Any memories that stand out to note from that experience, that time?

I mean, there are a million.

I had so much fun with those young ladies, and to see their careers flourish since then has been a really joy.

Zoe just won an Academy Award.

Yes.

Come on.

To think back, I have very strong memories of the first morning.

Anson is riding high as he and the crew of the Enterprise boldly go where no Trek show has gone before.

And I want to ask you, kind of right out of the gate with this upcoming fourth season, what are you excited to bring fans and Trekkies with this new season? Because I know you've called it the best one yet.

I think it is.

I just think, in general, we hit our stride as a creative group and our shorthand with each other just You know, third season was weird coming out of the strike, and we had a lot of staff turnover, but this one we had a lot of lead time and conversation and thought time about how we wanted to go about this next part of the story, which is, you know, it's the prequel to the original, so there's a lot of...

There's a lot of points in canon that have to be hit, but we want to hit them in a unique and unexpected way.

Our show, I like that we're kind of thought of as the fun show because we play a lot.

We play through genre a lot, which for whatever reason became... creative diving board for us and it's just how we have our conversations between writers and actors but never the genre you know we've done a musical we've done noir we've done horror we've done situation comedy and we've got a lot more genres we haven't explored that are going to be But it's never the goal in and of itself.

It's the vehicle we use to get to whatever strange new world that particular character needs to hit in that episode.

So is this season four going to be really about that exploration and new planets? Like what can we

So this is actually your very first ET interview.

Working with Brit is just a, a, a great time all around.

And, um, everything that we did was, was...

We were just giggling.

[laughs] I said, "Hey, Brit.

You know, what's happening today?" And she's like, "It's our kissing scene." I was like, "That's right." [laughs] I, I kind of played a joke on her.

I had somebody run out and get me some minced garlic, and I, I, I really got my mouth really garlicky before we kissed.

How much of a Star Trek fan were you growing up?

Is it the writers, or are you both putting things into it as well?

Both.

I think the dialogue is pretty much what we're given on the page, but it's really the performances I think are, are ...

They gain a real specificity from, uh, the friendship that Rebecca and I have built on and off the screen.

We have, you know, we're clo- pretty much the same age.

We have pretty much the same sense of humor, and we have the same sensibility about the relationship of these two characters, where we believe that they, they've been great friends all the way back to the Academy days.

And just sort of that, you know, those little conversations you can have in fleshing out the relationship.

Now, you need to be honest with me.

I, I, I will.

And that is one of the most popular questions that we get, and I'm always shocked by my castmates who raise their hand that, to admit that they've stolen stuff on set.

I'm like, "What? First of all, how? When? What? And you're admitting it?"

Trek

... definitely my favorite episode of the original series was Arena, when, uh, Captain Kirk is, is put on this sort of desert world with the Gorn.

Yes.

I mean, come on.

To think back, I have very strong memories of the first morning shooting in that convertible, and then literally I had Britney Spears in the car and getting lost in the middle of Louisiana.

Literally lost the film crew, and I'm now responsible for the most famous pop star in the [laughs] world.

Anson is riding high as he and the crew of the Enterprise boldly go where no Trek show has gone before.

We knew from the outset that Trek had almost become its own genre.

So we actually decided to start playing with genre.

We've had a musical episode where a lot of emotional changes happen.

allowing the writers to

kind of give you clues.

I knew very little.

I knew sort of the direction I wanted to be.

I knew that if Kirk represented the machismo and if Picard represented the intellect.

I wanted Pike to represent the heart.

And I think I got there with the help of my writers and really learning to trust them.

thing? So for you, you go stand in the mirror and you go, all right, producer, can we go back and do this thing? All right.

up to

me, which I love.

That's the best.

I think it's a great show for parents to watch with their kids because, I mean, it's about first contact, of course, It's gonna be a show about asking ourselves, what are our better angels in making that first step? So it really lends itself to the questions of what kind of person do you want your child to be? It's been around for 60 years now, this year.

And we did the math recently and realized that that means that it's been around for a quarter of the lifetime of my country.

So it's really, really baked into the cake of our culture.

And it's typically, I think it's very much, I think it's more American than people give it credit for because, you know, we're a show about intergalactic connection and international connection.

Do you want to play in this sandbox forever?

which

is the kind of thing that shouldn't really happen in dramatic writing, but you have to figure it out.

And so for me, In order for the show to happen, we actually had to figure out a way to get the character past that.

And in our first episode of the entire series was about him learning that the journey is the destination.

So the whole series has been a process of him relearning that lesson over and over again.

And now he's having to deal with the question of, is it a journey if there is no conclusion?

So what's one of your favorite genres that you have experienced

and worked on? Thanks for asking.

This discussion is over.

Commander, we do have weapons, and Starfleet has more, a lot more.

Do you really want us to turn all of them on you just to prove our point? Uh, c- why don't you come aboard? I can show you myself, and we can discuss ways that the Federation can help you.

The number of times I have seen this, but what do you remember about working on this project, and what was it like working with Britney?

I, it was, it's all generally a, a very good memory, uh, of a, of a team, a creative team of very dynamic, professional, nurturing women.

I'd love to start by getting to know from each of you what it means to be part of the franchise's 60th anniversary celebration.

Eddie, you know, Rebecca and I both were introduced to the original series when we were about seven or eight by our mothers.

That's one of the first things that we bonded over.

And To me, it wasn't even a bucket list item as an actor because it just never occurred to me that I could be on Star Trek, much less end up the captain of the Enterprise.

I mean, this was my make-believe game when I was a kid.

And to suddenly find myself in this position during a celebration like this is...

It's stunning.

question i'm asking a bigger one um so going into season four your characters are carrying forward things that have happened through seasons one through three looking back where do you see the greatest growth and change in your characters