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On the sci-fi edition, Thomas looks at  Star Trek series Lower Decks,  The Mailman turned Mandolorian and we remember actor Gregory Tyree Boyce and Richard Herd. All that and more on this edition of Multiverse Tonight!

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Transcript

Tonight! A postman turns heads, A look at the Lower Decks and a couple of goodbyes all that and more on this edition of Multiverse Tonight.

Welcome to episode 78 of Multiverse Tonight. Well what can be said. Things are...starting to form into a new kind of normal. Most restrictions have been lifted, mostly because people whined about them. So now it’s a wait and see to see when wave two hits and people realize that getting out next to each other on the beach isn’t such a good idea.  Just because you think you don’t have it doesn’t mean you don’t have it. And unless you one hundred percent trust the other person, assume they have it too. 

Let’s get on with the news.

Star Wars

A mailman in Colchester Vermont is turning heads. He, like all essential employees, has had to get used to wearing masks to do his job. So you might as well have fun with it. The unnamed mailman posted an image of himself on The Mandalorian reddit page of himself in a Mandalorian helmet painted in Postal Service colors with red trim around the frontal t and the usps logo on the front. Pretty spiffy. Keep up the good work Mando.

It’s been forty years since The Empire Strikes back and the line that would change the franchise forever. No, I am your father. fMark Hamill related on twitter about how that line was kept a secret saying quote The cast & crew first learned of it when they saw the finished film. When we shot it, Vader's line was "You don't know the truth, Obi-Wan killed your father." Only Irvin Kershner, George Lucas & I knew what would be dubbed in later. Agony keeping that secret for over a year! 😩 https://t.co/DcB2lW8AhC

— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) May 24, 2020

Simon Pegg would like another go in the cinematic land of Star Wars. The actor, who portrayed Rey’s  boss on Jakku, Unkar Plutt. Now he’s interested in playing  a classic Star Wars bounty hunter Dengar in a future season of the Mandalorian. Dengar was one of the bounty hunters hired by Darth Vader to find the Millenium Falcon back in The Empire Strikes back. He was portrayed by actor Morris Bush. Pegg has also portrayed the character albeit in the animated The Clone Wars series as well as Star wars Battlefront. He told Collider quote "I've mentioned it a few times, but surely, if Taika [Waititi, director] and [series creator Jon] Favreau decide to bring Dengar into The Mandalorian, then I have some form [of experience] in the past having played him in Star Wars: Battlefront and The Clone Wars," unquote Pegg told Collider when asked to name the television show he'd most like to appear on as a guest star. "So just saying. I heard they just employed Katee Sackhoff to play a character that wasn't in the movies but she played it before in a different Star Wars thing, so just saying."

Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga has a release date. The game will be out for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC on October 20th The game covers all the Star Wars movies from one to nine and Featuring interplanetary travel, wide, open worlds to explore, and over 200 characters from across the Star Wars saga, the new entry will also be offering a new take on the series' combat, a host of sidequests, and more.

The Star Wars The High Republic books and comic books have been delayed due to the pandemic. The new era of storytelling set 200 years before the Phantom Menace during the height of the Republic. The first three books in the series. Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi and Star Wars: The High Republic: A Test of Courage to drop on January 5th, 2021. Star Wars: The High Republic: Into the Dark will debut on February 2, 2021. New release dates for the Marvel and IDW comics have yet to be announced. 

Star Trek

Well Picard Season Two is delayed by the coronavirus. The original plans were to start in June. According to co-creator Akiva Goldsman in an interview with Collider quote “We were not shooting," he says. "We were to start shooting in June, which I guarantee you we will not unless the world opens tomorrow. We had broken the season, we were about halfway through the writing of it. You know, we will start as soon as we can once the world opens, you know? Prep will have to resume, and then we’ll start. We know what it is, and it’s cool. And we’re excited by it, and I feel like we learned a lot from season one. It’s… of the things I have in my life it is the one that is most imminent when the world opens. It’s the one that feels like that’s the thing, at least in my life, that’s going to come back fastest. Unquote  The good news there is that they’re working on the show and given the extra time they’ve got now, it should be one hell of a show.

Akiva also offered an idea of how many seasons the show is targeting saying quote “I mean, I think we have discussed it as both a 3 season show, a 5 season show, a “let’s just keep going forever” show… But we certainly… Star Trek: Picard in my view will go as long as Patrick Stewart wants to do it… As I’m sure you know, he was not interested in coming back. And we did a lot of… really good collaborative story breaking and talking and you know and I think he’s particularly delighted in a good way about having come back. And we will rely on that good will until he feels he’s done.”

And while we’re on Trek shows. Slash Film had an interview with Star Trek Lower Decks co-creator Mike Mcmahan. He said quote “I’m a huge Star Trek fan, and nobody needs a Star Trek comedy that made fun of Star Trek or punched down on Star Trek, nor was I interested in doing that that. I was interested in writing a Star Trek that could be canon, that follows the rules of other Star Trek shows that I loved, and has everything that you love about Star Trek, including the way you tell stories. But I’m a comedy writer. I’m never gonna write a serious Star Trek, so the way that we handled it is it’s on a ship that isn’t the capital ship. It’s not about the bridge crew. It’s about the lowest officers on that ship. But when we’re breaking stories for the lower decks, every episode also has a proper Star Trek episode that’s happening to the bridge crew, and our lower deckers aren’t involved in it. However, you can’t have a big sci-fi thing happening on a starship and not have it effect them because that’s their whole world. So if you’re watching Lower Decks, you’re getting a full Star Trek episode from the perspective of people who are having their own social and emotional stories and their own sci-fi stories, but they just aren’t on the bridge. They don’t have the information the bridge is getting, and they don’t have the responsibility.” unquote 

This show allowed McMahan to stretch his comedic legs, Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites are more intentional comedies. So how to do it on Lower Decks? Mike explained quote 

“A big thing that was important to me was figuring out how do we comedically access these characters. How can these characters be funny and not break Star Trek? You can’t have a Morty [from Rick and Morty] in Star Trek. You can’t just have a stupid person in Starfleet, otherwise it breaks the aspirational paradigm of what humanity is like in Starfleet. So our leads are foils for each other, but they’re very much ingrained in Star Trek.” unquote He then broke down the characters quote “You have Ensign Beckett Mariner, who is sort of like our Tom Cruise/Maverick, where she’s amazing at Starfleet stuff, and she’s incredibly knowledgeable, but she just hates following the rules and she bristles at the military structure. She wants to do whatever she wants. She’s kind of like Captain Kirk if Kirk wasn’t a captain and didn’t have the power. Kirk would follow his gut, and she follows her gut.Then, Ensign Brad Boimler also knows everything about sci-fi stuff, and is also an amazing Starfleet crew member, but he’s so by-the-book and so burdened by following the rules that he can’t follow his gut. So the comedic friction there is that they both want the same thing, they’re both good at this stuff, but emotionally and from a human level, they’re completely different about how they do it.” unquote 

He also talked about people having concerns about the show being a comedy saying quote “Star Trek has always had comedy in it. Every series of Star Trek has funny characters, funny episodes, and those always live in the B-stories for the most part. That, to me, is what I love about Star Trek. So it’s really taking that aspect of it and letting that shine. I can’t wait for you guys to see it, because it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever made. It feels like it fell out of another dimension in the 90s where they were making a funny Next Generation era show.” unquote 

This show sounds so interesting. So when can we see it CBS?

Geek

If you're not using your Netflix, you're gonna lose it.  The streaming giant has announced in emails to subscribers and in app notifications that inactive consumers will be given an ultimatum of sorts. Do you wanna stay subscribed? If no response is given your account will be deactivated. Eddy Wu, director of product innovation, said in a statement. Quote "We're asking everyone who has not watched anything on Netflix for a year since they joined to confirm they want to keep their membership. And we'll do the same for anyone who has stopped watching for more than two years,' Two years without watching? I think Netflix is doing those people a solid. That’s money wasted by these people. 15 times 24 is three hundred sixty dollars. Watch something, will ya?

Variety reports in an exclusive that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences might just postpone the 2021 Oscar awards all together.  Their sources, who spoke to Variety on condition of anonymity, say that the plan hasn’t been set in motion yet. Just saying that it’s likely. Currently the telecast is set to air on abc on February 28, 2021. There has also been a rule change introduced as well because of closed theatres. Normally a movie would have to have a seven day run at an LA County theater to qualify. But they’re allowing films that have been released digitally if they were originally going to have a theater run, but couldn’t. Theatrical runs in New york, chicago, Miami, Atlanta and the Bay Area are also being allowed.

Netflix has purchased the historic Egyptian Theatre from Los Angeles nonprofit American Cinematheque.  The Egyptian will remain home to the American Cinematheque, with Netflix planning to invest in the theater’s renovation and will use the revitalized space for special events, screenings and premieres. The Egyptian opened on Hollywood Boulevard in 1922 and was home to the first Los Angeles movie premiere, “Robin Hood,” starring Douglas Fairbanks.

The Matrix 4 has added two months of additional time to it’s production schedule. Warner Bros hopes that production can restart in early July. Filming began in February in San Francisco but stopped in Berlin in Mid march when the coronavirus became a problem. The film is scheduled for next year.

Jamie Lee Curtis and her Comet Pictures productions have signed a three year deal with Jason Blum’s Blumhouse. The first project under this new deal will be Jamie Lee Curtis direceting the eco horror movie Mother Nature. The movie centers around climate  change and Jamie Lee wrote it with Russell Goldman, who has been appointed head of development for film and television at Comt pictures. In a statement, Ms. Curtis said quote “I’m 61, and my motto now is: ‘If not now, when? If not me, who?' I’m excited to have a creative home to explore my own ideas and others. Jason and his team have made me feel welcome. Comet is ready to bring these stories to screen life,” Jason Blum added qute “Jamie is a force of nature and was a real partner on Halloween. So it’s both an honor and incredibly apt that she’s making her first feature film as a director with Mother Nature." unquote 

What We Do In The Shadows has been renewed for a third season. Season two has been doing great aeraging 3.2 million viewers on tv and digital platforms. “We’re incredibly happy that critics and audiences are all in on Shadows,” Nick Grad, President, Original Programming, FX Entertainment said in a statement quote  “Week in and week out, the producers, writers and our amazing cast continue to make one of the funniest and best comedy series on TV.” unquote 

The sequel to Jim Henson’s Labyrinth is going ahead and Scot Derrickson has been named director. Maggie Levin will write the script. The original movie from 19856 was a box office bomb but has become a cult classic over the years. Jim’s daughter Lisa Henson will be producing the sequel with brother Brian Executive Producing it.  Scott Derrickson is known for the exorcism of Emily Rose, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Doing the first Doctor Strange movie. Scott passed on doing the second one. I’m a bit apprehensive on this one folks, is there really a need for a sequel? Especially with David Bowie no longer being with us?

NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service is developing a comedy based on the Hans Christian Andersen Little Mermaid story. The show will be called Washed Up and will see The Mermaid fifteen years after the events of the story, now miserable and in a loveless marriage. But when her father suddenly dies, she suspects foul play and embarks on an epic adventure to save not only the underwater kingdom but the surface world as well.  The show comes from Writer Director Gracie Glassmeyer and will be produced by CBS Television Studios.

Finally tonight we remember a couple of actors first, Twilight actor Gregory Tyree Boyce, who played Tyler Crowley in the first Twilight movie is dead. If you don’t remember the movie, his big scene was almost hitting Bella with his car and Edward stopping the car with his bare hands. In recent years, he had turned his energy to opening up a Wing restaurant called West Wings. He and his girlfriend were found dead in their Las Vegas Condo. The cause of death has not been disclosed. He was thirty years old. 

We also remember actor Richard Herd. I know some of you out there are saying who? You may not know the name but you have seen him time and time again. Sci-fi fans will know him for his roles in the original 1983 miniseries V playing the Visitor’s Supreme Commander John, he also appeared on Seaquest DSV as Admiral William Noyce and Star Trek Voyager where he played Admiral Owen Paris, father of Tom Paris. But to comedy fans, he is known for his role of George Costanza’s boss Mr. Wilhelm on the sitcom Seinfeld.  Richard was born in 1932 in Boston Massachusetts. His first big role was in the movie Hercules in New York in 1970, playing a presenter on tv. He would go on to have roles in movies like All the President’s Men, the China Syndrome, Private Benjamin, Planes Trains and Automobiles, The Mule and more. But on tv, he was all over the place, first appearing in the 1973 show Pueblo, he would make appearances on Kojak, the rockford files, The Streets of San Francisco, Eight is Enough, Starsky and Hutch, Hart To Hart, Mash, Dallas, The Greatest American Hero, 36 episodes of TJ Hooker as Capt. Dennis Sheridan as well as four episodes of Simon and Simon, Hardcastle and McCormick, The A Team, Murder she wrote, Matlock, The Golden Girls, Quantam Leap, Star Trek The Next Generation as the Klingon L’Kor in the episode Birthright Pts 1 and 2, the list goes on and on and on, his final tv appearance was in a 2018 episode of Hawaii Five-o. Richard Herd passed away from cancer on May twenty sixth at the age of 87, he is survived by his wife Patricia and his four children.

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Thanks for watching the scifi edition of Multiverse Tonight,  we will be back in two weeks with the comic book edition. Now please exit the universe in an orderly fashion. Good Night!  Multiverse Tonight is a production of Half-Baked Genre Productions. Copyright 2020  All Rights Reserved.