To Baldly Go

In this episode of To Baldly Go, we continue Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 with “The Defector,” “The Hunted,” and “The High Ground.” This week, we get: One hell of an episode to come back to Have we seen this before? An interesting concept, poorly executed We start with “The Defector,” a tense Romulan story featuring the return of Tomalak, a powerful ending, Data performing Shakespeare,...

This week on To Baldly Go, we continue our first-time watch of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 with episodes 7 through 9: “The Enemy,” “The Price,” and “The Vengeance Factor.” This week, we get: Worf going against expectations The ethics of the empath Personal connections to Star Trek In “The Enemy,” Geordi is stranded with a Romulan on Galorndon Core, giving us a strong example of what St...

First-Time Watch – Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 03, Episodes 04-06 Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast, in which I – a newbie to the Star Trek universe – am watching through Star Trek from the beginning, in release order, and discussing with some of my long-time Trekkie friends. This week, we get: Explanations for things we don’t understand No man can step in the same r...

First-Time Watch – Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 03, Episodes 01-03 Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast, in which I – a newbie to the Star Trek universe – am watching through Star Trek from the beginning, in release order, and discussing with some of my long-time Trekkie friends. This week, we get: Twister in space The less-funny Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy The Man...

First-Time Watch – Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 02, Episodes 19-22 Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast, in which I – a newbie to the Star Trek universe – am watching through Star Trek from the beginning, in release order, and discussing with some of my long-time Trekkie friends. This week, we get: Betazoid chaos Klingon honor and worldbuilding Strategy, competition, and...

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier – “What Does God Need with a Starship?” | First Time Reaction – To Baldly Go Podcast First-Time Watch – Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast, in which I – a newbie to the Star Trek universe – am watching through Star Trek from the beginning, in release order, and discussing with some of my long-time Trekkie friends....

Star Trek TNG S02E16-18 Q Who?, Samaritan Snare, Up the Long Ladder – “Nobody Asked Your Opinion” | First Time Reaction – To Baldly Go Podcast (Ep. 046) First-time watch of Star Trek: The Next Generation continues as we cover Season 2, Episodes 16–18. This week, we get: A new big bad Federation road trip “I think I’m a clone now” We covered: Q, Who? Samaritan Snare Up the Long Ladder Episode highl...

Star Trek TNG S02E13-15: Time Squared, The Icarus Factor, Pen Pals – “Podunk Bunnyville” | First Time Reaction – To Baldly Go Podcast (Ep. 045) First-Time Watch – Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2, Episodes 13–15 Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast, where I – a first-time Star Trek viewer – watch through the series in release order and discuss it with long-time Trekkie fri...

Star Trek TNG S02E10-12 The Dauphin, Contagion, The Royale – “Junk Food Episodes” | First Time Reaction – To Baldly Go Podcast (Ep. 044) First-Time Watch – Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2, Episodes 10–12 Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast, where I — a newcomer to the Star Trek universe — am watching through the entire franchise from the beginning, in release order, alon...

Star Trek TNG S02E07-09 Unnatural Selection, A Matter of Honor, The Measure of a Man – “If You Don’t Give this Episode at Least a Six…” | First Time Reaction – To Baldly Go Podcast (Ep. 043) First-Time Watch – Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2, Episodes 7–9 Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast, where I — a newcomer to the Star Trek universe — am watching through the entire...

First-Time Watch – Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2, Episodes 4–6. Welcome to the To Baldly Go Podcast, where I experience Star Trek for the first time by watching the entire franchise in release order with some long-time Trekkie friends. This week we discuss: Picard joking about surrendering… or is he? When a disability becomes an advantage Where does our humanity really lie? Data trying t...

Star Trek TNG S2E01-03 – The Child, Where Silence Has Lease, Elementary, Dear Data “Not Very Effective” | First-Time Reaction – To Baldly Go Podcast (Ep. 041) Season 2 begins… and Riker grows the beard. This week, I continue my first-ever watch of Star Trek in release order, joined by my long-time Trekkie friends. We’re covering: The Child – Space curiosity, questionable execution, and character s...

Star Trek TNG S1E24–26 – “The Biggest Trekkie” | First-Time Reaction | To Baldly Go Podcast (Ep. 040) We’ve reached the end of Season 1 of Star Trek: The Next Generation — and apparently… I’m now the biggest Trekkie on the podcast. In Episode 040 of The To Baldly Go Podcast, we break down: “We’ll Always Have Paris” “Conspiracy” “The Neutral Zone” This week’s highlights include: Exceptional mediocr...

This week on the To Baldly Go Podcast: Smart devices try to kill us. Star Trek does an after-school special about drugs. And a main character dies… suddenly. We’re discussing: TNG S1E21 – Arsenal of Freedom TNG S1E22 – Symbiosis TNG S1E23 – Skin of Evil Topics include: Thanking Alexa Nate hating Geordi The Prime Directive vs. addiction Evil space pharmaceutical reps Stoicism and sudden loss Armus...

This week: Home Soil, Coming of Age, Heart of Glory Devil in the Dark, redux? Ugly bags of mostly water What is life? Is Data alive? Is Data human? Is Data just ChatGPT in a synthetic skin suit? I step away while Abbie and Nate continue the conversation, looking ahead to things I haven’t seen The love of being wrong Observations of ADR and television production Picard’s maturity Distinct storyline...

This week: 11001001, Too Short a Season, When the Bough Breaks Nate concedes a point Season 1 has been underwhelming, but we have the best episode yet More commentary on the medium of network or syndicated TV The holodeck Abbie’s anesthesia dream Deliberate scientific inaccuracies in Star Trek An unrelated story in the Star Trek universe 21st century ozone hole An appropriate use for Wesley What i...

This week: Ferengi less cartoonish Still difficult to take them seriously as adversaries Lore and worldbuilding Nate sees Picard giving up early A/B storylines and storytelling in Star Trek Improvements in the medium over the 1960s Suspension of disbelief and faster than light travel Solar system versus other star systems Nostalgia Music in Next Gen Returning characters Q is kind of weird Using Q...

This week: A tribute to Scott Adams Where No One Has Gone Before, Lonely Among Us, Justice Abbie realizes how annoying Wesley is Similar to The Original Series, but different enough Thoughts and prayers to get home What is the time range of this iteration of the Enterprise? Curiosity Stoic philosophy Self-proclaimed experts and hubris Confidence without arrogance A body-swap episode?  No way! Sher...

In this episode: The Naked Now, Code of Honor, The Last Outpost I feel like we’ve seen this before An homage? Gregg’s 9s and 10s and his one problem with the series Gregg doesn’t like Wesley Stories are more refined Too early to have a “different characters” episode? Visionary vs executor Aaron’s Data moment Feeling like Original Series episodes Issues with Tasha Yar Even bad Star Trek is still gr...

In this episode: The premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation – Encounter at Farpoint Joined by my old friend, Gregg Gregg’s background with Star Trek Felt like a pilot episode, but overall good Original Series comparisons Star Trek feel with a much bigger scope A hopeful future with a bleak near-term view Gregg rates a 9 and says it can only go up from here Nate’s old technical manuals Next Gen...

This episode we discuss: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Didn’t go full Captain Planet Nate surprised by his rating Felt like a long episode Ralph Winter – producer Chekov in 1980s San Francisco The pitfalls of knowing there is more to come Plot holes No butterfly effect? Different timelines? A Commander Random sighting Plot devices vs. realistic story progress Star Trek: Movie Memories – by William...

In this episode we discuss: No more Animated Series Enjoying the dialogue more upon second viewing How Abbie remembers Star Trek Two years thinking Spock was dead Leonard Nimoy directs Curse of the odd-numbered Star Trek films Choppy scenes missing the emotional, dramatic effect Another Yeoman Rand-om sighting Sacrificing the Enterprise Krug – the Klingon John Wick? A compelling villain Extra-Kirk...

This week, Nate and I discuss: The Emmy-award winning Star Trek: The Animated Series Stopped rating the episodes Less than the sum of its parts? A bad series Animated Series as punishments Spaceships and aliens Target demographics Shortcomings of TAS No Chekov The great episode of TAS – a top episode for the franchise to this point Political implications of airing certain episodes Is TAS canon? Li...

In this episode Abbie, Nate, and I discuss: Final seven episodes of The Original Series Another episode it feels like we’ve seen before Fairy Tale by Stephen King Abbie wanted to DNF episodes Creepy, ick factor Valentine’s Day Star Trek episode Worst episode of The Original Series DC Fontana Qualified ratings – a “Season 3” Seven Mixed messaging Space Lincoln Anti-war, but winning a war at all cos...

This week I am joined by my wife, Abbie, and our friend, Nate, as we discuss: Let that Be Your Last Battlefield, The Mark of Gideon, and That Which Survives The Trouble with Tribbles story Elaan of Troyius recap now that Abbie is back Overt messaging in shows Star Trek without Gene Roddenberry Is a good message enough to carry an episode? A Captain’s responsibility to keep the ship out of enemy ha...