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Few ever get to live their aspiration like editorJon Dudkowskidid to become part of a dealership they raise up revere , likeStar Trek . He came at a meter when the franchise faced uncertainty in 2005 asEnterprisewrapped its fourth and final season and the franchise ’s last run on connection boob tube . WhileStar Trekdid make its return to the big screenland starting with 2009’sJ. J. AbramsKelvin Universe film , also titledStar Trek , there was n’t a clear path to television ; then arrive the big opportunity when Paramount released its streaming servicing , Paramount+ withDiscoveryembarking on its maiden voyage as one of its original flagship show to conduct the way in 2017 . Dudkowski was involve in 18 of the 65 episodes across all five season , from the premier installment " The Vulcan Hello " to the finale " Life , Itself " in 2024 . The editor and managing director spoke to Bleeding Cool about a variety of subjects , including how the serial change from its 23rd - century stock to the thirty-second , becoming part of the serial publication ' biggest moments , including how time of year two would become the backdoor airplane pilot toStrange New Worlds , and starSonequa Martin - Green’ssignature Michael Burnham here and now that would lay out the spirit for season three to the terminal fo the series .
Bleeding Cool : ' Discovery ' had come a longsighted way from the premier episode ' The Vulcan Hello ' to the finale , ' Life , Itself " . How would you describe your experience sour on that journey as you did over the span of the five seasons ?
That ’s interesting . I ’ve never consider about it in terms of a journey from full point A to point B. I ’ve been a lifelong Star Trek fan . This was literally my dream problem . I ’m certainly not alone , but I ’ve been fantasize about Star Trek for a recollective time . To get the chance to work on ' The Vulcan Hello ' was a big deal for me . The director , David Semel , was the mortal I had the safe kinship with . I had worked with ( EP ) Alex Kurtzman in the past tense , but we were n’t play together at that stop .
It was David , who was do work on the pilot , and he brought me in . It had a lot of personality and his creative interpreter . Getting a pilot off the ground is a Herculean effort – and especially something that bragging . The affair about Star Trek is you must fabricate . There ’s a universe that exists you may go to with everything from the way the tricorders expect to the sets . Everything had to be construct , design , and conceived of . It ’s this monumental labor . You ca n’t just go to a location and say , " OK , this is what it is . " capture it off the ground was the struggle , trying to make a story hoi polloi would want to employ in . What had Star Trek evolved into ? That first episode was a moody war chronicle . Sonequa [ Martin - Green ] ’s Burnham terminate that episode in a very benighted position , committing mutiny .
When you jump onward to the net episode , and you have a whole Modern team of citizenry involved , you have [ Dir ] Olatunde [ Osunsanmi ] , [ EP / author ] Michelle [ Paradise ] , and Alex , who had been a voice through the whole thing . The ship had adopt so many turns along the way that by the sentence we got to that final installment , tonally , the show was very unlike . Burnham had been on this radical journey as a eccentric that Sonequa had evolved the character through . You have voices in it like Olatunde and Michelle , who are very dissimilar than David Semel . Basically , it was such a unwarranted ride . Every twelvemonth , Star Trek : Discovery did something newfangled . We had a lot of new voice with writers and directors . I was always involved , and there were a few of us who were in the trenches from the beginning . There were a couplet of woman in ( EPs ) Dana Wilson and ( producer ) Kirsten Byers . Alex was always in the desktop in the day - to - day mathematical process of the show . He was involved as the seasons went on .
It was this wild drive with muckle of crazy turns , and you could see it . If you watch that first installment and then you see the last instalment tonally , the premiss is the same and the role names are the same , but it ’s a very different show . Even the timeline has changed ; there are a thousand years that part those two stories , so it was a minute of a misstep . We held on for all we were worth , took each episode at a clip , and tried to make it as good as we could . I do n’t know if there was any idea of where the show was operate to finish at the source . The writers might have had some conception of it , but it ’s not like we were aim for that last episode from the beginning .
Was there one stand - out episode more hard to edit together than the remainder ?
The hardest instalment to edit was my first as a director . So that was 307 ( ' Unification III ' ) , that was Ni’Var , and that one was difficult because I never had to edit my directorial study , and that was a creative challenge ; I did n’t foreknow how hard it would be because as an editor in chief , a passel of times you ’re sitting with the producers , you ’re form with the director , and you ’re like , " We can do this , or we ca n’t do that . " When you ’re the director as well , I was n’t going to say at any point , " We ca n’t do that . " I always had to find a solution as an editor . I say , " Of naturally , we ’ve capture the textile to do that , " and then I start sudate , and I must figure out a way to make it work .
It did n’t help Covid was unmanageable at a logistic storey . We shift over from working in spot to work out from home , and that was very different because we used to walk into other masses ’s offices and say , " Hey , what do you think about this ? What kind of euphony do you think ? Do you have any good heavy effects for this ? " We ’re using Slack and had to invent a whole process , but the two episodes that I will say are my favorites , which let in the 2nd sequence I directed ( time of year five ’s ' Erigah ' ) .
Those are special , but the two episodes from an editing standpoint , the first installment of time of year two ( ' Brother ' ) , the one Alex address . That was the one where we introduced Pike , you may feel the tone of the show changed . It lay the groundwork for the tone that ' unknown New Worlds ' developed , and Anson Mount came in with that fibre fully baked and that episode has humor , risky venture , and ticker .
time of year one of ' Disco ' had all those things , but seldom did it have all of them in one episode , episode 201 was the first time I was like , " OK , this is tonally , what we ’re all target for . " I do n’t think it ’s an stroke that that ’s the first episode that Alex directed . sequence 301 ( ' That Hope Is You , Part I ' ) that Olatunde directed was Burnham and Book ’s ( David Ajala ) episode , but it was Burnham in the newfangled future , follow to term with get around . They dissipate in Greenland , and that one was a stunning cinematic . Every scene , I got the daily , and my jaw would expend , and I ’d call Olatunde , and I ’d be like , " Oh my God ! This is unbelievable ! " He ’d be like , " I ’m happy you wish it , " and then he travel on to the next one .
Every scene in that episode , Olatunde fall with A+ game . and there ’s one scene specifically to talk about Sonequa for a second gear , where she ’s on the side of the volcano . She ’s just crash - shoot down , alone , trying to figure out the communicator and if there ’s life in this young world while have an experiential crisis second . My apprehension is they were out in Greenland and hiked to the top of this volcano . There were these forcible challenges , and then they were lose the ignitor . It was the close of the day , and they had clock time for two payoff .
Olatunde put his cameras in and got his lenses properly , and he ’s like , " This is what I want , " and he had a much large design for what he wanted to do with that consequence . He did n’t have the time and put the camera there . He say , " Sonequa , I believe you’re able to do this , " and it ’s three and a one-half hour of little dialog , just Sonequa going through action , emoting , and carry this unbalanced account of somebody who just traveled a thousand twelvemonth in the future in the Red Angel lawsuit . There was so much interesting story happening , and it was just cameras on Sonequa , and she just killed it . It was such a just example of how she is the most remarkable actress .
I have nothing but shine kudos for her as a person and as an actress . That was a make - or - demote moment in that example . You could n’t go back and reshoot it . The whole serial hinge on how well that scene come across , and they did n’t have any time to do it again . It was like , " All right , twist on the camera , and you produce to score a home run right now on the place , " Go , " and she did . [ Sonequa ] step up and nailed it . That was probably the most nerve - racking , even as an editor program , to watch because I was like , " Oh , my God , if we do n’t have it here , I do n’t recognise what we ’re run short to do , and we had it , which was really nerveless . "
All five seasons ofStar Trek : Discovery , which also starsAnthony Rapp , Doug Jones , Mary Wiseman , Emily Coutts , Wilson Cruz , Patrick Kwok - Choon , Oyin Oladejo , Blu del Barrio , Tig Notaro , andMichelle Yeoh , are available onParamount+ .
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