A Star to Steer Her By

It's time for "Penance", Jean-Luc, though Q is being very vague as to what for. Join us in the Not-Mirror Universe where everything is fascist! Meet some familiar faces (with and without skin!) twisted by a single change in time. But what could it have been?! An unlikely source will reveal the truth! Also this week: dropping names, distant space year 2024, and Qpool! [Penance: 01:43]

It's time for the start of Season 2 with "The Star Gazer"! We open with a bang and then jump back to Picard deciding not to bang, which summons Q for some reason! Thrill as we get the band back together immediately after breaking it up! Sit in awe as we learn how to pronounce a major character's name a full season on! Roll your eyes at a really stupid explanation for how an immortal aged! Also thi...

Prepare yourself for the epic conclusion to Season 1 of "Star Trek: Picard" in "Et In Arcadio Ego, Part 2"! Charge up for the excitement that's been building all season to be unleashed in a torrent of payoff! Will any of it land, or will it all just kind of fizzle out in the face of an incredibly stupid magical gambit? Also this week: RIP Picard, "Nemesis" apologies, and wrapping the season! [EIAE...

We're in the homestretch of season one with "Et in Arcadia Ego, Pt. 1"! Come to the shoes-off homeworld of the synths, which it turns out is overseen by YET ANOTHER SOONG. Can't get away from these sociopaths no matter how hard we try. You also can't escape the fact that they love making transparently evil androids. Also this week: they kind of remembered the storms, brainitis, mid "Mass Effect"....

We're speeding towards the end of season one in "Broken Pieces" and it's time for dramatic backstory reveals! Aren't you excited?! Hello? Anyone...? Don't you suddenly want to care about Narissa a bit more now that we know her backstory? No, you still think she's awful? OK, well, isn't it neat finding out why Rios is so messed up? What's that? You find it convenient how much it ties into the overa...

60 years ago, "Star Trek" premiered. 10 years ago, the second-most-important "Star Trek"–related thing premiered. Yes, it's somehow been a DECADE of "A Star To Steer Her By"! We're flexing our usual anniversary fanfics to a whole new level by pitching entirely new series! With the future of the franchise very vague right now, we're stepping in to show the suits at Paramount how it's done! Caitlin...

The cracks are really showing this week in "Nepenthe". Character motivations, actions, and the location of props all just seem to exist because the writers need them to, and not because it feels natural or rational. But hey, ignore all that because Riker and Troi are here! And it's probably some of the best writing the entire franchise has given the poor woman. Unfortunately that is easy to miss s...

In "The Impossible Box", we go to the Borg cube, where Narek has a special puzzle box, which helps him wheedle out the mysteries hiding out in the metaphorical box that is Soji's mind. See what they did there? So more than 1/2 way through the series, Picard springs into action just in time for Soji to rescue herself from her idiot boyfriend, and ruins everything for Hugh just like he ruins everyth...

There's tonal whiplash and then there's the absolute disaster of a clustered mess that is "Stardust City Rag". It's a comedy heist, except we opened on some of the most needlessly explicit violence in the franchise's history! There's wacky accents and also Seven of Nine is in a REALLY dark place! Elnor is confused by the great big world and Raffi is going through a personal crisis! It's like they...

Chris just DOES NOT shut up this week about all the problems he had with "Absolute Candor", a side quest Picard drags the crew on despite knowing the urgency of his main quest. But is that more annoying or Agnes's increasing self-conscious quirkiness? You decide! While Picard deals with ANOTHER aspect of his tedious guilt, Soji is beginning to figure out something might be amiss with her own life....

In "The End Is the Beginning," season 1 finally kicks off! Sort of? I guess? Picard whips out his powers of manipulation to take advantage of an old friend in a vulnerable place right before his servants murder the crap out of a bunch of people! He's...he's the hero, though, we promise. And Soji meets a woman on the Borg cube who reacts REALLY poorly to a tarot reading. Also this week: Trekfowars,...

Yeah, it's this one. Where the writers decided trying was too much effort and just make it so anyone who actually has a good counterpoint to Picard's bloated ego and self-righteousness is pointlessly racist or mean to androids so you have to side with him. Tho it's still more effort than they put into forensics, which they waved away with a magic murder-solving ray. Oh, and it's called "Maps and L...

Oh God it's time for "Picard". In "Remembrance" an aging Jean-Luc is mostly sad and regretting everything, until a mysterious young woman shows up and explodes in a burst of regret so huge it snaps JLP out of his stupor! He's going to get to the bottom of this mystery, which somehow involves Romulans, the Borg, Data, and Bruce Maddox! No this isn't just too much at once, what do you mean? Also thi...

It is fanfic time again! We're dipping back one last time to the "Discovery" well to tell tales of friendship, loss, and meta weirdness! Join us why not? Jake: 02:54 https://sshbpodcast.tumblr.com/post/822238731175067648/tales-from-the-holodeck-dis-fanfic-jakes Chris: 31:45 https://sshbpodcast.tumblr.com/post/822239224513314816/tales-from-the-holodeck-dis-fanfic-chriss Caitlin: 48:26 https://sshbp...

Come with us to the early 2020s, when WB was busy making legacy sequels and canning random completed movies for tax breaks and check out "The Matrix Resurrections". One of the Wachowskis comes back under duress since the trilogy was going to become a tetralogy (quadrilogy?) whether they liked it or not, so they figured they may as well try to say something with it. It's very meta, oddly introspect...

It's the original end of "The Matrix" trilogy as we take a look at the very noisy "The Matrix Revolutions"! We've got a big CG battle loaded with characters we don't care about, we've got another visit with the Merovingian, and we've got a new Oracle (did you notice?!). Sense has largely left the building in this messy, loud, and frankly perplexing finale. Also this week: who's who in Zion, unsubt...

"The Matrix" is BACK, baby, and it's bringing along WAY more money and WAY more special effects for "The Matrix Reloaded"! Get ready for MORE fighting, MORE Agent Smith, and MORE uncomfortably long gyrating rave scenes! What, you don't want that last thing? TOUGH, it's there and it ain't leaving! Also this week: too much movie, who's Tank, and story time with an 8 year old! [Reloaded: 01:51] [Ames...

Mr. Anderson! Come in, sit down, put on your comfiest headphones. It's time to discuss possibly the most iconic of Keanu Reeves' many iconic roles. It's time for "The Matrix", a movie that arguably had as big an impact on how Hollywood works as the original "Star Wars" did some twenty-two years before. Reeves is Neo, a man who finds out his world is not what he believed and he might be the Chosen...

What happens when a painter/sculptor and a sci-fi writer want to make an art film but can only get the budget for an action movie? The very, very confused "Johnny Mnemonic". Watch in confusion as Keanu is told to switch off his usual, easy charm to play a fairly wooden courier! Be annoyed as rights issues and studio meddling turned the much more interesting bodyguard character into a dull sidekick...

We're taking a break from our break (insert "Inception" horn) to check out "The Mandalorian and Grogu", the latest theatrical "Star Wars" outing! Everyone's favorite buckethead and baby are back, hunting down war criminals and fighting CG monsters. SO. MANY. CG monsters. Also this week: a hot Hutt (?), almost Minioning, and bringing back the board! [Mando and Grogu: 1:08] [Classic Board: https://s...

Well, it took a lot longer than the writers hoped, but a third "Bill & Ted" finally graced our screens in 2020! With most of the world locked indoors, maybe all we really needed was a film with a simple message lacking in any cynicism. After your hosts' cool reception to "Bogus Journey" last week, did the more straightforward "Bill & Ted Face the Music" resonate with us? Listen and find out! Also...

Next stop on our Shore Leave jaunt is "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" and what can we say but: at least William Sadler is a delight. Your stalwarts find themselves a bit underwhelmed by this odd sequel, which maybe was a little TOO different from its predecessor. Something is just missing this time around, and no amount of weird robots or caked-up Martians can fix it. Also this week: sequel issues, m...

We're taking one of our patented Shore Leave breaks before the next leg of "Trek", and this time we're going over some choice cuts of the career of Keanu Reeves! So we're starting where you know we have to: "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure"! It's a classic tale of two well-meaning dopes trying to pass history with the help of time travel so that they can be the foundation of a utopian future! Als...

This week we're looking at arguably the reason the reprehensible "Section 31" exists: the excellent "Everything Everywhere All At Once"! In a movie that turns the Chosen One narrative on its head, Michelle Yeoh plays Evelyn, who is the best hope for the multiverse because she is the worst version of herself. Come along for a story of generational trauma, nihilism, kindness, and the simplest little...

Brace yourself for "Section 31", the abysmal "Star Trek" movie that's a mashup of all the worst ideas from your favorite franchises and none of the good ones! Despite the universe seeming to not want it to happen, what had once been planned as a Shazad Latif–led spy series instead became a Michelle Yeoh heist vehicle. Brace yourself for samey, quippy dialogue, unlikable characters, and the most ob...