May The Force Live Long and Prosper

This week, Cate and Dietrich are delighted to be back in the swing of things with a brand new season of Deep Space Nine! And what better episode to showcase that delight than one exploring illegal POWs, a collapsing government, and Frank Langella sliming his way around the station. The pair discuss the visual phenomenon of a war hero trying to hide in his own ass, discover the catty Ferengi versio...

This week, Cate and Dietrich hopped on TikTok Live to record their thoughts about Season One of The Clone Wars, a recording platform that guaranteed their new audio engineer Eli Renick would have a stroke! But if you can put up with some slightly lesser audio, you'll get to hear the episodes that Cate and Dietrich agreed were the bottom of the barrel, as well as listen to them each choose their to...

This week, Cate and Dietrich dive into the season one finale of The Clone Wars, celebrating this milestone by taking the professionalism and preparedness they bring to this show and tossing it out the window. That's right, this week Dietrich challenged himself to take not a single solitary note, an experiment called "why the hell am I doing this" by our more Trek-oriented host. They discuss Cad Ba...

This week, Cate and Dietrich are joined by acclaimed science fiction author Adrienne Renick to record a beefy episode celebrating finishing the first season of Deep Space Nine by diving into the very first foray of the Star Trek franchise onto that silver screen! Is Star Trek: The Motion Picture the triumph of subtle and revolutionary science fiction that the creators clearly hoped it would be? We...

This week, Cate and Dietrich dig into the outstanding "Liberty on Ryloth", an episode that draws inspiration from such classic kid-friendly content as Cold War political choices that embolden and empower an extremist faction in such a way that will inevitably lead to grief! I think the Wiggles used that topic as well. In addition, they talk about Ashoka finally getting the R&R she deserves, the wo...

This week, we're sharing the second half of in-person recording of The Last Jedi reactions, a movie that both Cate and Dietrich still promise they love. It's a movie that features some of the most extra foxes you'll ever see, a brilliant maneuver by Holdo that is definitely universally adored and not debated by toxic fans at all, and the decision that if one ending is good, four must be even bette...

This week, Cate and Dietrich conduct a bold experiment to see what might happen if one of them braves traffic and the Blue Ridge Mountains for the chance to record together in person! And what better way to commemorate this special occasion than to watch the completely uncontroversial film The Last Jedi and talk for way too long about it. The pair discuss Mark Hamill's new character "Old Prospecto...

This week, Cate and Dietrich dig into an episode that finds the two locked in a terrible debate: Would Kira Nerys be more into Sleep Token or Tupac? After failing to settle that age-old question, they dig into the excellent Clone Wars episode Innocents of Ryloth, touching on Vincent Donofrio's uncredited guest appearance, the importance of completing your Twilek Duolingo lessons before a massive i...

This week, Cate and Dietrich sit down to look back at the first season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, ranking their favorite episodes, coming to universal agreement on which episode was without question the worst and which episode was undoubtedly the best, and the moments that made this one of the more surprisingly strong first seasons of sci-fi television ever made. In addition, Cate takes a swin...

This week, Cate and Dietrich tackle the season one finale of Deep Space Nine, an episode that introduces the iconic Vedek Winn (if by iconic you mean brilliantly acted and deeply, deeply infuriating). It's an episode that asks the big questions, such as: Is there anyone more punk rock on this station than Keiko O'Brien (no) Is Sisko getting paid enough to deal with both last week's and this week's...

This week, Cate and Dietrich dig into Storm over Ryloth, in which a fourteen-year-old girl is given a perfectly reasonable level of responsibility that doesn't at all set her up for absolutely devastating trauma. Dietrich and Cate discuss the power of a good pair of sunglasses, demand that Officer Downer learn a fun trick and shut the f*&k up, and discuss how Anakin could hunt for a hundred years...

This week, Cate and Dietrich are joined by Taylor Vaughan, who brings her unique brand of comedic flair to an episode about... checking our notes... war crimes and the ghosts that haunt us. That's right, this week we're tackling the iconic episode "Duet", in which we celebrate the return of Cardassian ketchup, marvel at how deeply Dukat respects HIPPA, and learn about the Tumblr legend of the Star...

This week, Cate and Dietrich cheerfully throw a hand grenade in the careful routine they've built by doing two Clone Wars episodes in a row. But they had no choice, given that Mystery of the Thousand Moons is such a critical cliffhanger that... uh, wait. Why were these released as one episode? Cate and Dietrich never come up with a satisfying answer, but they do discuss Obi Wan and Anakin's advent...

This week, Cate and Dietrich take a page from Star Wars: The Clone Wars and drop the first half of a two part episode, breaking down the episode Blue Shadow Virus. Dietrich reluctantly admits to this being a JarJar episode he doesn't hate, Cate reflects on the legacy of George Lucas sending the word "poo doo" to ripple through generations of face palming writers, and oh yeah, Ozempic Gru gleefully...

This week, Cate and Dietrich spend a chaotic hour desperately trying to determine the answer to life's oldest question: Is Dramatis Personae a good episode or is it terrible? During their investigation into this pile of shenanigans, they discuss the unsettling implications of Klingons who prefer missionary position, Quark attempts insurance fraud, and Odo confirms that Bashir is very much the dumb...

This week, Cate and Dietrich brace themselves for DS9's very first Lwaxana Troi episode, only to be a bit shocked when it's... kinda great? They discuss payback for the Dax 2.0 incident, the difficulty of editing out the HBO logo in your timely Cardassian attacks, and the challenges of navigating an O'Brien temper tantrum. It's a packed episode, with schadenfreude picnic baskets, HR begging an amb...

This week, Dietrich and Cate dig into the stellar Hidden Enemy, which might be about the Jedi hunting down a brave abolitionist but maybe don't think too much about it. It's an episode that reveals Dietrich's deep abiding love for spy thrillers, figures out where the "Vietnam War in Space" line actually is and waves cheerfully as this episode whizzes past said line, and gives Obi Wan and Ventress...

This week, Cate and Dietrich dig into the bottom of the barrel for season one with the bafflingly named If Wishes were Horses. It's an episode that manages to include creepy fantasies come to life, a quick glimpse at the dark side of Kira's emotional state, a snowstorm in the Promenade, and still impressively manages to not be entertaining. Cate and Dietrich do find time to ask the important quest...

This week, Cate and Dietrich discuss the episode "Trespass", in which some already creepy toys from the late 80s get exponentially more terrifying when a racist moron opens his mouth. The pair discuss Anakin's dedication to his night school art classes, Obi-Wan's unfortunate boomer tendencies when he doesn't speak the local language, and the frustration the pair feel at constantly being denied Qui...

This week, Cate and Dietrich discuss the sugar of a B-story that helps one hell of a heavy A-story go down, and Jake and Nog shoulder the nigh-on impossible task of keeping an episode about the scars left by the brutal subjugation of the people forcing everyone to dirty their hands light and fun. Fortunately, the Noh-Jay Consortium is up to the task. Cate and Dietrich talk about the gleeful joy of...

This week, Cate and Dietrich dig into Defenders of Peace, the episode of The Clone Wars that has the unfortunate distinction to follow up the outstanding Jedi Crash. The pair dig into Sun Tzu's glowstick stratagems, find delight in Ashoka demonstrating the fact that she is not a pacifist in the most direct way possible, and lament the freshman philosophy class debates that are the raisins in this...

This week, Dietrich and Cate dig into the Deep Space Nine episode "The Storyteller" to try to find a shred of common sense and generally come up empty. Does it make sense why a teenage girl is threatening war because of a wobbly river? Does it make sense why a goo cloud menacing an entire village of day players hasn't gotten more attention? Does it make sense why Tony Robbins is the only hope for...

This week, Cate and Dietrich dig into Jedi Crash, an absolutely breakneck whirlwind of an episode that sees more happen in the first three minutes than most episodes see in their full run. We settle the landmark case of Anakin V Massive Wall of Fire, debate whether the writers or animators consumed more nose candy during the production, and discuss just how lean Sam The Eagle's roasted flesh would...

To celebrate May The 4th, Cate and Dietrich dive into the 2009 film Fanboys, a movie that answers the question, "How uncomfortable do two nerds feel discussing a movie that's aged like cream in a sauna?" They spend time discussing Danny Trejo's beautiful smile, the many layers of the greatest van ever built, and the shockingly poor security at Skywalker Ranch. It's a complicated movie to talk abou...

This week, Cate and Dietrich sit down to discuss the season one episode "Battle Lines", in which we learn that Benjamin Sisko's one weakness is Catholic guilt. The pair chat about Kira's questionable stress management techniques, Keiko possibly throwing down with Quark to prevent Molly from entering the cutthroat world of estate auctions, and the fact that Dax and O'Brien are so goddamn good at so...