The Delta Flyers - The Gift

Episode Date: August 30, 2021

The Delta Flyers is a weekly Star Trek: Voyager rewatch and recap podcast hosted by Garrett Wang and Robert Duncan McNeill. Each week Garrett and Robert will rewatch an episode of Voyager starting at the very beginning. This week’s episode is The Gift. Garrett and Robbie recap and discuss the episode, and share their insight as series regulars.The Gift:Kes bestows an amazing gift on the crew before transforming into a higher form of life; the Doctor removes Seven of Nine's Borg technology.We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Executive producers Megan Elise and Rebecca McNeill, and our Post Producer Jessey Miller.And 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, and Tim Russ.Additionally 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, Jason M Okun, Luz R., Marie Burgoyne, Chris Knapp, Michelle Zamanian, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Courtney Lucas, Matthew Gravens, Elaine Ferguson, Brian Barrow, Captain Jeremiah Brown, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, John Espinosa, James Zugg, Deike Hoffmann, Mike Gu, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Vikki Williams, Lee Lisle, Mary Beth Lowe, William McEvoy, Sarah Thompson, Holly Smith, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Amber Eason, Lucas Shuck, Mary Burch, Nicholaus Russell, Darryl Cheng, Alex Mednis, Elizabeth Stanton, Kayla Knilans, Tim Beach, Ariana, Meg Johnson, Marcus Vanderzonbrouwer, Nathan Walker, Shambhavi Kadam, and Christopher ArzebergerAnd our Producers:Jim Guckin, Steph Dawe Holland, James Amey, Katherine Hedrick, Eleanor Lamb, Richard Banaski, Eve England, Ann Harding, Laura Swanson, Ann Marie Segal, Charity Ponton, Chloe E, Kathleen Baxter, Craig Sweaton, Nathanial Moon, Warren Stine, Mike Schaible, Kelley Smelser, AJ Provance, Captain Nancy Stout, Claire Deans, Matthew Cutler, Crystal Komenda, Maxine Soloway, Joshua L Phillips, Barbara Beck, Mary O'Neal, Aithne Loeblich, Heidi Mclellan, Dat Cao, Cody Crockett, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, James Cottrell, Jenna Appleton, Cindy Ring, Andrei Dunca, Daniel Owen, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Amber Nighbor, Liz Lowe, Jamason Isenburg, Mark G Hamilton, Rob Johnson, Kevin Selman, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Justin Weir, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlmann, Mike Chow, Kevin Hooker, Michelle Maroney, Victor Ling, Scott J. Mark, John Mann, Michael "Klink" Klinckhardt, Megan Chowning, Rachel Shapiro, Eric Kau, Joseph Lanning, and Melissa A. NathanThank 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

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, make Neon. Wow, a little singing musical introduction. I like it. I like it. You know, you know. Oh, there you go. So, all right. I love a good musical. You know that about me. Yes. I love the Broadway musical.

You love a good musical and a new thing I know about you. You love a good dinner theater, which I do too. I do. I performed in, as a young actor in doing musicals, I did, let me count, one, two, three, four, five. I did five dinner theater productions in total. Oh, my goodness. Yes. And were all of these in Florida like you were talking about before?

No, we talked about yesterday, the one in Florida. I performed at a dinner theater in about 1984, probably. I was in the chorus of Annie Get Your Gun at the Country Dinner Playhouse in St. Petersburg, Florida. Oh, my goodness. It spent a few months there. It was great. It was a lot of fun. Yeah.

You know, there's somebody listening. right now going, I knew that was him after hearing this because, you know, we talked about, I asked you before, is that dinner theater still open? Because let's go visit. And then you said, no, unfortunately, it's shut down. But I think it lasted. The country dinner playhouse in St. Petersburg was at a mall. So you went into the mall. And then it was like going into a department store, but they had a big dinner theater in there. And it was around for, a couple of decades because ironically i googled recently i don't know why it came in my brain and i'm like i wonder if it's still there same question yes and it it looked like it shut down maybe 10 years

ago or something like that okay that means it was around through the 70s 80s and 90s yes yes and maybe the early 2000 so it was a it was a big a staple it was it was there for a long time so that means there may not be somebody who has seen you in any get your gun in the chorus. But there's probably definitely somebody who has been to that theater. That dinner theater in one of those decades, right? That is also listening to this podcast. And they're probably going, oh, yes, I love that dinner theater.

Well, we were talking about yesterday how we should come up with the Star Trek dinner theater. Yes. And, you know, every month, every four weeks or so have a new play with. some Star Trek actors. Yes. And because there's so many theater actors that have been on Star Trek over the years. Correct.

I venture to say almost all. You know what I'm saying? I mean, a majority. Yes. And they would love to do that. That would be so much fun. Oh, yeah. The actors used to,

I remember there was a, there was one convention out in the Midwest that would do a dinner theater night at the conventions. Who was, it was more like a staged reading. It wasn't a fully rehearsed. Right. But I remember I did a couple of,

them where it was like it was it was kind of like dinner theater i did um i think at a creation convention we did a dinner theater night where people came they got food at night right and then roxan dawson and i did a reading of love letters the play love letters yeah as the performance and that was really fun and that still goes on i think on the on the star trek cruise i think marina certis did the love letters but yes he did love letters yeah exactly love letters with somebody else. I can't remember who it was. It's a wonderful play. Yeah. And it's designed to be read. Like that's how it was it was created to be sort of read as letters. Right. And there's others, you know, there's other plays that that would work well, right? For our Star Trek dinner theater

idea. Yeah. You know, but then that's what he piggybacks on my my pipe dream of a Star Trek musical, you know, along the lines of Hamilton or whatever, right? That could be something that would be super, super cool, right? That'd be fun. But maybe we need to start smaller with the dinner theater and then move to the Broadway Star Trek show. Yes. There you go.

All right. What are we talking about? What are we watching this week? We are going to be watching a episode of Star Trek Voyager known as The Gift, the gift. The gift. Yes. So let's go watch this.

And we'll be right back. All right, everybody, we are back from watching The Gift. Yes, we are. The Gift. It was a gift. It was a gift of an episode. It was. Written by Mr. Monosky, so Joe Monosky, and this is Anson Williams' second directorial endeavor with us, I think, right? So this is only his second? This is only his second. Yeah, yeah, because Real Life was the first one, right? So the second one was... I haven't made it. keeping track. I remember he did multiple episodes with us, but I do know that this was really well

directed. Like, in the beginning, I was watching that. Great job. You know, that opening shot after the ship flies by and then we're in the Borg, we're in the cargo bay, you know, board regeneration pods. And it's panning across just the reveal. I was like, oh, I immediately thought it was Rick Colby. Yes. I was like, oh, Rick directed this. Yeah. And then when I saw Anson's name blader. I was like, whoa. He did good. He did some cool stuff. Yeah. I almost like Anson as much as I like you as a director. Almost. Yeah. Almost. He's really good. He's really good. And you know what's funny. Now that I'm in a position these days of hiring directors and things like that, I don't see his name floating out there. So I wonder, I feel like I'd love to get him on the podcast and hear about his

experience on our show and also just to see what he's up to because I don't know the minute I saw his name I thought oh my gosh why don't we reach out to answer yeah we really think that he would a a he would love to be on it because you know I got along well with him I'm sure you got along well with him yeah yeah the last time I saw him was the um at one of the star trek Las Vegas conventions and he was there with his wife and daughters yeah you I guess you weren't there at that one. And, you know, we hugged. It was just a wonderful reunion and he's just as amazingly nice and cool and awesome as he was back when he directed Voyager. So I really, I really think that we should reach out to him. And then, you know, now that you're in that position of being a producer,

you do have the option to suggest names to the production company. So maybe bring Anson in and do some of the some work. I know. I would love it. Why not? Yeah. Okay. So let's start off with our synopsis, our poetry synopsis? Let's do. Here is my haiku for the gift. Borg versus human. Kess develops new powers. Sends us closer home.

You like my dramatic delivery. I do. Usually a haiku tends to be very, you know, kind of calming and zen-like. But you were like drama haiku, drama hikud it because there's so much drama and arguing between Janeway and seven in this one. There is a lot of drama in this one. It affected me. It affected me. It did. Okay. Here's our limerick poetry for the gift. Lay it on me. Kess's gift grows stronger each day. Seven of nine is mad and doesn't want to stay. She will not comply. Apply. Janeway has to say goodbye. Kess pushes Voyager further on its way. Nice. See? Look at that.

Look at that. You're back. Or should I say you and Rebecca are back? You know, I will never, I will never verify. I don't want to specify. I think you should verify and specify. You need to give credit where credit is due, my friend. Credit is due to Rebecca. She pulls these together with me. Yeah, she's great. I have to say, she's so, there's a few things that have surprised me, you know, with Rebecca. Number one, her ability to pull a limerick out of thin air is quite amazing. That's number one.

And initially when we did our first slew of designs of Voyager designs for, you know, for the Delta Flyers, it was kind of like me saying, this is what I'm looking for. And let's see what you can do. And boy, she did it. I mean, which is great. She really, yes. I mean, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, there we go, there we go, another crew member. That's my Delta Flyers crew member. Yeah, it's a beautiful shirt. All right. So let's start off with the episode. Let's start talking about the episode. Yeah. Cargo Bay, what, what do you call that thing that she stands in? Is that a Borg regeneration unit? There's a name for it. And I'm sitting here going, what the heck is it? I can't, Can't remember Regeneration Bay?

Maybe that's it. Borg Regeneration Bay. Yeah, I think. Okay. Wait, before we even see that, though, there's a flyby of the ship. Yes. All Borgified, yes. And it's Borgified.

Like, there's these sections that are just glowing green. So immediately you're like, oh, yeah, that's weird. They've taken over some of our ship. It made me think of Nickelodeon and the slime, you know, on Nickelodeon. It looked like slime. Some radioactive green. Jello, whatever. But it was like, ooh, this is not the Voyager we're used to. Yeah, I thought that was pretty cool. I like it like that. I kind of like it. It's like party lights almost. It's like glow sticks everywhere. It's

like it was. Okay. Okay. So yeah. So and then we come into the cargo bay. We don't even know it's the cargo bay really because it looks like a Borg ship. It does. But we we slowly come around and reveal that there's seven of nine asleep in her regeneration bay. Bay or Borg Bay. Very slow reveal, right? I mean, you're like wafting all around. You're like, oh, and then you finally come on. It's a big anticipation.

And there's Jerry Ryan in her full Borg look. You're right. Yeah. By the way, we talked about it. We did. You know, before we recorded this that I thought Jerry went immediately into her full-time costume, but she didn't. She was in the Borg look, full-borg look, very cool design.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And basically, Seven wakes up and she's like, get me back to my people. Yeah. Like, I want to be back with my people. And Jamie's like, I'm sorry. But, uh, it's too dangerous. It's too dangerous for my crew. I can't take you back there. And, and you can see the beginning. Seven is really, and I thought Jerry did a great job in this episode, by the way. Yeah. Really powerful. And so did Kate. And so did a lot of people get into the scenes. But I thought Jerry really, you know,

for being a new cast member and a brand new character that we're getting to know, you really saw this. I was very sad for her character being disconnected from the collective. And she immediately, she's like, I don't hear the voices. I don't hear my people. Get me back to my people. That's where I belong. And Jamie's like, nope, nope.

Not going to happen. Too dangerous. I felt very, I felt bummed out for seven. It was sort of like, oh my gosh, that's all she's ever. known that was her family the Borg were her family and we just yanked her out of that entirely or Janeway did very sad yeah it was very sad to me and this is the beginnings of it and and and seven starts getting physical and starts fighting and they have to sedate her right there yeah so um you know that's our first scene and then we go to sick bay and she's sedated she's on the on the uh on the

surgery bay or the bio bed yeah the biobed there I thought this moment between the doctor and Tuvok. He's funny. The doctor's like, Mr. Tuvok, please, can you, can you get out of the surgical bay? Can you step away from the, from the, you know, the bio bed or whatever? Yeah. And they just have this funny, I don't know. He's basically like, give me some room here. Can you give me some room to work? Yeah. And he makes that jab, that one comment. He's like, well, that's a great comment for a security officer. And I just, I don't know what it was about this scene. It is funny. But part of me felt like the doctor was too human in a way. In his whole episode, I don't know. what it was but it was it kind of bugged me it was like yeah he's not he's kind of transitioning a little

bit into like you know he's starting to he's starting to have a lot of qualities of yeah of a human personality exactly exactly he did he did right sure yeah i wonder by the way and we'll continue on with the plot for a minute but one thing that i immediately started thinking was if this is jennifer lean's last episode. I just kept reading into scene after scene. Yes. Yes. Not the story of Kess, but the reality of Jennifer Lean's last episode. I totally know where you're going. I totally know what you're doing. Yes. That she was a part of with somebody. Yes. I agree with you 1,000 percent. And let's talk about those specific scenes as they come up. Okay. Yeah. But I wonder if the reason I bring it up now is I wonder if part of Bob's, Bob Picardo's, more

kind of human side was the fact that he was really feeling moved or thrown from his game a bit of the holiday character. I love that. I love that explanation. And that he was he was kind of feeling more human because Jennifer Lean in every scene was shooting some of her last scenes in the sick bay and they'd spent so much time together. So that's you know, I'm going to say this right now. If Bob Picardo ever gets arrested for some heinous crime, you should be his defense attorney. You are a really good at that. You defend Robert Picardo very well. And that's, yes, I agree with you. I never thought of it that way. But yes, I think that a lot of these scenes or any scene that has Kess in it, any other person that is in that scene has been affected by the fact that this is her

final episode. Yeah. And it's a little bit more than just the character. It's what's going on. Definitely. Yes. Yeah. Yes. And so yes. So that, so now I'm okay with Bob's performance. Before I was critical of it. You know, I was thinking, well, wait a minute, this is not the doctor I know, but it's clearly, he's affected by the fact that it's, yes. It's Jen's last episode and every scene was one of her last scenes. So yeah, yeah. And speaking of Jennifer, so in that scene, uh, the doctor, after Tuvok steps away and gives him some room to work, uh, the doctor says, hey, can you get a hypospray and give me, you know, 10 cc's or whatever he asked for? And she turns towards the doctor's office and all of a sudden, this hypospray comes flying across the room.

into her hand and she's like wow i just thought about it in it so immediately we're like oh boy she's got some new power something's going on if i was i'm sorry and the doctor is like even in that moment the doctor's like whoa this is a big deal but we don't have time to deal with this yeah uh we'll deal with this later so we know something's going to happen yeah which you know that's such a huge deal. I don't know why he even brushed that off, except for the script has to keep moving clearly. But I just think it was a cool scene,

but I always see the weird side or the comedic side. And I think it would have been funnier as she thinks about it. The hypo spray bounces off of Tuvok and then hits the doctor and then lands up in her hand, sort of like a pinball ricochet thing. That's my comedian. It would never have done that. But that's my weirdo mind.

thinking right now. So yeah, so then he makes that jab at Tuvok about, you know, that's, that's a great advice from a security officer, right? And then we move to the captain's ready room and Chakotay is now talking to Janeway. Yeah, she's drinking coffee, by the way, I want to point out. She's drinking her, her dang coffee cup. She loves her Java. She loves her coffee. And by the way, she's drinking her coffee and staring at the laptop and and she's staring at it very seriously. And then she has sort of a reaction. She's like looking at the laptop and then all of a sudden she kind of goes, hmm. And I noted that when I was, I was like, what just happened?

Well, later on, after Chocote comes in, she turns it around and she shows that it's, she's done some digging. Yes. She found out who seven of nine might have been. Right. She found some information on Annika Hanson. Yes. She's a very young girl. Her parents were basically hippies.

they were kind of like, you know, pioneers, they didn't want to be a part of Starfleet. They took off in a ship and headed towards the Delta Quadrant, but they lost track of them, never heard from them again. See, this is something that is different from my memory. My memory was that her parents were Starfleet science officers, that they were, you know, part of Starfleet in a small vessel. But now we see from this scene that they didn't like Starfleet or the Federation. They did their own.

They were Mavericks and they did their own thing. They didn't even file a flight plan when they left Deep Space 4, I think, is where they were at, right? So that's something that I didn't know about. I also feel that that photo of whatever child they used of his young 7 of 9 looks nothing like her, other than the fact that she's blonde. That's it. Yeah. They could have improved on that.

But yeah. But I think that's interesting information for the series that this young Annika Hansen character came from a family of people that were kind of rebellious. They were, you know, loners, hippies, whatever you want to call them. They didn't care much for Starfleet. So it does inform Seven of Nine's journey on our series, you know, that she's kind of a little bit of an outsider, much like her family history, even though she doesn't remember any of this yet,

and over time grows to remember some of it. But that's going to be implanted somewhere in there. Yeah, it's a recurring theme. I can see that. Yeah. Also, Chakotay says in the scene that, you know, seven of nine may have been some of the first humans that the board ever assimilated, which is kind of cool. That's right. That she could be one of the original humans.

That would put her in a place in the board collective of unique status, you know, if she was, if she and her family were. Yeah. Random thought about a simulation. If I don't say it now, I'm going to forget it. But you know how in this, we've been dealing with. dealing with species 8472. So that would be the 8,472nd species that they tried to assimilate, which then if you start

thinking about it, oh my God, like as humans, we are one species. They've assimilated over 8,000 different alien groups of people, which is insanity, right? Because later, you know, we talk about species 259, what the 259 species is the one that brought the technology that happens to be all over the engineering area, right, that we're trying to get rid of. So now 8472. So they're already in the 8,000s at this point, which is kind of scary. Yeah. That is scary. Okay. So we go back to Sick Bay and the doctor's in the middle of the surgery on 7 of 9. And he removes that big implant that's been on like the biggest part of her head gear. I'm going to have to stop you for one second because before that happens, there's this ethical

discussion, right? This discussion about whether or not the removal of the implants should happen because Seven has clearly made, she's made it very evident that she does not want to be part of this crew. She wants to go back to the collective and she doesn't want any of that stuff taken off because that's part of her who she is as a board drone. So, you know, this sort of discussion between Janeway and the doctor then results in Janeway saying, well, you know, this is this is my decision because I'm the captain, you know, she didn't really have a decision when she was when she was assimilated. And right now she's unconscious. So just go ahead, start with the surgery and start taking things off. Yeah. Against, you know, the will of seven,

unfortunately. Well, it becomes very important in our, in this story and in the series in general, because this idea of a collective or individual will, free will, becomes a huge part of this episode. Yeah, Janeway is basically saying right now she's not capable of making decisions for herself. I'm going to have to make them for her. Yeah. Yeah. So he begins, but at the very beginning of the surgery,

she starts to go into neural shock. Yeah, she's shaking like crazy. Yes. And the doctor says, Cass quick, stabilize her cortex or else we're going to lose her. Cass just sort of stands there, just staring at her. But then she realizes that she can see the problem. There's a borg implant. She's basically an x-ray machine.

She's a x-ray machine. She can see right to she. She is a human MRI or an Ocampan MRI. So she can see right into this, into the brain, everywhere, everything. And we kind of go, yeah, we go into this kind of whoosh inside the brain. Yeah, cool visual effect. What her point of view is, which we didn't do a lot of that on our show. No, no.

This is kind of an unusual and very modern kind of. This is kind of CSI, you know. Yeah, very CSI. Exactly what I wrote. CSI shot into her. Yeah. And we didn't do that a lot. In fact, no, it wasn't.

Very rare. Yeah, that wasn't a common thing to do generally in television or film because no that kind of computer generated images the cGI technology was not that advanced back in the 90s when we were doing this so that was a very advanced shot yeah very cool um and hip hip shot yeah very exactly that thought was fun yeah exactly um has this vision and she can go in and she not only can she see what the problem is but she fixes it with her telepathic mind yeah she removes it and then dissolves it. She dissolves the whole thing.

Like, it's gone. She's like got flying hypospraise. Now she's doing, you know, visual surgery, magic surgery. Yes. She's, she, well, hey, let's let's let's just talk about exactly what this is. I mean, her doing this, really, without her doing this, seven probably wouldn't have, wouldn't have survived this surgery. So, you know, her coming through and pulling this, you know, out of nowhere, it just shows,

again, how important the Kess character was and is for every, yeah, for all of us. For all of us. For all of us. Yeah. There's a passage of time, right? There's a little passage of time. We're still in sick bay.

And the doc is showing everybody this eyeball. Yeah. Look at this eyeball. He's so happy and so proud. So see, now at this point, this is closer to the doctor that I know. Like, you know, the little smug and complacent doctor that we know, right? I felt like, okay, here's the doctor I remember. Janeway then talks to Cass and, you know, tries to find out what's going on.

Tuvok suggests that there's a series of guided meditations that would help her better understand her new capabilities. Rebecca said this, and I agree. Why is Tuvok's answer for everything meditation? He's like, oh, God, Tuvok, I'm a little gassy today. Well, may I suggest some meditation? Everything is meditation. Yes.

Hey, that's the way it is. breach on deck seven. Well, may I suggest a guided meditation? You know what? Okay, so now where does my mind go for the Delta Flyers? I want to pitch to Tim Russ to actually do a video series of guided meditations with Tupac. We should do that. Yes. People can actually subscribe or buy the meditation with Tubak, right? I mean, hey. Everything is, every solution is a meditation. Therefore, it is also an opportunity. Meditate. You'll be fine. Yes. I love it. Well, now we're still in sick bay.

More passage of time, Dr. Seven and Janeway. She is now revived. And boy, she is so not happy about these changes from the doctor. And I love how they go, the dermoplastic graphs. And I'm thinking, you mean duct tape? You can see the duct tape. It was fancy duct tape. Fancy duct tape, but it was still duct tape on her shoulders.

Yeah. Yeah. And Seven just wants to return to the collective. that's all she wants take me back to my family right i love the moment where the doc was super proud by the way he's and he was bragging about all the things he had done and janeway just gives him a look a look a look shuts him up lost go get out of town and he's out he's gone yeah the scene with seven and janeway a long scene there by the biobed yes was just very sad to me it was it was you know next level from what we had seen in that first scene when she she first woke up

up and wanted to reconnect. It's just, yeah, her pain was palpable. It was really, it was really sad. And Janeway was saying, like, you know, seven was talking about feeling connected to the collective and now feeling alone and just scared and alone. And Janeway is trying to say, but you can have the same connection with humans.

Right. And in the end, Janeway's last line, when she basically was like, I'm deciding what's going to happen for you. Yeah. And she says, you must comply. You must comply. She used words that seven will understand.

Some board words. Yeah, board words, exactly. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Then we go to engineering. Yes. And we see Harry and Bologna. This is the first time we see Harry. My first time in this episode, I'm working with your future wife. Yes. Janeway brings seven in to assist.

And of course, Harry and Bala are having issues, right? Things are still blocked up. Yeah. The war of course. Yes. And they're not figuring out. Right.

And I just love how Torres just sets the tone with seven. She's just right off the bat. She's like, yeah, you're not going to mess with me seven. You know, I, this is, I'm, I'm Torres and I am, I am a country of my own and you do not mess with me, basically. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, she gives it to her. And seven sort of, yeah, yeah, and Janeway says what, what she says after. She goes, now that the pleasantries are over, let's go to work. Yeah. But I do, I do feel that the way Jerry played it was perfect, because Jerry as seven, she kind of, she, she, she, she gets the jab and she, and she, she, she gets the jab. And she kind of like just thinks like okay you're someone i'm got to be make sure that i'm not going to mess

with like there is that that realization from seven or jerry ryan playing seven that you know Torres is not one to be messed with which i have yeah it was it was a good moment we go to two vox quarters is it two vox quarters is it's definitely has his quarters it had the purple colors of two vox quarters right so i wrote club two vok question mark so it's still club it's still club Tuvok, right? Let's say it's club Tuvok. Okay, let's say it's Club Tuvok. Yeah. And they're working on a, they're using a meditation lamp lamp. Yeah. Which by the way, that little lamp is based on a, I don't know exactly where they got that, but it looks a lot like an, a lamp from an oil lamp from India. Because I took a trip to India and bought one there in Rishakash, India, that looks exactly

that same shape. It's a very common kind of meditative Hindu. I guess it's Hindu or Buddhist meditation for candles or oil or whatever. It's very cool. And I just, when I saw the shape, I was like, oh, I got one of those when I was over in India. When did you refresh my memory? When did you go to India? When was like, I went to India 2008, 2009, something like that. So this is after the show was done. Yeah. And you went by yourself on a spiritual journey? Oh, it was a writer's. No, there was a writer's strike and my daughter who was a senior in high school taylor had been doing um yoga training her senior year she wanted to get certified and her teacher was taking a bunch of students to india where he had lived for a while on an ashram and studied yoga there yeah so um they were going

for three weeks on this trip um and and i i Taylor really wanted to go and i was curious so i went with her as sort of her chaperone. The rest of the people were adults that were traveling over there. She was the youngest by far. And so, yeah, I got to kind of tour around, do some of their yoga classes and things they were doing. But mostly just kind of went sightseeing and exploring. And it was great.

That's awesome. I want to go myself. Yeah. It was amazing. Great. But yes, that little lamp that Cass was meditating with looks a lot like a Hindu or an Indian. And I don't know if it's Hindu or Buddhist.

because in India there's there's both cultures are very strong and Muslims they're also Muslims yes there's a lot of mashup of of yes religious cultures and correct culture over there correct but yeah they're looking at this flame and then he says concentrating the flame and she goes inside the flame yeah and sees the flame at the atomic level which was another CSI shot yeah well at first she's doing the increasing and reducing the flame, right? And then she sees it beyond the subatomic. And then the visual effect they show, to me, look like a really cool computer screensaver at that point. It was a computer screen saver. I thought it was like an LSD trip. LSD trip. Okay. LSD trip computer screen saver. We can hybridize

we can put those together as one. And Tuvok says, hey, man, there's nothing. There's nothing beyond the subatomic. And Kess goes, no, there's a whole new level of reality. And I want to try to control it. So that's when she starts to control the subatomic level. And that's when the meditation lamp and even the flame starts to phase in and out. And we just see, you know, semblances of the episode twisted when the ship was like, you know, kind of like mutating and whatnot. So. Yes. And Tuvok is now concerned.

Yeah, he's concerned. Big time. Yep. We go to engineering. Mm-hmm. And this is when Seven talks about the species where they got the technology. And Belong is basically like, I'm not interested in a history lesson.

Yeah. Just go, go fix this. Fix your board crap. Torres tells Harry and seven to go work on the Jeffries tube inside Jeffrey's tube. There's stuff to be done there. And of course, we flash at the Jeffries tube where Harry walks in, followed by seven and also a security member of the security detail that is.

He waits outside the door. Waiting outside the door, yeah. And then Harry tries to engage seven in small talk. That's exactly what I wrote, the small talk. I love the I love the line oh I guess the Borg meet a lot of people don't they stupid question like yeah under his breath and we don't say a lot of stuff under our breath on this show either so that was really really rare occurrence that I say stupid question you know which is a funny thing they do meet a lot of people and then assimilate them right seven then sees the with her supervision

she sees a Starfleet issue communications node and realizes this is her way back home to her people, right? She calls Harry over to help, and this is where I don't remember this at all. So this scene shocked at me when she backhanded me and, you know, just knocks me back. And then I wrote, you had you fall out the door with this security guy. And then she shuts the door. Yes, but I wrote down, this is where Harry experiences his very own PSF, pathetic Starfleet fall. So so far, so far, we've seen Chakotay do it.

We've seen Paris do it in the last, in a recent. episode. And now Harry has his PSF. Has his PSF. And I paused it and then slowly inched it forward and paused it to try to see if that was me doing the stunt. I would. And yeah, I bet it was a stunt person. It's probably a stunt double because it's a different scene, right? When she calls me and then it cuts to the scene where she back hands me. So I think it is someone else. I think it's my stunt double doing it. But yeah, very pathetic. And you don't remember doing this. I don't remember doing that at all. I don't remember her hitting me at all. I don't think it would have been you doing it because when you got, when, when Harry gets hit and falls backwards, he's kind of falling backwards

blind. You don't see where the door. Like if you were doing that fall, you couldn't see where the door is. And that would be too dangerous for them to have you do because you could have hit your head or concussion. Yeah. Okay. So I think that would have been a stunt double doing that. That makes sense. That makes sense. So you don't personally have a PSF yet. Yeah. That is a P. It's true. That is my stunt double having a PSF, right? Yeah. All right.

Yeah. So we don't say Robert Beltran and I both did our own PSFs. You sure did. You really, really. So did the other, the Ensign that was working on the bridge, that girl that. That's Ensign Lang, remember? Ensign Lang, who does her best. We go what?

What was that? Yeah, who's the, who's the singer? Axel Rose. Axel Rose does that sort of like that little worm wiggle when he sings, right? So that was, yeah, anyway. All right, so we jump to, it's sort of back and forth between bridge, engineering, and Club Tuvok, Paris, first time we hear Paris speak. First time we see him.

Middle of the episode, he detects that somebody is trying to access the subspace transmitter. And Torres, from engineering, says seven has erected some kind of force field. We do see in the background, both the security person and Harry are looking to try to find a way to get into that Jeffrey's tube. So Harry's clearly fine from being backhanded. He's okay. PSFs don't hurt them. They just hurt your ego. That's all.

You know, you just hurt your ego. Then Kess detects what's going on, right? From Club Tuvok. And she says, guess what? I can take, I can handle this. I can handle this stuff.

I got this with my new skills. My new powers. Yeah. So she does, she goes all subatomic and she gets over there. and she shoots that energy beam and knocks seven unconscious and backwards right a little payback right so it was a little confusing exactly how she did this but i'll give it to him like sure she's got what confused you what confused you like what was she doing that sent that little lightning bolt out of the thing like was she affecting the the subspace transmitter in some way and trying to explode it or i just i didn't i don't know like where did that like lightning bolt come from that shoots seven back on the ground. I just assume that, okay, I assume that she, you know, she took subatomic, she turned subatomic. Yeah, she turned it and she went through

the bulkhead. And then when she got right in front of seven and nine, she was able to access a power relay that was right there and magnify that energy and shoot it towards her. That's what I thought it was. That all sounds good. You like that explanation? Yeah. I like it. Okay. I'll buy that. We're now in the corridor where Tuvok is debriefing Captain Janeway. He's concerned. So concerned. There's like there's, hey, a partial multiple fronts. He's like, yeah.

And we thought the subspace message didn't get out, but a partial subspace message did get out. So we don't know if the Borg detected it. We don't know if they can, they can track us or not. But more worrisome is the fact that Kev, that Kess destabilized the Jeffries tube at the molecular level, which then weakened the entire deck, the entire infrastructure of that deck was compromised. And so, Tuvac just says, look, Kess is, it's just not safe for Voyager or for herself. If she can't control this stuff, yeah, it's not safe for all of us.

Yeah. Our ship could be destroyed with this new power she's got. Yeah. That is right. So we may have the Borg on our tail. We don't know. The ship's falling apart. Things are not. This is not a good situation.

No. Yeah, we go to the brig, which I always love the brig set, by the way. Where did they put the brig? Do you remember? Wasn't it over by engineering? Yeah, it was on stage nine, and it was close to engineering. And it's a great set. I love it.

It's a great set. It looks wonderful. So not good to be in the brig, but it's a nice looking set. It always looks good. That glowing light for some reason. Yeah, it always looks cool. And Anson did a great job, I think, of shooting those scenes. He did.

He did. This is an amazing scene between Kate and Jerry. I think both did awesome work. Really good. And the whole, you know, you can alter our physiology and the fact that she refers to herself as the collective as an hour as opposed to we. Yeah. You can alter our physiology, but you cannot change our nature.

So the whole fox and scorpion story comes back in again. Yeah. He basically is like, we will betray you. Right. And Chocote's dead on right, what he said before. She, she, and as verified by seven, we're going to, I'm going to portray you. If I have any chance to get back to my people, I'm going to get back to my people. And she, and she makes a good point.

She says, and she, and I love when Jerry sort of walked forward into the, you know, it's a close-up up front. You could see Janeway behind her. And then seven turns. And she says, so if you succeed and you bring me back to my human form, I'll be an individual, right? Right. And Janeway's like, yeah, yeah, you'll be a human. You'll be. And she said, if I'm an individual, and I then decide that I want to return, will you allow it? And Janeway's sort of caught there. She's like, yeah, she's stuck. And Seven basically says, you're no different than the Borg. Like you're not going to truly let me be an individual. She calls her a hypocrite and manipulator, basically, right? And Janeway tried. I mean, she talked about her experience with. with other Borg that have been separated from the collective who eventually through time accepted their individuality. But you're right, seven completely catches her. And as she's unable to, she's unable to get out of, uh, no, she can't, she can't get out. And so I would say,

if you ever get caught for some heinous crime, I think seven of nine can actually defend you. Yeah, your defense attorney, right? And, um, well, she then yells. She's really, really upset. And she goes to, to this mode of screaming at Janeway that she wants she wants to be returned back to the collective and Janeway remains steadfast and says no that that's not going to happen you're going to stay on Voyager and yeah and so that last bit of that scene is basically seven saying that you know you're just the same as the Borg you're no difference right now we go to the mess hall and there's there's Nelix and Kess all by themselves in the mess hall it's kind of of romantic.

With moon ripened Ocampon champagne. Yes. I love that. Moon ripened champagne. Okay. It sounded delicious. I got to say, this whole scene made me bittersweet and sad. I thought, I thought Ethan Phillips, you know, this is a scene where there was definitely

Jennifer Lean's last episode. This was their last scene together. Yeah. I know that Johnny Phillips had really gotten close. as a very close friend, Jennifer Lean, and they had spent the most time together of, you know, he'd spent the most time with Jennifer, maybe, you know, as much time or more than the doctor.

But I would say, you know, close to the most time. And a romantic relationship and all kinds of things. I think they just felt like from the beginning those two characters had been very close and the two actors were very close. And I just saw, I saw a lot of very, authentic kind of acting that wasn't

about necessarily just what was happening in this story. Exactly. Yes. This was very much about yes. You know, talking about something, you know, remember what I said to you, to the adventure. To the adventure. Neil X's quotes. And you could see

in the delivery of that and her reaction to that, like, that they were talking about her next adventure after she leaves Voyager, after she leaves our show as an act, as a human, not just as a character but you could see that it was working in multiple levels no definitely yeah definitely the very bittersweet um cast starts to show her uh new powers to nilix and the table starts going

through phase fluctuations and he gets a little concerned uh when he says stop she says no and just her saying no throws neelix back for a loop and she's she's very concerned about that um we jumped to the bridge Harry detects this strange energy reading coming from deck two, specifically the mess hall. That's when Janeway and Tuvok go down to investigate and they arrive to see Kess kind of fluctuating. She's like a hologram. She's like kind of fluctuating. Or a ghost image. Like a ghost image, right?

Yeah. And she's down on her knees and, you know, she's, yeah, she's very destabilized. Yeah, interesting blocking, though. I don't know if that was in the script or not for her to be on her knees at that point with Neelix kind of standing over her. And then when she gets back in, I would have liked to see her just collapse after that, you know, fall on the ground. Instead, she sort of bowed her head, you know, but interesting blocking. And then we go to sick bay. Yes, now we're in the sick bay. And the doctor says that she has destabilized at the subatomic level and then restabilized. A state of cellular

flight. Here, this is a tongue twister. A state of cellular flux. A state of cellular flux is what her body was going through. Yeah. That was the destabilization process. Janeway tells Tuvok, you know, you need to enhance the structural integrity fields throughout this ship in case Kess has another incident. So we don't end up having a whole breach. So that was the last command that Janeway gives a Tuvok in that scene.

There's a bit of a passage of time where Kess, again, here, this is, I think, her final scene with the doctor when, you know, she asked to stay in sickbay with him. because she misses him and i was he misses him yeah because she knows she's leaving you know not only does a character know she's leaving but the actress knows she's leaving too so it's it's it's emotional on on multiple fronts here you know i agree uh we go to the brig seven is freaking out and it's taric tarc ergan is basically the you know security officer that's watching over her and so he calls to the bridge, but that is clearly not Tarek's voice. No. No, no, no. If I was Tark, I'd be pissed off. I'd be like, you know what? Yeah. Yeah. That was the loop group. That was their loop group that people that do the

crowd scenes or any additional kind of noises group noises. Okay. If I was Rick Berman or, you know, if I was the showrunner, I would have called the loop group and say, hey, here's Tarek Ergen's phone number. Talk to him for a minute. One of you guys imitate his voice. Like somebody could have had the ability to get somewhere close to him. Could have just gone in and looped that for himself because he does say, Captain, this is Lieutenant Ayala down the brig. Andson, I don't promote him. Do not promote him before me.

Okay. Ensign Iala, but, you know, that is the name that we've called Tariq. Yes. Whether he's had lines or not. I don't remember if Tark has had a lot of lines or many. He did have, he had a line in basics one and two when Janeway is like who else is a good runner here he's like I am so he did have a line there so he's spoken before so it's not like you know it's not that was not him though that that jumped out to me too

yeah it bothered me and I'm sure when he saw it he probably bothered him too I'm sure too but Janeway arrives yeah she comes in the brig and and seven wants out seven even says I will kill you and Janeway starts to come in Janeway has a pad in her hand yeah and she starts to come in and she says, I'll kill you. And you can see Janeway pause for a minute and she goes, I don't think you will. And she takes down the force field and steps inside and shows seven on this pad a photo of herself when she was young as Annika Hanson. And you can see that Seven is moved, but doesn't want to deal with it.

And she hits it away. Like she's, yeah, she's having a meltdown there. By the way, the way the scene ends with her sort of hitting. Janeway. We're trying to hit Janeway. Janeway sort of wrestles her from behind. And I don't know why Janeway's mouth is open the entire time. She's like,

well, she's like, it was very awkward and... It was very awkward and just not believable and just it was a... No. Yeah. No. And then... It was a PSF. It was a pathetic Starfleet.

Instead of pathetic Starfleet fall, that was a pathetic Starfleet fail. what that was. It was like, what the heck? Pathetic Starfleet fight. How about that? Yeah. Okay. It's a pathetic Starfleet fight. And then at the very end, when Janeway is sort of sit down and she's, when she's trying to comfort her or hug her, I didn't believe that. In a million years, I did not believe that. That didn't believe, it was just all. No, no, no, too awkward. Um, yeah. So anyway, it could have been, it could have been, uh, an ending of an amazing scene, but, uh, it didn't. It didn't pan out like that.

But when she just say, physicality and it's just, yeah, because the staging didn't work. Yeah. I feel like they should have made that call on the day and just go, this isn't working. It's not like, it's not feeling like an emotional cap to the scene or, right. Or even an authentic physical fight of any kind. It's, it's just feeling awkward. You know, and I'm going to play devil's advocate and just say that, and you agree with this, in television, you don't have that luxury of feature film where you can spend days

on choreography, choreographing a certain fight. We just didn't have time for that, right? So I think it was just the rushed schedule and it manifested as this very awkward ending. Yeah, it happens sometimes. It happened with you when seven hit, hit your stunt double probably. You know, they did the take. They lived with it.

It happened with me on the bridge when I, you know, you just kind of rushed through it. And as an actor, you trust that you know that you're faking it as an actor. You know that you're not really hitting. someone or being hit. So it's all pretend anyway. And you trust that they're photographing a version that looks like it's real. This just, this one didn't for sure.

We jumped to Kess's quarters. And Kess basically has called for the captain because Janeway shows up. And Kess tells Janeway that this is her time to leave. And all of those lines, forget about those lines. All the lines that are said in this scene were basically Cape Mulgrew telling Jennifer Lean, I'm going to miss you. You know, I can't believe they, I can't believe production has let you go, basically, is what this entire scene was.

And this was the emotional one for me. This is the one where I started getting emotional, just watching this, just, just knowing, you know, that this was, um, well, Kate was very emotional. And you could see, Jennifer was very emotional. Yeah, both of them, both of them, but yeah, this had nothing to do with the actual Kess or Janeway. No, they were saying, they were saying words that were about these characters, but they're in, they're feeling.

and intentions in this scene that was filmed was all about saying goodbye to Jennifer. Yeah. And I do remember Kate talking about doing this scene, how hard it was. Oh, of course. It's very hard for Kate to see Jennifer leave. How was that dinner, by the way? How was that dinner? Which dinner?

Do you recall Kate set up like a goodbye farewell dinner for Kess? Right. And I didn't make it because my brain spaced out. I completely spaced out. I completely forgot that that was on the- Kate's house? Wherever, I thought it was at a restaurant or something, but I got a really, really pissed off message from Kate on my voicemail

saying like, how could you forget this? And the thing was, I wasn't doing anything. I was at IKEA. I remember this specifically. I was at IKEA going, oh, I can blow off some time. I'm in Burbank. I have nothing to do. And I completely forgot about this dinner.

And I completely spaced out. And to this day, I'm still mad at my. myself for for missing that farewell dinner that Kate set up for for Jennifer. I don't remember. You're not recalling what happened. I mean, I vaguely remember it, but I couldn't tell you. I feel like maybe it was at Kate's house. Okay.

I can't. I can't remember. That's right. That's right. Yeah. And it was very sad when, you know, they also go on the, Janeway goes over the calm and talks to the bridge and says, um, Kess is leaving us for Parashuttle.

Yeah. And there's reactions on everyone's faces, right? Harry's like, what? Yeah, we're a little shocked by it, right? Yeah, I looked very stoic and sad. And I was like, wait a minute. If she says Kess is leaving, I would be like, what? Wait, what?

Yeah. You would have had a different reaction. I feel like I should have had a different reaction. I agree. I feel like my reaction was more like, oh, I'm reacting, again, about Jennifer lean leaving as opposed to the reality of, wait a minute. This is out of left field. leaving where yeah yeah you know i agree same with harry's reaction i could have i could have

i could have joshed it up just a little bit um but i really feel that that that whole scene i'm going to rewind just a little bit that the whole scene with janeway and kess in her quarters that's the most emotion that we've seen from janeway up until this point yeah i really feel that way and i and i talk about this at conventions that there are so many scenes from season one that janeway had to reshoot because she gave too much emotion and the powers that be just kept kind of tamping it down and pushing it down and thank God they didn't say reshoot this you know and and cut the tears and whatever because I think it was important to have that in there you know yeah but cast starts destabilizing and they've got to get this shuttle ready and so they're they're moving down the

hole and yeah because we can't beamer we can't beam her over right no can't beamer escorting her to the shuttle bay. Tuvac shows up and says, hey, let me help you mind melt and try to delay this transformation. Exactly. Yeah, which he does. He helps for a little bit. Janeway does. We don't see her physically put her in the shuttle, but we understand that that does happen. And now we jump to the bridge. And we have conversations with Kess, where she's inside the shuttle and she's basically turning into destabilizing into this pure energy, this new reality. And, And she says, I'm giving you the guys the gift. Yeah, this is my gift to you.

Yep. And suddenly we're sort of, the shuttle sort of glows with light from within. And it doesn't really explode. It's, yeah, they definitely created something that didn't feel like an explosion. No, no. Just a transitioning time. Yeah. Even when the ship is flying through space when it comes to a stop, you know, Paris says something like, we're, you know, back to.

to warp, you know, engines back to normal or, you know, whatever that was is stopped. Like, we're not traveling at warp. We didn't travel at warp. Well, you were, you were clocking the speed. And then you're like, well, wait a minute. You said, our speed is, and I love your line. You go, what was it? You first you say, we're going this speed, this speed. And then you end with, whoa, our speed is impossible. That's right. That's the speed. Like, it's not a number. It's just a descriptive term. It's like it's it's impossible, which I love that Paris calls it impossible because it's so fast that it's not measurable. It's not measurable. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Yeah, it was very cool. And then when we come out of warp, it were flung 9.4,000 light years further, 10 years

closer and we're out of-10 light years, yeah. So we're out of Borg space. And we're out of Borg space. So the other jeopardy of being still being in Borg space, is over. She's given us this gift of safety and helping us get home. You know, we're 10, we're one-tenth, we're more than one-tenth, because if you say it's 70, 70 years, 70 years to get back home, and she's shaved off 10, you know, 10 years out of the 70. That's more than 10% of the way. So that's good. We're happy about that. Now we jump to cargo bay. And now it's finally reveal the cat suit.

Here's the reveal the cat suit, the silver Olympic speed skating suit that she's wearing. minus the hoodie, and she's standing there, like, striking a pose. You know, she's got that little pose going on. And it's funny, I like the fact that it wasn't, like, completely gratuitous, you know, body shots or whatever. It felt, you know, it was a nice wide reveal of the cat suit, but the doctor explains. He says, I took the liberty of stimulating some of your hair follicles, a vicarious experience for me, as you can imagine, which I love that line. why she needs hair. I don't know.

Did he write that? Did he? Interesting. I don't know. Okay. Maybe. Yeah. Oh, and then she tells Janeway

that her favorite color was red. Yeah, she says red. And Janeway goes, what? She says red. The child you spoke of. Her favorite color was red. Yeah. And it feels a little too, you know,

that loose end was tied up too quickly. All that tension with Janeway And then now at the end, she's like, well, I've got my new suit on. I've got my new hair. And I'm not going to rebel and try to get away ever again. I'm done. I don't know. I feel like Janeway's, you know, Kate's performance was very cautious.

I feel like this little, you know, gesture of, yeah, I can remember something maybe of that little girl, but only a vague connection there. Right. At this point. Okay. And then we go to Tuvok's window of his quarters and he's lighting. the meditation lamp yeah so we're back at club tubak and the very final scene of this episode is really tubac remembering we're thinking of kess and and we pull back away from his window we see the whole ship we see voyager we see space we just keep pulling back yeah into this kind of infinite

space and this this pure energy that kess is everywhere yes that's what i got from yeah i agreed exactly yeah we didn't do that kind of shot very often where you sort of are outside of the ship and pull back, you know, seeing, seeing a perspective from the outside looking in. We didn't do that very often. I thought it was super cool. I wish we did it more. Yeah, the only time I can think of is from the shoot where Harry kind of realizes that they're not underground and it pulls back from that little window and it's on that space station prison, right? So not a common choice by the production staff. So it was it was bittersweet, really, the whole episode, right? Just agreed.

just emotional sad what was your theme did you have a theme for this one I had a theme you start the lesson that I learned was

basically once you're connected that you'll always have that connection somewhere deep inside of you no matter how far apart you might be so once you're connected to someone or something like the Borg that the Borg will always be part

of seven, and once we're connected to Kess, that she becomes this pure energy that we're always connected. I just, something about that idea for me was the lesson here of feeling connected, feeling the presence of your past, you know, whether it's Anika and seven and that past, whether it's the Borg, still being very much a part of seven, whether it's Kess being very much a part of all of the crew. I think that that was the idea. that landed for me. Okay. I like that.

That's a very, you're pulling back, sort of like that final shot. You pull back and saw the overall lesson. I think for me, my lesson is sometimes you're put into a situation

where you're not happy with it and you are fighting it tooth and nail and fighting it and you're getting nowhere from fighting it. And so at some point, hopefully sooner than later,

one will come to the realization that one must go with the flow, no matter what horrible situation or unsatisfactory situation you're thrown in, you kind of have to go with the flow. You have to accept that situation and let the universe unfold and let the situation take care of itself by putting it on autopilot and not trying to force it. Don't force that square peg into that round hole, which kind of was what was happening with Jerry, You know, with seven. Seven is fighting and fighting and fighting and realizing I still want to be part of the collective and this is the way it should be. And really, Janeway's not going to let that happen. And so the moment she accepted it and realized, okay, I need to, I need to just go with this. Let's just see where this takes me. You know, release, release the tension by releasing your preconceived thoughts and just letting things happen. Right. So that's the lesson I kind of found for this. Nice. I like.

make that. Yeah. Okay. Very good. Okay. Well, that was fun. Here we go. Season four. Woo. We're moving. We're chugging along, right? I mean, we're already in the second episode of season four. We're heading towards the midway point of Star Trek Voyager. And, um, yeah. So next episode, uh, next week, guys, join us when Robbie and I talk about Day of Honor. Day of Honor. This is a big Klingon-slash Torres episode, so I can't wait to review that. I think there's a little Paris in there, too.

I'm sure there is. I think there is. All right. That'll be fun. I'm excited. All right, everyone. We'll see you next week.