EPISODE 613 STAR TREK LOWER: DECKS- "STAR BASE 80!" AND "OF GODS AND ANGELS" REVIEW

0:01 King ways Fox Beer look is acting very weird. Captain Pike Sisco's wife king on Sandi after. Like Boimer, Tendy Starbransom is very hard. Sport Drive black Alert, Georgio has gone perserved, feature bad laugh, Edward is any is Pakistan? Warf is wed check Up's wearing red tee. This cat Campac said, you has said enough for that penny of make it. So everybody, let's. Go about the series. Drawing us life of the phone now talking about the series, I'm coming to you on the street services now le talking about the series compos Me off the phone now about the series coming from themselves.

0:58 He sitting Jelly. Well. Good Evening, Trekkies and Trekkers around the Globe is December fifth, twenty twenty four. Welcome to episode six hundred and thirteen of trek Talking. I'm your most excellent host, Uncle Jim, and we're about to get started on a brand new adventure. But before we get too far, I want to let you guys know that our Facebook page should be back up and running within a day or two. Facebook has this new AI program that goes and arbitrarily looks for different phrases, different things, and then immediately shuts that page down. We got stuck in that. I talked to Facebook today and they said to within twenty four to forty eight hours they would have that problem solved and Trek Talking would be back up and running. So if you've been trying to get a hold of us on our Facebook page and you have noticed that there hasn't been any posts lately, that's why, and with any luck, within the next day or two, that problem will be solved. So that's it with my housekeeping. Also, we're going to be doing two episodes tonight because with the holidays last week and some technical difficulties with blog talk Radio, we were on able to do our show as normal, So we're going to be doing two episodes tonight, and then from this point on we'll go back to our regular one episode per show criteria. You can find all of our shows at trek Talking dot com. When you go there, you'll find a little blue talkback mic in the bottom

2:30 right hand corner. Please feel free to leave us a message, tell us what you thought. Just say hi, and you want to get used to using that blue talkback mic because we might be giving out some free prizes to people that take advantage of that, and you can do that anytime of the night or day, and if you do, you'll get an email from me and your message will be played on the next podcast, So please check that out. As of right now, we have twenty four and nineteen followers on our Facebook page, so thank you very much for that. And I want to go around and introduce to you guys to my awesome, my incredible trek Spurts and we're going to start out with our very own toy guy, Paul. He's out in Portland. How you doing tonight, Paul.

3:17 Hey Jim, I think I'm doing well. How's everything going out your way? We're getting used to a new month here since we've convened last time, and here we are a smack dab in the first part of December, so it's pretty surreal, brother, pretty surreal, but good to be here. We're getting snow up here, which I guess is pretty cool. I'm not ready for it, but it comes whether I'm ready or not. So we're having some snow, but that's cool. We're going to go get our Christmas tree on Saturday. We're gonna go cut it down, get a fresh one. So I'm looking forward to that and it's always nice when there's a little bit of snow on the ground. It makes it festive. So that's what we're going to be doing. And also from Portland, we have our very own donut guy, David. How you doing tonight, David?

4:00 I'm doing pretty good. I'm super excited about today because I can't wait to talk about the next two epishurge. Yes, yes, that's going to be fun. It's going to be fun for sure. And last but not least, out in Portland as well, is everyone? Eric? How you doing tonight? Eric? You know, Jim, I am doing pretty well. I was reminiscing about our new system here. The listeners may notice that the audio quality is a little bit better. We've switched systems here, but still, you know, much like starbas eighty, this podcast may not be perfect, but that's why it works, man, That's why it worked. I would agree. I would agree, and look for some look for some upgrades, some changes. We're going to be adding some stuff, doing some new things. We're going to be doing some videos. We're gonna be We're gonna be improving quite a bit, So just stick with us while we work out the kinks. With this brand new system.

4:55 But when all is said and done, I think you guys are really going to like the final product. And last but not least out in Las Vegas, we have our very own Charles how you. Doing and enjoy a little bit of the cool weather. Decided to kind of pull down and warm up just a little bit and pol down, but looking forward to talking Greek and enjoying our new system from our new studio. It's I think it's working out pretty well so far. So as I mentioned, guys, we can go to our well you can't go there right now, but you will be able to go to our Facebook page and every week I ask you guys, you know what you thought about the show, give us some opinion, tell us give it a score, whatnot? And I also ask, hey, where are you listening from? Drop us a line, say hello, and if you see a heart next to your name from yours truly uncle Jim, then you're going to be mentioned in a future fan shout out, and that's where we say thank you to You guys are fans, so Eric, you want to get us started with our fans shout.

5:56 Outsh Jim, I definitely do a very fan shout out this week goes out to top fan Samantha Rowana, who is from Basingstoke, Hampshire in England and sends us a beautiful Union Jack flag celebrating the country and heritage. Samantha, thank you so much. Top fan status means that you are interacting with us a lot on our Facebook page, and you will be once again when it comes back. We just really appreciate that and thank you guys for your support during us trying to deal with all this. AI is breaking us, right, am I wrong? AI is breaking us, but we're making our way through it. So here we go. It's always.

6:39 Like guy that's already taking over you, all right. I also say it hello this week to top fan Filimina a Rujo, who's saying hello to us from Amsterdam in the Netherlands. And I love talking about the Netherlands because I love talking about their floating architecture and their levies and all the cool stuff that happens below sea level there, in addition to all of this stuff that you go there for otherwise. So Filmina, thank you so much for listening from that beautiful country. Also saying hello this week to top fan Reji Segal who's listening from New Delhi in India. Regich, we appreciate your support on that continent and country of over a billion people. It is just unfathomable to me. One day I hope to visit your beautiful country and eat some of that food. Man, I do love me some Indian food, that is for sure.

7:29 And last but not least, saying hello this week to Mark Thompson. Mark Thompson from Aberdeenshire in Scotland. Mark, we really appreciate your support as well. Brother. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. I'm not past this shout out megaphone. Let's start over with the top. Dan that welcome. Tell mey you was born in California, but up there drigging the water ore again. Welcome Jeck Wonder up because I know how much is how much I want to try that water up in Oregon? Because the guys over here just talking about it so much. You know, when you're when you're from California and eventually you move to Oregon, then you're like, oh, oh, now I get it. No, I totally get it.

8:19 Yeah. Ah from Pennsylvania. Welcome Deborah Elisi and welcome Deborah oh and another top than from Canada and tells us to live long end prosper. Welcome Patricia Weaver, that's getting CHILEI up there in Canada. And then from one. Of our. Friends of the podcast dates from Kentucky, Welcome Nathan Coates. Now's it going, Nathan, And I'm gonna pass the microphone over.

9:03 There and dat it if I'm not too loud. I just wanted to say welcome and thank you guys for listening and supporting us. First shout out is to Thomas Allen Oakley from Waterford, Michigan, USA. Second is a shout out to Mike Pellan from Georgia, USA. Third shout out is gonna be to Linda Punkin Flimky from South Florida, Paul Sponge, United States. And my last shout out goes to Larry Budd from Illinois. In a small town with big things. Okay, that's interesting, but yeah, thank you all, and I'm gonna pass this shout out to Paul.

9:52 Thanks David. First of all, top fan Joanne Livingstone says I'm from Belfast, Northern Ireland, but I only work in outer space. Great to hear from you, Joanne, all the way over there in the UK. Wonderful to hear from you. Jorge Rivera is saying hello to us from Kalao, Peru and it says it's not. Going to cheer him up or something like that. I think his message got got off somehow, but great to hear from you, Jorge Conaconna. Way, we have our friend Laden Marquique in Serbia. There a flag displayed prominently great to hear for you. And moving back over to We're just going all across every ocean. Nothing is in any kind of chronological order. We are going back to the southern districts here to Osoro, Chile and our friend Raoul, the Oz Fernandez land of heavy rains, green grass, rivers, volcanoes, lakes and lots of cats. Chile is an incredible place, Raoul one of the great wine producing regions on planet.

11:00 At the. Gill that's the renowned that they should for their wines. But phenomenal, yeah, phenomenal brietals happening down there, So definitely a place I aspired to visit. That's all I've got. I'm gonna switch over to uncle Jim. Well, I thank you very much, Paul. I'd like to say thank you to top fan Joe Anthony who's listening to us in the Big Apple, New York, New York. I also want to say thank you for listening to Vinnie Eliso who's listening to us in the Bronx in New York. I wonder if he knows Ray. They haven't heard from Ray in a while, so maybe if Vinnie knows Ray, he can go and check out and make sure he's okay. Also, I want to say thank you to top fan Barbara Montesrio, who's listening to us in New York. And last, but not least, we have a rising fan, Chris Katish from the United States East Coast New England region in the state of Connecticut. You can get any more specific than.

11:59 That longitude latitude. So yeah. So anyways, these are all of our top fans from our Facebook page. And as I said, guys, once our Facebook page gets back up, because that evil AI gets taken care of, you guys will be You will be able to go to our Facebook page and get mentioned in a fan shout out yourselves like Arnold swarzenigger, I'll be back and we will be. So just be patient with us while you're on our Facebook page. Once it's up, and running again. I like to ask whole questions just to see what the fans are thinking and feeling.

12:41 And you can answer our polls as well, which means you know what time it is. You know me like no win what you thought about the show? Then we try. To share your opinions with all of oarminions out there because they listen world Why so tell us just what you think. Get together, we will all drink canar and robulin ale. All right, how about you get us started with our first poll question.

13:25 I'm gonna take this. In the Strange New World's episodes episode Lift Uffs, where suffering cannot reach, the Magollans sacrifice a child to control their environment and ecosystem. Without the sacrifice, their ecosystem will die. Do you agree or. Disagree with them? Oh, this is a spicy one. I have to tell you that's a tough one. This is a super spicy one. I think that like Starch, I've always said that Star Trek is at its best when it asks questions that have no absolute sir, and I feel like this is one of them. So the question is, you know, did you agree essentially with what the the society was doing? You know, sacrificing a child to to make the planet work. Twenty seven percent of our Facebook poll answers said that they do agree, and seventy three percent that said that they disagree. And so what I'm seeing here, and I'm not saying I agree with or disagree with this, I think we should talk about this, But like, what that means is that twenty seven percent of the people think that the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many, and that seventy three percent think that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one. That's kind of the way I read into that, and I am super curious about that, especially given you know that just last night

14:56 I went and saw Star Trek two at the Hollywood se here in Portland on the big screen once again, you know, seeing spot take care of business at the end there and saying that famous line about the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few. I don't know, what do you guys think about this? I think this is fascinating. I think it's the agree. I think we need to worry about the one where the disagree means to be worried about, not the one everybody else. Oh yeah, I'm not sure. What you just said, Charles, but what But what this says is that percent of the people agree that sacrifice to do yeah should be Yeah, that's what I said.

15:45 Yeah, So what do you think? What do you think? What do you think, Charles? Did they make the right choice? I think we're sing a child to stand civilization? I think I think it's a bad choice. What if that child might be something to help the future, but you're going to sacrifice the one child and thinking, okay, that. Says the rate for another a few decades, then we have to sacrifice another kid because it worth I don't understand why we mean, why it's doing to sacrifice one person to. An issue where I think deciding to figure out what their ultimate issue with ultimate problem is why they have.

16:30 HM, well. Interesting? Yeah, how about you, David, what do you think? I don't I'm gonna catch it back and eat my don't while you guys dold you. But there's no there's no arguing, it's just an opinion. There's there's no right and wrong. Yeah. I kind of agree with Charles, mainly because what if that kid goes up to be the next Captain Kircher and change, right, So what if you know? There's a lot of if in this question in a way, But to me, I think this is kind of a disagree on my part, I would rather sacrifice.

17:14 I don't know. I mean it's it's a culture. I suppose it's a different culture. But yeah, I don't know. I'm kind of both on thissh to be honest, I mean, I don't want to. I don't want to disrupt the what do they call it? The prime directive? But you know, a human being, I would have some feeling to say, you know, don't do this, kind of like what culture Pipe did. But yeah, I kind of would say both on this, to be honest. Yeah, Captain Pike was pretty upset about that too. So yeah, what do you think, Paul, would you would you throw your kid? Would you throw your kid in the bucket to save the world or not? Well, I'm on a different device now I'm hoping the audio is maybe.

17:55 Not so wow. Yeah you yes, much better? Good On the other one. Yeah, I had something stuck up my ass. I had to pull it out. You know it's me. Okay, Yeah, I will just say it can be risky to get my opinions on anything that has to do with themes of religion. I think that the whole notion that a lot of religions across the spectrum like to perpetuate is the idea of sacrifice, and I think it is uh. You know, basically, you know, from the perspective of the let's just say the entity, I won't even say the church, but the religious entity, right, the idea that you know, what that entity needs is more important than what you need. Basically, the body of the religious institution is more important than your life.

18:52 And I think that. Is incredibly manipulative, and it's been the mindset that a lot of hierarchical and yous have used to get what they want and get people out of their way and take that what's not theirs for many, many, many years. So I am against any kind of like sacrifice system in any way, shape or form. Absolutely, I agree completely. Well, what I would say was the woman that was in that episode, that was Captain Pike's previous lover, I have to wonder what she would have thought if it was her child that was chosen to be sacrificed. Because the father in this episode, if you guys don't remember, tried to hide the kid and save him because he didn't believe in the sacrifice. I wonder if the shoe was on the other foot and it was her son, how she would have felt, because it's it's one thing that when it's a stranger, but it's something totally different when it's your loved one. So I agree. I think they should find a way to get their their their their planet up and running without sacrificing a child. There you go.

20:02 Yeah, there's a pretty famous quote that I think is misattributed to Gandhi, But it still doesn't mean that it's not a good quote. It's something about a civilization being measured by how it treats its weakest members, and I think you can't. You can't expect people in a civilization to rise to their greatest selves when their civilization is based on the sacrifice of another. That just is not a This doesn't compute, you know. It's that idea of like do as I say, not as I do, sort of thing. Yeah, whatever somebody tells you we know better than you, I get suspicious right away.

20:43 Yeah. Yeah, So I totally agree with you guys, and I agree apparently with most of our listeners here that that they were doing the wrong thing there. Sacrifice and the kid even though it powered the civilization, even though it may have benefited you know, the needs of the many may have outweigh the needs of the few. There, But when when the needs of the many are based on sacrifice, and that colors the way that the many kind of view each other and assign value to one another's lives, I think that it's a net loss. So absolutely absolutely. Okay mac ganghiss greatest. Yeah he measured how would treats as weak as members?

21:32 Yeah? Yeah, all right, Now this next pole question, I had actually mentioned it to you guys a couple of shows ago. So I'm going to take this next one because well because it's Wharf. So in the TNG episode the Enemy, uh, the Enterprise rescued an injured Romulent and the only person that could save him was Wharf and Captain Picard did not order Wharf to give him his blood, and the Romulin died. So my question is, did Captain the Card make the correct choice and not ordering Wharf to save the Romulin's life? And we'll start off with you, what do you think, Charles?

22:16 I agree with the banned choice on this one. I think it's a personal choice. For Wharf and some of the things we've seen about the playing on culture and being blood enemies with the Romulins, they don't want anything to do with him at. That time period. And I can understand their cuse their choice true, that being that way. True? True? How about you, David, what do you think? Did the card make the right choice or not? Sorry? Even don't you?

22:59 Yeah? I mean I kind of agree a well. The idea that ordering somebody against your will is always a bad thing in my opinion, So to me, I think he may do my choice. I kind of agree with the fans. Well, all right, where do you think, Paul, Oh, you can't expect me to have a calm opinion on this one. Two words for your friends. Bodily autonomy, the right to make decisions about one's own body, life, and future without coercion or violence. I'm looking at you, Supreme Court, and yeah, absolutely, it is morally objectionable to coerce another human being to do something with their own self that is against their wishes.

23:50 It's wrong. People have to be free to make their own decisions about their body without the states or any representative of the state getting in the way, as soon as you move into that realm you are a dictatorship. You've become the worst kind of you know, worse than fascism. So yeah, it's extremely dangerous. So yeah, all right, all right, well what do you think. Eric agree with Trexperts? Can we start calling al.

24:31 Thank you? Eight of twenty one? Well, you know, so, I think that you have to look at the situation that that's presented here, because that Romulin saving that Romulin's life could have prevented a war which would have cost the lives of millions. And the same question as the first one, right. But we know how this one ended because we all saw the episode, so. You know, it's a little bit of a cheap but like you know, yeah, we. Saw the episode, so we know that the war was averted anyways, But at the point, at that point in time, not knowing how the Romulans would react to their officer dying at the hands of the Federation, does that change the out? Does that change it? You know, should warf have set aside his personal hatred of the Romulans to prevent the war or.

25:25 Yes, he should have, but it is not Pecard's right to order him to. Do that, and he did tell Picard, he said, if you order me to do it, I will obey your order. And so you know, Peicard didn't and the dude died and luckily there was no war. So yeah, this is one of those ones. And of course the romulant was a bit of a dick too, if you remember, he didn't want any of that kling On filth flowing through his veins anyway, so he deserved to die. He was an idiot. And you know, when I remember watching that, I kept saying to I, Sailf, you know what, if I was Warf, I would have done it just to pissed the guy off. I would be like, you know what, the Klingon filth is in your blood now, So there deal with that dude. But yeah, I agree. I think the cards a pretty sharp marble, and he, you know, he knows what's what. I think he made the right choice.

26:20 Now let's see what all of our truck sports agree. So let's see what our fans on our Facebook page said. Five percent of the fans said no, that Picards should have ordered him to give the blood, which meant ninety five percent of our Facebook fans agreed with the trekxperts and said, yes, Picard made the right choice. So there you have it. So let's tune into our Facebook page for next week's polls, assuming that the AI gets everything back up and running by Saturday, like they told me, there'll be some new polls up on there. Now, this is the part of the show where we do our cadet training and unfortunately I don't have I don't have a cadet training song because I couldn't get it off of.

27:13 No let's seen it so oh my god, there were it was like twenty samples or like yeah, like I know it ends with black Alert, Black Alert. I guess you know. The last song that Eric came up with for like the polls thing was so great. I think this is just the other we have a new era. Now that's a I think Eric should write a new one, man if you if your game, because I think I would totally do that. I think it's a good segment. It could benefit from having a good theme song, so you know, I. Love it all right, So I guess played a triple song and then we can the. Only the only one I have is this one right here.

27:54 It's all that's all I have. Why isn't it working. Why isn't it working? Oh no, I don't. Technical difficult. There we go. That was so good. Your culture will adapt to resistance. I love everything. So Eric, we come up with a better theme song. Agree, West traxperience. All of our stuff on blog talk radio is gone, so I can't get it. So this is the part of the show where Charles goes back and does some cadet training, and this is where he fills you in on little things in these episodes that you can go and watch other episodes to tie into it. So Charles take it away.

28:50 And Eric, that's down by Jim should have that's news, okay. Definitely at the beginning of the ATOS, so the decontamination chamber and the dell all from Enterprise. A lot of look in the old uniform from Enterprise, even from Enterprise and Enterprise all right, good reference to TOS and the Enterprise style turbolip. With the handles. We also saw a lot of Deo with clothing, expecially some used clothing.

29:35 TG. I didn't think price this season four, episode eighteen, a Dana alterning, Yeah, Titanian parasite could infects Jorian Laford the same as they've done during this episode. Of course we go to tang and for cards where we have our favorite guidance. Yeah, yeah, being knock, it's all been Allurian. I thought that was a good, very nice reference to Guynan and of course at the enterprise with grab plating, because that's what they were using before they were using their shields. Under a second one, of course, go definitely to kill her lorns for a Donna's season two episode two, that's where Apollo Is mentioned the episode that's where we're going to follow and had her father.

30:41 References to Dickton Hill by Mariner. Oh it is such a Dixon Hill, Like such a Dickton Hill reference, she says, and then two references for the out regulars Oconna season two episode or don't know if anybody caught this, but Quinn Letters makes the comment, oh is it such a oh you're such a. A Ronald being lore Line. We're referencing the comedian joke Biscopope played which the character on there was ron would Ronald's be more?

31:29 And there was a reference to one of the people who worked on Star Trek at that time. And what I kind of threw when they're at the end is these two how that episode ended so much? Reminding me of the radius of Hanna since where they're kind of two largers are trying to run away because they. Know their families cannot deal with who they are. Being able to associate with the other side. All right, So, Eric, what did our Facebook fans have to say about star Bas eighty?

32:12 Ooh okay, star Bas eighty on a scale of one to ten, we don't have a lot of number. Well, we have a number. We have an amalgamation at the end here, So I'll just kind of read the comments here. Scott Owden, a top contributor on our Facebook page, said, the dcon booth with horny gel and all and then a crying happy face. Lots of laughing there, thanks Scott, Tyler Blackwell as our all Star contributors said mayor Bear. So after all this time, we learned Boemler has a cutesy name for Mariner. Oh Eddie Pasa said, I hope my bosses see it that way. They can be real dicks. Every season they are one or two. I don't like so much, but I'll rewatch multiple times and enjoy anyway, because this show rocks. This one is one of them, but this was a classic line. Mike Bartel said, finally we get to see Freeman in her underwear.

33:07 Haha. We also get to see Freeman and mahor Mahriner come to terms with their personal issues about Starbas eighty in their own ways. Tyler Slade Homer said, loved the episode. I'm also glad that the Enterprise uniforms are used as regular uniforms of the Berman era shows. Those uniforms were my Favoriteschad lives to Dog another Day, kisses corn Dog. I love that moment. Tyler, Well, such a funny line. Yeah, thanks, Tyler. Zachary Finkenstein said my second favorite so far this season, right below the Klingon one. I like SB eighties. Doctor Rich Smith said absolutely fantastic episode. Rob Writing said I watched twice just for Nicole Byer. She was a joy in this. Jen Simon literally laughed out loud at the Paul reference, and Ralph Debacco said, we need live action lower decks. This gives us, you guys a fan scorer this week for this episode of eight point five and eight point five I would say is extremely respectable.

34:18 It's right up there. Yeah, it's it's right up there. So let's see, Charles, you want to jump in and talk about Star Base eighty as I get what's going on? Oh there there is See, I got the mute buttons a lot of interesting things on this one. I love the fact that it's. A older star Baying and they're still back in the Enterprise era. They have been upgraded to newer upgrade, so it's an older Starby and the Federation.

35:03 Just left it alone. Left and Bate got it interesting that the commander kind of gave me a feel of. Oh, she's a commander, just like Cisco was a commander. They don't put a captain on a Starby, they put a commander on the Starbay. Well, in Charles, she you're correct. She had three pips, so she definitely was a commander. But do you remember how she introduced herself. She introduced herself as a diplomatic liaison. Ah, so she did not call herself commander. She called herself diplomatically.

35:47 She had three pips, So yeah, you're absolutely yeah. Uh, trying to think in my note, definitely a lot of callback to Enterprise because the Enterprise era. I do like some of the callback to it. I like the fact that Okay, they're going on board the ship and they got to put on the decontamination Jim. It's like, okay, oh, we got to go back to the show. No, Pat Paul will enjoy lathering up. So it was muffled as another commander did, uh, interesting is to some of the Coos uniforms.

36:39 In the trade center a latch if the factor was Allurian or just Passio. And I do like the fact that we've never really dealt with an Allurrian other than Guy, other than. The two forms we've seen Guynan, but we always talked about the Illyrian and TG and it's like, okay, yeah, I think this isn't one of the tie ins that we needed a woman. But she definitely is nowhere near as old as Guynan that she both so I'm only thirty.

37:24 Okay there, but you've still got a lot you got to pay attention. Attention. I thought there's an interesting long in mystery, the visiting the researching of the oceanic planet and picking up something from there that we have to figure out. But that was an saying way of doing it. Arabic turned to Zombie and it's like, yes, but onely the ship crew, and I love when they look at the wait a minute, why is the fish to not affected and realizing well, we don't ut com badges.

38:08 Oh yeah, com badges. With a TNG era issues, you know. Not back and the older ship. Of course we get nice full revisit the citation facation again and let's see this episode. I know we should chat a little bit about this last time. I can't work what I gave it, but I'm gonna give this one eight. I enjoyed myself. They put down a little better, but I still enjoyed myself.

38:53 Excellent. We got an eight from Charles. All right, how about you, Eric, what do you think about Star Base eighty Ooh? You know, I have to say, I actually really enjoyed this episode. I know that it's a little bit tropy to like fall into the zombie thing. I feel like Lower Dex has done the zombie thing at least one other time, if not two other times, so I get that the zombie thing is kind of a little bit played out. I did like the twist on it here with it being sort of through the technology, and I did like the Cassie Knock's character. I mean, she was a little bit. She was sort of so happy, go lucky and positive that you were always expecting her to kind of turn to evil, and I like that she sort of didn't. I don't know's she was an uncomfortable character to watch, and yet at the end I sort of liked her overall. I liked how Mariner just was completely freaked out of about the place. There was that one line where Cassius says something like it grows on you, Mariner was like like a fungus. That was one of the best lines. But you know, we didn't even learn about the zombie thing until almost halfway through the episode.

40:18 There were there were, you know, suggestions of it, but it wasn't really confirmed as a as a sort of zombie virus ish thing, so till halfway through the episode didn't it didn't take it over for me in other words, So yeah, I thought it was funny. I thought the jokes were pretty good. I liked the idea that everybody was afraid, of course, of this starbus eeded place, and yet it turns out it's just it's just another place for scrappy underdogs, just like the critos. So the b. Story with Freeman and Ransom and the engineer was kind of weak. I think, like the zombie story was pretty funny and had some good jokes and stuff. The other story was kind of like, Eh, I don't really know if I enjoyed it that much. It sort of felt like they were just sort of running around the ship and I don't know, not much happened. So so overall I enjoyed the episode. It did not knock my socks off.

41:22 So I'm gonna give this episode a seven. All right, we have an eight, we have a seven. How about you, David, what do you think? Yeah, spill your beans. Okay, I really enjoyed this episode, but not as much as I thought I would enjoy it. To be honest, it was a little trophy I do agree with out there where they did the whole down beuteing. Luckily it wasn't throughout the entire episode. I'm like what Oak said, it white only halfway through. But however, I did really enjoy that whole decontamination. But where uh the first officer was just like, oh yeah.

42:04 It's just well well, And the thing the best thing about it, David, that I forgot to mention was that so throughout the whole episode, Ransom's talking about the gel right, like he puts it under his lip to just smell it sometimes. But then at the end it actually becomes useful because he pulls the guy out of the tube because he's got some gel. Yeah, yeah, it was It was pretty interesting. The only thing I didn't really like was the shide question with the Captain Freeman. I didn't like the fact that she had to go hunting for bat because apparently the engineer was like throwing him through all sorts of like long way.

42:46 She'd get to a shorten area, so he was just like some sort of crazy engineer that was just like giving him all the wrong direction. Enginet, he just popped up there like he hike the short kind of something you should all around me and in my book. But yeah, that whole idea with Captain Freeman, which. Is kind of a little weird. But yeah, I did like how Mana was reacting to the whole situations like she's been there before and I think she has right, Is that correct? Yeah, she spent some time on Starbay CD they talked about. Okay, yeah, that's what I thought. Okay, so I mean the idea that she was just like panicking throughout the entire episode was kind of fine, and I don't know, I mean, it was pretty interesting.

43:35 It's been a while steat of chance, so I'm trying to remember a lot of different changes out of the top of my head. But I was actually gonna score this the shame number that ercord before he even mentioned it, and I was gonna say, yeah, I'm going to seven. And when you mentioned I was like, oh, okay, so yeah, I'm gonna go to seven. Okay, we have an eight, A seven, a seven, And I'll jump in here next and say, you know, yeah. I watched this episode three times, but not because I liked it. I watched it the first time and I was in su I was stunned, like what did I just watch? And then I had to go back and watch it a second time just to make sure that what I actually saw I really saw. And then because I don't like to be mister negativity and I always like to find positive things to say, I had to go back and watch it a third time so that I could find some good things to say. Oh my god, So here's Jim saying good stuff. All right. So, first of all, I don't know if you guys noticed or not, but there was a really heavy Aliens theme song vibe going on here. When they first get to Star Base eighty.

44:47 The song that they play sounds reminded me so much of when the Imperial Marines or the Colonial Moraines landed on LV four two six and they're going up to the doors and they're Hudson opens the doors had that alien vibe to it, and the more I watched it, every time they were in the station, they played that same music cue and it reminded me of Aliens. So I thought that was cool. That's a plus from me. I also kind of I kind of giggled when Boimler said, Hey, I'm to palling it all up here. I thought that was funny. I laughed at that. One Another thing that that I laughed at that I thought was funny is when Tendy is looking at the uniforms and she says, oh, there are vintage uniforms. How did you get him without a replicator? And the guy says, oh, they're the uniforms of long dead officers. Oh, all right, and then Tendy says, oh, so they're real vintage. I thought that was cool. I also I don't know if anyone noticed, but when the engineer was in the arcade, he was playing a game called Romulin Invaders, and on the screen I paused the screen so I could get get it right. We had a Romulin Valdor ship at the bottom running back and forth shooting down Enterprise a Constitution class starships that were acting as the aliens invading. I thought that was cool, nice little touch, So kudos on that one. And last, but but but definitely not least, the best line of all,

46:19 the one that that's just the coup de'ta of lines, was bosses can be real dicks. How could you not love that line? It's so true. So those are the things, the good things that I picked out of this episode. But overall, I don't find myself suffering through this episode. A fourth time three was enough for me. So you know I'm gonna go with this is a tough one. I'm gonna go with a five five point one, five point one. Okay, I'm gonna go with a five point one because I know Paul loves those decimals, So I'm gonna go with a five point one on this one.

46:59 And with I'll turn it over to. Paulanks, Uncle Jim, I appreciate it. Man. So there were two episodes that we're going to talk about this week, and one of them I really liked. This is not that episode. This comedy is very subjective, right, And what makes one person laugh really really hard and that they enjoy the other person may find incredibly tedious and painful to endure. Doesn't mean that either of them are wrong, right. It just means that that's not the particular flavor of ice cream for that person, right, Everybody has different tastes. I thought this episode was just.

47:42 Terrible. It was awful. Sorry, writer may Darman and director of Bob Suarez, but this was just really tedious and and just the the you came up with a zombie episode that was what you pitched. And and as I think Eric said before, we've seen this before on at least more than one occasion, but I don't think we've seen it in such an unentertaining, numbing way. I mean, this was just really tough for me to sit through. I really. I mean, Charles is already you know, cadet training, all the references blah blah blah blah blah. Right, and I've said it before references and recognitions are not storytelling because I, oh, I recognize gel. Okay, that is not a that is not you know, a mark of storytelling. I recognize these aliens.

48:31 That does not mean that there was good writing at work here. Okay, there's just recognition and is that seems to be what they rely on with this show rather than having good. Good screenwriting. So really tedious waste of time. Jim was saying, well, okay, we should try to come up with something good to say about it. All right. The running time of this episode was twenty five minutes. A really good thing is it wasn't twenty six minutes. That's my positive thing to say about Recking Star bas eighty. That sucked twenty five minutes out of my life. I will never get back. And uh and it was just terrible. So that's all I have to say about it. I'd rather save most of my oxygen for h the next review I would give this, and I'm being generous afore.

49:18 Okay, there we have it. The trucks Spurts have spoken, Charles, how do we compare to our Facebook fans? Well? With our hold on. Just walked right across my keyboard and took away on my notes. Okay, the way the gave this an eight point gave it at six point two. Wow, and this is where the next day. Yeah, I think I'm a fan. That's a pretty low score.

50:03 All right, Okay, well there you have it, guys. That's the Trek Spurts versus our Facebook fans and Eric. What did our fans have to say about gods and angels? Well, Jim isaac leels that Mariner has matured so much over the theories, it was good to be shown someone so similar to really highlight how far she's come. Eddie Pasa said a few things. One love the Ronald B. Moore reference. Two, She'll be one with the wind just like her papa from this point forward. This episode had me. Rich Smith, a All Star contributor, said, I realized that some stories this season were written before the show was canceled, but having episodes that focus on a new crew member takes away precious screen time from our beloved crew Sbaight did it right last week, perfect balance of Mariner and Company with characters other than the main cast. Also, SB eighty was funny as hell. This episode not so much.

51:10 Alexis Gorman said Rutherford and Tendee. Noticing the bevil being deeper on all the universe pads instead of the color of it was hilarious to me. It's just so in character for them completely agree with you, Alexis halk Fisher said, gotta admit for a moment, I felt she was like that really dumbass and sign Fletcher who messed the secondary computer cor in season one. Good on Mariner to show her growth and pay it forward. Love this show, Eddie Passa said, regarding Boemler's surgery, I cannot help but think of Samuel L. Jackson in die Hard with a Vengeance saying, Zeus as in Father of Apollo Mount Olympus, don't f with me, or I'll shove a lightning bolt up your ass. Zeus, you got a problem with that? Thanks, Eddie. Add or A witt And said, I think it's so cool that they have the JG's mentoring new ensigns. They introduced some new ones over the last couple of seasons Hubbard, Taylor, Livick, et cetera. And there's gotta be some good shenanigans to be had there, and yeah, there you go. We have a fans score of this one. You guys, despite the positivity of all of these, of all of these comments, the fans score is only a six point six on this one. So in terms of like where we are on the overall season, six point six is absolute rock bottom.

52:39 Shades of Green was a seven point five from our fans, so this is pretty far below that. So yeah, there you are, all right, but the fans think. Let's go on reverse and we'll start off with Paul this time. All right, thanks. I actually just watched this episode today, so it's pretty fresh in my brain. I just in terms of like the overall tone, right, and just did I enjoy this? Was this lighthearted? Was it? You know? Fairly clever? Was it was the storytelling a little bit you know, more precise and not just relying on shit we've seen a million times before ad nauseum. For me, this was a breath of fresh air compared to Star Base eighty R.

53:21 Yeah. I don't think it was perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I enjoyed it. I think, just right out of the gate, how many different, you know, non corporeal entities that we've seen over the course of you know, a jillion different franchise iterations of star Trek, right, and this just was sort of like, you know, boiling it down to its you know, most preposterous, just crucible, right, I mean, spheres and cubes and we hate each other. You're around and you're angular, and. It's just just the fact that I mean, it was just preposterous, right. It was just and you know, they had a lot of fun with naming the various you know, geometric characters. Quadrillon's just hilarious, I thought. And and it looks like it's gonna be a murder mystery and all that, and then you know, we find out at the end that it's a it's a it's an our forbidden love a thing all the time that nobody was murdered. It was kind of a Romeo and Juliet thing, right, and uh and that ends up being the past the path to peace because there. But they had a lot of fun with the round it around you know things versus the sharp edges, and I just thought that was fairly funny.

54:37 I also really enjoy anything with Doctor to Anna is just great. I thought the whole thing of you know, boy, we're trying to get into her good graces was hilarious. And then she when the scene where she just loses her ship and just like rips into him was just hilarious. You know, what a great character. I just love her. I think she's just a scream. Agree with the one fan who said, hey, you know, is this really the time to be introducing a new character, right with Ali, who I'm assuming is Greek shorthand for Olympia. Perhaps if she's Zeus's daughter, just a guest, but I don't think they ever told us, but that would be my guess. But I thought she was kind of obnoxious, right, and she an obnoxious character is okay if they eventually become charming and you come to find something to be affectionate towards them about. That never happened with her, so I thought she was pretty much obnoxious the whole time, and kind of like, okay, can we move on to other characters who are more interesting, like doctor.

55:43 Tanna for example. So yeah, I think because of all that, but still on the whole I laughed really hard a lot with this the mostly because of the I think the the you know, the stick we've seen before of like you know, them having to play uh, you know neutral Sweden to two warring you know, areas and try to create peace out and you know, disarm the war and you know, helped create a you know you stability and the cosmos, if you will. So I thought they were just hilarious. I mean again, all the geometric puns and things were pretty funny. I thought that was really great, really good, and tired of boy, we're having the whole season be like his facial hair is if you I'm going to use air quotes for facial hair here. It's getting it just a tiny little bit longer every episode. It's like, man, I'm done, I'm I'm really that's that's not funny, and it's it's really not funny, and it's especially nod funny now, so yeah, you know, not perfect. And again, like you know, it's the whole thing where when the uh, when the spheres and the cubes start really fighting, I mean, there is so much destruction to the Serrito, so I can't even believe that it's in one piece. And it's just even for a comedy, it strains suspension of disbelief because that ship would be in dry dock for years to repair all that nonsense, right, years, So a little silly I mean, it's just again, you know.

57:13 I mean, you can kind of. You get away with a lot in comedy, but as soon as you start suspending this belief, it's kind of over. But on the whole, I really enjoyed this a lot more. I think it benefits from following Starbus eighty, which for me is like one of the worst episodes ever have lower deck. Sorry all you guys who loved it. I mean, I don't get it. I wish I did. I wish somehow I did. I just don't see what you see, right, But this was funny to me, and I mostly enjoyed it, though I could have done with a lot less of the whole idea of a Demi goddess joining Starfleet it seems just kind of ridiculous. It's like sometimes somebody pitches an idea in the writer's room and it's okay to tell them, no, that's not a great idea. So you wish you had curves like this, you pointy freak. I just thought that was funny, So I would give this episode of seven I think is about appropriate. I think that's kind of right in the midsection there, certainly better than a lot of them have been. This season. So seven feels good to me.

58:14 And uh, that's it all right. So of God's and angels, so you know. God's an angles man, that's the pot because it's geometry. I'm kind of with not angel angles angles man. I'm I'm kind of with Paul on this one. Actually. Yeah. I liked it a lot better than Starbaks eighty obviously, so what I you know, Boimler has a Kirk Spock and Data action figure in his quarters. Now, come on. I thought of Paul right away. I thought that was pretty funny too. That was that was a nice little bit, and it's just kind of there in the background. They didn't have to point out to make a big things, and I thought. I paused it to make sure I was seeing what.

58:55 I'm like, Oh my god, he's got action figures. And I thought that was great because hey, we're Star Trek fans. We all have action figures. So that that made me chuckle. I thought that was funny, you know. And something else, this Ali character. I really liked her, And what I really liked about her is that the the artists drew her thick and you guys might not. She's she doesn't have that hour glass shape that every other female character on the show has. They drew her thick, and I really thought that that was great because she wasn't the cookie cutter confirmation with every other female character on the ship.

59:39 She was thicker than they were. And when you watch the episode, you'll you'll know what I'm talking about. And I thought that was that was great that they did that. I also thought it was great that taw Guy was back again. I don't know if you guys noticed or not, but when Ali's late for her appointment with Boimler or with Beckett, she come running down the hallway and she knocks towl Guy down and he's laying on the floor. And two Guy is in every episode somewhere in the background. He was in this one too. Another thing that I thought was great, And this is something that we've talked about in the past, and I'm probably gonna say this wrong, but we saw not one but two characters wearing a hijib hijib. Yes. Yes, the fact that they actually put it not one but two characters in the episode was absolutely thumbs up. Outstanding way to go, guys. Representations important and star Trek and I caught that and thought it definitely needed to be mentioned. I also thought it was great when at the end when Freeman says, nake it.

1:00:48 So I'm like, cool, she watches TG. That was great. And obviously I have to mention Boimler's nickname from t you guys remember what it was? Oh? Yeah, yeah, so I was like, wow, he's fuck. Oh. I thought that was great. So yeah, overall, I really enjoyed this episode much much better than starbas eighty and so overall, I'm gonna go with an eight on this one. Eight point one just because I know Paul loves the decimals. They're so precise. Yeah, yeah, I gotta throw at eight point. One Angler you wish you had curves like these.

1:01:30 Exactly, all right, So that means we're gonna jump over to David. Oh okay cool. So yeah, this particular episode, I thought it was interesting with the whole cubes and squares and everything. So I thought it was Uh. I thought it was kind of already done because I thought for some reason that they did an episode like this in the past, maybe not this series, but in an other show. Maybe I might be mistaken, but but yeah, so to me, I'm trying to remember the name of the child that the square in the circle had, do you guys remember.

1:02:15 Uh yeah, it was square squaring squaring. Yeah, it was like s q Aaron, Yeah, because he had the a round bottom and a square top. Okay, okay, yeah, So to me, I I thought. That was pretty funny. I'm ix still here. Actually didn't bumped my head. Shut off my head. You just picked the nominee for the Secretary of Defense out of the running. Good job, David, just that one move. That's ALLID takes. But yeah, uh this Eperjode was pretty fine. I did like the motor mystery put. I actually thought I was hoping for an actual motor mystery. Actually enjoyed motor mystery movies, and I was kind of thinking ahead. I was like, okay, so this must have to have been some sort of mishap between the squares and the circles. And for some reason it flew over me with that whole tablet thing.

1:03:13 I didn't realize that's that's what they were looking for, and I'm like, I got a little confused, and so I had to rewatch it the second time, and I was like, oh, okay, I get it now. So but yeah, to me, I enjoyed this episode a lot, even though it wasn't really a motor mystery. But I hope they do one soon, even though it ended. I hope they bring back Lower Dectition, my favorite series, so to me, I am actually going to be giving this one an eight an eight point zero, kind of like a Mire for story based eighty, I guess, but yeah, yeah, that would be me. I can't really remember a whole lot about this episode, but yeah.

1:04:00 God, I can't figure out how to un mute my microphone on this new system. I hear you, I hear you. Oh okay, good good good good Okay. So who is gonna be next? That's going to be Eric. Okay? Uh yeah, so so interesting. I love I love reviewing these episodes because we all have such different ideas. Right for me, I think this might have been my least favorite episode of this season, so I agree with Paul. I found the Ali character to be pretty obnoxious throughout the whole episode. I didn't really like her, and I didn't really like the fact that they were I guess I agree with our uh you know, people who wrote into us that they are introducing this new character that I think they want to be important, But it almost kind of feels like they're going to be a throwaway character, and to me, they've already done that once. They did that with Jennifer, And I'm so disappointed with the way that they ended the whole thing with Jennifer, and just like, I don't know, I like the concept of them being able to break up and that sort of thing, but just the fact that they sort of left her out for a long time and then brought her back in here, They're bringing in a new character that they don't have any time to explore, and they've dedicated an entire episode

1:05:32 to her. So yeah, I just didn't think. That was that compelling, tell you the truth. I also agree with Paul that like the amount of destruction on the soritos was absurd and could never ever be repaired. I you know, her character as a partial god I thought was going to be kind of fun and they might have like some sort of references back to who mourns for Adonus, But like, aside from a couple of lame jokes here there, or the whole like lightning bolt up Boimler's butt thing, which I think was supposed to be happy or supposed to be funny, which I didn't really find funny at all.

1:06:16 Yeah, I don't know. I will say that I also. Agree that the kind of like Boimler trying to get into Honor's good graces because that's what he sees of his alternate universe self. I think that's hilarious. And I actually like the fact that we just see minor progress on his facial hair each week, because I think he's going for this like alternate universe Boimler beard, and I don't think he's gonna get there. I think this is part of that point zero four two percent variants or whatever, and I just don't think he's going to be able to grow this beard. And I love that he's going to spend the entire season trying to grow the beard.

1:06:56 So I just find that to be a funny thing that every week I'm kind of like, oh, how long is it going to be now? And in what way is he going to you know, hold his chin while he's thinking contempt contemplatively. About things or or that sort of thing. My favorite line of the episode was probably when the orb says orbs orbulate at the end. That was pretty funny, like, let's get out of here. Regulators regulate, you know what I'm saying, and Freeman of course dropping that make it so at the end was pretty funny. So I you know, I almost forgot this episode as soon as I saw it. I didn't love it a bunch, but there were some good jokes, So I don't.

1:07:37 Know, maybe like a. Maybe a five at best. Yeah, I'll give it a five. A five from Eric and Charles. You're bringing up the caboose, buddy, you're up next. Dig of it in my notes. So I've done something interesting on this one doing my dead research. The original. The original ending for the US episode of Tablage of the Enterprise Archaeologist episode Carolyn Palamas was pregnant with a Pallas child, but it was mixed by NBC censor. The only mediccene actually is available on the.

1:08:23 Rodenberry Bolt Blu Ray Columbus. Uh. Pregnancy was also included in James Bledge's novelization of the episode, So lower Deck. Uh yeah, appears to be thinking that references. In that episode to this one. Didn't quite get the idea of the lightning bolts that just kind of appeared, and what that would a little confusing A couple of nice little references in here that I did like.

1:09:04 When Mariner's waiting for Olea to show up. She's late. She's sitting in the old bunk area that may used to sleep in back in the ancient area. So I enjoyed that. That was I think a good kickback there. And then I love their debate at the end about how they get set. She gets set to the brig. And Mariner's going to be there sitting there giving her company, and they're arguing and arguing over each other. And it's interesting that that scene was taken from when Mariner was sitting in the brig and one of her friends was sitting there with her. So I think that's a backtrack to when Mariner was in the brig, which I thought was a nice reference there. I'm jumping on this one, agreeing with Airy.

1:10:14 This one. Just I enjoyed Star Base eight. But it's like, oh, Captain, they're going out there. They get four or whatever figure they want to. They're gonna create a tube. Oh, they're gonna create a spear. It's like original, It's like okay, and they go in to this big battle. He is a power for some reason over energizes. They come back. Unenergized and ear walks the two missing characters because we kind of had in Miltana and. It's like, okay, this one just didn't excite me.

1:10:59 Man, this is probably want to lie lowest scores about six. All right, there you have it, so wow, we might be pretty close with our Facebook fans on this one. So what's the final overall score Charles for our Trek spurts. Our fan gave this one at six point six. And the House for gracious and gave it at six point eight. Wow. Wow, Okay, there you have it. All right, guys, make sure that you go to our Facebook page, take place in our polls and tell us what you thought about this week's episode of Star Trek Lower Decks and then tune in next week to Trek Talking and see if we read your comments live on the air. And now it's time for our Star Trek birthdays. That was not a clue on song, all right, guys, this is a great part of the show. We get to have a lot of fun and talk about a lot of Star Trek episodes through the decades of Star Trek, and we always start out by remembering those members of our Star Trek family who sadly enough are no longer with us,

1:12:32 and for that we turned to Eric. Yeah, Jim. Tonight, we have five members we're going to be remembering. The first is actor Nathan Jung. Nathan Jung appeared as Genghis Khan in the original series third season episode The Savage Curtain. That was his very first television role, of course, happening in nineteen sixty nine, and Nathan continued to play small roles over the next thirty five years here and there, including Corvette Summer in nineteen seventy eighty Birthday Nathan Young, Happy Birthday, as well to Bill Erwin, the actor who portrayed Dalan Quints in the Next Generation four season episode Remember Me. Bill, of course, was a veteran of film and television, appearing on numerous theater programs of the nineteen fifties, including Science Fiction Theater and Zane Gray Theater. He has a few film credits, including Naked Gun thirty three and a third and a movie called Force of Nature. Somewhere in Time was another movie he was in. That's where he was featured in a larger role alongside Christopher Reeve and a few other more prominent actors. Erwin was remembered as the sixty third Primetime Emmy at the sixty third Primetime Emmy Awards in September of twenty eleven for his accomplishments, and Bill lived to be ninety six years old, which I think is amazing. We lost him back in twenty ten.

1:13:57 Happy Birthday, Bill Irwin. Happy birthday well to Nicholas Coster, the actor who played Vice Admiral Haftel in the third season Next Generation episode The Offspring of the Most Excellent Episode. Nicholas was an extremely prolific actor, has over one hundred and seventy television and movie credits on his IMDb page, but probably is best known for his role on various daytime soap operas, most notably his Daytime Emmy nominated role as Lionel Lockridge on NBC's Santa Barbara from nineteen eighty four through nineteen eighty eight and again between nineteen ninety and nineteen ninety three. Had some recurring roles like that of the father of Blair Warner on the Facts of Life Back in the Day. Yeah you know who I'm talking about. Coster also co starred with at least three Star Trek captains throughout his career. In nineteen seventy eight, he and Kate mulgrew were in an epic mini series called The Word Together. He was with William Shatner on the series TJ. Hooker, and got to act with Scott Bakula on an episode of the short lived Mister and Missus Smith in nineteen ninety six. Nicholas Coster, aged eighty nine years old, lost just two years ago. In June of twenty twenty three. Happy Birthday, Nicholas Happy Birthday, as well to Karen Landry, the actress who played the Vorgone Azure in the Next Generation third season episode Captain's Holiday.

1:15:27 Outside of Star Trek, she's probably best known for her recurring role as Mira White during the first three seasons of the drama Saint Elsewhere from nineteen eighty two to nineteen eighty five. Several television series including Mash Highway to Heaven, Family Ties, Chicago Hope, Six Feet Under along the way to her credit. Other films that she added her talents to included nineteen eighty eight's Heartbreak Hotel in two thousand and six's Peaceful Warrior. Karen Landry lost back in twenty fifteen at the age of sixty five years old. Happy Birthday, Karen. And last but out least unfortunately, we have a new member of our just Past community. On November sixth of this year, not a month ago. In fact, we lost the phenomenal actor Tony Todd. And of course, this actor was known in the Star Trek realms for portraying Wars brother Kern in the Next Generation and Deep Space nine episodes several episodes I think four episodes along the Way if I remember. He also played Kern in a Star Trek video game called Klingon Honor Guard. He was also Kern in Star Trek Online and played several different characters in episodes of DS nine and Voyager Along the Way.

1:16:52 In fact, he auditioned six times for various roles on the Next Generation before winning. The role of Kern. He was one of also several actors considered for the role of Benjamin Cisco on a little show called Deep Space nine. He provided the voice of Corban in the video game Star Trek Elite Forces two. And of course Tony Todd just has a ton of stuff to his name. I'm probably gonna let Paul take the mic on that to just like extol the virtues of this guy. But what I will say is that, standing at six foot five years six foot five years feet o feet tall, this guy was no joke, of course, and he was really well known for his roles in a ton of horror movies. And I'm not a horror movie guy, so i don't know all of them, which is why I'm gonna rely on Paul. But the last thing that I'll know Tony Todd for is that he also appeared on Jim's absolute favorite television show of all time, a little show called the Orrville.

1:18:01 That's right. He was a Macklin ambassador in the episode Sanctuary. So, Paul, what else do you want to say about Tony fan? Paul's not here because Paul had the No One meeting. Oh Paul had to go. Oh I just missed him. Oh darn it. Yeah, Paul had to go to a meeting. All right. Well, I'm sure that Paul would have had a lot to say about this guy. But please go to Tony Todd's IMDb page. Jim, do you have any like Tony Todd's stories or things that you want to kind of interject here? Well, Tony Todd, I think amongst horror fans. Is best known for the lead role in Candy Man. I believe he played candy Man in four candy Man movies. I think there was four of them, and he played the lead role of the candy Man in all four of those movies. So he's he's he's pretty well known amongst horror fans as candy Man. But I think I think that for us it's Kern all the way. Yep, Kern all the way.

1:19:00 Well, that does it for our remembrances this week. So I'm going to pass this flaming birthday candle over to thank you. Eric. I just got you, and I'm going to pass it back over you to finish up Paul's. Happy Birthday at Kimberley Column. Actually have played Gea Chartruck's Next or Ankins Seventh Bits see an episode by non self. She was nominated for a Young Artist Award for her performance Happy Birthday in June. Yeah Kalina.

1:19:42 Actor who played sur On in Star Trek Nemesis. He was born the same day as the Nemesis director Stuart your Bard. Happy Birthday is Zachary Benjamin, actress who played young Ian Andrew Troll char Trek's Next Generation second season episode The Child. Happy Birthday the Golden Brooks to portrayed. It Alicia Traveler and char Trek Enterprises four season episode storm Front and storm Front Part two. Happy birthday, Andre Dim, actress who played Deif Kyle in the first season of Third Trek Strange New Worlds. And this one's an interesting one.

1:20:31 A very happy birthday to Tom Wright, highly horrific actor who played Tubic Jar Trek Voyagers second season episode two. He also went on to play Gareth and Jardrek Enterprises four season episode storm Front. Interesting little side note is that when they did the episode two vics. They kind of looked at each the. Actor and said that neither one of them they would look he would look familiar to the combined of the two characters, so they chose to actually take a third actor to play the two of them as to that.

1:21:20 So it's interesting how he got the role because I think they were going to give it to one of the two actors and changed their minds that they just didn't look different enough to being representing the two. People that he was going to be. And Eric, I'm a path the planning handle over to. You, all right, I've got some folks who are still with us. Happy birthday to Eugene Clark, the actor who played Commander Shiv in The Star Trek Next uh excuse me, Star Trek Strange New World second season episode ad Astra per Asper. Happy birthday well to Frank military actor, producer, writer and director who played Biddle Coleridge in the DS nine third season episodes Past Tense, Part one and Part two.

1:22:13 Colonel Terry W. Vertz Junior was born in nineteen sixty seven and he's a NASA astronaut whose birthday is this week. He made a cameo appearance as ensign T verts Hello last name in The Star Trek Enterprise four season episode These Are the Voyage is a terrible episode, but nice that they had a real astronaut in there. Seller. Sarah Silverman, an actress and comedian who played Rain Robinson in The Star Trek Voyager third season episodes Futures and Futures and Part two, also has a birthday this week, born December first, same birthday as my dad, so crazy. Happy birthday, Sarah Silverman.

1:22:53 Happy birthday as well to Dan Guthier, who played Sam Lavelle in the Next Generation seventh season episode Lower Decks. You know the guy I'm talking about. And last on Paul's list is actress Samora Smallwood, a Canadian actress who played Lieutenant Amen in the Star Trek Discovery second season episodes Such Sweet Sorrow and Such Sweet Sorrow Part two. She was also in the Star Trek Short Treks episode Q and A. That's the one in the elevator, right, yeah, for sure, yes, all right, passing that flaming birthday candle. Over to you, Jim, all right, And I always take the Klingons because well because I like Klingons. So we're going to start off by saying copla to Alex Spencer, who played Grenax in the Star Trek Strange New World second season episode Broken Circle. He's the pirate Klingon that was underneath the planet they're building the Federationship. We also want to say a hardy kapla of Brian Bonsel. He's a former child actor who played Alexander Rozhenko in seven episodes of Star Trek the Next Generation and not a Klingon, but I threw him on my list because we had him on the podcast and he was awesome. I want to say happy birthday to Eduardo Roman, the actor who played Vulcan Number one in Star Trek Picard's second season

1:24:25 episode Mercy. You guys can go back and find his interview with us. He was a great guy, a lot of fun to talk to, and a huge Star Trek fan, and he was so grateful. In fact, I'll tell you a little story. He can go to the podcast and hear it in his own words. But when he auditioned for the role, they gave him a choice that he could have either been the shopkeeper that had the broken window and was sweeping up the glass on the street and actually had spoken lines in the episode with Rafi and seven, or he could have been the vulcan in the park and being the Star Trek fan, he immediately said, I gotta be a Vulcan. I don't want to be some random dude. I gotta be a vulcan. So he took the scene as a vulcan, even though we had less screen time, just because he was a Star Trek fan and he wanted to wear the ears. How cool is that, guys, go and look up his interview. He was a lot of fun to talk to, and that, my friends, wraps up our Star Trek Birthdays, and now it's time for Star Trek News. We haven't had a chance to do Star Trek News in the last couple of shows, but we do this time. So it's time for some Star Trek news. I don't have that. No, it's not. Is it this one?

1:26:00 Hope not that one? Oh I know? No, yeah, I can't. Oh my god, it's so long. Okay, well, this is like two minutes of the heim. I honestly, I don't know. I don't know where I put it. I can't. I can't find it. I'm sorry. It's my first time with this new studio. I can't find it. But anyways, go down, go down.

1:26:41 Maybe it's under that. All right. So Eric has our first story for Star Trek News. Eric, you want to jump right in and take it away. I am so excited to be talking about comics again. It's been a very long time since we talked about comics here, and and of course many of us have been following along the whole time. And there's a cool new event coming up in twenty twenty five. Data's Evil Twin turns Evil God in Star Trek Lore War comics crossover event coming in twenty twenty five. IDW is following up on the release of their five hundredth issue of Star Trek Comics by announcing the next Big comics crossover event, bringing together their ongoing flagship Star Trek series and the ongoing Star Trek Defiant series. The new crossover event focuses on Data's brother Lare once again threatening the universe as he does. Here is how IDW describes the upcoming crossover event.

1:27:45 The single most devious mind in the universe has one Commander, Data's evil brother Law has used the Orb of Destruction, which by the way, is no joke, to obliterate all of reality and remake it in his image. While declared himself it's God. Now that Lore has claimed the ultimate victory, what happens next? In a statement, the team behind the crossover explains how it all ties into the current Star Trek Comics quote. This is it the moment we've been building too since the Theseus left Spacedock and the Defiant was stolen, remarked Lanzig the ultimate Star Trek Comic crossover event as the heroes and villains of the galaxy must ban together to defend its very existence. Since the lines inception, our grander story in both titles has dealt with Star Trek concept of godlike beings and the rejection of those godlike beings order an entropy as it exists throughout the four quadrants of the galaxy. Added Campwell, who pulls the strings and who dares to cut them?

1:28:52 Lore War is. Quite literally the apothesis of that shared theme. Two years in the making. Star Trek World War number one arrives in comic book stores on March twenty six, twenty twenty five. To get you started. The brand new Star Trek number five hundred special issue released recently, and it contains a prelude story for lore War titled The Final Masterpiece. You can pick up Star Trek number five hundred at your favorite local comic book shop. And you, guys, I don't know about you, but I have been thoroughly, thoroughly enjoying both the Star Trek title and the Star Trek Defiant title this entire year. I think that they're both just like completely nailing it. And like, you know, every once in a while I get an issue where you're sort of like, eh, that wasn't that great, But like, generally speaking, the story feels like it's really hitting hard to me, and I'm very excited about this crossover.

1:29:48 While Yeah, and you know, with our with our new studio and our new setup, we're going to be bringing back Comic Corner. So you guys can stay tuned because Comic Corner we're gonna dust off the dust, We're gonna blow it all off, and we're gonna bring it back and it's gonna be bigger and better than ever. And we have a lot of Star Trek comic books to catch up on, so keep an eye out for Comic Corner, all right. So this next story was for Paul, but Paul had to leave, so I'll jump in in his place. Will Wheaton reflects on Wesley Crusher's return to Star Trek Prodigy. The Traveler better known to us as Wesley Crusher, has been back to our screens. Having not seen him since nineteen ninety four. Is tng episode Journeys end unless you count a quick scene in Nemesis of him sitting with his mother at the wedding reception and another one in Star Trek Picard season two. It was a delight to see him again and learn who his character is now.

1:30:47 Our friends over at trekcre caught up with him and asked him about the process that led him to being a part of the second season. He said, well, a good friend of mine is on the Prodigy writing staff, and she called me up and said, how do you feel about being Wesley Crusher? Again, I was like, I'm extremely into it. She pitched me the broad idea of what they were thinking about and then asked me if I had any idea as I said, you know, I don't want to overstep, but I've been writing fan fiction about Wesley the Traveler for years and in my stories he's kind of like the doctor from Doctor Who. She got really excited and said that the Prodigy writers were thinking the same thing, so we were all leaning in the same direction. She asked me, what do you think about this? What do you think about that? And I couldn't believe it. I'd never been invited into the creative process as early as on Prodigy, so I even felt closer to this character than I already would have. And then in a few days I got the official request to join the show, which of course was operating under a code name at that point. We were calling it Captain Video. During production, he shared how the Cammeo and Star Trek. Picard's second season and the comic that he wrote in twenty twenty two in IDW's four hundredth issue all tied into the appearance on Prodigy, and now the loom that he was facing in this series tied into the other two. When asked what he thinks of Prodigy as a whole, he had some very insightful things to say.

1:32:20 There are three things that really stand out to me about Prodigy. First, I love that Wesley is in the show, because Wesley was written into Trek to bring people into the universe and get kids interested in making a better tomorrow, and Prodigy is doing the same thing. I've heard Kevin and Dan say that Wesley was the original Prodigy, so we need him in Prodigy. That's just a gift. Second, I love that Prodigy doesn't talk down to kids. It reaches kids where they are. It gives their parents something to watch so that they can watch it together. I agree with all the fan feedback I've been seeing saying this was probably the best Trek season since Deep Space nine, just in terms of satisfying great storytelling. It's checking all different boxes. Third, I love that at its core, Prodigy is about teamwork. It's about outsider kids. Absolutely, absolutely, it's about kids who have no place to call home all coming together and finding a home and Starfleet that is just a gorgeous message for kids who feel weird, feel like they don't fit in, there is a place for you to fit in. It's with your fellow weirdos. And the Star Trek World is a place where you're special, no matter who you are, Welcome a board. And you know I on our Facebook page, I get a lot of people that absolutely will not watch Prodigy or Lower

1:33:54 Decks because their cartoons and they're for kids, and they refuse to watch it. They just won't watch it. They won't give it a chance. They don't care. It's a cartoon. Not interested. And I say to those people, you know, that's too bad, because you're missing some great Star Trek particularly season two of Prodigy. Season one was okay, but season two was leaps and bounds ahead of season one. And anybody that refuses to watch it because it's a cartoon, you need to climb down off your high horse and give it a chance. Because their Prodigy has some of the best Star Trek stories I've seen, even in live action Star Treks. So if you haven't watched it, please give it a chance. I don't think you'll be disappointed at all. You guys are great.

1:34:44 That he is. Will Wheaton is such the representative Star Trek right now. He has a bit where he's a little bit of the faces of Star Trek, and I love how much he rep he includes out with the fans. So really I see I see the interview and it's like, yeah, that sounds like Will Wheaton talking. And I love how he admits the fact that, oh hey, I get invited to come in and discuss this before I was even a cast member. And I like how shows occasion we will do that, and I think it's nice to see shows that will do that. Let's just not take the stards, let's bring the guests and let's make it more special where they're inclusive. And I'm hoping more shows kind of look at that model and follow use that model.

1:35:47 Yeah. I also like the fact that he actually was a traveler supervisor on Star Trek Picard and he took Sogi and that wasn't Sogi. That was a mirror universe version. That was different series. Man, Yeah, that was that was the same actors playing a different character that was related any whatever. So he actually was a traveler supervisor in Picard. We see him briefly in Picard right at the end, but the mean Prodigy. He was gonna say, what what Prodigy did? Was it like brought together that whole story of the traveler and then associating them with the whole like supervisor Gary seven thing. I thought that was so cool how they brought it all together, because it it makes sense and even though it's retcon right, it's not something that was originally intended in Star Trek.

1:36:42 War, it all sits together. It does because they wanted to. I thought it was great when they brought the entire TG cast back that they didn't bring back Wesley, but they they did manage to get him into Picard, you know, at the end. And I thought it was great that they did that, and I thought Prodigy did an even better job following that up. For sure. His reference to the doctor who like picture being a doctor, It's like yes, I was like yes, and that's exactly what Eric and I looked at, like, yeah, he is representing the doctors as well.

1:37:28 Well. I think, like especially the way that he dressed Charles was very Number ten to me, like the whole overcoat and then you know Number ten didn't wear a sweater, but he would wear the toe and like the shirt underneath the jacket and all that sort of thing. So he he had a very David Tennant kind of fild Mary. Yeah, and I think that was a good homage to those of us who are whould be. Yet you know, it's just too bad that that Prodigy is on Netflix because I would have loved to see them on the Ready Room. Do a have Will Wheaton interview himself on the Ready Room? You know, that would have been funny. But unfortunately we don't get Prodigy on the Ready Room. And you know what else, I got to throw this in there as well. Will Wheaton takes a lot of flak for Wesley. There's a lot of people out there that hate Wesley and they dump on Will Wheaton because of Wesley. And to see him come back on Prodigy, I think redeems that character. Not that he needed to be redeemed in my eyes, but it brings the character, you know, in a full circle and brings him back to the forefront as this prodigy. I hate to use that word, but as a prodigy character on a show called Prodigy. I thought that was just great.

1:38:58 So, Jim, if I could just pay you on what you're saying here, Like, I think one of the coolest things about modern Star Trek honestly is Will Wheaton. And here's why, because he has been through the fire Man. He was a child actor who was pushed in a lot of different directions and asked to do a lot of different things and probably wasn't capable of making like really good decisions when he was a child actor. And yet he's kind of come through the whole thing, and he's probably one of the most compassionate, caring, just like lovely individuals that you'll ever see on television. He always approaches every situation with care, with like hoping that he's accommodating whatever the other person's thing is, whatever that is.

1:39:51 I just think Will Wheaton is like a bright light in Star Trek, and I feel like he is as much as Star Trek Discovery is an integral part of twenty first century Star Trek. I feel like. Adult Will Wheaton is actually in that same category. For me. He's literally the coolest ambassador for Star Trek that we have these days. And I've told this story before and I'm gonna briefly tell it again. I had to with Wheaten at one of my conventions back in the mid nineties. I couldn't get any guest stars. I was having trouble with another convention company and my phone rang and guess who it was? Will Wheaton. And Will Wheaton wasn't doing conventions at that time because he hated this other company and wouldn't do it.

1:40:37 And he called me up and he says, I'd love to stick it to the man, I'll do your show. I was like, Wow. To put that in perspective actors, you will never never get a phone call from an actor saying can I do your convention? It just doesn't happen. Okay, you got to call the agents. You got a da da da da da da. So for him to get my phone number from Michael Dorn and then call me at home is just out of this world rare. When he got to the convention, he was the coolest. He signed every autograph, He hung out in the hotel lobby all night, went to all the room parties, came to the dance party, judged the costume contest. He was there for the fans all the way. And I have nothing but respect and admiration for Will Wheaton.

1:41:31 So do you think it had something to do is because he thinks that Trek fans are the best fans. I think he thinks that absolutely. I think he thinks that for sure. All right, So I got a new perspective. On Will Wheaton when I never read the original biography, but when he came up with the revived, when he went back and he. Brought the biography where he read, took the biography and put. Footnotes in the whole thing, and I think he gave me an entirely new perspective of Will Wheaton.

1:42:15 And I think he was a little too young when he. Wrote his biography originally as an older Will Wheaton and a representative Drtrich. How he re wrote his book I think was fascinating and inside to who Will Wheaton is and has the character that I think we a lot more respect than we did then. And I'd love to get him on the podcast absolutely and Charles Story. Star Trek fans are traditioning to get another puplic character of their own. All the town statue Star Trick has given the fans mirrored wonderful characters over the year.

1:43:00 Here at the point where fans. Are crafted from real life tributes to the space stars and the value they uphold. As members of Starfleet. Considering that's the case, it was only a matter of times where someone had the idea. And to honor a member Church of Next Generation and Deep Spaces. Nine at someone known for being the most important person Starfleet. That's right. The efforts of being made geitla Meini's Miles O'Brien. His own statue. For those who haven't seen the Change our Work petition, the goal is to erect the statue of Miles O'Brien in the character's hometown of Burnley, which is a course in Ireland. While a statue of Miles o brand is a great idea, it is not whole highly unique as a tribute Church or Glower Decks first showcase statue two Miles O'Brien in season one episode Temporal Eddache, the Dankes engineer receives an honor for being the most important person Surfleet, which series Mike McKennon later told star Trek dot Com was because he represented the ideas of lower deckers. He was a crew man who worked his way up historically a ladder all the way to the prestigious teaching position at Stirfleet Academy, raising a family in the process. Star

1:44:32 Trek is a USAI that sails most of it's work in Anada these days, but it's a franchise and it's celebrated worldwide. Well, the SDE does it's best to represent all the cultures and humans and values. It's fair to say fans outside of North America don't get quite so much fun seeing the cast at conventions or attack or attending events hosted by Paramount Plus. Fan needed something cool to embrace. Actually I disagree, because I think there are a couple of international convention and I don't know how they're attended, but I'm pretty sure they're probably well attended.

1:45:19 I think it'd be interesting to see what people in Ireland think about it. Yeah, and you know what, we can have Leslie Hoffman come on, because she just took a trip to Ireland to a Nightmare on Elm Street convention that she was invited to over there, so we can get her opinion as to how popular Star Trek really is over in Ireland. That would be cool, and let's see, we've got we've got it. I don't know, David, we got enough time to squeeze in one more story. What do you think? Oh do you think we can go more than two hours? Yeah? We can do it? All right? Cool this one. I'm not entirely sure how they found this out. I mean, I know, we've got really good telescopes and everything, but there's a planet exactly where Star Trek said Vulcans should be. Astrophysicists found just found a planet orbiting the star HD two six nine six five, sixteen late years away from Earth. Anybody planning on building a warp engine anytime soon, but anyway, finding extra planets is always fun, and the fact that this one is in star's habital zone, where liquid water could exist on its surface, is a bonus.

1:46:41 But that's not. Why people are particularly cite about the announcement. HD two six nine sixty five sounds like a bog identification god by forty il danny a A the star orbited by spocks world in Star Trek. That means they found vulcan Okay, fine, they found a real world analog to the completely fictional world. But you can't blame Star Trek fan for being excited. The new planet is a super Earth orbiting the star h HD two six nine six five. Say that. Try to saying that three time fast, which is only sixteen light years from Earth, making it the closest super Earth orbiting another Sun like star. Oh so, the lead author gion G said in a statement, So he quotes again, the planet is roughly twice the size of Earth and orbits the star with a forty two day period, just inside the stars of the most habitable zone.

1:47:56 Unquote. The resources don't yet know what kind of planet the real life vulcan is. It could be a big old version of the rocky Earth, but it could also be the gaseous planet, something like a point of pine size Neptune. Without more data, we won't know. But luckily we're about to get more data. Data. NASA's tes Tess satellite will be looking towards the star later this year, and if the planet transit transics, we could get more information about its density or atmosphere. So I don't know, do you guys think that we're able to seize that fars? I mean, the sixteen light year seems a little far affected to me, but I mean it's kind of cool that we are discovering planets.

1:48:55 I guess, yeah, No, I mean, I think it's it's totally with the technology that we have these days. We have ways of using the way that light is transmitted to us to understand things like the density of atmospheres and things, you know, where they're talking about if the planet transists. This is like going across the surface of a star, because it's really hard to see. Planets that are that far away, and the. Only times that you can really see them that well are when they go in front of a star and then you can see their shadow and be able to measure things about them. So this is fantastic.

1:49:35 The fact that it's just inside a habitable zone and is twice the size of Earth just screams Vulcan, Like if you're into planetary stuff, like, that's exactly how big Vulcan's supposed to be, and it's supposed to be super hot and not have a lot of liquid water on it, which I would assume that a planet within just inside the habitable zone would be pretty darn hot. So I don't know, I think this is kind of cool. I yeah, you know, it's a fun thing for sure. Yeah, I thought it was a cool story. I thought it was fun. So to let you guys know, we are going to be having Tim Russ, mister Tuvac himself on the podcast on the seventh, so mark your calendars you want to be ready for that. You can send your questions. You can go to our Truck Talking dot com and you'll see the little blue talkback mic in the bottom right hand corner. You can click on that mic and record your question. Leave a question for Tim and we will read your question to him and have him answer it on the air. So you have plenty of time to get us your questions. Go to trek Talking dot com, click on the little blue talkback mic in the bottom right hand corner, leave a question for Tim Russ and we will get it answered for you.

1:50:50 And of course, while you're at trek Talking dot com, there's all kinds of other great stuff you can do while you're there, so please check it out. Make sure to visit our Facebook page get Truck Talking Podcasts. When the Evil AI puts it back on, they're telling me it's going to be twenty four to forty eight hours, so it'll either be Friday or Saturday, and the page you'll be back up and running. You can take place in our polls, tell us what you thought about an episode, or just kind of hang out. Become a top fan. We'd love to mention your name on a future fan shout out. So what do you guys think about the new studio? I think it went pretty well. I think it worked out good. Yeah, I mean I don't think that. I think audio quality is good. I think that we have some I'll be really interested to hear what the final product sounds like in terms of balance, because I know that we've all experienced various balance.

1:51:38 Issues throughout the show. But it could be that as people hear it, it sounds amazing. I don't know. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see when it's all. When all is said and done, we do have the ability to go live. We haven't done that yet because this is our first show with this new system, but once David and I can test it out, we'll do some live shows for you guys as well. We're also going to be doing some videos because we have the ability now to do video shows, and we're going to be doing comic Corner book milk. We're going to be bringing all kinds of great new stuff for you guys in the future, so keep your eye out. It's going to be some fun stuff with Trek Talking. So I just want to say thank you so much to Paul for hanging out in trek talking with us. He had to go, but thank you so much, Paul. It was great to have you on.

1:52:25 And of course thank you to Eric for hanging out in trek talking with us to night. Thank you so much, Eric, do you bet? Thank you guys, always a good time. And of course thank you so much to our very own Charles for hanging out and trek talking. With us as well. Thank you Charles talking. And it's get back to the show again. It is a lot of fun and I miss it when we don't do it. And of course thank you to our intrepid engineer mister Scottie himself, David, thank you for hanging out and trek talking with us. David. I know that you've given her all she's got. Captain. Hey, I try do my best cottage action in another video or audio. But yeah, it's been been kind of kind of fun. It's been very great.

1:53:10 But I want to see, David if we can put a video up in that screen right there where. We're looking at the Bird of Prey right now. I want to see if we can get a video in there. That's something we got to work on. And of course i'm your most excellent host, Uncle Jim, and I just want to say to everybody, please stay safe and be good to each other, and remember Star Trek fans are the best fans. Hailing frequencies are closed. Good night, everybody. He all stations ready for departure, sir, some problem, right, I'm just hoping this isn't the usual way on missions will build.

1:53:53 Said, Oh no, I'm sure most will be much more interesting. Let's see what's up there. Engaged