Starstruck

Hey, Joe. Hi. So, this is a new series for us. We are doing Star Trek prodigy, which is the newest Star Trek series at the time we're recording this. There's another one sort of announced, isn't there, for next year? Strange New Worlds. But Star Trek Prodigy, and it's a Nickelodeon thing. It's absolutely for children. And Joe, you have only just watched, what, the 1st 3 episodes yesterday? Today. Today. I watched all 3 today. With absolute delight. I have to say. I'm going to go as far as to say I think this is the most. one and two. I know we're talking about three. Yeah. So, but one and two. I think it's the most successful Kurtzman Trek pilot I've seen. And it is, it is kind of leaning into what you expect because by the end of the pilot, you've got the ship, you've got the crew, and it's all those things I whinged about in Discovery series one that didn't happen until about halfway through the season. Yeah. You know I had some issues with the Discovery pilot. Like I turned that off when I 1st watched that. It's so good due to those. horrendous Klingon scenes with the subtitles. Um, and I think the Picard pilot is good. It's a good world builder, but it's kind of pensive and thoughtful and a bit cynical. So I'm not I'm not sure it's entirely enjoyable. The lower decks one. I think it's very good, but I was so anxious about whether a comedy animated Star Trek series could work. I don't know if I kind of relaxed, watching that because it was just like fast hitting gags all the time when I was kind of getting used to it. This was just a genuinely good bit of storytelling. Like, visually, sumptuous. I couldn't believe how good this looked visually. We've really lovely likeable characters that I was desperate to spend more time with at the end and funny as well. I laughed out loud several times watching the pilot of prodigy. Yeah, so I just thought it was a massive win for Kurtzman Shrek. Kurtzman Trek has the ambition to put really weird things on screen. I think we've said this before when we were doing forget me not the discovery episode a few weeks ago. And this is very, very committed to that. This is extremely strange looking. It's, it's, you know, frequently you're looking at the screen and you're not sure exactly what it is you're looking at. I found the, you know, the penal colony. I'm not sure what that is. It's so detailed, though, is it? Yeah, yeah. looks incredible. And in the episode that we're going to watch where we actually see the crew kind of interacting on the ship for the 1st time. I think the design of the proto-star is stunning. And because it's animated, the spaces are big, you know, the spaces are really big and really beautiful, and there's a real contrast between the sort of clean lines of this ship, which doesn't look that much like discovery, for instance, you know, it's a more traditional looking, you know, almost like Voyager and even the design of it, the spoon design of the actual model. Yeah. It's leading into that into the late 90s, early 2000s design. Another reason I probably love this a bit more, you know. But it's big. Like those interior spaces are big. There's internal windows, which you can't achieve on a set because the set would just need to be too big for that to work. Well, we go into like the captain's quarters in this episode. And it's this vast way. The bed is like the size of how big Picard's quarters were. With this huge Starscate window and that I'm like, wow. It's beautiful. And I think too, that Kurtzman Trek is being made in a sort of late Trump and post Trump era. at a time where America is anxious about its values and what it stands for. And so Kurtzman track, I think, is very, very explicitly about the values of the Federation and the values of Starfleet. Rediscovering them. There's a real push to that, isn't it? Well, I did this as well. It's all characters that don't know what the Federation is. So they're going to kind of go on this journey with Janeway as their mentor. to discover these values. Discovery's doing that as well, isn't it? Yeah, series 3 and four. Series one was all about, you know, it's a time of war. Are we able to stick to our federation ideals when we're at war a little bit like America after kind of 9-11. And finally deciding, yes, we do stick to our values, we're not you know, going to blow up the Klingons home world or anything like that. We're going to find a way of negotiating our way out of this. And here. It's not just the crew that's on the journey of learning about the federation. It's the kids who this is intended for. And we're at a time where the flagship Star Trek show is quite violent at times. Like, and and all of those iterations of Star Trek that we love are very talky. This was action packed, wasn't it? Like, this is set pieces are a big part of this show because there was a couple of massive set pieces in the pilot, and there was a big set piece in the 3rd episode as well. And I think that's like, why wouldn't you do that when you've got the CGI animation to make this look as beautiful as it does? So you're bringing kids who are perhaps more familiar with sort of Star Wars style TV science fiction. Well, this was absolutely, this was aping Star Wars style. I've seen some of those like concept animations for stuff. And like the droid in episode one. It looked like it had stepped straight out of Star Wars. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Exactly. And so it's taking them on a journey of discovering what the Federation is and what it stands for. So this is, you know, the journey that both the kids watching and the kids on the proto star are taking. And I think that's lovely. I think there's a generosity, a complete absence of gatekeeping. It's we love Star Trek and we want to show kids what's great about it. There's 3 things I want to address in what you just said. Yeah. Okay. So 1st of all, this is like the anti-enterprise. Remember when we said enterprise. It was on almost all human, human cast and fucking tedious because of it. Whereas this is an all alien. cast. And we said before, very often, the alien characters are the most interesting characters on Star Trek. And I love the fact that because this is animated, they can go all out and have this massively weird, exotic, diverse cast of characters. that are all aliens and actually a little bit of trivia. This is the 1st episode of Star Trek to not feature a human character since Voyager's living witness. which has the doctor in it, but obviously he's a hologram. Otherwise, it's all aliens or depictions of... In fact, I think Living Witness is the only other one. Right. You know, so the pilot, that's kind of unique to Star Trek. I really, really like that. The 2nd thing is, yes, this is, I would say this is aimed at a family audience rather than kids. Because I'm an adult and I absolutely got massive enjoyment from this in exactly the same way I could get massive enjoyment from the Sarah Jane adventures in the Doctor Who universe. Um, And in fact, I got more enjoyment from this pilot than I did the Discovery pilot, which is geared specifically at adults because that can be a little bit dictatorial and a little bit too serious for its own good. Whereas this remembered to be an adventure all the time. And who doesn't want to go on an adventure, you know? This is like the Goonies of Star Trek, you know? And I was reading about the conception that I can't remember the names, is it, Hageman, the writers? They brought in writers that had written for a family audience before, but in programs and movies that were geared at adults and children because they didn't want this to be juvenile and kind of restrictive with its audience. And it's not. I absolutely think anybody could watch this. and just go on the journey. There's, you know, so a couple of the characters are a bit childlike. And that's fine. I love that. Yeah, and that's that's one of the things that I really like. The lead is kind of smart but undisciplined and a little bit kind of rough and dishonest. And he's the sort of kid who wouldn't watch Star Trek. And so he's being introduced to the idea of Star Trek and what it's like. And Rocktoc, who is... that was just brilliant. When the translator started working and it had this very childlike voice. So she is played by a 10 year old girl. And yeah, it was a good performance for a 10 year old. really great. It's really good. I've watched plenty of science fiction, you know, featuring child actors. Oh, yeah. And the results are not always this spectacular. Yeah, no, I think she was born in 2011. So I think she's absolutely superb. And Dal, who is the male lead, is a young man, a 25-year-old man and he's black, and you can tell that from his accent and just from the kind of character design as well. And the Tellerize. I think this is the 1st time, the Tellrite. So we have 2 aliens in the car. You know what? We may have a rival for Scotty and O'Brien here, you know, in this character as chief engineer or engineer of this ship. Man, he's funny, isn't he? Yeah, yeah. No, and that's obviously Jason Mansookas, who we know from Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Good Place. And I think he's terrific. I think it's the character design is just beautiful. And then we've got Angus Imri, whose mother is in Star Wars episode one and various other things that we've got to. Doctor Who? And everything Victoria would ever wrote. Yeah, absolutely fabulous. And it's absolutely brilliant in icon antiques. Yeah. And he's a Medusan, and they are aliens from original track. So there's an episode called Is There in Truth, No Beauty, which is... Did they look like that? Well, did they look like? Well, it was in a box and it was incorporeal and if you looked at it, you went mad and I don't remember exactly how it was depicted but Diana Muldau was in that episode. It's one of her. It must have been fabulous. She's awesome. What do you think? Should we, hang on. Well, hang on. I got my... I thought the design of, what's it called, Meduso? He's a Medusa that was really fabulous. Zero. And jelly. What's the jelly? And the jelly? The bit where he slid across the, during an action sequence, you just saw him slide across the bridge, I was in fits of laughter good. I think he's like a toddler. So he doesn't really speak. He sort of farts a lot and burps and things and he just puts things in his mouth. And so I think that he's he's a toddler. And I just think it's adorable. So my 3rd point is, you know, you've said time and again, Kursman Trek loves Star Trek, yeah? And Lower Decks is literally packed full of gags covering the length and breadth of the franchise. Discovery season 2 is basically a love letter to TOS. Um, In this, It really felt like they were doing something fresh and original and they weren't leaning into that. And I really, really liked that in the pilot. Until Janeway came along at the end. Now, I'll never not want Janeway or Kate Maru in anything. But I was like, that's kind of a shame. This felt really quite original until that and now, okay, we're leaning into stuff. and I would like Kursman Trek, like 2 one of these shows, to just be completely original, like have some elements, like, you know, some races. But that's another love letter to Star Trek. And it's kind of, it's not new anymore, you know? They're doing it a lot. But I think that what's happening, and clearly her role is to introduce us to Star Trek, and we'll get to it in this episode. And she does it brilliantly. You get me wrong. And you said to me, yeah, you watch episode 3 and you'll see why she's there and I absolutely see why she's there. But it didn't have to be Janeway. I did. It was Kate. You could get Kate. Come on. It's so much better than just some random person And if the job of this show is to introduce kids to Star Trek and they get to know and love Janeway the way that we have, then, who knows, the next step is to see more of her on Voyager. That's how they sold this to Mulgrew, because she didn't want to do this and she needed a lot of convincing to come back and play a role. And after, apparently it was months and months of conversations because they absolutely knew they wanted her and she'd be a big draw as well. They pitched, you know, this is introducing Star Trek to the concepts of Star Trek to a whole new generation. And she was like, oh, shit, I'll do it. So it's not so much a complaint because I love Janeway and I love seeing more of her. I just, like, I just think you can, you can lean into like fan wank on nostalgia too much. And I like the fact that this is set in the Delta Quadrant. I'm hoping that, like, I did love seeing the case on. Yeah, yeah, I thought that was, that was glorious. I'm just hoping this is a bit more original than perhaps some of the other shows they're doing at the moment. Because there's a lot of the nostalgia factor. Well, let's take a look at it. Okay. So I am ready to go. So it's Star Trek Prodigy series one, episode 3 Starstruck, and I have my finger on the button, so I will count us in. Do we have a star date? Normally, you give me a star. I know, it's a Delta quadrant, they don't have Stardates. All right, here you go. Okay, here goes. Five, four, three, two, one, and we're off. Here we go. A CBS Studios production. They always say that now. But Nickelodeon production. So this is a great place for a kids show. All right, these titles. Firstly, you've got Michael. Michael Giacchino's music and he is absolutely superb. He's the person who created the music for the JJ Abrams Star Trek. These elements where they're flying past planets. It's basically the Voyager titles, only more beautiful. Yeah, modern. Yeah, but also... like that's Murph. What's this? Like, what the hell is that? That's Murph. Those like they're globulous. There's elements here. Like, and this is this is Pog's hand, right? So they're flying past elements of the characters. That's Gwyn there. Oh, you know what? I've seen this 3 times today and I didn't realise that. Thank you. Dreadnock or whatever his name is? and we're about to fly past Janeway. But it's just beautiful as well, isn't it? It's, it's, and you know, I do think there is like a, um, a musical uniformity to all these, even though there are different people doing the music. I could tell straight away this was Kerzman Trek. The 2nd the pilots died. Well, it's just that the music is good. It's really properly good. You're so mean about... Not Easter music is not all bad. Yeah, but it's nowhere near as interesting as this. But it's doing a very different thing. It's, it's, Yeah. telling you when the ad breaks are. So this follows straight on from the pilot with the discovery of Janeway and here are our main characters. You must be well happy. She's got an early J... got her early Janeway hair that I really like. Yeah. And what's great about this is obviously Kate Mogra has aged. We won't hold that against her. But she can still appear in this and still look as beautiful as she was in the 90s. Yeah, yeah. Fog is so funny. That's such an adorable reaction. And you know, the tenorizer. Oh, very underrepresented. Well, it's because they always look stupid. And they look incredibly bad in that. What are they are they in Journey to Babel? I can't remember, but in original trek, they look shockingly bad and no one has managed to make them look good, even on discovery they look shit. And so they were an enterprise a bit, weren't they? Yeah, towards the end, were they? But then Enterprise was obsessed with the Andorans and no one looks more fucking stupid than they were. Oh, I don't know. They look pretty bad. But the character model for pog is just tremendous. He's so good. But you know what they've done here, right? Is obviously the 1st episode or the 1st 2 episodes was all about Escape from the prison? Yeah, yeah? In like the most cinematic way, I can imagine it was just stunning. And they follow that up with like what's essentially a character drama, getting to know these people in this new setting. And that's not really for kids, you know, that's, that's quite adult. Look at this. That's so beautiful. So here we have her doing her, you know, PowerPoint presentation about what the Federation is and introduce... If I saw a PowerPoint presentation like that, I'd be overwhelmed. I'd be awake, but... But then Rocktuck says, oh, equality, that would be nice. And that's the other thing too, that these people were all, they're all children, but they were all prisoners working in a labour camp. And so this is, this is them discovering that there's a different way of living, the sort of tyrannical villain hierarchy thing there's an alternative. Do we know why the ship was in the delta quality? No, or why it was buried. We don't, we don't know any of that yet. Because there's already there's already like arc fingerprints all over this. The tax scene to this and the 1st episode is like, find me my daughter, you know, I was like, oh, my God. Yeah, exciting. So they're going to be pursued by the sort of forces of, you know I can feel the season finale calling from here when he finally catches up with them. That is beautiful too. That's the other thing that they can do and they do so effortlessly on discovery is those sort of holographic, you know like the controls and control panels and stuff that aren't real and in Picard as well. It does do that thing, right? In anime, I find very strange as well. I think it's to accentuate the beauty of the face makes the eyes massive. That's normal, I think, in cartoons. I mean, they look very good, but it's, I find it very odd looking you know, like, because we don't have massive eyes, do we? Look at this space, though. Look at this space. Like, it's big. We're doing lots of medium close-ups at this point in the scene but you've got, look as well, as well as the space, as well as the beautiful ship, that you probably couldn't realise on a Star Trek budget. You've got like a rock creature, you've got a floating eyeball. You know, you've got a gelatinous jelly that's the cutest thing ever. I just think I just think it's a terrific cast of characters. And look at this. This is Dal, and he's explaining that he doesn't believe in the Federation because his life experience has led him to believe that you know, life is just, you know, rich people screwing you over essentially. And that whole conversation is taking place while they're standing on a giant Federation emblem, you know, in the middle of the floor. And so there is, I just think it's kind of marvellous, that these are people who have been oppressed and screwed over and they're now presented not just with a ship to escape in, but with a philosophy and a way of life that, you know, we know of from Star Trek, but they don't. Sounds like a pretty magnificent potential crew there. In fact, I love the fact that she says that in this episode. I think, isn't she? what a rag. I've seen some ragtag bunches in my time. I think you laughed on a lot of potential. But also as well, there's this kind of running thread through this of, oh gosh, what's the main character's name? Dow, the purple guy. Thank you. I'm going to need you for this. And so I was thinking enough. Um, to, like, we can go it alone. We don't need the hologram's help. We don't need anybody's help. And then, obviously, they're thrown into a situation so dire that he needs to call upon Janeway by the end and, you know, accept her help. I think that's really lovely too. Um, this, this, uh, the female character. Please help me out. Thank you. One, I think, is a really terrific vocal performance. I think it's great. She's really good. Um, but two, I like that there is a character there that doesn't want to be there as well. Except I think she sort of does. And it's like the relationship between these 2 and no doubt we're going to hear about it more. Like, they liked one another. They knew each other well. They liked one another. When she's speaking to her father, she kind of downplays that a beard. She says she says he's like, you know, barely compensated. he's got no intelligence. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. I mean, you know you know that by the end of the season, she's absolutely going to be integrated into this crew. Oh yeah, but will she, uh, you know, like I'll be really interested to see how they do the relationship between them. All right. Now this is the diviner, who is our main villain, and he was in a water tank for some reason, and we were just going lovingly over his suit, which seems to have some kind of cooling system, like a water thing. So we might find out about that. Um, And, you know, Star Trek films have done big villains like this, but the show itself doesn't normally, and these are very Star Trek characters, aren't they? Like, I think, you know, dread knock is a bit like General Grievous from Attack of the Clones or whatever. And, you know, this guy is just straight out of Clone Wars or something like that. I mean, I just think this whole series. Obviously, you know, it is Star Trek, but this is as close to Star Wars as we're going to get. But look at that. Look at that set. Like the massive mess hall, which has a big interior window open into another space. It looks big. One of the things that I always loved about the Sarah Jane Adventures was that it was supposedly aimed at children and yet it always had these like emotional moments that really here. And this series is doing it as well already. And there's this, so this is a comedy sequence where he gets, you know, the hideous tellerized. It's so gross. But then, then, the rock, the rock creature's name. Thank you. Gets the prison food because that's all she's ever known. all this she's ever known. that's really sad. And yeah, yeah, and look at her and listen to the vocal performance. It's the only food I've ever had. It is, oh, it's so sweet. And I see, there's a big distance between them and Janeway at the moment. They don't know one another. And I'm actually looking forward to her integrating a little bit more. But the fact that she gave that a positive reason as well. I love a woman who knows what she wants. Yeah, I think that's going to be a really nice like, this Murphy's like just vomiting on 0 in this scene. You know how we say like, I'm and Shimmerman is the MVP of... And we said, the doctor is the MVP Voyager. Murph is the empire. He steals this episode as well. All right. In the bit where he goes, because in the 1st episode, he keeps randomly doing things that saves the day and they say to him at the end, are you going to do something random that saves the day and he just sort of burps. Yeah, it's round about me. I think he's going to get the best comedy moment of every episode. It's a great character. Yeah, look, there's Dal. And these two, I like this. I think this is kind of the primary relationship in the episode isn't it? It's Dal and 0 and they work really, really well together. And I think 0 is an incredibly good character for just, you know like a ball, a sort of eyeball in a thing. Um, oh, this thing's here, weird. Rock talk is it? Thank you. Visiting her in prison. Like, this scene is played out in duet. Yeah. You know, like this... Yeah, it's beautiful. It's comparable. It is absolutely comparable. But having her just be a small child as well, you know, why didn't you help us? And then she just leaves her food, like the food. Oh my word. And just an act of generosity towards somebody who's been very cruel to her in the past. It's beautiful. And her reaction to it as well, as well. Green doesn't say anything in response, but there's just that look. It is stunning. I don't know what I was expecting from the episode after the pilot but a character drama was not what I was expecting at all. And I was very pleasantly surprised and that was what we got. Yeah, well, they need to introduce the characters to us properly. And think about, you know, how badly, say Star Trek, the Next Generation, flubs this by making the 1st regular episode, like the Naked Now, which is... And then and then code of honour. Yeah, yeah. And this is really good. I'm excited to see why they have 2 warp cause and a thing. Do you think it's a spore drive, the round thing or something? Maybe, maybe, maybe. I think I think this is definitely a show that's going to introduce elements and like progress them and pay them off as they go along. You know, it's going to be... I don't know when this is set at all. I don't know when this is said, like how long has this ship been here? I don't know. No, but I mean, there is, there is the option. I know how to whinge about this at the beginning, but there is the option to potentially revisit Voyager locations, isn't there? I guess so. Meet the 8472. They'll they'll do the Sun Carts episode where they're all doing WWS, you know? Get Rock the Dwayne Johnson in. And this too, right? So he's he lies all the time because he's had to be devious in order to survive and he tried to escape and, you know, he has disrespect for the authority that's placed over him because that authority is sort of evil and corrupt and exploitative. And so there's going to be a journey here, clearly, where he actually learns to be the captain and a proper Starfleet captain. And so that's going to be the the Janeway, um, Dow relationship. The Janeway effects. Yeah, yeah. Her job is to teach him to be a captain, to teach him to, and it's sort of happening here, isn't it? Where everyone gets involved in the resolution of the, of the plot and works together. Um, whereas, you know, Dal is just trying to be captain and get the big chair and the big quarters and all of that. I'm so sorry, I was listening to you, but I was just looking at those stunning visual effects of them heading into that white dwarf star. It's incredible, isn't it? I have a feeling there will be at least one, you know, visually stunning set piece in every episode. Yeah, well, I mean, this looks beautiful. It really, really looks great. Like, I think, you can find me on this. I think this looks better than Discovery. I think this is, I think this is probably the best looking Star Trek show now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, you know, like discovery is a little bit, you know discovery is beautiful and cinematic and don't get me wrong, but this can just do more, you know, there's, you're not hampered by the fact that you've got actors. Yeah, it's also, I think, that this is creating a weird space that it's sort of designed to contrast with what we know of Star Trek. These are people who don't know about Star Trek and don't know about the Federation and they come from a place completely unlike anything we've seen in Star Trek. There is a point to be made here as well that, you know, this is what Voyager could have been. Like if they had a bit more visual imagination and they could have had a more kind of, they wouldn't have had, you know, aliens like this. But do you know what I mean? Like, like, so much of Voyager is TNG live? It's, it's, it's rehashing what's been done before. I don't think they're going to do that. No, you know? I mean, I mean, the main science fiction plot here is not very complex and and, you know, it is just we fall into a dwarf star and then we decide not to fall into a dwarf star or whatever. Like, and that doesn't matter because what is fun is getting them to discover the ship. It's called Starstruck. It sounds like Star Trek, and it is their response to seeing this incredible ship. Amazing show. Look at this. So the replicators on Discovery, because Discovery predates the invention of the replicator originally. They sort of had that sort of 3D printing thing, you know, like they would, there's a scene in a short trek where a uniform gets made 3D printed. And I think maybe that happens in discovery as well. And so this incredible scene where the, the replicator is, is 3D printing a shuttle and Gwyn are having this fight. Gorgeous, isn't it? I was reading that one of the short treks was animated, 3D animated. Is that right? two, yeah. And that was the 1st time this was done and that was when they realised that this had potential. There are 2 animated ones and they're both great. And one of them is stunningly sweet and beautiful and I think has no dialogue in it. It's really good. Which series is that? Um, it's actually a sort of ref on uh, on original Star Trek. So, yeah. so I think it's a sort of series 2 Discovery Series 2 thing. Oh, you know, this is also the, this is the 1st um, sorry, the pilot of this, yeah, was the 1st um, 2 episodes squished together. It's the Enterprise pilot, the way they just don't really do that anymore, do they? Well, no, they did it with Discovery. Discovery is... That's 2 episodes though, isn't it? It's not it's not a feature length. Well, the reason it's 2 episodes was to get people to subscribe to CBS all Access. Because they showed the 1st episode on CBS and then... not go there, Nathan, right, after the season 4 debacle. Yeah let's not. They call that a bit wrong, didn't they? They really did. I love how enthused 0 is by the prospect of being destroyed by this beautiful special effect. That's really funny. I mean, if you've got to go, right? That's virtually what he says. And Pog is so funny, holy crap, he's good. I love this fact that the whole ship is upside down, but she's the wrong way out. And she's got a holographic coffee. And Murphy's eating a chair. just like clever. And he's just munching on a chair. Yeah, so adorable. I actually don't want them to mess this up though. That's the trouble. Like, I don't want them to get it dirty. I was super worried in the mess that they would kind of... I don't think you've seen the episode of Lower Decks where there's the captain who hasn't taken the plastic covers off the off any of the consoles because she doesn't want it to get dirty and I feel like her. Do you remember the DSI episode where Nog trades out Cisco's chair to someone who's absolutely obsessed with having pictures taken on everyone's chest? Picard's chair and then anyone's... So jokes about that are, yeah. There's a precedent for those. And look, again, Janeway is so nice to Pog. And the animation of Pogs enthusiasm as well is just so well done. Do you know what? I swear that the shots of that shit. It's given me a hard on Nathan, honestly. It's amazing. It is a beautiful sheep. Like it is, you know, you always talk about the visual part of television and Kurtzman trek just goes for it, doesn't it? I watched a whole bunch of Star Trek, the next generation last night, and they were good episodes and I enjoyed them a lot, but just visually, you know, they find a grammar by about series 3, and then that version of Star Trek is... Maybe maybe not until sort of latter-day DS9 when they can suddenly start filling the screen with CGI spaceships and doing sort of dynamic action. But even those, though, are, you know, like he is a cartoon of some spaceships and now back to the sets that we know and love and have no reflective surfaces on them. And, you know the, sorry, sorry to know, you know, the gaseous cloud. Yeah. What's it called again? I'm going to be doing this a lot. Do you know, sometimes I stick on YouTube, you know, and watch these lovely swirly patterns. I think it's supposed to be very calming. Why should they do one of that? Because I'll tell you what, there's something very beguiling about what's going on. like that, I ball. Yeah, well, but if you look properly at it, You go mad. Oh, this, don't worry. I'm already there I see, I've already. Oh, man. Yeah, very oop. Yeah. I was really sad in the pilot, you know, when it ended. And that's a sign that you're, you know, bet you remember I turned off discovery, but I was, you know, I was really sad when the credits hit in that 1st one. I think... It's so sweet. And then this shot here of of Dal and Janeway. And it is just that he is going to learn to be a captain. He's going to learn to be a bit less self-centred. Look at Murph in the captain's chair. But he's also in-built. You remember, oh, that blur is so gorgeous. Oh my word. Do you know what? Are they selling toys if they're not? They should be. But with the lead, the guy that's going to learn to be a captain. He's got like the, you know, Kirk had all those characteristics of being a bit edgy and a bit dangerous and playing against the rules. Like, he's got that in build. He's a prisoner. He's not someone from the Federation, you know, and he's going to learn those values, but he'll have that sort of dangerous side to him as well. Yeah, but we all love the captain. He's super appealing. Like he's a really likeable kid. Yeah, yeah. It's a massively likeable cast of characters. God, I love pog so much. I'm, you know, I don't think about, think about Picard that for a second. Yeah. Like, you know, some of those characters are quite nice. They're really hot guy. He's really, really nice. But like, you know, they're kind of, some of them are pretty depressing to be around, aren't they? Yeah, yeah. Look. Yeah, that show was sort of miserable. I liked Picard. Oh, and look, there's another cation. Like, you know, the cat people. like Dr. Tana from Lower Decks and... Yes, I know that is... There's one in there's one in the animated series and there's one in one of the JJ Abrams films, so they are... I know. It's that thing. What the hell is it? Is it made up of Christian? What are we looking at? And then the shield thing that makes it disappear and that's what they've been mining for. And like, I don't know what that is. What's that shape coming to the camera? Okay, you out there, you listening to this podcast. Okay, listen to the awe in our voices. If you did not want to give this a go because you thought this was Star Trek for kids. Give this a go. really bloody good. And it turns out that Star Trek for kids is a great idea and that it actually works. And I think that the premise is really just the perfect introduction because the kids can identify with these outsiders who don't know anything about Star Trek or the Federation or whatever. They're the sort of people who would never have been leads in a Star Trek show, and here they are given a show, and it's wonderful. Do you think this is such a success? Because I think they really knocked this out of the park for these 1st 3 and it's very confident in what it wants to do. Do you think this is the result of them already having done 3 shows? and kind of learning what works, what doesn't, This is what people want. I think that every Kurtzman trek has shown that we've learned something from doing the previous one. And I think discovery is great. Like most days it's my favourite modern trek and maybe my favourite trek because it is visually weird. I love the characters. It has things to say on the whole. But I think Picard is sort of slicker and more confident when it comes along. I think lower decks come straight out of the gate knowing exactly what it wants to do and what it wants to be. And I think this one does as well. I think prodigy is really interesting. My biggest surprise then with Kurtzman Trek is the 2 shows that I figured would hit for me, Discovery and Picard. I have massive reservations about still. And the 2 shows I was really wary of, and that's the comedy and the juvenile show, they're the 2 that I've instantly fallen in love with and gone along for the ride. All right, so we are about to choose the Star Trek episode that we are going to do in our next podcast episode. And Joe Tellus how we're choosing it. So for the 2nd time in uh, hang on a minute. What episode will this be? our ninth episode? Eighth? 10th, I think. My word. In the 2nd time in 10 episodes, we are including all Star Trek shows. because that's rather exciting and we just don't know what we're going to get. All right, I am a bit excited by this, actually. It could be anything. Okay, all right. I'm always fairly excited when I'm podcasting with you, but I'm doubly excited, right? Absolutely. So this is untitled Star Trek project.com slash randomiser, which is where you all go to work out what Star Trek episode to watch next. If you are using the randomiser and you want to at us with what you've been selected, we'd love to know. That would be really interesting, actually. I have no, there's no kind of analytics on the site. I literally have no idea how many people go there. Unless you're about you force me to watch some Rosa or something like that. So good. All right. Press the button. Okay. I'm going Oh, it's sub-Rosa. It's not, it's possibly the best Voyager episode. Oh, we have done to already. Tell me, tell me, tell me. It's Scorpion. Ooh, which is phenomenally good. Although we have just done a Voyager. All right. Okay. It's a two-parter, too. It is a 2 par, so yeah, I know. I know. Okay, I'm going to go again. All right? Okay. Here we go. It's a Star Trek Enterprise episode. Season one again. Oh, what's it called? Episode 6, Terror Nova. Oh, I don't remember that. It's just Latin, by the look on your face, you don't want to remember it. It's Latin for new earth. I don't I don't really remember it. I may not have got that far. Okay. Oh my god. I pressed it again and and I will not press the button again. Okay, it's the it's our 3rd one. What is it? It's Star Trek, the original series. Oh, excellent. It's series 3. Episode one, spot. Oh my god. That's brilliant. Oh, absolutely that. I'm so excited. Notoriously the worst episode of Star Trek until Threshold came along in Voyager. Shades of Grey. Do you know what? I think it has a massive kitch value spot spray. Oh, absolutely that. Yeah, yeah. I'm not elevated to watch this. I can't wait. stupid premise. Well, it's like Neelix's lungs, isn't it, in Fage? No, this is way bad. This will be our finest episode. You've been listening to Untitled Star Trek Project with Joe Ford and Nathan Bottom League. You can find us online at untitledstar trekproject.com or you can find links to our Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube channel. Our podcast artwork is by Kayla Ciceran, and the theme was composed by Cameron Lamb. This episode was recorded on the 22nd of December 2021 and released on the 7th of January 2022. We'll see you next time for the original series, Spot's Brave.