News

Last month, in association with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, we held the 2025 Sloan Film Summit, three days where we brought together the worlds of science and filmmaking. Leading scientists, film organizations, film schools and creators with projects about the worlds of the sciences met in person in Los Angeles to share knowledge, get inspired, plan on new projects, and of course, watch some movies.

The topics covered in the programing was diverse. There were panels on AI & VR, new media, and using science consultants on film projects. The films screened, Magma, and Love Me, brought emotion and humanity to the topics of communicating safety concerns to the public and AI grappling with emotion respectively. And Amy Mazer brought down the house with her keynote on finding and stopping asteroids from hitting Earth. You know, saving the world, no big deal.

Of course we couldn’t let the invitees have all the fun,...

In a power-packed weekend of seminars, panels and pitch sessions, hundreds of filmmakers gathered from the four corners of the earth (technical term) to celebrate the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s pioneering science and technology film program.

On Saturday afternoon, Film Independent assembled a panel of science consultants and storytellers to explore the delicate balance between technical accuracy and effective storytelling. What’s it like to consult on a show or a movie?

Maybe not as uppity and exacting as we might expect.

“We’re not the science police,” commented David Saltzberg (The Big Bang Theory), “it’s their story.” Saltzberg embraces his supporting role as a noticer of inconsistencies and a suggester of solutions – as do the four other science experts joining him on the panel moderated by IndieWire writer and critic, Ritesh Mehta.

From Star Trek to The Resident, read on for a fun peek behind the curtain...

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy can provide an in-universe explanation for the changes to Klingon appearances in Star Trek: Discovery. Star Trek: Discovery avoided focusing on Klingons in season 3 to move forward with new stories in a new era. The lack of Klingons in the 32nd century raises questions about their fate, which could be explored in Starfleet Academy.

The next Star Trek series, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, can finally explain the variant Klingons in Star Trek: Discovery. There have been multiple versions of Klingons over Star Trek's nearly 60-year run because of advances in special effects makeup technology since the 1960s. After Star Trek: The Original Series' smooth-headed Klingons, characteristic forehead ridges appeared on Klingons in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and even then, the most popular modern Klingon look wasn't finalized until Star Trek: The Next Generation. After Star Trek Into Darkness evolved Klingon makeup beyond the Tng look,...

Warning: This article contains Spoilers for Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2

Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 introduces a version of Miss Minutes from Marvel's Loki to explain time travel complexities. Prodigy's Dr. Erin Macdonald, voiced by real-life astrophysicist Dr. Erin Macdonald, teaches time travel through videos. Both Star Trek: Prodigy and Marvel's Loki have similar entities (Travelers and Tva) ensuring universe balance and time flow.

To help explain the complexities of time travel, Star Trek: Prodigy revealed its own version of Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) from Marvel's Loki. Prodigy season 2 picks up about a year after the finale of Star Trek: Prodigy season 1. The ragtag crew members of the USS Protostar finally made it to Starfleet, and are working to prove themselves worthy of attending Starfleet Academy. As they continue their studies and share their expertise, Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) recruits Dal R'El (Brett Gray), Gwyndala (Ella Purnell), and their...

“So, you have questions about time travel?” asks Starfleet science officer Dr. Erin MacDonald in the fourth episode of Star Trek: Prodigy‘s second season. “You’ve come to the right place.”

Without question, time travel has long been a major part of the Star Trek. franchise. Kirk, Picard, and everyone else have bounced back and forward in time, whether to save the whales, hang out with Sarah Silverman, escape an evil AI, or save a young Khan.

But while these stories generally turn out to be a lot of fun, they’re not always clear. Like most big science fiction franchise, Trek often fudges the specifics of its time travel adventures, putting cool story ahead of scientific precision.

Fortunately, when Prodigy used real-life astrophysicist and aerospace engineer Erin Macdonald in an instructional video, it laid down Trek‘s time travel rules in detail, for the first time.

The Great,...

Lieutenant Commander MacDonald, a character in Star Trek: Prodigy, has a real-life connection to the franchise as the science advisor, Dr. Erin MacDonald. Dr. MacDonald played an integral role in developing the character of Rok-Tahk and appeared in the Prodigy season 1 finale. While it is uncertain if Lt. Commander MacDonald will return, their appearance serves as both a tribute and a nod to the real-life science advisor and voice actor.

Star Trek: Prodigy's Lieutenant Commander MacDonald (Erin MacDonald) has a real-life connection to the Star Trek franchise that stretches back to 2019. MacDonald made a brief, but pivotal, appearance in Prodigy's season 1 finale. MacDonald was an instructor at Starfleet Academy, who noted the interest shown to Murf (Dee Bradley Baker) by Prodigy's Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui) and suggested the young Brikar pursue a specialism in exobiology.

It's not known if Lieutenant Commander MacDonald will return for Star Trek: Prodigy...

Star Trek Online and Star Trek: Resurgence are teaming up, with the USS Resolute from Star Trek: Resurgence becoming playable in Star Trek Online on October 12th. The Enterprise-f, designed by fans and recognized as the official Enterprise-f by CBS, appears in Picard season 3, with the ship's design being updated for the show. Star Trek: Resurgence provides players with the opportunity to experience the Star Trek universe from multiple perspectives, including that of a First Officer and a lower decker engineer.

Star Trek's video game universe remains a powerful force in gaming thanks to Cryptic Studios and Gearbox Pubishiing's long-running Mmoprg Star Trek Online and Dramatic Labs and Bruner House's Star Trek: Resurgence, a narrative-driven adventure set in the late 24th century. Now, the two games are joining forces.

About to enter its 14th year of gameplay, Star Trek Online has released multiple successful "seasons" with the newest,...

The first seasons of "Star Trek" shows are notoriously rocky, with some fans warning their friends to just "start with season 2" in the more extreme cases (looking at you, "Star Trek: The Next Generation"). "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," on the other hand, had a totally knockout premiere run. Even my favorite "Star Trek" series, "Deep Space Nine," struggled with a hit-or-miss first season that floundered on occasion, but every single episode of "Strange New Worlds" is a bonafide banger (you can read our review here!). Sure, they only have 10 episodes as compared to the serialized network shows, which had 26, but batting 100 is still no small feat. 

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" follows Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and the crew of the original U.S.S. Enterprise, in the time before Captain Kirk took command. There are updated, younger versions of many of our favorite characters from the original series,...

Two of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1's breakout stars, Melissa Navia and Celia Rose Gooding, look back on their first year aboard the Starship Enterprise. Navia portrays the Enterprise's hotshot helmsman, Lt. Erica Ortegas, while Gooding steps into the iconic role of Cadet Nyota Uhura.

Boasting a 99% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 will release on DVD, Blu-ray, and limited-edition Steelbook from CBS Home Entertainment on March 21. The set includes all ten season 1 episodes and over 90 minutes of special features, including behind-the-scenes featurettes, commentary by Anson Mount and Akiva Goldsman, deleted scenes, and a gag real. To support Strange New Worlds season 1's home video release, CBS and Paramount Home Entertainment will present a Star Trek Trivia Night on Friday, March 24 at 6:30pm Pst, hosted by Star Trek Science Advisor Dr. Erin Macdonald. You can learn more about Star Trek Trivia Night here.

Science is one of the cornerstones of Star Trek, and the responsibility of ensuring the science in Paramount+'s Star Trek shows like Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and Star Trek: Prodigy is in excellent hands belongs to Star Trek's official Science Advisor, Dr. Erin Macdonald.

Dr. Erin is an astrophysicist who consults and oversees the science in the writing and production of the various Star Trek series on Paramount+. Dr. Erin also hosts videos called Dr. Erin Explains that breaks down the real-life science seen in Star Trek episodes. In addition, Dr. Erin is also an accomplished writer and producer in her own right.

Related: Star Trek Doesn't Have A Flagship Show (& Why That's Good)

Screen Rant had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Erin Macdonald about her role as Star Trek's Science Advisor, how she got the job, and how Dr. Erin officially...

Star Trek: Prodigy may be an animated series aimed at younger audiences, but the show has also been steeped in science and scientific discovery. From the USS Protostar's Proto-Drive, which contains a baby star, to Dal R'El (Brett Gray) learning he's genetically engineered, science is at the very heart of Prodigy.

As one of Star Trek's science advisors, Dr. Mohamed Noor has contributed his expertise to Star Trek: Discovery, and he had a role in how Star Trek: Prodigy developed the storyline and science behind Dal being an Augment.

Related: Star Trek Just Set Up A Brand New Era

Screen Rant had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Mohamed Noor about science in Star Trek, what a science advisor actually does, his work on Star Trek: Discovery, and Star Trek: Prodigy, genetic engineering in the Star Trek universe, and his own personal fandom of the franchise.

Dr. Mohamed Noor Talks...

The HBO comedy series "Avenue 5" is coming back with a second season on October 10, 2022. Along with it comes the glittering cloud of poop that orbits the ship. If you haven't watched yet (and you absolutely should), you probably want an explanation for that. In the series, which is set 40 years in the future, a group of people are on an eight-week space cruise on the Avenue 5, a ship owned by a billionaire (Josh Gad). A technical mishap stretches their trip to 3.5 years, and needless to say, things are a mess. 

The real crew is shoved in a dark room below the bridge, and the crew that the passengers see around the ship are actually actors, including Hugh Laurie as Captain Ryan. A rescue by NASA isn't possible, because it's too expensive, and things are starting to break on the vessel. That includes a giant tube that holds human waste...