TOS: "Dagger of the Mind" (s1e9)

KIRK'S FIRST BLUFF. The episode that was intended to be the first episode to air but didn't have completed visual FX yet winds up being a really great 10th episode and marks the turning point of the first season that puts Star Trek on its course for 60 years of cultural relevance. Bryan and Kristen tackle a classic, and if that tips our final grade... so be it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

THE MIND MELD debuts in this episode about mental health... sort of. When the Enterprise catches a stowaway from a Federation Funny Farm, they travel back to investigate and discover another mad scientist who thinks he's built a machine that makes people better by giving him control over them. Important note: This episode was recorded before last week's double whammy of bad news: the deaths of Walter Koenig and Patrick Stewart. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

KIRK, BRO, WTF? Captain Kirk flirts with a "teen" girl to get information about a planet that fell apart when the olds experimented with life prolongation. It turns out it had the opposite effect where the old people went nuts and the youth were trapped in a near-forever youth. Is this a Star Trek or another exploration of eugenics and sexuality, the two themes driving the first half of the first season of The Original Series? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CRAZY EX-BOYFRIEND? Kirk and Chapel meet up with a famous scientist whose expedition to a desolate world has led to the discovery of life prolongation technology. The twist? You must become an android. But are Bryan & Kristen impressed by the way this story is told or dismayed by its treatment of women? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

GLP-FUN? The Enterprise beams aboard one of the most obnoxious characters in the history of the franchise along with some "beautiful women-hookers" in an episode that seems designed to drive Bryan and Kristen insane. But does this 60-year old piece of television manage to make a positive impression? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

BECAUSE IT'S THERE? The Enterprise joyrides to an Earth-like planet and gets into trouble when the landing party begins to hallucinate thanks to the alien pollen. Is this humanity's best proving our mettle or Teddy Rooseveltesque adventuring where perhaps we shouldn't belong? Also, Archer brings his dog. Also, why wasn't this the second episode of the series? Bryan and Kristen try and fail to understand what happened. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For Star Trek's 60th, we're releasing new episodes on their original airdate. But for those we've already done, we're offering a repeat PLUS an episode of Enterprise to celebrate its 25th anniversary. KIRK'S TOXIC MASCULINITY is unleashed after a transporter accident involving mystery ore from a freezing planet splits him into his Negative Side and Positive Side. This mascara'd drunk sexually assaults Yeoman Rand. Meanwhile, the Positive Side winds up being the passive side and his inaction and softness begins to offend Mr. Spock!  It's an episode that only could've been written in the 1960s and it should come as no surprise that its general statement about the darkness inside every man comes from a Twlight Zone writer -- it's a very Twlight Zone message. For your consideration: Bryan and Kristen play Trek Marry Kill with it and see if the episode holds up despite sexual assault, a dog in a dragon costume, and an inexplicable storyline where the ship can't send down a shuttle to rescue Sulu & some redshirts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

THE POLYWATER PROBLEM. The crew of the Enterprise begins to experience space madness after encountering some weird water cooked up on an ancient planet in the process of collapsing in on itself. Their deepest fears and most intense desires rise to the surface, and a plucky Irish crewmember seemingly strands them in a decaying orbit. Can Kirk & Spock get it together before the ship is thrown into oblivion? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

IS SPACE BORING? That's what LITERALLY THE SECOND EPISODE OF ENTERPRISE wrestles with as the crew gets a little ornery waiting to run into some aliens. And then there's Hoshi Sato fretting about being in space at all AND feeling guilt about taking a slug off a planet only to watch it slowly die under Dr. Phlox's care. It's a bumpy start for the NX-01. Bryan and Kristen laugh, yell, and cough (Bryan is recovering from a cold) their way through the second episode of Enterprise EVER on the occasion of its 25th anniversary. We are part of Geekscape. Go to Geekscape.net to see our whole network of podcasts. We are produced and edited by Geekscape's Matt Kelly. Check out trekmarrykillpod.com on the web to see all of the TREKs, MARRYs, and KILLs we've handed out so far. And, if you're enjoying the show, consider rating and review us wherever you listen! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Along with Star Trek's 60th anniversary, it's the 25th anniversary of Enterprise, and so we'll be covering some season 1 episodes from that show along with TOS. But first! If you didn't catch one of our very first episodes... alllllll the way back in 2022, here are Bryan and Kristen taking Enterprise out on its maiden voyage. THE FIRST PREQUEL to bear the name Star Trek, and it's incredible that so much of Enterprise has remained canon despite all the changes to the universe following the Chris Pine movies. Bryan and Kristen explore the big 2-hour premiere episode of the last Trek show of the Rick Berman era to see if Scott Bakula works as the first captain of a starship named Enterprise and if humanity's first adventure into deep space lives up to those adventures in the previous pilots.  Is this the greatest Star Trek pilot ever? Do you wish you could hop into a decontamination chamber with T'Pol or Trip? Of course, the biggest "controversy" of the show's four-season run was its theme song. Is "Faith of the Heart" a bop or a flop?  If you like this episode, consider rating us five stars and/or liking us wherever you listen. Our theme music is "70's Synth Funk Jam" by Phill_Dillow on Pixabay Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices