Casual Trek - A Star Trek Recap and Ranking Podcast

Do you hear the siren song of synergy?

That means we’ve got a brand new Star Trek show on the horizon and Miles and Charlie want in. With Star Trek: Starfleet Academy on the horizon, our brave lads are going to squeeze back into their school uniforms and try to remember how school works as they approach three episodes of Star Trek which deal with students at SFA. In ‘The First Duty,’ Wesley ‘THE BOY’ Crusher gets in with a guy who looks nothing like Tom Paris and is really too invested in being with the cool kids for someone who helped saved the galaxy at least three times. Then, Jake and Nog end up on a ship with a bunch of cadets forced to grow up too fast in ‘The Valiant’ and Nog drinks the kool-aid of a wanna be Kurtz just out of short trousers. Then we head into the 32nd Century as Tilly and Adira have to debate what’s worse, dealing with energy absorbing creatures on an ice-planet or dealing with a bunch of angsty kids with emotional baggage? Oh, and Michael Burnham helps save the Federation. Again. Don’t forget to do your homework!EPISODES DISCUSSED: ‘The First Duty’ (6:50), ‘The Valiant’ (35:42) and ‘All is Possible’ (01:01:08)

TALKING POINTS: Grange Hill, the novels of John Darnielle, Mario Galaxy, Frollo from Disney’s Hunchback never gets invited to Villain hangouts, Wesley Crusher never pulled, Nick Locarno vs. Tom Paris, the two types of Starfleet Academy students, the absence of Wesley’s Mum, ‘The First Duty’ being the inverse of the typical Wesley Crusher plot, Worf’s son Alex isn’t allowed on the bridge, Nog and Worf are incredibly very similar characters, Miles gets to talk about both one of his favourite anime Mobile Suit Gundam AND his favourite novel Slaughterhouse 5, the illusion of glory in war, bye-bye Tilly, damn covid-lockdown-inspired emotional baggage, our honest feelings about the upcoming Starfleet Academy show, Michael Burnham has to do something every episode, why is David Cronenberg NOT the villain?PEDANTS CORNER: Charlie has started playing Mario 2: The Lost Levels, the Genesis music video Miles can’t remember is ‘I Can’t Dance’ by Genesis.

Due to various medical emergencies, our Starfleet Academy episodes are going to have to wait a little while. Instead, here's an old favourite episode: "They Exploded Odo!"

We experience the original Mirror Universe episode and try to understand a system of government entirely based around betrayal (that isn't the Romulans'), also a fantastic episode of DS9 with some shock as there's a pretty brutal explosion of one cast member!

13:58 TOS: Mirror, Mirror

33:15 DS9: Crossover

01:02:02 DISCO: Despite Yourself

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

Casual Trek's still in recovery mode from life and the festive period and we've wanted to fix the "Gamers" episode which was cursed with bad attempts to compress the file.

Now, you can listen to the splendour of gaming in Star Trek!

In Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Game", everyone gets addicted to Candy Crush except for Wesley Crusher, the big nerd!

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's incredible "Move Along Home" puts the cast in a board game escape room.

Star Trek: Lower Decks' "Least Dangerous Game" shows where TTRPGs are in the future, also Boimler gets hunted, which is kind of a game!

Talking points include: Experiencing BiJ, Rock Band, Portal 2, The Gamers, Sean’s Zelda II playthrough, Fire Emblem Engage, Oath, Battlestar Galactica/Unfathomable, Reaganomics, video game addiction, Wesley Crusher-themed emo band names, an easy 2 Unlimited dunk, Metal Gear Solid, the cube from the film The Cube, Dread, Cluedon’t, the Norwegian LARP scene, The Mountain Goats, I Only Listen To The Mountain Goats, Charlie Goes Off On One About OneD&D, Fucking Drizzt. 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 

Charlie and Miles have ‘gifted’ each other episodes of Star Trek to talk about, both good and bad. The problem with being casual about Star Trek is you just don’t know all of what’s out there. That’s what the Casual Trek mission is for, after all. 

This year the gang are doing something different, talking about a film that’s adjacent to Star Trek, and even some Trek actors say is the best Star Trek movie: Galaxy Quest. They’ve even got guest stars Reanna Reid-Lobatto and Sean Corse from off of the Famicom Dojo joining the festivities.

So sit by the fire, get a nice drink and listen to some nerds getting rabid about a fun film, even if it has Tim Allen in it. 

0:03:47 - What Non-Star Trek/non-Galaxy Quest Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: Pokémon Legends ZA, Taskmaster, 

0:21:49 - Galaxy Quest Preamble

0:33:12 - Galaxy Quest Recap

0:54:51 - Thoughts on the movie

Talking points include: The Mojoverse, the Junkions, chilli, needing to cuddle a Pokémon, Detective Pikachu, Pokémon Legends ZA, John Pertwee’s Doctor Who episodes, conventions, Thought Bubble, Sean learning about names from the UK, Westlife, Santana, Chat Out of Hell’s Westlife episode, Charlie’s musical knowledge comes from Rock Band, Miles’ anecdote about how he saw Galaxy Quest (funny, charming), Charlie’s anecdote about watching Pokémon: The Movie (thankfully short, of questionable legal status). Charlie pitching 2000 AD, “some of the old tentacle action”, Sam Rockwell, Susan from Seinfeld, fandom in media, “Duct Tape Boy”, what is wrong with Monk from Monk, convicted felon & narc Tim Allen actually being okay in this, Airplane, The Shining, Three Amigos, favourite non-Christmas Christmas movies. Oh, and occasionally Galaxy Quest.

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

Support Reanna’s breast reconstruction surgery here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-reannas-breast-reconstruction-recovery

https://ko-fi.com/casualtrek

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

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

Sean’s YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@famicomdojo 

Welcome to an emergency bonus episode!

Miles is off, but the fortnightly schedule continues. Charlie’s played a solo roleplaying game based on Star Trek. No, not the official one, but “We Saved This Vessel Once”.

01:16 - Solo Actual Play

07:38 - Section 31 Pitch Session

Pedant’s Corner and Pluggable: Reanna Reid-Lobatto’s got a GoFundMe (not a Just Giving like I said in the episode… although I don’t remember if that’s a thing or not). If you can, please help the Reid-Lobattos deal with the expense of her surgery: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-reannas-breast-reconstruction-recovery.

We Saved this Vessel Once can be found here: https://citykey.itch.io/we-saved-this-vessel-once

Sound Effects from TrekCore and Pixabay.

Theme by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn

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

Join us next time for our Christmas special!

We’re still concerned with the Delta Quadrant as this episode of Casual Trek covers episodes from Modern Trek’s animated series concerning the Voyager, the Delta Quadrant and all those assorted antics. First up is the Prodigy Season One mid-season two-parter ‘A Moral Star’ where Dal and the Protostar gang plan to actually do a Starfleet with a little bit of heist antics as they try to break out the prisoners of their old home and then in Lower Decks’ ‘Twovix’ as Boimler grapples with the possibility of promotion, the crew of the Cerritos discover that when there’s an outbreak of Tuvixes, Janeway was 100% right!Episodes Discussed: A Moral Star (06:36) and Twovix (35:35)Talking points: Dan Dare (SPACE HYPER HERO), Hades II, the dark history of the Mushroom Kingdom, more of the Dark History of Charlie’s time with Dave’s, the one time the Holodeck safeties breaking was a good thing, Janeway is definitely cottagecore, 80s cartoons were great nostalgia, but modern cartoons do have some superior moments, Mantzoukis in Taskmaster has coloured our heroes opinion of Jakim Pog, many many references to Katamari Damacy, Janeway was right killing Tuvix, does Riker regret not having sex with his transporter clone? we make Tuvix a verb, an Americano is a Tuvix of Espresso and Water, what happens when coffee reaches Warp 10? Miles sings two seperate theme tunes.PEDANTS CORNER: The TOS episode Miles refers to is ‘Is There In Truth No Beauty.’ Miles and his wife DO have the Katamari Damacy soundtrack on vinyl, important to know.

It’s time for a podcast about a podcast!

Yes, we’re talking about Star Trek: Khan, the official Star Trek podcast.

What happened between Space Seed and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan? Dr Rosalind Lear wants to know and brings some familiar faces to Ceti Alpha V to dig up some old recordings. Does she want to humanise this space tyrant or exonerate Kirk for his actions?

Flashbacks, being stranded in a hostile wilderness, Naveen Andrews… Is this Lost? Kind of. At least, it’s enough for Charlie and Miles to talk about Lost a lot, as well as serialised fiction and the plot of the first three episodes of Star Trek: Khan.

01:41 What Non-Star Trek Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: 

11:33 What is Star Trek: KHAAAAAN!?

26:45 Kind of a recap

Talking points include: Lost in Space, Journey into Space, Lessons in Magic and Disaster, Charles Dickens, freelancer rates in RPGs, Tales of the City, serialised prose, we should not be so impressed that we finished a book (Miles) and a video game (Charlie), Hades, fiction podcasts, Welcome to Night Vale, Silt Verses, Wolf 359 (non-Star Trek), Are You Afraid of the Dark Universe, Lost, Alan Sepinwall “The Revolution was Televised”, Mo Ryan “Burn It Down”, Spaceballs, Khan quoting Milton (always), manifest destiny, Alien: Earth, what kind of 90’s nerd Khan would have been. 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’s that time of year where we try and delve into the strange and scary for our Halloween episode and this time, we’ve hit upon altered states (not the Ken Russell film) where our heroes undergo a strange transformation, in TOS ‘Wolf in the Fold,’ Bones’ obsession with getting Scotty laid ends in a lot of mysterious stabbings that date back to Victorian London while in Voyager’s ‘Darkling,’ the Doctor’s attempt to improve himself by adding bits of other people into him starts making him very large in the tooth and a little too psychosexual towards Kes while in DS9’s ‘Empok Nor,’ O’Brien, Nog, Garak and a collection of clearly important side characters go to a deserted Cardassian Space Station to steal some wiring ends with psychotropic drug-induced violence. Typical. Happy Halloween!

Episodes Discussed: A Wolf In the Fold (13:19) Darkling (42:06) Empok Nor (01:11:42)

Talking Points Include: The European cut of Kubrick’s ‘The Shining,’ Horror Movies, We HATE Pan and Scan, Weird UK Film edits, Bones clearly wanting to get laid, my God, they do a seance, Robert Bloch and Harlan Ellison’s twin Ripper stories in ‘Dangerous Visions,’ censorship and no Kirk shirt rip for drugs this time, Jack the Ripper in other SF franchises, no walk of shame for Kes, Picardo’s make-up leads to a lesson about old special effects, the Civilization Gandhi glitch, does Kes actually grown over her four years, CSI Tuvok, Jeremy Renner-gy, when romantic comedies have to make the rival partner an utter jerk, Robert Picardo with hair is amazing, MMMbop, Tom Waits covering Disney, ‘Cardies’ does not work as a derogatory slur, what Brighton sounds like, Garak Bashir and O’Brian probably don’t hang out at the same time, the original plan with Worf vs. Garak would not have been as fun, Nog trying too hard, ‘Bolian Dies First,’ there’s probably a meeting about Garak being a spy.

Welcome to spooky season and we're horrifying Miles specifically with a crossover between Star Trek and his favourite fandom! Can you hear the finger of a monkey's paw curling?

Assimilation Squared has been a threat on this show for a while, but why is that? Listen on and we'll explain the story and the many questionable art choices.

04:09 - What Non-Star Trek Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: 

10:32 - Preamble and talking about licensed comics

31:09 - What is Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2 actually about?

Talking points include: Transformers Vs GI Joe, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, TV-21, Charlie didn’t hold a cat hostage (said mainly to appease Emma), TekWar, Alien: Isolation, Hollow Knight, Absolution, the works of Tony Lee and the various other creators, Charlie & Miles’ history with Star Trek comics, Saga, Buffy comics, the unnecessary final boss level in Bioshock, the TARDIS enters Data (non-sexually). Miles’ Star Trek/Doctor Who fanfiction, All-Star Superman, Sanji’s eyebrow, Star Trek and Doctor Who’s acknowledgement of each other, The Multiversity, our recommendations for tie-in comics. Oh, and occasionally Star Trek. And Doctor Who.

Pedant’s Corner:

• Tony Lee’s X-Men Unlimited story is about Sage stealing a painting from an old Hellfire Club guy

• Miles means Charlie Adlard

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 

Insert all your tired 2025 jokes here because after the last nine months, we’re pretty much out as this episode, we go All-Voyager, All the Time with a slate of episodes concerning ‘The Year of Hell,’ one of Voyager’s more infamous wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey moments. In ‘Before and After,’ we see the writers try and tease out what never comes to pass as a time-displaced Kes discovers something horrifying, Harry Kim married her two-year old daughter! Then we go into two-part territory as we enter ‘The Year of Hell’ and a lot of bad things happen to Voyager while Kurtwood Smith makes us ask ‘Is Annorax Star Trek’s best villain?’ But seriously… Harry Kim married a two year old and I don’t care if she’s a short lived alien race, that’s real weird, especially considering who the father is!Episodes Discussed: Before and After (08:29), Year of Hell Parts 1 and 2 (38:25)Talking Points Include: Miles has a quota of Ed Gein jokes per year. Weird Al, The Devils, One Piece, Harry Kim marrying a 2 year old, Tom Paris asking for time off to have sex, the Voyager Homecoming comic, Miles requests Charlie do a Planet Wales for his next Star Trek RPG campaign, Annorax might be the best Star Trek villain, Miles doesn’t platinum video games, Kurtwood Smith might play Trek’s best villain, Chakotay actually getting to do something, Year of Hell failed so that Battlestar Galactica could soar, would it have worked as a year long season? How sometimes, compromises and failures can make a great TV show, probably for the best Tuvoy didn’t lose a leg, does Harry ever get a promotion? History changing stories usually have one set ending and the much needed keyfabe of ongoing media.