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For episode 35 of The Star Trek Discovery Podcast, Ruthie and I discuss Season 2 Episode 10 of Star Trek: Discovery, which is titled, The Red Angel. This episode was written by Chris Silvestri & Anthony Maranville, and it was directed by Hanelle M. Culpepper, who will be directing the first two episodes of the new Picard series. She directed S1E12 Vaulting Ambition previously.

We begin the podcast with feedback from the previous episode. We get into this episode at the 19 minutes 40 seconds mark.

We have been blessed yet again with pics chosen by Fred from The Netherlands, including the cover image. We thought last week's experiment was a big hit, so we're going to do it again, and let Fred's pics do the talking for us!

We both loved this episode, although maybe not quite as much as last week's episode. We'll be back next week with our next episode. As always, your feedback is essential to this podcast! We'll be having a short feedback deadline most weeks this season, due to scheduling issues. We'll cover more feedback from S2E10 The Red Angel, so do not hesitate to send in your feedback if you miss the deadline. For Star Trek: Discovery S2E11, which is titled Perpetual Infinity, the deadline to get in your feedback is Friday, March 29, 2019, at 6 PM Eastern/5 PM Central or 11 PM UTC. You can submit feedback via the feedback page, Facebook Group, Twitter, you can email startrekgsm at gmail dot com, or call the voicemail at (216) 236-5449 and leave us a message there. Make sure to mention you're calling The Star Trek Discovery Podcast when you call. I'm also podcasting on The Walking Dead. Because of this schedule, we are trying to get our episodes down to a more reasonable podcast length. To help with this, we'd like you to focus on a few key points from the episode, rather than discussing everything about the episode. If submitting a voicemail, please try to keep your calls to 4 minutes or less, with an absolute maximum of 5 minutes. We would like to keep our episodes under 2 hours! Please help with that!

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On this episode 96 of The Walking Dead Talk Through, Brian, Mark, and special guest co-host Steve from Panels to Pixels talk through The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 14, which is titled, Scars. This was written by Corey Reed & Vivian Tse, and directed by Millicent Shelton.

The rest of this blog post requires a SPOILER WARNING!!! If you haven't watched this week's episode, then you probably should stop now.

Listeners know that I've had issues with the show since the departure of Rick Grimes. This episode pulled at those emotions, especially in the cold open and at the end of the episode, with the scene between Michonne and Judith talking about why it seems like people like Daryl, Carol and Ezekiel are no longer their friends. In both cases, the show hit me hard, just like it has for so many years. I wish we'd get back to that more often.

It took them eight episodes, but we finally have the story of how Daryl and Michonne get those X scars on their backs. Boy, that was nothing like I expected. In some ways, this episode played like The Grove, Part 2. It had a very Children of the Corn vibe, and kind of a Lord of the Flies. I did not see it coming. I don't think it was well explained about Jocelyn. Was she always that psychopath? Probably. Did she kill the adults that were traveling with her, did she make the kids do it, or did they perish on their own? I don't know if we ever get that explained, or if we need to know. It was very disturbing. However, there were some scenes cut that took away from the story, especially showing how Daryl escaped. It was like the video skipped. In fact, I went back three times, thinking I missed something. We speculated that took the scene out because it as too graphic, partially so they could keep objections down about the killing of children in this episode, but, unless they explain it in an interview or a DVD commentary, we may never know.

I was very taken with Judith this episode. She's been this character who's been wiser than her years, and I think what we see in this episode is why. She remembered what happened all this time, and still thought they should help people that need help. The scenes with Cailey Fleming were great, and I was really impressed with the character. I also loved the scenes between Michonne and Negan about Judith. He's very taken with her, and I think this might be the first time we see Negan being a straight-shooter and not posturing or grandstanding. He may be redeemable yet.

This week, TWD S9E14 Scars got a 1.66 in the 18-49 demographic with 4.566 million viewers, down from 1.77 in the 18-49, and 4.831 million last week. Talking Dead, also down, with a 0.50 in the 18-49, verses 0.71 and 2.031 million viewers last week respectively.

For a supersized episode 34 of The Star Trek Discovery Podcast, Ruthie and I discuss Season 2 Episode 9 of Star Trek: Discovery, which is titled, Project Daedalus. This episode was written by the newly announced co-showrunner of Season 3, Michelle Paradise, who is currently a co-executive producer on the show, and it was directed by Jonathan Frakes, who you should all know played Commander William T. Riker on TNG and the movies that followed, and has been a longtime director of Trek, including Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection. This is his third time directing Discovery.

We begin the podcast with feedback from the previous episode. We get into this episode at 13 minutes exactly.

We have been blessed yet again with pics chosen by Fred from The Netherlands, including the cover image. We are going to do something different this week, and feature JUST the pictures this week. We'll go back to a more traditional blog post next week.

We did a flip of last week's ratings. Ruthie gave this one a 10, whereas I gave it a 9. Without details, I will just say that the episode reminded me a lot of what happened to T-Dog from The Walking Dead. Airiam was a character we finally got to know and then she's gone. We'll be back in (hopefully less than) a week with our next episode.

As always, your feedback is essential to this podcast! We'll be having a short feedback deadline most weeks this season, due to scheduling issues. We'll cover more feedback from S2E9 Project Daedalus, so do not hesitate to send in your feedback if you miss the deadline. For Star Trek: Discovery S2E10, which is titled The Red Angel, the deadline to get in your feedback is Friday, March 22, 2019, at 6 PM Eastern/5 PM Central or 11 PM UTC. You can submit feedback via the GSM Feedback page, Facebook Group, Twitter, you can email startrekgsm at gmail dot com, or call the voicemail at (216) 236-5449 and leave us a message there. Make sure to mention you're calling The Star Trek Discovery Podcast when you call.

I'm also podcasting on The Walking Dead. Because of this schedule, we are trying to get our episodes down to a more reasonable podcast length. To help with this, we'd like you to focus on a few key points from the episode, rather than discussing everything about the episode. If submitting a voicemail, please try to keep your calls to 4 minutes or less, with an absolute maximum of 5 minutes. We would like to keep our episodes under 2 hours! Please help with that! We failed MISERABLY this week.

Want to participate? Join our Facebook group! And

On this episode 95 of The Walking Dead Talk Through, Mark and special guest co-host Lara talk through The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 13, which is titled, Chokepoint. This was written by Eddie Guzelian & David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, and directed by Liesl Tommy.

The rest of this blog post requires a SPOILER WARNING!!! If you haven't watched this week's episode, then you probably should stop now.

This episode features a big fight between Daryl and Beta, the Whisperers' henchman and second in command. I thought it was a really good scene, but Mark was a bit underwhelmed.

Some people are shipping Connie and Daryl. Will it be Donnie? Dannie? Darnie? Coryl? Conyl? I, for one, would like to see Daryl get a girlfriend, and they'd be cute together if they'd just take a bath. :-) It's about time, but that's yet to be seen. On the other hand, we see more puppy love going on between the hapless Henry and former Whisperer Lydia. I think it's dangerous for Henry, but she's cute and you can't help who you fall in love with, especially in the apocalypse. Henry was less annoying for me this episode, although I was annoyed that he fell in the Cold Open.

The Kingdom is challenged for ransom, as a new group threatens to challenge the fair. There's a standoff, but in a severe and welcome change of pace, Carol offers this new group, which actually wrote out a list of demands in proper English, a chance to see a movie in exchange for security for comers and goers to the fair. I thought this was brilliant.

This week, TWD S9E13 Chokepoint got a 1.77 in the 18-49 demographic with 4.831 million viewers, up from 1.73 in the 18-49, and 4.708 million last week. Talking Dead, on the other hand, was up quite a bit more over last week. It got a 0.71 in the 18-49 and 2.031 million viewers, down from 0.53 and 1.696 million respectively.

I enjoyed Chokepoint, although I'm not sure about Mark and Lara though! Thanks to Lara for subbing in for me this week! Please leave your feedback for The Walking Dead, Season 9 Episode 14, titled Scars by 6 PM Eastern/5 PM Central on Wednesday, March 19, 2019. Check the Facebook group for any deadline changes. I may be taking the week off again, but that hasn't been finalized.

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For episode 33 of The Star Trek Discovery Podcast, Ruthie and I discuss Season 2 Episode 8 of Star Trek: Discovery, which is titled, If Memory Serves. This episode was written by Dan Dworkin & Jay Beattie, and it was directed by TJ Scott.

We begin the podcast with feedback from the previous episode. We get into this episode at 13 minutes 41 seconds.

We have been blessed yet again with pics chosen by Fred from The Netherlands, including the cover image. We will show them throughout this blog post. To that end, SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched If Memory Serves, you may want to stop reading here!

In an unprecedented move, that many people say was brilliant, our "Previously on…" segment at the start of the show had something we have never seen before. It was "Previously on" from another Star Trek show! In this case, of course, it was "Previously on Star Trek". We saw some classic images from the first pilot episode of Star Trek, titled, "The Cage", which was also featured in the two-part TOS episode, "The Menagerie".

For me, this was very unexpected but very welcomed. It also signaled something I already knew but it was good to have the evidence: This show takes place in the same prime timeline as The Original Series, TNG and all the rest of the series that followed. It's just a visual and technological update to bring it to a 2019 standard, but it follows the same story canon as all the other shows. The success or failure of what the producers did was discussed at length. I loved it, understood what it meant, and was so happy to see them do this. Ruthie, on the other hand, was confused by it, and she talks about why at length during the episode.

When Burnham and Spock arrive in the Talos system, they encounter a black hole, or is it? Of course, it's just a projection from the Talosians. Spock comes out of his state to take control of the shuttlecraft.

When they land on Talos IV, they are greeted by Vina, the same woman Pike and the Enterprise encounter there a few years before.

When they were on Talos IV, the connection Pike had with Vina, though the Talosians tried to force them to mate in captivity, was very real. The powers they have to project communication across light years is quite impressive. I thought it was cool that they could do this and go undetected by Section 31.

The Talosians say that Spock's mental breakdown happens because he is experiencing time as a fluid rather than a linear construct. It wasn't very obvious how the Talosians fixed Spock in this episode. Sure, they showed him his visions, his escape and how he didn't kill the personnel on Starbase 5, but what did they do exactly? That much is unclear. We both had some problems with what they actually did to him, but Ruthie had a bigger issue with it than I did.

As payment, the Talosians want to experience the rift between Spock and Burnham that occurred in their childhood that we had heard about all season long. Some thought that t

On this episode 94 of The Walking Dead Talk Through, Mark and I talk through The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 12, which is titled, Guardians. This was written by LaToya Morgan, and directed by Michael E. Satrazemis.

The rest of this blog post requires a SPOILER WARNING!!! If you haven't watched this week's episode, then you probably should stop now.

We spend a lot of this episode with The Whisperers. Life with them seems to be animalistic and brutal. It's not a way of life I would like to live. It's a very survival of the fittest, and when Alpha is challenged, she attacks with a brutality that may even go beyond Negan's. That said, I really have an issue with the ability to behead someone with just razor or piano wire (it definitely wasn't a yo-yo).

I could definitely see being able to kill someone with a wire, but beheading someone??? I just don't buy it. Scary and effective, but it's one of those scenes where you love it when you first see it, it's shocking and terrifying, but if you watch it again or even think about it, it seems impossible.

The scene where Alpha tries to get Lydia to kill Henry was pretty scary. Alpha proved more that she is a psycho from long before the apocalypse, with the story of Lydia almost suffocating to death when she was a child and just watching her die, only to fall away from the plastic that was suffocating her. How did this mom react? She reacted in the way that only a psycho would react, by hitting Lydia hard. I did have a not-so-nice thing to say about Alpha, but I'll save it for the listeners.

Also scary this week is Beta, who appears for the first time. I think he's scary in another way, in terms of physical presence and being pretty cold. I think he's going to also be an interesting villain. It was a great rescue by Daryl and Connie by attacking with the walkers, but I didn't buy that these "Guardians", as they call them, would be able to attack like that and catch the Whisperers off guard as much as they did. I called BS.

We get a longer glimpse at Alexandria this episode. We see a council that is frustrated at the power Michonne has to veto anything for security concerns. I think Michonne has probably vetoed too much, at the expense of distancing them from the other groups. The council really wants to participate at the fair, to help The Kingdom (or is it Kingdom?). Unfortunately, Negan offers counsel to Michonne at a time when it's least advantageous. It wasn't what he said, but how he says it that makes Michonne overcompensate in this episode, as well as knowing that Judith has been talking to Negan. Michonne overcompensates and gives into the council at a time when it may be the worst time. I worry that they'll come to the fair, and there will be an attack by the Whisperers and many from Alexandria will die, probably in the season finale.

We see Gabriel having to deal with the news of Rosita's pregnancy by Siddiq. Eugene really put Rosita's feelings ahead of his own and does the right thing by counseling the pastor to stay with her. I thought this showed a lot of growth in Eugene, and it was nice to see. Whether it's a love triangle, rhombus, parallelogram or square, we don't know yet, but I thought that was a nice story to see. Hopefully, we see the beginnings of a new family unit that will survive for some time to come, but it seems doomed...

For episode 32 of The Star Trek Discovery Podcast, Ruthie and I discuss Season 2 Episode 7 of Star Trek: Discovery, which is titled, Light and Shadows. This episode's teleplay is by Ted Sullivan, from a story by Ted Sullivan & Vaun Wilmott, and it is directed by Marta Cunningham.

We begin the podcast with feedback from the previous episode. We get into this episode at 7 minutes 57 seconds.

We have been blessed yet again with pics chosen by Fred from The Netherlands, including the cover image. We will show them throughout this blog post. To that end, SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Light and Shadows, you may want to stop reading here!

Burnham decides to go to Vulcan to see if Amanda had any luck finding Spock, knowing she probably wouldn't tell Michael if she did. Going back home reminds Burnham of her childhood years, growing up in the house, and the times she spent with young Spock.

Spock is on Vulcan, and he's really messed up. We learn something I personally found shocking about Spock. He had a form of dyslexia that the Vulcans call L'tak Terai, and that Amanda helped Spock work past this learning disability, after seeing him not get the help he needed at the Vulcan Learning Center.

Despite assertions to the contrary, Burnham senses that Amanda knows where Spock is. She kept him in a shrine that shields telepathic communication. Does it also eliminate mind melds? I didn't understand why that wouldn't be the first alternative to help Spock. Maybe that was tried, but the lack of a mention took it down, but just a tad for me. It could have easily been dealt with in a line of dialog. It's not like they couldn't have fit it in the episode, since the episode was the shortest of the season.

We find Spock operating outside of his reality. He's chanting 841947, the Vulcan First Doctrines of Logic, Alice in Wonderland, and not connected to anything or anyone around him.

At Sarek's insistence, Burnham takes Spock back to Section 31, where Leland tells her he will get the best care, then says that they don't allow non-Section 31 personnel on board. Georgiou tells Burnham that Leland was going to extract his memories, and lets her escape. So, do you think she's telling the truth, and if she is, what's the angle? Only time will tell!

Some of Star Trek's greatest episodes have involved time travel or have some element of time loops or distortions, and this one is no different. Like Tilly calls it, it's a time blender, a place where the past, present, and future all exist at the same time. Get it? Time? This story had some of the trippiness you would expect, and it was great that it tied in elements like Mudd's attempt to take the ship in S1E7 Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad and Stamets' ability to exist ou

On this episode 93 of The Walking Dead Talk Through, Mark and special guest co-host Steve Brown from Panels to Pixels discuss The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 11, which is titled Bounty. This was written by co-executive producer Matthew Negrete, and directed by Meera Menon. Thanks to Steve for subbing in for me this week! Don't worry, you still hear from me this week, but through voicemail instead of hosting the episode. Despite me not being on the podcast this week, I thought the episode was great, and exactly what I needed after the last few episodes didn't captivate me like I'm used to.

The rest of this blog post requires a SPOILER WARNING!!! If you haven't watched this week's episode, then you probably should stop now.

We saw Alden and Luke exchanged for Lydia. I know that many of them didn't want to give up Lydia, but what could they do? They owe it to Alden and Luke while keeping Lydia would not make any sense, since Alden and Luke would have most certainly been killed.

We see the coldness of Alpha and The Whisperers, with them leaving a crying baby for the walkers. I know this was probably difficult to see for a lot of people, myself included. I think she was testing them to see if they'd care. I thought the scene with Connie rescuing the baby and then trying to thwart off the walkers in the sorghum field (looked like corn, but the behind the scenes video calling it a sorghum field) was tense and I was noticeably scared for Connie. Daryl comes to her rescue, but other Hilltop people were behind him, including Tammy Rose and Earl, who eventually take the baby, to raise, I assume.

I've heard a lot of people shipping those two. I, honestly, never thought of that at the time, until I heard it said on Talking Dead. Now, I can't stop thinking about it. If that happens, it's about time!

One of the best aspects of the episode was The Kingdom's side trip, to retrieve a projector bulb, so they can watch movies again. This was fun, inspiring, and a ray of hope in an otherwise depressing story. I needed that hope after some pretty depressing elements of this post-Rick era. Ezekiel, Jerry, and, of course, Carol light up the screen.

This week, TWD got a 1.71 in the 18-49 demographic with 4.386 million viewers, up slightly from 1.68 in the 18-49, and down slightly from with 4.538 million last week. Since last week's ratings and viewers were at an all-time low, this marks a new low for total viewers. Talking Dead had a 0.62 in the 18-49 and 1.712 million viewers, up slightly from 0.59 and 1.656 million respectively.

For episode 31 of The Star Trek Discovery Podcast, Ruthie and I discuss Season 2 Episode 6 of Star Trek: Discovery, which is titled, The Sound of Thunder. It was written by co-producers Bo Yeon Kim & Erika Lippoldt, who are said to be the creators of the new Section 31 series, and directed by Douglas Aarniokoski. You may have seen this referred to as The Sounds of Thunder, as all of the outlets had it as Sounds, but when it premiered, it was only a singular Sound. I've already seen several podcasts and YouTubers have it wrong. The Sound of Thunder is correct.

We begin the podcast with feedback from previous episodes. Then, we finally get into this episode at 17 minutes 50 seconds in.

We have been blessed yet again with pics chosen by Fred from The Netherlands, including the cover image. We will show them throughout this blog post. To that end, SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched The Sound of Thunder, you may want to stop reading here!

A new signal appears over Kaminar, Saru's homeworld. Saru hasn't been back since he left, but since going through the vahar'ai, he has undergone certain changes. Saru doesn't immediately leave the captain's chair when Pike is summoned to the bridge, and later borders on being insubordinate when Pike doesn't choose him for the away team. Burnham diffuses the moment by asking for him to accompany her on the surface.

Saru and Burnham meet up with the village priest, only to find out that it's Saru's sister, Siranna, who we met during the third Short Trek, The Brightest Star, which was shot at the same time as this episode.

Contact with the Ba'ul doesn't go very well, as they plan to kill the rest of the Kelpiens if Saru doesn't surrender himself. Saru attempts to beam himself away before Burnham stops him.

Yes, we do meet them, but they are never clearly seen. Many commented that the Ba'ul reminded them of Armus, the lifeform from TNG's Skin of Evil that killed Tasha Yar.

The Red Angel appears to Saru and Siranna on the Ba'ul ship. This time, we see more detail, as it appears to be a female in an advanced space suit.

We also see Culber in sickbay, as he gets used to his new body. This is an interesting story, and I wish we would have seen a little more of it this episode.

We both loved the episode, although I'd probably rate it the least favorite of the six so far. Don't get me wrong. I still loved it, just not as much as some of the others. We'll be back in a week with our next episode. As always, your feedback is essential to this podcast! We have a short feedback deadline most weeks this season, due to scheduling issues. We will cover more feedback from S2E6 The Sound of Thunder, so do not hesitate to send in your feedback if you miss the deadline. For Star Trek: Discovery

On this episode 92 of The Walking Dead Talk Through, Mark and I discuss The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 10, which is titled Omega. This was written by Channing Powell, and directed by David Boyd. Like last week, Mark loved the episode. I gave this episode an 8, which isn't a bad rating, but I had to dig down deep to find things I liked. The story isn't drawing me in and I found myself bored throughout the episode. I only raised the rating after repeated viewings. It's well written, directed and acted. I couldn't find any major faults... OK, one. More on that below.

The rest of this blog post requires a SPOILER WARNING!!! If you haven't watched this week's episode, then you probably should stop now.

We see the interrogation of Lydia focussing on a flashback from early on in the apocalypse. As the episode goes on, we see different versions of reality, culminating with the beginning of Alpha. This is a backstory we should have gotten for The Wolves, The Governor and Negan (the latter two were shown in the books and comics) but we only got a backstory for the Termites. It was interesting in the end, but I spent most of the episode confused and bored, and Alpha not all that compelling so far. I didn't say it on the podcast, but I really wasn't impressed with Samantha Morton's portrayal. I was distracted by her unconvincing Southern accent. Lydia, on the other hand, reveals that she is a victim of abuse, and I think we have just seen the tip of the iceberg. Henry!!! You have a good heart, but you are gullible. What would have happened had the baby not cry? Kudos to Cassady McClincy in the role of Lydia. I liked her a lot better than her mom.

Although this episode did not focus on Daryl, he was a big part of the story. His character this season is a big improvement over the last several past seasons. I'm still wanting to find out what the deal is with that big scar on his back. For some reason, though I've heard it mentioned, I really noticed his facial scar this time. I was a little confused about how Lydia picked up on his past abuse. I guess there must have been a subtle clue that I missed.

This week, TWD got a 1.68 in the 18-49, with 4.538 million, down from 2.00 and 5.156 million last week. Unfortunately, those represent the lowest ratings in the series so far. Charts below.

Mark will be hosting this coming week. As previously mentioned, I will be stepping back a bit from the podcast, and will not be hosting the show every week, starting this coming week. Part of it is due to scheduling with