Out of Contreks

On this special episode of Out of Contreks, Ryan and Brady engage in a quickly recorded, mostly unedited discussion of the recently-concluded final season of Star Trek: Picard. Topics include plot presentation issues, interesting in-universe ramifications, writing crutches, and also how Michael Dorn is the absolute king.

On this week's podcast, Ryan and Brady talk about the underrated Marina Sirtis and a surprisingly layered late period TNG episode. We also talk bad haircuts, whiffed endings, and once again speculate on the rapidly changing levels of inconvenience associated with species reassignment surgeries in the Star Trek universe.

Ryan and Brady talk about one of the best ever episodes of Star Trek, what it has to say about communication and metaphor, and how it's served as an even more prescient indicator for the way we talk to each other now.

On this episode, Ryan and Brady discuss a fun little mid-period TNG outing that allows sometimes-shunted-aside players like Troi, Keiko and O'Brien to flex their muscles. We also discuss the perpetually locked-in Michael Dorn and try to figure out what exactly Picard is hoping to accomplish at the end of the episode.

Here is a link to the Jim Henson Productions title sequence mentioned on today's episode.

In this wide-ranging discussion about a late-period Voyager episode, Ryan and Brady talk about Icheb, Jeri Ryan's ability to elevate material, Neelix's odd food classification, and Star Trek video games.

Ryan and Brady take on this very early TNG episode, some of which looks like it was shot in a black box for some reason. We also cover the first appearance of The Traveler and a surprise turn by Adrian Monk's psychiatrist.

It's a kind of lackluster, confusing episode of Discovery, but Ryan and Brady still find plenty to talk about, including the history of LGBTQ representation in Star Trek, the logistics and origins of time crystals, and of course Pike's incredible jacket.

"There are thousands of shows out there, and this is one of them." This line is spoken in this episode, but does it refer to Star Trek, or this podcast? In a crossover pod with Big Money Movie Ideas (you can hear Ryan and Brady on their show here), we introduce Andrew and Kelsey to this classic original series episode. Listen in as we talk scary rugs, awesome matte paintings and perfectly round eggs and/or holes.

Hi everyone! In celebration of our 100th regular episode, we have turned our random number generator to the pantheon of Star Trek movies to discuss William Shatner's infamous directorial opus. Will we have a The Motion Picture-style realization that this is good, actually, or is the movie as bad as we remember? One thing's for sure: We both have nothing but good things to say about Laurence Luckinbill.

Our first episode of the year is a special episode recorded the day before (with minimal editing in order to get it out in a timely fashion) about the first, elongated season of Star Trek: Prodigy! In the first half of the episode, Ryan's kids, Reggie and Ben, weigh in on the first Star Trek show explicitly marketed toward them. In the second half, Ryan and Brady talk about what Prodigy can tell us about the direction Trek (and the aging millennial pop culture market in general) is headed, before capping the show with a lengthy discussion of the World Cup of Star Trek's recently-completed best season bracket.