Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 7, Episode 19. First broadcast on Monday 21 March 1994. Stardate: 47653.2. Well, everyone hates Genesis obviously, but why? It’s silly, of course, it doesn’t attempt to get the science right, and everyone recovers beautifully during the last ad break. But that’s just Star Trek , isn’t it? Isn’t it?
Star Trek: Prodigy, Series 1, Episode 16. First broadcast on Thursday 1 December 2022. Stardate: Unknown (2384). In the Neutral Zone, the USS Protostar faces off against the USS Dauntless , unable to leave and unable to contact them to explain their friendly intentions. And so they stop for a moment and tell each other sad, funny and beautiful stories from their pasts. Meanwhile, on the Dauntless , we hear a different story, a story of war and revenge, and a plot whose aim is the destruction of ...
Star Trek: Enterprise, Series 1, Episode 5. First broadcast on Wednesday 17 October 2001. Stardate: Unknown (2151). This week, Enterprise Chief Engineer Charles Tucker III is pregnant, and Nathan and Joe expect to be embarrassed and offended by the result. Instead, they are delighted to find themselves merely bored. (In fact, Nathan thinks the first half of the episode is rather sweet and charming, but he’s an incurable romantic where lizard people are concerned.)...
Star Trek: Picard, Series 2, Episode 10. First broadcast on Thursday 5 May 2022. Stardate: Unknown (2024, 2401). In one episode’s time, Star Trek: Picard will become, for the first time, a television event, but for now, we’ve got some plot to wrap up, some sad farewells to make and a new relationship to start. And a point, however muted, about living an extraordinary life.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 5, Episodes 14–15. First broadcast on Monday 10 February 1997 and Monday 17 February 1997. Stardate: 50564.2. It’s a soap-opera extravaganza on Deep Space Nine this week, as Garak reconciles with his long-lost father, Dukat abandons his long-lost daughter, and Julian discovers a scheming lookalike that he never knew he had. Meanwhile, there is a shift in the balance of power in the Quadrant, as the show rewrites its own premise in the way that we have come to a...
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 5, Episode 13. First broadcast on Monday 10 February 1992. Stardate: 45470.1. This week, the Enterprise crew worry unnecessarily about upending the lives of people living under a weird-ass conservative regime, only to find that those people are desperate to get out and there is no good reason at all to prevent them. Also, Deanna has sex, with unfortunate results.
Star Trek: The Original Series, Series 2, Episode 14. First broadcast on Friday 22 December 1967. Stardate: 3614.9. When simple, mild-mannered lackwit Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) stabs three women to death in the space of a couple of hours, the crew of the Enterprise become suspicious enough to start an investigation, which mostly consists of getting Majel Barrett to read them a bunch of Wikipedia articles. But just as we’re all about to nod off, someone claims responsibility for the murders...
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 3, Episode 26 / Series 4, Episode 1. First broadcast on Wednesday 21 May 1997 and Wednesday 3 September 1997. Stardate: 50984.3. As Voyager approaches the end of its third year, it’s time for its very own version of The Best of Both Worlds . And here it is, complete with a massive encounter with the Borg, clouds of débris, a terrifying new enemy, dissension among the commanding officers, and the unveiling of an entirely new kind of human—Borg hybrid. But because it’s V...
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 1, Episode 15. First broadcast on Sunday 9 May 1993. Stardate: 46844.3. This week, Kira moves a few steps forward on her long and problematic journey from terrorist to bureaucrat as she struggles with a decision to evict Brian Keith from a hastily re-dressed Standard Cave Set 1. In the meantime, Jake and Nog do some adorable capitalism, foreshadowing just how much we’re going to grow to love them by the end of the show.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Series 1, Episode 8. First broadcast on Thursday 23 June 2022. Stardate: 2341.6. A long time ago in a land far, far away, a beneficent king called Alex ruled over the kingdom of Trek , deciding which provinces would prosper and what each province would be known for. And so it came to pass that in the Province of Strange New Worlds, fun and entertainment would hold sway, and that from time to time even a heartwarming ending would be welcomed. And they all lived happ...
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 1, Episode 8. First broadcast on Monday 9 November 1987. Stardate: 41255.6. Together at last for the first time, Joe and Nathan find themselves on Planet of the Horny but Unattractive White People, faced with a moral dilemma that wouldn’t challenge a slow-witted five-year-old. Ah, we have fun, don’t we?
Star Trek: Lower Decks, Series 3, Episode 2. First broadcast on Thursday 1 September 2022. Stardate: Unknown (2381). A game of Bat’leths & BiHnuchs takes a surprising turn, as Mariner and Boimler make some very important decisions: Mariner is going to be less insubordinate, while Boimler is going to boldly take opportunities he has never taken before. But soon Mariner finds herself ignoring Ransom’s orders and plummeting from an orbital platform to save her crewmates, while Boimler plays som...
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 3, Episode 18. First broadcast on Wednesday 19 February 1997. Stardate: 50693.2. Flushed with the success of its previous attempt at Gothic Horror , Star Trek gamely tackles the genre again, as the Doctor’s experiments with the parameters of his program inevitably lead to a high-concept holographic version of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , with all of the creepiness towards women that that implies. Aggressively mediocre....
Star Trek: Enterprise, Series 4, Episodes 20–21. First broadcast on Friday 6 May 2005 and Friday 13 May 2005. Stardate: Unknown (2155). Enterprise is reaching the end of the long road that brought them from there to here, and before we say a final goodbye, we’ve just got enough time to foil a charmless racist demagogue who wants to destroy our future — a future based on co-operation, openmindedness and mutual respect. It’s just like the present day, really, only the good guys win. Oh, and Trip g...
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 4, Episode 3. First broadcast on Monday 9 October 1995. Stardate: Unknown (2372–2450). It’s life, Jake. You can miss it if you don’t open your eyes. Star Trek takes a break from space nonsense to remind us what grief is like: lonely, lifelong and bleak. The price we pay for love.
Star Trek: Lower Decks, Series 2, Episode 4. First broadcast on Thursday 2 September 2021. Stardate: 58036.4. This week, Star Trek: Lower Decks does what it does best: plumbing the depths of the franchise’s weirdest moments to produce something fun, entertaining, and sympathetic to its ideals. Which is why we get to root for some underappreciated and frequently mispronounced alien monsters, and why those two beautiful nerdy men, Boimler and Rutherford, get to save the day not with violence, but ...
Star Trek Movie #7. Release date: 1994 Star Trek: Generations is a Christmas movie, but more than that, it’s the moment when Star Trek: The Next Generation makes its first tentative and ultimately unsuccessful step into the venerable movie franchise. Julian Bashir’s crazy uncle has a horrific plan to get to heaven by killing a bunch of people we don’t see and don’t care about, and can only be stopped by two middle-aged white guys clambering over some gantries or something. Oh, and the Enterprise...
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 2, Episode 19. First broadcast on Monday 19 June 1989. Stardate: 42859.2. Our writers are on strike this week, and so we’re just going to mark time until we reach the end of this blurb. When an uncomfortably horny Lwaxana Troi beams aboard the Enterprise , a series of events happen, culminating at last in the episode’s closing credits. Mick Fleetwood guest stars as a fish.
Star Trek: The Original Series, Series 2, Episode 15. First broadcast on Friday 29 December 1967. Stardate: 4523.3. In one of the best episodes in Star Trek history, our show learns very early on that it can shoot for ridiculous and hit funny and entertaining. What more can we say? It’s brilliant.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 3, Episode 5. First broadcast on Saturday 24 December 1994. Stardate: Unknown (2371). Stardate 46519.1: Surgically altered to appear Romulan, Marina Sirtis wakes up on board the Romulan Warbird Khazara looking as fabulous as she has ever looked and starts threatening an increasingly cowed Carolyn Seymour. The result — one hell of an enjoyable episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation . Eighteen months later: Surgically altered to appear Cardassian, Nana Visitor...
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 7, Episode 8. First broadcast on Monday 16 November 1998. Stardate: Unknown (2375). This week, it’s time to ruin everyone’s fun, as Nathan declares that a Deep Space Nine fan favourite is an artistic failure, and compares it unfavourably to Take Me Out to the Holosuite . Is he crazy, or is it the whole damn system that’s crazy?
Star Trek: Discovery, Series 4, Episode 5. First broadcast on Thursday 16 December 2021. Stardate: Unknown (3190). This week on Star Trek: Discovery : Paul collaborates with the most obnoxious scientist in the Federation, Hugh is counselled by the the most brutal psychologist in Starfleet, and Michael receives emotional support from the most unlikely source on the ship. And a man who committed a terrible crime in his youth is given the chance to somehow, in some small way, make amends....
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Series 5, Episode 2. First broadcast on Monday 30 September 1991. Stardate: 45047.2. They were victorious. But Enkidu fell to the ground, struck down by the gods. And Gilgamesh wept bitter tears, saying, “He who was my companion, through adventure and hardship, is gone forever.” Now this is what Star Trek is about — kind, competent people solving a space problem, while learning about the importance of storytelling, connection and understanding. Magnificent....
Star Trek: Enterprise, Series 2, Episode 5. First broadcast on Wednesday 16 October 2002. Stardate: Unknown (2152). Our mission this week — to boldly rehabilitate an unjustly maligned episode of Star Trek: Enterprise . After more than a season of being aggrieved and obnoxious, Jonathan Archer is suddenly confronted by the need to apologise to people, sometimes with his shirt off. Meanwhile, Porthos is a very good boy, even when he’s just a fluffy puppet....
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 7, Episodes 25–26. First broadcast on Wednesday 23 May 2001. Stardate: 54973.4 (and 2404). A difference of opinion on Untitled Star Trek Project this week: Joe is cross and disappointed that things ended this way, and Nathan is enjoying the satisfaction that only low expectations can provide. Meanwhile, the crew of the USS Voyager enjoy a long-delayed reunion (in latex), re-examine a costly command decision, and experience an upsetting new heterosexual romance. And the...
Star Trek: Discovery, Series 1, Episode 12. First broadcast on Sunday 21 January 2018. Stardate: Unknown (2257). This week, the crew of Discovery find themselves trapped in the Mirror Universe with nothing much to do except to incrementally advance their individual plot threads. Paul chats to himself and his dead partner, Saru tries to persuade Voq’s girlfriend to help him through an identity crisis, Michael partakes of an extremely upsetting hors d’œuvre, and Lord Ealing goes off somewhere in s...
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 7, Episodes 1–2. First broadcast on Wednesday 30 September 1998 and Wednesday 7 October 1998. Stardate: 52152.6. It’s an epic start to Deep Space Nine ’s final season. Miles, Julian and Quark join Worf on a mission to honour Jadzia by blowing up a cartoon shipyard. Ben and Jake meet a (completly adorable) new Dax, drag Brock Peters through the desert for some reason, and then dig up a box. And Kira sits in a tiny spaceship waiting steadfastly for something to c...
Star Trek: Voyager, Series 1, Episode 11. First broadcast on Monday 10 April 1995. Stardate: 48658.2. A barely secret conspirator has been selling Federation technology to the Kazon Nistrim in a weird alternative timeline where there are more than seven people on board the ship, where Chakotay has agency and interesting things to do, and where we really feel like we’re stranded tens of thousands of light years from home. Plus, Seska is here!
Star Trek: The Original Series, Series 2, Episode 1. First broadcast on Friday 15 September 1967. Stardate: 3372.7. What thee are about to see comes down from the time of the beginning, without change. This is the Vulcan heart. This is the Vulcan soul. This is our way. In this Classic Episode of Untitled Star Trek Project , Joe and Nathan find themselves unexpectedly involved in a fight to the death — for the love of a beautiful woman!
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Series 1, Episode 11. First broadcast on Sunday 21 March 1993. Stardate: Unknown (2369). Deep Space Nine finds itself unexpectedly in sitcom territory this week, as the Nagus (Wallace Shawn) arrives on the station with a complicated scheme to expose the incompetence of his Large Adult Son Krax (a young Eric Trump in his first television role). Meanwhile, Commander Sisko discovers something delightful and heartwarming about his small teenage son Jake, who unwittingly t...
