[SPOILERS] Episode 8 [“The Life of the Stars“] of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy featured the return of Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly to help the cadets deal with the trauma of the Miyazaki incident from episode 6. This trauma hit Sam particularly hard, damaging her so much that she had her to return to her homeworld of Kasq for treatment with Captain Ake and The Doctor, who revealed his resistance to becoming Sam’s mentor was tied back to his own trauma from an episode of Voyager. TrekMovie had a chance to talk to episode co-writer and series creator Gaia Violo along with co-showrunner Noga Landau, who discussed how they put it all together and what this means moving forward into season 2.
Was this episode specifically crafted for Mary with the whole Our Town theater kid vibe?
Noga Landau: Yeah, I don’t think we could have done this episode without Mary Wiseman on so many fronts, but namely that it was finally time for her to come and shine. And we had to bring it in order to earn Sylvia Tilly coming back to Star Trek. But there were so many serendipitous things about having Mary come back to play the role for this episode in particular. One of them was we knew we wanted it to be about Our Town, because there’s so many parallels between what the message of Our Town is and what our cadets are going through in this episode. But when we sat down with Mary to say, “Hey, would you like to come back to play Tilly?” And we told her what the episode was going to be, she got this look on her face, and it was a very emotional look, and we were worried that we made her cry. And then she said, “Actually, I played Emily in Our Town when I was at Juilliard, so this play has meant a lot to me in my life.” So it was like the stars aligned, “The Life of the Stars” aligned.
When Tilly’s return was first announced back at Comic-Con a long time ago, we assumed we were going to get more Mary. So are we getting more Mary?
Noga Landau: I love that question. I will tell you that we want lots of Mary. We want as much possible. Having her with us on the red carpet at the premiere was like a dream come true. And you will just have to stay tuned in to see.
Gaia Violo: And I would add to that that being on set when for the reunion of Tilly and Reno with Holly [Hunter] as well as Nahla [Ake] — both writing that scene and then seeing it in person — was was one of those “pinch me” moments. Because it felt necessary, these three powerful women in one room just sort of like connecting the experience of Discovery, the experience of Starfleet Academy, with the large framework of: how do we help this new generation that is incoming and is not quite ready to be officers yet, but they’re on their way to become that. It was very special.
Mary Wiseman as Tilly in season 1, episode 8 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Brooke Palmer/Paramount+
Gaia, first of all, congratulations on being the first solo credited creator of a [live action] Star Trek series since Gene Roddenberry [in 1987 with Star Trek: The Next Generation]…
Oh my god, I actually didn’t know that. So thank you.
So how long had you planned The Doctor’s story here? You also wrote the pilot where we saw him reluctant to engage with Sam, so did you already have this whole backstory with the loss [of his daughter “Belle”] on Voyager?
Gaia Violo: It was there from the beginning, the idea of The Doctor having lived 800 years, for so long, and the experience of loss, and what that means for someone that experienced life — I like to think of it — like a flowing river. It is just constant, and what that means for him. That was always there from the beginning. And the idea that there was just one other holographic student there who was looking at him for that level of mentorship and his inability to connect, because it is too painful when you’re living life again as a as a flowing river and everybody’s passing you by and you’re still there. That was always intriguing.
And then I think the specificity of how are we going to handle that story and bring it full circle with Sam? How are we going to address “Real Life” and and what happened in season 3 of Voyager. And rewatching that episode and the how gut wrenching that ending is; there were so many – in many of the many drafts that Jane [Maggs] and I did, there were so many Easter eggs to that episode, like the blanket that he holds. So we really leaned in and really wanted to honor that storyline. And then as, obviously, the writing process goes on, we simplified, we streamlined the episode. But I would say that we wanted to honor that story at the very beginning with the pilot, but it really came full circle. And we really delved into it in episode 8.
The Doctor with Belle in Voyager‘s “Real Life” (Paramount)
So is Sam now a totally different person now that she has a childhood, and is The Doctor now different because he is a father? Will that ripple through the show?
Noga Landau: So one of the most fun things coming out of this episode that we really get to live in, a fun way, is that they are now father and daughter, to the core. And we really get into that in season 2 in ways that are super touching and funny and hilarious and awesome. And so I can’t wait for you all to watch season 2. We’ll have it ready for you soon. But, the way we designed the transformation of Sam, we called it sort of colloquially in the writers room, “Sam 1.0” and “Sam 2.0.” Sam 1.0 was just a couple months old and was a baby in so many different ways. And the contrast that you start to see in episodes 9 and episode 10, but in a big way in season 2, is that Sam 2.0, while she does carry the memories of Sam 1.0, she really is a totally different person. She feels things that Sam 1.0 never felt.
Something I’ll tease about what happens in season 2 is she actually starts to feel feelings of attraction. Because when you’re a couple months old and you’re Sam 1.0 you don’t have that yet. You haven’t grown that yet. But if you’re 17 going on 18, that’s when you start to experience all of these facets of life that she needed to grow into. And that’s why we did episode 8. And also being raised by The Doctor, that’s a funny experience. You’re going to have a lot of opera. You’re going to have to do watch a lot of weird science experiments going on under your nose. There’s so much hilarity that comes from being the daughter of The Doctor that we really get to live in in season 2.
This episode is all about dealing with trauma. Were you guys thinking about — or did [Trek superfans and Academy writers] Tawny [Newsome] and Kirsten [Beyer] bring up — episodes like “Family” or “It’s Only a Paper Moon” for inspiration?
Gaia Violo: I mean, Kirsten and Tawny are such a big presence in the writers room, and we really couldn’t write any — they’re essential to the writing process and the development process, because they’re really giving you the guidepost. And we really want to honor what came before us as we are charting new territory. So, yes, I mean “Real Life,” and “Blink of an Eye,” was another one that we really rewatched to understand what The Doctor experienced beforehand.
But in terms of trauma, the genuine answer is that’s the human experience. Like every single person in the writers’ room has experienced some version of something that they’ve had to deal with that either became a big part of their lives, or changed their perspective on life, or may really propel them into adulthood. That is why a writers’ room becomes such a precious and sacred space, because you’re sharing real life. And in many ways, that episode is a love letter to two young women who have gone through a traumatic experience, who are not even that close when they begin the story, and yet, throughout this journey, they’re choosing, with what Sam calls “hopeful defiance,” to just keep going. They decide that trauma is not the end of their story. It’s just a chapter. And so I would say, in terms of trauma, it’s a combination of yes, story and what came before us, but then the real-life experience of every single person in that writers room.
Noga Landau: What I would add to that is you mentioned “Family,” that’s an episode you make when you’re dealing with a character who’s in his 40s, who’s lived so much life. That’s how he processes it. Taking the spirit of “Family” and doing it in a framework of a school where you have instructors who are going to come in and try and fix the problem, I feel like, in a lot of ways, this was our version of that. But also, Trek has such a rich tradition of doing episodes about theater. The other inspiration that was so important to us is to be like, we’re far from the first Star Trek writers’ room to be like, “Let’s do theater in Star Trek.” There’s such a history of doing Shakespeare, of doing old plays, that I felt when we were designing this episode, it made so much sense that, of course, the act of theater sits in the Star Trek universe so comfortably we have to do the same thing on Starfleet Academy.
Zoë Steiner as Tarima in season 1, episode 8 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Michael Gibson/Paramount+
So this was a deep dive into Kasq. We visit Kasq, but what exactly is it?
Noga Landau: I mean, we are keeping it mysterious, Yes, there is message to the madness. [Landau then screenshares concept art for Kasq]
So is Kasq a technological construct or physical/astronomical body?
Noga Landau: It is both. What it does is, once you enter Kasq, space and time sort of break down in the interior. And Dr. Erin Macdonald, our science consultant, could make it sound so much better, but that’s essentially what it what it does.
Gaia Violo: We are exploring, with the Makers and the way Sam grew up, and there is a lot to explore there that we haven’t really delved into. And yes, it’s a version of an alien species that we haven’t really seen before, and we really want to explore.
Kasq in “The Life of the Stars” (Paramount)
I just hope that with Genesis, we finally learned something about the Dar-Sha, because we still don’t know anything, really…
I hear you. You know how we did the Dar-sha — when we decided that they were nomadic, our amazing prosthetics department was like, “So, what do you want them to look like?” And we were like, “We want them to look like gorgeous aliens that woke up at Burning Man.” [laughs] And that was the design for the Dar-Sha.
L-R: Zoë Steiner as Tarima, Kerrice Brooks as SAM, and Bella Shepard as Genesis in season 1, episode 8 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Brooke Palmer/Paramount+
More for SFA 108
Check out our Landau and Violo talking about the season 2 finale, which wrapped filming earlier in the week. We also spoke to Mary Wiseman about returning as Sylvia Tilly for this episode. For a deeper dive into the episode, check out our recap/review and the new episode of the All Access Star Trek podcast, which includes audio from this interview as well as Laurie’s chat with Mary Wiseman.
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.