The Greatest Generation - Any Pixel in a Storm (S7E13)

Episode Date: August 21, 2017

When Worf’s brother sends word of pending calamity at the Diet Mintakan planet he’s living on, the Enterprise is there to stand bravely and selflessly by as a young civilization is winked out of existence. But when Dr. Rozhenko sneaks some refugees aboard, the only way to prevent a full blown Prime Directive violation is for Worf to dress up as Carl Weathers. How are these holodeck outages going to affect the ship’s first officer? What’s the best window treatment on which to preserve a historical record? Why isn’t Worf respecting proper hugging etiquette? It’s the episode that is almost entirely dedicated to Paul Sorvino pasta sauce.

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 friendsofdecisoto for labor.com. That's friendsofdisoto for labor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage! Welcome to the greatest generation, Star Trek Podcast by two guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek Podcast. I'm Adam Pranika.

I'm Ben Harrison. Ben I'm coming at you live from a plastic case of emotion. I've had a contractor at my house for the last week and needless to say the studio is in a shambles once again. My studio is looking different. Oh yeah, you finally get that snap on tools calendar on the wall? Nice. Well, you know, we had our big max fund drive quite a while ago, but it took us a long time to sort out a bank account. So none of the generous support that we garnered had landed in either of our pockets until like this week. And I finally made some investments in improving my

recording space. I got some sound baffles and I got an inexpensive fake Persian rug off of Amazon to put on the floor so that you can't hear my chair wheeling around all the time. See, I was going to say you did sound more baffled. And I should also say a scoosh more Persian. I'm not gonna do a Persian accent if that's what you're trying to go doubt of me at him. Not at all.

That was not my intention. But yeah, I mean, I imagine that the difference for the home listener will be very fractional. But one thing I find myself doing a lot of when I edit, our pod is hearing my chair like roll across the hardwood floor and then have to like, pot that down. And so like I feel like it mostly comes across clean enough but listen, I'm rolling back and forth right now.

Hey, man, barely hear anything. Doesn't sound like anything. That's great. Yeah, I think the thing that I edit most out of our show and I should say that like for as much work as we put in on the edits, I think most of that work comes from finding and selecting fun drops. Yeah. Like actual content that comes out of the show, I think is very slight. And I don't think, I think initially,

I was interested in removing all the ums and the us and the repetitious way we sometimes circularly begin a sentence. But I think the show's gotten looser lately and I don't say that as a bad thing. I just mean that I think we can preserve the quality that we've had from the start while also keeping it honest between us and the viewer. Well, yeah, and I think that, you know, from show to show, you know, we have stronger outings and weaker outings and I like to

Try to bring a weak outing up to a certain standard if I feel like That's what I happen to be sitting there editing and Part of the way to do that is just to cut out all the like Foggyly searching for a thought to convey Well, I can't wait to see what you do with this open bin. I told you I didn't have much at him. Alright, well if we don't have much, why don't we take it to a place that has plenty bin?

Yeah, it's season 7, episode 13, Star Trek Insurrection. Oh man, you know, if only they had cast Paul Sorvino in Star Trek Insurrection, Paul Sorvino with major film cred and Gravitas, you know? His character of Nikolai Roshanko in this episode could be anyone, but because it's Paul Sorvino, I think it makes a little better. Mm-hmm. Did I ever tell you about the time that I saw Paul Sorvino brand Pasta Sauce in a Costco

a couple years ago? No. Yeah, the Paul Sorvino Foods Company was for a time, a thing. Were they giving out samples or anything? They weren't, it was just like a four pack in a rectangular Costco box, like everything else comes in. I really wish there was a sample.

I was actually out of town. Like this was a drop into a Costco while I was away from home and I wasn't gonna like buy Pasta sauce and then hack it in my luggage to bring home. So I didn't actually buy it. And I can't tell you how good or bad it might be, but I do have regrets not having ever had his Pasta sauce.

It's gotta be great, right? I, for some reason, the grocery stores near my place that I live now almost never seem to have gimmick products in them, but I just... Oh, Paul Sorvino is making Paul Sorvino face at you at the idea that his product would be a gimmick, my friend. Well, I'm just saying, I will reflexively buy shit like that. Yeah. Like, I don't saying I will reflexively buy shit like that. Yeah.

Like, I don't like Spider-Man, but I'll get a Spider-Man pop tart if that is a temporary item. I don't even like pop tarts. Paul Sorvino has a reputation, deserved or not of being like the world's foremost Italian-American man. I don't think he'd put his name on a shitty pasta sauce. not of being like the world's foremost Italian-American man. Ha ha ha ha. I don't think he'd put his name on a shitty pasta sauce. Unless it was just that classic Sorvino cash grab. Ha ha ha ha ha. Such a classic.

Well, Paul Sorvino is in trouble at the beginning of this episode. He has issued a distress call and he's playing Nikolai Ruzanko, a warf's adoptive brother, and he's got the job of cultural observer on a kind of quasi-mentaken type of planet. Yeah, it's a little diet and talking. Have we heard of Nikolai's existence before now, Ben? I was trying to think about that. And I don't know the answer to your question. At the rate that we're consuming

this show, I would have assumed that we would have remembered any reference to that. But yeah, I can't. I think it was the first time that he's been referred to. Right, and there's a lot of weirdness about it. Like he doesn't ever ask after Alexander, like we've never heard of any consideration being given to an uncle character in Alexander's life. You have to assume that an academic has a more stable lifestyle than the chief tactical officer

of a ship that gets in battles all the time, it might be a better full-time caregiver to a child, but who knows. You bring up a great point there in that description, which is like The greatest distance that the episode goes and making Nikolai important is the title of his character as stepbrother to war It does no other lifting as far as I mean, they're estranged and that that a strangement is the foundation for their relationship, but and that that estrangement is the foundation for their relationship. But you're right. Nikolai never asks war for personal question. They never mutually talk about their parents.

You know, things that bond them, the only things that bond them in this episode is how they fight all the time. Yeah, they they talk about their their interpersonal conflict, but as far as it goes. So they pull up to this planet that Nikolai is supposed to be on, Borrell too, and they scan the duck blind that he's supposed to be hanging around in, and he's not there. And the deal with this planet is that the atmosphere is about to like boil off into space, and it's kind of a precipitous, it's like a catastrophic atmosphere failure that there's not really anything they can do about. So it's a little worrisome that they can't find him where he's supposed to be, but they scan around and they find some caves

that have a deflictor field erected. It can't be native to the planet. The buralans don't have anything close to that level of technology. So the assumption is that he's there and Captain Picard's like, wharf, we need you in surgery. Go get your face changed and beam down to the planet.

This tease is a bit of excitement for me. I'm like, oh, awesome. They're gonna like D loaf wharf This the plastic surgery they put wharf through is basically a carol weatherzerizer Like with a hoodie and a mustache like Because that's all they bother to do. It's inconclusive as to whether or not he has loaf under the hood. Yeah. But what he does have is a full mustache.

And they changed the bridge of his nose a bit, right? He's got a little bit of a of a putty on the nose. He is, he's got the, like the bridge of his nose just clearly molded off those little ear goobers that they have in the wrath of Kant. No, yeah. It just looks like a thumbprint in ground beef. While he's in surgery, he's talking to Dr. Krasher, and he's sort of like, wharf-yelps his brother. He's brilliant, persuasive, natural leader.

Shitty brother. Sounds intriguing. I look forward to meeting him. Yeah, as if he's reading off-camera, his resume. Yeah. He also knows PowerPoint. Likes to hike on weekends. Great at building teams and developing talent across the enterprise.

Perhaps he works too hard. This is a fairly extended pre-cold open, because on the planet, Warf beams down, and from behind a boulder appears Nikolai in full-Berallon drag. I would know that voice anywhere. Warf. Is it really you?

Yeah, it is full Beryl and drag, and more drag than maybe you even meant to say, Adam, because almost every male in this society wears like a full hijab level head covering. And the women do not. And Paul Servino's like one of the only one males that we see not with his head totally covering. And I sort of wondered about that.

I love that so much. I can just see Paul Servino and the trailer, like the costume designer handsome, like the balaclava that everyone else is wearing. Paul Servino is like, are you fucking kidding me? I was in good fellows. Like, no one's covering up this head of thick Italian hair. Oh, make a joke out of me. Just don't do it. Yeah, like, it changes worst face so much. Like the shape of worst face is like, you're like, holy shit, Michael Dorn,

it looks super different in this episode. And I wonder if they put him in the hood and they were like, well, it doesn't really look like Paul Sorvino anymore. And we kind of want to capitalize off the fact that we got Paul fucking Sorvino. Yeah, I mean, this isn't Ron that we're gonna be able to pull out the Ron Canada drop one more time.

Ha ha ha ha. Ben, as I was watching Michael Dorn walk around in the hood. Let's take a walk through the deepest part of the hood. I don't think if someone tested me and I was taking that test very seriously. If there was 10, 8 by 10s of Karl Weathers in the hood and Michael Dorn in the hood, if I could pick out who was who.

And I love Karl Weathers and I love him in all movies. Like I know exactly what he looks like. It's a hard test. I think that maybe the thing throwing you off is the Halloween store level mustache they put him in. Yeah. Yeah. It's a bad mustache. It's not a great stash.

Well, the deal with the barallans is that Paul Servino saw their atmosphere problem coming being a person with access to far greater technology than they had. And so this one village that he's been observing, he managed to convince them all to come into these caves and hide, and then he erected a force field around the caves so that the atmosphere problems would not present an issue. And he has like roped wharf into his fiction, basically from the second wharf shows up. He's like, hey, this is my brother. He's going to help us. Like, we're going to go find some supplies. to his fiction, basically from the second War of Shows app. He's like, hey, this is my brother, he's gonna help us.

Like, we're gonna go find some supplies, it's gonna be great. This is my brother, Warp, he's gonna help us. We're gonna go up to the surface where ordinarily people would be killed, but my brother has a magic power that will keep us safe. Bye! This is one of the great cut-tos to They only think it's so. They only think it's so. They only think it's so. They only think it's so. They only think it's so. They only think it's so. They only think it's so.

This is one of the great cut-tos too, is like we cut from the cave to theme song to a McLaughlin group, where Paul Sorvino is like wearing blue drapes and he doesn't have the nose bridge putty anymore. Yeah. I was fully expecting everyone in the room. Like the McLaughlin group is Riker, Troy, Beverly, and Picard, I think. And I was fully expecting and wharf.

Like someone had to ask him about that nose, right? Like, I want to know everything about it. Like, did he make it himself? Did he like, did he sleep in it? Did he, did he glue it on every morning after a shower? Like how do you rock that nose? They go in and out of reconstructive surgery so quickly in this episode.

This would be a two hour episode if you saw all the surgery scenes. Yeah, yeah, they take like, okay, I'm gonna take like a two day break from having nose loaf and then go right back into it. And like think about what that's gotta be for wharf. Like they're taking a ton of loaf off the top. And then what do they do with it? They like put it on ice and stick it in the freezer. Is it like floating in barbicide next to a biobad? Yeah. Well, Picard is ripshit with with Mr. Sorvino because what he has done is a fairly brazen violation of the

Prime Directive and Sorvino is like, dude, these people don't have to die and the Prime Directive is about like letting people live their lives. It's not about making active decisions to kill them. And Beverly's like, yeah, like because we know what's going on here, doesn't that give us culpability and not saving them? Which, you know, it may be a bit of sophistry, but I fucking kind of agree, you know? Yeah, I mean, especially if there is a method

of breaking the prime directive practically that does not break it in spirit. Right, the letter of the prime directive law. Yeah, and I like this because Beverly has taken this position before, and I like that that's like a piece of character continuity here. Yeah, it seems in line with anyone who would have a medical background and a do-know-harm sort of vibe to them. That's true, that's a good point.

She sees an opportunity to save. She's ready to save. And so like what Paul Zorvino is advocating for is like, let's get them up on this ship, we can transport them to another class and plan and drop them down on it. Like they can continue their lives and Picard is pretty much just like, fuck that. We are sworn to uphold the principle of the prime directive. And until that is changed, there is no further cause of action that we can take.

Is that understood? You already fucked up big time by putting them in the cave in the first place. It's a good thing they're all gonna buy the farm very shortly. And Serfino's like, well, at least can I go back down and get my notebook? I've got to have my notebook. In like such a transparent, I'm going to go down there and

fuck with the situation proposal. Like, come on, Paul, Servingo, you can't expect to float that when past pipes. Yeah, but like season two, they would have, they would have just gone with that as how the, as how the hijinks began, right? Season 2 Picard would have authorized that before he finished the center. Fuck yes! Yeah, but Picard shuts him down in a logical captain decision. I'm afraid that won't be possible. And there's a pretty somber scene on the bridge

as they watch and the card tries to kind of like teachable moment everybody about this entire sentient species dying as the atmosphere rots off of their planet. This is one of those times when we must face the ramifications of the prime directive. Captain becurd. I thought I already gave you a teachable moment when it comes to gender shared. It appears you've taken the thesis to my college course and have used it for your own

classes. Let me serve as an example of the horrors that it could lead to. I was once a respectable doubt and now I fabricate $6. It's terribly embarrassing. You have a very successful career as a Starfleet captain Picard. I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to your stir-fly career captain. Genese career be shame if anything Killed it to be quite honest genocide does not look good on a resume

to be quite honest, genocide does not look good on a resume. But, of course, you know what I was talking about. Of course, he's given people offers they can't refuse. Yeah, poor Picard, like, gets up out of the chair, steps to the... I can cut garlic so thin. I can cut it impossibly thin. Sure that it milks in the pain. It's a very good pre-shape. I can slide, erasible, between the molecules in garlic.

That's the level of control I have. Get your shine backs, Picard. Picard, in the way that a dad probably teaches a small child about death by flushing the goldfish down the toilet. Like steps, steps stage left at the bridge horseshoe and is like look gang, death is really hard and we just witness the genocide of billions of people. Pretty rocky day, huh? Anyway, I'm gonna go into my ready room. And Paul Sorvino's at the top of the horseshoe like, there's nothing to learn from this, you're an idiot. It's a chance to save these people and now

they're all dead. Like, there's nothing to even like observe here that is a teachable moment. even like observe here that is a teachable moment. Yeah, it's the push the piece of pie away from yourself. You've lost your appetite kind of moment for Paul Serfino. And he walks out and now- It takes a lot for Paul Serfino to lose his appetite, Ben. TBH. TBH. Not long after he walks out, they get some pretty heavy interference on the screen.

The tracking on the view screen is a little off. They get to turn that little wheel under the VCR. Yeah, data gets down under the console there, rolls the little wheel, and fixes it. And when the planet is fully and truly dead, they realize that there are some weird power problems on the entrepreneur. And warfinances that the power problems are so bad that they're coming up on his security console. So security teams are dispatched to deck 10

to see what's going on with the power atom. It's feeling a little booby-trapy at this point, yeah? Yeah. Lights are flickering, panels are flashing. going on with the power atom. It's feeling a little booby-trapy at this point, yeah? Yeah. Lights are flickering, panels are flashing. And like it's interesting, but it's also such a facile thing to get it into Worf's under Worf's jurisdiction. Yeah, this is power problem that is security.

You know, just like, what the fuck are you talking about? Yeah, asking you to make a little leap there. But they go down there and Wurf is like trying to get into the holodeck and the computer keeps spitting back at him. You can't go into this holodeck. All the security's been overridden. And then the door just magically opens and Wurf locks in.

And there's his brother, Nikolay Ruzenko. I have something to show you. And he like causes a panel to go transparent and reveals that he has saved an entire village of Barallans by beaming them up to the holodeck and making them believe that they are in the same cave that they were in the entire time. At this point in the episode I was thinking, God, this would have made a great movie.

Go back and put a face on what's happening here. Make the council see the backhoe. It's too easy to turn a blind eye to the suffering of a people you don't know. If you took this premise and then added a guy with really, really stretchy skin like those people in Brazil. Yeah. This would be a great movie. You toss in a scene where Beverly and Troy are talking about how firm their boobs are doing.

Oh yeah. That's it. That's pure profit right there. You can take that to the bank. Yeah, and the courage that Nikolai has throughout isn't just here, but I mean, it's everywhere in the episode. He's a man who's totally has total conviction

in his choices to the degree that he doesn't even really see what's wrong with the picture. Warf is like, what the fuck, man? All of these guys are supposed to be dead. And he's like, no, Nikolai is like, no, I saved him. They're living in the holiday, and in the best part, they don't even know they're living there, because I beamed him up in their sleep.

My love is a piece of clothing, sales for that, which is longer than us at the PC. Tell me more, you're a boy. Why do you think this show is so obsessed with caves? I think when you have one great cave set, you just use it. You just got to flog the shit out of it. I feel like they're like such a... It's like, I don't know, like it's the souffle humor of this show. It's like, there's always like the boss coming over and like don't don't let the souffle fall or don't burn the souffle in in old like 70s sitcoms

and I feel like this show is like well we could set this in a cave. I think the cave said is just one of those things that is easily refreshed and with different lighting can look different in a number of ways. Like you're getting such value out of a cave that you just can't possibly hope to get even close with with alien bridge set for example, which is a play set that this show rarely has or uses. Yeah. Too much money. It's not modular in the way that a cave is. Yeah. Somebody used to come up with modular science fiction bridge. Make a killing on that. That would be a great business opportunity. Yeah.

Orf walks his brother right to Picard's Ready Room for another ass chewing. And Picard's ready room for another ass chewing and he's like no no no like you don't have to chew my ass I've got this all worked out Picard they don't even know that they're in a holodeck right now I think we can find a new planet an M class world that can be their new home and we'll say like hey we're gonna walk to this new place that isn't fucked up in full of storms and we'll just change the terrain in the holodeck as they walk until it's a perfect match for the planet that we find.

We beam them down and leave them to their own devices. Right. Picard asks a pretty interesting question here, Adam. But if it doesn't work. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. I feel like a billion managers have asked a billion subordinates that same question about a billion different ideas, you know? That is so stock question.

It's very stock, but I was also kind of struck by it because I feel like, man, like I don't know if I've ever heard Picard ask that particular question. Yeah, I completely agree. It really stuck out. You never hear him be pessimistic. I feel like he places so much confidence in the people that work for him. But he does not trust Paul Sorvino one lick. And so he has a real different disposition when he's talking to him.

Picard's not eating his sauce. He's not eating his sauce. On the turbo lift on the way over, Wurf basically tells Nikolai that he's dead to him. Like this decision has fucked up. You know, we've never liked each other from the start. We fight all the time and this is really like the last draw. This is like a dishonorable act.

Yeah, the make me look really bad in front of my boss. Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, this is over, man. And we're breaking up. Sad. Yeah. I put sad that this brother we've never heard of is gonna be out of worse life now. Yeah, so there's a sidecar to the quote-unquote

solution to the problem, right? They're going to walk these guys inside the holodeck to a suitable planet type scene. What they need to do is find this planet. And the problem that they're running into while they do the searches that the holodeck program is breaking down. And it's doing a bunch of grid flashing. It's looking fake in some areas that could be problematic for the barallans.

They've come up with some sort of convenient fictions for explaining these things. Like, Worf has been nominated by his brother as a seer who has some kind of supernatural ability to protect them from the storms and understand the strange things they are seeing like breakdowns in the holodeck. It is the sign of the forge. And I guess like something about getting hit by the bangers that the planet laid on them has destabilized the holodeck and it's kind of,

they have like a ticking clock on how long they're going to be able to continue simulating what they're trying to simulate for these people. Rikers in the next holiday go over just banging away furiously at like a cube, like a single lap. Yeah. And he's like, I didn't know I was into this until now. Any part I can do. Yeah, and he's like, I didn't know I was into this until now. Any porn, the stinking. I can do it.

Yeah. Any pixel in the storm. I was really struck by the level of fictionalizing they're willing to do with Worf's character. Like when Paul Servino says, like, this is my brother, he's a seer, he has magic powers. Worf was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's me. I've got the magic powers. Wurf was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's me. I've got the magic powers.

A C stuff. They were so hesitant with the mentalkans to like, I wondered if because the mentalkans had achieved a secular, rational world view, they had like a lot more respect for them as primitives. Right. Oh, that's interesting. Because they keep saying that the the

baralans are like super spiritual and and you know they obviously have some kind of supernaturalism in there, in their world view. But they're also like you know trying to keep detailed historical records like there's a guy with a bunch of folded up wood that he says is the 17 generation record of their village. Yeah, he's got, he's recorded the entire history

of his people on blinds. Yeah. They definitely went down to the home depot and were like, we're just gonna need some louvers and a couple of small cans of black paint. That will be enough to make this history, this chronicle of the village. No, it's great as they can just cut them at the hardware store. It's no problem. Many science fiction shows would make an ancient tomb that contains 17 generations of history look very old.

But what this episode presupposes is, maybe it can look brand new? I thought Picard's whole reason for saying yes to this mission idea was to maybe score another tapestry from these people. Like sort of like a new retiree has found something that they're into that they're into collecting. He's like, you know, I really liked tapestries and I've been talking one needs a buddy. Yeah, it's looking a little lonely there draped against the back of my chair. I need one for Beverly's chair when she comes over for breakfast. Random question, Ben.

Did Patrick Stewart just look hammered by rim lights in this episode? Like in a way that was very noticeable in just about every scene? It was, it was a little harshly lit. I was, I would say the camera department in general on this episode seemed really weak. Like, there's a couple of times when they're outside and they just like have no control over how bright the background is relative to the other characters. It's really weird. Like, there's like really over overexposed shots in this episode. Yeah. That they've like, you know, they've color corrected back to okay, but clearly like the whites clipped out

and they don't have as much detail in there as you want. You don't think that was an intentional move to make it look, you know, alien planet can sometimes look blown out, you know, is that the idea or no? To me, it felt more like incompetence than choice. Hmm, that's fair. I am the cutest of all. You will assist us.

I am the cutest of all. You are all. So they start a walkin'. Do you wanna chest the field? Ben, and along the way, Wharf gets to meet, you know, a bunch of the people in this rag-tag crew of walkers. Yeah.

One of them is this old man who is clearly like trying to hook him up with his daughter to Mary. Well, she is a beautiful girl. She's not been promised to anyone. Although that was a really funny scene. This guy is like, look man, I'm a super old guy. I don't know if I'm going to survive leaving this cave, let alone walking miles and miles with these people. You just gotta promise me one thing. If I fall on the walk, you gotta marry my daughter and

Wurf. Wurf to mirrors like I don't think you're gonna die and then that's it. Like oh man, I think that old guy's got to be super sad about like getting it up for asking the question of Worf the Seer or whatever. Yeah, he like, you know, walked across the dance floor at the middle school dance to ask the first girl to dance and just totally got shut down. That's got to hurt. Oh, I know that feel Adam. Yeah

Another big name actor in this episode Penny Johnson Gerald Oh, she played the president Palmer's wife in 24 She's got a and she's in like Larry Sanders showing shit. Oh, that's right. She's the one with the, the sort of double cones hair. Yeah. And she's a Paul Sergino's wife. Yeah. Yeah. And this episode is fabulous. A little underused in this episode. Yeah. There's a lot of handholding a stuff between Nikolai and her, which suggests a deep relationship, which also suggests maybe the real reason that Nikolai is saving these people. Right.

Got to save Wifey. Why do you think they didn't go in that direction? That seems a very compelling idea, like Nikolai's in love. Nikolai's got a bone in the oven. Yeah. Got to save that wife and kid. Makes a ton of sense to me. Which is such a primal instinct that would be very easy to see why you choose that over primed

directive. It's just as it's just as charged up as Nikolai's the bad boy of cultural studies or whatever. Like like I think that's got way more teeth than what we've got here and it would only take a couple of tweaks to do it that way. It would. Well, uh, Penny Johnson Gerald's sci-fi career is not over with this episode, Adam. She is going to be in the, uh, Orville television program coming up. She's the doctor. Good get. Yeah. She's really great because in Larry Sanders, she plays really quick and sharp and like, I don't know, nice and angry, like she plays the whole spectrum.

Yeah, yeah, she can be great villain and a great, like, and a great, a pro tag. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, I think she's got a lot of range, way more range than she's got in this episode, certainly. Yeah. Well, maybe, I mean, I guess this is like early in her career, so.

Yeah. She hadn't, she hadn't landed a role where she could show off what she could do yet. Perhaps. The guy that keeps the Chronicle gets in a bit of trouble at him. He, uh, before they're leaving the cave, he's like, yo, Worf, I must have dropped the other like really, really big object back in the cave and not noticed, so I'm gonna run back for it.

And Worf allows this, which is a pretty thin premise for getting him out of the holodeck, but he runs back in the cave and discovers the arch like jutting out of a rock, and he runs back in the cave and discovers the arch like jutting out of a rock, and he like reaches out and touches it, and the door to the holiday appears, and before long he is like wandering into ten forward with his jaw on the floor. This is a really fun scene. Yeah.

And the actor who plays this plays it really straight, like terrifyingly straight. He is basically shaking throughout as he walks through the corridors. Yeah, and it's so good because it's like, we've seen a primitive on the ship before, but they've always been given context and made to feel at ease. And he is a total stranger and a strange land.

And he walks into a 10 forward that is bustling with action. It's clearly like happy hour on 10 forward. And there's just like a perfect amount of activity and people who are not expecting a caveman to walk you know. And their reaction is like, they're starfleet, so they're all like, hey, let's help this guy, but they also don't really know what the fuck is going on.

And so like, Riker and Troy have to intervene and Troy has a great scene of like bringing this guy off the brink. I know things must look very strange to you. Your world frightens and confuses me. No one's going to hurt you. Sometimes when I get a message on my fax machine, I wonder, did little demons get inside and type it? I don't know.

You know, the one thing that I thought about during his walk through the ship is how different he must smell from everyone else. Like, he has got to fucking reek, right? He's a prehistoric cave person. Yeah, who knows how that adds up hygiene wise? Yeah, like, oof, he's, he's, he's pig penning his way to 10 forward. I thought Troy's character here was really compelling, like the way she

sort of approached a spooked animal. Tried to build some sort of trust by touching him, like, but that wall never goes down. This kid is scared and remains scared. Yeah, she basically brings him back from psychotic break, but he's not, he's never, he never feels comfortable while he is aware of what is really going on. I thought this actor was, was really strong. Fucking warf though, dude, in these doors. First, he can't get into the holodeck because it locks him out, and then he leaves the holodeck door open after he goes in for this guy to just wander out of. Give me a break, Wharf.

Another one for the case files of security chief Wharf, not that great at security. I thought it would have been really interesting to see Chronicle Guy and Nikolai have a confrontation Because Chronicle Guy knows Nikolai right and Like I don't think it would have been that hard for them to write Nikolai off the holodeck for a bit to talk to this guy and like explain his reasoning and Like make a deal with them. Yeah.

Or, or, you know, try and fail to make a deal with him. I think that is the like super interesting scene that this episode forgot to have in it. Yeah, what we get instead is Picard sort of presenting a couple of options to him. One of them being keeping the secret and going back to his people, to which the kid is like,

I'm not comfortable with the idea of keeping a secret, but also if I tell these people where I've been, they're gonna think I'm a crazy person, that's no way to live either. Yeah. And then Picard's like, well, I mean, your other option is you could stick around here. I mean, this place is pretty cool.

That made me think- Check out all those pomegranates on that glass table. I mean, don't worry about that glass table That's not gonna be a problem. I promise We go through so many of them How natural is it for any culture at any point in its history to sort of fantasize about the future? in its history to sort of fantasize about the future. Because to me, for this kid not to show any excitement at all about the idea of being in the future, or whatever the enterprise represents to him, like that kind of surprised me that he was 100% anti the future, 100% terrified of what it represented. Where? He keeps yelling, make morale too great again.

There's never a glimmer of an idea that he would remain and be happy there, not even a bit of curiosity about his place in the universe. Well, and it's especially interesting because in the Mntaken episode, they immediately round the Enterprise up to heaven and go pick up to God. And this guy never goes there, like, despite coming from a much more spiritually engaged people, he doesn't see the benefit of a of like this, you know, like obviously it would never be an easy choice because you're like leaving behind everybody you know and love and the like entire reality that you grew up in but it doesn't seem like presented with those two choices. I can't

imagine making the decision he makes. The ultimate decision? Yeah. Yeah. I felt the same way. I mean, so the kid is like, yeah, I guess I'll stick around or whatever. Like of all these, of all three choices, this is the least bad. The card seems satisfied with this. They have a little like chat with the doctor

and six Bay about can we roll back the tape on this kid's head now that he's seen ten forward and she's like their neurology is so different. I wouldn't know where to point the little laser beam. She's like just take a look at that nose thing. It's no getting around that. My clip show device is incompatible with their nose loaf. The rest of the Brailleans are like still doing their big hike to the Promised Land and they're like in camp one night and Worf and his bro are having a showdown as the situation with the holodeck gets worse and worse. Because, you know, Worf is, Worf's position is basically that Paul Sverveno's,

like his mo from back when he was a child was shoot from the hip, do whatever the fuck he wants, let everybody else clean up the mess. As usual, you are only thinking of yourself. And as usual, you are here to point out the error of my ways. And War feels like this is the exact same situation here and that Paul Serfino should admit that he's being a big time asshole and that he doesn't ever do

the right thing and Paul Serfino's like, well, you only ever do the right thing. And Paul Sivina is like, well, you only ever do the right thing, Worf. Sick burn. What if it doesn't work? They do that thing where they get in karate fight stance, but they don't actually hit each other? Yeah, they're like about to when the holodeck

really just starts to break down and they're like, okay, this is it, the storms are getting really bad, only the seer can undo the storms. So everybody go hide in your caves. But everyone must take shelter in the tents. The tents won't protect you. This is an electrical storm, you boob, that's gonna help. Cut to a guy like putting together the carbon fiber rods like for a tent and just like not figuring it out.

Like, it's the way I'm gonna get this in time. Like his tent is just a piece of shit. Have you ever been in a lightning storm at him? No, I don't think so. I mean, I've been in a heavy duty Midwest thunderstorm but I don't think I've been in what qualifies as a lightning storm. I was in, I did like an outward bound type of thing in high school,

and we were up above the tree line somewhere in like, yo-semity or something, and there was a, like, a two-hour electrical storm, and what they had us do was get our foam mats out and like stand on them in like a fetal position. Like so, like, like, crouched over, like basically presenting the smallest target we possibly could with foam in between us and the ground. And we just had to hold that position for two hours, spread out. So like So we couldn't be near each other either. Because we were like- And you still lost like two classmates, right?

Yeah, it was really rough. I still have night terrors about it. I just remember it being like, this should be exciting and awesome and like a total adventure and it's the most boring shit I've ever experienced. Because I'm just like in an uncomfortable position for two hours without anybody to talk to or anything to do. That's a lot of crotch-staring time.

Yeah, so sure as shit, everyone falls for this. Everyone zips themselves into their tents. And Wurf and nickel-eye stand off to the side and go, Jordy, beam them down. And so they're beamed tents and all down to their new planet where there is no storm at the time. It might be the most objects beamed at once that we've ever seen. Yeah. Because it's like, it's like the entire camp disappears. It's just pretty fun. Yeah.

I'm glad they didn't up the long, laterized these people. Yeah. You know, like there's not a lot of barnyard animals. There's not any like, folksy, pan flute playing. Like, it's just Bala Klaaclavas and nose ridges and wooden shutters. So this is we sort of presume that this is a happy ending, right? Like they're on

their new planet, they're gonna be home. But guess what happened to the kid who chose to stay on the Enterprise bin Ben. Sepikoo. Yeah. This was truly shocking to me. He must have wandered into Worf's quarters and found that knife and poison set. So yeah, I thought he was just allergic to pomegranates. What a shit way to go. You decide to remain in the future. You eat a fruit that you don't understand and that's it.

It's like a Greek tragedy. Yeah. Yeah, so they bury him with the piece of their people's history, like crossed in his arms as they zip him into the bag. Like, that's a priceless piece of their their people's heritage that I would have thought they could just like beam down not far outside the camp to be found. I couldn't fucking figure this out because like also Paul Servino gives warph one of these things before he goes and it's like well is this like the most valuable thing in your culture or isn't it? Oh man. This is also the scene where it's disclosed that Wurf is going to be an uncle, which is great, because he's great with kids, right?

Who wouldn't want Wurf to be your uncle? How does Wurf plan a visit to his brother and sister-in-law when they live in a primitive culture? They do that thing where we've been estranged for 10 years. This sure buries the hatchet. Still not gonna talk to you ever again. Like, the animus is gone, but the actual ability to cross the barrier,

that does not appear. They don't have that option. Yeah. Dude, I feel really bad for these barallans. There's like 11 of them. How are they gonna like... There's gonna be so much inbreeding when they try and... repopulate the species. Worf sort of has to fuck that dude's daughter, right?

Oh, that baby is gonna be a big surprise. What the hell is wrong with his loaf? Congratulations, it's a...oh my god! There is no possible way to circumcise this child. We tried to circumcise him and he broke the At the very end of the episode, Wurf goes into hug, his brother. And I don't know if you noticed this, and you might wanna cue it up on the episode. Wurf goes right, I have never in my entire life gone right on a hug. I've only ever gone left.

You go left on a hug. Because I think that's what everyone does. Everyone goes left on a hug. You mean like head, your head is to the left of their head. Yes, like from my perspective, their head is to the right of my head. My right ear to their right ear. Basically, that's how I hug.

That is a internationally respected format for hugging. And Worf goes right and it freaked me out. If someone went right on me, I don't know what I would do about that. I have a theory and a wise crack about this. The theory is that it is camera position because they didn't want to flip the wini- like they've established this as the- as like both the side of the camp that they're going to be on. Yeah.

The entire time and also the side that Paul Servino is going to be on like Paul Servino is always on the left side of the frame. Yeah. So when they go in for the hug, it, it flips Paul Servino over to the right side of the frame. Good thinking. Yeah. But the wise crack is that going frame by frame,

it's pretty clear that this came as a big surprise to sort of, you know, because their face is definitely bump. I love, like, you could see it in your mind, right? Like, the director going, all right, and then you guys hug and then we'll flip the shot and then we'll shoot it from the reverse. And then they go into hug and he's like actually you gotta hug the other way. Like you know they hug the way people normally hug it first and they had to be corrected. Yeah I've never really thought about it I guess it's just instinct or maybe I'm terrible at hugging. Now I think I think that's the thing is like everyone does it a way that they don't even bother thinking about until they see it. Have we ever hugged at him?

I'm positive that we have. We must have. And I'm positive that I go left. Yeah. Because I would have remembered and I- If we'd bump faces. I'm positive I would have called attention to it. If there was an attempt to go right.

Yeah. Fair enough. Did you like this episode, Ben? I did. I mean, I think that we've taken the piss out of this episode more than we do most episodes that I like. But I like Paul Servino. I like episodes where they violate the prime directive. Paul Servino has to be among the top three or four guest stars on this show, right? Yeah. He's a heavy at the time. Like he is, he is, and special guests appearing

appearance by Paul Servino level quality as an actor. Yeah, as many extra words as you can use to qualify his presence here. Yeah. Yeah. I like the episode too. It is deeply flawed in a number of ways, but I think the flaws

make it enjoyable in a weird way. And Paul Servino's character is riveting, and his portrayal of him is riveting. His costuming is terrible. Among the worst costuming, I think, are those blue drapes. Yeah, he's bad both in the blue drapes and in the... and talking shit. Yeah. For Alan shit, whatever. Well, one of the best looks we have is a P1 message, Ben.

You want to go check those? Let's check them! Priority 1 message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. I need a supplement only. A supplement? A supplement. A supplement. Yeah, it's extra.

The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship! Ben, our first priority 1 message is from the doctor. It is for Matt's James. Message goes like this. Oh my god! This is definitely the best message we've ever received. I'm sorry, so sorry, that we've been saying Lieutenant instead of Lieutenant all this time. English listeners are not only the best, but I also recognize that if you need a grammar here to help you, I will be there for you. I'm a doctor, not a fundamentally flawed human being. What the fuck? Did this person mean to write left-handed? I don't know, maybe. I'm just reading it off of the page, Ben.

Yeah, I'm baffled by what we just heard. Have we been mispronouncing something? I don't know. I mean, I assume that we're mispronouncing most things. We're not smart, man. I'm positive I mispronounced Matt James. Well, Doctor, if we've botched this one right back in, and tell us how we can correct it, but we've been saying lieutenant instead of lieutenant as is written in your message.

Who's the mistake maker now, the doctor? I am most definitely a fundamentally flawed human being, so I ask you forgiveness. And our next priority one message is from hashtag rezascals and it's for pleveem. I want pleveem to go fuck himself. No, no, no, no, no, no And if the message No one pays more per letter than razzan pleveem Well done, Rascals. You've done it again. There was like a charter of the Rascals that had like NATO like language in it, that

if Flavime attacked one Rascal he's attacked all Rascals. This is a unionized group of rascals number 417. How does it look? Like their logo is just a guy doing the jerk off motion. I'm just, I can't even imagine how they got organized. Like, where are they talking to each other? There's some real bat. There's some back channel rascals conversations happening

that will never know anything about. We only see the symptom symptom not the root problem Well, we're gonna meet the root problem at the Milwaukee show, man. Yeah, that probably will have already happened by now RSVP resin plevim You think we're gonna kill them I Think they might kill each other at our show. There seems to be a lot of animosity. That's true.

Well, if you'd like to declare your animosity for somebody or, you know, wish somebody a happy birthday or make a cryptic correction, you've got to maximfund.org slash jembo-tron where a personal message is a hundred bucks and a commercial message is 200 bucks And those are great ways to help the show 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. FOD is 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 Balrog burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you.

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Oh, rats, hey, hey, hey, oh, I'm about to count you in line. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line. And boy, what do I? These giraffes do not smell good. No, they do not, and they've such short nacks. But I'm hearing we need to get on this off. We've got to get on the art.

It is about terrain, about a spout to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans. We're actually, we're podcasters. We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ono Ross and Kerry? We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal,

stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so same wipe, something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats we came to by two What do you think only Ross and Kerry available on maximum fun or Hey, Ben what's that Adam? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? Hey, Ben. What's that, Adam? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? DUNK Shimoda!

I did. I was originally going to give it to Worf because we were talking about the fact that he like walks off with their Chronicle and then I was like scrubbing around in the episode as we were discussing it and I happened to scrub past the scene in 10 forward when the chronicler guy stumbles in there. And I am going to give my drunk Shimoda to the hair department on this episode because there are a lot of extras in 10 forward. And there are two women with totally bonkers bananas haircuts in the backgrounds of this.

One is at 28.05. Actually, basically every female character you see in this entire sequence has completely insane hair aside from Marina's service. Like when he's out in the hall, there's two women with crazy hair. There's at least a couple women with totally insane hair in 10 forward

when he stumbles in. They are just all over these shots. It's fucking ridiculous. There's one that has like Marge Simpson level pile up of hair on the top of her head. I would say that every second between 28 minutes and 28 minutes and five seconds has some remarkable hair in it. Whoa, yeah.

Like someone went crazy with the curling iron. Yeah. Oh, boy, those wet curls. Yeah. Yee. It's like wet curl and then like spike shaped pony. It's fucking insane. Yeah.

Yeah, there's like some coutulu hair in the scene Did you have a drunk some Oda Adam? Yeah, I did I can't stop thinking about the old man trying to To marry off his daughter And the thought of the curd to me when he gets rebuke by a wharf is like I'll show you man, I'm just gonna kill myself. I thought for sure he was gonna fall off of a cliff off screen.

Like, that would be his way to ensure that his daughter would be married to Wharf. We know that these people are prone to suicide. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I don't know, everything about him was like, he was so unique, like he had one scene, basically. And that was it. That's such a great, like, if you're a bit actor a guy, he did a ton with it. And the proposition I thought was hilarious.

So, I'm gonna give the nod to him. There are people who are probably having more fun in this episode, but he really stood out to me. Yeah. What do we have coming up on the next episode, Ben? The next episode is season seven, episode 14, sub-rosa, shortly after her grandmother's death, Beverly falls under the spell of a ghost lover

who has been in her family for generations. Do you remember this episode Adam? Been the most memorable thing about this episode is its reputation. Its reputation is so bad that it almost supersedes anything specific about it. I mean, and it's hard to get past its reputation. Like, I could tell you what it was about,

but it wouldn't be much different than the episode capsule you just read. I haven't seen it in a very long time. The season 7 vetoed debacle really launched a thousand tweets about sub-rosa. Yeah. And how most people thought we were foolish for not vetoing this episode and then and almost equal faction maintains that bad episodes make good pod. So maybe that'll be the case here. Perhaps Adam. Well, that'll be the next one we watch. Well, one thing is for sure is that bad episodes make good viewers spin. And many of those viewers gather in a couple of different places online, like Twitter,

using the hashtag GreatestGen. I'm on there as a cover time, Ben as there as a Benjamin R, A-H-R. We're also on Facebook and Reddit. We got to thank Adam Ragusia, who makes a bunch of custom music for the show and dark material who made the theme song and the great folks at MaximumFun.org who provide tons of support for us and most of all the folks that go to MaximumFun.org slash donate and support our show financially. You know like I was talking at the beginning of the show about being able to do a few little upgrades to my recording scenario here.

And, you know, like I think that's basically what that money is for. It's like, how do we make this show better for the people listening and like, it's like a swimmer, you know? You're just shaving off pubes at this point. I did not expect you to go there. So thanks, so thanks to everybody who does that. And if you'd like to, it's never, it's never a bad time.

Yeah, I mean, we're bringing this show in its current form to a close. And if it's been something that you've received a lot of joy out of, I think there's a case to be made that there's a value to that and if it has provided you with that kind of value, I think we'd really appreciate your support by going to MaximumFund.org slash donate. Well Adam, 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 is ripping that bodice! Make it sound. Maximumfund.org Comedy and culture.

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