In this episode of the Trek Profiles podcast, we sit down with author Duncan Barrett and discuss his love of Star Trek and which episodes he finds the most powerful. Duncan talks about how he came to be a Star Trek podcaster and why that is a complement to his writing.
Key moments in this episode:
- Being a lapsed fan who only attended “church” at Christmas or Easter
- Having a child triggered a new immersion into Trek fandom
- How a trip to Dublin triggered a TNG addiction
- How Trek got him through “Glandular Fever”
- The peculiarities of watching Trek in the 90’s in the UK
- VHS tapes
- Forgotten episodes
- Why Ethan Phillips and his character Neelix made such a great impression
- A discussion of the wonderful MetaTreks podcast
- A link to the London School of Economics podcast series
- Is the new Picard series about Brexit or Trump or something else?
- The Epic of Gilgamesh and why it matters
- Actually playing Water Polo
- Star Trek episodes mentioned
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- ENT: Observer Effect and why it was so powerful
- TNG: Darmok and what it has to do with Brexit
- DS9: Children of Time and the darkness within it
- DS9: Past Tense and the believably of the characters
- VOY: Extreme Risk and how it tackled psychological problems
- VOY: Lineage and the Torres character
- TOS: The Corbomite Maneuver and the contrast against Extreme Risk
- VOY: Eye of the Needle and how it should have been the Season 1 finale
- TOS: Devil in the Dark and connecting with others
- DS9: The Ship and who makes the mistakes
- DIS: Lethe and the examination of family and how it made Duncan gasp twice
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Connect with Duncan via Twitter here.
You can listen to Duncan’s podcast on the Trek.FM network here. Check out his books.
- Hitler’s British Isles: True-life recollections from the Channel Islanders who were the only British subjects to live under Nazi rule in WWII. ‘An absolutely fascinating account of life under German rule in the Channel Islands during the war.’
- The Sugar Girls: Tales of Hardship, Love and Happiness in Tate & Lyle’s East End. In the years leading up to and after the Second World War thousands of women left school at fourteen to work in the bustling factories of London’s East End. Despite long hours, hard and often hazardous work, factory life afforded exciting opportunities for independence, friendship and romance. Of all the factories that lined the docks, it was at Tate and Lyle’s where you could earn the most generous wages and enjoy the best social life, and it was here where The Sugar Girls worked.
- GI Brides: The Wartime Girls Who Crossed the Atlantic for Love. For readers enchanted by the bestsellers The Astronaut Wives Club, The Girls of Atomic City, and Summer at Tiffany’s, an absorbing tale of romance and resilience—the true story of four British women who crossed the Atlantic for love, coming to America at the end of World War II to make a new life with the American servicemen they married.
- Star Trek: The Human Frontier. Michèle and Duncan Barrett are mother and son – she a distinguished social theorist now working in literary and cultural studies, he a writer still in his teens. Together they take Star Trek – the TV series, films, and related projects – and explore it for what it tells us (and asks) about being human. From the progressive politics that underpinned the original program to the declining faith in rationalism that haunts Deep Space Nine and Voyager, the Star Trek story has grappled with powerful philosophical and social issues.
- The Girls who went to War. Overall, more than half a million women served in the armed forces during the Second World War. This book tells the story of just three of them – one from the Army, one from the Navy and one from the Air Force. But in their stories are reflected the lives of hundreds of thousands of others like them – ordinary girls who went to war, wearing their uniforms with pride.
- Men of Letters. Stories of the lives and losses of the Post Office Rifles in World War I—men who came from all ranks and walks of life, brought together by their common pre-war employment as Post Office workers
Honorary Star Trek title awarded: Chief Writer and Lore Master of the Atavachron on Sarpedion.
Listen online below.
Audio editing assistance on this episode of the podcast was provided by the Willow Castle Group.