Casual Trek

61. Only Murders in the Neelix

Jeri Taylor (June 30, 1938-October 24, 2024) was a screenwriter and producer for many TV shows, including Star Trek The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. In dedication to her memory, we’re talking about three of her scripted episodes. In ‘Night Terrors,’ the Enterprise crew are having trouble sleeping and people’s REM levels are dropping (insert your own Radiohead joke here, we did) and it’s making everyone go a little crazy. Meanwhile, Neelix gets into true crime for his early morning TV show in ‘Investigations’ and bites off more than he can chew while uncovering a traitor in the midst. Then back to the Enterprise for ‘The Drumhead’ which gave us one of the more infamous Picard facepalm memes, but is it enough to put it at Number One on the Big List? If not, you might find yourself on trial for subversion!

Timecodes:
00:14:02 TNG: Night Terrors
00:39:29 VOY: Investigations
01:01:50 TNG: The Drumhead

Talking Points Include: Elementary, Ranma 1/2, The Clash, the joys of lighting hydrogen on fire, Silent Hill-esque horror, we get another ‘The Rimmer of the Enterprise’ in Gillespie, some surprising scenes of Worf trying to unalive himself and can Data do white noise to help with sleep? Voyager’s bad workplace politics, would Neelix be a Murderino? Voyager trying to bring a unwanted subplot that we don’t really understand to a conclusion, we’re not in the mood for McCarthy-ism in the Drumhead but that’s okay, this episode has all the subtlety of a brick, Joseph McCarthy is the WORST person to come out of Wisconsin, but who are the best people to come from Wisconsin?

[ Additional Show Notes ]

Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn. Read Miles’s blog or Charlie’s blog.

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