The Delta Flyers - Riddles

Episode Date: September 26, 2022

The Delta Flyers is a weekly Star Trek: Voyager rewatch & recap podcast hosted by Garrett Wang & Robert Duncan McNeill. Each week Garrett and Robert will rewatch an episode of Voyager starting at the very beginning. This week’s episode is Riddles. Garrett and Robbie recap and discuss the episode, and share their insight as series regulars.Riddles:Tuvok is robbed of his psychological prowess after being zapped by an energy force, and Janeway searches for the `shadow people' responsible for the attack.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, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Courtney Lucas, Matthew Gravens, Elaine Ferguson, Brian Barrow, Captain Jeremiah Brown, Heidi Mclellan, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, John Espinosa, James Zugg, Deike Hoffmann, Mike Gu, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Vikki Williams, Kelly Brown, Lee Lisle, Mary Beth Lowe, William McEvoy, Sarah Thompson, Samantha Hunter, Holly Smith, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Ashley Stokey, Lori Tharpe, Mary Burch, Nicholaus Russell, Dominique Weidle, Lisa Robinson, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlmann, Darryl Cheng, Alex Mednis, AJ Freeburg, Elizabeth Stanton, Kayla Knilans, Barbara S., Tim Beach, Ariana, Meg Johnson, Victor Ling, 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, Danie Crofoot, Ian Ramsey, Susan V. Gruner, & Andrew EvansAnd our Producers:James Amey, Richard Banaski, Ann Harding, Ann Marie Segal, Chloe E, Nathanial Moon, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Mike Schaible, AJ Provance, Captain Nancy Stout, Claire Deans, Matthew Cutler, Maxine Soloway, Joshua L Phillips, Barbara Beck, Species 2571, Aithne Loeblich, Dat Cao, Scott Lakes, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Tara Polen, Jenna Appleton, Jason Potvin, Cindy Ring, Andrei Dunca, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Amber Nighbor, Amy Tudor, Jamason Isenburg, Mark G Hamilton, Rob Johnson, Maria Rosell, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Jennifer Jelf, Justin Weir, Mike Chow, Rachel Shapiro, Eric Kau, Megan Moore, Melissa A. Nathan, Captain Jak Greymoon, David Wei Liu, David J Manske, Roxane Ray, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, E.G. Galano, Cindy Holland, Craig M. Nakashian, Will Forg, Max Wilson, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Carmen Puente-Garza, Russell Nemhauser, Lawrence Green, Jordan Marie Benko, Christian Koch, & Lisa GunnThank you for your support!“Our creations are protected by copyright, trademark and trade secret laws. Some examples of our creations are the text we use, artwork we create, audio, and video we produce and post. You may not use, reproduce, distribute our creations unless we give you permission. If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail].”Our Sponsors:* Check out Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/TDFSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Delta Flyers with Tom and Harry as we journey through episodes of Star Trek Voyager. Your two hosts along this journey are my fellow Trek actor who also portray the character of Milt Elliot on the 1994 TV movie One More Mountain, Mr. Robert Duncan McNeil and myself, your favorite Eternal Inson, 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. I know we've already talked about it, but I had to throw it out there again because I cannot get out of my head your last final words out of your mouth. Please eat me. And I'm sorry.

I have to correct. Okay. It's not right. What is it? So James Morrow, one of our ad, found a link on YouTube. Oh, goodness. And I scrolled through it.

As Jimmy Morrill will do, yes. As he will do. What did you find? I scrolled and found the scene. And I don't literally say, eat me. I mean, it's implied. And I am starting to say it. And then Meredith Baxter-Bernie goes,

oh, no, no, no, no. We could never. So it is implied, and I am dying. And I'm saying, you know, I can't remember the exact line. but I don't literally say the words, please eat me. Okay. But that's basically what I'm saying.

Yeah, that's the subtext of what you're trying to say. And by the way, for those that didn't hear the story, it's the Donner Party. It's cannibalism. It's cannibalism, but it's the one family that did not, that refused to be cannibals. They did not eat any human beings. This is a true story. Again, I want to recap the context. I did a TV movie of the week.

Yeah. And I played a character and the Donner Party and the Donner Party was real. It happened. Pioneers that got trapped in a winter blizzard and were starving to death. And they ended up cannibalizing the people who died as the only food. So it was a movie about that. And my character in the scene as he's dying offers to Meredith Baxter Bernie, Miss, you can eat me.

But he doesn't literally say that. but I wish I did, because that would have been a much better scene. Yeah, it's still going to be in my head. Those are your final lines. Yeah, it's James Moro, I, you have the link to that, though, right? It's on YouTube. I don't know how it's, the whole movie was there on YouTube. What?

Oh, I'm going to watch this now. In lieu of watching this episode, I'm just going to let you do the entire recap. It's a pioneer movie of the week. It's, you know, early 90s television. Yeah, no, I'm very excited to see this. Okay. So anything that you have done, I am excited to see. I think it's the only time where I actually had a beard on camera, which is amazing.

I did have a beard on on stage before. And in real life, I've had a beard quite often. Yeah. And you had a beard when you audition for Voyager for that stage. I did, and they made me shave it. Shave it off at the audition, exactly. Michael Pillar. Did you shave, Michael Pillar, right?

Yeah, it was Michael Pillar. Yeah, Robbie, which one's shaving that all off now? He's like, would you be okay with shaving it? And I was like, yeah. Yeah. And he goes, no, I mean now. Now. Did you shave it right now?

I was like in the office. And he goes, yeah, I got a razor in my bathroom. And so I had a full beard literally trying to shave with a razor. Like, you have to trim a beard down to at least this, what I've got now. Yeah. Before you start shaving with a razor. Right. I went at it in his office.

With the razor. Oh, it was so ugly. I was bleeding. all over. It was, cut my face up. It was painful. But it was worth it for Star Trek. I'll do anything for Star Trek. I know. But now I'm thinking about you saying the lines that you did not say in the voice of Tom Paris. I could just instead of like, yes, ma'am. You're like, please eat me. Ma'am. Ma'am, ma'am, please eat me. So, yes, I'm going to go look that up. And I'm going to watch that. I'm even going to watch Sharkey's

machine all over again to see you as the teenager on the bus exactly i don't think i had any lines or if i did they're not no no you said you had no lines but are you sitting next to someone else that is very noticeable or are you like a boyfriend girlfriend situation yeah there was a two teenagers i was okay one of the two yes and my friend barbara saraldo yeah had gotten cast as the girlfriend on the bus so we had grown up together we knew he knew her yeah perfect yeah it was funny perfect yeah i don't care if you have lines or not and I will watch anything that you're in just because he's machine yeah and I only say that this because you did masters if you didn't do masters of the universe I probably wouldn't care about what your resume said anything else of that I'm now interested in everything if masters of the

universe is on his resume what else what else could it be it's a cold favorite crazy stuff my goodness but nothing comes close to the Tom Paris the Voyager and the Tom Paris. Okay. All right. So this week's episode is called Riddles. No. I am. Mm-hmm. All right. Riddles. Here we go. Riddles. Riddles. Okay. I can only think of two things. What I think of Riddles. It's going to be either the Joker from D.C. or there is a famous cosplayer with that nickname. Oh, okay. Yes. So who is actually a friend of mine. So other than that, I cannot think of anything else. So let us go watch this episode. I'm very intrigued as to what this is about. So we'll be right back and stay tuned, everybody. Stay tuned. Stay tuned.

You're still, you're still, you know, flustered by the scene where I asked Meredith Baxter Bernie to. I can't think of anything but that. Yes, I am flustered. Okay, we'll see you soon. Hey, y'all, we're back from watching. Riddle. Yes, we are. I really liked this episode. This was a very different episode than what we're used to seeing. Very different. And I've got to say, I didn't remember anything about it. I know.

I can't believe Roxanne Dawson directed. Okay, this is, I'm sorry. I can't believe it. Don't you and I, didn't we talk about this and didn't we both say workforce? I thought that was her first one. How is this possible? How did you I don't know. Would this slip our brains? The minute I saw her name, I said, no. No way. Yeah. And this is not something that they filmed after Workforce and aired at season six in the beginning. This is clearly her very first episode. And she did a great job. She did. And Workforce is her second episode, though. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Wow. That blew me away. Yeah, blew me away too. Really surprised me. Let's start the ball rolling with our poetry synopsis. And then let's get into this discussion. Okay. Let's do because I love a little poetry, a little art. Yes. Poetry is a good thing to start the day with. Okay, here we go. Tuvok is attacked. Shadow people must be found. Cake frosting is key. Nice. All right. You got a lot of plot. I got a lot in there. I didn't get a lot of plot because I didn't have time to put neelix in there. So I'm hoping, I'm pretty sure you have neelix in yours. So I do. Okay. I have neelix in my. Okay, here we go with a limerick for riddled.

Tuvok goes with Neelix on a mission away. He ends up in a coma in sick bay. Tuvok's recovery kind of stings. Tom's jazz database swings. It's not logical, but I'm craving a Sunday. All righty then. Is that you? I'm not saying.

I already know the answer. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Good job. I've never on a mission away. It's an away mission, but I was like, oh, I want to get to Sunday in here. I want to get the Sunday. Oh, a mission away. Nice. I like it. A mission away. I almost feel like, isn't that a line from Hamilton something away? Oh, yeah. A moment away. Yeah, yeah, something like that. No, an ocean away. An ocean away. That's what it is. Yes. Yes. Yes. Well, good job, Rabieka. Very good. And then let's. here. Let's begin. Let's begin by talking about guest stars and everything else. Let's, okay. So, teleplay is by Bob Doherty, Robert Doherty. And I love Robert Doherty's use of his, he's just a really good teleplay writer. I'm going to say that right now. He's so good. Yes. And I got to admit, I didn't know Bob Doherty very well during. Neither did I. I didn't get to

know him. And what I, what I learned in a little research is he was the youngest staff writer. stop yeah what he was a kid i don't know how old he was but i'm going to guess about 23 24 he was very young younger than lisa clink was pretty young he was the youngest staff writer on voyager and he ended up creating the show elementary the lucy lou johnny lee miller show that ran for like seven years there we go that was he was a show runner on that show yeah okay so he cut he cut his teeth on voyager yeah went on to hit the big time with elementary oh my goodness and lots of other shows that he wrote on but he created elementary so yeah boy that's awesome i thought this this this this episode the script and story structure is exactly what i was saying

last week yes alice that was missing i was like all of these little subtle moments of character and relating to people and seeing tuvac with different people whether it was the captain or jacote or seven or whoever or us on the bridge yes yes yeah It was so beautifully structured. And all the holes were filled in. And the bookends of where he started and where he ended up, completely connected. It was not to jump back to last week, but it's exactly what I thought was missing in Alice, that cleaner structure that has the nuance internally. I thought he did a phenomenal job.

Yeah. And like you said, the structure was clean. this storyline, the plot line, it flowed very well. From beginning to end, from the first moment when Neelix is annoying him and you see the relationship and Neelix wanting to be buddy, then we go on that ride. And at the end, even though we don't quite get to keep the prize that they've got, that they had, there's a little hint of it. Well, yeah, well, it's bookended by the riddle and the answer to the riddle.

And it's just like, yes. I mean, you have some satisfaction after you finish watching this episode. You feel like, okay, I enjoy this episode. It flowed well. And I'm happy that I got to the end and I feel good about it. Because that awesome line from Tuvok at the very, because you're thinking he's such a hard-ass. He's not really, he's back to the normal Tuvok that we know. But no, he's changed.

So it's nice. I would say to all the fans out there, any inspiring writers, this teleplay is a master class. in story structure. It really is. It is one of the best scripts, I think, in our entire run. And also, we've got to give kudos to our science consultant, Andre Bormonis. He's the story. He's the pitch. He pitched the stories. So he sold a story to the writers. And, you know, typically when you're the consultant, whatever show you're working on, you're not selling story ideas to the writers or the executive producers. Am I right? Yeah, absolutely. So really good job on. really good. And, and again,

Roxanne did a awesome job of directing this episode. There's quite a few really, you know, pro-level, you know, shots in here, very courageous shots for first-timer. Oh, yeah. And she was, she was prepared. She was ready by season six. She had learned how to do this.

And she hit a home run. But we know her. She's always prepared. She's, oh, yeah. She's prepared to do anything, whether it's cooking lunch or dinner or, or directing an episode, she's always on point. Yes.

And I'm just shocked that you and I did not remember that this was. I am too. How is that possible, man? I don't know. We didn't have a lot to do in it. So that sometimes affects it. Yeah, that could be it. Let's go through all the guest stars.

Guest stars, we really only have one. It's Mark Moses who plays Narok. Narok. Narok. Narok. Narok. No, no, no, it's Narok. And Mark Moses, I worked with Mark on Desperate Housewives.

I directed a few of those. Oh, what did he play on there? I forget. It's so popular. Yeah, and it's so difficult because he's got prosthetics on, so I don't remember. I've watched a lot of Desperate Housewives with Megan episodes. He's a great actor, Mark. Yeah.

He's wonderful. His very first job that I could find was in 1983. He played Benny Stewart on the daytime soap opera, one life to live. Oh, goodness. So he started out in New York as a theater actor and soaps. I think he went to NYU. An interesting Star Trek crossover is that he was in the miniseries very early in his career, 1985. He was in the miniseries north and south. He played Ulysses S. Grant. And that mini-series is where Jonathan Frakes and Jeannie Francis, his wife, met. what yeah so there's a crossover mark moses uh is connected to the mini series north and south

with jonathan frakes where he met his wife wow yeah that's a that's a bit of trivia there good for you for connecting the dots i'm impressed all right all right so let's start off right yeah first of all again unique in this uh episode we have a ambassador's log we don't have Neelix giving out logs left and right. So it's kind of cool that it starts with Neelix's log. And they're inside the shuttle. And I must, you know, the elephant in the room is here. I must talk about it right now. All of this stuff happened because you were not piloting the Delta Flyer. It's my fault. Whenever you let, yeah, whenever, no, I'm not saying it's your phone. I'm saying whenever you let other people fly the Delta Flyer, bad things happen when you're not there.

because if you were there, Nielis could have been in the back with Tuvok and all this craziness. Well, there's, I will say in this episode, one of my very few critiques is people are doing jobs and standing at consoles on the bridge where they shouldn't be standing.

Oh. And I'll get there. Okay, we'll get there. You end up in a console that's not yours. I end up in a console. You and my console is what it is. We all, we did do C.

flying delta quala delta flyer i you know a lot of people are manning consoles that they're not familiar with and sure enough we rarely i i can almost never remember us switching as much as this so yeah that would be one little if there's any critique i have right right and that that's not something that bothers me to be perfectly honest i like i like the fact that we interchange okay so yeah we see the delta flyer in space we hear neelix say ambassadors long start date five three two six three point two Though helpful during my negotiations on the Cassat homeworld, Commander Tuvok certainly hasn't been the most sociable of travel companions. So right away, we know they're not getting along.

They're not hanging out and having a blast. No. I love him tapping. You reveal Neelix sitting in the back console, Tuvok's flying. Neelix, Ethan Phillips is tapping his fingers on the end of the console. He's so bored. It's annoying, Neil. It's annoying Tuvok.

He looks like, Mr. Neelix. And Ethan's, Ethan goes, I'm sorry. I love the scene. I love all the little moments. And I got to say, by the way, we talked about the script. We talked about the direction. But none of that would have worked without Ethan Phillips and Tim Russ hitting home runs in these performances. From the first scene, they are so good.

They're really good. They're really good. And I love that game, this made up game of species, Starship or anomaly. Yeah, he suggests that game, but Tuvok is like, nope, no way. Not going to happen. Neelik says, how about a riddle? And he doesn't wait for a no.

He says, okay, here's the riddle. And Ensign is alone on a class L planetoid with only a calendar, no rations. Why didn't he starve? And Tuvok thinks about it. So he's drawn in and he goes, well, there's this type of planet, the L-class planet. would have water springs, naturally would have, possibly have springs and therefore plants and he could feast on the plants and he could survive. For several weeks.

But then Neelix is like, but not for a whole year. Yeah. And Neelix's answer is he stumped him and he goes, well, he survived because he feasted on the dates. So too kind of a dad joke. Tuvok is like, yes, it's a total dad joke. Tuvac does not laugh. He finds it illogical and not funny at all. Yes.

And he decides to go in the back. And he's in the back. And suddenly here's an alert. A tactical station kind of comes to life. And he calls Nielix. And Nielis is like, nope, not me. And he goes to sort of scan this tactical station. and suddenly a cloaked alien sort of appear.

We don't even see the, no, no, we don't see them. We just see the beam of energy beam from the alien, the cloaked alien. And that takes out his tricorder. But at the same time, it fries him, too. So he's like, you know, he's touching the tricorder and the tricorder gets zapped. And so does he. I love the fact, all that smoke, that must have been added post-CGI, right? the smoke coming, the smoke that's oozing out of the trichoid.

Maybe. I don't know. Sometimes, you know, you can add that practically. That's practical? Yeah, might have been. Possibly. Okay. All right. Yes. He down goes Tuvok. He starts convulsing. He's like, he's convulsing and Neelix calls for help, Mayday. And, you know, Roxanne's very first fancy shot. Yeah. Is this pull out on like a crane at the end of the teaser with with Tuvok on the ground convulsing and very tricky shot to do because you've got walls of that set that you've got to get around. So you've got to figure, you know, lots of planning. How do you get around those walls? How do you get the camera support, whether it's a crane or a cable rig or whatever it is? Yeah. It takes a lot of prep and it takes time. Yeah. So very impressed

that she started out her teaser with a with a little fancy shot there. Yeah. And then we come back to sickbay. Yes. He has suffered a neurolyptic shock. The doctor is working on him and it's frenetic because he's still he's still convulsing. He's not stopped convulsing. It's pretty hardcore to watch this to be honest. It's like, oh my gosh, is he going to live? Is he going to? And this shot, by the way, you talk about frenetic. This shot of going from the doctor over to Neelich. So back to Tuvok is a really exciting handheld shot that Roxanne did. here and probably Marvin had the camera on his shoulder doing this. Marvin Rush. And it was just really well done. It captured the energy and the chaos of them trying to deal with Tuvok's

injury. Well, then Janeway's also there, of course. And she does, she does ask Neelix whether or not the Cassat, who Neelix was negotiating with earlier if they had anything to do with this or if they know anything, what's going on. And Neelix was like, well, it's not going to hurt to ask. So we jumped to the briefing room where we meet for the first time deputy investigator, Narak. Narak comes in. This is Mark Mosy. Yeah.

Yep. I love the makeup, by the way. I love this. I thought the makeup was really cool. And I thought Mark worked it really well. Some actors work with their makeup and are able to, you know, work and express through it really well. Some can't. And I thought this makeup worked with Mark really well.

Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, Narok, Mark Moses. he tells Janeway that he believes Tuvok was attacked by the Beneth. Yeah. You know, and what's interesting is he does talk about, he does say that that Janeway is lucky that he was assigned. This, more than assigned, he had to bribe his superior to be assigned.

I love this. He assigned this because this is mythical. The Beneth to the Cassat are like, it's, the analogy is big foot. Big foot to us. Big foot. Big foot to us is what I'm going to say, right? It's just so few sightings. I think the number was 12 in the history of the Cassatian.

Yeah, he says this would be the 13. This would be the 13 time. Yeah, that there's a, yeah. But he definitely believes in this myth. And he bribes his boss, by the way, with two bottles of Cassatian ale, he says, which I thought was funny. It is funny. I would like to try the Cassadian.

I know you would like to try the cassatian. I guess. Cassatian ale. Yeah. Yes. But he hopes that maybe. maybe they can work together and try to prove this theory, basically prove that Bigfoot is real because everyone who's been attacked, the other 12 victims have not survived.

And the other 12 victims have all been ships that were foreign to the sector. They were not local ships. So he believes that they are basically trying to see, basically trying to flesh out what they're dealing with because they're such a private species that they want to make sure that they can assess the threat level of every new ship that comes into their sector. And whenever someone almost catches them, then they have to sort of incapacitate them to the point that they cannot tell their superiors or anybody else what happened. Yeah.

So they do discuss how Tuvok's tricorder found this cloaking frequency, but the tricorder was destroyed and so they don't have the data. Right. So he's like, well, let me, let me try to, you know, talk to Tuvok. Let's try to find out what this cloaking frequency is. Maybe Tuvok knows and that we can prove that this, the Bigfoot exists, that these ghosts exist. So we go to sick bay and, um, the doctor's talking about Tuvok's brain. There's a, there's a shot of the monitor where we see Tuvok's brain. I've never seen a Vulcan brain before, but it looks like three brains. It looks like a baby brain. And then another.

brain on the outside and then like his cranium, I think even the doctor says at some point something like maybe another scene. He says it's an enigma wrapped in a, I think I made the note later. But yeah. But Vulcan brains are like three brains. But when you made that description, all I could think of was that little nursery song, baby brain do do do do to do baby brain instead a baby shark so baby brain do to do to do okay so I think in this scene actually I was I was kind of spacing out zoning out because I was trying to remember this is the scene where the doctor just says Vulcan brains are more resilient than most species later we see an insert of the three brains okay and then I was like oh there's so anyway his brain is not dead one of the 13 attacks

that that Narak was talking about and that's why Tuvok's not dead because of his Vulcan brain has been able to survive this. Neelix wants to help. Yeah, Neelix is still there. Everybody's kind of like taking off and Neelix is standing there staring at too, Vok, because he feels horrible. He feels horrible. Yeah.

And the doctor's like, well, he feels the doctor senses, Neelix is really upset. He's very emotional about this. The doctor says, yeah, maybe you could hang out and, you know, maybe some stimuli might help. Like aromas, touch, voices, things like that. So Neelix is like, huh, all right, so if I stay here and I try to talk to Tuvac, I might be able to provoke some sort of response. And again, a funny line with from the doctor, well, if anyone can provoke Tuvok, Mr. Neelix, it's you. And again, the doctor is really, he's not as, he's not as abrasive in this episode as he normally is, which I really, I really enjoyed that. This episode has a ton of heart from everybody.

So much heart. So much heart. And we have a little bit of. of a time cut. We've seen Neelix coming down the hall with a cart of Tuvok's possessions. He has everything. Books, flowers. He's got some kind of stringed instrument. He's got everything. And he turns the corner into Sick Bay. And we reveal that he's, he's already brought a ton of stuff. Yeah, there's already, it's like a Vulcan flag in there. There's flowers everywhere. He brought the game Caltoe. Yeah, the Calto game is there. He also brought a book. It's a Vulcan drama. So I guess this is the script, like Shakespeare.

It's the Vulcan drama Clash of the Fire Plains. And he says, I will be performing all the roles myself, which I loved. I really wanted to hear Neelix performing the Vulcan drama clash on the fireplains. Was that here? Is that in? He never does it, but he says he's going to perform all the roles. Yeah, yeah. And then he turns on some Vulcan music.

And it's like this crazy chanting. Yeah, the chance of the monks of Teponnet is what he plays. and it's loud and it's really annoying and we cut to the doctor in his office like his head pops up he's like he comes out what is that dreadful noise turn it off and neelix turns off the music and uh talks to doctor for a second then the doctor goes back to work and the camera pans over again uh Roxanne Dawson did a great reveal of two lock is suddenly already sitting up he's seated he's sitting up on the bio bed and he's conscious it's like conscious but he's not speaking and neelix calls for the doctor doctor tries to talk to him but he's clearly scared him he tries to scan him and that's what

scares him he's just like what the yeah so it's scared we know immediately he's not himself at this point so yeah yeah and and so neelix calms him down and neelix scans him right didn't he look scan him at the end yeah well no neelix calms him down and he goes okay now you can go ahead And so that's what it is. Yeah, Nelix, Nelix calms him down and then the doctor. Yeah, Nelix demonstrates by scanning himself and then he hands it off to the doctor. Very sweet. It's very, clearly like we see, Tuvok is alive, but he's almost like an infant, like very, very innocent and naive and totally different than the Tufuq we've ever seen before.

Tim did a great job. Yeah. We go to the Delta Flyer next, and Narak is using his scanner. He set up some of his equipment. he shows Janeway what this thing does and it picks up some kind of sound and I love his line

that's the sound of history being made and she says please Mr. Narak less poetry more facts she's like usually she's very dramatic but in this case he's the dramatic one and she's like calm down just give me the science so the science is basically the sound that you're hearing is the presence

of these veridium isotopes. Is it veridium or beridium? I thought it was beridium. Oh, okay. Maybe it's beridium isotopes. And then the residual particles from the B'neth's cloaking field is basically what this is. Yeah, seven explains this is the residual particles. They're still active in here.

Okay, so Narak now has a photolitic converter that can illuminate them, almost like an infrared, you know, laser camera or something. Yeah. And he turns this thing on. and he can illuminate the residual particles of the benneth. And we see this sort of abstract outline. And this is the moment I was like, oh, this is like Ghost Hunter tools.

Like when you've watched those shows, with Ghosts, very much so. The sound things and the infrared cameras and heat sensors. It's like, that's what he's doing. Janeway even asked him earlier, she says, have you detected these isotopes before? And he's like, yeah, but only after they've decayed because usually by the time he gets there,

it's been 70 hours since the last, you know, that's the, that's, that's the soonest he's gotten to anything where he's been able to detect anything. And the, and the image is very faint. So this is a, this is a very fresh one. It's still abstract. So Stephen says she's going to adjust the internal sensors. He's nervous that it could ruin everything. Rock starts to freak out. He really does. He's like, he's going to lose the whole image. And he, of course, seven's like, get seven to the side. Yeah. Yes, she adjust the internal sensors. And they hit it again. And now it's a much more vivid. the image of this alien, and it has tentacles, which I thought this was cool.

I thought the look of these aliens is very cool. I also think it would have been funny if No Rock started freaking out and Seven just turned to him and said, don't make me assimilate you and continued like that. Sorry, that's just random. But basically we go out of this scene with Janeway saying, maybe we can adapt this technology so that Voyager's sensors can reveal the ships. out in space. So if we can, it'll be the same kind of cloaking, we can at least reveal them, but they still need this cloaking. That cloaking frequency, which Tuvok discovered, but his

tricorder is fried. He's fried. Exactly. We go to sickbay next. This is the Vulcan brain. Yeah, because I was a little confused. I'm like, wait a minute. What? When did he show the? This is the this is the one image that he talked about. They're more resilient than others. Now we see it. And the doctor describes it as a puzzle wrapped inside an enigma housed in a cranium. And I love this insert. I was like, how many brains do Vulcans have? It's just brain after brain after brain. It's like a Russian nesting doll, you know.

They're all inside each other. I love it. I love it. But that's pretty cool. I never knew that about Vulcans. And the doctor says in the scene that Tuvok's brains, because they're so resilient, his three brains or whatever, they are. rewiring themselves that it's actually healing itself but very slowly yeah and uh he says i don't know

if it's just his anatomy i don't know if it's what i'm doing i maybe it's even what neelix is doing so there's some incurs maybe it's neelix i think it was neelix and they look over and tuvac is studying flowers all the flowers that neelks brought in for smell he's and he's got him up close to his face like a little kid or something like an animal almost like he's very much like a like an infant discovering everything for the first time i thought he was going to eat the flowers i it was right i was like oh i hope he eats him but he didn't um i thought he was going to lick the flower but okay all right but neelix comes over again to comfort him and is very positive and just says don't worry you know don't worry because he still hasn't spoken yet very yeah very calming

and very encouraging on the part of Neelix all throughout this episode. Yeah. We go to the bridge next. Yes, because Neelich says to the doctor, I'm going to take him on a tour of the ship. And this is maybe something that sights and sounds that might jog his memory a little bit. So now we're on the bridge. Go ahead. We go to the bridge.

Neelix brings Tuvok in. And there's Harry over at Tuvok Station. There you are. Yeah. I was like, but you're, you would be engineer. I don't know. It just made no sense. Like, why are you at security or tactical? Because Tupac is down.

I'm taking his spot. Yeah, but wouldn't someone else, wouldn't you be at your spot? And they would just have someone in that department, like that, that is more specialized for that? Well, clearly, I am so good at everything. You must be so good. Yes, that I've been placed over there. Well, you know what? Harry is, he's not engineering.

And that's a fallacy that a lot of fans think. He's actually the operations officer. and the communications officer. He's the only person in Star Trek history that has two chief jobs, okay? So that's, yeah, that's pretty impressive. I did not know that. You didn't know that.

But operations covers all departments. It's sort of like the manager of all. So he knows tactical as well. But you're right. The reasoning would be find somebody that is part of Tuvok security detail to take his place. Yes, his lieutenant or whoever,

his second-in-command. Right-hand person is. that would make more sense, I think, but anyway, it would. But it was nice that you were there because he steps in and he's starting to like check out the buttons and he starts pushing some buttons. Yeah. And all of a sudden Harry's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, no. He activated the photon torpedo banks.

Yeah. Yes. Yes, that's not good. So Nelix shuffles him out. Yeah. It is of note that after he hits that button and, you know, Harry's a little like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. but Neelix is still, I mean, he's like, everybody makes mistakes and we'll be back later. So again, really comforting and consoling him the entire time. It's really good.

All right. Now we're in Club Tuvok. Club Tuvok's quarters, Neelix has shown him around. I didn't know that Tom Paris, he says, Neelix says, Tom Paris calls this the Vulcan Vault. Why do you think Tom Paris calls it the Vulcan Vault? I know for a fact Tom Paris calls it Club Tuvok. I know that too. So I don't know why Neelix has got this confused. It is Colt-Vulken Vault. The Vulcan Vault is fine.

That could be a nightclub name as well. Vulcan Vault. Are you going down to the Vulcan Vault? I am. Next, so they're going to take a little look around two bucks quarters. We go to Astromedric. She's working with Narak. And they're trying to integrate this scanning technology into our deflector array

so that we can spot these ships. They say they're ready. to the bridge, Janeway takes a seat and she says, okay, Seven, do it. And we go back to Seven in the Rock. Seven activates it. We go out to space. There's a big shot from the ship, our main sort of weapons, you know, part of the ship. This big shot comes out from the ship. We cut around behind Janeway to an angle of view screen we don't often see. Again, Roxanne doing some, you know, time. Doing some fancy moves here, Roxanne. Yeah, just some different stuff.

But it's a nice wide shot. And we do see on the view screen, we reveal that there is a ship that was cloaked. Yeah. And Janeway says, hail them. And Harry's response is, uh, which one? Which one? There's practically a fleet out there, he says. And then we cut to space.

And it's a super cool shot of all of these ghost ships. Yeah, they're all over the place. Everywhere surrounding us. Yeah, they really are. They almost look, because of the effect that we have, once we shed light on them, they almost look like constellations in a way, in a way, you know, kind of floating constellations. Yeah, it was very cool shot. Yeah.

But Kim does realize that they're charging weapons because Janeway does announce, she says, this is Captain Catherine Janeway, a Federation Starship Voyager, we intend you no harm. Kim notices that they're charging weapons. Janeway says shields, and we get hit. You say that they're scrambling captain in all directions. And Janeways has followed the lead vessel. So we take after the lead vessel. Hey, Garrett, have you been traveling this summer?

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And Tuvok is now scared. He's so scared. He's frightened. He's under the table. He's under a table. He's down on the ground. hiding under a table as if he's in southern california waiting for an earthquake to happen he's under a table neelix pops down there on the floor with him and says you are safe with me oh yeah and he comforts

him and i love that they got their hands in the shot yeah both neelix's hand goes to laxie and hand yeah yeah oh you're talking about it just the fact that he held his hand right just the support yeah it was very sweet in that in that tight shot with tewok in the foreground just freaking out Neelix behind him on the ground and their hands kind of on the table leg or something. It was just a nice, simple shot, but told a lot of story. Yeah, we jump back to the bridge. They're still not responding to our hails. Paris basically says that, you know, the Banness ship is moving out of the deflectors range.

So once it moves out of the deflectors range, we can't see them, right? Yeah, we've lost it possible. We need that badgum cloaking frequency. And without that, you know, they can't, we can't do anything. Now we go back to Tuvok's quarters and it seems like this shaking is over. Neelix is reassuring him. He says, look, I told you we would be safe. I promised you.

And suddenly Tuvok speaks. Yes, you did. His first word. Yes, you did. But he doesn't sound like Tuvok. He sounds like a little kid. He does. He does.

And Neelich's like the proud dad. I mean, he's very excited. He's like, what? What did I just do? Tuvok's like, you told me, I wouldn't be hurt. Neelux. Do you know who I am? You're Neelix.

I'm safe with you. And again, the same delivery of basically a very young boy, a very young Vulcan is what we hear from Tuvok. But again, it's very, it's great to see that there is some progress. And I do believe a lot of it has to do with Neelix. I do. We're in the ready room. And Narak is talking with Neelix and I think Janeway's in there.

And Narak is saying, I need Tuvok to tell us everything. Basically, he wants information, wants this cloaking frequency. Neelik says, Neilick says, you can't, we can't not, we cannot push him. Yeah. Got to go slow. He's very emotional. And Neelix is very protective. And then Neelix goes and opens the door to the ready room.

And there's Tuvok sitting on the step. Yeah. Oh, so cute. It was. I don't know if that was scripted or if that was Roxanne or Tim, but I love that. I love that. He was just sitting there. Yeah.

And it takes a seat by Janeway's desk. They're kind of gathered around and they ask him if he can remember the cloaking frequency. We have a push in, a nice, you know, foreshot that sort of keeps pushing into Tuvok. Yeah. And then there's a flashback. It's like a walking insert of this tricorder. He's his POV of the tricorder when this happened. Yeah.

And it goes back to the ready room and he's trying to remember. And he has another flashback. back where he drops the tricorder it's you know it's the moment that he got shot um and he starts to panic toovok starts to panic and janeway says that's enough uh we got to stop this and stops everything and um so they didn't get they didn't get the information they wanted but janeways makes an effort here she's like you know maybe tuvok you and i could have lunch just the two of us Yeah. And then Tuvok's like, I prefer to stay with Neelix and my babysitter. Yeah, so cute. It is.

Which is really interesting because, you know, Janeway and Tuvok are very close. Yeah. I like that they have a moment here, a real nice moment to, you know, acknowledge their relationship that Janeway wanted to have some time with him. But we stay on our story because he doesn't go with her. He stays with Neelix. Yeah. Now we go to the mess hall. Oh, yes. Now here's my big. scene. So Kim gets to play Calto or teach, reteach Calto to Tuvac, who taught Kim how to play Calto.

So Kim starts going through the rules of how, how the game works. And Tuvok right off the bat says, I like the way it looks now. I wrote that down too. He's kind of, he's got a big smile in his place. I like the way it looks now. I don't want to play. And then as he starts to try to play, it doesn't go so well for him. The whole thing crumbles down. And he's like, I don't I don't like this game, like a typical kid who's not happy with something like this. Yeah. It's breaking. I can't play it. He gets frustrated and angry. Yeah. And Kim does try to be, you know, more encouraging. He's like, well, you know, when you first taught me how to play, I, I wasn't very good either, but you kept encouraging me. And pretty soon, I scored my first Calto. It just takes

practice. That's all. And again, Neelix tries to encourage. Try it again. You can do it. And Tuvok kind gets a little upset. He's down like this. He's done. He gets up. He kind of storms away. we have a space flyby here there were some cool space shots too by the way there were some different angles of the ship that I thought we go to sick bay and Tuvok says the doc tells Neelix the doctors helped him access his personnel fine and Neil's comments I like your picture it's a good picture of you my picture is horrible yeah I love but he starts reading Tuvok starts reading through all of his accomplishments. He was an instructor at Starfleet Academy, 17 commendations for valor.

He's a husband. He's a father. All these things. And again, Neelix's line. You're an extraordinary fellow, Tuvok. I mean, it's just very simple dialogue, but very effective dialogue all throughout here. And then Tuvok says, I was extraordinary. But, you know, and Neelix is like, well, you're still the same as well, well, then why don't

I work on the bridge any longer? So it's sad as well, but it's still, again, all these lines, very short, very brief, but very efficient and to the point. And they all pull on your heartstrings all throughout this episode. Well, it's just showing that, you know, he was this person, but he's not right now. He's not anymore. Yeah. And he, you know, part of the story is he may never be that person again and kind of learning to accept what is instead of what was. Yeah. And I do, I do feel like there are our listeners out there who have had similar experiences in life where loved ones have gone through some type of stroke or some type of hemorrhage or where they survived and they were not the

same person. So I'm sure this episode really hit home with a lot of our viewers and listeners as well. Yeah. But he does get really frustrated and emotional and starts kind of violently shoving Nelix, get away from me. And it's starting to get out of hand. The doctor comes in. and says, you know, Mr. Neelix, you're going to have to leave. Yeah, I'll take it from here. I'll take it from here. So it's not going well. We have another space fly by.

We go to the mess hall. Neelix comes in and find seven. Yeah, looking out the window. And it's dark. It's late at night. Yeah, yeah. I love the dark mess hall look, by the way. Yeah, me too.

And she's pondering. I think Neelix says, oh, are you pondering? Yeah. He offers to help. She says, you can't help. And he says, try me. She says, how do you find something that's invisible? So there's a little riddle here.

Yeah. And he looks like you mean the beneath? Yeah. Yeah, she needs this cloaking frequency. And then he sort of sits down. I love the staging in this scene because it's very simple. But the way that he sits and then he gets up is he's talking about when is a Vulcan, not a Vulcan. Yeah.

He gives a riddle to seven to seven and sort of puzzles this out by getting up and pacing and I just thought the staging was really appropriate and kept the shot moving. It was really well done. Simple but well done. Yeah. He's puzzling out how to restore Tuvok to the old Tuvok. And Seven's advice, her response to the riddle is you're going to have to adapt to the circumstances. Just like when she came on board and, you know, Janeway helped her to adapt to her new

circumstances. She didn't try to make seven into who she, restore her into who she had been as a board. But she, Janeway helped her discover who she could become and what she could become. And that sort of lands for Neelix. Yeah, it does. So we go back to Sick Bay, Neelix comes in.

Tuvok is making a flower. Yeah, he's sculpting one out of what material wax, I guess. Maybe the candle wax or something. Yeah, that's what I think it is. And he's making, sculpting this flower as a gift for Neelix. And it's his way of apologizing for getting angry.

And Neelix apologizes for pushing him. And Neelix says it now that he's talked to seven, he's like, you know what? Maybe he doesn't need to go back to who he was. Maybe he can be better than he was before. Yeah. And he says like making this flower, you never would have done that before. You would have called it a waste of time. Yeah.

And Tuvok's like, it's not a good flower. It's no good. And Nealick's like, no, no, it's wonderful, it's creative. It's a symbol of our friendship. Before your accident, you never would have considered that my feelings might have been hurt. And you would have certainly never have made me a gift. So, I mean, these are huge behavioral changes on the part of Tuvok. And honestly, I think Neelix is absolutely touched by this. I mean, he can't, you know, this is in his wildest dreams, he would never have expected this type of emotion or this type of consideration from Tuvok.

And I think he's bathing in it. He loves it in a way, you know, deep down. And Tuvok even asks him, were we friends before? Yeah. And Neelik says, well, you tolerated me. We were colleagues, and I certainly felt affection for you. And Tuvok's like, but I didn't return those feelings. And then that's what he says, you tolerated me.

And he doesn't understand that. And then Neelick starts doing his impersonation of Tuvok. He said, you said things like, Mr. Neelix, or please contain your exuberance. And Mr. Neelix, I have no desire for fun. And you never smiled and you've got a much better sense of humor now. And I love Tuvok going, I like to smile. And it is disconcerting to see that because we are so used to six seasons worth of straight-edged Vulcan and to see Tim Russ.

Tim Russ, ear-to-ear smiles. It's just like, wow. And, you know, in real life, Tim does laugh and smile a lot. as Tuvok, no, we don't see that. So it's a different side of him. Yeah, totally different side. And Tuvok says in the scene, he says, I don't want to play Calto or meditate or work on logic problems anymore. Teach me what you like. Yeah, he wants to be Talaxian. He doesn't be, he doesn't be Vulcan anymore, basically. Yeah. So we cut to the mess hall. Yeah. And Neelix and Tuvok are bringing over for Harry and Harry Kim and Tom Parris are sitting in the mess hall.

being served by Tuvok's new creations, he's bringing over a triple chocolate wiki fruit Sunday with warm fetrin sauce. And Paris looks to nail her fetrin sauce on a Sunday? And then they try it. And it's delicious.

It's an amazing idea that Tuvok had. There's a phase of my life where I was really into trying the most bizarre toppings on the most, you know, things that you don't typically put them on, right, just to see what, what I could come up with. Did you ever go to the ice cream place, Farrell's ice cream? Yes, yes, yes. They were in malls usually. Yeah.

When I was a kid, I would go to this place, Farrell's ice cream. And if it was your birthday, yes. You could order this thing for your birthday party, all your friends. Yeah. It was called the zoo. And it was this massive huge. Yes. It was a massive bowl, like a punch bowl.

Yeah. Filled with every flavor of ice cream. and every topping, and they called it the zoo. How many scoops do you think they put into the zoo? Oh, there must have been 50 scoops of ice cream. Yeah. It had everything on it. And they'd bring it over on like a stretcher almost.

Yeah. You remember this? And they'd run through the whole restaurant with this big punch bowl of ice cream. And they'd run around with alarms going. And then they'd set it down and saying, happy birthday. That's what this scene reminded me of. It reminded me of being at Ferrells and getting like, the zoo the biggest is feral still it's gone right it's not even gone yeah i don't think it's

there anymore you remember the zoo that's so but this is what the scene reminds me of because they bring over a table filled with desserts that tuvac has been making oh yeah and then janeway enters yeah and uh they offer her up at one of the desserts yeah taranette suflay and then she tasted and she's like oh and she falls onto you did you notice that no she's like she's like collapses. She catches herself on your shoulder. Okay. Yes. Yeah. It was so, it was very dramatic. I loved it. I enjoy being the captain's crutch. Catcher. Yes. Catcher and crutch it needed. And then she, she thinks it's delicious. And she follows Tuvac over to the counter where

he goes back to work, making these desserts. He's decorating cake now. Yeah. And she asks about the cloaking field. Well, first she says, do you remember anything more about what happened in the flyer. And he says, well, I detected a cloaking frequency. And Janeway goes, yeah, yeah, that's right. Can you describe it? And he's like, I don't know. And Janeway then throws out some technical babble. She says, did it have a symmetric modulation? Was the amplitude constant? And of course, I knew this is too much for Tuvok. He's like, I don't understand. And Tuvok then grabs an icing bag. And we don't see it because he's standing behind the counter. It looks like he's He's just avoiding her question.

He's like, I don't know. I'm just going to go make some more dessert stuff, right? And he's kind of struggling and getting frustrated as she questions him. Nelix comes over and says, you know, Captain, this is very difficult for him right now. Yeah. And then suddenly Tuvok pulls this cake out. Puts it down because this is what I saw. On top of the cake, you see with the red icing a actual.

Like the waveform. It's a wave form, exactly. Of the cloaking frequency. Yes. Yes. So he draws it out on the cake. So we go to space. There's a captain's log supplemental that says the computer has analyzed Tuvok's diagram. And it's identified the Beneth cloaking frequency. Narrowed the search to a handful of systems. Yeah. And now we're getting close. We're getting warm. We go to the bridge. And Kim announces, he goes, all right,

captain a nine million terawatt cloaking field in grid 216 chikote is like nine million terawatts that's whatever they're hiding it's like hiding a mall basically is what it is it's massive uh so janeway's immediately okay alter course mr paris and paris gives us his traditional yes ma'am and we head over to the uh the nine million terawatt cloaking field area no let me just say something bet this bridge scene. So we just got the frequency on a cake. We go to the bridge two seconds later and Harry's found it, nine million terawatt cloaking field in grid 2, 216. Yeah. So Cody says that that's huge. Janeway immediately says let's alter course. Yeah. Okay. We're there within seconds. That's my point. That's my point. That's the only whole is it's

alter course. Yeah. Seven responds, deflector arrays ready. Yeah. Then Jimmy goes shields. and persons were within range. What? We were right on top of them. We literally had to be right on top of them. And by the way, why am I at Harry Station? You are. Why am I at Harry Station?

If she says alter course, I should be flying the ship down below. You can, you can, you can, you can, you can transfer controls over. You can transfer navigational controls over. But you see what I'm saying. I do see what you're saying. This is the thing where we're in the wrong place. No, it's not because we have to take. We have to pick up the slack for Tuvok not being there. That's it.

Well, I think also, I do, I do remember shooting this scene vaguely. And I remember, yeah, and I remember asking why, and I think I remember saying this to Roxanne, why am I up here? Oh. And she had a shot. And if you look at the scene, the shot starts with you over at your side and then Janeway passes seven. Yes. And then comes to me. Yeah.

And she couldn't have done that shot if I was down front. That's right. And so there you go. I think it was just for this shot. Yeah. Just so that it could keep going without cutting down to me down front. But I remember going, okay, it doesn't. I remember this going, I'm not sure I should be here, but you guys want to say it's logical, sure.

But variety is the spice of life. And sitting down at con the entire seven years is kind of boring. That's fine. You know, as far as like filmmaking side of things, sure, it's fine for me to be anywhere you want. Okay. But from a logic point of view and the fact that it took about 3.2 seconds for us to find it and be there, that, that bitching to me was, it was a little, there was some holes.

Let's just leave it at that. Okay. So we have warp power and we have super warp power. And I'm clearly of the understanding that you use super warp to get us there within 3.2 Well, that's why I had to go up to your station because super warp is only up there. accessible from ops you're right that's yeah that okay now it all comes together that makes sense okay so anyway we see we see this thing so we're there we cut to out to space and we see this giant yeah array or what's like a space station yeah we have to but we have to turn on the deflector

right when we get there and that's we got a light them up with our ghost hunter tools um it's an armed outpost uh 3,000 life signs 22 ships james way says hail them No response. Chikote says they're charging weapons. Janeway says, open a channel. All subspace bands. They're firing and they do fire. But then Janeway quickly says, you know, cease firing immediately. Or I will transmit the coordinates of this outpost to the Cassat. The Cassat will find out where you're at. Now, send it to the Cassat Homeworld and they'll know where you're at. And so it does stop. Yeah. She then goes on and says, look, several days ago, a member of my crew, was attacked by one of your species, badly injured, and the only way we can treat him is we need

to know more about the weapon that was used. And they do respond. Kim says they're responding, audio only. We hear this sort of computerized voice almost, you know, and they're like, we do not share technology. And Janeway says, look, you take it from others. Your attacker was downloading our tactical database when this incident occurred. And then they say that they have to assess. potential threats. And Iraq in the background is, you know, commenting on this whole thing. He's talking about how paranoid they are. And Janeway says, well, in exchange for this information about your weapon, we will provide you with tactical data on several of the species that we have recently encountered. And then you can assess their threats, you know, on your own time, basically,

without affecting anybody or injuring or incapacitating anybody else. So she's negotiating and basically they think about it and then they're like nope you've gotten a rock on board yeah they think that he's yeah you can't be trusted he's a bad egg yeah yeah they start to charge weapons and then norac says wait wait wait but he offers them yeah but before he offers him that when when they say his name that he can't be trusted he what the way he responded was almost like a super excited ghost hunter you know he was you know me you know about me i mean he was it's almost as if he's a fan of the Banas, you know, this, this myth. He's, he's, he's, he's looking for Bigfoot. And the fact that the Bigfoot knows about it knows who he is. Oh yeah. It made his day. He says he'll, he'll

offer them the equipment that he used to detect their cloaking frequency or their cloak. Right. And then they can figure out how to defeat that so that people can't find them. Basically, the ghost hunter technology, he'll give it to him so that they can defend themselves. Yeah. And Janeway, you know, adds to that. She said, says, you know, take this or I'll tell their cass up where you are, right, reminder. So they agree. They take the deal. It's a good deal.

It's a really good deal. We go to Tuvok's quarters next. He's listening to jazz. That's why it's Club Tuvok. Yeah, you got to have some type of music, Club Tuvok. He's sitting on the windowsill, just kind of jamming out to jazz. Neelix comes in. He's like, what's that?

And Tuvok responds, this is Tom Paris's jazz database. Look at that. Tom, you're everywhere. It really swing. It swings. Tom Parris, you really swing. Yes. He's having a blast.

He's listening to jazz. And then he tells Neelix he wants to go to the water park at Riza on the holodeck. The pleasure planet water park. I love that. I love it. It's like he wants to go do the water slides. It's like, hey, dad, can we go to the water park today? And Neelix is like, okay, son.

But maybe after your doctor's appointment and Tuvok's like, wait a minute, appointment. Neelix gives him the information that the doctor has analyzed the Beneth weapon now that we have all this information. And he has devised a procedure or a.k.a. operation to treat you. And basically, Neelix says, you should be proud of yourself. You know, if you hadn't drawn that picture on that cake, we never would have found this treatment. And that's when Tuvok quickly says, I wish I never drew that picture because he doesn't want to change. And it's so sad. And Nelix is like, you'll be yourself again. And he goes, he doesn't want that.

Yeah, he doesn't want that. Which is interesting. Even in this moment, and it's, it's, you know, it's referenced later ultimately in this episode. But you start to go, wow, he says, I am myself. And you kind of think, or I thought like, wow, I wonder if this was always into Vok, this kind of. Yeah. It was always there. It's just he good, didn't know how to express it.

Couldn't express it. but these kinds of emotions and feelings were always there so yeah it's an interesting you know it's different circumstances as seven said he's had this you know injury but it's still too vok he is himself he's not someone else it's this is part of who he is yeah and i really like that idea i do and he pleads with nilix he says but i just want to have fun and i want to have fun with you and will i still be able to do that and and you know neelix says well you know you won't call it fun you will call it deriving satisfaction but basically it's the same thing i mean you'll still experience emotions and two boxes but i won't express them neelix is like no you probably won't

and then that that uh that one line where two boxes will still be friends and neelix is like of course even if i merely tolerate you oh neel it's like i'd be lying if i told you that things between us will stay the same and again it's heartbreaking it's i got choked out in this part I got choked up. Definitely. And Tuvok says, well, how will you know how much I enjoy being with you? Yeah. And this really lands.

And this got me. I was tearing up here. Yeah. And Neelik says, because you just told me. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. It's very, very, very good.

Tuvok says to him, why do I have to have this procedure? Why do I have to go back to who I was? And Neelik says, because this crew needs its tactical officer. Right. on the bridge. Yeah, these are tough choices because it's a fair question. Like, why do we have to change him back?

Why couldn't this just be Tuvok now? Yeah. And his tag, his button on that dialogue is, after he says, because this crew needs its tactical officer, he says, and I wouldn't be a very good friend if I ignored that

just so that you'd be nicer to me. So it's just like, oh, God. This is a great scene. Give me a tissue, please. It's a great, great scene. We go to San, Bay. The doctor welcomes Tuvok. He says, I'm glad you're here. Yeah. And Tuvok is there for the procedure. He turns to Neelix. He says, I'll see you after the procedure. Yeah. And Neelich says,

of course. Tuvok goes over to the bed. And Neelik says to the doctor, I'm going to miss him. And the doctor says, me too. Super sweet. Again. And then, you know, then that shot where she's, it comes from above, right? Because he's on the biobed, another. Crane or cool cable. Yeah. I get another shot like that, which we don't normally see that angle very often. So again,

good job. And it's a tough to get that movement from the camera with the walls in the frame. Mm-hmm. You know, the logistics of figuring out how to support the camera there is tricky, and they did it. It's a great shot. Yeah.

We go to a space flyby again, back to the mess hall. Neelix is there, and Neelix comes in and sees Tuvok. And he says, Neelix says, hello, commander. And it's, it's old Tuvok. He's back to himself. And Neelix is glad that things went well. And Neelix says, maybe we should celebrate with some champagne.

Yeah. And Tuvok's kind of dismissive tea will suffice. Yeah. He's back to his old self again. He's back to his old self. Neelix tries, well, maybe we could just have some of your famous desserts. Yeah. And Tuvok's like, nope.

nutritionally deficient foods because Neelix kind of talks about he's preparing a special dinner for in honor of Tuvok and that's when he asked whether or not he's willing to prepare one of the desserts and yeah he's back to old Tuvok

he doesn't make desserts it's nutritionally deficient yeah so Neelich starts to go it's it's the old Tuvok yeah you know we feel for Neelix here we do sad he's kind of lost his friend and he hears Tuvok say Sundays

and that stops in and Nelik says I beg your pardon beg your pardon? Yeah. And Tuvac's like, you're riddle. It occurs to me

that he could also have eaten the Sundays. Oh my God, Neelix, that's a very clever answer, Mr. Vulcan, but it's not very logical, is it?

And Tuvok admits it isn't. No. Yes. And he's not. It's awesome. It's kind of thinking, It's resonating. It's, it is.

For Tuvac, you know that, again, that that Tuvok we saw during this episode isn't someone else. It's him. It's just deep in there. Yeah. It's part of who he is. And Neelix knows it. So I, I, I'm amazing. Good job, Tim Russ.

Good job. Ethan Phillips. Good job, Robert Doherty. Good job, Andre Bormanis. Good job, Roxanne Dawson. So all across the board, everyone pulled their weight. Everyone knocked it out of the park. So we're really, really happy to have seen this episode.

And honestly, you don't remember much of this when you started watching this. I was sitting there going, what the, what is this? It took me a while to kind of have memories of, oh, until that Caltoe scene, that's when I realized, oh, I do kind of remember that scene. But up until then, I was a little curious. I remember being in the wrong, at the wrong console. That's all I remember. Okay. What's your lesson for this? There's a lot of lessons in there.

There are many good things, but I guess the simplest lesson for me is it's a reminder that all of us has more inside of us that's not always easy for other people to see. There was more inside of Tuvok. We got a chance to see it in this circumstance, but it's not someone else. It's part of who Tuvok is. And that was the lesson to me. Yeah, I think for me, it's more about a lesson about companions. about being there for somebody because, you know, when somebody's comatose, the thought

process is, well, there's not much that can be done, but just the physical presence of another human being that is giving compassion or care, empathy for the person that is comatose being there for them. So Neelix being there for Tuvok, it made all the difference in the world. How important it is to be there for your friends, for people that we care about. Yes. Even if you're not even saying anything, even if you're just sitting next to somebody, being there as support. And that person knows that you're there. That means everything. Yeah. Agreed. Yeah. My rating for this, I would almost give this a perfect score, 10 out of 10. But there were some people at the wrong consoles. I would say my console was the right console that you were at.

How dare you call it the wrong console? Well, Tuvok was flying the Delta Flyer. I was standing at operations. There was a lot of... You know what, you're right. Robbie, it should not have been called riddles. It should have been called the wrong console. Yes.

It should have been the name of this episode. So with that in mind, I cannot give this a 10 out of 10, but I will give it a 9.8 out of 10. Oh, my God. nine point eight oh one of my highest ratings of all it is it is i'm going to be i'm going to play devil's advocate and i'm going to say i'm going to say that it's it's going to skew lower than that just because so i'm going to give it a i'm giving this one an 8.5 is where i'm going to give it okay let's see what we have see and you give your answers you're trying to game out like what is the

average and you're trying to get close to that. Whereas I'm just giving mine. I don't care. I'm trying to. I want to nail it. Two. I'm still going to give it a 9.8. That's your parochate? Hey, you're allowed to do that. Okay. All right. Our, our Captain Admiral's average rating for riddles is 8.1. Oh, I was going to go down to 8.2, but I thought you'd get mad at me. So I gave it a little bit more. So I was so close. 9.8 for me. I stand by my 9.8. It's a. really good episode. Good for you. Um, there we have it. There we have it. All right, everyone. Thank you for joining Robbie and I on our recap and discussion of this episode. And join us next week

when Robbie and I recap and discuss the episode, Dragon's Teeth. You're the Dragon. So this might be a good episode for you to watch. This is all about your teeth, basically. Okay. Great. Okay. All right. See you next week. Thank you. Thanks, everybody. You know, So, Thank you.