The crew notice that Picard is feeling stressed and so Doctor Crusher orders him to take a vacation. The Captain is reluctant because he loves to work but eventually agrees to take a trip to Risa when Troi threatens a visit from her mother. While trying to relax he gets embroiled in a plot involving an ancient artefact involving the Ferengi, some unconvincing aliens from the future, and Vash, a human woman who Picard describes as “trouble”.  There’s some walking through caves, lots of tight shorts, some digging, and a really unconvincing prop in this sub-par Indiana Jones style adventure, but a good time was had by all.

Join Andrew, Alex and James as they discuss the merits of location shooting and their problems with people who block book all their holidays.

Listen to the previous episode, ‘Allegiance’ here.

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Picard gets kidnapped by a weird sparkly slab and is replaced by a flawed clone. He finds himself in a room with three others – a Starfleet cadet,  a cowardly alien and an angry alien. They all set off together to find the lost city of Oz. No that’s not right. They all respond differently to their imprisonment but try to work together to find a solution. Meanwhile, Picard’s clone is starting to act erratically, but surely the crew won’t mutiny, or will they?

Join Andrew, James and Alex as they try to remember this episode.

Listen to the previous episode, ‘Sins of the Father’ here.

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Remember that really fun episode when Riker was the first officer on the Klingon ship? Well this is the opposite of that. The Klingon Kurn becomes first officer of the Enterprise as part of the exchange programme but he has an ulterior motive for being there. Turns out he’s Worf’s brother, who knew? He needs Worf to go home because their father has been accused of treason, thus dishonouring their house. Picard decides to stop ferrying around dignitaries or scanning phenomena to bugger off to the Klingon homeworld. Some stuff happens, there’s a conspiracy, some truth is revealed. Then it ends with Worf as an outcast…which he was already anyway.

James, Alex and Andrew share a bottle of blood wine as they discuss the beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s first big Klingon arc.

Listen to the previous episode, ‘The Offspring’ here.

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On returning from a cybernetics conference, Data decides to lock himself away in his lab. Despite Wesley’s lurking, he won’t tell anyone what he’s working on. Turns out he’s been building himself a new android – one that he considers to be his child. He allows Lal to pick a gender and appearance, and they settle on becoming  a human female. She begins to learn and develop, in some ways exceeding Data, but when Admiral Badguy discovers her existence, he wants to take her away to Starfleet, arguing that Data is ill-equipped to mentor a new android. Will Starfleet get their way? Will Data be able to exercise the rights he won last season? Or will tragedy mean the starring guest performer star only appears once?

Andrew, Alex and James sit down for a lively natter about ethics and artificial lifeforms in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Listen to the previous episode, ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’ here.

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The Enterprise encounters a time hole and through it emerges the Enterprise-C and then everything goes wobbly. The departure of this ship from the past has created a new present, one in which Tasha Yar is still alive and is actually given something to do, and the Federation is fighting a losing war against the Klingon Empire. Guinan knows something is wrong and thinks Picard should send the C back. But is it right to send them to a certain death where they’re defending a Klingon outpost against the Romulans? It’s almost like this was pivotal point in history or something.

Join Alex, Andrew and James for a very serious discussion about one of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s most important episodes.

Listen to the previous episode, ‘A Matter of Perspective’ here.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation does Rashomon via the holodeck after Riker is accused of blowing up a space station and murdering the lead scientist. Is he a fine officer just doing his job or is he a vengeful lothario driven by petty jealousies? Maybe he’s both but it will all be solved in the end through some ridiculous technobabble that’s causing holes on the Enterprise.

Join Andrew, James and Alex as they chat through the highlights of the episode and round up all the exciting trivia from their big piles of books.

Listen to the previous episode, ‘Deja Q’ here.

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Join Andrew, Alex and James for another delve into Star Trek: The Next Generation’s rich history.

Listen to the previous episode, ‘The High Ground’ here. 

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While the Enterprise is delivering medical supplies to Rutia IV, Doctor Crusher gets kidnapped by a terrorist group. They use a new form of dimensional transporter which makes them impossible to trace. In the meantime the Doctor finds that the terrorists are killing themselves with their new technology and finds some common ground with their charismatic leader. Eventually the boffins on the enterprise work out how to trace the transporter signal and Crusher is rescued but not before we’ve had a sensitive exploration of freedom fighting.

Andrew gets angry, Alex is bored and James is a little defensive, all in this exciting instalment of our Star Trek: The Next Generation podcast.

Listen to the previous episode, “The Hunted” here

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The Enterprise is conducting a really thorough investigation into whether a planet  can join the Federation. “Well the Prime Minister seems trustworthy, despite the moustache” remarked Riker to Picard as they walked around the obvious set.  Unfortunately an incident occurs and a dangerous prisoner escapes which is embarrassing for everyone. Since this planet isn’t so advanced, The Enterprise says they’ll catch the rogue but he’s a crafty dude and evades capture. When he is caught, he beats up the terrible Enterprise security team before Riker sits on him. He’s a super soldier, abandoned on a penal colony after the government no longer needed him for combat. Following some chat, it’s decided this planet needs to sort out its issues before they can get a new flag.

Andrew, James and Alex talk aimlessly about an episode that they don’t even remember anymore in this exciting instalment of First Contact.

Listen to the previous episode ‘The Defector’ here

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A Romulan scout ship crosses the Neutral Zone pursued by one of their big green war ship things. On board is a defector with information about an impending Romulan invasion of the Neutral Zone. Can he be trusted? If so, can war be averted? Or is everyone just a pawn in some cosmic game of chess?

Join Andrew, James and Alex as they continue their recaps of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s third season.

Listen to the previous episode ‘The Vengeance Factor’ here

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