November 29, 2025 • 35 mins
Father Malone shares his Thanksgiving experiences, including a low-key celebration with his dog Ripley Jean and they both review a lot of Strangeness. It's Stranger Things season 5 and all of Star Trek Strange New Worlds.
00:00 Welcome to the Weekly Roundup
01:16 Thanksgiving Reflections and Polish Cuisine
02:30 Pen Pals from Around the World
09:16 Stranger Things Season 5
15:32 Top 10 Signs You're at a Bad Star Trek Convention
16:56 Star Trek Obsession
19:15 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
28:58 The Gorn
32:55 Final Thoughts and Upcoming Content
Hammer House of Horror
https://archive.org/details/hammer-house-of-horror-the-complete-series-1980
Father Malone
FatherMalone71@gmail.com
Patreon.com/FatherMalone
@Midnight_Viewing
HP
Hpmusicplace.bandcamp.com
00:00 Welcome to the Weekly Roundup
01:16 Thanksgiving Reflections and Polish Cuisine
02:30 Pen Pals from Around the World
09:16 Stranger Things Season 5
15:32 Top 10 Signs You're at a Bad Star Trek Convention
16:56 Star Trek Obsession
19:15 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
28:58 The Gorn
32:55 Final Thoughts and Upcoming Content
Hammer House of Horror
https://archive.org/details/hammer-house-of-horror-the-complete-series-1980
Father Malone
FatherMalone71@gmail.com
Patreon.com/FatherMalone
@Midnight_Viewing
HP
Hpmusicplace.bandcamp.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Welcome back midnight viewers to Father Malone's weekly round up.
I am Father Malone. The goofy dog at my right
is Ripley Jean. You're still mad at me? It's okay
if you are. I had to put miss Ripley Jean
out of the room so I could watch a werewolf
flick last night. Yeah, you missed out Joe Dante John
Sales or on Bouteen. It's a classic. Talking about the Howling,
I'm gonna be reviewing that with my pal Paul Waller
(00:59):
from a year and horror? Am I plugging straight out
of the gate after like three weeks of loafing? You
bet you? Speaking of Rob Boteine, I finally saw that
twelve inch cloth garbed action figure of Captain Blake from
The Fog. Christmas is fast approaching. In case any of
you love me, how was your Thanksgiving? Was it front
with the usual interpersonal weirdo dynamics? Was it pleasant? Did
(01:22):
you put the black olives on your fingertips as you're
supposed to? I hope so mine was super low key?
How low key? Me and the dog and a plate
a glumky my late wife and my late stepdad Jesus,
everyone was late for dinner this year. They were both
of Polish persuasion, and it seemed a fitting way to
spend the holiday. Shout out to Perogi Village here in
(01:43):
Las Vegas had the best Polish restaurant I've ever had
the good fortune of attending. I've frequented Potolanka in Chicago.
I gloried in Nice Polonaise in Minneapolis back when it
was a real restaurant, not a fucking bar with fingerfoodsf ah,
But Perogi Village the best Polish food. I will certainly
sated on the day of feasting, So in that way,
(02:05):
the holiday was a success. Oh and I went to
work too, so not much of a joyous celebratory situation.
But that does not mean I'm not thankful. Actually, I
am incredibly thankful, and I'd say a good seventy five
percent of what I'm thankful for is actually who I'm
thankful for. And that's all of you. Yes, all of
you you, yes, you too. Don't think I forgot about you.
(02:28):
I know you need reminding. But to that end, I
have a couple of folks I'm going to single out,
single out. Remember that show, what a creep fest from
the top on down. It's time for pen Pals Pals
from a row. Also, speaking of Polish, Hello Trish. Midnight viewers,
(02:52):
say hi to Trish. She has become this show's first
top tier patron over on the Patreon channel, and she
has taken to her new status like a fucking beast,
requesting not one, but three themed episodes and as such,
those are in the works currently. They'll start going up
on the Patreon page in the new year. I don't
know if they'll filter down to the regular feed. I
(03:12):
suppose that's up to Trish, But those topics are Kurt
Vonnegut's series Monkey House, also the anthology flick Night on Earth,
which I'm definitely going to be pulling HP onto that
episode as it is a clear crossover with his show
Night Mister Walters. Night on Earth is a flick from
nineteen ninety one. It's five stories, all taking place on
New Year's Eve around the globe during different taxi rides.
(03:35):
Maybe I'll try and get it done before New Year's Eve,
that would make sense. I actually showed that movie as
a projectionist. It was one of the very first films
I threaded through a projector and here's a hot take.
It's the movie that made me realize that perhaps my
crush on Winona Rider had blinded me to the fact
that she's not that great a performer. Oh no, now,
(03:56):
Winoda Rider will never go out with me, not that
she ever would, because I don't plan the instruments. No wait,
I do I play the theremin? That counts kind of
Should I do something like Mark Maron hang out folks,
then go to commercial and come back and make you
listen to me dick around with a sci fi contraption
for ten minutes. Van Go Lives Marbles is an angry
ghost cat. Lastly, Trish has requested an episode about the
(04:19):
cinematic efforts of mister David Bowie Bowie Bowie. I've heard both,
though not in connection with David Bowie. That's Bowie, but
Jim Bowie Bowie, Booe Bowie Balbo Booe, Charleston Chewy. I
love that, Candy bar Okay. Next, Dallas, our longtime listener
friend to the podcast. Dallas has checked in and he
(04:40):
had some very nice things to say about this show, which,
believe me, is way more welcome than you can fathom.
Dallas lost a member of his family his cat of
thirteen years. You had a wizened old senior citizen living
with you. I can only imagine your lost Dallas. You
have my total heart winging your way. Dallas also had
(05:03):
a question, a fucking good question, which I'm going to
read here, was the gruesomeness of the transporter scene from
Star Trek. The motion picture, to your knowledge, dialed back
during the restoration and effects pass. I remember it being
so shocking as a kid, and I just got up
super close and watched it a couple of times, and
it doesn't seem that bad anymore. Like I feel like
I can sort of see the original gruesome effects in there,
(05:24):
but not really. Okay, this fired my imagination. I too
remembered that sequence as particularly horrid, so I pulled out
the Blu ray and I pulled out my old vhs
and they're identical. No trickery, no dialing it back, just
your young mind twisting itself into knots long after the
film had ended. Same here. If you want to write
(05:47):
to us, it is Fondemalone seven to one at gmail
dot com. That's in the show notes. Hit me up,
I'll hit you back, and the hits just keep on coming.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
We could be kid.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
We're really starting to lose it being stuck in here,
no end in sight.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Maybe tonight is our break. Fine facta we end this
once and for all together.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
This isn't like one of your campaigns.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
You don't get to write the ending.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Not this time.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
It's planning to end our world.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
And he's not gonna stop until we're trained of every
last ounce of suffery.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Sounds, sweet.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Sounds.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
We stay true to ourselves, stay true.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
To our friends, don't matter the cost, William, you are
(08:07):
going to help me.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
One last tome.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
That's Queen's song, who wants to Live Forever? Over that trailer,
trying to do here what they did for Kate Bush.
But that Queen song already had its spotlight moment in
that fucking horrendous Queen biopic you remember Freddie Mercury writes
it in response to his AIDS diagnosis right before the
Live AID concert in nineteen eighty five, Except he was
diagnosed in eighty six, and that song was written by
(08:52):
Brian May for the film Highlander in nineteen eighty five.
But if any track on that album deserves a special spotlight,
it's the one from Bassis John Deacon, his song just
one Year of Love is superior to Maye, a bit
of Maudlin pining in every way, it is so so good.
It's a strange week here on the Roundup. Not us,
We're always strange, but this week's entertainment just can't wait
(09:14):
for you to know that there are strange things afoot.
I have watched the first couple of episodes of Stranger
Things season five. Here's my take on it, and here's
my take on it, and on Stranger Things overall. Winona
Ryder again as will Byer's mom, got the lion's share
of coverage when the series premiered, and I would say,
you should be looking over at the Wheeler household and
(09:35):
the mom there, played by Carabuono, different kind of sexy
and she can act. That's it. That's my take on
Stranger Things. Actually, that's my take on mad Men as well.
Carabuono was on arguably the two best seasons of mad Men.
I know, I keep coming back to mad Men, but
fucking AMC just keeps streaming. Man. They have a channel
that used to cycle through their most popular shows, and
(09:57):
now it's just stuck on mad Men and I can't
stop watching. It's always on. I need help now. Actually,
this is my take on Stranger Things this season. Season
five starts with a look at the events in the
pilot for the show from a different perspective. Basically, it
shows what happened to Will Byers when he was abducted
that episode. The pilot was so long ago that current
(10:18):
child actor Noah Schnapp needed a younger actor to play him.
This series has had five seasons in nine years. I'll
take away two for COVID complications, and it still had
five seasons in seven years. A show about children, The
show starts in nineteen eighty three November, so basically nineteen
eighty four, and ends in nineteen eighty seven. And the
(10:40):
kids on the show now look old enough to be
nostalgic for that bygone era of three years ago. And
what exactly is taking so long? These are ten episode
seasons and ultimately the series is just a Stephen King
salad bar, a spoonful of Carrie, a pinch of stand
by Me, and a broth simmering with low men and
yellow coats, which is fine, but the anthology has gotten
(11:00):
so labyrinthine that I was not only loathed to press
the skip a recap button for fear of being irretrievably lost.
But it seemed to make every conversation in the first
hour of season five into a big old exposition dump. Luckily,
Maya Hawk has a radio station now, so we get
a full narration for the first twenty minutes. So fucking
clumsy and worse, it thoroughly conjured up images of Millennium
(11:24):
Season three. I've spoken a little bit about Millennium. That
was Chris Carter's follow up to The X Files. Frank Black,
played by Lance Hendrickson, is an FBI profiler who has gifts.
In the first season, he can see through the eyes
of the killer. There seemed to be a dozen shows
with that premise at that exact moment, but only Millennium
in the waning days of the twentieth century was connecting
the dots that there might be some bigger forces at play,
(11:47):
coordinating all of these hideous people and they're terrible acts.
The second season, he began seeing full blown supernatural visions
and it moved away from serial killer of the week
and into a more philosophical area. Will Die on the Hill?
That Season two of Millennium is one of the best
television seasons of all time, easily in the top five,
and a big part of that admiration came from how
(12:09):
that season ended, which I will not spoil, but let's
just say whoever inherited season three had a huge fucking
job to do. But whatever corners they'd been painted into,
the possibilities, the fucking endless possibilities they were presented with,
were staggering. And in the end they who shot jr
ad At basically, oh, that didn't happen. Not really ask
me if I finished watching The X Files after that
(12:32):
or any Chris Carter property, since it's not as egregious
and stranger things, but it is kind of the same thing.
How much weight are you going to give a high
school bully after you've been to another dimension? I don't
know how many pep rallies I'm going to attend after
my girlfriend was broken by invisible forces and is now
in a coma. This is worse than clumsy. It's lazy.
It wants to continue to operate on a g whiz
(12:54):
Goonies meets Poltergeist level. For surely, if there's a second
parent here with Stephen King, it's even Spielberg, and those
are the perfect examples Goonies and Poltergeist, not only thematically,
but for the fact that Steven Spielberg was only the
producer on those and ultimately they don't feel up to
his technical skill. Maybe those long years between seasons have
worked at lulling us into the same brain fog as
(13:16):
the characters, because as they're running around doing teen shit,
I kept thinking things like, there was a secret Soviet
base under the mall. You remember the mall that had
a giant flesh tarantula rampaging through it a parantola, that's
a shadow to Larry Fine. Hey, guys, remember when Mike's
mom had the hots for Max's brother. That was hilarious. Yeah,
(13:37):
and then he got possessed by the mind Flayer in
a bid to turn our reality into a hellscape. Oh
and he's dead Max's brother. I've no doubt mentioned. I
was a tour guide at the Haunted Museum here in
Las Vegas. I once watched a door knob slowly creak
on its own, and a door swing purposefully open. There
was no one in the hallway beyond. It wasn't a
(13:57):
vacuum situation where one room door was being closed in
another portion of the house. And that pulled this one open.
I had closed the door myself, I had turned the
knob and felt it catch. It was the slightest of interactions,
a passing breeze of a supernatural encounter. But it was
nine years ago, which is about the same amount of
time they've been making this show. And I think about
(14:18):
it a lot because it made me question some aspects
of our existence that I still struggle with. Their pal
Barb was killed by a bipedal beast from an alternate reality.
It was less than two years ago. Now that alone
would fuck me up. Just the existence of the upside
down would fuck me up. The joy of streaming this
golden age of television where serialization can finally occur is
(14:41):
a double edged sword. Like it as not. You can
now dispense with standalones and focus on plot and character
and consequence. But the thing is now you have to
focus on plot in character and consequence. And maybe it's
unfair to blame how fucking astonishingly magnified those faults become
because of the clear passage of time with our actors. Nevertheless,
(15:02):
if the characters on a straight up sitcom like Brooklyn
nine nine can evolve, so can these kids find in
new ways to have a rollicking good time. It's possible
to do that and not sacrifice meaningful development. That is
my take on Stranger Thinks. The one area that show
has consistently excelled that, however, is as an incubator for
talented redheads. Hit it hbi K because it's dang you
(15:29):
HP and now this is the top ten signs you're
at a Bad Star Trek Convention. Top ten signs Bad
Star Trek Convention.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
The top ten signs you're at a Bad Star Trek convention.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
That's right, Red alerts if you will, shields up, mister HB.
Number ten, it's being held at a rest area off
the interstate. Number nine. When you count the fake spot
years in the room, you come up with an odd number.
Number eight. Ben and Jerry's unveil is a weird taste
new flavor called Roddenberry. Number seven. Dorks with mow haircuts
(16:04):
keep wandering in from the Three Stooges convention down the hall.
Number six, so called Starship Enterprise looks a lot like
an RV wrapped in tinfoil. Number five. Lack of restrooms
forces you to go where no man has gone before.
Number four instead of the vulcan sign for livelong and prosper.
Everybody's giving you the finger. Number three keynote speaker is
(16:25):
William Shatner's hair piece. Number two someone yells beam me up, Skippy,
and the number one sign you're at a bad to
Star Trek convention. The hookers all look like Klingons, although
I don't think that's a bad one. Actually, I should
note all of these Letterman gangs I do here give
it up for HP, by the way, dropping in to
make this a way too elaborate bit. Anyway, all the
(16:47):
Letterman related jokes are pulled straight from the book of
top ten lists that I scored for fifty cents at
a thrift store. It is pretty great, and it comes
with instructions on how to build an end table. That
whole list of Star Trek related material is a appropriate,
as is HP's appearance too, because we are talking star
Trek or Star Trek Fest over on the other show.
(17:07):
We're at full impulse power there taken in the cinematic
offerings of Starfleet. In fact, we've got Search for Spot
coming out this Friday for fans of Resurrection. But those
are movies, and those and as I said, those are
on the other show. But because I've been neck deep
in what was once a childhood obsession childhood into my
teens and then after college, I had to have a break.
(17:27):
I kept watching Star Trek, I kept reading it, kept listening,
but not with the insane fervor of my youth. Here's
how fucking mental I was. I don't think even HP
knows this, and he knew me then. I was a
member of Starfleet. I was an ensign, but I was
part of the organization. Goddamn, this is so dorky. I
was assigned to a ship. Oh my god, I was
working my way up to running tactical aboard the US
(17:50):
as farragut. Oh yeah, okay. Every conversation now seems to
necessitate this, but this was pre internet. This was mid
to late eighties, and if you wanted to connect with
other fans in any area, you had to be in
a fan club. As dorky as it is, the organizational
skills of Star Trek fans were impressive even then. Looking
back now, with the ease with which you can put
(18:12):
together an army of like minded people in minutes, it's
kind of staggering, not kind of it is, and I
belonged to a fan club, a Star Trek fan club
that was nationwide, and every regional group had their own starship,
and each hip had its own hierarchy. This particular version
of Starfleet took most of its cues from the role
playing games, which at the time there were basically two.
(18:34):
There was adventure gaming in the Final Frontier, which was okay,
and Star Trek, the role playing game, which everyone swore
by and I also thought was kind of okay. We
used Starfleet Voyages, which was a custom game you could
only really get at conventions and by word of mouth.
I think it was superior to the official role playing
game in every way. The official one drew way too
(18:56):
heavily from a bunch of novels. Fuck that, keep it pure,
keep it the series. Thank god. That was such a
long time ago. I was so addicted to it, right
except I just caught myself in the mirror and I'm
wearing a Star Trek shirt right now, And I found
myself looking up prices for admiralty uniforms the other day.
That's really bad. I'm spending too much time thinking about
Orion's slave girls. I mean more than usual, but I'm
(19:17):
glad because it made me watch Strange New Worlds, a
show I've been avoiding for the first time in my life.
I think i'd felt burned out enough by Star Trek.
Then I wasn't even sampling the wares. I've now seen
every series. I was gonna say I've seen most of
each one, but I looked it up and I've actually
seen every bit of episodic Star Trek up until a point.
(19:37):
I didn't draw a line in the sand with Strange
New Worlds. It was just another body on the Okay,
you've ground me down fucking far enough, then I'll take
my battered old Gorn action figure and go home pile.
But so far, I've watched Star Trek, Star Trek, the
animated series Next Gen DS nine, Voyager and Enterprise, which
was surprisingly good given that fucking song, and it was
(20:00):
crewed by a bunch of indistinguishable white dudes. That was
in two thousand and four. We wouldn't get another series
of Star Trek until twenty seventeen, and that was Discovery,
and Discovery broke my heart because I loved that first season.
I thought it was innovative and fun. I particularly liked
the lead character Michael Burnham and her backstory as a
human raised on Vulcan, raised by Sarah in the shadow
(20:22):
of her accomplished adopted older brother Spock. And here's the
blessing and cursive. Discovery Season two gave us Captain Pike
and Spock and Number One and the Enterprise, and it
derailed everything Discovery had going for it. All the original
series stuff were just echoes or melodies really that Discovery
was improvising around and doing it very well. You could
(20:43):
feel the tie to the original series without it intruding.
And then hey, gang, here's all your favorites. And as
right as they were at getting those characters, much has
been made of Ethan packas Spock, and it's well deserved.
I thoroughly enjoy both the characterization and his portrayal of
the character. He has the benefit of being younger than
the one we're used to and given to his human
(21:05):
side more often, and thus maybe a little more nuanced
in the spot we've been getting since nineteen seventy. But
I'm getting ahead of myself. Discovery ended up kind of sucking, honestly,
And I know Picard has its defenders, but that was
not for me. Those characters had a satisfying conclusion. I'm
not averse to revisiting them, but not this way. I
hear it improved after the first season, but that season
(21:26):
seemed so downright opposite of everything I love about Star Trek,
dour and mean spirited, and I'm no fucking choir boy,
although I was. I have not one motherfucking problem with profanity,
except with Trek. They used it as a shorthand for character,
and it's just as lazy as everything else with the
Kiva Goldsman's name on it. If Gene Roddenberg was the
great bird of the galaxy, Goldman is the great mediocrity,
(21:49):
aided and abedded by fellow medium talent Alex Kurtzman. I'll
have way more to say about both of them in
the Star Trek fest to come, so I'll spare the redundancy,
but I'll just say it's a miracle that's strange New
Worlds bears their name, or maybe it's just the exception
that proves the rule, or maybe they finally did one
good thing and hire Henry Alonso Myers to run the show.
(22:10):
I'm going to assume he's the secret ingredient, because after
percard I wasn't coming back. I watched this show as
a fluke just because of Star Trek Fest, and holy fuck,
I am so glad I did. I'm obsessed. This is
strange new worlds.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Hi, sorry to interrupt. This is your captain, our Russia.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
To chart the stars, push the boundaries of what is known.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
And what is possible. I'm standing on the surface of
a commet. I love this job, these people, this crew.
I believe we can do anything.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
We want to seek out new life, go where the
aliens are.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Your presence is blasphemy. Let's talk about this, find some comfort.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
I think that went well. Perhaps we should kiss.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
That seems logical. Maybe we don't touch anything else, just
a suggestion. The whole future hangs in the balance. No
one can know the future.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
One can only follow one's instincts. You the best of Starflas,
our ability to work together, that's our greatest tracks.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Let's show him what you got. I get it. I
get anson Mount finally put him in a star Fleet
uniform with a silver pompador, and even I want to
fuck him. Christopher Pike is the most boring character in
(24:26):
Star Trek history, and now I fucking love him. And
he's just one legacy character that they've managed to enliven
or reinvigorate. I've already mentioned Gregory Peck's grandson fucking killing
it as our beloved Vulcan human mashup. But the audience
proxy here is Ensign Nyota Uhura and her training aboard
the star Fleet flagship Enterprise, and that character is finally
(24:47):
getting her fucking nuanced do. But the fucking revelation here
is Nurse Christine Chapel. Jesus fucking Christ, whoever did this? Bravo.
On the original series, Nurse Chapel was a fucking dummy.
She joined Starfleet to find a husband. I mean, she
technically followed her fiance into enlistment, But what's the fucking difference.
(25:08):
Not so here, baby, This Chapel is a Klingon war
veteran doing fucking triage on the front lines and having
to defend yourself against Klingon warriors alongside the Enterprises. Doctor
em Benga. Chapel is my new hero, y'all. As far
as how they're invigorating old favorites, I expect at least
her own comic book series. I'm not gonna mention all
the actors on the show. Other than to say they
(25:29):
are uniformly great, although I might single out a few,
I do want to say that this cast is so
well put together. It features actors I do not like,
but I don't like them in that not rational way.
It's just somebody turns you off, and yet on this
series I do not like them, and yet they are
so fucking appropriate for their characters that I'm on board.
(25:49):
Should I just say Rebecca remains stamos it's her, but
she's great here, like Sharon Stone was in Casino, suddenly unassailable,
and I like her character. She's one of a new
wrinkle being woven into Star Trek about the Illyrians, a
group that constantly genetically alters themselves to survive in new environments.
They had an episode of Enterprise dedicated to them, and
(26:10):
were created back in eighty eight by DC Fontana, who
was one of the original writers. Oh my god, I
have too much Star Trek information. Illyrians are outlawed by Starfleet,
so automatically Number one is an interesting character. And that's
the thing down to the last background player. The characters
here are great. The security chief is a descendant of
Khan Nonian Singh. Their engineer is an aged blind and Dorian,
(26:35):
I know he's technically an anar. Don't come from me, Nerds,
you cannot best me. Doctor am Benga has his dead
Dondor's pattern locked in a transporter loop. In fact, the
Enterprise hasn't updated its transporters for that very reason. And
because it's the Enterprise, you have an officer named Kirk.
Sam Kirk, that's James Kirk's less ambitious older brother. He's
(26:56):
the Enterprise's zenoanthropologist, and he's got that mustache that Shatner
wore when he played Sam back in Operation Annihilate. I
said not to come for me, and Sam Kirk is
a dufus and I love him, but not as much
as I love James Tiberius Kirk. We get a couple
of parallel universe appearances of him before it settles in
(27:16):
the second season, and we get original series canonized Kirk.
He's played by Paul Wellesley, and this motherfucker has reinvigorated
my adoration for that character. There isn't a whiff of
imitation here, No Shantner at all, no Chris Pine for
that matter, who had a fine interpretation of his own
for those movies. Those wildly misguided movies made by a
(27:38):
bunch of Star Wars fans. This is James T. Kirk Man.
I fucking love this portrayal. I love what they're doing
with the character. I love his interactions with Pike and Uhura,
but mostly I love his interactions with Sam. We've never
had family man, Jim Kirk Jimmy, as Sam calls him,
and every time they're together it's either fascinating or hilarious. Seriously,
(27:59):
give him the enterprise. Let's go, because it's not just
the characters they're getting right. They're getting Star Trek right
in a way it hasn't felt since Next Generation third
season Next Generation. Not that the first two seasons were bad,
but anyway, this series does in ten episodes everything the
other series were doing in over twice that fantastic, thoughtful,
(28:20):
standalone episodes of science fiction with characters we've come to
know and love, And on top of that, we get
true serialization and forward momentum and overall goals for our characters.
In some cases, those plots are multi season arcs, the
main and most tragic being of Captain Pike himself, thanks
to a vision while on Discovery. This Captain Pike is
(28:41):
well aware of his future, talking in beeps, and time
after time he has to face the reality that that's
what has to occur. It's really heartbreaking. The show isn't perfect,
Don't get me wrong. The shoulder pads are a problem
every once in a while. It seems like a galactic
designing women. But that's a quibble. Let's talk the go on.
You know him, you love him, Sure you do. Shantner
(29:03):
tangled with the Gorn once in the California Desert. That
giant lizardman is the reason I started watching Star Trek
in the first place, so horrified and fascinated simultaneously by
this seemingly brutish opponent, who in fact had a pretty
good grasp of English. The Gorn appeared in that episode Arena.
There was one briefly seen in a crowd scene in
(29:24):
an episode of the animated series, and that was it.
For thirty fucking years, no Gorn, And when we finally
get another one on Enterprise, it was a cig embarrassment.
The rendering was fucking horrible. But worse, they replicated the
body to a t but swapped out his head with
a dinosaurs Evidently in the film Star Trek Nemesis Wharf
(29:45):
was supposed to have a buddy who was a Gorn.
What the fuck? Why wasn't that filmed? Oh right, because
Brent Spiner needed another musical number, another runtime swallowing musical
number by command of data Gorn. Who needs that?
Speaker 4 (29:58):
Me?
Speaker 1 (29:59):
I'm the one who needs the They are hands down
my favorite thing about Star Trek. I used to work
with this girl who had an enormous Gorn tattoo. Sexiest
fucking thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Man.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Has anyone done a sexy Gorn cosplay? I will at
least have you on the show. If you have, I'll
probably marry you. Though Strange New Worlds in its infinite wisdom,
has chosen as its overall villains, not the Romulans or
the Klingons Ortholians, though they all make appearances, this series
does not skimp on Aliens for its main villain. However,
(30:31):
it has chosen the Gorn hegemony. I did not know
this when I began watching. And here's where I have
to swallow some crow, because if you make any deviation
from that original design, mine mind reels in abject horror.
But at the same time, I recall young Ensign Wallace
of the uss Farragut arguing with an older tricker to
(30:51):
get over it. The way the Klingons look now was
way cooler. So what they've given us here, a fully
cgi character in some scene somewhere between a lizard and
a xenomorph, is a Gorn that I have to accept.
It isn't terrible. It's actually executed pretty fucking spectacularly. And
they've added some wrinkles to our Gorn friend's behavior, like
(31:12):
using humans to host Gorn hatchlings that eventually eat their
way out of you. The xenomorph comparison extends way more
beyond the physical, and I'm cool with all of it
so far. It's just that they seem to have them
behaving almost exclusively like xenomorphs as well, and that's really
got to change. Because the Gorn pilot's spaceships, they conquer worlds.
(31:33):
They're not dumb animals. So I say to you, Akiva
Goldsman and Alex Kurtzman and Areli Henry Alonzo Meyers.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
I grew weary of the chase. Wait for me.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
I shall be merciful and quick. Oh all right, one
last thing, and this will be my last mention of
madmen there's a scene halfway through the final season with
three lead characters who've been pinballing off of each other
for nearly a decade are brought together and sit down
for a meal. It's for a client. They're working up
(32:07):
a campaign for a burger chain, but that doesn't matter.
It's a simple shot slowly zooming out from a table
where they're enjoying each other's company over a meal. It's
really a culmination of these characters' lives, the final realization
that they've been family all along, and it's probably the
last time it's ever going to happen, and it's pretty
fucking glorious. Halfway through the second season of Strange New Worlds,
(32:30):
with a jazz combo playing and the libations flowing, Nayota
Uhura introduces Smock to James T. Kirk and they sit
around a table and it feels just as powerful as
Mad Men did, but so much more hopeful. Not just
an inevitability, but a promise, an optimistic promise, And that's
(32:50):
what Star Trek is all about, and I think we
need that more than ever. That's it, Nerds. Check out
Midnight Viewing Friday for more Star Trek. That's Star Trek's
for Spock. The week after is the start of a
whole new horror anthology podcast season. We are tackling Hammer
House of Horrors, the British horror show from nineteen eighty
(33:11):
I'll put a link in the show notes to that
series if you want to get a jump on things,
it is well worth your time. As it turns out,
so far we are loving Hammer House of Horrors, and
I think you will too. The projection booths Mike White
will be joining me to discuss all things Hammer for
this next season, so tune in then too. As for
me and Ripley, we're gonna go relax and watch Strange
New Worlds again. Gonna do this obsessive thing right. Have
(33:34):
a great week. Thank you everyone. I said it at
the beginning. I am thankful for my family. I am
thankful for all of you. Here is some really helpful
advice from Lieutenant James T.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Kirk.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Look, I could tell you some comforting fairy tale, but.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
We both know the truth.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Our job puts us up against death more than is fair,
and we might not like it, but we do have
to face it.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
And right now death is winning. The claim your family,
They claim your friend.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
It convince you to forget them because it's less painful
than holding onto their memories.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Now, you can let death win, or you can fight back.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
H
Welcome back midnight viewers to Father Malone's weekly round up.
I am Father Malone. The goofy dog at my right
is Ripley Jean. You're still mad at me? It's okay
if you are. I had to put miss Ripley Jean
out of the room so I could watch a werewolf
flick last night. Yeah, you missed out Joe Dante John
Sales or on Bouteen. It's a classic. Talking about the Howling,
I'm gonna be reviewing that with my pal Paul Waller
(00:59):
from a year and horror? Am I plugging straight out
of the gate after like three weeks of loafing? You
bet you? Speaking of Rob Boteine, I finally saw that
twelve inch cloth garbed action figure of Captain Blake from
The Fog. Christmas is fast approaching. In case any of
you love me, how was your Thanksgiving? Was it front
with the usual interpersonal weirdo dynamics? Was it pleasant? Did
(01:22):
you put the black olives on your fingertips as you're
supposed to? I hope so mine was super low key?
How low key? Me and the dog and a plate
a glumky my late wife and my late stepdad Jesus,
everyone was late for dinner this year. They were both
of Polish persuasion, and it seemed a fitting way to
spend the holiday. Shout out to Perogi Village here in
(01:43):
Las Vegas had the best Polish restaurant I've ever had
the good fortune of attending. I've frequented Potolanka in Chicago.
I gloried in Nice Polonaise in Minneapolis back when it
was a real restaurant, not a fucking bar with fingerfoodsf ah,
But Perogi Village the best Polish food. I will certainly
sated on the day of feasting, So in that way,
(02:05):
the holiday was a success. Oh and I went to
work too, so not much of a joyous celebratory situation.
But that does not mean I'm not thankful. Actually, I
am incredibly thankful, and I'd say a good seventy five
percent of what I'm thankful for is actually who I'm
thankful for. And that's all of you. Yes, all of
you you, yes, you too. Don't think I forgot about you.
(02:28):
I know you need reminding. But to that end, I
have a couple of folks I'm going to single out,
single out. Remember that show, what a creep fest from
the top on down. It's time for pen Pals Pals
from a row. Also, speaking of Polish, Hello Trish. Midnight viewers,
(02:52):
say hi to Trish. She has become this show's first
top tier patron over on the Patreon channel, and she
has taken to her new status like a fucking beast,
requesting not one, but three themed episodes and as such,
those are in the works currently. They'll start going up
on the Patreon page in the new year. I don't
know if they'll filter down to the regular feed. I
(03:12):
suppose that's up to Trish, But those topics are Kurt
Vonnegut's series Monkey House, also the anthology flick Night on Earth,
which I'm definitely going to be pulling HP onto that
episode as it is a clear crossover with his show
Night Mister Walters. Night on Earth is a flick from
nineteen ninety one. It's five stories, all taking place on
New Year's Eve around the globe during different taxi rides.
(03:35):
Maybe I'll try and get it done before New Year's Eve,
that would make sense. I actually showed that movie as
a projectionist. It was one of the very first films
I threaded through a projector and here's a hot take.
It's the movie that made me realize that perhaps my
crush on Winona Rider had blinded me to the fact
that she's not that great a performer. Oh no, now,
(03:56):
Winoda Rider will never go out with me, not that
she ever would, because I don't plan the instruments. No wait,
I do I play the theremin? That counts kind of
Should I do something like Mark Maron hang out folks,
then go to commercial and come back and make you
listen to me dick around with a sci fi contraption
for ten minutes. Van Go Lives Marbles is an angry
ghost cat. Lastly, Trish has requested an episode about the
(04:19):
cinematic efforts of mister David Bowie Bowie Bowie. I've heard both,
though not in connection with David Bowie. That's Bowie, but
Jim Bowie Bowie, Booe Bowie Balbo Booe, Charleston Chewy. I
love that, Candy bar Okay. Next, Dallas, our longtime listener
friend to the podcast. Dallas has checked in and he
(04:40):
had some very nice things to say about this show, which,
believe me, is way more welcome than you can fathom.
Dallas lost a member of his family his cat of
thirteen years. You had a wizened old senior citizen living
with you. I can only imagine your lost Dallas. You
have my total heart winging your way. Dallas also had
(05:03):
a question, a fucking good question, which I'm going to
read here, was the gruesomeness of the transporter scene from
Star Trek. The motion picture, to your knowledge, dialed back
during the restoration and effects pass. I remember it being
so shocking as a kid, and I just got up
super close and watched it a couple of times, and
it doesn't seem that bad anymore. Like I feel like
I can sort of see the original gruesome effects in there,
(05:24):
but not really. Okay, this fired my imagination. I too
remembered that sequence as particularly horrid, so I pulled out
the Blu ray and I pulled out my old vhs
and they're identical. No trickery, no dialing it back, just
your young mind twisting itself into knots long after the
film had ended. Same here. If you want to write
(05:47):
to us, it is Fondemalone seven to one at gmail
dot com. That's in the show notes. Hit me up,
I'll hit you back, and the hits just keep on coming.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
We could be kid.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
We're really starting to lose it being stuck in here,
no end in sight.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Maybe tonight is our break. Fine facta we end this
once and for all together.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
This isn't like one of your campaigns.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
You don't get to write the ending.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Not this time.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
It's planning to end our world.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
And he's not gonna stop until we're trained of every
last ounce of suffery.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Sounds, sweet.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Sounds.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
We stay true to ourselves, stay true.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
To our friends, don't matter the cost, William, you are
(08:07):
going to help me.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
One last tome.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
That's Queen's song, who wants to Live Forever? Over that trailer,
trying to do here what they did for Kate Bush.
But that Queen song already had its spotlight moment in
that fucking horrendous Queen biopic you remember Freddie Mercury writes
it in response to his AIDS diagnosis right before the
Live AID concert in nineteen eighty five, Except he was
diagnosed in eighty six, and that song was written by
(08:52):
Brian May for the film Highlander in nineteen eighty five.
But if any track on that album deserves a special spotlight,
it's the one from Bassis John Deacon, his song just
one Year of Love is superior to Maye, a bit
of Maudlin pining in every way, it is so so good.
It's a strange week here on the Roundup. Not us,
We're always strange, but this week's entertainment just can't wait
(09:14):
for you to know that there are strange things afoot.
I have watched the first couple of episodes of Stranger
Things season five. Here's my take on it, and here's
my take on it, and on Stranger Things overall. Winona
Ryder again as will Byer's mom, got the lion's share
of coverage when the series premiered, and I would say,
you should be looking over at the Wheeler household and
(09:35):
the mom there, played by Carabuono, different kind of sexy
and she can act. That's it. That's my take on
Stranger Things. Actually, that's my take on mad Men as well.
Carabuono was on arguably the two best seasons of mad Men.
I know, I keep coming back to mad Men, but
fucking AMC just keeps streaming. Man. They have a channel
that used to cycle through their most popular shows, and
(09:57):
now it's just stuck on mad Men and I can't
stop watching. It's always on. I need help now. Actually,
this is my take on Stranger Things this season. Season
five starts with a look at the events in the
pilot for the show from a different perspective. Basically, it
shows what happened to Will Byers when he was abducted
that episode. The pilot was so long ago that current
(10:18):
child actor Noah Schnapp needed a younger actor to play him.
This series has had five seasons in nine years. I'll
take away two for COVID complications, and it still had
five seasons in seven years. A show about children, The
show starts in nineteen eighty three November, so basically nineteen
eighty four, and ends in nineteen eighty seven. And the
(10:40):
kids on the show now look old enough to be
nostalgic for that bygone era of three years ago. And
what exactly is taking so long? These are ten episode
seasons and ultimately the series is just a Stephen King
salad bar, a spoonful of Carrie, a pinch of stand
by Me, and a broth simmering with low men and
yellow coats, which is fine, but the anthology has gotten
(11:00):
so labyrinthine that I was not only loathed to press
the skip a recap button for fear of being irretrievably lost.
But it seemed to make every conversation in the first
hour of season five into a big old exposition dump. Luckily,
Maya Hawk has a radio station now, so we get
a full narration for the first twenty minutes. So fucking
clumsy and worse, it thoroughly conjured up images of Millennium
(11:24):
Season three. I've spoken a little bit about Millennium. That
was Chris Carter's follow up to The X Files. Frank Black,
played by Lance Hendrickson, is an FBI profiler who has gifts.
In the first season, he can see through the eyes
of the killer. There seemed to be a dozen shows
with that premise at that exact moment, but only Millennium
in the waning days of the twentieth century was connecting
the dots that there might be some bigger forces at play,
(11:47):
coordinating all of these hideous people and they're terrible acts.
The second season, he began seeing full blown supernatural visions
and it moved away from serial killer of the week
and into a more philosophical area. Will Die on the Hill?
That Season two of Millennium is one of the best
television seasons of all time, easily in the top five,
and a big part of that admiration came from how
(12:09):
that season ended, which I will not spoil, but let's
just say whoever inherited season three had a huge fucking
job to do. But whatever corners they'd been painted into,
the possibilities, the fucking endless possibilities they were presented with,
were staggering. And in the end they who shot jr
ad At basically, oh, that didn't happen. Not really ask
me if I finished watching The X Files after that
(12:32):
or any Chris Carter property, since it's not as egregious
and stranger things, but it is kind of the same thing.
How much weight are you going to give a high
school bully after you've been to another dimension? I don't
know how many pep rallies I'm going to attend after
my girlfriend was broken by invisible forces and is now
in a coma. This is worse than clumsy. It's lazy.
It wants to continue to operate on a g whiz
(12:54):
Goonies meets Poltergeist level. For surely, if there's a second
parent here with Stephen King, it's even Spielberg, and those
are the perfect examples Goonies and Poltergeist, not only thematically,
but for the fact that Steven Spielberg was only the
producer on those and ultimately they don't feel up to
his technical skill. Maybe those long years between seasons have
worked at lulling us into the same brain fog as
(13:16):
the characters, because as they're running around doing teen shit,
I kept thinking things like, there was a secret Soviet
base under the mall. You remember the mall that had
a giant flesh tarantula rampaging through it a parantola, that's
a shadow to Larry Fine. Hey, guys, remember when Mike's
mom had the hots for Max's brother. That was hilarious. Yeah,
(13:37):
and then he got possessed by the mind Flayer in
a bid to turn our reality into a hellscape. Oh
and he's dead Max's brother. I've no doubt mentioned. I
was a tour guide at the Haunted Museum here in
Las Vegas. I once watched a door knob slowly creak
on its own, and a door swing purposefully open. There
was no one in the hallway beyond. It wasn't a
(13:57):
vacuum situation where one room door was being closed in
another portion of the house. And that pulled this one open.
I had closed the door myself, I had turned the
knob and felt it catch. It was the slightest of interactions,
a passing breeze of a supernatural encounter. But it was
nine years ago, which is about the same amount of
time they've been making this show. And I think about
(14:18):
it a lot because it made me question some aspects
of our existence that I still struggle with. Their pal
Barb was killed by a bipedal beast from an alternate reality.
It was less than two years ago. Now that alone
would fuck me up. Just the existence of the upside
down would fuck me up. The joy of streaming this
golden age of television where serialization can finally occur is
(14:41):
a double edged sword. Like it as not. You can
now dispense with standalones and focus on plot and character
and consequence. But the thing is now you have to
focus on plot in character and consequence. And maybe it's
unfair to blame how fucking astonishingly magnified those faults become
because of the clear passage of time with our actors. Nevertheless,
(15:02):
if the characters on a straight up sitcom like Brooklyn
nine nine can evolve, so can these kids find in
new ways to have a rollicking good time. It's possible
to do that and not sacrifice meaningful development. That is
my take on Stranger Thinks. The one area that show
has consistently excelled that, however, is as an incubator for
talented redheads. Hit it hbi K because it's dang you
(15:29):
HP and now this is the top ten signs you're
at a Bad Star Trek Convention. Top ten signs Bad
Star Trek Convention.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
The top ten signs you're at a Bad Star Trek convention.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
That's right, Red alerts if you will, shields up, mister HB.
Number ten, it's being held at a rest area off
the interstate. Number nine. When you count the fake spot
years in the room, you come up with an odd number.
Number eight. Ben and Jerry's unveil is a weird taste
new flavor called Roddenberry. Number seven. Dorks with mow haircuts
(16:04):
keep wandering in from the Three Stooges convention down the hall.
Number six, so called Starship Enterprise looks a lot like
an RV wrapped in tinfoil. Number five. Lack of restrooms
forces you to go where no man has gone before.
Number four instead of the vulcan sign for livelong and prosper.
Everybody's giving you the finger. Number three keynote speaker is
(16:25):
William Shatner's hair piece. Number two someone yells beam me up, Skippy,
and the number one sign you're at a bad to
Star Trek convention. The hookers all look like Klingons, although
I don't think that's a bad one. Actually, I should
note all of these Letterman gangs I do here give
it up for HP, by the way, dropping in to
make this a way too elaborate bit. Anyway, all the
(16:47):
Letterman related jokes are pulled straight from the book of
top ten lists that I scored for fifty cents at
a thrift store. It is pretty great, and it comes
with instructions on how to build an end table. That
whole list of Star Trek related material is a appropriate,
as is HP's appearance too, because we are talking star
Trek or Star Trek Fest over on the other show.
(17:07):
We're at full impulse power there taken in the cinematic
offerings of Starfleet. In fact, we've got Search for Spot
coming out this Friday for fans of Resurrection. But those
are movies, and those and as I said, those are
on the other show. But because I've been neck deep
in what was once a childhood obsession childhood into my
teens and then after college, I had to have a break.
(17:27):
I kept watching Star Trek, I kept reading it, kept listening,
but not with the insane fervor of my youth. Here's
how fucking mental I was. I don't think even HP
knows this, and he knew me then. I was a
member of Starfleet. I was an ensign, but I was
part of the organization. Goddamn, this is so dorky. I
was assigned to a ship. Oh my god, I was
working my way up to running tactical aboard the US
(17:50):
as farragut. Oh yeah, okay. Every conversation now seems to
necessitate this, but this was pre internet. This was mid
to late eighties, and if you wanted to connect with
other fans in any area, you had to be in
a fan club. As dorky as it is, the organizational
skills of Star Trek fans were impressive even then. Looking
back now, with the ease with which you can put
(18:12):
together an army of like minded people in minutes, it's
kind of staggering, not kind of it is, and I
belonged to a fan club, a Star Trek fan club
that was nationwide, and every regional group had their own starship,
and each hip had its own hierarchy. This particular version
of Starfleet took most of its cues from the role
playing games, which at the time there were basically two.
(18:34):
There was adventure gaming in the Final Frontier, which was okay,
and Star Trek, the role playing game, which everyone swore
by and I also thought was kind of okay. We
used Starfleet Voyages, which was a custom game you could
only really get at conventions and by word of mouth.
I think it was superior to the official role playing
game in every way. The official one drew way too
(18:56):
heavily from a bunch of novels. Fuck that, keep it pure,
keep it the series. Thank god. That was such a
long time ago. I was so addicted to it, right
except I just caught myself in the mirror and I'm
wearing a Star Trek shirt right now, And I found
myself looking up prices for admiralty uniforms the other day.
That's really bad. I'm spending too much time thinking about
Orion's slave girls. I mean more than usual, but I'm
(19:17):
glad because it made me watch Strange New Worlds, a
show I've been avoiding for the first time in my life.
I think i'd felt burned out enough by Star Trek.
Then I wasn't even sampling the wares. I've now seen
every series. I was gonna say I've seen most of
each one, but I looked it up and I've actually
seen every bit of episodic Star Trek up until a point.
(19:37):
I didn't draw a line in the sand with Strange
New Worlds. It was just another body on the Okay,
you've ground me down fucking far enough, then I'll take
my battered old Gorn action figure and go home pile.
But so far, I've watched Star Trek, Star Trek, the
animated series Next Gen DS nine, Voyager and Enterprise, which
was surprisingly good given that fucking song, and it was
(20:00):
crewed by a bunch of indistinguishable white dudes. That was
in two thousand and four. We wouldn't get another series
of Star Trek until twenty seventeen, and that was Discovery,
and Discovery broke my heart because I loved that first season.
I thought it was innovative and fun. I particularly liked
the lead character Michael Burnham and her backstory as a
human raised on Vulcan, raised by Sarah in the shadow
(20:22):
of her accomplished adopted older brother Spock. And here's the
blessing and cursive. Discovery Season two gave us Captain Pike
and Spock and Number One and the Enterprise, and it
derailed everything Discovery had going for it. All the original
series stuff were just echoes or melodies really that Discovery
was improvising around and doing it very well. You could
(20:43):
feel the tie to the original series without it intruding.
And then hey, gang, here's all your favorites. And as
right as they were at getting those characters, much has
been made of Ethan packas Spock, and it's well deserved.
I thoroughly enjoy both the characterization and his portrayal of
the character. He has the benefit of being younger than
the one we're used to and given to his human
(21:05):
side more often, and thus maybe a little more nuanced
in the spot we've been getting since nineteen seventy. But
I'm getting ahead of myself. Discovery ended up kind of sucking, honestly,
And I know Picard has its defenders, but that was
not for me. Those characters had a satisfying conclusion. I'm
not averse to revisiting them, but not this way. I
hear it improved after the first season, but that season
(21:26):
seemed so downright opposite of everything I love about Star Trek,
dour and mean spirited, and I'm no fucking choir boy,
although I was. I have not one motherfucking problem with profanity,
except with Trek. They used it as a shorthand for character,
and it's just as lazy as everything else with the
Kiva Goldsman's name on it. If Gene Roddenberg was the
great bird of the galaxy, Goldman is the great mediocrity,
(21:49):
aided and abedded by fellow medium talent Alex Kurtzman. I'll
have way more to say about both of them in
the Star Trek fest to come, so I'll spare the redundancy,
but I'll just say it's a miracle that's strange New
Worlds bears their name, or maybe it's just the exception
that proves the rule, or maybe they finally did one
good thing and hire Henry Alonso Myers to run the show.
(22:10):
I'm going to assume he's the secret ingredient, because after
percard I wasn't coming back. I watched this show as
a fluke just because of Star Trek Fest, and holy fuck,
I am so glad I did. I'm obsessed. This is
strange new worlds.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Hi, sorry to interrupt. This is your captain, our Russia.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
To chart the stars, push the boundaries of what is known.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
And what is possible. I'm standing on the surface of
a commet. I love this job, these people, this crew.
I believe we can do anything.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
We want to seek out new life, go where the
aliens are.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Your presence is blasphemy. Let's talk about this, find some comfort.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
I think that went well. Perhaps we should kiss.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
That seems logical. Maybe we don't touch anything else, just
a suggestion. The whole future hangs in the balance. No
one can know the future.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
One can only follow one's instincts. You the best of Starflas,
our ability to work together, that's our greatest tracks.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Let's show him what you got. I get it. I
get anson Mount finally put him in a star Fleet
uniform with a silver pompador, and even I want to
fuck him. Christopher Pike is the most boring character in
(24:26):
Star Trek history, and now I fucking love him. And
he's just one legacy character that they've managed to enliven
or reinvigorate. I've already mentioned Gregory Peck's grandson fucking killing
it as our beloved Vulcan human mashup. But the audience
proxy here is Ensign Nyota Uhura and her training aboard
the star Fleet flagship Enterprise, and that character is finally
(24:47):
getting her fucking nuanced do. But the fucking revelation here
is Nurse Christine Chapel. Jesus fucking Christ, whoever did this? Bravo.
On the original series, Nurse Chapel was a fucking dummy.
She joined Starfleet to find a husband. I mean, she
technically followed her fiance into enlistment, But what's the fucking difference.
(25:08):
Not so here, baby, This Chapel is a Klingon war
veteran doing fucking triage on the front lines and having
to defend yourself against Klingon warriors alongside the Enterprises. Doctor
em Benga. Chapel is my new hero, y'all. As far
as how they're invigorating old favorites, I expect at least
her own comic book series. I'm not gonna mention all
the actors on the show. Other than to say they
(25:29):
are uniformly great, although I might single out a few,
I do want to say that this cast is so
well put together. It features actors I do not like,
but I don't like them in that not rational way.
It's just somebody turns you off, and yet on this
series I do not like them, and yet they are
so fucking appropriate for their characters that I'm on board.
(25:49):
Should I just say Rebecca remains stamos it's her, but
she's great here, like Sharon Stone was in Casino, suddenly unassailable,
and I like her character. She's one of a new
wrinkle being woven into Star Trek about the Illyrians, a
group that constantly genetically alters themselves to survive in new environments.
They had an episode of Enterprise dedicated to them, and
(26:10):
were created back in eighty eight by DC Fontana, who
was one of the original writers. Oh my god, I
have too much Star Trek information. Illyrians are outlawed by Starfleet,
so automatically Number one is an interesting character. And that's
the thing down to the last background player. The characters
here are great. The security chief is a descendant of
Khan Nonian Singh. Their engineer is an aged blind and Dorian,
(26:35):
I know he's technically an anar. Don't come from me, Nerds,
you cannot best me. Doctor am Benga has his dead
Dondor's pattern locked in a transporter loop. In fact, the
Enterprise hasn't updated its transporters for that very reason. And
because it's the Enterprise, you have an officer named Kirk.
Sam Kirk, that's James Kirk's less ambitious older brother. He's
(26:56):
the Enterprise's zenoanthropologist, and he's got that mustache that Shatner
wore when he played Sam back in Operation Annihilate. I
said not to come for me, and Sam Kirk is
a dufus and I love him, but not as much
as I love James Tiberius Kirk. We get a couple
of parallel universe appearances of him before it settles in
(27:16):
the second season, and we get original series canonized Kirk.
He's played by Paul Wellesley, and this motherfucker has reinvigorated
my adoration for that character. There isn't a whiff of
imitation here, No Shantner at all, no Chris Pine for
that matter, who had a fine interpretation of his own
for those movies. Those wildly misguided movies made by a
(27:38):
bunch of Star Wars fans. This is James T. Kirk Man.
I fucking love this portrayal. I love what they're doing
with the character. I love his interactions with Pike and Uhura,
but mostly I love his interactions with Sam. We've never
had family man, Jim Kirk Jimmy, as Sam calls him,
and every time they're together it's either fascinating or hilarious. Seriously,
(27:59):
give him the enterprise. Let's go, because it's not just
the characters they're getting right. They're getting Star Trek right
in a way it hasn't felt since Next Generation third
season Next Generation. Not that the first two seasons were bad,
but anyway, this series does in ten episodes everything the
other series were doing in over twice that fantastic, thoughtful,
(28:20):
standalone episodes of science fiction with characters we've come to
know and love, And on top of that, we get
true serialization and forward momentum and overall goals for our characters.
In some cases, those plots are multi season arcs, the
main and most tragic being of Captain Pike himself, thanks
to a vision while on Discovery. This Captain Pike is
(28:41):
well aware of his future, talking in beeps, and time
after time he has to face the reality that that's
what has to occur. It's really heartbreaking. The show isn't perfect,
Don't get me wrong. The shoulder pads are a problem
every once in a while. It seems like a galactic
designing women. But that's a quibble. Let's talk the go on.
You know him, you love him, Sure you do. Shantner
(29:03):
tangled with the Gorn once in the California Desert. That
giant lizardman is the reason I started watching Star Trek
in the first place, so horrified and fascinated simultaneously by
this seemingly brutish opponent, who in fact had a pretty
good grasp of English. The Gorn appeared in that episode Arena.
There was one briefly seen in a crowd scene in
(29:24):
an episode of the animated series, and that was it.
For thirty fucking years, no Gorn, And when we finally
get another one on Enterprise, it was a cig embarrassment.
The rendering was fucking horrible. But worse, they replicated the
body to a t but swapped out his head with
a dinosaurs Evidently in the film Star Trek Nemesis Wharf
(29:45):
was supposed to have a buddy who was a Gorn.
What the fuck? Why wasn't that filmed? Oh right, because
Brent Spiner needed another musical number, another runtime swallowing musical
number by command of data Gorn. Who needs that?
Speaker 4 (29:58):
Me?
Speaker 1 (29:59):
I'm the one who needs the They are hands down
my favorite thing about Star Trek. I used to work
with this girl who had an enormous Gorn tattoo. Sexiest
fucking thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Man.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Has anyone done a sexy Gorn cosplay? I will at
least have you on the show. If you have, I'll
probably marry you. Though Strange New Worlds in its infinite wisdom,
has chosen as its overall villains, not the Romulans or
the Klingons Ortholians, though they all make appearances, this series
does not skimp on Aliens for its main villain. However,
(30:31):
it has chosen the Gorn hegemony. I did not know
this when I began watching. And here's where I have
to swallow some crow, because if you make any deviation
from that original design, mine mind reels in abject horror.
But at the same time, I recall young Ensign Wallace
of the uss Farragut arguing with an older tricker to
(30:51):
get over it. The way the Klingons look now was
way cooler. So what they've given us here, a fully
cgi character in some scene somewhere between a lizard and
a xenomorph, is a Gorn that I have to accept.
It isn't terrible. It's actually executed pretty fucking spectacularly. And
they've added some wrinkles to our Gorn friend's behavior, like
(31:12):
using humans to host Gorn hatchlings that eventually eat their
way out of you. The xenomorph comparison extends way more
beyond the physical, and I'm cool with all of it
so far. It's just that they seem to have them
behaving almost exclusively like xenomorphs as well, and that's really
got to change. Because the Gorn pilot's spaceships, they conquer worlds.
(31:33):
They're not dumb animals. So I say to you, Akiva
Goldsman and Alex Kurtzman and Areli Henry Alonzo Meyers.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
I grew weary of the chase. Wait for me.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
I shall be merciful and quick. Oh all right, one
last thing, and this will be my last mention of
madmen there's a scene halfway through the final season with
three lead characters who've been pinballing off of each other
for nearly a decade are brought together and sit down
for a meal. It's for a client. They're working up
(32:07):
a campaign for a burger chain, but that doesn't matter.
It's a simple shot slowly zooming out from a table
where they're enjoying each other's company over a meal. It's
really a culmination of these characters' lives, the final realization
that they've been family all along, and it's probably the
last time it's ever going to happen, and it's pretty
fucking glorious. Halfway through the second season of Strange New Worlds,
(32:30):
with a jazz combo playing and the libations flowing, Nayota
Uhura introduces Smock to James T. Kirk and they sit
around a table and it feels just as powerful as
Mad Men did, but so much more hopeful. Not just
an inevitability, but a promise, an optimistic promise, And that's
(32:50):
what Star Trek is all about, and I think we
need that more than ever. That's it, Nerds. Check out
Midnight Viewing Friday for more Star Trek. That's Star Trek's
for Spock. The week after is the start of a
whole new horror anthology podcast season. We are tackling Hammer
House of Horrors, the British horror show from nineteen eighty
(33:11):
I'll put a link in the show notes to that
series if you want to get a jump on things,
it is well worth your time. As it turns out,
so far we are loving Hammer House of Horrors, and
I think you will too. The projection booths Mike White
will be joining me to discuss all things Hammer for
this next season, so tune in then too. As for
me and Ripley, we're gonna go relax and watch Strange
New Worlds again. Gonna do this obsessive thing right. Have
(33:34):
a great week. Thank you everyone. I said it at
the beginning. I am thankful for my family. I am
thankful for all of you. Here is some really helpful
advice from Lieutenant James T.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Kirk.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Look, I could tell you some comforting fairy tale, but.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
We both know the truth.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Our job puts us up against death more than is fair,
and we might not like it, but we do have
to face it.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
And right now death is winning. The claim your family,
They claim your friend.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
It convince you to forget them because it's less painful
than holding onto their memories.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Now, you can let death win, or you can fight back.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
H
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