Casual Trek - A Star Trek Recap and Ranking Podcast

Casual Trek read Chris Claremont’s epic graphic novel Debt of Honour a few years ago, now it’s time to check out the sequel story, set in the era of Star Trek: The Next Generation!

Claremont’s adopted Jame Finney from Shore Leave as his favourite Star Trek character and she quickly becomes the cast’s favourite, too! He also gives Alexander the one good day he will ever have.

In addition, we’ve got stories about when Ro Laren did a bad thing, and how Kelsey Grammar’s a real grouch.

05:13 What Non-Star Trek Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: Biscuits and the theatre

05:13: Introduction to Star Trek Special #2

07:00: The Choice

12:59: Out of Time

19:03: Cry Vengeance

Talking points include: Gen13, Sovereign Seven, Miles is the one fan of Dark Horse’s 90’s superhero line, digestives, shortbread, Hove Open Air Theatre, Northanger Abbey, even seagulls can enjoy theatre, Charlie will still not read TekWar II unless you pay us, Commander Waid, very good Riker Expressions, The Topps X-Files comic, actor’s faces in comics, we can’t remember which episodes we’ve seen, Captain Bateman is basically just Kelsey Grammar, breaching doctor/patient confidentiality, somehow Charlie didn’t mention Money Plane, the Frasier sequel, Jame or Jamie Finney, the one good day in Alexander’s life, we’ve still not listened to Star Trek: Khan, the Bionic Woman, Alexander in the IDW Comics, Wolverine, Charlie’s still annoyed about Sherlock’s final series, Doctor Who, do the transporters get rid of human waste, Miles brings an old transporter theory into play, admin issues with Krakoan resurrection, . Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.

Pedant’s corner: Dark Horse’s Alien Vs Predator stars Machiko Noguchi as the protagonist, made by Randy Stradley. Chris Claremont’s Alien Vs Predator: Deadliest of the Species features a genetically enhanced trophy wife called Caryn Delacroix, who works at different times with humans, yautja and xenomorphs.

Next episode, normal service will resume!

Casual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-Lobatto

Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn

Casual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie Network

https://ko-fi.com/casualtrek

Miles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com 

Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com 

Welcome to an episode of Casual Trek which is the equivalent of a teacher wheeling the television into the classroom. We’re finally looking at Disney’s first ever PG movie, the weirdly horrific Black Hole.

A spaceship’s crew investigates the strangely empty abandoned ship which has been observing cosmic phenomenon. No, it’s not Event Horizon, it’s Black Hole, straddling the era of classic rocketship fiction and Star Wars type stories.

There’s a robot bin who’s really annoying and somehow one of the most competent people on the ship, several aspirant Darth Vader types of mixed qualities and an odd amount of theological questions. Charlie’s gone into the movie blind, so join him trying to recap it without losing his sanity!

02:28 What Non-Black Hole Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: King Sorrow & Odyssey

12:38 What is Black Hole?

15:30 Charlie attempts to recap Black Hole in 10 minutes

28:17 Charlie tries to understand what that was all about

56:20 Final Thoughts

Talking points include: Event Horizon, Charles Burns’ Black Hole, Miles will never make Blake’s Boys happen, King Sorrow by Joe Hill, Woke Classic “The Odyssey”, Ulysses-31, ODY-C, Circe, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Coming for Jonathan Hickman’s humour comics, Charlie takes real offence to V.I.N.C.E.N.T., another Twin Peaks connection, the novelisations of Black Hole & Red Dwarf, Rise of Skywalker, behind the scenes details, Tron, whether the robot saw heaven. Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.

Casual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-Lobatto

Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn

Casual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie Network

https://ko-fi.com/casualtrek

Miles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com 

Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com

It is happening again.Miles and Charlie serve themselves some coffee and a damn fine slice of pie to talk about Twin Peaks as we’ve had some crossover between one of the lads' favourite TV shows and the one they choose to divide their lives podcasting. With that in mind they’re discussing episodes of Star Trek where Twin Peaks regulars have appeared. We’re back TNG Season One with ‘Haven’ as Lwaxana Troi’s giant servant Mr. Homn (played by Carel Struycken who also plays a giant in Twin Peaks, coincidence?) gets into the wine at a pre-wedding dinner as all the parents fight and Troi is about to get married to an inbred cat of a man who was also in Twin Peaks, coincidence? (yes actually). In ‘If Wishes Were Horses,’ Colm Meaney clearly wants to punch Michael Anderson who is NOT playing a leprechaun, we’re legally obligated to make that distinction and Bashir’s creepy Bimbo Dax fetish is revealed for all to see and in Voyager’s ‘Hope and Fear,’ OH MY GOD- CONSEQUENCES as Ray Wise impresses us while looking like he has a testicle on his head while undertaking a convoluted revenge scheme.

Everyday, give yourself a present and don’t you think my cousin looks exactly like Laura Palmer?Episodes Discussed: ‘Haven’ (20:30) If Wishes were Horses (53:49) Hope and Fear (01:19:27)

1. Talking Points include: We do not take enough drugs to do a Alejandro Jodorowsky podcast, Twin Peaks might have made Miles stop watching Star Trek back in the 90s, the movies of Sam Neil (RIP), Citizen Kane, sometimes a big iconic twist in a film or book overshadows how great the film is due to pop-culture osmosis, Wizard: The Guide to Comics, T’Pau the musician feels like a boring duplicate of Kate Bush, Miles pitches a Star Trek spin-off crime show and practices his pretty poor Twin Peaks impressions, if this were Space 1999 this would end VERY differently, Miles has a new head-canon theory about Data, The Virgin Bill Riker vs. The Chad Will Riker, Harp Porn, what colour would the Star Trek ‘Lodge’ be? Colm Meaney looks like he wants to throttle Rumpelstiltskin, Miles has never seen (but wants to see) Carnivale, Julian Bashir’s Bimbofication fetish, Miles (like the Joker) likes the keep the reason for his immigration multiple choice, Will Riker would punch Season 1 Julian, even imaginary Sisko is the best dad, we put more thought into the implications of Baseball Team ‘The London Kings’ than the writers, soccer is probably a much bigger sport in the future because soccer IS international, extreme-frisbee, Ray Wise’s veiny head testicle, Janeway is pretty genre savvy about their chances of getting back to the Alpha Quadrant, Neelix needs a drunk crazy man beard, Torres is probably not going back to prison when they return to Earth (but it’d be funny if she did), the wider geopolitical consequences of Janeway’s earlier actions, Ray Wise sells what might be the bleakest ending of a Star Trek episode… with a bollock on his head, why this one parter is a good season finale when they don’t try and recapture the Best of Both Worlds energy, how many times has Neelix let a con man on board?

We’re on holiday and/or having various life issues going on, so here’s a classic episode to help prime you for our upcoming Black Hole episode!

Yes, Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released almost a fortnight before Disney’s The Black Hole and frankly, ate its lunch.

Charlie and Miles re-examine Star Trek: The Motion Picture, discovering whether it’s actually good (it is), the great soundtrack, special effects and Bones’ disco jumpsuit!

They also watch The Changeling, where Kirk gets a weird metal son who looks like an electric toothbrush.

Regular service will be resumed shortly, where we’ll watch episodes of Star Trek starring Twin Peaks actors!

All Hail Computer Overlord!

Our casual adventurers have been tasked by the benevolent Computer Overlord to watch three episodes of Star Trek featuring societies run by computers to make sure Computer Overlord isn’t offended. In ‘Return of the Archons’, Kirk and the Gang are here for the Festival and for the first time, we get to see Captain Kirk talk a computer to death, then we return YET AGAIN to season One of TNG as Wesley and some of the Enterprise kids get kidnapped by an ancient civilisation led by Deep Throat from The X-Files to be given some new parents in ‘When the Bough Breaks’ and finally, Boimler discovers if he’s going to be a good boss or a bad boss when he’s tasked to lead a repair team ‘In the Cradle of Vexilon,’ All Hail Computer Overlord, the cake is a lie!EPISODES DISCUSSED: ‘Return of the Archons’ (12:17) ‘When the Bough Breaks’ (42:53) and ‘In the Cradle of Vexilon’ (1:11:58)Talking Points Include: The Princess Bride, the Evercade Superpocket, Jeff Minter, classic computer games, creepy vibes right from the get-go, what is Festival actuallY for? These guys are the crappiest resistance movement, Lindstrom- the hot new Star Trek character find of 1966, Kirk being the most Internet Guy here in talking a computer to death, that one guy wants to use Festival to jump through windows, I think we’re going to run out of S1 episodes of TNG before anything else, Kylie Minogue, TNG needed more freeze-frame endings, we hate AI, you might have guessed, we really needed an episode of TNG which was basically Chopping Mall on the Enterprise, the whole ‘families on the Enterprise’ thing sometimes just feels weird, Wesley has definitely called Captain Picard ‘dad’ by accident, nice to see Jerry Hardin here pre-X-Files, koala, we just have a soft spot for ‘Move Along Home’, have you ever been a Boimler? T’lyn is here to eff with Boimler, would people in the 24th Century haze others?

Abracadabra!

Prepare your magical runes and put on your pointiest hat because we’re going to be talking about Magic (without a ‘k’) and three different episodes where Magic is believed to be involved. Of course, unlike ‘The Magicks of Magus-Tu,’ we’re not delving into ‘so magic is actually real’ territory and instead, magic is more inferred.

In ‘Spirit Folk,’ Tom Paris’ weird obsession with making Harry kiss a cow gets the crew of the Voyager into trouble on the holodeck while in New Eden, Pike, Michael Burnham discover a planet of people descended from survivors from World War III who have renounced all technology and Owosekun was there as well and then, in ‘The Elysian Kingdom’, M’Benga gets to play out his daughter’s favourite fantasy novel while in the real world, Anson Mount has way too much fun playing a cowardly cad! Are we sure this nebula isn’t evil? Alakazam!

Episodes Discussed: What Non-Star Trek thing have we enjoyed?: (02:14) Spirit Folk (10:45) New Eden (38:40) The Elysian Kingdom(01:04:35)

Right, everyone quit Oo-moxing for two minutes because we’ve got another episode talking about those hyper-capitalist scamps, the Ferengi; literally one of the few times here on the show where we can say without doubt that it’s a metaphor for capitalism!

Our brave casual explorers watch three Ferengi-based episodes of Star Trek without any Quark-based antics, first up is probably TNG’s most successful attempt to try and sell these guys as the Big Bad as Captain Picard is forced to face his past as a revenge attempt leads him to relieve ‘The Battle,’ after that, Trip gets to do a Home Alone/Die Hard as the worst trio of Ferengi try to pull an ‘Acquisition’ on the Enterprise NX-01 and finally, the Lower Decks get to see what Ferengi TV and Miles’ AO3 account is like as ‘Parth Ferenghi’s Heartplace’ makes us ask… do Rutherford and Tendii like each other… in a sexy way? Please send us two strips of Gold-Pressed Latinum for reading the show notes. Wait, you wanted to know the price up-front? THIS IS WHY YOU READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, GUYS!!!Episodes discussed: THE BATTLE (12:09) ACQUISITION (41:31) PARTH FERENGI’S HEARTPLACE (01:11:36)

TALKING POINTS INCLUDE: Bioshock, Saturday Night Live UK, US Advert Breaks are the devil, the Ferengi did just as well as being the Next Klingons as the Voord did as being the next Daleks, it must be a World Cup year because Miles makes a football joke, TNG Season 1 has a naff charm, some great prop-acting from Patrick Stewart, its no surprise why Denise Crosby quit, Miles also wants to wear the Wesley-sweater and the male miniskirt from S1, Miles should not travel back in time to meet his 14 year old self, one day, we will cover the episode where Wesley Crusher nearly pulls. Why DO British people find the name ‘Jeff’ funny? Ethan Phillips clearly relishes playing Evil Season One Neelix, we’re right back to the TNG Season One idiot Farenghi, is this meant to be a comedy? Miles and Charlie discuss their Home Alone-style traps and just how badly they’d go, for an episode with a Darkplace homage title, there are very few Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace references, Miles misses binging television, Lower Decks shipping, even the best writers have done naff work, Mariner’s depressingly relatable character development backslide and what Ferengi TV show would Charlie get addicted to?

[Charlie's note, Miles kept spelling Ferengi wrong in this recap, as he's just that casual, but I've changed it for your sanity and my own]

It's time for another tangent cut out of the main show. Here we talk about the Absolute DC books and Charlie getting back into Hitman!

Happy Monday, everyone! To celebrate the start of the working week, we’re looking at Star Trek episodes where people mess with the memories of our cast and put them through menial, awful work.

O’Brien must continue to suffer in Hard Time, where he’s lived through decades of prison time just for being a bit nosey. Can he deal with the mind-shattering prison sentence, or will he still be traumatised and we’ll never speak of this after the episode’s end?

Then our main feature is a two-parter where the crew of Voyager are brainwashed into factory jobs (apart from Paris who couldn’t even manage that). Watch the rivalry between the Emergency Command Hologram and Harry Kim! Janeway has a romance plot and there’s some bad CGI!

03:30 What Non-Star Trek Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: An anti-recommendation for Atlas Shrugged, recommendations for Bioshock, Charlie editing the Grand Comic Database

09:02 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine “Hard Time”

41:43 Star Trek: Voyager “Workforce”

Talking points include: Poirot’s facial hair, talking Miles down from reading Ayn Rand, Mark Morrison, No Gods No Mayors, a harsh burn from Miles, DS9 has a counsellor? What is Miles’ middle name anyway? A bee gets loose in Charlie’s room. Buffy. Farscape. Tek War. Isn’t it good that prisons aren’t run for profit in the real world? Prestige TV ghosts of the mind. David Cage wishes he could get this emotional. Bryan Fuller doesn’t get weird with it. Tom can’t even hack being a brainwashed labourer. Just be Janeway’s consort, Jaffen! Charlie’s upsetting second Voyager: Across the Universe playthrough. Anything can pull rank on Harry. Charlie got contacted by Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.

Casual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-Lobatto

Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn

Casual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie Network

https://ko-fi.com/casualtrek

Miles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com

Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com

Welcome to a classic episode of Casual Trek, featuring Matt Hardy!

Matt's upcoming project can be found here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kryptothera-a-hunter/kryptothera-a-hunters-tale

We’ve got our first guest star in today’s episode as we get the nonstop machine of comics crowdfunding Matthew Hardy to join us in talking about the First Lady of Star Trek: Majel Barrett!

Majel’s been in so many episodes, hell, so many SERIES of Star Trek over the years, so there’s a lot to work with here. We’ve got shockingly little Majel in the TOS episode that ostensibly is a spotlight focus on her. Then we’re in to the wild world of Lwaxana Troi as she gets kidnapped by Ferengi in TNG and that version of the Ferengi are the absolute worst. Like Internet Guy worst. Finally we get a surprisingly nice pairing of Lwaxana and Odo stuck in a lift together as a weird life form from the Gamma Quadrant has got into the computers.

TOS: What Are Little Girls Made of?

TNG: Ménage a Troi

DS9: The Forsaken

Talking points include: Westworld (both flavours), Babylon 5, Only Murders in the Building, Righteous Gemstones, Adam X the X-Treme, Ahsoka, Classic Dr Who, FMV PC games, Charlie’s back on his Lost bullshit, From, Amnesiac City, Two time GLAAD award winner Peter Allan David, The Matrix, Terminator, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, The UK Office amount of awkwardness, Shoggoths, Tiny Clangers, The Prisoner, Legion of Super-Heroes fashion, Mario Kart-based declarations of love, Vampire: The Masquerade, The Mos Eisley Cantina Band, Lucille Bluth, Lwaxana Troi going full Mrs Bennet, Picard giving it all Shakespeare, More Classic Dr Who, Lord of the Rings for the SNES, Gilmore Girls, Tamagochi, War of the Worlds. Oh, and occasionally Star Trek. A surprising amount of Star Trek this time…

Casual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-Lobatto, our guest star was Matt Hardy.

Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn

Casual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie Network

https://ko-fi.com/casualtrek

Miles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com

Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com

Pedant’s Corner:

• Gap-wise, the gap between TOS finishing & TNG airing was 18 years, the gap between Enterprise finishing and Discovery airing was 13 years

• “Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so” is the actual quote

• Charlie couldn’t think of the word “camper van” when describing From

• Memory Alpha’s reference to Lwaxana Troi saying she ‘made love’ to DaiMon Tog, has a link to an article on Oo-mox