Casual Trek - A Star Trek Recap and Ranking Podcast Charlie and Miles

SHOW NOTES: Grab your popcorn, take a sledgehammer to your 80s Pan N’Scan VHS (Disclaimer: Casual Trek endorses Physical Media, just, just not Pan N’Scan) and climb into your favourite beep-chair as Casual Trek goes to the movies In Search of Spock for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock! But, we have a little B-Feature before we hit our A-Picture and so we’re also covering the other time a member of the Enterprise stole the Enterprise because the needs of the one, outweighed the needs of the many, ‘The Menagerie,’ a clever way to reuse the unaired pilot of Star Trek- ‘The Cage’ (See Episode 1 of this show) or a clever way to scrimp on some gold-pressed latinum for a series that was more expensive than it looked. Then, we go all in on ‘The Search for Spock,’ as the Casual Trek crew won’t stop raving about Christopher Lloyd’s turn as a baddie. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, but sometimes, the needs of the few is to be rated and reviewed on all good podcatchers and apps! CONTENT WARNING: We talk about some very ableist tropes from a piece of 60s television. Episodes talked about: ‘The Menagerie’ (12:22) and ‘Star Trek III: The Search for Spock,’ (49:03)


Miles pimps his latest appearance on ‘Breakfast in the Ruins,’ Taskmaster, DragonBall, 2000ad and the Judge Dredd movies, Miles talks about Dan Dare, The Rolling Stones, Zager & Evans, our crew talk about attending our first gigs, Did Spock just kill a guy? How ‘The Cage’ completely rewrites the message and meaning of ‘The Cage,’ 60s ableism, Pike’s gloopy make-up job, how Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has made ‘The Cage’ REALLY weird, Tendii from Lower Decks would not be happy with the portrayal of Orions, Duran Duran (Wild Boys) Some of the many, many, many classic Genre Films of 1984 (and Miles didn’t even mention the film adaptation of 1984 which came out that same year), oh, and also Repo Man. Despite his love of ‘Buckaroo Banzai,’ you see Miles remember in real time that Christopher Lloyd also appears in that film. Casual Trek does not advocate underage drinking, but at least try for better than white wine. PAN AND SCAN IS THE DEVIL. Ponn Farr, David’s death, Shatner CAN act, Utopia still needs dive bars, Bones has a Top-Five Dive Bar list, the Bones/Spock fusion, Mr. Adventure is dead now, he died in the cupboard, words Miles never thought he would ever say on this show ‘Pallette-Swapped Adric,’ Kruge is a great villain, we’re just going to talk about him a lot, better Magnificent Seven in Space films than ‘Rebel Moon.’ James Horner, Does Spock’s Return cheapen death? Miles confuses lighting with colour, What do Christopher Lloyd and Patrick Troughton have in common?

Casual Trek has ranked 97 episodes and two movies, so we decided to do something special for when we ranked our hundredth item on our big list.
It would finally be time to rank the most infamous episode of Star Trek: Voyager! That’s right, it’s Threshold!

While we could fill an hour and a forty minutes talking about one episode, but rather than doing that we’ve decided to have some Trekxtra Curricular studies. As well as being the bestselling author of TekWars, William Shatner also released multiple albums. We decided to put ourselves through his first album, The Transformed Man. It was… quite an experience.

You’ll also get to hear how many comic-reading quests Charlie is taking and listen to two men with almost no experience of drugs try to figure out the best Star Trek episode to watch while under the influence. We also say “Flesh” too many times early on in the show in unpleasant ways.

02:00 What non-Trek thing we’ve been enjoying: X-Men ‘97, Flesh
15:42 Star Trek: Voyager “Threshold”
56:22 William Shatner “The Transformed Man”

Talking points include: Godzilla is for everyone, X-Men ‘97, X-Men: The Animated Series, Put Dire Wraiths and Rom in X-Men ‘97 You Cowards!, X-Men: The Motion Picture, Flesh (I am so sorry for the moment of Flesh), 2000AD, Charlie’s Comic Marathons, Charlie posing like Jeff Goldblum from that photo, Shako: The Only Bear on the CIA Death List, Miles’ cunning trap, Neelix was assistant to the engineer, Dunking on Lovecraft, Cronenberging, HG Wells’ The Time Machine, Miles could say pretty much anything about what happens on Blake’s 7 and Charlie will believe it, Legion of Super-Heroes’ Evolvo Lad, The Outer Limits, David McCallum, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Fly, naming your child Khaleesi, Only Fools & Horses, everything better that debuted at the same time as Shatner’s album, Snoopy music, Leslie Nielsen, SNL skits, Andrew Ryan, Shatner trying to be a playful scamp, Shit my dad says, who would be a better Cyrano? The Free Design, Miles’ record collection, The Simpsons, Ranma ½, She Lies With Angels, Miles’ choice of song to sing in the style of William Shatner, The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins, casting Alan Moore in Lord of the Rings, Charlie’s funny ears, Poirot facial hair (again). 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

SHOWNOTES

Great Scott! We’ve a new season of Discovery starting this week and Miles and Charlie want in on all the possible synergy and sponsorship deals talking about BRAND NEW STAR TREK should entail. But we weren’t invited to the premier and Miles has just discovered ‘Taskmaster’ so he has no time to fly anywhere, but what they do have is the Trailer on YouTube and they spend a lot of time on YouTube. So our brave explorers have picked three episodes which might have a connection to what might happen in the show. In ‘Captain’s Holiday,’ we see Picard take the right holiday on the wrong planet, in ‘Reflections,’ Boimler and Mariner attend a Job’s Fair while Rutherford discovers he’s not the man he used to be, or thought he used to be and in ‘Minefield,’ we see Reed be THE MOST BRITISH MAN in Star Trek as we finally tackle the prequel episode to ‘Dead Stop’ (See our 2023 Halloween Episode- Holodeck of Horror’) as we prepare to hit our 100th episode episode of Star Trek next episode!

Captain’s Holiday: 00:16:45
Reflections: 00:43:23
Minefield: 01:05:22

TALKING POINTS INCLUDE: Professor Benny Summerfield, Dune Part 2, how we sometimes don’t look at the knock-on effects of flops on art, Dune 2’s white saviour narrative, Christopher Walken giving no f***s, Miles’ Walken impression if lackluster, changes to Dune, Miles can’t tell what will or will not scare his wife anymore, ‘I Love Rock ‘N Roll’ WASN’T by Aerosmith? That’s news to Miles! DRINKING GAME: Take a shot every time Miles says the phrase ‘Such and Such wants to ride Picard’s Sexy Bald Head.’ Patrick Stewart has, by this point in the show, become a damn maniac, Patrick Stewart’s infidelities, less complext Farenghi, the Bill and Ted school of Time-Travelling Archeology, Patrick Stewart’s ego, Gene is complicated sexually, Miles needs to cut Twitter out, Lewis Capaldi might be the next Ed Sheeran. One more ALLAMARAINE. Jerky Tech-Bro Rutherford, Miles is very eagle-eyed when it comes to the show dropping hints, AM= After Moopsy. Fantastic Store was a Brighton-based comic shop in the 90s that sadly closed by decade’s end. Miles has made another Starbucks think they’re cursed. How the uniforms have some character to them. Charlie has played GURPS, Bowie and Waites, not great shop music, the episode stops dead as Miles and Charlie count how many episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise they’ve each recapped, Miles sings a little song, no, it’s not the theme tune to Blake’s 7. Shadey Romulan Tech (not Tek), Reed is a self-sacrificing smeghead, he’s also too British, Charlie started reading 2000ad, chunky tech and props, one of our mission statements was to find GOOD episodes of Enterprise and we have. We’ve now almost seen ONE EIGHTH of Star Trek, for better or worse.

Look out, the Holodeck’s malfunctioning and we’re all trapped inside! And the safety protocols have been disabled! And the holograms are self aware!

Today we’re looking at the Holodeck in three different shows and all the horrors it can cause.
First up is The Big Sleep, which introduces Picard as the private dick, Dixon Hill and his entourage can’t stop touching things. We also both attempt to re-create Picard’s epic speech from the end of the episode.
Then we’ve got Kobayashi, where Dal tries to get through a Holodeck Kobayashi Maru with some of the best people in Starfleet (and Odo who’s not technically part of Starfleet).
Finally, Bashir and a very sassy Garak play at spies in Our Man Bashir, facing death traps and their comrades who think they’re characters in a campy spy film!
We also get into some musical acts who gave us psychic damage, a nemesis of the pod and use this as an excuse to talk about a rare musical track that’s featured in an episode.

00:09:54 TNG: The Big Sleep
00:40:29 Prodigy: Kobayashi
01:03:12 DS9: Our Man Bashir

Talking points include: Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, Arnold Judas Rimmer, Dune (1984), Dune (the SyFy movie), Sting’s movie career, Lil Gator, the Pokemon Fuecoco, Dead Ringers, The Maltese Falcon, Miles’ patronising clapping, Charlie’s egg-shaped head, the facial hair of all the different Poirots, D&D novels, Macross, Reboot, Ba Weep Granna Weep Ninny Bong, LA Confidential, Blob Detective, Red Harvest, Brad Dourif, Thunderstruck, Rock Band, Maximum Overdrive, Star Wars: Rebels, Pandemic, Will Self & Gareth Gates’ musical career, Explaining The Wombles & Britpop to Americans, James Bond movies, The Man from UNCLE, Alien, LeCarre, GoldenEye. 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

SHOW NOTES: Because Miles’ schedule sometimes means he has to prioritise other shows, even shows that aren’t ours, we decide to do something quick and off the cuff and we end up with one of our longest episodes, go figure. Of course, we got Miles to talk about Doctor Who, what did we think would happen because that boy goes feral pretty quickly! Mainly talking about the four recent Doctor Who specials put on in the last few months, the boys talk toot about Star Beast’s, body horror and Ncuti Gatwa’s energy before Charlie asks Miles a lot of strange and stupid questions about Doctor Who and we lose the plot and our remaining sanity really damn quickly! The Star Beast (08:19) Wild Blue Yonder (25:57) The Giggle (45:00) The Church on Ruby Road (53:10) Silly and Insane Questions (1:15:11)

The music for the opening and closing is ‘Who is the Doctor’ by Jon Pertwee. Yes. Him.



TALKING POINTS INCLUDE: Why Miles doesn’t want to host a Doctor Who podcast. Miles’ application of ‘Get it done and go to the pub’ theory of how to deal with any job as applied to TV Production. The struggle of ongoing media to maintain a schedule. The theatrical camp charm of Classic Who. The number of actors from the era of Television we’re talking about whose Wiki articles usually end with ‘Death from complications due to Alcoholism’ is incredibly large and no joke. The curse of Doctor Who being that Modern Doctor Who can never look cheap ever again.Drinking Game Rules for this episode: Take a shot every time Charlie says Disney Money. Two shots if he sounds vaguely contemptuous. Watching the BBC have to learn how to do effects heavy shows. Red Dwarf. Differences between ‘Doctor Who and the Star Beast’ (Doctor Who Weekly) and ‘The Star Beast’ the TV Special. The different looks about the Meep, Miles’ wife’s massive Pokemon Plushie collection (which Miles doesn’t have a problem with). Traditional 2005-2009 Who. Miles doesn’t like the 10th Doctor (SHOCK), the alien-ness of the Doctor, Capaldi and the guitar, Charlie’s inability to watch the 90s X-Men cartoon, Miles’ issues with the Whittaker-era and what they could have done, Wild Blue Yonder, Event Horizon, Sunshine, Honestly, another drinking game rule at this point, if we mention Video Box and the 90s, take a shot, what parts of Doctor Who Miles finds scary, Silent Hill 2 (a game Miles wants to play) Body Horror for Kids. Miles compliments David Tennant’s acting. Mean Monsters, Neil Gaiman-y ways of looking at the world. Miles admits Logopolis’ hard SF and entropy is silly to him. Is magic real in Doctor Who? Magic being turned into a skill tree, Brandon Sanderson, Miles goes on FAR TOO LONG about Dragonball Z Power Levels. The Giggle and how Neil Patrick Harris has ruined the name AH-MEE POND for Miles and Reanna. The Bi-Generation as a way of tying up all our baggage before new baggage, Ncuti Gatwa’s incredible energy from the word GO, The Church on Ruby Road, the Doctor’s mental health, RTD taking notes from Moffat’s beats, Charlie always has time for The Leftovers, Christopher Eccleston’s American accent game is strong both here and in Night Country, Miles’ generally aparthy towards Star Wars: Ahsoka made him start crawling back to Doctor Who, Planet of the Daleks isn’t great, but it’s fun, Charlie’s old rewatch and Morris Men ARE Evil, Miles’ own rewatch and where he’s at (FUTURE MILES here, The Myth Makers… not great) Miles and Charlie will never escape Blackface, Series 3 follies and the shows stumbling blocks that’ll never really go away until Troughton, the show’s changes for better and worse, Charlie was asked to provide insane, stupid questions and HE DOES NOT DISAPPOINT. Miles loves ‘The Mutants’ (although it turns out Charlie was actually going to be watching ‘The Sea Devils.’ Biggs Darklighter sans Porn Stache.

PEDANT CORNER: The video Miles mentions that posits 50 years of American Doctor Who is here:

We’ve been Borged! Oh no!

Specifically, we’ve been I, Borged as each of today’s Borg-themed episodes are based in some way around Hugh Borg. I don’t think Borg’s his surname, but I don’t recall hearing any other name for him.

First up is I, Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Crusher and LaForge have a new pet and it’s a deadly Borg! A traumatised Picard’s eager to use him to do a genocide and Guinan’s with him. Oh no!

Second we have Star Trek: Lower Decks’ I, Excretus where attempts to perfect a Holodeck trial lead to Boimler getting a bit too close to the Borg and some fun, awful scenarios which happen when Upper and Lower Decks have to swap.

Finally there’s Picard’s Impossible Box, which turns out to be both a Borg Cube used for rehab and a puzzle box that a weird hot Romulan uses for meditation when he’s not getting way too close to his sister. Picard has a nice reunion with Hugh and there’s a Lord of the Rings Elf who’s there for some reason.

09:28 Star Trek: The Next Generation “I, Borg”
37:38 Star Trek: Lower Decks “I, Excretus”
59:44 Picard “The Impossible Box”

Pedant’s Corner:
Charlie is going to have to recap Star Trek: Nemesis
Alice Krige’s surname is pronounced “Kree-Guh”

Talking points include: Battle Angel Alita, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Reanna being cancer free, Berserk, Joe Abercrombie, James Barclay, Elric, Picard would make a great Number Two in The Prisoner, Visionaries, X-Men: Fatal Attraction, Batman hologram trading cards, Matlock Bath’s Hologram Museum, Star Wars: Dark Droids, Whoopi Goldberg would make a great Doctor Who, a poop joke, Nemesis of the Pod Ed Sheeran, Funny Games, James VanDerBeek, not forgiving people for reminding us that Young Sheldon exists, mocking Geoff Johns’ career again, crowbarring The Legion of Super-Heroes into a recap, pesto, Grant Morrison, The X-Men’s Sentient Danger Room, being tired old men, Bond themes, Miles’ issues with James Bond, Alan Partridge, Orbital’s The Box, Evil Goth Merlin from the TV Show Merlin, Elnor is an elf ranger, Elnor has taken a level in rogue, Elnor has only seen the Lord of the Rings movies (probably not even the extended versions), Elnor saw the 90’s Three Musketeers or the Paul Anderson one, Rifts (Charlie will never run Rifts), JJ Abrams naming, weird incest siblings, Penny Dreadful, a weird The Cube room. 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