At least once a week I talk to a fellow Star Trek fan and I find out they have never heard of the Mission Log podcast. I’m a new writer here at GeekDad, so when I heard the latest episode of the Mission Log podcast (Remembering Leonard Nimoy) and realized Mission Log had not been covered on GeekDad … I knew the topic of my next article.
What is Mission Log? Mission Log is a weekly podcast that was created by Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry (Gene Roddenberry’s son). Episode One starts with the very first episode of Star Trek The Original Series (TOS) and goes from there in the order the episodes originally aired on television. The podcast is hosted by John Champion and Ken Ray, and each week they focus on a single episode (or movie; yes, they cover all the movies as well) of the Star Trek franchise. It is an hour-long podcast that delves into trivia, uncovers historical documents and, most importantly, they discuss the messages or the “takeaway” from each episode and whether the episode still holds up today. The best part about this podcast is that it feels like you are sitting around with your friends (albeit, extremely knowledgeable friends with some inside information) and “geeking out” about Star Trek. However, it is much more than just geeking out. John and Ken take their task very seriously and do an excellent job in covering all the details in each and every episode. Even if you have watched every episode of Star Trek more times than you can count, listening to this podcast will shed a new light on Star Trek for you. Rod, John and Ken are, episode by episode, creating a brand new legacy for Star Trek fans with the creation of this incredible set of podcasts.
What prompted me to write this article now was the most recent episode of Mission Log, Supplemental 020: Remembering Leonard Nimoy. This was not a planned episode of Mission Log. The fans of the show wrote in and asked for a special episode of the podcast in honor of Leonard Nimoy. Rather than script out the podcast and line up a bunch of sound clips, John and Ken chose to just “wing it.” It was a wise decision. No script, no sponsored content, just an unfiltered discussion on the impact Spock the character and Leonard Nimoy the actor had on us all. Towards the end of the episode Rod Roddenberry came on and I think he summed it up best when he said:
“For all the geeks and the nerds and the outcasts, anyone who didn’t feel like they were … part of the crew. Spock was that character. Spock was the one who stood out, and in many cases allowed us to look at ourselves, allowed us to look at our own humanity.”
Thank you Rod Roddenberry, John Champion, and Ken Ray for giving all of us current Star Trek fans (and future fans) the gift of this podcast. The legacy of Star Trek will continue to live on and this podcast will help many people enjoy that legacy even more.
LLAP
