THE VILE FRONTIER. The elites are at it again! Kirk & Spock are tortured for the amusement of a bunch of blue-blooded assholes in order to compel Dr. McCoy to give up his Starfleet commission and become their personal physician. It's The Original Series most notable examination of class warfare that resonates to this very day! It also features singing and dancing loooooong before "Subspace Rhapsody" AND one of the first interracial kisses on television, though it's not as historic as it was once made out to be.

The grades begin at (17:58).

INFINITE VELOCITY = INFINITE REGRETS. Bryan is joined by author Tom Salinsky whose book, Star Trek: Discovering the TV Series: The Original Series, The Animated Series and The Next Generation, releases on July 30th. He committed himself to a daily journey of Star Trek and catalogued his findings all for your reading pleasure. But what did he think of one of the weirdest, wildest swings in the history of Star Trek?

When Tom Paris achieves Warp 10, he begins to evolve into a real headache for the crew. Does anything that happens after that make even a bit of sense? Will they TREK, MARRY, or KILL the one where Paris & Janeway become space salamanders and have salamander babies?

The grades begin at (26:34).

WHO'S THE DEVIL? A straight down the middle episode from the original series has Bryan and his guests pondering what really stands out about this adventure where the crew must overpower an alien serpent statue that has taken away all humanly pleasures from the humanoids it has tasked with fueling it for centuries on end. Breaking the chains of Vaal's control is an anxious Captain Kirk and a horny Ensign Chekov with his girlfriend (?) Yeoman Landon. There's some damseling, some ass-kicking, and a whole lot of red shirt deaths in this one.

It's our final Wild Card episode of the season and joining Bryan to help grade this one are writer-producer Robert Skir, actor Kurt Carley, and Jim Newman, co-creator of the Go Fact Yourself podcast (https://gofactyourpod.com/). The grades begin at (18:25).

ANOTHER HORRIFIC SECRET harbored by Dr. M'Benga compels another member of the Enterprise crew to aid in a coverup. This time around, it's not M'Benga's family matters, it's his war record. Turns out, he was The Winter Soldier during the Klingon-Federation War and the arrival of a Klingon defector turned Federation ambassador has dredged up some ugly memories. Does this one earn its shocking twist and merit a place in the top tier of Star Trek's canon? Bryan and Kristen decide!

The grades begin at (18:28).

RAPID AGING SUCKS. Well, that's one of the main lessons of this episode where Dr. Pulaski is exposed to a virus that makes its victims age rapidly. Meanwhile, Bryan and Kristen explore the IMDb of one of the guest cast, wonder who lines up to get Diana Muldaur's autograph (when she used to attend conventions), and discuss how the high res conversion of the season two episodes actively disrupts the viewing experience by calling attention to smaller details that otherwise would've been ignored and making everything look not so good. Does that ding the episode enough points to merit a KILL?

The grades begin at (24:03).

COMPUTER, END PROGRAM? Boimler & Mariner board the Enterprise, only it's not the Enterprise they usually mean when they talk about "those old scientists." It's Pike's ship -- does that change the vibe? Does Strange New Worlds successfully pull off its latest "big swing," the TV crossover?

Katie Hampton from her Napping Through Happy Hour Podcast returns. The grades begin at (22:47).

TOO MUCH FUN. The Defiant is orbed back in time to the teaser of "The Trouble with Tribbles" on the occasion of the Star Trek franchise's 30th anniversary. Bryan and Kristen dig in to an earlier crossover that featured extravagant technology to accomplish the task. Does this time capsule of Forrest Gump-inspired technology and Back to the Future-level grandfather paradoxes still hold up? More importantly, is it a BIG SWING that connects?

The grades begin at (27:01).

GENE RODDENBERRY'S MISOGYNY. Apparently, women couldn't be Star Trek captains all along. In a season that began with "Spock's Brain," wherein we discovered that Gene Roddenberry (and Gene L. Coon) had a chip on his shoulder about beautiful women preferring handsome men in their prime the season -- and series -- ends with a similar diatribe from Roddenberry's mind. This time, women want the same positions men have, only, they don't have the constitution to handle the job! It's a silly notion foisted on TV viewers by a silly man and a tough way to end the run of a show that had largely been an inspiration to everyone, regardless of gender.

Will the crew figure out that Captain Kirk's mind has been swapped out with a vengeful ex-girlfriend? Due to some scheduling changes, this episode is Kristen's first date back to record even though she's appeared recently; and, look out for another release tomorrow as part of our weekly schedule. Today's a special one because it's the 55th anniversary of "Turnabout Intruder."

The grades begin at (27:22).