Set your podcast players to “stun”, as we dive into the first cinematic outing of Captain Picard and the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew in 1994’s Star Trek Generations. We discuss Heather’s journey from being clueless about Star Trek to fandom, how the movie got made in a rush, nepo babies in Starfleet, and French captains with Victorian British Christmas fantasies. If you’re a long time Trekker or you don’t know a Tribble from a Tellarite, this episode has something for everyone — and is quite possibly our funniest episode yet. Engage!

00:00 Intro

03:23 Rushed production

05:57 Film Clip

08:09 Initial Reactions

17:31 Who turned out the lights?

20:51 Recap

24:21 Captain Harriman was interested in politics from a young age

28:10 Kirk’s heroics

32:43 This movie does not care if you’ve never seen a Star Trek

36:13 Picard’s family died in a what now?

40:58 Android existential crisis

46:22 Still not over that fire thing

49:21 Guinan does not have a hat

54:07 Why do Klingons want to destroy the Enterprise? Also unclear.

58:09 Troi gets to fly the ship

1:00:21 Most British Frenchman ever

1:03:57 Meeting of the Captains

1:07:59 RIP Kirk (for real this time)

1:12:33 The anticlimax of it all

1:14:57 Final thoughts

Mentioned in this episode:

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Clear your mind and meet us in Montauk, because we’re going to be discussing the 2004 classic mind-bender of a film starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, written by Charlie Kaufmann, and directed by Michael Gondry. Does the cerebral examination of love and relationships hold up 20 years later? And what connection do Napoleon Dynamite and The Holiday have with this film?

00:00 Intro

00:42 Preconceptions

05:00 Film Clip

06:45 Initial reactions (spoilers)

16:32 The look and feel of the film

19:34 Is it a horror film?

23:02 A very British orange

25:10 Recap

28:25 The questionable ethics of memory erasure

33:35 Insecurities and accusations

38:12 Lord of the Creeps

43:29 Lack of likeable characters

49:47 I am not a concept

52:00 On trauma, memory, and nature

Mentioned in this episode:

Hiatus Message

Thanks so much for listening! Blind Spots & Second Thoughts will be back with more new episodes in summer of 2025. Stay subscribed, keep sharing, and please take a moment to rate and review us if you can. We'll be back soon!

We take our first steps into the wide, wide universe of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 2008’s Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr. as the titular hero. This movie, directed by Jon Favreau, kicked off the entertainment juggernaut that is the MCU, so even though Heather has technically seen the movie before, we’re going to revisit it to start our Marvel superhero journey. Fortunately, she doesn’t remember any of it.

We’ll discuss how RDJ’s charm offensive makes an offensive character likeable, if there’s chemistry between Tony Stark and his executive assistant Pepper Potts (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), and if the movie still holds up over fifteen years later.

00:00 Intro

00:36 Preconceptions

04:38 What exactly is the MCU, anyway?

06:02 Indie film cred

10:18 Movie clip

12:56 Reactions

16:50 Grounded in reality

20:00 Stan Lee's challenge

21:41 Charm offensive

24:19 Recap

26:49 That weapons factory really tied the room together

28:38 Terrence Howard was fired for being Terrence Howard

30:05 Writer-director-actor-bodyguard

30:57 JARVIS!

31:54 Hot sake and ethical flight attendant strippers

34:22 International date line

35:20 The Ten Rings

36:54 Escape and goodbye

39:26 Have it your way (rock bottom)

40:58 No longer man-ooo-facturing weapons

42:32 SHIELD is kind of a big deal

45:06 Science-based (just not physics)

47:55 Chemistry is a science

49:07 Gwyneth Paltrow has never heard of Operation

49:48 Masking done right

51:58 Would you kiss your boss at a work event?

57:29 Terrorism is terrifying

01:00:37 Why does Dan know what Louboutins are?

01:01:22 The big bad (not really a surprise)

01:05:57 Drink more Ovaltine

01:09:03 Crucial to make voice scary when being a bad guy

01:12:31 I am Iron Man

01:13:30 Post credits!

01:18:11 Closing thoughts

Mentioned in this episode:

Hiatus Message

Thanks so much for listening! Blind Spots & Second Thoughts will be back with more new episodes in summer of 2025. Stay subscribed, keep sharing, and please take a moment to rate and review us if you can. We'll be back soon!