The Communicator.

At the end of "A Piece of the Action," Doctor McCoy reveals that he left his communicator behind in Oxmyx's office. It's essentially laughed off and the NCC-1701 continues on to its encounter with a giant space amoeba. Kirk says that, with that kind of technology, the Iotians might one day want a piece of the Federation's action. But what might be the actual repercussions of such an accident? This is the question that Enterprise tries to answer in the second-season episode "The Communicator." Like McCoy, Reed returns to the ship minus his gadget—only this time it isn't brushed aside.

In this episode of The Ready Room we're joined by Mathieu Blondin and Sebastian Prooth to discuss Reed's little mistake, the consequences for him and Archer, the potential impact it had on an alien society, and whether or not Starfleet should be going undercover to mingle amongst the inhabitants of other worlds in the 22nd century (or at all). We also discuss "The Communicator" as an important episode on the road to the Prime Directive.

In our news segment we learn about the March 2015 release of TNG Season 8—in book form, discuss what we want to see in the next Star Trek film compared to a recent article on io9, and in Questions from the Fleet we delve into how best to grow the Star Trek franchise by looking at how marketing and merchandising has been handled over the years.

News

TNG Season 8 book coming in 2015 (2:55)

Star Trek 3 Wish List (11:19)

Sponsor: TrekFan (29:48)

Questions from the Fleet: Marketing Star Trek (31:55)

Win Star Trek Blu-rays, Books, Ships, and more (41:33)

Sponsor: Audible (43:01)

Feature: The Communicator

Impressions of the Premise (48:28)

Rivas Jakara, Beta Edition (50:47)

Honey, I Cloaked My Hand (1:01:51)

Press-on Prosthetics (1:05:26)

Seeding the Prime Directive (1:07:00)

Taking Responsibility (1:18:20)

The Aftermath (1:22:56)

Final Thoughts (1:28:14)

Closing (1:34:00)