The Nextlander crew branches out into media that doesn’t require a controller to enjoy! Join Alex, Brad, and Vinny as they watch the movies, shows, and anime they’ve either missed out on up to this point in their lives, or just want to revisit again.
151: Columbo: A Stitch in Crime
Sep 29, 2025
Show notes
The Watchcast is back! And while we've got a shortened slate for September, that slate is going to be entirely populated with one of America (and the world)'s favorite detectives, Columbo! And we're kicking off our duet of Columbos with A Stitch in Crime, an early installment featuring Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy. CHAPTERS:
(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 151: Columbo: A Stitch in Crime (00:00:19) - Intro. (00:01:50) - How familiar are we with this show? (00:04:36) - A brief history of the television institution that is Columbo. (00:16:10) - Remaining Columbo questions. (00:23:12) - Break! (00:23:41) - We're back, so let's catch up on our cast and the initial introduction of murder and would-be victim. (00:31:03) - Is it still malpractice if you try to kill a guy on purpose? (00:39:12) - Goodniiiiiiight, nurse! (00:43:45) - Good morning, Columbo! (00:47:52) - Mayfield is not an experienced apartment tosser. (00:54:16) - Very helpful, Marsha. (01:01:05) - Columbo attends a garden party. (01:03:47) - You're really out on a limb with this one, Dr. Mayfield. (01:08:29) - Time to claim another victim. (01:17:22) - No matter how hard Mayfield tries, Columbo ain't buying it. (01:21:14) - Colon surgeries and fun facts about sutures. (01:27:27) - How Columbo finally gets his man. (01:32:48) - Final thoughts. (01:35:38) - Talking about next week's Columbo: Fade into Murder with William Shatner! (01:38:37) - Outro.
150: Star Trek: Bread and Circuses and Assignment: Earth
Sep 08, 2025
Show notes
The finale of Star Trek Summer is upon us, and before we send the crew of the Enterprise on their merry way, we've got a final pair of adventures to get through! First up, yet another old-human-society-on-an-alien-planet-thing in Bread and Circuses, then we meet Assignment: Earth's Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln, two crazy kids in the 1960s who have to stop World War III while Kirk and Spock stand around watching. CHAPTERS:
(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 150: Star Trek: Bread and Circuses and Assignment: Earth (00:00:33) - Intro. (00:01:01) - Wasting no time at all launching straight into Bread and Circuses (and all the other Earth-like planet episodes). (00:06:59) - Some of the fraught background of this episode's production. (00:12:50) - Our penultimate guest cast. (00:19:13) - Planet Rome. (00:23:34) - Sun worshipers? They're more common than you think! (00:30:36) - At least we get a properly slimy villain in this episode. (00:37:50) - Sending Spock and Bones into the arena. (00:41:13) - The tank is on E and we've still got almost 15 minutes left in the episode. (00:49:08) - Are we really tacking a Jesus thing on here? Yes we are. (00:51:55) - What happens to this planet after this? And final thoughts. (00:55:00) - Break! (00:55:28) - We're back, and it's time to head back home in Assignment: Earth! (00:58:08) - The Star Trek Spin-Off Showcase! (01:01:59) - Cast chat, wherein we learn of Teri Garr's distaste for Star Trek and its fans. (01:05:23) - Brushing up against history. (01:09:12) - Here comes Gary. (01:16:34) - Gary has a mission (and a sick office). (01:20:45) - Oh no, a normal human woman! (01:24:46) - Here come Spock and Kirk to...stand around mostly? (01:26:01) - Wacky antics ensue. (01:29:00) - Gary climbs a rocket, Roberta messes with stuff. (01:35:46) - Kirk and Spock crash into the final scene for just long enough to do something lightly important. (01:40:25) - World War III is averted, but Gary Seven was never brought to series, so it all comes out in the wash. (01:44:15) - Final thoughts. (01:45:40) - Time for our favorites (and least favorites) of the season. (01:57:56) - What we have coming up in September. (02:01:30) - Outro.
149: Star Trek: The Omega Glory and The Ultimate Computer
Sep 01, 2025
Show notes
We've had a lot of splits on the Watchcast recently where we end up with a great Star Trek episode and a not-so-great Star Trek episode on the same podcast, but the gulf between great and not-so-great has never been greater than it is this week as we tackle The Omega Glory and The Ultimate Computer! CHAPTERS:
(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 149: Star Trek: The Omega Glory and The Ultimate Computer (00:00:31) - Intro (and by intro, we mean trying to understand what the hell The Omega Glory is). (00:11:46) - Alright, let's start tearing into this thing for real and figure out who's responsible. (00:19:42) - What poor guest actors were subjected to this? (00:24:07) - They had us in the first 15 minutes. (00:29:21) - Talkin' Yang about the fountain of youth. (00:37:55) - How long can we stretch this jail cell fight. (00:43:00) - The snowball of stupid has officially started rolling down the hill. (00:47:45) - Welcome to chunk four, the worst chunk of all. (00:56:02) - A big dumb fist fight, Spock hypnotizes women now, and Kirk gives his history report. (01:04:49) - Final thoughts, such as they are. (01:08:25) - Break! (01:08:55) - We're back, and we should talk about an episode that doesn't suck, The Ultimate Computer! (01:10:11) - Production talk. (01:12:59) - We've got a heck of a guest star for this one. (01:17:36) - Launching into the unusually prescient plot. (01:28:36) - The M5 is perfect. Tooooo perfect. (01:34:04) - You put a brain in a computer? (01:43:39) - Has a war games scenario on Star Trek ever not resulted in unexpected consequences? (01:46:43) - Daystrom has gone bye-bye. (01:50:01) - The last time Kirk talks a computer to death (this season). (01:58:40) - Final thoughts. (02:00:06) - Housekeeping for next week. (02:03:09) - Outro.
148: Star Trek: Patterns of Force and By Any Other Name
Aug 25, 2025
Show notes
This week on the Watchcast the Star Trek crew pays a visit to a Nazi planet in Patterns of Force, and teaches some Andromedan aliens how to hold their liquor in By Any Other Name! CHAPTERS:
(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 148: Star Trek: Patterns of Force and By Any Other Name (00:00:17) - Intro. (00:01:00) - Launching right into our first episode, Patterns of Force! (00:04:33) - Some historical context for this episode and its, uh, history. (00:13:45) - Who is responsible for all of this? (00:19:13) - Cast chat. (00:23:36) - How did we wind up on Nazi planet? (00:32:27) - Here's that shirtless Spock you ordered. (00:37:19) - Clonking our way out of Nazi HQ, then hooking up with the rebellion. (00:44:22) - Crashing the Nazi party. (00:49:23) - The Fuhrer has gone bye-bye. (00:53:02) - Slapping that Fuhrer back to consciousness. (00:57:05) - Recall the nukes! We're undoing all of this! (01:03:48) - Final thoughts. (01:05:58) - Break! (01:06:25) - We're back, and it's time for By Any Other Name! (01:10:56) - Production history and cast talk. (01:22:05) - Whoops, we walked into a trap by some conquerin' aliens. (01:31:36) - Please do not crush Yeoman Cube. (01:37:51) - What is flower? (01:41:49) - Breaching the galactic barrier. (01:46:08) - Traversing the galactic void, and exploring all these human sensations. (01:57:01) - Solving this the only way humans know how: with a fistfight. (02:02:34) - Final thoughts. (02:06:15) - Next week's episodes.
147: Star Trek: A Private Little War and Return to Tomorrow
Aug 18, 2025
Show notes
We're in the home stretch of Star Trek's second season, and on deck we have the extraordinarily blunt Vietnam War parable A Private Little War, and the body swapping saga of Return to Tomorrow! (00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 147: Star Trek: A Private Little War and Return to Tomorrow (00:00:54) - Intro. (00:06:21) - Kicking things off with A Private Little War and its development history. (00:14:27) - Our cavalcade of guest stars this week. (00:26:11) - Launching into the episode proper. (00:36:15) - Kirk get's Mugato'd, then he gets ensorcelled. (00:41:10) - How did these guys get these guns? (00:45:25) - Wrapping up the Spock plot. (00:48:34) - Tying this as tightly as you can to the Vietnam War without strangling it in the process. (00:53:02) - Nona's wants, such as they are. And the blondes get guns. (00:57:15) - This ending is a damn mess. (01:00:48) - Final thoughts. (01:03:53) - Break! (01:04:18) - We're back, and it's time for Return to Tomorrow! (01:09:50) - A VERY special guest star, and her lasting impact on Trek. (01:16:32) - What's up with the big booming voice? (01:21:49) - Beaming through thousands of miles of solid rock to hang with some orbs. (01:28:40) - Would you put your brain in a robot body? Would you put that brain's energy in your own body? (01:33:22) - Time to let the orbs ponder us, so to speak. (01:44:56) - The mad dash to the conclusion. (01:48:25) - Into oblivion. (01:52:13) - Final thoughts, and our upcoming episodes. (01:55:37) - Outro.
146: Star Trek: A Piece of the Action and The Immunity Syndrome
Aug 11, 2025
Show notes
It's gangsters and space amoebas for this week's Star Trek Watchcast, as the crew beams down to Chicago II to meet with President Capone in A Piece of the Action, and the ship falls helplessly into an energy draining void in The Immunity Syndrome! CHAPTERS:
(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 146: Star Trek: A Piece of the Action and The Immunity Syndrome (00:00:17) - Intro. (00:05:29) - Brad has a Star Trek uncle. (00:09:52) - The history behind A Piece of the Action. (00:20:04) - Let's talk about what is actually going on here. It's a gangster planet. (00:25:52) - Boss Okmyx. (00:29:35) - There are maybe a few too many escape attempt scenes for one episode. (00:35:13) - Jojo Krako's Bizzaro Adverture-o. (00:38:48) - The slow morphing of Kirk into gangster mode. (00:48:06) - That's a big stun setting, and is this really how we're leaving these people? (00:56:23) - Final thoughts. (00:57:34) - Break! (00:58:09) - We're back, and it's time for The Immunity Syndrome. (01:00:26) - There are basically no production notes for this episode. (01:06:00) - They're so, so tired, and that's before they meet the space void. (01:09:49) - The Intrepid goes down, and shore leave is cancelled. (01:13:40) - What killed the Intrepid. (01:17:09) - Some effects talk, and the nature of the peril the ship is under. (01:20:56) - Space amoeba. (01:24:45) - It's Bones vs. Spock in a scientific knockdown drag-out! (01:30:00) - Some very good tension as we fly through the space amoeba. (01:38:08) - Driving the Enterprise out of an exploding amoeba, and a weird final note. (01:45:04) - Final thoughts. (01:47:02) - Episodes for next week, and outro.
145: Star Trek: The Trouble with Tribbles and The Gamesters of Triskelion
Aug 04, 2025
Show notes
On this week's Watchcast we've got an all-timer of a Star Trek episode in the The Trouble with Tribbles, an episode so chock full of quality jokes and adorable creatures that it's impossible not to love. We also have The Gamesters of Triskelion, which we'll charitably describe as not quite as good as the preceding episode. CHAPTERS:
(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 145: Star Trek: The Trouble with Tribbles and The Gamesters of Triskelion (00:00:20) - Intro. (00:02:19) - Launching straight into them Tribbles. (00:05:30) - Production talk. (00:12:22) - An all-star cast. (00:21:01) - Getting into the episode proper. (00:30:35) - The Klingon factor. (00:34:23) - They're spreading. (00:36:16) - It's a donnybrook! (00:44:32) - We are lousy with tribbles. (00:49:45) - Which guest actor could have done this terrible thing? (00:53:50) - What did we do with all them fuzzies? (00:58:28) - Final thoughts. (01:00:49) - Break! (01:01:12) - We're back and it's time to reckon with The Gamesters of Triskelion! (01:08:07) - Who is responsible for this mess? (01:16:56) - Alright, let's dig in. (01:22:32) - Pain collars and spinning our wheels with command disagreements. (01:27:38) - The treatment of Uhura here just sucks. (01:31:50) - The brutally flat romance, and it's gladiator academy time. (01:42:05) - Brains in bubbles, folks. (01:48:25) - A (confusing) contest of life and death. (01:52:23) - No, you can't come with us. You have to rebuild society first. Yes, that's it. (01:57:02) - Final thoughts. (01:59:18) - Next week's episodes, and outro.
144: Star Trek: Obsession and Wolf in the Fold
Jul 28, 2025
Show notes
The Watchcast is back and the Star Trek watching has officially resumed! And for our first week back at it, we've got a pair of wild and unpredictable episodes in the Moby Dick riff Obsession, and the spooky alien serial murder yarn Wolf in the Fold! CHAPTERS:
(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 144: Star Trek: Obsession and Wolf in the Fold (00:01:12) - Intro. (00:04:31) - Kicking things off with Obsession. (00:07:50) - What there is to say about this episode's production. (00:14:01) - An away mission, a conspicuous number of redshirts, and a sickly sweet death cloud. (00:20:48) - Say hello to Ensign Plot Device. (00:27:31) - The vampire cloud ain't scary like it oughta be. (00:32:28) - He's obsessed! Obsessed we tells ya! (00:35:37) - Spock gives the kid a pep talk, then the Enterprise has a gas problem. (00:41:23) - What is this final act? (00:48:56) - Final thoughts. (00:51:45) - Break! (00:52:12) - We're back, and it's time to meet Saucy Jack in Wolf in the Fold! (00:54:25) - Production and cast talk. (01:07:23) - Welcome to Space Morocco. (01:10:37) - Scotty resents women for some reason? (01:14:56) - The other players in this mystery. (01:19:56) - You had a mind-scanning tricorder this whole time?!? (01:22:36) - What IS actually happening during these murders? (01:26:45) - Nothing good ever happens at a seance. (01:31:08) - 20 minutes of talking to a computer. (01:41:18) - It's time for a psychedelic psycho murdering alien freakout. (01:49:27) - We're just beaming guys into space now. (01:53:08) - Final thoughts. (01:54:30) - Housekeeping for next week, and outro.
143: Star Trek: Friday's Child and The Deadly Years
Jul 14, 2025
Show notes
We're at the midseason finale point for our Star Trek season 2 Watchcasting, but before we take a one week break from the show we're here to try and make sense of two more episodes in Friday's Child and The Deadly Years! CHAPTERS:
(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 143: Star Trek: Friday's Child and The Deadly Years (00:00:15) - Intro. (00:01:35) - Just launching right into Friday's Child. (00:06:34) - Our cast, and production notes. (00:12:08) - The set-up for this episode: would you believe it revolves around mining rights? (00:20:41) - Never get involved in Capellan politics. (00:25:53) - What's going on with the ship during all this? (00:30:43) - Racing through the California desert with a pregnant lady. (00:36:24) - Three officers and a baby, and the final (terrible) confrontation. (00:47:30) - The aftermath of whatever all this was. (00:52:36) - Break! (00:53:05) - We're back, and it's time for The Deadly Years! (00:54:31) - Production notes, and cast talk. (01:00:16) - The planet that makes you old. (01:07:59) - The bodies and minds begin to fail. (01:19:49) - Using the courts to get grandpa's car keys away from him. (01:25:59) - This is not the man to be dealing with Romulans. (01:34:54) - The juice that makes you young, and the Corbomite comeback. (01:39:21) - Failing to learn a lesson. (01:46:13) - Outro.
142: Star Trek: Metamorphosis and Journey to Babel
Jul 07, 2025
Show notes
We've got some wild and occasionally disturbing Star Trek episodes this week, episodes that also introduce us to a couple of very important characters. First up it's the father of the space warp in Metamorphosis, then we spend some quality time with Spock's folks in Journey to Babel! CHAPTERS:
(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 142: Star Trek: Metamorphosis and Journey to Babel (00:00:30) - Intro. (00:02:09) - Launching right into Metamorphosis, and some of our beefs with it. (00:06:42) - Production notes (and several asides about Cochrane and warp drive). (00:16:11) - Our guest stars this week. (00:19:03) - Kicking the episode off proper with a stranded shuttle and a pissed off commissioner. (00:25:44) - Running afoul of a psychedelic space cloud. (00:27:42) - Zefram Cochrane? Here? Now? (00:32:43) - The commissioner gets pissy, and Nimoy does a stunt roll. (00:37:09) - What is the Enterprise up to during all of this, and now it's time to talk to the Companion. (00:42:15) - Cochrane's turn. (00:48:34) - Kirk's last big plea, and the Companion decides to become a human lady. (00:57:40) - Final thoughts. (00:59:24) - Break! (00:59:48) - We're back, and it's time to Journey to Babel. (01:04:15) - Production notes. (01:12:00) - Cast chat. (01:20:12) - A diplomat AND a parent. (01:28:41) - Some special effects talk, and meeting a room full of alien diplomats. (01:38:20) - The mysterious vessel of the week, and murder is afoot. (01:43:39) - Kirk gets shanked, and Spock's command snafu. (01:49:50) - Kirk's ruse, Sarek's surgery, and when an Andorian is not an Andorian. (01:55:52) - Sarek is saved! (02:01:01) - Final thoughts. (02:05:30) - Next week's episodes, scheduling housekeeping, and outro.
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