Beyond Antares

It’s buffer time, baby! We’re back, sounding better than ever, and ready to talk all about the first three episodes of the newest  Star Trek series, Lower Decks! Emma, Chad, and Jake rave over the bounty of inside jokes, dissect some well-written stories, and share their thoughts on the instantly fun (if a little one note) characters that inhabit The USS Cerritos. Also on the program, we jump through the time tunnel to reflect on the 7th season TNG episode that gave Lower Decks its name and concept. Spoiler Alert: It’s one hell of a tear-jerker! Worf does karate and Picard sends a hapless young ensign on a perilous journey. Lossen that tie, this is some business-casual Trek!  PS We’ll be doing our Star Trek V commentary soon, stay tuned! 

Welcome back, ensign. After a little COVID vacation, we've returned with the July edition of the program! Your hosts Jacob Chisenhall, Chad Radford, and Emma Rubenstein beam in to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life, and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man, woman, android, et al has gone before in a conversation that’s all about death. … Well, the right to life and death, when it comes to organic and artificial life, actually. Heavy stuff!  The conversation hones in on two classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes: “The Measure of a Man” (season 2, episode 9) and “The Offspring” (season 3, episode 16). Both lay the foundation from which much of the Picard series is built. If we learn anything from “The Measure of a Man” it’s that Starfleet cyberneticist Bruce Maddox has been a rotten sociopath since the word go. And if we learn anything from “The Offspring” it’s that Data is indeed pretty fly for a while guy. Engage!

Captains Log, summer 2020: The real McCoys are back! Jacob Chisenhall, Chad Radford, and Emma Rubenstein boldly go where no one has gone before with issue 3 of "Beyond Antares: A Star Trek Podcast." For this episode the crew talks about their favorite monsters of the Star Trek universe, diving into episodes from the Original Series and the Animated Series to The Next Generation. Also, check out a frank discussion about current affairs, shit posting, Gene Roddenberry’s original vision for diversity on the starship Enterprise, and rumors of a more flamboyant Captain Kirk smashing his way through the galaxy in "Strange New Worlds." And if you learn one thing from watching Star Trek: Nemesis ... Always remember to back up your Data. Engage!

Captain’s blog, star date 5/12/20: Doomsday! Your hosts Emma Rubenstein, Chad Radford, and Jacob Chisenhall are back with another installment of Beyond Antares, a Star Trek podcast. For this episode, Emma, Chad, and Jacob examine themes of doomsday scenarios, machines, philosophies, and the devils behind them in The Next Generation episode, “Devil’s Due,” and the Star Trek: Enterprise episode, titled “The Expanse.” They talk about the colossal tragedy that is Enterprise’s theme song, “Faith of the Heart,” and a bit of its pre-Star Trek history. But before we start, let’s take a minute to shout out to LaVar Burton aka Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge from The Next Generation engine room, and the man who brought us “Reading Rainbow.” Burton is currently negotiating his appearance in season two of Picard. In the meantime, since April 3, he’s been reading to quarantined people live on Twitter, taking a cue from his podcast, “LeVar Burton Reads” — The best short fiction read by the best voice in podcasting. If you check out his podcast you’ll find he’s read “The Foster Portfolio” by Kurt Vonnegut, a two-part reading of Toni Morrison’s short story “Recitatif,” and more. He’s active on Twitter, which is the best place to find out what he’s reading next, Haruki Murakami, Neil Gaiman, Octavia Butler, Ray Bradbury, and more. Burton is recording and making available three different weekly sessions: one for adults every Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern, one for young adults every Wednesday at 6 p.m. Eastern, and one for children every Monday at noon Eastern. What he does, and what he always has done is encourage people to read and use their imaginations — children and adults alike. That’s important right about now. At this point on the timeline, the knee-jerk nature of social media and phone technology has shortened peoples’ attention spans, stunting the population’s grasp on language and the ability to comprehend similes or metaphors. As we all prepare to get back to life post-quarantine, being a bit more considered in all of our decision making will make the future a brighter place, and that’s what Star Trek is all about. On that uplifting note, press play! Let’s talk about Doomsday!

Welcome traveler, to the premiere episode of Beyond Antares!  Each week, your hosts Emma Rubenstein, Chad Radford, and Jacob Chisenhall will spin a wheel of themes/societal challenges that will randomly select two episodes of Trek for them to analyze. But before we get to all that, we wanted to take a little time for us to get to know each other better, baby! So we're each talking our 2 favorite episodes (any series, any season) to break the ice a little.  Bust our your Brent Spiner dolls, saddle up, and click play! 

*Spoiler Alert* Before this podcast officially began, one fine morning in March Chad Radford and Jacob Chisenhall sat down to ruminate over everything that happened in Picard season 1... This is that very conversation. Shields up for spoilers, cuz we're not afraid to tell you how cute Isa Briones looks in all that gold paint. Will Picard live on to see another season? Do ALL or ANY of the loose ends get tied up? Dr. Agnes Jurati is still a murderer, right? Let's talk about it !