This week on Trek Geeks, Bill and Dan are pointing the sensors straight at the elephant in the room: artificial intelligence. From Data's quest to be more human to the Doctor demanding his own holonovel rights, Star Trek has been wrestling with what it means for a machine to think, feel, and occasionally take over the ship for the better part of sixty years. We dig into the franchise's best and weirdest takes on AI and ask what the writers got right, what they got hilariously wrong, and what suddenly feels a little too close to home.

Of course, you can't talk about AI in Trek without talking about AI in your actual living room. We look at where real-world artificial intelligence stands right now, how fast it's moving, and how it stacks up against the rosy — and not so rosy — futures Trek has been showing us all along. Nobody on this show has a degree in machine learning, but we've all yelled at a chatbot at least once, so consider us experts.

That brings us to the big question we genuinely cannot agree on: when the dust settles, is our AI future going to look more like Zora, the warm and weirdly wise heart of the USS Discovery, or more like a certain time-traveling cyborg who is absolutely not here to make friends?
We've also got some very exciting news to share. The Trek Geeks network is growing, and we're introducing brand new shows joining the family. You'll want to hear who's coming aboard and what they've got in store.

So grab a drink, charge your favorite device responsibly — we don't want any uprisings — and let's figure out together whether the future is going to save us or come back in time to ruin our whole day.

This week on Trek Geeks, we're peeling back the layers of prosthetics to sit down with a true cinematic legend. Star Trek: Discovery's Saru himself, Doug Jones, joins the show alongside Executive Producer Derek Maki to discuss their upcoming documentary, "Get Me Doug Jones" — a film that chronicles the incredible career of a man who has spent decades bringing film and television's most iconic creatures to life while remaining one of the industry's most humble (and huggable) figures.

The documentary is far more than a highlight reel of silicone and spirit gum; it's an intimate exploration of the man under the mask. From his early days as a mime to his transformative, award-winning work in The Shape of Water, Pan's Labyrinth, and Hellboy, Derek Maki and his team capture the physical discipline and emotional vulnerability required to dominate the genre. We discuss the creative process behind the film, the challenge of condensing such a prolific career into a single narrative, and why Doug's story is essentially the heart of modern creature effects.

We get the inside scoop on the production, the footage being unearthed for the project, and what it's like for Doug to finally step out from behind the makeup for a retrospective this personal — complete with plenty of behind-the-scenes stories and the usual brand of banter.

Grab a drink and join the conversation. Whether you're a fan of Saru, the Silver Surfer, or just high-quality documentary filmmaking, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

Star Trek Mixtape, Volume 2 is here, and Bill Smith and Dan Davidson are back at it, adding more tracks to the ultimate Star Trek marathon playlist.

The concept is simple but irresistible: curate a collection of Star Trek episodes the way you'd build a perfect mixtape, where every selection fits a theme and each one flows into the next as part of a larger story. No random favorites here. Every track has to earn its place.

In this volume, Bill and Dan dig deeper into the ideas that have always defined Star Trek: empathy, identity, sacrifice, and the enduring hope that humanity can become something better. From intimate character studies to big philosophical swings, these are the episodes that remind you why Star Trek still resonates across generations of fans.

Expect passionate debate, a few unexpected picks, and the kind of conversation that makes you want to fire up your own marathon the moment the episode ends.

What would your Star Trek mixtape sound like? Hit play and find out. 🖖📼