14-20 How Star Trek: The Next Generation Built a Believable Warp Drive
The Trek Files: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast
Release Date: 01/20/2026
15-23 Star Trek’s Blooper Reel Goes Overseas
The Trek Files: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast
Before bonus features and streaming clips, seeing Star Trek’s bloopers could mean a trip to a convention, or a carefully negotiated loan from Gene Roddenberry himself. Dan Madsen returns to The Trek Files to join Larry Nemecek for a look at an August 9, 1974 letter to British fan organizer Jenny Elson. With preparations underway for what her committee billed as the first British Star Trek convention, Elson hoped to secure an essential attraction: the famous blooper reel. Gene was willing to help, but his instructions covered everything from insurance and screening fees to protecting the film...
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15-22 From Script Pages to Action Figures: Garrett and Jellico
The Trek Files: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast
How much screen time does it take to leave a lasting impression? For Brian Volk-Weiss, two of Star Trek’s most memorable captains made their mark in just a handful of scenes. The Nacelle Company founder joins Larry Nemecek to revisit the script introductions of Rachel Garrett in “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and Edward Jellico in “Chain of Command, Part I.” Their conversation explores Garrett’s sacrifice, Jellico’s uneasy relationship with the Enterprise crew, and why both characters became essential choices for Nacelle’s Star Trekaction figures. Known for Star Trek documentaries...
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15-21 When Star Trek Fandom Meets the Fine Print
The Trek Files: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast
The Trek Files welcomes back Dan Madsen to revisit a revealing 1968 exchange between seventeen-year-old MaryLou “Mandi” Tamborello of the Nimoyan Fellowship and Gene Roddenberry’s attorney, Leonard Maizlish. After offering photographic prints reproduced from Star Trek film clips, Mandi found herself explaining her intentions to a lawyer and promising to stop selling the pictures. Maizlish’s reply offers an unexpected combination of reassurance, a firm refusal to authorize sales, and a possible arrangement to reimburse her costs. For Dan, the situation feels familiar. He recalls how his...
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15-20 Sandy Gimpel: Inside Star Trek’s Salt Vampire
The Trek Files: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast
As Star Trek celebrates its 60th anniversary, The Trek Files welcomes a performer who was there before the beginning and then came back for the episode that introduced the series to television audiences. Stunt performer Sandy Gimpel first entered the Star Trek universe as one of the Talosians in “The Cage.” When the series went into production, she returned to inhabit one of its most memorable creatures: the shape-shifting M-113 creature, better known to generations of fans as the Salt Vampire, in “The Man Trap.” This week’s document is an excerpt from George Clayton Johnson’s...
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15-19 Background Check: Finding Star Trek’s Forgotten Performers
The Trek Files: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast
Not everyone who appeared on Star Trek got a line, a screen credit, or even their name on the call sheet. Nearly sixty years later, that can turn a face clearly visible on screen into a genuine archival mystery. This week, The Trek Files welcomes veteran Deep Space Nine assistant director B.C. Cameron for a look at the working life of Hollywood’s background performers. The starting point is a mystery explored in the latest Inside the Roddenberry Archive: identifying Al Jones, an uncredited performer prominently seen as one of the thralls in “The Gamesters of Triskelion.” The episode’s...
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15-18 The Standing Ovation That Launched Star Trek
The Trek Files: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast
Last week, The Trek Files followed Gene Roddenberry to the 1966 World Science Fiction Convention in Cleveland, where he hoped to convince a skeptical audience of serious science-fiction fans that his new television series was worthy of their attention. This week, Glen E. Swanson, author of Inspired Enterprise, returns to examine what happened next. Our document is a December 1966 letter from science-fiction fan Mike Deckinger, who tells Desilu that he was among more than 1,000 people who watched Roddenberry preview Star Trek at Tricon and witnessed the audience give him a standing ovation. By...
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15-17 Three Days Before Star Trek: Gene Roddenberry at Tricon
The Trek Files: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast
On September 8, 1966, Star Trek made its American television debut. But just days earlier, Gene Roddenberry was in Cleveland trying to convince some science fictionfans that his new television series deserved to be taken seriously. On this special 60th anniversary edition of The Trek Files, Glen E. Swanson, author of Inspired Enterprise, returns to examine Roddenberry’s appearance at Tricon, the 24th World Science Fiction Convention, over Labor Day weekend in 1966. Our document of the week is the March 8 invitation from Tricon chairman Ben Jason asking Roddenberry to attend the convention,...
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15-16 “Who Watches the Watchers”: Jeffrey Morris on the Prime Directive and Star Trek’s Future
The Trek Files: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast
Recorded live at STLV, filmmaker and author Jeffrey Morris returns to The Trek Files with a 1989 research report on the landmark Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Who Watches the Watchers.” The production notes scrutinize everything from radiation exposure and memory modification to the logic of sending Riker and Troi undercover, and even question whether Picard telling a Mintakan to “shoot me” feels a little too much like a Kirk move. Morris calls “Who Watches the Watchers” not his favorite or even the best episode of Star Trek, but the most important: a story about a...
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15-15 The Doomsday Machine and a Future Askew
The Trek Files: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast
Norman Spinrad’s original March 1967 story outline for “The Planet Eater” introduced Star Trek to an unstoppable machine roaming the galaxy, consuming planets for fuel and leaving destruction in its wake. By the time it reached television, the story had a new title, “The Doomsday Machine,” and became one of the most celebrated episodes of the original series. Author and filmmaker Jeffrey Morris joins Larry Nemecek at Star Trek Las Vegas to revisit that original outline and consider its warning through a distinctly 21st-century lens. Drawing from his new book, , Jeffrey explores...
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15-14 Star Trek Fans, 1976
The Trek Files: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast
What did Star Trek fans have to say in 1976? John Champion returns to The Trek Files for a look through Gene Roddenberry’s fan correspondence. This season's selection captures a moment in Star Trek history, ten years after the original series debuted, but before the arrival of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. A Cincinnati attorney credits Spock’s logic for helping persuade a jury. An artist shares his hand-painted “Mr. Spock” portrait… on an egg. A teacher explains how she’s bringing Star Trek into the classroom, while another fan gently reminds Gene that he still owes her...
info_outlineThis week on The Trek Files: warp coils, dilithium chambers, and a whole lot of gamma rays.
Returning guest Rick Sternbach joins Larry Nemecek once again for a lively exploration of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s scientific backbone. Using early technical memos and a classic 1987 warp engine sketch, Rick walks us through how the team brought real-world physics into the heart of the Enterprise-D’s design and when they just had to make it up.
From working with Los Alamos physicists to devising the ejection system for the warp core, Rick shares stories of how he and Mike Okuda grounded the show’s tech in reality while still serving the drama. Ever wonder why deuterium goes on top, antimatter on the bottom, or how a photon torpedo really works? This one’s for the technobabble lovers and science fans alike.
Documents and additional references:
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“TNG Warp Engine Concept Sketch” by Rick Sternbach, February 18, 1987
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Excerpt from the internal Star Trek: TNG Technical Primer, May 1, 1989
The Trek Files Season 14 on Memory Alpha
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