Episode 212 - STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURES

Our March bracket tradition continues with Memory Alpha Madness, as we boldly go into the world of Star Trek movies. And it's our biggest bracket yet - a field of the first ten Trek films, which encompass many highlights (and a few lowlights) of the franchise's headiest, silliest, and most thrilling storytelling.

We've beamed up a bona fide Trekspert, Charles Benimoff, for a three-way mind-meld to determine which movie is ultimately the most...fascinating. Memory Alpha Madness, engage!   

Movies featured in Memory Alpha Madness:
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Star Trek: Generations (1994)
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

Episode 51 - GALAXY QUEST

On Christmas Day in 1999, at the height of anxiety over the "Y2K Problem" in which technology might finally have been our undoing, Galaxy Quest was released in theaters to remind audiences of a more optimistic vision of the future worthy of Gene Roddenberry. Not only did the film parody Star Trek the franchise, but Star Trek the phenomenon, lovingly sending up every element from the real-life drama between cast members to the culture of fandom the series helped create.

Trekspert Charles Benimoff returns to the podcast to lend us some context and to argue why Galaxy Quest deserves to be an honorary part of the Star Trek canon, if only to keep that pesky even-odd curse firmly intact... By Grabthar's hammer, what an episode!

Galaxy Quest (1999)
Directed by Dean Parisot
Produced by Mark Johnson and Charles Newirth
Written by David Howard and Robert Gordon
Starring Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, Daryl Mitchell, Enrico Colantoni, Missi Pyle, and Justin Long

Episode 41 - THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH

Cool gadgets, big stunts, beautiful women, and cheesy puns - these are the talismans of the five decade-plus James Bond franchise, the magic items that sustain its singular mojo as it subsumes and exhausts nearly every significant cinematic trend of the past half-century.

On the cusp of the new millennium--during a time of serious transition in the action genre--The World Is Not Enough appeared to be one final throwback to this classical style of Bond filmmaking.  Charles Benimoff joins the podcast to discuss whether TWINE is simply a perfunctory game of Bond trope bingo, or if it has something more to offer underneath its familiar trappings.

The World Is Not Enough (1999)

Directed by Michael Apted

Produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli

Written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein

Starring Pierce Brosnan, Sophie Marceau, Robert Carlyle, Denise Richards, Robbie Coltrane, Judi Dench, and Desmond Llewelyn