The Delta Flyers - Drive

Episode Date: March 13, 2023

The Delta Flyers is a weekly Star Trek: Voyager rewatch & recap podcast hosted by Garrett Wang & Robert Duncan McNeill. Each week Garrett and Robert will rewatch an episode of Voyager starting at the very beginning. This week’s episode is Drive. Garrett and Robbie recap and discuss the episode, and share their insight as series regulars.Drive:With Janeway's approval, Paris enters the Delta Flyer in an interspecies, light-speed shuttle race held as a peace celebration.We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Executive producers Megan Elise & Rebecca McNeillAnd a special thanks to our Ambassadors, the guests who keep coming back, giving their time and energy into making this podcast better and better with their thoughts, input, and inside knowledge: Lisa Klink, Martha Hackett, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Robert Beltran, Tim Russ, Roxann Dawson, Kate Mulgrew, Brannon Braga, & Bryan FullerAdditionally we could not make this podcast available without our Co-Executive Producers: Stephanie Baker, Philipp Havrilla, Kelton Rochelle, Liz Scott, Eve England, Sab Ewell, Sarah A Gubbins, Jason M Okun, Luz R., Marie Burgoyne, Daniel de Rooy, Chris Knapp, Michelle Z, Janet K Harlow, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Courtney Lucas, Matthew Gravens, Elaine Ferguson, Brian Barrow, Captain Jeremiah Brown, Heidi Mclellan, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, John Espinosa, Deike Hoffmann, Mike Gu, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Vikki Williams, Kelly Brown, Lee Lisle, Mary Beth Lowe, William McEvoy, Sarah Thompson, Samantha Hunter, Holly Smith, Amy Tudor, Adm. Bill "Seoulman" Yu, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Ashley Stokey, Lori Tharpe, Mary Burch, AJC, Nicholaus Russell, Dominique Weidle, Lisa Robinson, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Alex Mednis, AJ Freeburg, Elizabeth Stanton, Kayla Knilans, Barbara S., Tim Beach, Ariana, Meg Johnson, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, Holly Schmitt, James H. Morrow, Christopher Arzeberger, Megan Chowning, Tae Phoenix, Nicole Anne Toma, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Daniel O’Brien, Bronwen Duffield, Brandon May, Andrew Duncan, David Buck, Jeremy Mcgraw, Ali S, Danie Crofoot, Ian Ramsey, Feroza Mehta, Michael Dismuke, Jonathan Brooks, Gemma Laidler, Rob Traverse, & Penny LiuAnd our Producers:James Amey, Patrick Carlin, Richard Banaski, Ann Harding, Chloe E, Nathanial Moon, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Jocelyn Pina, Mike Schaible, AJ Provance, Captain Nancy Stout, Claire Deans, Matthew Cutler, Maxine Soloway, Barbara Beck, Species 2571, Mary O'Neal, Aithne Loeblich, Dat Cao, Scott Lakes, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Tara Polen, Jenna Appleton, Jason Potvin, Cindy Ring, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Amber Nighbor, Jamason Isenburg, Mark G Hamilton, Rob Johnson, Maria Rosell, Heather Choe, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Jennifer Jelf, Justin Weir, Mike Chow, Kevin Hooker, Ryan Benoit, Rachel Shapiro, Eric Kau, Captain Jak Greymoon, David Wei Liu, Clark Ochikubo, David J Manske, Roxane Ray, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, E.G. Galano, Cindy Holland, Will Forg, Max Wilson, Ryan Tomei, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Russell Nemhauser, Lawrence Green, Christian Koch, Lisa Gunn, Lauren Rivers, Shane Pike, Jennifer B, & Dean ChewThank you for your support!“Our creations are protected by copyright, trademark and trade secret laws. Some examples of our creations are the text we use, artwork we create, audio, and video we produce and post. You may not use, reproduce, distribute our creations unless we give you permission. If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail].”Our Sponsors:* Check out Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/TDFSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Greetings, everybody. Welcome to the Delta Flyers with Tom and Harry as we journey through episodes of Star Trek Voyager. Your two hosts along this journey are my fellow Voyager actor, who from 2001 until 2004 also directed four episodes of Star Trek Enterprise, Mr. Robert Duncan McNeil and myself, your favorite forever. Renson, Garrett Wong. Remember, you can get the full version of this podcast by signing up to become a patron at patreon.com forward slash the Delta Flyers. Well, hello there. Four episodes of Enterprise.

Is that correct? I feel, I think that's right. I think I did one each year or something like that. One per season. Actually, I don't think I did any the last season of Enterprise. So you did two in season three, maybe? maybe something like that or two in one of the seasons yeah yeah i really enjoyed that cast it was a it was a lot of fun it was more serious than our cast who enterprise was more serious yeah but they but they all

embraced you with open arms though oh yeah i directed one of my episodes maybe the first one i directed i still had my the uniform that i stole i know you son of the show i saw that yeah and i wore it one day yeah yeah with my baseball hat my tennis shoes and the uniform I'm on and just trying to fit in, you know, and they laughed. I'm sure they did. But it's also helpful that everyone on crew was the same crew that we had. So it was almost like a seamless transition for you to direct on that show. I feel like, yeah, they were a very serious cast.

They were, you know, they were very professional and pretty serious. And I brought our Voyager energy, which was a little more fun, fun and silly. Two feet, yeah. And I wore the uniform one time. I remember I used to play music, which, you know, but during lighting setups that people would sometimes make. I love that you play music. That's distracting.

But I enjoyed it. I tried to bring our Voyager energy to the Enterprise. I hear you. And I love it. Yeah, it was fun. It's wonderful. All right. What is this week?

Oh, my goodness. So this week is the episode, Drive. So excited. You said something about that last week. I'm like, okay. I did. All right. Drive.

Yeah. I should probably be excited, too? Yeah, you should be very excited about this. Oh, okay. All right. So let's go watch this episode. Let's go watch it. We're right back with our recap and discussion of Drive,

which I hope Robbie would remember more than less, hopefully. We'll see. Okay. Hey, everyone, we're back from watching Drive. Wow. Okay, but before you say a thing, I just want to say, we didn't talk about this in the intro. I am now wearing

It's the Voyager shirt Which I will say Is the softest shirt you've ever? Yes, that's what I was going to get to. Next level is the brand of shirts that we use to print all our stuff on and they are supremely soft But this particular shirt is next level's ultra soft.

So it is softer than all of the other next level shirts so if you already own a delta flyer shirt that is not this design that's the soft but not as soft as this shirt unbelievable soft oh my gosh i yeah yeah i like it i think rebecca said it's something like it's called suaded cotton yes something like that so it's got like uh oh it's like butter it's like wearing butter who's the guy who's the guy that wearing butter doesn't sound comfortable, I know. So don't think of it as like messy butter. Think of it as wearing really clean butter. You're wearing clean butter. So you know Chris Pratt who plays Star Lord and Guardians in the Galaxy. Yes, he does a commercial for a t-shirt company. And it's basically him

touching a shirt and he's like, wow, this is, oh, this is so soft. I mean, wow. And it's funny. And it's funny because back in the old days when we were on the show, no celebrity or actor in Hollywood would do commercials on American television. They would do them in Japan or Europe or whatever, right? And then now, look at this, Chris Pratt's, you know, basically. He's doing a T-shirt commercial, but he's never touched our T-shirt. That's what I was going to say. I'm feeling like, yeah, I'm sure that's soft, but it's not as soft as this ultra-soft.

Unbelievable. It is unbelievable. And you can get this shirt, y'all, at the Dillard. Delta Flyers.org, our website. Just go to the merch store, our store there on deltaflyers.org. And you can see this wonderful. It's the Voyager shirt. So this shirt sold out in like 36 hours or something, the first round.

We've ordered more, but don't miss it because it's a cool shirt. Yeah, that second order probably won't last long to be honest. Yeah. All right. Let's get right into this. Let's do. written by Michael Taylor. Did you guess that? I can't remember. No, I did not guess that correctly because I said, I think I said,

Brian Fuller. Foller. You said, Brian Fuller. I remember. And you said, I think. Ken Biller, I think. Yes, you did. You said both wrong on the writer. Director, I can't believe you got it. I'm so, I know I told you. I told you. I told you, Robbie, I saw him at least a couple of times in the last couple seasons. And you feel like he had. I thought he left in like season four. He was just, I'm done.

No, I know he can't because it was like, every time I saw him, I was like, wow, you're back again. Because, you know, we got so used to him. He was our first director. He directed the pilot. He was the pilot episode director. And we all enjoyed his directing style. And we loved him.

We really did. He's a great sense of humor. And whenever I saw him in the later seasons, I was a, you're back. So that's why I threw his name out. I, you know. I can't believe it. I thought it was Mike Vahar, I think. Yeah.

Well, a broken clock will be right twice a day. And that was what happened for me. Go ahead. Guest stars, we have Sia Batten as Arena. Stia Batten, her first job was a TV movie maybe or a pilot that didn't get picked up. They used to make pilots. If they didn't get picked up, they'd air them as like a movie special. Yeah.

But the show was Weird World and I didn't put the date down, but it was right around this time. It was right around like 98 or something. Weird World or 2000 was her first job. What is it? A TV show or a feature film? What is it? I think it was a TV movie, like a TV pilot that, yeah. Weird World.

I don't know. There you go. I don't know. That's her first job. You remember her? Do you remember her now, that outfit? Yes, vaguely, I remember her. She was also, Cia Baton was also on Deep Space Nine.

She played Gold Ducott's daughter, I think. Oh, I didn't know that. Wait, so she did that before Voyager? Or was that after Voyager? Must have been right before. Interesting. Because this is our last season. Yeah, DS9 was off the air at this point.

She's also a really good singer. Yeah, she was like a dancer singer or something. Something like that, because I saw. her, you know, I saw some, it was, gosh, I feel like it was somewhere in, somewhere in West Hollywood area, but I went, I, I, I saw her name being advertised and I went. Yeah. I didn't even tell her. And then at the end of the thing, the performance, she saw me. She's like, oh my God, what are you doing here? I said, no, I just came to support you. So, yeah, so she's very talented. Our other actor is Brian George playing Ozol, the ambassador. Oh, yes. Right?

Yeah. And Brian George was born in Israel. He's Israeli. He's Israeli, but his family emigrated. He looks like he's Indian. Well, his family was from India. I got that right. I got that right.

They moved to Israel. Yeah. Emigrated to Israel. He was born there. Then he grew up in England. And then his first job as an actor was in Canada, a sitcom called the King of Kensington, 19, He was in the King of Kensington, a Canadian sitcom about a convenience store in Kensington Avenue in Toronto or something. Wow.

Brian George. Yeah. He was also. I've seen his face, though. I've seen his face around. Yes. He's best known as Babu Bot on Seinfeld. Oh, my gosh.

He has Babu Bot. So Brian George, yeah. It was good to see his face. I thought he was very. he was great does a lot of comedy we have patrick killpatrick back on our show as a son he was razik or rosic in initiations the the kizan episode yeah uh we've talked about patrick kill patrick patrick is all i'm all in acting he is a hundred and fifty yeah oh my gosh but you love that though you got to love a guy that says like i'm i'm i'm in 135 percent over

he's a method actor even there's a shot in this episode even a shot a reaction shot where it just cuts to him in the briefing room yeah and his eyes are sideways and you can see he's like he is so method actor even in a reaction shot i gotta tell you we got to get him on this show are you kidding me that'd be amazing that'd be a great interview i i don't know i don't know if we talked about patrick's first job when he when he was on initiation yeah what is say he was on the soap opera, The Edge of Night. Oh, I remember that. Yeah.

Old soap, one of the original, the OG soaps back in the 80s. They filmed that in New York, that one? They did, yeah. That was New York based. Oh, my God. I don't even think that. Does that exist now? No.

I don't think there's only a couple left, but there used to be dozens of them. All day long were soap operas, and the edge of night was a OG, classic, you know, big time soap. Yeah. Okay. And one other Patrick Kilpatrick-Patrick credit. if we've never talked about it. Right around 1984, when he got on the edge of night, he also did the classic low-budget horror film,

The Toxic Avenger. Oh, my gosh. The Toxic Avenger was the original Troma Studios' first film that launched them as a studio and a cheesy horror film company. Oh, yeah. He was in the first one, Toxic Avenger, yeah. Have you seen that? I think right half years ago.

Oh, my God. It's crazy pants. It's so cheesy. It's the best. It really is. Toxic Avenger. And then we also have Robert Tyler as Joxham. His first film, his first job was 1983, the feature film Easy Money with Rodney Dangerfield. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. And the last thing we have was the assistant who was just on a view screen, I think, talking to Brian

George as the ambassador yeah um that is the assistant the actor was chris kovic's okay uh Voyager was his first job well there you go yeah congrats to mr covice let's do a little uh poetry synops sure all right here we go uh my haiku for drive tom enters peace race but Lana want some romance evil plan thwarted do you like my use of the word

thwarted thwarted yes I like it all right thanks okay here's here's my limerick for drive

the Delta Flyer is back from the dead in the space race Tom wants to come in ahead arena makes a bad choice but PT shippers rejoice because somewhere off-screen

Tom and Balana get wed. Oh, that's a good one. I like it. I thank you. I can't believe I forgot like when we were trying to remember this episode. Yeah. I remember the outfits.

I don't remember the Tom and Bolana get married. I don't remember anything. I just remember the costume. That was what I all I remembered. And this is a big episode for both of us. This is a huge episode, yeah, for Tom and Harry and Balana as well. And you just remember their uniforms, but you know, it is what it is. It's fine. Now you remember, are you happy that you finally got to see this again after all these years? Okay. Okay. So when we start, we are

in the Delta Flyer. Paris and Harry are testing this rebuilt Delta Flyer. And my first thought was, wait, what? We're testing the Delta Flyer. We just saw it in the last episode. And the episodes are out of order. We already talked about that. We talked about this, but it's just like, can't they, wouldn't they fix some loop, some dialogue or something? Nope. No.

Yeah, we're in the newly completed Delta Flyer. Paris is, you know, piloting away. Yeah. Were any of the controls different? No, they're all the same, right? Exactly the same. Yeah, that's exactly the same. we're flying through this asteroid field

and we're flipping sideways and going straight up and I have to say I wish that we had done like the G forces more dramatically in the shots because it was kind of normal I wish the camera had been shaking or we had been you know acting a little more intensely

and I feel that way through a lot of this that the flying if we're if we're talking about race car like think about race car movies like think about the intense coverage. You know, if you're turning a corner, if you're in a rally car and it's like sliding and none of that was very dramatic through the whole episode.

No, but, you know, part of that's on me too. Like some of my reactions I should have had, or my lines, there should have been more at stake. You know, I felt like there was a little light. It just felt like, oh, we're driving up. Yeah, it should have really made you feel like, whoa, they're hitting high speeds. but it should have been a team conversation with all of us through this and and the later stuff

yeah but what not only i think did we not play it as intensely but then when you cut outside so we're flying through this asteroid field testing the thing yeah you know harry's kind of nervous tom's like pushing the you know the edges and trying to fly past these rocks this very crowded asteroid field but then when it cuts outside yeah we're like going we're like limping along past these asteroids like they're not going they're just kind of going slowly i was like what so true what i don't get it anyway we were not going very fast but a ship pulls up alongside of us yeah and there's a cool shot below tom through the moonroof i love what we're using this moonroof shots uh-huh another ship pulls up alongside of us yeah and

It scans us, and Harris hails them, asks for some identification. We hear a woman's voice. Yeah. But instead of identifying herself, she starts listing off the parts she scanned. Vector exhaust ports, accelerated driver coils. It's like pillow talk. It sounded like, and Tom's like, yeah, let's talk parts, car parts. He's into it.

It was bizarre. this was like tom's 9-7-6 phone line call to some you know sexy call person yeah she's like hey you want to you want to race to that comet over there she's like and and tom's into it he's ready for a drag race and yeah Barry's like what are you doing I know but the way you're talking to her you were flirty McFlurdy I was thinking like I don't know what you know everyone who's a PT shipper is feeling for Torres because of your you were super flirty in this it was pretty flirty and and I think what I was playing I hope I think was oh we're talking about cars yeah oh okay so this was that you were getting into the whole yeah the whole yeah the machine thing you know yeah this is the fast machine

that I've yeah I'm driving and yeah I love this kind of talk well it came off otherwise yeah I don't disagree yeah but it was like both sides of it yep Like, you know, she should have leaned into the, wait, vectored exhaust ports. Oh, gosh, accelerated driver coil. Like, lean into that sexy talk instead of, oh, you're a dude, I'm a girl. Yeah. I hear you. I hear you.

The main problem with this scene was the stakes weren't high enough in the very beginning. You should be barely within inches. Yeah, we should have been hitting that asteroid and banking that thing. Oh, yeah. It should be like a freaking roller coaster ride. at six flags you know you should be going all over the place but you don't see that but other and then like you said the reactions of both both of our dialogues we kind of underplayed them for sure in this but i will say this i think the other scenes after this with tom and harry are some of the best

smoothest easygoing banter between this yeah there's some great scenes yes yeah anyway she invites him to a drag race, Paris takes off. Harry suggests using the new impulse thrusters. I guess we added something here and we cut outside and these impulse thrusters look pretty cool. They fold out from the back for glowing. And then we shoot off and pass the other vessel. That is your nitrous oxide right there. That's my nitrous oxide if we're talking cars. But this is where the shot outside where we pass her. I was like, we start going by like this, but the asteroids are just slowly, like, why are the asteroids flying by? I don't understand. Yeah, we're going, you know, three kilometers an hour and she's going two kilometers an hour. And that's about the speed it

looked like. It was bad. Maybe they didn't have the budget in visual effects to make the asteroids go by that quickly, but I hear you. It almost looked like a joke when you cut out the shot of us passing. I was like, are you kidding me? Like, are we, is this a, so just as space balls was to Star Wars? You thought this was our kind of space balls for our show. Oh, my God. Yeah, it was funny.

So this is losing points for you then, isn't it? It is. Oh, man. All this racing stuff is definitely losing points. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Okay. All right. And then when she, okay, her, her ship almost.

you know, her ship gets damaged, right? Something happens. Yeah. And then we beat her over. Her starboard nacelles, catch fire. Paris says, beam her over here. She pops in. Here's another point loss for me.

She pops in. She's standing up. And she goes like that. She coughs twice or something, right? Yeah. And then, wait, why are you losing points? Because she was standing? She should have been sitting?

Yeah, if she was piloting her ship and about to die, she should have, like, come in. in a seated position, fallen on the, or just bend it on her knee, like gasping for breath. Right. Yeah.

It just felt like she beamed in, standing up, like she was ready to get beamed in. And then she just bent over one hand on a knee. Right. It was, you didn't like that. Okay.

Well, what I didn't like was my cross to her, me crossing over to her from where I was. Oh, yeah, you go to help her. Why am I help? She's not even, yeah, you're right. If that help needs to be motivated, right? So I think in the script, that's what it said. Like, Harry goes over to help arena because she's doubled over.

But she wasn't doing anything. No, she acted like she was completely healthy. So therein lies the issue with, because now my cross looks completely forced. Like, why is Harry doing that? Why would he be touching some alien? I think because he thought she was hot. That's why. Yes.

That's the only reason. That's the only reason then. And then Tom teases him right away. Yeah. like yeah yeah so you know so he's going over there to get close to her because he thinks she's hot that's not the original under scripted it i don't think he's he's there because she's hot it is mentioned that he you say whatever it's an eager you know it's an eager that's right i knew he said something he teases them which then that's the tease saying that he's flirting with with

with her now right but i think the flirting was supposed to happen after he got there and noticed you know oh wow she's gorgeous or whatever you know or she's very attractive to me when he got up close but the initial cross to her was supposed to be to help her you know or yeah otherwise it doesn't make any sense yeah but harry's like hey come on back to voyager with us we can find you as bear and come on you can you can stay in tom's quarters yeah oh man that was funny okay so we go to sick Bay next. Yep. And Bologna's in there.

She's trying to get the doctor to give up his reserved holodeck time. Yeah. Because he was going to play golf. He was going to play St. Andrews or something. And she wants to trade with him because she wanted to go with Paris on this vacation. The doctor says, what program you plan to run? Or it says something new called Getty Prime. And the doctor says, oh, I've heard of that, a vacation paradise that makes Riza look like

a tourist trap. Tourist says, yes, endless kilometers of crystalline beaches, mood reefs, biolumescent waterfalls. I want to go to get it. What is a mood reef? I want to go to that. Bioluminescent waterfall, luminescent waterfalls. And then the doctor goes, and a championship golf course, if I'm not mistaken. Why don't I join you?

My only, you know, notes on this scene are when the doctor shows that putter that he's holding. Is that in the scene? What? Yeah. Because he talks about, like, he is, does he hold it up in that scene? He does. You don't think that's the same. Oh, yes, the crazy putter.

Yes, I've got that. Yeah, the crazy putter. And I'm looking at that, I'm looking at that putter. And I'm thinking, what are you? I know they're trying to make it look more futuristic. But it would never. that you know what it looked like it looked like they took uh wolverine's claws and made them into a you know putter face and it's just it just i was supposed to look cool but it just no that would never

worked it did not look come on now yeah i didn't buy the putter in this scene the doctor does give her the three hours yes he does he does and she's thankful doesn't want him joining that's gonna ruin the mood. I love his line at the end as she walks out. She says, somehow I don't think that would add to the mood. She's walked out. And he calls after her, don't be so sure, you haven't seen me in my bathing suit. I know. That is funny, but it's sort of like what? So you play golf in a bathing suit? That's not thinking. I was like, yeah, okay. But my takeaway from this, other than the putter being kind of weird and weird and not really effective was now you have a Torres that is so thinking about romance and so into her guy. And we've seen other episodes where

like you were injured in that haunting of, you know, where you were on the bio bed and she walks up and she's like, what's going on? What's going on? And there's no concern for the fact that's you on the bio bed, right? There's other, other scenes that things have happened. And it just seems like she's very nonchalant and you mean absolutely as much as what she had for breakfast. You know, she doesn't care. Yeah, we haven't seen a lot of her consistency. Yeah, the consistency of her

really becoming more and more vulnerable. We've had moments in certain episodes where she's been vulnerable. Yeah, but we haven't seen it consistent. That's why I like this episode because you, I mean, this whole thing, she's planning this very, very elaborate, multi-layered thing to do with you.

Yeah. And it's so romantic. And I just, we're so, we don't get a lot of that from her. So I kind of felt very pleased to see her behaving this way in this episode. Yeah, agree. We go in the shuttle bay. We see the alien ship. And inside, Harry's helping Arena make repairs to her vessel.

She needs a veridium injector, of course, who doesn't need a viridium injector? And Harry's like, which one is it? And she goes, the one with a long handle. And it's like, oh, yeah, of course, trying to be cool. Mr. Cool. Can I just say right now? You remember in the prior episode, I said a great punk band name would have been the central plexus, right? Yes.

And here's another, another name on the docket for that evening. Viridium injector, straight up from Chicago, veridium injector. That's all. Yeah, it's a good band name. Okay. Yeah, so Harry's kind of flirting with the arena and helping her out here. And, you know, they talk about her ship's capabilities, where she's from. Paris comes in and says your new power transformers installed, ready to go.

And Paris does say that her warp drive is kind of weak. And she says something like, well, yeah, warp drive's great if you want to go in a straight line. Yeah, but you flirt first, because you say your impulse drive is a real beauty. You started. You begin. I think my intention, it's funny that you keep thinking I'm flirting with her. Intention was cars are hot. Like, I want to talk about cars.

and and clearly Harry's the one that's into her Harry's the one that's into her but Paris is into cars and she knows cars so you want to talk cars that was my intention there I guess

yeah it was I was I know it was but for me I see it otherwise so I saw it otherwise well everything's flirting to you so yeah it is this is the scene where she talks about the race

she brings it up right yeah yeah she talks about this race and that she was practicing for the race and Harris is like a race wait what yeah in fact I think at the end he's let he's like yeah she goes I'm um the kind of flying that I'm the kind of flying that I'm here for warps not the factor the race course is two billion kilometers long yeah a non warp speed race so yeah and then Harry says at the end last line is, well, what kind of race? And of course, that takes us to the briefing room where Paris now is filling everybody in on the race. It's called the Antarian Transstellar Race, three segments

covering 2.3 billion kilometers. And Tom is excited. He's pitching this race to everybody in the room. He's got the captain there. You got everybody. Harry says there's obstacles. So Tom and Harry are sort of describing the race. They want to fly the Delta Flyer, the new and improved Delta a flyer yeah um to fuck the party pooper yes he sees no purpose and points out that it'll be a drain on the ship's resources and uh and chocote says well you know you're going to need enriched deuterium fuel and the flyer's not equipped for that yeah and harry goes arena my love uh offered us one he's going to loan us one so we don't it's not going to be a drain on the resources i don't think he says, my love. I love that, though. Thank you for making me laugh. Keep going. Yes. Yes. And we also

learn in the scene that this area was recently a war zone and that this race is meant to kind of build connection and help the fragile peace after they've had this long war from the species that inhabit this area. And Paris is arguing, you know, this is like Starfleet ideals. This is what we stand for. we should be supporting this. And shockingly, or not shockingly, maybe, because Janeway always makes bad decisions. Janeway says, I think it's a great idea. And which I love, that Janeway is totally into this.

Yeah. I like the response, by the way, when she goes, I think it's a great idea. And Paris goes, you do? You do? And then Tuvac is, you do. You do? Yeah, that was the double you do.

It was good comedy there. I think Michael Taylor did a good job with the script. I really do enjoy the dialogue. Yeah. Yeah, there's some good jokes in here. Yeah. And I, by the way, speaking of jokes, like watching this episode. Yeah.

I forgot that they actually gave Tom a lot of comedy on this show. Like this. You had a fair amount. Like comedy. Sure. Like stuff like that, like that you do you do's or there's just a lot of little moments that I was, I was like, oh, that's cool. Yeah, it was a cool moment for you. Definitely.

Yeah. this is a good episode for you for sure yeah it was fun but she says in the end uh now that we're in this race we are in it to win it we're in it to win it's honors at stake look at that janeway getting all competitive yeah we go out to the hallway um tom is headed somewhere we don't really know but uh he a glowing ball rolls up in the middle of the hallway and he picks it up a little this size is like a ping pong ball or a golf ball yeah um picks up this glowing ball walks into sick bay where we see the doctor's practicing his putting from across the room into a into a glass or something yeah another another time where they're just trying too hard

to make this thing look futuristic in no way will golf ever go to a clear ball that has a little neon light in the interior of it no way that will ever happen so that kind of bugged me out it was just like what are they doing i mean it's great if you're six seven years old and watching this going oh look shiny ball but no well i don't know garrett think about like for decades golf balls were white just white and then they started making like a one neon color yeah that's right range and now you go to the golf you know you go to get golf balls and there's every color of the rainbow and so that's changed a little bit it's changed a little but you can't make a clear ball it'll be too it won't even travel that far because it'll be i don't know it just yeah it's

bum me out period yeah and i mean if you have something that's sort of with a neon light that's flashing that would work if you're playing nighttime golf for sure but no one really does that right so you're a traditional i am a traditionalist when it comes to golf for sure all right they talk in sick bay um and and the doctor thinks he's there to like you know rub salt on the wound i think he says oh you're here to you know i'm not going to be able to play golf and the doctor basically reveals that he gave tom and balana his holodeck time and suddenly tom's like uh-oh again, some comedy in this moment. Yeah.

I thought that that time was happening now. You know, from watching the scene, my, as, you know, just an audience member, I was thinking, oh, wait a minute. He missed his time. And does that what you thought it was too? And you, when you ran, no, I just, I, no, I think he realized, oh, I've committed to this race thing. And that's the time we were going to do our date.

Oh, yeah. Tom basically leaves. And in five minutes, there may be a medical emergency in engineering. He's going to go tell Bolana. Yeah, and the line that you said before that is even better. Do me a favor, Doc, keep a lock on my bio signs. It was for it. It's in five minutes.

There might be a medical emergency. There's some good problem in here. Yeah, Michael Taylor. Good job. Good job. And you too. Good job on that. And the doctor hits a ball for the button of the scene into the cup.

I think that was a Viz effects ball. I don't think he actually hit a ball in there. I don't think Bob made that shot. That was a very confident put right into the right into that. on cup. I think that was a biz effect shot. But it looked cool. We go into engineering and Tom basically says, you know, he's got this race. And I was surprised at Balana's reaction. Like, oh, it's okay. It's all right. Yeah. She says you're early, you know, and he drags you into this corner for this kiss. And I was like, man, this is the most romantic I've ever seen Balana Torres

towards Tom Perez. This is amazing. Like this is the, this is the kind of dream relationship. that you kind of, you know, would want to have. Yeah, we haven't seen that kind of PDA much at all. Never. You remember when you got promoted? Where did she kiss you? You got a peck on your cheek like you were her grandkid or something. It was grandma.

And now this is, this is your equal, your lover, you know, your, you know. Yeah, a lot of PDA, a lot of romance. She's, but she takes the news about this race, you know, calmly. And she's disappointed. But she's like, no, no, you should do this. know the holodeck will be there this race won't so go do it and i was still waiting for her to backhand you the entire i know it's about to happen she's going to do something where she tackles him and so you're like i'm fine just getting but tom does say you're amazing i don't deserve you like

that is incredibly understanding yeah and she's right about that yeah great writing but she's very sad she's like you can tell when paris leaves that this is she said it's okay but it's yeah she covered i mean she reacted you know upset right from the get go i think you could see it on her face but she covered well and she's sad yeah she's sad she goes we go to the mess hall and balana comes in and she lays down she plops down in the couch which she's never done that none of us have ever done that no i liked it though i mean we've done it when the cameras aren't rolling but when the cameras are rolling we don't lie down like i liked it it was very I like it too.

I like it too. Neelik sees her and can tell something's up because she laid down the way she laid down. And so he starts coming over, asks if you can get her anything. And then he was love Ethan Phillips. Oh, my feet, my feet. I've been on my feet all day. I've got to sit down. Just finding an excuse to sit down next to her so he can see what's up.

It's very funny. And she's like, you know, if you're going to try to cheer me up, forget about it. She basically says to Neal. Like, you know, Tom should do this race. He should do what makes him happy. And Neelix is like, what about your happiness? What makes you happy? And she says, it's time I face the facts.

Tom and I just don't belong together. And that's the first time you're like, what? I know. That's what I wrote down. What? But she says maybe love isn't enough. And Neelix is like, yeah, I think it is. And Belon is like, no, my grandmother had a phrase,

Mockta, a bad match. A cling on phrase. Kling on phrase. He says, I can't believe it took me three years to realize that, you know, having fun is enough for Tom, but not her. And so Neelix says, well, you know, you're going to tell him this? And she says, I'll tell him after the race. He says, well, that's not honorable, like, to wait and let him disappoint you. Like, you're setting him up to disappoint you.

And then you're going to tell him. Yeah. So that, I thought that was good advice from Neelix. I really did. I like that scene. He was the voice of integrity, is what he was. Yep. We have a captain's log here where the captain says our request to enter the Delta Flyer

has been accepted. And I'm meeting with the race coordinator, Ambassador Ozol to work at the beach. Yes. And we're in the ready room. And by the way, over that captain's log, there was a shot in space of two ships flying kind of in side by side that I thought was just a cool flying shot. Oh, it was.

It was very cool. So we go inside and Azalt's filling them in that they've got teams from, you know, all over the place that have come for the race, but not as far as the Alpha Quadrant that they haven't had a team enter from the Alpha Quadrant. And I like Janeway's response, well, we're always willing to go that extra light here

for a good cause. Funny stuff. I like it, too. Then he gets a call. And he gets a call from his assistant. They've got a problem that one of the species in the race, the Oxanis, they want to host the post-race ceremony, but that will break the, it'll break the peace if that's refused. And he's already granted another species, the Chesu, to host it.

And so now they've got this pickle. Like, everybody's going to get insulted if they, you know, they all want to, host the ceremony, and Janeway offers a solution. She says, well, we're neutral territory. Why don't you host the ceremonies here? And it's also amazing. Like, I think he says something like, I hope your racing skills are as good as your diplomatic instincts or something like that.

We go to the mess hall. We pan across all these different alien species, you know, talking. I love their cool outfits. Not as cool as ours. no and then they find us and there's our race outfits the cool white outfits that are just incredible they're so good yeah i know i want that's the only thing i remember i know that's why you and i need to be on a hunt for our actual outfits and find the people that that yes we do somebody's got them somewhere we do meet a son the who's supposed to be the bag of patrick kilpatrick so it feels like

the bad guy feels like he's the guy arena tells us that he's he's ruthless that watch out for him and so tom decides to go on a personal reconnaissance he tries to introduce himself asan is is kind of rude and staring out the window and tom says something like you know this we should have fun this race is just for fun right and asan turns to him well if that's how you feel then you've already lost Thank you, Patrick Kielpatrick For telling Tom Parris What time it is

And then we see Arena's co-pilot come in Joxham Joksham I love in the Chicote It says A man in tight leather trousers enters

Oh my god Some very handsome Yeah And again Poor choice of alien name It's too close to jockstrap So I'm not happy

And I think her co-pilot, the actor that plays Jocxham, was on the soap opera Loving back in the 80s. I was on all my children. And I remember when that actor, what is his name? When he came in. Wow. Robert Tyler, yeah. Did you talk to him on set then? I did, because I remembered him from being on the soap opera Loving.

Loving, yeah. And because we were both ABC shows and we shot near each other. Yeah, and you would know the other actors, especially whenever they hired a cast a new actor, you would know. And it was such a, because this was probably 2000, I think summer of 2000, we shot this. So I had been off the soap for a dozen years now. And it was just such a flashback to see a face from somebody I had known a couple of lifetimes back, you know. So do you remember the convo? You just kind of walked up and I just remember us talking about the soap opera days and how he had come out, you know, from New York and off the soap now.

and we just talked about being an actor. Right. The old days. Okay. But I will say that the dialogue right there after she runs off to greet Jockson and you say, you go, it looks like they're good friends. And I go, they're teammates. And then you say close personal teammates.

And then it does look like their boyfriend, girlfriend. And my word, I'm like, oh, it was nice way at last. I love that interchange with you and I. I thought it was really, really tight and well, well acted. And the dialogue was good too. Yes. Very good. Go to astrometrics.

And there's seven first. And then Bologna comes in. She needs a diagnostic on a sensor array. And seven is in busy doing race preparation. And she's analyzing the course to find ways to cut time. Yeah. And Torres says, oh, it seems like everybody has race fever. And Seven says, well, maybe you should get the doctor to develop a vaccine.

I was like, oh, that's a dad joke. And I love Jerry Ryan and Roxanne Dawson. But like the comedy is not like Jerry and Balana and Seven are not where you go for comedy. You can go for dad jokes, but not comedy. Anyway, I know, but it was, but it was interesting when she said, when Seven says initially I did find the activity irrelevant, but then I realized that for the crew's morale and for my relationship with Lieutenant Paris, that line, I was like, oh, it's kind of soap operative like now. Well, she's just talking about a professional relationship. Right, right. But for Balana, she's like, huh?

Yeah. But Balana's like, oh, yeah, like the way that we, you know, help each other with work also affects the way. our personal relationships are. And so it's sort of dawns on her. Yeah, Don, this is the point where she decides she's going to make her move and ask Harry to swap out, right? This is when she realizes. Yeah, she sort of has this aha moment.

And we go to a space shot. We see the shuttles are all arriving. The racetrack line up, you know, ships are there to view the race starting line. Did you notice how the ships were all parked sort of like a real hot rod race back in the 50s where the cars that aren't racing are parked. parked along the sides with their lights on to sort of illuminate everything. Yeah, that's what it looked like to me. It was cool.

We go in the flyer and there's Tom waiting, you know, pushing some buttons waiting for Harry to show up. Yeah. And he hears the door open and then he hears the door open and then he hears say kapla. And Tom turns around and they have this freeze frame of like, what? Like his face is. I love that moment though. I like that.

And if you are frozen, it was cool. It was different than what we normally see. Yeah, it was Balana taking a picture. She wants to, you know, memorialize the moment. She says, stay copla, takes the photograph. She says, I wanted to capture the moment, not to mention that cute, bewildered expression, which was pretty funny. And she's wearing the cool suit.

She's wearing the same race suit that we love. You're bringing that up, too. You're like, what are you doing in that flight suit? And she says that she's your new copilot. it and you still think it's a joke you don't understand what's happening but uh basically she basically says that uh she was upset that you cancel the weekend but she realized that you know why spend time apart when we can be together and this scene yeah this scene feels like she's made this great i you know has this great idea to come help paris and join him and yeah something that means a lot to him

yeah what i didn't like about this is the coverage of tom up front oh is kind of in a profile it's not a it's not a great shot and I guess what I mean is that the scene is about them connecting we should feel like oh she's connecting with him he's connecting with her yeah but that that kind of profile where I'm looking so far off camera yeah it doesn't feel like the characters are connecting it feels more combative than connecting so she should have come down to the other seat you know what I'm saying that's next to you right as opposed to being in the in the background or that the camera should have come around to feel more straight on Tom and straight on her and they can take moments to really look at each other oh okay felt like they were

disconnected so not in profile but a head a direct close up right i think that would have helped yeah yeah yeah it's just and i know that that shuttle is tough to shoot and to get cameras in certain angles but that would have i would have done that slightly differently because it did feel a little i don't know no i could see that covered felt a little off there i could see that paris then asked what about harry torres gets another shot at a joke from michael taylor I assigned him to a level five diagnostic in engineering. And when Tom's like, that's terrible. No, I'm just kidding.

I told him how hard it was for us to get time together. He understood. So I do, you know, I really like the dialogue in this script. So usually it's Robert Doherty's dialogue that I'm gushing over. But now, Michael Taylor, good job. Michael Taylor did a good job. So that we start up the thrusters. We open the shuttle bay doors and out we go.

We cut to the bridge. Tuvok says, racers moving into positions and Janeway turns on the calm and lets the ambassador sort of make the opening statements, you know, for the start of this race. And after his big announcement from our bridge to all the racers, Janeway signals the start. And I guess the way we're starting as we're launching a photon torpedo that will detonate in front of the starting position and the race will begin. I just want to say here, we're taking a photon torpedo, which in the pilot, I think we said we only had 36 of them or something. Yeah. We've probably, we've probably used

100, so there's already a problem. Like, you know, we don't have a lot of photon torpedoes. Yeah. But yet we're going to use it to start a race. It doesn't make any sense. You're right. And plus, it's, it's, it could be somewhat dangerous. You shoot a photon torpedo out and detonated in front of the, the racers. I mean, that sounds like this could be a recipe for disaster. And this race is supposed to represent peace, right? Not like weapons of war. Like, we should have had a little cute bunny rabbit run across or something or kitten. Or some flowers. Or some flowers. A space kitten sort of running across? Okay.

Yeah. All right. A space kitten going, No. You know. No. Or someone could have had a confetti gun and shot confetti out. Anything, but not a low yield photon torpedo.

No. Man. Anyway, the race starts. We've got some shots of people excitedly watching. And then we've got this mess hall shot from outside of our ship. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I love that.

Oh, it was such a good shot. It's so cool. And I don't know how they did that because you could see inside the mess hall. Yep. But that mess hall was built near a stage wall. I don't know how they would have gotten the camera back that far. Yeah. They maybe shot like pieces or something.

Maybe like shot a couple of windows separately and then pieced it all together. However they did it, the shot looks great. It looks great. Yeah. Looks really good. Yep. We are in the race. We see a space shot of the race going.

and we see the Delta Flyer with a couple other shuttle ships and he's cutting this buoy edge really hard. I love that shot of the Delta Flyer on its side kind of cutting a tight corner there. We go inside the flyer, good teamwork between Tom and Belon

at this point. And then Asan comes up and bumps them. Asan Patrick O' Patrick's ship knocks our port thrusters off the line. Paris is compensating. Tom comments, he says, You know, that was an old trick we used in the academy.

We used to call it scraping, but he's not worried about it. Like, he thinks it's all part of the rough and tumble game of racing, I guess. And then we go into astrometrics. I love this when Neelix comes in, asks about the race, and seven gives like the most boring facts. Delta Flyer is in fourth position, having completed 62% of the course. the Oxani vessel is in third and she goes through like the things he's like well that doesn't sound very exciting and she says I'm relaying the relevant information I like this he's like it's all in the delivery seven give me the microphone and he grabs it and he's like all hands

standby for race update he starts to sound like a horse race and now attention all hands standby for a race update with the only 58 million kilometers left on the first segment the Aksani Imhotep and Torillian ships are still battling for the league it was it was very much like that and almost like a radio play you know yeah it was very funny janeway and harry walk in and they're immediately excited yeah um and and even even in that moment when they come in and neelix is talking janeway says to seven uh wow it sounds really exciting yeah seven's delivery well apparently it's all in the delivery yeah loved it it was funny look at this everyone's got good lines yeah we go back in the flyer i guess we're

now in third place. Arrini and Asson's in first, Arrini's in second, we're in third. Arena, not arena, arena, keep mispronting the name, Ablani, Sabrina, I don't know, Arrini, Arena. Arena, yeah, arena.

But Torres is very confident. Then Paris mentions this Mobius inversion. And she's like, what? And then Tom's like, wait, didn't you read the race manual like yeah the course didn't you prepare for this and she goes well i skimmed it more or less a little conflict brewing between tom takes the race seriously she's like winging it tom says well it's a tight it's like a wormhole level six subspace distortions yeah and as they get near it she you can see it and it's this swirling you know uh yeah the swirling wormhole that

Yeah. Tom says something like, oh, it's a little, think of it as a little wormhole with a big attitude, which I like. So they're going into a rough part of the race. Oh, gosh. I think we go back to astromatrix again. Yeah, now everybody's in there watching. Like the entire crew seems to be watching this, the race.

And Neelix is still doing the announcing, which is awesome. It's all in the delivery. He's drawn all these people in with his exciting report. But the funny part is Tupac walks in, right? And he's like, he's like, my. weekly security report to Janeway and she's like I'll read this later okay

and Tuvok's like well there are a few matters we should discuss and Jacote Chikote all those JCPers sticks up for Janeway and basically says shut up you know he's like later she said later Tuvac I mean he's just putting him off and I just love how seven starts talking about how

the radiation from the Mobius inversion is blocking the sensor so you now can't see what's going on because they've disappeared from the sensors and Tuvok, Tuvok starts getting into it. Then he's like, well, well, how will we track their progress then? And then Chikota is like, well, we can't, not until they emerge from the other side of the anomaly. And then Jim was like, well, you want to talk about the report now, Tuvok? And now Tuvok's like, no, no, no, later. If that's, in his own Vulcan way, he's getting into the race. Yeah, he's gone from like, you know, doing regular business to

I can't miss this race. I can't miss this race. Yeah, which is funny. Awesome. Really love it. Back in the Delta Flyers, Torres, you know, gets this idea about reversing deflector polarity. Yeah. And that's going to help them pass. And Paris says, now is not the time. We should wait.

But she doesn't really listen to Tom. She gets up, adjust the engines, the shields. The flyer surges ahead, kind of scrapes Arrini and Assange ships. Now we're in first. So, yeah, Torres was right. that it would work and get them ahead, but Tom didn't want to do it in the wormhole, and now we've scraped them,

and we cut to astrometrics. We see the crew cheering that the flyer's in first. But back on the flyer, Tom's not happy that she didn't listen. She says, I saw a chance, and I took it, and you answer, I'm the pilot, and it shows how in something like that. Yeah, I'm the pilot. That means I'm a pilot. I do the flying.

So it was very, you could see how hurt she was. You know what I'm saying? Because she was just like, oh, my God. And you were just thinking about, I'm a boy. I love fast cars and this is my thing. And, you know, you weren't thinking about your relationship with her when you snapped at her. Because you were snappy in my way. Oh, I was very snappy.

Tom was really snappy because he didn't understand, like, he didn't understand how in this moment she was kind of taking over the strategy and really the control of. of the ship. Like, it surged ahead. Yeah. But he was supposed to be doing the flying and he had read the manual. She was kind of winging it and had this idea, but he didn't want to do it. So they had a little conflict in the race strategy. But it's funny because winging it is usually Tom Paris's MO. I know. And now look at this. The minute she wings it, Tom gets mad at her for doing it. I know. But they get into this argument. And just when they're starting to argue and he's like, I'm the pilot. An announcement comes on that there was an accident and all the racers have to stop and hold their positions. And, you know, we don't know in this moment if what Bala did. What's the

accident? Yeah, we don't know. Yeah, maybe, but what Bala did, like Tom's matted or maybe that was the thing that caused it. All right. So we go to Sick Bay and now we see that jockstrap or joxum is on the biobed at this point. So he was the one that was injured. So your friend from the The other soap opera is completely messed up. Poor guy. Yeah, poor guy. Jocelyn has burned all over. His console exploded.

We learn here. And arena is blaming Assam. Yeah, this is Assan's fault. Zal's like, the commissioner is like, why? And she says, well, he collided with me so many times. My shield generator overloaded. Jaxon's console exploded. He's lucky that he's still alive.

So, you know, immediately there's this pointing of a finger. So it's a bit of a. red flag when people just jump at the gun right like that so and then we don't know yeah we don't know but she's blaming asan we go to the briefing room there's a son and he says if i you know am guilty of anything it's for coming in second it's a situation i will remedy the next in the next leg so he's it does he is not ashamed of anything he did no no but still very combative and then balana says well maybe it was us, you know, maybe we did something, we grazed their shields, and she's trying to take some responsibility. Tom kind of sticks up for a little bit. He's like, you know, well, it was a

tight course. Everybody was flying aggressively. You know, we weren't doing anything different than anybody else. It's an arena, you know, continues to point fingers at a son, like it was a son, bumping us all these times. And then Tuvok enters, and he says, uh, he examines, he examines, Amid Arena's shuttle or vessel and found some evidence of tampering and he's got this component in his hand, this like, you know, something that was not phase inverter. Yeah, phase inverter. It's not part of the ship. And it looks like it was rigged to explode.

So it was like sabotage. Yeah, sabotage and not. So somebody is trying to sabotage them. and Azadal thinks that this could be, you know, terrorists trying to end the peace, break the peace. And Janeway's not, she's trying to stay calm. And she doesn't believe that, you know, one act of sabotage could threaten the peace

if they're really committed to it. And so he decides, but, you know, Azon is like, this is too risky to keep doing this. We're going to have to call the race off. And Arini says, no, it can't do Arin. Arena. Keep calling Arrini. I don't know why. I like Arrini better. I just leave you alone to it. You keep saying Arrini and I don't even correct you anymore. I just let you go down that path. Well, you say jockstrap, I say right. Yeah. But Azal is talking about how we should just cancel this race, you know.

And Arena is the one that says, no, because if we stop, then you'll let these extremists win. And Hassan, the reptoid racer says, she's right. So two of the primary racers are like, we should just continue with this. And that's when Azal is like, okay, I, fine, let's do this. If that's the consensus, we'll start this up again tomorrow. Of course, Captain, if you decide to withdraw, we'll understand. And Janeway goes, the last time I checked, I believe we were winning. So she's like, no, we're going to stay in this race.

He's like, Tom, very competitive. Yeah, she's in it to win it too. She is in it to win it. All right. So then we go out to the hallway, I think. And Tom Bala and Arena are walking down the hall. And Harry bumps into them. And Harry pops out of a creepy corner somewhere. And he says that he's talked to the captain and that he could be Arena's co-pilot since Jok some. aka jockstrap is so injured he could be arenas co-pilot and the race officials say it's all okay and she goes i appreciate the gesture but my ship is damaged and paris goes oh you know our harry once he sets his mind on something torres goes he'll not only fix your ship he'll polish the bulk heads very enthusiastic how can you turn me down arena's like well apparently i can't apparently no one can refuse

Harry. No. And we go in the shuttle bay and there's a cool, you know, shot of Hership and the Delta Flyer in the shuttle bay. I wish there had been some people moving around, though, because it felt a bit like a painting that shot up. Oh. Where's some life in the shuttle bay, you know, just some crew members walking or something would have helped it. Yeah. Feel a little more legit. But we go inside the flyer, Tom's running through the plan with Torres making her say these like nursery rhyme things. It's like, come on, come on. You can say it.

She's like, no, it's embarrassing. And he goes, I want to make sure you know what's what we're doing here. Yeah. He says, okay, right at the light, then readjust my sight. Yeah. Oh, I get to palmed into these. Hatfrey, because he's done this before. Another episode.

Oh, yeah, you did do that. Oh, my gosh. It was the episode about when we were going through the subspace vacuels. And Jamie was saying, you know, No, Mr. Paris. I think our bio-neuro gel packs can make those decisions faster than you can. And you talked about how that offended you, right, in your video reaction. And I had some kind of nursery rhyme saying.

And so I guess this is a thing that Tom does. And now he's making Bala do it, which I love. And she's like, right at the light, then readjust my sight. And he goes, meaning? And she goes, come about 86 degrees at the red giant, then recalibrate sensors to compensate for the photonic interference. He goes, right, next. And then she goes, do I have to spend my whole morning reciting nursery riots? And he goes, it got me through the academy. And then she goes, you were expelled. Let's stop for a second. Tom Paris was not expelled from the academy.

Writers, me, deduction. He graduated. Nick La Carno was expelled from the academy. So see, you are Nick La Carno. And Nick La Carno is Tom Paris. in the eyes of the Star Trek writers. They can't get it. They can't separate it. I want to get to the part where Harry walks in with grease on his face, which you all know I hate when we have grease on our face, because these ships don't, there's no lubricated parts like with,

with, you know, petroleum gel grease. Like we don't use that. It's the future. There is no petroleum products being used. So there's no grease, black grease. That's a 20th century or a 21st century construct, right? I'm thinking of like if you're working on a vehicle or vessel that's in a race, you're going to have grease on you.

Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Good catch. Anyway, Harry comes in, all greasy. He says he was up all night making repairs, turns. And he says it turns out they're just teammates, jocks them. yep she's not in love with jockstrap

she's not okay and I love when Tom says I was going to congratulate you she's not a bored she's not a hologram and she's not dead looks like you might have finally found the perfect woman these lines this dialogue oh my goodness

always always teasing and I like Tom and Balana's looks to each other at the end when after Tom's line yeah okay so we go out to space we see flyer the flyer's in the lead again back to the bridge everybody's listening to neelix call the race yes doing his racehorse thing we're back on the flyer and and balana's starting to think about harry and arena and i guess harry told them that he and arena were hitting it off yeah um and they

really get along without even trying they seem to fit together basically and and she says you know this has her thinking about her in Paris and their complicated relationship and and maybe because they don't belong together and Paris is like wait what like what are you talking about and he's he's a little he's like out of left field yeah he kind of goes are you talking about us like yeah this seems very very loaded you're trying to flesh this out you're like if something's bothering you let's talk about it and torres is like no we should just focus on this race just focus on the race yeah nope and uh we go back to you notice yeah you're like well maybe harry and harry and arena or arena as you say aren't such a great team after all because they're falling behind and now we jump over to

arena's ship and sure enough harry's reading some malfunctions and the EPS relays and he's a little concerned because he's like we double checked all of these last night arena says we must have missed something because at this rate we're going to be out of the race in a couple of minutes so we're slowing down big time um so kim's like checking things out kim's like well maybe i can reroute power through the impulse manifolds and rina's very you know very much against this i mean she quickly shoots that down she's like no no no kim's like well why not she's like it could damage the reactor coils and kim's like um what do they have to do with the impulse manifold there's no There's no correlation.

Arena's like, well, these systems are, you know, they're different than what you're used to. And then Kim kind of realizes you don't really want us to win, do you? And she's like, no, no, of course I do. And Kim kind of, you know, goes back and forth. But then he notices, he goes, oh, my God, I'm reading an overloaded my console and dives out of the way. Again. Very last second, yes. The exact same thing that happened to jockstrap was about to happen to Harry.

and Harry sort of avoids it and you know she basically points a gun He dives out of the way He dives out of the way Yeah And then as he's saying You know

It's the second time Your co-pilots console exploded Yeah quite a coincidence Turns back and she's got a gun pointed on him Gun at me And she's like I'm really sorry And Harry gets it now He's like you sabotage your own ship

Yeah Why are you trying to get out of this race like why are you trying to not finish yeah that's when i i punch a control on the console and the ship just it just tilts and i'm able to sort of you know run over and wrestle that gun away from her yeah he wrestles the gun he wrestles the gun away from her yeah and now he's got the gun on her and he goes i'm going to call the antarian security and find out what's going on if you're not going to tell me and then he realizes uh-oh she disabled the calm system right so he can't call anybody he can't call i just like how once i have the gun and i took control i just liked that how

forceful i was i just you know i wasn't yeah i wasn't infatuated with her anymore i knew that she was you know just not someone you could be you know be around you can't trust this person this person and tom was wrong too because he thought you found the perfect woman but right literally but i like how he I like how he said, what the hell is going on? Sit down and hold still. I'd love that one, though. A little line there. We go back to the flyer.

Now, this whole sequence coming up is like intercut quick back and forth. It is. And the Rini's dip. I'm going to keep calling her Rini. I don't care of this. Keep going. So we go back to the flyer. Torres goes, we're past the last marker.

Time to deploy the thrusters. And you're like, whatever you say. Yeah, you become now you're like letting her do everything, right? She's like, well, what happened? I'm the pilot. Tom's very passive aggressive here. He's like, yeah, whatever you say, you know, you clearly want to be the boss. Yeah.

So it's the two of them, like, in their passive aggressive, not talking to each other about their feelings, classic PT issues. And, you know, he tries to go back to talking about their relationship. And she keeps trying to change the subject. Yeah. And he says, like, did that bother you? you when I said I'm the pilot. He says, is that why you don't think we fit together? And she then asked him, is, are you talking about the race now? So they're just passive, aggressively like sniping at each other, not being direct. Yeah. Back to Arini's ship. Yeah. And Arini's like,

you know, we're going to just sit here with you pointing that gun at me. We might as well see who's winning. And Kim's like, you know, shut up. You know, you're not in a position to make any request. and arena's like, no, Harry, you're curious. So, yes, she turns on a little, yeah, checks that out. Delta Flyer's still leading. And Arena's like, good for them. That's it. And we jump back to the Flyer.

Back to the Flyer. Balana finally speaks up. She says, she thought if they could do something together that he was really interested in, that it would help their relationship. And Tom was like, I didn't know we needed help. I didn't know that there was a problem. And she's like, that's part of the problem. You didn't know.

I like Tom's response. He goes, yeah, maybe we scrape shields occasionally. I do like that. It is interesting. Mm-hmm. So he's using his car talk again. Yeah. And she goes, well, maybe interesting isn't enough.

And then he basically hits all the controls. He's like, all stop. Yeah. He's done. He's done. And when we were watching this, Rebecca goes, oh, he fights like you. Yeah. I just say, can I just say right now when you did that other thing?

I sat there and I'm watching this by myself because I'm not in Calgary. And I was like, huh, that's kind of like Robbie in real life. You're done. You're freaking done. I mean, you're just, yeah, you don't even, no. It's so you. It's very me. So we're back in Arrini's ship.

Kim notices, wait a minute, they're stopping. The flyer's stopping. They're dead in the water. and Arrini starts to stand up to leave and Kim's like, or Arena or arena. Now I'm going to start correcting you. Arena. So Kim's like,

so Arina does sit, she sits back down again and she says, how far from the finish line? And Kim says, well, less than a million kilometers. And we jump back to the flyer and the flyer, the flyer shakes a little bit because another ship passes. Asan has gone by. So now that's a son.

lead anymore. A son's gone by. And Torres is like, why are we just sitting here? That was Assan. And Paris is like, if we've got a problem with our relationship, we're going to deal with this right now. So I like that. I do love that. Balana needs Tom to say, let's, you know, it's funny. The guy who came on the show is, you know, on Voyager with the chip on his shoulder, didn't want to be real, is now grown and changed a lot. He's the one saying, let's talk about this. I love that yeah this was the right this was the right move for tom paris for sure and in the eyes of torres many many brownie points were bestowed upon tom's head for him doing this at this point um so we're back in arena ship and um kim says you know he starts kim now is the super sleuth he's putting

everything together he's like you've done everything you could to take yourself out of this race now you're worried that the flyer won't reach the finish line i wait a minute there's more than a ships there, spectators, officials. And Arena says all congregated, all congregated in the name of peace. Touching, isn't it? So now her true colors are coming out, okay? She is the one that doesn't want the peace. And so Kim realized that she's planned this kind of an attack.

And you know what's so crazy? And I'm getting goosebumps right now. This is kind of reminiscent of that attack that happened. The bombing was it Chicago or Boston? The marathon at the end of the marathon. Yes. That happened after this episode was filmed, for sure. Hundreds of innocent people are there.

How can you do that, Harry says. And she says, not everybody is as comfortable with mixing species as you are, Harry. Some of us believe it would be better if we were separate. So clearly, she's admitting they've got an attack planned, and it must have something to do with bringing the flyer and the part that she helped us get and all of that. So all this is starting to make sense now. And we go over to the flyer here.

Tom is standing up, B'lanna standing up, they're heated. She's saying, you know, I never wanted you to throw this race. Like, I know how much this meant to you. And Harris says that she means more to him than anything else. And I love, you know, again, this quick cuts back and forth in the middle of Tom and Bologna's fight and about their relationship. to kind of solving this mystery of the terrorist attack in arena's ship. But Tom says, you mean more to me than anything.

We go back to Harry. Harry realizes that it's the fuel converter now, and that's why she wants the flyer to cross the finish line. So it will blow up there. And I did notice you've got some big close-ups in this scene. I got a lot of close-ups. like tight close ups tighter than we normally do oh my gosh good lighting everything looked good yeah good stuff um back to the flyer balana shocked that he said she means more than the race or

anything else and um and he says well i never told you because i didn't think you would appreciate the mushy stuff and he sees that that wasn't correct and he kisses her and um and he's i love love this exchange. She goes, does this mean you're in the mood for some mushy stuff? And she goes, maybe. And Tom says, exactly what kind of mush are we talking about here? You tell me. And Paris goes, well, there's, um, kissy stuff. You give us her kiss. That was nice. And then there's the, you're the most important in the world to me stuff. She goes, yeah, I like that one too. And then there's the happily ever after. It's like, what? How does that one work? And he goes, well, traditionally it requires a proposal.

And he's getting ready to propose. I was like, what's come from? I know. And honestly, I don't remember that happening in this up. I don't either. Yeah. And also, my other comment is my, I almost changed my last verse of my haiku to Tom smooches a lot is what I was going to have. Yeah.

I should have put the mushy stuff in my limit. Yeah, you didn't use it either. Neither was used the kissing in our poetry synops. But there's a ton of it in here, that's for sure. Well, just as he's about to clearly propose, alarms go off. It's from Arrini's ship. We're being scanned by some kind of modulating pulse. It's from Arina's ship.

And then Tom recognizes the way that it's Morse code. Harry and I used to do this on the Captain Proton program, holodeck. We would communicate with Morse code. So I was like, smart move, Harry, using the scanner to communicate. with Morse Co. Clever. Captain Proton is helpful again.

Yeah. And Tom reads the Morse Cote. He says fuel converter rigged, eject. Hmm. They can't eject the converter because... Taurus is like converters leaking viridium isotopes. Paris is like, well, why didn't the computer warn us? And Taurus says, the online sensors have been tampered with.

So you guys had no clue that this leak was happening. The leak was happening. It's already mixing. Way too late. Yeah. It's already reacting and mixing. Tom knows it's going to... explode. We go to Arena's ship. Harry sees them moving away on the radar. He sees them heading

off the racecourse. Well, Arena actually says they're moving again. And so she's kind of excited and Kim's like, away from the finish line. Away. Take that, you temperatures. Take that you, you know, yeah. We go back to the flyer. They're trying to fly far away before this explosion happens. computer says warp core breach in 20 seconds well 30 seconds in 20 seconds Tom in the scene says will you marry me so will you marry me and she goes you're proposing now I love that moment it's great about to blow up great yeah and by the way you're taking it into the class J nebula because that's the only way to contain this explosion right so by the way I feel like Tom and balana have only shared

their feelings like when they're on the death's door like when they're floating in space and they're just about to die when she's going through her pond far things or whatever like it's like they need a crisis and death's door to share any feelings and i wrote it down we need therapy that's well okay that's funny but i feel like your therapy is to go on a holodeck put both of yourselves in a life-threatening scenario and then you will have that's your therapy every time you're in life's threatening scenario they need to learn how to share feelings without a crisis they do that's the that's the moral that's the theme of this episode i just changed my whole theme good to share your feelings without a crisis okay good before a crisis hits anyway they reach the nebula

torres gets the ejection sober teams back online ejects the core paris tries to take the flyer you know out of there i don't understand science so i don't know how they still can fly if they ejected their core impulse Yeah, but they're not going to get... The warp core is only for warp work speed. Like if you're going to warp. Yeah, but he literally said when this thing explodes, it's going to take out everything within a million kilometers.

Like, we'll never get out of here. Well, no, but that's why you're the Class J nebula. You flew it into the nebula because it will contain the nebula. There you go. Helps make it smaller. Okay, I got it. So as we're flying away, the thing explodes. I love the coverage inside the shuttle.

There's a whiteout, and you see Tom hit the... deck and that's how the flying should it be should have been yes yes the first scene the first yes agree should have been we cut to the mess hall the crew sees a son past the finish line winning the race and then there's this shock wave and janeway is like what was that she calls the bridge tuvok says there was an antimatter explosion yeah and uh we go out to space we see the broken flyer and i wrote down, oh, man, we just fixed it. Not again.

Not again. Back on board the flyer. It is, you know, it's dead in space. But, you know, Tom and Boulana survived. I love this dialogue. I love this dialogue.

Paris says, Bala, Torres, I guess we lost. Paris says, that depends. Torres, on what, on how you answer my question. So he's still asking the question even after they almost died. Yeah. I love it. And she says, you only ask because we were about to die.

Yeah. And he says, well, we're alive now. I'm still asking. Yeah. And he's like, why didn't you ever ask me before? I agree with you, Bala. Like, why does it take death for us to talk? And I love when she says, why. Are you going to withdraw the question? Paris says, no, but I might start to beg. It could get embarrassing. We could get embarrassing. Again, I love this dialogue. I really do. Yeah. Really. More kissing with Tom and Boulana. And then we cut the space. We have a captain's log supplemental. The Antarians have invited. us to participate in post-race festivities, and it allowed me to give two of my senior officers time off for a well-deserved romantic getaway. The Delta Flyer still needs a new warp corps, but I don't think that they're in a hurry to get anywhere. And then we cut inside the flyer. There's Tom and Boulana. She's sitting on his lap up front. They're drinking champagne, toasting to the winners. Tom says something like Boulana, Bala Paris. That has a nice ring to it.

And she says, thanks, but I already have a ring. Anyway, I kind of like the sound of Tom Torres. Because I hope you're kidding. And she says, hey, it's the 24th century. So I love that they're still kind of got the banter, the power dynamic. Yeah. You know, but they're married. We cut outside.

And the Delta Flyers flying away with just married painted on the back. And it's got cargo containers. It's cute. That's cute, though. I thought that was cute. He thought it was cheesy, didn't you? They're married. I know. They're married. It's amazing. And I love the Tom Torres line, too. Yes, I do, too. So what is your theme? What is your lesson for this episode? My theme is Tom and Bologna? No, that's not a theme. That's not a theme. It didn't occur to me, but in this recap, it occurred to me. One of the themes is, share your feelings. before there's a crisis like talk before you're about to die which it just occurred to me in this

the other theme that i wrote down is just because you have differences doesn't mean you can't get along which is true with these you know this this race you know there are all these different species but unlike arena's attitude of you know we just don't belong together like tom and balana they do belong together they've got differences but they can get along and they can work it out yeah but i like the share your feelings before there's a crisis theme better i do like that too yeah and personally when i was thinking about theme i this is just one of those episodes where i couldn't wrap my head around anything i was like uh well maybe i could say this oh no that's not really that's not really a good one uh maybe i could so i didn't really um i didn't really have a set

theme for this one this is a hard one to find a theme because it was just a lot about it was romance with Tom and Paris's relationship. The story with Harry and Arena and the, you know, the sabotage wasn't a super strong sci-fi concept. It was more of a thriller concept, I guess. Yeah, I, this is more of a fun episode than a thing. I believe so. Yeah. I believe so. Okay, how about your rating? Well, there's a lot of, there's a lot of deductible. I know. There's a lot of deductions, and it doesn't, and it doesn't involve the whole crew, which usually is what's required for me.

Okay. You know. Well, we see everyone else, though. We do. We see the doctor. We see they are involved, more or less. I guess. Not a huge deduction for that.

There's some, some, you know, execution problems like the, you know, more dynamic racing. Yes. But I still had fun watching it. I'm still going to give it an 8.2. That's what I'm going to give it. What did you say? Say that again. 8.2.

Wow. Good. I was so afraid because right off the bat, the very first scene, you started to dig into this one. I know. I felt, oh my gosh, he's going to give this a four. He's going to four it for sure. But you didn't. You went 8.2.

Yeah, I'm going to go, I'm going to go a little higher than you. I'm going to go 8.6 on this one. Oh, wow. Yeah. I just like, mainly because of the uniforms. The uniform for me pushes it to 8.6. Those are the best dang uniforms. All right.

Well, the average captains and admirals rating, 8.3. What? 8.3. We're all on the same page. Yeah. We're all on the same page. It's a mid-eighth episode, which is pretty high. Yeah, it is.

Historically for us. It is. Wow. That's pretty good. I thought that they were going to go lower, to be honest. All right, everyone. Thank you for tuning in to Robbie and I's recap and discussion of this episode, Drive. And join us next week.

Robbie and I will recap and discuss the episode repression. Oh, yes. Repression. Okay, then. All right. We'll go with that one. All right, thank you, everyone, for all of our Patreon patrons. Please stay tuned.

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