The title is a play on the TNG episode “The Inner Light”, where Picard is hit by a beam from a Kataan probe that makes him live out a lifetime of memories in the space of less than an hour. A similar probe last appeared in LD: “In the Cradle of Vexilon”....
The shuttle bringing Freeman, Rutherford and Shax to the surface has a profile and colors resembling a Tatooine landspeeder, and the staff handling planetary landings were uniforms resembling Imperial ones and speak in pseudo-British accents.
Also, the background music when that shuttle landed sounded like it came straight from a Star Wars movie.
I mean, DS9 wasn’t as popular as TNG back then – both in terms of ratings and fan reception. Many considered it the black sheep of the Trek family. Berman focused on Voyager. So it was chrystal clear to every fan with even half a brain that DS9 would never get a movie. Perhaps Voyager had a tiny chance but by the time it concluded its run viewership had been in steady decline, and then Nemesis tanked.
Here is an excerpt from The Fifty Year Mission (book 2) by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross. I highly recommend those books. They are super insightful about the behind-the-scenes stuff from the first 50 years of Star Trek.
However what I don’t think is justified is the label as one of the worst Star Trek episodes. Is it nuts? Yes. Is it annoying that they have the technology to bring everyone back to Earth and simply de-lizard them after the trip, and then it’s never brought up again? Also yes.
But it’s nowhere near the worst episodes because it’s neither offending and un-Star Trek (like TNG’s Code of Honor) nor is it boring. It’s actually pretty entertaining for the first 35 or so minutes. It just goes off the rails at the end.
Voyager is alright. It’s just very uneven. What drags it down is that the producers only very rarely took big swings that had a lasting impact on the characters or the show. Voyager excels at being episodic television. There are a bunch of stinkers (as there are on any TV show) but when it’s good, it’s really good. It has some of the best Trek episodes.
Maybe use an episode guide with ratings (for example Jammer’s Reviews, Ex Astris Scientia or IMDb) and skip the episodes with low ratings.
I’m not good with scores so I’ll just explain how I rate Discovery.
Back in the 90s/00s I never understood the hate that some Trek fans had towards a new Trek series. Every time a new series premiered there was a large (or at least very loud) chunk of the fanbase hating on the new series. I liked them all. Some more, some less. But I enjoyed them all for being Star Trek and watched them all countless times. (same goes for LD and SNW)
To put that in perspective:
I still don’t remember the names of all the bridge officers on Discovery.
I only watch Discovery episodes once.
I never felt inclined to rewatch a single episode. It’s not that all of them are bad but there’s just nothing about them that makes me rewatch them. Especially since 90% of them are embedded in season-long story arcs. (same with Picard, although I do plan to rewatch season 1 and 3 at some point)
At first I liked Discovery for trying something new. I’m not one of those fans who wants a new Trek show to do exactly the same thing that other Trek shows have done before. You need to do new things if you want to keep a franchise alive. But when you do season-long story arcs you need a plan. And Discovery didn’t have that. It was quite obvious both in seasons 1 and 2. Season 2 was at least helped by Captain Pike. It’s hard to rate those two seasons because there were so many ups and downs. But in total I’d say the first two season were better than the 3rd and 4th seasons.
Season 3 was a chore to watch. Jumping to the future was like jumping the shark for me. There’s not nearly enough world-building to make that future interesting – and how can there be, when there’s only 13 episodes and all of them are part of a story arc.
Season 4 was okay. I give them credit for doing something big with non-humanoid and really strange aliens. But this story could have been told in the 23rd century with minimal changes. So why again are they in the future?
It’s a bummer that they got rid of the skant so quickly. I wonder if today’s fashion would be different if Star Trek continued to show all genders wearing pants or skirts during the height of its popularity in the 90s. Maybe it would have been somewhat normalized for men to wear skirts too.
Not to be confused with favorite series. I think my favorite season is ENT sesson 4, which is funny because the series overall is def on the weaker end of the spectrum, and i dont think any particular episode of the fourth season is Star Treks very best, its just the season that has more good than bad episodes of any season of...
My vote goes to DS9 season 2 which is severely underrated. Althouth I like the latter half of DS9 more – mainly because it had Worf in it, and Worf is the best {{:-) – season 2 lay the foundation for DS9’s later success.
The whole season is a huge step up from season 1 which often felt like TNG on a space station. In season 2 the writers began to really try out new things. It starts with a never-before-done 3-part episode, then does some more great world-building in “Cardassians” and “Necessary Evil”, then slowly builds up a mysterious force in the Gamma Quadrant by the name of “the Dominion”, then achieves the feat of making Bashir likeable in “Armageddon Game” upon which his friendship with O’Brien is built, then does a couple of standalone highlights like “Whispers” and “Blood Oath” (in which Kor, Koloth and Kang return! which in today’s crossover-ridden landscape would be just a footnote but back then it was a huge deal), then lays the foundation for the Maquis on Voyager and also does more with the Maquis then Voyager ever will do, oh and in the same episode spells out the show’s leitmotif “it’s easy to be a saint in paradise”, …
… and we’re still not done yet because the rest of the season is a total banger: “The Wire” is a trip into Garak’s psyche, “Crossover” brings back the mirror universe, “The Collaborator” is a big step in making Kai Winn one of the show’s main antagonists, “Tribunal” is the OG O’Brien-must-suffer episode, and “The Jem’Hadar” introduces the Dominion literally with a huge bang by blowing up a Galaxy Class ship. You know, the ship class that we just spend 7 years with and which escaped countless foes unscathed.
Seriously, never skip season 2 on your re-watch. Don’t listen to anyone who says that “DS9 only gets good once the Defiant shows up”. No no no. This is the real deal.
I actually enjoy this weird episode a lot. Then again, one of my favourite VOY characters is Neelix, so what do I know? What’s your take on this bizarre episode?
I agree. The episode isn’t perfect but the first ~35 minutes are decent.
I’ll never understand why it’s considered to be the worst Star Trek episode. Yes, it has a weird ending but Star Trek had plenty of weird episodes (which aren’t considered bad). What I find much worse are episodes like TNGs Code of Honor that are insulting, or episodes that are downright boring like SNWs The Elysian Kingdom.
Hi there. I’ve had 3 terrible days in a row and I’m in desperate need of some good laughs. Which episodes do you recommend? I’m too tired to think straight by now. Bonus points if Neelix is in them. Thanks in advance. :)
I grinned like an idiot throughout the first episode because of all the Voyager callbacks but I got the biggest laugh in the second episode when Boimler goes to his new quaters and the room is bright red because of the glowing nacelle. I had to pause because I was laughing so much. For the past ~30 years I always wondered what crew quarters which face towards the nacelles were like. Thank you, Lower Decks.
Yeah. I’m a huge Worf fan (he is and always has been my favourite Trek character) but that scene does not work for me at all. He doesn’t even sound like Worf here. Riker too sounds totally wooden at the beginning. Not sure if it’s the missing post-production but everything about this scene feels off. It’s a good thing this scene didn’t make the final cut.
I love SNW but this show is held back by the low number of episodes per season. With 10 episodes it’s just not possible to develop all your characters and still try out weird storytelling ideas. Although some of that is self-inflicted. Nobody forced them to bring on Kirk and Scotty, when they haven’t even managed to give Ortegas something to do in 20 episodes. By season 4 we’ll probably have a junior Doctor McCoy, Ensign Sulu and Cadet Chekov on board, and then it’ll get really crowded.
But back to the topic: I loved the humorous episodes this season but 3/10 is really the maximum amount of funny episodes. On the other hand, I’d love more thought-provoking stuff like “Ad Astra Per Aspera” and “Under the Cloak of War”. 2 out of 10 episodes was not enough for my taste.
A lot of people criticized Insurrection for being like a two-part episode of TNG (as in: doesn’t feel like a movie). But isn’t that … good? It’s TNG. We got more of TNG. 🤷🏻♂️ I like Insurrection. It’s not my favourite Star Trek movie but it’s a damn good movie for being Star Trek. Except, you know, when Picard beams off the exploding vessel and lets the villain die because that’s what Movie Picard does.
Is this podcast worthwhile? Are there any new insights into 90s Trek that we didn’t have before? I’m asking because 1½-2 hours per episode is a bit too long for my taste, so I’d only listen to it if it’s really good.
I’ve been a Star Trek fan since I was in primary school, back when TNG originally aired. (my favourite is DS9) I love Strange New Worlds. It has reignited my love for Star Trek, even more than Lower Decks already did.
And I can’t say this often enough: I have a friend who grew up with TOS when that originally aired. And he never really liked any Star Trek that was produced after 1969. But he too loves Strange New Worlds. It’s a great amalgam of TOS (by being episodic and not taking everything too seriously), 90s Trek (by tackling important societal issues here and there, and being really serious when it needs to), and modern Trek (the production quality and the storytelling).
Also, the entire cast is super talented. Personally, I’d say that Christina Chong is the breakout star because she’s always giving everything, even if she’s just there for a quick reaction shot. But it’s hard to pick because they are all so good.
The only thing that bugs me is that they barely have the time to do something with all of their characters (with only 10 episodes per season) but keep adding new characters to the ensemble.
tl;dr - yeah, it’s a great classic Star Trek show mixed with modern elements
I found this after reading and responding to this post here about early Trek fans’ prejudicial negative reaction to TNG. One of my responses (see here) was to point out that any fans of the progressiveness of Trek ought to have been mindful of the room for improvement over TOS, with female representation being an obvious...
I’m surprised that the rates are as high as they are. TOS had only 1 female character in the main cast. TNG (after Tasha left), DS9 and ENT only had two. So disregarding any guest characters the female main characters don’t have a lot of choice of whom to talk to, if they want to pass the test.
As the title says, I’m looking for some of the best Star Trek books to read. I’ve read both of The Eugenics Wars books and quite enjoyed them, so was looking for some other good ones. I don’t really care what time period they’re in, just as long as they’re Trek and pretty
If you’re not just looking for novels I would like to highly recommend two non-fiction books: “The Fifty-Year Mission: The first 25 years” and “The Fifty-Year Mission: the next 25 years” by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross. The books tell the oral history of Star Trek up until 2016. They consist entirely of interview snippets from cast and crew, sorted chronologically and thematically. It’s a super interesting look behind the scenes.
LoglineWhen the USS Enterprise investigates an attack on a colony at the edge of Federation space, Captain Pike and his crew face the return of a formidable enemy....
I loved the colony design. It kinda makes sense. There’s an endless number of planets out there, so why not found a colony for your weird LARP phantasies? “Hey, you wanna join my colony reminiscent of Victorian England? There’d be bustle skirts, butlers and bat’leths.”
I had a feeling right from the urgency of the first minutes that they were setting this episode up as SNW’s version of “The Best of Both Worlds”. And the elements are certainly there. A superior enemy. A plan to fool them with technobabble. A crewmember held hostage – just this time it’s split up between Captain Batel being infected, and La’an, M’Benga and Kirk (and colonists) captured. And a cliffhanger. I had hoped that they wouldn’t do cliffhangers in this show – especially season-ending cliffhangers when we don’t even know when the next season will air. (2025 maybe?) Or if they did it then at least do it DS9 style where it’s more like a teaser of things to come instead of an actual cliffhanger.
Oh well, at least they didn’t kill off Batel immediately, and I hope they won’t do it in season 3. I’d like to see more of her and of her relationship with Pike because I think it’s a really interesting relationship dynamic for a Starfleet captain to have a truly equal partner.
I’m not quite keen on the physics in this episode. Would the Gorn really be fooled by the Cayuga’s saucer suddenly “naturally” accelerating towards the planet from the orbit of its moon? That already bugged me in Star Trek Into Darkness when the ship suddenly “fell” towards Earth. Yes, this is a Science Fiction show but they could really use a science advisor for this basic stuff.
Finally, I wonder if every season will bring in another TOS cast member, and who will be next. Sulu? (he’d be an astroscientist though, unless they ignore the 2nd TOS pilot episode) Cadet Chekov? Bones? Janice Rand?
This all sounds a bit negative but I actually enjoyed the episode. It wasn’t the best episode of the season but still above average. I just hope that season 3 will come rather sooner than later.
Seeing that every one that will not be in TOS is now in Gorn hand’s I think we already know why.
M’Benga and Sam Kirk show up in TOS though. The only one in danger is La’an. (and I’d be pissed if something happened to her because I think that Christina Chong is a super strong actor, and possibly the breakout star of this show)
Or maybe Batel becomes their version of Locutus, to somehow communicate with them.
To be honest I’m still undecided whether I want the Gorn to stay this unstoppable force of horror, or to find a Trek-style form of coming to some sort of peace agreement. In that aspect I liked how Admiral April tried to keep Pike in check at the beginning of the episode.
At least. With the strike(s) going on it could be even longer. Though I presume that the studios will try to pump out new content as quickly as possible once productions are possible again.
I would somewhat agree with you if we were just talking about ranking Star Trek episodes specifically. If Subspace Rhapsody is among the worst Star Trek episodes you’ve ever seen, then sure, give it a 1. That makes sense on Star Trek specific review websites like jammersreviews.com.
But we’re talking about IMDb which ranks all TV shows and all movies, so the ranking scale encompasses everything you’ve ever seen on screen. And now tell me again with a straight face that a well-produced well-written well-acted show ranks in the same 1-star category as the worst non-scripted reality trash TV you’ve ever seen.
LoglineAn accident with an experimental quantum probability field causes everyone on the USS Enterprise to break uncontrollably into song, but the real danger is that the field is expanding and beginning to impact other ships—allies and enemies alike....
4th december, a miranda class star ship ( lemmy.world )
EDIT: as someone in the comments realised, it’s not california but miranda class
Star Trek: Discovery | Season 5 Sneak Peek ( www.startrek.com )
Annotations for *Star Trek: Lower Decks* 4x10: “OId Friends, New Planets” (SPOILERS)
The narrator for the “Previously on…” segment sounds like Jonathan Frakes....
Annotations for *Star Trek: Lower Decks* 4x09: “The Inner Fight” (SPOILERS)
The title is a play on the TNG episode “The Inner Light”, where Picard is hit by a beam from a Kataan probe that makes him live out a lifetime of memories in the space of less than an hour. A similar probe last appeared in LD: “In the Cradle of Vexilon”....
Aw sweet! The Cerritos made it into the ships of the line! ( m.media-amazon.com )
No Discovery, Protostar, or La Sirenia… but I’ll absolutely take what I can get.
Star Trek: DS9 Was "Never Going To Go Into A Movie" Says Kira Actor ( screenrant.com )
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended in 1999 after 7 seasons but didn’t jump into feature films like The Next Generation. Here’s why.
NYCC Starfleet Academy confirmation ( collider.com )
StarfleetAcademy ‘will be funny’ according to Alex Kurtzman....
Are you ready for the upcoming 2026 2nd American Civil War?
What would you rate Discovery from 1 to 10 and why (please explain your score)? 1 being the worst score and 10 being the best score
Does Star Trek Need Starfleet? ( www.youtube.com )
Star Trek: very Short Treks | "Holograms All the Way Down" ( www.startrek.com )
This one was written by Star Trek: Prodigy’s Aaron J. Waltke....
Remember when Jay Leno visited Quark's bar in 1996? ...me neither! ( youtu.be )
It’s not great, but I figured that I had to see it, so you do too.
Star Trek's Man Dress - Complete Story ( www.youtube.com )
Whats your favorite Star Trek season?
Not to be confused with favorite series. I think my favorite season is ENT sesson 4, which is funny because the series overall is def on the weaker end of the spectrum, and i dont think any particular episode of the fourth season is Star Treks very best, its just the season that has more good than bad episodes of any season of...
Watching Threshold again. Yay or nay?
I actually enjoy this weird episode a lot. Then again, one of my favourite VOY characters is Neelix, so what do I know? What’s your take on this bizarre episode?
Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 4x04 "Something Borrowed, Something Green"
LoglineTendi is summoned back to Orion for a wedding....
Star Trek: very Short Treks | "Worst Contact" ( www.startrek.com )
Here’s the direct YouTube link, though the latest issue of the accompanying comic can only be found on the official website.
Fun episodes
Hi there. I’ve had 3 terrible days in a row and I’m in desperate need of some good laughs. Which episodes do you recommend? I’m too tired to think straight by now. Bonus points if Neelix is in them. Thanks in advance. :)
Star Trek: very Short Treks | "Holiday Party" ( www.youtube.com )
StarTrek.com link featuring the second chapter of “The Scheimer Barrier”.
Star Trek and ... Kid Cudi? ( www.startrek.com )
Star Trek: very Short Treks | Skin a Cat ( youtu.be )
Produced by: Awesome Inc...
Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 4x01 "Twovix" and 4x02 "I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee"
"Twovix" loglineThe Cerritos ensigns must assist a caretaker on the voyage of a historically significant starship....
Worf and Riker Have a Heart to Heart in Star Trek: Picard Deleted Scene ( gizmodo.com )
Space.com poses the debate-provoking question whether SNW S2 overdid the gimmicks? ( www.space.com )
Ann interesting, deliberately thought provoking 🤔 question for a lazy long weekend Sunday morning…...
Why were the TOS movies better than the TNG movies?
(Not including the reboot trilogy as that’s a different altogether topic)...
See New Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 Images From September 7’s Two-Episode Premiere ( blog.trekcore.com )
Master Replicas Uncovers More Never-Released Starship Models, Including the Star Trek: Lower Decks Shuttlecraft ( blog.trekcore.com )
Armin Shimerman and Terry Farrell Join the "Delta Flyers" Podcast for "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" Rewatch ( trekmovie.com )
Strange New Worlds continues to rank in the Nielsen US streaming top ten ( trekmovie.com )
This is good news for assuring that SNW’s 3rd season production will move ahead after the strike....
How Many Star Trek Episodes Pass the Bechdel Test? (TOS to ENT) | The Mary Sue ( www.themarysue.com )
I found this after reading and responding to this post here about early Trek fans’ prejudicial negative reaction to TNG. One of my responses (see here) was to point out that any fans of the progressiveness of Trek ought to have been mindful of the room for improvement over TOS, with female representation being an obvious...
Best Star Trek Books
As the title says, I’m looking for some of the best Star Trek books to read. I’ve read both of The Eugenics Wars books and quite enjoyed them, so was looking for some other good ones. I don’t really care what time period they’re in, just as long as they’re Trek and pretty
Fans reacting to the announcement of Star Trek: The Next Generation ( lemmy.world )
It’s so bizarre to read this in the present, knowing how incredible TNG was, but I get it - the original crew WAS Star Trek to them....
Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 2x10 "Hegemony"
LoglineWhen the USS Enterprise investigates an attack on a colony at the edge of Federation space, Captain Pike and his crew face the return of a formidable enemy....
How ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Brought Its Delightful Musical Episode to Life: ‘You’re Like, Wait, Spock Is Singing Now?!’ ( variety.com )
Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 2x09 "Subspace Rhapsody"
LoglineAn accident with an experimental quantum probability field causes everyone on the USS Enterprise to break uncontrollably into song, but the real danger is that the field is expanding and beginning to impact other ships—allies and enemies alike....