The Delta Flyers - Favorite Son

Episode Date: July 5, 2021

The Delta Flyers is a weekly Star Trek: Voyager rewatch and recap podcast hosted by Garrett Wang and Robert Duncan McNeill. Each week Garrett and Robert will rewatch an episode of Voyager starting at the very beginning. This week’s episode is Favorite Son. Garrett and Robbie recap and discuss the episode, and share their insight as series regulars. This week they are joined by Ethan Phillips and Tim Russ for a short interview about their thoughts and experiences while filming Rise.Favorite Son:Ensign Kim leads the ship to a mysterious planet, where he is told he is part alien and is needed there for reproductive purposes.We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Executive producers Megan Elise and Rebecca McNeill, and our Post Producer Jessey Miller.Additionally we could not make this podcast available without our Co- Executive Producers: Stephanie Baker, Philipp Havrilla, Kelton Rochelle, Liz Scott, Sab Ewell, Sarah A Gubbins, Jason M Okun, Luz R., Marie Burgoyne, Chris Knapp, Michelle Zamanian, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Matthew Gravens, Elaine Ferguson, Brian Barrow, Captain Jeremiah Brown, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, John Espinosa, James Zugg, Mike Gu, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Vikki Williams, Mary Beth Lowe, William McEvoy, Sarah Thompson, Holly Smith, Dominic Burgess, Amber Eason, Lucas Shuck, PJ Tomas, Nicholaus Russell, Darryl Cheng, Alex Mednis, Elizabeth Stanton, Kayla Knilans, Tim Beach, Ariana, Marcus Vanderzonbrouwer, and Shambhavi Kadam, Christopher Arzeberger And our Producers:Chris Tribuzio, Jim Guckin, Steph Dawe Holland, James Amey, Katherine Hedrick, Eleanor Lamb, Richard Banaski, Eve England, Ann Harding, Laura Swanson, Ann Marie Segal, Charity Ponton, Chloe E, Kathleen Baxter, Craig Sweaton, Nathanial Moon, Warren Stine, Mike Schaible, Kelley Smelser, AJ Provance, Captain Nancy Stout, Claire Deans, Matthew Cutler, Crystal Komenda, Maxine Soloway, Joshua L Phillips, Barbara Beck, Mary O'Neal, Aithne Loeblich, Heidi Mclellan, Dat Cao, Cody Crockett, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, James Cottrell, Cindy Ring, Andrei Dunca, Daniel Owen, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Amber Nighbor, Liz Lowe, Mark G Hamilton, Rob Johnson, Kevin Selman, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Justin Weir, Joseph Michael Kuhlmann, Mike Chow, Kevin Hooker, Michelle Maroney, Rickard Fahlander, Meg Johnson, Victor Ling, and Scott J. Mark, John Mann.Thank you for your support!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

Hey, 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 myself, Garrett Wong, and my co-host, Mr. Robert Duncan McNeil. How are you? Hello, sir. How are you? I'm okay. Yeah, let me just tell you. Let me just give you the 4-1-1. I flew. I was supposed to fly a couple days ago, and I did fly a couple days ago from L.A. to Vegas. But that morning while eating breakfast, my crown broke off. My crown of my front tooth. The same tooth that I shattered many, many years ago, skiing up in mammoth lakes, of which Mitch Malkinson, your attorney sent you photos. Yes. So Mitch is my college fraternity brother. He is one of your entertainment attorneys, right? He is my entertainment attorney. He's your entertainment attorney. He decided to send you some video and some pictures of some photos of you in college on your ski trip. God. Yes, he did. So that's the ski trip where it broke many, many, many moons ago. But they put a, you know, so it's it's been fixed. But when I was eating, it came off. So I was basically toothless when I flew. Yeah, and I had an emergency. The only person I can see. Oh, it's the worst. I had an emergency appointment this morning with a local dentist that I've never met before because

my dentist is in L.A. and I had to find somebody out here in Vegas. And I've always said I don't want to go to a doctor or a dentist in Vegas. I'll keep them in L.A. and I'll just keep going back to L.A. But now that I'm here in Vegas, I needed to find somebody here. But it's funny because I kept wanted to say that I'm toothless in, like sleepless in Seattle. I wanted to have a T-name, toothless in Tampa. If I lived in a tea place, that would have worked better, right? Topeka, Tampa, but in Vegas, there's no tea, no tooth word, a cinnamon, a cinnamon, a cinnamon. A cinnamon. Cinnamon is good, too, but a synonym, a synonym for the word tooth that begins with V. I don't think there is one. Don't have one. No. I don't have one. So it looks good, though. It's back on.

It looks very good. Yeah, but it's temporary because basically it fractured, it broke. They have to do a whole new one. That's what I did. I lost a crown in the back. Up in Vancouver, I was away from home. Same thing. Yeah.

I had to go to a dentist there. I found a great dentist. So it's going to work out. I believe it's going to work out for you. Okay, good. It's going to be good. Good to know. What are we watching this week?

Well, we're watching Favorite Son. Oh, we yes. What did you call this? You said you looked it up and they called this the trilogy of. The trilogy of what? Trilogy of Terror. This is the last of three episodes that some fans were referred to as the trilogy of terror, three horrible episodes of Star Trek Voyager.

The first was Darkling first. Yeah, Darkling, then Rise, then Favor Sun. Then Favor Sun. That's the trilogy of terror to some fans. But even the trilogy of terror does not compete with the all-time worst episode threshold, which I hold the crown for that. so well no not I mean okay well I'm just going to say this I'm going to say that that term the trilogy of terror just sounds like a ride like a horror you know ride at some amusement park or something

yeah um and I had never heard of that finish the ride this is the last part of our three of our ride of terror all right I can't wait yeah uh all right guys Robbie and I are going to finish up the final episode in the trilogy of terror. And for those of you who are our Patreon patrons, please stay tuned for your segment. What do we remember? Hey, Robbie and I are back from watching Favorite Son. Yes, we are. I feel, I don't know. I feel a little uncomfortable. Do you? Yeah, I feel a little uncomfortable. Okay, we'll get into it. We will. Yeah, there's a lot to talk about on this one.

There's a lot to talk about. Written by Lisa Klink. Yes. Directed by Marvin Rush. His second episode after. And both of them were big episodes for you. Yeah. If you think about that.

Yeah. The Thal was the other one. And then this one. So, yeah, Harry-centric episodes. Yeah. There you go. Let's see. We had a bunch of guest stars, Carrie Shane.

Yes. as Elian. And did you notice how you just, there's really, the only person who's introduced name-wise in the entire episode is Malia, Malia, the blonde, which is played by Kristana Loken. Everyone else, the leader, the elder, the Theresian elder, she doesn't say her name. Her name is lyric, Leris, right? Leris, Deborah May played Leris.

Carrie Shane, the main brunette, she plays Elian, and she never says her name or Elian, however you pronounce it. And then the African-American actress that's played by Rinna, that character's name is Rina, played by Kelly Kirkland. And we don't hear her name either. We don't know anyone's names except for Malia that one time. And then Taman, the other male that's on that planet. Let's talk about Taman for a minute.

So Patrick Fabian, Patrick Fabian, who played Taman, is a friend of mine. He actually, we became friends because, and I forgot. he was in this episode, but I remember he was on our show. Back in the 90s, I did a Broadway show called Six Degrees of Separation. And I was in the original cast of the Broadway production of Six Degrees of Separation. Yeah. And then I left that show and I went out to L.A. I did that play for almost a year or eight, eight or ten months. I can't remember. Anthony Rapp was in the in the cast. So I knew Anthony when he was a, I'm trying to remember how old Anthony was, 18 maybe, 17, 18. Very young, a very young Anthony rap. Yeah.

Six degrees of separation. Anthony Rap was in it. Soccer Channing played the lead role. It was a big role for me and a big job. Anyway, great play. Great play. Great play. And I came out to L.A. and the first national tour was coming out. And it was starting in L.A. So I went to see it at the Henry Fonda Theater. And Patrick Fabian played my role in the first national tour of six degrees of separation. You know, it's funny. It was funny when he and I had a moment. We had a couple of of lines together. Yes. In a 50-50 there. Yeah. And I was, I paused it for a minute. I was like, oh my God, he played the same role that I did in the broad, you know. All right. Don't don't get mad at me. But in that 50-50 shot, I was watching that. And I thought, oh, my God, Patrick

Fabian could have been Tom Paris is what I thought at that moment, that exact moment. Height wise, you guys are about the same height, you know. You have the same blue eyes, you know, but very similar in stature and look. And you know what I'm saying? So there you go. He has, Patrick has remained an actor, unlike me. I became a director and a producer. So I don't keep my looks up quite the same way as some actors do. Although I'm very happy with my looks, but Patrick Fabian has stayed in, like he's evolved

into a very handsome and chiseled older leading man. You know, he's gray-haired now. Yeah, he's, yes, he is gray-haired. Many, many years after Voyager was ended. And this is probably like about maybe eight or nine years ago. I was playing golf in Los Angeles and I was a single. Typically when you go to a golf course and you're a single, they'll throw you with maybe a party of three that is not,

they're missing one person. Four people was the max for a round of golf. So I'm playing and literally we get to probably like the 17th hole. So we're almost done with the round. And it's these three guys, they're very nice, you know, they're friends and they're kind of chatting.

And they're nice to me when we talk on the 17th hole, This guy turns to me and says, oh, my God, would you want Star Trek Voyager? And I said, oh, my God, Taman, is what I said, because I didn't even remember his name at the time. I forgot that it was Patrick, right? But I knew his character name, even though it was many years later. And so he didn't recognize me off the back because my hair was long in a ponytail. I didn't recognize him because he's a silver fox now. His hair is all gray.

He doesn't have, all gray. It's all gray. He's a super handsome guy. He's still a good looking guy. He's chiseled. Yeah, Patrick Fabian. He's still acting. He plays on Better Call Saul.

He plays like the owner of a rival law firm on that. So I saw him on that one. But, you know, the minute I reconnected with him, I can't tell you how many times I kept seeing him on TV going, there he is again. And there he is again. He works all the time. Yeah. He's working quite a bit. He's very talented.

and hardworking and yeah great to see Patrick in this episode yeah another thing that came up for me yeah because as you said they did not mention character names and I kept going there's so many actresses yes that I don't know who is who so I want to know their names so I can try and track that so I went to memory alpha which is a great resource for all details of Star Trek correct I had at cast names. And as I was going down, I'm like, oh, there's some other people in there that I was surprised to see. Like Sue was listed as a cast.

What? Sue was listed as a cast. Carrie, one of our regular background and standard. Do you remember Carrie? Yes. He was listed in the security officer. Steve Carnahan, who was another regular background, was listed. But the one that came up was Debbie David playing Lieutenant Russell.

And I was like, Debbie David playing Lieutenant Russell. Who is that? So I clicked it. And I looked at the picture. Yeah. And it is Carl David Birx, who was my stand-in for a little while. Oh. He was also a regular and he transitioned.

Yes. Or he, you know, this was, I don't know the terms back then, but he became Debbie David. And I was like. like, oh my God, I've thought for years, what was that stand? Who was the stand? What was his name? He was from Kentucky. I remember he shared a lot of things about himself. I think we've talked about him though on Delta Flyers. Well, his name is Carl David Burks. Was his was his name. Was her name. Yeah, was her name. Excuse me. I apologize. Get those pronouns correct. Yes, let's get the pronouns correct. Okay. Her name was Carl David Burks. Her name is Debbie David. And it was a random thing that

I saw all of these background and stand-ins, including Carl. for Debbie David who had stood in for Tom Paris for a while. Right. They're listed, but I didn't see Carl slash Debbie in this episode. I didn't see Sue in this episode. I did see Carrie because Carrie was sitting at your station and you weren't there. So that's my song. Carrie was sitting at my station at one point.

I think Carrie took you off the bridge in that earlier scene. No, that wasn't him. That was someone else. When you were in sick bay, it was a different security officer. That was Steve. Carnahan, who was also another regular. I thought Steve was the guy that took me off the bridge and was waiting at Sick Bay.

I didn't see, yeah, I thought Carrie was the word. No, maybe I'm mixing it up because of, because of the con. Yeah, no. Carrie was definitely at the con. Yeah, he was at the con. Anyway, it was just fun because I had, it forced me to go and look at all the actors' names. Yeah. Dumbled upon, you know, just all these people that were part of our crew, you know, our background, a regular background stand-ins, and getting Debbie David's old

named Carl, finally. I've forgotten that for years. Right. And I was happy to put that, do that detective work. And you did. You figured it out. Now you know. And since we're talking about all the guest stars, let's talk about the first appearance of Harry's mom, played by Irene 2. She, oh gosh, she's been around Hollywood since the 60s. Okay. She made her debut and flower drum song in 1961. He was a spokeswoman for Chevron for a huge commercial campaign. And while she was shooting video, one of the commercials for Chevron in Miami, that's where Frank Sinatra met her and dated her for two years. Oh my God. Oh, it's insane. I'm just looking up all this stuff that she's done and I was like, wow, I had no clue that she had done all of these things. And it was kind of shocking. And then I

look at images and I'm sitting there going, now, wait a minute. She's in a movie. with none other than I can't see who is that Elvis oh my gosh yeah broken up oh yeah hold on me I have a better shot from this one hold on she was in a movie with Elvis yeah this is called paradise Hawaiian style or something like that wow her and Elvis right which is Irene Sue did yeah and talk with her I did and she you know what she became my real estate agent so when I bought my first house she was my realtor and so a couple of months ago, Irene Tzu actually sent me her autobiography. It's called A Watercoloured Dream, The Many Lives of Irene Tzu. So she has her autobiography because like I said, she's done so many

things. She's been in real estate. She's a Bikram yoga instructor. She's at, she still acts even to this day, you know, dated Sinatra and oh gosh, I guess she was married to a Hungarian film director, Ivanaji. I mean, she has, I mean, her life is just so filled. I had no idea. I had no clue at all. No. That was one thing I loved about Star Trek is we'd get some of these actors that had just done such amazing things and we'd just get to hear their stories and work with these people who had just really fascinating lives. So that's very cool. I had no idea. Definitely. And since, you know, we're on the topic of guest stars, we might as well talk about Christopher Carroll, who plays Captain Alban, the Nasari captain, and he played a Cardassian in the third season of Deep Space Nine in the episode

second skin, so a little bit of Star Trek on his resume before he did this one. And Cristana Loken, who plays Malia, she went on to play the female Terminator in the Terminator of Film series. And then she did many, many, many other, you know, guest starring and also television starring roles as well after this. And this was one of her very first early, early roles. Well, a really fascinating cast. Yes. Yes. Let's do our poetry. We've digress so much about a cast book. We haven't even given our poetry synopsis. Let's synopsize this.

My haiku for favorite son, Star Trek, Voyager, season three, is Harry human seduced for reproduction? Must escape ladies. There you go. I just like the way you said it. Ladies, must escape, ladies. Love it. That's a wonderful. That's my haiku.

Yeah. That's brilliant. Okay, it does capture it very well. Thank you for your haiku. All right, here we go. My Limerick for favorite son. Yeah. Okay. An urge to return home takes over Harry. Teresia welcomes him. He's legendary. It's all one big ruse. His life he might lose. Beamed out real quick so there's no need to marry. It was close. They had you surrounded. They did. They did. They did. But you got beamed out. So we're going to going through a trinary star system. Trinary means three, three stars in the star system. And Chocote wants to mark this, you know, for a map that we're building as we head back to the

Alpha Quadrant. Yes. And Harry's like, have we been here before? He kind of, he's like, have we passed through here? Tuvok says a line that I love, thank you, Lisa Klink. You know, Harry's like, hey, this seems familiar. We've been here.

What don't I say? I'll say it. I'll say it. I'll be Harry and you'll be Tuvac. Okay, here we go. Didn't we already pass a trinary system like this? Perhaps it's a paradoxical state dependent associative phenomenon. Harry goes, what? And then Janeway goes, deja vu. In other words, deja vu.

Yeah, a paradoxical state dependent associate phenomenon. That's a tongue twister. Oh, my God. It's so vulcan. And he said it perfectly. Yes, he did. A paradoxical state dependent associative phenomenon. Associated. It's hard. I know you. I'm very impressed that you actually were able to regurgitate that. Let me see if I can even possibly do this. Tuvac. Perhaps you're experiencing a paradoxical state dependent associated phenomenon. Oh, that's it. Bam. Nice. Thank you. Thank you. So deja vu. There's a ship approaching. Doesn't seem to be a threat. Nope. Tuvac says jields are down. No weapons are armed or anything. But Harry goes, that ship's going to fire. What?

What is wrong with you, dude? Harry transfers the weapon systems to his station. And he fires at this ship who was not a threat at all. No, no. And I must add at this point that we are introduced to this captain. And he says, hello, I am Albin. I'm captain of the Nerada. And I sat there and I said, why does that sound so familiar?

I went online to look around. And I found out that Nerada is the same name as the, futuristic romulan ship in j j abram's 2009 reboot of the star trek film franchise oh wow this is yes so this ship that comes out and and they are the antagonists led by the romulan nero they're the ones that start off this whole crazy you know story of the 2009 film franchise reboot and it's the same name was uh had been used before i think it was in the subconscious of uh orsi and and Kurtzman. So Kurtzman and Orsie wrote that script, right? And they are Star Trek fans. So it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that they were watching this Voyager episode. And

it got embedded in their brain, that name. And they named that Romulan ship, Narada, the same name. Okay. So here we go. Harry's fired at this friendly ship. And now we're going to Red Alert. And we come back from the credits. And we're in the middle of a battle. And I got to say, Marvin Rush did a great job of these battle scenes. The sparks felt bigger than usual. He did. The flashes, the sparks, the energy of that fight was just great. I love Chakote jumping over a railing to go.

I am shocked. I'm so shocked they let him do that. I'm like, really? They let him do that because as easy as it looks, it can be, that could be a nightmare or could be a disaster. It's up a level from where he was down below. he had to step on the console I guess or the yeah the back of it I don't know he stepped on something and then hopped over right and then hopped over and then they they fired a sparks a big sparks and nitrogen while he was doing that while he jumped it was a cool moment it was very energetic I thought

yes Marvin did a great job of all this and I remembered when I saw this liquid nitrogen that smoke these bursts of steam that comes out of the ceiling and stuff yeah I I remember how cold that could be sometimes. Oh, yeah, yeah. They use liquid nitrogen, and they just, they turn it on and blast it out for a second. Liquid nitrogen is like, I don't know, minus something. Very cold. Yeah.

And did you notice, or did you make note that Harry Kim within a span of three minutes, he's relieved of duty and then suspended from duty as well? So I think that's probably a record in Starfleet to be relieved of duty and have a suspension. Yeah, it was pretty cool. Well, she says why. Yeah. And, and, and then Harry says, it was, there was a Tetreon Serd. That's right.

And Tuvac is like, well, that could, that doesn't mean that they were. Go to fire on us. Fire on us. Yeah. And you've got a little head injury there too. You must have taken a hit because she says, she's, the very last line at that moment is, she goes, go down to sickbay. Have the doctor take a look at that cut.

And she like, she like, sparks at you. She's like, she was saying like, you should go take care of yourself. She's saying a sweet thing, but she's pissed off. Yeah, she's so mad. I mean, the look that she gave me, um, when I took over control and started firing on them, that first look that she gives me before I'm relieved of duty is the look of death. It literally is the look of death. Like, what the heck are you doing?

We go on to sick, Bay. Oh, before you jump into that. Um, yeah. There is, while this is whole, this is happening, there is that quick jump to. engineering where the plasma conduit explodes. That happens before Harry leaves for sick bay. So Balana's injured. We see her, yeah, we see her take a hit, big sparks and liquid nitrogen, and she drops

down below frame. Yes. When Harry's relieved and leaves the bridge, we go down to sick bay and Balana, it looks bad. She is a mess. Plasma burns all over her face and her neck, hands, and she's unconscious and almost dies. and yeah they finally bring her back and and then Kess goes over Kess and the doctor work on Bologna bring her back she looks horrible Kest goes over to to Harry and he feels really bad he's so confused he's like I feel so bad about this and yeah and Kess uses this cool handheld tool on you

to scan it's a dermal regenerator dermal regenerator but she's using that thing and we didn't normally do Vis-Effects kind of lasers, but they did on that. Yeah, they did on that one. Yeah. Usually it was just a light. It was a prop with a light or something. Right. That was kind of cool. Well, the note I wrote down here was that Kess touches Harry's face so gently. Like when he's, you know, when she's trying to, she kind of touches his chin. And I kept thinking, huh, why didn't Kess and Harry hook up? Why, why wasn't that a couple? Because she's no longer with Neelix any longer. You had plenty of hookups in this episode. I just. I think you should not get so greedy because you had lots of, lots of, okay. Okay, there's a, my note is that

there's that very gentle touch that she has. She's a good bedside manner. Yeah. And, gentle with everybody. And I'm done getting treated and I walk out and there we have the guard waiting for me. That's Steve. Steve is waiting for me. And I just want to say, by the way, that Steve did a pretty good job of nonverbal acting when he had to take me to sick bay when he had to escort me to sick bay he gave me that because i gave him that look like really and then he gave me that look back which was like sorry he gave me that look which was great because typically with background actors they don't have that extra the extra in their acting right but he put it in there so i want to compliment steve getting the job done um we find harry sleeping resting after he's had some dermal

regeneration. And he's in his room. And then he starts to have a dream. And I just had to, I made a note that I thought Marvin did a great job of this dream with the camera floating and moving in the wide lenses. I thought it was very, it was very smart choices all around. That is my note as well towards Ian. I said every dream sequence that Marvin shot looked great. My question to you was, how did they change the effect of the voice in the dream sequence, where it sounds more, I don't know, echoey or whatever they're doing. What is that? I mean, what are they doing?

That would be in the mix. That would be after just in the, in the mixing stage. So in post-production at some point, right? All post-production, they would add some reverb or some something to that. Okay. Yeah. So this is in this dream. This is where your mom appears.

Yeah. And at first, she was talking and I looked at the, it was over the back of your head. I thought it was you for a minute. And I'm like, God, he looked so young. And then it cut around and it was a kid. Yeah. with what looked like chicken pox to me. The Mendoccan pox is referred to later.

Yeah, the Mendoccan or Mendoccan pox. And they're rare, and I guess you had had them. Harry had them before. Yeah. And they were recurring, and that's very strange. Yes. We find that out in sick bay. By the way, that young kid that they cast to be me looks nothing like me as a kid.

I know. I thought the same thing. It didn't bother me, though. It was a dream. Like, I did all, and none of it bothered me. I thought it was very cool. It bothered me. I'm so sorry to if you are the kid that played me as young and you're listening to this.

Oh, by the way, can I just please share you? This story is very funny. I was in L.A. probably three days ago, and I ordered DoorDash or something like that. Right. So as the delivery guy comes up and he hands me the food, I go, thank you so much. So I'm walking away and the guy goes, wait a minute, you Harry Kim on Voyager? And I was like, yeah? And I've got, I'm wearing a mask.

he's wearing a mask. He goes, I came this close to being your stand-in. Oh, wow. And I was like, and I went, and I looked at him, I went, wait a minute, is your name Mike? And he goes like, you remember my name after two and a half decades for the guy who and I do remember Jerry Fleck said, Garrett, can you come into the set? Can you come in the set?

We've got a couple of guys or I thought it was three guys, but Mike and Mike said it was two. And I want you to take a look and stand next to these guys. we want to see who we want to pick as your new stand-in. And he didn't get it. It was the other guy that got it, you know? So, but still, after all this time, and how random is that? The one food delivery guy happens to be the guy that almost was my stand-in. That was just absolutely nuts.

All right, back to the dream. So I have been docking pox, and then all of a sudden, Harry wakes up from this nightmare. Oh, and the best part of that dream is my mother suspends me at the end of the dream, right? you from duty and you go mom, mom, which is exactly how I say mom to my mom. And then I wake up and I wake up and I go to this, I go to this bathroom area, right? Where you see this. I remember filming this thinking, this is the coolest sink. And I kept thinking, I want to design a sink like this for my own home.

Yeah, it was really cool. The lights came on automatically. Pull it out. The water comes out. Super cool. And that's when I see the big rash in the mirror, which really looks like a true. marking. You know what I'm saying? It is very trill-like. Yeah. So you go

down to sickbay and that's where you've got this rash and the doctor tells you it's Mendoccan pox and it's rare and that it's strange that it would be recurring. And he also explains, well you explain the dream and he says

well maybe the dream is coming from these mendoc and pox that it's upsetting your system somehow he goes but that's unusual like usually dreams don't aren't connected. I've never seen it connected really to you know physical illness like that but yeah and harry's concerned that there might be psychological effects so he's asking the doctor um is this possible uh and the doctor says he didn't see anything but he'll run a closer analysis and that's when torres wakes up torres wakes up

she's regaining conscious and by the way she wakes up last time we saw her she looked like the walking dead like her face was burned her hair's a mess she's a disaster and then she wakes up and she's kind got this rested smile her hair is perfect she looks like she just went through like a makeover works it was unbelievable so she went from zombie torres to waking up in a bed and breakfast is essentially what happens yes she's very sore she's very sore and tired you guys talk she says that you're cute she kind of flirts with you i know see she says she calls you like a speckled tar well she said well first of all she says what happened to your face which is kind of a funny line you know, and then she's like, well, it's kind of cute.

Makes you look like a speckled targ. That's a flirtation, I think. Yes. And she gives me another nickname when she leaves, when I leave. See you later, Spot. Yes, yes. I got Starfleet and I got Spot. I got two S nicknames from Torres.

Whereas you have zero, sir. I have zero. Tom Harris has zero nickname. She was definitely flirting with you. Thank you. Okay. All right. It could have been because I noticed as you were talking to her,

your hair was very poofy. Oh my gosh. Okay. You had big hair. Can I just say? We've been talking, yes, we've been talking about the trilogy of terror. This is the trilogy of big hair episodes. Like every one of these three episodes, Harry's hair has been extra poofy.

It was very big. Extra volume, voluminous, voluminous. Voluminous hair. Yeah, it's a cute scene. It's a really cute scene. Harry feels horrible. He goes off to the captain's office, goes to the ready room, he walks in, and you basically confess. You take full responsibility.

and it's like super formal, and you come in, it's like, Captain, sir, it's my fault. I mean, that's not your line, but it was, that was the attitude. It was like, Captain, sir, I take responsibility. It's my fault. I like your line. Responsibility that there is, just me. No, I like your lines better. Captain, sir, it's my fault.

That's it, just ending it there. Yeah, it was like that. And then she goes, relax, Ensign, they actually were firing. They were charging their weapons. They were charging their weapons. And she's like, how did you know that? Like, we had to do all this analysis to figure it out. And you just kind of knew it.

And I, again, noticed big hair, big hair, very big hair. Big hair. And while you guys are talking, you're like, I don't know. I just did. And Tuvok comes in and goes, three ships, three of these. Three more, three more, Nassari. Yeah. Nassari ships are approaching.

Oh, brother. Out on the bridge, we go. Yeah. The issue, though, is we're just, we're not ready for anybody. we're only uh the repairs aren't completed we only have warp three maximum we have no photon torpedoes we only have phasers and that's when harry walks down to con and i fully expected to see you but i see carrie sitting there carrie sitting there yeah we can't outrun them because the ship's not back ready so we can't outrun them but harry goes i know where we can go and he goes down to this he pulls up the star chart yeah carrie's there

what tom's doing yeah what are you doing and he figures out a place to go and he says we'll be safe over by this planet. Let's go to this star system over here. Yeah. He's like, I'm sure of it. And because he was right before, now they're like, and in Tuvok even says, I don't think it would be wise for us to confront them. We probably should, instead of staying here and fighting, we should do what Harry's suggesting.

So you're back at your station, and we see that we are near this planet. And Janeways says, we're going to make her stand here. and then Harry goes, Teresa, Teresa? See, now, this is very important. There's two pronunciations of this. There's Teresa. Teresia and Teresa. There's some people that pronounce the S and pull it out longer,

and there's some people who don't. So you're either Thereseans or Therijians, so there's two different pronunciations. All right, I'm going to go with Teresia. Okay, so Teresia, like Harry says that he knows it. It's on the future. It's from the dream, he says. And we did see that.

in his dream. We see that it's the same planet, which by the way, I love what Viz FX did with this planet. It had a lot of dimension. It was very cool looking at it. And so we realized that there's another ship coming up from the planet. A Toresean ship. A Torese ship. And it seems like it's going to fire at us. And they're arming their weapons. And it fires right past us and disables all three Nisari ships. Yes. Which was a little shocking. I thought, Hmm, that's really easy to disable those other ships. Like, why couldn't we disable those guys? The Toregian ship is super powerful, evidently,

which then will play into a comment that I will have later towards the end of the episode, which contradicts this power that they have displayed here. They seem to have a lot of power here. He seemed due here, yes. Okay. So it disables all three Nisari ships. This lady pops on board. Mm-hmm.

Looking very sweet. We didn't talk about her, yes. Debrae Mae. Debrae may plays Lyrus, the Toreesian elder. who pops on screen, and she looks so much like Lori Holden. Do you know Lori Holden, the actress? She played Andrea on the early seasons of Walking Dead. So Deborah May looks like an older version of Lori Holden.

That's the note that I made right here. Well, if she pops up, she looks around, and then she goes, there you are. Basically, she tells you, you're Teresian, welcome home. Yeah, yeah. And we're like, what? Dun, dun, what? All right, so here we go.

into the creepy parts. Yep. Beam down to the planet. The Theresian Welcome Hall, right? I'm calling it the Welcome Hall. Great. And it's all girls. It's all.

Lots of young girls. And Patrick Fabian. And Patrick Fabian, yes. And another Theresean has returned. And it's a whole ceremony practically. They're so happy. Cristana Loken comes up and kisses me square on the lips. And they're all touching.

Everybody's like touching. Terry stroking my hair. You're all stroking. It's a bit, the whole scene, you're getting stroked by these three ladies. And Patrick Fabian's got a couple stroking him. And it's like, it just, I got to say, and it's only going to get worse. So I just got to be honest right now. Okay.

All of this stroking, constant, like, sexualization made me uncomfortable. It just, it was, I don't know. I kind of want to talk to Marv about this. stuff. I don't know how much was directorial. I don't know how much was scripted. I'm just curious. Yeah. But it was like immediately in this scene, I'm like,

oh, this is creepy. But then it just, like, that's only the beginning. Yeah. Yeah. And then it continues. So I got to say up front, for me, I get the story that we're trying to tell, but I wish it didn't involve so many scenes with that business going on because it was very

distracting. It was very off-putting because it felt like I was invading as an audience member, a very private or personal kind of thing, whereas it took me away from story. Anyway, well, at least they had, you know, at least Harry reacts to that stroking by Lianne, right? So Elian, I get the kiss from Malia, and I'm like, whoa, and then I get stroked on the cheek by Elian, which I then kind of push away. So there is that reaction, which would be a genuine reaction to anyone just invading a personal space, right? But my reaction. I wish there had been some of that in the story. Yeah, and there wasn't

enough reaction to her kissing me either in the very beginning. I should have been like, whoa, like that's a huge, like people just don't, well, I take that back. There is one person who does that. The actress who worked on Chuck, Linda Hamilton. Yes, Linda Hamilton is the only human being that I met her. She kissed me on the lips when she first met me. So that is the only person that's like that. I love Linda. She's Torresian. Yeah. But she doesn't stroke you. No, she doesn't stroke me. She just kisses you. The one kiss and then done. She's very European that way. So we find out in this scene that your instincts, your DNA has been encoded with these Theresian genes and that you have

have this desire. That's what's been going on. Yes, but I also, they're telling me that Harry was conceived in Eterisia, then put in the embryo was put into stasis. The embryos put in stasis. And And then it travels with the messenger, whoever the courier, which is essentially the father, supposedly, right, across the galaxy, and then implanted in unsuspecting wombs. And so my mother's womb was implanted with this Theresian embryo, which I then, I guess, because of their genetics, their genetics are so advanced that they're able to hide this so that I grow up looking human, but. gradually as I get closer to the planet Teresia, the genes activate and they become the dominant genes and push aside the human genes. The doctor kind of says, well, this must be like a recessive gene. Yeah. And it's just now sort of emerging. We see Paris there. Your first line. Your first line is when, okay, so Kelly Kirkland, who plays Renna, hands me a drink. And I, to say,

I naturally bring my hand up to her side of her cheek to say, thank you, right? And that's when you go, Harry, and that's your first line, almost halfway through the episode, you've got a line, finally. And it's one word. It's my name. Okay. Well, okay. So then a few moments later, the party is continuing. And we see Paris go over to try to, you know, make small talk with one of these Theresean young girls. And he is totally dismissed. Shut down. And she walks right over to Shut down, walks right over to Harry. And Paris continues to watch. from the deep background. I was like, you were such a third wheel in all of this entire, this whole scene where we're down on the Turusian planet. You're the third wheel.

You're just like, it was so funny, so funny. Everybody's transporting back, but Harry says, no, I think I want to stay. You want to stay. Like, yeah. And you find out though, Robbie, you find out from Taman. You have a side conversation with Taman because you ask him, oh, is this the standard welcome home reception?

And Taman's like, well, for males, yes. because they're so rare. The Theresean population is 90% female. So this is where we learn the actual stats. Right. That may not even be true. You know, that guy. Yeah, who knows.

Well, so Harry wants to stay. So we go back and we're in sick bay now. And the doctor does confirm that there are fragments of his DNA that have been recessive that are now becoming dominant. That is true. We also talk to the Nassari. they consider Harry if he is Theresean they consider him the enemy

they basically say you know we're we're not going to we'll agree to this you know peace this peace situation we're not going to fight you anymore right Janeway doesn't want to fight because the ship is still being repaired from the big battle in that opening scene

but they consider Harry the enemy and he says if you try to take Harry out of here put him back on your ship then we'll we'll consider you have an enemy on board and we will fire at all enemies. And Tuvok even says something like, well, maybe if Harry stays here, you know, that may not be a bad thing, which I thought is, wow, wow, Tuvok. Thanks, Tuvok. But he also kind of warms Janeway. He says, we have no conflict with you and you should just forget about your crewman because no one who comes home to Teresa ever leaves. They just head back to, so this is literally this warning sort of like done, you know,

this mysterious kind of dark side of the Teresian starts to come out from this story from Albin, the Nassari captain. But you did skip one welcome hall scene right before this. Oh yes, they did. Yes. This is a big scene and I want to talk about this now because this is probably the only time in seven years that I did not have my lines down. Really? Oh my God. I remember coming on to set. And that was a long scene. I mean, that was probably six or seven pages of dialogue, I think. And I didn't have anything ready. And I remember Marvin was so excited about the day. And this was the first scene up that day. And Marvin was so jazzed and happy to be filming. And I was, I didn't have the heart to tell them, I don't know any of these lines,

like none of them. And I was learning them on the fly. And I, barely, barely got them out. So, so these are the scene, this is the scene where Taman and I are sitting there. And he's giving me his backstory about how he had the urge to explore. And he was, you know, he went with the merchant marines or whatever. And I'd tell him, well, I always had the urge to explore too. And he talks about Toregian traits of music. Yeah, Toregian traits may come out like music.

And you go, well, that makes sense. So it's all making sense. Yes. And they try to give you a mood enhanced. Well, this is what I wrote down. So Kelly Kirkland, so Rina and Kristana Loken, who plays, and I don't know why Christana has an S in her name on the credits, Kristana S. Loken, you usually add a middle name or a middle initial

when you have a very common name, like Bob Smith, right? But when you're Christana Loken, I have to ask her why she's doing that. I sent her a text, by the way, Robbie, so hopefully she'll respond to me on that one. But they enter, those two enter, with what looks like a doorstop. I was like, that's a doorstop but evidently that's what they used to inject this mild mood enhancer with no side effects

according to Taman. I love that part. No side effects. They're like, everyone wants you to be happy. Yeah, just chill. And you're like, no, I think I'll pass. Yeah. We also learned in the scene that you were a miracle child that your parents tried a long time to have a child. Right.

And your self-esteem or your confidence here is not great because we see, Harry says, you know, I don't see what's so special about me, you know, self-deprecating. I didn't deserve that kind of devotion. Right. Yeah. And Taman is saying, you know, imagine that you've been special your whole life. Like, how does that feel? You know, you're not average. You're very special. Look, you're, you're Theresean. That's what's been going on. You were a miracle. So, yeah, big scene, interesting. And then who comes over to give you a massage?

Oh, that's Elian. Elianne's the one, Carrie Shane's character. She comes over. Yeah, she says, let me relax your muscles for you. I'm getting uncomfortable again. There's a lot of just very... Your uniform is so restricted. Oh.

The dialogue. There's so much innuendo going on. It's actually... It's so... It's overkill. It's too much. It's too much. I just...

it was the stroking and the touching and the massages and the innuendo it was like bananas on bananas yeah yeah it was a lot okay let's get beyond the stroking and touching after we find out that no one comes home to teresa and ever leaves this is when janeway is you know now really kind of worried she's thinking well what what is all this all about so she decides to go back to teresa she heads back to voyager heads back to teresa one thing happens yeah one thing happens in this scene on the Yeah. First of all, I think Alvin, that alien, he looks like he's in Cats the Musical. I got to say, that makeup. Something about it. It just looked like he was Mistophiles or one of those, you know, Cats, the Musical characters. And he says no one, no one who comes home to Teresia ever leaves. He says that there's rumors about these people. She says, I'm not interested in rumors. I just want the facts. And they hang up. then Chikote says, I wonder if those rumors are true. Now, when someone just says there's rumors, I mean, he didn't say, Alvin didn't say like, oh, there's rumors that they kill everybody or there's

rumors that this are, he just said there's rumors. And then Chacote is like, wonder if those rumors are true. I'm like, what? Don't you need to know what the rumors are before you want to wonder if they're true? Yeah. Anyway, it was a strange exchange to me. Okay. Now we head back to Teresia, and we detect a high-density Polaron grid is now surrounding Teresia, which wasn't there before. They're blocking the surface. They're blocking communication. Yep, they can't hail them.

You can't transport. We can't do anything. Nothing. We jump down to the Taresian welcome hall where we see Taman's joining ceremony. It's a candle-lit ceremony. The mantra that is chanted is Amal Ulat, let us be joined. And so now this is basically his marriage ceremony. And also from that earlier scene where we see Taman and Harry chatting,

we learn that he's taking not one, not two, but three wives. And this is his joining ceremony to his three wives. Kim comes up. I thought this was very, very coolly, you know, very creatively shot and staged. Yeah, just the circle stuff going on. I thought the gong, when they did the little gong, it was a little lame. I wish the gong sound or the gong could have been cool. cooler. More impressive? Yeah. Yeah. It was kind of like, bing. Yeah. Blank. Blank. I don't know. It was not

much of a ceremony and then bling. It's like if there's a cartoon gun and instead of making a bang, it goes like that. It was like really just minimal, right? Okay. But the rest of it was cool. The sticks banging and circling and the face painting and the tiny little ribbon over his blindfold. which, of course, it doesn't really blindfold him. It was like a ribbon. It was like a tiny, skinny blindfold. Yes. So, Harry, after the ceremony's over, he walks over to Elianne, and he asks her,

hey, why did they tie him up like that? And she says it's tradition, you know? And then she says, do you find it exciting? And this is where it got it comfortable for me. And I'm, because it's very, it's so much a new way. And I'm like, what? Think of it that way. A little bit of tying people up.

there. So yeah, a little bondage action. It was very, yeah, it was like, what? I can't believe those lines are in there, but they were in there. Well, I think a lot of these lines, you know, could be played a lot of different ways. They could be. I just think, yeah, I just think not, not that I'm saying how they should have or could it, would have been played, but, but for everybody, whether it was the Theresian women or for Harry or for Patrick Fabian or whoever, it just felt like bananas on bananas. Like, yeah, if the, if the words are, are being innuendo-y, then probably Marvin should have directed things a little less, you know, sexualized or whatever.

Like, you know, just play against it or play it lighter or something because I think, I think the story could have, would have still worked and some of those kind of cringe moments of like, oh, this is uncomfortable and why are we going there? Like, it's Star Trek. It's not, it's not like, you know, you know, red shoe diaries after dark or what i'm yeah no it's feeling like what sure are we watching oh i love it anyway kim tries to harry tries to reach voyager but yeah doesn't get anything no response yeah but lyrus says hey you're welcome to stay the night so he does he does stay the night now we're in the voyager corridor chakotie and jane we're discussing how to bypass the turesian

defenses like what are we going to do and then we jump to sickbay which is kind of weird why were they walking to Sick Bay in the first place. That was kind of weird because they just walked right in there. And the doctor was like, oh, hey, I was about to tell you, get a hold of you. The Theresean genetic fragments were implanted basically by a retrovirus. Yeah, Harry isn't Theresee. Yeah, he's not Theresee. No. And this is a retrovirus. And the doctor in the scene, Bob Farrow is very proud of himself. Very proud exactly what I wrote down. He's like, I figured it out. Yeah, yeah. I know what it is. James. Yes, I've looked in the transporter logs. And he was very happy, very excited. Yeah, he looked

in the transporter logs and found that he might have been infected on this away mission. Chicago Te were members. And Harry had sort of wandered off by himself. That's right. That's right. And so they've figured this out. They figured out the scam. So our heroes know what's happening to Harry, but Harry doesn't know what's happening. No, no. Okay. So we jump back down to now Teresian guest quarters. And Elian is basically putting Harry to bed. Yeah. She says Akari Asan, which means pleasant dreams. And then she brings over this essence of rika flowers and puts this stuff on Harry.

She says pleasant dreams. And then Harry's like, aren't you going to tuck me in? Oh, right, right, right. Yeah. I did skip over that. I did skip over that. That's what I'm saying. Okay.

Harry is like fishing here. Like, really like they've been caressing you and kissing you. and now like really tuck me in okay and she she brings this oil over close your eyes there's lots of kissing way too much kissing two ladies i got very uncomfortable choose me no choose me um and choose one more there's got to be three and then harry's uh well there is there's a dream you did yeah there's a dream sequence yeah it all felt like a dream to me i didn't even know where the dream stopped and the creepiness began. Now, when we're in the guest quarters

and the dream sequence happens, I've always talked to people or relayed this story at conventions, I've talked about how in my dream sequence, I kiss the Burnett, and then I kiss the blonde,

and then I kiss the African-American girl. And no, I remembered it incorrectly. I only kiss Rina and Elian. So I'm kissing the Burnett, Kerry Shane, and Kelly Kirkland, the African-American actress. That's the only,

there's no, the only kissing of Malia happens in the very beginning when I arrive on the planet and the welcome party, she kisses me on the lips that we talked about earlier. And that's it. And I say that in one scene, that is probably the most kissing any Asian actor has had in Hollywood of Asian male actor. Yeah. But as I've said before, it's too much kissing. Yes. But Robbie, at that point in time, in 1997, I could count on one hand how many times Hollywood has allowed an Asian male to kiss anybody. Yeah, that's true. I think, look, having you as an Asian American actor in a story about women desiring you or, you know, this female planet desiring you as a human, just a human, whether you're Asian or, I think having a story about that is great. And for all the reasons you've said,

I think it's breaking down stereotypes and having your character have a love story of sorts and have, you know, and have this attraction, sure, it's not about, to me, it's not the fact that you're Asian or whatever race you may be. It's just that the story, it's as a human thing, it's like having two or three women kissing or caressing, it just starts to feel if it's, if it's protracted, it's too much. It's like, I get this. I get what. you're doing and it's just now it feels exploitive in some way. You know what I mean? Yeah. Whether it's a white person, an Asian person, a black person, indigenous person, whatever person, to me, my issue isn't about that at all. Yeah. There's actually great value in the

fact that it's about Harry, I think. So that's wonderful. You're right. And I appreciate you bringing that up. Yeah. But the part that I struggle with as I watched this episode was it's just, it's too cringe-worthy that that these moments go on and on sort of exploitively, like the caressing and the kissing. I remembered this scene incorrectly. I thought all three ladies were in it and it was just two. But that's the thing. It's like literally, literally saying like, oh, I thought I was kissing three women and not two. It's like, dude, okay, okay, fine. It's uncomfortable. I hear you. I hear you. And but my point is that yes, it's overkill, but the, the, um, the desert that has has been Asian actors with any females.

It's been a desert in Hollywood. So having this overkill was fine in my books because Asian guys need that image to show people that they can be masked as well. From that perspective, I hear you. I just don't know if overkill is the solution to that problem. Right, I hear you. That's what I would say is like, does overkill really help the cause?

Is that like putting an admirable, you know, like normalizing spin on it? or is it just another hurdle for people to go away? I don't know. To me, that was my biggest issue in this was the physicality and the over-sexualizing because I get that there's a planet where they need to bring in men to reproduce, but does it need to be a planet that feels like an orgy and, you know, that's just there to satisfy male needs?

Like that, that doesn't, I don't think that was necessary. I hear your point. And now the interesting note here I'm going to share with everybody is that the entire seven days of filming this episode, it was just the guest star gals and myself, pretty much. But on the day that we had the kissing, because all the kissing scenes were scheduled for the same day, all three boyfriends of these three actresses showed up.

They all showed up on set. They all showed up on set, and they were all there watching while we were filming the kissing scenes. And I thought, this is hilarious. This is the only day that they show up. Well, that's what I mean. The reason they showed up is because they probably heard from their girlfriends or partners that the same.

was a, oh, you know, extremely sexualized, you know, group kissing scene or whatever. I remember once directing an episode of Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce, and there was a scene where one of the characters goes to this sort of wild party, where everybody takes MDMA, and they start, sort of, there's a lot of, um, stroking. Yeah, everybody starts kissing everybody. And yeah, we had hired some people who had agreed to as background people to do like to have a woman kind of kissing one man and then turning to another and kissing and when we got there she was just like I don't want to kiss two people like I don't I don't feel comfortable I know I said I did so I changed it I was like you know what we can tell this story without you having to do that and so I had her she she agreed to

kiss one of them and then sort of just embrace the other one and yeah so we told the story of oh, there was these people who were using drugs and becoming very loose sexually. That was the story we needed to tell, but I wanted the actors to feel comfortable, and I didn't feel like I needed to exploit these

background actors in any way. I guess I just feel like this one needed much more delicate kind of touch in all areas because it was, you know, that's why the boyfriend showed up. Like, why do you think they showed up, dude? because they're not comfortable because everybody's kind of like knows it but whatever okay i get it i get

it okay all right so anyway so there's this kissing yeah you know this is the big moment where yes you've got to kiss the two women and they say you pick a third and please choose me yeah or no way you i wake up though i'm kissing them in the dream and i wake up and they're next to me which is very odd this is when harry first realizes there's something afoot there's something very very strange here why are they in my bed like this? They're trying to convince him to stay. They need to, you need to select me as a wife. And no, select both of us as a wife.

Then you only need to find one more wife. And then, you know, as I'm going, trying to get out of there. No, I'm not into this. They're just getting angry. They do get angry. Yeah. And as I say, you have a responsibility to Theresia. Like now they're kind of scolding you a bit.

Yes, yes. Clearly. The only thing that's unclear is when when Rinnah, Kelly Kirkland's character, comes up and gives me that kiss and I'm not really responsive to it, you know? And then I sort of like get into it. There needs to be, I don't know how you're supposed to show it because there is at one moment where Harry basically

realizes I'm getting away, I'm getting away, and then he feels, oh my gosh, I need to do something to distract them, you know? And so let me play along with their game. So there's nothing, right, but there's no image, there's no shot of me showing the recognition. I guess it's just, it's implied. So everyone knows that I'm playing along now.

I don't think people are supposed to know. I think I, to me in the story, it's supposed to feel like, oh, God, no, Harry's going to, he's going to, okay, okay, so they're not supposed to. Okay. So he seems to agree, but as soon as you start tying her up, yeah, we know that that's not normal Harry. Right. And we, you know, as an audience, I think we realize, oh, this is part of his plan. He's pretending to be into this. It's like, come on, you know. Yeah. Didn't you, didn't you, you know, want to do this before? Like, yeah. Let me tie you up. Yeah. And then. And this, this scene, though, remember we talked about this earlier. I said there's one scene that I said, there's one scene that I felt, felt very awkward about. It's this scene here because the blocking, the blocking in this was just really, it was complicated. It wasn't, you know, I don't feel that it was very organic. And then, and then when I had to tie them up, it was like, wait a minute, you don't have any, where's the rope? They're like, oh, no, you're just going to use these little, these little ribbons that they have strip. But the thing is, I tore that one strip apart so easily. And then I'm going to tie her up with that same strip that I just pulled apart. Like it was tissue paper. How is that going to work? So

There was a little, some holes in the script here. Like there wasn't really any real rope around per se. You know what I'm saying for me to use? So that's why the blocking felt weird, the props using the ribbon that gauze or whatever that was, was very awkward to me. So I just, you know, my main recollection of this episode is that, that yes, I kissed a bunch of women. But more importantly, this scene really rubbed me the wrong way in terms of it just didn't flow. It didn't flow that well.

It looked okay, but I tell you what, there was a few things. Like, like, you know, once the girls start going, you know, what are you up to? Yeah. And Rina goes to untie. Oh, she goes, this is your, this is a, what does she say? This is a, you're tricking us or something like that. You're tricking us or something like that. And then she goes to untie her and knock her out.

Come up and you grab, yeah, you grab a statue or something and you knock her out. And then you're like, sorry about that. Yeah, the face I make. I'm like, yeah. Yeah. I just felt like it was, why doesn't the other, girl scream. I felt like there were a bunch of things like the gauze and it didn't feel authentic to me. It didn't feel like the stakes were as authentic or real as they would be. Well, Elian doesn't scream

because I take some gauze and I wrap it around her mouth, which is supposedly going to stop her from screaming again. Yeah, but she could make even even even even even that would have been explain why no one hears it, it would be an authentic thing you would do. I wish that was there because as soon as it starts feeling, you know, not authentic, then I'm, then I, I kind of get lost a little bit. Yeah. But anyway, you knock out Rina, you, you, you take off, you're sneaking down the hall, and you go to Taman's room, and he is now a mummy. He is like, he is a desiccated corpse is what? He's a corpse. Taman news. Yeah, he looks like a mummy. I don't know how to describe it. Like all of the life

stepped out of him. You know what he looked like? It looked like Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones. Yes, he kind of looked like Keith Richards. I'm sorry. That's, sorry Keith Richards if you're listening to this, but. But Taman's wife comes in, who he just went away, Malia comes in and says things to you, like, well, any father should be willing to sacrifice themselves for their children. Right. Because my question is what happened to him? And she's like, well, Taregians must nucleate a large. number of cells to collect enough genetic material for conception. So it's not just sperm cells. It's like cells from the entire body. That's why he looked like a mummy. Yeah. And that's when she says any father should be willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of his children for the continuation

of his race. Two more Teregians enter. Harry basically hides and then throws Malia into them and runs out. Okay. We jump to the bridge. James and Chkote discussed breaking through the grid and beaming Harry aboard. They do clear the grid, but they can't. not locate Harry. There's still some type of dampening field around the welcome hall or something. That's when we jump to the Teregian welcome hall. They're surrounding me. I do find one way out, but that is where Patty Tallman comes in and knocks me on my bum with her stick. Basically, now the women are surrounding you. You've got a bit of a fight sequence. You've got a floor, floor fight with one of them. Was that Patty Tallman? Was that Patty Tallman? Yeah, I'm wrestling

within the floor. Floor fight with Patty Tallman. Then two of them grab you, some more come in. you like upchuck those guys and smack them in the face, knock two ladies out. I'm not happy that I'm beating people, women down. I'm not happy about that. But that's what I do to get out of there, you know? You have to. They're surrounding you and they're going to kill me. They're going to kill you.

You know that. You're going to be the next mummy. Yeah. And just there's a cool shot overhead just as they're kind of stepping in and starting to close in on you. You start to beam out of that shot. And yeah. that was a weird shot though because i remember talking to to marv about that i was like okay so you're going to be shooting this beam out sequence from above he's like yeah it's gonna be

really cool it's gonna be really cool i'm like okay well then do you want me to look up i guess and he's like let's try that so that's because if you see what during the beam out i'm i throw them off and then i you see the shot from above the women surrounding me and then i look up like that like right up like I'm looking up at Voyager or something. It was a little awkward. I mean, I guess it still plays. Oh, I thought it played great. Yeah. But I thought it played great. But I just remember the discussion on set, I was a little. Well, why are you looking at? Yeah, I said, why am I doing this? Like, I'm trying to find, actors always trying to find their motivation. Like, why are we motivated to do this? You know, please explain this to me. And I felt like I was just getting an explanation

that didn't really suffice in my book. I felt like, hmm, I don't buy that. But I did it. I still did it. I'm a team player, you know. Well, I thought it was a cool shot. But yeah, there's no reason for you to look up, except for the shot. But it didn't bump me. It didn't bother you, though, right? It didn't pull you out. Okay. No.

All right. We're back on the bridge and the Toregian ship is firing. No, not yet. The Toregian patrol ship is firing on Voyager and they're giving us chase, right? And then we detect three Nisari vessels that are heading for us as well. So we're like, oh my gosh, we're going to have to fight on two fronts. But they attack the Toregian ship instead and leave us alone. But why on earth is the Theresean ship that was so powerful before, now so weak?

Like, for some reason, they can't do anything, and now they're kind of losing to the three Nassari ship, right? We flashed to the mess hall. And Harry's telling this story to Nelix about the Iliad, the Odyssey, right? About Odysseus being leered by this. Dysseus siren song story, yep. And Nelix is into that, and Harry basically talks about how there was something exciting about having a new, identity being more than young Ensign Kim. And Neelik says, I for one,

and glad to have young Ensign Kim back with us. And he squeezes my cheek. He squeezes hairy cheeks and makes a small sound. And he goes, something like that. And I actually called Johnny up. And I called him up. I said, Johnny, did you put that? Did you add that in post, like in ADR and looping?

And he's like, oh, no, no. That would have been on set for sure. I definitely didn't add anything in looping. So I got that. And Johnny says, you, by the way. Oh, nice. Yes. Yeah, I always like those little, like, talaxian noises. Talaxiisms. He really adds a lot of cool things in there. And I love that little, little sound in there, which was cute, right? Yeah. So then I, I, I, I, I have a conversation

with you. And I basically say that, I say, Harry says, boy, I wish, I could be more bold and confident with women like you and then Tom you want to be like me Tom well you might have to spend some time in a penal colony and then but before he says that he bites his lower lip and he says since I've been on Voyager I've been trying to be more like you and now there's a moment for a split second if you're watching as an audience member you might be thinking there's going to be a kiss between Harry and Tom. That's because everybody's been kissing you the whole episode. I get that. It's not for any other reason. But you bite your, when people, when women, when everyone bites their lip, it's sort of a, it's, it's a sensual thing. So you bit your lip before you say,

since I've been on Voyager, I've been trying to be more like you. And you kind of look at me with very, I don't know, and maybe I was thinking, maybe I was just thinking like, oh, that's nice that you said that and, you know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't man, it looks like you give me goo-go-go-eyes. And then it looks, and then it cuts to me, and it looks like I give you goo-go-eyes. It's like I'm super charming. I guess, but it looks like I give you gu-go-eyes right back. So it looks like I'm reciprocating your goo-go-eyes. And then right before, before, because the last thing you say is, since I've been in Voyager, I've been trying to be more like you. There's that really awkward moment of possible kiss between Tom and Harry.

And then Harry breaks it up by saying, nah, you're not going to be more like me kind of a thing. and we walk out, and you say, you're my role model, you're reliable, hardworking, extremely punctual. Did I mention polite? Did I mention polite? Right. But the punctual part, I thought, okay, that's a stab. Yes, that was a little jab from the writers who get a little pat.

Dreamly punctual. Yes, yes. In dealing with some of my tardiness, that was a little bit of a jab, which is what I wrote down. So you did not see a potential kiss between Tom and Harry? No, I did not. Okay. All right. I did not, Garrett.

It just looked like that. But you're right. This entire episode was about everybody kissing, kissing, kissing, and kissing. I think it was just a theme in my head. Speaking of themes, I'll give you my theme. Go, yeah, go with your theme. My theme, my takeaway, my lesson from this episode was pleasure can seduce you from seeing the truth.

Too much pleasure can distract you from seeing the truth. That was what I took away from that. Okay. There was a lot of distracting pleasure. All right. What'd you have? Any theme? Yeah, I mean, my theme is,

it's not an overall theme. It's not an overall lesson. It's a lesson that came from Kess, of all people, who we've talked about being very wise for her young age. Kess in the early sickbay scene, when Harry goes down to get his cut fixed, she basically says to him, Harry, you can't undo what's been done.

So that is the lesson that I got from this episode, which is so true because people sometimes they worry so much about something that just happened. And you know, the truth of the matter is what's done is done. It's happened. You must move on. So really, the lesson that I got from this episode is that conversation from Cass is that you need to accept what happened and move forward and don't dwell on the past, right? Stay present. Stay present. Don't think about what just happened. Think about what's happening now. So that's my lesson. Always good to stay present. Well, there you go there's our uh recap and rewatch of favorite son scale of one to ten what would you give this you answer first i'm going to give this a below average i'm going to say the

trilogy of terror is not far off for me i'm going to give us a four whoa that's like your lowest rating of any episode. I'd even give threshold a four. So, I'm hurt. Really? I'm telling you, it's not you. It is not you. It's a, it's a weird amalgamation of script, performance, direction, dialogue, just editing. All of it, everything just keeps adding on to the problem rather than like blowing through, you know, making, making the things that would distance, that distanced me. Yes. Were only made worse by everyone, you know, by the whole group effort. Whereas I think if any one part of that had changed, it would have been better.

Anyway, I'm not going to give it a rating. I'm just going to say that this is my least favorite Harrycentric episode. Oh, wow. Okay, I'm just going to say that much. I will say that pre-pandemic, This is the episode that Dr. Muhammad Nour would show at Duke University during his spring break course. He would teach a spring break course, which lasted for basically a week for spring break. And he invited me down two years in a row where he showed this episode to his class and had me waiting in his office.

And after the episode was over, he brought me into class and say, and here we have the actor who was in this episode to talk about his experiences on Star Trek. And so he, being a biology professor, he talks about the genetics that are talked about in this episode. So he uses this episode as a learning tool. That's very cool. Well, it's like threshold. You know, my famous, well-hated episode is used at the, no. No, that wasn't it. First duty was used to teach thing.

I knew there was something I was a part of that got used in the school. At the Air Force Academy. At the Air Force Academy. Yes, yes. So this, you know, so this episode, Dr. Norr uses in his class. which I thought was pretty cool, yeah. So a couple years in a row I went out there and was the surprise guest there.

Nice. Yeah. All right. Well, that's our review of Favorite Son. The trilogy of terror is now over. Everyone can sigh. I have a breathe a sigh of relief right now. Join us next week when Robbie and I review before and after.

And for all of our Patreon patrons, stay tuned for your bonus material. See ya. So, you know, Bhopal, Bhopal, B,

Bhopal, B, Bhop, B, Bhop, B, B, Bhop,

B, B, B, So, you know, but you know You know,