The Greatest Generation - A Flying Jack Off Machine (VOY S4E6)

Episode Date: July 4, 2022

When Seven picks up a re-Borgifying signal, her escape from Voyager puts her in dangerous territory w/r/t the B’omar Sovereignty. But when the flashbacks lead to USS The Raven, uncovering memories of her family’s assimilation puts her back on track towards humanity. What kind of voicemail greeting would a bird specialist have? Who invented the hypoSpray? Is there a toilet in Seven’s alcove? It’s the episode with an unnecessary article in its name!  Support the production of The Greatest Generation. Friends of DeSoto for Democracy.Friends of DeSoto for Justice.Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Caretaker!Music by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaFollow The Greatest Generation on Twitter, and discuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen!The Greatest Generation is now regularly streaming on Twitch.Facebook group | Subreddit | Discord | WikiSign up for our mailing list!

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 friendsofdececoto for Labor.com. That's FriendsOfDecoto for Labor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage! Watch your back shot. Hello. I'm Captain Captain. Bringing what the U.S. is for the captain captain Bringing what the U.S. is for the U.S. captain

Welcome to the greatest generation Voyager. So Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are just a little bit of bearers to have a Star Trek podcast. I'm Ben Harris. I'm Adam Pranika. Did you heal Hauser? You're welcome there? Welcome! Now who is this? Didn't intentionally but a retroactively yes, that's what I meant

What are you doing you're wearing the t-shirt of a different podcast? Yeah, I'll recording you doing that at me Unlike you who only wears the t-shirt of your own podcast. I would never. You wouldn't take off the K-Pod shirt for the entire Max von Kahn. It was soaked with booze and sweat by the end of the three days. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I was, you know, we're in the playoffs and it's my good luck K-Pod shirt.

Oh yeah. Yeah. I was shocked at how the altitude got to me there. Yeah. Really felt it. Like, huffing up a hill. There's literally a hill that you go up to get to the amphitheater there called Cardio Hill. You're like a fifth of the way up it when you know why. I have been a member of Jim Shimoda for a long time. I feel like I've got pretty good cardiovascular health, but Lake Arrowhead really knocked me off my pedestal. Yeah, no kidding.

I was made to feel weak. I felt the same way, my friend, felt the same way. Then you get down to sea level, where the air is thick, feels a lot better. Yeah, air thick. Yeah. Dad air. You can really feel it going in.

Star Trek podcast or seeks BBA for fun exercise. Yeah, give me that big beautiful air. How are you doing, Ben? I'm doing good, man. Getting excited about our maybe having an LA show. Oh, yeah, getting close. Yeah. To saying something of some kind about it.

It may already have been announced by the time this episode comes out. It's so close. It's crazy. It's crazy to think about. Yeah. Does this come out on the 4th of July? It does, so yeah, if it all holds true,

it'll be next week. Wow. Wait, so we have a date, I didn't see that. Saturday, July 16th. Oh great, cool. Oh man, I'm very excited about that. I'm a big fan of that venue, and I've seen so many funny shows there.

It will feel cool to be on that stage. You're talking about the Virgil. The Virgil. Yeah. Yeah. Christian Schall and Kurt Brownall's regular show is there. It's one of the great places to go see comedy in LA. And we'll be there too.

They were nice enough to cancel their show. Yeah. To give us the space to do it. Very kind of them. Kurt Brownall are woke up to a severed horse head in his bed and That's how we got the I did nothing of the sort. I think you might be talking about what our friend slash agent did Yeah, we didn't explicitly endorse that course of action

He just does what it takes to get the job done you don't appreciate duty I'm gonna be drinking a lot at that show as we usually do and I'm just staring down an 8 a.m. flight the next morning. Oh boy, why did you do that? I booked my flight before we booked the show as how that happened. Oh man, he didn't follow the Ben Harrison rule. I didn't, certainly didn't. Oh. I woke up and chose wide body Ben.

I know you never do this. I do it though. Oh, you booked an earlier flight based on the bigness of playing? I did. Yeah. I would never. I know. I know.

I could go out later on something smaller, but I was like, hell no, man. A350, maybe. Maybe 350, maybe, baby. Maybe I'll change it between now and the day I go out. I think that would be wise, my friend. I'm really playing with fire. Yeah, yeah. That's no good. Yeah.

Just to be clear, the Ben Harris rule that I broke was no flights before 10. It's a great rule. It's a great rule for everyone. Yeah, except for apparently the big body planes, they leave early. Yes, so kind of wake up early to get in them big body planes. See, I see those numbers, like I feel like I kind of know what the Boeing numbers signify.

Mm-hmm. I do not know what any of the Airbus numbers signify. You, I feel like you can like look at a plane and you know what you're looking at without even needing to like check the little folder in the back of the seat back that tells you how to get off of it. It's not a problem for me.

You're looking at the shape of the windows, you're looking at the plane-us. Ha, ha, ha, ha. The plane-us, huh? Yeah. You unzip the front of the plane's jeans and see what the plane is looks like. When you work in big airplane, you develop some nicknames for parts of the plane. The plane is the exhaust for the APU that comes out at the very back. That's a little hole in the back, back of the empanage.

Wow. Yeah. Then they come in all kinds of different shapes, Ben. You learn to recognize them. So that's not on Wikipedia or my big, book, oh, airplanes that somebody sent me back when we used to have a war movie podcast, but that's the term that people in the know use. Yeah, you got to turn to the chapter about airplane buttolls. You know what, during the Great War, Ben, what they called World War II, they'd hand out cards, you know, for airplane identities.

Great war and World War II interchangeable terms. Can you believe I used to host a War movie podcast? That's how long ago I hosted a War movie podcast. All that knowledge just drained out of my ears. And if you can believe it, I was not the least knowledgeable host of that show. You get the cards, Ben, with the plane shapes. Yeah, right. What we need is a deck of cards that's just the Deco planus. Yeah, my grandfather was an aviator in the army and one thing I inherited from him was a bunch of little wood models of ships like cut off at the water line. That's cool. You can put them on a table at distance and just see based, you know, it's for drilling. Like, what are we looking at? This is a German destroyer. This is

It's for drilling, what are we looking at? This is a German destroyer, this is a Corvette or whatever. God, I know next to nothing about ships. I'm just totally useless. Well, my childhood with those, I grew up and I can tell you what any ship is, just at a glance. Wow, and you don't even have to look at a toll, do you? You put a ship in front of me? Yeah, rule or no, I'll tell you what it is.

Oh, yeah, that's a, a merisk ocean liner. That's amazing enough bullshit. And why don't we? So you know, I feel like we've had better pivots in the show than that. Damning with faint praise again. Lots to talk about today, Ben.

On Star Trek Voyager season four, episode six, V Raven. V Raven. Unless you've got something a little bigger in your torpedo, dudes. I'm not dreaming about. Sorry. An episode that starts in Leonardo da Vinci's house of jack-off machines.

He's not there. No. No,-off machines. He's not there. No. No, is it worse that he's not there? And Janeway is just doing her business in the shadow of these machines? She came to the workshop, she put a gym sock over the door handle on the outside so that he would know not to come in.

She is actually teaching a crafting class to seven. They've got some clay out. She's like talking to her about the act of creativity and spending time doing stuff that isn't work. I thought it would have been so fun if the clay object on the table had been not the bust of a man, but that weird chalice that Alexander was making when he was playing with Clay on the Enterprise. For some reason, a big dolphin. I'm with you, Ben. I was confused at the amount of completion that had been done to the sculpture. Like, did Janeway already do a bunch of it and then gave the nose bridge part to seven to finish or had seven already made it?

Or is that where you start when you're getting into sculpting with clay? You just start with an already close to complete bust. Yeah. And you just kind of finish it up. I wonder the same thing and specifically because there's a line that Janeway has about I I would never show this to Master Tvinchy. Yeah, because it doesn't have an open mouth. Right. Well, that line just like cuts so hard if Sevin made this. Right, that would have been big fun.

But if she did most of the work, it's actually like kind of self-deprecating and charming. But if Sevin did most of the work, it's like, kind of self-deprecating and charming. But if seven did most of the work, it's like, yeah, you're really bad at this just for the record. I think the nose could be a little stronger. There's such a gif-able ass moment here when seven puts the clay onto the bridge of the nose and then moves it down and then up and then down and then up, not being able to decide where it should best go. And they don't cut away from it. And there's no dialogue during.

I feel like she goes back and forth like four times. It's that like, it's that characters that are in a scene eating and you don't want to like eat a ton when you're an actor because every time you reset, you have to eat the same bites at the same moments of the scene for continuity. So people just like move the peas around their plate with their fork and knife. It's that but for art, Adam. And this is a valuable lesson on arts and leisure and what role they can play in a non-borge life because they're useless to the borgs.

Yeah. I am uncertain why these things are necessary. Well, they aren't necessary, seven. Not a lot of art and leisure takes place on a Borgs cube. They're extremely into sliding around in their socks. And that is about all they do for fun there. They take the old records off the shelf and then they put them right back on the shelf. This is a very plausible bit of confusion for seven.

She's like, I don't get it. I'm a workaholic. This seems dumb to me. And what Janeway does is put it in personal terms, right? She's like, look, I know this doesn't make any sense to you. Here's what it does for me. It allows me to turn off my captain brain, think about something else completely.

It makes me better captain when I turn the captain brain back on. Right. Take a little break from the responsibilities of life. There's coffee in that fantasy. They're kind of talking about the environment and what helps cultivate creativity about this environment. And how badly did you want to see seven's version of this because that's part of this

conversation too, right? She's like, make you should also design a halodeck program and invite me the way I have invited you to mine. And I so wanted to see what that looked like. It's just a nealix choking program. She just clones two blocks one. Perfection had already been attained. I'm sure when you tried you'll understand. So one of the things that they encounter

while they're walking around is this model of a flying machine that DaVinci built. Correction, a flying jack-off machine. It's subtle. One of the things they encounter. It's a kick seven into a flashback slash fugue state. It's sort of like a waking dream. Sort of an episode of the sopranos because there's a lot of bird imagery in it.

Data had a lot of these. This made me think of data a lot and that weird I've got a phone in my body Episode and there was also a raven flying around on that one, right? There was, yeah. Yeah, they must have brought the same birdsman back because they get a great shot of this bird flying through a trashed starship set and it's seven like fighting a couple of creepy borgs. Hey Ed, you still got that bird?

Yeah, who's asking? Ed's like, are you kidding me? That bird died like the next week. Birds don't live very long. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha And if you ask any of my ex-wives, I think they'll tell you why I couldn't form any strong bonds with them kind of the tragedy of my life Anyways, if you'd like to reach out to any of my ex-wives Just stay on the end of the call and a real of their phone numbers will play Thank you for calling ed's birds That's the recording

That's the recording. Yeah, that's one of those trick messages that makes you think you're talking to the person initially. Oh man, that's the thing. When you specialize, the way Ed has, you get work. What's a sausage, yeah. Specializing sauces. There was a kid in college that did that to me. I got like put in a group project with him and I didn't really know him.

So I exchanged cell phone numbers with him after class and his voicemail was one of those. One of those, I thought that I was talking to him but my phone was also breaking up when I first called him because I was in one of our dorms that was like an old Manhattan building that didn't get great cell service in. And so like I was so confused that I didn't catch on

that it was a joke by the time I heard the beep and I left a message. Oh, man. That was like, I don't know what's going on here and I was like mad about it by that point. That guy went on to edit that documentary about Robert Durst. He was the editor of that documentary.

What? Yeah. I got to the end of that documentary. What? Yeah. I got to the end of that freaking documentary and I saw his name and I was... Editor of the jinx. Yeah. He did great. He went on, he was a little shit and gone.

He went on to great things. How excited are you as the editor of that documentary when you start hearing the burps? Do I need to edit the burps out or is that part of his character that I'm keeping in? Like a weird ex-entrissed-oo. Yeah. He was in the room when they found the burps.

And then at the very end, like in the bathroom, the bathroom confession. Yeah. Imagine being the editor for that moment. Like, because the camera people didn't know that that was a thing that they got, the editor realizes it. The sound person might have known.

Man. Yeah. Assuming the sound person was monitoring at that moment. I mean, any sound person with a shred of morality takes off the cans while your subjects in the bathroom. Yeah. Sick freak. One time I was interviewing two subjects at once and they were both on wireless mics

and one of them got up in the middle of the interview and went, took a pee. I had the headphones on while interviewing the other guy so I'm listening to one of them piss while I'm trying to like keep a straight face and talk to the other one. Wow. That's so interesting, Ben, because the thing that I do

to kind of keep myself grounded and centered, it's sort of like that trick, like imagine the audience naked if you're a stage performer. Like whenever I'm interviewing anyone on camera, I just imagine the sound of piss in my ears. Yeah, sure. In the moment. Hey, speaking of Star Trek,

David comes out of this referee and she doesn't know what's going on. And we go to theme. Ben, take the wheel. Sorry. That was such a long tension. People are going gonna love it. Okay, good. At the end of the credit. Of course, it's locked in.

This one didn't make any careful, because I'm gonna see this once. After the theme, we're in Six Bay, where Seven of Nine explains that the visions she's having are troubling her, and she's explaining this to the doctor and Janeway, and she's wearing a fallor cat suit of a different color. Ban, it's the color of the interior of a 1973 Oldsmobile regency. With a loose cushion look of fine furniture. Yeah, the doctor takes great umbrage with this. He's like, I, I was very specific about the look that I, I came up with for you. All right.

We know the doctor's a car guy because of that one holiday program where he, uh, took his girlfriend up to the cliffs for some smooch and he's actually. I gotta go make out at Loveurs Point. Yeah, he's actually a classic car interior at Fischionato, right? Hmm. I guess that bug is catching. He got it from Paris and he took it and ran with it. Not many people look good and brown. Seven of nine looks good in everything. And she's explaining that she's had this vision like a few times at this point.

Something is happening to me and I don't know what it is. Each time I see a bird, a bird, yes a large black bird flying toward me, shrieking. Will I keep having these flashbacks? A series of disjointed images in my mind. I was frightened. I felt fear. It doesn't make a lot of sense to her, because she's, you know, she liked growing up bored. She doesn't think of them as scary. But the doctor's like, yeah, your brain is going crazy.

Your hippocampus is in a state of agitation. What does that mean? Think part of it is PTSD and part of it might be that you're just not eating good because you've been just on the charging mat the entire time. You wanna know what I think, Seven? I think you're bangry. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha So his prescription is go eat nealix's food. Oral consumption is inefficient.

In order to lose your appetite, one must go to the mess hall. Gonna fix her right up. Your human physiology requires it. After the doc sort of fucks off, seven of nine tells Janeway that she doesn't like being bangry, she doesn't like these feelings, she doesn't like theway that she doesn't like being bangry. She doesn't like these feelings. She doesn't like the visions. She doesn't like the raven and the lack of control

that they inflict on her. Yeah. It's sort of like a confessional moment here. Yeah. I thought. And the captain is really sweet about it. She's like, I really understand that. I really understand that that's so raven.

I know it seems as though we are friends, but I am keeping the one secret of comfort to myself, which is find yourself a bathtub and then sit in it until your fingers get wrinkly. You might want to try some too. Also replicate yourself some broth to cleanse your palate after you eat that crap knee-lick serves. You'll get used to it. Yeah, have some more. You know what, it's probably better for everyone else that Seven doesn't get replicator rations, right?

Oh, does she not? Does that all go to her MagSafe mat? She hasn't eaten up until now, right? Yeah. So she hasn't been a drag on the replicator system. True, but also so many people died on the right. So I mean, those aren't mouths to feed either. Yeah, it's great news for everybody. Pretty big win, I think. You really think about it. Yeah. The captain mentions that they've been having some diplomatic discussions with

this group called the Beaumont and they've been really tough to deal with so she's got to go off and talk to those guys and we go to a McLaughlin group where they are talking to two of these guys from the Beaumont sovereignty who have come to an agreement that the Voyager will be allowed to pass through Beaumont space against our better judgment. They're wearing weird helmets and this is great news or it seems like great news until they kind of go into some of the details which are burdensome. If you could imagine a species that was equally enthusiastic about Major League Baseball umpiring and stained glass.

That is the boomer. Yeah. Yeah. That's what they look like. Yeah. They even have the little clickers in their hand to keep track of how many balls and strikes. It is a real yes, you can come over for dinner, but these are the rules of the household kind of vibe that the boomer are putting out there. Like, yeah, you can get safe passage through our space. Yeah. But there are going to be some rules, like a speed limit and no weapons. And you got to take this map and he goes over and shows that on the screen in the conference room. And it is a comically squiggly line.

We've designed this course so that your ship would avoid our populated systems and industrial areas. Deviation is not recommended. Oh, and not only is the line so squiggly, you need to step 17 times along the way for us to pull you over. And inspect. What goes unspoken in this scene is did we paint the table in this room this teal green?

It really popped off the frame for me. I thought it was green. Was it green the whole time? I think it was man. Fuck man friends of DeSoto right in was the table green. I Mean I I guess it was green. I mean, I guess it was green. I'm ready to believe it was green the whole time. Wow. I just like approaching episodes of Star Trek with fresh eyes. You too, it's fun.

Like a fucking goldfish. Speaking of green, Adam, one floor down, Nielix is cutting up a Persian cucumber to recreate dintifungs famous cucumber salad. Oh, so delicious. You do not wanna skip that salad. Yeah, it's really good. Seven of nine walks in.

I'm an unexpected pleasure. Welcome to the mess hall. Nelix has not had this particular customer before, so he's quick to drop everything he's doing and try to make a great first impression. Would you like me to show you around? He looks really sweet in the scene. He's like, look, because it's your first meal, I'm going to try to make it special.

I'm going to make you this Cobb thing. It looks like something Rudy, like everything he makes is something tuber or root based, right? It really is. But he's like, look, this is the dish of my people. It's the pod tie of talaks. Something I'm very proud of. You know, my people and seven's like, oh yes, I do know of your people.

Species 218. Yeah. I've had their thoughts in my head for quite a while, in fact. Their mutton chops were assimilated. Yeah. Yeah. You guys make great drones. Nielix is not offended by this,

which I thought was such an interesting take by him and a really good moment for his character. Yeah. The Tlaxian Borgs are few and far between. It was like a long-range probe that got snatched up. I mean, I feel like he is more horrified than he's letting on. Yeah. Kind of, but as the morale officer, as the person who is there to

make people feel comfortable on the ship, he kind of keeps that to himself. I thought it was a nice performance here. Do you think there was a noticeable morale change in the Borgs once the Tlaxians were assimilated? They were slightly more welcoming. I mean, resistance is futile, but like a little less heavy handed with the futility, like a little more welcoming. It was subtle. I mean, I think it's important to note that the Borgs assimilated the tolaxians, technological and biological

distinctiveness, but not their culinary distinctiveness. Right. Yeah. Leave that part out. Yeah. That's the part that they scoop out and replace is something robotic. There's a real fish out of water moment for seven because she's being invited to like take a seat and Eat this food and she doesn't even know how to you know, she's not accustomed to sitting She's never tried chewing if she's never eaten and she's never sat then she's never sat either Ben and you know that's coming later, isn't it? Yeah, and Nielix is taking such an interest in this. It's hard to imagine he won't invite himself in for that also. Yeah.

Well, this is a day of firsts then, isn't it? He's one of those teachers at the school that can do any subject. He's like a substitute teacher in humanities, right? Right, right. My very name is racist. Do you think that it's a little bit fucked up that he's inflicting his food on somebody that has no point of comparison? Like, this is what food is.

Kind of, but like, what other choices he have? He could replicate her at Cheeseburger. Were you kind of waiting for her to go full-warf and like devour a food that everyone thinks is disgusting. Fours hungry. Yeah, I wonder if TV executives in this era were like, you can't show a woman who is an object of lust, scarping food like that. Yeah, probably. She has to do it in a delicate way.

Yeah. Cause that would have been the move in this scene like Oh, this fucking rules what? Well in that same way like she's being taught how to eat like as if she was a toddler writing to your mouth She's like a little scout ship flying into a shuttle bay But she does not also do the commensurate toddler eating thing of spilling all over herself. Yeah, right. For the same reason. Right.

Oh, I spilled these mashed potatoes all over my chest. Oopsie. Yeah. She has another one of her scary, scary flashbacks in this moment. And we see a little lump move down her arm onto the hand that's holding the fork. And then a first contact style star-shaped, boar-gain plant emerges onto her skin. Ouch.

And Nielix is like, and then he gets shoved over into the pool of vomit. Did he say, oh god, it's so gross. It's all over the back of my head and my hair. Never has the back of my head looked worse. Okay, well, one time, but that was really extreme. And why is the mess all carpeted? I ask you again.

It doesn't seem like an emergency that rises to the level of an alert threshold. I mean, I feel like Nielix has served someone a dish they weren't happy with that necessitated a shove over before. Yeah, this happens on the weekly, so people are not super surprised about it. Yeah. That's actually one of the theme nights in the restaurant, soup or surprised. I really don't want to do it.

Coffee, black, make it yourself. I know you see this as an opportunity to grow. Make it yourself. We head to the exterior to indicate a bit of a passage of time and back to the conference room where an alternate route through Beaumar space is being proposed. It's a much less squiggly line. Right.

And it'll save him a ton of time. The whole reason they want to go through Beaumar space is to save themselves time. And this line, I feel like, is a good compromise on the sensitive stuff the Beaumar don't want them flying through. So they're like, hey, like what about this? This seems pretty good, right? I translate as malfunctioning.

Not good is the answer. This is a species whose part of the galaxy is like incognito mode. Yeah, they don't want anybody knowing like what stuff is. They don't want them scanning stuff. They don't want them, you know, seeing what resources abound.

You know, speaking of keeping something from the people that you are negotiating with, Red Alert doesn't happen in this conference room in a very strange way. Right. Because when Janeway is called onto the bridge, it is very red alert on the bridge. It is not red alert in the conference room. She was just in Conference room is chilling the fuck out conference room is permanently like do not disturb mode, huh? Yeah

I like it too. Vaca's not VIP either It's too bad that the bow-mar are allowed out onto the bridge because yeah the bow mar are allowed out onto the bridge because two vachas explaining that seven of nine is on a rampage on the lower decks and one of the bow mar guys is like seven of nine. What does that mean? What are we talking about here? And she's like, well, she's an ex-b and he's like ex-b never heard of it. I can't believe you brought a borg into our space. You're a fucking psycho. Well, at least she didn't go to the mess hall. I was there earlier and it really upset me deeply. Culinary is not one of your species gifts, isn't it?

I love how into it Chico Tei is about chasing her down. Yeah. He's like, I got this one, Cap. Yeah, so we see Seven of Nine in the hallway and she is like hallucinating that two board drones are coming for her, but they're actually gold shirt security people who are shooting at her and she's got her shields are back.

Like, like stuff is coming back online. Yeah, yeah, it's scary. She's like walking through force fields, like stuff is coming back online. Yeah, yeah, it's scary. She's like walking through force fields, like they're not even there. She seems to have gotten really powerful, really fast, which begs the question, Ben, what was in that Chadra Cobb? Yeah, it must have really been amping her in Dorfins up.

Yeah. I think is what we came to learn in Star Trek, Colin Picard. We don't whip over to Nelix and the gilty must feel over this Because like seven was Bruce Banner and now she's the Hulk. Yeah, and it's all Nelix's fault That's our secret. She's always eating Chadra Cubs She goes into the weapons locker and comes out with a huge rifle You know your weapons, buddy and is now walking through the ship heading to deck 10 She goes into the weapons locker and comes out with a huge rifle.

And is now walking through the ship heading to deck 10, which is, I guess where the shuttle bay is. So, two Valk and a Dustbuster team assemble outside the turbo shaft. And when she comes out, they try and shoot her, but the rotating modulation on the phasers fails to work. She shoots the other two two lock manages to duck out of the way. She keeps going. It's no good. This is just not good stuff. She is totally unstoppable right now. Yeah. Honor weighted the shuttle bay. She's like the terminator going through that police station. Yeah. This time the force field stops her. I have no idea why that's the case.

Because Harry rerouted all available power to the deck 10. There's just more power. Well, I also believe that it's because we can't see the inside of the shuttle bay. We need to go from outside into the interior of a shuttle. There was a production reason for this. Yeah, she beams herself into a shuttle and then we see the exterior door

of the Voyager shuttle day getting blown away by this bunk bed shuttle. I love this moment. She flies away. Yeah. God, and straight into Beaumard's space. They're gonna be so pissed about this. Yeah, these guys are such fucking rule followers.

And like, sure enough, Janeway's talking to one of these Beaumard guys and he's like just going through the laundry list of ways she's violated their trust. Let's tell you the events, shall we? She's like falling all over herself to try and explain. This is like a member of our crew who is unwell. I think you are made to feel embarrassed and awkward in this scene for Janeway because the Boma are right. Yeah, absolutely. Janeway is totally humiliated here.

Yeah. And when they're saying like, maybe you're not a competent captain and maybe we can't trust you. There's no evidence to the contrary of that. Yeah, she has nothing to lean on. Yeah. Look, they just call them how they see them. The Boma are. They're just calling balls and strikes.

Wow. Boy, that's just a straight shooter with upper management written all over them. So they explain that one of the things that's great about their particular region of space is that they have a border sensor grid that can track everything that enters their space. So they know exactly where she is. They're like, we're taking care of this. The board will be found and destroyed. She is fucked, and you better just leave now.

You better leave us to this. Pretty awkward into their meeting. I mean, Janeway basically kicks the Beaumont route and sends them back to their ships. Commander. Escort our guests to the transport room. Sounds great. When we come back from commercial,

they are in the semi-borgified cargo bay with just every extra this show has to offer, looking for anything they can find that might indicate where Seven has gone and what happened to her. What does all this mean? I really think that this establishing shot in the scene does a really good job of showing the scope of the situation in there.

Like I think it's hard when the shuttle bay was built into the Alcove, it was kind of hard to grasp just how much Alcove there was in the shuttle bay, but when you have a bunch of people crawling around it, I think you get a better sense of its size in an effective way. Like I also was amused by how many people were there doing the work, but I think it was the right amount of people given the emergency.

I totally agree. So Bilti is scanning the alcove and she reaches back into it and she finds a book with a little lock on the edge. And it says, seven styrene, do not read. Oh no. Yeah. Kim was like, I'll take that. I think I know what to do with it. Just let me have it first. I think I can translate them. Get on it. So yeah, the captain gives that job to him and Jakote comes to Report that the Beaumont have really ramped up their security situation in the wake of a borg's flying a shuttle into their space There's not much they can do about the you know chasing her in because there's tons of ships watching them now and It's just gonna be a big problem. So much for diplomacy.

Yeah, but they're walking up to the bridge and Tricote is like, yeah, it seems like we tried to make her human and she just, she's, you know, scorpion on the back of a frog. What are you going to do? Tiger don't change his stripes. And the captain is like, I think that there's something else going on here, like these flashbacks and that like, you know, like we're nowhere near any borgs. Like this isn't her reacting to an external borg signal. If we didn't have many episodes of Janeway writing for seven and really in the cold open as well, like showing their relationship, I would think this is bad captaining because she really holds fast to this opinion without much evidence that this can be a solvable problem that she can

be rescued and whatever is switched on can be switched off. This is a Brian Fuller story and the episode is directed by Lavar Burton and I think that there is a real magic trick in this episode, making a sea-capped and Janeway as seeming incompetent to the Beaumont, and also seeming like she is not losing her shit from our perspective. Yeah. And this scene is like a crucial piece of that too,

like that she has a suspicion that there's more going on here than meets the eye. We are missing a piece of the puzzle. I really like Lovar Burton's direction generally, but specifically, there was such a strange cut here in this turbo lift scene. Did you get it? Is this where they cut up to the bridge?

No, Janeway and Chicoet approached the door to the turbo lift and then they go inside and then they cut to the interior, but it's such a similar angle to the exterior of the turbo lift that it was really jarring. Yeah, I mean, it didn't leap out to me, but you know, weird shit happens. Yeah, bullshit, man. It's just bullshit.

Right. Got tickets that knock them, that old bit of judgment. 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 Share Your Embarrassment 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 Naswald. Could I get a ball

rock 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 already open. Just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goatry.

Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Whoa, Ross. 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 do I? 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 a spout to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans. 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 boat. We came two by two. What do you think?

Ono Ross and Carrie, available on MaximumFun.org. I think it's that, like, we're not. Are you selling a horse? Gold. So they go to Six Bay and they are talking to the doctor about how the Borg stuff that he pulled out of her is like re-growing itself. Yeah. What have you found out here?

Something most peculiar? I wondered if eating was the problem. Like, did giving her food turn all the bored stuff back on? I couldn't help but think this too. Like, that's the variable of the whole thing. No one refers to it. It's the one thing that's changed and nobody talks about it.

Yeah. But the doctor does have an anecdote. God damn it, he doesn't have an anecdote. He has an antidote. He gives them a hypospray and he's like, well anyways, if you find her, hit her with this. His antidote, anecdote is like, you know the first person who invented the hypospray?

His name was Don Spray. Can you believe that? What are the chances? Yeah. Anyway, that's why it's spelled with a lower case H and an uppercase S. They're like, huh. And then they leave. If the doc had been like super hopped up on caffeine, would you call this scene a hyper

hyposprae antidoanecto? I think you probably would. Mace ants would go. Up on the bridge, two vach and Paris have come up with a strategy to recommend for chasing the Jake Shuttle, which is we can't get voyager through their detection grid, but we can get a shuttle through the detection grid. So what we think we should do is send a little mission and see if we can get her back, hit her with the gene resequencer that the doctor gave, try and reason with her, all of that stuff. I always love two Valken Paras being paired up on things.

And this is like a natural pairing here with the pilot and the security guy. And they're given one last order by the captain before she sends them on this mission, which is basically like if you're gonna have to do it, if she cannot be persuaded to stand down from whatever board bullshit she's on, you've got my authorization to do what it takes to take her off the map. If you must kill her, just remember to bring back the velour bodysuit.

Which to the touch? We invested a lot of material in it. So we cut to Seven's Shuttlecraft and she's flying, she's having flashbacks to creepy borggs reaching for her. I mean, it's amazing that she's able to do piloting given how often she's flashing back at this point. Yeah, and that was part of my expectation here is like, what is real and what isn't? Like, we're seeing her visions, but we're also seeing the fleet of Beaumar ships.

Yes, that's real. Like, I wish they played with the confusion of that a little more. I do too. I mean, it seems like it's really compromising her at the beginning of the episode. And by the end of the episode, it's just kind of like happening whenever it's convenient

when she has a little downtime. She has a flashback, you know? Right. and that's just not how like psychological crises work. I love the idea of a space roadblock and seeing seven just drive her shuttle right through it, laying waste to those ships. Yeah, those guys don't stand a chance. And it seems like her shuttle may have augmented, borgified shields too, because when they're shooting at her, it's got kind of a green hue to it. But yeah, she like dog fights through there.

And the phaser fire is enough to show up on Paris and two Vox sensors. So it's not long before they have tucked in right behind her and are, you know, I don't think she can tell that they're there, but they're sneaking behind and Tuvac proposes beaming aboard using the element of surprise, using the elephant of surprise to hit her with the anecdote. Perfect. organic dough. Perfect.

If for some reason you started the episode here, I'd like to strongly encourage you to start from the beginning. What people do with podcasts, they kind of start them wherever. I love how Paris is like two-vac-y full. This is a bad plan. What makes you think you can be the elephant in the room back there? Am I making any sense here? And Paris is proven exactly right because for some reason, seven is waiting in the back

of the shuttle for two-vac to beam in and his back has turned. Surprise, motherfucker. She's right behind him as he beams in and then she Vulcan neck pinches him. What the fuck? Yeah. That's got to be the biggest disgrace for any Vulcan, right? Is to get neck pinched by a non- Vulcan. Yeah, he's never gonna be able to show his Vulcan face

on the home world after this. No way. Adam nerds have been debating it for years. They wanna know who would win in a fight, a bunk bed class shuttle or a brat class shuttle. Just how am I saying your money, Buster? I mean, taking budget off the table. I think I know what my pick is.

Yeah, it's not a perfect execution because the bunk bed does have augmented board shields, but she takes the propulsion system offline on the brant class shuttle. It's sex to see Paris outpiloted too, right? Tuvac is out neck pinched and Paris is outpiloted. Yeah, she's way better than both of them. Yeah. And she's just kind of taking her leisure now. She's flying the shuttle and two Valk comes to and finds that he's been bricked in the back half of the shuttle. He starts to kind of talk to Seven of Nine, making overtures for her to stop the madness and consider maybe like not continuing to try to be a board and she is pretty convinced that that's just

her destiny at this point. She doesn't think that the becoming human again thing is really going to work for her. So she's following some kind of signal that is on a board ship that will get her back in with the collective, which is where she belongs. What do you make of the choice of this being a red herring? Like that there is no Borg signal that it's something else entirely. Like there's something interesting about maybe seven truly picking up a signal and heading for someplace Borgish.

Yeah. That it doesn't go there makes for a different and satisfying ending, I think. Like they wanted to tell a very specific story, right? Having to do with the Raven, but like, I think a lot of the power is sucked out of this moment because Tuvac knows the entire time that there is no Borg signal. There are no Borgs around where're going is some place that I can't predict. And there's almost a safety connoted in that a safety for two VAC to take risks or work harder to convince her or volunteer to beam down to the planet surface later,

knowing what he knows to not be true. Yeah. I was considering the possibility that two Valkies wrong in this moment also, and that seems just as likely as any other thing, you know. Yeah. He so rarely is that. The board give out Fox the Federation plenty of times. Right. Yeah. But yeah, the conversation's very interesting, and she's like really trying to step to him with the flex of a board like you're going to be assimilated. You're all fucked once I get back with the collective and then she kind of takes a step back off of that. I feel like this scene is not about amplifying your fear about what is going to happen

as much as is about a character study about what Seven is going through in this moment. Yeah, yeah, that's fair. It's very selective slash intentional about where your attention is. Yeah. So back on the ship, the cat. I know that this wasn't supposed to be funny, but the fact that the cat then is like standing in Seven'san's alcove, like, almost just trying to get her perspective. Yeah. Now, if I'm seven and I'm standing here a whole bunch, what would make me,

what a stealing shuttle? But I'm still no closer to understanding what's happened. Yeah. And I think Kim is the one who sells it. Kim doesn't find this ridiculous when he rolls up. Yeah, he's a little bit intimidated by it almost. He steals the absurdity from the scene by bringing his own absurdity to it

with the reading of Seven's Diaries. Right. He's redacted all the parts about him looking a little bit foolish, trying to kick it to her. And he's like, yeah, like there's not much in here that's embarrassing for me personally. There's like a couple of things about observations about the crew. And she says my behavior is easy to predict, but that's as far as she goes into things about me. I have a very punchable face.

I was very easy to neutralize and then shove into another security person. Don't take it personally. The descriptions of the dreams become the topic of the conversation. And specifically the bird dream, which is a non-specific bird at this point. But the captain is like, oh, maybe this is a raven. And that means a ton to the captain and didn't mean a ton to me yet. Yeah, me neither, but it really sends Janeway on a mission from here on out. Yeah. She had done up to the bridge and she orders a scan of Beaumar space, but excluding the two shuttlecraft, they know to be out there.

Right. Objection noted, we'll do this without you. Do it. Do it. Do it. Objection noted, we'll do this without you. Do it. Do it.

Do it. Do it. What's in Beaumar space? What's going on in there? We're about to find out kind of through seven of nine shuttle, which has arrived at a moon there. Yeah. And there's a signal that she's been following is coming from that moon. The board on waiting for me there.

Tuvak persuades her to let him tag along on her beam down to see what's up. And you know, I mean, he's like no threat to her. So like who cares, right? Right. Meanwhile, we catch back up with Paris who has gotten his shuttle moving again, but he doesn't have war power. And he's kind of relaying information back to Voyager about what transpired when they set upon seven shuttle and is explaining that they're on this moon. There's a signal coming from that moon. I kind of wonder if they were trying to make time with this scene. I feel like on paper, Paris being the intermediary here

doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Like why is the voyage or so fucking slow on the scene? Why doesn't the voyage have better sensors or scanners than Paris is brat? Why is the brat doing all the work? There does seem to be a big decision to like violate the Beaumont sovereignty border. And it seems like a bigger deal with Voyager than with the shuttle. But at this point, they're like, yeah, we're coming to you, man.

But I agree with you that it seems a little bit like it's more a scene about just like people will wonder what's going on with Paris at this point right Then then it is about like advancing story that we actually care about yeah We end up on the planet with two Valken 7 and they're scanning for this signal and they finally see it soars a crashed ship Yeah, and it's an old Federation ship. I sure couldn't tell it was a federation ship, could you? Just looked like a pile of boxes out there. Yeah, didn't look good. It was real beat up. I think that they shot this like Star Trek KV stuff outdoors because it is not studio lighting on them. It looks like sunlight on them. It looks cool. It looks great. And then they're inside the ship. And it has more board cube vibes. I feel like then Federation ship vibes because it's so fucked up from its crash. But it's also, I think, the set that they're

using in all of the flashback scenes when seven has those moments. So maybe that's what's going on. It was very familiar. They find the like controls of this ship. And that's what's making the signal that drew seven in. It's not a board signal at all. She's not joining the collective again. This is not what you think it is, seven. She has another vision. And this time we get a lot more detail than we've ever gotten before.

It's her parents being dragged off by these boards. And they're screaming at her to run and hide and seven as an adult re-enacts this scene and runs and hides underneath a busted piece of table and like Tuvac is put in the position of having to soothe her. Yeah, he's like, seven, come with me to the chill out tent. Yeah. The big reveal happens here, wiping the dust away from the ship's plaque, a plaque that says, though Raven, yeah. That's not what the ship is called.

That's the name of Seven Snow Sled from when she was a kid. Yeah, exactly. I thought it would have been great because like Banger started to drop and they need to get the fuck out. And they do, but when they get to the exterior, you see some of the like, federation markings.

And the name of the ship on it, I would have loved it if it were USS The Raven. Ha, ha, ha, Voyager is just so much bigger than these Beaumar sovereignty ships that are hailing torpedo fire down on the planet surface and so they're like, all right we don't really want to fuck with these guys. I seem like idiots but I guess we'll just kind of like take out their weapon systems. I do actually really like an aerial bombardment. See only way to be sure. Fucking a this does make a lot of sense and we should see this more often says Janeway.

Yeah. They're working on that. But meanwhile, two Valken seven are like running back and forth, trying to escape the ship, like running into a room that they think might be the escape hatch and that it isn't. And they have to like, it's just a ship that is almost entirely made up of collapsed girders at this point. Did you feel like the girder that fell after Tufak passed it was rigged to fall in the way that it did or was that just a very lucky moment?

I almost like, I wanted to like slow it down and see if I could see a prop PA's hand let it go. Yeah. Something. I love that moment. It's so close to him. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, the Voyager's disabled a couple of the ships,

but there's a third one and the Beaumont are really rattling their sabers and accusing the captain of having committed an act of war. It's real like, you know, getting out just in time moment for seven and two Vach because they make a hurl or they get out of the ship. We see the USS Raven just kind of fall apart like a block tower. Go off this cliff. I really like the effects work here.

This looked plausibly good. How the pieces of the ship just kind of slid off the cliff. It did, but it kind of doesn't speak super well of the skills of the shipwrites at Utopia Plinesha. Like really, it just kind of like sections of it come away. Yeah. Fuck, man, get better bolts. I mean, this foreshadows a construction technique that we'd see many centuries in the future on Star Trek

Discovery, right? Hmm. So you take out the little sections of the base and they fly away. Yeah. No kidding. It becomes Federation dog wet at a certain point. Mm-hmm. Wow. It becomes federation dog wet at a certain point. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Wow. Here come the Beaumar cavalry. There's like, I don't know, 60 ships on the way. Yeah.

So we got to get the fuck out of here. Warp 8, not Warp 9. There's nothing salvageable on the Raven, so they just leave it down there. They're getting out of here. The captain turns to Jakote and is like, Looks like there won't be any shortcuts this time. And Jakote's of here. The captain turns to Jakota and is like, it looks like there won't be any shortcuts this time. And Jakota is react here.

It contains all of like every crew member who is going to come to him and be like, so we didn't get the shortcut because the borgs that we picked up, who doesn't wanna go back to Earth and doesn't even wanna be a part of the crew, took a shuttle and we had to go get her. And that, like, blew our entire chance at getting three months off of our fucking 75-year journey home. Yeah.

Yeah, that's what happened. That was Chico Tay's. I didn't even want to cat face. I Spoiler alert Robert bilter Wow I feel like when he's made to be Shimoda. It's often for a face choice. Yeah, yeah That just absolutely fucking wrecked me in that moment. The button on the episode though is a bookend button. It's back in Maestro Leonardo's workshop where Seven is looking at the flying masturbation

machine and not having a PTSD flashback this time. Interesting that the flying masturbation machine has so many talents. It suggests Leonardo da Vinci was also interested in pain-based pleasure. Was that appealing to you? I have a very interesting conversation here. there's one of my favorite scenes in the episode, seven talking about the, if I hadn't been assimilated, what would my life have been like? And I mean, that is such a, I think everybody can relate to that after a certain age,

like if I hadn't gone to film school, what my life would have been like, if I hadn't chanced upon meeting Adam Pranica, what my life would have been like. If I hadn't chanced upon meeting Adam Pranica, what would my life have been like? I think a lot of people think about that one. Yeah. A lot of people wish the travesty of that had not happened, you know. Just sucked into my gravity well. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha having my biological and technological distinctiveness added to your own. It's really true. What I like about this scene is that it doesn't end with that knee.

Hey, you know, we got an entire ship's computer full of stories about your parents. Why don't you go read a couple of chapters on that and seven's like, I don't think so. Yeah. I like that she turns down that offer. Yeah. A very compelling and slightly ambiguous end to a really interesting episode. Adam, did you like this episode? I'm giving you an order.

I'm giving you an order. That's under spirit. I'm giving you an order. I'm giving you an U.F. just crossed the line. I did, but only this is one of those episodes that I liked, but I wished War for specifically in the, I mean, clearly what happened to Seven as a child was horrible, and it is the reason she goes off on her mission here. Right. Is it fucked up for me to say that I wish what we saw was more horrible? Like I kind of, as bad as we see, is seven hiding and her parents screaming. And your imagination is made to connect the dots.

But I wanted to see her parents as Bork. You wanted to see the drill going into the eyeball. Like I wanted that to be the apex of horror was like even if it were a event horizon style flashes of footage like I wanted that to be the absolute peak of how she was feeling and it felt like there was a little bit something missing from this episode for it. Well, I think you're gonna kind of only get away with one event her eyes and ref her episode and when they get on board the Raven and two oxas this place is a tomb. It's, I don't know, you know, I get it. They burn it. Yeah, that's fair. I like seeing Seven's backstory. I like seeing exactly how she was taken. I think that is

necessary information to understand her and her attempts to become more human because you want to you want to see what her destination is, right? Yeah. Like what does your community represent? Well, you need to see an example of that and here it is. I agree. I to see an example of that, and here it is. I agree. This episode feels like it is maybe suffering from some of the same stuff that Ezri episode suffered from in Deep Space 9, which is like we've introduced the new character,

and now we have to do a ton of character development to like catch her up to everybody else on the show. Yeah, to bring her to the level. And I think that this episode would have done well to appear 10 episodes from now. Like, well past the scorpion arc because it feels like it is part and parcel of the scorpion arc.

Like how can we trust the XB in our midst? And I don't really know that you can, if as recently she's been XB in our midst. And I don't really know that you can if as recently she's been XB'd and she's suddenly got implants appearing on her fucking hand, you know. Like how can you ever trust Seven Ashes? Yeah, and these episodes where she goes rogue or in such close proximity with each other, it's gonna, I feel like it's gonna take several seasons for me to ever trust that she's not going to go rogue again. Is that what they're trying to do though? Is to just set up that tension forever?

I don't think so. I think that the stuff with the doctor and the hyposprae and everything is meant to make you feel like, okay, we've solved the Borgs problem for now. And it doesn't feel solved to me. Yeah, it really doesn't. I don't know. I think it's an episode that does a great job of exploring the themes that it explores. I think it has a very fun story arc.

I think the directing is really interesting and good, but I think that maybe it's kind of wrong episode for the wrong moment in the season. Yeah, it's a track order issue as we've called it before. Right. Yeah, so I think that's my take on it. It's a good take, Ben. It's a strong take. Do you have any take on whether or not we should explore what's in the priority one in box today? I mean, I'm being called there as if by a signal

Priority one message from star fleet coming in on secured channel Need a supplement Supplement Yeah, it's extra the interest alone could be enough to buy this ship Adam our first priority one message it will surprise no one to learn is from Zack Brager and it's too... And in my day! It was like this, if you've reached season 4 episode 6 of Voyager, I pray that a great

deal of pleasure becomes an add-on to the, there's coffee in that drop. I can only imagine Adam and Ben and the endless jokes they could have for, there's a great deal of pleasure in that blank. Imagination can provide a great feel of pleasure. Man, that flew right by me, but, you know, I feel like the process of making a drop, like it usually doesn't happen watching

or recording the episode, that kind of happens in post so sure does yeah I mean listen Zach Breger you've bought a lot of priority one messages I'm not saying it's a no but I'm also saying like you know we make Wow, okay, I just don't like I don't want to get into the business of just like doing drops for cash, you know. Yeah, that just makes me feel dirty to think about. We're just meeting people in parking lots, playing our drops for people. Putting our drops on the glass. Yeah, that dirty, dirty cash business.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I'm not saying it's a no. If it seems funny in the edit, dirty cash business. Yeah. So, you know, I'm not saying it's a no. If it seems funny in the edit, I'm all for it. Not that desperate yet, Zach Brager. Not ruling it out completely, though. Yeah, sure. Ben, our second priority when a message is from Zach,

yeah, that's right, it's me again, Brager. It's to me and you, the message goes like this, you know what, you're right. I didn't consider if the Towshiar was named after Yarr. What then would the co-op Malapi named after? I don't think about lots of things. Including why I sent this spipe, P1, because I've got no clue, boys, also. Well, I've got your ears. You want some peanut butter whiskey? What? because I've got no clue boys, also. Well, I've got your ears.

You want some peanut butter whiskey? What? It's pretty tasty if you ask me. Okay. I've never had peanut butter whiskey of you. Uh, it is kind of a sensation lately. Somebody after a live show of ours, a few years ago now, and maybe this was Zach Brager,

maybe it was somebody else, gave us a bottle of peanut butter whiskey that I went to the trouble of bringing home and has been in my home bar ever since, but I have not opened it and tasted it. But you have it on your shelf. I do. As far as I know, I still have it. There's a medium likelihood that my wife threw it away after noticing that it was just taking up space for a long time.

Boy, if she only threw things away that were taking up space for her in her life, it's a year engraved danger bin. Yeah, fair. Zach sent us a box and it was labeled effectively open this on today's show. Whoa. And so what I'm going to do is open Zach Braggers box. It's going to be a super long priority one message here because I think the two things are related. I'm- What's in the box?

I'm guessing peanut butter whiskey will be inside. Okay. It's just been sitting there in a box this entire time. A box that has been wrapped in hotel bath towels. I love this hotel bath towels are probably cheaper than packing material. Yeah, I mean, it's the perfect crime. Holy shit, these actually say hi-at on them. Did Zack Breager steal these towels? Maybe Zack Breager works for the hi-at and was gifted them as part of their employment there. Oh, you recognize this towel. This is the shower towel that you put on the floor for your feet.

There's the bath mat, yeah. I've got two bath mats. I don't really need an extra bath mat. Notably, we didn't have one in the chateau that we stayed in for Max Funcon, the ultimate Max Funcon. I had to use an improvised bath mat. I respected the fact that you improvised one because I took a shower before you and I attempted to get entirely dry in the tub and that did not go great for me.

Honestly, I thought one of us was going gonna die there. It seemed very dangerous. Yeah. All right, Ben, what I have here is a very heavy robe. And by that, I mean a Terry cloth and white duct tape wrapped couple of bottles. OK. Ordinarily, I would just use an exacto knife and cut through the packaging, but it's Terry cloth.

Yeah. Ben, you have a... I have a matching robe. A duplicate bundle here. I'm opening a one labeled for me. Okay. Fair enough. It's too bad we're not doing this while looking at each other during, because we've got

both been opening these at that. But if this is the same stuff that I have in my home bar, I might do a little taster sample with you. Ah, the tape has stuck to my shirt. Your shirt from a different podcast. It's ruining the shirt of a competitor. Oh, I almost dropped it and for that I deeply appreciate it Not even on our network this other podcast. Yeah, I'm trying not to drop The package as I open it. It is very awkward

It's like gaff tape, right? No, it's white duct tape. Oh, wow. It's weird. You're just hell, yeah. I've never seen that before. Okay. Is it a rover?

Is it just a big towel? It's a big towel and it's swaddling these bottles. Okay. All right, here we go. I love a good bottle swaddle. Bottle number one. Portors. Right, here we go. I love a good bottle swaddle. Bottle number one, porters, imitation peanut butter flavored whiskey. Pfft.

I'm gonna show you the image on the bottle, terrifying. Oh my goodness. That looks like a scary man. It looks like Wayne grow. That's not the type of peanut butter whiskey that I have. Are you positive? Who could possibly have predicted that there was more than one brand of peanut butter whiskey on the market?

For some reason, the second bottle is in a paper bag, and the reveal is a second bottle of quarters. This one, Huckleberry Lecourt. This is Canadian whiskey and natural Huckleberry contains neutral spirits. This is 66.6 proof. Wow. Are both of these.

Okay, so they're lower, and I'll, wait, is it 66%? It's 33.3% alcohol by volume 60. Okay. 6.6 proofof Wow, okay All right, give us a taste tell us which bottle you're tasting and then tell us what you think of it All right, I'm gonna have the peanut butter one first and then I'm gonna wash it down with the huckleberry Is a huckleberry like a blackberry I've never known

Okay, it smells like peanut butter cup. Okay, okay. That does, that's not a bad smell. It smells really good. Whoa. Okay. Are you gonna take it from the bottle to the dome? There he goes, folks. Adam is drinking strange booze sent to us by Zach Brager who has buttered us up with dozens

of p ones so that Adam wouldn't suspect that this is a cyanide laced bottle of peanut butter whiskey. It's the most dangerous game in podcasting. Wow. What was my quote, Ben? It was printed on DeSoto wine bottles. I can't remember. I don't have a bottle of Chateau DeSoto close at hand. My review of Porter's imitation peanut butter flavored whiskey is... It's good. Wow. It is so good.

Is it Canadian whiskey? Is it Rye? Because I think the one that I have is peanut butter bourbon. I mean, the Blackberry one says Canadian whiskey, but this one doesn't say either way. It's just this flavored whiskey. Hmm, wow. It's so good.

It is like dangerously good that I really feel like I could drink a pint glass of it. Dang, wow. Well, thank you, Zach Breger. I can't wait to get my bottle and taste it. Here is the Huckleberry and it smells like something you'd spread on toast. Wow, yummy. A big two bottle slug from Adam, and what he doesn't know is that neither one of these bottles by itself is poisonous,

but if you take a slug from both of them, we'll combine in your stomach to put a poxy, that will just seize your system up. Yeah, I mean, I've never heard of this brand before. It is plausibly poison, but it is Ogden Zone product. This is a... Add a Utah. This is a Ogden Utah spirit. OgdenZone.com is where you can find out more about these.

Thanks a lot Zach for getting me a little buzzed toward the end of the show. Thank you for sending that in Zach. Wow, well, if anybody would like to get us into an elaborate scheme like Zach Breger has today, go to MaximumFund.org slash JumboTron Zach Brager has today. Go to maximumfund.org slash jumbo tron and set it up today. Go ahead and get the win. Hey Adam. Step in.

Did you find yourself a drunk remota? Incredible. Drunk Shimoda! Yeah, I mean, it's gotta be Harry Kim for me. Wow. He is like in terms of like a vibe of an entire episode. He seems to be acting outside of it most of the time. He's outside of the tension of it almost completely.

Yeah. He's just trying to figure out the secret of the diary. He's in the deep D story. We need to pull it out. Trying to figure that out. He's like a hardy boy here. Yeah. Well, the adults are off doing serious business.

That's why he's my drunk Shimoda. What about you you Ben? It would have been nice to get a Harry Kim montage where he like is, you know, eating while reading through the code. He's, he's at work like, but like distracted by it. He's smashing a Delaney sister, but he's got the pad over her shoulder and he's still looking at it. Right. Yeah. We've been good. He's asking a Delaney sister, but he's got the pad over her shoulder and he's still looking at it. Right. Yeah. We've been good. He's asking a Delaney sister to punch him in the face and knock him into a security person behind him because that's the only way he can get up over the tab.

We'll surprise nobody to know that my Drunk Shemota is Chico Tay in this episode. For that face he makes at the end when Jane was like, well, I guess just the price we pay for being friends with Seven of Nine. Oh yeah, like from before. Yeah. Good one. Let's see if we have a good one coming up next Adam.

The next episode is season four, episode seven, scientific method. When the crew begins suffering from stranger illnesses with each passing hour, 709 is the only one who is able to expose the threat to the crew. Why don't you put her in charge? Because we need you and I'm sick of your bullshit. Yeah, maybe this is her big redemption of trust this next episode.

I mean, this would be a logical sequence, wouldn't it? I guess so. So, Adam, we're on square 99 of the Game of Buttholes, the Wheel of Caretaker over at goch.biz slash game. That means there is a more enamored directly in front of us. Oh no. But what we learned last time we were up in this altitude of the board was that going over the number of spaces

to the end of the board just jumps us back to the beginning. And so we could also potentially hit a Janeway square, which would fly us up to a his eyes uncovered square. Wow. Kind of a lot of potential outcomes here. So I'm just looking at our schedule for recording and like, a more hammered never happens at a convenient time. Mm, yeah.

And just for the record, you still owe the folks a go-kono now. So. Yeah, I'll do it at the same time, Ben. Yeah, you just don't want to get on the phone with the tech guy, three sheets to the wind on Thursday. That's what I was saying. That would be fun, right? Yeah, I think we'd probably have to reschedule that call.

An important business call follows the Mornhammered episode. Yeah, bring it, Ben. I know it's going to happen. You're required to learn as you play, Ro. Not more important than a Peloton. Nope. You know my hierarchy of interests. Ha ha ha ha.

We'll see what happens. I rolled a five at him. Tula! Did I win? Hardly. We've jumped clear of the Mornhammered. Clear of the Janeway, Delta Flyer, Square. We've jumped clear of the Mornhammered, clear of the Janeway Delta Flyer Square. We are on Square Four. Wow.

Which is a regular old episode of the Game of Buttholes. I can hear the disappointment out in the distance. We could still reschedule that phone call. Our sad, sad friends at a disorder. You could still do your Cocoa Nono, you know? At any time, you could fulfill your bound duty to the people. I'm gonna keep my sword of cocoa no-no hanging above the show. Wow.

Could happen at any time. And it was hanging sword and was therefore censored by the board of expert charmoda. I wonder what sort of teaky drink I can make out of a Huckleberry whiskey. Mm. But that's a thing. I bet there's something out there.

I keep on looking at the face of this scary man on the bottle. It sure looks like a threat, Ben. Yeah, that looks like the kind of man that does not like being called sport. I think part of it is that the eyes are carved out on the label. Oh, fuck. So you just see inside the is that the eyes are carved out on the label. Oh, fuck.

So you just see inside the bottle through the eyes. Jesus Christ. You know, fucking scary it is when they're backlit, especially. Is that a picture of Zach Breger? Is that who's been sending us all this stuff? You know, my feelings about Zach Breger have changed if that's true. Because I now fear him. Yeah, well, we have nothing to fear about the next episode.

Regular old episode. In the meantime, if you like the show and want it to continue, consider supporting us at MaximumFund.org slash join. We're on the MaximumFund Network, which has a ton of great podcasts that I think you would enjoy if you enjoy what we do. Mike tried the greatest discovery, which is a different Star Trek podcast, totally different in almost every way.

I wasn't totally sure that you'd start with that show, man. Good job. But there are lots of others. You're such a company man. Of all different topics and all different kinds of people making them. And we just really love the network that we're on and the folks that we get to work with to make this show. Let's talk about some of them. Wendy Pretty, our producer, who edits about a third of the greatest generation, keeps us on schedule, keeps us on time.

Yeah. She does a great job. She's better at editing it than either of us at this point. It's true. Totally rules. And we really feel lucky to have her. We've got to thank Bill Tilly, the card daddy, who runs all our social media at greatest trek on Instagram and Twitter.

Follow those. Use the hashtag greatestjGen in your posts online. Join a Facebook group if you use Facebook. And then you'll probably join like several sub-facebook groups that are about specializing in one thing or another. You might want to join the drunkshermota.com Discord if you're a Discord person

or the GreatestGen Reddit. There's so many ways to participate in this thing, man. Yeah! Too many ways!'s so many ways to participate in this thing, man. Yeah. Too many ways. Not too, I mean, not too many ways. The correct amount of ways. Okay. I recently saw that we were less than 500 rating slash reviews from the 4,000 mark on iTunes.

Whoa. On iTunes podcasts or whatever it's called over there. We remain the best reviewed, most reviewed Star Trek podcast over there and I would like to personally keep it that way. If you've got a warm feeling for the show and five stars to give, it's one of the great ways to share the show with other people. It elevates our show into places where it can be seen by other people and gets new earballs on the show. We really appreciate it. If you like the music on the show, that was created by Adam Riggusia.

And Adam Riggusia also has a podcast of his own, the Riggusia podcast, and a YouTube channel where he talks about food, talks you through recipes. We are regular guests on the Regusia Podcast and we really appreciate all of the amazing music he's made for us over the years. I mean, we've been on the show once, Ben. It's like losing your virginity and going, I regularly have sex. We're planning repeat appearances! Are we ready to talk to about the next movie we're going to talk about?

I haven't been on those messages. What are we? I have no idea when or how this is happening. We talked about Tampopo. It might happen by the time this episode comes out. Oh. All right. A ramen movie.

Yeah. I haven't seen it. It's good. There's a really sexy egg scene. Just like ramen. Ramen is good. Yeah. So, Just like Ramy. It's round and it's good. Yeah.

So check out Rukusia, check out all that other stuff, and check out Dark Materia, who made the Picard song, the original theme music. Hearing, under our voices right now, and with that, we will be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek Voyager, an episode of the greatest generation Voyager that is following a very generic Star Trek plot map where one group member is immune from something and everybody else is. Love those episodes. Yeah, they're good. Check for them. Love this episode. Yeah. Okay, good. Make it sound. Make it sound.

Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound.

Maximumfun.org Comedy and culture. Artistone, audience supported. Maximumfun.org Comedy and Culture Artistone, audience supported.