We've officially hit the halfway point of Star Trek's final season, and while Wink of an Eye and The Empath aren't exactly series (or season) highlights, at least we get to watch some guest actors ham it up in wildly differing ways.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 190: Star Trek: Wink of an Eye and The Empath
(00:00:08) - Intro.
(00:03:47) - Staring straight into the confusing void of Wink of an Eye.
(00:12:19) - Missing aliens, weird buzzing sounds, and red shirts yeeting out of existence.
(00:17:22) - Now the ship's acting up, and Kirk is eventually time roofied.
(00:27:19) - Kirk tries to resist, Compton dies, and the aliens' plan is really dumb.
(00:35:17) - Getting a message to Spock, sabotaging the transporter, and knocking boots with a time alien."
(00:41:16) - Spock gets the message, and decides he needs to drink the forbidden time water.
(00:49:15) - Rushing to the end.
(00:54:19) - Break!
(00:55:21) - We're back, and it's time to meet The Empath.
(00:58:22) - Those responsible for this episode.
(01:09:46) - Stop us if you've heard this one before: this seemingly deserted planet is anything but.
(01:15:20) - Filming in the void to save money, and we meet the titular empath and her captors
(01:23:42) - Maybe the most pointless escape scene in Star Trek history.
(01:27:59) - Gem nearly cracks saving Kirk, and now let's scramble over each other to heroically die.
(01:35:07) - The not-at-all-confusing nature of this experiment.
(01:41:14) - Once again, we're just giving up on an ending.
(01:44:01) - Final thoughts.
(01:47:48) - Upcoming scheduling notes, and the next episodes (which we'll get to after a week off).
(01:50:04) - Outro.

This week's Watchcast brings us to one of the few bright spots in this final Star Trek season in The Tholian Web. Also this week is Plato's Stepchildren, a historically significant episode that is certainly unpredictable, if nothing else.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 189: Star Trek: The Tholian Web and Plato's Stepchildren
(00:00:21) - Intro.
(00:01:44) - Starting things off with The Tholian Web.
(00:09:22) - The folks behind this episode, and various production notes.
(00:21:27) - Who doesn't love a Starship where everyone's dead?
(00:29:18) - Transporter chicanery, and Kirk's...dead...question mark?
(00:33:00) - Time for Chekov's weekly freakout, though he's not alone this time.
(00:35:21) - And here come the Tholians
(00:42:38) - Spock and Bones are at each other's throats, and man screams during funeral.
(00:51:46) - The ectoplasmic captain.
(00:57:22) - Not sure we fully grasp how any of this stuff at the end worked.
(01:00:56) - Somehow, Kirk returned.
(01:04:41) - Break!
(01:05:05) - We're back, and it's time for Plato's Stepchildren, such as they are.
(01:07:15) - Production background.
(01:20:49) - Get me off this Greek planet.
(01:32:00) - Humiliating improv exercises IN SPACE!
(01:36:34) - Breaking Spock.
(01:40:34) - THAT'S how they got the mind powers?!?
(01:44:46) - Let's get uncomfortable for a while.
(01:49:36) - A taste of your own mind control.
(01:56:51) - Final thoughts, and housekeeping for next week's episodes.
(01:59:11) - Outro.

For this week's Star Trek journey we've got a pair of episodes absolutely chock full of cardboard swords and ridiculous alien misunderstandings in the Klingon-heavy donnybrook Day of the Dove, and the generation ship disaster For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky!

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 188: Star Trek: Day of the Dove and For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
(00:00:21) - Intro.
(00:06:31) - Kicking things off with Day of the Dove.
(00:13:27) - Who made and starred in this episode.
(00:20:29) - The Klingons crash the away party, and we discuss the nature of this alien.
(00:31:25) - Chekov's sudden revenge boner, and a Klingon donnybrook breaks out.
(00:36:27) - Feeding the hate to feed on the hate.
(00:46:50) - Convincing the Klingons.
(00:50:00) - Transporting into engineering and wrapping this one up as quick as we can.
(00:58:28) - Break!
(00:58:46) - We're back, and it's time for an episode with a very long title.
(01:02:20) - Who made this, and who was in this.
(01:06:49) - Getting into the episode proper, and not believing Bones is actually going to die.
(01:12:30) - The people, and their phenomenally stupid outfits.
(01:20:15) - Bones gets to be the loverboy for once.
(01:27:48) - Giving everyone headaches and then solving a big adventure game puzzle.
(01:40:50) - Final thoughts.
(01:44:21) - Housekeeping for next week, and outro.

After the extraordinarily low lows of last week's Star Trek episodes, this week's batch feels like a welcome respite. Up to bat this week is previously-seen guest star Diana Muldaur in the psychedelic ugly alien freakout Is There in Truth No Beauty, followed by the good ol' fashioned wild west romp Spectre of the Gun!

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 187: Star Trek: Is There in Truth No Beauty and Spectre of the Gun
(00:00:39) - Intro.
(00:01:58) - Jumping right into Is There in Truth No Beauty, an impossible title to say correctly the first time.
(00:15:26) - Don't look at the ugly alien. You'll go crazy.
(00:17:57) - Pretty lady onboard, let's get weird about it.
(00:29:13) - Goddammit, Larry.
(00:37:49) - Show the pretty lady flowers while we step out with her ambassador.
(00:44:11) - Piloting Spock around like it's the ambassador's vacation body.
(00:47:57) - Spock goes crazy, and it barely matters.
(00:51:41) - Spock's good, Dr. Jones got her mindlink, and Larry's dead, so I guess this is a happy ending.
(00:56:37) - Break!
(00:57:04) - We're back, and it's time to talk about Spectre of the Gun (and some OK Corral history)!
(01:14:33) - A neon probe with a big booming snake head says to stay outta this space.
(01:18:47) - A half-remembered idea of Tombstone, Arizona, where everybody is pointing you toward doom.
(01:25:08) - A force field prevents escape, gas grenades are constructed, and Chekov "dies".
(01:32:06) - Spock sees through the Matrix.
(01:39:06) - Huh, you defeated our hastily assembled wild west trap. I guess you guys are cool.
(01:44:21) - Final thoughts, and housekeeping for next week's episodes.
(01:47:03) - Outro.

Star Trek Summer is officially back on the menu, folks! We're once again joined by our compatriot Brad Shoemaker to continue our journey through the original series' third season soldiers on. And this week that journey meets one of its toughest challenges yet in the execrable episodes The Paradise Syndrome, and And the Children Shall Lead.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 186: Star Trek: The Paradise Syndrome and And the Children Shall Lead
(00:00:23) - Intro.
(00:06:12) - Launching straight into The Paradise Syndrome.
(00:12:33) - ANOTHER planet full of random humans?
(00:20:02) - Kirk gets zapped with the head empty beam.
(00:25:53) - You're a handsome devil, you're our god now.
(00:30:25) - Burning out your engines to move an asteroid like a centimeter.
(00:34:31) - Kirk's so happy.
(00:38:51) - Moonwalking back to the planet and discovering alien music.
(00:40:35) - It's god time.
(00:44:08) - Mind melding your way out of your bad life choices.
(00:51:23) - Break!
(00:51:46) - We're back, And the Children Shall Lead...us to this very bad episode.
(00:55:10) - The somewhat, uh, unconventional casting choices.
(01:03:36) - We're not dunking on this because it's a kid episode. It sucks well beyond the kid stuff.
(01:08:54) - Wasting a perfectly creepy intro set-up.
(01:18:07) - Them kids ain't right.
(01:30:43) - The final confrontation with the pirate ghost.
(01:37:27) - Final thoughts.
(01:39:49) - Next week's episodes, and outro.

For this week's special guest Watchcast animator and game developer Scott Benson takes us on a tour of the creeper corners of Depression-era West Virginia in Charles Laughton's singularly strange thriller, The Night of the Hunter!

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 185: The Night of the Hunter (1955) w/ Scott Benson
(00:00:21) - Intro.
(00:12:39) - How we came to this movie initially.
(00:19:47) - Some history of the film.
(00:36:23) - Some talk about the cast.
(00:44:14) - The film's initial lackluster reception, and subsequent reappraisal.
(00:48:08) - Break!
(00:48:51) - We're back, and it's time to get into the film proper.
(01:00:51) - I'm Peter Graves, and this is a felony.
(01:25:46) - Meeting the other townsfolk, and the preacher comes a callin'.
(01:41:14) - A consequential picnic, and Willa makes some bad choices.
(01:46:03) - An all-timer of a bad honeymoon.
(01:52:53) - Good night, Willa.
(02:07:00) - The trouble with Harry.
(02:13:22) - A long, lazy trip down the river.
(02:23:44) - The introduction of Rachel Cooper.
(02:29:15) - Everything's going great until a teen girl gets a crush.
(02:46:53) - Harry's approach is less viable under these circumstances.
(02:52:29) - Do not mess with Whistler's mother.
(03:05:14) - The strange epilogue to it all.
(03:16:36) - Final thoughts.
(03:23:59) - We might return to Star Trek next week (check the Patreon this week for more info).
(03:26:38) - Outro.

For this week's Special Guest Watchcast we've got none other than Austin Walker joining the show to tell us all about a seminal work of cyberpunk anime (that just happens to coincide with a new revival hitting the airwaves very recently) in the 1995 adaptation of Ghost in the Shell!

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 184: Ghost in the Shell (1995) w/ Austin Walker
(00:00:26) - Intro.
(00:03:32) - Talking about this week's movie, the manga and other adaptations, and how it feels to watch this in 2026.
(00:25:53) - Do we understand what happened in this movie? We think so!
(00:32:49) - Some talk about the animation techniques used, and then rampant cyberbrain chat.
(00:39:48) - Break!
(00:40:17) - We're back, and tackling some lingering questions before we launch into the plot.
(00:45:40) - Setting the stage.
(00:51:58) - Sorting the sections, and setting up the Puppet Master.
(01:06:07) - The Major's cop buddies.
(01:11:16) - The garbage men.
(01:23:35) - I wanna sink to the bottom with you.
(01:37:21) - The Puppet Master has demands.
(01:52:57) - Ishikawa.
(01:58:58) - The decoy, and the run-up to Old Town.
(02:08:21) - The Puppet Master's pitch.
(02:17:55) - Well, everyone's dead. Guess we'll just wrap this one up.
(02:24:55) - Sequel talk, and final thoughts.
(02:36:50) - Housekeeping for next week's movie: Night of the Hunter with Scott Benson!
(02:38:48) - Austin's plugs, and outro.

The Watchcast rises from hiatus to sparkle for all of you once again, and while our friend Brad is out on leave, we've got a few guests lined up to take us through some of their favorite films. First up is Abby Russell with the movie she's been determined to make us watch for months now. the equally baffling and entertaining YA vampire romance, Twilight!

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 183: Twilight (2008) w/ Abby Russell
(00:00:22) - Intro.
(00:04:12) - Why does Abby love Twilight ever so much?
(00:14:25) - On Stephenie Meyer and the folks who made this movie.
(00:25:21) - MAN was this a big franchise (and more about how teens responded to the material). 
(00:34:39) - Break!
(00:35:01) - We're back, and it's time to talk about this damn movie.
(00:46:25) - This is quite the efficient intro, and then high school happens.
(00:53:09) - The Cullens make their entrance.
(01:10:42) - Edward saves Bella for the first time (of many).
(01:21:55) - Things meander a bit before the big vampire reveal.
(01:34:24) - A big, sparkly unveiling.
(01:43:47) - Meeting The Family.
(01:54:23) - Edward + Bella 4 Eva
(02:01:34) - Wanna play baseball?
(02:05:52) - Enter: the sleazy vampires.
(02:14:41) - By the time I get to Arizona.
(02:27:29) - Waking up in the hospital with the worst cover story ever concocted.
(02:29:21) - Casino prom? Casino prom!
(02:35:46) - Final thoughts.
(02:44:11) - Housekeeping for the next couple of weeks, and outro.

One season is all that stands between us and our years-long goal of completing Star Trek: The Original Series. Yes, that season might be uniquely bad by series standards, but we are determined to push through any deep hurting that may result in order to achieve our goal. First up, an all-timer dumb-dumb episode in Spock's Brain, and the surprisingly solid The Enterprise Incident.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 182: Star Trek: Spock's Brain and The Enterprise Incident
(00:00:17) - Intro.
(00:03:45) - Why season 3 is Like This.
(00:16:24) - Launching into this season of hell with Spock's Brain.
(00:22:40) - Who made this episode, and why is it in this state.
(00:27:52) - Pressing the "make everyone fall down" button so you can steal a brain.
(00:37:27) - The horrors of the caveman planet.
(00:41:37) - RoboSpock.
(00:51:27) - I...KNOW...EVERYTHIIIIIING!
(00:58:30) - They saved Spock's brain.
(01:03:05) - Break!
(01:03:32) - We're back, and it's onto The Enterprise Incident.
(01:15:16) - The creatives involved in this episode, and the real life naval event that inspired the
episode.
(01:23:00) - Veering into the Neutral Zone like a road rage incident.
(01:30:11) - What is the Romulans' interest in Spock?
(01:40:35) - It was all an elaborate, if confusing, ruse.
(01:42:23) - Can love bloom on the battlefield, specifically between a Vulcan and a Romulan?
(01:50:54) - Keystone Romulans, and Spock's filibuster.
(01:58:16) - Try every USB adapter you've got, Scotty!
(02:05:37) - Final thoughts.
(02:09:34) - Outro.

We've got a one week break coming up before Star Trek Summer begins again in earnest, but before that happens we've got one more documentary to serve our Watchcasting listeners in Trekkies! Join us for some nerd archeology as we dig through this doc that's chock full of superfans of all flavors and stripes, and marvel with us at how quaint it all seems compared with our extremely fandom-oriented present.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 181: Trekkies (1997)
(00:00:14) - Intro.
(00:05:40) - Why we're doing Trekkies (because Star Trek Summer is on the horizon).
(00:08:10) - The fandom, and how this movie treats its nerds.
(00:16:41) - On Denise Crosby, and how this movie got made.
(00:20:32) - The cast reactions to all this stuff. 
(00:31:30) - Break!
(00:31:54) - We're back, and we're beginning this journey with the Spiner-Femme.
(00:37:18) - Gabriel, the star of the movie, if we're being honest.
(00:52:32) - Barbara, the Whitewater juror.
(00:58:29) - Actual Star Trek (and affiliated) people. 
(01:07:06) - The Slash Fiction crowd.
(01:12:03) - The Greensteins.
(01:17:18) - Starbase Dental.
(01:20:29) - Filking.
(01:22:54) - The wildly different radio shows.
(01:30:43) - An encounter at Radio Shack.
(01:34:53) - A few scattered bits.
(01:40:17) - Final thoughts.
(01:53:08) - Housekeeping for our upcoming Star Trek season 3 watch.
(01:55:59) - Outro.

Nothing brings people together like a good old fashioned space mission, and for this week's Watchcast we've got a documentary about the goodest of old fashioned space missions, Apollo 11! Join us as we marvel not just at the unbelievable human achievement this story represents, but also the ludicrously high quality footage they managed to capture 50-plus years ago.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 180: Apollo 11 (2019)
(00:00:24) - Intro.
(00:02:50) - Brad tells us why he picked Apollo 11, and we muse on how wild it is that this footage exists.
(00:11:01) - On the achievement itself, and what it's meant to the world since.
(00:22:51) - Some context for the previous Apollo missions.
(00:32:20) - Once again talking about the ludicrous amount of high quality footage we have here.
(00:38:30) - On the filmmaker, and how this movie came to be.
(00:43:02) - Break!
(00:43:28) - We're back, and Brad has a familial anecdote.
(00:45:50) - Launch day.
(00:59:27) - Once again, gotta give it up for the clarity of this footage.
(01:05:41) - Off to the (space) races.
(01:12:54) - Arrival at the Moon, and the descent.
(01:25:12) - Two hours on the Moon.
(01:30:03) - Rejoining with the ship, and heading home.
(01:35:35) - The boys come home.
(01:39:18) - What came after.
(01:53:27) - Final thoughts (we did a cool thing, once).
(01:58:01) - What's coming up on the Watchcast.
(02:04:08) - Outro.