Okay, lets you and him fight! In shameless pursuit of ‘brand synergy,’ this episode of Casual Trek celebrates the return of Strange New Worlds to our streaming services by doing an episode about those lizardy bastards Kirk fought once at those rocks from Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, the Gorn! In ‘Arena,’ Kirk fights a string vest wearing space lizard while Spock watches and provides inane commentary (hey Spock-o, that’s OUR job) and then in the Strange New Worlds Season 2 finale and Season 3 opener ‘Hegemony Parts 1 and 2’ Pike spends more time hiding and less time building rudimentary cannons, Spock and Chapel play a little Alien Isolation and Ortegas loses herself in the job… Bogus. Episodes discussed: Arena (07:20) and Hegemony Parts 1 and 2 (38:27)

Talking Points include: American Family Reunions, Donkey Kong Bananza, young Tom Jones is weird looking and The Monkees are great, Oh no not another Godlike being, Vasquez Rocks, everyone got tinnitus making this episode, Charlie’s time as a scout, Miles has a legitimate reason to bring up ‘Blake’s 7,’ they tried to build the cannon on Mythbusters… it did not go well, we’re not Trying That in a Small Town but we finally listen to The Mountain Goats for the show! Pike’s brief moment of religious crisis is weird, Strange New Worlds’ making the Gorn so monstrous clashes with how it went down in ‘Arena’, Alien Isolation, the nature of ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’ members of various Star Trek races and how the idea the Gorn might be biologically evil might not be a great look for Trek.