I have an outrageous idea: to critique every single episode of the Star Trek saga. 
It’s a daunting prospect and there are so many ways to make it impractical to keep doing regularly or to make it not stand out in quality. But I have my reasons for planning out and undertaking this grandiose effort, mainly to do with my goals as a writer. 
So I am going to do it. My something-year long project will be to watch an episode of Star Trek nearly every weekday, to record some meditations and insightful readings, to deliberately create something I’ve never done before. 

The review ordering will be:
•	The Original Series
•	The Next Generation
•	Deep Space Nine
•	Voyager
•	Enterprise
•	Discovery
I will finish with full-length commentary tracks of the movies as follows:
•	Generations, First Contact, Insurrection, Nemesis
•	The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, The Voyage Home, The Final Frontier, The Undiscovered Country
The reason for the movie ordering is that I want to hit the finish line with grandeur and I can’t do that with Nemesis, you know it too.
I will NOT be reviewing (no apologies or resentments) :
•	The Animated Series (it’s appreciated, but not needed here)
•	Star Trek 2009 (fun mindless cinema)
•	Star Trek Into Darkness (total garbage even a colon couldn’t save)
•	Star Trek Beyond (unexpectedly good, if still schlocky)
•	Fan Productions (I applaud the work, but I’m keeping it canon here)

Here are the six rules:

1.	This project is lower in priority to my other life goals. 

2.	This must be sustainable – my discussions will be short, simple, and smart.

3.	The calendar is not a schedule; it only shows how far I can go. I don’t have to review an episode that day, but I can’t go any farther than that day’s listed episode. I will try to keep it to within a couple weeks of the schedule.

4.	Each response will explore an episode’s writing, character, and commentary and be roughly 6 – 12 minutes. I’m not doing lengthy in-depth analysis, nor following in the vein of traditional nerd / Trekkie culture. I will sometimes touch on behind-the-scenes material, but largely I will speak about the episode’s actual content. 

5.	For the sake of SoundCloud space and not hording a vast archive, I’m only keeping each review for about a month, so catch them while you can. (I may revisit this rule down the line, but for now, this is the plan.)

6.	If Discovery is still in production by the time I catch up to it, then … tell you what, I’ll make up my mind when I get there, it’s a long ways off. But yes, I am doing Discovery. I may decide to do special topical releases with new episodes as they air, but for now, keeping it simple. 


	Special Thanks and inspiration go to: George Hrab and his Geologic Podcast; Bernd Schneider of Ex-Astris-Scientia.org; the YouTube channels Trekspertise, CinemaWins, Just Write, Lessons from the Screenplay, Make Stuff, Movies With Mikey, ContraPoints, Lindsay Ellis, Alt+Shift+X, and ScreenPrism; special thanks to Carl Sagan and Steven Pinker; to my parents for raising me on Star Trek; and above and beyond, to Gene Roddenberry. 
But also Rick Berman, NBC, CBS, Paramount, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Eugene Roddenberry, literally all of the thousands of writers, actors, producers, directors, camera folks, key grips, costumers, set and prop designers, caterers, Tribble makers, and every individual famous and not who literally made this cultural epic that I think represents humanity in television at its best. It was Gene’s vision, but we are the species he had the vision for. Let’s prove him right. And let’s enjoy some Star Trek.

Check The Circuit