For your Thanksgiving commuting or family-avoidance pleasure, friend of the pod and frequent guest Richard Brown and I dive deep into the making of Star Trek; the who, the what, the why. We also make stops at iconic 1970's Star Wars toys and books and assorted tie-ins. We wander through the movies and come up with some surprisingly counter-intuitive faves. We talk great episodes and not-so-great episodes. Contractual oddity between Shatner and Nimoy. We get into the little seen but vital 1974 animated Star Trek series, which mystified and befuddled a generation of little kids tuning in on Saturday mornings only to get fully formed, albeit animated, Star Trek episodes...minus Kirk's womanizing. And Rick shares his 12-year-old self's carefully itemized ratings system by which he judged The Original Series on a scale of 1 to 4. 4 being the best. We'll see how Adult(ish) Rick feels about some of his rankings in this special early-release Thanksgiving edition of the Full Cast and Crew podcast.

Vital Research Read for this Episode

Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years

The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams: The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek

Inside Star Trek: The Real Story

Star Trek Technical Manual (1975)

Ballantine Books Star Trek Fotonovels (1975)

Star Trek Enterprise Blueprints (1975)