The Delta Flyers - Future's End Part II

Episode Date: April 19, 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 Future’s End, Part 2. Garrett and Robbie recap and discuss the episode, and share their insight as series regulars.Future’s End, Part 2:Tuvok and Paris, lost in present-day Los Angeles, enlist the aid of a young astronomer and use cellular technology to communicate with the earth-orbiting Voyager.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, Sarah A Gubbins, Jason M Okun, Marie Burgoyne, Chris Knapp, Michelle Zamanian, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Matthew Gravens, Brian Barrow, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, Megan Hurwitt, James Zugg, Mike Gu, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Vikki Williams, William McEvoy, Holly Smith, Jesse Noriega, Dominic Burgess, Amber Eason, Lucas Shuck, PJ Tomas, Nicholaus Russell, Darryl Cheng, Alex Mednis, and Elizabeth StantonAnd 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, Luz R, 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, Maxine Soloway, Joshua L Phillips, Barbara Beck, Elaine Ferguson, Mary O'Neal, Aithne Loeblich, Captain Jeremiah Brown, Heidi Mclellan, John Espinosa, Dat Cao, Cody Crockett, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Cindy Ring, Andrei Dunca, Daniel Owen, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Amber Nighbor, Ming Xie, Mark G Hamilton, Rob Johnson, Kevin Selman, Heather Choe, Justin Weir, Joseph Michael Kuhlmann, Kevin Hooker, Matthew Osborne-Graham, and Michelle Maroney 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

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey guys. 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, Gerrit Wong, and my co-host, Robbie Duncan McNeil. Here we are on a journey. We're on a journey. We're on a journey. the three seasons in on our journey of the Voyager run. I don't know why it's making me dance. We're on a journey. That sounds like a Brady Bunch theme song. We're on a journey. It does kind of. Can you believe we're actually in season three episode seven or eight now?
Starting point is 00:00:47 This is crazy. It's crazy. Yeah, it is. It's flying. It really, really is. Oh, my goodness. It's been fun so far. It has been a fun.
Starting point is 00:00:57 fun and um i'm excited thanks to all our listeners for listening this following us this entire time that's just you know it's wonderful we've we've every every week our downloads keep increasing so um and i'm just attributing this to the fact that more people are finding us you know there's still people now to this day they're like oh my gosh i just heard about this and so um we're just so happy that you guys are joining us um and so we are now uh about to review, rewatch, Futures End, Part 2. Futures End Part 2. I loved Part 1.
Starting point is 00:01:34 I have to say, it was one of my favorite episodes we ever did. The story was great. The adventure was a lot of fun. The complexity of the time travel and kind of connecting it to current day Earth, you know, at least in 1996, what was going on. Looking at some of the old computer monitors in Rain Robinson Science Lab with a really cheesy graphics. It's almost awesome. Oh, yeah. So fun. Yeah. And so I'm excited to see what happens to the doctor. Yeah, I don't remember. And as we know, the last thing that we saw was the
Starting point is 00:02:12 stealing of the doctor's program by Starling. So Starling now has the doctor. Yeah. And I just, I can't wait to see what happens to him. I know. I don't remember very clearly. So let's go watch part two, Robbie, and come back and review. I can't wait. Thanks guys so much. Patreon patrons, please stay tuned for. What do we remember? Hey, guys, Robbie and I are back from watching Futures End Part 2. What a chock full of plot story line.
Starting point is 00:02:39 This episode is just, it's cram-packed, filled with action. Yeah, it's huge. Turns and twists. It's very, and yeah, and you had talked a little bit about this was originally written for a four-parter episode. I can see how everything was crammed into, you know, into the two parts. Yeah, I read that this originally was conceived as like at least four parts. This was a huge, epic thing.
Starting point is 00:03:06 In fact, I also read that there was talk about bringing Sarah Silverman on back on the Voyager as a regular. Yeah. That that was something that was debated and I had forgotten all about that. Yeah, it's a huge episode. It's really huge. And I was right with my, I guessed with my background. I've got the desert, the desert road. I did remember there was a desert road.
Starting point is 00:03:30 That was a nice sequence. Good job. Let's start with our poetry, though. Let's start with our, let's dive right in. Start with your, you want me to do my limerick? Yeah, you do my limerick first. Here is my limerick for futures end, part two. All right.
Starting point is 00:03:48 Starling's capture begins part two, but he's beamed back through shield. Who knew? A ruse was on. Starlings now gone. Janeway's manual launch to subdue. Nice. Nice. That was very good. You covered a lot of ground. I sure did. Hikus are much simpler. They can only capture a brief moment in time. Yes. Hikumi, sir. Here we go. My synopsis in haiku form must find the time ship. Dock, foot loose, and fancy free back to date and time yes
Starting point is 00:04:30 oh the economy of words is just invigorating yes it really is what's the final stanza back to time back to date and time date and time oh five there is five
Starting point is 00:04:43 it's a five you know we're in a weird timeline here and stupid Starfleet rules make us go all the way back Like, what do they call it, a temporal? Temporal prime directive. Temporal prime directive. We got to go back.
Starting point is 00:04:58 Cannot violate, yeah. GER. Must not, cannot violate temporal prime directive. Yes. Bram, that is it. All right. This episode clearly is still written by Brandon Braga and Joe Monoski, but it is now directed by Cliff Bull.
Starting point is 00:05:15 And that's how I originally started my limerick. I said, new director to begin part two, is what I Oh, that's funny. Yeah, but I changed it. So Cliff Ball is now the director, and I'm wondering why they didn't feel that, why didn't they just let, you know,
Starting point is 00:05:31 the director of the first episode continue. Yeah, why didn't Livingston do both? Both of these were huge episodes. By the way, I got to say, I feel like this may be my favorite episodes, this two-part. So far. Nice.
Starting point is 00:05:43 Yeah. Okay. It was fun to watch. Yeah. The plot was huge. The concept felt very related. Like the technology and the way things were exploding in the late 90s with technology changing the world in huge ways. So this idea that that someone had gotten technology from the future that they shouldn't have made a lot of sense to me.
Starting point is 00:06:09 Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's just dive right into it. Ray and Tom are sitting outside. Robbie, where was that? That was at the Paramount Studios lot. That was on the lot out by the screen, by the Paramount Theater. they've got a little park-like area
Starting point is 00:06:23 and so we were filming they're right at the studios but we were filming out at the park it looked like a public park from the viewpoint of when you're watching the episode but then when I look at the tables and how nice the chairs were
Starting point is 00:06:35 I thought that's not a public park and it's tables and chairs that they set up or maybe they were already there I think they're already there on Paramount yeah of course since it's on the lot you could put nicer stuff
Starting point is 00:06:48 so people aren't going to steal it right you're not going to jack it And you could see the fountain in front of the Paramount Theater that's on the lot just for screenings and, you know, for the studio screenings and things like that. They've got a big fountain. You could see that. That opening scene when Rain is getting out of the VW bus, you're already sitting on the park tape at the park chair and table. You're working on the transistor radio or something like that to reconfigure it to make it a communication device, right? Yes.
Starting point is 00:07:15 When she walks out, that is the snapshot that. that yes that's a snapshot and that and I'm like going that is so not Robbie first of all we didn't okay just so people know what the heck we're talking about Robbie Robbie has a background on I'm gonna put it right now the desert right but for those people that are just listening to the podcast and don't see anything I have to explain it to them Robbie chose a different virtual background which was a screenshot of rain coming out of the bus and the back of what looks like Robbie walking sort of away and we talked about, I said, gosh, that guy doesn't really look like you.
Starting point is 00:07:52 And Robbie kept insisting, that's me. I walked out a lot back then. I was so sure. I said, boy, this guy looks shorter than you. I just don't think that's you. And he says, well, it could be the lighting is different. Yeah. And what we should have realized, Robbie, yes, we were fooled by the gray tank top because you are also wearing a gray tank top, right?
Starting point is 00:08:12 But that dude is wearing khaki pants. You have dad jeans on. So there's no way. I know, I should have thought the dad gene should have been the clue. I know. Exactly. That's the opening scene. That's her getting out.
Starting point is 00:08:26 So we're in the park. Rain is very suspicious. She's like, everything's odd. She says that I call myself a secret agent and nobody uses that term. They use the word spy. But you can see Rain and Tom bonding, which I think was such a fun arc in this two-parter with Paris and Rain.
Starting point is 00:08:43 I thought it was great. Was it really bright that day? You're squinting a lot in this. So much. You're Mr. Squint. The whole episode, I was like, yeah, I have very sensitive eyes that way. Yes.
Starting point is 00:08:55 But although the sunlight was really difficult to deal with, it did really bring the blue out in your eyes. It made them a little bit more dreamy. Yeah, I was squinting a lot, but they bond. Paris says, you know, why did she become an astronomer? She says she looked at Saturn's rings with her brother when she was a kid. From a tree house, they had a little telescope. And the Saturn rings look like pirate treasure.
Starting point is 00:09:20 So it's a really nice, sweet, very personal, intimate kind of sharing. I think that's, I thought that was cool. Paris is working on the car radio and he fritzes it. And Tuvac says, let's go to the observatory. Use the radio dish there. And Rain says, not on an empty stomach. Let's eat some of this junk food, burritos and all the things. That Tuvok brought back.
Starting point is 00:09:42 Yes, Tuvok brought all the junk food for them to eat, which I loved. I don't know. I would think that a Vulcan would be probably vegan. I think it was more like he didn't know what the food was, so he just ordered one of everything because he brought back all of the sodas and the bags of food. I agree. Okay, so we jump back to the briefing room now.
Starting point is 00:10:02 We're on the ship, and there's a whole conversation about how to stop Starling. What do we do? He's going to cause this impending explosion. We need to stop him. There's an incoming transmission from Tuvok. At this point, you guys are back at Rain's lab, Paris and Rain are bonding over this coffee table book about B-movies.
Starting point is 00:10:20 They're laughing and giggling. Janeway asks if we can trust Rain. Tuvac is pretty sure that, yes, we can trust Rain. I remember that set, by the way, the laboratory set we built on stage, and I remember that it was a very cool set. Yeah. This episode was really cool because we get to do scenes in sets and in locations that were just so unusual for a sci-fi show, you know.
Starting point is 00:10:42 Definitely. Was Rain's Lab on Stage 16, or was it on stage? nine. I thought it was on nine. My memory is that it was on nine. But it was very cool and great set decoration. All the little props and things were cool. It looks great. Definitely. Starling's office, I'm guessing, was also on nine somewhere, right? That might have been on 16, yeah. Okay. Well, the doctor and Starling are now having a conversation. The doctor diagnoses Starling as having bipolar personality disorder. I love that. And the doc has a wonderful line. I'm a doctor, not a database when he wants to note more information. He
Starting point is 00:11:15 wants the psych profiles of Captain Janeway to know his enemy better. But then the doctor sort of refuses to help him. And he says that there's nothing you can do to make me comply. This was very cool. Yes, using futuristic 29th century technology. Ed Beglett Jr. Starling is able to give the doctor. Torture him, basically. Yeah. He is able to give the doctor the experience of pain. Yeah. He says, I've reconfigured your tactile response sensors. Yeah. And then he gives them the feeling of burning. He says that's what it feels like to burn if you were on fire. So, you know, seeing the doctor riding on the floor. And he also tells him earlier in this scene that he's got holographic projectors all over his office from the 29th century. So far, we know that,
Starting point is 00:11:59 wow, this guy can project him into his office. That's pretty cool. Because we could only do it in the sick bay. That's the only way that he could be with 24th century technology or the holodeck. We could bring him one to the hall. We can put him there. Yeah. Rain calls in and she basically tells Starling, please meet me at the Metro Plaza. I don't want to come to Kronowork's headquarters. I'm afraid for my life. And Starling says, yeah, I'll send somebody. He says, no, no, just you.
Starting point is 00:12:26 And this is basically pulling Starling into the trap that has been discussed earlier between Janeway and the crew, what they're going to do. So Starling agrees. He's like, okay. And the doctor basically says, well, I'm not going. And then all of a sudden you'd see the doctor. He does actually show up. He does show up. But we do cut to assume.
Starting point is 00:12:43 Chichote and Torres in the shuttle, and they're flying down to basically intercept and being startling aboard the shuttle. It's a long scene. A couple of things I noticed, that's our old shuttle. You know, it's not the Delta Flyer yet. So it was funny to see the old shuttle because we didn't see that a lot, you know, in the later seasons. It's pretty plain that shuttle, the interior in the shuttle. The other thing I noticed that was funny is they're kind of flirting with each other. Again, you know, Chakotay and Balana are sort of getting kind of intimate. But I got to say, I didn't feel any chemistry in the scene between the characters, even though they have this, you know, very kind of personal, what would you do on Earth conversation? I was like, wow, I'm surprisingly
Starting point is 00:13:22 little chemistry there. I agree. There's a little bit of flirtiness, but it, it didn't, it wasn't, I don't know, not much there. Yeah, in this scene, you know, she says, what if we're stuck here? Chacote, what if we're stuck here? We're going to have to get jobs. And then they start talking about possible jobs, right? Chacote talks about pursuing archaeology full time. I didn't know. No, no one really knew anything about that until this point. And then he says maybe teach at a university, which is funny because in real life, that is what Robert Beltron actually ended up doing. He went to UCLA and was teaching Shakespeare at the university.
Starting point is 00:13:58 So that's real life imitating art. Back down to the Metro Plaza. By the way, the Metro Plaza location was actually the Music Center Plaza. The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Amundsen Theater, is where all the Broadway show tours, big shows, come through Los Angeles, most of them. And I had performed at the Amundsen at the Music Center just a few years before we did this, before we did, got on started with Star Trek. I had performed at the music center and Into the Woods, the first national tour.
Starting point is 00:14:32 So it was fun to see, yeah, it was fun to see us on that plaza where I had spent six months, you know, on the, yeah, the LA company of Into the Woods at the theater. Yeah. Well, so at the Metro Plaza, the doctor gets out of the car, and he's got the mobile emitter. And I had forgotten that this is where, this is the episode where he gets the holographic mobile emitter. I was confused. I thought it was later. And I thought that he showed up with the mobile emitter on the bridge to talk about being footloose and fancy free. Like that, that was his lines when he, you know, he said, I've been equipped with an autonomous, self-sustaining mobile hollow emitter. In short, I'm footloose and fancy free. And he's very proud about that. But it's very proud about that. But it's a lot. in my head, that entire dialogue happened on the bridge of Voyager, not here. You know, so it was a little jarring for me to see the scene. I was like, oh, my goodness. Well, they get out, and the doctor's in his Starfleet outfit on the, out on the streets, which I thought was hilarious.
Starting point is 00:15:27 And Starlink threatens them and says, if your shipmates start any trouble, you'll be hollow dust. Rain appears, and she wants them to walk back towards her van. And he, Starling, and says, nope, you got to come with me this way. Yeah. So that's very worrisome because Tuvok and. Paris are waiting, they had a plan. They had already transmitted the coordinates to Chacote for the van. You know what I'm saying? But not for the sedan that Starling's guy is driving him in. So on the bridge, Janeway orders Starling to be beamed aboard Voyager because what happens is
Starting point is 00:15:58 as Jacote and Torres are beaming Starling onto the shuttle, Starling has that futuristic tricorder. So he's now interfering with the transport to the point that he's in the buffer. He's in the transporter buffer, but he's preventing them from rematerializing him on the shuttle, right? So with the help of Harry, they're able to rematerialize him on the transporter pad in the transporter room on the USS Voyager, which is where he passes out. And we later learned, because I thought, that's so weird, but we later learned from Kess that he suffered minor synaptic stress during the extended transport enough to cause unconsciousness, but no permanent damage. And by the way, when this whole transport started, they were in the sedan, and he starts to dematerialize.
Starting point is 00:16:43 Rain sees this and is freaked out, which you would be, if you see somebody, you don't even know about transporter technology and they start disappearing in front of your eyes. And then the doctor starts getting punched by Dunbar, bodyguard guy. He's getting punched. It's very funny because he just gets punched over and over and over. And the doctor, then he stops. He's like, what's going on? And the doctor looks at him and, bam,
Starting point is 00:17:10 they've done one punch and knocks him out. And the doctor runs off, meets up with Rayne, Harrison Tuvok. That's where he has that line you're talking about. He meets up with them. And the doctor says, I've been equipped with an autonomous, self-sustaining mobile hollow emitter. In short, I am footloose and fancy free. Classic, classic line.
Starting point is 00:17:28 Yeah, so they get Starling on board. As you said, he's in the sick bay, and they realize the shuttle is going to crash. Right. the whole thing of trying to beam Starling aboard causes all kinds of havoc on the shuttle and they crash and they crash and end up crash landing
Starting point is 00:17:46 somewhere in Arizona. So yes, they wake up in the basement. They're tied up by these kind of doomsday prepper anti-government militia sort of people. And I did read when I was trying to look up a couple things about this episode after I watched
Starting point is 00:18:01 it. I did read that when this was a much bigger four-part or six-parter story It was a much bigger story at one point, that that anti-government storyline was really big. It was huge. It was a big part from not just part two, but it was throughout the whole thing. Because of editing, it really seemed like an afterthought, you know. Yeah, it was very much an afterthought.
Starting point is 00:18:24 Yeah, I mean, very ambitious episode, really, to open up all these different can of worms and plot twist, for sure. But, you know, that's what you get from the mind of Braga and Monoski. You get some really crazy twist. Well, they've got them tied up. They go in to touch Balana, see what's on her head, and she fights back. And ultimately, they end up calling for reinforcement. So you're like, oh, boy, is it going to get rough. We got back in the van.
Starting point is 00:18:50 We're driving. Rain is alarmed by Starling's disappearance and that the doctor. The doctor being punched over and over. She's like, no evidence of injury. She says, I love this line. I've gone out with guys who've disappeared into thin air on our first date. and the doctor goes, I assume she's speaking figuratively. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:10 And then she goes in. I like how she calls him Mr. Leisure Suit. Yeah, Mr. Leisure Suit. And I was like, that's exactly what these uniforms are. They're leisure suits, like futuristic leisure suits. All these neighborhoods, by the way, that we're driving in. So the way they do this is they tow the van with like a tow truck made for filmmaking. And then they either have a camera off that tow truck or they have a camera in the car with you.
Starting point is 00:19:33 those were all streets around Paramount Studios so we were driving very close we would probably load up at the studio get the whole train caravan together and then we'd drive out the gate and start driving around the neighborhood so how does that work though if the camera is on you guys but a car or a person walks past do you have to do they have to stop that person and get a release form from that person I think it's you know what I'm saying like how does that work incidental stuff in the background no it doesn't matter No, it doesn't matter. Got you.
Starting point is 00:20:06 Janeway calls Tuvok from Sickbay to inform them that Chikotie and Tuvok shuttle has gone down over Arizona. So she orders Tuvok to find them. Tuvok decides to take the doctor with him on this side away mission. And then he orders Paris and Rain to continue their mission at ChronoWorks. And then we jump to sickbay when Starling wakes up. Janeway discovers why Starling wants to launch the time ship. He needs to find more. technology to bring back to the 20th century to continue the rapid rising success that
Starting point is 00:20:40 ChronoWorks has had. Yeah, he definitely is trying to monetize these things, but he's also like a zealot because he actually believes that he's bettering mankind. And he says at one point, he says, you know, he's cannibalized the ship as much as he can and he needs more technology. He says there's nothing left to base a commercial product on anymore. And that's the, Yeah, that's the technology zealot kind of mindset of confusing profit and power with bettering mankind. Maybe technology is not always bettering mankind. Maybe it's better not to move so fast, was my... Well, yeah, he clearly has developed some type of God complex now that he feels that, look, I dispense these groundbreaking or game-changing technological revolution.
Starting point is 00:21:33 and I'm the one that is facilitating that. Without me, this world is going to go into the crapper. So, yeah, he believes it. We go back to the basement, but before that, there's a quick shot of the shuttle. For crashing, it looks pretty darn okay. That was a cool shot. I like that shot. I was like, to see the shuttle, it was very well done shot.
Starting point is 00:21:53 Yeah, you see the shuttle. It looks okay. Just to see it in that environment, I thought it blended very, very nicely. I like the words out of the anti-government guy. There are two forces at work in the world. world, the drive toward collectivity and the drive toward individuality. And then that's when you hear the feds are coming. The feds are coming. You hear all this stuff. But we don't see it. You know, obviously because of time and budget concerns, we don't see the feds surrounding the
Starting point is 00:22:19 property, unfortunately. But we jump back to the bus, the VW bus. Rain assesses the motley crew. I love it. She's like, the doctor, a guy with the worst taste in clothing I've ever seen. Tuvok, what a freakosaurus. Has the guy ever cracked a smile? And you. Tom Paris, sexy, in a howdy-duty sort of way. And that to me is just quintessential Brandon Braggen dialogue here in a howdy-duty sort of way. Pretty goofy, although sometimes I think you're the smartest man I've ever met. I know. Yeah, all this running around you do, your mission, you're so dedicated, you know,
Starting point is 00:22:54 like you care about something more than just your own little life. So she's really falling for Tom here. I mean, there's all this stuff. She's just regurgitating. Yeah, she's really giving some big compliments. I have to say I was really happy with this dialogue. I mean, not just personally, but for the character because they put Tom Paris for the first couple of years in so many situations where he was very often not doing admirable things
Starting point is 00:23:24 or appearing not to be doing admirable things, doing selfishness. So to have another character, somebody, especially like this, like an, earth person who doesn't know anything, just make these observations was good for the audience. It's a validation. It's really a validation that you are, you're an honorable character. You know, you're not just this, you're not this grifter, you know, going through life, trying to like get the best of everyone and kind of slide by and not, you know, not do the heart, not put in the work. You're looking for the shortcut. You're not that guy. You're somebody who's actually quite upstanding in what you're doing. You're dedicated to your, to your missions.
Starting point is 00:24:02 So it's definitely, it's very complimentary. Hey, Garrett, have you been traveling this summer? Oh my gosh, so much already. I don't always travel, but this summer's been insane. Trip after a trip. You've been doing your impersonation of me. Yes. You know what doesn't belong in everyone's epic summer plans, though?
Starting point is 00:24:19 What? Getting burned by your old wireless bill. So while you're planning your beach trips and your barbecues and your three-day weekends, your wireless bill should be the last thing holding you back. Well, that is why I made the switch to Mint Mobile. The coverage and speed are the same as I'm used to, but the savings, that is the difference. The savings are incredible, and now I'm saving all kinds of money for when my stepdaughter wants to go back to school shopping. She's currently at the mall right now as we speak.
Starting point is 00:24:44 Well, all the Mint Mobile plans come with high-speed data, unlimited talking tax, and they deliver the nation's largest 5G network. So this year, skip breaking a sweat and breaking the bank. Get this new customer offer and your three-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at Mint Mobile. dot com slash TDF. That's mintmobile.com slash TDF. Up front payment of $45 required, equivalent to $15 a month. Limited time new customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. I thought the idea of bringing this character, Rain Robinson and Tom Paris together for this brief romance, really smart. It brought it brought out
Starting point is 00:25:28 really good qualities in Tom. Yeah. It was just, a very interesting match, you know. Yeah. And I justified the howdy duty line with the dad jeans. I said, yeah, his jeans are pretty howdy duty. Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm going to go with? Yeah. So the bodyguard, what's his name, Dunbar? He uses a satellite sweep. Scanning for Starling. For Starling finds him. And he beams him back with the 29th century transport. Through shields. He was able to beam through our shields and just pluck him out of the ship. Like nothing. Starling comes back to Mr. Dunbar. Great work. We got to get out of here.
Starting point is 00:26:03 We move back to the bus. We're back to the VW bus. Rain basically asked Tom on a date. Then when Tom doesn't really bite, she then assumes incorrectly. You're married, and Tom replies, absolutely not. Just very busy.
Starting point is 00:26:21 Yeah. Yeah. You got to get back to Mars, right? And then you say Saturn. So a lot of cute little kind of, you know, dialogue. It's rom-com. It's rom-com. A little rom-com story.
Starting point is 00:26:32 It is a rom-com. I totally agree. And if you think about it, in Star Trek 4, the voyage home, the parallel is you are basically Captain Kirk. And she is the character of Dr. Gillian Taylor, the one scientist that he kind of has a little bit of a flirtation with. And she's in charge of the marine, the mammals, the museum or whatever, the aquarium, right? So she's the marine biologist. And so now you have Rain playing Catherine Hicks role as the science, woman of science. And you are Captain Kirk.
Starting point is 00:27:12 You're having this little rom-com moment with her. But that's interrupted when your tricorder beeps and you know that there are tachian emissions coming from a semi that's leaving chrono work. So we all assume the time ship is being moved. And that's when you guys chase after them. We run back to the basement where the feds have now surrounded the property. And it was cool how you could hear everything. You know, we've got you surrounded. And all of a sudden, and then you're like,
Starting point is 00:27:35 who the hell are you two? And then you hear two box voice. Right. And please step back. And then there's phaser fire, gunfire. And the greatest line of all is when the anti-government guy that's looking out the door, goes, he comes in and he says, he goes, they've got lasers. He says that.
Starting point is 00:27:51 He goes, a black man and some bald guy is what he says. And I just, I just, I just, except that Bob is. Some bald guy. Some bald guy. So they run downstairs and the doctor walks in at the top of the steps and they all start firing. Bang, bang, bang. And you see the gunshots going through the wall. But obviously the doctor is not getting injured.
Starting point is 00:28:15 He just stood there and let it all happen. Oh, yeah. Great lines. The divine intervention line is unlikely, that one. And then suffice it to say, I'm making a house call what he says to Chikote. They can't believe. Because at this point, they don't know why the doctor. is even here because they don't know he has a mobile emitter on. They're just confused. They're
Starting point is 00:28:33 like, how is this happening? This is very confusing to that. The VW bus is now following the semi-truck and you guys are not really, it doesn't seem like anyone has any speed. Like the truck looks like it's going slow. The VW bus looks like it's going kind of slow, right? Relatively speaking. Janeway Basic, she talks to Paris, but then she then talks to Rain. So Rain is talking to Janeway. Janeway tells Tom that weapons are offline and the shuttle was still being repaired by Torres. So you are, you're on your own. You may be the only one to save, save the world. So we have a little phaser shoot out. I'm leaning out the window. Tom Perry's leaning out the window, fires a phaser, hits the, uh, the wheel and it skids and slides.
Starting point is 00:29:14 It's the flap, actually, right? I think it hits the flap or something. It's the flap. And there's that he's disabled. Yeah. We think so, but we also skid to a stop and stall. The van will start. And we look up in the truck, the truck is headed right. right back towards us. And it's about to smash into us when all of a sudden we see the shuttle fly in and fire phasers at the truck. At the semi. At the semi blows it up and it comes and it obviously stops and we are saved. Poor Dunbar. That's the end of Dunbar though, right? I think Dunbar is done. I think he's done. It looked like he was done. It blew up pretty good. Yeah. I felt bad. Like, you know, he's just doing his job. I do remember, by the way, I remember going on
Starting point is 00:29:59 out there and shooting that. And we did have some of the dialogue scenes and some of the driving stuff. But they had a lot more work. I remember going out there and thinking, oh, wow, they have a lot more on the call sheet than our scenes. And it was all the driving stuff. That stuff takes a long time to do it safely and get the stunt drivers in and reset the truck and skid the truck. And I noticed when it skid, you could see some other skid marks on the road. I was like, oh, this was probably take four or five like they tried to get just right did you drive at all did you do any of the did you no sorry you're sitting next to rain yeah did she drive at all did she drive some of it i don't think so i think it was always a stunt double yeah they had a lot more work on the call
Starting point is 00:30:41 sheet and schedule than you know we probably worked half the day but then they okay all the driving and stunt work for the other half of the day that makes sense um in the wreckage of the of the semi we now find or we now discover that there's no time ship. And it was just a temporal transponder set to give off tachyon signals. And we realized that we've been, we've been had, Starling is launching from a different site. We then flashed to the cockpit, right? Well, yeah, we flashed the cockpit and we see it crash out of the, out of the Chrono Works building, right? And I love how they don't use impulse drive. They use hyper impulse drive in the future. So that was kind of cool. But cool shot with all the glass and debris coming out after it flew out.
Starting point is 00:31:24 bus through the windows and then back on our ship Janeway says she's got an idea she says I love what she says to you take the bridge Mr. Kim it should be second nature to you by now yeah yeah she leaves the bridge because the photon torpedoes we can arm them but they can't fire so launch activation sequencers
Starting point is 00:31:46 are not responding Kim suggests rewiring the fire command through the helm captain's like no that's going to take too much time I'm going to do this manual for a manual launch yeah very dangerous harry complains and janeway sort of dismisses him by this time jacote has basically beamed uh no he hasn't been back yet he informs paris that he's going to beam him back onto the shuttle is what it is right that's the scene um and that's where we have the goodbye uh and i love the dialogue here i really do on the desert road rain says your spaceship's waiting tom says i've never met anyone i'm going to do your voice
Starting point is 00:32:23 I've never met anyone quite like you. And I don't think I ever will. Drain says, same here. Say hi to Saturn for me. And then Paris goes, I will. And then the big smooch. And that's it. That's your goodbye scene.
Starting point is 00:32:35 It was a very sweet goodbye scene. It was. It was rom-com all the way. All the way. And then we get back to the ship. And the band's back together. Everybody's coming under the bridge. I got my fancy shirt.
Starting point is 00:32:47 I am no, you are. I'm no longer acting captain. So Harry Kim hands over acting captain back to Chacote. He tells Chocote Janeway is attempting a manual launch. Tuvok says Starling is powering his temporal field generator and he's going to be able to open a rift within seconds. And Kim says the field he's creating is unstable. Blana, like everyone has a line here.
Starting point is 00:33:06 Blana goes, well, if he enters the rift like this, the timeship will create a temporal explosion. Tuvok is very practical and says, well, the events are occurring just as Braxton predicted. The disaster may well be inevitable. And Chocote, the most brash line of all, says, Fate Tuvah. It was so Shakespearean.
Starting point is 00:33:24 Fate Tuvac. Yeah, he's like, fake Tuvok. I wouldn't accept that. Close to, you like that? I did. I had the same moment. Yes. Fate Tuvac.
Starting point is 00:33:34 I wouldn't accept that. Close to within 10 kilometers. We'll ram him if we have to. And Paris says, aye, sir. So that was very bold, right, to make that decision. Yes. And Janeway's in the tube. And Chikote tries to tell Starling one last time, pull away from the rift.
Starting point is 00:33:50 He's like, yeah, right. How are you going to stop me? your weapons are down. And that's when we launched the photon torpedo. Janeway's blown back. She's got burns on her face from it, right? And then we think that's it. And now we're stuck in the 20th century.
Starting point is 00:34:04 Well, wait a minute. She fires the tube. Yes. Fires from the tube. Manual launch on the photon torpedo. Right. Fire. And it cuts into Starling in his ship happy he thinks he's leaving.
Starting point is 00:34:15 And all of a sudden he sees on the radar, the beep, beep, beep, beep, beep like this. And he goes, uh-oh. does he say uh-oh it was very funny and then he dies that was similar to when when Michael McKean's character of fear was just about to be eliminated
Starting point is 00:34:33 his last words were drat remember that he says drat so that was Brax excuse me that was Starling's version of drat yes it was oh right uh-oh so we think everything's done
Starting point is 00:34:46 and that we're we're kind of stuck in the 20th century but then the rift reopens and something's coming out. Guess what? It's Braxton. Braxton then informs us that he's scanned time with his sensors and realized. I like Braxton by the way. Yeah, it was great. He was a good actor. Very good actor. To be able to pull off the homeless guy in part one with all that crazy acting. Yeah, it was a tour to force for him for his guest spot for sure. But then, but of course in this reality, he's never, he never experienced. Didn't even know us. Didn't We didn't even know us.
Starting point is 00:35:21 Yeah, it was clueless. And good for him that he didn't have to deal with all that. And he says, okay, so I've come here to pull you back to where you're supposed to be. You're supposed to be in the 24th century. And Janeway's like, wait, way, way, wait a minute. Can you just leave us here and just put us in the 24th century? We've been trying to get back to Earth. And that's when he says, I'm sorry, I can't violate the temporal prime directive.
Starting point is 00:35:40 And everyone goes, wah, no, no, the collective, no, of all of us. so sad. Dang, temporal prime directive. I know. But then we end up in the mess hall. It was kind of weird. Like Janeway calls everyone to the mess hall for a toast to the future. And I guess that's her way of just sort of saying, look, guys, I know we're right back to the Delta Quadrant. I'm so sorry. Let's just move on, have a drink and resume our course back to the Alpha Quadrant. The doctor and tours talk about his mobile emitter. And now here, here's the moment that I'm talking about. Paris is staged behind Torres right here. Typically, you see, when you see Torres, she's usually next to Harry, whether it's in the briefing
Starting point is 00:36:28 room or in engineering. Harry and Torres are always kind of together. But this is the first time you see Paris and Torres. And I'll be honest, you guys look good together. I didn't, I was like, hey, this is okay. All right. Yeah. So this is a bit of foreshadowing. My heart was broken from rain is that and so you felt all the all the love feelings okay okay all right you were seeing happening all right that's what i'm seeing it wasn't for balana yet it was yes you know we all and this is true of our characters this true of life like you know we all become the people we are because of past relationships and past correct so you know um tom had to go through his heart being broken with rain or you know all the other whatever he went through to get ready for bala so for me
Starting point is 00:37:21 it was a perfect foreshadowing moment i'm gonna keep it was i did notice that too um but funny moment the funny moment was janeway's facial reaction is that what you're gonna say when the doctor suggests that he need oh well the doctor suggests he needs his own quarters yeah and janeway's like well let's take it one step at a time and she does this she does this little goofy like like kind of like thing with her eyes and she walks off camera right there which was great love that. That was fun. What were you going to say about that scene? Well, I think one of the greatest lines in Star Trek history that Tom got from rain when she was talking about Mr. Leisure suit and Tuvok's a real freakosaurus. Freakosaurus. Tom thinks he's he's hung on to that because
Starting point is 00:38:04 of his feelings for rain. And so he wants to use proper, you know, slang from the 90s, which Everybody said Freakosaurus, right? Yes, said no one. Everybody ever said no one ever. No one ever. In real life, except on our show. Yeah. So the last line I think of the episode is Tom saying to Tuvok,
Starting point is 00:38:28 oh, Tuvok, you're a real freakasaurus. And this has been my criticism of this episode before I rewatched this. For many years, I kept saying, Voyager could have been a lot funnier. For instance, who thinks you're a real freakosaurus is funny? I don't. I would always say that from this. episode and maybe we can ask why this was written in this way we can find out the I think it has to do with a slang thing and I guess but nobody uses that slang in 1996 though
Starting point is 00:38:55 that's my point no one said anyone ever used that slang did they ever ever ever is that a word that anyone I think no I think maybe then it was then I was like word that rain came up with she invented her own word Mr. Leisure suit Mr. Freakosaurus yes um liked rain so he's like I'm gonna hang on to that. But I do want to rewind a little bit where Tuvac calls Paris out on his alleged familiarity with the 20th century, almost getting there in trouble where they almost didn't survive. They're like, really? Mr. Expert. Yes, but I love that. That he's giving you crap like that. Yeah, but he doesn't do that normally. That character, Tuvok is so straight-laced. He doesn't joke around like that. And I love that moment, which then continues my observation that that pairing is
Starting point is 00:39:41 wonderful. I love Tuvac and Paris together. It's the, it's the futuristic odd couple. Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. I loved it. I loved it. Do you have a different theme for this episode compared to... Yeah, here's my theme. Starfleet rules are dumb because we could have gotten home with Braxton. So my theme is, stupid Starfleet, why don't you let us go home? You have a whole time rift, spatial rift. Just take us home, dude. Yeah. Okay. So that's my theme, Starfleet rule, time rules.
Starting point is 00:40:16 Time, what are they called? The temporal prime directives. Temporal prime directives are dumb. Okay. That's my theme. What's your theme? I don't think I'm going to, I have nothing to add to that. I'm going to leave it as that.
Starting point is 00:40:33 My actual theme that I was going down, I was thinking about before I wrote down temporal prime directives are dumb is, I think zealots of any kind of. kind like that idea came to mind um zealots like starling with his technology power trip or the zealots of the anti-government militia people who just get like tunnel vision yeah about some aspect in life uh lose the bigger picture and the bigger picture is okay you know these that's a great lesson timelines these various timelines and like that's a much bigger broader more meaningful way, in my opinion, to look at life and look at the world rather than just shrinking it down to your own selfish kind of zealotry about a singular issue or a singular
Starting point is 00:41:24 thing. Okay. I'll buy that. So really the lesson to encapsulate what you said, the lesson, this is a cautionary tale to those who choose to follow extremism. For those who really make extreme behavior they're you know they follow the church of extremism basically to the two i think starling did that with his technology he definitely did and it's and you're right the anti-government people they did it with theirs right same thing it's us again um right so uh we have to be subversive we have to overthrow the government you know um and this is our whole sole existence yeah too extreme right same thing with with uh starling so great don't that's a wonderful and the other theme is don't be a freakasaurus Don't be a freakosaurus.
Starting point is 00:42:08 Don't do it. Don't be a freakosaurus, all right? It's not cool. It's not groovy when you're a freakosaurus. It's not groovy and that's for secret agents only. Hey, guys. Thank you. Thanks for tuning into this episode or the end, the two part, our review of part two of Future Zen.
Starting point is 00:42:29 Such a fun trip. Both parts phenomenal. Robbie, you got a lot to do. You got to go down on the away mission. You weren't left on the ship like, was. And then you got to do a lot of stuff. So it was a great episode or a character development episode for Paris, for sure. Great episode for every character, I thought. Even you got to sit in the captain's chair. That's a huge step. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I guess that is a plus. I did
Starting point is 00:42:54 get to sit there. So I will look at the glasses half full. So it was good for Kim too. Okay. Great. Great. All right. Next week, we're going to be, we're going to be reviewing and recapping the episode Warlord. So this is, I'm pretty sure this is the big Jennifer Lean Kess episode. So excited to tackle that one. But thank you guys so much for tuning into our discussion of Future Zen Part 2. See you next week. Thanks, guys.
Starting point is 00:43:20 See you next week. So, Bhopal, B. Bhopal, BREYER, BOR, Bhop,
Starting point is 00:43:38 B B, B B, B B, B, B,
Starting point is 00:43:47 B, B, The But, Bhopal, Bhopal. Bhop, B,
Starting point is 00:44:02 Bhop. B B B B B B B
Starting point is 00:44:10 B I don't know.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.