James Kirk, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk walk into a bar. Speaking of, this episode of Star Trek: The Original Series sets the bar pretty high. This week, Kirk and the gang stumble into a scathing indictment on the class inequality in American and around the world. Is capitalism killing us? Are the people who are most subjugated essentially forced to become criminal to survive? Again… why haven’t we eaten the rich yet?
When Star Trek becomes a cult religion and gets banned from Earth, Fry and the gang promise Leonard Nimoy they’ll collect the old VHS Tapes from a forbidden planet and restore hope for the future. What alien STD’s did Shatner and Leela exchange? Why didn’t Allie write any bars for Welshie? All Power to the Engines! beep beep beep beep beep beep beep
When the Enterprise tracks down a rogue band of Space Hippies, Star Trek gets baked out of its mind and takes a big swing at the counterculture movements of the 1960’s. Why haven’t we eaten the rich yet? Is the grass greener on the other religion? Do you reach, man?
When the Enterprise finds an old recluse man with a daughter-ish/lover-ish android Real Doll, Sarah and Allie almost quit the podcast.
When Shari Lewis puts down her puppets, the Enterprise bumps into a corporeal life form who just want to be where the people are so much that they’re killing everyone in their path to find some bodies. Did they kill the Zetarians or are they just off terrorizing more people? Did Scotty’s new love just get dropped off at the library never to be seen again?
When the Enterprise stumbles upon a planet whose inhabitants are long gone but who also left their Brinks Home Security System armed, crew members start dropping left and right, victims of a randy murderous mystery woman.
Cut from Episodes 62 (The Paradise Syndrome w/ Dr. Mohamed Noor) & 66 (Day of the Dove w/ X. Ho Yen). Did Sarah remember to press record for this incredible interview? X talks about racism and culture in Trek and beyond, and Sarah comes clean about a recent Starfleet Academy Cadet Challenge fuckup.
When Star Trek takes a swing at the “overpopulation problem”, Kirk is kidnapped and used to introduce a deadly STD into the population. The writers even kicked both sterilization and prophylactics past the 1960’s censor goalpost. Is Earth spiraling toward overpopulation? Are we prepared to make difficult decisions for the survival of our species?
When Star Trek stops hiding the humanism behind the sci-fi filter, American™ racism and hatred is put on blast. They didn’t even bother hiding the mirror on this one.