EPISODE 697- Star Trek: A High-Stakes Adventure

0:07 Continue with the operation. You may fire when ready. Old Bob, Sam, Word of Story, Scandal, Twist and Turn, Bell, Toss and McTug, Death of Tosche, Flash, Gordon, Bob Rogers, Stormtroopers, and Clone Wars, James, Holden, Twinkie, John Koenig, and C.A.P. Can we talk about the series? You can join us.

0:48 Live by picking up your phone now. Can we talk about the series? We're coming to you on your streaming services now. Can we talk about the series? I'm exposed to singing, you don't be honest, so now I'm meeting up about the series. Come and join us as we stick and chat and we can go. On and on. Well, good evening, Trekkies and Trekkers around the globe. It's Thursday, September 10th, 2026. I'm your most excellent host, Uncle Jim.

1:31 Welcome to the podcast. This is episode 697. Before we go too far, I would like to take a very brief moment, a moment of silence and a moment of remembrance, if you don't mind. Tomorrow, 25 years ago tomorrow, my Aunt Eileen Parrish on the 86th floor of the World Trade Center. And I think about her at this time every year and seeing how it happens tomorrow. I just wanted to take a brief moment because I know that there's a lot of people that weren't alive when that happened.

2:15 But if you were, just never forget what happened. It was real, it was tragic, and it was awful. They never found any parts of my aunt's body. She completely vaporized, just puffed. She was gone. They had a DNA funeral for her. So if you don't mind, I would just like to take a moment right now of silence, if you guys don't mind. Thank you. Thank you for giving me that. And I'm thinking of my NIL right now. Okay, put that out of the way. Let's have some fun now.

3:08 What do you say? I appreciate you guys bearing with me. So as I said, I'm your most excellent host, Uncle Jim. Welcome to the podcast. And I want to go around the room and introduce my awesome treks. First, we're going to start off with Dee. Dee is down in Virginia. I'm doing all right. It was a hot and humid day. But now I'm... cool and calm and we're going to have a lot of fun. Happy to be here. I'm not blue. I'm orange or something. I don't know. Sorry, that's the crack in my screen. Okay, I'm not orange. Okay, whatever. Next week I'll be purple. I don't know. Do they have purple aliens?

3:52 Because they should. I need to be purple. I'm sure they did at some point. And also we have with us from Las Vegas, we have our very own Charles. Welcome to the show, Charles. Oh, thank you, Jim. Enjoying our day of heat today as we get a heat warning today. Supposed to cool off finally and maybe get down to double digits again next week. It's nice up here in Vermont. It's right where we'd expect it to be. It's going to snow tomorrow, so that's good. No, not really. Really? No.

4:33 Okay. No, just kidding. And we're going to swing out to our Portland contingent, and we're going to say hello to David. He's our miracle worker on the show. We put together all these awesome videos that you guys enjoy. How are you doing tonight, David? I'm doing good. I came across some triple eggs, but, you know. What? Be careful with those. and also from portland we have with us joining i. Am doing very good as you can see uh i've just finished cleaning the transporter room on the enterprise here um just finished my shift and so happy to be sharing a drink and some uh bespokement of star trek with y'all You like that word.

5:22 There, Paul? You like that word? Overdue. Overdue as well. Looks like you missed a spot, Eric. Last but not least, we have with us a toy guy who's really excited about next week. Welcome to the show, Paul. Hi, I'm Eric. Do I want to know why you needed to clean the transporter room? Were there bodily fluids that we need to find out about? No, no, no. That's the holodeck that you're thinking of. Okay. All right. All right. Because I just wonder about this show, because V's obsession with cracks and last night with the leather pants thing, it's just, I don't know what's happening. I feel like, you know, it's... It could be anything. Yeah, getting steadily more adults. So, I don't know. I'm ready to escape into a land of fantasy. That's all I know. Yeah, excited. Excited.

6:09 Glad to be here. It's going to be a good week. I had an interesting run-in with a coyote this morning. It was really cool. The coyote from the movie? No, the coyote, the kind that will eat your cat if you don't watch your... We have lots of them in our neighborhood, and one darted out in front of my rig this morning when I was driving back from the store. It was cool. I like like to believe as the First Nations people do. The coyote is a messenger. He's trying to tell you something. If he shows up, he's got special connections to the other realms. I was quite thoughtful after my coyote encounter today. Very cool. Misunderstood animal.

6:53 I see all kinds of wildlife on my way to work. You never know what I'm going to run into on the highway, on the roads here. It could be chickens, cows, coyotes, beavers, moose. You never know. Well, I see. We have around here, we have horses, cows, sheep, chickens, and ducks. So there you. Go. You have it the whole damn day. So if you guys, we had a podcast yesterday. We didn't want to get too far behind because next week we have the toy guru himself is going to be joining us. So we didn't want to get too far behind. So we did a one-hour podcast yesterday. chronitons through the hourglass so you can find that you can go over to our page trektalking.com and you can check out that podcast from yesterday you can support us by becoming a subscriber only 99 cents a month or you can help us out by making sure to like and share our post to all of your friends because that gives us a really good algorithm on Facebook Tonight we're going to be talking about Season 4, Episode 6, Off Hour. We're going to have some fun with that. We also have our fan shout-outs, so let's not forget about that. And our cadet review with our own Charles. What actors do you share a birthday with on our Sci-Fi Birthdays? Uncle Jim's movie pick of the week. And what's going on around the universe? And we have a Shatner says, what's going on? However,

8:26 before we go too far, anybody who's watched this podcast or follows us, I can see behind me my autographed Cyborg Star Trek 5 poster, my Star Trek 5 magazine cover over here. Star Trek 5 is by far my favorite movie. I was so excited that Cyborg was going to show up that I was thrilled. And Eric and David put together a really nice video for me, which if David has that I'd like to play that for you guys again today in case you missed our show yesterday. Alright here we go.

9:16 When you wish on shock away then Wait for eternity. The truth in your dreams you see will come to. You. Into the skin of your skin. And so. Trying to make them. understand.

9:57 To make them understand. To make them understand. Oh, my God, that was so excellent. Brought a tear to my eye again. Why do I see Eric as a Vic Fontaine-type lounge singer just playing? That would be fantastic. But that movie theater marquee just cracks me up. I just lose it over that. Oh, my God, when I found that, I was like, we have to include this.

10:42 I gotta find out where that theater. Is. It says it's Buffalo. I think it was in Buffalo, New York. Oh, I'm gonna have to go there. For sure. As you guys know, we've been expecting Cybox Returns to end the season 2. And we finally got it, and that's all I'm. Gonna say about it. Okay, so I just wanted to play that video for you guys because I enjoyed it so much, and I wanted to make sure that all of our regulars like you right out there got a chance to see it if you missed our Wednesday show. So there you have it. And if you're not a subscriber... If you didn't get to see that video, go over to our Facebook page and subscribe, and you can see that awesome video that David and Eric did together for us. All right, are we ready to dive right in? We always start off our show with our fan shout-outs. To be mentioned in a fan shout-out, just head over to our Facebook page, Trek Talking and Beyond. You'll see the Live Long and Prosper pinned to the top of the page. Tell us where you're from. Leave lots of emojis that catches my attention.

11:41 You can see our next few names. from your truly Uncle Jim, then you are going to be mentioned in a fan shout-out like these awesome fans that Eric is about to tell you. I don't hear Eric. He's muted. Sorry about that. Somebody muted me. I don't know what was going on there. All right, well, our very first fan shout-out this week. Yeah. Our very first fan shout out this week goes out to Maybe Marie from Amsterdam in the Netherlands. And she sends us a live long and prosper sign. And the number 39, are you telegraphing your age too? I'm not really sure, maybe. But at any rate, thank you for saying hello to us from Amsterdam. We really appreciate it.

12:31 I'd also like to say hello this week to Sharian Bridge from Germany, who sends us not one, not two, not three, but four live long and prosper emojis. And Lord knows that's how you get Jim's attention, just pile up on the emojis. It'd be better if there was a Klingon ballad emoji, but I'm not sure that there is one. Thank you as well for saying hello to us this week to Tobias Paderbaum from Münster. Invest Phelan. That's right. Tobias, thank you so much for saying hello. And Lupe Lorraine is saying hello to us from Scotland, sending us that beautiful Scottish flag and another Live Long and Prosperous sign. It was like that was the emoji everybody was going to use today. It was the Vulcan hand symbol. So thank you to every single one of you for supporting our podcast and for listening to us and for interacting with us.

13:23 Hello from King Jones in Houston, Texas. Yes. So my first, next, Kirk P. DeCoste from Nebraska. Then Paul Sims is saying hello and says, I'm from Burnett, Michigan. And last but not least, Heather Babby, originally Iowa, South Dakota now. So thank you to all of you for watching and listening to us. All right, now the flaming whatever, not birthday candle, sorry, never mind.

14:05 Charles, who do you have? Thank you, V. Let's start off with a warm welcome to Chris Lucchipi from Southern Oregon, checking in with the Live Long and Prosper symbol. Welcome, Chris. Welcome, Teresa Grigou. From Marysville, Washington, north of Seattle. Teresa, I know you're having great weather because I was just spending last weekend in Seattle. Love the weather. Welcome, Steven P. Brown from Chicago, Illinois. Welcome, Steven.

14:45 And welcome, Kat Tidsdale from Gilbert, Arizona, which I know where Gilbert is. Because I lived there for a couple years. Welcome, Kat. Paul, I'm going to hand you the flaming megaphone. Thank you. Everything is flaming today, including many of our Trex birds. But that's another story. We've got an international audience, as you well know, that love not just this wacky podcast, but all things Star Trek related. And let's say hello to Louise Ann from Belgium, overlooking the North Sea there. Wonderful to hear from you, Louise Ann. What a country you live in. Absolutely amazing. So I aspire to visit there. myself, in a little bit warmer climates, shifting continents. We go over to Brazil, and our pal Laiken Fernando is weighing in from Brazil. I'm seeing a lot of this from Brazil today, a lot of live long and prosper, which is great. So it lifts us all together. From Greece, with an alien emoji and the big thumbs up, I have a one-word individual named Skiofti from Greece. It could be that Skiofti is like Cher. You know, it just goes with one name. That's all you really need. I am Skiofti. And that's, you know, everyone knows who you mean, which is fantastic. And then Irish flag proudly unfurled. It is top fan from Dublin, Ireland, Rachel Carr saying hello.

16:14 So we've got folks all over the place. Just because Star Trek was invented in America and that we do a lot of science fiction here, it doesn't mean that it's not beloved over the entire globe. from folks everywhere, united through the power of the imagination. But I think there may be somebody closer to Uncle Jim he wants to say hello to here, so let's pass the roulette wheel of longitude and latitude back over to Uncle Jim. Why, thank you so much, Paul. Unfortunately, I don't have any emojis. I don't know what that means. But, um, Anyways, I'd like to say hello and thank you to Jack Wilson, who's listening somewhere here in Vermont. Don't know where, but Jack is somewhere in Vermont. Thanks for being along with the ride, Jack. I also want to say hello to Carol Robin Drescher, who is in New York. New York, the Big Apple, the city that never sleeps. Thank you for listening, Carol. We also want to say hello and welcome to Mindy Foster, who is in Naples, New York.

17:18 I'm not sure where that's at. I'll have to check. But thank you for being a fan and supporting our podcast, Mindy. And last but not least, Joe Torelli, who's in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thank you so much, everybody. If you'd like to be mentioned on a fan shout-out, please head over to our Facebook page, Trek Talk, and then beyond. Tell us where you're from. Leave emojis. It gets my attention. and we'll feature you in a future fan shout-out. And all these awesome pictures that are going by, like me interviewing Darth Vader on the screen right now, you can send us your cosplay pictures, and David will add them right there on the screen, so you will be immortalized for all of eternity as not only a fan, but a fan of Trek. That was a good one, dude, when I met Eric at Triconderoga. Okay, guys, so that's our fan shout-out.

18:11 We're going to do some polls right now, which means. You know we'd like to win, but you thought about the show and we tried. To share your opinions with all of our minions. I don't care because they listen to me. So tell us just what you think, and together we will all dream. Kadar and Romulan, a-hole to our minions. Wow. Another excellent video put together by David and Eric, I must say.

18:58 So right now we're running a little poll on our Facebook page with the 60th anniversary of Star Trek. I want to find out what your favorite crew would be. If you were the crew of a starship, who would you pick as your crew? So each week I ask a question, and this week we're going to be focusing on our engineer. So take it away, if you will, Eric. Yeah, we are talking about who you, if you were the captain of your own ship, who would you pick as your engineer? And we've got the roulette wheel of engineers shown on our screen here. And spinning that wheel and looking at the responses that we got from you all, coming in sixth, out of six, we have Balana Torres with only 1% of the vote, which I feel.

19:50 Like something happened there. Because there's no way that Balana Torres only got 1% of the vote. She literally saves them from being 70,000 light years away from home. Sorry, I'm just, like, stunned. So, you know, whoever answered the poll, only maybe one of you said B'Elanna Torres would be your chosen engineer. Coming in fifth place, we have Pellia, above B'Elanna Torres, apparently, with 4% of the vote. I'm guessing based on her age and experience and not her disposition. Yeah.

20:32 Coming in fourth, fourth, fourth, I'm sorry, I'm just like stunned by this poll. We have Geordi and O'Brien. Literally two of the smartest people we have ever seen in Star Trek only came in fourth as your pick for Engineer with 9% of the vote. 9% of the vote. We gave you Geordi and O'Brien together and you said 9%. I'm sorry, people. You're wrong. Coming in above Geordi and O'Brien at number three, I love this poll so much. It's so crazy. It's Trip Tucker. And now listen, I love me some Trip Tucker. There is no question that he did a lot for the Enterprise NX-01. He literally sacrificed himself in the end, right, to save the ship. Sorry, spoiler alert.

21:27 But Trip Tucker, really? 14% of the vote went to him. That's 6% more than Geordi and O'Brien. Sorry. Coming in second, we have Hammer and Jet Reno at 15% of the vote. 6% above my choice. And of course, number one, which we all knew was going to happen, we have Scotty with 33% of your vote. He is the chosen engineer on Jim's amazing ship of amazingness.

22:08 I don't know. We need to come up with like your fantasy ship name or something. The USS Chakari. The USS Chakari. So as our first officer pick on the USS Chakari, we have Scotty as our head engineer getting, what does my math say? 24% more of the vote than Geordi and O'Brien together. That's pathetic, yeah. Sorry. I'm sorry. But I vote for the week. I may have opinions. No.

22:51 I mean, like, we literally know that O'Brien is the most important man in Starfleet. That's what we learned from Lower Decks, right? And Geordi is no slouch. Let's be clear. He's the only guy that understands Data's brain, right? He's the only guy with depositronic knowledge, other than talking to the crazy Soongs, and nobody wants to talk to those guys. Well, the fans have spoken, right? And with the Star Trek movies coming back out in theaters, which I could not enjoy because Here in Vermont, well, we don't have a movie theater, so that's hard. I didn't get a chance to watch any of these movies, but some of my co-hosts did. So in honor of that, Eric, what was our next poll question?

23:38 Well, the next poll question, of course, is with Star Trek turning 60, what is your favorite TOS movie? And you have six choices. So drum roll, please. Coming in at number six, no surprise in my estimation, is Star Trek V. The Final Frontier, despite the presence of the future namesake of the USS Shockery. Coming in at number five, we have Star Trek The Motion Picture with 7% of the vote. Personally shocking. I know a lot of people find that movie slow and arduous. I find it delightful and I could watch it 100 times in a row and be okay. But yeah, 7% of the vote.

24:21 There you go. Coming in above that, we have Star Trek III. The search for Spock. People like it when Spock returns. 9% of the vote. That's 2% more than the motion picture. So, you know, slightly edging it out. Not a big takeover there. Coming in at number three, we have my personal favorite, Star Trek VI, The Undiscovered Country, with 13% of the vote. I give it 65% of my vote. You know, but it's probably not worth much in this poll. But you all made it the third most popular film, so that's pretty cool. Coming in at second, we have the one with the whale, Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home, with 27% of the vote. That's a very respectable amount. You know, more than a quarter of you like this as your number one movie, and I know at least one Trekspert likes it as their favorite movie. And coming in at number one, no surprise, is Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan, because that movie is awesome and because it's short and sweet and simple and everybody loves it. And freaking Ricardo Montalban. I mean, come on. 42% of you said that that was your favorite. So thank you so much for answering our polls and for almost getting all the answers right.

25:41 Well, Star Trek V should have been a little bit higher, but, you know, that's okay. That's what I'm saying, Jim, you know. We should do these polls with the Trexperts and put the numbers up against. Oh, yeah. We should. We should. All right. Okay. All right, guys. Well, that's our polls. If you want to partake in our polls, head over to our Facebook page, Trek Talking and Beyond, and get your votes in. I think, what are we doing? Security Officer David, what was the one we just did? No. Medical officers? Doctor. Doctor.

26:22 What doctor would you pick? Right. So head over to our Facebook page. Gee, I wonder who people are going to pick. Pick your doctor. I went with Philip Boyce myself. Okay. So as I said, guys, we're going to be discussing the Star Trek Strange New Worlds episode off hours. But before we do that, Charles is going to do some cadet training. Take it away, Charles. Oh, thank you, Jim. And cadet training is where I try taking Star Trek or other things to combine that I saw with this episode.

27:04 Starting off with Star Trek The Motion Picture. Sure. Because they also got caught in a wormhole, even though they only were on there for a few minutes other than an entire episode. TOS, the cage. This is where we met Dr. Boyce originally. TOS, that which survives from season three. This is where we met Lieutenant Radha, which returns in this episode. Enterprise, Damaged, Season 3, the example of a severely damaged ship. And a co-worker of mine mentioned this and gave me a couple ideas. This one reminded me of Poseidon or the airports, the disaster of the week. Poseidon's a big disaster movie. All the airports were big disaster movies. But from there, why don't I pass over to Paul, who can tell us what happened in this episode.

28:17 Thank you, Charles. Makes me want to go sit down and watch Poseidon Adventure for the 100th time. I love that picture. So it's great. 101st. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Just great. So we're here talking about episode six of the fourth season, Off Hour, in which the Enterprise is trapped in a very– precipitous slipstream wormhole, turning a much-anticipated weekend of downtime into a high-stakes disaster scenario. So some key plot elements in here. At the very beginning, before things go south, we spend some time in sickbay with Dr. Mabenga and Nurse Chappell. Arguing over Mabenga sounds like he's considering leaving the Enterprise and doing something different.

29:05 And Chappell has been sort of squirrelly about maintaining any kind of a permanent posting. And it's in this scene that we get the very first mention of a former Enterprise CMO, Dr. Boyce, who, as Charles intimated, we see back in the original pilot episode, The Cage, subsequently Menagerie. So you do have some callbacks there. We'll get to see Dr. Boyce later in the episode. So you've got your various shifts who work on the Enterprise. and Alpha Shift has just been going great guns and really looking forward to some time off. And right as that's about to happen, unexpectedly, they run into this high warp phenomenon wormhole that pulls the Enterprise into a slipstream, totally frying all of their systems, charging everything with electricity and threatening to tear the ship apart as they continue to accelerate.

29:59 eventually running the risk of surpassing the warp threshold where the ship would be literally torn apart. So, uh, when this happens, it's very unexpected. So crew members are isolated across different sections of the ship. Various crises are going on. Um, at the very beginning, um, as, uh, Pike is trying to figure out a way to like, you know, turn the shields on to help mitigate all this supercharged electricity. Uh, Pike takes a real dangerous hit, uh, from a bolt of electricity and he has to, uh, hand over command to Ortegas in the situation here. Scotty gets trapped inside a turbolift and has to resort to even using an American accent to try to make sure the voice interface recognizes him. A big centerpiece, though, of this entire episode is in sickbay, right? Where there's, in the middle of huge turbulence and everything's shifting around because of the gravitational forces, there's a terrible medical emergency where Dr. Mabenga gets pinned against this heavy lab table by violent ship movements that they don't dare move it or he would perish. And Nurse Chapel has to keep trying to figure out new ways to try to do something, anything to be able to save him. And gravity is going out all over the ship. The artificial gravity plates are failing and they're trying to do everything, including an incredible scene with Number One where she is trying to run across or crawl

31:29 across the lounge there to get to the manual override, restore gravity. Wow. I mean, it's a shocking moment, let's just say, that happens to her and the injury she endures in the course of that. And all of this involves trying to find particles that will be the potential solution to A, getting them out of there, but also potentially being used for a medical purpose to save Dr. Mabenga, but it means that somebody has to undergo a very dangerous spacewalk through a severe radiation storm on the outside of the ship to gather the necessary data and potentially suffer critical radiation sickness. And this is a reference back to the ion pod from the original series, first season episode of Court Martial, that was cool to see. So a lot of references to prior things in here, the ion pod being one. with Pike finding himself in a very similar situation that he did in that same episode there. So again, like Charles said, this particular episode draws on a lot of disaster formats and episodes. I'm thinking about Next Gen's disaster, Voyager's year of hell, but it is frankly a really refreshing episode because it really focuses on the crew's competence, selflessness, and their ability to work in teamwork under pressure. I'm going to pop back later on and talk a little bit more specifics of this episode here, but it's pretty exciting,

33:04 and I think it was generally pretty well received. All of us Trexperts are going to be able to share their opinions, and we'll see what our consensus is. But before we get into any of that, Let's find out what you, the fans, thought. I get a sense that this was something maybe the fans really enjoyed. Eric, interpret for me, my friend. Well, here's what I know, Paul. I know that Ryan LaRoche said a solid 9.5, some great character development. I agree with other comments about knowing which characters survive. Presumably they're talking about M-Benga. But it was definitely one of the better episodes yet. Rick Gross said, Warp 9.95 for me.

33:44 Great episode. All caps. Marilee Bradshaw-Crews said, Big Giant 10 with an exclamation point. Thank you, Marilee. I love the enthusiasm. John Baker said, So far, best of the season. Best of the last two seasons. A viable candidate for best of this series. 9 out of 10. Clive Robert Bell gave it a 9.5. I agree there was some loss of jeopardy as we know characters survive, but my minus 0.5 is due to yet again using the transporter in ways that wasn't used in TOS, which seemed to be technical innovations in Next Generation era. I see, Clive. All right, we can chat about that.

34:25 Thanks. Edward Jess Abbott, a top fan of ours, said on the edge of my seat the whole episode, that's a 10. Jackson Creed gave it a 10 out of 10. I also enjoyed the puppets episode. It brought joy to my bad day. Stefan Parker, another top fan of ours, said a solid 9.5. The only reason I lost half point, in my opinion, is it would have been better to put characters who we don't know what will happen to them in the most perilous situations I see. So once again, that comment presumably about Mbenga. I can't find myself worrying if, say, Scotty was about to be vaporized when we know his future self is in a transporter buffer. Yes, it is.

35:10 Thanks, Stefan. Other than that, this was a fantastic episode. Alexander Fernandez gave it an 8.5. It's better than the last few episodes. Kev Overton gave it a 9, far better than the previous episodes this season, with a little barfy emoji. Thanks, Kev. Ashley Williams gave it a 9 because of nitpicks. Presumably, Ashley was on her way to 10, but had to take off a few points here and there. Steve Turner gave it a 9. Only negative was not enough pike. You know, I mean, he has become the silver fox of Strange New Worlds. So I get it, Steven.

35:50 I get it. And Kurt Dirksen said 7. Still a lot of plot issues. But thankfully, this gives us a combined fan score this week. Second highest of the season of 8 points. Six. Very, very respectable. Absolutely, and I have a feeling that score is going to be a little bit higher for the episode that's on tonight, just saying. Okay, so who wants to... V! V, would you like to start the honors with this episode? Sure. Well, I usually watch each episode a couple times, and the first time just, you know, go through it, and I usually multitask, but this one just grabbed me from the beginning and I just sat there and just watched it.

36:37 I couldn't tear myself away. It was, um, I think more Star Trek than a lot of the, um, previous episodes have been. Uh, so, um, and I can, I have to say that the, um, special effects that they have in this show are really quite amazing. And, um, So I really enjoyed that. Something that I was reminded of that I hearken back to when Mbenga gets injured, where he's like basically almost not quite cut in two, but the pressure of the table is basically.

37:18 Keeping him alive. Does anybody remember the M. Night Shyamalan movie Signs with Mel Gibson? And does anybody remember that? Absolutely. With his wife that actually M. Night Shyamalan is the guy who, you know, she's out for a walk and he's out, I guess he was driving drunk or something and he hits her and she's pinned between the car and the tree. And that was the only thing that was keeping her. Alive was the pressure of the car. So I immediately went to that. But this one had a much better outcome. And just Chapel coming to grips with the fact that she actually, she does need to ask to stay on the Enterprise in a more permanent position.

38:15 But just her ability to think and how she could save Mbenga when Boyce basically said, no, there's no chance. You need to come here and help me. In this case, we go back to the needs of the one outweigh the needs. Of the others, if you will. That and Spock doing his sort of foreshadowing of another radiation incident, but that was pretty harrowing as well. And then we have Pelia, which I know some of you all don't like, but.

38:59 I don't know. I liked her in this episode. She was funny trying to encourage Scotty because she's been a mentor to him, I guess. But overall, I will give this episode a 9.5. 9.5. Excellent. So I'm right there with you, V. I love this episode. You guys might have noticed that David and I were making up all kinds of memes from this episode that were on our Facebook page. We had a lot of fun with that. This episode, we get to see Scotty develop his love of the Enterprise, which will last a lifetime.

39:47 And he develops his love based on Pelia telling him to be a miracle worker. That was the first time we would hear that phrase. And it would be stuck on Scotty forever. My only, you know, I would give the episode a 10. I got to give it a 9 for one reason. Pelia wasn't a Muppet. Okay? I said it. I said it. I know. I think if Pelia. Was a Muppet with a wild spaghetti. I know. That was great. But, yeah. Yeah. Overall, I love this episode. And apparently this episode was another gimmicky episode based on a TV show called 24 with Kiefer Sutherland, which I never saw, never heard of it, so I did not know this.

40:33 But apparently that show had a 24-hour countdown with a split screen that went back and forth and blah, blah, blah. I don't know. Didn't see it. Don't care. Love this episode. This had everything. The crew coming together, working together, learning about themselves. Scotty, I think, was the high point of this episode. Him and Lieutenant Cadet Asha had a lot of scenes together that I really enjoyed. Yeah, I can't say enough good about this episode. If you haven't seen it, what are you waiting for? Go watch it, please. This episode is next to the first episode. I think it's right up there with the best that we have seen.

41:15 besides the one that's on tonight so please go and watch it phenomenal I'm giving it a 9 and yeah I can't say enough good about this episode great special effects great character development it had everything that makes Star Trek Star Trek so please go watch it and enjoy it and David would you like to jump in next? Yeah sure um First, I want to say that I didn't know that this was an episode that was based off of 24, and I've never seen that either, so I didn't know that either. However, this episode, I didn't really think of it as too much as a gimmick, per se, because there was a sense of danger. There was a sense of they had to work together to escape whatever problems or anomalies that may have occurred. I actually enjoyed this episode quite a bit. This episode, however, got me confused a little bit, especially in the beginning.

42:15 Right away, you sense something's wrong with Mbenga and Chapel. It was just like, all of a sudden, they just got into this weird banter argument. I got really confused. I was like, why are they so angry with each other? And to me, I was just like, I don't know, it kind of lost me there. And so then eventually, you know, they just started to slowly get into the rhythm of what it used to be like i guess but anyway yeah i. Mean david if i if i if you don't mind me interjecting there so i think one of the thing that like that whole scene where they're sort of talking about um you know who's been planning to leave the longest i guess is a good way to um to put it you know i think that christine like the way that I read this show is that Christine Chapel has always, and Benga was absolutely right. He's always, she's always had one foot out the door, right? She's never committed to being on the ship and that kind of thing.

43:11 And I think that she feels some internal stress about that residual from her relationship with Spock and that sort of thing. Like her job is fine, right? It's all the interpersonal stuff that she still has some like baggage about. Yeah. And, and, and in Benga, you know, we know that the writers have to get him off the show somehow, right? So, you know, having him be the guy who's kind of on his way out is kind of no big surprise. So I actually really liked that they had that little conflict because I don't think it was a conflict between the two of them. I think it was both of them expressing their own internal stress at one another. You know what I mean?

43:52 Yeah. Like in a moment of emotional strife. Yeah, to me, it was just all of a sudden, it was like the first thing that you see of them, they're kind of like, it just seemed like they were angry or something. So it was just like, to me, it just felt really weird and awkward. But I mean, I understand that, you know, Trapple has already been talking about leaving the ship the whole time. And Banga, to me, I know that they had to write him off so that they could rest in bones. Like I said, it just feels like it's going to be rushed. I don't know, it just felt awkward, and it just felt like it was off-putting to me, that whole scene. So, anyways, some of the things that I did like were Scotty. He definitely grew in this episode, I think. He definitely had, since Peleo was his mentor, they had a great banter between, like, you know, I got to calm you. I got to make sure that you're not going to panic and all this because I know you're stuck in a tube and you probably have claustrophobia or something. I don't know. But to me, I thought that was pretty good. I actually enjoyed it. And the whole scene with Nbenga, I got to bring this back because I don't know what it was, but for some reason, the way that the camera was facing the incident before Nbenga got stuck between the wall and the table just looked like To me, Chapel wasn't

45:23 in danger. For some reason, she pushed her out of the way thinking that she was saving her or something. To me, I was like, why didn't they just both get out of the way? That wall in between them could have stopped that table. So to me, I was like, that was really weird and bizarre. I just had to get that out because I think they could have done a little bit better trying to picture how that worked. Anyways, yeah. The whole box getting radiated again, I thought that was just an homage to Wrath of Khan. So to me, I was just like, oh, well. But being able to communicate with the Vulcan, you know, the Vulcan, what do they call that?

46:13 Mind meld. The Vulcan. Mind meld. There you go. Thank you. I actually thought that was actually a really clever way, since he couldn't talk, of the writers saying that, okay, we need to get the information out there. He can do this, so let's just give the information to somebody who can talk and communicate. So I actually enjoyed that quite a bit. But other than that, yeah, I would have to probably give this episode, I'm going to go with an eight on this one. Okay, we have an eight from David. Do you want to jump in next? Sure. I would love to, um, you know, V you brought up a really good point and I wasn't going to start with this, but like, I think we sort of take special effects for granted these days because every single movie we see has amazing ones, you know, throughout the entire thing. So yeah, I, yes, I would like to actually, um, say I also appreciate what's going on in terms of special effects in this show. So I'm with you there. Um, so let's see. Uh, I really like starting from the beginning.

47:22 I really liked the kind of ensemble nature of this, of this particular episode. You know, some of our episodes really focus on like one or two characters or maybe have an A and a B story or that kind of stuff. This one felt like it had many story branches, which I thought was great. I immediately because of the clock recognized the 24 thing. It, It was actually honestly a little distracting to me at the beginning because I was like, oh, here we go with the 24 episode. But then it just kind of became part of the texture. So I literally think they could have just tossed out the clock altogether. There was really no reason to have it there. It didn't build tension in the same way that it did for the show 24. And if you haven't seen the show 24... You should probably see it because it's really, really good. And that running clock actually does build tension in a really effective way in that show.

48:16 I thought it was less effective here. But the character interactions were great. You know, nothing was fake. Nothing was phony. I thought it was neat to have all of the different stories going on. Some of my favorites, of course, included the Mbenga story that people have already talked about. You know, The fact that Christine Chappell wouldn't give up on Mbenga feels super duper Star Trek-y to me, right? Whatever she does, she's going to stay there until the end through the minus 400 degrees, they said, or something. I don't even know. I forgot to look up what absolute zero was, but it must be right in that same range. There was plenty of TreknoBabble going on, which I was delighted about, honestly. Like that's one of my favorite things about Star Trek is when they start talking about pseudoscience and making it sound like, oh yeah, that could totally be possible. If I only knew what a, you know, chroniton was or whatever. So I appreciated that.

49:26 I appreciated obviously the, the, I think somebody else already said that kind of the development of Scotty's love for the enterprise is like you could tell in this episode, he starts to love her as an entity, right? There was that moment when the switch was sort of flipped and he was touching the wall and Pellia and him were, were talking to one another. So I, I really appreciated that. And the whole, um, quote about, uh, starships are capable of miracles. If you listen, you just have to be a miracle worker. I think Jim mentioned that. Uh, I really liked that. Um, A couple other characters had great moments. You know, the Spock on the outside of the hole getting pinged with the stuff was really cool. And then him failing and La'an having to sort of take over. I thought that was really cool. Somebody else already mentioned Una doing the gravity, the super gravity scene and kind of like having to push through to help the team. So I guess if I had just like one criticism of this episode, it would be that maybe this is just me. and maybe I'm not desensitized enough to modern television, but we, you know, we had a couple of like body horror moments, you know, it's not like a horror episode like that, that other one that I thought was absolutely awful, but you know, we get Una's leg breaking in a really terrible way and you get to see everything, you know,

50:56 was that, was that necessary? I don't know. You know, maybe I'm just too sensitive. Like, chapel leaves part of a frozen finger on a table. Um, was that necessary? I, you know, I, I don't know. It was, it felt like a little bit too much for me, you know, that we've already talked about Spock and his radiation burns. That was, that was fine kind of foreshadowing of that. So, you know, that's probably just me and not like a super fan of body horror stuff. Although on occasion I do really like it. Um, which is weird. I guess I just don't expect it from my Star Trek, uh, is where I am. So, uh, so yeah, I overall thought this was a great episode. I really enjoyed it.

51:42 I gave the opener a nine. I don't think this one was quite there. Um, so I'll give it, I'll give it an eight and a half, 8.5. Not afraid of that 0.5. Um, yeah, yeah, it was, it was a darn good episode. So, There you go. There we have it, an 8.5 from Eric. What about you, Charles? You get to follow up an 8.5, buddy. Okay, well, I'll try to follow up. Okay, I was chatting a little bit about this with our hosts before we got started in the green room. The one thing about the boys in the chapel incident is.

52:26 One, Chapel refused to follow an order from a higher up commanding officer. And we know that Boyce and Chapel both show up in TOS. So they both have what we call plot armor. So we're going to try making up what looks like a big death scene for Boyce when we know he's not going to die because he still shows up. Which I thought, yeah, I'm not sure. Actually, Charles, Paul, please correct me if I'm wrong, but the only time that we see Phil Boyce is in the cage, which happens about five years before this episode, right?

53:11 Yeah, I would say that's about right. And there's no death scene for Boyce in this episode. Not Boyce. Sorry, I meant Embaiga. I meant Embaiga, not Boyce. I got my names wrong in my notes. Embaiga and Chappell. Embaiga and Chappell both have plot armor. So the fact that, okay, Embaiga's going to go through a big death scene, it's like, no, he can't. He's still living. My apologies for getting the name wrong. I watched what I put in my notes real quick. As Eric said, and I kind of think it, the timer popping up right as the episode started was confusing. It's like, okay, when Scotty says, okay, we got this much time, that would have been a good time for the timer to show up. And then I don't think we would have had quite as much the 24-hour feel. But it's like, oh, they're talking about going off, having some time off, enjoying the evening by evening and not having to work.

54:16 And the timer's going up. It's like, why is there a timer? Why is there a countdown? Why is there a countdown? I will say definitely it was a good use of Akasha. That new Vulcan cadet was pretty stiff the couple of times we've seen her. Well, this time she still had that look to her, but she was still challenging Scotty. She was getting, well, why can't you do this? It's like, well, I can't. Well, yes, I could do that. So I like her trying to challenge Scotty into doing things, which we talk about this one. I think this is getting closer to TOS Scotty, the miracle worker. This is really, I think, kind of hitting the point where we're getting a lot closer to the Scotty.

55:10 We're used to from TOS. But he is a miracle worker. I think Scotty's starting to get closer to that. And the reverse mind meld. I was thinking of the fact that the person who's doing the mind meld is supposed to sit there and say, my mind to your mind. I thought that was the first time I think we've ever seen somebody really reverse that. So I'd be curious if that's a possibility to actually do or not. But I think with a couple of things in this episode, I think I'm going to go with an 8. Good episode, but I think there's some things I really could have done not done because of plot armor.

56:04 I think as far as the mind meld, Charles, we don't know if they did or didn't, but I seem to remember from TOS that it's typical for Vulcans to mind meld with significant others. And we know that La'an and Spike were very significant. So it's totally possible that they could have mind melded, you know, off screen when they were, you know, when they were ponfaring or whatever they were doing, when they were dancing in the corridors. And, you know, that opened up the pathway for her to reach out to him is the way I was, you know, envisioning that. But you're right to see it done the opposite way was strange. But at any rate, so that leaves us with Paul, who gets to bring up the caboose as usual. He gets to get the whole train a-rolling as the engineer. And he gets to bring it all to a halt as our caboose, what do they call the guy on the caboose, the conductor? Yeah, I guess.

57:07 Yeah, it's like the guy who comes in to close out the baseball game. Engineer. Oh, yeah. Man, that was fun. Jesus. Thanks. Appreciate it. Now I'm going to get a cochlear implant and I'll be better. Okay. Let me make no bones about it. This was a fantastic episode. This was a dynamite episode. This is the kind of thing that you're hoping you're going to get all the time. One of the things I loved about this episode and it was just, they went out of their way to remind us of how, terrifying the void of space can actually be when the only protection you have is being sealed up inside of a fragile machine.

57:50 Right. I mean, they really made it tangible. Right. I mean, the ship is constantly creaking and groaning and in danger of like some kind of structural collapse or another. The ways it's death is just right around the corner. I thought that was done in a really realistic fashion. I thought it was outstanding. Really, really cool. I do not think this was any kind of a gimmicky riff on 24 at all. I must take issue with that. I think they used a similar device of having the countdown in real time, but there's plenty of movies and plenty of other things other than 24 that did that, because 24 was a show that's based in one hour in real time each week, and that's not what was going on here at all. What this reminded me of more was there's a phenomenal– premiere episode of Battlestar Galactica, the Ronald D. Moore remake, it's called 33. It's like the first episode of the first season. You watch it and you're going to have a heart attack the whole time.

58:46 It's just so stressful. It's just time becomes a real element because it's just the stakes are so extreme. And I thought this episode and the use of that shipboard chronometer readout was done very effectively, very deftly, just really, really well. I think that Jess Bush got to do some of the best acting I've ever seen her do. I thought that she was basically running like a workshop. in the scenes with uh mabenga on in stick bay i was there was no confusion for me maybe it's just confusing because we're not used to seeing such good character work right this was character work and a really well-written scene that was about them and their respective struggles.

59:27 It was beautifully done. No confusion at all for this viewer. Absolutely a great way to start things out there. I admit that I took a deep breath when Pelia showed up because, man, she's like one of my least favorite characters. But she was way less annoying than usual in here and actually sort of was helpful. And I think they, you know, wrote her in an appropriate way. And she was great in terms of this. She landed her usual mannerisms were toned down so i really uh i i just thought it was fantastic i i had a hiccup for me when i'm watching these kind of episodes right and it's you know just do my own little cadet training moment here um it really drives me crazy uh typically in the star trek universe when you show characters surviving on the crawling around on the outside hull of a ship during warp it's just it's strained i know we're supposed to believe that oh well if the warp drive and has a localized warp bubble that bends space-time around the vessel, you're safe so long as you stay inside that protected pocket of normal space. It's so hard to buy that nonsense when he's like with the gravity things climbing on the hull and he's being bombarded.

1:00:35 You need to read more about Star Trek physics, dude. It's totally believable. Yeah, I really don't because I'm a viewer, not a technical person, right? Yeah, but you're complaining about a ticky-tacky technical thing right now. Yeah, but I'm complaining about how it makes me feel because it doesn't seem plausible. It seems nonsense. Because you don't understand Star Trek physics, right? Because it's fictional, Eric. It's fictional. It's not real. It's not real. It's not real. Okay, yeah. So there's a thing called suspension of disbelief. And I shouldn't need a physics degree to have suspension of disbelief. That's not how drama works, okay? End of discussion. But it's just like episodes like. May I please continue? I mean, may I please continue?

1:01:18 Oh, absolutely. Star Trek Discovery had one, Red Directive, where we got Michael Burnham on the outside of the ship. They did the same thing in Prodigy with Mindwalk, where, you know, doll rails inside Janeway crawling around the outside of the, it's become an endless thing. We've seen this so many times. And it's, it's, it strains credibility for me, right? And I don't, I'm not going to get into technology and all this explanations because it's all Ed Gannon stuff and it's not real. So it's just, it seems pointless to belabor it, you know, but. I thought this was a terrific episode. I was really happy with it. Extremely well-written, right? And that, for me, is the bottom line. Good writing. I watched it a couple times. I will tell you, though, on a second viewing, the whole crawling on the outside of the ship thing didn't bother.

1:02:03 Me as much. I accepted it. Initially, I was just like, oh, here we go again, because we've seen that so many times. It reminded me of some of the fakak the science used to get on Discovery all the time. But in the second viewing, I was so caught up in it, I didn't care. and I don't have the same issue you all do with the plot armor thing. I was on the edge of my seat with Mabenga, right? I, yeah, he's going to show up later on, but there's so many things are different in original series. And on this show, I don't even consider it the same thing. It's like, this is like a different universe. You know, it's like nobody in the original series had ever even seen to bring before, but she's wondering in and out of the bathroom, every fricking episode on strange new world. So it's like, you know, You can't reconcile these two shows. They're different realities, right? They're different eras.

1:02:50 It's pointless to try to do that, right? Do you buy it when you watch it? That's the bottom line. And when I watched it a second time, I bought it. I thought it was exciting, and I thought it was really great. The use of music, the use of the ticking clock, really phenomenal. This is what I look for, and the science felt believable to me. To have Chappell be the one who's talking about the explanation in what felt like a really convincing manner so for me this is what I'm looking for 10 all the. Way wow that's impressive I think we may have out our our minions this week I just wanted to say that the whole thing someone collect me or look this up there was an episode called starship bingo I think on Strange New Worlds, where there was a scorch mark on the outside of the Enterprise, and Una and Juan walk on the hull to get to the scorch mark, and that's when we find out that the shields of the Enterprise aren't actually, they're like 10 feet off the hull, and that there's actually room to walk. I'm pretty sure it was Strange New Worlds that introduced that.

1:04:11 Eric, Charles? Yes, it was. Yeah, okay. So that's where I went. I thought that was weird. But at any rate, what does our score hold up with against our Facebook minions, Charles? How well did we do? Or how well did they do? Okay. The fans gave an 8.6 and the hosts gave an 8.8. Wow. So we're right there with the fans. We're right there with the fans. That's rare, but awesome. Okay, cool. So that wraps up our discussion on Off Hours. So if you haven't seen it, what are you waiting for?

1:04:56 Go and check it out. It's awesome. And this is the part of the show where we do our sci-fi birthdays. That was not a fling-on song. All right, guys. We always start off our sci-fi birthdays by savvying up, remembering those members of our vast sci-fi universe who are no longer with us. For that, we turn to Eric.

1:05:38 Yes, Jim. This week, we remember actor Merritt Buttrick, the American actor best known for his role as David Mark... Dr. David Marcus in Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan, and Star Trek III, The Search for Spock. And a photo of him also appeared in Star Trek VI, The Undiscovered Country, two years after his death. He later played T'Jon in the Next Generation first season episode, Symbiosis. Merritt's first major role in television was portraying the supportive character John Slash in the sitcom Square Pigs from 1982 to 1983. He has a couple of other things on his IMDb page, but unfortunately we lost him at the very young age of 29 years old. You can look that up if you would like to learn more about that. Merritt Buttrick, lost back in 1989. Happy birthday to him. Happy birthday as well to Mira Furlan, a Croatian-American actress and singer best known for her roles as the minibari ambassador Teline in the television series Babylon 5. and as Danielle Rousseau in Lost. She also appeared in multiple award-winning films, such as When Father Was Away, On Business, and The Abandoned.

1:06:56 Happy birthday to Mira Furlan. Happy birthday to Bruce Gray, the actor who played Admiral Chakotay, not that one, in the Deep Space Nine second season episode, The Circle. and Star Trek The Next Generation's seven-season episode Gambit Part One. He later played Surak in the Star Trek Enterprise four-season episode Awakening. Yes, that's Surak. Gray starred in the entire run of the Canadian series Traitors and had a reoccurring role on Babylon 5 and the American version of Queer as Folk as well. In 2008, he made a brief appearance on Boston Legal. of course, interfacing with William Shatner on that show. So happy birthday to Bruce Gray. Happy birthday to Reggie Nalder, the actor who played Ambassador Shrass in the TOS second season episode, Journey to Babel. Of course, he's the first canonical Andorian that we see on screen.

1:07:54 He was born Alfred Reginald Nasler in Vienna, Austria, the son of actor and operetta singer Sigmund Natzler. He was often cast in villainous roles due to his unique facial features, the result of disfiguring burns to the lower part of his face acquired as a young man. He also appeared in the original Manchurian Candidate, TV's adaptation of Salem's Lot from 1979. And he was a sadistic witch burner in 1970's Mark of the Devils. So Reggie Nalder... typecast perhaps because of his physical visage but we got to see him as an andorian which was pretty cool happy birthday to him.

1:08:37 Now happy birthday did anybody else did salem's lot scare the living bejesus out of anybody else like it did me. When i saw oh yeah well i mean that book is terrifying. Just look at his image on the screen that gave me nightmares when i was a kid that original Salem's Lot was just phenomenal. I wasn't allowed to watch it. That's why I don't watch horror movies. That was a good one. Moving on, happy birthday to Raquel Welsh, the actress, model, and singer who won attention for her role in Fantastic Voyage from 1966. after which she made One Million Years B.C.

1:09:22 Although Welsh had only three lines of dialogue in the film, images of her in the doe-skinned bikini became best-selling posters, wonder why, that turned her into an international sex symbol. She later starred in Bedazzled Bandolero, 100 Rifles, Mira Breckenridge, and Hanny Calder. She made several television variety specials along the way. And I see her in the new adventures of Superman. Apparently they're on the screen. Very interesting. Happy birthday to Raquel Welsh. And last but not least, I'd like to say happy birthday to Patty Yasutake. Patty Yasutake was the actress who played Alyssa Ogawa in 16 episodes of the next generation. And in two star Trek films, including generations and first contact Yasutake remembered watching the original series together with her family and On television, several years later, she auditioned for the part of an unnamed con officer on The Next Generation, but wasn't cast. After she first appeared as Nurse Alyssa Ogawa in the four-season episode Future Imperfect in 1990, she wasn't convinced that she would be called back to play this part again. But she was also originally a contender for the role of Keiko O'Brien back in the day, introduced, of course, in the same season.

1:10:48 eventually cast to Rosalind Chow. Patty Yasutake did an amazing job as Nurse Ogawa. She also portrayed Alyssa Ogawa in a Hallmark television commercial in North America, apparently, where she's seen questioning the shipboard computer about the features of the USS Enterprise-D keepsake ornament. I haven't seen that one, but it sounds interesting. She was also on a couple other shows, TJ Hooker, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, many times cast as a doctor in television movies. So Patty Yasutake, thank you so much for your contributions. We lost you just a couple years ago, the 5th of August, 2024. So just a little over two years ago at the age of 70 years old. Happy birthday to Patty. And that does it for our remembrances. So I would like to pass on Our gently lit birthday candle.

1:11:49 Over to V. Yes.

1:13:42 I will use my asbestos gloves to retrieve said candle. So thank you. Thank you, V. Yes, lots and lots of birthdays. A real unusual cat. I'm happy to be able to wish a happy birthday. The great Michael Berryman, who we talk about on Star Trek Circles for playing a couple different roles. He was in Star Trek IV The Voyage Home as a Starfleet display officer and had a really interesting part in Next Gen's first season episode, Conspiracy, one of my favorites. where he plays Captain Ricks there. This guy has been in so many different horror movies over the year. Michael Berryman's got a very unusual condition.

1:14:25 It's hypohydrotic dysplasia. It's a condition where you basically have an absence of sweat glands, hair, and fingernails. Very unusual. So he has a usual striking appearance, but he's turned it into an iconic I mean, he's been in so many different motion pictures over the years, way back to like 1977, right? He was in an early Wes Craven picture called The Hills Have Eyes about these, you know, kind of mutated inbred folks who live in the, you know, the nightmare road trip of your worst imaginal possibilities. If you've never seen it, it's pretty wild. But he just shows up all over the place in all kinds of different ways. pictures, but, uh, uh, a striking individual, uh, very cool. And, uh, what a, what an amazing career he's created. So also was in, uh, Milos Forman's, uh, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with Jack Nicholson. So really, really amazing career. So happy birthday to you, sir. Happy birthday to the legend, Idris Elba.

1:15:27 Okay. One of the great, absolutely phenomenal portrayal. Uh, yeah, a lot of people recognize him as playing Heimdall, right? On, uh, in Thor movies, the Avengers movies. He played a captain in Ridley Scott's Prometheus. But he's also appeared in the Star Trek franchise in Star Trek Beyond. He played the sort of villainous character Kral, if you will. I'm a big fan of this guy, though, for a lot of his other work. If you've never seen the British television program Luther and the subsequent standalone films that have spawned off of Luther, run. Don't Walk, some of the best crime police procedurals you will ever, ever see. And of course, he really came into prominence on the classic HBO series, The Wire, as a character named Stringer Bell. Amazing, amazing role.

1:16:22 So it's just like, this guy's a legend beyond Star Trek. Absolutely phenomenal. Recently knighted as well. So Idris Elba, pretty much a guaranteed home run if you cast this guy. He's phenomenal. Happy birthday to Michael Keaton, very prolific character actor, of course, known for many, many comedic roles early in his career, dramatic roles. We are talking Beetlejuice, right? Beetlejuice. He played in Spider-Man Homecoming. He played the Vulture. And, of course, in 1989, underneath the mantle of Tim Burton. was the first character to play a motion picture version of Batman in the modern era. And of course the sequel, Batman Returns. So absolutely amazing. Um, but always does really, really great work. Um, rare to find actors who can throw themselves into comedy and, uh, and drama with equal verve.

1:17:18 Got a big part in the first Cars movie as well. What an irascible antagonist in there. He's very, very funny. Love his work. Uh, very cool. Uh, Michael Keaton is just a great dude. Happy birthday also to Keone Young, a Hawaiian-born actor who played the role of Buck Bokai in Deep Space Nine's first season episode, If Wishes Were Horses. Also popped up over there in Enterprise's second season episode, Vanishing Point, as Mr. Sato as well. So pretty amazing to be in a couple different aspects of the Star Trek universe and very, very cool. So happy birthday, Keone Young.

1:17:59 And this guy, I don't think he's ever taken a day off in his life. Seems like he's constantly, constantly working all the time. The great Jeffrey Combs. Wow. Where do you even begin with this guy? He's just done so much stuff, okay? Actor has the distinction of playing nine different characters so far across four different Star Trek television series. Of course, Brunt and the various Weyouns on Deep Space Nine was recently immortalized in a action figure form by next week's special guest, Brian Volkweis in the Nacelle range. So you've got it, Jeffrey Combs. You made it to action figure immortality, which is no easy thing to achieve. We played Thalek Shran, of course, on Enterprise.

1:18:46 We can talk more about Shran at some other point, but a phenomenal character. And then voiced Agabus on the Lower Decks episodes, etc., etc. But he's done tons and tons of great horror movie work as well. Reanimator series comes to mind for me. It's just a knockout. Really, really entertaining. Brings a lot of high-octane energy. to his roles does not hold back, which is a great characteristic. So absolutely great. But go check out some Jeffrey Combs horror movies if you never have and discover his universe beyond Star Trek, which is pretty, pretty cool. So that's what I've got for my birthdays this weekend. And we'll see what Uncle Jim's got for us next. This is one of my favorite segments. I love that Jim reaches into the back of his sock drawer and comes up with something that is beloved in From his memories. Uncle Jim, what is beloved for you this week, my friend?

1:19:41 Well, I've got some great movies. But first, I've got to show you this baseball card. Can you guys see this baseball card? Is it the blob? Is that it? No. Oh, no, here it is. Oh, okay. Buck Bokai. Yes. I was at a Star Trek convention. I was at a multimedia anime convention. And I'm walking through the autograph room like, who the hell are these people? You know, I don't know any of these people. And I see him in a corner. I said to my wife, Karen, I said, wait a minute. Is that dude? Is that the guy from Deep Space Nine? And my wife's like, no, how can you remember that? I said, I think it is.

1:20:22 And I went over. And sure enough, it was. And he had these baseball cards right here on his table. And I bought one and had him sign it for me because I'm a baseball fan as well. So I have an autographed Buck Banzai baseball card from Deep Space Nine. So I just wanted to share that with you guys. I thought that was pretty cool. So that's Uncle Jim's story of the week. Okay, so now that we're going to move back into the movie of the week, we want to start off with The Block. which was released on September 10th in 1958. I think there's been several remakes of this movie, but this is the original Stephen McQueen, the blob. Another movie that was released this week was Psycho, released on September 8th, 1960. My God, who, you know, Psycho?

1:21:17 Do we need to say any more? Janet Leigh was in this movie. This is Jamie Lee Curtis's mother. You know, Anthony Perkins. This movie's a classic. If you haven't seen it, it's well worth checking out. Phenomenal, phenomenal movie from Alfred Hitchcock. And the next one that's on our list, released on September 8, 2017, Stephen King's It. Now, this was not the TV series. This was the actual motion picture of It. Scary as hell. Skazgard plays an incredible Pennywise the Clown. If you haven't seen that, check it out. It's definitely worth watching. Next is another movie. This is a classic.

1:22:01 This is one of my favorites. This is one of these 80s cheese movies. Right here, Battle Beyond the Stars was released on September 8, 1980, starring John Boyd. And this is a Roger Corman classic. It's cheesy. It's 80s. But it's so much fun, and it's well worth the watch if you have not seen it. Check it out, please. Next on our list is a more recent movie, The Predator, which was released on September 6, 2018. And last on my list is Wow, I don't know. Is Alien, which was released on September 6, 1979. This movie, what can I say about this movie that hasn't already been said?

1:22:52 Absolutely outstanding movie. And what movie am I going to pick as Uncle Jim's movie pick of the week that you shouldn't miss? David, roll the tape. That's right, everybody.

1:24:58 In space, no one can hear you scream. So Alien was a landmark science fiction horror movie, which was released in 1979 between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. It was a stylish, malevolent alternate to George Lucas' space fantasy, partially inspired by the 1950s The Terror from Beyond Space. This instant classic set a tone of its own offering richly detailed sets, ominous atmosphere, relentless suspense, and a flawless ensemble cast that featured Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, and Veronica Cartwright, just to name a few. They're in that picture right there.

1:25:42 As the crew of the space freighter Nostromo, who fall prey to a vicious alien creature. Any of the Trek sports see this movie in the theaters? Oh, yeah. Opening weekend. Yeah. Opening weekend, absolutely. I just saw this movie. It was rated R, so I wasn't allowed to see it. It didn't stop me from seeing it, though. We bought tickets for Bambi or whatever. We all went into the bathroom. We waited until the movie started, and the ticket taker wasn't there, and we snuck in to watch Aliens. That's how I had to see it in 1979. Illegally. Scared the crap out of me. The scene with the chestburster with the buckets of blood everywhere and the little alien popping out of the chest wrapped around the intestines. Nightmares for weeks after that.

1:26:47 Great movie. Jim, I was fortunate to be able to see this movie just this past Monday on the big screen at the Hollywood Theater here in Portland and One of the things I was struck by was the fact that the movie has such a different pace to it from Aliens, which I think is the movie that many people, like many more people, have probably seen. This movie, much like Star Trek The Motion Picture, has a slower pace to it. It's a little bit more contemplative. They try to build things up a little bit more. By today's standards, the jump scares are not particularly effective in my like opinion but it's still a classic because not only does Sigourney Weaver give like an amazing performance but as you were just talking about all of the characters here are amazing and it was fun also to kind of go back to the beginning and watch Alien again because there are so many things that show up in that movie that then show up later in some of the Prometheus you know universe films which I think is kind of cool, too, if you've seen some of the more recent Alien-themed stuff. So, yeah, having just seen this movie last Monday, I can tell you that it still holds up for me, but I'm also a person who kind of likes slower-paced, more contemplative movies with moments of action or moments of excitement versus something that's just like bam, bam, bam, which is what the movie after this one is. Constant action.

1:28:18 For me, I was.... For me, I was too young to probably see it in the theater, but this was definitely a regular HBO movie on cable. And I know that's where I caught it was cable. I don't know what version of the movie that you guys saw, but there's a director's cut. The original version of the movie did not have the egg scene. At the end of the movie, when Sigourney grabs Jonesy and is running through the ductwork to get to the shuttle, she finds Captain Dallas cocooned. And he wants her to kill him. And, of course, she torches the whole chamber.

1:29:07 That scene was added into the director's cut much, much later. It was not featured in the original film, which actually ties Alien closer into Aliens with the Queen. So I thought that was interesting. Jim, it was shown in the version I saw on Monday, so it was the director's cut. Yeah, it's in a restored version of the movie. So that's it. That's Uncle Jim's Movie Pick of the Week, guys. Alien, 1979, Sigourney Weaver's first motion picture. All right, so that wraps up Uncle Jim's Movie Pick of the Week. That wraps up our Star Trek birthdays, and that brings us to Star Trek News. All right, guys. We always start off our Star Trek news, if possible, with a segment called Shatner Says What? Guess what? He says something this week, and Eric's going to tell you all about it.

1:30:24 Yes, Jim. William Shatner shares fan stories in William Shatner and You. He says, It was a pleasure to talk to the people in the book who shared perspectives that I will always treasure, Shatner writes in his book. The legendary Star Trek actor, 95 years old, has collected stories and perspectives from all those who have shared his life with him, from famous friends to dedicated fans, and William Shatner and you. We actually read a story about this probably about a year ago. Shatner's unique memoir, the actor announced his memoir in August 2025, and calls upon fans to submit their stories and memories of how his work has impacted them.

1:31:08 A select few were then chosen to be interviewed by Shatner himself for the book. He says, my greatest joy has been the connection I've shared with fans over the years. William Shatner and you is a celebration of them, their stories, their passion, and the bond we've built together. The people who have been influenced by Star Trek are so numerous, Shatner writes in his memoir. I was astonished by the complexity of what we've uncovered. It's given me a deeper insight into our audiences. It was a pleasure to talk to the people in the book who shared perspectives that I will always treasure. Among those interviewed for the memoir are celebrity friends Ben Stiller, Josh Groban, Weird Al Yankovic, Jason Alexander, Jeff Bezos, and Seth MacFarlane. Fan stories featured have come from all walks of life, including members of the military, first responders, and others who, quote, overcame incredible obstacles.

1:32:10 Shatner penned his memoir with the help of co-author Joshua Brandon, who the actor previously worked with to create Boldly Go! Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder in 2022. Fans have given me the gift of a lifetime, Shatner said in an announcement of his memoir on his website. This book is my chance to return that gift by telling their stories and ours together. William Shatner and You is on sale exclusively through Amazon on August 31st, which was about 11 days ago. So presumably you can grab it right now. You know what, Eric? He didn't pick me.

1:32:53 He didn't? Did you send one in? I told him how great Star Trek V is, how I worship the movie. He's the greatest director of all time, made the best Star Trek movie ever produced. I mean, I poured it all right on there, and I didn't get picked. Sorry, Jim. Well, at least we made you a video, Jim. That's true. I always have the shock I read video to fall back on. So... That, my friend, wraps up the podcast for this week. If you haven't watched the latest episode, wow is all I want to say. Check it out.

1:33:39 Three times I've watched it already. It's that freaking good. We won't be talking about it next week because why won't we be talking about it, Paul? This is our last shameless plug. Because We have the phenomenal Brian Volk-Weiss as our guest. Absolutely amazing. This is the CEO and founder of Nacelle Toy Company, a man who's resurrected Star Trek action figures better than they may have ever been before, and who's also just recently unleashed his, I believe it's five-part Star Trek docu-series on all the different platforms at the center chair.

1:34:19 Part two, so this is the big sequel where he talks about all the different iterations of a post original series motion pictures that, uh, came. So really, really cool to, uh, get that insight. I've watched a few of these, uh, already. And from part two, the novel documentaries, I mean, he gets access to everybody that you can think of. Uh, they're really well cut together, extremely well edited, highly recommend them and all narrated by the wonderful Gates McFadden. So definitely, uh, The guy who gets things done is how I would describe Brian Volk, why I was excited to be able to talk to him about toys and movies and other things. So very cool. So definitely an episode you don't want to miss next week.

1:35:03 And watching that, I think it was episode five, I was really surprised to find out that Star Trek V was not the lowest grossing Star Trek movie of the franchise. The movie that bombed even worse, Then Star Trek V, Star Trek Beyond. So there you have it. Go and watch it. If you don't believe me and you want to find out for yourself, go and watch episodes. Well, no, actually watch all five episodes, but eager anticipation for the fifth one when you can find out that interesting fact. So I'm not sure if we will do a special Wednesday podcast. I'm going to wait. for all of my co-hosts to watch this episode. And if they feel inclined, we may do a special show. If not, we'll just be a week behind, and I'm okay with that as well.

1:36:00 I'm just really excited to talk about this episode. I love it. But I can wait. I can wait because we're going to talk to Brian. And I do have an invitation out to Cadet Asha herself. I haven't heard anything back, but hopefully, maybe she'll come on the podcast and talk with us about her time working on Strange New Worlds. I'll keep you guys in the loop. Without any further ado, unless there's anything else that my co-host wanted to mention or bring up. No? Yes? Maybe? Okay. Okay. That wraps up the podcast. So I'm your most excellent host, Uncle Jim. And I want to say thank you to our miracle worker himself, David, for putting together this awesome podcast. Thank you so much, David.

1:36:48 You're welcome. It's been fun. And I have some stuff you and I are going to be working on over the weekend. I'll get you some pictures and we're going to get to work. So something to look forward to. And I also want to say thank you so much to Charles for joining us from Las Vegas. Thank you, Charles. Thank you, Jim. Always fun talking track. And, of course, let's not forget V. Thank you so much for joining us from Virginia, V. It's been great to have you tonight. And, of course, let's not forget Paul. Thank you for joining us, Paul, and chomping at the bit for next week. Thanks. It'll be fun.

1:37:29 I'm going to ask him about a Saibot figure. That's going to be my big question. You never know. Well, he does dig into the back catalog, so you never know. He's making a Ben figure, I believe, from the animated series. He is, yeah. Nothing's impossible. You just have to convince him. Oh, I'll show him the video. Convince him. And last but not least, Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Yeah, you bet.

1:38:16 Thanks. And I'm your most excellent host, Uncle Jim saying, everybody, please stay safe and be good to each other. Hailing frequencies are closed. Good night, everybody. Good night. I'm longing prosper. Word two, number one. You're the captain. Captain. Ready for warp, sir. Oh, my God. Thank you.