Warning: This Article Contains SPOILERS For Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 Finale – "Old Friends, New Planets"
Summary
- Star Trek: Lower Decks executive producers explain the effort it took to bring back Shannon Fill as Sito Jaxa in the season 4 finale.
- They tracked down Fill, who hadn't performed in over 30 years, and convinced her to return, even bringing her daughter to the recording.
- Sito's death had a profound impact on Mariner and defined her desire to remain an Ensign, defending Starfleet and everything Sito believed in.
Star Trek: Lower Decks executive producers Mike McMahan and Brad Winters explain the heroic effort it took to get Shannon Fill to reprise her role as Sito Jaxa in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4's finale. Fill played Sito twice in Star Trek: The Next Generation; she was introduced as a Bajoran Starfleet Academy Cadet involved in a cover-up over the death of her classmate in the TNG season 5 episode, "The First Duty." Sito returned in the TNG season 7 episode, "Lower Decks" – the inspiration for Star Trek: Lower Decks – where the Ensign tragically died in the line of duty during a mission for Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the USS Enterprise-D.
Appearing on The 7th Rule podcast with Cirroc Lofton and Ryan T. Husk, Mike McMahan talked about how they had to "track down" Shannon Fill to appear as Sito Jaxa in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4's finale's flashback. Check out McMahan's quote and watch The 7th Rule video at the 27:22 time stamp below:
Shannon Fill, we had to track down… That’s a whole other podcast. The nicest person I’ve ever met. My line producer Brad still texts with her. We love her. We’ve gotta get her to a convention. I don’t think she’d performed for like 30-something years. We were like, “Come back. We’ll pay your SAG dues. Come on to Lower Decks.” And she brought her daughter to Lower Decks. She brought her to the record. We had a blast.
On Twitter/X, Star Trek: Lower Decks executive producer Brad Winters described what a "delight" Shannon Fill was to work with, and how she needs to attend Star Trek conventions. Check out his post below:
Brad Winters further detailed what it took to get Shannon Fill to voice Sito Jaxa in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4's finale flashback. Check that post out below:
