The Greatest Generation - Asshole Rashomon (VOY S4E17)

Episode Date: September 19, 2022

When an unlikeable arms dealer gives Captain Janeway the hard sell, his dealings with Voyager leave a bad impression on the crew. But when a crime is alleged and Seven and Kovin remember things differently, the Doc‘s regression therapy leads to an explosive outcome. Who does Ben want to replace him on the podcast? Is Seven habituated to ringing doorbells now? What do you bring to a gun fight with a weapons dealer? It’s the episode with eye-dolphin continuity! Support the production of The Greatest Generation.Friends of DeSoto for Democracy.Friends of DeSoto for Justice. Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Caretaker!Music by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaFollow The Greatest Generation on Twitter, and discuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen!The Greatest Generation is on Twitch.Facebook group | Subreddit | Discord | WikiSign up for our mailing list!

Priority 1 message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Hey friends of Disodo. Before today's episode, we just wanted to take a moment to talk about the historic labor actions being taken by writers and actors in the American Film and Television industry. If you're a fan of the work done by the people who make Star Trek, we hope you'll join us in standing in solidarity with the folks who actually bring these adventures to life. Over the past several years, the AMPTP, the organization that represents the American Film and Television Production Studios, have reduced the profit from movies and TV going to workers. And in so doing,

they've attempted to weaken the labor unions that represent those workers. They wouldn't even engage the unions on many issues in their negotiations. And so a strike was the only course of action to take. Adam, Wendy and I have been having a lot of internal discussions about how best to stand with the unions and we are continuing those conversations in a dynamic situation. We're doing our best to understand where the picket lines are in these digital spaces,

and we would never intentionally cross one. With the information we have, we feel like we can do more good talking about and supporting the strike and continuing our show as planned. We'll keep you informed about what all this means for greatest trek specifically. Today we're making a contribution to the Entertainment Community Fund. This fund exists to help all the people whose livelihoods have been put on hold because the AMPTP refuses to negotiate

in good faith with the unions. It provides financial support for writers, actors, and all the thousands of laborers who make the shows that we talk about here and without whom we wouldn't have Star Trek to cast pot about. Those folks are all out of work because billionaires, company shareholders, and the executives of these companies don't want to compromise on the length of their yachts. We hope you'll join us in supporting entertainment workers in a challenging time, especially after they've already endured several years of challenges brought on by the pandemic

and season two of Star Trek Picard. We've set up a page where you can also contribute. It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdisotoforlabor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Hey friends of Disoto, just a warning that the episode we're reviewing today has some sort of sexual assault adjacent themes to it. And we just wanted to give you a heads up so that if that is a touchy subject for you, you can make an informed decision about whether or not to listen.

If you are in a tough place in relation to sexual abuse or assault, you can call 800-656-P-E that's 800, 656, 4673 to be connected anonymously with a trained counselor at Reigns sexual assault hotline. Captain Captain Brinjane, one of the U.S.s. Boram, two of the Captain Captain, four of the U.S.s. Captain Captain Captain Brinjane, one of the U.S.s. Boram, two of the Captain Captain Captain. Welcome to the greatest generation. It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys just a little bit embarrassed about having a Star Trek podcast. I did a bit on you just now. I'm Adam Franica.

I've been here since I enjoyed the bit. We're in the same room. and I silently counted us down. Yeah, we usually have to count it off and clap for sink at the beginning of these things. Today, we just counted off for us. Yeah. Oh, I should turn off the AC or should I leave it on? Turn it. I mean... Windy will appreciate it if I turn it off, right? It's important that we do right by windy. I don't want to do windy bad. No, no. We've got a fan in here. We don't need we don't need to also burn a hole in the ozone. We do not need to give her any reason to leave us. Best behavior from now on, Ben. Yeah, sorry, Wendy. With our luck, she doesn't even get this at it. Yeah. Now, with our luck she doesn't even get this at it. Yeah, now. We're in person today.

Yeah. A relative rarity, a special treat. Yeah, it's really nice to be in the same place doing this together. It's fun. It's how we used to do it. We always get a little resistant to it when the idea comes up like, ah, it's so inconvenient. What if it's boring or bad? It is about an hour long drive. It's brutal. It is no fucking joke. I've been meaning to express my

appreciation for you, Kevin. You've been out here the last couple days, you're coming again tomorrow. Yeah. I think you're coming again next week. Yeah. Yeah. Really winding up the old odometer on my account. It gives me time to queway the episodes in the car. That's nice. That's how I like to do it. I turn it up, turn up the base. You put it in a self-driving mode and write little notes in the drop box.

Sure do. Hey, this edit is fucked. I was next to a semi-truck on my way out here that had, you know how there's like the semi truck cab part where the driver and the passenger sits, and then there's like the back area. Yeah, the RV part.

Well, on the outside of that area, there's often like a little flap door that you can stick tools and whatnot in. And I know this because I was next to a semi truck and the tools were just spilling out of the side door. Oh, no, it was, I mean, everyone was going slow because LA, but if we were at highway speed and the tools were flying out, that would have been a real situation through the front of your windshield. Yeah, but as it was, the toolbox just fell basically straight down onto the ground.

Wow. But it's totally safe to have a bunch of tools. You still don't want that, but damn, yeah. Did you call emergency services or contemplate calling emergency services on a thing like that? I think the driver knew what had happened and was trying to make moves to like pull over.

Yeah. But that's the thing when you drop something on a, I noticed this all the time, when you drop a mattress on a freeway and you're a half a mile up the freeway, yeah. What do you even do? I don't know.

I don't know. There have been at least three or four times where my wife and I have been driving on the 110 freeway here in Los Angeles. One of the original freeways in the country. You can tell because the on-ramps for this 55 mile an hour road are often three or four feet long. Yeah. Really pays to have an engine that gives you a lot of torque on this particular freeway.

But it's also a freeway that goes like from downtown L.A. to Pasadena through some parts of town that are very industrial and urban and some parts of town that are like parkland. And on the kind of borders of those two things, we have seen. If freeway where you can both pick oranges and sell oranges. Yeah, exactly. We have seen several times now, like going through the tunnel from downtown to our side of town,

just like a brush fire on the side of the hill or something, you know, like a billow of black smoke that is coming up from something that you can't see that you're like, fuck, there is something serious going on and we call 911 every time and every time they're like, yeah, we know They know they always know like everybody reports it immediately and pretty soon

I'm just gonna be like we don't need to call this in like they know yeah, it's gonna be a boy who cried wolf issue You know a new LA Pope is coming when When you see the dark smoke from a brush fire near a freeway. Yeah a new Psycho has tried to burn down an encampment of unhoused people. Jesus that what's going on? That is happened the I think it's the Sun of the I'm'm probably wrong about this. Don't take this for a gospel, but like, just say allegedly a bunch of times. Allegedly the sun of the Eagle Rock Business Owners Association. What's that called business development district or the... I don't live on the east side.

How would I know? Whatever the thing is that like tries to advocate for business friendly policies. Sure. That guy's son like firebombed an encampment of unhoused people. So not a fail son, but a fire son. Yeah. Is what he's got. Pretty awful.

And it's Donald Sutherland. What the fuck? Lowkey like Donald Sutherland had What the fuck? Lowkey, like Donald Sutherland had so little to do in Backdraft. I think that is one of the great examples of having exactly 90 seconds in a movie to be evil and being like a shivery kind of evil that I still think about from time to time. Holy shit that character. Bring it all. I've seen Backdraft one time.

What? I saw it on DVD in college. And I cannot believe this. We need to do a show on Backdraft in the bonus. In the bonus. I'm super down. I remember liking it, but because I saw it late in life, my primary association with Backdraft is when I was like seven or eight, I took a make a video course at a summer camp, like an art summer camp that I went to for years and years, and some other kids in the course made back draft to colon backwash and it was a disaster movie about everybody was

backwashing into water bottles and sodas everywhere. That sounds like such a do not destroy SNL video sketch concept. I think about backwash all the time. It's so funny to me. Like one of the effects shots that they wanted to get was like looking down into the bottle of something and seeing like green Backwash in the bottle. And the way they achieved this was pouring Mountain Dew into a toilet and flushing it and capturing that on camera. And these kids were like one year older than me, but like, they're still funny. Like those kids at age eight and nine, funnier than I am now.

Yeah, very true. Like, I think about how many, like little strokes of comedic genius they had in Backdraft II, Colan Backwash. Do you remember their names? No, I see this with Josie. I wish I could track them down. Maybe they're listening now.

If you're listening now, right in, I'll quit the podcast and you can take my place. That's it. Wow. That really puts me in the awkward position of tamping down my enthusiasm. When thinking of your replacement. Yeah, yeah.

Damn. It's gonna be fun, you're gonna love them. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Damn. It's going to be fun. You're going to love them. Yeah. They're hilarious. Wow. I don't have an idea as good as Backwash. I do believe that the original Backdraft is better than whatever that was though. Yeah.

I mean, the sequel is inevitably a little bit worse than the original. One of my favorite moments of modern era, greatest gen is I made a reference to a sound effect from back draft and windy knew exactly what I was talking about and put it in an episode of greatest trick. Wendy is so good at that. Yeah, she knows she gets all the references. That should have been part of our interview process. Yeah, and it never was. Yeah, like if we were more like a modern tech giant where we like to do like an extremely harrowing test process to onboard a potential new hire, we would have thrown like five previously

unheard sound effects at someone and asked them to name them or something like that. If we ever lose windy, we need to have her as a part of the hiring process. And that hiring process just needs to be scantron, multiple choice questions, all reference based. That's how you get great employees. Yeah. That's why you can't companies are full of such wonderful people. Yeah. Cream of the crop. Hey, no offense if you work for a tech company. I'm specifically talking about that guy. You just offended 80% of our list. No, no, I'm specifically talking about that guy at Google that

thought that the AI that they built was a real person. Yeah. Very awkward moment at that meeting. Yeah. Yeah. When they took off the AI's arm, it's a Pinocchio strings have been cut. Yeah. Very few people at Google probably get that reference. Or all of them do. I don't know. Yeah. I don't work in tech. I could never. No, we couldn't pass the tests. I could never work in an office building again. I'm ruined. We've been totally spoiled, but not spoiled yet is this episode of Star Trek Voyager, Adam. Do you want to get into it? Yeah, an awful story of workplace. I don't know what you're talking about.

Malphiesens. I was going to say malphiesens, but that's not the right word. This is like workplace assault. Yeah. Allegedly. Yeah. This is a very pre-Me too story, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, if you're Borg's, it's We Too, isn't it? Wow. Hashtag We Too, when you tweet about this episode, yeah, it's season four episode 17, Retro Spect. Reaper, of course. Unless you've got something a little bigger

in your torpedo tubes, I'm not turning around. Oh, darn. Lowkey, one of the coolest cold-open scenes that I've seen in a while. Yeah. Also, the tragic destruction of a boi. A target boi. Yeah.

Prepare a boi and launch it when ready. A target boi solid monotainment. Impressive. I'm glad you agree. A totally new type of boi for the show. I love the idea of a starship firing range. Like this is a quality to start trek. Like every time we go to a shipyard

or go to a place where like the D's being refitted or repaired after attack or a starbase or anything like the places where work gets done on ships. I want to go to Adam loves a maintenance based storyline. That's what I'm saying, but like you know before they launch starships, they got to go out to the weapons range and make sure that the phasers and the photons are are aimed properly. True. Give me an entire three episode arc about what happens out there. I would love that. So these weapons that they're testing are being provided by Mr. Coven who is an

enthron weapons dealer. And he doesn't seem to be quite so sinister as Tau, that weapons dealer that stole Leonardo da Vinci a few episodes back. Yeah. It's like a nice weapons dealer. He negs Janeway a little bit, but in kind of a fun, we're negotiating a price kind of way, not a gross pickup artist kind of way. It's good to see the art of negotiation isn't lost on you, Captain. It's one of those scenes where everyone knows what game they're playing.

And everyone is willingly participating in the language of sales. It's sales as almost like flirtation, right? Well, I mean, ask any salesperson. It is a form of seduction, right? It absolutely is. I mean, that's what Affleck said in Boiler Room, right? You're making a sale on every call. Either you close them or they close you.

Wow. It's so binary. Yeah. Be relentless. Yeah, haggling as an art form. Have you seen Boiler Room? I've seen Boiler Room once. How many movies have you watched more than once?

There's like five movies that I've watched 300 times each. Yeah. And then everything else gets the one time. I mean, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. It's like the negotiator, Crimson Tide, Patriot Games, Cleared Present Danger, Jurassic Park, and that's it. Oh, in the Star Trek movies, I've watched those a bunch of times.

Poison Ivy. The weapon that they shot at the Boa is an iso-canetic cannon, and that's why it looks so strange. Like, what does this thing come in out of the Voyager? Yeah. It looks like the Romulan weapon from... Balance of terror. From Balanced of Terror.

It kind of does, yeah. I wonder if it sucks at range like the Romulan weapon from Balance of terror. From balance of terror. It kind of does, yeah. I wonder if it sucks at range like the Romulan weapon from balance of terror. I mean, we'll never know that because Mr. Coven is really talking up all of its great qualities. Yeah, it really slaps. You've made your point, Mr. Coven.

I want the cannon. Looks like they're in, they're buying it. Yeah. They're trading isolinear chips for hostages. Yeah. Mr. Covein doesn't know how worthless these chips are. Engineer's just play with them in their free time now. Yeah, because they've gone to a loop based computer chip system on Voyager.

Like what do they have to use for isolinear chips anymore? Yeah, that's why they can give away hundreds of them without batting an eye. Yeah. These are like the old USB sticks that you have in your desk drawer. Yeah, eight megabytes, are you fucking kidding me? Yeah, no one needs these.

They are also giving him astrometrics data on 12 sectors from their ASLAB and he's like, how about you give me the technology from the ASLAB. And he's like, how about you give me the technology from the ASLAB itself? That's a no-go. And I couldn't tell if it was games that, like she says that it's so tightly integrated in our systems that it would be useless to anyone else.

Yeah. Do you believe that? I mean, it's a great line if it's a lie. Yeah. What you want is the turn down in your back pocket. Like, the reason you don't want to do the thing ready to go. Right.

This is the I already have plans. Yeah. Chico Tay, when I'm negotiating with this guy, give me a call from the other group. Exactly. So, seven is going to participate in integrating some of these systems into the void. Apparently they can set it up enough to lick some shots without

it being permanently installed, but to permanently install it, there's some power system modifications. And because seven of nine hasn't bowling pinned anyone in a while, she's let out of confinement to work on this project. The way they talk about her sucks. When Seven's not around, somebody to give her some latitude, she's been behaving herself lately. Yeah, very infantilizing.

Yeah. Do you think she's ready to work with others? I was thinking when we met Mr. Cove and that he and Seven would work great together because of their strong personalities. Yeah. And the fact that his loaf kind of looks like a Mac pro, like he's kind of computer-y in a way as well. Yeah. Didn't quite work out that way, did it? It's more about let's see if Seven's gonna fuck this up or if this is gonna be an opportunity for her to earn more trust going forward and She earns trust and it's not fucked up at all and the rest of the episode is just about a totally uneventful collaboration. Yeah, sounds great. No. I Was shocked that when we're in the ass lab

decrypting the message from Starfleet is still a thing that's being worked on that is a long-term project. Yeah, any problems? None. I wonder if it's our tedious to set F2B. I don't know Is it hard to decrypt because they didn't get the whole thing or is it hard to decrypt because to decrypt because they didn't get the whole thing or is it hard to decrypt because decrypting is really hard. And if so, why didn't Starfleet send it with a key that they had on board? I mean, this is the storyline of like 10 Dan Brown books, right? Except none of the decryption in these episodes is being whipped up for drama. Yeah, right. She uncovers that Jesus was gay and that's something that's unfolded over 38 chapters that are two paragraphs long each. I kind of want to give you the Leach or Vino from Happy Gilmore.

Jesus was gay, take. It turns out this guy really kind of hates seven. He doesn't like the way she works. I'm gonna do my computer thing over here. And he's trying to like, man-splain to her that she's wrong. And Elbows her out of the way and catches those hands for his trouble. I mean, the way this is shot really sets this up, right? Because I look at them together, there's like the two shot with the other hand. And I'm like, I'm gonna do my computer thing over here. And he's trying to like, man-splain to her that she's wrong.

And Elbows her out of the way and catches those hands for his trouble. I mean, the way this is shot really sets this up, right? Because I look at them together, there's like the two shot with Seven and Mr. Coven and I'm like, get out of her fucking nook, dude. Yeah. You're in a workplace. Workplaces aren't for nooks. People are always getting a little too close to Seven in workplaces and often being bowling pinned as a result.

I was wishing there was a security guy there to also go down in this context. But now, COVID goes down hard and that's our cold open. We're in six Bay after the theme and Mr. COVID has unsurprisingly taken great umbrage with having his job broken. Yeah, she would have killed me, but woman is dangerous. And the doc, Janeway and BLT are at the bedside trying to kind of recap what happened in a sort of like asshole, Rashomon set up because like it's funny.

The more Mr. Kovan talks, the less likable he becomes. Yeah, which injects an interesting tension The more Mr. Coven talks, the less likable he becomes. Which injects an interesting tension to the rest of the episode because like clearly something bad has happened to him, but also like something else is going to happen, bad involving him, and it kind of colors everything about how he's treated.

Yeah, it's interesting the way being an asshole in a customer service context can sometimes like remove victim status from you. Especially in a scene like this because the thought I had was like, it's just as important to be a good patient as it is to be a good customer. It totally changes what sort of service you get.

And by service, I mean like medical service or otherwise. Right, justice-based service. Yeah. BLT is kind of on seven side here. She was there when it went down. And I like the kind of subtle changes in the way BLT and seven relate to each other that we're seeing because BLT is like, I would have fucking clocked that guy

if he did that to me. Well, it is a little selfish by BLT because I think she wants to bring back a punching people in the face based workplace to engineering. Yeah, she's like, I don't see anything wrong with what happened. What are we talking about here?

I suppose if you punch someone in the wrong way, they're gonna go over a rail and fall into an open plasma fire. That is a quality to engineering that makes it maybe not the best place for punches to faces. Yeah, we haven't seen that plasma fire in seasons now and I really miss it. I do. Yeah. Like what are people even roasting their marshmallows on when they go to engineering?

Yeah, we stand a real one. We stand a green one. Yeah. So even the captain's office seven who is totally habituated to bringing doorbells now comes in. I don't like that by the way. Yeah, yeah, we're against seven ringing doorbells now comes in. I don't like that, by the way. Yeah, now we're against seven ringing doorbells. That's a stated policy of this podcast, way funnier when she urcles into every room. Yeah. But this is a very interesting scene

because we are sort of rehashing a thing that seven has had a problem with integrating into the crew before, which is the hands shouldn't be doing the talking. Here we are again. The captain is like, okay, well, nothing of tried has persuaded you that that's the case, so now what?

It's such an odd scene because of how Sevin has talked to, like, I've been pipped at work before. I know what it's like to receive a talking to that's like, hey, I can tell you're not giving this your best. And I don't know what to do about it, but maybe if we collaborate on a solution, maybe everyone would be happier in this workplace. You're referring to when Rob pulled you a sign

on our second tour and was like, hey, you could be bringing the funny a little bit more when you got on stage. You could be a little more on time to the lobby call, by the way. But I didn't like Janeway's tone with seven here. It felt condescending to me. And what's more is like, it felt like we were wandering our way to a course of action here and the scene just kind of ends. Because they're out of ideas. And. But I thought this was a solicitation of ideas

that we were eventually going to hear. Right. It's that everyone was going to be like, well, we'll put a chart on the wall and I'll get a gold star for every day. I don't bowling, pick it up on. Yeah. Like a six year old that has behavior problems. Yeah.

And it's hard to get my arms around really what the end goal is here too. Right. Does Janeway really want seven to be a part of the crew and fully human again and like everyone else in kind of a dark way? Because the ways in which she is not integrating seem very seven specific in a, I think everyone knows a seven from the workplace. You know, seven from accounting. You got to go into our office in a kind of way. Otherwise, it's not going to work out. You got a gingerly knock on the door of that office with the back here and not go.

Like, you don't just barge in the way seven from accounting barges into your office. Maybe I just kind of resent the way they're trying to change her. Maybe. In a way that I personally find familiar because I didn't want to be changed either. Let me tell you something Ben, they never broke me. Rob could not get you to show up at their lobby. I was a stallion, riding free. Yeah, it was beautiful. It was amazing to get to soundcheck 45 minutes late every single time. How dare you.

There is a scene in the Six Bay where the doctor is talking to seven about this and like the poor impulse control issue. And it kind of struck me that this could be partially the doctor's influence. The doctor does seem to be the one person on the crew that has taken a personal interest in actually helping Seven conform to like human norms of interaction. Like Harry Kim is because the doc weird science seven. Yeah. After they got her. Like Harry Kim has paid some lip service to it,

but it feels like he's kind of not invested in it in the way that the doctor is. I mean, Harry Kim would like to pay more lip service to it. Yeah. To that ass. Something about it reminds me of being in the womb. But I'm Harry. Who are you?

Harry Kim. Harry Kim. Parents must be very proud. Who are you? They come as come as a pair. Who are you? being in the world. The doctors suggested is like maybe you could bust people's chops more like I do. That seems to work for me. Right. That's a very ego-based tack for the advice that he's giving. Yeah. It seems like you have a problem. Well, here's what I did. Yeah. I don't have that problem. Here's why. As they talk and as he scans her, she becomes more and more uncomfortable. And it's hard to tell at this point whether she's uncomfortable with him or the scanner.

Yeah. And as time goes on, like this is a fairly thorough scan. She's laid down on the bio bed, the arches close around her, and she gets more and more animated with her distress in this scene. Yeah, it really boils over

when Rick Berman runs in from off camera and goes, get that archipelago, no! Get off! Which is weird, like a weird kind of fourth wall gets broken there. Yeah. She is unable to articulate why she is feeling

the way that she is. And she finally just kind of bales out of this exam. It feels like a PTSD flashback or like she's been schtichend. But we don't get a satisfactory conclusion in this moment. Right. The doc has to report to the captain what's happened here. And he's like, yeah, I finally sedated her.

Like such was her trauma in that moment. And what he suspects is that there's a form of memory suppression at work here. These memories have been up until this point bottled, squished, not integrated into her consciousness. And so what he is suggesting is like, hey, psychiatry may be the answer to this. And I have been side loading new apps into my system that will help me do this. And he pitches this as like a, you're really gonna value having me around now,

which kind of makes me think that a couple of recent away missions in which his mobile emitter got into very hot water, I have influenced his thinking to like, I need to seal the captain's mind that I am not an expendable of the crew. It also reminds me a little bit of that episode where BLT's punishment for a violent thought

was getting lobotomized. We're in one character's bad day becomes an opportunity for someone else's enrichment. Right. Personal enrichment because like seven is really going through some shit and the doc is like, this is an opportunity for me to try something new, Captain. We're really like seven's care should be at the forefront of the decision making here. It doesn't, it doesn't suit like I say, it's, it's primarily based on her care that he's

motivated to do this. I'll be even more valuable to you than I am now. So he talks about how his therapeutic approach is going to work to seven. And he says it's going to be a combination of young gear and betasoid therapy. Big yikes for me. That is why when we cut to the therapy, they're both naked. me. That is why when we cut to the therapy, they're both naked. They're both naked and weirdly closely associated with Nazism in a way that is like, I don't like that this is even a subject of debate. The doc does that thing where he's speaking very, very softly and slowly

and encourages seven to close her eyes and describe what she sees. And seven is like very technical in her description in a fun way. Yeah, given the dimensions of the tri-corder, like she's trying to move into an apartment and wants to make sure that the Tri-corder will fit in one of the rooms. What we're seeing are flashbacks of the scene we saw previously, her getting upset in sick bay. Right, but it kind of crosses over into a different memory in a way that I thought was very interesting like the the six-bay memory

then sort of becomes this other memory where Coven is schisming her. Yeah. He knocks her out and maybe abducted her on an away mission and stole board technology from her birdie. Yeah, he violated me. Yeah, the terminology that Seven uses

is familiar in a woman being assaulted context. Right. They don't play that up a ton, but it is like a violation of consent kick off to this storyline anyway. You can't help but think of it in that way. You really can't and I wondered if maybe at this time they counted on people not to think of it in that way in a weird way. Because the way the story unfolds really does make Coven ultimately, it seems like they're trying to paint him as a person that really got fucked over by this accusation. And it's not like Seventh is making it from a standpoint of just like

fabricating it, right? Yeah. I felt like very complicated about that. And this is where that complication starts. Right. It's a complication that continues throughout the entire episode. I think. And throughout the like seven storyline off into the future, like people wanting, I mean, I'm talking about like Star Trek book hard, like people wanting to steal shit from Seventh's bread. It is a, it becomes canonical Seventh storyline. Yeah, that's true. I mean, this is obviously pre-itrama depictions of Borg technology theft.

Yeah, if you're here for that, you can have to wait some years. Where's your cortical node, buddy? Gotta be in there somewhere. In the memory, what we see is them stealing technology from Seven's Barretty and then assimilating another umpharin who is also been abducted into this lab. In a way or I was like, fuck, COVID is playing with some fucking fire if he is making a drone in his lab right now. Yeah. I think the same guy. With what we eventually find out about what happened here,

this is so detailed. Yeah. That it was all I could think about for a long time. It's like, what happened to that dude? In a way that, I think it's sort of a monster of a storyline that you can't control by depicting something like this. Right.

It's so scary and so dangerous in its very idea that I think it kind of obscures the rest of the episode in a way that they did not intend. It does because like all of the evidence that they're looking for is so meaningless compared to they should be a drone. You could be able to find a drone. Right. Yeah.

If this happened, there's a drone. Like, you don't have to scan for nanoprobe, scan for drone, and that would prove or disprove the story. Right. We know that you can be in orbit of planet Earth and see something go through a time-butt hole and then scan the Earth and determine that every life sign on the planet's surface is bored. You don't have to ask seven.

You could ask Chicoete if he feels anything. Yeah. Anything tickling your brains. Yeah. Isn't Neelix kind of part Borg's now too? Oh yeah, it's kind of going around, isn't it? It's really catching. We see the mission that they went on together.

This is a passage of time cut where we see seven on the planet's surface with Paris and they're shooting Mekita brand, phaser rifles, which I love. Makita, it's all about power you need. Crew, what efficient? How's that matabo? I want to try that.

Yeah, I really liked what B-Dunks did with his performance here because I think when B-Dunks is by himself with the crew, he's kind of often the comic relief. But when he is around aliens that they don't know, he is like totally buttoned up and professional in this way that I thought was really, really cool, really smart. I really like workplace B-Dunks for sure. Yeah. And the coven version of the story is that the rifle just like discharged accidentally and hit seven. in the lab because seven goes into the lab alone with coven and

whether or not seven story is true is one question, but if it is true Coven is an incredible actor because when she comes to he is like oozing this like embarrassed like like I'm so sorry that that happened. Like, we just had an industrial accident with a visiting member of the public to my lab. I'm humiliated. And that really hit me like that. The coven sold that moment, especially because of what we see beforehand, like the detail

of the memory being such that you see every little bit taken off of seven, they pop her dolphin off of her eyebrow. They steal stuff out of her vampire hand. Yeah. They really take a lot of shit. There's like a giant jar of green juice. They're pulling off of her.

Yeah. It's intense. So by the time we actually get into post weapons, explosion, coven, it's hard not to feel traumatized by that moment. And to see what looks like a lie in his behavior. A lie that is super well sold. Yeah. And that really goes to make you mistrust him.

Yeah. So they have him a Gloucet group. If you walk. And the debate is whether these memories are real. And TuVak is like people that recover memories often are recovering false memories. TuVak is reflexively do not believe all women. This is a TuVak is over party.

Ah. Hashtag TuVak is canceled. Right. But the doc is like, this is fucking real. Like, this is her actual lived experience. Like, this isn't conjecture. This isn't made up. This happened.

This is a dramatic middle for Janeway to occupy, right? She's seeing these two sides of the issue argue and she is the one to ask for physical evidence. Like, look, I get it. These seem very plausible, but like we need some memory dope on the table, right? So there's coffee in that physical evidence to back up Seven's claim.

And we've even fucking a lot of it. I think it's so interesting that during this conversation they treat Seven in a way where no one's bringing up that she just punched a guy in the face or that she's having behavior problems at work. Like they treat her as someone who is neither credible nor incredible. They just treat her as like a neutral person with a problem they're trying to solve. Which really pisses the doctor off. The doctor is not happy with the way this meaning goes. Yeah. We're not talking about conjecture, we're talking about science. Let's look at Baghdad.

I think that goes to the fact that he is the one person on the crew that has taken an interest in helping seven integrators self. Also, Dakh read the room when you bring this problem to Tufak, that's how it's going to be. Ha ha ha. Yeah, so the next step is to reach out to Covenant and be like, hey, this is going around.

Does this sound like a thing that happened? There are like five scenes of Coven taking great umbridge with an accusation that's being brought to him. And in Janeway's ready room, he flatly denies doing anything wrong. He denies Janeway's request to check out his laboratory until the moment where the idea of the weapons deal starts to fall apart, he's like, oh, fuck. Like if I lose this deal, I might lose my job over this. Right.

The case is made that his species is heavily reliant in off-world commerce. And if these isolinear chips and star charts don't come through, that's his ass. And so he is persuaded, but he's also basically saying, like, I'm already fucked because if the authorities on my plan to find out that a deal I was on went south for a reason like this, it doesn't even matter if the accusation is true. Yeah. He's like, you can't even joke around on the internet anymore.

He's like, this typically shit is killing the arms dealing business and it sucks. It used to be so much fun. And now, it's like you're walking on eggshells when you're selling weapons of mass destruction to strange aliens. Next, you're gonna tell me I can't hug a board. Hello, anymore.

I'm a nice person. I used to love selling weapons at colleges, and now I don't even book those gigs. The next person to talk to COVID is TuVoc. TuVoc does a good job of making this interrogation scary, despite the fact that he's not totally bought into the premise of the investigation. I think that's because TuVoc's quarters slash office are kind of a scary place to be. TuVoc's quarters remind me a little bit of data's quarters in that like, it seems like it's a lot of computers

relative to the amount of space that there is to just relax. The show wants you to feel that way, I think. I agree. Another scene that is designed to sort of highlight how desperate CoFin feels because he's like, I don't even have any friends on my planet. You guys have the magistrate coming up here. He's not gonna help me.

Nobody's gonna help me. You have an the magistrate coming up here. He's not going to help me. Nobody's going to help me. You have an entire starship helping, Sefin. This in retrospect was, I think, one of the most important scenes of the entire episode, because it's the moment where Coven recognizes that Tuvac might be his only ally or resource in his defense here. Yeah. And by trusting him to give him a fair shake, it makes it seem as though, okay, he might, like if you trust Tuvac in the way that he's demonstrating here, knowing how good Tuvac is at his job

and knowing what Tuvac is promising, an innocent person says what he says here, about like, well, you're my only chance then. Like, if you're as good as you say you are, and as fair as you say you're going to be, then I should be all right. But also does the appeal that so many abusers have done to try and make accusations go away, which is like, think of what this is doing to my reputation. Right, yeah, and that's like, but I wonder if 20 years ago,

that hits in the same way as it does now. Right, was the audience like, yeah, it is really messed up that his reputation is getting. You know what, I bet it fucking hit just as hard to women 20 years ago. Well, like the way the episode winds up unfolding makes it a little bit frustrating to me that it has an insightful line like that because the ending is so ambiguous that it's hard to

like feel like totally negative about it. But the fact that it's brought up here and treated as like a fair point of argument and then implied later maybe his reputation was really the thing at greatest risk. It's kind of sad. Yeah, I also wish that when they bring the magistrate on later, all he's talking about is reputation type stuff to really like solidify that cultural foundation that's only been just kind of referred to.

Right. A little bit. 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. 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,

and 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.

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Just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goatry. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Oh, rats, hey, hey, hey, oh, I'm glad I found 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 I gotta get on the art. Yeah, it is about terrain. Got us about to destroy humanity. Hey, oh sorry, sorry, are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans. Oh, we're actually we're podcasters. We are podcasters. So it's different Have you heard of Ono Ross and Kerry? We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal stuff like that And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so seem like something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats.

We came two by two. What do you think? Ona Ross & Kerry, available on MaximumFun.org. I've got to get the luck number, put your luck number, your mouth. I've got to get the luck number, and I think it's just a joke. In 6 Bay, the EMH asks seven,

how do you feel and her eyebrow shoots up just a fun throwback moment for Star Trek? The question is irrelevant. Really interesting scene here, because seven appears to have gotten over it, and the doc is like encouraging her not to be over it. Right. Kind of winding her up. This is actually kind of a familiar thing for me in therapy, And the doc is like encouraging her not to be over it. Kind of winding her up.

This is actually kind of a familiar thing for me in therapy because I do often rationalize things that put me at a disadvantage in other people's behavior as like, oh, well, they needed to, you could probably familiar with this. You've been involved in business negotiations with me. I often take the other person's side against myself. Yeah, they can be frustrating.

So sometimes my therapist will be like, hey, that's actually wrong that they did that to you, or whatever. But think of how that would affect Adam is something I'd like you to consider more in therapy. But the thing that this allides is that the first thing Seven did was punch this guy in the fucking face. Right. Yeah.

So, I think she was sufficiently angry, at least as an initial condition. It's so interesting how that order of operations is sort of forgotten. Like, we do flash back to before the punch to get kind of a backstory there. Yeah. And then the punch is like not a significant part of the, it's like the inciting incident that then everybody forgets about for the rest of the episode. Right. Do you think this not to cut to the end, but do you think this episode would have been more interesting if Mr. Coven had been killed by being punched to death? And this was a murder case attempting to be solved retroactively.

It's an interesting premise, because then it's like a Star Trek-y story about was this self-defense or not? You'd have to make the assault part real. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. So, don't know. Yeah. So yeah, on the question of whether or not it was real,

they go down to his lab finally to do this investigation. And among the people there doing the crime scene, dust off is the doc. And I was very illiterate with the doctors, mobile emitter being in Covins lab after the implication that Covins is willing to do some pretty fucked up shit to steal Borg's technology. Great call, yeah. But it doesn't come up, and I guess it's because there are like members of the Inthoran authorities there, including the Mag magistrate. Yeah. All of the gear is there from the away mission before the Makita brand energy weapon, the tool that flipped off the idolfen, the little ray gun that pulled out nanoprobes and

so forth. I liked all of these little gadgets and they scanned the workbench and they're like, yeah, dude, there's fucking board nanoprobes all over this workbench and they're like, yeah, dude. There's fucking Borg Nano probes all over this workbench and they're regenerating and the dock holds a black light over the workbench and it is just like glowing This is like a a mid-market hotel room bed spread in here in a Borg part of space Hellroom bed spread in here in a Borg part of space. I'll just collect a sample. Man, you really sprayed it everywhere, didn't you? Jesus, COVID. It's even on the remote.

The dispersal pattern is consistent. So this is not look good for Mr. COVID. And he becomes very animated in this scene. Like the walls are closing in pretty fast. And is this where he escapes? He like beams himself out. It's funny how long it takes for him to get to this point. Like it looks like he's dead to rights,

pretty early on in the scene, but he allows everything to be examined. Like what he wanted was a preponderance of evidence before beaming away. Yeah, everything but the smoke coming out of the gun. Yeah. So when he beams away, he goes up to his ship and they're like, oh, this ship is a piece of shit.

It's not even going to warp, but then he does something to knock their sensors out and he's just gone. I love this part of the episode starting here where it's like you need to make sure you bring a gun to a gun fight with a weapons dealer. He really do. He's got all the tricks. Even though his ship is little, it is fucking packing.

Yeah. Yeah. So what they need to do is a hard target search. They need to go through every Fox house, outhouse, henhouse, and a 15 mile radius and find coven. And while they're on route, we go down to the crime lab where the canton and tuvach are starting to get

a little bit unsure of the veracity of this evidence. Getting a bad feeling about this tuvach. Right, because the Borg ropes that they found all over the work bench, they're indistinguishable from the kind that just come out when you're shooting Borg ropes or when they're taken from you by force. Right. The question at this point is like, so maybe he didn't get her in a bed, but if

he shot her to get the ropes, like, how can anybody satisfy themselves that that's an accident if he stands to profit from the ropes? I'm sure that's something a lot of people thought of been, but all I could think of is from which closed door isn't a simulated board's going to leap. Because I was still thinking about that guy. Yeah, where is that guy? We still scan for the guy. Yeah, no one scans for boards.

They just scan for ropes. So guy. Yeah. Yeah, no one scans for Borgs. They just scan for ropes. So frustrating. Yeah. Toovuck in this scene has a great proposition. A proposition that was more exciting to me in my imagination than it was the reality. He's like, perhaps we should recreate the incident with the exploded Mekita weapon and Seven's arm.

And I was like, they're gonna shoot Seven's arm and a lab, this is gonna be amazing. That is not what happens. They go to six bay and they use a hyposporay to approximate what happened. Just to get some nanoproves out and I love this microscope prop. It's fun that they pull out and look into. And it's one of those

we're all looking into the hole at the thing and like making dark faces at each other's one of those we're all looking into the whole at the thing and like making dark faces at each other because we know what the implications are, but nobody says out loud what they're seeing until the doc looks at it. And the doc is like, fuck, I've been writing so hard for this dude violated seven. And what we're seeing is that these nanoprobes self regenerate. And it's the same pattern that we saw with the ones on the bench. Get a question for you about something visually that happens in this scene. Is seven's idolfin implants digitally added? Oh, it looked really strange to me in this scene because it hung down in her eye line almost.

It looked like it was larger than it usually is or something. Something just looked off. That doesn't sound like a thing that they really would have had the technology to do at the time. I thought the same thing, but it's so much in her eyeball that it just seemed strange to me. I couldn't rule it out. And because of how unmoving she was during the scene, its scale just looked different.

I don't know. It does look weird. Maybe they just like glued it on a little too low or something. It'd be funny if she had her idolfen taken on the away mission and like a person switching to their backup set of eyeglasses. Right.

Like her backup idolfen is just a little larger. Of course. Yeah. Kind of out of fashion. It's the bifocal idol if that she rarely wears. I have a new theory that just popped into my head. Okay. One of the things that happens in the memory scene is that they pop it off and there's

some stuff underneath it that it connects to. And I wonder if they made a slightly bigger one for that scene so that it would cover the underneath connectivity. And then they wanted to have heard of where it for the whole episode so that it kind of sold the illusion that this could happen. It's idolfin continuity they were going for and I think you're exactly right. I think that's what happened here. It's gotta be. I'm going to be. Of course, it's long day. What?

You're going to be this one to me, and you're going to be careful. Because I'm going to see this once. This magistrate is with them on the man hunt for Coven, and they finally catch up with his ship. And this is weird timing because Coven is like desperately fleeing, and they're like, no, no, no, don't worry. We feel like we were maybe wrong about that whole thing.

We just want to talk about it. We only have the lights and sirens going and the car in front of us is acting all weird. Why is that? Yeah, then they, you know, they tap the night stick on his window and go like, do you know, like you're driving really aratically there? We get this shot a lot, the FaceTime with the pilot of a ship and that pilot is acting weird or scared or threatening or whatever. But I really want to say that Michael Horton's performance in this episode and especially

in these scenes is great. It's gotta be hard to do, right? You're just like stuck in an office chair in front of a fake star-shipping background. Your face is in a box and you've got to present as if you're scared for your life. And you're actually talking to someone. Yeah.

The panic of like, he is being told over this face time, we are withdrawing the accusation, this potentially clears your name. You really believe that he is in such a panic state that he's gonna turn around his ship and start shooting at them. There's that energy of like, we've seen this a lot before,

like the suspects in juvenile hall and they're being asked a bunch of questions and then their parents are brought in. Like the energy of seeing the magistrate on the bridge, he's like, oh, fuck, the magistrate's here. Oh, I'm so fucked right now. Told him. Yeah.

Yeah. I was going to take the note home and tear it up. Right. Like that kind of vibe. Yeah. Feels familiar here. This does not go great. The combat scene turns into his ship

spontaneously exploding. They haven't even fired back. It's just everything. His ship is so overpowered. This is a great Kate Mulgrue moment here too, because once the realization washes over her, she does that great actor thing of hanging some limped pools on her lower eyelids. Like she really looks affected by this moment. And then she kind of switches into a disappointment or an anger with seven, but also a recognition,

like how much of this is her fault, really how much of this is our fault. I'm glad you did this. I've got the doctors fault for like encouraging her along this line of thinking. It's kind of a useful interstitial here because you can't have a conclusion in this moment. You can only have the trauma of what's happened. The doctor has to confront the thought that maybe his psychiatry subroutine makes him a part of an industry of death. And so the next scene, he's reading this book with a volcano on the cover. He's in the corridors handing out pamphlets.

He's like, maybe I should have done like more of a personality test on stuff. We start to see really strange devices and six bay from here on out with like two cylinders that the patient told onto. A bunch of gauges. But the thing is like, people start going to Six Bay for brunch instead of Neelix's mess hall.

Yeah. Really great food there, all of a sudden. Surprisingly solid brunch. Yeah. Yeah. And people just start having to re-read definitions of words all the time. And everybody said blue suits.

And there's all this like weird naval shit. Oh man, the doc is bumming out big time. The doc is talking with seven in the scene in six bay and they're both feeling bad about this. They should feel bad about this. I am preoccupied by Colvin's death. Trying the club. He diagnosis her with a little something called remorse. I mean, I want to walk that back a little bit because seven should feel bad,

but not because of any ill intent. Like, she did feel a kind of way about things, and she elevated those feelings to authority figures that she thought could help. I think that, like, notwithstanding the absent board grown and that piece of evidence never having been surfaced, I don't feel like this episode ever entirely makes the case that her memory was fake also. I mean, the Twilight Zone ending to this episode that I craved was we get the scene of seven in the doctor having their

feelings, we get the scene of the doctor and Janeway having their feelings and then Dissolved to the planet surface and a closet where an assimilated forriks has been standing. Yeah the entire time or like the lab assistant like Straightening up after dark. Yeah, and just two tubules go into her neck. Yeah Like make it even more muddy at the end is what I was going for. Instead, what this episode deals with at the end is entirely the doctors feelings of remorse and wanting to change in himself what led to what he identifies as a mistake,

which is the part of his program that made him have the ambition to be more than what he was when he was turned on. And so he's pitching to the captain, like, zero me out. Make me back into EMH 1.0. And the captain is like, no, you made a mistake. And the way you like don't make mistakes in the future is by learning from them, not

by like erasing the past. Jane Wayslake, for a number of years, Starfleet, in situations like these, has distributed a VHS tape with an advisor for people having feelings like yours, and she goes to the TVV CR combo, and she pops it in. And the screen blinks on and it's like hello I Understand you might be having some feelings of regret You if you are like I once was feel greatly dishonored And would like to escape that feeling I am here to tell you not to pursue a lobotomy. There is no going back from a procedure like this.

Here to join me to discuss this is a friend and colleague who I have rebuilt my connection with over the years. Dr. Bashir, welcome to the program. I actually did not agree. With any of your line of thinking here, I actually am pro-lobat to me. Oh my god, what is in your coffee cup? It smells... HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I don't know why they're telling us to show this tape to people. It looks like an old mad TV sketch.

It just kind of ends. Anyway, request denied. That's the button on the episode. Did you like this episode, Adam? You know, I made it easy to get along with post-review time, but I don't like bullet, I don't like black, and I don't like you. I love this too.

I mean, it was more fun to talk about than maybe it was, and also extremely heavy in parts that maybe were projections and maybe were intentional. Kind of an interesting soup of an episode in a way that I enjoy. I mean, it's hard to say you enjoy an episode like this that's depicting an assault and a trauma and the death of a character that may have been unfair. And the fallout from that. the death of a character that may have been unfair. Yeah. And the fallout from that.

But this may be a case of an episode that asks more interesting questions than it's able to answer. And I kind of like the ambition of it to go in that direction, but like whether or not it's successful as a story, should it be tied to whether or not it's able to conclude itself effectively? I mean, I don't need things tied into a bow to like an episode. So I'm kind of satisfied with being unsatisfied in its conclusions. I think that if you had the first two acts of this script in a modern

Star Trek television show, the third act would be super duper different. Right. I think I'm also used to on TV shows, they're being a more effective criminal detective work and loyering happening here. There doesn't seem to be a good quality to those aspects throughout this episode. Yeah. The amount of ambiguity I think does save this episode

from being hard bad because that feeling at the end is really effective. That like, those feelings of like, I'm still not entirely convinced that COVID was totally innocent here. He did seem like he did something bad. And the misgivings you have about how to process that feel really similar to what the EMH and Seven are feeling. And I think that in that way, it's very effective, but the idea that it was also possibly just like a

totally fabricated accusation is a very uncomfortable part of this. And I, yeah, it's very hard to like imagine how it hit in the late 90s, how different that must have been. Yeah. Yeah. Well, one thing that always turns my mood around at him, our priority one message is do you want to go into the inbox and see about those? RP ones would have hit in the late 90s just as hard as today. True, but they would have been so much cheaper because of inflation. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Stop a little, stop a little, stop a little, stop a little, stop a little.

Yeah, it's extra. But the interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Ben, our first priority one message is from John, Maddie, Adam, and our mic. It is too Lewis and Felicia. The message goes like this, Hey Ben and Adam, long time viewers, first time callers. Oh, you love the show. Can't believe you got through.

Can you please contact Kevin Oxbridge and have him wish our dear friends Lewis and Felicia congratulations on their nuptials. Lewis is a long time friend of the show, and Felicia probably wouldn't be caught dead listening to it. To Lew and Felicia, much love from your friend's mic, Matt, Jim, and Adam. Wow, congratulations, you two, and hey Felicia, I'm really sorry that Lew made you turn this on so that you could just hear this part. We heard you wouldn't be caught dead listening to this and uh...

Does anyone want any ice cream cake? Ha ha ha ha ha ha HME! Kavin' EXPRITCH! Felicia doesn't know what that means. No one told me how old you were churning, so I just lit all candles everywhere. Uh, wow. candle is everywhere. Wow our next priority one message is from Nicholas and it is to Paul and it goes like this

Flashback episode 425 flashback drop needs extended version by the way is the note something is happening to me and I don't know what it is Each time I see a bird, a bird, yes a large black bird flying toward me, shrieking. Will I keep having these flashbacks? A series of disjointed images in my mind. I was frightened, I felt fear. I must rejoin the collective. Hypnagogic regression. Flashbacks. Flashbacks.

You will be soon. I am gone. You were born. Flashback. To the day we were chopping wood and you told me DS9 is the shit and I needed to get into greatest gen. Some of the best advice I've ever received. Then an Adam remind me of you. You are one of the kindest people I know and glad that our wives and kids are friends.

Happy 40th man. Wow. Hey, happy 40th Paul. Usually when someone is compared to us, it's an insult. It's not a nice, but I'm using context clues here to surmise that this is a compliment. Yeah. Thanks also for putting Nicholas onto the show. I love the friend that puts a friend onto the greatest generation. Yeah, yeah, that's what we like to hear. Thanks for doing that. If you'd like to get a priority one message,

it's really easy to do. You had to maximumfund.org slash Jembo Tron, and you set it up. It's a hundred bucks for a personal message, 204, a commercial message, and it helps us cover the cost of making this here program. Good.

Hey Adam. Zappin. Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? Yeah, I did. I mean, this is not a person that really has the Shimoda qualities, but it's something I really thought about in this scene. So Mr. Covanship explodes. We're cutting around the bridge to all the reacts.

The magistrates there. Janeway's there. Couldn't help but think, we still doing this weapons deal now? And so I want to honor the magistrate with my Shemoted by saying, good restraint, not asking that question at that moment. Cause you know, because you know, Covans accounts are, have got to go somewhere.

Right. There's still business that needs to be done. It's unclear at the end of this episode of Voyager was given the weapons that they traded for. Yeah, did they ever get uninstalled? I would like to know all of these things. Yeah. And like, it's funny how much screen time

the magistrate gets without really doing very much. I wonder if there's a cut of this episode where there's more magistrate. And there's that awkward moment of, so if you just drop me back off at the planet, I guess that'd be cool. How many ice-creamy or chips did you guys agree on? And Jane was like 85.

Yeah. So I'm gonna make for that reason, kind of an imaginary reason I'm making the magistrate my drug Shimoda. What about you, Ben? I think I'm gonna give it to the doc just for being the person that is going the hardest for his position throughout this episode. And when his position winds up backfiring on him, selecting, ceasing to exist as his solution to that problem. You know, the silliness of the extremes of his reactions was probably the lightest part of a pretty heavy episode

for me. So he was my drink, Shemote at this time. Good Shemote. Thanks, man. I worked really hard on that. Well, Adam, why don't you head over to gach.bizslashgame and I will tell you about season four episode 18, The Killing Game Part One. Herojin, Captur, capture and board Voyager and use the holodex to hunt the crew in various scenarios Damn the herogen her back their back baby. I love it What are we looking at Game board wise we just met Colin Anderson by the way. I know that was really cool

He did a VIP experience for the streaming spotacular. We actually got to put a face to the name. Colin Anderson, the programmer who devised the game of buttholes. The Will of the Caretaker. I'm looking at our runabout right now, been in a sound square 37. If I were to roll a six,

that would take us straight into the Bronze Zone. Whoa! I take it to your in charge here. Team leader, Bronze, Fortmore, Defense, Contingent. I gotta get a pop. That's it, get it. Our brand new square. Nothing else. Let's set, motherfucker. Nothing else outside of that. You're required to learn as you play. Roll. Will we end up in the brown zone?

We're about to find out. Roll that bone at him. Ben I rolled a one. Shula! Did I win? Harvey. Which is what I do. That is what you do.

Which means we are on square 38 for the next episode. It's a regular old episode by us. Looking forward to it. I think that this killing game episode is what I was thinking of for Year of Hell. Oh, interesting. Because I remember this whole elaborate. Is it too hard?

Yeah, it is. And I remember this whole elaborate thing to do with the holodex. So looking forward to it. I kind of like the idea of the hero gen being soothed by the holodeck. Why don't we just giveed by the holodeck. Why don't we just give the hero-gen holodeck technology so they stop hunting people?

Yeah, then they can hunt holograms and not bother everyone all the time. Yeah, that sounds good. That does sound good. That's a great solution, Adam. You're really thinking. I can solve other people's problems better than my own. Well, you can solve our problems by going to Maximumfund.org slash join. I'm a good member. All our problems are financial.

It's true. They'll all go away for just $5 a month. We really appreciate the folks that help support the production of this program. They keep us in business. They help us work with great folks like Wendy Pretty, the producer of this program, and Bill Tilly, the card daddy who runs our social media at greatest check. It's not just support. Call it selfish if you want.

There are bonus episodes coming out from us every month that you get for supporting the show. And they're good. They're not just like freebie cast off, low effort bonus episodes. We're giving you the good stuff in the bonus feed. Sometimes the bonus episode is the thing that gets the most effort of anything we do in a given month.

It's true. We personal or professional. That's why our marriages are falling apart. All right. Are you happy? It's the one thing that works. Our thanks to everyone that follows those social media accounts on Instagram and Twitter and leaves a nice review on Apple Podcast.

We've got to thank Nick Dittmore for making artwork for this show and Adam Ragusia for making the original theme music. Hey, go check out Adam Ragusia's podcast and YouTube channel. They're great. Yeah. We're really going to like them. We were hearing from VIPs today about how much they like the Adam Regussius show. It's great. It's okay. With that we will be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek Voyager. An episode of

the greatest generation Voyager that you're gonna be like is this the year of hell? Now what this is? Again? How many years of hell are there? Years and years of hell. I have been asking myself that question over the last couple years. Yeah. You never know which year it's gonna be. Yeah. Until it is. Maximumfun.org Comedy and Culture Artistone, Audience Supported Maximumfun.org. Comedy and Culture.

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