SALTY EX-GIRLFRIEND. The crew of the Enterprise are stalked by a being that just wants to suck the salt from them. It's the last of its kind, you see, and only wants to live. Is that sympathetic enough, or does the fact that it has taken the form of Dr. McCoy's ex that makes it more meaningful? Bryan and Kristen investigate the very first episode of Star Trek to air and on the occasion of its 60th anniversary (though, it aired a day early in Canada). Is Star Trek's first aired adventure a TREK, MARRY, or KILL?

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SEASON FIVE BEGINS with Bryan & Kristen tying up some loose ends from last season including tiebreaker votes for the Strange New Worlds season finale, "New Life and New Civilizations," and "The Way to Eden" from The Original Series; but also, announcing the recipient of a Lower Decks Blu-ray box set as a thanks for their poetry. Then, they recount their summer, as Trek Marry Kill ventured to San Diego to host a panel at Comic-Con International. At STLV, the Inglorious Treksperts announced the Top 60 episodes of Star Trek of all-time -- how many are episodes we've MARRIED? And finally, a preview of the season ahead.

Check out the Inglorious Treksperts episode listing Star Trek's Top 60!

Check out the Ship Full of Jerks Podcast wherever you get your podcasts!

Check out Enterprisesplaining wherever you get your podcasts!

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SO MUCH SNARK in the pages of a 31-year old special edition issue of Entertainment Weekly focusing on the Star Trek franchise up to that point. Did the writers actually like the shows or did they hold them with a degree of ironic detachment to maintain some hipster credit? Bryan and Kristen complete their thumb-through of what wound up being a pretty formative bit of work for young Bryan. Do these TOS rankings hold up? Make sense?

Does the wisdom of this crowd align with the Original Series viewers from the 25th anniversary, who put together a Viewers' Choice Marathon? (Read about that here:

Listen and find out!

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*TREK MARRY KILL will be at San Diego Comic Con THIS SATURDAY! Check out TREK MARRY KILL LIVE! in the Neil Morgan Auditorium of the San Diego Central Library at 4pm!**

GEN X GENERATION has got jokes about Star Trek: The Next Generation. After examining which episodes the Entertainment Weekly writers of 31 years ago thought were the best of the series, Bryan and Kristen explore the dated jokes & references and peccadillos of the staff. Were their rankings correct? Should their joke writing get them canceled? !

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**TREK MARRY KILL will be at San Diego Comic Con! Check out TREK MARRY KILL LIVE! in the Neil Morgan Auditorium of the San Diego Central Library on Saturday, July 25th at 4pm!**

PRINT IS DEAD? Bryan and Kristen go to eBay to recollect a collector's edition of Entertainment Weekly from 1994/1995 about the Star Trek universe to that point. Its ambition? To rank all 303 (!) episodes of the franchise to date. Using the 30-40-30 formula, Bryan and Kristen go through what the writers at the time considered to be the TREKs, MARRYs, and KILLs. This week, part one of a two-part look at TNG.

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ALL GOOF THINGS... must come to an end and now it's time for Trek Marry Kill's journey through Lower Decks to wrap it all up. Bryan and Geekscape's Katie Hampton say goodbye to a show that has made them laugh, made them frustrated, and made them... friends? Or, at least, strong acquaintances? In any case, it's goodbye to Lower Decks AND this season of Trek Marry Kill -- but don't worry, we'll have a few special episodes dropping throughout the summer.

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PURPLE PEOPLE NEEDER. Katie Hampton returns to begin to close the book on Trek Marry Kill's coverage of Star Trek: Lower Decks and in this pair of episodes, fans get the return of an important legacy character as well as one last look at the Cerritos command crew dealing with their own problems. The ultimate lesson from both episodes? We can't go through life alone. Community, sharing, teamwork -- they matter very much!

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CALLBACKS AND COMEBACKS. TV critic Diana Keng reviewed Star Trek: Lower Decks through its first four seasons and jumps back in to reviewing season five right here on this week's Trek Marry Kill. The two episodes being judged embody some classic TV tropes: the backdoor pilot episode and the new young character inserted late in a show's run to show how far our characters have come. But are these TREKs, MARRYs, or KILLs?

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RIKER ENGENDERS TENSION with a member of an androgynous race who becomes smitten with The Bearded One. They're paired up to pilot a shuttle for a rescue mission to retrieve two people on a shuttle that has become stuck in a pocket of null space where energy is drained immediately upon entry.

Joining Bryan to conclude Fighting the System Month are returning guests, Avery Kaplan & Ollie Kaplan, whose work you can find at Comics Beat, Star Trek.com, and Popverse. They are also organizers for Q Con, Southern California’s Only LGBTQIA+ Comic Convention, which will be held in West Hollywood on June 20, 2026. For more details, visit the convention's site: https://qconprism.org/

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ALL GOOD THINGS... was a fantastic finale for The Next Generation and TV in general. But seven years later, how did the Voyager finale measure up? Does it manage to avoid unflattering comparisons to that famous episode? On the occasion of its 25th anniversary and Fighting the System Month, it seemed like an appropriate time to revisit this one.

Joining Bryan to decide if it's a Trek, Marry, or Kill is Charlynn Schmiedt, who co-hosts the Mission Log: Prodigy podcast as well as T.P. For Your Earholes: A Beavis and Butt-Head Podcast -- AND -- has the greatest handle in internet history (@ohtheprofanity). Check those out after listening to this one!

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