Episode 696- Transporter Mishaps and Puppet Adventures

0:05 Nobody gets to say our name. Continue with the operation. You may file when ready. I pay Otis Kane. Anakin has gone insane. Logan 6. Corporal Hicks. The Gem of Darnia. Fixed Ripley. NBC. Dead Everly. Cannot see. Bumblebee. Kane. I'm a doctor rankling on wine. Old Pops and Warp Stories, Deltas in Turn, Balthasar, Scimitar, Death of Tashia, Flash, Gordon, Bradshaw, Stormtroopers and Clone Wars, James Walton, Tweety, John Koenig, and CWP. Can we talk about the series?

0:46 You can join us live by picking. Up your phone now. Can we talk about the series? We're coming to you on your human services now. Can we talk about the series? Comics books and games, we go beyond the snow now. We talk about the series. Comics on the skies, we sit and chat. We go on and on. We go on and on. Well, good evening, Trekkies and Trekkers around the globe. It's Thursday, August 27th, 2026. Welcome to episode 696. I'm your most excellent host, Uncle Jim. Before we go too far, I'd like to go around and introduce my awesome Treksports. We'll start off with David. David's out in Portland. He's our miracle worker. How you doing, David?

1:44 I tried to Muppetize myself. I really did, but it didn't work, so hi. That's okay. And also from Portland, we have our assistant engineer, our Pelley. No? No, Pelley is the engineer, so you would be our Scotty from Portland. Eric, how are you doing tonight, Eric? I am doing okay, man. It is fun to be back and to have David actually running the knobs and switches. That means that I just get to do what I normally like to do, which is sit in the balcony like a Stadler and Waldorf and complain about things. Much more appropriate role for me. And you do it so well. Thank you.

2:25 Thank you. And also from Portland, we have the toy guy, Paul. How are you doing tonight, Paul? I'm doing well, Uncle Jim. Glad to be here. Excited for our conversation and for the fact that it is finally turning the corner. It's almost, you can just about smell fall and autumn in the air and leaving this imposter of summer nonsense behind us. And so I'm very happy about that. Bring on the cold weather. Bring on the autumnal flavors. Bring it all on right now. It's here. It's coming. It's on its way. Good. And we're going to swing out to Las Vegas, and we're going to say hello to Charles. How are you doing tonight, Charles?

3:06 I'm doing good, Paul. I agree. Yeah, I would love to see temperatures actually in the 90s, not the 100s, which we might actually see some 90s next week, we hope. but we're still sweating over here for a few more days. This heat wave's got to break somewhere. And for those fans that don't get to see the live video, yes, that is a picture of the Muppet Studio backstage studio behind me. Well. We want to swing out to Virginia and say hello to our very own V. How are you doing tonight, V? Welcome to the show.

3:47 I'm glad to be here. I, too, am looking towards having autumnal weather. I'd just be happy if it would drop below, you know, 90, be in the 70s or 60s. That would be lovely. Well, we're all going to get our wish very, very soon. Don't you worry about that. So before we go too far, I want to let you guys know to head over to Trektalking.com. You can find all of our podcasts there and all kinds of fun stuff. There's a couple of ways you can help support the podcast. One, you can be a subscriber. Go to our Trektalking page and just subscribe.

4:29 99 cents a month and you get to see all these awesome videos that David puts together for us. Okay. You can also find us on YouTube as well. Tonight we're going to talk about Strings of the World Season 4 Episode 5. Level 5 Transporter Accident. It's going to be a lot of fun. We also have our fan shoutouts. That's where we go around the globe and we thank fans just like you for listening to us. And what actor do you share a birthday with? Find out on our Sci-Fi Birthdays. And of course we have Uncle Jim's Movie Pick of the Week. And I think you're going to enjoy this one. I know I did. And what's going on around the Star Trek universe? Unfortunately, we lost Tim Curry just the other day. And we're going to talk a little bit about that. And what's up with that ending of tonight's episode? And could there be a Muppet spinoff in the works? You'll have to hang around to find out on Star Trek News. And now, as always, we're going to start off the podcast with our fan shout-outs. So, Eric, you ready to get us started? You don't have to push any buttons this time. It's just going to happen automatically.

5:42 I'm so ready. I feel like we need to have somebody just saying, fan shoutouts really loud, you know, as the kind of intro song. That would be great. Yeah, maybe we'll do that. Who was that crazy Muppet guy that ran around? Was it Gonzo? The guy with the crazy hair that ran around yelling all the time? Was it Crazy Harry? I don't remember. I can picture him, but I can't think of his name. He was a nut. Yeah, and then he'd blow up everything. Yeah, that's right. Crazy Harry. Crazy Harry, there we go. Okay, Crazy Harry. Well, I'm sure that none of our listeners here are Crazy Harrys, but who knows? We are going to start shouting them out, though. We're going to say hello this week to Lertio Nunez from Sao Bernardo do Campo in Sao Paulo, Brazil. And I'm sorry that I massacred where exactly you are from. So Sao Bernardo do Campo.

6:54 That's better. But Sao Paulo, Brazil sounds like a lovely place. I would love to visit there. Thank you so much for saying hello to us this week. I'd also like to extend our greetings to Katarina Derkanska, who's a Star Trek fan from Slovakia, whose TV hero is Jean-Luc Picard. And Katarina sends us a Slovakian flag as well as three thumbs ups. Yeah, we're all about Jean-Luc Picard here. Thanks, Katarina, for sharing your love of him and of our podcast. I'd like to say hello this week to Gabor Mestin, a top fan from Budapest. Hungary. I have not been there, but my wife was just there, and I did not understand that there are two places, Buda and Pest. It blew my mind when I learned. Anyway, thanks, Gabor, for being a top fan. That means you interact with us a ton on our Facebook page. We really appreciate that support. And last but not least on my list, I would like to say hello to Timothy Gopal, who is saying hello to us from Trinidad and Tobago. I never know whether to say Tobago and Tobago. Paul always says Tobago. I've heard other people say Tobago. It's one of those two. But anyway, that very tiny island in the middle of a very big ocean looks like a scary place for me to live, but it also looks like a beautiful place. And I'm sure, Timothy, that is why you love living there. I see your beautiful flag, your rock and roll hand, and your Vulcan salute. Thanks for saying hello to us. V, who would you like

8:26 to say hello to and shout out this week? Well, I'd like to first say hello to Nestor Mondock, a trekker from Anaheim, California. And then underneath it says, I should have looked up what these meant, but anyway, Pinoy Camaro American. Next, hello to Olivier Guihul from Montreal, Canada, in the Live Long and Prosper sign. And Canada, this. Trekker loves you. We love our neighbor to the north. Anyway. And by the way, Oliver, you can listen and watch the Trek talking all you want, and I promise you, we will not charge you a tariff. So... Yeah. We'll rename any of your stuff. I know, right?

9:20 We didn't vote for that garbage, okay? So, anyway. Next hello goes out to Eric Lara Frederick, who says, I am from Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. And last but not least, hello to Karen Bynum from Tacoma, Washington. All right. Throwing the, whatever, the megaphone over to Charles. Thank you, V. Hey, Karen, I'm heading your direction. I'll be up in Federal next weekend. Keep the nice weather going. I'm going to start off with a warm welcome to John Hancock, who's a top fan from here in Las Vegas.

10:05 I don't recognize John, but I'm hoping he belongs to one of the ships out here. Welcome to Bobby Lee Cassie from Kentucky. Welcome, Martin. Izta from Surprise, Arizona. Yes, I know where Surprise is. Yes, it is a dry heat, and we do love to bake. I know how you feel, Martin. We're baking up here in Vegas, too. And last one on my list is Philip Sesescle from Columbus, Ohio. Welcome. I'll say Pat's megaphone over to Paul.

10:48 Thank you, Charles. Well, you know, Kentucky, Ohio, they're all great places. But as we always like to point out, there are science. Fiction and Star Trek fans all over the freaking planet, as we're about to prove. And let's head back over the main continent. Here to Germany, to Zwickau, Saxony, where a lot of our history comes from. To Dana Ludwig over there in Saxony. Great to hear from you, Dana. Thanks for chiming in and saying hello. over there where you've. Got to really have a really heavy coat if you're going to survive the winter. Let me tell you, because Sofia Nerovnaya is going to be able to confirm that, because Sofia is in St. Petersburg, Russia, where it gets freaking cold.

11:31 Crazy, crazy below zero cold over there. So sending good thoughts your way, Sofia. Where it's a little bit warmer. and land of the famous shroud. We're going to Turin, Italy for Massimo Rottura is saying hello to us. I would love to visit Italy sometime very, very soon. And a continent away, we'll go over to Ecuador to Mario Rafael Teran who's saying hello. So see, look at this. Ecuador, Russia, Italy, Germany. There's just, people love science fiction. Everywhere because it is a form of storytelling that fires the imagination. And that's a universal human Wouldn't you say that's true, Uncle Jim?

12:13 I would agree completely. And even in New Jersey, where you can't get there from here, is on every street corner. Speaking of which, we want to say hello to Shannon Williams, who's a top fan from New Jersey. We also want to say hello and welcome to Carl Robbins-Rusher, who's listening to us in New York. Also, Jamie Freeman Upton, who says, I'm from southeast Louisiana, 60 miles north of New Orleans. Well, thank you for being a fan and listening, Jamie. And last but not least on my fan shout-out list, we want to say hello and thank you to Richard Graham, who's in Tallahassee, Florida right now. Thank you so much, everybody.

12:55 If you would like to be featured on a fan shout-out, please. It's very simple. Head over to our Facebook page, Trek Talking and Beyond. Look for the Live Long and Prosper, which is pinned to the top of the page. Tell us where you're from. Leave some emojis. It gets my attention. If you see a heart next to your name, that means you will be featured in a fan shout-out. And that's all the fan shout-outs. And we do have a poll. to go over this week, which is very relevant to what we're going to talk about. So take it away, David.

13:48 Tell us just what you think. Get together, we will all dream. Kadar and Romulan, a whole time. God, I just love that video. Me too, me too. On our Facebook page, while you're there telling us where you're from for your fan shout out, I like to throw out questions and polls all the time. And we always go over them here on the podcast because fans are very important to us because we're fans too. So, Eric, what was the question and what did our fans have to say? Well, it's kind of weird how this week's poll really plugs into the show that we're going to review. Nicely done there, Jim. The question was, did you watch The Muppet Show growing up? And 90% of our responders said yes, they did watch The Muppet Show, and 10% said no.

14:36 And I think that that solidly shows you that Facebook is used mostly by people over 50. Yes. The 10% probably weren't born when The Muppet Show was on. I watched it when it first premiered. I watched it because I watched Sesame Street. So I knew the Muppets from that. I knew Kermit from Sesame Street. So, yep, I've been there since the beginning. I mean, I definitely watched it at some point in my life on a regular basis when I was coming out. The Donzo was Darth Vader? Yeah. Oh, they're just brilliant. Just brilliant. Yeah, I love them. I think no surprise that a lot of people grew up with The Muppet Show or have watched it since on the internet or through a streaming service. Of course, there's the movies, you know, and there was a newer show, The Muppet Now Show, that came out a few years ago. So all sorts of good iterations of Muppets out there.

15:37 Fraggle Rock, a Muppet production as well. Yeah, Jim Henson. Was that a Jim Henson? Yep. Fraggle Rock. Fraggle Rock. Okay. What else? He did the... What else did they do? The Labyrinth? No, not the Labyrinth. He did Labyrinth. Yeah, Labyrinth and Dark Crystal. Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and all those things are handsome productions. Those are handsome as well. So, lots to tie into this week's episode as well. Okay, so that's our poll for this week. And now we're going to dive right into Charles' favorite segment, Cadet Training.

16:19 Thank you, Jim. Cadet training! Oh, sorry. I thought that was part of the video. Cadet training! When you still. Haven't got out of Starfleet and your ass is still green, cadet training! You don't know shit. I was kidding. I hope we have that on tape. We're going to reuse that. Alright. Well, cadet training is Talk about how we can tie this episode into other episodes. And this one I'm going to go a little fast, because I've got quite a few of them in here. One I will throw off immediately is Star Trek II, Wrath of Khan. Of course, we have the famous Spock death scene in there. Now, the big trope that people talk about this week were transporter accidents.

17:16 And you wonder, well, did Star Trek ever use transporter accidents? Well, let me take a little speed through some of the transporter incidents we had. Death. Enterprise Delayless. Or the motion picture. Reverse Aging. TNG's Rascals. Foreign Object Contamination. Enterprise Strange New Worlds. Transporter Psychosis. TNG, Realm of Fear. Phasing. Lower Decks, Much Ado But Boimler. The Ying Yang Effect. TOS, The Enemy Within. Splitting one ending into two identical entities. TNG, Second Chances. Lower Decks, Kayshaun, His Eyes Open. Multiple entities merge into one.

18:09 Voyagers, Tuvix. Time Travel. TOS Mirror Mirror, DS9 Crossover, and also DS9 Little Green Men. About the only one that I didn't find had any transporter incidences in the memory alpha I was looking at was Discovery. But just about every series has had some kind of transporter incident. So I think it was quite easy that Strange New World needed one too. And I think Paul probably would love to talk about what happened in this episode.

18:57 Thanks, Charles. Well, you know, before we get in and all of us weigh in and find out what the fans thought, we like to sort of kind of And it's been a few days, a week for some of us, and it's really good to kind of just do a quick recap of the episode that we're going to talk about. So with this, this is season four, episode number five, which means we are exactly halfway through this fourth season of Star Trek Strange New Worlds. We are at the equator with episode five, level five, Transporter Accident. And the exciting incident of this particular episode is While Spock is away in a shuttle placing navigational buoys, Scotty tries to competitively beam his childhood puppet, Little Ricky, across this vast distance.

19:47 But there's a catastrophic malfunction. that somehow fuses the puppet's pattern with the entire crew of the ship. And this transporter mishap turns Pike, La'an, Chappell, Mabenga, and pretty much the entire rest of the crew, except for Spock, who is not on board, into these felt and foam puppets, as you see here. Spock returns to the ship and he's completely overwhelmed because he's the one flesh and blood person here who can really operate things and do things. And he pretty much has to run the entire ship solo and try to maintain a grasp of his logic while dealing with an ever more absurd crew of barely functional puppets. Things escalate a bit more when this very opportunistic Orion pirate ship arrives and attempts to hijack the vulnerable Enterprise. So embracing their hilariously new limitations, including some life-defying, life-threatening situations about spacewalks and opening doors and oxygen and such, the puppet crew uses some unorthodox tactics towards the end to finally retake the Enterprise. Scotty figures out a reversal, and we find a scene towards the end where Spock is sharing kind of a tender little moment with a to-pring puppet, to-puppet, I guess you could call it, until.

21:15 A sudden reveal tells. Us, and I've never seen this before, that Spock is actually waking up next to the real to-pring, and that this entire chaotic, fantastical adventure was just a stress-induced dream that grew out of Spock's ongoing struggles with logic, hallucinations, and his own personal So that's basically kind of a quick recap there. I'm sure other techsperts will have different highlights and things in the episode they want to point out that occurred. But that's just kind of setting the stage there for the main plot points from that particular episode. I'll be back later on to weigh in and give you my score for the episode. But in the meantime, before we get started with the techsperts, it's always more important to know what did the Vox Populi do?

22:02 I have to say, meaning the fans themselves. And of course, now that Eric's proven for us, these responses are all going to be from people over 50, right? So we know that there's a lot of fiber going on. A lot of fiber happening in these various reviews. So we'll find out if there's a trend here. Eric, would you be so kind as to regale us through the swamps? I absolutely will. I'm going to start this week with Dan Seo, a top fan who said, I give this a 9. A Star Trek episode done with the Henson Company? I'm here for it. It was a fun episode, lots of humor. I rank it with The Trouble with Tribbles. Hilarious, but somewhat inconsequential. Wes Huntington gave it a 10 with an exclamation point. This episode was funny, definitely needed for this stressful world we all live in. The episode doesn't stick the landing. But all in all, I enjoyed the episode.

23:02 Thanks, Wes. Stephen Arthur DeShong, a Rising fan, said the original Star Trek never took themselves seriously. The fact that it was all a dream made it fun. Don't forget Tribbles and Abraham Lincoln floating in space, lol. I give it a 9. Remember, it's Star Trek, not wars. Amy Wright Teske, give it a 10! Exclamation point. So much fun. and great Easter egg callbacks. Thank you. Dario Petovara said, one, if I wanted to watch the Muppets, I would watch the Muppet Show, not Star Trek. Face palm emoji. Jeff Millwood said, I didn't like the fact that it was a dream, but I'd give it a nine easily. But I never knew I needed a puppet episode until last night. Puppet Pike still had perfect hair. Lots and lots of emojis after that.

23:58 Thanks, Jeff. Liz Telly said going down in Star Trek fandom as an either you love it or hate it episode I love it even with the ending not I love all these caveats for the night it's must have a weird ending or something Mark Maple it was not I was not expecting much but the end of the episode did tie it together it was better than a stoner episode I did turn out liking it gave it an 8 thanks Mark Marcelo Carvalho said, a solid two. A nice waste of good energy. A few laughs and so many more rolling eyes. For a Star Trek parody, I'd say it was almost fun. Exclamation point. And all of a sudden, Spock's brain became a Shakespearean masterpiece. Thanks, Marcelo. Christopher Colgrove also gave it a two, only because it was a dream.

24:54 If it wouldn't have been, then a zero. So actually, a dream made it better. Give us back season one, he says. Tim Claudefelter gave it a 7.5. Fun, mostly pointless, but it actually gives us some solid spot development, and it upsets a lot of uptight whiners with his opponents. I mean, you know, poke the bear, Tim. Poke the bear. And then James Christopher Blackwell said, I give it a 9. It was funny and cute. And last but not least, Rob McCaffrey said 10. A great collaboration with Henson. I enjoy the science of Star Trek, so I was relieved when Spock woke up from his dream since I found the transporter accident slash Muppet transformation theory a tad implausible.

25:40 There's actually precedent for it, Rob. We're going to talk about that tonight during my part of the review, I believe. Which gives us a combined fan score this week of 7.5. So, like, a very. Extremely respectful score, right? Respectful, also respectful. Respectable, but also respectful score. All right, so we've heard from the fans. So let's hear from our truck sports. David, what do you say? David's got a little tape to play for you guys, hopefully. Oh, you wanted the video. Yes.

26:20 All right, video incoming. Here it is. It's time to prime the warp core. It's time to see the sights. It's time to start the show on the Enterprise tonight. Gluing up my starship, despite losing some height. It's time to meet the crew on the Enterprise tonight. All right. That was awesome. Oh, my God.

27:02 The Muppet Show theme song. So I just decided, I just threw out a little question. By the way, David put together that awesome graphic that we just had up on the screen. Awesome, awesome job, David. And I was just curious to see who your favorite Muppet was. And I'll start with mine, Pelia. Okay, the wild, wild hair and the little tiny feet. How could you not love it? And I'll go a little bit further to say, you know, in my mind, they should have left her as a Muppet because it would have made it so much better because she's such an annoying character. But I found her as a Muppet to be more of a Muppet than a real-life person. So I really, really enjoyed Talia as a Muppet. How about you, Charles?

27:52 I'm crossed between Pelia and Scotty. I love the hair on Pelia. That was just hilarious and the bare feet. But Scotty, just he and his glove and then having a hole blasted in the center of him, just.... Ah, Scotty was fun. How about you, Eric? Well, I, you know... don't know man i guess i guess it was kind of a toss-up for me between like i love the way pike looked i didn't like some of the stuff that they wrote for the pike character but i like the way pike looked quite a bit i also really liked how uh to bring looked like her vulcan expressions i thought were were fantastic so i don't know one of those two would probably be my favorite what about you.

28:47 David I would have to go with Pelia all the way. Just the movement they did. It seems like she had the most movement of all the other puppets, so I actually like the way that they did her character a lot, and the hair was just like spaghetti noodles. But I have to agree with you, Jim. I think she would have probably been better off as a puppet than a real-life character if they would have just kept her as a puppet. So was it established that she walks around the ship barefoot? I didn't remember that. I think Lanthanite, because what's her name? Holly Hunter? I can't think of her name now. In Starfleet Academy, she had a tendency to go to a Lanthanite thing.

29:36 Oh, okay. Might be. You're right. That seems like pure headcanon to me, V. I don't think that we've ever established that that's a Lanthanite thing, really. Just because she's a character, it's a bit of a reach. But, I mean, why not? Why not? One theory is as good as another. Could be true, sure. But yeah, it was a little odd. It sort of stuck out with no real explanation. But that's how we roll. Somehow she had boots to throw. So I don't know. Yeah. So who was your favorite, V? Definitely Pelia, followed by T'Pring. Because a lot of work.

30:16 People don't realize, I don't think, the detail. Because I dabbled briefly in puppets. And a tremendous amount of work went into each and every one. And just because they're smaller doesn't mean it's easier to make their costumes. So I just appreciated all the work. But yeah, definitely Pelia with the hair and the gigantic eyes and the little pieces, the little bear feet. And Paul, you get to bring up the caboose, buddy. So we're just saying which of the characters on the episode... we like the most of the puppets. Is that what we're doing? Yeah. When they created the versions of the, I really don't know that I have an answer for you, but, um, I, I think that I, I appreciated what they were going for with Pellia more just because it was more like taking the design and really going to an extreme place with it, you know, more of a, like a broad caricature as opposed to just, you know, I appreciated that.

31:16 I thought that was a nice, you know, taking the idea of the design and doing something, you know, outlandish with it. And on our Facebook page, the majority of our fans thought that Pelia was the best one that they came up with. So Pelia looks like Pelia. Well, one guy said Animal, who wasn't in the episode. But yeah, Pelia was right up there. I'm looking through him right now. Pellia, Pellia. The red shirt with the hole in him. He's floating around in the upper right-hand corner of the picture. Nope, that's not Scotty. Scotty's at the bottom with the glove on.

31:56 No, Scotty's got the hole in him, too. No, he doesn't. That's the guy from the bridge who makes you wonder whether he's been there the whole time. The nameless red shirt. Sorry. The guy who doesn't have a name but has a hole. All right. So that was just a little fun thing that we wanted to throw out there for you guys. And so that finishes up that. So now let's dive in and talk about the episode and see what our scores are compared to our Facebook fans. So who wants to go first? How about ladies? How about we let Dee go first? All right.

32:40 What I realized when I was writing down my notes today, Scotty's puppy, puppy, puppet, puppet. I hear the cat. I'm thinking animals. Anyway, Scotty's puppet, little Ricky. Tell me that was not a nod to Lucille Ball. You know, the mother of Star Trek. Am I right? Yeah, I believe that it was. Yeah, I think that was, yeah. It just hit me, and it's like, oh my gosh. Because I wondered, why did they call him Little Ricky? And it hit me, and it's like, oh, Lucy. Okay, anyway. Yeah. So, for the, I guess the people who didn't like the episode, I guess they probably didn't like how A Christmas Carol was reimagined with Muppets and Michael Caine. And, of course, one of my favorites, Treasure Island with the recently departed Tim Curry.

33:45 So that's a big deal, you know. It's not the first time that people, you know, you've reimagined something into puppets. And also, for those of us who watched The Muppets, there was one of my favorite segments, Pigs in Space with Link Hogfrog and all that. I love Pigs in Space. I know. How could you not? It was great. It was awesome. But I just... There was one thing that was mentioned that the Orions were played by some comedians. But I didn't recognize who they were, so I'll just, you know, they were great. They had green faces, you know, yada, yada.

34:37 But again, going back to the sheer amount of work that went into making all those puppets and the hair and the facial expressions and everything. And also, they actually did this on the show, the set. And because I've seen videos of it, and that's a tremendous amount of work. So from that aspect, I'm just really appreciating all the work that went in to bring that to us. But my favorite part was when you've got the, you know, Spock and Pike with the little hand thing, you know, mimicking Wrath of Khan. And I know that Spock wakes up, but it was kind of creepy. Yeah. Just a little bit creepy that when he started to lean in and, you know, to kiss the Pring puppet, it's like, okay, that was a little bit weird. But I just got a bunch of needed laughs out of it. It was a lot of fun. It was exactly what I would expect from the Muppets. And I love anything that Jim Henson Productions does. So, you know, combine it with Star Trek, heck yeah. So I will give it a solid 9.75.

35:58 Wow, that really gets Paul going because that's a double digit. Yes. Paul loves those. I know. Up for you, Paul. All right. How about you, Charles? Okay. In the opener, I thought it interesting where. Scotty's in there dealing with trying to challenge a classmate of his. And then Spock, who goes to see Leon, Leon's kind of putting some distance between her and him.

36:46 And I think that's foreshadowing a little bit about what might be happening in the future. And I thought that interesting.... How she's trying to back away from him a bit, dealing with what's happened to her. From the ship incident. Let me see in Word. Definitely the transporter incident was interesting, how everybody was affected by an onboard ship. At least as we know from the episode. And how each character had to deal with it.

37:29 Oh, that's right. I forgot. David. Who's engineering. We're going to pop up a picture. Grab this out of my collection from a Star Trek club meeting I was at. This is actually me and my puppet slash Muppet Neil. I actually was trying to do a little bit of work with Muppets. You can get in your slideshows, David. I was trying to play with puppeteering a little bit and also watching videos on the making of. And I will agree with V, the making and designing of Muppets is very complicated.

38:12 But not only the making of. If you go in and start watching any of the behind the scenes episodes, Sure, Pike's sitting in the chair. A Muppeteer is crawling below the chair, trying to move in just the right position where he could hold Pike up and move the mouth and make him look like he's sitting there for real. The staging on the Muppet series, literally everybody was on the second floor. And all the puppeteers were down there below with their hands above their heads and frequently sitting there with TV screens so they could see what they're doing because they can't see at all what's.

39:02 Going on above them. So I love just with the complexity of what it was to put together these characters, walk in the scenes, having legs. Legs is a complicated Muppet feature. So having to sit there and move the legs In fact, some of these guys actually wore green suits just to try hiding themselves. I love how Scott... created this glove. Where he could sit there and be able to mechanically move, touch things, which he couldn't touch.

39:43 I thought that was great. I love the. Method they used to get rid of the Orions. I thought that was definitely creative. The silent Spock. Well, yes, Spock's silent because he doesn't want to use up oxygen. And the Muppets. Deciding they want to feel what's like to feel being out in space. And not have to wear any suits. I just thought that was all funny and laughing and really a good introduction. Yes, Strange New Worlds can do some good comedy. Most of the episodes are serious, but I love a little bit of lower-deck style comedy thrown in.

40:39 For this, I couldn't quite go with a 10, but I was going with a definite 9.5. I love what they did with this episode. Alright, 9.5. How about you, Eric? You want to jump in next? Sure. Yeah, so I will say that I kind of both loved and hated this episode in equal measure. I definitely came into this really wanting to like it. I was a big proponent back in the subspace Rhapsody days of something that Seems silly at first, but might have a plausible explanation. I think people maybe have forgotten that we actually had precedent for a puppet thing before because there was an episode of Lower Decks where Kayshaun, the... What are they called? The Kayshaun-his-eyes-open people. I can't remember their race's name right now, but he gets turned into a puppet and we know he gets turned back. So we know that they have the technology to turn people from puppets back into regular people. So anyway, I'll just say that.

41:55 So I was kind of expecting that to be part of it. So I really wanted to like it, and then I gave it a chance. And I'll say that the good parts of it for me were that, of course, you've already talked a lot about the puppet design, which, of course, was great. I think each one really captured the essence of the characters. So I was pretty impressed by that. Um, it was, you know, genuinely funny. Like I laughed a good portion of the episode, um, and was on board for the ridiculousness, you know, the Muppet show was always kind of like ridiculous. And so that was part of its schtick. And so I was like, yeah, that's, that's cool. Uh, you're going to do that with Star Trek. Um, and so it was, you know, it was charming and it was funny and, and that, uh, sort of stuff. Um, At one point, it had kind of a Star Trek-y message, I think, because Pike had the whole think like a puppet moment, which for me, we all could do that a little bit more. If we each could step outside of our own personal bubble a little bit more and try to put ourselves in other people's shoes and kind of look at it from their perspective, I think our communication as human beings would be a lot better. And we'd probably solve problems and work together better. And so, you know, I felt like that was a nice embedded kind of Star Trek-y message in an otherwise very silly episode.

43:24 That's pretty much where what I liked about it ended. Like, the pirate thing, all the pirate stuff was trash as far as I was concerned. I don't know what they've done with the Orions. I have no idea what the Orions' racial identity is right now. I think they're supposed to be kind of sticky comedy now because we've seen them that way in a few different episodes. Um, but also they're supposed to be pirates, but they're not really like kitschy. I don't know. I just don't understand them at all. Um, you know, you look at kind of what they've done with Spock over the course of this season. Um, the, you know, they put him in this episode, which of course we all know, I'm going to talk about the ending here in a minute. Um, But there's a lot of slapstick in this episode. They've kind of taken him out of the Vulcan context, I think, a little bit. And I feel like they're kind of doing that with Vulcans in general.

44:18 So I don't love how they're handling his character at the moment. And then sometimes some of the puppet performances were way off. Pike had some lines that just Pike would never say. And they weren't funny lines. They were intense lines. And they just didn't land for me. So yeah. That is all of the bad things except the absolute worst thing. The absolute positively worst thing that you could ever do. Avoid this at all costs. Anytime you write something, never, ever, ever, ever do this. And if somebody brings you a story where they do this, you throw it out and you fire them immediately without putting it on the screen. You never end it. It was all a dream. Like, The number of times that that has been able to work in history... Yes, I love things like Christmas Carol or whatever.

45:17 I acknowledge that a character goes through a significant transformation despite the whole thing being a dream. I didn't feel like they did that with Spock. He didn't transform into a new character or have enough of a journey in this for that it was all a dream to matter to me. And I will tell you, as a person who basically went ballistic after watching Seven Seasons of Lost, and it all ended up just being a dream, this is the kind of thing where I was on board the whole time, and I was laughing, and I was watching it with my wife, and we were having a good time. We're like, Muppets, and it's great. And then when that moment came, I came crashing down. And no episode should do that to me. It was like, so, so before the ending, I probably would have given this episode a seven, honestly. Like I, I was having a good time and I thought that there was enough, like I didn't care enough about the puppeteeness and them undoing it.

46:22 You know, you can sort of wave that away. That's fine. But the all, it was all a dream ending. I took several points off. So I don't know, man. Maybe a five. I'll give it a five. Yeah. All right. A five from Eric. How about you, David? Yeah. All right. First of all, I'm going to start off with a couple of my favorite lines from this episode. And that was when Pike was calling Robert April for the first time as a puppet. And when Robert mentions, So who's controlling you? It just sounded so natural that it just rolled off the tongue. And it was just like the idea of seeing a puppet and you just absolutely go through your mind and say, okay, yeah, they can't be real.

47:16 They are puppets. People have to control them. So the fact that he said that made me laugh out loud. And the other line was when Spock was helping Scotty out from under the torpedo tube. And that silliness that you would see in there, it came straight from like the Muppet show, you know, where it's just like you were able to get out of that the entire time. And the line that he mentioned was like, well, I know that now. To me, those two lines really bumped the score up to me because they were such good lines to me that I just could not leave them out. So yeah.

47:57 Now that that's out of the way, I do want to make one thing clear is that I actually enjoyed the fact that it was actually a dream. The reason being was because if this episode, for some odd reason, became canon or whatever that other word is. I can't see this as being in the Star Trek universe, as everybody just becoming puppets. And it just didn't make sense to me. And so the fact that it didn't become canon because of it was a dream actually kind of made me think that it actually did pretty good. I actually enjoyed that plot. And I know some other, like you mentioned, Eric, the lost TV show was all a dream. I can understand something like that because it went on for so long without knowing it. And it was like, what, seven seasons? Finally a dream? This was only one episode. So, to be honest, in my opinion, I actually like the premise that it was a dream more so because it's not canon. So, and it was silly.

49:04 It was fun. It was entertaining. It was, what do they call it, a gimmick episode? of this particular season of Star Trek, which again, I have to relate. I don't understand why they're doing all of the one-off shows when they're like only what 11 episodes left to try and figure out what's going to happen to Pike I mean we want to get back to the plot we want to get back to seriousness but I mean I'm hoping this is the last episode that did this and I mean, I re-watched this episode with my dad, and I grew up watching The Muppets. So, I mean, it probably was rerun on the TV series, because I'm not over 50 yet, but... The idea, though, that I enjoyed The Muppets, my favorite character was Rizzo, the rat, and... Actually, it's kind of a toss-up between the prawn, King Prawn, and Rizzo, but.

50:01 To me, I enjoy this type of entertainment for Muppets, and I actually really enjoyed this episode. And because of a few little things here and there that didn't make sense, like I really did not like the Orion fight scene at the end. That thing was, that kind of fell flat for me. It was just like, how were the puppets holding an Orion down? I don't know. It didn't make sense to me. The fact that T'Puin here, that you can see on screen, Orion lit her hand on fire and then he somehow knocked himself out by running into a pillar. To me, considering that all that happened because it was Fox's dream kind of makes sense, but at the same time it was just kind of silly and I didn't really enjoy it that much. But overall, I was really thinking about this episode, score-wise, and I was going to do two different scores and kind of average them together, but to save time, I guess what I'll do is just say that from here, the score that I picked would probably just be a 7. Maybe a 6.5 because of the different things, but I'm going to round it up to a 7.

51:22 Excellent. And I just want to say, David, that you look excellent in a black and white fedora from last week's video. Thank you. That was cool. All right, Paul. You got the mic, buddy. All right, friends. Well, you know, here's the thing. A couple starters. I'm a big fan of the Jim Henson Creature Shop, big fan of The Muppet Show. I'm of a vintage that I grew up watching, right? So I remember it really well. And love the. motion picture work. Somebody earlier, I think it was you, mentioned Muppet Christmas Carol, right? Where you have live action actors working together with the Muppets. Or Muppet Treasure Island with Tim Curry has been in rotation a lot this week because of Tim Curry's passing. Great stuff. Really, really, really well done. I'm invested as a fan. Love the work.

52:11 Appreciate the craft. Make sure to get that out there. And this premise would. Have been a phenomenal 10 minutes short on a platform like Sesame street, right. That does lots of parodies of modern things. It'd be like a, a short episode parody of a popular movie or like Avengers or game of Thrones or something. And they, but with the Sesame street spin, this would have been a great concise, tiny little, you know, amusing thing for, for 10 minutes on Sesame street, but to put it on strange new worlds, uh, Yeah, not what I would call the best fit, right? So it's just, I think a lot of it too is I'm really coming into the season as David intimated, right? I got a lot of gimmick fatigue from the way things are going week to week to week with, you know, premises and no writing. I'm so tired of premises and no writing on this show from this batch of writers that they've got. And again, like, you know, it's just like, I would normally start off going, okay, well, you know, Even with the boundaries, all the nonsense we've ever heard on scientific explanations and technobabble in Star Trek, the idea of turning organic matter into felt and foam, you're off into pure fantasy right away. But at the end, none of it matters, and you can't put any analysis to it at all because of that crappy rug pull at the very end of the show where it's all a dream, right?

53:41 You don't have to have an excuse. or follow rationale or reason or anything, because. You can just basically say, well, it's all a dream, so it's all bullshit. It doesn't matter, right? And to me, the it's all a dream thing is, it's so poor, right? The only thing that even remotely rivaled it is what we endured last week, where Una just happens to coincidentally look like the, wow, you're an exact dead ringer for the person who's in charge of this elaborate, you know, undercover ruse. With the Klingons, wow, what. An amazing, fortunate, lucky coincidence. This is the worst kind of writing ever. And I just, you know, sack everybody on this show who's responsible for any of these season four, with the exception of the season one premiere that was pretty good, you know. But it's so bad. I just can't believe what they're doing, you know. And I really want to take issue with one of our fans. said earlier when Eric was reading, the original Star Trek never took themselves seriously.

54:39 Dude, are you high? Or what is your situation? Right? Yeah, there's some zany episodes like the Space Hippies and Apollo and Abraham Lincoln. And all that stuff. But this is a show that took its science fiction writing really seriously. Okay? That was written by writers like Harlan Ellison and Ted Sturgeon. and Robert Block, right? It was a very serious science fiction show, right? With some goofy episodes towards the end in season three, like Spock's brain. But to make a comment like that is just. You know, an ignoramus. So I'm sorry, I just got to say it. But this episode is also, in addition to being poorly written, it's practically plagiarism. It's a beat for beat ripoff of Next Generation's Rascals, the episode that Charles mentioned in Cadet.

55:21 Training, right? In both stories, this weird physical transformation happens Here, it's puppets, but in Rascals, it was children, right? Due to a transporter mishap, right? And so the Enterprise is left vulnerable to this opportunistic boarding party. Here, it was Orions. In Rascals, it was Ferengi. And a small little group has to figure out how to outsmart the invaders. I mean, it's a complete... If I was the writer of Rascals, I'd sue. I really would. And, you know, obviously, the little Ricky thing is a nod to Desilu Studios and. But... Really, guys. Even in Spock's fantasy land imaginings of his dreams, we're supposed to believe that Scotty kept this creepy puppet throughout all of his time at Starfleet Academy and then somehow brought it on board the Enterprise and he wasn't locked away from being a psychopath? I mean, that's just the creepiest thought ever. But I just worry about the future of this show. Well, it has no future because it's been cancelled.

56:16 It's already done. But this tonal shift into this such silly childish humor is just really troubling. I mean, Star Trek Stranger Worlds is a comedy show now. It's not a science fiction show you can take seriously. I recommend to people it's real science fiction. It used to be rooted in realistic allegorical storytelling, and all of this humor was, I mean, again, love the Muppets. It's just not appropriate for this. Very broad, childish, and silly stuff. I mean, figuring out how to work doors, you know, all this kind of nonsensical stuff. It's pushing the tone way past what I'm looking for in science fiction. You know, give them props. They did a great job for what they were doing, right?

56:57 It's really challenging work. On a technical level, it's an achievement. All the craftsmanship involved. I think that those folks did a phenomenal job. My issue is with you, writers, because you suck. And you're ruining a really decent television show and you're bringing it down into, like, infantile level. So, you know, I'm sorry. It's just, you know, my issue was always with the writing. And I can't get past it if it's bad. And this is really bad. So, you know, I mean, appreciate it if you're able to enjoy this and you don't really have a problem with these great big tonal shifts. And, you know, you're not looking to apply critique to your drama and you're willing to just take whatever you recognize as being entertaining.

57:39 Power to you, man. I'm glad you're enjoying it. It's just not what I'm looking for in my science fiction. I'm looking for something a little bit more adult. I'm more of like a Ronald D. Moore person. with the newer upgraded Battlestar Galactica we got. I don't want so much humor in my drama. Or I would watch a comedy show. And that's what Enterprise has become. It's become a comedy show and a poorly written one at that. So for me, all I can do is I got to really line up next to Eric here. I think a five is the best I can give you. I'd love to give it higher for the craftsmanship, but it's just so stupid and annoying. I really can't get past it. So yeah, and you know, I mean, and it's kind of like, am I getting a weird racist trope vibe off of the fans?

58:23 I kind of feel like I am. There's something going on there that I'm not comfortable with. These days, of course, everyone will just look past it and not care. But I don't know. I don't like it. And I'm not sure what it is. So do better. It continues to be my message. Get rid of whoever's writing the show. Never hire them to do science fiction again, ever, anywhere, under any format. So five from me. That's it. I'm going completely against Paul and Eric, 100%. Not surprised. The first time I watched this episode, I was with you guys. I hated it. I'm sitting there thinking, wait a minute. Pike would never say that. Orions wouldn't act that way. This wouldn't be going on. And unlike Eric, when we got to the end, and found out it was a dream, all those things were forgotten because none of those characters were acting the way those characters would act because it was Spock's interpretation of what would be going on, which changes the whole premise for the way I watched the show the second time and the third time. that I watched it. So I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. And unlike, I thought the last, the black and white show was just a total gimmick.

59:38 This particular show, I thought paired really good with the Griffin because in the Griffin, Spock is dealing with his humanity and he has to bring, cut his humanity out of him. In this episode, he turns it to bring as well. And she turns into a puppet because he manifests her as a puppet. She comes aboard and helps him deal with his logic as an actual person and not as a puppet. So for me, I thought that they really did a lot to move Spock's character forward. And they showed us a lot of what's going on in Spock's brain. no pun intended at this point in his career, where this is not the Leonard Nimoy Spock that we're going to see later, but he's moving towards it.

1:00:21 And I think that we're starting to see him, uh, excise his, his human half and turn to total logic. So I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. 100%. Um, like I said, Pellia was great. The little rat, the con nod, I thought was great. Um, And I also thought that when the Enterprise is getting shot and all the crew is running around screaming, I'm like, they would never do this. But the Muppets would. So it was very Muppety to me. And that's the way I watched it. And the dream saved it for me because I was going to just wash it out the airlock until we found out it was a dream. And when we found out that it was a dream, it changed everything. And I think I think, and my Trek-sperts can help me with this, that this is the only time Star Trek has ever used that trope.

1:01:17 I cannot think of a single Star Trek episode that was a complete, utter, total dream that wasn't alien-induced like Inner Light or something like that. That where a character just had a dream and woke up. I don't recall an episode that, I might be wrong, but it doesn't pop in my brain. Anybody? I mean, I guess I think we should expand that out maybe just a little bit because I think that time travel episodes kind of fall into this same sort of category because in a lot of time travel episodes, things just sort of are as they are at the end of it. Like, for example, two episodes that are really cool that a lot of people love of Voyager are Year of Hell, right? And there are such cool episodes and there's a lot of war and that Voyager gets really beat up and all that kind of stuff.

1:02:11 And then in the end, it's time travel shenanigans and nothing that has happened during any of the Year of Hell episodes matters at all because it's all been canceled by time travel. So I guess what maybe Paul and I are saying on the other side of that is when it feels like you've wasted your time watching it because none of it actually matters, like maybe i could watch it a second time and be be more okay with it jim um you know because now i know i know what the punchline is already so now i can like watch it with a different you know eye it just like to me is just like i was like oh god it took the wind out of my sails.

1:02:53 But i i enjoyed it um Like, I'll give an example. When Pike is on the bridge and he says, we will fire photon torpedoes, and he fires them, Pike wouldn't do this. So that bothered me. But knowing that it's just Spock making it all up, I'm able to just sit back and enjoy it and watch it for what it is. And so I personally enjoyed it greatly. I don't know if I enjoyed it as much as Subspace Rhapsody, but I did enjoy it. And the puppets were great. I thought that the representation of the puppets was spot on. The Orions were strange, but again, this is Spock's brain that we're dealing with. This is Spock's interpretation of what an Orion would be and what an Orion would act like.

1:03:39 And to V's point, The people that played the Orions, I thought the Orion guy that was holding Spock hostage was just a riot. He's talking to Spock about his girlfriend and about his life and blah, blah, blah. That guy was funny. I don't know who he was, but I liked him. So overall, I enjoyed the episode because it was a dream and because it helped move Spock's character one step closer to where we know he's going to eventually end up. So I enjoyed it. And I think I'm going to go with a 9.95 because I know that Paul likes those extra decimals. You're just saying you can't commit, man.

1:04:25 That's all you're saying. So it's on you, man. If you've got a resort to it, go for it. If I can add one thing real quick. There were several other shows that had dreams in them, like Dallas. Does anybody remember Dallas, where Pam wakes up and Bobby is in the shower and he wasn't dead? And then, I don't know if it was a dream per se, as it was a young autistic boy's imagination, and that did bum me out, was St. Elfware, which was an excellent medical drama. Oh, that was, yeah. And then... Newhart did a spoof on that where him living in Vermont in the end was all a dream. And he was really back in his apartment and he was a strength. Yeah. So.

1:05:15 An interesting thing too, is this like, um, uh, you guys remember the far beyond the stars. Episode of deep space nine. With, with, with, with Benny Russell, right? Well, This didn't happen, but Ira Stephen Bear, one of the show's co-creators, he originally wanted the series finale to be that the entire series was watched was like a daydream or hallucination of Benny Russell. That he'd had. It was all within his mind as a science fiction writer. They decided not to go that way, but that was originally what they were planning for. I've got to just throw this out there, too. This is going way back. I can't even remember what year it was, but I don't know if anybody was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer person or the spinoff series.

1:06:01 Angel was the first show to do this, right? Angel did a show, I think in the fifth season, where one of the main characters got transformed into like a marionette, you know, while they were investigating some evil children's television show. So similar kind of thing. But yeah, I'm just with you. It's just like, for me, it's just like, if you're saying it's all a dream, right? Then it's just, it's like the best cop-out ever. right it's like oh nothing has to make sense and i want things to make sense or i'm like i i why am i paying attention to shit if i don't and none of it has to make sense. At the end it's just literally lazy it's a cop-out and and it's just bad writing i mean that that that's something i mean if you're able to enjoy it and forgive that that's awesome well i i completely disagree paul i enjoy.

1:06:47 Really really really really really it's the laziest. Time of I don't find it to be lazy. I don't find it to be a cop-out. I enjoyed it. It's interesting how people can see the same thing differently. I watched it and The part where T'Pring slaps Spock and then slaps him again. I was like, you slapped me. And then she slaps him a second time for being too human. I thought it was great. So I thoroughly enjoyed it and was able to enjoy it for what it was. Well, that's some sort of fudgy connection right there, so I don't know. Spock's brain. So, Charles, how do the Treksperts line up to our Facebook fans?

1:07:32 Interesting, this week, the Facebook fan scored a 7.5, and the host scored. A 7.7. Wow. Now, I want to bring up one comment that one of my coworkers said, and I totally agree with him. If somebody doesn't. Do a replica of the Muppet characters, in figures or another way of merchandise, they're losing out. Yeah. I think for many of us, they need to do something to reproduce these characters.

1:08:15 All right. And this is the part of the show where we do our sci-fi birthdays. Um. Hello, Laura. That was not a Klingon song. All right, guys. Usually we start off our Sci-Fi Birthdays with our remembrances, but Paul has a meeting he has to jet to. So we're just going to flip things around a little bit, and we're going to have Paul start out our Sci-Fi Birthdays, and then we'll move back to Eric.

1:09:02 And ironically, we're ahead of schedule, so it becomes a moot point, but there you go. So let's first start off with. Some of these August birthdays that we have here. Folks, we're still alive. We're still kicking in our Muppets. So first of all, we'll say happy birthday to Kim Cattrall, English-Canadian actress who played, of course, Valeris in Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country, soon to be immortalized in action figure form thanks to the Nacelle Company, which. Is very cool. So you can have your own. Valeris figure very soon. She won a Saturn Award nomination for that role, by the way, which is pretty awesome. I just thought she was a terrific character, really cool, real bit of a badass. She rose to fame for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO series Sex and the City. Also has the distinguished credit of being a huge star in a John Carpenter movie. She was Gracie Law in Big Trouble in Little China with Kurt Russell, which is one of.

1:09:59 The top tier Carpenter movies. Really great stuff. She played a pea teacher in Porky's, that cult picture from way back in the day, and a socialite turned cop in the original Police Academy movie. So working all the time, Kim Cattrall. Again, Valeris, great character, and happy birthday to you. Talking about iconic, whoa. Stand back and prepare to leap across the room in slow motion with a revolver in each hand, because Carrie-Anne Moss. Is having a birthday, of course. Early roles on television took her to tremendous international prominence. As Trinity in the matrix series.

1:10:40 And then very recently, uh, showed up on star Wars, the acolyte, uh, on Disney plus as Jedi master in Dara on that television series, their tool, uh, to harnessing that same bad-ass energy as well. She's a really cool performer. It does a lot of really good work. Um, she's just great. Really, really charismatic, delightful to see her showing up in star Wars, man. That was amazing. I know. And she basically, I don't know if people watch, uh, the acolyte, very misunderstood show. They had a great pilot, though. Their first episode was great. And this, like, I want to say, like, 10-minute fight scene in a bar with Carrie-Anne Moss, right? She's basically doing everything the most bad-eyed Jedi could ever do. Just stunt, stunt, stunt, stunt, stunt, leaping across there in just incredibly challenging stuff.

1:11:25 She's great. I mean, she does a lot of good work. Really, really cool to watch. Enjoy her very much. Might have to sit down and watch the original Matrix again. That was really, really... Groundbreaking picture. Happy Birthday also goes out to John Snyder, played the role of Bocrop in Next Gen's third season episode, The Enemy. And in the fifth season episode, The Masterpiece Society played the role of Aaron Conner. No relationship to John Conner. By the way. But yeah, John Snyder, dual roles in Next Gen. Pretty cool to be able to say that. And moving back over to Voyager, we have Happy Birthday goes out to Jennifer Lean. actress best known for playing Cass, the Ocampa during the first through third seasons of Voyager. And then back in fourth season episode, Scorpion part two and the gift, uh, she did end up reprising her role for the sixth season episode fury. So, uh, back and forth, uh, through different parts of the, uh, Voyager timeline there, uh, wrapping things.

1:12:27 Up in her appearance in that last episode. So, uh, we've got all kinds of folks having birthdays here and, uh, I think that's a good time to, though, while we did jump ahead this week, let's go back and acknowledge folks who we fondly remember, because a lot of folks, we still want to celebrate them, even though they've moved on from this celestial sphere. And for that, we turn to Eric. Yeah, Paul, this week, our first remembrance is going to be for actor Clarence Williams III. He, of course, was the Tony Award-nominated actor who played Omet Klon. in the Deep Space Nine fourth season episode, To the Death. He's probably best known, however, for his role as Link Hayes on the 1970s television series, The Mod Squad. You can see him there in the video that David's put together.

1:13:20 Amazing Nehru jacket, amazing collar. I love that look right there. He, of course, is the grandson of legendary musician Clarence Williams and blues singer Eva Taylor. If you don't know Clarence Williams, he was quite the shit back in the day. He's a jazz pianist, composer, promoter, vocalist, theater producer, publisher. There was nothing the man didn't do. I have a feeling that Grandpa passed on a lot of that to Clarence Williams III. Following a two-year stint in the United States Air Force, he started performing in stage productions, ultimately working his way into the Broadway stage scene in 1960 with a role in a short-lived play called The Long Dream.

1:14:02 He also broke into Featured Films, making his debut in the medium with an uncredited appearance on the 1959 war drama Porkchop Hill. I haven't seen Porkchop Hill. I don't know. Nobody else has seen it. Thanks, Clarence Williams III, for being an awesome and scary character. Although. I really do like the Omediclon episodes. His character kind of changes from the beginning of when they bring him in to later on. So anyway, thanks Clarence Williams III. Also saying happy birthday and sending out lots of love this week to Kenneth George Kenny Baker. Kenny Baker was a British actor, comedian, and musician who portrayed the character R2-D2 in the Star Wars franchise and also appeared in The Elephant Man, Time Bandits, Willow, Flash Gordon, Amadeus, and Labyrinth.

1:14:57 In fact, as of 2016, he appeared in three films that were nominated for Best Picture, including A New Hope, The Elephant Man, and Amadeus. And in addition to his role as R2-D2 in Return of the Jedi, he was actually supposed to play the Ewok Wicket, but he fell victim to food poisoning, so that part of Wicket went to Warwick Davis instead. Funny how things happen, right? So anyway, Kenny Baker, thanks for being our original R2D2. I love that picture of you in the R2 suit right there on the screen. Thanks for finding that one, David. Happy birthday to Kenny Baker. Happy birthday as well to Oliver McGowan, the character actor who played the caretaker in the 1966 original series first season episode Shore Leave. McGowan was mostly known for his 75 guest appearances on on various television shows.

1:15:51 One of his earliest appearances at the age of 49, yes, earliest appearances when he was 49, was in an episode of Maverick, which I will admit was a show that we used to watch a lot of back in the day. Maverick and Rockford Files are burned pretty good into my brain. Alongside Arthur Ratnitas, who of course was Lieutenant D'Amato. So Oliver McGowan, thank you for all of your various contributions, including Is that true? He was on the monkeys television series. Oh my God. I had a girlfriend that was totally into that at one time. I saw a bunch of that as well. She was like the monkeys. I was like, I don't get it, but you're cute. So whatever. Uh, all right. And, uh, last but not least, uh, let's keep going beyond. And we're going to say happy birthday to sir.

1:16:38 Thomas. Yes. Most people don't know his first name is actually Thomas Sean Connery. Uh, he of course is the Scottish film actor and producer. Um, who has done so many things in his life. He, uh, was the first actor to play James Bond starring in seven films between 1962 and 1983. Um, he of course was Juan Sanchez Villalobos Ramirez in Highlander from 1986. Uh, and, uh, Indiana Jones's dad, Henry, right. In the last crusade. Um, Paul, I know, loves him from his portrayal of Captain Marko Aleksandrovich Raimius in The Hunt for Red October. But man, just what hasn't this guy done? The one that I also kind of wanted to highlight, which isn't actually on our little screen here, but I think is an important one to bring up, was that he actually won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Jim Malone in The Untouchables from 1987. He also won won two BAFTA awards, three Golden Globes, and a Henrietta Award along the way.

1:17:47 Man. Something else. It's still hard to believe that he's gone. But yeah, so many cool things that Sean Connery has done. Thank you so much for your contributions. We love you very much. Happy birthday. I remember he was in a movie called Outland. Oh, yeah. It was this futuristic sci-fi cop and robber type of deal. took place on, I think, was it Mars? It's been a long time, but it was a future job. Yep, Io. Yep. And let's not forget, the biggest thing to remember him for, Shaqari. He was originally going to play Cybok in Star Trek V. There you go. I got it in there. And he was too busy doing Indiana Jones, so it went to Lawrence Luckinville. So... Just imagine how different Star Trek V would have been if Sean Connery had played Psymon.

1:18:37 That would have been different. He's like, I think I dodged a bullet this time. Thank Christ. I read the script one time and I had to say no. I'd never have won that Oscar. I was on that piece. of crap, would I? Anyway, we don't want to put words in your mouth, Mr. Sean Connery, but you are a sir. You were knighted. Yeah. Back in what? 2020, I believe. Yeah. 2020 was knighted. So amazing. Happy birthday to you, sir. And thank you for all the things that you have done. in your life. And that does it for our remembrances. So I think I would like to pass the flaming birthday candle now back over to those who represent the living and we'll check in with V.

1:19:19 All right. Thank you, Eric. So my first happy birthday to the living goes to Callan White, the actress who played Crite in the TNG fifth season episode, The Outcast, one of my favorite episodes. Next, she flies the ship. Happy birthday to Melissa Navia. She played Erica Ortega in Star Trek Strange New Worlds. She's a New York State native, has appeared in several short films and television projects since 2011. So hopefully that would be great if we could get her on the show. Next. Oh, this was a crush.

1:20:08 that I had when I was a lot younger, Rick Springfield. Australian-American musician and actor. He appeared in Battlestar Galactica, Saga of a Star World, as Lieutenant Zack. Also played, oh yeah, he did, Dr. Noah Drake on the ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital. And he's a rocker best for... Best known for his number one hit, Jessie's Girl in 1981. Are you saying. You wanted to be Jessie's Girl, V? Maybe. I don't know.

1:20:49 I feel obligated to point out, people don't realize this about Rick Springfield, but he has one of the most valuable science fiction toy collections on the planet. He's got a massive, massive high-end collection of vintage Star Wars figures, stuff from the 70s and 80s. A lot of Holy Grail items. He's not shy about it. Check it out. You can find his stuff. It's mind-blowing. It is really wild. And if you guys are fans of Californication, or if you've never seen it, check out Californication Season 3, Episodes 6, 7, and 8, I believe.

1:21:35 Rick Springfield plays himself in those three episodes. It is so hilarious. You know, I saw an interview with him about it. He said it was easy. I just played me. Didn't have to do anything. So it was really funny. Well worth watching if you want to see Rick Springfield doing some good stuff. So pretty cool. All right. And I've got one last birthday wish going out to Chris Pine. the actor who played James T. Kirk in Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Star Trek Beyond. And his father is Robert Pine, who was Sergeant Gertrude, yeah, Gertrude on Chips. That was another childhood crush show of mine back in the day. So happy birthday, Chris Pine. All right, hurling the flaming birthday candle to Uncle Jim.

1:22:30 Yes, and I only have one birthday, and only one. I've resigned my birthdays to my Trexperts in order to shorten the show up and move it along, so I do the movie segment. But I do have one very important birthday that I have to mention right now. We have to say happy birthday to our very own miracle worker, David. Happy birthday, David. Happy birthday. There's the fedora. That is so cool. Happy birthday, David. Thank you. Recap it, dude. Recap it. It's all so black and white. You wouldn't be seeing these awesome graphics like the one that's on the screen right now. David does all the videos for us. And I think Eric can appreciate all the work that goes into these after having to step in last week. David does a phenomenal job. and we couldn't do the show without him. So thank you so much for being a Trexpert, and happy birthday, David.

1:23:29 Thank you very much. How long have you been a Trexpert, David? I don't think it's been too long. You know, since 2000-something. 25 years, Jim. That narrows it down. He's been here longer than the podcast has been. I think I joined around 2018, 19, probably. Maybe someone I can't remember. Yeah. You've been a very valuable member of the team. Thank you, David. Thank you. All right. So now that we've got all of our birthdays out of the way, it's time for Uncle Jim's Movie of the Week. There's a couple on the list I want to mention, and then we'll pick one of my favorites, and we'll delve a little bit deeper into it. So first, we want to say happy birthday to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, which was released on 8-13-1984. There's the poster up there on the screen right now. The next movie that we want to remember, we want to say happy birthday to Event Horizon. It was released on.

1:24:42 Sorry, is Buckaroo Banzai a movie that I have to see? Because I haven't seen it. Is it like a must-see? It's a cult movie. It's fun, it's entertaining, it's got a really good cast, but it is very awkward and weird, and it's trying to be. Way cleverer than it is. It's fun, but go in with low expectations. If I haven't seen some of these, I need to know if I need to put energy into them. Sorry, Jim. No, that's okay. The next on our list I think is relevant to an episode that we talked about last week, Event Horizon, which was released on 8-15-1997, starring the late Sam Neill from Jurassic Park. The next one that we want to say happy birthday to on our list is American Werewolf in London, which was released on 8-21-1981. And now we're going to go way back.

1:25:43 We want to say happy birthday to Fantastic Voyage, released on 8-24-1964. If you guys haven't seen this one, I believe it's Raquel Welch is in this one, and they go inside of the human body. So, you know, check that out if you have not seen it. Check it out. It's a piece of sci-fi history. The next one on our list, we want to say happy birthday to Darkman, which was released on 8-24-1990, starring Liam Neeson. It was like one of these early pseudo-superhero type movies. The next one on our list is, well, the next two actually are real classics. We want to say happy birthday to The Wizard of Oz, which was released on 8-25-1939. I grew up watching this on TV and I was blown away when I found out that Judy Garland is actually Liza Minnelli's mother. Blew my mind when I found that out because I always think of Judy Garland you know, from, you know, the Wizard of Oz.

1:26:57 Wizard of Oz. She couldn't possibly have children. She couldn't possibly be Liza Minnelli. Liza Minnelli's old. But yeah, she was. And yeah, Wizard of Oz came out on 8-25-1939. And the last birthday movie that we want to mention is another classic, although, well, the radio show was a classic. We want to say happy birthday to H.G. Wells' War of the World, which was released on 26th, 1953, would have been yesterday. And of all those movies, I'm going to pick my favorite one to talk about. David, roll the tape.

1:27:38 This was fun. Luckily, he strolled on the moor. Did you hear that? I heard that. What is it? Do you think it's a dog? Nice doggy. Good boy. What happened? The police report said they were attacked by an escaped lunatic. A wolf. My friend Jack was just here. Told me that I will become a monster in two days. You're dead for me, Jack. Yes. Gotta believe me, David. Believe what? You're one of the undead, and I'm a werewolf. Tomorrow night's the full moon.

1:28:19 You're gonna change. I don't know. You'll become... I know, I know. A monster. A naked American man stole my balloon. What? What do you do next night? You don't remember? The last remaining werewolf must be destroyed. It's you, David. Good Lord.

1:29:12 Alright, there you have it. The trailer for The American Werewolf in London. Again, it was released on August 21st, 1981. It's an American supernatural comedy horror film written and directed by John Landis himself. The film stars David Naughton, Jenny Auger, Griffin Dunn, and John Woodvine. The plot follows two American backpatters, David Kessler and Jack Goodman, who are attacked by a werewolf while traveling in England. Their biggest mistake? was they got off the path and went on the moors and they didn't run into heathcliff either while they were there um landis originally wrote the film in 1969 and shelved it for over a decade prospective financers believed that landis's script was too frightening to be a comedy and too humorous to be a horror film after achieving success in hollywood with national lampoon's animal house and the Blues Brother, Landis was able to secure financing for Polygram Pictures to produce An American Werewolf in London. And I got to tell you guys, this is one of my favorite, favorite horror movies. I remember sneaking into the movie theater to see this movie because it was rated R. And scaring the bejesus out of myself. For those of you who don't know, John Landis actually made the thriller video for Michael Jackson. American Werewolf in London was the first time in Hollywood history where we saw an actual werewolf transformation live.

1:30:45 I mean, not live, but on screen right in front of us in one complete take without any cutaways. All done with puppetry. Phenomenal movie. great special effects and of course michael jackson was so enamored by it that he had john landis turn him into a werewolf in a thriller so happy birthday to american werewolf in london released on august 21st 1981. So jim i wanted to share one little bit of trivia that i thought was fascinating about this movie as i was kind of like going back and looking at it again so john landis wrote the screenplay for this film following an incident while shooting Kelly's Heroes, which was a movie from 1970 where he was kind of just like an errand boy in Yugoslavia. While driving along a country road with a colleague, Landis encountered a Romani funeral.

1:31:44 The body was being buried in a massively deep grave, feet first, while wrapped in garlic so it would not rise from the dead. So he saw this amazing funeral ritual and was like, you know what? I'm going to write a movie about some undead stuff. Well, one of the things that I remember most about the movie that I enjoy the most is that there is a lot of comedy in this movie. Jack's buddy keeps coming back, and every time we see him, he's more decomposed than he was in the scene before. There's a really funny scene where they're sitting in a porno movie.

1:32:25 And all the people that he's killed all show up, and they're all in various stages of decomposure. And behind him, there's this porno movie going on that says, nonstop orgy, see you next Wednesday. If you pay attention throughout the entire movie, see you next Wednesday, keeps showing up on billboards and all over the place. See you next Wednesday, like a little inside joke. And Jenny Augeter, who is his love interest in this movie, was also in another favorite movie of mine, Logan's Run. And she stars in this one with David Naughton. Another little tidbit for you guys. If you're old enough, do you remember the Dr. Pepper commercials? I'm a Pepper. He's a Pepper. You're a Pepper. Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper?

1:33:08 Yes, I was going to say that. I didn't go too young for that. When they saw that commercial and they thought he'd be perfect for the role. Another little tidbit. He tried his luck in music. And he wrote a disco song called Making It. And it was featured in Meatballs. I don't know how far it went in the charts, but it's a clever, catchy little song by David Naughton. You can probably find it, Making It. It's kicking around out there on the internet. So yeah, American Werewolf in London. I'm very fond of it growing up. I saw it several times. And if you haven't seen it, I recommend it because Even by today's standards, the special effects really, really pulled up well. No CGI, no green screens. It's all puppets and practical effects. Happy birthday to American Werewolf in London.

1:34:05 And that, my friends, wraps up Uncle Jim's Movie of the Week. And now, it's time to get into our Star Trek news. Alright, guys. I just realized, sorry. Something funny happened. I didn't realize I was in my pajamas in that picture. That was a pajama episode. I just wanted to throw that out there.

1:34:52 Now the whole world knows your secret. I love that. Oh, boy. So we usually like to start off with a segment called Shatner Says What? But Shatner's been pretty quiet, but we do have another situation to talk about, and we'll turn that over to Eric. Yeah, I mean, talk about a couple of huge gut punches this week. The one that we're going to talk about, of course, is actor Tim Curry, the actor known for the Rocky Horror Picture Show and It, among many, many other things, including Clue, the other one that's shown on the screen here, unfortunately died at age 80. Actor Tim Curry, known for his iconic performances in cult classics like Rocky Horror Picture Show, In the original screen adaptation of Stephen King's It Has Died, his manager confirmed he was 80.

1:35:47 Born in Cheshire, England in 1946, the British singer and actor began his career on London's West End. He went on to receive multiple Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards alongside additional acclaim throughout his decades in the business. Curry was best known for his portrayal of cross-dressing scientist Dr. Frankenfurter in Rocky Horror, the 1975 musical comedy movie, in which he starred alongside the likes of Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick. He reprised the role for the screen after first playing it in the stage musical, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He's also remembered widely for his role in It, in which he played the villainous clown Pennywise, when King's 1986 novel was adapted into a miniseries in 1990. And I believe, David, do you have a special tape to show us here?

1:36:41 Go for. It. How are we this morning? On the bed, I. Went to bed. Got it. Got that more bullets left in that gun. There was one shot of Mr. Boddy in the study, two for the chandelier, two at the lounge door, and one for the singing telegram. That's six. One plus two plus two plus one. I want to come again. And stay. You're nothing but an animal.

1:37:22 Not all. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. Oh, yeah. And we are hesitant in that it might be a difficult image to shake off. So then really, I have always thought that it wasn't worth doing unless you took a risk, really.

1:38:06 So I took the risk. Is there transportation here? Out in front, sir. A limousine and a pizza. Love is, I think, wasted on the young. Can't kill them all, can you? I could try. I could never harm you. You're honest and brave at least. You didn't learn that from me. I feel like an angel baby swaddled in a cocoon of cloud candy.

1:39:03 Why sail? It's laws. That's what being a captain's all about. Me, I sail by the stars. All for one. All for one. All for one. All for one. That was a fantastic video I don't know where you found that but that was amazing yeah what a great tribute to a great actor showed so many of his great roles there thanks.

1:39:53 David I remember him from a very short-lived sci-fi TV show in the 90s called Earth 2. Yeah, that was right. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's funny because, I mean, you start thinking about just like the breadth of what he's carrying. Like we talked about Muppet Treasure Island, right? He was in that. We talked about Hunt for Red October. I'm pretty sure he appears in that movie. We talked about, God, there was something else we talked about. I was like, oh, he was in that. Yeah. He was in Annie. He was in this movie that I actually really enjoyed from the early 90s called Oscar. I don't know if you remember that movie.

1:40:37 He's also in a TV show called Psych, which was actually a really funny TV show. He only showed up in one episode, but it was quite surprising. I actually liked Tim Curry in a lot of his movies that he portrayed. I completely forgot Annie, the original movie. I didn't realize she was in there until I just saw that. I was like, oh my goodness. Tim Curry will be missed. Thanks for that. We're going to move on then. Our next news story is going to be presented by Charles. Charles, take it away. Thank you, Eric.

1:41:18 Strange New World writers explain why they went with the puppet episode's strange ending. You're not alone if you walked away from Strange New World's much-hyped puppet episode. Level 5 transporter incident. It's a great episode, but what was with that ending? The revelation that the puppets' parts of the episode were part of Spock's dream raised some unanswered questions. Henry Alonzo Meyer, who co-wrote the episode with Diane Horgan, dives into the creative logic behind the episode and helps shine a light on how they approach this with the somehow divisive ending. We spent a lot of time trying to basically make sure that it worked and felt genuine like a Star Trek episode, Meyer's noted. Yes, we're going to have some fun, and yes, we're going to do all these things, but if it doesn't feel like Star Trek, what are we doing?

1:42:17 That's what we had to hold throughout the entire episode. I mean, we're not done with a transporter incident yet, and felt like this was an opportunity to do a transporter incident at a level which had not been done before in Star Trek. Meyer explains. And that other thing.... Was if you had just one puppet, that wouldn't be and feel like a writing on occasion. We really wanted to make as a big and bold push on the edge of the fact as much as we possibly could. So the dream ending seemed to have been a byproduct of the team wanting to have as much fun with the idea as possible without having to spend too much time with the cleanup and resolution. That, fairly standard, it was a dream, logic, honesty. Though Myers throws a wrench in the works by suggesting that the dream may not be quite a dream after all. As for the dream, dreams are dreams. I don't know, sometimes they are real, Myers teases.

1:43:23 That, I'll say. The episode, The Rathacon Callback, was a day of filming decision that was really just a result of I think it was spotting the opportunity to reference the famous moment from the film. So again, it seems like everyone just wanted to have some fun with this one and wasn't overthinking of all the implications. And definitely, as I said in the cadet review, we really haven't had a. Transporter incident. In the last couple of shows, and I think it was a good time to add one into the series. Absolutely, and I believe V has our final story of the night.

1:44:08 Yes, yes, and hopefully, let me finish this before Riverside kicks me out again. All right, Star Trek's wildest episode in years could get a surprising spinoff project. Star Trek just delivered its most surprising episode in years. There's now a real chance of a spinoff but only under one condition. The latest Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 4 episodes saw what franchise fans may have craved for in the last six decades. Yeah, I don't know about that. Whoops. Sorry, I just lost my spot here. Hold on. Sorry about that.

1:44:57 All right. What they've... In the last six decades. All right. The Muppets are back in the series, and they were in full swing in a new episode. Following their wild comeback, director Jordan Canning explained in detail what this means for the future of puppets in the Star Trek universe. Canning mentioned that there are chances of spin-off projects featuring Muppets. They're in storage, she revealed. Those puppets will always exist. I would love to get them out again and make some short films or a web series or something. However, there's only one condition that could make it happen. If the fans like it, let's get them out again. Let the puppets play. I guess we'll see about that, Jordan.

1:45:48 Star Trek Strange New World Season 4 is now streaming on Paramount +. New episodes arrive weekly and the finale will premiere on September 24th 2026. There you go. There you have it, guys. That wraps up our show. I tried to pick some stories and some things that were relevant to this week's episode. I think I did a pretty good job getting as much crim and as much Muppets into one show as I possibly could. I tried to find new stories and things that were relevant and Because I have time to do that now that I'm recovering from my incident. So I can do that now. So I do it. There won't be a show next Thursday because here in the United States it's Labor Day weekend.

1:46:34 I will be going up to camp and we don't get good enough internet up there. So We will not have a show on Thursday. That just means we're going to be a week behind everybody else, which is fine because the show only has four more episodes. That just means we'll have an extra week to talk about Star Trek when nobody else will. So that's cool. September 7th, actually, we're going to be more than that because September 17th, we're going to be talking to David Volkwise on our toy show. That one we did just for Paul. So if you guys have any questions or you want to know what's going on with Star Trek toys or the Expanse, for instance, which is a new toy line they're working on, you definitely want to tune in on the 17th. So that, my friends, wraps up this week's podcast. I just want to say thank you to Paul for hanging out and Trek talking with us. Thank you so much, Paul. Thank you to David for making these awesome videos and being a miracle worker. And happy birthday.

1:47:32 Thank you. It was very fun. And thank you to Charles as well for hanging out in Shrek talking with us tonight. Thank you, Charles. Oh, always fun talking Trek, no matter how hot it is outside. Have you had any luck tracking down the Klingon magic card yet with Chang? The full decks have been hard. The sample decks are hard to get a hold of. So I'm waiting on a second deck, which I don't think is a Klingon. But the actual Magic set doesn't come out until November.

1:48:13 So it's going to be a few months before the full card set come out. Cool, cool. And thank you to V for hanging out and Shrek talking with us as well. Thank you so much, V. I'm glad to be here as always. Did V get kicked off? I love how her picture's frozen kind of mid-blink. She looks very. Thank you, V. And, of course, thank you so much to Eric for hanging out and Trek-talking with us tonight. Thank you so much, Eric. Yeah, you bet, man. It's always a good time, and you guys always can, like, put me in a good mood by the end of the night. It's pretty cool.

1:48:53 Trek-talking. Trek-talking can do that, actually. I'm your most excellent host, Uncle Jim, saying, everybody, please stay safe and be good to each other. And Star Trek fans are the best fans. Telling frequencies are closed. We need a pajama episode. Night, y'all. I'm not wearing pajamas on screen. Ready for warp, sir. Hey, Beth. Thank you.