The Delta Flyers - Live Fast and Prosper

Episode Date: January 16, 2023

The Delta Flyers is a weekly Star Trek: Voyager rewatch & recap podcast hosted by Garrett Wang & Robert Duncan McNeill. Each week Garrett and Robert will rewatch an episode of Voyager starting at the very beginning. This week’s episode is Live Fast and Prosper. Garrett and Robbie recap and discuss the episode, and share their insight as series regulars.Live Fast and Prosper Con artists practise galaxy-wide graft while impersonating Janeway and her officers, until the Doctor dupes them with the help of a holographic disguise.We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Executive producers Megan Elise & Rebecca McNeillAnd a special thanks to our Ambassadors, the guests who keep coming back, giving their time and energy into making this podcast better and better with their thoughts, input, and inside knowledge: Lisa Klink, Martha Hackett, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Robert Beltran, Tim Russ, Roxann Dawson, Kate Mulgrew, Brannon Braga, & Bryan FullerAdditionally we could not make this podcast available without our Co-Executive Producers: Stephanie Baker, Philipp Havrilla, Kelton Rochelle, Liz Scott, Eve England, Sab Ewell, Sarah A Gubbins, Jason M Okun, Luz R., Marie Burgoyne, Daniel de Rooy, Chris Knapp, Janet K Harlow, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Courtney Lucas, Matthew Gravens, Elaine Ferguson, Brian Barrow, Captain Jeremiah Brown, Heidi Mclellan, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, John Espinosa, Deike Hoffmann, Mike Gu, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Vikki Williams, Kelly Brown, Lee Lisle, Mary Beth Lowe, William McEvoy, Sarah Thompson, Samantha Hunter, Holly Smith, Amy Tudor, Adm. Bill "Seoulman" Yu, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Ashley Stokey, Lori Tharpe, Mary Burch, Nicholaus Russell, Dominique Weidle, Lisa Robinson, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Alex Mednis, AJ Freeburg, Elizabeth Stanton, Kayla Knilans, Barbara S., Tim Beach, Ariana, Meg Johnson, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, Holly Schmitt, James H. Morrow, Christopher Arzeberger, Megan Chowning, Tae Phoenix, Nicole Anne Toma, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Daniel O’Brien, Bronwen Duffield, Brandon May, Andrew Duncan, David Buck, Jeremy Mcgraw, Jason Bonnett, Ali S, Danie Crofoot, Ian Ramsey, Susan V. Gruner, Feroza Mehta, Michael Dismuke, & Jonathan BrooksAnd our Producers:James Amey, Patrick Carlin, Richard Banaski, Ann Harding, Ann Marie Segal, Chloe E, Nathanial Moon, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Jocelyn Pina, Mike Schaible, AJ Provance, Captain Nancy Stout, Claire Deans, Matthew Cutler, Maxine Soloway, Joshua Phillips, Barbara Beck, Species 2571, Aithne Loeblich, Dat Cao, Scott Lakes, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Tara Polen, Jenna Appleton, Jason Potvin, Cindy Ring, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Amber Nighbor, Jamason Isenburg, Mark G Hamilton, Rob Johnson, Maria Rosell, Heather Choe, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Jennifer Jelf, Justin Weir, Mike Chow, Rachel Shapiro, Eric Kau, Captain Jak Greymoon, David Wei Liu, Clark Ochikubo, David J Manske, Roxane Ray, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, E.G. Galano, Cindy Holland, Craig M. Nakashian, Will Forg, Max Wilson, Ryan Tomei, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Russell Nemhauser, Lawrence Green, Christian Koch, Lisa Gunn, Lauren Rivers, & Jennifer BThank 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 Voyager actor and passionate snow skiing enthusiast, Mr. Robert Duncan McNeil and myself, your favorite for ever and. 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, did you ski today? Oh, no, I did not ski today. It was snowing. I snow shoveled.

When I shoveled the driveway, but. Okay, good. And I should say we shoveled the driveway. Rebecca's, she's got, she's very, RJ, is very hardcore about the driveway. Okay. And I will say, her high standards of, it's her upbringing, from Michigan. understand if you're from michigan yes you have uh a lot of standards and high standards when it comes a ton of experience we have the best looking driveway in the neighborhood i will say like it is the

cleanest sharpest looking the edges are nice we salt it up it's all clean and good that's good and it's good and it doesn't shock me that rebecca put in a lot of muscle into it because you told me do you remember you guys were doing some landscaping stuff at one point and you said that she was moving entire boulders on her own. And I thought, okay, she's got some grit there. Don't mess with RJ. No, I'm not going to mess with RJ. No, I wouldn't. But when is the last time you actually went skiing, though? When did you go? Just last week, a few days ago. Yeah. Which, which mountain did you go to? Park City. I got a pass. I got a season pass this year to Park City. Oh, mountain. So, yeah, I've been skiing there for a few weeks now. They've been open since, I don't know, November 12.

I think so you're not going to go anywhere else since you have the pass is that pretty much it probably not my sister's coming at Christmas we may go ski sundance it's a smaller mountain you're not going to ski my favorite mountain of all what dear valley no snowbird which one

almost close Alta yes Alta is great yeah because they have a lot of snowboarders that's why I think it's still like that maybe at Alta I don't know I don't know about that dear valley

deer valley does not allow snowboarders okay but it's there's tons of snow right now it's incredible yeah yeah it's been good and you need that for good skiing so yeah okay and good summers with lots of water in the lakes and things like that right you need that exactly yeah okay so are you ready to talk about or go watch this episode we can't really talk about it we can talk about the title but we can't go any more beyond that so what is the title this week yes the title this week is live fast and prosper so instead of live long and prospered live fast and prosper live fast and prosperous is also another yes another episode that yes that was never aired it was never aired live fast and furious no it would have been aired and yeah it was too intense it was you know it was interesting

I mean his his contract was I don't know miles long and all the things he had requested but they they ponied up for it you know you wanted It was a great episode, very exciting, very exciting. Lots of space chases. Yes, yes. So live fast and prosper, which sounds like live long and prosper. By the way, let me just tell you how to say that in German. I just learned this recently.

Yes. Lebe long and in freedom is live long and prosper. In German, yeah. Lebel long. Lebel long and and in Leben. No, in freedom. F-R-I-E-D-N, yeah. Lebelang and in freedom.

didn't. There you go. Oh, interesting. Yeah. All right. Sounds much more important than German than it does. It's live long and prosper. It's a little pedestrian in English, but it does sound a little in Deutsch. In Deutsch. Yes, I like it. It is time now for you and I, Robbie McNeil, to go watch, live fast and prosper. Okay. All right. We'll be right back with our recap and discussion of the episode. Thank you. All right, we're back from watching Live Fast and Prosper. Ooh, not Live Fast and Furious, but Live Fast and Prosper. But first of all, because the way that when we record, what we see when we record is different from what actually gets edited and put out there.

So I just want everyone to see this. So look at the background. The way it matches like that. It looks like someone's lying down on their stomach on a bed and you can see the shape of their bum bump. That's their hymn. That looks like a heiny. Our backgrounds together put together look like a big space honey.

It is a space honey. Okay, so let's start off with our synopsis, our poetry synopsis. Let's do. Let's just begin right off the bat. Here we go. Here is my haiku for live fast and prosper. Yes. Miners bamboozled.

Hamilix truly at fault. real crew saves the day see i didn't have enough syllables for tom and neelix so i hybridized you yes i too what is it tomelix tomelix oh i've never thought of that one right there's two vix tamilis yeah okay i like it i like it all right here is my limerick poetry synopsis for live fast and prosper here we go a fake janeway and tuvok swindle a deal but the miners think they are real. When Janeway finds out, she'll fix the problem, no doubt. Messing with Starfleet is never ideal. You know what? You're going to get so good at Limericks. You'll be able to speak in Limerick

to anyone just on the street. Yeah. It's going to be able to pull this out of your bum-bub. It's like a rap skill, really. It is. You got a freestyle Limerick. Yes. Wouldn't that be crazy? Because of this experience at the end, you start your own rap career. You become a rapper. you throw away the whole directing thing. Yeah. And you just become this freestyle, you know, middle-aged M&M is what you want. I will say that I could never freestyle these limericks. They are really hard.

You did limericks, you know. Yes. It takes a little, like to find the rhyme and the rhythm and try to actually make any sense of what the episode is about. It's tricky. I could never freestyle it. Okay. But did you like my descriptive phrase of what you would be if you did choose that?

career, middle-aged Eminem, which the acronym is almost ma'am, right? So it's, little ma'am. That's my rapper name. Lil-M-L-I-L-L-A-M-M-M-M-L-A-M-M-A-L-M-M-A-L-Midled, middle-aged Eminem. That's our synopsies. So let's talk about who made this. So Robin Burger is the writer. Again, we don't remember her.

You and I don't remember her at all, and I feel so bad. Maybe she was here just for one season. I don't know. Maybe that's a pen name. I don't know. I don't remember her at all. Maybe that's actually, you know, Joe Monoski's other name that he writes under.

I don't know. I don't remember that. We were completely wrong in the director, by the way. Completely long. LaVar directed this episode. Do you remember him? How many times do you remember him directing? To be perfectly honest.

I thought it was just. Okay. So it was more than one for sure? Yeah. More than one. Yeah. Two, three? I don't know.

I don't know how many so far. At least two. This is at least the second one. now but i want to say well he directed me in timeless which is which is exactly i think that might might have been was that his first time maybe no i don't think so okay so that was his second and so this will be his third so whatever his first one is i can't recall which which episode but uh okay so more than one for sure yeah so lavar burton directed robin burger wrote it here's our guest stars so kately hopkins yeah as dala sister dala and also

In the end, she's impersonating the doctor. Fogainway. Yeah. Faux Janeway, yes. Faux Janeway, Sister Dalla, impersonating the doctor. She's a lot of, she had a lot of roles to play in this. Yeah. Yeah, she did. She did a lot of, like.

Did you want to say impersonating Janeway, or you said impersonating the doctor at the very end? She impersonates the doctor. She imitates him. Well, yeah. No, wait. Yeah. I mean, Caitlin, the actress, had to pretend to be the doctor as a hologram of, of Sister Dala, right?

No, I thought the doctor was, he changed his parameters of what he looked like. Yeah, but I'm saying the actress had to pretend. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. That's what I'm saying. Yes, yes, the actress herself had to. Had to pretend a lot of different. God, I was sitting here thinking,

did you and I watch the same episode? Yes, I'm talking about. Oh, my gosh. All right. No, no, I know that that was Sister Dala in the end. Right, so she impersonated. Yes, she's impersonated the, the Holy Person and then Foll Janeway, and then she had to pretend to be basically the doctor impersonating her being right yeah right and by the way

sister dolla wasn't even a religious person because she was impersonating that so she was just a con woman she was just always grifting a con person a con person and a con person see that doesn't sound right because that sounds like somebody who goes to conventions like comic cons and stuff yeah a con woman and a grifter let's just say that okay yes i have been a con person i've been a con person i've been a con person i've been a con person i've been to lots of cons. Yes, you have. We both have been to lots of cons. All right, what's her first credit? Caitlin Hopkins, her very first credit that I could find was a film called Runaway Dreams 1989. And I think she was the star of this because there were no big names in it. Okay. She, I think she was like a teenager who was a runaway and it was a little bit of a B movie.

It looks like. Yeah. Well, when you began with Runaway, I waited for you to finish with Runaway ride with Julia Roberts No no not the same film Runaway Dreams 1989 hurt Caitlin Hopkins debut as an actress on film that I could find

then Mobar Greg Daniel plays Mobar the Tuvok impersonator Greg Daniel his first credit I'm sorry that just these names I know these names I know Greg Daniels plays Mobar

his first First job was also in 1989, the same year that Caitlin Hopkins made her film debut. Oh. He was in a TV show called Mancuso FBI, starring Frank Losia. Wow. And we spoke about Frank Losia. Remember we talked about how the one I said how the one alien that looked like Kim's father. Yeah, looked like Robert Lodzia.

So what is most noteworthy is that both of their first credits were in 1989. which is truly coincidental and kind of interesting. Yeah. The next actor is Francis Geinen plays Tsar. Yeah. And his first credit was in 1983, a TV movie called Say Good Night Gracie. I guess it was a comedy. Yeah.

Say Good Night Gracie. Who is sort of a... Is Zar the mining? No, Chakotay. The fake Chikote. Oh. Oh, okay, the one that's on the ship that we see in the beginning. Okay.

Yeah, got you. That's czar. Yeah. Varn is played by Ted Rooney. And Varn is the one who gets invited to join Starfleet. Oh, that guy. That guy. That's barn, right?

Ted Rooney plays that role. His first job was in 1996 a movie called Celtic Pride that starred Dan Aykroyd, Daniel Stern, Damon Wayans, big, big, you know, studio, comedy picture, which when he's first job, 1996. Could also be pronounced Celtic pride as well, right? Yes. Either way. Celtic, Celtic. Okay.

I think it was like Boston Celtics. Yes, it was Boston Celtics. I think it was the, I think the movie was about like the Boston Celtics. The Boston Celtic. Yeah. They were like fans. Yes. My apologies.

Okay. To all the Boston Celtics fans out there. The Boston Celtic fans? What? Yeah. Yes, continue. One more. Minor number one was played by Scott Lincoln.

Yeah. And his first job was on General Hospital in 1970. Oh, a little G-H-action. Daytime. G-H-action. Yeah. The minor number two was played by Timothy McNeil. His last name was McNeil.

Your long-l-l-L-E-I-L for him. Oh, that's two. Son of a gun. So we must be related. There has to be some plan back in Scotland somewhere. Timothy McNeil. That's right. Timothy McNeil was the one who was late.

He was minor number two, who showed up late. He's like, I'm sorry, the thing broke now. His first job was in 1993, a half-hour comedy called Thea. I don't remember this. Yeah, I don't remember it either. But one of the actors in it was Brandy who went on to have her own show. And also a musical career and a big musical career. Brandy was in that.

She was on UPN the same time. We were on Voyager. Yeah. The very last guest star, we had a lot of guest stars in this. Dennis Cockram, who plays Oric. That's the mining, head of the mining people. Yeah, he's the one that comes on and says, give us our stuff and all that. His first job is in 1982 on a TV show called Chicago Story.

They had a big cast. Craig T. Nelson was in it. Yeah. So there you go. Dennis Cochran as Oric. That's all of our guests. start. I like it. You got a lot in there. You really did. Yeah, we didn't. Yeah.

Okay. Well, let's just chip into it. The opening shot is of a mining colony. Yeah. That's what we see. Did you like that opening shot or were you anti? Okay. It looked old school, but I think they shot models. It looked like it was a model and not a painting or a CG version. It looked like they had filmed a model. The model of it. Okay. And so I thought it was really cool. Yeah, I thought it was good for that. Yeah. Era. So I'm okay with that. We go inside the caves next.

Our classic caves, a set. There's some miners in there. One of them's late. He's running in. I noticed in the scene, he apologizes for being late. Right. But it felt like they were all looped. Like the dialogue, it was kind of cartoony. Okay. Yeah, it felt cartoony to me.

So they are on Telseus, right? They are Telseon miners, is what they are. Telsean miners on, and they are on the planet Telseus. That's what I'm getting from this, right? Yeah. Okay. But one of them's late. He apologizes in his looped dialogue.

The other one's also looped. And the one who says, don't worry about it. Ork's going to be so pleased that we took this initiative. So they're doing something. Yeah. You already know, like they haven't been authorized to do whatever they're about to do. And then suddenly in the background, we see a beam. We think it's going to be Starfleet.

Yeah. And it's like a Federation Beeman thing. And it's Dala and Mobar. Dala and Mobar, but they're dressed like Janeway and Tuvok. And they're basically like they say they're from the Federation Starship Voyager. They have giant com badges. Like they're in the uniform, but their com badges are like, they're wrong size clearly, right? Way too big.

And their pips. their pips are also too big as well, which is fine. And then she introduces herself. Yeah. And she has the accent. She had sort of a Catherine Hepburn sound. Did you notice that? She did.

Yeah. So she was kind of doing Kate. I think she was trying to impersonate. Yes. She's trying to impersonate Kate a la Janeway. A little bit. Yeah. And I noticed it in this scene, but I didn't notice that sort of Catherine Hepburny thing in other scenes.

But in this one, I definitely did. Yes. Which I thought was funny. She says that they have mines like this on her planet, which is Earth. Were their lines looped? I don't think so. I think they loop the miners because of the makeup. It must have distorted their dialogue when they were so much.

Yeah. Sometimes when there's rubber that's glued down to the lips. It gets so muffled that you can't even understand what they're saying. So therefore, that's probably why they're looping. But the fake Janeway does talk about her childhood in Indiana. So you're like, wait, how do she know? Like, how do you know all this information? Yeah.

And I have to say, Mobar is doing a pretty serviceable Tuvok. When I was watching that, I thought, man, good job. Good job. Yeah. But they, the miners want some dilithium. They need 20 kilotons of dilithium. And they say, you know, we can trade you bolamite. And Jamie's like, yeah, that's the only thing they can give him.

That's all we've got is bolomite, 10 kilotons of bolomite. And Jane was like, no, we don't really need any bolomite. And then Tuvok, fake Tuvok is like, well, wait, we could maybe use this for the orphaned survivors of the Narva colony. Ah, the old grifter story of orphans. Yes, the orphans, we could help the orphans with the bolomite. And fake Janeway says, okay, we'll make a trade. We'll give you the dilethium for the bala mite. Right.

And at the very end, I love when Tuvok says, live long and prosper. And he puts his hand up like this. Yeah. In the Vulcan. Yeah. And then they try to do it with their alien rubber hair. And they're like, lift it up. They're like, it's very funny.

They make up this excuse about a neutron storm approaching. And that's why they have to, they have to get back to their ship. Yeah, exactly. This is the only way they can do the trade. They'll do the trade from the ship instead of on the planet. Yeah, right. So you beam your stuff up there and then we'll send you the lithium because there's the storm coming. Yeah.

So we got. Actually, but Moulbar. does ask, he says, like, well, before we leave, would it be possible to tour your facility? And this would be, you know, our duty as Starfleet officers. But Dala's like, look, no, no, no, no, storm's not going to wait. We got to get out of here. Yeah. But we later learned that this was all about trying to play his role to the fullest of his ability, basically.

Yeah. We go to an orbiting shot. It's not Voyager. No. This is a really funky-looking ship. It looks like cubes. It looks like boxes. Yeah, it's like a bunch of tissue boxes, pushing.

together into a ship is what it is. Or it looks like a freighter, a small freighter kind of thing or something. It looks like a section of a freighter. It doesn't even look like a whole freighter. It's very odd looking. And then we go on this alien bridge, the ship bridge.

Yeah. And the fake Janeway walks in and she pulls her wig off and she's a bald alien underneath. And she says, oh, this hair is so uncomfortable. Yeah. And she said something like she criticized fake Tuvok. She's like, everything would have gone totally smoothly if, you know, if Tuvok hadn't improvised. Right.

So clearly they're all con men. Yeah, yeah. But I do like the fact that they just put a very thin line, you know, a vertical line sort of a crease to show that they're an alien species. Yeah. But they didn't make the alien makeup so distracting that you're like, what the, so it was a very subtle thing. so they pass for human better than other aliens, I suppose. I wonder, though, so they're made up, you know, they're really aliens, but they've made themselves appear, like, with the wig of Janeway.

Yeah. Would they have to do that? Like, people they meet don't know what Cape Mulgrew looks like. That is true. Like, they wouldn't have to, I guess it's safer if they have the cover and look sort of like them, but, and it's funnier in the episode, but like, from a, From a realistic standpoint, they wouldn't need to do it. But from an episodic standpoint, it's more humorous, I think.

It's funny. Right. Yeah, it's funny. But they get a, they get a transmission. So Dala's like quickly putting the wig back on. And then she says on screen, that thing, that thing is, it's just a, it's not even an undershirt. It's just, it's just a little flap that she pulls back over. Yeah, it's like, what do you call those, those little fake sweaters that people are,

fake fake turtlenecks i for mock turtle neck it's a it's a it's a mock undergarment is what it is yeah it's like a like a like you're wearing a turtleneck but it's just the neck part funny yeah it's funny yep she tells czar to add some federation signatures on the monitors to the so the the aliens will think that this is a federation signature so they clearly have enough info about starfleet and voyager they're adding technical signatures to their transmissions. Yeah. And the miners say they've got the bollamite ready and they transport it up to these

grifter ship. And then the view screen starts fritzing and fake January is like, oh, the storm is interfering with our transporters. And we're going to have to leave. The storm is just too much for us. And basically they take off and steal the bollamite. Don't send any dilythium down. But she does say, look, we'll come back after the storm clears.

then we'll give it to you. Of course, they don't do that. Those grifters. So they've conned them. They've got this free bollamite and they're off. We go to Janeway's quarters next. I didn't quite understand this.

Janeway's like in a robe walking to the mirror. She's just exhausted. And I was like, why? What is? Like, it felt like we were going into a deep story, which we never do about this moment being. really like she's just saying this moment in this scene didn't fit anything else no it was it was an anomaly when it comes to scenes we didn't even walked over like everybody does at the end of the day

and washed her hands and looked in the mirror and and then the mirror cracks right and so we know something's going on but also didn't it sort of bother you that she's not wearing her signature peach nightgown it's like what's going on here like what are you wearing now it's a whole tracking of any completely different bathrobe it's the same sink that's in all of our quarters i think as i recall that's using that same sink and when they do the crack thing so can you explain to everybody how that happens is that visual effects or is that actually a charge in the actual that was something from behind it and it breaks yeah yeah yeah so so she goes in she says turn computer activate the sonic shower all of a sudden there's this loud noise right it's and it was

honestly it was really it was so loud it was so loud and I was watching it with my surround sound yeah that you had to turn down the volume I literally had to turn it down because the screech was so loud I agree I agree she's like computer deactivate deactivate and it doesn't it just gets louder and louder yeah until the mirror shatters yeah the mirror shatters from the screeching sound so they must have had a piece of glass that they put in and then popped it hit it from behind or did something that would crack this safety glass because it kind of you know it spider webbed

yeah um and they probably could have done another take and swapped it out my guess is that they probably didn't because that would take some time yeah but that was all a oneer so weird scene all around why is it just weird like why she was so

heavy and like because there was no she could have just been like oh everything's normal and then whoa what's happening and because there was no connection to the tone of her entrance to anything else. No. So then here, here's my question to you. Could this have been an episode that came in short time-wise?

And they said, hey, we need to add another scene to fill out the time and let's throw Janeway in her robe. It could have been, or it could have been an episode that came in long and there was maybe something that was cut. Oh, that actually tracked from this scene. Yeah. Yeah, that why she came in so heavy. So I'm just curious about that. Yeah, no, that makes sense.

The other thing I wonder about is like in the future, mirrors now are made of glass. Yes. But glass is a very, it's a very delicate, you know. It's delicate and it's also heavy. It's fragile and heavy. Yes. Fragile and heavy. In the future, wouldn't they create a reflective object?

That was like a mirror that wasn't made of glass. Of course. Like a very old, of course, you know, material to be using. Or it would just be a lens that sort of just takes an image of you to show yourself, you know. Yeah, exactly. There would be no, yeah, we wouldn't have glass. You're right. Oh, my gosh.

But I know they wanted to crack, crack the glass, but I was like, meh, meh, meh. Okay. A mirror would be in Tom Paris's bathroom because this is. of his love for the 20th century the 20th century there we go we next go into engineering and i wanted to say i love this shot and i think i know how they did it so it started very low on somebody's feet yeah and then panned over and the camera was kind of in the like the warp core uh pit you know there was that pit that goes down yeah below yeah below and then you see the feet it panned somebody's feet

walking by and then we see janeway in the distance and then it comes up out of the out of the pit, right, out of the pit and goes over and follows Janeway into a two shot with Bologna off in a corner. Yeah. But it's a, it's a cool looking shot. It just shows off engineering in a really interesting way. I think they used a crane arm and dipped the camera down into the pit. Oh, and then pulled the crane arm up.

Oh, I see. And higher and then followed her over. But it was, it was just definitely something that would have taken some time. You could have done a much easier version, but it was, it was a cool, It was just a cool entrance, you know. Good job, LeVar. Yeah, it was something I don't remember us ever doing before. Yeah.

But she comes in, Balana says their system failures on eight decks. She gets another readout, sorry, make that nine. Belasna's like, I can't explain the problem. And Janeway says, gremlins. Yeah. Belas, like, what? Gremlins, they're imaginary. They used to say that, you know, if they can't explain something,

that there's these imaginary creatures called gremlins. Grimlands inside the system. And I just thought that was a, I don't know, that was a weird sort of. Well, it is interesting because, again, this is dialogue or this is, this is slang that kind of goes back to, again, 20th century, I would say, or even earlier, maybe, right? Because when I see, when I think of Grimlins, when someone says Grimlins, I think of the movie Grimelins, which starred Zach Gallaghan, who was on our show as a species 8472 that we capture. that is posing as human so you know there's a connection and i did a movie a really low-budget heart with zach yeah when somebody says gremlins to me i think of the car from the 1970s right the gremlin do you remember it was like a pinto it was like a it was like a small little

oh yeah yes yes yes yes yes yes yes or i think about the episode of the twilight zone the original one and black and white with shatner where the gremlin's on the wing like ripping up the the cords and the wiring that kind of thing. Maybe that's what we had in Voyager, was that thing from Twilight Zone. Or it was a car from the 70s. I don't know. One of the two. But next we go to the mess hall and Tuvok is getting some food scooped onto his plate. It looked like cream spinach to me. It did. It did. Nelix made cream spinach as a main course for everyone. It was just slop. And Tuvok turns around. Yes. Tuvok turns around.

Harry calls Tuvok yeah to come over and he's got a sour face he does he does not happy Tom's like what's wrong and Tuvok is very unhappy he says someone altered one of the holodeck programs again yeah and we've already referred to this this is the one thing that does kind of track from this episode because we've talked about messing with the two box programs around. Yes. He says that the Oracle of Catal appeared in pajamas. Right. And Tom and Harry like, smart Alec Paris. Well, maybe he overslept. Yes. So funny. It was very funny. And I wondered, like, why does everyone always blame Tom? Like, why didn't they blame Harry for this? Well, he does turn to Harry. He goes like, Mr. Kim.

because you say that it's not, you know, why do you think it's always me? And then he looks at me, Mr. Kim. I'm like, I didn't do this. I'm innocent. Why does he always blame Tom? Because Tom is usually the one that does these things. That's why. Everyone blames Tom.

Your name should be Tom shenanigan, Paris is what it should be. Shenanigans. Shenanigans. Yeah. So Janeway and Balana enter after they've talked about gremlins. Yeah. They come in and they tell everyone, stop eating. You freeze.

Don't put anything else in your mouth. shut this place down so the cream spinach is contaminated yeah and i don't think this has ever happened this this type of scene has never happened on voyager no it's funny the health board shows up and shuts down the kitchen shut it down because there's a contaminant on the replicators that got into the food and i love harry's line at the end it cuts to harry and he goes i wish i hadn't had seconds made me laugh It was funny, and I was also impressed with my whatever acting ability I threw into that scene. I made myself look a little sick. I felt a little green on that line.

And that face that I made, I've never made that face since. That's the only time I've ever seen myself make a face like that. So I was impressed with that point. It was funny. But Balana and Jane, we go over the scan, the kitchen. They're back there with Neelix and they find something in like the stove. And it rises up out of the, out of the thing. And they, they see this heating coil that's got like slime on it or something like that.

Okay. Yeah. Why is Balana touching this thing without gloves on? I mean, she's just, she's just caressing it like it's a pet mice, a pet mouse. You know, she's like, oh, look, here's my little. It's got green slime all over it. Yeah, it could kill you. Yeah, it could be toxic.

And if we can't eat the cream spinach, why would you touch the contaminant? So strange. Neelick says that he got this. They said, where did you get this? And he says, well, he got it in a trade with Sister Dala trying to help the poor orphans of selling a prime. And he and Tom were on an away mission. So I realized here, oh, great. So Tom's the blame for this too. Great. I didn't even know I went on an away mission with him. And now we're going to be at fault. But yeah, I guess Neelix and Tom picked. up this thing and then suddenly Chukote calls captain yeah we need you on the bridge yeah and we cut to the bridge and there's Oreck

the chief of mining oh he's not happy he is not happy and he's demanding this dilithium that they promised in the trade and Jane was like what are you talking about she doesn't know anything about it

and he says well it's all documented right here and he has it looks like Telsean, it looks like a Telcian padda da da da with lots of D's, but it's a triangle. Yeah. It's like a triangular pad.

It's a triangular pad to do. I got it all documented. You promised this. Yeah. And she says, well, you reneged. Yeah. She says, I think you need to come aboard

and we can clear up this misunderstanding. But he's still pissed in the end. He's like one way or the other, I am getting this dilithium. Yeah. So they're in a pickle. They really are. They're in a pickle.

We go to the briefing room next, I think. And it's actually a recording. Like he on his, from his pad to da-da, he's actually sort of, I guess, what would you call it? He's interfaced with our monitor there and show us a recording of the actual transaction. It's all there. It's all recorded. But Janeway, did you see her? She's sitting by the windows in the briefing room looking at this.

And then she gets up. Yeah. And I was thinking like she saw something and she's going to solve this in a moment. But she walks the longest way on the table right up to it, and then it ends. And it's, I'm like, what was that intense look? You just walked the long way around the table. And we're all expecting some amazing payoff, right? The big news is, that wasn't me.

That's it. That's it. That's the big news. And it's, of course, with that extra long walk, she wanted to give more important. to her line maybe i don't know it was a little weird but she says that wasn't me and he says i've got data about your shuttlecraft and he can um you know he's got scans of of their federation signatures to back up his story and she says we never went anywhere near your planet we've got logs on our ship as well yeah and he's like how naive do you think right yeah that whole bit where

or it's like, you know, well, how do I know their authentic records? Two of us, well, how do we know your records are authentic? All I could think of was like whenever we talk, you know, and this happens with myself and Megan a lot where I'm like, Robbie, you're fritzing. You're like, you're fritzing. It just became one of those things right there. So, very funny.

But in kind of talking about his notes or date or whatever, he mentions these orphans. Yeah. And Neelix had mentioned the orphans in the trade. And so all of a sudden, she's like, wait a minute. I think I know what I need to do.

Yeah. And so we cut to engineering next. And she finds Neelix in engineering. Yeah. And I guess Neelix, at first I was like, well, why is Neelix in engineering? But I guess because the heating coil thing, the interface. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.

That makes sense. But would you say that that's one of the rare times we see him there? Very rare. It's somewhere. Yeah. But she comes in. She asks Neelix about his away mission. and she wants more information about the sister Dala

that he made a trade with. And so we go in sort of a flashback. Yeah, back to this cavern. Yeah, back to the cave set. Age 16. Yeah. See Tom and Neelich's walking through. Tom says, you know, wow, when I signed up for Starfleet,

I never dreamed that it would be so glamorous to be looking for mold in caves. And they're looking for some kind of spore in the, caves of this planet that the doctor wanted for antivirus treatments or something? Why isn't the doctor on this mission? Yeah, why are we going to get a score? Yeah, these are his silly spores that he wants, his mold. Why are you guys looking for it?

So ridiculous. Tom was like, oh, never expected all this glamour. And I love Nelix's response. He goes, office tricter, I'm detecting traces of glamour in this direction. Funny, it was very, very clever. Funny Robinberger. Sorry, we don't know who you are, but funny line. Yes.

But we meet Sister Dala. She's like a nun, a very pious person. Fake Tuvok appears in his pious thing. And I thought back, it reminded me of sacred ground and the monks. It did, yes, the way that they were dressed and everything. Yes. It could have been recycled sacred ground wardrobe. Yeah.

They may have used some of those parts. Very much so. But before they can even talk to them, they have to do a cleansing. And Neelix is like, oh, I'm sorry. So she says, wait, wait. And they do this cleansing. He does a cleansing with like, it's technology. Right.

Which is very suspicious. It's like, wait a minute. You're doing some spiritual thing, but you need like a scanner. Yes. They're clearly scanning them. Yes. It's another tool for the grifting people, the grifters. And after they do their cleansing, then she says, wait a minute.

uh he bears a striking resemblance to the our redeemer of light do you see it she says to fake two so they're like they're they're like gosh compliment the stroke he's ego they're like our god you look like our god and uh they talk about the redeemer of light who they each spring make a pilgrimage to narve in his honor for the orphans of narve yeah so again using this orphan bit and they said but this year we can't make this pilgrimage because our crops have failed you know how many food to offer and and neelix is like well we we can give you food no we can replicate some food yeah yeah and he's like nope we we we bestow charity we don't accept charity that's part of our thing hey garret have you been traveling this summer oh my gosh so much already

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wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.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. It is Neelix who then says, how about a trade? And Paris, good idea. You must have something that we can use. Yeah. So it's right there, the beginning of the shenanigans. The shenanigans, yeah. So they're like, if we make a trade, you know, maybe we can give you some food. Do you have something to offer? And they say, well, a heating coil, we can have heating coil. You could do that in exchange for a heating coil. Oh,

Okay. Then it wouldn't be charity. So great. We go back to engineering and he's telling this story, this flashback story. And Neelix is now sitting in a chair telling the story. And Bolana and Janeway are standing. It was just odd. I was like, why is he sitting down? Like I know they want to show that time passed, I guess he's telling a long story. But like, why would he sit down? I don't know. It just struck me as kind of unusual. Like the early scene with Janeway in her bathroom. unusual as well yeah there was some unusual things here but not a big deal but he's sitting down still telling the story yeah and uh he says they invited them on to the delta flyer yeah and janeway realizes that's when they accessed the systems yeah and and that's when they discovered uh to

basically impersonate us from the systems information yeah and he said something like uh we kept an eye on them you know we were both with them all the time um Paris went up front with one of them. And Neelix said he stayed in the back. So we flashed back to when he was sitting in the back. They had finished their meal and they're sitting around a table in the back of the Delta Flyer, Neelix and Sister Dala. But I looked at the table and Tom and Mobar had just left their dirty plates on the table.

I was like, well, that's rude. Like don't you take it over and like sonically clean the plate or sticking in the, you know, recycling or something? I don't know. Why could you just leave your dirty plates? But now this is another thing that tracks. If you recall, there was an episode with the away mission with Tom, Harry, Chkote, and Neelix. And Harry comes to the front and says like, someone left their dirty dishes. Tom, do you remember that?

So now that's right. Now it makes sense. It continues to track. Tom is just a messy Marvin is what he is. I guess so. But yeah, she talks to Neelix a lot and she asked Neelix all kinds of questions. So Neelix is just giving her everything she needs. He's like an encyclopedia and he doesn't even think about what he's doing.

But, you know, it is what it is. Yeah. He tells her Voyagers alone in this part of space. So they don't have any backup. Yeah. She talks about Janeway and even talks about her childhood. Yeah, Indiana a bit. Yeah.

And then Tom and Mowbar come back in. And they have their thank yous and they want to finish with a blessing. And so they have to close their eyes. You see them close their eyes. And you see Mobar with his scanner start walking behind Paris and cut back to engineering. Jamie is like, how long did this blessing go on? Nalick says, I don't know, a minute or two, a minute or two. You sat there with your eyes closed?

And Jamie was like, this is when they downloaded the database, right? that's all the time they needed you were con i think we go to the flyer next jane was on the flyer yeah i just want to just say right now it just yeah for me this episode it bothered me because i don't think either neelix or tom would that would be that conable you know what i'm saying i feel like tom of all people like they talk about they're like how could of all people how could we be con But I agree with you. It's still, it's still, and even when you guys talk about it, it's still annoyed me because I thought, no, Tom is sort of kind of streetwise. There's no way that that he would sit here and get calm like that, but it is the episode.

So what are we doing? So we're in the flyer. Janeway's examining all the computer records from the flyer. Yeah. She finds out that their database was downloaded that day when they were on there. 18 days ago. Probably with that little scanner thing that he does blessings with. And then Tom has a line here where he goes,

what would a couple of religious clerics want with our database? And I was like, really, Tom, you're still thinking they're religious, like, dude. That's what I'm saying. It was the most naive line. Yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah. But Janeways like, gentlemen, I believe you've been had.

So Janeway is not that dumb, but we go out to space. We see Voyager and Oric's ship kind of floating there in space. Yeah. And we're back in the briefing room. Janeway says, tells Oric, basically we've both been had. Yeah. Your Bolamite got stolen, and our reputation has been sullied. Like, you know.

She says, she wants to analyze the scan. of the vessel that the con men were on. Maybe she can decipher a warp signature. And Oric here is like, I'm not sure I can trust you because how can Paris and Nelix be so naive? I agree with Oric here. Like, I don't know if I believe

that Paris and Nelix. But anyway, Oric, he agrees to give them the scans of the ship, but he says, I don't know if it's going to help you because they could be halfway, you know, through the sector by now with our Bolamai. and but he agrees and then he's at one end of the table she's with her back to the windows

and remember he takes his triangular pad and he slides it down that center okay wasn't that what was that center thing made of it was like rubber some kind of rubber how do they get that thing to slide across rubber like that i was i don't know it feels very kind of like uh cowboy western you know Yeah, like here, it was a first. We've never slid from one end to the table. Yeah, I'm just, I don't know. I almost want to talk to LeVar and ask him what he was thinking in terms of using that. He was just trying to do something stylistic.

Yeah, maybe. Okay. Maybe. We go to the alien bridge next and Dala is giving a tour to Varn, this new alien. So she's got another mark. She's going to con this guy. And we realize, she says, by the way, she's giving a tour. tour of the delt she's calling her ship the delta flyer to this guy uh this is just our shuttle

the delta flyer yeah clearly i'm insulted that is not the delta fly that is a box ship yes and i did like his makeup even though it did remind me it reminded me a lot of do you remember the guy that played the um he was sort of the the junkyard dealer and he was like welcome to my oh yeah that's what he looked like very kind of similar sort of you know yeah the sense of it. But I like the makeup. I agree with you. Yeah.

It was a very good makeup. So she's giving a tour and she's talking, telling all kinds of stories from the Voyager database. She's saying they fought off enemies like the Borg and species 8472. The federation is, you know, very powerful and strong. And she basically says to Varn, you know, we, we'd like to offer you an opportunity. to join the federation yeah yeah wow that's a big bold moon it's huge all you got to do is pay to join yeah you have to pay hey yeah you pay to join the federation and you're part of us and she even shows off the schematics of the mothership right voyager yeah saying that all this technology

can be yours once you join the federation we'll show you how it works yes as a member you can you can apply for membership and and and then the fake two vox starts to say well this is a lengthy process and yeah it starts going through the approval process and uh yeah and then the fake chukote you know says well janeway has a lot of influence with the federation council so don't worry you'll be in if if you pay yeah but the fake chikote says we're being recalled back to the federation yeah but we'll come back to you varn in six months yeah but you got to decide right now if you want to join the federation yeah Well, no, they didn't say that.

The dollar says, well, perhaps we can discuss your application then. So they kind of throw it out there to make him feel like, wait a minute. You need to make this decision now, you know. Yeah. Another grifter way of getting people to give up their money or give up their goods. And she does say that it's going to have to be a significant, you know, contribution. Right. And Varn's fine with that.

He's like, I'll do whatever it takes. I'll go for it. whatever it takes and she they finished the scene with her shake his hand welcome to the federation so he's he's going to get the giant com badge he's going to get one of those that's like that's like i know this is your membership prize so Ponzi schemish oh it's just like my goodness and then we go to the mess hall and tom comes over he wants some coffee says he's been flying concentric search patterns for hours yeah trying to find these uh these con men yeah yeah Tom goes, I can't believe we were fooled.

Nelix is like, yeah, me too. I can't believe it. Yeah. And then Paris goes, I mean, if it'd been Harry, I could understand it. And I hated that line. I'm like, what? You know, make me the, okay, you got Laurel and Hardy. And then what am I?

I'm even a low, a run lower on the ladder. Harry trusts everybody. Harry's, Harry's naive. If it was Harry, I'd get it. Yeah, yeah. And Neelix is like, we got to get our edge back. And so he pulls out. He happens to have.

a nut and some cups. So he's going to do the shell game. Yeah. Get his edge back. And they says, all we need now is a mark. And then the doctor enters in the background. And Tom goes,

I've got your back. So they pretend to play this game while the doctor watches. Yeah. And Tom's like trying to figure out where the nut was under the cups. And he starts to point at one cup. And the doctor's like, and then Tom goes that one he guesses the right one so the doctor clearly is paying attention in the background yeah yeah and uh then the doctor comes over he says i want to turn yeah and so neelix

says well you got to bet something yeah so they make a bet three duty shifts in sick bay if neelix loses and neelix says okay three duty shifts in the kitchen if you lose yeah and so tom's like the shill, the assistant. Yeah, he's in on it. Yeah, Nelix shuffles these things around. And then the doctor said, he says, where do you think it is? And doctor says, in your left hand. And it was.

He had palmed it. I like his final line, though. Superior visual acuity. Yes. After Paris, goes, how did you, superior visual acuity? See you in sick bay. So it was this. That's right.

And he walks out. And then we're in that 50, 50, that 20, that. two shot at Tom and Neelix. Yeah. And I love how Neelix has the nut and he just tosses it into the kitchen over his shoulder. Yeah. It was very funny. Like when you were watching this, were you remembering all these scenes?

Did this kind of come back to you a little bit? A little moments. Like I do remember the shell game. You did remember that. And that was kind of, you know, between shots. I remember us actually trying to play it. Yeah. Trying to fool each other.

Yeah. I do remember some of that. A lot of it, I don't remember. Okay. All right. Let's continue. Yeah. We're on the bridge.

Yes, we are. Tuvok says he picks up a vessel and long-range scans and the warp signature matches the imposter ship. The imposter delta flyer. And then Janeway says, Tom's coffee break is over

and she tells Harry to call him. And we hear Harry off camera say, yes ma'am. You weren't even... No, no. No. No, Janeway says, Harry, tell Tom his coffee break is over, set a pursuit course.

And I say, yes, ma'am. That's what I'm saying. Off camera. though. Off camera. You weren't even there. I wasn't even on the set. No, you looped that line in from entirely. Looping stage. Yeah. This was, this episode was an episode that I had a lot

of days off, clearly. I wasn't even around. So. Yeah, you didn't have a lot. Nope. A little bit. I mean, uh, Jerry seven had almost nothing in this. Wait. She was on. Did she walk in in anything? Wait, it was on the bridge. That's all I remember.

She was on the bridge. Yeah. During the opening scene? A couple of times. she was in a she was standing at that center console oh that one right behind yeah right behind captain okay yes almost nothing which is shocking because it would at this point oh yeah every every every story turned into a seven seven yeah it really is shocking yeah so then we go out to space and uh we see the imposter ship and i made a note here the music sounded like the old batman tv show music to me like When this shot over the ship, I was like, what's this like? This music?

It was like Batman. Yes. Da-de-ne-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de. Yes, it was Batman-esque. And you're talking about 60s, like the original Batman TV. The TV show, yeah. And we see that out in space. We go inside the Alien Bridge.

Varn complains that the photon torpedoes that they gave him didn't work, that they're not any better than plasma flares. he says and his enemies the polonians said that they were allowed to join the federation too so he's like how can i be in the federation and my enemies are in the federation like your federation is a joke yeah you allow my enemies to join there so they're getting busted now and then two fake tuvac apologizes and he says well you can petition the federation council if you're like you're going to submit that formal report to start yes Yeah, but Varn says, no, he locks onto their ship, and he wants reparation.

He wants some payback. And so we go to space, we see his tractor beams locked on. Yeah, they can't disable the tractor beam. And Zarr basically says, hey, there's another problem. Voyager is here now. So there we go. The real Voyager shows up. And we go to our bridge on the real Voyager, and Tom's coming from the turbo lift.

Oh, 7 is in that scene here. Yeah, seven, seven says there's another ship that's tractoring, the imposter. Imposter ship, Tom sits down. Who did I kick out of that chair? I don't, oh, I can't remember who it was. I'm sure it was one of our regulars. Yeah. But it was, it was, yeah, it was just unusual for Tom to come in and go right into action.

I don't know, I liked, yeah, it's fun. Yeah, I mean, you would think that Tom would already be there. Like, why was, you know, he was out with Neelix playing the shill game trying to get his Yeah, that's right. I forgot. I'm sorry. Yeah. So we go to the alien bridge. Fake Tuvok says, we should surrender.

He even says, you know, the Federation has a very humane prisoner policy. And they glare at him. And he just turns and like, never mind. It was funny. That's a good line, actually. I like that line. Yeah. Dala talks about how, you know, our motherships arrived and she's armed and ready to defend us.

And Varnas, like, well, you tell them to stand. down and dolly goes no you release us or voyager will destroy you yeah she's still trying to play out the con still playing the whole con yeah then varn pops on to voyagers screen yeah and he says tells us to stand down tells us to stand down and our real captain says uh you know we can explain this you've been tricked and he doesn't want to talk anymore so he fires um boyager yeah he said he paid for his membership and now the flyer belongs to him that's mine paid for my membership yeah you just buy membership to the federation um but uh there's a little short uh you know space skirmish a little skirmish yeah voyager ultimately destroys varn's tractor beam yeah and janeway says to seven

of nine transport those impostors off of their ship yeah but we only get one the Yeah, the imposter ship takes off and they only get one. We get Dala. We got Dala. Yeah, and Voyager takes off to warp as well, probably on the chase there. Yeah. Which is important. It's going to come up again later.

So, yeah. So the imposter ship is taking off. We get one of them, but we stay on the chase. We stay active. Because later on, I forget what happens, but we don't chase. I'm like, wait, why didn't, why didn't we chase? them always like wire. Yeah. But anyway, we go to the brig. Yeah. Janeway and Tuvok enter. Tarik is at the controls. Yeah. Tarik is, is the, no. Are you sure? This one, Tarak. Oh,

oh, oh, later he's not. It's somebody else. Right. Okay. That's right. Excuse me. When Neely's comes in. That's what exactly. I love Janeway's opening line. Nice hair. Yeah. Yeah. And it's fun to see them because I wish that she had had her giant communicator on. She didn't have it in the scene. Oh, it was not on in that scene? Oh, my gosh. Because you see them in a face off and it's like it's, you know, looking identical, but like the comedy version. Oh my gosh. But I guess maybe they didn't want the comedy with the giant, the giant. That was too much comedy. It was too much comedy for the scene. Um, yeah, if the captain says, so, you've been posing a Starfleet captain selling memberships to the federation. Basically, Dala is not

impressed with the real Janeway. She thought she was going to be more impressed. I love how she goes, I expected you to be taller. Yeah. Yeah. She's not, you know, when she says, you know, yeah, so Dollars, I expected you to be, I expected you to be taller and I make a better you than you. So she's now getting a little snotty.

Janeways, Janeway's like, oh, I don't know, you know. I think we're very much alike, resourceful, intelligent, ambitious, but just one tiny, tiny difference. I'm not a liar and a thief. So, but I'm bum, you know, just she kind of, she kind of ditches it right back at her. So although she is going to be a liar in a minute. She is. She will be a liar.

You know, you need to tell us, confess everything and tell us everyone that you conned or will turn you over to the Telzian security. Yeah, tellsing security. And I was like, who cares? Like, I'm not afraid of that. Yeah. They're naive and they're idiots and, uh, and. And the real Janeway is like, oh, really? Uh-huh.

Well, tell them about your research, Mr. Tuvok. I beg your pardon, Captain. Tuvok's like, wait, what? You know, your research. Come again? Yes. But Janeway clearly has a secret code for Tuvok to start improvising because he does. Yeah, he says about the justice system that's so cruel, you know, the research on that.

And so Tuvok steps forward. He's like, oh, yes, yes, the justice system is horrible. Barbaric, barely habitable prisons. Many die of malnutrition before they even go to trial. Yeah. He says, torture is commonplace. There are even several forms of incurable psoriasis. This is where he starts to go off the rails a little with his improv.

But what's funny to me, what's the funniest to me is that it's what Mobar does. Like when we first see Mobar, he goes. extra above and beyond in his improvisation on that planet, the mining planet, on the Telshin homeworld. And then here, the real Tuvok is also going overboard. Yes, yes, the parallel. So I like how Robin Berger structured that. Yeah, it was good. Janeway says, look, if, you know, if you want to make full restitution, we will let you go and not turn you over to this horrible psoriasis prison. Dala says, you know what? If you give me the Delta Flyer, and three days to get away, then I'll tell you.

And this is where Janeway's like, okay, so she's, Janeway's actually been clever here. She's like gotten out of Dala, what Dala's going to do. Yeah, yeah. What she wants to do. Very smart. She's gotten her to admit what she wants. And Dala even says, you know, Janeway, I think you're the one with a problem

because your reputation has been, you know. Yeah, as far as everyone knows, it's you who's been doing the bad deals basically yeah exactly but janeway doesn't back down to that she's like i'm not going to take your offer to give you the delta flyer and yeah i'm not going to trust you yeah so janeway says to Tovac, okay, call Telsian security and we'll turn her over and they exit. So we think that's

what Janeway's plan is. And then we caught in the hall, Janeway's like, Saraius is Tuvok? Sorriasis? I love I love Tuvok's line. He says, improvisation is not

a Vulcan specialty or something. Not foremost amongst my talents. is what you guys so oh my god but she says don't really call telseine security yet right and two vaux says wait do you have another plan and she says i don't know i'm going to make it up as i go as i go yeah yeah she's kind of doing that you giving them a little bit of their own medicine yeah so she's trying to con the con man back we go to the brig uh again neelix is in this time different security officer not not tarry not

So not Ayala. Yeah. He said, I brought more than bread and water, you know, even though the captain said, just to give you bread and water. She goes, I'm not hungry. The guard drops the force field. Yeah. And Neelix comes inside.

Yeah. But the guard doesn't turn the force field back on, which immediately was suspicious to me as I'm watching. Yeah, well, it's definitely forced now, right? Because that's protocol. I mean, if you're going to, if you enter the brig, it's always turned back on always you don't leave it off mean it's come on guys so yeah yeah but they have a nice scene he asks if she feels guilty he's really trying to play the good cop here he is trying to play like her friend yeah and good scene for you can phillips good scene for him

great scene for him and also for her because she's playing along too like yeah she is she asked he asks if she feels guilty and you know she says things like you seem really nice yeah yeah And Neelix is like, why do you do what you do? And her answer is that her father says most people will exploit you if they can. So you should exploit them first. Not very sound advice, but definitely grifter advice. Yes. Yeah. And Neelix even goes into, you know, he used to be a lot like her.

But when he met Janeway and came on the ship, that instead of hustling, you know, trades and deals and things that that the commodity she wanted was hard work, loyalty, willingness to share. Yeah. And he said, this has made me happier than I've ever been. I'm so much happier living this way and not, you know, hustling deals and things like that. And she's like, well, I'm not going to change. And, and he says, you know, Janeway brought a Borg onto this ship. Yeah. She's changed. So maybe, you know, I could talk. to the captain persuade her to let you become part of the crew and she seems to be believing him like

you know that his nice good cop is getting to her yeah and they go she says something like is that tea still warm and they go over to to uh pour the tea and she intentionally spills it drops the cup into the food into the tray yeah and he goes to bend down to clean it and then she knocks him down grabs his phaser which the whole thing is like, yeah, he's armed inside a brig. There's no force field up. It, to me, was very suspicious, but I know it's ultimately going to be part of her plan. Yeah, but in reality, the minute the knocking down happened,

that security guy would have been alerted by that sound, and he would have looked over. He would have seen the grabbing of the phaser from Nelix, which then he would have grabbed his phaser, And as she shot Melix, she would have been shot, right? Well, I think the reason they put the T at the corner, that back corner where it was, is maybe they were trying to help a little with that timing to say that, oh, the security guard couldn't see around. Oh, so his line, he couldn't see it. Okay.

Maybe. All right. Maybe that explains it a little. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But it was, it was sloppy security in that. Yeah.

But she does, she stuns the security guy, stuns. neelix and we cut out in the hall she's running uh quick jump to the delta flyer she starts it up and then out in space there is a line from kim he says oh yeah she's gone so i do have a i have two words you have two words and you're on camera not off camera so the words yeah and this is where i was saying why aren't they chasing or firing at her like why yeah what what's going on here yeah i was again to me suspicious but yeah i i get what's going to ultimately happen happen. Yeah. We go to the aliens ship and the bridge. The faux Delta Flyer. Yeah, the, the pretend, the impostor ship. Yeah. And Zar and Mobar are arguing. So now the con men are

starting to bicker amongst themselves. Zara and Mobar arguing about rescuing Dala. Yeah. Mobar wants to go back. Zara is like, no, too dangerous. So, yeah. But I did like that Mobar is, he's like a, he's like a method con man. He's still in character as Tuva. with his buddy who knows he's not I know I know I mean he's saying she's our captain he's so method he's such a method con man I actually love mobar I really do a mobar is endearing to me so mobar is like the one the you know that sesame sesame street one of these things is not like the yeah he's not a bad yeah dollar and czar are bad but mobar is just some guy that just got swept up with the wrong crowd that's yeah but she comes back

she approaches the alien ship, the imposter ship. She says, hey, beam me back on board. And then there's, they're suspicious of her. They think it's a trap. They're like, wait, wet. Wait. And she's like, are you think I'm lying to you? So they're all fighting amongst themselves.

Yeah. And then she does get beamed over. And then Tom Paris slides out on the bio bed. Yeah, that was interesting. Yeah, he had been hiding in the bio bed. So she didn't detect other life signs. He comes out after she beams over. So now Paris is on the Delta Flyer.

He activates the doctor with his mobile emitter. And we go back over to the imposter ship. Dahl is walking into their bridge. Mobar is lounging in the captain's chair. But I love when he pops up. Yeah, he's like, ooh, we got to get out of the chair. And he says, Captain on the Bridge. Yeah, he pops up.

He's so method. He's so method. She rolls her eyes, which made me laugh. She's like, when we refer to a method actor, we're referring to someone who stays in character, even when the camera is not rolling, even when the performance is not happening, there's still the character. Mobar just won't drop the Tuvok. Mobar is definitely a method. Oh, God.

So she's on the bridge. Mobar gets up out of the chair. She says, let's go collect the Bollamite where we. hit it and then mobar detects life signs on the delta flyer he says i detect two life signs why didn't they detect that before that's my question here's the thing i don't get it the doctor is a hologram why would he would not be a life sign he says i detect two life signs yeah there's some holes in this script yeah it's only one life sign czar thinks that uh that she did double cross him and that Then Paris calls over from the Delta Flyers, he says, prepare to be boarded, charging weapons.

He fires at the imposter ship. They shoot back and they leave at warp speed to go get their bolamite. Next, we go to a space shot. The alien imposter ship is by this red planet, cool planet. Yeah. Cool little shot slowly approaching. We go to the Imposter's Bridge. They're packing up their away mission supplies in their backpacks.

That was kind of cute And Dala and Tsar arguing still They say You know They're basically suspicious of you Like they don't trust each other None of them trust each other So they're going to all go together to do this

Right And now we go to the cave sets again Back to our caves. They all go down They're putting these pattern enhancers So that they can send it back to And it just filled with all the stolen goods all of it's all there yeah yeah it's like uh it's a treasure cave and as they're putting

these pattern enhancers out dala pulls a weapon on them and dollar calls janeway and says i'm in position yeah and i was like wait what what is happening right now what is it happening you could lock under my coordinates and she's like i told you she couldn't be trusted and mobar is still and method actor he says how could you bring yourself to deceive your fellow officers he's still in character and I love it so funny

yeah but they all draw weapons she stuns czar first before that happens we do jump to the bridge we're on the bridge and Janeway says can you get a lock and Seven's like no the geostratum is too dense yeah they can't get down to that I mean they're so far beneath the surface in the caves they can't get a lock yeah

but still I'm like wait is is Dala Look, I don't know what's happening, right? Neither did I, right? So basically, Janeway tells Tuvok to keep trying. And now we see, now we hear Dala saying that she's outnumbered captain. I need assistance. So now we're thinking, wait, so she's calling Janeway captain as well. Is she a method actress as well?

We're a little confused here. We don't know what's happening. Yeah. And then when Mowbr tries to stun her, it goes right through like she's, like it's a hologram. Yeah, but Zar gets shot first, remember? So Zahar pulls out, he gets shot. Then Mowbr tries to shoot Fogh way, right? And the beam goes straight through her body.

Yeah, she sort of fritzes, like a hologram. Yeah, so then we're like, oh. And yeah. Dala runs away to another side tunnel, wherever it is. And essentially, Mobar chases after. And now Tuvok comes into the scene. And I love how Mowbar, Mowbar plays it like, oh my gosh, this is my greatest. He kind of fanboys

over the fact that Tuvac is there. He's like, Commander Tuvok? And Tuvok's like, the one and only. And it just, I just love that whole scene. And Moabar stays in character. He doesn't even, you know, he says, logic would indicate that neither of us has the advantage.

And Tuvac goes, your logic is flawed. And he shines this splashlight in his eyes. He's stunned and he gets, he gets phasered by Tuvok, which is again. I don't know if I buy the move that I know. It's cheesy. It's forced, but I just love the fact that he was method to the very end. He never, ever gave it up. He never gave it up. Oh, I love Mobar. Okay.

Yeah. And I think we've got a scene in the Delta Flyer where Paris is guarding Dala and she starts to wake up. And this is where all the pieces are put together. Yeah. Dala starts to wake up. Does the Dala flash into, wait, what happens at the end after he gets phased? After Mowbar goes down. I think it's just Dala wakes up and Paris is like, hey, don't get up yet. It'll take a few more minutes for the Amazon. Okay. So we don't see the doctor yet, right? We don't see how, okay. All right. No. No. Uh-uh. I don't think so. But all the pieces are sort of put together that Paris and the doctor had snuck onto the flyer that Janeway had set all this up to follow them and get all the whole team captured. We have a captain's log. Oh, no, sorry, Robbie.

It is, no, it does happen in that scene, okay? Because after he goes down, Tuvok says, stay where you are. Zar, who has been, Zar who has been phased earlier is now sort of awake again, I guess. He goes, what did they, what did they promise you for portraying us? And that's when Dala says, I believe you've mistaken me for someone else. That's right. The mobile emitter is adjusted.

And then the doctor, Fritz is in. And the doctor fritz is in. And the doctor says, yes, Zar says, where's Dala? And then the doctor says, I'm afraid she's indisposed at the moment. And that's when we cut to the Delta Flyer F compartment. Yes, and Dala is on the biobed. And he says, don't get up. So all the pieces now are put together.

We know that Janeway had conned the con. Yeah, she did it. And even a captain's log, the stolen property has been returned to the Telsean miners, as well as vessels from seven different worlds. I'm hoping that the reputation of the real Federation will survive, the events of the last several days. And we have one final scene in Mess Hall. Yes.

We do Nelix and Tom are there playing their shell game with the doctor. Once again with the doc. Yeah. Yes. And he's in the doctor's like, I have shown you. You can't fool me. Right. But they do this time.

Yes. It's not up his sleeve. It's not in his right hand. It's actually in Paris's hand. He pulls it out of his ear. They all pull the coin or from behind the ear thing. Yeah. And the doctor yells that it's cheating.

Yes. But Nelix ends the scene by saying, we still got it. You still have your little edge. Yes. Yes. Yeah. It was fun, fun episode. It's a fun episode.

It is. Even with all the holes in the plot, it's still a fun episode. Okay, what is your lesson from this episode? My lesson, I guess my takeaway, it was just a fun episode to watch. My takeaway is sometimes you have to con a con a con man. Like sometimes you have to, you have to, you have. to, you know, do things that aren't in your character when you're dealing with savory people like that. Like you, that was my takeaway. What about you? My takeaway is more about Mobar.

Sometimes you have to stay in character. No, sometimes when you decide to do something, don't do it half ass. Jump with both feet in. I mean, you know what I'm saying? I mean, just, just embrace it and just do it, you know, and he did it. He did it. He did it. He did it the entire time. So to me, that was very admirable. And that's my lesson, really. I mean, if you decide to do something, yeah, is do it with relish. Don't, don't, don't do it halfway. All right. All right. Your rating for this episode. My rating, even though there are some little bumps here and there, it does have a lot of the cast involved, although Harry didn't have a lot to do. And Seven didn't have a lot to do. And Chigoddy didn't know. So maybe it doesn't

have a ton of cast. But I just enjoyed it. And I just enjoyed it. And I love the giant com badges. So I'm going to give it an eight, actually. I really like this episode. Nice. It was fun. I'm going to give it a 7.5. So not as high as you, but still, it's a good rating.

Yeah, this was a fun episode. Okay. Our Admiral and Captain's average rating for Live Fast and Prosper is 7.2. Okay. 7.2. All right. Nice. We were in the zone.

We were in the area. We're in the area. I actually went higher because you went higher. Because I was higher than I thought because I was going to say 7.1 or two. So I would have nailed it again. But that's okay. I'm going to stick with my 7.5 regardless. Okay.

All right. All right. Well, thank you, everyone, for tuning into our review, recap, and discussion of Live Fast and Prosper. Join Robbie and I next week when we review. What are we watching? What are we watching? Oh, yes. Are you excited for next week already?

Yes, I am. We're going to be watching the episode Muse. Oh, okay. This should ring a bell for you. Okay. Okay. All right. That's the episode we'll be tackling the next week.

Yes. Muse. And for all of our Patreon patrons, please stay tuned. You know, B. B. B. B.

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