Context Is for Kings

Episode 165

Friday 22 August 2025

The harshly-lit face of Captain Gabriel Lorca. He eyebrows are arched and his lips are parted: he is about to make Michael Burnham an offer.

Star Trek: Discovery

Series 1, Episode 3

Stardate: Unknown (2256)

First broadcast on Sunday 1 October 2017

This week, disgraced Starfleet officer Michael Burnham falls down the rabbit hole, where she finds an unsettling mirror image of her previous life: a crew regarding her with suspicion, a captain manipulating her with falsehoods, and a Starfleet obsessed with operational security. And then the slavering monster shows up.

Recorded on Tuesday 19 August 2025 · Download (73.8 MB)

Star Trek: Discovery

Persistence of Vision

Episode 164

Friday 15 August 2025

Carolyn Seymour dresses as a Regency-era housekeeper turns up at the door of Janeway's quarters with a massive knife. She looks quite cross.

Star Trek: Voyager

Series 2, Episode 8

Stardate: Unknown (2372)

First broadcast on Friday 13 October 1995

This week, Voyager is beset by a bunch of crazy Star Trek crap — involving china cups, sandwiches and curly-headed moppets, for the most part — but after 45 minutes we still have no idea why it happens or how we should feel about any of it. Still, Kate is awesome, as usual, and that counts for quite a lot.

Recorded on Tuesday 12 August 2025 · Download (69.1 MB)

Star Trek: Voyager

United

Episode 163

Friday 8 August 2025

We're in sickbay. Archer stands facing Shran; he has just called him by name, reminding him that now isn't the time for anger and that the Doctor isn't the appropriate target. And Shran is about to break.

Star Trek: Enterprise

Series 4, Episode 13

Stardate: Unknown (2154)

First broadcast on Friday 4 February 2005

This week, the middle episode of a mid-range arc in the middest of all the shows in the Star Trek franchise. Trip and Malcolm are trapped in various rooms pressing buttons, while the Tellarites and Andorians are on their usual space alien bullshit. Harmless.

Recorded on Tuesday 5 August 2025 · Download (78.8 MB)

Star Trek: Enterprise

Subspace Rhapsody

Episode 162

Friday 1 August 2025

Uhura stands alone in engineering. She looks down and smiles. The song she has just finished has taught her that she is the solution to this space problem, and after everything that's happened to her, she's okay with that.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Series 2, Episode 9

Stardate: 2398.3

First broadcast on Thursday 3 August 2023

Strange New Worlds jumps genres this week to create something hitherto inconceivable in Star Trek: a high-stakes space problem that can only be solved with a massive, heartfelt musical finale.

Recorded on Tuesday 29 July 2025 · Download (93.2 MB)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Dragon’s Teeth

Episode 161

Friday 11 July 2025

We see three Vaadwaur — ridiculous Voyager aliens who are supposed to look like cobras but who instead look like embarrassed white American actors each covered in five kilos of latex. Two of them look angrily at each other in profile. The one in the background looks uncertain.

Star Trek: Voyager

Series 6, Episode 7

Stardate: 53167.9

First broadcast on Wednesday 10 November 1999

This week, the crew of the USS Voyager awaken an ancient evil and unleash it upon the Delta Quadrant: the Vaadwaur, a phantom army that appears out of thin air, destroys entire colonies, and vanishes in the blink of an eye — but whose soldiers’ physiognomy is such that few men can find them afterwards.

Recorded on Wednesday 9 July 2025 · Download (67.7 MB)

Star Trek: Voyager