The Delta Flyers - Latent Image

Episode Date: May 9, 2022

The Delta Flyers is a weekly Star Trek: Voyager rewatch & recap podcast hosted by Garrett Wang & Robert Duncan McNeill. Each week Garrett and Robert will rewatch an episode of Voyager starting at the very beginning. This week’s episode is Latent Image. Garrett and Robbie recap and discuss the episode, and share their insight as series regulars.Latent Image:The Doctor launches an investigation to find the person or thing that tampered with his short-term memory.We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Executive producers Megan Elise & Rebecca McNeillAnd a special thanks to our Ambassadors, the guests who keep coming back, giving their time and energy into making this podcast better and better with their thoughts, input, and inside knowledge: Lisa Klink, Martha Hackett, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Robert Beltran, Tim Russ, Roxann Dawson, Kate Mulgrew, & Brannon BragaAdditionally we could not make this podcast available without our Co-Executive Producers: Stephanie Baker, Philipp Havrilla, Kelton Rochelle, Liz Scott, Eve England, Sab Ewell, Sarah A Gubbins, Jason M Okun, Luz R., Marie Burgoyne, Chris Knapp, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Courtney Lucas, Matthew Gravens, Elaine Ferguson, Brian Barrow, Captain Jeremiah Brown, Heidi Mclellan, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, John Espinosa, James Zugg, Deike Hoffmann, Mike Gu, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Vikki Williams, Kelly Brown, Lee Lisle, Mary Beth Lowe, William McEvoy, Sarah Thompson, Samantha Hunter, Holly Smith, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Ashley Stokey, Mary Burch, Nicholaus Russell, Dominique Weidle, Lisa Robinson, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlmann, Darryl Cheng, Alex Mednis, AJ Freeburg, Elizabeth Stanton, Kayla Knilans, Barbara S., Tim Beach, Ariana, Meg Johnson, Victor Ling, Marcus Vanderzonbrouwer, Nathan Walker, Shambhavi Kadam, James H. Morrow, Christopher Arzeberger, Megan Chowning, Tae Phoenix, Nicole Anne Toma, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Daniel O’Brien, Bronwen Duffield, Brandon May, Jeremy Mcgraw, & Jason BonnettAnd our Producers:Jim Guckin, James Amey, Katherine Hendrick, Eleanor Lamb, Richard Banaski, Ann Harding, Ann Marie Segal, Charity Ponton, Chloe E, Kathleen Baxter, Craig Sweaton, Nathanial Moon, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Mike Schaible, AJ Provance, Captain Nancy Stout, Claire Deans, Matthew Cutler, Maxine Soloway, Joshua L Phillips, Barbara Beck, Aithne Loeblich, Dat Cao, Scott Lakes, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Tara Polen, Jenna Appleton, Jason Potvin, Cindy Ring, Andrei Dunca, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Amber Nighbor, Amy Tudor, Jamason Isenburg, Mark G Hamilton, Liza Albright, Rob Johnson, Kevin Selman, Maria Rosell, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Jennifer Jelf, Justin Weir, Normandy Madden, Mike Chow, John Mann, Holly R. Schmitt, Rachel Shapiro, Eric Kau, Megan Moore, Melissa A. Nathan, Captain Jak Greymoon, David Wei Liu, David J Manske, Roxane Ray, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, E.G. Galano, Cindy Holland, Craig M. Nakashian, Julie McCain, Will Forg, Max Wilson, Estelle Keller, & Russell NemhauserThank you for your support!“Our creations are protected by copyright, trademark and trade secret laws. Some examples of our creations are the text we use, artwork we create, audio, and video we produce and post. You may not use, reproduce, distribute our creations unless we give you permission. If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail].”Our Sponsors:* Check out Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/TDFSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hey, everyone, welcome to the Delta Flyers with Tom and Harry as we journey through episodes of Star Trek Voyager, your two hosts along this journey are my fellow Trek actor and star of the cult film favorite Masters of the Universe, Mr. Robert Duncan McNeil and myself, your favorite Forever Ensign, Garrett Wong. Remember, you can get the full version of this podcast by signing up to become a patron at patreon.com forward slash the Delta Flyers. Wow. The cult classic. Yes. Cult's feature film favorite. That's what I said. That's what you get for that one.

Yeah. Wow. Okay. All right. That's my goal. I'm going to change up the intro every single time. Yeah. Now it's a whole new thing happening.

Okay. All right. I dig it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's talk about the weather right now. Is the snow still piled up like crazy? No, the snow has, the snow is melting.

Finally, it feels like our last gasp of winter storm just hit. I love it. And I mean, it's almost the end of April now. Yeah. You know with Utah and Colorado, how that works is just sometimes it comes through late, too. You can get snow in May. I guarantee you that'll happen, you know, in the rock. Rockies. Yeah, but I'm excited. I have a, you know, I love mountain biking. And I ordered a mountain

bike a year ago from a company called Fazzari. They make mountain bikes here in Utah, very small little companies. You know, buy local, support the local makers. And I picked up my mountain bike yesterday. I'm excited to get it out in the dirt. So it's about to happen. Yeah. You know, I think you, myself, and Bob Picardo should do a charity mountain biking thing. And it should be called the doctor's injured butt charity biking thing. Let's do it. All right. Something like that.

All right. Yeah. Let's do a little bit. Yeah, let's do a biking fundraiser. That'd be really fun. Star Trek bikeathon. Bikeathon. All right.

Or buttathon, whatever you want to put in there. It's fine. Yeah, that mountain. So you have a trail right behind your house. Can you ride the- Literally outside the door, we have 520 acres of trails and it's incredible. That's ridable via using your mountain bike or is it just a hiking trail for walking? It's hiking and mountain biking. So you have to keep an eye out, especially on the descents.

If you're on a mountain bike, you're coming down fast. You got to keep an eye out fast. Yeah, yeah, you can. I know you like that, man. I know you like going down fast. Yes. Okay. You feel the need, the need for speed.

And the season is upon us. Like mountain biking season is creeping up now. Ski season's over. The resorts are still open though, right? No. Oh, Deer Valley, everyone's closed? I think there's, I thought there's spring skiing that that happens all the way through the end of April. I think Snowbird, Alta may stay open a little longer, but I don't think, I don't think my local resorts.

Okay, gotcha. All right. So are you ready for this week's episode? Yes. What is it? It is latent image. Latent image. Okay.

Okay. All right, everyone. Robbie and I are going to go watch it. Yeah, we're going to go watch this. We're right back with our recap and discussion and overall chat about latent thoughts, about feelings, feelings, our impressions. Are we going to use telepathy? Can we use telepathy as well? We use telepathy, although we may get, you know, arrested and thrown into a camp.

We might. We might. We got to, if any divorce ships are nearby, we could be in trouble. We could be in big trouble. So careful of that. telepathy but let's go watch this all right we'll be right back all right everybody we are back from watching latent image yes we are hmm that was an intense episode it really was yeah there's a lot of tension and drama yes yes and and absolutely and a very loud doctor

very loud doctor let's start with our poetry synopsis let's do okay here's my haiku here's my haiku for latent image are you ready okay ready for you okay mystery a foot doc wants to relive the past la vita nova I can't believe that fit in the last syllable It did. La Vita Nueva. Wow. Yeah, it fit, right?

That's five. It does. That's good. Because I don't think anyone's going to go Nuova, Nuova, and make that three. It's Nuova. So it's a thousand, you know. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. All right, here we go for a little limerick action now. Oh, lay it on me, my friend. Let's see what we got. Here we go. Poetry time. Okay. Limerick poetry for latent image

Where Doc's memories went No one can say Something happened on that fateful day He had to choose Which life would they lose But poetry saves the day Ah, look at that Poetry does save the day

And I love that poetry was part of this episode Which I clearly did not remember I did not remember that either but a big part of it, a big part of, and in fact, the last two episodes, because you think about like the Dvor, what's his name, Kashik or Kashik, yes, talking about like the contrast between the beautiful stuff that humans do and the war, there was a lot of poetry kind of reference sort of, you know, the arts and humanities and things. Yeah.

Now in this episode, more of that sort of like creative stuff. side or the human experience. Yeah, I love poetry coming into it. You know, when you're a kid and you're reading poetry in high school and junior high, you don't really think much about it. But I think as an adult, you start to realize that there is some worth to poetry. There's some merits to poetry. Poetry is definitely something that can open up your mind.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Yeah, it's very relaxing. It's kind of like Janeway says at the end of the episode. Like, it helps her think. Same for me. I love poetry. Yeah.

Agreed. And I love to read some bigger ideas and more complex ideas or abstract ideas because it helps me think. It helps me. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. Awesome. Okay.

So tell a play by Joe Mnowski. A story was by Eileen Connors and Brandon Braga and Joe Monoski. So Eileen Connors was an assistant. She was like a writer's assistant or something, I think. Really? This came in turn. is sort of a pitch by an assistant yeah okay this idea of a sophie's choice kind of um you know storyline yeah and then i think brannon and joe they they kind of fleshed it out even more but

that's who eileen conners was actually yeah writer's assistant yeah i didn't i didn't remember that but thank you for informing me okay um directed by mike vahar we were all wrong it was not terry window all of our choices. Alan Craker was not David Living's but Mike Vahar I forgot he was starting to do he didn't do a ton no one or two every year yeah the last few years

he was a pretty regular recurring guy that was the last few years yeah he was I love Mike by the way I got to say this may be one of the best directed episodes from a shot making standpoint interesting storytelling yeah this was

so well done so smart and creative and elegant you know it had a nice soft touch but very well well done yeah i thought it was really interesting and really well done by mike vahar so i'll point out some places where i thought that in the body of the episode but yeah okay nancy bell plays uh ensign jettel and tall jattal sorry jatal nancy bell uh her very first job that i could find was an episode of law and order in 1994 so that she was a guest star and law and order. Okay. But I did find that she is now currently a playwright and a theater actress and teacher.

She's an associate professor at the St. Louis University. What? So yeah, she's got published plays and produced plays all around the world. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Well, it's interesting. There is a photo. There's like a Polaroid of, you know that one bench that was right?

outside of stage eight and nine there was like a bench right there yeah and it's of me sitting there with nancy really yeah we're just sitting there and we're just like you know talking or something and it's just a random photo it was the hangout spot for sure it was and i just you know the minute i saw those images of nancy on the doctor's hollow imager i was like oh my gosh i totally forgot about her. And I really, you know, I just remember being so intrigued by her because she was a little mysterious, kind of like how this episode is a little bit of a mystery. It's right. And she was mysterious. Yeah, you had a bunch of scenes with her like all the stuff in the shuttle bay and you guys had makeup, you know, for the injuries and all that. So you probably spent a lot more time

with her than anybody else. I spent a lot of a time, but she was an enigma to me, though. It was, because I always feel like I'm a very good judge of character or judge of people and their personalities and I'm able to get along with everybody. But she was someone who I just, she did great work. She was very professional, but I really wasn't able to crack that nut in a way.

You know, I wasn't able to figure out what she was all about. And she was very intriguing to me. And I seemed to recall I had a bit of a crush on her, like many other guest stars that showed up. But she definitely was somebody who I was like, wow you know i really want to know what you're about but she seems like from what i could from what i could pick up she seems like a much more a deeper kind of creative person that i would have expected

she's you know being a playwright and an associate professor and you know having worked in new york theater and manh theater club and all kinds of spots so that was interesting yeah um scarlet palmers appears of course again in this episode is naomi wildman i don't know if we've talked about her first job. We probably have, but I'm going to say it again. Yeah, say it. Step by step, the SIFCOM, 1995 was her very first job. Oh my gosh. Scarlett, born in Riverside, California. We loved her. I love, yeah, born in Riverside. That's my birthplace. Did you know that? I did not know that. That's so great. That's even more reason for me to reach out to her and say, look, we're both in Riverside.

We've got to get a hold of her. I just want to say, if there are any fans out there that have any contact with her whatsoever because she's not responding to anything so i i would love we would love to get her on because i made a note immediately in the first scene i was like every time scarlet was on the show it the show was better she was fun to watch she had a good like fun energy a little bit of comedy i just and as far as a kid actor goes she's good she's very good is really good yes She's really good. So I love that Scarlett was on the episode in that opening scene. I wish she had been in more scenes.

I always think she's great. She's actually, you know, kind of messing around with the doctor a little bit. You know, the doctor's joking with her and she jokes right back. And I'm going to guess, like, how old is she in this scene in real life? Oh, she's probably like eight, nine years old, maybe. If that, you know, I even feel like she might have been younger. And to be able to have the wherewithal to sort of joust a little bit with the doctor is very, Very impressive. Very impressive.

She was great. That's our guest cast. First scene, the doc is taking hollow images of the crew because this is his yearly physical, I guess. He wants to have a file with all these hollow images, which can really get down to the nitty-gritty of people's interior, you know, everything, their whole. Well, he made an adjustment we find out later. He made an adjustment to his hollow camera to do, I forget what he says later, but he tells the Captain, they can do deep body scans or something like. Deep scan. A deeper scan. Yeah. And what, you know, what I wrote down, what kind of stood out

to me is when he takes a picture of you, it says Paris, Tom, and then E.N.S. Ensign. He's still an ensign here. Oh, yeah. I didn't catch that. That's the one thing I noticed. Mm-hmm. And again, the interaction between Naomi Wildman and the doctor between, you know, Scarlett Palmer's and Bopacardo is excellent here. Really nice opening scene. And the other thing, And the other thing, did you notice anything about Harry's uniform when you see Harry pop up? No. It's got the low cut now. Do you remember how, yeah.

So in essence, when you see the V, if the V stops at the black, that was to signify, I guess Bob talked about this, Bob Blackman, to signify who was a little bit more uptight about their job. Oh, interesting. And then when the V goes below the black, which it, this is the first. time you see this on harry this is the more relaxed or casual interesting so yours you you made an adjustment i made yeah well they did the writers did they decided hey you know harry's a little bit more easy going now he's he knows what's going on season five let's let's let's lower the v on his interesting uniform yeah so that was my note yeah well i made a note that i thought it was a great idea to play this scene mostly from the camera's point of view, the holocammer's point of view,

and then back at the doctor standing by the camera. It was just a great way of shooting the scene, making it kind of a little different than we normally see a scene covered on our show. And it kept it sort of fun and lighthearted. And I also loved when the camera goes down, or the, our film camera goes down to the console and we see harry's reflection he's the he's the last one right yeah and so we see your reflection yeah you see before you see harry yeah and again we didn't normally play reflections no on this show so mike vahar coming out of the gate strong like good job mike may hawks oh yeah the reflection shot the camera point of view shot just really well directed yeah in a in a fun way that that was amplifying the story you know sometimes directors can come in

and they can do something that's really cool visually kind of whoa that's a cool shot but you're like how is that helping our story exactly if anything that cool shot will distract from we'll distract because you're sitting there going you know what you just pulled off that cool shot just because it was a cool shot it had nothing to do with further in the story but this case it does in this case it does In this case, every shot, to me, the camera point of view, the data on it, the kind of being in the doctor's obsession with this hollow camera, you're in the obsession that he's experiencing. And then to see Harry's reflection in that monitor, knowing that there's something different about Harry's hollow image, that there's going to be something, you know, deeper that's going to be already you're kind of foreshadowing that in the way that he shot it with that reflection. I thought it was, like I said, every step of the way, Mike Veyhart hit it out of the park in this episode as a director. He really did.

Yeah. Yeah. So we find out that Harry's had this operation, which the doctor has no recollection of. And then Harry's sort of like, what? I don't remember that either. So, you know, we don't know what is happening because it's clearly everyone has denied any knowledge of any operation. And then I also notice when I say, I don't understand, I don't remember having an operation, I have a cold in this scene. I can hear, I'm, I sound so, really?

I'm so nasally. It's unbelievable. I'm like, wow, I'm in the midst of a cold. So. But it's funny if you think back, like nowadays with COVID the last couple of years, I feel like wearing a mask, washing my hands. I have not been sick. No, you haven't gotten COVID. I haven't gotten a cold.

Nothing. You haven't had a thing. Nothing. Zero. And usually I would get like five or six. six colds every year. Yeah. So back then when we were making the show. Oh, we were getting sick all the time.

Everybody was getting sick. It was ridiculous. And all it takes is one, one crew member, yeah, going to craft service, you know, using some type of tongue or something to pick something up. And then the next person grabs that same thing and doesn't even think about it and rubs their eye or nose and you're done. Well, you remember when I got chicken pox on this show on the Voyager, and I spread it. Because my daughter, my daughter got it, gave it to me. Then I came to work and I was feeling really kind of fever.

I was feeling, but I went to work anyway. And I gave it to like three adult room members. They were not happy that they probably got that. I was like patient zero of adult chicken pox on Star Trek. So yeah, we would pass stuff around all the thing. Oh, yeah, for sure. Okay, so we go to Janeway's ready room. She's drinking coffee.

She's been drinking a lot of coffee in the show. She has. She's a coffee nut. I do want to say, coming off of last week's episode. Okay. Counterpoint where I thought the lighting was all over the place, honestly. Yeah. Like, seen to scene, it just didn't have much continuity.

It was not always flattering. Walking into the ready room this time, I'm like, there we go. That's the ready room. Like, it looks good. People's skin tones look good, like a nice backlight. It's just, yes. Because sometimes we can be in. it can feel kind of like too bright almost like a sitcom or it can feel too dark and you know

but this was just perfect it was warm it felt great so anyway i was happy yeah all right i was like oh thank god back in their normal yeah yeah that was my favorite look anyway so the doctor tells janeway he's he's adjusted his hollow imager for deep body scans and he starts to give janeway a physical because she didn't come down for her coloscan and her physical. Correct. I have a question. So he's like feeling her, you know, thyroid glands.

He's tapping on her back. Yeah. Isn't that super old-fashioned doctoring? It sure is. To be like, let me bump my hand and let me feel like, wouldn't he just have technology? He would just have a medical tricorder and scan her. Why would you be touching her and bonging on her? Okay.

I mean, clearly as an actor for Bob Picardo and for any actor, when you have business, that helps you as an actor, some type of business, some type of physicality to sort of, you know, keep this thing going. And I think that he just said, okay, I'm just going to do the old-fashioned thing. And nobody said anything about it. They were like, okay, we'll let it go. So there was no. I mean, at first it makes sense.

He's like, oh, well, let me do the physical. But it occurred to me halfway through. I was like, wait, this is very old-fashioned doctoring. Yeah. I mean, I guess there's value. to it still but it just seems like that thing that you know that little that little thing that you tap on to check reactions you hit yeah reflexes and the reflex yeah he's used that before in other episodes on me actually on harry so it's been used before um but you're right it would this is so old like

in the in in our time period on this show would it still be utilized that is a good question and and i think that uh i mean he did some things like Like he had something he was, he was scanning in front of her eyes. I remember at one point she opened her mouth. And I was like, why is she opening her mouth? Yeah, he doesn't need. But maybe it doesn't need. Yeah, exactly.

Well, he was trying to look inside her mouth or something. I guess so. I don't know. None of this is needed. If you have a medical tricorder, that scans everything. It's covered. Yeah, you don't need any of them. You just use tech.

It just doesn't look as good if he's just doing this on her in that long scene. Because it's a fairly long scene. It's a long scene. So, yeah, he talks about how he's discovered the scar on Harry. It doesn't make sense. He doesn't remember it. So he thinks he needs to run a self-diagnostic. So this is what he tells Janeway.

I need to make sure that I do a self-scan, that I'm not reading things incorrectly. And she's like, okay, good job. Go at it. He asked her a few things. And she's like, yeah, I don't remember. Yep. I don't remember. And I noticed in the scene, and by the way, I didn't know the plot of this episode as we started watching it.

Right. But I already noticed with Cape Mulgrew pretending like she doesn't remember. whenever Janeway is pretending, I feel like she has a tell. She has a tell. What's her tell? It's almost like, I don't know. It's like beady eyes or a little extra quiet. She's not a good liar, Janeway, or Cape Mo Gru.

I mean, Kate Mulgrew is a great actress, but when she's playing a scene where she's supposed to be lying, she, like, I feel like I always catch it. I'm like, oh, Janeway's lying. What you're saying is. And I felt it immediately. I'm like, she's lying. I didn't know the plot, but I'm like, she's lying. Okay.

What you're saying is, if we have a Star Trek Voyager celebrity poker tournament and we are at the final table, you will always defeat Kate Mulgrew. Absolutely. She does not have a poker face. She cannot misdirect. I didn't see this tell, but I mean, I'll try to look for it a little bit more now. It's kind of like soft and beady eyes and like, it's like she smelled. like someone farted in another room. It's like,

I don't know. It's something like that. It's weird. I could see it. I saw it immediately. I made a note and I didn't even know the plot. I'm like, she's lying.

She's not, whatever's going on. She's lying. Why is she lying to the doctor? I don't know, but she is. Anyway, I'm just imagining us in real life.

We're at a convention and you're looking at Kate. And you're like, you just smelled a fart. You lied, Kate. That's right. Either you smelled a fart. Or you lied. All right.

We go to astrometrics. Yeah. Again, a big shout out to Mike Veyer. This scene is shot in a winner. I don't know if you noticed. Yes. It is beautifully shot. It was very well done.

Yeah. So elegant. It amplifies the story. We see seven working. It pans over to reveal the doctor coming in. Hands off to the doctor. The doctor comes in. He brings us back to a two shot with the with seven.

They talk for a beat. Then she wanders back over. He goes and joins her. It wraps around. He comes into a close-up. I mean, it's like a freaking It's flawless. Dancing with the stars. Blocking. It was dancing with the stars. Expert level blocking and shot making. It was really well done. Yeah. And the purpose for this visit, the doctor comes to ask seven for a favor. She says, listen, I need you to help me run a self-diagnostic. And she says, you know, I'm pretty busy. And then he, you know, he insists. And she's, okay, I can assist you in an hour. One hour from now, I will help you with this self-diagnostic.

Now we have a passage of time. We are in sick bay. And of course, seven arrives to assist. But the doctor, first of all, the doctor is not even there. She looks around just to activate him. He has to activate the doctor. And then he has zero memory of the conversation that they just had an astrometrics one hour earlier. She then brings up, well, the reason why I'm here is you talked about this hollow image of

and Kim having the surgery and then they look for this image but it's gone and the doc says wait a minute everything's got i don't have many memories of what we just talked about i have no image of ensign kim let's meet up let's meet up in the holodeck the sort of like look at the hollow images i took from 18 months ago 18 months ago i took every day i took several let's go look at that so by the way when seven walks into the sick bay he's not there when she says uh computer activate emergency medical hologram she activates him and he appears in his office with his back to her yeah facing away and he's like looking around i love when they do this yeah again i don't know if it was bob or mike vahar but like when the you know when it's when things don't just line up so easily

but they add a little fun and a little um yeah it was just great i love that he sort of appeared in the other room and was looked lost for a minute uh anyway we go to the holodeck from the scene yeah and All these images, all those photos he took have been deleted from his memory buffers. And so she says, well, maybe I can reconstruct some of these images from residual photons in the hollow buffers or something. Right. Right. And we start to see some grainy kind of images that are from some birthday party. And there's an ensign there that the doctor doesn't recognize. He's like, no, he doesn't recognize her. And in these photos, there's the birthday party. There's like a shuttle mission with this ensign and Harry Kim.

There's a grainy photo of an alien sort of that we don't recognize. And by the way, I made a note, seven is lying too. So already, I don't know where this is going. But like, okay, they're all in on it because. Did I have a tell? Did I have a tell? No. I didn't.

You sold it. I know. Because when I was like, when I was watching myself, I'm like, hey, wait a minute, this is a true mystery. Herod doesn't know either because I was like, oh, I bought into my own performance. I was like, wait a minute. No, you played it absolutely how I think it should be played. Right. I think Kate and Jerry both were sort of leaning into the melodrama of, I've got a secret.

They weren't covering very well. So again, and I'm like, she's lying to what's happening here. If I was the doctor, I would have been like, why are you guys lying? lying. You're bad liars. I think your new name is the truth seeker. Robbie McNeil the truth seeker. All right. So now, do we go to science lab? Is this where they further investigate these memory files? I think seven is isolating his memory files. Maybe the science lab, or they could still be in the holodeck. It's hard to know. There was a bunch of stuff on the wall that wasn't there before. So that's why I thought, okay, I think we're the science lab. But seven discovers these

these files that are there, but that the doctor's program has been blocked from remembering these files. Yeah, it's been rewritten to deny him access to those memories. And then the doctor sees an image from, he says that it was from the mess hall, from the shuttle, from sick bay. Yeah, so now it's not grainy photos anymore. And there's a lot more of it. There's a lot more. And that photo of inside the shuttle where they're saying, you see, you see Harry saying, I remember this is when Harry says this is the last one This is the last one

And again I don't remember much about this episode but that particular scene I remember very clearly me grinning and smiling and saying this is the last one

through my grin's teeth and I was like oh my God I remember that shot yeah and it's so weird how memory works like the majority of this episode nothing and then that one particular scene

crystal clear the day of filming of me actually doing that too And it's funny that you say that about real life, your memory of this episode, because this scene is very much about these jumbled memories. It's funny because these images, the doctor is starting to download or have available for him to see. Seven says these are all out of order. So we're not really, this isn't helping us put the story together. It's just giving us images of this alien, images of the birthday party moments.

Bloody, you know, the bloody girl is on the floor. There's an attack. You see the alien shoot. something you see tom and the doctor doing surgery but it's all out of order yeah but it's adding to the mystery which is great we we have no clue what's going on we're not sure and the doctor calls janeway from there we cut hard to the briefing room next and now he's acting like a detective because the doctor thinks that they've all forgotten what's happened not just him yes and he's sharing some of this information about the alien and janeway again i can tell she's lying

She's like, I don't remember this alien species. I have no idea. Seven's going, no, they're unknown to the bore. No, we don't know. And we don't know this ensign. Who? Ensign Jatoll? Who's that? Yeah. Bad liars. Then the doctor postulates that there's possibly an intruder on board. This is the person who's like erasing his files. So the Janeway trying to cover, cover her knowledge, says, Tuvac, you better perform a deck-by-deck security suite. Seven, you better go to astrometrics and recalibrate the sensors to see if you can detect any cloaked vessels nearby. So it's all trying to play on it.

They're playing into like the doctors, you know, what he's guessing at. They're playing along with it. And then the doctor says that he will review the medical records of the rest of the crew. And maybe Harry is not the only person to have been injured during this attack. And Janeway quickly says, no, no, no, no, no. You need to deactivate yourself. and we need to protect you. We're going to put a security field around their main computer

and all the pathways leading to your program will be encrypted. We're going to do all these amazing security protocols to protect you, doctor. And that's when I started thinking, because I didn't see the tells that you saw. But then I started thinking something is amiss here. Well, because you see Janeway and Tuvok look at each other. And it's not like, it's not like, oh, looks like, oh, the doctor's onto some smart idea.

It's more a look like, yeah, this is more complicated than we thought. There's something going on for sure. Right. But we go to sick bay and the doctor walks in by himself. And he's clearly upset or sad or confused about all this. And then he starts to deactivate himself. You can tell he's going to do what she said. But then he stops and he goes, computer, copy the memory files from the last 48 hours,

have them copy. And he tells the computer to reactivate him. if and restore these duplicate files if anyone tampers with it. Correct. And then he adds the extra booby trap thing, which is the hollow imager is set up in the end of the back of sick pay to record in five second intervals anyone who comes in to sick bay just to see if someone's doing this.

And yeah, so sure enough, and again, which is great, it's the way it's filmed, you hear someone walking in. You don't see who it is. Oh, it's so well done. Oh, my God. Yeah, because we go off of the doctor disappears. We see the hollow camera in the back. Yeah.

And then the camera sort of tilts down to the computer screen. Right. And then you hear the door open. You see shadows. You hear footsteps as well. Your footsteps. You see the deleting of files going on. You hear the buttons being pushed, files being deleted.

You don't know who's doing that. Yeah, you don't know at all. And then, you know, the doctor's program reactivates the files, the files, the duplicate backup files pop back in. They restore themselves. And then he gets the minute they restore, then you can see the, you know, the realization on his face that, oh my gosh, now I remember everything. And he remembers the hollow imager.

And that is the reveal when he sees the image of it goes over and he plays back the images and it's skeleton, the skeleton of somebody. It's a cool reveal. It really is. It's Janeway. I knew she was lying. I knew it. Yeah.

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We go on the bridge now. Love this bridge. Love this beginning bridge scene. Oh, my God. Love it too. Janeway, Chacote, Tuvok. They're arguing about a sumo wrestling match. Championship sumo wrestling match.

Who knew that they were also into sumo wrestling? No, but also I was a little, I was a little, when Tuvok talks about how, you know, how he's into martial arts. And I was like, wait a minute, sumo wrestling is wrestling. It's not martial arts, but I guess you can call that a martial art. I suppose, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. It's a sport more than a martial art, I would think. Is it's like a game and a sport.

It's a sport. I don't know. Yeah. But they're into it. but clearly, Tuvok is a huge sumo fan, I wrote down. But so is Janeway and Chikote. Janeway said she has fifth row seats. So she, like, goes to the sumo matches.

Yeah. Even Chukotay is remembering like, no, no, that's not how it happened. Yeah, but Chikote jokes. I love how he goes, like, well, clearly you were drinking sake. That's the only reason why you don't remember the winner who won this match. So very funny. While they're arguing, though, the door opens to the turbo lift. And I remember as the door open, I'm like, where is who's coming in?

Like what? I figured the doctor, but I'm like, there's a long pause. And then he walks out very slowly. Very dramatic. Yeah. Like if I was a captain, I would have been like, wait, time out on the sumo conversation for a minute. Doctor, what are you doing? What are you doing?

Why are you walking so slowly? Yeah. But he's, he's, he walks him very dramatically interrupts. their conversation and accuses the crew of conspiring against him. It's a conspiracy. Yeah, it's a conspiracy. He's very upset. And then Tuvok says, doctor, let's, let me escort you back to Sick Bay.

And I love this line. He turns to Tuvok. A two, Tuvok. Et two, Tuvok. Yes, a classic Caesar, Julius Caesar line. Do you think he put that in? I don't think so. Okay.

So then do you think Joe Mnowski? wrote that in because Bob Picardo is Italian and Italians are now, you know, are no, I just think it's like, sentence of Romans. And so hence they added that in. I just think it's a dramatic doctor, like being dramatic. Okay. Quoting Shakespeare. Okay. You can't just say, yeah, not you, Tuvok, not you too. He has to put Ettuvok in there. Okay. Yes. All right. Okay. Captain Janeway walks down, faces him, you know, nose to nose there and says, in my ready room. Yeah, she's harsh.

Because he's starting to lose his temper, which we go in the ready room, and he is pissed. The doctor is pissed off. And I made a note here, why isn't he thrown in the brig? Because he's like, I wrote down,

I said, he gets loud, L-O-U-D capital letters. I said, careful, court-martial territory. This is when you are going to be thrown in the brig. How are you,

how can you react that, loudly to the captain, your captain. You're screaming at her practically. I don't know. In the moment, I didn't understand it, but looking back on it, she's really been trying to protect him with this whole memory thing. So she knows, you know, she's very empathetic, I guess, to his confusion. She is.

And they've probably been through some of this before because, you know, in this version, in this timeline we're seeing with him, he doesn't remember it. But she says later on, we've been through this. Like every time he starts remembering it, he gets. it's, you know, starts to freak out. Yeah, but you can freak out without raising your volume. You can freak out and become very manic sort of in a Woody Allen way. You know what I'm saying?

Where you're like, well, did I do this? Did I do that? Where everything is confusing. I think that, that to me would have been a better way for the doctor to deal with this instead of getting the volume like streaming at the top of his lungs. He was very upset. I understand he's upset. But you can be upset and are confused without screaming at somebody.

right so i don't know i i don't know i i sort of i bought it and i okay and in fact later on when they say he's done he's reacted like that before even worse i was like wow right right so that was big i think it was to try to convey the the depth of this the profound impact that this sophie's choice had on that character okay that he's just starts going literally going crazy yeah his program goes crazy when he starts to deal with it. True. Again, I feel like in this scene, this this could have been more of a just confusion, mass confusion instead of being allowed. Yeah, this is so early. Yeah, because I want to see that loudness in that later mess hall scene with Neelix. Exactly. So I feel like he gave up his, his, his, you know, as an actor, you gave, you gave away a little

bit too much. Yes. Why? Why climax? here this early when you should be climaxing in that nutty scene in the mess hall which I thought he did though I thought he played this one was anger at being lied to and that one was insanity because I can't from the decision I can't yes process okay okay I would buy both of them but it was loud I will give you that it was definitely just turn it down a few notches that's all if I was Mike Vahar I would have said Bob please turn it down just a little bit. I don't want to give away the cookies to her.

By the way, my guess is, you know, as an actor on these episodes, we would do different levels. They may have shot a level that was, where he was softer, where he was softer, and they may have just in the editing process said, hey, let's go for the bigger one. Okay. Because, you know, we did that all the time. Yeah. We try different.

Give me another, yeah, we've got this in the can. Give me something different, you know, for, for the editor. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, there might have been different versions of. of this scene, but he definitely got hot. Yeah. But I'm going to say this.

If Paris was that loud with Janeway, he would have been in the back. I'd be back in the bridge for sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The doctor's demanding to know what happened. Janeway says that she can't tell him because it will cause, it can cause this conflict to happen again. Yeah.

His programming could not resolve. Right. She said that you were damaged during the incident. And this caused conflict in your programming and, unfortunately we couldn't get past this and i cannot tell you i mean he wants to know but she cannot tell him okay um we go to sick bay chocote paris and seven and bala seven in paris excuse me excuse me by the way paris comes in with a different hairstyle than i've ever seen why is he having a bowl cut why did i have a bowl cut haircut for this

episode. There's a couple of scenes where it's a bowl cut. Yes, I do know that you did definitely have a weird bowl cut going on. Yes, but my notes. I don't wear bangs in real life. I've never worn bangs. When did they decide Paris wears bangs? But bowl cut aside, what you should be focusing on is I think you look the trimest and slimmest and ready for action of all. All the most recent episodes. Face looks really good in this episode. Interesting. Your overall, your physique looks like it's in shape in this episode.

So my notation was like, wow, Paris actually looks really good in this episode. I think I was starting to bike a lot. I was bicycling a lot. Maybe that's what it was. And doing spinning classes and biking a lot. But anyway, that made me ignore the ball cut. I didn't even think about the ball cut because all I could look at is a bowl cut. But the other thing I liked.

is that when Paris comes in, the doctor pulls Paris's side and says, do you agree with her? Do you agree that I should have my program rewritten? Do you agree with the captain? And Paris goes, I agree with her. And I like that moment between the doctor and Paris because the doctor's always, you know, making sarcastic jokes about Paris. He's basically very dismissive of Paris. Very dismissive.

And that was one moment where I was like, oh, he must value Paris. Like he's turning to him in this final moment to go, you know, let me ask somebody that I'll trust. I don't know. I just thought it was a brief moment, but I liked it. Yeah, I agree. And they're there basically because Bologna requires a copy of the doctor's most recent memory files, including the backups. And Torres is going to rewrite his program. And Paris is there because he wants to be briefed about any experiments or tests that the doctor is performing because he is going to take over for the doctor.

While the doctor's program is offline, yeah. We go to Janeway's quarters next, and my first note is she has the same orange color that Paris has. Yep, my first note, accent color is orange. And I thought, and that's because of lizard love. That's because of lizard love. Okay. Janeway and Paris have lizard love. And they like orange.

They like orange. orange. Yeah. All right. She's also reading and lounging very dramatically with her arms back over the shades. Yeah. It's very. Like she's about to be painted.

Yes. And seven enters. I love the first line. Oh, seven. Having trouble regenerating instead of having trouble sleeping. Right. Or generating. Yeah.

Having trouble regenerating. But instead she's having trouble with the nature of individuality. This is the reason why seven is there. She feels that rewriting is. program is a violation of the doctor's rights as an individual. Janeway says that she has dealt with this exact same issue 18 months ago and she has come to the exact same conclusion. And then seven quickly says your conclusion is wrong. And it's like, oh boy, here we go again. Here we go. It's going to be the, you know, head to head again. And I love and I wrote down the whole

actual quote. I just love how Janeway, she doesn't, she, the minute she goes, you're wrong. She looks at her and she goes to the replicator. She replicates coffee. Coffee black. And she says, lukewarm. Now, I've told that replicator a dozen times about the temperature of my coffee. It just doesn't seem to want to listen, almost as if it's got a mind of its own. But it doesn't.

A replicator operates through a series of electronic pathways that allow it to receive instructions and take appropriate action. And there you go. A cup of coffee, a bowl of soup, a plasma conduit. whatever we tell it to do. And as difficult as it is to accept, the doctor is more like that replicator than he is like us. And I say this whole thing because I am of the school of thought. I follow what Janeway says. This is what I believe. I believe that the doctor is more of a program than a human. And I feel like, you know, this is my always been my opinion. I know,

but I'm on team seven. And you're on team seven. I'm on team seven. He's evolving. He's evolving. he's learning just like her just like she says she talks about herself like she's becoming more and more human less and less bored seven says janeway when janeway took her on board yeah he allowed me to evolve my humanity she says why won't you allow the doctor to evolve his right and um i love the moment where she's looking at the replicator when she thinks of this she's like oh does janeway see me like that replicator and there's a nice shot of seven I do remember that yes wait is she saying I'm just a machine too yeah um and that has some impact you know she says maybe you'll abandon me it well I chose you know as well seven says I chose to let you be my guy but maybe I made the wrong

choice yeah harsh words the harsh words which uh must land for Janeway because now we go to sick Bay and Janeway's there and she she says to the doctor that she will tell him what happened. And she's thought about this and maybe she's recognized her own bias and her own in her fear. Yeah. Yeah. That helped, you know, made, made that decision before. So I think it's a great sort of seven did talk some, you know, some rethinking into Janeway to not just give up and delete him and you know and and and you are now team janeway post seven talk i'm still team janeway pre seven talk so uh yes you see the merit in the in what seven has to say and so and janeway does too janeway's like okay let's just let him see the memories so now we jump to

the science lab they're prepping for the memories and now we quickly have a flashback to the first memory in the mess hall and now that's your voice correct your voice says, you're standing on my foot. Is that, you're, okay, and that's me responding. I am not, right? I think that's me. I think it is. And then you hear me say, I was like that.

Right at the very end, I go, I am not. I was like, I was like that. You hear that. And I was like, was that me? But I'm pretty sure that was me. Yeah, I think so. Jital and Nelix arrive. And this is one of my favorite parts of this whole episode.

Oh my gosh, there's a power outage in here, Jatal says. And she goes, she hits her combat, Jatal de Torres. And then you hear, go ahead, Ensign, because she's right in the room. She's right in the dark room. Yes. And she goes, I mean, should I say surprise? And we have this huge surprise. I am so happy, once again, that I don't have to wear the itchy, hot, tight Starfleet uniform in this scene.

I actually have regular wardrobe, which is always. Well, you have regular wardrobe, kind of like Paris. You have a vest. And I made a note, we're vests in style. at this point in Starfleet history. We're very vesty. We're very vesty. It feels a little 90s.

I feel like vests were in in the 90s, like it's kind of a fashiony. Yeah. Because I remember having a couple of us. There's a photo of you at a Star Trek convention, wearing a vest and a shirt on stage. I think they were kind of style in the 90s. So here we were on the show.

And you and I were vesties together. Oh. That's cheesy. Yeah. Um, yeah, so the, uh, doctor's taking some pictures. Yeah, Cote actually walks up to the doctor and assigns him to the next away mission, which the doctor is so happy, so excited. And then the doctor bumps into Ensign Jatoll and talks to her like, you know,

I haven't seen you for a while. She says, well, that's because I've been a clean bill of health. I haven't had to see you. But I've been working on, um, I guess they're working on a shuttle or something or I can't remember what she's saying. Yeah, she says trying to make the shuttle go faster. She says, making the shuttle is a little more cool. That's a Paris word for sure.

And he says, I've seen you've been working. I've see you've been working with Mr. Paris. And then here comes the old school cut right here. The little dismissive, my condolences. I'm like, oh, you're totally digging into Paris yet again right here. He likes Paris. I know he likes me. Yeah, otherwise he wouldn't be saying that.

That's right. Then we go inside the shuttle and there's Harry and Jatrol. and i forgot about those sliding chairs they were on those little tracks right just how you had that track down at uh at con those tracks inside the shuttle were super cool because you can kind of zip back and forward yeah that's what paris does he makes a cool shuttle he does he does um yeah so the doctor's taking pictures in the shuttle and that's when the shake happens yes yes and we see an alien vessel kind of in the in the screen flying in uh the shuttle takes a little fire and suddenly there's an alien on board.

He had the coolest gun, by the way, three barrels on that gun. Three barrel gun. Why hasn't that been invented? My goodness. Three barrels on his laser gun, laser rifle. And he shoots all three barrels at those guys. They go down and Harry and Jatal are burned pretty bad from whatever this. The doctor doesn't, does he go down too?

Because he's, doesn't it go through him? he fritzes and then he comes back online yeah and he beams the bad guy back to his ship which is like what and there's that old is that Harry's like half conscious he's like why did he goes why didn't you into space yeah did you did you see what I did you did you see that little move your eyes sort of went back in your head I showed you the white of my eyes I said I'm going to roll these puppies back and show you that I'm passing out so you did you passed out good yeah really good makeup looks really effective and real yeah the makeup was awesome and the flyby when voyager comes into to shoot the uh the alien ship and kind of save the shuttle there voyager comes flying through that

oh yeah screen the front window and it was very cool yeah um yeah you guys are beamed over to sick bay and in sick bay some teams come in paris as part of this uh team that's helping put you guys on the bed yeah doc does a little analysis and says they're sending synaptic failure. Yeah, synaptic failure. And he's, yeah, the weapon that this alien used, he realizes, has this residual energy charge that continues to do damage to the body. So the weapon is still working and it's killing them slowly going up their spinal column,

heading towards their brains. Yep. So the doctor realizes they're going to be dead in minutes. And so he needs to protect the brain function. So he quickly says a spinal shunt to isolate the spinal cord from the brainstem. And so he has time to repair the cellular damage, but then he realizes he doesn't have time to save both. And then this is when Paris yells, then make a choice. And I was like, what?

You don't even say my name? You're like, you're going to let the doctor choose between me and Jutal? I'm like, okay. But I think like the doctor says later on about making decisions. Like you calculate, you know, lots of variables. You calculate and make what is the best choice. this was one where they were absolutely equal choices they were but then he went with who he knew better which was harry because he said i chose my friend over yes he does he says it's tall yeah yeah

um but paris works with the doctor so you're welcome for that thank you i helped save your life you did help and just as harry is saved from this with a spinal shunt you hear the flat line she's out she's done yeah yeah yeah bad poor nancy um Yeah. So that's, that was in our flashback. We dissolved back to sickbay at the present. Well, actually, I wrote science lab, but maybe it's sickbay. Oh, yeah, could be the science lab. Yeah. But we, we learned that the aliens did withdraw after a brief battle and there were no more casualties. And the doc's quote is, I don't mean to seem unfeeling, but I'm programmed to accept the loss of a patient with professional detachment. Exactly. He's sort of confused. Like, why? He's like, why are you even doing? Why did you hide these memories from me? I'm fine. And then Janeway, then motion.

to Torres. She gives her that look like, show them more. And so, bridge flashback, the funeral service for Ani Jatal, which is still okay. But then we have the mess hall flashback with the Nielix and doctor. And this, after he asked Nelix, how do you make a decision, Mr. Neelix, is the beginning of the downfall. This is where the spiral begins. And slowly but surely,

and it's great. I mean, I think Bob did a great job. He starts off very calm, very okay. He's the normal doctor. We always know. But bit by bit, you see his, it just, it's overwhelming. He cannot, he cannot handle it. And I love how he compares to two fruit. He's got the fruit. And the one that he doesn't pick, he just throws it across the room. And it hits the, you know, near some of the crew members that are eating over there. Yeah. Then later he has the pastry. And he says, but what if it's identical? What if two identical choices? and then he crushes the one that he doesn't that he that he doesn't pick and you now see so i i think that i think i remember bob for this scene in the mess hall and i hope we can talk to bob

maybe get some clarity on this but i think this was a really big scene a climactic scene like you talked about before and all of this uh the props the crushing the fruit you know crushing the nuts or yeah doing all these different things that was not scripted as i recall I think he added all of this stuff. And in fact, I feel like I remember, I'd love to find out from him if we get a chance to talk to him and put it in the bonus features of this. That'd be great. I feel like he sort of came up with all this business.

Ran it by Mike Vahar, ran it by the director much earlier so that they sort of added it into the plan. It was not scripted to crush the things or to have all the fruit or take the bowls over. You know, I think a lot of that was Bob, as you know, he loved props. And so ahead of time was trying to think of that. But hopefully we can get that in. Yeah, that would be great. Our Patreon bonus features.

That would be really great. So now we jump back from the flashbacks. We're back in the science lab. And Janeway says that it only got worse from there. And that the doctor developed a feedback loop between his ethical and cognitive subroutines. And that he was having the same thoughts over and over. again he could not stop them and the only option was to erase his memories of those events and that's when she says to balana we gave him a soul balana do we have the right to take it away now and then balana's

like we gave him personality subroutines i'd hardly call that a soul so again i'm team balana on this one and you are team you're full tech and i'm i'm the poetic human who wants i want the machine to turn into a human. I want Seven to be a real human. You want Pinocchio to be a real boy. I know you do. I want him to be a real boy. I want Data to be a real human. Yes, you do. You do. Anyway, yeah. So we we jump to the Borgregeneration Alco. Cargo Bay one. Janeway walks in and takes a moment sort of thinking about what what Seven has said to her earlier and then wakes her up. Yeah, but did you feel weird of her watching her regenerate like that? Was that a little? It didn't feel weird to me. I felt like she was trying to put her thoughts together. Before she waking her. Yeah. Do I continue?

Okay. Do I involve her? Yeah. You know, I think for Janeway, often a conversation with seven, you never know, like it can easily go off the rails. So she's like, am I really want to do this? But she does. She does.

Individuality discussion commence. Yes. A philosophical debate. She does say, there's a time in place. When you came in my room, it was 2 a.m. when I'm coming in here. When I wake you up at 2 a.m., and now it's the time and place.

But she basically says, you know, taking you from the board collective. Was it worth it? Yeah. And Seven says, yes, I'm glad you did it.

Yeah. And then Seven says, if I could change what happened, erase what you did to me, would I? And she says, no. I would definitely redo the same thing

exactly the way it was done before. So basically she's saying that it was worth it, you know? And Janeway is like, Okay. I got my info. I got what I need from you. Captain's Log Supplemental, we get a little bit more information. Our doctor is now our patient. Two weeks that she has, Janeway has ordered an around the clock vigil. Crew member has stayed with him at all times to be a sounding board and a familiar presence while he struggles to understand his memories and his thoughts. And then Janeway in the

captain's log supplemental says the chances for recovery, uncertain. So we're still kind of like, you know, We're not through the thick of it yet. And now we have a scene of the doctor in Janeway sitting on an empty holodeck in chairs. They're both sitting in like, they're both just sitting in these bark a loungers. That's what I wrote. I was like they're sitting on what are those called? What are the ones called the ones that you're recliners or something?

Yeah, there's a name for that though. There's a company. It's a barca lounger. Easy boy. Lazy boy. Yeah. They're like they're sitting on lazy boys. And for those of you who are not Americans, this is a, this is a, this is a.

brand of recliner chair in the U.S. called lazy boy. And so they're both sitting on those. Yeah, it looks like lazy boys. Yeah. Janeway's reading. Yeah. And he's going off, again, he's getting wound up about. He starts off though. He starts soft. He starts soft, but he gets himself wound up about the nature of life of how things work out. And do we have a choice? He says it was all predetermined millions of years ago. He goes through the big bang. Bang discussion. Exactly. It was all the way back to the Big Bang.

And Tuvac enters at one point and offers to trade with Janeway. And she says, no, I'm going to keep reading La Vita Nueva is what she's reading. Which she tells the doctor, I'm reading poetry, which is relevant to your situation. He's like, really? And then the doctor continues with like, could I have changed anything? He says, every scenario I run through, you know, I would have killed her. There's just too many possibilities. every every in every scenario i i could think of i would have i would have made the same the same

thing would have happened and then um as he's talking he looks over and she's fallen asleep she's dozed off yeah and he comes over wakes her up and he touches her head and she's got a fever yeah and now he's concerned right yeah now he's concerned he's like you've got a fever you're sick you need to go to sick bay yeah and she says no didn't she say miss he doesn't yeah i think fair or something like that. Yeah. But she says, no, I can't go down there. I can't leave you here. I'm busy helping a friend. That was very sweet to me. And he says, no, I'll be okay. You go take care of yourself. Go to get some sleep. Yeah. Let's get some sleep. And so she does. And you see her sort of open the book to a particular page and set it down. Okay. I'm going to read the quote. And I want you to,

I want you to interpret this quote that he reads from the book. He says, he reads, he reads, in that book, which is my memory, on the first page of the chapter that is the day when I first met you, appear the words, here begins a new life. So how did you interpret that? It's very ambiguous. It's very ambiguous. I think that what it meant to me was that we're constantly recreating a new version of ourselves by the people we interact. interact and the events that happened to us, that we can't undo them, but we can't start a new from the very beginning, because that's already happened. But we can start a new from today, because every day is a new day. Every chapter is a new chapter, every experience. So I can't go

back and fix the things that had sad endings in my life. I can't undo them. I can't rewrite them, but I can start a new chapter that this is a new life that I'm starting today. And I can have a different experience, different attitude. Okay. Maybe. Okay. Well, that is the end of our plot. And it ends very ambiguously, by the way.

The episode ends with the doctor reading. You know, he reads, reads that quote. And we pull back wide. I just want to say one last time, Mike Beherer knocked out of the park, beautifully shot, beautifully shot all around, really great work. He was one of my favorite directors. I love working with him. So he was awesome.

Yeah. My theme, here we go. My lesson I wrote down was being able to accept and process the pain we have in life is a natural part of the human experience and can make life richer moving forward. So in a way that that quote talks about like, you know, every day's a new chapter, the beginning of new life. I think that if you can accept and process the wounds that have happened in your life, that you'll only be richer for it

that if the doctor was if we reprogrammed him back to zero we know what that is it's a pretty blank slate but now we've got this doctor who's had these emotional subroutines and all that stuff he has evolved like seven

he has grown so if he can somehow process this and figure out how to get his program to accept the reality of what happened he can move forward a richer person or a Richard hologram. Yeah. That's my lesson.

Okay. What about you? I think for me, this episode is more a lesson of empathy, compassion, and patience. Empathy, compassion, and patience. And I'm really speaking about the people that are around the person dealing with the drama or dealing with the issue. you know so a lot of times I think people really that are going through tough times are very appreciative of friends that say I'm just going to be here for you you don't have to say anything you know I'm just going to say exactly exactly I'm here I'm going to sit here I can't fix it for you

but if you have anything that you need to say to me or talk to me about I'm going to be here interact with you. But if you need to be quiet, I can be quiet right next to you. So sometimes a lot of people try to fix things, like especially men. Men are so good at like, oh, something's wrong. I'm going to fix this. I'm going to make this right. I'm going to force this round peg into this square hole. And it doesn't work. And a lot of times if you just sit there, you just listen. That is, that is all that other person needs is just to have the human compassion and the caring and just the presence of another human being sitting there next to you can be therapeutic. That's my list.

I like it. I like it. Okay. Ratings-wise, how do you feel? I'm going to give this one. I'm going to give it a 7.6. Oh, that's my rating. 7.6.

I am going to give this an 8.2. Woo. Just a little over an 8. Yeah. I, Mike Fahar knocked it out of the park for me. I think this was beautifully directed. I love the ambiguity of the ending. Like I said, I didn't know at the end.

I was like, wait, so did they let the doctor keep these memories or did they? Like, it's not really clear. Yeah, we don't know what happened. Did he make it past it? Yeah. Did he get through the, through the storm, you know, or not. We think he got through it. We think they continued to let the assumption is that he did.

Yeah, we let him stay like that until. But I like the ambiguous ending. I like, I really love the premise of this Sophie's choice. Yeah, it really does. I give it an 8.2. Let's see what our Admiral and Captain's rating for Layton, Timit. Got it right here. This one.

What is it? Got it right here. Yeah. Who wins the Academy Award? Come on. And the winner, the number is 7.7. Oh. Wow.

I'm 0.1 away. I almost said 7.7, but I pulled back a little bit. I put one tenths off. Wow. Oh, look at that. that. I went higher than the captain's an album. You went higher because you saw how good of an episode it was from a directorial standpoint. I think that's why you had a lot to do with it. And I think, uh, I think Kate's performance. I think Bob's performance. I think Jerry's

performance. There were some really good performances in this episode. And yours. You did a great job too. Yeah, it was okay. And I fooled you in the beginning. You didn't think that I, I did not know. You were great. I loved it. I loved it. Okay, good. Yeah. All right. There we Oh, wow, I can't believe I upscored this episode. Yeah, you went beyond the admiral's. Yeah, good for you. Okay. Well, that was great.

Really fun. What's happening next week? Next week, you and I will be chatting, well, rewatching, and then discussing Bride of Chaotica. Oh, no way. Oh, yeah. One of my favorite episodes. Agreed. I can't wait.

We get some good. episodes happening right now. We do. And this is what happens with all trick. It's always the later seasons that are the most amazing. So here we are. We're in the best of the best of void. Yeah. We have a very special surprise guest. Patreon patrons stick around for some bonus content. We're going to be talking to Robert Picardo about this episode. We are so excited. See you next week. We review, recap, discuss, pride of chaotica. Thanks. Bye. You know, I'm going to be able to be.