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‘The Orville’ Is Back for Season 3. But How Does It Fit Into a New Space TV Landscape?

Seth MacFarlane’s comedy-drama returns after three years away. But the television environment it joins now is not the same one it left at the end of Season 2.

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It would’ve been so easy for The Orville not to come back. Over two brief seasons, the spacefaring comedy-drama had generated solid but unremarkable reviews and ratings. Its creator and star, Seth MacFarlane, had other irons in the fire— Family Guy , American Dad! , a TV adaptation of the Ted movies. Fox had already shuffled two seasons around the calendar, and plans for a third were put on hold when the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted production. And in 2020, MacFarlane, whose animated shows had been tentpole programming at Fox for decades, split with his longtime corporate bosses and inked a $200 million deal with NBC .

But like its plucky namesake starship, last seen dodging laser beams during a climactic set-piece battle, The Orville has survived for a third season.

In Trial by Content , Dave, Joanna, and Neil will debate pressing questions in pop culture and you—the listener—will decide who’s right.

Vote for the best TV series finale in the latest Trial by Content !

“It’s the most fun writing job I’ve ever had,” MacFarlane told me recently over Zoom. “I love telling these stories, and it’s a wonderful group of people I love working with.”

The forthcoming season, which premieres on Hulu June 2 and is subtitled New Horizons , marks a bit of a shift for the series. The crew composition continues to evolve, with Anne Winters joining the cast as a young navigator. And MacFarlane says the move to Hulu comes with a more “cinematic” visual style. But the biggest adjustment comes not from within the show’s universe, but in the real world’s streaming TV landscape.

When The Orville , which mimics the style and many of the conventions of Star Trek , premiered in 2017, there had been six official Star Trek shows released in the previous 51 years. In less than five years since, CBS All Access and Paramount+ have aired six more, including four that premiered in the three years since The Orville finished Season 2. And the Star Trek shows have had to compete against a constellation of socially conscious spacefaring dramas: big streaming swings like For All Mankind , The First , and Away , and later seasons of The Expanse , among others.

Given all that, the biggest question for The Orville entering its third season is this: Is there still a place for this show when space—and Star Trek in particular—is busier than it’s ever been?

The Orville , in its premise, setting, visual language, and choice of subject matter, is a Star Trek show in all but name. Even some of its senior creative figures, like executive producers Brannon Braga and David A. Goodman, are Trek veterans—though they often try to soft-pedal the similarities between projects. When I asked Braga and Goodman what they’d learned from their previous experience, Goodman laughed and said, “Wait, Brannon worked on Star Trek ?”

The last time MacFarlane’s Captain Ed Mercer and his crew signed off, they held an interesting place in that wider universe. The history of Star Trek has many fault lines and watershed moments, but one of the biggest came between Star Trek: Enterprise ’s ending in 2005 and the J.J. Abrams–directed Star Trek reboot four years later. Before that point, Star Trek had mostly revolved around one premise: Presented with a problem, how would the best of humanity react? The original series and The Next Generation got hundreds of hours worth of mileage out of this setup. And because of creator Gene Roddenberry’s intractable opposition to serialization, these shows became mind-bendingly successful in syndication.

After Roddenberry’s death in 1991, the writers of the various Star Trek series got a little more freedom to experiment, particularly on Deep Space Nine and Enterprise, which began to portray a darker, more cynical side of humanity over longer story arcs. Deep Space Nine introduced an organization called Section 31, which in small doses hinted at a hidden and mostly unremarked-upon cost to maintaining Roddenberry’s sometimes cartoonishly optimistic secular humanist utopia.

The rebooted movies, and particularly Paramount’s new crop of TV shows, took Deep Space Nine ’s spicy twist and embraced it—juiced it, more like—until Star Trek was just like any other sci-fi franchise. If Deep Space Nine added much-needed seasoning to a classic dish, parts of Discovery and especially Picard made the entire meal out of salt.

Against that context, The Orville was a refreshing return to the original premise: mostly episodic, overwhelmingly hopeful, socially conscious middlebrow sci-fi.

“The thing I think was important to bring in [from Star Trek ] was the type of storytelling,” Braga told me, “which was stand-alone stories, well told, driven by this high concept, with a certain optimistic spirit and a certain depiction of the future.”

When I reviewed The Orville ’s first few episodes five years ago , I confronted it as a combination of parody and homage, the work of a comedian playing with beloved storytelling conventions. But MacFarlane and Braga never intended The Orville to be a parody; two seasons in, it’s become more of a pastiche.

“We never approached it as a satire or a parody, which I think would have been the immediate assumption, seeing Seth’s name on it,” Braga said. “The story always came first and the comedy—Seth says it’s comedy frosting—was part of it, but it wasn’t the main driver.”

“That was part of the paradigm from day one,” MacFarlane said. “The story has to work as a story, and then you can hang a bunch of jokes on it and you’re fine. With this show, it was really about finding the tone. The tone, to me, started to really come together at the end of Season 1, and then developed even more fully in Season 2.”

The tone MacFarlane refers to is an intriguing mix of old-school Star Trek ’s resolute moral seriousness and a heavy dollop of goofy humor. The crew of The Orville , especially Captain Mercer, are well-intentioned but definitely not the best and brightest. They bicker over inane problems, they play pranks, they go to work hungover, and they carry out multiyear running gags about having to pee .

In one of the best episodes of Season 2, “Sanctuary,” the crew encounters a colony of female aliens from a heavily patriarchal species. Mercer invites the alien leader to peruse the ship’s collection of art created by the women of Earth, and she immediately seizes on Dolly Parton as Earth’s great feminist poet, who “speaks with the might of 100 soldiers. …This is the voice of our revolution.” Minutes later, there’s a climactic gunfight set to “9 to 5.”

It’s silly, but the jokes are in service of a narrative and a message. And while MacFarlane admits the show struggled to strike the right balance between story and humor early on, he cited the most recent episode of Black Mirror , “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too,” as an inspiration for The Orville going forward, praising its blending of serious sci-fi and “rompish” comedy.

“The idea in Season 3 was to really lean into that,” MacFarlane said. “That tone is to not lose what’s funny about these characters, but make sure that it’s also real, that we’re not writing a sci-fi story and then surgically looking for spots to add jokes, which was kind of what we were doing at the beginning of Season 1. We stopped pressuring ourselves to do that and really let the story take precedence.”

That turned out to be the key to unlocking The Orville ’s potential and the key to appreciating it for what it is: a drama, occasionally interrupted by jokes.

“I was known as the king of torture on 24 ,” said Jon Cassar, who directed, among other Orville episodes, last season’s two-part “Identity” and the Season 3 premiere “Electric Sheep.” “Comedy wasn’t at the forefront. I think I said that: ‘Really? You really want me to do this show? This is a Seth MacFarlane show.’ And I remember them saying, ‘Drama first.’ We want to play this like a straight-up one-hour drama. That’s the most important thing.”

As MacFarlane’s show filled a lane left open by the Abrams movies and Discovery , though, Paramount delivered a rapid-fire response with several new Star Trek series. They dug Anson Mount’s Captain Pike and the Enterprise out of the vault for Strange New Worlds , which returns to the franchise’s original episodic format and wide-eyed tone . And because there’s so much humor to be mined from watching C+ students deal with problems of galactic importance, Paramount+ has ordered two additional seasons of the animated series Lower Decks to go with the two that have already aired. For two seasons, The Orville gave Star Trek diehards something they couldn’t get on first-run TV. Now there’s competition.

“Up until very recently, we were the only show that was occupying anything near that space and tone in sci-fi,” MacFarlane said. “I think even now The Orville is very much in its own space. It’s got its own vibe. But [how the show holds up to the competition is] not decided by us. That’s decided by the viewers.”

Even among all that noise, MacFarlane still believes The Orville offers something unique. And at the end of our conversation, he touched on the quality that makes the show work.

“It really is still about these people,” MacFarlane said. “On any show you tune in to watch the people. Are these people I want to hang with each week?”

For all the aliens and special effects and wild makeup you’d expect from Star Trek , what makes these shows successful is that viewers like spending an hour a week with the crew. Many years ago, my colleague Brian Phillips praised The Next Generation by writing, “the show offers a fantasy of smart friends working together and supporting each other that’s designed to make you want to join them.” That’s true of every successful Star Trek show, and why the Kirk-Spock-McCoy trio is one of television’s most beloved friendships, or why Avery Brooks’s portrayal of Ben Sisko still resonates a generation later .

The crew of The Orville is … mostly not that smart, but they’re still a part of that tradition. And Season 3 promises to test that family dynamic as the crew deals with the aftermath of a war with the robotic Kaylon. Among the survivors is The Orville ’s science officer, Isaac, who after being sent to study humanity, decided to side with his flesh-and-blood friends against his people. Winters’s character, by contrast, comes to The Orville after suffering immense personal losses in the war and struggles to adjust to sharing the bridge with a Kaylon.

As much as The Orville chimes in on contemporary political issues through allegory, though, it’s always been at its best when the original question of the series—how do normal people stand up to extraordinary circumstances?—is at the forefront.

“The very first time we all met together collectively, Seth said we’re doing a science-fiction piece, but what we are is people who happen to be in space,” said Penny Johnson Jerald, who plays Dr. Claire Finn. “We’ve always been people first, and it’s on the page. We lift the words and emotions off the page so viewers can enjoy and be a part of it. … It truly helps to like your fellow cast.”

“We have a group chat,” said Adrianne Palicki, who plays first officer Kelly Grayson. “We are always constantly in contact with each other, which is a rarity on any show, especially after you’ve wrapped.”

That chemistry gives the crew of the Orville an unexpected warm and fuzzy tone, almost reminiscent of Ted Lasso . (Perhaps if American TV viewers had latched onto this band of endearingly semi-competent work buddies instead, internet discourse wouldn’t be so hysterical . Dare to dream.) And they somehow manage to portray that earnestness without coming off as cloying or phony.

“A lot of television I see is a lot more dark and gritty in its interpersonal relationships and depictions thereof,” MacFarlane said. “I live in a pretty intense industry. I don’t go to work every day and fight with my coworkers and get into spats and deal with high drama. It’s actually pretty pleasant. So I don’t think it’s that unrealistic.”

Thanks to streaming and a bucket-of-crabs-type scramble for corporations to gobble up franchises and squeeze every last drop of blood from every stone, the viewers that MacFarlane defers to have never had more options for spacefaring drama and action. But watching a TV show is ultimately a question of time commitment. In terms of storytelling and visuals, The Orville holds its own with any of its contemporaries. But what makes an episodic TV show stick—including the older Star Trek series—is whether the characters are worth spending time with. Here, The Orville ’s band of weirdos and misfits sets itself apart. You can go boldly wherever you want, as long as you like who you’re going with.

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• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Outrageous Okona

• Episode aired Dec 10, 1988

The Enterprise rescues the captain of a broken-down freighter, only to become involved in a dispute between feuding worlds--each demanding custody of their guest. Data seeks help from Guinan... Read all The Enterprise rescues the captain of a broken-down freighter, only to become involved in a dispute between feuding worlds--each demanding custody of their guest. Data seeks help from Guinan in understanding humor. The Enterprise rescues the captain of a broken-down freighter, only to become involved in a dispute between feuding worlds--each demanding custody of their guest. Data seeks help from Guinan in understanding humor.

• Robert Becker
• Gene Roddenberry
• Burton Armus
• Les Menchen
• Patrick Stewart
• Jonathan Frakes
• LeVar Burton
• 30 User reviews
• 9 Critic reviews

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard

• Commander William Thomas 'Will' Riker

• Lieutenant Geordi La Forge

• Lieutenant Worf

• Counselor Deanna Troi

• Lieutenant Commander Data

• Wesley Crusher

• Capt. Thadiun Okona
• (as William O. Campbell)

• (as Rosalind Ingledew)

• Enterprise Computer
• (uncredited)

• Operations Division Officer
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia Billy Campbell , who played Okona, was a contender for the role of Commander Riker. Campbell was Gene Roddenberry 's preferred choice, but the studio insisted on Jonathan Frakes instead.
• Goofs Data is summarizing the Comic's joke about Tip O'Neill and the briefcase that looks like a fish by stating, "So the juxtaposition of gender and an amphibian briefcase..." Data should know the difference between fish and amphibians.

Lieutenant Worf : Captain! They're now locking lasers on us.

Commander William T. Riker : Lasers?

Lieutenant Worf : Yes, sir.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Lasers can't even penetrate our navigation shields, don't they know that?

Commander William T. Riker : Regulations... do call for yellow alert.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Hm... Very old regulation. Well, make it so, Number One. And reduce speed. Drop main shields as well.

Commander William T. Riker : May I ask why, sir?

Captain Jean-Luc Picard : In case we decide to surrender to them, Number One.

• Connections Referenced in Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
• Soundtracks Star Trek: The Next Generation Main Title Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage

User reviews 30

• Jan 5, 2022
• December 10, 1988 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
• Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Studio)
• Paramount Television
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 46 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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The Funniest Episodes of the Entire Star Trek Franchise of All Time, Ranked

Live long and LOL

As Star Trek: Lower Decks closes out a fourth season filled with more laughs than hungry Tribbles can fit in a storage container of quadrotriticale, tapping the comedy potential of Star Trek franchise — a tradition dating all the way back to the first season of The Original Series over 50 years ago — has proven incredibly durable; even the latest live-action series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , has frequently, and quite successfully, plotted a course into humorous territory.

Indeed, the whole Star Trek franchise has a long and storied history with comedy, with just about every corner of the franchise firmament mining the series' sci-fi premise for laughs. Here then, are the 20 funniest installments of Trek (not including Lower Decks, with its Prime Directive of jokes-at-warp-speed, or any episodes that, frankly, are so unintentionally bad that they're kind of hilarious — sorry, "The Way to Eden" and "Up the Long Ladder").

Rosa Salazar, Star Trek: Short Treks

20. "The Trouble with Edward" ( Short Treks , Season 2, Episode 2) Taking both a cue and plot inspiration from one of Trek's most legendary forays into humor, this Short Treks take adds its own quirky and daresay macabre twist on the venerable Tribble trope via Edward Larkin, a stubbornly single-minded, malcontent scientist on the USS Cabot (played to prickly perfection by H. Jon Benjamin ), whose misguided attempt to create a perpetually self-sustaining food source out of the adorably fuzzy aliens leads to darkly comic catastrophe.

19. "Body and Soul" ( Voyager , Season 7, Episode 7) In a variation on the tried-and-true body-swapping genre, the Doctor's holographic essence is incorporated into Seven of Nine's Borg matrix when Voyager runs afoul of aliens with anti-photonic being sentiments. The principal pleasures of this episode come from Jeri Ryan 's wickedly spot-on impression of Robert Picardo 's cranky EMH's tone and mannerisms whenever Seven cedes control of her form to him.

18. "The Elysian Kingdom" ( Strange New Worlds , Season 1, Episode 8) Among the handful of Trek episodes that thrust familiar crewmembers — and the actors behind them — into alt-reality roles, none are as indulgently, deliriously silly as this one, which finds the Enterprise immersed into a Princess Bride -esque fairy tale narrative, one that allows the cast — in particular, Anson Mount as a fawning/scheming courtier and Christina Chong as a sing-song, tiny-dog-toting princess — to gleefully chew the scenery in their storybook personas.

17. "The Magnificent Ferengi" ( Deep Space Nine , Season 6, Episode 10) Brilliantly casting the franchise's most notoriously scruples-free species, led by Quark, Rom and Nog, as a gang of misfits united Dirty Dozen -style for a heroic mission, this episode deftly juggles all its comedic elements, action beats, and plot-twists — it even unexpectedly but successfully veers into Weekend at Bernie's territory. All that and Iggy Pop as the Cardassian Big Bad!

16. "The Escape Artist" ( Short Treks , Season 1, Episode 4) After two decidedly menacing outings as Harry Mudd, actor Rainn Wilson (who also directed) at last gets to delve into the more amusing aspects of the intergalactic con artist in this cleverly plotted ode to Mudd's boundless capacity for duplicity in pursuit of profit, with a novel payoff that's both funny and a fitting callback to Mudd's funniest TOS appearance.

15. "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy" ( Voyager , Season 6, Episode 4) An espionage spoof that takes great advantage of both actor Robert Picardo's facility for comedy and The Doctor's overabundant confidence and equally fragile ego as aliens mistake the EMH's "daydream" subroutine for Voyager's reality — yet it somehow also delivers a poignant take on the Doctor's bid for greater respect and responsibility among the crew. And the B-plot — featuring Paris' novel solution for Tuvok's pon farr problem — is about as deadpan amusing as a Vulcan storyline can get. 

14. "Ménage à Troi" ( The Next Generation , Season 3, Episode 24)  Deanna's "Auntie Mame"-channeling mother Lwaxana Troi always livens up the proceedings whenever she pops into the Trek -verse, but none of her escapades are as fast-paced and funny as this farcical bit of business, in which a besotted Ferengi kidnaps her in hopes of forcing a tactically advantageous marriage. Majel Barrett is at her most formidable and funny in the role here, and her persistent flirtations with Picard provide a terrific climatic punchline.

DeForest Kelly, Star Trek

13. "Shore Leave" ( The Original Series , Season 1, Episode 16) After some tiptoeing into comedy, this episode marks The Original Series ' first foray into a largely humorous episode (even with ravenous tigers, marauding samurai, and strafing fighter planes), and the planetary playground where random musings come to thrilling life set the template for the future holodeck, the stage-setter for many of Trek's best comedies. It smartly leans heavily on the wry, laid-back charms of DeForest Kelley and offers an early reveal of William Shatner 's inherent comedic gifts during his donnybrook with his obnoxious Starfleet Academy tormentor Finnegan.

12. "Spock Amok" ( Strange New Worlds , Season 1, Episode 5) In another wittily plotted body-swap, Spock and T'Pring's Vulcan soul-sharing exercise inadvertently causes them to switch minds just as Spock must help conduct a crucial diplomatic mission with an empathetic species uber-sensitive to nuance, resulting in a classic comedy of manners as the engaged Vulcans try each other's lives on and gain a better understanding of the demands each grapples with. The " Enterprise Bingo" B-plot, showing off the lighter sides of Starfleet super-pros Una and La'an, is equally disarming.

11. "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" ( Deep Space Nine , Season 7, Episode 4) The usually very straightlaced and disciplined Sisko drives the comedy — much to actor Avery Brooks ' clear delight — as he unravels while trying to best his longtime Vulcan rival Solok in a game of holodeck baseball. Does the storyline of a ragtag group of players coming together as a team against all odds, with the least of them — Rom — getting a shot to shine, smack of The Bad News Bears and a zillion similarly structured sitcom episodes? Absolutely. Does it all still work wonderfully? Absolutely. Go Niners!

10. "Q-pid" ( The Next Generation , Season 4, Episode 20) There's a lot of setup in the first half of the episode, reuniting Picard with Vash, his scoundrel dalliance from Risa and creating romantic tensions between them, while also bringing Q into the mix late in the game, but the payoff is totally worth it when Q's omnipotent powers transport the crew to his vision of Sherwood Forest and the subsequent swashbuckling silliness is amped up to 11, and Worf irritably delivers one of the funniest line readings in all of Trek history: "I am NOT a Merry Man."

9. "I, Mudd" ( The Original Series , Season 2, Episode 8) The mothership series always demonstrated an ingrained sense of playfulness, but really cuts loose in this outing, which in his second appearance transforms Harry Mudd from a dangerous conniver into a much more comedic rogue (both incarnations deftly played by the great character actor Roger C. Carmel ). The society of assorted identical android models is minded for every amusement, the entire supporting cast gets in on the fun (Chekov's Cossack dance! Spock's android-breaking amore!), Shatner plays Kirk with the lightest possible touch without ever sacrificing his dignity, and Mudd is served with some hilarious (if perhaps outdated, to current sensibilities) poetic justice.

8. "Badda-Bing Badda-Bang" ( Deep Space Nine , Season 7, Episode 15) Inspired by great caper-film jaunts like Ocean's Eleven , this is similarly brimming with a sense of Rat Pack-y fun and swagger from start to finish as the crew of the space station crafts a dizzying, clockwork plot — complete with unexpected complications and a reluctant hero (for compelling reasons) in Sisko — to restore photonic crooner Vic Fontaine, deposed by gangster rivals and a glitchy holodeck program, to his rightful place atop the swinging version of '60s-era Las Vegas.

7. "Bride of Chaotica!" ( Voyager , Season 5, Episode 12) Among the top-tier of the "holodeck goes awry" sub-genre and filmed largely in glorious black-and-white to evoke the low-budget, kinda-cheesy sci-fi movie serials of old that inspired Tom Paris' "Captain Proton" hologram — mistaken here by light-based beings for the crew's actual reality — the episode is a lark from start to finish, but never more amusingly so than when Kate Mulgrew takes center stage when Janeway swans imperiously around posing as the titular bride Queen Arachnia. 

6. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home While the first series offered a fair share of comedically inclined episodes, this entry in the film franchise cemented Trek's willingness to have fun with itself — with terrific results — in the public consciousness, well before the many spin-offs joined the sandbox. Credit Harve Bennett and Nicholas Meyer's inspired script for tweaking conventional Trek tropes and finding fish-out-of-water hilarity (not to mention Meyer's particularly sparkling, witty dialogue), director Leonard Nimoy 's established facility for handling both light comedy and the demands of the franchise framework, and the classic crew's sheer gameness to add renewed twinkle to their long-established roles.

5. "A Piece of the Action" ( The Original Series , Season 2, Episode 17) Bouncing off a fresh sci-fi story springboard involving the unintentional cultural contamination of an alien planet — a left-behind book about the Chicago mobs of the '20s remade the world into a planet of tough-talking, Tommy gun-toting gangsters — this episode runs headlong into its comic Guys and Dolls  potential, with William Shatner utterly stealing the show (amid sharp performances including Nimoy and those of guest actors Vic Tayback and Anthony Caruso ) as a pinstripe-suited Kirk leans harder and harder into his newly adopted, tough-talking performance as the ultimate boss of bosses.

Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

4. "Those Old Scientists" ( Strange New Worlds , Season 2, Episode 7) The anarchic comic energy and furiously paced one-liners of Lower Decks merged seamlessly with the majestic, old-school sensibilities of Strange New Worlds — itself no stranger to embracing the off-kilter — when the former's Boimler and Mariner make a live-action beam-in to crossover with the fellow Trek franchisee. Thanks in large part to the fact that Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome could also perfectly physically embody the Lower Decks characters they give voice to and serve the meatier timey-wimey story well, the episode is packed with laughs without violating the established tone and tenor of SNW .

3. "A Fistful of Datas" ( The Next Generation , Season 6, Episode 8) "Fistful" finds countless opportunities to satirize the well-worn Western genre, particularly by casting three of the series' most unlikely characters — Worf, Alexander, and Troi — in the Frontier Hero roles. But using the holo-glitch at the center of the jeopardy to populate the program with multiple Old West iterations of Data — each brilliantly dileneated and mined for maximum hilarity by Brent Spiner — was the stroke of genius that makes this one the ne plus ultra of holodeck-mishap episodes, and the final riding-off-into-the-sunset visual gag is the cherry on top.

2. "Trials and Tribble-ations" ( Deep Space Nine , Season 5, Episode 6) It's as if this episode — made to fondly mark by franchise's 30th anniversary by paying tribute to one of TOS 's most beloved episodes — is just daring die-hard and casual Trek fans alike not to grin from ear to ear throughout, with the DS9 crew traveling back in time and becoming enmeshed in the classic "The Trouble with Tribbles" mission. Its retro production and costume design, devilishly clever weaving of new characters and plot into decades-old footage, and nods to Trek lore both savvy and subtle make it packed with warm humor as it is with storytelling creativity.

1. "The Trouble with Tribbles" (The Original Series, Season 2, Episode 15) Long the gold standard for the lighter side of Star Trek , one of the aspects that makes this episode such tremendous fun is that with all of its baked-in comedic elements — the adorable, prolifically reproducing, Klingon-hating fuzzy aliens; a trash-talking Klingon igniting a full-on barroom brawl by disparaging the Enterprise , rather than its stalwart captain; smooth-talking trader Cyrano Jones; and Kirk's not-so-veiled contempt for uptight middle managers — all of the merriment somehow still fits perfectly within the series' established sci-fi framework, bending but not breaking the format. Audiences may have previously laughed at cheap, clunky, and ill-conceived genre efforts before, but here they got to laugh with the smartly made, ambitious show as it winked knowingly at itself. Thus "Tribbles" boldly set — and maintains — the high bar for all Trek romps to follow.

All Star Trek series and movies are streaming on Paramount+.

'Star Trek: Lower Decks' creator shares how to find humor in Starfleet

How Mike McMahan, creator of "Star Trek: Lower Decks," finds comedy in flawed characters.

NEW YORK, New York — Star Trek has always involved a little comedy, but "Star Trek: Lower Decks" involves a lot of comedy. 

This animated sitcom set in the " Star Trek " universe envisions life on a Federation starship from the perspective of the everyday men and women who make it run, often with hilarious results. But finding the comedy in a serious setting such as Starfleet can be a challenge, as we learned from the show's creator.

Space.com sat down with "Lower Decks" creator Mike McMahan in a press roundtable at New York Comic Con 2023. There, we learned how he finds new territory to explore in a 50-year old series , how he incorporates new characters into a well-established crew and how he doesn't feel married to character backstory — particularly when being flexible results in a more entertaining world.

Related: 'Star Trek: Lower Decks' takes center stage at NYCC 2023

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Mariner's character arc

"I still feel Lower Decks," McMahan admitted, which is perhaps why the characters on the show feel so authentic. "[Executive producer Alex] Kurtzman is my boss, you know. I'm still getting notes from the network. There are very few times you don't feel Lower Decks.

"Knowing that is a strength and a weakness. There's people you meet and things you learn about yourself when you are Lower Decks, in life, that you end up carrying more than what you learn when you're at the top of your game."

First off, McMahan was eager to discuss Beckett Mariner, the wayward daughter of the USS Cerritos Capt. Carol Freeman. This season, Mariner has struggled to embrace her new role as a Lieutenant (JG) as she begins to realize that the rest of the crew has her back, and wants her to succeed. According to McMahan, this is all part of the plan.

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"Mariner, I'm not really worried about," he said. "I have a long term plan for [her], and you'll see. We haven't released the last two episodes of the season. They're pretty Mariner-focused … I love the idea of a Starfleet officer getting kicked off of multiple ships. It's the opposite of [Cmdr. William] Riker [from Star Trek: The Next Generation] turning down multiple promotions.

"What I love about Mariner is really unlocked by [her voice actress] Tawny Newsome. I wrote Mariner before I met Tawny. I've adjusted [Mariner] to embody the way Tawny loves Star Trek, the same way I do."

Flawed characters

Along those lines, McMahan discussed how finding comedy in Star Trek always comes from a place of love.

"It's not really making fun of Star Trek; it's having fun with Star Trek," he said. "It's having fun with your friends who love Star Trek as much as you do. If someone else made fun of it, you'd say 'shut up!'"

However, setting the right tone is only part of the problem. Comedy in TV shows often falls back on characters who are incompetent, self-serving or, at the very least, in way over their heads. Starfleet officers, on the other hand, are highly skilled military and scientific officers — even when the ship in question is not the USS Enterprise.

"The person who does the lowest level job on any Federation ship has to be the best of us," said McMahan. "There's no bad actor on any Starfleet ship. How do you get a comedically flawed person out of that?"

One potential option was to make characters' flaws manifest in their off-hours. However, McMahan's first attempt at that went awry. In early drafts of Lower Decks, Lt. JG Sam Rutherford was a bit of a cad, continually dating different women aboard the Cerritos and never settling on one.

"At the end of the pilot, I was like, no, this feels disgusting," McMahan recalls. "That's not very Star Trek. I don't want to do a dating show."

Instead, he discovered that Rutherford was funnier — and more relatable — as D'Vana Tendi's platonic best friend. They both love the Cerritos, and McMahan has found their "shipmance" much easier and more natural to write.

(However, he did enjoy writing Rutherford and Tendi's quasi-pretend romance in "Parth Ferengi's Heart Place" this season. "You want those two to get together," he said, but didn't commit to whether it would ever actually happen.)

In fact, shifting gears for characters and plotlines has already happened a number of times. While McMahan resisted these changes at first, he's since learned to embrace the fluid nature of character development.

"I'm going to create something a little different from what we had before," he said. "No one sits down to watch a show and says, 'How figured out is this? I only like shows that are totally figured out. I don't want to be surprised.'"

Adding new characters

We asked McMahan what it was like to add a new character into the mix. This season, Vulcan science officer T'Lyn joined the main cast, and has meshed well with the existing four main characters so far. McMahan credits her success to Star Trek's long history of interesting Vulcan characters.

"We're just stealing from [Leonard] Nimoy," he said. "I grew up watching The Wrath of Khan. I love Kirk and Spock. They're the perfect tonal combination for comedy. They play it for comedy all the time. We're playing T'Lyn exactly like that, and treating the rest of Lower Decks like Kirk. They're fiery; they're emotional; they're strong-willed. And then T'Lyn just explicitly calls it out."

—  Join the crew of the USS Cerritos in 'Star Trek: Lower Decks' role-playing game

—  Why 'Star Wars' needs its own answer to 'Star Trek: Lower Decks'

 —  'Star Trek: Lower Decks' takes center stage at NYCC 2023

McMahan cites T'Lyn's inability to craft "second-level" dialogue as a recipe for comic success. He made up an example in which a character is sitting in another character's favorite chair. Whereas Brad Boimler, Mariner, Rutherford, or Tendi would say, "What are you doing?", T'Lyn would simply say "Why are you in my chair?"

"She just explicitly says what's going on," said McMahan. "She ends up being funny, but also relatable. She feels like all of us at some point.

"It's a great comedic tool," he concluded. "She can say four words, and it makes you laugh. It's a superpower that Vulcans have."

McMahan didn't say much about the rest of Season 4, as the last two episodes apparently have some bombshell plot developments. We'll learn what happens as they air on Oct. 26 and Nov. 2. 

Until then, fans have the next standalone episode, "Caves," to look forward to on Oct. 19. The series is available on Paramount Plus, which is available on most streaming devices, and costs between $5 and $12 per month, depending on your plan.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. After hours, you can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi. 

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Comedian Tig Notaro Cast In ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ As Engineer

| April 11, 2018 | By: Matt Wright 157 comments so far

Today brings another bit of casting news for the second season of Star Trek: Discovery which will begin production soon. Variety and ET are reporting that actress and comedian Tig Notaro will have a guest star role for the second season for an unknown number of episodes. CBS has not made an official announcement, but the official Discovery Twitter account retweeted the ET story, and a quick confirmation of her casting is now up on StarTrek.com .

According to Variety, Notaro’s character is named Denise Reno, who is Chief Engineer of the U.S.S. Hiawatha. There is no more info on the role. The Hiawatha appears to be a new ship, with no mention of it on Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki.

Notaro, 47, is best known for her comedy career of the last two decades, with a signature dark style. She has released a number of comedy albums and had her own HBO comedy special in 2015, Tig Notaro: Boyish Girl Interrupted . In the last decade she has appeared in supporting roles in a number of TV shows and films. More recently she created and starred in the semi-autobiographical comedy One Mississippi , which ran on Amazon for two seasons.

Will the Discovery get a Chief Engineer?

Star Trek: Discovery never introduced or even mentioned a Chief Engineer for the USS Discovery during the first season. Paul Stamets is a scientist, specializing in the fungal spores that powered the spore drive used in season one. As actor Anthony Rapp told TrekMovie last year:

[Stamets] is a science officer with a very specific application of the science. It is always first and foremost about the science. Stamets wouldn’t be able to go fix the drive himself, but Stamets could do the research that could lead and understand the science that goes into what makes the drive work. But, Scotty or O’Brien could go fix whatever, that’s not Stamets.

This point was also confirmed by c0-executive producer Ted Sullivan in a Twitter Q&A with fans last year, saying “Stamets is NOT The [Chief Engineer]. I wonder who he or she is…?” And while Stamets’ lab was a key location throughout the first season, it is important to note it is not the actual engine room for the ship. In that same Q&A Sullivan noted the set where Stamets navigated the spore drive during season one “is an engineering lab. It’s not main engineering. We’ll definitely see more of engineering in [season two]. What we’ve seen is his personal work space”

Stamets’ engineering lab in episode 13

So, it stands to reason that elsewhere on the ship is a whole engineering crew maintaining the standard warp drive, computer systems, life support systems, etc. Notaro is known for her dry, deadpan style of comedy. Chief engineer’s in Trek often need a coping mechanism for being called upon to perform near impossible feats of engineering prowess, so this could be her character’s trademark style for dealing with crazy requests from the captain.

The reports today say her character, Denise Reno, is Chief Engineer of the U.S.S. Hiawatha, but could she be transferring over to the USS Discovery during a crisis? Perhaps it is a part of whatever situation that caused the USS Enterprise to send out a Priority 1 distress call at the closing moments of the season one finale.

The incoming distress call from the USS Enterprise from the season 1 finale

Second season production starts next week

Notaro is the third actor confirmed to be joining  Discovery  for season two. CBS announced that Anson Mount had been cast as Captain Christopher Pike on Monday. And, at WonderCon CBS  revealed a bonus scene  from the season one finale, which introduced the character of Leland, head of Section 31, played by Alan Van Sprang, who says he will have a “ massive ” role in season 2.

The second season of  Discovery  begins shooting shortly. Showrunner Aaron Harberts  revealed to TrekMovie  the season will have 13 episodes. No date has yet been set for the premiere.

Cast and crew are currently assembling in Toronto as production nears. This morning Anthony Rapp (Lt. Stamets) tweeted out a photo of himself, along with Mary Wiseman (Ensign Tilly) and Emily Coutts (Keyla Detmer).

Reunited and it feels so gooooood. Season 2 here we come! #GingerPower #StarTrekDiscovery #Disco @may_wise @couttsemily @startrekcbs pic.twitter.com/vgiZNZX3y9 — Anthony Rapp (@albinokid) April 11, 2018

UPDATE: Cast and crew reactions to Notaro casting

We are so privileged to welcome a new talent onto the ship! @startrekcbs #StarTrekDiscovery https://t.co/L00HDpahEB — Aaron Harberts (@AaronHarberts) April 11, 2018

I LOVE @TigNotaro and I can’t wait to meet her!!! Very exciting news!!! @startrekcbs season 2 is going to be gooooooood. https://t.co/WwldWOC3E3 — Anthony Rapp (@albinokid) April 11, 2018

More exciting season 2 news! https://t.co/gFQwexhV0V — Star Trek Writers (@StarTrekRoom) April 11, 2018

Welcome welcome, @TigNotaro !!! https://t.co/gajn9Xdq1w — Sean Cochran (@SeanCochran) April 11, 2018

AHHHHH! I love @TigNotaro so much! https://t.co/k9u9DXuFNt — Wilson Cruz (@wcruz73) April 11, 2018

Star Trek: Discovery  is available exclusively in the USA on  CBS All Access . It airs in Canada on the Space Channel and streams on CraveTV. It is available on Netflix everywhere else.

Keep up with all the  Star Trek: Discovery  news at TrekMovie.

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Looking on IMDB, she has a pretty extensive resume, nearly all in comedy. Hopefully some of that levity will spill over into her character.

I love the diversity we’re seeing so far in this show. However I feel the only straight, caucasian character ended up being a villain and was killed off. How about a straight, caucasian character for all the, straight caucasians to identify with. I’m not trying to troll the thread, just wondering???

Good news! Almost every other show on TV have you covered!

And so does every season of every Star Trek show, including this one.

Oh my god can we have one story without someone talking about diversity. And the second comment! This actress was deemed most suitable for the role, that’s the most important thing.

Yeah, you are trolling the thread. Find MeTV, they specialize in broadcasting fifty years of straight white male TV for you to identify with.

no he isn’t. he made a factual statement. He doesn’t want to watch MeTV. He wants to watch Star Trek

The answer is, he isn’t owed a straight white male to identify with. People aren’t represented on TV all the time. Perhaps it’s time for him to feel what it’s like. Maybe that will lead to some understanding as to why it’s so important that Disco IS so diverse. Why diversity in media is hotter than ever, and for good reason. No one is entitled to representation, not even straight white men. But people respond to it when they get it. So it’s time to give someone else the spotlight. White men have held it for, idk, all of Western civilization.

Great comment Alba.

“Perhaps it’s time for him to feel what it’s like.” Boom! There it is! It’s not about equality, it’s about straight white males “feeling what it’s like”. You, know because it leads to understanding. Love the honesty of your comment and spectacle of the prevailing zeitgeist. Are you not entertained?!

No, see you’re misrepresenting what I’m saying. The point isn’t to exclude straight white males. The point is to INCLUDE everyone else. And if including said groups of people comes at the expense of straight white men, then that’s totally okay. They aren’t owed anything.

“The point is to INCLUDE everyone else” That is just completely idiotic. It’s not diversity, it’s not representative it’s just stupid.

How is that idiotic or stupid? Albatrosity was talking originally about the importance of empathy, of seeing the world through someone else’s point of view. I don’t see the problem with fighting for inclusion . . . unless you’re only defending your privilege. But anyway calling someone a stupid idiot isn’t a convincing argument either way.

because that double neg would probably imply you’re smart anyhow :) nice one Holden.

No you’re stupid! (throws lego toy, drinks from sippy cup…)

Factual? Where in the article does it say that Mrs Notaro is Gay? Looking boyish doesn’t make her a lesbian.

I mean, she has a wife. It’s public knowledge. It’s not mentioned in the article because it’s not relevant.

MeTV shows Star Trek reruns around these parts. And if the OP is not so fortunate, the entire catalog of what constitutes Star Trek exists in other forms of media. Those are also factual statements.

Aside from Arathorn’s answer, there are also plenty of white, straight, and cis-male human characters on the show, even if they aren’t all three represented in one person. If this doesn’t feel like enough, then it is a good illustration of why people want to promote intersectionality – it is tough enough being gay without gay characters in your fiction, or a person of color with only white characters in your fiction, but if being both at the same time leaves you with very little representation.

Note that I’m not trying to frame you as against representation in the slightest. It is just good to see what it is like on the other side of the privilege divide, even if it is in such a minor and contained way.

Odd comment. Im a straight white male and yet I dont feel like Im not represented. Im human. I see representation in all the characters. And certainly the “plight” of straight white males doesnt need saving by increased representation on TV.

@TUP Exactly. This. Thank you.

I’m a straight white male and I feel plenty represented, because there are characters who I identify with: Stamets’ intelligence and irreverence, Burnham’s tenacity, Saru’s self-doubt, and Tilly’s social awkwardness.

I think people should really stop defining themselves and others by their race, gender, and sexuality.

Great comment. I’m a straight white male and I also identify with Stamets. His sexual preference has nothing to do with it.

I’m a straight white man and have been for 43 years.

I have no trouble identifying with characters who aren’t straight white men. I used to. You know how I got over that? I finally experienced a sufficient amount of stories in which there were prominent characters who aren’t straight white men. And as I was watching one of them I realized that I had a lot in common with some of these people who I allegedly had nothing in common with.

This stuff matters. It matters big-time.

Are you only able to identify on TV with “straight caucasians”??.

As someone who is NOT caucasian, my empathy for a character is not limited to those who look like me ( hence many of my fictional heroes HAVE been straight and white – as well as others too ).

I don’t think he’s trolling. As others have already stated, though, its a problematic statement that’s oblivious to its own sense of privilege. That said, what also upsets me is how this statement will be used to make broad and unfair generalizations about older Trek fans who’ve been generally supportive of DSC.

Is Captain Pike not straight or caucasian enough for you?

Shhh . . . he’s actually bi!

Well Kirk was bi so that’s nothing new

It was his “lifelong ambition”!

Yeah, he sleeps with females and is in love with a starship. :-)

Nachum, Who, by Kirk’s own words, “is a beautiful lady and we love her.” (of course the ‘we’ does sound a little too inclusive when it comes to love, doesn’t it? Brings us back to the, “it’s okay to love your dog, just don’t LOVE your dog.” And the dirty minded corollary, as follows: Guy tells friend, “oh man, I drank so much last night, I blew chunks.” Other guy responds with, “Oh yeah, man, I’ve been there before too.” First guy looks him straight in the eye and says, “No, man you don’t understand, Chunks is my dog.”)

You should read the slash fic on Kirk and Spock lol

Isn’t it funny that the people who have issues with women, gays, non-whites seem to have forgotten the straight white make role that was just announced a few days ago? Lol

Sort of makes their complaints sadly transparent.

It’s a legit question, but the answer really is just that you can’t expect to be catered to, or require it for you to engage with the material. If you feel entitled to representation because you’re straight and white [not saying you do feel that way, just saying if], then you gotta remember, you’re a straight white male and you’ve been catered to all your life. Let someone else have a turn.

Welcome to our world, Kyle. Now imagine every movie and TV show being like that for your whole life (and society telling you that real life was like that too — the only stars were white males), and you might get a sense why representation matters to people.

But at the same time, some of us watched Star Trek for years and still identified with characters who didn’t look like us physically.

*btw, there are several white, presumably straight characters on the show (Tilly, Detmer, Cornwall, Pike, Sarek, Amanda, others), although a couple are women.

Yeah!Detmer is Rhinelander.I fpr sure identify with her. Representation at last 😊 #homegirl #Rheinland

There are plenty of straight characters, and plenty of caucasian characters. Why do we need that exact combination?

I go one step further: there are a lot of HUMAN characters although the show should include way more non-human characters.

If I only watched TV shows that featured half-Chinese half-Italian/Austrian/British characters, I’d die of television starvation. A large percentage of shows I watched over the years didn’t even have non-whites.

You’ll be okay.

Hey if she’s good, she’s good. No argument here. Oh and Kyle, you’ve got Tilly and other members of the cast who are exactly what you’re saying they don’t have on the show… So, yeah

As a gay male, I’m actually tired of the whole ‘diversity’ BS. It all stems from the fact that society has become outrageously P.C. over the last few decades. It’s rather sad, really, because it takes the enjoyment out of a program for me because so much attention is focused on the diversity and P.C. of it all. Can we simply not focus on good stories, good casting (regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, species, blood type, hair color, areola size, etc.), and good production values? Some programs I watch are so I can escape the reality in which we live, not to dive right back into it. Can we please stop shoving this sh*t down everyone’s throat?

How are gay characters, a black woman sh*t and a white female guest star sh*t, exactly? Was Roddenberry shoving anything down your throat by casting Nichols and Takei?

Jack, my comment is related to the overwhelming response of diversity related to the current casting. My comment has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual casting. I speak to the current world climate and those who find it necessary to continuously point out when a minority entertainer has been hired (or not). Re-read my post and you may see that which I refer.

Its not PC. You’re missing the entire point of diversity.

Now you know how the rest of us feel watching everything else ever

We need Lorca back.

I wonder if the show runners will continue to shove the Star Trek universe into the shredder going into season 2.

How does her casting “shove the Star Trek universe into the shredder”?

Can only imagine the OP doesnt like women.

Ya. I guess I don’t understand demographics and who watches shows.

There seems to be a whole lot of, “If I wish it and repeat it often enough then it’s real” going around these days.

Frank, That’s due to an emerging trickle-down worldview, coming from seeing too many high government officials using it as their Twitter mantra while in denial of everything actually going down.

If viewers want pure representation, a third of the crew should be either Indian or Chinese. Odd they’re not, given those nations’ burgeoning space programs in this century.

Random communication guy appears to have a whole ship to choose from

Mount and Notaro look like solid casting choices. (Hopefully they will be given good sentences to say.) Note: if the show wanted to be really woke, they would’ve named the ship the USS Jikonhsaseh, Jikonhsaseh being the woman not given her due for being instrumental in the founding of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

*scratches chin confusedly* right right of course, the Haudiewhatsit, mmhm good point

You might more readily recognize it by the name Iroquois Confederacy, the representative governmental organization uniting six (originally five) Native American nations in the North American northeast. The Haudenosuanee were united by Hiawatha, Jikonhsaseh, and a figure known as the Great Peacemaker in the 1400’s-1600’s (pre-Columbian dates are notoriously difficult to establish). They were a matrilineal society where women held important political power. There is substantial historical debate over the influence of the Confederacy on the federal structure of the U. S. Constitution.

Here’s your mic. Please feel to drop it at your leisure.

I could imagine McCoy saying ‘Haudiewhatsit who?’, leading into a lengthy Spock speech about past human historical misdeeds, all while Kirk bemusedly looks on. I guess DSC look askance at including any genuine TOS ‘feel’ but man, it sure needs something like that. Rewatching second season TOS last night, the character dynamics were always at least as engaging as the plotting.

EDIT ADDON: I just scrolled down and saw that Hutch and Denny C already delivered Spock’s and Kirk’s role in the exchange I outlined above.

Rapp brings up a pressing point- for a streamer all about diversity, there are too many gingers in the Disco cast. This is even more concerning because all my data projections show there being a considerably LOWER proportion of gingers in the 23rd century. I’m afraid, by season’s end, one of the gingers must die.

Since this season has something to do with faith maybe they’ll realize one of their gingers has no soul? You’re right though there is an abundance of ginger representation. But hey they need it too!

Chief Engineer Denise Reno – named in honor of Attorney General Janet Reno?

If this was during the Berman era, I’d guess Reno was named for Clancy Brown’s character in BUCKAROO BANZAI, since the Okudas had a way of slipping in references to that all the time. For DSC, the name might be them just trying once again to appear to be clever — Reno is “oner” backwards, as in this is a token appearance by a particular type, a one-r.

Writing staffs do try slipping stuff by producers. Ellison wrote about a series that was being retooled in 68 or 69 to conform with emerging trends plus demands made of networks by VP Agnew, and mentions part of this included adding a new youthful Caucasian character as flunky for one of the shows with its typical middle-aged leading man. David P. Harmon (author of the MUDD episodes of TREK and A PIECE OF THE ACTION) was supposed to develop the character, and actually named him Christian White, which I guess got close to actually being shot and aired before somebody caught on.

One of the effects guys on ROBOCOP 2 tried to slip the words “avoid Orion meeting” into Robo’s screwed-up ascii code that appears after his corporate reprogramming, but somehow the Orion studio people actually caught it and made them take it out.

I recall Ellison’s story about “Christian White” (reprinted in the paperback collection of his Free Press columns entitled THE GLASS TEAT), which I believe referenced the series The Young Lawyers , which he wrote a not-so-good teleplay for. Do you happen to remember his piece about Spiro Agnew and his alleged peculiar habit with regards to the Reader’s Digest ?

Oh yes indeed! In fact, the last couple of chapters of the first TEAT book are among my faves, with that whole thing with him speaking at a school. I actually did a treatment for it as a film when I was in my 20s, but don’t still have it.

Great choice! As others have noted, I hope this means season 2 has more of a sense of humor with itself.

Love the female engineer approach, never seen her but I can see her being great for the part. I just hope this season is more sprightly than last, which took itself way too seriously. There wasn’t a lot of fun in it, and the fun that was supposed to be in it was sometimes really awkward. I’d love for Trek to outgrow its awkwardness and give us some really fun, witty dialogue like in GOT, characterization that makes us want to hang out with these people after work. Sounds like Notaro could play a character like that if the writers can do it right.

One of TNG’s chief engineers in season one (they had a few, apparently more than one at once, before settling on Geordi) was a woman. Voyager’s chief engineer was female. According to the novels, so was Pike’s.

Of course, that’s not at all representative of the reality today, but still.

Of course there have been female engineers before. I didn’t mean to say it was groundbreaking. I just appreciate that the writers made that choice. It could’ve been just another dude, which Disco has plenty of already.

I hadn’t read that properly —just read it again and realized she’s not joining the Discovery crew. I’d gotten excited.(Still cool, though).

And another woman to the cast representing a male dominated field. So lets take a count so far. Woman Commander, Woman Captian dead but now alive, both Women Helmswomen, now a woman doctor, woman ensign, woman android, woman security officer (although dead now), Woman Klingon leader and on the other side Evil Captin man & dead, Human/Klingon infiltrator man & dead, Doctor man & dead and a couple of other men who barely speak. Perhaps the First Officer is Male but do we really know? Men are almost always the oppressors with the exception of evil Georgiou but then they had to make sure that even in the mirror universe a woman was in charge. Naaa there’s no agenda. Now just to remind the childish people who will immediately hurl insults at me, Janeway is my second favorite Captian behind Kirk (I must be sexist) and I have had no problem with any cast member from any of the other shows expcept in some episodes when they were just annoying or stupid (both sexes for the people who assume I am referring to female characters). Now of course a woman can be portrayed in any role on the ship and that isn’t a problem but it is clear the people in charge of the show have an agenda to portray as many woman as possible in positions or fields that they would naturally be less likely to go into just to force their wishes on society in place of reality. And this is in lieu of good storytelling. Can’t wait for a female character that constantly physically overpowers men. Oh yea they had Tasha and she was a bad charcater until she came back after leavig the show and she was a great character in all the episodes as Sela.

Why do you have an issue with women in these roles? Do you keep a count of male roles on other shows you watch? I don’t understand your point.

They JUST announced a male actor hired for a major role. No one says anything about his gender. Two days later they cast a female and suddenly it’s a problem?

Except that you clearly DO have problem. You have critised the show for its female representation. That tells me that you DO have a problem on some level. Its 2018, not 1968.

And again another HUMAN to the cast representing a HUMAN dominated field although the show is supposed to take place in a federation of different species.

DAVECBHN, A Federation with a Starfleet that is decidedly human-centric in its staffing at this point, which is borne out throughout TOS (the only Vulcans I remember serving were about ISS ENT in MIRROR MIRROR, which I rewatched alongside ULTIMATE COMPUTER last night.)

Why would there even be male-dominated fields in the 23rd century? What’s a field that someone’s naturally less likely to go into? I can’t even think of a single occupation in the show so far that’s inherently tied to a gender, certainly not in the 23rd century.

One again everyone totally misses the point. Every time someone has an opinion they don’t agree with they spew all their bent up hatred. G66 said he likes the female characters. G66 doesn’t have any issues with the female characters. The point he is making is that there is an obvious agenda on the part of the producers to overpopulate the show with female roles. If you can’t agree with that comment than you are blind.

Closing thread, Warning for trolling

– The management

So everyone is black, dark brown, or if not are homosexual.

What about the rest of us?

Maybe it is true that white male heterosexual Christians are the most hated human beings on planet earth.

tate roberts,

Re: white male heterosexual Christians are the most hated human beings

Well, not all, but most definitely the notorious most infamous subset of what could be designated as such that used their Christian bibles to justify all sorts of vile evil atrocities, i.e. Nazis, White Supremacists, Salem Witch Hunters, Inquisitors, etc.

To paraphrase the comic book writers, “When white men dared to lust after and acquire great power, they also acquired greater responsibilities.”

Disinvited,

the Nazis were no Christians Who told you that garbadge. Christians were in the resistance: Bonhoeffer Niemöller, Hans and Sophie Scholl etc. all motivated by christian moral values and Nächstenliebe. The Nazis persecuted Jews for race not religion.

Adolph Hitler was a lapsed Catholic and as opportunistically Christian as most of that lot were and are wont to be, i.e. when it suits them, re: Catholics who only attend Sunday mass on Easter Sunday.

The Nazi designations of inferiors that needed to be purged and exterminated were not arrived at through Nazi funded race science research. There is no such thing as a Communist or Homosexual race, for example. They arrived at their conclusions by accepting the historical record reported in the Christian Bible as unerringly accurate, something only a fundamentally believing on some level Christian is wont to do, i.e. the Nazis started their Social Darwinism experiment with fundamental preconceived notions of inferiority derived from the Christian Bible and not Darwin’s science research papers.

Being what my congregation regards as a lapsed Catholic myself, I well know the Catholic Church persecuted non-catholic Christians and their churches but that didn’t, somehow, make Catholics non-Christians, just unchristian.

“…by defending myself against the Jews, I am fighting the Lord’s Work.” — MEIN KAMPF, Adolph Hitler

“The Party as such stands for a positive Christianity, without binding itself denomina­tionally to a particular confession.” — National Socialist German Worker’s Party, “Programme of the NSDAP”, Adolph Hitler, 1920

Well, in all fairness, quite a lot of human progress can be attributed to white males.

I refer you all to Orson Welles’ superb and darkly funny speech from atop the wheel in THE THIRD MAN, where he contrasted all the great stuff done in sections of the world beset by madmen and war with the relatively limited accomplishments in more peace-loving zones. It is troubling just how valid it still seems, making you have to think that perhaps to achieve the greatness you have to strive through the strife, which is actually the gist of a Marshak/Culbreath TREK novel called THE PROMETHEUS DESIGN. Parts of it read like a college thesis, but I have always really liked it, myself, as the Kirk speeches, when read aloud with Shatner’s cadences, sound completely like a 2nd season Coon-rewritten Kirk monolog.

.. relatively limited accomplishments in more peace-loving zones. It is troubling just how valid it still seems..

Are you sure this statement is correct? I only say three words: Theorie of relativity

Wer hat’s erfunden?

Re: Theory of Relativity

Which was proven practical by the detonation of two atomic bombs, built at its author’s insistence, destroying two cities and killing millions who, no doubt, would take issue with your contention about how peaceful it all was, if they could still speak?

…human beings on PLANET EARTH… what should members of other planets say, since humans are over-represented?

I’d love to reply to that. But I’d likely get in trouble.

I feel sad for humanity.

Get off your soapbox, you bigot. White, male heterosexuals have been represented in every other television show in the world. They try their best to dominate the world. Its about time others had their time to shine.

Whoever leaves the biggest footprint all through any given history probably garners that title by default (and by their own fault.) The stuff in SPACE SEED about superior folk having superior ambition also applies to superior-MINDED folk … probably more so, given the power that be in our current domestic lack-of-bliss.

That’s because many of them feel their power and control over everything slipping away. I’m a white male heterosexual (non-christian) and I don’t feel the least bit threatened.

DeadJim, I fit your descrip as well, and I do feel threatened — but by the abuses of those in power, not by any perceived encroachment of races. Pretty much every lead story on the news has me running song lyrics from GOLDENEYE through my head (practically on a loop these days) … see them move through smoke and mirrors …

If not being well-represented in a show is evidence for being a hated people, does that mean that when you watch a show with an all-straight-white cast you hate all non-Christian, secular, Black, Latino, Indigenous, Asian, South Asian, and LGBTQ people?

As I said above, if I had to wait for shows that only featured people that looked like me then I would wait a long time. And it would mean I wouldn’t have much room for empathy.

Non-white, non-straight, and non-Christian people have no choice but to open themselves up to watching shows about people unlike them.

Im a white male heterosexual Christian and no one hates me. Then again I’m not racist, sexist or homophobic.

Closing, warning for trolling

looking forward to excellent episodes and glad to see them cast whoever they want for xyz roles, if it sucks we will all let you know 😁

I wanted more of the homosexual couple. Still sad they killed off Stamet’s partner. Now we have a lesbian engineer. Great. But we did lesbians in other Trek series already. I’d like them to whiten Stamet’s teeth because they look brown. I’d also like them to stop bathing everything in blue. The updated Enterprise looked blue. Everything looks blue. Oh, and the Klingons, show us some established-look Klingons along with the new cone head ones. There’s just so much wrong with Discovery. A good sci-fi series… but doesn’t feel like it belongs in the franchise. Just wish they’d stop trying to change the wheel and invest their energies into improving on what came before.

So by your logic because Jazdia kissed one of Dax’s wives, lesbians should never be seen in the franchise again?

That might be the stupidest, most idiotic and reductive statement that I have ever seen on this site which is really saying something. Not to mention extremely homophobic. This kind of moronic rubbish is why I maintain that this website needs moderating. This kind of backward view does not belong in Star Trek fandom.

AdAstra, I was about to agree with you, but then I had another thought, that Martin could be referring to MirrorKira’s constant dallying with either sex as constituting some degree of lesbianism. As for everything being too blue — Martin is dead on with that, makes you wonder why we don’t see Andorians all over the place (how’s that for a speculative alt-future racist joke?)

Not sure why, but this also makes me remember how Frakes thought THE OUTCAST would have been better if they had cast a guy as his love interest in the show. At the time I thought that was a decidedly gutsy thing for him to say.

But just because we already have female characters who have had same-sex encounters in the past does not mean we should never seen them again which is what Martin was clearly suggesting.

Well, they’ve done straight white males a lot in Trek too, should they never have a straight white male again? Come to think of it, they had a black woman in TOS so its really over-kill to have another one isnt it…

A gay male couple is a taboo Trek hadn’t yet addressed, just 1 season of exposure feels like a cop out to me. Seeing lesbians or girl on girl kissing doesn’t seem risqué since we’ve been seeing it since the 90s. Trek should show normal hard working couples who incidently happen to be gay, without killing them off after 1 season or having one of the actors not brush his teeth. Straight white males, straight black males, black woman, carry on casting I don’t think it’s overkill TUP. Gay fans waited a long time for a gay couple, shame we had to say goodbye so soon. I notice you always come in with a smart remark on people’s posts. Sad character.

Thank you, yes I agree my posts are generally very smart. Insightful too.

Im not sure what your point is though. if you’re saying have a gay couple is good, we are in agreement. For the record, if it wasnt clear, my post you replied to was sarcasm.

Just because we see a lesbian character before doesnt mean they’ve “done the lesbians” and move on. Same with the male gay characters. Perhaps Culber will continue, its been hinted at. If he doesnt, Stamets is still there and they can tell other stories with him, perhaps dating etc. Its not the end of the “gays” just because they had them in one season. It certainly shouldnt be.

warning for trolling. Closing thread

– The Management

Interesting that they mention other starfleet ships. I like that they’re involving vessels other than the “hero” ship. Maybe Notaro’s character will be elemental in the revolutionary design of the constitution-class warp nacelle support pylons that are a simple straight pylon when the ship is at impulse, but extends to a diagonal V-shaped wing with a gap in it for the ship to better regulate the warp field when she travels FTL. This innovation would later inspire new nacelles for the transwarp programme and the variable warp field geometry system that would appear on intrepid class ships a century later…

Yeah. The early Fuller and Meyer interviews about the show were about how it would be telling Star Trek stories in a different way from any other Trek show. The most obvious ways have been that it’s followed lower decks characters and showed lots of ships.

I think that does a lot for expanding the Trek universe, too. Ever since DS9’s second episode (the first one *not* to feature a starship called ‘Enterprise’), we’ve seen the universe get larger meaning that not every notable character in the galaxy is either a Skywalker or a Kenobi (to borrow an analogy to another space franchise likely familiar to many here). Personally I’d like to see them go even more mundane (I suppose) with the story-telling – let’s see people on their coffee break, etc. a bit like the replimat in DS9. There were some scenes like this in DSC’s first season (in the mess hall for instance), and we got to see the disco crew in disco mode in ‘magic’… but interactions like that make the characters (and the universe) seem more real to me. I think it’s a good sign for season 2 that they’re looking at more characters from more ships. Reminds me of later seasons of DS9 where they included a whole host of contexts: DS9 itself, the Rotarran, Cardassian Central Command, etc. So long as they remember that DS9 wasn’t as dark as everyone seems to think (c.f. ‘Dark Page’ – TNG, ‘year of hell’ – VOY, ‘season 3’ – ENT) and that the story would benefit from progressing at a *slower* pace imho.

I think for many of us we thought thats what the Shenzhen would be, ie, another ship we would see weekly on the show before we knew the story line. Obviously that didn’t quite work out but yeah I don’t mind seeing other ships pop up here and there. And they did this on Enterprise as well when the Columbia was introduced and we saw Trip working on both ships.

Like your nacelle theory as well.

To be fair I had the same thought about the shenzhou as well – was kinda disappointed that it got destroyed early on. Would have been an interesting dynamic (like in VOY “equinox” or in BSG where they have the Pegasus) to have 2 ships around a lot. It’s a shame they didn’t get chance to make more use of Columbia too – since the ships were of the same class the same sets could have been used (except those daft light shafts on the bridge that made no sense!).

And thanks – I’ve come to the conclusion that we just never saw the Enterprise extend her nacelle pylons in TOS. The TMP refit just decided that “always extended” pylon config was the way forward – kinda like the Enterprise E didn’t need raising nacelle struts as they’d fixed the variable warp field issue by then (apparently). Oh and Kirk liked to have the viewscreen window blast screen up the whole time. Man alive I’m going to serious head canon lengths for this show! The discoprise isn’t a refit – the old ship just had extendable nacelle pylons and a blast shield for the window viewsceen. Square peg, round hole springs to mind haha!

I’m not going to just assume because the actress is gay the character will be too. (you wouldn’t do with a straight actor). If it does end up being that though that’d be great. Excellent LGBT+ representation has been one of the true highlights of the new show.

Although I prefer they leave that ambiguos. I hope they casted her because she is talented and not just to appreare progressive. It feels forced already.

Wait.. casting this actress feels forced already? In what way?

Did hiring the Pike actor feel forced? I mean he DOES resemble Hunter…

Of course using Pike and the Enterprise is forced. That is pure fan service. Fan service is forced by definition.

Everything is fan service. If you mean the narrow definition of playing to fans as a priority over story (like using Khan in STID), then its simply false to equate Pike and the Enterprise with that as we havent seen the story.

Never heard of her. Guess I’m “out of the loop”, which is fine by me. Prediction. Her character will be a bisexual/lesbian because we have to have a female couple to go with our male couple. I think the new captain should be a bisexual polygamist xenofile with thirty different partners that accompany him wherever he goes. That would keep the writers busy.

You may be sarcastic, but I tend to think that last line is true. It will keep the writers busy, because I tend to think that the more diversity, the more possibilities in the storytelling.

Interestingly, I haven’t heard a single complaint about Bortus and his husband on The Orville.

Or about when Ed and Kelly both slept with Rob Lowe, separately, because he was in heat.

I’m a 52 year old white heterosexual male and have no problem at all with all races, creeds, religions and sexual preferences being properly represented on DISC and on TV in general these days. I agree “my” type of person has been waaay over-represented on the small and large screen pretty much since such entertainment began. What I DO want, though, is for the quality of writing, the Story, to come first, though. Give us a great story, and we’ll watch, despite the color or gender-preference of the leads. Inclusion just for the sake of inclusion alone does not make a good story make, though – and there’s a lot of that out there now, too, I’m afraid. Imo.

The more diversity, the more possibilities in storytelling, so I tend to think that when they cast like this, they do put the story first.

That’s all fine and good, Eric. But does addressing/spotlighting the diversity itself sometimes get in the way of, or even in some cases take the place of, putting a quality story out there? There’s only so much time to spin a good yarn on shows like these. That’s my concern, and sometimes that’s what I see. Not only in DISC, but elsewhere too.

To be honest, if the people making Discovery were solely content with making a good TV show, so be it.

If they, while making a good TV show, want to use their power and platform to push the cause of diversity and acceptance while also creating more roles for women, people of colour and gays, then why the heck not?

My point exactly, TUP, the key words in your comment being “while making a good TV show.”

@Danpaine But how does that casting diversity stop them from making a good TV show? It doesn’t. They’re not connected.

It’s like blaming story problems on the paint colours on the sets (if they hadn’t been so focused on trying to get the right gray, it would have been a better show.”

It’s not like they’re writing episodes of Maude or Will & Grace here — show me a single story that was affected by the casting.

@Danpaine I really don’t see how. The casting has nothing to do with the writing.

How would stories be any different if Burnham, Tilly, Georgiou, Cornwall and Stamets were white straight dudes? (or if Stamets had a wife instead of a husband?)

What plots (or even dialogue, other than a pronoun or two) would have changed?

It’s like blaming Spock’s Brain on the decision to cast Nichelle Nichols and George Takei. Or the bumpy first two seasons of TNG on the decision to cast women doctors.

Were the story problems on those shows because they were “too focused on diversity?”

How much creative energy does it sap to write “doctor, female” instead of “doctor, male” on a casting sheet or pilot script?

I get that some of us didn’t like that they were talking about diversity during the press tours — because we think it means they were forcing it somehow — but press tours and interviews are all about pushing some angle.

Nichols was on the cover of Ebony. Is that why the third season was crappy?

I’m still really surprised by this whole complaint — Roddenberry plugged the diversity of casting (in main cast, extras and guest stars) for years. I don’t think he called it diversity, but that’s what it was.

Jack, great points. Problem is I’m on my phone and not my laptop right now and can’t dedicate the time I would like (tomorrow I will), but long story short right now – I’m suggesting the writing was better back then. Real sci-fi writers writing great stories. Any character, of any race, orientation, etc, could be installed. You just misunderstood me a little bit. I’ll be back on this, good conversation. It’s late here.

Sure, looking forward to it.

And I guess if someone is arguing that they’re trying to distract us with great hoopla over diversity (which Trek should have, by definition, anyway) to hide a total lack of substance, well, I’d listen to that argument.

Funny you say that, because that was exactly my point. We’ve been handed a very diverse cast, rightfully so. That was the big media push, the big emphasis. ‘Look how Diverse we are!’ And that whole time I said to myself, ‘great, I hope they can deliver a great story along with that.’ So far, at least, this very diverse cast hasn’t had much to work with in terms of characterization, story, plot. For me, there’s very little feeling of comradery amongst the crew, of chemistry overall, imo. That’s due to weak writing. Which is something I hope improves greatly as we move into season two. A diverse cast wouldn’t put handcuffs on a great sci-fi writer, but quite the reverse. It makes a great sandbox to play in creatively, which is where TOS thrived much of the time.

The critics of the casting are having a midlife crisis. I don’t know why they are making this casting a crisis too. It’s simply a shame to all of us that there are MILLIONS of Tig Nataro fans, my sister-in-law included. I forwarded this link to her early this morning, not thinking about how she would feel when she reads some of the more despicable comments I forgot would show up.

I am appalled at some of the disgusting comments that have shown up on this website in regards to this latest news.

It never fails to shock me at just how many racist, homophobic and generally bigoted fans Star Trek has accumulated. And I am disgusted at how this site has become a forum to air their reductive views.

To be honest Star Trek has a very racist concept to beginn with. All those monocultures that pretended that stereotypes are always true. Some tried to break with it like the writers of Ds9. But most of the time star trek’s World viel is awful two dimensional.

The concept is not racist – that we advance enough to fly around in spaceships and meet people who live on different worlds– that’s the basic concept. But the execution has problems with representation and story. Perhaps you are saying that humans solving every problem is itself racist.

Thinking about it, I belive it is more nationalistic than racist. Starfleet is America,it does not represent the world but only the US. The aliens are the rest of the world, either barbaric or pretentious heartless jerks.

It begs the question why its allowed here. There is more action taken against people who rightfully push back against the sexist, racist and homophobic remarks here than the people making those remarks in the first place.

@TUP I’m glad it’s here — it’s useful to see that people think this stuff.

I’m hoping we can talk about it here — because in the larger societal context, calling people bigots and dinosaurs has only made them cling harder to their views (views which might make sense to them because of what they have — and haven’t— been exposed to).

I still remember reading a story around the 2008 election about a (white, conservative, lower-midsle class) woman who was terrified when Obama talked about “hope and change,” because her to her that meant people wanted to take things away from her.

@Jack – Disagree. I like the idea of having a nuanced discussion about these issues and once in awhile, it happens here but again, we’re talking about the majority of these remarks being on their face trolling/bigotry.

Your example doesnt speak to me as legitimate concerns. It simply uses a paranoid idiot as an example.

There should be no place for bigotry on a Star Trek discussion board. And when there is, the people who angrily reject it and push back should not be the ones in trouble.

Well, one conversation with a “ paranoid idiot” might lead to some small change.

I’ve realized that a lot of people deeply believe that they’re under attack.

Awww, did someone get triggered? We better shut down all this free speech and debate because it’s not nice to offend anyone. How dare you TrekMovie.com! It’s not like your a website run by private citizens who are protected by The Constitution or anything.

Yes, I have been triggered by some of the blatant sexism, homophobia and trolling. Not to mention stupid, snarky comments such as yours. You have got people like Martin who have suggested that we shouldn’t see lesbian characters because it’s been done before, Mirror Galt who is obsessed with demeaning female production staff in his nonsense trolling and now you attempting to insult and belittle people who are speaking up about the fact that this kind of behaviour goes unchecked on this site.

So excuse me for having an opinion- but I’m allowed to voice it without getting a snarky, stupid response from people like you. Have a blessed day.

The First Amendment protects you from government interference in your freedom of speech as long as that speech does not pose a clear and present danger to others. It does a *not* protect speech in a private capacity as you imply. Sorry Ed. Ain’t nothing in the rules about you getting your intertube nonsense banned if it crosses an acceptable line to the site moderators.

Another example of someone confusing freedom of expression with freedom from consequence.

Of course, your point about Trekmovie is correct – the owners can allow anything they want. But as users, we can object or not, participate or not, move on or not.

Some people are using THEIR freedom of expression to express dissatisfaction with some of the obvious trolling/offensive perspectives being expressed.

Having a bigoted opinion is your right. But that right doesnt make it less bigoted.

…while there are some viewpoints I certainly don’t agree with on this thread, I haven’t seen anything I would necessarily call ‘despicable’ or ‘disgusting.’ They’re just different points of view. People have opinions. They’re allowed to.

@Danpaine – where is the line between “allowed to have an opinion” and clearly expressing a sexist, racist or homophobic stance? Freedom of expression is not freedom from consequence.

This site admin is free to set the terms but many people here are clearly reacting to what appears to be a permissive attitude when it comes to offensive “opinions”.

Personally, in life, I am a free speech absolutist. So I respect the speech. But the need to speak negatively about gender and sexual orientation decisions in casting over and over again is extremely disappointing because it probably hurts the feelings of many people who love or could love Star Trek.

Well put, Café.

TUP, honestly I much prefer talking about Star Trek here as opposed to the current hotbed social issues we’re beaten over the head with everyplace else on the web, but all I’ll say to your question is I think what someone considers ‘sexist,’ ‘racist,’ or ‘homophobic’ is dependent upon that person’s own view. The very terms themselves, of course in my opinion only, are so overused these days they’ve been rendered useless. Labeling gone awry.

Anyway, as I said to start this thread, I hope Ms. Notaro, with her comedic background, brings some much-needed levity to DISC.

@Danpaine I can agree there can certainly be “nuanced” discussions about those topics. But far too often the offending posts are pretty obvious in their trolling or are representative of a bigoted perspective.

If someone things being gay is a choice or a sickness, that’s their opinion but it has no place in polite discussion. Allowing that nonsense to perpetrate by letting it stand as a relevant opinion is simply wrong.

If the posts (and posters) that were clearly trolls on their face were eliminated (deleted posts, banned emails and IP’s), that would be an easy start. The remaining “nuances” would be relatively harmless in the big picture.

Yep. And if we push those people out, even here — they see it as being censored and persecuted.

Actual hate speech (calling for harm) has no business here, but I think it’s imoortant to debate ideas.

@Jack – again, if someone wants to debate being gay, that isnt someone with a different opinion, its an ignorant person with no facts. You’re not going to change their mind. Its bigotry and should not be allowed.

Bigotry should be pushed out. You can’t change whats in someone’s heart but you can relegate them to the darkest corners of society where, in time, their views and people who hold them will decrease.

And they all gang up and vote for Donald Trump, or anyone else who sees an opportunity in their alienation and percoeved persecution.

Or they do worse.

A black teen in Michigan was shot at this werk because he knocked on a neighbour’s door for directions (a woman screamed that she was being robbed and her husband came down with a shotgun and started shooting, luckily with the safety on).

She believed she was under attack.

The trouble is, we’ve split into two realities — at least a third of the population sees a world defined by Fox/Breitbart etc. And they see themselves as victims of the “other side.”

But they believe this stuff. They believe they are under attack.

They believe that David Hogg is a threat to their families, safety and freedom.

And a lot of it’s because of a lack of experience and understanding — on both sides.

Exclusion hasn’t worked for either side.

Interesting choice. I seen her before but know her mostly through comedy. But pretty interested to see her role.

OK, I laughed. ;)

Tig Notaro!!! Wow! :D

The Outrageous Okona (episode)

• View history
• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 1.6 Act Five
• 1.7 Log entries
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.1 Cast and characters
• 3.2 Sets and props
• 3.3 Continuity
• 3.4 Reception
• 3.5 Video and DVD releases
• 4.1 Starring
• 4.2 Also starring
• 4.3 Guest stars
• 4.4 Special guest stars
• 4.5 Uncredited co-stars
• 4.6 Stand-ins
• 4.7.1 Other references
• 4.8 Log entries
• 4.9 External links

Summary [ ]

" Is that a woman's voice I hear? "

The USS Enterprise -D , while traveling in the Omega Sagitta system between two twin planets inhabited by humanoids who have created a pact called the Madena Coalition, stumbles upon a Class 9 starship with one humanoid detected inside. The ship is the cargo carrier Erstwhile commanded by Captain Thadiun Okona , who has problems with the guidance system . The Enterprise offers Captain Okona help repairing his faulty guidance system. Deanna Troi establishes that he displays rogue-like characteristics, making him a suspicious character who should not be taken lightly.

Act One [ ]

" You don't know what a joke is? "

Upon materializing in the transporter room of the Enterprise , Okona meets Riker , Data , Worf , and Crusher and also the transporter chief , Lieutenant Robinson , and begins to display characteristics of a scoundrel and a rake , charming Robinson. While the others observe this, Okona soon leaves the transporter room, and he accompanies Data and Wesley to main engineering to observe the repairs to his guidance system.

In engineering, Okona observes while Lieutenant Geordi La Forge inspects the damage to the guidance system. The system's zelebium contacts are fused so La Forge will be replacing it with tricellite . Okona informs La Forge that there is absolutely no tricellite located in the system, but La Forge assures him that he will not have to replace it anytime in the near future. La Forge also asks Okona why he pushes his vessel so hard, as stress tests have indicated that he has put his ship far past its operational capabilities. Okona tells La Forge that he is often forced to add zeal and flamboyishness to the doldrums of his life.

Later, while walking with Data in a corridor , Okona questions his ability to comprehend humor and other Human characteristics, apparently finding the concept of an emotionless android fascinating. He then goes to spend time with Robinson in her quarters. Data sees the two of them begin to get intimate and then the door to Robinson's quarters closes.

Act Two [ ]

" Well, Okona is an interesting man certainly. "

In engineering, Riker asks La Forge how the repairs to Okona's guidance system are going. La Forge tells him they are still working on it. Wesley Crusher asks Riker while working at the master systems display table what he thinks about Okona. Riker explains to the young man that Okona is an interesting individual who knows how to operate his ship about as well as he knows how to operate people. He further explains that Okona is a man who lives his life by his own rules and does what he does by his own choice. Riker tells Wesley he will one day make his own and the acting ensign tells Riker that he already has.

" That is considered to be funny? "

Data is inspired by Okona's questions and insights about humor and goes to Ten Forward to seek counsel from Guinan regarding his difficulty grasping the concept. Data then travels to the holodeck to view a comedy show by a holographic comedian . Data inquires about a series of comedic acts and performances to further his understanding of comedy. They begin a series of improvisations which include 20th century Jerry Lewis , and continue to list examples of stand-up comedy, which Data views at maximum speed. Data then returns to Guinan to try out his new comedy material, but his first attempt fails miserably. His second attempt is abruptly interrupted by a call to the bridge : an unidentified ship is approaching the Enterprise .

Act Three [ ]

" I'll have Okona now! "

Debin , the captain of the ship, warns the Enterprise that they are entering their territory. He orders the ship to heave to and prepare to be boarded. Debin establishes that Okona is, in fact, a rogue who committed crimes on the planet Atlec . While the entire confrontation is occurring, another ship of similar classification is approaching. This ship is commanded by Captain Kushell from the planet Straleb , who also states similar issues relating to Okona.

Jean-Luc Picard calls Okona up to the bridge to understand what crimes he has committed. After brief deliberation, Okona hedges his response, stating that he isn't aware that he committed any crime on either world. A skeptical Picard asks Debin what crimes has been committed. Debin, infuriated, explains that Okona had impregnated his daughter, Yanar .

Act Four [ ]

" I seem to have a way of using up a place. "

Kushell has claimed that Okona stole the national treasure, the Jewel of Thesia . Picard and Okona discuss the matter at hand. If Okona is handed to Debin, the Thesians will use the slight to declare war, while if Picard gives him to the Thesians, the same result will occur. Picard and Okona agree that the only way to resolve the situation is to let Okona continue on the Erstwhile and find a place of refuge.

After a long talk with Wesley in engineering, in which it's revealed that Okona has become tired of living the nomadic lifestyle and just wants the entire mess surrounding Yanar and the Jewel to be settled, he has made a decision to "take a stand."

Act Five [ ]

Family crisis averted

Okona tells Picard he decided to voluntarily turn himself in. This choice allows Picard to use the Enterprise as a neutral meeting place for both parties to settle their claims. The two families are antagonistic towards each other, both claiming that Okona has infringed their laws and both expressing an equally valid claim on the wayward freighter captain.

The story unfolds when they discover that Kushell's son Benzan has actually impregnated Yanar, rather than Okona, and that Okona was the go-between for Yanar and Benzan's courtship (which was disapproved by both families). The jewel was stolen to be used in the wedding between Yanar and Benzan, who agree to marriage, and their fathers continue their quarrels in a more lighthearted manner (this time about the details of the wedding) as Picard invokes the Prime Directive as an excuse to make a discreet exit from what has now officially become an internal matter of the respective families' governments.

" Being able to make people laugh, or being able to laugh, is not the end all and be all of being Human. "

Data and Guinan participate in a comedy show with the holo-comedian. They resolve the issues of Data's ability to deliver a joke by giving Data an audience. Unfortunately, Data discovers that the holographic audience is programmed to laugh at anything he says or does, regardless of whether or not it's actually humorous, and that his comedic delivery is still very much flawed. Data asks the computer to erase the audience as well as the comic. Guinan assures Data that being able to laugh or to make people laugh is not the final result to becoming Human. Data agrees, but notes that there is nothing more " uniquely Human. "

Later, on the bridge, the crew sees Okona off. Data inadvertently delivers a joke that causes the bridge crew to break into laughter, but later the crew gets annoyed after Data begins to make bad joke after bad joke, and Okona (having resolved his differences with the Thesians and Yanar's father) continues on his way.

Log entries [ ]

• Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), 2365

Memorable quotes [ ]

" You spoiled the joke. It could have been your timing. " " My timing is digital. "

" You're a droid and I'm a 'noid. "

" A Klingon security officer? " " Yes. " " No wars available, eh? "

" Wesley, Wesley Crusher. " " Nice to meet you, Acting Ensign Wesley Wesley Crusher. "

" You have the majestic carriage and loveliness that could surely be traced back to the noblest of families. "

" Say goodbye, Data. " " Goodbye Data. "

" Now, that's sex appeal! "

" Captain, they are now locking lasers on us. " " Lasers? " " Yes, sir. " " Lasers can't even penetrate our navigation shields. Don't they know that? " " Regulations do call for yellow alert. " " Hmm, a very old regulation. Well, make it so Number One. And, reduce speed… drop main shields, as well. " " May I ask why, sir? " " In case we decide to surrender to them, Number One… "

" So… if you put funny teeth in your mouth and jump around like an idiot, that is considered funny! "

" Guy walks into the doctor's office. The doctor tells him you need an operation. Guy says, "I want a second opinion." Doc tells him "Okay you're ugly too". Badoom Boom!

" Life is like loading twice your cargo weight on to your spacecraft. If it's canaries and you can keep half of them flying all the time, you're all right. "

" Take my Worf… please! "

Background information [ ]

• Final draft script: 4 October 1988 [1]
• Final day of production: 1 November 1988 . ("Lost & Found", Star Trek Magazine  issue 148 )
• Premiere airdate: 12 December 1988
• First UK airdate: 24 April 1991

Cast and characters [ ]

Joe Piscopo, Whoopi Goldberg, and Brent Spiner

• According to Joe Piscopo , he was allowed to improvise much of his own jokes and dialogue as the holographic comic, including the Jerry Lewis impersonation. [2]
• Jerry Lewis himself was approached to play the comic, but there was a scheduling conflict caused by Lewis' guest role on Wiseguy . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (2nd ed., p. 70))
• This is the first of two second-season episodes in which Dr. Pulaski doesn't appear . The other is " Q Who ".
• Teri Hatcher asked for her name to be removed from the credits, as many of her scenes were cut. ( citation needed • edit )

Sets and props [ ]

Gene Roddenberry visits the set during filming

• The holodeck terminal lists the name of the comic as Ronald B. Moore , a reference to Visual Effects Supervisor Ronald B. Moore , who helped assemble the graphic. ( Star Trek Encyclopedia  (1st ed., p. 54)) He is not to be confused with writer and producer Ronald D. Moore , who had not yet joined the staff.
• The window or display "frame" behind Debin while speaking on the Enterprise viewscreen is a slightly modified re-use of the battle bridge viewscreen of the Enterprise -D.
• Okona's freighter is the Talarian freighter model reused from " Heart of Glory ", which itself was cobbled together from models used in the V miniseries and Captain EO .
• The Atlec vessel is a reuse of the Merchantman spaceship model from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock .

Continuity [ ]

• When Okona asks Data if he's ever been drunk, Data claims "not from alcohol," a reference to " The Naked Now ", in which the polywater intoxication acted on his programming like alcohol would on a Human brain.

Reception [ ]

• A mission report for this episode, by John Sayers, was published in The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine  issue 6 , pp. 11-14.
• The damaged prop guidance system from the Erstwhile was sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. [3]

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• Original UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 15 , catalog number VHR 2468, 3 June 1991
• US VHS release: 31 May 1995
• UK re-release (three-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment ): Volume 2.2, catalog number VHR 4738, 12 April 1999
• As part of the TNG Season 2 DVD collection
• As part of the TNG Season 2 Blu-ray collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
• Jonathan Frakes as Cmdr. William Riker

Also starring [ ]

• LeVar Burton as Lt. Geordi La Forge
• Michael Dorn as Lt. Worf
• Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
• Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data
• Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher

Guest stars [ ]

• William O. Campbell as Thadiun Okona
• Douglas Rowe as Debin
• Albert Stratton as Kushell
• Rosalind Ingledew as Yanar
• Kieran Mulroney as Benzan

Special guest stars [ ]

• Joe Piscopo as the Comic
• Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• Arratia as Alfonse Pacelli
• Majel Barrett as USS Enterprise -D computer voice
• James G. Becker as Youngblood
• Juliet Cesario as science division officer
• Dexter Clay as operations division officer
• Jeffrey Deacon as command division officer
• Teri Hatcher as B.G. Robinson
• Tim McCormack as Bennett
• Lorine Mendell as Diana Giddings
• Randy Pflug as Ten Forward waiter
• Guy Vardaman as Darien Wallace
• Charnock's Comedy Cabaret audience
• Female science division officer
• Atlec officer 1 and 2
• Straleb officer 1 and 2
• Vulcan science division officer

Stand-ins [ ]

• James G. Becker – stand-in for Jonathan Frakes
• Darrell Burris – stand-in for LeVar Burton
• Dexter Clay – stand-in for Michael Dorn
• Jeffrey Deacon – stand-in for Patrick Stewart
• Nora Leonhardt – stand-in for Marina Sirtis
• Tim McCormack – stand-in for Brent Spiner
• Guy Vardaman – stand-in for Wil Wheaton

References [ ]

20th century ; 1932 ; 2165 ; 23rd century ; 2364 ; accusation ; acting ensign ; advice ; alcohol ; Allen, Gracie ; amphibian ; android ; anger ; annoyance ; arbitration ; arm ; Atlec ; Atlec vessel ; audience ; audio ; authority ; bar ; bastard ; bird call ; bon mot ; bowling ; bow tie ; brazen ; briefcase ; brother ; " brought the house down "; burnout ; Burns, George ; cad ; call sign ; canary ; car ; cargo ; cargo carrier ; cargo hold ; cargo ship ; case ; channel ; charm ; Charnock's Comedy Cabaret ; choice ; cigar ; Class 7 vessel ; Class 9 cargo vessel ; clone ; colloquialism ; comedian ; complaint ; Coalition of Madena ; Coalition of Madena species ; computer ; conference room ; context ; conversation ; course ; craftsman ; crew complement ; crew quarters ; crime ; criminal ; custody ; danger ; daughter ; Denkir II ; dictionary ; dilemma ; doctor ; doctor's office ; dog ; dress ; Earth ; embarrassment ; emergency assistance ; emotion ; engine ; Erstwhile ; evening ; existence ; exploration ; family ; farmhouse ; Federation ; feeling ; Ferengi ; fired ; fish ; fraction ; French language ; friend ; funny ; gag ; Galaxy class decks ; gender ; gesture ; glob fly ; godfather ; grandson ; Greek ; guest ; guilt ; Gulliver's Travels ; hailing frequency ; heir ; " hello "; heritage ; hired ; holodeck ; home ; homeland ; honor ; Human ; Human cannonball ; humanoid ; humor ; idiot ; inertial guidance system ; innocence ; instruction ; intercept course ; investigation ; Irish ; Jew ; Jewel of Thesia ; jewelry ; joke ; judge ; juggling ; juxtaposition ; kidney ; Klingon ; knave ; language ; laser weapons ; laughing ; legal right ; legation ; Legation of Unity ; Lewis, Jerry ; liar ; libido ; life sign ; lion ; love ; main shield ; main viewer ; malevolence ; marriage ; mercy killing ; message ; microphone ; Milky Way Galaxy ; minute ; mister ; monk ; month ; morality ; mosquito ; mouth ; mystery ; name ; navigation shield ; neck ; nephew ; New York City ; night ; nudist colony ; number one ; O'Neill, Tip ; obligation ; office ; Omega Sagitta system ; operation ; operator ; opinion ; order ; owner ; parrot ; performer ; phaser ; pilot ; place ; plan ; planet ; play ; politician ; pork chop ; prestige ; procreation ; problem ; programming ; prop ; quantum mechanics ; quarrel ; race ; rake ; rascal ; reason ; repairs ; reputation ; Riga, Stano ; road ; rogue ; robot ; room ; Roxy Theatre ; rule ; Saint Peter ; seat ; second opinion ; secretary ; sector ; security officer ; sensor ; sentence ; sex appeal ; sexual attraction ; shopkeeper ; show ; size ; sound ; spacecraft ; speed ; Starfleet Regulations ; sector ; shame ; smuggling ; son ; star ; status ; stealing ; sting ; store ; Straleb ; Straleb security vessel ; stress test ; subject ; surrender ; talent ; Teaneck ; teeth ; thief ; thing ; tone ; tool ; towing ; town ; tractor beam ; transporter chief ; transporter room ; traveling salesman ; treasure ; treaty ; tricellite ; truth ; valise ; victimization ; villain ; vision ; voice ; war ; warmth ; weapon ; " whoa "; wife ; wild element ; witticism ; word ; year ; yellow alert ; zelebium ; ZIP code

Other references [ ]

• Erstwhile graphic: fusion propulsion ; gross vehicle mass ; megawatt ; metric ton ; tritanium
• Holodeck programming simulations (original version) : Burt Armus ; Daryl Baskin ; Dan Curry ; Monty de Graff ; Farouk El-Baz ; Sharyl Fickas ; Sam Freedle ; Mike Gray ; Merri Howard ; Maurice Hurley ; Gary Hutzel ; Heidi Julian ; Jon Koslowsky ; David Livingston ; Terri Martinez ; John Mason ; Robert Metoyer ; Ronald B. Moore ; Wendy Neuss ; Ernie Over ; Diane Overdiek ; Gene Roddenberry ; Scott Rubenstein ; Michael Schoenbrun ; Adele Simmons ; Tracy Tormé
• Holodeck programming simulations (remastered version) : Ryan Adams ; Daryl Baskin ; Phil Bishop ; Dan Curry ; Monty de Graff ; Doug Drexler ; Sam Freedle ; David Grant ; Douglas E. Graves ; Mike Gray ; Jim Hardy ; Merri Howard ; Gary Hutzel ; Jon Koslowsky ; David Livingston ; John Mason ; Ronald B. Moore ; Wendy Neuss ; Ken Ross ; Scott Rubenstein ; Wendy Ruiz ; Adele Simmons ; David Takemura ; Tracy Tormé ; Steve Wiener ; Craig Weiss ; Jayme Wing

External links [ ]

• "The Outrageous Okona" at StarTrek.com
• " The Outrageous Okona " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " The Outrageous Okona " at Wikipedia
• " The Outrageous Okona " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 3 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

Star Trek Comedy

• 6 years ago
• # improvstartrek
• 7 years ago

magicalplaylist :

magicalplaylist : I’ve been binge listening to the Improvised Star Trek podcast and it is super great. I love all the characters, but I’m absolutely charmed by the resident Chief Science Officer Crick Watson. Who is definitely not a robot but is a little bit of a mad scientist. Also I have no idea which uniform he should be wearing besides that it had to be blue? I’m sorry to more hardcore Star Trek fans -_-  

Reblogging because why not. Also after I posted it I realized he looks like Brother!Playlist who is kinda a mad scientist on his own and I find this hilarious. (Also Crick is played by @seanofkelley and Brother!Playlist is also named Sean so I find the whole thing just really great.)

(via magicalplaylist )

Screen Rant

Unfrosted stars jerry seinfeld & jim gaffigan on the pros and cons of working with stand up comedians.

Screen Rant interviews comedy legends Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan about their new Netflix film, Unfrosted, and the origins of their friendship.

• Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan star in a new Netflix film Unfrosted , a comedy about a breakfast treat rivalry in the 1960s.
• Seinfeld makes his directorial debut in Unfrosted , reuniting with writing partner Spike Feresten from Seinfeld and Bee Movie.
• The film tells the story of Kellogg's and Post Cereal competing to create a new breakfast pastry in 1963 Michigan.

The story of the Pop Tart breakfast treat probably may not be terribly interesting, but when Jerry Seinfeld tells the story, it becomes a genuine comedy epic about corporate espionage, Cold War tensions, and living ravioli abominations run amok. In Unfrosted , which arrives May 3 on Netflix, Seinfeld stars as an employee at Kellogg's tasked with developing a breakfast treat to compete with one from their arch-rivals, Post Cereal. Fellow comedian Jim Gaffigan plays his boss, Edsel Kellogg III.

For those not in the know, Jerry Seinfeld is a bona fide comedy legend and star of his eponymous sitcom, Seinfeld , which ran for nine seasons on the NBC network. Unfrosted marks his directorial debut, and his first major film role since 2007's Bee Movie , which shares the same writing team as Unfrosted , including Spike Feresten, who also worked on Seinfeld in the 90s. Meanwhile, Jim Gaffigan is one of the most popular comedians working today and is as well known for his film and television roles as for his various stand-up routines.

10 Best Seinfeld Episodes, Ranked

While promoting the release of Unfrosted , Jerry Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan sat down with Screen Rant for a brief interview about the film, its casting, the pros and cons of working with stand-up comedians, and the origins of their friendship.

Jerry Seinfeld & Jim Gaffigan On The Joy Of Netflix's Unfrosted

Screen Rant: Hello, Jerry and Jim!

Jerry Seinfeld: I read Screen Rant all the time! I like Screen Rant, yes!

We're grateful to hear that! I was talking earlier about how you've talked about only being concerned with the laugh. The buck stops there.

Jerry Seinfeld: Oh, cool! That's right.

You get the old gang back together, it's you and Spike, and you write this hilarious movie based on a classic bit that your tried-and-true fans know, and I imagine you send out feelers to all of your talented buddies across Hollywood... Who would say "no" to that?

Jerry Seinfeld: I don't think anybody says "no." There are some people who weren't available. A lot of people weren't available. Who did I try...? It's hard to get people because everybody is so busy. Anyone that's good is really busy these days, so it's hard to get people. Jim Gaffigan: Scheduling is not a foregone conclusion.

You got an insane cast, not the least of which is our friend, Jim Gaffigan! How far back do you to go, together?

Jerry Seinfeld: Ten years? Jim Gaffigan: Ten years, I would say. Then we fell in love.

Is there a meet-cute? Or is someone like, "Hey Jerry, do you know Jim? Jim, Jerry"

Jim Gaffigan: It was weird, because I remember... When you were going around doing the movie, Comedian, I remember. There was always, people were like, "I think Jerry Seinfeld would like your stand-up." But he was in the middle of doing this documentary. And that was 30 years ago... Jerry Seinfeld: 24 years ago, actually. And then we did an episode of Comedians in Cars (Getting Coffee), because I had seen him on TV, I did like his stand-up, and then we started going to the same clubs together, and working out together, it was just fun!

You look fantastic in those 60s glasses. Horn-rim glasses?

Jerry Seinfeld: Yeah, no... With the metal on the bottom, isn't that what you had? Jim Gaffigan: Yeah, yeah. Jerry Seinfeld: Everybody in Mississippi Burning has them.

Tell me about being directed by Jerry. Do you go, "Oh, I've got something funny," and Jerry's like, "Really? You think it's funnier than what I've got?" Or are you like, "If it's funnier, let's hear it."

Jerry Seinfeld: It is, a lot of times! Jim is as good a comedian as there is, so when he says, "I've got a funny idea," we listen, you know? And we used a lot of them! So, that's what's fun about working with stand-up comedians. What's not fun is most of them cannot act. Myself included. But he can! So he was a double threat, there, since he could act and he could write, and there's nothing better on a movie set than someone who can do both.

Well, it pays off. Thank you so much for the movie, and don't sell yourself short, I felt your pain as you "ran the gauntlet," or... What was it? Ran the Aisle, Walked the Aisle?

Jerry Seinfeld: Make him "Walk the Aisle." Yeah. "But sir, he's a family man!"

About Unfrosted

Michigan, 1963. Kellogg's and Post, sworn cereal rivals, race to create a pastry that will change the face of breakfast. A tale of ambition, betrayal, sugar, and menacing milkmen, UNFROSTED stars Jerry Seinfeld in his directorial debut.

Check out our other Unfrosted interviews here:

• Spike Ferensten
• Christian Slater, Sarah Cooper & Max Greenfield

Unfrosted releases May 3 on Netflix.

Source: Screen Rant Plus

Unfrosted (2024)

Unfrosted is a 2024 biographical comedy directed, written, and starring Jerry Seinfeld. The film takes place in 1963 Battle Creek, Michigan, where Kellogg's and Post are fighting to create a new world-changing breakfast pastry.

'Discovery's Elias Toufexis Could Be 'Star Trek's Next Jeffrey Combs

Toufexis and Eve Harlow breakdown their Breen backstory and call the 'Discovery' set the best they've ever worked on.

The Big Picture

• Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 5, "Mirrors," delves into Moll and L'ak's backstory, revealing their love and the price on their heads.
• Stars Eve Harlow and Elias Toufexis discuss fleshing out their romance, joining the sci-fi series for its final season, and L'ak's connection to the Breen.
• The duo also praises the Star Trek: Discovery cast and crew for the warm and welcoming atmosphere, with Sonequa Martin-Green leading the way as a fantastic number one.

A few weeks ago, Star Trek: Discovery kicked off the series' final season with a dazzling new mystery and a pair of wildly compelling antagonists. Seemingly out to cash in on the greatest treasure the galaxy has to offer, lovers Moll ( Eve Harlow ) and L'ak ( Elias Toufexis ) have been neck-and-neck with Michael Burnham ( Sonequa Martin-Green ) and her crew as they hunt for clues . This week's episode "Mirrors," sees Burnham catch up with the two as she and Book ( David Ajala ) corner them on an abandoned ISS Enterprise from the Mirror universe.

As the two couples are made to face each other, we also get a glimpse into Moll and L'ak's backstory. Not only do we learn how they fell in love, but we also come to understand why they're on the run — L'ak is a Breen and in their attempt to run away together the duo killed a pair of guards. Now the warlike race has a price on their heads.

Ahead of the episode, I sat down with Harlow and Toufexis to talk about the big reveals in "Mirrors," the complex relationship between their characters, and what they're taking away from their time on Discovery . During our conversation, we also spoke about their personal experiences with Star Trek , when Toufexis learned he would be playing a Breen, and which episodes of Season 5 are their favorites.

Star Trek: Discovery

Taking place almost a decade before Captain Kirk's Enterprise, the USS Discovery charts a course to uncover new worlds and life forms.

Both Harlow and Toufexis have a fair share of sci-fi credits to their names with Harlow having made waves on shows like The 100 and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. while Toufexis appeared in the smash hit series The Expanse as well as having voiced characters in a truly impressive number of video games. When asked what it was like to go from their sci-fi roots to arguably the biggest sci-fi series of all time, Harlow admitted that she'd actually "never seen Star Trek before." She went on to explain, "to me, I was like, 'Oh, cool, another job. Oh, cool, I get to be in space!'"

Meanwhile, Toufexis was a huge Star Trek fan. "And Elias was like, 'No, you don't understand. This is Star Trek .' Even in the sides for the audition, I remember the word “Klingon” being in there, and I'm like, “Wait, how do I pronounce this? What is this?” And on set it was like, “What's a Tribbler?” Harlow joked. "Then Elias was like, 'Okay, let me send you a YouTube video.' So I think for me it was just like, 'Oh, cool. This is fun. This is nice,' and then being told the importance of it by my co-star," she laughed.

For Toufexis, the role was a dream come true. He explained:

"It was great for me. I love sci-fi, and I was happy to do a lot of sci-fi before Star Trek, but yeah, I'm a giant Star Trek fan. Accepting the role was a no-brainer, and I was very, very happy and geeked out every day on set. I would get mad at people who worked on the show who didn't know the stuff that I knew. Not Eve. I would never get mad at Eve."

As actors, both Harlow and Toufexis know the struggle of auditioning over and over for until something sticks. He said, "as an actor, you audition for everything, and you take what sticks, right? That's the nature of the beast." He went on, calling Discovery a career highlight. "So it just happened to be that I have done a lot of sci-fi stuff in my career, so Star Trek is kind of the peak sci-fi . So, it's all downhill from here," he laughed. However, as any good Star Trek fan knows, playing one character is not always the end of the line for an actor in the series. I joked that Toufexis could return on another series in the future, following in the footsteps of actors like Jeffrey Combs and Suzie Plakson , to which he heartily agreed, "I'll play, like, 10 characters."

'Star Trek: Discovery's Moll and L'ak Are Hopelessly Devoted to Each Other

Shortly after we meet these two in the first episode of Season 5 , it becomes very clear that L'ak would do anything to protect Moll, to the point of taking out excessive violence on anyone who threatens her. When asked if that defensive nature was a result of their nature or inherent in them as individuals Toufexis explained, "I think it's inherent in them, but they bring it out of each other. It's a part of their character."

He went on to explain that L'ak was already looking for a way out of his life as a high-ranking Breen when he fell in love with Moll. He said, "I don't know if he was looking for love, but he found it, and then that brought out the guardian in him." He went on to say that one thing he loved about the fifth episode is that, in learning their history, we see that Moll and L'ak are more equals than it seemed in the first four episodes.

"It looks like he's almost her bodyguard, but when they're alone, you see it's not really the case. They're on absolutely equal footing, and he defers to her a lot. He's just protective of her, but she is of him, and that's their love." He went on to explain, " My favorite thing about these characters is their love for each other. It's rare in sci-fi that you have antagonists that have a genuinely good reason to do what they're doing, that I think people would relate to their love and passion for each other and freedom. That's it. We're not bad guys. We just want you to leave us the hell alone." He points out that in this episode, Moll admits they never would have made an enemy out of the Discovery crew if they'd just been left alone, "But you keep on us, and we’re gonna defend ourselves.”

Meanwhile, Harlow explained that the complete devotion Moll and L'ak have for each other is what makes them relatable. She said:

"I do think it's inherent to their nature, and I think that that's what makes them likable, is that there's the love and loyalty there, and they're the first beings in each other's lives that have been, like, he's proven to me that he's worth the love, he's worth the loyalty. Literally, everybody else has either died or betrayed, left. All that stuff. This one being has shown me that it's like, 'No, this is actually where I can store my loyalty, love in this being, and I'm gonna hold on to this being no matter what.' "

With this episode being called "Mirrors," not only for the time spent on a Mirror Universe ship, but for the relationships within, as Moll and L'ak serve as a foil to Book and Burnham. I asked the pair if they felt like their characters recognized themselves in their counterparts. For Toufexis, Book and Burnham are barely even on his radar. He said, "At least as an actor, I never even considered that. I was just like, 'Nah, I don't care about them.' He's very one-track-minded." He then laid out L'ak's priorities, saying:

"At least for me, the way I played it was, 'I just want Moll, and I want you to leave us alone. And if this tech, whatever it is that we may not understand, or even if they understand its power, whatever this tech is, if it could grant us freedom and to be left alone and to just go live our lives in love together, that's all that matters.' So I don't think they're looking and going, 'Oh, they're a lot like us, those two.'"

Meanwhile, Harlow agreed, comparing their characters to "caged animals." She said: "Everyone else are [our] oppressors, and so I don't care what's happening out there. I don't care how similar it is, because ultimately they have the key to the door to freedom, and they're holding here. It’s like, 'Fuck yeah!'"

Elias Toufexis Learned He Was Playing a Breen While Getting His Prosthetics for 'Star Trek: Discovery'

While the Breen have existed since the 90s, having first appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , we know very little about their species. Most notably, we don't know what they look like under their helmets — at least we didn't until this episode. As a fan of the franchise, I had to ask Toufexis if he knew he would be playing a Breen when he first got the role or if he found out when he read the script. He revealed that he actually found out while getting his prosthetics made. But before telling the full story of how he found out L'ak was a Breen, Toufexis took a brief detour to joke about another vast disparity between his Star Trek experience and Harlow's.

He said: "This is a funny story we haven’t told yet. When I auditioned, I knew I was gonna be in makeup because I had already been on the show in the third episode. I played one of the prisoners that's on the show, on Discovery , so I knew I couldn't play with my own face again. I knew I'd be in prosthetics. And I remember, this is like a side thing, but I remember calling Eve and talking about working together, and I said, 'So what's your makeup process?' She's like, 'I don't have any makeup. I don’t have any prosthetics.' 'What? You mean I have to go through five hours of hair and makeup…?'" Harlow chimed in confirming the call, "You were like, 'No, no, no, like prosthetics.' I’m like, 'Yeah, no. Nothing.' And he's like, 'Wait, are you sure?' [Laughs] I’m like, 'I don’t know how to break it to you, but no.'"

He joked that he was "hoping we were both gonna have 2:30 a.m. calls and all that kind of stuff," before diving into how he learned he'd be playing a Breen. He explained:

"But when I found out that he was a Breen was when I went to do the first step of the prosthetics. Being a giant Star Trek geek, I said, 'Can you show me what I'm gonna look like?' Because they’re doing that thing, the plaster mold, where you have to sit there in 20 minutes and try not to have a panic attack. But at that session, I said, 'Do you have any art of what he's gonna look like?' And they showed me, and I said, 'Do you know what race he is?' Because I think I had heard that he was a new race, or an unseen race, or something like that. And they said, 'Yeah, he's a Breen.' I was like, 'Wait, Breen? They don’t take off their helmets.' My geek mind starts going. Then they're like, 'Yeah, you're gonna be the first time that this race is revealed in Star Trek,' and that really got me going. I was like, 'Oh, okay! Let's plaster me up. Let's do this.' And somehow I got through it. But yeah, I was really excited to find that out. Especially [because] Deep Space Nine to me is, like, I love Deep Space Nine . I know the Breen they talk about in TNG a little bit, but Deep Space Nine to me is, like, one of my favorite shows ever, not just Star Treks shows. So, the fact that I was gonna be involved in that. We kind of delve into Deep Space Nine , so I was super happy."

Moll and L'ak Aren't Villains — They're Just Antagonists

In "Mirrors," Moll and L'ak become much more fleshed-out characters as we get a glimpse into their history with each other. Much like the revelation with the Breen, I had to ask Harlow and Toufexis if they had made up any backstory for their characters prior to learning the roots of their love story when they got the script for this episode. Harlow explained that they really only fleshed out the basics like how long they'd been together. She pointed out that sometimes if you make up a backstory for your character it can get entirely undone by the narrative. She said: "The thing is, you could create a backstory, and then you get the next episode and it’s like, 'Ha, joke’s on you. Totally wrong. Everything that we thought…' So, at least this is the way that I work, it's like, 'Okay, what are the stakes? This person is my everything.' That’s just how I’m gonna play it. "

"In terms of the flashback, I mean, it was fun," she grinned. "This might sound really vain, but looks-wise, what did she look like back then? I’ve just got to shout out to the hair and makeup and costume team. Freaking amazing. Such talented people, and also so collaborative, and talking about all this, and being excited about it as well. I think this is what was really cool about the show. Literally every single person is so excited about what they do. Like the props people, they're like, 'This is so awesome,' and then you're like, 'Yes! This is so awesome.'"

Despite not being a Star Trek fan before joining the franchise, Harlow explained that she couldn't help but fall in love with the whole team. "So even though, again, I did not know Star Trek , you can't help it. It's infectious when you're surrounded by that energy, and so it's like, 'Oh, cool. We get to explore our characters’ backgrounds and be in this Breen world.'" She went on to say, "seeing the sets is insane. That screen, the wall, is incredible. You step into the space and you're like, 'Whoa, people created all of this and I get to be a part of it? Incredible.'"

Toufexis was thrilled to get an episode so heavily dedicated to Moll and L'ak's motivations. Having played his fair share of TV baddies , he noted that this is the first time he's gotten to play out the why of what his character is doing himself. He told me:

"The backstory was the best part for me because, I've said this before, but I play a lot of bad guys on TV, and very often it's other characters that are just explaining why my character is doing what he's doing, or make a line thrown here or there, like this is what happened to me, so this is why I'm doing this. Whereas with L’ak, I got to play it. I got to go back and play how he got to where he is, and the great thing is it's justified. What I hope is that the people who watch Episode 5, when they rewatch, they go, 'Oh, yeah, everything they're doing they have a right to do. They're not bad. They're just the antagonists.' I don't mind if they call us villains for promotional purposes, but I’m kind of like, 'They're not villains.'"

Harlow chimed in saying, "They have hearts of gold, okay?" To which Toufexis doubled down on Moll and L'ak's desire to just be left alone.

Eve Harlow and Elias Toufexis Reveal Their Favorite Episodes of 'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 5

Again, as a pair of Trekkies, I had to ask Toufexis about the incredible experience of getting to actually spend time on the bridge of the Enterprise in this episode. Naturally, he was delighted. He told Collider:

"Well, you can imagine. I've already said I'm a super nerd. And also, The Original Series , that's what I watched growing up . I'm not that old, my dad had them all on tape — so I'm old, but I'm not that old. My dad had them all on tape in the ‘90s, so I watched them over and over and over again, and the movies, especially. So, for me, that was my introduction to Star Trek was the Kirk Enterprise, right? Even though I know this is not the Kirk Enterprise, but Kirk's on it. So being on that ship, I know story-wise it was the ISS Enterprise, but I'm still like, 'This is the Enterprise. I don't care what decals they put over this. I'm sitting on the Enterprise.' I went and took secret pictures of me on the bridge and stuff like that. I was just freaking out, man. I was like, 'This is like the coolest thing.' How can you not freak out being a fan of something and then suddenly getting paid to be there? It's pretty cool."

While she didn't have any personal connection to the sets herself, Harlow understood the importance through Toufexis' experience. "I had him explain all this to me," she laughed. "It's like this is my very own Star Trek Wikipedia sitting next to me. I'm like, 'Okay, cool, noted. Thank you.'"

When asked what their favorite episodes of Discovery Season 5 were, Toufexis decidedly chose the one we all just watched. "Five for me, for sure," he said, though he was sure to give some praise to the rest of the season as well. "There's a couple of episodes coming up that are really good, too, but for me, it's five because of that, the background and getting to play the background. It's kind of their big episode that reveals everything about her. So for me, it's five. " Meanwhile, Harlow set her sights on the series finale, saying, "I forget which episode it is, but it's later, it's either Episode 9 or 10, and I don't think I can say anything. I'm not gonna say anything, but yes, there is one I like."

The 'Star Trek: Discovery' Set Is Unlike Any Other Thanks to Sonequa Martin-Green

While this is Harlow and Toufexis' first season of Discovery, it's also the show's last. As I noted in my review, despite the writers not knowing Season 5 was the end, they somehow managed to bring the story to a full circle moment. And Toufexis felt the exact same way, he said, "You know what, I was just thinking about this morning. I was thinking about how it's somehow in this weird… The TV gods… Because the episodes that were already written before they knew it was gonna be the last season have this feeling of closure in this weird way, right?" He went on to explain, " Like Episode 4, where they go back and see themselves in the past. That is something that you would do when you would be ending a show, or Doug [Jones], Saru, going off and having these new chapters. That's something you would do when you would end the show. So, it’s this weird kind of thing that happened where it almost was fate that it was going to be the last season . I don't know if that is a sad note or something, but it just worked so well."

"So what I hope people take out of it is just this great feeling of closure of this amazing five years that these people have done. I mean, I'm a fan of the show and I've watched every episode. You're sad that it's ending but at the same time it's ending so well that you just kind of hope everybody just really enjoys the ride of this last season and then looks at everything as five years of what this show actually accomplished, which if you step back and look at it is a lot."

While Harlow admitted that she hadn't "thought about it that deeply, but ultimately I just want people to like it." She had nothing but high praise for series star Sonequa Martin-Green , saying: "The first thing, I stepped on set and everyone, Sonequa was so kind and so welcoming. Every single person on that set was wonderful , and one of the first things that I was told was, 'Welcome to the family.' I just want people to like it, to deserve that title of being in the family, if that makes sense."

For these two, working on Discovery was unlike any other set they'd ever worked on. "I would like to piggyback off of that," said Toufexis. "Eve has worked a lot, I’ve worked a lot, and this is one of the best sets you could work on. From Sonequa and down to the crew, to Michelle [Paradise] and Tunde [Osunsanmi], and all those guys, Alex Kurtzman. You just end up going like, 'All these people are nice.'"

The vibes on set were amazing from the start, to the point that Harlow could hardly believe it to be true, certain that at some point the magic would wear off. However, the warm, familiar atmosphere never faded. She explained:

"When I started, I was like, 'There is no way that this lasts for six months. There's no way.' Because people get stressed. It's just like being on sets — it's chaotic, there’s so many people. And, oh my god, until the very end people were so kind. I feel like a fangirl when I talk about it, and I feel like I've talked about it so much, but it's just because it's lasted, and it just shows what a set can be like. We had this thing, crew appreciation, which is like every single day, a different crew member would be clapped for, and throughout the day, if you saw this crewmember, you could just start clapping for them. So that means that by the time we finished filming, everybody knows everybody's names and what they do and has an appreciation for everybody's job. I've never seen that on any set. And it didn't get in the way of us finishing days. I know that some people are like, 'Oh, it takes time to do this care and appreciation.' Yes, it takes time. It’s, like, 30 seconds, and it lifts everybody's spirits. Anyway, yeah, it's great."

Toufexis confirmed that the source of those good vibes without a doubt comes back to their fearless leader. "It's Sonequa’s set," he said. "Sonequa was the number one, and she's the best number one I've ever worked with. Hands down. Just [the best] of the whole show. She's amazing. I could never say enough good about Sonequa." And Harlow couldn't help but agree: "Every single time I see her, I’m like, 'Sonequa, I love you so much!' I know I'm gushing again for the 50th time, but yes."

"Mirrors" is available to stream now on Paramount+ . New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery hit the platform every Thursday. Stay tuned at Collider for more.

Giant Freakin Robot

Star Trek Fan-Favorite Character Thought They Were Comic Relief

Posted: April 25, 2024 | Last updated: April 26, 2024

While Star Trek: The Next Generation had an amazing cast, the writers didn’t always give Dr. Crusher enough to do. Played by the talented Gates McFadden, this character is relatively serious most of the time, which is arguably fitting because the character is a widowed mother who also has to deal with the craziest diseases in the cosmos. Ironically, though, McFadden thought Dr. Crusher would be a comedic character for a simple reason: during her audition, she was reading lines from the infamous episode “The Naked Now.”

McFadden Loves Comedy

Before she was cast in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gates McFadden had some experience performing in dramas, including TV shows like Another World and The Edge of Night. However, she preferred the more comedic roles, and she dazzled with brief roles in The Muppets Take Manhattan and The Cosby Show (both as Cheryl McFadden). When she auditioned for Star Trek, she was actually relieved because she was given some very comedic material to work with.

The Naked Now

What Gates McFadden had no way of knowing was that the script she received for the audition was not representative of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and most certainly not representative of her own character. The script was for “The Naked Now,” a follow-up to an old Original Series episode where we saw how different TNG characters would act when infected with something that basically made them completely drunk. At different points, the normally very serious Picard and Dr. Crusher alternate between giggling and flirting.

The Least Funny Character

Understandably, this led Gates McFadden to believe that Dr. Crusher would be a funny character, an impression that she later said was heightened when she read through the pilot script. There’s a decent chance this was an earlier version of that script, as the finished TNG pilot episode “Encounter At Farpoint” doesn’t really have any comedy moments for the character. Eventually, McFadden made peace with the fact that Dr. Crusher was going to be a generally serious role, but she never stopped trying to inject comedy where she could.

She Tried To Add The Funny

In a 1992 interview, Gates McFadden said of Dr. Crusher that “there’s nothing funny about her” and that “I keep trying to put in the comedy and the pratfalls, but it’s hard.” Her efforts were likely made that much harder by the fact that The Next Generation was a generally very serious show. In retrospect, though, her instincts were solid, and Dr. Crusher was at her best when given something funny to do.

When She Was Allowed To Be Funny, She Killed

For example, her snarky back and forth with Q in “Deja Q” is perfect, made even better by the fact that Gates McFadden and John de Lancie were already good friends before getting cast in Star Trek: The Next Generation. In “Data’s Day,” she is amusingly captivating as she teaches Data how to tap dance (using her own killer dance skills, by the way). And while not written as a comedy, McFadden makes “Sub Rosa” (the ep where Dr. Crusher can’t stop banging a ghost man who lives in a candle) hilarious, especially with lines like “I did fall asleep reading a particularly erotic chapter in my grandmother’s journal.”

Here’s The Ghost Candle Joke You Knew Was On The Way

The prognosis is simple: Gates McFadden may have been wrong about Dr. Crusher being a comedic character, but she ultimately made the dancing doctor funnier than the writers ever intended. If you’d like to light a candle in remembrance of how great she made this character, go right ahead. However, if you see a sexy Scottish guy in old-timey clothing comes out of the candle, you better clear your schedule for the rest of the night–maybe the rest of the week.

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Creating Comedy in Star Trek: The Next Generation

Brent Spiner shares why he thinks comedic moments were an important part of the series.

Brent Spiner (Data) tells host Wil Wheaton (The Ready Room) why he thinks comedic moments were an important part of Star Trek: The Next Generation from the beginning. Then, Mike McMahan (creator of Star Trek: Lower Decks ) adds that one of the best parts of The Next Generation’s humor was that it was never mean.

Star Trek: Lower Decks streams exclusively in the United States on Paramount+, on Amazon Prime Video in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Japan, India and more, and in Canada on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave.

How Leslie Liao left Netflix’s HR department to become a rising star in stand-up

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Pacing the stage, Leslie Liao muses about the various moisturizers she, an almost 37-year-old, feels compelled to use. “I spend most of my time rubbing creams all over my body. … Face cream, eye cream, foot cream, just constantly creaming myself.”

She continues, a mic drop about modern dating imminent. “I just learned there is a neck cream. I have to cream my neck. … I overheard a man complaining once how he spends all his money on drinks for girls and it’s so unfair. Bro, I am wearing $300 worth of face paint and body jam to not scare you away. I’d like my Moscow mule now, please.” The crowd erupts with laughter.

“That joke was a real conversation I had with a man years ago,” Liao says, seated outside at Jewel in Silver Lake. “He was really making the argument. He was like, ‘I would love if a girl bought me a drink.’ And then I went on this rant . I was like, ‘Do you know ? I had to put on my face for you to even talk to me. I’m in debt . So, you owe me a Moscow mule.’ And he laughed so hard.”

This is precisely the type of deadpan observational humor Liao, an L.A.-based comedian, tends to lead with. In addition to riffing on various body creams, Liao’s shows cycle through such topics as the cognitive dissonance of “being attracted to men” but “not finding men attractive,” fixing said men, growing up Asian American in Orange County and putting a 100-mile search radius on dating apps to achieve “maximum efficiency,” among other daily indignities.

Liao might be self-deprecating about her hyper-methodical nature, but it’s because of her personality that she finds herself here today working as a full-time comedian, free of the corporate world for the first time in her adult life. From 2017 to January of this year, she was living a double life — from 9 to 5, she worked in HR at Netflix. In the evenings, she did stand-up. One had nothing to do with the other. “I just didn’t sleep,” Liao says of that time. “The shows were so late. I would have to be awake so early and be so sharp. Some meetings, I would have to lead them. They’re not always a Zoom meeting where you can be off camera and like, put your feet up and secretly be in PJs.”

The comedian’s two worlds started to overlap late last year when Liao booked a gig on “The Tonight Show” and a short set on Netflix’s “Verified Stand-Up.” “My bosses at Netflix saw me on Netflix . They saw me on Jimmy Fallon,” Liao says. “In a nice way, they were like, ‘What are you doing here?’ They were so cool and supportive. They were like, ‘Go be a star. They didn’t fire me, but they were like, ‘It’s your time.’”

Though she was well on her way to achieving financial stability as a stand-up, Liao maintains that she needed a little bit of a nudge from her Netflix bosses to take the leap away from a corporate job. “It was so scary — because all I knew was having a somewhat safe day job. But I’m so happy.”

Since leaving Netflix, Liao has applied her high-key scheduling to a creative’s life. Her Google Calendar reveals a rainbow of appointments and events. (“When comics see my calendar, they scoff, laugh, and barf.”) When she arrives at the cafe for her photo shoot, Liao has on an oversized blazer and pulls two pairs of potential shoe options out of an oversize black tote — low-top sneakers and heeled black boots. She ultimately picks the sneakers, agreeing that the juxtaposition of a workwear top and casual trainers feels symbolic.

Netflix is a Joke Festival unveils new outdoor comedy hub Outside Joke at the Palladium

When fellow comics find out Liao had been employed at the streaming behemoth, Liao says, they nearly always ask if that’s how she got her foot in the comedy door, to which she responds with a look that can only be described as, Girl , no . “Do you think I’m gonna slide my demo under Ted Sarandos’ door?” she cracks. “Do you think I’m gonna find any exec in Content and try out a bit in the elevator? Do my shtick in the cafeteria?”

“Honestly?” she continues. “If I went to any comedy exec at Netflix and told them, ‘You should put me on Netflix, I’m a comic. Did you know? Have you seen my stuff?’ They should fire me. It’s so inappropriate and unprofessional — and lame. They would have had every right to escort me out of the building that day.” Liao never even imagined that she’d be a stand-up comedian. Born to Chinese immigrant parents, she was drawn to entertainment from an early age (she’s a big fan of Jim Gaffigan, Conan O’Brien, Mitch Hedberg and Tig Notaro), but she always pictured herself doing something behind the scenes. “I used to want to be a ballerina,” she says. “And then it turned into like, some vague version of a corporate job. I was like, I’m gonna have a briefcase and a blazer.”

Case in point: When Liao would watch the Academy Awards growing up, she liked how the celebrities would thank their agents in their acceptance speeches. “I’d be like, that sounds cool. I didn’t want to be Charlize Theron or Halle Berry. I wanted to be their agent. For whatever reason, it didn’t click for me to want to be the star. I wanted to be who’s helping the star get that gig.”

After attending film school at USC, Liao started doing what many 20-something entertainment hopefuls do — work as an assistant and begin climbing up the ladder. Prior to landing the job at Netflix, Liao assisted a comedy producer at Universal Studios, where she volunteered to help scout new talent. That’s when she started attending stand-up shows every other night. “They didn’t really need me to,” she laughs. “I was an assistant, so they were like, ‘Please stay and answer the phones. None of us are asking you to go to the Hollywood Improv.’ But I just got in the habit, and I loved it. I tried to make it part of my job.”

Liao didn’t even consider doing stand-up until she witnessed a less-than-impressive showcase. That’s when the wheels started to turn: Should she try this herself? “At that time in my life, in my late 20s, a lot of my friends would tell me I should do stand-up. … But I never thought I could do it. It seemed like such an imaginary world to me. I didn’t know any comics personally. My parents had such business-y jobs. So, I couldn’t grab on to the idea that I could be onstage and people will clap for me. It just didn’t seem real.”

Prior to her first set at the Haha Comedy Club in North Hollywood, Liao took a writing class, where she’d write, hone and workshop ideas along with a handful of fellow students. For graduation, the class performed sets for friends and family, each comic cheering the other on. “[The class] was designed in a smart way to [show you] this is how good it can be. You could have an amazing night, rather than starting on your own and having a ton of s— shows. I remember it like going as well as it possibly could. I remembered all the jokes, and everyone laughed where I thought they would, and at one moment I even riffed.

“I was scared of it going well,” Liao continues. “Because I knew that it meant I would never stop.”

The 60 best places to see stand-up comedy in L.A.

And she hasn’t. In addition to making the rounds at go-to venues like Dynasty Typewriter, the Comedy Store and the Laugh Factory, last summer Liao was included in Just for Laughs Festival’s New Faces of Comedy showcase. Next month, she’s playing the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever as part of Netflix Is a Joke Fest.

Her path to comedy might be unconventional, but Liao has zero reservations about starting slightly later than most. If anything, chasing a comedy career in her 30s has proved advantageous. “I think I waited till I was 30 to make sure that I could feel a teeny bit confident to preach my thoughts onstage into a microphone,” Liao says. “A lot of comics start young , like at 20, or a teenager. I’m like, where’s the life you’ve lived? I knew I was lacking perspective in my 20s. I had to live some life to have things happen to me and be like, ‘What was that?’”

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