The Ready Room: A Star Trek Podcast
113: Date Recollection Savant

The Voyager Conspiracy.

Alcoves have many uses. There's the obvious one—regeneration—but there are less common ones as well, like playing Matlock. When Seven decided she could analyse data better than the crew or the ship's computer, she found herself being pulled down a rabbit hole infested with photonic fleas. In this episode of The Ready Room we're joined by Charlynn Schmiedt, Phillip Gilfus, and Daniel Proulx to discuss "The Voyager Conspiracy," why exactly Seven wanted to download 30 million teraquads of data into her brain in the first place, and just who exactly Naomi Wildman is working for.

In our news segment we find out what Gates McFadden and Brent Spiner have brewing on stage, how Gates is using Vine as a promotional tool, debate which Trek series has the best theme music is, and look at Bruce E. Drushel's new anthology Fan Phenomena: Star Trek.

Direct download: trr-113.mp3
Category:Voyager -- posted at: 9:00pm MDT

112: A Neffie Beumont Kind of Thing

Homefront / Paradise Lost.

In the 24th century Earth is a paradise. At least that's what we've been led to believe. But paranoia can drive even the residents of paradise to begin burning down the house, and that's what happened at the heart of the Federation when the Changeling threat reached Earth. In this episode of The Ready Room we're joined by Michael Fisher, Max Hegel, and Mike Schindler to discuss the mid-season two-parter that was originally planned as the third-season cliffhanger and fourth-season premiere, what it says about civil rights during times of danger, Gene Roddenberry's utopian vision versus reality, and how Worf's addition to the show changed the story's original concept.

In our news segment we discuss some interesting comments about the Star Trek video game from J.J. Abrams, his decision on directing the next film, which Starfleet engineer would make the best handyman, and our first venture into interstellar space with Voyager 1.

Direct download: trr-112.mp3
Category:Deep Space Nine -- posted at: 9:00pm MDT

111: Bird-of-Prey Selfies

A Matter of Honor.

One way that TNG showed us the passage of time was to bring together the Federation and Klingons as allies—at least uneasy ones. It was a great opportunity to delve into cross-cultural issues, and that's what they did when Riker became an exchange student aboard the Klingon vessel Pagh. In this episode of The Ready Room we're joined by Phillip Gilfus, Daniel Proulx, and Darren Moser to find out why Picard envies Riker, how to roll up Klingon stereotypes and diversity into one episode, and why being lactose intolerant may not be a good condition to have when serving in the KDF.

In our news segment we remember author A.C. Crispin, find out how Dayton Ward plans to use Paramount's Into Darkness Blu-ray scheme for his next novel, examine the "Unification" feature-length trailer, try to figure out what Star Trek: Terran is, and field more Questions from the Fleet—this time what we would create as the next TV series. And, of course, mark the 47th birthday of our beloved franchise.

Direct download: trr-111.mp3
Category:The Next Generation -- posted at: 9:00pm MDT

110: A Fascinating Khanversation

KHAN.

He is arguably the most iconic villain in Star Trek history—if not cinema history itself. A character with superior abilities, superior intellect, but who easily grows fatigued. Of course he is Khan Noonien Singh. Instead of going for something completely new for the second installment of his Star Trek reboot, J.J. Abrams chose to use the villain who the fan base considers sacred—a move that has generated cries of outrage from many. But to understand Khan and his role in Into Darkness requires more than just a glance at The Wrath of Khan. In this episode of The Ready Room we're joined by the world's foremost expert on Khan, John Tenuto, to discuss the origins of the character, how he was used in "Space Seed," The Wrath of Khan, and Star Trek Into Darkness, and why there are more connections to the purest form of Khan's character in J.J.'s film than you may realize.

In our news segment we rejoice in Bye Bye Robot's choice to produce lithographs of Matt Ferguson's beautiful posters for the six Original Series films, get ready to listen to William Shatner's upcoming album Ponder the Mystery, and unleash our own wrath directed at Paramount and Bad Robot over the Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-ray fiasco. Plus, we field our first Questions from the Fleet.

Direct download: trr-110.mp3
Category:Special Features -- posted at: 9:00pm MDT

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