Jordan, Jesse, GO! - SNEAK PEEK - To Be Watched: Star Trek III, with Andy Secunda

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

Welcome to the fourth episode of To Be Watched, the Jordan Jesse Go spinoff podcast where we go through all the movies we've been meaning to watch. This time around, we're talking Star Trek III The Search for Spock with special guest Andy Secunda! Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinjjgo

Hi, and welcome to To Be Watched, the JJGo spin-off podcast where Jesse and I, I'm Jordan Morris, we watch movies that have been in our cues for far too long. This month, it's my pick, and my pick was Star Trek 3, The Search for Spock. Theme song, You've got a list in your pocket. Movies and shows you ain't caught yet. And just like you, they got. Films in the queue, it's Jordan and Jesse's to be watched. Yeah. And if you're listening to this and it cuts off after 15 minutes or so, that means you're not a max fun member. Join the club and get access to the rest of this episode and so, so much more. Maximumfund.org slash join J.J. Go. Jesse, this is an exciting episode for many reasons.

Sure. I've been looking at pornography for hours. but without orgasming. So I am, the amount of excited that I am, holy cow, I'm so excited. We've got a, if you're detecting a bit of gooning energy, if this episode seems like it has a kind of a gooning quality to it, it's because Jesse's been goonin' all day long.

Contribute to the ultimate gooner. Yes, that's right. Spock from Star Trek. That's right. Oh, that guy never came. And his sexual paintings. Very special because not only are we going into this with BGE, Big Gooning Energy,

but we also have a special guest who is uniquely qualified to talk about this movie. He's a comedy writer and one of the hosts of the Star Trek podcast, Star Trek, The Next Conversation. It's Andy Sikunda. Hi, Andy. Hi, guys. Thank you for having me on this clearly very classy podcast. It's very classy.

Feel free to talk about jacking off or whatever. I mean, we don't care. I'm going to put it all in obviously in the context of Spock building up his katra by gooning. Yes. During his pawn far. That's right. We'll get into it. Oh, boy.

We're going to get into it. You know, once you have your pond far, that's when you can really have your cream fresh, if you know what I mean. She just. Oh, yeah. Now, is this just behind the, the paywall content? Or this is the way it is all the time? No, this is the normal podcast.

You've been on the normal podcast. Sure, I have. It's been a minute. But, yeah, I mean, it's, you know, it's all just jack off stuff. You're here for two big reasons. The first reason is because you're a hilarious guy. Thank you. We love you.

And we're glad to have you here. Always happy to see you. Two, you're here for the audience. I think Jesse and I, and Jesse, correct me if I'm wrong, if I'm mischaracterizing this, Jesse and I think are kind of medium Star Trek guys, right? Like, it was on a lot, you know, as children of the 80s and 90s, it was on TV a lot. Maybe not quite our thing, but we've seen some of the movies. Maybe we've been into a couple of the shows, but, you know, it's something that kind of comes

and goes from our life. And we will, in talking about Star Trek 3, the search for Spock, we will get some stuff wrong and it will cause the audience to be angry. There will be swerving their cars. They'll be knocking books off the shelf in the library where they work because we are getting stuff wrong about Star Trek. You, as a Star Trek guy who hosts a podcast, you can gently correct us and kind of be the voice of the audience who will be mad at us for getting things wrong.

This is absolutely the position I do not want to be in with Star Trek fans. Sorry. Don't worry. He's the one who's the authority. Because on Star Trek the next conversation, Matt Meyer, my co-host, is more the authority. And I can, and he hates it whenever I go. But what is this? He's like, I don't know.

Why are you pointing the gun at me? But I'll do the best I can. Okay. Jesse, am I characterizing your Star Trek fandom correctly and lumping you in with me, medium Star Trek guy. I'm going to put myself at medium low. So like a heavy simmer. You know what I mean?

Like a roiling simmer. I watched Star Trek the next generation when it was on television because it was on channel 44 sometimes when I was 10. So I did that. I've seen several but not all of the regular Star Trek movies. And I watched the first of the new Star Trek movies. And I got a little. little annoyed about the needle drops, but I otherwise enjoyed it. Oh, and I also watch a couple of

episodes of the new Star Trek shows briefly when I had Paramount Plus. And I thought that that one that people like was pretty good. I, you're probably talking about strange new worlds, Jesse. I have gotten re-into Star Trek shit because I like Strange New Worlds so much. Now, I acknowledge that the quality from season to season has been, I'll say all over the place. But I like the vibe of the show. I like my sexy, sexy friends on the ship. So I'm kind of along for the ride with that show. But, you know, it's a little all over the place, but I think the fun shit is really fun. Andy, where did your Star Trek fandom start? It started with the original series, TOS, with Shetner and Nimoy, the start.

of the film what we're going to discuss. This is when you were a kid in the 60s? When I was as a child in the 60s. Not that far off, but they were in reruns by the time it got to me. I wonder how many people have walked this road also. I was originally more, even though I was always sort of a sci-fi fan from when I was a child, I think I started as more of a Star Wars fan. And then I think it was more toward my early teens that then I just

discovered, what some might argue, more of a thinking man's sci-fi Star Trek. And then I became a real diehard. It also sort of went hand in hand with wrath of Khan coming out. I would argue one of the greatest movies of all time. So it really, it really energized everything. And I held out for a long time on Next Generation, which is sort of the inception of Star Trek, the next conversation because I had watched a couple of episodes and I was like, this is like a hotel lobby. I'm out. And I was like, I am not watching this show.

And, you know, I would watch every like some of the Borg stuff here and there. But really, I would stay away from it. Sure. Have you seen that queen? Yabo! Which one? So many versions of her. Oh, you know, I recently watched first contact, which I've heard people say is like kind of

the sneaky great Star Trek movie, and I loved it. Sure. There was a Bork Queen in that. Yeah. I watched that in the movie theater with my dad. Hey, there you go. I'll assimilate with her any day. The Boy.

Nice. That is an interesting poll. Which one are people, do people find the most hot out of the Borg Queens? All right, guys. You and your boys shooting some pool. It's classic poolhole conversation. yeah. It indicates to me you're a level of Star Trek fandom, Jordan, that you refer to first contact as a sneaky, sneakily considered the great one, whereas it amongst common knowledge,

basically? Amongst our, amongst the diehards, I think it's just like, a lot of people will pick that over wrath of con, which to me is, is not, not a fair estimation. But it is definitely. Wouldn't beat Jordan Jesse Go if we weren't phrasing a cold take like a hot take. I mean, all of these are great contestants in the race to be the second best Star Trek movie after Star Trek 4. Do you love Star Trek 4? Yeah. My connection to Star Trek is primarily through two things. One is Star Trek 4, which came out when I was like seven and was set in San Francisco where I was born and raised.

And then, and fit my preferred genre, which is Fish Out of Water Comedy. I had already fall in love, I think, by that point with Crocodile Dundee. And so I wanted to see a more Crocodile Dundee-like take on the Star Trek universe. It is wild how that movie comes after this one that we watched. Yes. That pivot was very hard. And then my other big connection with Star Trek, I think, is having been to the Star Trek the Next Generation theme bar in Las Vegas before it closed, but after it lost the Star Trek

license. From the Star Trek experience. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, it was in a casino that I was in for a conference. And we went out for drinks at this bar. And I said, this looks a lot like a Star Trek, the next generation set. Yeah. And somebody was like, yes, it used to be Star Trek themed until they lost the Star Trek

license. So they just took down the Star Trek words and left everything else. Oh, I see. Oh, it's post it actually being the Star Trek experience. Yeah. Yeah. I actually had a chance to see that, and they had a motion ride, and it was Quarks Bar, and all this stuff was there, which is a reference to Deep Space Nine.

And I was online with my friend, and at that point, I had not yet become a next generation diehard as I am now. And so I was like, eh, this line is too long. And it's one of my eternal regrets that I did not get to experience it. For 30 years you've sat and watched. Now it's your turn to enter the 24th century. Well, yeah, let's start talking about Star Trek the experience at the Las Vegas Water. This time, it's real. Well, yeah, let's start talking about Star Trek 3, the search for Spock. So it starts out, we get a little repiping of the final events of Star Trek 2, The Wrath of Khan.

I think what everybody says is like, hey, if you want to watch an entertaining on its own Star Trek movie, you know, without a lot of lore gunk, that's the one to do it. So I've seen that movie a lot. I don't think I've ever seen it. I thought I had seen it, but it didn't seem familiar. So maybe I haven't seen it. If I did see it, I probably saw it when I was 10. You got Ricardo VHS. Put the earwig in the ear.

These were the... Ricardo Montabon is a man out of time. So you could say that he's sort of the crocodile Dundee of that movie. That's a really good point. Jesse's in. So we get a repiping of the events of Star Trek 2. And let me see if I can... I almost went back and looked at the Star Trek 2 wiki.

Yeah. Because I knew we were going to have to talk about it. But let me see if I could do it from memory. didn't do it. Okay. So at the end of Star Trek 2, Spock gets into some sort of self-sacrifice chamber. Now, that's a chamber you go into when the plot requires you to make a noble sacrifice. Yes. And no one else can get in the chamber for some reason.

The needs of the many outweigh. The needs of the few. Or the one. I have been. And always shall be. your friend live long and prosper. And when maybe you would like to be written out of the Star Trek franchise? Yes.

Is that what happened, Andy? Because he, you know, this is, as the title will spoil, this is about Spot coming back to life. Was that actually what was going on? Do you know? That is the, it's, there's been a, there's been a, it's a very storied history of people, different Star Trek actors experiences with their characters and the fan base. And Nimoy, who did come out with a, was it a book or an album that was called I Am Not Spock? I believe it was a book.

It's his book, yeah. His autobiography was called I Am Not Spock. So that sort of indicates where he stands. I think that there was some incident where people would come up to him and ask him to, to heal them, these kinds of things. And he had just was on his last nerve with it. And so I think that he was just like, hey, just, I think, I think it might have been a prerequisite even to doing Star Trek 2, because Star Trek 1, even though it had done

okay, it was not well thought of because it was tended to be a little bit more slow. And so he was like, I'll come back as long as you kill me. And then I believe a prerequisite of three is I'll come back. for the franchise as long as I can direct it, which he did. Andy, sorry to interrupt. When you say Star Trek 1, you're referring to Star Trek the static photograph? That's right. Just the just the just the photo.

So then, yeah, and then there you go. And then he directed 4-2, which I definitely without hands down the funniest of them. which indicate his abilities as a director in that particular department. This one was funnier than I remember it, seeing it. Yeah, there's some good laughs in this. Yeah, I sure are. Well, yeah, so we repipe the events of two. Spock is in some sort of self-sacrifice chamber,

and the kind of McGuffin from two is something called the Genesis engine or the Genesis torpedo or something. Genesis device. Genesis device. Thank you. Thank you. Look, whatever it's called, it does what Nintendo. Right. And what happens is you shoot it at a dead planet and it creates a world where you can play Sonic the Hedgehog and NHL-94.

And so, yeah, you shoot it at a dead planet or an asteroid and it creates life immediately through a process called the Genesis effect. That's right. which extends, as this movie tells us, also to creatures and beings. Yes, can also bring a character back to life who was previously tired of the franchise. That's the real thing it heals. Yeah, right. Is your endurance for your work in the franchise? Yeah.

So, yeah, we kind of get the last scenes of two. You have, you know, Spock saying the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. and then he says to Kirk, I have always been and always shall be your friend. And, you know, they had, you know, kind of an oil and water relationship. But this was them saying that, you know, despite the, you know, arguing they've done over the years

and the differences of opinion, they're friends. Beautiful moment, beautiful relationship. I think you, you say it's an oil and water relationship. I guess I would describe it as a Shatner and others relationship. Yeah, William Shatner and other people he's working with. I can't help. Wait, are you talking about it? oil and oil and water as the character relationship or the off-screen relationship?

I was like kind of on, I guess the character, you know, cold logical Spock and hot-headed, Dick Swing, and Kirk, you know. It's really more McCoy, who is, who holds, as I'm sure you're about to get to, the Spock's essence, is Katra in his head. Him and Spock really had more of the oil and water relationship. And then Kirk was sort of the pivot point. between them. Thank you.

Andy, this is why you're here. Now I do feel useful. So, yeah, so we're now in this reality where Spock has seemingly died, but there is this world out there, which has been, had the Genesis effect applied to it. But for some reason, like, it's a big, you know, the start, the Federation doesn't like it for reasons that I was unclear on. They don't like the Genesis effect. They don't want anybody to know about.

the Genesis planet. I do want me to explain now or do you want me to? Would you please? Yes. So I think it's, yeah. First of all. Yes. We wanted to do a presentation at the end, Andy.

Yeah. Did you bring a PowerPoint? Okay. Let me just get my keynote up. I, it definitely, it illustrates how many, how many, how, how, how, how, how multi-leveled the, the Mcuffinness of the Genesis devices is in these movies in that it creates new life on a dead planet. It creates new life in a being, but also it destroys the life that is there, which is why the Klingons are interested in it. It's the ultimate weapon as well as a thing

that can recreate life. And so I think really the last point, independent of how well it works to create new life, is why the, why the Federation has it as like, you know, a restricted planet that you can't go to. Thank you. So yes, you mentioned Klingons. Well, they're coming up next. We see a kind of a, what I'm thinking of as kind of like a pirate spaceship,

some like junker kind of space pirate guys. And they're on a ship with a Klingon woman who, fun fact, is the most attractive person ever to appear on film. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. Very attractive Klingon woman. She is talking to her like,

Klingon mother's ship. I think the guy is, This is Christopher Lloyd. What's the Klingon character's name that he's playing here, Andy? Krug. Krugue. Yeah, so Christopher. All Klingons are named after Champaigns.

Yeah. And we have his Admiral Paul Masson. Ah, the French. Ah, the Klingons. Is that the champagne that Orson Wells was advertising when he was traveling? That's correct. Action, please. The French.

Champagne has always been celebrated for its excellence. There is a California champagne by poor Mason. I know a lot of stuff, and I'm good. Anyway, they also have a cool dog. They have like a slime dog there. Slime dog's really cool. A lot of, you know, fun, practical puppet creatures in this. Yes, not a targ for the insiders.

I thought it would be a targ, which is a Klingon dog that is frequently referred to, a creature that some have his pets, even though they're deadly. And it was not, apparently. It was just... It's called a P-A-W-G. Because of its juicy ass, right? Oh, the ass on this slime dog. Baboom!

It is a cool ass. I think slime dog might be my favorite part of the whole movie, frankly. Yeah. And more of a slime-dog tits guy, but, you know, I could appreciate it. You know what? I hope whoever invented that slime dog, came a millionaire. Me too.

Slime dog millionaire, one of also my favorite films. There you go. Fantastic. What a podcast. Maximum Fun. A worker-owned network of artists-owned shows. Supported directly by you.