Transporter Lock - A Star Trek: Discovery podcast

Short Treks: Runaway

October 12, 2018

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Tilly and Po are runaways in the debut of Short Treks! This episode features the Discovery‘s ensign encountering a teenage alien from the planet Xahea. They meet, bond, and part as efficiently as the 15-minute episode will allow. Transporter Lock co-host Sabriel warmed up to the story after a second viewing, while it left Ken cold. Was this episode a bridge to season 2, or a prequel to season 1? Will we see more Xaheans in the future? And what does it mean to recrystalize dilithium? Find out in this week’s podcast!

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Short Treks, Picard’s Return & Star Trek Beyond

October 3, 2018

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Star Trek: Discovery returns to CBS All Access this week with Short Treks, a series of four monthly mini-episodes! What characters will star in these short films, with what new writers making their scripting debuts? Sabriel and Ken anticipate the return of familiar characters while also catching up on the news of Jean-Luc Picard’s return and reminiscing about their favorite TNG episodes and commiserating the cancellation of the Stage 9 virtual re-creation of the NCC-1701-D. Why can’t we have nice things??

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Season 2 Trailer

August 1, 2018

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We got our first look at season 2 of Discovery at last month’s San Diego Comic Con, and we can’t wait for more! With four short episodes coming out this fall, followed by the return of Christopher Pike and Number One, as well as a Discovery-themed Star Trek Online expansion and the Star Trek Las Vegas convention, it’s a good time to be a Trekkie. Ken and Bri share their hope for the future of Trek, reflect back on season 1 of Discovery and season 4 of Enterprise, review the movie Sunshine, and excitedly look forward to having breakfast cereal and doing our taxes.

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Star Trek Online with Al Rivera

May 17, 2018

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Al Rivera, aka Captain Geko, is the Principal Lead Designer at Cryptic Studios, developer of Star Trek Online, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) set 30 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. The debut of Star Trek: Discovery marks the first time in the MMO’s eight-year history that it has a current television show to work off, and we chatted with Al about all the opportunities and challenges that presents. Does Rivera get to see the show’s script in advance, or work with the show’s actors for original voice acting? How do characters and ships from the year 2255 show up in a game set in 2409? What unique gameplay mechanics do the spore drive and Crossfire-class ships present? Will next month’s DS9-themed expansion, Victory Is Life, include any Discovery content?

Rivera has been in the games industry since the Sega Dreamcast and a Star Trek fan longer than that; it was great to chat with him about this dream merging of his two worlds!

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S1 Post-Season Reflections

February 22, 2018

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The first season of Star Trek: Discovery has concluded. Having already reviewed the season finale, this week we take a step back and consider the entire 15-episode season as a whole. What was our favorite episode? Why isn’t Discovery set post-Voyager? Why couldn’t Sarek have been just another Vulcan, and what will his role be in Season 2? Do we wish the Klingon War had gone on longer? Is Discovery "Star Trek" enough? And how long-lasting will the consequences of the Enterprise‘s appearance be? All these theories and more in this week’s Transporter Lock!

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S1E15: Will You Take My Hand?

February 13, 2018

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It’s the season one finale of Discovery, featuring an anticlimactic takedown of Terran Emperor Georgiou, a welcome end to the Burnham/Tyler/Voq love triangle, and a surprise cliffhanger appearance that left us in tears. Did you spot all the callbacks to Trek lore in the Orion outpost? Or on the Qo’noS map? We have the details you missed! We also welcome the feedback of all the volcanologists in our audience — we need to hear from you!

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S1E14: The War Without, The War Within

February 6, 2018

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The Discovery, back in the Prime Universe, finds itself at war with the Klingons and with a veritable rogues gallery aboard: Voq, L’rell, and Emperor Georgiou. A broken Admiral Cornwell makes some terrible decisions, while nobody gives a crap about the feelings of Burnham, recently out of an abusive relationship. Why is everyone such a jerk?? Everyone except Saru, whom we love in our bonus review of The Shape of Water!

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S1E13: What’s Past Is Prologue

February 1, 2018

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Things come to a head in the Mirror Universe as Michael Burnham must choose between two evil, racist, xenophobic, tyrannical despots, each of whom has been her captain. Bri and Ken suspect we haven’t seen the last of this dynamic trio, and we ponder how they’ll be reunited, what reactions they’ll have to living in the Prime Universe, and what roles they’ll play in reversing the Klingon victory over the Federation. Also: Is Mirror Kirk somewhere out there… and is he saner than we saw him in TOS? We answer a reader’s question!

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S1E12: Vaulting Ambition

January 26, 2018

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In the Mirror Universe, not everyone is what they appear to be… just like back home in the Prime Universe! Burnham discovers that Saru is delicious and that Emperor Georgiou is a cold-hearted murderer — but may be the Discovery‘s only way home. Stamets finds himself in the Mushroom Kingdom, where he gets one last chance to say goodbye to Hugh. And Ash Tyler is Voq, except when he’s Ash. These big surprises have small payoffs, but we’re still hoping for more in the season’s remaining three episodes.

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S1E11: The Wolf Inside

January 17, 2018

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As captain of the ISS Shenzhou, Michael Burnham discovers what a small cast of characters the Mirror Universe has, every goateed rebel or sadistic ruler being someone she’s loved or killed back in the Prime Universe. Did some not-so-shocking revelations warrant a season-long buildup? Sabriel and Ken still question Lorca’s motives, Tyler’s future, what role Paul Stamets (either of them!) played in arranging this switcheroo, and just how far Burnham will go to hide — or reclaim — her own humanity.

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