Summary
Star Trek: Starfleet Academywriter Tawny Newsome explains how her time onStar Trek: Lower Deckshelps the writers ofStar Trek’s next series balance the franchise’s"strange"tonal shifts. Newsome plays Lt. Beckett Mariner onStar Trek: Lower Decks,which enters its fifth and final season in fall 2024. However,Tawny is also a writer and self-proclaimed continuity cop onStar Trek: Starfleet Academy,which begins production in the fall with Academy Award winner Holly Hunter andAcademy Award nominee Paul Giamatti castin lead roles.
Screen Rantinterviewed Tawny Newsome for the premiere of her comedyNukedat Tribeca Film Festival. Newsome praised her role as Mariner onStar Trek: Lower Decks, and she details howLower DecksprovingStar Trekcould successfully delve into the animatedcomedy genre helps her show her fellow writers ofStar Trek: Starfleet AcademythatStar Trekhas a 60-year history of handling"the strangest tonal shifts"successfully. Read her quote below:
Playing Mariner has been the gift of my career. There’s no greater role than her ever, ever. She’s everything I want to be and more. So writing for Academy, it’s been interesting. Playing Mariner has given me, I was a lifelong Star Trek fan, but Lower Deck was Star Trek’s first foray into hard comedy. That’s such an honor to be the number one on the first time my beloved franchise is attempting comedy and the fact that it worked and they let us do it for five seasons and let us crossover into live action.
It was just such a proof of our showrunner, Mike McMahan’s, vision and tone. It’s also just such proof that Star Trek is the weirdest franchise on Earth and can truly handle the strangest tonal shifts. So that’s what I really bring to Starfleet Academy; I’m the one in the writer’s room banging the f-cking gong, being like, “Nope, Star Trek is strange.”
It does not matter that our last episode was all about the brutalities of war. The next episode definitely can be a madcap farce. We have 60-plus years of the franchise doing that, so deftly and crazily. That’s what our fans love and crave. I can point to examples of it. So whenever anyone in the room is like, ‘I think this is a little too out there or it’s a little too goofy,’ I just pull out my Rolodex of either Lower Deck episodes that did it weirder or Ferengi episodes from Deep Space Nine that did it wilder. And usually then people go, ‘Okay.’ They kind of can’t argue with the receipts of it.
I’m Excited About What’s Next For Star Trek
Star Trek: Discovery is over, and soon Lower Decks will end, but even with fewer shows, there is still lots of exciting stuff ahead for Star Trek.
Star Trek Can Encompass Any Style Of Story
Starfleet Academy will also have comedy
Tawny Newsome is right thatStar Trek’s 60-year history is a litany of utterly bizarre tonal shifts, especially in the episodicStar Treklegacy seriesthat produced 22-26 episodes a season.Star Trek’s various incarnations have encompassed philosophical sci-fi, action, time travel, comedy, sports, singing, and every type of storytelling genre.This legacy is continued by the anything-goes philosophy of Newsome’s show,Star Trek: Lower Decks, and in the"big swings"ofStar Trek: Strange New Worldslike season 2’s musical and crossover episodes, and season 3’s upcoming ‘Hollywood noir murder mystery’ directed by Jonathan Frakes.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academyalso benefits from Tawny Newsome’s lifelong love and knowledge ofStar Trek.
The sheer breadth of storytellingStar Trekis capable of is what fans love about the franchise.From what has been hinted at by Tawny Newsome and executive producer and co-showrunner Alex Kurtzman,Star Trek: Starfleet Academywill also incorporate the"strange tonal shifts" Star Trekis known for. The young adult-focusedStarfleet Academywill have its share of humor to balance out the sci-fi stories of the young cadets chasing their Starfleet dreams. WithStar Trek: Starfleet Academy’s exciting A-list castingof Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti, audiences will also have the highest caliber of actingto look forward to. Fortunately,Star Trek: Starfleet Academybenefits from writer Tawny Newsome’s lifelong love and knowledge ofStar Trek.
