Set Phasers

It's game night on the Cerritos! The Lower Decks crew is playing Klingon role-playing game with wigs and everything. And that's the whole episode, and we loved it...
 
...ok, no. That's a lie. The real plot is one in which Mariner is forced to learn how to follow orders (or seem to) even in the face of poor judgment (on the part of Ransom) and Rutherford gets into diplomatic trouble and almost sacrificed to a volcano on a sexy, pleasurey planet. 
 
And Boimler decides to say yes to everything and winds up being hunted throughout the ship by a creature called K'ranch. 
 
But, in the end, they *do* get back to game night – and it's spectacular.
 
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The Cerritos Lower Deckers are back!  ...but they are also grounded on Earth while Star Fleet looks into the accusations that Captain Freeman blew up the capital city of Pakled planet. So... it's not great. 
 
Nonetheless, the Lower Deckers are making the most of it. Rutherford and Tendi are making the most of it, seeing the sites on earth. Boimler is working hard at his family's *raisin* vineyard. 
 
And Mariner... well, Mariner, believing Star Fleet is looking for someone to take the fall for the Packled planet incident, is not supremely confident the trial will go well for her mother. Frustrated with the advice from her father to trust in the system, she enlists the rest of the LDers on a desperate (and very much unsanctioned) mission to clear her mother's name.
 
It goes... well.
 
Links mentioned in today's episode:
 
Our website for all things Set Phasers: http://www.setphasers.com 
 
Star Trek Day portals:
https://vrscout.com/news/star-trek-day-2022-will-feature-ar-delta-portals/
 
Lower Decks T-shirts: https://www.startrek.com/gallery/star-trek-lower-decks-t-shirt-collective-season-3/star-trek-lower-decks-t-shirt-collective-week-1-4503/3 
 
Wrath of Khan 40th anniversary screening:
https://www.fathomevents.com/events/Star-Trek-II-The-Wrath-of-Khan-40th-Anniversary-presented-by-TCM 
 
 

Akie and Stevie get together to discuss all the late-breaking Star Trek news dropped at San Diego Comic Con 2022. From Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds cross-over to the cast announcements from Picard Season 3 to the as-yet-untitled new Star Trek (Kelvin timeline!) movie that might come out in 2023.
 
It was an eventful few days as SDCC – and this is an eventful podcast, replete with at least a few occasions of bursting into song, some tin-foil hat plot theories, and *yet another* plea for Alex Kurtzman to hire us consult on a musical episode of Star Trek. 
 
So. A totally reasonable episode of the podcast.
 
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In the season finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Pike travels forward in time to a future where he has avoided the disastrous explosion that the time-crystals of Boreth showed him. He is sent there by his future self to learn how that alteration to the timeline is bad for the universe.
 
How so? Well, let's just say there are varied Romulans involved, a noble commander, a snivelling and duplicitous sub-commander, and a mean ol' Praetor. And on the side of Star Fleet, a confused Pike, his crew (sans, Una for some reason)... and Captain James T. Kirk (of the USS Farragut).
 
Things go awry the future sucks. Pike returns, makes a noble decision. And then his lady-friend, Cpt. Batel, shows up and arrests Una for being an Illyrian. So... I GUESS WE'LL JUST PATIENTLY WAIT FOR SEASON TWO OR WHATEVER.
 
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NO ONE DIES IN THIS EPISODE. I PROMISE. 
 
The above statement is a lie. In this penultimate episode of the season, Enterprise is called to an L-class planet to rescue a Federation ship that has crashed there. A landing party goes down, it's icy and cold. they get to the ship, no life-signs. The enter and it's full of blood and strewn body parts.
 
It's not long before they discover that, yes, there are *GORN* (!!!!!!) aboard and the battles for survival begin. An action-packed, heart-wrenching episode of Star Trek is what follows. And though things worked out in the end, I, Akie, may still be somewhat in denial...
 
At least Uhura decided to stay. There's that.
 
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Sometimes you just need to get away from it all. Sometimes, you're working so hard on a cure for your terminally ill child that you're just worn out to the bone. Sometimes, a noncorporeal god-like entity living inside of a massive nebula makes the story-book fairytale that you read to your daughter come true in the real world and it transforms your starship into a sort-of middle school production of Little Red Riding Hood and all hell breaks loose because the crews minds have been taken over and they believe that they are who the are cast as – and the only person you can trust is the cantankerous engineer who isn't affected by the entity but has been cast as a powerful wizard and is... sorta taking to the role.
 
That's *if* you're Dr. M'Benga of the Enterprise in this week's episode of Strange New Worlds.
 
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So... how do we feel about pirates?!!? Cool pirates with face tattoos and a stunning command of language and charisma who are, incidentally, posing as an aid worker in order to lure Enterprise out of Federation territory and take over the ship and sell the crew in slavery and exchange Spock for a prisoner in a Vulcan rehabilitation center?!
 
Because, if you're OK with that, you're going to be *pretty* happy about this episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. It's got everything, folks! Swashbuckling adventure, turnabouts, a phaser shootout on the bridge, a pirate mutiny, star-crossed lovers, AND Spock and Chapel do some HEAVY *kissy-kissy*. 'twas a serene squall, indeed!
 
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Just a routine cartographic survey! Should be pretty boring, actually. Except, the Enterprise comes out of warp and receives a distress signal from a vessel under attack and when they save them and beam the survivors aboard, one of them is old shoulda'/coulda'/woulda' love interest of a young Lieutenant Pike.
 
Also, one of them is a child monarch/deity of the people on the planet Majalis that is destined lead their people through some unspecified sacrifice. And his dad.
 
Needless to say, things get hairy. There are crosses and double-crosses, there is romance, and intrigue. And there is a critical moral quandary at the center of things.
 
Finally, Cadet Uhura is doing her crew rotations in security with La'an Noonien-Singh. She's learning a lot, as usual. And also, breaks the whole things wide open when it counts!
 
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Shenanigans! Rigamarole! HIJINKS!!!
 
That is the basis of this fifth episode of the season. Enterprise is docked at Starbase 1 for some much needed repairs and also much needed R&R for the crew. 
 
Spock has big ideas of spending some *quality time* with his fiancee, T'Pring – but work keeps getting in the way. Eventually, in an attempt to share their souls in a Vulcan ritual, they swap katras and can get them swapped back. Didn't i say there was hijinks?!
 
Meanwhile, Number One and La'an are wandering the empty decks of the Enterprise wondering why people think they aren't fun – when they discover the game of "Enterprise Bingo." Nurse Chapel finds her casual relationship has taken a serious turn and has to extricated herself from the poetry-spouting Lt. Devers, even while giving Spock advice on his more serious relationship.
 
Oh, also, there is a SUPER important diplomatic thing going on with the R'ongovian Protectorate, where the Federation really needs to get a deal together as they own the only safe route through Klingon and Romulan space. But, you know, I'm sure this will all make sense one day.
 
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The Enterprise is off to Finibus 3 just to deliver some much needed atmospheric filtering equipment when the find the scientific installation there abandoned and burning. There's blood all over the place and torn scraps of clothing – but no bodies...?!
 
Then some survivors show up in a cargo ship saying they were attacked but not sure by whom. And that's when La'an talks to a young girl who saw her father get taken and mentions a click noise and we find out it is... dunh dunh dunh! The GORN!!!!!!
 
AAAAAAAAAAHHH! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! THERE IS NO ESCAPE, THERE IS NO WAY OUT! WE ARE THE PREY. THEY ARE GOING BITE US OPEN AND FEED US TO THEIR HATCHLINGS.
 
...unless, Pike, Spock, La'an and crew can figure a way out of this pickle that involves a dying star with a black hole at its center. but what are the chances of that?!
 
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Everybody's got secrets! As the Enterprise explores an abandoned Illyrian colony planet for evidence of what happened to the gene-experimenting people, Spock and Pike are trapped down on the planet by an ion storm and the Enterprise is beset by a strange disease that makes people super randy for light and heat.
 
Number One, Una Chin-Riley, appears to be affected by the disease but also not at all affected by it and has to do a lot of heavy lifting to keep the Enterprise under control. Matching wits with Doctor M'Benga, engineer Hemmer, AND chief of security La'an.
 
Meanwhile, Pike and Spock are dealing with weird ghosts/entities down on the planet that are trying to break into their little shelter. 
 
Secrets are revealed, lives are saved, and friendships tested and renewed. Strawberries!
 
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Cadet Uhura attends a dinner at the captain's table with a bunch of senior staff and other officers during which she admits that though she beat out several thousand applicants for the job on Enterprise, she might not be "all that Star Fleet."
 
Meanwhile, a comet the Enterprise is observing is on course to destroy a nearby planet with a young, pre-warp culture and when they try to push it off course, they discover that it has some alien tech on it.
 
What follows is an away team (which includes Cadet Uhura on her first away misson) that goes to the comet and gets trapped by a force-field and has to learn to sing to a giant egg to get free. Meantime, the Enterprise is getting shook down by "shepherds" of the comet who think of the away team as a desecration.
 
And it all comes down to clever math and translations, fancy flying from Ortegas, sneaky-sneakiness from Spock, and nerves of pure steel from Captain Pike. Can they pull it off? Will they pull it off?! and will Uhura stay with Star Fleet?!
 
No telling!
 
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It all begins with Una (AKA Number One) goes missing on a routine First Contact mission. Pike, who has been roughing it out in the wild with a beard and a lady-friend, gets the call to return to the Enterprise and find out what went wrong. Then he calls Spock who was in the middle of... an adult consenting adults do with his betrothed, T'pring. Despite the inconvenient timing, Spock comes running.
 
Pike returns to an Enterprise that being shipped out a week earlier than planned, reluctant about returning to space after having glimpsed his own death ten years in the future, and meets a crew of new, young, very capable people.
 
They go to the planet to find Number One and, of course, all hell breaks loose. 
 
And that is just the beginning (the VERY beginning) of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Strap in, folks!
 
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Ok, well the Borg-queen/Jurati has absconded with the ship and Picard et al are stuck in the past. But the past still needs saving. Renee Picard needs to go on the Europa mission and Adam Soong is still out there trying to stop it from happening.
 
Thus begins a desperate play to ensure Renee's safety and foil Soong's plans as best the team can. IF they wrap that up, there is only the issue of Soong's final daughter/experiment Kore still on the lam and... Q, i guess?! Also all the many ways that the team has screwed with the timeline. And, finally, how or if they'll ever get home? Also, it would be nice if Elnor wasn't dead. We really liked him.
 
Is there any way to wrap ALL this up in a single episode?! Well. We get by with a little help from our friends, don't we just?
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Nobody freak-out, ok? It's the penultimate episode of season two of Picard. Everything is going to be fine! Picard has everything under control and the future is in good hands!
Now. Are we a little concerned about the full blending of Jurati and the Borg Queen and their ability to turn Adam Soong’s super-soldiers into *Borg* super-soldiers? And that they have remote accessed la Sirena’s transporters and are coming to chateau Picard en masse to overwhelm Picard and his team and take over the ship and go fly to the Delta Quadrant and build-up an immense Borg army to fight the Confederation of Earth forces from the evil timeline?!
…yes. But, I really do think that if Picard can just unlock the suppressed memories of his youthful trauma, and Raffi and Seven can work out their differences and work together, and Rios can say good-bye to Dr. Ramirez in with the just most perfectly smoldering smooch – I really do think that everything will be fine!
What's that you say? Q? Q who?!
 
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It's Season 2 Episode 8 of Picard!
Well, Picard and Guinan are in an undisclosed location, some basement FBI facility, being questioned by the tenacious Agent Wells, who has a real bee in his bonnet about aliens.
 
Meanwhile, Borg/Jurati (AKA "Borgati") is running rampant through LA. Raffi and Seven are on her trail, but catching up to her has disastrous consequences. They are, however, able to figure out what she's up to– namely building nanoprobes to start assimilating folks.
 
Borgati heads to the house of Adam Soong and sweet talks him into helping her with visions of personal grandeur. He is entirely susceptible because his daughter/experiment has just walked out on him with Q's blue-serum that allows her to endure sunlight and dust, i guess. 
 
And otherwise, Rios is making kissy-kissy with Dr. Ramirez on La Sirena while her son Ricardo eats too much cake. Little do they know, Borgati and Soong and a couple recently proto-assimilated super-soldiers are about to drop in on them and let loose the dogs of war.
 
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Recapping Star Trek Picard Season 2 Episode 7 "Monsters"
 
A funky little episode. We spend most of the time romping around in Picard's subconscious. Meeting his mother, Yvette, whom he stylizes as a queen, and his father, Maurice, whom he calls a monster. And also young Jean-Luc, a little prince. Tallinn uses her Watcher technology to go in there with young Picard and they navigate a literal metaphorical dungeon of dangers and monsters and darkness. Eventually, we learn that the monsters without were actually monsters within and that Yvette was hounded by some sort of illness that made her prone to episodes of intense darkness and mania. Also, Picard's dad died young but got to keep all his hair. And we *almost* get to the bottom of what darkness makes Picard tick... before we leap back into the real world.
 
While all that is happening, Rios is taking Dr. Teresa Ramirez and her son, Ricardo, to visit La Sirena (in direct contravention of all the rules about time travel) *and* Seven and Rafi are scrambling across LA in search of Dr. Jurati who is being piloted by a vengeful and ambitious Borg queen.
 
Finally, Picard wakes up. Goes to visit Guinan for help. And they both wind up getting arrested by the FBI.
Fun!
 
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A lot transpires at this halfway point of season 2 of Star Trek: Picard. Firstly we meet the Watcher. It's not Laris. She calls herself Tallinn. Her job is to watch one person and make sure their movement through time is protected. That person is Renee Picard! And Renee is supposed to leave on the Europa mission in three days times.
 
And would except that she struggles with inner demons. And, also, her therapist appears to be actively encouraging her not to go on the mission. When Picard and Talinn look in on a session and see the therapist – it's Q.
 
What else? Adam Soong is here, driven as all Soongs appear to be, into a mindless pursuance of his goals. He has a "daughter" Kore that is 100% like Soji, but not from the good future and confused or whatever. This is apparently what happened.
 
He gets approached by Q who wants him to take out Renee Picard in return for Q helping to save Kore, who suffers from a genetic defect that makes sunlight poison to her.
 
What else?
 
The gang breaks Rios out of ICE detention, the Borg Queen calls the police, Jurati shoots the queen with an ancient musket, the Borg Queen puts assimilation feelers into Jurati's face. The gang party-crashes a gala for Europa mission, Picard talks Renee into following her destiny, Soong tries to run them over with a car, Doctor Jurati is an incredible singer, but that let's the Borg Queen completely take over her body... and we end up back at Dr. Teresa Ramirez's clinic with Picard on the table in a coma. 
 
So, things are going pretty poorly, I guess. And Elnor is still dead!

The crew of La Sirena manages to fend this alternate-reality magistrate and his soldiers, only to be pursued by more ships of the "Confederation" of Earth. Things seems dicey, but then the hook the Borg Queen up to the ship, she converts the whole thing over to Borg and sends them back to the year 2024. Which is before whatever timeline divergence took place.
 
So. Ok. But Elnor got shot in the chest. And he died....(DUN DUN DUN)
 
Now everyone is on edge. They crash-land at an abandoned Picard chateau, and folks go into LA to find this "watcher" that the Borg Queen was talking about. Meanwhile, Doc Jurati and Picard hook her up to the Queen to get her back online.
 
Tragedian-level antics ensue. There are pratfalls, car jacking, car chases, and arrests. A trip to the hospital for Rios. A trip down Jurati's subconscious for Picard and the Queen. And straight-up trip for Seven and Rafi, as they try to find the watcher and then try to find Rios.
 
Notable Mentions: a young Guinan, a new nickname for Rios, and you'll NEVER guess who the Watcher is!
 
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And we're back with a brand new season of Picard! 
 
Meet Jean-Luc. He's a formerly disgraced and retired, now reinstated, Star Fleet officer. He has just been named chancellor of the Star Fleet Academy. His friends are doing pretty all right, actually. His buddy Rios is back in Starfleet as a captain, and his buddy Raffi is back in Starfleet, and his buddy Seven-of-Nine is saving people in the galaxy as a Fenris ranger, and his buddy Elnor just graduated from Starfleet Academy! Hey, even doctor Agnes Jurati is doing... fine. Things are great!
 
Except, Picard is awkward in love. *And* there is a big rift in spacetime calling his name. He goes to it. He tries to contact it. Things get messy. Things blow up.
 
Meet Jean-Luc. He's a bloody thirsty general for the Confederation of Earth. He keeps the skulls of his enemies on pikes in his office. Seven is the president of the confederation. Rios is killing Vulcans. Elnor is a terrorist. Things have gone very sour indeed.
 
Enter Q... and that's when the whole thing really get interesting.
 
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Now we come to end, my friends. The End! Tarka has locked Book up and taken over his ship to gain access to the DMA controller so he can go universe hopping, DISCO is trying to get out of their bubble and get after them, and – meanwhile, at Earth – Admiral Vance and Tilly are running the evacuation effort, hopeless though it may be, for as many people as they can get out before the DMA debris hits the planet.
 
This episode has up and downs. People under stress, near-death experiences, beautiful speeches, crazy new aliens, certain-death situations, and many, many, many bitter tears.
 
But surely it will all be right in the end?! Captain Burnham et al will find a way. They must, mustn't they? And Tarka will realize the error of his ways? And Earth won't be smashed to smithereens? And Michael and Book will get back together?! 
 
Oh please, oh please, oh please. Let it be so. For the end (of season 4) cometh!
 
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Finally, we are at the hyperfield bubble of Species 10C! The whole season has been leading up to this! Will Michael, President Rillak, et al be able to find a way to communicate with this vastly advanced species and get them to stop mining the alpha quadrant and accidentally destroying whole planets?!
 
With the help of Dr. Harai and Saru and a few members of the bridge crew, they *are* able to figure out the beginnings of a "bridge language" and the 10C send a silver egg sphere to the loading bay with a door. Michael, Rillak, T'rina, and Saru go aboard to make a case for the civilizations of the milky way galaxy. 
 
I mean... this could really work, people!
 
EXCEPT, Tarka and Book are still planning a desperate mission to grab the DMA controller and power down the DMA so that Tarka can use it to go parallel universe hopping. And they took Jett Reno hostage and she is able to spy on Tarka's calculations and sees that if they take the controller it will cause a catastrophic implosion destroying the hypersphere and the 10C and sending a subspace rift caroming back to the alpha quadrant. That's a lot of lives being snuffed out for Tarka's ambition, but he gets the better of Book, lock him up with Reno and makes a run for the DMA controller.
 
So... maybe this won't work at all.
 
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Closer and closer to the object of all this season's fussing about – but not quite there yet. Convinced that they need to do a bit more research before entering the "hyperfield" and trying to establish first contact with species 10C, Captain Burnham takes Discovery to a former gas giant planet where it is theorized species 10C may have originally come. 
 
While she and the away team look for clues, Book and Tarka are busy trying to hitch a sneak-ride on DISCO's hull without Zora getting wind of it. That means they have to sneak on the ship and add some code to the system. While there, Book attempts to enlist in the help of a new ally.
 
The away team comes back, after some harrowing experiences, with some theories on how to proceed; DISCO takes off for the hyperfield; and Book returns to his ship to discover that Tarka was in a tight spot and had to take a hostage. Jett Reno. Oops.
 
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Things are really heating up as the first contact task force heads to the Galactic Barrier. DISCO is the ship that will carry them out to species 10C's weird energy/Dyson sphere and there is no time to waste as the new DMA is bigger and badder (and perhaps slightly less predictable) than the old one.
 
So DISCO heads out. A bunch of the delegates that were on their way are unable to make it and so folks have to improvise. Also, President Rillack hands power over to her Vice President so that she can attend the mission as the ambassador representing the Federation. 
 
Meanwhile, Book and Tarka haven't given up the fight. They go searching for programmable antimatter on the planet where all of Tarka's secrets are buried. Buckle up for FLASHBACKS.
 
And so there is no safe place – in space or in memory – where one can shrug off the heightened stakes are we careen into these final episodes of Season four of Star Trek: Discovery.
 
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Well, it's time for the rubber (or starship nacelles) to meet the road (or hard vacuum). Michael and the crew of DISCO attempt to ambush Book and Ruon Tarka as they are building the explosive isolytic device (using the tracker Michael planted). The Federation, concerned about Michael's closeness to Book, put someone on the bridge that will make the hard choice if she can't do it when the time arises. And it's none other than Commander Nhan (back from her Barzan rumspringa)!
 
Of course, when they make the attempt to infiltrate Book's ship, Tarka has secretly added new security protocols that almost lead to the death of some major crew members. And then, they jump away to the DMA with their bomb.
 
Then DISCOVERY follows suit and the hunt is on. Michael still thinks she can reason with Book – but Nhan has a Federation-approved last resort plan (the only downside is... it'd kill Book, almost assuredly).
 
And thus do they dance within the anomaly. Violence meets violence; tactic meets tactic – a stalemate of manoeuvring that can only lead to some climactic conclusion. Who, indeed, will be the first to cross the proverbial Rubicon, to make the deadliest move, and go past the point of no return?!?!
 
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....and we're back at the DISCO!
 
 Since Book and Ruon Tarka took matters into their own hands and decided to steal the next generation spore drive and go build their own isolytic bomb and take a punch at species 10C on their own, the Federation is in a shambles. Michael has been told that she and DISCO cannot go after Book (the president feels she is too close to it), but then in private Admiral Vance asks her to very try to go after Book.
 
What's an enterprising Star Fleet captain to do but screw her courage to the sticking place and find a nice loophole. Since it was unlikely the Fed knew about her connections on a distant planet *and* that would be a good play to go for isolynium as well as extra-galactic starmaps – Michael jumps in a shuttle with Lt. Comm Owosekun and they head to...
 
...Haz Mazaro's Karma Barge. Shenanigans ensue. A changeling, a fightclub, a couple rounds of poker... all for a little isolynium (and the safety of billion of lives). WHAT'S NEXT?!?!

This week as Discovery is on hiatus for just one more week, Stevie was asked to join some other Trek podcast hosts to take part in a Star Trek Jeopardy...
Akie (our champ) was unfortunately busy being a cool musician guy so Stevie stepped up, how do you think they did? 
Check out Keeping up with the Cardassians and Star Trek Podcast: Trek Cast
Discovery resumes so normal Set Phasers service will also resume next Monday!
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So, this is it. Finally, we are doing a watchalong of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. A regular contender for the "best Star Trek movie of all time." And it does not disappoint. From the sartorial splendor of Kirk's wardrobe, to increasingly slower and slower chase scenes with higher and higher stakes, to – let's just call it like it is – Ricardo Montalban's chest and pretty much every line he delivers in this.
 
You'll laugh, you'll cry. You'll have a strange hankering for popcorn (if you're anything like us). And, in the end, you'll feel young again. That's a promise.
 
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Another watch-along monday! We screwed our courage to the sticking place and made valiant effort to watch the third of the JJ Abrams Star Trek movies – Star Trek: Beyond. High was the anticipation for this film when it came out in 2016, but alas, it proved to be well below most people's expectations. 
 
Why? Who can say? Maybe because Abrams didn't return to direct this one because he was already wrapped up in making the new Star Wars trilogies. Maybe it was because the storyline was hard to follow or, when followed, fathom. Maybe because there wasn't much "beyond" gone to in the movie – just one planet in a rocky nebula. Heck, maybe it was just the lack of lens flares.
 
Either way, it maybe isn't as good as its predecessors. That said, it has some wonderful comedic turns, offers plenty of that ol' Star Trek feeling. There are good turns by each of the main characters, some odd choices, a touch of Idris Elba's character chewing the scenery and, last but not least, an epic Enterprise-crash-into-the-planet sequence.
 
Surely that is enough. Enough to watch along, at least!
 
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And we're back! The DISCOVERY hiatus continues, as does our series of watchalongs. We continue with the 2013 follow-up to Star Trek entitled Star Trek: Into Darkness. Kirk et al are hoping to start their five-year mission when, because of his flaunting of the rules, Kirk's command of the Enterprise is revoked and Spock (who dropped dime on him) is transferred to another ship. How will Kirk become the captain we know he can be? How can he and Spock have the friendship we know they must have? And what part does Admiral Pike play in all of it? [Spoiler Alert: he dies.]
 
Is this a strange, kelvin-timeline rehashing of Wrath of Khan? yes. Is it slightly disorganized and a little too long? yes and yes. but does Akie still get misty eyed when Kirk is dying and Spock is talking to him through the glass?! yes, yes, a thousand times yes! 
 
that and other affirmations await you, dear listeners, as we watch and comment upon all things Into Darkness-esque. Klingons and hovercraft fights and, rarest of all, Spock-tears! All that and, also, Akie's heavy breathing when he gets too involved in the movie. 

The year was 2009. Barack Obama was president in the United States. The economy was tanking. ands JJ Abrams had made a new Star Trek movie. It had Kirk and Spock and Bones... Uhura, Sulu, Chekov... the *whole* gang. And, for many, it is was jump started this new era of Star Trek shows. 
 
So... we did a watchalong. Akie and Stevie start with the movie that (re)started it all. the blandly titled "Star Trek." That said, apart from its title, there is very little bland about it. From the fight scenes, to Sulu's sword, to Eric Bana as the distraught captain Nero, to, yes, a cameo by Leonard Nimoy! 
 
Also, every few seconds: LENS FLARES. I mean, what more could you want?! 
 
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It's the mid-season finale of Star Trek Discovery. What it's all be leading up to (before, you know, the rest of the season).
The Federation has called together an assembly of all the major worlds and races, Federation and otherwise, from all four quadrants of the galaxy to discuss what must be done about the DMA and "Species 10C."
At the same time, Zora (Discovery's erstwhile computer), has used all the data from the subspace rift to find out the coordinates of whoever made and sent the DMA – but she is unwilling to give that information to the crew because she thinks it will put them in danger. Enter Dr. Kovich to help figure out what is going on there.
Meanwhile, at the assembly things breakdown along the lines of dealing with thing. One faction wants to make a show of strength and strike back, destroying the anomaly; the other faction wants to try and established first contact before jumping to any conclusions. Book and Michael find themselves on opposites sides of the debate.
So. Will the Federation attack? will they make peaceful overtures? Will Zora hand over the coordinates to the crew of Discovery? Will she be determined a sentient AI and be forcibly expunged from DISCO's computer?
Do androids dream of electric sheep?!?!?!?!?
We'll answer *most* of those questions in this episode of Set Phasers: A Highly Illogical Star Trek Podcast.
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DISCO has been ordered to go into the subspace rift made by the DMA to gather any readings or information they can about the anomaly. Things are going nominally at first, but when the ship gets inside, there is nothing to be found. They are in a data-less void.
 
Zora, the AI that lives in and runs the ship, is having a rough day with no data to crunch. There is an invisible barrier closing in, about to chew the whole ship and crew into smithereens. Book is having deep hallucinations about his father. And an ensign is lost when there is a sudden hull breach. 
Gray teaches Zora how to play games; the crew launches a desperate plan using 20th century earth sonar technology; everyone but the captain goes into a pattern buffer; and Zora sings an old jazz standard while superheated plasma starts to melt the ship to slag. 
 
Are we having fun yet?!
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A fairly straightforward day on the DISCOVERY. The ship is sent as part of a rescue mission to a string of asteroids that are about to get his by the crazy dark matter anomaly in that is tearing through the quadrant. there's only a couple of hours to get everyone off the planet before the gravitational situation send everything haywire. So its hard work
 
Meanwhile, Stamets is working with Dr. Ruon Tarka, the person in charge of the 2nd generation spore drive, on making some progress on the DMA, because it is discovered that that thing aint at ALL natural. Turns outs Tarka is kind of a character.
 
And finally, Michael and Book stage a prison break where all the guards are giant, explosive beetles. 
 
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What is happening?! Michael and Saru get called down to the surface of Ni'var to help President Rillak close the deal with Ni'Var joining the Federation.
Tilly goes to Starfleet academy, with Adira in tow, to run some critical team building exercises. Book sits down for a therapy session with Dr. Culber. I guess it's gonna be a pretty chill episode.
Except, Book is really resistant to confronting his trauma no matter what Culber does... and Tilly and the bickering cadets crash land on the wrong moon and are being pursued by giant, predatory crustacean creatures... and the Ni'Var President asks for a last minute amendment to the agreement with Star Fleet that is completely non-negotiable. So, there's that.
Here's hoping that the episode's title means all that can be resolved in an hour (cause it seems pretty bad!)
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When a rogue Qowat Milat sister goes, well, rogue and starts knocking over Starfleet ships delivering dilithium to planets in need (and, incidentally, kills a Starfleet officer in the process), Ni'Var, the Federation, and the Qowat Milat have to team up to hunt her down.
 
Yes, Michael's mother is the Killer-Romulan-Warrior-Nun representing the order and, yes, Michael's representing the Federation. And yes, Tilly is along for the ride. And–YES–they have to give up their phasers in favor of swords!
 
Also, Gray Tal is getting his new body and Dr. Stamets and Book head to the Ni'Var Science Institute to get some help analyzing the anomaly that is eating planetary systems.
 
So swash your buckles as we attempt to unravel all that, well, unravels in this episode of Star Trek: Discovery!
 
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So. There's a space anomaly about five light-years in diameter that is chewing up solar systems like a swarm of piranha. No worries! Discover jumps in to take some measurements and can't get close enough to get good readings. Pas de problem! Booker, who is definitely somewhat out of sorts because his entire planet was the last victim of the anomaly, wants to take his ship in. Stamets, with whom he does not get along, is going along for the ride as a holo. So, it's awkward. No sweat. 
 
Then, Discovery has to back up or be destroyed so they release the tether and Book has no navigation systems and he's have waking hallucinations of his nephew Leto who he lost to the anomaly and he is not being responsive to Stamets or Cpt Burnham. Do we look worried?!
 
Also, Grey's gonna get a new body. And Saru is back on the ship!
 
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It's a beautiful day in the galactic neighborhood of the 32nd century. The Federation is back, Starfleet no longer needs to hide behind a cloak, and there's *plenty* of dilithium to go around. Michael and the crew of Discovery are just humming along with the pace of progress. So the new Federation President and Michael aren't getting along so well; and so Saru is still on the planet Kaminar taking his leave of absence from Star Fleet; and so not every planet is super excited to join up with the Fed – it's still a pretty good life.
 
But then a deep space outpost gets into some trouble and the causes for it are mysterious and Michael gets chewed out by the President (who decides to tag along) for being to desperate to save everyone and then Kewjian (Book's home planet) gets blowed all the way up. 
 
And, well, it's off to the races in Season 4 of Star Trek Discovery!
 
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In the season finale of Lower Decks, the Cerritos is headed to the Laaperian system to assist the USS Archimedes in a first contact mission. Things go awry when a solar flare causes an unstable planetoid to blow and completely knocks out power on the Archimedes. The Cerritos must devise a miraculous plan to save them, all hands on deck!
 
But, also, just before the mission started Mariner overheard that Capt. Freeman is getting a promotion to a better ship and going to have to leave the crew of the Cerritos behind.
 
Everyone is upset. But SURELY this will end well. It's Star Trek, ain't it?!
 
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It's a long warp for the crew of the Cerritos, 12 hours. So Captain Freeman is giving folks the day off. To chill and hang. Boimler is excited to spend time with the gang but they're all hanging out with various "bridge buddies." He wonders if life is as dull on lower decks of other ships.
 
Well, we get a look at life on the lower decks of other ships: Klingon, Vulcan, Pakled... And also, something strange is afoot. Strange energy readings! Perhaps a convergence of these disparate groups is in the offing?
 
Or maybe it's just a casual day off of pottery making and free-climbing and mother-daughter target practice. Probably that.
 
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