Tough Ship: A DS9 Cast

Lt. Julian Bashir: brilliant doctor or dangerous moron? Elim Garak: A finely tuned dressage horse? The ultimate Slytherin? Tinker, tailor, soldier, maybe-spy?  In this week's episode, Bashir tries his hand at espionage—which works out aboooooout as well as Kira tattling to Starfleet Corporate. Yet Sisko remains effortlessly excellent at his job while Odo slays on the Promenade with one-liners. We revel in the return of the Duras sisters, but the only thing less subtle than their wheeling and dealing is their (glorious) Klingon kleavage. Finally, in the outtro, Meagan verbally pens a scene truly worthy of Quark, who is tragically missing from this otherwise-perfect episode. P.S. A PSA for our listeners: if you’re gonna buy black-market space WMDs in the Alpha Quadrant, always check the dark side of the moon(s) for hidden River-abouts. P.P.S. this episode features special guest and Foe of the Pod Grits, Meagan's Chaotic Neutral cat.

Liz and Meagan finally engage with The Fandom! Join us as we recap friendship’s final frontier: our very first Convention. Our Star Trek First Con, if you will. And it's the mother of all Cons: STLV 2024. (Vibe: Go hard, go boldly, go unhinged.) Fueled by a mix of childlike delight and ill-advised Room Wine (Kendall Jackson’s finest, obvi), we brave the unforgiving heat of Las Vegas and get VERY emotional about all things Star Trek, including but not limited to the actors and writers on the weekends galaxy of panels.  Find out which one of us: cried the most won the Trek starship Lego-building contest accidentally got Jonathan Frakes’ FULL attention coveted Nana Visitor’s (Kira) sequined dress tried to fight a baby And to quote Frank Sinatra's classic song about Star Trek: 🎵We cruuuushed the biggest Con, We fan-girled out and had a field day And more, much more than this We did Con ourrrrrr way.🎵

Meagan & Liz BOLDLY tackle the second half of the pilot and ask ourselves: Has any show portrayed trauma as beautifully and accurately as DS9? Between cracking hole jokes,* we manage to have a heartfelt discussion about how the hell this 90's show managed to so effectively capture what it’s like to live with unresolved trauma.  We also examine the singular purgatory of having to explain the concept of linear time to hostile Socratic aliens as they simultaneously threaten your life and force you to relive the worst day of said life. (Damn, Prophets.) And for all you burgeoning #girlbosses out there, come study at the feet of GOAT Kira Neyrs as she bluffs a Cardassian warship with only her moxy and some snazzy sensor work (h/t Miles O’Brien).  *one might say too many! We respectfully disagree.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Deep Space Nine (fmr Terok Nor)! Has a pilot ever come in SO HOT? We don't think so. Meagan and Liz tackle the first half of the fabulous DS9 pilot, "Emissary," in which the Trek franchise finally shows hole. Listen in as we yell about DS9's excellent writing, then cringe a little as we say a character is "coming in at a 10" waaaaay too many times and somehow don't notice the repetition. Join us as we roll our eyes at the Bajoran religion, wildly and continuously mispronounce "Denorios Belt," and marvel at the ACTING between Patrick Stewart & Avery Brooks. PS despite her very best efforts, Meagan can't stop Liz from doing terrible character voices or reading ahead (aka talking) about The Wormhole.

We pieced together a bunch of voice memos and VOILA! A quick and dirty lil' trailer for all you Niners fans out there. Our first episode, the 2-part EMISSARY (Pilot) will be out later this month. So see ya on the Promenade, but bring your own self-sealing stem bolts this time, k? DABO!