Starfleet Academy Days

Intro Sketch

Rex (00:00:00 - 00:00:06): Let’s go! The True North Nerds are about to start! I know! I’m trying to find the signal!

Rex (00:00:06 - 00:00:08): Thank you, Monster Nerd!

Rex (00:00:08 - 00:00:12): No, that’s the wrong one. Move over! Let me do it!

Rex (00:00:13 - 00:00:16): If I don’t go to this nerd school, I’m gonna lose my mind!

Rex (00:00:16 - 00:00:18): Come on, come on!

Rex (00:00:19 - 00:00:20): We can’t go against that guy!

Rex (00:00:20 - 00:00:21): We’re nerds!

Rex (00:00:21 - 00:00:22): We’re gonna miss it!

Rex (00:00:24 - 00:00:27): My fellow nerds and I will retire to the nerdery with our calculators.

Rex (00:00:27 - 00:00:27): Wait!

Rex (00:00:28 - 00:00:28): I got it!

Theme Song

Kirby Crackle (00:00:29 - 00:00:58): [Theme song lyrics omitted for copyright compliance.]

Kirby Crackle (00:00:58 - 00:00:58): [Theme song lyrics omitted for copyright compliance.]

Welcome and Overview

Brent (00:01:23 - 00:01:27): Welcome, loyal listeners, to another episode of True North Nerds.

Kevin (00:01:27 - 00:01:28): Yay!

Brent (00:01:29 - 00:01:37): This week, news and stuff. Nerdy stuff, I would presume.

Ryan (00:01:38 - 00:01:41): Ooh, you know what I like? I like me a good helping of nerdy stuff.

Brent (00:01:42 - 00:01:45): Yeah, me too. So Kevin is with us.

Kevin (00:01:46 - 00:01:47): Here I am. I’m with you.

Brent (00:01:47 - 00:01:48): With you.

Ryan (00:01:48 - 00:01:49): That’s Kevin. Hi, Kev.

Kevin (00:01:49 - 00:01:50): Hi, Ryan.

Ryan (00:01:51 - 00:01:53): Who’s this Ryan you speak of?

Brent (00:01:53 - 00:01:54): And that’s Ryan.

Ryan (00:01:54 - 00:01:55): Oh, hi. That’s me.

Kevin (00:01:55 - 00:01:56): Hi, Ryan.

Ryan (00:01:56 - 00:01:56): Hi.

Brent (00:01:58 - 00:01:58): And I am Brent.

Kevin (00:01:59 - 00:02:00): Hello, Brent.

Ryan (00:02:00 - 00:02:01): Brent. Brent. Brent. Brent.

Brent (00:02:02 - 00:02:12): And unfortunately, Jen has fallen ill this evening, so she will not be joining us for the recording of this show. She, she’s okay. She’s just not feeling great. That’s all.

Ryan (00:02:13 - 00:02:17): She just doesn’t want to talk to us. I understand. I don’t want to talk to me either.

Brent (00:02:20 - 00:02:21): Ryan.

Ryan (00:02:21 - 00:02:21): Yes.

Brent (00:02:22 - 00:02:23): Do you have some news for us this week?

News: Movies, Star Wars, and Galaxy’s Edge

Ryan (00:02:24 - 00:02:25): I— oh, do I have news.

Brent (00:02:26 - 00:02:26): You have news?

Ryan (00:02:26 - 00:02:28): There has been some big news.

Brent (00:02:29 - 00:02:29): Okay.

Ryan (00:02:29 - 00:02:47): What’s that news? We are— we’ve gotten an official release date for Godzilla Minus Zero in North America. It will be releasing the same week as it releases in Japan, which for us, the release date is November 6th of this year.

Speaker E (00:02:47 - 00:02:47): Nice.

Ryan (00:02:48 - 00:02:51): So, Brent, we got to go watch us some Godzilla Minus Zero.

Brent (00:02:51 - 00:02:52): Yes. Yes, we do.

Ryan (00:02:54 - 00:02:56): Kevin, you’re welcome to join us.

Kevin (00:02:57 - 00:03:00): Yeah, I haven’t seen the first. I haven’t seen Godzilla Minus One.

Brent (00:03:00 - 00:03:00): So.

Ryan (00:03:01 - 00:03:01): Oh, you should.

Brent (00:03:02 - 00:03:04): It’s streaming on something now, isn’t it, Ryan?

Ryan (00:03:04 - 00:03:07): I think it’s been. I think it’s still on Netflix.

Brent (00:03:07 - 00:03:10): Yeah, I was going to say, like something pretty accessible, too.

Ryan (00:03:10 - 00:03:10): They’ve got—

Kevin (00:03:11 - 00:03:12): I don’t have Netflix.

Ryan (00:03:12 - 00:03:20): Color, black and white. And, uh, and subtitled and dubbed. Oh, you don’t have Netflix right now? Okay.

Brent (00:03:20 - 00:03:27): I keep actually meaning to buy it, to be honest. That was a movie that I feel like I need it to stand beside, like, my copy of Godzilla.

Ryan (00:03:27 - 00:03:38): Yes. And now that you’ve said that, I don’t know if I did or not. My shelves are all the way down the hallway. I can’t see. I will have to check that later. Um, do you have a Blu-ray player, Kevin?

Kevin (00:03:39 - 00:03:40): I don’t have one of those either.

Brent (00:03:40 - 00:03:44): Oh, I can’t help it. So we couldn’t even loan it to you if we bought it.

Ryan (00:03:45 - 00:04:30): Movie night. Um, okay, more movie news. We got some Batman— the, uh, sorry, The Batman 2 cast news. Uh, Scarlett Johansson has been cast in the movie in an undisclosed role. Uh, but her, uh, MCU castmate, at least— no, have they— are they— I guess they would technically, and at least one movie together. No, no, maybe not. Sebastian Stan. Well, yes. Yeah, yeah, they were in Civil War and in Winter Soldier together. There you go. Never mind. So Sebastian Stan has been cast reportedly as Harvey Dent in Batman 2.

Kevin (00:04:32 - 00:04:42): I heard that. I also heard— didn’t I? I thought I heard a rumor that she was cast as Glenda Dent, the, uh, from like from Long Halloween.

Brent (00:04:43 - 00:04:44): Uh, there is—

Ryan (00:04:44 - 00:04:45): that’s what I have rumors.

Brent (00:04:45 - 00:04:49): Yeah, there’s been a lot around the other— it’s—

Ryan (00:04:50 - 00:04:51): she’s been cast.

Brent (00:04:52 - 00:04:53): Yeah, go ahead.

Kevin (00:04:53 - 00:04:54): There’s—

Brent (00:04:55 - 00:04:55): go ahead.

Ryan (00:04:55 - 00:04:56): I won’t talk.

Brent (00:04:56 - 00:04:56): Oh, shut up.

Ryan (00:04:56 - 00:04:58): Go ahead. Oh no, I’m— go ahead, you please.

Brent (00:05:00 - 00:05:38): Um, there was a rumor that she is— I can’t remember the character’s name, but she is Bruce’s lost love that becomes the Phantasm in Mask of the Phantasm. Mm, which I don’t know that one, that, that seems like a stretch, but not that I’d be against it. Like, that, that’s kind of a cool idea and not a villain I would expect, but it’s kind of like, uh, those rumors of like— I feel that they just like throw out eventually every female character that’s in the Batman universe, and eventually you’ll like, you know throw that many darts against the board, eventually you get a bullseye.

Ryan (00:05:40 - 00:05:56): Uh, one of the reports, of course, which I don’t believe any of them— the silliest one was, oh, she’s gonna be Vicki Vale. It’s like, maybe. I don’t— you know, the character that only really existed in one movie. Was Vicki Vale ever in the comics?

Brent (00:05:57 - 00:06:00): Uh, yeah, yeah, she was Golden Age. Yep, she was Bruce.

Ryan (00:06:00 - 00:06:07): She was before— she was a comic character before the movies. Okay. I assumed that, uh, she was created just for Batman.

Brent (00:06:08 - 00:06:19): Okay, she, uh, she’s also one of those ones that comes and goes. Like, she appears in the ’80s as well. Um, okay, probably prompted a little bit by the success of the movie, she returns kind of thing.

Ryan (00:06:19 - 00:06:27): But yep, uh, then the other one, which I think is more the long shot of all the group of castings, was, uh, Poison Ivy.

Brent (00:06:29 - 00:06:41): Hmm, again, I feel that’s the like, oh, she had red hair in this movie, that means she’s playing a another character with red hair. Yep, because they don’t have any creativity towards it.

Kevin (00:06:43 - 00:06:56): Vicki Vale first appeared in Batman #49, October 1948, and she made her big screen appearance in the Batman and Robin serial from 1939. Oh, okay.

Ryan (00:06:57 - 00:07:17): Um, sticking kind of related to the MCU since that was, uh, we got a fourth Doomsday teaser trailer in theaters and now online. Uh, this— in this one we see, uh, people from Wakanda, specifically, uh, uh, Shuri.

Kevin (00:07:17 - 00:07:18): Shuri.

Ryan (00:07:18 - 00:07:18): Shuri.

Brent (00:07:19 - 00:07:19): Yes.

Ryan (00:07:20 - 00:07:27): And, um, what’s the— I think— what’s the, the, the new king’s name? I forget the, the—

Brent (00:07:27 - 00:07:28): oh, M’Baku.

Ryan (00:07:29 - 00:07:39): Yes. Uh, we see them walking along and they meet Ben Grimm, um, you know, the Thing from the Fantastic Four.

Kevin (00:07:39 - 00:07:40): Mm-hmm.

Ryan (00:07:41 - 00:08:06): So, uh, yep. Adding to the, you know, interesting meet, you know, mashups of characters and, you know, the, that Doomsday will become, uh, also adding to my theory that Doom is going around and taking children from heroes because Like we were saying in our little online chat, when Shuri says that she’s lost everyone, does this include her nephew?

Kevin (00:08:07 - 00:08:11): Does Shuri know that the nephew exists? That was the question.

Ryan (00:08:11 - 00:08:11): Yeah.

Kevin (00:08:11 - 00:08:27): We see her with him at the end of the last Wakanda Forever. Oh, okay. Yeah. I thought that what’s her name, Lupita Nyong’o’s character took him away and they never introduced her to him, to Shuri.

Brent (00:08:27 - 00:08:40): But no, that’s, that’s the whole sequence at the end of the movie. And like, because she asked like, well, did my brother know that like he existed? Like, oh yeah, he knew. He just didn’t want him raised up in the court with all you assholes.

Ryan (00:08:41 - 00:09:18): He wanted him to live in the world. So, uh, yep, looks good, looks great. You know, can’t wait. Apparently there’s some, uh, hidden code or something, story in all the trailers. I don’t know. Apparently that’s what the Russos have said, that they’re, they’re all connected and yada yada. I don’t know. The internet’s trying to play detective and figure it out. I haven’t looked too deep into it yet. Stay tuned, kids. Uh, we got our first look at, uh, Sophie Turner, uh, you know, from Game of Thrones, uh, as Lara Croft. The Tomb Raider.

Kevin (00:09:18 - 00:09:23): I saw that image. Um, she looks like Lara Croft.

Ryan (00:09:23 - 00:09:35): Yep, she does. Uh, Brent, when I look at the, uh, that video, the words, that image, uh, she also kind of looks like Becky Lynch to me, like WWE superstar.

Kevin (00:09:37 - 00:09:37): Yeah.

Ryan (00:09:37 - 00:09:52): Glasses and the pulled back hair, kind of like who, uh, has also appeared in the new Star, at least in the first episode of the new Star Trek show. She’s not in episode 2 though. Didn’t see her there. So not a regular cast member that pops up in every episode.

Brent (00:09:52 - 00:09:54): Is this a film or is this a series?

Ryan (00:09:55 - 00:09:55): It’s a series.

Brent (00:09:56 - 00:09:56): Oh, okay.

Ryan (00:09:58 - 00:10:00): Sorry, which one? Laura, Laura Croft or Lara Croft?

Brent (00:10:01 - 00:10:01): Tomb Raider.

Ryan (00:10:01 - 00:10:13): That’s a movie. Sorry. Yeah. Tomb Raider is a movie as far as I know. Um, okay. What else we got here? Uh, we’ve got a release window.

Brent (00:10:13 - 00:10:15): It says series apparently.

Ryan (00:10:16 - 00:10:17): Oh, okay.

Brent (00:10:17 - 00:10:18): I was wrong.

Ryan (00:10:18 - 00:10:21): There we go. I assumed it was a movie, but who’s making it?

Brent (00:10:22 - 00:10:22): Amazon.

Ryan (00:10:22 - 00:11:02): Does it say? Okay. That makes sense. Um, we have a release window for season 2 of Ahsoka. It is, has been announced as coming soon in 2026. So this year sometime. Nice big vague release window. Uh, we’ve had some other Star Wars Lucasfilm news. Uh, this one’s been rumored to be happening for well over a year. Uh, Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down from being president of Lucasfilm.

Kevin (00:11:03 - 00:11:05): I just read that today.

Ryan (00:11:05 - 00:11:31): Mm-hmm. Uh, in her place are gonna be, uh, two people, uh, taking over as co-presidents. Lin Wen-Brennan and the one and only Dave Filoni, who will also be taking on the role as chief creative officer. So that’s good news for Star Wars. Well, creatively, possibly good news for Star Wars with him running that part.

Kevin (00:11:32 - 00:11:36): Hasn’t he been sort of just doing that for the last 5 years?

Ryan (00:11:37 - 00:11:47): 5 years, I’d say no. Because yeah, he’s been doing that with the Mandoverse stuff, but he didn’t have anything to do with Andor.

Kevin (00:11:49 - 00:12:11): Yeah, I’m just afraid that— I don’t know, the Star Wars television output hasn’t been great with the exception of Andor lately, and I’m not super excited for The Mandalorian film. I, I just wonder if maybe it’s time for new, new blood.

Brent (00:12:14 - 00:12:37): There is something to be said with like, Filoni’s been working with Star Wars since like Clone Wars started, like the cartoon. So, you know, how long’s that been? It’s kind of— you wonder if maybe they should bring in somebody else, but I’m not sure if you should bring somebody else at that high of a level. Like you kind of want somebody in charge who, who knows the machine really well.

Kevin (00:12:37 - 00:12:38): That’s true.

Brent (00:12:38 - 00:12:53): And how it works. But maybe put somebody else in charge of like creative stuff. Like, I almost be willing to put, um, what’s his name? Uh, uh, crap. Guy from Iron Man who’s been doing all the Mandalorian stuff with him.

Kevin (00:12:54 - 00:12:58): Oh yeah, um, I know the guy you’re talking about from that chef movie.

Brent (00:12:59 - 00:13:01): Oh, fuck, what’s his name?

Kevin (00:13:02 - 00:13:04): Oh, that guy, he was in Swingers.

Brent (00:13:05 - 00:13:06): He was in Swingers.

Ryan (00:13:06 - 00:13:10): Uh, he was Happy Hogan in Iron Man. He also directed Iron Man.

Brent (00:13:11 - 00:13:18): And his name is Happy Hogan actor John Favreau.

Kevin (00:13:18 - 00:13:19): There we go.

Ryan (00:13:20 - 00:13:23): See, I expect that from me not knowing names, but you guys, come on.

Brent (00:13:24 - 00:13:25): I’m usually pretty good about it.

Ryan (00:13:26 - 00:14:00): I know. It’s been a long day. Uh, but yeah, so it’ll be interesting to see what this means going forward. Um, now with her like leaving, she has, uh, Kathleen Kennedy did, uh, give some updates on some of the like, uh, in the pipeline Star Wars things. Um, so it sounds like the next theatrical release, as we know, is The Mandalorian. Directed by, so apparently it’s directed by Favreau.

Brent (00:14:00 - 00:14:02): Hmm. That makes sense.

Ryan (00:14:02 - 00:14:20): Written by Filoni, which, you know, they’ve been working together and everything. So that comes out in May. Uh, she said, and apparently as soon as she gets back into town, she’s gonna be sitting down with Jon looking at it. So yes, the film is finished shooting in November and they’re still overseeing, uh, special effects or like post-production work.

Speaker E (00:14:20 - 00:14:20): Um.

Ryan (00:14:22 - 00:14:48): Apparently Taika Waititi has turned in a script that she thinks is hilarious and great. Donald Glover has turned in a script and, uh, and Steven Soderbergh and Adam Driver turned in a script written by Scott Burns, uh, that is also just great. She emphasized that the final decision would not be hers alone. As she said, it’s not just my decision, especially when I’ve got a foot out the door.

Brent (00:14:51 - 00:15:06): I, I found like it almost seemed pointless that they talked to her about these projects because the updates she gave were basically like, oh, they’re like, they’re all in the work, or all of them are in the works, kind of, but nothing beyond that.

Ryan (00:15:09 - 00:15:38): Yeah. And so then, so she kind of went on in this interview with, uh, the impact of fan reactions on filmmakers, and she does believe that Rian Johnson got spooked by the online negativity. And she’s like, every filmmaker and actor says to me, what’s going to happen? They’re a little scared, she noted. And she’s like, I’m honest, especially with the women that come into the space, into the space, because, uh, they are unfairly get targeted, which is true.

Brent (00:15:38 - 00:15:59): Yeah, she is not wrong. And you know what, it’s actually kind of nice that she like sort of like goes like, you are going to be covered in a ton of shit from working here. Yeah. If you don’t think you can mentally do that, maybe you ‘You shouldn’t do this.’ And then like, and then like not from inside the company. This is from the outside world who will just crap on you at every turn.

Ryan (00:16:00 - 00:16:02): The internet sucks.

Brent (00:16:02 - 00:16:02): Yes.

Ryan (00:16:02 - 00:16:18): And they are going to shit on us no matter what. You can’t please everyone. So don’t try. Um, and as far as news notes go, uh, that’s it for me. Do you guys have any news?

Kevin (00:16:19 - 00:16:19): I do not.

Ryan (00:16:20 - 00:16:21): Actually, I do have one more piece of news.

Brent (00:16:21 - 00:16:21): Oh, you got one more?

Ryan (00:16:21 - 00:16:24): And Kevin can— might be able to comment more on this.

Kevin (00:16:24 - 00:16:25): Okay.

Ryan (00:16:25 - 00:16:34): Um, Disney has announced they are updating or making some changes to Galaxy’s Edge. Uh, oh yes, some of the characters that will be played, that’ll be there.

Kevin (00:16:36 - 00:17:22): Yes. Uh, this is only for the Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland at California, but they are officially dividing the land into classic era and current era. So one side of the land, it will be, they’re bringing in a Darth Vader meet and greet. And so characters like Vader, Luke, and Leia will be in that side of the land. And then your Kylo Rens and your Reys will be at the other end. I’m not sure. I think the dividing line might be the Millennium Falcon because that sort of straddles both eras.

Ryan (00:17:22 - 00:17:23): Makes sense.

Kevin (00:17:24 - 00:17:36): So yeah, they just announced that and they added pink milk to the milk bar there in addition to blue and green. You can now get pink milk as well. Apparently it’s strawberry banana flavor.

Brent (00:17:36 - 00:18:06): Oh, one would hope. Hmm. If it’s not strawberry flavored and it’s pink, it like What other flavor should it be? Yeah, you know, um, from like just like a, like a cynical, like, park point of view, it makes sense. They got to freshen that up every once in a while in order to, like, continue to attract visitors. And that’s, that’s an easy, quick way of doing it.

Kevin (00:18:06 - 00:18:43): Yeah. So the, the thing is though, that both the— there are only two rides in Galaxy’s Edge, and both of them are Well, no, I currently both of them are New Era themed. Rise of the Resistance. Yes, very obviously. And that ride cannot be changed. Whereas the Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run ride is being changed this year. It’s getting a new ride film and it will become Mandalorian themed. So I guess, I guess Mandalorian is technically Classic Era. It’s new characters in the classic era.

Ryan (00:18:44 - 00:18:44): Yeah, kind of.

Kevin (00:18:46 - 00:18:48): So yeah, so that’s happening.

Ryan (00:18:50 - 00:19:02): So do you think that it’ll be— they start in Land, eventually it’ll move to Disney World, and any other places that have a Galaxy’s Edge will follow suit? Or like, do you think they’ll do the same in Florida?

Kevin (00:19:05 - 00:19:43): I don’t know. Um, sometimes they’re hesitant to make changes to the Florida park. The, uh, The thing is, the fan bases are very different. Disneyland in California is more of a locals park where people don’t come from across the planet to visit, whereas Disney World is a, is a I’m going to save up all my money and fly halfway across the world to visit kind of a resort. So they’re— they seem to be more hesitant to make those kinds of changes in Florida. Right now, both resorts have lots of construction going on, so we will see.

Brent (00:19:44 - 00:19:44): Hmm.

Ryan (00:19:46 - 00:19:55): Well, I think it’ll be interesting when we start seeing the videos of some of the classic characters and how they’re portrayed and how they interact with people.

Kevin (00:19:57 - 00:20:05): You know, one year ago right now, I was at Walt Disney World and I was lucky enough to get my picture taken with The Mandalorian and Grogu.

Ryan (00:20:06 - 00:20:15): Yes, I remember that picture. That’s awesome. Well, there you go. Another reason for all of us to look, save up, and go visit California.

Kevin (00:20:16 - 00:20:16): We do.

Ryan (00:20:19 - 00:20:24): Uh, other than that, that’s it for me for news and notes. Gentlemen, anything?

Kevin (00:20:26 - 00:20:28): I do not have anything, I’m afraid.

Brent (00:20:29 - 00:20:36): Nope, me neither. So, uh, you like stuff?

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Discussion

Ryan (00:20:36 - 00:20:40): Yep. Well, Kevin and I both watched the new show.

Kevin (00:20:41 - 00:20:41): Yes.

Brent (00:20:42 - 00:20:45): Let’s, uh, let’s talk about that because I haven’t actually seen it yet.

Ryan (00:20:46 - 00:20:47): Perfect. Go ahead, Kev.

Kevin (00:20:47 - 00:22:30): So they debuted 2 episodes of the new series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, um, on Thursday this week. Um, I think like a lot of Star Trek fans, I had a little trepidation going into it. What is this going to be? It’s, you know, it’s set in the 32nd century, so it’s post the finale of Discovery. And were we going to be getting Star Trek: 90210 with a lot of teen angst? Maybe. But you know what I saw, I liked. Some characters are getting a lot more spotlight than others, and I’m interested to find out more about some of the other more minor characters. But I will say, if you cast Holly Hunter as the lead on your show, you are going to get a very good actor. Yeah, I really like her. She plays Captain Nala Ake. She is a half-Lanthanite Starfleet captain. And the Lanthanites— the only other Lanthanite character we have seen is the character played by Carol Kane on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. They look human, but they live thousands of years. So Holly Hunter’s character is over 400 years old, and she’s the most casual Starfleet captain we’ve ever seen. She curls up in her captain’s chair with a good book and sort of lounges in it, which is kind of fun. There’s a really fun scene where she sits in it for the first time and has to adjust the chair settings. I thought that was very fun.

Ryan (00:22:31 - 00:22:48): I liked when she was talking with the head of Starfleet and the head of the military academy, and she’s walking around on the floor barefoot. The guy’s like, “You’re not wearing proper footwear.” She’s like, “Yeah, no, I don’t do that.” Yeah, she’s great.

Kevin (00:22:48 - 00:23:56): I love her. She can also make tough decisions. She can be a captain of action as well. I love the decision. This is, I guess, a spoiler. So the campus of the Academy, the main building of the campus of the Academy is also a starship. So the show starts on the USS Athena and then the Athena lands and docks and becomes the main campus building for the Academy. So it is both a, we can stay here and work at the school on the grounds show and a we could take off and fly off into space show at the same time. I thought that is a brilliant decision. And I like the design of the Athena. It is currently the world’s biggest standing set. The atrium of the Athena of the campus is a 3-story tall massive standing set. It’s currently the largest standing set in the world for any production.

Ryan (00:23:57 - 00:24:01): That would be cool to see. It looks very beautiful on screen, like big and—

Kevin (00:24:01 - 00:24:17): Yeah, and I was jealous. I saw some TikToks of some local Toronto influencers who got invited to the set for the premiere. So there was a premiere screening in Toronto, not a major one like New York or LA, but they did do one in Toronto.

Ryan (00:24:17 - 00:24:17): Oh, okay.

Kevin (00:24:18 - 00:25:04): Yeah, it just, the show seems fun. I like the characters. Our sort of point of view character is a cadet named Caleb Mir, whose mother was taken from him when he was quite young and sent to a Starfleet penal colony. So he’s got a bit of a chip on his shoulder. The captain who took his mother away was Holly Hunter’s character. So they’ve got some history and she’s trying to make up for it by helping him find his mother. And then we have Paul Giamatti as our villain of the season, and he’s playing it over the top in Ricardo Montalbán, you know, classic villain kind of mode. And some—

Ryan (00:25:04 - 00:25:07): what’s his alien race? He’s like, what, half Klingon, half—

Kevin (00:25:08 - 00:25:34): Telerite. So they’re calling him a Klingarite. There’s all kinds of that on this show too, because it’s post-Burn, because it’s 1,000 years, almost 1,000 years after, or 700 years after the, what we consider the sort of core Star Trek timeline. They’re having some fun with characters, races and species. I like Captain Ake’s first officer.

Ryan (00:25:34 - 00:25:35): Oh yeah, she’s great.

Kevin (00:25:35 - 00:26:27): Yeah, she’s a half Klingon, half Jem’Hadar, and she’s like the commandant of the, and she’s very militaristic and awesome. And the sort of past, he’s not, I guess he’s a class of his Klingon. He’s a Klingon who wants to be a medic and heal people. I thought that’s a nice, um, a nice touch. And then there’s the pompous jerk who’s like the, uh, he wants to be big man on campus and he’s going to be the next Kirk and get a ship of his own right out of the academy. Uh, but in the end, of course, they all work together and everything is lovely. I, I’ve, I’ve seen some, uh, reviews where they compare it to Harry Potter because it’s like a school setting. And so Harry Potter is Mystical magical school. And this is a Star Trek sci-fi wizardry school.

Ryan (00:26:27 - 00:26:59): Yeah. Some of the other new characters, like the Photonic character that we hear is from a world of Photonic people, which is very interesting. I also thought it was interesting how the Doctor really kind of avoided her when they first met. He was kind of like, “Yeah, no, I don’t want to be your mentor. I’m nobody’s mentor.” It’ll be interesting in, you know, as the sequence progresses to see how that story plays out, if it does.

Kevin (00:26:59 - 00:27:07): Yes. Oh, I don’t think we mentioned that the Doctor, by the way, is the Doctor from Star Trek Voyager. He’s still alive after 900 years.

Ryan (00:27:08 - 00:27:16): Yes. I like how she made a comment about how, why he looks older and how he’s, oh, I added like an aging subroutine years ago.

Kevin (00:27:18 - 00:27:18): Um, yeah.

Ryan (00:27:19 - 00:27:36): In the second episode, all the— like, there’s a lot of cool, like, other students that we don’t see but we see walking in the background. Like, we see one of those little robots, the little worker bot that came from— where— yes, there’s a couple exocomms flying around.

Brent (00:27:38 - 00:27:43): Um, what was one called in Lower Decks? Peanut Hamper, right?

Ryan (00:27:43 - 00:27:53): Yes, yes. So there’s some Peanut Hamper people. Um, and then the rock— what was the rock kid in, um, that was Rock Talk from Monogy.

Kevin (00:27:53 - 00:27:54): She’s a Brickar.

Ryan (00:27:55 - 00:27:55): What was her name?

Kevin (00:27:56 - 00:27:56): Rock Talk.

Brent (00:27:57 - 00:27:57): Really?

Ryan (00:27:57 - 00:27:58): That was her name? Oh geez.

Kevin (00:27:58 - 00:27:58): Yeah.

Ryan (00:27:59 - 00:28:05): See, I never got the chance to see season 2 because it hasn’t shown up anywhere other than, I guess, if you want to buy it on Apple TV.

Kevin (00:28:05 - 00:28:10): I bought it on Apple TV. Yeah, I’ve seen it. It’s very, very good.

Ryan (00:28:11 - 00:28:32): So, and then, yeah, I don’t know why CTV Sci-Fi is sitting on it. Um, but then you see someone from her race walking around, uh, in season 2 a bunch, which, and you hear, hear them talking, which the voice didn’t come out the same. Cause then you’ll see him and you think, oh, that’s that same character. But you think, oh wait, no, that’s like 700 years ago.

Kevin (00:28:32 - 00:28:32): Yeah.

Ryan (00:28:32 - 00:28:38): So it can’t be the same character. So clearly that’s why it’s not the same voice, but there’s a lot gruffer voice than I was expecting.

Kevin (00:28:39 - 00:28:52): Mm-hmm. And then there are some deep cut references too, like the— they panned across a crowd scene and there’s a woman whose face is half black and half white.

Ryan (00:28:52 - 00:28:53): Yes, I saw that character.

Kevin (00:28:54 - 00:29:04): And there’s been some complaints about that because on the classic Star Trek episode with the, the half black, half white people, they were the last two of their species and they were both male.

Ryan (00:29:05 - 00:29:05): Okay.

Kevin (00:29:05 - 00:29:07): So how did she— how is she existing?

Ryan (00:29:07 - 00:29:10): Well, genetics, whatever. Cloning.

Kevin (00:29:11 - 00:29:32): So yeah, but, um, I think, I think they have given us an interesting plotline, uh, in the, um, let’s find Caleb’s mother plot. Oh, and by the way, Caleb’s mother is played by Tatiana Maslany from She-Hulk. Oh, there’s some news for you too. Yeah, that’s who that is.

Ryan (00:29:32 - 00:29:38): Yeah, I didn’t, I didn’t pick up on that. Like, she didn’t like The few scenes you see her in that first episode, it didn’t look like her.

Kevin (00:29:39 - 00:29:48): Yeah, that’s who that is. Oh, and we missed this in the news. Tatiana Maslany has officially been let go from her contract with Marvel Disney, and she will not be returning as She-Hulk.

Ryan (00:29:49 - 00:29:50): When did that come out? Oh really?

Kevin (00:29:51 - 00:30:18): I didn’t see that. Yeah. I saw that this week. Yeah. It stems from her anti-Disney stance after the Jimmy Kimmel stuff. Oh. Uh, but anyway, yeah, uh, so Starfleet Academy, uh, I, I’m all in. I, I hate that we only do 10-episode seasons, but, uh, there we are. I’ve got 8 more weeks of fun to look forward to, and, uh, I can’t wait to see where these people go, and I want to learn more about them.

Ryan (00:30:19 - 00:31:07): Um, so, so far my only issue with the show has been how to watch it because it’s on CTV Sci-Fi, so I just PVR’d it and I watched it on my PVR. I tried to stream it through their website the other day, but it wasn’t uploaded, wasn’t put on there, and it didn’t even have like a little poster or a bookmark saying, oh, coming soon or anything. So I don’t know at this time if it’s available through ctv.ca or not. Oh, but the first episode, it was tough watching it PVR’d because you’d get about 7 minutes of story and then a commercial break, and then 7 minutes of story, and then a commercial break. Like, they were just jamming in commercial breaks into that episode.

Kevin (00:31:08 - 00:31:13): Yeah. Um, I of course watched it on Paramount Plus.

Ryan (00:31:14 - 00:31:14): Yeah.

Kevin (00:31:14 - 00:31:35): So I did not have the commercial breaks. Uh, the first episode was an hour— it was 110 minutes, so it’s almost 2 hours long, the first episode. And, uh, the second episode was almost an hour. So I don’t know, I don’t know if they cut anything because, uh, because of the commercials or what.

Ryan (00:31:36 - 00:32:18): Um, I don’t know if they did. It wouldn’t have been too much. There was a few spots where it was just kind of like you could tell this— well, this wouldn’t have been a normal commercial break cut, but, uh, they did— like, the second episode wasn’t as bad. I watched that one tonight. When I was having dinner, uh, it felt more just like a regular watching something on TV. Now, they were both like— when they aired live, they were like long record— like airings, right? Um, I forget, I think the first episode went from like 9 to like almost 11 o’clock. It was almost on for 2 hours on TV. Like, I think it might have been 10:45 when it finished, so Yeah, so I’m looking at it on Paramount right now.

Kevin (00:32:19 - 00:32:35): The first episode is listed as 1 hour 16 minutes, and the second episode is 1 hour and 1 minute. Yeah, so they’re quite— the episodes are long. So we’re only getting 10 episodes a year, but we’re getting long episodes.

Brent (00:32:36 - 00:32:40): Um, can I interject with the— because I got a little bit of digging.

Ryan (00:32:40 - 00:32:41): Yes, please.

Brent (00:32:42 - 00:32:45): On the Tatiana Maslany stuff in terms of She-Hulk.

Ryan (00:32:46 - 00:32:46): Yep.

Kevin (00:32:46 - 00:32:47): Yeah.

Brent (00:32:49 - 00:34:40): She’s still there. So this all stems out of she did an interview with Comedy Bang Bang where she like, she obviously takes pokes at it, but it is not clear whether she is outright joking or she’s throwing people off or what. Because, uh, she basically, uh, points out like, you know, that she got cut from Deadpool Wolverine and like, oh, it’s woke feminist stuff that I would be in the show to begin with, which is her calling it out, not the, the people calling it out. That’s why she’s being let go or whatever. Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not true. But it doesn’t mean it’s not, not true either, because like, consider the source, right? Like, it’s, you know, it’s a podcast where they do make up shit. Um, but, uh, I thought I had heard that from someplace else. They may very well have, but I’m just like, it seems like all the, the story behind it comes from this one interview that she did like a week or two ago. Uh, but even then, depending on which person is talking about the, the podcast, is, oh, she was dead serious, oh, she was like just making shit up on the fly. Because a lot of it seems to be along the lines of like, you know, what we hear of typical deflection of what are you doing in the the MCU. Like, she is— she’s saying, oh, I, I turned it down, which could be true, but also, like, how many other actors have we heard that from?

Kevin (00:34:41 - 00:34:46): Yeah, it could be, it could be a ploy, and then all of a sudden we see her in—

Ryan (00:34:46 - 00:34:56): yes. Oh no, no, I’m not, I’m not going to be in there, and then, then all of a sudden She-Hulk shows up and it looks just like her. So time will tell.

Brent (00:34:56 - 00:35:09): We get the multiverse version with Brigitte Nielsen. There’s a deep cut one that nobody would get. That’s up there with the Nicolas Cage Superman appearance.

Ryan (00:35:09 - 00:35:11): Yeah, yeah, that it is.

Brent (00:35:14 - 00:36:23): Well, the Star Trek show sounds interesting, which I’m like, all Star Trek sounds interesting to me except it’s, it’s on Paramount Plus and I don’t want to get another subscription service. Although I, it’s, I had, I’m thinking Jen and I might shake things up at the, the end of my next Disney Plus run. So, and maybe like, because we don’t use Netflix that much, so maybe we’ll drop Netflix and pick up Paramount. I also, I have stated this since I heard about it, I will be getting Apple Plus in order to see Neuromancer. So Oh, it’s, it’s one of those things I feel I have to, because I, uh, if you go back through various things I’ve written for Geekard and episodes of this podcast and everything else, I have repeatedly said Neuromancer should be something like a movie or a TV show, and now it is. And if I don’t at least tune into the first episode, like, I don’t deserve to watch it, right?

Speaker A (00:36:26 - 00:36:26): Yeah.

Ryan (00:36:26 - 00:36:39): Well, the one thing I did enjoy that I liked that they gave us with it being a premiere and we got 2 episodes, the first episode, we, you get your action Star Trek episode.

Kevin (00:36:39 - 00:36:39): Yeah.

Ryan (00:36:39 - 00:36:57): There’s lots of explosions. There’s new tech. There’s, you know, the bad guy, all this. But the second one is much more a world-building. You know, meeting new races, meeting people, dealing with emotions, Star Trek story.

Kevin (00:36:58 - 00:36:59): Exactly.

Ryan (00:36:59 - 00:37:05): So it’s good to see that they’re going to be doing both of that in this new series, not just one or the other.

Brent (00:37:07 - 00:37:29): I, I do also want to see it just because people, the people who are hating it are stupid. From what I can tell, it’s the, the, the female Jem’Hadar character is like, oh, they’re ruining the legacy. They’re like, bitch, you didn’t even care about the Jem’Hadar up until this character showed up. Yeah, sure.

Ryan (00:37:30 - 00:37:33): I’ve barely had any character arc until now.

Brent (00:37:33 - 00:37:34): Deep Space Nine.

Kevin (00:37:35 - 00:37:56): Yeah, there is one, one thing that bugged me a little in that, well, that’s not the way it was in classic Star Trek, is the, the second episode really deals with the Betazoids. And they kept saying that they have empathic powers when really they have telepathic powers and they can read people’s minds.

Brent (00:37:56 - 00:37:59): And yeah, because it’s— Troy is empathic because she’s half, right?

Kevin (00:38:00 - 00:38:01): She’s only half Betazoid.

Brent (00:38:01 - 00:38:01): Yeah.

Kevin (00:38:02 - 00:38:08): Um, so, you know, maybe, you know, it is 700 years later. Maybe the species—

Brent (00:38:08 - 00:38:09): it’s been bred out.

Ryan (00:38:10 - 00:38:11): Yeah.

Brent (00:38:11 - 00:38:16): It’s like being red-haired. It’s just slowly being driven out.

Kevin (00:38:17 - 00:39:01): And I find it interesting too that they’ve set up that there are really two schools. There’s Starfleet Academy, which is new and is just reopening. And then there’s the War College. So there’s a military school and a Starfleet school, like a science and exploration school. And the guy who’s the head of the War College, I looked at him like, where do I know him from? He’s so familiar. Do you remember? Oh, this is like maybe 20 years ago. Global had a daily soap opera that was set on a Toronto subway train called—

Brent (00:39:01 - 00:39:03): Oh, God.

Ryan (00:39:03 - 00:39:04): I never watched it, but I remember it.

Brent (00:39:05 - 00:39:05): It was terrible.

Kevin (00:39:06 - 00:39:11): I know. But I’m like, That’s where I know that guy from. He was in all the commercials for it.

Ryan (00:39:11 - 00:39:14): That’s fun. That’s a deep cut.

Kevin (00:39:15 - 00:39:19): And now he’s playing the head of the Starfleet War College.

Ryan (00:39:21 - 00:39:23): That’s great.

Brent (00:39:23 - 00:39:26): Cool. So you would recommend?

Ryan (00:39:27 - 00:39:27): Yes.

Kevin (00:39:27 - 00:39:36): I would recommend. Again, it’s one of those situations where on Rotten Tomatoes the critic score is 85. And the fan score is 30.

Ryan (00:39:37 - 00:39:39): Because that’s baloney. That’s stupid.

Kevin (00:39:39 - 00:39:40): Yeah. But oh, I agree.

Brent (00:39:41 - 00:39:53): People, part of me feels that Star Trek, like actual Star Trek fans have just given up at this point making like fighting the fight and then just like, yeah, they’ll say whatever. I’m just going to enjoy it for me.

Kevin (00:39:54 - 00:40:18): Yeah. I, uh, most of my Star Trek friends are all on board. For this show. And I hope, uh, because I bought tickets and I have a hotel reservation to go to Star Trek Las Vegas this summer, I hope that some of the cast is there. Uh, they have not announced anybody from Starfleet Academy as far as I know. I would love to see Holly Hunter at a Star Trek convention.

Brent (00:40:20 - 00:40:37): So I’m curious how that would go. Just like, I always find it interesting when like, I hate to put it this way because like actors who aren’t in the genre realm, right?

Kevin (00:40:38 - 00:40:38): Yeah.

Brent (00:40:38 - 00:40:47): When they end up in it and start doing these conventions, because you said we see those with like some fan expos and stuff like that in the States.

Kevin (00:40:47 - 00:40:47): Yeah.

Brent (00:40:48 - 00:40:57): Like not somebody I’m particularly a fan of due to various things of their personal life, but like Mel Gibson has started doing these. Like here and there.

Speaker E (00:40:59 - 00:40:59): How—

Brent (00:40:59 - 00:42:46): what’s that like for a Mel Gibson? You know what I mean? What I mean? Or like, or like if Arnold Schwarzenegger started doing shows because he’s doing like— he’s one step away basically. He’s been doing signings for things like private signings where he sits down and signs like 100 things. And man, it is not cheap, let me tell you. like, what, what’s it like for him to do like a lineup of people? You know, like there’s, there’s a couple things like that. Like I, now this is a little different because the person in the story isn’t famous, but years ago I did the press line with, um, uh, Geek Heart at, uh, Toronto Comic-Con. And in the press line were a couple people. The most notable names at the time were, uh, Jonathan Frakes and Casper Van Dien. And then there was this older lady who was— I think she was in— remember the farm season of Walking Dead, the one that nobody likes? I think she’s in that season. She was in Walking Dead, and it was whatever season had gone on and she was a, like, a classically trained theater actress who had, like, she was doing some movies and TV, but not a lot. Now, Casper Van Dien is, does his shtick at when he does these press lines. He knows he goes for soundbites and they are all built around him being in Starship Troopers. He does, he like does lines from the movie in character. He yells stuff and things like that.

Kevin (00:42:46 - 00:42:47): Right.

Brent (00:42:48 - 00:42:58): Also, a lot of these guys, when they do this many shows, and because they’re also in like similar lines of work, kind of know each other. Maybe they’re not like friends, but they’re like con friends, right?

Kevin (00:42:59 - 00:42:59): Yeah.

Brent (00:42:59 - 00:44:51): And so we do Casper Van Dien, he does that stuff, and then we do Jonathan Frakes, and they have like their own shtick between each other. So we see the other— like, it’s a press line, so there’s somebody else interviewing Casper Van Dien and he’s like doing one of the lines from like Starship Troopers. And of course, along like— and he’s like in full character yelling it, like something along the lines of like, ‘Do you want to live forever?’ And Jonathan Frakes looks over at him and he’s like, ‘Would you shut the fuck up?’ But jokingly, like, it is like, like, like everybody in the room gets it except for this old lady who We get to her and she just doesn’t know what’s going on and is taking everything way too seriously. She’s like, those two guys are being so disrespectful to everybody else in this room, but, but, but, but, but, and like nobody thinks that because this is like, that’s what a Comic-Con is. And we go to find out like this is the first show she has ever done, like the first convention she’s ever done. And she was It sounds like her manager talked her into it because she was in Toronto doing some theater thing. Okay. And she— then the manager said, you know how to— we can make you a couple extra bucks, you were on Walking Dead. And she obviously, at least in that time, in that— it was not having a pleasant experience because she was not used to it because it’s a completely different situation for her, right? But, uh, yeah, so like it, like I always wonder that when you see like it, like Holly Hunter, what would that experience be like for her? Although she’s probably done at least like she was in Man of Steel. So there’s a chance she did like San Diego, like not any—

Kevin (00:44:51 - 00:44:53): she’s also Mrs. Incredible.

Brent (00:44:55 - 00:45:01): Oh yeah. So, so she may have done, but probably hasn’t done a lot.

Ryan (00:45:02 - 00:45:20): Or at the very least, though, she’s done a lot of other press junkets and things like that where there’s people asking, you know, so like being in a press line like that, you know, this other woman with her limited background, that all that scene was a new experience, let alone with those guys doing what they’re doing.

Brent (00:45:21 - 00:45:38): Yeah, that might be it too. Like there’s also the other thing, like I’m sure it’s got to be like a weird experience. Like all of these, like, you know, if you’re an actor like of like of a Holly Hunter status, She has signed autographs, has signed hundreds if not thousands of them, right?

Ryan (00:45:38 - 00:45:38): Yep.

Brent (00:45:39 - 00:45:43): She has not done it in like for a person who is dressed up like her.

Ryan (00:45:44 - 00:45:44): No, that’s—

Brent (00:45:44 - 00:45:51): you know what I mean? Like, like it— or like, well, maybe even one or two, but she probably hasn’t had a lineup of them.

Kevin (00:45:51 - 00:45:52): Yeah.

Brent (00:45:52 - 00:46:16): Which is like what you— like, it’s got to be like one of the weirdest things doing that transition. Like all the Star Trek people, those, they’re so used to it. And I don’t mean it in a cynical way, like they don’t appreciate it or anything like that. It’s just, it is kind of part of the job for a Robert Picardo or Jonathan Frakes or any, any of these folks who were on Star Trek for any, like, bit of time.

Kevin (00:46:16 - 00:46:24): Some of them, like, just relish being with the fans too. And they, you know, a lot of them have podcasts now.

Brent (00:46:25 - 00:46:30): Yep. I saw that Frakes and Brent Spiner are working on something.

Kevin (00:46:30 - 00:46:33): Frakes and Spiner have a new podcast. It’s a new interview podcast.

Brent (00:46:34 - 00:46:39): Yeah, it’s shown up in my, like, in my Instagram feed. I haven’t actually checked it out yet though.

Kevin (00:46:39 - 00:46:57): But like Garrett Wong, who played Harry Kim, he’s, he’s, he seems very open to fan interactions. The dudes who played Tucker and Reed on Enterprise, You can always find them on the con floor and you can chat with them anytime.

Ryan (00:46:58 - 00:47:05): I have a question for you, Kevin, since you brought up Harry Kim. In the first episode, we see the wall of all the names.

Kevin (00:47:05 - 00:47:06): Yes.

Ryan (00:47:06 - 00:47:19): And some of the names go by, you know, are closer to the camera. So you can, you know, you can read like Spock and, you know, all this stuff. I did see Kim. I didn’t see what his rank was, like what his—

Kevin (00:47:20 - 00:47:21): It was Admiral.

Ryan (00:47:21 - 00:47:25): It was Admiral. Okay. I was wondering if you— did he ever get promoted?

Speaker E (00:47:26 - 00:47:26): He—

Kevin (00:47:26 - 00:47:29): yeah, the wall lists him as Admiral Harry Kim.

Ryan (00:47:29 - 00:47:29): Okay.

Kevin (00:47:30 - 00:47:50): A couple other things about the show. Well, one, I just looked to see if there were any Academy guests there at the convention this summer, and the actress who plays Genesis, the daughter of the Starfleet Admiral who’s at the Academy, she’s going to be there. The other thing is, did you notice that one of the executive producers listed was Tawny Newsome?

Ryan (00:47:51 - 00:47:54): No, I didn’t notice because I didn’t watch the credits. I—

Kevin (00:47:54 - 00:47:58): ah, so Tawny Newsome, who was the voice of Mariner on Lower Decks.

Brent (00:47:58 - 00:47:59): Oh, right, right, right.

Kevin (00:48:00 - 00:48:07): She is— she’s developing a Star Trek sitcom apparently, but she’s also on the writing staff of this show.

Ryan (00:48:08 - 00:48:08): That’s awesome.

Brent (00:48:09 - 00:48:09): Good for her.

Kevin (00:48:10 - 00:48:31): And I have loved Tawny Newsome even before she joined Star Trek. She used to show up on a lot of improv podcasts with Paul F. Tompkins. Uh, so yeah, so there you go. Um, I, I think, uh, I, I think we’re in for a fun ride. The show’s already filming season 2.

Brent (00:48:32 - 00:48:35): Oh, so we know we’re gonna get at least 20 episodes of this show.

Kevin (00:48:37 - 00:49:02): Um, there is some— not concerned, but, uh, Alex Kurtzman’s contract is up this year. So, uh, you know, all the people who are saying Star Trek is too woke are saying that it’s time for Kurtzman to go, but I think he’s taken the franchise in some pretty interesting directions, and I would not be averse to him sticking around a bit longer.

Brent (00:49:02 - 00:49:22): I, I think the, the only problem is, and it’s not him, and it’s not like from a fan level, is Paramount wants their, their mega Star Trek movie, and they need somebody to deliver it for them. And I don’t think they have the faith in him to do that anymore, or else we would have gotten it, you know what I mean?

Kevin (00:49:23 - 00:49:23): Yeah, maybe. Yeah.

Brent (00:49:23 - 00:50:02): And that, that would be the one thing I could see that might be like kicking him out of, out of office. Or, you know, maybe he just wants to go off and do more things. That’s it. That’s the thing that we like, you know, like as a creative person, it’s The same with Dave Filoni. In some ways you kind of wonder, is like, does he want to do anything else? Yeah, like, you know, Star Wars is awesome, but like, that guy got his start on, uh, Last Airbender. Like, he worked on that show. So it’s like, you know, does he want to like go off and do other things? That’s good. That’s part of the reason why Kathleen Kennedy is leaving, is she just wants to go off and be a producer.

Ryan (00:50:03 - 00:50:21): Yeah. Now he’s not just the creative of Star Wars. He’s the creative of Lucasfilm. So there are other things under the Lucasfilm banner that can be done and made, right? They can always make more Indiana Jones stuff. Uh, I feel young Indiana Jones.

Brent (00:50:21 - 00:50:22): We’ve already gotten that.

Ryan (00:50:23 - 00:50:23): Yeah.

Brent (00:50:24 - 00:50:36): You do it. I guess we could do more. Just recast them all. Um, I, I feel okay. So what else is under Lucasfilm’s banner? Willow. I don’t see that happening again anytime soon.

Ryan (00:50:36 - 00:50:39): They could always make new stuff too and put it under the Lucasfilm arm.

Brent (00:50:40 - 00:50:43): That’s true. That, that I would love to see.

Kevin (00:50:44 - 00:50:49): Maybe they could make a Day of the Tentacle movie. Wasn’t that a LucasArts game?

Brent (00:50:49 - 00:51:16): Oh yeah. I’m, I’m, I’m curious if they still own the rights to it though. Yeah, like, or if that got sold off at some point. Yeah, maybe that’s what we should do for next episode. I’ll make up a list of various Lucas properties and we will— we’ll do the litmus test of like, could— do we see these as an actual TV show or movie?

Ryan (00:51:17 - 00:51:17): There you go.

Patreon and Community

Brent (00:51:20 - 00:53:08): Alrighty, well, thanks for that update, guys. Um, Uh, with that in mind, that brings us to the end of this episode. And before we go, uh, Patreon shoutouts, patreon.com/truenorthnerds, where you can get, uh, for $3, you get a little bit more extra content and you help us keep the light on, uh, in terms of hosting and all that fun stuff. So, uh, because of that, you get a couple free shows here and there, uh, one of which is called Listen to This. It’s a music-based podcast hosted by myself and Alex where we talk music stuff. Uh, the next episode is going to be, uh, guest starring Rex, uh, one of our longtime friends and patrons, uh, who is also the produ— one of the producers of Listen to This. Uh, we decided to have him on as like an introduction episode, and also Rex’s music tastes are very different than, uh, Alex and I’s. So we thought it would be a good chance to like broaden our musical horizons, which is part of our mandate for this year, and have Rex on. And it’ll be a fun episode. We just have to sit down and work out the, the date and time of when we can actually do that. Um, the other is, uh, I got a roundabout way— I got confirmation from Nate. He is still very much into doing Kung Fu Island 2. Um, He is busy with his own podcast stuff and work has been working him like a dog. He basically was working 6 days a week for like the last month and a half. That’s tough. Yeah.

Ryan (00:53:08 - 00:53:13): So who in their right mind works 6 days a week? Yeah. Silly people.

Brent (00:53:13 - 00:53:21): Plus like his. You know, at least the one day out of your year, 6 Ryan, is a job you enjoy.

Ryan (00:53:22 - 00:53:22): Yeah.

Brent (00:53:22 - 00:53:25): Well, you don’t mind your other job to pick up on that.

Ryan (00:53:25 - 00:53:26): Yeah.

Brent (00:53:26 - 00:54:05): But this is his full-time day job. And he, uh, yeah. But, uh, yeah, we’re, we’re still definitely doing it. We’re just, again, it’s, uh, schedules have to line up, but, uh, maybe I’ll, I’m, I really want to do some more stuff for the Patreon people too. So, uh, I’m, I, I I got some ideas. I just have to actually sit down and hash them out. But, uh, as well, you get a shout out. So shout outs go to Drew, Karina, Alex, Team Woods, who set up, uh, truenorthnerds.com for us. Thank you, Team Woods. Uh, Mike Hammond from Maple Printing and Rex.

Ryan (00:54:06 - 00:54:07): Now, thank you all.

Geek Picks

Brent (00:54:08 - 00:54:12): The end of the show. Uh, who wants to go first with their geek picks?

Ryan (00:54:13 - 00:54:14): I’ll go first.

Kevin (00:54:15 - 00:54:15): Okay, good.

Ryan (00:54:16 - 00:55:56): Okay. Um, so I’ve been looking, well, been trying to find new things to watch or old things to watch, uh, while I do my, uh, my new after work, like routines and, or just killing time around the house. And I’ve started a Firefly rewatch. Oh, and it is still a good show. It is fun. They, even with some of the creative people behind that show and their histories and their stories and what’s going on, what’s come out since, uh, and even some of the actors on the show and some of their political leanings and things, put that all aside. Um, it’s great watching this sci-fi show that is very much a Western in the way their mannerisms, the way they talk, the way these different worlds are set up. Quite often it’s a dust bowl of a little town that they roll into to do some job, or, um, but it’s very much the, the outer space Western. And, uh, I’ve been watching it. I’m almost done because it’s only like, I think, 14 episodes, 12, 14 episodes long. I’m almost done the season, uh, and I’m looking forward to watching, uh, the movie as well. But it does make me look kind of like, like, this is a great cast. It’s too bad we never got any more with it. but if you’ve never watched Firefly and if you’re a Nathan Fillion fan, and, and, uh, I would give it a watch. I would recommend it. It’s on Disney Plus. So if you have Disney Plus, there you go. It’s, it’s there to be watched. So yeah, my geek pick is Firefly.

Kevin (00:55:58 - 00:56:15): That’s a good pick. I liked that show back in the day. You know, you hear the stories about what happened with various producers of these programs. And sometimes you just want to— you got to separate the art from the artist, right?

Ryan (00:56:15 - 00:56:15): Yeah.

Kevin (00:56:17 - 00:59:31): So that brings it to me. Let me think. This time of year lately is Traitors season. If you don’t know The Traitors, it is a reality TV show that is very much the party game that I’ve been playing for over 20 years, Werewolf. There’s, in the case of the TV show, usually 20 to 24 people are brought to a gothic mansion or a castle, and 3 or 4 of them are chosen as traitors. Every night they, quote unquote, murder one of the other contestants known as the faithful. And then they have a mission to put money into their prize pot. And then they come back to the castle or the manor and have a roundtable where everyone votes out someone, and they’re trying to vote out traitors. But of course, they most often don’t. It’s a very simple game, but it’s fun to watch people get paranoid. There are currently two versions of the show that air after— right after Christmas. The UK version, which is hosted by Claudia Winkleman. If you’ve ever seen a British panel show, you would know who Claudia is. She’s got very dark black, black hair and wears thick thick eye makeup and has almost orange-colored skin. She’s— but she’s very good as the host of The Traitors UK. The American version is hosted by Alan Cumming, and he’s very flamboyant and over the top in his role as the head of the manor. The difference between the two versions, the American version is— casts many, many reality TV personalities, and the British version is all civilians. The other interesting thing watching these two shows at the same time, Traders UK and Traders US, is they are filmed in the same location. They fly all the American contestants to Scotland and they film in the same castle that the British version does. And because of that, they do the same challenges. Like, why reinvent the wheel if you’ve created a challenge that looks really cool? And they go over the top with these creepy cottages and trebuchets and fire pits and fountains that spew blood. It’s a very gothic feel to the show. If you’ve built it for one show, why not use it for both if you’re filming in the same location? So it’s fun to see the same, the same missions turn up on both shows and how the Americans and Brits tackle them differently. So yeah, so Traders UK and Traders US are both streaming on Crave right now. If you go on Crave, there’s also Traders Canada that aired in the fall. There’s Traders Quebec, Traders France, Traders Ireland, India, Hungary, Norway. They’re all available on there. So if you like the show, there’ll gameplay, the different character interactions, and the, the way people, um, under pressure act, I highly recommend The Traitors.

Brent (00:59:33 - 00:59:34): Awesome.

Kevin (00:59:34 - 00:59:35): Yeah.

Brent (00:59:36 - 01:02:15): Um, Brent, so, uh, my co-host Alex on, uh, Listen to This posted up a thing a little while ago where he, he, like, it was basically like we should engage in long-form media a little bit more because you know, all the short form is starting to rob our attention spans. And I tend to agree with that. And like, maybe not for everybody, but definitely for me. So I’m making it a goal this year to read more books than I, I have in the last little while, not including comics. Uh, so I finished my first book of the year, which is, uh, a book that was recommended to me by the guys over at I Die, You Die. And it is, uh, from the series 33 and a Third, which are all books on various albums. And this one’s on Ministry’s Land of Rape and Honey. And it is a fantastic book on the subject. It, uh, shows, uh, what two guys can get up to when a lot of drugs and a lot of studio time are involved. Uh, the, the thing I really liked about it is author Jason Pettigrew talk to everybody. If you’re not familiar with Ministry, for what I compare, like, consider like their golden period, it was mainly just two guys putting things together with like guest musicians coming in and out and stuff like that. And they now want— it’s down to one of those two guys is still the band. So whenever you see interviews about Ministry, they always talk to the main guy, Al Jorgensen. This book, he talks to everybody, which was nice because every once in a while you get the story of like blah blah blah blah blah, the, you know, the, the man was trying to keep us down, or the, the, uh, record company was trying to do this, this, this, and then it goes to somebody else and like, that’s horseshit. Or like, it gets all views on the subject, which is really nice. It’s very well written and, uh, I enjoyed it a lot. I will also throw a free plug in here as well. I’m, uh, going back to our Patreon bits, uh, I was a guest appeared on Nate Milton’s Nefarious Media Network’s, uh, Super Salad, uh, the latest episode of that which is entitled Issue 5: Return of the Mac, um, where they spent the first half of the episode talking about Allison Mack’s recent, uh, run of podcast interviews. Uh, she—

Kevin (01:02:16 - 01:02:18): I’ve listened to that. Yeah, it’s good.

Brent (01:02:19 - 01:02:31): Um, so there they talk about that, and then they get into the, uh, the latest trailer for Wonder Man, which is something we haven’t like super talked about a lot here, I guess mainly because it’s not out yet either.

Kevin (01:02:31 - 01:02:32): Next week.

Brent (01:02:32 - 01:03:36): Yeah. Um, so, uh, yeah, I was on that and we talked about, uh, there was a segment called, um, Fandom resolutions, kind of a New Year’s resolutions we feel fandoms should take up, which was an interesting conversation. Um, so yeah, you can find that on the Nefarious Media Network on all of your podcasting apps, or if you want to watch, uh, my ugly mug and the, uh, the other 4 people who are not nearly as hideous as I am, uh, there’s a video version up on their YouTube page. So that would be my other pick. Um, yeah, so that’s it for this episode. Uh, next episode will be, uh, probably a bit about Wonder Man. So yeah, fun, great, huzzah, yay! Um, so yeah, uh, anybody have anything they want to plug? Ryan? Ryan?

Closing and Plugs

Ryan (01:03:36 - 01:03:36): Ryan?

Brent (01:03:39 - 01:03:43): Hmm. Did we lose Ryan? Possibly.

Kevin (01:03:43 - 01:03:47): He’s not recording right now. Interesting.

Brent (01:03:50 - 01:03:50): Oh.

Kevin (01:03:50 - 01:03:52): Yeah, he’s offline at the moment, it looks like.

Brent (01:03:53 - 01:03:53): Oh, okay.

Kevin (01:03:54 - 01:03:55): Well, I have a couple things to plug.

Brent (01:03:56 - 01:03:59): Okay, let’s go with yours, and then if Ryan has anything, I’ll insert it later.

Kevin (01:04:00 - 01:04:49): OK, one, I’m doing my daily flash recaps of classic issues of Avengers, Legion of Superheroes, and Star Trek comics. Those are— I’m having a good time with those. I’m trying to be a little bit snarky. I’d love some more listener reactions to them. So please, if you see them on our Facebook page, please comment. And two, I just got cast in a production of Clue, the stage play, which will be happening in Aurelia April 9th to 19th. So we haven’t started rehearsals yet, but I’m sure the cast looks amazing. I’m very excited to start. So if you’d like to see me play Colonel Mustard, please come to the Aurelia Opera House in April.

Brent (01:04:50 - 01:04:51): I am looking forward to seeing that.

Kevin (01:04:52 - 01:04:58): I’m seeing in our chat that Ryan says he’s here. I’m not sure why we can’t let him into the studio.

Brent (01:04:58 - 01:05:09): What’s going on? Oh, uh, yeah, you can hear us. Huh. Um, let me see.

Kevin (01:05:09 - 01:05:10): Very strange.

Brent (01:05:10 - 01:05:11): Come on.

Kevin (01:05:14 - 01:05:20): Uh, I don’t know. It did that recording.

Brent (01:05:20 - 01:05:29): Yeah, it did it the last episode, and I don’t know why it’s doing that. I don’t, and I can’t kick him out either.

Kevin (01:05:29 - 01:05:33): Do you have anything you want us to plug for you, Ryan? Put it in the chat.

Brent (01:05:33 - 01:05:35): Put it in the chat. I’ll put it in. We’re almost done.

Kevin (01:05:43 - 01:05:45): Oh well. What about you, Brent? You plugging anything?

Brent (01:05:47 - 01:05:56): Nope. I’m just doing this stuff and listen to this, which I’ve plugged like a dozen times already. Uh, I wonder if— no, that doesn’t—

Kevin (01:05:56 - 01:06:03): don’t forget to listen to Tales from the Collectorverse. You guys did— weren’t you on there last episode doing a year-end roundup?

Brent (01:06:03 - 01:06:16): I was. Um, Ryan and Ed have put together a very good show about toys and collecting, and I made my annual pilgrimage, you know, onto the show to, uh, talk about my favorite toys of the year and theirs.

Kevin (01:06:16 - 01:06:16): Excellent.

Brent (01:06:17 - 01:06:28): Yeah, and if you go to their Instagram, there’s photos of all those toys too. Because Ryan had the great idea of actually like, you know, making a visual element to the audio. So smart.

Kevin (01:06:29 - 01:06:31): So he has a good idea every now and then.

Brent (01:06:32 - 01:06:32): He’s back.

Ryan (01:06:33 - 01:06:34): Technology.

Brent (01:06:37 - 01:06:40): We just plugged you. So you’re just in time to say goodbye.

Ryan (01:06:40 - 01:06:42): I could hear you guys the whole time.

Brent (01:06:42 - 01:06:42): I know.

Ryan (01:06:42 - 01:06:53): All I can think of is that I don’t know if the wire in the back of my mouse came out a little bit even though I haven’t moved it because I unplugged it and plugged it back in.

Brent (01:06:54 - 01:06:56): And then that’s when it all of a sudden started talking again.

Ryan (01:06:57 - 01:06:59): Don’t you love technology, people?

Brent (01:06:59 - 01:07:10): We do. On that note, you want to say goodbye for us, Ryan, since I did your plug? Do you know how we end each episode of the show?

Ryan (01:07:11 - 01:07:12): No, I don’t.

Brent (01:07:12 - 01:07:13): Jesus.

Ryan (01:07:15 - 01:07:23): It’s been a long time since I’ve ended the episode. Hello. Thank you everybody for listening to us. We love you all. And remember, Obamasday.

Brent (01:07:24 - 01:07:26): Yeah.

Kevin (01:07:27 - 01:07:27): Yeah, he did it.

Speaker E (01:07:29 - 01:07:31): He said the line.

Brent (01:07:31 - 01:07:32): He said the line.

Outro

Kirby Crackle (01:07:33 - 01:07:34): [Theme song lyrics omitted for copyright compliance.]

Rex (01:07:35 - 01:08:03): Thank you for listening to the True North Nerds. You can find us at truenorthnerds.com. On Facebook, X, and Instagram at True North Nerds. To contact one or any of the nerds, email them at truenorthnerds@gmail.com. Theme music provided by Kirby Crackle. You can find more of their music at kirbycracklemusic.com. If you’d like to support the show, please consider becoming a Patreon at patreon.com/truenorthnerds, or go to your podcast app of choice and rate and review us.

Kirby Crackle (01:08:05 - 01:08:38): [Theme song lyrics omitted for copyright compliance.]