The Delta Flyers - Message in a Bottle

Episode Date: November 22, 2021

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 Message in a Bottle. Garrett and Robbie recap and discuss the episode, and share their insight as series regulars.Message in a Bottle:Voyager transmits The Doctor to another Starfleet ship thousands of light years away in an attempt to tell them they are still alive, but when he arrives, he finds himself in the middle of a Romulan hijacking; a newer model EMH assists.We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Executive producers Megan Elise & Rebecca McNeill, & our Post Producer Jessey MillerAnd 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, Sab Ewell, Sarah A Gubbins, Becca Stillo, 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, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Vikki Williams, Lee Lisle, Mary Beth Lowe, William McEvoy, Sarah Thompson, Mike Devlin, Samantha Hunter, Holly Smith, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Ashley Stokey, Lucas Shuck, Mary Burch, Nicholaus Russell, Lisa Robinson, Joseph Michael Kuhlmann, Joshua McHenry, 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, John Mann, James H. Morrow, Christopher Arzeberger, Melissa Lau, Tae Phoenix, Nicole Anne Toma, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Paul Young, and Elly PostAnd our Producers:Jim Guckin, James Amey, Eleanor Lamb, Richard Banaski, Eve England, Ann Harding, Laura Swanson, Ann Marie Segal, Charity Ponton, Chloe E, Kathleen Baxter, Craig Sweaton, Nathanial Moon, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Mike Schaible, Kelley Smelser, AJ Provance, Captain Nancy Stout, Claire Deans, Matthew Cutler, Maxine Soloway, Joshua L Phillips, Barbara Beck, Mary O'Neal, Aithne Loeblich, Dat Cao, Cody Crockett, Scott Lakes, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, James Cottrell, Jenna Appleton, Jason Potvin, Cindy Ring, Andrei Dunca, Brian Roman, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Amber Nighbor, Amy Tudor, Jamason Isenburg, Mark G Hamilton, Rob Johnson, Kevin Selman, Maria Rosell, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Louise Storer, Justin Weir, Normandy Madden, Mike Chow, Kevin Hooker, Scott J. Mark, Megan Chowning, Rachel Shapiro, Eric Kau, Joseph Lanning, Megan Moore, Melissa A. Nathan, Captain Jak Greymoon, David Wei Liu, David J Manske, Roxane Ray, Bronwen Duffield, & Red WizardThank you for your support!Our Sponsors:* Check out Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/TDFSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, 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 myself, Garrett Wong, and my co-host, Mr. Robert Duncan McNeil. Well, hello there, sir. Good morning, Robbie. Good morning to you. Yeah, it's a new day. It is. Another beautiful day in the podcast neighborhood.
Starting point is 00:00:30 in the podcast neighborhood where the temperature and everything is perfect but outside it's cold is it is it cold for you guys it's cold here i think it's cold there too right yeah it's pretty cold in vancouver yeah what's it's sunny today like it we've had a beautiful weekend and it's been really sunny but cold like winter like winter is here as in has come freezing is it below freezing no but i'd say it's like 40 or something 40 Fahrenheit yeah that's cool like that's cool like That's cold for us, for us ex-Californians, I guess. Yes, exactly. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:05 All right. What's the temperature in Utah right now? Do you check on that at all or not? I do. I check on that. You do. It's been nice lately. We've already had in Utah at the house there.
Starting point is 00:01:15 We have like nest cameras on the house that I can just go on my phone and look at the yard and things like that. Yeah. And we've had a couple of snowstorms already. Okay. In October. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:28 The snow is not on. in my property, you know, in the yard or whatever right now, but it, that we've had a couple nice storms come through it. So the mountains, you know, in the distance around the valley there are just covered in snow already. It's beautiful. So really a beautiful landscape outside your home. That's wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. So Utah gets snow in October. That's kind of like how Canada is. You know, Canada starts snowing in October. So, all right. Okay. So you're ready for this week's episode? yes what is it again this is message message in a bottle that's right okay yeah let's go watch this okay everyone we're going to go watch message in a bottle Robbie and I'll be right back
Starting point is 00:02:11 and for all of our Patreon patrons please stay tuned for your bonus material Hey everyone we are back from watching message in a bottle my goodness we are boy that's funny I can't I still can't believe I remembered in Andy Dick was in this. I'm shocked. I know. I'm shocked. This was really fun.
Starting point is 00:02:36 I got to say this was one of my favorite episodes that I've seen. Wow. My goodness. I feel like we're on a role this season four. Hey, man. Yes. Well, see, this is indicative of every Star Trek series. It's always the first three seasons are finding your way. And then all of a sudden, season four, things start really moving.
Starting point is 00:02:55 Or at least, I'm not going to say every. I'm going to definitely say it's the same for TNG. DS9 and Voyager, where the fourth season is where, oh, yeah, it's starting to move, right? I feel like there's a lot of good episodes this season, and this was one of my favorites, so, yeah. What's your one to tenor? What are you going to rate this? I'm going to give this a nine. Whoa. Yeah, we'll give this a nine out of ten.
Starting point is 00:03:18 Nice. I'll do the same. I'm going to give it a nine. Wow. Wow. Yeah, because I remember this being, and I talked about this before, you know, this is an episode that was it's it's fast moving it's it's fun you know it's and it is it's a fun episode really really fun all right let's start off with our poetry synopsis here is my haiku for message in a bottle seven detects ship doctor is sent on mission Andy Dick Funny
Starting point is 00:03:53 Yep Okay good yep All right Nice very nice Yes Okay now for our limerick Yes Our limerick
Starting point is 00:04:05 The Robby Rebecca collaborated Limerick let's hear it Okay so here is my Limerick poetry synopsis For message in a bottle Our sensors detect a Starfleet ship then Janeway sends Doc on a trip. Is that Andy Dick?
Starting point is 00:04:24 EMH teamwork does the trick. Now home is in Voyager's grip. Very nice. Yes, I got Andy Dick in there too. You didn't get Andy Dick in there. We're thinking on the same wave length here. Very nice Robbie Rebecca collaboration. Limerick.
Starting point is 00:04:46 Good job. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Let's just talk about the guest stars real quick before we jump into this. Well, let's talk about, okay. So message in a bottle, directed by Nancy Malone, who I don't remember at all. This is, this woman became Kate's good buddy, right? Or was Kate's good friend? I think it was Kate's good friend before. And they stayed very good friends. Yeah. Nancy Malone and Kate were super close. Doesn't Nancy Malone have a house in Ireland that Kate stayed at, something like that? Does this bring a bell? Maybe.
Starting point is 00:05:16 Something like that. Nancy, I know Kate and Nancy were very close. Okay. I don't remember a lot of, a lot more details than that, though. I really don't, but I know they were very close. And I think that's why Nancy came on the show was, it's a Kate. Because of Kate. I think it was, they were friends before.
Starting point is 00:05:32 Right. But I thought Nancy did a great job. I really did. I thought it was really well directed. Story by Rick Williams, teleplayed by Lisa Klink. Lisa, come on. This was a great script. she did a good job oh my gosh so good i want to pat lisa on the back on this one now the name
Starting point is 00:05:55 rick williams does this bring a bell for you at all no uh-uh yeah this is the only time i think i've seen his name i mean the only connection i have to rick williams or that i can think of is rickie williams the nfl running back who which i doubt was the story i don't think the he trophy winner from the university of texas you don't think he wrote this i don't think you wrote it. I don't think so. No. Okay.
Starting point is 00:06:22 Lisa did a phenomenal job. I really mean that. Like this is a really strong script. It's funny. It's smart. It's well structured. Yes. And I don't recall.
Starting point is 00:06:34 I don't remember that she wrote this script. So that's, I'm even more impressed. I'm like, wow, fabulous. Good job. Good job. Andy Dick, obviously, our guest are. We can talk about him a little.
Starting point is 00:06:47 He was, Andy Dick, I think, was part of a group that met in college. And I could be getting this story around. Okay. So I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. One of my good friends when I was growing up, a childhood friend, is David Cross, who was a stand-up comic and he was on Arrested Development. Oh, yes, yes, David Cross, yes. David Cross.
Starting point is 00:07:10 That's your buddy? Yeah. Wow. You still talk to him? I haven't talked to David in a long time. I'm still very close with his sister, Wendy, and she lives in Atlanta, and I talk to Wendy quite often, but I haven't talked to David in a while, but we were good friends growing up a lot of children's theater, community theaters, kids. Anyway, David Cross goes to college
Starting point is 00:07:35 up at Emerson in Boston, and we sort of lose track. And then a few years later, I see, I hear that David Cross is working with his college buddies, some of where, which were Ben Stiller, Janine Garfalla, Andy Dick, and a few others. And they had started doing like, I think it was an Emerson radio show or something, comedy on the radio together. And I think Andy Dick was part of this. So either he went to Emerson and met them all in college or teamed up with them because they started doing these little short comedy bits on MTV. I don't know if you remember this back in the late 80s. Oh, right.
Starting point is 00:08:15 It was Ben Stiller doing these bits and David Cross was writing and Andy Dick was in them and they were all doing these MTV bits. And then that led to a series on Fox, which was a relatively new network back then called the Ben Stiller show. And you can find it on YouTube or whatever, but the Ben Stiller show was a sketch comedy show on Fox. Like a single cam, Ben Stiller hosted it and Andy Dick was in it. So anyway, Andy Dick was. was very hot, you know, this is by the 90s when we start doing Voyager, that was my memory of Andy Dick. I was like he and David Cross and Ben Stiller and Janine Garfala and who else was in that? Kathy Griffin. Kathy Griffin. Yeah. They were all in that. David, Bob Odenkirk was also,
Starting point is 00:09:10 I think, on the Ben Stiller show, which led to Mr. Show, which was David Cross. and Bob Oden Kirk on HBO back in the late 90s. Anyway, that's my, that's the context of Andy Dick for me. I'm like, oh, yeah, he was, he was definitely a very modern and hot young comic actor. Right. About my age, you know, he was contemporaries and friends with some people I knew. So we'll see now. Go ahead.
Starting point is 00:09:43 You're going to say, you're really just, I was going to say I was just, I was going to say I was really excited when I heard he was coming on the show, although I don't remember ever crossing paths with him because that story with him and Bob was so isolated. It was just so, you know, off on its own. And I don't think I came in for scenes when I wasn't working. So I don't remember if we even crossed paths on set. I don't think we did. I don't think I ever met him. I really didn't meet him until he was on the show. And then, of course, when the Star Trek experience opened, he was there as well so yeah um and i do recall probably 2001 you know towards the end of voyager i was at a i think it was the mondrian hotel on sunset they had a nightclub there and i was or a bar there and i was
Starting point is 00:10:33 there and i bumped into andy there and this is after he had guest start on voyager and i was like hey Andy, how's it going? He's like, oh, yeah. Hey, Gary, what's up? So we had a bit of a conversation, which was interrupted by Kathy Griffin. She walks up and that was the last time that I saw him. But I would have to say the funniest thing I've ever seen him do was a movie called And God Spoke. Have you seen this film before? I think so. I think so. Yeah, I remember the title. Oh, my God. So funny. So funny. Okay. Let's move on to our other guest. stars. We have Judson Scott, who played in Star Trek 2, the Wrath of Khan. He played Kahn's right-hand man. So that's his earliest. And then he also did a, I think he did a guest
Starting point is 00:11:24 star on TNG and then he did our show, but definitely very memorable from Star Trek to the film Wrath of Khan, which many people find to be one of the best Star Trek films of all time. Yeah. I think Judson Scott also went to Juilliard to school. Did he? I I think he did, which is funny. He was way, you know, early on in the drama department there. That's where I went to school many years later. Yes. And then he went on to do soap operas as well, like you did.
Starting point is 00:11:51 So he did General Hospital in 1984, 1985. So there you go. Yeah. Juilliard and then soap opera and then Star Trek. Exactly. Yeah. Valerie Wildman plays Navala, the other Romulan on the bridge. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:09 Quite a bit to do. The one that I, the guest star that I, that I was excited to see was Tiny Ron. Tiny Ron was, he was a professional basketball player who became an actor and did quite a few things. But he played the Herodian, Idrin, Idrin or Edrin or whatever. Yes. Tiny Ron, he also did stunts and things like that. Right. Isn't Tiny Ron?
Starting point is 00:12:38 He's not tiny. No, he's six. Six foot six or something. Yeah, he's a tall guy. He's a giant guy. He was the nicest guy. I do remember Tiny Ron when he came to get suited up because that's the, I think this is the first time we see Horogen on our show.
Starting point is 00:12:52 It is. And I remember them testing, like they were developing this makeup. I remember Scott Wheeler in the trailer sculpting this Herogen makeup for a long time, making changes. So that had been in development for easily a month or two. Right. And then Tiny Ron comes in to put it on. and he's like, he has a duck coming in the trailer.
Starting point is 00:13:13 Huge, big man. And he was a really friendly, fun, down to earth. He was not tiny. No, but he was in this episode and the next episode as well. He's in more than one episode, I think. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, from what I recall. Yeah, Tiny Ron was not so tiny.
Starting point is 00:13:29 No. Love it. And, yeah, I think that was it for, uh, yeah, for guest stars. Yeah, we have a lot. All right. So we start the episode. Balana and Chucote here walking down. a hallway and she is mad she has wound up she's not um yeah she's mad at seven because seven is
Starting point is 00:13:47 bossy and and you know chricote's like what do you want me to do lock her in the brig and she's like that that's not a bad idea um because she came into i guess seven went into engineering took something without asking and then went back to astrometrics and lock the door lock the door behind wouldn't let her in and then all of a sudden i didn't know you could lock doors i thought everything just yeah okay Wouldn't let her in. And then while they're arguing about this, seven calls for Chocote. And she's like, Chocote, report to astrometrics immediately.
Starting point is 00:14:20 And he's like, oh, oh, okay. So it's very funny. Already funny. I'm laughing. Very funny. And he's coming around another corner and here comes Janeway. And he goes, oh, astrometrics? She's like, yep.
Starting point is 00:14:34 They've both been summoned, right? Exactly. They go in, though. And it's not locked anymore. She must have unlocked the, taking the lock mechanisms down. Yeah. But seven shows them in astrometrics that she's located a Starfleet vessel.
Starting point is 00:14:52 Yes. And that's kind of how we end. She's located a ship and it's a Starfleet vessel. Right. We're like, how's that possible? There's another Starfleet vessel in the Delta Quadron? What? That's what you're thinking as an audience member.
Starting point is 00:15:05 And then we go to our opening credits, which I just got to say, we have really good opening credits. Like when the ship flies through all those amazingly beautiful shots, I just, it's in the song, it's a really good opening credit scene. Did you get your screenshot of your name? I don't know if I did, probably. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:27 Visual effects or somebody came over and gave all the actors. That's right. Like a little put in, not a plaque, but put in a frame or something. Like a frame saying, hey, here's your name, right? And I remember Robert Picardo, Bob Picardo was so upset because when seven of nine showed up, his name moved. If you think about it, it goes like this because it lists, it lists Kate first. Oh, his name moved forward though. It moved earlier.
Starting point is 00:15:57 It moved to a point where there's nothing. Like you see nothing. So it's sort of like, oh, like he didn't get any cool planetary background, you know, anything like that. Oh, I see. So because it's alphabetical after it lists James. way, right? So Janeway first and then it goes Beltrane and then everyone alphabetically. So Picardo and moved up to Jennifer Lean's spot. Something like that because Ryan, Jerry Ryan pushed his name forward and then he got, he got nothing. And he was so, I remember him telling me, he was
Starting point is 00:16:28 like, my name. It has nothing behind it now. And he was, he wasn't happy about that. That's funny. Random observation of mine there. All right. So we come back to Astromatrix. And seven says that this ship, the Starfleet ship is in the Alpha Quadrant. And the way that she's discovered this is there's this large network of abandoned relay stations. And this ship, alien, alien relay stations. Let's say that. It's not Starfleet. These are just, someone has them there.
Starting point is 00:16:56 She doesn't know whose it is. It seems to be abandoned these relay stations. And the Starfleet vessel that she's detected is near the outer edges of the Alpha Quadrant, near these relay stations are close enough that the relay stations can pick it up. And she says in 41 minutes, they're going to be out of range. That's all the time they have to get a message to Starfleet. And we don't even know if we can do it, but we're going to, we have 41 minutes to try. Not much time.
Starting point is 00:17:26 No. And I did notice in the scene, Kate is kind of walking up on the platform in astrometrics and kind of looking out at the network of relay stations. And it just reminded me of like how much Kate likes to walk on the bridge in these scenes. Like she likes to move around. And, you know, Kate's, the rest of us don't do that. But definitely Kate likes to kind of move across the bridge, move across. Maybe it's just because she is the captain on the bridge.
Starting point is 00:17:55 She's used to kind of bringing the camera and moving the shots around. So it was funny in Astrometrics, you know, Seven and Chikote just stand there. But Janeway is kind of pacing over here. and walking up on the thing. I love it. She's a mover and a shaker. Yeah. I wonder if Rick Colby sort of instilled that in her in the pilot.
Starting point is 00:18:13 I think that's a good guess. I do. I mean, they became quite close. So I do believe that that could be a distinct possibility. Yeah, that was his style of sort of blocking, keeping the shots moving and things. So, yeah. Anyway, so we cut to the bridge and Seven Sense Harry, the Interleap, interlink frequencies for all these relay stations, and Janeway sends a voice message with
Starting point is 00:18:43 the coordinates of where we are. And everyone's tense and waiting. She sends out this message to Starfleet. We're waiting, getting anything. And then all of a sudden, something's coming back, but it's her message. Right. It's like all distorted. And it's basically her message is just bouncing back. It's the same message. It's kind of like that earlier episode we reviewed, where we listen and we're like, oh, it's another ship, but it's really still Voyager that we're listening to. Yeah. And by the way, when the message bounces back, it sort of
Starting point is 00:19:11 had the sound of like the old like dial up modem sound almost. Like that. Was it the AOL dial-up sound? It was like the AOL dial-up sound. And I was thinking, that's an analog sound. Yes, it is.
Starting point is 00:19:32 that is not a sound that is created anymore in a digital world. Our cell phones are digital. No. Analog is gone. No. But this is the time when this episode was filmed, this was during the time that AOL, everyone was on AOL. It was all analog.
Starting point is 00:19:49 It was all dial-up, right? Dial-up, yeah. Yeah. So seven says that the message is degrading. And Bologna says, well, maybe a holographic signal. If we send that, it won't degrade so fast as the one, you know, we're sending out our signal. Yeah. But it's getting bounced around and degrading and it's not going through.
Starting point is 00:20:10 Right. If we send a holographic signal, which that's Bologna's idea, super smart. And then I think Janeway or, Janeway or Bala says, are you thinking what I'm thinking, the doctor? Yeah. And it felt like a warp. Warp particles. It felt like a warp particles moment to me. Not exactly, but I was like, oh, we should have done another.
Starting point is 00:20:32 The doctor at the same time. Yes. It would have been funny. Yes, yes, yes. So Bologna runs into a sickbay and she downloads the doctor into the mobile. The doctor is very hesitant. He's like, well, I'm not sure. And she doesn't, she doesn't even wait for him to respond.
Starting point is 00:20:47 No, she downloads him while he's. Yeah. Yes. Yes. It was funny. Yes. And that was all one shot. And Nancy, the director, I thought, did a beautiful job because it started on the doctor doing
Starting point is 00:21:01 something in the foreground and came over to to balana coming in and in the same shot she beams him out or downloads him into the thing right and then grabs the hollow emitter and walks out hard shot to do like she did a couple of those in this episode and I thought it was really well done the timing of designing those kind of shots because you have to freeze there are moments where you do have to freeze and people have to walk out but it feels like everything just flows together I thought it was really well done and it was the mobile mobile emitter that she couldn't into the mobile meter, yep. Nice, very nicely designed beam out shots. Agreed. And so we see the doctor in astrometrics now and they've caught him up and what their plan is. And I loved
Starting point is 00:21:43 his line. When I requested more away missions, this was not what I had in mind. I just, there's so many good lines. There's a lot of good stuff. Agreed. Yeah. And Balan explains that he's going to be sent like a message. And then when he gets to the other side, he will automatically be activated in there in the Starfleet vessel's hollow network. He'll automatically pop up. Right. And we're running out of time now. Seven keeps calling out of time. She's like 90 seconds left. We got to do this. Right. But they also tell the doctor. And once you, you know, complete your mission, obviously the Starfleet vessel can then turn around and get back into the range where he could be sent back. Right. Yeah. And they'll send you back the same way, she says, you know. Another line in this that I love
Starting point is 00:22:26 where the doctor goes, well, far be it from me to turn down an opportunity to become a hero. I'm ready. It was just so smug. So dry and so funny. But he beams over to the sick bay on the other ship. The message does go through. The doctor does appear in the sick bay on the Starfleet vessel, the Prometheus, we find out. And my first thought was, this looks like a TNG vessel.
Starting point is 00:22:56 It just, it was, the sick bay to me, it looked like a TNG era set. I don't know if they recycled some set pieces for this, for the bridge. I just felt like the whole Prometheus ship felt a little TNG era to me or recycled in some way. I don't know why. I didn't get that because I, no, just because the color scheme is lighter than the TNG ship. I think it just, there's more whites going on or, you know. They may have painted it, but something about. about like the set pieces. It all felt, it felt a little bit like not quite our,
Starting point is 00:23:33 our Voyager era, era design. It almost felt like instead of more futuristic, it almost felt more backwards in the inside. You thought it was more retro then. Okay. I did, I didn't get that feeling. I did buy the fact that it's supposed to be more modern than Voyager. Oh, really? I felt that. On the outside, I thought the outside looks super cool, by the way. Right. But the inside, but the inside is great. But the doctor's there and he finds. Nobody's there. No. And as he's going around looking at the consoles and trying to get some kind of connection to the internal calm system, he sees a couple crew members injured and laying, you know, unconscious on the floor.
Starting point is 00:24:12 He wakes one up, gives him a hyperspray. He comes to for just a moment. And he says to the doctor, Romulins have taken over the ship. And then he dies. Thank God he had that much left, that much life left in him. Just enough. to say romulence and then die and then die exactly and then we go out to the cool ship shot this is what i did think was cool the prometheus looks super cool as a pointy nose and yeah um and we find
Starting point is 00:24:40 out a lot of cool things about the prometheus one thing i did while i was waiting for you to finish up because i usually finished watching and noting before you um i did a little prometheus research and found out something interesting about the ship that there was some kind of confusion when we were making this episode, Message in a Bottle. Okay. And it involved the registry number of the Prometheus. So Michael, Micahuda used the number NX-4-913 inside for all the internal displays for the ship's dedication plaque.
Starting point is 00:25:17 It was NX-7-4913. Yeah. But that info did not get to. the post visual effects company foundation imaging that made the outside part and they used the number X-59650. So the numbers on the outside don't match the numbers on the inside of the set. They didn't get the memo, I guess, and used a different number. So there is a discrepancy, which I thought was, but the thing about the inside numbers is they're much smaller. So, like, the one on the outside of the ship for the VFX shots, you're going to see that number on the outside of the ship.
Starting point is 00:26:01 It's really hard. You'd have to be in a super tight close-up on a console or something to see those numbers. But I just thought that was an interesting little detail. It is. But, you know, what that tells me is that communication is key. I mean, that's everything that ever gets messed up in any film or TV production is because someone or someone dropped the ball. in communicating what needs to go on, right? I mean, you have to be, you have to really work on your communication skills.
Starting point is 00:26:30 You know, it's another reminder of how big the machine is that makes these shows. Exactly. You know, there's a filming crew. There's the actors. There's the actor support, you know, hair, makeup, wardrobe, all that. But then you've got a construction department and art department. Your makeup lab, which was a whole different department than, just the onset makeup people you've got your writers and production office staff your vis effects
Starting point is 00:26:58 and editors and you've got your orchestras scoring things like so many people trying to work on the same page literally and sometimes you don't sometimes like things just get you know slip through the cracks so yeah um yeah that was an interesting one I thought yeah they talk about it takes a village to raise a child it takes a village to make a TV show or a film right but we go on the bridge yeah there's a bunch of romulans right yep there's a bunch of romans on our bridge they're being uh they're being chased right now right aren't they being chased they're being chased by a starfleet vessel well they're being chased by a starfleet vessel and they're not really sure how to run their ship no like we're not
Starting point is 00:27:44 really familiar these systems are not familiar and uh and there's a starfleet vessel uh approaching for intercept. And so they'd get ready for battle. Yeah. And so we leave them getting ready for battle back to Sick Bay. And the doctor's trying to ask the computer there about the ship because he's not familiar with it either. The Romulins aren't familiar. The doctor's not familiar. Right. And the computer, Major Barrett, starts to tell him all about the ship, that it's an advanced vessel intended for deep space exploration. It has something called a multi, lots of other things. But then she says a multi-vector assault mode.
Starting point is 00:28:24 Yes. And he's like, multi-vector assault mode, please describe. And she says, you will need more clearance for a description on that. So you know this is something cool. I thought that was just a cool idea, a cool name. It is a very cool name. And I've abbreviated to the M-V-A-M. So the M-VAM is what I'm going on.
Starting point is 00:28:43 Oh, the M-Vam. multi-vector assault mode, yes, the M-VAM. And I'm guessing that the Romulins did keep some of the Starfleet members on the bridge alive just to get the information of how to operate the M-V-V-M because they seem to know, because they do operate it in the next scene. And that M-V-A-M, the multi-vector assault mode, is basically the ship splits into pieces, into separate pieces, and they then go on to, well, you then determine what type of attack mode and then who is the target.
Starting point is 00:29:19 And boy, that thing looks pretty special. It was kind of cool, yeah, when it broke into three parts. And I thought it was also interesting that the bridge went to Blue Alert. They didn't have Red Alert. Not Red Alert, it's Blue Alert, yeah. So it's an auto separation, goes into three pieces. And they basically take up the Starfleet vessel that's approaching with one shot of this M-VAM. Like, bam, they're done.
Starting point is 00:29:44 They're finished. And there's a Romulan in the background in this brief exchange of gunfire. There's a Romulan that sort of takes a spark. Did you see that guy? I did. Yeah. And I thought a couple of things. One is that spark was facing his face.
Starting point is 00:30:00 And I don't know. You know, when we used to do sparks or those things, they'd always put them sort of behind us to protect our eyes. Because when those things go off, there are residual. You know, I would feel it on my hands. I'd feel it on my neck. You'd feel it. And so it wasn't enough to really hurt you if it was behind you. But if it's in front of you, it could blind you possibly.
Starting point is 00:30:21 So I was like, that was a risky spark hit in the background there because he was, he was facing it and it kind of came toward him. You know, it could have gone in his eye or something. They could have also told him, close your eyes. Keep your eyes closed when this happens. Or they could have put some goggles or some type of glasses that you couldn't see from behind. Yeah, maybe they did that. Right.
Starting point is 00:30:42 Because I can't imagine they would have. allowed him to just take those sparks in his face that's you know i don't think that i don't think that would have been the protocol for the day i think they would have done well i know that and this is probably a much longer discussion i know that you know safety on set in light of things that have happened recently on oh yes my goodness yeah safety onset is always something that people try um to be very very um aware of because people can get hurt You know, we're doing a lot of dangerous things like that, like sparks, you know, it's, it's pretend, but that's real sparks that could really blind somebody. And it's just not worth it. It's not worth people getting hurt. We should all go home from work. Definitely. And historically speaking, there have been accidents on sets, tragic accidents, right? Well, the guys that did the sparks and any of our onset effects, the smoke, the sparks, the doors opening and shutting, they're called the onset effects team. Yeah. And Will Tom's was our door. guy. But what was his name? The head of that. Dick Brownfield. Dick Brownfield. Do you remember
Starting point is 00:31:50 Dick had a couple of fingers missing? Dick was missing. It's like the head of all the sparks and explosions has a few digits missing. And you're like, hmm. Yeah. Okay. It's a dangerous. It made you think. My point is it's a dangerous. It's dangerous what we do sometimes. I don't mean to overstate it. But right. But I don't want to understate it. It is. is real people do get hurt and uh so that was a moment where i was just like it reminded me of like hopefully he did have goggles on him let's say he did yeah okay let's say he was safe let's say we go we we go to sick pay after this the next thing i loved is bob's trying to hide behind a console or something and with sparks or whatever the shakes and then uh they bring in that injured romulan
Starting point is 00:32:37 yeah and he just sort of pops up like okay i can't hide here well yeah no he he he he he he popped up and then he looks behind him to see if there's any place he can go. And he realizes there's no place. So he goes into character. He's like, oh, he pretends he's just been activated. Please take the nature of the medical emergency. I love it. It was very funny. Yeah, home run for Bob and Andy Dick and this. Very funny. And by the way, for the rest of us, like I was really happy with some of the like comedy that I did and, you know, the scenes that you and I had. Oh, we had some great moments as well. I was really happy with the like comedy. But Lisa clink's lines between when EMH2, Andy Dick is activated, the lines that that are being thrown back and forth between
Starting point is 00:33:23 Andy Dick and Robert Picardo are classic. Like right off the bat, you know, Andy Dick's like, who are you? I know everybody on this ship. And then, uh, then he recognizes him. Oh, EMH Mark 1. Yes. The BDIs. I love it. The BDIs, right? And bad, uh, bad, uh, bedside demeanor. And then the Picardo comes back with, EMH1 comes back with, I was saving Voyager from annihilation when you were only a glean in your programmer's eye. I mean, and then, of course,
Starting point is 00:33:53 Mark II has to come back with, you know, we don't use scalples or leeches anymore, which is hilarious. There's a lot of funny. They're just insulting each other back and forth. It's very funny. Which really,
Starting point is 00:34:05 up until now, we're only used to the doctor throwing out these kind of comments. It's great to see somebody. coming back with him. It was so fun. He's met his match. He's met his match, which is just,
Starting point is 00:34:15 I mean, I think all the fans that watch this episode for the first time are going to be just, they're going to be overjoyed with glee. They're going to be like, this is awesome.
Starting point is 00:34:22 I also noticed Andy Dick must have watched a bunch of episodes with Bob because he was doing a lot of things like our doctor, our holographic doctor. He was behaving, at least initially,
Starting point is 00:34:36 for sure, very much like a holographic doctor. A little combo of like data and the holographic doctor. holographic doctor. Right. I thought it was great. I loved, um, I loved, um, our doctor's line when he's, you know, Andy Dicks going on
Starting point is 00:34:50 and on with all the insults. And Bob goes, well, if you just disengage your vocal subroutines for one minute, I'll explain. Basically, if you just shut up for a minute, um, I didn't remember that one. Okay. Disengage your vocal subroutines for one minute. I love it. Yeah, Mark two.
Starting point is 00:35:08 There's, there is a scene where a moment in here. where our doctor, Bob, starts getting really bossy, and Andy Dick deactivates himself. And so the doctor, like, rolls his eyes and reactivates him a moment later. Yeah. And Andy Dick's like, how, what did you do? Why should do that? I don't know. It was very funny.
Starting point is 00:35:29 Really good. Yeah. Nancy Malone, very good, very good shots there. Hey, Garrett, have you been traveling this summer? Oh, my gosh. So much already. I don't always travel, but this summer's been insane trip after. trip. You've been doing your impersonation of me. Yes. You know what doesn't belong in everyone's
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Starting point is 00:36:19 So this year, skip breaking a sweat and breaking the bank. Get this new customer offer and your three-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at Mintmobile.com slash TDF. That's mintmobile.com slash TDF. Upfront payment of $45 required, equivalent to $15 a month. limited time new customer offer for first three months only speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan taxes and fees extra see mint mobile for details i think we're on the bridge now right yeah we're on the voyager bridge and i my note here is my face looks fat really i wrote down yes again i like these shots i wrote down there's no no no the shots are fine i'm just saying that this is the time when we're all gaining weight this is the this is the time this is i thought i really Maybe we were, but I got to say, I thought, I thought all the shots were very flattering.
Starting point is 00:37:12 I thought Roxanne looked great. She's obviously pregnant. We haven't mentioned that again, but she's wearing the pregnancy. Overcoat. But she's glowing. She looks great. I thought that shot of you and me. You're down, Harry's down by Tom Station. Just waiting for this message for the doctor to let us know what's going on. No, I love the shot. I love the shot. Don't get me wrong. I think Nancy did a great job there. And the fact that Harry's down by Tom Station, you never came. down there. Never. Never were down there. So it, to me, it said a lot about like, oh, look, Harry and Tom are, you know, kind of talking about what might happen if we hear from home. It was a, it was a nice, simple way to reflect the bonds that the cast, you know, the characters had.
Starting point is 00:37:55 Yes. And, and just like I'm never down at Con, you're really never up at Ops either. You know, very rarely do you see Tom Paris hanging out at Terry Station. So it was a nice shot. I enjoyed it. And Chikote and Janeway talk, there's a moment where he asks what she's doing. And she's sort of coy. And she's like, I was writing some letters to my family. And then she pauses, looks him deeply to Mark. I was just like, oh, my God. It's dripping with subtext about romance and her relationships.
Starting point is 00:38:34 I wrote down, you don't need Mark. You've got Native American. mark right in front of you is when I wrote down so just dripping with subtext there and chikote says something about well he he admits that he wrote a letter to his cousin in oh ohio i was like ohio what it's just such a such a random and specific yeah place to have family for chukota i wouldn't have guessed that but it's nice in a way that it's not stereotypical that it's just it's ohio and i think any of the uh fans that are watching that are from oh Ohio or probably like, they said my state. Yes. You know, Ohio, Ohio natives are rejoicing
Starting point is 00:39:14 over this. Good. So we go to sick bay. And Paris is the doctor now. I love that. We see Neelix first, right? We see a female crew member. And then we also see Joey. Remember Joey? Oh, yeah, that's right. Asian kid that was sitting there. That's Joey. Yeah. And yeah, nearest is there worried about some people, a few people are really sick. You know, you can tell they're sick. And Paris walks in. He's the doctor now. and does a little scan and basically says, Neelix, they've got heartburn, like, no big deal. Yeah. And Paris asked Neelix, you know, he's going to get them some anti-acid, basically, for Neelix's food.
Starting point is 00:39:54 And Paris says, what did you feed them anyway? Yeah. And Neelix says, rodeo red's red hot rootin-tootin chili. Like, rodeo reds red hot rootin-tootin chili. Yeah. it's amazing a couple of things paris is here yeah it's longer it's longer yeah a little fluffier second thing rodeo reds red hot root and toot and chili immediately when that scene came on Megan says that's what you just said in the prior episode do you remember this I said that I said this
Starting point is 00:40:31 I said well I said I said Robbie said root and tuti she goes no you did so she goes back and finds it she shows me a prior Delta Flyers episode where you bring up for the second time about how one of our listeners slash viewers said, well, you guys aren't doing the poetry. You're not doing the limericks and the haikus right or something like that, right? And I say in there, I go, no, we shall no longer speak of this any longer. We've already made a point. I think our poetry synopsis, they're darn good. They're root and toot and good. I said that in the actual episode. And then Megan goes foreshadowing, you know, for this episode. That's so funny. Yeah, it was so how many, how many times do we say root and tootin? Not very often. That's the only, I think
Starting point is 00:41:15 root and tootin is only said once by me in telling you to not talk about this. Actually, it's the episode with, um, our guest host with, uh, oh, that's right. Yeah, when he joined us, Eric, right? So it was what, it was during that conversation during that Delta Flyers episode that I said root and tutin and that's probably the only time that I've ever said it or you you definitely have not said it no it's a and then neelick saying root and tootin is the only time any voyager person has ever said that i would think so yeah i would think so run root and tootin yeah i loved how uh uh Ethan phillips that neelick says he was leaving the way he delivered this last line yeah he goes you know next time i think i'll use a few less joll jalopinos jolopinos and then
Starting point is 00:42:03 then I liked my I liked my face afterwards as he left and this is where I made a note like I feel really good I'm going to do a little humble bragging I feel really good about like the light comedy that that Tom Paris and my the way that I did it yeah I feel really good about it no he did a good job I was really happy with the light comedy I don't get the big big laughs like like you know the doctor Andy Dick I'm not the character actor but I you know for for just a regular guy, I thought I was getting some light comedy stuff.
Starting point is 00:42:37 And I love that. That's what made me love this episode because we were allowed to finally be a little bit funny here and there. I think we all knocked it out of the park, you know, in this episode. I was super, super happy. And the whole jalapinos thing,
Starting point is 00:42:51 when you live in California for as long as we did, you're used to all Spanish pronunciations of all city names, food names. We know this. But there's a large percentage of the U.S. population that don't have a lot of Spanish speakers.
Starting point is 00:43:05 And so then, you know, they talk about. Like Nelix, who doesn't know. Yeah, right. He would call it, Jal Lovina knows. We go back to the doctor, and he's trying to come up with a plan. In the Prometheus, right? And they're back in the Prometheus. And he thinks about the ventilation systems.
Starting point is 00:43:21 Yeah. And is there any, you know, any sedatives on board? And he decides to deliver through the ventilation system. neurazine in a gase form, in a gas form. So that will knock everybody out. And I love his line with the doctor brags about his hollow emitter. He says, I'm as close to a sentient life form as any hologram could hope to be. I socialize with the crew, fraternized with aliens.
Starting point is 00:43:51 I've even had sexual relations. And then Andy Dix goes, sex, how is that possible? We're not equipped with. And Bob says, let's just say, I've made an addition to my program. An addition to my program. Oh, my God. This one upsmanship is just so funny. And, you know, this whole time, this whole time, the EMH2 is throwing hurdles.
Starting point is 00:44:18 Like, no, there's no way. What are we going to do? You just waltz onto the bridge. You can't do that. You can't do. So he's always throwing hurdles out. And the doctor has to problem solve. He's like, what are we going to do?
Starting point is 00:44:27 Oh, we can incapacitate the Romulus. Well, he's the only way. He's being the hero. It's kind of like, I think in this episode, one thing I liked was that the doctor is a fish out of water needing to be the action guy. Yes. And the Prometheus. And Paris is a fish out of water trying to be in a much more minor B story. Trying to be a doctor.
Starting point is 00:44:49 Like, he's a fish out of water. He doesn't. Definitely. You know, that's a nice thing. Andy Dick's character is also a bit of fish out of the water because this is an experimental ship. It's also, he's an experimental EMH. He just was installed six weeks ago. So he's brand new, too.
Starting point is 00:45:06 So there's a lot of fish out of water storylines going on. I love Andy Dick's physical comedy and trying to get into the Jeffries tube. He doesn't know how to crawl into a tube. He tries to go backwards. His foot comes out awkwardly. Then he does that weird thing where he just shifts his body. It's so funny. So funny.
Starting point is 00:45:26 Good physical comedy. We don't normally do that on our show either. It was very, very funny. No. We go to the bridge and the Prometheus bridge, exactly, with the Romulans. And the doctor enters. And he reports that the crewman is getting better. And he lies about a possible virus on board.
Starting point is 00:45:45 He needs to scan them all. So he starts, they're sort of skeptical. The Trovka virus. A nasty strain of the Trovka virus was detected in the injured Romulans blood work and says, he says, yes, I've got to run these scans. And he goes, he starts, he starts scanning the Romulan commander. He's like, Rekar. Rikar, Rikar, Rikar, Rikar, I think, Rikar, Rikar.
Starting point is 00:46:10 Yeah, he was walking behind him and chasing him around the bridge, you know, scanning him on the move. It's very funny. Right. But he's also kind of eavesdropping on everything they're talking about, like the Romulans are going to rendezvous with them in an hour. So he's picking up a lot of information. And, oh, and the information is there.
Starting point is 00:46:29 They're not going to, Commander Rick R. Makes a course change, right? He alters the course setting because he says we have to meet the Tal Shiar. Tal Shiar are the equivalent of the CIA, KGB, right? So they're basically a, what's the word I'm looking for? They are a intelligence agency, yeah. So the intelligence agency for the Romulans. Before this scene is over, Rikar.
Starting point is 00:46:59 RECAR, the Romulan realizes that the doctor was not really scanning him, right? He's like, let me see what you scan. He looks at it and it's like, there's nothing. You haven't scanned anything. And Bob's reaction was like, oh. He looks at it. He just a deadpan. He shook it.
Starting point is 00:47:19 He shook and he hit a couple buttons. Really? I thought I was. It's very funny. See, that's Bob Picardo. Because I don't think the doctor himself would actually shake the tricorder. right? That's Bob Picardo, using his own physical comedy into it. Very funny. Yeah. We go back to Voyager's Sick Bay and Paris is trying to be a doctor.
Starting point is 00:47:39 He suggests next time order the chicken salad and not the rootin-tootin, hot and spicy chili. Then Harry walks in and Paris is like panicking desperate. Is this the scene where you pat me like 15 times? And you're like, hey, buddy. Yeah. Yeah. By the way, when the door opens and I see you, my arms go up. Yeah, they come up like, you're like, I thought I was going to run across the thing and hug you. Yeah. And then I do go over to you and I put my arm. I'm like, what do you see?
Starting point is 00:48:07 And I put my arm around. You're so touchy-feely, right? I was very touchy-feely. I felt like we were going into a slow-motion montage of Paris running across the sick bay, you know, with the sunset. Yeah. You were so touchy-feely. I was uncomfortable watching it. I'm like, what is he doing?
Starting point is 00:48:25 Why is he keep doing that? So now we find out. was Harry to program a new EMH so he doesn't have to be the doctor anymore, right? My note, my two notes here are, number one, my makeup is so dark, I wrote that down. I look like, I don't know, maybe I went to Hawaii earlier. I'm so tan in that shot. And once again, my face is so fat. I wrote that again, so.
Starting point is 00:48:47 And nothing against Nancy Malone's cinema, her decision of how to shoot that. It's not her shots. It's not, it's not our director of photography. It's not the lighting people is just, I know I ate extra. junk food then and I'm getting fatter and fatter right now. It happens. It happened. All right. Okay, we go to astrometrics. Balana and Seven are in there.
Starting point is 00:49:06 Basically, basically this season is about Balana just going seven. You're a jerk. You're rude. Just say, say please. Say thank you. Don't boss people around.
Starting point is 00:49:18 We're not your drones. Yeah, yes. You say jerk. I say it's a conversation about lousy interpersonal skills. That's what I wrote. So that's the more euphemistic way of saying it. But it was a nice scene and we don't normally see those two together. No.
Starting point is 00:49:31 It was fun to watch them. I love those two together. But they do get a signal. Seven receives a signal in here. And for the first time, we see a Horogen. Oh, my gosh. Tiny Ron. I almost squealed.
Starting point is 00:49:45 I, Megan will attest this. I was like, oh, my God, the Horogen. They're here, finally. And I love this alien species. This is one of my favorite alien species from Voyager. So seeing the Herogen for the first time, seeing Tiny Ron on that. screen. I was so excited. So it was cool. Yes. But he basically says stop using our technology. Those are our relay stations and terminate your link now, which would mean we'd lose the dock. We'd never get
Starting point is 00:50:11 him back. Right. So now there's another problem. Yeah. And then we go over to the to the Prometheus. Well, he severes the link. Right. So basically, Torres says like, wait, wait, wait, the sensor network, that's yours? He's like, yeah, it's Horogen. And then he says terminate it. And before she can even say anything else, he just, he severs the lake. He cuts it off. Yeah. Problem, big problem. Yeah. Cut over the Prometheus doctor is a prisoner now. What room is that? Would you call that a ready room? Would you call that the captain's ready room that he's in? Yeah, probably. Briefing room or something's quarters. I think it was briefing room. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. But Ricard wants to know who the doctor is working with. He's like, you can't, you're a hologram. You can't be doing this by yourself. I did notice Nancy Malone was shooting
Starting point is 00:50:53 these low angles in that scene, which, you know, always helps to kind of amp up the tension and the stakes. And again, just a little detail, but as the stakes are building, she's trying to use these low angles, things getting more dramatic, just really subtle detail, but very well done. Well, if a low angle ramps up the stakes, what does a high angle do then? They couldn't do that as well. Usually a high angle, if you're shooting down on an actor, It suggests that there's either someone watching them, almost like a surveillance point of view or even unconsciously, not a literal surveillance, but a sense that you're being watched in some way or that there's pressure, you know, there's some power outside of your control or, you know. Gotcha. Yeah, that's what I would say that.
Starting point is 00:51:44 That sort of weakens the character, makes them small. But Doc is not cooperating. And so our female Romulan, I forget her name. Navala. Navala comes in with this information. She says an optronic data stream transmission containing a holographic subroutine has been detected. So now, you know, RECAR thinks, wow, this is very ingenious and creative. You are a Starfleet agent that was sent in a holographic agent, basically, which is kind of cool, if that was really the case.
Starting point is 00:52:15 right? The data pattern has a Starfleet signature, and that's what makes Ricard think that the doctor is a secret agent. And Navala suggests a complete algorithm extraction to analyze the doctor's subroutines one by one. This to me sounds like being drawn and quartered the media way, right? So this is the modern version of drawn and quartering for EMH. And the doctor's, you know, he's nice and calm, really, pretty much. But before anything can happen, gas starts filling the room. And guess what? The Nourazine has been let out. Delivered it.
Starting point is 00:52:50 They pass out. Andy Dick appears. And then he tells his dramatic story. Like he's a narrator. He's a narrator. I love that. There I was. In the Jeffries, too.
Starting point is 00:53:01 And he goes through the whole thing. Do you think that was written in the script that he stands off and he sort of narrates this thing? Or was this something that, okay. I think Lisa. I think Lisa Klink wrote this. Okay. But it's very funny.
Starting point is 00:53:14 It is so funny. This arrogant, this competition of the two most arrogant men. Yeah, when he calls, he calls Picardo his smug comrade captured by Romulins. Yeah. Oh, my God. But the holographic doctors transfer to the bridge, the Prometheus Bridge. And I love when the doctor walks over to the pilot's chair, just shoves the pilot who's passed out from the gas. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:53:38 Just like shoves him and, you know, falls like a ragdoll on the floor. I have a note about the site to site transport. when they go from that room, the interrogation room to the bridge. That shot where they arrive on the bridge, you don't know it's the bridge immediately. Oh, it looks like they're in the middle of space. Yes, I thought EMH2 wasn't familiar with how to transport
Starting point is 00:53:58 and that he transported both of them into space is what I thought. I mean, that's my first thought. Okay. Yeah, that was a fun moment. Just another moment of like, wait, wait, where are we? Where are they? You realize they're on the bridge. Right.
Starting point is 00:54:09 Just a very funny scene of neither one of them know how to, operate the ship or anything they have no stop it start it to do anything with it they keep hitting the doctor does talk about he had learned a few things from mr paris he he's had two lessons in the holode deck on a shuttle yeah yeah that's about it um and they're pushing something and all of a sudden they hear uh beep beep beep beep beep beep I love when Andy dick turns and he goes beep beep beep beep beep beep beep I laughed out loud I was like That's funny. Very funny.
Starting point is 00:54:46 But the warp core is overloading. That's what they did. They hit some buttons, and now they're going to overload the warp core. And he doesn't know which buttons could stop it. And there's three Romulan warbirds approaching. So we're, you know, things are not good. It looks like things are bad. They don't know what they're doing.
Starting point is 00:55:03 Not at all. And here come the bad guys. We go to astrametrics. Yes. Then and Janeway is talking to. Tourism seven. Tourism Seven. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:55:15 And, and she, she, they bring up the Herogen up, and she begs the Herogen, please just, you know, let us use these relays. We're waiting for a message. And he's like, no, absolutely not, as the Herodian do. Right. And all of a sudden, you see, like, sparks and the Herodian going, and he falls down. Tiny Ron gets shocked. Tiny Ron gets shocked. I thought he was dead for a minute.
Starting point is 00:55:40 Yeah. But, well, that's the funniest part of this scene. Seven says, I generated a feedback surge along our sensor link. Just totally calm. And the look on Roxanne's face and how she delivered that line, you killed him. It was the best. I laughed so hard. I mean, it's not funny to kill somebody.
Starting point is 00:55:56 But in that moment, very funny. Very funny. He wasn't responding to diplomacy. Like, okay. It's like what? And the look on Janeway's face was like, oh, my God, you've just made all these decisions on your own without consulting me. There goes seven.
Starting point is 00:56:11 Oh, there go seven. And that silly board gal, that's kind of a look that Janeway gives seven and to Torres when she walks out of the room. Yep. Very funny scene. Very funny. You did laugh at that, right, Robbie? I did. Yeah, so it was very funny.
Starting point is 00:56:24 Good. Yeah, everybody was funny in this episode. So we go to Voyager's sick bay. And now we have Paris and Kim and our lovely comedic scene that we have here. You start off with that wonderful line. You think we should give him a little more hair, which I loved. And was that your decision to knock? on the doctor's. I think it was either me and it was either me and Bob or the director, but I think
Starting point is 00:56:50 I don't know. I'm going to guess that was Bob's decision. That seems like a Bob. I can just see Bob going, Robbie, I think it might be funny if you actually knock on my head, you know, I really hear his voice saying that. Whoever's decision it was, whether it was yours, Bob's and the directors, very funny. Yeah. Oh my God. Very funny. Yeah, it was funny. And then so when we finally activate him and he kind of fritzes and starts reciting this scene yet that's not is that in the scene yeah do that whole thing oh it's all in here right it's all in here we get him yes yeah you get him you get him up and so it looks like harry has succeeded he's got the hologram the holographic doctor appears and uh and he's finishing downloading all these medical data banks grace anatomy grace anatomy everything into the
Starting point is 00:57:37 program and then when he hits the go button the doctor just starts, literally just starts reciting medical textbook. He's just staring straight ahead. Chapter two, yeah. And I don't know if you noticed, but if you looked at Bob's eyes during all of that, I think he was reading some cue cards. And I think I remember them having some cue cards in the room because it was a lot of data. And I don't like, he was staring straight ahead and his eyes were kind of doing this.
Starting point is 00:58:07 Oh, no, I did not catch that. Yeah, just a little bit. I did not catch that. Absolutely. I would have done the same thing. Like, that's not a criticism, but I think, and by the way, if it's a, if it's a, a holographic character, he could have been sort of internally, you know, his eyes could have been. Yeah, it could have been moving the data or whatever. Yeah. But, yeah, it was very funny.
Starting point is 00:58:32 Oh, God. And then the scene ends basically with Harry sort of downloading Gray's Anatomy into a pad. If you look at my face when I'm doing that, I'm like, okay, it was a very sort of like, all right, Paris, you troublemaker, then here's, this is for you, which was just lovely. That was very funny. So I, so Paris has homework at the end of the scene. He does. Got a lot of studying to do. He does.
Starting point is 00:58:56 We cut to an exterior shot of the three Romulan ships converging on the Prometheus. And I got to say, I love the Romulan ships. They just, they look so awesome. They really do. Yeah, they do. Yeah, they, the doc and Mark 2 holograms are arguing. The Prometheus Bridge. It's just trying to figure out the controls.
Starting point is 00:59:16 They have no clue how to operate. No clue at all. Then the doctor pretends when the Romulans close in, they call the bridge. And the doctor pretends to be Rikar, Rikar for a minute. He's like, you're not. You're not Rikar. Where's Rikar? Where's Rikar?
Starting point is 00:59:33 Bob's doing a funny voice. And then he tries, he's trying to fool them. I'm very funny. Oh, gosh. And then the Romulan start firing weapons. And then Starfleet shows up and they're firing weapons. So everybody's firing at the Pumetius. Yes.
Starting point is 00:59:47 And the two holographic doctors are like, what's going on? Yeah. They try to return fire. There's just too many buttons. Right. At one point, Mark II leans on the console and he hits the wrong. It's sort of a frustration thing. He's like, oh, and he puts his hand down.
Starting point is 01:00:01 And that, yeah. Right. Because he's going, you know, there's not going to be any more time to I'm going to be dead, no time to explore, no time for sex, because he really wants to add that addition, the doctor, and he leans down, which then reminded me of when Paris and Torres were having their makeout session in engineering on the second level, and they're rolling across the control panel, like hitting everything, right? And nothing happens.
Starting point is 01:00:26 Nothing happens there, yeah. But they end up starting. They activate the M-VAM. They activate the M-VAM. Yeah. Yeah, multi-vector attack mode. Multi-vector attack mode. And then the computer says, what attack pattern?
Starting point is 01:00:40 Ask the doctor. And he's like, attack pattern. Alpha? The question mark at the end. Yeah. But it's very funny. Would that be funny the computer could register the question mark at the end and says, are you sure?
Starting point is 01:00:54 It responds back to the question mark at the end of alpha. That would have been funny too. But they succeed. And they're both heroes. And so it's a big win. And we come back over to Voyager. Seven has gotten the transmission through the network and gotten the doctor back.
Starting point is 01:01:12 And he fritzes in to sickbay. Yeah. And he is pumped. He's like, I did it. Did it. I'm going to pat myself on the back a lot right now. Yeah. He's so proud of himself.
Starting point is 01:01:28 Yeah, he's very proud of himself. And he tells Janeway that, He spoke to Starfleet and that Starfleet thought they had given up. They thought Voyager was lost. Yeah. And he said, I set the record straight. 14 months ago, Voyager was declared officially lost. That's the information we learned.
Starting point is 01:01:48 Mm-hmm. Yeah. And he said he set the record straight and they promised that they would do everything they could to get Voyager back home. And he says, his last line there was, he says, they wanted you to know you are no longer alone. I love that. It was a nice. Great ending. Great everything. It's great ending. Yeah. Good episode. Really good. Really good. What was your theme for this? Well, my theme was sort of like persistence is key. Don't give up hope. Don't give up hope. It took four years for us to just get one message to Starfleet that we're not dead. We're alive. And, you know, sometimes people in the society that we live in the day and age that we live in now, it's always like, what can you do for me now? Now. Now, now, it's, it's so immediate. Everyone wants, they want something to happen immediately. And when it doesn't happen immediately, people just throw up their arms like, oh, well, this is not working, you know, and they just give up.
Starting point is 01:02:45 And it's like, come on, guys, sometimes things take time, you know, have some patience. Don't give up. That's it. So that was my lesson from this. Great. Yeah, I think my lesson or my theme was, don't be afraid to try something you've never tried before. Okay. I think for the doctor to go be the guy.
Starting point is 01:03:03 in the front lines, the hero, he's used to being a doctor, but he was, he was able to succeed. Yeah. He, yeah, like, like you said, persistence and believing in yourself and being willing to take a chance on something new and do the hard work, he was able to do it. And yeah, same thing with Paris as the, as the doctor. He didn't want to, he didn't want to be a doctor, didn't know what he was doing. Yeah. I mean, again, a very minor B story at best, but, uh, it,
Starting point is 01:03:33 it was a nice echo to the doctor's journey that Paris was like having to do something he wasn't comfortable doing. Yeah. But he did okay. He was able to get through it. So then I would add on to this, you know, don't be afraid of change. And that's something that a lot of times human beings are so they're so nervous and they're so, oh my gosh, this is different from what I'm used to. Will I succeed? Will I fail? Well, you should embrace newness or embrace change because sometimes it opens another chapter in your life that you would never have expected and that chapter could be far superior to the prior chapters of your life so yeah don't be afraid of it awesome well that was fun it was fun what is next week's episode next week is hunters which should probably give you a little
Starting point is 01:04:19 yeah yeah yes yes yes yes yeah oh this will be fun yeah we're on a roll of we're on a episodes that I actually can remember. Yes. And I remember enjoying. And they're great episodes. They're really good. Right. We've got our legs now.
Starting point is 01:04:37 Yeah. Well, that'll be fun. All right. Well, I'll look forward to reviewing and rewatching this with you next week. Ditto. All right, everyone, thank you so much for tuning in for this week's episode, message, and bottle. Stay tuned next week when Robbie and I will be reviewing, recapping, discussing hunters. Thanks, everyone.
Starting point is 01:04:55 Thanks, everyone. Bye. Bye. I don't know.

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