As a result of a horrific medical experiment, this week’s episode of Untitled Star Trek Project finds itself split into two irreconcilable parts — one convinced that this Voyager episode is extremely dull, and the other one certain that there’s nothing very interesting going on here. Apart from that, there’s a bit of a scary moment at one point, and Roxann gets to do some acting, which is nice.

It’s all about faith this week on Deep Space Nine — Weyoun’s faith in Odo and the Founders, Nog’s faith that the genre rules of the comedy B-plot will lead inevitably to a happy ending, and the writers’ faith that wonderful, charming actors like Aron and René can make it all land from underneath a kilogram of latex.

After just over a season of reliable and competent, this week, Star Trek: The Next Generation goes for dramatic and surprising — with amazing results: a memorable epsiode full of good performances and the sort of direction that lets those performances shine. One of the best.

This week, an episode of Star Trek: Picard makes a compelling case for the existence of 21st century Trek, as familiar and well-loved characters find themselves in a show with dramatic lighting, beautiful special effects and witty and clever dialogue. But even more than that, they learn that no matter how bleak or unwinnable a situation, as long as you and your crew remain steadfast in your dedication, one to another, you are never ever without hope. Or giant squid.

This week, Star Trek makes a triumphant return to form, as we are joined by Tom Salinsky to watch the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, in which the crew of the Enterprise meet their match, as they confront the most terrifying alien species of all time — Americans from the 1980s.

Here’s a link to Tom Salinsky’s Trekaday blog, which is currently heading towards the end of Star Trek: Enterprise. You can also pre-order his upcoming book on Star Trek from Amazon UK.

A Very Important episode of Star Trek: The Original Series this week, in which we tackle the Serious Issue of Mental Illness, a Terrifying Social Problem which causes ordinary people to conceive an Unquenchable Desire to Take over the Entire Galaxy and to Use Capital Letters Unnecessarily. Fortunately, it can be cured by a Simple Intravenous Injection, which seems to have started working almost immediately. So, no harm done really. Except to this episode’s guest woman, who is dead.

– Guess who I get to meet today. The Creator of Fair Haven, Captain Proton himself: Lieutenant Tom Paris!

– No way! That’s awesome! Is he still a salamander?

– No, that’s not… It was a celerity-induced accelerated somatic mutation rate, and he’s fine now. He was the first human to break the transwarp barrier, and today, he’s on the Cerritos!

Boimler and Mariner, We’ll Always Have Tom Paris

When I first read that script, I couldn’t believe they were going to shoot it.

Robert Duncan McNeill

This week, Joe and Nathan work on their most pressing psychological problems by smashing the ship’s counsellor’s favourite bonsai, storming off to the holodeck, making fun of the Star Trek movie series, and playing the most violent (and possibly racist) video game in the history of the franchise. Everything turns out for the best, though, because good friends forgive, and they’ll always have time to hang out and admire the warp core.

These stories will continue for as long as we have the breath to tell them. And as long as our patrons remain wise and compassionate. And Voyager will continue on her journey to the gleaming cities of Earth, where peace reigns and hatred has no home.

Enjoyable. And unexpectedly beautiful at times. Much like Star Trek, really.

A new experience for Joe and Nathan this week, as they enjoy an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise without irony or reservations. The Vulcans have been behaving oddly for three and a half years, for some reason, but this week, they decide to be normal again, for a dumb reason. But in spite of all that, there’s a lot of fun to be had here.