The Fandom Experience.

When it comes to experiencing the different levels of fandom of The Next Generation, it's safe to say that "the sky's the limit." Darren, Phillip, and Daniel explore the various ways of expressing TNG and general Star Trek fandom. They talk cosplaying (even including wearing a blue shirt!), attending Trek/general scifi & comic conventions, and what it's like to be members of a fan association like Starfleet International (www.sfi.org). Darren and Phillip share their personal SFI experiences, including the various types of chapters and methods of membership.

Earl Grey also discusses their own Trek game experiences, including the trio playing Star Trek Scene-It, the Last Unicorn version of a TNG tabletop role-playing game, #BridgeMates, and Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive VCR Board Game: A Klingon Challenge. They also speculate on what the official Earl Grey fan club would look like, what it would be called, and imagine their Mirror Universe Star Wars podcast.  So grab that Starfleet uniform from the closet, purchase your con ticket, and update your Next Gen RPG character sheet as Earl Grey tackles the fandom experience. 

Hosts
Daniel Proulx, Phillip Gilfus, & Darren Moser

Editor / Producer
Darren Moser

Executive Producers
Norman C. Lao, Matthew Rushing, & C Bryan Jones

Will Nguyen

The Original Series as Prerequisite. 

Viewers of The Next Generation started watching at different points in their Trek fandom -- for some, it was their first exposure to Star Trek, while other "legacy" Trekkies came to it after The Original Series and movies featuring Captain James T. Kirk and his crew. Guest co-host Andi VanderKolk, aka @FirstTimeTrek, joins Daniel, Darren, and Phillip in discussing how knowledge of TOS enhances the TNG viewing experience. 

Earl Grey explores whether it makes a difference if you discovered the character of Ambassador Sarek in the Next Gen episode "Sarek" without first seeing TOS "Journey to Babel." Does the appearance of Scotty ("Relics") and Spock ("Unification, Parts 1 and 2") have meaning without first experiencing the adventures of the NCC-1701 (no bloody A, B, C, or D!). We discuss "copy and paste" episodes like "The Naked Now" compared to "The Naked Time," and the use of Star Trek: Phase II scripts in TNG. Grab your copy of the 1966-1969 series, and explore how TOS is a required prerequisite for TNG.

Hosts
Daniel Proulx, Phillip Gilfus, & Darren Moser

Guest
Andi VanderKolk

Editor / Producer
Darren Moser

Executive Producers
Norman C. Lao, Matthew Rushing, & C Bryan Jones

War in TNG.

Just as in contemporary times, war can take many forms. Star Trek: The Next Generation did not feature a primary war akin to those stories featured in Deep Space Nine or Enterprise, however many enemies confronted Captain Picard and his crew. The Romulan Empire posed a continuing threat to the United Federation of Planets that stood on the brink of war ("The Defector"), the results of the off-screen Cardassian War became a source of many episodes ("The Wounded," "Chain of Command, Parts 1 and 2," "Journey's End," and "Preemptive Strike"), and the Borg presented a new form of warfare heretofore unknown to the 24th Century ("I, Borg" and "Descent, Parts 1 and 2"). 

Phillip, Daniel, and Darren explore whether there are modern parallels to the "post-Wolf 359" era of TNG, how its combat/conflict compares to other Trek series, and how the serious potential for galactic war was continuously tackled by the flagship U.S.S. Enterprise. Come sing a mournful ballad of "The Minstrel Boy" and join Earl Grey as they discuss the role of war in Next Gen.

Hosts
Daniel Proulx, Phillip Gilfus, & Darren Moser

Editor / Producer
Darren Moser

Time Travel.

Time travel and Star Trek go hand-in-glove, so it was no surprise that The Next Generation crew had several "timey-wimey" adventures in its seven years on television and in the feature films. Darren, Daniel, and Phillip go "OUTATIME" in this episode, exploring episodes including "Timescape," "Cause and Effect," "Time Squared," "Time's Arrow, Parts 1 and 2," and Star Trek: First Contact. 

The Earl Grey trio break down all the times Captain Jean-Luc Picard would have been visited by the laugh-a-minute members of the Federation's Temporal Investigations unit with TNG's experiences with time loops, temporal anomalies, and Q's TARDIS-like powers. Prepare to experience a "Quantum Leap" of traveling across the space-time continuum with the Enterprise-D 's "Excellent Adventure" as they try to avoid predestination-paradoxes, and enjoy this episode about TNG and time travel.

Hosts
Daniel Proulx, Phillip Gilfus, & Darren Moser

Editor / Producer
Darren Moser

Tapestry Commentary.

The Next Generation often reached back to its early seasons to develop later stories, from the season one episode "Datalore" leading to season five's "Silicon Avatar" and season one's "The Battle" continuing all the way to season seven's "Bloodlines." In season six, an entire episode was devoted to a single story Captain Jean-Luc Picard shared with a young Wesley Crusher in the season two episode "Samaritan Snare." 

In "Tapestry," Q appears to a surprised Picard who has "died" due to his artificial heart, and allows Jean-Luc to "Back to the Future" to his young, wild, and wreckless past. Daniel, Darren, and Phillip provide commentary for this episode, debating the reality of Picard's experience, how they wished Nausicaans made more appearance throughout Trek, and how the evolution of Starfleet uniforms fit into the in-universe timeline. Prepare to get drinks thrown in your face by "handsome" people as Earl Grey provides commentary to the episode "Tapestry."  

Hosts
Daniel Proulx, Phillip Gilfus, & Darren Moser

Editor / Producer
Darren Moser

The Most Alien of Aliens.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as the other Trek series, are often poked fun at for featuring the new "forehead" or "nose" of the week when encountering new alien species. However, there were many new strange lifeforms featured inTNG that fully embraced the concept of science fiction. In this episode of Earl Grey, the trio have a round robin discussion of their favorite examples of the most "alien" aliens encountered by the Enterprise-D. They discuss "space jellyfish" ("Encounter at Farpoint"), Gomtuu ("Tin Man"), the allasomorphs ("The Daupin"), and the crystalline entity ("Datalore"/"Silicon Avatar"). Phillip, Daniel, and Darren also talk energy beings, other space-dwelling life forms, and other antagonists that challenged our favorite crew. Activate your universal translator, refresh yourself on first contact protocols, and join in on this episode that examines Next Gen's most alien species. 

Hosts
Daniel Proulx, Phillip Gilfus, & Darren Moser

Editor / Producer
Darren Moser

The 1701-C.

Throughout The Next Generation, fans were intrigued by the Enterprise models displayed in the flagship's observation lounge. What was the story behind those mysterious ships that served the Federation between Kirk and Picard's times? In "Yesterday's Enterprise," viewers finally got to see the U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701-C, under the command of Captain Rachel Garrett, along with her ill-fated crew. Darren, Daniel, and Phillip analyze this Ambassador-class vessel, and how it served as a transition between the 23rd Century Starfleet ships and the Galaxy-class vessels. They also discuss the Enterprise-C's crew, their missions, and what a prequel series to TNG would have been like with this maroon-uniformed crew.

Take a trip back in time with Earl Grey as they ensure that history never forgets the name ... Enterprise-C.

Hosts
Daniel Proulx, Phillip Gilfus, & Darren Moser

Editor / Producer
Darren Moser

Season Six Overview.

When "Encounter at Farpoint" premiered in 1987, it was considered the "Great Experiment" of Star Trek - could The Original Series' "lightning in a bottle" be captured again? The sixth season of The Next Generation began the second "Great Experiment" - could two syndicated Star Trek television shows successfully air at the same time? Many TNG fans think of seasons three through six as the epitome of the series; this specific season would feature the return of "Scotty" (James Doohan), the memorable torture of Captain Picard ("Chain of Command, Parts 1 and 2"), and the return appearances of Lieutenant Reg Barclay ("Realm of Fear" and "Ship in a Bottle"), Q ("True Q" and "Tapestry"), and the Borg, along with Lore ("Descent, Part 1").

Daniel, Darren, and Phillip discuss how the sixth season continued to raise the bar of TNG, with only a sparse number of clunker episodes, like "Aquiel." From Crusher playing Quincy, M.D. in "Suspicions," Troi taking command of Romulans in "Face of the Enemy," and Picard making emoticons in warp corp breeches in "Timescape," the sixth season continues to show the power of The Next Generation. Join Earl Grey as they travel from 19th Century San Francisco to the Ancient West as they provide an overview of season six of Next Gen, as well as lost crossover opportunities with the new series Deep Space Nine.  

Hosts
Daniel Proulx, Phillip Gilfus, & Darren Moser

Editor / Producer
Darren Moser

BridgeMates.

Bridge officers get to know each other after years of service together, forming friendships just like Data and Geordi La Forge's, that last a lifetime. But how well do they really know each other? That question is put to the test with the newestStar Trek: The Next Generation based-game, "BridgeMates." Phillip Gilfus plays game show host in a three-round competition (plus bonus round!) that places the remaining Earl Grey co-hosts Darren Moser and Daniel Proulx against the co-hosts of the sister Trek.fm podcast To the Journey, Charlynn Schmiedt and Tristan Riddell. The two teams must answer TNG-based questions and see if they can correctly match the same answer that their co-host gives. Will the Next Genexperts Darren and Daniel get to have their "arms raised in victory" at the end? Or will the more "seasoned" duo of Charlynn and Tristan use their Delta Quadrant-based Borg knowledge to think with one hive mind? Join this fun-filled crossover podcast game show that asks the question, "How well do you know your #BridgeMates?"

Hosts
Daniel Proulx, Phillip Gilfus, & Darren Moser

Guests
Charlynn Schmiedt & Tristan Riddell

Editor / Producer
Darren Moser

The Picard Conspiracy.

An adventure in Sherwood Forest? A temporal anomaly that repeats every 14 hours? The accidental creation of sentient life in the Holodeck? Viewers of The Next Generation realize that many of our favorite (and not-so-favorite) episodes contain plots that sound crazy when summarized. Darren, Daniel, and Phillip discover that they do not sound any saner when sent as log entries to Starfleet Command. The trio goes on a comic romp this episode and attempts to explain the logical reaction of Starfleet Headquarters to Captain Jean-Luc Picard's trek through space. Whether the good captain is suffering early from early symptoms of his neurological disease or whether he is the lead conspirator among his crew in covering up a range of ghastly serial killings, Earl Grey goes through seven years and the feature films. They explain how the U.S.S. Enterprise's mission logs paint a disturbing picture of our favorite Starfleet officers ... and may have, in fact, never happened.  

Hosts
Daniel Proulx, Phillip Gilfus, & Darren Moser

Editor / Producer
Darren Moser