How I Learned to Stop Worrying About ‘Star Trek’ Canon and Enjoy the Big Dumb Mystery

March 16, 2023March 20, 2023 Zhouweiwen

As we are halfway through our return to the 25th Century, we can pretty much settle into the rhythm of Star Trek: Picard. It’s a bit of a clunky narrative but a lot of fun character work for new and returning players. Most discouraging but perhaps least surprising is for all the things Season 3 has done to get us those wonderful character moments, it can’t escape the Kurtzman of it all and has at its center a big dumb mystery around Jack Crusher.

Reviews, Star Trek

‘Star Trek: Picard’ is Really Worried about Mom and Dad Fighting

March 2, 2023March 2, 2023 Zhouweiwen

Yellow alert! This was still an overall enjoyable episode with a mix of good and somewhat forced character beats. However, some of the internal logic is starting to be concerning.

Reviews, Star Trek1 Comment

‘Star Trek: Picard’ — That’s Not How Accents Work

February 25, 2023March 2, 2023 Zhouweiwen

Mercifully, Picard is not hiding the ball. A recurrent problem with a lot of serialized shows is setting up a lot of mysteries that are slowly dripped throughout the season and you have to hope the mystery at the end is worth it.

Reviews, Star Trek1 Comment

‘Star Trek: Picard’ — Once More Unto the Breach

February 17, 2023March 2, 2023 Zhouweiwen

Star Trek has always wrestled with managing its legacy and the ability to do something new. Fans are always a prickly bunch judging a new series, movie, or a given episode as to whether or not it feels like Star Trek.

Hard N.O.C. Life, Star Trek1 Comment

Hard NOC Life 299: All Good ‘Star Trek’ for the Next Generation

February 13, 2023February 27, 2023 Hard NOC Media

In anticipation for the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard, Keith welcomes his brother Raymond to Hard NOC Life as they countdown their top five episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation!

Animation, Interview, Star Trek

Brett Gray and Ella Purnell on What’s Next for Dal and Gwyn on ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’

October 13, 2022October 13, 2022 Swara Salih

When we last saw Dal (Brett Gray) and Gwyn (Ella Purnell), along with the rest of the crew of the USS Protostar, they had made a daring escape from Gwyn’s father The Diviner (John Noble), but not before he revealed the reasons for Gwyn’s existence. But Gwyn lost her memory in the midseason finale, leaving where her journey will go more uncertain as she and her friend get closer to Starfleet. What will the latter half of this season of Star Trek: Prodigy have in store for her, Dal, and the rest of their crew?

Animation, Interview, Star Trek

Kate Mulgrew on Returning as Vice Admiral Janeway on ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’

October 12, 2022October 12, 2022 Swara Salih

It was a landmark moment for the Star Trek franchise when Kate Mulgrew, Captain Kathryn Janeway herself, returned to voice a version of her character in the thrilling Paramount+ Nickelodeon animated series Star Trek Prodigy. The twist was that she would be playing an AI version of the character, one who guides the next generation in the ways of Starfleet.

Fandom, Interview, Star Trek

Star Trek Day 2022: A Celebration of Family and Belonging

September 9, 2022September 9, 2022 Jason Sperber

On Wednesday, September 8, 2022, the Star Trek fandom community and many of the stars and creators of that universe marked the 56th anniversary of The Original Series’ premiere with a teaser-filled celebration at Los Angeles’ Skirball Cultural Center, and The Nerds of Color were there on the star-crowded purple carpet and in the fan-filled theater to witness a gathering that was, underneath it all, about the power of found family and the magic of finding a place in which to belong.

Interview, Star Trek

Babs Olusanmokun on Playing Dr. M’Benga on ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’

June 22, 2022 Swara Salih

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds takes us back to the original Star Trek era where Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) led the Enterprise and her crew on daring missions to explore the vastness of Space and make new discoveries and advancements on behalf of the Federation. The crew of the Enterprise is has a vast range of experience and skill they bring to their mission, and one Dr. M’Benga, played brilliantly by Babs Olusanmokun, gets his own featured episode this week.

Interview, Star Trek

Celia Rose Gooding on Staying True to Herself and Uhura in ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’

May 25, 2022May 25, 2022 Laura Sirikul

Celia Rose Gooding is a woman of her time just like the iconic character she plays on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Cadet Nyota Uhura.

Interview, Star Trek, Streaming

Director/Producer Olatunde Osunsanmi on What’s Next for ‘Star Trek: Discovery’

March 18, 2022March 19, 2022 Swara Salih

Finally, the mystery of Species Ten-C has been resolved. In a stunning finale, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and her crew of the USS Discovery figured it out with galaxy-spanning ramifications. In this race to the finish with her lover Clevand Booker (“Book”) (David Ajala), who had gone renegade this season in his own pursuit of justice, Star Trek: Discovery delivered yet another stunning finale, with limitless pathways to pursue in Season 5. After this finale, I’m incredibly excited for the next journey of Discovery.

Interview, Star Trek, Streaming

Hiro Kanagawa on Joining ‘Star Trek: Discovery’

March 11, 2022 Swara Salih

Hiro Kanagawa has been on our tv screens for decades, appearing in such favorite shows as Smallville, iZombie, Legends of Tomorrow, Inuyasha, The X-Files, Altered Carbon, and much more. Now, joins the critically acclaimed Star Trek: Discovery as the inquisitive Dr. Hirai, one of the Federation’s leading specialists in astrolinguistics, xenophonology, and theoretical semiotics in the 32nd Century. As the Federation prepares to engage with the extra-galactic Species 10-C, Dr. Hirai is pivotal to establishing first contact.

Interview, Star Trek

‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Director and Executive Producer Olatunde Osunsanmi Discusses Season 4

December 17, 2021December 17, 2021 Swara Salih

Star Trek: Discovery has returned to our streaming screens for another spectacular season as the Discovery crew and the Federation of the future must deal with a galaxy-threatening anomaly. It’s unlike anything the Discovery crew has faced before, and resultingly Captain Burnham and her crew and loved ones are pushed to the brink in so many ways. What goes into making such a spectacular adventure that we watch every week?

Animation, Interview, Star Trek

Dawnn Lewis, aka Captain Carol Freeman, on the Return of ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’

August 11, 2021August 11, 2021 Swara Salih

Dawnn Lewis does it all. Acting, voice acting, musicals, and more. And she can add Starfleet Captain to the list with her role as Captain Carol Freeman of the USS Cerritos. She’s a no nonsense captain who unfortunately has a lot of nonsense to deal with from her crew, including her own daughter Beckett, who may cause the most trouble of the bunch. Ahead of the Season 2 Premiere this Thursday, August 12, we at The Nerds of Color were able to speak with Lewis on how she approaches the role of Captain Freeman, her voice-acting career, what we can expect for her and Beckett’s mother-daughter dynamic, and the prospect of returning to Broadway for the musical Tina.

Fandom, Star Trek, Streaming

All Good Things…

February 10, 2020May 15, 2021 Shawn Taylor

As soon as I was exposed to it, I was a rabid fan of Star Trek. We share a birthday, September 8, and a value system that holds art and science as equals. Trek was more to me than a fandom. It was a vision of our shared future world that was achievable. Maybe not warp drive and phasers, but philosophically and materially achievable. While I loved the Original Series, it was The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine that seemed to realize R. Buckminster Fuller’s (one of my favorite thinkers) dream of universal equity.

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Hard N.O.C. Life, Star Trek, Television

Hard NOC Life: Engaging with ‘Picard’

January 27, 2020January 30, 2020 Hard NOC Media

On a new episode of Hard NOC Life, Dominic, Shawn, and Keith return to the Final Frontier and review the CBS All Access Original Series, Star Trek: Picard.

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Movies, Star Trek, Star Wars

The Rise of Disney and the Future of Fantasy in the Shadow of the Empire

January 2, 2020January 3, 2020 Jordan Chu

When I first saw The Force Awakens after a fully funded summer media apparatus of hype in the winter of 2015, I remember the following Christmas morning my mother turned the corner, threw me a Force Awakens pillow, and coldly chuckled “Merry Christmas.” It was a good joke — like many the Force is moderately strong in my family — but it left me to wonder, what Christmas spirit at Walmart possessed my Mom to buy me this gift? I suspect my mother may have unknowingly become a Disney market research statistic. But after the last five years and our predestined Rise of Skywalker, I am largely left to ask the same question.

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Conventions, Fandom, Star Trek14 Comments

Representation Matters: Super Asian Americans

July 28, 2017July 29, 2017 Nancy Wang Yuen

The superhero genre is slowly expanding its insular universe with Wonder Woman and the highly anticipated Black Panther. Though just a drop in the bucket compared to white male superheroes, such images can significantly impact audiences who have never seen themselves portrayed as (s)heroes. Recently at Comic-Con in San Diego, one Asian American girl, Ashley Keller, teared up when she met Gal Gadot (aka Wonder Woman) in a video that went viral, demonstrating the real-life impact of on-screen role models:

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Guest Post, Star Trek, Television3 Comments

Michelle Yeoh is the Starship Captain We’ve Been Waiting For

May 19, 2017May 19, 2017 Guest N.O.C.

by Phil Yu | Originally posted at Angry Asian Man

Hell yes. Fellow Trekkies, rejoice. The first-look trailer for the new CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery has dropped, and the latest foray into the final frontier looks pretty damn awesome, not least because of one badass looking starship captain in the form of one Michelle Yeoh. MICHELLE FRICKIN YEOH.

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Movies, Star Trek

Sitting in the Captain’s Chair for Star Trek Beyond Now on Blu-Ray

November 4, 2016January 17, 2017 Keith Chow

People tell me physical media is a dying format and that everyone gets their movies digitally now. Well, I’m old and set in my ways. One of those ways is buying my favorite movies on blu-ray. Last time there was a new Star Trek movie available on disc, Paramount spread the movie’s bonus features over several different retail outlets, and I was not happy about it. This time, while there are still retail exclusives for Star Trek Beyond, you don’t have to buy five different versions of the same movie to get all of the featurettes in one place.

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Star Trek, Television11 Comments

What I’ve Learned: Star Trek at 50 (Me at 44)

September 8, 2016September 8, 2016 Shawn Taylor

It is no secret that I love Star Trek. My daughter asked me why. I told her the following: I love it for its aspirational nature, its optimistic outlook for humankind, it’s marrying of science and art, and its borderline Shakespearean drama. I also love it for its horrible effects, its over-emoting, and the sheer high-corniness of most of the story lines. To me, Trek is the epitome of important television¹. It entertained me. It made me think. It spurred me to action. Trek and Raiders of the Lost Ark are directly responsible for my pursuing undergraduate and graduate education. I learned things from Star Trek. Our conversation got me thinking about what I have learned from Trek.

So in the spirit and honor of Cal Fussman’s “What I’ve Learned” column in Esquire magazine, Star Trek’s 50^th and my 44^th, I want to share “What I’ve Learned: Star Trek Edition.”

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Star Trek, Television7 Comments

What Star Trek Meant for My Grandfather

September 8, 2016September 8, 2016 Brandon Easton

Star Trek has meant a lot to me as a fan of pop culture, science-fiction, and television. It also has meant everything to me as a human being.

My grandfather, who was a WWII veteran, likely served in a segregated unit in the war. He returned home to a nation still refusing to deal with Jim Crow and other societal injustice.

When I was a very young, I recall him watching various genre programs like Wild Wild West, Gunsmoke, Rat Patrol, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and countless other series. However, he especially loved Star Trek.

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Movies, Star Trek9 Comments

Star Trek Beyond: Be Still My Trekkie Heart

July 22, 2016July 22, 2016 Junko

Thanks to CAPE (The Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) and AMP (Asian American Media Professionals), I got to attend a small screening of Star Trek Beyond at Paramount studios.

I won’t get into the story itself, but I must say to all my Trekkies: my solid ice cold anti-Trek reboot heart is starting to melt. I understand how this film had a 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating, making it a ripe tomato.

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