Trekabout: A Star Trek Podcast

Oh boy, guys and gals–we made it to the third season of The Original Series, and it’s all downhill from here for quite a while. “Spock’s Brain” isn’t nearly as bad as everyone makes it out to be, and gives us some hilarious camp, while “The Enterprise Incident” is… pretty good? Which is about the ...

Okay! We’ve reached the end of the second season, with “Bread and Circuses”, another Gene Roddenberry-penned episode, so, really, enough said, and “Assignment: Earth”, another exciting outing from our intrepid adventurers Gary Seven, Roberta Lincoln, and Isis the cat… wait, what? What the hell are we watching? Is this Star Trek? Also! Richard doesn’t like ...

What is nuclear war good for? “The Omega Glory” tries to answer that, and the answer is… Christ, I don’t know, look, this is one of the worst Original Series episodes, let’s just move on to “The Ultimate Computer”, where we learn that computers are not adept at starship command. Plus! Is Spock McCoy’s little ...

Okay, we just have to come out and say it: we’re dealing with Nazis this week. “Patterns of Force” is a strangely funny episode, seeing as how it deals with, as we just mentioned, Nazis, but it’s also disturbing. “By Any Other Name” is neither of those, but it does present us with the idea ...

We’re presented with a tough set of episodes this week. “A Private Little War” is overstuffed with plot and weird ideas about gender and sexuality, while “Return to Tomorrow” is understuffed with plot and weird ideas about gender and sexuality. There’s a space yeti though, so that counts for something. Also! Shatner is really starting ...

We’re pleased to be joined by Zack Handlen, who writes weekly Trek reviews for The Onion’s AV Club. He’s nice enough to answer some questions about his writing, and then sticks around to discuss “A Piece of the Action” and “The Immunity Syndrome” with us. Plus! Richard wants a zoot suit. iTunes Google Play RSS

It’s kind of weird how TOS episodes fit into nice pairs sometimes, isn’t it? Both “The Trouble with Tribbles” and “The Gamesters of Triskelion” don’t have a whole lot of plot. It only works in the episode about cute little furry creatures–and no, we’re not talking about Chekov. Also! Richard has done entirely too much research into the life of the ...

“Obsession” is kind of like “The Doomsday Machine” only with Kirk being crazy but of course he can’t actually be crazy, because he’s Captain Kirk. “Wolf in the Fold” is kind of like Robert Bloch’s nightmares (we assume) only with Scotty being crazy but of course he can’t actually be crazy, because he’s Scotty. It’s ...

Our pairing of episodes this week bring us full circle on the cycle of life. In “Friday’s Child”, a woman gives birth to a premature baby, and in “The Deadly Years”, a woman dies of premature old age. Also! The Klingons and the Romulans come back. iTunes Google Play RSS

Mothers and children feature prominently in both of our episodes this week. In “Metamorphosis” it’s a needy energy being who holds Zephram Cochrane captive until Kirk and company land and turn their relationship into some sort of Oedipal horrorshow. In “Journey to Babel” we have Spock trying really hard not to emote all over his ...

Both “Catspaw” and “I, Mudd” feature a variety of professional actors hamming it up, but only in “Catspaw” does the ham actually smell a bit off, probably because of the giant cat. No, seriously: a giant cat. Meanwhile, in “I, Mudd”, the cast of The Original Series engages in improv theater, which results in one ...

Welcome to this week’s Trekabout, where we give you a master course in Christian theology. In the beginning (“The Apple”), God was there with some guys and gals, and then Satan (Kirk) came and gave them the knowledge of good and evil (sex). Skip ahead a while (“The Doomsday Machine”) and God (Starfleet) sends his ...

An evil mass-murdering robot? Why, it must be time for “The Changeling”, which tries to answer the question “what would happen if a robot could feel sad?” and kind of succeeds. “Mirror, Mirror” tries to answer the question “what if the Federation were the kind of organization that built mass-murdering robots?” and also kind of ...

We made it! Welcome to season two of The Original Series. “Amok Time” is among the series’ best, what with all the soup-throwing, bell-playing, and Kirk-dying insanity, while “Who Mourns for Adonais” is among the series’ middling episodes, but we get a lot of mileage out of both of them. Richard thinks Sulu is sleeping ...

Well, we’ve done it–we’ve reached the end of the first season of The Original Series. While “Operation–Annihilate!” has a pleasingly campy title, the episode doesn’t really add up to much–unlike our long discussion of television theory. It’s so long, in fact, that we pushed “Amok Time” to next week. Sorry, loyal listener–we’ll never lie to ...

Boy, we really wish there was an alternative to “The Alternative Factor”, because it’s almost unwatchable and we’re sorry we have to put you, our loyal listeners, through it. If it’s any consolation, the other episode this week, “The City on the Edge of Forever”, is as great as the The Original Series ever got. ...

Hey, remember “The Man Trap”? Well, we have a good version of that episode this week, with “The Devil in the Dark”. Hey, remember “Arena”? Well, we have a not-quite-as-good version of that episode this week, with “Errand of Mercy”. Hey, remember how The Original Series liked to recycle plots? Plus! Gene L. Coon is ...

You know, Richard is weird. When war is maintained artificially, as in “A Taste of Armageddon”, he’s all for it, but when happiness is artificially created and maintained, as in “This Side of Paradise”, he’s all for that, too. It’s a good thing Eric is here to temper that insanity with a long monologue about ...

“The Return of the Archons” is a lot like Richard’s Saturday nights: an explosion of violence and sex culminating in frustration and computer problems. “Space Seed” is a lot like Eric’s Saturday nights: quiet, but with an undercurrent of forceful evil. Eventually they both end, though, just like these episodes. Good thing they’re both pretty ...

This week, we spend a lot of time talking about Starfleet uniforms, the operating agency of the Enterprise (is it Starfleet or UESPA? Questions!), and when exactly Star Trek is supposed to be set. I mean, do you really expect us to spend time discussing the plot details of “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” and “Court Martial”? ...