Episode 131: The State of Star Trek, with Mike McMahan

Boimler and Mariner from Lower Decks are soon going to be showing up in live action on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. (Screencap from season two trailer, via Ars Technica.)

Star Trek is back in a big way: we've had three live-action TV shows and two animated shows recently, with more stuff on the way. But what does Star Trek mean to us now? And what do we want from Star Trek today? To get deeper into these questions, we did a mind meld with Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan.

Notes, citations & etc.

Mike McMahan on IMDB and Twitter.

Here’s the official Star Trek website.

It wasn’t until the 1970s, when Gene Roddenberry started visiting Star Trek conventions, that his philosophy for a brighter future started to take shape.

Here are some transcripts of interviews with Roddenberry from 1972 and 1974.

Star Trek is gay now!

There's a persistent rumor that Captain Kirk will also be bisexual

We really, really love Star Trek: Discovery

Gene Roddenberry pushed back against the idea of LGBTQIA+ characters and themes

In the original series, the point of the Gorn was that you shouldn’t kill them, because they’re just defending themselves. In Strange New Worlds, the Gorn are just evil predators who need to be killed

Strange New Worlds’ first season finale is a retelling of the story "Balance of Terror" in an alternate timeline, and it's all about how Pike does a worse job than Kirk in an identical standoff with the Romulans, because Pike calls a ceasefire instead of fighting

Kirk actor Chris Pine said Star Trek movies shouldn’t try to be as big as Marvel or DC films

There have been many Star Trek spoofs. Arguably the best one is the Muppets’ Pigs in Space.