that's what the strike was about, right, was creating images of the actors without compensating them. Isn't that what the strike was about?

59:58 Well to a degree. But I think Eric makes a great point, right because right now, okay, we have a situation where it's like, yeah, okay, this is you know, best case scenario, right, the ni Moy estate, you know, the Shatner, you know, everybody who's evolved involved is you know, within the auspices of Roddenberry. Right, They're all doing it, and it's it's legit quote unquote, right. I mean I don't think anybody you know, I don't know about the actress who played Yeoman Colt. Right, she's not like a huge luminary. So I don't know if anybody contacted her estate, I would hope so, and because they're using her likeness, but we don't know, right, I mean right now, Yeah, there was a strike, right, And the reason that there was a strike in Hollywood was because not because of them wanting to have this issue of you know, AI and likeness is resolved. The reason there was a strike is because there is a guild, because there is a union, right that's there to protect us. Right, That's the reason that the strike was allowed to happen. We are moving into you know, David said a few minutes ago, Well, you know people have rights, right, don't they? You know, Well, we're moving into an error right now that is starting to unschool you know, this very weak where rights are going away, and you know, at some point the people who are you know, trying to engineer things are dear.

1:01:23 Leader, right. They they want to get this to a place where there are no more guilts, there are no more unions. They're very anti union, they're very anti guilt. And at some point somebody's going to try to figure out a way to take away the screen actors guild take away the writer's guilt and you know, so Eric makes a great point is we have to be super vigilant about this stuff because just about things maybe the way they are right now, you know, be fearful of the way that you know, bad actors, not the kind with sadcards, but bad actors that maybe have billions of dollars are looking to enrich themselves further by doing damage to the fundamental you know, rights to our society. Am I putting words in your mouth?

1:02:07 Eric? Or is that where you're going? Oh, that's that's absolutely where I'm going. And I think that recent events and you know, revoking of sort of safeties that have been put on the development of AI have now unleashed Pandora's box. And to me, this is a harbinger of things to come. I think right now we're stuck in Wow, this is really cool. Wow. I love seeing Spock do his thing great. And I don't believe that anybody at the Roddenberry Archive has malicious intent. I really really don't. And also, this is an entirely new form of art that barely involves people that we're going to see used to the nth degree in the next ten years, certainly the next four years, but probably beyond that. And so I think that generally making our technology tends to outpace society's ability to actually adapt to it.

1:03:06 And AI is one of those things that is just accelerating so quickly that it's hard to keep track of and the fact that it looks cool is not enough for me to accept it as Wow, I want more of this. That's just where I am. Now, what amount of the next Star Trek series had a completely totally CGI character that didn't They created it out of nothingness and it wasn't an actor and it was a CGI character kind of like the doctor on Voyager, only not being played by Robert Riccardo. Would that be okay? Would you be? I would ask myself why did they not hire an actor to do that job? Hmhmm you know, I mean, well, particular, are you saying that they're going to bring back a character from the past that would be entirely CGI?

1:04:03 No, say it's a it's a digital character that lives in the holid deck. Or who's gonna voice that character? You know? CG They'll get they'll get it. They'll have they'll have a Chad CPT do the voice. Yeah, well then, but the point I think Eric's making is, here's one less person they have to pay, right, they create a cgi character. That's not good. We don't want to we don't want to start putting people out of work because if you can, you know, avoid hiring one individual, well there's one person on the crew that we don't have to pay, you know, get around that, then pretty much the whole thing, they can erase everyone because the way that you know, the financial entities that are trying to manipulate our lives right now, they they basically, how do we save as much money as humanly possible? How do we get as rich as humanly possible. You can avoid paying one person, you can avoid paying everyone. So I'm against it.

1:04:53 I mean, Jim, if it's a role that literally cannot be played by a human for some reason, like we already have, you know, computer animated characters, so we've already done the like visual part of it, and everybody's cool with that because they can create cool characters like rock Talk or Murph for you know, characters that like literally couldn't be played by a person, but those are still voiced by human beings. So I guess your question is, well, what if they put a CGI or excuse me, not CGI. What if they put an AI voice to Amurph style character. Well, that's an actor out of work. And that, to me was what the whole strike was all about. And we all on this podcast said that we supported the SAG after strike, and if we're to put our money where our mouth is, we can't possibly say, oh, it's okay to replace a person's visage and a person's voice with AI and put somebody out of work. Otherwise we're just talking out both sides of our mouth.

1:05:57 Well, it's it's not a person. They're not recreating Kirk or Spock there there, Jim. It takes an actor to do a voice. What I'm saying is that if they use AI to create the person's visage, that character's visage, excuse me, the character's visage, and the character's voice, that is an actor out of work. So what are you really saying. I don't understand your question. I just told you what I was really saying. That that's what you're really saying. Okay, all right, okay, Jim. You go to the grocery store every now and then.

1:06:40 Well I've I've been known to buy groceries from there. Yeah, okay, all right, So here's the kind of thing, right, Basically, let me give you a kind of speak in metaphor. It's the only way I can communicate. Right. You go to the grocery store, right, and in the old days, you would walk through the checkout line and there would be Gladys or Billy who would be your clerk, right, and they would take your stuff off the conveyor belt and say how you doing, you know, and check your ID and whatnot. But a lot of stores now they have like the self checkout, the you scan okay, and so that is for every one of those kiosks that's there where you scan your own shit, right and swipe your own card and bag your own groceries. Those are people out of work that have been replaced by a machine.

1:07:24 And that's basically the model that Hollywood is looking at, right, the digital character. People use my machines. Then that's that, you know, that's your opinion. It's not my opinion. The problem is it's like, you know, it's just because you can do a thing doesn't mean that you should do a thing. Very I think we have to keep that in mind, right, and the problem with this stuff is and I think Eric intimated this earlier, right, and then we're really getting off on a tangent with this is amazing, But I think it's good in conversation. So, you know, uh, with technology, right, once you've let something out, it's very difficult to curtail it and stop it again. Right, the toothpaste doesn't go back in the tube very easily. Right, Once you've unleashed something, you know, it's very difficult to leash it back up and make it go away. And so we have to be really careful because we're kind of we're unleashing variables and have the potential to do a lot of damage, you know, maybe permanent damage.

1:08:27 There is a question what would happen if AI got so good to the point where it became the next president. I don't think we're that far away from that, David, Like, I really don't think we're that far away from that. I think that we've already seen deep fakes that are indistinguishable from reality. We already know that most of the world gets their news from you know, various sources that include video and audio and that sort of stuff, and that stuff is becoming easier and easier to fake. So I just I just don't think we're that far away from an AI president or world leader or any of that sort of stuff. And I know it sounds like science fiction, but I'll tell you what, man, I have read thousands of science fiction books, and the direction we're heading right now is exactly where cyberpunk ends up. It's exactly where it ends up.

1:09:22 Yeah, we don't exactly have Max headroom right now, but we do have Max douchebag, and we. Have we don't have any benevolent force working for our benefit right now and without that, and like I mean not to like get too far into the weeds, but like the United States actually did have some protections against this, Like we had a system by which AI was to be developed that was implemented by the previous administration that was based on five tenants, just like you know Asimov's robot rules, you know, like robot can't kill people. I don't remember exactly what they are, but it's like there's these three tenants that Asimov wrote about thirty forty fifty years ago. Well, we had those for AI, and they have now been removed. And that means that the bridle is off. Whoever wants to develop whatever level of AI can develop it, and they don't have to inform anybody about what's going on, and they don't have to share that technology with any governments. So as soon as you get a company that's developing the ultimate AI, and you get a company like Boston Dynamics that's developing the ultimate robot, and you put those together, that is terminator, dude. And I don't think I'm just talking about science fiction. I think I'm talking about a possible reality.

1:10:45 Now, go watch a picture from I want to say the late sixties. It used to be on like all the time. Jim's probably going to remember this, but there was an old sci fi picture called Colossus the Foreben Project, right, and that is exactly what Eric is talking about. Is where you know, computer scientists basically create a supercomputer, right, but there's no guardrails for it, you know at all. This is kind of thing that you know, Star Trek's always been, you know, the old star Trek used to warn us about all the time, right, and and it it basically ended up the computer anointed itself as master of the world and that all of human beings were its slaves right to do what it said and you would follow what its orders were. And that's not that far down the road if unless somebody starts coming in and having a little bit more of an ethical compass that the decisions that are happening.

1:11:41 Yeah, I honestly think that this is where the world is actually heading toward right now. And not to be doom and gloom and everything like that, but the whole superpower of AI that's about to come into it's not just from America either, I mean China, I mean all those other countries out there, Russia, I would imagine probably all developing the shimilar type of AI as well. So if a one world government ever died come into power, it probably would be run by AI. I would imagine, probably from like some sort of Angel institute or something. But ties a little bit in the Star Trek. Let's look at Lower Decks. Our favorite actor, mister Combs. What character did he play in Lower Decks?

1:12:30 One of many evil Agamemnon was it Agamus? One of many evil computers that were a form of AI. And it wasn't just him. Remember, he got stuck into a whole room of different some of them from Old Star Trek episodes, but we've seen in Star Trek multiple times of computer coming in trying to take over the project. M five is another one. But where we talk about worrying about a large look at UH discoveries a computer starting from season three control no, not control the one that was on the ship, one that was on discovery, or think about that that was a that was an AI.

1:13:30 She was good, but look at what where she ended up? You never know. So I think the other important thing to just note at this point is that we call AI AI, but in fact the AI that we have now isn't really artificial intelligence. All it is is a ones and zero's algorithmic thing that just computes things really really fast and is able to take existing information and output it in a different way. So it's the concept of garbage in garbage out right, you just get what you put into it.

1:14:10 Real artificial intelligence is intelligence that can think for itself. Think about data, for example, there's a difference between data and being able to amalgamate thousands of websites in a second and output a couple of paragraphs based on the information that you're looking for. So we're not I will admit that we're not quite to real quote unquote AI yet, but but I think that's where everybody wants it to go, right and we're and we are headed that direction. So I just feel like society needs to just consider that for a second before it goes too far, because, as I said, our technology has a tendency to always outpace our ability to adapt to it. And I think that we're in that soup right now.

1:15:04 No. Absolutely, Oh we've already got We already got points where teachers are already having start carefully looking at students assignments. Did a student write it or they use something like chat grit their assignment? AI? Yeah, a huge thing in high school right now. Actually a lot of kids are writing essays just using AI, and the teachers are being taught ways in which they can recognize AI writing versus actual writing by people. So you know, we're we're teaching teachers how to combat AI cheating already. I mean, that's I don't know, so anyway, That's why I just see these sorts of things as like a slippery slope. But I can't really get into them.

1:15:53 Does our chat room have to say. Hasn't really been saying a whole lot? Oh? Cool, there was a question about the actor that did James Kirk, and I couldn't remember what the name who it was that Ryan asked about. Yeah, that was Sam Whitwre. And I think the reason I heard, and I think I heard something commented that the reason that Shatner didn't do it himself was he felt he was too old to do the uh to look the part, and it was easier to have somebody else standing for him.

1:16:40 Interesting. Well, we definitely got more out of it than I thought we would, for sure. I just thought it was interesting. We haven't talked about this particular thing yet. Yeah, Jim, it's the most salient topic that human beings can possibly be discussing right now. I just it's like the thing that is going to propel us into the future. It's pretty clear. And if we're not sitting and talk about it talking about it, and we're just sort of sitting back and letting it happen, that also feels irresponsible to me. So I think it's good that we're talking about it in depth. Oh, I'm happy we took the conversation.

1:17:21 I don't think they needed to do it personally. I don't see what we gained from this from these videos. I don't know if they were necessary. I don't think they were needed. I think they did it just because, like Paul said, I think they did it just because they could. And I think we got to watch out for stuff like that because it's disguised as something good but could be easily twisted into something that's not. So we have to be vigilant. And it's not going away. So I think the most important thing that we can do right now now is recognize when it's happening and decide for ourselves. Like I don't, I don't like any societal changes and regulations and stuff are awesome, but I think each individual person just needs to look inside themselves and just say, Okay, I'm cool with AI generated actors taking jobs away from people, or I'm not cool with it, And society is going to go in whatever direction it's going to go, but each individual person has to make that decision. That the problem is that not everybody's educated on the topic, and not everybody understands the depth to which this already permeates our society.

1:18:38 And if it's already this deep and we're in kind of like adolescent stage, like we're past infant stage. We're into adolescent stage when Ai becomes a teenager and then becomes an adult. We just need to understand what that's going to mean for all of us. Absolutely, So, uh, before we move on, anybody want to add anything to this topic before we move on to our Star Trek birthdays? Everybody pretty I just. Say, you know, it's it's always it's hard to predict, right, how things will go. I mean, I think right now, again, we're like doing the show in the middle of January twenty twenty five, right, so I think we are wearing some pretty dark freaking glasses right this week. I mean, I think a lot of us are, right, But just like go back, like, you know, twenty some years ago, right when Andy Cirkus first came on the scene, right doing a motion capture performances like Gollum, but like whate are the rings?

1:19:40 Right? Everyone who's up in arms about that at first? Right, very concerned? Right, is this is this going to take away? What is this going to do to the. Craft of acting? What is this going to do? Right? And and it altered Hollywood a little bit. Things evolved slightly. You know, It's certainly allowed other kinds of fantasy and science fiction characters to be created. But fortunately Andy Serkis is a very ethical individual and made sure to kind of, you know, put the actor first with everything but. Capture right. They put a bunch of stuff on him, and he walked around and he did stuff like all the Avatar movies.

1:20:22 I came to do that exactly. Yeah, but it's just it's new. It's something new, right, And this is way bigger than just one performer, and it's way bigger than motion pictures, and it's way bigger than Hollywood because we're talking about like autonomy and uh, the lack of any you know, Uh, if you're going to be in a society, you have to have certain set of principles, not just rules and laws, but principles. Otherwise you're lost. So it's it's a good discussion. I think it's worth having, a right, I don't think it's a discussion we thought were going to have when we talked about. This, Sorry blindside, but I knew I was going to have this discussion.

1:21:02 Well that's good, that's good. I'm glad. I think you know, it's sometimes it's fun to just not not know what's going to happen and see where it goes, right, So as we get a lively conversation. To me, that's the value of the show as lively interactions. And there's editor talking two point zero. There's no editing involved in this show either. So is it live or is it memory? X David, I have it has it all So you guys can check that out. You can find those all on YouTube kicking around. They've been out there for a little while. I just wanted to talk about it, all right, So you know what time it is now, Eric, it is. Time for that was not went on song? All right.

1:22:01 This is the part of the show where we do our Star Trek birthdays, and we always start out our Star Trek Birthday sadly enough if I remember in those members of our Star Trek family who are no longer with us, and for that we turned to Eric Jim. This week we're going to remember five members of our Star Trek community who have gone before us. The first is actress Emily Banks, who we lost just back in twenty twenty three at the ripe old age of eighty five years old. She was the actress who portrayed Tonya Barrows in the Star Trek tos first season episode Sure Leave. Banks got her started in nineteen sixty when she was elected Miss Reine Gold, which was a beer brand from eighteen eighty to about nineteen eighty seven. She appeared in advertisements and promotions for that brand, and in nineteen sixty three she appeared as a model for the game show Say One, which had kind of an interesting mechanism. You should look that up if you'd like. Two years after her run ended, in nineteen sixty four, she got her first movie role and first television guest appearance, where she worked intermittently in both forms until nineteen eighty six, in a couple of things here and there. Not a lot of credits to her name, but what she did she did well. So happy birthday to Emily Banks. We do miss you. Happy birthday as well to Seymour Castle, the veteran actor who played Hester Delt in the Next Generation second season episode The Child. Castle was nominated for an Academy Award for his supporting role in nineteen sixty eight Faces,

1:23:32 which of course was directed by John Casavedas. Castle has over two hundred IMDb credits to his name, including both film and television, and also has credits as a cinematographer for his work providing footage of Alfred Hitchcock for Alfred Hitchcock, excuse me of Alfred Hitchcock for Cinema. He was prized as an independent director for two things, his positive nature and his facetious declaration that he'd be in any independent film for the price of a plane ticket if he liked the script. I love that. So let me ask you guys.

1:24:13 Somebody on our Facebook page wanted to know if the character of Shacks on Lower Decks was modeled after this guy, and I definitely see a likeness. What do you guys think? Yeah, I can see a little something there for sure. Yeah, I mean fighting fascism is a full time job. I mean. When I looked at it, I said, yeah, if he was a real life character, he would be this guy for sure. Well, you know something that Elle is also really cool about Seymour Cassel. I don't know if you guys have heard of a little guitar player from a band called Guns n' Roses name Slash, But he's actually the guy who gave Slash his nickname. So I just think that is pretty cool too. I mean, he's got connections all over the place. So Seymour Castle was lost back in twenty nineteen and eighty four years old. What a guy.

1:25:05 Go check out his IMDb. There's a lot in there and a happy birthday to him. Happy birthday as well to Richard Evans, the actor who played Esac in the TOS second season episode Patterns of Force. Began his career back in nineteen fifty eight and appeared in over eighty television productions throughout all sorts of decades, along the way twenty six episodes of Peyton Place, Myriad other Things, and in fact, later on in his career, in two thousand and seven, he wrote, directed, and acted in an independent film called Shadow of Rain. In addition to screen acting, Evans also worked in local theater, acting, writing, and directing, and in twenty eighteen he published an autobiographical book called faz Kills That's faz Key Kils of his recollections and remnists sences about family history, Hollywood, and his battle with cancer.

1:26:04 So Richard Evans lost back in twenty twenty one at eighty six years old. Happy birthday to him. Happy birthday as well to Nancy Anne Parsons, the actress who portrayed Marook in the Next Generation third season episode The Vengeance Factor. She was probably best known for her memorable role as Coach Beulah Bolbrecker in all three installments of The Porky's Movie series. She also filled character roles in several other movies like Sudden Impact and Steel Magnolias Along the Way. Among her minor film roles, she was cast as a nurse five times type casting. Eh. I'm not sure. Lots of television in her background as well, but she has been gone for a little while and we lost her kind of early. Two thousand and one is when we lost her at a young age of fifty eight years old. Happy birthday to Nancy An Parsons.

1:27:01 And last, but certainly not least, we have one of the Big Three. Jackson DeForest. Kelly was famous, of course, for his role as Bones McCoy on Star Trek, the original series. He went on to voice the character in the animated series and in all six of the original Star Trek movies. In fact, he went on to appear as a one hundred and thirty seven year old Admiral McCoy in TG's first season episode Encounter at Farpoint. Kelly was of course known for his accent and was born in Atlanta, Georgia. During the Great Depression, went into show business, starting as a singer. Believe it or not. During the Second World War, he served with the United States Air Force in a non fighting capacity, and he used his theater while he was in the military as well. Later the same year in nineteen forty seven, after the war was over with, Kelly co starred with the legendary entertainer Bob Hope, as well as Bing Crosby in the musical comedy Variety Girl, and of course, throughout the fifties and sixties he starred in numerous Westerns. I've caught a bunch of those on Sunday afternoons. It's kind of weird. You just turn on a Sunday afternoon black and white Western, and all of a sudden, there he is. In nineteen sixty six, Roddenberry finally cast him as the new Chief Surgeon, Leonard McCoy, taking over, of course for our original doctor.

1:28:32 And interestingly enough, a few months prior to making his appearance in Encounter, at farpoint, Kelly expressed skepticism concerning Star Trek the next generation. He said, it's a mystery to me why they're doing it. I assume Paramount thinks they can hold on to the Star Trek phenomena. There's no doubt we can't go on forever, so they're trying a way to keep it going. But there's only one Star Trek and that's ours. Well, mister Kelly, I'm proud to see that on that point, you were wrong. But still we very much revere the role that you played and very much respect Bones as a character. I still think he's most people's favorite doctor. So you know, awesome guy, awesome actor. Just can't say enough good about him. So happy birthday to Bones Jackson DeForest Kelly, whose birthday was just three days ago on January twentieth. And of course we lost him all the way back in nineteen ninety nine, and that does it for our remembrances this week.

1:29:37 Guys. Now Paul has to jump out early, so I think we're going to jump to Paul. Let him do his birthdays before he has to leave. I was just gonna say to Eric, I kind of prefer a doctor who can maintain a relationship with a candle. But that's just me. I mean, who else can make out with a candle? Noise exactly we'll make out it is a little yah. Okay, just trying to be nice for the kids. Uh, well have you met okay? I have actually better? Yeah? Truth. Truth. Happy birthday to the great Dave Diggs born on January twenty fourth. That's tomorrow, not today, who's an actor, rapper, singer, songwriter who voiced Commander Tice s really cool in Star Trek Prodigy. Awesome, awesome show that we'd always be glad to see more of. Happy birthday to Lanai Chapman, actress who portrayed and Sinceriol Rager in four episodes of Next Generation.

1:30:36 She appeared in the fourth season episode Galaxy Child, returned for fourth season episode Night Terrors and six season episodes Relics and Schisms. Wow. A lot of cool episodes there, Lni Chapman, very cool. Happy birthday to the great Lou Antonio. You're ninety years old today, Lou ninety years which is amazing, Okay, And we must honor Lou Antonio because he played Loki the Fugitive in the original series third season episode Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, which every Star Trek fan should always hold up in the face of any young Whipper snapper or right wing fascist Star Trek gets so political?

1:31:25 Hell come do that? Well, go back into basically that nineteen sixty nine episode, pal and watch, let that be your last battlefield, and Star Trek has always been focused on politics and civil rights. So there you go. But exhibit A with a great lou Antonio, amazing actor and finally for me, happy were they to Olivia Deabo, English actress and singer as well, who played Amanda Rogers in the Star Trek Next Generation sixties episode drew Q. True, I believe we were just talking about a little bit earlier tonight. I've got to turn on a pumpkin because I have another obligation that I have to go to. But this has been a lot of fun tonight, gentlemen, and uh to all of our wonderful listeners, thank you. It was a pleasure getting to discuss the future of civilization with you all.

1:32:09 So thanks. We'll see you next week, all right, take care? All right, So now we're going to jump back to Charles, and Charles can finish up. Thank you. Let's start off with a happy birthday to Philip Lamar, American actor who actor, voice, actor, comedian and writer who voiced Admiral Alonzo Friedman's Star Trek Lower Decks. I didn't realize that's so cool. Happy birthday to Marcy brick House, who played Mona love Sit in Star Trek Deep Space nine's four season episode Our Man Bregier and last time I List, but definitely a good one. Happy birthday is said Brent Brina Brenice, English actress who plays Soggy and several other characters in the first and second seasons of Star Trek Ball Also, I believe a very very strong singer as well. So that's all that's on my calendar. So let me toss this birthday candle over the gym.

1:33:32 Yeah, I don't have any klingons this week, unfortunately, but I do have a sort of you sort of I sort of have a klingon. So we want to start off by saying Happy birthday t Sash Striga. She's the actress, dancer, and singer who appeared as a holographic representation of Zora in Star Trek Short Treks Calypso an outstanding episode. If you guys have not seen it, head over to Paramount Plus and check it out. I think it was one of the best that they did Happy birthday to Sasha Strega and last on my list. Like I said, I don't have a cling up, but I kind of sort of do. We want to say happy birthday and campla to the awesome, the one and only, the Leslie Hoffman.

1:34:23 And there she is. She was the stand in on Star Trek voyager for Blonataurres and she actually is best known, I think for being the hall monitor in the Nightmare on Elm Street. And there's her picture in the upper right hand corner. She's a good friend of mine. She's been on the podcast many times. And if you guys, head over to trek talkin dot com and you look for stunt Treks. Back during Covid, Leslie and I did a one hour show I think it was on Tuesdays every Tuesday, and we talked about her career, all the people she's worked with. She worked with Ricardo Mathlbond, Planet of the Apes, all kinds of great stuff. So check that all out. And happy birthday to Leslie Hoffman. She is an incredible person, a lot of fun and I wish and she just got a new cat, by the way, so I hope her new fur baby is doing well and that wraps up our Star Trek birthdays for the night, and now it's time to move on to Star Trek News Priority one.

1:35:31 Message from Starfleet coming in on Secure channel. Incoming transmission enter authorization code, command codes verified. Define parameters of program level nine. Authorization required, specifying parameters. Transfer updata is complete. A blank alert, A blank alert. All right, guys, Eric has our first story, So why don't you get us started? Eric director talks retooling Section thirty one from a series and says it can lead to more streaming Star Trek movies. Development of the Section thirty one television series starring Michelle Yeo was announced as a spinoff of Star Trek Discovery.

1:36:16 Just as that series was kicking off its second season. A writer's room was set up under the Discovery writer slash producer team of Boyong Kim and Erica Lippold, who were joined by Discovery writer Craig Sweeney. As other projects within the Star Trek universe moved forward, including Picard and Strange New Worlds, the Section thirty one project struggled to get out of space dock, and eventually Bo Young Kim and Erica Lippold exited the Trek Universe for Greener Pastures at Netflix to become showrunners of Sweet Tooth. In the Section thirty one movie, Alec Sahar played by Omari Hardwick, is the mastermind of the Section thirty one team who seeks out Georgio for a special mission outside of the Federation.

1:37:04 According to the official synopsis quote, tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets, she also must face the sins of her past. Section thirty one also stars Casey Roll as Rachel Garrett, Sam Richardson as the Cameloyd scientist Quasi, Robert Kaczinski as the mech suited wearing Zeph Sveen Rogrock as possibly a vulcan or romulin maniac fuzz, Hubert Lee Gonzales as the Delton Malay, and Miku Martinu as young Philip Georgio. It may have taken Paramount Plus a while to get Section thirty one going, but they are still doing better than Paramount Pictures, who hasn't produced a theatrical movie release for the franchise since twenty sixteen's Star Trek Beyond.

1:37:55 There have been suggestions that there could be more streaming movies as well, possibly spun on Section thirty one or other Trek shows past and present. Ohsun Sami spoke directly to this possibility. He said, hopefully the fans love Section thirty one and love this format, and we're able to continue this format with other stories and be able to expand the universe so much faster because it doesn't have to all be television series. It can just be one pop, one pop, one pop. If the audience, the fans, they love it, disguise the limit with what we can do. I think I might get into a bit of trouble if I expand it on that. But I think as long as there's love from the audience, there's incredible fertile ground that was laid with Section thirty one to continue to grow the franchise and grow the world. The door is open. Awesome. Yeah, I mean, I'm all about expansion of the Star Trek universe. I think that Star Wars has actually done an amazing job of this. I think, uh, you know, Lucas selling off his rights to the franchise to Disney has really really worked out. We have gotten a flood of new content that's all set in the same universe, all set against that backdrop of an evil empire, and yet each one of these stories seems to contain a unique group of characters, a unique group of situations,

1:39:25 and overall most of them have been pretty decent. So I'm really hoping that, you know, this is another way in which Star Trek can continue to grow without constantly rehashing the old characters. I mean, you know, everybody loves Kirk, everybody loves Spock. We've had a lot of them. We've had six movies, We've had multiple seasons of those guys. We've had, you know, Spock's legacy continue on into the Kelvin timeline movies as well. I would love to personally see more stories that don't inv all those old characters and actually involve new characters that keep things fresh and interesting for generations to come.

1:40:07 I agree, But I was rather surprised when I talked to one of my friends this week, and I don't consider really a big Trekie. She knows a little bit about Star Trek, but she said, oh, were you ready for the new Star Trek movie? And I was surprised that she was ready to see Section thirty one. She's interested because she was curious to see what Michelle Yo does. I think it's gonna get us, and I wonder if that might get us some new fans. I wonder if this attention might give us a few fans, just like Star Trek two thousand and nine did. Maybe we may be in for some new fans. Paramount's got to get some work in getting these movies or getting something going, because we may be in for some new fans. Like, Oh, this is Michelle Yo, this is Star Trek. Oh, I want to learn a word about the Star Trek. I need to go back and rewatch this stuff. Maybe I need to go catch up on this new new Discovery series, that new Bricard series. Oh, Strange New World, the animated. Oh, let's go back and start watching these. I'm waiting to see what this does.

1:41:19 And Star Trek two thousand and nine did bring in a lot of fans. That's absolutely true. Well it's roderdran That's that's true. I'll tell the story about that one of these days. So I have another story I want to get to about Section thirty one, which premiere is tonight at midnight. I'm definitely going to go and watch it for sure. Yeah, Pacific a Star Trek Section thirty one movie worked hard to Uphold franchisees optimism, we spy an espionage theme Star Trek movie on the horizon, but will fans of the long running sci fi franchise welcome. It with open minds? Premiering tomorrow tonight on Paramount Plus. Star Trek's Section thirty one finds Oscar winner Michelle Yo reprising her role from Star Trek Discovery as Philippa Georgeau, the one time Terran Empire emperor who allies with the titular secret division of Starfleet and in turn must face the sins of her past.

1:42:17 As to draw a comparison to the movie's titular organization and a real life entity, director executive producer Alton Alsami said, Section thirty one is stuff to Starfleet what CIA is to the Pentagon, or what the CIA is to the military complex in the United States, in that they do all the stuff that Starfleet can't vote or doesn't want to admit to having to do. But our movie isn't that dark. The EP was quick to note, our movie is fun and full of life and inspiration, and that was a delicate balance to have the walk, particularly with a lead character like Philippa Georgeau. Alsami knows full well that the idea of a hard boiled spy organization within the universe that gave us the original series, The Next Generation, etc.

1:43:10 Always brings up emotions and Star Trek fans who are quick to scoff not my Star Trek. What we can say is we worked really hard to make sure we kept up the ideals of optimism and what we do want our society to be in the future, said Alsami. In the end, Section thirty one is good, it's fun, and it's a joy. Hopefully they're pleasantly surprised. The Section thirty one team is comprised of spies wielding a variety of skills poor abilities under the watchful eye of Starfleet representative Slash Hall monitor Rachel Garrett. And I think that's gonna yeah, So what do you guys think?

1:43:54 You know, I can't wait to see what the host to offer. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. I'm really excited to see it. Is this what we're talking about next week? Jim? Yes, yes, cool, Absolutely definitely. I mean, as you can tell, I love offering my opinion, so I can't wait to talk about it once I see it. Yeah, it's going to be on obviously unless we do a special show. Yeah, we're going to talk about it, and hopefully David will be able to put together an awesome slideshow like he's been doing so far, and we'll have some fun talking about it. But I, for one, I'm looking very much looking forward to what I look forward to every Star Trek movie that comes out. I go to see them all and this is no different.

1:44:39 And I hope, I hope that this movie streams enough minutes, because that's what they base it on, the minutes that it's streamed to work their Yes, they're wallets into making more of these, because I think this is a format. Every streaming service has their own, you know, made for their service movies. Netflix did that was that Will Smith one with the with the psyclopses and stuff. What was the name that where he was a cop in the future. I thought I forgot the name of it. But you know, all the streaming services have their own little movies that are only shown on their series, and Paramount Plus is Star Trek, so it's only fitting that they have Star Trek made for streaming movies. And hopefully this one works out and maybe we see Captain War or whatever in the future. So I'm going to give this one a chance and hopefully it works out well and it ushers in a new age of Star Trek movies that we could watch right at home, and a variety of different different things, because if they don't have to, they don't have to compete with they don't have to compete with Marvel and all these big movies. And they're strictly streaming, which is basically for people like you and right that are Star Trek fans. And then I think they have a good chance of making some really interesting, really well made movies.

1:46:07 Yeah, and I hope they take fans reactions to the trailers like I. After reading more about the movie since the trailers came out, I became more interested in it myself because the trailers read very Star Wars to me. You know, you didn't kind of get the sense of the Star trekness that was going to happen in section thirty one. And after I started reading more articles and it talked about her role and how she's it's kind of like this Western style format and that sort of stuff, I became more interested. But not every fan out there is going to read more about it, right, They're just going to watch the trailer and they're going to either go thumbs up or thumbs down. So hopefully they take that into consideration with the next movie and they actually give us a trailer that brings the trickiness to it, which I think will keep Star Trek fans more engaged as well as bring in new fans.

1:47:05 Yeah, I think you know, the fans are already hating on it, and that's unfortunate. And it hasn't even come out yet. Well, it's because the trailer was not that great. I mean yeah, but action, well, I mean, they're paying Michelle Yo, I don't know how many countless millions of dollars to kick ass, and that's what they're going to show in the trailer. But but why wouldn't I just watch Star Wars? Then, well you can, You're you're free to go and watch Star Wars. But Star Wars stinks, so Star Trek does. But yeah, I mean, yeah, I don't know, I don't know. I'm glad that. I'm glad they didn't give us a lot in the trailer because I don't know anything about the story. They didn't ruin anything for him other than watching Michelle Yo kick some ass which we expected. I don't know anything about the story, and that's how I want to go into it. I don't want to go into it saying, oh, yeah, I saw this clip in the trailer. I already know it. So I'm kind of glad that they did that. But Star Trek mind Star Trek fans can be very narrow minded and very closed minded for open minded, forward thinking people, they can be just the opposite sometimes, So let's hope that this one isn't so. But I will say Star Trek Beyond, I wasn't thrilled with the trailer for Star Trek Beyond, Captain Kirk riding around on a motorcycle and Beastie Boys music playing, and the movie turned out not to be that great,

1:48:36 but not for that reason, for different reasons. Altogether. I had great characters, you know, they really nailed the characters. They act, they cast them great. But the movie wasn't that great, and it wasn't because of the trailer. So yeah, let's see what happens. So yeah, So, anybody have anything they want to add. I don't think we have enough time for another story. I had a story for Paul, but Paul had to run unless unless somebody wants to jump in. You want to do Paul's story, Eric, You think we have time? Yeah, I mean we've got a little bit of time left, so yeah, me to do it. I think we'll do it. You want to fill in for Paul, I'll.

1:49:17 Fill in for Paul. I'm not sure I'm quite as good looking as he is, but I'll do my best. Throw some decimals in there well. Don Lewis, of course, is nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Star Trek Lower Decks and if you don't remember who she is, she of course plays Captain Freeman. Freeman's image is recognized. The NAACP has announced nominees for their fifty sixth annual NAACP Image Awards, honoring outstanding achievements and performances of people of color in Arts, Entertainment, and culture. Don Lewis, who of course plays Captain Carol Freeman, was nominated for Outstanding televis Character Voice Over Performance. She is going up against Angela Bassett from Orian and the Dark.

1:50:08 Pree Summer, nominated twice for the Legend of Vox Machina and Rugrats and Kiki Palmer the second Best Hospital in the Galaxy. I'm unfamiliar with that, but it sounds very interesting. This is the first Image Award nomination for the Star Trek for Star Trek since twenty twenty one, when Lewis was nominated for the same award. In two thousand, Lewis won an Image Award for her work in the stage play The Marriage. She has also won a Grammy and other awards for her musical career. The fifth and final season of Lower Decks has also been nominated for a Saturn Award. Winners will be revealed Friday, February twenty first of this year at the fifty sixth annual NAACP Image Awards Creative Honors Ceremony on NAACP Awards dot Net and during the awards ceremony on Saturday, Forebory twenty second at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, airing live on BET and CBS.

1:51:11 I think this is fantastic because I of course think Don Lewis is amazing. Captain Freeman is one of my favorite characters. She, like most of our other not most like every single one of our other captains in Star Trek, is kind of responsible for keeping this ragtag bunch of folks together and making sure to steer them in the right direction. And I actually like the fact that here we get a captain who has a family, right, not only a family, but a family that's actually on the ship. We haven't had a lot of those captains. Kirk was solo. Cisco had Jake, but I think the relationship there was different because that was like single dad and kid, right, Jane's family Joe was left behind. We have Michael Burnham who interacted with her mother here and there, but she wasn't on the ship. So it's kind of a new way of looking at captains on on a ship in Star Trek. Are you gonna say, David.

1:52:13 Sorry, I was going to say that the difference between Cisco having a family and Freeman was that Freeman's family was working. All of them were working in Starfleet, where Cisco Sun was just like, you know, a little kid when we first saw him, and we kind of grew up with him, and so he wasn't in Starfleet at all. But yeah, so the difference between that dynamic who's a little different. Absolutely. I think so Michael Burnham had Spock in season two kind of a family a little bit. It's a different dynamic, Yeah, sort of. Spock had Cybock in Star Trek five, the best movie ever Dynamic.

1:53:03 All right, So guys, don't forget that. We're going to be talking to the awesome Nicholas Meyer on January sixth, So have your questions ready Star Trek two, four, and six, as well as science advisor on season one of Star Trek Discovery and writer of con Seti Alpha five. So there's a lot of questions we can ask him, a lot of fun stuff to discuss. So have your questions ready and head over to Trek Talking dot com, click on the blue mic and record your message. We'll play all of your questions for him on our February sixth show. I just want to take an opportunity to say thank you to Paul for hanging out and Trek Talking with us tonight. Thank you so much, Paul for hanging with us.

1:53:47 Thank you to Eric for hanging out and Trek Talking with us. Thank you so much, Eric, you bet guys, great time as always. And thank you so much to Charles for hanging out in Trek Talking. Thank you, Charles, Oh, thank you, it was a great conversation tonight. And thank you to David and uh, David, I know that we worked all of this out in advance, and we spend all that time on Wednesday night numbering everything, organizing everything. But you're a miracle worker. We're able to think on your feet and get it done. Even though we change things up on you a little bit. Everything worked out in the and so thank you so much, David. It was fun. I'm all hot now.

1:54:29 You're you're wearing gloves, I mean. So so that helps. Yeah, just have some Moldie cheese that will help you. And I'm your most excellent host, Uncle Jim saying to everybody, please stay safe and be good to each other. Remember Star Trek fans are the best fans. Thank you for being a fan. Hailing frequencies are closed. Good night, everybody long and prosper right at y'all all stations ready for departure, sir, Some problem righter.

1:55:10 I'm just hoping this isn't the usual way ourmissions will go, sir. Oh, no, number one. I'm sure most will be much more interesting. Let's see what's out there. Engage