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Primitive Culture: A Star Trek History and Culture Podcast

Oct 3, 2022

Half a Decade of Primitive Culture

Star Trek’s original five-year mission was brought to a premature end in 1969. But over the ensuing half-century and more, the franchise has continued boldly going to new frontiers. By the 1980s, when a second generation of fans came to seek out fresh adventures, the voyage had...


Jul 16, 2020

Episode Titles in The Original Series.

“What’s in a name?” Juliet demands of Romeo. “That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet.” In 1968, the Star Trek episode “By Any Other Name” took more than just its title from Shakespeare—it used Juliet’s words as a jumping-off point...


Oct 11, 2019

Star Trek’s Revivals.

By the summer of ’69, Star Trek was dead. The half-century that followed has seen the franchise resurrected more times than the Borg Queen, but before all the spin-offs and reboots, Star Trek pioneered a much more straightforward approach to bringing back an old property—one that, in 2019,...


Sep 13, 2019

Star Trek and Dr. Who, with Una McCormack.

Not many TV shows have had a lifespan stretching beyond half a century. This is especially in the genre of science fiction, which is notorious for abrupt cancellations. Yet, when Star Trek celebrated its golden anniversary in 2016, it did so in the shadow of another...


Nov 9, 2018

Looking back on DS9 at Destination Star Trek 2018.
Perhaps more than any other Star Trek series, Deep Space Nine has seen its reputation continue to rise in the years since it went off the air. Once considered the black sheep of the Trek family, it is now recognized as a groundbreaking work in its own right, pioneering...