It’s Bank Holiday Monday, so let’s take it easy and talk about some comics.

After promising it early in the show’s history, Charlie’s finally read the first arc of IDW’s Star Trek comic by Lanzig & Kelly. Look, we’re Casual Trek, this is the level of service you get from us.

The first arc, “Godshock” features that classic Star Trek concept: thumbing your teeth at god, only this time it’s a bad thing as someone’s killing gigantic cosmic entities! Who did this and how can it be stopped? Well, Ben Sisko’s back from his time as a cosmic entity to find out, with an almost all-star cast of people from throughout Star Trek History. There’s Data and Dr Crusher from TNG, Paris from Voyager, Scotty from TOS and Jake Sisko is also there. Worf guest stars for long enough to be a bad parent and back door pilot for another series, and there are a couple of new characters who are a lot of fun.

Join us on the USS Theseus and prepare for a lot of tangents, as we both love talking comics.

References: The Super Stalag of Space, Harry 20 on the High Rock, Dan Dare, Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation Squared, Quatermass and the Pit, The Legion of Super-Heroes, The Legion Clubhouse, comic collection sizes, YES Charlie has put rolled-up Walking Dead volumes in his back pocket, the Bendis New Avengers approach to team-building, Billy Pilgrim, The Krakoan Age of X-Men, Marvel Swimsuit Specials (which are coming back), release a Star Trek Swimsuit Special you cowards!, Data pages vs data pages, Gilmore Girls spoiled Anna Karenina for me, Charlie’s Super Mario Quest 2025, the Summers family tree, the Dark Horse Buffy Series, Marvel’s Star Wars, Dr Who comics, the Energon Universe, the CLZ collector’s app, Malibu Comics’ Star Trek… Oh, and sometimes IDW’s Star Trek.

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! EPISODE DISCUSSED: ‘Devil in the Dark,’ (07:13) ‘Final Mission,’ (28:33) and ‘Caves,’ (52:53)



Talking points include- Common Side Effects, Cyberpunk 2077, Caves, the Horta’s beat poetry, Spock calling Kirk ‘Jim,’ Mariah Carey as Goku charging to Super Saiyan, Red Dwarf would have shown the crashing shuttle, Miles and Charlie agonize about their Britishness, Miles Oatrick Stewart impression sounds more like Matt Berry, how the writers gave up on Wesley Crusher,space Joe Rogan would be a pakled,fake clip shows, Tendi is a ray of goddamn sunshine, Miles has lived the Alpha Shift/ Delta Shift dynamic, the best fake episode of Quantum Leap ever.

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”

00:02:52 What Non-Star Trek Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: Lost & Yellowjackets

00:12:20 Star Trek: The Original Series “A Piece of the Action”

00:38:52 Star Trek: The Next Generation “The Royale”

01:01:09 Star Trek: Prodigy “All the World’s a Stage”

Talking points include: Our respective theatrical origins, CHARLIE WAS NOT RAISED IN A CULT, Lost (finally!), science fiction finales, Yellowjackets Season Three, America: It’s Pretty Big!, how our tastes in music will never be a number one hit, Fizzbin, “President Capone”, Miles’ beef with Chicago, Cones of Dunshire, the improv skills of the bridge crew, the horror of an improv planet, books in 1992, Iain (M) Banks, troubled scripts, Madonna’s oeuvre, Bernard from Lost, Charlie’s grandad dressing like a cowboy at a wedding, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the boys go on a tear about Ernest Cline again, Galaxy Quest. Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/original-the-royale-script.123944/ - A quote from Tracy Tormé about what the original script for The Royale was going to be like.

Which 1980’s British children’s drink would your cult poison themselves with? Answer in the poll on Spotify!

Pedantry Corner:

Zero’s pronouns are they/them. Respect pronouns, people!

Casual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-Lobatto

Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn

Casual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie Network

https://ko-fi.com/casualtrek

Miles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com

Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com