Transporter Lock - A Star Trek podcast

Star Trek: Prodigy returns, with all twenty episodes of the second season released simultaneously on Netflix! First Officer Tiffany Bridge joins the crew of Transporter Lock as we begin our reviews. We start with the two-part opener, “Into the Breach”, which sees Dal and crew engage in further cockamamie plans that cement Voyager in the franchise’s lore. What other characters and...

Discovery engages in some tactical espionage action in the season’s penultimate episode before finally taking a graceful bow in Life, Itself , culminating with the Progenitors’ technology, a space wedding, and tie-ins to Star Trek past and present . Some confusing action and dialogue doesn’t ruin an otherwise enjoyable series finale, featuring some touching codas to our character...

Are you ready to L’ak and Moll?! Our Breen and human couriers take center stage in what Ken and Bri deem the best and worst episodes of Star Trek: Discovery ‘s final season. The ship’s visit to the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library was also a highlight, as was its librarian, Hy’Rell, whom Bri loved from the beginning and Ken admired by the end. But oh, how we wish characters...

Sabriel & Ken are joined by returning guest Commodore Mark Thompson for this mid-season review of Discovery . Is it too soon to dip back to the Mirror Universe well? Have we learned too much about the Breen — or not enough? Why are Denobulans exempt from the Prime Directive? And with Star Trek being so based in (pseudo)science, how do we feel about a character embarking on a spiritual jou...

In a saga that spans the eras, Discovery continues its quest for the Progenitor technology, seeking clues from a centuries-old Trill and fighting a time bug in the past and future. Ken gets gleefully agitated by the details, Sabriel offers insight and answers, and both enjoy the mix of humor and character development seen exhibited by this pair of episodes. Stream the audio edition of Transporter...

After a two-year hiatus, Star Trek: Discovery is back on the air for its fifth and final season. We say goodbye to some familiar faces (again) and some returning crew (again) while managing to introduce at least one new character! We’re also introduced to a surprising tie-in to Trek lore, leading to this season’s chase. Will altruistic intent be weaponized against the galaxy? Ken and B...

Bri and Ken finish the fourth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks with its final four episodes: “A Few Badgeys More”, “Caves”, “The Inner Fight”, and “Old Friends, New Planets”. Plenty of loose ends are tied up, spanning the breadth of Lower Decks as well as The Next Generation . We offer answers to the season’s hardest questions: How is Badgey li...

Tendi and T’Lyn take turns in the spotlight in the Lower Decks episodes “Something Borrowed, Something Green”, “Empathological Fallacies”, and “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place”, with the last featuring the return of two beloved Deep Space Nine characters. Ken and Bri analyze the dynamics these new and old characters bring to the show before proceeding to...

“Twovix”, “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”, and “In the Cradle of Vexilon” are Lower Decks ‘ excellent parodies and homages to everything from Pokémon to Voyager , while Very Short Treks ‘ “ Skin a Cat ” and “ Holiday Party ” celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Animated Series . Is it just us, or is Star Trek getting sillie...

Strange New Worlds ‘ second season concludes with familiar faces of friends and foes! Also familiar are plenty of tropes, from A Quiet Place to Alien 3 . Ken and Bri clash over the the introduction of a legacy character, but we agree that objects in motion tend to stay in motion — a basic Newtonian law the directors forgot this week. Nonetheless, we’re uncertain how the third season wi...

Strange New Worlds continues to demonstrate its range with the darkest and lightest episodes of the season. First, Ken and Sabriel review “Under the Cloak of War”, which deals with PTSD, murder, and forgiveness. What is in M’Benga’s past, and how do we relate to him? In sharp contrast is the season’s penultimate episode, “Subspace Rhapsody”, the long-await...

“Lost in Translation” sees the return of Hemmer and the first prime-universe appearance of James T. Kirk, each of which give Ken and Bri the opportunity to reflect on how we process love and loss. It’s then a tonal shift — but a pitch-perfect one — as we see Boimler and Mariner from Lower Decks cross over onto the U.S.S. Enterprise . The physical manifestation of our animated cha...

Ken and Bri review two Strange New Worlds episodes. Ken felt “Among the Lotus Eaters”, based was this season’s weakest episode to date, but even he was surprised to hear Bri call it one of the worst episodes of Trek ever! It’s reminiscent of the Enterprise episode “Twilight” and the Apple TV+ series Severance , all while being based on a passing line from the TO...

Captain Sabriel Mastin rejoins the crew to review the latest two episodes of Strange New Worlds . “Ad Astra per Aspera”, an episode that’s been hinted at since the Short Trek “Q&A” , is hailed by some as the best Trek in decades, harkening back to the social commentary of TOS and TNG by providing an allegory for today’s discrimination against the LGBTQIA+ co...

David Volante of Volante Design joins Ken to review the second season debut of Strange New Worlds . We have a new chief engineer in Carol Kane, a new trauma for Dr. M’Benga to process, new emotions for Spock to grapple with, and a new war threatening the Federation. More than just a humble tailor, David brings a unique sartorial perspective to the podcast as president and lead designer of Vo...

Sabriel and Ken bid farewell to The Next Generation cast in a thrilling climax that weaves action, suspense, and humor — even as it undoes some of the hard decisions from previous seasons. Still, we’re eager for the show’s inevitable spinoff, as well as for Michelle Yeoh’s Section 31 movie and for Strange New Worlds Season 2 . Stream the audio edition of Transporter Lock above or...

In the lead-up to the series finale, two important characters rejoin the cast, including a surprise that left Ken both screaming and crying. (Look, it’s an emotional time, okay) We talk about who we thought the villain should be, why you should never agree to be a returning guest on a live-action Star Trek show, the distinction between memory and personality, the comic relief that is Worf, a...

Commodore Dana Ross joins Chief Engineer Ken Gagne to review two episodes of Picard , including what Ken considers the best season’s weakest episode. Many characters from The Next Generation and Voyager return, while others depart; do we have too many threads to follow, or not enough? We pontificate about Changelings, Irumodic Syndrome, and Section 31, Picard’s recurring role as a savi...

The TNG crew responds to a seemingly hopeless fate, followed by the utterly unexpected return of a familiar character. One captain gets an angry moment that was denied to Sisko, while another captain proves more bitter than non-canon novelizations would have him. Ken and Bri continue to be surprised and enthralled by these unexpected twists and turns that nonetheless are consistent with the crew w...

The momentum keeps going in the final season of Picard with two shocking revelations: one that had Ken literally screaming , the other we were both blasé about. Are TNG ‘s characters staying in character? What are Riker and Picard up to? And does Worf take his tea with sugar? We also talk about Star Trek ‘s many connections to Hungary, from Mrs. Columbo to the founder of Paramount ; we...

Picard ‘s third and final season begins — and, as always, Bri and Ken are cautiously optimistic while brimming with questions. Can the writers find something more to Seven of Nine’s character than being ex-Borg? Will Bri’s theory of who Raffi’s handler prove correct? (Almost certainly.) Are the bad guys Romulan, and are they thinking with portals? Does Wil Wheaton’s T...

After more than a year, Star Trek: Prodigy has concluded its first season. Our ship of misfit kids have gone on a journey — and so have our opinions of the show: we’re digging this secret successor to Voyager ! From the characters’ backstories to guest appearances by favorite characters to Kate Mulgrew acting out of character, there’s a lot to like about the adventures of the USS...

Ken and Bri recap the third season of Lower Decks while welcoming back Prodigy . Lower Decks has shot up our list of favorite modern Trek s, though Ken still tends to overthink things; meanwhile, we continue to not be the target audience for Prodigy , which is a fun romp but tends to move too quickly for adults accustomed to hour-long adventures. Bonus material in this podcast includes a trip to R...

Voiceover artist Ensign Enfys Book joins Ken to review the Lower Decks episodes “Room for Growth”, “Reflections”, and “Hear All, Trust Nothing” — featuring a return to Deep Space Nine! We also discuss which Star Trek captain would be best at the helm of the International Space Station, why the Section 31 spinoff is taking so long, that time Enfys met Jason Isaac...

The annual Star Trek Day unleashed a bounty of teasers and sneak peeks of Picard , Strange New Worlds , Star Trek Online, and Ceti Alpha V , which Captain Sabriel and Chief Engineer Ken are here to review! We also discuss seeing Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on the big screen, meeting William Shatner and Michael Okuda in Ticonderoga, New York , and enjoying the first three episodes of Lower Deck...