Out of Contreks

Ryan and Brady talk about another Animated Series episode, this one with a surprising depth, sweetness, and cleverness. Join them as they discuss Star Trek's policy of nonviolent solutions, shapeshifting into functional but inanimate objects, and interspecies dating.

October's Trek Animation Month continues with this strange little sequel to a famous Original Series episode. Listen in as Ryan and Brady discuss how plugged in Filmation was to the overall Trek canon, cool/bad animation art design, and the logic gaps of this supercomputer.

The Out of Contreks unplanned Star Trek Animation October continues with this hastily-organized, recorded, and edited discussion with Caitlin and Nicole of That's Not How Science Works about the Very Short Treks series of YouTube Shorts. Join us as Ryan talks about how much he liked these episodes while the other three people on the podcast react with skepticism, and stay for lengthy tangents on s...

Welcome to October 2023, which, through no intentional planning of our own, has become Star Trek Animation Month for Out of Contreks. In the first of four episodes this month on animated Star Trek episodes, Ryan and Brady talk about the first episode of Prodigy we've covered on the show. We also discuss the potential of an episode like this, compressed storytelling time, and which main Trek cast w...

Ryan and Brady and DS9 return to the well of parent trauma, but this story about Ezri Dax's real mom isn't quite as oddly compelling as the tale of Odo's fake dad. You know what is compelling, though? Miles O'Brien. He's in this one!

Ryan and Brady get together for a loopy, cat-purr-filled discussion of a middling TNG Season 2 episode, but not before spending nearly half the runtime talking about the most recent World Cup of Star Trek vote. After that, stay tuned for discussions of culturally insensitive portrayals of martial arts and musings on how weird it is to see an older gentleman named Kyle.

Ryan and Brady begin with a fun discussion of Shakespeare in Trek before moving on to this perfectly serviceable Original Series episode that appears to have been made on the cheap. Join us as we talk about 1960s sexuality, weird haircuts, and the least expensive special effect of all time: standing still.

In this extra-length episode (beset with a few Skype challenges), Ryan and Brady check in on the latest season of Star Trek prequel-spinoff show Strange New Worlds, running through the highs, lows, crossovers, effects of the writers' and actors' strikes, and going off on a lengthy digression of how the Star Trek casts have progressively increased in hotness since Deep Space Nine.

It's a momentous episode of Out of Contreks, as Ryan and Brady do an in-person record to discuss what has been historically cited as Ryan's favorite episode of Star Trek. But does the episode still hold up, 10 years after either of the hosts last watched it? Find out and listen in as Ryan and Brady discuss William Shatner's ineffable qualities, Leonard Nimoy's perfect facial expressions, and one o...

Ryan and Brady examine a TNG mid-series Klingon episode and discover that it is one of the most narratively important outings of Imperial Phase Trek. There's a lot to talk about, but of course, we focus on the introduction of perhaps the most famous, and the most infamous, recurring Klingon characters of all time: Gowron and Alexander.

Ryan and Brady dive into a Voyager episode that wants to be about colonialism but ends up in that weird end of history imperialist vibe where so much of Voyager accidentally lives. In the process, we discuss the Huaorani indigenous people in Ecuador (we erroneously call them the Auca tribe in the podcast, which is not what the Huaorani call themselves), recollect the Star Trek movies, and laugh ab...

In this discussion of the Season 4 Discovery premiere, Ryan and Brady talk effective storytelling, sub-Whedon banner, and how diagnosing patients in the 32nd century is even easier than in the 23rd century. Just point and click! This episode a little more positive than our usual Discovery episodes but it's still not exactly glowing.

Caitlin and Nicole return for our longest episode ever, discussing all 10 webisodes/short films/whatever these are that make up Paramount+'s Short Treks streaming series. We talk bad animations, what makes good tie-in media, and take a detour at the end of the episode to talk about our hopes and fears for the Section 31 TV show.

Things get unexpectedly real in this Deep Space 9 Odo episode, as Ryan and Brady talk about this surprisingly layered examination of the dynamics between fathers and sons. We also discuss why Odo looks like that.

Ryan and Brady cover the first episode of TNG Season 3 and try to remember at what point in this season the show actually gets really good. We also discuss the humanity of computer viruses and Guinan's questionable backstory. The episode image is a shot of a deleted scene mentioned in the episode.

Ryan and Brady take on a Discovery episode chockablock with elements we don't care for and use it to talk about writing crutches, conflict resolution, and an extended riff on a time when a Star Trek mobile game made several members of its player base extremely mad.

On this special episode of Out of Contreks, Ryan and Brady engage in a quickly recorded, mostly unedited discussion of the recently-concluded final season of Star Trek: Picard. Topics include plot presentation issues, interesting in-universe ramifications, writing crutches, and also how Michael Dorn is the absolute king.

On this week's podcast, Ryan and Brady talk about the underrated Marina Sirtis and a surprisingly layered late period TNG episode. We also talk bad haircuts, whiffed endings, and once again speculate on the rapidly changing levels of inconvenience associated with species reassignment surgeries in the Star Trek universe.

Ryan and Brady talk about one of the best ever episodes of Star Trek, what it has to say about communication and metaphor, and how it's served as an even more prescient indicator for the way we talk to each other now.

On this episode, Ryan and Brady discuss a fun little mid-period TNG outing that allows sometimes-shunted-aside players like Troi, Keiko and O'Brien to flex their muscles. We also discuss the perpetually locked-in Michael Dorn and try to figure out what exactly Picard is hoping to accomplish at the end of the episode.   Here is a link to the Jim Henson Productions title sequence mentioned on today'...

In this wide-ranging discussion about a late-period Voyager episode, Ryan and Brady talk about Icheb, Jeri Ryan's ability to elevate material, Neelix's odd food classification, and Star Trek video games.

Ryan and Brady take on this very early TNG episode, some of which looks like it was shot in a black box for some reason. We also cover the first appearance of The Traveler and a surprise turn by Adrian Monk's psychiatrist.

It's a kind of lackluster, confusing episode of Discovery, but Ryan and Brady still find plenty to talk about, including the history of LGBTQ representation in Star Trek, the logistics and origins of time crystals, and of course Pike's incredible jacket.

"There are thousands of shows out there, and this is one of them." This line is spoken in this episode, but does it refer to Star Trek, or this podcast? In a crossover pod with Big Money Movie Ideas (you can hear Ryan and Brady on their show here ), we introduce Andrew and Kelsey to this classic original series episode. Listen in as we talk scary rugs, awesome matte paintings and perfectly round e...

Hi everyone! In celebration of our 100th regular episode, we have turned our random number generator to the pantheon of Star Trek movies to discuss William Shatner's infamous directorial opus. Will we have a The Motion Picture-style realization that this is good, actually, or is the movie as bad as we remember? One thing's for sure: We both have nothing but good things to say about Laurence Luckin...