Transporter Lock - A Star Trek podcast

Does anyone else need a hug? Michael and Spock fight over chess, and though he doesn’t finish his stratagem, the argument hit close to home with Ken but missed the mark with only-child Bri. The minefield brought back memories of Star Trek Beyond and how susceptible starships are to physical warfare. And Airiam, whom we came to know too late in the season, nonetheless bid a desperate farewell that...

Burnham is caged in the menagerie of Spock’s mind! The Talosians stand in for us viewers, conveniently wanting to learn how these two siblings became estranged. Airiam and Section 31 are pitted against Discovery and the Red Angel in a temporal game of chess. Meanwhile, Captain Georgiou ports over some Terran tech while Discovery relies on outdated SQL databases. (Are they MySQL? MongoDB? Redis?! W...

A probe from the future that threatens humanity? That’s V’ger. A temporal visitor changing the past? That’s the Temporal Cold War. Burnham knocking out Georgiou to get her way? That’s the Discovery pilot. Big-brained aliens? That’s the Star Trek pilot. But how do they all tie together?! Every answer raises new questions, and Ken and Bri do their best to puzzle their way through. Later this month,...

The USS Discovery violates an alien homeworld, circumvents the ruling government, and conducts an unauthorized medical experiment on a pre-warp civilization. But it’s cool, because Saru can fire needles out of his head now! We debate the ethics and legality of this gross violation of General Order One, aka The Prime Directive. Sabriel also has a theory about the identity of the Red Angel that abso...

Tilly is kidnapped into the mycelial network, where a crewman thought lost is very much alive. But how does it all work?! This episode’s pacing issues left us with questions, but we’ve conjectured some pretty solid answers! And while Section 31’s communicators and tractor beams are pretty cool and all, we wonder how they’re going to put the cat back in the bag in time for this intelligence agency...

A living sphere ensnares Discovery and forces its dying memories on it, causing Saru to enter his own death throes and Tilly to become possessed by a malevolent fungus. It’s just another day on Discovery ! Bri and Ken fawn over Jett Reno and Number One, ponder the nature of the Kelpian life cycle, and wonder what James T. Kirk would look like in a Discovery uniform — all on this week’s Transporter...

It’s three — three — three plots in one! The third episode of the season has Michael and Lady Amanda on the search for Spock; Ensign Tilly is tripping on mushrooms; and L’Rell and Ash Tyler’s rule of the Klingon Empire is threatened. What did Burnham do to hurt Spock so badly? What tropes are the writers borrowing from Days of Our Lives ? And was all this thrown together just to set up a Section 3...

Discovery is trapped in a giant video game, where they must acquire an item at one red pulse to solve the puzzle at the next! Can they recruit Kratos to defeat Ares, who helped World War III survivors start a new religion on a distant planet? Director Jonathan Frakes directs this latest iteration of a classic Star Trek trope that leaves us curious about Earth’s religions, what’s on Tilly’s to-do l...

Season 2 of Discovery debuts! Captain Pike assumes control of the ship to investigate a new interstellar threat — but where’s his damn red thing? And where is Spock, who was a terrible foster brother to Burnham? Can Tilly convince Stamets to stay aboard the ship? Will we see comedian Tig Notaro again? And will the red shirt die?? The most humorous and action-packed season premiere of Star Tre...

After escaping Discovery in Season 1, Harry Mudd is back! While en route to be handed over to Starfleet authorities by a Tellarite bounty hunter, Mudd tries every con in the book and experiences a few flashbacks that give us insight into this devious miscreant. It’s the funniest Short Treks of them all — but is that what we wanted? And being the final Short Treks , how well has this experiment in...

A young Saru makes his way off his pre-warp home planet in this uneventful, nondescript Short Treks . It’s not that it left us wanting more so much as it felt incomplete . But Captain Sabriel and Chief Engineer Ken have plenty of news of the Picard series, and we fondly revisit Patrick Stewart’s appearance on Frasier and Kelsey Grammer’s appearance on Star Trek . Stream the audio edition of Transp...

Star Trek Discovery offers a 33rd-century retelling of the Greek myth of Odysseus and Calypso in this serving of Short Treks . In this week’s podcast, Ken and Sabriel confuse Funny Face with Funny Girl , discuss the history of science-fiction popcorn, question whether the V’Draysh are human, and ponder the ultimate fate of the starship Discovery . Stream the audio edition of Transporter Lock above...

Tilly and Po are runaways in the debut of Short Treks ! This episode features the Discovery ‘s ensign encountering a teenage alien from the planet Xahea. They meet, bond, and part as efficiently as the 15-minute episode will allow. Transporter Lock co-host Sabriel warmed up to the story after a second viewing, while it left Ken cold. Was this episode a bridge to season 2, or a prequel to season 1?...

Star Trek: Discovery returns to CBS All Access this week with Short Treks , a series of four monthly mini-episodes! What characters will star in these short films, with what new writers making their scripting debuts? Sabriel and Ken anticipate the return of familiar characters while also catching up on the news of Jean-Luc Picard’s return and reminiscing about their favorite TNG episodes and commi...

We got our first look at season 2 of Discovery at last month’s San Diego Comic Con, and we can’t wait for more! With four short episodes coming out this fall, followed by the return of Christopher Pike and Number One, as well as a Discovery -themed Star Trek Online expansion and the Star Trek Las Vegas convention, it’s a good time to be a Trekkie. Ken and Bri share their hope for the future of Tre...

Al Rivera , aka Captain Geko, is the Principal Lead Designer at Cryptic Studios, developer of Star Trek Online , a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) set 30 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis . The debut of Star Trek: Discovery marks the first time in the MMO’s eight-year history that it has a current television show to work off, and we chatted with Al about all the...

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery has concluded. Having already reviewed the season finale , this week we take a step back and consider the entire 15-episode season as a whole. What was our favorite episode? Why isn’t Discovery set post- Voyager ? Why couldn’t Sarek have been just another Vulcan, and what will his role be in Season 2? Do we wish the Klingon War had gone on longer? Is Discov...

It’s the season one finale of Discovery, featuring an anticlimactic takedown of Terran Emperor Georgiou, a welcome end to the Burnham/Tyler/Voq love triangle, and a surprise cliffhanger appearance that left us in tears. Did you spot all the callbacks to Trek lore in the Orion outpost? Or on the Qo’noS map? We have the details you missed! We also welcome the feedback of all the volcanologists in ou...

The Discovery, back in the Prime Universe, finds itself at war with the Klingons and with a veritable rogues gallery aboard: Voq, L’rell, and Emperor Georgiou. A broken Admiral Cornwell makes some terrible decisions, while nobody gives a crap about the feelings of Burnham, recently out of an abusive relationship. Why is everyone such a jerk?? Everyone except Saru, whom we love in our bonus review...

Things come to a head in the Mirror Universe as Michael Burnham must choose between two evil, racist, xenophobic, tyrannical despots, each of whom has been her captain. Bri and Ken suspect we haven’t seen the last of this dynamic trio, and we ponder how they’ll be reunited, what reactions they’ll have to living in the Prime Universe, and what roles they’ll play in reversing the Klingon victory ove...

In the Mirror Universe, not everyone is what they appear to be… just like back home in the Prime Universe! Burnham discovers that Saru is delicious and that Emperor Georgiou is a cold-hearted murderer — but may be the Discovery ‘s only way home. Stamets finds himself in the Mushroom Kingdom, where he gets one last chance to say goodbye to Hugh. And Ash Tyler is Voq, except when he’s Ash. Thes...

As captain of the ISS Shenzhou , Michael Burnham discovers what a small cast of characters the Mirror Universe has, every goateed rebel or sadistic ruler being someone she’s loved or killed back in the Prime Universe. Did some not-so-shocking revelations warrant a season-long buildup? Sabriel and Ken still question Lorca’s motives, Tyler’s future, what role Paul Stamets (either of them!) played in...

Susan Arendt of the Continue podcast and Genii Online fills in for Sabriel as Discovery returns to the airwaves. Are we surprised that our heroes have found themselves in the Mirror Universe, or that hot tortured guy may be a Klingon? We gush over Captain Killy and Jonathan Frakes’ directing , puzzle over Lorca’s origin and his relationship to Burnham, and ponder what’s next for the crew of the I....

Set 90 years after Enterprise and 10 years before The Original Series , Star Trek: Discovery has the potential to cross over with familiar characters new and old. Who would we like to see appear as guests on Discovery ? Sabriel and Ken brainstorm everything from specific Klingons to Mirror Universe doppelgängers to Kelvin Universe cast members to T.J. Hooker. Come for Sabriel’s William Shatner imp...

Humanity may have evolved beyond materialistic needs by the 24th century… but here in 2017, all we want are Star Trek books, toys, and DVDs! For the Trekkie or Trekker in your life, or maybe just for yourself, Sabriel and Ken share their wish lists of the best Star Trek merchandise available this Christmas / Hanukkah / Kwanzaa / Yule / solstice / holiday season — whether it’s celebrating the 51st...