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We're back with not just another episode of The Star Trek Discovery Podcast! No, not at all! That's because this is episode 47!!! This time, Ruthie and I cover the fourth and fifth Short Trek of Season 2: Ephraim and Dot, which was written by Chris Silvestri & Anthony Maranville, and directed by Michael Giacchino; and The Girl Who Made the Stars, which was written by Brandon Schultz and directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi. Both of these animated Short Treks were released Thursday, December 12, 2019.

We decided not to release these as separate episodes because we didn't get a lot of feedback on them, especially The Girl Who Made the Stars. Therefore, we're releasing them as a single episode.

Fred from The Netherlands was kind enough to collect a LOT of images for these Short Treks. Therefore, we use them to tell most of the story!

We had feedback for the last two Short Treks and the episodes in which we covered them, The Trouble with Edward and Ask Not, so we start off with that.

This one used two "characters" that were introduced on Star Trek: Discovery: The tardigrade from Season 1 (assuming it's the same one), and the DOT-7 that we saw in the season finale of Season 2, Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2. It's told in a Tom & Jerry style. We didn't really agree about this episode. Ruthie didn't care for it at all. I loved it, but I had one major continuity problem with the Short Trek. More on that in a bit.

To start, we get an old film to start with. Would they have this in the 23rd Century? I don't think so because that's not even a thing today, but that's a minor point. We begin...

I totally missed this one! Thanks, Fred! It's the salt creature from The Man Trap, which was the first episode of Star Trek aired in the U.S., September 8, 1966.

Look!!! It's the Enterprise, TOS style (mostly)! Continuity gaffe? It's got the struts of the Enterprise from Star Trek: Discovery, but I'm going to let that slide. Considering the look of the Enterprise in Discovery, I think it's a minor point but it can also be considered a retcon.

We're back! Ruthie and I are back with an episode of The Star Trek Discovery Podcast! This time, we're covering the third of six Short Treks before Star Trek: Picard premieres in January. This time, we talk through Ask Not, which was written by Kalinda Vazquez, and directed by Sanji Senaka.

We are using some pics collected by Fred from The Netherlands, but we are also using some pics I grabbed, including the cover image. We let the pics do a lot of the talking for us!

This reminded us both of the first season TNG episode, Coming of Age, where Wesley is being tested to enter Starfleet Academy. It also reminded me of the story of a young Ensign Riker who defended his Captain Pressman on the Pegasus, choosing very differently than the cadet does here.

The credits started with a couple of minutes left, so I thought we'd get an announcement of a Pike show at the end. I was disappointed.

So, that's it for this episode! The next two Short Treks will be released on the same day. We're not sure if we will be releasing individual episodes or as a single episode. Stay tuned for that coming soon.

Want to participate? Join our Facebook group! And follow us on Twitter! And don't forget to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts! While you do, we'd appreciate it if you can leave us a review, hopefully, a 5-star! Or, if not, a rating will do!!!

We're back! Ruthie and I are back with an episode of The Star Trek Discovery Podcast! This time, we're covering the second of six Short Treks before Star Trek: Picard premieres in January. This time, we talk through The Trouble with Edward, which was written by Graham Wagner, and directed by Daniel Gray Longino. It may have been a Short Trek, but we had a LOT to say about it!

We are using pics collected by Fred from The Netherlands, including the cover image. We let Fred's pics do a lot of the talking for us! Thanks again, Fred! We didn't use as many as we did for the Discovery season finale, but we've got a few good ones this time!

This one's part Tribble origin story, part farce, and all funny. There are great performances from Rosa Salazar and H. Jon Benjamin in a crazy episode. This one was probably funnier than last season's contender for funniest Short Trek, The Escape Artist, although this also had some issues that episode didn't have.

In a hilarious turn of events, this one had a post-credits scene from something out of the '80s or '90s. As funny as the rest of the Short Trek was, this was just hysterical! I thought the disclaimers, just like you'd see in a drug commercial, were incredible.

We both loved it, Ruthie in particular, but Brian let his new alter-ego character onto the podcast again, Nitpicking Brian, to speak about all the things the nitpicking side of him had issues with. He fights with Ruthie and regular Brian about why they think it was a great episode but he doesn't. In particular, he brought up some of the things that many people have brought up about the episode - how this might not fit with what we know about Tribbles, questions about Captain Lucero, how some people compare Larkin to Barclay (Brian and Ruthie think unfairly), timeline issues... things you've heard before.

So, that's it for this mini-episode! We recorded our next episode for the third Short Trek, Ask Not, immediately following this episode, so you won't be able to submit feedback for the next episode, but you can send in your feedback and we'll cover it in the episode after that one.

We talk about our recent problems with Facebook last time. Thankfully, those have been resolved and we're able to post to Facebook again!

Want to participate? Joi

For episode 107 of The Walking Dead Talk Through, Kyle returns as we talk through The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 8, titled The World Before. This episode was written by Julia Ruchman and directed by John Dahl.

We had some feedback for last week's episode. The discussion for this week's episode begins at 17 minutes and 39 seconds.

Who is Dante? Well, now we know. That cold open told you everything you wanted to know, just like I said it would.

We will be going on hiatus over the break, though we plan to release new Patreon content. Please leave your feedback for the next episode, S10E9, titled... Well, we don't know yet... by 6 PM Eastern/5 PM Central on Tuesday, February 25, 2020. If you have any feedback on this episode, The World Before, the first half-season, or predictions about the second half, send that in, too, and we'll cover it when we get back! One of the best ways to submit feedback is on our Facebook group. You can also send us an email to [email protected] or call our new voicemail at 216-232-6146.

I just had a brilliant idea pop into my head to explain the problems with fear versus the problems with The Walking Dead And this episode is a good example of the two. Sometimes, The Walking Dead suffers from micro plot issues. In other words how something happens in a scene or the explanation for a particular action, like them all going into the cave or Michonne going off in a boat, is poorly executed. The problem on fear is a macro plot ssue. It's not the mostly the little things that they do from scene to scene that cause issues, although it still has problems with micro plot issues, the problem with fear is that there are issues with the entire story arc. Those are much more severe and problematic.

Ratings for S10E8 The World Before are lower than last week. It got a 1.02 in the 18-49 demographic, with 3.214 million viewers. This is down from last week, which got a 1.12 in the 18-49 and 3.311 million viewers. That 1.02 means the show is going into the break at its all-time low ratings for the show in its 10-season history. That doesn't bode well for the second half, which is historically lower than the first half. Talking Dead was down as well. It got a 0.29 in the 18-49 demographic, with 1.133 million viewers, down from 0.41 and 1.380 million last week.

For episode 106 of The Walking Dead Talk Through, Mark and I talk through The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 7, titled Open Your Eyes. This episode was written by Corey Reed and directed by Michael Cudlitz.

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We had some feedback for last week's episode.The discussion for this week's episode begins at 21 minutes and 41 seconds.

What really happened to Siddiq? Who is Dante? Well, now we know. This episode was shocking! It was also well written, acted, and directed. I was deeply affected by the death of Siddiq. I am still angry that they have killed yet another doctor!

Please leave your feedback for the next episode, S10E8, titled The World Before, by 6 PM Eastern/5 PM Central on Tuesday, November 26, 2019. If you have any feedback on this episode, Silence the Whisperers, send that in, too! One of the best ways to submit feedback is on our Facebook group. You can also send us an email to [email protected] or call our new voicemail at 216-232-6146.

Ratings for S10E6 Bonds were slightly higher. It got a 1.0 in the 18-49 demographic, with 3.212 million viewers. This is down from last week, which got a 1.05 in the 18-49 and 3.086 million viewers. Talking Dead was down as well. It got a 0.36 in the 18-49 demographic, with 1.164 million viewers, down from 0.38 and 1.253 million last week.

Lately. it's been difficult collecting the feedback, and we could use your help. The bulk of feedback comes in on Tuesdays; we have limited availability on Tuesdays. We have to grab it from the various sources, including the Facebook group, the feedback form, email, and voice mail; put it into a Google doc; separate it into the appropriate sections of the podcast: Ratings, sauces, and feedback; and then fix things like spelling mistakes, grammar, and format, and then divide it by who will read it. If you are available most Tuesdays that we have an episode to record and want to help the podcast out, ple

For episode 105 of The Walking Dead Talk Through, Mark and I talk through The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 6, titled Bonds. This episode was written by Kevin Deiboldt, and directed by Dan Liu.

Before we get into this episode, we have had some technical issues this week, and we apologize for them. Hopefully, they have been resolved, but please let us know if you had to get this from the website because your podcast client couldn't down the episode.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan delivered another standout performance this week.

Do we need to say anything else?

We are going to lose a lot of people!

Please leave your feedback for the next episode, S10E7, titled Open Your Eyes, by 6 PM Eastern/5 PM Central on Tuesday, November 19, 2019. If you have any feedback on this episode, Silence the Whisperers, send that in, too! One of the best ways to submit feedback is on our Facebook group. You can also send us an email to [email protected] or call our new voicemail at 216-232-6146.

Ratings for S10E6 Bonds were slightly higher. It got a 1.05 in the 18-49 demographic, with 3.212 million viewers. This is down from last week, which got a 1.03 in the 18-49 and 3.086 million viewers. Talking Dead was down as well. It got a 0.36 in the 18-49 demographic, with 1.164 million viewers, down from 0.38 and 1.253 million last week.

Lately. it's been difficult collecting the feedback, and we could use your help. The bulk of feedback comes in on Tuesdays; we have limited availability on Tuesdays. We have to grab it from the various sources, including the Facebook group, the feedback form, email, and voice mail; put it into a Google doc; separate it into the appropriate sections of the podcast: Ratings, sauces, and feedback; and then fix things like spelling mistakes, grammar, and format, and then divide it by who will read it. If you are available most Tuesdays that we have an episode to record and want to help t

For episode 104 of The Walking Dead Talk Through, Mark and I talk through The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 5, titled What It Always Is Whisperers. This episode was written by Eli Jorné, and directed by Laura Belsey.

Before we get into this episode, we got a little more feedback on Season 10 Episode 4, titled Silence the Whisperers, but not as much we have had for previous episodes. Our discussion of What It Always Is begins 5 minutes and 24 seconds into the episode.

We knew that Negan had groupies. We saw evidence of that in Season 6 and the Season 7 premiere. In this episode, we meet one. Brandon, who was a kid when Negan was leading the Saviors, grew up worshipping Negan, though he kept it to himself it seems.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan delivered a standout performance this week. I loved the turn back to old Negan, or maybe a hybrid of old and new Negan. He's Negan with a purpose. His final scene was awesome.

When it rains, it pours. Ezekiel's lost his Kingdom, his wife, and his son. Now, it appears that he's lost his health, too. I did appreciate him opening up to Siddiq. We were both worried that this signals his future death. I have a feeling if he does die this season, that he will die honorably sacrificing himself for his people, and not die from thyroid cancer.

She should have not gone off alone, but I was terrified for her. I'm glad she somehow escaped, but I can't help but think that either Kelly or Connie will die soon, and I can't help but think that Luke will never make it back to the Hilltop after his goodbye to his old group last week. All in all, standout performances from everyone involved in these scenes. I'm still trying to figure out Magna.

I mentioned during the podcast that there is an extended version of the episode for AMC Premiere subscribers. Two scenes we didn't see in the main episode involved Gamma, and one of those was an additional scene with Aaron and Gamma. I'm not sure what Aaron is trying to do here but I'm hoping he will be able to turn Gamma into a double agent working for us.

There's something I didn't mention in the podcast that I should mention here. With Gamma tainting the water, I wonder if this is the source of the "bug" Rosita has. I guess we will see soon.

Please leave your feedback for the next episode, S10E6, titled Bonds, by 6 PM Eastern/5 PM Central on Tuesday, November 12, 2019. If you have any feedback on this episode, Silence the Whisperers, send that in, too! One of the best ways to submit feedback is on our Facebook group. You can also send us an email to

For episode 103 of The Walking Dead Talk Through, Mark and I talk through The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 4, titled Silence the Whisperers. This episode was written by Geraldine Inoa, and directed by Michael Cudlitz.

Before we get into this episode, we got a little more feedback on Season 10 Episode 3, titled Ghosts, but not as much we have had for previous episodes. Our discussion of Silence the Whisperers begins 3 minutes and 7 seconds into the episode.

What else was I going to bring up but the song? It's called Heaven I Know by Gordi. I found the use of the song to be a weird choice. I couldn't get this earworm out of my head, and still can't. Using it at the start and the end of the episode was too much for me.

Please leave your feedback for the next episode, S10E5, titled What It Always Is, by 6 PM Eastern/5 PM Central on Tuesday, November 5, 2019. If you have any feedback on this episode, Silence the Whisperers, send that in, too! One of the best ways to submit feedback is on our Facebook group. You can also send us an email to [email protected] or call our new voicemail at 216-232-6146.

Ratings for S10E4 Silence the Whisperers were at an all-time low for the second week in a row. It got a 1.12 in the 18-49 demographic, with 3.305 million viewers. This is down in the 18-49 ratings from last week's previous low, which got a 1.19 in the 18-49 and 3.479 million viewers. Talking Dead was up slightly. It got a 0.38 in the 18-49 demographic, with 1.253 million viewers, up from 0.35 and 1.244 million last week.

Lately. it's been difficult collecting the feedback, and we could use your help. The bulk of feedback comes in on Tuesdays; we have limited availability on Tuesdays. We have to grab it from the various sources, including the Facebook group, the feedback form, email, and voice mail; put it into a Google doc; separate it into the appropriate sections of the podcast: Ratings, sauces, and feedback; and then fix things like spelling mistakes, grammar, and format, and th

We're finally back! Ruthie and I are back with an episode of The Star Trek Discovery Podcast! And we are back for the first of six Short Treks before Star Trek: Picard premieres in January. This time, we talk through Q&A, which was written by Michael Chabon, and directed by Mark Pellington.

You probably saw that we released our first episode of The Star Trek Picard Cast to the feed! That's a brand new podcast from Ruthie and me. We decided to launch it on a separate feed so that we can specialize in Discovery on this podcast and Picard on the new podcast. It also lets people who might not have given Discovery a chance to discover us, pun intended! :-)

The episode begins with us discussing the trailer that was released at New York Comic-Con. We both loved it! It has a lot of ties back to the history of Trek. We see Andorians, Lurians (Morn's species), Trill, Cardassians, and a few others we know. There's a flag reminiscent of the Federation flag, with a lot fewer stars on it. We see time has passed. We see action, a future that may not be so bright, and a new character or two.

This was a great character study of a young Ensign Spock, first arriving on the Enterprise, and meeting Lieutenant Commander Una, who is known better as Number One. There is a great exchange between them. Overall, this was a well-acted, well-written and well-directed Short Trek, with great performances by Rebecca Romijn and Ethan Peck.

In a Short Trek that was a callback to TNG's Disaster, Spock and Number One end up stuck in a turbolift. We see those darn insides of the Enterprise with vast chasms where the turbolifts are, much like the Discovery had, that many of us rolled our eyes over. Number One also sings the same song from Gilbert & Sullivan, the Major-General's Song, that Laforge auditions with for the musical Dr. Crusher's directing. In a new twist, I put on my nitpicker's hat and pick on the fact that the uniforms were of the wrong era. You'll be hearing more of this persona when we discuss the second Short Trek, The Trouble with Edward, next time!

So, that's it for this mini-episode! Ruthie seemed to love this episode a little more than I did, but I gave it a higher rating! Go figure. Remember to submit feedback for our next episode, covering the second Short Trek, S2E2 The Trouble with Edward.

We also talk about our recent problems with Facebook. You see, Ruthie and I recently got approved as affiliates for CBS All Access. We were testing a link over Messenger. I made a link on our site that redirects to this link, which is our affiliate sign up page. Somehow, that triggered Facebook to ban ALL links from this site. We're dumbfounded, and there seems to be no way to appeal this decision. We recorded this on Sunday,

For episode 101 of The Walking Dead Talk Through, Mark and I talk through The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 3, titled Ghosts. This episode was written by new co-executive producer Jim Barnes, and directed by executive producer David Boyd.

Before we get into this episode, we got a little more feedback on Season 10 Episode 2, titled We Are the End of the World, but not as much we have had for previous episodes. Our discussion of Ghosts begins 2 minutes and 23 seconds into the episode.

As is often the case on The Walking Dead, this episode's cold open was outstanding. We don't really get an explanation of why these walkers were attacking Alexandria that satisfied me, but the action and terror vibe that was apparent in the cold open really set the tone for this episode. Title cards were seen again (I forgot to mention that in the episode) and that was very effective to show how much time had passed during these attacks. I have trouble buying Eugene's explanation that they were caused by the satellite and fire. Alexandria isn't close to Oceanside, so blaming it on that event doesn't seem plausible to me, especially since they are coming from both the north and the south.

The standoff with Alpha was tense and dramatic. Michonne should have let Carol shoot Alpha, and I have a feeling she will come to regret that decision. That scene was an example of great television. I felt for Siddiq in this episode and his PTSD from the Alpha and the pikes, although it's been several months since that happened. It seems fresh to him. I did appreciate Dante a little more after hearing his story about Iraq and the PTSD he had from those days.

We have already seen unreliable narrator stories, like S9E10 Omega, but this episode had a creepy vibe and a horror theme that really made this episode great. We left the episode with a feeling of not knowing what was real and what was imagined. It appears from the last shot in the episode that she did, in fact, kill a Whisperer from her gunshot in the gym. However, I had an issue with the pills. It's at least 10 years into the apocalypse. I see no way those pills would still be effective. Upon reflection, it is possible that the age of those pills was responsible for Carol's hallucinations. I guess we will never know.

Please leave your feedback for the next episode, S10E4, titled Silence the Whisperers, by 6 PM Eastern/5 PM Central on Tuesday, October 29, 2019. If you have any feedback on this episode, Ghosts, send that in, too! One of the best ways to submit feedback is on our Facebook group. You can also send us an email to [email protected] or call our new voicemail at 216-232-6146.

Ratings for S10E3 Ghosts were at an all-time low for the second week in a row.