Roddenberry Podcasts

Mission Log Live puts the spotlight on you . Following our Mission Log Reactor discussion of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Episode 4, "Vox In Excelso," we open the channel to our listeners for a wide-ranging conversation about Klingon identity, family, myth, debate, and what Star Trek is, and can be, right now. Callers bring everything from joyful tears to thoughtful critique. We hear deeply person...

Before Star Trek: Discovery 's final season sent its crew in pursuit of ancient secrets, Carlos Cisco had already taken inspiration from one of the most profound episodes of The Next Generation, "The Chase." In this week's The Trek Files , Carlos returns to explore the thematic connections between the 1993 TNG episode and Discovery's modern narrative arc. With Larry Nemecek, he discusses how "The...

SPECIAL RELEASE Before we return to our regular release schedule, here's the second—and final— specialaudio drop from our Patreon-exclusive Mission Log Live discussions. This episode focuses on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Episode 3, "Vitus Reflux." The rivalry between Starfleet cadets and the War College heats up, culminating in a competitive game of Calica (laser tag of the future), a full-blown...

Mission Log Live: Starfleet Academy Episodes 1 & 2   SPECIAL RELEASE You asked, and we listened. To make sure no version of Mission Log Live is missed, we're releasing the audio from our Patreon-exclusive live chats into the main podcast feed. In this first special release, we dive into the opening two episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy — "Kids These Days" and "Beta Test." From early reactio...

Episode 4 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has daddy issues that could decide the fate of the Klingon Empire, to be resolved only in reasoned debate or an interplanetary pillow fight! Jessica Lynn Verdi and John Champion discuss "Vox In Excelso," which lets us in on how the Burn affected the Klingons, and gives us Jay-Den Kraag's origin story. Enjoy our honest-to-goodness, SPOILER HEAVY review and...

This week, we're joined once again by Cash Edwards , who shares an intimate look at his longtime friendship with Star Trek: The Next Generation producer Herbert J. Wright . Their relationship, and shared history with Gene and Majel Roddenberry , sparked a bold attempt to revive one of Gene's most personal concepts: The Questor Tapes . In 2004, Herb, Cash, Rod Roddenberry , and a team that included...

Episode 3 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy answers the age old question, is it like laser tag? Jessica Lynn Verdi and John Champion discuss "Vitus Reflux," where the war college and Starfleet academy go head to head. Not gonna lie, Calica looks fun. Enjoy our honest-to-goodness, SPOILER HEAVY review and chime in with YOUR thoughts in the comments. Also! Join us Mondays at 7PM PT/10PM ET for our liv...

This week on The Trek Files: warp coils, dilithium chambers, and a whole lot of gamma rays. Returning guest Rick Sternbach joins Larry Nemecek once again for a lively exploration of Star Trek: The Next Generation's scientific backbone. Using early technical memos and a classic 1987 warp engine sketch, Rick walks us through how the team brought real-world physics into the heart of the Enterprise-D'...

Welcome, Cadets, to Episodes 1 & 2 of Paramount's newest Star Trek series, Starfleet Academy! Did you know Mission Log Patrons get this video a day early!? patreon.com/missionlog Roddenberry Podcasts very own Jessica Lynn Verdi and John Champion deliver their honest-to-goodness SPOILER HEAVY review for the first two episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, "Kids These Days" and "Beta Test." We di...

Long before The Next Generation brought LCARS to life or 3D printers made cosplay easier, Star Trek fans relied on one book to make the Enterprise feel real: The Starfleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph. In this week's episode, Larry Nemecek welcomes back Karen Schnaubelt , daughter of Franz Joseph, to mark the 50th anniversary of that seminal 1975 publication, just weeks after its surprise appe...

Writer/producer Mike Sussman returns to The Trek Files with a personal favorite: the creative and very meta preface to Gene Roddenberry's novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture . In it, Gene (writing as himself and as Admiral Kirk) casts the original  Star Trek series as a fictionalized dramatization of real events. Wait… what? Join Mike and Larry Nemecek as they unpack Roddenberry's playfu...

What happens when your sci-fi franchise is also a part-time science think tank? This week, Rick Sternbach returns to The Trek Files to discuss a set of internal memos he and Michael Okuda sent to the TNG production team, an essential peek behind the curtain at how plausible science and week-to-week TV production collided during the Berman era. These "tech notes" weren't just background noise. They...

Before Star Trek: Discovery unmasked the Breen in season 5, they were little more than an enigma in the Trek canon, name-dropped but rarely seen. This week on  The Trek Files , Discovery writer and producer Carlos Cisco joins us to talk about tracing those first cryptic mentions of the Breen, buried in  The Next Generation scripts for "The Loss" and "Hero Worship," and how they helped inspire the...

After seven seasons and one very contested transporter accident, we welcome Voyager executive producer and co-creator of Tuvix , Ken Biller, for a wide-ranging conversation about the legacy of Star Trek: Voyager . Guest co-host Earl Green joins John to explore the creative pressures behind the series finale, the constraints of '90s television, and how a light-hearted idea about a goofy transporter...

This week, we open the Starfleet personnel file for Admiral Jonathan Archer, a detailed biographical memo written by Star Trek: Enterprise writer/producer Michael Sussman for the fan-favorite episode "In a Mirror, Darkly." It was only meant to be a quick background graphic, so how did it evolve into a fan-favorite bit of canon? And why did Mike sneak "President of the UFP" into the character's rés...

Before it was a spoon-shaped ship lost in the Delta Quadrant, the U.S.S. Voyager was a series of sketches, foam-core models, and engineering daydreams from the mind of artist and tech consultant Rick Sternbach . As we continue marking the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: Voyager , Rick returns to The Trek Files to walk us through the behind-the-scenes process of designing one of Trek's most distinct...

After seven seasons and one hell of a journey, it's time to start wrapping up Star Trek: Voyager . John and Norman are joined by TrekCulture's Ellie Littlechild to take a look back, starting with Ellie's viral article " 10 Most Forgettable Voyager Episodes ." Which ones did we forget… and which ones should we? Then we turn to a much harder task: naming our personal top three "essential" Voyager ep...

This week, The Trek Files returns to one of our most personal corners of Trek history. Reinelda Estupinian , known lovingly as Reina, joins us again to share rare family photos and her firsthand memories of life inside the Roddenberry household. Hired in 1974 as a nanny for six-month-old Rod Roddenberry, Reina became a trusted part of the family for over three decades, eventually working closely w...

What happens when fans learn their beloved Star Trek is returning, but not the way they expect? This week on The Trek Files, we take a mid-season dive into the pre-internet letter-writing era of fandom with a look at Interstat #109 , a Star Trek "LOC-zine" published just after the announcement of The Next Generation in late 1986. With Mission Log host and producer John Champion joining Larry, we r...

In the  Star Trek: Voyager episose Endgame , after 23 years in the Delta Quadrant, Admiral Janeway finally made it home, but at too high a cost. Now she's crossing time and space to rewrite history, determined to give her crew a better ending. But who decides what the "right" ending is? And is it worth risking everything they already sacrificed to find out? One timeline, two stubborn Janeways, and...

In the 1993 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Interface," Geordi La Forge uses experimental technology to remotely explore a stranded starship and is confronted by a deeply personal mystery. Was the image of his mother real, or something else entirely? This week, returning guest Dr. David Williams joins Larry to explore the real-world science behind this episode. Using a vintage press summar...

In the  Star Trek: Voyager episose Renaissance Man , The Doctor doesn't quite seem himself. In fact, he seems like just about everyone else on the senior staff. But the impersonations are part of a high-stakes mission: rescue Captain Janeway from a hostile alien race despite her very specific orders not to. It's EMH meets ECH meets identity crisis when Renaissance Man goes into the Mission Log. Ho...

Imagine being invited to visit the Star Trek: The Next Generation set before it even aired by none other than Bob Justman. This week, The Trek Files welcomes back Doug Drexler to share the story of his very first visit to the TNG set in 1987, spurred by a letter from legendary Trek producer Robert H. Justman . That visit changed everything. Doug quickly transitioned from fan to crew member, taking...

In the  Star Trek: Voyager episose Homestead , there are Talaxians on that asteroid, and Neelix isn't just drawn to their cause… he might be drawn home. With Janeway's hands tied by the Prime Directive and hostile space-miners closing in, it's Neelix who must decide where he belongs and who he wants to be. Mission Log says goodbye in Homestead. Hosted by John Champion and Norman Lao Welcome to Mis...

Before he was an Oscar-winning makeup artist and Star Trek's go-to designer, Doug Drexler was just a teenage fan fighting to save the show he loved. This week, Doug joins The Trek Files to reflect on a remarkable journey—from the 1968 Newsday article that quoted him as a 14-year-old letter-writing activist, to working for the legendary Federation Trading Post in New York, and eventually becoming o...