When it comes to cop dramas, few names carry the same weight as Titus Welliver, who has spent the better part of the last decade playing Harry Bosch. What makes his rise to prominence even more impressive is that most of the world’s most popular police procedurals came from network TV — Welliver was one of the first actors to commit to bringing a great cop drama to life on streaming, which he did thanks to Prime Video. Welliver first played Bosch all the way back in 2014, where he starred as the LA-based detective for seven seasons in the show of the same name. Bosch went off the air in 2021, but fans didn’t have to wait long to see Welliver return to the role in Bosch: Legacy, which even saw him team up with one of his arch-rivals.

Most fans felt that Bosch: Legacy was poised to be the perfect replacement series for the original Bosch, but those same viewers were devastated when it was canceled after only three seasons. What made it more tough to swallow was that it didn’t feel like a natural end to the character, more a studio-based decision that didn’t sit right with fans. Now two years removed from a single episode of Bosch: Legacy hitting Prime Video, fans continue to show why the series should never have been canceled in the first place. Bosch: Legacy has surged back into the streaming top 10 as fans anxiously await the arrival of Ballard Season 2. After featuring in a few episodes of Ballard Season 1, Welliver is confirmed to return in the second season of the spin-off series.

What Is the Bosch Spin-Off ‘Ballard’ About?

The official synopsis for Ballard, which is led by Maggie Q, reads as follows:

“Detective Renée Ballard leads the LAPD’s new and underfunded cold case division, tackling the city’s most challenging long-forgotten crimes with empathy and relentless determination. As she peels back layers of crimes spanning decades — including a serial killer’s string of murders and a murdered John Doe — she soon uncovers a dangerous conspiracy within the LAPD. With the help of her volunteer team and retired detective Harry Bosch, Detective Ballard navigates personal trauma, professional challenges, and life-threatening dangers to expose the truth.”

Prime Video is also actively developing a new Bosch prequel series, Start of Watch, which will give fans a look inside Bosch’s younger days. Welliver is not involved with the show in any capacity, but Amazon has recruited Cameron Monaghan to star as a young Harry Bosch in the show. Monaghan is best known for playing Cal Kestis in the Star Wars Jedi video game series.

Check out all episodes of Bosch and Ballard on Prime Video, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of the Bosch universe.

Advertisement

Release Date

Advertisement

2022 – 2025

Network

Prime Video, Amazon Freevee

Advertisement

Showrunner

Eric Overmyer

Advertisement

Directors

Patrick Cady, Alex Zakrzewski, Sharat Raju, Ernest R. Dickerson, Adam Davidson, Kate Woods, Leslie Libman, Tawnia McKiernan, Hagar Ben-Asher, Haifaa al-Mansour

Writers

Advertisement

Chris Wu, Osokwe Vasquez, Benjamin Pitts, Chris Downey, Barbara Curry

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Yellowstone‘s Dutton Ranch spinoff introduced a twist by killing off a surprising character in a gruesome death.

During the Friday, June 12, episode of the hit Paramount+ series, Chet (Hart Denton) was encouraged by Rob-Will (Jai Courtney) to seek revenge for his firing. Chet decided to seek out Joaquin — and even shot him in the hand — before Miguel (Berto Colón) got the chance to take the ranch hand out.

Before his death, Chet worked at 10 Petal and was made a foreman before being demoted and fired by Rip (Cole Hauser).

Yellowstone initially introduced viewers to the Dutton family in 2018. The Paramount Network show came to an end in 2024, expanding its universe with Luke Grimes’ CBS show Marshals and Dutton Ranch, which premiered in May.

Dutton Ranch has introduced some new characters played by Annette Bening and Ed Harris. Other newcomers include Courtney, Natalie Alyn Lind, Pablo Raba, J. R. Villarreal — and Marc Menchaca‘s Zachariah.

Earlier this month, Menchaca weighed in on whether the deadly twists on the show had him worried about his character Zachariah’s fate, telling Us, “It’s always a possibility — and I have a pretty good track record of saying bye bye on a show.”

Menchaca poked fun at his bad luck on screen.

“My wife [Lena Headey] made a death reel for me for my birthday this last year. It was about 10 minutes and it didn’t even have all my deaths,” he quipped. “So I was a little bit [worried].”

He continued: “I was like, ‘They may take me out so I better get on everybody’s good side.’ Hopefully it won’t happen but the way things are now, you get these scripts just a little bit before. Then you start going through and you’re like, ‘Is it gonna happen next scene?’ Thankfully it has not [yet].”

Filming Dutton Ranch allowed Menchaca to connect with his roots.

Thank You!

You have successfully subscribed.

“I grew up that life. I just took from ranchers that I worked for,” he shared. “I wanted to be a team roper when I was a kid and it brought my childhood back to me.”

Looking ahead, Menchaca teased what is yet to come, adding, “Obviously there’s going to be tension. It definitely creates tension and we will find out that there are some things about the 10 Petal that are unbecoming of a country boy.”

Dutton Ranch airs Fridays on Paramount+.

By Chris Sawin
| Updated 19 seconds ago

Aliens have existed for a very long time in Disclosure Day, and there’s proof of that. On the one hand, the Wardex Corporation, part of the U.S. Government and secretly assigned to extraterrestrial investigations, wants to keep that evidence from reaching the public. On the other hand, a former Wardex employee named Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo) leads a revolution to release that information to the masses worldwide. People have a right to know, regardless of how it affects them, once they do.

Caught in the middle of Wardex and Hugo’s obsession with revealing the truth is Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor), a cybersecurity expert running around with what is seemingly all of the government’s extraterrestrial evidence in his backpack. Daniel rescues his girlfriend Jane Blankenship (Eve Hewson) at the beginning of the film, and she tags along or shows up whenever it’s convenient to the storyline. Jane is a former nun solely so Disclosure Day can make comparisons to religion and whether aliens existing and being revealed to the public is blasphemous or not.  

Leading Wardex is Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), a man who insists on using alien technology to catch up to Daniel, even though it is clearly killing him. The film introduces a gray crystal the size of a travel toothbrush holder that allows the user to telepathically control and communicate with others.

As Daniel contemplates just dumping everything he has online as he flees, a Kansas City TV meteorologist named Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) speaks alien dialect on the air and gains the ability to know everything about someone just by looking into their eyes. Margaret and Daniel are connected in a way that will be key in the mission to reveal aliens to the world.

No Surface Is That Reflective

There are a few things Disclosure Day does right. It isn’t fair to say that Steven Spielberg is a hack or has lost just about everything that made much of his previous work enjoyable, because certain elements still suggest otherwise. Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski returns to work with Spielberg for the 19th time, and it shows as the film looks incredible.

The car chase sequence where Wardex finds Daniel and Jane at the farmhouse is a highlight of the film. As Daniel sneaks around the field, the camera impressively waltzes through and around a fence. The sequence is stitched together as a one-take, and it makes you wonder if there are any hidden cuts because it’s executed so well.

The film has an obsession with lens flares and brightly lit background windows, though. Like, if J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg got into a lens-flare-off, it would be like staring at the sun until our eyes exploded. It’s every major sequence for the first half of Disclosure Day, though. It’s an odd choice since the film is like 93% dialogue, and everything around them can’t be that reflective or take place during that time of day.

As a science fiction film, though, Disclosure Day is a chore to sit through. Clocking in at just under two and a half hours, the film is congested with dialogue. You expect a certain amount of exposition in a film to set the story or eventually lead to something worthwhile. Disclosure Day is all exposition and no payoff. The way the film concludes is so melodramatic and unsatisfying. It feels like Steven Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp were going for how we, as a species, would react if certifiable extraterrestrial proof were unveiled like this.

But all Disclosure Day does is remind you of how stupid the human race actually is. The final moment before the film cuts to black is infuriating, as well. You’ve waited two and a half hours for this moment, and it’s cut short for either obnoxious ambiguity or a potential unwanted sequel. It’s wild that David Koepp wrote 42 drafts of the screenplay, and this is what he landed on.

Awkwardness Abounds

There’s an awkwardness to Steven Spielberg films in the way they’re written that I can’t tell is universally accepted by those who adore his work or goes unnoticed with his status as a well-known director. The attempts at humor are often lame, while the character interactions are overwhelmingly corny. Disclosure Day is no different, and it’s even more irksome because the film feels so long.

Here’s this long-winded and torturous stretch of dialogue with the only reward being a smart ass glance from across the room, a bad attempt at a joke that is total cringe, or body language that is offensively embarrassing for everyone involved. It feels like an intentional dick move you can’t escape from. Disclosure Day is like being trapped in the spiked room in Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom while somebody dry humps one of the spikes as a spike pierces your brain and says something like, “At least I’ll have more leg room on airplanes,” right before you’re crushed to death. It’s trash.

It doesn’t help that the people we’re forced to tag along with for most of the film are selfish, annoying pricks. Margaret has a boyfriend named Jackson (Wyatt Russell) who is such a gigantic POS. Margaret dreams of being a serious news anchor, but is currently stuck dancing and acting a fool while showcasing the weather. She wants to move even though they just got settled in Kansas City, and Jackson doesn’t want to because he has his music and he just scored performances two days a week locally.

To make matters worse, he doesn’t want Margaret to succeed or move on because he likes seeing her dance on television. Screw aliens and career advancement since Margaret gives Jackson boners now. After Margaret learns things she shouldn’t, Jackson worries about the dumbest things that don’t matter while something that affects the entire world is going on. She starts talking about Daniel, and he thinks it’s an ex-boyfriend, and he lies to her and does something that would have derailed the entire story if he had succeeded.

Meanwhile, Emily Blunt overacts, Josh O’Connor underacts, and Colin Firth stumbles around the entire film with that look on his face like he crapped his pants and is now trying to hide it because he can’t go home and change. But everyone knows, Colin. Everyone knows.

The filmmaking aspects of Disclosure Day are impressive, and they should be, considering Steven Spielberg’s illustrious career and the people he continues to work with, but the story feels so elongated for no reason, with no real conclusion, and the dialogue and humor are so awful when there is so much of each.

Disclosure Day is playing in theaters.

Carson Rowland’s absence from Sweet Magnolias has sparked backlash from fans, but the actor has been busy working on a new project — and it’s finally been revealed.

Rowland, 28, will have a “recurring role” on NBC’s The Rockford Files, Deadline reported on Thursday, June 11.

While Rowland’s character on the reboot has not been shared, the show was picked up to series by NBC last month.

The Rockford Files initially aired from 1974 to 1980 starring James Garner as former inmate turned private investigator, Jim Rockford.

Related: ‘Sweet Magnolias’ Showrunner Confirms Ty’s Exit Ahead of Season 5 Premiere

Sweet Magnolias is gearing up for its big season 5 return — but Serenity, South Carolina, will be missing one familiar face. Showrunner Sheryl J. Anderson exclusively confirmed to Us Weekly ahead of the show’s Thursday, June 11, premiere that Carson Rowland, who portrays Tyler “Ty” Townsend, made the “decision” to sit out on the […]

In the new iteration, David Boreanaz will portray the lead. Felix Solis and Jacki Weaver have also been announced as part of the cast, playing Jim’s best friend, Nitty, and trailer park neighbor Karma, respectively.

According to the logline, the new series follows Jim Rockford after he’s been “newly paroled for a crime he didn’t commit, who returns to work as a private investigator in Los Angeles but finds himself targeted by both police and organized crime.”

While Rowland hasn’t publicly confirmed his part on The Rockford Files, he’s hinted that he’s back to work via social media in recent weeks.

“I’m alive. Promise!” Rowland wrote via Instagram on May 28, sharing a series of photos, including one picture of him on camera shooting something.

In addition to filming The Rockford Files pilot, Rowland recently shot three independent movies, according to Deadline, which have not been released.

The actor’s future on Sweet Magnolias, meanwhile, is still up in the air after his character, Ty, was missing from most of season 4.

Related: Why Fans Think Sweet Magnolia’s Carson Rowland Has Joined ‘Off Campus’ Cast

After it was revealed that Carson Rowland won’t be returning for season 5 of Netflix’s Sweet Magnolias, many fans are now convinced that he may be joining season 2 of Amazon Prime’s hit series Off Campus as Jake. Sweet Magnolias showrunner Sheryl J. Anderson exclusively confirmed to Us Weekly that Rowland, who portrays Tyler “Ty” […]

His absence was explained by Ty — who is Maddie Townsend’s (JoAnna Garcia Swisher) eldest son — going on tour with bandmate Olivia (Tommi Rose). He even missed girlfriend Annie’s (Anneliese Judge) graduation, which led her to break up with him via text.

When season 5 premiered on June 11, fans were surprised that Ty wasn’t present at all. However, he was on the minds of viewers after Annie received a “miss you” text out of the blue.

Showrunner Sheryl J. Anderson told Deadline this month that the text and missed FaceTime message from Ty could spell a return for Rowland’s character down the line.

“We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?,” Anderson teased.

Advertisement

Related: ‘Sweet Magnolias’ Showrunner Talks Season 5 Without Ty, Teases Show’s Future

Serenity saw some major shakeups throughout Sweet Magnolias season 5 — and series showrunner Sheryl J. Anderson is breaking down every twist for Us. Warning: Major spoilers below for season 5 of Sweet Magnolias.  For years, Sweet Magnolias has followed lifelong best friends Maddie Townsend (JoAnna Garcia Swisher), Dana Sue Sullivan (Brooke Elliott) and Helen […]

She noted that the writers wanted to “give that story emotional weight, stakes, consequences,” for Annie, explaining that “to just pretend that nobody thinks about him, nobody asks about him, and that he’s not thinking about them would have been insincere, I believe.”

Thank You!

You have successfully subscribed.

Advertisement

Anderson added, “He’s still out there trying to figure out what happens next, she’s still in Serenity trying to figure out what happens next. And again, open doors we hope will lead to new information, different resolutions. Love isn’t cut and dry. You don’t just wake up one morning and say, I don’t love this person anymore, and move on. It takes time.”

Only time will tell if Rowland returned to Sweet Magnolias for season 6, but for now he’s focused on his new projects and life as a father of two.

Carson announced in October 2025 that his wife, Maris Rowland, gave birth to their second baby, a son named Asa. The couple, who tied the knot in 2021, also share 2-year-old daughter Eden.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s famous family includes more than her children.

The Oscar winner is the daughter of Hollywood royalty Blythe Danner and Bruce Paltrow. Gwyneth also has a brother named Jake Paltrow, who also followed in their parents’ famous footsteps.

Gwyneth married Coldplay singer Chris Martin in 2003. The pair welcomed daughter Apple and son Moses in May 2004 and April 2006, respectively. The actress and Martin split in 2014 after more than a decade of marriage.

Amid her divorce from Martin, Gwyneth moved on with Brad Falchuk. The duo wed in 2018. The couple have a blended family as Falchuk is stepfather to Apple and Moses while Gwyneth is stepmother to the producer’s daughter Isabella and son Brody, whom he shares with ex-wife Suzanne Bukinik.

Keep scrolling for a complete guide on Gwyneth’s family:

Blythe Danner

Gwyneth seemingly followed in her mother’s footsteps and Danner is an actress as well. Danner made her acting debut in the 1970 TV film George M!. She’s appeared in multiple projects since, including Adam’s Rib, The Great Santini, Mr. & Mrs. Bridge, The X-Files, Meet the Parents, Will & Grace and more.

Danner won two Emmys for her supporting role on the TV series Huff. She also won a Tony for Butterflies Are Free.

Bruce Paltrow

Gwyneth’s father was a director and producer. Bruce worked on the TV shows The White Shadow, St. Elsewhere, Tattinger’s as well as films A Little Sex and Duets.

In 1999, Bruce was diagnosed with oral cancer. He died at age 58 in 2002 while on vacation in Italy with his family for Gwyneth’s birthday. Bruce’s cause of death was due to complications from oral cancer and pneumonia. Gwyneth’s grief of losing her father inspired Martin to write “Fix You” and Coldplay’s album X&Y was dedicated to Bruce.

Jake Paltrow

Jake is Gwyneth’s sole sibling. Her brother followed in their dad’s footsteps as he pursued a career behind the camera. Jake is a director and writer who has worked on NYPD Blue, The Good Night, Young Ones, Boardwalk Empire and more.

In 2010, Jake wed wife Taryn Simon. The couple share two children.

Apple Martin

Gwyneth and Chris welcomed daughter Apple in May 2004. Apple graduated from Vanderbilt University in May 2026. She has pursued modeling with campaigns for Gap and walking the runway for Chanel. Apple will make her acting debut in an upcoming Nancy Myers film.

Moses Martin

Gwyneth gave birth to Moses in April 2006. Moses is a student at Brown University. He is also in the band People I’ve Met.

Brad Falchuk

Gwyneth and Falchuk first crossed paths on the set of Glee in 2010 but things didn’t turn romantic until four years later. The couple tied the knot in 2018.

Thank You!

You have successfully subscribed.

Following their nuptials, Gwyneth and Falchuk worked together on the series The Politician. Gwyneth starred in the Netflix series while Falchuk wrote and produced it.

Isabella ‘Izzy’ Falchuk

Izzy is Brad’s daughter from his first marriage and Gwyneth’s stepdaughter. According to her LinkedIn page, she studied performing and media arts at Cornell University. She has previously interned at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Warner Bros. and the office of Senator Cory Booker.

Brody Falchuk

Brody is Brad’s son and stepson to Gwyneth. He is a student at Yale.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated 31 seconds ago

The upcoming Supergirl film is going to be much more of a cosmic adventure than Superman (2025), with the Woman of Steel traveling the stars to help her faithful pooch, Krypto. That means we can look forward to seeing many wild alien designs onscreen, including that of Jason Momoa’s Lobo. Supergirl is only the second feature film in James Gunn’s growing DCU, and it looks like it’s going to stretch the boundaries of this cinematic universe further than ever. Recently, though, DC got in trouble for flying Supergirl into a very familiar galaxy far, far away.

With Supergirl about to fly into theaters on June 26, DC has been doing all kinds of things to promote the upcoming film. This includes selling various licensed collectibles, one of which was a metal print of Millie Alcock’s Supergirl surrounded by many of the wild aliens she encountered in the film. It’s a beautiful print, but there was just one problem: the artist included Lexo Sooger, who is the most obscure character in Star Wars. Obscure or not, though, that’s a character owned by Disney, and DC subsequently removed the metal print from their online store for fear of legal action.

Up, Up, And Away (From A Lawsuit)

The promotional art print above is drawn by Bilquis Evely, one of the artists who worked on the Woman of Tomorrow comic that Supergirl’s story is based on. In the print, we can see Alcock’s Woman of Steel surrounded by several wacky alien designs. The one that got DC in trouble, however, is the hunched-over dude, wormy dude behind her with the blinged-out necklace. As it turns out, this is Lexo Sooger, an obscure Star Wars character. How obscure are we talking? He was only featured in the deleted scenes for The Last Jedi, meaning that the vast majority of Star Wars fans have never seen or even heard of this guy.

Once DC realized this artwork featured a Star Wars character, they stopped selling the metal print and removed its page from their online store. How, though, did a character from a galaxy far, far away end up on Supergirl artwork in the first place? It’s not actually the artist’s fault. According to IGN, Evely was sent images of Lexo Sooger for reference when designing this print. While neither she nor DC has publicly commented on this snafu, it seems like whoever sent the reference image is the one to blame.

Somehow, Lex Sooger Returned

However, that unnamed person may have simply made an understandable mistake. You see, one of the weird aliens in Supergirl looks a lot like the aforementioned Star Wars character: gold necklace, white robe, and long neck. It’s possible that whoever provided the reference image really thought Lexo Sooger was the Supergirl character. Or, more pessimistically, it’s possible that the alien in the film was originally a rip-off of Sooger, and the designer thought the Star Wars character was too obscure for anyone to notice.

If that’s the case, they forgot the first rule of online fandoms: somebody always notices. At any rate, what’s done is done. DC stopped selling the print (which has now, hilariously, become a collector’s item), and Disney hasn’t taken any action against either DC or Warner Bros. Supergirl is scheduled to superhero land in theaters on June 26, where we’ll get to see the weird alien who looks just like a forgotten Star Wars character. Here’s hoping that Millie Alcock takes one look at him before staring right into the camera and uttering those four immortal words every fan wants to hear: “somehow, Lex Sooger returned.”

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 16 seconds ago

When Star Trek: The Next Generation came to the big screen, it mostly followed in the footsteps of the movies that came before. The films based on The Original Series established a strange pattern where the odd-numbered films were weaker and the even-numbered films were stronger. The Motion Picture was slow and plodding, for example, while The Wrath of Khan was exciting and action-packed. As for the TNG crew’s movies, Generations was an uneven, nostalgic mess, while First Contact was an unqualified banger. When Insurrection turned out to be nothing more than a prolonged episode of Next Generation, fans consoled themselves that the next, even-numbered film would blow us all away.

Sadly, Star Trek: Nemesis was a trainwreck that brought the TNG movies to a crashing halt and very nearly killed the franchise. Now, nearly a quarter of a century later, fans are still debating where that ambitious movie (Picard fights an evil clone played by Tom Hardy!) went wrong. We don’t have to wonder any longer, though. On Jonathan Frakes’ and Brent Spiner’s hit podcast, they recently had Nemesis alumnus Ron Perlman as a guest. They all took turns blaming that movie’s failure on director Stuart Baird, whom Perlman decried in the bluntest possible way: “He was not a director, he was a f***ing editor that the studio owed a favor to.”

A Head-To-Head Podcast

In case you don’t know, Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner have a new-ish podcast, Dropping Names With Brent and Jonny. It’s not designed as a Star Trek podcast, but the two of them keep hosting guests from the franchise that made them both famous. In a recent episode, they hosted Ron Perlman, the Hellboy actor who appeared in Star Trek: Nemesis as a creepy Reman. Once the conversation turned to Nemesis, Perlman didn’t pull any punches regarding director Stuart Baird, someone he said that the Star Trek: Nemesis cast agreed had “had no people skills whatsoever.”

After this, Perlman kept going, declaring that Baird “was not a director, he was a f***ing editor that the studio owed a favor to.” Elaborating, Perlman claimed that Baird “saved a lot of their turkeys. They would bring him in when they had a turkey, and he would recut it and turn it watchable. So he was a very talented editor, but he was not a director… He’s not a filmmaker.” This is in reference to Baird being an acclaimed editor who had previously worked on fan-favorite movies like Lethal Weapon and the original Superman. Later, he worked on two of the best modern James Bond films: Casino Royale and Skyfall.

When Hell Met Boy

As for the two Star Trek: The Next Generation actors, Brent Spiner was more moderate in his criticism: he agreed that Bair “was not a director” but gave the man his props as an editor. This is fair, really: Baird might have been the worst possible choice for directing Nemesis, but his killer editing work for some of the coolest franchises in the world earns him a place in the geek hall of fame. Frakes was more direct in his criticism, noting that Baird turned down offers of advice from himself and Patrick Stewart “because we’d done 182 episodes and three movies together.” However, the director “was not interested in talking to us at all about how we rolled.”

Pretty much everyone in the room agreed that Baird was a very gifted editor. However, Ron Perlman was convinced that such an inexperienced director getting the job was an indication that Paramount had no respect for Star Trek: Nemesis or the skills it would take to bring that movie to life. “[It’s] that attitude, like, ‘anybody can do this, you know, let’s just give it to that guy.’”

I’m Sensing A Terrible Director, Captain

Regardless of who you blame, Nemesis was arguably the worst movie in Star Trek history. Its critical and commercial failure spelled the end of the films featuring the Next Generation crew. When the franchise did come back, it was in the form of Star Trek (2009), a complete reboot of The Original Series. Weirdly enough, that movie also featured the Enterprise fighting an advanced Romulan warship led by a bald, charismatic commander. Such a creative rip-off might make you wonder if JJ Abrams (Trek’s filmmaker) was ever a very good director. But at least he’s a good editor, right?

I mean, one who forgot to remove all those lens flares. Oh, and forgot to make The Rise of Skywalker make any sense. But, uh, otherwise gifted, we promise! 

Next year, Star Trek will have been on the air for sixty years. Fourteen movies and almost a thousand TV episodes later, the franchise can still look back to the very first episode that was ever aired, “The Man Trap,” for inspiration. Its blend of science fiction, horror, action, and thoughtful introspection set the show on the past that it would ultimately follow for six decades. It all started with the death of one character who was never really seen on-screen: Nancy Crater.

Star Trek: The Original Series premiered on NBC on September 8, 1966, with “The Man Trap,” a tale of lost love, extinction, and salt vampires. The brainchild of Gene Roddenberry, it introduced viewers to a cast of characters who are still gracing televisions to this day: William Shatner‘s stalwart Captain James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy‘s stoic, logical Mr. Spock, and DeForest Kelley‘s cantankerous, hot-headed Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy. Although it was ultimately cancelled after three seasons, it would accrue a legion of fans, living on in syndication and spin-offs to this day.

What Was the First Episode of ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’?

However, “The Man Trap” wasn’t even supposed to be the first episode of Star Trek. The first pilot for Star Trek was “The Cage”: it starred Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike, and was rejected by the network. However, Lucille Ball, whose studio, Desilu, was producing the series, still thought the project had legs and commissioned a second pilot. That episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” replaced Pike with Shatner’s James Kirk, and won over the network; parts of “The Cage” would later be used in a two-part episode, “The Menagerie,” which established Pike as Kirk’s predecessor.

However, when it came time to decide what episode would be broadcast first, there was some debate. “Where No Man Has Gone Before” had too much exposition, and another episode, “Mudd’s Women,” was seen as too salacious. Thanks to its horror elements, “The Man Trap” was chosen as the series’ pilot.

What Was TV Horror Like in the 1960s?

On TV, horror was the domain of The Twilight Zone and its rival, The Outer Limits. The Twilight Zone was the brainchild of Rod Serling, who was Roddenberry’s longtime friend, and had ended its run in 1964 after five seasons; both Nimoy and Shatner starred on memorable episodes of the show. George Clayton Johnson, who penned the episode, was a veteran of the series as well; one of his episodes, “Nothing In the Dark,” featuring a young Robert Redford, is one of the series’ most acclaimed entries. However, by 1966, both series were off the air, and a new flavor of horror was in the air.

For decades, horror had been seen solely in black and white. The American horror canon was strictly monochromatic, from the silent horrors of Lon Chaney Sr., to the Universal Monsters of the 1930s and 40s, to Alfred Hitchcock‘s chilling Psycho. However, the genre was moving into color, challenging censors and moral guardians, with the horrors of Britain’s Hammer Film Productions spattering crimson all over movie screens on both sides of the Atlantic. Star Trek was filmed in vibrant color, one of several contemporary series meant to sell color TV sets, and it was about to bring full-color horror to America’s living rooms.

What Happens in ‘The Man Trap’?

Image via NBC

The episode opens with the USS Enterprise paying a visit to the planet M-113 and its only inhabitants: Professor Robert Crater (Alfred Ryder) and his wife, Nancy (Jeanne Bal); years ago, Nancy and Dr. McCoy had been lovers, but they hadn’t seen each other in decades. It’s clear from the start that there’s something unusual about Nancy: Bones sees her in the flower of her youth, Kirk sees her as middle-aged, and Crewman Darnell, who accompanied them, sees her as a different woman entirely. She leads him off alone, and the next time we see him, he’s dead, with his cold flesh covered in lurid sucker-marks.

His death presages the many “redshirts” who would come to gruesome ends in future episodes, although he wears blue. Nancy is the culprit; she’s a shapeshifting vampiric creature, subsisting off salt leeched from living beings. Nancy, disguising herself as another dead crewman, makes her way aboard the Enterprise and begins stalking the ship’s crew. In two tension-filled scenes, it encounters, but does not attack, Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney); befitting the horror tropes of the time, they’re both women, although the Nancy-creature clearly doesn’t discriminate.

What Happened to Nancy Crater?

Image via NBC

Eventually, Kirk and McCoy learn from the half-mad Crater that the real Nancy is long-dead, killed by the very creature that now impersonates her. Desperate for companionship, he allowed the creature to take on her form and kept it alive with salt tablets. We are left to imagine that the comfort the creature provided him was solely emotional; anything more would have been far too horrifying for 1960s network television. After it kills Crater, his usefulness now seemingly at an end, Kirk, Spock, and Bones finally confront the creature aboard the ship, where it reveals its true, monstrous appearance. Here, too, it is a more visceral monster than those featured in its predecessors; it resembles a cross between an ape, a lamprey, and a desiccated human corpse. Spock, whose Vulcan blood makes him unappetizing to the creature, cannot harm it, even with his prodigious strength.

It’s up to Kirk to finally end it once and for all with a phaser blast. However, the creature is not simply a monster to be killed and forgotten about. Professor Crater likened the creature to the American buffalo, which once roamed the plains in vast herds before being exterminated. The creatures exhausted the planet’s salt supplies and died out; the one that impersonated Nancy was apparently the last of its breed. As the episode ends, Kirk ponders having rendered their species extinct, and tells Spock that he was “thinking about the buffalo.”

“The Man Trap” wouldn’t be the last time Star Trek ventured into the horror genre. In The Original Series alone, Psycho‘s Robert Bloch adapted his own “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper” into “Wolf in the Fold,” a tale of the undying spirit of murder, and penned “Catspaw,” a Halloween-themed episode featuring a haunted castle, an eerie pair of aliens, and a sinister black cat. Subsequent series have dabbled in horror, as well, with everything from the corpse-like Borg to a race of mind-controlling, body-invading bugs. Strange New Worlds‘ third season just featured an episode set on a planet inhabited by ravenous, mindless zombies. The blueprint for it all is in “The Man Trap,” the story of a woman who was killed and had her killer take her place by her husband’s side.

All episodes of Star Trek are available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Release Date

1966 – 1969-00-00

Showrunner

Advertisement

Gene Roddenberry

Directors

Marc Daniels, Joseph Pevney, Ralph Senensky, Vincent McEveety, Herb Wallerstein, Jud Taylor, Marvin J. Chomsky, David Alexander, Gerd Oswald, Herschel Daugherty, James Goldstone, Robert Butler, Anton Leader, Gene Nelson, Harvey Hart, Herbert Kenwith, James Komack, John Erman, John Newland, Joseph Sargent, Lawrence Dobkin, Leo Penn, Michael O’Herlihy, Murray Golden

Advertisement

Writers

D.C. Fontana, Jerome Bixby, Arthur Heinemann, David Gerrold, Jerry Sohl, Oliver Crawford, Robert Bloch, David P. Harmon, Don Ingalls, Paul Schneider, Shimon Wincelberg, Steven W. Carabatsos, Theodore Sturgeon, Jean Lisette Aroeste, Art Wallace, Adrian Spies, Barry Trivers, Don Mankiewicz, Edward J. Lakso, Fredric Brown, George Clayton Johnson, George F. Slavin, Gilbert Ralston, Harlan Ellison

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Exes Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula are raising eyebrows after reuniting — and seemingly having a blast together — after taping the In the City reunion.

The estranged couple, who announced their split in January, were photographed on Thursday, June 11, exiting a New York City studio after filming the season 1 reunion of their Bravo show.

In one photo, Kyle, 43, and Amanda, 34, both had big smiles on their faces and were laughing. Amanda appeared to be playfully slapping Kyle’s hand in the picture, which People published on Friday, June 12.

Amanda, who is now dating her and Kyle’s Summer House costar West Wilson, was wearing calf-high suede boots, striped booty shorts and a chambray shirt on the sunny day.

Related: Exes Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula Pose Together at ‘In the City’ Premiere

Kyle Cooke and estranged wife Amanda Batula made their first public appearance together since their drama with Summer House costar West Wilson erupted earlier this year. The former couple — who announced their separation in January — posed together on the red carpet at the New York City premiere for their Summer House spinoff show, […]

Kyle, meanwhile, wore a white button-down shirt, matching white slacks, suede loafers and carried an orange suit coat in his hand.

In a second picture, the exes once again appeared to be joking around and laughing as Kyle lightly wrapped his arm around Amanda’s back.

“I can tell that it’s staged but there isn’t enough #InTheCity promo in the world that would make me excuse this fake s***,” one user wrote via X while reposting the images. “I’m telling you now, if he takes her back I’m done with everybody. ‘Protecting’ Amanda has been Kyle’s control tactic. #SummerHouse.”

Another user tweeted, “I am all for exes being cordial and friendly, this seems a bit far….. he has this weird protective nature towards her that some of us see as being manipulated and/or gaslit. I suspect it is rooted in guilt.”

“UGGHHH!!!! Something is off with this s*** … my brain is sensing we’ve all been dooped here!! 🤣,” a separate user wrote in the comments section of People’s Instagram post. “I need to see all the moving parts DAMMIT!!!”

Another commenter replied, “Does this infuriate anyone else?”

Fans’ frustration over seeing Kyle and Amanda acting cordial comes just days after the three-part Summer House reunion came to an end on Tuesday, June 9, in which the cast called out Amanda and West, 31, for starting a romance behind everyone’s back.

As Summer House viewers know, Kyle and Amanda were married four years before they announced in January that they’d parted ways.

One month later, Amanda sparked rumors that she was hooking up with West after the pair were spotted together on several occasions. (West, for his part, dated Amanda’s former BFF Ciara Miller in 2023 and was cozy with her during summer and fall 2025.)

On March 31, Amanda and West confirmed their romantic relationship sending shockwaves through the cast and the Bravoverse.

The cast reunited in April to film the reunion, which aired from late May through Tuesday’s episode.

Related: ‘Summer House’ Fans Questioned Amanda and West’s Dynamic Before Romance

Summer House fans called out Amanda Batula and West Wilson’s touchy-feely dynamic before the costars confirmed their romance. While most eyes were on Kyle Cooke after he called Amanda a “f***ing dumbass bitch” during the March 24 episode of Summer House, some were fixated on how West, 31, jumped in to defend Amanda, 34, and […]

Advertisement

“We are not using the word ‘love’ right now,” West revealed during part 3 of the reunion, revealing that he had been “monogamous” with Amanda since they released their statement.

Thank You!

You have successfully subscribed.

After both West and Amanda alleged that they didn’t hook up in 2025, Kyle called out West for his betrayal, saying, “I considered you one of the best things to happen to this show because I considered you one of my best friends.”

Kyle admitted when he and Amanda broke up “it was not a good marriage,” but took issue with West “completely” isolating Amanda by pursuing her when she was “vulnerable.”

“I hope that one day probably not all of these friendships will be mended but I do hope some of them can be. That’s a main priority,” West claimed at the end of the reunion, while he and Amanda said they wanted to continue to pursue their relationship.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 2 seconds ago

It’s been a bad year for Doctor Who fans. First, Disney declined to renew their deal with the BBC, meaning that no new seasons featuring Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor. Originally, fans still had a Christmas Special to look forward to, but the BBC revealed this week that the special was canceled and they had parted ways with showrunner Russell T. Davies and his production company. That means the show will be off the air for years as the BBC tries to find a new showrunner, a new lead actor, and (most importantly) a new production company that could finance a relatively expensive, effects-heavy show like Doctor Who. 

Understandably, the fandom is upset that we’ll be without new Doctor Who for several long years. Fans are also angry because the cancellation of the show and the Christmas Special means we won’t get a follow-up to the big reveal at the end of the most recent season. That last episode showed Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor somehow regenerating into Billie Piper’s Rose character. Now, we may never figure out what was up with that or another major cliffhanger involving the Doctor’s granddaughter. There may be a silver lining to the show’s cancellation, though: thanks to some parallel dialogue involving a favorite Companion, the show begins and ends on perfect notes!

War Of The Roses

Why are fans so angry that we won’t be getting new Doctor Who anytime soon? The main source of annoyance is that the most recent season laid out some huge mysteries that will likely never pay off. For instance, Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter, appeared and told the Doctor to find her. This is a character that hadn’t appeared onscreen in decades, so her reappearance made for a tantalizing mystery. Additionally, Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor regenerated into the body of Rose (played by Billie Piper). It’s not explained why this happened or whether she is really the Doctor or not. That’s yet another mystery likely to go forever unsolved.

However, thanks to the untimely cancellation of the 2005 Doctor Who series, the show accidentally has the perfect beginning and ending. In the debut episode “Rose,” the titular character has the very first line, saying “Bye!” to her mother. And in the final episode, “The Reality War,” the Doctor regenerates into Rose’s body, and she gets the final word of an entire era: “Hello!” Obviously, there’s some weird parallelism between the episodes, with the same character bidding goodbye to someone she knows in the very beginning and saying hello to everyone she doesn’t know at the end. Given that Russell T. Davies was the showrunner for both these episodes, the similarities are likely intentional.

What’s It All Mean?

What could the similarities mean, though? Maybe the parallel dialogue is a hint that we are seeing the reappearance of her Bad Wolf form. Alternatively, the dialogue may be symbolic of the character’s journey. In “Rose,” she was all too happy to leave her mundane life behind to go on cosmic adventures with the Doctor. Bidding goodbye to her mother may symbolize her departure from normie life into an adulthood that spans all of time and space. Later, Rose embraced a normal life with a normal copy of the Doctor in a parallel universe. Maybe her older self’s “hello!” symbolizes her willingness to embrace timey-wimey adventures yet again.

Or, it could just be a coincidence. “Hello” and “goodbye” are very mundane words, and they may have been written simply to represent Rose’s comings and goings. Still, “The Reality War” helps create a perfect bookend for the 2005 era of Doctor Who. With the same character possibly talking to herself across the decades, the parallelism between this script and “Rose” means that Doctor Who has a perfect beginning and ending. Plus, mundane dialogue aside, each episode has a secret weapon: the sudden appearance of Billie Piper, one of the sexiest women in sci-fi history. Bad dialogue? Forget about it. When she’s onscreen, they can let this lovely lady say whatever she wants!