Any idea how they did the effects for the slow motion wormhole sequence?

Jonathan Frakes always leans into the deferential with recent Trek projects and with good reason – he doesn't bite the hand that feeds. He's been fortunate enough to get directing work on most of the modern entries and it's a steady gig for him. Aside from the handful of truly breakout stars, steady franchise work is the best thing a genre actor can hope to get and I don't begrudge his geniality at all. He also always looks out for his fellow actors and crew on these series so he advocates for shows to be given their maximum opportunity to find an audience.

But bubbling beneath the surface, there has been a sense for years now that the TNG alumni have harbored a bit of resentment on two fronts. Firstly, that Patrick Stewart steered the project into a Picard series instead of something that could bring back the old cast. And to a lesser degree, that the Kurtzman era projects didn't seem to understand their setting or their characters when they did make cameo appearances. The latest episode Frakes and Spiner's podcast, Dropping Names, has Terry Matalas on, who helmed the third and final season of Picard a few years ago. That season had plenty of problems of its own, but fans on the whole seemed to appreciate the greater fidelity to it's characters compared to seasons 1 and 2.

Well, Frakes throws a gentle jab at Kurtzman and Goldsman and a kind compliment to Matalas early in the episode when he refers to it's as a "season 8 of Next Gen" and says:

"You talked to the actors and you talked about the characters with the actors... That hasn't happened to me since Maurice Hurley."\*

*(Which might be an ironic jab too since Hurley was responsible for the firing of Gates McFadden and only worked on TNG season 1 and a draft of Generations).

Anyway, it's clear that Frakes feels other showrunners have not taken the time to include the actors in process to the point that Matalas stands alone in modern Trek. Which makes a lot of sense for why so many characters feel... off outside S3 Picard.

Give the podcast a watch if you haven't yet. There's a revelation Matalas made a play to do Picard even before production began, but was told "it's spoken for." It's hard to imagine what a more full-cast centric Picard series helmed by Matalas from the start might have looked like, but alas we will never know.

TREKMOVIE:

"TrekMovie had a chance to talk to Brent about his time with Data at the New York premiere of The Sixty-Year Mission Star Trek documentary, where we talked about the character’s legacy and the attempt at a follow-up movie to Nemesis. Spiner worked closely with his friend, Oscar-winning screenwriter John Logan, on the script for Star Trek: Nemesis, which got him a story credit on it. He and Logan had done some work on a follow-up film that would have worked as a sequel to Nemesis. When first asked about this concept, Spiner quipped:

“The only thing I can tell you, it was going to be fantastic.”

Spiner once described the concept as “Justice League of Star Trek,” involving characters from the throughout the franchise. At the documentary event, Spiner confirmed with TrekMovie the idea was to have “everybody” in it, clarifying the film would include characters from “all the Treks that existed at that time.”

https://trekmovie.com/2026/10/12/interview-brent-spiner-talks-developing-nemesis-sequel-with-crossovers-from-all-the-star-treks/

He then went on to explain why it didn’t happen, while also revealing a bit more about the concept:

“Thing is, it was a pipe dream on our parts, because obviously nobody could afford to do that. Particularly not after my salary, they weren’t going to be able to. We we had an original script that we wrote that was rejected. It wasn’t the script. We had a story idea that involved everybody playing two roles, but alas, that this wasn’t to be.”

Spiner’s comment on “everybody playing two roles” refers to the plan for the film to involve the Mirror Universe and time travel.

Spiner also confirmed the Nemesis sequel project did get discussed at the executive level, but he was sanguine about it never moving forward:

“Yeah, we had meetings, and they said, ‘Nah, we don’t want to do that.’ And so that’s the way it goes.”

With the box office disappointment of Nemesis, it was no surprise Paramount wasn’t interested. Four years after the film’s release, Paramount announced they had hired J.J. Abrams to produce and direct a new Star Trek movie, moving the franchise in a new direction. Still, Spiner high praise for Logan [...] and his work on Star Trek:

“But we were really lucky. I know that [Nemesis] wasn’t a fan favorite, but we were really lucky to have John Logan writing it because I think John’s about the best screenwriter in Hollywood. I thought he did a wonderful job, actually.”

[...]

And with the franchise at a pivot point, he offered this bit of advice to whoever is tasked with telling new stories in the final frontier:

“Honestly, I would tell them go back and look at The Original Series, and do Star Trek because that’s what the fans want.”

These days, Brent has been teaming up with his old TNG castmate Jonathan Frakes for the podcast Dropping Names with Brent and Jonny. [...]"

Laurie Ulster (TrekMovie.com)

Full article:

https://trekmovie.com/2026/10/12/interview-brent-spiner-talks-developing-nemesis-sequel-with-crossovers-from-all-the-star-treks/

TREKMOVIE:

"The new comments were made on the Dropping Names with Brent and Jonny podcast, where hosts (and TNG co-stars) Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes reunited with Terry Matalas. Together, they shed a little light on what could have come next for Star Trek if he had been allowed to make his sequel series to Picard. The former Trek showrunner talk talked about how Legacy would dig into an interesting arc for Worf and his son Alexander and how Sir Patrick Stewart was keen to play a different role as Picard.

https://trekmovie.com/2026/10/15/terry-matalas-talks-patrick-stewarts-star-trek-legacy-role-and-picard-season-2s-biggest-fail/

The series was never officially in development, much less greenlit, and some of the cast have given up on it, but Matalas still believes in the premise, and told Brent and Jonny:

“I saw this thing with Marina [Sirtis], Marina’s like ‘Never.’ Never say never again. You just don’t know. Legacy wasn’t supposed to just be like we’re just going to keep doing Next Gen. It was supposed to bring in new people, young, switch off. We had a great idea for for Worf and Alexander and the Klingons, and but it was going to be back to feeling like Next Gen. Patrick was like, ‘I want to come and be the one who gets on the screen and tells him missions.’ I was like, ‘I don’t know why we’re not doing this.'”

As many Trek fans know by now, the gist was that we’d follow Captain Seven of Nine, first officer Raffi Musiker, special counselor Jack Crusher, and the newly christened Enterprise-G into the 25th century, charting a course with new characters with room to bump into some old friends. Pretty much everyone in the cast has said they’d be happy to come back, and Matalas has said it several times, too. The idea is being carried out somewhat in comic books. As for Terry, he recently told TrekMovie he still believes in the idea, but if he were tasked to bring a new Star Trek show by the new Paramount bosses, “it wouldn’t be exactly the same” as his original Legacy pitch.“

The second season of Star Trek: Picard is not winning any popularity contests among Trek fans, and while Matalas worked on it before pivoting to season 3, he didn’t pull a punch on one aspect of the season: He didn’t like Spiner’s Dr. Soong running over Picard with a car. It came in the episode “Two of One,” when Picard and the La Sirena crew infiltrate a gala to protect an astronaut vital to keeping the timeline intact. Matalas says it just fails the Star Trek legacy test (pun firmly intended):

“It violated my sense of decent storytelling and character. Think about it: What are the great Star Trek moments? There’s Kirk and ‘Khaaaaan!’ There’s the Borg. And then there is when Brent Spiner hit Patrick Stewart with a car.”

That moment is one of a few over the course of the series that tested fans’ patience with where things were heading. It also bumped against the logic of Picard’s android golem body, which seemed no more resilient than a typical human’s (apparently by design). Perhaps his android-ness is also what kept his body intact after being hit with a car, and it set up the next episode where he explores his repressed memories of his mother and father while he recovers in a coma, opening up the question: Can androids fall into comas? Matalas has as good a theory about why this happened as any: “I think [Spiner] just wanted to hit Patrick with a car.”

While all of that was happening, Matalas had pivoted to organize the third season, which was to be shot back-to-back with season 2 as studios rushed back into production following the COVID lockdown. Matalas said the third season had to come together in about eight weeks. In that time, he needed to get the Next Gen cast together and figure out where their characters were and how they could help bring down the changelings and the Borg without feeling too much like fan service. Frakes and Spiner reiterated their praise for Matalas’ collaborative attitude towards that process, giving them input on what their characters were up to and who they had become.

Getting Spiner to do a third season of Picard was crucial, and everyone was on board with making something work, but Matalas and Spiner said it took a little while to settle on bringing Data back as an older version of himself. Spiner was initially worried that Data needed to be young for the audience to buy into his character’s innocence, but the more he processed it all, he realized Data needed to grow up — especially because he was unimpressed with efforts to de-age him in the first season.

“I kind of like the idea of being old because I had this really terrific scene at the end of of season one of Picard that Michael Chabon wrote this gorgeous scene and it was really, really excellent, but when they initially asked me to do Picard, I said, ‘But I’m old and how can I be Data?’ And now remember they pitched me, ‘we got CGI you’re gonna look exactly like you looked.’ And I wound up looking like somebody from Planet of the Apes; it didn’t look like Data at all. I saw myself on screen and went ‘My God!'”

They wondered if the older character should be Data or something slightly different with a new name: Datum, which among other things is the singular form of Data. Spiner said he called Matalas one day and said it had to be Data, and so it was.

[...]

Any Trek fan owes it to themselves to check out this episode of Dropping Names, where Terry’s love for the Star Trek comes through. He talks about his history with Trek (which dates back to the 90s when he worked as a PA on Voyager), the influence Trek producer Merri Howard (who was briefly on set with them as they recorded this interview) had on his career, and more. He also talks about how he kept 12 Monkeys on the air despite lagging ratings, and Spiner tells a story about how Rick Berman had to discipline him once (but it didn’t go very far)."

Bobby Oler (TrekMovie.com)

Full article:

https://trekmovie.com/2026/10/15/terry-matalas-talks-patrick-stewarts-star-trek-legacy-role-and-picard-season-2s-biggest-fail/

Dropping Names (YouTube) with Guest Terry Matalas:

https://youtu.be/Xfw4DfhiCG8?si=mAZOvz5AMc9f-MhK

After trying to pack this up with stuff for display, I think it's ready. Got the admiral and captain rank pins from the movies, and 3D printed starfleet logo and dedication plaque that I modified to have the Enterprise

SCREENRANT:

"Gates McFadden was interviewed for The Center Seat II, where she admitted that she enjoyed the first two TNG movies, Star Trek Generations and Star Trek: First Contact, more than the others, Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis. McFadden says her opinion of the TNG movies wasn't necessarily tied to the limited role Dr. Beverly Crusher had in the films.

“Well, I mean, my part in Generations was small, but we got to go on the boat, and I got to wear that uniform, even though I was the only one who got violently seasick. But then, I got over it, and I didn't want to leave the boat," McFadden explains. "I think it just didn't hit me; the themes [of Insurrection and Nemesis]. The themes didn't hit me as well. That's all. I mean, it wasn't as powerful to me. They're good movies. I love it when people say, "Well, I love that movie.’ Had I maybe been involved more, I might have a different perspective."

https://screenrant.com/star-trek-gates-mcfadden-center-seat-ii-interview/

Gates praises the big moments for fans in Star Trek: The Next Generation's movies:

"It was very, very important for the fans to see both Kirk and Picard together. I thought that was a big deal for fans. Data's death was a beautiful thing in Nemesis."

However, McFadden also calls out Captain Picard's (Patrick Stewart) romance with Anij (Donna Murphy) in Star Trek: Insurrection.

"It was just strange to me that Dr. Crusher was standing there while [Picard is] kissing Donna Murphy. It was just strange, you know? I felt Crusher [would be like], ‘Who is this person?’ I didn't know who she was. It was just different without explanation. I think the script just didn't hit me as strongly, which is just my opinion. For other people, it could have hit them in a very powerful way."

A notable aspect that fans have debated for 30 years is how different Captain Picard is in Star Trek: The Next Generation's movies. The Center Seat II delves into how Patrick Stewart used his pull as a leading man to change the philosophical, diplomatic Picard into an action hero in the films.

“Well, you know, look, that's what Patrick wanted, and so that's what was happening," McFadden opines.

"What I personally loved about [Star Trek: The Next Generation] when I was involved in it in the earlier years was that it was very collaborative. I felt that it was a show where everyone brought a very significant thing to the group, that we were kind of a company, like a theater company.

In fact, Patrick directed some of us, and we did a play that we toured in several cities. That got lost when one person is now for their career. I understand the logic of it. You want to be an action figure and have lots of babes, and you know, it's a different thing. You're pulling away from a group thing. But if I could say again, we Next Generation people loved our show, and loved our characters. And yes, Picard's our leader, and we love Picard."

Gates says the way showrunner Terry Matalas produced Star Trek: Picard season 3 by focusing on TNG's ensemble, and soliciting the actors' input for their characters, was night and day from the movies.

"It was quite amazing what Terry Matalas did, because it showed the ensemble," McFadden says. "I think Patrick had wanted to stay away from the ensemble when he started Picard, but in fact, it was really beautiful, and he embraced it in the end. And I think you don't see that in many shows, where we're allowed to age, and we've all done. The characters have done different things, and they come back, and it's not just smooth as silk, but they figure out a way, and they collaborate, and they find a solution, which is very Star Trek.”

"I feel Terry really deserves the kudos, and it was just a totally different thing for me as a female working with him, as opposed to the producers, when I [first] came in. They were the older producers, and it was harder for a woman. It was just more difficult. Maybe it was just me. Whatever, I had a harder time."

[...]

Star Trek: Picard season 3 ended with a clear and dynamic setup for a continuation spinoff that Terry Matalas dubbed Star Trek: Legacy. Yet, Paramount+ never moved forward with Legacy, nor are there signs they will over 3 years later.

Gates McFadden confirms,

"We wanted it. All of us wanted it to continue. I think it had to do with studios and things above my pay grade. And that's what's sad because the fans loved it, and our numbers were fantastic. So it wasn't that."

McFadden explains her point of view about what's happening at Paramount Skydance when it comes to Star Trek's future:

"I think it's about who owns the franchise, and that's the thing when you have something that's a really big franchise. People want to do their take on the franchise, which is great. People want to do their take on Frankenstein or on Hamlet or whatever. So that's bound to happen."

[...]"

Full article:

https://screenrant.com/star-trek-gates-mcfadden-center-seat-ii-interview/

Made a series of simple mobile wallpapers using the ship assets from the new Fleet Directory module on TITAN.DS interactive website (https://mewho.com/titan/?mod=fleet). These images are also available in my public Google Photos album at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ue7ZsNYda5KCkcma6

Cheers~ meWho•Rob

Musings of a Middle-Aged Geek (Fan-Blog):

"Crafted with the same meticulous research as [Mark] Altman’s oral history books, the movie commemorates the 60th anniversary of the original Star Trek series, and its enduring social and cultural impact. Having met Altman and visual FX producer Dochterman (a hilarious mimic) several times at conventions over the past 20 years, I know they’re about my age, and that we share a similar perspective on Star Trek. With that in mind, I made a rare solo trip to the cinema to check out “The Sixty-Year Mission: How Star Trek Changed Television and the World,” which is now in a limited theatrical run… [...]"

https://musingsofamiddleagedgeek.blog/2026/10/12/beaming-up-for-the-sixty-year-mission-how-star-trek-changed-television-and-the-world/

While the majority of actors working on Star Trek tended to see it as just another gig, others were all too aware of the Star Trek franchise’s cultural significance. The documentary is peppered with interviews of actors from the Star Trek spinoff shows, such as Nana Visitor, Terry Farrell, Armin Shimerman (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Robert Picardo (Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: SFA) and many others regarding their own experiences of being genuine Star Trek fans themselves, and of watching the original series, or playing Star Trek with their siblings as little kids.

One of the documentary’s greatest achievements is shining well-deserved spotlights on the less-heralded heroes of Star Trek; the writers and producers who shaped it into the popular form we recognize today. Gene Roddenberry is usually credited as the “creator of Star Trek,” and “the great bird of the galaxy,” but here we see a deeper exploration of the team behind that legend, as we learn more about the terse, prolific, cocaine-addicted writer/producer Gene L. Coon (1923-1973) who could bang out a solid script in a day or two. Coon took over as producer after the early departure of John D. F. Black (“The Naked Time”), but eventually stepped down late in the second season. Also interviewed in the documentary is Gene Coon’s former secretary Andee Kindryd, an African-American woman who nearly passed on the job, for fear of being called “Coon’s coon,” which, unfortunately, did happen. She nevertheless stayed with Gene Coon, even into his next series, “It Takes a Thief” (1968-1970).

Also highlighted is the tenacious Dorothy Fontana (1939-2019) who worked under an abbreviated name to hide her gender at a time when women writers were not taken seriously in television and films. Fontana wrote some of the best episodes of the series, including “Tomorrow Is Yesterday,” “Journey to Babel,” and “The Enterprise Incident,” as well as major rewrites on “Charlie X,” “This Side of Paradise,” and (allegedly) for “The City on the Edge of Forever.” Fontana was also a producer on Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-4), which has found rediscovery and rehabilitation among fans, who now recognize it as a less-acclaimed, wildly psychedelic extension of the original series, despite its limited trappings of cheap 1970s animation and repetitive stock music. As said in the documentary, Roddenberry was the blind man holding the lantern for others to see in the dark. Yes, Roddenberry created Star Trek, but it was in other hands where it evolved.

[...]

Screenwriter and Inglorious Trekspert podcaster Ashley E. Miller (“X-Men: First Class,” “Thor,” “The Sarah Connor Chronicles”) challenges the usual stated reasons for being a Star Trek fan (its optimism, hope for a better future, etc) and how they often sound a little too pat and self-congratulatory. Miller prefers to credit the series’ solid storytelling. It’s hard to argue with that, particularly since some of the series’ goofier episodes (“And the Children Shall Lead,” “The Omega Glory,” “Spock’s Brain”) still manage to be absurdly entertaining. At its best, Star Trek deftly balanced significant social commentary with action-adventure. At its worst, it was never boring.

At 134-minutes, “The Sixty-Year Mission…” has the same thoroughness, detailing and myriad perspectives as any of Mark Altman and Ed Gross’s books, with generous helpings of rare, behind-the-scenes footage and photos, along with colorful anecdotes that paint a nice tableau for the time and place of Star Trek’s scrappy origins. It also looks at the formation of the original series and its characters in ways that I haven’t quite experienced before in the countless other books and documentaries I’ve read and seen on the origins of this series. Made with meticulous care and great love, “The Sixty-Year Mission…” may well be fandom’s best Star Trek 60th anniversary gift yet."

Full article:

https://musingsofamiddleagedgeek.blog/2026/10/12/beaming-up-for-the-sixty-year-mission-how-star-trek-changed-television-and-the-world/

I remember watching this, I was 15 at the time.

So many conflicting emotions, having grown up with TOS. "Oh, it's not Kirk and crew etc etc", "Look at that fat-ass ship..."

36 years later, I'm crying like a baby watching the Enterprise-D fly out of a space dock in Picard Season 3 with this crew at the helm.

Wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Its never fully explained if future Janeway's virus spread across the entire collective or just that central hub. Im going to assume it was the entire collective, or at least enough of it to destroy the majority of the collective before they could adapt.

So this leads me to my question: did future Janeway commit genocide against the Borg? I guess the question is are the Borg considered a species of their own. If they "reproduce" by assimilation of other species does that make them a separate species or just mutations of the base species?

So much for this mythical younger audience that Kurtzman was shoving us aside for.

I don't expect to convince anyone here who hates in a show like "shall not be named." But I've seen genuinely bad shows or awful seasons (season 5 of earth final conflict which was a nosedive compared to seasons 1-4 or season 3 of discovery which had the worst story arc out of the decades long history of all star trek shows) and people treat some of these shows as if they are literally the worst thing they have ever seen.

I'm not into shooters in gaming, but I would not trash a game because it was a shooter that I was not into vs an rpg that I tend to favor.

I remember when star trek deep space I came out and tng fans were more hostile to it because it was locked to a space station. Of course back then the show had time to expand its legs, the patience and grace of modern audiences is shorter than a fruit flies attention span.