The Greatest Generation - All Plenty, No Horn (S7E7)

Episode Date: July 31, 2017

When Lwaxana Troi drinks from a telepathic firehose, it gives her a wicked headache before putting her into a coma. But when Deanna Troi's investigation results in the discovery of a dark family secret, she must find a way to escape the prison constructed within her mother's mind. What is the easiest stitch? How do you comb your hair around temple loaf? Who does the gardening in the arboretum? It’s the episode that doesn’t have as many good ideas as the number of shows we have to do.

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. Last time on Star Trek, the next generation. It's tempting to veto and I kind of think this might be one of the least worst looxon episodes, and maybe there are dragons in the direction that we're heading

that I need to save my weapons for. There is no greater dragon than eloxon atroid though. I don't know if I agree with that Adam. And this is a sure thing Ben. It's a sure thing. I need to do the responsible thing here. Ben and Vito the episode.

No! This is a fully authenticated emergency action message. And you're such an idiot. There is a... Laxana... Ready to fire her missiles at us. I do not concur, sir. I do not concur.

Countervita. I should have known we would never get to use one of these. I'm the commander of this fucking ship, Ben. And now the conclusion. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage! Welcome to the greatest generation. This Star Trek podcast by two guys are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast. I'm Adam Pranika.

I'm Ben Harrison. I'm standing up right now, Ben. I've got a stand up desk. Oh, you're one of those. Stand and deliver pod. I can't believe I'm in the middle of season seven and I'm just finding this out. I feel so violated. I bet you have finger toes shoes also.

You have an image of me at heart at work. Just chillaxed and hunched over. I have a read. You get a back injury to desktop Ben, you got to stand up. Now I'm picturing you with gene shorts, finger toe shoes, standing desk, one of those razor scooters,

probably a vape pen too. Ben, I'm insulted. You would think that of that list of items I would own a pair of jean shorts. How dare you. Do not own any jean shorts, Ben, do you? No, I don't. You know what a hot move is?

Is getting linen pants from the sale rack of your favorite store like I'm talking like $10 pants and then and then having them hemmed into shorts. Having them hemmed. Hem your own short Adam. Really? A hem stitch is the easiest stitch. Fuck you man. You're such a bastard like him shaving me. I will happily him shame anybody who doesn't hem their own shit. Anybody can learn a hem stitch. Watch a two minute YouTube video.

You don't need to pay the guy $15 to do it. And furthermore, don't buy $10 pants. Those pants are made by slave labor. No, I'm talking about pants that were originally $200 in the like deep, deep sale rack because they're like, because they're like $324 or something like that. They're of a length that no one would ever buy. And those are the perfect ones to make shorts out of. All right, I see the logic like that. They're of a length that no one would ever buy. And those are the perfect ones to make shorts out of. All right, I see the logic in that.

I'm still reeling from the, from the hem shaming. I thought I was doing the right thing, and now it turns out have been wrong the whole time. Here's what I'll say Adam. There's a way you can wiggle out of this. If you want a is if you want a If you want a hem where you can see the seam And you don't have a sewing machine I can see taking that into somebody

but of course I don't have a sewing machine. Yeah, if you're just hemming, like if you're just making an invisible hem, like anybody can do this. Even I can. You are such a dandy. Ha ha ha ha. I'm gonna bring you my pants to turn into shorts. I'm gonna turn this into a business arrangement. Fuck you. You see, you get me cornered and I just need to lash out.

I need to punch back. Makes me sad, Ben. Speaking of grief. Well, this episode is about addressing grief, isn't it? I guess it is. I guess I'm kind of grieving this Marin. Like we had so, we started the show with a blank slate a tabula rasa If you will we could have done anything with this Marin open and instead

This is what we did. Do you want to start over? Here's to the finest crew in stopping Let's just fuck you review the show. Fine. Season 7. Episode 7. Dark page. It's a little walk-sana episode, Adam.

You tell me this episode isn't about grief. It is entirely about grief. I didn't tell me this episode isn't about grief. It is entirely about grief. I didn't disagree with you. It's about grief. Are we mad at each other because we mutually assured vetoed each other? Is that what's going on here? We're just, we haven't addressed it really.

The post-vito, veto reversal episodes are always a bit angsty. Yeah. We are also, like, we're recording this episode, weeks and weeks and weeks ahead of when it will come out. And I can only imagine the shit storm that we've stirred up online with our seven consecutive seasons of fucking the veto up. I'm really looking forward to not paying attention to any of those reds, as I always do. I do a fair amount of reading about how our viewers feel about our program, but if any

of those threads question our motivations, I'm not having it. I don't know what my motivations are. They are true and honorable. I'll believe it when I see it Adam. This episode is one of many Laoxana episodes that starts with a bit of comedy about how annoying Laoxana is. Which is, I'm sure we've talked about this before, but like if you're in the writer's room,

you're writing this scene about how annoying it is. Like, are they, are they kind of making fun of Major Barrett? See, that's what I was wondering. Like, at what point is your character the butt of the same joke so long that you think that you're being typecast? Yeah, I mean she's kind of laughing all the way to the bank, right? Because she keeps getting these episodes and keeps getting them in deep space 9, too.

Yeah, she got an action figure. I have mine right here. She's legit. So the walk's on is wrapping with Picard about these new aliens, these carons. These carons up until now only spoke telepathically. The Waxana's rapping with Picard about how... If two carons were having this conversation, it would have been over minutes ago. Really? They couldn't communicate with anyone who is non telepathic, so that's why I'm here. I got a new job. It's great.

It's kind of a sort of a translator. It's a bit of a payoff of the idea of the Darmock episode. They had, they could tell that everybody was flying around the galaxy doing intelligence, but they could not crack the code of how to communicate with them. That's what the Darmak episode needed, just a thick spread of Waxana. So that when you squeeze the episode halves together, the

LaWaxana just shoots out the sides. Gross. Waxana is really the tartar sauce of Star Trek, the next generation characters. You know in Canada they dip their fries in Loxana. Yeah, but it only counts if you're like drunk, right? Yeah. And because it's like great, that's so interesting. Awesome.

I would rather talk to someone who has a feeble grasp of my language than talk to you thanks so he's like he does that thing like when you're stuck talking to someone at a party he's like oh I see someone that I want to talk to you over there I gotta go organize my I organized my sock drawer on the other side of the room. Yeah, and then Picard is introduced to Mark and his daughter, who is played by Kirsten Dunst. How do you pronounce this guy's name? McQuis? McQuis?

I almost want to boot up the episode to get this right. I'm going to listen to it in the episode while we're sitting here, you vamp for a second. Oh shit. I'm gonna play, I'm like right queued up to when Loxana walks up to him. Makewies, this is the beautiful daughter I've been telling you about Diana. Makewies.

Makewies. Makewies. Makewies. Why don't you make-wee-s like a tree and introduce me to your daughter, Kirsten Dunst. I'm going to go ahead and say, Adam, I regret not allowing every touch to go through. Exactly. I feel like we could do this episode in 10 minutes. This was a classic case of,

I've got a slugline for a story and not much else. Let's pad this fucker. Let's pad it so hard. It's a slugline and it's also just like, okay, what was the premise of the last episode? Bad dreams, causing problems for everybody. All right. Well, let's just do that again. And then like, bring a guy that looks like very much like the guy that was doing the raping in the other episode where Loaxana is a like a guy who is who is played for how dangerous he may be because he looks so much like that guy. He's got telepathic rape face. Exactly. And he's he's played for that. Like we suspect him all the way up to the middle bit of the episode where Troy wakes up in six bay and sees him like leering at her mother in the dark. He's got a facelift looks like a murder weapon. Yeah.

in the dark. He's got a facelift looks like a murder weapon. Yeah. When I meet a guy like this in in real life, I like stand in between him and my wife, you know. Yeah, gotta keep an eye on this guy. Yeah, also his daughter is custandanced. Did you have a drunk Shimoda? Adam. Munchimodo! Uh, yeah. Uh... I do, actually. God, we should just fucking kill this episode. Let's go hard on this episode. What do you say? Here's what I'm gonna suggest, Adam. I'm gonna... Pause the playback right now.

I'm already, like, two-sips into a beer, but I'm gonna go down and get the rest of the six-pack. Alright, I'm gonna load up, too. I don't have a shoot to be today. Alright, I'm gonna load up too. I don't have a shoot to be today. Alright, I'll be right back. Ben, this is one of the best ideas you've ever had. I had to get drunk for this episode.

I got two beers on the table and a few more close by. Okay, I love it. I only I ran downstairs. I only had three beers in the house, including the one I'm already into. So I may need to switch to harder stuff uh, if I drink at the rate I predict that I will, did you hear the Jordan Jesse go episode where the guest was talking about what I had known before then as the century club, but he had talked like 60 and 60, like 60 shots of beer and 60 minutes. Oh, power hour. The power hour century club is 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes.

The Power Hour is 60 and 60. I have only ever done the Century Club. Oh my God. I don't fuck around with the Power Hour. I've done the Power Hour twice, both in college. You didn't learn the first time. The first time I did it, we were watching 24, which was a great TV show to watch while you do the power hour.

The second, and we did it with like, with like, natty light or something, which is not good beer, but it's the right beer to do that type of project with because the second time I did it with the short-lived Budweiser energy drink beer B to the E. Oh no. Do you remember that product? Were you guys a test market for that? It was heavily marketed in New York City and New York City is not typically a test market as far as I know. But- Did you drink this beverage in a room with a two-way mirror? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. We want to see you- And a guy with a clipboard watching you.

Yeah, if this is a power hour enhancement beverage, or what? But man, we were like 30 shots in and we were like, this is a bad idea. Your pupils are like giant. They've, my pupils are bigger than my face. Oh no. So you got a DNF on that one, on that power hour. That second power hour, yeah, stopped before it really started.

Ooh, the one and only time I did the century club, That second power hour, yeah, stopped before it really started. Ooh. The one and only time I did the century club, I took my last eight shots over the toilet. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. A toilet that I was carried to. Mm. Yeah, well there's-

No, you get that far, you have to complete, Ben. You have to complete, and also, you can't walk yourself to the toilet, you're too busy doing shots Yeah, oh Boy, well, let's let's make the deal. Let's not power-hour this episode Ben But let's let's make the deal between you and me to just drink as fast as possible. I can care The counselor's mom is not looking great in this episode. She's like, she's, uh, pencil did. You need to be more specific, Ben.

Oh, Lwaxana. No, about not looking great. See, that's mean. I already turned mean and I mean drinker. She's got like dark circles drawn under her eyes. She's, she's not her normal booby self. She's wearing very, very conservative clothing. That even gets commented on. There's a real lack of decolatage here. Yeah, yeah, I gotta get that decolatage out.

Is that the right way to say that word? I'm assuming it's from the French and they would pronounce it deco-letage. Of course they would. You say decomato. I say decomato. Let's call the whole thing off at them. Uh-huh.

She's exhausted because she has done the amazing feat of learning how to communicate with these people. They have a telepathic mode of communication and communicate entirely in imagery, which is not the way beta-zoids do their telepathy. But the Karen have put on little voice boxes and are learning to talk out loud like the rest of the federation. And I guess they're under consideration for being admitted to the federation. You see a little bit later, like the effect, like the difference between being a betasoid that ingests telepathy, verbally, versus the way that the can do it. And it's like, you get the drink from the fire.

Oh, it's like when Bill Pullman goes and goes and has his powwow with the captured alien and independence day, he sees the whole thing. Yeah, I've seen it all. They're a little weirded out by the fact that when they talk to Loaxana, they don't see all of it. Yeah. Something mysterious about this woman. Can't quite put my finger on it.

Or in it. Or in it. Because it's a black hole in his description. And Troy's like, oh, that's just shit she doesn't want you to know about. She's a private person. Yeah, I mean, she will never shut up in any situation ever,

but even she has something she keeps to herself. But that's just the thing. I mean, I feel like this is such a blatant retcon of The way beta zoids are supposed to be right like wasn't there a whole episode where she was like Shocked and appalled at how people kept secrets from each other on the entrepreneur. Yeah So now she's a super private person Who keeps secrets shoved down deep. Look, I think we know from a couple episodes ago that the producers of the show have given up at this point.

It's over for them. They're just, they've, they've got scripts and they're just cramming them into a meat grinder and then like, scripts and they're just cramming them into a meat grinder and then like like script meat is coming out the bottom and they're just like turning that into cash. They're like look we've just got to shit out 20 more episodes of this show and then we can all retire. That's all we have to do just 20 more. A number of episodes per season that will be the standard forever. No one will ever do fewer than 26. No one will ever question the wisdom of spending this much time and money when you don't have as many good ideas as the number of episodes you have to deliver. We get speaking of cost savings, we get a couple of scenes in the Arboretum, a place that

we have seen a little bit before, but Ben, I've seen better Arboretums in the lobby of a courtyard by Marriott. Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep! Courtyard by Marriott, presenting this episode. There's a freebie courtyard. Yeah. Courtyard by Marriott is the inexpensive millennial version of Marriott. It's not even the nice Marriott is the inexpensive millennial version of Marriott.

It's not even the nice Marriott. Then we're made to believe that people go on dates in the Arboretum, they go for walks throughout the Arboretum. Ben, is that walk just like 30 feet in circumference? Basically, is that what it takes to surrogate? I think they navigate the Arboretum. I think when Kaka was on board,

the implication was that there was like a much bigger space with like trees and shit that they just never panned over to. But they've, they've, they've, they've disparate of, of implying that here. It's just, it's just a room with grass instead of carpet. They, they certainly have disperred. Abandon all hope. All you need here.

All you need here. Enter the Arboretum. Kirsten Dunst seems to like it. I kept on hoping for coy in this pond. I love a coy pond. It seems to beoi in this pond. I love a Koi pond. It seems to be just a standard pond. Just a tepid pool.

Basically a drowning danger to anyone who plays there. I think the existence of the Arboretum proves one thing, and that is it must be wildly difficult to get holiday time on the ship because if you could there'd be no need for this basement with ferns in it. This Arboretum is scarcely better than the fucking room with the screen that shows an image of a forest that Ripley goes to. There's two kids playing in this arboretum and one of them is definitely wearing the same costume as the older girl in the episode where Picard and the three children have to like crawl around in the Jeffrey's tubes. Oh, right.

Was that disaster? Yeah. Yeah, I'll always remember the episode titled Disaster as the one where Troy's captain. Unmistakable same costume. Yeah. Actually, the little boy might be wearing J. Gordon's costume. So put that in your pipe and smoke it. They burned all the cash on the Arboretum set.

That sweet, sweet Arboretum set where they got half as many ferns as they usually do from the ACE Garden Center. They should have holodecked this. I don't understand its existence. I mean, here's the thing at them. like how expensive would it have been to get like a 30 foot by 30 foot flat and go into an actual forest and put the flat up and just have that be the wall that they come through? I thought the same thing. I also thought I wonder if all the good plants died when Keko left.

Maybe she was really important to the upkeep of the Arboretum. And now that she's gone, it's just a garbage pile. Well, one thing that's garbage is the rocks around the little water feature, because Kirsten Dunst is walking around them. One of the rocks gets loose. She falls in the drain. Everybody's having a laugh and then they realize that Laoxana has also fallen. Mother! And she can't get up. Hahaha.

They wheeler into Six Bay and they're doing an exam honor. And I believe Dr. Crusher says... It's almost as if her brain has shut itself down. Much like I felt watching this episode then. Were you up on the late night watching this? I was indeed. There's something kind of soul-crushing about turning your favorite TV show into work

and then having to cram for your podcast the next day. Most of the time this is 90% fun. Occasionally, when you're trying to cram episode production ahead of a tour, like the way we're doing, it's more task-based. Yeah. I say, as I'm almost done with my first beer. Oh, I'm into my second, buddy.

Oh, boy. Yeah, it's almost as if her brain has shut itself down. And basically what she's described is a lwaxana troy in a persistent vegetative state, but the only part of her brain still active is the weird betzoid part. That's the only reason they're not contemplating and unplugging. Just flushing her out the airlock? Yeah. I lost my father a long time ago, but I lost my mother. In a way, that didn't leave me feeling very much closure. It's not so much that she died, but that she slipped away slowly.

I threw throwing star after throwing star at the body of my mother. There was nothing on my belt that could help her. There's no grappling hook strong enough to pull someone back from an abyss like that. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie.

I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. He's in his condo play in the flute, but like playing tunes that are a little happier than you might expect. Never took one lesson. He does help Troy kind of put the screws to make grease.

Make grease? Make haze. Make grease? Did they... With an apostrophe? Were they gonna write Machaz. Makeways? Did they- With an apostrophe? Were they gonna write Machee? Makeways?

Like the terrorists? And then- and then- Did they just recycle his name for the terrorists? God, I don't know. You just read his name! How did we forget it already? Who fucking cares about this guy's name? Makeways?

What's- What's up with his tempular loaf? Yeah, they all have big ass temple loaf. It's gotta be hard to get a good haircut when your head shaped like that. You basically can only get the Dick Tracy flat top cut. I feel like this is an alien species that needs to convert to Christianity. They need Jesus to come clean out the temple. Uhhh.

You know what's great about that joke, but it is that anyone who would have heard it has already shut off the pot by now. It's just us now, man. You and me. And maybe, maybe this is appropriate. Maybe this is how we should end our show. Not with a bang, but with a fart. All right. What are you drinking today, buddy? I am drinking Fremont Summer Ale. It's an American pale ale.

Yeah. It is delicious. It is Daniel from Maximum Fun shouted us out a while ago for coining the term porch beer. And this is a little meteor than what I would consider a porch beer. A little too much flavor for porch use, but still very good. Very toothsome as a beer goes. Sure. I'm drinking beer from 6-point brewery called The Jammer.

And it's like, are you down with these goza beers that all the kids are drinking, Adam? Are those like, like pot sticker beers? They're like a sour, like a German style sour. Oh, yeah, yeah, I do like them. You know what, I like them when I'm out, but I have not bought any for home consumption. These have a bit of coriander and salt in them, so they kind of taste a bit like a chalada.

Like they got a little chalada thing going. A little lower alcohol. I think you would find this to be a totally acceptable porch beer if I had to put money on it. The defining characteristic of a porch beer is the ability to slam like six of them and anything with a pronounced flavor like that, anything that veers toward Chalada town. I feel like that would get pretty old after two. Is that not the case? You lost to let me know after four, which will happen

in about 10 minutes for you. They've got Temple of Guy in here. And speaking of jamming, he beams his thoughts into Troy's head. And maybe more than any other scene, this is the one where we are concerned that it may be going in the direction of the most upsetting episode of Trek. Yeah, I mean, Troy is almost blown back in her seat, like fingernails in the conference room table. Yeah. Style, like, taking it from this guy. It's like the maxel tape ad.

Yeah. And it goes on, like, like, you think that Picard should probably hit him over the back of the head with a chair to stop him? Yeah, like a wild rabbit dog who is sunk as teeth into a leg. Like you gotta do anything you can to get those jaws open. It'd be like if you're sitting in a room with two people and one of them casually takes out a hand drill and just sticks it into the other person's leg and starts drilling. And you just like waited a good three, four, five Mississippi before you told them to stop. Stop it.

Like the timing in the scene is super weird. It could also be like the sort of surprise panic that always slows things down for a decision-maker. Like I could see being a little bit detached and weirded out by the scene before sort of snapping out of it and then throwing that chair as you've suggested. Right. So what they get from this is this, it's not that Laxana just had some private thoughts, but that there's something like eating her inside.

There's some part of her psyche that is unwell. I mean, the exposition that we get for this is like, there's something about the betazoid psyche that will sort of eat itself out of self preservation, right? Like, there's something destructive happening to her mind. It isn't just a firewall, like, it's being damaged. Yeah, her psyche stepped in a bear trap and it is chewing its own leg off. Right.

The plan that gets proposed to fix this is like plugging Deanna's mind into Mekes. Mekes? And then plugging Mekes into Waxana. It's the exact same plan as the last episode. It's, let's go into the dream and solve the problem from in there. Yeah, it's like jump starting a mind car. You get the cables all willy nilly, you get a you get a put your clamp, your black clamp, and then your red clamp. Yeah, that's what it's like, Adam.

Yeah, so Troy gets to walk around another dream scape, much like Picard and Jordy got to. The only difference is the lighting is a bit different this time. They're like, we got this white ass lens. Yeah, we don't have to return it until tomorrow. So, let's write another dream sequence. What do you say? Yeah, this time, like, you could make the case that this dream is more Out there than data's dream because there are things like Hallways to nowhere and condos that lead to Troy as a baby that fucking wolf to there's some wolf times with a real wolf. Yeah

We've been in the presence. I have not been in the presence of a wolf. I went to kind of a a hippie-dippy high school and my One of our morning meetings one morning they had like some wolf conservationists come to talk to us about the importance of wolf conservation and they brought a wolf the importance of wolf conservation and they brought a wolf. Oh my god, wolves are scary, dude. Yeah. Like it was a one wolf in a room of like, you know, 350 kids and teachers. And it was terrifying to be in a room with a wolf. They've got kind of stilty legs. Yeah. And their eyes are really sliddy. It's like seeing a gun, you know?

You're like, that thing is there for killing me with. Like, that's all it's there for. I read in the show notes for this that no one wanted to be around the wolf. And the wolf was actually screened and comped in. Like, when, uh, when Kirsten Dunn's pets the wolf later, she's petting a stump. Whoa. And comping the wolf afterwards.

They did a good job with that comp. The wolf terrorized everyone. Wolves are scary as fuck and they're like not that trainable, you know? They're that sort of animal that's too smart for training. They're not domesticated and if they were, they wouldn't look like a wolf. Yeah. So, Joyce's her dad.

All the shit going on this first time she's in the dream is like wolf and the dad and Picard, all trying to like stop her finding her mom. It's sort of like the haunted house trope of when the kids are getting close to the answer of the mystery. Luxon's mind is doing everything it can to get Troy out of here,

to distract it with something, to like break her down in a way, and teasing her with her dad is like especially cruel. Deanna. Daddy? Because her dad died when Troy was very young. It's that thing that can happen when you get in a fight with a very dear loved one, is that you know where all of their...

all of their soft spots are. I'm sorry I had to go away when you were so little. Don't do this. And that can... Like, if you can't control yourself, that... that can be a bad, bad thing. Who knows where you are the most sensitive more than your mother?

Yeah, don't get in a fight with your mom, jerks. Yeah. It's like, don't pick a fight with somebody who buys ink by the barrel. Or your mom. That's the saying. So the thing that Oaxana is suffering from has to do with some trauma, but they can't figure out like what trauma she could be dealing with.

And Picard and Troy, Picard is like really the buddy cop in this episode. It's a Troy episode with Picard buddy copping the entire time. Like is Warr wolf even in this God, I don't know. Oh, he's in the party at the beginning. He has even less shit to do in this episode than he didn't last one He's really taking some time off I Think he's considering that offer from deep space nine Michael Dorna's like hey guys I'm fine with coming in

and standing around and not saying anything, but can I not be a Klingon for this episode? Here's the thing, I'm getting paid so little, there better be food on set for me to eat. So I only want to participate in buffet scenes and scenes where there are sheet kicks. That's really been his deal. There's been a lot of craft service, like on-camera craft service this season.

Party Worf. Yeah. They find the Waxana's journal, which he's kept for decades. This is a seven-year gap. Hand deleted by the Waxana herself. And they're like, that's gotta be it. And it's like right around when Troy was born, that this, this block, this missing block ends. My mother's so diligent about her journal. Why would she have stopped making entries for so long? We go into this second inception dive. And this is the one where Troy like walks down a hallway and the doors open and there's just space on the other side and she like jumps out.

One of the best images this show has ever done. A shame to use it on this episode. She did the whole stunt person jumps into an air mattress thing. Like that was totally practical. It looks great. I mean, not jumping into space. That part was an effect. I'm not sure if he knew that. But, uh, yeah, she actually jumped off of the deck and do a thing. Wait, so they didn't actually go to outer space to shoot that scene?

Not to my knowledge, yeah. Well, that's a little disappointing. Yeah. She did not break rucoccus on the fall though. Not to my knowledge. Well, that's a little disappointing. Yeah. She wakes... She did not break her caquex on the fall, though. They wake up in the dream life. I feel like that's a product that we could have.

The Marina Circus caquex donut. That's a bit of merch I'll have signed at the next convention. She arrives after she jumps out of the ship in the dream scape, our burrito, and there is Lwaxana, who is having a meltdown. And what is revealed here is that Lwaxana, and what was her dad's name? Megwease. Turns out Lwaxana and her human husband used to have another daughter and this other daughter

died chasing her dog in a park when she was seven years old and when Diana was just a baby. Little Kestra and Luoxana has gone through her life just suppressing this and not dealing with the fact that she lost a child. And once again, Rachel Barrett is given a colossal task in terms of how do you perform this scene? And I don't know, what was your review of her performance? I honestly think that this was the best major bear performance that we've seen on the show. I found her emotions very real feeling and affecting. I agree.

I think that I'm really biased against her. Like she comes into these things with a big handicap, because I've seen the other times. And I think she kind of redeemed her skill. She's always given this scene. Every single time she comes on the show, she's given this scene where she has some really major emotional shit she needs to deal with. And this is like the only time I can think of where I thought it was actually good. I think credit where credit is due, she had to emote something awful and I found her performance

utterly believable and great. And I felt for like, you know, the magic trick of making you feel sorry for someone that you don't like is a greater effort than feeling bad for someone who you have neutral feelings about or even like. So to conjure that, I thought was a great success. I also thought that scene was successful To conjure that, I thought was a great success. I also thought that seeing it was successful because they have this little girl cast

that is like the one, is the castra, the girl that Kirsten Dunst is reminding her of. Really nice casting because it's like, you see the resemblance, but it also looks like it could plausibly be like a yeah a relative of Deanna Troy. That's a tough needle to thread. We are we're lavishing a lot of praise on Major Barrett but I think I think we should also call attention to Marina Sirdice here too who is not in full breakdown, but upon having the realization that she had a sister that she never knew, who died when she was an infant, she delivers

her own very powerful performance around that knowledge as well. It's just amazing that this fucking three-ring circus of an episode culminates in this kind of a scene. There's three good minutes in this episode and these are them. I wonder how much they talked about the proportionality of the breakdown because you can't have Diana and Waxana break down in equal measure like like you've got it. Now it's designing an emotional scene. You're going to need to consider the proportionality of the emotional breakdown on either side of the triangle. I like using a protractor to determine

the proper angle of the tiers. That way, you can set down a bucket to catch all the associated moisture. This character we've got doing a full-blown ugly cry. And therefore, we've decided to make this other character contain herself a little bit, but still reveal some vulnerability. I like to put down a couple of bags, a silica gel. That way, you keep the humidity down on the location.

It's just a great product. It's available at your local hardware store. You know where they make that silica gel? No. Desika 6. Yep. That's the callback everyone was going for. Yeah, they were like remind me of a throw away joke from three or four episodes ago, please. Ben, you know that the wolf in this episode, his name was

Buck. His brother was named Teddy. These are the wolves from dances with wolves who play two socks. These are Star Wolves. Buck Wolf was also my poor name in the 80s. Yeah. The button on the episode is the slow pull reveal of Waxana and Troy holding hands inside by side 6-bay cuts. The feeling is that Waxana is going to get out of this. The mental mission is successful and the truth has been revealed. They look at like a picture of Kestra together.

And they're gonna like, sort through all the fefies. Yeah, there's the family that you present to the world, but then there's the true family. There's the dark shit that your parents hide that I think is more common than people think. And this episode was a way to consider that. That's true. At least I had that going for it.

Did you like this episode? I can't say I like the episode. I was very relieved that it didn't wind up being a rape episode. Yeah. Because it really like, like literally until like the halfway mark, I was so worried about that. And, you know, I do think it has that good handful of minutes at the end, but I think largely it's kind of's kind of a catastrophe. It's so frustrating to watch this show stagger to the conclusion, because you know there is a great finale coming.

Like it becomes even more of a mystery as to how they were able to make a great finale during the season, when episode after episode it is clearly playing out the string. It's weird. I hope we're not bumming everybody out with our feeling down on it this season. I think there's still some good episodes. Yeah, there are. I am definitely looking forward to a few that I can think of. But yeah, this is not one of them. Let's check those p1's been. Let's check them shits.

Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on secured channel. Need a supplement on top of the, supplement. Yeah, it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Ben, we've got a personal priority one message here from Conan in parentheses, the guy who sucks, plus I got depression. And it is for all Cho-Chachos, both near and far. Message goes like this. This message is probably reaching y'all after Cho-chachakon 2017. But hopefully we were able to get real nice on much crispy staleas and bless the rains

together once again. Hell of such as meow to the Cho who turned me on to the pod. And thanks to Adam and been for providing an excellent momentary distraction on the road to the grave. I think I got through that line read perfectly. I read it and then I re-read it and I was like, no, that was right. Hell of such as meow to the show. Got it right.

Well Conan, sounds like things are getting better for you. I certainly hope they are. And I do in large part to all the Cho Chachos out there. Yeah, what's the Cho Chacho? I believe it is a friend that you share Nachos with. Not to be confused with someone you share Chicharones with, which is a Cho Chicharone Cho. No? No. That was a beer joke, Ben. I'm blaming that one on the beers. Yeah, that's the beers fault.

And our second priority one message here is a personal message from Ryan. It's for Daniel. It goes like this. is a personal message from Ryan, it's for Daniel. Goes like this. My dear friend, Daniel, this message represents another 100 American dollars that I did not spend on your wedding gift. Is this the last jumbo-tron message I bought you?

Who knows? Enjoy wondering when, where, or if the next one will come. Ryan, I'm so sorry that no one stuck around long enough to listen to this. It's really a shame. It's all our fault. We thank you nonetheless. Well, our thanks to everybody who sent a priority one message If you'd like to send a priority mind one message, you can go to maximumfund.org slash jumbo tron

100 bucks for a personal message and two hundred dollars for a commercial message and It's just a great way to support the proceedings of this a here podcast the proceedings of this a here podcast. I already won, Lizzie. Hey, Ben. What's that, Adam? In an episode that may be a Shimoda itself. Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? I did.

I'm going to give myemota to the props department. I'm gonna set this up. If you go to 16 minutes and five seconds, you can see what I'm talking about here. This is an episode where they didn't, they clearly didn't spend much money on anything, but they definitely spent like $250 on a fucking horn of plenty of like persimmons and cactuses

and eggplants and shit on this plate. 16, oh five, 16, oh five. It's just like the room that Make Weas is in. Make Weas? And they do this shot where the camera makes swings around as Becard and Troy and Make Weas are talking. And there's just this unbelievably conspicuous plate of vegetables and fruit in the middle of the table. I found it.

It's the most lit thing in the entire scene. It's very distracting. It's a it's very weird looking and very unusual for Sartreck I think. That glass coffee table looks like it's on top of a base of cinder blocks. Yeah it kind of does. And there's some sunflowers in the back. The fuck is going on in the scene. I sort of admire the attention to set dressing here because there is so little attention paid to anything else. Yeah, they're clearly like, well, fuck it. We don't have much to work with, but we're going to have some fun. Are those just extremely long futuristic green beans?

I think they are extremely long green beans. It's a horn of plenty without the horn. All plenty, no horn. Sad. This episode's terrible, Ben. I don't have a Shimoda, I abstained. Like there was so little that was fun or funny about it. Your hornless of plenty is great.

I would, I would piggyback onto this. Oh, well, but I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm going to do Adam. I might go just more broadly in a, in a, what were they thinking kind of way? The attention that they paid to things like the vegetable platter in a, in a, what were they thinking kind of way? The attention that they paid to things like the vegetable platter in this, in this condo and the, the attention they didn't pay to things like story, the arboridum. Yeah, that arboridum.

Like presumably the same people were in charge of the vegetable platter and the arboridim right? I Love the idea that they gave the arboridim to the intern and And the full timer was in charge of the horn of green beans Yeah, that is not a good delegation of roles there and I was inspired to just maybe fuck off with my Shimoda, so, so there. A greatest-gen live show is something you don't want to miss. Why?

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

And I'm Jesse Thorne. On Jordan Jesse Go, we make pure, delightful nonsense. We were open awesome guests and bring them down to our level. We got stupid with Judy Greer. My friend Molly and I call it having the spaceweards. Pat Noswald. Could I get a ball-rock burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you. And Kumail Non-Giani.

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 Goat try. Being, your podcast apps are already open. Just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goat try. Being smart is hard.

Be dumb instead. Oh, rats. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, we need to get on this. We gotta get on the art. Yeah. It is about terrain. It's about to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like human. We're actually, we're podcasters. We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ohno 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 boats. We came two by two.

What do you think? O'Neil Ross and Kerry, available on MaximumFun and Outdoor. What are we have coming up for the next episode, Ben? The next episode is season seven, episode eight, attached, imprisoned, and telepathically joined by an alien race. Picard and Beverly are forced to face the feelings. They have always had for each other. Do you remember this episode, Adam? I do remember this episode, Ben.

It's as close as we get to a real card Beverly Love Fest which is to say not that close Yeah, they play a mental game of just the tip don't they? Well Well, once again, we find ourselves early in a season with no vetoes left to talk about. Maybe we should never talk about vetoes ever again, Adam. I think that's super fair. With all of the vetoes in the rearview mirror, no need to bring them up. I think we've done a great job these seven seasons in our use of the veto, our use and

counter use of a weapon we never should have been trusted with. That's the logic of a very drunk man at him. It's very true. The most logical thing to do right now would be to thank any viewers who stuck around this long. In both the totality of our show, but also this episode specifically, if for whatever reason you decide to support our show, there are ways you can do that. Supporting our show unlocks some benefits to the supporters bin.

That's true. By supporting our show, MaximumFund.org slash donate to you, unlock our special trimps and tide episode and a live episode that we recorded while out on tour. Yeah, and I mean chances are pretty good that that's gonna start having more bonus episodes in it sooner rather than later, right? I would understand if after this episode you were interested in in retracting support for the show financial or otherwise. I understand. I would ask you, Fairviewer, to hang on just a little while longer. I think it's gonna get better again.

It gets better. It's an a good appropriation of that very well-meaning effort to prevent suicide in the LGBT community. Boy, you like, you know, like there's, there's dumping cold water on a joke. Like, my cold, my cold water was on like the dunk tank seat. I blasted it with that, with that cryogenic shit that they used to freeze warts off. You, you ran up and slammed the button and dumped it into the cold water. You couldn't be bothered with the softball, man. Well done. Way to know you asshole me. I didn't just gimp cold water on a joke.

I dumped all cold water everywhere on all jokes kept in record. Roshan was not a fan of humor. I was just an entirely joke free household. We ask you to take your shoes and your jokes off and leave them in the mudroom. and your jokes off and leave them in the mudroom. I thanks to Dark Materia for our theme music, Adam Rikusia for our supplemental music. You can find us if you choose to on Twitter using the hashtag greatestgenum on there, is at CupvertimeBend, is on there, is at BenjaminR, A.H.R.

We've got Facebook pages,. We have Reddit pages. We have Merch We have the tour that we're about to go out on. It's all happening Ben. It's all happening Would you believe this is a real and legitimate podcast program? With all of the accoutrements, it's possible. Well, with that, we'll be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek the next generation. In an episode of the greatest generation, in which Ben and I will be too scared to tell each other that we love the other person.

I used to have a job on this show. I guess I don't now. First time for everything. Does it make you feel any better than I did so bad? No! Maximumfund.org Comedy and culture. Artists owned. Listen or supported.