Hey, Joe. Hi.
It's another first for us. today on Untitled Star Trek project.
Why is that?
Because today, Nathan, we are covering the spectacular triumph of
the Star Trek franchise?
I've always known as Star Trek, the animated series.
Yeah.
It's our 6 month anniversary, as the kids say.
And we thought we'd celebrate by branching out and doing a whole
new series.
Do you realise something?
Do you realise that we've only got one new place to go now?
Yeah, we got to do a film.
Oh no, no way.
Pre soon we'll have to.
Yeah, that's true.
That's true.
Probably by the time this is out, actually, this episode, we'll
have strange new movies.
Trader looks amazing, doesn't it?
Yeah, yeah, it looks incredible.
Which brings us to the animated series.
How did you find it?
Does it also look incredible?
No.
In fact, it reminded me a bit of Star Trek, the Next Generation
and how it was directed in air quotes.
It's a bit sedate and it's an animation, isn't it?
When you compare it, and obviously lower decks is in the future
and animation techniques have progressed a lot.
However, I think this is, given that it is animation and they can
do whatever they want to do.
This is more stately than the live action Star Trek of the 1960s.
Yeah, it's funny, isn't it?
I mean, because it's serious, they have to make the people look
kind of like people and they sort of manage that, but it means
that they've got a very limited range of facial expressions, they
all look very similar to one another.
It is bloody serious, isn't it?
It wasn't a lot of laughs, you know?
No, there wasn't a lot of personality coming out in the voices.
Again, skip forward to lower decks where they are actually giving
like, you know, proper vocal performances, aren't they?
I kind of felt like they dragged the original series in, in fact, I
learn in my fabulous fact sheet here that I crypt off YouTube, that
Shatner was recording some of his scenes for this.
Like in breaks in a theatre show he was doing at the theatre. just
into a microphone.
Like in the bath or, you know, like, it's like, you know, so he's
phoning it in.
Yeah, make a martini for me.
I just got to go do these lines for the elevator series.
I'll be back.
Yeah.
There isn't really a lot of fun to be had in the performances and
the thing is very po-faced and very basic, I think.
I think I think what um... someone like Rossi Davis learned, Far
Ledger, in England, when he was doing the Sarah Jane Adventures
for Doctor Who, which is kind of like the child friendly version
of Doctor Who, is that if it's funny, it's very likeable.
It's very approachable and you want to go on that journey.
This is not funny.
It's basically all of the original series without the jokes.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, the original series is not po-faced like this.
No, not at all.
Even the most recent episode that we did.
Yeah, they did with Kirk, going, get me out of here.
Come on.
Like with a charming, funny, clever performance.
And it wasn't complicated, but this is, I think, much less
complicated than it needs to be. it's very basic Well, Dorothy
Fontana is quoted as saying that they were told it couldn't be too
cerebral.
And the episodes had to come in at about 20 pages.
So it had to be short and snappy and simple.
Yeah.
Well, I think they succeeded with that, you know.
Yeah, yeah.
But I don't know.
All I can imagine is just the kind of crushing disappointment that
you would have felt after hearing there was new Star Trek after
it's disastrously premature cancellation in 1967.
And then you're back here in 1973, mere 4 years later thinking, ooh
new Star Trek.
And right from the moment you hear that music, you know that it's
going to be lounge music.
What the hell is that all about?
I think that the beginning of it is referenced in the lower decks
theme.
I think the opening tons, as I've been doing research, as is my
wont, there's loads of TAS references across Star Trek now, but do
you know what's interesting is nobody referenced it until after
Gene Rogenbury died.
And that's because he declared that this wasn't Canon.
Canon.
So what, well, yeah, I know how you feel about Kenneth, but Gene
Roddenbury is obviously, you know, the great god of the Star Trek
universe.
And if he says that TAS is not Canon, then, you know, there's a
huge contingent of Star Trek fans, they can listen to him.
And so after he died, I think the 1st proper reference to TAS was
a unification, which references yesteryear, which is the 2nd TAS
episode, which is about Spock and his childhood.
And then the Star Trek movie with Chris Pine, there's scenes of
Spock being bullied by a load of kids, well, those scenes play out
in the TAS episode yesterday.
So that's a direct reference to that, and then you know with
Kurtzman, they've got the characters, the BEM character, and Umres
the Catwoman is one of her species is one of the regulars.
Yeah, yeah.
And Arax, uh, the, who's an Alosian or something stupid there is
an Arax, uh, an Alosian in one of the lower decks episodes.
And Spock 2.
We see his skeleton in...
So they've obviously embraced it and of course they should.
I mean, canon.
Absolutely they should.
Yeah, and if they can take, if they can take elements of this
series that could have been a lot of fun, but wasn't, and make
them a lot of fun, like that fabulous character that was segmented
in that episode of Lower Decks that we watched.
I mean, that was really fun, wasn't it?
Her head in her body was all flowing about the place.
From an episode that is actually really boring.
Oh, really?
Yeah, yeah.
There are some fun moments actually to be had with Bam.
He does do some hilarious things because he can detach bits of his
body and that is kind of funny, but it's a pretty crappy episode
as well.
Can I very quickly just tell you how this came to be, the animated
series.
So, well, obviously Star Trek was cancelled because they were
churning out episodes like Spock's brain.
No, actually, I think they were churning out episodes like Spot's
Brain because they knew they weren't wanted anymore and nobody was
really trying.
But anyway, it went to the dogs.
Turn about and True does where we departed TOS.
And then it was syndicated and then NBC realised they had hot
property on their hands and there was a massive market for Star
Trek and they had this huge fan base.
And so there was a cry to make the series again.
So they genuinely approached Jim Rodney Ritter. going to make the
TV show again.
Like, this is really popular and he's like, well, duh.
You know?
It's not the 1st studio to make a bad call, is it?
But what happened was all the sets had been destroyed and all the
props.
So if that hadn't have happened, they would have made a full
season of the original series, but it was just too costly for them
to basically start from scratch.
So some time past, so they were trying to think about all these
different ways to create Star Trek again.
And then the idea for animation came up.
In the mid 70s, this came out, didn't it?
like 74, I think.
I think this episode was screened in 1973 sometime.
And they went to Filmation, they're called, who were like the big
animation company of the time that were making like all the
Saturday morning animations that you watched, but notorious and
popular for making it on the cheap.
Yes.
So, uh, their notoriety came from the fact that they reused
footage.
And you could see that.
In this episode, I saw that same high angle shot on the bridge
about 8 hours again.
And so, yeah, that's how this came to be.
Jean Robin Brew said, let's go for it.
Later on, he kind of disassociated himself from it and DC Fontana
basically took creative control of this thing and she considers it
to be the 4th season of the original series and he basically said
well, it was a bit of a joke.
Let's forget that ever existed and we'll go on and do phase two.
But one thing, are you ready for this?
One thing that's really interesting is they never contacted
Michelle Nichols and Walter Canig to be a part of this and Leonard
Nimoy, the more I learn about Leonard Nimoy, the more I love him
refuse to be a part of it unless they were.
Wow.
And he said this show was supposed to be about diversity. and
inclusion.
And I will not be a part of this.
And they knew, they couldn't do this without me. like, you know
Spock's the most popular character.
And so what happens was Nichols was brought in.
Chekhov wasn't, and he was replaced by Lieutenant, is it Eric?
Axe, yeah. and Lieutenant M. Res, but he was brought in to write
an episode and he wrote an episode in the 2nd season.
So he was included as well.
And just the one other interesting rule, I thought it was quite
interesting, in fact, is that there was a writer's strike whilst
TOS was TAS was being produced and the prestigious writers of the
original series weren't like, there were specific rules.
They weren't allowed to write for TV if they were being involved
in this strike, but they could write animated stuff, which is why
they managed to get in like David Gerald, DC Fontana, and all of
these, you know, popular writers like to write this kiddie
animated show for Star Trek.
So what's astonishing name really, is it ain't better than it
actually is?
So this is, you said that when you were looking this one up and
this is the time trap, that it is in people's kind of top 5
lists.
Wow.
So what was David Gerald doing?
He was sort of dictating, again, from the bath or something like
that, because this is not good.
No, it's not.
Do you know what?
I did enjoy it more the 2nd time around, though, because I was
less shocked by the quality of the animation, local performances
and all that.
I kind of I kind of betted in my mind that it actually looked and
sounded pretty shit.
Some of those voice performances, honestly.
Hello, Captain Car.
Very strange.
And I just enjoyed like the concept and things like that.
And I think some of the ideas here have actually got legs and
probably could have been a live action episode.
We'll go into that.
Maybe that's true.
But, um, a couple more bits, right?
will skip into this thing.
Did you know the 1st holodeck appeared in the animated series.
Oh, really?
In the episode called The Practical Joker, and it was known as the
Rec Room.
But essentially it had the same function as the holodeck from the
next generation.
Wow. you go.
And that was in there. and that had nothing to do with, nothing to
do with Gene Roddenbury as well.
And this is the better fact, though.
In the, I think it's the Lorelei signal, uh, which there's an
episode about a load of evil women, you know, that's how to want
to do back then, um, there's a rare moment where a female takes
command of a starship, and that's Ahura.
There's the 1st time that happens.
Yeah.
Because it wasn't allowed in the original series that the premise
of the final episode turnabout intruder. is that we can't have
ladies starship captains.
But it did happen in the unaired pilot with number one.
She too.
But obviously it was an unaired pilot.
So officially, it's not Canada.
Never happened.
And my very my very last fact before we jump in is, and this is
quite exciting, is, I mean, it would have been terrible.
Had the 2nd series, had an entire series.
The finale of that, which is supposed to see out TAS, was going to
be the end of the five-year mission.
Oh, okay.
And that might have been quite interesting to see.
And that's a shame that never happened.
Oh, well. not that heartbroken.
Look, we got to get for all of these at some point, all right?
No, we don't.
I'll be dead before then All right.
Okay.
So I will count us in in that case.
Okay, let's do it.
Five, four, three, two, one, and we're off.
Do you know that this music for the animated series was done by 2
kind of prestigious musicians.
I think I turned out so bad. bit crappy, isn't it?
It's terrible.
I like the bit, so we're going straight into the opening credits.
We don't get a teaser, we just have the opening credits, and it's
trying, it's best to ape, the original, and it's a reasonable
job.
Why would you even, you're an animation.
You could make this as slick as you want.
Well, no, you can't.
I mean, look at there's a bit...
The way the ship just glides across the screen in a straight
line.
It does actually turn at one point, but obviously that requires
them to draw, you know, like different angles of the ship over and
over again, and it's actually quite an expensive process.
And so they manage it once.
Oh, no, that's one.
There's one that flew overhead.
But it looks shitty because there are no computers and they
can't.
I could just like, I could just imagine someone with holding the
ship on a stick and just sit going across...
Well, that's the original.
That's the original title.
Okay, see this here we go.
Stardate 52.2 So they've forgotten how stardates work.
That's a very small number for a start date. don't know.
It's normally in the thousands.
Are we in the year 52 now then?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I have no idea what this is.
So this is the Bermuda Triangle, which was a bit essential.
Yeah, isn't it?
Like the, it was a big deal back then.
I remember the...
It's an unknown region of space where ships are going missing.
It's triangular, though. absolutely a triangle.
My ears did prick up when I heard the word delta, though, you know
I was like, my God, this isn't the 1st reference of the Delta
Quadrant, is it?
No, it's another universe, isn't it?
Yeah, or something.
They call it a pocket universe, which I think is kind of cool, and
they have a rather poetic way of referring to it.
So here instead of Chekhov, we have Arax, who says absolutely fuck
all in this episode and barely moves.
Is he speaking?
I don't think he ever talks or moves.
Really?
But they didn't want to animate it properly.
So he just sits at the console.
That's all he ever does.
Really?
I thought Jimmy Dewan did his voice or something.
I was convinced that he was a real character.
I'm not sure.
I got it in me to watch through the entire run to find out if I
want to.
So he has an arm coming out of his chest in the middle of his
chest, so he's got 3 arms.
Massive elongated neck.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, it's quite, that's one thing they could have done, a lot
more of in this, isn't it?
have weird aliens on the bridge and walk in the corridors and
things.
Yeah, well, in fact, even lower decks has weirder aliens than
current live action, Star Trek.
You know, it's got that bird, who's the counsellor, and it's
obviously got Dr. Tana, who is superb.
Well, look at prodigy as well, with fabulous gelatinous murf, you
know?
and that floating eyeball and that.
There's a teller I in this episode, actually.
Oh, yeah, I noticed that.
And gone.
Isn't there a go?
There's a corn.
Yeah, yeah.
All gets to that bit.
In fact, George Decay is quoted as saying that he thought the
animator was a massive disappointment because they did have the
opportunity to visit these, you know, vast alien vistas and things
like this.
I said, and we ended up just aping the series.
And what's the point of that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it's cheap as fuck.
I mean it's really shockingly bad, isn't it?
Like, and it was super extreme close-up.
It was actually super expensive to make because of paying the
actors.
So even though...
Now look at this.
This is a Klingon, right, on the viewscreen. isn't that cool?
Yeah, but he gets called Kiri in the 1st scene and then his call.
Commander Curry of the Klingon Imperial fleet.
But then after that, oh, no, because it's called the one that's
inside just vanished.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So this is Curry.
Commander Curry, the gay Klingon, who is threatening them now.
And then we get core, is core played by...
He is John Collios.
Yeah.
The same actor.
Yeah, yeah.
And that's one thing. you know what?
I will credit TS for that, definitely, in that when they bring
back characters like Harry Mard and things like that.
They get them playing them.
Wow.
So they may not have attention to detail anywhere else, but things
that appeared in the original series.
They're all like shit. brilliant.
See, that's a fair shot of the enterprise.
But that does just feel like a piece of model work from the
original series.
No, but you see that they have to draw it from each angle, which
is why it looks slightly odd as it turns around.
And they can't quite do it frame like a lot of frames.
It's very kind of juddery, isn't it?
Yeah.
Well, you would do that with a computer now and it was much harder
to do in the 70s, I guess.
Even the 80s I think.
Why are they animating all these scenes with these massive close
ups?
Like, it's the most dramatic dialogue ever because, bam, we're
suddenly straight in everyone's face.
Well, I think that they, you know, they're just sticking the
character against a background.
And look, all the controls are going out of out of whack or
something, but they all fucking look like they always do.
It's just a bunch of flashing lights.
I just remember Ahura having such triangular boobs as she had in
that scene there. you know, they've not done a lot. look.
Yeah, they look like Shila Madonna.
They're perky, aren't they?
They're geometric is what they are.
I think the reason why people like this episode is because it's a
mystery soul.
It's a bit of a puzzle and it brings in these 2 tenets of the show
the enterprise and the Klingons, and they have to work together
and you know the Klingons are going to portray them.
And do you know what I mean?
There's like, it's, it's not complicated, but it's playing about
with popular elements of the original series.
Yeah, I think that's true.
Oh my god.
Wait, can I just say that on that screen there?
Doesn't that, that, see, Sargasso Sea of ships look just like the
space cullenders from that end of season, Blake 7 episode?
They're even the same colour.
You know, they design them on that, you know.
I actually think that it reminded me a little bit of Federation
headquarters in Discovery Series 3 and 4 where you have all of
those utterly weird looking ships where you don't even really know
what you're looking at or why they're shaped the way they are.
I kind of like that.
Those ships look like a bunch of kitchen appliances.
Well, yeah, no, they look terrible, but unlike Discovery.
But like I kind of appreciate the idea.
I thought, um, I thought one vocal performance actually had a bit
of warmth and character to it.
Can you guess who that is?
Jimmy doing.
No.
No, Tulu.
Nope.
Oh, okay.
Defores Kelly.
Oh, really?
Yeah, he's a couple of lions that he had.
He's trying to inject a bit of character in.
Leonard Nemoy literally sounds like a robot in this.
Yeah, no, he can't be asked.
And Shadow is clearly, clearly just rattling off these lines
without any kind of warmth at all.
Oh, now he's the original starship that has warp drive, the
Bonaventure, which is absolutely, so this isn't Canon.
Excuse me, I never, ever thought I would hear you say those
words.
Well, anyway.
It's contradicted by later episodes, as we know.
So what occurred here?
What forces them into this strange region of space?
It's a Bermuda triangle.
That's what they do.
They just suck up ships for no reason. didn't realise you were an
expert in these things, you know.
But see, the representatives of the council of the Delta, whatever
it's called, they're like, well, you know, we came here and we all
try to escape, and then we all sort of...
Well, then when they get out of this at the end, it's really
fucking easy.
And I'm like, well, you could have tried that hard, could you?
You basically just reversed, you know?
No, but they thought of joining 2 ships together.
No one else had thought of that.
Oh, God, that's true.
Kirk Spanish.
Okay.
Yeah.
Dramatic close up on Spock's face.
And Spock, who seems completely unperturbed.
You know what?
Slight movie of the eyebrows.
I don't know why they're doing all these close-up.
They ain't got animate nothing else.
Have they?
already got the face.
Yeah, yeah, just put the face up to the camera.
Look, the camera.
Sorry, I'm talking about it. like it's actually being directed.
No, no, it's cheap.
They're not having to put any detail around them.
No, no, they just put a backdrop.
When you watch BEM or BEM.
Was it the same in that as well?
Pretty much, but they did go outside.
Like they they went down to a planet and some things happened.
Oh, this Orion woman, so we're now in voice.
Well, it's not a voice. the rest of the commentary sounded like
a...
No, no, no, no.
Mira or whatever her name is, the weird one who...
Look, so there's a cat.
It's not cat with butt is.
I don't know, but there's an Andorian there.
There's some insect.
Look, this lady has no nose.
She's a lady with no nose.
Why did she have no nose?
Who is that green thing?
I don't know.
There's a Tellrite there.
And then there's another lady...
You see that woman there?
She's got the same triangular boomers.
They've used the same boobs.
So, so, but there's this sort of sere woman who has the stupid
vocal performance and then there's this Orion lady who must be
freezing to death like she's there at the council in a bikini.
It's super upsetting.
They've got fabulous central heating.
Just don't mention it.
No, because she's an Orion, aren't they?
They're always...
Tandy doesn't wear...
Yeah, we're not in the 70s anymore.
That's why.
Emancipated times have hits.
Yeah, maybe that's it.
There was a recent...
Oh my god, you were right.
Look how stupid the Tellerrite looks.
They've got it right in prodigy.
Even in discovery they look shit.
Okay, let's just step back from how really terrible this looks.
Because even like this council, it could have been all on
different levels and people flying about and all of that.
No, it's just a load of people sitting around the table that we're
going to pan across very, very laboriously.
But we have more aliens than we could have afforded.
Yeah.
And it's all these different aliens from the original series kind
of altogether.
That's kind of fun, right?
Yeah.
In fact, there is something and it did sort of jog a weird memory
and maybe I dreamed it or something, but the idea where you have a
group of people from different antagonistic races who are kind of
thrown together.
Maybe it's a little bit like...
There's a next generation one.
Isn't there where Picard is there's a fake Picard put on the
Enterprise?
And then he's thrown in.
There's a Nausicon.
And he is a Nausicon, but he looks like a Nausicon.
The dreadful twist is, is that the nice looking guy is the evil
one and the evil is the guy is the nice one. a bit.
I thought it was a Bolian lady who was the villain.
Anyway, it was all bullshit.
But something like that.
You know, like the idea that these people who are all enemies.
It would have been more effective if there'd been Klingons there.
Oh, Margan.
Here's your stupid film.
Nathan, I think if you was going to be in TAS, you would play
Morgan, you know?
Yes, I can see them.
Oh, God. so bizarre.
You've got to wonder this woman's doing this vocal performance
into our microphone.
She must be thinking now if my career comes to this, honestly.
Yeah.
No, maybe she was a big Star Trek fan.
She was super excited. nice though, you know.
They've got a few more women involved in this, haven't they?
than you'd get in your average TOS episode.
That's true I love how this, the chief guy who's a Vulcan is
called Sirius with an X. And so I keep, you know, you cannot be
Zarius. are you are you serious?
You know, like it just seems like it's very stupid.
How he's playing the...
Oh, man.
Yeah, it's really, really, like, there's no subtlety in the
performances, is that?
And I don't think they're supposed to be.
This is supposed to be for young kids, isn't it?
Like young, young kids.
So can I like make an unfair comparison and compare this to Star
Trek Prodigy?
Yeah, because, well, Star Trek Prodigy is aimed at children and
obviously a lot more money and effort and care is going into it
than is going into this.
Obviously.
Well, obviously.
And obviously, you know, the technology is, um, what, you know, 50
years uh, better.
But there is a complexity and just the writing is streets ahead
just streets ahead.
And the expectations.
I don't think there's any characterisation at all, weirdness.
Whereas the characterisation in prodigy is brilliant, you know.
But I mean, the characterisation in original Star Trek is very
good.
Yeah, but it's okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But it was also what we were talking about last time we did a Star
Trek, the Next Generation episode where we talked about people
being their jobs, and that is a feature of original Trek.
And Trek doesn't do characterisation so much as just have some
really good performers in very well-defined roles.
I think it does strong characterisation amongst a trio, like the
main trio.
That's where all the characterisation is.
And then you get peppered bits of characterisation with the rest
of them, you know?
Yeah.
So we've decided to join the ships together because we think
that's going to work and no one else has had that idea before.
I know these are supposed to be, you know, these smart
representatives of these various races.
You think they all come with different ideas and be like, well
we'll try this.
No, obviously join our ships together.
But I think you only have a window as well because the dilithium
starts to decay and so there is some line about it.
They can only do it immediately after they arrive because they're
fuel disintegrates or something.
This moment here wears spots like, oh, you lovely gentleman.
Oh, what a marvellous idea.
And they're like, Spock, what's wrong with you?
he's like, I'm so sorry, I was overcome in the moment.
It's such a funny line.
It is a really funny line.
I thought he was hitting on them at...
Well, it reminds me of about that scene between Garrick and Bashir
you know, where his hand goes in his shoulder.
He refers to, he refers to one of them as a young man.
Take this young man down and, you know, showing a good time.
Klingon there with his hands on his hips like he's about to go
into Panto.
One of those Klingons.
It's called Kaz.
And I had a friend called Karen that we all called Kaz.
Yeah, that's all I like, dude.
I think he's Karen or Caroline.
I couldn't work out a witch.
Like Clearo Commander is just trying to be like the hip manager
isn't it?
That's poor, by the way.
We're finding enjoyment in this where we can.
Yeah, but when cool comes back, right?
And now it's now it's start 85276 point something.
So I think the 1st time when it was Stardate 5, 2.2.
Yeah, it was just Shatner not giving a shit or like leaving some
numbers out.
Yeah, he's just looking around looking around the theatre.
Oh, there's 52 up there.
We'll say that.
I really wanted to put 52.2 as the stardate for this episode on
the website, but no, I've got to, you know, do the right thing.
If it's 5,2,7, 6, 8.
I really care.
Is that a wonderful line?
Look at this. all the ships there in the space.
It's awesome.
It's so weird because there's no like there's no nuance in the
face animation, is there?
So like, so like, it's like when you see those Doctor Who
animations they're bringing out now and you've got like Patrick
Troughton's face looking like it's made out of clay and all this
moving is the mouth, you know?
So you lose all the subtleties of the performance.
Now don't get me wrong.
I don't think there's any subtleties in the voice performances
either.
No, no, they're just not bothering.
They are really phoning it in.
Do you remember like when we were watching the court might
maneuver and you were saying about how, like, relaxed and charming
Shatner could be, just how it carries himself and things like
that?
You're not going to get any of that here, are you?
You know?
It's a shame.
In the doomsday machine.
That superb line reading at the end, which I just absolutely
adored.
And, you know, there's no scope for that here because there's no
facial expressions.
No scope for charm.
That's No, that's it, isn't it?
Oh yeah.
I mean, maybe there are fun ones.
I do know there are kind of weird oddball ones that are a little
bit more fantastic and stuff, which is what original Star Trek
does.
It's not all just, this is kind of space things, but there must be
oddball things that are a bit more fun.
Can I make an unfair comparison as well, as you did as well?
Because do you know what, right?
This is incredibly serious.
And uh, stately and a space problem.
At times, this reminded me of some of the worst episodes of the
next generation. episodes like force of nature, you know, and
things like that where they're just standing around talking
technobabble in a very serious way.
Yeah, I think they get their inspiration from the animated series
you know?
They could, they could well be.
Instead, they should have been looking at the original series.
Lady Klingon.
That's Carl.
Callie, Carly?
Carly.
Yeah.
Carly.
Carly and Kaz.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, I did like this though.
You know, nefarist bastards planting their bomb on the
Enterprise.
Put some clothes on, deer.
Honestly, it's a formal occasion.
I just, I'm upset. in touch with her sexuality, Nathan, all
right?
you think?
She's very, oh, yeah, she does.
Look how beautiful body she's got.
I'll be showing it off.
She does, mate.
That's funny.
Her hair doesn't seem to move at all, but you know.
No, she's using a lot of spray, you know?
It's the 60s.
They put to animating a poplar behind them.
Well, they haven't animated it.
They just drew it in the background.
It's not doing anything.
This is sophisticated culture.
They've got a black.
And also goes with her skin as well.
Is that racist?
Shame said that maybe that's racist.
Oh, wow, you know.
You don't want to edit this thing.
Don't worry.
Oh yeah, this is you can count on McCoy, right?
He starts to fight.
Oh, is this all planned?
Are they planning this fight?
No, no, no, no.
They're stupid.
They're fighting over a lady because they're stupid.
Because they're Klingons, right?
And I can't help but notice how well muscled Kirk and McCoy are in
their uniform was in the animated series.
And that wasn't really the case in the original series, was it?
Do you think they got to sign off on the character models?
Can you just beef me up a bit, you know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Whereas what you normally have.
What's that teddy bear?
Did you say that teddy bear?
Yeah, yeah, it's like a teddy bear.
No, the teddy bear is just the cat with bat wing ears.
Is it?
Al is it?
Oh, yeah, it looks very different from above, you know.
But you know what?
We've seen that shop from above about 50 times already.
And they don't have to animate it.
They're all just sitting there completely.
See, look that 2 shot.
Again, it's the close-ups on the face so we don't have to, like
all we need to do is animate its jaw here.
And yet, do you know what?
In the YouTube video I was watching, you know, exciting facts
about the animated series, there was some like fun alien vistas I
saw, there was some intriguing looking alien creatures.
So I think even if they're making it on the cheap, every now and
again, they, you know, they let their imaginations fly.
Yeah.
We're just not seeing it in this one.
No.
It's very strange how they're standing on the table on that
council too.
They're all sat around a table and the Klingons and and Kirk has
stood on the table.
This annoys me as well, right?
tedious analogue technology that they've got.
This is animated, for God's sakes.
You can have fabulous projections.
Look at what they do in prodigy with all the amazing screams
about.
But they've never thought of that.
The trouble is they haven't thought of it.
But you could do more than having something ticking down 10 to one
you know?
That's better than the show managed, I think.
Doctor Who in the 60s was doing more imaginative technology than
this.
Don't tell me there isn't the creativity there to do it.
It's just them aping the original series and just doing, oh, let's
just copy that and do the same thing.
Yeah, well that's all right.
Oh, God.
Is there any tension here?
Do you think they'll get to the bomb in time?
It's speed, isn't it?
When we hit warp 8.
It will explode.
This was the one that I really liked, where you add, no, it run in
a spot running down the corridor.
And then the eject button, there's just a handy thing where you
can eject things into space.
What is that on the original series?
That ejects.
I don't know.
We'll come in very anti, you know.
Yeah, if you blow your nose, you just sort of eject the thing into
space. trials and tribulations, but now that triple, it'll turn
out to be a bomb.
That would have been very handy to have had an eject button there
wouldn't it?
Well, they beam it out, don't they?
Like an explosion.
But you know what shocked me more than anything was, you know, like
okay, we've got out of this by doing something not so clever.
And then kind of just goes.
And that's why we did it, and there's a Starscape, and it's the
end.
Yeah, I didn't even understand that.
That's what matters. wrap up.
No, nothing.
It wasn't even like, I'll get you next time, Kirk.
It just ended.
Like, there is sort of a thing where they have the choice between
living in an idyllic society with a sexy Orion slave girl in her
pants or going back to their stupid time with Klingons and
fighting and stuff and they decide that's better.
And it's super weird.
So they're given a choice between sort of a utopia and the real
world.
I honestly don't think we're going into, you know, the subtle
depths of characterisation of that choice, you know.
It's just like, basically, you can even choose to stay here or go
well, we're going.
Goodbye.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And that's it.
There's no particular investigation of that choice.
But it is there.
I mean, it is a sort of thing, I guess.
Nathan, obviously something now.
Oh, yeah, no.
Amazing, how's the best part of the episode?
I'm going to tell you something now. stun you rigid.
You loved it.
I didn't think that was very good.
No, it's shit.
We'll have to do another one, though.
I can't wait till the next one rolls around because if that's a
good one, I can't wait to see a really bad one.
Well, a really bad one might be fun.
I think that perhaps this is too po faced.
And certainly, the people who make lower decks. have clearly
derived some enjoyment and there must be a long history that we
have somehow avoided of people watching this and making fun of it
which is a thing that we do even with properly good episodes of
Star Trek.
So there has to be something.
Kurtzman's made the choice, hasn't he?
or whoever is, you know, creatively in control of those series to
have the animated series as a part of the Star Trek franchise.
They're not, they're not going down the Roddenberry route of
saying this didn't happen.
It's all meshed up with all the other Star Trek, but they're, you
know, blowing kisses too, Next Generation, DS9 Voyager
Enterprise.
My favourite one is they actually refer to Spock and Kirk in an
episode of series one of Lower Decks, and we see a picture of them
on a pad and the pictures of them from the animated series.
Like it is just, yeah, yeah.
So like, and of course, because Canon isn't real.
I don't want to, you know, like I'm probably going to shock a lot
of Star Trek fans because Star Trek Canon is so important in a way
that it's not important in Doctor Who.
You know, Canon isn't a bright dividing line between things that
really happened and things that didn't happen.
Because spoiler alert, none of it happened.
It's all made up.
But what canon is, is what can you make reference to?
And you can make reference to anything in Star Trek that people
have memories of or enjoy or there's been decades of making jokes
about it?
And remember that shitty low effort Star Trek helmet that was the
worst piece of Star Trek merchandise ever because it didn't
resemble anything?
Like it's from the 60s.
It's like a helmet, it's got lights.
It's the most disappointing Christmas gift ever imaginable.
And Mariner has one stashed in the walls of the Cerritos and so
it's now cannon because it's a thing that Star Trek fans have a
folk memory of.
And so anything that we remember, any jokes that we've been making
for decades are all canon.
Well, can I tell you something, right?
as we duck out of this?
and I'm not ripping the shit out of this person because people
approach programs in different ways for me and that's absolutely
fair.
But I was listening to a podcast the other day, a Star Trek one.
And it was about the Voyager episode, Living Witness, you know, the
one where the doctor in the future and they've misremembered the
Voyager crew has this bunch of villains and and it is a
phenomenal.
This intelligent podcaster, was there going, well, I really don't
like this episode.
I mean, you know, that's not how the Voyager crew was at all.
And I'm like, that's the fucking point.
That's the point of the episode, we're gone.
And they're literally like their brain cannot understand.
Like, this is the whole thing about, you know, like memory alpha
and plotting everything in place and that's how it is, you know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it just couldn't comprehend how a society could misremember
the adventures of Star Trek Voyager.
And I was like, wow, that is that is canon there, right there.
Yeah, yeah.
You know?
It's a big problem for Star Trek.
And I think that one of the refreshing things about new Star Trek
is that it doesn't quite take that same path.
And it remembers Star Trek as a series of stories, a series of TV
shows that we can make reference to and riff on and play with, and
that's exactly the right approach.
And I agree, and I think that is, I mean, I've said it, I think
it's been done quite a lot, but to look back and cherry pick, like
the best of the past and play about with those toys in the
present.
Well, that's just wonderful.
Okay, it's time for us to choose our next episode, and so Joe is
on untitled Star Trek project.com slash randomiser, and you're
about to tell us which series we're choosing from, Joe. You know
one of these days, I'm going to shock everybody and I'll be the
one to say, okay, we're on on Toto.
That's my job.
Why break the formula?
So I want us to head back into Kersman Trek, because I think it's
been about 7 episodes now since we last touched upon it.
And I know there's a lot less of it, but I think jumping about all
the different time periods of Star Trek keeps this thing fresh.
So let's have a little look and see what we're going to get
today.
Your Star Trek prodigy episode is Dreamcatcher, season one, episode
four.
Yeah, I don't know what that's all about.
Do you?
Yeah, so we have done episode three, I think.
So episodes one and 2 are the pilot, and then we did episode three
which was the 1st regular episode.
And so Dreamcatcher is them kind of landing on their 1st alien
planet.
Oh.
I'm going to press off that show.
Okay, here we go.
Your Star Trek Picard episode is Season 2, Episode 3
Assimilation.
Oh, what do you reckon?
That's quite recent.
Well, that's very, very recent, and it gives us a chance to talk
about the 2nd season of Picard, doesn't it?
Yeah.
All right.
I'm up for that.
So I think that's so the 1st episode you have, I know, a very, very
strong 1st episode, Guine and Q, kind of, it feels very TNG, but
with a big budget and, you know, good actors.
Then the 2nd episode is we're into Nazi parallel world.
Seven of Niners as president and all of fabulous.
Absolute.
That episode was amazing.
And this is the 3rd episode where we're heading into the present.
That's right.
So we're heading to 2024, which is where the divergence apparently
happens.
So they're going back in time to prevent the evil future that
they've seen already from happening.
And so this is our 1st episode there.
Do you know what?
I've got a question then to out this is this is very, very new
Star Trek.
Where do we stand on spoilers?
Anything that's been broadcast is fair game, I think.
Yeah, that's what happens in this episode.
I remember.
Somebody dies in this episode.
Okay, well, maybe.
Yeah.
I can see Brandon Braga in the...
Watching the reset button.
Yeah, please.
We brought it back for the finale. none of it ever happened.
Well, it's a Q episode after all.
You've been listening to Untitled Star Trek Project with Joe Ford
and Nathan Bottomley.
You can find us online at untitled Star Trek Project.com, where
you can find links to our Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube channel.
Our podcast artwork is by Kayla Siseran, and the theme was
composed by Cameron Lamb.
This episode was recorded on the 21st of April 2022 and released
on the 6th of May.
We'll see you next time for Star Trek Picard, Assimilation.