Susan & Tilly Bridges Rewrote STAR TREK: VOYAGER'S Ending | Homecoming

0:00I mean, we just basically wrote a whole new ending for the show, which is wild. Yeah. Alright, this is Jason, the comic source coming to you live. Once again, from San Diego Comic Con, I have two amazing creators today to talk to us about the recent project with IDW. It's my pleasure to welcome Susan and Tilly Bridges to the show. If you're a fan of Star Trek, if you're a fan of Voyager, these are the two that made homecoming come to like. So thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. So, ladies, I'm curious. Thank you for wanting to talk to us. Yes. So, I kind of want to start with the fact that you all are a couple. Yeah. Let's get that out of the way with the last day, but what have you? I think about how in a way work for me is a respite from being with somebody, namely my watch all the time. So, what does that relationship like? I mean, you live together, you work together. Obviously, there's love, but is there any time where it's like, well, I just need a break? You know, people ask us that a lot, but we're also like best friends, and we were friends and then got married long before we started writing together.

1:02And so for us, writing as a team has always been like, just folded into our entire relationship. So I think for us, it's just a very natural thing. I think it's interesting because like, we like the same things pretty much, but our personalities are complete opposite. So different. So like, Tilly is the one who takes the big idea and drives the bus off the cliff. And I'm the one at the bottom saying, do we need this piece? I don't know. I think a lot of pieces we don't want. So it's a dynamic that is, I think, somewhat unique. You know what? Not to get too corny here, but it sounds a little gerrymaguire. Are you complete me, right? You balance each other out. Is that a little bit? Yes. Sometimes say we are one functioning person, probably. Like, once you put us together. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's the other thing I wanted to touch on it. Don't worry. Let's talk on Star Trek. But this dynamic is just so interesting to me. Is that when you meet somebody and you fall in love, it is because you have similar values

2:02and also because you like similar things. You know, my wife and I are both huge stargate fans all over dogs are named after a stargate. Oh, very cool. So when it comes to telling story and the value of story and creating fictions, I'm assuming there's common ground there as well. Let's throw it over to you first. Oh, yeah. Definitely. We both actually met because of Star Trek, really. We were writing fanfiction. We met each other writing fanfiction on the internet. Yeah. And so Star Trek was always like a big part of that kind of basis to our relationship, I think. Yeah. I think because of that, we, since we both loved Star Trek since we were kids, I think that led to us having the same sort of tastes in media, in stories, in the kind of stories we like to tell because we're both such, we're so steeped in it that we just love that kind of hopeful, non-synical take on things. And so I think most of the writing that we do sort of falls into that.

3:03And I think it's the probably kind of connected in that way that because that love of Star Trek was in both of us from the very beginning and is why we met, I think that's why we tend to write so well together and the same sort of things because we, those are the things we like. Yeah. And the things you value. And the other things beside Star Trek, everybody, but the reason, you know, it is how you to met with a fan fiction as you mentioned, but also the values, the hopeful future that you mentioned, and we talk about Star Trek, we talk about, you know, all different kind of orientations, whether it's sexual orientation or coming out of free intelligences or aliens, species, different values or whatever. And man, it's great to look at the future and where it stops with the labels, you know what I mean? Yeah. So, you know, is that something we need to talk about theme and setting it in that universe that, yes, representation is important, but I think it's also important that you make sure that you're entertaining and you're not preachy. You're not hitting over somebody up the head with their right. Yeah. I mean, Star Trek has always been a morality play, you know, and in all of the best episodes.

4:04And I think that's always been an intrinsic part of it, but you don't want it to seem like that's all there is because there's also character and what is the character going through? What is there arc? What is the story that you're telling? You have to marry all of those things together. So I feel like if you took out the sort of, I don't know what the word I'm looking for is, the wokeness of Star Trek, it wouldn't be Star Trek, right? Because it's always been about coming together despite your differences. I mean, you go back to that very first series and they put a Russian and a Japanese man on the bridge, not that long after World War II, right? And then the first interracial kiss, like that's always been what Star Trek is being and Kirk has that line, keep your bigotry in your quarters, Mr. and has no place on the bridge, right? That's always been what Star Trek has been. And so I feel like if you pull that out, you don't have Star Trek anymore. But again, they can't be all it is. You have to marry it with all of the other, the story that you're telling and the characters and what they're going through. Yeah, and I'm sorry, do you have something to add? Oh, I was just going to say it's, you know, it's imperfect, but you see what they're

5:10trying to do. And like, you know, they're still mostly women's are going on the bridge, okay? In the original series, yeah, they're not a woman gap, didn't they? Yeah, yeah. When we got there, I mean, they're all products of the time that they're made in and they reflect the implicit biases of the people that make them. But the thing that I like to say so often is that I feel like with every new iteration of Star Trek, it gets closer to living up to its own ideals of inclusion. And I really love that about it. You can't say that about a lot of franchises. No, it's true. When I saw, I read an interview that you two did and I really struck me because, you know, obviously with your genders and, you know, your sexual orientation, and there's this thing of, oh, you're the trans right in, you know, or you're in that kind of thing. And so that doesn't mean you can't write, you know, straight white guys. And that that frustrates me on your behalf. And so I feel like the world of Star Trek, you know, just to kind of stay on that theme, it does have so much diversity. And it's not like you're only writing these characters that are of a different slant.

6:13I mean, you're writing, you know, characters of all sorts of orientations. And I think there's value in that, right? Putting your walking a mile in another person's shoes. Stay on that. Yeah. What are your thoughts on that? I mean, yeah, we're frustrated by a tool. I mean, it's very, very common to me put in the queer box, even like when we're up for different jobs. They're like, oh, wow, we already have a queer writer. There's only one. So that's all you need, right? Right. But, you know, the cis-hat white guys don't get said, well, we already have one of you. Exactly. And they're, you know, like cis-hat white guys, there's nothing wrong with being a cis-hat white man. But they get to write every type of character from every racial background, every ability, every gender, every sexuality, and nobody questions it, right? Any type of writer from a marginalized community is always put in that box where you can only tell stories about your community.

7:13And that's all we want from you. And that's not how it should be. You know, like, yes, it is important to me to tell stories about my community, but I also can write anybody because that's my job. I'm a writer, you know? And so, yeah, we, it could be tough. That's why we try to differentiate ourselves as like the thinking-keying-nerdy writers, the sci-fi fantasy writers. Yeah, those are things that are written by lots of different people. Yeah, sure. Yeah, and I think sci-fi is such a great genre for that to show diversity. And you can sell any kind of story, you know, whether it be, you know, romance or all action or more of them, or from reality sale, like we're talking about Star Trek, it's just there's something about sci-fi examining the human condition that I take. It's just so ripe for stories. And one of the things that I love to ask writers about their opinion on is, I'm a big believer and you can tell what a society values by the fictions that they create. Absolutely. So, you know, can you kind of expand on that a little bit? I would say that we try to focus on a lot more positive portrayals.

8:20And I think there is all, I mean, in the entertainment industry, like there's a lot of money in crime shows and things that are very grim and things that are very sad. And to the point where it feels like things like lightness and humor and that kind of, like, dramedy is not as valued. And I feel like it should be just as valued. And there are all different types of stories for all different types of people. And yeah, it's uneven, I would say, for sure. No, I think you have made a great point because like if you even just look at something as simple as the Oscars, like as a comedy ever one, maybe once if you're lucky, like they don't, it doesn't carry the same quote unquote prestige with people. They look down on certain genres like sci-fi, like fantasy, no fantasy thing I'd ever gotten anywhere until Lord of the Rings, right, with the Oscars. And so it's like just because something is in a different genre does not mean it is lesser,

9:23just because something is a lighter tone, does not mean it is not as important or valuable as something with the grim or darker tone. Like we need that balance. If everything is all grim dark all the time, we're all going to be so sad. Yeah, we could just look outside the window if we want to see. There's plenty of that. It's so frustrating to see. I mean, even from when I was young, it would simply be going backwards and I just don't, you know, it's so frustrating and I'm sure you know, you've been from the queer community, you've been from the trans community, you've been feeling, I'm living life on the easy mode as a cis guy. So I get that. But it's just it's so frustrating even for me. So I can imagine the frustration that you two feel at times. But again, I just think it's so important to, and then this is the perfect environment for us. And it would come a con to remember we're all part of a community. You get back from the world what you put out into it. So I appreciate that you are trying to tell those, those type of stories. But on that note, I do want to call that one thing. So this, here, a, a scenario in situation that the voidier found itself in and they're

10:30almost home. And then you guys throw one more roadblock in their way. I mean, it was a delightful roadblock. Like it fit in so perfectly. Like, like, like, when you look at voidier as a whole, nothing ever goes right for the show. And so it felt very thematically appropriate that as they're about to get home, nothing goes right for them. But then they eventually do get home finally. So. But remember the second thing I was like, voids you're got home too clean. That ship should have been a mess. So we messed it up. Yeah. We got a mess this up. It looks like, come on. It should have been made from other ship parts by the time they got home. That's what I felt like. Hmm. Because they didn't have pieces for repair. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Good point. Yeah. Yeah. Like when you take a big road trip or class of adventure in your car, just to have that inside of you. You know, met writing Star Trek fan fiction. I imagine this was sort of a dream project. I'm curious. The story that eventually came out because I heard it said that it wasn't necessarily

11:32undying first. Oh. Is that true? Yes. We did pitch some others. The one thing we said at first was, let's not do the board. Voidier did the board a lot. Let's not make it a board thing. Not it. This is the main adversary. Right. But 8472 was delightful because then we were actually like doing some research and going back to those voids or episodes and we're like, wow, there's like not that many. There were only three. But really that was like a practical limitation because 8472 was a CG character in the 90s, which was, I'm sure, incredibly expensive. Yeah. So that was really fun too because we were like, we're going to make this like the most expensive episode that could have never, ever been made. Like that was super fun. Yeah, but I think even more fun than that and having an unlimited special effects budget and make up and costuming budget was that we got to explore species 8472 in ways that the show didn't ever get to.

12:32And so we got to say, what is their culture like? What is life like for them? We got to explore that a little bit and getting to add to the universe in that way was like really, really cool and really meaningful to us to get to be the ones that said, let's see what their society is like a little bit and get to come up with that all on our own. And apparently, the Paramount had to approve it, but you know, it was our ideas. So yeah, but I mean, though a freedom in that way, hey, the, here's the source right in these three episodes, but kind of the sky's the limit. How did you come up with the ideas? Was it bouncing off of each other or just sitting around talking about it and say that will work? Usually that's how we come up with everything. Yeah, we're just, we sit there and think, what would be cool? And if that thing is cool, how would we make that work and how would it fit into the story? What if it into the story? Do we need to toss it and find something that fits a little better? So it, there's always a lot of back and forth with our, and be like, oh, we got to check that episode. And we go back. Yeah. Yeah. How was fan, how was fan rich? I mean, Star Trek has a very rapid fan base. Sure does. I think there was a lot of great response to it and a lot of people, especially the final

13:37issue when they got home and they got the reunions. There were some really touching responses that I saw that it meant a lot to a lot of people, which was great. And there were some people that it didn't live up to what they hoped for, which I think is going to happen because it's a 30 year old show. And from that finale, you never got to see those reunions. And so everyone imagined what they were going to be for three decades all on their own. And we can't live up to everybody's own ideas. So we did the best that we could. And so, but for me, like, the response to it has been really, really gratifying. And I think also like some people were mad. It wasn't just tugs, like for five-ish. Yeah. I did. I would not approve five issues of hugs. That's not really a story. It's not a story. We had to come up with something. So that was definitely a critique that came across because people really did want to see those reunions. And I mean, we just basically wrote a whole new ending for the show, which is wild. Yeah. It really is. You also have been involved with the Star Trek adventures game, which, you know, if you're

14:37a Star Trek fan and you don't like the stories that have been told, hey, there's the perfect outlet to tell and go make your own. Yeah. That's amazing. We both play the game. Yeah. So what's it been like to, you know, to be a part of that? And have you ever had any fans come up and tell you about their campaigns? No, but we have heard from fans who have played some of the ones that we've written. And that's really fascinating to see the different ways that their players approached the scenarios that we came up with because game writing is very much like comic writing or script writing except you're only writing part of it because the players are writing the other half of the story. And you know what they're going to do. And that's one of my constant joys and also frustrations as a game master is that you never, no matter how much I plan, I never know what my players are going to do. I cannot cover all contingencies. They're too unpredictable. And I love that, but it also makes it a little tough. And also almost all the players are professional writers in our games. Yes. Quite a hurdle. It is. It is.

15:38Yeah. You've played a hard mode. Yeah, you think you have them in a box so they're sure to get out of it that you didn't think of. Yeah, it's amazing. Sometimes at the end of a session and you're like, I can't believe you didn't go to that planet. I spent like hours figuring out that planet. I've got that for a while. Oh, I've got there. I've got their city. I've got their geography down. I know what their religion is like. And I were like, we're going to go somewhere else. So I'm going to pull it into an adventure three months down the line. Fantastic. Well, thank you too so much for taking the time. It's like a little Star Trek and story and how much representation matters. Anything else you want to share with our audience as we're one down here? I'll sort of leave first. Um, the Star Trek Voyager Homecoming Trade Paperback is out August 18th from IDW. So that's a whole five issue story. I'll collect it in one. So you can, you can see them go home. A great death for any Star Trek band. Yeah, sure. What about you, Susan? Any last thoughts? Well, we also have a YA queer graphic novel coming out.

16:41It's a romcom romcom. Yeah, October, October August. What is 18? No, fourth August. I get 18. There's the whole coming back. Yeah, get the August. I'm so sorry. I'm professionals. Yes, we've had a lot going on. Um, a YA queer graphic novel romcom romcom out August 4th, called just another summer. Yes. And it is very sweet and uplifting. And there's some Star Trek in there too. There is a little Star Trek out there. Because we have to be up. We have to be up. It's great. Well, again, thank you too so much for joining us. Everybody out there in the audience with your little sonata. You're only checking us out on YouTube. We appreciate it. And we'll talk to you next time.