The latest 'Cast is up, a little earlier than usual since we're planning to go twice-monthly (for podcasting that is, fnarr, etc) from now on.
This is partly because Anne-Marie and I are having a gas recording this nonsense, plus we'd like to get to the shiny pastures of season 3 a bit sooner.

We'll aim to be recording at the beginning and half-way through each month to give some idea if you want to send feedback.

Really enjoying the podcast. Well done. Also enjoying the segment on Space ships, because space ships are cool and what is space opera without cool space ships. I give Titan AE more slack than it probably deserves because it is chock full of cool space ships.

On teh subject of Mendon and his starfleet uniform, while you did answer it in the podcast don't we see some Vulcan ships in Unification, could it be possible while Starfleet serves the bulk of most federation worlds starship needs some worlds still operate a seperate fleet? If I remember in Enterprise Starfleet was very much Earth's Space Navy which kind of expanded its remit to the Federation.

Anyway, Measure of a Man, great episode, mainly because it gives Picard many opportunities to give speeches. Well if you hire a Thespian you may as well use him. His one at the end "Seek out New Life, well there it is" still gives me goosebumps.

Of course despite the ruling on Data the Federation manage to do the same thing with the MK1 EMH programme, proving once again why Voyager isn't that great.

Amen brother- welcome to the church of the holy warp nacelle

Interesting point about Unification- presumably the various planets that make up the UFP do still have their own fleets. Starfleet can often seem less like the UN peacekeeping forces, with various different armies all wearing blue hats, & more like NATO, with everyone using US army equipment & dancing to Earth's tune. Certainly most of the personnel are human (although there are clearly practical budgetary reasons for that in terms of the show iteself).

Cheers for the feedback sir.

Hello friend- all being well, we plan to record the next bOrgCast this Friday (4th), so if you’d like to send any feedback in for The Measure Of A Man or The Dauphin or for the episodes of season 2 we’ve covered so far, or if you just want to tell org to shut the frak up about spaceships already, the next few days is your window of opp-ppor-tuuunity! </Quark>

Also- we now have a tumblr site, where you can comment, catch-up with our latest recording info, and witness the awesomeness that is Spaceship Of The Day!

Just a few thoughts about families on starships as you discussed during "Contagion"

I can see the advantages, it woudl make your starship more like home and in a long duration space voyage that is an attractive prospect, kind of like having a small village exploring space. There is real world precedent, sort of, with some army bases abroad often providing accomodation for families. However Starfleet seemed to find the daftest way to do it, so it involved throwing your family into peril alongside every officer. Furthermore they really weren't too careful. Fair enough accidents happen but the amount of times the Enterprise dives hadlong into danger complete with families is insane. Worse, in "Encounter at Farpoint" they make a big show of seperating the saucer, allowing the families to drift away relatively safe while teh stardrive section goes into the unknown. How often do they do this? As far as I remember, Once. In "The Arsenal of Freedom" the saucer is seperated in "The best of both worlds pt II" but as part of a battle plan. (Think the old Nitpickers guide pulled this up as well)

Speaking of the battle of Wolf 359 worse still is what we see in the DS9 Pilot. Starfleet amassed ships for a battle, yes at short notice but not that short, and didn't offload families first. Sisko's family are still on the Sarretoga when it engages the Borg. I wonder if Wolf 359 was the battle that made strfleet re-think its policy as later ships did indeed miss this feature out (No families on the Enterprise - E in the Movies)

Anyway, sorry to rant on, enjoying the podcast. Good work.

All rants most welcome

I'd forgotten about Sisko's back-story with 359- having families involved in that clash, particularly in a smaller vessel like the Saratoga seems crazynuts.

I'm reminded of medieval battles when combatants took their whole families with them, sometimes to their great cost.

Picard gave a good defense in The Measure of a Man when he pointed out that making thousands of Datas would create a race. Riker could have easily pointed out that the holodeck is a part of the Enterprise and that the Enterprise in a way became conscious when it created Moriarty. So does that mean the enterprise should be taken out of commission until Starfleet understands if it wants to be flown around through space? Ha. There are a couple other times in Star Trek where the subject of how to treat artificial life comes up. There is the episode Evolution that deals with the Nanites and I remember a later episode where the ship becomes conscious. Obviously the writers can’t take the enterprise out of the show but it would have made a good argument in that episode. It all comes down to is Data property of Star Fleet. Although in Clues when Data refuses to answer Picard, he points out that Starfleet will most likely strip Data down to find out what went wrong.

The creation of the sentient Moriarty is a good point, and he returns in a later season too. On the basis he can't choose to leave the Enterprise, he's got a built-in limitation of his freedoms, unlike Data and the Exocomps who have more freedom over their destinies once their sentience is (mostly) proved.

Doesn't the Enterprise sort of become sentient in season 6/7 (Emergence?) or was that alien thingys. Could ahve made a good story, a ship becomes sentient and they have to work out what to do.

Moriarty is a bit of a puzzle. They don't delete him, and come up with another temporary solution in "Ship in a Bottle" presumably they would like to find a way to get him out of the holodeck, just have no idea how.

Holodecks, and indeed holograms seem to have a bit of a flaw in this respect. Vic Fontane in DS9 was pretty much alive, and The Doctor in Voyager veered between being classed as alive and disposable depending on how insane Janeway was that day. I know Org gave up on Voyager, but they did reveal that the Federation re-purposed an army of EMHs to do dirty jobs no-one wanted, so the Federation may well be hologramist.

Oh, episode Feedback. Would like to clarify first. I don't have DVDs or videos of TNG so my comments are often based on memory, feel free to correct for rose-tintedness or plain inaccuracy.

Times Squared I remember as being pretty good. It had a pretty Tense atmosphere, decent mystery and it was good to see the crew (And Picard particularly) tying themselves in knots and second guessing their actions to try and avoid the fate of future-picard's enterprise. Also I rememebr the swirly thing effect was pretty good. Only thing that was a bit odd was the strange reverse effect the vortex had on future picard and his shuttle, Why? Why wasn't the Enterprise similarly affected at the end of the episode. It just seemed like a device to make things seem more unworldly. I also like the litle shuttlepod, the Smart Car of space. It even has a hatchback.

All I remember from the Icarus Factor is Riker and his dad doing the stupid blindfold version of the cotton buds game from Gladiators, and some Klingon Kolour. It does seem all Klingon ceremonies involve pain and suffering (See Klingon stag night in DS9) Memory Alpha tells me Riker also gets offered his first promotion, is this the first time he knocks back his own command?

We've no problem with hazy memories, though it's interesting how the memory can cheat, & indeed how your perception of episodes and characters changes over time. I remembered Pulaski being really irritating, but thus far into season 2 she doesn't seem so bad.

Did Moriarty go down with the Enterprise D in Generations I wonder?
& there was Data all worried about his cat...