This week on Episode 533 of Priority One: ViacomCBS tries to make amends to the world; First Contact celebrates 25 years; Badgey finally makes it into Star Trek Online; and we continue our S4 review of Star Trek: Discovery!

TREK IT OUT

Edited by Thomas Reynolds

How World War III Really Starts

By Elio Lleo

Before we left you for our Thanksgiving break, we reported that ViacomCBS had pulled Star Trek: Discovery from Netflix, leaving our friends outside of the US and Canada without a way to watch the latest season until sometime in 2022. Well, ViacomCBS has performed a massive international course correction.

Perhaps it was the international uproar. Perhaps it was because their poor planning was so misguided that it made headlines on news outlets like the BBC. Whatever the case may be, Paramount+ announced that Star Trek: Discovery will now be available internationally via Paramount+ or Pluto TV. You can find a detailed list of which platform in which country Discovery will be made available here. 

Turbulence On Star Trek's Magic Carpet Ride

By Elio Lleo

It’s been 25 years since Star Trek: First Contact premiered in movie theaters. Widely regarded as one of the best films of the franchise, its production wasn’t entirely a walk in the park. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, writer Ronald D. Moore shares some behind the scenes stories about the film–including a clash with Sir Patrick Stewart. 

According to Moore, Stewart wasn’t too thrilled about some of the writing so he convinced Rick Berman to replace Moore and his co-writer Brannon Braga with some of his own writers. However, those new writers didn’t quite work out…so Braga and Moore were brought back. Awkward.

Moore shares the story:

"I remember Patrick at the outset just said something like: ‘It’s good to see you. I hope that we can all move on from the things that have happened, and now let’s just concentrate on the work.’ And I took that in the spirit it was given: [He] wants to move on from this, he’s not going to apologize outright, but he kind of is apologizing. And it was never spoken of again. So we just moved on."

The Moore You Know

Moore also spoke with SyFy about his work on the film. In this interview, there’s more discussion about the actual development of the script and it’s production. For instance, did you know that one of the original drafts had Riker as the action star–facing off against the Borg aboard the Enterprise. But Sir Patrick wanted in on the action–recalling the episode “Starship Mine.” They even toyed with the idea of setting the film in medieval times!

Another version had Picard trying to find affordable rent in San Francisco. Image: ViacomCBS, via American Cinematographer.

When asked about scenes for stories that he wished hadn’t been cut, Moore explains:

"There were just expanded sequences. There was just more action in general, more fighting the Borg in the corridors, and going into different places on the ship. And I think there was more humor. A lot of the jokes got cut down. I think we had more fun with Troi (Marina Sirtis) and Cochrane’s relationship on Earth, where he gets her drunk. We had more to that sequence scripted and that was fun to write, too. Rick might have made us cut it because he was always a little too–he was always kind of worried that maybe the humor would be too corny or something."

The Other Kind of Star Trek Royalty

One aspect of the film that Trekkies like to debate is the introduction of the Borg Queen. Well, Trekkies aren’t the only ones that debated her introduction. According to Moore:

"...it was a choice that was also antithetical to the idea of the Borg. The whole concept of these villains was that they were a collection, and that there were no individuals. And that's what made them the faceless, implacable 'resistance is futile' enemy. But it also limited how to deal with them dramatically…[s]o we really went back and forth about it internally…[w]e decided that the story would be better if we had some individual to deal with."

"To craft scenes around, to do an intimate kind of dialogue back and forth and help get inside characters’ heads–like Data in particular, and Picard. So what we came up with...a Borg Queen that controlled at least this collective of that particular ship, not necessarily that she was the queen of the whole Borg…"

For more insight about the film and its production process, be sure to Trek Out both interviews.

Whoopi Brings Trek Full Circle

By Cat Hough

Well, while we’re talking about Picard: the next season is premiering in February, and we’re getting bits of information about the upcoming season, including Michelle Hurd’s view on working with Whoopi Goldberg.  Michelle Hurd told a fan via Cameo what filming Picard Season 2 was like, saying “I pinch myself. I am a fan too, I literally pinch myself when on set or get to work with these amazing iconic creatures.” She was referring to both John de Lancie’s return as Q and Goldberg’s return as Guinan. Hurd went on to say that working with Goldberg was, “the bomb. She is SO cool. She is just cool, she is just Whoopi. That’s all you can say.”