A Beginner's Guide to Star Trek Part II: The Wrath of Dubs

The House of Leesah is with Honor.

Welcome back to Kevin is Right Dubs Knows What He Is Talking About As Well Generally Speaking's guide to navigating all of you neophytes through the morass of proper nouns, navel contemplation, sweaty makeup and OH FUCK--EXPLODING CONSOLE!! that makes up the seemingly impenetrable patina of Trek.  By following this guide, as well as Part I, you will achieve TREK COMPETENCY and be able to speak with some degree of authority about what it is that you actually don't like about the show.  Or, you could just learn to like the show like a normal nerd.  You know, whatever.
 

Remember Trek Trekkers:  This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of every awesome Star Trek episode, nor is it meant to be any kind of ranking system.  Instead, what you are getting here, if you follow the list in order, is a gentle peeling back of the labia of inaccessibility and obscurity to find the juicy, soft parts that make up Trek's fundamental awesomeness.  (Yeah, that's a weird metaphor, but I'm keeping it just to make you feel somewhat uncomfortable).
 

All of that being said, keep leaving us comments telling us how much you hate the episodes that we chose and all the episodes that we should have chosen instead.  I, for one, would like to lament the non-inclusion of "Fistful of Datas" and "Tuvix."
 

(Disclaimer:  Do NOT watch "Fistful of Datas" or "Tuvix."  Double Secret Disclaimer:  No, seriously-- please, please, please do not watch "Tuvix."  It's truly terrible and you will never want to watch Star Trek again.)

A Beginner's Guide to Star Trek Part I

In the most recent episode of LDC, Dubs and I took our phillistine co-casters on a journey into SPPPPAAAACEEEEE.  Functionally, we just barraged them with reasons that Star Trek is awesome, and they left convinced that maybe this is something worth checking out.  Yet, the problem persists: where does the proto-Star Trek fan, poised to take it's first awkward flipper-steps on land, eyeing the water's edge nervously (as if a giant oil monster might burst forth and kill it unexpectedly and somewhat meaninglessly), begin?

Fear not, gentle reader.  Dubs and I have taken time from our busy schedules of debating other equally meaningless topics for the express purpose of assembling a guided introduction to the best Star Trek has to offer.  We felt this list necessary because a guided viewing allows the reader to ignore the warts of late 80s/early 90s television production. There isn't a single series of Star Trek that didn't take time to find its voice.  There's a lot of rewarding stuff in those lesser episodes, but they took place in a different era of television.  Additionally, there are some episodes that require a certain prior knowledge of the universe, and thus, although tremendously rewarding, can be inscrutable to a new viewer. We're here to provide a modern filter; a hammer to crack the tough, mollusk-like, seemingly impenetrable shell of things like the below image, so you can get to the juicy, life sustaining inner meat of what truly makes Star Trek great.

We're as confused as you, buddy.

We have built the list in a specific order, not necessarily chronological, but with the episodic nature of Trek (versus the serialized TV of the post-LOST DVR era) chronological arrangement is not a requirement.  The idea is to gradually introduce concepts.  Some concepts build upon each other (Deep Space 9, the height of Trek on TV, is a spinoff series).  Our hope is that once you have completed this list you will have grasped what is great about Star Trek, and can then look past the warts, grease make up, and man skirts, to enjoy what we have been talking about this whole time.

Neil Gaiman walks into a bar and meets HBO, everyone cheers.

When some people think of the coolest person that is possible, they may imagine a leather jacket wearing, scruffy headed, writer of novels and comics, who treats reading like a lovely drug, is bringing a rock star to bed nightly, travels the world writing and reading in a never ending bender, and has been involved with everything from one of the first graphic novels to be critically acclaimed by the New York Times to writing a episode of Dr. Who, and having miniseries, movies, and plays created out of their work.

That person exists, Neil Gaiman is that person, and one of that person's novels will now be a Television Series.

HBO and Playtone will be presenting to the world the novel American Gods (Nebula award winner) which is the story of a man who is an Ex-con, and much more, named only Shadow, the old gods (comprised of a con man calling himself Mr. Wednesday, A charming old man who is a spider god, an Irfit driving a cab, and Anubis running a funeral parlor in Illinois) with the new gods (Comprised of The Technical boy, Media, and the many Men In Black.)

HBO has been honing the act of remaining true to the source material while adapting books to screen with shows like "True Blood" (Southern Vampire Mysteries), "Game Of Thrones", "Boardwalk Empire" and "Band of Brothers."

Playtone, as a production company, has been giving out some amazing looking media for years. Worried that the grittyness of American Gods won't be evident? Playtone made "Band Of Brothers" and "The Pacific", two series that have showed some pulse pounding violence. Picture a fight between gods new and old being produced by a company that made those spellbinding and realistic battles from World War II.

A Reckoning is Coming! Season 5

Well you have waited long enough it seems, and the the most sporadic [Adult Swim] show The Venture Bros. will be here in just over two months, airing May 19 at midnight.  If you are unfamiliar with this series, you should be, at least if you always wanted to watch a darkly comedic, troubled and action packed episode of Johnny Quest.  It has been about two years since the last season, but as fans already know, it is worth the wait, as painful as it may be.  [AS] dropped a preview of the coming season on YouTube, and it seems as if the Christopher McCulloch and Doc Hammer are bring us the goods as usual.

Enjoy.