In February 2009, a would-be robber walked into a Colorado Springs 7-Eleven wielding a bat’leth, a Klingon sword from Star Trek: The Next Generation. No injuries. No arrests. Just a surreal police report, a question about why this weapon, and what it may have meant to the person holding it.

Credits:
This episode of “The Prime Detective” was produced and hosted by Grayson Thagard.

Music for “The Prime Detective” is composed by Ben Wise: https://benwise.bandcamp.com/

Website and publishing support thanks to David Moody, Producer: “Let’s Talk About Treks” The Podcast.

Artwork for “The Prime Detective” is by Julie Hendrickson.

Buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/theprimedetective

What happens when a story about saving humanity becomes an instruction manual for destroying it? In Japan, a cult found its answers in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation.

Credits:
This episode of “The Prime Detective” was produced and hosted by Grayson Thagard.

Music for “The Prime Detective” is composed by Ben Wise: https://benwise.bandcamp.com/

Website and publishing support thanks to David Moody, Producer: “Let’s Talk About Treks” The Podcast.

Artwork for “The Prime Detective” is by Julie Hendrickson.

Buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/theprimedetective

On Star Trek: Voyager, and now on Starfleet Academy, Robert Picardo’s portrayal of the Emergency Medical Hologram, or EMH, embodied ethics, compassion, and the hope that technology at its best could serve humans facing their worst. But in 2014, the actor behind the character found his name caught up in something far less utopian: A real-world murder case that blurred the line between private pain and public scandal, and showed how the halo of a beloved sci-fi franchise like Star Trek can pull even the messiest human headlines into its orbit.

Credits:
This episode of “The Prime Detective” was produced and hosted by Grayson Thagard.

Music for “The Prime Detective” is composed by Ben Wise: https://benwise.bandcamp.com/

Website and publishing support thanks to David Moody, Producer: “Let’s Talk About Treks” The Podcast.

Artwork for “The Prime Detective” is by Julie Hendrickson.

Buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/theprimedetective

Content note: Suicide

In March of 1997, the Hale-Bopp comet lit up the night sky — the brightest comet visible in decades. For most of us, it was a wonder of nature. But for one small group in California, it was a signal: a way to reach what their wide-eyed leader called the Next Level.

Thirty-nine people were convinced that to reach that next plane of existence, they would need to leave their human containers behind — and join the comet on its cosmic journey.

This is the story of the largest mass suicide in U.S. history, and how science fiction, especially Star Trek, shaped the language, symbolism, and beliefs that led them there.

If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available.

Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (U.S.): Call or text 988
International resources: findahelpline.com

Credits:
This episode of “The Prime Detective” was produced and hosted by Grayson Thagard.

Music for “The Prime Detective” is composed by Ben Wise: https://benwise.bandcamp.com/

Website and publishing support thanks to David Moody, Producer: “Let’s Talk About Treks” The Podcast.

Artwork for “The Prime Detective” is by Julie Hendrickson.

Buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/theprimedetective

This week: A special preview episode from Let’s Talk About Treks, a weekly Star Trek podcast hosted by the enigmatic Earl Grey and jaQ` Darino (aka David Moody).

Their tagline is “an episodic review of today’s visions of the future,” and most weeks, they’re doing exactly that — breaking down new episodes of Star Trek as they air. From Strange New Worlds to Star Trek Scouts and everything in between.

They have been incredibly supportive of The Prime Detective. David, for example, was instrumental in guiding me through all the back end podcasting shenanigans, and they’ve trusted me with this abbreviated preview from a show that normally lives behind a paywall.

It’s called Segment 31 — a looser, more conversational series where David and Earl wander off the bridge and talk about whatever’s on their minds: Comic books, politics, dog shows, time travel… and occasionally, science fiction fandom itself.

Today’s episode comes from that Patreon-only feed.

This particular Segment 31 centers on David’s trip with his partner Chris to Chicago in 2024 for a Battlestar Galactica convention — and the genuinely wonderful way he chose to commemorate it.

See the image David had signed at the con here.

“Let’s Talk About Treks” is available at letstalkabouttreks.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Credits:
This episode of “The Prime Detective” was produced and hosted by Grayson Thagard.

Music for “The Prime Detective” is composed by Ben Wise: https://benwise.bandcamp.com/

Website and publishing support thanks to David Moody, Producer: “Let’s Talk About Treks” The Podcast.

“The Prime Detective” logo was created by Julie Hendrickson.

Buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/theprimedetective

A stolen jewel, a Christmas goose, and the galaxy’s most logical half-Vulcan walk into a mystery… and somehow the trail leads straight to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

This holiday special unpacks one of Star Trek’s strangest canonical quirks: Spock casually claiming Sherlock Holmes as an “ancestor.” Was he talking about the fictional detective? The real-life author who created Holmes? Or neither?

From The Blue Carbuncle, to The Great Keinplatz Experiment, we follow the breadcrumbs Doyle left through Victorian literature, Trek canon repairs, Vulcan body-swaps, and a family tree with more dead ends than a London cul-de-sac.

Pour some cocoa and join us as we unwrap how Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Mr. Spock end up exchanging gifts across two centuries and one imaginary cosmos.

Special thanks to:
Open Pike Night – Watch their full interview with writers Dana Horgan & Kathryn Lyn here: Strange New Words: A Space Adventure Hour

Jason Usry – Listen to his delightful audio drama “Santa Maybe, a Criminal” on your favorite podcast player.

Credits:
This episode of “The Prime Detective” was produced and hosted by Grayson Thagard.

Music for “The Prime Detective” is composed by Ben Wise: https://benwise.bandcamp.com/

Website and publishing support thanks to David Moody, Producer: “Let’s Talk About Treks” The Podcast.

“The Prime Detective” logo was created by Julie Hendrickson.

Buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/theprimedetective

In 1968, Star Trek tried to save its sinking ratings by casting celebrity lawyer Melvin Belli as a glowing space ghost. A year later, the Zodiac Killer demanded to speak with that same lawyer live on television. This episode traces the bizarre overlap between sci-fi and true crime — from stunt casting, to the Jack Ruby trial, to the hoax call on The Jim Dunbar Show — and how David Fincher turned it all into one of the best true-crime films.

Credits:
This episode of “The Prime Detective” was produced and hosted by Grayson Thagard.

Music for “The Prime Detective” is composed by Ben Wise: https://benwise.bandcamp.com/

Website and publishing support thanks to David Moody, Producer: “Let’s Talk About Treks” The Podcast.

Artwork for “The Prime Detective” is by Julie Hendrickson.

Buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/theprimedetective

He once played a child caught between identities on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Years later, Brian Bonsall learned someone had stolen his real one—copying his tattoos, adopting his persona, and using it to prey on women nationwide. This is the story of the impersonation that became a crime spree, and the investigation that finally brought the imposter down.

Credits:
This episode of “The Prime Detective” was produced and hosted by Grayson Thagard.

Music for “The Prime Detective” is composed by Ben Wise: https://benwise.bandcamp.com/

Website and publishing support thanks to David Moody, Producer: “Let’s Talk About Treks” The Podcast.

Artwork for “The Prime Detective” is by Julie Hendrickson.

Buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/theprimedetective

In 2001, Jeri Ryan — then rising to fame as Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager — became the center of one of America’s first cyberstalking convictions. What began as hundreds of explicit and bizarre messages turned into a historic case that tested California’s brand-new cyberstalking laws. This episode of The Prime Detective traces how Ryan endured her own “Year of Hell,” and how fiction once again bled into the real world.

Credits:
This episode of “The Prime Detective” was produced and hosted by Grayson Thagard.

Music for “The Prime Detective” is composed by Ben Wise: https://benwise.bandcamp.com/

Website and publishing support thanks to David Moody, Producer: “Let’s Talk About Treks” The Podcast.

Artwork for “The Prime Detective” is by Julie Hendrickson.

Buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/theprimedetective

Happy Thanksgiving! Instead of a new true crime, strange coincidence or cultural controversy this week, we’re pausing to give thanks to one of the inspirations behind The Prime Detective.

This week’s special features an exclusive preview from the daily podcast that inspired the tight, short-form structure of our show: Trek 365!

Host Izaak Brown—who was instrumental in encouraging the launch of The Prime Detective—has given us advance access to one of his final 365-second episodes for 2025. A high-energy, deeply nerdy breakdown of one of the most morally complex episodes in Star Trek history: Deep Space Nine’s “In the Pale Moonlight.”

Get ready for rapid-fire jokes, dozens of cameos from some of your favorite Star Trek podcasters, and an appearance from a special guest! It’s a fun and fast contrast to our usual style!