Jack Quaid has recently been talking about his role as the hapless Ensign Brad Boimler in the animated comedy “Star Trek: Lower Decks” which launched its third season last week.
Both he and co-star Tawny Newsome (who voices Ensign Beckett Mariner) get to play the roles in live-action for the first time in a second season episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” in 2023.
Talking with Variety about that crossover, he confirms he and Newsome play live-action versions of Mariner and Boimler on the show:
“We’re coming on to ‘Strange New Worlds.’ We’re coming aboard the Enterprise. I won’t get into the plot details of how exactly that happens. But we got to be on the physical set. 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.”
He confirms his hair is “definitely purple” in his on-screen appearance, and in translating the character to physical form he studied the way the animators rendered Boimler’s movements and gestures which he would then bring into that world. He also found a lot of support from one Trek veteran:
“I think the real blessing shooting that was having [‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ star] Jonathan Frakes as the director. He’s just a legend, and he just absolutely nailed it. 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.”
He goes on to say he and Spock actor Ethan Peck “had an epic bromance – I just want to say that right now”.
The third season of “Star Trek: Lower Decks” is now on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on Amazon in most other global territories.
