Casual Trek - A Star Trek Recap and Ranking Podcast

Put on your best private detective hat and prepare to get into character as we talk step into the Holodeck and prepare ourselves for inevitable disappointment. In ‘The Practical Joker,’ the Enterprise computer gets wacky while Bones, Sulu and Uhura fail to enjoy a primitive Holodeck. In ‘My Way,’ Odo uses AI to make girls like him and we get a lot of song and dance numbers (and the best IDW comics pitch) as we meet Vic Fontaine while in Strange New Worlds’ Space Adventure Hour, La’an gets to beta-test the Holodeck and nearly kills everyone on the Enterprise doing so. Typical. Bloody Typical.

Miles is a Jerk!

SHOW NOTES: The Practical Joker (07:50) My Way (28:49) Space Adventure Hour (55:03)

TALKING POINTS: The Knives, Doctor Who, the Southern Reach series (and the only film where Miles nearly wet himself in the cinema) Brighton Wok the Legend of Ganja Boxing, TAS actually pulling off some Shacting, Unfortunate stains, a noncanonical reason for Chekov’s absence from TAS, Romulan pranks are usually pretty deadly, Hamboning, Odo secretly being a gossipy bitch, Miles and Charlie talk relationship advice, Tom Jones in Star Trek, we come up with the PERFECT IDW Comic pitch, Miles hates when 50s SF TV and Cinema is immediatly shown to be crap, The Last Frontier feels too mean spirited to be affectionate, the cast getting to play, Uhura and Scotty is a great contrast to Uhura at the start of Strange New Worlds, the L’an and Spock pairing seems weird and the show is obsessed with making us know Spock ***ks, Vulcan Walk of Shame, Charlie has tried to Riker a chair (Update: Charlie can still Riker a chair)

PEDANT’S CORNER: Top of the Pops and Old Grey Whistle Test are BBC Music shows, there was some BS about flags in the British News hence the strange tangent about flags. Neighbors and Home and Away are two long running Australian soap operas that were incredibly popular in the UK back in the day.

Welcome to Neelix’s Kitchen Nightmares you doughnuts!

I’m Gordon Ramsey and we’ve got three meals for you to shove in your face from three questionable kitchens.

Neelix’s kitchen’s covered in fluff and filth and seems to have been made in a large office meeting room. Will his food help Seven of Nine in “The Raven” or will it bring back dire flashbacks? I think we all know how it’s going to go.

Next up is the unnamed chef of the Enterprise who actually has a full kitchen. Hoshi Sato comes in and takes over, does she think she’s me or something? She gets the job done, possibly a bit too much in “Singularity”. Also there’s some delightful nonsense with a chair.

Finally William T Riker’s got the midlife crisis giant pizza oven out for a visit from his space dad, JL Picard in “Nepenthe”. Has he got what it takes, or will this episode and pizza both be undercooked? Whatever it is, it’s better than the replicated cake that gets thrown up all over La Sirena!

This is actually Charlie, I’ve no idea what Gordon Ramsey sounds like, I hope you enjoy the show!

00:05:21 What Non-Star Trek Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: Hungerstone by Kat Dunn, Alien: Earth

00:16:50 The Raven

00:48:33 Singularity

01:19:43 Nepenthe

Talking points include: The hyperfixation black hole, all the British food Miles misses, Hungerstone and other Carmillas, Alien: Earth and rants about latter Alien movies, which war was best: Britpop, Kree/Skrull or Avengers/Defenders, the works of Bryan Fuller and his horrifying first draft, Dexter & Sherlock Holmes, Dark Skies, marmite, people talking about their novels/characters, Phlox is basically Hank McCoy, James Bond Themes, Elnor doing a Metal Gear Solid, is Rizzo the Rat a Romulan?, old JL’s such a rogue again, Gilmore Girls and decades-later sequel problems, . Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.

Pedant’s corner:

• The actor Miles & Charlie are talking about is David Jonsson who is going to be in Romulus 2, The Long Walk and is currently on The Road Trip.

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

Okay, lets you and him fight! In shameless pursuit of ‘brand synergy,’ this episode of Casual Trek celebrates the return of Strange New Worlds to our streaming services by doing an episode about those lizardy bastards Kirk fought once at those rocks from Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, the Gorn! In ‘Arena,’ Kirk fights a string vest wearing space lizard while Spock watches and provides inane commentary (hey Spock-o, that’s OUR job) and then in the Strange New Worlds Season 2 finale and Season 3 opener ‘Hegemony Parts 1 and 2’ Pike spends more time hiding and less time building rudimentary cannons, Spock and Chapel play a little Alien Isolation and Ortegas loses herself in the job… Bogus. Episodes discussed: Arena (07:20) and Hegemony Parts 1 and 2 (38:27)

Talking Points include: American Family Reunions, Donkey Kong Bananza, young Tom Jones is weird looking and The Monkees are great, Oh no not another Godlike being, Vasquez Rocks, everyone got tinnitus making this episode, Charlie’s time as a scout, Miles has a legitimate reason to bring up ‘Blake’s 7,’ they tried to build the cannon on Mythbusters… it did not go well, we’re not Trying That in a Small Town but we finally listen to The Mountain Goats for the show! Pike’s brief moment of religious crisis is weird, Strange New Worlds’ making the Gorn so monstrous clashes with how it went down in ‘Arena’, Alien Isolation, the nature of ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’ members of various Star Trek races and how the idea the Gorn might be biologically evil might not be a great look for Trek.

It’s episode 69 and so our brave Casual Explorers are showing their emotional age by watching the infamous ‘everyone gets drunk, horny and crazy’ episodes of Star Trek, TOS’ The Naked Time where George Takei shows off his impressive sword and TNG’s less impressive ‘The Naked Now’ where Charlie asks the most important question ‘if Data has no emotions, why did his creator build him to be fully functional, sexually?’ and Miles asks the second most important question ‘Why have this as an second episode?’ Meanwhile, Guest-Star Cele from ‘Celeste is Best’ gets to talk about Lower Decks’ own ‘everyone goes drunk and crazy’ with ‘Empathalogical Fallacies’ and has no real important questions to ask except ‘why is this so delightful?’ WARNING: Believing yourself to be descended from Irish Kings does not in fact make you an Irish King.

EPISODES DISCUSSED: ‘The Naked Time’ (19:44) ‘The Naked Now’ (52:44) ‘Empathalogical Fallacies’ (1:25:09)

TALKING POINTS INCLUDE: Donut County, the Elric books, the Superman movie, Man of Steel, Fortunate Son was not the only song about Vietnam, Spock looks weird in a black t-shirt, Sulu looks great with no shirt, Spock is a huggy drunk, how NOT to follow up your first episode of a brand new TV Series, Picard’s weird grunting, Miles and Charlie share stories of drunken productiveness, the failure of the writers to make Wesley likeable, the canonical reason why Data is ‘fully functional’ and why Lore is EEEEEVIL, Denise Crosby’s incredible mincing and costumes, everyone should watch Lifeforce, the very referential nature of Lower Decks feels like a bug, Worf would not host a poetry slam, Cele gushes about the fantastic work of Jamie Loftus.

PEDANTS CORNER: Miles pronounces D’Artagnan as Dogtanian, but the Muskehounds are always ready.

Strap on those babies and keep clear of the wet ghosts, we’re finally talking about Death Stranding! Yes, Casual Trek Episode 69’s going to have to wait as the boys are very excited about the work of the game designer, dreamweaver, visionary plus actor, Hideo Kojima.

Sit back and listen to the attempts to explain what Death Stranding is actually about, the ways Hideo Kojima’s works are somehow both deep and very stupid, in the best possible ways.

00:01:17 What Non-Star Trek or Death Stranding Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: 28 Years Later & the six harbour walk around Fishbourne.

00:13:17 How did we get into Death Stranding?

00:25:00 What is Death Stranding?

Pedant’s Corner:

• Charlie’s thinking of Final Fantasy VII: Remake, but in his defence they’re incredibly similar names

• MULE stands for Multi-Use Labour Element. It may be a reference to an Atari game of the same name

Talking points include: 28 Years Later, The Walking Dead, Men (the movie), Quiet Year, Apocalypse World, Nosferatu, monster peen, a nice walk, Kubrick, Chvrches, Theory for Turntables, Spider-Man (PS4, Mega Drive, Commodore 64 versions), Final Fantasy Remake, time is nothing anymore, Jedi Survivor, Metal Gear Solid, Low Roar, Breath of the Wild, loner characters. 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

Death Stranding by CHVRCHES is their song and used for review purposes here.

https://ko-fi.com/casualtrek

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

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

Grab your phials of glowing green goo and prepare to ham it up as we talk once more about Jeffrey Combs, the Philip Madoc of Star Trek (that’s a Classic Doctor Who reference) and three episodes where his many characters make large roles. Unfortunately, Weyoun is only in a few scenes of Deep Space Nine’s ‘Ties of Blood and Water’ and both Miles and Charlie try really hard not to get personal as Kira has to look after a seriously ill surrogate family figure, fortunately Shran more than makes up for it in Enterprise’s ‘Cease-Fire’ as Archer is drafted into helping settle a planetary land dispute between Vulcans and Andorans and we make a little detour to ‘A Few Badgeys More’ as AGIMUS, the evil computer and F***ing Peanut Hamper plan mischief… if you’re one of those weirdos who only listen to hear Miles swear, this episode is for you! Come back in a year’s time probably for J3ff, more than likely.

EPISODES MENTIONED: TIES OF BLOOD AND WATER (14:26), CEASE-FIRE (45:33) A FEW BADGEYS MORE (1:11:27)

TALKING POINTS INCLUDE: Blowing up Objectivists, what elements of British films make Miles homesick, The Phonecian Scheme, John Wickend which leads to a wider discussion on John Wick, the Death of Princess Diana, our first Jeff episode does not have enough Jeff, Kira has supplanted Odo as Miles’ favourite DS9 character, how Kira and Ace from Doctor Who are very similar, a long way from the ‘Prat’ version of Bashir, Miles finds out something horrifying about LL Cool J, Charlie retells his one TATU story and the boys clearly have Heatstroke, Shram/Archer shippers must exist, Andorian soccer mums, accents, Andorian Antennae acting, we don’t need the Koala-joke in Lower Decks explained, Miles actually compliments ****ing Peanut Hamper, Boimler and Tendi hanging out together always seems weird.

PEDANTS CORNER: Jeffrey Combs is Ratchet in Transformers Prime, not Transformers: Robots in Disguise

The ‘mystical pregnancy’ trope is a bit of an overused one in genre fiction and Star Trek visits that well so many times we had options for which ones to highlight here.

The episode you all knew was coming is Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “The Child” where Troi gets pregnant with a cosmic entity. We also see puppies and the Enterprise dealing with a horrendous disease as a B plot.

Star Trek: Voyager had so many episodes for this trope, but we picked “Elogium” where Kes’ body accidentally jumpstarts its mating process in some of the most grotesque ways possible. Oh, and Neelix wants everyone to know he was a bad boy before he met Kes.

Finally Enterprise’s “Unexpected” has Trip head over to a freaky alien ship where he helps with their engines but gets mpregged in the process. You dirty dog, Trip!

00:03:41 What Non-Star Trek Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: Jaws and Exorcist novelisations, Super Mario Kart World (and not having a summer cold)

00:13:08 Star Trek: The Next Generation “The Child”

00:40:34 Star Trek: Voyager “Elogium”

01:12:11 Enterprise “Unexpected”

And stick around to the end for a horrifying bonus feature!

Pedants Corner:

The ‘modern’ V is from 2009, so it’s 16 years old

“A New Start” from Degrassi High was actually in 1989 and while it did air, they had to remove the characters fighting their way through anti-abortion picketers

Jarvis Cocker took the piss out of Michael Jackson in 1996, one year after Elogium

Talking points include: Donna Troy’s Zombie Baby, Prometheus, V (old and new versions), Legion of Super-Heroes, Super Mario Kart World, GoldenEye, do NOT ask about Avengers issue 200, weird X-Men pregnancies, Charlie’s top tip for karaoke, PUPPIES!, Ian & Barbara, the crew as Wesley’s parents, Degrassi’s abortion storyline, Space: 1999, Charlie brings back that old ZX Spectrum/Commodore 64 rivalry, 1995 Michael Jackson is a rough sight, Michelle Pfieffer, Star Wars Episode One, Red Dwarf, “The Writer’s Barely Disguised Fetish”, Barbarella, Legz Akimbo, Prometheus, Battlestar Galactica (the new one), Attractive Doctors Who, Dune, mpreg, whether Chris Claremont has ever done an mpreg (he hasn’t), Quasar, Farscape, Quantum Leap, Chat Out of Hell, . Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.

Next time, we have another Jeffrey Combs Power Hour! I mean it’s us, so probably more like an hour and a half.

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

Grab your tastiest sandwich and try not to spoil Twin Peaks as we return to Deep Space 9 with an all-DS9 extravaganza. We’re talking about the opening three-parter of season two of Deep Space Nine which, unlike the Augment three-parter of Enterprise we covered (Episode Title- We Have Wrath of Khan at Home), we’re discussing and placing on the Big List as one single entry and not three seperate ones. Watch as in ‘The Homecoming,’ Kira goes off to rescue Bajor’s greatest resistance fighter and gets no end of grief for it, then we see that Odo has an actual friend while Kira has one of those awkward naked dreams while uncovering Bajoran nationalists in ‘The Circle’ and then the simmering Bajoran nonsence ends up in some Die Hard antics on the Station as our heroes must endure ‘The Siege’ where this should hopefully wrap up. No Vedek Winn’s were harmed during the making of these episodes for which we are deeply sorry.

EPISODES DISCUSSED: ‘The Homecoming’ (11:25), ‘The Circle’ (35:11) and ‘The Siege’ (56:11)

This used to be a TNG episode, Bajoran nonsense, Twin Peaks references (some spoilers removed) the DS9 novel mentioned last episode, Odo pranking Quark, Miles prefers Sisko with no beard, the Return of Grappler Zorn and a digression into G.I.Joe, Frank Langella aka Skeletor, Sisko’s better at the ‘We’re with Starfleet, we don’t lie’ than Wesley, Odo has a friend-an actual friend (cue references to ‘The Inbetweeners’, Vedek Winn would unapologetically tweet ‘Thoughts and Prayers’, The Prime Directive is poorly written legislation, we do a Die-Hard, Bashir would have a pith helmet, Deep Space Nine still working out what it can do and it feels that the Bajor stuff falls by the wayside with much larger threats, Krim wants to be Sisko’s big rival, this is all too neat in resolution.

It’s Bank Holiday Monday, so let’s take it easy and talk about some comics.

After promising it early in the show’s history, Charlie’s finally read the first arc of IDW’s Star Trek comic by Lanzig & Kelly. Look, we’re Casual Trek, this is the level of service you get from us.

The first arc, “Godshock” features that classic Star Trek concept: thumbing your teeth at god, only this time it’s a bad thing as someone’s killing gigantic cosmic entities! Who did this and how can it be stopped? Well, Ben Sisko’s back from his time as a cosmic entity to find out, with an almost all-star cast of people from throughout Star Trek History. There’s Data and Dr Crusher from TNG, Paris from Voyager, Scotty from TOS and Jake Sisko is also there. Worf guest stars for long enough to be a bad parent and back door pilot for another series, and there are a couple of new characters who are a lot of fun.

Join us on the USS Theseus and prepare for a lot of tangents, as we both love talking comics.

References: The Super Stalag of Space, Harry 20 on the High Rock, Dan Dare, Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation Squared, Quatermass and the Pit, The Legion of Super-Heroes, The Legion Clubhouse, comic collection sizes, YES Charlie has put rolled-up Walking Dead volumes in his back pocket, the Bendis New Avengers approach to team-building, Billy Pilgrim, The Krakoan Age of X-Men, Marvel Swimsuit Specials (which are coming back), release a Star Trek Swimsuit Special you cowards!, Data pages vs data pages, Gilmore Girls spoiled Anna Karenina for me, Charlie’s Super Mario Quest 2025, the Summers family tree, the Dark Horse Buffy Series, Marvel’s Star Wars, Dr Who comics, the Energon Universe, the CLZ collector’s app, Malibu Comics’ Star Trek… Oh, and sometimes IDW’s Star Trek.

Pull out your helmet with the torch on and your spelunking gear because we’re talking about Caves! Miles and Charlie go potholing for Star Trek episodes featuring caves and find a Horta in TOS’ ‘Devil in the Dark’, bid farewell to a member of the TNG cast in ‘Final Mission’ and do you remember when everyone got trapped in a turbo lift in Lower Decks’ ‘Caves?’ Always use the buddy system! Follow safety regulations! EPISODE DISCUSSED: ‘Devil in the Dark,’ (07:13) ‘Final Mission,’ (28:33) and ‘Caves,’ (52:53)



Talking points include- Common Side Effects, Cyberpunk 2077, Caves, the Horta’s beat poetry, Spock calling Kirk ‘Jim,’ Mariah Carey as Goku charging to Super Saiyan, Red Dwarf would have shown the crashing shuttle, Miles and Charlie agonize about their Britishness, Miles Oatrick Stewart impression sounds more like Matt Berry, how the writers gave up on Wesley Crusher,space Joe Rogan would be a pakled,fake clip shows, Tendi is a ray of goddamn sunshine, Miles has lived the Alpha Shift/ Delta Shift dynamic, the best fake episode of Quantum Leap ever.