Jun 30, 2022
The Alien franchise and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
In space, no one can hear you scream. But for unlucky Starfleet landing parties, meeting a nightmarish alien menace can prove as traumatic as deadly. For La'an Noonien-Singh, who carries the burden of having survived captivity in a Gorn breeding colony during...
May 5, 2022
Star Trek’s backdoor pilots.
The year is 1968. As Star Trek goes off the air for good, a new show—Assignment: Earth—debuts from some of the same creative team. For dedicated Trekkies, the premise is already familiar and the two leads, Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln, have a head start garnering fans of their own....
Apr 1, 2021
Episode titles since 2009.
Concluding our look at Star Trek’s 800-plus episode titles to date,
in this episode of Primitive Culture host Duncan Barrett is joined
by Tony Black to consider naming strategies for the Kelvin films,
Short Treks, Discovery, Picard, and Lower Decks. What exactly lies
“beyond” the final...
Feb 22, 2021
The original reset button.
It’s one of the oldest of literary tropes: a sudden, last-minute
reveal that an apparent fictional reality is actually doubly
invented. From Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland on, writers have
thrilled in pulling the rug out from under readers and characters
alike, allowing carefully...
Jan 17, 2021
Episode titles in Voyager and Enterprise.
Does hubris always lead to nemesis? What can you see in a mirror,
darkly? And how do you know when you’ve finally reached the
endgame? In this episode of Primitive Culture, host Duncan Barrett
is joined by Tony Black to continue our look at Star Trek episode
titles as we wrap...