The Nextlander Watchcast

This week's Watchcast brings us to one of the few bright spots in this final Star Trek season in The Tholian Web. Also this week is Plato's Stepchildren, a historically significant episode that is certainly unpredictable, if nothing else.
CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 189: Star Trek: The Tholian Web and Plato's Stepchildren
(00:00:21) - Intro.
(00:01:44) - Starting things off with The Tholian Web.
(00:09:22) - The folks behind this episode, and various production notes.
(00:21:27) - Who doesn't love a Starship where everyone's dead?
(00:29:18) - Transporter chicanery, and Kirk's...dead...question mark?
(00:33:00) - Time for Chekov's weekly freakout, though he's not alone this time.
(00:35:21) - And here come the Tholians
(00:42:38) - Spock and Bones are at each other's throats, and man screams during funeral.
(00:51:46) - The ectoplasmic captain.
(00:57:22) - Not sure we fully grasp how any of this stuff at the end worked.
(01:00:56) - Somehow, Kirk returned.
(01:04:41) - Break!
(01:05:05) - We're back, and it's time for Plato's Stepchildren, such as they are.
(01:07:15) - Production background.
(01:20:49) - Get me off this Greek planet.
(01:32:00) - Humiliating improv exercises IN SPACE!
(01:36:34) - Breaking Spock.
(01:40:34) - THAT'S how they got the mind powers?!?
(01:44:46) - Let's get uncomfortable for a while.
(01:49:36) - A taste of your own mind control.
(01:56:51) - Final thoughts, and housekeeping for next week's episodes.
(01:59:11) - Outro.

For this week's Star Trek journey we've got a pair of episodes absolutely chock full of cardboard swords and ridiculous alien misunderstandings in the Klingon-heavy donnybrook Day of the Dove, and the generation ship disaster For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky!
CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 188: Star Trek: Day of the Dove and For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
(00:00:21) - Intro.
(00:06:31) - Kicking things off with Day of the Dove.
(00:13:27) - Who made and starred in this episode.
(00:20:29) - The Klingons crash the away party, and we discuss the nature of this alien.
(00:31:25) - Chekov's sudden revenge boner, and a Klingon donnybrook breaks out.
(00:36:27) - Feeding the hate to feed on the hate.
(00:46:50) - Convincing the Klingons.
(00:50:00) - Transporting into engineering and wrapping this one up as quick as we can.
(00:58:28) - Break!
(00:58:46) - We're back, and it's time for an episode with a very long title.
(01:02:20) - Who made this, and who was in this.
(01:06:49) - Getting into the episode proper, and not believing Bones is actually going to die.
(01:12:30) - The people, and their phenomenally stupid outfits.
(01:20:15) - Bones gets to be the loverboy for once.
(01:27:48) - Giving everyone headaches and then solving a big adventure game puzzle.
(01:40:50) - Final thoughts.
(01:44:21) - Housekeeping for next week, and outro.

After the extraordinarily low lows of last week's Star Trek episodes, this week's batch feels like a welcome respite. Up to bat this week is previously-seen guest star Diana Muldaur in the psychedelic ugly alien freakout Is There in Truth No Beauty, followed by the good ol' fashioned wild west romp Spectre of the Gun!
CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 187: Star Trek: Is There in Truth No Beauty and Spectre of the Gun
(00:00:39) - Intro.
(00:01:58) - Jumping right into Is There in Truth No Beauty, an impossible title to say correctly the first time.
(00:15:26) - Don't look at the ugly alien. You'll go crazy.
(00:17:57) - Pretty lady onboard, let's get weird about it.
(00:29:13) - Goddammit, Larry.
(00:37:49) - Show the pretty lady flowers while we step out with her ambassador.
(00:44:11) - Piloting Spock around like it's the ambassador's vacation body.
(00:47:57) - Spock goes crazy, and it barely matters.
(00:51:41) - Spock's good, Dr. Jones got her mindlink, and Larry's dead, so I guess this is a happy ending.
(00:56:37) - Break!
(00:57:04) - We're back, and it's time to talk about Spectre of the Gun (and some OK Corral history)!
(01:14:33) - A neon probe with a big booming snake head says to stay outta this space.
(01:18:47) - A half-remembered idea of Tombstone, Arizona, where everybody is pointing you toward doom.
(01:25:08) - A force field prevents escape, gas grenades are constructed, and Chekov "dies".
(01:32:06) - Spock sees through the Matrix.
(01:39:06) - Huh, you defeated our hastily assembled wild west trap. I guess you guys are cool.
(01:44:21) - Final thoughts, and housekeeping for next week's episodes.
(01:47:03) - Outro.

Star Trek Summer is officially back on the menu, folks! We're once again joined by our compatriot Brad Shoemaker to continue our journey through the original series' third season soldiers on. And this week that journey meets one of its toughest challenges yet in the execrable episodes The Paradise Syndrome, and And the Children Shall Lead.
CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 186: Star Trek: The Paradise Syndrome and And the Children Shall Lead
(00:00:23) - Intro.
(00:06:12) - Launching straight into The Paradise Syndrome.
(00:12:33) - ANOTHER planet full of random humans?
(00:20:02) - Kirk gets zapped with the head empty beam.
(00:25:53) - You're a handsome devil, you're our god now.
(00:30:25) - Burning out your engines to move an asteroid like a centimeter.
(00:34:31) - Kirk's so happy.
(00:38:51) - Moonwalking back to the planet and discovering alien music.
(00:40:35) - It's god time.
(00:44:08) - Mind melding your way out of your bad life choices.
(00:51:23) - Break!
(00:51:46) - We're back, And the Children Shall Lead...us to this very bad episode.
(00:55:10) - The somewhat, uh, unconventional casting choices.
(01:03:36) - We're not dunking on this because it's a kid episode. It sucks well beyond the kid stuff.
(01:08:54) - Wasting a perfectly creepy intro set-up.
(01:18:07) - Them kids ain't right.
(01:30:43) - The final confrontation with the pirate ghost.
(01:37:27) - Final thoughts.
(01:39:49) - Next week's episodes, and outro.

For this week's special guest Watchcast animator and game developer Scott Benson takes us on a tour of the creeper corners of Depression-era West Virginia in Charles Laughton's singularly strange thriller, The Night of the Hunter!
CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 185: The Night of the Hunter (1955) w/ Scott Benson
(00:00:21) - Intro.
(00:12:39) - How we came to this movie initially.
(00:19:47) - Some history of the film.
(00:36:23) - Some talk about the cast.
(00:44:14) - The film's initial lackluster reception, and subsequent reappraisal.
(00:48:08) - Break!
(00:48:51) - We're back, and it's time to get into the film proper.
(01:00:51) - I'm Peter Graves, and this is a felony.
(01:25:46) - Meeting the other townsfolk, and the preacher comes a callin'.
(01:41:14) - A consequential picnic, and Willa makes some bad choices.
(01:46:03) - An all-timer of a bad honeymoon.
(01:52:53) - Good night, Willa.
(02:07:00) - The trouble with Harry.
(02:13:22) - A long, lazy trip down the river.
(02:23:44) - The introduction of Rachel Cooper.
(02:29:15) - Everything's going great until a teen girl gets a crush.
(02:46:53) - Harry's approach is less viable under these circumstances.
(02:52:29) - Do not mess with Whistler's mother.
(03:05:14) - The strange epilogue to it all.
(03:16:36) - Final thoughts.
(03:23:59) - We might return to Star Trek next week (check the Patreon this week for more info).
(03:26:38) - Outro.