Episode 161
Friday 11 July 2025
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.
Episode 160
Friday 4 July 2025
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Series 4, Episode 23
Stardate: 49904.2
First broadcast on Monday 13 May 1996
There’s a get-to-know-you buffet at 1930 this week, as the crew of the Defiant team up with the Jem’Hadar to fight some Jem’Hadar rebels who want to take over the Galaxy. And, surprisingly late in the series, we get the first appearance of Jeffrey Combs as Weyoun.
Episode 159
Friday 27 June 2025
Star Trek: Picard
Series 2, Episode 6
Stardate: Unknown (12–13 April 2024)
First broadcast on Thursday 7 April 2022
This week: a party. The crew of La Sirena turn up at a lavish black-tie gala for some top-quality character work, only to be overshadowed by an incredible musical number by Alison Pill and a lovely scene of kindly encouragement from Patrick Stewart. But then they find themselves overshadowed, in turn, by the ineffable hotness of Santiago Cabrera.
Episode 158
Friday 20 June 2025
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Series 1, Episode 17
Stardate: 46925.1
First broadcast on Sunday 23 May 1993
Three plots for the price of one this week on Deep Space Nine. In reverse order of importance: (C) we all stand around in Ops talking about the computer; (B) Julian gets some funny lines and a pleasantly unsurprising character arc; and (A) Odo and Lwaxana are trapped in a lift together with nothing to do but some amazing and even quite moving acting. Underrated, but mostly by people who don’t enjoy things that are good.
Episode 157
Friday 13 June 2025
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Series 6, Episode 15
Stardate: Unknown (2369)
First broadcast on Monday 15 February 1993
When Q first turned up on the Enterprise bridge in 1987, he came to teach all of humanity a lesson about its terrible past. But this week his mission is more personal: to teach Picard how much he owes his young, undisciplined self, and to remind us that youth is silly and difficult, and that the people living through it deserve our respect.
(On that topic, if you wish to see the inspiration for Joe’s preferred 1990s hairstyle, you should check out the cover of Star Trek: The Next Generation — Boogeymen (1991) by Mel Gilden.)
Episode 156
Friday 30 May 2025
Star Trek: Voyager
Series 6, Episode 5
Stardate: Unknown (2376)
First broadcast on Wednesday 20 October 1999
Sometimes everything just comes together — a dull script, routine design, a generic score, perfunctory direction, an uncharismatic leading man and a guest star’s strange and flaccid performance. Meanwhile, on Star Trek: Voyager, Tom screams at his long-suffering girlfriend after falling in love with a car or something.
Episode 155
Friday 23 May 2025
Star Trek: Lower Decks
Series 5, Episode 10
Stardate: Unknown
First broadcast on Thursday 19 December 2024
This week, we witness the ascension of Star Trek: Lower Decks, as it finishes its run on television and becomes a show fuelled by interdimensionality itself — decoupling its superpositions and spriralling off into an infinite number of unseen quantum possibilities. It’s funny and heartwarming and visually arresting, of course, and we can’t imagine what life would be like without it. Engage the core!
Episode 154
Friday 16 May 2025
Star Trek: Lower Decks
Series 5, Episode 7
Stardate: 59499.6
First broadcast on Thursday 28 November 2024
This week, Tendi and T’Lyn learn the usual Star Trek lesson about co-operation and competition, Boimler and Rutherford learn that Starfleet uniforms are less absorbent than is sometimes necessary, and Mariner learns that the real Inner Light experience comes from the friends (and murderers) we meet along the way. And Data shows up too, is just as delightful and wise as we always expect him to be.
Episode 153
Friday 9 May 2025
Star Trek: The Original Series
Series 3, Episode 12
Stardate: 5121.5
First broadcast on Friday 6 December 1968
A series of urgent production catastrophes this week, as we arrive at Paramount Studios with no set, no lines for our female guest star, and a script with no story and no plot. Can these omnipotent bum-headed aliens help us out?
Episode 152
Friday 2 May 2025
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Series 3, Episode 21
Stardate: 44769.2
First broadcast on Monday 29 April 1991
This week, Jean Simmons strides imperiously onto the Enterprise bridge, accompanied by her executive assistant, her scary stenographer, her daddy issues, and a terrifying sense of self-righteous rage. Unmissable.