Episode 102
Friday 22 March 2024
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Series 1, Episode 23
Stardate: 41601.3
First broadcast on Monday 25 April 1988
This week, we watch an dreadful hour of Star Trek — cheap, mawkish and absolutely absurd — but we end up enjoying ourselves enormously. Have we found a fatal flaw at the entire heart of the Untitled Star Trek Project?
Episode 101
Friday 15 March 2024
Star Trek: The Original Series
Series 2, Episode 13
Stardate: 3619.2
First broadcast on Friday 15 December 1967
A few tense moments this week, as a fragrant dikironium vampire kills a bunch of redshirts before threatening some characters with names and ultimately the Enterprise itself. But the real suspense comes from an entirely different direction: Will this episode teeter over the edge of camp into baffling semicompetence? Will Kirk’s obsession turn him from a jovial and beloved authority figure into a massive idiot? Will any cue from the Star Trek music library go unused? (No, no and no, fortunately.)
Episode 100
Friday 8 March 2024
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Series 7, Episode 2
Stardate: Unknown (2375)
First broadcast on Wednesday 12 May 1999
It’s four weeks until the Deep Space Nine finale, and so it’s time for a momentous and operatic episode, an episode full of subtext and thoughtful performances, and an episode that deals a killing blow to two crumbling empires and changes the status quo forever. In short: an episode that exemplifies everything that makes us love Deep Space Nine.
Episode 99
Friday 1 March 2024
Star Trek: Short Treks
Series 2, Episode 2
Stardate: 1421.9
First broadcast on Thursday 10 October 2019
Captain Lynne Lucero (Rosa Salazar) can’t wait to take command of the USS Cabot as it heads off to the Klingon border to save some settlers from a planetary famine. But that’s before she meets walking HR disaster Edward Larkin (H. Jon Benjamin) and his viviparous and prolific sidekick (Tribleustes ventricosus). Hijinks, as usual, ensue.
Episode 98
Friday 16 February 2024
Star Trek: Discovery
Series 4, Episode 8
Stardate: Unknown (3190)
First broadcast on Thursday 10 February 2022
This week, but in the thirty-second century, two people face each other across a poker table. The man’s unbearable loss has made him resolute, and the woman remains resolute despite the loss she is about to suffer. And somewhere far away, in a distant, isolated, unreasonable space at the very edge of the Galaxy, Something — implacable? incomprehensible? — is waiting to judge what they do next.
Episode 97
Friday 9 February 2024
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Series 5, Episode 9
Stardate: 45349.1
First broadcast on Monday 18 November 1991
The absence of Robin Williams and the presence of Rick Berman are both keenly felt this week, as a normal day at the office for the Enterprise-D becomes merely a mildly diverting day at the office. The cause: an elegantly named time-travelling confidence trickster, who nicks a bunch of stuff so he can put it on eBay and pretends that everything here is much more thrilling than it actually is. Let’s say three-and-a-half stars, but two of those stars are for Marina Sirtis’s performance.
Episode 96
Friday 2 February 2024
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Series 4, Episode 21
Stardate: Unknown (2372)
First broadcast on Monday 29 April 1996
This week, we discover to our surprise that there’s a lot to enjoy in a flawed and ultimately unsuccessful episode episode of Deep Space Nine — two wonderful guest actresses, some (largely) cringe-free sexiness, and a mature and gentle romance. Meanwhile, some TV writers imagine a just reward for their life of constant backbreaking labour.
Episode 95
Friday 26 January 2024
Star Trek: Voyager
Series 1, Episode 14
Stardate: 48784.2
First broadcast on Monday 8 May 1995
As a result of a horrific medical experiment, this week’s episode of Untitled Star Trek Project finds itself split into two irreconcilable parts — one convinced that this Voyager episode is extremely dull, and the other one certain that there’s nothing very interesting going on here. Apart from that, there’s a bit of a scary moment at one point, and Roxann gets to do some acting, which is nice.
Episode 94
Friday 19 January 2024
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Series 7, Episode 6
Stardate: Unknown (2375)
First broadcast on Wednesday 4 November 1998
It’s all about faith this week on Deep Space Nine — Weyoun’s faith in Odo and the Founders, Nog’s faith that the genre rules of the comedy B-plot will lead inevitably to a happy ending, and the writers’ faith that wonderful, charming actors like Aron and René can make it all land from underneath a kilogram of latex.
Episode 93
Friday 12 January 2024
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Series 4, Episode 7
Stardate: 44246.3
First broadcast on Monday 5 November 1990
After just over a season of reliable and competent, this week, Star Trek: The Next Generation goes for dramatic and surprising — with amazing results: a memorable epsiode full of good performances and the sort of direction that lets those performances shine. One of the best.