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The Center Seat Director Discusses Star Trek TNG, Kelvin Films & More

The Center Seat director Brian Volk-Weiss discussed covering Star Trek: TNG and the Kelvin films for Season 2, interview highlights, and more.

With the 60th anniversary of Star Trek, director of Nacelle's docuseries The Center Seat, creator Brian Volk-Weiss felt the time was right to tell the next chapter of the story of the Gene Roddenberry franchise as the torch is officially passed from The Original Series to The Next Generation cinematically in Generations, the final crossover project between the two shows entering the TNG era of films from 1994 to 2002. Hosted by TNG and Picard star Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher), the second season also dives into the franchise's remaining trilogy films with the Kelvin Universe from J. J. Abrams that rebooted the TOS universe, starting with 2009's Star Trek to 2016's Star Trek Beyond. In part one of our interview, Volk-Weiss spoke to Bleeding Cool about the goals he set for season two that he didn't cover in season one, which focused on the pre-Paramount+ shows and TOS films, the interviews, and how he ranks the Trek films from every era.

The Center Seat Creator and Director Brian Volk-Weiss on Covering the TNG and Kelvin Films

Bleeding Cool: When planning the second season, what goals did you have in mind when you set out to tell the story of 'The Next Generation' and Kelvin films?

Volk-Weiss: What we are trying to do with 'The Center Seat' in general is the way I always look at it, and this will show my age. When I was a kid, there was a thing called an encyclopedia, and we had this thing called the Encyclopedia Americana. Basically, and this was before the internet, you could look at it and be like, "I don't know what this is, pull out the right thing, and there's the answer." We're trying to make 'The Center Seat' that for 'Star Trek.' Season one brought us from 1967 to about 2005; now this is the next chapter, and we seem to be celebrating it every five years, so for the 60th anniversary, we got into 'The Next Gen', which is like closing out season one, and then by getting into the JJ movies, we're getting into new territory as we get closer to the present.

For the figures you got, some are from the archive, and some are brand new; were there any others you were trying to capture? I imagine people like William Shatner or any of the main Kelvin cast; was that ever in the cards?

We did get some of the Kelvin cast, but I mean, the way it works for us is that at the beginning of every pre-production, we never know who we're going to get. If you had told me we got Frank Murray Abraham, I would have been very surprised and probably said, "You're smoking crack," but we got him, and the way it always works is, some of the people you want, you don't get. Some of the people you don't think you'll get in a million years, you do get. I never thought we'd get Sigourney Weaver for 'The Movies That Made Us' (for) 'Aliens', but we got her. You wouldn't believe, for that same episode, how much trouble we had getting other people, so you do the best you can, you hope you get lucky, and we usually do.

What was your biggest surprise "get" for the season?

I already gave it away, sorry. Frank Murray Abraham (from 'Insurrection'), and I'm not taking anything away from anybody else, but I mean, this is arguably one of the greatest actors of our time, and he did a Star Trek movie, like thirty years ago. I didn't know if he'd want to talk about it, but he did.

I know you're wanting to have them tell the story and everything, but I was wondering: what are your personal thoughts about how the franchise has evolved as a trendsetter during Gene's time, to battle for Star Trek's own identity versus the modernization efforts to keep up with recruiting the hottest filmmakers like J.J. Abrams, Justin Lin, and Stuart Baird? How did you feel about the franchise's efforts to do that?

My favorite Star Trek movie is 'The Wrath of Khan.' It's one of my favorite movies, in general. I would basically rank my love of Star Trek films as 'Wrath of Khan,' then 'The Motion Picture,' 'Star Trek III [The Search for Spock],' 'Star Trek IV [The Voyage Home],' and 'Star Trek VI [The Undiscovered Country].' To me, other than 'The Motion Picture,' I would argue for Star Trek 2, 3, 4, and 6. It's like a really long movie; to me, they're a quadrilogy. Those are my Star Trek movies. I would put J.J.'s first movie a billionth of a millimeter right below 'Wrath of Khan' and maybe 3 and 4. It is a perfect movie. The way I'll never forget this: when I saw J.J.'s first film, I was taken to it by a colleague who had a friend who worked at Star Trek's marketing department, and she got me in like six months before the movie came out.

If you remember, the movie got pushed back like five months, so she had to come with me, so I was like her plus-one. I was in my early 30s, she was in her early 20s, and she wasn't a Star Trek fan at all. So, we went to the movie. I was watching the opening scene, and I started crying. I was literally crying, not tearing up- I mean crying- and I'm embarrassed because I'm like sitting there with a colleague, crying in front of her. She had no interest in Star Trek, so I peeked at her to see if she was looking at me crying, and she was crying too. That's what makes that movie so good. My wife couldn't care less about Star Trek but loves the 2009 Star Trek! The second one [Into Darkness], not my favorite. The third one [Beyond] was okay. I think Justin Lin did the best he could, but one out of three ain't bad.

How do you rank the TNG films, if they are on their own list?

I would say 'Generations' is…it's one of those things in life that when you look back on it, you're like, "I wish this was a little better. It's good, but I wish it was a little better," but I feel like that's not fair, because the amount of things that movie had to get right and to make work so that everything afterwards that we take for granted could happen. They deserve a lot of credit; the budget was minuscule. They were wrapping season 7 while prepping the movie; everything worked against it, and I think that they made a good movie. They didn't make a great movie, but they made a very good movie!

'First Contact,' one of the greats, phenomenal movie; It's Star Trek, it's fun, and it's great again. I always use my wife as the litmus test, and she enjoyed it. 'Insurrection' is bizarre, other than the Star Trek (season 1) episode, "Conspiracy." I don't know how big a Trek fan you are, but it's the last episode of season two ("Shades of Gray"), which is probably the strangest hour in the franchise. Certainly, the last 10 minutes are the strangest in all of Star Trek. A close second is 'Insurrection.' There is a shot in that movie, not just for Star Trek, but for almost any movie ever made. I consider it to be one of the strangest shots ever, where they're looking at F. Murray Abraham's teeth. As they're pulling his teeth out, they make a soft fade into Picard's pips. If that doesn't say "strange," I don't know what does, but I will say this: "I don't hate it."

I cannot stand 'Nemesis.' I think that is an atrocious move. I think everything about it is bad; there are so many things with my favorite characters and actors. I don't know what they're doing, but it's not Star Trek, and it's not their fault. That's one of the things that we show in that episode: the director (Stuart Baird) was not very…let's just say, "I don't think he was a big fan of Star Trek, A, and B; you could possibly argue he was not a big fan of actors either."

As a follow-up, do you feel like Star Trek: Picard righted that ship in that third season?

Yes, I'm glad you added the term "third season," because I would have had a little trouble answering that question otherwise. By the way, the penultimate episode of Picard season one ("Broken Pieces") is third place for the strangest Star Trek ever made, but that's an aside. Season 3, I consider to be season 8 of 'Next Gen.'

I will say that the thing about the corrupt bad apples of the Federation (as mentioned in 'The Center Seat'), with 'Insurrection,' that's one of the most common tropes on the franchise in general with the rogue Commodore or Admiral who just lost his/her way, and I feel like the more modern Trek leans into that a little too much, but yeah, that was a common thing. 'TNG' and 'TOS' had that. You can have the entire separate thing on 'Section 31, right?

Yes, it's funny. Every franchise, within reason, seems to have their own thing that the people that make it are addicted to, but the people that watch it or read it don't want. I feel like a good example is in 'Batman' when he's fighting the police; I hate that. Anytime there was a comic book where he starts fighting the police, it was boring because by the end of it, he's going to be fine with the police. Same thing in the movies, he and Gordon will always end up okay, and it's the same thing with Star Trek with this where it's like, "Why are we exploring yet again the one bad dude who's doing dumb stuff but conversely do you know the episode, 'The Pegasus' (from 'TNG' season 7)?"

Yeah.

That handled it perfectly, because it was one guy in a specific situation, and it had backstory and future story, so it worked, but having this guy who wants to…yeah, not my favorite.

The Center Seat, which features interviews with Leonard Nimoy (TOS), Jonathan Frakes (TNG, Picard), Alan Ruck (Generations), Brent Spiner (TNG, Picard), Walter Koenig (TOS), James Cromwell (Star Trek: First Contact), Malcolm McDowell (Generations), Shohreh Aghdashloo (Star Trek Beyond), writer/EP Ronald D. Moore, Alice Krige (First Contact), Deep Roy (Kelvin Films), writer/EP Brannon Braga, makeup designer Michael Westmore, EP Jeri Taylor, makeup designer/visual effects specialist Doug Drexler, writer/EP Bryan Fuller, writer/EP Rick Berman, Wil Wheaton (TNG), and more, is available on Prime Video, Tubi, Apple TV, and Nacelle's YouTube channel.

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