To Baldly Go

By Aaron Emery

Join me as I watch through Star Trek for the first time and discuss with my Trekkie friends... more

· TV & Film

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FAQs about To Baldly Go:

How many episodes does To Baldly Go have?

The podcast currently has 31 episodes available.

To Baldly Go episodes:

November 14, 2025030 - The Animated Series
This week, Nate and I discuss:
The Emmy-award winning Star Trek: The Animated Series
Stopped rating the episodes
Less than the sum of its parts?
A bad series
Animated Series as punishments
Spaceships and aliens
Target demographics
Shortcomings of TAS
No Chekov
The great episode of TAS – a top episode for the franchise to this point
Political implications of airing certain episodes
Is TAS canon?
Life support belts
Kirk was the Devil’s advocate?
Missing charm and disjointed dialogue
Unrealized potential
What non-Star-Trek fans think Star Trek is
Felt like the Gorn fight from Arena
TAS trivia
Nate’s Star Trek models
Star Trek production guide
Looking ahead to Next Generation
Planning future podcast discussions and watch order
...more
1h 32min
November 10, 2025029 - TOS Season 3 and Series Wrap Up
In this episode Abbie, Nate, and I discuss:
Final seven episodes of The Original Series
Another episode it feels like we’ve seen before
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
Abbie wanted to DNF episodes
Creepy, ick factor
Valentine’s Day Star Trek episode
Worst episode of The Original Series
DC Fontana
Qualified ratings – a “Season 3” Seven
Mixed messaging
Space Lincoln
Anti-war, but winning a war at all costs
A real, not real Abraham Lincoln speech
When do we learn to not fear words?
An ok episode, but terrible series finale – but does that say more about today?
And just like that, it’s over
Better than Nate remembered
Greater than the sum of its parts
Unprecedented
If it was more successful initially, would we be talking about it today?
Remembering the good moments and forgetting the negatives
Original Series trivia
Up next
...more
2h 11min
November 07, 2025028 - Racism, Overpopulation, and a Russian History Lesson
This week I am joined by my wife, Abbie, and our friend, Nate, as we discuss:
Let that Be Your Last Battlefield, The Mark of Gideon, and That Which Survives
The Trouble with Tribbles story
Elaan of Troyius recap now that Abbie is back
Overt messaging in shows
Star Trek without Gene Roddenberry
Is a good message enough to carry an episode?
A Captain’s responsibility to keep the ship out of enemy hands
Great Enterprise security
The transporter as a weapon
Nuclear codes in history
Strangelove
A good message – “Don’t hate”
Terrible movies with heavy-handed messaging
Watching people watch people on TV
Episode context
What is the call to action in this episode?
Being extra-Spock
Spock needs to be more precise
Abbie gets attacked by a kitten
The Tunguska Event
Another callout to The Beginning of Infinity
Limits on human knowledge?
A victim of the medium at the time?
The decline of the series
Over Warp 14
More multi-culturalism on the Enterprise
A game plan to finish The Original Series
Planning a Star Trek trivia challenge
Looking ahead to The Next Generation
Abbie fires some shots at DS9
Nate throws down the gauntlet for the best episode ending in all of Star Trek
A Star Trek producer spoke in my video production class in college
Something about whales
...more
2h 3min
October 14, 2025027 - You stupid cow
This week we discuss:
The Empath, Elaan of Troyius, and Whom Gods Destroy
Star Trek: Saw
What do you do if you have limited resources and can’t save everyone?
Low-percentage vs no-percentage
Intellect alone is not sufficient
Kirk acting in slow motion?
Book recommendation – Shadow Divers – don’t get the bends!
Star Trek’s Helen of Troy?
Stories about things that the stories aren’t about
Elaan hit first
Tony Soprano is a bad person who does bad things
Kirk has bad moments but isn’t a bad guy
How was non-slapstick violence received in the late-1960s?
Old tropes that are uncommon today
Power struggles over resources
When does the Prime Directive apply?
Warp speed, physics, and suspension of disbelief
Baggage when watching Star Trek
A Spaceballs connection
Litmus tests for how much I enjoy an episode
Two Kirks and memories of X-men
Pirates of the Caribbean and too much of a good thing
Ensemble strength
Powerful, yet helpless. Art imitating reality
Episodes that are less than the sum of their parts
Fan fiction from a simple line
The Cochrane Deceleration
High-stress turns in space?
Planning some competitive trivia
...more
2h 2min
October 10, 2025026 - Kirk is Grits
This week we discuss:
The Tholian Web, Plato’s Stepchildren, and Wink of an Eye
We continue last week’s debate and how Nate is wrong
A traditional Star Trek episode
Ratings with qualifiers
Episode and series hero journeys
Scotty the full-blown alcoholic?
A weak spot in the episode?
Explaining to the audience instead of the characters
Grown-up storytelling
Shatner stepping back in an episode
Could this have been a TNG episode?
Star Trek memorabilia at auction
Scotty’s hair
Another back-in-time episode
First television inter-racial kiss, at least in the US
Abbie wants internal consistency
Subtle vs overt messaging in shows then and now
Motor control vs mind control
We can again see why the series was canceled
Things that take us out of the story
Inception and X-Men did it better
Star Trek Customizable Card Game
How the series was experienced in the late-1960s
Cinematography
Kirk’s coffee
Why didn’t they harness the power when they had the antidote?
Abbie is refusing to watch The Animated Series
Star Trek graphic novel
Getting rid of Kirk?
Hanlon’s Razor?
A Waffle House story
...more
1h 57min
October 03, 2025025 - The Talosian Illusion Strikes Back
In this episode, we discuss:
Spectre of the Gun, The Day of the Dove, and For the World is Hollow and I have Touched the Sky
Budget issues during Season 3?
Nate is over the non-spacey episodes
Some bourbon discussion
Klingons with swords
Nate rejects the premise of the episode
Nate nearly rage quits the podcast over the IMDB rating
I claim victory in the discussion
We’ve seen this episode before
A Star Trek Sith Lord
Who is pulling the strings?
How does Kirk run into the same Klingon multiple times?
Captain Uhura?
Truth, religion, and dogma
Prime Directive
Is Bones married?
Characters are always safe (except the redshirts)
Similarities to other shows
...more
1h 45min
September 30, 2025024 - No Sh*t, Shatner!
In this episode, we discuss:
Abbie and I had an opportunity to watch Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and a Q&A session with William Shatner
For a 92-year-old man, Shatner was ranting and raving and moving around pretty well
An education in COPD and lung disease
The impact of the Actors’ Strike on the show
Stories about bow hunting and pranks on DeForest Kelley
Getting pulled over dressed as Captain Kirk
No shit, Shatner!
Shatner was what we expected. A master of his craft
Curiosity
Seeing the movie in the theater was a trip
A better appreciation for the movie on a second viewing
The experience of watching this kind of movie in that kind of setting
A great movie in its own right. But even better for a Star Trek movie
Felt like Star Trek
Shatner’s thoughts about Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Space Seed holds up
Movie reshoots after leaks
Gene Roddenberry intrigue
Kirk’s forgotten plots
Leonard Nimoy was ready to be done as Spock
Why is the Genesis technology a threat in Khan’s hands?
Vulcans can cry?
Learning why things work on a Starship. If you don’t know why, you can’t adapt. You can’t be creative
William Shatner and George Takei don’t get along
Ricardo Montelban’s real chest
Character names changed because of clerical errors
Continuing voyages of ongoing missions…
Original story proposal
TV in the ‘90s
...more
1h 37min
May 17, 2025023 - SPACE DAGGERS!!!
In this episode, we discuss:
The Paradise Syndrome, And the Children Shall Lead, and Is There in Truth no Beauty?
Star Trek: Renegades
Other TV discussion
The worst episode yet?
Was life in the past better than life today? Life without Advil…
House spoilers
Tahiti Syndrome
Differences between cultural appropriation and cultural assimilation
Greek mythology
Kirk’s fear
We decide on an episode title
Without followers, evil cannot spread
Star Trek and Zodiac connections
Do we see reality for what it is? Or for what is useful?
Sciencey-sounding words
Beauty
What could go wrong?
Smart decisions and storytelling
Trying different technical things in the episode
The IDIC medallion
Word salad
Spock’s French Stewart eyes?
Completely unrelated music discussion
Nate and I discover our mutual love of Blues Traveler
...more
1h 41min
April 09, 2025022 - Movie Review and Season 3 Kickoff
In this week’s episode, we discuss:
Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Spock’s Brain, and The Enterprise Incident
The movie worked a lot better on a big TV than The Original Series
Strong opening to the movie
Klingons look and seem very different
Enterprise porn
Remastered version of the movie – probably looked better on my TV at home than it would have in the theater
Characters felt different
What somebody who doesn’t know anything about Star Trek might think Star Trek is like
William Shatner doing a Captain Kirk impersonation
Differences between the series and the movie
For all the criticism of the movie, it was stunning
Is human consciousness just a physics and chemistry question?
Some timely Oscars talk – debating Avatar vs. The Hurt Locker
Absurd moments for a Star Trek episode
Future technological understanding
Was Gene Roddenberry holding up a mirror to society?
Star Trek and Black Mirror
Star Trek as a Trojan horse
Mutual respect with the Romulans?
Lies of omission
Space pirates
The Vulcan Death Grip
Genetic similarities between Vulcans and Romulans
Self-destructing Enterprise
A pleasant surprise for early season 3
...more
1h 11min
March 26, 2025021 - Season 2 Finale and Recap
Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast.
As usual, I am joined by my wife, Abbie, and our friend Nate, as we discuss:
The final two episodes of Season 2: Bread and Circuses and Assignment: Earth
Abbie is over The Original Series
More episodes we feel like we’ve seen before
Prime Directive
Kirk’s character judging abilities
Parallel development vs Earth influence
Religious references
Dropping the things that worked in Season 1
South Park: Cartoon Wars and Star Trek Mad Libs
Will Abbie still enjoy other Star Trek series after this?
Will I become a bigger Trekkie than Abbie?
Our scoring system is like Who’s Line is it Anyway?
Would Kirk risk his crew to save Spock and Bones?
Another Gene Roddenberry episode
Are fun character traits a crutch? Lazy?
Do Star Trek characters make something a Star Trek story?
Spinoffs!
Do Star Trek and Doctor Who take place in the same universe?
How shows are influenced by the time in which they are made
Top shows from the late 1960s
Fewer “timeless” stories in Season 2
More discussion about technological evolution faster than biological evolution
Bioshock spoilers
The choice of character names can tell a lot
Overall ratings of season 2
Different ways to experience TV
Our next plans
...more
1h 30min

FAQs about To Baldly Go:

How many episodes does To Baldly Go have?

The podcast currently has 31 episodes available.