Spocklight: A Star Trek Podcast

Daryl Bar, host of Sudden Double Deep and new Podcast, Is Paul Dano Ok? returns to Spocklight to tell us why he, controversially, considers ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday’ to be the finest time travel episode of Star Trek. Daryl tells us how the oddball humour of the episode delights him, Liam questions the quality of replicator grub, Paul points out Kirk’s hypocritical attitude towards Major Christopher’s backward views and Matt notes the similarities with a certain Futurama episode. We also discuss the surprising darkness of the episode, compare it to other time travel based Trek tales and examine how the pre-titles sequence must have wrong footed the contemporary audience.   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   You can find more information about Daryl’s brilliant podcasts at @SDDFilmPodcast and @IsPaulDanoOk on Twitt

We’re joined by Total Film Writer and regular Evolution of Horror contributor, Tim Coleman, to discuss what he considers to be one of the greatest films of all time, 1986’s The Transformers: The Movie starring Leonard Nimoy as Galvatron.   We’re transported back to the days of Saturday Morning Cartoons as Tim gives us an education in Transformers taking in such revelations as the Optimus Prime as Christ analogy and poor highbrow Orson Welles being destroyed by trash culture at the end of his career. We also examine how the surprisingly brutal nature of the film came about, debate the differences between Optimus Prime’s characterisation in the original series to the later Michael Bay movies and of course, place the film within Nimoy’s illustrious career alongside such iconic roles as The Evil Moroccan Magician in Faerie Tale Theatre’s interpretation of Aladdin.   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ E

Prominent Neuroscientist and Author of best selling book, The Idiot Brain, Dr. Dean Burnett, drops by to educate the Spocklight crew on the neuroscience and psychology behind 3 episodes of Star Trek from different eras of the franchise: Spock’s Brain (The Original Series - Season 3, Episode 1) The Nth Degree (The Next Generation - Season 4, Episode 19) Hard Time (Season 4, Episode 18) Brain surgery, human intelligence, Post traumatic stress disorder and much more are discussed as Dean gives us the Science on the episodes and also tells us how his early Trek fandom led him to his current career in Neuroscience and the story of Next Generation alumni, Whoopi Goldberg, buying the rights to his book.    As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   You can find Dean @garwboy on Twitter and buy ‘The Idiot Brain’ and Dean's oth

Merry Christmas Spocklighters! Our present to you this year is the gift that keeps on giving, 1997’s Batman & Robin. This festive season we’re giving Joel Schumacher’s much derided and camp as Christmas Superhero movie a full critical re-evaluation. We look over Schumacher’s eclectic directing career and explain our own history with the film before getting into a beat by beat breakdown of the movie, written of course by Star Trek: Discovery, Picard and Strange New Worlds Producer, Akiva Goldsman. We discuss Batman & Robin’s place within the Batman movie lexicon, comparing it with other iterations of the franchise over the years, reclaim George Clooney’s Batman as the natural successor to Adam West’s Bright Knight, admire Poison Ivy’s Drag Queen chic, lament at the treatment of Bane and Robin in the film, are moved by the emotional core of the story, discover that Barbara Gordon’s backstory literally doesn’t add up and even find time for a mini tribute to James Gandolfini.   Winter has come at la

Deputy Editor of Empire Magazine and Author of ‘Wild and Crazy Guys’, Nick de Semlyen returns to the podcast to discuss Buddy Cop movie Spoof, National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1 starring Star trek alumni, Whoopi Goldberg, James Doohan and William Shatner.   Nick tells us what it was like to become Acting Editor of Empire Magazine just as the Corona Virus pandemic took hold of the world, then joins us in rhapsodising Loaded Weapon as we discuss the National Lampoon films and the world of Spoof cinema in general.   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   You can find Nick @NickdeSemlyen on Twitter and buy ‘Wild and Crazy Guys’ at Amazon and all good booksellers. Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com

We’re joined by returning guest, David Trumble, as we dive into the rather small world of Turner Feature Animation exploring 1994 Live Action/Cartoon hybrid box office bomb, The Pagemaster, Starring Macaulay Culkin alongside the voices of Star Trek alumni – Patrick Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Picardo, and many more.   David explains his long personal history with the film and how it inspired him at a young age, leading to his current job as a Story Artist on major animated movies including Henry Selick’s forthcoming, Wendell and Wild, but do David’s nostalgic memories hold up or did The Pagemaster deserve to be the critical and commercial disaster it was all along, find out by downloading now - all the adventure your imagination can hold awaits you!   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff. David ca

Book a table at the Klingon Restaurant on the Promenade of Deep Space Nine and join us, as our first ever guest, Composer of our theme tune and host of Tabletop RPG Podcast, Pretending with Dice, Adam Johnston, returns to the show for a special Halloween edition of Spocklight as we tackle a Horror tinged episode of DS9, Empok Nor.   We rundown some of the scariest episodes of Star Trek, examine the genre blending in Empok Nor and compare it to Red Dwarf classic, Quarantine, while also exploring the characters of O’Brien and Garak.   All this, PLUS we reminisce over our Star Trek Adventures crossover with Pretending with Dice. If you enjoy the clip we play in this episode we strongly recommend going back to Episode 10 of Pretending with Dice if you want to hear us create our characters then episodes 11-13 for the main story.   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Ple

Come join the force...or should we say, farce, as the Spocklight crew and returning guest, Dan Thomas, take on ‘Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach’ starring Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s very own Rene Auberjonois as the central villain of the piece.   Liam begins by interrogating Matt, Paul and Dan as to their own personal histories with the Police Academy franchise, then we compare the series to Stripes and other comedy movies of the time and discover that our childhood memories of just how funny the film was may have betrayed us while Paul even argues that you can find superior laughs in an episode of Sooty & Co.   We explore Auberjonois’s Directorial career on DS9 while also agreeing that he’s one of the few good things about Assignment Miami Beach and Liam laments the absence of Steve Guttenberg’s Mahoney but praises the performance of G. W. Bailey as Harris, Robert Folk’s score and the iconic Drew Struzan series posters.   Will a watch party of ‘Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment’ ca

We're joined by Felix Trench, Star of Wooden Overcoats, the British Podcast award winning sitcom, to discuss 'Message in a Bottle' from Star Trek: Voyager and the birth of his own Trek fandom growing up in Belgium.    We commiserate missing out on visiting Star Trek: The Experience when we were holidaying in Las Vegas back in 2007, laugh at the bizarre 80s trend of adapting ultraviolent action movies into kids cartoons, get excited by the prospect of a fight between Seven of Nine and B'Elanna, reveal that guest star, Andy Dick, is a case of dick by name, dick by nature and analyse the pivotal nature of this episode in the overarching arc of the series.    As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share, subscribe, review and all that good stuff.   You can find Felix @felixtrench on Twitter and more about Wooden Overcoats at www.woodenovercoats.com 

Bob Fleming of the Progtor Who and Trek this Out podcasts joins us to discuss one of his favourite Star Trek episodes, Deep Space Nine 30th Anniversary celebration, Trials and Tribble-ations.   We compare Trek's 30th Birthday celebrations with that of Doctor Who's, debate Quentin Tarantino's proposed big screen reimagining of The Original Series Gangster classic, 'A Piece of the Action', celebrate the "lads lads lads" of DS9, Bashir and O'Brien, enjoy the drunken trash talking going down in the Enterprise bar, while Liam shamefully fails to remember who Jerry Fielding is and talks up the importance of Sisko meeting Kirk on the bridge.    As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share, subscribe, review and all that good stuff.   You can find Progtor Who and Trek this Out where all good podcasts are available. Credit for our wonderful theme music go

On our latest ‘On Screen’ episode we’re joined by The Empire Film Podcast host, Chris Hewitt, to discuss William Shatner’s 1976 guest appearance on classic Detective drama, Columbo. Chris gives us an education in all things Columbo as we discuss the shambolic Detective’s status as a class warrior and the duality of the character, the history of the show, Shatner’s second guest star role in a later 1994 instalment and his sparkling chemistry with Peter Falk, a surprise appearance from Walter Koenig, the original ending of the episode and Leonard Nimoy’s earlier guest spot as the only villain evil enough to make Columbo mad! But before all that, we pay tribute to the dearly departed Joel Schumacher.   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   You can find Chris @ChrisHewitt on Twitter and @ctah1976 on Instagram   Cred

We finally take the time to examine the first season of Star Trek: Picard with the help of Comedian, Dan Thomas. We discuss why this is the first proper binge era Star Trek show, the lack of memorable new characters, its positive approach to depicting Male friendships, the joy of seeing some old faces, Picard’s character development, and Liam makes an apology to Composer, Jeff Russo. Engage!   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share, subscribe, review and all that good stuff.   You can follow Dan on Twitter @danthomascomedy and watch The Unmakeable Show at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDOWWas0qAZeYEUhS3d2DiQ Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com/ Our beautiful artwork was created by Stephen Trumble, see more at http:

Black Lives Matter!   Before you get into the main section of this episode, we wanted to start with a special message from us here at Spocklight with a little help from Star trek: Discovery’s Ronnie Rowe Jnr. To make it clear where we stand. If you want to donate to the Black Lives Matter campaign, you can do so here:   https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019   And you can watch ‘Black Cop’ on Amazon Prime in the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and France or on Hulu in the United States.   In the main portion of this episode, we’re joined by returning guest, Chris Johnston, from ‘Easy Riders, Raging Podcast’, to analyse 1951 Sci-Fi classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still, directed by Robert Wise (Star Trek: The Motion Picture).   We discuss the links between the film’s philosophy and Gene Roddenberry’s own vision, compare it with the 2008 remake starring Keanu Reeves, lament the fact that the film’s messages are still so relevant almost 70 years later and much more.   As usual you can find

In our first podcast recorded since lockdown begun, the Spocklight crew gather together remotely to launch a whole new series of episodes focusing on Star Trek cast members appearances in various other television shows over the years beginning with George Takei’s guest spot on Miami Vice from 1987 (Season 3, Episode 20 - By Hooker by crook). For one episode only Spocklight transforms into ‘Miami Voice’, as we praise Vice as an early precursor to today’s era of cinematic TV before moving on to a full retrospective of Director (and Vice executive producer), Michael Mann’s career. Can you hear it coming in the air tonight?  You will.   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   Our beautiful artwork was created by Stephen Trumble, see more at http://www.stephentrumble.com 

Liam and Matt are joined by James Dyer of the Pilot TV Podcast and Empire Magazine to discuss classic Star trek: The Next Generation 2-Parter, Chain of Command.     As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   You can find James @jamescdyer on Twitter and the Pilot TV Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you catch your pods. Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com/ Our beautiful artwork was created by Stephen Trumble, see more at http://www.stephentrumble.com   

Frequent Spocklight guest, Stephen Trumble, returns to the podcast to help us dissect the Season 3 Finale and the Season 4 Premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Best of Both Worlds Parts 1+2. We make the argument for the classic 2-Parter being a Riker-centric story rather than a Picard-centric one, discuss the best and worst TV cliffhangers ever and (in what must be a first for any Star Trek podcast) sing the theme tune of 90s Snooker game show, Big Break. Wanna hear all this and much more?! Make it so by downloading now!   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff. You can find Stephen @StephenTrumble on Twitter and his great Podcast, 50 Uses for the word Love @50Uses on Twitter and @50usesforthewordlove on Instagram   Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you

CRIPES, IT'S SNIPES! The Spocklight crew are betting on black as Liam and Paul are joined by Sam Clements & Louise Owen of the '90 Minutes or Less Film Fest' Podcast to dissect Wesley Snipes actioner, Passenger 57 (coming in with a lean and mean running time of 84 minutes), written by David Loughery (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier).   Liam is disappointed by the film seemingly restraining Snipes' natural charisma, Paul is amazed by the fact that despite the film only being 84 minutes long it could easily still be 20 minutes shorter, while Sam reveals the possible origins of the film's most memorable line, "Charles Rane is not insane!" and Louise is surprised that the movie might just pass the Bechdel test.    As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   You can find Sam @sam_clements and Louise on Instagram @podclas

We welcome renowned Theatre Director, Andrew Keates, to the Spocklight bridge to discuss one of his favourite episodes of the Star Trek franchise, ‘In the Pale Moonlight’, from Deep Space Nine.   Andrew helps us unpick the homoerotic subtext to the episode, the political commentary of Deep Space Nine and Star Trek as Theatre, while also giving us the inside story on directing Marina Sirtis in hit Play, Dark Sublime.   As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff.   You can find Andrew on Twitter @andrewkeates and on Instagram @mrandrewkeates You can find more information about Andrew’s Podcast, The Show People Podcast @ShowPeopleUk on Twitter Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com/ Our beautiful artwork

New York... a city pushed to the edge. People pushed to the limit. And no one's got the guts to stop them… apart from Spocklight at the Movies! This episode, we’re covering ‘Death Wish 3’ (Star Trek connection: Marina Sirtis) with Daryl and Jeanette from smashing film podcast, Sudden Double Deep.   Liam decries the gleefully sadistic Death Wish 2, gets nostalgic for the videostore era, wonders how 64-year-old Charles Bronson's punches somehow rivals Superman's and chats up our recent trip to actually SEE Marina Sirtis in the brilliant play, Dark Sublime.   Matt is delighted with sightings of a young Alex Winter and a ridiculous plunger wielding punk, can't help but compare the main villain to Gob Bluth and discusses some of the many problematic details surrounding Sirtis' role as 'Maria'   And guests Daryl and Jeanette provide their expert knowledge on the history of Canon Films, wince at the iffy white saviour tropes, ill-conceived rape scene and depictions of extreme class warfare... and mostly try to

Star Wars Puppeteer, Derek Arnold, beams up to discuss his work on The Force Awakens, Rogue One, The Last Jedi, Solo and The Rise of Skywalker, as well as joining the Spocklight crew for an in-depth analysis of Episode VII itself.   Hear Derek’s very personal take on the film and the Star Wars franchise itself as he regales us with behind the scenes stories of bringing the Luggabeast, the Thala Siren, Vober Dand, the Nightwatcher Worm and many more to life.     As usual you can find SPOCKLIGHT on: TWITTER - @spocklightpod INSTAGRAM – @spocklightpod FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/spocklightpod/ EMAIL - spocklightpod@gmail.com Please Follow, like, share and all that good stuff. You can find Derek at @ActorDArnold on Twitter Credit for our wonderful theme music goes to the incredibly talented, Adam Johnston’s, you can find more of his work at - https://adamjohnstonuk.bandcamp.com Our beautiful artwork was created by Stephen Trumble, see more at http://www.stephentrumble.com