Primitive Culture: A Star Trek History and Culture Podcast

How Nicholas Meyer’s other time-travel caper inspired The Voyage Home

When Nicholas Meyer was called in to write a new script for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, just weeks before pre-production was due to begin, he must have been struck with a bad case of déjà vu. Leonard Nimoy explained that the story outline he would be working from involved the crew of the Enterprise traveling back to present-day San Francisco for a nice fish-out-of-water comedy. Just a few years earlier, Meyer had made his own directorial debut with Time After Time, a film he had written based on a friend's unfinished novel. In this story, 19th-century novelist H.G. Wells travels back to present-day San Francisco with equally amusing results.

Time After Time had married nice comedy with a distinctly nasty streak, since Wells's burgeoning romance with an emancipated 20th-century woman was threatened by another time-traveler, Jack the Ripper. But tonal differences aside, the films would prove to have a lot in common, and Meyer's script for Star Trek IV (he wrote the "historical" sections, while Harve Bennett provided the 23rd-century wraparound) recycled—and in some cases upcycled—specific moments, and even specific jokes, from his earlier movie.

In this episode of Primitive Culture, host Duncan Barrett is joined by Tony Black for a side-by-side look at these two films. Did Meyer's "second draft" of the time-travel romp succeed in eliminating the flaws of his debut? What does it mean for Spock and Kirk to be mapped onto the roles of Wells and the Ripper respectively? And does our enjoyment of the one film affect how we experience the other?

Host Duncan Barrett

Guest Tony Black

Production Tony Black (Editor) Duncan Barrett (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer)

The Scopes Monkey Trial, Inherit the Wind, and DS9’s “In the Hands of the Prophets.”

The trial of US high school teacher John Scopes in 1925 was perhaps the definitive 20th-century showdown between religion and science. Indicted for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution in defiance of creationist state law, Scopes turned the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, into the center of a political carnival. Household names headed up the legal teams on both sides, vast crowds packed into the courthouse, and performing chimps were stationed outside among the lemonade stands to provide entertainment for those who couldn't get a ringside seat.

In this episode of Primitive Culture, host Duncan Barrett is joined by Clara Cook to look at how the Scopes Trial—and it’s most well-known cinematic recreation in the lightly fictionalized 1960 film Inherit the Wind—featured as a major inspiration for Deep Space Nine’s Season-One finale, “In the Hands of the Prophets.” Penned by Robert Hewitt Wolfe, this classic episode eschewed the temptation of a shocking cliffhanger ending in favor of a complex political and philosophical drama which staked a claim to the kind of show DS9 would go on to be.

Chapters Intro (00:00:00) Inherit the Wind (00:04:25)   Fire and Brimstone (00:29:05)   Galileo, Galileo (01:06:40)   Religious Education (01:28:30)

Host Duncan Barrett

Guest Clara Cook

Production Tony Black (Editor) Duncan Barrett (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer)

Suspiria and “Cold Fire”

Despite being teased in the series premiere, it took Star Trek: Voyager well over a year to actually introduce its female caretaker, a being with the power to send the ship home on a whim. And when the entity did appear, in the second-season episode “Cold Fire,” she turned out to have a surprising and distinctly sinister name: Suspiria. An apparent reference to Dario Aregnto’s 1977 film of the same name, in which a young ballet student stumbles into a coven of witches, it was a clear sign that the female caretaker would prove less benign than her male counterpart.

In this episode of Primitive Culture, host Duncan Barrett is joined by Lee Hutchison for a look at some of the links between Argento’s remarkable movie and this unusually creepy Voyager installment. We discuss episode writer Brannon Braga’s well-documented love of horror, the repurposing of Kes as the archetypal Scream Queen, and whether the horror genre’s conflicted feminism is a good or bad fit for the gender politics of Trek’s first female-led show.

Host Duncan Barrett

Guest Lee Hutchison

Production Tony Black (Editor) Duncan Barrett (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer)

Episode titles since 2009. Concluding our look at Star Trek’s 800-plus episode titles to date, in this episode of Primitive Culture host Duncan Barrett is joined by Tony Black to consider naming strategies for the Kelvin films, Short Treks, Discovery, Picard, and Lower Decks. What exactly lies “beyond” the final frontier? Can magic really make the sanest man go mad? And how moist can a vessel get before it becomes little more than broken pieces?

Host Duncan Barrett Guest Tony Black Production Tony Black (Editor) Duncan Barrett (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer)

The original reset button. It’s one of the oldest of literary tropes: a sudden, last-minute reveal that an apparent fictional reality is actually doubly invented. From Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland on, writers have thrilled in pulling the rug out from under readers and characters alike, allowing carefully constructed scenarios to collapse like a house of cards as their protagonists awake from an alarmingly realistic fantasy. The medical drama St. Elsewhere went as far as to imply that its hundred-plus episodes were no more than a young boy’s daydreams, while Dallas famously reset an entire season of continuity when Pamela Ewing awoke to find her supposedly long-dead husband taking a shower.

In this episode of Primitive Culture, host Duncan Barrett is joined by Lee Hutchison to look at Star Trek’s responses to the dreamland trope, in episodes such as The Next Generation’s “Future Imperfect,” Deep Space Nine’s “The Search, Part II,” and Enterprise’s “Vanishing Point.” Why do some wake-up turnarounds leave the viewer feeling cheated, while others play as a brilliant coup de théâtre on the part of the writers? Is the ambiguity baked into episodes such as Voyager’s “Barge of the Dead” and DS9’s “Far Beyond the Stars” a cop-out or a smart creative move? And can we ever truly be sure that we’re awake and not still dreaming?

Host Duncan Barrett Guest Lee Hutchison Production Duncan Barrett (Editor and Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer)

Episode titles in Voyager and Enterprise. Does hubris always lead to nemesis? What can you see in a mirror, darkly? And how do you know when you’ve finally reached the endgame? In this episode of Primitive Culture, host Duncan Barrett is joined by Tony Black to continue our look at Star Trek episode titles as we wrap up Voyager, Enterprise, and the Next Generation films.

Host Duncan Barrett

Guest Tony Black

Production Tony Black (Editor) Duncan Barrett (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Tony Black (Associate Producer) Clara Cook (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer)

Milestone Episodes of Star Trek.

For most TV shows, making it to the one-hundredth episode is a significant achievement. In the Star Trek franchise, only the three 1990s spinoffs—The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager were able to reach this milestone. But collectively, more than half a century since Gene Roddenberry’s original show debuted in 1966, the nine series that now comprise Star Trek are about to deliver their 800th installment.

In this episode of Primitive Culture, host Duncan Barrett is joined by Tony Black and Clara Cook to celebrate their own milestone as the show reaches its 100th episode. Join us for a trip down memory lane as we discuss some of Star Trek’s landmark installments and find out how your own knowledge of the podcast stacks up against Duncan’s two former co-hosts as we play the inaugural Primitive Culture Quiz!

Host Duncan Barrett Guests Tony Black and Clara Cook

Production Tony Black (Editor) Duncan Barrett (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Tony Black (Associate Producer) Clara Cook (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer)

A Marxist analysis of “Bar Association,” with Will Nguyen.

From lowly dogsbody to Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance, Quark’s brother Rom went on quite a journey during Deep Space Nine’s seven seasons. Perhaps the most pivotal moment for the character came in the episode “Bar Association,” in which Rom outrages Ferengi custom by setting up a union for the bar staff.

In this episode of Primitive Culture, host Duncan Barrett is joined by Will Nguyen, better known online as The Trekkie Communist, to take a look at this key episode from a Marxist perspective. How does the utopian Starfleet coexist with Ferengi capitalism? Is the Federation really as classless as it seems? And what changes might it take in the real world for us to approach a Star Trek future?

Chapters Intro (00:00:00) A Union Man (00:03:55) Starfleet Soviets (00:18:40) The Rommunist Manifesto (00:37:50) Blood Feudalism (00:50:45) Getting from Here to There (01:08:20)

Host Duncan Barrett Guest Will Nguyen Production Tony Black (Editor) Duncan Barrett (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Tony Black (Associate Producer) Clara Cook (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer)

Episode titles up to “What You Leave Behind” When is a scorpion not just a scorpion? What wrongs are darker than death or night? And what happens when you cross a dark frontier to dance with the devil in the pale moonlight? In this episode of Primitive Culture, we continue our trek through Star Trek’s episode titles as host Duncan Barrett is joined by Lee Hutchison for a look at the final seasons of Deep Space Nine and the middle years of Voyager.

Host Duncan Barrett Guest Lee Hutchison Production Tony Black (Editor) Duncan Barrett (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Tony Black (Associate Producer) Clara Cook (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer)

Dan Davidson on how “Captive Pursuit” saved his life.

For many fans, Star Trek has been a force for good in their lives—but few can say with certainty that they wouldn’t be here now if it weren’t for their favorite show.

In this episode of Primitive Culture, a supplement to the previous episode’s look at suicide in Star Trek, host Duncan Barrett shares an interview he conducted last year with Dan Davidson. Twenty years ago, Dan was on the point of ending his own life when the Deep Space Nine episode “Captive Pursuit” caused him to change his mind. He now shares his inspiring story of coming back from rock bottom in the hopes of helping other fans who find themselves in a similarly desperate situation.

Need support? In the UK, the Samaritans are on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reach at 1-800-273-8255.

Host Duncan Barrett

Guest Dan Davidson Production Duncan Barrett (Editor and Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Tony Black (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer)