Out of Contreks

Ryan and Brady dig into a very entertaining, strangely prescient episode of The Original Series with a wild, unnecessary twist ending. Is this low-key one of the best Star Trek episodes Gene ever wrote? What does it have to say about the medium of television, and the "civilization" of violence as entertainment? Why did they stop calling video "video" in the future? We cover all that, and more!

Ryan and Brady check in a few weeks late to discuss Season 4 of Star Trek Lower Decks! We talk characterization, deep dives into Nova Squadron lore, and what the show is doing well this far into its run.

Ryan and Brady tackle a Season 4 Discovery episode that at least one of them finds to be downright sociopathic. We talk infatuated Saru, Tilly's semi-departure from the show, and the pitfalls of viewing every event as a stepping stone in your personal journey.

Odo and Garak square off in the second half of this famous DS9 two-parter, the first part of which Ryan and Brady happened to cover almost exactly a year ago! But how does 12 Years A Slave inform the conversation we have about this episode? Is there anything better in the episode itself than the famous behind-the-scenes picture we've used as the episode image? Was frequent director David Livingston up to some new tricks, or were some of these techniques being used to shoot around stand-ins? We cover all of these topics and more this week!

Ryan and Brady talk about another Animated Series episode, this one with a surprising depth, sweetness, and cleverness. Join them as they discuss Star Trek's policy of nonviolent solutions, shapeshifting into functional but inanimate objects, and interspecies dating.

October's Trek Animation Month continues with this strange little sequel to a famous Original Series episode. Listen in as Ryan and Brady discuss how plugged in Filmation was to the overall Trek canon, cool/bad animation art design, and the logic gaps of this supercomputer.

The Out of Contreks unplanned Star Trek Animation October continues with this hastily-organized, recorded, and edited discussion with Caitlin and Nicole of That's Not How Science Works about the Very Short Treks series of YouTube Shorts. Join us as Ryan talks about how much he liked these episodes while the other three people on the podcast react with skepticism, and stay for lengthy tangents on streaming TV, beating a joke to death, the finale of Enterprise, and more.

Welcome to October 2023, which, through no intentional planning of our own, has become Star Trek Animation Month for Out of Contreks. In the first of four episodes this month on animated Star Trek episodes, Ryan and Brady talk about the first episode of Prodigy we've covered on the show. We also discuss the potential of an episode like this, compressed storytelling time, and which main Trek cast would be the best hang!

Ryan and Brady and DS9 return to the well of parent trauma, but this story about Ezri Dax's real mom isn't quite as oddly compelling as the tale of Odo's fake dad. You know what is compelling, though? Miles O'Brien. He's in this one!

Ryan and Brady get together for a loopy, cat-purr-filled discussion of a middling TNG Season 2 episode, but not before spending nearly half the runtime talking about the most recent World Cup of Star Trek vote. After that, stay tuned for discussions of culturally insensitive portrayals of martial arts and musings on how weird it is to see an older gentleman named Kyle.