We're halfway through Lower Decks Season 3
and what a ride it's been so far.
This week, I've got Ensign Beckett Mariner herself.
The fabulously talented Tawny Newsome
joining me to talk about the wild first half of the season.
Plus, Rutherford's evil side emerging
has inspired us here to look at other
sinister versions of Star Trek characters.
So strap yourself into the Delta Flyer
and get down with your bad self
to an all new installment of The Ready Room.
Hey nerds, I'm Wil Wheaton and this is The Ready Room,
your official behind the scenes hub
for all things Star Trek Universe.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 has been great so far.
And I am beyond excited
to dig into the exhilarating and hilarious escapades
of the season's first five episodes.
Especially this week's adventure,
Episode 5, "Reflections."
But first, since we'll definitely be recovering memories
that are deeply embedded in spoiler territory,
I have to call for a red alert!
If you haven't watched
the first five episodes of Season 3,
you're gonna wanna run to your new penthouse quarters,
stream them first and then report for duty to The Ready Room
where we will be waiting for you.
So far this season,
we've seen the Lower Deckers face down rock monsters,
battle Delta Shift for better quarters,
and even team up in a race
against Rutherford's evil memory twin.
I am so excited to have Tawny Newsome on hand
for the first time in person in The Ready Room
to break it all down.
And speaking of breaking it all down,
when we last met together in The Ready Room
one of Lower Deck's brilliant artists,
Marisa Livingston showed us the step-by-step process
of how to draw the U.S.S. Cerritos'
cantankerous Doctor T'Ana.
That was so much fun
that it made me want to add another one
to my ever growing collection
of hand-drawn Cerritos crew members.
So, later we'll be getting a lesson
from yet another of Lower Decks' talented animators.
Speaking of evil memory twins,
"Reflections" inspired us here at The Ready Room
to look through a mirror darkly.
Whatever, man, I don't take orders from a reflection.
So we'll be reflecting
on some of Star Trek's most devious,
duplicates, doubles, and doppelgängers.
Control room, engage.
Holy moly.
What the heck is happening here?
Hey, you. Give back control of my body.
Hey, what is this thing on my face?
It's my face.
Fine, fine, fine, don't answer.
I don't need you.
Hey, hey. Get back here.
I loved playing Red Rutherford, bad Rutherford,
however you want to call him.
The fact that I got to do evil version of myself,
it felt so Start Trek to me.
We have here an unusual opportunity
to appraise the human mind or to examine, in Earth terms,
the roles of good and evil in a man.
Not our universe, not our ship.
Something parallel.
The reason there are two number five shuttlecrafts
is because one of them is from the future.
Six hours, to be exact.
And so, presumably, is the facsimile of me.
[Intercom] Captain?
Yes.
[Intercom] We're about to lose warp drive.
- Understood. - Understood.
You are me, aren't you?
I'm Kira Nerys.
That makes two of us.
Will someone please get me out of here?
The attempt merge our ships
is throwing us further out of phase.
The quantum cohesion on both Voyagers is breaking down.
Just like the original Kent State Experiment.
The duplicate atoms couldn't occupy
the same point in space-time for very long before...
Mutual annihilation.
Boarding the I.S.S. Shenzhou, posing as your Terran selves?
That plan is an invitation for calamity.
Captain Michael Burnham, we have sentenced you to death.
I totally had you for a second there, you can't deny it.
You should have seen your face.
I mean our face.
You tried to erase all the memories that made us cool,
but it didn't work.
The brain is more complicated than that
and it kept my cool ass stored away.
So blam, here I am baby.
With evil, or Red Rutherford, I freaked out
'cause I was hoping that I could find the right way
that I wanted to play him.
Shouldn't the best engineer get to take control?
Yes, great idea.
Let's take an engineering test.
Nah, man tests are dumb.
It's almost easier because Rutherford is so upbeat
and so nice that as soon as you put
even a hint of anger in him
you're like, "Whoa, this is a different guy."
Man, you really bought into that
whole okie dokie bull [bleep], didn't you?
I'm happy that I got to go so far with him.
And even give him a little bit more, I guess, street cred
in the way that he likes to race
and he likes to do the bad boy things.
Punch it, baby punch it. Woo!
I think Rutherford admires the brash, straightforward,
I'm gonna do this mentality
without asking any questions or needing the approval.
Initially, I think he loves that.
And then, I think on the opposite end,
evil Rutherford likes that Rutherford has friends.
We've got this.
[Red Rutherford] Wait, hold up, who's that?
We used our imagination to make anything we wanted
and I wasn't gonna race without my friends.
Real Rutherford is, I think,
also more fun to do all the time.
I think I would, like, be mad at myself a lot more
if I did Red Rutherford all the time.
Rutherford are, are you?
Yeah, I'm okie dokie.
Well, I'm thrilled to be talking to Tawny Newsome
in The Ready Room, in person for the very first time.
Tawny, of course, plays Beckett Mariner.
Thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you.
I'm very happy to be physically in The Ready Room.
I feel like I've been forced to be ready
in my own rooms in my home.
When we've been talking and that has not been as fun
as being in the space.
So, thank you.
It sounds like you were getting ready for The Ready Room.
I was, yeah.
You don't have to get ready for The Ready Room
when you stay ready for The Ready Room.
That is absolutely true.
And I'm glad you get it.
Thank you.
We are halfway through the third season of Lower Decks.
And every time I watch an episode of Lower Decks I'm like,
"Oh, this is my favorite episode."
"Oh no, this is my favorite episode."
"Oh no, this is."
- Thank you.
- It just keeps happening over and over again.
I mean, me too, fair.
Because also I forget what happened.
So I'm like, "What? We did that? This is great."
Do you wanna call out some moments from the season?
- Oh my God.
- So far that you've enjoyed?
- Yes.
So I love when they're all trying to get their new room.
Whoa, that was fun,
And just go on this little adventure on the ship.
[Wil] I love the teamwork. It's so wholesome.
Do you know what Mike McMahan calls that episode?
What does he call that episode?
I don't know if this is sanctioned,
you may have to cut this,
but he calls it the Stand By Me episode.
Isn't that cute?
Oh my God, I didn't know that.
I thought you'd like to know that.
- I'm gonna have to go watch it again
and figure out which one is me.
- Yeah.
I feel like you're a Tendi?
I don't know.
- That's pretty great.
- Right? You're a sweetie.
- 'Cause I just love her.
- She's a sweetie.
- Yeah, she's terrific.
Yeah, you're not a Mariner.
Absolutely not.
Listen, I want to be be.
Do you?
It's a lot of chaos.
I know, but Mariner knows exactly who she is.
- That's true.
- She knows exactly who she is, exactly where she's going,
exactly what she wants.
- Yeah.
There's some Wesley in her in that sort of,
"Nah, I'm doing this thing that's for me."
Yeah. They kind of both have a preacher kid energy.
Yeah, a lot of expectations.
Real high-powered parents, right?
Too much pressure.
Yeah.
But Mariner just so much cooler
than Wesley could ever hope to be.
Let's talk about Mariner and Boimler.
I absolutely love their relationship.
They are absolutely best friends.
In that terrific sibling rivalry, energy.
Yeah.
And that best platonic friends who love each other
kind of energy.
I know it's not super exciting but it's our assignment.
What are you gonna do?
Complain the whole time and make it twice as miserable?
Ah, that is your specialty.
We also see that a little bit
between Tendi and Rutherford.
I have loved watching their relationship grow and change.
So, here's the question, who has the better best friend
among the four that I've just described?
I mean, I have to say Boimler has the better best friend
because I'm great and therefore Mariner's great.
I knew that was the answer.
That is the right answer.
That's the very Mariner answer.
I think Tendi is the one of our most,
like, loyal characters.
So, I think as a best friend, in the best friend department,
that's who I want by my side.
In my real life I want a Tendi.
But Boimler, I have a lot of friends like Boimler.
I have a lot of those in my life.
I have a lot of people who are kind of a little type A,
a little tightly wound.
But then when they do let loose you're just like,
"Ah, this is great."
And I think they can be a really great compliment
to people who are a little bit larger than life.
Like I've been accused of being.
As far as you're concerned, Mariner, I'm your mama, now.
In Episode 1,
Ransom says that he's gonna be Mariner's mama, now.
I don't like it.
I don't even like you repeating it.
- It's so uncomfortable and weird, but it's so funny.
- It's so weird. It's so creepy.
Oh, tell me what it's like
to just really be under the chin
of Jack Ransom all season long.
Is this a mission briefing or a standup routine?
Joking aside, I think it's a really funny
and well-written arc for both of them.
I agree.
I think it's perfect because that,
what you just pointed out is so gross and weird
and, like, "Ugh, get off me, man."
But then where they take it and the mutual respect
they're able to develop for each other.
Again, I just feel like I know these characters.
I have these people in real life who you're like,
"I don't wanna be dealing with you."
And then after a while you're like,
"Wait, you're kind of genius at the things you do.
And now you're appreciating me
and I can learn some things from you."
So it's really unexpected and smart
for our little 22-minute cartoon.
There's this incredible overwhelming desire in me
to exist in the Lower Decks universe
and have Shaxs be like, "You're in the bear pack."
Oh yeah.
Right? So that kind of like, "Yeah, you're in,"
kind of moment.
Is there a you're in moment with Ransom?
Is there a thing that Ransom would ever do
where you would feel like it's really been worth
being under your chin for all of this time.
There is a moment in the series where she kind of says,
I think it's end of 303,
where she's like, "You did great today, sir."
and then he kind of gives a little smirk after she leaves.
And I'm like, "Oh, if only she'd seen that."
But, the real olive branch that
I think Jack could offer her,
or anyone, is to ask you to join his workout.
- Yes.
- Be like, "Hey, you wanna do some HIIT drills with me?"
- Absolutely.
- I'm gonna go for a run, you wanna join me?
And at first it seems kind of gross,
'cause you'd be like, "I don't wanna be in your whole
lifting dude beef head world."
- Sure. Yeah, there's a lot of testosterone in the air then.
- It's aerosolized.
- He feels like a CrossFit guy.
Like, he's gonna be so friendly about it.
And you're like, "Don't be so aggressive and friendly
while you're tallying how many burpees I'm doing.
That's weird."
- Yeah, right.
Now we're gonna talk about supplements.
- Right? Yeah.
I wanna talk about your protein intake.
- Yeah.
- But I do think because that's, like, his church,
I think that would be the most like him offering
a piece of himself.
I love that.
Maybe they'll do it.
Let's talk about 304.
Okay.
Mariner goes on little bit of a trip.
Boimler, what is up with your head?
You look like a goddamn sea creature.
Would you just talk a little bit
about experiencing, like, Boimler and Tendi,
I wanna say undoing the top button of their shirts.
Yeah. I think that the catalyst of bold Boimler.
- Yeah.
- Along with the super catalyst
of Mariner's just whole thing.
- Yeah.
- Is like, what did we used to do in the '90s?
We'd put Mentos inside of a bottle of Coke.
Oh yes, keep going.
I love where this is going, yeah.
I think it has the potential to explode and be a disaster.
I am imagining a bottle of Diet Coke,
but now the fountain is actually purple hair.
Yeah. Oh yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, I'm scared for Boimler and for Tendi,
but mostly for Boimler
'cause I think he's a little more susceptible.
I think being bold is a dangerous thing.
I'm trying not to spoil things from later, but yeah.
The boldness, he wears it well.
He really does.
But Mariner, it's not for the faint of heart
to live like her.
Just from a creative dramatic storytelling point of view
the concept of bold Boimler is really smart.
Oh yeah.
Letting Jack do what Jack does so unbelievably well.
Allowing the relationship, that incredible back-and-forth.
I've watched it.
I felt like you two really picked up
one another's rhythms immediately
from the very beginning from Episode 1.
I have really felt that.
And I've watched it get even tighter.
You're like a jazz trio.
Ooh, thank you.
So tightly playing together.
Occasionally riffing in ways that just bring it all.
But constantly coming back to that main kind of spine
that keeps it all together.
And I've watched this now for three seasons.
Yeah.
And I thought that bold Boimler was this terrific idea
to allow you to continue playing the same style
but now it's a slightly different interpretation, right?
It's not beebop jazz.
It's like Miles Davis in the '50s kind of jazz, right?
Yes. I like this analogy because it is a riff
on their constant dynamic.
Their constant dynamic is one is one's the uptight
and one's the out of sight.
And so for the uptight to get a little more out of sight,
things have to kind of shift and balance.
You bring up our riffing together.
I gotta give a shout out to Mike and the writers
and the directors of the episode.
Because Season 1, that was created artificially.
We had a couple times where we recorded together
but, really any amount of back-and-forth that feels natural
was created by so specifically splicing us together
that we sounded like we were in the room together.
I will take a little ownership
over the vibe being kind of more ours now
because now we know each other so well.
And we're such good friends
and we're such good friends with Mike.
That now our rhythms are coming
from the fact that we can hear each other.
I read the script and I can hear Jack.
I know he is gonna do it.
I know how he is gonna do his alt.
- Yeah, totally.
- And so then when they slide us together it's like,
"Well, yeah, I could hear that whole thing."
So it's great.
In this week's episode,
Mariner and Boimler are at the career fair.
Representing Starfleet.
And Bradford Boimler loses it.
Without Starfleet none of you would exist.
Absolutely completely.
- Love it.
- 100% meltdown.
- Love it.
- I was dying.
Have you ever had your quiet friend
lose their s*** at trivia?
Or just go nuts on somebody being rude in a restaurant.
And they're like, "You know what?"
And you're like, "Whoa, Charlotte, I had no idea."
Just the shade with Petra back-and-forth.
It's so funny.
When Mariner kind of clearly...
Petra's like...
Mariner's buying what she's selling.
Right? She may not be subscribing to the newsletter,
but she is absolutely browsing those shelves.
- Oh yeah.
Talk about that reaction And Petra's ability
to catch Mariner's eye and interest
and maybe alter her direction a little bit.
Yeah, So first I gotta give a shout to
the voice actress who played Petra.
That's my friend, Georgia May King.
- She's great.
- She is so great.
I was so happy when she got it.
I was like, "Oh, that's my friend. She's amazing."
And she delivers those lines in such a...
It's so perfect 'cause it's dripping with shade
but also like, "Come here" a little bit.
- Yeah.
It's like, "Oh you and your bulls*** Starfleet
whatever, whatever but also, what if you came over here?"
And it's so smart, 'cause it's exactly what Mariner needs.
Mariner would not respond to someone being like,
"Hey, everything I got is way better."
Mariner would be like, "No thanks."
But someone doing one of these.
This is gross, you probably wouldn't like it.
But if you wanna look at it.
You probably couldn't even handle it.
You probably could not even begin to deal with this.
But if you think maybe.
Maybe.
You wanna wear a vest? You wanna have extra pockets?
Maybe come over here.
I love it.
I feel like Mariner is 100% a person
who would very much respond to the pocket bonus.
Oh yeah, It's like,
"Hey, you get to wear a pant with bonus pockets.
For storing who knows what.
And Mariner's like, "I'm in."
"You know how many knives I can put in there?"
So many knives.
So many.
It's mostly knives in those pockets.
Yeah, they're mostly knife pockets.
I have known about this forever.
And it has been the hardest secret in the world
for me to keep.
- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- I have been wanting to talk about it
since the day I found out about it.
It was finally announced at Comic-Con
that there is a crossover episode with Strange New Worlds.
- Yeah.
- I want to know all about it.
I could talk to you for four hours about it
because it is by far one of the coolest things
I've ever gotten to do.
I will try to truncate and give you highlights.
What's wild is that I wanted to tread so lightly.
I wanted to be really hyper-aware
of the fact that we were given this amazing opportunity.
That Jack and I, we're the leads of our show.
but we are guests on this show.
We're the guests on this set.
You know, that feeling.
I absolutely do.
Where you're like, I don't wanna come in here
and barge in with my chaotic wild energy.
I wanna respect whatever the vibe is here.
'Cause I knew a few of those actors.
I knew Rebecca, but I didn't really know everyone.
So I was like, I don't know what the vibe is.
So Tawny goes in there very different
than Mariner's gonna go in there.
A little. I was still definitely like blah, blah
but I wasn't...
I was still feeling people out.
Yeah. Okay.
Frakes actually said to me at one point,
I think it was like day two, he goes,
"You're very well behaved,"
because I think he could tell
I was bursting outta my skin a little bit.
- Yeah.
- But you have to feel everybody out.
But what surprised me was how easy it was to slip in.
You get in that uniform
where the sleeves didn't even roll down.
They just sewed them like that.
- Amazing
- So they just stayed rolled up.
- I love that about her, by the way.
I love it.
Bernadette the costumer was like,
"So the sleeves are just gonna stay
'cause you'd never rolled them down."
And I was like, "You get me."
And the hair and makeup was like...
Scotia and the makeup department
did the perfect winged liner
to make it look just like Mariner.
- Yeah.
- I got to wear my real hair.
I had a piece attached to it to make it bigger
but those are my curls.
And I just felt like, "Oh this is so seamless."
"I'm her, she's me. This is not as hard as I thought."
But the one thing I was like a little nervous about
was the speed that we talk at
and that I speak out in my normal life.
- Yeah.
- The vibe of Lower Decks is so fast.
So there were a lot of moments
where I was really surprised at how seamlessly
our vibes did fit together.
And I think that's such a testament to Frakes.
I think that's just such a testament to that cast
and those Showrunners and sturdy their show is
that it could handle
a weird little hurricane coming into it.
'Cause that's what Jack and I sort of were a little cyclone.
Yeah.
Boy, the different...
It didn't even occur to me until you were talking about it.
The very different pacing.
Oh yeah.
The pacing of animated 22-minute comedy
versus the pacing of complicated 41-minute...
That's so. I never even would've thought of that.
- Yeah.
- It's sort of the difference between
playing the outfield and third base.
I love sports and I know what you mean.
I love sports so much.
I don't know what you're talking about, Wil.
Just nod like, "Yeah, that's exactly what that is."
- Yeah.
- Tell me how insightful and clever I am.
- You're so clever.
- Oh, thank you.
Look, Tawny thinks I'm cool, everybody.
When I was up there for Ready Room I called Frakes
and I was like, "Dude, I love being here.
This place, it reminds me of us.
The set reminds me of us,
the crew reminds me of us,
the cast reminds me of us."
I had forgotten that you got to work with him as a director.
I have heard stories
from other folks that have been directed by him.
He absolutely brings something real special
to every Star Trek by virtue of having been Commander Riker.
But he's also just Jonathan Frakes,
the guy who I desperately wish was my dad.
Yeah.
And I just adore him.
Would you just talk a little bit about
anything you noticed?
Like what's Frakes' energy like?
Like what was it like for you to experience?
'Cause it's so different when we're in the booth, right?
- Yeah.
- When we're in the booth it's so like it's quiet.
And even though we're having fun,
there's like this much glass between us.
- Yeah.
- I don't know, it's different.
All that Frakes energy is right there.
It's amazing.
I have three words and it's action, action, action.
So he calls action.
Normal directors are like, "And action."
He goes, "Action, action, action."
And it just makes you go like, "Oh yes, time to go."
There's also just such an amazing feeling of being like,
"Oh, I'm good.
I'm literally in the hands
of the best dude to be doing this.
And he'll tell me if something
doesn't look enough like Star Trek,
'cause he has all the Star Trek in his brain.
He knows it."
When I saw you guys at Mission Chicago
and you all came out in your uniforms,
that created this level of unbelievable excitement
for me to see that.
There was a sense of y'all leaning into this thing that...
I have this weird thing where I straddle fandom
and inside the room, right?
- Of course, yeah.
- The part of me that lives in fandom
was just so delighted that you all embraced that
and shared that joy with all of us.
That's what it was, it was pure joy.
Because at that point we had not yet filmed our crossover.
And so it definitely was not announced.
- Yeah.
- And it was just a funny idea
that had come about from Twitter.
And Jack had jumped on and said, "Yeah, I'll do this."
And I was like, "I'll do this too."
And then John Van Citters helped us find
a wonderful costumer to make them for us.
And it all came together really fast.
But what really made me happy was that
every person, from Jerry to Noël, to Mike,
everyone was just like, "Oh my God, that's so cool."
'Cause we've done a lot of work in shows in life.
We've worked with a lot of cast.
There is very much a world where someone would've been like
"What? Oh, okay."
Absolutely.
And I would've been like fine. I get it.
You're an actor, you don't wanna do this.
- Yeah.
- But everyone just went, "Oh cool."
And I was like, "I love us."
We're such sweeties.
I have just really enjoyed talking with you.
You as well.
Thank you for having me.
And as I've told you privately,
and as I've said on this show,
huge fan of Lower Decks.
- Thank you.
- And I just love what you're doing with it.
I am excited for y'all to continue exploring
the animated frontier.
Oh, I like that.
It is the animated frontier.
Yeah, thank you so much.
It's been nice to be here in person.
It's so nice to do these things for real,
that I just did from my couch for so long.
Yeah, I'm really looking forward to hopefully
pulling all of you together at some point.
We accept and we'll see you there.
Terrific, I'm looking forward to it.
Thank you, Tawny.
Thank you, Wil.
By now we should all be able to draw Tendi, Doctor T'Ana,
and Ensign Wil Wheaton having a drink together
in the Cerritos Mess Hall.
But to level up and draw, say, a super awkward
holosuite scenario
we've got Lower Decks Supervising Director,
Barry Kelly on hand
to teach us how to draw Bajoran Security Chief Shaxs.
So grab a pencil, say a prayer to the Prophets,
and follow along.
Howdy, I'm Barry J. Kelly from Titmouse Cartoons.
And I'm the Supervising Director of Star Trek Lower Decks.
I'm gonna draw some Shaxs.
Yes.
No.
Doing a drawing is always a little daunting
when you're trying to put that first line down.
So, I usually have to warm up a little bit.
Usually, I start with just some, like,
little strokes on the paper
and then little silhouettes of the characters
and things like that.
Or sometimes a good trick my friend told me was,
"Try to draw light."
And if you're trying to figure out how to draw light,
maybe just draw, like, a little light circle at the top
and kind of don't draw darker than that for a little bit
until you, like, know what you're drawing.
The reason why I'm choosing to draw Shaxs,
I kind of feel like muscled meaty men is kind of my jam.
That is outstanding.
Gotta be true to yourself.
Am I right, bears?
Shaxs is really fun and intense.
And he's kind of got these gorilla proportions
that are really fun to work with.
For drawing the Shaxs drawing I'm gonna do,
I kind of look for a pose that I like
and then I kind of start drawing it from different angles
to see which angle I wanna land on.
It's naked time.
Oh.
I usually kind of fill up a sheet.
It's, like, I want to use every nook and cranny of a page
just 'cause I guess I feel like
what's daunting about drawing
is sometimes you don't wanna use up your tools,
but I think you just gotta, like, forget that
and just use your tools and use your paper
as much as you can.
Don't be precious with it.
Go ahead and make mistakes.
That's kind of what this whole rough stage is for.
Come on, man.
This is your chance to prove you got what it takes.
I never really went to art school,
but I'd learned a lot about art stuff in general
just from copying and observing.
And it took me quite a long time to catch up on my own.
But just one thing that art teachers say over and over again
is "Silhouette, silhouette, silhouette."
And it's only hitting me now, like 15 years later,
like, a silhouette does a lot of work for you.
Even when we're story boarding the show,
we're trying to cram in, like, a bunch of silhouettes
into one shot.
Shoot for a clear silhouette and you'll get yourself
a pretty clean drawing.
New shift on deck.
Get outta my chair.
Thank you, it's a great honor.
All right, I feel like I've warmed up some Shaxs enough.
I'm gonna switch over to the final drawing.
Now, we start with the head.
The head kind of determines
the size of the rest of the body.
Because he's a big dude his head's probably a bit smaller.
Put his chest out, a hero.
Once you kind of set up the head.
I'm kind of trying to give how much space
he's gonna take up on the entire page.
So I'm trying to, like, figure out
how far his feet are gonna go down
so that I know, when I go to put the final lines down,
I know kind of roughly
where his whole size and shape are.
I'm not worrying about, like, details or anatomy,
I'm just trying to put big blocky shapes down.
I'll put his leg on something.
Maybe he's saving Commander Billups.
No, do it now.
You do it right this second.
Something about Shax's face, he's got more jaw.
So, it's kind of like
your eyes and your ear to your nose
kind of all falls in line.
And, like, that's kind of how
your face ends up proportionate, right?
And all of us, if you're more proportionate,
it's kind of, like, evenly distributed.
But, in order to make different character faces,
you kinda move the eyes up, bring the chin down,
and stuff like that.
So, Shaxs is one of our characters
where the eyes and the face
are a little bit higher up on his head
so that his mouth than his chin get a little bit bigger.
One thing that always helps make Shaxs look like Shaxs
is making him kind of crazy, which means tiny pupils.
You're lucky I'm so spiritually centered or I'd snap.
He's always got, like, this thousand yard stare on him.
Like he came back from the dead, he died,
he's Bajoran, and he's been in battle most of his life,
and is super intense.
So anytime there's an opportunity to make him
super intense.
We're sparing you dark truths about scientific depravity
that would haunt you for the rest of your days.
I'm gonna switch over to a pen here,
a super fine black Rapidograph kind of pen.
There's a lot of pressure
to get the details on the face right of any drawing
just because that's where everyone's eyes go first.
Shaxs has kind of like a cloudy eye.
It's a little bit hard to do with black ink.
And he is got a little scar here.
One thing about Shaxs' mustache, too,
is that it's kind of his upper lip.
I'm drawing his neck a bit thicker
probably than our cartoon does,
but my meaty muscled men have thick necks.
This is going sideways.
I recommend we beam out now.
So, now I'm kind of generally just starting with
the outer edge of his whole body, the outer contour.
'Cause it's gonna kind of define
where the details need to go on the inside.
And as I do this, I'm not exactly doing my blue lines, now.
Now, I'm starting to give him his legs
a little bit of anatomy.
For the most part,
drawing a straight line gets you most of the way there,
just the straight leg.
But just a little bit of extra volume along that line
kind of gives us the hint of his quads.
Shaxs also has tiny feet and baby hands.
Ah, that place did take a lot out of me.
But not my killer serve.
Aw, Shaxs, you always get me.
He's saving Billups from something.
If you have a little bit of a story,
it always helps in the drawing.
Certainly in my head it helps a lot just to make it funny.
The story will also help you define the characters.
Shaxs having a scar on his eye is a story.
It's like, "Where did he get that?"
"Why did he have that?"
And it gives us a little bit of information
about the character.
That he's maybe seen a lot of stuff.
Let it all out.
I can do some foliage and stuff back here.
And again, not trying to fill it in
with the bunch of detail yet.
Just trying to hit the silhouette
of some trees and some leaves and stuff like that.
And then you can kind of see,
I kind of drew some underwear here for him.
I'll kind of render that out with parallel lines.
And just don't put pressure on what you're doing.
Every day, I'm working with artists
who are all at different skill levels
and trying to get everybody on the same page.
And it's just trying to get everyone
to be comfortable with what they're doing and not be afraid.
You don't have to know how to draw everything,
but you should at least be skilled enough
to look at something and be able to draw anything.
I'm going to make a cute little ash tray for my incense.
It's going to look like a puppy.
And maybe as I'm finishing up,
I'm just gonna give the edges just a little once over
just to make sure they aren't as rough.
All right, pencils down.
And there's Shaxs and Billups on the run.
Thanks for drawing with me today.
We did it.
I dunno what we did, but we did it.
The first half of Season 3 of Star Trek Lower Decks
has been a hilarious adventure.
And while I usually love to be able
to give you a little glimpse of what's coming up next week,
next week's episode is so jam-packed with Easter eggs
literally anything we show you would be a spoiler.
But, because I hate to leave you
with nothing to look forward to,
we do have an image from next week,
that honestly is plenty to get excited about.
And you won't even know what the spoilers are
until after the episode is aired.
Take a look.
It has been such a privilege, as it always is,
to once again talk about
all things Star Trek Universe with you.
And just an enormous thank you to Tawny Newsome
for talking with me today.
I will be back in a few weeks
when I'll be joined by Jack Quaid and Noël Wells,
AKA Ensigns Bradward Boimler and D'Vana Tendi.
To dig into Lower Decks' epic Season 3 finale.
And if that weren't enough,
we'll also celebrate the triumphant return
of Star Trek: Prodigy
when I talk to Brett Grey, who plays Dal,
and Ella Purnell, who plays Gwyn.
You won't want to miss this double series episode
of The Ready Room.
Until then I'm Wil Wheaton.
Live long and prosper.