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

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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

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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.