Trek Marry Kill

DEEP LORE TREKKIES aren't the only ones who know about the episode where Captain Janeway straight up murdered a dude. Indeed, the one where a transporter accident merges Tuvok and Neelix has been the subject of philosophical and legal papers and years of social media debate -- but has it all added up to this one being worthy of the Star Trek canon? Is it marriage material? Joining Bryan and Kriste...

UHURA TAKES COMMAND and the Enterprise becomes trapped in a sentient cloud (again, and not for the last time) -- it's another exciting month of animated Star Trek!  Bryan and Kristen examine two more from Star Trek: The Animated Series, one that features floating teeth and another that has the men aboard ship so horny that they could die. Does this 50-year old children's programming hold up in the...

KILL ALL MEN? That's the tantalizing hook for the latest episode in our Trials of Season Two theme month and guest co-hosts Kat Spada of Feminist Frequency Radio and artist Ethan Harper can't help but think what might've been. Instead, we get an episode about a member of the Q Continuum who wants to die. The only thing stopping him is another member of the Q Continuum -- John de Lancie! Can he con...

TRIAL BY RETCON. Ohhhh, sorry Captain Kirk. Turns out it's fairly common for the captain of (the) Enterprise to stand trial on the Klingon home world. Jonathan Archer did it 80 years before you were even born! Our Trials of Season Two theme month continues with this rehash of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country with some DS9 "Tribunal" thrown in for good measure as David Goodman, the President...

O'BRIEN MUST SUFFER is a Deep Space Nine tradition, and one of the first episodes that really tortured our favorite Chief of Operations involved the bloody Cardies and their bloodless fascist court system. We continue our Trials of Season Two theme month that sees O'Brien arrested for terrorism and Odo dispatched to serve as his co-counsel. Meanwhile, the Niners Scooby-Doo around the station in an...

NUMBER ONE'S TRIAL kicks off our first theme month: The Trials of Season Two. In order to exonerate his embattled first officer, Captain Pike takes a personal day to travel across the galaxy to get a ringer/the best civil rights attorney in the galaxy. She's portrayed by Yatide Badaki in one of the best Star Trek guest appearances of all-time. Is her performance as Attorney Neera enough to deliver...

THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY of the debut of The Animated Series more or less coincides with Trek Marry Kill's 1ST ANNIVERSARY, and so to celebrate both, Bryan has decided to remove this podcast's original sin of holding the animated shows off to the side by fully embracing them with the first of what will be monthly special episodes dedicated to animated episodes.  Joining him for the first special episo...

A HAUNTED HOUSE traps Kirk, Spock, and McCoy who are teased, tortured, and brainwashed by a pair of bickering aliens from another galaxy -- one of which transforms from a simple black house cat to a forced perspective oversized black house cat meant to suggest a panther! That's not the goofiest thing that happens in this episode and there's a lot more scary stuff surrounding the episode's producti...

OUR FIFTIETH EPISODE! This week, Bryan is joined by Shereese & Andrea from The TNG Podcast to discuss an important episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Seven of Nine becomes a mentor or a big sister to a baby Borg drone created by a transporter accident that mixed her Borg nanoprobes with The Doctor's 29th century mobile emitter.  The trio has a lot of fun digging into the social morays of a stranded cr...

HEY BATTER BATTER! Star Trek finally gives in to Michael Piller's love of baseball with The Baseball Episode of Deep Space Nine where Captain Sisko gets the crew together to play against some competitive Vulcans. It's the 25th anniversary of what's probably an oddity for most fans. Think of it like the musical episode of its day...  Joining Bryan to discuss the episode where his favorite captain w...

DYING IS EASY. But wrapping up Star Trek's first-ever three-parter isn't. In the exciting conclusion of Deep Space Nine's Circle trilogy, veteran writer Michael Piller deploys every trick in the book to bring this story to an exciting conclusion. Does it hit every mark or will Bryan and Kristen be left wanting even 30 years after it first aired? There's also plenty of off-topic conversation like w...

BAJOR IS OVER. At least, that's what Quark wants us to believe after a wave of Bajoran nationalism threatens the lives of every of non-Bajoran on the station. This week, Bryan and Kristen take a look at part two of Star Trek's first ever three-parter which sees the introduction of the 90s version of Hot Priest, Vedek Bereil, Major Kira's soon-to-be boyfriend. Is he as interesting now as he was the...

IT'S THE NINETIES. The Star Trek franchise has never been more popular and striking while the iron's hot is the Deep Space Nine writing staff determined to chart their own course away from the Next Gen juggernaut. But is this show's specificity and sometimes uncomfortable parallels with modern history a bridge too far for the audience of the time? How about today's audience? Bryan and Kristen expl...

BRAIN AND BRAIN! For a very long time, the third season premiere of The Original Series was considered one of the dumbest episodes of TELEVISION to have ever aired. Part of the reason Bryan wanted to do a Star Trek podcast was to see if time + examining episodes from a somewhat different perspective -- like the series of questions we ask about every episode before arriving at our judgment -- would...

PLAY IT AGAIN? Captain Picard comes to the rescue of a woman he ghosted! Will it be awkward? Chill? A chance to do it all over again? Bryan and Kristen relive some of the worst that eighties TV had to offer as Patrick Stewart and Michelle Phillips act out trite melodrama in a story that deals with some cultural detritus that has been (seemingly) left behind in the 20th century -- you don't see too...

POOR ROMULAN COMMANDER. She thinks she's got a chance with Mr. Spock, but his loyalty is to the Federation and Captain Kirk. This week, Bryan is joined by Mark & Ryan from the Ship Full of Jerks podcast to judge what many consider to be the best episode of The Original Series' third season. Mark & Ryan delve into the slashfic aspect of Kirk & Spock and how their dynamic plays into the events of th...

KIRK, SPOCK & McCOY just play their behavioral hits in a classic episode of The Original Series that includes everything great and everything 1960s about the show. This being the 55th anniversary year of the episode, it's worth wondering how much of it holds up and how much of it is of its time. Will Bryan and Kristen delight in the character-specific dialogue along with the Roddenberry-driven "sc...

STEALING THE ENTERPRISE has never looked so easy! In the second season premiere of the hit Strange New Worlds, the writers needed to write around Anson Mount's limited availability and did so by coming up with a prequel to "The Menagarie" -- Spock's first effort to hijack the ship! Is Spock's first time as impressive as his next time? And, does getting new backstory on M'Benga and Chapel give enou...

THE AMERICAN TRAGEDY of the September 11th attacks becomes a Star Trek turning point, as a vision of a hopeful future gets put on pause so that it can explore the deep grief of the American psyche in the "War on Terror." Our season premiere dealt with the episode that might've saved Star Trek as we knew it, but Enterprise's second season finale might've changed the franchise once and for all.  An...

CAPTAIN JAHEEL SUCKS. Bryan and Kristen are joined by special guest Katelyn Hempstead from the podcast Lizard People to talk about the fourth episode of Deep Space Nine ever which featured a virus that gave the infected aphasia. But more importantly, this episode includes a character so annoying, so worthy of derision, that Bryan has remembered him ever since this episode aired and after rewatchin...

GROW THE BEARD. Season two of Star Trek: The Next Generation fundamentally altered the course of the franchise's popularity and all of that started right here in the season two premiere. Based on a script recycled from the aborted Star Trek: Phase II series, this episode about Counselor Troi having a miracle child causes Bryan and Kristen to discuss abortion, yo momma jokes, and HIPAA laws. Will t...

BRYAN AND KRISTEN kick off the second season of Trek Marry Kill with a review of season one. What worked? What didn't work? What was the biggest complaint and how did we decide to address it? Season two will feature some minor tweaks to the format, including theme months, the animated shows, a new question to ask before TREK, MARRY, OR KILL? and a list of Wild Card episodes that Kristen drew from...

GOODBYE, SPACE DAD. Bryan and Kristen get together to say goodbye to Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D in the series finale of Star Trek: Picard. Is it a fitting end to the longest parasocial relationship of Bryan's life? Does Kristen dig the backdoor Star Trek: Legacy pilot season 3 Executive Producer Terry Matalas snuck in there?  Picard fights to rescue Jack from the clutches of...

ENTER THE ENTERPRISE. The last cast member of this Star Trek: The Next Generation reunion finally enters the story as Picard & co. seek refuge aboard their old ship after the season's main enemy reveals themselves during Frontier Day: the Borg, humanity's most lethal enemy, has a doozy of a plan that might be unstoppable.  This week, Bryan is joined by an old friend, Stu, now a movie producer, but...

THE FINAL ROUND between Data and Lore forms the center of a critical episode in sorting out the season arc of #StarTrekPicard season three. Bryan is joined by actor-improvisor-podcaster Katie Hampton (@ElSassyPants on Twitter) from the Napping Through Happy Hour podcast to talk about the challenges of playing two roles that involves acting against yourself and, wouldn't you know it, Brent Spiner i...