Enterprising Individuals

Pull on your skant and replicate a pile of Demerol as we look at the enduring vision and appeal of TNG! Writer and "Behind the Bastards" host Robert Evans joins the show to talk about Star Trek: The Next Generation and how it still hits the spot, over 30 years past its debut. We talk about Robert's sci-fi past, the optimism at the heart of TNG and Trek, leaning into your permissive utopia vis-a-vis more sex and drugs, the themes future Treks should be covering, the state of journalism in the 24th century, Herzog's cry for "adequate images", and how Trek can get us out of the predicament we're in.

Plus, we discuss the dearth of sci-fi comedy, why mankind built cities to throw bigger parties, whether utopian art is any good, the state of the sex toy market in the 24th century, "Rolling with Troi", the perils of a new boss, silent orphans in dark rooms, Aaron wonders if TNG is an alternate universe, and Robert remembers mowing lawns for the Emprah!

Picard better be dropkickin' some dudes in his new show!

Catch up with Robert around the Web!
http://www.twitter.com/iwriteok
http://www.twitter.com/bastardspod
http://www.behindthebastards.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pEV2_XiUFk

Listen to Robert's new podcast, It Could Happen Here!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/it-could-happen-here/id1449762156?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Contribute to Robert's GoFundMe for his audiobook, The War on Everyone!
https://www.gofundme.com/the-war-on-everyone

Get Robert's book, A Brief History of Vice, on Amazon!
https://amzn.to/2FEEcWS

Suit up with our Trek T-shirts!
https://www.teepublic.com/user/justenoughtrope

Join our crew on Patreon and get access to our new Voyager recaps!
http://www.patreon.com/eistpod

Click through our Amazon link on enterprisingindividuals.com to support the show!
http://www.enterprisingindividuals.com
https://www.amazon.com/?tag=jet01-20&linkCode=ez

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for Trek news and updates!
http://www.twitter.com/eistpod
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We are talking the #StarTrekDiscovery episode, “The Red Angel” LIVE! Tweet to the show at @eistpod with the hashtag #discoverage to join the conversation! w/ guest @mikanhana of @JustEnoughTrope

Farpoint is CANCELLED because we're being tested by "All Good Things..."!

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author David R. George III is back on the show this week for a look at the finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a tour de force, feature-length episode that celebrates the genius and success of the series it concludes. Captain Picard is mysteriously travelling through the past, present, and future, taking him from the Enterprise-D's very first mission to the seeming last days of his life. But when Q appears to deliver the Continuum's final, damning verdict for humanity, the Enterprises of three eras must cooperate to save the galaxy and the future of humanity among the stars!

Any show that experienced the kind of extended creative and critical success that Next Generation did could be forgiven for limping across the finish line or seeing its inspiration run dry. However, the Hugo Award-winning "All Good Things..." stands as one of the series's finest entries, putting the capstone on a show that had not only brought Trek back to life, but one that had also set the standard for sci-fi shows to come. During our discussion, we talk about the evolution of the series over its seven seasons, the perfect distillation of a TNG episode, keeping time travel fresh, the real life power of John de Lancie, the true nature of the Q Continuum, and the pressures of filming a double-sized episode while you're making a movie.

We also talk about the source of Q's name, never working with omnipotent children or computers, dropping the show's name in the episode, the way that rules enable jeopardy, Q as evil Doctor Who, only Americans passing God's tests, whether Q is an angel or a devil, the Yar that could have been, Dave praises the good parts of Turnabout Intruder, and Aaron's still hung up on them god-like aliens!

No crying at the poker table!

Explore David's work and his movie reviews on his website!
https://drgiii.com/

Follow David on Twitter!
https://twitter.com/davidrgeorgeiii

Read David's latest Trek novel, Original Sin!
https://amzn.to/2U1x1zV

Get our Trek T-shirts for 305 off on Teepublic!
https://www.teepublic.com/user/justenoughtrope

Trek with us on Facebook and Twitter and our Facebook group!
http://www.facebook.com/eistpod
https://www.facebook.com/groups/eistpod/
http://www.twitter.com/eistpod

Buy us cat food on Patreon!
http://www.patreon.com/eistpod

Subscribe to the show on iTunes!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/enterprising-individuals/id1113165661?mt=2

We are talking the #StarTrekDiscovery episode, “Project Daedalus” LIVE! Tweet to the show at @eistpod with the hashtag #discoverage to join the conversation! w/ guest @bleisner

Get ready to jump beyond the red line as we look at the fabric of the Trek universe! Warp drive expert and "Tattooed Gravity Queen" Dr. Erin Macdonald joins the show to talk about the astrophysics of Star Trek, the power needed for warp drive (all of it), the importance of female representation in sci-fi, the "Scully effect", the resilience of relativity, the mystery of dark matter and dark energy, and Dr. Macdonald weighs in on the science behind some classic Trek episodes!

Plus, we discuss why your high school physics teacher lied to you, staying away from squishy science, non-delicious spaghetti, wormholes and where to find them, the multidisciplinary genius(?) of Zefram Cochrane, ripping space like a shirt, the Novikov Self-Consistency Principle, how DS9 aims time travel right at your heart, and we get lost trying to remember the plot of Interstellar!

Kugelblitz!

Follow Dr. Erin on Twitter!
http://www.twitter.com/drerinmac

Check out Dr. Erin's website for her appearances and catch her on YouTube!
https://www.erinpmacdonald.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbwsk0IjHe2IFMyj0cNeflA

Read up on science and physics in Trek!
The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence krauss
https://amzn.to/2CdQPG8
Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku
https://amzn.to/2XTl1j1
Treknology: The Science of Star Trek from Tricorders to Warp Drive by Ethan Siegel
https://amzn.to/2u4BTG4
Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swan
https://amzn.to/2Uz0374

Suit up with our Trek T-shirts!
https://www.teepublic.com/user/justenoughtrope

Join our crew on Patreon and get access to our new Voyager recaps!
http://www.patreon.com/eistpod

Click through our Amazon link on enterprisingindividuals.com to support the show!
http://www.enterprisingindividuals.com
https://www.amazon.com/?tag=jet01-20&linkCode=ez

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for Trek news and updates!
http://www.twitter.com/eistpod
http://www.facebook.com/eistpod

We are talking the #StarTrekDiscovery episode, “If Memory Serves” LIVE! Tweet to the show at @eistpod with the hashtag #discoverage to join the conversation! w/ guest @tyranicus of @deltaflyerpod

Sharpen up your Zefram Cochrane statue as we take a stab at "Twilight"!

Peter Aidan Byrne of Trek vs. Trek joins the show this week for our first episode about Star Trek: Enterprise, a series with a shaky reputation but a solid entry in "Twilight". Archer wakes up with a bad haircut and a Groundhog Day dilemma . . . or is that 50 First Dates? I can't remember. Meanwhile, Earth is cinders, humanity is nearly extinct, Porthos has hip dysplasia, and only one thing can put things right where they once went wrong. Either these time parasites go or we do!

Enterprise tends to be seen as something of a failure, as if the Trek franchise was scraping the bottom of the barrel like a ravenous alien played by Mick Fleetwood. But it's episodes like this, which showcase the bravery of our heroes, the storytelling skills of sci-fi veterans, and the plain weirdo cool of Trek at its best that make a case for Enterprise as a flawed but bright jewel in the crown of the franchise. During our discussion, we talk about the history and development of Enterprise, how serialization finally won out in Trek, the Enterprise "purges", how the death of the VCR may have killed '00s Trek, the real life inspiration behind Archer's memory loss, how the episode is a metaphor for senescence and care-giving, what 24th century art might be like, and how fiction is more frivolous and necessary than ever.

We also talk about the episode's Wrath of Khan parallels, returning the Rosemary's Baby PADD to Blockbuster, Loud Cop and LOUDER COP, Gunfight at the NX-01 Corral, the evolution of the Federation's mores over two-and-a-half centuries, peeking ahead with time travel, blowing Archer's head off, Richard Crenna's kid, we confess exactly when we dipped on Trek, Peter recoils from the entitlement of 22nd century humanity, and Aaron makes another Farscape reference!

Gotta keep up with the Shasta McNastys!

Read Peter's excellent Trek essays and his other content on the web!
http://www.trekvstrek.com
http://www.peteraidanbyrne.com

Follow Trek vs. Trek on Twitter!
https://twitter.com/trekvstrek

Get our Trek T-shirts on Teepublic!
https://www.teepublic.com/user/justenoughtrope

Discuss VCR programming with us on Facebook and Twitter and our Facebook group!
http://www.facebook.com/eistpod
https://www.facebook.com/groups/eistpod/
http://www.twitter.com/eistpod

Buy us mystery orange juice on Patreon!
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Subscribe to the show on iTunes!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/enterprising-individuals/id1113165661?mt=2

We are talking the #StarTrekDiscovery episode, “Light and Shadows” LIVE! Tweet to the show at @eistpod with the hashtag #discoverage to join the conversation! w/ guest @mikanhana of @justenoughtrope!

Get ready to "U" your "topia" as we look at the evolved world of the Trek universe! Lyta Gold of Current Affairs joins the show to talk about the world of Trek, the brutality of Discovery, the self-conscious "wokeness" of the Federation, and where the "light" of Discovery is!

Plus, we discuss the connection of God and Shakespeare, a spa day for Burnham, the S (ocialism) word in Trek, Section 31, the cinematic theory behind zombies and vampires, Worf's bad time on Sex Planet, just how many showers and hot meals we are from anarchy, soft dystopia, Kal capes for the Culture, and Lyta wants to know what that Discovery scene is all about?

So, all the lawyers are dead, right?

Follow Lyta on Twitter!
http://www.twitter.com/fluttersnipe

Read Lyta's article on the first season of Star Trek: Discovery!
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/05/the-dismal-frontier

Read Brianna's treatise on space dystopias!
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/06/the-regrettable-decline-of-space-utopias

Suit up with our Trek T-shirts!
https://www.teepublic.com/user/justenoughtrope

Join our crew on Patreon and get access to our new feature, Stellar Commentaries!
http://www.patreon.com/eistpod

Click through our Amazon link on enterprisingindividuals.com to support the show!
http://www.enterprisingindividuals.com
https://www.amazon.com/?tag=jet01-20&linkCode=ez

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for Trek news and updates!
http://www.twitter.com/eistpod
http://www.facebook.com/eistpod

We are talking the #StarTrekDiscovery episode, “The Sound of Thunder” LIVE! Tweet to the show at @eistpod with the hashtag #discoverage to join the conversation! w/ guest @SoundOfCosplay!