The Greatest Generation - A Hornet’s Nest in a Tube With a Snake (VOY S3E4)

Episode Date: December 20, 2021

When his fancy hobby leads the doctor’s matrix to start degrading, he becomes a bumbling idiot who soon won’t be able to provide medical services to the crew. But when the cure might be worse than the disease, it will be up to Kes and his doppelgänger to save him. Is the Doctor the youngest member of the crew? What species is the clown alien? Why doesn’t the captain always whip out the victory ponytail at the end of the show? It’s the episode that bails before it’s cool to bail. Exchange scarves for goods at PodShop.bizSupport 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 with the U.S. and Forten. Captain Captain Bringing with the U.S. is for the Dirk. Captain Captain, Captain Bringengwe the U.S. is for the Dirk. Welcome to the greatest generation.

It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are just a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast. I'm Van Harrison. I'm Adam Pryanaka, we're both also just a little bit under the weather. Yeah, I'm glad. I had this cold where it was never really that bad, but now I have the post cold of a man who had an extremely large amount of congestion where I'm waking up and I can barely breathe. Yeah, it sucks.

I too have got a little bit of a thing. It's like I caught it through the screen. For the friend to do so to watching at home, I don't know, I'd maybe turn off the video part if that's how this is transmitted. Yeah. We're like college roommates who synchronized their illnesses. Ben. I know. I used to never get sick and then something changed like 10 years ago and now I get sick all the time. You really do. This is an observation my wife even had.

When I told her you were feeling away and that it impacted some recent travel of yours, she was like, yeah, Ben's getting sick a lot lately, huh? And I was like, yeah, I guess so. I was telling my wife I was like, I feel like I never want to take a vacation again because I get sick every time I go somewhere. That's the worst time. It sucks. I'd rather be sick on my own time

when I'm doing my own bullshit. Right, exactly. Yeah, that's bad timing, man. It's not good. It's not COVID. It's not COVID either. We should probably say that. It's just like-

We live in a world where you can say you're sick and then you have to specify one specific thing you're not sick with. But you might up in Seattle also as a head cold and he's like yeah, I bailed on some plans and it used to be you always showed up for the plans no matter how you were feeling. Yeah. Now you have a license to bail, which is encouraged. So it's a nice license, which is great. Yeah, we should have had these licenses all along. I feel like I gave myself that license early in my life. You were bailing before it was cool.

Yeah, I'm a bailing hipster. Oh, I'm drinking some nice tequila at him. This is a bottle that you got me. Are you now? Ooh, I'm drinking some nice tequila at him. This is a bottle that you got me. Are you now? Mm-hmm. This is a DOS Artez Blanco that you picked up for me.

Beautiful bottle. Very easy zipper. It's my dessert tequila of choice. I really like it a lot. It might be too dessert-y for most things. Like, I don't know if I would make a margarita with this, it's too dessert-y. I wouldn't, and couldn't.

Like, some bottles are at a price point where you just don't wanna mix them, you know. I'm principle. What am I gonna do? I'm gonna put this with some fucking limes from gelsons. No way. Yeah. And so, yeah, I think once you get into gift bottle

altitude, I kind of prefer to drink those things straight, just on principle, but, yeah, I think once you get into gift bottle altitude I kind of prefer to drink those things straight just unprinciple But yeah, I mean I'm not gonna tell you what to do with your bottle. You can do whatever you want with it But I wonder what a Rita would taste like with a an especially sweet blanco as that is it's it really It is especially vanilla-y Yeah, yeah to my palate, but I really like it for that reason. I think it's good. It is good. I'm enjoying it.

Look at you having a head cold drinking some booze. Good for you. I'm drinking an emergency. Is it bad? I sometimes wonder this. I love a hot toddy when I'm congested. I've been drinking hot toddy's all week. I've been drinking like virgin hot toddy's. I've been drinking like virgin hot tauties.

I always do like, what's Lincoln to do? Squeeze out one lemon, add a little bit of honey, and then pour hot water into the mug. Yeah, like I guess it's just like hot honey lemonade, which is something my mom used to make me when I was a kid. Oh, that's nice. I don't know if it's helping or not. She'd put it in one of those hamster bottles

and attach it to the side of your cage. Hahaha. Yeah. Not often that I got a hot drink from those, but the hamster bottle, but... Sure, there was a strange sensation. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you were pre-verbal until like 16.

So you probably had no way to tell her that it was too hot for you. I'm a friend who was speaking full sentences before he could walk when he was a little baby. That must have been hell on those parents. Isn't that wild? I mean, like he's like a totally galaxy brain guy. Like he's one of the smartest people I know. And yeah, like you rather have have crying or sentences. I honestly don't

know which would be worse. Yeah, not a terribly athletic guy. Oh, you don't say Well Adam, I feel like our problems have really swarmed around us lately. Oh, yeah sure have I do what I get you have me wanting to switch to tequila, but I'm gonna I'm gonna finish what I got here as we Get into Star Trek Voyager season three episode four, the SMARM. Breaver course. Unless you've got something a little bigger in your torpedo, dudes. I'm not turning around. Bilti and Tom Parris are in a race car bed.

Looking for energy. This is the Subaru Brat class shuttle that they're in. The new Subaru Brat, shuttle that they're in. You get a really good look at this thing from all angles. You do. When you see a semi-truck without a trailer, how weird it looks. It looks like a semi-truck tractor belongs with a trailer, but when you see just the tractor, that's what the shuttle looks like.

It looks like it should be carrying something. It's got that sloped back, like something should hitch onto it, you're right. I want to see that. I do too. I want to see it carry some cargo. All it's carrying is Paris and BLT, and they're on a, what was that style, sensor double check mission, and they've on a, what was that style sensor double check mission? Yeah.

And they've been at it for five hours. And this is something that Paris brings up. Like Paris has got the stamina for long missions. He's used to sitting on his leather ass looking at the console. Like he's like some poker players. I know who just never get up from the table who can just fucking sit and sit and sit. This kind of makes sense, right? Like when you think of BLT at work, she's like marching around in engineering, she's moving from screen to screen. BLT is a standing desk and Paris

is a sitting desk. Paris sits all day at work. It's like, you know, when my wife and I go on a flight together, I do quite a bit more flying in general than she does. And I really have a mode that I drop into when I'm on an airplane that she's like wanting to have a conversation with me. I'm like, no, no, no, we're already in our seats. So I'm going to be watching this movie now or whatever. I was trying to guess what the mode would be that you'd describe and I was like, okay, two bloody marios in the lounge. Yeah. Two more on the plane before takeoff. Headphones on throughout. Don't talk to me during. And that's it.

It's Adam Pranika in a movie theater. It's like, I will. That's absolutely it, yeah. I will alienate everyone, but attempts to strike up a conversation with me. Then historic announcement for me, I went to my first movie since the pandemic started. Wow, welcome back. It felt great.

What'd you see? I saw licorice pizza. Oh, great. Did you see? I saw Licorice Pizza. Oh, great. Did you enjoy? I did enjoy. It was, I used to take myself out to movies all the time. It was significant just to do the act of seeing a movie again. Yeah, yeah.

And I'm really glad I got to do it. Like, we've lived in LA for how long and have not seen what LA is known for. Yeah. It was really great. At rules. The Delaney sisters have some competition for off-screen love interest characters in Lieutenant Bristow, a dude who's trying to kick it to BLT.

I've noticed he's been making any excuse to hang around engineering. This is really high functioning Paris here because if you weren't really paying attention, you might miss the soft pass that he makes it or. But this is the kind of pass that gets done to where, like when you're really good at this, you can make a turn down to a soft pass, not feel like a let down, where you can just

feel like a conversation you had that didn't lead anywhere. And that's what happens here. Like, Paris makes the pass in such a way that the let down doesn't hurt. It's just kind of quippy and fun, and that's it. Paris is so horny on main so much of the time that I was really impressed with this, like I am not going to like take it badly and get shitty with you if I get turned down in this moment.

Am I making any sense here? Because they are in a confined space. And she can't go anywhere. If it is not done with this kind of deafness, it's awful. Yeah. Like, Jordy would never ask out anyone on a shuttle that they're on.

Well, shit. Or if he did, they would then feel trapped on that shuttle with him. Right. Right. I mean, I think it helps that BLT could easily kick Tom Parris' ass. It does help, right?

But she's not gonna have time because they start picking up some signals and pretty quickly some lobsterman beam into the shuttle. Runder your mysteries to Zoridberg and blast them and they pass out. I love it when an aliens sounds, sound like the costume they're wearing. These aliens sound like the rubber suits that they're wearing. They sound like people wearing rubber suits who have gotten into a bed with rubber sheets and are just kind of rolling around. I feel like, I also feel like for the first time Voyager is taking real advantage of its

dark lighting scheme with an alien character. Like we see these guys a few times in this episode, but they're always in kind of shadow. And so you never get a great look at them, and they're much scarier for that. Right. Exactly. I like what I'm seeing here. I like what I'm hearing here also. If you liked hearing that, tell me how you felt about hearing the doctor sing a little

bit of opera. Sure. It's a fun variation on the theme of Star Trek characters having fancy hobbies. This is not concherto. Thiso, this is opera. It's, yeah. It's sort of the same. And it looks like a re-skinned sundrains as a location for this, right? It does. Yeah. I wasn't sure if it was just sundrains or if it was like sundrains plus opera balcony. Yeah. Sundrains is for fucking though. Yeah. Which is why when we cut to the exterior of the holodeck, we see the people kind of tapping their feet, waiting for their turn in sandrines, once fucking opera practices over. Yeah.

The dog has having a really hard time during practice with his co-star here. I thought that this is an interesting twist on the techno babble of Star Trek. It's techno babble, but for opera terminology, it's impenetrable to me because I don't know opera terminology, but they are... I thought you let her in opera. I'm surprised by this. No, unfortunately, I got kicked off of the JV squad. Yeah, high school.

Opera production is what you let her do. Yeah. So he is kind of making a data argument for I'm good at this. Like I have made an extensive study of all the greats. I have been programmed to reproduce the individual musical styles of over 300 concert violinists, including Haifitz, Manuwen, Graht, that's enough data.

Yeah, there's like a math to his excellence that is inarguable, right? Right, does not hold water with the diva though, she thinks he sucks. Janeway interrupts opera practice to say that he's got to get his butt to six bay because they've got a Paris and a BLT in there and they've suffered from phasor blast wounds. Yeah BLT pretty much fine. She's getting a lightweight over and

doesn't remember much the aliens tried to say something to them, but the universal translators didn't work. And in this scene, we get the sense that the doctor may be a bit on the blink, because he like forgets where he puts something down. I think this is like after two-vac and Janeway have already left the room, so they don't see this. But you and I go through this a lot.

We just edit those parts out. Right. We can't alien this again. Yeah. Vulcan I go through this a lot, we just edit those parts out. Right. We kind of alien this again. Vulcan, right? What's the word for? Never mind. Bilti gets a clean bill of health from the absent-minded professor pretty quickly, but Paris isn't

much worse shape. He never woke up. It seems like a solvable problem. It does not seem as though Paris will die from this. It's just going to take some time. Yeah. So they have him a gloff on group. If you want, they start talking about the part of space that they're in. And Nielix is there to tell some spooky lobster stories. All tolacians, you know, when they gather around a campfire, we'll tell stories about terrifying lobster people. It was a part of space. Just like this. It's a big part

of space too, and they're like, fuck, we like need to, you know, if we go around this, it's gonna take forever. It'll add 15 months to our early 75 year trip. We're not gonna do that. I like how common this idea is. Like, this seems like something that would make sense, yet another alien who just does not want their borders crossed. Right. We don't know much about, like, this is a K-Zon thing, right? Like, the K-Zon didn't want their borders penetrated. And neither do these guys, except the reputation is somehow worse for this alien species. And they don't even have a name. That's how little they know about these people. Voyagers like a super entitled American Tourist going, I've got a blue passport.

I could go anywhere. And everybody in the Delta Quadrant is like, I don't think so. That is such an accurate depiction of the attitudes here because after Nelix tells this story, it is not a story that discourages them from going through here at all. The crew are downright excited by the challenge of making it through this area of space and they're making all kinds of uneducated guesses about this alien's abilities, but to patrol their own borders and their sensor nets and stuff, they have no idea what these alien capabilities are. And they're already like hypothesizing that,

oh yeah, there's no way they have a network big enough to cover the entire area. We'll be able to find a way through there no problem. Yeah, no discussion ever made of like, what about if we send a diplomatic overture and say like, hey, we're just passing through, would that be cool? We have an inexhaustible amount of bois. And emergencyfully.

Why don't we just shoot a couple of those through there? But no, it's too vach that actually dumps the cold water on everyone. It's like, you know, there's actually against Starfleet policy to be even talking about this. This is Janeway turning in a curk a little bit though. It's like shut up, it's a vach. Right, it's like, let's, let's, let's ask for forgiveness and not permission. Starfleet's pretty far away. I'm pretty sure we won't get in that much trouble if we run roughshod over this border.

Right. Go ahead and get through it. Just then, Doc Holliday chimes in with some bad news about Paris's brain. Yeah, Paris's brain in worse shape than he previously thought. And if he doesn't get his motor cortex reconstructed, he may never recover. This is a-

He may never fuck again. This is a pretty easy procedure, but you should know, because it is a procedure. Well, I have to stick is the lower part of his body into kind of an iron penis. An iron to Laney sister. Yeah, where we keep his body alive, well, the brain dies. So the doctor singing opera while he works, he's scrubbing up for the surgery.

Oh, so other fun to love. This is worse than a coworker playing their own music through a speaker, right? Or like having a speaker phone call, or like that absent-minded whistler. And then actually, while you work is fine if you're working alone in a closed space. Opera is so much worse. Had rather work with Chicoeté,

who is a constant threat of punching co-workers in the mess hall than an opera singer. Right. This scene pretty troubling for Cass because she's watching him forget where he put stuff down and forget what phase of the procedure they're on. It's interesting. She doesn't get to be the one to like say like, Doc, stop. You're clearly like not of sound mind.

There's I guess the sort of power imbalance of her being the apprentice and the junior person there, but she isn't able to advocate for him stopping. But she does interestingly get to take the wheel on the procedure itself. He pulls himself back and she finishes the thing, which is, I feel like kind of an interesting, like, I don't know feel like kind of an intro, like, kind of a significant moment, right? Yeah, I was like, I was like yelling at the screen for Kess to get to do something here. And I understand why she couldn't quite speak up about like pulling,

you know, like Beverly Crusher can tell Captain Picard he's not fit for duty right now because they have like a long history and really do respect each other as equals. And that's just not the dynamic between Kess and the doc. But I wanted the character to like get a cool moment of agency in the scene. And I thought they found an interesting way for her to do that. That question of the professional org chart hasn't been answered though either. Like, Kess is a part of the crew, but it's not part of the command structure.

Right. So she is obligated to take the orders of the dock here in the same way that occasionally people have to take orders from Nelix. Right. I don't know which is worse. I know which one I think is worse. But it's weird, right? It's weird.

And when we come back, the captain and BLT have joined them in 6 Bay and BLT is kind of going over what's going on. She's saying that there's kind of like a memory leak in the EMH program and it's breaking down and the modifications that she made to the EMH to make him a more full-time part of the crew should have accommodated this, but he's just like develops too many relationships and learn too many things and become too full of a character for that to be possible. Kess presents her relationship to the doc as kind of a power of attorney. Like she walks Jane way back from the idea of a hard reboot. Yeah.

By advocating for the doc's personhood, and she advocates for this at the doctor as if the doctor needs to be convinced because in this scene, he does. He's like that broken of a program. My primary responsibility is the health and welfare of this crew. In my current state, I am useless to them.

He's very broken, and he also is very intensely focused on the utility of having a doctor for this crew. He's like, the longer we let this go on, the longer the crew doesn't really have anybody to look after them. And like, that is so much his primary focus that he doesn't even care about the... What is essentially a conversation about do we kill the doctor in order to have a doctor? Like he would essentially die if he lost the last two years of memories. This take here is so funny to me because after a kiss makes her case. Janeway is convinced.

And then Janeway sort of gives a pep talk to the doctor and then looks around at the rest of the crew, like someone making sure that a barista saw her put cash in the tip jar. Like everyone saw that, right? Okay, I'm heading back to the bridge. If they don't notice it, what's the point? I like these scenes so much for Kess. Like she really shines as a character. Jennifer Leighna is so great in these scenes that like this is so much better than the

version of Kess we used to get, which was just like playing opposite to Nelix During some bullshit, you know, this is good stuff. It's good stuff This scene put my mind on an interesting track that I wanted to ask you about the last two years of the doctor's memory Constitute his entire life is his character technically younger than Kess. I love that idea. Yeah, absolutely Character technically younger than Kess. I love that idea. Yeah, absolutely. Kess is the elder of the two of them. Unless you argue that the doctor comes to life

at exactly Dr. Zimmerman's age, right, which I think you could make the argument for too. I guess so, but like. It's like trip odometer versus total odometer and some cars. Like, you're not selling a car based on trip odometer. You're selling on total miles. So, that's the same thing that's going on with the dock, which... And with the dock, those are city miles.

Yeah, they really are. A lot of bumper to bumper the last two years. I'm just saying, people say it's weird that Cassis treated us an adult in a relationship with Nielix The doc has had adult relationships too and nobody ever says that about him. Yeah, it's true And what's going on here seems pretty pervy Doesn't it so on the bridge to co-taste been working with Kim on how to get through this mystery alien sensor net and two Vuck looks on At them while they work out this problem. I love what Tuvac is doing here.

Like the micro expressions of disapproval happening in this scene are beautiful. I thought we're sure that they were gonna be in even bigger trouble than they wind up in this episode based on how This stuff too, like the like ominous push-ins on two-vac are so ominous That's the feeling in the scene. Let's stop the mess before it happens Yeah, but the mess is gonna have to happen

So they start sneaking across the border. Yeah. And we cut back down to Six Bay, where BLT is working with the doc. She's, you know, turning things off and on, unplugging things and plugging it back in. He goes blind for a second. Something's not right because now I can't see some fun like, like, Robert Picardo going broad. Is big fun to me. Picardo taking Umbridge with this. This is one of his great modes as a character. And this is an episode that he really takes over

beginning with the moment that BLT sets up the experiment in the holodeck. There is a troubleshooting program that ships have with EMHs that you can begin in the holodeck, and you use a Dr. Zimmerman to help you solve these problems, like right there in Jupiter station where the doc was created. So Dr. Zimmerman materializes in this simulation along with the MH, and you can tell them apart

because the EMH is in his Starfleet uniform, and Dr. Zimmerman is in like a teal dress and has sort of Kelzone hair. Yeah. And BLT starts falling in love with him. Zimmerman tells BLT when you touch Doc Holiday you're actually touching me. Oh man, if the real Dr. Zimmerman ever finds this. Yeah. I'm guilty of a terrible crime, doctor.

Like a kid visiting their old elementary school, doc holiday, like vaguely remembers this place and things about it. Yeah. Even in his compromised state. I seem to remember this place. He's like, it's so much smaller than I remember. Ha.

Ha. And if you thought all those soprano opera singers were annoying, you won't like Dr. Zinnemerman in this scene. Not at all. It's a real restate, the problem that we, the viewers, are already exquisitely aware of, seen. Yeah.

More they've seen about establishing what a brusque character Dr. Zinnemerman is than anything else. But, you know, if we're coming to Voyager from DS9, we already know about that also. Yeah. Yeah. It's a nice reminder of the greatness of the Nick Burns, your company's computer guy, SNL sketch.

The picture computer, van is going to make fun of you. Which is the sort of personality that Dr. Zimmerman has here. He is extremely condescending with his advice to Kess and is extremely positive about there being only one course of action to take. You can only fix this problem through reinitialization

and it's just gonna blow up. This guy's wasted memories. Like Dr. Zimmerman looks at the data for Doc holiday and he's like, there is a bunch of shit in here having to do with relationships and emotions and sun dreams and stuff like blow it out of here. It's another person advocating for the clean install

of the OS and that is not a satisfactory answer to BLT. So she's gotta go help out with the crossing the border stuff that they're doing. They cross into lobster space. You can tell it's lobster space because it starts cold and then starts heating up imperceptibly. What are you saying? On Long Ridge Scanner they've got a huge ship and they put it up on view screen. That's no ship, Adam.

It's ship mist is what it is. Yeah, it's atomized weaponized ship. Yeah. Right, come ticket that, lock them, get that roll, battle, lodge, and ship. Ship. 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 Noswald.

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

Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Oh, rats. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey do not smell good. No, they do not, and they've such short neck. But I'm hearing we need to get on this arc. We gotta get on the arc. 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, but we're actually, we're podcasters. We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ono Ross and Kerry? 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 to by two. What do you think? Oh no, Ross and Carrie, available on MaximumFun.org. I've got to get that luck wood not, are you selling a heist? What is meant to be terrifying does not discourage Janeway at all, and I was so waiting for Kim, especially to be like, I mean, maybe we should turn back and regroup or something. But what he does say, he describes their ability to get into this part of space as like a snake through a tube.

Like a snake through a tube? Are you shitting my dick? What does that mean? To anyone? What does a snake through a tube mean? That's just specifically Harry Kim image. I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. We're gonna get through like a bunch of cliff bars through a shoot.

We're gonna get through like my dick through the Delaney sisters. You're like me falling into a Venice canal. This is an exciting moment though because like at maximum warp they could get through lobster space in about 36 hours. But the problem is as soon as they make it pass this net, there's this drag on the engines. There's there's a particle wave slowing them down. So that is a timeline that is getting lengthened in kind of a scary way given the ship mist out there. It's like a hornet's nest that they're trying to sneak past and

like a hornet's nest in a tube with a snake. That's kind of the code of arms of greatest gen, right? It's a glass of tequila. It's a hornet's nest a tube and a snake So as they are doing this we cut back down to the Jupiter station simulation where the MHS being made to look at a bunch of original Biff-Yager artwork on a screen while of original Biff Yeager artwork on a screen while Dr. Zimmerman examines his memory pathways. Look at all this useless information floating around your buffer. Friendships with the crew, relationships with women.

This is where he finds all the nonsense and Kess comes in and is advocating for keeping the opera in the program. Yeah, I mean, Kess is defending the doc's decisions and kind of making the case for friendship, being a worthwhile reason for living a life. Right. Barve. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Ugh. But the doc can't even remember Kess, which is such an interesting one-two punch. Like Kess articulates this great feeling, and then the doc is like, I don't even know who you are, what? I don't know you, and I don't care to know you. Back up on the bridge there, still sneaking, still undetected. The captain gets a little bit wistful, remembering back to her days as a horny teenager

sneaking out of the house. I used to sneak out of my parents' bathtub and into the kid down the streets' bathtub. It was delightful. Top hopping we call it. We lived in a town called Dawson's Creek. Sometimes I think of my tub hopping days, but the music I was hearing back then doesn't quite match up. So the music you'd hear today if you tried to watch it. There's coffee in that bathtub.

They come upon a wrecked ship that has a survivor on it, who they beam to six bay. I felt so bad for this actor who got three lines on Star Trek Voyager, but 10 pounds of loaf to say it from underneath. This alien looks like a child's drawing of a clown. A really ugly pile of loaf. Very hard to look at. In some ways, I admire the show for going this route instead of giving us a little piece of loaf between the eyes.

Like, way to really go all out with the loaf here, but also maybe pull it back, like, just a little bit. 25% less loaf would have been nice. Very severe cheekbones on this, on this kid clown here. This guy spent five hours in the makeup chair. They walked him on to set. They shot him out in 10 minutes and they're like, that's a wrap for whatever this guy is.

Yeah. Good work. It kind of undercuts the terror of his story, looking at this guy tell it, right? Yeah. Because what he's saying is like, yeah, my cargo ship got swarmed Any points up in the upper left-hand corner at at the title of the episode

These the swarms sucked out my energy and then my ship was boarded and everyone was shot with these pain weapons It's a very painful way to get shot everybody on his ship is dead He will be joining them very soon, because his motor cortex is also totally fucked up. They tilt down to his squirting flower that no longer squirts. It's just kind of like dribbling on his chest. Limp off of his chest.

The circus music gets sad. He tries to squeak a bicycle horn. It's more like a mournful moan. The doctor misses the fact that this guy has died and is trying to treat the corpse. Some of the motor memory of the doctor, but none of the actual healing skills anymore. Kess comes full circle here. of the doctor, but none of the actual healing skills anymore. Kess comes full circle here. She talks to Janeway and she's like, all right, unplug him.

Like he is useless. It's like working with a baby in there. He's basically less than useless. He's now working at cross purposes with healing people. Right. They're going to need a little more time on this, but... Janeway is like, keep the doc talking and thinking, like, when you're trying to help keep a hypothermic person from falling asleep or somebody with a concussion,

yeah, like the doc went skiing and hit his head on a tree stump. And you got to, you got to keep them going until the guys with the hospital sleds arrive. Janeways, like, we're only two-thirds of the way through this episode, Cass, keep trying. Okay. Back on the bridge. Tubaq picks up a vessel which has detached from the freighter hole.

This is great. I got a lot of respect for this alien species by leaving a tick behind. Yeah. That detaches. It's a little trillibite. Like, yeah, it's a it's a little guy. If they put the shields up, they get scanned and they try to hail them. Let's see if they might be able to understand us. This is where they're asking

for the forgiveness and lieu of the permission they failed to ask for earlier. Janeway is like, hey, like if we could just like continue on our way, that would be awesome. And then you're back. And the message they get back is like from Independence Day when they, I was expecting, A, you've entered our space, you're not permitted here to go back home.

And instead the message is like, we told you not to fuck with us. No, please. And now we've taken off our shirt in a threatening manner, like ready to fight in the street. Yeah, they get a Polaron burst that hits them. It's not really enough to do any damage. And they're like, that's it.

Okay. Well, we'll continue on then. But as they continue on, they realize that this Polaron burst has kind of upset the shield modulation they did to travel through this space undetected. And now the swarm is onto them, is aware of their presence and is converging on their position. Didn't this feel a little borgz, do you? Like, I feel like the first time we encountered the borgz, the very first beam they shot at the D wasn't a weapon.

It was just sort of to get a sense of their defensive abilities. That was the fact I got here with this little beetle. Or even like when they beam onto the Borg ship and the Borg like ignore them until they start messing with stuff. Yeah. And yeah, I thought very interesting and scary alien and now that scary alien is after them and they got them they got to make moves. Yeah, what's scary is that they're inside this space they continue to slow down and what they need to do is kind of jump start the warp engines, which is a procedure you don't do while you're at speed. It's normally something you do while you're stopped. You shut down the warp core if you want to realign the matrix. Yeah.

And BLT now needs to do this on the fly, like kind of pop in the clutch on the ship at speed. So she's pulling on her of gloves, getting ready to put the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the one. Before I go in there, I just want to ask all the cadets to stay at their posts. Make sure you stay exactly where you are. Everyone else runs. Y'all stay our posts.

Coffee, black, make it yourself. I'm trying to help you see this as an opportunity to grow. Make it yourself. We cut back to Six Bay because that's also a main problem in this episode. What's happened to the dog? It's not just existential to the crew, the corporeal crew. At this point, he is so far gone that he doesn't understand why Kess won't let him leave Six Bay. Stand aside, young woman, or I will have you put on reports.

I kind of thought you was going to go like, all right, fine. Go ahead and leave. Like, see if I care. I definitely got dementia corollary vibes here, right? Like because this is a scene where the doc seems in some ways to be better. Like this could be described as a good day for the doc because at least the doc remembers Cass and then slowly puts together the reasons why he can't leave 6 Bay and then is able to articulate the day he was activated. But like people who deal with dementia, like those are few and far between and only a reminder

of the person that you're losing. Yeah. And he starts like blinking out and losing his cohesion holographically is an escalation. So this is getting pretty worrisome. No less worrisome is the swarm of ships that is surrounding the Voyager. We get a great, like rear view mirror up on the view screen shot of the pursuing trilobites.

And they try like shooting at them. They try a phasor blast, which is interrupted by Kess walking onto the bridge and saying like, hey, like I'm really worried about the doc. I think he's basically about to blink out of existence and then we won't have a doctor. And Janeway is like, I'm sorry, I don't really have time for that right now.

You see that there are one million ships converging on us. I understand why this moment is grounded in the reality of drama, but in no way is this realistic in the moment. And I wish the reason for the doctor's necessity was less about like his character utility and how badly we need him in that way.

But like in the actual battlefield utility of an impending conflict where there could be casualties taking a six bay like. Lobsters are gonna be messing up people's motor cortex is left and right if this breaks the wrong way and we're gonna need a doctor. Why not Zodberg? Not enough is made of that, I think.

And that should be why Kess is in there. It should be like, oh, like where about to go to battle? We're short a doctor. And I'm not sure if I'm good enough to be one in the circumstance. I wish there was a little stitch of Kess not being sure she'll be able to get the field promotion to doctor in a conflict situation. Yeah, I think that that would have been a nice way to kind of complete the circle on her taking over on the operation in the earlier scene. Yeah. Like this is her doing that managing up that she didn't do in that earlier scene. Right.

But it would have also been interesting to see it connect back to the idea of like if it's just me doing these operations, I'm not sure I'm going to be enough. And this is where television writing can go from like really good to great. Yeah. Because this is a show that has focused its problem on one character where it had the opportunity to focus it on multiple characters. Right. And they're different motivations. And that was a choice not taken. So on our way back down to 6 Bay, Cass gets a report from, I guess, like a security guard who's there looking after the AMH that things have not gotten any better. How's the doctor?

No improvement. He's still losing cohesion. So, she diverts back to the simulation in the holodeck and proposes something to the Zimmerman diagnostic character of why don't we merge your two programs like double the Yam H's matrix to therefore double its capacity to have memories and relationships and stuff which Zimmerman is like but then you won't have a diagnostic program and guess is like no one cares. We won't need one if we lose the dog. Yeah. It's a great reduction of fraction tier. I like this. It's clean too. They try phasering the swarm. The swarm is unfasurable. Yeah, because it's just a mist. It sends the energy back along the beam. Maybe the most concerning part of this scene for me Ben was between the last bridge scene

and this one. Janeway has put on a dust buster. I didn't notice that. I thought that was great. That really increases the tension to me. Do you think they keep a dust buster in that center console between Chico Tay and Janeway? Is that where they keep them? Yeah, that are the glove compartment. Yeah. At this point, did you know what was going to happen for the rest of the episode?

I could guess that the doc was going to be fine, but I had zero guesses for how they were going to deal with this swarm. Yeah. I did not think that they were writing the EMH of the show that's what you're asking. Yeah, but yeah I think the I think the drama is really high on this moment and so we come back to Six Bay where the Matrix is now The the Zimmerman Matrix is now in with the EMH Matrix who like the image is just looking like really bedraggled at this point. The Zimmerman character being much more like rumpled and must up. The image like being a cleaner cut version of this guy looks real bad. Like dark circles under his eyes looking around the room, slack job, not understanding what's going on, but they run the program and they both vanish and it's like a rendering thing.

Like the computer has to like process it for a long time, so we're not going to know what the result is. Yeah, you just go grab yourself a meal and you come back to your editing workstation and hopefully you have something to watch. Yeah. The swarm is rubber and the Voyager is gloop and because everything the Voyager throws at this swarm gets redirected back at them. So it makes them so dangerous and as these bugs start attaching to the hull, this is the

climax of the episode. Yeah. They start attaching every which way and we see a couple of these lobstermen show up on the bridge and you know get phasered. A couple of their ships attach on the bridge and get phasered. A couple of their ships attach on the nacelles of the Voyager. And I thought it would have been really funny of just like, we just cut down to the nacell

and some lobster and materializing in there and getting vaporized instantly. Yeah. Do you think that the phasers are on kill and the lobsters are getting beamed out to like avoid dying? Or are they... I wanted to know, I couldn't quite tell if they were killing the ship invaders or if

they were stunning them and the stunned lobsters were getting beamed away. And that's how I got my new shell! It's an interesting question. Like do the lobsters intend to kill with their weapon? Yeah. Hard to know and they they come up with the idea of blowing up one of the ships and if they can blow up one It might have a ripple effect and boy does this work great. It does work great and the visual of these ticks all over the voyager In one scene and then then being ripped off in another. Yeah.

It's a striking visual. It just doesn't look right ever. These little ticks all over. Ugh. Yeah. Get them out of here. Yeah. Don't like it.

It's kind of a gross out. And when Kim's plan works, the shields come back up instantly. Yeah. Janeway is rocking a victory ponytail. I love the captain's pony. It's a big mood. It really is.

But what happened to the duck? Yeah, did our render render successfully? Or are we gonna have to call our client and say it's not gonna be EOD, it's actually gonna be tomorrow morning and I'm gonna be pulling it all nighter. I did that stupid thing where I did render just the effects and not the entire timeline. So now I'm gonna go back and like fucking re-render the whole thing.

Yeah. God. I'm so glad that's not my life anymore. I know. So the doc does pop back up and it looks like the second worst outcome has happened here. They get the EMH back but the docs memory has been wiped or has it or has it. It seems like he's clean installed but then he like runs off into the other room and then we are left to wonder was he clean installed plus opera? You know, like there's never any res, he's never like,

oh, right, your cast, your BLT, I like singing. I'm gonna be very upset if we dig into the next episode and nothing is mentioned about the doc and the doc is just normal. Yeah. Because this is the only suggestion we have about that. I'm with you, man. I think that that is the weak point of this episode

is how unresolved that is left. And I mean, it will only be a weak point if it is left unresolved in future episodes. Yeah. I mean, that episode is going to affect whether or not we liked this one, probably right then. Did you like it? Yes, in third place.

We know it's more the U.S.S. Newtis. Captain the Captain. We know the U.S.S. Newtis. them? Did you like it? I did. I really like this episode. I agree with you that it is good not great. And I think that there were a couple of little missed opportunities that would have made it great. But I really enjoyed it overall. And I liked how scary this alien species was. It's very seldom that Star Trek has an alien species that has unknown needs and wants. Communication is so much about what Star Trek is about. It's my favorite kind of threat. Is this kind of threat here? It's a fun type of alien to have every so often. So I'm glad we got it.

To the extent that like I know we're talking about this on our hit new Star Trek podcast, the greatest discovery, like is the threat motivated or is it just incidentally destroying things because it knows no other way? Right. That's something we don't know about this swarm yet. Yeah, I don't know if we ever revisit the swarm or if they're like done with this part of space. Oh, I would hate that. I just expected this to be an arc this season. Oh no. Yeah. I don't like this at all. I don't know. Who knows, man. Yeah, I'm with you, Ben Ben on just the overall review of the episode I'd love a Robert Picardo tour de force episode. Yeah, yeah where they just give him space like a basketball player

Just like taking the game doing solo shit like he's got the ball He's gonna run the episode and that's what Robert Picardo did here. I thought he did a really car does around in a great way Yeah big fan of his work here on the episode and that's what Robert Picardo did here. I thought he did a great job. Really? Picardo's around in a great way. Yeah. Big fan of his work here and that's really the reason to like this episode to me. In addition to the swarm, which I also like to love. Well, would you like to read some priority

one messages with my friend? Oh, yeah. My friend? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Need a supplement on that. supplement on Secured Channel. Need a supplemental link?

Supplement? Supplement. Supplement. Yeah, it's extra. But the interest alone could be enough to buy this ship! Our first priority one message is from Kern! And it is too, I do not remember. And it goes like this.

Hello strangers. I am writing you this message, but I cannot recall why. When I woke this morning, I saw, remember Benny Harris tattooed on my hand along with this URL. I do not know what this means, but it must be important for me to have permanent scarred my butt outside of battle. Wait, I see more tattooed writing on my chest. Adam P. did what? I love a a Kern Memento crossover, if you want here. Yeah.

Love it. Solid, love it. Solid bit of business. Missy Kern, hope you're all right out there. So, Ben, our next priority one message is from NEP. It is to all listeners everywhere and the message goes like this. Catching up with slash running out of Greatest Gen Pod. In an effort to avoid that,

here are difficult words to slow A and B down. Worse just your cone schedule. Apertif. Bejure yourologist. And a question for you both, if eating an alien race is not cannibalism, what alien would you most like to eat? Shout out to Hillary and Mark, I'm not drunk this time. Hey! So there's the question, Ben. If it's okay morally and ethically to eat an alien race, which one would you want to take a bite out of? I mean, these lobster guys might be, if they taste like lobster, I would give them a go. Yeah, that's pretty good.

Maybe tellerite? I feel like tellerate you want to cook low and slow. Yeah, tellerate's really the wild boar. I hate meats. You want to tellerate to fall off the tusk if you're going to cook it. Here's it I'm going to say, man, this might be a gross out for a lot of people. This might hurt a lot of feelings out there. But I saw how many people enjoyed eating kelpian ganglia. A delicacy. You know the mirror universe folks have eaten anything and everyone. So I

think they know what tastes great. And if they prize the kelpian ganglia like that, that is gotta be really good stuff. Yeah. So I'm gonna say I'm gonna say kelpian We had a listener send in kelpian ganglia shaped candy that was really tasty delicious So if it tastes like that candy it would be it would be really nice. Yeah, but then they'd be eating candy soup Yeah, I'm discovery and I don't know if I want any of that. Yeah, that's kid shit It's like peewewee Hermann shit. You know what isn't Peewee Hermann shit? You know what we take very seriously around here? The priority one message is you can submit a question like the one we just answered by

going over to Maximumfund.org slash jumbo-tron. Ask a question, make a joke, pimp us into an impression, any one of those goes a long way towards supporting the production of this show. That is true, Adam. You know, I'm really easy to get along with, close to the time. But I don't like boating, I don't like friends, and I don't like you. Alright, buddy. I got a question for you. What's that, Ben? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoto? I got a video Shimoto over here, Ben. Oh boy, get

time code for me. Yeah, the time code is a 16 minutes, eight seconds. There's a fun bit of dialogue to visual transition, where the conversation goes something like, look man, Paris is going to be fine. He's over there. He's gonna be fine. And the take that B-Dunk's does is kind of like a mini-thrash on the bed. It does not present to me as fine. He looks like a guy who has a migraine so bad,

like he's just like in pain. I've had migraines like this, where you just need to to move in this way and he does not look fine to me. That moment to me was the Shimoda where the visual just didn't match the dialogue. Yeah. Yeah. What about you? I'm going to give it to the diagnostic Zimmerman. I feel like he is he is the character in the episode that was having the most fun. I think that just getting turned on and going, you're doing everything wrong.

The failure to even assume that there might be context that you don't have of a diagnostic program is very funny and putting that into the personality of a brash and egotistical character is a really funny writing for us. So he is my drunk Shimoda for this episode. The effect too in that room, I thought was pretty well done. Like Star Trek has a checkered history of doing these kind of comps. And it didn't feel too bad. They nailed it.

Yeah. It was really good. Adam, our next episode is season three episode five false prophets, prophets with an F. Oh, how about false with an F? Two. False also with an F. Yeah. Okay, just wanted to be sure about that. The crew tries to free the people of the planet to car from two vorangie opportunists posing as gods. Cool. This is an episode of Voyager that I really love. An episode that pays off a thing that is set up in TNG.

I'm excited about it. This sounds great. I want to see some vorangie again. I do too. We got to find out how we will be watching this episode out of it. For that, we turn to goch.biz slash game where we keep the game of buttholes.

The will of the caretaker. We have a runabout that is currently on square 19. It's a game with a fancy new square, Ben. It is a game with a fancy new square. There's a Naomi Wildman square now. She replaces the J Gordon square We're never gonna see J Gordon again. J Gordon is dead for all we know But Naomi Wildman is here to take up the the arts and crafts square But that's way out ahead. We can't hit the Naomi Wildman square today

We could thanks to Philippe Sobriero for putting that one together for us, right? Yeah, and Colin Anderson for adding it to the thing. We could hit this his eyes on coverage square or we could hit the Bangor square that we've hit before. Oh, yeah, I just want to stay in the second row forever, man Yeah, the second row has really has really been a great home for us lately. You're required to learn as you play. Ro. But I'm gonna go ahead and roll this bone see what see what happens. Wow, I skipped over both of them. Shula! Did I win?

I'll think. By rolling a six at him we are on square 25, a regular episode next week. Whoa. All right. Big roll.. Whoa. All right. Big roll. Big roll. Big roll. Well,

quite an episode we had there been. We did. And hope everyone out there listening during a significant holiday week in December is feeling better than we are. Head cold-wise. I wanna thank everyone who supports the show. week in December is feeling better than we are. Head Cold Wise. Want to thank everyone who supports the show. Like a lot of people consider, you know, as we get nearer to the end of the year, I think it's natural

to just take stock. The things that got you through it. We've been getting a lot of great messages from people who have told us how much the greatest gen means to them. And it means a lot to us too. And it's really great to hear those messages from people for whom the show has helped this year. Hard to imagine a show like ours helping anyone. I would say that in equal or greater proportion the friends of Jisota have helped me and Adam get through this year. Definitely, absolutely true. We really really appreciate everyone.

I got an idea for the folks out there. If you've got a last minute gift that you want to give to a friend of DeSoto, how about a gift membership? If you go to maximumfund.org slash join, there's a tab at the top of the page that will gift them a membership to our show. For a year, they will get a membership gift and they will get access to all the bonus content and it will help us too. If you're scrambling for a stocking stuffer or something,

it's one of those great stocking stuffers that you just write down on a card, what you got them. And then they can find out about it on the morning of. Just imagine the bewildered look of a parent or grandparent opening up a stacking stuff or that is the gift of the greatest generation bonus feed. Imagine your mima listening to an episode

of the Santa Monica Mountains in the bonus feed. I kind of feel like the bonus feed is the gateway drug into the greatest generation. I think that's how you get a stranger into us. Yeah. Yeah, hip them to the Gremlins episode, a great episode to listen to during the holidays. Sure.

You get the Santa Monica Mountains in there, you get factory seconds. Those are great introductions to how weird and stupid Ben and I are. Hahaha. We gotta thank Bill Tilly, the card daddy for running the social media. We gotta thank Adam Tilly, the card daddy for running the social media. We gotta thank Adam Ragusia for being the music maker of our program. He of course based all the original stuff he here on our show after the Picard song by

Dark Materia and Adam Ragusia now a great YouTube chef. Go check out Adam Ragusia on YouTube. If you want to make friends with a friend of DeSoto, there are myrium places to do that. We've got the discord at drunkshamota.com. We've got the Reddit at our slash greatest gen. We've got the hashtag, Greatest Gen on Twitter. That's like the bat signal.

You write something on Twitter using the hashtag, Greatest Gen. Here come the friends of De Soto, like a swarm. Yeah. They're gonna see that. Are you gonna fave star it? They're gonna attach their beetles onto your nacelles. Mm-hmm. We get vaporized when they beam into them.

Friends at the Soto buy and large great people who love laughing about Star Trek. 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 is really wearing some fancy outfits. Oh yeah. Unlike today, we're both basically wearing pajamas. We're in our sick clothing. We're in our slippers today. Yeah. Do you think emergency in DOS Artestiquilo would be like a pretty good healthful substitute to a margarita. God, you know what? I'll side-car the DOS Artes, but I'm not dumping that good tequila into my emergency. Yeah, fair enough. Maximum fund on work. Comedy and culture. Artist-owned. Audience-supported.

Maximumfund.org. Comedy and Culture. Artist-owned. Audience-supported.