The Greatest Generation - A Throbbing, Turgid McGuffin (S6E24)

Episode Date: June 28, 2017

When Lieutenant Riker finally gets picked up after eight years of perfecting his jack-kata in seclusion, he finds out that a perfect copy of him has been living his life, neglecting his girlfriend, and making choices in his career. Now the full-bearded yellow shirt is trying to win back Troi, complete the mission, and take down a few hands of poker while he’s at it. Is Night Bird a sex move? Which Riker has the more gruesome second quarters? What’s the saddest onion? It’s the episode that was recorded on a dark and stormy night.

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 It's a Star Trek podcast. I'll make a couple of guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast. I'm Benjamin R. Harrison, one half of your hosting team.

And the other third, Adam Prynaka. How do we make up the deficit? Volume. Having people mail us stuff. Adam Pranaka. How do we make up the deficit? Volume. Having people mail us stuff. Yeah, volume two. Adam, we've been delusional with packages, frankly. We don't want to turn this into one of those. John Roderick opens his mail for two hours style podcast.

So we get to open packages and letters from time to time, right? I can't imagine anything as embarrassing as doing any John Radric style podcast at him. Yeah. The worst. The worst. Let's get to it. I'm receiving a code 47. Verify.

It is code 47, sir. Starfleet emergency frequency. Captains eyes only. So I have one here from listener Tom R. This was sent to my real home address, which my wife caught me giving this out. She was like looking over my shoulders. I was sending an email.

Oh no. What are you doing? She's smart. Fortunately, Tom chose not to murder us. So thanks Tom. Got away chose not to murder us. Thanks Tom. Got away with one more, Ben. What do you got there? You got some packages of your own, I believe.

Yeah, we got a couple of boxes from Ann, from Austin, Texas, Ben. Where's Tom from? Let me look at this shipping label. Tom hails from... Wheaton, Illinois. No. I wonder if there's anybody named Whill living in Wheaton. Now this is a sizable box here.

Whoa! Whoa, Anne sent sort of a fun gift basket style box. Cool. There's a, there's sort of a mini movie poster of a film that I think we might call schismed. Oh, the box is called Bummer Box. Oh, right, that's a great callback. First item in the Bummer Box is the schizm to movie poster with Kevin Uxbridge. Looks awesome. We have a coconut cup, perfect for making cocoa no-nose inside. We have a couple of packs of Star Trek cards.

We have Cinnamon Fire Jolly Ranchers candy. We have a box of Blingwini. Wow that's a deep callback right there. And a nice card. I will open that up and read you the letter. Hey Adam, big fan of the pod. I was watching TNG when I discovered your pod and it brings a lot of joy to my life. Hope to meet you at GreatestCentCon 2017. Oh and there's a recipe for Coco No-No in it. Cool.

Awesome, thanks so much, Anne. All right, here is the letter from Tom. It says, Dear Ben and Adam, I can't imagine who thought an STTNG party game was a good idea. Enjoy! Hope to catch up with you guys in Chicago in August. We don't call it the Riza of the Midwest for nothing. Regardless, Tom, PS, if you ever run this thing, I call Jordy. I really want to spend some time in that guy's head. Wow, so the box we have here is how to host a mystery Star Trek the next generation edition. And so it's like, I think it's one of those,

have a murdery mystery dinner party at your home, type of deals. Oh geez, does that box come with friends? Unfortunately, unfortunately, I don't see any here in the package. So it looks like, kind of looks like a Passover Seder kit. Like there's like a bunch of booklets for you to follow along. There's a host's guide.

Sort of halfway between like a dungeon master kit and a Passover Seder kit, I'm going to say. Oh, and there's a book full of secret clues. There is a cassette tape that presumably has some fun audio on it. That sort of dates the game a little bit. Yeah, there's a, oh this is good, there's a map of the ship. Not too different from the ship's schematics that somebody sent in. Wow. Man.

Sounds pretty deluxe. Yeah, this looks really fun actually. I kinda wanna get like my dust off my ghetto blaster and play this. Wow, really cool. Really is fun when people send Stefan to us like this. I think we've been really fortunate. Yeah, I love the... like, cause this is like, there's the famous board game where there's a VHS tape of galron.

Yeah. But this is like, definitely, like, two clicks more obscure than that. Yeah, I like the deep cuts. Yeah. That's why I like the bummer box so much. It's super fun to get, like, some abstract letters and mail, like this. This is great. Very cool.

Well, thank you, Tom, and thank you, Anne. This is great. Very cool. Well, thank you Tom and thank you Ann. Thanks guys. Yeah. What do you say we get on with the show, Adam? We have so much to get to. Twice as much as we deserve Ben. Season six, episode 24. Second chances.

First, you need a every star, be officer, be to the truth, find any truth, or historical truth, or personal truth. Ben, this is the first episode directed by the great Levar Burton. Yeah. And I think it's important to note a few of his aesthetic choices right away. Like, let me be clear, this is his first time directing anything. He's not that guy who's laying back in the cut, just like not really having an opinion about composition or camera movement. Like, it seems like he's doing some stuff here, and that was neat to see.

Yeah, I mean, he's definitely like, has taken a couple of pages from the Freaks playbook, but is also making his own statements. It's not a Freaks. It's not a takeoff of a Freaks. It's like it's his own thing. It's pretty good. He blocks people, hero shot style a lot, which is cool. Like a lot of times you'll see the camera squared up to an actor at like I height.

And many times throughout this episode he is shooting up a little bit making these characters seem a little larger than life. That was neat and he's also doing a lot of moving establishing shots which is a fairly intentional thing, an intentional creative decision by him. And not the easiest thing to like that's definitely a place where a first time director can get caught in the weeds It's it's a place that a Griseled veteran of directing can get caught in the weeds like covering a shot with a moving camera is Much much more challenging than setting up a wide establishing and in a couple of punches. I dig his strategy of I mean, I don't know whether this was his choice or not, but waiting

until season 6 to get in the big chair, because he's seen a lot of good trek, a lot of bad trek. I'm sure a lot of good directors and bad directors, like he's got all through those little pins in his visor. Yeah. Yeah. So he has a wealth of experience to draw from. Yeah.

He was probably like, hey, let me do an episode where I don't have a fucking raging headache the whole time from this metal thing you've clamped to my head. That'd be helpful. He starts the episode with a shot of Lieutenant J coming in to check out Riker's Jazz Combo, doing a little set on a 10-forward. Doing a little set on a 10-forward. Yeah, I would have really liked on a music stand like the name of his band or like on the bass drum like a like in cursive letters something like W. Riker and the bones or something like what's his band name? I got to know splatter pattern Dreamy and deheveled. He's got a nice open V going.

He's super cash. He's got a low-fi keyboard player. He's got to have full range of motion in his arms because he's playing that bone big time. Yeah. Star Trek maybe less than any other series falls into the trap of we're putting kind of like our own style on people in the future

because we think this looks cool now, so it will look cool then. But this costume they have in it's definitely that. It's like the, it is the early mid 90s like a big old dad dress shirt untucked with very roomy slacks and nondescript square-toed black shoes. That is such a specific reverence, those fucking square toes. I'm glad he didn't go like full male figure skater with the

top and get all sequinzy about it. Like he sort of went like black shirt, tucked in Asian fusion restaurant server vibe. Like he kept it, he downplayed it quite a bit. And I admired that. You know when you're Will Riker, you want the music to be the star, right? You do. And it is, he takes a request from the audience.

And a request tonight. Beverly and Troy are in there, in their civvies, taking in the show and Troy puts in a request. Nightbird. And he resists at first at him. And a request. Nightbird. And when he finally consents to playing the song,

Beverly has like, what did you just ask him to do Troy? And she's like, well, not only is that a sex move, but it's also a song he's been trying to teach himself for a long time. And he just has never really nailed it. Yeah, he's real nervous about it. He rikers eyes his Troy. He rikers eyes is the rest of the member in his comp members in his combo

Yeah, it's like can you believe this? It's a little bit whiplashy like they're about to play caravan or something not quite my tempo. It's all good no worries Here we go ladies and gentlemen Nightbird and he's just putting the trombone to his lips when Commander data data to commander riker radios him up and says go ahead Nightbird. He's just putting the trombone to his lips when he comes. Commander Data. Data to Commander Riker. Radio's him up and says, Go ahead.

Commander, you were needed on the bridge. If you could, set that bone down and get your ass up here, that would be great. Saved by the communicator. Yeah. I was so hoping in the interim that Riker wouldn't change before going to the bridge and sure is shit He's up there super cash Cash and swishy Did you see a lieutenant Paul Manafort walking around on the bridge to no

Yeah, one of the background extras is a total Paul Manafort He's like at you know the engineering station when Riker and dater at the science station. Anyways, they're at this planet that has like a some kind of disruption field in its atmosphere. I guess it used to have a federation research base, but the disruption field like fucked that up for them. And so this field causes a problem where they can't transport into or out of the planet unless there are certain very rare conditions.

And they've shown up for this because the disruption field has been in place for eight years. And they've arrived just in place for eight years and they've arrived just in time for three windows to open. And record has some history with this planet. Does he not add him? He sure does. He narrowly escaped with his life on a mission there eight years prior.

The science of this planet is pretty neat. Like it's got an eight year orbit around its sun. And when the planet is pretty neat. Like it's got an eight-year orbit around its sun, and when the planet is at its closest, that's when the disruption field weakens enough for transporting to occur. So there's not anything that they can do about the timing of it. They're just sort of subject to its position in space. Yeah, and it's a, I guess, got some, like, important meguffin data in one of the computers. That's why they've come back, right?

That is where this episode fails. It is, it's like file management mission. Like, we left this stack of disks down there and we got to go get them. But, like, what could be so important eight years ago that they need to go retrieve this stuff? Like, that part, a strong case has not been made for the importance of this material

that they're there to retrieve. It's a weak McEffron. If they had just shown somebody opening a box full of this data and had it glow on their face like in pulp fiction it would it would have carried so much more weight. Lib McGuffin was was their second choice for that band name. You really don't do not want to limp McGuffin you and you want to be able to you know if you're if you're doing an app,

if you're doing app at them and your beguffin goes limp, like that can be a real problem for your app. You want a turgid beguffin? A throbbing turgid beguffin. I knew we'd get to that ding. I knew we'd get to that ding. We had it cornered. Yeah, it took us a little while to grab a hold of your throbbing the guffin at it. But now that we've got it, we're not letting it go. They're like this windows open, might as well send in a way team down to recover these items. And this set looks like a recycled genolan set. It's got that corner shower, transporter, and data riker and wharf beam down armed.

And they're checking things out. And they're like, they sort of notice that the station has been kept up. Like it's not dusty, it's a little bit tidy. The computer stations are on. There's some plywood over a couple of the windows. And rikers like, I left this place an absolute mess. Like if any of you have seen my other quarters

You know what I'm talking about. Yeah, what do you think we brought these phasers for? We were down here for a while I did some damage and so Data's on his on his tricorder and he's like well Not not for nothing guys, but there's somebody coming toward us, somebody humanoid. Look, I'm telling you, there's something moving in an A&R! They'll skin their phasers and, uh, worth like, uh, he's like, or he's getting real tactical, like, huddling up against a bullcat. Yeah. And, um,

Theat is a stab in the open, as he is. Yeah. The, rakers behind some, some stack that equipment, door opens, in through the door, in a classic raker gate, but still shrouded in shadow comes a figure. He steps into the light and it is fuller beard, William raker, and it is double raker eyes to theme music. We got ourselves a feral riker. I don't know about you, but if someone has come home and I'm not expecting it, it is just a miracle

that I'm not in some state of untress. Riker fairly fully clothed here, riker beta. Yeah, he's not just fully clothed. Like he has shirt plus jacket. Like that's a level of cloth that really doesn't necessary when you've been living alone for eight years, right? Yeah, I'm thinking because he's living in caves that it's got to be cold though, right?

Oh, it's like a chilly place. Yeah. All right, I'll buy that head cannon. That's my head cannon. That's a pretty turgid head cannon. Double raker squints to commercial that was fun. Yeah. Is it pronounced turgid or turgid? I've always used a hard G. Really? Intentionally. For a hard word. I like it. I'm not saying I don't like it at them. I guess I've just read it a lot and assumed turjid. But uh.

It's like gif versus gif. Yeah. Oh, maybe it's a, maybe it's the gif versus gif of boners. Yeah, I'll go with that. So we come back and we've got this special effect where yellow raker is standing there and red riker walks a full circle around him and they do the who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who is this kid? What's he gonna do?

This is one of those things, Ben, that's like, for a first time director, keeping iLine continuity straight, like, there are a number of technical challenges here to contend with. And, like, for the effect being as old as it is, it's almost clump-level doubling, you know? Like, it looks pretty good. The light works. The eyeliner works. It's not bad. It's better than what I thought it would be in the early 90s. Right. Yeah, so red shirt, riker, Farts,

and yellow shirt, riker says, in some cultures, it's considered a compliment. And then red shirt, riker goes, more beans, please. I'm gonna let you just run this out. So yeah, they're like a little bit baffled by this situation. And... Much like they don't believe Kaelis is Kaelis,

they sort of guess clone right away. They're like, there's no way this is the guy. Yeah, there are a lot of parallels between the last episode and this one. Yeah. But yellow shirt Riker is basically saying like, yeah, I'm sure if you check with the Starfleet computer banks, they'll show a record of me

being lost in action eight years ago. So I've been stranded here. Thank you for coming and rescuing me. I don't know who this guy is, but I'm Will Ryger. Yeah, they're hurling accusations at each other that the other ones are fougaisy. So, like, I guess step one is taking him up to the entrepreneur. They fit him for a backslip at the zip and a condo

and get him cleaned up and bring him to six bay and study him a little bit. And sure as shit, the scans indicate that he is the real deal. He is no clone because you can't clone brain matter, I guess. He's the guy. Right. Yeah, he has like a brain fingerprint and the doctor is like, yeah like you can't you can't fake this. He's the real deal. We've never had this much sexual prowess on board at once before. Lieutenant J is just like casually locking her door. Yeah really need

roll out the dead bolts we haven't installed yet. Ferrell Riker on the loose. This is the, yeah. This is the kick in the pants we've needed for all six seasons. Riker Prime plays this fairly interestingly, I thought. And by that, I mean, like, a little neutral to hostile neutral. Like, he does not have a great amount of empathy for himself in a weird way, you know?

Like, he finds Riker Beta as a little bit of a challenge. Like, I don't know quite how to articulate it. Like he needs to alpha dog himself. Right. He never goes and wraps with Picard about what this is like. Yeah. Yeah, we're missing that scene, aren't we? You know, like that may be the one thing that they didn't include, because they do ask

and answer a lot of the questions about what is it like for a weird copy of yourself to be walking around, which is like a big, it's an interesting idea. Like they frankly deal with the idea of like, is this the same person or is it now a distinct person with a different identity? Like the idea of self is so foundationally based on the idea that there is one of you and if there's two of you, like how do you cope with that?

You know the one person on the ship that knows exactly what that's like is data. It would have been interesting to see data's reaction to this. Data always lurking in the background, spying on riker beta. Like, in case he presents some lower tendencies. Just ready to jump out and rip. Rip Riker beta apart. to jump out and rip and rip. Rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, the racist way. Yeah. So, they've got him down in 6 Bay, Picard meets Breaker Beta. Then they have a McLaughlin group.

If you want. And Jordy has kind of worked out the answer to how this happened. And this is maybe like the flashiest shot of the episode. This is like a big moving, establishing shot with, and it's like, it's really Jordy's big scene in the episode. I thought it was a little like, okay, Lamar. But be that as it may, like he's explaining the science behind how there are two rikers now. Apparently there was a massive energy surge in the distortion field around the planet just at the moment you tried to beam out.

And he is at the center of this steady ham shot that kind of swings around the room. Transport achieved tried to compensate by initiating a second containment beam until he can walk up to the screen and he shows a little diagram that shows that they were like beaming him out and like the signal got duplicated.

What happened to the second beam? The transport achieved shut it down, but somehow it was reflected back to the surface. If masculinity had a mass, the transporter was just incapable of lifting it. Yeah, so one one riker materialized back up on battleship Potemkin and the other materialized back in the station and they both assumed

that they were the one Riker. They had no reason as they pulled out of orbit to think that there was anybody left down on the surface. Riker Bay does like, well, at least I got these files. Someone's got to come back for these files. Right. Well, that's really intense, right? Like, he talks about how he, he like assumed

that they maybe had a funeral. Like, you know, he realized kind of late in the game, what had happened, like why they never came back for him. And so then he comfort himself with the idea of them having a funeral. And like, and he's, so he's like sitting in his quarters and Troy comes in and sees him and he is like holy shit my girlfriend from eight years ago is here on the ship. Yeah, very exciting. Yeah, it's like Marty McFly meeting back up with Elizabeth shoe type shit.

Oh man, you are so sort of... Yeah, he's sort of at a laptop looking at his own service record. When she walks in, you gotta believe that that would have been his second Google search, right? Like you're gonna look up yourself, and then you're gonna look up the old girlfriend. Yeah. Google search I'm Zadi, I'm feeling lucky. Do you think that they ever thought about showing Riker Beta's life in flashback or maybe in terms of cold open? Like, if the cold open had been eight years ago

and Riker being left behind, like, is the reason you don't do that because frame of mind happened two episodes ago and you already saw sort of a fractured Will Riker character? Because that episode's proximity to this one made me think a lot about some of the decisions that were made here in terms of how the story was told. I mean, I think that's a totally valid and interesting way to tell the story, but this kind of winds up being... This kind of winds up being, I mean, I don't know, I think that like playing with the linearity of this story maybe detracts from the kind of emotional arc that both writers go through, which is really interesting. Yeah.

You know, they both have to kind of grapple with what it means for the other to be around. Like, Commander Raker is not in love with the person that he was eight years ago and sees a lot of flaws in himself. And then Lieutenant Raker just feels like he's been kind of like, he's been kind of in the penalty box for eight years. He's out of the game and, you know, the world has kind of passed him by. Do you think you get to keep your seniority if you're Reiker Beta? You mean like can he command a lieutenant that got commissioned? Well, no, I mean, do they say years count on your service record?

They have to, right? I'm sure they must. I mean, we talk about this sometimes, right? Like that Starfleet must have some way of getting Kelsey Grammer's Captain Hood updated for the current timeline, right? We've got to account for temporal seniority. Yeah, and like that tension you're talking about, I thought was great. Like there's a tension that a person has for the decisions that they've made in the past. And here, Riker Prime is confronted with them, like physically.

Like his past self is also like very Shelby like. Did you pick up on that? Like real headstrong and talkbacky. And I wonder if that's why Shelby and Riker never got along in best of both worlds. Like because it's sort of a narcissism of minor differences at play. Yeah, I think that's pretty apt.

I mean, it's, he is the ambitious younger man. Yeah. And he's had to stew in that ambition for eight years, well, he wondered when somebody would come pick him up. That regret of like the path not taken in your life too, is like being articulated by yourself in front of you. Like, if you were confronted with your past self and they asked you why you didn't make it

with that one girl that you liked so much, like, uh, that's got to be an awful feeling. And that really underscores sort of the soft boil that Riker Prime has to live with throughout this episode. I did it the like main storyline in this episode is the relationship between beta riker. We really need to come up with a good go-to for him, but a yellow shirt riker, beta riker, and Troy, because he really like held a candle for her. I had a lot of time in my hands when I was down on that station. And this was perhaps naive, but he kind of has this idea that she might have waited for him even. Yeah.

So, when they like first meet up and it becomes clear that she has not, you know, she has continued to live her life for eight years. He's disappointed, but he's like, I just want to like really like put a pin in this for you. I'm still madly imzadi with you. You get the feeling that both from this episode and frame of mind that writer may have the strongest episode and frame of mind that Riker may have the strongest will and intellect of anyone on the crew. He basically tells Troy that like you were the thing that kept me together basically in solitary confinement. And between this episode and that, like Riker has a ton of mental firewalls up that gets him through awful situations. He's got this reputation as being like a rac and tour and sort of like a less serious

crew person, but like twice this season, he's really shown himself to be far stronger mentally than we ever gave him credit for. Yeah, hell is strong. Yeah. That's the result of years of emotional abuse by Kyle Reiker. Yeah. Double the daddy issues. Double the fun. I'll be playing the double band go.

They beam down to go get these computer files, which they didn't get in the first window. So they are now in the second window and they're like, oh man, I've got to get these files and Lieutenant Rikers, like, oh well, you know, like there's, we probably need to replace some EPS conduits down under the station Like I go down there all the time. It's it's pretty chill hang like I can I can show you how to do it and They're like well, we don't have time on this trip. So we'll have to we'll have to figure it out next time He's like, oh, that's cool. You guys you guys go ahead back on up to the ship. I've You know got a couple of stashes of porno I wanted to find anyways and I'll handle the EPS thing and you guys can just get me in the next window.

Yeah, when you aren't expecting to see anyone, the level of thought you've put into your jackshack has got to be intense. You need some time to take that thing down and I totally understand how interested he is in doing that. You do not want to leave that as a monument to your time alone on the planet. You know what? I'm going to take data with me. He is entirely non-judgmental. This is also like a great testament to Riker's mental strength, right?

Like he was stuck here for eight years and he is, he does not think twice about saying, I'll meet up with you guys on the next pass. Like, that would be terrified to stay down there. Yeah. Like, like, like almost like the POW camp survivor going back to the camp. Yeah. Like, it seems like there would be some really bad PTSD involved. And even the doctor mentions this earlier, like look, we could put this guy back on duty again, but I wouldn't send him back down at the surface. That seems like a bad idea.

But to his credit, right, Krobeda's like, sure, I wanna help. Just because we've kind of zipped past this, I wanna call out the transporter chief in this episode is May Jamison. Doctor May Jamison, who was the first African American woman in space. The great cameos, I think.

Yeah. One cool thing that this show did was like getting really, really cool people to come hang. She is a better actor than 50-year-old Benson of the last episode. She really is. She's great. Yeah, I guess she's like friends with Michelle Nichols too.

Yeah, and Michelle Nichols was on set. Oh really? Pretty great. Man, can you imagine being friends with Michelle Nichols or Dr. Mae Jemisin? Do you think they say that to each other all the time? So great being friends with you? I know. It's the coolest.

The two storylines that concur throughout the episode is the mission to get the recovered files before this window of time closes and they can't get them again for another eight years. And also the brewing romance between Troy and Riker Beta, who is really like putting the full court press on Troy. He does a love letter scavenger hunt. I was just thinking when I was watching this, like my wife would fucking hate this. Oh really?

Yeah. I was thinking my wife would love this. I would also be like way too nervous. Like she would be irritated and I would be like, is it working? Is she gonna get the clues? Like did I write them as cluey enough but also easy enough to get that she'll get the next one?

Yeah. There's some real riker confidence in the idea of doing this at all, isn't there? I'm just gonna be in this outback steakhouse alone by myself all night. I don't know if I could take on a second Bloomin' Onion. I think I should try. That's a sad onion. Yeah.

Yeah, there's nothing sadder than like a one quarter done Bloomin onion. You're gonna finish that. Do you want us to box it up? No. Then your car smells like onion on the way home? Yeah, this is never gonna be the same. It's gonna be all soggy the next day. Yeah. This is a pretty intense date. It starts like heated. She's saying the story of how Commander Raker kind of stood her up for this kind of epic riser fuck fest that they had planned and really like poured himself into his career and how that really

tore her up. What I didn't say is how disappointed I was. She's not happy about it, but he plays it well. And like he... He doesn't throw right or right under the bus all the way, which is interesting. Like, I think weaker writing would have been like, I know he looks like me and everything, but he's not me, I'm truly different, and I'm ready to write those wrongs.

Like, he's far more subtle in a way that is way more satisfying than that would be. Yeah, it's much more of a much much more of an American tale type of deal where he's talking about looking up at a star and thinking that she might be looking at that same star. And and they get to this point in the conversation where they're kind of saying like maybe we were looking up at the same star thinking about each other because like the riker that I loved like kind of Stop being the same person, but you kind of still were that person

Marina service is great in this episode She fucking kills it and it feels like it's been a long time since we've really gotten into the riker Troy back story deeply and they really go in a deep dive here and it's so satisfying like man for all the Warf Alexander stuff we get like this is a real a real juicy storyline that we just don't get enough of in the series well what happens anytime, Dr. Beverly or Councillor Troy is having a romantic fling.

They get together for a workout. And they're practicing their, they're a Klingon yoga. And Riker Beta wanders into the workout room. And Dr. Beverly does like the great, like she does like the opposite of a cock block. She's like, well, I was just leaving. She does that thing.

She did intend forward when Pipes was dating the piano player. She totally pieces out like a great wingman. Yeah. Good job, I heard. Yeah. Are you hearing all that crazy thunder? I just heard that one. Damn. Wow.

Fucking heavens have opened up over here. It's really going off. This is the question, right? Like they fall into each other's arms. Like they do a couple of little chapsacky moves and then they're just rolling around on the floor smooching. And it is the Troy who loved and lost Rolling around with the raker of the past that she like remembers being in love with It is not the raker that she's grown into having a friendly personal relationship with in a good professional relationship with there's a kind of magic trick here they're doing

that, whoa, I definitely heard that one. Ha ha ha. This is a haunted episode of the greatest generation. Yeah. And after we close the mics here, I'm gonna go do some murders. Is your dog okay? He's probably hiding under the bed.

That's his typical move. There's a magic trick that this episode does that, I don't know if it worked like this for you, but this should have been cheesy. This whole second chance that Troy gets with a man that she used to love that turns out still loves her. Like why does this work? It does, is what I'm saying. But it seems like a miracle that it does.

Yeah, well, I think that, like they do this on soap operas all the time, right? The guy comes out of the coma, like, that sort of thing and it's total shit, but it works here. I think the reason it works is that she winds up being like, really emotionally honest about the situation. Like she is, when she's rolling around on the floor with him, very explicitly giving

into an emotional temptation. But her later scene with him is basically the opposite. It's like I love the idea of being with the Riker that I had in my head when we were planning that Riza trip But I actually have some game tape on this I don't know if you know this but there's another one of you and I actually got to find out what happened when he got back from that mission and it was blow me off and Leave me holding the bag on the expensive Riza plane tickets, so yeah holding the bag on the expensive Ryza plane tickets. So.

Yeah. There's such a fascinating scene related to that where Riker Prime sort of warns Troy about Riker Beta in the, you know how I am, right? Like if we're truly the same person, then this guy's just as capable of hurting you as I did. Which is like mind blowing. Yeah, that's why this episode is so great is like,

it's one of the few episodes I can think of where they're not afraid to kind of darken one of the characters, make them not an exemplary person. Have a real, like this is a real flaw in Rikers character. Yeah. I read a Sharon Stone quote recently that this made me think of, which was women fake orgasms, men fake whole relationships.

I was like, man, like, yeah, like Ryger is basically saying, I'm kind of a dog and if you trust this guy, you're potentially going to fall for the same thing and Troy's like, yeah, you're fucking right. Boom, we can't get fooled again. It's such a weird twist on the, you know, the like Bob Seeger song lyric mentality of like, I'm just gonna hurt you, babe. Like, stay away from me,

but it's like, stay away from that guy who is also me. Stay away from us. Yeah. Troy having had the benefit of eight years of life experience. Stay away from us. Troy having had the benefit of eight years of life experience, like after rolling around with Riker Beta on the yoga mat, she has some time to think on things, and she is, you know, as she let her guard down there in all definitions of that, but I think having had some time to think about it, like she has not given herself entirely over to the idea at this point. It's going to take more than

a single role in the hay to get Deanna Troy to leave her life and career, right? Yeah. She makes a really interesting decision here. I mean, because I think that while Riker Prime is totally right and while she does play the safe hand here, she also, you know, like she doesn't change it up for love and like sometimes that's the right move. And maybe it was here, you know, maybe the eight years of isolation are the thing that changes the kind of constitution of Rikers character. The other thing we never get in this episode is like the two Rikers exploring what masturbating is like when there's two of you. What would you do if you had a million dollars, Troy? Two rikers at once?

Two rikers at once on a pile of scarves. Yeah, there's a lot of twin-style debasement that could happen here that you don't see for obvious reasons. So we become less and less interested in the file management story and more and more interested in the idea of like what is, what does Riker Beta going to do? Like he needs to start a life here. And so Picard ends up hooking him up with a job

on another ship. Yeah, they like, I think they like narrowly get the files. There's like a kind of an intense action scene where Riker Prime saves Riker Beta from falling down a Kirk style. A planet but hole. Yeah, it's like, it's like the same, it's the same catwalk that, uh, that they had in Star Trek generations, right? Yeah, it's like the same catwalk that they had in Star Trek generations, right? Yeah, it's the same like... And back draft and about a million other movies.

You can't walk across those catwalks without them falling over. Yeah, you gotta be careful with those fuckers. But yeah, the captain arranges for yellow shirt Riker to go get a commission on a different ship and it's a great opportunity and he's like, he's like, yeah Troy, like there's nothing stopping you from coming with me. Maybe we could even get married. And this is like straight out of the Riker Prime playbook. She's like, I remember this line. You said those exact words to me before you went to Sobelnip the time can.

She's like, I worked really hard to get here. I have a life here. No can do. Bub, she in the Kelly Taylor parlance chooses me. I've made my choice and I choose me. They're about to smooch and Riker Prime wanders in. He's like, oh shit, fuck. Sorry, sorry, bra, were you about to get in on that?

And he's like, no, no, we were just talking. Riker Prime is like, well, all of my shit is essentially your shit, but maybe the most years of all is this Trump own, so I decided to give it to you. There's a certain amount of disgusting that comes with playing a rented musical instrument that I know fairly well from junior high and high school. I'm not sure if I'm right.

I'm not sure if I'm right. Never had one lesson. But there's probably no such feeling when you're giving that instrument to yourself, right? Like the mouthpiece just smells like it's yours. It smells like your brand. Wafting, wafting, or everyone likes their own brand, don't they? So maybe this is sort of the masturbation scene I was missing.

I wonder if Riker Beta can play the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of you, you're not the god of climax of the episode is Trombone contest. Yeah. That would be cheesy as hell. It would be cheesy as hell. Trombone contest to find out who's gonna be the commander. Yeah, yeah. It's like a real 80s movie race down the bottom of the ski solemn type finale. Yeah, it's gonna decide whether the developer is gonna kick all the townies out. Yeah. There is some trivia about this episode, which is that it was going to, in that climactic scene with the catwalk, they were gonna kill Commander Riker and have Lieutenant Riker join the staff of the ship

as a junior officer, like data would have become first officer kind of a thing. And then fun to think about. Just to put you on the spot, like, are you pro that move or not? Man, it, because reflexively, I am pro that move that I'm pro that move from move from just like a being a totally interesting twist to the story. Like I'm not sure if a TV series of this era really had what it takes to grapple with something like that. Because it's such an operatic kind of idea. Like somebody's rank changing so fundamentally

and like we have to think of them as a different person. I feel like you know in our little second golden age here we could maybe make that work but perhaps not 30 years ago. If they had decided to do it and the consequence was as ham-handed and awful as the end of Star Trek Nemesis with data and his replacement robot. Like, I'm really glad they didn't go that route. But, the idea of a lieutenant-wiker serving aboard the- Spoiler, by the way, geez. No one should see that movie, by the way. I would encourage you not to-

You had a good chance that we have to watch it and go on tour about it. If my spoiler saves one life out there from wasting those two hours, it will have been worth it. The idea of that low level sadness of any scene that Lieutenant Riker is in, who has to interact with, who is ostensibly his best friend,

War, for example, like, Right. This is the guy, this is my best friend, but we do not have the foundation of a friendship that we used to have at all. Like, there would be such a great tension in every scene that he's in that I would have liked to have seen what that kind of show would have been like

for the last season. Like, do they have a funeral for Riker Prime? They'd have to, right? And then does Riker beta have to speak at it? Of all the souls I've encountered in my travels, his was the most human. Of all the souls I've encountered in my travels his was the most erotic Real head fuck man, yeah, you need an extra large torpedo to shoot out of the tube when you when you step it full a raker There's a big lump in the middle where his boner is

The guys are like sitting on the torpedo hood to close it. We need two or three more guys. It appears the rigor has taken hold. Did you like the episode Adam? Yes. I really did. It might be mountain worthy, like in a fourth position mountain worthy. I really loved it. I might put it on mine as well. I It was not only great as an episode, but it was great in the head too like because my

Canon was always running through this episode and it was no less satisfying to like be be punching up or punching down as I watched it just really fun like Yeah, every time every time you come up with like an idea of what be punching up or punching down as I watched it. Just really fun. Like, very well developed. Yeah, every time you come up with like an idea of what of what would be a fun scene to have, they throw it in there for you. Like, oh man, like what about this guy playing poker with Pregor Prime?

Yeah. Here you go. We did that for you, you know? Like they don't leave a lot of stones unflipped. Yeah. And like if you were to pitch me the idea of, you know, give, we need one of these every season, give me a Rikertroy romance story.

This is the best realization of what that story could be. Really great. Solid as seers. Ben, do we have any priority one messages in the box? Oh, I don't imagine we do, but I suppose we should check. Do we have one priority one message and then an exact copy of that priority one message? We'll find out. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel.

Need a supplement? A supplement? A supplement. A supplement. Yes, extra. How do you interest alone? Could be enough to buy this ship. Adam, we have a couple of priority one messages here.

And the first one is from your dad, Mark Kruzik. And it's for Isabella. Isabella, I am very proud of you. You're a great daughter, and I'm excited about you starting the next phase of your life. At Chatham College, please be sure to study data's cat poetry carefully. I love you, dad.

That's sweet. That is very sweet. It is amazing to think that there are multiple generations of families listening to our show That's great a little advice to Isabella though Like it I don't know if this is the sort of college that that has a dorm where you'd be living with roommates and stuff I would keep our pod Headphones only

Just for social reasons. Yeah, if you get a poster from our upcoming tour Maybe hang in in your home your bedroom at home, you know like inside the closet door Maybe your dad sounds like probably a pretty cool parent in terms of like won't throw out your greatest gen stuff when you Move off to college, you know? There's a lot of a lot of parents out there throw away their children's bull-headed baseball cards, the second they're out to do our... It sounds like you were raised in a safe environment. Yeah, yeah.

Do we have any other priority one message as that? Sure do you, Ben. This message is from Lily. It is 4-10. It goes like this. Happy fourth anniversary. I know we said no presents, but it doesn't really count if it's early

and on a Star Trek podcast, right? You're my favorite and I can't wait to spend the rest of our lives stacking isolinear chips in Shimoda Corner. Punch squad activates. ice-illinear chips in Shimoda Corner. Punch squad activates! Oh, premature gifting-ation. Yeah. You know, so much of a marriage is just the daily task of stacking chips, making sure they don't fall over. Sure.

I like what Lilian Tim have going here. Yeah. I like that Lilia is like changing the game up, you know, no gift in terms of like I'm not gonna give you some object that's worthless, but I do want to make a gesture. Yeah, I especially like the idea of making a rule and then breaking that rule, but breaking the rule in the other person's favor. That's fun. Yeah. Well, if you have a message of a personal nature or a commercial nature, you can go to MaximumFund.org slash JumboTron. Personal's are 100.

Commercial's are 200. They're a great way to keep up with the ongoing production of our show. D'Armoch, Angela, and D'Armoch, Angela, and D'Armoch, Ben. What's that, Adam? Did you find yourself an exact copy of an already existing drunk Shimoda? Drunk Shimoda!

I'm going to give mine to Jordy for the scene in engineering when Troy's on her little scavenger hunt. She, uh, she comes down and finds a, like a, like a flower and a note on the warp core. Can I help you, Councilor? No, thank you. Man, like, come on, you're chief engineer. You should know when somebody's tampering with the warp cord.

In a fairly serious episode throughout, this was the outlier scene, and this was my charmoda too, though. Like, Jordy is ostensibly supposed to be the guy that sees everything. Yeah. What is a, what is a cloned riker doing with access to engineering up to the point where he could touch the warp core? And also like when she walks away, Jordi is like, is like side-eyeing the warp core. It's almost as if to say, how could you? Yeah. Does Jordi have some here to for unannounced romantic

relationship with the warp core? It's like the next day of Rathamus Riker. Like he shouldn't be given full range of the ship, right? Yeah. They don't know if he's a, if he's a plant or what? Yeah, he could still be a bad. Another from the case files of security chief Wurf, not great security.

Come on Wurf. Do we have, what do we have coming up on the next episode then? The next episode is season six, episode 25, Time Escape. The entrepreneur is frozen in time on the brink of total annihilation and Picard must figure out how to rescue it without destroying it. Do you remember this episode Adam?

What is the it in that statement the ship? The ship. Huh Sounds a lot like that that time-scape mission where they found Malibu Picard Yeah, it's like there it's like there's a there's like a bullet flying at the head of the ship and Somebody has pressed pause and Picard can move around in the scene. Hmm feels like they've given Patrick Stewart a nice long break Like I almost forgot he was a character on this show. I'm happy to know that we're getting maybe a Picard centric episode again.

Yeah, he hasn't done much since the chase, has he? Yeah, yeah. I remember really liking this episode. So I'm excited to watch it. It'll be the first time in a while for me. So it'll feel like new. I love that new Star Trek smell. Adam, one thing that doesn't smell is our Legion of Viewers who go online and chat with us about the show

using the hashtag greatestgen on Twitter, where Adam is at Cut for Time, and I'm at BenjaminR.A.H.R. We also got GratisGen.Wikia.com. We've got GratisGen.Reddit.com. We've got the greatest Jen Facebook group. There's also a page you can like on Facebook. A lot of fun places to chat and get down on some greatest Jen goodness. If you're interested in supporting the show there's just a number of ways to do that. Maybe one that we haven't talked about in a while is like the ongoing need for ratings and reviews.

That is probably the number one way that people find out that this show exists. So if you listen to the show and enjoy it, be sure to rate and review it. Go on Apple Podcasts, leave a nice reading. It is a nice thing to do doesn't take you very long. Yeah. Ben we've got extra episodes for people who donate to to finance the support of our show. Those episodes I think are some of our best work. So I hope if you haven't thought of supporting the show yet, that might be a good carrot to entice you into doing so. Yeah, there's one of our live shows

and there is our legendary Crimson Tide episode of an entirely custom made theme song by Adam Ragusia. The goose! Speaking of whom, we should thank the goose for making a lot of the music for this show and also dark material who made our theme song. Absolutely. Very graciously, let us use it.

With that, we will be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek, the Next Generation, and an episode of the greatest generation that's rip in farts and then drenched, milie faces in the puffs of those farts. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound.

Make it sound. Y'all pick out of, got it, got it, got it. Maximumfund.org Comedy and culture, artist owned. Listener supported.