Treks and Tangents
Treks and Tangents is a weekly Star Trek watch-along podcast exploring the franchise one episode, and eventually one movie, at a time. Jaci is experiencing Star Trek with fresh eyes, while Brian brings the longtime-fan perspective. Together they recap each story, compare first impressions, dig into the characters and ideas, chase plenty of tangents, share trivia, and rank what they watch along the way. They’re currently working through Star Trek: The Original Series, with more Star Trek series and films ahead. Whether you know every transporter malfunction by heart or you're discovering the final frontier for the first time, join us each week for a fun, conversational journey through Star Trek.
Episodes
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This week, Brian and Jaci tackle “Patterns of Force”, an episode with a straightforward adventure wrapped around some very uncomfortable history. Between Kirk and Spock going undercover, a conveniently useful new implant, and a historian whose grand experiment has gone catastrophically wrong, there’s plenty to unpack.
They dig into the episode’s questionable logic, it...
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"Return to Tomorrow" gives Brian and Jaci plenty to dig into: mysterious glowing orbs, body-swapping aliens, surprisingly romantic sci-fi, Leonard Nimoy getting to cut loose as Henoch, and Nurse Chapel quietly becoming one of the episode’s biggest heroes.
They break down the episode’s strong camera work, Kirk’s argument for taking risks in the name of exploration, Sargon an...
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Things get messy fast in “A Private Little War” as Brian and Jaci tackle Mugatus, Klingon gunrunning, and an episode that seems determined to start five different plotlines before figuring out what to do with any of them. Along the way, there’s plenty of debate over the Prime Directive, Nona’s extremely unsettling methods, and whether this “Garden of Eden&rdquo...
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It’s the 50th episode of Treks and Tangents, and naturally we’re celebrating with… a gigantic space amoeba, an exhausted Enterprise crew, and an alarming amount of stimulants to test everyone’s patience. In “The Immunity Syndrome,” Brian and Jaci dive into Spock’s mysterious connection to the doomed Intrepid, Kirk’s questionable shuttlecraft ...
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This week on Treks and Tangents, "A Piece of the Action" sends Kirk, Spock, and McCoy into a planet-sized 1920s mobster convention, all thanks to one very influential book. Brian and Jaci talk Tommy guns, fuzzy hats, Kirk’s increasingly questionable gangster impression, the completely made-up rules of Fizbin, and whether the Enterprise crew actually fixed anything… or just beca...
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Brian and Jaci enter the brightly colored, triangle-obsessed chaos of “The Gamesters of Triskelion,” where apparently the Hunger Games, Squid Game, and a 1960s costume department all collided at once. Along the way, there’s terrible fight choreography, mysterious floating brains, Kirk weaponizing romance yet again, and an unexpected campaign for #JusticeForTamoon.
Is this c...
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This week, we finally meet one of Star Trek’s cutest, and unofficial podcast mascot, icons in “The Trouble with Tribbles.” We talk about why the episode’s humor works so well, Kirk getting buried alive in Tribbles, and whether Cyrano Jones would have been even better if he were Harry Mudd.
Between a barroom brawl, Klingon sabotage, and enough Tribbles to make pest con...
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On this episode of Treks and Tangents, Brian and Jaci take on "Wolf in the Fold". Scotty becomes the prime suspect in a string of murders on Argelius II, leading to séances, lie detectors, Jack the Ripper, a fear-feeding entity, and more plot holes than we know what to do with.
It’s a murder mystery that quickly turns into full-on sci-fi chaos.
Did “Wolf in the Fold” w...
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In this episode of Treks and Tangents, Brian and Jaci tackle Star Trek: The Original Series episode Obsession. When a deadly cloud creature resurfaces from Kirk’s past, the captain turns into spacefaring Captain Ahab: ignoring a vital medical mission, snapping at his officers, and dragging the Enterprise into a personal hunt fueled by guilt and revenge. Meanwhile, Spock and McCoy atte...
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This week on Treks and Tangents, we revisit The Deadly Years, where a routine mission leaves Kirk and several senior officers aging decades by the day... but Chekov somehow escapes with little more than an exhausting series of medical tests.
They discuss the cheesy rapid-aging premise, questionable makeup, Kirk’s drawn-out competency hearing, and Commodore Stocker’s disastrous de...
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This week on Treks and Tangents, we’re trekking through Friday’s Child, where the Enterprise arrives on Capella IV to negotiate for valuable minerals and instead finds a Klingon rival, a deadly coup, a pregnant leader’s widow, and enough running through rocky terrain to qualify as a Starfleet fitness test.
McCoy finally gets a chance to shine... though mostly as an unwillin...
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In this episode of Treks and Tangents, we take on Journey to Babel, an episode packed with diplomacy, family drama, murder mystery, medical crisis, and a suspicious little ship causing big problems.
Spock’s parents, Sarek and Amanda, arrive aboard the Enterprise, giving everyone a front-row seat to Vulcan family tension, finger-touch affection, and Spock’s struggle between duty a...
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In this episode of Treks and Tangents, Brian and Jaci beam into Metamorphosis, an episode full of purple rocks, a lovesick lava lamp, one very grumpy commissioner, and the surprisingly awkward introduction of warp-drive legend Zefram Cochrane.
Jaci finds the romance unexpectedly sweet, Brian finds approximately seven thousand plot holes in an asteroid belt, and together they debate whether t...
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Treks and Tangents beams down for “I, Mudd,” where Harry Mudd returns with a throne, a planet full of obedient androids, and somehow still manages to become a prisoner of his own nonsense. Brian and Jaci break down the duplicate Alices, Norman’s very inconvenient Enterprise takeover, Mudd’s questionable leadership skills, and the crew’s grand escape strategy: w...
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It’s just a jump to the left… and somehow Star Trek wandered straight into a low-budget Rocky Horror fever dream. This week on Treks and Tangents, Brian and Jaci explore Catspaw, an episode packed with black cats, haunted castles, mysterious aliens, and enough Halloween decorations to make Frank-N-Furter feel right at home. Brian makes his case that Korob and Sylvia are basical...
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The Doomsday Machine might be one of Star Trek's greatest examples of a bad day getting steadily worse. A giant planet-eating space cornucopia is chewing its way through solar systems, the Enterprise keeps getting battered around like a shuttlecraft in a washing machine, and Commodore Decker is one emotional breakdown away from replacing the ship’s operating manual with a copy of Moby...
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On this week's episode of Treks and Tangents, Brian and Jaci beam down to The Apple and discover a planet that looks like paradise but is somehow packed with killer flowers, exploding rocks, weather-based murder, and a giant dragon-headed machine that runs on fruit. Naturally, the Enterprise crew immediately decides this is a great place to take a relaxing vacation.
Along the way, we debate ...
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This week on Treks and Tangents, our co-hosts tackle “The Changeling”, an episode featuring a homicidal floating space probe that somehow convinces Kirk to invite it aboard the Enterprise after it wipes out four billion people. What follows is a chaotic mess of bad science, killer robot logic, exploding computers, and Kirk desperately trying to out-argue what might be the galaxy...
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In this week's episode of Treks and Tangents, we're stepping through the transporter and into the Mirror Universe for Star Trek: The Original Series' iconic episode, Mirror, Mirror. What happens when Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura find themselves aboard an Enterprise where promotions are earned through murder, loyalty is optional, and everyone seems way too comfortable carrying knive...
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Apollo’s got abs, a lightning machine, and the emotional stability of a guy who just got left on read.
This week on Treks and Tangents, our co-hosts tackle Who Mourns for Adonais?; the episode where the Enterprise gets grabbed by a giant glowing green hand and held hostage by a Space Greek God.
Between Scotty getting repeatedly electrocuted over his crush, Lieutenant Palamas falli...
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