Episode 579 : Star Trek : Kevin J. Nashford

11 Responses to Episode 579 : Star Trek : Kevin J. Nashford

1. Azuretalon says:

   April 22, 2022 at 4:41 am

   Tony is right, I did just see the “head” of the “creature”. I said Toad instead of frog due to color and texture of it. The sense that it was bipedal was just an artists eye of the size of the head and distance off the ground. It could’ve been a big toad up on a stump or rock, or a toad with a long neck, or something I guess. It was just a proportion thing.

   The fart joke was incredibly profound for me, because the joke would be exactly the way a higher power would tell me to stop being so serious and that stuff would be okay.

   I did bring up shadow people because that’s a common feeling for people suffering it. I might’ve already told you that because I was struck with a memory of Tony saying “of course you have a shillelagh by your bed”

   I am open to any questions, like I said I know from my own thoughts that they are all explainable away but they stuck with me.

   Reply
   • themagicaltalkinghat says:

     April 22, 2022 at 7:39 am

     Yeah, I’m pretty sure we’ve discussed your shillelagh before… still weird, but still very on brand. 🙂

     Reply
   • William says:

     April 22, 2022 at 11:26 am

     Thanks for the clarifications! I can appreciate how profound your experience in the hospital was, while also being humorous. I hope my confusion about your meaning didn’t cause offense. (My apologies if it did.)

     From a human behavioral science perspective, of course you already know that the sign you received is simply a matter of your personal interpretation of your personal experience. Events are correlated in time (coincidences) and we’re free to decide what they mean, if anything. If a person were to tell you, “That was just a coincidence,” this isn’t them offering an alternative meaning, this is them asserting that there is no meaning… it’s not an alternative explanation, it’s an assertion that no explanation is required. But that’s an opinion, no more or less valuable — or valid — than your own.

     I haven’t had an opportunity to look, but I think your experience of smelling your recently deceased father while you were undergoing a life-saving procedure is a documented kind of thing. Of course, even if it is, that doesn’t erase the possibility of it being paranormal or spiritual, it just means that a skeptic does have a suitable alternative explanation (as you already indicated).

     The sleep paralysis thing is similar, being a fairly well-documented psychological phenomenon. It doesn’t mean something supernatural *isn’t* happening, but it does mean we can explain it without the *need* for an appeal to the supernatural.

     Now, the Toad Man sighting… that’s interesting in a whole different way. There are pretty-much only three possibilities: A) You completely imagined the thing, making it some kind of psychotic event; B) You saw something and misinterpreted what you saw, making it simply a case of mistaken identity; C) You actually saw a Toad Man, which is unlikely for many reasons, but it cannot be properly called “impossible”. Nothing about what you perceived violated known laws of physics or something. I’d think that option B is the most likely, but of course it’s probably impossible to know for sure. I’m curious as to what you think… you admit that there are other valid explanations, but in your heart-of-hearts (so to speak), do you think option C is correct? (If you don’t mind my asking.) And, if so, I’m interested in any elaboration you can provide regarding what you think you saw. A cryptid? An extra-terrestrial? A supernatural being? (If you don’t mind sharing.)

     Thanks again for sharing these experiences!

     Reply
     • Azuretalon says:

       April 22, 2022 at 3:34 pm

       I suppose it was option B, I’ve really kind of gone over in my head what it could have been in actually. A stray dog, a boar even, an B owl? But it was calm and noiseless in the middle of the day. I also guess it could’ve been pure paradolia but I think I wouldn’t get that convinced by shadows and bark.

       There are certainly stories in cryptid circles of Frog Men. Mostly up in and around The Ohio River Valley. Assuming it was real, I don’t think there’s any reason it couldn’t equality plausibly be anything from the catalog of weird. Cryptid, alien, fae… who’s to say? Bigfoot I have often said, if we start with the assumption it’s real, it can’t just be a fresh and blood breeding population of animals. So it’s not real or something far weirder. But I think 3 foot amphibian humanoids would have a better shot of hanging out unnoticed.

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       • William says:

         April 23, 2022 at 9:33 am

         Yes, those are all good points.

         Thanks again for sharing! 🙂

         Reply
2. jas says:

   April 22, 2022 at 12:44 pm

   Re: LGBTQ representation in the Star Trek world.

   An episode that often gets overlooked (and which William wouldn’t be familiar with as it’s from DS9) is the episode “Rejoined” which centers on Jadzia Dax and prohibitions of Trill culture. Trill are composed of both a host humanoid body and a symbiont who lives much longer and is passed from one host to another. From the outset of the series, Jadzia has some interesting gender bluriness going on as a result of the fact that some of her previous hosts have been male. In fact, Captain Sisko knew the previous host body and relates to Jadzia as this previous incarnation much of the time (referring to her as “old man”).

   In “Rejoined” Jadzia meets with a Trill whose symbiont was once married to a previous incarnation of Jadzia. Jadzia and this Trill are both female. That marriage was between a male host body and female host body. (I think it comes up in this episode tangentially that same sex relationships are seen as completely unremarkable in both Trill culture and human culture.) That marriage ended in tragedy when the host body carrying Jadzia’s symbiont died in an accident.

   Jadzia and the Trill woman (Lenara Khan) still have feelings for each other, but it turns out that in Trill culture one is prohibited from having intimate relationships with people if your Symbiont/host body had had such a relationship in the past. The punishment is that your Symbiont will not be passed on.

   Jadzia and Lenara at one point decide that being together is worth the punishment, and they kiss each other. Most of the time if you look up what the first same-sex kiss on TV was though, you’ll get a reference to the show “Rosanne.” But Star Trek had both the first inter-racial, and same-sex kiss on TV.

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   • William says:

     April 22, 2022 at 1:05 pm

     Awesome. 🙂

     Reply
   • Azuretalon says:

     April 22, 2022 at 3:23 pm

     I would have 100% said Roseanne. Maybe that was first on Prime Time? Those sneaky qualifiers

     Reply
3. jas says:

   April 22, 2022 at 7:59 pm

   Dang…

   Now maybe I have to take it back ’cause the internet says the kiss on Rosanne was 1994 and on DS9 was 1995.

   I was so sure DS9 was first.

   I certainly saw it there first. 🙂

   Reply
4. Mark says:

   April 28, 2022 at 2:25 pm

   No weird noises in the audio right at the beginning of the podcast.

   Nerdy Grandpa FTW and happy anniversary on your release from the attic!

   Star Trek: Discovery: We watched a few episodes of the first season but lost interest when they killed the main character we killed. As for newer Star Trek shows; I prefer Lower Decks though I also enjoyed the first season of Picard.

   How much Star Trek would a Star Trek fan watch if a Star Trek fan could watch Star Trek? For me that would be: a few random episodes of ST:TOS, all but the last 4 episodes of ST:TNG, some of ST:DS9, a season & a half of ST:V, all of ST:E, six episodes of ST:D, season 1 of ST:P, and both seasons of ST:LD.

   Besides ST:D killing the main character we killed, my biggest problem with the show is it makes that version of the future look so much fancier/newer than many of the shows that take place after ST:D in the shows’ timelines.

   You started to confuse me for a minute, as I didn’t think you liked anime and when you mentioned The Bubble, I thought you meant Bubble. I’m interested in Bubble, but have only seen a single trailer for The Bubble and it didn’t catch my interest.

   I didn’t think Red Notice was all that bad; it just wasn’t all that good either. Maybe a decent popcorn flick (no substance, but kind of fun in a mindless way).

   Scripted? Nope.

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   • William says:

     April 29, 2022 at 8:42 am

     If the killed character you’re talking about is the killed character I think you’re talking about…

     … you’ll probably be pleased if you keep watching…

     And… I can’t believe I kept forgetting to mention that, in Discovery, there is SO much lens flare. And the interior sets are huge. Crew quarters on Discovery are enormous compared to what we’ve seen in other shows. I kept wondering, “Is there so much lens flare because every space on the ship is large enough TO CONTAIN ITS OWN SUN???”

     But… we still like it… 🙂

     Reply