SNW Season 3 - Genre Primer

[00:00:00] So, trailer discussion, is there anything specific as far as the intro? Just saying we're gonna talk the Season 3 trailer and- Let's make Cameron host. Hmm? Make Cameron host it. I can try to host it. I didn't write anything, but- Oh yeah? Okay. You don't have to. Nope. Here comes the intro right now. Ready? Go. Is this thing on?

[00:00:29] Hello, hello. You're hosting Cam. Oh, I'm going to get done. I'm used to doing it afterwards.

[00:00:54] Hello, everybody, and welcome to Open Pike Night, the Strange New Worlds podcast where your- Personal logs. Audio clips. Personal logs are the prime directive. John usually does that, but I'm doing this today, so bear with me. Here with us tonight and on stage, nope, getting it wrong already, the man who can outrun any zombie as long as it's a George Romero zombie. None of those 28 Days Laser zombies. He's not ready for that. John T. Boulds.

[00:01:22] Hey, when you get to a certain age, your hips are tight every morning when you wake up, so you either need time to stretch or just do a brisk walk. It's true. It's true. Yeah. Okay. The man who has been practicing his Shatner impression and vaguely Vulcan-ish alien impressions, but not Vulcan, not enough to get sued, Jesse Bailey. Go ahead, Kiff. Tell them about my very sexy learning disability. Hey. Hey.

[00:01:52] I know that impression. And the man who wears- Hmm. Hmm. Who always keeps a fedora and a trench coat down his pants just for whenever he stumbles across a dead body, Josh King. Hmm. That helps, but it lends a good cover to why there's a dead body around me. Once a week, no matter where I go, the Jessica Fletcher syndrome.

[00:02:23] Uh, 10% of our audience is going to get that reference. If, if, if you're as old as me or older, you'd like that joke. I'm the 90%. Well, today we are here to talk all about genres because that's what I was going to say. The last Strange New World season three premiere suggested we were going to get the season as a lot of genres,

[00:02:48] but first we need to talk about the sudden new trailer that dropped for Strange New World season three. It dropped after we had planned this, uh, uh, episode. So we're just going to give you our raw unfiltered thoughts all about it right now. Oh, I think I watched the wrong trailer. I thought we were doing Tyler Perry's Medea's destination wedding. That's- No, no. Yeah, you got it. Yeah, that's right. Zombie movies. Yeah. I think it's going to be the biggest event of the season. Into the Medea-verse.

[00:03:20] No, I, so to Cameron's point, I did, I watched the new Strange New World season three trailer and like, I don't, I don't know you guys, I don't want to be this guy, but here I go. We don't need this many trailers. Like, yeah, give us one trailer and call it good. Like put the freaking release date in the first trailer at least, which they didn't do. But like, I don't want to see clips of every episode

[00:03:48] from the season before the season starts. Maybe that's just me. I'm okay with that. You know, John says, as you get older, things change. And I think this is one of the things that's changing for me. I'm like, give me less. Like, yes, girl, give us nothing. Yeah. In our last trailer breakdown, we were excited that we could tell that there were episodes we had not seen clips for yet. We had kind of broken out the trailer and been like, yeah, there's probably like three or four episodes we haven't seen anything or at least much from.

[00:04:16] And now it kind of feels like we've seen something from everything. Which I get, I completely get, but it's like, I feel like I don't even get to take my victory lap now for calling on basically no information that that's Ortega's little brother because they just put it in the new trailer. And I'm like, wow, this is going to be a great victory lap for me. Like, thanks trailer people. But my, my only other complaint is that this is really, really edited,

[00:04:44] like a Marvel trailer, which again, I understand, but like, stop it. Like there, there are other kinds of trailers that you can do. They don't all have to be Marvel trailers. But not, not like a good Marvel trailer, like the Avengers Marvel trailer with nine inch nails playing like one of the bad new ones. Right. Right. Like a phase four trailer, which is not to say that I'm worried about these episodes. It's that I'm like,

[00:05:11] please, you don't have to do everything Disney does. Like I'm still very excited for the season. I have every confidence in the writers and the creative team behind this show. That's why we have a podcast about it. But these trailers, man, like, I don't know. Am I sounding curmudgeonly? Like, what is this? This is not the role I usually play. Welcome to the curmudgeon club, man. You sound perfectly reasonable. Yep. Hey guys, well, let me be the voice of optimism here.

[00:05:40] First of all, the new Fantastic Four trailers, all of them are freaking amazing. I don't know what you're talking about. That is a phase four trailer that I am 100% here for. To me, it just feels like any trailer these days, which was probably popularized by Marvel, to your point. No, I mean, yeah, I was surprised we got another trailer. I do wonder, you know, the last one was very focused on genre, thus inspiring this episode and focused on comedy. I wonder if they kind of got some blowback and were like, oh yeah, we need to remind people this

[00:06:07] is a space adventure show with pew pews. Maybe, I don't know. But yeah, I mean, look, it proves some of your theories. You're right, Jesse. You called Ortegas's little brother there. We had reason to suspect Ortegas had a little sister. Perhaps there was some changes in writing after the writer's strike. We don't know, but... He got Crushered. He got Wesley Crushered. You're right. What was the original name? Leslie Crusher. Wesley Crusher, yeah. Leslie Crusher.

[00:06:37] Yeah, but other than that, there's some stuff that when I saw it, I was like, okay, I have to know what that is. That looks huge on scale. There's some kind of portal situation going on. There's some spatial distortion happening. There's some giant rooms. And I'm very excited for it. I was just... I don't know. Like I said, I think once you hit 36, things just start to change,

[00:07:06] right? Was that the point that we were making? But it does look gorgeous. Everybody thinks low T means low testosterone. It's no, low trailer. I have low trailer tolerance. So, yeah. I don't know why everybody's trying to raise their trailer tolerance. What about you, Josh? Have you been tracking the Strange New World Season 3 trailers or... Since I was invited on the podcast, figured I would watch the trailers. So I watched them back to back. Ooh. Yeah.

[00:07:35] Two years of teasing all in one shotgun blast to the face. It was a lot. Thank you. That new trailer was... Marvel-esque is a very good description, but what I was really surprised with, and this may sound like a backhanded compliment, but it's not, but I could see the money on the screen. I don't know if they've gotten an increase

[00:08:00] in budget or if just they've, you know, been able to reuse that sort of thing, but it looked very well produced and like the spaceship scenes and stuff and all. I was like, man, this is like full on movie quality. You know, it seemed like it seemed very punching above its Star Trek's normal grade, which is... I mean, I love Star Trek, but I mean, it's not known

[00:08:29] for being the most outstanding special effects driven, but everything just looks so great. And it was hard to take it all in because it was just so many just smash cuts and like, they're like, what? They're in the 70s. I was really glad to see some of Patton Oswalt's character.

[00:08:55] Cause like, all we knew was that he was in it. We hadn't seen anything from him. And like, I'm a sucker for the dry Vulcan non-humor. Like it works for me. And to have Spock be the one who's like up to speed on that is, it's great. Like it recalls, you know, moments of Data teaching lol and, you know, how to catch and things like that. So I'm very interested to know who that character is, but...

[00:09:22] To that point, watching Spock kind of poke and tease him sort of like that, you know, in the ways that, you know, I probably did to my brother. Have we theorized that Patton could be Cybok? Is Patton Oswalt Cybok? I think it was mentioned maybe by John. I think somebody postulated that. I feel like we might have. Yeah. In passing. We have made so many predictions in the last month that it's like... Now that you said that, it seems like the most obvious thing in the world.

[00:09:52] Except... It was just a wig the whole time. Yeah. Right. But he does not seem to be overly emotional. And we already know from his time in Ancastan Katil, which is not a prison, that he's had some of that emotional flux already. Maybe that is a flashback. That's what drove him mad. That could be it. He had one too many downloads.

[00:10:18] He's like when on King of the Hill, when Bobby kept listening to that comedy record, trying to figure it out. That's what happened. Sorry, Jesse, you had another point to make. I don't think I did. I think it was just like... I was glad to see that. I was glad to see the big budget that Josh was saying. And like, you know, you guys, we recently went through Discovery Season 2 again.

[00:10:45] And I would say if there is one consistent defining trait of Star Trek in the New Age, you know, post-2009 Star Trek movies, it's that they all have a lot of money behind them. And you can see it on the screen. Like that's... You know, say whatever you will about the writing of any given single season of Star Trek in this era, but the money has been there.

[00:11:10] And I'm, you know, if they were to like absorb the Discovery and Picard budget for this season, I'd be okay with that. I'm sure they didn't get to do that. But I am... I agree with Josh completely. It looks gorgeous. I remain completely excited. It's just that like... I'm one of those people that... I would like to say advertising doesn't work on me. Like, I've never seen an ad for a thing and gone, oh, and now I have to have that.

[00:11:39] It's always been waiting for the, you know, announcement of a thing I already knew I wanted, if that makes sense. Like, I've never purchased anything outside of this Waterloo sparkling water that I saw or heard a commercial for and went, oh, I got to try that. But it was on sale. To quote a great philosopher, it's like things are so commercialized these days, you know? Yeah. They're trying to sell to kids. But they got to just let people make a choice. And it's the choice of a new generation.

[00:12:08] One of the best scenes in movie history. Speaking of speaking to the camera, that's my biggest question from this trailer is the shot of all of them turning and looking straight down the camera. Is that from the show or is that made for the trailer? That's a good question. Maybe it's from the Trek parody thing somehow. They're looking at whatever TV cameras are being used on them. Yeah. I don't know. It feels like a trailer shot. It feels trailer-y. But here's the thing. They do...

[00:12:37] So there's this scene with James Kirk. And Pike is telling him, like, here's what the chair means, you know? And it's like, okay, well, we know he's not taking over at the end of this season. So I think that's a war game scenario, right? This is Pike training Kirk. There's some kind of simulation going on and it probably turns into a real situation a la Kirk and Riker. But somebody says something like, this can be whatever kind of story we want it to be.

[00:13:07] I think Pike says that. Or whatever kind of adventure would be... Yeah. He's got to be leading up to a holodeck there, right? Right. Because we've seen that there's a holodeck. So I'm like, oh, maybe that's them trying to put together a story for this holodeck. And then that shot of all their faces is them getting scanned to be put into the holodeck or something. Because you're right. Other than that, it feels very, like, outside of the universe. Yeah, that's a good call.

[00:13:32] Yeah, I'm wondering if we're not going to see the, quote-unquote, prime universe's version of the Kobayashi Maru. Ooh. I would love that. We've seen the Kelvinverse version. It's about the right time. Right? Well, no. Yeah. No, a little later, I guess. But maybe he takes it again. And he has to take it again because they found out he cheated. Well, it would still be in use. I mean, I think even after Kirk broke it, there's no indication that they stopped doing the Kobayashi. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:14:02] Oh, yeah. Well, obviously, at Rathacon, they're doing Kobayashi. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Now, speaking of what Kirk's up to, though, there is a shot of two ships making the starship with two backs firing simultaneously at a planet. You make it sound dirty. It's a beautiful thing. Hi, this is Cameron. Welcome to Open Pike Night. Beautiful. Is the other one the Farragut? Do we know, is the Farragut a single nacelle? Well, here's the thing. Chip?

[00:14:31] I think so, but I can't remember because I know we saw the Farragut in season one, but that was three years ago. But that shot to me looks like, I believe it's a Columbia and NX-01 Enterprise thing that they did once because they don't have that big hull section. Mm-hmm. I feel like there's an episode of Enterprise where they do the sandwich and it looks kind of like an X-wing and they do something together. I'm obviously not the expert on Enterprise, but I feel like it could be a visual homage to that.

[00:15:00] I will say, like, two or three shots later, it looks like whatever the other ship is is totally, like, completely destroyed and the Enterprise is just cruising. I think that's a different, because that one has two nacelles, so I think that's a different ship. But yeah, it looks like there's some shit that goes down. Well, you know, Cameron, that I'm completely blind to one nacelle ships because they're disgusting. There are a lot of shots of Battelle in different outfits, so I think we're safe. Or it is a season-long rug pull.

[00:15:30] Oh, yes. And she dies at the very end, like, you know, saving a bunch of people. I'm sure if she goes out, it will be heroic. It's that the last shot is the Thanksgiving scene we keep seeing and they all, like, are toast and happy and then suddenly she just flops on the table. Explodes into a pile of gorn. Yeah. There's, uh, I believe in season one, we heard from a writer that she was not supposed to be in more episodes than that first episode.

[00:15:59] But they liked Melanie Scrofano's performance so much that they added her to more episodes. So it could absolutely be a thing where they were like, you know, you know what? Let's just keep her. She's a great actor. This is a cool character. And it's a great way to inject drama into the plot armor of Pike's storyline, right? Because it's like, he's not going anywhere. He's not going to get grievously injured beyond a certain point. So, like, you've got to have something for him that makes you feel worried for him, right?

[00:16:28] So I think that's probably a good mechanism for that. Their little nose rub made me feel something. It was cute. It was sweet. Yeah. I love them. Yeah. Uh, what else? Oh, we got more zombies, but we're going to talk about that later. Oh, the music. Like, that music stinger that kicks in early on. Was that Daft Punk? It sounded very Tron. I liked it. I don't know what it was, but I was like, put more Synthwave in my Star Trek. I will be there for it. Like. 100%. No problem with that.

[00:16:57] Lon yells, get to the shuttle at one point, which made me think of get to the choppa. Hell yeah. I wish he had just put a little more, get to the shutter. I don't know. They're giving us tons of references and we're like, can we please have more references, please? Yeah. Please. We see Spock punch someone. And I was trying to figure out, is he, is that a Spock jock? Did he get Spock jocked? Spock clocked. He got Spock clocked. There you go. Spock clocked. Spock. Yeah.

[00:17:27] I knew it was there. I think that was worth the journey. Thank you. So Una asking Pike, is this a hit it situation? Is she talking about some sexy lady on the screen or going to war? Yeah. I think they go back to Majalas and that ambassador gal FaceTimes them and she's like, uh, which and that, what that means for Una is. How much do you believe in your Federation beliefs? Cause, uh, I'm feeling, you know, it's bike time. Yeah.

[00:17:56] That's, that's, that's Una saying, do you need me to sit in the chair while you go on shore leave? Like. Yes, absolutely. Now the titles say new romances and we very clearly see, uh, uh, her and, and Ortegas's brother clearly flirting. And then there's the lab shot of who is this chapel and Spock and someone else in the lab and then Binga in the lab doing lab experiments, clearly under the romance kind of title.

[00:18:24] What are, are they romancing single cell organisms? What's happening here? I'm pretty sure they're weird sciencing. Yes. Yeah. It does look like weird science. Yeah. I mean, it's the same like, uh, goggles as the crossover episode when Boimler and Spock were in there. Right. So, I mean, it's at a point now where like Star Trek can be self-referential to things that just happened and it will still work on me. So I don't know if that's intentional or if it's like, this is the costume we have for science.

[00:18:54] So use that. But you're right. It's kind of an interesting placement of that scene because what does science have to do with love? Right. What's love but a secondhand emotion? It's a chemical something. I can't remember this reference. Sorry. It's all right. You're not. Oh no, it's the matrix. He's like, it's a series of chemical reactions designed to create a connection between you and the rest of your species.

[00:19:22] It's from the architect at the end of the second matrix. Okay. I got there. I feel better. And then my only other note is also under the text. Then it goes new worlds. And then there's a bunch of shots of space and maybe one shot that's actually on a world. And they've done this before. They've done this before where they're like, oh yeah, I do. Like I remember we've talked kind of about like, yeah, they say strange new worlds. They don't show a lot of new worlds, but I think they did this in a previous trailer for a previous season. Maybe. Where it's like, yeah, we're doing all this cool stuff in space.

[00:19:53] Well, all that space contains worlds. And so they go to them, but they're on the screen. We're not going there. They're in orbit. Yes, they are in orbit of these worlds. Now, since we last recorded, we did also get the confirmed episode titles for all 10 episodes. So if you don't want to know any of these, skip ahead like 10 seconds. But the final episode of this season is called New Life and New Civilizations, which a couple people have pointed out.

[00:20:20] Sounds like it could be the last episode ever. Like that's the kind of title you give to a series finale. Of course, we know season four is already in production, so we don't have to worry about that. And I believe just today it was revealed that there is a solicitation for season five on the WGA site or whatever they use to like get writers together for things. It hasn't been announced, but it is there.

[00:20:48] Well, I am teased for season three. Hell yeah. We all know that Cameron loves to be teased. Yes. By single cell organisms. Mercilessly. Multiple organisms. You know that. That's a myth. You know organisms are a myth. Yeah. I'm glad we both got there at the same time. Well, let's talk about some genres now, because if we can't watch Strange New Worlds just yet,

[00:21:17] we can watch some things that are clearly going to inspire this next season. As we mentioned, the last trailer showed three very clear genres they're going to be playing in. We saw zombies. Yeah. Which we saw more of this trailer. We saw 70s murder mystery, which Jonathan Frakes promised us. And we saw a very clear Trek parody of some sort, which is a whole subgenre in itself.

[00:21:41] So we're going to discuss these three genres and subgenres, our favorite examples of them and what we what tropes we enjoy from them and how we hope they play out in Strange New Worlds season three. Let's do it. Is this a hit it situation? Well, let's start with the murder mystery. You know, that was the first one we had found out about. Again, Jonathan Frakes revealed that long ago and then refused to give us any other clues when he was on here with us. Yeah, nothing.

[00:22:09] But I have some some suggestions that possibly what he may have watched influence it based on what we know or can guess. Now, of course, there are lots and lots of different types of murder mysteries. Frakes is specific words. I think we're a classic Hollywood mirror mystery. Yeah, does that mean like a murder mystery that takes place in Hollywood? I'll Sunset Boulevard who framed Roger Rabbit, the nice guys or just like a classic murder mystery Hollywood likes to do. We don't really know.

[00:22:36] But then in the trailer, it was very clearly a kind of 70s parlor room murder mystery, kind of more like Agatha Christie's murder on the Orient Express or the Knives Out ones or Clue. I'm getting definitely some Clue vibes from there. Oh, tons of Clue vibes. Yeah, knives out and Clue were the things that jumped out to me immediately. For sure. For sure. So, you know, I kind of did some research because I love noir a lot. But again, this doesn't really look like noir so much. But I did some research.

[00:23:06] I tried to find where the Venn diagram of Hollywood murder and 70s kind of parlor room murder mysteries overlap. Not a ton of examples. I did stumble across one movie I watched just this other day, which I'm very glad I did. It's called The Last of Sheila. Any chance anyone knows this? I had never heard of it before. I've never heard of it. The Last of Sheila. No, I haven't seen most of the things you're talking about. It stars James Coburn, James Mason, Raquel Welch, and then a very young Ian McShane, which was

[00:23:35] just like haywire to my brain because I don't think I ever knew about Ian McShane before Pirates of the Caribbean. So it's strange seeing like a young, sexy Ian McShane. But it's about a Hollywood producer who invites all of his Hollywood friends onto a yacht. And I don't want to give away too much because it's very Knives Out. In fact, I was watching it going, oh, this is Glass Onion. This is what inspired Glass Onion. And then I read that this is what inspired Glass Onion. So there's a lot of twists and turns in it. It's really good. It's a really good murder mystery.

[00:24:05] I highly recommend people check it out if they want to get into that 70s murder mystery vibe. It's very 70s, both in aesthetic and pacing. I will warn you, and perhaps some ideas on homosexuality and other proclivities, let's just say, and I'll leave it there. So, you know, go in expecting a 70s movie. So from those examples, Cameron, you're definitely going to be the expert in the room.

[00:24:31] What kinds of things from those examples are you hoping we get in this murder mystery episode? I mean, it looks like Laon is going to be the detective, the Poirot. I can never say his name. The Agatha Christie. Poirot. Poirot character. And so I just, you know, I'm going to say I'm a sucker for like the last scene where the detective ties everything together. I think Clue kind of parodies that very well.

[00:24:59] And I just I want to see that at the end where she just runs through and connects this very overly complex web of deception. The other thing I think we're going to get is, you know, the one kind of through line through all murder mysteries, whether it's a parlor room where you find out that everyone has a secret. Everyone had a reason to want the host to die. I think that's what they say. The host is dead in the episode. Or even film noir where you just find out like there's a seedy underbelly to everything.

[00:25:27] The movie industry, it's always about the seedy underbelly, how like they don't care about relationships. It's all about kind of moving up the ladder and everything. So I'm wondering if either a this is going to kind of be the sort of thing where they discover kind of a secret, you know, the seedy underbelly of Starfleet. Is that what they're going to discover with this? Perhaps the Starfleet R&D, which designed this holodeck program, is really trying to draw tourists away from Risa because they want to strip mine Risa. That feels very like Chinatown, right?

[00:25:57] Or Andor. Yeah. Yeah. So my guess will be that they're in the holodeck and the host really dies and it's not part of the program. And whether or not that is just a part of the game or not is because that's that's a very 70s trope. And like, like it's very sitcom 70s. There's always a episode of the Jeffersons or something where they go to a murder mystery

[00:26:25] dinner and then like the host dies for real and they have to figure it out. Then they're like, no, it was just that was the show. So that's a great goal because obviously that's a classic holodeck set up and trope and very you're right. The Last of Sheila is the exact same thing. The producer is kind of like doing this. It's not a murder mystery, but it's like a mystery game where people have to solve clues that turns real. So, yeah, yeah. I bet I bet you're right there. I just love that we have Josh on his guest and we're basically doing a Bricked Pit episode. I love it. That was the plan.

[00:26:56] If we're going to steal from him, we better invite him on. We don't want to get hit with that lawsuit. Yeah. Those Bricked Pit lawyers. I'm going to change my episode title guess from Murder Most Foul to Murder in the Holledeck Hills. Ooh. Nice. Oh. I'm sure that won't be it, but I had to say- For the program? I had to say Holledeck. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:22] And you know, I'm reminded of the episode of Boy Meets World where there's a killer in the school. I'm not really. Jesus. That's religious. So that's, well, it's a Halloween episode and it's, you know, very funny and fake, but they do all get killed and it's a little more brutal than you would expect. Again, I say Jesus. Yeah. TV in the 90s was a way, John. Like, I mean, especially Boy Meets World. It was like, it started as like a fun, like family sitcom.

[00:27:51] And then it was like, how many of these 14 year olds can we make kiss somebody on screen? Yeah, that's true. I do remember an episode of two guys are grilling a pizza place, same conceit. And Ryan Reynolds ends up hacking everybody up with an ax. So. Right. Yeah. There was a, there was a punky Brewster episode, a Halloween episode that was pretty, had giant spiders and stuff in it. It got pretty gnarly. So. I was not watching the right TV. Saved by the Bell never had a fun Halloween episode. Saved by the Bell never had a fun episode.

[00:28:21] Sequest never had a fun Halloween. Did one of them get hooked on pills or something for a while? Why would you say something so brave yet so true? But punky Brewster reminds me of the Padgett Brewster episode of Drunk History, which there's no connection to. You should just watch it. She's very good on Drunk History. But the other thing I'm wondering about, and this is really more my, my true guess is

[00:28:46] that in the simulation, truths about the characters start to come out. We start to learn secrets about the actual Strange New Worlds characters. So maybe this is where like Mbenga's secret about what happened with the butcher of blah happened. Yeah. Yeah. Is that where Anson finds out about the truth? Hashtag Mbenga did nothing wrong. Maybe some, uh, some Spock and Chapel drama and gets unearthed there.

[00:29:12] It's a good setup to have that, that dual layer of, of the game versus reality and, and what's real and, and what's not. Uh, it's kind of like the episode of the office where they do the, the murder mystery and Andy's trying to ask Aaron out and he, they don't know if they're doing it as their characters or if they're really asking each other. So, uh, you know, we may see something like that happening where somebody confesses to something

[00:29:42] actual and not, not as their, their holodeck character. I like that. That could be fun. Especially with Spock who could probably get confused between the role playing. Right. The Savannah accent is sort of like molasses spilling out of your mouth. Spock trying to understand LARP will be, um. Oh man. Well, speaking of LARP, you know, that's the thing with the holodecks is all through TNG.

[00:30:09] Like they were always just like, yeah, let's go do this book. And it was always like, what are you doing? Are you just, you're doing a chapter of a book? I mean, I guess you're, it's just like, you're doing the play version of a book. I don't know. It was never a game. It was never a game with like a beginning and middle and end. Well, it was when, when, uh, when data was against Moriarty. Yeah. So the Moriarty episodes are kind of the exception though, because like every other holodeck episode is just kind of silly.

[00:30:40] Well, even the, even the Moriarty, they're just, they did Sherlock. And then they're like, well, give us your own tale of Sherlock. Like, all right. So right here and how Cam is declaring that Barkley is the most inventive holodeck user because he makes his own stories. Right. That's right. But what I'm saying is like, they never were like, let's use the holodeck as a murder mystery as like how, how to host a murder, right? Like how we would do it. Like, Hey, here, here's all your cards. Here's your characters. Here's your secrets. We're going to go.

[00:31:08] And you're actually going to be able to shoot somebody, the real murderer. Like, like you could do a really fun murder mystery with a holodeck. They never really gamified the holodeck. It was always just like, let's, let's reenact stuff. So I hope they do something like that. I think the holodeck was like project Gutenberg, you know, it's like they only had public domain stuff available, which is why they would like go to Jane Austen land. They didn't, the starships didn't have the rights for, uh, yeah.

[00:31:33] So that's another nice thing about this generation of Star Trek is that they do have money for the rights to things. So I, I wouldn't be surprised to hear them reference like a specific movie from this genre or maybe an actual novel that was written after 1915, you know, that kind of a thing. Yeah. Well, Mickey Mouse is public domain now. So they may, they may play Steamboat Willie, you know, and good luck with your, uh, self-funded

[00:32:02] independent Mickey Mouse project, by the way, because I'm sure there's no chance you get sued. But yeah, that's, that's, that's my hopes. I still think there might be a clue thing going on. We'll see. Now to your point though, Cameron, there is, I believe an episode of Star Trek Prodigy where the like holodeck episode becomes, Hey, maybe we just have to finish the game to get the thing to stop.

[00:32:28] So like it has happened, but it hasn't happened in nineties Trek really, except for a really great episode of DS nine that you haven't seen yet. So I'll make that out of a lot. I mean, just full of data is a sort of, but that's not why they went in there to begin with. Right. But yeah, I like no one ever goes in with roles and like motives or like, this is what you have to accomplish. It's just like, let's go in and hang out. I can't wait for you to see this DS nine episode. I can't wait to see all the rest of the DS nine episodes. Yeah.

[00:32:55] This whole season of strange worlds and we'd be like, this is great guys, but I've got DS nine waiting for me on the other end of the summer. Hell yeah, you do. You know what else you have waiting? Picard. Oh, no, we have colors. Oh yeah. Cameron's never done this before, John. Leave him alone. Yeah. Let's go ahead and hear from our first caller tonight. Here is Abby. Hey, open pike. It's Abby summer from the first flight podcast. Okay. 90 seconds to go over those three images. First of all, not a huge zombie fan.

[00:33:25] I don't like being scared purposefully, but I am a huge and bang of fans. So please go and get those Klingon zombies. And if you need another murder wall, I'm here for it. Yes. Now the other two, the old fashioned sci-fi and the murder mystery. First of all, costumes, costumes, costumes, hair, jewelry, makeup. Oh my goodness. Like my little costume nerd heart just sung when I saw those.

[00:33:49] And as someone who was raised on old school sci-fi with my dad, I absolutely adore that they're going back to that period and honoring what came before. And I can't wait to see how that goes. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. The murder mystery also looks like a blast. Clue is one of my favorite movies in the entire world. So maybe they actually are doing Clue like you said before. One of my hopes is I do hope that both of these episodes don't mean that we have two episodes where our crew isn't really our crew.

[00:34:18] They're mind controlled or taken over or whatever. Those are fun once in a while, but in a 10 episode season, if 20% of that is not really our people, it just feels like we haven't had enough time with them. But they've hit the balance on the previous seasons. So I hope they'll do the same for this one. Overall, I'm just super hyped. I can't wait to see our characters back. I can't wait to see the stories continue. I want more strange new worlds. Now, a challenge for you before I go.

[00:34:44] The titles of the 10 episodes have just come out from the official Star Trek channels. Which one of those episode titles do you think goes with each of these pictures? I have some thoughts, but I'm out of time. So I can't wait to see what you think these ones could line up as. And I hope you're all well. We'll talk soon. Excellent call as always. Yeah. Yeah. That's. And yes, we absolutely have not had enough time with any of these characters, just in general, as a rule. Agreed. True.

[00:35:13] Also, another point of evidence for the clue connection. They talked about Yahtzee in season one. So, I mean, board games. There was a board game thing with two. What was it? Charades. Charades. Yeah. Yeah. So they like games. Yeah. So I think that I put this in the Discord chat. We talked about this in the Discord. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:35:38] As soon as the episode titles dropped, I said, Shuttle to Confori has got to be a Train to Busan reference. Right? I didn't pick up on that, but I think you're 100% right. So that's got to be the zombie episode. I would imagine, because, I mean, otherwise, Shuttle to Confori could mean literally anything, right? And none of the rest of these really scream zombie to me. So, like, that's the only thing that I can pick for that one.

[00:36:08] Now, I will say, Abby, I'm right there with you on the whole zombie thing. For me, it's more of a burnout where, like, I saw too many zombie things and played too many zombie video games, and I'm just generally over the zombie genre, the zumbra. I don't know what the word is for that. But I am absolutely here for Star Trek doing zombies, because you put Klingons in my zombies? I'll take that. I don't care. I'm here for it. 100%. Yeah.

[00:36:36] So I hypothesized, and I may have gone back and been dissuaded by some people on the Discord, but I hypothesized that Terrarium was the murder mystery, because Terrarium feels like a holodeck, especially if they're, like, trying out the holodeck and there's people maybe watching them do the game. Oh, yeah. And then Space Adventure Hour's got to be the parody, the 60s sci-fi. Like, parody-looking thing. I think that makes the most sense.

[00:37:03] And I have to say this, because, like, what is a podcast if not three or four white dudes and a pile of branding? If you have been listening to Open Pike Night for a very long time, you heard the word Terrarium dropped by director Jordan Canning as her season three one-word tease back in March of 2024, people. That is now at least two episode titles that we have gotten from our single word teases.

[00:37:32] Of course, the other being Charades from season two. So, like, I'm not saying that this is the only podcast you should listen to while you watch Strange New Worlds, but this is definitely a podcast you should listen to while you're watching Strange New Worlds. I can support that statement. Yes. Now, someone, I think someone maybe pointed this out, but through the lens, camera lens of time, the 60s, maybe that's the 60s Trek one. Oh. And then maybe Space Adventure Hour's the murder mystery.

[00:38:01] Could be, too. What do you guys think Hegemony Part 2 means? That is... I don't even know that word. Yeah. Like, what does that mean? Isn't that like a song? Hegemony. Hegemony. The Arboretum goes out of control and the bushes just spread all through the Enterprise. That definitely wasn't a word that I read before I ever heard and definitely did not pronounce it right in my own head for a couple decades.

[00:38:28] Like, oh, I'm so glad I didn't say that out loud. So, and here's my other question, though, is like, the Ceylon who ate its tail. Okay. Reference to the Ouroboros, right? Like, the snake eating its own tail. It's a loop. Is this a time loop episode? Is this the mystery episode where it's layers upon layers all leading back to one thing?

[00:38:55] Like, to me, that title is so incredibly vague that if it's not about a Ceylon, then I have no idea what it's about. Like, it feels like it's a saying, right? Rather than indicative of being about a Ceylon. Oh, sure. Yeah. But I don't know what it refers to. So I'm very interested in that one as well. I think that's definitely going to be the Patton Oswalt episode. Oh, brilliant call, Josh. That has to be it.

[00:39:24] Because it's a Vulcan thing. Right. Totally makes sense. Yeah. And so, yeah. There's going to be some kind of... I don't know. He's got to be Saiba. I mean... It's just... It's the... If he's not, then I... What a missed opportunity. I just... It just... Maybe he's another long-lost sibling we never knew Spock had. Oh, God.

[00:39:50] If Spock is known for one thing, it's just not telling you about his secret siblings. How funny would it be? What if he's a Sarek secret sibling? Yes. Sarek secret sibling. That's just what I was going to say, John. They're a secret sibling. I love it. They're secret siblings all the way down. It's like... It runs in the family. Hey, we haven't seen any Amanda yet in these trailers, have we? We have not. You're right. Ooh, I'm a little worried about that. Way to bring me down. Yeah. Podcast over. Cancel it, guys. It was a good run.

[00:40:20] We got 100 episodes. Yeah. Well, speaking of killing stuff and bringing it back to life, let's talk about our next genre. All right. So, obviously, there's some zombie shots. This newer trailer really confirmed because it was kind of blinking you miss it in the first full trailer. It's like, no, we had to slow that down and pause it. But, yeah, that's a bingo running from what is definitely a Klingon zombie, especially now with the new trailer. So, yeah, zombie movies.

[00:40:49] My classic, these are fast zombies. They look real fast. They look real aggressive. So, I can't go with a Night of the Living Dead type recommendation. I always have to go back to the Dawn of the Dead remake. I love that film. I think it's standalone. You do not have to be an original fan. You don't even have to watch a single George Romero zombie movie to enjoy that movie as a zombie movie. It is brutal. It is un... Like, it doesn't slow down.

[00:41:19] And when it does, it... I hate to say it, but Zack Snyder made a really, really good damn movie. It's the best thing Zack Snyder ever made, right? Yes, it is. Written by James Gunn. Yes. True. True. They're a one-two punch combo that are amazing. Yeah. It's probably one of the finest remakes of any film ever made. Yeah. I mean, you have to go back to, like, Maltese Falcon and stuff.

[00:41:48] And I'm not being flippant. It's a... That opening scene... Dude. It set the stage for so many imitations. So, my wife and I like horror movies, but she's a little more in the, like, Vincent Price. You know, there's kind of, like, the Vincent Price kind of Halloween-back kind of horror. And then there's, like, you know, oh, my God, I can't sleep horror. So, we loved Dawn of the Dead.

[00:42:16] And I had seen the remake for her. And we went to this back when there were dollar theaters. So, it was in the mall. And it still had, like, the curtains up from the 70s. So, it was, like, perfect. That opening scene hit. And we were dating at the time. My wife just started punching me inside. She said, you didn't say this was going to be scary. I was like, it's a zombie movie. Dawn of the Dead. I was like, oh, it's terrifying. And we were, like, the only people in the theater. So, it was great.

[00:42:46] Yeah. My Dawn of the Dead remake story, which I think John probably shares, was I was, my arms were crossed when it was coming out. I was like, I am a Romero purist. How dare you remake this? What are you doing? But it's a zombie movie in the theaters. We're all going to dress up like zombies and go to the midnight screen 100%. And we go there. And then, because it's Fairbanks, Alaska, who winds up sitting next to me, like a poor seven-year-old kid with his parents who dragged him to the midnight screening of Dawn of the Dead.

[00:43:15] And he's just, like, eyeballing me the whole movie. This, like, blood dripping out of my mouth. I had a big, like, appliance on my face with a gash. It was sad. But I wound up loving the movie, despite that. So, yeah. Is this the one with the Richard Cheese cover of Disturb at the end? Okay. So, I have seen this, which is, like, a point in my column. Yeah, that's a rarity on this. Yeah.

[00:43:41] I tried to think of all of the zombie movies I had seen. And I know this one is on there. I mean, obviously, there are more. And I'll save them in case John doesn't mention them. But I do remember thinking, like, this, you could show this to somebody as their first zombie movie ever. And they would understand the genre. Like, this is the essence of why these movies are terrifying. Yeah, it's got every zombie movie required, you know, bit and piece in it. Bit?

[00:44:11] And then some shock. Yeah, bit. Well, and there's two modes of zombie. And so, like, there's the classic slow zombie. And that's, like, to me, they're survivable. Like, the second in the Dawn of the Dead remake really brings home that, like, if they're fast zombies, give it up. Yeah. Unless you're, you know, Usain Bolt, you're dead.

[00:44:41] You're not going to make it. Yeah. And so, when they, the first fast zombie, and I think 28 days later, fast zombies. And, I mean, we can, technically, they were infected people. It's on my, it's my next one I'm going to mention is 28 days later. It's a zombie movie for all intents and purposes. Like, and, but yeah, it is the, it brought fast zombies, like, in a, in a very, like, into the 2000s.

[00:45:09] Like, it's like, here's a movie, here's something different beyond just the, this is shot on a, you know, DVX100 or whatever, you know, mini DV camera. And, boy, can you tell. Well, but that's, that's what's so great about it. That adds to it. Yeah. It gives it a gritty, like, almost documentary feel. Right. Almost like found footage. Yeah. It's found footage without being, without having to shoehorn in why everybody's holding a video camera. Directed by an incredible director.

[00:45:39] So. Yeah. Danny Boyle is amazing. Yeah. And even, even the opening sequence of 28 weeks later. I was going to say. That, again, very reminiscent of just like, oh, this is, how, how do you survive this? How has this happened? Yeah. And, and that's where the terror lies. So, and I, and I think it relates to the, to the, the, the Star Trek episode. And I know which is conjecture, but, but if it is a kind of a bottle episode, which it has to be because.

[00:46:08] Well, we'll just beam out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh God. They're not faster than light. You know? What if the whole season is holodeck glitches and every episode is a different holodeck glitch? I'd be so mad. And then it just, yeah. Right at the end of episode 10, it's just right back to hegemony. Now it ends up with, with, with Klingon zombies fighting Nazis. Oh man. Then you've got, that's some Star Trek there. I'll be less mad. Yeah.

[00:46:39] Dead Borath. Yeah. I'm here for that. Like, man. I am terrified of the thought of zombie Klingons though, because it's like, even if they lose some of their strength due to being dead, they're still going to be stronger than humans. You know, like, I mean, that's like. And they have so many redundant, like organs and systems and stuff. It's like, if this is zombifying Klingons, you do not stand a chance. So you got to kill both their brains. Yeah. You got to shoot them in the head twice. Yes. Pretty much.

[00:47:09] Yeah. And whatever it is, is incredibly infectious. Like there's no, like it's bad. Using zombie or using Klingons for the zombie episode was stroke of genius. I haven't seen the episode and I know that's to be the case. Well, it's just, I like that they're taking swings at that. So, you know, cause I started, you know, going through my mental catalog of Star Trek media that I've consumed. And I was like, I don't think that's ever been like a zombie style.

[00:47:39] There've been people taken over and stuff, but not, and there's been infections, but not like kind of tropey like this. Yeah. Yeah. I think the closest we get there, again, there's an episode of Enterprise, which I have not seen where they do this with Vulcans. Vulcans. Yeah. Haunted house style, like derelict ship that they show up to and there's zombie Vulcans. There's zombie Vulcans. Yeah. Man, I don't remember that at all. I meant to watch it before this, but I didn't have time. It's okay.

[00:48:06] Like Abby, please forgive me, but it's okay to not remember episodes of Enterprise. I love Enterprise. Enterprise. I'm an Enterprise apologist. I, I, I gotta give it a real fair shot and get all the way through it. Like I, I sat down a couple months ago. I was like, I'm going to watch all of Enterprise. And I got like maybe 10 or 13 episodes into the first season. It was like, maybe I don't like, I love it because there's an episode that Jesse's going to, it's going to make Jesse cry because it's so heart wrenching at the end. He's going to be like, damn you Enterprise.

[00:48:36] How dare you do this to me? I'm not going to lie. I'm okay with that. Decontamination jelly. I was on board. I was like, buckle up boys. Josh was like, I'm the target audience. Hello. Yes. And my last, my last zombie example, like for watching this, I'm going to go with one because I will never miss a chance to talk about it. The film version of World War Z.

[00:49:02] Now go read World War Z, the book, and just understand that World War Z, the film are, is a completely different movie, but has its own wonderful merits. It's not a perfect movie, but I think it is better than people give it credit for because it just bears the same name. But it is less of, there's a thing with zombie movies where it's like, you know, yes, the monsters are out, are outside pounding on the walls, but the real monsters are also inside with you trying to survive.

[00:49:28] And World War Z, while it has a tiny bit of that, it is just a movie of, we need to run away from zombies for two hours and try and survive. Like there is very little, oh, we got to this house. Thank goodness. It's like, oh no, it's John Goodman and 10 Cloverfield Lane. We're here with a psycho kind of thing. It is just purely fast zombies. And, and really our buddy Paul brought this up.

[00:49:55] He's like, it is great seeing a character observe and act on his observations. As the film goes on, he sees something, he learns from it. He gets better at surviving and it's just, it's competency porn in a zombie movie. And so I think that's a really good one to watch. Even, even with whatever remake you'd reshoot issues it might have and why Matthew Fox shows up in the background for a second. Yeah. World War Z. It's another good one to check out before this season.

[00:50:25] If you're excited about fast zombies. Okay. So I will ask you guys, because you are much more steeped in this genre than I am. Do we think this is straight across a zombie story or is this a Shaun of the Dead style, like kind of riff on a zombie story in a Star Trek universe? The only reason I ask that is because of how this new freaking trailer was edited.

[00:50:56] Where Pike and Mbenga are like stuck in this room and he's like, I don't think they know we're here. And then you see the Klingon fly by and explode the shuttle and they go, yeah, they know we're here. Like that was played for humor, right? Are they going to play the zombie thing for humor or is this going to be, no, it's a zombie story and it's scary. And that was like the one moment of light. I don't, I mean, it's strange to worlds. I don't think it's going to be super dark. It's not going to be like the road or anything.

[00:51:26] I don't think Mbenga is going to eat. I remind you of Memento Mori and lift us where suffering cannot reach. Yeah. But like that line is the, it's that very swashbuckling tone they take. So somewhere in between, I would say. I'd say somewhere in between. Because the zombies look scary. They look terrifying and they are fast. So Mbenga does not look enthusiastic in his running away. True. You guys all watched the anime High School of the Dead, right? I can assume that's true. No? Okay. Nobody? All right.

[00:51:55] Your references are not universal, Jesse. That's what makes them funny, John. My question is, so they are going to be fast zombies. I'm fine with either zombie. Give me either one. Works for me. But definitely looks like fast zombies. Are they going to be undead zombies? Or are they going to be more like 28 Days Later zombies? 28 Days Later infected. They look pretty decomposed, but again, Klingons, they could probably take a beating and still move. Yeah. That's true.

[00:52:25] That's a fair question. And will they be able to bite you and turn you into one of them? Will they be transmissible, transmittable zombies? Transmissible. If they're not, then they're going to be betraying the biggest trope. Yeah. That's like the essence of zombies. Yeah. Are we going to see some Enterprise crew members turn into zombies? I would wonder, because I'm being just down there and putting the doctor in your zombie episode. Great call, of course. Right.

[00:52:54] But like, if someone we care about going to get bit and he's got to find the cure to save him, I would say yes, except that's kind of what they're doing with Patel in season episode one, we guess. Hmm. Because then who would have to hide the bite? Oh, shit. Oh, you know, Sam Kirk is hiding that bite. Oh, yeah. That's why he grew the mustache. He was good on the lip when he grew the mustache. He was kissing a zombie. That's right. He was making out with Klingon zombies. Yeah.

[00:53:22] I'm just excited for the scene where Pike slowly walks to the convenience store and doesn't notice that there's a bunch of Klingon zombies. I think that's going to be my favorite, personally. Oh, yeah. I can't wait until Erica shows up with a lawnmower and says, party's over. Yes. That's my zombie movie to recommend is Dead Alive. Oh, yeah. Which, not only seeing Peter Jackson just go full hog Peter Jackson early in his career,

[00:53:48] but the wizardry of cheap special effects, cheap but effective special effects on display in that movie is amazing. It is a masterclass in how to make a fun, gory horror movie on a budget. I will say, if you are weak of stomach, probably skip that. Probably skip most of these zombie movies, really. Yeah.

[00:54:12] But Dead Alive has some scenes that will make you not want to eat pudding for years. Have a baby. Yeah. Have a baby. A full grown man essentially. See your mother naked. Rebirthing out of his mother. You do. There's some subtext there that, I mean, Freud would probably enjoy watching that film and

[00:54:42] having to talk. Just go watch Meet the Feebles instead. You know what, guys? Yes. Good family fun for everyone. Yeah. It's a puppet movie. I don't think I'm going to watch Dead Alive. You're going to watch Dead Alive, Jesse. Next time you're in person. You have to watch it. You have to watch it. This is for the... But I don't. It's for the podcast. Yeah. It's your duty as a host. Speaking of subtext, though, that's the other big trope of zombie movies is nine times out of ten, especially in the good ones, the zombies are a metaphor for something, right? Is it consumerism?

[00:55:11] Is it just antipathy? Is it... What is it? What is the metaphor going to be in this episode? Again, is it the underbelly of Starfleet? We've got Mbinga and Pike down there. Is this going to be the episode where we're here to learn about Doc Ra? Ooh, yeah. It could be like any episode so far. Literally Mbinga's past chasing him. Yeah. I have a pitch for the next genre being the episode too, but... I feel like I can make a case for any of these. Yeah.

[00:55:40] Before we get to the next genre, let's hear from the next caller. All right. Here is Mark. Hey, OpenPike Night Engineer Mark here. And in general, I am just hoping for a fantastic season of episodes. Finally! Finally! On the zombie app, I'm a follower of Wicca. That natural energy in our world. And so I just hope that episode doesn't make me laugh and it will be a win.

[00:56:10] On the parody episode with those costumes and the lovers. Oh my. That will be so much fun to watch. I hope that there's actually an equally serious story to go right along with all that silly. Um... And last up, that murder mystery. It would be really cool to have there be more character exploration. Like we had in Lotus Eaters, that raw, unfiltered who they are. And, uh...

[00:56:39] Have to at least get the melody in there. Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? No. And now, we've got the episode titles too. Oh, that's going to be lots of fun matching it all up. Until next time, live long and prosper. Thank you, Mark, who's one of our great patrons out there. If you want to support OpenPike Night, head on over to patreon.com slash openpike.

[00:57:04] And echoing some of the earlier thoughts, you were saying, I hope we get, you know, some revelations about these characters in that episode. And Mark seems to agree with you. Mm-hmm. And if you're out there thinking, I have thoughts, people should hear my thoughts, we would love to hear them. Just go to openpike.com. You can record your call right there on the website. All you need is a phone. It's free. We would love to have you. Please join us for season three of Strange New Worlds. Absolutely. And I agree with you, Mark.

[00:57:33] I'm a sucker for tactile buttons, levers, screens, weird patterns that don't mean anything projected onto walls. They got a reel-to-reel tape on that wall for some reason. Like, I am absolutely here for that. And I think one thing that I noticed about that, that kind of made my heart jump, I'm not going to predict that this is happening this season.

[00:57:58] But if any of you have watched the most recent incarnation of Doctor Who, there's definitely a moment where they meet a Federation-slash-Starfleet-style organization. And somebody says, oh, like on Star Trek. And they go, what? And then the Doctor basically looks down the barrel of the camera and says, we've got to visit them someday. And it was like, oh, my heart. Like, if you do that, it would be... I mean, obviously, you should do that.

[00:58:26] These shows have both been on TV for 60-plus years. Like, go for it. Give it to us. We're ready. But I don't think that will be this. But that could look this way if and when they eventually do that. Jumping off of that, this is the Star Trek parody segment. And we don't really know... We haven't gotten a lot of shots of that episode. But we know that it's clearly some kind of pastiche of Star Trek itself.

[00:58:56] Now, I was going through all of my favorite Star Trek parodies and satires. And I would be remiss, honestly, if I didn't just mention Lower Decks here. Because, yes, it's a Star Trek property. But it is what is good about Star Trek parodies. And I think that all the best Star Trek parodies have these things. And that's what makes them good. Kind of like Shaun of the Dead, as we were talking about earlier. Yes, it's a comedy. Yes, it's silly. It's dumb.

[00:59:23] But it clearly loves the thing that it is making fun of, right? Hot Fuzz was the same way. But they love buddy cop movies. And that's why it works. Because along the way, they managed to make a really good buddy cop movie. So, obviously, the touch points here are going to be things that a lot of people know about. You can't not mention Galaxy Quest. Obviously, Galaxy Quest hits all the right notes. It manages to be a parody of Star Trek.

[00:59:53] It takes the time to also be a little bit of a parody of Shatner. Which makes it work, I think, on more than one level. But it does remember that the fans are what makes this franchise so much fun to watch and talk about, right? I think it's Justin Long's character at the end. Ends up having this tiny little piece of obscure knowledge that was mentioned in a technical manual. And it saves the day for the characters on this adventure. So, Galaxy Quest is definitely up there for me. And they have the cheese, right?

[01:00:23] Like, they know when to lean into the cheese and the low budget. That kind of a thing. But there is also... It might be my favorite. It's hard to pick a favorite, one of these, you guys. But the Futurama Season 4, Episode 11, where no fan has gone before, is like a monumental achievement in this category. It has basically the entire original series playing them characters, a cast, playing their original characters.

[01:00:54] James Dewan, sadly, had passed at the time, so they replaced him with a character named Welshie. Which is like... Yes, that is exactly perfect. Like, spot on tone. And yes, they kill him for arguably no reason, because he is wearing a red shirt. But they also riff on typical Star Trek aliens and typical Star Trek fans. And they throw jabs at Star Wars fans.

[01:01:21] Like, it is almost a perfect half hour of television, honestly, all the way through. Totally agree. You have Shatner and Branigan in the same episode. And it's like... The layers! The layers, Shrek! There are so many layers. Like, pointing the camera at the monitor. And you get that visual feedback. Right, it's that infinite mirror effect. Yeah. It bounces so far through. And it really...

[01:01:48] I think the thing that it understands the best is the love for Star Trek, right? Because Frye plays our self-insert Trekkie. But it does the right amount of piss-taking, right? Like, Shatner has a line where he talks about, you know, when Nimoy directed this Star Trek movie, he got a great... I got a great performance... When I directed this Star Trek movie, I got a great performance out of Leonard because I respected him so much.

[01:02:15] And when I directed Star Trek V, I got a great performance out of me because I respected me so much. It's like... He's in on the jokes. He's here for it. He gets what they're doing. It's... And that's the key, I think, to a good Star Trek parody. You have to be very cutting, but with love. You have to have that heart there. And when we spoke with Jonathan Frakes, he said, All Good Star Trek has the heart and the adventure, right?

[01:02:42] So, I think as long as we have that, I'll be happy. I think the most obscure one here, and I don't know, maybe this is just for my generation. I'm not 100% sure how many of us in this podcast have seen this. But there is an episode of Dexter's Laboratory called Star Trek Unconventional, where Dexter and his nerd friends go to a Star Trek convention. And it's like a Delta, but it's upside down, so it looks like a checkmark, right? Nice.

[01:03:13] Nice. And it's all about, like, how does that compare to, like, Barbie collectors, right? And of course, Dexter's like, we're nothing like you. We're very different. But then you have people from both groups being like, you took this toy out of the box? Now it's worthless. Why did you do that? And it really does understand, like, the essence of fandom, right? Like, you can love a thing. You can also love a thing a little bit too much.

[01:03:40] And it can start to affect your life in very real ways. But if nothing else, the Star Trek Unconventional episode of Dexter's Lab, as they're being driven to the convention center by Dexter's mom, she turns on the radio and she goes, oh, I love this song. So it's like, it knows what it's doing. It's very short. It's very heartfelt. Like, you know, one of the kids is wearing the Vulcaneers. Like, it's very, very well done.

[01:04:10] I'm absolutely here for it. Now, here's the other thing that's possible because we don't know what the setting is here. Is this a parallel universe? Is this part of the holodeck simulation? What's going on? This could be closer to a Black Mirror USS Callister situation. Highly recommend checking out USS Callister. And I think it's USS Callister Beyond or Infinity, maybe Beyond Infinity, actually, I think is the name of it. The sequel episode. That's a little darker.

[01:04:40] I mean, it's a Black Mirror episode. It's Black Mirror, yeah. But it is really good. And it does manage to capture the essence of what people love about Star Trek. Like the Dexter's Lab episode. This is a strange comparison I never thought I'd make in my life. But like the Dexter's Lab episode, the Black Mirror episode also looks at the darker side of fandom and what can happen when you let your passions for fictional things take over your life and what that can lead to. Black Mirror goes a little further with it.

[01:05:09] But it's still a very good watch. And I highly recommend it. And it's got one of my favorite ongoing Black Mirror devices as part of the story. Oh, absolutely. I'm glad they're sticking with bringing that back again and again for Black Mirror. Yeah. I mean, Jesse Plemons. Are you talking about Jesse Plemons? But yes, Jesse Plemons. He is a recurring device. Yes. A tool, if you will.

[01:05:36] Very, very, very fun episodes. But I have to ask you guys, that brings my question to do you think this is like a whole episode? Is this the holodeck episode? Is it a serious toned thing? Is it going to be played purely for laughs? Like, where are we at with this? Yeah. I mean, I assumed a whole episode. You know, it felt to me like the opposite of Galaxy Quest.

[01:06:00] Whereas in Galaxy Quest, it's a bunch of actors who get mistaken for spaceship heroes and have to become and act like spaceship heroes. Because here we have spaceship heroes who are now being forced to act like actors and put on a TV show for this. I'm assuming like an alien race that does this thing for whatever reason. I like that. It's like the inverse of Gamesters of Triskelion from TOS. I'm going to act like I know what you're talking about there.

[01:06:28] But yeah, so since Galaxy Quest was kind of about fame and actors and Hollywood and fandom, then the reverse would be, well, it's going to be about space adventures or Starfleet. Maybe, maybe this is the one where we learn about Mbenga's secret or some other kind of underbelly to Starfleet. I feel like we have to examine the underbelly of Starfleet at some point this season because of all this.

[01:06:53] But yeah, maybe there's something there that is kind of breaking the crew's kind of their trust and hope in Starfleet and what they're doing. Maybe they're feeling they're not making a difference out here in space on their five year or whatever.

[01:07:06] And through like the scripts they're given and seeing the reaction of this alien civilization watching their exploits, they realize the ideals that they do kind of signify and symbolize and realize that maybe even if Starfleet isn't matching the ideals they have for it, you still have to progress forward and have that ideal. You get it to to to to become what you want it to be. So here's my thoughts on it.

[01:07:34] I probably had the most thoughts watching the trailer on this because it it did have a very felt like. TV episodes of their exploits and it reminded me of it. I don't know if it was like in Starlog or an interview, but when when the motion picture came out, there was the Klingons are in it for like 30 seconds. And there was a kerfuffle back then.

[01:08:04] Wait, these Klingons don't look like, you know, guys in grease paint what's happening. And because Star Trek fans will always be upset over the next depiction of Klingons. Absolutely.

[01:08:16] So Roddenberry postulated that TOS series was actually in universe recreations of the actual enterprise and that due to budgetary reasons, that's why the in Star Trek, that's why the Klingons look like that. And then when you're watching the movie, you're watching the actual what they've always looked like. Right.

[01:08:43] And so I kind of got that feeling from from this part of the trailer that that maybe this is like a. Call out to the fans that like, yes, you know, the enterprise doesn't look to have all these switches and tapes on the wall. But what matters is what's happening within the context of that. Like, let's not get caught up in, you know, wait a second. They have holographic technology.

[01:09:11] This is, you know, and I am absolutely guilty of that. We all are. And I've, you know, I mean, I've learned to just. You know, yeah. Let it go. Watch it. Watch it for its own sake. And in the content, you know, it was like, I mean, you had to confront that a lot with enterprise because there's like they've got like, you know, Windows 98 stuff running. That's high tech. But they. But knobs are superior.

[01:09:40] Of course. For sure. TOS is correct. On a podcast with four men, we can definitely say knobs are superior. Yeah. Yeah. I have a buddy who once told me I will give up my stick shift when they replace it with a hyperdrive lever. That's the only way I'll stop driving a stick shift. Fair. Yeah. I definitely feel like there's an alien race that's kind of like where entertainment is their religion and the crew is kind of being forced to be a part of that somehow. Yeah. Sort of right.

[01:10:09] And that alien race? Humans! Oh, you didn't think we were going to get a game? The most dangerous game. Yeah. He was getting there the whole time. But yeah, it's a Lower Decks. There was the one episode I can't remember the name of it. Where's the one where they go to the planet and they all have like these pseudo Starfleet stuff and they say the wrong phrase? Oh. Oh, you're thinking of Prodigy, actually. Oh, that's Prodigy. You're right. Yeah. The Ender-Presians. Yes.

[01:10:39] But that felt like kind of a parody of Star Trek in a Star Trek show where they kind of got to see themselves filtered through like, right, oral tradition and kind of putting together the stories with their low budget means. And so I thought that was a really good way of doing that. But I'm wondering if maybe this is somehow in that similar vein. One of my other favorite parodies, of course, being a Muppets fan, is Pigs in Space.

[01:11:09] Which, doing some research for this, I realized they had released a new one about four years ago or so. That's really good. It's got Pepe playing an alien chestburster. So please go seek that out. Oh, man. You know, it's the exact same shtick, just updated for modern sensibility. It was really good. Okay. But Pigs in Space, watching it again today in prep, I realized a couple things.

[01:11:33] One, the intro is all giant heads of the characters coming towards the camera long before that was ever used in a Star Trek movie. So did Star Trek rip off Pigs in Space? Clearly. Perhaps. Yes. Not only with that, but also Miss Piggy calls the captain Mon Capiton. Oh. So Q is actually a Muppet pig. Yes. Yes. Or a Muppet. Yeah. Yeah. Q is absolutely a Muppet. I mean, come on. Yeah.

[01:12:03] Yeah. And that's a great. That's what Cisco said. It's actually a great call, Cam, because that Prodigy episode is called All the Worlds of Stage. Yeah. So that's, I mean, that's like a perfect parallel right there. Yeah. So it could be something similar. Very good call. Other thing with Pigs in Space, because I was watching the trailer and being like, what are the big levers from? They don't have big levers in the 60s Trek. Pigs in Space, giant levers. It's the only parody I could find that actually had giant levers that look almost exactly the same.

[01:12:33] 60s Trek didn't have a lot of levers. They had buttons. Big, giant buttons. They had buttons everywhere. Yeah. And sometimes Scotty would just like put a wrench in a thing for like, A, to create a spark, but also to be like, here, I'm shorting out the entire ship with this wrench. Like, so it's kind of like a lever. But that does feel like it's probably a good place to hear from our final caller for the evening. If you wouldn't mind, Producer John. Here we go. Here's Melanie. Hi guys.

[01:13:03] This is Melanie. So my hopes and faves for the Season 3 genre tour are, well, actually, they are quite similar to what I generally hope to see in a third season, but okay, in more detail. Zombies. Lots of Pyke. Big ass fighting moments, please. Lots of Ortegas doing more than flying, please. Lots of Una showing us what she can do with her strength, please. Lots of Joseph showing off his fighting skills and more, please. And lots, lots, lots of horror, please.

[01:13:31] For the murder mystery, I wish for lots of fun. Lots of laughs. Lots of funny moments. Lots of giggles. Oh, yeah. And, of course, Pyke confronting the killer in the end. Oh, yeah. For the drag parody. Well, I think drag is at its best when it doesn't take itself too seriously. And I hope the whole cast can show us what they are capable of. I hope Pyke is in it, of course. I just can't help it. I want him in every episode. I love Galaxy Quest.

[01:13:58] And if what we saw in the trailer is an indication, it's gonna be so great. So, I just go with all the genres they do. And I'm happy. As long as it's thought through, we have our heroes, including one Christopher Pyke and one Eric Ortegas in it. Well, but the others as well, because they are also good. I'm game for anything. Live long and prosper. Okay, so you know that movie trope where, like, somebody's about to get destroyed by a monster or an enemy of some kind, and then suddenly that monster or enemy stops right

[01:14:28] in front of them. And then you realize, oh, they've been cut in half by a samurai sword or something. I now suddenly need Una to rip a zombie in half with her pants. I was just gonna say. I was just gonna say. Just rip a zombie's arms off and beat it to death with someone's... Oh, yes. Yeah. Una's a leery. Like, Melody brings up a great point. Like, we have not really gotten to see Una whoop ass the way that we know that she can.

[01:14:56] I am gonna now kind of be bummed if we don't get something like that. Well, she beat up that dummy of Hammer, right? No, she lifted up that dummy of Hammer. And it wasn't a dummy. It's just that Andorians have very square asses. We've been over this. She just punches a zombie in the head and her fist goes right through. That would be something from Dead Alive. Yes. Like, give me that. I'm here for that. With a phaser still in her fist and then she starts shooting him through the zombie's head. All right. So we need Grindhouse Trek. Yes. That's what I'm hearing. That's what you're hearing.

[01:15:25] We're talking Billy Zane in Demon Knight shaking the skull off his hand. Yeah. I haven't seen that, but I'll watch anything with Billy Zane in it. There you go. He's so good in Demon Knight. Demon Knight is really fun. Dippardello Blood. Watch Demon Knight. And it's got... Yeah. Yeah. Hush your mouth. It's got several Star Trek people in it. Blood is a worthy entry in the... The two series. Yeah. Tales from the Crypt movie series. Yeah. No, it's part of the Billy Zane canon.

[01:15:53] The other Trek parody I watched in prep was, I don't know if I ever watched the whole SNL spoof, the old school one with, man, Chevy Chase doing an amazing Spock. I kind of want Chevy Chase to show up as a Vulcan now before he does. I know he's not like persona non-frotto. I was going to say. He is persona non-frotto. Yeah. He's famously easy to work with. I'm sure the cast would love him. No problem. Trek is also famous for having famously hard to work with actors. It's true. Dwight Schultz among them, apparently.

[01:16:23] Belushi as Kirk doing a great Kirk. Even Aykroyd was a great Bones. Now, did you watch all of them, Cameron? I watched one. I watched one, the final voyage of the Enterprise. Okay. So there's also one where the Enterprise is a theme restaurant that they all run together. I did not watch that one out. Definitely check that one out. I'll check that one out now. Nice. I think there's a TNG one as well where it's like a parody of The Love Boat. Oh, right. Yeah.

[01:16:49] I believe Mad TV did a Star Trek Deep Stain 9 about it being a laundry service. Yep. I don't know if Mandela affected it, but I distinctly remember somebody pulling the lint off of Geordi's visor like out of a lint trap. Nice. And thinking that that was brilliant. So if I made that up, that's brilliant. If it was on the show, that's brilliant. Either copyright John T. Bold's 2025 or wow, that was well made.

[01:17:18] I'm pretty sure it was in that episode because he was doing like the Stevie Wonderhead move and then somebody like peels him. Oh, man. Nice. There is also, I believe, an SNL one with Chris Pine as Kirk. So I mean, if you just Google SNL Star Trek, I'm sure you can get like a compilation of them. Okay, guys. Confession time here. Two confessions, actually.

[01:17:46] So I spent a lot of time this week Googling Star Trek parody, right? Because that's what you do when you're researching for Star Trek parodies. Yep. And eventually my YouTube algorithm was like, oh, you mean the trailer for This Ain't Star Trek, a triple X Star Trek TNG parody? We would be remiss if we didn't address it. And I was like, no, YouTube, that's not what I wanted to see.

[01:18:14] But I watched it and like the trailer, obviously not the movie. And the trailer is really good. It's a good Star Trek story. It's got Tasha Yar coming back. It's got like Romulans going on. Like, obviously there's probably a reason they brought Tasha back to balance out the cast. I am watching that after this. The movie, not the trailer. Yes, please do that and report back.

[01:18:42] But I was genuinely impressed. I was genuinely impressed with like whoever got that made was clearly a Star Trek fan who also works in the porn industry. There's probably the Venn diagrams probably nearly a circle. Yeah. Well, we'd like to announce our latest endeavor is open Pike night. No, I'm totally blank.

[01:19:11] I did have one more thought on the parody, though, is, you know, the one thing I was noticing when you do a Star Trek parody, you got to have the, you know, the brash captain, the womanizing captain, the action hero captain. And then I didn't really think about until this new trailer where I was watching Kirk, you know, having to learn the chair and be that action hero in those shots. I was like, wait, this this episode has Kirk in it. Is it? Is he going to like end up getting his shirt torn off a bunch and be like, what is happening with my costume? Why does this keep happening?

[01:19:40] I like ends up getting like makeout scenes with everyone in the cast and be like, why am I kissing everyone? What is what is going on here? I just wonder if they're going to kind of play with the man versus the myth of Kirk. Like, are we going to have to see this version of Kirk have to be the mythologized Kirk that fans have made him out to be over the years? It does also make sense as to why he's in the chair for that shot that we've seen and not Pike. Exactly. Because Pike can't be parodied. He's too great. Exactly. Exactly.

[01:20:11] They're like, yeah. Oh, all you people complaining about this not being Kirk enough. We're going to give you the Wesley Kirk version. Yeah. In this one episode. So then my other confession, you guys have, you know, frequently good naturedly ribbed me for not having seen basically any movies. You know, a lot of the classics and stuff like that. So I started thinking to myself, like, okay, I got to work on this and you'll be happy to

[01:20:41] hear. I started watching Love is Blind on Netflix with my wife and it's better than I thought it would be. You know, trash reality TV, I think is derided a lot. But like, if you watch it with somebody you love, it can be a social event. You can judge the people together. You can say, oh, I hope they end up together. I hope they don't end up together. We haven't finished it, but we definitely have our favorites. So I just wanted you guys to know I'm working on broadening my cinematic horizons.

[01:21:10] I will echo that watching trash TV like that with a significant other is a very different experience than watching it on your own. Please don't be watching it by yourself. But my wife and I have bonded over episodes, the whole seasons of The Bachelorette. So I get it. I get it. It's a real thing. And I was surprised at how much fun we had watching it specifically together. Well, let me then just going back to SNL real quick. The sketch I watched ended.

[01:21:37] It was an Elliot Gold episode and he came on as the CEO of NBC and was canceling the Star Trek show. And it was fun watching them like the characters become the actors one after the other. But then Belushi just never, never became Shatner. He was just. Anyway, it was Elliot Gold, who, of course, well known for 70s murder mysteries. So it all came back together in a big, you know, what's eating its tail?

[01:22:07] Say a lot. Say a lot eating its tail. Yeah. Yes. Well, I mean, he's obviously more well known for playing Monica's dad on Friends. But it's interesting that you bring him up because I think I mentioned this the first time we watched the original trailer. Pike looks like Elliot Gould in this murder mystery episode. Very much so. Yeah. That's why I was like, there's got to be some Elliot Gold 70s murder mysteries they're pulling from here because that's definitely his character's inspiration at least for sure.

[01:22:39] So, Josh, you've been here before. You know, this is how we do it. And we apologize if you feel you haven't been able to get a word in edgewise. Is there anything you feel we have to touch on before we end this episode of Open Pike Night? So, the only thing that left me wondering is who Reece Darby is going to be playing.

[01:23:02] And there's speculation that he may be Traylene or a Q and that may play into the parody episode. It may be some concoction by a Q. But, like, his look, he looks very Traylene-esque. So, and... But a lot of snapping. Yes. A lot of snapping. I just, I know that he'll chew the scenery. Yeah. He is a really funny guy.

[01:23:29] And I will love to see him in Star Trek. That coat that he's wearing, like, to me, it either has to be Traylene or they're completely head-faking us and being like, here, all the Trekkies will think this is Traylene because of the coat. That's one or the other. Like, it has to be, yeah. It can only be one of those two things. But I completely agree. Whoever put that together is probably enjoying all the speculation right now. Whichever way it's going.

[01:23:59] Because they're either like, ah, they got it. They, right away, are they like, these dumb fools. I got it. Yeah. I mean, he could be a part of it. Knowing these writers, it could be either one. But, you know, I think, I think one of, in some of the Star Trek novels, they kind of retcon Traylene into being in the Q continuums, like, like, younger. And that Q actually, like, mentors him or something. I've, so, you know, I've read some Star Trek books in my day.

[01:24:29] I don't think we theorized this, but I was thinking the other day, like, in TNG, Q mentions another Q who went to live on Earth and gave birth to John's girlfriend, was John's girlfriend's dad. Oh. Oh, you're talking Olivia Dama. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. John's face just lit up, you guys. I know you can't see it, but, like, John is now here for the whole episode. So I don't know if the timeline works out when that happened, but could this be that Q?

[01:24:58] Does he show up and fall in love with somebody? They have the line from Mariner in the crossover episode where he says, Holy, uh, Boimler says Holy Q. And she says something like, yeah, they had more of a Trillane thing going on. Yeah. So it's like, I mean, they can, the beauty of this is they can do whatever they want and will be like, oh, they nailed it. Like, they totally nailed it. Rise to army. They're going to nail it. All right. Well, uh, that brings us to the close of our genre discussion.

[01:25:25] We feel primed and ready for season three. Now just a few more weeks, a month. Is it about a month from release? About a month. A little over a month. Shit. Yeah. All right. Well, we've got a premiere coming up in Tribeca for those lucky enough to see it there. And we'll have some more coverage, uh, of, of Star Trek and maybe interviews with some people between now and season three. Yeah. And then of course, once season three starts, you know where to keep it locked. We'll be here weekly.

[01:25:54] If you're not already subscribed to Open Pike Night, just do it. It's free. It's not going to hurt anything. It costs you nothing. Yeah. Open your mother-in-law's phone. A couple megabytes of a couple weeks. What's up? Yeah. Subscribe her to Open Pike Night. She may not appreciate it, but she also might not even know. But we'll appreciate it. It's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. For real. You know somebody that hates Star Trek? Sign them up. And then call in and talk shit about them on Open Pike Night. And, you know, we'd love to hear from new callers. Yeah.

[01:26:24] Especially if it's starting beef. That gets us more listens. So, hey. It's true. We have had- We've had kind of a lack of beef, if I'm being honest, you guys. I've been listening to a lot of other podcasts, and, like, beef seems to be the way to go. Let's, you know, let's get us a cow. At least some bacon. We need some bacon, at least. Then let's have interpersonal beef. Let's start some fights between the three of us. I think that would work, too. Easy. Shut up.

[01:26:54] Josh, is there anything you want to talk about that you're doing these days, or if people want to find you? No. Uh, no. The, uh, the brick pit's still out there in the ether, though no new episodes are being, uh, being produced for now. We need a backlog to listen to, though. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Four seasons, right? Three, yeah. Three or four years of, of, if you like this quality content from me, there's, there's hours upon hours. Uh, I also, I wrote a book.

[01:27:23] So, uh, Bone Letters, available on Amazon. Look at that. You're interested in supernatural historical horror. Hmm. Okay, the beef is now with Josh. He just came on here and showed all of us up. Like, oh, yeah, I wrote a book. It's not a big deal. I didn't say it was a good book. More than what we've done. Give it a pitch. Yeah.

[01:27:52] Uh, there's a, it takes place in Reconstruction, Virginia. A Civil War veteran has the ability to write the final letters of the dead. If he touches their bones, he finds out that somebody thinks his dead is still alive. And there's a villain that can steal people's skin and wear it. It's a family fun adventure. It's like the Swiss family Robinson. Coming soon to the Hallmark Channel. I'm absolutely here for it.

[01:28:22] Starring Carrie Ewells as, as the beaver. And Dan Janot. Yeah. I can see Dan Janot as a supernatural Civil War veteran. Oh, hell yeah. Very cool, man. That mustache, you kidding? Yeah. Put some sideburns on him. Congrats on that, Josh. That's very cool. Yeah. Fantastic. And what's the name of it again? The Bone Letters. Check it out. Amazon. Yeah. Absolutely. Read it for free if you got Kindle, uh, Kindle Plus or whatever that is.

[01:28:52] Kindle Unlimited, yeah. Yeah, Kindle Unlimited. And Cameron. Yo. Tell us about your book. I mean, your podcast. Uh, well, it's on hiatus right now. Not a lot going on because I'm focusing over here on Strange New Worlds. But yeah, we have a lot of backlog too. Seven years of Green Shirt and Newbies Trek The Next Generation you can listen to. And, you know, hopefully we'll throw out a couple surprises over the summer and then be back, as I said, with DS9 and Picard at the conclusion of Strange New Worlds.

[01:29:21] As a long-time Green Shirt fan, I really loved you guys' interview with Tracy Lee Coco. That was a ton of fun. Delightful. Yeah. Very fun conversation to listen to. And, you know, it kind of felt like an Open Pike Night episode. So I feel very proud of it and I'm going to take credit for it. You should. You should. It was a great episode. People definitely check out all of Green Shirt. It's a lot to listen to. A lot. Yeah. You can listen to it while you're reading Josh's book. There you go. They go hand-to-hand.

[01:29:52] And, of course, as we mentioned, if you have been listening to this conversation and thought to yourself, I could talk circles around these guys, we invite you to take a shot at that by going to openpike.com. Record your message right there. 90 seconds or fewer. But, hey, if you need more time, you can create an MP3 through whatever means you prefer and send us an email with that audio clip to openpike at gmail.com.

[01:30:18] And if, you know, you happen to still be on social media right now, first of all, you know, more power to you. You're very brave. But if you need somebody to exchange fun Star Trek memes with and geek out about the things that are slowly trickling out about Season 3, definitely follow us on BlueSky at OpenPike. All right. Well, we've come to the end of our show and we've got to go write Paramount letters and

[01:30:43] tell them that in Season 4, we need a 70s style Shaw Brothers style kung fu flick in Strange New Worlds. Oh, man. So while we're doing that, you don't have to go home. You don't have to do something. You got to stay here. Just do it, John. Be sure to clean up after yourselves. Be sure to tip your servers. You can go anywhere you want, but you can't stay here. Nobody does it like John T. Bowles.