On Sept. 8 the enduring “Star Trek” will be saluting its 60th anniversary. The U.S.S. Enterprise hasn’t sputtered yet. It’s still exploring the universe as “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” orbits on Paramount+ for its final six episodes.

Is there more to be discovered in this hugely popular galaxy? It’s anybody’s guess, says Henry Alonso Myers, one of the series showrunners.“I can tell you that by the end of the series, we will go on a journey that sends us towards the things that we know are gonna happen. But hopefully, for all of our viewers, there will be some surprises that hit on the way. Why should we show you the thing that you already know? We want to show you the thing that you don’t know.”

The things that we don’t know are the elements that keep shows like “Star Trek,” “’Star Trek: Star Fleet Academy,” “Star Wars,” “Dr. Who,” “Stargate” and “The X-Files,” blasting off.

Anson Mount, who plays the decisive Captain Pike in the series, says he had no idea what he was getting into when he began.“I knew very little when showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers and I first started talking about the character.

“I said, ‘I know that, if Kirk was machismo and Picard was the intellect, I want Pike to represent the heart. I know that he struggles with impatience, and I know that when any member of the crew comes to talk to him about anything, everything on his desk gets sweeped aside. And he is full focused on that person because he’s smart enough to know that his greatest asset is his crew.’

“I knew that I wanted to continue this idea of him turning the bridge into sort of a ‘bigger mind, best-idea-wins’ kind of thing,” he says. “I’d discovered that it just makes for more exciting bridge scenes, for one. And I just think it’s dynamic. And they kind of took that and ran with it, and I really appreciated that.”

Mount, who’s known for his role as the vengeful Johnny Reb in “Hell on Wheels,” admits, “It’s hard for me to do anything unless I put myself into it 150 percent, so it’s all or nothing for me.”

That doesn’t mean he’s a perfectionist, he insists.“You give it 100 percent then you have to let it go. I wouldn’t be sane if I were a perfectionist. You have to be able to get to the point as a professional to walk into an audition and throw your pages into the trash and go on. Otherwise, you'll go nuts.”

He continues, “But I’m actor, I work for myself. So now I plan my life the way I want to live it, and if a job comes up, I decide if I want to do the job. And if I want to do the job, I do the job. There are times when I’ve canceled my vacations and times when I’ve turned down jobs. You’ve got to live your life.”

Rebecca Romijn, who plays Pike’s second-in-command, reports, “’Star Trek’ has been a very generational thing for me and my family. I was introduced to ‘Star Trek,’ the original series in reruns when I was about 7or 8 by my mom. It was a jumping-off point for a lot of conversation about the universe and exploration and whether or not we’re alone in this universe. And as my mom would say, ‘Of course we’re not.’”

People prove constantly fascinated by tales that take us “where no man has gone before.” Mount thinks, “There’s something in us that is fascinated by the horizon. If you look at our space programs, on the page, they’re a terrible idea. You’re gonna spend billions of dollars to send someone to walk on the moon? Why? Right? But at the same time, everybody on the planet ... I would say 99.9 percent agree that we should be doing that. That’s a very strange thing, when you think about it.

“But we are driven to see what’s over the horizon, or to walk away from the firelight to see what’s in the darkness. And that’s what science fiction helps us to do imaginatively and thereby becomes a platform for real things here and now to talk about.”

Goldsman adds, “I will follow on from what Anson said. I think that science fiction is a carnival mirror. It lets us see parts of ourselves, our culture, our character in ways that feel too unsafe when we do it in straight drama. When we look at the world around us today, there’s a tremendous amount of pain and suffering, and I think that was true when ‘Star Trek’ began in the ’60s.

“What ‘Star Trek’ can do in a very particular, unique, and beautiful way is to show us ourselves, and challenge us without becoming so overwhelming that we turn away. And central to its core is the idea that empathy solves many of our problems and saves the day. And I think that is a hopeful vision of the future and one that we yearn for. And one that is ultimately true. We just have to choose it.”

Hampshire shares 'All Night' thriller

Emily Hampshire is one of the stars in the new comedy-thriller, “All Night Wrong,” coming to on demand, digital and theaters Aug. 14. The tale of an online tryst gone terribly wrong stars Zach Cherry and Maria Bakalova whose date includes a packet of stolen money and a dead body. Hampshire, (“Schitt’s Creek,” “12 Monkeys”) portrays a femme fatale of sorts, seen from different points of view.

"Sometimes I question my choice of acting because I’ve been an actor for so long,” she tells me.“I started when I was 11 and so I’ve never done anything else. So every once in a while I have to check in and see is it what I want? And I do realize it has been something that I’ve always just loved and didn’t know why until I looked into it and it’s really that I’m kind of greedy in that I want to experience other lives. I'm not just satisfied with this one.

“I always want to know what it’s like to be somebody else. I think my dream job would actually be like Morgan Spurlock — the guy who did ‘Supersize Me.’ He did a show called ‘30 Days’ in which he spent 30 days with some family — like an Amish family — somebody wildly different from his experience. And that would be my dream.”

Sorbo co-stars in 'Peel'

For a long time Kevin Sorbo was known as the imposing Hercules from the ‘90s TV series, “Hercules: the Legendary Journeys,” but lately he’s devoted himself to producing (and performing) movies of faith and inspiration. The latest is “Elijah Peel,” opening in theaters Aug. 14.

It’s the story of an addicted rock star whose heart attack and encounter with a little girl changes his life. Sorbo plays Peel’s talent manager. He says he grew up with two older brothers. “You kinda look up to them, do what they do,” he says. “You're a little shadow. They loved Steve Reeves in ‘Hercules Uchained.’ I loved that too because of them. I watched ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Outer Limits,” and ‘Tarzan.’ And so science fiction has always been fascinating to me. I had a variety of heroes in my life. I would pretend I was Hercules or pretend I was Batman and would be out there playing by myself imaginary (things). And that's a lot of acting, imagining things that don't exist.”

Director's cut on the block

We don’t know what they were hiding, but the original director’s cut of the “X-Files” movie, “The X-Files: I Want to Believe — Vrach Frankenshteyn” will spin down on Disney+ and Hulu Aug. 14. This is an X-rated version and the real vision of “The X-Files” creator, Chris Carter.

It plumbs a darker universe that explores a real-life Dr. Frankenstein. Fans of the 2008 movie can compare as the original film is also streaming on the same day.

Carter says he always tried to mix up the elements in “The X-Files.” “That was the signature of the show was we would do a mythology episode, and then you could do a monster-of-the-week episode, and then you can do a comedy episode and go right back to a mythology episode. And it worked. And the audience went with you week to week, and the thing we became known for was our range, how the show could come right back to shape — to its original concept. We did that always in the run of the original series.”

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