The Ready Room: A Star Trek Podcast

KHAN. He is arguably the most iconic villain in Star Trek history—if not cinema history itself. A character with superior abilities, superior intellect, but who easily grows fatigued. Of course he is Khan Noonien Singh. Instead of going for something completely new for the second installment of his Star Trek reboot, J.J. Abrams chose to use the villain who the fan base considers sacred—a move that...

The Devil in the Dark. The mission of the  Enterprise  is to seek out new life and new civilizations. And that’s exactly what Kirk and his crew did when they visited Janus VI. But sometimes our heroes don’t react to truly alien life in the way they perhaps should. In this episode of  The Ready Room  we’re joined by Daniel Proulx, Drew Stewart, and Charlynn Schmiedt to discuss the realities of seek...

Kir’Shara. Ask anyone—fan or not—to name one race from Star Trek and chances are they’ll say Vulcan. Thanks to Spock, few things are more associated with Trek than those green-blooded, pointy-eared aliens. Despite this the Vulcans are the most prominent race in Star Trek about whom we’ve learned very little over the years. It was left to  Enterprise  to fill in the blanks, something the series did...

The Q and the Grey. Q was a constant thorn in Picard’s side. He put the  Enterprise  crew on trial for the crimes of humanity, introduced humans to the Borg, kidnapped Vash, and sent the Captain spiralling through time. Through it all, one thing he never did with Jean Luc was try to procreate. But that’s exactly what he tried to do with Janeway in “The Q and the Grey.” In this episode of  The Read...

Explorers. During the second season, DS9 focused its stories more and more on characters. But as Jake grew up it became harder to figure out how to handle the father-son relationship with Sisko. Then, in the third season, the perfect story came along, pitched by show intern Hilary Bader. In this episode of  The Ready Room  we’re joined by Matthew Rushing, Drew Stewart, and Ben McCormick to discuss...

The Nth Degree. Following the success of “Hollow Pursuits” in TNG’s third season, the writers began looking for a way to bring Dwight Schultz back to reprise the role of Barclay. But they wanted it to be a meaningful return, and so the search began for just the right story that would do justice to the character. The end results was a tale that would see a socially challenged man transformed into a...

Spock’s Brain. On September 20, 1968, after successfully rescuing Star Trek from cancellation, fans were greeted with the premiere of a third season. When you’ve been given a second chance, you want to put your best foot forward. So rather than going with the first new episode filmed, the producers reached deeper into the bag to pull out the season premiere. And the story they chose was “Spock’s B...

Stigma. During Viacom’s HIV Awareness campaign of early 2003, Brannon Braga and Rick Berman penned an  Enterprise  episode that drew parallels between the disease and the Vulcan practice of mindmelding. It’s one of the show’s more heavy-handed moments of social commentary, yet still has much to say about rights and equality beyond HIV and AIDS. In this episode of  The Ready Room  we’re joined by ...

Thirty Days. Tom Paris started his life on Voyager as the carefree badboy. But over the course of seven seasons he grew more than perhaps any other character. The journey was not without its bumps though, as was the case when he found himself back in prison—or at least the brig—after violating Janeway’s orders under Monean waters. In this episode of The Ready Room we’re joined by Tristan Riddell a...

Our Man Bashir. The holodeck malfunction was a staple of storytelling on The Next Generation. So as the Deep Space Nine writing team set out to chart a different course, they shied away from this perhaps overused plot device. But sometimes a story comes along that it is just too fun not to tell. And if you can find a way to do it that ties into your overall premise, that’s all the better. In this...

100 Things We Love About Star Trek. This week we reach a milestone: our 100th show! To help us celebrate the occasion we’ve gathered members of the Trek.fm crew from all around the globe for a double-length feature. In this episode of The Ready Room we forego our usual format as Matthew Rushing, Charlynn Schmiedt, Drew Stewart, Lorrie Sears, Thomas Baddeley, Max Hegel, Daniel Proulx, Mariel Keeran...

Yesterday’s Enterprise. When it comes to creative work, you often don’t realize that you’re doing something special until much later on when you have time to breathe and look back. And that was the case with “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” which had one of the most convoluted writing histories of any episode. In this episode of The Ready Room we’re joined by Charlynn Schmiedt, Michael Fisher, and Daniel...

A Piece of the Action. When Gene Roddenberry was putting together his first proposal for Star Trek, he jotted down a one-sentence synopsis: “President Capone.” And from that eventually came the second-season episode “A Piece of the Action.” In this episode of The Ready Room we’re joined by Matthew Rushing and Drew Stewart to discuss Kirk and Spock’s romp through 1920s Chicago—or at least an alien...

Star Trek Into Darkness. After a four-year wait, Star Trek fans have finally been taken into darkness with the second chapter in the J.J. Abrams take on Gene Roddenberry’s creation. In this episode of The Ready Room we’re joined by Tristan Riddell, Charlynn Schmiedt, Matthew Rushing, and Lorrie Sears to discuss our impressions of the film, what we liked, what we disliked, and what it means for the...

Star Trek (2009). In the same year that  Enterprise  went black, marking the end of Star Trek on television, Paramount reached out to a new creative team for ideas on how to revive the franchise. What came next was revelation that J.J. Abrams was developing a new Star Trek film. Slowly fans learned that the project was a reboot of the franchise that would recast the iconic roles of Kirk, Spock, an...

Unexpected. The first rule of Xyrillian boating is you do not talk about Xyrillian boating. The second rule is you don’t stick your hands into a box of pebbles with a stranger. This is something Trip Tucker learned the hard way when a seemingly innocent day on the holographic water left him with a few extra nipples and an alien baby. In this episode of  The Ready Room  we’re joined by Drew Stewart...

Real Life. When the  USS Voyager  was pulled across the galaxy by the Caretaker Array, each person on the ship left a family member behind. All but one that is. As a hologram the Doctor had no family to lose; yet he still wanted to find out what it would be like if he did. In this episode of  The Ready Room  we’re joined by Charlynn Schmiedt, Colin Higgins, and Lorrie Sears to discuss the Doctor’s...

Trials and Tribble-ations. When the 30th Anniversary of Star Trek rolled around in 1996, the creative teams of both  Deep Space Nine  and  Voyager  were charged with the task of paying homage with a special episode. Inspired by the revolutionary techniques of  Forrest Gump , the DS9 writers set out to pen a story that would insert Sisko and his crew into the middle of one of the franchise’s most i...

The Inner Light. Every once in a while Star Trek hits on a story that is just great science fiction, a story that works even if all the elements unique to the series are removed. That’s what Morgan Gendel delivered in his touching story about Picard’s life as a man named Kamin on the planet Kataan. “The Inner Light” won TNG one of its two Hugo Awards, and for good reason. In this episode of  The R...

This Side of Paradise. We all strive for happiness, but true contentment is difficult to achieve—and perhaps for good reason. A group of Federation colonists found just that, however, when Berthold radiation-hungry flowers gave them complete joy… with no side effects. In this episode of The Ready Room we’re joined by John Champion of Mission Log: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast and Kate Walsh to d...

Dead Stop. When the NX-01 was damaged by a Romulan mine, the consequences were more serious than initially thought. Faced with the prospect of a decade-long journey back to Jupiter Station, Archer was left with little choice but to seek help from the nearest good samaritans—but got caught in a snare. In this episode of The Ready Room we’re joined by Matthew Rushing, Michael Fisher, and Mariel Keer...

Fair Haven and Spirit Folk. Being stranded 70,000 light years from the Federation, with just a small ship to call home, meant that the crew of Voyager really loved their holodecks. Tom enjoyed creating new locales for his shipmates, and sooner or later he was bound to go Irish. In this episode of The Ready Room we’re joined by Matthew Rushing and To The Journey’s Charlynn Schmiedt and Tristan Ridd...

Little Green Men. The alleged crash of a flying saucer near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 has stirred controversy and fascination like few events in human history. Despite the revelation in recent years that the debris recovered was actually part of the U.S. military’s Project MOGUL, there are still those who believe it was an encounter with extraterrestrials. It’s a fun theory to kick around, but...

The Measure of a Man. Does Data have rights? This is the central question asked in Melinda Snodgrass’s classic courtroom drama “The Measure of a Man.” But beyond the fate of Data himself, the real question is how artificial life will be treated in the future. Though it may sound like science fiction, it’s a decision we will someday have to make in the real world. The difficulty of the issue was pr...

The Conscience of the King. Shakespeare can be found throughout Star Trek, from simple quotes to lifted plotlines. Today we take the influence of the Bard on the franchise for granted; but it all started in first season of The Original Series with a story that digs deeply into the issues of justice, vengeance, and justifications. In this episode of The Ready Room we’re joined by Drew Stewart and C...