While hot on the trail of Spock, the Discovery encounters an alien sphere that attempts to hijack the ship with a virus. In the meantime, Tilly gets possessed by an alien spore and Saru is dying! An Obol for Charon combines both the best and worst aspects of the second season and it's an interesting episode to pick apart. Clay and Wes discuss an old fashioned Star Trek idea, emotional manipulation, and the purpose of Jet Reno!

Due to sick kids, Wes misses his first DS9 episode and it's up to Darren to drag Clay up the mountain of episode analysis! When Odo and Quark crash land on an inhospitable planet, their impending death causes them to speak freely with each other. Back on DS9, Jake is a slob and Nog is an anal retentive meathead! It's a sitcom plot next to a life or death situation... will they blend? Plus, the guys discuss Jakes real reason for getting his own apartment, the problem with death, and horrifically broken bones!

Darren's review of "The Ascent".

Burnham has a visitor and gets a little weepy, while L'Rell and Ash/Voq try to maintain their hold on the Klingon Empire. Discovery had been treading down a new path with the first two episodes of the second season, but "Point of Light" has the show pulling out its old tricks from the first season. Do they work now that the cast and production is better developed? Or is it, as a reddit user said, "a greatest hits album of their biggest mistakes"? Clay joins the show to discuss speaking quietly while someone washes dishes, the influence of Game of Thrones, and the problems with cutting a story short!

Sisko, Dax, Garak and Odo wake up during the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor, and everyone else sees them as Bajorans who are fated to be executed for an assassination attempt on Gul Dukat. They need to figure a way out before that happens, but Odo is acting oddly and there's something strange about Thrax, the Cardassian security chief. Clay joins the show to discuss convoluted set-ups, switching out Dax for Kira, and mirroring previous episodes!

After responding to a distress beacon from halfway across the galaxy, the Discovery crew find a human colony that has been isolated since World War III. Pike and Burnham debate the merits of General Order One (aka the Prime Directive), while Tilly has her own Sixth Sense experience! Clay joins the show to discuss the tragedy of Jacob, Tilly's world-beating technobabble, and the faith of Pike!

In other news, we now have shirts and mugs for sale! Check out our Teespring store to buy some snazzy new gear and to help support the show!

While vacationing with Dax on Risa, Worf comes under the spell of a group called the "New Essentialists" who consider the planetary resort to be emblematic of the decay of the Federation. Bashir, Leeta and Quark tag along, and get into their own wacky shenanigans! Clay joins the show to discuss soccer terminology in Star Trek, the ineptitude of the New Essentialists, and showing a little leg in the 24th century!

In the second season premiere of Discovery, we get a new captain and a new mission - will it be as confusing and chaotic as the first? When Captain Christopher Pike takes command of the USS Discovery, Burnham begins her own "search for Spock". We also get a glimpse of a red angel and discover some meteorite material that could be a super powerful energy source? Also, Tilly is annoying. Clay joins the show to discuss enjoying colors, responding to feedback, and making a legend out of nothing!

For the 30th anniversary of The Original Series, DS9 spends a boatload of money and produces one of the finest homages to the series that started it all. When Sisko and the crew go back in time, they encounter Kirk, the Enterprise, and a whole bunch of tribbles! Clay joins the show to discuss endless references, special effects holding up, and why seeing the Enterprise feels so special!

The O'Brien marriage has always been fraught and difficult (at least, according to Miles), but it hits a new low when Keiko is possessed by a Pah-Wraith who is determined to destroy the Prophets! O'Brien is forced to work on a mysterious assignment, and his only hope might be found in eager-to-please Rom. Clay joins the show to discuss regressions, the unhappy life of Chief O'Brien, and Prophets not seeing the future!

In the final Short Trek before the start of the second season of Discovery, we return to the adventures of that rapscallion, Harry Mudd! We learn how Mudd manages to escape his various predicaments, and we get a hint at some future adventures that he might find himself undertaking. Clay joins the show to discuss how the idea of "Star Trek shorts" ended up working out, we examine the potential for comedy in the Trek universe, and we wonder where Star Wars ends and Star Trek begins!