Kickers of Elves

Armageddon Game (DS9 S2E13)

Hugh revisits Armageddon Game, and also revisits A Stitch in Time, which came up in this episode.

More O'Brien and Bashir bromancing. Two races with ridiculous hair are the worsts hosts ever. How do they repay a favor? Kill the guys doing you a solid. Not cool, bro. After getting rid of what we're told is the ultimate doomsday weapon -but that appears a run of the mill biological weapon, with a name that doesn't describe what it does at all- Miles and Julian hide out in a bunker. Surprisingly NOT a rehashed TNG script. We talk Seuss, Babylon 5, and some redeeming qualities of this episode.

The Alternate (DS9 S2E12)

The ROA remixed!  

Yeah, we're still doing these. The Rules of Acquisition may be over, but we'll still be looking back at it from time to time.

Hugh revisits The Alternate, and tries to see just what Wade was talking about here...  

Odo's Dad! (kinda) Is this a horror movie? Father issues, the stuff popular filmed entertainment is made of! What happens when the DS9 crew goes to an abandoned planet, brings back an obelisk, and then tries to give every cast member a defining line while trying to recreate The Thing, or Alien? Does that screw up the third act? Wade does his damnedest to defend this episode.

UNLOCKED from the KOE Patreon: Worf Talk

We may have moved on from DS9, but Star Trek does still sometimes come up from time to time. Tired of waiting for episodes of the podcast?  We talk a variety of subjects and update regularly for patrons.
Here's a short conversation we had about Worf.  Also for free on the patreon this week: you can hear some of our thoughts on the Loki Disney + show. 

Patrons can hear even more.  

Check it out at

https://patreon.com/kickersofelves

 

Mulholland Drive/Inland Empire

Two podcasts mirror each other.  One maybe died.

The Straight Story

You don't think we can be nice? We can be nice.

Lost Highway

Get lost in the edgy 90s.  Don't murder your wife.  

Wild at Heart

This is a special podcast! And for us it's a symbol of our individuality, and our belief... in personal freedom. 

Blue Velvet

Heineken? F- Heineken! Drink in the episode art. Don't you look at me. Listen to the podcast.  

Dune!

This podcast about David Lynch's Dune [or is it Alan Smithee's?] is from our 2018 Patreon bonus series "Much A-Dune About Nothing" but it pretty well covers our thoughts on the film.

The Elephant Man

We are not an animal. We are a podcast.

David Lynch: The Art Life/ Eraserhead

We get into David Lynch’s work, starting at the beginning.  We watched the 2016 documentary David Lynch: The Art Life  and Eraserhead. James has some “textured” audio in this one. 

A Note Regarding What's to Come

Faces smudged with pod, your hosts explain what is going on with the future of this podcast and Kickers of Elves.

 

Get ready for some renovations.  We're changing the name of the podcast and moving to a new format.  What will we be covering first?  We're delving deep into David Lynch: first with an exploration of all of the films, then we'll cover that other prequel to modern tv, Twin Peaks.

Rivals (DS9 S2E11)

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.

Sanctuary (DS9 S2E10)

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...

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Leftists and Butthead

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

 

Second Sight (DS9 S2E09)

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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Necessary Evil (DS9 S2E08)

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.

 

Status Reporting: Giving Glen the Business

Meanwhile, over at Can't Picardly Wait

Booger Convention?

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

Kickers of Elves bonus: This is Not My Star Trek Podcast!

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 

The Rules of Acquisition (DS9 S2E07)

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!

Melora (DS9 S2E06)

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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Cardassians (DS9 S2E05)

 

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.  

Invasive Procedures (DS9 S2E04)

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.

The Siege (DS9 S2E03)

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)!

The Circle (DS9 S2E02)

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.