Casual Trek

73. Spock’s Pondering His Orb

Pull out your helmet with the torch on and your spelunking gear because we’re talking about Caves! Miles and Charlie go potholing for Star Trek episodes featuring caves and find a Horta in TOS’ ‘Devil in the Dark’, bid farewell to a member of the TNG cast in ‘Final Mission’ and do you remember when everyone got trapped in a turbo lift in Lower Decks’ ‘Caves?’ Always use the buddy system! Follow safety regulations!

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Casual Trek

72. A Piece of the Acting

Listen up, you palookas, it’s time for a Casual Trek about times people tried to copy humans. We’ve got a bona fide Mafia planet thanks to a discarded novel in “A Piece of the Action”, featuring some incredible Shacting. Next, those Next Generation goombahs find themselves in a casino inspired by another discarded novel in “The Royale”, a troubled script and a bad episode which is actually a fantastic time. Finally, those Prodigy kids just wanna do a Starfleet and find a culture inspired by the original Enterprise in “All the World’s a Stage”

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BS-Free Witchcraft

82. The Pagan Invasion and Propaganda

The 1991 Christian propaganda series the Pagan Invasion by Jeremiah Films was oddly formative for me. It’s a masterclass in propaganda, and a perfect example of the kind of misinformation that was spreading during the heights of the Satanic Panic. So in this episode we’re going to break down how “documentaries” like these work to push an agenda, and how to recognize these patterns in other places.

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Casual Trek

71. Space Scamps – Black Hole Sun

Strum your sitar and prepare to launch all Eagles as Miles and Charlie once more become the Space Scamps as they make a second trip to the moon for three more episodes of Gerry Anderson’s ‘Event Horizon meets Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace’ show Space 1999. Miles is now worried he has created a monster by showing Charlie this show, and in doing so they get to talk about psychedelic trippiness and Kano’s obsession with Computer in ‘Black Sun,’ Christopher Lee (although he’s totally phoning it in) and the dispatch of a weaselly middle manager in ‘Earthbound,’ and then with ‘The Troubled Spirit’ Halloween comes a little early and it’s probably more spooky than whatever we’ll end up doing for our Halloween episode…

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