Future’s End.

During the third season of Voyager we were treated to one of the more creative stories in the series, a classic time travel tale that took us back to the year 1996. The episode introduced the term Temporal Prime Directive (a concept that also popped up in DS9’s “Trials and Tribble-ations,” which interestingly aired just two days before “Future’s End.”) The story also marked a critical turning point for The Doctor, who became, you could say, “footloose and fancy-free” for the remainder of the series by obtaining his mobile emitter. In this episode of The Ready Room we’re joined by two of the hosts of The Delta Quadrant podcast, JD Onesi and Charlynn Schmiedt (who is also our Voyager editor) as we discuss the ins and outs of Voyager’s trip back to 20th-century Los Angeles.

In news we cover Norman Spinrad’s lost TOS script He Walked Among Us, Dayton Ward’s new TOS novel That Which Divides, TNG Mounted Memories, new Star Trek busts from Titan Merchandise, and lots of movie news and rumors—including our take on the photos recently leaked by MTV and who we now think Cumberbatch is playing. Plus Greg does an unexpected imitation from another franchise. 

Q-Less.

When DS9 premiered in 1993 the writers wasted no time in bringing one of TNG’s favorite characters to the show. Q makes his first—and only—appearance in the sixth episode of the series, and the pairing with Sisko did not necessarily work as well as the pairing with Picard. Couched within this unusual Q story is an interesting commentary by one Star Trek series about its predecessor. In this episode of The Ready Room we’re joined by Brian Finifter and Tristan Riddell as we discuss the episode “Q-Less” as well as Q in general and the nature of the society portrayed in Star Trek.

In news we cover the TNG EXPOsed panel scheduled for the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, IDW’s Star Trek/Dr. Who Crossover Comic, IDW’s other May 2012 Star Trek titles, Hasbro’s KRE-O bricks and KREON figures, and movie news and rumors including Chris Pine’s battle with his former agency, Quinto’s comments about the next film’s story, Cumberbatch’s intensity, and Greenwood’s contentment. Plus we reveal another of our rejected Star Trek IV plots and Greg channels Simon Pegg. 

Schisms.

When season six of The Next Generation rolled around we started to get some seriously creepy stories, thanks largely to the influence of Brannon Braga. One of the creepiest of the bunch was “Schisms,” in which solanogen-based fish monks began kidnapping Enterprise crew members in their sleep and using them for bizarre medical experiments. In this episode of The Ready Room we’re joined by Larry Nemecek as we discuss the episode “Schisms” as well as Brannon Braga’s influence on Star Trek from late TNG forward.

In news we cover Hollywood Collectibles’ 1:4 Scale Kirk Statue, Greg Cox’s new TOS-era novel The Rings of Time, the lack of social networking in the Star Trek future, the Spring 2012 issue of Star Trek Magazine (and the future of the publication), and our first impressions of the TNG “The Next Level” Blu-ray. And we also recast the missing 13 seconds from “Sins of the Father” with younger actors. 

Errand of Mercy.

The Klingons are perhaps the best-known of all Star Trek villains, and that status is due as much to The Original Series as to their role on The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. It’s an interesting point since they made only seven appearance on TOS and were not even the main focus of all of these episodes. Still, John Colicos’s portrayal of Kor in the first ever appearance of the Klingons ensured that they would be a long-lived adversary of the Federation. In this episode of The Ready Room we’re joined by David Taylor as we discuss the episode “Errand of Mercy.”

In news we cover the upcoming Broadway run of Shatner’s World: We Just Live In It, a possible Star Trek TV series pitch from Bryan Fuller and Bryan Singer, the TNG Remastered Season One trailer and more new surrounding the TNG-R project, and some movie news and rumors. We also dip into our mailbag for some listener thoughts on our recent discussions of “Blood Fever” and “Regeneration.” Oh… and did I mention our mind scanner?