Yet Another Star Trek Podcast - Ep 061: (TOS S02E07) Catspaw

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

When an away team beams up a member, just to immediately die, Kirk, Spock and McCoy go looking. But instead of finding themselves in a perilous situation, they stumble into a Spirit Halloween store, and have to deal with witches, warlocks, and giant black cats. Will they make it out alive? Find out in this week's episode, "Catspaw!" Be sure to check out our website, social media, and join our Discord! Links for all are listed below: Website | Discord | BlueSky | Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Twitter | TikTok | YouTube Drop us an email at [e-mail]! “Warp Speed” and "To the Stars" was written and performed by William Grobbelaar Music: https://soundcloud.com/williamgrobbelaarmusic Additional artwork by George Rateau: https://www.fiverr.com/georgerateau

Alright, I think we're just gonna have to start, honestly, and Brad will join us when he's ready, so yeah. Hey! Do you think he's... Do you think he's okay? I mean, that's a future Mujii and True problem. That's sushi, so. That's sushi. So That's that's offensive

That's offensive. That's We'll deal with your indirect racism after this Hey everyone, welcome to yet another Star Trek podcast where we have three, sometimes three hosts, Drew, Brad and myself talk about Star Trek. As you notice, it's just two of us today. Brad is in the bathroom. So hopefully he'll join us when he's ready. In the meantime, I have my buddy, Mike, my friend, my loved one loved one true. How you doing buddy? Oh You know man, honestly I'm pretty tired. It's uh It's been a week

It's been a week also age also age yeah, you know, I'm approaching 41 so that's great Yeah, I um. I tried to make like a fancy dinner tonight. And have you ever tried to make a pan sauce without a recipe? No, no, I know. Why would I want to do anything without a recipe? That's the recipe of a disaster. Well, you know, I pride myself on having some very basic recipes in my back pocket.

You know, like I know that I could bake a piece of chicken for certain lengths of time and I could seize it and very seasoned it in various ways and it'll always come out just the way I like it. Um, so I tried something a little different with the chicken today. Instead of baking it, I pan fried it using a method that I found through America's Test Kitchen. And then I tried to make a pan sauce out of the fond that was in the pan. But I used too much butter. So I tried to counterbalance the butter with beer because I didn't have any wine. And then it just tasted like a buttery IPA and it was really gross and we didn't use it.

Oh, okay. So you didn't, you didn't try it. I guess if you did, you'd be in the bathroom with Brad. Yeah. No, I mean, I, I, I taste my food while I'm cooking. Did not taste good. Oh, on a scale of like one to 10, how bad was it? We dumped it in the sink. Is your single K? On a scale of like one to 10, how bad was it? We dumped it in the sink. Is your single K? No. How are you doing, man?

I'm good. I'm good. Spartan race is June 22nd at your favorite stadium at city field. I won't be trying to up or deck them again because they don't have tanks. I'm not sure if you knew this, but there's no tanks. Also, it's illegal, apparently, to upper deck public place. I didn't know. But yeah, no, I've cut weight for this because it's difficult to do things when you're carrying

around extra weight. It's harder to jump over walls. Everything's more difficult as is in life, right? When you're paranoid. So I'm going to have to transition from cutting back to maintaining because you need carbs to run this thing. Right. Yeah. You're right.

You're darting around there a lot like you're playing Galaga. I just noticed that your name is popping up in the bottom left hand corner of the screen, which I did not realize it was happening prior. So that's something that I'm going to need to make an adjustment to. And I'm making a mental note of that because it doesn't do that on my screen. You know, it only does it on your screen or maybe it's when my mouse is over it. I don't know. Say something like you look like Stella when I'm I had like a laser pointer. Oh, yeah No, I have I have two very large monitors and I have to have certain things open for this video thing to capture everything properly

And it's really very inefficient man Are you waving your? Nice setup in my face also subtly. Let's talk about setups for a second. What the heck's going on back there? Are you trying? That's that.

So I'm trying out some new photography equipment for the studio. And thanks to our sponsors for this video, God, Godox, that is their 80 centimeter, um, studio umbrella. They are our new sponsors. Who, who is, who is Godox? I don't, what, this is the first I'm hearing about this. So Godox is a very popular brand with photographers. They're not actually our sponsors. You called me out.

I can't keep that lie up. But I want them to be. Well, they're a high quality, you know, they do photography, lighting. As a matter of fact, I have their flash trigger on my camera right here. Okay. I should probably put a lens cap on that. You probably should. Hey, you know what?

I'm just gonna be really careful. You know, I'm sure it'll be fine. Nothing could possibly happen, right? Nothing will happen at all. Oh, that's good. I found it. I found it. I found it. Look at you. My desk is a mess, buddy. My whole room is a mess, if you're being honest. I really am trying out the Godox umbrella because

I really am trying out the Godox umbrella because lighting in portraits, I love portrait photography. It's my thing. It's my jam. Event photography as well is just my jam. And lighting is super important. And if you don't have the right lighting, then the pictures come out crappy and you're forced to spend more time in Lightroom and cry and eat chocolate while you're trying to recover these photos that just don't have enough light.

And then, you know, it's a delicate balance and a delicate game. So I'm trying to expand my waters. So once you're done expanding your professional waters, Maybe we can get you to expand your podcast waters too and use use some of that equipment to illuminate that room. Nice. So that that you see behind me, that's just a an umbrella with a with a flash. It's connected with this flash trigger also by Godox. The the sponsors of our. I wish they had the sponsor of our show. Our sponsors. I wish they were.

I really I wish I really wish they were. But hey. I mean, stranger things have happened, right? Yeah, I suppose. Yeah. Like, you know. Beaming down to a planet and realizing that you're in a spirit Halloween store. Yeah, let's talk about that, shall we?

Let's talk about it. That's a great segue. I, you know what? I, I try for you. I just do this to impress you. So I like it. I like it. Thanks for noticing, baby.

So let's talk about season two. Episode seven, episode seven, I think. Yeah. Cat's paw. Where? But I'm going to do my best to make sure I don't do that. I heard you say the name of the episode. I'm only going to say it once. Oh, even better. we're all done.

A landing party of Sulu, Scotty, and crewman Jackson on Pyrus 7 is overdue for a routine check and Jackson, of all people, finally calls the Enterprise with a one to beam up request. Well, that's weird. What's even weirder is he materializes then promptly falls dead on the transporter pad, except then he comes back to life to warn the crew to leave or die. And then he dies again. Well, Kirk says, screw that. He ain't leaving.

He's Spock and McCoy beam down to investigate and they're greeted by a gothic castle straight out of a Halloween store. It's a spooky start to promises, thrills and chills, plenty, leaving the crew more wary than a Vulcan at a Tellarite family reunion. As Kirk and the landing party explore the castle, they encounter all manner of supernatural phenomenon, including witches, warlocks, black cats, and eerie illusions, except for the trap door. Apparently that wasn't an illusion.

And when they come to they're chained up in the sex dungeon, Scotty and Sulu up here, but they're not helping. They are under the control of a wizard named Korrib. So what do you think of this so far? I mean, think of the setup. So I think it's weird So I think it's weird. I think it's weird. I mean, if I've had a nickel for every time that there's been a sex dungeon in the episodes

that we've watched, I've had, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened on average of once a season so far. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, maybe they're just, you know, recycling sets because they don't have a budget. And they shot on location at Roddenberry's house. Yeah, I mean, that's possible.

It was, you know, late 60s there. Well, in any case, Corb decides to try to convince them to leave through bribery, but it is not working. And then this woman named Sylvie answers, well, guess what? She's a witch and she can control their minds. She does some voodoo magic to get the enterprise start burning up like the sun by holding a facsimile of it inside of a candle. Interesting choice.

Well, Kirk stops her from doing further damage and concludes that she's using telepathy and telekinesis, but Sylvia and Cora Beretta is on how much exactly to reveal about this situation. They send Kirk and Spock back to the sex dungeon while Sylvia takes McCoy and converts him into a mindless pawn Sylvia starts arguing with Cora but it's clear that she is infatuated with Kirk Well Kirk picks up on this and he starts manipulating her with his sexlexia He learns that a transmuter is the key to her power But she's on him and has McCoy Scotty and and Sulu bring him back to the snooze new palace.

You wrote that for me. I sure did, buddy. That's I love it. Coram realizing that Sylvia is abusing her powers releases the enterprise Kirk and Spock. He can no longer control Sylvia or her pawns, however, and he regrets everything that's happened. He releases them, but a black cat Kirk and company encountered earlier is now gigantic and it crushes Korrib. Kirk and Spock scuffle with the rest of the away team, grab the transmuter,

and Kirk shatters it, ending the entire illusion, revealing that Korrib and Sylvia are nothing more than a child's school project involving strip tails and pipe cleaners. The crew beam up, their will restored, and leave that crazy science fair for good. To sum up the episode, black cats make great pets until they're gigantic. Aw, Metro. Pipe cleaners make great puppets, and Spirit Halloween apparently orders their stock from botched away emissions. Um, I listen, I, you say giant cat, right? And we know that if this episode was shot in 2024, they would have used the CGI cat, but back then they got to do things practically. So I found it interesting that they just genetically altered a cat and made it

gigantic, which is it's amazing. And it's amazing. It's mind blowing. Yeah. According to the memory alpha, this episode was in production for three years while they waited for the cat to grow. Yeah. Yeah. It's wild. Pretty wild. It would have been four, but they were able to, uh, you know, speed up the process with a little HGH. Yeah. Uh, what'd you think of this episode? Uh, what'd you think of this episode? I was on the impression that there would be more cats and not just one. Yeah.

Imagine our disappointment when we realized there were no cats involved in this in reality. Right. And I'm also pretty sure that the person that did sound design for this episode doesn't understand what a cat sounds like because that was a panther. Clearly that was a panther. I feel lied to and for every time I was lied to about that cat and the amount of cats in the episode, I deducted one point from my overall score. So this you know, so this is going to go well. Yeah, now it's going to go swimmingly.

What do you think about it so far? I mean, not not a very good impression of this episode. This this was a tough one to stick with, man. It was just kind of meandering. Right. How many times did they go back and forth to the sex dungeon? It seemed like every, every other scene was, was bringing somebody back to the dungeon, the chain them up.

And, um, it really felt like they were getting nowhere with it, right? Like Cora almost had nothing to do with with any of this stuff like they made it seem like he was the responsible party to kind of initiate a lot of this and then Sylvia like seized power from him. Yeah, I know sense makes no sense at all. Like what is their deal? Like why why are they together? Are they?

Yeah, are they lovers? Are they crewmates? You know, it's never really clear. And it seems like these two are just. You know, alien creatures that have the ability to, you know, transmute and use powers to create these environments. But why would they create an environment that makes them look like wizards and warlocks, witches and whatever?

Yeah. I wanna get on my high horse for a second. Yes. I thought, what was the male character's name again? Korrib. Korrib. Korrib looked disturbingly similar to Emperor Ming from Flash Gordon. Okay.

You know how much that pissed me off? No. No, I do not. It didn't piss me off that much, but enough for me to remember it while watching the episode 30 minutes ago and bring it up. Let's see here. Fun fact, I only watched the episode 30 minutes before we started recording.

Well, that's okay. That's all right, I watched it last week because I thought we were recording last week. So we can help each other out. That wasn't my fault. That wasn't my fault. I just had to cancel because, you know. Okay, I guess it was my fault.

Well, Brad was here, so. Who? Brad, you missed it. So. You know, I never see Brad and you in the same room together anymore. That's true. So I just did a quick search on the actor who played Korob.

Sadly, it is not the same one from Flash Gordon. In fact, this guy died like a year later from when this episode aired. Did he die from disappointment with the episode? Memory Alpha seems to be missing that. It was a road accident. He died in a road accident in Hollywood. Guess who feels terrible? Oh God, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who guess who regrets that being on recording? Yeah, this guy Fixed it imposed So, you know who ever I mean is that right?

I mean, I think I'm gonna have to put this comparison up when we go on Twitter I have not seen flash Gordon movies since I was a kid Okay, but you've seen it though. When I was like five. The only thing- That's good enough, that's good enough. The only thing I remember from it is- Flash! Ah!

That's it. Let's not, let's not, let's not do that because I think we can get sued. I think we'll get demonetized. Oh crap. Well, I can tell you I wasn't key. We have to get monetized first, right? Yeah.

We have to get monetized before we get demonetized. That's accurate. That's correct, technically correct. The best kind of correct. Which is the best kind of correct. What about Sylvie? I think she's a good one. I think she's a good one.

I think she's a good one. I think she's a good one. What about Sylvia going through the whole mystique? Hey, I'm a woman now. Which by the way, should have been a red flag for Kirk. I think he should have paused and been like, hey, would you say you're a woman now? What do you mean exactly? should have paused and been like, Hey, will you say you're a woman now? What do you mean exactly? How long are we talking? I mean, do you think that like, uh, you know, being a woman now is a precursor for, uh, Kirk, you know, getting it on.

Like, I don't know. I feel like Kirk would just be like, yeah, well, I don't care what you were. Uh, I don't care what your heart. Let's do it. Yeah. I mean, when they changed back into bugs at the end, uh, he was, he was like. What? Damn.

That's a sexy pipe cleaner. Right. Yeah. I'm, I'm looking at an image, right. Uh, of this on memory alpha and I swear, right. I'm not, I'm not making this up. I I'm pretty sure I see a shrimp tail. There's definitely a pipe cleaner,

at least one pipe cleaner there. It looks like a praying mantis. Yeah, but it looks like a praying mantis wearing a fur coat. Like, oh my God, a fancy praying mantis. It's a fancy mantis. Oh, I love it. I love it.

You know, like we just saw the Met Gala a couple of days ago. I'm pretty sure this praying mantis was at the Met Gala. I mean, if it's still alive. Well, I'm sure it got stepped on or something. Oh, but yeah, not not not their finest moment Although I did find it very interesting that they were like the tiniest of creatures after all of that nonsense They ended up just being about the size of like our palms, right? Yeah, that's how people over six feet look at me You're right I can I can confirm that

It's exactly how I think of you. It's a small mug We got to see some some more fighting which I love I love how The I love seeing the evolution of Kirk fighting by the way. Mm-hmm He has one of the best crosses. What are the best fake crosses? Yeah, I've seen in media. And by the way, did they kill Sulu? No, no, Sulu is still alive. They must have broken his neck.

I don't recall because I watched this last week. Oh, fair, fair, fair. Right. But so. But I can tell you that you that is very much alive. Like he he goes on to great things in the franchise. He has full use of his arms and legs. Yeah. OK. So I would like you to go back at some point.

Maybe maybe you don't go back, but just take my word for it. I'm going to take your word for it. All right. After the fight with Kirk and Sulu, they cut to Sulu laid out on the floor in front of the door, his neck is like this, and he's on the ground. Buddy, his neck was broken, I'm sorry. And they just had to play it off,

like what if the last part of this episode was just weekend at Bernie's? Just weekend at Sulu's, you this episode was just weekend at Bernie's? You know, he can add Sulu's. Look, George Sake is incredibly good at specific acting and he was given specific specific instructions like be flexible, be flexible. Why they're like, why they're like you're dead. Um, and the forest Kelly, I love DeForest Kelly so much. That man does not know how to take a punch.

No. So Kirk hits him with a right cross and DeForest Kelly falls to the left. That's now how momentum works. You're a doctor, damn it. Act like it. He's a doctor, not a stuntman. That's fair.

That's fair. That's fair. If we titled our episode, that would be the absolute title. He's a doctor, not a stuntman. Look, man, I'm trying to capitalize on all the SEO stuff. And clearly, it's not working. So maybe we should start doing that. Oh, this episode is just the best kind of ridiculous.

Yeah. But also the worst kind. Yeah. I mean, there was some, some real crazy nonsense going on in this one, right? Like, uh, you know, using the voodoo magic on the enterprise, I thought was a particularly interesting trait to to go with and then encasing it in like that. I can't remember what they did, but they like encased it in something, right? It was like, well, it was it was an ornament. Yeah, it was like an ornament, right?

And I'm looking at this thing. I'm like, wow, I want that on my Christmas tree. Does Hallmark make this one yet? I'm pretty sure Hallmark makes it and it costs 30 bucks in a last few for one year. I have a ton of Hallmark's Trek ornaments actually Well, I'm saying it's gonna last you one year because Metro and Dax are gonna take the tree down and break it I'm surprised it's gonna last you one year because Metro and Dax are gonna take the tree down and break it I'm surprised they haven't yet They haven't no well. That's interesting the first year that we had Dax. He destroyed our Christmas tree, but Since then it's been been good. I

Wonder if I'm due because Stella hasn't destroyed the tree, but I think Kylo might because Kylo thinks Kylo my dog thinks he's a cat. Mm-hmm. And you see in my dog. He's 38 pounds. Yeah He'll see Stella on my lap and be like, oh We can do that. So I've been here at this desk working and he's been on my lap Just sitting here because why not right, you know if Stella can do it he can do it So he's not he's not dumb. He just thinks he's a cat, which is cool, I guess. Well, I mean, you know, he's he lives with a cat like he doesn't have a lot of

other dogs he's exposed to. Right. So Stella's a bad influence. Yeah. All right. That's fair. That's fair. I get it. Anyway, so let's see here. What else can we talk about with this episode? There's not much.

Well, we can talk about how our favorite characters, we get to spend a little more time with like what I deem as the essential boarding party of Kirk McCoy and Spock. I think like those guys going down, they're just, it's the perfect combination. You have logic, medical expertise, and horniness. Yeah. The perfect trifecta. The perfect trifecta. By the way, why is Kirk so horny? I don't know.

Is there no horny jail in Starfleet? I guess not. I read somewhere that in this script, it only called for like a light brushing of the shoulder. William Shatner got in there. He's like, I think we need more. Yeah. Let's just play along. You can get away with that because it's the 60s.

Yeah. Can't get away with that now. No, no, negative. That was awkward to watch. My daughter was in a room. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The actress Sylvie did not, she was having a good time. So it's so that they

had to change, had to change Sylvie midway through the episode. What? Somebody else. They changed it twice. He's like, Oh, I can be this woman for you. I can be this woman. I could be this woman. Anyone that you probably wouldn't find as attractive and you can stop touching me Inappropriately well, maybe we can have her on the show. She's still alive and ask her. She's 91 years old. Yeah German knows what a podcast is No Okay, that's fair

That's fine She's been in a lot of stuff, including Mission Impossible. Which one? The series or the movies? The series. She was in, yep, television credit. So anywhere from the 60s to the 80s, she was on so many different TV shows. Twilight Zone, Ben Casey, The Fugitive. That's weird. I'm looking through some of these credits and like she's

acted with a ton of Trek alum. Over the years. Oh, like Nimoy and and Shatner. I mean, just a lot of like side characters, right? Yeah. Does it talk about her restraining order against Shatner? No, no, that's not okay. That's not in the memory. Alpha. I don't know if documents like that are made to the public.

I'm not a lawyer. No, I just I just read stuff on on chat GPT and it's usually 50% 40% correct. Yeah. Yeah Chat GPT. I don't know about that, man. Maybe we use Bard. I guess. But I mean, who really gets their legal advice from chat GBT other than me? I like it's a like it's a it's a pretty tight niche group, you know, I haven't met anybody else besides me that gets their legal advice from chat GBT. Maybe I'll ask you to be here and see what he has to say. Who else gets their legal advice from you? Chachi is just me.

Yes, it is. Interesting fact with this episode, we've been covering season two in order of air, but this episode was actually the first one produced for season two. Um, and as thus would be the, uh, debut of ensign checkoff, uh, so to speak. Um, he doesn't seem to have that, uh, charm and wit that we've seen in some of the other episodes that we've covered yet. Yeah. But, but he is there and he has, has a few has a few quips any any thoughts on check off in this episode

We didn't really see how much of him yeah you know, I mean he did a kind of fire back at the Officer in command of the enterprise at the time Letting know that He's capable and not that, uh, he's capable and not that green, even though he's an ensign. So I thought that was interesting. Oh, it's getting dark outside. Thus. My room is getting dark.

Why don't you turn on that beacon behind you? Yeah. First of all, it is a flash. Good, sir. Just leave it on. That's not how flashes work, man. Well, it can. Let's see. Is it even still on? I may have turned it off. It's not on anymore.

Oh, that's great. Or the battery died. Some photographer you are. Hey, you gotta be prepared. I'm not a boy scout, I'm a photographer, the difference. Charge your batteries, leave your flash on. That's fair. Hey man, that's, that's, that's uh,

it's fine, I get it, you're lashing out at me because Brad's not here. It's cool. It's hard not to. What kind of experiments do you think pipe cleaning bugs have to do on humans? Well, I mean, I would start by saying they probably clean out every bottle they see. And then they would run experiments

on which bottles clean the best. No. Okay. I want to give you a second to live with your shame. That's what to give you that second. You know, like to answer the question seriously, I I don't really know it's like I'm just trying to think of what the purpose of doing all of this in a castle with witches Like like if you're if you have the power to transmute things and like why not make yourself be more

Technologically advanced in the ship that you're dealing with right like yeah, I go the other way Yeah, like where they, they said they got their, the information from the thoughts, right? Yeah, I guess. That's dumb. Like, who was thinking of a Halloween castle and witches and black cats and sex dungeons? Well, Kirk was thinking of sex dungeons, but-

Kirk was thinking about sex dungeons, but if we're also close to pond far Could have been Spock too could have been could have been it just I don't know like a lot of the stuff just doesn't add up and the entire episode to me just comes off as a What kind of crazy situation can we get these guys in this week? Oh, I know let's do this because we don't need that many sets and we can recreate it easily and then they're like, oh crap Now we have to actually write ourselves out of this

After taking one big line of baby powder for the table exactly so you know with with this script that was like just So, you know, with, with this script, it was like just all over the place and a plot line that lacked in any kind of like cohesion and logic and thought it is, it was just really difficult for me to like follow what was going on. Right. And, and none of it mattered. Right. None of it mattered.

Maybe you have to be in a certain state of mind to enjoy this episode. Maybe. I guess. You need shrooms. And it's such a steep fall from Doomsday Machine. Well, Doomsday Machine took inspiration from Moby Dick. Right. Which is a classic story.

A classic story of revenge. Revenge is a dish best served cold, which is an old Klingon proverb. So, you know, it's always going to work in any setting. Like that time the dog pooped on your yard and then your neighbor didn't clean it up. So you waited until nightfall and you pooped in neighbor's yard. Yes, exactly. That's exactly what happened. Exactly like that. Revenge. It's called... I mean, if I'm doing an upper decker on somebody's lawn, what would that be called?

It's called... It's called gratification. It's called gratification in the end. Oh, goodness. Hey, do you think that they should have crushed the bugs before they left the planet? That would have been so funny. Like, part of me wonders if I missed that.

Like, did Spock forget to walk over and like, you know, put the cigarette out, so to speak? Well, actually, no, they were dying anyway. I guess. Yeah, were they? I mean, put them out of the misery then. Yeah, right. You can absolutely step on them. Right. Let Yeah, we're there. I mean, put them out of the misery then. Yeah, right. Absolutely step on them. Right. Let's do experiments on them. Let's see what happens.

Yeah, no, they did. They died. They quickly perished. Well, no, I see what happens if they, how quickly they die or what happens when you pull one of the limbs off. I'm not a sociopath, I promise. Yeah. Like, that's exactly what a sociopath would say. I want to know. Let's see here. Is there any background on how these were made? You just, I love that you're hooked on the craft project that is the alien. Okay.

So they were life. They were marionettes composed of blue fluff pipe cleaners crab pincers and other materials They were operated with thick black threads that were clearly visible Most of this was corrected in the remastered version of the episode that makes sense because I didn't see it We were watching the remastered versions. Yeah, I didn't see it either Not that I would have been opposed to like, you know, if I did see it whatever no big deal Then there's a charm to that kind of stuff in my opinion, you know, like why why hide? Something like that. You're doing your best, right? It's fine

Yeah This is the kind of episode that the folks from mystery science theater 3000 would enjoy. Mm-hmm Yeah, cuz it's it's it's a so bad episode but The folks from mystery science theater 3000 would enjoy. Yeah. Because it's, it's, it's a so bad episode, but it could be made better by having two robots in the human do commentary the entire time. Right. I'm sorry. I know, I know how much you love that show and I'm sorry to bring it up. Oh, it's such a great show. Really is a big fan. If you ever have a chance to see them live, highly recommend it.

They're still alive? Yeah. Well, I guess they're robots, right? They can't die. Well, yes. But, you know, there's like a whole, you know, crew of puppeteers and, you know, it's not just a guy inside of a costume. No. Ah, that's dumb. That's way more cost effective. I have just a person inside a costume. We're still talking about mystery science theater, right? Yeah. Okay. Just making sure. I would have, uh, I would have told you if I changed topics all of a sudden,

like some kind of parkour guy. All right. Let's let's get the hell out of here. Give me a. Let's rate this bad boy. Let's read it. Let's read it. All right. Who's going first? I'll play for it. I'll play for it. All right. One, two, three, shoot. You got like an extra jump there. One, two, three, doing rock paper scissors for the listeners.

Oh, paper scissors, cut paper. You say there's got paper and I bang my hand on the microphone on the way down. So nice. Nice. Good luck getting that out. Nice work. That's gonna be great. All right. So you're up first. Let's hear your thoughts. Oh, I thought I thought you won Maybe we should have before we started playing Dictated what who the winner losers are? All right. Well, I'll go

Because I do feel like I lost this one, You. Yes. Just just just a dreadful episode. Not not the worst, I would say, but I would make zero effort to pay any attention to this if it were on TV again. I barely paid attention to it when I was watching it this time, if I'm being completely honest with you. Fair. It is just a nonsense plot with with two villains that I didn't care about who seemingly didn't like each other. Um, and I don't know why they were working together in the first place.

It doesn't make any sense. There's no logic to it. Um, the idea of so many crew members just, you know, getting mind controlled and then we didn't even get to see what goes on in the sex dungeon. I mean, come on, like don't tease us like that. Uh, There's a whole different series for that. I'll give you a link. Yeah three Giving this a three Three out of ten. Yeah, that's rough. I think that's your lowest rating ever. It's not It's not well, I don't have a good memory so that would make it the lowest rate in my memory

I was keeping track of these and they stopped It's Brad's fault. Now. You're making me feel like I should go higher. I'll give it a four four Why I don't listen you do you we have listen our sponsors don't care how low you rate the episode. Yes Are you gonna ask me what I thought oh Sure You rate the episode. Yes. Are you gonna ask me what I thought? Oh, sure. Uh, what'd you think, buddy? Oh my God. I thought you'd never ask.

So I thought this episode was terrible. I thought this episode was so bad. And then you say. How bad was it? Yeah, well, I don't have anything written for that part. Anyway, so I thought the episode was bad. I didn't think it was terrible, terrible, terrible, but it lost me and it did not get me back

until the credits rolled because then I had to stop it before I played the next episode. So it lost me from Act Two. Act Two and on. Pretty early. It did get me back for the fight scene, but I didn't know why Spock and Sulu were fighting. We did see the Vulcan sleeper hold again.

I love that. I haven't seen the Vulcan sleeper hold done in the show in a long time. It is like his special weapon. Yeah, well, it's a finishing move. Like there's no one kicking out of the Vulcan sleeper hold. Right. It's a protective finisher. The Vulcan Sleeper Holt. Right. You know? Like it's a protective finisher.

The Vulcan Sleeper Holt is the sweet chin music of Star Trek. I'm trying to think of what actual finishing move is the equivalent of. Because I feel like sweet chin music has like this huge wind up, you know? Sweet chin music, though, is it's protected. So what is no one kicks out of sweet chin music, uh, except for Ric flair. We should do a wrestling podcast one day. Oh, you know, uh, maybe we should just change this to a wrestling podcast and see if anybody notices. Yeah, no, I'll get some of my old listeners back.

I'll gain some new ones. Yay. I think it'll balance out in the end. For whenever ring rep. I have my camera right there, so I'm not pouring anything out. So what are you ranking this thing? I'm going to give this episode a four, just like you, buddy. It's not a great episode, and I think that we were expecting this. I think that you and I,

as we've looked at these good episodes this season, and quite frankly, some sleepers, right? You and I did not expect Doomsday Machine to be a sleeper. That was such a good episode that more people need to talk about. Yeah. I think the problem that I run into with a lot of these episodes is I recognize the names

of the good ones, many of which I've seen. And then the stuff that I haven't seen, I just immediately assume that it's trash. And so far, I've been mostly right. Does that make sense? Yeah, no. So it's like you're setting yourself up for failure and when you achieve that failure

or when you expect failure and you see failure, you're not surprised. But when you are expecting greatness and then receive failure, you know, it's disappointing. But at least this way, you'll always be surprised when it's good. I think I took your very simple concept and I made it so much more complicated.

You really did. But thank you for that. Well, I got you back. I got you back. I'm like Brad who is in a bathroom. Still, still 42 minutes later. Hey, let's talk about next week's episode. I mud.

A takeover. So excited. Leads Kirk to his old nemesis, Harry Mudd. And of course, he's surrounded by women. Why else wouldn't it be? Right. It's a Gene Roddenberry era. Yep. Very excited about this one. I've never seen this episode, but I really enjoyed the first outing with Harry Mudd.

And I've enjoyed all the supplemental mud episodes that we had on like Discovery and, you know, the short tracks and stuff too, even though it was a different, you know, actor, different portrayal. Uh, I think it was very within the spirit of the character. So yeah, Rainn Wilson and the original actor for Harry mud, you can, uh, we can talk about his actual name later because I don't know what it is, but rain Wilson and the original actor, their performances are just, it's an homage.

Rain Wilson is, is paying homage to the original actor's performance and it's, it's something beautiful to be seen. Roger caramel, Roger Caramel, Roger C. Caramel. That's the name I was thinking about. Yeah, exactly. I should have just said it with words instead of thoughts.

I gotta trust my brains more, man. Gotta trust my brain more. Yeah, man. Well, in any case, I'm looking forward to reviewing that one. And we'll see you folks in two weeks when we talk about iMUD. So I guess that's going to about just about do it for us, right? Yeah. I love you, buddy. And I'll see you for the next one.

I love you. See you in two weeks. All right. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of yet another Star Trek podcast. We are part of the Retro Sessions Network. This episode was recorded on May 8th, 2024. It's hosted by Drew Majeed, because Brad's still not here. Head on over to our show notes where you can find links to all kinds of amazing stuff, including two people that we would really love to thank. First up, George Rattau. He drew us like Lower Decks characters. And if that's something that you're into, head on over to the Fiverr link in our notes. Also, like to thank William Grobelar

for writing and performing all of the original music that we feature in this show, including the songs To The Stars and our theme song Warp Speed. Will does some amazing work and you can follow him on SoundCloud if you'd like to check out more of it. Other links that we have on our page are to our social media accounts at yetanotherstpod. That's on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reels, you name it, we're all there. And of course our website www.yetanotherstpod.com. We've also got a Discord room, there's a link for that in the show notes as well too. Come on by and show us pictures of your cats.

Or dogs. We don't judge. Thanks for listening, we'll see you later.