Hey nerds, I'm Wil Wheaton.
Welcome to The Ready Room,
your official behind the scenes hub
for all things in the Star Trek Universe.
As always, today we will be getting deep
into spoiler territory for Star Trek: Picard.
So, if you have not yet watched Episode 4, "Absolute Candor,"
be sure to watch that first.
Or don't. Your personal viewing experience
has no direct impact on my life or the universe at large.
That's a fun reference for those of you
who have already seen the episode.
You all know that was me doing my
best Qowat Milat impression.
Today, I get to talk with Santiago Cabrera,
who is La Sirena Captain Cristobal "Chris" Rios.
Then a little later, we have a brand-new, exclusive clip
from next week's episode of Picard.
But first, let's take a closer look
at the Picard crew's newest member,
Elnor, and his all-female Romulan sect.
Control room!
Engage.
What made you decide to bind yourself to my cause?
It met the requirements for worthiness,
and it seemed like you needed me after all.
What is the requirement for worthiness?
A qalankhkai will only bind herself,
himself, to a lost cause.
Elnor was a young boy who was one of the Romulans
who was relocated to Planet Vashti.
He was raised in a sect known as the Qowat Milat.
It's an all-female sect.
And the Qowat Milat is a sect of Romulan warrior nuns
who's subscribed to a life of absolute candor,
meaning you can never lie, you always tell the truth,
you live everything in the moment,
in the deepest possible way. He's very innocent.
He doesn't know how to lie.
It's not that he doesn't lie, it's just that growing up
in the sect, they're taught to always tell the truth.
And that's kind of the difference between him
and every other Romulan.
En garde!
[Alex] And Picard, in relocating the Qowat Milat
to Vashti, forms a bond with this very young boy.
It was meant to be temporary that he live there,
and then as soon as the attack on Mars and everything happened,
Picard kind of abandoned him.
What do you mean synths have attacked Mars?
And it's in the middle of this relocation
and in the middle of this burgeoning relationship
between the two that Picard is called away
because of the attack on Mars,
and he ends up never actually going back to Vashti.
And this young boy essentially feels abandoned by Picard,
even though Picard didn't have much of a choice.
He's the only male figure I really knew growing up,
so I guess it's more than just like a ward or a bodyguard.
Elnor used Picard as his father.
It's unique and interesting
because Picard himself had never really had a son.
So, obviously, Elnor, in some ways, was the closest
he ever got to that.
And the other thing about the Qowat Milat is they're trained,
not only in the discipline of radical candor,
but they are probably the single greatest combat fighters
in the universe.
He's pretty good at hand-to-hand combat,
pretty good with a sword.
When Picard goes on his mission,
the first thing he does is, he goes to find Elnor
who's now a man, and he knows that as an older man
who's slowed down quite a bit, he needs a young man's fists.
He knows he needs a gunslinger who happens
to be his old friend.
And their relationship's very complicated
because Elnor's still angry about being abandoned,
and Picard and Elnor have to work through that.
Right now I am joined by Star Trek: Picard's own
Cristobal Rios, Santiago Cabrera.
We have a lot to talk about.
Yes we do.
So let's get started.
I want to start at the moment we meet Rios.
We see him on the bridge of his ship, and he has
an enormous piece of metal sticking out of his shoulder.
He has clearly been involved in action and very recently.
Did you develop some story about that,
or is it a thing you just decided, it is what it is?
I had multiple backstories.
I kinda stuck with one in my head.
I had discussed it with Akiva and with Michael beforehand.
But then we came to the conclusion,
"Why do we need to explain this?"
A lot of things are best left unexplained, I find.
What happened to you?
I didn't die.
I love those moments where we meet a character
and we learn so much about the character
before a single word of dialogue is ever said.
And I got that from that moment.
That's great, I love to hear that, 'cause I agree.
I think being able to reveal a character trait
without having to say anything is
just the best way to do it,
so I love that you immediately get a sense of this guy
in that first image.
I'm glad it works. I'm glad to hear that.
And it tells us a little bit about the world, too.
It says, "This world is unbelievably dangerous."
- Yeah, yeah. - This is not the clean,
sort of spandex-pajamas world
of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
This is a dirty world where bad stuff happens.
It's true, it's true.
Rios appears to be a former Starfleet officer.
Yes, he is.
He is a former Starfleet officer.
But he's got kind of a beef with Starfleet, 'cause he's—
it's a very traumatic event in his past,
which will be revealed in later episodes.
- Oh, that's great! - Yes.
That's the reason why he left Starfleet, yeah.
I feel like he has something in common with Picard,
that he is sympathetic to Picard
because of that shared background.
Did you work on that at all?
Well, there's a reference to the fact that he says,
"I've read one of your books," to Picard.
I think if you grow up and you're in Starfleet,
you will know who Picard was, you will have heard of him,
you would have read his texts,
and maybe he would have even come in
for some lectures and stuff.
He didn't know him personally,
but he was very aware of who he was.
I think there is that respect, but I think
he doesn't know him yet for the man that he is.
I think at the beginning, for Rios,
Picard is the embodiment of Starfleet,
an institution that he's been disillusioned with.
So there is that kind of reticence to go there
with this man, because he kind of has been wanting
to separate himself from that.
He doesn't want to go back to that part,
that stage in his life.
So I think it makes for an interesting beginning,
because it leaves room for him to then discover the man himself.
Does Picard maybe represent to him
what he has lost by leaving Starfleet?
I think he can because in a way he doesn't know
big decisions were made from the people above him,
and he doesn't know if even Picard knew about this,
had anything to do with what was his own traumatic event.
And at the same time, I think it's a reminder
of who he could have been,
'cause I think Rios was a young prodigy himself.
His life was going in that direction,
where he would have been a Starfleet captain.
But things took a turn, and now he's out just wandering
in his own ship.
So it's a life that could have been but didn't happen,
so there's a big disillusionment there,
which sort of adds to his—the demons inside of him.
That comes through very clearly.
There is a deep current of pain that runs through him
that I get from every second of film.
You've see more than me, so that's good to hear.
He feels like someone who is wrestling
with something that is much bigger than him.
That's very true.
And I think that's very true for most of us,
especially all of the new characters.
It really is in the spirit of the show.
It's like a bunch of outcasts and misfits in their own way,
so they're kind of lost souls.
When they come together, they, in a way,
depend on each other and need each other.
I need a pilot.
Raffi says you are the best around.
I never argue with Raffi.
[Chuckles] Wise man.
Rios is connected to Picard through Raffi.
And he clearly, Rios clearly has history with Raffi.
Would you talk about that a little bit?
Yeah, I think with Raffi, and with Michelle,
we had that right off the bat,
and they're just kindred spirits, in a way.
I think it's almost that brother-sister relationship.
They're just super tight, super easy with each other.
They probably don't talk about too many things,
but when they need to, they will. They're there for each other and you will see it again
in future episodes where
they each have very vulnerable moments
and they're there for each other.
And they're huge support systems,
and then Raffi gives him work, 'cause she hooked him up.
She probably knows Rios needs the gig.
Oh sure, of course.
She sends Picard to Rios 'cause he's someone—
and she knows she can trust him
and that he's ultimately a great pilot.
I think they share a troubled history, a troubled past.
I think those two have gotten drunk together many a time.
And they both have a dark history
with what was their home, which was Starfleet,
so they share a lot, yeah.
Did the showrunners give you explicit backstory
for the relationship?
Did you work on that with Michelle,
or did you come up with that on your own?
I think it's a combination of everything.
But mainly, with Michelle,
we had some conversations at the top, for sure.
Then a lot of it was
just a natural, easy falling-into-it.
And then a lot of it you discover as you go along.
You start to find little things, and then what they write,
those hints are also in the future episodes,
that you start to realize how deep it goes
or how far back it goes.
I think, definitely, we both immediately came
to the agreement to build that backstory,
that we went way back and we were really close friends.
Rios strikes me as a guy who maybe prefers to work alone.
Absolutely. He's definitely a lone-wolf type.
So, now he has people on his ship.
He's about to have a Borg on his ship.
How does he feel about all of that?
I love the sort of juxtaposition of it.
I think in a way, he's pissed.
He doesn't want these people.
He's like, "What are these people doing on my ship?"
But at the same time, there's probably something exciting
about being on a mission again
and having that human contact.
So I think it's like, he's used to doing things his own way
and being able to do whatever he wants
on his ship and to have that freedom.
So I think there's definitely an element of, "Why am I—"
because it was supposed to just be Picard,
and then suddenly everyone starts jumping onboard.
All these new people on your ship.
Yeah, I did try to play with that at the top, for sure,
of like, why are all these people on the ship?
But then at the same time, there's probably a dependency
on it, where he would never admit it, but I think he kinda likes it.
You carry him with this wonderful sense
of ownership of his ship.
Did you get to know the environment beforehand?
Did you spend some time walking around,
getting familiar with the set?
I did, for sure.
Every time I went for those initial preproduction things,
where you go for a wardrobe fitting
and makeup and hair all that,
I made sure to go to the studio,
whether they were building it,
and then just walk around, sit there.
And there was a couple of times where I knew I had two hours
or three hours to spare, and instead of reading a script
in my trailer, I'd go and sit on the captain's chair and—
- That is so cool. - Just read the script there.
Yeah, I just wanted to feel familiar.
And actually, Jonathan Frakes was great,
'cause even though I had my initial scene with Hanelle,
my first sort of, where I got busy, where I had the big body
of work was in Jonathan's episodes,
because I appear at the end of that first section.
And him having such ownership of Star Trek,
he was someone I could ask questions about.
And we really talked about wanting to use the space so
that we know it's his home, so that he's familiar with it.
And just be able to introduce that sense
that this is his house, he owns it,
and, yeah, use the space as much as possible.
It really, clearly comes across. I like that a lot.
Your ship, the La Sirena, comes equipped
with several of these EMHs. - Yeah.
And you get to play all of them.
The navigation sensors are back at maximum range.
Whatever it was, it scraped off pretty easily.
You are an emergency hologram.
We no longer have a navigational emergency.
Why are you still here?
Well, someone is experiencing an acute moodiness overload.
Two questions.
How many are there?
And are you a fan of Orphan Black?
I am, I think she's fantastic in that show.
'Cause when I saw you playing
those different characters, that's what I thought.
- It was like, "Oh, you play your clones." - There's someone
who does pull it off.
Yeah, for sure. For sure.
Would you talk a little bit about bringing
these different EMHs to life?
Yeah. Well, "EMH" is specific to the medical,
so, in a way, they're different EHs,
which is the Emergency Holograms.
Oh, okay.
So, "EMH" is the Emergency Medical Hologram—
Oh, and then ETH—right?
And Emmet is the one we meet in Episode 4,
in the fight with the bird-of-prey, right?
He's tactical and security.
And we might meet a couple more.
But they're so much fun. It's so much fun to play it. It's like an actor's dream
to play as many diverse roles as possible
and to be able to do it all at once.
And very much in the spirit of Star Trek
and the things we've seen in Star Trek in the past,
but original, but its own thing as well.
So I just love doing it.
Apart from how much fun it is
and how I knew it was something
that was gonna be a challenge, but something
that I could hopefully pull off,
the real hook was—because it has to have substance.
And what was there, and we discussed this
with Michael and Akiva, was that the psychology behind a man
that's got versions of himself on a ship, and it's like
this lonely figure who kind of needs to relate to these people.
And I love that, as much as possible,
we try to bring in the banter.
It's like he hates them. He just tells them to deactivate
and throws them away,
but, really, he needs them, and he depends on them.
I imagine Rios calling them in
to sometimes have candid conversations,
and then as soon as he doesn't want to hear something
anymore, he just kind of gets rid of them.
But that, for me, says a lot about him as well.
- It does. - It's weird.
And I love that sort of aspect of it.
Did you have any tricks that you leaned on
to keep them separate in your head,
or to give them distinctive personalities?
Yes, I definitely had a different—obviously, the accents helped.
That was sort of a technical thing.
But then I was very clear of where the voice was placed.
Some of them a bit more nasal or a bit more grounded.
And then I had a reference,
like a mental image of a person for each one.
When I worked on Next Generation,
some of my fondest memories are
the long, late nights on the bridge.
So we would just be there with bluescreen in,
and we're grabbing plates for tons of things all at one time,
and then we're moved around and all that.
And there's a great moment, and I can't remember if it's
in this episode, but there's this great moment
where Picard assumes the role of captain, and he's trying
to be the captain, and Rios is like,
"Excuse me! This is my ship!"
You told me when we sat down that you had watched some
of Star Trek, you had watched Next Generation.
We know from Rios that Picard is someone that he knows of.
Was that moment, did the part of you that's an actor
and the part of you that's the character,
did they collide at all?
They did, yeah.
Because it's already intimidating enough
to meet Patrick Stewart and work with him and everything,
and then you've got the chair and he hasn't.
So there's that thing of like, you gotta own it.
But by the end of it, it became like a joke with Patrick.
We would do this thing where the chair was there, and then
there was a scene where we both had to walk to the chair.
So we'd do the funny take where I'd just kinda run—
- Oh, that's terrific! - Make sure I grab the seat.
Or he'd be standing next to me sometimes and I'd just go,
"You miss it? You wanna sit here?"
And he would chuckle.
But I think that's such a great element.
It says so much about Picard and where he is today.
And really, what I loved about the show and the premise is
that it is in real time, and it's 20 years later,
and it's a different Picard.
So I think it just adds so much to the show, to his story,
and it reveals so much character from his point of view.
It was super important for this to be the dynamic.
Again, one of those things that says so much
without having to explain it.
Your ship is so different from ours.
And the technology that drives
your ship is so different from ours.
You do a ton of what is basically improv space work, driving things.
We never got instruction. Like, no one ever came down
and said, "This is how the ship works."
I made that up, Brent Spinner made up how his thing worked.
Do you have controls?
Do you have commands?
Well, that was one of the advantages
of being able to watch your show.
'Cause normally, you play a pilot on something,
at least I would go and try and get up in the air on a plane
and meet pilots and fly in the cockpit.
But here, it's like, what are you gonna do?
You can't fly a spaceship.
So I just watched the show. I was paying attention
to how the ship was being flown.
I was like, some controls would be nice
because if his mark is that he's a pilot,
it would be nice to have something.
And the effects guys were there all the time,
so we would discuss it at length.
And then I had specific moves,
like every time we'd take off, I made up some specific things—
Me too! [Laughs]
- It's so fun, right? - So fun!
But I would keep saying—we had this holo-thing—I kept saying,
"They're messing with me!"
Because every time I'd do ADR, the holos still aren't...
I know!
So I'm just doing this.
But, yeah, you guys made it look so natural as well.
I can imagine that you had routines and patterns
'cause it felt very real.
Every time you watch, it's like you guys know
what you're doing.
I don't know if anybody else did it the same way
that I did, but I'm just a nerd, and I love Star Trek.
So it was really important to me.
"This is how we go to warp speed.
This is how we go into orbit.
This is how we go into the other kind of orbit."
Did you have a mental map of space, the geography as well?
Always.
Constantly thinking about where we are
in relation to the other ship.
You got to do some of that with
this incredible dogfight sequence.
When the bird-of-prey comes in,
that was such cool experience.
And early in the show when they say bird-of-prey,
I thought Klingon bird-of-prey;
I didn't think Romulan bird-of-prey,
which is silly 'cause everything's Romulans.
But that was such a cool reveal.
I'm guessing that you guys got to do some
of the stuff we used to do with the 10-point scale of shakes.
Well, yeah, it was Frakes directing that episode,
so that's when we were introduced to that.
Yeah, and we got a masterclass of—
Star Trek shaking?
Yeah, it's fun. There's not a lot of us, there's fewer than like a hundred
of us in the world who knows what that means.
And I love that, also, when I watched it, like Patrick,
everyone would do their own kind of shakes,
but Patrick, it was always just a little step back,
like a man who's been through it a million times before.
It was such a cool sort of little like, never phased.
So I stole a bit of that for Rios.
But of course sometimes, when it's a 10, it's a 10.
Yeah, of course.
At the end of this episode,
we finish up this incredible dogfight, and Picard says,
"Beam her on board."
And it's Seven of Nine, which,
as fans we knew was coming,
but still is kind of an incredible moment in the show.
Can you, without getting into spoilers,
can you tell us, is she gonna be around?
Is she going to be the big part
of the story we all seem to think she is?
I think it's safe to say she'll be around.
The way she's introduced, you would expect it.
I think it would have been a huge disappointment to not.
But yeah, it's a very different Seven of Nine.
You're kind of seeing her in real time as well.
What has she been through?
What's been her reality?
So that's really interesting.
There's a whole new side of her that we will see.
Well, listen, I love him.
I think he is going to be a beloved character
in Star Trek canon. And I'm just thrilled that
you made time to come in and talk with me today.
- Thank you, it's been great. - Thank you so very much.
And I'm thrilled to be part of Star Trek with you.
Aww, thank you.
I'm just thrilled to meet you.
That's so cool. Thanks, buddy!
Thanks a lot.
Just like the world of Star Trek itself,
the visual effects industry is always boldly going forward.
Let's watch as VFX Supervisor Jason Zimmerman walks
us through some of the magic we've seen so far.
So we definitely draw a lot of inspiration
from Next Generation when we're working on Picard.
Because it has existed before, we do need to go back to that
to make sure we are honoring canon,
and also to look at the effects, how things worked.
I mean, obviously, there's a little bit of a time jump
between Next Generation and now.
But there definitely is a lot of reference for us to go off
of, and we definitely use that because it helps us in our design,
to make sure we are honoring canon.
There's definitely a challenge surrounding the Borg cube,
or the Artifact, in my opinion.
Anytime in Star Trek you get to work on something
that's such a beloved set or ship, it's very exciting.
It's also very daunting because it has existed before
and it's something that the fans are very, very passionate about.
And it had such a legacy in entertainment.
How do you update it for today,
with today's visual effects technology, and making it look
as good as it possibly can,
while still honoring the previous iterations,
the previous versions of it.
And so, I think for us the cube has been a challenge
in the sense of getting it right, getting the textures
right, making something that big look photo-real.
Being able to establish scale with the Borg cube,
especially when your outside of it, is definitely challenging
because sometimes, in space,
it's very hard to tell the relative size of objects,
especially when the cube is there, right, because it's miles.
Being able to establish that scale
and make something that looks
like it's real has really been a challenge, but fun.
It's exciting to work on something that's so iconic.
I think some of our set extension stuff has been fun,
especially when you're taking a set or location
that is modern and trying to make it even more modern,
actually to exist in the future.
A lot of that starts with removing
what we see in our every day.
For Starfleet Headquarters, it's San Francisco,
and there's the Golden Gate Bridge, which at the time,
with the shots that we had,
had cars on the Golden Gate Bridge. There was gridlock,
there were boats in the harbor.
And so a lot of it starts with removing those things
or covering them up with our elements to make
it look like the future.
So for the bridge we added solar panels, for instance.
You know, a lot of times there's things as simple
as working sets that already exist.
There may be something where we're affecting the walls.
Adding just the hologram into his study was a very, very quick way
to show that, although we are in these old time surroundings,
we have the main technology
for interface, for communications.
His study ends up on the La Sirena
as his holodeck/quarters.
So there were times when we had bluescreen out there
and we had to actually put the ship out there
in evidence when people would come and leave to see him.
So when we read the scripts, yeah,
I think the first reaction is always a little bit of panic,
a little bit overwhelmed.
And then you go back through it and you start to break it down
into digestible steps, and then you start to reach out
and exchange emails and discuss things
in the different meetings of,
what do they have in mind for that?
What's the effect their thinking?
What is production able to shoot,
both in terms of location or what they can build?
And sort of see how you fit into the world
and how we can help make it a reality.
Everybody on the production has a job to do,
and it's to make this show as good as possible.
You definitely collaborate on a daily basis with DPs,
costumes, production design, makeup effects especially.
I mean, we all overlap quite a bit.
I think keeping an eye on technology
and certainly keeping an eye on what other people are doing,
how they're executing things, helps you to stay abreast
of what technology is doing, what is available to you,
is there an easier way to do it?
Am I overthinking it?
Am I not thinking enough about it?
So, I think it's doing a lot of study and paying a lot
of attention to what you did right and what you did wrong
and learning from those things and building off of that.
Star Trek has always been one of the shows
that pushes visual effects forward in television,
in features, and all that.
That's a huge responsibility for us and our team,
and it's something that we really enjoy.
Hungry for even more Star Trek: Picard?
Well, you're in luck because it so happens that I have
an all-new, never-before-seen clip from next week's episode
ready to shove into your eye holes.
You're welcome.
Welcome, Captain Rios.
I see your power conversion efficiency is only 91%.
Remember, nobody knows the way
around the Kaplan F17 Speed Freighter like the Red Bolian.
Ah!
Care for a cuppa? Join the party
at the Freecloud Grand Hotel's afternoon high tea.
[Jurati] Make it go away!
The Freecloud Institute of Entertainment Robotics
is now hiring— - You have to punch it.
- What? - Hit it as hard as you can.
I don't hit things!
No, he's right, Doc.
You need to knock his head clear off.
[Chuckles]
Agnes for the knockout!
[Laughs]
Hey, lady. You looking to get snake-bit?
Slither into Feely's Venom Garden and pick your poison.
Oh!
I didn't get one.
Thank you so much for spending a little time
with me today here in The Ready Room.
Next week, I am sitting down with Evan Evagora,
who plays Elnor, the Romulan swashbuckler,
to talk about Episode 5, "Stardust City Rag."
You guys, it is such a good episode.
I can not wait for you to see it.
Until then, I am Wil Wheaton. Live long and prosper.