Casual Trek - A Star Trek Recap and Ranking Podcast

Charlie and Miles
  • 5.0 (3)
  • TV REVIEWS
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Charlie is a lifelong X-Men fan. Miles is a lifelong Doctor Who fan. If ANYONE can objectively rank every single episode of Star Trek on a big list, it’s gotta be the people who think that Star Trek’s ‘Pretty Decent.’ (Citation Needed.)

  1. Star Trek V: What Does God Need With a Podcast?

    MAR 30

    Star Trek V: What Does God Need With a Podcast?

    Show Notes: Miles and Charlie are climbing a mountain, why are they climbing a mountain? Is it to meet God? The Devil? Their approaching mid-life crises? Whichever, we have now approached the 199th and 200th episodes of Trek on Our Big List and we are celebrating, if not in style, then with a movie- Star Trek V The Final Frontier to be exact. But before that, we have a little animated amuse-bouche with ‘The Magicks of Megas-Tu’ where the Enterprise meets the Devil and Miles realises that for him, his adventure with Trek has brought him back to the beginning. Will he confront his pain or does he need his pain? Row Row Row your Boat. Episodes Discussed: Mystics of Megas-Tu (17:50) and Star Trek V-The Final Frontier (44:52) TALKING POINTS INCLUDE: The Scrubs reboot, Spider-Man 2, the issues with Marvel’s use of Ultraman, why did Miles’ mum have a crush on David Cassidy? Ed Bishop, the weird mystical stuff of Star Trek, Spock’s nerdy use of magick, Bones’ probably would go Matthew Hopkins in this situation, Miles’ early memories of Star Trek was weird, how did this get past the US censors? The Shatnerverse starts here, Klaa looks like a Klingon Bill Bailey, a criminal waste of David Warner, when the comedy does and doesn’t work, Shatner just having a nice little run around, do Vulcans have goths? Sybok is too pathetic to be played by Connery, you sometimes need to tell your audience if you’re doing a subtext, was Uhura brought along specifically for naked fan dance? Charlie talks about his root canal, Why did the audience not like this film? Thankfully Sybok was not made the next Khan, familial cannibalism, is our 200th episode of Trek covered better or worse than our 1st, The Cage? How has John Lithgow not been in Star Trek? (Especially instead of that wizard show)

    1h 57m
  2. A Tale Told By An Idiot

    MAR 16

    A Tale Told By An Idiot

    Hark, what podcast through yonder window breaks? It’s Casual Trek! We have a fun topic today with Star Trek episodes with titles which are Shakespeare quotes! Listen to Charlie’s terrible attempt at acting, followed by our James Van Der Beek memorial and three fun episodes of Star Trek! Dagger of the Mind has Kirk and a doctor arrive in a mind-fixing bunker which would feel at home in Space: 1999 and somehow, Kirk willingly gets in the machine that messes with your brain. Thine Own Self has a crumpled Data show up in a Ren Faire village with amnesia and a deadly package. Mortal Coil lets us see Neelix die AND Ethan Phillips act up a storm as he has to confront the lack of a bit Avatar tree. Then in writing the show notes, Charlie realises we never actually confronted how Shakespearean the plots were, so you’ll have to do that yourself after you listen to the show! 00:05:02 What Non-Star Trek Things We’ve Been Enjoying: The Dead Zone (book), Wuthering Heights (2026) 00:13:46 James Van Der Beek Memorial Segment 00:17:29 Star Trek: The Original Series: Dagger of the Mind 00:46:55 Star Trek: The Next Generation: Thine Own Self 01:13:33 Star Trek: Voyager: Mortal Coil (CW: suicidal ideation) Talking points include: The time that Miles ‘trod the boards’, the various incarnations of The Dead Zone, various old SyFy shows, Wuthering Heights, James Van Der Beek, Charlie poorly tries to quote Shakespeare, Talur would believe in QAnon, jobbing actors, Miles is off on another one about Doctor Who, the cosmic horror of the Teletubbies, Neelix is a man about town, Chakotay ‘helps’ Neelix, Silicon Heaven, you can hear when Charlie finds out that Neelix leaves Voyager right near the end, . Oh, and occasionally Star Trek. Casual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-Lobatto Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn Casual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie Network https://ko-fi.com/casualtrek Miles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com  Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com

    1h 52m
  3. Qapla', I Guess.

    MAR 2

    Qapla', I Guess.

    Grab your Bat’leth and prepare to experience bij as our Casual Heroes once more find themselves dealing with the Shakespearean Shouty Men of Space, the Klingons! In their first episode ‘A Little Private War,’ we get very little Klingons and a lot more allegories for the Vietnam war as Kirk and McCoy get involved in shennanigans which have little to no purpose and then in ‘Sins of the Father,’ Picard and Worf get to do Space Opera intrigue on the Klingon homeworld while Wesley Crusher gets bullied by Tony Todd and we see the start of Worf’s ever continuing dissolusionment with the Klingon people and then finally, in ‘wej Duj,’ Boimler’s attempts to get a bridge buddy escalate into a web of lies while we see what Klingon and Vulcan Lower Deckers do on their own ships. Hey, is that T’Lynn? It doesn’t matter because you know how I told you to prepare to experience bij? EXPERIENCE BIJ!EPISODES DISCUSSED: A Private Little War (10:31), Sins of the Father (42:37) and wej Duj (01:06:22) TALKING POINTS INCLUDE: We’ve never done Hirogen episodes, Iron Lung, Kill James Bond, Miles goes on a rant about James Bond, it’s a metaphor for Vietnam, Gene Roddenberry and Chris Claremont’s fetish journals, it’s been a while since we’ve had an episode be both racist AND sexist, Kirk doesn’t do a Starfleet, Miles realises that in SF… you can just make shit up, Miles tries to summon the Candyman and we legitimately get to talk about Brighton, an appropriate Mighty Boosh reference, proper Space opera with cloaks and knives, Kurn bullies Wesley in a weird form of prison rules, Patrick Stewart glad to do some proper theatre shouty acting, Worf’s long life of moral compromises begins, Miles and Charlie are probably too British to watch ‘For All Mankind,’ we finally crack why we hate Ed Sheeran, Miles would rather be watching Cronernberg-pervefest Shivvers than listen to Sheeran at work Miles is definately the Garrett of his place of work, Rowan Atkinson would make an amazing Romulan and so much of space travel must just be allieviating boredom, even for Star Trek.

    1h 36m

  4. FEB 22 ·  BONUS

    Casual Tangent: Akira and game design

    We tend to run long, so this tangent from our Starfleet Academy episode was cut out. If you want to hear a little chatter about comics and RPGs, then it's here.

    6 min
  5. Welcome to Starfleet Academy, Bitch!

    FEB 16

    Welcome to Starfleet Academy, Bitch!

    Welcome to Starfleet Academy, students, we hope you survive the experience! It’s the grimdark future of the 32nd century and a bunch of weird, traumatised kids are stuck together having to learn and grow into Starfleet officers! Will the main character be too annoying a main character? How many The O.C. references will Charlie make? How much will Miles lust after an espresso machine? And how delightful are those teachers? Kids These Days brings Holly Hunter and her wayward ward into the orbit of Starfleet Academy, along with Paul Giamatti who Paul Giamattis the hell out of his role. Beta Test gets into some proper Star Trek content: Meetings! Peace talks! Also some teen drama and shonky CGI whales. 00:01:56 What Non-Star Trek Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: Detectorists, Plur1bus 00:08:29 Starfleet Academy “Kids These Days” 00:52:31 Starfleet Academy “Beta Test” Talking points include: The OC, Blake’s 7, Detectorists, Toby Jones would have made a good MODOK, Plur1bus (which is not Polybius), Charlie’s lawn is no longer Area X, credit to rexedge.bsky.social for pointing out that Fate of Ophelia would work great in Simlish, The Stranger Things, 80’s nostalgia, Rimmer-ness, the wall of references, Paris Gellar, the secret other member of the Gellar family in Friends, Brit Marling’s science fiction oeuvre, teen drama ball cancer plots, Charlie would never make it as a barista, psychics who psychic a bit too much, bros, Miles lusts after an espresso machine, the works of Brian David Gilbert, Heated Rivalry, . Oh, and occasionally Star Trek. Casual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-Lobatto Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn Casual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie Network https://ko-fi.com/casualtrek Miles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com  Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com

    1h 35m
  6. Starfleet Academy Prelude: So Much Child Death

    FEB 2

    Starfleet Academy Prelude: So Much Child Death

    Do you hear the siren song of synergy? That means we’ve got a brand new Star Trek show on the horizon and Miles and Charlie want in. With Star Trek: Starfleet Academy on the horizon, our brave lads are going to squeeze back into their school uniforms and try to remember how school works as they approach three episodes of Star Trek which deal with students at SFA. In ‘The First Duty,’ Wesley ‘THE BOY’ Crusher gets in with a guy who looks nothing like Tom Paris and is really too invested in being with the cool kids for someone who helped saved the galaxy at least three times. Then, Jake and Nog end up on a ship with a bunch of cadets forced to grow up too fast in ‘The Valiant’ and Nog drinks the kool-aid of a wanna be Kurtz just out of short trousers. Then we head into the 32nd Century as Tilly and Adira have to debate what’s worse, dealing with energy absorbing creatures on an ice-planet or dealing with a bunch of angsty kids with emotional baggage? Oh, and Michael Burnham helps save the Federation. Again. Don’t forget to do your homework!EPISODES DISCUSSED: ‘The First Duty’ (6:50), ‘The Valiant’ (35:42) and ‘All is Possible’ (01:01:08) TALKING POINTS: Grange Hill, the novels of John Darnielle, Mario Galaxy, Frollo from Disney’s Hunchback never gets invited to Villain hangouts, Wesley Crusher never pulled, Nick Locarno vs. Tom Paris, the two types of Starfleet Academy students, the absence of Wesley’s Mum, ‘The First Duty’ being the inverse of the typical Wesley Crusher plot, Worf’s son Alex isn’t allowed on the bridge, Nog and Worf are incredibly very similar characters, Miles gets to talk about both one of his favourite anime Mobile Suit Gundam AND his favourite novel Slaughterhouse 5, the illusion of glory in war, bye-bye Tilly, damn covid-lockdown-inspired emotional baggage, our honest feelings about the upcoming Starfleet Academy show, Michael Burnham has to do something every episode, why is David Cronenberg NOT the villain?PEDANTS CORNER: Charlie has started playing Mario 2: The Lost Levels, the Genesis music video Miles can’t remember is ‘I Can’t Dance’ by Genesis.

    1h 30m
  7. Casual Trek Rewind: Mirror Universe Episodes

    JAN 19

    Casual Trek Rewind: Mirror Universe Episodes

    Due to various medical emergencies, our Starfleet Academy episodes are going to have to wait a little while. Instead, here's an old favourite episode: "They Exploded Odo!" We experience the original Mirror Universe episode and try to understand a system of government entirely based around betrayal (that isn't the Romulans'), also a fantastic episode of DS9 with some shock as there's a pretty brutal explosion of one cast member! 13:58 TOS: Mirror, Mirror 33:15 DS9: Crossover 01:02:02 DISCO: Despite Yourself Casual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-Lobatto Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn Casual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie Network https://ko-fi.com/casualtrek Miles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com  Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com

    1h 25m
  8. Casual Trek Rewind: Gamer Picard (Remastered)

    JAN 5

    Casual Trek Rewind: Gamer Picard (Remastered)

    Casual Trek's still in recovery mode from life and the festive period and we've wanted to fix the "Gamers" episode which was cursed with bad attempts to compress the file. Now, you can listen to the splendour of gaming in Star Trek! In Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Game", everyone gets addicted to Candy Crush except for Wesley Crusher, the big nerd! Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's incredible "Move Along Home" puts the cast in a board game escape room. Star Trek: Lower Decks' "Least Dangerous Game" shows where TTRPGs are in the future, also Boimler gets hunted, which is kind of a game! Talking points include: Experiencing BiJ, Rock Band, Portal 2, The Gamers, Sean’s Zelda II playthrough, Fire Emblem Engage, Oath, Battlestar Galactica/Unfathomable, Reaganomics, video game addiction, Wesley Crusher-themed emo band names, an easy 2 Unlimited dunk, Metal Gear Solid, the cube from the film The Cube, Dread, Cluedon’t, the Norwegian LARP scene, The Mountain Goats, I Only Listen To The Mountain Goats, Charlie Goes Off On One About OneD&D, F*****g Drizzt. Oh, and occasionally Star Trek. Casual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-Lobatto Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn Casual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie Network https://ko-fi.com/casualtrek Miles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com  Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com

    1h 25m
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Charlie is a lifelong X-Men fan. Miles is a lifelong Doctor Who fan. If ANYONE can objectively rank every single episode of Star Trek on a big list, it’s gotta be the people who think that Star Trek’s ‘Pretty Decent.’ (Citation Needed.)

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