Before the Future Came

Behold me as I am! Melissa comes to us with two episodes from The Animated Series : "Yesteryear," (S01E02) written by D. C. Fontana and directed by Hal Sutherland; and "How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth," (S02E05) written by Russell Bates and David Wise and directed by Bill Reed. Like " Qpid ," these episodes involve paternalism echoing from the past. We talk about radical autonomy, monoculturali...

Blood will be spilt! Gregory brings "Qpid," the 20th episode of season 4 of The Next Generation , written by Ira Steven Behr and Randee Russell and directed by Cliff Bole. Like "Captain's Holiday," this episode features the recurring character of Vash (and a lot of misogyny). We discuss historical fantasy, amatonormativity, the ideal woman, power, pedagogy, and Q. We also chat about humor, stage f...

You've fulfilled your destiny all too well! Lucy brings "Captain's Holiday," the 19th episode of season 3 of The Next Generation, written by Ira Steven Behr and directed by Chip Chalmers. Like "Inquisition," this episode revolves around an attempted holiday that goes awry. We talk about vacations, misogyny, bodies, liminality, archaeology, and antisemitism. We also discuss pre-trip research, amazi...

I can assure you: this is no game. Melissa brings "Inquisition," the 18th episode of Season 6 of Deep Space Nine , written by Bradley Thompson and David Weddle and directed by Michael Dorn, the actor of Worf; one of only four episodes of Star Trek he directed. Like Elite Force , this episode contains a lot of questionable military ethics. We discuss assessment, astonishment, morality, espionage, t...

Content Warnings: mention of motion sickness and vomiting Consider this your personal Kobayashi Maru. Gregory brings Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force , a video game released in 2000 by Raven Software. Like "In a Mirror, Darkly," this episode involves the denizens of the Mirror Universe. We discuss first contact, video games, military orders, courtesy, romance, and canonicity. We also chat about Je...

Love never fails. Lucy brings "In a Mirror, Darkly" Parts 1 and 2, episodes 18 and 19 of Season 4 of Enterprise. Part 1 was written by Mike Sussman and directed by James Conway. Part 2 was written by Mike Sussman and Manny Coto and directed by Marvin V. Rush. Like the 2009 film Star Trek , this double episode explores an alternate history. We talk about compassion, misogyny, dehumanization, censor...

Fire everything we've got! Melissa brings the 2009 film Star Trek , written by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman and directed by J.J. Abrams. Like "Crisis Point" and "Crisis Point 2," this movie dives headlong into the action genre. We discuss vilification of labor, misogyny, and character motivations. We also chat about destiny, humor, set design, and lens flares. For images discussed in this epis...

These graphics are mindblowing! Gregory brings "Crisis Point," the ninth episode of season one of Lower Decks, written by Ben Rodgers and directed by Bob Suarez; and "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus," the eighth episode of season three, written by Ben Rodgers and directed by Michael Mullen. Like "Subspace Rhapsody," these episodes engage in a specific genre: here, the action movie. We discuss family, ra...

There's no episode for July 2024, but we offer some recommendations for new listeners about some of our favorite pre-Star-Trek episodes. We'll return in August with Lower Decks  S01E09, "Crisis Point," written by Ben Rodgers and directed by Bob Suarez, and S03E08, "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus," written by Ben Rodgers and directed by Michael Mullen.

It might be time to change our paradigm. Lucy brings "Subspace Rhapsody," the ninth episode of season two of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , written by Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff and directed by Dermott Downs. Like "Sarek," this episode has the crew overwhelmed by their emotions and forced to express them in unproductive ways. We discuss connection, authenticity, and imperial communication. We a...

Bedlam! Melissa brings "Sarek," the 23rd episode of season three of Star Trek: The Next Generation , written by Peter S. Beagle and directed by Les Landau. Like "The Sword of Kahless," this episode features a recurring character coming to terms with the end of his career. We talk about illness, aging, dignity, honesty, gender, and violence. We also discuss everyday life in space, Mark Lenard, and...

Let this moment be remembered! Gregory brings "The Sword of Kahless," the ninth episode of the fourth season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , written by Hans Beimler and Richard Danus and directed by LeVar Burton. Like the Discovery premiere, this episode is concerned with the legacy of the Klingon cultural figure Kahless. We discuss ancient fallen societies, philosophical skepticism, and the fanta...

Content Warnings: discussion of war and war crimes, cannibalism, traumatic brain injury resulting in disorientation, untreated PTSD, desecration of corpses Spoiler Warning : From 1:18:30 to 1:23:34, we discuss a plot point that is revealed in Discovery S01E11, "The Wolf Inside." We come in peace! Lucy brings "The Vulcan Hello" and "Battle at the Binary Stars," the two-part premiere of Star Trek: D...

Content Warnings: discussion of mental health, incarceration, and sexual harassment; excessive use of mild profanity It's time! Melissa brings "Relativity," the 24th episode of the fifth season of Star Trek: Voyager , written by Bryan Fuller, Nick Sagan, and Michael Taylor and directed by Allen Eastman. Like First Contact , this episode features time travel and the Pogo Paradox. We talk about how...

Content Warnings: body horror and self-injury; alcohol; frank discussions of sex, caste oppression, misogyny, and misogynoir. In honor of our first episode, Gregory brings Star Trek: First Contact , written by Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore and directed by Jonathan Frakes. We discuss Star Trek's views on exceptionalism vs. collectivism, the idea of destiny and the "right timeline," and the film...

Welcome to Before the Future Came , a Star Trek podcast! Now that Hollywood producers have come to their senses regarding labor negotiations with writers and actors, we're returning to Star Trek! If you're just joining us, you can start with episode S00E01: "First Contact." If you're interested in hearing us talk about other utopian science fiction, you can go back and listen to the episodes we re...

Content Warnings: death and grief, horror themes, excessive but mild obscene language. Our last episode of the Strike Era has us reading " SCP-6001: Avalon " by T Rutherford! We talk about queer phenomenology, pacifism, the incarceration mindset, grief, and epistolary works. We also talk about unifying works of fan fiction, the joy of cats, and explicit vision statements. A glossary to the story f...

Content Warnings: discussion of sex, torture, self-mutilation, misogyny, body horror, brief mention of suicide. With the AMPTP still refusing to pay actors properly, we discuss The Collapsium by Wil McCarthy! We talk about hard and soft science fiction, wealth and labor, and the book's strange use of appendices. We also touch on wizard battles, robotic freedom, princesses, cloning via teleportatio...

Content Warnings: discussion of defecation, animal injury and death, misogyny, enslavement. With Hollywood strikes ongoing, we discuss The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. We talk about community and ownership, philosophical wildness, and Object-Oriented Ontology. We also dip into practice, found families, refrain, robots in science fiction, individuality, and cheerful pooping. For images discussed in t...

Content Warnings: blood and injury; frank discussions of racism and xenophobia. We're not yet a Star Trek podcast! Instead, we open with Binti , written by Nnedi Okorafor. We discuss the tension between violence and empathy, the nature of magic and mysticism in science fiction, and how it feels to be ostracized by every inch of your skin and finding a path forward anyway. We'd love to hear what yo...

There's a actor's and writer's strike going on in Hollywood, and SAG-AFTRA recently clarified their guidelines on fan podcasts . We support the strike, and while the unions have not called for a general boycott, they've requested that folks not promote "struck work." That includes Star Trek, and we want to abide by that request. Lucy and Melissa have been out of town for the end of July, so only G...

Coming soon: a Star Trek podcast about the ideals of the franchise, wandering out-of-order by following a breadcrumb trail of motifs. We love Star Trek and we love much of what it sets out to say about the way the world will be, but we think it often falls short of its goals. We want to talk about that. The first episode will discuss 1996's Star Trek: First Contact , the second movie featuring the...