Star Trek's Best & Worst Episodes

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Space the Final Frontier. Few franchises have explored the human condition, morality,
and the vastness of space as much as Star Trek.
But with over nine hundred episodes across multiple series, where
do you even begin? Today? We're going to help you
navigate the best and the worst of Star Trek storytelling.

(00:35):
But Ashley, we have to get into this discussion right now,
right out the gate. I have to ask you, why
the hell do you think Star Trek has endured for
over sixty years while so many other sci fi franchises
have come and gone. Is it the rubber forehead pieces,
is it William Shatner? Or is it because every Starship

(00:57):
captain has a catch phrase? What do you think of this?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
I want to point out for anybody who's listening at home,
go back and re listen to Jason's intro, because I've
heard you do. I've heard you do several versions of
the opening uh introduction to Star Trek, and you say
space exactly the way Shatner's Captain Kirk does. He ask
like you, you're You're indebted.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
It's embedded.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
It's so Shaton area.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
I've watched it. I've watched it. You know that it's funny.
I read a book once about the behind the scenes
as Star Trek, and it said that he recorded that
behind like the bridge set of Toos. He was just
in the sound stage and they apparently had the door
was open, and the sound guy just like was like, hey, Bill,
come over here. We got to record this real quick,
real quick. Now again. I sometimes I think these stories

(01:43):
are apocryphal, but it's supposed to be. The first take
is the one that is in the legendary take. He
apparently did five takes and the first take is the one.
But I find it funny that it was just him
and a sound guy standing in the corner, and he
was like space the final front him.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
I wonder if that's why he adopted the policy first take,
best take, because he's he as a director and as
a performer is definitely first take, best take.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Shatner, I appreciate the comment that you're avoiding the question
I am I'm dodging Robert forehead. Is that why people
love Star Trek?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
No, it's the inappropriate and undersized cat suits is clearly
why people love Star Trek. On the various absolute stunning
babes who have Grace ran.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Exactly Julie.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Julie will die at the feet of Julian Blaylock. Happily.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
We haven't even gotten the answer. Figure spot, I have
a to Paul action figure.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
You know, I'm looking at her right now and it's
a great action figure.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
By by the way, we say this, uh, we don't
mean to objectify in this Jeline Blaylock, because I also
think Julian Blaylock is a great actress.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
She is one of I will say this, one of
the best Vulcans Star Treks, one of the best, one
of the finest Vulcans, and one of the finest actors
on all of Stars.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Two minutes into this, did you expect it to get
this nerdy? Already?

Speaker 2 (02:50):
We have a Star Trek episode and it's us so
uh yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Okay, Ashley like like the Cardassian in Chain of Command
to Jean Luke Picard have facial hair.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
What is what plays that?

Speaker 1 (03:05):
No? No, no, no, no, that was that's David Warner.
Oh you're right, batman, rand.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
I'll say this too. Another absolute babe of the.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Start Time After he is a babe. He's a bab
you know what movie He's a babe In Time After
Time with Miss McDowell. You know what which I talked
about on this podcast, sick and that I mentioned that
in the best time travel story you did and then
we probably watched this episode has become completely unlistenable to
anybody that has never listened to Ghlake, Sir. The reason

(03:34):
the Final Frontier.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
That notat are the reason that I think Star Trek
truly end yours.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, why is it still around Star Treks Because I've
tried to get rid of it several times and it
just keeps coming back.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
There could be nothing further from the truth. And and
we'll talk about why in a future segment of this
pot he has Jason hasn't back contributed to the continuing
legacy start Drag in a meaningful way. I really think
the reason that Star Trek continues to resonate to this
very days because at its at its very best in
its core tenants, it's secular humanism as storytelling, and it

(04:06):
exemplifies I'm going to.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Ask you to expand that out a little bit. Yeah, yeah,
the dummies like me.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
It exemplifies and it celebrates what is best about the
human condition, sometimes by having our characters show their worst behavior,
and sometimes by having our non human characters get there.
I think we're probably going to talk a very specific
Data episode from T ANDNG.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Here you might.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Measure of a man uh spoilers. Data is a non
human character who exemplifies what it means to be human.
And I think that's the reason, and I think that
is the core tenant of why Star Trek continues to resonate.
And also because we've talked about Vulcans, We've talked about Cardassians.
They have visually some of the coolest aliens that we've

(04:48):
seen in all of science fiction. And Klingons like I
will go toe to toe with they go to toe
with Twilt.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
I'll go to with.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Klingons and I will lose. They go to to to
so with Xenomorphs. Like the design and the low budget
design at times of the Star Trek aesthetic is a plus.
But it's secular humanism. That's not a term that you're
familiar with.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
That's cool.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
I'm here to tell you secular humanism was created by
Thomas Moore during the time of King Henry the Eighth,
my favorite period in European history, the English Renaissance, and
it postures that you don't have to be religious to
be because it comes out of humanism, which is what
Thomas Moore created. Please don't have me. But secular humanism

(05:35):
is that you don't have to be religious to be
a good person, and it's how you live your life
and how you become a good person and what tenants
you live by without being religious, which is at the
core of Star Trek, even if at every single turn
it doesn't. And it's like characters have religion, they celebrate
Christmas in tos.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
But and I add some butter to your toast Star
Trek sandwich. What kind of toast? Is it? Wheat multigrade?

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Course of course, please delicious, Sarah Lee multi grain wheat. Wow.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Not Sarah Lee, who did not pay for the sponsorship.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
But I like you're bread. I also think it's because
Star Trek is one of the few franchises, especially in
sci fi, and especially where the way you know some
some people might you know where the world is going. Uh,
it's one of the few where things work out and
is positive. It's not dystopian, and it's very easy to

(06:21):
write the dystopian sci fi. And it's very interesting that
Gene rod Berry baked into most Star Treks is the
idea of Hey, doesn't matter if we're human cling on
or a piece of multi grain wheat. Sarah leitoast we
can all work together, absolutely and be friends and have babies.
And I'm going to the doctor's good enough. Yeah, the doctors.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
I'm gonna say, based on something that I know that
I'm going to talk about, stop.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Giving away your list. We haven't even introduced what The
people listening this don't even know the name of this podcast.
We haven't even said it yet.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
We can we can, in fact tell stories that are
dystopian that still have positivity at their core.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
Oh, I think I think I know what. I think
I know what episode you're picking on based off of
that one.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
I mean, I definitely think you can probably pick at least.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
One of my choice. Speaking of picking, Hello and welcome
the Keeek History Lesson. I'm Jason Enman, I'm.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Ashley Victoria Robinson. Welcome to your Mind University because you
have stumbled onto the podcast where I a Canadian comic
book writer, and he, a cans and television writer, are
going to teach you everything you need to know about
a character in about an hour. Except today because we're
talking about Star Trek we're having a discussion episode and Jason,
what hwumpst are we talking about it?

Speaker 1 (07:32):
We're talking about the best and worst stories of Star Trek.
Because I have a.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
Follow up question, why I'm star we talking about.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Well, we'll get to that in a minute. There is
a Star Trek project that is a coming out and
we're going to be talking about that. And we also
thought that there might be a lot of people out
there that are like, Hey, I want to get into
Star Trek. It's a question again all the time, YEA,
where should I start? My answer to that question is
usually always start with the one called Star Trek. It's
very simple. It's called Star Trek. Doesn't have any qualifiers.

(08:00):
But even that seems intimidating. And I understand there is
over nine hundred episodes. I looked up the official number.
We want to google that number. It's like, I want
to say it's nine to sixty or something at this point,
but it's over nine hundred episodes of Star Trek. It
could be very intimidating. So we wanted to give you
some suggestions of episodes that we think are really good
and also would be great gateways into This is what

(08:21):
Star Trek's about. But before we get into the gateway.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
I have the answer for you.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
When you're ready, Oh, throw it out there.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Nine hundred and forty as.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Of the time of this recording, nine hundred and forty.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
So there you go, because the initial count that came
up did not include the.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Anime Y series. Before we get into the nerdy stuff,
we have to talk about something that is literally happening,
and as we are recording this podcast in the area
were recorded. If you don't know, we record this podcast
in Los Angeles, and there's been a lot of LA
community members that have been impacted by the recent wildfires.
We just want to say to everybody, if you're listening

(08:56):
to Los Angeles, you are not alone. We are thinking
of you, We are ready to for you in any
way you can. We've been supporting and sending a lot
of gofundmes out there. If you see any of these
come across the geek History lesson social medias, please consider
donating to relief efforts or even offering a listening ear
or simply helping with basic needs. Because if there's something

(09:16):
that Starfrek has told me from the very beginning, it's
that empathy to other humans is the most bravest thing
that we can ever do. I know that that sentence
is not grammatically correct, but you shut the hell up,
because that's not what this is about. We need to
come together, and we need to remember that we will
always get through every disaster together. And if you want
to know a big organization that we think will make

(09:37):
a real big difference, I want to point you towards
the Los Angeles Fire Department Fire Foundation. They are providing
support to these seven thousand firefighters and emergency personnel that
are currently on the ground. Literally, as we are recording,
I can look out the window of the place we
recorded this from and I can see the giant wildfire

(09:58):
on Episodic Palisades. I mean, just like you know, I
don't want to scare anybody here, but like we are
like two and a half miles away from it, Like
we're very close to it. So we want to support
the people that are making sure that that fire has
it shields up and stays away from us. So if
you'd like to help, the best place to go is
support laf D dot org. That support LAFD dot org

(10:22):
that gives these amazing firefighters and the emergency personnel, bottled water,
food snacks, sunscreen, all that stuff, because they're the true
heroes of this, and they are the true heroes that
are really making sure that La does not just burned
to the ground as we record this. Also, we should
give you an fyi, Ashley and I, this is the

(10:42):
first time in Geekish less in history that we have
not accidentally left our phones on. We are purposely leaving
our phone alerts on because we are closing up to
this fire that we want to make sure that as
we're recording this, we don't have to bolt out the
door and we and mister fire is coming out our window.
So if you hear our phones buzz and stuff like that,

(11:03):
it's simply family members and it's the people that we're
checking in with. It's people we're checking in with, so
because we can't be disconnected. But I wanted to give
a shout out to that. So please go support them,
and if you're in Los Angeles and please think about donating.
If you don't live in Los Angeles, please think about donating.
It is it is. It's nuts out here and it's

(11:24):
rich rough and just we'll get through this together, and
we can only get through this together, and that's the
perfect thing about getting through this together is exactly what
Star Trek is about. We are talking about Star Trek
this week. Let's get goofy again. Yeah, we're talking about
Star Trek because Star Trek Section thirty one. The Paramount
Plus Streamy movie is a coming out January twenty fourth

(11:45):
on Paramount Plus. The synopsis is Emperor Philippa Giorgio is tasked.
We're protecting the United Federation of Planets. She must also
face the sins of her past. It was directed by
all It Tune Day, Austin oh Soon Sawn Me Sorry
to Day, and it was written written by Craig Sweeney.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yeah. Now you might be like, why isid Why are
you apologized?

Speaker 1 (12:09):
Why am I apologizing to Tune Day? Are you calling
him Tune Day? Why am I apologizing to Tune Day?
Well that's because I've worked with Tune Day. We're talking
about this because I worked on this movie. Yeah, I
you will see my name in the credits. I was
Craig Seene's assistant as he was writing this movie. I
went to set for this movie. I've worked on Star Trek. Guys,

(12:30):
it's freaking awesome. I almost said a different word there.
It's freaking awesome. I have worked on official Star Trek.
I was also part of this project when it was
initially a television show and then because of all the
circumstances of COVID, it got turned into a movie. I
did meet Michelle yeall. She's a lovely queen. She's a
very lovely person. But I have a whole bunch of

(12:50):
pictures on my phone that.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
You can almost finally share that I have had on
my phone.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
And I have been waiting to share this. So that's
why we're going to celebrate Star Trek section thirty one,
because it's coming out and you know, and again that's
why I apologize to Tonday for miss like I can
literally get text and be like, I just mispronounced your
nas nay haha. Anyways, I don't mean to quet name
dropping here, but we are going to talk about Star
Trek because I love Star Trek and as the dream
come true that I worked on a Star Trek movie.

(13:16):
It was awesome. I hope you guys go see the
watch this movie because it's Michelle y'ao kick an ass left,
right and center and being very Unstar Trek like in
a Star Trek movie. But if you know how stories work,
I will just say that maybe by the end of
the movie she acts very Star Trek like.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Perhaps there are other characters played by other amazing actors
who will drive her to become more Star Trek light.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
Maybe there is a deep cut Star Trek character that
might has already been announced, but it's also in this idea.
I do. Look, I don't want to see her. I
don't want to see an article on comic book dot
com where they're like, get Kesser Lesson reveals I don't
see your characters in the Secuary. No, this character has
been in now, but I'm just saying I don't want
to spoil it for anybody that doesn't know. Yeah, because
I bet there are not a lot of people. But

(14:04):
there is a there's a really cool deep cut Star
Trek character actually that is in one of my episodes
that I'm going to suggest that is in this movie
that we have never seen outside of the episode, So
go check it out and everything like that. That's what
we're talking about Star Trek because this movie, actually, I
think section thirty one is beyond it being about the

(14:26):
basically the mission impossible Intelligence Services of the Star Trek universe.
That's a great way to think about it. Think about
it like Star Trek Mission impossible. That's what it is.
It's also a great entry way for a Star Trek
because it's not really tied to anything else. So we
wanted to give you other stuff in case you see
this movie and you're like, hey, I want more Star Trek.

(14:47):
I want to do this. So actually I wanted to
ask you real quick, what makes a great Star Trek
story for us? I want to just get your baseline here,
so like you know, you know, for me, I would
just throw out that, like some of the quintessential Star
Trek tenants for me are I think it has to

(15:07):
have some sort of a morality play. It easy to
have a character grappling with a morality. I think there
needs to be some sort of ethical dilemma where a
character is going to have to be like, am I
going to cross this moral line of killing somebody or
not killing somebody? I think Star Trek plays heavy and
emotional character moments. It's a lot of emotions, but also

(15:28):
there's an optimism, a curiosity, and an acceptance of the unknown.
That's what I think makes a great Star Trek story,
and it doesn't always have to be all of those elements,
but I think a good Star Trek story has at
least one of those elements. What for you makes a
great Star Trek story.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
For me, a great Star Trek story is often something
that could work as a play on its own, because
to me, Star Trek isn't always the bells, Like there
are great episodes that have bells and whistles, that have
great space fights, have these huge seniie absolutely, but but
it's less space opera and it's more again like you
really nail up with morality tales, secular humanism. It teaches

(16:09):
us something about ourself through the lens of science fiction,
which is what I just think sci fi does at
its very best.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
That's the best Five Men does. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
For Star Treks specifically, I think it usually involves taking
a different view of a fairly familiar circumstance in the beginning,
whether it's a new alien or an alternate universe or
a conflict that we've never faced before, and giving that
human humanity and giving that like a relatability to it.

(16:38):
I also think that a lot of the best Star
Trek episodes and jumping on episodes are not premiers. I
think they're very deep in the series. They're in the
middle of the season or maybe the middle of the
entire series. They're the premiers or the famas. But you
you don't need to know the baggage and the lore
that scares people away from Star Trek in order to
be able to enjoy it. If you watch, it's good

(17:00):
enough to stand on its own. And then if you're like, Oh,
who's Benjamin Cisco? I really want more about that? Oh
what's the Kardassian?

Speaker 1 (17:07):
I want to see that.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
Like, that's where I think all the best Star Trek
stories live.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
Another action figure spotlight. We have a Captain Benjamin Cisco's
Star Trek action beer literally hanging in this office alongside
the greatest Starfleet officer of all time, Chief Edward Miles o'bran. Yes,
also James Miles.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
Edward O'Brien has a baseball on his deck on his
desk exactly like Benjamincisco.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah, although I actually threw that out of a baseball game. Yeah,
but you keep it, Yes, I ap there we go.
All right, so real quick, give you a ten cent
origin before we get into our list. This is an
overview of Star Trek many new listeners. It's created by
Gene Rudberry nineteen sixty six as a vision of an
utopian future. The original series Star Trek starred Captain Kirk
and the crew of the USS Enterprise as they are

(17:46):
a crew for the United Federation of Planets. What is
that that is? Think of it like the un and space.
It's about one hundred and fifty different alien planets. Earth
is one of them, and they go out into the
universe to explore and discover new things, sort of for
the benefit of the entire of their utopian society. Their

(18:08):
society doesn't use money, they don't need food, and they
all like each other and are very accepting. Basically, it's like, hey,
you're this weird creature thing. Cool, you're my best friend.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
You're called Thecation and they can all pretty much inter breed.
Ask narratives to man.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
There's trans you know, there's transporters, there's beaming up scotti,
there's warp speed, all kinds of things, replicators. Those are
like just the tenants. But it's basically exploring the social
issues of the time through the lens of science fiction.
It has spanned multiple series, movies, timelines, across all sixty years, Ashley,
I do not have this list in front of me,
but I wanted to see. I bet you could do this.

(18:46):
Do you want to name all the Star Trek TV shows?
I'm gonna I'm gonna do it. I think it's yes, girl.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
Star Trek the original series, which was just called Star Trek,
Star Trek the animated series, which we do not disrespect
dispact to the.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Fact that it was incredibly low Biged, thank you for
doing this order to h.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yes, this is release order Star Trek the next generation,
correct Star Trek d Space name, Star Trek Voyager, Star
Trek Enterprise, which is pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
It's called Enterprise. No, I'm sorry, I will be that
Star Trek.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
It was called Enterprisement.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Two seasons that started, Kinder Price put them on your gassess.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
Star Trek Discovery. See this is where it gets a little.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
You can keep money money h.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
Star Trek Picard, correct Star Trek Lord XR. Star Trek's
changed New World, Star Trek Prodigy.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Yep, that's it. I mean, I don't count. That's it.
I don't people. Some people might be like the short Treks,
but I don't count.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
The only short Trek. I'll say this, the only short
Trek that is must watch. You should watch all of them,
but the only one that I'm demanding that you watch
is Calypso Calypso Slaps and then Star Trek section thirty one.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Of course, can you name all the movies? Absolutely not
a Star Trek the motion picture in order? Please Star
Trek the motion picture.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
It's very long.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
Star Trek is search for No, No, you should the
thing you should know Star Trek two, because there's a Geekiss,
which is one of the best, if not the best.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Star Trek three.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
People really mad that we haven't got to this list yet.
Definitely search for st Buck. No, that's Star Trek, Star
Trek three. Other sparks comes back, Star Trek.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
This is where I don't know them, the moment, the
one with the whales, strange new it's just a strange
new country.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
No strange new country. Okay, we're gonna keep doing these,
but I want to hear what you think. The subtitle
isn't all these before I give you? So it's Star
Trek for the voyage home, the one with whales, the
one Okay, what is the subtitle is Start Trek five?

Speaker 2 (20:39):
The one with Klingons.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
I mean it does, but that's the one where Kirk
fights God.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
Oh yeah, no, is that the one he's climbing the mountain.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yes, Captain Kirk is climbing the mountain. That's the sub
start five. Kathy Kirk is climbing the mountain.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
That's a that's a meme. If you don't know that,
you google that. Star Trek five the final frontier. Oh yeah,
Star Trek six is the Voyage Home. No, Star Trek
six is the mom with Cleons. That's Shakespeare Clingons is correct?
Yet No, it's actually the Undiscovered Country Shakespeare Klingons is
what you think the subtitle I've seen all of these,
which is the worst part of.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
What is Star Trek seven. It's not called Starting seven,
but it's it's Star Trek colon is it.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
For it's either first contact or it's Saint Patrick Stewart's Day.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
It's Star Trek Generation, which is Saint Patrick Stewart's Day.
The next one, you got it because there's a giant
poster at this room. And we've also did the dhl's
on first cut Startrek first cut. That's the best movie. Okay,
what's the next one? Nemesis, start against Direction, that's the
one with the stretching face, not Nemesis. Yeah, not Nemphasis. Okay,
start Trek, not Nemphasis. Then it's Star Trek Nemesis.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
That is actually the first Star Trek movie, Star Trek
Nemesis with Tom Hardy. And then it's two thousand and nine, it's.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Just Star Trek and we're back to Star Trek, the
one that doesn't have a subtitle Star Trek. Then what's
after that?

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Into darkness? Fun fact, the first movie Jason and I
saw together. They're starting in the darkness, and then beyond
the subtitle of that is it's better than I thought.
It was the first tile than I thought. Yep, it's Yourselba,
isn't it? And then I guess the next one is
it's section thirty one. Technically it's Star Trek Section thirty one. Yeah, yeah,
I think I slayed that.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, the Shakespeare Klingons is probably the best one, and
I like it right there, that's really good. Okay, everybody.
Before we dive into Star Trek stories, we'd like to
take a quick moment to thank all our amazing patrons
over at Patreon. If you'd like to support the show,
and get access to exclusive content, including bonus episodes like
our podcast called GHL Extra where we answer your fan questions.

(22:31):
We also have Patreon exclusive discord where there's a book club.
We have Talking Titans. We're Ashley and Diego the amazing
co host go through the Titans and series and also
what are we doing in the GHL Extra this week.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
We're talking to Jason and Men and Jason is going
to tell us that guy all about I love that guy.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
He's the best.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
If you read our reviews, you'll see it's a real
mixed bag on him. Jason's gonna talk about his experience
working on Star Trek section thirty one. So if you
like to the Little Tea's at the beginning, we're gonna
tell you where Jason's.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
You want the real BTS juice, That's where it is
more about.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
What it was like and what it was like. Uh,
I'm sure going up to Toronto.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
So head over to patreon dot com. Slash job on
the JAWII in Your support helps us keep the ship
running at warp speed. All right, now, let's get into
this main discussion. We've had a twenty minute build up
to this, and the people are not happy borning self
destruct sequence has been initiated. No, we're gonna stop it.
We're gonna get the list. Okay, let's kick it off, Ashley,

(23:33):
do you want it? Do you mind kicking off? I
know I said I was gonna start, but like you,
when we start, I'll start, I'll start.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
It's fine, Okay.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
What do you think is one of the best stories
of Star Trek ever.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
Let's throw it out there in the pale moon light
Star Trek Deep Space nine, the five hundred and fifteenth
episode of Star.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
Trek ever released. Say I'm gonna throw you under the bus? Here?
Who wrote it?

Speaker 2 (23:54):
Written by teleplay by Michael Taylor, Story by Peter allen Field,
directed by Victor.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
Lowbull Peter Ollenfields. Sadly is no longer living. I'm sorry, Yeah,
it's funny. It's funny. He actually passed away while I
was working on section thirty one. That's a big reason
why I know that.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
So oh, I was like, I was like, I didn't
I didn't do it. No, no, no, no, you did
not get Strictly, I almost put Far Beyond the Stars in,
which is another Deep Space nine from this same arc
in this story. But I think it's I think it's
a tough episode.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
So why does In the Pale Moonlight make it to
your level? What's it about?

Speaker 2 (24:34):
And why In the Pale Moonlight is set in the
middle of this arc called the Dominion War, or if
you want to be really pushed my glasses, I'm actually
about it, the Federation Dominion War, and In the Pale Moonlight,
in my opinion, exemplifies what even is the Federation because
I think you did a really exemplary job explaining what

(24:57):
it is. But it's tough to be like, what is
the peace keeping Armada and what do they do? And
they've been embroiled in this conflict, and this is the
episode where a lot of this really comes to a
head and you get to see both what Star Trek wants,
what the Federation wants to do, and what the Federation
has to do in order to keep this future, utopian,

(25:19):
aspirational society alive.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
You picked an episode that literally is a morality play. Yeah,
it is a morality play from the first line to
the last line, and it it.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Takes Captain Benjamin Cisco, the greatest captain in the Star Trek, Yes,
the most underrated actor in all of Star Trek if
you've ever seen the meme of him with the with
the whiskey glass and he's he's like raising it to
the cameras from this and to me that that is
what this episode is about, and it is Benjamin says
to go struggle on how he is going to bring
about a peaceful resolution to this. You see him approaching

(25:53):
some of these characters and trying to be like, we
are all above board, We're doing everything properly, we are negotiating.
And then can you see him like talking with Elim Garrick,
who is one of the best characters in all of
Star Trek, played by Andrew Robinson, who is a spy
through and through, who's mister shady Boots who will and
he's trying to also be like, well, Gerrik, like help

(26:15):
me bring this all to a close.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
Can I can I throw it like a little bit,
I want to throw a little spoiler out.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
There for thirty year old episode of television.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
Well, because this is the thing. I do think this
is like one of the best episodes of Star Trek
ever made, and.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
It lives and dies on Avery Brook.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
The juice of this episode to me is that the
whole episode is Cisco is like, we're in this war. Yeah,
the Federation is peaceful. I don't really want the Federation
to be in this war anymore. Okay, what can I
do about that? And the whole episode is told as
a log to camera. Yeah, so it is like a

(26:49):
monologue of Avery Brooks telling you the story of this
episode and him grappling with it. And so his idea is, hm,
I could end this war if I could bring this
other species, the Romulans, which are the evil vulcans with
the Pointyers, into the war. If I could bring them
into the war, I think the war would be over.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yeah, they're enough of a threat.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
But how do I do that? So he doesn't know
how to do that, so he goes and talks to
the spy, Garrick, and the spy is like, well, you
know what the easiest way to be to bring them
into the war. Kill a bunch of them. Yeah, And
so the whole episode is sort of this tete a
tete between the two of them, of Garrick being like,
you know, if I just killed a couple of guys,

(27:30):
we can do this, really, and it's him being like,
we can't do that.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
But there is the looming sort of threat slash character
of way Yun, who is played by one of eight
hundred jeff He's played by Jeffrey Combes, who represents.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
The bad side.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
I guess for this from the star Trek Pov. He
represents like the dominion and he he comes into play
as well where like he's also there where it's like, well,
we can't let Wayun know, and if we're going to
do this, does that make us better than Wayn and
the rest of the bad guys? And you watch justsco
grapple with this for an hour and then he ultimately

(28:09):
comes to a decision about it. I guess I won't
spoil that because I'm encouraging you to go.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
Watch, I'll spoil the ending of it. We'll try not
to spoil the ending of any of.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
These, but this is it's also in everyman's story. Yes,
you listener and I are likely not going to find
ourselves in a position where we could potentially start a
nuclear conflict, although if you do work on that level,
that's cool, I guess. But we go through these things
every day in our life where we're in a tough

(28:37):
situation and there's no good answer for it, and it's
how how we come out of it that makes us
a better person. It's do the ends justify the means,
It's do the thoughts I have versus the actions I take?
Which one of those to find me as a human being?
And it's all of that writ large And I think
you can go into it not knowing anything about Star

(29:00):
Trek because of Avery Brooks's performance, it will carry you through.
And if you enjoy a story told in this style,
you will enjoy the rest of Star Trek. I think
if you know more about Star Trek, you'll get more
out of the episode.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
I think I think the window dressing, you can get
past it, even though it is very deep in the law,
so lord, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
But ultimately, at its core, it's just Cisco trying to
be like, what kind of a man am I? And
how am I going to solve this?

Speaker 1 (29:24):
How far am I willing to It's a due to
the end justify the means?

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Yeah, because because one of the running threads of Star
Trek is the vulcan tenant that needs of the many
outweigh the needs of the few, and it's what are
you willing to do to serve the needs of the many?
And I just want to sort of like bookend. This
was saying. The other episode that I was going to
recommend is also a Cisco heavy episode.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
Was Far Beyond the Stars. Far Beyond the Star Do
you want to give like a one sentence thing about
that real quick?

Speaker 2 (29:47):
Yeah, Far Beyond the Stars is Benjamin Cisco once again,
because it's it's in the same arc, is having a
time of crisis, and for reasons that I won't explain
because it's a little too lore heavy. He basically he
has a hallucination slash dream that puts himself and the
rest of the cast as if they were nineteen fifty
science fiction magazine writers and it's one big metaphor to

(30:11):
help him come to the decision that he needs to
make by the end of the episode. The reason I
don't recommend this is because it doesn't look like Star
Trek whatsoever. So if you enjoy this, if you enjoy
watching all these characters not in their makeup and playing nineteen.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
And he's like, oh, look at all our cast members
not in their makeup, I.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
Don't know if you're going to enjoy watching Rene over
Hinoa and Arman shimmer miss with like these huge prosthetics
on their head every single other episode, but this this era,
the Dominion, the Federation Dominion arc, I think is like
top tier Star Trek, and I would argue it's never
been done.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
I would actually I agree. I agree, it's a tall amountain.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but check out, especially if you've never
watched any Deep Space nine, because it's kind of the
redheaded step child. Unfortunately, I'd be like, check out in
the pale moonlight. It's a good freaking time, my friend.
We've talked about this for a really longs.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
Are impassionate? This is an episode I'm sorry. We might
go along. That's it's Star Trek. But before we get
to my choice, really quick I do, we do have
to warp speed over to some ads so we'll see
him it bye bye, and we're back geek history lesson.
We're talking about the best and worst stories of Star
Trek for somebody that's never watched Star Trek and for
somebody that you know, maybe you do enjoy Star Trek
and you're like, oh, what what are you guys thinking?

(31:21):
What are you guys thinking? You like that? You like
that Janeway? You which which hairstyle, the bun or the crop,
the sexy pop is the sexyop. It's also I was
going to call it a crop. I don't know what
I was. I was going to call it a cross.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
It's a bob. It's because Kate mulgrew.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
Who has played Lady character one Fine Lady.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Looks, sounds and has a very similar energy.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
To katherin Hepper Yaham match Smith the past and uh
well shame looks to this day. She looks so good
at that Nebula.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
So good in the short. The bob is unparallel. I
know people stay on the bun of steel, but it's
the boss.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
Trying to think if I could do an impression of
every star Trek Captain and Scott Bacula is going to
be the hardest one. So like, I mean, you go,
you go, okay, Captain Kirk Space the final from Tier. Yeah,
I know, it's that's the jokey Yeah, Captain Picard, make
a show, mister Data. Captain Cisco, Oh boy, Cisco is
tough too.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
No, Cisco is what are you making me do this?

Speaker 1 (32:15):
Because because I and that's he might be the key
to the Dominion wall. Yes, it's it's.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
Because Avery Brooks comes from stage in Operapas. Yes, he
is the most theatrical, but still somehow one of the
most grounded.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Okay, so, Captain Janeway, that's coffee in that nepul I
miss have passed.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah, honestly, you do a very good Janeway, come.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
Up here two next, I'm gonna kill you.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
Again perfectly, particularly for being a man. I guess which
captain from Okay Archer.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
I can't do?

Speaker 2 (32:47):
Or oh boy, which captain from Discovery?

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Oh? Good god, it was like seventeen of them. Let's
say none, Yeah, can you?

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Can you give me an ants?

Speaker 1 (32:59):
And I can't do any of the other ones anything.
Let's move on. Okay, let's move on. Let's move in
my choice, I'm going to throw out. The City on
the Edge of Forever OO from the original series is
written by Harlan Ellison. Yes, I know there was a
little back in play and he's rewritten, but we're still
going to talk about it. Basically, the story is there
is a portal on a planet that is called the
Guardian of Forever. You can travel to any point in time.

(33:23):
Doctor McCoy accidentally overdoses himself. He beams down to the planet,
he jumps through the portal, and he jumps through the portal,
he lands in nineteen thirties America, and he drastically alters
the timeline so much to the point that the Allies
do not win World War Two. Kirk and Spock see
these changes, they jump into the time portal to go

(33:45):
find their friends. So the majority of the episode is
Captain Kirk and Spock walking around nineteen thirties America. Now
what happens is and I kind of have to give
you the spoilers of this to sell this episode. Captain
Kirk falls in love with a social worker played by
Joan Collins. Edith Keeler is her name. She's a beautiful woman.
She gives out blankets, she's so nice. Kirk is super

(34:08):
impressed by her, and like you can tell that they
are instantly bonded. But what they find out is that
the event that change the timeline is Edith Keeler's death.
Is that they find out that for the Federation's timeline
to exist, Edith Keeler has to die. And so the
whole episode hinges on is Captain Kirk gonna let his

(34:33):
soulmate die, and it's all about him having to grapple
with the tragedy and the moral dilemma of is the
proper timeline worth more than my happiness? It needs them anyways, it's.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
A grieving someone who's still alive.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
Yes, there's a and I talked about this moment in
several of our GHL episodes. The last scene is they
come back through the portal. Of course they've set the
timeline right, slight spoilers right, and Captain kirkis let her die.
He chose his duty and the purpose and the justness

(35:12):
of his timeline, and he's he says, get us the
hell out of here. And then the way Shatner says
it is so angry, it's so like you can just
feel the loss of him being like, damn, I hate
doing this job sometimes. But he still made the right choice.

(35:32):
In fact, most people consider this episode to be the
greatest episode of Star Trek, and I would say if
you are going to dip your toe into the Star
Trek pool, especially into the original series, the nineteen sixties series,
this is a great one to dip your toe into.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
It's also great it's this This episode also makes often
lists of just best television period it has.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
It is actually in the Rolling Stones. There are two
Star Trek episodes that made it into the Rolling Stones
Top one hundred Television Episodes of All Time lists they
did last year. City in the Edge Forever was one
of them. This episode I just talked about the other one,
which I'm not going to mention, and I maybe do
you have any other TENG episodes Next Generation episodes on
your list? I don't, okay, so I will mention it.

(36:13):
The other one that makes it is the Next Generation's
episode called The Inner Light.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
Oh really, not Measure of a Man.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
The Inner Light, which is where's where Picard gets hit
by an alien pro and then he lives basically an
entire one hundred years with a fake family.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
It's actually very similar to in The Pale Moonlight, where
because of sci fi reasons, he lives a whole different reality.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
And then when he comes out, when we comes out
of it, it's about him grieving this whole life that
he never had.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
Yeah, yeah, that's fuss.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
So it's these two episodes are Rolling Stone considered to
be the two best episodes of the Star Tress.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
City on the Edge of Forever also does it sets
up a lot of things that will become Star Trek tropes.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
What a great title, but it does.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
Them in the best way possible, like them going to
an alter version of an alternate other for whatever reason.
It's Star Trek taking on a classic science fiction trope,
time travel, and how they do it in a Star
Trek way. So if you watch this and you like it,
you will like the eight hundred iterations that have followed
since the nineteen sixties.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Can I give an honorable mention here too? Yes, of
course as well. I almost I wanted to. I want
to shout this episode out. I almost to say started
the Next generation to an episode called Yesterday's Enterprise written
by Ronald D. Moore, Iris, Stephen Bear, Richard Manning, and
Hans Beemler, and it's basically an episode where the Enterprise
d encounter is a time rift and when the long
lost Enterprise SEE emerges, it creates an alternate timeline where

(37:32):
the Federation is at war with the Klingons. Like it
like this, the universe is worse and and it hinges
around a similar conflict where eventually Picard and crew realize
that they are in the wrong, the bad timeline right,
and the only way they can get back into the
good timeline is the they learned that the Enterprise SEE basically,
as soon as they go back to that time portal
are gonna die. But it's like it's their death that

(37:55):
ensures that the Federation has the peaceful timeline, and so
it's both these captains. In fact, the Enterprise see is
commanded by Rachel Garrett, who, if you've read something, is
a character in Star Trek section thirty one streaming on
Paramoun boss Uh January twenty four. That's what I was
mentioning before, so it's very similar. I just think City
on the Edge Forever does it better, but Yesterdays The

(38:15):
Enterprise is also I think one of the best enterprises,
but they're very similar. So I wanted to give I
want to give Sitting in the Edge Forever the shout
out in Yesterda's Enterprise the lower one, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
You're you're kind of doing what I just did on
Tuesday's nine, and then in my next I have another
pick that sorry my far alert just want it's all.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
I find everybody.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
I have another addition that's kind of a two parter
where it's like an episode from one series, a complimentary.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
You're not going to say, like I like part one,
but screw part two.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
No, no, no. In fact, I would say, I would
say most Star Trek two parts are good and deserve
to be watched as two parts. Rarely is one part
better than the other. They do a decent job with
their two partners.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
I will see it's funny. I completely disagree with that.
I really I find that most Star Trek two parters
Part one is great, Part two is not as good.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
Interesting.

Speaker 1 (39:05):
There's a few exceptions. Yeah, but I find you know what, that's.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
A different episode. If you want our Star Trek two parts.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Episode you can learn. I find this and I'll name
out the best of both worlds written for sure. Written
Part one and part two written by the legendary Michael Pillar.
But the biggest reason about that is that Michael Pillar,
great late great writer, who one of the greatest television
writers of all time. Uh, he wrote part one. He
didn't have a contract for season four, so he put
no thought into what part two. He just wrote the

(39:31):
greatest cliff TV cliffhanger of all time. I totally believe it.
Go look it up. And then he got rehired. He
came back and he even said to himself where he
was like, how the hell am I going to write
part two? You know?

Speaker 2 (39:42):
And look, if you've if you've never worked in uh
in TV before, that is absolutely the way to do it.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
You do not you do not worry about it. You
are contract, you are not contracted to work on. I
was gonna say, if you are, if you know you're
coming back, no, absolutely know what you're ending. But if
you don't have a contract, don't know. That's what I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
So actually, well that's another one you withdraw out here
for her best best stories of Star Treks.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
So I want to recommend this. I think the second
one is a better episode.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
Oh so you're doing the very thing you just try to.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
No, it's not a two parter, Okay, but I think
the second episode I'm going to recommend is a better episode.
But the first one I think is a better like
jumping on teaching people what Star Trek is, So that
one I'm actually recommended.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
Again, we're not everybody. We're not ranking these any ways,
the episodes, but like, listen to like what we say
and if one of these like appeals to you, go
for it. Check it out.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
Yeah. So I'm also recommending an original series episode.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
Going back to the TS. Babe.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
If you don't know this Jason and I did a
thirty one episode Star Trek parody web series.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
Called The Red Shirt Red Shirt diaryes you find on
YouTube dot com slash jollin.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
It's all there, it's all playlisted, very lovely years old
this year it is. It was Jason's first time shit
running and he did. It was Jason's first time. It
was first time writing Star Trek. Yeah, and now he's
written on actual Star Treks.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
And one of the other writers, Omar and Najam, who
you've heard in our GJL holiday specials, also has worked
on Star Trek.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
Also worked on Section thirty.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
There you Go.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
But so anyway, this was so we did sort of
a parody episode concurrent to every episode of TOS as
far as we went, and we did.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
We did a city on the eder of hour. Yeah, yes,
we did. So. It's full of cameos. It's probably the
best episode maybe, by the way, I want to throw
out to everybody, especially specifically to our patrons or whatever.
I have some had some thought on this and I'm
gonna spring it on you live on the air. Uh.
A fun Patreon extra bit might be for us to
do a commentary on each episode of that. The Red

(41:40):
Shirt diaryes ten years later.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
Let me blow your mind. I pitched you this a
year ago. You really?

Speaker 1 (41:45):
Oh? I forgot?

Speaker 2 (41:47):
Okay, but yes, if people would like I would love
to do that. Honestly, sure, I would cringe my way through.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
The entire Yeah, you would have a harder time than
I don't watch. Yeah, but anyways, go check out. But so,
so what how is this tied to Richard? So?

Speaker 2 (41:58):
This was our our finaleisode? Was a mock time? It
was a mock Time is the first episode of season
two of the original series, and a mock Time even
though it was the thirty fourth production produced episode, not
the thirty first. A mock Time is the first episode
where we learn about Vulcan culture, and Vulcans are one.

(42:20):
Vulcans and Klingons, I think are the two most synonymous
aliens to come out of Star Trek.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
And I would I would add a third to that, Yes,
I agree, but I do agree with your other two.
So and for me, the thing that I love the
most about Star Trek is Vulcans. I love Vulcans. Vulcans
about that skin suit?

Speaker 2 (42:39):
Absolutely, Look, I would, I'll say right now, blow for
blow the Vulcans.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
Of the hottest it's called the cats. What did I
call it? Skin suit? I don't.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
Think I real creepy.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
I was willing to like, yeah, skin suit.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
This episode is where we get the introduction of pond Far.
If you don't know what pond Far is, I'm gonna
let you google that alone your own.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Spock has to say in the sixties they were all
about sexy times. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
Yeah. Spock has to go back to Vulcan because he's
experiencing his time of pon Far.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
He needs to put on his skin suit he used
to take office.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
He needs to get into his skin sea exactly, and
so we learn a lot about Vulcan culture through this experience.
This is the first time we ever saw the Vulcan salute.
This is the introduction of pond Far. I think this
is the first time we go to the planet Vulcan.
It is.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
It's you find out it's a desert hell hole.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
You can argue that it's a silly episode because of
the framing device, but it sets into motion a lot
of really really important Vulcan things that will shape the
way we look at aliens and build out alien culture
throughout the rest of Star Trek. It's the first time
we ever see to Pring and Pow, and to Powe,

(43:49):
who are too iconic and legendary. America comes back in
Startrek Enterprise, and to Pring comes back in Strange New Worlds.
I just really like this episode, and I love the
idea that you can see current politics affecting Star Trek,
which is something that to this day is a key
and important tenet in Star Trek.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
Poltics of the time. You think we're coming out in.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
That episode, So I don't think it necessarily it's more
culture than politics. I think maybe misspoke, but because it
was the sixties, we were introducing free love movements, this
is a very like sexual episode, and it's the idea
that like, even though Vulcans act all repressed there, they
are wild, and their religion and their culture is very

(44:34):
quote unquote out there. It's very sixties spirituality, and it's
through engaging in these animalistic instincts that they are able
to be these intellectual, logical masters. It's also a great
exemplification of Spock's inner struggle, and all the best Star
Trek stories are characters inner struggles. So I really think
if you've never watched the original series A mock Time

(44:57):
is a great episode. It's also what introduces the class
like the d D D D dun dud icon.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
I was going to play it, I was, I was.
I've been like technically struggling to fire. I've been technical
difficulties to get to get this to pair. But yes,
it's the d which has been used in a million it's.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
E's by family guy. I had nowas even the Chicken
Fight like it is an iconic piece of twenty twentieth century,
twenty first century music. The episode that I think is better,
but I think it's a harder in is Star Trek
Enterprises episode The Forge.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
Oh yes you are yeah, Well The Forge is a
is a hard episode I think for a first time one. Yes, exactly,
but it's but it's a great episode.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
And it is such that if you want to understand
why Captain Archer and to Paul are an amazing pair,
if you want to understand why they are as important
a pair as Kirk and Spock, this Episodsode really really

(46:01):
exemplifies that because they are back on Vulcan.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
It has to do with a religious set of bongo drums.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
Fairy sixties.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
This is the bit.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Yeah, like you've heard that, You've heard variations on that. Memes,
do it, YouTube videos, use it.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
Yeah. But so the Forge, very good Vulcan episode.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
Is a desert on Vulcan that they have to that
arch and to Paul have to cross as a result
of them trying to fight this possible fictional terrorist group.
But so again, I think the Forge is a better episode.
It's definitely much more of a contemporary story. But you
can't get to the Forge without getting to A Mock Time,
and they are both about you know, they very much

(46:54):
exemplify stoicism because the Vulcans are Marcus Aurelius style stoics
and they deal with everything that's going on underneath the surface.
It's uh water efforducts back. So A Mock Time is
my actual wreck. But I want to wreck the Forge.
But I think I think you need to know a
lot to get you get a lot out of the floor.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
I would I would say if you watch all the
other episodes on our lists, then watch.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
It and try the Forge.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
Yeah, yeah, because yeah, the Forge is very deep and lower.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
Yes, So unfortunately, I think it's such just such a
it is a good episode.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
It's one of the Start Trek Enterprises best episodes. It's
it's I would say it's one of Star Trek's best episodes. Yeah,
I would. I would do of the entirety of the franchise. Yeah,
speaking of forging on, I'm forry. We gotta we gotta
get some messages right now, but we'll be back right
in a second. Hey, we're back, Estuals and welcome here.
You came back with us, You got through the forge.
Look at you. You're so tan, and your legs look amazing.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
You look really healthy.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
Lot of steps all right, great?

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Sorry.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
Another episode that I would add to our best Star
Trek Stories list is The Visitor Oh Star Trek Deep
Space nine, aired October ninth, nineteen ninety five, when Captain
Cisco is seemingly killed in a tragic accident. His son
Jake struggles to cope with the loss, but Cisco isn't
truly gone. He's trapped outside of time and occasionally reappears

(48:11):
to Jake, and as Jake grows older, he dedicates his
life to finding a way to save his father. I'm
gonna say this right out the gate, and I'm pretty
certain I've said this in decaze less in history. In
the past. I think this is the best episode of
Star Trek that's ever been made. I don't think it
has ever been beat. It was written by Michael Taylor.

(48:33):
By the way, I should mention that out. This is
an episode that I don't think you need to know
a single thing about Star Trek to watch.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
I agree.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
This is a story about a father and a son
and it just happens to be in a sci fi
setting and it works me.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
I think also because of the late great Tony Todd.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
Yes, the late great Tony Todd, because very early in
the episode there's an accident with Captain Cisco, and then
Syrih Lofton plays young Jake Cisco, his son, and you
see him doing with a loss and what he does
with his father's gone, and his father keeps reappearing, almost
like this is an episode that is about grief, because
every time in Jake's life that he is about to

(49:11):
move on to finally accept that his father is dead,
the ghost of his father, trapped throughout time, shows up
and he begins the grief process all over again, and as.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
Which is ironically just what grief isn't like, And as.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
Jake moves on with his life. He Tony Todd, like Gray,
Tony Todd plays the adult Jake. You see him try
to get married. Yeah, and then he has to deal
with us again. He tries to write another book and
he has to deal with us again. He tries to
do a new career, and then this happens again, and
it's this constant thing with grief. And I will not
tell you the ending of this because this is if

(49:47):
you're gonna watch. You know, Ashley's episodes are great, My
other episodes are great. But I'm really gonna make even
if you don't care about Star Trek, watch the Visitor.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
I agree with this.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
Watch and the Visit.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
You really don't need to know or like anything about
Star Treks. It exemplifies what is great about It's another
It's another episode where even though it is a Star
Trek episode, it takes all the tenets that make Star
Trek stories great and puts them in another setting and
heightens by that.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
And it's about also a moral choice because the episode
all hinges on that Jake learns the thing that he
can save his father. But it is a huge sacrifice. Yeah,
And it's the choice of will he do this to
get over his grief or not.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
It's a I'll be rude about it. It's a way
less cheesy version of you know how at the end
of Interstellar they're like, what's the answer, and they're like love.
This is a much less cheesy illustration of that same concept.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
I uh, I dare you to watch this episode without crying? Oh?
So do I?

Speaker 2 (50:50):
And if you're a member like myself of Dead Dad's Club,
you simply.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
Can't s Yeah yeah, like because this this episode makes
me cry and I don't even have a son. Yeah yeah,
so uh that the Visitor I think is a great episode.
Another honorable mention I would like to add to this.
An episode that I think does something very similar to this,
not as good, but it's still like a really great
episode is Momento Maury of Star Trek's Strange New World.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
Yeah I agree.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
Written by Davey Pesz, who also worked on Start Tak
Section thirty one and Bo de Mayo. Air date was
May twenty six, twenty twenty two, on Starfleet Remembrance Day.
The crew of the Enterprise faces a deadly attack from
the Gorn, a brutal alien species, and Laan Singh must
confront her traumatic pass with the Gorn to help the
crew survive. Is a great episode because it is an

(51:33):
episode about the Enterprise is stuck in a nebula. They
can't see the Gorn. The Gordon keep finding them, and
the only way they can beat the Gorn is Laan,
who when she was a child, she survived a Gorn
attack and she has to like get past her feelings
of surviving this Gorn attack, which they needs the many
slight spoiler the attack where it killed her brother, and

(51:54):
she has to like get over that grief to like
help the Enterprise survive and and and it's like her
getting through her grief like provides them with the solution
to survive. It's a it's really I like to call
it a submarine episode, yeah, because.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
There's a lot of voyager episodes in submarine.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
I love submarine episodes because it's like they're usually.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
Stuck in a nebula and their sensors nottework.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
A lot of great Star Trek episodes like Balance a
Terror in the original series. Another one it's it's it's
just two ships that can't really see each other. Ratha
con is it's time they fight and they're sort of
fighting it and it's all being like, where's that ship?
Where is that ship? When is that ship going to attack?
And it's like tension the episode.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
Yeah, Lower Decks has a couple episodes that do that
as well.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
Yeah, so Memento Maury is like one I wanted to
throw out of here. Okay, Ashley, Uh, what's another best
Star Trek story.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
I'm so glad that you brought up a New Trek episode.
I knew that you and I were going to be
a little more nineties Trek heavy. That's just where our
nostalgia lies because that's where we got into Star Trek.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
But I have also just I will say this, we're
too close to New Trek to really know if a
lot of these episodes are going to stand the test
of the time.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
Absolutely, but I'm gonna I have Lowered X choice for.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
Us great Lower Decks. By the way, we did an episodele.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
Episode on Lower X. I do. I've done all. I've
did the run Berry Show for this episode.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
We have a Star Trek making episode coming out shortly
around the time in this recording, so like, go listen
to it. The Lower Deck episode is in there.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
But I want to say that, don't don't dismiss Lower
Decks because it's the comedy animated show, and this is
the episode that I think really cleanly illustrates that. I
also think if if you know someone in your life
or if you are someone who thinks Star Trek is boring,
this episode is twenty seven minutes long, and yeah, Lower
Decks is very fast space, it's animated.

Speaker 1 (53:36):
Very user friendly. If you're a fan of Rick and
Morty or I would say Solar Opposites or BoJack Horsemen, yeah,
then then Lower Decks might be your gateway, your way
in into Star Trek.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
So I'm recommending season two episode ten, First First Contact. Okay,
First First Contact, now that the series is over, is
the most Star Trek. Star Trek that Lower Decks ever
gets is usually a comedy morality tale dressed up in
Star Trek trappings. Sure this is just a straight up
Star Trek episode compressed.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
And done in the next episode. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
So this is the episode where this is the first
episode arguably I did not go and rewatch all of
season one and season two, so that's why I'm saying,
arguably the first episode where the entire crew actually has.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
To work together kind of as a Startreuker.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
It's where so if you don't know, lower Nex has
set on the Critos, which is a ship that does
second context.

Speaker 1 (54:35):
This is the one where this so first contact is
when you meet a planet for the first time, which
is kind of what the Enterprise always does what Kirk's
Enterprise of the Cards Enterprise. And then second contact is
is the idea of like, well, once the Federation has
met this new planet and this new species, a ship
like the Soritos comes in and is like, Okay, here's supplies,
here's Rep're.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
Going to dig a well for you. We're going to
set up some infrastructure problems you might have. What do
you need from us?

Speaker 1 (54:58):
I might tell you how to use a warp?

Speaker 2 (55:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is the first time
that through Shenanigans the crew has to do a first
contact and it's I think because they're the only ship
in the region.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Well that's a classic Star Trek trope. Yes, exactly, you're
the only ship in the sector.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
Yes, And it's the story where Boemler, Tendy, and Rutherford
all have to solve an issue in Cetacean ops.

Speaker 1 (55:26):
What is Cetation's ops case, somebody doesn't.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
Cetation Ops is where they navigate the ships from, and
it's populated by whales the dolphins. Well, in Lower Decks
it's two beluga whales.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
Are you sure the dolphins?

Speaker 2 (55:39):
I will fight you on this one.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
There is what I mean, this is my startic thing
is because this whole gag of cetace ops only came
because in the startic the next generation blueprints. There is
a little behold they are beluga wills? Are they blue whales? Oh? Okay,
wasn't Lower Decks, but on the gag comes from the blueprints.
There are dolphins. Yeah, they put that on there as
a gag. Yeah, and then Lower Decks kind of ran

(56:01):
with that.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
So in this episode, they the lower deckers have to
overcome an engineering problem that will allow the upper deckers
to successfully execute first contact, and as a result, they
have to all work together in order to do that.
This is also an appearance of Peanut Hamper, who is

(56:23):
or sorry. It immediately precedes an appearance of Peanut Hamper,
which means that it's in a timeline where everybody gets
really really stressed. I think what I like the most
about it is that it manages to be both a
successful Lower Decks episode and a successful example of what
Starfleet is really all about, which is about solving your

(56:45):
own problems. Again needs the many outwagh that needs of
the few in order to help whatever the bigger problems are. Like,
the best Star Trek stories always have some big possibly
universe or mission ending problem that through the b plot
of the personal stories, we conquer both to have the
same moral tail. It's also quite close to the crossover,

(57:08):
so a lot of people I don't really like it
for that for that reason, but.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
I think it's strange world's crossover.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
The strange the world's lower next crossover.

Speaker 1 (57:13):
So we're talking of people that haven't seen Star Trek.
You gotta give me a little outside.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
Based Sorry, friends, But I just think that if you're
if you're looking, if you're a contemporary person and you
don't watch a lot of like older television, because right
now people look at uh nineties track and they call
out old television.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
And so certainly because it is old.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
If you're twelve or if you're twenty one, like that
is before your time. So like if you don't want,
if you want a Star Trek story that's contemporary and
doesn't get super bogged down in all the things that
you might I might be keeping you away from Star Trek.
I just think First First Contact.

Speaker 1 (57:50):
Is the place to go.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
And you get to see these characters be excited to
do Star Trek things because they're all excited to do
First Contact, which is the most Star Trek star Trek
thing you can do on a mission, and it's them
struggling to pull that off well and having to come
together as a crew, including Ransom, who you hate up
till this point and you will slowly learn to love
from this point forward.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
He's so so good.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
So that's I want to recommend First First Contact, Season two,
episode ten.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
You know, back in my day, Star Trek wasn't a rectangle,
not a vertical rectangle or Sideway's rectangle. It was a
four back three square.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
Everyone looks like they're about to kiss in it.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
We didn't need all them extra inches for our Star
Trek exactly.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
No, but truly, especially if you watch das Sine, everyone
does look like they're about to make out.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
Yeah, so every old television show is that way.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
And I'll also I'm just gonna add one more caveout
on First First Contact if you haven't watched this, because
again you're too high minded for like animated comedy.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
Start watch this.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
Episode and I defy you not to enjoy it. Okay, Jason,
what else is on your list?

Speaker 1 (58:48):
Closing off my list is because I had to get
a Star Trek Enterprise episode in here, Oh Boy, Dear Doctor,
written by Andre I'm gonna mispronounce the right name. Their
last name, Jacq quin Menton and Maria jack qua Metan.
Original air date was January twenty third, two thousand and two,
so not as old as the old Star Trek but yeah,

(59:09):
and this was also horizontal Star Trek. This was a
sixteen by nine They filmed inn HD the show. This
is an episode. It's very interesting and I think this
is actually one of the best episodes of Star Trek Enterprise.
It's a very low stakes episode. And the interesting about
Startrek Enterprise is that there is a lot of episodes
about Star Trek Enterprise where because it's started, Enterprise is
the prequel to it all. It's set in the twenty

(59:30):
second century. It is very much a show about humans.
This is the first time that humans have been out
in space. There's a lot of like, we don't know
what we're doing, Yeah, but we don't quite know how
to do things. So this is an episode where it's
very much like we've met an alien species and the
humans don't quite know how to deal with it, like
what do we do now? And they have two aliens
in their ship. They have to paul with the played

(59:50):
by the the amazing Juliane Blaylock in her essential vulcanskin
suit as we saw it Moore and Doctor Flox, who
is the other alien. He's their doctor played by Would
you look at the name of that actor? I cannot
remember John Billians.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
They even have to look it up.

Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
Uh, well, you're great.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
So this is Donna alien is Doctor Flox.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
He's in an opulently I didn't want to confuse the
audience stuff. They don't even know this. Then he's just
alien doctor. He has a rubber forehead thing, Doctor Flox.
They come to a planet where a planet has a plague,
and this planet has two sentient species, and just like
Ashley's first episode, the great thing about this episode and
the reason why it's called Dear Doctor, is that this

(01:00:30):
whole episode is told through the voiceover of a letter
that doctor Flox is writing to his best friend. Oh,
I think it is like Doctor Jeremy or something like that.
I can't remember who you later see in the series,
but that's Byes side point. They come this planet where
they're two sentient species. One of the species is sick
and the other one is not. One of the species.

(01:00:53):
The species that is sick is a highly advanced They
have you know, warp ships, and they have replicators and
they have all kinds of things. And the other species
are doctor Jeremy Lucas. Oh, doctor Jeremy, doctor Lucas. The
other species is very almost caveman. They're very remedial, they're

(01:01:14):
very slow, they don't really have a language. And the
more advanced species uses the caveman species as basically like
their servants. And basically, I'm gonna give this one away
because this is all about the conversations. Emotional doctor Fox
finds out that the sickness of the more advanced species

(01:01:37):
is basically that they have a genetic abnormality that is
basically in that is basically like the evolution of the
planet is basically saying it's trying to kill the species off,
like that's why they're dying. And the caveman species is
basically they're they're.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
The they're the humans to the planet the apes sap, they're.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
The humans to the dinosaurs. Yes, they are supposed to
take over. And the episode is that doctor Fox because
he's a genius and he's amazing. It's basically like, I
could cure them no sweat. Yeah. But then it comes
around to this very important directive and rule that is
in Star Trek called the prime Director, where it's like,
is it the prime directive? Is this this ruler distruction

(01:02:23):
of Star Trek where it's basically like, are we correct?
Should we interfere in the internal affairs of a planet
or a specie?

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
Yeah, Like, this is evolution. Do you step in the
way of evolution?

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
You step in the way of it? And the whole
episode is baked around Doctor Flox is like no, and
Captain Archer is like, because he's the new human is
like ye.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
Yes, well, and from a medical perspective, I can understand
why Flox is like you just well.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
And I know from me explaining that everybody out there
listening to us, if you've not seen this episode, you
were like, well, of course he should say them. He's
just save him. He should save them, he should save them,
because that's the easy answer. But when you watch this episode,
you're going to end the episode and basically you're going
to be on Flock's side.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
Yeah, and John Billingsley really carries this with a this
give him a back brace.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
This is one of those episodes of This is why
Start Work is my favorite franchise of all time because
when I was a kid and I would watch some
of these Startic episodes that would give me these thought
provoking ethical dilemmas, it really taught me a lesson on
how to think and how to look at the world,
and how to be a humanist and how to care.
Because again my bad way of explaining this, you're, of

(01:03:35):
course on Captain Archer's side, You're like, save and save
and save him. But this episode does such a great
job of being so thought provoking in sort of morality
that it will you will end this episode being like, no,
Flocks is right, Flox is Also you will understand.

Speaker 2 (01:03:48):
Why a tremendous character who I think is one of
the best character start is underrated because people undervalue enterprise
on people.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
Dismiss enterprise a lot, and enterprise has a lot of
hidden gems, and.

Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
I think people dismiss Flocks being silly because because the
character is positive and amiable, like he's imminently likable. John
Billingsley is fantastic in his performance of this. And when
Flox gets several moments like this through at the series
where he has to do the darker thinking and.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
The humans aren't are experienced enough to understand that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
Yeah, he he literally knows more about space travel.

Speaker 1 (01:04:19):
It's truly an alien perspective.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
Yeah, and Jason often describes Flocks as being a frontier doctor,
which I think is very, very true. But every time
you watch Flox grapple with something like this, it's a
very good episode.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
I won't tell you, you know, because we're going to
get into this. It's perfect segue here, right, Yeah, I
won't say which series. I think he is the worst
Star Trek series, but it's not Enterprise. Oh no, it's
not Enterprise. Leaps and bounds. So this perfect transition, you know,
we want we called his best and worst. So we've
got to have a little bit of fun here, right.
We just talked you about like what best episodes, great

(01:04:53):
episode is to watch? We got to tell you about
an episode's a couple episodes that you should not watch. Yeah,
and if you see these come up of avoid them
like the plague? Ashley, what would be your pick for
the worst episode of Star Trek? Out there?

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
Star Trek The Next Generation, Season seven, episode fourteen subrosa, Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
Boy, what happens in this episode? It's the one that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
Everybody knows as featuring assault assault by a male character
onto a female character. I'm not going to use the
four letter word in case it's setting to people, but
you know what it is. Basically, it takes the up
until this point, a most intelligent, most skilled, most important

(01:05:40):
female character in the Star Trek franchise, doctor Beverley Crusher,
who's a phenomenal, phenomenal character performed by an absolute powerhouse.

Speaker 1 (01:05:49):
Kates McFadden is an absolute You know she did the
choreography for Labyrinth. I did know that she was a dancer.

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
Yeah, she's amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:05:57):
Yeah, she's fantastic. She has a podcast, do now.

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
Well everyone has.

Speaker 1 (01:06:01):
I think it's called like The Gates Facts or something
like that. I don't know. Good for her, she's put
her name in it. She she's more talented than where
we'll ever be.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
And they take Beverly Crusher and they say, what if
a ghost sexually assaulted her? Yep? And spiritually I think
at that yeah, and emotionally assaulted her. I'm not going
to give it the respect of telling you why or
how that happens.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
I will. Her grandmother dies, she goes to her grandmother's planet.
She finds that her grandmother had a weird candle, and
then every time she lights the candle.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
This guy called thrown in this shows up.

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
This ghost came and kissed her, and so she lights
the candle. The ghost starts kissing her, and then she
learns that it's not a ghost, it's like a weird
alien beans sexual life energy.

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
It's also not only that she's being assaulted sexually, but
there is the like this through line that he's going
back through all the other women in her like it is.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
He's been like bonying the Crusher family for one hundred years.
It's been It's really bad.

Speaker 2 (01:06:59):
It's bad, really bad. And look, Star Trek is not perfect, right,
nothing is perfect Star Trek. The original series was created
by Gene Roddenberry, who was a genius and a deeply
flawed man.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
Is Star Trek great writer.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
The original series tried to be progressive and wasn't at
some point and so and and and and all the
other shows do this as well, and this is the
next show a media version of that. Yeah, it's really bad,
it's really offensive. I don't think it's malicious. I don't
think when it was made they realized how bad this

(01:07:35):
actually was. Gates probably knew, but I don't know if
everyone else who worked on Like, it's incredible's director stood
by an incredible director of Star. It's written by an
incredible writer of Star. So the stories by Jerry Taylor
and Gianna f Hodgery.

Speaker 1 (01:07:50):
Taylor just passed one of the greatest writers.

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
Started to teleplayers by Brandon Braga, a great writer to you, like,
there is a lot of really talented Really, I don't
think they set out to this horror show. That never did,
but that's what happened.

Speaker 1 (01:08:05):
It's fortunately. It's the thing, here's the real truth of production.
You can write a great script and then it gets
to set and all the actors and the director have
to make it great, and sometimes they'll kick it over
the line somebody's want and let's say they do. But
then the third part of it is that then the
editor has to make it great. And the problem is
that if one of those three fumble the ball, the

(01:08:28):
whole thing is formal.

Speaker 2 (01:08:29):
It's not even that because I'm going to say this,
I don't think the.

Speaker 1 (01:08:31):
Script was great.

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
You can have a great the seed of a great idea.

Speaker 1 (01:08:34):
Yeah, idea was not great, but.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
You could have I don't know what it was, but
you can have the seat of a great idea, which
is that Beverly's grandmother dies and she has to do
something sci fi to deal with her grief. That's probably
what the idea was. And then ghost And you know this,
by the time the draft is done, it can be
reduced and reused and recycled and rewritten so that you're

(01:08:57):
so far down the line you have to shoot.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
What's on the other kicker you have to put in
is that this was the seventh season. It was their
last season, and they were probably just all tired.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
Yeah, so I really don't want you to watch this episode,
but I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
I just want to take the intoxic of your choice. Don't.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
Just don't. It's not even worth that. It's not even
funny enough for that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:18):
Yeah, don't want.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
There are ts episodes that are like, enjoy with your intoxicat.

Speaker 1 (01:09:22):
Of choice, like the one where the cat chases them.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
Absolutely the animated series. There's a lot of spot the Devil.
Brain is like, yeah, the devil actual Christian. You actually
fight the devil in Star Trek the animated series. I
want to be clear. I don't think they said let's
go out here and do an episode where Crusher gets assaulted,
but that's what the that's why this episode became Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I've heard talk about this one at conventions where she's like, oh,

(01:09:44):
the one where I screw the ghost. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
Yeah, And as soon as you say that, everybody's like, oh,
I know what that is. It is, yeah, don't watch it.
Mine is also from Star Trek the Next Generation, so
we like TNGF. Sorry I measure.

Speaker 2 (01:09:58):
We didn't talk about measure of one of the old
time great episode of the Surgic.

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
It's called Code of Honor. I believe it's episode three
of the entire series.

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
I'll look it up for you.

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
Is written by Catherine Powers of Michael Baron. Basically, the
Enterprise negotiates with the Ligonians.

Speaker 2 (01:10:12):
The fourth episode. Jason, how Darius, I got it wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:10:15):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:10:16):
It actually looks like a.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
Yes, that's the problem. It's a society obsessed with ritual
and honor and they need a vaccine to cure a
deadly plague. I'm just gonna say this. The Ligonians are
played by a bunch of black men, and every bad

(01:10:40):
stereotype that you could ever put on nineteen eighties black
men exist exists in this episode. They are violent, they
are misogynistic, and so much of the fact. A plot
of this episode is that they still tashay Are lieutenant
toashi Are because they need her to be their bride.

Speaker 2 (01:11:04):
And I just want to say, it is not the
fault of any of these actors.

Speaker 1 (01:11:08):
No, who.

Speaker 2 (01:11:10):
Want they I guarantee you they knew it was bad.
They wanted to be paid to be on television. It
is none of their fault.

Speaker 1 (01:11:16):
It is, And it's funny because it's so early. Yes,
this is one of the episodes where they were basically
making a nineteen eighties television show like it was still
the sixties. Yeah, it is patently offensive and bad. I
consider this to be the worst episode of Star Trek
I ever made. Yeah, like far far it is. Dear God,
skip it, Dear God, skip it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:35):
Yeah, I mean even the Wikipedia full of cliches, even
the Wipedia wiki. So there there's a here. Here's like
a here's a paragraph, I'm just going to read you.
So Powers and Baron pitched the story based on a
reptilian race following a code of honor similar to the
Bushido code of the Samurai that was the original.

Speaker 1 (01:11:54):
Pitch Wow, it's got way far from that.

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
It was developed into the final story which has been
to which was described as having a quote nineteen forties
tribal Africa theme, and was written by staff writer Tracy Tourmee.
Staff writer, by the way, is the.

Speaker 1 (01:12:10):
Newest uh the writer.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
Yeah, so not only that, but they gave this horror
show to the newest, greenest writer. The episode has received
mostly negative reviews among cast, crewis, fans, and reviewers, and
has been called quote quite possibly the worst piece of
Star Trek ever made.

Speaker 1 (01:12:29):
Spocks Brain is better, and spox Brain is like considered
to be the worst episode of the original series. Spocks
Brain is way more watchable than this thing.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
Yeah, there's a difference between bad silly and bad offensive.

Speaker 1 (01:12:41):
Spox Brain is bad silly.

Speaker 2 (01:12:42):
And unfortunately, Code of Honor is offensive. Like, so we're
two white people telling you it's offensive. So I cannot
imagine being a black person or another marginalized group watching
this and feeling offended.

Speaker 1 (01:12:56):
I can't imagine just being a person that lives literally
in Africa seeing this. Yeah, being like that back, what.

Speaker 2 (01:13:01):
It's really bad?

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
What is this? It's really bad? So there you go,
there's your worst your worst episode. Yes, hey Ashley, where
can they follow us? Actually? We should go to this?
We should go to the honor Roll? Should we?

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:13:16):
The honor Roll? Everybody? Uh? Now to be giving you
a list is where if you go over to Apple
podcast you leave us a five star review, we will
shut you out on the podcast. So who is joining
the honor Roll this week?

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
Today? Joining the Honor Roll we have Chris Charming, who
says my favorite podcast. Been listening to this podcast four years.
I absolutely love how in depth Jason Ashley get with
their episodes. Even got me excited for a few projects
I either had no idea about or didn't even really
care for until I listened to their podcast about it.

(01:13:47):
Plus plus the top five episodes and the ones that
break away from their regular formula are always a treat
as well. I've recommended this podcast more times than I
can count to friends and family. You're a good egg.
Love what you guys do, and I will always be
a listener. And then they put the Italian hand, which
I think is supposed to mean chef's kiss, but the like, oh,
you know, the like I'm doing a gesture.

Speaker 1 (01:14:09):
Nobody can see you enjoy this episode.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
I'm hoping it's a chef's kiss, uh, and not a
you're going to punch me in the nose, but the
Chris Charming. Thank you so much, Welcome to the Teacher's Lounge,
and thank you so kindly for your five star review.

Speaker 1 (01:14:21):
Everybody. You can follow us on Instagram at geek history,
lesson yeah, yeah, and where can they follow us on
Blue Sky? If you want to come over to Blue.

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
Guy, Uh, you can follow us at geekistory, lesson dot.

Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
B It's just bsky dot social something like that. Don't
forget to come over to Patreon for extclusive content. I'm
over at Blue Sky as well now at Jason Inman.
It's the first time I was able to get my
real name, so it's it's at Joemen everywhere else, but
it's at Jason Inman. Come follow me on Blue Sky, Ashley.
What social media of your choice would you like to

(01:14:53):
shout up?

Speaker 2 (01:14:53):
I am on threads and Blue Sky at the same
place at Ashley v. Robinson.

Speaker 1 (01:14:58):
Well, everybody, what we learned to about the best and
worst Star Trek stories. Well, We've learned that time travel
is always messy, but it makes for great Star Trek stories.
We've learned that Kirk falling in love is basically a
universal constant. We've learned that the Gorn are terrifying and
lawn may deserve a hug. We've learned hug hug, not
a hag. We've learned that Beverly Crusher loves to get

(01:15:21):
down with ghosts. And most importantly, we've learned that Star
Trek is at its best when it makes us think, feel,
and boldly go where no one has gone before. Thank
you so much for listening to Geish Lesson.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
I'm Jason Inman, I'm Ashley Victoria Robinson and Professor Jason.
Would you please dismiss the class.

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
Stay safe out there, everybody, and see in the future.
Class is now dismissed.

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