Casual Trek - A Star Trek Recap and Ranking Podcast
By Charlie and Miles
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.)
Casual Trek - A Star Trek Recap and Ranking PodcastJan 23, 2023
Go Nick a Starship
Threshold is Lovecraftian Horror
Captain Picard’s Sexy Bald Head
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 fucks, 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.
Whatever Happens on the Holodeck…
No Starfleet, Just Have a Jelly Baby
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: youtu.be/bCv5o7n_mtk?si=gOy1bZTJ0eDp0Kn6 and watch it, it’s great.
Saying ‘Borg Babies’ Again and Again Until it Loses All Meaning
Trill Talk (guest-starring Celeste!)
Playing in the Time Hole
Talking Points include: We never know anything about The Time Tunnel, David McCallum’s The Invisible Man Fleshsuit, Roger Corman’s ‘The Terror,’ The Monkees’ movie- Head, 90s Direct to Video Movies, Shin Kamen Rider and all the excitement that entailed, Miles’ Mum’s past as a teeny bopper, Stevem Segal, Sarek is still the worst father in all of Trek, He-Man fashion and Godzilla’s sound effects, the cavalier use of the Guardian of Forever, no-one cares about Erickson, how the shorter run time of The Animated Series means we have to rush through some pacing issues, the Grandfather Paradox, what to do when you meet your younger self, Charlie tried to make both Long Hair and Fetch happen, giving our younger self some good music, Miles thought Cotton Eyed Joe was a meme only, 4Chan, the podcast Inform, Educate, Entertain, the terrible outfits that look like Burger King uniforms, the Prime Directive, does travelling back a day count as time travel? How protesters are seen in pop culture in the 90s, child death and endangerment, why isn’t time travel a course in Starfleet Academy, how double-dating with siblings is weird and neither of us like the idea, how Voyager completely didn’t go in a way Miles found potentially interest way back in episode 1 of the show. Tom Paris, Leave that Child Bride Alone! Time travel episodes of Red Dwarf. How Mornington Crescent made one of Miles’ university tutors unfriend him on Facebook. The best Shakespeare quotes for future episodes of Star Trek, how Canada has been used for everything, sliding timescales both in Star Trek and the Marvel Comics and how the Time War in Doctor Who ended up causing it’s own problem, how Strange New Worlds reacts to Time Travel much differently from TOS.
PEDANTS CORNER: Nothing to be Pedantic about this week, if you see something we missed, let us know!
NEXT WEEK: We get a Guest-Star in Celeste as we talk about the Trills.
Wild Wild West
Another Casual Christmas
Talking Points include: Christmas Traditions with the family, The Goes Wrong Show and Fawlty Towers, Is there a bad episode of DS9? The strange Mandela Effect of the Meat Loaf song ‘I Would Do Anything For Love.’ Thanks to the court case, we are now no longer allowed to say that Sean Orange pays for Twitter while then going on to probably offend all our US listeners, while Charlie makes some small attempt to curb his unreasoning hatred of Blake’s 7 (Miles wrote these notes BTW) Yes, we’re doing Threshold when we hit the 100th episode of Star Trek covered for the show. Miles’ Most Passive Aggressive Handover at Starbucks. Prequels needlessly making big introductions of everything, including Hercules Poirot’s mustaches. Quark’s Code-switching. Hiding stuff in walls. Miles has been a dick at many a job. The closest character we could compare Odo to is Judge Dredd… not great. Claude Raines in Casablance. How long can a collaborator remain on the sidelines? One more ALLAMARAINE for the season. We’ll see how long it takes Charlie to hate Blake’s 7 again. SF Writers of the Post-War Age, Golden Age vs. New Wave, Policy Brutality, The Harlem Renaissance, LET’S GET POLITICAL AT CHRISTMAS TIMES, don’t trust Centrists, Police Brutality in Riverdale, the ideas of Science-Fiction that can change the world, THE CURRENT EDITOR IN CHIEF OF MARVEL PRETENDED TO BE JAPANESE IN ORDER TO GET WRITING GIGS, the problems with our Big List, what is a ‘Unit of Star Trek,’ Top Trumps, the NPR Star Wars Radio Dramas
PEDANT NOTES: Miles refers to Kira as a Collaborator instead of a resistance fighter as I meant to. Claude Reins doesn’t shoot the Nazi in Casablanca, but helps cover up Rick’s role.
NEXT WEEK: Saddle up partner as we head to the Wild West… in Space!
Casual Tek
Captain Pike’s Gimp Mask
Kelpien Folk Horror Monolith
Holodeck of Horror!
Of Course You Know, This Means Worf
Humans: The Fleshening
The Episode With A Rock That Looks Like a Dildo (feat. Matt Hardy)
Once More With Phasers
Casual Khan!
It’s time for another Star Trek movie!
We’re looking at Wrath of Khan, the supposed best Star Trek movie, which means we’ll also be watching the Star Trek episode which introduced us to 90’s icon Khan Noonien Singh, a man who thinks himself Kirk’s greatest nemesis. Will he be? And where will these episodes rank on our big list?
18:56 The Original Series: Space Seed
55:15 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Talking points include: Diving into an ongoing comic partway through a run, the Venture Bros Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, Strangers with Candy, The Prisoner, American Gods, HP Lovecraft: somehow less bad than Jowling Kowling Rowling, Legend of the Overfiend, Tenet, Randy Old Scouse Git, meeting famous historical figures and shoving them in a locker (Charlie) or having a drink with them (Miles), Jurassic Park, Falling Down, The Dawson, Madness, latter era Paul McCartney, the best Bond songs, the genre films of 1982, the exorbitant Casual Trek CGI budget, Space Jam, Jarvis Cocker’s 1996 Brit Stage Invasion, Taskmastering your Kobayashi Maru, the giant plug from the end of Lost, re-evaluating the Star Wars prequels, James Bond, D-List Batman Villains, the MCU release model, the legacy of Kirsty Allie, Marvel’s surprisingly good Star Wars comics, WotC’s latest controversies (unless more have happened between recording and releasing this), Street Fighter the Movie. 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
A Casual Anniversary
Oh my god it’s been a year already!
We decided after a self-indulgent episode celebrating our birthdays that we should do the same for the podcast. Things get unscripted, but we cover things like:
Friends call each other out on weird ideas and make them follow through Marathoning television shows The things that surprised us with Trek Living in a post-scarcity world Our favourite characters in each series What we want to see next!Talking points include: Star Trek, a lot of Star Trek, but also Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, Slayers, Hannibal, The Suzy Izzard oeuvre, Buffy, Lost, Alias, Gilmore Girls, Farscape, Babylon 5, Lexx, The Vengeance Trilogy, Zatoichi, NaNoWriMo War Stories, X-Men (again), Doctor Who, Hideo Kojima, the works of Leslie Neilsen, the art career of Steve Rogers, Starting a beef with other Star Trek podcasters, Blake’s 7 (of course), Legion of Super-Heroes, the fetishes of Chris Claremont and more!
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
How Much Brien?
Your Laws Are Stupid
Strange New Synergy!
Shax’s Second Best Day
Guinan’s Angry Cat Hands
The Maquis Made Some Valid Points
Lord of the Casuals
Tuvix or Not Tuvix
Voyage to Adventure!
Allamaraine! (Fixed)
Giant Vulcan!
Hoist By Our Own Picard
Whatever Happens in the Timestream Stays in the Timestream
My Oath of Celibacy is on Record
Debt of Honour
A Very Casual Christmas
The Jeffrey Combs Power Hour
Uncasual Power!
TIMECODE
53:00 to find out for youself.
Miles' first time in the editing chair, so the machine isn't as smoothly run as possible. Talking points include Doctor Who, our histories of watching Doctor Who, Age Inappropriate Doctor Who novels in Miles' Primary School Library, Doctor Who Actors, Doctor Who Companions, The Master, Ra-Ra-Rasputin, Jeph Loeb, Doctor Who, Doctor Who, and possibly if we're lucky, Doctor Who, Guess What, Blake's 7 gets a mention as Charlie's utter refusal to watch the show draws a stark boundary. Little does he know that Miles got to choose an episode title that references an infamous line from the show.
Maximum Power!