The Nexus #78 - "The Empath" / "Hollow Pursuits" (Patreon)

It's another exciting jaunt through the Star Trek universe on The Nexus! 

Up first on TOS, it's the super-cheap, but interesting episode, "The Empath," which first aired back on December 6, 1968. This episode, close to the end of the series' run, is shot almost entirely in a black box soundstage and features a cool rainbow forcefield, an eerie sacrificial alter from a giallo film, Spock with a stuffed up nose, McCoy and Kirk getting Hellraiser'd, and the rest of the Enterprise crew literally just waiting up in space for the episode to finish! 

Then over on TNG, it's "Hollow Pursuits," a super-gross, totally wild episode that premiered on May 1, 1990. Featuring the debut of the bumbling Lieutenant Reg Barclay, whose twisted holodeck addiction starts messing with his performance on duty, while Troi, Riker, and Geordi get both pissed off and creeped out by him in equal measure! Oh, and the Enterprise is disintegrating or something, but no one really seems to care because Reg is recreating his co-workers as his holographic playthings. PLUS: Picard hilariously getting super-annoyed with Data and Wesley being completely unprofessional during an Engineering meeting!

The Nexus is a WHM podcast where the guys futilely go through two Star Trek series at the same time. Thank you so much for continuing to support this weird thing we do—we couldn't do it without you!

Cover art by Felipe Sobreiro.