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.

[ Additional Show Notes ]

Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn. Read Miles’s blog or Charlie’s blog.

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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:



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.

[ Additional Show Notes ]

Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn. Read Miles’s blog or Charlie’s blog.

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Listen up, you palookas, it’s time for a Casual Trek about times people tried to copy humans. We’ve got a bona fide Mafia planet thanks to a discarded novel in “A Piece of the Action”, featuring some incredible Shacting.

Next, those Next Generation goombahs find themselves in a casino inspired by another discarded novel in “The Royale”, a troubled script and a bad episode which is actually a fantastic time.

Finally, those Prodigy kids just wanna do a Starfleet and find a culture inspired by the original Enterprise in “All the World’s a Stage”

Timecodes:

Talking points include: Our respective theatrical origins, CHARLIE WAS NOT RAISED IN A CULT, Lost (finally!), science fiction finales, Yellowjackets Season Three, America: It’s Pretty Big!, how our tastes in music will never be a number one hit, Fizzbin, “President Capone”, Miles’ beef with Chicago, Cones of Dunshire, the improv skills of the bridge crew, the horror of an improv planet, books in 1992, Iain (M) Banks, troubled scripts, Madonna’s oeuvre, Bernard from Lost, Charlie’s grandad dressing like a cowboy at a wedding, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the boys go on a tear about Ernest Cline again, Galaxy Quest. Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/original-the-royale-script.123944/ – A quote from Tracy Tormé about what the original script for The Royale was going to be like.

Which 1980’s British children’s drink would your cult poison themselves with? Answer in the poll on Spotify!

Pedantry Corner:

[ Additional Show Notes ]

Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn. Read Miles’s blog or Charlie’s blog.

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The post 72. A Piece of the Acting first appeared on Nerd & Tie Network.

Strum your sitar and prepare to launch all Eagles as Miles and Charlie once more become the Space Scamps as they make a second trip to the moon for three more episodes of Gerry Anderson’s ‘Event Horizon meets Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace’ show Space 1999. Miles is now worried he has created a monster by showing Charlie this show, and in doing so they get to talk about psychedelic trippiness and Kano’s obsession with Computer in ‘Black Sun,’ Christopher Lee (although he’s totally phoning it in) and the dispatch of a weaselly middle manager in ‘Earthbound,’ and then with ‘The Troubled Spirit’ Halloween comes a little early and it’s probably more spooky than whatever we’ll end up doing for our Halloween episode…

EPISODES DISCUSSED:

Talking Points Include: More Space 1999, Death Stranding, a trip to Scotland, the science is impossible, Moon Base Alpha’s limited resources, British Pessimism vs. American Gung-Ho, Gene Roddenberry would never, Hard SF has a tendency to go full magic weirdness, Bohemian Rhapsody deserves it’s rep, Christopher Lee is phoning it in, Simmons is the David Brent in Space, cowardly heroes, our brave explorers enjoying shouting MMMMUUUUUUUUTAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNT like in ‘Mission of the Darians,’ Charlie repeats a Johnny Byrne joke from the last episode, awesome sitar music this is the most Halloween episode we’ve done for the show, a wicked burn from Charlie’s old teacher Mr. Jafferji, is Moonbase Alpha a liminal space? M. Night Shyamalan films and surprisingly… some Star Trek.

[ Additional Show Notes ]

Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn. Read Miles’s blog or Charlie’s blog.

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Grab your dice-bag and make sure your character sheets are up to date!

As Charlie is ill and both hosts are really busy, we take a quick detour from talking about Star Trek the TV Show to talk about Star Trek Adventures Tabletop RPG by Modiphius Entertainment. In his other side-career as a Gaming Journalist, Charlie got to try out a review copy with his gaming group and goes over the ensuing data. If you ever wanted your episode of Casual Trek to be 80% Charlie and 20% Miles, this one is for you! Find out Miles’ potted history with gaming, the world’s strangest Alien campaign and a quick overview of the game itself. This might be our most tangent-free episode!

Timecodes:

TALKING POINTS: Our history with RPGS, Miles’ obsession with playing a Mod in RPG’s (the subculture kind, not the internet forum kind) The Langoliers, the weirdest Alien RPG campaign, Charlie’s earlier history with Star Trek RPG’s and Charlie’s brother trying and failing to help, the actual Star Trek Adventures game itself, worries about combat, can you concentrate your way out of everything? Made-up Radiation, Charlie’s spread-sheet nerd habits pay off, Charlie gives a two-word answer to playing Traveller and then fudges a very easy dice roll.

[ Additional Show Notes ]

Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn. Read Miles’s blog or Charlie’s blog.

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It’s time to get your stolen spaceship hurtling round the sun and going back in time to the 1980’s with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home! We’re joined by our occasional editor and perpetual Pokémon expert, Reanna Reid-Lobatto, with some news about whales (and transparent aluminium). There’s some impressive Shacting as Spock and the crew get up to hijinks in order to get whales going back to the future! Then we’ve got the second part of this ‘bus punk’ duology with Picard’s “Watcher,” where we’re reminded why ICE should be abolished, Rafi is the most fun she’s been in the show and Guinan’s already fed up of JL!

Timecodes:

Talking points include: Continuum, Dr Who, Ecco the Dolphin, Whale Song, Tavern Talk, Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuux, Final Girl, Top Gun, Karate Kid cosplay, the pronunciation of aluminium, the “I choose to stay” trope, is there no pizza in Star Trek’s future?, Bester from Babylon 5, John Lithgow’s acting career, Bill & Ted’s poorly-aged comments, transparent aluminium facts! Hitchhiker’s Guide dolphins, Some non-bummer news about humpback whales, I urge Comrade Whales to go further, Genma Saotome’s parenting, McCoy Vs the American Health Industry, Alexa & the PS5’s voice recognition, Eddie Murphy, Back to the Future & Howard the Duck’s Lea Thompson, Fly me to the Moon, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Buffy, ICE should be abolished, Edith Piaf, do you like references?, Jerati’s history of constantly fucking up, Eternal Law, Ageing punks, Miles’ connection to Kirk Thatcher, fuck Peanut Hamper, The Rosa Parks episode of Dr Who, Charlie has now finished Yoshi’s Island. Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.

The Matthew Rosenberg Wolfsbane thing is covered here: https://www.cbr.com/rosenberg-apologizes-for-wolfsbane-death-scene/

Pedant’s Corner:

[ Additional Show Notes ]

Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn. Read Miles’s blog or Charlie’s blog.

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The post 69. Save the Punks first appeared on Nerd & Tie Network.

Temba, his arms wide!

We have a new episode of Casual Trek for you and it’s about language, no, not naughty language, although we’re both British so we’re VERY good at that. We’re talking about times where language and communication have been important Trekian themes!

First, everyone on Deep Space Nine is talking gibberish instead of Technobabble in ‘Babel’ while in Strange New Worlds, Uhura’s first away mission goes horribly awry when she has to communicate with the ‘Children of the Comet,’ and finally, we deal with one of The Next Generation’s best episodes as we try and find out just who is Darmok and why was he at Tanagra in ‘Darmok.’

Temba, at rest!

Timecodes:

Talking Points Include: Catch-22, Sakamoto Days and the slow weebification of Charlie, Love Hurts, Sean Austin, is this Chief O’Brien’s first worst day, Babel originally being a TNG script and how it would not have been as fun, the Odo/Quark dynamic, Kira having no time for BS, how irritating it must be to play a Vulcan sometimes, Sam Kirk is not this show’s Kenny, does Strange New Worlds disregard Roddenberry’s attitude to God? Uhura and Spock being friends, Miles misses Hemmer, when Spock thinks you ****ed up… you ****ed up! Troi’s rather slim resume, Miles suffers the Darmok problem with UK-Specific references in the US, ‘Darmok’ might be Star Trek’s clearest descent into allegory, How ‘Darmok’ inspired the scariest episode of Doctor Who, Picard’s new jacket,

Pedant’s Corner: The Chuckle Brothers were a slapstick comedy duo popular on British children’s telly. To me. To you. Rolf Harris was also a popular children’s entertainer on British TV… until he was convicted on many charges of SA towards minors.

[ Additional Show Notes ]

Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn. Read Miles’s blog or Charlie’s blog.

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Better lock up your familial issues and not talk about things with your parents as we delve into possibly one of the worst fathers in Science-Fiction (at least this one has an excuse for emotional distance) as we talk about the most Vulcan of Vulcans, Spock (and Michael Burnham’s and Sybok’s) dad, Sarek. Is he well-meaning, or, as Miles believes, has definately eaten one of his own children like a Goya painting?

Our first trip is to go Disco with ‘Lethe’ as Michael Burnham discovers that her adopted dad has been offloading his guilt complexes onto her. Then in TOS’ ‘Journey to Babel,’ Kirk, McCoy and a whole bunch of alien delegates get caught between Spock and Sarek’s personal drama and finally, in TNG’s ‘Sarek,’ Captain Picard faces a difficult choice with a man he so deeply admires and Patrick Stewart gets to indulge in ‘ACT-ING!’

Live Long and Remember that a Family can just as much be a Found One as one you were Born into…

Timecodes:

Talking Points Include: The worst father’s in Pop-Culture, Miles has been writing again HOORAY!, Charlie is playing A LOT of Super Mario Bros. Miles wants a ‘DISCO’ shirt, “CONTENT WARNING: Jokes on Baby Eatings,” That weird thing with prequel shows when they talk about stuff that was a secret in the original show, Lorca is a shit, would Vulcans appreciate slapstick comedy? Fringe, how Miles’ Britishness switches on a daily basis, we don’t get enough Space Opera shows these days, an alien called Gav, We rate the strange aliens of ‘Journey into Babel’ and how it might be one of the most Trek-like Trek episodes, does Wesley Crusher pull?, what is the slime for? Data pulling the ‘child upset his parents are fighting’ trick with Picard and Riker, we don’t get political… honest… Star Trek is apolitical, Picard wants more hijinks in his Diet, some actually good camera work in Trek.

Pedant’s Corner: Blatchington Mill is a High School in Brighton that Miles’ mother definately felt was the runner-up to her wanting him to go to Dorothy Stringer (which he did).

[ Additional Show Notes ]

Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn. Read Miles’s blog or Charlie’s blog.

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The post 67. Sarek – Vulcan as a Muthaf***a first appeared on Nerd & Tie Network.

It’s finally here! The Section 31 movie, wanted by almost no one and quietly put out onto Paramount Plus looking like a bad attempt to be a Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad (the bad one) and Borderlands: The Movie.

To celebrate, Charlie and Miles have formed a ragtag band of bantering ne’er do wells including Cele from Celeste is Best and Sean from Famicom Dojo. They carry out a four-person relay recap, pitch their own versions of a Section 31 movie and try to say something good about it!

Timecodes:

Talking points include: Borderlands (video game), Guardians of the Galaxy, Creature Commandos, a nice Americano, scone and a book, Macross, Silo (film & books), Midnight Suns, The original Section 31 predicted how the Patriot Act would go down, SHIELD in the War on Terror Era, Babylon 5, Mass Effect 2, Battlestar Galactica, The Culture, X-Force (Cyclops’ and Wolverine’s), Hunger Games, 90’s Animated Cyclops, ‘meh’ should never be said in a Star Trek, “We have Tendi at home”, everyone looks like budget ‘someone else’, if this was on HBO Max then Zaslav would have killed it, The Drazi’s religious war, The Big Outdoor Fight, Rebel Moon, British versions of successful American sci-fi, is there anything original? Starbucks supervisor energy, an Oirish accent, a Pacey from Dawson’s Creek haircut, Agent for Harm, MST3K, Rogue One, Making Georgiou into Spike, referencing Lorca’s most unfortunate line in Discovery, Fifth Element, the sins of Joss Whedon’s writing, Dr Who, Suicide Squad, Torchwood, Celeste’s Harsh Truths, The Franchise, Jessie Gender, this is a Roger Corman movie if he was an idiot as well as a thief, choking on a Manta Force, Garth of Izar, Gundam references, . Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.

Pedant’s Corner:

[ Additional Show Notes ]

Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn. Read Miles’s blog or Charlie’s blog.

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The post 66. Star Trek: Section 31 – We’re Sorry first appeared on Nerd & Tie Network.

Quick, put on your secret black leather uniform and prepare yourself for moral dubiousness as we prepare ourselves for the upcoming film- ‘Star Trek: Section 31.’ With the film debuting in just a few days after this episode drops, Miles and Charlie prepare themselves by choosing three episodes tangentially related to the forthcoming film. In ‘Inquisition,’ we and Julian Bashir meet Section 31 and all Bashir wants are Scone and Jams, then in ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise,’ we slip into an alternate universe/Tasha Yar fixfic and meet Captain Rachel Garrett (who will apparently be in this movie) and encounter that most deadly Star Trek threat… WALL ROCKS. Finally, in ‘Saints of Imperfection’ Captain Pike meets the worst kind of secret operatives, catty drama kids who can’t shut up about how secret they all are.

Will any of this actually relate to the film? We don’t know, but we’ve assembled a team of our own to talk about it in this episode!

Timecodes:

Talking Points: Favourite Spy TV Shows, Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, A whostrobot, Charlie is trying to play every Super Mario Brothers and he’s just wrong inside, Section 31 just feels like a 15 year old’s attempt at edgy, we talk realpolitik for a second, The Prisoner, Jam and Scones, a surprise Jeffrey Combs appearance, William Sadler also being Death in Bill and Ted, the subtle differences with the alternate Enterprise characters, this is a Tasha Yar fixfic, wall rocks are useful… maybe, Picard being a bit more like his ‘ST:Picard’ counterpart here, bloody bloody deaths, the mysterious ‘Arratia,’ Section 31 is run like Starbucks’. Tech differences in Discovery, how Mirror Phillipe gets tedious really quickly, Miles talks Blake’s 7, Miles and Charlie LOVE Death Stranding, EastEnders, Tilly being earnestly hopepunk (I hate that term), Spock is a kleptomaniac.

Pedants Corner: Roj Blake is played by GARETH Thomas, not GARTH Thomas.

[ Additional Show Notes ]

Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn. Read Miles’s blog or Charlie’s blog.

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The post 65. Death by Ceiling Rocks first appeared on Nerd & Tie Network.