The Delta Flyers - Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy

Episode Date: September 12, 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 Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy. Garrett and Robbie recap and discuss the episode, and share their insight as series regulars.Tinker Tenor Doctor SpyThe Doctor's colourful daydreams are intercepted by alien raiders, who glean enough information about Voyager to launch an 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 of Tom and Harry as we journey through episodes of Star Trek Voyager, your two hosts along this journey, are my fellow Trek actor whose first professional job was next to none other than John Schneider from the Dukes of Hazard in the singing and dancing group, the trunk stop players, Mr. Robert Duncan McNeil, and myself, you're a favorite Eternal Ensign Garrett Wong. Remember, you can get the full version of this podcast by signing up to become a patron at patreon.com forward slash the Delta Flyers. Oh my God. You went deep. That's as deep as you can get. That's as deep as you can get.

Let me just start interviewing you. How many trunk stop players were there total? So the trunk stop players was a little talent show group It was five of us. Okay. There was five of us, and it was started by Carolyn Fleetwood, who owned the dance studio where I was introduced to all of this craziness. Fleetwood Studios in Atlanta, Georgia.

Carolyn decided with some of her young talent that she would put together this little cabaret talent show group, and we would go around to like corporate events and things like that and do our little shows. And you and I were talking about this right before the podcast. Yes. So, yeah, John Schneider from the Dukes of Hazard was in the trunk stop players. Look at the ratio there. Two of the five, almost 50% of the group, went on to become a television star. Yeah, that's crazy. That's nuts.

Yeah, that actually is crazy. I mean, I never, in my wildest dreams, when I was 14 or 15, however old I was, 13 or 14 maybe. Yes. doing these little tap dancing shows for company lunches that that you mean wait you mean company lunch so you you guys went down to Coca-Cola like you met corporate companies yeah we'd go like I interrupted you you said uh that might have been the pinnacle you're about to say something about I thought that I was getting I got paid I think I got paid like maybe $50 so performance and which is a lot back then back then I was like are you kidding me I'm getting paid to do this I thought that might be the one and only time I ever got paid in my life to do this.

So you and I were talking about it. Yes. And I had this moment where I'm like, hold on. So I ran over and I found this now. Oh, God. This is a scrapbook I put together for myself, my senior year of high school. Oh, my gosh. Right before I was leaving home in Atlanta, Georgia, I still have it.

I was 17 years old. I love the fact that it says album. Album. For those of you listening, it's this, it's kind of like leather, leatherbound sort of pleather outside. It's a fake, yeah.

And in block letters and gold printing, it says album. The A, the L, and the M are fading a little bit because Robbie is how old is that book now? This is 1981, 82, probably. I did this myself. because oh my god this is just coming back to me that's a 40 year old album dude in my bedroom in my bedroom when I was a kid when I would do like a show a community theater plays I'd take

the program or the poster and I would tape it on my wall yes and I had all this you know I had posters and other stuff around but my room was like wallpapered with my memorabilia or my you know my high school experience. When I was leaving home after I graduated high school, my mom was selling the house and she was going to move back to North Carolina with her family. Oh, right. But I didn't want all that stuff thrown out. So I'm like, what am I going to do? Like when I'm not coming back home. So I'm like, I'll just put all, you know, kind of a time line. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm going to get through this real quick. Please, please. This was my very first. Oh, it's getting messed up from the, Oh, because it's green.

This is a green color. Oh, no. Okay, so not all of it, but this was my very first play I ever did. That's a newspaper ad for the Wizard of Oz at the Atlanta Children's Civic Theater. I love it. I'm not going to go through this whole thing. But do you actually have a photo of you and John Schneider? That's my question.

Oh, yeah, I do. Okay. Oh, my gosh. Here it is. Oh, my God. Is that you in the, where are you? of us. Okay. I said five, so there's six of us. Okay. Where are you? Can you show me? I'm sitting on top. Oh, that's you on top? Yeah. Is that Schneider to your left, right? Or you're right? I guess he would be. He's in the left of frame, though, right? So, yes. Yeah, that's him. Okay, with that. Yes. Oh, my God. This thing is falling apart. Bo duke. Right. Isn't he Bo duke or Luke? He's Bo duke. Oh, my God. Okay. I'm just going to pull this out. Pull it out. Trunk stop players. Let me go a little bigger.

Look at Robbie's face. You are so young. See, okay, John Schneider looks like John Schneider. That does not look like you. That's me and John Schneider and David Wildman. So you're underneath. You're the, you're the, oh my goodness. You know who you look like that?

Look at that for booking. Oh my gosh. Look at that. That's insane. Okay, that's my first. I am more excited that you brought this up than any TV show I ever did in my life. That's hilarious. How old were you?

I must have been a 13 or 14 years old. Okay, because the thing is, I look at that picture. That doesn't look anything like you. You're a kid, definitely. That doesn't look anything like you right now. You know who that looks like? That looks like Kate's son Alex when he was a kid. Oh, that's funny.

A little bit. All right. I'm going to go through a couple more things. Right around this time, I did another play with the children's theater that I got into called Tom Sawyer. I played Huck Finn, and I was so proud of this picture because I was so, I was acting up a storm. Just acting up a storm. Oh my gosh.

Can you just, you need to describe it to our listeners, though, Robbie. Describe that photo. Just what is, what are you doing in that photo? Huck Finn is mad. He's hurt and angry and just so sad. Oh, wow. A few years later, I did the sound of music with this children's theater.

And because I had done a couple local productions, they put an ad in the paper with my, my name as if people are going to come because of your name, yes. 15 year old Robbie McNeil. Whoa, this is crazy. Man, I need a time machine to be invented yesterday. So then I can come to watch you do all these little plays. I would love to have seen you in all these productions when you were just a young man.

Yeah, here's another one. There's me at the piano. That looks more like you now. Yeah. that looks more like you with the little cross of something something else. I'm feeling a little Ethan Hawk there. Oh, nice. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. This thing is falling apart in my hands. I can't believe you still have that. That's, that's amazing. Good for you. I can't believe I still have it either. Yeah. Well, we talk about this all the time, how you've, I ask you about, well,

where's that one thing? You're like, well, I don't know. We got lost in the move or that's gone. Or I have no, I have no idea. So there's a lot of items that we've talked about in the past that have kind of went by the way of the Dodo Bird. And then now you have this one album that you pull out. It's crazy. But you've never shown me. You've never shown me that album. There's a lot of history.

My very last thing I'm going to show you is that year I graduated high school and I was going off to New York. I needed a headshot. Oh, God. And back then, back then when you were auditioning for like commercials and things, they would want like a composite where you had like your character. your look. So it wouldn't just be one shot,

maybe two or three on a frame. Different looks on there, yeah. Yeah. So here's, a sportier look or more business. Here's my. Sorry. Oh my goodness.

Can you that? Robbie, please. I can see the top picture, but bring the lower ones closer to frame so I can see. What is that pensive? Are you holding a flower?

I'm looking at a flower. I'm looking at a flower. Sorry, bring that, just bring that photo closer to frame. The flower one, the flower one alone. I just want to

I love it. That's my modeling look. There's my J.C. Penny's modeling look. That's your JCPenny modeling. The other one is, the other one with the flower shows that you're artistic and sensitive. Yeah.

Maybe you're a poet of some sort. And you are a poet now that you do limericks. And on the top, are you trying to, oh, you're just holding on to the football soccer, soccer goal net. Yeah. Kind of showing that your athletic, you know, side. Yeah. I can smile.

And everyone, just so you know, know, this is how you had to have a headshot if you were going to audition for commercials back in the day. You had to show them a mixture of looks like, okay, he can be the young sporty guy. He could be a little bit more dressed up or he can be pencil holding a flower. Exactly. And thinking about life. So, yeah. Oh, my God. I can't believe. What a tour to force. Our little chat about what credit are you going to bring up and it's led to this. That's how it began. Yes. I couldn't. I was like, I'm running out of credits for you. So, Robbie. No, I got plenty more.

He came me. Okay. I'm happy. Wow. Wow is right. That is a wow. Wow is a wow. Yeah, that is a like a way back time machine.

Ooh, man. That's cool. That was special. I've never seen any of those images. My first time, I'm very excited. Most people in the world have not seen it. Unless you were in my bedroom in 1982. my childhood bedroom.

You didn't see that. But during one of our, when we answered one of our, it was no, it was during one of our Admiral Zoom call sessions. And one of the admirals had a question.

And that question was, would either of you be interested in writing your memoirs? And now look at all this source material and images you can put in your memoirs. I know. You could just have a whole center section of all these little,

everything from that album. Everything from that album can go into that. to that and i think i'm glad i did that i'm glad i pulled that off my wall that's that would be the lesson is like and and the lesson of this podcast that i've learned is like you know sometimes you don't appreciate the things that you you did in the past or that you experienced in the past unless you really take some time and reflect on it like i i think this podcast has taught me that like yeah taken a look back spend a little time to really reflect on it yeah and my appreciation just grows so yeah same with same with that stuff you know yes

childhood memories and i'm going to offer up one more lesson for all our listeners and viewers out there and that is to store all your old belongings and scrapbooks in watertight containers but because not not just in your binder that says album no no no no that's good that's okay but that needs that old album needs to be in a watertight container because if you recall I might have told you this. I had a flood at my house in Hollywood Hills,

which took out all my albums from when I was in grade school and in high school. All that is gone and ruined by the water. And I'm so, so, so bummed because none of that was converted to a digital copy. So it's gone forever. But you've got your stuff. So that would be a great thing for you to include in your future memoir.

Yes. In my book. Start thinking about a name for your memoir. Now, mine is going to be called album. album the Robbie Duncan McNeil story this is why this guy have said that this man is one of the funniest people I've ever met because he comes out of left field with these very simple statements that just crack people up it looks good on the front of a book as you see that should be the book cover it should just be that album album I love it I love it we'll be confused but they'll be excited

at the same time. Okay, this week, our episode is Tinker, Tenor, Dr. Spy. Oh. Yes. Yes. So, without further ado, let us leave this cyberspace area and go watch this episode and come back with our recap and discussion. It's great.

Tinker Tenor, Dr. Spy. All right. See you soon. Thanks, everybody. Patreon, patrons. Stay tuned for your bonus material. Well, we're back. from watching. We are. Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy. My goodness. All right, let's just jump right into it. Let's just go right

into our, let's do it. Poetry synopsis. Let's not waste any time. Here's my haiku for Tinker Tenor, Dr. Spy. Acceptable risk. Doc dreams himself, the hero, sits in the big chair. Nice. Nice. Okay. Here we go with our Limerick. for Tinker 10 or Dr. Spy, a hero, competent and popular with the ladies on board. The doctor is daydreaming of all things unexplored. Flox is mistaken. Reality is shaken. He's a mess, but he's earned that award.

Nice. Good. By the way, he gets the award at the end. We never see it again. Like, wouldn't you wear medals or wouldn't you, wouldn't that be somewhere? I don't know. Maybe that was still part of his dream.

Yeah. His algorithm is still acting up. That's very funny. This whole episode never happened. Yeah, exactly. Tinker Tender, Dr. Spy, Joe Manoski wrote the script. I have to say, it's a really good script. It is.

Like in its detail, it's good moment to moment in terms of the dialogue. It's funny. it's at some point it's all that and the structure is almost perfect like it really is a great script i think joe did a phenomenal job joe knocked it out of the park with this one story by bill valili who we don't really i don't think we've ever heard of this person until this time until this yeah who is bill valali vali vali just some lucky guy who's who pitched the story and yeah i don't think he purchased you know i don't think he pitched or wrote or anything for any other episode.

This is the only one. I think you're right. You're right. I do know that he is a comic book guy. I did, you know, well, yeah, he has written some comic books and he's even an artist. He's done some illustrations. So he definitely is in the genre, you know, in the world of our show, but I've never heard of him before.

Kudos to Bill for the one story that he sold to the Voyager writing staff. So good job. Yeah. I did hear, by the way, that this story originally, I'd be curious if Bill Valloli pitched a Neelix version of this or if it was a doctor version. Because I did hear, I did hear that there was early talks of this were about Neelix daydreaming. Wow. And that then they, when they maybe made the change to the doctor, it brought in a whole new, a whole different kind of sci-fi opportunity, but that they were. that it was originally maybe maybe Bill Valli pitched a Neelik story, I don't know. Yeah, and that would have been a completely different episode, I feel.

Oh, yeah. I mean, it just, it wouldn't have had the same nuance and the same levels that this episode has with the doctor. And also, you know, at this point, really, it's, again, a lot of focus on Janeway, the Doctor, and Seven in seasons six and seven. So it makes sense that they kind of tinkered it and made it for, you like that?

I said they kind of tinkered with this. Oh, I see what you did. I see what you did there. You got it? Okay. And they made this episode for the doctor. And, you know, I think the end result was fantastic. Again, one of my favorite, one of my favorite non- Kim episodes for sure.

Yeah. Yeah. I thought it was great. Directed by John Bruno. Yeah. Now, John Bruno is a friend of Bob Picardos. Hmm. I think John, I don't know how, this is the first time he directed for us.

but I think this is a phenomenal job of directing. It's the comedy moments are played beautifully. There's some transitions with VizEffects that I had never seen before. We hadn't done things quite that way. John Bruno comes from a visual effects background. I know that. I know that I think maybe Bob worked with John on, on Interspace or something like that.

He knows John Bruno as a VizEFex supervisor, and that may have been how John got into the Voyager camp. I don't know. Do you recall any memories of John at all? I remember liking him a lot. He definitely, in my memory, he came off as kind of a visual guy. He was a visual effects guy. And my memory is that I felt like, oh, his shop making, his planning is airtight.

Like, I felt a lot of confidence with John Bruno on the set in the, you know, the technical aspects and just kind of shot making and telling the story. Yeah. With the shots he was coming up with. So, yeah, I liked him a lot. And I think he and Bob are still good friends. Yeah, my memory of John was that he was somewhat of an introvert. Yeah. I feel.

Like, he's very quiet. Oh, very quiet. Yeah. And it was sort of, like, I couldn't really gauge. Like, I remember going up to him and asking him about. something in a scene that I was in and I just couldn't gauge one way or the other how he felt it was almost like his response was very you know it's it was hard to read for me yeah um but again really good director he did his did his job quite well yeah I thought the writing and directing on this

episode is some of the best in the series and it's really really it's just tight it's good yeah solid it's funny that you know talking about John's personality being a little introverted or slightly kind of vis effects nerdy in those areas. It's funny to see how the comedy plays so well. And one of the things I noticed was there was a lot of classic moments John did with just kind of locked off shots where a character might pop into the frame, do something, a reaction, and pop out. Get out.

That is a classic, it's hard comedy. I've done a lot of comedy and I've made the mistakes myself of moving the camera on the joke or, you know, panning or pushing in on a joke. And you don't need to. You don't need to. It undermines the comedy. Yeah. And there's moments, you know, where the doctor would pop up with a funny face and something in his hands and then pop out.

Right. And whether it was by design or whether it was just accidental, John set the stage for great comedy in this episode. He really did a great job of that. So, but it's funny because he's not a, he's not a, I don't remember him being a hilarious person. He's very, like you said, kind of cool. quiet and sort of, you know, uh, professorly or something, you know, or librarianly,

you know, just like, yeah, um, but, you know, nothing against all our lovely librarian listeners out there, of course. I'm just saying that, yes, he definitely seemed, um, quite subdued. It wasn't, you know, he wasn't like, he wasn't like, he wasn't like Frakes. If Frakes comes on a set to direct, he's, there's a lot of personality. He's a, he's a tsunami of energy that coming on. and and Bruno was the exact opposite, most definitely. Yeah, so let's just jump into this, okay? Let's talk about the guest stars real quick. We had Jay Leggett playing flocks.

I thought he was great. Yeah. He was awesome. You recognize that name? Jay Leggett? No, his character name. Oh, flocks. Yeah, at first I was like, at first I was like, wait a minute.

That sounds familiar. That's John Billy. Billingsley on Enterprise. John Billings's character. Same spelling too. It's like, I think it would, I think from what I looked up,

this was the inspiration for naming John Billingsley's character, Flux. They just like the name a lot. Yeah. Although different alien species, different everything. Okay, so Jay Leggett, who plays Flox, his very first job was in 1988

in a movie, a low-budget action suspense film, I guess, called Trapped Alive, 1988. And the summary of this movie, his first film, goes a little something like this, Jay Leggett's first film. Several escaped prisoners and two hostage women, along with a sheriff's deputy, find themselves trapped in a mine shaft where a cannibalistic mutant is hunting them for food. That's his auspicious debut, Jay Leggett. B-movie fodder.

Okay, all right. Yes, it was B-movie. Jay Legget did a fabulous job, and I love it. I'm sad to say he did pass away in 2013. Oh. It was a young man. He was 50 years old. What?

I know, very sad. But he was so good in this episode. I'm so glad we have his performance. I thought it was great. Okay, our next actor who plays Flox's boss. I think the character is The Overlooker. this actor's name is googie gress googie grass and i i i saw on his imdb or somewhere that it said his when he was a baby

his dad would call him goooo baby and so it became his nickname as a kid googie and it just stuck so he took his nickname as his acting name googie grass his very first job that i could find was a tv movie in the eighties called Babes in Toyland. So it sounds like a holiday film. Yeah. You know, like a movie of the week. Okay.

But Babes and Toyland starred Keanu Reeves and Drew Barremor. Oh, my goodness. Googie Gress was, that was his first job. Yeah. You got to love that name. I know. Guggy Gress. And there was another one of these aliens,

an actor named Robert Greenberg, played sort of the crewman there. and his first job was in 1986 in a horror film called Chopping Mall, which is actually a cult classic Chopping Mall. Wait, who did he play? He was like the crewman on the alien ship. He was the one. He was the other guy. He said a couple of lines.

Yes, yes. He had a few lines. And then Flock's at one point. Flock says, oh, God, I made a big mistake. He has a conversation with him. He has a little brief conversation. That's Robert Greenberg. Okay, so let's dive right into the episode.

So the very first shot is very cool. You see sort of stars filling the frame and you hear the doctors sort of setting the scene of some place. I think he's talking about Mantua and painting a picture of this beautiful place. And he steps into a profile shot and then he turns and almost looks in the camera, which is it was just a cool opening shot.

It was very different than the way we normally, like we don't normally do that. We don't normally look at the camera. So you know immediately we're either in a fantasy or I don't know. Well, you don't know what's happening. As an audience member, you're sitting here wondering, like, what is going on, which really engages you as a viewer. So smart move there.

But he paints this picture. And then we, as the camera moves back and we widen out, we realize the whole crew is sitting there for this lecture or demonstration. We don't really know what's happening. I love that opening shot as it sort of reveals the crowd. You see everybody looking a little bored. You see Neelix asleep. He's in the front row.

His eyes closed. It's very funny. But then the doctor sets the scene of Manchua and he starts to sing an opera number, La Donna Mobyla, classic Italian opera. And I love some of the looks like Harry's deadpan look was hilarious. I don't know what I was doing.

I almost feel like that's a do-over scene for me because everyone's kind of, yeah, you know, because everyone's kind of- Oh, you made me laugh. I'm glad I made you laugh. And that was my choice as an actor to be really just perturbed with the whole situation. But I think everyone was really happy in this dream, like, sequence. Well, we don't know it's a dream sequence at this point. Well, I don't know, because he starts singing and Kate has a pain look on her face. Does she have a pain look?

Yeah. All right. No, I think it's, she's got a pain. look you're just in shock um i'm a little confused and then tuvok starts crying yeah he starts crying he starts crying and then and then paris looks over and says something like you okay and then he gets angry and this leads us while the doctor continues to sing opera into a fight and he shoves uh paris back into some chairs. Harry and Chocote try to grab Tuvok and we try to restrain him. Yeah, restrain and they flings both of you off and a big dramatic move. And then there's this extra with a phaser

that I love this moment. The Tuvac grabs the phaser from the extra and the the extra just kind of goes has a really awkward dramatic look and then just sort of freezes like doesn't fight anymore. It was very funny to me. He's going through pawnfall. He's going through the Vulcan ritual of Ponfar once every seven years. If you don't have Nookie, you go crazy. And the doctor continues to sing. I'm happy to sing this version of the opera song, if you like. Can you?

Goes a little something like this. Let's hear it. To Vok, I understand. You are a Vulcan man. You have just gone with a. out for seven years about. Paris, please find a way to load a hypospray. I will give you a sign. Just aim for his behind. Hormones are raging. Synapses blazing. It's also there. And then Paris tosses the hypospray into his hand. Very illogical.

Illogical And then he hypo-sprays Tuvok I loved that little song Yeah I had to write it down So funny Thank you for singing it

I appreciate that All the little cuts To all the reactions were hilarious The lyrics were hilarious It was funny So we go through this fantasy sequence Clearly it's a fantasy At this point

It's so ridiculous And then we hear As he's catching flowers we hear a doctor doctor and we cut to a close-up and he's kind of, you know, zoning out in his chair in sick day. Yeah, in his office and his office. And it's Bala and she wakes him up. And she's like, hello.

And he apologizes. And she says, maybe she'll have to run a diagnostic on his hearing subroutines. Like he's not paying attention. And he says, he basically says, I was just letting my mind wander. right we've never heard him talk like that so we know that he's something's up yeah something's up he's having some fantasies or something they continue in sick bay uh talking he says he wants to go on the away mission and balana says sorry you're not on the list uh we've already made we've made the crew assignments and uh and he's like i wanted to go take photos of this canyon like grabs

his camera she says nope not this time and he'll just have to use his imagination is of how we go out in the scene. So we're definitely, no, that's the theme of our episode. And I do kind of like, because we come back, when he breaks out of the daydream, and she goes, and Torres is there, then we go to commercial break. And then we come back into the sick bay. And then you just talked about what happened to there. But she does say, Torres does say, if you aren't working on anything,

just deactivate yourself and save us the energy. And it was almost like this sort of like throwaway, like, you're not important. We don't need you. So that kind of sets the tone a little bit of how. the doctor is starting to feel his point of view yeah he's feeling like he's not important yeah she had some good stuff in this episode bologna she did she did and i she did and i'd like that intro scene with her and the doctor i i felt that that was the most natural sounding uh that torres has been up until now it was really really good yeah her part okay well it's interesting also coming off of barge of the dead yes

such an intense episode yeah yeah yeah that she sort of feels cleansed a bit here yeah you know that's is a breakthrough in her character. Great observation. And if anything, yeah, you're right. After going through so much drama in the prior episode, now she gets an episode where it's almost like all the pressure has been released. You know, all that half-Clingon pressure has been released and she's able to just, oh, she's lighter now. Yeah. And that's how I felt.

She was lighter in this episode. It was wonderful. It was nice. Yeah. We go to the bridge. Chacote walks in the bridge and he's kind of taken aback. He looks on the view screen and there's a beautiful. beautiful nebula, gorgeous, big nebula.

And Janeway says, yeah, it showed up just a few minutes ago. And he shares a pad with her. It's notes from the doctor here. He basically says it's a formal grievance. And it's very fun. Against the crew. It's like not just one person. It's against everybody, right?

Yes, yes. Starts listing off his grievances, his treatment by the crew, rude behavior that cuts to Paris turning around like me. I'm like, huh, okay, why are you cutting to Tom right now? Yeah, yeah, Tom definitely took that personally. Ultimately, he's like it's failure to acknowledge the sentience of his program, that he is growing and changing, that he wants to be considered a sentient member of the crew. And his final request on the pad is that he be made captain in the event of a catastrophic

emergency. Yes. That's a tall order there. Tuvok responds, well, protocol dictates that either he or Commander Chacote can go speak with the doctor on these grievances. And Janeway says, no, now, now I'll do it. Yep. Yeah. Then we go to kind of a space shot of the Voyager flying by this nebula. Yeah. And it's a great shot as the as the ship goes by, the camera sort of pushes into the nebula a bit and we start to reveal that there's a ship hiding inside of it. A very cool looking ship.

I went bad, yes. It almost like, when I saw that ship and then I compared it to other alien ships we've seen, I thought, wow, they had time and money on this one. I mean, this one looks great. I wonder if John Bruno directing because of his visual effects background.

Oh. If all around the Viz effects on this, whether by by his design he had notes or whether by just our crew kind of going, hey, we got one of our own doing, you know, a high level Vis-Effects guy doing this episode. Let's step it up a little bit. Oh, yeah. They definitely stepped it up. It was upstepped all the way.

We go inside their ship. I love this makeup, by the way. This is such a cool makeup of these aliens. I thought it was really great. The makeup was wonderful. The wardrobe reminded me a little bit of Dune, the Harkonen, with their sort of how their collars. Yeah, the collars are really high with those aliens. And just like these aliens, they're high-collared.

It looks really wonderful. Yeah, that was very cool. Basically, one of the aliens in there has been scanning the ship. They don't recognize this ship. It's not in their database. It's not in their database. And the boss man basically says, this is an unacceptable risk, don't waste our time and resources, but this crewman who will

realize his flocks later on will be his name, he says, you know, I figured out a way to, he's got an idea. He says, maybe we can penetrate the hall with a micro-tunneling sensor. And then he could maybe tap into Voyager's computer and see their weapons and defense systems. And his boss is still like, No, let's not do it. And he says, well, I already asked the hierarchy. So he's kind of doing what the doctors do. You know, he's, he's kind of stepping out of bounds a bit on his ship. Yeah, because is he even allowed to, I thought it was always the boss that submitted, you know, request to the hierarchy. But I guess anyone can do it, I suppose. Well, he said, he already did it. Yeah. And it was approved. Yeah, I thought that was great. We go to the briefing room next. This is a scene that you've talked about. Yes. Do you remember? when we talked about this, our discussion to this and how I said that this, I really wish that we had more scenes or more episodes that had comedy like this. And now you see this. Now you see the scene. Yeah, it's very funny. In the briefing room, there's a general discussion of the best

way to retrieve this Antonium ore from the planet surface. So everyone's in there talking and discussing. And, but yet that's not really the A storyline in this scene. No. That's the B storyline. That's the cover for the real scene. Because as everyone's rambling on, then we see the doctor gets a funny look on his face and he looks underneath the table. And Balana has a barefoot and is rubbing. Rubbing his leg. Pletzy. Yeah. With her bare feet under there. And all of a sudden the music changes to saxophone music. Yes. It's really cheesy, you know, romance music.

Yes, yes. And then he gets a note on his pad, right? He gets a note on his pad. He looks around. It says dinner tonight. It's not Neelix. It looks over to seven and she's, she winks at him.

Yeah, it's clearly from her. And then Janeway notices some of this. She's starting to notice some of this going on. Janeway gets up and walks behind him and sort of caresses his head. Cresses his bald head, yeah. His bald head. And then basically the scene devolves into the three women trying to out seduce the doctor. And they're sort of fighting over him.

And then Janeway says she needs medical attention because her back is out. And she takes it's an old academy wound. Yes. And takes his hand and lowers it all the way down to her rear end. and there's the doctor with his hand on her butt. I think the script said it was her lower back is where she lowered it to. Well, in the episode,

it went lower than her lower back back. It definitely did. It went lower. I love also the additional message on the pad from seven when she sees that Janeway and Torres are sort of moving in on the doctor. She writes, resist. So, you know, resistance is people like, resist,

which is again. very silly very fun um and then janeway's had enough she says everybody out of here you're all dismissed and then off of the doc's reaction to that we hear doctor doctor doctor and he snaps out of it again we go wide and see it's just him and janeway in there and she wants to discuss his list of demands but then they move though they move from there so evidently the meeting is and has ended right everyone's left and she's talking she goes i want to i want to discuss your demands and And then the next thing we know, they've now moved to the captain's ready room. To the ready room.

Yeah. Basically in this scene, Janeway is very concerned about his request. You know, the doctor is pleading his case saying, you know, I'm sentient. I have a right to, you know, grow my program. And he basically wants to have his program include all tactical and strategic abilities of the ship because he wants to function as what he calls the emergency command hologram or ECH. Basically, the backup captain, if there's any, you know, catastrophic event that happens. And she, you know, considers this.

And but she says it would take months to do this. Like we can't, you know, we can't go down this road. It's not approved. There's nothing like this. She's like, no, sorry. When we get back to the alpha. quadrant, I'll pass it along maybe back there. They can explore this possibility. Yeah, you said Starfleet may be able to assign a team of engineers. I'm going to recommend

they assign a team of engineers to examine your proposal. But in this current, right now, I'm going to have to deny your request. So no, it's not going to happen. So we cut out to the hallway and the doctor's walking along. And he comes into the cargo bay. He, you know, he heads from the hallway into the cargo bay and all of a sudden seven approaches him gives him a kiss balana takes the other arm and the ladies escort him into what looks like some kind of celebration party or something is that how you got it okay yeah well i i had like he walks in and everyone says surprise and then they come up and start kissing him and everything so they're there there's a yeah yeah yeah they're already everybody's already there yeah but as as he goes into the cargo

Bay. Everyone's there for the celebration party and the ladies are clearly still in love with him. Very enamored with him. Hey, Garrett, have you been traveling this summer? Oh my gosh, so much already. I don't always travel, but this summer's been insane. Trip after trip. You've been doing your impersonation of me. Yes. You know what doesn't belong in everyone's epic summer plans, though? What? Getting burned by your old wireless bill. So while you're planning your beach trips and your barbecues and your three-day weekends, your wireless bill should be the last thing holding you back. Well, that is why I made the switch to Mint Mobile. The coverage and speed are the same as I'm used to, but the savings, that is the difference. The savings are incredible. And now I'm saving

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and he says he's tried to access their internal sensors, but he couldn't get past the security encryption. But he says he's found something better, a holographic crewman. He says he's tapped into the cognitive subroutines of this holographic crewman, and now they can monitor everything. So he doesn't even need to get past the security encryption

that Voyager has set up in terms of their internal sensors. He can monitor everything through this holographic crewman, and he can experience everything he's experiencing, and most importantly, Flox tells his boss that he has discovered that Voyager is not in their database because they're not from this quadrant. They are alone. And not only are they alone, they're lost, they're lost and alone. And a few more hours of observation will give him all the information that they will need

to tell the hierarchy about the defense of this ship, the weapons, the crew complement. And Flok says that the social structure on Voyager is very, very different from their social structure. He talks about how on his ship, Flox only has one job. But the doctor does more than just practice medicine. He has access to the entire ship. He seems to be an expert on everything. And the captain just gave him authorization to command the bridge. And it was very exciting to see this ceremony. I love when he does say, he seems to be an expert on everything. Yeah. Yeah, the doctor thinks he's an expert on everything as well. The Superior asks why he is not monitoring the doctor right now,

and Flock says, well, the link drops out intermittently, but it should be reestablished in a few minutes, and the boss man is satisfied with that, and he orders Flax to maintain surveillance. But again, we now see that he's only tapped in when the doctor daydreams, and that's it. He doesn't see anything else, and the daydream doesn't happen all the time,

at least not yet, but he's seeing, these strange little images of not reality. Yeah, he's totally seeing fantasy of not reality. That's all he's seen. Which is very funny. Yes, absolutely hilarious. Now we're in sick bay. And we have a nice scene with a doctor in Nelix.

The doctor is injecting Nelix with a hypolspray, which is to help combat any possible allergens in the planet's atmosphere. He then asked Nelix if he would snap a few hollow images for him. And then out of the blue, he asks. if he daydreams or not. The doctor asked Neelix, does he daydream or not? And Neelix is like, well, I suppose. And then Neelix goes into this story

about how Talaxians believe that fantasies and daydreams come from someplace else, another land, and that they slip into our minds and whisper about things we never imagined. And I just love that writing there. Yeah, it was very poetic. It's poetic, yes. It's poetic, and it was also kind of echoing

what's happening is that these other aliens are kind of slipping into the doctor's daydreams and getting these fantasies as messages. So, yeah, it was a nice scene with Neelix and the doctor. And then Neelix asked the doctor if he daydreamed and he very quickly responds. Of course not. I'm a computer program.

And then he says, I prefer wide shots, Mr. Neelix, like David Livingston. If you're feeling creative, throw in a little ultraviolet. He didn't say Livingston, but I threw that in for you, Robbie. Thank you. You're welcome. We go to the bridge next, and we start on Harry asking for a report, sending a message to a call to Paris, who's in a shuttle, I guess, on this away mission.

Actually, he's in the Delta Flyer. He's in the Delta Flyer, that's right. And Paris says, oh, yes, it's a beautiful view. And then suddenly we hear this noise. And Paris says, Mayday, Mayday. And Tuvok says, it's the board. And then Tuvok looks at his hand. these nanoprobes kind of grow

out of his, the back of his hand, which was very cool. Really well done. Two-Ox says, you have to relieve me of duty immediately. He's turning into a board. Seven, seven's got a message. She says, an assimilation virus

has penetrated Voyager's hall. Which is hilarious. Because let's think about that. You can only be assimilated if the board, if the board drone shoots his tubules into you, and the nanopods go in. You can't just send a virus and everyone starts turning into Borg.

But again, cool, though, in his fantasy. In his fantasy is very cool. Chocote suddenly says, you know, I forget what he says, but Chocote is like freaking out. And he's got these cool, I love the makeup that was wrapped around. Yeah, wrapped around like a snake or something. It was very cool. Yeah.

So Chocote is turning Borg. Harry says there's incoming fire the ship is hit Janeway hits the floor I love that shot of her falling on the floor simple but really action-packed kind of effective moment Harry looks over

yeah Harry looks over he's got nanoprobes coming out of his face well Harry's like looking over the doctor saying like come on doctor turn into the ECH and so that's when he does activate it into the ECH his whole uniform turns into the command uniform you see the pips popping up on the side It was cool.

It was super cool. Yeah. I love Bopacardo's line when he's talking to the Borg and he says, over my dead program, which was pretty darn funny. I love that. Yes. He activates the photonic cannon, which is clearly a made-up weapon that does not exist on Voyager. But the earlier photon torpedoes that the doctor shoots at the Borg sphere doesn't do anything.

But he's got to use the imaginary photonic cannon weapon. The super weapon. He destroys the board ship. It explodes. We cut over to flocks on the hierarchy ship. Yeah. And he's in shock. Well, all of them. Don't they all react to that? They go, who? Everyone watching the screen is just shocked to that. The photonic cannon is so scary. And we go back to the bridge. And now we're back in reality. Yeah, with Harry's voice going, Dr. Dr. Dr. Can you confirm? Yeah, he wants readings. readings yeah uh the readings doctor and the whole crew is kind of turning around and notices that he's distracted oh yeah but my first thought was why is the doctor on the bridge if he's monitoring people's

he doesn't need to be there you're right he doesn't normally if if if we are you know what life signs we either get the readings ourselves or we call the doctor in sick bay and he gives where he's monitoring yeah but uh it just in you know we never we never get medical data from the doctor standing in that center console. But for this moment, it was the right place to be. Yes. We go back to a space shot with the hierarchy ship and inside Flox is saying, this is a very dangerous ship. He's telling his captain, like they've got this thing called a photonic cannon. And the captain's a little skeptical. But Flox is like, no, the doctor, the doctor is unbelievable. He does it all. Yeah, he's skeptical because he says,

we have no readings of any Borg in this, in this region of space. And he's like, well, I mean, they, I'm telling you, I saw it. And he's like, where's the debris? He's like, where's the debris? It's completely vaporized. It's annihilating. Yeah, the photonic cannon can do this. Like, Captain's skeptical, but flocks, Flux says the doctor is incredible.

He does everything. And he goes down this list of things, like he does this and that. And then he ends it with, and he's very atrox. to all the females. Let me read off the list. He says, the ECH is now in command. He is an impressive individual, a physician, an engineer, a warrior, and very attractive to the females.

And so this is his line. And he says, we should attempt to avoid any interaction with this emergency command hologram, the ECH. And flocks recommends a type three stealth assault, and the hierarchy approves. of a stealth assault. I love when they, when they send these messages to the hierarchy. You like that little machine?

Yeah, they kind of put it in a little pad. They stick it in a slot. And then there's like this clear sort of tube that you see the messages coming back. I just, I thought that detail, that specificity was really cool.

It also reminds you of your little message board too, probably. So it does. Yes. I love my message. We go out into the hallway, doctors walking down the hall. Chocote comes running up and says, Doctor, you're incredible.

Like Chacote is just, you know, effusively just complimenting the doctor. And you see the doctor starting to go, wait a minute, this is a little too far. Yeah. So he says, computer, where's the location of Chukote? And computer says, Chacote's in his quarters.

Yeah, now he knows. So now the doctor knows this is all. Yeah. His daydreams are now coming into everyday life, basically. There's an issue. The algorithms are malfunctioning. Yep, he's realizing it. We cut to engineering, and we have Kim, Torres, 7, and the doctor.

The doctor is explaining to Torres, Kim, and 7 that he has been experimenting with introducing a new function into his program, cognitive projections, aka daydreaming. And the algorithms are malfunctioning. And he is starting to daydream whether he wants to or not. I love what Balana says. She says, you know, what they say, a doctor who operates on himself has a pittok for a patient. And my first thought was, Balana never uses Klingon references. I mean, very rarely.

She does sometimes when she's angry usually. Yeah. But not in like just a casual conversation. Yeah, right. Again, I thought she's just coming off. barge of the dead. Like she's really embraced some of her clon side. And so she's kind of using these cling on references in ways that she didn't use them as often before. Yeah. Usually it was

just when she was mad about something. She might, you know, throw in a little cling on. Yeah. I thought that was just a nice connection of episodes. A good catch. And it's just so cool how each of these scenes, they start out as completely normal. And then all of a sudden, it just morphs into the daydream. Tourism seven begin fighting over the doctor all over again and it's vicious it's just vicious and i feel like yeah in this in this daydream world it's your lady torres that has the biggest crush on the oh yeah and it's it's her job to defend against all other suitors meaning the captain and seven and she's vicious about it absolutely vicious and then all of a sudden the fight is broken up by kim basically exclaiming

that the warp containment field is failing. Yes, there's a big alarm. They all rush over to try to fix this thing. The computer. I love the computer here. The computers first starts saying warp core breach in 30 seconds. Then a little bit later, warning, warp core breach a lot sooner than you think. And I thought, yes, this is galaxy quest right now.

We're actually finally living that reality there with great comedy. When the computer says, warning, warp core breach. a lot sooner than you think. That's when the doctor off of a sudden goes, wait a minute. Yeah. And I love as it's melting down, seven and Blana both are looking over the warp core. And then they turn in unison and say, the doctor. That's their warp particles moment.

That's their warp particles moment. Yes. Because somebody has to get inside that warp core to eject it manually. And there's only one person who can withstand the radiation. And that would be the doctor. And that's when their warp particles moment happened. Yeah, they love the unison talking. Yes.

But then we jump back. We jump back to the current reality without his daydreams. And Harry notices that the doctor is about to enter the warp core. Like climb over the railing. Yeah. And he has to save the ship. And Harry's like, what do you do? And so, of course, Harry and the gang have to rush over and physically pull him back.

The physicality that he's got is he's very Jerry Lewis. Is he being a drag back? Oh, my God. It was very funny. And then we cut to a close-up of him in Sick Bay. And as the camera pulls back, we realize that he is just jumping from one daydream to the next. He's pacing around the surgical bay by himself. And he's talking to nobody.

Torres tells Janeway he's just jumping from one scene to another. And my favorite part is he starts walking forward. He hits the force field. And he's like, oh, excuse me, miss. Like, pardon me, man. Like he bumped into some woman that we don't even see there, right? It's very funny. Torres has basically routed his subroutines to Holladick 1 so that Harry and 7 can kind of monitor his fantasies so we can kind of keep tabs on what's going on with him. Janeway actually brings up an interesting question. She's like, is that appropriate? Do you think that's appropriate?

Spying, looking in on his fantasies. Yeah. And, you know, and she's just gotten, she's just been in a meeting with the doctor saying that we're going to show him a little more consideration. We're going to, we're going to respect his sentions. And now here. we are tapping into his fantasies. His private. It's reading his journal. Yes. Yes. And obviously he has not given permission for that, but we're going to be doing this. But Torres says, look, this is going to give us the better idea. We're going to get a bigger picture of what's happening to him. It's going to help us fix him. We need to tap into this. As she says that, he then has a conversation with Neelix. Is Mr. Neelix, how thoughtful, you baked me a cake. Oh, this won't get you out of your checkup. And so this whole thing is just absolutely hilarious to me. Kim chimes in and says, Kim to Sikbei, Janeway, is like, go ahead. And Kim says, you might want to have a

look at this. Jamie goes, we're on our way. And the tag of this is he blows out the candles of his cake, which he's not there. And he blows them all out and then he missed one, which is classic. And one more. You know, I feel like he probably did that, right? I mean, I'm guessing the doctor, yeah, he added that Bob added that little lovely little touch there so very very funny that button we're in cargo cargo bay too on the hall deck and the EMH is the doctor is basically painting seven of nine and seven is posing for him sort of a all not all natural she's yeah she's in the nude in the nude he's doing charcoal sketches of seven in the nude yes and the camera kind of dollies behind the back

of seven of nine. And then it reveals the real seven of nine standing there in the in the holodeck version of the cargo bag. Right. Watching herself getting or drawn in the nude. And the first thing I thought was,

was that a body double? It had to have been a body double. Yeah, it was. I don't, yeah, I don't remember, I wasn't in the scene, but you're in the scene. I don't recall the name of the, and it was actually, It was one of our, I think it was her stand-in that did her body double for her. Really?

Yes. I remember, I can't, oh, I feel so bad. I can't remember her name, but that's who was actually lying there. And I also remember that was a closed set. That was a very limited number of crew members there. But anyway, so my favorite line is from Janeway. She's, Chitway says, he does the hands very well. That's very funny.

And Seven's like, well, apparently he's had a great deal of practice. Look at these. And there's all these other sketches that are there, these preliminary sketches. Yeah, he's been drawing clearly a lot of these. A lot of these. But I have to say, the sketches were like, they were the outlines of her figure and stuff. But there was nothing. They were totally.

Yeah, they're PG rated. They're PG, yeah, for sure. You would say G? You say G rated? I would say G rated. They were like outlined sketches. Yeah, no detail at all of the nudes. But I almost wish we hadn't seen the sketches.

I wish we had seen from behind like lots of paper, but we don't see. We don't. Because it would be more humiliating for seven to feel like, oh my God, like he's drawn all these nudes of me and we never see them. Good call. And then I love this transition, by the way, because you realize that. this is just a holodeck and we go from a fantasy or a daydream of drawing these nudes to a fantasy of the doctor on the bridge.

Yes. And the transition was great because you guys are standing in the holodeck. Yep. And then it transforms to the bridge and then the doctor enters the close up. So that was a cool, cool transition. I like that. Very much so. So we start out with the doctor saying computer activate the emergency command hologram.

so he can activate himself into the ECH at this point. And Kim's got the great line. This is the part I like because the Pips pop up on his collar. And of course, Harry never got their promotion. So this was a bit of a dig on Harry in a way. Janeway loves it. Nice touch. And then, of course, the M.H brings the Photonic Cannon online.

Yes, activate the Photonic Cannon. And Janeway's like, the what? And Harry goes, well, it's a weapon he invented. He really likes to save the ship. Harry then says, which means that this particular algorithm of him as the ECH is more easily accessible than the others. So Torres says if we can isolate it, if we can isolate this algorithm, we might be able to stabilize his program. So we're kind of, you know, we're making a little bit of headway. So then we jump from the holodeck bridge to the holodeck mess hall, lovely scene here.

Yeah, great scene. my gosh. The doctor is basically breaking up with Balana. He's breaking up with her. They're sitting at a table. Yes. And Roxanne is sort of watching her looking at herself who's

just her fake Balana is madly in love of the doctor and just will not let her go. She says, you just can't leave me. The best line EMH, aren't you forgetting someone? He needs you, Balana.

now more than ever and of course Alana looks behind her and sitting all alone in the other the corner of the mess hall is Tom with his little cup of coffee Don't you wave at her like hi yes it is the most pathetic hilarious reaction I've ever seen You did such a good job

that reaction I was very funny I was so happy and so proud of you Robbie I was like oh Robbie knocked that reaction out of the park Because if you can, if you can really make the audience laugh without even saying something, you got it going on. This reaction that you give when they look back at you is the best. And Torres says, forget him. He's not half the man you are.

And then real Boulana, who's watching this whole thing, is like, I'm done. I've had enough of this. I've had enough. And as they exit, they're kind of exiting the celebration. So we've kind of jumped to a different moment. right and Janeway stops because she hears the doctor basically expressing what's truly in his heart he says all I ever wanted was to live up to my full potential yeah and Janeway stops she kind of clocks this and he continues on yeah basically saying I just want to help the people that I love yeah that really

lands for Janeway yeah and that that scene is again the congratulate the surprise party for him being ECH, I think, right? Yeah, exactly. So we've jumped around to all these dayd dreams and fantasies, but the last moment is Janeway really hearing that he loves this crew. That's a huge revelation for her. We go to the hierarchy ship next and Flox is worried. He's lost the connection. I will say the opening of this, you see Flox looking in a close-up and his hand is by his face. Yeah. And I love the makeup for this but they didn't quite finish the hand and so they had some they had some makeup on the hand but not completely but it wasn't all complete yeah and i and i i i wish they hadn't had his hand up by his face because it really it made the makeup less effective and i love this makeup

so i wish i wish that hadn't been included yeah but um but it was it was still the makeup is phenomenal. Anyway, flocks is, he's concerned because two assault vessels are on their way to join them for this type three attack that they're going to do and he's starting to worry

that he might have been wrong. So he's trying to talk his boss out of it now. You know, he's like, you know, the more I learned about Voyager, the more I wonder if it's even worth the hassle to even and the overlook his boss is like the boss man is like, okay, we'll clarify. He's launching an attack against such a

heavily armed vessel carries a great risk and for what a little antimatter and some dilithium so everything he's saying is now he's trying to back he's trying to back pedal this whole yeah and and his boss does say did you make a mistake and he's like no no no no mistake and then boss man leaves and said we're going to continue on and then he does admit to the crewman guy devro is his name d e v r oh yeah he goes I made a terrible mistake. I love that. Totally wrong. How terrible. This is real. The minute he saw him popping

up in every location back to back, he knew. He knew. He says he did a little further investigation and he found out that he hasn't been monitoring his perceptions. He's been watching his dreams or his imaginings is how he says it.

And I love that writing from Monoski, right? Watching his dreams or his imaginings. I just, I love this dialogue. Yeah, that's great. He goes, I'm not sure which, but none of this is real. So what am I going to do? So he's, he's in a pickle. He's in a big pickle. He doesn't know what that. We're all in a pickle. We go to sick bay next and the dock's sitting there, but clearly a lot of, you know, a worry and concern. Janeway appears and asks, you know, she's just checking in

on him. The last thing she saw was him saying, you know, I just want to help the people I love. So that's really stuck with her. She really cares for. him. And she comes into check. And he says, I'm really sorry. I feel exposed. I feel humiliated. I apologize for altering my program. And then she kind of reassures him. She says, look, we all daydream. Yeah. It helps us imagine other possibilities in life, which I thought was really good. She said, just hold off. Just don't do this anymore until we can figure out how to do it without hurting you. Without having the malfunctions. Yeah, which means she's really kind of kind of open to him having these day dreams.

She's on his side. She's on his side. But the good thing is that Torres has stabilized the matrix and that none of these random day dreams are going to happen any longer. So she's fixed his program, basically. Yeah. We go to the captain's ready room. Chucote enters with the ship status report.

Yep. They basically just discuss the potential for the doctor to be the emergency captain. Yeah. Well, she was looking at, they were looking at Federation. law and there's really no there's no legal precedence for granting command positions to holograms that just they don't exist it hasn't happened before yeah she wants to give him what he wants you know the to expand his potential but yeah she can't find a way to do exactly what he's asking we go back to sick bay the doctor is prepping some busy some some you know busy work basically

and then he hears a crowd in sick bay and suddenly looks over to tray where he just got a medical device and there's a champagne glass and he's like oh no happening again i love this because it was a low angle shot of him you know kind of in a close-up getting things off the tray and moving a little but it was a very smart move by john bruno because as you looked up they turned all the lights off in sick bay so normally we see the whole ceiling is lit up with lights yeah but because it was kind of darker and they were looking at the dark part of the the room. Yeah.

When he saw the champagne glass, it was a much smoother transition into the, the cargo bay set, which is dark, right, ceilings and all. So it was just a little, little detail on the front end that helped the transition work really nicely. Yeah. But we do transition into the cargo bay. We're back to the celebration party. And then suddenly flocks appears in this daydream.

Yeah. And he said, he said, he said, please have a word with you, doctor. And then, yeah, he wants to talk. recall dreaming you up. Yeah. And he says, no, I'm real. I'm just transmitting myself as a simulation into your dream. Right. And he's, he's like, I can prove it. So the doctor does agree to go talk with him. And flocks basically pours it all out. He says, this ship is going to be attacked. And really, and it was flocks who, who kind of tweaked with his program so that his daydreaming would happen again, because this is the only way that flocks could insert himself into those,

into those daydreams in order to get this message to him. Yeah. they find a private spot he's he basically says that his spying uh has been the problem in his program the reason that it's been malfunctioning like this is because flocks was spying in through the program he basically spills the whole truth yeah to the doctor yeah and he says you know the problem here it's like we're not like you guys and the hierarchy doesn't tolerate these kinds of mistakes they don't the hierarchy doesn't tolerate people expanding their possibility. So he stepped out a line. He made a mistake. He's going to get in big trouble. And he does say to the doctor that he really admires him. Yeah. And that he's grown to care for

the doctor as well, you know, in that short amount of time. But the most important message that flocks has for the doctor is that an attack is imminent. There will be two other hierarchy ships that will be arriving very soon and less than an hour away, really. And he just says to the doctor, I can help you avoid this confrontation. I can assist you. And the doctor is always asking, like, well, why would you help us? And again, like you said earlier, he knows that he is in trouble because the hierarchy does not tolerate mistakes or disinformation.

And if they learn of his error, he will lose his livelihood, is what he says. That means he's going to lose everything. So he'll be put in jail. Flops definitely cares about the doctor. He's grown to admire him and like him, but he also cares about himself. So he's trying to make a deal that'll help him both. Yeah.

And so we go to the bridge next and the doctor enters the bridge and says, we're about to be attacked. Yeah. And this is like exactly what's been happening with his malfunction. So there's a lot of eye rolling at this point. A lot of eye rolling. Like here we go again. Yep.

And they say we haven't detected anything. Like, what are you talking about, doctor? and Janeway is pissed at him, by the way, that he disobeyed her direct order. Right, because he's, because in her minds, he's reacted. She thinks he reactivated his daydreaming stuff. She's like, why did you do this? I told you, you know, let us figure out how we can do this the right way. Yeah.

And he seems to be back in the same groove. But he says, no, I can prove it. He says the aliens showed him, flocks showed him how to compensate. for their cloaking field. So we can now detect them. So he hands a pad, a pad to to Harry. And I love the look that I give to Jane where I'm like, am I going to do this.

Yeah, it's this nonverbal kind of looks that that Harry has with Janeway. And it just, I love that because now you see season six, it's like an unsp-everyone, everyone knows everyone's rhythm. You know what I'm saying? Harry knows what's going on. Janeway knows what's going on with Harry. Janeway just gives a quick nod and Harry punches in the coordinates and the right pattern to be able to detect the ships.

And lo and behold, the doctor's right. Yes, yes. There are three ships out there, 600 million kilometers headed right for us. Janeway requests on screen, maximum magnification. And basically the doctor says the alien will not help us unless we help him. And Paris is, what if this is all part of their attack? What if this is a ruse? And Chakotay says he's already helped us compensate.

state for their cloak, I'm inclined to believe him. So Janeway believes him too, and she says, set a course away from here at maximum warp. And the doctor says, well, that's only going to delay the confrontation. They have vessels hidden throughout this entire sector. They're going to find this. Janeway says, does your friend, flocks, have a plan? And the doctor says, well, they're running a type three stealth assault, and they will not decloak until they're right on top of us, at which point they're going to fire a warning shot across the bow and then come at demands for supplies and tech and if we don't comply, they will destroy us. And fortunately, the alien flocks has promised to transmit the resonance frequencies of their phasers, which is going to help us basically take out

their weapons. And Tuvok says, and in return, what do we have to give them? And the doc says, well, in return, he mistakenly informed his superiors that I was in command of Voyager. So to keep himself from being demoted, he wants us to maintain that ruse. Yeah, that story. So Doc's going to have to be the captain. Yeah, when they open the channel, you have to, I have to be sitting in the captain's chair. And he even apologizes. He's, I'm sorry, Captain, but that's what he insisted.

He wants that. And Janeway doesn't even, she doesn't even skip a beach. She's like, I guess it's time to turn fantasy into reality. So she goes with that. She's with the game plan. Yeah. We go to Sick Bay next. And it's a great scene in here with Harry prepping the doctor. Yes. Yes. Or being the captain and Harry's working on some panels there. But the doctor is panicking here. He's just, he's having a meltdown. And Harry's sort of smiling and kind of reassuring him. Like, I felt the same way. Yeah. When I was putting command of the night shift, you know, and the chair looked really big.

Disappear into the chair. Harry basically says to the doctor that daydreams are to test possibilities, right? To consider new possibilities and try out, you know, ideas of what's, what our potential is. And Harry ultimately says, consider this a field test. Yes. So, so Harry gives him a little pep talk and we go over to the hierarchy ship. And now they're, they're arriving near Voyager. the captain's like, hey, I don't see any Borg damage around here.

Right. You said that they destroyed the Borg. Right. You know, and they had a battle with a Borg. Where's the damage from the Borg attack? Yeah, it's not there. So Vlox is like, oh, they repaired it. Yes, they repaired it.

That's what they did. Yeah. Captain thinks about that and goes, okay, let's prepare for a type four assault. Yeah. Phlox is like, what? No, that'll, that'll, we can't do that. That's not the plan. Yeah.

It's not the plan. Well, that'll drain energy. And the captain's like, you know, you may be mistaken about this whole, you know, Borg thing, all of this may, we may be off here. Caution is in order. And he asks the hierarchy and they say, yep, do the type four. Type four. Oh.

Again, I love that little pad. They have to stick in to communicate. It seems a little excessive. Like they could just make a phone call, but it's, but it's pretty cool. I feel like that could be a cosplay at DragonCon, the hierarchy messaging machine. Someone could just build that and wear that, you know. It's pretty cool. Yeah.

I like that part. We go back to the bridge. The dock enters the bridge. Captain on the bridge, I think Chacote says or somebody says. Yeah. No, you say it, actually. Oh, I say it. There's some, somebody says it.

Captain on the bridge, Doc is in the captain's uniform. So what I loved was after he shows up on the bridge, he comes out. a turbo lift and he's so tentative and then Harry pats him on the back sort of like it's your time and he reacts to that like he jumps like someone scared the bejesus out of him which is again he's so nervous that even that little that little support tap by Harry scares him you know he jumps and he comes down to the to the level where the captain's chair is and he's still he's just looking at the chair he doesn't even know what to do and Chacote says it's not going to bite it won't bite okay you can you can uh you can sit down in it um and paris has that lovely line

what i wouldn't give right now for a whoopee cushion oh yeah he's like a what a whoopee cushion and you say that it's ancient technology yes his response is it's ancient technology yeah um and then he finally does sit down the doctor finally does tentatively you know terrified sits down yeah takes a breath for a second and then there's a little beep on the console and he shocks again yeah yes milking the comedy he is he's milking it there chikote says captain we're ready to proceed and now we see we jump to astrometrics and we see that janeway is monitoring the entire situation there she says cannot she says acknowledge commander seven says the internal

com link is active no one will be able to hear you but the doctor so essentially it's sort of this you know syrinode de bergerac moment where the where janeway is whispering is going to be whispering the lines, yeah, in his ear, just to say what needs to be said to the hierarchy. Yes, and the assumption is that he's only going to do what the captain says. He's going to stick to the, you know, the plan. She's really still the captain, but he's going to be the face of it. We go back to the bridge, and there is a message from flocks now. There is a type 4 attack, so he's let them know they've changed the plan.

Yeah, he says there's something terrible has happened, right? the type 4 assault and what that entails is the phaser frequencies will be rotated every however many seconds which now is a huge issue because he was supposed to send us the what we needed to disable their phasers and so yeah he's not going to be able to help us by the way why don't they just rotate the phaser frequencies all the time exactly hello it should always be type 4 why not do that exactly but chokote immediately says okay evasive maneuvers. But the battle begins. The shot is, the first shot is taken and the doc is starts to panic. We cut to the hierarchy ship. Basically, they demand surrender. They're like,

we've got you surrender. You know, we got multiple ships here. Yep. And it wasn't a shot off the bow. Remember originally it was a shot? It was a shot on the bow. So it was it off the bow. We go back to the bridge. Doc is super awkward now. He's talking a little too loud. You know, I, I just thought this whole sequence was very funny. Well, yeah, because Janeway's, because there's that part where he says, Janeway, you know, you can hear Janeway, and she says, she's giving you to tell him, yeah, the captain of the hierarchy ship says, your ship has supplies and technology that we require.

Janeway says, tell him, we'll defend ourselves. They won't get what they're after. And then the doctor says, well, defend ourselves. they won't get what they're after. Yeah, really loudly and awkwardly. The captain's like, huh? I mean, you won't get what you're after. So a lot of comedy here, you know.

And then not in a million years. Not if I have anything to say about it. And the Janeway is like, don't improvise doctor. So she's trying to hold him back, put him in, you know, pull him back a little bit. And also right in here as he's awkwardly improvising and trying to pretend he's captain, Tuvok interrupts. And he says, he basically interrupts the calm, the communication. to the to the hierarchy ship and he says i found a potential weakness in their shields but i'm going

to need some time yeah so the doc you've got to keep him occupied so then he starts talking to them he's just now he's improvising and he's basically talking like he's at somebody's you know uh checkup exam and he's like uh you seem to be suffering from a physio emotive order or disorder uh he says you may want to have a doctor, look at that. It's just a really awkward captain. Yeah, no captain would say that. Tuvac, he fired phasers. Kim says that's a direct hit.

And the doctor reacts. How did you like that? Teased up your own medicine. Janeway, tone it down, doctor. We get a hit, too. Our phasers are offline. And the hierarchy ships is prepared to be boarded. And Janeway says, it's time to negotiate, doctor.

And before she can finish talking, Dr. stands up and he says, activate the photonic cannon. Tuvok, that was an order. And Tuvok plays along. Everybody kind of looks around. Like, what is he doing?

Tuvok plays along, you know, I-I, activating the photonic cannon. Sure. Sir. And the doctor said that I'd rather not give the order to fire. And now the captain of the hierarchy ship says, well, my sensors are not showing an activation sequence.

And the doctor says, well, of course not. The photonic cannon is impervious to sensors. And Vox is like, the board couldn't detect it either. And that's why they were destroyed. So he's trying to add to this dialogue to help. Yeah, the story. The doctor's making up.

Mm-hmm. The boss considers this. The captain of the hierarchy ship considers this for a minute. And then he sends a message back to his people, and he says, the hierarchy agrees, retreat. And the ships take off and stop their attack. So it worked. And now we go to sick bay and the doctor is there. And seven calls in to sickbay and says, hey, doc, we need you come to the messel.

And, you know, he's feeling embarrassed. he's just feeling you know shame a lot of shame from what what happened to him and but he says be right there he goes goes into the mess hall and there's everybody dressed up in their formal outfits big surprise this is real life this is a real surprise and and harry says no doc you're not dreaming this is not a daydream and you hand the medal to the captain which i thought was interesting i'm like Why is Harry holding the medal? I know. Why didn't she just have it?

But I guess it added a little bit of some formality. Yeah. And Janeway says, for your imaginative defense of this ship and her crew, I'm awarding you the Starfleet Medal of Commendation. Congratulations. So he actually gets a medal for what he did, what he did. And she pins it on him, this metal that we never see again. Yes.

She pins it on him. And she tells him that she's going to authorize his research project. And then Seven steps up and gives him a kiss on the cheek. And she says, Doctor, that was a plutonic gesture. Don't expect me to pose for you again. And I found that it's a funny moment. Seven made a weird loop around the doctor as she did this. I was like, why is she walking in circles in a figure eight?

In a figure eight. But it was cute. It allowed it to play without a cut. It was just no reason for her to do it. There is no reason, but it didn't pull me out. It didn't make me go like, what? Like, I wasn't upset with it. Okay.

But again, it is a weird blocking choice for sure. It was an odd little blocking choice, but it was cute and stayed on the doc there. Yeah. And that's how we go out on the doctor, getting his medal. Mm-hmm. Very good episode. What's your lesson? What do you get from this episode?

I think for me, it was really about the doctor's experience of, learning that there is value in daydreams or imagination or fantasy. There can be healthy fantasy and it can be a powerful way to discover new potential in life, new things. Yeah, that was it. Healthy imagination. It's about having a healthy imagination. I like that.

What about you? My overall takeaway, if I'm looking at the big, big picture, is everything in moderation. Yeah. That's it. And when his algorithms went crazy and started malfunctioning, that was excessive danger. Getting lost in fantasy is not good. But there is a, there is a, there is a, there is a, yeah, there is a sweet spot. A use and a, yes, a purpose for, for our minds having the capacity to imagine things that may not be real yet, you know, just like Star Trek is an imaginary, you know, a world in the future.

But there's, there's a lot of value in that. Yeah, a lot of things that have been invented. have happened because someone dreamed it. What's your rating of this episode? I love this episode. Like I said at the start, I thought the script is one of the best scripts I think we ever had. Bob's great in it.

The direction was great. Everyone was involved. Everyone was involved. I give it a 9.9.2. Okay. 9.2. What about you? I'm going to,

I'm going to one up you by 0.1. I'm going to give it by, I'm going to give it, I'm going to give it, I'm going to give it 9. 9.3. 9.3, 9.2, 9.3. Yeah. Our Admiral and Captain average rating for Tinker Tenor, Dr. Spy, is 8.8. Ah, okay.

I think we were enjoying our fellow actors a little more maybe than the regular audience, but it was, it was really good. All right, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in to this week's episode of the Delta Flyers. we got a chance to review a very, very funny episode of Voyager and join us next week when Robbie and I will be discussing, recapping the episode, Alice. Oh, yeah. Look at that. Not a lot of episodes with the person's name. No, no, definitely not. Okay. All right. That's exciting. See you next week. So,

you know, B. B. B. B. Bhopal, B, Bhopal,

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