Season 4

Episode 26.5 - TNG Season 4 Watchalong - First Contact

Note: We will be taking a summer break for the next 4-5 weeks to coincide with some vacation plans, but will be returning in the second half of summer with Season 5.
For this week, join us as we revisit the episode that had the largest divergence of opinions in our Season 4 breakdown, "First Contact" complete with Riker sex innuendo and reactionary martyrs. It may not be the perfect episode, but it did provide some fodder for banter with The Bicks.

Episode 26 - The Next Generation Season 4

Season 4 -- the first full 90s season, as Lindsay says -- doesn't feature a whole bunch of changes on screen or behind the camera, but did bring a lot of depth to the characters and the world they inhabit. Join us as we talk about family, friends, drama, and First Contact, one of the greatest episodes of the show! (Yes, Aidan wrote this intro...)
Episode Sponsor: Ancestry.federation. To find out more about your genetic heritage, use the promo code 'TheBicksFamSentYou' to get a discount on your premium testing kit!
Bicks Log: What does it say about genetic families in Star Trek that they're so secondary to the one found on board the Enterprise?
Notes:
Once again, it was time for a tier ranking of Season 4 episodes, so be prepared for Aidan to defend how great (almost) every episode is, while Lindsay tries to knock them all down a few pegs.
Recognitions:
Intro Music: Chasing Stars by AG Music
Outro Music: Idle Hands by The Impossibulls
 

Episode 25.5 - Star Trek The Next Generation Watchalong - ”Who Watches the Watchers”

Another season, another watchalong of TNG, this time the season 3's classic exploration of Star Trek's greatest philosophical topics, the Prime Directive. Join us as we chat and joke our way through "Who Watches the Watchers".

Episode 24.5 - Star Trek The Next Generation Watchalong - ”The Royale”

Join us for another watchalong episode of TNG, this time the season 2 dark horse favourite "The Royale".
One note: Fermat's Last Theorem had a first proof published in 1995, only a few years after this episode.

Episode 24 - The Next Generation Season 2

The arrival of Riker's Beard heralded the start of the shift towards a more updated, distinct Star Trek, ready for the Next Generation of fans. While many will tell new explorers of Trek to skip over season 2, we love it for its inconsistency and the truly high highs that you only get by introducing the Borg, or debating the nature of sentience (should be sapience but we'll let it slide) on behalf of our beloved Data. Join us as we discuss those highs (and some of the lows), as well as give a bit of a history of what was going on behind the scenes.
Episode Sponsor: SudVPN! Keep your data safe in these trying times!
Bicks Log: Does artificial intelligence require sentience to be considered intelligent? Do AIs as we understand them now deserve rights? What will happen when computer systems are given – or acquire – consciousness?
Notes:
As a reminder, this was recorded before Picard Season 3 aired, so there may be some odd references.
If, for some reason you haven't seen the greatest short film of the 21st century so far, please do check out Too Many Cooks.
Lindsay deeply regrets her comments about the 1988 WGA Strike. At least Aidan assumes so, since she's been happy to see the 2023 version.
The novel that Lindsay mentions involving the Trill's connection to the Conspiracy bugs is called Trill: Unjoined, which you can read about on Memory Beta.
Aidan's Tier Ranking of Season 2 Episodes:
S-Tier: Measure of a Man (9), Q Who (16)
A-Tier: Elementary Dear Data (3), A Matter of Honour (8), The Royale (12), The Emissary (20)
B-Tier: Peak Performance (21), Pen Pals (15)
C-Tier: The Child (1), Outrageous Okona (4), Loud as a Whisper (5), The Dauphin (10), Time Squared (13), Samaritan Snare (17), Manhunt (19)
D-Tier: Schizoid Man (6), The Icarus Factor (14), Up The Long Ladder (18)
F-Tier: Shades of Gray (22), Where Silence Has Lease (2)
Lindsay's Tier Ranking:
S-Tier: Measure of a Man (9), Q Who (16), Elementary Dear Data (3)
A-Tier: Pen Pals (15), The Royale (12), The Emissary (20)
B-Tier: Peak Performance (21), Manhunt (19), A Matter of Honour (8)
C-Tier: Outrageous Okona (4), Loud as a Whisper (5), Time Squared (13), Samaritan Snare (17), Schizoid Man (6)
D-Tier: The Icarus Factor (14), Up The Long Ladder (18), The Dauphin (10)
F-Tier: Shades of Gray (22), Where Silence Has Lease (2), The Child (1)
Twin Peaks actors appearing this season:
David L. Lander
Madchen Amick (Who we forgot to mention in the episode somehow!!!)
Intro Music: Chasing Stars by AG Music
Outro Music: Idle Hands by The Impossibulls

Episode 73 - The Authorship Question

We've always appreciated the saying, "Save the Best for Last" and we followed it for this Shakespeare podcast. Nothing may draw more interest in the popular imagination of Shakespeare than whether or not he was actually the author of the works ascribed to him. So we wanted to send off our little podcast with a big topic: who was Shakespeare, if it wasn't Shakespeare?
Notes:
The Wikipedia master list of possible Shakespeare authorship candidates is... exhaustive.
If you wonder why we say "Apparently" the way we do...
And if you wonder why we say "To be fair" the way we do...
Abel Lefranc was more a historian than a writer, to be faaaaiiiiir...
The SCTV classic skit "The Adventures of Shake and Bake" is a nice parting gift from us to you - a bit of authorship question, a bit of pop culture, a bit of Canadiana. With love from Aidan and Lindsay.
Ancient Bickerings:
If Shakespeare wasn't the author of Shakespeare's works - who would you want it to be?

Episode 72 - The Tempest

“Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.”
In almost every way this play is Shakespeare's swan song, and a heartfelt goodbye to his time spent crafting entertainment and poetry for the people of London. Consequently, the play is very concerned with legacies, family, time, supremacy, and - perhaps most interestingly of all - colonialism. Despite being one of Shakespeare's shortest and most easily accessible plays, it manages to jam pack a whole lot of thought into the topics it does weave its magic on, so join us for a discussion about all things The Tempest in this, our final episode devoted to Shakespeare's work.
Notes:
Aidan incorrectly named the date the play was performed in front of King James - it was actually done on November 1, 1611.
He also incorrectly identified the date the play was put back into production - it was actually 1667, albeit under a different name with heavy adaptations.
Both Aidan and Lindsay highly recommend Barbra A. Mowat's A Modern Perspective essay (a standby of this series) for an interesting look at how Shakespeare combines time, family, and the other themes of The Tempest into a nice little package.
Ancient Bickerings:
If you were shipwrecked on an abandoned island and had to take 5 Shakespeare plays with you, does this one crack the list?

Episode 71 - Shakespeare Apocrypha

The incomparably funny and poignant comedian Hannah Gadsby said it best: “This adoration of the artist as a lone genius is quite misled, I think, because they are very much a part of their time and their community.”
Sometimes we all need a community. Whether it’s because our own expertise has fallen short or because two heads are better than one, no one among us can say that we are perfectly capable of living life without the help of our friends.
Not even William Shakespeare.
Join us as we examine Shakespeare's Apocrypha, a series of plays, poems, and other writings variously attributed to the Bard as well as a whole host of other Tudor/Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists. It's a veritable who's-who of the extended theatre community to which Shakespeare undoubtedly would have belonged in late 16th/early 17th century London, which leads us to question: just how many people had a hand in writing the Shakespearean canon? Along the way, we'll explain some of the handwriting analysis and stylometry results that recent researchers have used to point to their favoured candidates for the authorship of this collection of works. 
It's a jam-packed episode. We hope you'll enjoy!
Notes:
Folio, Quarto, and Octavo bookmaking techniques, as depicted on Wikipedia:
Full text of The Shakespeare Apocrypha by C.F. Tucker Brooke
Full text of William Shakespeare A Study Of Facts And Problems Vol I by E.K. Chambers
Shakespeare's Collaborators - shakespeare.org
New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition
Example of Secretary Handwriting in Hand D, purportedly Shakespeare's own handwriting, in the play The Booke of Sir Thomas More:
YouTube clip of a one-man play by Keir Cutler about Shakespeare and the authorship question
All available text of The Booke of Sir Thomas More, courtesy of The British Library
"Shakespeare By The Numbers: What Stylometrics Can and Can't Tell Us" - a book review by Ramon Jimenez for the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship
"The Stylometric Debate Over Authorship" - Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship
"Stylometry and the Shakespearean Clinic" and "Response to Criticisms on Stylometry" by David Kathman and Terry Ross
Dr. Michael Delahoyde's analysis of Two Noble Kinsmen
Petr Plechac's stylometric analysis of Henry VIII
Ancient Bickerings: Which play would you most like to revise alongside Shakespeare?