TrekCore.com

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 3x08 | Four-And-A-Half Vulcans

Source:

April 5, 2063.

And then generative ai was created.

And now I get it. I get why nobody on Star Trek spends all their free time in the holodeck. I get why all the crew are putting on stage plays, and holding music recitals, and building models, and playing poker. I get why everyone was so skeptical and mean to the Doctor on Voyager. I get why the ONE TIME we see someone obsessed with the holodeck it infringes on people’s likeness rights and permissions.

Because fundamentally at the end of the day we are human beings and we ENJOY working with our hands and making REAL human connections. A person who learns to play an instrument is always going to be viewed as an artist over someone who asks the computer to generate music for them.

Even as recent as Lower Decks they were making fun of the fact that the crew were putting on amateurish plays and holding music recitals. But after living with Ai for so long and seeing how detrimental it’s been to the world… I’d much rather watch my friends put on a stage play than “participate” in a holodeck movie.

What’s most amazing about this is that it was completely unintentional. I do not for one second think that the writers of the time in the 90’s were really thinking about the larger issues that generative ai and chatGTP would cause. How could they? Text to speech back then was still robotic as heck. More likely they wrote that stuff in because it was cheaper to film on sets the owned than try to build, film, or rent out different locations each week.

That’s the down to earth logistical real reason Data is reciting poems about his cat or Riker is in a play put on in ten forward. It’s just cheaper to do that than to build a whole new set or move production to a new location.

Yet at the end of the day, I think that unintentionally speaks to a very human need that ai is making more and more prevalent to us day in and day out.

Data is always trying to mimic humanity and learn, but often he’s hampered by his programming. People fall asleep at his poem recital, don’t enjoy his music or paintings, and even playing Sherlock became boring… all because he kept defaulting to an algorithmic perfection. Both his poems and much were technically flawless, but they had no soul. His paintings could only imitate other artists styles. And because he memorized all the Sherlock novels he was able to instantly solve the mystery before it even began.

Instagram: Once We Were Spacemen

Deadline: Nathan Fillion Says ‘Firefly’ Animated Series In Development With Co-Stars Set To Reprise Roles; Concept Art Revealed

TL;DR: It's an animated series and Joss Whedon has given his blessing, but he is not directly involved in the project.

MORE DETAILS:

Today, Sunday, March 15th 2026, Nathan Fillion and the remaining core crew of Serenity announced at Awesome Con in DC that they are bringing back Firefly as an animated series called Firefly: Still Flyin'.

In the video posted on the Once We Were Spacemen (OWWS) Instagram account, Nathan detailed what they would need and who has signed on to the project thus far:

"Joss' blessing - I have it"

The rights from 20th Century Fox/ Disney: "They got excited - they said yes"

Showrunners: a married couple who met through Firefly! Tara Butters (Dollhouse, Agent Carter, Reaper) and Marc Guggenheim (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow)

A script - "We got it." A screenshot in the video shows the first page of a shooting script for Firefly: Still Flyin' Episode #1: "Athenia" written by Tara Butters & Marc Guggenheim.

An animation studio: Oscar and Emmy-award-winning animation studio ShadowMachine - another screenshot in the video shows some initial concept art

In the video, Nathan goes on to say that the last thing they need is a home. He asks everyone to like, comment on, and tag your friends in this post to spread the word and get Firefly: Still Flyin' a home.

While it was not explicitly stated in Nathan's video, Deadline's article on the announcement states:

This is super rare. Colm just plain barely ever does conventions. He hasn't even been to STLV in Vegas for 7 years. Usually he does that every 3 or 4 years.