Best Pick with John Dorney, Jessica Regan and Tom Salinsky

Episode 317. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Released 30 April 2025

Today we watched two contrasting episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. We kicked off with an episode from the fifth season, the celebratory romp Trials and Tribble-ations in which the 24th century crew revisits the action of the classic original series episode The Trouble with Tribbles. Pretty much all the senior writing staff had a go at this one. The story is credited to Ira Steven Behr, Hans Beimler and Robert Hewitt Wolfe and the teleplay to Ronald D Moore and René Echevarria. It was directed by Jonathan West, and it was first shown on 4 November 1996.

We followed this up with In the Pale Moonlight from towards the end of the sixth season, airing on 15 April 1998. The story is by Peter Allan Fields and the screenplay is credited to Michael Taylor, although Ronald D Moore heavily rewrote it. It was directed by Victor Lobl and it earned the full five stars from me (in fact, both episodes did).

These and hundreds more episodes are covered in the second volume of my Star Trek chronicle which is now available from all the usual places, including…

• From the publisher https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Star-Trek-Discovering-the-TV-Series-Hardback/p/51781
• UK Amazon https://amzn.to/4lzI1hN
• US Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Discovering-Voyager-1993-1999/dp/1399034995
• UK bookstore https://www.waterstones.com/book/star-trek-discovering-the-tv-series/tom-salinsky/9781399034999
• US bookstore https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/star-trek-tom-salinsky/1146305492?ean=9781399034999

To send in your questions, comments, thoughts and ideas, you can join our Facebook group, find us on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/bestpickpod.bsky.social or email us on bestpickpod@gmail.com. You can also visit our website at https://bestpickpod.com and sign up to our mailing list to get notified as soon as a new episode is released. Just follow this link: http://eepurl.com/dbHO3n.

Best Pick with John Dorney, Jessica Regan and Tom Salinsky

Episode 316: Oscars 2025

Released 3 March 2025

For this episode, we quickly recapped the 97th Academy Awards which were broadcast in the UK in the early hours of Monday 3 March 2025.

BEST PICK – the book is available now from all the usual places, and the paperback is out now.

• From the publisher https://tinyurl.com/best-pick-book-rowman
• UK Amazon https://amzn.to/3zFNATI
• US Amazon https://www.amzn.com/1538163101
• UK bookstore https://www.waterstones.com/book/9781538163108
• US bookstore https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/best-pick-john-dorney/1139956434
• Audio book https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Best-Pick-Audiobook/B09SBMX1V4

To send in your questions, comments, thoughts and ideas, you can join our Facebook group, email us on bestpickpod@gmail.com, or find us on Bluesky.

You can also visit our website at https://bestpickpod.com and sign up to our mailing list to get notified as soon as a new episode is released. Just follow this link: http://eepurl.com/dbHO3n.

If you enjoy this podcast and you’d like to help us to continue to make it, you can now support us on Patreon for as little as £2.50 per month, but please be aware that future releases will continue to be sporadic.

Best Pick with John Dorney, Jessica Regan and Tom Salinsky

Episode 315: Jeanne Dielman

Released 12 February 2025

For this episode, we watched the 1975 film Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, written and directed by Chantal Akerman and starring Delphine Seyrig. As well as holding a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the film unexpectedly topped the 2022 Sight & Sound poll of the greatest movies ever made. We take the opportunity to explore what this poll is, how it has changed over seventy years, and what films we would have put on our lists, had we been asked.

• https://princecharlescinema.com/savethepcc/
• Sight and Sound Top Tens https://bestpickpod.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/The-Sight-and-Sound-Survey-top-tens-1.pdf
• https://thefilmstage.com/watch-a-behind-the-scenes-documentary-on-the-making-of-jeanne-dielman
• https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/q-a-with-chantal-akerman-jeanne-dielman-three-decades-later/
• John Cage’s 4’33” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEFKFiXSx4

BEST PICK – the book is available now from all the usual places, and the paperback is out on 18 February.

• From the publisher https://tinyurl.com/best-pick-book-rowman
• UK Amazon https://amzn.to/3zFNATI
• US Amazon https://www.amzn.com/1538163101
• UK bookstore https://www.waterstones.com/book/9781538163108
• US bookstore https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/best-pick-john-dorney/1139956434
• Audio book https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Best-Pick-Audiobook/B09SBMX1V4

To send in your questions, comments, thoughts and ideas, you can join our Facebook group, email us on bestpickpod@gmail.com, or find us on Bluesky.

You can also visit our website at https://bestpickpod.com and sign up to our mailing list to get notified as soon as a new episode is released. Just follow this link: http://eepurl.com/dbHO3n.

If you enjoy this podcast and you’d like to help us to continue to make it, you can now support us on Patreon for as little as £2.50 per month, but please be aware that future releases will continue to be sporadic.