The Greatest Generation - Bespoke Squeegee (Q&A with Ben & Adam)

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

When we’ve reached the end of an era and only three packages remain, their contribution to the show’s well-documented problems makes it clear it’s time to turn off auto-renew. But after a bunch of FoD questions elicit some new ideas for the show, it seems we’re ready for 10 more years of indigestion and loose stool. Which type of museum would Ben and Adam open? What do wormhole aliens not care about at all? Who does Starfleet need to get into a uniform? It’s the episode that paints a Godfather-like scene. Sign up for our mailing list! Get a thing at podshop.biz! Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Riker - Quantum Leap The Greatest Generation is produced by Wynde Priddy Social media is managed by Rob Adler and Bill Tilley Music by Adam Ragusea & Dark Materia Friends of DeSoto for: Labor | Democracy | Justice Discuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen and find us on social media: YouTube | Instagram | Bluesky And check out these online communities run by FODs:  Reddit | USS Hood Discord | Facebook group | Wikia | FriendsOfDeSoto.social Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Big news, Uxbridge Shimoda is going independent. But staying listener supported, that means this is the last week. The greatest generation and greatest trek will be on the maximum fund network. To make this change possible ahead of returning to TNG, we are going to have to take a short break to transition things behind the scenes. We've made a big deal about never missing a show on Monday. And it's not something that we love that we have to do, but there are a ton of things that we have to set up. to get the show ready for this. When we relaunch in May with Star Trek the next generation,

it's going to be on the same feeds, it's on the same schedule, at the same quality that you expect. And you won't need to do anything to keep getting the shows because those RSS feeds are just going to reactivate when we're back in May. Hey, listen, this isn't something that we're doing lately. It's a change in strategy that we've been considering for a long time,

and this is something we're doing for you. We think it's going to be a really positive change for the FODs. And I also just want to reassure you that, like, there's no beef between us and Max Fund. We want to say how grateful we are to them for being such a great home for us for 10 years. If folks have already been supporting us with a monthly membership, Max Fund is going to be emailing you about your account and, crucially, how you can opt into our email list so that we can keep in touch with you. And when we relaunched, there are going to be big,

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Greatestrack.com is where you can do that. If you're wondering about P1s, we're still going to do that in the new era. and you'll be able to sign up for those at greatesttrecht.com. If you've already got one booked through maximum fun, don't worry, that's already on the schedule. But going forward, we'll be selling them ourselves through podshop.biz. So a lot of news we just dropped on you and more news to come. The very best way that you can stay up to the moment on everything happening with our shows is by signing up for the newsletter. You can do that at greatesttrek.com.

If you have more questions, we're going to put an FAQ up at greatesttrecht.com. we'll try to keep that updated as things come up. But in conclusion, we just want to say thank you so much for listening and supporting over the years. The FODs are the best. Like, we're so excited to be doing this for you. And this is a sustainability move to make a thing for the FODs in the long term. Yeah, it's a huge day for us in the history of the show. And all of it is because we want to make sure history never forgets the name, The Greatest Generation. The podcast about Star Trek.

Okay, well, with that big, big, exciting announcement out of the way, I'm sure you just want to listen to us, talk about Star Trek, and so we're going to shut up now and let you enjoy the episode that's coming up right now. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleing. Engage. 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'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pranika, and it will probably be another 10 years before we do another episode like this. Yeah. Probably longer, right? Because we did two a week of TNG for a while. We did. Not going to do that again.

For the whole run, I think. I think we did all seven seasons two a week. That was crazy. Yeah. This is going to be our five. final code 47 segment for a while. So we'll be posting this part on our YouTube channel. It's just YouTube.com slash at Greatest Trek.

We're putting some things to bed. And code 47 is one of them. Yeah, RSVP code 47 after this. Look, I want to say that Bill will still be out in those social media streets if you have something of particular interest that we have just got to see. I mean, there will be a crack in that door. But I think the segment you've come to know over the years is going to be sunset after this. Like, if you are Garrett Wong and you do have a telexian furfly that you're dying to send to us, that's fine.

Like, we can accommodate that. He was stating the obvious again. Garrett also knows how to get a hold of us, so. Yeah. That'll happen if it happens. But for now, let's open the last three Code 47 packages ever. I'm sorry to disturb you. I'm receiving a code 47.

Verify. It is Code 47, sir. Starklead emergency frequency. Captain size only. How does it feel, Ben, to, like, did you go to the post office and say goodbye? Did you shut off the PO box? What'd you do? The PO box gets paid for a year all at once.

And so I do need to make sure that it doesn't like auto renew. I feel like every time I go in there, they warn me that the PO box, like, it could go away and all of these packages you're leaving here. But like it auto charges as far as I know. So I don't know what they're talking about. I mean, I think that's probably one of many warnings you get consistently when you go visit the post office. Mm-hmm. This is not a thick Lexan protective glass. style post office.

Oh, did you move? What happened? Or it wasn't, but they put one up in honor of me. Oh, good. Okay. It's the Benjamin R. Harrison Memorial Lucey. That's nice. This is from Tim S. out of Wallingford, Connecticut. We've just got a kind of a small, one of those mailer bags kind of deal here. Inside, we've got a padded manila envelope. Tim has taped off their address and the return address, which is to the flop house.

So I don't know what that's about. You know, it's a federal crime to open up mail intended for the flop house if you're not the flop house, Ben. Well, wouldn't this indicate that it's from the flop house or like if it didn't make it to us, it should go to the flop house? You know, I haven't written a letter in a very long time, it occurs to me. Yeah, I confused the place where those things go on an envelope. Yeah. Okay. I've found a letter in here. It was like this. Hey, Ben and Adam.

Longtime F-O-D. One-time P-Wunner and first-time Code 47er. I'm also a MaxFund member. I joined to support Uxbridge Shimoda Pods, but I also checked off some other MaxFund podcasts I listened to when filling out the form. Hey, thank you so much.

Look at us raising some boats. Hell yeah. I did not know checking the Flap House box would automatically enter me into a win a sketch by Dan McCoy contest, so I was quite surprised when I got an email from him asking what I wanted drawn. Completely unprepared and not knowing anything about Mr. McCoy's artistic abilities, I panicked and wrote back with the first thing I had. The prompt is attached verbatim to the enclosed art. Turns out Mr. McCoy is quite a wonderful caricaturist, as you'll see in the attached drawing. I'm gifting this to you,

as I think you might really like it. Plus, I can't frame it and hang this here. What would the neighbors think? Oh, and since I'm already mailing something, I also threw in a couple little coins I make in my spare time. I make them from waste aluminum drops a local metal shop saves for me. Use these to decide who's paying for the gach. Heads I win, tails. Kapla! Keep up the good work. It is truly appreciated. Tim last name redacted. Oh, wait, wrong podcast. Wow. Tim also makes guitars. New Perspectives, Music.com. S-Q-W-A-Y-R-E-Tools.com and Gany-Pig tanks. So I guess Tim also makes guinea pig tanks. Tim has got his fingers and a lot of pies. I think if you ask any guinea pig enthusiast, they'll tell you, uh, you, uh, you'll You can't only do the one guinea pig related business. You've got to diversify.

There's just not enough there to support yourself. Okay. So what we've got here is kind of a package containing the artwork in question with the prompts taped on top. It says, I suppose the only thing I can think of is Ben Harrison and Adam Pranica of greatest generation as red shirts getting sucked out on airlock as they always dreamt. Or a cat, whatever is easier. God, if I'm Dan, I would have drawn that cat. I'll tell you that. Sounds like a much easier assignment.

And here is the artwork that Dan came up with. Wonderful. Really, really beautiful. My backside's already out of that hole. You may have a chance at survival. I've got a pretty solid-looking grip on a T-O-S-style control panel. Yeah. I don't think anything's saving me.

There's no force field going up over that open. So I'm probably suffocating, right? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. We both are. Beautiful art by Dan McCoy. Thank you, Tim, for sending it to us.

Thanks, Tim, and Dan. We also have some coins here. Oh, look at this. We've got a Starfleet Chevron on one side and a Klingon logo on the other side. Look at that. Wonderful. They're two of a kind.

So next time I am in your physical presence, Adam, I will give you one of these. They're really quite beautiful, actually. Amazing. I don't know how you make a thing like this, but Tim did a great job. Well, if you go to any sort of children's museum, Ben, and I'm sure you have, you just stick a blank into there. And then the clockwork goes to work with the punching and the stamping and the squeezing and so forth. That's why we got to open a children's museum.

So we can have all of our challenge coin production just right there in the physical. site, you know. Made possible by children's labor. Yeah, I like that idea a lot. Exactly. Yeah. Get a little bit more of the blood, sweat, and tears of children involved in the way we monetize this podcast, Adam. Finally. I mean, so far you refuse your own children for that help, so I have to find some others. You know, do what I say, not what I do. Uh, next one is a box from Chris LaRoche. Hi, Chris. out of Oceanside, California. Oh, that's not far.

Yeah. It's not far, and it's been sitting here for months waiting to get open. Got a letter here, handwritten. Dear Ben and Adam, just wanted to say, thanks for all the years of parisocial friendship by a TG and TGT. Both pods are drop-day listens for me. Last year, I got an idea in my head for a Trek-inspired design through an Etsy store together

and ended up selling 100 mugs over the last year. I kept playing around with designs, thinking other things might also catch on. Wrong! Hope you get a kick out of this very popular Federation-themed mug, and it's much less popular, Klingon Variant. Keep up the great pod, Chris, from Odd Duck Design Co, which is at oddduckdesignco. dot Etsy.com. P.S., after the hot silent summer, I'm eager for more of my favorite franchises to get the

GGT treatment, hearing you utter the expanse so much covering Enterprise Season 4. I'm curious. Have you guys seen The Expans? I think you'd dig it, and it could make for Great Pod. I have seen The Expans, and I've also read many, many of those novels, although I think I've fallen out of currency with those novels. I think they're probably like five or six that I haven't gotten to yet. They just keep putting them out.

They don't care that the show's over. It's sort of the opposite of the Game of Thrones guy. Like, they powered forward even though they ran out of novels to adapt it from. The expanse so many more novels to adapt from. Also, no incest would also be the opposite of Game of Thrones guy. That also a thing? That is the opposite. Ben, I went over to Odd Duck Design Co on Etsy and checked out the store.

Yeah? Yeah, great stuff here. Yeah, yeah, definitely like Star Trek-Lated stuff. You want to look over here. A lot of a lot of nerdcore shit, which is really fun to see. Good job by them. All right. I'm going to show you the Klingon mug first.

It's got the In This House text, and it says, in this house, we believe in Kales, the Unforgetable, revenge is a dish best served coal, in the promise of Stovocor, a patach, is without honor. Froon juice is a warrior's drink. It is a good day to die. Gach is always best when served live. There are no old warriors. There's something inside here too.

In the mug? Yeah. Sleepy Time Tea. It's a scented candle that says yesterday's center prize on there. That's not. Oh, that's great. Really fun. All right. Federation mug is next. I feel like we just did mug draft and cleared out so much shelf space and like nature abhors a vacuum. It is blowing mugs back into our lives. Yeah, I'm kind of shocked that they're contributing to the problem here. I think we were fairly explicit in our desire to thin the herd.

All right, similar design concept, that yard sign that people put out in their yard. In this house, we believe in the prime directive. The needs of the many outweigh the few. Resistance is not futile. In boldly going where no one has gone before. Prune juice is a warrior's drink. In tea, Earl Grey, hot, in infinite diversity, in infinite combinations. and that space is the final frontier.

This one also seems to have a sneaky internal candle. Let's see if it's any different. Can't accidentally drink those candles. Oh, this one might be a more offensive odor. It's low de spot, which I think means cat piss. Yeah. I hate cats. Data's cats.

Spot. I love cats. Yeah, you can keep that one. one. Should I open it and give it a whiff? You have a good track record of opening random things in your studio. Go for it. I wish cat urine smelled like this. This is quite nice.

I like it. Thank you so much, Chris. Everybody should check out odd duck designco. com. Yeah, there's way more there than just these items that we showed you. So go there to check it out. Pretty great. Okay.

Last package ever? Right. And it's a big one. You feeling like it's the end of your birthday, Ben, and this is the last one? Kind of. It's heavy. It feels substantial. Yeah.

Which could be booze or, I don't know. What else is heavy other than booze? Can't think of anything. A tire? Oh, yeah. An ingot? Mm-hmm. An ingot of something?

Mm-hmm. This is from Rustin Cozair Out of Silver Spring, Maryland We know and we love Rustin He's a king A prince

A scholar, a gentleman A handyman These are the things we know about Rustin A frequent flyer A tall He might be taller than you, Ben Yeah, he's a tall drink of water He makes you look like a short king

Okay, I found some paper. Here it goes. Fellas, congratulations on your decennial jubilee. Adam, that means 10th anniversary celebration.

Thank you. I feel like that scene in gross point blank. Ten years, man. Ten years, man. Ten! Wow, holy shit. Time flies. This is a huge milestone and truly incredible

accomplishment. To commemorate the occasion, I have to include some handmade tokens of my appreciation. These thick daddy morn boards only have the 10-year logo on one side. So you can either hide your embarrassment or share it. To be real for a second, this podcast has gotten me through some frankly, amazing times. Hell yeah. Personal win after professional win, after financial win. Amazing. I've grown stronger like a great English oak. Yep. And aged like a fine wine. Just like the podcast.

Well, anywho, enough about me. Thank you for all the countless hours of laughs. Thank you for inspiring me to go to STLV. It's now one of my favorite things. Thank you for being so freaking nice and cool in person. Thank you for the Trek Fart Connection. Thank you for Ice Desk. Ten years, man!

Ten! Thank you for bringing Wendy on board. She rules the most. We are lucky to have her. Thank you for all the great communities you have started around the pod. Thank you for being the reason I met amazing. FOTs like Captain Liz Soto and the death and of course the myth, the mystery, the legend, defested. And lastly, thank you for making my favorite podcast about my favorite show.

Love you guys. Rustin. Love you, Rustin. That letter right there is exactly, that is like emblematic of why it's so much fun to hang out with Rustin. Just like total positivity and laughs. Just always a blast to hang out with him. All right. I think I'm going to open these big things first, or at least one of them. I think one of them, they seem to be the same size. So I'm guessing one's for you and one's for me. So I'll leave yours wrapped if that appears to be the case. Oh, boy, Adam. I think I just heard bubble wrap pop. Ooh. What Rustin has sent us from Cozair Woodcraft, our beautiful, greatest Gen 10 logo embossed, edge on cutting board. It's like they do that, he does that thing where you put the wood on the end.

So like you're getting end grain when you're chopping. Yeah, that's the board stays strong. That's the good end of the wood. I love watching videos of people making these because it's like, it's such a, an intricate process because this is so many different kinds of wood all jumbled up together. It's like a puzzle. It's pretty great. A beautiful puzzle for the eye. Yeah, then you're just going to want to put that in the dishwasher every week to keep it clean.

It'll last you a long time. Do you respect wood? I'm going to dig deeper into this box. I'm going to leave your cutting board wrapped up. Okay. I'll come by your house and throw it over the fence sometime soon. Love it. Looks like we do have some pod fluid here.

He knows us well. Let's see. Cozair Laboratories, fermentation division. vision. It's a 2020 Malbec that apparently Rustin is the vintner on. Amazing.

I had no idea that Rustin contained these multitudes. All these amazing craft projects? Have you looked at his feet? Lately? They're always purple. I think this explains it. Because they've been drinking so much wine? Yeah. I mean, every time he's out at the

Pranacabana, you'll notice those purple feet, and they go up like past the sock line. Okay. We've got more more items here. Look at this. Rustin's

edible sex lube which has a little logo of a very sexy bee on the package there. I think this is honey and there's one of those little honey

thingies included which I didn't know existed outside of the picture on the front of a box of honeynut Cheerios. Ben, I'm going to ask you to do the thing that you do on all episodes where there's a food or drink item sent. You got to taste that lube, dude. Taste that lube. I'm going to taste the lube.

Do I use the little wood guy? I think that's what it's there for, yeah. I think I have to, right? That is delicious. Is it more lube or is it more honey in its mouth feel and its taste? Adam, it is honey, but I will use it as sex liu. Okay, good to know. Oh, bother.

Empty again. Rustin took the time to make this, and I am not going to spit in his face by using it for some unsanctioned breakfast activity. I want to be clear, I knew exactly what it was and I always have. but I was just like asking for the FODs out there. Sure. Who might have wondered. There's also a jar here for you, Adam. Oh, great.

And I will throw this over your fence as well. I mean, it's a good thing it's not lube because it would never be used in my house if it was. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I don't know if this is like a legal liability that Rustin has exposed himself to, but it does say not lube on the outside of the box. So I don't know if that's fraud. I'm not going to report him.

Is that the sort of packaging that, sex toy companies promise. Yeah, exactly. You can get that delivered to work. It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. Adam, what we have for the rest of the show is a Q&A. A bunch of questions were sent in by the FODs on the Reddit and on the Discord.

And Rob Adler was kind enough to compile them for us. And we will be answering them right after this. All right, we're back. And we have perused the giant list of questions for us, some cues for us to A from both the Discord and the Reddit. And how about I just kick us off with one from one of our favorites, Vita Z has popped into the Discord and asked, what episode are you looking most forward to covering on the second trip through TNG and potentially which are you least looking forward to outside a code of honor of course? Man, I mean, can code of honor be most?

Yeah. You know what? That was the angle I was going to take. Yeah, I'm sort of most looking forward to that for some fucked up reason. I think that there's a bunch of episodes that gave us squicky feelings the first time through and we did our best to cover some of the like fumbles of them with sensitivity. But I kind of just want to sport fuck an episode for being extremely badly realized even if its heart was in the right place. And I don't even think Code of Honor's heart was in the right

place. So I am on a different side of that coin, I think, which is just that. I want to make even the worst episodes extremely fun and funny. And what are we doing if not trying to make code of honor into chicken salad? I think I'm looking forward to the challenge. Isn't that just what I said? I don't know. I heard the word sport fucking and it sounded like you wanted to make the sort of show that beat down the bad episode. Is that not what you said? I'm thinking of that purely in the sense of that is a target-rich environment for comedy. in my opinion. I was unfamiliar with your definition of sport fuck.

Now I know. We're going to have to put that into the Urban Dictionary, Adam. We have another question here. This one's from Bessie. Which captain do you think would be the most generous lover? And why would it be Benjamin Cisco? Oh! Seems like Bessie is attempting to tilt our conversation toward a particular captain.

But I think we should consider all of the captains. in a bedroom environment, which one are you liking? I don't know, Bessie. I kind of feel like Ben Sisko might medically be the definition of the least generous lover as the only confirmed captain to dump into a partner and make a kid. Do you remember our shore leave on Casparia Prime? The waterfalls?

You're saying we don't know whether or not Jake was an accident? Yeah, yeah, I guess not. There weren't any storylines on Benjamin Cisco's family planning history. No, yeah, I mean, he definitely got his that night, you know? That much we know for sure. Because for some reason, Jake Sisko. It's me, Jake. Am I remembering correctly that his wife was like secretly a wormhole alien the whole time?

Is that how that goes? Does a wormhole alien even care about getting off? Because if you're not like looking forward to completion, because you do not experience time in a linear way, so you're sort of always completing and not completing both and I can't imagine you care. What a gracious lover a wormhole alien would be if you bust early. It's fine. Yeah. Time doesn't exist to your partner in that way. Of all the captains I can think of, the one that I think. would delight their partner the most, leave them wanting more, and be available for more, Captain DeSoto.

Hmm. The more I watch TOS, the more I realize just what a great and generous stick man Captain Kirk must have been. True. Cutting against his reputation, really, I feel. Seems like a pretty good dude. And what I presume to be a very generous lover. I like it. Generous with himself to others is maybe how I mean that.

Ben Deus X. Machina asks, will the game of buttholes continue and will it still be a 100-sided die being rolled? If not 100, have you ever considered the oft-ignored D-12? The dodecahedron. What an interesting concept, Deus X. Machina. I'm prepared to entertain D-12 as an option. If we're going to do everything again, we should just double up what we had before. You mean double the squares that mess us up?

Or double their consequences. Two shots of beer every minute for an hour? Yeah. How about no! No one would like that. That would be bad. Let's not do that. Yeah, I don't think the feedback was super good on the breadstick power hour either.

That might be coming off. I saw nothing but good feedback. Okay, that's good. Your filters are working. Yeah, as they should. Yeah, I think that an element of randomness will still be there, whether it's a game board or a, you know, a wheel of destiny or something else. You know what we should do, Ben? Here's an idea.

Sort of a version of the game of buttholes could be some sort of, I don't know, like mission or idea or like. like a code of honor that we would have to subscribe to as we do these episodes. What do you think of that? That's turning a bad thing into a good thing. That's polishing the turd. I like that.

A lot of these are formatted in this way, and I'm here to say I like it. This one's from Zrein. Hey, uh, yeah, are you planning on guest appearing slash inviting other trek pods that have cropped up over the years and go over shows? Aside from the pod that you may or may not have burned bridges with almost a decade ago, though that may have been a bit for all I know. Get a light. Presume Zreen will be taking their answer off, off Mike. We are definitely spending some time thinking about what we can be doing with the other track pods.

I think last year's pod crawl was a big success and something that we want to replicate. And I think we're planning on doing something again like that, where we team as many podcasts as we can up together to support a good cause. And everybody we've met in the Star Trek podcasting world with the exception. of one person who will remain unnamed has been really great. Yeah, I have fairly regular drinks with John Champion where we discuss what our houses divide in terms of the Star Trek Industrial Complex, very godfather-like scene where we make these decisions. I presume that's what you're talking about when you describe the one pod you may or may not have burned bridges

with. No, that bridge is strong and hard. It's great, as far as I know. And that's something that we do every time we go to STLV. It's like we hang out with those shows as much as we can when we're at STLV in order to create and strengthen those relationships. Do you remember how, like, sturdy the bridge was that they built at the end of Bridge on the River Kwai? Like a really nice one. That is what we've built. I didn't see the end of that. But yeah, like the main takeaway for me was, the gang got together and built a great bridge. Yeah, awesome bridge. Ben, I'm going to choose a question from the Reddit list.

Okay. This one is asked by a Reddit username The One I Call Me. And this question is, what's the most damage the silly podcast has done to you physically or mentally? I want to take this question seriously, Ben. You might be inclined to make a joke about it.

And sure, like, that's what we do here. but I think maybe the intention of this is to like get get something real from you. What do you think it's done to you? I mean, I think that most of the mental struggles that I've had recently have been a lot more to do with my long undiagnosed ADHD colliding with my small children being a great thing in my life, but a source of millions of little things I need to keep track. of, which sort of broke all of the coping mechanisms that I'd built in my life. And I think that the podcast probably suffered more than I did in some ways. I did have a conversation with a friend the other day, and he's in an interesting situation because he's been in a band for 20 years, and it's like a band that's toured and had some success and, you know, has had some great

albums and he and his bandmate both have kids now and they don't live in the same place and you know they try to make music together and send stuff back and forth but is a point in his life where he's like I got to start thinking about what I do if the band is not what I do anymore and that could be me you know making music for film and television because we live here in L.A. and that's like one of the obvious choices. But he's kind of at a loss and doesn't quite know where to go with it. And I was thinking about how lucky I feel that this show is going so strong because if I were at an impasse like that, I would be looking back at a 10-year employment gap, essentially. And, you know, trying to get back into the job market would be something that would be,

like, I would have to have some kind of non-traditional employment, I think, but I have no idea what it would be. So to the extent that that's damage, I think that that's an answer. How about you, Adam? I mean, when we were coming to the end of this run, you and I had a really serious conversation about whether or not it was a good idea to continue it. And I think one of those reasons was if one or both of us was going to get back, into the job market now would probably be the time instead of another 10 years from now, you know? Right. And I thought about that really seriously.

And when I asked you the question, I hope you did too. Like, this is a really serious decision to make at this moment and time specifically. And I think that comes with a lot of mental strain, you know, because to leave it behind would mean to, I think, leave with the feeling of a job well done, but I think, I think, leave with the feeling of a job well done. also like a lingering feeling of like, you know, couldn't it have continued? We were having a great time. Why do things end like that? And they end that way all the time, you know? So I'm excited to be continuing on just as I was like, there was a non-zero part of my brain that was like preparing

for whatever was next because I think that's what you have to do if you're a serious person and you have a family and a family's budget to consider, you know? Yeah. I think I've gotten just a lot of indigestion and loose stool from this show over the years. Just, I think that's the physical toll that it's taken on me. The mental toll comes attendant to what anyone feels when they are in a partnership or running a small business by themselves. Like, for every episode that comes out, there is so much more to it that makes. it possible for that show to come out every day on time. And I am very proud of our ability to do that over the years, but it also comes with that like you never want to break the streak style pressure,

you know? And so to the extent that that's a mental damage, that's something, that's like the good kind of stress that I always want to have because I feel like that's pressure to always do good and to deliver to the best that you can. So I think that might be maybe the way that I've mentally changed the most is like I'm really deadline driven in a great big way in a way that I was before doing the show, but now like it's just scripture in the business that we're in, you know? The thing we always say around here is the show is the boss. And as long as the show is coming out on time and to a standard that we all agree on, you know, we can work as little or as much as that requires. And one thing about professionalizing is that it enables us to spend more of our

cycles every day thinking about the show and like thinking of stuff to do with the show. And, you know, if I still had a job, I wouldn't have been able to sit down for half an hour and come up with 10 Jonathan Dangerfield jokes to barrage Adam with. And, you know, we wouldn't be able to do all the, like, song parodies and all, like, all of that stuff that sort of, like, value adds to what is otherwise a pretty formatty show, I think is a real blessing and something I'm really glad that we have. All right. this one's a little bit of a fun silly.

This is, I think, from the Discord. Tyler thinks this asked. Dear Ben and Adam, I was wondering what your dream Star Trek crew compliment would be across all Star Trek's, both new and old. These can be your favorite. The crew you think is the most competent or least, or just a crew that you would want to see together. Rolls. Captain number one, tactical officer, science officer, medical officer, chief engineer pilot. Flex, which is operations, barber, Klingon, restaurateur, etc. P.S., thank you for your affirmative

ruling on my grandfather's favorite bit in the recent Greatest Track P1. Tyler, I feel like this could be an entire episode, so I kind of want to like narrow it down with you, Ben, to just a few key positions, if that's right with you. I think that's fair. Let's maybe do captain through medical officer. Sure. Do you want to go first? Kirk. Kirk is your captain?

Yeah. Wow. And I think that might be reasons you buy us. We've been watching a lot of TOS lately. And I'm just enjoying that guy's game. I feel like the Shaq meme where he's like, I'm sorry. I apologize. I was unfamiliar with your game, Captain Kirk.

The reputation was far different than what I experienced. So I'm going to go with Kirk. I like that. I think I'm going to go with Sulu. I feel like he is both very capable. He sees that explosion coming from Praxis. So you're interpreting this as the well of options is across Starfleet, across all rank to become your captain. Well, I mean, we've seen Sulu as a captain.

Captain Sulu is a canonical thing. Right. Pretty sloppy with the food and beverage rules on the bridge, though. Sure, but he like takes it easy in there, but is also able to save the ship. when the ship needs saving. I think Sulu learned from the best, but he brought his own flavor to the game. And that's why I pick him.

Who's your X-O, Adam? I think now that I know that I can get weird with these choices, and I kind of want a yin to a yang of my captain and X-O relationship. Okay. I want to make Jellico my number one. Wow. Okay.

I think he and Kirk would be a very interesting dynamic together, Or those two personalities. I don't want to talk about it. Get it done. They're both strong flavors, and they would definitely counterbalance each other in a way that is totally different from the way Spock and Kirk counterbalance. Right. So I like that. I like that a lot.

For my number one, I think I'm going to go with Major Kira. From a similar standpoint, like I think Jellico and Kira are both. Never going to bullshit you. You want Kira by your side in a fight, but she's also passionate. Also, buy your side at a pizza buffet that may not be living up to expectations. She would be tremendous in a scenario like that. Yeah, yeah. Next up is tactical officer, Ben.

I feel like Kira would have made a good one for this category. I think I'm going to choose Odo. Because I think the idea of him being your tactical. officer on a starship could have a lot of potential. Like, sure, his sort of icy paranoia would be useful in an interaction with a mystery ship or a mystery situation. But I just think on away teams, you want a goo guy. You want a goo guy.

On all your Dustbuster clubs. And I just think if you're going planet to planet, haunted ship to haunted ship, a weird mission to weird mission, what great asset would a goo guy be? in those moments. You like find people in cryopods. He can turn his hand into a squeegee to wipe away the frost. A curved squeegee even to like perfectly wipe it. Bespoke squeegee.

At the weapon station, I think he could push so many buttons all at once. We never, did we really see that trick with him? Like the piano player angle where he suddenly has 10 fingers on each hand? playing the keys of the keyboard. I don't think the technology was there when they made Deep Space Nine. Did you read that thing that people are saying that we should wear fake fingers on our hands

so that AI cameras that take images of us out in the world would be thrown out of court as evidence? That's what 10 fingers made me think of. What about you, Ben? Okay, so for tactics, oh man, it's a tough call. I wish I wanted Wharf more for this, you know? And it's because he sucks at security.

Like, he sucks at his job. He has a really, really bad track record. If your job is to flip people over in judo class onto their mats, he's great. He's the only one you want. anything else, I don't see it. Yeah. So for that reason, my tactics officer would be Kern.

You know what you want. You really do want someone in that position who sets it down after work. Like work lives at work, home lives at home. You forget what you did that day and start all over on the next shift. A very short memory is what you want when you're a tactical officer. And I get that. Great choice. And I also just think his personality is like he's going to get the job done, you know?

Yeah. He's got that little bit of crazy eye that makes interactions, like, that kind of tilt things in your favor, I feel like. Yeah. It's the other person at a disadvantage. If you're having a high profile diplomatic dinner at the conference table in the observation lounge, yeah. Kern being there is a fun force multiplier. Absolutely.

Yeah. Why don't you go first this time? Science officer. Science officer. Okay. I think Dr. Girotti is who I'm going to go for here. I like me some Allison Pill. I'd rather she didn't become the BQ.

I think she was a cool character that I really liked that I don't think had a very good destiny on that show. Were you ever thinking about the Borg Queen specifically for this job? Because she's also on the board. She is on the board. But I think Dr. Girati just, she has a mind that I would trust at the science station. I think if Borg Queen was your science officer, there would be so much drama, Ben. Yeah.

She's a sloppy bitch who loves drama. And she would make your workplace hell. It would be bad. She'd always be like dangling down from the ceiling on those hoses into her corpse, which is seated at the science station. Yeah. Gross. The Bork Queen definitely has her own seat.

You don't want to sit there after her shift. Mm-mm. Ew. Ben, I'm going to choose someone extremely chill for this job. Someone completely devoid of drama in my mind. Someone who is also really good at science. Okay. Maybe the best at science?

Which is why I'm making my science officer the traveler. Oh, shit. Would there be a better science officer in existence than the traveler? I think not. I really like the idea of that. And I think that it would be pretty great for Starfleet to get a couple of those guys in uniform, you know? I think so, too. Yeah.

Yeah. I can't think of any science-related problem that the traveler couldn't figure out and solve for you. It would probably make most episodes extremely boring. Sure. But look, we're not talking about quality of episode. We're talking about quality of crew. I'm also just thinking about the fact that the science station is usually at the back of the bridge kind of facing away. And that's where you want the traveler.

You don't want to be looking at those paws while he's up at the op station or whatever. Yeah. Gross. Gross. Really good answer, Adam. All right, let's round it off with medical officer. Who you got? I don't think we're completely clear on this character's powers,

but I want to guess that they could get the job done. in all kinds of ways, but maybe most importantly, the bedside way, how great would Guyon be as a medical officer? I think she could do stuff to you, like to get you fixed. She's very, very old, so I imagine her knowledge of maladies and so forth could probably fill an entire bookshelf. And also, like, who would you rather convalesce with than Geinan? Cool as hell, probably sneak in.

use some drinks when you're ready for it, that'd be great. A night in sickbay would be really fun with Guy. Yeah. I really like that. Chief Medical Officer. I just want to say it is really funny that neither of us have chosen data for any of these. I mean, I think that the great thing about Guyon, something we both observed in wrapping up enterprise is that Flux is kind of the only.

Starfleet medical doctor I can think of with an ounce of bedside manner. But I'm realizing that I am thinking of Starfleet medical doctors we've encountered in the shows. And that is why my medical officer is going to be Carl Urban Bones McCoy. I think he plays the role with a little bit more care for the patient than defaulence. than de Forest Kelly did and also is great in a high-stress situation if your hands have blown up like

flocks his head Carl Urban Bones knows what to give you and knows exactly how long it's going to take for that to get better and I think you would be a fun guy to have as a medical officer I think that's a great pick Carl Urban so great in that I know you'll never watch the boys but I stopped thinking of Carl Urban as McCoy since watching that show.

He's just a force of nature on that show. Really great. I am the cute as are born. There are four lights. Ben, before I get into the last question, I just want to say we got so many great questions here. So many that I kind of want to make this into a regular Marin for us going forward. I think the questions this time were just particularly.

good and I'm a little sad we can't get to the mall. But I found one here that I think would make for a good final question for you. Are you ready? Okay. Let's hear it. Comes from Gulliver Skidmore and their question goes like this. You're going to a costume party and you have to pick one of these. The Baywatt shorts, the Enterprise DeCon Chamber underreuse, or the Justice Planet Nuck outfit. Which do you choose and why? I am going to go Nuck Outfit. I don't believe this. You're going to put that thing on and parade around like one of them? Because I don't really feel like I'm getting much coverage anyway. So I might as well make it funny. And some of those have like over the shoulder wallet holders, which I feel like I wouldn't have in the Decon Underrues or in the swim

trunks. I guess some swim trunks have pockets, but I got to have at least one or two places to keep my sundries, you know, my everyday carries. Yeah. To use a 15-year-old internet term. Sure. We all get that. I think that that's also a much bigger pop for the person who identifies it as what it is. And I would be able to hang with that person, you know? I think you just keyed in on a crucial element to the whole thing. I do not want to spend my entire party explaining my costume to people. And I feel like people at costume parties can sometimes go into these situations wanting that. They've created a costume to elicit the questions. They're a fun wordplay costume made in order to like create an aha moment. I don't want any of that. I want a costume that anyone going to the party

would recognize and be like, oh yeah, that's fun. Which is. why red Baywatch shorts are kind of the ultimate answer. Who doesn't know what those are? You'd have to be a real idiot to ask what your costume is if you're wearing red swim shorts to a costume party. You're Baywatch person. And if you already have them, then you could go to that open casting call that they did that one time. Yeah. And maybe you'd get on the show too. I mean, and if you bought our extremely limited edition William Carlos Williams Baywatch shorts I mean that's a joke

you got to explain outside of that I think you're golden I feel like that is the one version of the costume you wear to the costume party wanting to explain to people that I will sign off on I don't know

like one of the questions that we didn't get to was like do you have any like what's your proudest moment on the show I gotta say William Carlos Williams Baywatch shorts Maybe my favorite construction. For me, it was LeVar Burton saying the way they depicted Jordy's love life was bullshit. Total bullshit, man.

It's just bullshit. I'm just relieved it wasn't Jonathan Dangerfield. Another moment for you to bring him up. Oh, that's tied for second with Fuck Bo Kai. Absolutely. All right, thank you so much for all these questions. Let's get into a segment of Priority One messages and then bring this on home. Let's do it.

Priority One message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Need a supplemental income. Supplemental. Supplement. Yeah, it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. This is a promotional message. It goes like this.

Everyone knows FOD's love and Tylosores. Angylosaur. What my theory presupposes is maybe they like dinosaur jewelry, too. I handcraft jewelry with real fossils and fossil casts, trilobites, ammonites, mozosaur teeth, and more. Each piece lets you share your fossil-loving nerdiness and gain strength from the sharing. This sounds cool as hell. So this is a powers handcrafted.com is the website.

You can go to see Miranda's work. And you can use promo code scarves for free shipping. How about that? Ankylosures, Ben? What? I feel like I'm going crazy. I heard a British archaeologist talking about him recently, and that's how they said it. You know, you don't have to say things that way.

You just don't But if I say ankylosor, I'm going to say ankylosor By accident Yeah, that's how I've been doing it If I say ankylo's store, I'm never going to forget So you're just choosing something more wrong To keep you from saying it the less wrong way You're just like leaning into it

I heard a paleontologist pronounce it that way How is that more wrong? Ben, we've got a personal priority one message here I don't know Ben And all I know is you want to go to powers handcrafted.com and use promo code scarves for free shipping from whatever you can find over there. And it sounds like no matter how you pronounce it, it's going to be good. This is a really cool website, and I love everything I am seeing on it. So I hope people go check it out.

And I hope Miranda gets the greatest gen bump. Ben, I got a personal priority one message here. It's from Rustin, and it's to you and me. Look at Rustin. Yeah. Big Rustin episode this time. Yeah, indeed. Here's their message,

10 years, man. 10 years. 10! You're the best, Rustin. A real buzzer-beater from Rustin. Yeah. All right. This is a priority one message from M,

and it's two, an embarrassing story for the Friends of DeSoto. So M is sharing their embarrassment and gaining strength from the sharing. Great. Mom passed, and she loved All Trek. We would browse fan sites in the early 2000s together. I was 13, excited about the new show,

and we stumbled upon a mostly naked motorcycle pick of Topal. We stared. Two deeply closeted lesbians, unbeknownst to the other. We never spoke of it ever again. Roll air and drop. P.S. My mom was an avid J.C. fanfic writer. She was awesome.

I mean, if you're not sure what your particular persuasion is, I think Tepal on a motorcycle is going to flood some basements, you know what I'm saying? I think Tepal on a motorcycle appeals to almost all sexualities on some level. That's a very sweet story. Our condolences for you losing your mom. We were sent a stack of J.C. fanfic. I wonder if M's mom is in any of that. Oh, yeah.

That is quite the archive that we had sent in. Man, yeah, your mom sounds great. I hope she found a little bit of freedom from that closet at some point. And I hope you do too. And thank you to everyone who left a nice priority one message on the show. If you'd like to get one, head to greatest trek.com. Follow the links there to book yours today. We've got TNG coming up.

Immortalize your message on an upcoming episode of TNG, why don't you? I mean, I'm looking at the priority one messages and they're already starting to fill up in kind of an exciting way. Great to see. Hell yeah. See, Ben, people are interested in us doing this. I promise. Yay.

Hey, thanks to all the FODs who sent in Quest. and who sent in stuff for our Code 47 at the beginning. Got a lot of chopping to do on that chopping board. Adam, don't worry, I'll keep your bottle of wine safe until it's brown, and I will give it to you. That's how I like it. Crazy bit of trivia about the episode you just heard is it was recorded before we knew that we were going independent. We were, you know, obviously working on that as one potential outcome. but did not know that that was a sure thing when we recorded.

So yeah, just a reminder. Go to greatesttrek.com and get signed up for that newsletter. We really, really appreciate being able to reach out to you when the time is right. And also a reminder, there will not be a show next week or the week after. We're attempting to be respectful of maximum fun as they do their drive, but also we have a shitload of stuff to do in order to get ready for this new chapter. So some thanks to give out.

We've got to thank Wendy Pritty, our producer and editor. We've got to thank Bill Tilly, the card daddy, who's always making these hilarious trading cards and has been, from the jump, has been making them for time and memoriam practically. We've got to thank Rob Adler,

who helps run the social media accounts at Greatest Trek. They're all coming with us, right? Like, I hope they are. are. I want them to come with this, Ben. They're coming with. Greatest newsletter is awesome. You've got to sign up for it. Rob puts a ton of work into it every month, as do Adam and I. We make it just as much of a fun thing as the shows.

The very next edition is going to be really important because it's going to have all the information needed to find and support us in our new home in May. Greatest Trek.com to sign up for that newsletter. We are eternally grateful to Dark Materia, who made the original Picard song. and Adam Ragusea, with whom we make the wholesome podcast, he made all of the original music you've heard as theme songs over the years. What a homie. With that, we will be back at you in three weeks with the relaunch of The Greatest Generation

as an independent show and the first episode ever of Star Trek the next generation for the second time, for the third time. time ever because we did do that re-encounter and PowerPoint thing but we'll have a whole new take on this on this thing that's the thing that's really amazing perfectly said i'm so excited maximum fun a worker-owned network of artist-owned shows supported directly by you