Star Trek: Voyager

Casual Trek

85. Star Trek Halloween III – Let’s Get Scotty Laid!

It’s that time of year where we try and delve into the strange and scary for our Halloween episode and this time, we’ve hit upon altered states (not the Ken Russell film) where our heroes undergo a strange transformation. In the TOS episode ‘Wolf in the Fold,’ Bones’s obsession with getting Scotty laid ends in a lot of mysterious stabbings that date back to Victorian London, while in Voyager’s ‘Darkling,’ the Doctor’s attempt to improve himself by adding bits of other people into him starts making him very large in the tooth and a little too psychosexual towards Kes. Then in DS9’s ‘Empok Nor,’ O’Brien, Nog, Garak and a collection of clearly important side characters mission to a deserted Cardassian Space Station to steal some wiring ends with psychotropic drug-induced violence. Typical. Happy Halloween!

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Casual Trek

81. Neelix’s Kitchen Nightmares

Welcome to Neelix’s Kitchen Nightmares you doughnuts! I’m Gordon Ramsey and we’ve got three meals for you to shove in your face from three questionable kitchens. Neelix’s kitchen’s covered in fluff and filth and seems to have been made in a large office meeting room. Will his food help Seven of Nine in “The Raven” or will it bring back dire flashbacks? I think we all know how it’s going to go. Next up is the unnamed chef of the Enterprise who actually has a full kitchen. Hoshi Sato comes in and takes over, does she think she’s me or something? She gets the job done, possibly a bit too much in “Singularity”. Also there’s some delightful nonsense with a chair. Finally William T Riker’s got the midlife crisis giant pizza oven out for a visit from his space dad, JL Picard in “Nepenthe”. Has he got what it takes, or will this episode and pizza both be undercooked? Whatever it is, it’s better than the replicated cake that gets thrown up all over La Sirena! (This is actually Charlie, I’ve no idea what Gordon Ramsey sounds like, I hope you enjoy the show!)

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Casual Trek

61. Only Murders in the Neelix

Jeri Taylor (June 30, 1938-October 24, 2024) was a screenwriter and producer for many TV shows, including Star Trek The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. In dedication to her memory, we’re talking about three of her scripted episodes. In ‘Night Terrors,’ the Enterprise crew are having trouble sleeping and people’s REM levels are dropping (insert your own Radiohead joke here, we did) and it’s making everyone go a little crazy. Meanwhile, Neelix gets into true crime for his early morning TV show in ‘Investigations’ and bites off more than he can chew while uncovering a traitor in the midst. Then back to the Enterprise for ‘The Drumhead’ which gave us one of the more infamous Picard facepalm memes, but is it enough to put it at Number One on the Big List? If not, you might find yourself on trial for subversion!

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