Star Trek: The Rewatch

Warning: 400 words of geekery ahead!

I’ve embarked on an extremely nerdy and wonderful new project: a podcast about rewatching Star Trek. Each week we encourage listeners to watch the same episode we have, and then we’ll dissect and discuss it in deliciously geeky detail.

My cohost in this trek beyond the podcasting frontier is friend and fellow Zooniverse workhorse Grant Miller. Grant sometimes fills in for Chris Lintott on our regular astronomy/science series Recycled Electrons. The other week myself and Grant ended up talking about Star Trek on the show, and a friend remarked that they’d totally listen to us doing a podcast about Star Trek. We’re easily persuaded by flattery and so ‘Star Trek: The Rewatch’ was born.

Our first episode is now up, in which we discuss Encounter at Farpoint - the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. We’re hoping that re-watching the show, in order, will make us appreciate it all over again. When you a TV show like this, you get to enjoy each episode in the context of knowing the series and characters really well, and there’s loads of interesting trivia and back-story that is great to explore. Grant and I are both astrophysics PhDs, so we’re also hoping to bring some serious science talk to the show from time to time. We know lots of experts in various fields from around the University (of Oxford) who we hope can pop in and comment every now and then.

Although I’m obviously looking forward to some of my favourite episodes (e.g. Best of Both Worlds, Tapestry) I’m also keen to see how some of the older, or more obscure, episodes hold up to the ensuing decades and changes in the way we enjoy Sci Fi, and TV in general. This is a podcast that I would totally have listened to - so it’s going to be fun to record it. To be honest, even if no one listens, this is going to be awesome! _That’s_ how geeky I am.

If you loved the adventures of Captain Picard and co. - and want to watch them all over again - then join us! Check out startrek.therewatch.com or find us on iTunes. We’re also to be found on Twitter @StarTrekRewatch and on Facebook too.

Engage!