Between The Boys and Star Trek: Lower Decks, Jack Quaid already has two successful franchises under his belt. However, Quaid’s success as an actor has also given him the rare opportunity to portray his animated character, Brad Boimler, in live-action. As part of the upcoming season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Quaid and his Lower Decks co-star, Tawny Newsome, will reprise their respective roles as Boimler and Beckett Mariner for a special episode. And in a new interview with Variety, Quaid shed some light on Lower Decks‘ crossover with the live-action side of Star Trek.
“We’re coming aboard the Enterprise,” said Quaid. “I won’t get into the plot details of how exactly that happens. But we got to be on the physical set [and] we got to actually be in the bridge and the transporter bay and the hallways. We got to go all over the ship and interact with that amazing cast. There are some animated elements to the episode, but it’s not like a Roger Rabbit where, like, there’s an animated Boimler following Pike down a hallway. It’s not like that.”
“That was such an interesting challenge as an actor to take something that I usually just do with my voice but then inhabit every bit of him,” continued Quaid. “I studied the way the animators and artists rendered Boimler and his movements and certain little gestures he would do. I tried to bring as much of that into the episode as possible, but trying to do things [that] were a little too big, a little too animated in a live-action setting, but still keep it within the Boimler range of movement.
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Quaid reiterated that Boimler will retain his signature purple hair in live-action. He also indicated that both Mariner and Boimler admire the original crew of the Enterprise.
“I really liked them merging this older era of Trek with us from the future quite a lot,” related Quaid. “You’ll see how that all works out on the Strange New World episode. But it’s cool because from Boimler and Mariner’s perspective, they know about Captain Pike and Spock and Uhura. They think that they’re all awesome. So it was a fun way for them to meet their heroes, in a way. I’m just excited I get to actually talk about it because I had to keep it secret for so long. That crew over there on Strange New Worlds is awesome. Ethan Peck and I had an epic bromance — I just want to say that right now.
Additionally, Quaid confirmed that Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Jonathan Frakes directed the crossover episode.
“[Frakes is] just a legend, and he just absolutely nailed it,” said Quaid. “He directs so much Star Trek, and just to have Riker telling you what to do — if Riker is saying that you’re on the right path, you probably are. So that was just a dream come true.”
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 will premiere in 2023 on Paramount+. Meanwhile, Star Trek: Lower Decks season 2 is now streaming.
Are you looking forward to Lower Decks‘ crossover with Strange New Worlds? Let us know in the comment section below!
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