Beginning the Trek

And that’s a wrap!

A wonderful bonus wrap up episode for Jessica and Andy’s last posting for Beginning the Trek. Huge thanks to our guests, Bill and Dan of TrekGeeks podcast and John Champion of Mission Log. And a big thanks to you, for joining us on our journey to get just a little dabble into the crazy world of Star Trek.

Jessica’s still quietly lurking Trek things on Twitter @beginthetrek and Andy still checks out the Facebook posts and messages. You can still email us at [email protected]. And you should still click that donate button and put a dollar or five or fifty in. You know you’ve given much more support to much worse *cough*crappy coffee*cough*.

In this, the final episode, Andy and Jessica have a great discussion on:

* how it's Saturday night and Jessica has had a couple of drinks

* this episode being quintessential TNG

* Q and how Jessica has changed her mind

* crazy people not being crazy

* time travel, we're so getting over it

* Andreas Katsulas

* Captain Crusher!

* the big idea--laying down your life for your friend. Or humanity.

* caring about each other!

Jessica's Rating

4 of 5 poker cards

Andy’s Suggestions

All of the Star Treks!

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All Good Things (1&2)

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Next Up: Wrapping Up

We are going to geek out with a bunch of guests who talk about Star Trek on the regular. Bill and Dan from TrekGeeks AND John Champion and Ken Ray (no relation guys) of Mission Log. We are going to geek. out.

Andy;s favorite Beginning the Trek episode has him and Jessica going over:

* MU Everything and Everything MU

* Chewing scenery at an epic level

* Continuity Porn, Andy’s hooked!

* Telerites are always guilty of something. Race hatred played out in the Mirror

* Linda Park can act, and she puts the Ho in Hoshi!

* Mirror Archer is a coward?

* Gorn hunting and grav plating

* Jessica explains what Mirror Porthos should have been

* Phlox is creepy and awesome in any universe

* Who were we supposed to be rooting for? Why the episode seemed a little flat.

* AND AS PROMISED, Andy spoils the series finale of Enterprise.

* And much, much much more.

Jessica's Rating

3 of 5 T'Pol belly rings

Andy’s Suggestions

* ENT: (season 4, episode 20-21) - Demons and Terra Prime

* TNG: (season 1, episode 19) - DataLore

* TNG: (season 9, episode 12) - The Pegasus

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In a Mirror, Darkly

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Next Up: All Good Things

Our very last episode for this trek. Are you ready? We're going back to TNG's final episode. Jessica predicts it will be a multitude of Picard's all sharing different experiences from different time periods. Also, there will be a farm.

Andy and Jessica talk a lot, but this kind of sums it up.

So instead of ranting, I created a thing. Clearly, we’re not all on the same page about what makes Star Trek worth watching. This sums up my feels about #Bound. pic.twitter.com/VUXaKLja6V

— beginningthetrek (@beginthetrek) September 17, 2018

Jessica's Rating

1 of 5 things. The things don't even matter.

Andy’s Suggestions

* The Forge, Awakening, Kir’Shara (season 4, episodes 7-9) - Opens with an act of terrorism at an embassy on Vulcan and we see Vulcan Terrorists, a Savior’s soul, and a lot happens with T’Pol

* The Tholian Web (TOS season 3, episode 9) - For next week, find out about who they are referring to when they say the Defiant and who are the Tholians?

* Arena (TOS season 1, episode 19) - What is a Gorn?

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Next Up: In a Mirror Darkly

Imagine YOU lived in the Mirror Universe and you wanted to watch Enterprise. It might look like this.

Andy and Jessica talk:

* Really good old fashioned Star Trek story

* Trip has died!

* The acting has gotten much better. Thanks, LeVar!

* What could they have explored?!

* Archer dealing with the order to make him and kill him

* Designer babies and My Sister's Keeper.

* Phlox. Awwww.

* The 3rd season's aggressiveness and willingness to play the bad guy

* What the Xindi storyline means

Jessica's Rating

4 of 5 T'Pol pajama crop shirts

Andy’s Extra Helping of Episodes

* Home (season 4, episode 03) - The Enterprise returns to Earth (with a quick drop off of T’Pol and Tripp on Vulcan) and Archer deals with his mission not being what he was hoping for and his anger. Also Phlox deals with xenophobic humans.

* Borderland / Cold Station 12 / The Augments (season 4, episode 4-6) - Remember Khan? These guys are part of that bygone era of genetic augments. Oh, and they have a father, Dr. Arik Soong, played by Brent Spiner (Data)

*

Whom Gods Destroy (TOS throwback! season 3, episode 16) - You can meet Marta, the Orion Girl played by Yvonne Craig. Maybe not the best version of Orion, considering she is criminally insane...

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Similitude

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Next Up: Bound

Andy's gone crazy and has decided to get to the 17th episode of the 4th season where they retcon the Orion slave girls.

Jessica's prediction is Enterprise is going to run into the (twist!) madames who actually own the slave girls. Archer's definitely going to get kissed.

Andy and Jessica talk:

* Enterprise is starting to be serialized!

* The Xindi - all 5 of them, weird

* The militaristic vibe and dealing with 9/11

* Malcolm v unchecked aggression

* Trip's trips to planets

* The foreman is gross

* Those uncomfortable scenes with Trip in T'Pol

* Phlox

* How to call the different Xindi

* We get the right captains at the right time

Jessica's Rating

3 of 5 insectoid heads

Andy’s Suggestions

* Anomaly (season 3, episode 2) - Our first adventure in learning how to live in the Delphic Expanse

* Impulse (season 3, episode 5) - Enterprise responds to a distress call from a Vulcan ship lost in the Delphic Expanse

* Hatchery (season 3, episode 17) - Enterprise finds a crashed Xindi Insectoid ship, leaving behind some rather precious cargo

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The Xindi

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Next Up: Similitude

Some good old-fashioned Star Trekkiness. Jessica's prediction: Trip ends up with a clone and start to question whether the other Trip has a soul.

Andy and Jessica get all 47:

* Help us out, donate!

* All this time on the hostage, zero wrap up!

* Transporters and tech is getting better

* Where's Hoshi?!

* T'Pol (and all of us) recognizing the ugly of her people

* What exactly is this curtained off spy equipment FOR?

* Andorian antennae

* Archer's decision to hand over the info at the end

Jessica's Rating

3 of 5 ancient dead vulcans

Andy’s Suggestions

* Carbon Creek (season 2, episode 2) - Jolene Blalock in a dual role as T’Pol and her Great Grandmother

*

Horizon (season 2, episode 20 ) - Features Travis Mayweather (Because Andy knows Jessica likes him)

*

The Expanse (season 2, episode 26) - You're going to need to watch this because next week it's a two-parter and we're watching the second part. So watch them together.

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The Andorian Incident

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Next Up: The Xindi

Jessica's Prediction

We're going to meet the Xindi in real time and they won't know what actually happened with the Xindi from the future, but in our anger we're going to take them out and Archer will have to deal with the morals of that.

A spectacular bonus episode for Jessica’s first time at Star Trek: Las Vegas! Some first impressions there and some interviews with other fans who were gracious enough to talk with us about how they happened to start their trek.

Stay tuned for next time when we’ll start on Enterprise’s Broken Bow.

The last episode we watch from Voyager, Andy and Jessica get into:

* Jekyll and Hyde episode!

* Big epic, stuff Jessica didn't like

* The EMH switch

* Janeway has broken Prime Directive

* Ransom's motivation

* BLT and Turkey Platter

* What makes Janeway bring the crazy?

Jessica's Rating

5 of 5 Voyager Plaques

Andy’s Suggestions

* Barge of the Dead (Season 6, episode 3) - We meet B'Elanna's mom

* Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy (Season 6, episode 4) - The Doctor's daydreams are intercepted by aliens

* Virtuoso (Season 6, episode 3) - The Doctor sings some opera and becomes a bit of a rock star

Equinox

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Next Up: Convention Spectacular

We're going to wrap up our trip through Voyager AND get some stories from the Las Vegas convention in 2018. Couldn't make it? Tell us your story in an email. We may use it in the future when we talk more Trek.

In this emotional episode Andy and Jessica discussing:

* May not be suitable for kids - we talk about depression in this one

* The A plot is a little forgettable, especially compared to Roxanne Dawson's performance

* These all-important probes

* B'Elanna is the most brilliant of all engineers

* Andy's moment of connection to this episode

* Jessica's moment of connection to the episode

* B'Elanna's moment of getting better

* Get better people. Connect to other Star Trek fans. We're here.

* B'Elanna's episode arc can be found here.

Andy's Rating

4 of 5 HALO jumpsuits

Andy AND Jessica’s Suggestions

Let's see some stars! A few notable guest stars can be found on:

* Think Tank (season 5, episode 20) - Jason Alexander plays a character offering a lot, but the price is high

* Tsunkatse (season 6, episode 15) - The Rock faces off against Seven of Nine

* And as Jessica mentioned, Faces (season 1, episode 14) - No guest stars, she just really loved this episode

Extreme Risk

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Next Up: Equinox

Jessica predicts that we're going to run into a Federation ship. We're so excited and then it's going to turn out they are bad guys!