SNW: "The Broken Circle" (s2e1)

Explicit content warning

08/22/23 • 54 min

STEALING THE ENTERPRISE has never looked so easy! In the second season premiere of the hit Strange New Worlds, the writers needed to write around Anson Mount's limited availability and did so by coming up with a prequel to "The Menagarie" -- Spock's first effort to hijack the ship! Is Spock's first time as impressive as his next time? And, does getting new backstory on M'Benga and Chapel give enough weight to their storyline in this episode where they inject themselves with drugs to Hulk out?

Meanwhile, Bryan and Kristen try to remember which TV show posted a list of cliched jokes that were banned from their scripts, but it took until post production for us to locate that it was the writers room for the Comedy Central series Workaholics that posted the list back in 2016.

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If you're interested in donating to groups in Maui who are on the ground and providing aid in response to the wildfires, we recommend Maui Food Bank (mauifoodbank.org) and the Maui Strong Fund (https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/maui-strong).

Previous Episode

ENT: "The Expanse" (s2e26)

THE AMERICAN TRAGEDY of the September 11th attacks becomes a Star Trek turning point, as a vision of a hopeful future gets put on pause so that it can explore the deep grief of the American psyche in the "War on Terror." Our season premiere dealt with the episode that might've saved Star Trek as we knew it, but Enterprise's second season finale might've changed the franchise once and for all.

An attack on Earth from an unknown alien species compels Captain Archer to take Enterprise into an unexplored region of space to hunt down whoever's responsible before they can launch another, larger attack that could destroy Earth entirely. What do Bryan and Kristen think of "The Expanse" and do you agree? Please note, we get into some spoilery discussion about the movie Oppenheimer from (56:45) to (1:02:10).

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TOS: "Bread and Circuses" (s2e25)

KIRK, SPOCK & McCOY just play their behavioral hits in a classic episode of The Original Series that includes everything great and everything 1960s about the show. This being the 55th anniversary year of the episode, it's worth wondering how much of it holds up and how much of it is of its time. Will Bryan and Kristen delight in the character-specific dialogue along with the Roddenberry-driven "science fiction" scenario of a planet in the thrall of both "Caesar and Christ?"