Trek, Marry, Kill

MAKE IT SONG! Strange New Worlds breaks the TV mold by doing their musical episode early in the show's run rather than later. There's lots of singing but very little dancing. Bryan has a theory as to why. But more importantly, this week's special guests joining Bryan and Kristen have theories of their own about why this episode works so well and also why there are a few small pockets of the hour where it works less well. Becca is a Grammy Award-winning musician who breaks down the vocals. Bill is an Emmy Award-winning writer who points out just what the show gets right technically in translating the notion of a musical into the Star Trek universe. Yes, there's comparisons to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical from which this episode draws a lot of its inspiration. And as a final content warning: if you don't want to hear even a breath of negativity about this episode, this might be one to skip, though we suspect most listeners will love our hosts' final grade. The grades begin at (25:44). If you want to skip to specific songs, here's the list: STATUS REPORT (26:18) STRANGE NEW WORLDS THEME (34:25) CONNECT TO YOUR TRUTH (36:08) HOW WOULD THAT FEEL? (42:39) PRIVATE CONVERSATION (48:19) KEEPING SECRETS (52:44) I'M READY (59:49) I'M THE X (1:09:39) KEEP US CONNECTED (1:14:27) WE ARE ONE (1:18:06) Best Trek Tropes and the rest of the grades resume at (1:23:19).

THE VILE FRONTIER. The elites are at it again! Kirk & Spock are tortured for the amusement of a bunch of blue-blooded assholes in order to compel Dr. McCoy to give up his Starfleet commission and become their personal physician. It's The Original Series most notable examination of class warfare that resonates to this very day! It also features singing and dancing loooooong before "Subspace Rhapsody" AND one of the first interracial kisses on television, though it's not as historic as it was once made out to be. The grades begin at (17:58).

INFINITE VELOCITY = INFINITE REGRETS. Bryan is joined by author Tom Salinsky whose book, Star Trek: Discovering the TV Series: The Original Series, The Animated Series and The Next Generation, releases on July 30th. He committed himself to a daily journey of Star Trek and catalogued his findings all for your reading pleasure. But what did he think of one of the weirdest, wildest swings in the history of Star Trek? When Tom Paris achieves Warp 10, he begins to evolve into a real headache for the crew. Does anything that happens after that make even a bit of sense? Will they TREK, MARRY, or KILL the one where Paris & Janeway become space salamanders and have salamander babies? The grades begin at (26:34).

WHO'S THE DEVIL? A straight down the middle episode from the original series has Bryan and his guests pondering what really stands out about this adventure where the crew must overpower an alien serpent statue that has taken away all humanly pleasures from the humanoids it has tasked with fueling it for centuries on end. Breaking the chains of Vaal's control is an anxious Captain Kirk and a horny Ensign Chekov with his girlfriend (?) Yeoman Landon. There's some damseling, some ass-kicking, and a whole lot of red shirt deaths in this one. It's our final Wild Card episode of the season and joining Bryan to help grade this one are writer-producer Robert Skir, actor Kurt Carley, and Jim Newman, co-creator of the Go Fact Yourself podcast (https://gofactyourpod.com/). The grades begin at (18:25).

ANOTHER HORRIFIC SECRET harbored by Dr. M'Benga compels another member of the Enterprise crew to aid in a coverup. This time around, it's not M'Benga's family matters, it's his war record. Turns out, he was The Winter Soldier during the Klingon-Federation War and the arrival of a Klingon defector turned Federation ambassador has dredged up some ugly memories. Does this one earn its shocking twist and merit a place in the top tier of Star Trek's canon? Bryan and Kristen decide! The grades begin at (18:28).

RAPID AGING SUCKS. Well, that's one of the main lessons of this episode where Dr. Pulaski is exposed to a virus that makes its victims age rapidly. Meanwhile, Bryan and Kristen explore the IMDb of one of the guest cast, wonder who lines up to get Diana Muldaur's autograph (when she used to attend conventions), and discuss how the high res conversion of the season two episodes actively disrupts the viewing experience by calling attention to smaller details that otherwise would've been ignored and making everything look not so good. Does that ding the episode enough points to merit a KILL? The grades begin at (24:03).

COMPUTER, END PROGRAM? Boimler & Mariner board the Enterprise, only it's not the Enterprise they usually mean when they talk about "those old scientists." It's Pike's ship -- does that change the vibe? Does Strange New Worlds successfully pull off its latest "big swing," the TV crossover? Katie Hampton from her Napping Through Happy Hour Podcast returns. The grades begin at (22:47).

TOO MUCH FUN. The Defiant is orbed back in time to the teaser of "The Trouble with Tribbles" on the occasion of the Star Trek franchise's 30th anniversary. Bryan and Kristen dig in to an earlier crossover that featured extravagant technology to accomplish the task. Does this time capsule of Forrest Gump-inspired technology and Back to the Future-level grandfather paradoxes still hold up? More importantly, is it a BIG SWING that connects? The grades begin at (27:01).

GENE RODDENBERRY'S MISOGYNY. Apparently, women couldn't be Star Trek captains all along. In a season that began with "Spock's Brain," wherein we discovered that Gene Roddenberry (and Gene L. Coon) had a chip on his shoulder about beautiful women preferring handsome men in their prime the season -- and series -- ends with a similar diatribe from Roddenberry's mind. This time, women want the same positions men have, only, they don't have the constitution to handle the job! It's a silly notion foisted on TV viewers by a silly man and a tough way to end the run of a show that had largely been an inspiration to everyone, regardless of gender. Will the crew figure out that Captain Kirk's mind has been swapped out with a vengeful ex-girlfriend? Due to some scheduling changes, this episode is Kristen's first date back to record even though she's appeared recently; and, look out for another release tomorrow as part of our weekly schedule. Today's a special one because it's the 55th anniversary of "Turnabout Intruder." The grades begin at (27:22).

UHURA HAS VISIONS and none of them are good. Will she be able to figure out the source before she loses her mind? Helping her through all this is Lt. James T. Kirk who is aboard the Enterprise for reasons, one of which is to eventually meet Spock. Is it an historic moment? Shereese Alexander was on our episode about Voyager's "Drone" and returns to comment on her very first episode of Strange New Worlds while also celebrating the end of The TNG Podcast, which looked at every episode of TNG, as well as promote her Tik Tok channel @thescifisavage -- check it out! Will TNG come up in this discussion? Hmmm... The grades begin at (35:39).

BEYOND THE VACUOLE. Ensign Eager himself, Harry Kim, winds up in another dimension or on another planet after a transporter malfunction sends him through a subspace vacuole. He arrives in a world that thinks he's visiting them from their afterlife, which is no heavenly place at all it would seem -- thanks to him being unable to keep his big mouth shut. Returning to discuss Brannon Braga's big swing at exploring life & death on Star Trek is Marina Kravchuk (@drakkorex) from Daily Star Trek News. Does this big swing connect? The grades begin at (24:18).

WELCOME HOME, RO? Michelle Forbes returns to Star Trek: The Next Generation just before the series finale and 30 years later Bryan finally understands just exactly how tragic this episode's ending is, resonating all the way until Star Trek: Picard's "Imposters." Joining him to sift through 30 years' worth of opinion about Captain Picard is actor-producer Samantha Gregory, who has co-founded a women-led production company Sam Hill Productions (samhillproductions.com and sam__hill__productions on social) and who has played Ro Laren before in a Star Trek fan film. The grades begin at (20:55).

ONE FINAL ADVENTURE inside the holodeck is what the writers had in mind for the antepenultimate episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Is it a big swing that connects? Joining Bryan to render a final verdict is TV reviewer Diana Keng (@diana4tv), who wrote hundreds of Star Trek reviews for TV Fanatic, but now provides her talents to another of outlets. Does the 30th anniversary of this episode's premiere make the hosts nostalgic or has time allowed them to more soberly assess one of the last episodes of a foundational show? The grades begin at (24:40).

NICE SHOT, da VINCI! Our animated spotlight for this season of Trek Marry Kill concludes with the final two episodes of Lower Decks' first season, and joining Bryan to discuss is Katie Hampton, who appears in Jerry Seinfeld's Netflix movie, Unfrosted, which debuts May 3rd, 2024. The penultimate episode might very well be the ultimate holodeck adventure as Mariner reprograms Boimler's sucking up to the Captain simulation into an exciting Star Trek-themed action movie called Crisis Point: The Rise of Vindicta. Does Boimler learn what he needs to in order to impress Captain Freeman during an interview or does Mariner go on a journey of self-discovery that shakes her to her very foundation? Meanwhile, in the season finale, Mariner's big secret gets out that Captain Freeman is her mom and now it's up to them to figure out how to deal with the fallout. And then Captain Riker shows up. Our animated spotlights will return in September.

SPOCK BECOMES HUMAN after a shuttle accident at the mouth of an interdimensional vortex places his broken body in front of a group of energy beings patterned after Amazon customer service chatbots. It only gets worse for our favorite Vulcan when the in-laws drop in to complete a sacred Vulcan tea ceremony. Can his mother help him tap into his human side in time to lie his way through it? Will any of this story make sense? Bryan and Kristen are highly skeptical! Does this big swing connect? The grades begin at (26:24). If you're curious about Jane Espenson's blog, here's her post on clams.

MY FAIR SEVEN. The Doctor sticks his photons into Seven of Nine's interest in procuring a man to "date," and little does he know that his programming has made him vulnerable to the feminine wiles of Seven of Nine, who is completely clueless about how humans date. Kristen returns to discuss the "Seven is horny" episode which features a complimentary B-plot featuring the hilarious Scott Thompson from comedy group Kids in the Hall. The grades begin at (24:26).

A LOVE STORY? When Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Commissioner Nancy Hedford discover Zefram Cochrane is both still alive and under the influence of an electrical cloud that has fallen in love with him, it's just the setup for perhaps the deepest exploration of love in Star Trek history. Joining Bryan to discuss this BIG SWING from 1967 is Laurie Ulster from TrekMovie.com. Can she and Bryan agree on a final grade for this one? Two podcast episodes to check out which Bryan references in the episode: 1) The remastering of TOS for HD on Inglorious Treksperts 2) "Metamorphosis" director Ralph Senensky on the Scott Mantz Star Trek podcast, Enterprise Incidents

OFF THE SCALE! The Enterprise is thrown to the edge of the universe in one of the biggest swings Star Trek has ever taken. Joining Bryan to discuss this important early episode of TNG where Captain Picard talks to his dead mother and when Wesley Crusher meets the Traveler, are Mark Farinas & Ryan T. Riddle from the Ship Full of Jerks Podcast. They're here not only to judge the quality of this season 1 episode but also to extol the virtues of TNG-Season 1 overall. Better than you remember or simply too good to be forgotten? The grades begin at (26:34).

BOIM US UP! This month's animated spotlight looks at the highs and lows of being a lower decker as well as the highs and lows of Star Trek stories told via animation. Joining Bryan to discuss are two animation veterans: Cassie has written for multiple animated series and hosts a podcast that spotlights women & nonbinary talent in animation called The Ink & Paint Folk Podcast. Their partner Matt is a CG artist who's worked on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man slated for release later this year. The grades for "Much Ado About Boimler" begin at (22:50). The grades for "Veritas" begin at (58:35).

SCOTTY GETS DRUNK with a Kelvan and Star Trek fans are given a scene to enjoy forever. Does the rest of the episode rise to the occasion or is there a "just play the hits" quality to it? It's Trek Marry Kill's 79th episode, and so it seemed only fitting to do an episode of TOS. The Enterprise is once again taken over by superior beings and once again it's up to Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scotty to figure out how to take down "gods." This time, the gods don't want to test humanity or watch them toil for amusement, they need the ship to complete a 300-year journey back to their home galaxy of Andromeda. This time, our intrepid crew takes down "gods" with the most human behavior they can conjure. Joining Bryan this week to discuss the episode is CG Artist Matt who worked on both wrapped seasons of Star Trek: Prodigy (season one of which you can watch right now in the US on Netflix) and whose opinion of this episode has changed over time. If you're enjoying the show, consider rating and reviewing us on whichever platform you use to listen to the show. Check us out at trekmarrykpod on social. Our monthly animated spotlight will post on the 2nd of the month and was preempted only to make sure a TOS episode went in as our 79th episode.