Prodigy Junket

[00:00:00] This is Dan. And I'm Kevin Hagerman. We are. You know it sounds like you're not a Hagerman

[00:00:20] Dan. Whether we are, am I a Hagerman or not? We are the creators of Star Trek Prodigy and you're listening to Discovering

[00:00:29] Trek Prodigy with Emily and Mike Celia.

[00:00:51] Thanks for joining us on Discovering Trek, the Star Trek Universe Companion presented by

[00:00:56] Dan. This is a special bonus episode of Discovering Trek Prodigy because Emily and I got the chance to be at the Star Trek Prodigy junket that took place

[00:01:10] a couple weeks ago. And even though it was a very short time, four minutes each, we got to talk again with Kate Moll Group

[00:01:20] and we got to talk or at least ask a single question each of Brett Gray, the voice behind Al, and Ella Pernell, the voice behind

[00:01:32] Gwen. So as I always say, my co-host is my progeny Emily and Em, it was your first time doing a junket

[00:01:42] and everyone seemed to be highly interested in seeing you there but what were your feelings going into that junket?

[00:01:52] Fear.

[00:01:54] Fear. Terror. Angle. I hate it.

[00:01:56] Yeah, it was a lot for me but it was fun. I would do it again probably if I didn't know I wasn't going to freak out.

[00:02:08] You'd probably do it again even if you did know you were going to freak out.

[00:02:14] Yeah. But it was very cool. Like we said, we've talked to Kate already once before. This was the second chance to do it

[00:02:22] and we had never talked with Brett and Ella. So even though we only got to ask them a single question, it was nice to be able to do that.

[00:02:30] So let's get right into the episode.

[00:02:34] Look at you guys. Trek Geeks, Mike and Emily. I'm delighted to see your father and daughter duo.

[00:02:42] How are you? I'm so good. All the better for seeing you guys together. Emily, are you a Star Trek fan?

[00:02:50] Is it Voyager? What do you like best?

[00:02:54] Um, she's the one's probably. She's honest.

[00:03:00] Yeah. It's good.

[00:03:03] So we've seen at the last couple of conventions we've seen a lot of young people in line to meet you.

[00:03:09] Is it fulfilling to you that you're now becoming an inspiration to a whole new generation of kids?

[00:03:16] Now it's beyond fulfilling. It's really, it's thrilling.

[00:03:20] I mean, this is exactly the right demographic for Star Trek.

[00:03:24] Young children really absorb this. They love it. They're taking the trip in a way that older people I think of their own cynicism sort of prevents that.

[00:03:33] So I'm having them. I'm having a great time doing it. Absolutely great.

[00:03:37] Awesome. Are you surprised with how prodigies kind of become like a stepping stone into Star Trek for like all ages and not just for younger kids?

[00:03:48] I'm not only surprised, Emily. I'm so delighted.

[00:03:51] What you're putting your finger on because you're very smart. You're incredibly smart.

[00:03:56] Even though strange new worlds is your favorite. I'm going to answer your question.

[00:04:01] I think the cross generational aspect that your question brings to mind is what is so brilliant about prodigy.

[00:04:09] These kids are watching with their mothers who watched Voyager, etc. and their mother watched next generation.

[00:04:14] And this conversation then it becomes very, very broad in spectrum and in scope.

[00:04:19] And that's really gratifying.

[00:04:23] That was a good question.

[00:04:25] Very good question. Yes.

[00:04:28] That is that's the name of the company that our podcast is on.

[00:04:36] Oh, okay. Good. Great.

[00:04:39] So without spoiling anything because we don't want to get into spoilers right now.

[00:04:45] You personally are you a point are you at a point in your scripts that you're reading that you know what's going on with Chico Tay?

[00:04:53] Yes. But I'm not going to breathe the word because it's so listen to this you guys. It is so tantalizing, so harrowing and so ultimately rewarding that if I were to breathe even a centella of a spoiler to you, it would be devastating.

[00:05:12] Perfect. That's the kind of thing we want to hear.

[00:05:18] So now that Janeway has returned in an animated form, fans are pretty eager to see her in live action.

[00:05:26] So if the offer was made to you, would you return to live action again?

[00:05:31] I consider it, you know, I'm getting a lot of questions about this.

[00:05:35] People really seem to want to get live Janeway back.

[00:05:39] And therefore I would consider it if I could have the same level of excellence that I'm enjoying on prodigy and that I enjoyed on voyager, but it would have to be absolutely excellent.

[00:05:50] Don't you agree Emily?

[00:05:52] Yes. What's the point of doing anything if it's not great, right?

[00:05:56] Because life is too short, right? Although you don't know that yet because you're only what what age?

[00:06:02] 13. Do you like being 13?

[00:06:05] I know. At 13, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. Do you know?

[00:06:10] I think so.

[00:06:12] What do you think? Well, I want to be an artist, but I also want to work with animals so I'm kind of confused, but I have.

[00:06:19] I couldn't do both. You can do both.

[00:06:21] Yeah, I guess I really want to go to Rhode Island school design.

[00:06:26] Oh, it's so good. RISTI is the best. The best. My son is an artist. He didn't go to RISTI.

[00:06:31] He went to Otis, but I highly encourage you to do that.

[00:06:34] You'll learn. You'll find out exactly who you are as an artist at RISTI. I can promise you that and then you can always become a vet later on.

[00:06:41] And you have a father who supports and loves you. You're doing this together. This is great. You guys. This is what I like to see.

[00:06:49] You know, it's reinforcing. It's wonderful.

[00:06:52] Well, thank you so much for your time today.

[00:06:55] Okay. It was enjoyable.

[00:06:57] Thank you. You're both terrific. Thank you. Bye, Emily.

[00:07:01] Library computer data being received.

[00:07:04] So our first question is for Brett.

[00:07:07] So your character kind of started off as like a brat.

[00:07:11] Are you happy with the progression of Dal?

[00:07:15] No, he's kind of becoming a role model.

[00:07:18] Yeah. I feel like you know, I get that a lot.

[00:07:23] Just in his real life.

[00:07:25] Yeah, just seriously. No, but I think you know, it's hard because you know, taking people's past and their stories into account is really hard and difficult.

[00:07:34] I think sometimes to do and Dal is so boisterous and so sort of cocky that he can sort of turn people off from empathizing with him at first.

[00:07:44] The truth is he's been trapped on a child labor planet for most of his adolescent life and forced to not communicate with anyone around him.

[00:07:54] Which I think you know, breeds is like breeding ground for insecurity and just projection of self onto other people.

[00:08:02] And so it's been really like incredible to watch Dal learn those real lessons of sort of like taking himself out of the picture and learning to be a leader

[00:08:12] and learning what it actually means to care about someone.

[00:08:16] And you know, he hasn't had a lot of people in his life who have genuinely cared about him.

[00:08:20] He found out that the people he thought cared about him actually sold him to the child labor planet.

[00:08:26] So you know, sometimes it can be really hard for someone to exercise love if they haven't received it.

[00:08:32] And so to watch Dal, get with this group of people who do love him and do care about him and to watch that sort of shell breakdown has been really awesome for me.

[00:08:43] So yes, I'm glad that he's becoming a role model.

[00:08:45] I'm glad that he went from such one extreme to the other because people can really see you know, the journey that it takes sometimes for you to to sort of like own your leadership and who you are.

[00:08:58] Thank you. So Ella, do you think that Gwen is inspiring kids right now that don't have a great relationship with their parents to build up strong friendships and continue to reach out for success?

[00:09:13] Yeah, so that was so lovely and that's exactly what I love about it and what I think I hope some people take away from the character is how to forge your own identity.

[00:09:27] Away from what you came from, you know, your family does not define you way, way you come from does not define you and your past is not defined you know when stunts and bad things undo under the guys of.

[00:09:40] You know, under the thumb of a battle and what she thought she was and she was she believed the life her whole life and and she also grew up in tears and more you know they come from different sides but they have similar experiences and I think.

[00:09:53] Being able to flourish as your own person amongst your chosen family and learn how to love when you realize that your definition of version of love is actually really corrupt and toxic i'm not right and bad.

[00:10:07] I think it's it's a really hard thing that we are even adults struggle with so if we can get in there when they're young then maybe they're killed.

[00:10:18] Yeah, that makes sense absolutely absolutely well believe it or not our four minutes is up so we thank you both for your time thank you so much.

[00:10:28] Thank you so much.

[00:10:46] We hope you enjoyed our few interview questions with Kate Moe grew Brett Gray and Ella per now as part of the Star Trek prodigy press junket.

[00:10:57] We hope all of you and if you're listening to this podcast you are probably excited to see what season 1.5 of prodigy holds in store for us and if you enjoyed this discussion that we had check out other great podcasts on our network in addition to discovering track there's track leaks, politics five year mission the podcast deep space pride drawn to track infinite track.

[00:11:26] Divine Treasury the sci fi sisters science station to with the first link and cod you can find all of these shows and where to listen on the on trekkieks.com slash listen or by downloading the trekkieks mobile app.

[00:11:44] The Trekkieks podcast network no one talks track like we do.

[00:11:49] As we said you're probably looking forward to season 1.5 of prodigy so keep your eyes on paramount plus for any little things that we might have thrown out there as far as tidbits but we know that the first episode will be Thursday October 27th so mark your calendars until then never stop discovering.

[00:12:19] Music for discovering track is provided by five year mission they're writing an original song for each episode of Star Trek here more of their music at five year mission.net.

[00:12:30] Discovering track is a production of coconut media works executive producers Bill Smith and Dan Davidson. For more great star trek discussion discover the other shows of the trekkieks podcast network at trekkieks.com or find us in Apple podcasts Spotify or your favorite podcast app.

[00:12:49] Music for discovering track is provided by five year mission.