Episode 703- SNW: A Journey Through Season Four

0:00 Continue with the operation, you may fire when ready. Adley, Yoders, Kane, Anakin has gone insane, Logan, Six, Scorpio, Hicks, the Gem, Hedon, need a fix. Ripley, NPC, Ted, Evilly, cannot see, Bumblebee, K-9, the Doctor, and Klingon Wine. Bumblebee! Bumblebee! Old buffs and word stories that'll twist and turn baltas scimitar death of tasha yark flash gordon buck rogers stormtroopers and clone wars james holden tweaky john conig. And ziggy we talk about the series You can join us live by picking up your phone now.

0:45 We talk about the series. We're coming to you on your dream services now. We talk about the series. Comics, books, and games, we're going on. The show now. We talk about the series. Come and join us as we sit and chat and we go on and on. And on and on. Well, good evening, Trekkies and Trekkers around the globe. It's Thursday, October 8th, 2026. Welcome to episode 703 of Trek.

1:27 Talk and Beyond. I'm your host, ex and host, Uncle Jim. And before we go too. Far, I want to go around and introduce my incredible, my awesome truck experts. We want to start off with Paul and welcome him back. How are you doing, Paul? Hey, friends. Good to be here. Yeah, I got a few miles under my belt. Saw a lot of amazing things this last. Couple of weeks on holiday. And it's great to be back. Yeah, delightful time. Delightful time. Yeah, we're going to have fun tonight. That's for sure. And let's stick out with the Portland theme and we'll swing over and see how Eric is doing tonight. I am doing pretty darn good. I, I'm excited about kind of doing like a, you know, summary show kind of thing. I always like the summary show at the end of the season, kind of like, you know, big thoughts, big 30,000 foot view things. And having Paul back for this is just in time as far as I'm concerned.

2:21 So good to see you brother. Be careful what you wish for. That's all. Well, you know, everybody knows that if you are nothing else you are interesting on the air so. Oh that's very very kind of you i'll find a shilling or a pound to throw your way there you. Go throw at the six blocks between our houses. Right exactly you know i will say one thing i noticed in the uk that is surprising is that is so few like comic book shops and science fiction shops that Thought there'd be a lot more, you know, but yeah, they keep them on the down low and hidden if they are. Well, you know what's really interesting, Paul? When I was in Scandinavia, I was in Stockholm, Sweden, and everybody was like, oh, you've got to go to this science fiction bookstore. It's like the biggest science fiction bookstore in Sweden. And I was like, oh, my God, I really have to go, right, because I want to check this out. And obviously I'm interested in, like, absorbing the culture a little bit. So I thought I'll go to this comic book shop slash bookstore store. And I will find awesome Swedish science fiction that I've never read before. And I went in there and I talked to the people who worked there and they literally were like, there are no good Swedish science fiction authors. Everything here is American or European. So I just think that like Americans really have a lot of like, There's just a lot more science fiction here than there is in other parts of the world.

3:38 Yeah, yeah. But I mean, people love the movies and the media everywhere. You'd think there'd be more, but I wandered into, you know, the chain Forbidden Planet, right? There's one in New York and one in London, and I went to the one in Edinburgh, right? I thought, oh, this will be the place to go in Edinburgh. And it was... almost felt generic. I'm like, this is just like any little, you know, whatever sci-fi shop I'd see in any city. It didn't have anything that really was captivating about it at all. But I'll tell you, London, though, is just movie location mania. It's just everywhere you step, it's like, this was in a movie, this was in a movie, this was in a movie. I love London. It's crazy. One of my favorite cities. I live there in a heartbeat. It's amazing. Did you leave business cards in all the bathrooms you visited?

4:18 I was going to ask that too. Do you mean your OnlyFans account? Is that the one? No, that's the one. Yeah, I made sure to put those out wherever I went. A slip went into King Charles' back pocket when. He wasn't looking. He'll have to explain that later. What's this then? And sticking with our Portland theme tonight, we have our very own David. He's our miracle worker. How are you doing tonight, David? I'm pretty good, but I just want to say welcome back, Paul. We missed you. And I hope you didn't get too distracted by all the squirrels over there, so, you know. Yeah, there were some squirrels, but more of the wild animals. There's some wild animals that became very fun. Well, this should easily explain my easily distraction, so, you know.

5:01 Well, you know, there's a lot to be distracted by. You've got to watch out for those werewolves in London. They're all over the place. Oh, man. It is werewolf season. Awesome. I'm going to swing out to Las Vegas and welcome Charles to the show tonight. How are you doing tonight, Charles? I'm doing good. This is the tail end of the heat wave. 99 today. By Monday, it will have dropped 20 degrees. And we're welcoming Rachel to come in and drop lots of rain. The hurricane decided it didn't want to go to Hawaii. It wanted to make a right-hand turn and come up the... Mexican coast and up through California and the Vegas. Excellent. Excellent. And we saved the best for last. We're going to swing out to Virginia. We're going to see how V is doing tonight.

5:47 Doing all right. Just trying to get used to my new technology still. So I don't know if Paul was, you weren't, you missed it when I have a laptop. That's why you can actually see my face now and you know, definition which like i. Told eric you got you got some new equipment uh. Sort of yeah yeah and i'm just trying to figure it out so that's a lot of fun but. Well your audio sounds remarkably clear i think your audio seems to be quite good yeah. I'm trying to say that you've been successfully assimilated yeah. Not exactly new technology but but. It's new to me how about that. Okay to me and uh.

6:29 I got to tell you guys, I have one. More week left in rehab, and then I get to go back to work part-time next week, and then full-time the week after, which is cool. And one of the guys that's in rehab just moved out back to Vermont from Burbank, and he does comic books. And we were on the treadmill talking today, and of course, the Billy Joel song came on again, and we started talking about it, and the whole thing. the whole class wanted to hear the lyrics for the song. They all tuned into the podcast. They really liked the theme song, Eric, which is pretty cool. And Brian Vocalize likes it as well, so we must be on to something, right? We managed to pack a lot of lyrics in a little amount of time, just like Billy Joel.

7:12 Yeah. Anyways, what do we have planned for you guys tonight? Well, tonight is going to be a Season 4 recap. Paul's going to breeze through the 10 episodes that we had the pleasure of viewing. And we're going to talk about the ups, the downs, our favorites, our least favorites, what we thought, where we'd like to see it go, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We'll be truck talking. So you definitely want to hang out around that. If you missed last week's show, you can go to trucktalking.com and find them all there. If you want to relive Whitney's first show with us you can find it over there and Whitney will be back with us on the 29th for our spooky Halloween show so Whitney is not gone and forgotten she will be back you can support trick talking by just going to our Facebook page trick talking and beyond and subscribing for 99 cents a month and if you don't want to do that or can't do that the next best way to help us is to like and share our post because it helps our algorithm grow on.

8:10 Facebook so that's That's where I'm going with that. We also have for you our fan shout-outs, as usual, and that's where we thank fans just like you around the globe for supporting our show. And what actors do you share a sci-fi birthday with? Find out in our sci-fi birthday segment. We've got some really, really heavy hitters tonight. And what's going on around the Star Trek universe? Guess who's writing their own Star Trek comic book? Geez, I'm pretty excited. You'll have to hang out to find out about that. And we have a little bit, a tiny bit. Of info on the new Star Trek movie.

8:50 So without any further ado, let's dive into our fan shout-outs. And we'll let Eric get us started. Fan shout-outs, yeah. Fan shout-outs, yeah. Our very first fan shout-out goes out this week. To Yuri Bando, who is from Yokohama, Japan. Hi, Yuri. Thank you so much for saying hello to us. We do not get a ton of people saying hello from Japan, so we super appreciate the support from that amazing place. It's actually now that I've been to Scandinavia, it's now clicked up into my number one slot on the must-visit list. So next family trip, here we come. Also saying hello this week to Nick Rush. who uh hills from ponticlune is that how you pronounce that ponticlune in south wales uk that feels oh thanks paul uh for the thumbs up sending us that amazing what is that a flaming dollar bill or.

9:48 Something that is the welsh that is the welsh flag which if you had a giant invigorator you would see it has a dragon on it. My dragon! It has a dragon on it. Oh my god, I have to look that up. Okay. Very cool. I apologize. It's just, it's a very tiny emoji, so I was not able to tell. What that was. Did you cut your finger and bleed on it? What happened? No. I'm going to look up that Welsh flag because that looks amazing. Thank you so much, Nick Rush, for saying hello to us. Also saying hello this week to Amin Benamar, who hails from Drome Provençal. No, Drome Provençal. Dude, I can't pronounce French. Help me out here, Paul. Is it Drome Provençal?

10:33 Drome Provençal. Provençal. There we go. Provençal. As in provincial. Like the English word would be provincial. So Provençal. All right. Well, Amin, I apologize for massacring the name of the place where you live. You have to understand I am a stupid American who knows only my own language and a little bit of what I studied in high school. But that does not diminish my enthusiasm for our support from our French friends. So thank you so much for saying hello to us. And last but not least on my list, I would like to say hello this week to Nath James, who is from a place called Ellensmeerreport.com. On a little peninsula called the Weerle in the UK.

11:17 With a double laughing, crying emoji. That apparently is funny, probably because it was mispronounced by me. Thanks, Nath. Is your first name James? I can't tell. It said Nath James. You could be James Nath or Nath James. I guess Nath is short for Nathaniel. That would be my guess. Nathaniel James? Oh, yeah. Or Nath. For some reason, but. Whenever you hear Nathaniel, he hears his mother calling after him. Nathaniel! Nathaniel! So he had to tweak it somehow. I don't know. Just guessing. You know what? It's as good a guess as any, so thanks Mr. Nath Nat Nathaniel James for saying hello to us. That was a disaster, V. Help me out.

12:04 Make it better. Okay, sure. Okay, yeah. Sure, I'm the one to do that. Well, my first hello goes out to Wayne Rosencrantz. I don't know if there's a Guildenstern there somewhere, but anyway. Yes. Awesome. Yeah. Yes. Because I'm such a nerd. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. We had that. We read that in high school. Anyway, I love it. Wayne is very much alive. Thank goodness. From outside Philadelphia, P.A., watched every episode of TOS as a high schooler, and haven't missed an episode of all the following shows. That's awesome.

12:45 Second Generation in Worcester, Mass., doing their bit to keep the legacy going. So thank you, Wayne, for that. Next, I have a hello going out to James W. Smith from Edmonton. AB, and I'm sorry, I don't know what that means. Alberta. Alberta. Okay, very good. But I love Canada. Can I say that? You've got an awesome prime minister. But anyway, second generation, too young for the original, but definitely everything else, starting with Star Trek, the animated series. That's good, too. Next hello goes out to Rory Engels, who is from Iowa.

13:27 Hello. And not too far from Riverside. So, but the question here, Rory, you're from Iowa, but do you work in outer space? So anyway, sorry. And next and certainly, or last but certainly not least, Jodi Kennedy from Northeast Ohio, second generation fan, grew up watching with my dad. That's great. All right. Flinging. The flaming megaphone to Charles. I love that we now have a flaming megaphone. It's become part of the podcast. Thank you, V, for that.

14:08 You're welcome. Okay, David, thank you for the use of the engineering gloves. His microphone's a little bit too hot. Let's start off with a warm welcome to Carla Parker from Hot Springs, Arkansas. Been a tricky since TOS premiered. Welcome, Carla. Welcome, Darnell Collins. Top fan from Washington, D.C. Darnell, I'm sorry. Yeah, we know what things are going on in D.C. Welcome, Mark Roberts from Houston, Texas. As you put Texas in there, it's like, I think we've only got one Houston in the country, I hope. And last on my list, welcome Derek Hayes from Columbus, Ohio. Give us in the sunglasses and live long and prosper. I forgot, Daryl also gave us a flag and a live long and prosper as well.

15:09 I'm not used to getting all these emojis. Paul, who's on your list? I pass you the microphone and the gloves. Thank you, Charles. I'm just going to take the microphone commando style. I'll abstain from the gloves. I'm going to go with Rob. Whoa. It's a good thing we can only see him from the chest up, people. Fortunately, no one is taking the microphone after me, so that's a good thing. Well, Uncle Jim is, so. Oh, is he really? Oh, that's right. He's covered in bacteria anyway. This one just got really spicy. He'll be fine. He's immune already. Let's say hello to our good pal Tony Crawford, sailing hailing frequencies from Warrington, Cheshire in England. We're off in the midst of the more westerly country there between Liverpool and Manchester. I was not really that far west recently myself there, Tony, but but definitely a spectacular part of the world that you live in. That's how I long to go back. Hello to our good pal, Lara Schneider, saying hello from Dusseldorf, Germany, over there on the main continent, where I aspire to get to very, very soon. And here's another place I came within spitting distance of, but I didn't quite make it to. Eilidh McKee is saying hello from Loch Lomond, Scotland.

16:31 Loch Lomond is rather substantial from what I understand. One of the bigger freshwater lochs in all of Britain. A little bit more west of Edinburgh, where I was, but a really, really gorgeous, spectacular country. Absolutely amazing over there. If you ever are considering Scotland, friends, go. Go as soon as you can. It's absolutely amazing. So really great to see all these international fans. And then another continent on the other side of the planet, we're going to go over to Chile. where Nathie Vanessa is saying hello. And it seems like every single one of these folks, regardless of where they are, England, Germany, Scotland, Chile, they all have one thing in common. Well, they all have two things in common. They've all watched at least one episode of Star Trek in their life, and they're all busting out the Vulcan salute this week in their halo there.

17:20 In their halo, or hello, or however you say it, when you're not recovering from jet lag. Halo! Hello! Or as they say in Scotland, hi-ya! You hear that? Oh, hi-ya. Nice. And Eilidh has got the Scottish flag proudly unfurled there as well. And I can see why. That is a magnificent country. Absolutely amazing. So lots of folks all over the planet share their enthusiasm for Star Trek, science fiction, and all things future-oriented. More positively oriented, dare I say. Wouldn't you concur, Uncle Jim? I absolutely agree, which is why I'm going to send out a huge hello and thank you to Mary Eastley-Smith, who's listening to us right now on M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I, right here in the United States of America. For those of you who can't spell, that's Mississippi.

18:10 Thank you, Mary. We also want to say hello to Karen Teams, who's in Atlanta, Georgia. Feel bad for those Braves, Karen, but maybe next year. We also want to say hello to Bill. I don't really either, but it sounded like. I'm not really crying over the Yankees. Change your team name. Sorry. Anyways, we also want to say hello and thank you to Bill Busha, who's listening to us in Appleton, Wisconsin. And last but not least, Robin Brownholt in Massachusetts. And I can honestly say I feel bad for those Red Sox.

18:54 You know what, me, as a Red Sox fan who watched their team completely implode at the end against the most hated enemy of all time, I will just say I instantly became a Tampa Bay fan. Yeah. And you know what else? Bill Boucher, who we just called out, are you familiar with that Vince Lombardi Steakhouse in Appleton? Because that place is amazing, and I love it, and I've been there many a time. So if you're in Appleton, Wisconsin, that's Eric's number one restaurant recommendation. Hey, Eric, you don't want to decloak yourself. I wasn't crying. I am cloaked. Yeah, you are.

19:37 You're hidden. I don't know what's happening. This is just how the Invisible Man started, right? I know, dude. I don't know what's happening. So many technology issues. All right. Crazy, crazy. Oh, well, who the hell knows, right? So there you go. But if you guys would like to be mentioned in a future fan shout out please head over to our facebook page trek talking and beyond you'll see pinned to the top of the page live long and prosper all you need to do is click on that tell us where you're listening from As you can tell, if you leave emojis, it's going to catch my attention. If you see a heart next to your name from yours truly, Uncle Jim, then you've been chosen and you will be featured on a future fan shout-out. You can also become a subscriber for only 99 cents. And all these awesome pictures, like there's me and my good friend Ed Wynn. You can send us your pictures. And David, our miracle worker, will put them right up there on us. There's me with Mr. Saru at Trek Ponderoga a couple of years ago.

20:36 We will get your pictures up here on the screen, so you will be forever immortalized as a fan of Trek Talk. And there we are. So, anyways, I'm waiting for Eric to come back before we move on to our next segment. But while we're waiting for Eric, I guess we can start off here. We'll just wait for Eric before we actually get to the main segment. But before we do that, while you're on our Facebook page as well, there's me as a gremlin. That was fun. Mm-hmm. We also do, I ask you guys poll questions and your opinions and stuff on the Facebook page. And one of the poll questions that I ask, well, we'll wait for Eric to get back. But I think before we do that, we need to hear the polling song, which David has.

21:23 That's not the polling song. The polling song has changed. Yeah. There it is. Poland, Poland, Poland, you know we like knowing what you thought about the show and we try to share your opinions with all of our minions out there because they listen worldwide. So tell us just what you think and together we will all drink Canar and Romulan ale tonight. You know, now that we've had Muppets on Star Trek, the Kermit thing just feels natural.

22:07 Mm-hmm. So we'll wait for Eric to actually get back and actually do the poll, but we'll discuss it here like we did last week. The poll question we had was, as captain of your starship, which in this case is the USS Sha-Ka-Ri from the best Star Trek movie. Ever, who would you choose as your first officer? So... Can we put that graphic up here? There we go. There's our graphic that was on our Facebook page that David was kind enough to make up for us. And we'll start off with V while we wait for Eric. Who would you choose as captain to be your first officer on your ship?

22:51 Who would I choose as first officer? Well, on the poll, I chose Spock. Spock. I don't know. I got a thing for pointy-eared guys. He's related to sexy Cyborg. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Yeah, and I see he came in second. Like, last week, my choice was second, too. So, I don't know. But this is the dream team. But I would definitely have Spock. I'm sure Spock is going to pop up in another poll. I'm pretty sure that he will. So how about you, David? Who would you choose as your first officer? Well, kind of leaning toward either Saru or Riker, to be honest. They're both very loyal first officers, and I think loyalty is what I would look for in a.

23:50 First officer if I had to pick. So they're kind of a tie for me. All right. That's cool. That's cool. Saru and Riker. How about you, Charles? Well, for one, I might go, too, because I said I've got a little bit of the Silver Fox look like he does with Rainer. But I'd also have to go with Riker just because he was always enjoying TNG those seven years with him up there. And then refusing to move on to his own ship because he always was there for his Nexo. All right. So we have a Riker. And how about you, Paul? Oh, Beverly Crusher, absolutely. Oh, sorry. That was last week, Paul.

24:33 Sorry, I got to say that again. Sorry, we left the candles out, Paul. You know, if the power goes out on the bridge, you know, she can light a candle and there you go. No, I see the appeal of Rainer in myself. I think he's a badass, though I would have to go with Spock, though big conditional Spock. Original Series Spock, not Strange New World Spock, okay? Because that guy's just a train wreck. But Original Series Spock, I love because cool under pressure, doesn't, you know, ever panic. You need somebody who's a cool customer under fire, and that's going to be Spock. So Riker just gets too distracted, and he's got the whole trombone thing. So, you know, can't do it. Can't do it.

25:14 So Spock for. Me, man. Original Series. Well, I'm with you, Paul. I really like Rainer. I really did. I thought Rayner really worked really well with Burnham. I really liked Rayner. But for me, I would go with Saru. I just, I really dig Saru. He's compassionate. He's smart. He's intelligent. He's extremely loyal. He hooked up with the hot folk and shit. I mean, I just, I really, really like Saru. And I like the arc that we saw him go on through Discovery, so I'm going to go with Saru. And Eric is... Have we heard from Eric? Is he close to getting back yet?

25:57 Eric said he's having computer issues and he's rebooting. Yeah. Okay. Could be about another couple of minutes, I think. I think we dragged this segment out. We're ready to walk already. So, Paul, what was our question? You can fill in for Eric, because Eric filled in for you when you were gone. I'm happy to help, sir, wherever I can. Just pass me an oar, and I'm happy to row. So what was the question, and what did the fans say from bottom to top? Well, here's the thing. I'm going to go from bottom to top here for you. As captain of your ship, in this case the USS Shaqiri, who would you choose as your first officer?

26:38 Coming in at 10th position, we had Raffi with 2%. At 9th place, we had Thok, Laura Thok, at 3%, who just disappeared somehow from Starfleet Academy. I would love to get her back. 8th position, Rainer, with 4% of the vote. 7th position, Kira, 6% of the vote. At 6th slot, we have 7, 7 of 9s. We're a lot of numbers, it's going to get very confusing. So Kira's number 7, you have number 6 of 7. And even to make it more confusing, Seven got 7% of the vote. So if you're not confused now, don't come to me. Don't come to me for math help. I won't be of any good to you. Fifth place was Una Chin-Riley at 8%. At fourth place, we had Uncle Jim's pick, Saru, with 10%. He's going to be busy banging his Vulcan wife. He's not going to be up on the bridge at all. I like him. He's got a gun to purple. I'm just calling it like it is. Which has been entirely too much censoring in the last two weeks. Restoring order. Third place to Paul.

27:44 I don't know. Does she have her first officer? Does she ever have any experience doing that? Yeah, she's actually the first officer on the Enterprise because they need a Vulcan liaison right from the beginning. Okay. He is the first officer. First officer in charge of Vaseline, right, as I recall. So there we go. Okay, good, good. And second place would be my pick, Spock. Now, are we all on common ground here? This is original series Spock, not Strange New Worlds Spock? No, no, no. Having met Ethan Peck, absolutely Strange New Worlds Spock, because he. Is smokin'.. So you like a Vulcan who's very erratic and doesn't know what Ponfar is. He thinks it's every seven minutes, not every seven years.

28:30 Hey, I'm okay with that. Okay. Just to make sure we're clear. Okay. And, ladies and gentlemen, coming in in first place, and who's officially been given his enrollment papers for the USS Chakri, our first officer will be in number one position with 28% of the vote, Commander William Riker. Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! Commence growing your beard immediately! Okay, there we are. And that was our wacky bowl segment, which I have managed to shamelessly steal from Eric, because he had technical difficulties. Eric is back though, which is good. So how is our crew for the USS Shaakiri shaping up, Eric? Well, the crew for the USS Shaakiri now has five members of the senior staff. We, of course, just today added Riker as the executive officer. Prior, we added Bones as our CMO, Scotty as our chief engineer, Odo as our chief of security, and of course, Tom Paris. He flies the ship. At least this ship.

29:35 Oh, Lord. Yes, he flies the ship. All right, guys. So that's our polling question for this week. You guys can go to Trek Talking and Beyond. And David is putting together a new poll, which was... science officer, I think, right? I think it's science officer. So you guys can go. I think. It's science officer. You can vote for your science. Officer for the USS Shaqari, and we will read those poll results to you next week. And since Paul is gone, we're going to pile more onto him, because he missed so much. He's got a lot to make up for his absence, so.

30:18 Paul is going to give us a Season 4 recap of each one of the 10 episodes in case you guys forgot. And David has put together a nice little slideshow to go along with that. To help you remember. So, Paul, take us away. All right. I'm going to be, try to be brief, right? And just kind of do like a little one or two sentence thing for each of these, because you don't want to hear this whole like lengthy thing. So we are talking about doing a review of the, you know, because a lot of us, our memories get a little fuzzy, right? And they're like, wow, 10 episodes ago, what was that? So we have to kind of revamp and, you know, re-familiarize ourselves with everything we're going to talk about, right? So the very first episode, season one, or rather season four, episode one was Valas Marinaris, right?

31:03 which sounds like it might be like an Italian, you know, baked dish, but it's actually like part of the Martian landscape. And in this premiere, Pike led the crew into this stellar storm and inadvertently sent the ship back 65 million years, where there was an amazing encounter with both citizens of the planet Mars and a Germanosaurus rex. It was a very cinematic episode. Well, we'll talk about it more, but that was basically what we were talking about, Palace of Aranas. Second episode, we took a left turn into the horror genre here with the Griffin incident, where Spock, La'an, and a young Kirk board a lost Federation ship, kind of the Mary Celeste of the Federation vessels, where a very old mystery becomes a very horrific survival crisis. And a lot of people had a lot of different opinions on that one. So we're off to a pretty dramatic start with those first two episodes. Episode number three shifted tones into a little bit more of a comedic vein, you could say, in Human Best Friend, where a much-needed shore leave on a pleasure planet turned very dangerous when the crew's promised escape stops becoming a fun thing. And yeah, I think a lot of folks will have things to say about that episode. If you are feeling a little colorblind, then you will probably feel right at home in a case of Chiaroscuro, in which Unichin Riley is mistaken for

32:33 a resistance leader and drawn into a struggle against Klingon occupation. A black-and-white film noir episode that generously tipped its hat to the classic Bogart picture Casablanca. Then things got really crazy, and we started, you know, you're seeing a pattern of different styles throughout the season, right? Different... Well, let's just say different styles, different takes on what's possible within an episode season. And we have Level 5 Transporter Accident. O-M-G. A transporter malfunction turns most of the crew into puppets while Mr. Spock fights to somehow reclaim control of the ship.

33:15 And that takes us to the equator. We're at the halfway point of this episode. particular season, where folks were going, what is going on here on good old Star Trek Enterprise? Strange new worlds. The next episode, though, was, I think, very interesting. A lot of folks had a good reaction to this. Off Hour, where the Enterprise fell into a slipstream that pushed them to a catastrophic warp threshold. Really exciting episode. A real ticking clock episode. A lot going on there. Then, tone shifted. You can get whiplash from the tone shifting, I think. as much as half of this season. Like chronotons through the hourglass, where a temporal anomaly trapped the crew inside a soap opera-like reality, while Pike confronts a life he lost. And of course, this is the episode that brought back the character of Trillane that we had previously seen in season three. Seen in season three. I'm still learning how to speak English again.

34:16 So forgive me. And then... We had an episode that I think a lot of folks are quite well regarded, Orders of Magnitude, where Starfleet and a, in particular, high-ranking Starfleet officer commandeers the Enterprise for an alien pursuit that gets out of control far beyond its original orders of intent while a large portion of the crew are dealing with their own situation in a cave full of Andorians on the planet below. So we have that episode to consider as well. The penultimate episode coming in at the number nine slot was Once La'an a Time, where La'an enters a crazy fantasy world with wacky costumes and long-haired Vulcans, where the fairy tale becomes a personal test of courage and control. I missed that. hearing what everyone on this show thought of that episode.

35:10 It was hilarious. And long-haired Vulcan. He was. So moral. Two words, Paul. Sexy cyborg. All right. Well, there you go. I don't like to deny anyone things and give them pleasure. Especially myself. But yeah, that was an episode I got the impression the scores weren't so high for that one, though. Maybe. So you guys can fill me in when we get around to taking turns talking. And then finally, the season finale, episode number 10, the nostalgia-evoking Tomorrow's Enterprise, where a temporal crisis regarding both white and black holes brings the Enterprise face-to-face with the future Kirk that he himself will one day inherit, and we get the dueling perspectives of now and then Uvura trying to make sense of it all and prevent beloved Scotty from somehow perishing. So a very interesting tale there to wrap up the season. So I think one thing, you know, as we start to discuss further, for sure, it was a season of a lot of shifts, right?

36:22 A lot of people described it as a gimmick fatigue just because there was a lot of, you know, let's do this style. Let's try this style. You know, like you just saw as we did black and white comedy Muppets. soap opera, you know, a lot of different things there. At times, we're a little different, but, you know, that's just kind of a relatively subjective overview of the different 10 episodes. What I'm really curious about, though, is what did most of our fans think of this season, right? I think my good friend Eric has got, he's got, I don't think it's a rectal thermometer, but he's got some kind of thermometer that he can use to take the temperature of our fans. Though sometimes it may be that kind. I'm not really sure. Eric, Set us straight, friend.

37:08 Well, I will tell you that these scores are across the board here. So we're going to start with Brandon Anklum, who gave the season a 1. Get on with the future. Legacy, baby. P.S. Keep Academy. Short and sweet. Thanks, Brandon. Phil Butler-Whitney gave the season a 5. Season 1 was a 9. Season 2 was a 9. Season 3... was a 3.5. Season 4 was a 5. Simply because a couple of episodes were really good. The rest were not the best. The Bad Admiral episode was the best of the season, orders of magnitude. So Phil liked that episode, but gave this season only a 5.

37:55 Thanks, Phil. Jeffrey Lance, a top fan of ours, gave the season a 10. Best episode was the season finale. Worst? Didn't exist for me anyway. All right, Jeffrey was very enthusiastic that season. I love it. Sandy Ramirez gave the season a six. I hoped for more interstellar aliens. The best was the latest episode of Masterpiece, Tomorrow's Enterprise. Thanks, Sandy. Migro Do said that they loved the season and it will be missed since Enterprise... The best stuff for Trekkers, in my humble opinion, season eight. This is very hard to read. Season eight points. Best episode is two. Not one episode went beyond my expectation.

38:48 Well done, though. Afraid that six episodes in season five aren't enough. Yes. Is it six? Is that what we have? We have six episodes, yeah. I think many of us agree with that. So thank you so much. Jan Lee Grenville said five out of ten episodes were good in my humble opinion, so I give it a five. Aparna Yana said I want to give the season an 8.5 overall. Morgan Trotter, season one was a nine, season two was a seven, season three a five, season four a three. There are ten episodes in season five, er, sorry, there are ten episodes in season four, and only three were good. decent. John Barry gave the season a 1. I couldn't finish it. At the end of Season 2, I was ready to start the conversation that it is better than Enterprise, and maybe even on the way to passing Voyager. And I couldn't even finish season four. Alex Jackson, a top fan, gave the season a definite eight. And Murilo Silva, a top fan, gave the season a nine with lots of enthusiastic emojis.

39:57 And so you, the fans, have scored this season of Strange New Worlds a 6.5, which I believe is by far the lowest score that we've had for a Strange New Worlds season so far. So, yeah. Golly. Yeah, geez. Wow. Okay, 6.5. So, Bea, would you like to get us started? What was your favorite episode and your least favorite episode? I think, Bea, just because I am such a Muppets fan, the Level 5 transporter accident, because I mean, Pellia as a Muppet, oh my God, with the little little spaghetti hair and the itty bitty little feetses were just so cute. Yeah, that was that, that just was my favorite. I know it's some people might consider it cheesy, but I just, I love that one. Although I will say that tomorrow's dinner, what was it?

41:01 Yes. Now I'm confused. Tomorrow's yesterday. The last one was absolutely epic. Cause that was so, I mean, it was like, so good. Star Trek. It was for all the complaints that people had over the season. That was as Star Trek as you could get. It was just absolutely brilliantly done. Least favorite would be I think the black. And white one. I just couldn't get into it and for me it was a little bit gimmicky but I've enjoyed it, and being able to meet at least one of the stars, you know, the sexy Cybok, aka Ethan Peck, that was really awesome. So that was the highlight. Last March was, this past March was the highlight, getting to meet a lot of Star Trek people. Overall, I think, I can't remember what all my scores were, but I think overall I will give this season Wow, a solid eight.

42:13 You know, I believe, Eric, not Eric Charles can confirm this, but I think that our perfect score of 10 was the first time that all the truck spurts agreed on an episode and gave it a 10. I don't think that's ever happened before. Has it? No, I think we've had one. I think we've had at least one episode of perfect 10s. I'd have to go back in archives. I found a 9.9. We did have one. Yeah, yeah. There you go. We all agree. You know what, Paul? What would you have scored that final episode? We all gave it a perfect 10. You missed that episode, so would you agree with us Trek experts and give it a 10, or would you bump it down a little bit?

43:04 Just out of curiosity. We're talking about Tomorrow's Enterprise, right? Yes. Yeah, I would give it a seven, actually. I was not as fond of it as everyone else. I see the word masterpiece being bandied about quite a bit. I see what they were going for. I definitely appreciate the intent. I have no problem with Celia Rose Gooding's acting. I think she did a wonderful job. I liked a good chunk of it. I was there for about 70% of the episode, right? I would say where they were really doing a great job. But about 30% of the episode did not work for me. The whole space baby concept was just... not good and really poorly executed. And I just, just some basic, you know, we are talking about a science fiction show, right? Last time I checked, right? Star Trek is science fiction, I think.

43:50 Right. And you can't just hang out on the edge of a black hole or a white hole or whatever it may be. Right. Because it's going to be sucking in any matter or light for light years. You know, you just can't do it. Planets would be sucked in any and all matter, any energy, anything like that. And they're just kind of hanging out like they're, you know, parked outside of an Arby's, right? And that's just not how space works, friends. I'm sorry. So to not have basic science in a science fiction show is kind of, to me, we start to move into unforgivable territory here. And I realize it's suspension of disbelief, but that was just annoying to no end. And the whole, you know, how many times are you going to say space baby to get a joke? I was just like, this is just infantile. So I loved a lot of it.

44:36 I loved the dynamic between the actors and stuff like that. And it just felt very repetitious. There was so much of Celia Rose Gooding talking to herself back and forth. I think they were mining past really good episodes that were, in fact, masterpieces to try to conjure up the same vibe. But I did not get that from this. And so I don't mean to diminish anyone else's joy of it. It's just, for me, writing, writing, writing, writing. It's got to be really good writing. And I see people get excited. It's like, There's Lieutenant Morass, right? But it's that whole thing when you recognize something that makes you like it more than it maybe deserves to be. Because it's just like recognition is not writing, right? And so I've said that before and I say it all the time, right?

45:19 But it's just because you recognize something in it that you liked in the school doesn't mean that there was good writing there. And in this case, there just was not in a lot of it. So 70% of it was good. Therefore, that translates into a 7. So that shoots down our perfect score from all of our... Trek Spurts. Paul played the David on that one, I guess. I'm just going to be honest. For me, wow. The black and white episode, no. Watched it once, never again. For me, the biggest reason is the fact that they could have really explored the character of Korv. What is it like to be on a Klingon-occupied planet, particularly Kor?

46:07 And they missed the vote. Absolutely, totally missed the vote on that one. I wanted to see it in color so I could cosplay as him, and we didn't. So for me, one of the episodes that I'd pass on was that one. The biggest disappointment for me, you guys already know, Sexy Saibot. I've been waiting and waiting and waiting, patiently waiting for the return of Cybok. I was so excited for the return of Cybok that Eric actually made a video about it. And then when I saw it, I was so disappointed and.

46:47 Let down that I'll never recover from that. So those two episodes for me are just, no, sorry, passed. But I think Off Hours was just phenomenal. It was outstanding. That evil Admiral. I mean, would we put that Admiral on our evil Admirals list, Eric? Maybe. He was psycho. I mean, we had a really good discussion, I think, about the complexities of that Admiral's response to things. But yeah, generally speaking, he was out of line, I think. Yeah. Yeah, I really liked that episode a lot, seeing Kirk come closer to the man that we know he's destined to be.

47:35 Excellent episode, just phenomenal. The last episode with Uhura talking to Spike, we just talked about this recently, so I won't spend a lot of time on it, but that was another one of my favorites. But not to take away. I'm trying to find positives. The stoner episode. Una singing Klingon. Just, you know, I enjoyed Una singing Klingon. Okay, so that's that. But overall, I think I would give this season 6.5, I think, for.

48:17 Me. Maybe. Maybe. For me, the episodes, they were really either good or they were total crap. I mean, for me, they were either really high or really low. I didn't like the gimmicks. I thought that they spent too much time giving us gimmicks and not enough time giving us solid stories, which they've proven they can do, but for some reason didn't want to. So that's what I've got to say, and I'm sticking to it. So there you have it. How about you, David? Well. Uh, let's see. Okay, yeah, I think my least favorite episode would have probably been episode three. The stoner episode. That thing did not resonate with me very well at all.

49:12 I enjoyed... Well, I didn't enjoy... Oh, what's that episode? The one where. Was it Off Hour? No, I can't remember. Anyway, so let's see, oh it's the soap opera one, that's right. I did not enjoy that one at all, so those would be my least favorites, for sure. I did actually enjoy quite of the other gimmicks. As far as everybody knows, I am a huge fantasy world fan, Lord of the Rings, whatnot. And I really enjoyed that once upon a time. Just because, of course, dragon. And I have to agree with V, I really enjoyed the Muppets.

50:06 That one actually to me kind of brought out my childhood nostalgia. So that was really enjoyable. I did not enjoy Off Hour. I actually did not. I actually thought that episode was a little... But my all-time favorite would probably be up in the tier of either the. The Magnitude, I forgot the title of that one. The one with the evil admiral, I guess. The Black and White episode. I actually enjoyed all of those quite well and all for different reasons. But yeah, for me though, this particular, oh yeah, and I also did not like Sorry, there was one more I really didn't like. That was episode two. That was the horror one. But yeah, I'm not much of a horror fan. Overall though, because this season in particular had so many gimmicks and they sort of actually just kept going with what they were trying to do. And apparently I heard that they did not plan for season five. Apparently this last episode was a send-off for this crew. And they apparently somehow got an okay from Paramount that they were going to do a sixth episode just to try and finish off the arc.

51:35 So to me, I was like, if this was really going to be the last episode, that would have been bad for the series. Are you sure that's not from one of your conspiracy websites, David? No, that's actually what I heard, that this was actually going to be their last. Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm gonna need some documentation, David, for that. Like, from a legit, you know, media source, like, variety. Yeah. So, either way, I mean, I'm just saying that for the purpose of scoring this season, though, because of all the gimmicks, I'm actually gonna be giving this either... I'm gonna probably have to go in the middle here. I'm gonna give it a 3.5. It was really all not that good for me.

52:19 All the other seasons were great. I really enjoyed, I was hoping for the fourth season when the first episode came out. I was like, wow, this is really good, and we're going to have a great season. And all of a sudden, gimmick after gimmick after gimmick after gimmick. I was like, whoa. So, yeah, it was a really rough ride. But, yeah, 3.5 for me. All right. Eric, you going to follow up a 3.5, buddy? Sure, man. Yeah. I mean, what a roller coaster. I think I mentioned this a few episodes into the season this year. where I said that they broke my trust. I had this trust that the folks at Paramount knew what they were doing with Star Trek, that they were making awesome Star Trek.

53:01 I was a huge fan of Discovery. Did it always hit the mark? No, but overall it was pretty good. Strange New Worlds so far has been excellent. And this season was just really, really solidly up and down for me. It was, what did Paul call it, like whiplash, right? I was getting whiplash the entire season. The first episode I thought was really good. I just didn't like the punching of the dinosaur in the face by La'an, and I will stand by the fact that I still think they did La'an dirty over the whole season. I was very unsatisfied with the way that they kind of resolved her whole story throughout the season as one of my favorite characters. They started bad with her, and they ended bad with her, so I just hated her story arc the whole season, honestly. But that first episode otherwise was really cool. And it was really cool to have a time travel episode that meant something, right? Where the Enterprise crew is completely engaged in real life history. That's the type of awesome Star Trek that I want to see.

54:06 I want to see that Star Trek could be a possibility in my life. And that's one of the things that I've always loved about it as a kid, right? I don't want dark Star Trek. I don't want Star Trek that looks at the The complicated side of human beings. No, I want an optimistic Star Trek. So anyway, I liked the whole story of the Martians and all that kind of stuff in that first episode. Griffin incident, by far my least favorite episode of Star Trek, probably of all time. I hated that. I give it a zero. I never, ever, ever want to see another episode of Star Trek ever again like that. Human best friend? I actually, you know, buddy episode? I'm in. And then it was gimmick after gimmick, like everybody's been kind of saying. So, you know, I could go through each and every one. Like, I don't mind the Casablanca thing.

54:50 That was okay. There was stuff about the puppets I liked. There was stuff about several other episodes that I liked. But I think overall, if I was to say what's my absolute favorite episode of the season, it's really a toss up for me. And I know I have to pick one. I'll tell you what the toss-up is first, and then I'll tell you which one I ultimately am going to pick. The toss-up is between Episode 8, Orders of Magnitude, which was the bad Merle story, which I just thought was fantastic. It was very well acted. I did have a few criticisms on that one, but overall, just very impressive. And then Tomorrow's Enterprise, the last episode, I liked it quite a bit, so I will say that my favorite episode of the season, I can't get away from the Admirals, man.

55:41 So episode eight, Orders of Magnitude, I think was my absolute favorite of the season. It was just such a solid acting performance, such a solid, you know, moral quandary, which I am always interested in related to Star Trek. So, yeah. But, you know, like the best of the season was like one peak, right? And so much of the season was subpar. So I know that I have to give the whole season kind of an overall score. And I'll just say that based on the whiplash, based on the obviously gimmicky nature of things, which you either had to buy into at the very beginning and be okay with, or you had to be frustrated by, and I think most of us were frustrated by it. And based on The fact that just some of the writing, as Paul was saying, I find writing to be a very important aspect of these shows as well. And so much of it was substandard. I'm going to give the season overall a 5.

56:41 5.0. I can't go much higher than that. I don't think I'm going to recommend this season to many of my friends, which is unfortunate. But there's probably three episodes. The first episode, episode 8, and the last one that I might actually recommend. recommend to friends in the future. There you go. All right. That's me. All right. There you have it. Eric has spoken and now we're going to have Charles take the flaming microphone and do his thing. Okay. To answer his Jim question, which changed with Paul's score in. The past. Only for that one episode though, right?

57:22 No, no. I haven't scored the season. No, no. I said that adjusted last week's score. Okay, got it. Our score, which was a 10, is now a 9.6. Jim asked the question, have we ever scored 10s or so? Starfleet Academy, The Life and the Stars did get a 10 from the hosts. Strange New World, This Old Scientist got a 9.99 from the hosts. And Subspace Rhapsody did get a 10 from the hosts. So 10s are possible. Or near 10s are possible. Okay. An easy way for me to look at what I liked and what I didn't like is I keep track of scores. And it's obvious when I look at my sheet, my top episode was Tomorrow's Enterprise. That was the one that got a 10. At 9.5, the first episode and the Muppets episode. both got a 9.5 from me. So those were strong episodes for me. I loved the going back in the past and I enjoyed seeing the Muppets.

58:29 Least favorite was a tie between the black and white and Off Hours. Both of them had a six from me because I just didn't like the Casablanca themed one. And Bad Admiral just didn't excite me. No, excuse me. It wasn't Bad Admiral. It was the soap opera episode. I'm getting my episodes mixed up. Lycomitons, that one I did not like. That one got the six. Yeah, Orders of Magnitude had a lot of higher score on that one. I did not like the concept of throwing a soap opera in. We didn't need a Q episode in the middle of this season. Originally in scoring, I would have given this, originally in my scoring, I'd given this season 8.1 total when I did it through my 10 episodes. but I think I'm going to drop it down a little bit and put it at seven. This episode had some high points, but had some low points.

59:24 All right, so we have a seven from Charles, and Paul, you get to pull up the caboose on this and wrap it all up. Okay, sorry about that. Okay, great. I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything. So yeah, there were some good points in this season, for sure. It's really interesting to see how some people can have totally different points of view on the same episode. Fascinating how people will... digest and perceive art. It's really interesting how subjective it is. I find it really interesting as we discuss this stuff. But I think we all agree it was a very erratic season, right? And there were a lot of gimmick fatigue going on here, for sure. So for me, there were really three episodes I was really high on that I thought represented, you know, really all pistons firing, right?

1:00:10 Everything was working really well. The premiere, Vows of Marinaris, Off Hour, which was... incredibly well directed, and then Orders of Magnitude with the Starfleet Admiral. I think those were really, really top flight episodes. But that's three out of ten for me, right? There were things I liked about Tomorrow's Enterprise, but it just wasn't, you know, it didn't stick the landing for me. So three out of ten is not so great, right? I feel like I want to be generous and give it a five, right? But I also feel like they need to get a message, right? That this kind of shit just doesn't fly. And that they, you know, this, you know, whim of the week would be how I would describe it, is a lot of really undisciplined juvenile storytelling happened this year, right? And it was really by people who seemed like they didn't even have a clue what science fiction was. So I think they need to get one on the nose for that, right?

1:01:07 And sorry, you're going to get a swap with a newspaper. So I've got to be honest and give it the season as a whole. Without a question, this is the worst season of the show. I don't think anyone's going to debate that. This has been a very erratic season. They have screwed up constantly. I feel bad for the actors. And they're doing their best, but the writer's room needs to get a purge and purge that shit. And I hope that different folks are managing the narrative for the final season, season five. So we'll see. But yeah, I'm going to go on and give the season as a whole a four. Reluctantly. I wish I didn't have to, but you know, it's, you know, when there's only three good episodes out of 10, sorry, you know, a four is the best I can get.

1:01:54 All right. So overall, Charles, out of the Trek spurts, stack up with our Facebook. Okay. Give me a moment. 6.5 was the fan total from just saying what you think of the season in general. The hosts originally would have given the season a 7.4, as when they decided to go through the entire season, it dropped to a 5.7. So the fans liked it a little bit better than we did. Fans liked it a little bit better, but not by much. So we're in the ballpark. Yeah. And what do you guys think about this awesome graphic that's up on the screen? David did an excellent job trying to capture the entire season in one picture, don't you think?

1:02:43 Yeah, that's cool. I love it. I think it did an excellent job with that. I like the T-Rex. I like the dragon. I like Trillane on the side with the Q hanging out up there in the corner. I think it did a good job. And V's Pelea puppet is there. Oh, yes. Yes, thank you. That's so cute. I don't know why. Thank you. I hope they make, I don't know if they're going to make one of her, but I just have. To have that. That's so cute. Well, and, you know, V, I kind of feel similarly where I feel like that last episode was rated at least one or two points higher for me just because of the fire-breathing dragon, like, breathing fire into the shields of the Enterprise, which was too cool.

1:03:32 Pretty cool. Yep. So there you have it, guys. That's what the Treks first thought about season four of Spring of New Worlds. Now it's time to roll on to some Star Trek birthdays. All right, Grumpy Wharf, we hear that. So in an attempt to shorten the show a little bit... This was a hard. Week for me because there's so many heavy hitters. When you get to the birthdays, there are some doozies I just could not overlook. So, yeah, they're there. And as usual, we're going to turn. On the flaming birthday candle over to Eric. And Eric is going to start off with our remembrances.

1:04:12 So take it away, Eric. Jim, this week we are remembering four members of our Star Trek community who have gone before us. The first is actress Madeline Rue, born Madeline Solomon. She, of course, was the prolific character actress who played Lieutenant Marla McGivers in the TLS first season episode, Space Seed. She made over a hundred appearances on television, including appearances on Have Gun, Will Travel, The Untouchables, Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-0, The Man from Uncle, Mission Impossible, Starsky and Hutch. She was actually in Bonanza one time with Ricardo Montalban as well. Yeah. And in fact, they reunited a second time on Fantasy Island.

1:04:55 So she had a lot of little connections with him. But in 1977, she was unfortunately diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and was reportedly eventually using a cane and then crutches and then a wheelchair. But she did remain a strong advocate for folks from that community as she faded. So we lost her back in 2003 at the age of 68 years old. Happy birthday to Madeline Rue, our original Madeline McGivers. Marla McGivers, sorry. Happy birthday as well to Persis Kambada, the Indian model, actress who played Ileah. and the Aaliyah Probe, or Aaliyah, Aaliyah, I believe, from the motion picture. Kambada was born in Mumbai, India, to a middle-class Parsi family, and she started her career at the very young age of 13 years old when she was hired for advertisements for soap brands. After photos of her, taken accidentally by a famous photographer, became popular. A little bit weird, but then by the age of 17, she was named Miss India. and participated in that year's Miss Universe pageant. However, she was unable to find success in the Bollywood industry, and so she eventually would move to the U.S., where she started looking for other options. Actually,

1:06:25 her role in the motion picture led to other roles in films like Nighthawks, Megaforce, and Warrior of the Lost World from 1985. However, she never really found that, like, real success that she was looking for or probably deserved. And we unfortunately lost her at a very young age, only 49 years old back in 1998. Happy birthday to Persis Kamata. Happy birthday as well to John Hoyt, the veteran actor of film, television, and theater who portrayed our original Phil Boyce. That's right, the guy with the martinis, right? In the TOS first pilot. The Cage, he was born John MacArthur. Hoistrad in Bronxville, New York. He worked as a teacher of history as well as a stand-up comedian before joining Orson Welles Mercury Theater in 1937, which really launched his acting career, which I just think is such a cool story. His career moved on to Broadway, where he became very popular in a lot of productions of the time, all the way through the 40s and then into the 50s. He was in the musical Maggie, after which he moved then into movie and television. So one of these guys who really kind of followed that, you know, theater to television sort of continuum. His credits are really too numerous to mention, but suffice to say, I really

1:07:57 love Phil Boyce, and I love that they brought him back as a character on Strange New Worlds. I loved his portable martini station. He was absolutely... as far as I'm concerned, from the cage, what I'll call a proto-Bones. It was before we actually had Leonard McCoy, but he kind of had that grumpy demeanor, but yet also was going to be your best friend. So I really hope, I don't know that they will, but it would be really cool to have them explore that character just a little bit more in Strange New Worlds. Of course, that's already in the can, so it doesn't matter what I think about that. But John Hoyt did a fantastic... job in star trek and all of the other things that he did throughout his career so happy birthday to john hoyt and last but not least we will say happy birthday to yes donald pleasance outside of the world of star trek he of course is the english actor best known for his bald head and intense staring eyes the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film, You Only Live Twice. He of course was in THX 1138, that really weird Spielberg film from way back in the day.

1:09:14 Best known as the psychiatrist, Dr. Samuel Loomis in Halloween. and four of his sequels, a role for which he was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actor. He collaborated with Halloween director John Carpenter twice more as the President of the United States in Escape from New York and as the Priest in Prince of Darkness. This guy, I mean, look at him. You know that look, right? I always remember him from You Only Live Twice. What a stroke in the kitty, right? So. really cool looking actor, really cool, like bit parts that he, not bit parts, really cool characters that he played that had a very strong kind of presence to them from, you know, escape from New York to the great escape to his appearances on the twilight zone. Happy birthday to Donald Pleasance. Unfortunately lost all the way back in 1995.

1:10:08 And that does it this week for our remembrances. And so I will pass the actual flaming birthday candle, the original flaming thing. Over to V. You know what, V? All of the stuff can be flaming, though. It's okay. It doesn't matter. Sure. All right. So, got to be serious here. My first happy birthday goes out to Duncan Regehr, who is the Canadian actor, writer, and artist who played, we were just talking about this earlier, Ronan in Star Trek TNG seventh season episode Sub Rosa. So here's the sexy space ghost.

1:10:52 The instigator of the candle. Uh-huh. Yeah. And I don't know how I probably knew this and forgot it, but I did not know that I didn't make the connection that he was the one who played the recurring role of Shakar Adon in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, appearing in three episodes, Shakar, Crossfire, and The Begotten. So happy birthday to the sexy space ghost. Next, happy birthday. Who then was also a sexy Bajoran, I guess. Well, yeah, sexy Bajoran. That's right. Yes, yes, that is true. That is true. But yeah, he was sexier as the space ghost. But anyway. Happy birthday goes out to Dale Wibley. He is the actor who played Kyle Djokovic in Starfleet Academy. Next, happy birthday to Todd Bryant, who is a stuntman. I see why Jim put this in here. Stuntman, stunt actor, and occasional actor who appeared in three Star Trek films and was the stunt double for Ron Perlman in Star Trek Nemesis.

1:12:04 But he is best known as Captain Claw. In some movie that I've never heard of, but it's apparently, you know, Star Trek V, The Final Frontier. I don't know. I've never seen it. That was awesome. Yeah. Some people say it's good, but I don't know. Anyway. I mean, I will say that that picture in the upper left-hand corner of Klaue and Vixus, though, is pretty classic Star Trek. Yeah. Whether you like the movie or not, that picture right there is very classic Star Trek. And we've talked to Vixus on this podcast, which is really. Awesome, too. Cool. Cool. Now, happy birthday goes out to somebody who I just absolutely adore, Avery Brooks. He is an accomplished stage television and film actor, best known for his role as Benjamin Sisko in DS9. He is the only actor to appear in all 173 episodes of the series. and has also directed several episodes. In addition, he played Benny Russell in the episodes Far Beyond the Stars, one of my favorites because it's just so heart-wrenching, and Shadows and Symbols. I also liked him in In the Pale Moonlight, where he can live with his decisions. He also voiced Sisko in the games DS9 Harbinger and Star Trek Legacy. And having

1:13:38 met Sirach Lofton, who played Jake Sisko last year, the cool thing is, is that since the show, because Sirach was 14 when he started, and they still talk every single day on the phone. So they've got that connection because they played father and son on the show. And they've got a connection, I think, that's close as a real father and son. So I thought that was awesome. Anyway, that is... Those are my birthday people, so flaming birthday candle. Excuse me. This is like flaming. This is great. I don't know what that was.

1:14:21 I'm going through puberty. I don't know what that was. That was great. I love it. V's got a mouthful of birthday cake or something. I don't know. I choked on the birthday candle. Audience, you decide. What's going on with V? I don't know. You guys gotta hold on to your butts, though. I'm pretty sure we have the content for next week's poll now, though. What is V choking on? There she goes, bubbling out of frame. We've lost her. Thank you, V.

1:15:03 I will take the mic in very serious transitional style here. Thank you. Thank you. Please do. You may move on to your book, guys. Paul has got some of the best coming up here. Okay. I am ready to continue. Are we all right? All right. Everyone is good. Well, that's debatable, but yes. Oh, yeah. I'm still waiting for some labs to come back, but we'll find out. Okay? So, first of all. Pop the chalupa. Let's say happy birthday to some of my fellow October birthday folks, the greatest folks of all time, of course, from this month. The great Lena Headey, okay? Born in Bermuda to English parents, Lena Headey is, of course, infamous, iconically known as Queen Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones, one of the great villainous matriarchs of All time. I mean, that is a role that will never go away. I mean, amazing.

1:16:05 Just absolutely awesome work that she did there. Really, really complicated and interesting stuff. Going back a way, she was also played Sarah Connor in the very seldom referred to television series Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles. Let's try that again. Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles. That's not easy to say. Which is, if you've never seen it, you really should because it kicks all kinds of ass and it's very, very good. TV series there. In the movie Dread with Carl Urban, she was the villain in that show as well. Mama Madrigal, if I recall. But really, really interesting there. And she was nominated for a Saturn Award for her portrayal of Gorgo, Queen of Sparta, in the phenomenal Frank Miller comic adaptation of 300, directed by Zack Snyder. One of the first things that Zack exploded onto the screen with.

1:16:59 So She's very cool. She's a signing machine. She was just at Rose City Comic Con here doing signing. There's a giant line to saddle up to her, right? Because look at all the stuff she's been in. I mean, she's just a, she's an icon. So very cool. Happy birthday, Lena Headey. And wonderful to celebrate you. Happy birthday to Pamela Hensley, American actress and author. Of course, those fans of Buck Rogers in the 25th century will remember her. as Princess Ardala with her wildly eccentric costumes that she would wear. Sometimes they would give her like a roll of scotch tape and say, here is your costume, Miss Hensley, go to town. And it's really almost kind of like that.

1:17:41 I'm sure Uncle Jim will know what I'm talking about. And also played C.J. Parsons on a show called Matt Houston that I very dimly remember. And it was made appearances in both Rollerball and a little scene Doc Savage picture and a thriller called Double Exposure that memory serves was very much second cousin to Eyes of Laura Mars. I don't know if people remember that old Faye Dunaway picture with Tommy Lee Jones, but similar content there. But anyhow, Pamela Hensley done a lot of cool stuff. It's also an author. Check her out. And if you have not watched Buck Rogers in the 25th century, you probably should because it's pretty fun and good stuff. No one's rebooted that yet. I would think somebody would be trying to give that the same rebooting treatment that Battlestar got. And it seems like it would be rife.

1:18:30 What's the general story of Buck Rogers? I will admit to not knowing anything about it. All right, friend. Well, you know, I'll give it the TV show version as opposed to the classic comic strip version, right? But he's like a test pilot or an astronaut or something like that, right? And there's an accident, of course, and he's somehow frozen in cryogenic freeze, right? He wakes up. Up after a disaster four centuries later, right? In the 25th century, right? And he's a man out of time. Rip Van Winkle, he's, you know, all that stuff, right? And he's a man out of time, so he's kind of, they perceive him as like the, you know, knuckle-dragging ape man, right? But But he's got street smarts that they don't have in the 20th century.

1:19:11 Cool. And away with the ladies to boot, right? So he's just perfectly suited to, you know, dominate and become a hero. He's like Flash Gordon, basically. I see why Jim likes this show. Yeah, that makes sense. And, you know, some of it is really bad because does it ever look like early 80s TV? I mean, it really, really, really does, right? It does not. Even more than Battlestar did. It's lit like TV. Like, whoa, turn down the Klieg lights, guys. But, you know, there's something just charming about it. And it's got some really good... They kept going. They kept doing more stories and a lot of the effects. Go check out Buck Rogers' spaceship.

1:19:51 Just his fighter craft that he would use. It was really cool. And when they brought in the Hawkman, that's when I really liked it. I was ready for a whole series. About the Hawkman. It was badass. Sorry, I digress. Buck Rogers' Hawkman right now. Yeah, yeah, he was cool. He looked like a bird, right? But he had this bird girlfriend, too, and they were just kind of kicked ass. I haven't watched one in forever, but it was a lot of fun. But really goofy and with that synthesizer soundtrack that just kind of makes you cringe when you're watching porn when you're really not. I was a kid when I watched that. I didn't connect that. I mean, you know. It's pretty crazy, but I think you've got to have a pretty hard heart not to have a soft spot for Buck Rogers. It was just really entertaining and fun and tweaky.

1:20:38 The robot and stuff. Those are fun times, man. It was a weird time for science fiction in the late 70s, early 80s and stuff. It was crazy. Good stuff. Check it out. We'll talk about it on the show sometime. Okay. Got a couple winners here coming up. Look out. The Luminous. Amazing. Absolutely glorious. Karen Allen, American film television stage actress who made her film debut in the phenomenally successful John Landis comedy Animal House. And it just exploded a few years later when she portrayed Marion Ravenwood, a classic character, with Harrison Ford in Steven Spielberg's Raiders.

1:21:20 Of the Lost Ark. Kablammo! She just was amazing. And, you know, she'd only been in a couple pictures before, and she just, like, it was... Everyone just fell in love with her. She was remarkable. She won a Saturn Award for Best Actress. And she's always kind of had a soft spot for genre work, right? She hooked up with John Carpenter, did a wonderful picture called Starman with Jeff Bridges that is really, really good. Nailed another Saturn Award for that one, for Best Actress, right? And then came back a few years later to play Marian Ravenwood again in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull and Indiana Jones and the Battle of Destiny. So you can still see her working today. A lovely human being. But if you've never seen those other pictures, like if you've never seen Starman ever, or you've never seen Starman, I run into people who've never seen Outlaws.

1:22:06 Oh my God. It's just, it's wildly inappropriate all over the place, but it's hilarious. It's a classic comedy. I mean, John Landis was just so good. I can never look at mashed potatoes the same way. My favorite is Belushi and the guitar in the stairwell, right? It just smashes it directly. Sorry. She's the best. But very irreverent, very much iconoclastic, anti-frat movie. Tremendously. Highly recommend it. Moving on. Happy birthday, Karen Allen. We love you. Happy birthday to Carol Daniels, stuntwoman and actress who played Zora in the original series third season episode, The Savage Curtain, which I am a big fan of. Kick-ass, right? She's Worked as a stand-in briefly on the original pilot, The Cage, as well.

1:22:59 But she was just one of that rogues gallery of infamous, you know, supervillains that Yarnack and the other Excalibians put together to fight the original series crew there. Look at her there. She looks like a Klingon witch. I mean, she looks like terrifying. She was supposed to have done these terrible, dark experimentations on people, right? Yeah. Super secret little bit of trivia there. If you zero in on that Colonel Green there with her in the, you know, blindingly red uniform. Years later, that exact same red uniform was cannibalized and recycled and used as Robin Williams' Mork uniform on Morgan. So just a little bit of movie costume trivia for you folks out there. Don't take my word for it. Look it up on the Internet because the Internet sucks. never lies, of course. But anyhow, I would read a whole comic or watch a whole thing about Zora. She looks scary as hell. And you got to love those eyebrows. So rock and roll, Carol Daniels.

1:23:57 We're still here for you. Do more. Okay. And then this, now I'm going to get all crazy because I got like the greatest, you know, what a welcome home present this one is. Because I get a chance to wish happy birthday to the legendary Sigourney Weaver, born October 8, Academy Award-nominated American actress and film producer, the Sci-Fi Queen is how she's awesomely referred to across so many pop culture spheres of fandom, I cannot even start, right? She was just groundbreaking, okay, way back in 1979 for Ridley Scott, where she portrayed the first iteration of the character of Ellen Ripley and kick-started the Alien franchise. Also, what is that blinding white? What is that? What just happened?

1:24:44 Stay on Sigourney. I don't want to stop looking at her. That was weird. Amazing, yeah. That was like a supernova there. But there were not a lot of really gutsy female heroic protagonists until Alien, right? And she just rewrote the book on that shit, right? She was just great. And all of a sudden, Hollywood copycatting that it is, just, you know, strong women, strong women. But, you know, she put her foot down first, right? I would say, you know, in a lot of instances, and really, you know, kind of started the modern trend of the... the, you know, hard-ass techno prisoners heroine. Just amazing role. Also, when she came back in Alien, right, for James Cameron, it was the first time that an actor in a science fiction role got nominated for an Academy Award. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Aliens for her phenomenal follow-up work in that, which is just unbelievable. I mean, we talk about that on the show a lot because it's just absolutely freaking brilliant. But she got an Academy Award for that and it almost never happened to a science fiction movie ever until her. So absolutely redefining, role-breaking in every single way. I mean, she's just a pioneer in sci-fi and action pictures and then does comedy as well. Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters, right? I mean, hilarious. There is no Dana, only Zool. I mean, it's just the best. Just hilarious, right?

1:26:07 Of course, there's haunted cellist Dana Barrett in couple of different versions of Ghostbusters there and then moved on again continuing to work with James Cameron to play Dr. Grace Augustine and also the character Kiri in Avatar and Avatar Way of Water and then the Avatar most recent one Avatar How Long Is This Movie which I think was the name of the third one, right? I'm pretty sure that was the first one. Yes, it was. How long was this movie? Why is everything smoky? But she's great. Anything with Scootney Weaver is awesome. If you go back and check out Finding Dory, she's the voice of the Marine Science Institute, that kind of reassuring academic voice. Welcome to the Aquatic Center, right?

1:26:50 She's just phenomenal, shows up in all kinds of different things. There's an awesome thriller called Copycat, where she plays a psychologist who's being tormented by a serial killer. Awesome thriller with Holly Hunter. If you want to see Sigourney Weaver, really, tear it up. Go check out that picture. But she's just a freaking gem, right? And, of course, just recently graced a Star Wars universe. She wasn't doing enough Star Wars stuff. She was just in The Mandalorian and Grogu as a freaking, you know, rebellion colonel, you know, of the New Republic Rebellion. She was just amazing. So you can never get enough Sigourney Weaver. She's just an absolute treasure. Always. You know, she's like really tall, too.

1:27:35 She's like over 60 tall and and just a class act. Right. Really just a class act. And one of those people that, you know, it does not hide her affection for science fiction. So I just think she's phenomenal and just the greatest thing ever. So thrilled to be able to wish Sigourney Weaver a happy birthday and many, many more. Right. And now. friends oh my god i've missed this segment on the show because one of my favorites because i never know what i'm gonna get because it's all good right but uncle jim is gonna titulate us with what might be potentially a revealing a snapshot of his movie of the week so uncle jim are you positioned you have your hands on the accelerator on the interocitor if you will.

1:28:22 Movie of the week. Movie of the week. We don't have a theme because we have to sleep, but movie of the week. Just tell me what you need, people, and I will make the song. It needs to be 70s. It's got to have a 70s vibe to it. It's got to have a 70s vibe. Go porn. We need a musical episode. Yeah, we definitely need the 70s music. Yeah, for sure. So for birthdays, actors aren't the only ones that have birthdays.

1:29:04 Movies also have birthdays. So I decided to shake things up a little bit. I decided to stick with it. So every week, movies come and go, and I try to pick the ones that are relevant to the show. We talk about them a little bit, and then I pick the movie that I think you should definitely check out if you haven't seen it or you missed it or you haven't seen. It in a while. So first on our list. We have Salem's Lot, which was released on October 3rd, 2024. It's a supernatural horror film written and directed by Gary Dumbrin, based on Stephen King's 1975 sophomore novel, preceded by the 1979 and 2004 television miniseries. Author Ben Mears returns to his childhood hometown of Jerusalem's Lot, Salem's Lot, in Maine, where else, to find inspiration for his new book. He specifically wants to investigate the abandoned Marston house from his past, only to discover that the small town is being preyed upon by an ancient, bloodthirsty vampire. So there you have it.

1:30:12 This is the only theatrical version of Salem's Lot. It originally came out on Cinemax or HBO Max on October 3rd, but then was released in the movie theaters on October 11th, being the only version of Salem's Lot to get a big screen preview. All right, next. And I just watched this the other day, matter of fact. So next up on the list is a real classic. We have the original Night of the Living Dead. It was released on October 4th, 1968. American zombie horror film directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, written by George A. Romero. The independent film's ensemble cast includes Dwayne Jones, Judith O'Day, Marilyn Eastman, Carl Hardman, Judith Ridley, and Keith Wayne as a group of people trapped in a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania under assault by flesh-eating, reanimated corpses. Although the monsters that appear in the film are referred to as ghouls, they are credited with popularizing the modern portrayal of zombies in popular culture.

1:31:22 I just watched this movie the other day as. Well, so there you have it. Night of the Living Dead, 1968. Next, and then you might notice we're doing a lot of horror movies because it's October. It's horror movie season, so... We have, it's just, all right. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, guys. Dun, dun, dun. Was released on October 4th, 1978. It's an American independent parody film produced by J. Stephen Peace. And directed by John DiBello. UFOs, Bigfoots, communists, the government was swiftly dealt with many crises, but can it survive the diabolical attack of the killer tomatoes? Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the supermarket, you're face to face with terror so bold, so frightening, it has never been seen on screen before or since.

1:32:22 Attack of the killer tomatoes. And that's all I got to say about that one. All right. The next one, the Philadelphia Experiment. It was released on October 5th, 1984. It was an American alleged event that claimed to have been witnessed by an ex-merchant Marine named Carl Allen at the United States Naval Philadelphia Shipyard. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. Sometime around October 28, 1943, Allen described an experiment where the U.S. Navy attempted to make a destroyer escort the USS Elbridge disappear. And the bizarre results that followed. And Nancy Allen from Robocop is in this one as well. Okay.

1:33:11 Next on the list, we have Night of the Leapass. It was released on October 4th, 1972. It's an American sci-fi horror film produced by A.C. Lyle and directed by William F. Claxton. Telling the story how Dr. Elgin Clark, played by DeForest Kelly, sporting an extremely orange turtleneck, helped Roy, played by Stuart Whitman, and Jerry, played by Janet Leigh, along with rancher Cole Hillman, played by Roya Calhoun, to save the world, or a small town in Arizona anyways, from a herd. Of giant killer bunny rabbits.

1:33:51 Jim, I have literally never heard of this movie before, and I'm so excited to watch it because it looks totally ridiculous. I love the guy with the shovel. He's like, about to fuck some shit up with some shovels. It is a lot of dollhouses made of particle board and balsa wood and rabbits jumping through them and extreme close-ups of the rabbit. And they look about as terrifying as, I don't know, a rabbit. I love that. And at one point, there's ketchup on the rabbit's tongue. Monty Python, holy grail. The rabbit. Poor DeForest Kelly. Poor Janet Leigh. Oh my god, how the mighty of pollen.

1:34:36 I'm just thinking of the uh the rabbit in uh uh money python holy grail wait. What's that what's a lepus lepus is that like a like a like a lycanthrope like a like a some type of. We're getting into like your bio your uh you know. Basically any kind of any kind of rabbit or hair is a rabbit right basically okay that you know It's also like in the constellations, it was like a rabbit-shaped constellation someplace. So Leporus, I think it was. Giant killer bunnies. I'm 100% going to watch this movie. I love the whole idea.

1:35:16 The whole experiment gone wrong, basically. Yeah. Sounds amazing. Yeah, it's up there with a packet of killer tomatoes. Yeah. Next on my list, and I was glad this one came up because we have a new miniseries to look forward to as well. We have Blade Runner 2049. It was released on October 6, 2017. It's an American neo-North science fiction film sequel to Blade Runner from 1982. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, who reprises his role as Rick Deckard, with Ana de Armas, Dave Bautista, and Jared Leto in supporting roles. Set 30 years after the original, the story depicts a replicant Blade Runner, Kay, discovering the remains of a once-pregnant replicant. To prevent a possible war between species, Kay is secretly tasked with finding the child and destroying all evidence related to it. Blade Runner 2049, and that sounds like the new series might be a continuation of that, with the awesome Michelle Yeoh, who kicks a guy in the head who's standing behind.

1:36:22 Her, so amazing to me on Star Trek Discovery. So yeah, Blade Runner 2049. And last on my list of movies released today, actually, Demolition Man was released on October 8, 1993. It's an American science fiction action film. It stars Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, and Sandra Bullock. Nigel Harthorne. Stallone plays John Spartan, a risk-taking police officer with a reputation for causing destruction while carrying out his work. After a failed attempt to rescue hostages from evil crime lord Simon Phoenix, played by Wesley Snipes, they are both sentenced to be cryogenically frozen in 1996. In 2032, Phoenix escapes, and the authorities awaken Spartan to help capture him. So those were the notable movies released on this week throughout time.

1:37:19 What movie did I pick that I'm gonna recommend that you guys either check out or, if you haven't seen it in a while, revisit? David, roll the tape. And it's not The Whore of the Lepus. No, it's not. Replicants are like any other machine. They're either a benefit or a hazard. If they're a benefit, it's not my problem. Thank you.

1:38:35 I had your job once. I was good at. It. Things were simpler then. Yep, that was the end of it. Yeah. Jim is muted. Nobody can hear him.

1:39:16 Whoops. That was Uncle Jim's movie pick of the week. Check out Blade Runner 2049 if you missed it or if you haven't seen it in a while and get prepared for the new six-episode miniseries starring Michelle Yeoh, which is coming. Out relatively soon. All right, guys, that wraps up Uncle Jim's movie pick of the week. Now it's time for some Star Trek news, which we do have. A theme song for. Okay, it's time for our Star Trek news, obviously. And Eric, that's our first story. Just a little teaser, not much. Yes, a little bit of something something, but it has been a long while since I have had to steal myself before reading a news story because this one gets my hackles up.

1:40:01 A little bit. The new Star Trek movie, yes. is the darkest Goldstein and Dally have ever written. Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Dally's upcoming Star Trek film is not a comedy. The writing and directing duo behind the 2023 hit film Dungeons and Dragons, Honor Among Thieves, which, by the way, was awesome, were tasked with helming a new Star Trek movie back in November 2025. And Dally also said in a new interview that it is awesome. probably our darkest film that we've ever written. There is our sensibility in it, Dali continued, and we do find levity, but it's in the characters who find humor in even the darkest moments, which is just true to real life. You want it to be a fun watch, Goldstein added, doesn't mean you're laughing your head off. It just means you're in it and you're enjoying it. Dali also confirmed that their Star Trek movie is set in the future with a brand new character or brand new characters and does not take place in JJ Abrams, Kelvin timeline. It will take place further along in the future than where we left off in the last star Trek feature film. And it is not in the 32nd century.

1:41:21 It's tribbles. It's all tribbles. The whole movie Goldstein joked. Paramount has emphasized that this project is a priority for the studio signaling a strong commitment to revitalizing the franchise and While the movie is actively in development, no official release date has been set. A realistic release could be sometime in 2028. Friends, I would just like to offer my own personal opinion because Jim gifted me with the reading of this article and I will just say that for me, Dark Star Trek is not what I need right now. And I am not excited about the prospect of star trek at all so man i really hope it's good because darkness is not what i need all right paul i'm exhausted reading that story can you pick me up.

1:42:19 At all absolutely you know and it could just be that they're you know these these interviews are like the snippet right it could be totally wildly out of context right because and maybe they we're sat down and did this interview after watching like the, you know, ridiculous, you know, comedic episode of strange new worlds. Right. And they were just trying to say, Hey, we're not doing that. Right. And, you know, it could be, you know, casting along in the shadow. Context is king is what you're saying. Exactly. Exactly. You know, personally, I'll believe it when I see it because this is just, Hey, we wrote a script and maybe it'll get made. Right. I mean, you know, I'm wondering that's track record. I'm wondering if they were referencing Dark as in, like, Game of Thrones-style Dark, where characters are getting killed off and everything looks bleak. But to me, I don't know.

1:43:04 Kind of interesting. Yeah, it's tough, because you've got a whole bunch of new characters that nobody has invested in with this, right? So they want to try to have a clean slate. Maybe it'll work, but, you know, until there is film rolling, you know, don't hold your breath, right? Because this is just, it could easily just get shelved. I mean, and they go off and do something else, because, you know, Allison's got money, right? So they, and, but... don't necessarily have a real clue what Star Trek is. So to be continued would be like, so don't, you know, maybe this will happen. I wouldn't say. All I know is, Eric, your new story can't hold a candle to the one I'm about to read. Oops. I see what you did there. Because, Frank, Star Trek The Next Generation's Gates McFadden is going to write a Dr. Crusher comic book. And all I can say is, where's my lobster bib? Gates McFadden is penning the limited comic series Star Trek Crusher with IDW Comics Publishing. The comic, which also hails from artist Megan Levens and colorist Charlie Kishore, is set to debut in summer 2027, just a few months down the road.

1:44:10 This marks McFadden's comic book writing debut. And the series is going to bridge the gap between the end of the movie Star Trek Nemesis and season three of Star Trek Picard. It's such an honor to return to Starfleet and expand Beverly Crusher's storyline in a whole new way, says McFadden. I've spent years bringing the worlds of other great writers to life in Beverly's shoes, so it's inspiring and thrilling to now be the one sculpting a new chapter in this fabulous character saga. I'm excited for Star Trek fans to read this comic, and I'm so grateful for their continued support. The announcement of the comic book comes as the Star Trek franchise is celebrating its 60th anniversary.

1:44:51 David Jonas, I think it must be David Jonas, IDW CEO said, We are so fortunate to have Gates McFadden beam into the world of comics and reprise her role of Beverly Crusher, but this time as the writer. There's a 20-year gap in the fan-favorite character's story. Who better to tell it than Beverly Crusher herself? So this is apparently, I'm guessing, going to be, you know, we learned about Jack Crusher in season three, right? So this is going to be... everything leading up to that. Jack Crusher's conception, stories, Picard, love, things, all that stuff. So, but it's very cool. I mean, it's great that they got her to do it. She's just terrific, right? I mean, the praises that we heard from here from our Nassau pal. Wow. I mean, everybody loves Gates McFadden and she's a class act. So, Cannot wait to see this. Looks really, really exciting. So very, very cool.

1:45:45 Is she going to use the Ronin candle on Picard? I hope so, man. We'll see. Who knows? Yeah, they are holding hands, as you can see right there. Yeah. So we'll see. But she's got a sense of humor, and she's very, very smart. So I'm excited to see what she does here. But I think it's a really great, Move to recruit her and, you know, got to give it up to IDW. They just keep cranking them out, man. They have the brand new Star Trek comic that just hit a couple of weeks ago with Seven of Nine as captain. New Star Trek number one. So it's a whole new Star Trek series for folks to get in on the ground floor. It's a huge issue, too. I was like, good Lord, this is enormous. So there's a lot of Star Trek comics coming out from that.

1:46:32 Yeah, Paul, I would just like to echo what you're saying right now, because if you're feeling trepidation or a little bit of anxiety about the end of Strange New Worlds, do seek out the comics, because there is a lot of good stuff out there. There's new stuff coming out, but more importantly, I think there has been really good stuff, like amazing stuff that's come out in the last, like, year or two so don't be afraid to talk to your local comic shop you know get the 411 from the folks who run the front desk there because they probably have read it and they probably know and there are plenty of Star Trek titles that you will be absolutely thrilled to help carry you through this this drought that we're in so to speak.

1:47:20 No it's true I don't even know how long it's been Yeah. Eric, that IDW's had the license. It's been at least, what, 20 years, would you say? Yeah, I was going to say 15, 20 years, yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's awesome. Way back to the Kelvin timeline stuff. Yeah, and they've had a lot of really good different titles that they've had. That one title that's been out recently, the title's... Charles, what's the one that we're... Is it Last Starship? Is that what I'm thinking? Oh, The Last Starship. That's the one. Last Starship. Yeah. Last Starship. Yeah. Yeah. Title yeah it's so good i mean it's really well i mean i bet you about writing all the time but last starship is well written i mean it's as good as any you know any of the best series it's just really dynamic and interesting that covers a lot of stuff uh that we've seen hinted at in the series on paramount plus but i think they go deeper and make it more compelling i'm really it's not quite wrapped up yet, but man, it's good. If you haven't read it yet, seek it out. So they're really up to good things there. So I would support them. It's a chance for us to see stories that they never got around to making for.

1:48:36 The show right and but that they can continue off in this ultimate realm this way it's really great so kudos to IDW. Oh that annual they just had was a good one too couple of stories I could have left off but many of those annual stories were good this time too. Yeah and it was like packed to the gills. Yeah it was thick oh I know I read on my I read it on I read on a Kindle Fire and it's like boy this book is thick This one just went on for a while. Yeah. Yeah. But they do a really good job. And I think they, I like it because they really support a lot of different points of view and they don't just have like, okay, well, this is how we do it. Like they allow a lot of different types of things there. They're very forward thinking and IDW and, and they, they, they're shamelessly love Star Trek. So here's, here's to more of that. And so very cool. Now all Jim's got to do, Jim, you got one mission.

1:49:35 Okay? And I think you know what it is. Yeah, I think so. Well, I can reach out to him on the show. Yes, please. I'll bring the candles and we'll just do our thing. See if JK is available and he wants to come on and chat with us. We've had him on before. Not recently, but it's been a while. And see if JK wants to come back on and chat with us about IDW happens, for sure. Cool. Yeah, it'd be great. I'm not sure if he's been doing a whole lot of IDW lately. Not for a while. I'll reach out. I'll find out. I did meet Gates back in September and she is, oh my god, in real life, she's just absolutely gorgeous.

1:50:23 She's just pure class. Just absolutely beautiful. Yeah. I would love to get her on the show. Yeah, and funny as hell, too. She's really clever. As long as you burn the candle with her, that's, you know, burn the candle with both. Ends. Well, this is a fun show tonight, man. That's all I know. This is great. Well, guys, next week we're going to be talking about a movie that I watched for the first time today. And that's going to be Forbidden Planet next week. We're going to go. Beyond Star Trek and we're going to talk about the Forbidden Planet. And if you guys have not seen that movie, watch it.

1:51:07 I'm watching the movie and I'm thinking, oh, they stole that from Star Trek. They stole that from Star Trek. They stole that from Star Trek. But this movie came out before Star Trek, so it's the. Other way around. Exactly. This is 1956 and Forbidden Planet was a huge MGM blockbuster in CinemaScope and back when Leslie Nielsen was a dramatic actor right not even a comedian and there would it is the template for Star Trek I mean if you watch it you will see that just about everything you know in terms of like story idea dynamics of the crew everything was let down here and you know the basic components of it came from Forbidden Planet so it'll be really fascinating to compare and discuss and but if you've never seen it wow you're in for a treat it's really.

1:51:52 Amazing It was a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed it. We're going to talk about that next week. You can see what all the truck sports thought about Forbidden Planet. And that wraps up our show for this week. Guys, we got to let you guys go, but we'll be back again next week. Same bat time, same bat channel. I want to say thank you so much to our miracle worker, David, for hanging out with us tonight and making these awesome videos for us. Thank you, David. Yeah, you're very welcome. I can't wait to watch the forbidden movie. It was good. It was good. I also want to say thank you to V for hanging out and not being blue tonight. Yeah, not being blue, just not being able to talk and, you know, all that stuff. So always good to be here.

1:52:36 But thanks for the laugh. It really, I'm able to just, you know, lose my mind in front of everybody. So let's make it a poll. We'll have a poll next week about it. And, of course, thank you to Charles for hanging out in Shrek, talking with us as well. Thank you so much, Charles. Oh, thank you. Recap is always fun and lots of Trek. Lots of Trek, for sure. And, of course, thank you to Paul and welcome back. Thanks, man. I mean, it doesn't matter where you travel. There's no place like home. It was great to come back and be on the show and be refreshed after huge quantities of scotch and haggis. and be able to discuss science fiction.

1:53:19 You're like, breakfast haggis, lunch haggis. Dinner haggis. Bringing it, bringing it, bringing it. You know what they're doing over there. But yeah, amazing. Wonderful times, but lovely to be back on the show and excited for what's coming. And last but not least, thank you so much to Eric for hanging out and talking with us as well. Thank you, Eric. Absolutely. I am so excited about next week because I mean, forbidden plants. Awesome. But I love robots. And so I can't wait to. Talk about Robbie next week. That's like, yeah. That's like the thing I'm really the most excited about.

1:54:00 Yeah, for sure. He's iconic. He's iconic. He is. He is. And he shows up in so many other places other than Forbidden Planet. So I'm very excited to. Talk about him. And I'm your most excellent host, Uncle Jim, saying to everybody to stay safe and be good to each other. Failing frequencies are closed. Good night, everybody. Good night. Live long and prosper. Prosper and prosper. I still have a whine. You're the captain. Shh, captain. Ready for warp, sir. Is it? Is it?

1:54:58 Wow.