With The First Link: A Star Trek TNG Podcast

The Enterprise encounters a derelict shuttle craft which appears to be from the future. But when the shuttle is determined to be one of the Enterprise's own containing a second version of Picard, the crew fear the premonition of doom the craft contains.

Ruthie and Matthew talk about how we sometimes become trapped in a cycle of poor decisions and how we can face a version of ourselves we may not like to escape the cycle.

Please also consider donating to Matthew's Star Trek community fundraiser for his non-profit organization, Esther's Echo. Esther's Echo supports Sierra Leone community leader Esther Kanu who founded and operates a school for vulnerable women and girls called the Women in Action Development Program.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/esthers-echo-star-trek-fundraiser

It's the finale of Season 2 of Star Trek the Next Generation - where, during a real life writer's strike (not the one that just happened but back in '89) - we're left with a somewhat anticlimactic finale that is nevertheless a semi-charming flashback of the first two seasons of this legendary series.

We thought plants could get you high but wow, wait until you see the fever dream that Riker has as he beams down to an alien planet with absolutely zero PPE and is stabbed by an alien vine. Ruthie and Matthew reflect on the episode as well as completing the first two seasons of their podcast! Thank you all for being along for this ride across the light years. Season 3 inbound!

When on a mission to intercept a Klingon Battlecruiser, the Enterprise rendezvous with a probe carrying, K'Ehleyr, a Federation Ambassador who is half-Klingon and seems to have a place in Worf's past. Will Worf and K'Ehleyr be able to heal a rift between them and can they work together to stop a potentially violent encounter with the Klingon ship!?

Ruthie and Matthew talk about how you would help somebody acclimatize to a new decade (or century), Klingon foreplay, and the meanings of physical intimacy.

Wesley falls in love with a mysterious young woman named Salia who is destined to lead her world out of a civil conflict. But when Wesley gets too close, Salia's guardian demonstrates a power that may threaten the safety of the whole ship. Will Wesley's love threaten the Enterprise as well as the peace of Salia's homeworld?

Ruthie and Matthew talk about love, abusive parenting in the episode, and ways in which Salia's species raises questions around fluid identity and what it means to be your "true" form.

Ugly giant bags of mostly water! While investigating a terraforming station, the Enterprise discovers, and accidentally starts a short war with, an inorganic life form. Matthew and Ruthie talk about pipelines, space travel, and the ways that ugly giant bags of mostly water justify destruction in the name of progress.
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Cover art by Nathan Nun, www.nathannun.ca.
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Theme song is An Amazing Adventure by Flame Lion Studio