BackTrekking returns again to look back at the real-world inspirations of classic Trek episodes!

It's tough to improve on Shakespeare. Sure, the guy's got a cultural monopoly going since he happened to write his plays in English, and America exports more culture than we do bullets. But you have to admit, the guy's pretty good. It would be the height of hubris then, you'd have to agree, to try and rewrite one of his most famous and beloved plays in an attempt to give it a more raw and modern take on power and politics. And an expanded role for Falstaff, 'natch. And yet, Australian actor and former thin person Joel Edgerton did exactly that for his Netflix "Henry V" adaptation, "The King". This contemporary revision of Shakespeare's mostly nakedly propagandistic play strips out the impassioned speeches, the racial tensions, and most of the poignancy of a treatise on the responsibilities of a head of state that still has something to teach modern audiences, 400 years after it was first performed on stage.

Meanwhile, 1000 years after Henry and his men landed on the beaches of Normandy, Captain Jean-Luc Picard finds himself weighing the same responsibilities and consequences that Henry did on the night before Agincourt. A Romulan admiral has risked ex-communication and death to defect across the Neutral Zone in order to warn Starfleet that the Romulan Empire has established a secret beachhead in anticipation of an all-out invasion of the Federation. Should Picard strike first and expose the Romulan plot, saving billions? Or is he leading his crew that is sworn to follow him into a trap and an ignoble death?

We're contemplating what makes a good king (or a good captain) this week, as we compare these two ruminations on war and rule. We also discuss "fixing" Shakespeare, drool acting, why Trek keeps going back to Shakespeare, the episode's unique premise, the unrealized potential of the Romulans, shouting=acting, and the Data ex Machina. We also talk about the double double-cross, pocket Klingons, Falstaff 3000, manic pixie dream fille, Jared Leto's the Dauphin, manipulators gonna manipulate, the Koala Krew, Gooey's got questions, Kal's got answers, and our all-time best Technological Exchange!

We got swords, they got swords, all God's children got swords!

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