The Trek Files: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast

This week on The Trek Files: warp coils, dilithium chambers, and a whole lot of gamma rays.
Returning guest Rick Sternbach joins Larry Nemecek once again for a lively exploration of Star Trek: The Next Generation's scientific backbone. Using early technical memos and a classic 1987 warp engine sketch, Rick walks us through how the team brought real-world physics into the heart of the Enterprise-D's design and when they just had to make it up.
From working with Los Alamos physicists to devising the ejection system for the warp core, Rick shares stories of how he and Mike Okuda grounded the show's tech in reality while still serving the drama. Ever wonder why deuterium goes on top, antimatter on the bottom, or how a photon torpedo really works? This one's for the technobabble lovers and science fans alike.
Documents and additional references:
"TNG Warp Engine Concept Sketch" by Rick Sternbach, February 18, 1987

Excerpt from the internal Star Trek: TNG Technical Primer, May 1, 1989

The Trek Files Season 14 on Memory Alpha
All episodes and documents: The Trek Files on Memory Alpha
Visit the Trekland site for behind-the-scenes access and exclusive merchandise.
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Long before The Next Generation brought LCARS to life or 3D printers made cosplay easier, Star Trek fans relied on one book to make the Enterprise feel real: The Starfleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph.
In this week's episode, Larry Nemecek welcomes back Karen Schnaubelt, daughter of Franz Joseph, to mark the 50th anniversary of that seminal 1975 publication, just weeks after its surprise appearance atop the New York Times bestseller list. More than just a how-to guide for warp drives and turbo lifts, the Tech Manual became a cornerstone of Trek fandom and helped lay the foundation for the Star Trek revival that followed.
Karen reflects on her father's unique journey from retired engineer to pop culture icon, how the Technical Manual grew out of lunch-hour sketches and club meetings, and what it was like watching fandom embrace a book that treated Star Trek like a living universe. Plus, Larry and Karen discuss how that very success may have stirred some tension in Gene Roddenberry's orbit.
Documents and additional references: The New York Times Book Review – January 4, 1976
The Trek Files Season 14 on Memory Alpha
All episodes and documents: The Trek Files on Memory Alpha
Visit the Trekland site for behind-the-scenes access and exclusive merchandise.
The conversation continues on Discord with live chats and the Roddenberry Podcasts community! Join today!

Writer/producer Mike Sussman returns to The Trek Files with a personal favorite: the creative and very meta preface to Gene Roddenberry's novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In it, Gene (writing as himself and as Admiral Kirk) casts the original Star Trek series as a fictionalized dramatization of real events. Wait… what?
Join Mike and Larry Nemecek as they unpack Roddenberry's playful (and possibly defensive) retcon of Trek canon, written at a time when Gene was emerging as a sci-fi thought leader in the post-Star Wars, post-lecture-circuit era. It's Roddenberry as revisionist historian, spinning group consciousness, mind control revolts, and alternate human evolution… all in the introduction to his own movie tie-in novel.
You may never look at the "real" Kirk, or Trek canon, the same way again.
Documents and additional references: Admiral Kirk's Preface, Star Trek: The Motion Picture novelization by Gene Roddenberry (1979)
Reference: Star Trek: The Motion Picture novelization – Memory Alpha
The Trek Files Season 14 on Memory Alpha
All episodes and documents: The Trek Files on Memory Alpha
Visit the Trekland site for behind-the-scenes access and exclusive merchandise.
The conversation continues on Discord with live chats and the Roddenberry Podcasts community! Join today!

What happens when your sci-fi franchise is also a part-time science think tank? This week, Rick Sternbach returns to The Trek Files to discuss a set of internal memos he and Michael Okuda sent to the TNG production team, an essential peek behind the curtain at how plausible science and week-to-week TV production collided during the Berman era.
These "tech notes" weren't just background noise. They helped shape the direction of key episodes, lent credibility to futuristic concepts like nanotechnology and AI, and quietly preserved Trek's internal logic. From computer core comparisons to white dwarf fragments, Rick walks us through how the art department helped make the 24th century feel real and even got a line read by Scotty.
Whether you're a longtime fan of the TNG Technical Manual or just someone who geeks out over starship systems, this one's for you.
Documents and Additional References:
Technical Memo: "Evolution" – notes on nanotechnology, AI behavior, and micro-replication systems in TNG S3E1

Technical Memo: "Hollow Pursuits" – science commentary and plausible extrapolations for the episode's holodeck failure storyline

Technical Memo: "The Most Toys" – suggestions on transporter physics and energy beam effects

Naren Shankar (science advisor and writer, TNG Seasons 3–7)

Joan Pearce (continuity consultant, Roddenberry-era Star Trek)

The Trek Files Season 14 on Memory Alpha
All episodes and documents: The Trek Files on Memory Alpha
Visit the Trekland site for behind-the-scenes access and exclusive merchandise.
The conversation continues on Discord with live chats and the Roddenberry Podcasts community! Join today!

Before Star Trek: Discovery unmasked the Breen in season 5, they were little more than an enigma in the Trek canon, name-dropped but rarely seen. This week on The Trek Files, Discovery writer and producer Carlos Cisco joins us to talk about tracing those first cryptic mentions of the Breen, buried in The Next Generation scripts for "The Loss" and "Hero Worship," and how they helped inspire the character of L'ak and a new chapter in Star Trek storytelling. Carlos reflects on working with the Discovery team to shape the Breen arc and what it means to tell stories that are simultaneously new and rooted in Trek history.
Along the way, we look at how offhand script references from 1990 can fuel major plot threads decades later and how today's writers sometimes find the best inspiration in yesterday's margins.
Don't miss this conversation about canon archaeology and how the smallest details can echo across centuries.
Documents and additional references:  "The Loss" (TNG Season 4, Episode 10) – Final Script Pages (1990)
"Hero Worship" (TNG Season 5, Episode 11) – Script Pages (1991)
Character Reference: L'ak - L'ak on Memory Alpha
For more on the Breen - Breen on Memory Alpha
The Trek Files Season 14 on Memory Alpha
All episodes and documents: The Trek Files on Memory Alpha
Visit the Trekland site for behind-the-scenes access and exclusive merchandise.
The conversation continues on Discord with live chats and the Roddenberry Podcasts community! Join today!