In this episode, we speak with Alex Perry, host of the Weekly Trek news digest show over on the Tricorder Transmissions Podcast Network. Alex and I had a very frank and sometimes philosophical discussion about Star Trek and what parts of it speak to him. Enjoy!
Topics
- Beaver Scouts in the UK
- Matt Frewer
- The old Star Trek VHS tapes
- Seeing Star Trek completely out of order
- Alex’s viewing tracker and rating system as a kid
- The TrekRanks podcast
- John’s Star Trek rating scale
- The futility of trying to decide what is good Star Trek
- Alex’s preference for the “Season-Based Viewing Order” of Star Trek
- Will Discovery S3 cause problems for this viewing order?
- The T’Kon Empire
- The role of Animated Series in Trek history
- The number of TAS references in modern Trek
- Alex put Star Trek away in college
- A pilgrimage to the Star Trek Experience
- Alex’s contributions to TrekCore
- Thoughts on constructive ways to spend your time on fandom
- The Star Trek tour in Ticonderoga, NY
- Alex talks about his first scoop
- On combating misinformation in the fandom
- Similarities between the fandom wars and the current political climate
- AwesomeCon & Shore Leave conventions
- Photo Ops vs Autographs
- Alex’s personal rules for photo ops
- Eaglemoss ships
- On collecting Star Trek novels
- Alex’s collecting of screen-used props (See gallery pictures below)
- Screen-used props and what they mean
- The limits of knowledge in the Star Trek universe
- Starfleet as a bureaucracy
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- Life in the Federation outside of Starfleet: idyllic or is it less so?
- The future as seen in the show versus what fans have been told outside of what’s on the screen
- The futility of trying to make sense of the Federation economy
- The “End of History” by Fukuyama
- The concept of eudaimonia, or Human Flourishing
- John Stuart Mill and Experiments in Living
- Logic versus brawn in Star Trek
- The Picard show as a challenge to the idea of who John-Luc Picard is as a Captain and as a person
- Would people be capable of making the decisions to create a Federation?
- The novel “Control” is the final boss
- The messages of the UFP trilogy from ENT S4, especially as compared to the Control novel
- The strange kind of Star Trek episodes that are ham-handed yet still powerful in their message
- What is Star Trek trying to do?
- The contrasting styles of some of the writers who have worked on Star Trek at various times
- The hidden charms of Star Trek Generations
- Soren as one of the most interesting of all Star Trek movie villains
- The Last Temptation of Christ and Picard in the Nexus
- The age of the viewer changing the interpretation of messages in an episode
- The fine balance of the documentary Trekkies
- Alex’s feelings about the fandom changing over time
- Rejecting Star Trek while in college
- Star Trek at its most confident
- Living, eating, sleeping, and breathing Star Trek
- Alex contemplates on his personal connection to Star Trek
- The YouTube video that had John in stitches about the Kurlan Naiskos
Episodes Discussed
- A Matter of Time TNG S5E09
- Violations TNG S5E12
- Hero Worship TNG S5E11
- Basics Part II VOY S3E01
- Flashback VOY S3E02
- City on the Edge of Forever TOS S1E28
- The Battle TNG S1E09
- Yesteryear TAS S1E02
- Stardust City Rag STP S1E05
- The Omega Directive VOY S4E21
- Homefront & Paradise Lost DS9 S4E11 & S4E12
- The Devil in the Dark TOS S1E25
- This Side of Paradise TOS S1E24
- Remembrance STP S01E01
- Section:31 Control (Novel, 2017)
- The UFP trilogy from ENT S04E12 S04E13 S04E14
- A Taste of Armageddon TOS S1E23
- Let That Be Your Last Battlefield TOS S3E15
- Spock’s Brain TOS S3E01
- Star Trek Generations (1994)
- Rascals TNG S6E07
- Tapestry TNG S6E15
- Real Life VOY S3E22
- Homestead VOY S7E23
- The 37s VOY S2E01
- Trekkies (Documentary 1997)
- Improbable Cause & The Die is Cast DS9 S3E20 S3E21
Alex Perry being assimilated at the Star Trek Experience Alex Perry on the Bridge on the Enterprise D.
Connect
- You can find Alex’s personal account on Twitter here.
- His show’s Twitter, Weekly Trek is here.
- Here is the Weekly Trek site, including links to subscribe.
Honorary Star Trek title awarded: Curator of Fandom Collections at the Federation Museum on Memory Alpha
Background photo by Jason Weingardt on Unsplash.