It’s a new year, and that means it’s time for me to make my annual appearance on the Enterprising Individuals podcast, which invites a variety of guests to select and offer critical commentary about episodes of the various Star Trek television series.

For this installment, I opted to discuss “The Schizoid Man,” a decidedly problematic season-two episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. As the show’s host Kaliban sums up so pithily:

“[The episode] starts with a dirty grandpa and ends with targ underwear wrestling. From casual sexism, to marginalization, to troubling implications for the Soong family, this early bit of TNG fluff has it all.”

Why did I want to dissect this episode? Because it’s a vital piece of canon that provides part of the foundation for the saga of Dr. Noonian Soong, his android creation/son Data, and the interconnected history of artificial intelligence in the Star Trek universe, as so eloquently stitched together by author Jeffrey Lang in his 2002 novel Immortal Coil.

Go and listen to our discussion of “The Schizoid Man” on Enterprising Individuals now!