Today in The Ready Room,
I'm joined by Bruce Horak, who plays Chief Engineer Hemmer.
Abra...
Cadabra!
This week's horrifying episode
warrants a look at all the times
Star Trek has scared the heck out of us.
Plus an exclusive sneak peek
of next week's finale episode is on deck.
I am equally excited and sad that next week
is the end of Season 1.
Grab your phaser rifle, check the corners, watch your six,
and head for The Ready Room for all that and more.
Hey, nerds, I'm Wil Wheaton, and this is The Ready Room,
your official behind-the-scenes hub
for all things Star Trek Universe.
Today, we're diving into the penultimate episode
of Season 1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
We're so close to the end.
Like there's literally one episode left,
and I feel really conflicted.
I'm just gonna keep comforting myself
with the knowledge that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
will be returning for a second season,
although it can't come soon enough.
For right now, though, we are digging into Episode 9,
"All Those Who Wander" and like any good, scary story,
it's best to not know what's coming, so--
red alert.
If there's anything that is a bad idea to wander through,
it's a Ready Room when you haven't seen the episode,
also, an abandoned starship on a creepy ice planet.
Please go back, stream it, and then return here
to get the low down without the risk of spoilers.
Okay, now that I know that I am only talking
to those of you who have seen "All Those Who Wander",
[deeply exhales]
Wow.
That.
That episode was a lot, wasn't it?
I think maybe we all need to like
take just a second to maybe breathe
and acknowledge how intense that was. Or, at least, I do.
You are welcome to join me if you like.
We're gonna do it together, here we go.
[deeply exhales] Wow.
The Gorn have come a long way
since they were a guy in a rubber suit, haven't they?
Hello my baby, hello my darling. Hello my ragtime gal.
I mean, these Gorn are straight up terrifying.
It's about a year ago when Akiva Goldsman told me
he was going to write a horror episode
for Strange New Worlds, and I was like,
"Oh, that will be scary."
I had no idea it was going to be horrifying.
Well done, Akiva, but did you have to kill Hemmer?
Dude! Dude! I loved Chief Engineer Hemmer,
and I'm thrilled that I have Bruce Horak
who has brought him to life this entire season
here today to talk about our favorite Aenar,
his friendship with Uhura,
and the heart-wrenching end to his story.
Akiva Goldsman, you murderer.
Because it is episodic, Strange New Worlds
can tell a different type of story each week,
and this is so cool.
This season, we've seen space pirates,
a fantasy novel come to life,
a brilliant homage to "Amok Time",
and this week, a literal horror show.
So after I talk with Bruce, we'll revisit a few other times
Star Trek has struck terror into our hearts.
And I think after this week,
we're going to grade this collection of episodes on a curve,
but before we get to any of that,
making a horror episode takes some serious effects work.
Those terrifying little baby Gorn creatures,
they are puppets.
I know, right?
Instead of using visual effects
to put baby Gorn into the scene,
they used visual effects to remove people
who were operating baby Gorn puppets.
That's so rad,
and since we are all about things that are rad
here in The Ready Room,
we've got an incredible behind-the-scenes look
at the making of this week's creature feature.
Control room, engage.
When the writers first told me
that they were going to reintroduce the Gorn as a nemesis,
I almost jumped out of my skin.
It was such a good idea.
Well, it's just the baby Gorn.
They're adorable, right?
Baby Gorns, they're so cute.
Joking, they're like our horror story.
We need to make a run for it.
The Gorn is so prevalent in Trek canon
and the Trek world, and yet we've only seen them
at one point when special effects, make-up, and costuming
was not that far along.
The technology is there to take this concept
and make it really vivid
and really real and really visceral.
You know, this is one area we know
that we are breaking a little bit from canon,
but we're doing it for a purpose.
One of the things that was important
to Alex Kurtzman when we were designing them
was finding a way to make the Gorn move
in mysterious alien ways,
meaning that they would pounce in ways
that we wouldn't expect.
They would move in ways that we wouldn't expect,
all of which is essential horror movie stuff.
Our writer, Davy Perez, who wrote that episode,
he comes from a love of horror,
and he really, really made it shine in that episode.
And they had puppeteers doing the baby Gorn.
It was like, "Whoa," like, taking selfies with the Gorn.
I think people are getting a little fatigued
by too much CGI, and anything that's practical--
practical effects are always more interesting.
They're more interesting to play with on set,
and they're more interesting to watch, I think.
Puppetry is very tricky
because the best versions of it
have to include incredibly specific lighting.
Otherwise, you're very aware
that you're looking at a puppet,
and editing plays a huge part in it.
How much do you see?
How much do you not see?
And then if you do it right,
and you combine it with CG elements,
hopefully, the audience really starts
to not be able to tell.
It feels vivid and real.
Our amazing team from Legacy, Alan Scott,
and our team here, the prosthetics team,
led by Chris Bridges,
the stuff that they create is insane.
I see it, and I'm like, "Oh, there's a real alien,"
and it doesn't even faze you that it's fake.
You're just like, "Oh, yeah, that's an alien."
Traditionally, there hasn't been a lot of animatronics
for puppeted characters.
I think that's because, you know,
when you're shooting on main unit, it's so fast-paced,
and puppeteering something in real time
can get quite intricate.
I think these were, in itself, testing the waters to see
how viable these characters are,
and I think we demonstrated that it is viable
and that we would probably see a lot more of it.
But there are definitely moments
where we have to augment pieces like Buckley.
Essentially, Gorn are born out of his back.
There's moments in there
where we'll wind up having to, you know, remove the rods
that are on these little puppets that come out
or add finger movement or head twitches.
The very little subtle things that make you
go from a puppet to a very realistic-looking alien.
Episode 9 was such a huge episode
because there's a lot of people to cover,
so it was a big episode for Chris Byrne to take on,
but he's the perfect one for it.
[Chris] Go!
We literally were all kind of like going,
"Oh, quick, we gotta get this one scene of the day
in 45 minutes, go," which is essentially
the same thing as running away from the Gorn.
Yeah, it was a fun episode.
Stressful but fun.
What I like about the Gorn--
and this is sort of counterintuitive
when it comes to Star Trek--
but what I like about the Gorn is
they're not every other iteration of representation
of the human Other in alien skin.
They're evil.
I think we'll be seeing a lot of them,
and they're a very formidable and dangerous foe.
I am now joined by the Enterprises's Aenar extraordinaire,
Bruce Horak, who plays Chief Engineer Hemmer.
Bruce, thank you so much
for joining me today in The Ready Room.
Oh, it's such a treat and a pleasure to be here, Wil.
Thank you.
Let's talk specifically about this week's episode.
"All Those Who Wander" is maybe the most terrifying episode
of Star Trek I have ever seen in my life.
Like it absolutely would never have been
on broadcast television.
There is no way this episode, this level...
This episode was horror movie levels
of absolutely terrifying.
Like, Captain Kirk's Gorn
is like a stunt man in a rubber suit
compared to the Lovecraftian nightmares
you all faced down in this episode.
Oh, it's just so great.
I showed up for, I think, Day 1 of this episode,
and Chris Byrne,
the director, had all the lights
in the hallways were flickering back
behind--like, off-camera.
The lights were down, and it was this atmosphere.
Off-camera was just already intense.
I remember we're sitting in sickbay
waiting to do an entrance
or through one of the sides of the ship.
And so in sickbay,
we're all getting into make-up and all that,
and there's this light in the hallway that's going,
[imitates flickering noise]
and that had been set up purposely
to keep this environment going while we were filming.
- [Wil] That's amazing.
And he, you know, he would be right hands on.
He was right there with us,
you know, just behind the camera,
shouting like, "Okay, action, space movie, horror,"
and he was just shouting at us,
like getting that kind of adrenaline going.
Yeah.
I mean, the whole crew was just on board
with the vibe of what was happening in the episode,
and carrying that on, you know, after cut
was shouted just to...
'Cause yeah, I think that's so important.
You're gonna carry that stuff with you
and make it so much more heightened
as you're playing throughout the day.
Like yeah, it was really intense.
I'm gonna have Gorn nightmares for my whole life.
I think everyone's gonna have Gorn nightmares.
Let's talk about the little baby Gorns
that were practical, actual puppets.
I did not know that until we were prepping Ready Room,
and we were talking about how this episode came together,
and what it meant, and "Oh, yeah. You know, those baby Gorn,
they're puppets, and they used visual effects
to get rid of the puppeteers.
Talk to me about...
I've never done that.
Talk to me about sharing the set
with a puppeteer, who's, by the way, controlling
these terrifying little monsters.
Yeah, yeah, they're just extraordinary performers.
There's a heightened reality around a puppet.
I mean, they're just so present.
They're just, you know, they're always on,
and as these puppeteers are bringing them to life,
I mean, they're really intense.
They're really creepy.
You know, just even when they're inert,
when they're just lying there, I mean, they're just, oh,
and they're sculpted in such craftsmanship behind it,
like huge respect for that.
The one shot that really...
still sticks in my mind
is the moment where Hemmer gets kind of sprayed
with the goo.
Hemmer!
And we got to that moment, and they kind of shot the angle
of the Gorn going, "Agh!" Kind of hissing and spraying,
and Celia and I were standing watching this thing
in motion and thinking,
"Okay, how would I react if that was actually happening?"
And then the moment where they turned the camera around
to shoot me getting sprayed, the Gorn was gone,
and there was--I wish I could remember his name--
but there's this fellow with like a super soaker cannon,
basically, full of Gorn goo.
And holding it beside the camera,
and they're like, "Okay, you know, on action,
there's gonna be a pause, and then he's gonna go pfft
then spray this stuff on you, and there's just this moment
of Cella and I looking at each other going,
"This is kind of Gornographic, really."
I don't know if I can say that,
but just this moment of like,
"Okay, this is gonna be--"
- Gornographic is my new favorite portmanteau.
Yeah, we were shooting Gornography, you can use that.
Just this disturbing moment,
and there's this technician holding a super soaker
who's about to spray me, and it's just a moment of like,
"Okay, before we go,
I just need to introduce myself and get your name.
Hi, I'm Bruce, and you are?"
I feel like we're going to be having
a slightly intimate relationship.
Yeah, like, let's get to know each other.
- Yeah.
How many times did you get shot with Gorn goo?
That's a trade secret, Wil.
[Wil] Oh, okay, very well.
You never Gorn and tell.
No, I think it was probably four or five times.
- Damn. - Yeah.
It's quite an experience.
Did the puppeteers do that slightly disconcerting thing
where they kind of keep the puppet alive between takes?
[Puppeteer] I told you before, never talk to me at work.
I'm busy.
I imagine, in the case of these terrifying Gorn monsters,
like, looking down and seeing one of those little things
just kind of turn slowly and fix you with a stare.
Like, if I were a puppeteer, I would figure out
who in this crew am I gonna get to mess with,
and that would just be, like, my fun,
but did they do that at all
when you were on set?
I'm sure they did, I'm sure they did.
I think maybe Celia and I
were a bit busy goofing around.
Yeah.
The picture that you are painting for me
is of a beautiful set and a wonderful, supportive,
familial crew, and I'm really getting from you
as we approach, you know,
there's only one episode left this year,
a confirmation of something that I have suspected
all the way back to Star Trek Day last year.
You all strike me
as very much a Next Generation style
of crew and cast
with a tight bond and friendships that I feel
are going to exist beyond the show.
Do you wanna comment on that at all?
Yeah...
I think it's true, and, you know,
I really came of age when The Next Generation aired
and, you know, it was a bonding time for my family and I,
and I think that exactly what you said
about The Next Generation crew, that leaked through.
That vibe leaked through our television screens.
And that was such an inspiration for me and for my family
and I think for everyone on this show,
that the way that we interact with each other.
And it was--you know, it was difficult in that
there we were with the COVID protocols,
and we weren't able to really socialize with each other,
but in those moments where we were able
to take the masks off and get in front of the camera
and play with each other, it made it even more important,
I think, to develop those bonds and those relationships,
and I think that that leaks through
in this particular season, and I think it's going to develop
and deepen over time with this crew.
Hemmer has been just this amazing character
to get to know in Strange New Worlds,
and he has become extraordinarily important
to me, personally.
What I get out of him is this
quiet, gentle, stoic wisdom.
It is weird how much his
gentle lessons to Uhura
resonated with me in like deeply personal, specific ways.
I am really going to miss him,
and I know that I am not the only one.
So this week, he gets this noble and perfect death,
and I very strongly felt that anything less
would've been dishonorable writing.
Hemmer, what's going on?
I may not be able to sense them,
but I know my own body very well.
The spray, it's more than a venom.
It's how they reproduce.
Captain, open the door.
I can't.
I do not want anyone to try to stop me.
We can extract them.
We'll neutralize the growth process.
We'll figure something out.
If we had more time, I'm sure you could,
but it's too late.
We all know what's coming.
Hemmer, you don't have to do this.
But Captain, my sacrifice
saved the lives of those I care most about.
For me, there is no other choice.
Now, we get to my question.
You have indicated that you had a heads up.
You knew that Hemmer was going
to be only in this one season.
I would love to know what your emotional reactions were
at the moments where you read how this was gonna go down,
and then what your emotions were like in the cargo bay
on that last scene of his.
Right from the very get-go,
they told me that Hemmer was going
to not make it through the season,
and, you know, I kept sort of saying,
you know, as we were leading up to it
when the writers would come over and say, "Oh, you know,
we're working on 109, and it's coming,"
and I just kept saying, just sort of side-wise, I could say,
"Just please make it cool.
- Just please make it cool." - Totally.
And they did,
and when I read it, that was my first response.
I just kept saying, "Yes, yes, yes."
It's noble.
You know, he's the mentor figure.
- Yeah. - It's heartbreaking,
but it's also really cool,
and you know, it scratches off some of that
stuff on my Star Trek bucket list, you know?
Like, gotta transport in.
I gotta play with a communicator,
and I get to do one of those.
Live long and prosper, my friend.
Getting to flip Spock one of the live long and prosper,
I mean, that's Star Trek bucket list right there.
On behalf of Star Trek fandom,
thank you for Hemmer.
He is a beloved character, and oh, my God,
we're gonna miss him so much.
As a cast member, I was so thrilled to be a part of it,
and as a fan, I can't wait to see what comes next.
Remember when video stores existed?
Ask an old person if you don't.
Sci-fi and horror were always together in one section
in the video store, remember?
I've always wondered if that's why
there's just so much overlap in a Venn diagram
of horror fans, sci-fi fans,
and people who identify as nerds.
I'm realizing now that I have just made a perfect circle
that a lot of us live in the center of, right?
Let's hang out here for a minute,
and take a look back at some of Star Trek's
more terrifying moments.
What is that?
I don't know.
I smell human blood.
We're all friends here.
[B'Elanna] Harry!
Naughty, naughty.
I don't like those thoughts.
We're going to have to do something about them.
A face filled with fear?
Fear!
Do you remember?
More like clicks.
Clicking sounds.
[slow clicking echoes]
Louder. [clicking echoes louder]
Faster. [clicking echoes faster]
More of. [rapid clicking echoes]
I've been in this room before.
We've all been here before.
[clicking echoes]
Shhh.
Is he shushing you?
Run!
Kowski, no!
Overpowering an ancient terror.
It has a name,
Beratis, Kesla, Redjac.
Devouring all life, all light,
a hunger that will never die.
Redjac, Redjac!
[woman screams]
Ha! There you are.
Y'all, there is just no avoiding it.
The finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1
is just one week away.
It feels like we were just in the middle of waiting
for Season 1 to begin for an entire year,
and yet, here we are.
So to tide you over while you're planning
your watch parties, brewing your own meridor,
and rebinging all of Season 1,
here's an exclusive sneak preview
at the last new episode we'll have for just a little while.
Check it out.
How do you plan to fix our supply chain problems?
Under the proposed retrofit directive,
every outpost will be equipped
with state of the art matter synthesizers
fueled by minerals from the asteroid itself.
They will also each receive
a set of fully automated mining craft
that can be operated remotely.
Commander, how does this sound?
Sounds like what I've been asking for
for the last five years.
Well, you're welcome.
You know I'm working.
I just wanted to meet Captain Pike.
Apologies, Maat has always dreamt
about joining Starfleet.
What did you say your name is?
Maat.
Maat Al-Salah.
He has a model of the Enterprise back home.
Quite a few actually.
Is it true you tell... [voice fades]
Apologies, I think I need a moment.
I'm sorry, he just gets a little excited.
It's totally fine.
I'm just feeling a little under the weather.
Number One and Spock can answer
any further questions you have.
Captain!
Chris, that boy, he's one of the names you mentioned.
Yes, I wasn't expecting that.
There's two cadets who don't make it.
He's one of them.
You don't have to face this alone.
What are you going to do?
I don't know.
But I have to do something, don't I?
That didn't reveal nearly as much as I wished it could,
but next week, we'll have the full episode to discuss.
Check this out.
I'll be embarking on an away mission to chat in person
with Ethan Peck and Henry Alonso Myers
on the set of Season 2 in Toronto.
That's right, production value.
The three of us will reflect
on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' first season
and provide shoulders to cry on
as we all adjust to its inevitable conclusion.
Until then, I'm Wil Wheaton.
Live long and prosper.