Untitled Star Trek Project
Joe and Nathan
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A random Star Trek commentary podcast. With Joe and Nathan.
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Equinox / Equinox, Part II
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 5, Episode 26 / Series 6, Episode 1. First broadcast on Wednesday, 26 May 1999.
Moral dilemmas abound in this week’s season finale of Star Trek: Voyager. Is it permissible to kill a bunch of people if you miss your bus home? Is it permissible to shoot Slimer from Ghostbusters in the face if he’s intent on drinking all of your precious bodily fluids? Is it permissible to torture Rick Worthy if you’re having a really bad day? And it is obligatory to endow the characters in your Star Trek show with clear and consistent motivations?
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Sep 21, 2023
The Price
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 3, Episode 8. First broadcast on Monday, 13 November 1989.
Comfort food this week, as Star Trek: The Next Generation tries and fails to create a romantic comedy about an exciting new space wormhole. Deanna learns a valuable lesson about the dangers of enjoying herself, some Ferengi learn an urgent lesson about paying attention to their GPS, and the rest of us learn a timely lesson about straight, white American men in the late 1980s. We still have fun though.
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Sep 14, 2023
Rocks and Shoals
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 6, Episode 2. First broadcast on Monday, 6 October 1997.
Star Trek goes outside this week, for a top-tier episode in which Sisko and Kira are both confronted by radical integrity and self-sacrifice in the face of overwhelming opposition. Solid and memorable.
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Sep 7, 2023
If Memory Serves
Star Trek: Discovery, Series 2, Episode 8. First broadcast on Thursday, 7 March 2019.
The second season of Star Trek: Discovery comes to a climax as Spock commemorates Star Trek’s first pilot by taking Michael to Talos IV so that they can both stand around a bunch of singing flowers, weepily recounting their formative childhood traumas. Meanwhile, Paul and Hugh are not the first people to experience difficulties maintaining a romantic relationship after one partner has died. Anyway, Nathan has fun, even if no one else does.
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Aug 31, 2023
Assignment: Earth
Star Trek: The Original Series, Series 2, Episode 26. First broadcast on Friday, 29 March 1968.
It’s the pilot of a thrilling new spy-fi series, in which Gary Seven (Robert Lansing), his plucky secretary Miss Lincoln (Teri Garr), and his cat Isis (herself) hang out in the twentieth century’s most stylish decade, drinking cocktails after lunch and occasionally foiling America’s military–industrial complex. Is it time for us to end our trek through the stars so that we can complete an assignment here on earth?
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Aug 24, 2023
Collective
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 6, Episode 16. First broadcast on Wednesday, 16 February 2000.
This week a mediocre script fails to be enhanced in any way by mediocre direction and some mediocre performances. But there’s an upside: a Voyager episode with real consequences that will open up unimaginable new vistas of storytelling and character development. Or not, probably.
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Aug 17, 2023
Remember Me
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 4, Episode 5. First broadcast on Monday, 22 October 1990.
In this week’s episode of Likeable and Competent People Solving Space Problems, Beverly finds herself in a shrinking universe from which her loved ones are disappearing one by one, while Nathan and Joe (who inhabit a very similar universe) find a version of Star Trek capable of inspiring a lifelong obsession and, ultimately, an untitled podcast project.
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Aug 10, 2023
Proving Ground
Star Trek: Enterprise, Series 3, Episode 13. First broadcast on Wednesday, 21 January 2004.
This week, we learn a valuable lesson about Johnny Foreigner: he’s just not to be trusted. (God knows how we’re going to get a Federation together.) Still, we manage to enjoy ourselves for a bit.
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Jul 27, 2023
The Host
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 4, Episode 23. First broadcast on Monday, 13 May 1991.
Star Trek: The Next Generation makes another ill-judged attempt at romance this week, as Beverly Crusher has an eventful two-week relationship with an alien ambassador, Commander Riker, and an attractive young woman, who are all somehow the same person. It all goes as well as you would expect in a series where every episode returns reliably to the status quo before the credits roll.
(Warning: after the closing credits, there are some incidental spoilers for Strange New Worlds Series 2, Episode 7, Those Old Scientists.)
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Jul 20, 2023
Bem
Star Trek: The Animated Series, Series 2, Episode 2. First broadcast on Saturday, 14 September 1974.
It’s a low-effort week here at Untitled Star Trek Project, as we pour dozens of crisp American dollars into animating a hilarious encounter between Kirk, Spock, some lizard men in nappies, and an alien who can detach his bits at will, and then spend some time wondering why on earth we bothered.
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Jul 13, 2023
The Changing Face of Evil
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 7, Episode 20. First broadcast on Wednesday, 28 April 1999.
After the Breen attack Starfleet Headquarters on Earth, Ben Sisko (Alan Dale), fearing for the safety of his new wife Kasidy (Lisa Armytage), gets all of her upcoming missions cancelled, with predictable results. Elsewhere on the station, Ezri (Annie Jones) and Worf (Guy Pearce) bicker about her budding relationship to Julian (Peter O’Brien). On Bajor, Kai Winn (Vivean Gray) and her new lodger Anjohl (Ian Smith) are planning to unleash the pah-wraiths on an unsuspecting galaxy. Which puts into perspective the plans of Legate Damar (Stefan Dennis), who merely wants to kick the Dominion out of Lassiter’s so that he can look at himself in the mirror without cringing.
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Jul 6, 2023
Alliances
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 2, Episode 14. First broadcast on Monday, 22 January 1996.
When a Voyager crewmember is killed in a Kazon attack, and his colleagues are forced to sit through the most butt-clenchingly clichéd eulogy in television history, a few of them declare that it’s time to forge an alliance with the Kazon, which seems unwise. What seems even more unwise is Janeway’s decision to ignore everything that history has taught us about white people, as she forges an alliance with the Trabe, who talk nicely and know which knife and fork to use. It all turns out pretty much how you would expect.
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Jun 29, 2023
Genesis
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 7, Episode 19. First broadcast on Monday, 21 March 1994.
Well, everyone hates Genesis obviously, but why? It’s silly, of course, it doesn’t attempt to get the science right, and everyone recovers beautifully during the last ad break. But that’s just Star Trek, isn’t it? Isn’t it?
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Jun 22, 2023
Preludes
Star Trek: Prodigy, Series 1, Episode 16. First broadcast on Thursday, 1 December 2022.
In the Neutral Zone, the USS Protostar faces off against the USS Dauntless, unable to leave and unable to contact them to explain their friendly intentions. And so they stop for a moment and tell each other sad, funny and beautiful stories from their pasts. Meanwhile, on the Dauntless, we hear a different story, a story of war and revenge, and a plot whose aim is the destruction of the Federation itself.
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Jun 15, 2023
Unexpected
Star Trek: Enterprise, Series 1, Episode 5. First broadcast on Wednesday, 17 October 2001.
This week, Enterprise Chief Engineer Charles Tucker III is pregnant, and Nathan and Joe expect to be embarrassed and offended by the result. Instead, they are delighted to find themselves merely bored. (In fact, Nathan thinks the first half of the episode is rather sweet and charming, but he’s an incurable romantic where lizard people are concerned.)
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Jun 8, 2023
Farewell
Star Trek: Picard, Series 2, Episode 10. First broadcast on Thursday, 5 May 2022.
In one episode’s time, Star Trek: Picard will become, for the first time, a television event, but for now, we’ve got some plot to wrap up, some sad farewells to make and a new relationship to start. And a point, however muted, about living an extraordinary life.
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Jun 1, 2023
In Purgatory’s Shadow / By Inferno’s Light
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 5, Episodes 14–15. First broadcast on Monday, 10 February 1997 and Monday, 17 February 1997.
It’s a soap-opera extravaganza on Deep Space Nine this week, as Garak reconciles with his long-lost father, Dukat abandons his long-lost daughter, and Julian discovers a scheming lookalike that he never knew he had. Meanwhile, there is a shift in the balance of power in the Quadrant, as the show rewrites its own premise in the way that we have come to admire and enjoy.
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May 25, 2023
The Masterpiece Society
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 5, Episode 13. First broadcast on Monday, 10 February 1992.
This week, the Enterprise crew worry unnecessarily about upending the lives of people living under a weird-ass conservative regime, only to find that those people are desperate to get out and there is no good reason at all to prevent them. Also, Deanna has sex, with unfortunate results.
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May 18, 2023
Wolf in the Fold
Star Trek: The Original Series, Series 2, Episode 14. First broadcast on Friday, 22 December 1967.
When simple, mild-mannered lackwit Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) stabs three women to death in the space of a couple of hours, the crew of the Enterprise become suspicious enough to start an investigation, which mostly consists of getting Majel Barrett to read them a bunch of Wikipedia articles. But just as we’re all about to nod off, someone claims responsibility for the murders — beloved childhood plaything Piglet (John Fielder), who immediately inputs himself into the ship’s computer and attempts to generate terror by making a series of increasingly unimaginative violent threats. Understandably, the crew respond to all this by taking a bunch of drugs and waiting for the closing credits to kick in. Which is how we recommend that you respond to this episode as well.
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May 11, 2023
Scorpion / Scorpion, Part II
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 3, Episode 26 / Series 4, Episode 1. First broadcast on Wednesday, 21 May 1997 and Wednesday, 3 September 1997.
As Voyager approaches the end of its third year, it’s time for its very own version of The Best of Both Worlds. And here it is, complete with a massive encounter with the Borg, clouds of débris, a terrifying new enemy, dissension among the commanding officers, and the unveiling of an entirely new kind of human—Borg hybrid. But because it’s Voyager, there’s also people doing things for no reason and a central conflict disposed of in an unsatisfying way. But (again) because it’s Voyager, there’s some great weird visuals, a cool new holodeck program, and yet another arresting performance from the Queen of Star Trek, Her Royal Highness, Captain Kathryn Janeway.
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May 4, 2023
Progress
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 1, Episode 15. First broadcast on Sunday, 9 May 1993.
This week, Kira moves a few steps forward on her long and problematic journey from terrorist to bureaucrat as she struggles with a decision to evict Brian Keith from a hastily re-dressed Standard Cave Set 1. In the meantime, Jake and Nog do some adorable capitalism, foreshadowing just how much we’re going to grow to love them by the end of the show.
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Apr 27, 2023
The Elysian Kingdom
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Series 1, Episode 8. First broadcast on Thursday, 23 June 2022.
A long time ago in a land far, far away, a beneficent king called Alex ruled over the kingdom of Trek, deciding which provinces would prosper and what each province would be known for. And so it came to pass that in the Province of Strange New Worlds, fun and entertainment would hold sway, and that from time to time even a heartwarming ending would be welcomed. And they all lived happily ever after, even the ones who had died.
(Warning, some spoilers here for Picard Series 3.)
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Feb 9, 2023
Justice
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 1, Episode 8. First broadcast on Monday, 9 November 1987.
Together at last for the first time, Joe and Nathan find themselves on Planet of the Horny but Unattractive White People, faced with a moral dilemmma that wouldn’t challenge a slow-witted five-year-old. Ah, we have fun, don’t we?
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Jan 29, 2023
The Least Dangerous Game
Star Trek: Lower Decks, Series 3, Episode 2. First broadcast on Thursday, 1 September 2022.
A game of Bat’leths & BiHnuchs takes a surprising turn, as Mariner and Boimler make some very important decisions: Mariner is going to be less insubordinate, while Boimler is going to boldly take opportunities he has never taken before. But soon Mariner finds herself ignoring Ransom’s orders and plummeting from an orbital platform to save her crewmates, while Boimler plays some springball, joins a Bajoran dirge choir, models nude for a figure painting class, and is finally hunted through the ship by a monster for sport. And we all learn a valuable lesson, except Boimler, who learns a stupid one.
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Jan 19, 2023
Darkling
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 3, Episode 18. First broadcast on Wednesday, 19 February 1997.
Flushed with the success of its previous attempt at Gothic Horror, Star Trek gamely tackles the genre again, as the Doctor’s experiments with the parameters of his program inevitably lead to a high-concept holographic version of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, with all of the creepiness towards women that that implies. Aggressively mediocre.
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Jan 12, 2023
Demons / Terra Prime
Star Trek: Enterprise, Series 4, Episodes 20–21. First broadcast on Friday, 6 May 2005 and Friday, 13 May 2005.
Enterprise is reaching the end of the long road that brought them from there to here, and before we say a final goodbye, we’ve just got enough time to foil a charmless racist demagogue who wants to destroy our future — a future based on co-operation, openmindedness and mutual respect. It’s just like the present day, really, only the good guys win. Oh, and Trip gets to punch a racist in the face.
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Jan 5, 2023
The Visitor
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 4, Episode 3. First broadcast on Monday, 9 October 1995.
It’s life, Jake. You can miss it if you don’t open your eyes.
Star Trek takes a break from space nonsense to remind us what grief is like: lonely, lifelong and bleak. The price we pay for love.
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Dec 29, 2022
Mugato, Gumato
Star Trek: Lower Decks, Series 2, Episode 4. First broadcast on Thursday, 2 September 2021.
This week, Star Trek: Lower Decks does what it does best: plumbing the depths of the franchise’s weirdest moments to produce something fun, entertaining, and sympathetic to its ideals. Which is why we get to root for some underappreciated and frequently mispronounced alien monsters, and why those two beautiful nerdy men, Boimler and Rutherford, get to save the day not with violence, but with a PowerPoint presentation and some maths.
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Dec 22, 2022
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek Movie #7. Release date: 1994
Star Trek: Generations is a Christmas movie, but more than that, it’s the moment when Star Trek: The Next Generation makes its first tentative and ultimately unsuccessful step into the venerable movie franchise. Julian Bashir’s crazy uncle has a horrific plan to get to heaven by killing a bunch of people we don’t see and don’t care about, and can only be stopped by two middle-aged white guys clambering over some gantries or something. Oh, and the Enterprise crashes and the whole crew is killed. Happy holidays, everyone!
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Dec 15, 2022
Manhunt
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 2, Episode 19. First broadcast on Monday, 19 June 1989.
Our writers are on strike this week, and so we’re just going to mark time until we reach the end of this blurb. When an uncomfortably horny Lwaxana Troi beams aboard the Enterprise, a series of events happen, culminating at last in the episode’s closing credits. Mick Fleetwood guest stars as a fish.
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Dec 8, 2022
The Trouble with Tribbles
Star Trek: The Original Series, Series 2, Episode 15. First broadcast on Friday, 29 December 1967.
In one of the best episodes in Star Trek history, our show learns very early on that it can shoot for ridiculous and hit funny and entertaining. What more can we say? It’s brilliant.
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Dec 1, 2022
Second Skin
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 3, Episode 5. First broadcast on Saturday, 24 December 1994.
Stardate 46519.1: Surgically altered to appear Romulan, Marina Sirtis wakes up on board the Romulan Warbird Khazara looking as fabulous as she has ever looked and starts threatening an increasingly cowed Carolyn Seymour. The result — one hell of an enjoyable episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Eighteen months later: Surgically altered to appear Cardassian, Nana Visitor wakes up on Cardassia Prime looking incredibly striking, but her rich backstory, the show’s increasingly involved premise, and her willingness to just go for it as an actor — all of these combine to make one hell of an enjoyable and satisfying episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
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Nov 24, 2022
The Siege of AR-558
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 7, Episode 8. First broadcast on Monday, 16 November 1998.
This week, it’s time to ruin everyone’s fun, as Nathan declares that a Deep Space Nine fan favourite is an artistic failure, and compares it unfavourably to Take Me Out to the Holosuite. Is he crazy, or is it the whole damn system that’s crazy?
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Oct 27, 2022
The Examples
Star Trek: Discovery, Series 4, Episode 5. First broadcast on Thursday, 16 December 2021.
This week on Star Trek: Discovery: Paul collaborates with the most obnoxious scientist in the Federation, Hugh is counselled by the the most brutal psychologist in Starfleet, and Michael receives emotional support from the most unlikely source on the ship. And a man who committed a terrible crime in his youth is given the chance to somehow, in some small way, make amends.
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Oct 20, 2022
Darmok
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 5, Episode 2. First broadcast on Monday, 30 September 1991.
They were victorious. But Enkidu fell to the ground, struck down by the gods. And Gilgamesh wept bitter tears, saying, “He who was my companion, through adventure and hardship, is gone forever.”
Now this is what Star Trek is about — kind, competent people solving a space problem, while learning about the importance of storytelling, connection and understanding. Magnificent.
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Oct 13, 2022
A Night in Sickbay
Star Trek: Enterprise, Series 2, Episode 5. First broadcast on Wednesday, 16 October 2002.
Our mission this week — to boldly rehabilitate an unjustly maligned episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. After more than a season of being aggrieved and obnoxious, Jonathan Archer is suddenly confronted by the need to apologise to people, sometimes with his shirt off. Meanwhile, Porthos is a very good boy, even when he’s just a fluffy puppet.
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Oct 6, 2022
Endgame
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 7, Episodes 25–26. First broadcast on Wednesday, 23 May 2001.
A difference of opinion on Untitled Star Trek Project this week: Joe is cross and disappointed that things ended this way, and Nathan is enjoying the satisfaction that only low expectations can provide. Meanwhile, the crew of the USS Voyager enjoy a long-delayed reunion (in latex), re-examine a costly command decision, and experience an upsetting new heterosexual romance. And then, finally, after all these years, they find their way home.
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Sep 22, 2022
Vaulting Ambition
Star Trek: Discovery, Series 1, Episode 12. First broadcast on Sunday, 21 January 2018.
This week, the crew of Discovery find themselves trapped in the Mirror Universe with nothing much to do except to incrementally advance their individual plot threads. Paul chats to himself and his dead partner, Saru tries to persuade Voq’s girlfriend to help him through an identity crisis, Michael partakes of an extremely upsetting hors d’œuvre, and Lord Ealing goes off somewhere in search of a mop and bucket. Fortunately, Cousin Michelle — Her Most Imperial Majesty, Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Dominus of Qo’noS, Regina Andor, Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centaurius — is being absolutely as fabulous as she sounds, while Gabriel Lorca becomes the first Starfleet Captain to defibrillate some poor bastard’s head before stomping it into a soft paste. Nathan — if no one else — loves it.
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Sep 15, 2022
Image in the Sand / Shadows and Symbols
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 7, Episodes 1–2. First broadcast on Wednesday, 30 September 1998 and Wednesday, 7 October 1998.
It’s an epic start to Deep Space Nine’s final season. Miles, Julian and Quark join Worf on a mission to honour Jadzia by blowing up a cartoon shipyard. Ben and Jake meet a (completly adorable) new Dax, drag Brock Peters through the desert for some reason, and then dig up a box. And Kira sits in a tiny spaceship waiting steadfastly for something to come along and resolve her part of the plot. And all the time, Joe and Nathan are cheering from the sidelines, enjoying a solid 90 minutes of getting to know these people again, and watching them set things up for a glorious final year.
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Sep 8, 2022
State of Flux
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 1, Episode 11. First broadcast on Monday, 10 April 1995.
A barely secret conspirator has been selling Federation technology to the Kazon Nistrim in a weird alternative timeline where there are more than seven people on board the ship, where Chakotay has agency and interesting things to do, and where we really feel like we’re stranded tens of thousands of light years from home. Plus, Seska is here!
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Sep 1, 2022
Amok Time
Star Trek: The Original Series, Series 2, Episode 1. First broadcast on Friday, 15 September 1967.
What thee are about to see comes down from the time of the beginning, without change. This is the Vulcan heart. This is the Vulcan soul. This is our way.
In this Classic Episode of Untitled Star Trek Project, Joe and Nathan find themselves unexpectedly involved in a fight to the death — for the love of a beautiful woman!
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Aug 25, 2022
The Nagus
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 1, Episode 11. First broadcast on Sunday, 21 March 1993.
Deep Space Nine finds itself unexpectedly in sitcom territory this week, as the Nagus (Wallace Shawn) arrives on the station with a complicated scheme to expose the incompetence of his Large Adult Son Krax (a young Eric Trump in his first television role). Meanwhile, Commander Sisko discovers something delightful and heartwarming about his small teenage son Jake, who unwittingly teaches him a Valuable Lesson about kindness and trust.
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Aug 18, 2022
Before and After
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 3, Episode 21. First broadcast on Wednesday, 9 April 1997.
This week, Joe and Nathan find themselves travelling backwards in time to 1997, when they first watched and enjoyed the Star Trek: Voyager episode Before and After, only to find themselves infected with a deadly [tech], which will be going to have activated some time later (or earlier) when they undergo [tech] therapy in the Doctor’s new [tech] treatment [tech]. Meanwhile, Harry has apparently married a toddler or something, which seems upsetting and highly inappropriate.
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Aug 11, 2022
Cupid’s Errant Arrow
Star Trek: Lower Decks, Series 1, Episode 5. First broadcast on Thursday, 3 September 2020.
It’s another episode of Lower Decks, and amidst all the quick-fire jokes and impressive visuals, we learn Another Valuable Lesson: sure we love treaties, Tellarites, timelines and the exciting new T88 model tricorder, but what we’re really here for is hang time with people we love and the sheer joyous ridiculousness of it all. Live long and prosper, friends!
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Aug 4, 2022
The Serene Squall
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Series 1, Episode 7. First broadcast on Thursday, 16 June 2022.
This week on Strange New Worlds our ongoing mission continues — what if Star Trek but relaxed and visually spectacular? In the meantime, Chris teaches some pirates a thing or two about cooking, Christine teaches Spock a thing or two about relationships, and Jesse James Keitel teaches the whole cast a thing or two about being chill, sexy and fabulously evil.
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Jul 21, 2022
The Wounded
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 4, Episode 12. First broadcast on Monday, 28 January 1991.
Our Irish lad to the war has gone
On the deck of the Phoenix you’ll find him.
He’s got a song that goes on and on
And a sad backstory behind him.
Marc Alaimo’s here in a silly hat
He’s missed some bits while sha-a-ving.
And Captain Maxwell has shown us that
He’s a dick and he isn’t worth saving.
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Jul 14, 2022
Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 7, Episode 15. First broadcast on Wednesday, 24 February 1999.
When the Lounge is taken over by violent mobsters, Vic Fontaine (James Darren) has no choice but to call in his fictional friends from the twenty-fourth century to help him out. A stylish and entertaining heist ensues, the good guys win, and we’re reminded (again) about how much we love these people.
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Jul 7, 2022
Stigma
Star Trek: Enterprise, Series 2, Episode 14. First broadcast on Wednesday, 5 February 2003.
In this Very Special Episode, we learn a Valuable Lesson about discrimination and bigotry without a single mention of the minority group being discriminated against. In the meantime — by the most amazing coincidence — Trip has an awkward moment when confronted by some nice people who don’t share his sexual ethic. It’s all a bit of a slog, to be honest.
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Jun 30, 2022
…But to Connect
Star Trek: Discovery, Series 4, Episode 7. First broadcast on Thursday, 30 December 2021.
The crew of Discovery and the peoples of the galaxy are both facing the same dilemma this week: the cautious path of wariness or the risky path of connection with a faceless threat? But it’s Star Trek, and so love and bravery prevail. Meanwhile, Book leaves Michael to look after the cat, and Saru bashfully offers a succulent to the President of Ni’Var.
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Jun 23, 2022
Counterpoint
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 5, Episode 10. First broadcast on Wednesday, 16 December 1998.
This week: a clever script, a complete absence of banter, a frog alien that scores zero on the B’omar Scale, astonishingly good incidental music by Mahler and Tchaikovsky, and two outstanding performances from Mark Harelik and Kate Mulgrew — all working together perfectly to create one of Voyager’s Best Episodes Ever. Enjoy. (You will.)
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Jun 16, 2022
Looking for par’Mach in All the Wrong Places
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 5, Episode 3. First broadcast on Monday, 14 October 1996.
This week, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Quark wants Grilka, Dax wants Worf, Nerys wants Miles, Worf wants Grilka, Miles wants Nerys, Worf wants Dax, Odo wants Nerys (probably), and Julian wants not to know any details about any of this. Meanwhile, Joe wants more of this sort of thing, while Nathan just wants some special effects and reflective surfaces, but will settle for a turbolift that goes up and down without jerking.
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Jun 9, 2022
The Changeling
Star Trek: The Original Series, Series 2, Episode 3. First broadcast on Friday, 29 September 1967.
When the Enterprise takes on board an inexplicably touchy and unreasonable box of flashing lights dangling from a fishing line, hilarity ensues. Also, racism.
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Jun 2, 2022
Dramatis Personae
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 1, Episode 18. First broadcast on Sunday, 30 May 1993.
You know how it is: it’s your first spinoff — a cast of delightfully high-concept characters set against a colourful backdrop, with story possibilities around every corner. But then you find yourself limping towards the end of your first season. You’ve done the plague one, the weird alien fugitive one, the buddy comedy one with the CGI shaving cream, and the terrible boardgame one that everyone will have such fond memories of. So what’s left? How about a story where all of your beloved regulars play people no one cares about, embroiled in a conflict that no one has any interest in? We can do that, can’t we?
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May 26, 2022
Strange New Worlds
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Series 1, Episode 1. First broadcast on Thursday, 5 May 2022.
Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. It’s five-year mission: To explore Strange New Worlds. To remind us of our love the Original Series. To have a fun adventure every week. To look like nothing else on television. To boldly attempt — for a world exhausted by impending catastrophes — to be the most authentic expression of Star Trek since the 1960s.
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May 19, 2022
Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad
Star Trek: Discovery, Series 1, Episode 7. First broadcast on Sunday, 29 October 2017.
meanwhile, Michael tries to work through her feelings for the tall and handsome new security officer Lieutenant Ash Tyler. After a catastrophic explosion destroys the ship, Harry Mudd sneaks on board Discovery, kills the captain, and searches for a way to sell the spore drive to the Klingons; meanwhile, Michael tries to work through her feelings for the tall and handsome new security officer Lieutenant Ash Tyler. After a catastrophic explosion destroys the ship, Harry Mudd sneaks on board Discovery, kills the captain, and searches for a way to sell the spore drive to the Klingons;
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May 12, 2022
Assimilation
Star Trek: Picard, Series 2, Episode 3. First broadcast on Thursday, 17 March 2022.
This week, Joe and Nathan are on the edge of our seats, wondering what insignificant event will tip the twenty-first century over the edge — turning it from a punishing ordeal into a shrieking hellscape of fascism and climatic disaster. Fortunately we’re able to distract ourselves from all this with a really enjoyable episode of Star Trek: Picard.
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May 5, 2022
The Time Trap
Star Trek: The Animated Series, Series 1, Episode 12. First broadcast on Saturday, 24 November 1973.
Exhausted from last week’s astonishingly brilliant performance, this week Bill Shatner is literally phoning it in — so bored with Star Trek that he can’t even be bothered to say all five digits of this week’s stardate. Meanwhile, the Enterprise is trapped in a thing, unable to escape until they do another thing. Or something. Whatever.
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Apr 28, 2022
The Doomsday Machine
Star Trek: The Original Series, Series 2, Episode 6. First broadcast on Friday, 20 October 1967.
A nameless and unknowable monster which has destroyed whole star systems and wiped out an entire Starfleet crew is now heading towards the most populated part of the galaxy. The only things standing in its way: a dramatic soundtrack, a memorable guest actor, an incredibly confident production, and William Alan Shatner. It doesn’t stand a chance.
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Apr 21, 2022
Power Play
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 5, Episode 15. First broadcast on Monday, 24 February 1992.
This week, on Untitled Star Trek Project, Joe and Nathan sit down to watch a sentimental sci-fi favourite from their youth, only to discover that it’s really just a police procedural where some of the regular cast get to do funny voices. Still, they get to see Marina menacing people with a gun, so there’s that, I guess.
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Apr 14, 2022
Sub Rosa
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 7, Episode 14. First broadcast on Monday, 31 January 1994.
This week, Star Trek takes its first ill-judged stab at the Gothic romance genre. Will Beverly fall for her dead grandmother’s lover (sorry), a rangily unattractive anaphasic ghost who encourages her to give up her job and to stand by helplessly while he attacks her friends? Or will she learn a valuable lesson about not dating sociopathic men? (Temporarily and no respectively, it turns out.)
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Apr 7, 2022
Blaze of Glory
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 5, Episode 23. First broadcast on Monday, 12 May 1997.
Previously, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Tired of being a supporting character in a thankless role, Michael Eddington leaves DS9 to star heroically in a TV show which we never see and which exists entirely in his own imagination. After most of the cast and crew are killed by Cardassians — which can happen — and he himself is imprisoned for treason, he is recruited by Sisko for one final mission — to stop a deadly attack on Cardassia that is also entirely imaginary. Hero, traitor, or just some asshole with bad hair and a penchant for lavish Broadway musicals? Let’s find out.
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Mar 31, 2022
Time Amok
Star Trek: Prodigy, Series 1, Episode 8. First broadcast on Saturday, 22 January 2022.
It’s a heartwarming rite of passage for our youngest Star Trek crew — their very first encounter with a baffling new kind of temporal anomaly. And it’s not just any temporal anomaly: it’s a metaphor for the difficulties they have co-operating as a crew and an opportunity to overcome those difficulties. Plus, it gives Rok-Tahk the chance to be sweet, vulnerable, clever and magnificent in turn. And who doesn’t want to see that?
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Mar 24, 2022
The Killing Game / The Killing Game, Part II
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 4, Episodes 18–19. First broadcast on Wednesday, 4 March 1998.
It’s business as usual on Star Trek this week, as the crew of Voyager find themselves in an episode of Secret Army which has been cast, written and directed by latex-headed aliens in Nazi uniforms. Will Voyager’s extensive back catalogue of holodeck programs persuade the Hirogen that there’s more to life than festooning your bulkheads with human skulls? Or will the Captain be forced (reluctantly) to kill Seven of Nine first?
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Mar 17, 2022
Spectre of the Gun
Star Trek: The Original Series, Series 3, Episode 6. First broadcast on Friday, 25 October 1968.
The crew of the Enterprise find themselves in a weird and beautifully directed simulacrum of Tombstone, Arizona with a couple of hours to kill before their certain death at the hands of Wyatt Earp’s gang of off-puttingly ugly cowboys. Meanwhile, we all learn a valuable lesson about why Star Trek is superior to real TV westerns. A classic.
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Mar 10, 2022
The Raven
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 4, Episode 6. First broadcast on Wednesday, 8 October 1997.
In this week’s meeting of the Jeri Ryan Appreciation Society, we watch the most aggressively average Star Trek episode the Randomiser can find, only to discover that there’s still a lot of fun to be had — hilariously sluggish action scenes, a shockingly low-effort Intransigent Alien Race, and some wonderfully subtle and nuanced performances from Ethan Phillips, Tim Russ and Jeri Ryan.
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Mar 3, 2022
All Good Things…
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 7, Episodes 25–26. First broadcast on Monday, 23 May 1994.
After seven years of thorny space problems and some of the most ingenious space solutions in Starfleet history, what do we have left to learn? Something about tachyon scans and anti-time, inevitably, but also something about the enduring power of love and friendship. Let’s see what’s in here.
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Feb 24, 2022
That Hope Is You, Part 2
Star Trek: Discovery, Series 3, Episode 13. First broadcast on Thursday, 7 January 2021.
Previously, on Star Trek: Discovery: it’s the distant future, the Federation is broken, and isolationism runs rampant. Then, of course, lots of things happen, we make new connections, and find a new purpose. And now, the very noisy conclusion. Explosions! Gunfights! Space battles! There’s plenty of action, but do we find ourselves missing the days when Star Trek was a lot of people talking urgently in rooms?
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Feb 17, 2022
In the Pale Moonlight
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 6, Episode 19. First broadcast on Wednesday, 15 April 1998.
This week, we discuss one of Star Trek’s most sacred texts — a forty-five minute Ben Sisko soliloquy, in which he saves the galaxy in a trolley problem of Garak’s devising, killing in the process a Romulan Senator, an obnoxious blue guy and at least one really hot Romulan bodyguard. Is this a great episode, a truly great episode, or something else altogether?
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Feb 10, 2022
Nepenthe
Star Trek: Picard, Series 1, Episode 7. First broadcast on Thursday, 5 March 2020.
Picard and Soji arrive on the planet Nepenthe, where their confusion and self-doubt are assuaged by the planet’s atmophere, by the love of trustworthy old friends, and by some really good wood-fired pizza. Meanwhile, Agnes vomits two or three times, a beloved secondary character is horribly murdered, and a pretty young Romulan is trapped on a Borg cube with little hope of escape. On balance, we think it’s a win.
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Feb 3, 2022
Children of Mars
Star Trek: Short Treks, Series 2, Episode 6. First broadcast on Thursday, 9 January 2020.
An inexplicable terrorist attack on Mars claims tens of thousands of lives. But how to react to it? Do we succumb to panic and fear? Or do we forget our differences and re-commit to our shared values?
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Jan 27, 2022
Cogenitor
Star Trek: Enterprise, Series 2, Episode 22. First broadcast on Wednesday, 30 April 2003.
The crew of Enterprise encounter the Vissians, a genial and technologically advanced species who enslave three percent of their population and force them to have sex with married couples who wish to conceive their horrible latex-faced children. Surprisingly, we’re generally fine with this. Apart from Trip, who is a good person.
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Jan 20, 2022
Descent / Descent, Part II
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 6, Episode 26 / Series 7, Episode 1. First broadcast on Monday, 21 June 1993 and Monday, 20 September 1993.
After their critically acclaimed attack on Earth on Stardate 44001.4, the Borg are back with a terrifying new plan — to pad out the the running time of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Series 6 finale and Series 7 opener. Meanwhile, Deanna is amused by Data’s porn consumption, Nathan is impressed by Beverly’s approach to command, and Joe is distracted by the memory of much more enjoyable Star Trek episodes.
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Jan 13, 2022
Spock’s Brain
Star Trek: The Original Series, Series 3, Episode 1. First broadcast on Friday, 20 September 1968.
A young woman wearing fabulous boots materialises on the Enterprise, renders the crew unconscious, and then removes Spock’s brain. And soon we discover — to our horror — that everyone else involved in making this episode has had their brain removed as well.
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Jan 6, 2022
Starstruck
Star Trek: Prodigy, Series 1, Episode 3. First broadcast on Thursday, 4 November 2021.
Star Trek welcomes a whole new generation into its ranks, as Dal, Rok-Tahk, Zero, Pog, Murf and their prisoner Gwyn become the new crew of the USS Protostar. Their first mission: to accidentally set course for a black hole, to learn to work together as a crew, and to come to appreciate the value of good advice. And, of course, to boldly go where no one has gone before.
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Dec 30, 2021
The Swarm
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 3, Episode 4. First broadcast on Wednesday, 25 September 1996.
When the Doctor’s hard drive starts to fill up with opera, romantic relationships and all the complex glories of being human, he finds himself increasingly unable to fulfil his function as Voyager’s Chief Medical Officer — instead becoming a heartbreaking analogue of your dad suffering from dementia. Also, a bunch of space things happen that we couldn’t possibly care about.
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Dec 23, 2021
I, Excretus
Star Trek: Lower Decks, Series 2, Episode 8. First broadcast on Thursday, 30 September 2021.
It’s Star Trek’s most terrifying crew evaluation since Coming of Age: the crew of the USS Cerritos confront a ridiculous alien from Star Trek: The Animated Series, the Terran Empire, medical ethics, an unconvincing Old West set on the Paramount lot, the plot of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the Borg, complex strings of water molecules which acquire carbon from the body and act on the brain like alcohol, hexagonal crates in the cargo bay, and the plot of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. But more than anything, they confront the need to work together and respect each other. Because this is — and of course it is — Star Trek.
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Dec 16, 2021
Take Me Out to the Holosuite
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 7, Episode 4. First broadcast on Wednesday, 21 October 1998.
When passive-aggressive Vulcan racist Captain Solok arrives on Deep Space Nine and challenges Sisko to some kind of sportsball game, a series of hilarious training montages ensues, followed by a Very Important Lesson about how utterly adorable Rom is. Bless.
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Dec 9, 2021
Strange New World
Star Trek: Enterprise, Series 1, Episode 4. First broadcast on Wednesday, 10 October 2001.
After the crew of Enterprise decide to ignore the advice of their only competent crewmember, they find themselves on a very routine away mission on a very unremarkable planet, exhibiting behaviour that would embarass the most racist of your racist uncles. Turns out that at the end of the day, it hasn’t been such a long road getting from there to here.
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Dec 2, 2021
The Corbomite Maneuver
Star Trek: The Original Series, Series 1, Episode 10. First broadcast on Thursday, 10 November 1966.
Tensions are running high this week, as the Enterprise is attacked by a series of regular geometric solids and the bridge crew’s morale starts to crack under the pressure. Is this a ropey and glacially paced moment of disposable 60s TV, or the beginning of something indescribably magical?
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Nov 25, 2021
Forget Me Not
Star Trek: Discovery, Series 3, Episode 4. First broadcast on Thursday, 5 November 2020.
It’s been 1,183 years since Rick Berman left Star Trek, and so it’s time for two new queer characters to join the Discovery family — Trill host Adira Tal and their adorable boyfriend and former host Gray Tal — in an episode all about the importance of connection and belonging.
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Nov 18, 2021
Lineage
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 7, Episode 12. First broadcast on Wednesday, 24 January 2001.
It’s our first trip to the Delta Quadrant, and we have questions that need answering. Is B’Elanna’s father a massive racist or just a regular-sized racist? Which is more convincing: Tom and B’Elanna’s baby or an 8472 in a well-lit room? And can we maintain focus all the way through a 45-minute episode of Voyager without a single space anomaly?
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Nov 11, 2021
The House of Quark
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 3, Episode 3. First broadcast on Monday, 10 October 1994.
In this week’s episode of Family Ties, when Quark (Michael J Fox) lies about his involvement in the death of a belligerent Klingon customer, he finds himself threatened, hauled off to Qo’nos, forcibly married, and required to defend the honour of his house before the High Council with a combination of Excel spreadsheets and extreme physical cowardice. Will he learn a Very Important lesson about the dangers of greed? (Spoilers: no.)
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Nov 3, 2021
Yesterday’s Enterprise
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 3, Episode 15. First broadcast on Monday, 19 February 1990.
After the Enterprise-C emerges from a mysteriously swirly space anomaly, Joe and Nathan find themselves in an alternate timeline where Star Trek: The Next Generation is dramatically and impractically lit, full of incident, and sceptical about the 1990s belief in the End of History. Star Trek: Discovery Series 1 arrives nearly 30 years too early, in Yesterday’s Enterprise.
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