The 11th Hour Dispatch — Thursday, October 25, 2018
BINGE WATCH
Head writer and executive producer of Rick and Morty, Mike McMahan, is creating an animated Star Trek comedy series for CBS All Access. The service has already ordered two seasons of the series, which McMahan promises will be “undeniably Trek.” Star Trek: Lower Decks is named after the popular Next Generation episode of the same name, which centers on four junior officers on the Enterprise. The new series will likely do the same, but in an animated, funny way. McMahan is a massive Star Trek fan and actually created the @TNG_S8 parody Twitter account that led to a 2015 book adaptation. This series stems from the five-year deal CBS Television Studios signed with Star Trek: Discovery co-creator and executive producer Alex Kurtzman in June.
“Mike won our hearts with his first sentence: ‘I want to do a show about the people who put the yellow cartridge in the food replicator so a banana can come out the other end,’” executive producer Alex Kurtzman said. “His cat’s name is Riker. His son’s name is Sagan. The man is committed.”
Since signing with CBS, Kurtzman has been leading efforts to get a handful of Star Trek spinoffs on CBS All Access, the network’s streaming service. Star Trek: Lower Decks will be the service’s first animated series, as well as CBS Eye Animation Productions’ first project.
BIG BUSINESS
The WWE is going to continue with its Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia despite the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate, though it did acknowledge it as a “heinous crime.” The announcement came from the wrestling company’s Q3 earnings call. It’s an interesting move from the WWE, which has already received criticism for not publicly disavowing the Saudis’ actions like most major media brands did. In fact, this is the first time it’s acknowledged it at all. On Monday’s episode of RAW and Tuesday’s SmackDown, Crown Jewel was heavily promoted on-air, but announcers never stated the words “Saudi Arabia” when discussing it, and the WWE’s website has essentially scrubbed the term “Saudi Arabia” from Crown Jewel’s page. As of now, the event will still take place on November 2 in Riyadh, likely under much scrutiny from fans and critics alike.
NOTHIN’ BUT ‘NET
I am not emotionally well after watching this:
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