In my continued quest to lower the quality bar at the Incomparable podcast network, I recently appeared on Random Trek, hosted by the lovely Scott McNulty. We discussed “Playing God,” an episode of Deep Space Nine that features, symbionts, rites of passage, fine Ferengi advice, and voles. Give it a listen!
Star Trek is sick, and the cure for what ails it isn’t another bombastic brofest.
Allow me to explain. Though I’m best known as a Doctor Who nerd, my first introduction to science fiction in a visual medium was Star Trek. As a six-year old in the mid-70s I was intrigued by the colorful costumes and derring-do of the original series, and I never really lost that interest until the series started hitting the dirt around the mid-point of Voyager.
Star Trek has been covered before by documentaries, most notably Trekkies 1 and 2. But it’s never looked like this, combining the story of Gene Rodenberry’s son exploring his dad’s legacy, the sociological impact of the show, and some really amazing cinematography. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for this film, which as of yet doesn’t have a distributor. Read more in the Wired article about Trek Nation.
In what has to be the most overwhelming of all weeks for Doctor Who in all recorded history, the RFS crew slogged mightily through tales of Comic Con, rumours confirmed, others dashed, and in the midst of our recording the release of a new trailer for “The Waters of Mars.” And that was BEFORE we got around commentating on “Planet of the Dead”, making this if not the longest Radio Free Skaro ever than certainly the densest, and not just because of PotD’s plodding, pedestrian poltroonery.
Things took a turn for both the obscene and obsequious and Pedantor proved he could crawl even lower into the gutter he calls home and Warren was bested by Cracklor, a skypeovore that feasts on distorted, craptacular VOIP. Oh, and somewhere in this menagerie of madness the sometimes forgotten but certainly notable “Boom Town” was commented on by the Three Who Rule.
It’s not often that the Three Who Rule spend more than a minute dismissing Torchwood out of hand, much less being interested in a new series of everyone’s tolerated younger, ganglier cousin to Doctor Who. But that strange event is precisely what happened (explained away with string theory and many a complicated equation, most likely), along with some pre Comic Con banter and oh yes, a commentary on The Empty Child.
With a gulf of unrealistic (and unwelcome) lack of Doctor Who stretching far over the (event) horizon, The Three Who Rule took it upon themselves to deploy their deadliest weapon: the commentary. Specifically, a look at the first series of New Who, starting with Rose. Fantastic!
The Three Who Rule deal with a dearth of real news the best way they know how: with inane chatter involving the likes of superfan Ian Levine and his escapades on Twitter, Warren’s continuing animosity toward the McCoy era and coming to grips with our loving hatred of otherDoctorWhopodcasts all while dealing with technical issues that forced actual editing. Come join the fun!
With all three of the Three Who Rule firmly back in their respective command chairs, it was back to good old fashioned sniping, infighting and jocularity as Pedantor made battle with both his old nemesis Rubbishor and a new, more deadly enemy named Sarcastor. Somehow in the midst of this pantheon of perfidious poltroonery some discussion of Doctor Who came into play, but not by any means on purpose.