The Greatest Generation - A Choice of Incompetence (DS9 S1E8)

Episode Date: December 4, 2017

When Dr. Bashir witnesses the death of a dangerous criminal, the officer in charge of his capture presupposes that...maybe he’s alive? But when a new lieutenant has some fresh ideas w/r/t station security, Odo struggles to ensure their working relationship doesn’t get burnt. When is a super dumb Bela Lugosi voice ever a good idea? How long should you have to wait before dispensing corporal punishment? Is it a good time to start killing characters? It’s the episode that ravaged us all!

Priority 1 message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Hey friends of Disodo. Before today's episode, we just wanted to take a moment to talk about the historic labor actions being taken by writers and actors in the American Film and Television industry. If you're a fan of the work done by the people who make Star Trek, we hope you'll join us in standing in solidarity with the folks who actually bring these adventures to life. Over the past several years, the AMPTP, the organization that represents the American Film and Television Production Studios, have reduced the profit from movies and TV going to workers. And in so doing,

they've attempted to weaken the labor unions that represent those workers. They wouldn't even engage the unions on many issues in their negotiations. And so a strike was the only course of action to take. Adam, Wendy and I have been having a lot of internal discussions about how best to stand with the unions and we are continuing those conversations in a dynamic situation. We're doing our best to understand where the picket lines are in these digital spaces,

and we would never intentionally cross one. With the information we have, we feel like we can do more good talking about and supporting the strike and continuing our show as planned. We'll keep you informed about what all this means for greatest trek specifically. Today we're making a contribution to the Entertainment Community Fund. This fund exists to help all the people whose livelihoods have been put on hold because the AMPTP refuses to negotiate

in good faith with the unions. It provides financial support for writers, actors, and all the thousands of laborers who make the shows that we talk about here and without whom we wouldn't have Star Trek to cast pot about. Those folks are all out of work because billionaires, company shareholders, and the executives of these companies don't want to compromise on the length of their yachts. We hope you'll join us in supporting entertainment workers in a challenging time, especially after they've already endured several years of challenges brought on by the pandemic

and season two of Star Trek Picard. We've set up a page where you can also contribute. It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdisotoforlabor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Here's to the finest crew in a Star Trek podcast by two guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast. I'm Ben Harrison.

I'm Adam Pryanaka. Adam I'm casting pod from my front office today and the city has sent out a crew of men with trucks and machinery and saws, so I apologize if this is a particularly noisy episode of the pod from my end. Well, once the Los Angeles sewer and water department got word that Benjamin R. Harrison was moving to town, they did you quite a bit of like a sewer line enlargement? In and around your property? So it's quite understandable to me that they'd want to take that thing out to like a roughly two to three foot diameter. This is a real killing two birds with one stone opportunity for them because not only do they get to do some retrofitting on the existing plumbing to make sure it kind of

accommodate what I'm putting into it. They can also, you know, throw a little shade my way, make them, make sure I still know who's boss, you know. They're just looking at you from the street while they do their work. I've made so much uncomfortable eye contact with a guy like pulling on the on the rip cord that starts the saw with the four-foot diameter rotary blade. A lot of cities would find it weird to install an in-sync array to style garbage disposal downpipe of your toilets, but I mean I guess when

you're you that's standard issue right? Yeah. You don't want to drop your keys down the toilet. Let me tell you like you don't want to reach in after no no you definitely don't you're gonna come back with a stump Adam do you want to talk talk about some deep spaces nine with me with me. Let's pivot from Toilet humor to humor of a different stripe, I suppose, in talking about Deep Space 9 Season 1 Episode 8, the passenger. The continuing story about Dr. Bishir's pompous assholary. Question I have for you is is there any reason to like him right now? We can assume that he gets better, he's supposed to get better, he's a beloved character, but if you're watching this for the first time, not a lot to like here. I'm wondering at what point you may assume he is irredeemable.

I mean, he's been pervy, he's been... ...borish, and now he's being... ...not just braggie, but smarmy-braggie. You know what, I recently had to look for a doctor, a new doctor. And if while I was auditioning them, my doctor at any point just told me a doctor story about how great his research practices were, I would totally tell him to get lost. I want a doctor who doesn't brag.

If I read a Yelp review of a doctor talking about that kind of situation, I wouldn't even try to place out. I don't want Bashir's finger anywhere near my asshole. If he's just gonna brag about it later. Wait a second. I don't older you. I don't think they need to do that yet Adam. I think you may have picked wrong.

When you have the problems that I have been, that timeline is moved quite a bit up. Well, they are in a run about coming back from a thing and they receive a distress call and by day I mean Dr. Buster and Major Kira. This is a Federation ship real grand. We're on our way. I love that there's such a thing as a priority one distress signal. Yeah.

As if like, if you're in trouble, you could send a distress signal, or you could elevate that somehow. Yeah, it's the, it's that little like double exclamation point option that like only assholes sending business emails use It's like sending a page with 911 at the end of the phone number They find a freighter and it's

It's from an alien species called the KaliBot. And there's an unconscious woman aboard. There's fires burning all the air on the ship up. Major Curie goes off to see if she can't get life support back online. Well, also getting a canister vacuum cleaner style fire extinguisher. Yeah, I love this. Yeah, it's like it's like a fire extinguisher, but it still shoots a ray because this is the future. The doctor focuses on Ty Kajata, who is a security police officer kind of person. And he's like, is there anybody else aboard? And she's like, no, everybody else is dead. Just get me out of here.

And he's like, well, I'm picking up somebody else on my tricorder. So I'm gonna try and save him. And she's like, seriously dude, don't even bother. Like, this, I'm the priority one to stress. That is like a priority, nothing to stress. Don't let it move the needle. And he's like, hey, listen, I'm the priority one distress. That is like a priority, nothing distress. Don't let it move the needle and he's like,

hey, listen, I'm a doctor and I like to think of myself as being a pretty good doctor. So I'm gonna go save a life right now. The Hippocratic Oath doesn't contain an asterisk about like leaving a guy behind a bulkhead on and about to explode spaceship. Yeah. That would be doing harm.

That's an interesting, like, it's an interesting scenario to throw a starfleet into is like the ship is going to explode. There are potentially prisoners that can't be saved and security guards that can, you know? Like starfleets are so squeaky clean morally that is like an almost impossible decision.

It's the Peewee in the pet shop decision. Sure. He's got to say the snakes. Exactly. And there's like one, one fairy that's full of snakes and then the other fairy that's full of other animals, but they can both blow each other up I'm I'm getting my movies confused. Is that Peewee in the pet shop Peewee's big adventure

Is the movie I was referring to oh no, I was thinking of Peewee's dark night. Oh Geez The the the crossover that Gotham didn't ask for, but it's the one it deserves. Hahaha. No one can take that kind of crossover pin. These people just showed you a city that can come together and save the snakes. AhHHHHH! AHHHHH! AHHHHH! This is the episode of Greatest Gen The Drop Dazzle. AHHHHH! I didn't realize that was in our random number generator.

That would be really the thing to do, right? Is like make a wheel of destiny where one of the tiles is do the show drunk, but there are There are wedges for all of the other shows. I love to keep ourselves interested Throwing landmines in our way How would we even get acid? I don't know how to do that. I How would we even get acid? I don't know how to do that. I'm not in college. I don't know any chemistry majors.

You know what would be a great concept for a podcast is Ben and Adam try to buy drugs. How would you do it? It's like 45 minutes of us speculating like on what the plan might be in the last 15 minutes is us being arrested, briefly imprisoned. Let him go. They're barely a risk to themselves, much less others. So this prisoner is Rao And while Bashir is attempting to stabilize him, Vantika grabs Bashir by the neck and Hisses make me laugh.

Bashir is like, friend, I was going to do that anyway. I'm a doctor. And a great one. If you're lucky enough to survive this, I'll regale you with my stories. When you're recovering in sick bay, you won't have anywhere to go, so I guess that would be a great time for me to just tell you about what a great doctor I am. I'm looking forward to it as much as I'm sure you are. To be quite honest about it, I was in a pale, I'm fucking in pain. Mr. Bucket, I have to find out that these people are known as the Kobliad,

which is a race of aliens that has the loaf equivalent of the mid 90s split down the middle hair part. It's like they just comb that loaf right up into it. Because we split the top and butter and let it bake right in. Everyone had this haircut in the mid 90s. I sure did. Yeah. I mean both. I was looking at like old driver licenses and I think my learners permit I had that haircut. It's a classic. Yeah. You get yourself one of those parted down the middle haircuts and a sweater that's two sizes too big. That's Adam in the mid 90s right there.

Hahaha. Oh man, they really paint a picture. I probably had some simple skateboarding shoes and some flannel shirts. I know I didn't listen to Grunge Rock and didn't skateboard. I lived in Seattle in the 90s and instead of adopting the plaid shirt tied around my waist and the dock martens, I embraced the Jerry Seinfeld from first run Seinfeld episodes way of dressing. Oh sure. Like you want to you want to get some light color jeans and an Oxford shirt that you tuck in.

What right there? Yeah an Oxford shirt that is cut for a man much heavier than you so it really blouses out quite a bit. I have no idea why I wasn't popular. Did you go for a nice big white cross training shoe? Oh yeah, you got to get the cross training shoe and you also need the brown braided leather belt. Oh man, what a time to be alive. The 90s. It wasn't my fault, was it? No, alive, the 90s. It wasn't my fault, was it? No, it was the 90s fault.

All right. The 90s ravaged us all in many ways. So yeah, I feel like Reo, Vantica, and Ty Kajada had kind of a kind of a Hannibal Lecter Cleary Stirling type relationship. Silence of the land. Yeah. Vantica is a monster and she is very sanguine about like his

value to society. She is much more interested in nipping the Vantica problem in the bud than in proceeding with any kind of due process. But that's only because she has like stared into the abyss of what he is and what he represents. And I thought that this actress did a nice job of conveying that. Like we don't really get any details about what Vantica does, you know. But.

Well, that's why I would disagree with you. Like, Ty and the actress who plays her does a great job in acting out her fear of Reo. But if we're supposed to believe that Reo is the Hannibal Lecter figure that we're being told, we need an example to fear him. Like it isn't enough to trust someone we don't know about his reputation. Like that's the part that didn't work for me. And so we are taught to fear him for the next 40 minutes without any reason at all to do it, except going on the word of someone that we don't know to be credible. I guess I just thought the performance was good. I don't know. She mentions that it's

her life's work basically to chase this guy down. She's like a, she's like a marshal. I would say that they definitely made a, like, whether this was a proactive choice or a choice of incompetence. They made a choice that the only thing that we're going to let tell us how scared to be a Vantica is the way she performs her fear of him. Hey, Ty, you know what you could do with a prisoner who's as dangerous as Hannibal Lecter? Like, you could put him in shackles or something

on your ship instead of, I guess, just giving him a room to play around in. You could put him on a furniture dolly in a straight jacket and a face mask. That's what I'm saying. If he's strapped to a dolly, then they don't even need dialogue to solve this problem. We could just see how dangerous he is. Yeah.

I mean, they spent all that money on Pyro. Yeah. Van tika and Lector have their escape artistry in common. So even though they've got a cold body on a slab in the morgue, she's going around the station saying, like, keep your fucking heads on a swivel. This guy is here right now, and there have been much more daring escapes

in this dudes past. So watch out to security people on this giant station. He's got to be so disappointed in the staffing of this place. Yeah, she wakes up on Deep Space and she's like, shit, this is exactly where he wanted to be. Right, and he wants to be there because there's this shipment coming in. We're told, the shipment of Doridium is the main pivot point of this episode. Everyone wants this stuff. It's super valuable, super dangerous.

They should have called it maguffium. Right. Reo needs this stuff to live. Like, his dependency on it is more than just like economical. Like, he and his people need it like a drug. Yeah, the Koblit are a dying race and this is the thing that stabilizes their molecules or whatever. So, the federation is trying to ship lots of it to them and Vantica is a heist man basically. We learn about this deridium by way of a conversation that Odo has with Quark and overhearing

this conversation is a new lieutenant to this station, Lieutenant Primman. And he pulls Odo aside and he's like, what the fuck dude? Why are you putting this deridium shipment out on the streets like this? You always get ready for an important operation by leaking word about it to the local black market. Especially to Cork. Get it together, man. We're supposed to be like team security. Primini's fresh off the freighter on deep space 9, but he can already tell that Cork is not the guy who want to be mouthing off about the deridium too. And Odo is like, it's like, hey, Bob, I'll run my security operation the way I see fit.

By the way, you're the most milk toast security officer I can possibly imagine. Who is this man of toast? And what does he want from us? What is his dark secret? O'Brien isn't in this episode because I guess he's still back on Earth at the longest hundredth birthday party ever. I mean, at this rate, Kiko's grandma's gonna die during the party, right? She's like, uh, Mr. Timons or whatever, the guy that walks on a Troy film love with. Yeah. She's turning 100 and committing ritual

suicide. And O'Brien wasn't going to miss that. He's like, so this runs in your family, this whole suicide at a certain age thing. Maybe you could hit me to how many more years you've got left, Kiko. So this, uh, this milk toast security guard, Lieutenant George Pryman, Starfleet security. Heads up to ops and, uh, it's pretty clear when he gets up there that Cisco knows all about him was expecting him. He's like, hey man, I want to kick it to you in my office.

So they head in there and Officer Security Toast is like, hey listen, I think that this guy, this consumable guy, got down there, is not really running a tight ship W-slash R-slash T security, and that's kind of my specialty. I'm from Starfleet Security. He's like, give it up for Starfleet Security and like holds out the rock to be pounded back. Yeah. He sort of assumes this Starfleet fraternity idea, which sort of makes sense to me. He's like

Look man, I'm Starfleet security. You got this Odo guy talking to Ferengi out in public about D'Aritium I think you and I both know who should be running the show here Sort of assuming that Cisco would confer This task to him like this leadership to him, doesn't really happen that way. I would say that rather than that, Cisco big dogs the shit out of him.

If you want my opinion, I don't. And basically says, Hey man, like we're here, we're on borrowed time on this Bajorin space station. This is their turf. Maybe you don't act like such a showvinistic shithead and maybe you'll learn something from these people. Maybe if you fall in

step, Odo will teach you a thing or two. This scene occurs very close to a scene between Odo and Cisco, where Odo's like, fuck this, I'm out, I quit. And Cisco's like, no man, you gotta stick around, you're the guy in charge, you need to hear me say it? You're in charge. You are the A to Lieutenant Toast's B. It's definitely a strange choice that they would be like, we're getting a lieutenant from

Starfleet security. Somebody with a little status to throw around coming out to the station, and we're not going to tell the guy who is the head of station security about it. We'll just let that other guy introduce himself and sort of pull rank and let it be ambiguous for a little while. Like I totally understand why Odo was like, fuck this. Yeah, I think you and I have talked around this quite a bit. Like it's all anyone wants to know in whatever job situation they're in is like,

who's in charge and who reports to who. It removes so many conflicts when those relationships are made clear. And that's all Odo's asking for here. This is becoming a speech. They're the captains, they're very entitled. They're not entitled to ramble on about something everyone knows. So they find one piece of evidence lending credence to Kajadas concerned, which is that Vantica had a, a, a, an isolinear chip in his possession

that was a map of the humanoid brain. And eight bit map of the humanoid brain, by the way. Yeah. So we have like a, we cut to like a late night scene in Quarks like the places closed and they are cleaning up after the day and Quark kicks out his Ferengy Mades I guess and he's like up on the second level and he gets grabbed from behind and He's in like he's in like a headlock by a person He's in like a headlock by a person claiming to be Vantica. I was told you were dead.

Almost, but not quite. So Quirk, who has arranged a business deal for Vantica, assumed that he wouldn't have to complete, complete the deal. Ben, at this point, the mystery was over for me because this gloved figure who gets a cork in the headlock, sounds like Alexander Siddig, like whisper yelling, like they make no attempt to cover his voice up at all. Like you listen to our show for any length of time. I think you understand how easy it is to do impressions and voices, Ben.

For two ding-dongs like you and me. I mean, I would say that that's the thing that people tune into is our excellent impressions and voices. Why didn't they get him to push the voice boundary a little bit so that it covered it up a little better? All right, Alexander, that was great. I think let's do another take and this time do it as, I don't know, like do your best cosby.

You see, Mr. Quark? I need you to hire some mercenaries. We are going to do some crimes and some stealing and some thievery and I need some bad guys with guns to do it with me. Rudy, the deridium comes in the capplet form. It's so easy to dissolve in the drinks. In the show notes for the show pen Ben, they mentioned that all of the Siddig as Ventaka dialogue was looped.

Because the choice that Alexander Siddig made as an actor as far as his voice went was like a super dumb Bella Lukosi voice. And so when they started watching the footage, they're like, oh no, oh no, we can't do it like this. And so they looped him. Like they did ADR and they totally redid all the dialogue, but that doesn't forgive why the scene sounds so much like him whispering when if what you want to do is to spend, is

keep the mystery going throughout. They could have, they could have had him do enough takes to where he sounded like a different person. You also get a little glimpse of his face at the end of the scene. Right, exactly. So it's not like this isn't a hot mess from a, not just from a performance standpoint, but also an editing and blocking standpoint.

Like, the episode's 40 minutes. It's okay to leave us in suspense a little while longer, guys. Yeah. That's an interesting piece of trivia item about the Belolugosi voice, because I was totally the fluttled by the way he does the performance a little later on. Yeah. So what they start to speculate on, like, Dax calls Bashir down to her science room

and it's like, hey, get a load of this. I've got some evidence that Vantica has done a bunch of research into synaptic pattern displacement, which is revealed in the scene as roughly equivalent to a mind meld. And I thought it was kind of cool to, like a mind meld is a very specific thing in this universe, and the idea that there's like a scientific word for it and a sort of independent scientific understanding of what it is, I thought was a really nice piece of dimensionizing the Star Trek universe.

Yeah, like if it's possible for some people, for one race, it may be possible for others. Like the science, the quote unquote science doesn't just end there. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, there are like nobody's ever been able to make this work and they're like, the, the science, the quote unquote science doesn't just end there. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, they're like, nobody's ever been able to make this work. And they're like, well, Vantica was a genius. And maybe he figured something out. But, you know, in a scene where we are given the depiction of smart science people doing smart science, this episode suffers from that plague of smart people written to be dumb because everyone who was on the ship should be suspected of harboring Vantica's thoughts.

Right. And they never postulate that. Like, they're like, where could he be? Who could he be still, whose brain could he be stowing away on? When there were like two people on that ship? Like it's not like they would have had to do a hard target search of every person on the station like it could only be Three people, but they yeah they they focus on it being Kajata

That is the suspect so she's she's sort of taken off the beat and photos like even like I thought this was some fun trade craft photos like don't tell her that she's being taken out of the operation like if she finds out she can come to me and I'll tell her and and so she she kind of like takes it upon herself to just keep investigating this thing. And she is in Quark's bar, like creeping around in the shadows.

Well Quark is finalizing the deal with the mercenary she's hired. And she gets pushed or perhaps falls off of the third floor balcony. Now when you install in railings at a workplace you want to make sure to prescribe to OSHA regulations on height and length. I like to make sure my railings are at least fluffy tall and an additional foot from every 10 feet off the ground. Building codes are quiet. That railings are set at a certain height and also have blockages below

them so that you can't slip out from underneath. This is not a good look for cork bin. Cork up until now has been depicted as sort of, you know, better than your typical Ferengi in a number of ways, but also just as subject to the greed element of forangi that we've come to know. But this is like some dark shit. Like this is like trafficking in nuclear material. This is something that I didn't think that he would be into.

But I guess it just goes to show that he's as out for the buck as any other fringy. One of the interesting things about his character that they really, I don't, I don't, I will be interested to see if this ever gets dialed in as such, because like on the one hand, he's kind of like a moral character that can be counted on to do the right thing when the chips are down. It like episodes where he's on the same side as everybody.

Right. But then he's like, oh yeah, like a guy wants me to hire some killers. Cool. Into it. Yeah, like, where's the money? Where's the Morgan Jail at the end of this episode? Like, he should be in prison. There are rules against trafficking in hazardous material, right?

Is this a post-hazardous material punishment environment here? You know, like the provisional government is passing a lot of laws, but they just haven't gotten to that part of the code section. Sure. Kajata is like stuck in Six Bay for the rest of this episode. She's in, she's in like a super biobad in really bad shape. And Quark and the mercenaries head down to steal a run about which they're expecting to meet Vantica at.

And Quark gets the door open and there is Beshear. Surprise, surprise. He's Vantica. I've been expecting you. We know he's Vantica because Beshear is lit from below. And you and I both know this, Ben. But like whenever you light an actor from below, you're implementing a technique for bad guys. Low light is especially unflattering.

It also makes people look evil. Yep. It's the whole flashlight in order to the chin, telling a campfire story situation. And Sidig bounces from low light to low light throughout this ship. Like he finds the light that illuminates him in this way. Yeah, it's really remarkable in a world where there are lots of lit up panels that people

have to sit at that they don't get lit from below more often. Right. Yeah. Yeah So Dex wanders down to Six Bay to keep keep chat and science with her buddy Julian and discovers his Combat has been left there a lot of these the planks of this paper are starting to converge auto catches Lieutenant toast Lieutenant George Prman, Starfleet Security. POST! POST! POST! POST! Down somewhere doing, doing tricorder and Lieutenant Toast is like, hey man, I actually

did learn something from you. I've been going through like secondary non-secure systems and I found this Giga like latched on to the something something system. Another subspace crossover shunt just like the one Vantic could use when he tapped into the computer. It's like a it's like a dungle that could have knocked out the station's primary functions for an hour which would have been plenty of time for Vantica to escape with the Doridium freighter that's coming through the wormhole. Odo is like, check out the big brains on Lieutenant Toast.

Like, it's totally next level thinking because Odo is messing around on parts of the station that he feels like could be threatened and if they were damaged, could like do some real shit. But Toast is down there, like looking at the sewer system, like really secondary and tertiary systems that most people wouldn't consider to be like targetable. Yeah, these mercenaries break onto this freighter, and it's kind of an interesting, it's a fully realized bridge set that we get to see here.

It is really cool to see a civilian ship that is in the federation. It's got the same L-car's computer systems, but it's a lot more cramped, it's a lot darker, the lightiness less even. Yeah, it looks like a different model of car from the same car maker in a weird way. And not like the difference between a Cadillac and a Pugeot.

Right. Yeah, it's cool. We get some lethargic Star Trek phaser combat here. Like they're just kind of walking around, bullseying the crew of this ship. Like one guy literally just walks out from behind a corner, is like, what's going on in here, guys?

Oh! I love that guy. If I didn't have a better Shimoda, that guy would be my Shimoda. Right. This idea that Vantica hid a mental ejection seat under his own fingernail, and then scraped it onto Bishir's neck to hop into his brains, is sort of turn the make me live line into a hope instead of a demand.

Like it totally changes the context of that initial scene for me in a kind of a great way. It's like, do you think it was like the voice command for the little brain pattern generator to work? Oh, that's interesting. I didn't think of it like that. It seemed to me as sort of a hope. Yeah, I think that the script of this episode is actually pretty cool. There's some problems with it. I wouldn't argue that, but I would say that mostly this falls apart in execution rather

than in premise. Oh yeah, especially as we crashed toward the conclusion. So all of the disabilities that Bashir as Vantica thought he had visited upon the station have not worked. One of them being the tractor beam. So the stations got the ship in a tractor beam and Bashir's Vantica is like, engage engines full impulse.

We're not doing anywhere with a tractor beam on us. Do it. Keep the pedal on the floor so we aren't doing it. It's more like keep the pedal on the floor. Right. This shit is so insane the way he speaks. Yeah it's not great and so the idea is he's using his body as a hostage that he doesn't think Cisco is going to put in danger. He's like, look man, you don't want me to hurt, but she here, and you can easily destroy the ship

if we decide to go to warp right now. So maybe you should release the tractor beam, let us go, and I'll drop off this body down the road somewhere. What I really wanted out of this scene bin was one of the classic hold a phaser up to my own head scenes. Yeah. That to me would have been far crazier.

Give me some of that. Yeah, I think that there's like a little bit of a mechanical problem, which is that, you know, they've got this ship and this valuable thing, and they don't wanna, they also don't wanna lose the valuable thing. But they do. And if the ship is exploded with the dredium in it,

it's really bad for the galaxy too. Yeah, it's a part of the two. I guess that's a bigger threat than Bashir blowing his brains out. It's a humanitarian crisis, I guess. Yeah, but it does sort of limp across the finish line as an episode. And it's like the tension could have been higher and more

and more interesting if it had just been kind of restructured a bit. Yeah, the solution ends up being like in the minutes that the station is given to release them from the tractor beam. Dax comes up with a way to shoot a beam through the tractor beam that can like sort of short circuit the spell that Bashir is under. So they shoot the beam and the spell is lifted on Bashir long enough for them to beam Bashir back to the station.

So Bashir is like, hey guys, it's me again. It's definitely not Vantica. Accepted is Vantica. And so Cisco just fucking phasers him. Phasers him to the ground. And this is a scene where I was expecting like a ret, like the camera to shoot all of the women ad-ops, like doing one of those slow claps. That gets louder and louder.

Because the women have got to love this, right? Yeah. Thank fuck that guy. Oh. So Bashir is Vantica is disabled long enough to bring him to Six Bay where they beam out the bad shit from his brains and they put that into the little aftray that can contain all of Vanticus thought. An aftray that Kai-Tai-Kajata then just fazers unceremoniously like a minute later. It's great. Yeah, this is another thing where it's like I think that like you need to wait till you're not in their jurisdiction to do the like corporal punishment.

They give Vantic of the Moriarty treatment, except they take it one step further by actually blowing up the Halodex simulation. It's pretty rugged. Yeah. Well, Ben, did you like this episode? This is the kind of episode that shows so much potential. Yeah. And I think that you get to see a lot of potential

in a lot of the characters in this show in this episode. It's like, it's one of those early season episodes where you're starting to like see the writers figure some things out, figure some thing like some kinds of fun adventures to put these characters through, but they definitely do not have it like totally figured out yet, and that's pretty interesting. So I would say that from a from a standpoint of like getting to see it kind of come together as a show, this seems to be this is a fun one for me, but you know in a vacuum, I think it's kind of a failed episode.

Yeah, I mean, I would agree with the second part. It's a mystery episode with no mystery. Like, that they didn't trust the viewer enough to withhold information at that 10 minute mark. Long enough to let the mystery, you know, bet itself. Yeah. Totally took all of the fun out of it for me. Like, that reveal on the run about could have been amazing, but it was so obvious from the start. Like, trust me, trust me to be in suspense. And also, it felt very low as common denominator to me as a miss. I mean, the other way you could go with it is just make Bashir be playing both things,

but have that make us trust him less as a character. Like when we were talking earlier about what a SMARMY ASS YP is at the beginning of the episode, like I think there could be something intentional about that. Like what if we dig one of our characters deep hole to climb out of in this show? That would be kind of a fun writing challenge. Maybe that's what they're doing. I don't really know, but you can do that within an episode too.

Make a character that you like, be scary and untrustworthy worthy and then dig yourself out of that whole. When Bashir as Vantica shoves Kajada over the railing, she should have died. I think if you make Bashir kill someone, well under the spell, the possibilities for his character get really interesting to me because instead of the slide whistle ending of, oh my head, like I've got this great headache after taking this murderer out of me. Like, you take the fun out of it and instead saddle him with like, he goes from someone who in the very first scene is that coxure doctor who saves lives without even trying. He's just a natural healer. He suddenly give him some darkness. That's some real colorful character work there

that I would really appreciate. It would help me appreciate Bashir as a character even more. A lot more than I do right now, which is to say, I don't. Like, give him some darkness. Darkness that isn't like creepo darkness that what we've gotten before And Vantica is supposed to be this terrifying killer like yeah kill some people show me that You know what like Bashir could kill people and we would forgive him if you were under under the spell like and I think they should have gone that far Kill Quirk while you're at it. You know what? You make Bishir, kill Tycajada, and then you stick the Vantica aftrey in Bishir's office forever. Like, where he's got to stare at it?

Yeah. That's some heavy shit going forward. Like the reminder. Have him kill Lieutenant Toes too. Lieutenant George Pryman, Starfleet Security. Pogat Toast Man! Why not? Yeah, we don't need to do some killing.

It is time to do some killing on the show, Ben. You're exactly right. Well, the other thing it's time for Adam is our beloved priority one segment. Should we see what we've got in the queue? Show me what's in the box. Then. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel.

Need a supplement on it. supplement on it? supplement. supplement. Yes, extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship! Adam, our first priority one message is of a commercial nature. It goes like this. Ever wondered how the Girochian midwife toad got its name?

How a 3,000 ton screech rhino moves? How the eel bird of Regulus V courts its mates, in the webcomic space otters, naturalist Octavio Brizzwald and Leonard Fitzmerdle, travel through the pre-fetoration galaxy discovering strange new animals, and occasionally eating them, with beautiful Autobahn style illustrations and rISH PROs, Space Otters brings the animals of Star Trek to life. Visit spaceodders.com to join the adventure. You know RAKISH PROs is my favorite kind.

Ben, I'm excited to check this out. Do you like a nice RAKISH PROs? Are the space otters making space dams? Tell me more about that. I'm looking at this. I'm saying it's really cool. It's like field notes with paintings of the creatures. I like that. It's very original and cool idea.

Very cool. Really beautiful paintings too. It's very, it's a very like original and cool idea. Very cool. Really beautiful paintings too. Yeah, go to spaceodders.com to join the adventure. I gotta scroll through this and figure out if that weird creature that Alexander saved from the Bio Lab is in here. I wonder if the Lululu Lululu aliens in it. I wonder if the Lululu Lululu aliens in it. Ben our second priority one message is from Melissa.

It is for Dennis. Goes like this. Happy birthday! Do you believe only 10 years ago? We were just two drunk Shimotas who met at Octoberfest. Everyone knows that busting out your TNG episode guide isn't a great way to win over a girl. But what my theory presupposes is, maybe it was? Thank you for being a great dad to Baby J. The Girl.

I love you as much as Riker loves consent. Hey, that's great. Happy birthday, Dennis. Oh man. Melissa loves you so much. Seriously. Well, if you would love to send a priority one message couldn't be easier you can just go over to maximumfund.org slash jumbo tron if the window is open for those purchases they can't make it any easier than that fill out a quick form slap down a hundred dollar bill

for a personal message and a two $100 bill for a personal message and a $200 bill for a commercial message. And we'll read either of those live on tape on one of our great, greatest Gen shows. And they really help us keep the production going on our podcast. Sure do. Hey Adam. What's that been? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoto? Shimoto!

Drunk Shimoto! Sure did, Ben. It's Cisco for shooting Bashir at ops. Like, no one could have taken... Well, actually, there is someone who could have taken more joy than Cisco. It would have been if Dax did it.

Why didn't Dax shoot him? Or Kira? It would have been a great idea. Yeah, Dax or like both of them. Yeah, they could have crossed the streams on Bishir's face, like blowing up Remix Head and Conspiracy. That would have been awesome. That would have been great B That would have been great for shit last eight episodes. They're like scrubbing out the transporter

in a house for like weeks after that. Hey, welcome back, O'Brien. We gotta mess for you to clean up. Okay. Remember cleaning up transporter pads? Well, it's back on the menu, boy. Gross. What about you, Ben?

My shimota is tie the police lady. When she goes down to confront Odo about the fact that she's been locked out of the security system or whatever, she kind of storms off in a huff and she tries to like storm out the door and you can see that the actress had no idea where to go once she got through the doors. In that shot, if you go to 26 minutes and about 10 seconds in the episode, you can see her kind of like storm out and then turn around in the hallway. Oh man, yeah, she totally pierwits in the hallway.

Looking a little unsure of what to do next. It just really made me laugh that, you know, like you can go straight, you can take a hard laugh, take a hard right. Anyone of them would have looked good, they didn't decide. So for that, she gets my drunk Shimoda. Good spot. That's one of those deep spot Shimodos. A greatest gen live show is something you don't want to miss. Why?

Well it's a great opportunity to see me and Ben in person, but that's not all. FODs from all over gather at these shows to cosplay, to do pre and post show hangs, to make friends, and share their embarrassment. Hey, let's make a pretty great name for a tour. Let's do it! The Sherry Reembarishment Tour is coming in August 2023, and we've got a bunch of dates in a lot of great places. Go to GreatestGenTour.com to get more info.

That's greatestgentour.com for dates and ticketing information for the Share Your Embarrassment Tour. I'm Jordan Morris, and I'm Jesse Thorne. On Jordan Jesse Go, we make pure, delightful nonsense. We were open awesome guests and bring them down to our level. We get stupid with Judy Greer. My friend Molly and I call it having the spaceweards. Pat Noswald.

Could I get a Balrog burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you. And Kumail Nanjiani. I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which is impossible to use. Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org. Look, your podcast apps are open. Just pull it out.

Give Jordan Jesse Goatry. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Oh, rats, hey, hey, hey, oh, I'm about to count you in line. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line and, boy, what a line. These giraffes do not smell good. No, they do not, and they've such short nacks.

But I'm hearing we need to get on this. We've got to get on the art. It is about terrain, about It's about to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans. Oh, we're actually, we're podcasters. We are podcasters, so it's different.

Have you heard of Ono Ross and Carrie? We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal, stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so seem like something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came to by two. What do you think?

Ona Ross & Kerry, available on MaximumFun.org. The Netflix capsule for the next episode, Ben, is Commander Sisko in dress uniform prepares to receive the first formal alien delegation from the Gamma Quadrant Like somebody watched the first scene. Yeah of the episode. I would say is that The the description on Amazon is Quarx attempt at deception toward a newly encountered alien race places the space station senior officers in a labyrinth of danger. Wait a try with that one. Wait a watch the entire episode. Yeah. That's great. That's really funny. Ben, this is this is move along home. This is one of the episodes that people told us on the internet was historically bad.

Yeah, it's not just cited as the worst episode of Deep Space 9. It is often in the worst episodes of Trek ever list. That's very attractive to me for some reason. Really curious to see what that looks like. You want to see if we have to drink during? Let's see if we have to drink during. A lot of people have suggested modifications to our randomness, our random drunkenness mechanic. And what I'm going to say is I think we've pretty much settled on a mechanic, but thank you. And our random number for this episode is 13, Adam. So we will not be getting shithouse drunk, unfortunately.

That is to bowl it. Move along home. Okay. I mean, unless we want to Let's leave our viewers into spence we shall see well that'll be next episode and In the meantime, we'd love to chat with you online. There's a great Facebook group for greatest Jen there's a Reddit sub for greatest Jen there's also a Reddit sub for greatest gen, there's also a

great maximum fun sub-reddit. And we use the hashtag greatest gen on Twitter where Adam is at Cut for Time, and I am at BenjaminR, A-H-R. And you know, it's not just a fun place to chat with folks from folks from the community, like every one of those social media things like people are making amazing drawings and artwork and like posing head cannon questions and it's just it's it's a real it's a real heap of fun if you're into this show you're definitely going to be into these communities. Great place to meet someone for potentially long-term relationship. Yeah, it's a dating service, first and foremost.

If you enjoy this program and what we're doing here, we rely very heavily on the support of our listeners. People go to maximumfun.org slash donate and contribute financially to the production of this show. It wouldn't exist without that and we really appreciate everyone who does it. We should thank Dark Materia for our theme music and Admiral UCF for a lot of the other music here on the show and also a lot of the theme music now. And with that, we'll be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek

Deep Space 9. And an episode of the greatest generation Deep Space 9 that uh... looks a little bit like Ben Stiller in the movie Dodgeball. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Make it sound, make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Maximumfund.org Comedy and culture, artist owned

Listener supported. or comedy and culture, artist owned, listener supported.