A Question of Trek is a comedy panel show, as the title suggests, about Star Trek. Made by fans, it broadcasts live on YouTube every Saturday night.
In its first season, the show was solely a comedy panel show with a rotating cast of guest panellists accompanying two team captains. After their introduction in episode 8 of season two however, the show now opens with an animated sketch comedy cartoon by way of introduction.
The show features a four-person main cast of Quiz Master (Continuum Trek, who voices Captain Conti in the animations) and Score Keeper (Professor Brainy Specs, who voices Admiral Brains in the animations); plus two Team Captains (TrekCatCatCat and Starfleet Boy in season 1, Scarlet Trekkie and Zoë Kirk-Robinson in season 2). Each week the teams are bolstered by a guest contestant; usually a Star Trek fan from the Question of Trek audience, but occasionally one or more guests will be a prominent member of the YouTube Star Trek community.
There are five rounds in each episode: a round of single answer questions, a round of two answer questions, a "guess the person/ship" round (which the audience fondly refers to as "Pixellated Rikers" after one notable instance where the image to guess wasn't obscured enough to make it a challenge), a round where the teams ask each other questions, and finally a round where the teams ask the Quiz Master a question. If the scores are close at the end of the episode, members of the audience get to ask tie-breaker questions.
The show is heavy on audience interaction and is more interested in banter than actually determining a winner.
This show provides examples of:
- Author Appeal: Scarlet Trekkie's love of Star Trek: Enterprise comes up rather a lot.
- Berserk Button: Don't try to tell Admiral Brainy Specs that Star Trek III is based on, or a sequel to, Spock's Brain. Similarly, Zoë will "fight you" if you try to claim the canon Enterprise-F isn't an Odyssey-class ship.
- Big "NO!": Admiral Brainy Specs provides one at the end of the second intro cartoon.
- The Cameo: Dr Zoidberg is helping in sick bay during the second intro cartoon. In the same episode, two of the team captains from series one are on the bridge.
- Catchphrase: Whenever it's time for the round where quiz master Continuum Trek has to answer questions instead of ask them, he will invariably try to end the show early by declaring the quiz is over and thank everyone for watching. Also, Zoë's "Unearned points!" cheer whenever Continuum Trek gets her team's name wrong; earning the team a bonus point.
- Cool Ship: The USS Robinson, the Nebula-class starship the crew fly about in.
- Evolving Credits: The first series has no credits, neither does the early part of the second series. Then the cartoons start, with a version based on original Star Trek. When the new ship arrives, the credits are replaced again.
- The Points Mean Nothing: Each team is trying to win the game but there is no prize, it's all about the game itself.
- Running Gag: Zoë often mentions visiting "reallyhardstartrekquestions dot com" to get some questions to stump Continuum Trek.
- Take That!: Zoë's "Computer, end franchise!" line while discussing Enterprise taking new Star Trek off the air for a decade.
- Unexpectedly Obscure Answer: Oh so, so many. It's a quiz that actively embraces Star Trek minutiae, after all. There are some very specific instances, however.
- Scarlet Trekkie: What is the name of the Nebula-class ship that appears in the Deep Space Nine intro sequence during the dominion war?
Continuum trek: That's not even mentioned in the show!
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Continuum Trek and Admiral Brainy Specs.
