Strange New Worlds Season 3 - FIRST REVIEW!

[00:00:08] Is this thing on? Hello? Hello? Welcome to Open Pike Night, the Strange New Worlds Podcast where your personal logs are the prime directive.

[00:00:32] Well tonight we don't have any of your personal logs but we do have the premiere, finally, of Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3. But joining me, of course, as always, are my co-hosts, the man who definitely didn't just wake up for this, Jesse Bailey. It is not my fault that you guys decided to record at the crack of noon-ish on a Saturday, but I am dedicated and thus am here.

[00:01:01] Yeah, absolutely. And the man who put on a tie just to talk about, well, Star Trek, because he always does, because he is Dapper Cameron Greenshirt Harrison. Dapper Cam. That's new, I like it. Let's do it. Yeah. Well, it's premiere day at Tribeca Film Festival. Episode one, I think just episode one of Strange New Worlds Season 3 is being screened tonight or was just finished screening. And we actually are recording this on premiere day. This isn't something we recorded way in the past, just about seven hours in the past.

[00:01:31] So for those of you who got to see it, it's pretty awesome. What do you guys think? We're gonna start with our two-word reviews, Cam? Yeah, it's been two years. So let's boil all of those thoughts and emotions and feelings and angsts down into two single words. And then after that, then we'll do our 12-word, no, 24-word for 24 months and then 96-word? Anyway.

[00:01:55] Sure. My two-word, I'll start. Worth it. Two years. Worth it, guys. Yeah. That's a high bar. Yeah.

[00:02:07] But I think I agree with that. There were so many feelings when we got the screeners. I was like, do I watch all of these right now? Do I wait? Do I only watch the first one? Like, what do I do? Because it's like getting a limited Christmas gift that you can run out of. I was like, do I open it all at once or do I wait? But, you know, worth it, I think is absolutely a good way to put it. So I agree. Is your two-word review?

[00:02:37] No, my two-word review is hot damn. Nice. Yep. That absolutely applies to, I remember the first time seeing this several times, exclaiming out loud, like, wow, this is, it's a great episode. It's a great start to a season.

[00:03:00] Yeah, we spoke before about how, well, I spoke about how I think Such Sweet Sorrow from Discovery might be one of my favorite Star Trek two-parters ever. Mm-hmm. And that holds true, but I think Hegemony might be at the top of my list now. Oh, man.

[00:03:19] Hegemony part two is very well done. It doesn't feel like it was written in the old style of, you know, well, we'll just write ourselves into a corner and then figure it out later. It feels like they wrote a whole episode and cut it in half. Yeah. And that, that dovetails nicely into my two-word and a number review. Worthy part two is, uh, is my two-word and a number review for this episode. Nice.

[00:03:42] Because it is, it is, like, I'm hoping everybody who just saw it at the screener and everybody who gets to see it in about a month thinks the same thing. Yeah, I know, I know most of you watching and listening to this won't be able to watch it for a month and I am so sorry, but again, it's going to be worth the wait. Yes. Trust me. Yeah. You won't be disappointed. Let me ask you guys this because, yeah, we talked about other part twos and everything. And of course, there are some classic Star Trek cliffhangers and part twos and two-parters and we've talked about them.

[00:04:14] I feel like with much of the TNG, there's always a really good part one because as you say, like, they just write themselves into a corner and don't give a shit. And then they get to the second part and like, oh, we don't know what to do. So let's kind of just throw something at the wall. And I feel like almost maybe with the exception of one, like the second part drops off. Best of both worlds is a great two-parter, but I feel like the second part's a bit of a disappointment after the first part. It's because that first part is so insanely good. Exactly. Yeah.

[00:04:43] But I also feel like two didn't quite pick up a lot of the threads one put down. They just weren't interested in it. I feel like hegemony. I loved part one. I mean, we talked about it. I remember I exclaimed no notes at the end of our first viewing. I think part two is better. I think they leveled up here and that's what a good two-parter should do. Yes.

[00:05:05] I think level up is a good way to put it because you know, like having two seasons behind us, we know what this show is good at, right? We know where its strengths are. We know what kind of things we can expect as far as like intensity and drama and humor and all those things. And this really plays with your expectations. Like there is like, you know what you're going to get.

[00:05:34] You're going to get the second half of that story. There's no big surprises in like the plot or at least the setup. We're not like jumping back in time or something right at the beginning. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It picks up exactly where the last episode left off. And if you've seen the teasers, I mean, you know how this episode starts. You've all seen 8% of this episode. Yeah. Right. That cold open. But I was still very surprised by a lot of what I saw in this episode.

[00:06:03] I was like, are they doing this? Are they doing that? Do they dare do that to me personally? Really? And I was the entire time. I was like, okay, I'm going to have to watch this twice immediately because I got a text, Cameron and John, and send them a bunch of swear words. And like, you know, I was just superlatives. Like the chat was full. Okay.

[00:06:29] I was really impressed because I, like I said, I kind of thought I knew what to expect as far as like, well, here's probably how this will go. And I wasn't incorrect about all that. But the style of everything and the commitment to everything they decided to do, the intensity of it, like it does not drop off from the first episode.

[00:06:53] In fact, it actually goes nonstop was my backup two word review in case somebody said something similar, a lot similar because it is nonstop. I mean, okay, let's just say this. You have a month now from hearing this rewatch part one. Like it's not absolutely necessary, but man, if you don't, if it's been two years since you've seen part one, rewatch part one. Um, just, just put yourself back in the, in the, the position where everybody, you know, make sure you remember where everybody is before this episode starts.

[00:07:22] Cause there isn't, I mean, there's a previously on, but it drops right into it. And, and there's a lot that happens to every character and you just need to, you know, you gotta be familiar with where they're at. It helps. If I may, you've got a month rewatch the last two seasons. Cause they bring in stuff from the last two seasons in very smart ways, emotional ways too. Like you want that fresh in your mind. Yeah.

[00:07:49] I'll also say you may hear a dramatic reading of those text messages when we do our, uh, full recap review after this episode drops. So be sure to look for that in a month. Yeah. And in a month, if you have not called into open pike night and you want to talk about strange new worlds, call in, send us your messages. Um, open pike.com or just, uh, sorry. Yeah. Open bike.com to record. You can just do it right on your phone. Talk right into your mic.

[00:08:18] Try not to do it while you're driving, operating heavy machinery or on any kind of, uh, medication. And, uh, yeah, we've all been mauled by gorillas. Yeah. Yeah. Might not be the best audio. I'm actually going to put a caveat there. Like if you're on that, that dentist medicine where like, you don't recognize reality, please call it. Please. We won't say your name. I would love to hear a call. That's yeah. I want to hear one. That's about an episode that never happened. We'll call it. Like I will call that episode open wide night.

[00:08:48] Yes. Oh man. Very nice. That's good. Cameron. We have to get in to top pun form if we're going to be doing a whole season of coverage. It's been two years since we've done this. We got to definitely knock some rust off the, the pun muscles there. But, uh, Speaking of which, stay tuned for the end of this review to hear some upcoming exciting news about what we have planned for the rest of the season. Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely. Now we can confirm at this point, uh, we, yes, we did get the screeners.

[00:09:17] We are still on the list. Uh, we have seen the first five episodes of this season. We're not going to talk about all five of those episodes here. This is just kind of a primer and a hype exercise for the first episode and kind of the season as a whole without specifics. But, yes, there will be so much for you to enjoy from open Pike night this season.

[00:09:43] And we really think this is the place where you might enjoy watching the season the most, especially if you don't have those real life friends who are also watching with you. I know as Star Trek fans, it can be hard to find other Star Trek fans in real life because, you know, what if, what if you say, Hey, do you watch Star Trek? And somebody goes, no, you're now like categorized in their head, right? Like, Oh, overzealous Star Trek nerd guy.

[00:10:08] Like, and which I'm happy to be, but it does create a dynamic in real life. And to build off that, Jesse, as a strange new worlds podcast, we do need to talk about it. We have seen more than half of all of strange new worlds. Having seen these first five episodes, we did just get the announcement that season five will be the final and a truncated six episode season. So we have 46 episodes for this show. And man feels weird. Feels weird.

[00:10:38] It does. Yeah. Especially to know so far ahead of time. Right. Because it's a 2027 problem for, for most of us. Right. But it's, it's like, I don't know. I think that's helping me. Right. Like usually when a show gets canceled or not continued in on most streaming platforms.

[00:11:05] Now you find that out, you know, in the middle of enjoying it, or you find that out at a time. That's not super convenient. Like a freaking cowboy bebop was canceled. Like before it was done airing all its episodes. If you sat down to watch it on a, on a particular day. Right. Which really made watching that last episode very rough. Yeah. Because they were not planning that to be the last episode. Right. And that's kind of where I'm coming from.

[00:11:33] Like, at least now, like we know none of season five has been filmed. Right. So they're going to have a chance to give themselves a proper send off. This is not going to be a Star Trek discovery situation where they're like, oh, you know, let's shoot some extra stuff and tack it to the end of this episode, which I'm glad they got the opportunity to do, but you could absolutely see the seams of that. Yeah. And I am trying to temper my disappointment. Right.

[00:12:02] So I've been looking online a lot, chatting with folks on social media, finding out how other people are feeling about this, trying to, you know, kind of be a grown up about it. That's not what I'm known for here, but it's like, it probably would help me to, to help to filter my feelings through other people's views. And one point that I've seen brought up a couple of times that I think is really helpful

[00:12:29] is think about all the other streaming shows that you like that are part of an established IP. Cameron, how many seasons did the Dark Crystal series get? How many seasons, how many seasons did Willow get? Like, that'd be one for a good reason. Yeah. Yeah. So Sabrina reboot got, I think one season, like there's my point. Okay. So like all the Star Wars shows, right?

[00:12:57] None of those have had five seasons. Like there's one season and canceled or two seasons. And that's the whole story or one season with maybe another one coming up. Right. Like the Mandalorian is obviously the most successful there and it's got a movie coming, but it doesn't have another season coming. There's so many IP based streaming shows that never get close to five seasons. Yeah.

[00:13:24] Which is, you know, part and parcel of how streaming works, but it's also, I think a good reason to look at Star Trek and be like, I mean, they're all getting five seasons, right? I mean, except Picard, which is a little different because that's based on what does Patrick Stewart feel like doing? And even at the end of three, he was like, oh, you know, maybe one more, maybe a movie because I'm sure he enjoyed being back in the spotlight. And it was, you know, it was an all right series.

[00:13:52] I just kind of hope that Stranger Worlds would put us over a thousand episodes, you know? I think we're over a thousand episodes, but if not, we're very close. Yeah. But it's the thing I think for me that hurts the most, you know, having had some time to sit with it is the truncated nature of the fifth season. Like you were saying, John, like why? Yeah. Like if it's actually a money thing, then give them the money now.

[00:14:22] Now if they're six two hour long episodes, okay. I was going to say, yeah. We might be getting six mini movies with that. We don't know. So my fingers are crossed. Yeah. I mean, I feel, I felt very bittersweet. You know, I saw, oh, renewed for a fifth season. Great. We were all hoping there it is. Oh, it's the final season. Well, we were all kind of expecting five seasons for this. We knew like they could kind of shift some stuff, but also by Strangeranger Worlds, by the nature of what it is and what we know about these characters and what follows wasn't going to be a nine year. Yeah.

[00:14:52] It was coming soon. And yeah, seeing the six seasons was like, eh. But my feeling with that is, you know, it wasn't profitable for them to make a fifth season, but they were like, look, you've done a great job. It's profitable enough. We'll give you a six season so you can wrap things up nicely and not leave things hanging. Like I think we should be thankful that we're getting those and I'm sure they will make great use of them. Yeah. Right. And that's kind of helping me too is like they know ahead of time they're going to spend

[00:15:21] every penny they have in that production budget. They're going to know. I mean, with four seasons behind them, they're going to know what people want to see as far as conclusions, what people want to see as far as what's left open. I feel like maybe there's a chance now that we don't get that rushed, like piling on of the remaining TOS characters that we've always kind of half expected slash half been afraid of. Right.

[00:15:48] Because if all those characters come on, that pushes out some of our other favorite characters, you know, just kind of by design. So, yeah, I am in the same spot where I'm grateful. I do keep reminding myself this is a 2027 problem. Like six episodes of Kirk leading a right knee against Pike. Right. Now he's the captain. Starfleet just excepted. Sulu and the Ortegas battling to the death with swords. Yeah. And it's not over. Okay. Yeah.

[00:16:17] It's not over right now. And most folks have more Strange New Worlds ahead of them than they do behind. That's right. Exactly. That's right. Exactly. And we happen to be right at that edge case with the screeners. But like there are still two and a half seasons coming up. To two of your points, Jesse, I mean, with what they have coming up, this season three, I always want to say pilot is not the premiere.

[00:16:43] You know, this is the first episode we see that the writers wrote that the filmmakers made after season one had started airing. So I do feel watching this, you can sort of feel some of that audience input. And if not that, then you can feel the creators like seeing the fruits of their labor and seeing what works. And there's a confidence here in this episode and the rest of what we've seen that even we didn't have in season two, I don't think, which we said you could see the confidence coming through.

[00:17:13] Like they know, they knew what they had when they made this and you can tell we get more Jenna Mitchell. And I feel that might be some audience input there. We get more Sam Kirk. I mean, that was kind of built into the plot with him being stuck on the Gorn ship, but there are some great Sam Kirk moments. Let me tell you as a Sam Kirk Stan. And we're not going to talk about Ortegas, but you get some great Ortegas stuff in this episode. Yes, absolutely.

[00:17:39] And it leaves me hopeful that the more Ortegas we've heard about, we will be paid off. And you know, like not to be that guy, but it does create an opportunity for us here at open Pike night to really kind of, you know, strap ourselves down and bring you the best strange coverage. Lock ourselves to the doors of the studios. So they have to let us down.

[00:18:06] I'm sure that bulldozer would just keep on driving, John, but we can really focus on how best to bring you the best coverage that we can for strange new worlds, because now we know how much time we have. We know how many, you know, episodes there are going to be to review and we can start building out from there. The other thing it does is it creates an opportunity for me to wrangle John and Cameron into a new podcast. What strange new worlds is over.

[00:18:36] Cause what, come on guys, we can't just stop now, right? No, I can't just stop. But I think we will have a good opportunity once the series does end again in two and a half years from now, like there's time. Okay. But it will create an opportunity for a show like ours to kind of do a postmortem, right? Like we're going to probably be able to talk to folks that made this show after they're done making this show. Yeah.

[00:19:01] So just because strange new worlds airs its last episode doesn't mean open pike night suddenly goes away. Like even if it should mean that it wouldn't. It's a great title. So we'll become a fishing podcast after this. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Hard left turn. We got to do something. But until then, until another month of premiere, we do have some stuff in the works. Cam, you want to tell them a little bit about what to expect for this season of strange new world? I'm not done talking about this episode. All right. This episode's so good. You want to know what to expect with this episode?

[00:19:31] Again, there's not a ton of surprises from what you think you're going to get. It is hegemony part two, which is strange new worlds doing what it does best, taking these characters, putting them into a classic sci-fi action adventure setting. We're getting that type of story. We're not getting the big genre plays we see in other episodes, but what strange new worlds does so well is it takes those action tropes and it filters them through the characters. So you get such great, beautiful character moments while we're going pew pew against space aliens.

[00:20:00] Like, and you've all seen it. If you, if you've watched the teaser, that's basically the cold open of this episode. You see Pike going around saying, okay, we're between yeah, a Gordon, a hard place options. And you see him go through and like decide and everyone offering what they offer tells you something about their characters, how he reacts to them, tells you something about his character. And you see that in scene after scene after scene. It's so good. And you get all this space pew pew. You get, uh, what were you talking about earlier? You're a lot of emotions.

[00:20:30] You kind of alluded to it. You get a ton of emotions in this episode. That's what I'm leading to. Like it all builds up and there's a, there's moments in this. We've seen the trailers. We kind of know what to expect from the rest of the season. We know they're filming season four. We know mostly who's filming season four. There were moments in this episode you go, do I, do I know what I think I know? What's going to happen? And that sets you up for some emotional payoffs at the end of the season. This, this episode that had me in tears. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:20:58] I was exhausted at the end of this episode. Like I, I was literally going back and looking at other traits. Like I paused episode one of season three, went and looked at trailers from season three. I was like, okay, no. Yeah. Okay. All right. I thought I saw that in that trailer, but okay. Just wanted to confirm that. And I, I was, I was blown away at the emotional response and the dramatic tension that they

[00:21:26] were able to get out of me as somebody who has seen a lot of Star Trek and kind of has a good idea of what to expect from Star Trek. I was still like, am I completely wrong? Is everything I know wrong? Like what, what is happening? And, and, and again, it felt very personal, which I, to your point earlier, Cam, I know that most of the writers that we have talked to have given us some version of like, we write what the best story is, right? We don't write based on fan interaction.

[00:21:56] We don't try to cater to fans because once you do that, you're losing your own voice and this, that, and the other thing. And I think that remains true here, but to your other point of them having some feedback now, I think they are able to use that against us. They know what people want and what people expect. And they're like, okay, let's throw some of that in there. This is really going to help us crank on these characters and these storylines. It was, I, uh, bravo again.

[00:22:23] I was very impressed with this first episode. There's some sadism in that writer's room for sure. A little bit. Oh yeah. Just enough. Just the right amount. Which you as a listener probably know because Open Pike Night interviews all kinds of writers from Strange New Worlds. Hurt me, Akiva. Hurt me. Yeah. We've had the showrunners on. Like we know how this writer room functions basically. We've never been there, but we feel like we've been there. You know, we've, we've, we've spoken with these folks.

[00:22:50] Speaking of which, again, it's just doing everything we've come to love with Strange New Worlds, even though they're not doing the big genre swings we know are coming this season. Even in these kind of just classic Star Trek sci-fi action adventure stories. Like you can see their influences much like we saw, but, but push through the Star Trek lens. That's why I'm okay with it. Like I can see why some people might bump on it when it's a little too alien or a little too hunt for red October or wrath of con. But I love it when they take these even wrath of con and like, let's put the Strange New Worlds filter on it.

[00:23:19] Let's look at it through that. And you see a lot of that in this episode in a way that just really makes tickles me and, and, and makes me happy. Yeah. And it's a good reminder. You know, I understand, like completely understand hating corporations and being upset with production decisions. I completely understand that, but I think this is a good reminder. Being able to see these influences is a really good reminder that the show is made by people. Yeah. By fans.

[00:23:46] It's made by people who really care and yeah, are fans of Star Trek and fans of sci-fi. Like go ahead, be bummed that we're not getting 10 seasons, but please remember, especially like, you know, in your social media interactions that there are people, real people making this show. They probably didn't decide, you know what? I don't want to have this job anymore. So use that to kind of temper your reactions here.

[00:24:11] Obviously all of your feelings are completely valid and I completely get it, but like, we don't need to be mad at anybody about this. I don't think, I think we're in a good spot. We know we're getting five seasons. We know that they're getting time to craft their final season. And yeah, like Cameron said, Hey, maybe those last five episodes or six episodes will be the kind of episodes that if you're crazy fan really wanted to, you could edit into like a really long movie. I wouldn't be upset about that.

[00:24:38] Like if they give us one plot in season five and it's six hours long, I'm absolutely going to put that into like a movie for my own personal use. Like that would be really cool. Strange new worlds, the whole bloody affair. Yes. Yeah. Here's a film geek joke. Let's also talk a little bit about Scotty, who we saw, you know, a fair amount of in Hegemony part one, but we're seeing more of what they plan to do with them. And I'm loving what they're doing with them. I mean, I got the sense after talking with Martin Quinn that like, okay, this guy gets it.

[00:25:08] It sounds like the writers get it. Guys, he and the writers get it. Yeah. They get every character. They, there's not a single character in this first episode in this premiere that is served badly. That is, that is the, you know, you're not going to bump on any of them being like, oh, it's weird. They would do that. No, these characters are developed. These characters are who they are and these, they are true to themselves and the characters and the story in this episode.

[00:25:35] And that is part of what makes it such a worthy part too. Yeah. If you, Cameron mentioned our discussion with Martin Quinn, which I highly recommend you go check out back in the feed, but he talked about how this isn't the Scotty that we know, right? Like it's the Scotty we know, but younger, he's not quite so sure of himself as he is in the original series. And you kind of, you've, you hear that all the time with legacy prequels and sequels and

[00:26:03] things like that, where you're like, oh, you know, it's a different take on this character and it sort of is, but really it's the same character at a different time in his life. And the way that he is nailing this is amazing because I, I expected that to kind of be the company line, right? Like just tell people it's, it's younger Scotty and it's not who they really know, but it absolutely is that like, it feels in character with the Scotty that we do know, even though

[00:26:31] he's got a different attitude. You can see the pieces of what we love about that original character shining through, even if they're not fully developed. I agree with you completely, Cam. The writers, the actors, I mean, the production as a whole is absolutely firing on all cylinders right now. This is the sweet spot for Star Trek, right? So many times you hear, you got to watch this Star Trek show, but it doesn't really hit its

[00:26:59] stride until end of season two, maybe season three, you know, sometimes even longer than that. And I would disagree with that generally about Strange New Worlds. I feel like they kind of came out of the gate swinging, but there is still something about the practice of having written two full seasons of TV and going forward from there that just, it ups the ante. It absolutely does.

[00:27:22] I think having Scotty in the same room as Pellia, as we saw in season two, amazing dynamic, like so well played and like, what a, what a great illustration for the series as a whole. You've got this veteran actor with Carol Kane and this absolute fresh face newcomer. Martin Quinn's been acting for a long time, but he hasn't been on a ton of North American television, right?

[00:27:49] So this is a great opportunity to get to know Martin Quinn as an actor. And he's got an amazing mentor in both sides. Acting. We get to see what he learns. We get to see what Scotty doesn't know. So, you know, we get to see all kinds of stuff. So it has to be said guys. We've been talking about it for three minutes. I was like, how do we work this in there? Thank you for Jesse. Well done. All right. Good podcast guys. All right. Well, I hope we make this over. We peaked too soon. I will say like, I'm going to add onto that.

[00:28:19] I think maybe this season is sort of a start of with Cam's point to this is the first episode made after fans saw the first step first season and Jesse talking about, you know, with, with the legacy characters coming in. I think this would be a easily designatable, like phase two of strange new worlds, not in any like planned way, but it's like, yeah, this is, there are a lot of things that changed

[00:28:47] with this season beyond, you know, behind the scenes as well as, as well as on the page. And I, I think I can see that. And I think as we get further into the season, people will see, oh yeah, this isn't, this feels very different from season one, not in any bad way. It's just more mature and more experienced and more lived in. Yeah. To those points. If the first thing, what I wrote was, you know, lots of Star Trek, like you just said,

[00:29:14] Jesse, they find their footing after two or three seasons, the same's here, except they had two really damn good feet beforehand. Right. So it, it found this footing on top of some amazingly shy fit in another Tarantino reference Tarantino loving foot fetish. I don't know. We better, I'm going to end this metaphor now. It's getting out of control. There we go. I'll, I'll finish it for you, Cameron. If the first two seasons of strange new worlds was the production finding its footing season

[00:29:43] three is the start of them running straight up the side of my mouth. There you go. Like I was very impressed. I mean, you know me, I'm, I'm always impressed, but like, I kind of started asking myself like, how does it get better? Like, cause it's already at such a high level and hegemony part two absolutely answers that question. I was not expecting to come out of that episode. Like I'm more excited than I have ever been for strange new worlds because I say that at

[00:30:13] the start of every single season. But I think that's a sign of what a great show. This is, is that you really do. Every time you see the first episode of a season of strange new worlds, you go, that's their best season opener yet. And that doesn't take away from the other season openers. Cause they're all very good. We are feasting with this show as star Trek fans. And I'm very, very excited that there is more ahead of it than there is behind us.

[00:30:40] So I cannot wait for people to start watching season three of strange new worlds. I can't wait to start talking to people. I'm so excited for our next upcoming season of coverage here at open pike night. You guys thank you, John and Cameron for continuing to give me the opportunity to gush because I don't get to do this in my real life. Right? Like I'm not at work. Like, Hey guys, how about that? Star Trek. Right. It's weird how our coworkers having a place to do that really helps all the time. It's lame.

[00:31:10] Well, speaking of the gushing, I mean, this is a review. So let me put on my critic hat and give my one criticism of this episode, which is basically the best criticism you can give something, which is it was too short. I wanted more. We had some hour plus long episodes last season and this episode felt like it was maybe five to eight minutes too short on some subplots. We talked about how like every character got something at to the point where I feel like

[00:31:36] it set up a couple of characters, a couple of dynamics that didn't quite get paid off. Not in a way where I was missing it. Like I never bumped on it while watching it, but afterwards I was like, huh, I thought something more was going to happen with that character or with, with that dynamic. So I would have liked another five minutes, you know, I mean, but that just shows how good the rest of the 55 minutes were. Yeah. Well, and, you know, character dynamics are the serialization of this show, right?

[00:32:05] Because it is, the plots are more episodic. Yes, there are some connected plots and there's some overarching pieces, but the character dynamics provide the serialization. These are the, the way the relationships change and the way the characters interact with each other is the thing that we know will keep developing and, you know, connect the episodes together as the season moves forward. And I think that absolutely holds true here.

[00:32:32] So all the little things you notice between characters in Hegemony Part 2, keep track of those. Yeah. Yep. Don't, don't think the plot lines from Hegemony Part 2 are closed up. That's all we can say about the rest. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, all right. I'm done. I'm done now. Okay. Now, are you ready? Cameron? Wait, wait. So I'll wait, I'll wait a month for the rest. I'll wait a month. There you go. Yeah, exactly. We still have to talk about this episode again. So yeah. Yeah.

[00:33:01] In fact, we already have with the writer, Davey Perez in preparation for one of our series we have coming up. You know, the one thing with our format is we don't get to drop our conversation about the episodes until five days after the episode airs. And, you know, we do that because we want to hear from everyone and give everyone a chance to watch the episode and call in with their thoughts. So that's not changing. We will still have that. But on release day of each episode, we are going to drop an exclusive conversation with

[00:33:30] at least one, if not both of the writers of all the episodes. Hopefully I can't guarantee we'll get them all, but we've got a lot already. Yep. And yeah, you'll be able to hear, you know, we'll dive deep into how they came up with the episode, you know, the struggles with each one, what they were trying to accomplish and fun little tidbits. We're calling it open. No, not open. Strange new words. Thank you. I was like, it's not open Pike, right? Damn, that would have been good too.

[00:33:59] This is one of the things I didn't name, so I don't know what to name. Strange new words. Yes. Strange new words. Yeah. So tune in, you know, as soon as you watch the episode, you can come find us. We'll probably release those here on YouTube as well. So you can find them and watch us and the writers just geek out about these episodes. Yeah. Yeah. Whenever possible, we're going to be giving you the video of those as well as the podcast audio of those.

[00:34:24] And Cameron, let's say hypothetically, there's somebody watching this video right now that's like, well, I don't have screeners and I didn't get to go to Tribeca and I got to wait for this premiere. Do we have anything that we could do to like help them keep their hype levels high between now and then? Well, I mean, speaking of video and watching us and watching us talk to people, let's talk to it. Let's talk to one of the actors, maybe live. Oh, yeah.

[00:34:53] Let people watch it live and give their questions right away and not have to send in a call. Yeah. That'd be a good idea. I think that's a good idea. Who should we talk to? Do you guys think we should? I think, I mean. Who do we talk to first? The best option, I think, would be the patron saint of Open Pike Night. You're not talking about. Which, of course, is Melissa Navia. That's a good idea. Our favorite pilot. Great idea. Yeah. How about a week? We are incredibly excited. A week-ish from now? Yeah. It's kind of a week from now. Yeah. Why don't you come hang out?

[00:35:22] Have a Sunday night with us. Let's talk about Star Trek. I'm so excited that we get to talk to Melissa Navia again. This is her third appearance with us, I think. Full. And it absolutely will not be her last. But when we met her at Star Trek Las Vegas two freaking years ago, we really kind of finally understood, like, this person gets it. She understands the gravity of being in Star Trek.

[00:35:50] She understands how the fans attach themselves to this property. And we think she's the perfect person to help usher in the third season of Strange New Worlds for us, especially because, like we said, without her, Open Pike Night doesn't exist in the same form that it does right now. She was our first interview. She offered us a legitimacy that we could go then show to other managers, PR people, agents, and say, look, we're a real podcast, okay?

[00:36:20] Like, you should have your client come and hang out with us. And as you know, as a longtime Open Pike Night listener, that has borne fruit. So having Melissa Navia back to help us usher in this third season is something we are so excited to bring to you. As Cameron said, next Sunday, if you're watching this video on the day it drops, June 22nd, 2025, 8 p.m. Eastern, come hang out with us live on YouTube. Melissa will be here. You can chat live. We'll pick out questions from the chat. She'll be able to see them.

[00:36:50] She can answer them directly. And we can start revving up our engines of excitement for season three. I mean, let's be honest. Those engines are pretty much topped out, but maybe we can shift into that next gear of excitement for season three. Can we just give it any more, Captain? That's my best Scotty. I've got a pretty good Scotty, but respectfully, I think I should not share it because we want Martin Quinn to come back. Yeah.

[00:37:19] Don't outshine the sun. All right. So next Sunday, June 22nd, 8 p.m. Eastern, join us on YouTube for our live Q&A with Melissa Navia Ortegas herself. Until then, be sure to clean up after yourselves. Be sure to tip your servers. You can go anywhere you want, but you can't stay here. We'll be right back.