Engage: The Official Star Trek™ Podcast has launched today! Hosted by Jordan Hoffman, a film critic and writer of the “One Trek Mind” blog on StarTrek.com, the first three episodes of the hour-long podcast are available NOW for listening on , Play.it/StarTrek, and StarTrek.com.
The first guests include “Weird Al” Yankovic on the first episode, Leonard Nimoy’s son and director Adam Nimoy on the second episode and MTV News Correspondent Josh Horowitz on the third episode.
Below are previews of each episode:
“WEIRD AL” ON HIS FIRST MEMORY OF STAR TREK
When asked by Hoffman if he was aware about the first series, Yankovic said: “I was [aware of Star Trek.] Honestly, my only memory was once I kind of got into a little bit of a fight with my parents because I wanted to stay up late enough to watch Star Trek. It was a little past my bedtime, but I was always like, ‘Just a few minutes more. I really want to watch Star Trek.’ [His parents saying,] ‘No, it’s past your bedtime.’ I said, ‘I’ll forgo my allowance this week if you just let me watch Star Trek!’
ADAM NIMOY ON HIS DOCUMENTARY, “FOR THE LOVE OF SPOCK”
Nimoy discussed his documentary, “For the Love of Spock,” which will be released in theaters and VOD day-and-date on Sept. 9, the day after the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. He discussed the changes in his intention behind the film: “The intention going in was different from what the end product turned out to be in part because going in, I was working with my dad. And we wanted to make a Spock doc – just Spock. That was going to be the focus. Dad was very concerned that it not be the ‘Leonard Nimoy Show’ – he really wanted to keep the fans focused on the character and in great detail, kind of explore Spock. How he came about, how he was created, how he evolved, why he resonates with so many people for so many years. That was our initial intention. After my dad passed away, there was such a response to the loss – not only to Spock, but to Leonard Nimoy, the artist and humanitarian. It was clear we needed to expand the film to include more of his life and legacy as well. It seemed fitting and appropriate to pay tribute to him, as well as to Spock and yet still service… keep it ‘Spock-centric’ but try and find a balance between the two.”
“And in that journey of exploring my dad’s life and legacy,” Nimoy continued. “My story started to become more intertwined with that, and there was a chorus of people… that [said] I should include my own perspective, my own story, my family perspective and how it impacted all of us. Because we are just an American family, born of immigrants… but we went through an incredible time and evolution… It had a big effect on my relationship with my dad. The focus then turned into intertwining these three elements – Spock, Leonard, myself and the family, and myself and my dad.”
JOSH HOROWITZ ON PATRICK STEWART
Horowitz is known for his fun interviews with different actors and personalities, as well as his podcast, ‘Happy Sad Confused.’ On his podcast, he interviewed Sir Patrick Stewart (AKA Captain Picard) and shares with Hoffman a funny story: “My podcast is called ‘Happy Sad Confused,’ and it grew out of a silly photo thing that I continue to do where after I do an interview with somebody… I always do three photos – a really big happy face, a really sad face and a really confused face. So I had Sir Patrick Stewart on the podcast and it was magical, as you would expect it to be. We did the photos afterwards, and I thought at the time that he wasn’t moving his face at all. [I thought] he was just being stoic and not enjoying the process… I looked at the photos later, he’s actually moving his facial muscles in such a subtle, beautiful way that he was actually conveying happy, sad, confused.”
Make sure to listen NOW on – , Play.it/StarTrek, and StarTrek.com.