Assignment: Earth

Episode 79

Friday 1 September 2023

A man in a light-coloured suit, Gary Seven, is lying on a gantry looking at the side of a space rocket with a nozzle that seems to be pouring out steam. Sitting on his back watching the proceedings with some interest is a black cat.

Star Trek: The Original Series

Series 2, Episode 26

Stardate: Unknown (1968)

First broadcast on Friday 29 March 1968

It’s the pilot of a thrilling new spy-fi series, in which Gary Seven (Robert Lansing), his plucky secretary Miss Lincoln (Teri Garr), and his cat Isis (herself) hang out in the twentieth century’s most stylish decade, drinking cocktails after lunch and occasionally foiling America’s military–industrial complex. Is it time for us to end our trek through the stars so that we can complete an assignment here on earth?

Recorded on Tuesday 29 August 2023 · Download (72.4 MB)

Star Trek: The Original Series

Collective

Episode 78

Friday 25 August 2023

Seven is standing in the corridor of a Borg cube. She looks angry. Behind her, Harry is slumped unconscious. And next to her are three preteen Borg children: two twin boys and a little girl with long hair.

Star Trek: Voyager

Series 6, Episode 16

Stardate: Unknown (2376)

First broadcast on Wednesday 16 February 2000

This week a mediocre script fails to be enhanced in any way by mediocre direction and some mediocre performances. But there’s an upside: a Voyager episode with real consequences that will open up unimaginable new vistas of storytelling and character development. Or not, probably.

Recorded on Tuesday 22 August 2023 · Download (62.8 MB)

Star Trek: Voyager

Remember Me

Episode 77

Friday 18 August 2023

Beverly is sitting at ops on the bridge of the Enterprise. The red  alert lights are flashing. She is staring straight ahead, very intently.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Series 4, Episode 5

Stardate: 44161.2

First broadcast on Monday 22 October 1990

In this week’s episode of Likeable and Competent People Solving Space Problems, Beverly finds herself in a shrinking universe from which her loved ones are disappearing one by one, while Nathan and Joe (who inhabit a very similar universe) find a version of Star Trek capable of inspiring a lifelong obsession and, ultimately, an untitled podcast project.

Recorded on Tuesday 15 August 2023 · Download (64.3 MB)

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Proving Ground

Episode 76

Friday 11 August 2023

The blue Andorian face of Shran (Jeffrey Coombs) grins  from a circular monitor screen.

Star Trek: Enterprise

Series 3, Episode 13

Stardate: Unknown (2153)

First broadcast on Wednesday 21 January 2004

This week, we learn a valuable lesson about Johnny Foreigner: he’s just not to be trusted. (God knows how we’re going to get a Federation together.) Still, we manage to enjoy ourselves for a bit.

Recorded on Tuesday 8 August 2023 · Download (69.8 MB)

Star Trek: Enterprise

The Host

Episode 75

Friday 28 July 2023

Dr Crusher is in the turbolift with a handsome man with a lot of latex on his forehead and 90s-era romance novel  cover hair. They are both looking at us with goofy expressions on their faces.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Series 4, Episode 23

Stardate: 44821.3

First broadcast on Monday 13 May 1991

Star Trek: The Next Generation makes another ill-judged attempt at romance this week, as Beverly Crusher has an eventful two-week relationship with an alien ambassador, Commander Riker, and an attractive young woman, who are all somehow the same person. It all goes as well as you would expect in a series where every episode returns reliably to the status quo before the credits roll.

(Warning: after the closing credits, there are some incidental spoilers for Strange New Worlds Series 2, Episode 7, Those Old Scientists.)

Recorded on Tuesday 25 July 2023 · Download (83.4 MB)

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Bem

Episode 74

Friday 21 July 2023

A frame from a cartoon. Spock and Kirk are standing in front of a cliff, chest deep in water. Behind Kirk, two sinuous green arms emerge from the water to menace him.

Star Trek: The Animated Series

Series 2, Episode 2

Stardate: 7403.6

First broadcast on Saturday 14 September 1974

It’s a low-effort week here at Untitled Star Trek Project, as we pour dozens of crisp American dollars into animating a hilarious encounter between Kirk, Spock, some lizard men in nappies, and an alien who can detach his bits at will, and then spend some time wondering why on earth we bothered.

Recorded on Monday 17 July 2023 · Download (47.6 MB)

Star Trek: The Animated Series

The Changing Face of Evil

Episode 73

Friday 14 July 2023

A close up of a Cardassian man's face. It's Damar, and he's looking as bold and resolute (and as handsome) as he's ever looked.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Series 7, Episode 20

Stardate: Unknown (2375)

First broadcast on Wednesday 28 April 1999

After the Breen attack Starfleet Headquarters on Earth, Ben Sisko (Alan Dale), fearing for the safety of his new wife Kasidy (Lisa Armytage), gets all of her upcoming missions cancelled, with predictable results. Elsewhere on the station, Ezri (Annie Jones) and Worf (Guy Pearce) bicker about her budding relationship to Julian (Peter O’Brien). On Bajor, Kai Winn (Vivean Gray) and her new lodger Anjohl (Ian Smith) are planning to unleash the pah-wraiths on an unsuspecting galaxy. Which puts into perspective the plans of Legate Damar (Stefan Dennis), who merely wants to kick the Dominion out of Lassiter’s so that he can look at himself in the mirror without cringing.

Recorded on Tuesday 11 July 2023 · Download (69.5 MB)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Alliances

Episode 72

Friday 7 July 2023

On an alien spaceship, Seksa, a white woman with Cardassian features,  is smiling and embracing a serious-looking Kazon man, Maje Culluh.

Star Trek: Voyager

Series 2, Episode 14

Stardate: 49337.4

First broadcast on Monday 22 January 1996

When a Voyager crewmember is killed in a Kazon attack, and his colleagues are forced to sit through the most butt-clenchingly clichéd eulogy in television history, a few of them declare that it’s time to forge an alliance with the Kazon, which seems unwise. What seems even more unwise is Janeway’s decision to ignore everything that history has taught us about white people, as she forges an alliance with the Trabe, who talk nicely and know which knife and fork to use. It all turns out pretty much how you would expect.

Recorded on Tuesday 4 July 2023 · Download (60.5 MB)

Star Trek: Voyager

Genesis

Episode 71

Friday 30 June 2023

Deanna is sitting in the bath, fully clothed. She looks shocked at a uniformed man just off camera. She has her hand pressed to  her cheek and blood is seeping between her fingers.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Series 7, Episode 19

Stardate: 47653.2

First broadcast on Monday 21 March 1994

Well, everyone hates Genesis obviously, but why? It’s silly, of course, it doesn’t attempt to get the science right, and everyone recovers beautifully during the last ad break. But that’s just Star Trek, isn’t it? Isn’t it?

Recorded on Tuesday 20 June 2023 · Download (70.5 MB)

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Preludes

Episode 70

Friday 23 June 2023

A painting or a comic book panel depicts a deadly space war. Phaser beams cross the frame, one of them striking a large hunk of rock in the middle. On the ground below are people and the strange elongated bodies of robots bristling with weapons. On a cliff high above is the silhouette of another of these robots. And in the sky are strange patterns. A clock? A blueprint? It's like the cover of the most stylish and action-packed Nebula Award-winning book of the 1960s.

Star Trek: Prodigy

Series 1, Episode 16

Stardate: Unknown (2384)

First broadcast on Thursday 1 December 2022

In the Neutral Zone, the USS Protostar faces off against the USS Dauntless, unable to leave and unable to contact them to explain their friendly intentions. And so they stop for a moment and tell each other sad, funny and beautiful stories from their pasts. Meanwhile, on the Dauntless, we hear a different story, a story of war and revenge, and a plot whose aim is the destruction of the Federation itself.

Recorded on Tuesday 13 June 2023 · Download (42.4 MB)

Star Trek: Prodigy