Put on your best private detective hat and prepare to get into character as we talk step into the Holodeck and prepare ourselves for inevitable disappointment. In ‘The Practical Joker,’ the Enterprise computer gets wacky while Bones, Sulu and Uhura fail to enjoy a primitive Holodeck. In ‘My Way,’ Odo uses AI to make girls like him and we get a lot of song and dance numbers (and the best IDW comics pitch) as we meet Vic Fontaine while in Strange New Worlds’ Space Adventure Hour, La’an gets to beta-test the Holodeck and nearly kills everyone on the Enterprise doing so. Typical. Bloody Typical.Miles is a Jerk! SHOW NOTES: The Practical Joker (07:50) My Way (28:49) Space Adventure Hour (55:03) TALKING POINTS: The Knives, Doctor Who, the Southern Reach series (and the only film where Miles nearly wet himself in the cinema) Brighton Wok the Legend of Ganja Boxing, TAS actually pulling off some Shacting, Unfortunate stains, a noncanonical reason for Chekov’s absence from TAS, Romulan pranks are usually pretty deadly, Hamboning, Odo secretly being a gossipy bitch, Miles and Charlie talk relationship advice, Tom Jones in Star Trek, we come up with the PERFECT IDW Comic pitch, Miles hates when 50s SF TV and Cinema is immediatly shown to be crap, The Last Frontier feels too mean spirited to be affectionate, the cast getting to play, Uhura and Scotty is a great contrast to Uhura at the start of Strange New Worlds, the L’an and Spock pairing seems weird and the show is obsessed with making us know Spock ***ks, Vulcan Walk of Shame, Charlie has tried to Riker a chair (Update: Charlie can still Riker a chair) PEDANT’S CORNER: Top of the Pops and Old Grey Whistle Test are BBC Music shows, there was some BS about flags in the British News hence the strange tangent about flags. Neighbors and Home and Away are two long running Australian soap operas that were incredibly popular in the UK back in the day.
Welcome to Neelix’s Kitchen Nightmares you doughnuts!I’m Gordon Ramsey and we’ve got three meals for you to shove in your face from three questionable kitchens.Neelix’s kitchen’s covered in fluff and filth and seems to have been made in a large office meeting room. Will his food help Seven of Nine in “The Raven” or will it bring back dire flashbacks? I think we all know how it’s going to go.Next up is the unnamed chef of the Enterprise who actually has a full kitchen. Hoshi Sato comes in and takes over, does she think she’s me or something? She gets the job done, possibly a bit too much in “Singularity”. Also there’s some delightful nonsense with a chair.Finally William T Riker’s got the midlife crisis giant pizza oven out for a visit from his space dad, JL Picard in “Nepenthe”. Has he got what it takes, or will this episode and pizza both be undercooked? Whatever it is, it’s better than the replicated cake that gets thrown up all over La Sirena!This is actually Charlie, I’ve no idea what Gordon Ramsey sounds like, I hope you enjoy the show!00:05:21 What Non-Star Trek Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: Hungerstone by Kat Dunn, Alien: Earth00:16:50 The Raven00:48:33 Singularity01:19:43 NepentheTalking points include: The hyperfixation black hole, all the British food Miles misses, Hungerstone and other Carmillas, Alien: Earth and rants about latter Alien movies, which war was best: Britpop, Kree/Skrull or Avengers/Defenders, the works of Bryan Fuller and his horrifying first draft, Dexter & Sherlock Holmes, Dark Skies, marmite, people talking about their novels/characters, Phlox is basically Hank McCoy, James Bond Themes, Elnor doing a Metal Gear Solid, is Rizzo the Rat a Romulan?, old JL’s such a rogue again, Gilmore Girls and decades-later sequel problems, . Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.Pedant’s corner:The actor Miles & Charlie are talking about is David Jonsson who is going to be in Romulus 2, The Long Walk and is currently on The Road Trip.Casual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-LobattoMusic by Alfred Etheridge-NunnCasual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie Network
Okay, lets you and him fight! In shameless pursuit of ‘brand synergy,’ this episode of Casual Trek celebrates the return of Strange New Worlds to our streaming services by doing an episode about those lizardy bastards Kirk fought once at those rocks from Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, the Gorn! In ‘Arena,’ Kirk fights a string vest wearing space lizard while Spock watches and provides inane commentary (hey Spock-o, that’s OUR job) and then in the Strange New Worlds Season 2 finale and Season 3 opener ‘Hegemony Parts 1 and 2’ Pike spends more time hiding and less time building rudimentary cannons, Spock and Chapel play a little Alien Isolation and Ortegas loses herself in the job… Bogus. Episodes discussed: Arena (07:20) and Hegemony Parts 1 and 2 (38:27)Talking Points include: American Family Reunions, Donkey Kong Bananza, young Tom Jones is weird looking and The Monkees are great, Oh no not another Godlike being, Vasquez Rocks, everyone got tinnitus making this episode, Charlie’s time as a scout, Miles has a legitimate reason to bring up ‘Blake’s 7,’ they tried to build the cannon on Mythbusters… it did not go well, we’re not Trying That in a Small Town but we finally listen to The Mountain Goats for the show! Pike’s brief moment of religious crisis is weird, Strange New Worlds’ making the Gorn so monstrous clashes with how it went down in ‘Arena’, Alien Isolation, the nature of ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’ members of various Star Trek races and how the idea the Gorn might be biologically evil might not be a great look for Trek.
It’s episode 69 and so our brave Casual Explorers are showing their emotional age by watching the infamous ‘everyone gets drunk, horny and crazy’ episodes of Star Trek, TOS’ The Naked Time where George Takei shows off his impressive sword and TNG’s less impressive ‘The Naked Now’ where Charlie asks the most important question ‘if Data has no emotions, why did his creator build him to be fully functional, sexually?’ and Miles asks the second most important question ‘Why have this as an second episode?’ Meanwhile, Guest-Star Cele from ‘Celeste is Best’ gets to talk about Lower Decks’ own ‘everyone goes drunk and crazy’ with ‘Empathalogical Fallacies’ and has no real important questions to ask except ‘why is this so delightful?’ WARNING: Believing yourself to be descended from Irish Kings does not in fact make you an Irish King.EPISODES DISCUSSED: ‘The Naked Time’ (19:44) ‘The Naked Now’ (52:44) ‘Empathalogical Fallacies’ (1:25:09)TALKING POINTS INCLUDE: Donut County, the Elric books, the Superman movie, Man of Steel, Fortunate Son was not the only song about Vietnam, Spock looks weird in a black t-shirt, Sulu looks great with no shirt, Spock is a huggy drunk, how NOT to follow up your first episode of a brand new TV Series, Picard’s weird grunting, Miles and Charlie share stories of drunken productiveness, the failure of the writers to make Wesley likeable, the canonical reason why Data is ‘fully functional’ and why Lore is EEEEEVIL, Denise Crosby’s incredible mincing and costumes, everyone should watch Lifeforce, the very referential nature of Lower Decks feels like a bug, Worf would not host a poetry slam, Cele gushes about the fantastic work of Jamie Loftus.PEDANTS CORNER: Miles pronounces D’Artagnan as Dogtanian, but the Muskehounds are always ready.
Strap on those babies and keep clear of the wet ghosts, we’re finally talking about Death Stranding! Yes, Casual Trek Episode 69’s going to have to wait as the boys are very excited about the work of the game designer, dreamweaver, visionary plus actor, Hideo Kojima.Sit back and listen to the attempts to explain what Death Stranding is actually about, the ways Hideo Kojima’s works are somehow both deep and very stupid, in the best possible ways.00:01:17 What Non-Star Trek or Death Stranding Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: 28 Years Later & the six harbour walk around Fishbourne.00:13:17 How did we get into Death Stranding?00:25:00 What is Death Stranding?Pedant’s Corner:Charlie’s thinking of Final Fantasy VII: Remake, but in his defence they’re incredibly similar namesMULE stands for Multi-Use Labour Element. It may be a reference to an Atari game of the same nameTalking points include: 28 Years Later, The Walking Dead, Men (the movie), Quiet Year, Apocalypse World, Nosferatu, monster peen, a nice walk, Kubrick, Chvrches, Theory for Turntables, Spider-Man (PS4, Mega Drive, Commodore 64 versions), Final Fantasy Remake, time is nothing anymore, Jedi Survivor, Metal Gear Solid, Low Roar, Breath of the Wild, loner characters. Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.Casual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-LobattoMusic by Alfred Etheridge-NunnCasual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie NetworkDeath Stranding by CHVRCHES is their song and used for review purposes here.https://ko-fi.com/casualtrekMiles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com
Grab your phials of glowing green goo and prepare to ham it up as we talk once more about Jeffrey Combs, the Philip Madoc of Star Trek (that’s a Classic Doctor Who reference) and three episodes where his many characters make large roles. Unfortunately, Weyoun is only in a few scenes of Deep Space Nine’s ‘Ties of Blood and Water’ and both Miles and Charlie try really hard not to get personal as Kira has to look after a seriously ill surrogate family figure, fortunately Shran more than makes up for it in Enterprise’s ‘Cease-Fire’ as Archer is drafted into helping settle a planetary land dispute between Vulcans and Andorans and we make a little detour to ‘A Few Badgeys More’ as AGIMUS, the evil computer and F***ing Peanut Hamper plan mischief… if you’re one of those weirdos who only listen to hear Miles swear, this episode is for you! Come back in a year’s time probably for J3ff, more than likely.EPISODES MENTIONED: TIES OF BLOOD AND WATER (14:26), CEASE-FIRE (45:33) A FEW BADGEYS MORE (1:11:27)TALKING POINTS INCLUDE: Blowing up Objectivists, what elements of British films make Miles homesick, The Phonecian Scheme, John Wickend which leads to a wider discussion on John Wick, the Death of Princess Diana, our first Jeff episode does not have enough Jeff, Kira has supplanted Odo as Miles’ favourite DS9 character, how Kira and Ace from Doctor Who are very similar, a long way from the ‘Prat’ version of Bashir, Miles finds out something horrifying about LL Cool J, Charlie retells his one TATU story and the boys clearly have Heatstroke, Shram/Archer shippers must exist, Andorian soccer mums, accents, Andorian Antennae acting, we don’t need the Koala-joke in Lower Decks explained, Miles actually compliments ****ing Peanut Hamper, Boimler and Tendi hanging out together always seems weird.PEDANTS CORNER: Jeffrey Combs is Ratchet in Transformers Prime, not Transformers: Robots in Disguise
The ‘mystical pregnancy’ trope is a bit of an overused one in genre fiction and Star Trek visits that well so many times we had options for which ones to highlight here.The episode you all knew was coming is Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “The Child” where Troi gets pregnant with a cosmic entity. We also see puppies and the Enterprise dealing with a horrendous disease as a B plot.Star Trek: Voyager had so many episodes for this trope, but we picked “Elogium” where Kes’ body accidentally jumpstarts its mating process in some of the most grotesque ways possible. Oh, and Neelix wants everyone to know he was a bad boy before he met Kes.Finally Enterprise’s “Unexpected” has Trip head over to a freaky alien ship where he helps with their engines but gets mpregged in the process. You dirty dog, Trip! 00:03:41 What Non-Star Trek Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: Jaws and Exorcist novelisations, Super Mario Kart World (and not having a summer cold)00:13:08 Star Trek: The Next Generation “The Child”00:40:34 Star Trek: Voyager “Elogium”01:12:11 Enterprise “Unexpected”And stick around to the end for a horrifying bonus feature!Pedants Corner:The ‘modern’ V is from 2009, so it’s 16 years old“A New Start” from Degrassi High was actually in 1989 and while it did air, they had to remove the characters fighting their way through anti-abortion picketersJarvis Cocker took the piss out of Michael Jackson in 1996, one year after ElogiumTalking points include: Donna Troy’s Zombie Baby, Prometheus, V (old and new versions), Legion of Super-Heroes, Super Mario Kart World, GoldenEye, do NOT ask about Avengers issue 200, weird X-Men pregnancies, Charlie’s top tip for karaoke, PUPPIES!, Ian & Barbara, the crew as Wesley’s parents, Degrassi’s abortion storyline, Space: 1999, Charlie brings back that old ZX Spectrum/Commodore 64 rivalry, 1995 Michael Jackson is a rough sight, Michelle Pfieffer, Star Wars Episode One, Red Dwarf, “The Writer’s Barely Disguised Fetish”, Barbarella, Legz Akimbo, Prometheus, Battlestar Galactica (the new one), Attractive Doctors Who, Dune, mpreg, whether Chris Claremont has ever done an mpreg (he hasn’t), Quasar, Farscape, Quantum Leap, Chat Out of Hell, . Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.Next time, we have another Jeffrey Combs Power Hour! I mean it’s us, so probably more like an hour and a half.Casual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-LobattoMusic by Alfred Etheridge-NunnCasual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie Networkhttps://ko-fi.com/casualtrekMiles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com
Grab your tastiest sandwich and try not to spoil Twin Peaks as we return to Deep Space 9 with an all-DS9 extravaganza. We’re talking about the opening three-parter of season two of Deep Space Nine which, unlike the Augment three-parter of Enterprise we covered (Episode Title- We Have Wrath of Khan at Home), we’re discussing and placing on the Big List as one single entry and not three seperate ones. Watch as in ‘The Homecoming,’ Kira goes off to rescue Bajor’s greatest resistance fighter and gets no end of grief for it, then we see that Odo has an actual friend while Kira has one of those awkward naked dreams while uncovering Bajoran nationalists in ‘The Circle’ and then the simmering Bajoran nonsence ends up in some Die Hard antics on the Station as our heroes must endure ‘The Siege’ where this should hopefully wrap up. No Vedek Winn’s were harmed during the making of these episodes for which we are deeply sorry.EPISODES DISCUSSED: ‘The Homecoming’ (11:25), ‘The Circle’ (35:11) and ‘The Siege’ (56:11)This used to be a TNG episode, Bajoran nonsense, Twin Peaks references (some spoilers removed) the DS9 novel mentioned last episode, Odo pranking Quark, Miles prefers Sisko with no beard, the Return of Grappler Zorn and a digression into G.I.Joe, Frank Langella aka Skeletor, Sisko’s better at the ‘We’re with Starfleet, we don’t lie’ than Wesley, Odo has a friend-an actual friend (cue references to ‘The Inbetweeners’, Vedek Winn would unapologetically tweet ‘Thoughts and Prayers’, The Prime Directive is poorly written legislation, we do a Die-Hard, Bashir would have a pith helmet, Deep Space Nine still working out what it can do and it feels that the Bajor stuff falls by the wayside with much larger threats, Krim wants to be Sisko’s big rival, this is all too neat in resolution.
It’s Bank Holiday Monday, so let’s take it easy and talk about some comics. After promising it early in the show’s history, Charlie’s finally read the first arc of IDW’s Star Trek comic by Lanzig & Kelly. Look, we’re Casual Trek, this is the level of service you get from us.The first arc, “Godshock” features that classic Star Trek concept: thumbing your teeth at god, only this time it’s a bad thing as someone’s killing gigantic cosmic entities! Who did this and how can it be stopped? Well, Ben Sisko’s back from his time as a cosmic entity to find out, with an almost all-star cast of people from throughout Star Trek History. There’s Data and Dr Crusher from TNG, Paris from Voyager, Scotty from TOS and Jake Sisko is also there. Worf guest stars for long enough to be a bad parent and back door pilot for another series, and there are a couple of new characters who are a lot of fun.Join us on the USS Theseus and prepare for a lot of tangents, as we both love talking comics.References: The Super Stalag of Space, Harry 20 on the High Rock, Dan Dare, Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation Squared, Quatermass and the Pit, The Legion of Super-Heroes, The Legion Clubhouse, comic collection sizes, YES Charlie has put rolled-up Walking Dead volumes in his back pocket, the Bendis New Avengers approach to team-building, Billy Pilgrim, The Krakoan Age of X-Men, Marvel Swimsuit Specials (which are coming back), release a Star Trek Swimsuit Special you cowards!, Data pages vs data pages, Gilmore Girls spoiled Anna Karenina for me, Charlie’s Super Mario Quest 2025, the Summers family tree, the Dark Horse Buffy Series, Marvel’s Star Wars, Dr Who comics, the Energon Universe, the CLZ collector’s app, Malibu Comics’ Star Trek… Oh, and sometimes IDW’s Star Trek.
Pull out your helmet with the torch on and your spelunking gear because we’re talking about Caves! Miles and Charlie go potholing for Star Trek episodes featuring caves and find a Horta in TOS’ ‘Devil in the Dark’, bid farewell to a member of the TNG cast in ‘Final Mission’ and do you remember when everyone got trapped in a turbo lift in Lower Decks’ ‘Caves?’ Always use the buddy system! Follow safety regulations! EPISODE DISCUSSED: ‘Devil in the Dark,’ (07:13) ‘Final Mission,’ (28:33) and ‘Caves,’ (52:53) Talking points include- Common Side Effects, Cyberpunk 2077, Caves, the Horta’s beat poetry, Spock calling Kirk ‘Jim,’ Mariah Carey as Goku charging to Super Saiyan, Red Dwarf would have shown the crashing shuttle, Miles and Charlie agonize about their Britishness, Miles Oatrick Stewart impression sounds more like Matt Berry, how the writers gave up on Wesley Crusher,space Joe Rogan would be a pakled,fake clip shows, Tendi is a ray of goddamn sunshine, Miles has lived the Alpha Shift/ Delta Shift dynamic, the best fake episode of Quantum Leap ever.
Listen up, you palookas, it’s time for a Casual Trek about times people tried to copy humans. We’ve got a bona fide Mafia planet thanks to a discarded novel in “A Piece of the Action”, featuring some incredible Shacting.Next, those Next Generation goombahs find themselves in a casino inspired by another discarded novel in “The Royale”, a troubled script and a bad episode which is actually a fantastic time.Finally, those Prodigy kids just wanna do a Starfleet and find a culture inspired by the original Enterprise in “All the World’s a Stage”00:02:52 What Non-Star Trek Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: Lost & Yellowjackets00:12:20 Star Trek: The Original Series “A Piece of the Action”00:38:52 Star Trek: The Next Generation “The Royale”01:01:09 Star Trek: Prodigy “All the World’s a Stage”Talking points include: Our respective theatrical origins, CHARLIE WAS NOT RAISED IN A CULT, Lost (finally!), science fiction finales, Yellowjackets Season Three, America: It’s Pretty Big!, how our tastes in music will never be a number one hit, Fizzbin, “President Capone”, Miles’ beef with Chicago, Cones of Dunshire, the improv skills of the bridge crew, the horror of an improv planet, books in 1992, Iain (M) Banks, troubled scripts, Madonna’s oeuvre, Bernard from Lost, Charlie’s grandad dressing like a cowboy at a wedding, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the boys go on a tear about Ernest Cline again, Galaxy Quest. Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/original-the-royale-script.123944/ - A quote from Tracy Tormé about what the original script for The Royale was going to be like.Which 1980’s British children’s drink would your cult poison themselves with? Answer in the poll on Spotify!Pedantry Corner:Zero’s pronouns are they/them. Respect pronouns, people!Casual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-LobattoMusic by Alfred Etheridge-NunnCasual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie Networkhttps://ko-fi.com/casualtrekMiles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com
Strum your sitar and prepare to launch all Eagles as Miles and Charlie once more become the Space Scamps as they make a second trip to the moon for three more episodes of Gerry Anderson’s ‘Event Horizon meets Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace’ show Space 1999 (Miles is now worried he has created a monster by showing Charlie this show) and in doing so, get to talk about psychadelic trippiness and Kano’s obsession with Computer in ‘Black Sun,’ Christopher Lee (although he’s totally phoning it in,) and the dispatch of a weasly middle manager in ‘Earthbound’ and then with ‘The Troubled Spirit,’ Halloween comes a little early and it’s probably more spooky than whatever we’ll end up doing for our Halloween episode… EPISODES DISCUSSED: Black Sun (11:32), Earthbound (34:20) and The Troubled Spirit (58:40)Talking Points Include: More Space 1999, Death Stranding, a trip to Scotland, the science is impossible, Moon Base Alpha’s limited resources, British Pessimism vs. American Gung-Ho, Gene Roddenberry would never, Hard SF has a tendency to go full magic weirdness, Bohemian Rhapsody deserves it’s rep, Christopher Lee is phoning it in, Simmons is the David Brent in Space, cowardly heroes, our brave explorers enjoying shouting MMMMUUUUUUUUTAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNT like in ‘Mission of the Darians,’ Charlie repeats a Johnny Byrne joke from the last episode, awesome sitar music this is the most halloween episode we’ve done for the show, a wicked burn from Charlie’s old teacher Mr. Jafferji, is Moonbase Alpha a liminal space? M. Night Shyamalan films and surprisingly… some Star Trek.
Grab your dice-bag and make sure your character sheets are up to date!As Charlie is ill and both hosts are really busy, we take a quick detour from talking about Star Trek the TV Show to talk about Star Trek Adventures Tabletop RPG by Modiphius Entertainment. In his other side-career as a Gaming Journalist, Charlie got to try out a review copy with his gaming group and goes over the ensuing data. If you ever wanted your episode of Casual Trek to be 80% Charlie and 20% Miles, this one is for you! Find out Miles’ potted history with gaming, the world’s strangest Alien campaign and a quick overview of the game itself. This might be our most tangent-free episode!Episodes Mentioned: The Star-Trek Adventure Tabletop RPG (25:20)TALKING POINTS: Our history with RPGS, Miles’ obsession with playing a Mod in RPG’s (the subculture kind, not the internet forum kind) The Langoliers, the weirdest Alien RPG campaign, Charlie’s earlier history with Star Trek RPG’s and Charlie’s brother trying and failing to help, the actual Star Trek Adventures game itself, worries about combat, can you concentrate your way out of everything? Made-up Radiation, Charlie’s spread-sheet nerd habits pay off, Charlie gives a two-word answer to playing Traveller and then fudges a very easy dice roll.If you want to read a written review, you can! star-trek-adventures-second-edition-starter-set-review
It's time to get your stolen spaceship hurtling round the sun and going back in time to the 1980’s with “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”!We’re joined by our occasional editor and perpetual Pokémon expert, Reanna Reid-Lobatto, with some news about whales (and transparent aluminium).There’s some impressive Shacting as Spock and the crew get up to hijinks in order to get whales going back to the future!Then we’ve got the second part of this ‘bus punk’ duology with Picard’s “Watcher”, where we’re reminded why ICE should be abolished, Rafi is the most fun she’s been in the show and Guinan’s already fed up of JL!00:04:22 What Non-Star Trek Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: 00:13:32 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home01:10:28 Picard: The WatcherTalking points include: Continuum, Dr Who, Ecco the Dolphin, Whale Song, Tavern Talk, Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuux, Final Girl, Top Gun, Karate Kid cosplay, the pronunciation of aluminium, the “I choose to stay” trope, is there no pizza in Star Trek’s future?, Bester from Babylon 5, John Lithgow’s acting career, Bill & Ted’s poorly-aged comments, transparent aluminium facts! Hitchhiker’s Guide dolphins, Some non-bummer news about humpback whales, I urge Comrade Whales to go further, Genma Saotome’s parenting, McCoy Vs the American Health Industry, Alexa & the PS5’s voice recognition, Eddie Murphy, Back to the Future & Howard the Duck’s Lea Thompson, Fly me to the Moon, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Buffy, ICE should be abolished, Edith Piaf, do you like references?, Jerati’s history of constantly fucking up, Eternal Law, Ageing punks, Miles’ connection to Kirk Thatcher, fuck Peanut Hamper, The Rosa Parks episode of Dr Who, Charlie has now finished Yoshi’s Island. Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.The Matthew Rosenberg Wolfsbane thing is covered here: https://www.cbr.com/rosenberg-apologizes-for-wolfsbane-death-scene/Pedant’s Corner:Yes technically it’s not been long since we’ve covered a movie, but it’s best we all forget Section 31.The last scenario of Final Girl Series Three is based on A Quiet Place and Tremorshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_BountyJohn Lithgow played Dr Emilio Lizardo in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th DimensionWe are children of the 80’s living in 2025, not 2024. It’s Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, not SevenCasual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-LobattoMusic by Alfred Etheridge-NunnCasual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie NetworkWatch Reanna and former guest of the show Sean playing Super Mario RPG: https://www.youtube.com/live/bYSOk-bb6EM?si=LpAtQEqLjHrCpqGahttps://ko-fi.com/casualtrekMiles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com
Temba, his arms wide!We have a new episode of Casual Trek for you and it’s about language, no, not naughty language, although we’re both British so we’re VERY good at that. We’re talking about times where language and communication have been important Trekian themes! First, everyone on Deep Space Nine is talking gibberish instead of Technobabble in ‘Babel’ while in Strange New Worlds, Uhura’s first away mission goes horribly awry when she has to communicate with the ‘Children of the Comet’ and finally, we deal with one of The Next Generation’s best episodes as we try and find out just who is Darmok and why was he at Tanagra in ‘Darmok.’ Temba, at rest! Episodes Discussed: Babel (09:42), Children of the Comet (31:17) and Darmok (52:57)Talking Points Include: Catch-22, Sakamoto Days and the slow weebification of Charlie, Love Hurts, Sean Austin, is this Chief O’Brien’s first worst day, Babel originally being a TNG script and how it would not have been as fun, the Odo/Quark dynamic, Kira having no time for BS, how irritating it must be to play a Vulcan sometimes, Sam Kirk is not this show’s Kenny, does Strange New Worlds disregard Roddenberry’s attitude to God? Uhura and Spock being friends, Miles misses Hemmer, when Spock thinks you ****ed up… you ****ed up! Troi’s rather slim resume, Miles suffers the Darmok problem with UK-Specific references in the US, ‘Darmok’ might be Star Trek’s clearest descent into allegory, How ‘Darmok’ inspired the scariest episode of Doctor Who, Picard’s new jacket, Pedant’s Corner: The Chuckle Brothers were a slapstick comedy duo popular on British children’s telly. To me. To you. Rolf Harris was also a popular children’s entertainer on British TV… until he was convicted on many charges of SA towards minors.Miles guesting on Famicom Dojo as Sean plays ‘Out of This World.’ https://www.youtube.com/live/Ucv-hoyVmPU?si=hx_tb9k9qVCqZBMr
Better lock up your familial issues and not talk about things with your parents as we delve into possibly one of the worst fathers in Science-Fiction (at least this one has an excuse for emotional distance) as we talk about the most Vulcan of Vulcans, Spock (and Michael Burnham’s and Sybok’s) dad, Sarek. Is he well-meaning, or, as Miles believes, has definately eaten one of his own children like a Goya painting? Our first trip is to go Disco with ‘Lethe’ as Michael Burnham discovers that her adopted dad has been offloading his guilt complexes onto her. Then in TOS’ ‘Journey to Babel,’ Kirk, McCoy and a whole bunch of alien delegates get caught between Spock and Sarek’s personal drama and finally, in TNG’s ‘Sarek,’ Captain Picard faces a difficult choice with a man he so deeply admires and Patrick Stewart gets to indulge in ‘ACT-ING!’Live Long and Remember that a Family can just as much be a Found One as one you were Born into…Episodes Discussed: Lethe (07:12), Journey to Babel (31:39) and Sarek (58:00)Talking Points Include: The worst father’s in Pop-Culture, Miles has been writing again HOORAY!, Charlie is playing A LOT of Super Mario Bros. Miles wants a ‘DISCO’ shirt, CONTENT WARNING: Jokes on Baby Eatings, That weird thing with prequel shows when they talk about stuff that was a secret in the original show, Lorca is a shit, would Vulcans appreciate slapstick comedy? Fringe, how Miles’ Britishness switches on a daily basis, we don’t get enough Space Opera shows these days, an alien called Gav, We rate the strange aliens of ‘Journey into Babel’ and how it might be one of the most Trek-like Trek episodes, does Wesley Crusher pull?, what is the slime for? Data pulling the ‘child upset his parents are fighting’ trick with Picard and Riker, we don’t get political… honest… Star Trek is apolitical, Picard wants more hijinks in his Diet, some actually good camera work in Trek.Pedant’s Corner: Blatchington Mill is a High School in Brighton that Miles’ mother definately felt was the runner-up to her wanting him to go to Dorothy Stringer (which he did)
It’s finally here! The Section 31 movie, wanted by almost no one and quietly put out onto Paramount Plus looking like a bad attempt to be a Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad (the bad one) and Borderlands: The Movie. To celebrate, Charlie and Miles have formed a ragtag band of bantering ne’er do wells including Cele from Celeste is Best and Sean from Famicom Dojo. They carry out a four-person relay recap, pitch their own versions of a Section 31 movie and try to say something good about it! 00:03:19 What Non-Star Trek Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: 00:09:18 Introduction to Section 31 00:18:51 Section 31 Recap 00:33:30 Section 31 Review 01:16:22 Saying something nice about Section 31 01:21:24 Miles’ Pitch 01:29:08 Cele’s Pitch 01:36:52 Sean’s Pitch 01:43:41 Charlie’s Pitch 01:57:52 Cele’s Wife’s Pitch Talking points include: Borderlands (video game), Guardians of the Galaxy, Creature Commandos, a nice Americano, scone and a book, Macross, Silo (film & books), Midnight Suns, The original Section 31 predicted how the Patriot Act would go down, SHIELD in the War on Terror Era, Babylon 5, Mass Effect 2, Battlestar Galactica, The Culture, X-Force (Cyclops’ and Wolverine’s), Hunger Games, 90’s Animated Cyclops, ‘meh’ should never be said in a Star Trek, “We have Tendi at home”, everyone looks like budget ‘someone else’, if this was on HBO Max then Zaslav would have killed it, The Drazi’s religious war, The Big Outdoor Fight, Rebel Moon, British versions of successful American sci-fi, is there anything original? Starbucks supervisor energy, an Oirish accent, a Pacey from Dawson’s Creek haircut, Agent for Harm, MST3K, Rogue One, Making Georgiou into Spike, referencing Lorca’s most unfortunate line in Discovery, Fifth Element, the sins of Joss Whedon’s writing, Dr Who, Suicide Squad, Torchwood, Celeste’s Harsh Truths™, The Franchise, Jessie Gender, this is a Roger Corman movie if he was an idiot as well as a thief, choking on a Manta Force, Garth of Izar, Gundam references, . Oh, and occasionally Star Trek. Pedant’s Corner: Silo came out in 2011, Fallout came out in 1997, A Boy and His Dog first appeared in 1969 Marvel’s Midnight Sons actually consisted of: Danny Ketch, Johnny Blaze, Blade, Frank Drake, Hannibal King, Morbius, Vengeance, Sam Buchanan, Victoria Montessi, Louise Hastings, Modred the Mystic and Jinx. In retrospect I can see why they went more mainstream. Amarie in Unification had four arms William Sadler is alive at time of editing 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 Celeste is Best YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@NickIzumi Cele’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/CelesteIsBest Famicom Dojo: https://famicomdojo.tv/ Famicom Dojo YouTube: https://youtube.com/@famicomdojolive Miles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com
Quick, put on your secret black leather uniform and prepare yourself for moral dubiousness as we prepare ourselves for the upcoming film- ‘Star Trek: Section 31.’ With the film debuting in just a few days after this episode drops, Miles and Charlie prepare themselves by choosing three episodes tangentially related to the forthcoming film, in ‘Inquisition,’ we and Julian Bashier meet Section 31 and all Bashier wants are Scone and Jams, then in ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise,’ we slip into an alternate universe/Tasha Yar fixfic and meet Captain Rachel Garrett (who will apprantly be in this movie) and we encounter that most deadly Star Trek threat… WALL ROCKS and then in Saints of Imperfection, Captain Pike meets the worst kind of secret operatives, catty drama kids who can’t shut up about how secret they all are, will any of this actually relate to the film? We don’t know, but we’ve assembled a team of our own to talk about it in the next episode! Inquisition (11:52) Yesterday’s Enterprise (46:00) Saints of Imperfection (1:16:08) Talking Points: Favourite Spy TV Shows, Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, A whostrobot, Charlie is trying to play every Super Mario Brothers and he’s just wrong inside, Section 31 just feels like a 15 year old’s attempt at edgy, we talk realpolitik for a second, The Prisoner, Jam and Scones, a surprise Jeffrey Combs appearance, William Sadler also being Death in Bill and Ted, the subtle differences with the alternate Enterprise characters, this is a Tasha Yar fixfic, wall rocks are useful… maybe, Picard being a bit more like his ‘ST:Picard’ counterpart here, bloody bloody deaths, the mysterious ‘Arratia’, Section 31 is run like Starbucks’. Tech differences in Discovery, how Mirror Phillipe gets tedious really quickly, Miles talks Blake’s 7, Miles and Charlie LOVE Death Stranding, EastEnders, Tilly being earnestly hopepunk (I hate that term), Spock is a kleptomaniac, Pedants Corner: Roj Blake is played by GARETH Thomas, not GARTH Thomas
Don’t click on those ‘Unification Explained YouTube’ videos! Miles and Charlie open 2025 by talking about the OTOY short film ‘765874 Unification’ and honestly, for those of you disappointed that there were no lumps of coal in our Christmas Special… this is it, this is the coal. If this is (as the comments say) ‘Proper Star Trek,’ what do the Casuals who rank Tuvix as 44 out of 144 on their Big List (at time of recording) have to say about this and can they say anything good?Episode Mentioned: 765874 Unification (12:35)Talking Points: Charlie hasn’t seen Tron Legacy, Miles goes on about Galaxy Express 999, what does OTOY stand for? Weird CG Jank, Weird Dr. Who regeneration BS, the Koala did it, where’s Michael Burnham? If you don’t know what dogging is, just Google it, Human Jank, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS, Letting the nostalgia run the asylum, fans were complaining about the same stuff back in the 90s that they are today, what ARE we looking forward to in the Year 2025?
It’s the end of another year for Casual Trek, so Charlie and Miles have picked out episodes to gift each other!It’s been quite a year, all in all, so they’ve both been merciful and decided to go for some fun episodes.Charlie’s gift to Miles is Space:1999’s Nick Tate guest starring in a Miles O’Brien spy drama in “Honour Among Thieves”Miles’ gift to Charlie is some amnesia-based hijinks around a castle in “Among the Lotus Eaters”And for two episodes about betrayal with ‘Among’ in the title, neither host mentions Among Us!00:02:17 What Non-Star Trek Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: Absolute Superman, Spy X Family, 00:14:02 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine “Honour Among Thieves”00:52:29 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds “Among the Lotus Eaters”Talking points include: Castles, Miles is MARL now, Absolute Superman, Spy X Family, Titanic, Nick Tate, gangster movies, Goodfellas, disappointing D&D Beyond stats, Skip Intro’s series on Copaganda, Poker Face, John Hodgeman (who I did know about from his podcast), Brighton is genuinely nice despite how Miles and I describe it, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Con Air, Chester will appear again, Blake Snyder ruining the film industry, Charlie is a Time Team nerd, Morgan Wallens is awful, Charlie and Miles do a forced amnesia bit, the amnesia plot of 24, the finale of Chuck, Dr Who amnesia theories. Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.Pedant’s Corner:My Heart Will Go On is apparently a power balladThere’s an 11 year difference between Nick Tate and Colm MeaneyCasual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-LobattoMusic by Alfred Etheridge-NunnCasual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie NetworkChristmas music by Emraanhttps://ko-fi.com/casualtrekMiles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com
James Beattie
The best version of imagine is (Star Trek link) by Scott Bakula on Quantum Leap