Jessie Gender interview with Mike McMahan

[Charles Phipps]

An interview by my favorite Star Trek reviewer, Jessie Gender, and Mike McMahan about Lower Decks and some creative choices.

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Some really interesting bits:

* 25:30: There's a discussion of the Jennifer/Mariner relationship where Mike McMahan wants to talk about how Jennifer and Mariner was always set up as "relationship in your twenties that fails miserably." He tallks about how it was seeded throughout that Jennifer wasn't actually a very good person (by 24th century standards) and that Mariner was opening up a lot more to her than the reverse. He also confirms that the relationship is well and truly dead and done.

* 42:00: Discussion of whether Tendi is trans, Boimler is neurodivergent, and other possibilities. Michael says, "not the intention" but her outsider status hits on some similar themes.

 

[Tuskin38]

Ohh we'll get to see the Orion homeworld in Season 4.

 

[DEWLine]

Or at least D'Vana's particular corners of it?

 

[Turtletrekker]

I'm a big fan of Jesse's videos. I discovered her through Steve Shives, and now I watch Jesse more than I do Steve.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I try to post positivity on her videos every one she uploads because she's such a bright shiny star in Nu Trek fandom compared to the hellscape of other parts of Youtube.

 

[Anduinel]

There's a discussion of the Jennifer/Mariner relationship where Mike McMahan wants to talk about how Jennifer and Mariner was always set up as "relationship in your twenties that fails miserably." He tallks about how it was seeded throughout that Jennifer wasn't actually a very good person (by 24th century standards) and that Mariner was opening up a lot more to her than the reverse. He also confirms that the relationship is well and truly dead and done.

Even with the small bits we got throughout the end of S2 and through S3, they did good work mapping out the dubious foundations of that relationship and making the implosion of it make sense.

 

[Anna Yolei]

I'm a big fan of Jesse's videos. I discovered her through Steve Shives, and now I watch Jesse more than I do Steve.

Same here, and I'm so glad to see her blow up as she has recently!

 

[Anduinel]

I try to post positivity on her videos every one she uploads because she's such a bright shiny star in Nu Trek fandom compared to the hellscape of other parts of Youtube.

For real; I love that it's what she's known for. One of her vids actually got a huge laugh out of me and my girlfriend the other day - Jessie was talking about everything she loved about modern Trek and then had a line roughly like "Let's not talk about PIC right now" before continuing on with her essay. Like, how do you know a show Has Issues? When even the lady who scraped up empathy for Peanut Hamper needs to take five to think up something nice to say.

 

[Ometiklan]

Great video!

I'm a big fan of Jesse's videos. I discovered her through Steve Shives, and now I watch Jesse more than I do Steve.

I too had recently started watching Jesse's videos after watching Steve's.

My favorite bit of this video is the idea Mike brought up of seeing Ransom as a lower decker back in the day. I could see an episode (or a multi-episode run or limited series spinoff?) where we see the adventures of our bridge crew/senior officers back when they were lower deckers. Would be a nice reversal, with character building, and would emphasize everyone is a lower decker a some point and in some ways always a bit of one at heart!

 

[The Wormhole]

I always thought if they showed the senior officers' days as lower deckers, it'd be fun to show them on one of the ships that the Enterprise would rendezvous with in TNG. IE, say Ransom was on one of the many Excelsior class ships we see throughout TNG. Start the scene off with a duplicate of either the flyby of the Enterprise and the Hood that was done for Farpoint and used throughout the series, or the shot of the Enterprise and the Repulse that was done for The Child and used throughout the series. Then after the refurbished establishing shot, go aboard the Excelsior class ship and see the exploits of Ensign Ransom as this ship goes off on its adventure after concluding business with the Enterprise.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I wish Jessie had asked about the possibility that Freeman had been on the Enterprise-D and Mariner as one of the kids.

It would be great canonizing that bit of fandom.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I want to see Lower Decks JL Picard way back when.

 

[dswynne1]

SNIP!

* 42:00: Discussion of whether Tendi is trans, Boimler is neurodivergent, and other possibilities. Michael says, "not the intention" but her outsider status hits on some similar themes.

I REALLY hope not. Too often "the community" wants to personalize an existing character, after the fact, rather than allow the show actual creative heads to do what they want. No different from when existing characters are either "race-swapped" or "gender-swapped", which is lazy creatively.

 

[brbdaly]

I would love another Lower Decks comic storyline. I hope the three issues by Ryan North and Chris Fenoglio won't be the only ones. "You could do a comic series where-in they're dating." Crossing my fingers - big time! The chance to flesh out character dynamics via comic would be stellar. They already do so in The Badgey Directive.

 

[shyborg]

I try to post positivity on her videos every one she uploads because she's such a bright shiny star in Nu Trek fandom compared to the hellscape of other parts of Youtube.

Agreed, I was at Mission Chicago 2022 and I was kind of miserable because of my social anxiety. But seeing Jessie at a panel there kind of ignited something in me. It wasn't anything big but I went up to say that I enjoy/appreciated their content and got a selfie. After that, I made other smaller little steps that made the experience better for me. Like getting to meet Prodigy's Aaron Waltke and fist bumping Discovery's David Ajala

 

[shyborg]

I would love another Lower Decks comic storyline. I hope the three issues by Ryan North and Chris Fenoglio won't be the only ones. "You could do a comic series where-in they're dating." Crossing my fingers - big time! The chance to flesh out character dynamics via comic would be stellar. They already do so in The Badgey Directive.

I understand why the total number of episodes in a Trek season are lower. But unfortunately, we do lose a bit of character dynamic development. It would be nice to that expanded upon in comics and novels