Shuttle Pod - The TrekMovie.com Podcast

Producer of the “Holy Trilogy” of Star Trek films (The Wrath of Khan, The Search For Spock, and The Voyage Home) in addition to The Final Frontier, Harve Bennett is arguably the reason that Star Trek is the strong franchise it is today. His passing earlier this year was overshadowed by the death of Leonard Nimoy who passed away just days before Bennett. This week on Shuttle Pod, we take a look back at Harve Bennett’s career and his impossible-to-overstate influence on the Star Trek franchise.

Star Trek Beyond isn’t the only highly anticipated science fiction movie coming out in the next few months. Of course, we are all gearing up for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which hits theaters in just a couple of short weeks. Over the years, Star Trek and Star Wars have acted like sister franchises, playing off of each other and apart from each other. This week, we take a look at these two iconic franchises and how they have helped or hindered each others’ success in the business of science fiction franchises and what creative decisions brought the two together or pulled them farther apart.

Star Trek is all about exploring strange new worlds and the wonders of the 20-something-th century. But, you know what’s cool about living in 2015? We ARE exploring strange new worlds! Right now! All over our galactic neighborhood called the Solar System (and even a little bit beyond thanks to Voyager). The focus of humanity’s space exploration efforts currently centers on Mars. Join us this week for our thoughts on how the history of Mars exploration is depicted in Star Trek as we talk with special guest Andrew Britton, a scientist with Malin Space Science Systems who studies Mars for a living.

Hey, everyone! There’s going to be a new Star Trek series! On television*! This week on Shuttle Pod, we dissect last week’s announcement about the 6th (or 7th) Star Trek series and speculate not only on the theme, characters, universe, and story of the new series, but also about how it will fare on it’s new platform as original content for CBS’s online streaming service, All Access. *Well, internet television.

Having premiered in January 1995, Voyager has been celebrating its 20th anniversary. Before that anniversary ends and the series becomes legal to drink, we at Trek Movie wanted to pause and reflect on the series much as we’d done with TNG two shows ago, answering the question what is Voyager’s legacy?

This week, a newsy addition of Shuttle Pod. Kayla, Brian, and Jared discuss Rick Berman’s maybe appearance in Vegas next year, news (or lack thereof) concerning Star Trek Beyond, and the latest on fan productions and new books. Plus, Jared introduces Treknecdotes.

The Next Generation may not be celebrating an important milestone (like VOY's 20 years this year or TOS's 50 years next year), but we felt it was time to take a look back at what is arguably the most commercially successful incarnation of the Star Trek franchise. This week, Brian and Jared are joined by Kayla Iacovino to talk about The Next Generation. How does it stand up to a modern audience? If you were to remake TNG for 2015, what would you change? What would you keep the same? The trio dive into topics such as characters, story lines, message, and even costumes, set dressings, and hair styles.

A few months ago, TrekMovie writer Jared Whitley made a casual comment that the TOS episode “The Changeling” was better than Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Fellow TM writer Brian Drew picked up the gauntlet Jared threw down, and the two decided to debate the respective merits of the two tales, which are similar in plot if not in tone, theme, or scope.

To carry out the debate, we have inaugurated Shuttle Pod: The TrekMovie Podcast. Let us know in the comment section what you think about the debate and the idea of TM podcast in general.