034 - Never Give Up...Sometimes Surrender

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

033 - Encounter at Farpoint

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

032 - Something About Whales

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

031 - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

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

030 - The Animated Series

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

029 - TOS Season 3 and Series Wrap UP

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

028 - Racism, Overpopulation, and a Russian History Lesson

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

027 - You stupid cow

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

026 - Kirk is Grits

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

025 - The Talosian Illusion Strikes Back

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

024 - No Sh*t, Shatner!

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

023 - SPACE DAGGERS!!!

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

022 - Movie Review and Season 3 Kickoff

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

021 - Season 2 Finale and Recap

Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast.

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

• The final two episodes of Season 2: Bread and Circuses and Assignment: Earth

• Abbie is over The Original Series

• More episodes we feel like we’ve seen before

• Prime Directive

• Kirk’s character judging abilities

• Parallel development vs Earth influence

• Religious references

• Dropping the things that worked in Season 1

• South Park: Cartoon Wars and Star Trek Mad Libs

• Will Abbie still enjoy other Star Trek series after this?

• Will I become a bigger Trekkie than Abbie?

• Our scoring system is like Who’s Line is it Anyway?

• Would Kirk risk his crew to save Spock and Bones?

• Another Gene Roddenberry episode

• Are fun character traits a crutch?  Lazy?

• Do Star Trek characters make something a Star Trek story?

• Spinoffs!

• Do Star Trek and Doctor Who take place in the same universe?

• How shows are influenced by the time in which they are made

• Top shows from the late 1960s

• Fewer “timeless” stories in Season 2

• More discussion about technological evolution faster than biological evolution

• Bioshock spoilers

• The choice of character names can tell a lot

• Overall ratings of season 2

• Different ways to experience TV

• Our next plans

020 - Team America, Galactic Police

Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast.

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

• The next 3 episodes of season 2 of Star Trek: The Original Series – By Any Other Name, The Omega Glory, and The Ultimate Computer

• Interstellar from the perspective of the other planets

• Callbacks to earlier episodes

• What I’ve come to expect from Star Trek, but does that mean they’re running out of ideas?

• Kirk, the man-whore

• What does it mean to be human?

• What does it mean to be living?

• Life is more than just elements, but without the elements, there is no life

• Some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu analysis

• Episodes starting a lot stronger than they finish

• Was this propaganda?

• Subtlety vs heavy-handedness

• A successful letter-writing campaign

• A brief history lesson about The Scorpions

• Seeing more recurring story lines and trends

• Negative views on technology?

• Saying “Thank you” to Alexa

• In real life we make the same mistakes and tell the same stories over and over again

• Different experience between binge watching and watching weekly over the course of many years

• Similar shows, books, and movies released around the same time

• Will the AI conversation actually change?  Has the conversation surrounding AI changed in the past 60 years?

019 - Space Nazis

Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast.

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

• The next 3 episodes of season 2 of Star Trek: The Original Series – A Private Little War, Return to Tomorrow, and Patterns of Force

• What was the message of this episode?  Do they even know?

• TV makeup and High Definition

• We don’t like Gene Roddenberry episodes?

• Understanding why TOS was cancelled

• Was TOS running out of ideas?

• A Next Generation actress

• Characters acting out of character

• Star Trek and the Apollo missions

• Other shows calling their shots

• Command structure on the Enterprise

• Risk vs. reward

• Scotty’s voice and linguistic talents

• Biblical connections?

• Plot devices vs. realism

• Fermi paradox

• Aliens and Mexican parliament

• A relative lack of surprise that Kirk and Spock dressed as Nazis

• Blues Brothers discussion

• Nazi imagery in the episode

• An episode we wanted to dislike

• Is there always a silver lining?

• Moral ambiguity and how shows are received

018 - Bean sucks at poker

Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast.

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

• The next 3 episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series – The Gamesters of Triskelion, A Piece of the Action, and The Immunity Syndrome

• First – my homework to rewatch The Trouble with Tribbles

• I can see why The Trouble with Tribbles is a favorite episode for many

• Does “more fun” mean “better”?

• Parks and Rec vs. The Sopranos

• Have we seen this episode before?

• Aaron can rate something a 10

• Fair terms?

• Would Kirk have acted the same if only saving himself and crew?

• Downgrading my rating and things that took me out of the episode

• No blondes on Vulcan

• A good-enough episode

• Application of the Prime Directive?

• Let’s play Cups!

• Kirk’s ‘20s talk

• Radios and rotary phones

• Nate hates Scotty

• Abbie didn’t finish the final episode

• The death of one vs the deaths of many

• Kirk’s understanding of their mission

• Spock shit-talking McCoy

• Spock and McCoy truly care for each other

• Nate’s 13-year-old humor

• Instinct and intuition vs logic

• Did the Vulcans logic themselves to death?

017 - Aaron can be stubborn. And wrong

Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast.

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

• The next 3 episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series – Obsession, Wolf in the Fold, and The Trouble with Tribbles

• Drinking Minnesota beer in Northeast Florida

• A good, forgettable episode

• PTSD in Star Trek

• Personal log vs Captain’s log

• Kirk is quite the dynamic character

• The Farragut

• Moby Dick

• Logic vs Intuition

• Star Trek and religion

• A Newsradio segue

• Hedonism Bot from Futurama

• An episode that could have been stronger if it was shorter

• Piglet the Ripper

• Deep space murder mystery – of course we’ll jump to an unsolved series of murders from London 400 years prior

• Stunt doubles and watching Star Trek on our phones (like they did when this first came out)

• “Abbie will hate this episode”

• Was Hengist innocent?

• Anchor points and being underwhelmed

• Undercover Klingon

• A perfect episode???

• Physical altercations over disrespectful words

• I agree to rewatch The Trouble with Tribbles

016 - Halfway

Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast.

I am joined again by my wife Abbie and our friend Nate as we discuss:

• The next 3 episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series – Journey to Babel, Friday’s Child, and The Deadly Years

• Starting with the last episode

• Aging the characters, compared to reality

• Are we aging differently now?  Or is it a social construct?

• A good leader surrounds himself with good people

• Don’t embarrass the boss

• Budgetary constraints and command

• Trying to do the right thing, but not knowing how to do it

• Stockton or Stocker?

• The Beginning of Infinity

• How does the Neutral Zone work?

• The return of Corbomite

• Watching on a phone instead of a TV making the series more palatable?

• A better episode if made today?

• Earliest-born Star Trek actor – born in 1882!!

• A murder mystery on the Enterprise

• Sarek – a character with depth that I don’t realize

• Additional episode context and how these episodes are received

• Orions?  Or Gorn?

• Lack of recurring characters

• Genetic espionage

• Strange episode titles

• A strong start and a slow, weak finish

• We’ve seen this episode before

• Good music

• The Godmother of Star Trek

• Who punched first?

• Reactions to Chekov’s Russia claims

• Computing in the 1960s, Teletype, and how technologically forward-looking we can be

• Technological inspiration from Star Trek

• Chick Fil-a vs Raisin’ Canes

• Thumbnails for next week’s episodes

• Thinkgeek.com

015 - Harcourt! And the Intergalactic Trash Panda

Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast.

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

• The next 3 episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series – Catspaw, I Mudd, and Metamorphosis

• Probably the weakest set of episodes yet

• Going over Abbie’s low bar for this series

• Nate almost didn’t finish the episode

• A Star Trek episode?  Or a Halloween special with Star Trek characters?

• Not the “most philosophically rich” episode of Star Trek

• Chekov’s hair

• Enterprise props today

• The sum of its parts are greater than the whole

• Seeing something we’ve seen before

• Binge watching affecting the viewing experience?

• Recurring themes – a life without limit is meaningless

• Recurring themes – the ethics of AI

• Technological advancements to allow intergalactic travel?

• Nearing halfway through The Original Series

• More problematical moments

• Which Einstein?

• I’ve heard that name before!

• Another rare consensus

• The importance of human contact to humans

• Captain Kirk.  Diplomat

• Nate gets distracted with DS9 talk again

• Yesterday’s progressivism, tomorrow’s conservatism

• Judas goats

• Nate’s growing fondness for Kirk

• Limitations providing meaning and value – recurrent themes

• TOS episodes as a basis for future series episodes and movies

• The first people to make certain Star Trek connections

• Space rabies!

• Nate already has a rating for Trouble with Tribbles

• Seeing why the series was cancelled after season 2

• Ricky Gervais and Arena