Star Trek The Next Conversation - a comedy Star Trek podcast currently about TV's Deep Space Nine DS9 (or TNG) · Matt Mira and Andrew Secunda

DS9 s4e8 "Little Green Men"

·1 hr 59 min·5 clips

When the show's comic relief aliens accidentally become the episode's driving force, chaos ensues.

They come in loud. Matt immediately jokes about peaking on the mic, backs it down a notch, and gets back to greeting the crew who sent in their hails. The show stays in one of its familiar good mood modes: they riff through the opening, trade Trek-style fanfare, and keep the whole thing loose and playful. Then the episode proper takes over. They frame it as a fun, inconsequential Roswell retcon and a straight 1950s sci-fi spoof, which is exactly the lane they want it to live in. That gets them animated. They like that the story commits to nonsense, but they also wish it pushed farther into escape and 1940s running around instead of stopping just short. The budget shows, and they notice it. More running around in the 1940s would have been better, they say, because that is where the story's silliness really feels alive. The conversation keeps widening. Listener mail and follow-up comments slide in beside the main discussion, and the hosts happily let the side road become part of the route. Some of those replies are about earlier takes. They read support for a Worf-related point, a James Cromwell comparison, and the idea that a certain reply to authority sounded weird enough to deserve the callout. Then it veers into trivia. A listener pushes on the old "first interracial kiss" question, and the hosts tumble through Star Trek history, Desilu, Lucy and Desi, and the messy way pop culture firsts get remembered. The pair keep their footing by not pretending to be solemn. They are happy to admit when a take is just a take, and they treat agreement, disagreement, and half remembered facts like part of the same comic weather system. By the end, the verdict is simple. They like the story, feel a little weird about it, and land on wanting more of the same nonsense, with less explanation and more movement through the weird middle of the story.

As heard by us

A fun Roswell retcon that works best when the hosts lean into the nonsense.

Matt Myra and Andrew Secunda treat Little Green Men as a fun, inconsequential Roswell retcon and a 50s sci-fi spoof, and the episode sounds happiest when it lets the nonsense run.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want DS9's Roswell detour with two hosts who keep turning notes into bits.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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