The Greatest Generation - A Grocery Store Full of Charlies (VOY S4E16)

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

When an isolated member of Species 42069 climbs aboard, Captain Janeway dictates compassion over the objections of everyone involved. But when Seven’s budding individuality leads to another shocking incident, Janeway decides to ground her in an effort to avoid further diplomatic damage. How does a homeowner deal with grocery store levels of cardboard? Would a loose mallow spoil? What do Hirogen women like to do for fun? It’s the episode that‘s inside the panopticon! 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 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! Bringing what is the U.S.S. Board of Duc? Captain Captain, Captain, Bringing what is the U.S.S. Board of Duc? Captain Captain, Captain, Captain.

Welcome to the greatest generation. It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast. I've been Harrison. I'm Adam Kranica. Adam, I spent some time this weekend doing some clearing out of my office, getting rid of some old stuff. New computers have arrived and I was partly disassembling my desk and untangling all the crap on the desk.

Yeah, I love that work. Do you like that? I love making the tangle straightened out. I do really enjoy it, but I also feel like it's never the priority. Like, it's gotta happen on me time, or I feel bad doing it. This is the dirty garage concept that a good buddy of mine articulated not long ago, where he was like, every time I come home from work and I'm greeted by a garage

that I haven't sorted and cleaned up or whatever, it is like another existential penny being put on the scale. Like that's just a little more weight every day that I'm carrying of just having that run in the background. You saw my garage recently full of cardboard boxes that were waiting to be broken down and crammed into the, I have had so many items shipped to my house in anticipation of this

child that I have like a cardboard queue. I fill up the recycling bin to its capacity and then there's just a big pile of other cardboard that is like waiting to get put in. You need a baler is what you need. You ever work with a cardboard baler? Yes, but I don't, listen man, I'm not going to be dealing with grocery store levels of cardboard forever. It's just this, it's a specific period.

Balers always scared me. Yeah. It just doesn't seem like they're safe. Oh, it's a, it's going to mangle you for sure. And Upsens and Claire is gonna write a novel about it. I couldn't believe when I was being trained on the bailer. They were like, all right, so thread this tiny piece of wire around this massive pile of cardboard three times.

And it's just up to you to figure out how you wanna knot that on the front side. And here's the button. Have fun. The red button stop. If you run into anything that scares you, you hit the red button. And that was it. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, well, anyways, while I was putting my office back together, I discovered something that I'd had in mind for a man for a long time and totally forgotten about.

Back, I think it was in 2020 or maybe 2021, there was something called Star Trek Day. And the Star Trek Industrial Complex sent us each a gift box with Star Trek Day stuff in it. And one of the things in the box was a deck of trivia cards, Star Trek Day trivia cards. Ben, I'm looking at my desk where I currently have Star Trek Day cards and the Star Trek Day Cosmic Sours. Oh, man. Which I have not opened. I finished my cosmic savers. They're good. Do you think they're still good? Mm. I don't know.

Gummy's do kind of get like stiff as they age. Do you want to do a Star Trek Day trivia game? And if I get the answers wrong, I have to eat a very old gummy. Ha-ha-ha. Uh, yeah. That's, uh, I had an idea for this, Marin. You just made it a great idea for this, Marin.

He's very interested in pitting his skill against yours. I'd like to see your neural flex term down a bit. My deductions should be treated with skepticism. Ready? Begin. We love a feats of strength, don't we? We really do. One of our favorite things. All right, these are still wrapped in cellophane, so I'm going to open up the deck here. And uh...

Do you want me to open up mine for any reason or no? Let's see, I don't have any Star Trek diggames here, but I do. Oh, I have, uh, when Star Trek Prodigy was premiered. Uh-huh. One of the things they sent was a Star Trek Prodigy coffee mug with a packet of hot chocolate mix and a giant marshmallow with the Star Trek logo printed on it. And that has been sitting. You still have the marshmallow? I still have the marshmallow.

So, like I think you should have a gummy for everything you get wrong. I think you should have an entire gummy for everything you get wrong. I think you should have an entire marshmallow for everything you get wrong. If I lose overall, I eat the marshmallow. Deal! I love this for me. Okay, so, what are we doing? Five questions each? Yeah, let's do it. All right, should we shuffle the decks? They might be in the same order. I think shuffling the decks is a good idea. Okay. Also, I am really bad at trivia.

I'm good at the joke answer. Very bad at the real answer. Yeah. Just to level set the friends of DeSoto out there. Sometimes those poles are hard to make. I think I'm pretty well shuffled. Do you want your first question? Man, I haven't even gotten the plastic off.

This is fucking bullshit. God damn it! All right Adam. Which of these characters dies in the series finale of Star Trek Enterprise. Oh no! What the fuck? Spoiler alert for a series you haven't even seen.

This is an amazing first question. Do you even want me to ask you this? I do. Okay, your options are Hoshi Sato to pole, flocks, or triptucker. I swear to God, I'm not going to talk over my own shuffle, God, I'm an audio professional for Christ's sake. You're not that professional. I'm going to guess chase Tucker, and I swear I don't know the answer to this.

I'm just... Triptucker is the actual name, but I take your meaning. I don't know, that is correct. Whoa! And now, Trip is dead, and I have to give a speech about how worthwhile it's all been. No gummy for you. Oh, good for me. All right, I'm gonna put that over in the correct pile.

Okay. All right, I'm gonna ask put that over in the correct pile. Okay. All right, I'm going to ask you all five of your questions up top. That way, we'll have some suspense about whether I can beat your number. All right, I like it. Okay. Which character does not appear in the first season of Star Trek Picard? A,ordy LaForge. B. Seven of nine. C. William Riker. D. Deanna Troy. They only said Jordy's name in the first season, but we did not see him, so Jordy is my answer. That is correct, Adam. You need a crew. Riker. Worse. LaForge. No, total bullshit, man. This is bullshit. Wow, off to a great start. Two correct answers so far. Adam Witch, Star Trek Captain, suffers from Androgenic alopecia.

Is it A, Catherine Janeway? B, Jonathan Archer? C, Jean-Luc Picard? Or D, James T. Kirk. Androgenic alopecia. Well, alopecia is hair related, specifically the lack of it. The loss thereof.

Androgenic is a word I don't know the meaning of, but I mean, the only hairless captain on that list is Picard. Yeah. But I don't remember him being diagnosed with a hair related thing to you. You've already looked at the answer, right? You can't. Yeah, I'm not going to, I'm not going to help you with the answer. I don't want to eat that marshmallow.

Give me a break. So it's Picard, Janeway, Scott Bacula and who? And James T. Kirk. Androgenic alopecia. I'd be a fool for not choosing Picard if the name has alopecia in it, so that's gonna be my answer. That is correct, Adam. I think that Androgenic alopecia

is just the scientific name for male pattern baldness. Oh, okay. I'm attracted to bald man. Seriously? Seriously? Alright. Fourth question. In Star Trek Picard, what advice does Jaban give Picard before his interview with the Federation News Network? A. Don't tug at your suit. B. Be the captain they remember see remember who you are or D Give them hell I Wish it was all of the above

Hey, do you think Laris is coming back for the third season somehow like or LeBraydee at least I'd be so sad if she wasn't put it. Maybe she's the bad guy that they referred to. Oh shit. You know what I'm saying? Like they said it was a lady bad guy and they said it was a wrath of con style conflict between Picard and whoever this is. Yeah, yeah.

Ooh, I like what you're thinking. They could turn Orla Brady into a monster and I'd still root for her. She's the best. All right, the answer is be the captain, they remember. That is correct, Adam, for for for. Wow. You are running this table.

I'm as surprised as anyone. Your final question, which of the following was not a founding species of the United Federation of Planets? God, this is such a fucking easy question. Not a founding species, okay. A. Tellerite, B. Vulcans, C. Bajorans, D. Andorians. I mean, it's Bajorans, right? Yeah, it's Bajorans. Bajor's petition to join the federation has been approved. It's about time. You got all five questions correct. You didn't get to eat one gummy. I was so afraid the last question was going to be, what is your wife's phone number?

I would have gotten that so wrong. All right, Adam, it is really my game to lose. Wow. I have to get a flawless five questions correct. My gummies have gone unopened. Ben, if we tie, we've got to go lightning round on this, Bietch. Okay. All right. And by lightning round, I mean, we both just eat the marshmallow and the gummy.

Mutually assured trivia destruction. Wait, the only incentive I have to win then is that you will have to eat a gummy. Now, I'll eat a marshmallow-sized combination of gummies. I'll smush them together. Wow. Okay. Question one. What is the name of Picard's Pitbull? I don't even need to give you the multiple choices here, you know. Number one. Correct. Number one, what do you have? You mean, whom does he have?

A little assassin. Question two. Who was the first Kelpian to enter Starfleet? Saru. Correct. I was welcomed by an interstellar service called Starfleet. Three. In lower decks, what is General Kaurin's species? Kulion. Correct.

Kulrin. How do I know that name? Maybe because he's like one of the most decorated, battleharden Kulion warriors in history? Did you just get the easy ones? What? Question 4. In Star Trek Discovery, where is Ash Tyler originally from? This is a tough question.

A. Seattle Washington. B. New Berlin. C. Birmingham, England. D. Tarsus IV. Uh, New Berlin. Incorrect. What do you hail from soldier? Seattle.

Damn it! Fuck! God, fucking damn it! Ah! This is the worst question. This is such minutia. Did he even say? I remember him saying it. I remember being oh yeah, another Seattle guy cool. God damn it. Yeah. Would you have gotten all five if you didn't get a bullshit fourth question? What's my fifth? Oh, this is easy as hell, who serves as communications officer in the final episode of Star Trek the original series. A. Lieutenant Baldwin, B. Lieutenant Rand, C. Lieutenant Uhura, D. Lieutenant Lisa. Lieutenant Uhura.

Incorrect. It is. Wow. Lieutenant Lisa. Lieutenant Lisa, play back those last two sentences from Mr. Spock's terrain. I said, who's that? Uhura wasn't on the final episode. Spock's tirade. I so. Who's that? Who was it on the final episode? Guess not.

Damn it. I feel like a schmuck. Wow. You completely whooped my ass. I gotta eat this goddamn fucking marshmallow now. Ben's going to go get the marshmallow. A marshmallow which is still in its packaging. I thought for a moment it would be just in the mug just a loose mallow. No, it's still in a

Cellophane wrapper so I should take a picture of this for any science of spoilage on that thing It wouldn't spoil right? It's gonna last forever. It'll outlive us all. I guess I mean it doesn't it's still like pretty Springy it's got good marshmallow texture to it. I guess so. I mean, it doesn't, it's still like pretty springy. It's got good marshmallow texture to it. I bet it's gonna be great. Yeah, but it's got like ink on it because they printed the starfleet logo on it. I bet you only like homemade marshmallows

that have been cut out of a tin, right? No, give me a break. But it's also, the other thing is that it is huge. It is like Quadruple the size of the like kind of marshmallow that you make us more with hold it up to the camera and I will I'll screen grab. Oh Yeah, it's like the size of your head

That's fun All right You deserve this remember that All right You deserve this remember that Oh, man Ben just put the whole thing in and He looks like Balushi popping was it Hmm. Hmm. Revert course. Unless you've got something a little bigger in your torpedo toots, I'm not turning around. Ben, I'm checking out our listener dashboard and we've lost half the audience. Half the audience are mesophones.

Is that what they're called when they're afraid of mouth sounds? Yeah, they hate their androgenic mesophobes. Oh, my marshmallow. How was it? Actually, I asked you soon, you're still working on it. Hey, what drink goes with the marshmallow? Life, events. Ice cold water.

That's the first food that has passed my lips today. I forgot to make myself breakfast and recording rated noon. So I was planning on eating lunch later. Oh, boy. I mean, for a really catastrophic sugar sugar crash about 15 minutes into this review. And we're recording earlier for me and you've made a great sacrifice to do so. Yeah, yeah. We get some unmasked herogen at the beginning of this episode.

They're in pursuit of an alien vessel and I will confess I did not recognize the make and model of this vessel that they're pursuing. I was embarrassed about this. What? Well, I guess you are the guy who dropped two trivia questions in our mirror today. Yeah. And you're the one that was saying that you're bad at trivia. Yeah, I recognize the ship right away. I also recognized the voice of Tony Todd as one of these heroines main team Distance. Yeah, when he says let him bleed. It's just unmistakable What's crazy is no one recognizes him as Jake Cisco? Because for some reason

Jake Cisco The heroine experiment on adult Jake Cisco was a success. Yeah, yeah. There's the only heroogen that is a celebrated novelist. So, they're chasing this ship into an asteroid belt. I thought that there was something kind of weird about the pacing of the dialogue between these two herogen dudes in the scene. Didn't it seem like they were talking very slowly to each other. It felt to me like they were talking as if they were being transcribed for an epic novel.

Yeah, you know. The way a creature behaves when it is wounded is the key to its destruction. Very flowery hunting language here. It's kind of strange. The ship that they're chasing goes into this asteroid belt and stops over one of these asteroids and they're talking about like, oh, this guy's like making a last stand. This is it.

He's left his ship. He's down there on the planet or on the asteroid and they're gonna go in on foot to finish their hunt. These guys are fighting the whole time. Yeah. And I think I know why. We find out later that these ships are on their own. There's no like network of herogens that are just out there hunting independently.

Yeah. These guys are just roommates. Yeah. They're the only two people on the ship and the only two people that have ever been on the ship for like a decade. Yeah, it says that they've been like traveling around this part of the galaxy for five years together. And no wonder they're on each other's nerves.

I would hate this. I would blow myself out of an airlock before I agreed to this deal. Yeah, we were on a call with somebody the other day discussing a pair of meetings that we need to be in in person, one in the morning and one in the late evening. And you were like, but that would necessitate us being together all day. But they were like, yeah. It was big fun when they thought I was joking. And then,

cut to you and me on that very day, just sitting on opposite sides of a backyard patio, looking at our phones for like six hours. And then, that's gonna be a great day. Yeah, it's gonna be a lot of fun. Bring your swimsuit, man. Gonna put an inflatable pool in the backyard for the remainder of the summer.

Hell yeah. When the helmet paint goes on, you know they mean business. And it isn't long before they're on the asteroid. Giant guns out. They've got BFGs, the both of them. I like that they had their face masks off for the beginning of this.

And then they put them on for the asteroid pursuit. And I was like, so I'm dumb, right? for the beginning of this and then they put them on for the asteroid pursuit. And I was like, so I'm dumb, right? I didn't know what ship they were chasing. I'm bad at Star Trek trivia. So I was like, I wonder what that ship was. I was like, what would be the funniest reveal of like what the prey is?

And I was like, what if they come around a corner and it's Nelix? Wouldn't that just be delightful? And it's a holodeck program that they've created because all holodeck programs are about abusing and possibly killing Nelix. Yeah, and then the episode is about how Tuvac has become a celebrated holo-nophilist.

The Tony Tad character wants to rodog this thing. He's like, censors off, baby. I really want to feel it. I want to take him with my own eyes. They come around the corner. It's species 4.2069. They really pump this guy full of laser bullets. They do. He really gets hammered and it kind of looks like they've killed him. I mean, it's a lot more effective than anything the Voyager tried on these dudes. It's like the end of a John Singleton movie down in those caves. And I'm trying to figure out what I need to learn from this experience. You all got to go sometimes.

Yeah, it's really brutal and that's our cold open item. Yeah. After the theme, it is a significant tone shift because we're in six bay and it's seven of nine being filled with a different type of bullet. The bullets of a scripted customer service list. Haven't pleasant after him. This is absurd.

Not at all. Keep going. This gave me all Not at all. Keep going. This gave me all sorts of PTSD bin. Yeah. One of my first jobs was a bag boy customer clerk at a safe way store. And one of the first things they teach you is the script. This is like right after they teach you how to use the bailing machine. Yeah.

First they teach you how to use the most dangerous gear in the store And then they stick you up front bagging groceries and they're like look at any moment You could be visited by a secret chopper Wow, and it is so crucial that we ace the test when the secret shopper comes through and this test is Laffable because in order to pass the test, the secret shopper at every turn in every interaction with an employee must be greeted with a smile. And you can imagine how difficult that was for me. They needed to be asked if they needed help finding anything. For a while, this was the reason if you went to a safe way, you were just assaulted by people asking you if you needed help finding things.

It was part of the script. If you did need help, oh boy, you're going to get taken to that item, whether you like it or not, because someone in the executive floor of the Safeway building decided that that's the only way to help anyone find anything at a grocery store is to physically take them there and show them the item. Yeah. And then finally, thank them with a smile and offer them help to the car.

Those are the things. And if you did all of them, you got a perfect score. And these secret shoppers, they'd look at your name tag and they'd know who you were if you didn't do all this stuff. So every shift, every hour of every shift was like an assault. You're under surveillance. Yeah. You're in the Panopticon.

Anyone could be a secret chopper. They're always looking at you or are they, but you can't know. You're in a grocery store full of Charlie's. It's so fucked up, but the doctor does have a good justification for this, which is that Seven of Nine is rude as hell, and super unpleasant to be around because she's so blunt and so unapologetic about everything. And he's basically saying, look, I've been where you are now. I used to suck at bedside manner.

I'm fractionally better at it now. I want to teach you. Except maybe instead of forcing people into an unnatural script style relationship with everyone they come across, you could just hire naturally kind people. Sure. For those jobs.

So not Adam Pranticus. Yeah, they shouldn't have given me that job. Or stick me in the back. We're a bail in cardboard the whole ship. Oh yeah, that'd be fun. I think that crucially seven did not ask for this instruction and that's why she is not pursuing her studies with a great deal of Elan. I don't see the relevance. She is reading this by wrote and rolling her eyes and terminating the lesson left and right, until she finds out that there are rewards on the table for people that learn the lessons.

Yeah, I don't know about you, Ben, but I prefer people who do the right thing without some sort of external force or reward or fear based incentive at the end of it. Yeah. That's my position. Wow. Well, brave of you to stake out that position.

That's not quite where Seven is. And she is persuaded that maybe like getting along with people might be its own reward. So she takes this pad and I think she just wants to go to Portex Heaven. Oh, she wishes the doctor a pleasant day when she leaves, so... Yeah. This isn't totally fallen on deaf ears. I will examine your data. I think she got a pretty good secret shopper score.

Yeah. You know this one. Good for her. Objection noted, we'll do this without you. Do it. Get through it. Get through it. 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. Back on the bridge, Tuvac has picked up a herogian ship. Ben, you recognized this ship after it was described, right? I mean, I recognized the herogian ship from the previous episode.

Okay. It was the ship that the heroogen were chasing that I didn't recognize. All right, I see. I get it now. This heroogen ship is acting all weird though, because it's not attacking them, and it comes to a complete stop.

It probably grew out of some weird dirt based on the way it's acting. I know. Also unusual, there's not two people on board. There's only one, and they're described as being erratic. And I wanted to know what this meant. Ben, does erratic mean wounded or just dancing? Yeah. I mean, there's only one aboard. So he can finally dance like no one's watching. They're like really suspicious here because this does kind of smell like a trap

Mm-hmm And they're like scanning long range to see if there are any other herogens around that they need to worry about and The captain is like great opportunity. Let's get on this ship and see what is up with this guy And definitely just like what are you nuts? Like this is such a classic Injured guy in the middle of the road trap Like having you played jazz horse at all like some bandits are gonna jump out from behind that cart and start shooting at us I love the way the scene is blocked because it's a two shot with Janeway in the foreground and Kim in the back and seven Just kind of walks in between them

From the side, it's great. No one here brings up the war-flightening incident as a reason, maybe not to be so unguarded in this interaction. That would be great if the captain was like, well, seven, maybe we wouldn't have to be so worried about these guys. If you hadn't shocked that one guy, the first time we met them. It was a mild shock, he will recover. And when he does?

I think every time Seven brings up a course of action having to do with the hero gen, this should be something that's stated. We wouldn't be in this situation if it weren't for you. Seven? Do you have fucking fault? So they put in a way to together.

It's to co-date Tuvac and Paris, and they beam over to the Herogen vessel to see if they can find this erratic crew member. And I got real like first away mission on a board cube vibes out of this. Yeah. They're walking around, there's dangling chains, there's nets full of bones. Except the open floor plan of a heroogen ship is, it's weird how it gives you the same vibe, but it's not the claustrophobia of the board ship. True, yeah. It's just the creepiness of the board ship.

Yeah. I loved all the lighting and like the use of smoke to create atmosphere in this though, like it was really cool. Some really fun shots. Hard to decide who finds the more disgusting thing. Chicoete, who finds a tank of homebrewed beer. And Paris, who finds a herogen helmet with a head still inside.

He's been physically torn apart like he met Lisa. And she just did do him what she does to everyone. You're a Tamiya part Lisa. How closely did do him what she does to everyone. You're telling me partly, sir! How closely did you scrutinize this scene? Because I love the physical effect that happened here. Of Paris picking up the head. Yeah, so Paris's arm obscures the neck and the torso part of the rest of the guy's body.

This isn't like a makeup head. This is the actor's actual head and face. Oh, the face. Oh, that is. I love that trick. It really works. Yeah, really fun. I also just love B-Dunk's performance. It's like a gross. Am I making any sense here?

How strong is B-Dunk's for picking up a heroine head and helmet as easily as he does? You should be able to tell the difference between a helmet and a head and a helmet, right? Yeah. What does the average human headway about 10 pounds? I think I've heard that somewhere. Yeah. So you got to imagine our rojan headways in like 12 or 13. There you go with your chronology based science band. We've had to edit so much of this out of our shows lately. Yeah, well. No one's going for it.

The greatest generation is one of the few pro-feronology podcasts still in existence. Benjamin R. Harrison, androgenic-feronologist. They get some bloops on the tricorder and they follow the path into a side room. This is usually where the jump scare happens, right? Yeah, I was expecting a jump scare. I love the extremely tall door that they go through. Yeah, those details are great. You know, the herojin are such giant people.

The door is like extra big. They find the one played by Tony Todd like holding a wound closed with his hand on the floor. So apparently there are some downsides to dancing like no one's watching. Yeah, he flailed little too broadly. What you get? He's a maniac. What you get is a maniac. I am a maniac. Maniac on the floor. And I'm dancing like I've never danced before. Back on Voyager, they convene a McLaughlin group.

If you want. Where Chicoete tells Janeway what all they found over on that herogian ship, and sort of begins with the navigation history. Kind of an interesting place to start when you see the line drawn around the sector they're in, and how secure it is it is. Yeah, they just zigzag back and forth through this sector hunting, presumably.

Yeah. And they have learned a lot about the herogian. They've downloaded the database and they're like learning a ton of stuff. No evidence of a home planet. These guys are totally nomadic and they kind of stick to one ship at a time for the most part unless they get a big hunt together with a bunch of ships. They've constructed a religion around a vengeful God that shoots war-flightening at them.

Seven. Do you see the consequences of your actions? They've all converted to this religion very recently. If they have no planet, where did they get their ships? I wish this was a piece of trivia that we chased down completely. Like, if they were truly nomadic and they were hunter species, like, it would be cool as hell if all of their ships were hot. Yeah. Yeah.

But they all have kind of the same design. There must be a herogen shipyard somewhere. Sure. same design. There must be a herojin shipyard somewhere. Sure, but those guys who work there must be what? Like if you can't go hunting, there must be like a subspecies of herojin that are like, Oh, yeah. That everyone hates and shits on, right? Yeah. Like you don't get to go hunting, you get to turn wrenches. Yeah. I mean, that sucks for them, but you know, what are you going to do? Yeah. That's capitalism, baby. Yeah, I mean, that sucks for them, but, uh, you know, what are you going to do? Yeah, that's capitalism, baby. Yeah, I mean, this is like being a scientist on chrono, right? Yeah.

Fucking embarrassing. You need a chat each to the venue. At the end of this McLaughlin group, I really liked the, like, stress between the captain and seven because the captain is like, well, you were right, seven. The erosion are a existential threat to us and are probably not really people that we can do diplomacy with. And now that we've done this away mission, we've learned that. And seven is like, all right, doing the away mission paid off. I'll admit it. This time, this is a moment that is very much a, hey, this is an episode about teaching something to Seven of Nine. Yeah, the Captain and Seven are going to have a big conflict this episode.

And these are the terms of that conflict. And I like how the Captain makes this point without being like shitty about it. Yeah, I mean, it's a point she emphasizes in Six bay two, right? Right seven's like why are you acting so not messed up towards this herogen? Yeah, cuz they go down there and he's woken up, right? Yeah, he's built a very tough stuff They can't knock him out the doctor keeps trying to

Anesthetize him so we can work on his injuries and this guy's immune system just eats that shit for breakfast. Yeah. Yeah, Ollie wants his home brewed beer. No one's gonna bring that aboard. Yeah. Fucking stinks. Smelly as hell.

They gotta keep it out in the garage. You gotta filter that thing. It was full of bones and hair. But that's how they make IPA, right? Either that, or it's dinner. Your IPA bias has been noted. We are all aware of it, Adam. He explains that he was chasing an alien. They captured it. It broke free of its restraints and attack him and his buddy, his buddy is dead. He is very badly injured.

And the captain is like, listen, like we're gonna help you. Like we're gonna fix you up. You're gonna die of your injuries if you don't let us help. But you gotta like cooperate here, man. Like we're sending our holographic doctor that you can't hurt in there to do it. So just know, there is no escape for you right now. Although it does appear that species 4.269 has escaped because we see an exterior

shout at the hole and this thing is crawling around. Did you get itchy watching this scene? I did. Yeah, it's creepy. I mean like like the special effects of species 42069, as we've mentioned before, don't really hold up. They look a little bit bad by today's standards. But just the idea that you could have an exterior shot of an ambulatory alien walking around on the hull of the ship is such an exciting development for Star Trek. Yeah, I dig it. It's really fun to see.

Yeah. I mean, this visual answers the question that Jane Wave asks, which is like, who did this to you? Mm-hmm. Yeah. And they're on the bridge talking about, oh boy, a whole bunch more heroian ships are on their way toward us. So that guy must have sent a distress call before we beam to my board.

And as they're discussing this, we get like a banger and like while the ship is still shaking, Tuvac is explaining that there's a hull breach. And it like, initially the discussion of hull breach is so nonchalant. It's like nobody really gives much of a fuck that a big hole just blew in their hull. Two crew members were killed in the breach.

Stand down, Reatherde. What are they doing, Adam? If you're on an airplane that depressurizes, shit gets feeling like an emergency pretty fast. Yeah. But it takes a couple of bangers here for people to like snap into action. I mean, the Voyager crew just very accustomed to having a ship full of hurls.

Of course, it's locked in. What? This one to me, I'm very careful. Because I'm going to see this once. Kim and Tuvac go out to the hull to investigate it. And they find some barf on the grate, which is like the worst place to try to clean up barf. I think you just gotta, oh yeah.

You gotta take the grate out of there and hose it. Yeah. Just hose it off in the parking lot. Go lean it up against the wall or some like cyclone venting if you've got some. Yeah, yeah, that's the only way to do it. Yeah. I was really scared for them just going around

in Jeffery's tubes, because that feels like a place where it is tough to make a speedy getaway if something starts chasing you. If you love jump scares the Jeffries tubes is the only place to be because behind every door there's the potential for that. I couldn't believe that they didn't amplify the creepy factor of this journey. They didn't play it for for creepouts at all. Yeah. When they radio back to the bridge and say that they can confirm that species 42069 is a board, I love how Janeway goes to her bartender's phaser behind her seat. And she heads that way. You have the bridge commander, I'll be on deck 11. Yeah, she's like, I'm going to go personally kill it. It's great. Like, chicken's so defensive, so quickly in so many places. Yeah. We cut over to engineering and it's an NRA wet dream there because everyone

is like open carrying at the workplace. It's really intense. BLT is like quickly locking everything down, making sure that the computers are tied off and that the warp core isn't at risk. And she's, you know, issuing orders to all of her ensigns, getting everything ready for them to lock down the warp core when she looks up. And species 42069, like goes off the top turnbuckle and drops an elbow on her. That's fucked up Species 4.269. That's a pregnant woman.

Do you think that's why she was allowed to live? As soon as this jump happened, I was like, well, after the commercial, we are just gonna see paint buckets of blood everywhere and engineering. It really felt like that. I mean, they let you think she's dead for a long time. You go through that commercial like, well, that was the end of BLT. Sad day.

Only four wounded crew people. That's it. You can really tell that this alien is injured. Yeah, that must be it. It's like at reduced capacity because Janeway and Seven get down to engineering. Seven is like, yeah, what they do when they attack a board ship is they come aboard and they go for the central power node, which I was surprised to hear because I've thought that cubes had a kind of strangely generalized design that didn't centralize anything in one place. But I've always thought about the Borux cubes as like from a mosquito's perspective.

Right. Yeah. That's a strange retcon. But apparently the work core is not the most efficient means of killing Voyager. Because species 42069 came in here, bonked four people on the noggin and left, so they got to track it down somewhere else. And we're reminded that this thing does not show up on scanners of any kind. So they get to 6 Bay, where BLT is taking the rest of the episode off. I need another hour, maybe two. She's gonna be all right, she's just down for the count.

Yeah, and they're talking to this herogen, dude. And he's like, you let me out of here. I'm gonna take care of this guy, done and dust it. That's all I want. My whole character need is going to kill species 4.2069. Except because he's Tony Todd, he whispers all of his dialogue in a way that he does not stop the rest of the episode. And I love this. I must continue the hunt. Janeway is really concerned about like, maybe there's a second invasion of species 4.2069 going on. So she wants to get some info from him.

And he's like, no, I've only seen one of these, but I was really excited about it because like, this would be a great hunting trophy. I mean, so unique, so rare. I'm a hunter. I don't care about the extinction of the thing that I'm hunting. I'm doing this for fun. Yeah. I am so simple because in this scene, they're like, yeah, you know, your big fucking gun wouldn't have done anything against the species. The only thing that's ever worked are nanoprobes. And instantaneously, in my mind was like, can you make a gun that shoots nanoprobes? And then two seconds later, they were like, I'll modify the phaser rifles to fire nanoprobes discharges. But, uh, Janeway wants them to be not lethal doses of nanoprobes.

And Seven is like, what the fuck are you talking about? That's gonna take way longer. Yeah, and with Seven on this. We must stop it as soon as possible. She's right. Again, Janeway has an opportunity to kill somebody that wants to kill them, and Seven is taking great umbrage with this.

This alien has been ripping holes in the ship and barfing with impunity. I think it's time to take it off the board. But Sevin has her orders and this kind of turns into a negotiation. There's some leverage on both sides because these other herogian ships that are inbound give Tony Todd something to work with. And so did you just tin ships that are inbound Tintin' Mow Give Tony Todd something to work with and so... Did you just tin-man the word inbound? Yeah

Okay, I guess I did I like it He's like, yeah, I'll tell them not to kill you all which they definitely will if I don't As long as you let me hunt BCs42069 Again, the only thing I want How does ChicoTe always get stuck with the worst partner? At this point, I'm very excited for the cop team of Chico Te and Tony Todd, though.

If he steps out of line, shoot him. Sounds great. They have way more first-contact style space suits on this show than I ever thought available, right? They really do. I was so excited when they start getting suited and booted. I do have to criticize the way they tried to depict the magnetized boots though. I feel like they're just picking up on that moment in first contact, but like they didn't have enough time

to practice it or something because TV. And so everybody's like really like stamping their feet every time they take a step for the rest of the episode. Oh, I thought they did a great job. I thought that was a really tough acting challenge. I just, I feel like it was a lot smoother in the movie than it was on the show. It was, but I mean, how often do you get to rehearse?

Gravity boot walk. I mean, that's tough stuff. I don't remember my zero G combat training at all. Yeah. and do you get to rehearse, gravity boot walk? I mean, that's tough stuff. I don't remember my zero G combat training at all. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not saying I could do better at him. I'm just saying it didn't look as good as it looked in the movie.

I like how everyone sued a death, but Tony Todd doesn't, because he's been wearing the suit the whole time. The suit that he wears, he says, he can protect him from like a star. He says he chased a silicon-based life form through the mantle of a star or something. The one downside to wearing the suit is he can never come.

He's wearing an adult diaper under the suit. And that's one thing you try to downplay as a hero gen with your tough image that you're actually an adult baby wearing an adult baby diaper. That's the thing about her rojan women always wanting you to suit up. The hero gen can credibly say that they can't feel anything. We haven't met a hero gen lady, have we? Sure haven't. I'd like to though. I'd like to meet a seven foot herogen woman. Yeah.

I'd like to go swimming with herogen woman. Yeah. Yes, new, new with a herogen woman would be pretty epic. Yeah, indeed. What'd they die of? Crust pylvuses. I've got to get there. Luck n' put your luck number, your mouth.

I've got to get there. Luck n' ortan 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

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Just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goatry. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Oh, Russ. Hey, instead. Oh, rats. Hey, hey, oh, I'm about to count you in mine. 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. I'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 boats. We came two by two. What do you think? Ono Ross and Carrie, available on maximumfund.org. There's a lot of creeping through the hallways with phaser rifles for the rest of the episode. And there's a couple of teams. There is Paris Chicote and Tony Todd and then there's a two-bock and seven, another team. And they're kind of tracking species for 2069 as it goes and fucks with different parts of the ship. And you they can't scan it so they're using all of their senses and There's a little bit of conflict between Chico Te and Tony Todd over who's going to take point on this?

Tony Todd is real eager for the fray. He's I feel like mainly just angry that he is doing Some hunting without any paint on his helmet because he's like yeah, like whoever's on point is gonna get attacked first and because I have I'm living with the indignity of an unpainted helmet I feel like that should be me. I don't want to I don't want to keep on going if this is how it's gonna be I wish we had a moment where we learn the significance of the helmet paint. You're totally right about this Yeah, but fucking Tony Todd does not know who he's dealing with because Chicoete has glimpsed the nemesis. Yeah.

He's been in these situations before. You're not gonna big dog Chicoete. Chicoete is gonna big dog you. You think you're gonna get Chicoete off of point by telling him he might reach the hereafter first? Fuck that. In the now, you need my hope to nullify the nemesis. They finally find the prey and it's outside of deflector control and the idea is that it's trying to open a hole or back into fluidic space so that it can go home.

I wish when you opened up such a hole the fluid just started bursting into real space. Yeah, it's just like a fire hose. And they're like, Why is there a surface tension to fluidic space? Fluidic space must be real thick. There's like a galactic meniscus. This thing is really, really in bad shape. It's floating and hurt. And Tony Todd's like, you know, it is hurt,

but it's like a wounded animal It will use its last strength to kill you if you approach it. So stand back. I have covered my body with the urine of species 42069 For some reason urine always factors in to decisions I make. Ever since a certain operation, that's me with no memory. This scene is nuts, because Tony Todd's like, I'm shooting first and not listening to Chicoete,

now and later. And he's, he like fights off Chicoete, and then Paris gets shot with the Nano probe gun. What happens to Paris after being shot with Nano probes? No one tells us. Does Paris get assimilated? I really wanted to know and they just totally ignore this. Yeah, but the erosion is like getting ready to kill Species 42069 when Tuvac shoots him.

And I guess Tuvac probably shoots the erosion with nanoprobes too, right? That's what's so strange about this sequence is because it's only shot from one direction, like the species 4.269 direction. You don't really get a conclusion to the scene. And that's what makes the next scene so jarring, because we cut from here to the mess hall. And I was like, what happened to Paris?

What happened to the alien? What happened to anyone? Is everything super chill now? Yeah. Or is it like super desperate because Tuvac has taken off his suit and walked down to the mess hall to ask Nielix to strap up and join a security detail? I must ask you to exchange your spatula for a phaser rifle.

Sure. How fucking desperate are they? With the scene of just been too funny, if Tufak had worn the space suit into the mess hall in order to make this request? I wish he had been in the space suit, honestly. Yeah, I think the desperation of that look would have been welcome.

Was it just a pretext to get Neelix in the episode for four seconds? Yeah, because what the fuck does he do after this? Yeah, it's just like he's just there when Tuvac gets his first little psionic glimpses of species for 2069. He's getting telepathyed. But that could have happened anywhere. Right. I feel like they came up short on time.

It's very strange scene. Yeah. The doctor is brought down to where they've kind of, they basically just have erected a force field around where the earlier combat sequence took place. Turn the whole thing into a brig where they're confining species for 2069. And the doctor's like, yeah, like I would love to try

and help it. It's super hurt, but I don't know anything about its biology. There's no, I mean like this thing defies scanning. How the fuck am I even supposed to learn about it? There's a break for this too, right? Why don't they just use the break and do medical stuff in the break instead of doing break stuff in six bay? I think that they probably can't move species for 2069. Remember what happened to Ensign Kim? He had like tendrils coming out of his nose and mouths. Yeah, you can't have that.

I kept wondering if the Tony Todd guy was going to get tendrils because he got hit by this thing. It seems like it could have infected him. The rules are different every episode with this thing. Yeah, but Tubac is also there and he's telepathying with Species 4.2069, and it's kind of an interesting twist on the episode because this Species 4.2069 got stuck in the D Quad after they sent the rest of them packing with the Borgs,

and it's been isolated. It's also stuck in the D Quad. It's just like the Voyager crew. More alike than different, huh? Wow. Really makes you think. And it's dying, so the captain really takes pity on it and forms a plan, which is basically like we are going to get this thing home.

We've got to form the singularity that it was trying to open and push it through the hurdle. And the person on board that knows how to open that singularity is seven of nine. When Janeway straight up walks up to species 426-9 and proposes the plan, this is hubris, right? Sheer fucking hubris. I know what you're trying to do. And we will help and the way we know to do that and then species 426 and I just passes out

No hallway Like it's a fucking college dorm on Thursday night. Did you self-together species 426? You're fucking hammered You don't know how to hold your nanny late. Yeah, it's really shameful It has lost consciousness. You know what? I'm going to roll you over on your side and just leave you. Yeah.

You've already vomited ones. We don't want you to spisc seeate. Yeah. It's too late to take off your shirt. Yeah. So seven gets called to Janeway's Ready Room and Janeway's like, all right. So here's the plan.

We're going to help species 42069 home. It's hurt. We feel bad for it. Got to open that hole to fluid space and you're going to do it because you're the one that knows how. And so that is like, why are we being compassionate to this guy that has tried to kill us at every turn? And seven goes through the like grievances that the Borgs have with species for 2069.

And they're pretty major. I mean, the Borgs don't really have a moral leg to stand on. And it comes to murdering millions and taking over hundreds of planets. Then again, when it got done to them, it was very painful. This is a great scene. This is the centerpiece scene of the episode. Actually, there might be two centerpiece scenes of the episode really, and this is the first. Because when Seven asks why, Kamelkru gets a moment here, and this reminded me a lot of the story that O'Brien told the Cardassian in 10 Forward and TNG. And this story basically ends in its mirror version, right? Because Janeway concludes the story with,

I don't love you, Cardassian. I love what you've made me become. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha for different people. Yeah. Janeway had a really positive experience with it. For her, the drum head was a good set. The compassion was good. There's coffee and compassion. But, seven is like, no, compassion is dumb. It's going to get you killed. Yeah. I know you don't want to do it.

Do it. Coffee, black. Make it yourself. I'm trying to help you see this as an opportunity to grow. Make it yourself. I think so often you expect a start-trexine featuring a captain doing this kind of speech to be persuasive, to whoever they're talking to, and for us to go through the beats of this story and end on two with Seven of Dine going, you will fail.

It eventually gets so heated it reminded me of like a hackman dens El sing on crimson tide Like they start yelling at each other and it ends with seven finally being grounded. They're at Voyage auger heads Yeah, they really are seven refuses to help and the rest of the herogen fleet are bearing down on the Voyager at this point And so the captain has no choice but to try and do her plan without Seventh's help. And this is going to take the form of a thing that they are attempting to do while on the run. And when we come back from commercial, the gang of heroogen ships are tailing Voyager and

licking shots at them and they are, you know, doing their best to avoid, but they still have like hours worth of work to do before they can open a singularity and help this member of species for 2069 get back to their people. Janeway attempts to negotiate with one of the herogianships again. We meet another one and this one is green paint pissed. Yeah. It's evidently too much to ask to get any sort of like color key to these paints on helmet. What this herogian wants is the prey and their buddy. Jane was like, I'm happy to give you Tony Todd, but species 4.2069 is under our protection right now.

So nothing I can do to help you there. It belongs to us. It belongs to no one. So it's a no deal. And the heroine keep firing and that knocks out some force fields around the ship. I feel like the heroine hangs up on Janeway because he doesn't want to get shot. around the ship. I feel like the herojan hangs up on Janeway because he doesn't want to get shot. Yeah, he doesn't know that seven is down in the cargo bay without access to the communications equipment. Yeah. I mean, while all these bangers are dropped on the ship, we learn that force fields have

dropped and turned on kind of sporadically all around. Yeah. Seven is called to re-knock out species 4.2069. So she's not totally grounded. She's just, you know, not helping with the main thing that they need her help with. Yeah, they need more Nana probe ammunition. And she's the only one that's got it.

She's got Borg fed ammo. Yeah. Ha ha ha ha ha. Yeah, she's like a mini gun of Borg probes. Trust me. Right. But yeah, when the force fields go down, it's not the one keeping 4.29 and it's the one keeping the herrogen in that goes down. And he knocks out the security detail that's on him and heads right for species for 2069 and they get in physical

combat. And while they're fist fighting, seven of nine like pulls a panel off the wall and starts madly beeping boobs and up on the bridge, Harry Kim announces someone's trying to use the transporters. I can't. And they're using board technology to keep me out. Hey, Kim, you could tighten that up a little bit. Yeah, that's, it happens quite a bit

that someone on board the ship is trying to use the transporter system. Maybe some more security measures might be worth putting in place. Yeah, yeah, not good. So what they learn is seven has beamed Tony Todd and species 4.2069 onto one of the herogian ships. Yeah.

And then they bug out. Kind of a, be careful what you wish for, herogian. Yeah. Because you got it. And like, to your credit, you held up your end of the bargain, you cut off the attack and left. But on the other hand, now there's a species for 2069 running around one of your shifts.

I don't hate you, Herogen. I hate what you made me do. I thought for sure seven was beaming them into fluidic space and this was going to be like an ironic end for the Tony Todd character. Yeah, I thought that would have been fun. I really wanted to see how that suit held up in fluidic space specifically. No, why not? It's probably great. It would have been fun. I'm finally able to come. Finally, a pool I don't mind pissing in.

Janeway, at the end of a captain's log, after 12 hours goes down to the cargo bay to issue 7 of 9's punishment, which is she's not going to be allowed to have access to any primary systems. She can continue to be the person that works in the ASLAB, but that's it. Yeah, this is like no screens grounding. Yeah, what is she a zoomer? You can only watch TV when the family watches TV and no phones are allowed in your out-cove. This, I think, is what you were referring to as a potential second central scene of the episode because Sevin throws this back in the captain's face. I mean, Sevin is accepting this punishment. Nothing she can really do about that, but she really choose the captain out for encouraging her to think with a sense of individuality and autonomy, and at the same time act as if

the autonomous individualistic decisions that Seven is making are a threat to the ship. They better fucking hope that they never do debate teams on the ship because seven has a very persuasive argument here in her own defense. She's like, I was a person that lost all individuality. And now I've been encouraged to get that back, but now you're also telling me to suppress it. Yeah. Can you not understand how that's incredibly confusing for me

and that you're punishing me for it? Especially in a context where like I haven't really had any guidance on this. Like all you've done is yell at me to be less of a borg's. And the doctor at the beginning of this episode was the one person that is like attempted to provide some mentorship to Seven. Yeah, I mean, this is a great Kate Mulgrew episode, but a bad Captain Janeway episode for this reason,

because I mean, she seemed so interested and flexible when it came to teaching Seven empathy or whatever. Right. But is completely unable to muster that in herself? I wonder if this is a little bit of behind the scenes wagging the story dog. Because you hear all the times that Kate Mulgrue really did not like the decision to bring Jerry Ryan onto the show

and felt like it was not a good fit and not the show that she had hoped they would be making and they had a lot of interpersonal conflict between the two of them that I think eventually kind of got sorted and they came to respect each other from what I understand. But I wonder if that animosity was something that the writers were like, maybe we should play with that energy a little bit because it's so palpable. The scenes where they are in conflict in this episode are gripping. I do really enjoy those scenes and their conflict, but they don't make the captain look good. No, I sure don't.

But did you like the episode overall? Yeah. I'm giving you an order. I'm giving you an order. It was bad under spirit. I'm giving you an order. I'm giving you an U.F. just crossed the line. Doesn't it seem like it would be more plausible if you are a space-fearing species that you have more alien bug hunts than

Star Trek style diplomatic conflicts. Yeah, I kind of feel like that would be the case and so every time we get one I'm very excited by them like this is very simple Hunter be hunted yeah prey or be preyed upon Situation and I and like this is a one out of 50 type of episode that we get on Star Trek, where I think statistically, if the human species were ever able to go into space, I feel like we'd be doing more bug hunting

than FaceTiming, you know? Yeah, but at the same time, it's like the bug hunting where they're like tantalized at every turn by the possibility of face timing. Yeah. And it really feels like their knee jerk instinct is to diplomacy, everyone, to a fault. It's true. And it's fun to see not just one but two species who are just not down for the diplomacy. And for this to be an episode with Tony Todd, I mean, I love

myself with Tony Todd. I'm so glad that he's back. Yeah. Just give me a Tony Todd episode every season. If you ask me, he's just great. What about you, Ben? He rules. I'm right there with you, man. Loving Tony Todd's presence in this episode. I hope that character survives the bloodbath that must ensue and he beams over to the other hero-gent ship because I feel like he is great in hero-gent loaf and is such a compelling bad guy. I know that we have a few more hero-gent episodes ahead of us. And I'd be sad to leave those guys behind yeah without at least one more Tony Todd appearance.

Yeah these guys rule. You know what else rules Adam? Priority on messages. I've got one cornered behind a force field Ben. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Need a supplement on top. supplement on top? supplement. supplement. on Secure Channel. Need a supplement on. A supplement?

A supplement. Yes, extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Our first priority on message is of a promotional nature and Adam, and it goes like this. Ben and Adam just wanted to thank you for this amazing podcast that I discovered about two years ago. I've been meaning to throw some scarves in your direction for a while.

I'm paying for a promotional message because I want to draw some attention to cartoons on YouTube. It has brought me a lot of joy. Subway and mass transit riders will like subway thoughts. Please check out CURT T Tunes on YouTube and consider supporting him at patreon.com slash Kurt Tunes. PS, please play the Lieutenant Toast Drop. Lieutenant George Prima, Starfleet Secure, Lieutenant Commander, Micro, Agent Starfleet Secure. So that's K-U-R-T-T-O-O-N-S on YouTube, cartoons. And the call to action is some scars for things that make me chortle. Like cartoons only better, says the cartoons YouTube page.

Nice. That's from Tokyo FOD. We've got a few of those out there. Pretty cool. Wonder what ever happened to Ann Kilser, and if she's still out in Japan somewhere. Yeah, would love to know. Yeah. Well, yeah, I'm going to check out cartoons on YouTube

right after we're done recording this episode. So let's speed things along Adam. I got stuff to do. Ben, our second priority one message is from Denise, his not clever enough to think up a Darmak message misses. Two, Craig, her favorite and forever mister. Message goes like this, we just finished the TNG finale, and your nose to phone screen queuing up the pot.

When Tenurelde Me was sneak-watching TNG, I never imagined 40-year-old Me this happy, openly geeking out, curled up on the couch next to my nerd love. I'm excited for another 20 years of finding more weird nerdy and naughty stuff to enjoy together. Happy anniversary! Wow, happy anniversary Denise and Craig. I mean, I'm hoping that this is their 20-year anniversary and that like the reason for hoping for just 20 more years is that kind of pattern making and not that they've been married for a couple years and 20 is about as long as they give it. Maybe they have one of those marriages where they're like yeah like and then in 2042, well n things. Hey congratulations Denise and Craig, sounds like you got a good thing going on there. Yeah, I love the horny and the nerdy brought together under one roof.

Yeah. Our next message and final message here is from Heath and it's the Adam, and it goes like this. Dear Adam, I'm working on a play in which Ben Franklin build the time machine and visit several historical figures. However, I'm having trouble with some dialogue when his time machine breaks down while visiting Samuel Clements. Sam Berates' Bennett Length for not having the raw materials to make the repairs. Do you have any ideas about how that might sound?

How dare you, Heath? How dare you paint me like this? How dare you hurt Ben with like this? How dare you hurt Ben? With a request like this also. I do declare... The pimping must commence. Where will you find the raw materials? Two nightmares in one.

What the fuck? I bid you good day. Well, it was blessedly brief. I had to cut it off short because I really don't remember how my Samuel Clements goes. I think you're about there. Thanks to everyone who got a P1 except for Heath on today's episode. We really appreciate it. Hey Heath, your money's no good here, seriously. Wow, Ben giving refunds for P1s.

If there are things he doesn't like. If you'd like to get a P1 on the show, we'd really appreciate it. Head to MaximumFun.org, slash Jumbo Tron and set it up today. Hey, Ben. What's that, Adam? Did you find yourself a drug addict? fun.org slash jumbo tron and set it up today. Hey, Ben. What's that Adam?

Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? A random drunk Shimoda. Ooh. Um, I think I'm going to give it to seven in this episode. I think seven is really justified in her displeasure with Janeway kind of steamrolling her in this episode. And I think that what Seven says at the end is really true for her and does make Janeway kind of look bad for having failed to consider Seven's experience going into this. That said, like she does serve at the captain's pleasure, like they could just drop her off somewhere at this point

if it was too much of a pain in the ass to have her aboard. And she is really pushing it in a way that I found very chaotic and very risky. So for that reason, I'm gonna make seven my drunk chariot. How about you, Adam? It's strange to think about seven's development as child into Borgs, into X Borgs, and how it relates to being one of the captain's projects, right?

Right. It's like she hasn't grown up as a human yet. Yeah, and so for her to... It's a real Borg stuns, Roman. Indeed. That never comes up though. Like seven is very mature in a way that is sometimes surprising. Yeah. You know, she's better at sticking up for herself than I am.

That's sticking up for myself. That's true. Ben, my Shumot is going to be Tony Todd really for no supportable reason other than I miss Tony Todd and I'm glad that he's back and it sure seems like a miserable experience to be done up like a hero gen. But I'm very grateful to him for going through it in order to give us this episode. It's big fun. It really is. I hope he comes back. Maybe if we say his name three times, we'll get lucky. But who can be the sunshine? Tony Dad can. You make the scene be good. Who can bring the sunshive?

Uh, we got to talk about the next episode. It's season four episode 17. Retrospect. While refitting Voyager systems with newly traded weapons, seven of nine claims to have been assaulted by Coven, the weapons dealer. Hmm. Uh oh. Keep meeting weapons dealers this season. Yeah.

Gotta have weps, that's the key. You sure do. I don't like the idea of this happening to seven. I hope she kicks this guy's fucking ass. Yeah. Coven, you're about to catch a fistful of Borg Nano probes. Yeah. If you're lucky.

Yeah. And if we're lucky, we will land on something interesting over on the game of Butthole. We'll have the caretaker. There are a couple of things out in front of us. There's that Delta flyer that could take us up to a measure of a man episode, and there is a Neelix's Gally episode out ahead. We're on square thirty-three, and I'm going to roll this bone, Adam. You're required to learn as you play, roll. Very consequential amount of activity out ahead.

There it is. Wow, I jumped over all of it. I rolled a four. Shula! Did I win? Hardly. Ron Square 37, regular episode next week. I'm shocked.

Yeah. Shocked by that. Somebody suggested a square for the game of Buttholes that was the Adam is grounded square, and we have to flip a coin, and one of us has to only listen to the episode in order to review it. Huh. I really like that suggestion.

All right. I mean, what does that look like? Yeah. On the board. Is it Adam in a dunce cap facing the corner? Maybe it's Adam wearing giant headphones like from Garden State. Haha, yeah. Like that. We'll see if we can make it happen.

Yeah. A fun thing. Well, regular episode next week, I'm really looking forward to it. In the meantime, we should thank a few people that help us make this show happen. Of course, the people that really make the show actually happen every week are the friends of the Soto that support on a monthly basis by going to MaximumBund.org slash join. If you set up a membership, you'll get access to our bonus feed with exclusive monthly bonus episodes that Adam and I make. They're really fun and funny and kind of a weird sandbox where we

try lots of different ideas. I think you really like it if you haven't heard them yet. Five bucks a month, we'll get you that, and it helps us a ton. Yeah, the extra EPS, I think, are really worth it. Worth way more than $5 in my mind. We're spending more than $5 at Cheesecake Factory. I'll tell you that much.

Yeah, no kidding. We got to thank Adam Rcusea, who made the original Janeway song, the music of this program based on dark material, who let us use the Picard song all those many years ago. We got to thank Nick Dittmore for our show art, the Card Daddy Bill Tilly for running our social media accounts at Greatest Trek on Insta and Twitter, and great, Wendy Priti, the producer producer editor of this program who we really couldn't do this without. Could you use a friend? Hmm, maybe. I know you could. Friends of DeSoto are out there in all of the

places on social media. Go to trunchamoto.com to chat them up on the discord, on Twitter and find them using the hashtag greatest gem. They're over on Reddit, I guess, if you're interested in whatever happens on Reddit. And with that, we will be back at you next week with another great episode of Star Trek Voyager, and an episode of the greatest generation Voyager that's being refit with even funnier jokes. But maybe it's a Faustian bargain from the people we bought these jokes from. Hmm. Are they supposed to hurt going in?

I think I'm making a joke. It was told to expect a slight pinch. I think it's so. Make it sound. Maximumfun.org Comedy and culture Artistone, audience supported. org. Comedy and culture. Artistone, audience supported.