Open up a fresh deck of cards and sit down for a game of fizzbin as we cut ourselves “A Piece of the Action”!
Dr. Steven Mollmann joins the show this week to talk about a classic episode of Star Trek: the Original Series that sees our heroes trade their phasers for tommyguns and their uniforms for zoot suits! When the Enterprise arrives at Sigma Iotia II, they discover that cultural contamination by the USS Horizon has altered the primitive society, and “gangsters” vie for control of the planet. Now Kirk and crew must prevent an all-out gang war before Oxmyx and Krako can rub them out!
Humor in Trek is always welcome and on this episode, we talk about some of Trek’s funniest moments and why it’s necessary to occasionally pop the bubble of ostentation. We also discuss how Sigma Iotia is the Galaxy Quest of planets, the vagaries of the Prime Directive, the way humor humanizes your favorite characters, Trek’s history of employing comedy actors, and the granular detail of 23rd century books about the 1920s.
We also cover dating Victorian-style, the origins of the “scientist”, how “mood” spelled backwards is “doom”, a planet of Rick and Morty names, adding boob jokes to Heart of Darkness, Milton Berle’s lost “serious” role, Dixieland Mark Ruffalo, and we commiserate over not being allowed to watch “bad” stuff as kids! Take that, Mom and Dad!
Stun the whole block from orbit! It’s the only way to be sure.
Buy Steve’s TOS novel, A Choice of Catastrophes!
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Hear our live episode with Melinda Snodgrass from CONvergence 2018!
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