Deep dives into art and media. We did five years dissecting Deep Space Nine with The Rules of Acquisition. Star Trek is overrated. We went in on David Lynch. That was fun. Now? Biding our time. It happens when it happens.
Episodes
Monday May 31, 2021
Monday May 31, 2021
Prince Humperdink is a grifter! Wade is embarrassed to like this one. O’Brien and Bashir: Mango Habanero sauce. We do a lot of talking about Julian Bashir as an “unlikeable character” in the pre-Soprano’s era There’s a Bella Union to Quark’s Swearengen’s Saloon… cept no part of this slush pile script is exactly on par with Deadwood, sorry Star Trek Discovery writer Joe Menosky. SPACE RACQUETBALL.
Stick around to the end to hear Wade talk trash at other podcasts and then just talk what may be gibberish.
Tuesday May 04, 2021
Tuesday May 04, 2021
Hugh looks back on this Season 2 episode with some extra research.
Oatmeal faced reverse space Mormons! And that's not even meant as a pejorative. Exploration of the universal translator is appreciated, but does it clutter up the rest of this episode where a matriarchal society lands on DS9 and pulls a Battlestar Galactica on Bajor? Just what is Boner from Growing Pains doing? What could have been a great exploration of responses to a refugee crisis turns into a wonky episode of Star Trek. Some "fun" scenes, but unrelated to the central theme of the episode. Would a two parter be better? Is this description making any sense? Our computer voice is a little perplexed...
Monday Dec 07, 2020
Monday Dec 07, 2020
Hugh and James talk up top on a pamphlet for the left. Also we talk about Beavis and Butthead and class.
Trigger warning: No Star Trek content contained within!
Miss us? This is the kind of thing we talk about on the patreon. Those ROA remixes will keep trickling in, we promise.
https://patreon.com/kickersofelves
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
This DS9 episode could have used a second pass... Hugh gives the podcast a second pass and has to mention Kanye, Colm with John Huston, and ... Dune?
What starts with a great father/son scene about that time Picard blew up Ben Sisko's wife devolves into mooning over a woman with no personality and a penchant for disappearing. A man reignites a dead sun with science we are dubious about. But the episode is almost worth watching just for Chief O'Brien's eye rolls alone.
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Saturday Sep 05, 2020
Saturday Sep 05, 2020
Terok Nor? More like Terok NOIRE! How did Odo go from doing the “Cardassian Neck Trick” in parlours to being a constable on board a Bajoran space station? A flashback episode will answer that. Kira is pretty great. We spend a lot of this episode gushing over how we think Peter Allan Field is the best thing to happen to Star Trek Deep Space Nine. But is there something missing from this episode?
Wade rambles about this episode and embarrasses himself again.
Friday Aug 14, 2020
Thursday Aug 06, 2020
Thursday Aug 06, 2020
Here's just a smidge from the latest content at https://patreon.com/kickersofelves
Go ahead and ignore if you're mad at the lack of Trek.
Here's that WaPo Article
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
Another teaser where these jerks don't even talk Star Trek.
James and Hugh talk about The Punisher's computer guy, America's Chernobyl, and mostly Richard Power's The Overstory.
Want more of these conversations? All the juicy personal drama is over behind the paywall. Check out the Kickers of Elves patreon at https://patreon.com/kickersofelves
Tuesday Jul 21, 2020
Tuesday Jul 21, 2020
Title track!
24th Century Buttslap!
Hugh looks back on this episode and provides some Mark Singer Facts at the end.
Does this Deep Space Nine episode live up to the hype? Maybe not. There are a lot of rules in this episode, and we get the first mention of the Dominion. Plus a lot of rehashed Shakespeare plot from a play two of us performed way back in our high school days. Plus some good old fashioned 90's Gay Panic!
Thursday Jun 18, 2020
Thursday Jun 18, 2020
More like "Meh, Lora", huh? Wade Looks back on this episode and tries not to embarrass himself.
DS9's resident pickup artist, Julian Bashir "falls in love" and has some zero g space sex. We really lay into Julian in this one. We debate some more alien physiology, including turkey wattles and mouth handles in addition to what a lady who grew up flying might look like. How bout that David Foster Wallace reference? Let us know if that alienated you; we love you regardless. Aw, sorry to make it weird again...
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Wednesday Jun 10, 2020
Wednesday Jun 10, 2020
Whilst Julian and Garak flirt at the replimat, a Cardassian boy boards DS9, bites Garak, and sets off a story wherein we actually start to appreciate the character of Julian Bashir. Not nearly as much as we enjoy Garak or Dukat, however. Race issues! Down to a Guess Who's Coming to Dinner scene. This is perhaps the best episode that we've watched since Duet. Also: Why do we love these space nazis so much? Our racist grandpas. Trans-Racialism James has more fodder for his anti Ira Behr libel; we go against the grain of your typical DS9 fan, and praise Gene Roddenberry.
Is the writer a hack? In the remix material, Hugh reexamines a theme that we have barely gotten to yet in the podcast.
James called a shot on Discovery.
Tuesday Jun 02, 2020
Tuesday Jun 02, 2020
This week Hugh has some Invasive Procedure facts we left out from the original version.
A trill episode! Deep Space Nine has been evacuated, but for completely different reasons than last episode! Jon Glover is a mediocre trill, but he wants a slug of his very own...Dax's slug! He assembles a ragtag team of Western tropes, a confederate and a hooker with a heart of gold, to run a badly planned heist aboard DS9. Stat Trek favorite Tim Russ appears as a pre-Tuvok Klingon! We talk a good deal about the ins and outs and evolution of conjoined races.
Sunday May 17, 2020
Sunday May 17, 2020
Star Trek goes Star Wars? Blasphemy! What is Wade even going on about at the end of this?
But this is an action packed episode where Kira and Dax fly a small X-wing sized ship, and encounter a muppet spider - someone found it at a yard sale (really). Lots to unpack in this one. Wade thinks it's a little weak in the scene transitions; James thinks there's some filler. Oh, and Stephen Weber shows up and blows his chance to portray a bigger character on DS9 later! The grand ending of the the three part beginning of Season 2 of the third Star Trek series (not counting the animated one)!
Friday May 01, 2020
Friday May 01, 2020
Hugh revisits the Circle.
Make Bajor Great Again! Part Two of the "Li Nalis Trilogy." But rather than figuring out his character, this episode actually focuses more on Kira being kicked off the station. On Bajor, Bareil shows her a homemade porno from the Prophets, but we prefer the sexual energy between the old people because... more Frank Langella! The sexiest of Skeletors. Sisko is a stand up guy to an actor with an interesting Star Trek history. We are yet again mostly complimentary.
Tuesday Apr 14, 2020
Tuesday Apr 14, 2020
Season 2!
Wait for the end, where James looks back on his former liberal ways.
Resetting from season one. More Bajor politics! Kira sets out to save a war hero. Because an earring. Is he a real hero or looking for a way out? Liberty Valance. Kira and O'Brien take a trip to Star Trek's favorite rock quarry. Is Li Nalas something to hang this three episode arc on or do they forget about him for most of the next episode! But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Oh, and we get into a big conversations about needing legends and symbols. and more.
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Tuesday Mar 24, 2020
Tuesday Mar 24, 2020
CALAMITY! In this remix Hugh addresses our first "calamity episode," Big 2016 energy, and how the world we inhabited back then was both similar and very unlike the times we find ourselves in now.
That's it! We're at the end... ...of the first season; thank the Prophets. If you believe in that sort of thing. Two pretty good episodes back to back; are they realigning the show to be... good? Is it a miracle? Does that answer depend on your point of view? This episode has two issues it's good to stay away from at dinner parties: Religion and Politics. Wade, in fact, gets a little into his cups and perhaps overzealous. And definitely a bit crude with some information. We have a lot to say about Nurse Ratched herself, Louise Fletcher, who shows up as one of the big villains of the show. Apologies are made!
Tuesday Mar 17, 2020
Tuesday Mar 17, 2020
On the patreon you'll find extended discussion about the Corona virus situation's impact on our lives.
The full talk is half an hour on the American failed state, isolation, parenting, men about to have an emotional breakdown, and how things are for James in Covid-19 ground zero California, and Wade in NYC.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/what-difference-34959980
Also, we talk Devs and Alex Garland over here.
Monday Mar 09, 2020
Monday Mar 09, 2020
No time for ridicule, this is A Very Special Episode! Kira duets with a Cardassian, and three white guys from the bible belt get uncomfortable talking about the Holocaust. From post Cold War relations to The Man in the Glass Booth, Adolf Eichmann, and the Banality of Evil; how can art, and specifically science fiction, best approach some of these prickly topics? Lot's to talk about, and we might not fully cover every controversial subject, including AIDS, without being interrupted by the end... Art's tricky man, I dunno.
Wade reflects on then and now and what we think about now with the world the way it is.
https://patreon.com/kickersofelves
Friday Feb 28, 2020
Friday Feb 28, 2020
How does an Adult Swim show hit the same notes that James wants from Star Trek?
Kickers of Elves patrons can hear the full audio: https://www.patreon.com/posts/34423144
and check out Joe Pera Talks to You over here: http://www.adultswim.com/videos/joe-pera-talks-with-you
Tuesday Feb 25, 2020
Tuesday Feb 25, 2020
Another space day. Another space possession. Or not. Another space virus; this one turns people into paranoid jerks. We dissect this episode it and try to fix it as best we can. Some may like it more than we do... James has things to say about Ira Behr. Wade can't remember Rudy Ray Moore's name, but this episode is not about that. Sadly.
Looking back, James talks about the podcast as a romantic relationship, and the problems and irritations that arise therein.
Friday Feb 21, 2020
Friday Feb 21, 2020
Don't you hate it when Star Trek gets political? Oh wait, we're not even talking Star Trek here. Don't worry, it'll be over in three minutes. Not even long enough to hit skip on your podcast player. If you want more, there's a lot more of this discussion to hear. Check out the Kickers of Elves Patreon where we have all sorts of additional content covering movies, TV, politics and all the other things Wade, James, and Hugh talk about when they're not talking about Deep Space Nine.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/34226761
Thursday Feb 13, 2020
Thursday Feb 13, 2020
Wade waxes on about romance and looking back on this episode.
In the interest of checking off all the obligatory characters from ST: TNG, Lwaxana Troi shows up in this episode! But wait! It's actually pretty good! She gets more intimate with a gooey Odo than she ever did with Picard. Is she more interesting without her daughter? Bashir is Pete Campbell. Technobabble. Obrien gets a puppy.
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Tuesday Feb 04, 2020
Tuesday Feb 04, 2020
Hugh talks Colm Meaney on leprechauns and nerds out on some baseball statistics.
More like "If Wishes Were Horses#!t." Yes, after last week's praise, we're back into the gutter! Obrien meets WHATISCERTAINLYNOTALEPRECHAUN. Nope, it's just another Alien of the Week. As Peter Dinklage said in Living in Oblivion: "Want to make it weird? Oh, put a dwarf in it." So we get "the Man from Another Place" himself, Michael J Anderson as a guest star. We talk about that, some other things, the Julian Problem, and the one good thing to stick around from this episode: Sisko's baseball.
Not mentioned, but for new Star Trek commentary, check out Can't Picardly Wait
Monday Jan 27, 2020
Monday Jan 27, 2020
Check out the first episode of the newest pod from Kickers of Elves. Except with Replacements for James and Hugh.
Is Star Trek Picard a good show? Hack trope garbage built to mine IP? Some sort of quantum form existing in both states at once?
Check out new episodes as Picard airs in its own feed alongside A Discovery Home Companion.
http://discoveryhomecompanion.libsyn.com
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cant-picardly-wait-a-star-trek-picard-podcast/id1275425963
https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/bogmad-media-2/a-discovery-home-companion-a-star-trek-discovery-podcast
Wednesday Jan 22, 2020
Wednesday Jan 22, 2020
Just as we've progressed on Kira throughout the podcast, James has progressed his ideas on "Progress"
Listen, and be amazed as we praise Kira's performance.
Niners, be confounded by how little we actually talk about self sealing stembolts! Bajoran politics: Kira has to evict an old man from the Shire. Jake and Nog do a red paperclip story; the Ferengi hate land? We go on a tangent about what Marina Sirtis has had to put up with in her career (more than she should have had to). We disagree a bit, but agree this is a pretty good episode of Deep Space Nine, if not your standard Star Trek.
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Thursday Jan 09, 2020
Thursday Jan 09, 2020
One episode. Two stories. That. Don't. Interact. At. All.
One podcast, two versions. Recorded. Years. Apart. Wade feels rusty. Is he?
Nobody likes Julian, even O'brien, but things get set up for later. They yell at a smoke monster. Missourians know river politics. Wade is maybe puerile in what he notices in the set dressing. Jake and Nog hit on a girl. James talks libertarians. Hugh introduces a new segment, where we perhaps insult any listeners who are responsible for the IMDB episode ratings. Hope you're not offended. We love you... Speaking of... Rate us!
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