Episodios

  • Jeff 2: Weyoun Boogaloo
    Jul 7 2025

    Grab your phials of glowing green goo and prepare to ham it up as we talk once more about Jeffrey Combs, the Philip Madoc of Star Trek (that’s a Classic Doctor Who reference) and three episodes where his many characters make large roles. Unfortunately, Weyoun is only in a few scenes of Deep Space Nine’s ‘Ties of Blood and Water’ and both Miles and Charlie try really hard not to get personal as Kira has to look after a seriously ill surrogate family figure, fortunately Shran more than makes up for it in Enterprise’s ‘Cease-Fire’ as Archer is drafted into helping settle a planetary land dispute between Vulcans and Andorans and we make a little detour to ‘A Few Badgeys More’ as AGIMUS, the evil computer and F***ing Peanut Hamper plan mischief… if you’re one of those weirdos who only listen to hear Miles swear, this episode is for you! Come back in a year’s time probably for J3ff, more than likely.


    EPISODES MENTIONED: TIES OF BLOOD AND WATER (14:26), CEASE-FIRE (45:33) A FEW BADGEYS MORE (1:11:27)


    TALKING POINTS INCLUDE: Blowing up Objectivists, what elements of British films make Miles homesick, The Phonecian Scheme, John Wickend which leads to a wider discussion on John Wick, the Death of Princess Diana, our first Jeff episode does not have enough Jeff, Kira has supplanted Odo as Miles’ favourite DS9 character, how Kira and Ace from Doctor Who are very similar, a long way from the ‘Prat’ version of Bashir, Miles finds out something horrifying about LL Cool J, Charlie retells his one TATU story and the boys clearly have Heatstroke, Shram/Archer shippers must exist, Andorian soccer mums, accents, Andorian Antennae acting, we don’t need the Koala-joke in Lower Decks explained, Miles actually compliments ****ing Peanut Hamper, Boimler and Tendi hanging out together always seems weird.


    PEDANTS CORNER: Jeffrey Combs is Ratchet in Transformers Prime, not Transformers: Robots in Disguise

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    1 h y 41 m
  • Mustard Hands
    Jun 23 2025

    The ‘mystical pregnancy’ trope is a bit of an overused one in genre fiction and Star Trek visits that well so many times we had options for which ones to highlight here.


    The episode you all knew was coming is Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “The Child” where Troi gets pregnant with a cosmic entity. We also see puppies and the Enterprise dealing with a horrendous disease as a B plot.


    Star Trek: Voyager had so many episodes for this trope, but we picked “Elogium” where Kes’ body accidentally jumpstarts its mating process in some of the most grotesque ways possible. Oh, and Neelix wants everyone to know he was a bad boy before he met Kes.


    Finally Enterprise’s “Unexpected” has Trip head over to a freaky alien ship where he helps with their engines but gets mpregged in the process. You dirty dog, Trip!


    00:03:41 What Non-Star Trek Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: Jaws and Exorcist novelisations, Super Mario Kart World (and not having a summer cold)

    00:13:08 Star Trek: The Next Generation “The Child”

    00:40:34 Star Trek: Voyager “Elogium”

    01:12:11 Enterprise “Unexpected”

    And stick around to the end for a horrifying bonus feature!


    Pedants Corner:

    The ‘modern’ V is from 2009, so it’s 16 years old

    “A New Start” from Degrassi High was actually in 1989 and while it did air, they had to remove the characters fighting their way through anti-abortion picketers

    Jarvis Cocker took the piss out of Michael Jackson in 1996, one year after Elogium


    Talking points include: Donna Troy’s Zombie Baby, Prometheus, V (old and new versions), Legion of Super-Heroes, Super Mario Kart World, GoldenEye, do NOT ask about Avengers issue 200, weird X-Men pregnancies, Charlie’s top tip for karaoke, PUPPIES!, Ian & Barbara, the crew as Wesley’s parents, Degrassi’s abortion storyline, Space: 1999, Charlie brings back that old ZX Spectrum/Commodore 64 rivalry, 1995 Michael Jackson is a rough sight, Michelle Pfieffer, Star Wars Episode One, Red Dwarf, “The Writer’s Barely Disguised Fetish”, Barbarella, Legz Akimbo, Prometheus, Battlestar Galactica (the new one), Attractive Doctors Who, Dune, mpreg, whether Chris Claremont has ever done an mpreg (he hasn’t), Quasar, Farscape, Quantum Leap, Chat Out of Hell, . Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.


    Next time, we have another Jeffrey Combs Power Hour! I mean it’s us, so probably more like an hour and a half.


    Casual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-Lobatto

    Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn

    Casual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie Network


    https://ko-fi.com/casualtrek

    Miles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com

    Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com

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    1 h y 49 m
  • The Hero of the Bajoran Resistance
    Jun 9 2025

    Grab your tastiest sandwich and try not to spoil Twin Peaks as we return to Deep Space 9 with an all-DS9 extravaganza. We’re talking about the opening three-parter of season two of Deep Space Nine which, unlike the Augment three-parter of Enterprise we covered (Episode Title- We Have Wrath of Khan at Home), we’re discussing and placing on the Big List as one single entry and not three seperate ones. Watch as in ‘The Homecoming,’ Kira goes off to rescue Bajor’s greatest resistance fighter and gets no end of grief for it, then we see that Odo has an actual friend while Kira has one of those awkward naked dreams while uncovering Bajoran nationalists in ‘The Circle’ and then the simmering Bajoran nonsence ends up in some Die Hard antics on the Station as our heroes must endure ‘The Siege’ where this should hopefully wrap up. No Vedek Winn’s were harmed during the making of these episodes for which we are deeply sorry.


    EPISODES DISCUSSED: ‘The Homecoming’ (11:25), ‘The Circle’ (35:11) and ‘The Siege’ (56:11)



    This used to be a TNG episode, Bajoran nonsense, Twin Peaks references (some spoilers removed) the DS9 novel mentioned last episode, Odo pranking Quark, Miles prefers Sisko with no beard, the Return of Grappler Zorn and a digression into G.I.Joe, Frank Langella aka Skeletor, Sisko’s better at the ‘We’re with Starfleet, we don’t lie’ than Wesley, Odo has a friend-an actual friend (cue references to ‘The Inbetweeners’, Vedek Winn would unapologetically tweet ‘Thoughts and Prayers’, The Prime Directive is poorly written legislation, we do a Die-Hard, Bashir would have a pith helmet, Deep Space Nine still working out what it can do and it feels that the Bajor stuff falls by the wayside with much larger threats, Krim wants to be Sisko’s big rival, this is all too neat in resolution.

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    1 h y 36 m
  • Godshook
    May 26 2025

    It’s Bank Holiday Monday, so let’s take it easy and talk about some comics.


    After promising it early in the show’s history, Charlie’s finally read the first arc of IDW’s Star Trek comic by Lanzig & Kelly. Look, we’re Casual Trek, this is the level of service you get from us.


    The first arc, “Godshock” features that classic Star Trek concept: thumbing your teeth at god, only this time it’s a bad thing as someone’s killing gigantic cosmic entities! Who did this and how can it be stopped? Well, Ben Sisko’s back from his time as a cosmic entity to find out, with an almost all-star cast of people from throughout Star Trek History. There’s Data and Dr Crusher from TNG, Paris from Voyager, Scotty from TOS and Jake Sisko is also there. Worf guest stars for long enough to be a bad parent and back door pilot for another series, and there are a couple of new characters who are a lot of fun.


    Join us on the USS Theseus and prepare for a lot of tangents, as we both love talking comics.


    References: The Super Stalag of Space, Harry 20 on the High Rock, Dan Dare, Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation Squared, Quatermass and the Pit, The Legion of Super-Heroes, The Legion Clubhouse, comic collection sizes, YES Charlie has put rolled-up Walking Dead volumes in his back pocket, the Bendis New Avengers approach to team-building, Billy Pilgrim, The Krakoan Age of X-Men, Marvel Swimsuit Specials (which are coming back), release a Star Trek Swimsuit Special you cowards!, Data pages vs data pages, Gilmore Girls spoiled Anna Karenina for me, Charlie’s Super Mario Quest 2025, the Summers family tree, the Dark Horse Buffy Series, Marvel’s Star Wars, Dr Who comics, the Energon Universe, the CLZ collector’s app, Malibu Comics’ Star Trek… Oh, and sometimes IDW’s Star Trek.

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    1 h y 9 m
  • Spock’s Pondering His Orb
    May 11 2025

    Pull out your helmet with the torch on and your spelunking gear because we’re talking about Caves! Miles and Charlie go potholing for Star Trek episodes featuring caves and find a Horta in TOS’ ‘Devil in the Dark’, bid farewell to a member of the TNG cast in ‘Final Mission’ and do you remember when everyone got trapped in a turbo lift in Lower Decks’ ‘Caves?’ Always use the buddy system! Follow safety regulations! EPISODE DISCUSSED: ‘Devil in the Dark,’ (07:13) ‘Final Mission,’ (28:33) and ‘Caves,’ (52:53)

    

Talking points include- Common Side Effects, Cyberpunk 2077, Caves, the Horta’s beat poetry, Spock calling Kirk ‘Jim,’ Mariah Carey as Goku charging to Super Saiyan, Red Dwarf would have shown the crashing shuttle, Miles and Charlie agonize about their Britishness, Miles Oatrick Stewart impression sounds more like Matt Berry, how the writers gave up on Wesley Crusher,space Joe Rogan would be a pakled,fake clip shows, Tendi is a ray of goddamn sunshine, Miles has lived the Alpha Shift/ Delta Shift dynamic, the best fake episode of Quantum Leap ever.

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    1 h y 16 m
  • A Piece of the Acting
    Apr 28 2025

    Listen up, you palookas, it’s time for a Casual Trek about times people tried to copy humans. We’ve got a bona fide Mafia planet thanks to a discarded novel in “A Piece of the Action”, featuring some incredible Shacting.

    Next, those Next Generation goombahs find themselves in a casino inspired by another discarded novel in “The Royale”, a troubled script and a bad episode which is actually a fantastic time.

    Finally, those Prodigy kids just wanna do a Starfleet and find a culture inspired by the original Enterprise in “All the World’s a Stage”


    00:02:52 What Non-Star Trek Thing We’ve Been Enjoying: Lost & Yellowjackets

    00:12:20 Star Trek: The Original Series “A Piece of the Action”

    00:38:52 Star Trek: The Next Generation “The Royale”

    01:01:09 Star Trek: Prodigy “All the World’s a Stage”


    Talking points include: Our respective theatrical origins, CHARLIE WAS NOT RAISED IN A CULT, Lost (finally!), science fiction finales, Yellowjackets Season Three, America: It’s Pretty Big!, how our tastes in music will never be a number one hit, Fizzbin, “President Capone”, Miles’ beef with Chicago, Cones of Dunshire, the improv skills of the bridge crew, the horror of an improv planet, books in 1992, Iain (M) Banks, troubled scripts, Madonna’s oeuvre, Bernard from Lost, Charlie’s grandad dressing like a cowboy at a wedding, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the boys go on a tear about Ernest Cline again, Galaxy Quest. Oh, and occasionally Star Trek.


    https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/original-the-royale-script.123944/ - A quote from Tracy Tormé about what the original script for The Royale was going to be like.


    Which 1980’s British children’s drink would your cult poison themselves with? Answer in the poll on Spotify!


    Pedantry Corner:

    Zero’s pronouns are they/them. Respect pronouns, people!


    Casual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-Lobatto

    Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn

    Casual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie Network


    https://ko-fi.com/casualtrek

    Miles’ blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com

    Charlie’s blog: http://www.fakedtales.com

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    1 h y 21 m
  • Space Scamps: Black Hole Sun
    Apr 14 2025

    Strum your sitar and prepare to launch all Eagles as Miles and Charlie once more become the Space Scamps as they make a second trip to the moon for three more episodes of Gerry Anderson’s ‘Event Horizon meets Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace’ show Space 1999 (Miles is now worried he has created a monster by showing Charlie this show) and in doing so, get to talk about psychadelic trippiness and Kano’s obsession with Computer in ‘Black Sun,’ Christopher Lee (although he’s totally phoning it in,) and the dispatch of a weasly middle manager in ‘Earthbound’ and then with ‘The Troubled Spirit,’ Halloween comes a little early and it’s probably more spooky than whatever we’ll end up doing for our Halloween episode… EPISODES DISCUSSED: Black Sun (11:32), Earthbound (34:20) and The Troubled Spirit (58:40)Talking Points Include: More Space 1999, Death Stranding, a trip to Scotland, the science is impossible, Moon Base Alpha’s limited resources, British Pessimism vs. American Gung-Ho, Gene Roddenberry would never, Hard SF has a tendency to go full magic weirdness, Bohemian Rhapsody deserves it’s rep, Christopher Lee is phoning it in, Simmons is the David Brent in Space, cowardly heroes, our brave explorers enjoying shouting MMMMUUUUUUUUTAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNT like in ‘Mission of the Darians,’ Charlie repeats a Johnny Byrne joke from the last episode, awesome sitar music this is the most halloween episode we’ve done for the show, a wicked burn from Charlie’s old teacher Mr. Jafferji, is Moonbase Alpha a liminal space? M. Night Shyamalan films and surprisingly… some Star Trek.

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    1 h y 24 m
  • Star Trek Adventures - Roll to Do A Starfleet
    Mar 31 2025

    Grab your dice-bag and make sure your character sheets are up to date!

    As Charlie is ill and both hosts are really busy, we take a quick detour from talking about Star Trek the TV Show to talk about Star Trek Adventures Tabletop RPG by Modiphius Entertainment. In his other side-career as a Gaming Journalist, Charlie got to try out a review copy with his gaming group and goes over the ensuing data. If you ever wanted your episode of Casual Trek to be 80% Charlie and 20% Miles, this one is for you! Find out Miles’ potted history with gaming, the world’s strangest Alien campaign and a quick overview of the game itself. This might be our most tangent-free episode!Episodes Mentioned: The Star-Trek Adventure Tabletop RPG (25:20)TALKING POINTS: Our history with RPGS, Miles’ obsession with playing a Mod in RPG’s (the subculture kind, not the internet forum kind) The Langoliers, the weirdest Alien RPG campaign, Charlie’s earlier history with Star Trek RPG’s and Charlie’s brother trying and failing to help, the actual Star Trek Adventures game itself, worries about combat, can you concentrate your way out of everything? Made-up Radiation, Charlie’s spread-sheet nerd habits pay off, Charlie gives a two-word answer to playing Traveller and then fudges a very easy dice roll.


    If you want to read a written review, you can! star-trek-adventures-second-edition-starter-set-review

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    53 m