วีดีโอ

About jumping the shark. I don’t think so, but they’re circling. I think that the future is going to depend on how the franchise runners reflect in this. To Albie’s point, they could be limited in their ability to reflect and blame the format. If they are paying attention at all, they’ll see that this failed because it didn’t have Trek at its core. It had Trek as a candy coated covering, which melted in our mouths in about five minutes and we were left with the tasteless interior.

Maybe the Blu Ray will include an apology

I loved when Chris said he was stuck in his own show!😂 So I have a question for a future episode, if you were trapped in an episode of Star Trek, which episode would you want it to be? Question is open to anyone who wants to comment.

What did you think about Star Trek: Section 31?

That came together really nicely! As for Section 31...cut to angry Janeway voice..."it appears that our suspicions...have been confirmed."

This was a blast! I'm looking forward to the next.

This was so much fun!

Woooooooooooooooooooo! Thank you All!

Loved "The Ready Room"

I enjoyed Captain Game Show. Have him on again! I love his podcast!

I was wrong about my ornament. It’s not the Enterprise. It’s either a Romulan or a Klingon ship. My son took it with him when he moved out. But thanks to you I now have the Enterprise

WPIX 11?

Chris needs to complete his Frasier collection of Funko Pops. Where's Daphne and Ros?

I’m sorry I didn’t include Crystal. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you mention her before.

Technology connections does awesome videos. I love his sense of humor and I have a lot of the same inclinations to what I want out of technology that he seems to.

Is that ziggy on the shelf from quantum leap?

Is that ziggy on the shelf from quantum leap?

So funny. love you dad (to: Albie)

I had to utter a few colorful metaphors when Chris said he didn’t like “The Voyage Home.”

The Anaximander was so appropriately named after an ancient Greek philosopher. Look him up to find just how apt this nsme is.

this is the 2nd day in a row ive passed out watching youtube high and i wake up to a video from yall. yall seem chill hope yall doing well.

I hope you’ll see this comment before you record the next episode. I really wanted to talk about Fissure Quest but I can’t be there live. Hopefully you will clear something up for me. I thought these fissures were portals to parallel universes not time travel. If that’s the case, wouldn’t T’Pol have been really old. I know age is different for Vulcans but 250+ years? And what about Lily? She even talked about traveling in her own time. Wouldn’t she still age normally even if she’s visiting alternate realities? I’m so confused! What are your thoughts?

Enterprise seems good now because we compare it to Discovery

Berman Berman

1:00 what a beautiful sound 'SECUNDA!"

What the fuck is this tng / tos separation they're talking about? McCoy was in the tng pilot!

I don’t have much to say about Lower Decks yet as I still haven’t caught up on “New Trek” outside of Disco Season 1. And after hearing the discussion on this first episode, it sounds like I’ll probably be a lot like Chris with my up and down feelings about Lower Decks in general. But I just wanted to say, it was great to hear and see Allison again! Hope you guys bring her back into the fold more often! 😁 ~Damon

I meant to leave feedback for this one a while ago, but real life, hurricanes, and elections got in the way. My memories are a bit fuzzy, particularly when it comes to early TNG. I don’t remember thinking “Angel One” was a terrible episode, but admittedly I probably have only seen it one time when I first got the DVDs years ago. One of these days, I’ll have to go back and rewatch TNG from the beginning. It’s interesting that this episode came up in your rotation at practically the same time as our Sliders episode, “The Weaker Sex,” which also focused on role reversal. In that episode, they arrive on a world in which women have the “dominant” role in society and men are treated as the “weaker sex.” And it wasn’t terrible by any means, but it wasn’t one of my favorites from Season 1 because, like you guys discussed with “Angel One,” there were elements of the plot that still felt very problematic. Almost all of the women in the episode seemed to embody very male traits, while the men were relegated to the stereotypical female roles that were prevalent in the 80s and 90s. There was no real explanation behind this divergence other than to say that women got tired of men constantly creating war and violence, and somehow collectively decided to take control hundreds of years ago. So if that was the case, then shouldn’t the world be a much different place now? The male/female roles as we know them are there because men decided on these roles and made the rules. There’s a fundamental difference between the way men and women think and behave toward the opposite sex. I have a hard time believing that in a female-dominated society that they would be treating men the way that men have treated women for centuries. I’m sure the writers behind episodes like “Angel One” and “The Weaker Sex” had the best of intentions, but yet somehow they still missed the mark. Why was it so problematic to address role reversal even with female writers? When we did our review, we had our wives “take over” as a gimmick to have a little fun with it. And I do remember the “space Covid” thing and Worf’s sneezing that could be heard from miles away, but didn’t realize it was the same episode. What the hell did that plot line have to do with anything?! 🙄 Great discussion as always! ~Damon

I always figured Mariner was just doing a wannabe-Kirk impersonation to cover for her real personality, likely due to some sort of PTSD... I agree with the take that she's a crazy sociopath at first, but that's channelling pretty much every 1960's sci fi commander, too....

There’s a Cheers slot game on Slotorama.

Season 1 they were clearly having a little trouble finding the characters. I did a rewatch and saw what they were going for a lot more clearly. In the course of the overall series character development, I think it actually works well (but you can't know that going in, of course). Once they get a better Mariner/Boimler dynamic, I think it all really gels.

And this is how I named my new character Ruffalo Tahko ! I have a question that Albie might have the answer to. Was there a Star Trek Role-Playing game ?

Albie you and your misquoting of podcast names 😂😂 Chris caught it hahaha

It looks like my camera is terrible. It looked fine on my end. Beta testing!

Just found you guys through Alyson. Out of curiosity have you covered Strange New Worlds? Would be interested in your thoughts on the Lower Decks crossover

Mariner works for me *as a main character*. Her antics should get her booted out for good, but her long redemption arch is narratively compelling enough that I can shrug it off. For me she's basically Nick Locarno/Tom Paris if he was the main character of Voyager.

🎉 Allison is back!!! 🎉

So far I’ve only seen the first season of Disco and the first episode of Season 2, but I echo almost all of Chris’s thoughts on the pilot with the exception of Michelle Yeoh. While I do see what Chris means about the way she delivers her lines, it feels more like she’s just one of those actors that tends to over-enunciate every syllable, which makes it sometimes sound scripted. I have found her to be quite wonderful in every project I’ve seen her in, and I think her strengths as an actor are what enable me to overlook that particular aspect of her delivery. The “eye-roll” shot and dizzying camera angles unfortunately seem to be the norm in many modern-day productions. I don’t know why this is a thing either, but it’s damn distracting. One of the biggest things that disappointed me with Quantum Leap 2022 was the generic sets and CGI leap effects that somehow looked worse than the traditional SFX we all knew and loved. Even the familiar sound effects oftentimes got lost and drowned out in the generic score. Like Chris said, everything in this pilot was so busy and distracting. The visuals of Classic Trek and Berman-era Trek felt alive, vibrant and colorful. Everything in Disco looks bland and sterile, not unlike QL 2022. Again, not sure why this type of dark and gritty procedural environment is so appealing to general audiences, but it’s a bit alienating to us older fans when something we love becomes unrecognizable. Regarding Michael Burnham, I can’t stand her. Nothing against Sonequa, I just totally agree her character is written terribly. And don’t even get me started on the fact that she’s supposed to be Spock’s adopted human sister that we conveniently never heard about for the first 50 years of Trek lore. That type of retconning very rarely works unless you’re a really good writer that can pull it off organically. Didn’t we already go down this road with Sybok? It was stupid then and it’s stupid now! There just seemed to be no good reason for this other than for the producers to say, “Hey look, she has a connection to one of the most beloved characters in TOS. So what if she’s self-righteous and insubordinate, Sarek raised her, so Trekkies are gonna automatically love her, right?” As much as I did like Quantum Leap 2022, this was the biggest issue I had with it: giving us characters like Magic or Janis that could literally be anyone, but we’re supposed to have a nostalgic or emotional connection to them because a “legacy” name is attached to them. Why even pull on that thread if you’re not going to do anything with the connection other than to say, “Hey, remember this character?” Or, “Remember this happened? Yeah, that was something, wasn’t it? Now let’s forget about it.” Wink wink, nudge nudge… It’s sort of insulting to your baseline audience who want that connective tissue to be meaningful. I had no reason to care about Michael’s character because she was written as someone who consistently came across as self-righteous and sort of smug because she was “smarter” than everyone else. In fact, the only two characters I really got on board with for the first season were Lorca and Tilly. Tilly was the sole ray of hope and optimism in a setting that lacked both. The second half of Season 1 was where I actually really liked what Discovery was doing. Up until then, it seriously felt like it was going nowhere. Quite frankly, the Mirror Universe arc was the only thing I remember from Season 1. Like I said in my previous feedback, the first two episodes of Disco felt more like a prologue or a backstory that should have been explained in an actual pilot episode where you introduce ALL of your main characters. Anyway, those are my thoughts on “The Vulcan Hello.” Great discussion as always and looking forward to more! ~Damon

Finally catching up on your shows. Love your discussions! I believe the episode was based on a script originally written as a sequel to The Naked Time for the Star Trek Phase II series (that some episodes were reworked for TAS). Also D.C. Fontana wrote the 1st and 2nd draft for this script for TNG, but later asked for her name to be removed after the rewrites that she did not agree with.

Trust me dont watch this show

Frasier funco pop

Wow, a negative score from Chris! It’s been a while since I’ve seen this one, so I’d have to watch it again to give my honest opinion, but I don’t remember thinking it was a terrible episode. Sure, it has the overused “evil twin” trope, but I think Brent’s performance is what saves it. I always found his portrayal of Lore entertaining. From what I can remember, the timeline of events is as follows: in “Brothers,” Soong unknowingly implants the emotion chip into Lore thinking he’s Data; in “Descent, Part II,” Lore is deactivated and disassembled, and Data wants to destroy the chip because he thinks it’s too dangerous after his recent experience with the Borg, but Geordi convinces him to keep it until he’s ready; and then in “Generations,” he reaches an impasse and decides it’s finally time to integrate it. Another intentional tangent: you guys brought up Sliders again. (I almost wonder if Albie is doing that on purpose to get me to comment! Thanks for the shoutout, by the way!) 🙂 The Sliders episode you were referring to was “Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome” from Season 2, where they thought they had finally returned home after 18 months. Quinn kept seeing tiny inconsistencies that didn’t add up and no one believed him until eventually, Wade saw the Golden Gate Bridge was blue instead of red. And the reason why they thought they were home was because their doubles also slid off that world 18 months earlier…except for Arturo. His double went into seclusion waiting for them to return so that he could claim sliding as his own invention, and then that switcheroo happens at the end where we don’t know which Arturo slid and which one got left behind. And yes, the show never followed up on it. Considering the fact that Tracy Torme stepped away shortly thereafter and Fox did everything it could to scrap continuity and turn the show into a B-movie ripoff every week, many casual fans have just gone under the assumption that it was the “real” Arturo who was then unceremoniously (SPOILER ALERT) killed off toward the end of Season 3. Ironically, Tracy did not actually write the “PTSS” episode, but he did say it was his opinion that the wrong Arturo did indeed make the slide. Tracy also said that he probably wouldn’t have dragged that plot line out beyond a few episodes. So I’m not sure how different his influence would have been if he had written for Data and Lore. Although I’ll admit, that might have been an interesting spin to have Lore pretend to be Data for a while. I could imagine the current post-Disco era of Trek would have almost certainly tried doing something like this. And then there’s B4…but we don’t need to talk about that. Anyway, great discussion as always! Always look forward to hearing what you both have to say! ~Damon

id hate to be the plumber that has to snake a massive wad of toenails out of your pipes

I have to echo a lot of what Chris said about Enterprise in general. The show had a lot of potential and was great in how it tried to be different than what came before while still honoring the lore and keeping much of that Trek flavor we had grown accustomed to. To be honest, I don’t remember a lot of details about “Broken Bow” as I probably haven’t seen it since 2001, but I do remember enjoying it. Maybe not quite as much as I did DS9 or Voyager, but at the time, I was in seventh heaven seeing Scott Bakula on TV regularly again. I’m kind of in the same boat when it comes to Archer and separating him from Sam Beckett. To me, Scott Bakula and Sam Beckett are practically inseparable, so it’s also somewhat jarring to me to see Scott act out of “character.” Some personal observations: the Temporal Cold War plot line was one I had always found very intriguing and wished it hadn’t ended so abruptly the way it did. I also remember watching the decontamination scene for the first time and sort of shaking my head, thinking, “Well, there it is…even Trek resorted to gratuitous T&A to try and bring in audiences.” But at least they didn’t resort to “sexy time” very often after that. I too thought each season just got better and better. Such a shame the show was cancelled right at the time when it really found its stride with the fan service and connecting back to TOS (not unlike QL 2022). I’m probably in the minority of people that didn’t mind the Xindi arc initially, even though it was most definitely a response to 9/11. In hindsight, it really comes out of nowhere in the grand scheme of the Prime timeline…you would think something as big and eventful as the Xindi attack of Earth (cutting an entire swath of destruction across Florida no less) would have been acknowledged and/or talked about a hundred years later. That’s the problem when you do a prequel to something that’s been pretty well established for decades, you need to get creative when adding something new to the lore that somehow gets forgotten about later on. If memory serves, it had something to do with time travel and the Xindi attack was a preemptive countermeasure in an attempt to change their future. I do want to point out that I think that Scene It trivia answer was wrong. The first instance of the slingshot effect was in “The Naked Time” when they went back in time three days…although it was an accident. I guess the question was calling for their first purposeful attempt, which indeed was “Tomorrow Is Yesterday,” but it should be made clearer. I have that Scene It game too but have never opened it. Great discussion as always! It will be interesting to hear your thoughts on “The Vulcan Hello,” which, if I’m being completely honest, is a steaming pile of horse-s**t. If you can even call it a pilot episode when most of the main cast (and the actual freaking SHIP) isn’t even introduced. More like a series prologue than anything. Chris looks absolutely thrilled at the prospect of going back to Disco! 😂😂😂 ~Damon

It’s been a good number of years since I’ve sat and watched this one, but I do seem to recall enjoying it despite not normally being a fan of these types of episodes because they often take me out of the Trek atmosphere. I’m sure a big reason why I liked this one was because it was another Tracy Torme script. Like I said for “Haven,” Tracy had a knack for taking silly or absurd concepts and making them work, even when they shouldn’t. And you both made very good points about the holodeck. I know the parameters of what’s possible and what isn’t will be brought up again further down the road. Moriarty comes to mind. I’ll also add on to Albie’s feelings concerning Jeri Ryan in “The Killing Game” 2-parter… yes!!! Just yes!!! That’s all that needs to be said! 😉 Correction: I think you were getting Double Indemnity mixed up with Double Jeopardy (which starred Ashley Judd from Season 5’s “The Game”). Double jeopardy is where you can’t get charged for the same crime twice. Double indemnity is a life insurance term. And finally, loved the ambiance of the black-and-white noir setting. Great job, Albie! ~Damon

1:07:10 B&W would have looked better, but the Enterprise crew would have seen everything in color, so maybe color was more appropriate.

One correction: the hat is a trilby, not a fedora.

Hilarious that where you ended up is Brattleboro VT. Remember in our story of how we lost a whole hour on our way to Peterborough, spent in a Wendy's bathroom/parking lot, Dunkin drive though and a gas station all on one block? Brattleboro. It's the reason we got to you at 3 instead of 2. 😂 ~Stacie

There was a direct lineage between The Twilight Zone and Star Trek. Roddenberry and Serling were friends and you can see that connection most strongly in TOS and TNG seasons 1 and 2. The farther we got into Berman Trek, as much as I love elements of it, more and more of that surreal social commentary became less poignant, watered down or removed entirely.