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Star Trek TNG S02E01-03 The Child, Where Silence Has Lease, Elementary Dear Data – “Not Very Effective” | First Time Reaction – To Baldly Go Podcast (Ep. 041)

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First-Time Watch – Star Trek: TNG Season 02, Episodes 01-03

Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast, in which I – a newbie to the Star Trek universe – am watching through Star Trek from the beginning, in release order, and discussing with some of my long-time Trekkie friends.

This week, we get:

  • New characters and Star Trek grows a beard

  • Word of the day: Effective

  • The unchanging concerns over AI

We covered:

  • The Child

  • Where Silence Has Lease

  • Elementary, Dear Data

“The Child” – Is it worse than Code of Honor?  Not quite…

Deanna Troi is impregnated by space dust that is curious about the human experience.

Things we discussed:

  • The start of Abbie loving these characters

  • Simple changes could have made it seem much less space-rapey

  • Character changes

  • Twilight

  • Debating character growth

  • Riker’s beard

There are better ways to explore the human experience.

“Where Silence Has Lease” – Did we ever make it out of the Matrix?

The Enterprise is trapped in a void with an entity that is exploring the limits of humanity.

Things we discussed:

  • How primitive Picard and crew are

  • A better exploration of humanity

  • The Expanse comparisons (Abaddon’s Gate)

  • A worse version of Q?

  • An uninspiring villain?

  • Learning all that you need to know

Another Talosian Illusion incident?  Did the Enterprise and crew get out?  Or is everything from this point forward occurring in the Void?

“Elementary, Dear Data” – AI versus humanity

Sherlock Data’s mysteries are too simple, so a new holodeck program is set up which becomes self-aware.

Things we discussed:

  • AI conversations today versus the late-1980s

  • Recitation does not mean understanding

  • Near consensus

  • Exploring Data’s humanity

  • Working with your hands, transcending time

  • Is Data capable of original thought?

  • Sherlock Holmes and copyright issues

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  The conversations surrounding AI have seemingly not changed.  The same conversations were had during The Original Series, Next Generation, and today.

A few other points

  • Gregg has some explaining to do (when he comes back)

  • Star Trek/Star Wars bar trivia

Final Thoughts

This week, we learned:

  • Abbie and I know more about Star Wars than Nate

  • Different effectiveness in stories exploring humanity

  • AI conversations have not meaningfully changed in the past 40 years (60 when we consider the same conversations from TOS)

A generally strong start to the second season (The Child notwithstanding).  Looking forward to more.

As always, remember – Never give up!  Never surrender!

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Star Trek TNG S01E24-26 We’ll Always Have Paris, Conspiracy, The Neutral Zone – “The Biggest Trekkie” | First Time Reaction – To Baldly Go Podcast (Ep. 040)

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First-Time Watch – Star Trek: TNG Season 1, Episodes 24-26

Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast, in which I – a newbie to the Star Trek universe – am watching through Star Trek from the beginning, in release order, and discussing with some of my long-time Trekkie friends.

This week, we get:

  • Exceptional mediocrity

  • Practical effects worthy of a Michael Scott production

  • A fight with the Romulans that could have been great

We covered:

  • We’ll Always Have Paris

  • Conspiracy

  • The Neutral Zone

“We’ll Always Have Paris” – At least there’s that much

Sometimes an episode is so great that we don’t take many notes because we can’t get pulled away from it.

Sometimes an episode is so bad that we get pages of notes to discuss how bad it really was.

And then there are episodes like “We’ll Always Have Paris” – which was so exceptionally mediocre, we were all in agreement with almost nothing to say.

Things we discussed:

  • Picard backstory and similarities with Kirk

  • Time implications

  • Nobody cared

  • Writers’ strike impacts

A mediocre, forgettable episode.

“Conspiracy” – Cleanup on Aisle Five!  Threat Level Midnight

Picard brings the Enterprise back to Earth to find answers after the USS Horatio is destroyed, uncovering an alien conspiracy.

Things we discussed:

  • Mystery and intrigue at the Federation

  • Callbacks to prior episodes

  • Worf doesn’t like swimming – or bathing

  • Threat Level Midnight

  • Practical effects reminiscent of the earworms from Wrath of Khan

  • More impacts from the writers’ strike

  • A remaining existential threat?

  • The opposite of zero-trust

We are seeing more callbacks and connections to prior episodes which we didn’t see so much in The Original Series.

“The Neutral Zone” – Romulans?  Nah…

The Enterprise investigates attacks on outposts near the Neutral Zone and a potential new Romulan threat.  While investigating, they find some cryogenically frozen, 20th-century humans from Earth.

Things we discussed:

  • Side stories that detract from the main story

  • Could have been a great opportunity to expand on the Romulans

  • Downside of the writers’ strike again

  • More space for Worf

  • “There’s still much to do.  Still so much to learn.”

What could have been an awesome episode exploring the Romulan threat just fell flat by cramming in story elements that didn’t add up.

Holy crap!  Aaron’s a bigger Trekkie than us!

As the To Baldly Go Podcast’s resident Star Trek fan, I can proudly announce that we have reached the end of Season 1 of Next Generation.

  • Season 1 quiz and Trivia

  • Dealing with internet lag

  • Robin Williams discussion

  • TNG Season 1 wrap up

Final Thoughts

This week, we learned:

  • The writers’ strike hurt the product

  • There’s much more to come

  • You shouldn’t watch Robin Williams on Whose Line is it Anyway? when you are in the hospital after having your appendix removed

  • Through the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I, Aaron, am the biggest Star Trek fan of our little away team.

I have now watched all of The Original Series, The Animated Series, four movies, and the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  I never would have guessed any of that just a handful of years ago.

Where the end of season 1 of The Original Series felt like it had peaked, Next Generation feels like it’s just getting started.  I can’t where it will take us from here.

As always, remember – Never give up!  Never surrender!

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Star Trek TNG S01E21-23 Arsenal of Freedom, Symbiosis, Skin of Evil – “Tarth Vader” | First Time Reaction – To Baldly Go Podcast (Ep. 039)

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This week on the To Baldly Go Podcast:

  • Smart devices try to kill us.

  • Star Trek does an after-school special about drugs.

  • And a main character dies… suddenly.

We’re discussing:

  • TNG S1E21 – Arsenal of Freedom

  • TNG S1E22 – Symbiosis

  • TNG S1E23 – Skin of Evil

Topics include:

  • Thanking Alexa

  • Nate hating Geordi

  • The Prime Directive vs. addiction

  • Evil space pharmaceutical reps

  • Stoicism and sudden loss

  • Armus vs. Jigsaw

  • The 24-treatment for shocking deaths

These and more as first-time reactions meet veteran Trek opinions

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038 - The Lost Episode

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This week:

  • Home Soil, Coming of Age, Heart of Glory

  • Devil in the Dark, redux?

  • Ugly bags of mostly water

  • What is life?

  • Is Data alive?  Is Data human?

  • Is Data just ChatGPT in a synthetic skin suit?

  • I step away while Abbie and Nate continue the conversation, looking ahead to things I haven’t seen

  • The love of being wrong

  • Observations of ADR and television production

  • Picard’s maturity

  • Distinct storylines that don’t come together

  • Series continuity

  • Worf the Stoic

  • A Gentleman in Moscow

  • I relate to the bad guy – sort of

  • Sometimes life isn’t fair

  • Only competing against yourself

  • Starfleet entrance exams.  What is the test?

  • Worf isn’t yet who Abbie remembers

  • The challenge of Tasha Yar

  • Geordi-vision

  • Nate is the biggest nerd on the podcast

  • Death in the Federation

  • Is TNG better than TOS at this point?

  • Picard, the hot head

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037 - 11001001

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This week:

  • 11001001, Too Short a Season, When the Bough Breaks

  • Nate concedes a point

  • Season 1 has been underwhelming, but we have the best episode yet

  • More commentary on the medium of network or syndicated TV

  • The holodeck

  • Abbie’s anesthesia dream

  • Deliberate scientific inaccuracies in Star Trek

  • An unrelated story in the Star Trek universe

  • 21st century ozone hole

  • An appropriate use for Wesley

  • What is a society?

  • Stories that would work for other series

  • Nate really hates Code of Honor

  • Looking ahead

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036 - The Battle, Hide and Q, Haven

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This week:

  • Ferengi less cartoonish

  • Still difficult to take them seriously as adversaries

  • Lore and worldbuilding

  • Nate sees Picard giving up early

  • A/B storylines and storytelling in Star Trek

  • Improvements in the medium over the 1960s

  • Suspension of disbelief and faster than light travel

  • Solar system versus other star systems

  • Nostalgia

  • Music in Next Gen

  • Returning characters

  • Q is kind of weird

  • Using Q to explore human nature

  • Assuming Q isn’t gone

  • More solar system discussion

  • We’re nerds

  • Personal anecdotes about mutual friends

  • Reusing footage from other episodes and movies

  • Season 1 released immediately in syndication

  • “Bill” Riker?

  • Security lapses

  • Character actors

  • Thoughts on Lwaxana

  • More worldbuilding and lore

  • Filming order

  • Things we miss from The Original Series

  • Conflict in Star Trek

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035 - Dammit, Wesley!

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This week:

  • A tribute to Scott Adams

  • Where No One Has Gone Before, Lonely Among Us, Justice

  • Abbie realizes how annoying Wesley is

  • Similar to The Original Series, but different enough

  • Thoughts and prayers to get home

  • What is the time range of this iteration of the Enterprise?

  • Curiosity

  • Stoic philosophy

  • Self-proclaimed experts and hubris

  • Confidence without arrogance

  • A body-swap episode?  No way!

  • Sherlock Data

  • Sometimes efforts and attempts just don’t work

  • Security fails again

  • Detectives’ Credo and Bayesian analysis

  • Unbelievable!!!!! The Movie rabbit hole (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIaySADwGp4)

  • A better job telling an ok story

  • Prime Directive

  • Captain’s Calculus

  • Did Picard consider just surrendering the ship?

  • Life is an exercise in exceptions

  • Wesley is smart but naïve

  • The death penalty

  • Broken Window Theory

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034 - Never Give Up...Sometimes Surrender

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In this episode:

  • The Naked Now, Code of Honor, The Last Outpost

  • I feel like we’ve seen this before

  • An homage?

  • Gregg’s 9s and 10s and his one problem with the series

  • Gregg doesn’t like Wesley

  • Stories are more refined

  • Too early to have a “different characters” episode?

  • Visionary vs executor

  • Aaron’s Data moment

  • Feeling like Original Series episodes

  • Issues with Tasha Yar

  • Even bad Star Trek is still great Star Trek

  • Prime Directive discussion

  • Minimal character development and bad storytelling

  • Terrible ship security

  • The Ferengi

  • TNG villains

  • Picard surrendered the Enterprise

  • TNG vs TOS beginnings

  • Expectations moving forward

  • Swearing in Star Trek

  • Excited for more

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033 - Encounter at Farpoint

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In this episode:

  • The premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation – Encounter at Farpoint

  • Joined by my old friend, Gregg

  • Gregg’s background with Star Trek

  • Felt like a pilot episode, but overall good

  • Original Series comparisons

  • Star Trek feel with a much bigger scope

  • A hopeful future with a bleak near-term view

  • Gregg rates a 9 and says it can only go up from here

  • Nate’s old technical manuals

  • Next Generation trailer

  • Target demographics

  • Who is the main character?

  • Differences between the two series

  • Androids and AI

  • My questions or things I hope to see

  • What we are all looking forward to

  • Interesting characters

  • Wesley discussion

  • Nate was the captain of the quiz bowl team in high school

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032 - Something About Whales

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This episode we discuss:

  • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

  • Didn’t go full Captain Planet

  • Nate surprised by his rating

  • Felt like a long episode

  • Ralph Winter – producer

  • Chekov in 1980s San Francisco

  • The pitfalls of knowing there is more to come

  • Plot holes

  • No butterfly effect?

  • Different timelines?

  • A Commander Random sighting

  • Plot devices vs. realistic story progress

  • Star Trek: Movie Memories – by William Shatner

  • Sulu’s lost movie moment

  • Eddie Murphy in Star Trek?

  • Nate is not a biologist

  • Trivia

  • Production battles

  • Similarities with Star Trek: The Motion Picture

  • Other time travel stories – Stephen King’s 11.22.63

  • Home video release included a trailer for Star Trek: The Next Generation

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031 - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

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In this episode we discuss:

  • No more Animated Series

  • Enjoying the dialogue more upon second viewing

  • How Abbie remembers Star Trek

  • Two years thinking Spock was dead

  • Leonard Nimoy directs

  • Curse of the odd-numbered Star Trek films

  • Choppy scenes missing the emotional, dramatic effect

  • Another Yeoman Rand-om sighting

  • Sacrificing the Enterprise

  • Krug – the Klingon John Wick?

  • A compelling villain

  • Extra-Kirk

  • What happened to Spock’s body?

  • Star Trek IV trailer

  • Ferngully in space?

  • Time travel done right

  • Trivia

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030 - The Animated Series

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This week, Nate and I discuss:

  • The Emmy-award winning Star Trek: The Animated Series

  • Stopped rating the episodes

  • Less than the sum of its parts?

  • A bad series

  • Animated Series as punishments

  • Spaceships and aliens

  • Target demographics

  • Shortcomings of TAS

  • No Chekov

  • The great episode of TAS – a top episode for the franchise to this point

  • Political implications of airing certain episodes

  • Is TAS canon?

  • Life support belts

  • Kirk was the Devil’s advocate?

  • Missing charm and disjointed dialogue

  • Unrealized potential

  • What non-Star-Trek fans think Star Trek is

  • Felt like the Gorn fight from Arena

  • TAS trivia

  • Nate’s Star Trek models

  • Star Trek production guide

  • Looking ahead to Next Generation

  • Planning future podcast discussions and watch order

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029 - TOS Season 3 and Series Wrap UP

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In this episode Abbie, Nate, and I discuss:

  • Final seven episodes of The Original Series

  • Another episode it feels like we’ve seen before

  • Fairy Tale by Stephen King

  • Abbie wanted to DNF episodes

  • Creepy, ick factor

  • Valentine’s Day Star Trek episode

  • Worst episode of The Original Series

  • DC Fontana

  • Qualified ratings – a “Season 3” Seven

  • Mixed messaging

  • Space Lincoln

  • Anti-war, but winning a war at all costs

  • A real, not real Abraham Lincoln speech

  • When do we learn to not fear words?

  • An ok episode, but terrible series finale – but does that say more about today?

  • And just like that, it’s over

  • Better than Nate remembered

  • Greater than the sum of its parts

  • Unprecedented

  • If it was more successful initially, would we be talking about it today?

  • Remembering the good moments and forgetting the negatives

  • Original Series trivia

  • Up next

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028 - Racism, Overpopulation, and a Russian History Lesson

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This week I am joined by my wife, Abbie, and our friend, Nate, as we discuss:

  • Let that Be Your Last Battlefield, The Mark of Gideon, and That Which Survives

  • The Trouble with Tribbles story

  • Elaan of Troyius recap now that Abbie is back

  • Overt messaging in shows

  • Star Trek without Gene Roddenberry

  • Is a good message enough to carry an episode?

  • A Captain’s responsibility to keep the ship out of enemy hands

  • Great Enterprise security

  • The transporter as a weapon

  • Nuclear codes in history

  • Dr. Strangelove

  • A good message – “Don’t hate”

  • Terrible movies with heavy-handed messaging

  • Watching people watch people on TV

  • Episode context

  • What is the call to action in this episode?

  • Being extra-Spock

  • Spock needs to be more precise

  • Abbie gets attacked by a kitten

  • The Tunguska Event

  • Another callout to The Beginning of Infinity

  • Limits on human knowledge?

  • A victim of the medium at the time?

  • The decline of the series

  • Over Warp 14

  • More multi-culturalism on the Enterprise

  • A game plan to finish The Original Series

  • Planning a Star Trek trivia challenge

  • Looking ahead to The Next Generation

  • Abbie fires some shots at DS9

  • Nate throws down the gauntlet for the best episode ending in all of Star Trek

  • A Star Trek producer spoke in my video production class in college

  • Something about whales

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027 - You stupid cow

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This week we discuss:

  • The Empath, Elaan of Troyius, and Whom Gods Destroy

  • Star Trek: Saw

  • What do you do if you have limited resources and can’t save everyone?

  • Low-percentage vs no-percentage

  • Intellect alone is not sufficient

  • Kirk acting in slow motion?

  • Book recommendation – Shadow Divers – don’t get the bends!

  • Star Trek’s Helen of Troy?

  • Stories about things that the stories aren’t about

  • Elaan hit first

  • Tony Soprano is a bad person who does bad things

  • Kirk has bad moments but isn’t a bad guy

  • How was non-slapstick violence received in the late-1960s?

  • Old tropes that are uncommon today

  • Power struggles over resources

  • When does the Prime Directive apply?

  • Warp speed, physics, and suspension of disbelief

  • Baggage when watching Star Trek

  • A Spaceballs connection

  • Litmus tests for how much I enjoy an episode

  • Two Kirks and memories of X-men

  • Pirates of the Caribbean and too much of a good thing

  • Ensemble strength

  • Powerful, yet helpless.  Art imitating reality

  • Episodes that are less than the sum of their parts

  • Fan fiction from a simple line

  • The Cochrane Deceleration

  • High-stress turns in space?

  • Planning some competitive trivia

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026 - Kirk is Grits

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This week we discuss:

  • The Tholian Web, Plato’s Stepchildren, and Wink of an Eye

  • We continue last week’s debate and how Nate is wrong

  • A traditional Star Trek episode

  • Ratings with qualifiers

  • Episode and series hero journeys

  • Scotty the full-blown alcoholic?

  • A weak spot in the episode?

  • Explaining to the audience instead of the characters

  • Grown-up storytelling

  • Shatner stepping back in an episode

  • Could this have been a TNG episode?

  • Star Trek memorabilia at auction

  • Scotty’s hair

  • Another back-in-time episode

  • First television inter-racial kiss, at least in the US

  • Abbie wants internal consistency

  • Subtle vs overt messaging in shows then and now

  • Motor control vs mind control

  • We can again see why the series was canceled

  • Things that take us out of the story

  • Inception and X-Men did it better

  • Star Trek Customizable Card Game

  • How the series was experienced in the late-1960s

  • Cinematography

  • Kirk’s coffee

  • Why didn’t they harness the power when they had the antidote?

  • Abbie is refusing to watch The Animated Series

  • Star Trek graphic novel

  • Getting rid of Kirk?

  • Hanlon’s Razor?

  • A Waffle House story

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025 - The Talosian Illusion Strikes Back

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In this episode, we discuss:

  • Spectre of the Gun, The Day of the Dove, and For the World is Hollow and I have Touched the Sky

  • Budget issues during Season 3?

  • Nate is over the non-spacey episodes

  • Some bourbon discussion

  • Klingons with swords

  • Nate rejects the premise of the episode

  • Nate nearly rage quits the podcast over the IMDB rating

  • I claim victory in the discussion

  • We’ve seen this episode before

  • A Star Trek Sith Lord

  • Who is pulling the strings?

  • How does Kirk run into the same Klingon multiple times?

  • Captain Uhura?

  • Truth, religion, and dogma

  • Prime Directive

  • Is Bones married?

  • Characters are always safe (except the redshirts)

  • Similarities to other shows

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024 - No Sh*t, Shatner!

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In this episode, we discuss:

  • Abbie and I had an opportunity to watch Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and a Q&A session with William Shatner

  • For a 92-year-old man, Shatner was ranting and raving and moving around pretty well

  • An education in COPD and lung disease

  • The impact of the Actors’ Strike on the show

  • Stories about bow hunting and pranks on DeForest Kelley

  • Getting pulled over dressed as Captain Kirk

  • No shit, Shatner!

  • Shatner was what we expected.  A master of his craft

  • Curiosity

  • Seeing the movie in the theater was a trip

  • A better appreciation for the movie on a second viewing

  • The experience of watching this kind of movie in that kind of setting

  • A great movie in its own right.  But even better for a Star Trek movie

  • Felt like Star Trek

  • Shatner’s thoughts about Star Trek: The Motion Picture

  • Space Seed holds up

  • Movie reshoots after leaks

  • Gene Roddenberry intrigue

  • Kirk’s forgotten plots

  • Leonard Nimoy was ready to be done as Spock

  • Why is the Genesis technology a threat in Khan’s hands?

  • Vulcans can cry?

  • Learning why things work on a Starship.  If you don’t know why, you can’t adapt.  You can’t be creative

  • William Shatner and George Takei don’t get along

  • Ricardo Montelban’s real chest

  • Character names changed because of clerical errors

  • Continuing voyages of ongoing missions…

  • Original story proposal

  • TV in the ‘90s

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023 - SPACE DAGGERS!!!

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In this episode, we discuss:

  • The Paradise Syndrome, And the Children Shall Lead, and Is There in Truth no Beauty?

  • Star Trek: Renegades

  • Other TV discussion

  • The worst episode yet?

  • Was life in the past better than life today?  Life without Advil…

  • House spoilers

  • Tahiti Syndrome

  • Differences between cultural appropriation and cultural assimilation

  • Greek mythology

  • Kirk’s fear

  • We decide on an episode title

  • Without followers, evil cannot spread

  • Star Trek and Zodiac connections

  • Do we see reality for what it is?  Or for what is useful?

  • Sciencey-sounding words

  • Beauty

  • What could go wrong?

  • Smart decisions and storytelling

  • Trying different technical things in the episode

  • The IDIC medallion

  • Word salad

  • Spock’s French Stewart eyes?

  • Completely unrelated music discussion

  • Nate and I discover our mutual love of Blues Traveler

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022 - Movie Review and Season 3 Kickoff

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In this week’s episode, we discuss:

  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Spock’s Brain, and The Enterprise Incident

  • The movie worked a lot better on a big TV than The Original Series

  • Strong opening to the movie

  • Klingons look and seem very different

  • Enterprise porn

  • Remastered version of the movie – probably looked better on my TV at home than it would have in the theater

  • Characters felt different

  • What somebody who doesn’t know anything about Star Trek might think Star Trek is like

  • William Shatner doing a Captain Kirk impersonation

  • Differences between the series and the movie

  • For all the criticism of the movie, it was stunning

  • Is human consciousness just a physics and chemistry question?

  • Some timely Oscars talk – debating Avatar vs. The Hurt Locker

  • Absurd moments for a Star Trek episode

  • Future technological understanding

  • Was Gene Roddenberry holding up a mirror to society?

  • Star Trek and Black Mirror

  • Star Trek as a Trojan horse

  • Mutual respect with the Romulans?

  • Lies of omission

  • Space pirates

  • The Vulcan Death Grip

  • Genetic similarities between Vulcans and Romulans

  • Self-destructing Enterprise

  • A pleasant surprise for early season 3