The Greatest Generation - Boksketball (TNG S1E9)

Episode Date: June 22, 2026

When Captain Picard’s headache is courtesy of a Ferengi obsessed with rewenge, his gift of the Stargazer starts to worry the crew. But after beaming off the Entrepreneur and taking command of his old ship, Picard finally blows up the mind control device that bankrupted DaiMon Bok. When is it fashion-show time on the Enterprise? How is a dryer sheet like the Stargazer? What’s the nice thing about shooting hoops on the bridge? It’s the episode that’s going to need a greeting pivot.Support the production of our shows Members get benefits including bonus episodes and an ad-free experienceSign up for our mailing list!Get a thing at podshop.biz!The Greatest Generation is hosted by Adam Pranica and Benjamin Ahr Harrison The show is produced by Wynde PriddySocial media is managed by Rob Adler and Bill TilleyMusic by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaDiscuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen and find us on social media:YouTube | Instagram | BlueskyAnd check out these online communities run by FODs: Reddit | USS Hood Discord | Facebook group | Wikia | FriendsOfDeSoto.socialSupport the production of The Greatest Generation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Want to hear an ad-free version of this show? Go to greatest.supercast.com. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage. Welcome to the greatest generation, the next generation. It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are just a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast. I'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pranika.

Ben, I'm going through a nightmare over here in my house. Jeez. But not for me. I feel like I'm experiencing Ben's nightmare. very specifically. I'm trying to think of something that would make me lose my mind that wouldn't make you lose your mind. Exactly.

Have anything off the top of the dome? Any guesses? This isn't the game segment either. Yeah. I don't know, like too many sandwiches around. Our ice maker broke. Oh, no. So we've been living an ice-free lifestyle for a couple of weeks now

because I have been routinely going through, like, the manual and the YouTube's about, like, how to fix a broken ice maker in your refrigerator. And each one of these things has failed until finally I had to order the part. And the part took an amount of time to arrive, too, like the brand new ice maker. So I got it. And I installed it over the weekend. Just to give you a peek behind the pod, it's now Tuesday. But the thing has been, you can make new ice, but you can't consume that ice. You got to run two full buckets of ice through it before you can consider it good enough to use.

So we got this teaser ice in the house that we can't even use for beverages or anything. Or like, Ripley loves eating ice. We can't, we can't, like, throw ice cube on the floor for her to eat. Can't do anything. She doesn't understand. No, she doesn't. No, instead we're just dumping it down the sink. My ice maker has a cleaning cycle that you're supposed to do every so often.

and... In your fridge or on your countertop? No, this is the countertop Pebble ice making machine. And occasionally I'll let that clean process get a little stale, like I'll wait a little too long. And some real schmutz will come out when I finally run it.

Yeah, that's gross. You've got to stay on top of the schmutz. I think it's mostly like lime scale because we have very hard water here. So it's not like, it doesn't look like bacteria. and I've actually like opened it up and really gotten into the guts. And I'm not seeing anything that's like disturbing inside there. But yeah, but yeah, like Ice Maker is a fickle mistress.

And so much of my day-to-day mental well-being is based on my access to good kinds of ice. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do what you just did. I'm like at the store buying plastic ice cube trays immediately. And then I've like constantly got a few things in my check. out on major internet retailer. Like, does this, can I freeze things in this and it will come out about like pebble ice? You know what's crazy is I never gave buying ice cube trays a thought.

Not one thought. I went to a convenience store and got a bag of ice to get us by. Never thought about getting trays. Well, I mean, your freezer is for putting old scented candle containers in. So you wouldn't have room. There was a real bang, bang of incidents in our house where we had a house sitter stay here and take care of Ripley while we were in New York for a trip. And she accidentally left our freezer cracked open. So all of our freezer food spoiled.

And the ice maker wasn't working either. So it gave us a nice little home project of like taking apart our freezer, wiping it down inside and out. like we just detailed the shit out of that thing. And then I installed the new ice maker. An ice maker that just arrives in a fucking cardboard box. It's not shrink-wrapped. There's like a person at a factory who wrote on it with a magic marker that's like, this is the refrigerator it's meant for.

It's total bush league. Like it's rattling around a cardboard box and I just installed it in my freezer. Like, I guess this is what we do now. this is the rule now Ben yeah I admire that you did it yourself I think that's I had to I had to get it on

I was going to fuck it up and then call up a repair person this is my way I'm always going to try it first yeah I mean the repair person is good insurance to have like it's good to know that there's there is a Ukrainian man that will come over to your house

tomorrow if this doesn't work out but I'm looking at the camera right now at any FODs who might think that that's way out of line to say. I'm going to say, as someone who lives in Los Angeles, every person I've ever had come over to service an appliance or an HVAC or anything else has been from Ukraine. Okay. So Ben knows what he's talking about. Yeah. I only make broad generalizations about ethnic groups that are true. Yep. That's right. Well, Adam, broad generalizations can be made about the Ferengi, but not the key Ferengi in today's episode. He's kind of cutting against what his culture is all about.

Should we get into it? Another classic from season one of Star Trek The Next Generation. It is the ninth episode. It is called The Battle. We're already in the rendezvous at, Zendee Sabu because the Ferengi just reached out and said, hey, would love to get together with you guys. And the ships are, you know, flying in parallel.

Looking great. I got the sense that there was a little bit of tone in Picard's log here having to do with like, they wouldn't ordinarily meet up with the Ferengi. However, Starfleet has ordered us to meet with this. ship. Did you get, like, I think that's a very specific word. If you're ordered to do something, I think what you're trying to say is it's not something you'd be into any other way, right? I think the next line kind of illuminates why he finds this so galling is that they showed up and the Ferengi have basically left them on red.

Although we arrived here and made appropriate signals to the Ferengi three days ago, they have so far responded only with the message, Stand By Enterprise. Does the iPhone still do the three dots thing semi-permanently? Like if you send a text, if you type a text but don't send it, there was a time where it could just stay camped on three dots. Oh, yeah. Let's try it. I mean, typically if I look at my text thread with you, there is three dots coming from

you and I just assume that this is going to be a screed about something I fucked up. Yeah, I've been doing my best to pull those back lately. Okay, I've got a text to you populated, but don't. consent. Are you getting three dots? Let me check. Ooh, no three dots. What about if I'm just typing? I just started seeing it, but I do see that Adam has notifications silenced. So I wonder if that is part of it or if maybe you have to send one and then it gives you three dots. That's weird. We might never know. Well, Picard also wants to know about some odd symptoms he's having, fatigue, headache. Dr. Crusher makes house calls. And

she takes a couple of readings and orders him to Six Bay for some tests. But he is saved by the bell. The Ferengi finally get in touch. Yeah, he's going to have to put off the exam and instead go to the bridge where we find Damon Bach on screen, who says he knows Picard from somewhere. I feel like if you're a Ferengi and you have very few interactions with Humans, you're going to remember the few interactions you have

and the people you specifically have them with, right? Yeah. Or is it like he really has a hard time telling humans apart because he doesn't interact with many of them so he doesn't pick up on the subtle differences? The reason I bring that up is that I feel like it puts Picard on his back foot here. To be the guy that doesn't remember this specific Ferengi, I think that's pretty insulting.

Like how many Ferengi could Picard? have possibly encountered over his career? I don't know. I kind of, I waffle on this issue. Like if somebody comes up to me at a party and is like, hey, and I'm like, hi, and they're like, you don't remember me, do you? Like, who's the joke really on? You know?

Me for having like a bad memory or them for not having been memorable enough to stick in there? You need to take high out of your repertoire. You need to pivot entirely into Great to see you. Great to see it, yeah. Because that works for people you just met or people you've known for a while. It's been rough lately. I was at a three-year-old's birthday party a couple of weeks ago,

and somebody came up and told me about a whole conversation we had about ice hockey camps in the Okanagan, which is a thing that I used to do when I was a kid is go to ice hockey camp in the summer. And I was like, sounds like something I would have had some things to. say about, but I don't remember you or the conversation. That sounds pretty aggressive by that other person to just like throw that in your face. That's kind of the vibe with Damon Bach. He's another Ferengi standing in another all-white room. And he says that he and Picard have a mutual problem, but we know Ferengi don't like doing these face times. He wants to press the flesh a little bit. In fact, he insists. This is something that they'll allow and strategically it makes a lot of sense,

right? Wouldn't you rather host Damon Bach on Enterprise than go over to whatever they have happening on the Ferengi ship? That's what they decide. I really like the, like when he makes this insistence, Troy, without Picard turning around, Troy turns to Yard and is like, cut the, cut the feed,

like hang up on that fool so that we can talk about what deceptive energy I'm getting from him. I know what you're thinking. Captain, I sense concerned. Considerable deception on Box Park and danger. The freelancing we get from the senior staff in season one is so great. I love it.

I wish we got this for all seven seasons. Because it injects a sort of chaos into every moment. I think one of the things people like about TNG, especially the later seasons, is like how comforting it is, how great it is to see the competence porn of all of this. Largly without the chaos that it, Deanna Troy ordering a cutoff channel represents in a moment like this. I don't know. I think it's neat that they're all empowered to do it. I do too. Well, Damon Bach will be coming over to

our ship in one of our Earth hours. And that is the setup. And after the theme, Picard is in Sixth Bay. and we're spending the hour of preparation time we have for the first Ferengi to visit the ship with Picard getting his headaches scanned. I was really struck by this too, like how efficiently they're using the time here. Like instead of reading up on Ferengi or maybe how Damon Bach might know him. Doing like a security sweep and like making a plan about like how, you know, what corridors he'll be allowed in and stuff. Wouldn't you rather be 100% though?

I think I would, so I kind of get it. Yeah. And I love Dr. Crusher just kind of bemusedly talking about, yeah, I mean, this just isn't really a thing that anybody has to deal with now that we understand the nature of pain. Sure. Everything painful we've got to handle on, the common cold, erectile dysfunction and baldness. Those are all choices now that you can just make. You decide these things. Let me just say on a couple of those, you've made excellent choices.

I'm attracted to bald men. It is interesting how nonspecific she is about the Miriam other medical issues that have solutions to them. She's going to do some more tests. And Picard starts to protest. And she's like, don't worry, after whatever this shit is with the Ferengi, Wesley is on the bridge in the meantime. and is trying to tell everybody that they are about to get an intruder alert when they get an intruder alert.

This seemed to me like the confusion I encountered when during and after battles, they're tallying up the casualties. Like casualties I learned fairly recently include those who were just injured and unable to work, not just dead people. And so when I see Wesley bring up an intruder, intruder alert. I'm like, well, obviously that means someone has beamed onto the ship and is

there, and they shouldn't be. Intruder alert also includes ships entering your area. Yeah, intruding the vicinity, I guess. Yeah. I was like, what the hell does a long-range sensor have to do with an intruder? Yeah, exactly. An old constellation class starship is en route. Ben, something that we hear in dialogue, but when we see the lips move of our characters, they are saying a different type of ship entirely. What looks to me like Constitution class. Put a pin in that, Adam. We'll talk a little bit more about it later. I loved data being mainly curious about how Wesley would go about boosting the sensors. Data loves boosters. We will discuss this later.

I mean, if I were Wesley's age and I were alone as much as he was, The sort of sensor tweak I'd be doing is like dialing them down for the internal sensors. Yeah. Maybe where and what you're doing specifically taking those sliders, maybe closer to zero, if you know what I'm saying. I think I'm picking up what you're putting down. Picard comes on to the bridge. and I mean, when you see this ship and when people start talking about what the correct procedure is, like you're starting to brace yourself for this being a Rath of Khan style situation.

But Picard gets this splitting headache right in the middle of citing like the same regulations that Savick would have brought up a hundred years earlier. You're really right to bring up the Rath of Khan thing because of the way it's shot, right? Like the hero ship shot of the front of its sombrero tilted down, you know, entering frame like that, that always reads as aggressive. And it's because of Rathakan, I think. Yeah. They have time in this prelude to wrath to scold Wesley for not calling the bridge with this information on the radio. Like you really took your time walking up here from engineering. that's just you trying to have an excuse to be up here, Wes.

Wesley's wearing his newly issued acting ensign uniform, which looks like it's made of remnants from science and command and medical uniform scraps. Yeah. Like, in a way, I knew it was calling out those colors, but it's never looked so scrappy to me as it did this episode. There's a lot scrappy about this episode. And I wonder if they were trying this on for size as a uniform

Or if this was supposed to be just another one of his strange sweaters. Because it's knit on the top, right? Like the whole yoke part is sweater material. If I'm acting Ensign and I kind of know what track I'm on, I also like, don't give me all the colors. Give me the one color I'm interested in. Yeah. Feels greedy, to be honest.

The ship that's coming. in that is the intruder is going to take a while to get here because it's traveling on impulse. And the Ferengi are going to be here way before that. And they beam directly onto the bridge. And we meet Damon Bach and Kazago and Rata, his first and second officers. And they're really excited about the clothed females. They would really like to purchase. Commander Data. He is not for sale. Lots of excitement in this first time having Ferengia

aboard. Ben, when you're looking at these guys and you remember the episode recently where we had the Antikins and the Saleh on board, did it seem to you as though Damon Bach as and his officers were wearing antigen pelts as clothing? Doesn't it look like that? Maybe they are. Because we know there was a suspicion about the Ferengi being involved in that episode. There was. I wonder if when shit went down, Samantikins got killed in the process. The Soleil were like selling them as spoils of war to the Ferengi. No one comments on it, but I saw it.

They're wearing the same kind of furs in the Anybody Canyon episode, right? I think. But, I mean, there's so much. much more going on there. This is really like, when you're standing in front of the view screen, it's really fashion show time up there in that bright light. I don't know who's more uncomfortable, Wesley or the Ferengi, but they shed some light on what this ship is that's heading toward them. It's a gift to the hero of Maxia. And they don't explain what Maxia is, but data clarifies that it might be a reference to this one time. where Picard destroyed a ship that did a surprise attack on them.

When they get this thing on the view screen, Picard just about doubles over in pain. And Deanna-Troi feels it too, kind of in a little bit of a shockwave move. Bach is still there. Bach says it's his conscience. That was a great verbal flourish there. Great verbal dagger by Damon Bach. There are a lot of things that Bach has not explained to his underlings. And when he says that this is just going to be something that he gives Picard for free,

they are pretty surprised by that. This is the moment in the episode where I wonder if this is just modern person sensibility versus late 80s person sensibility. I'm like, okay, so Picard is feeling awful, all of a sudden conspicuously. We're not going to remove the variable from this to figure this out. Like both the Ferengi and this weird chip that showed up, no one's going to think that that's the reason at this point.

Something related to this happened to me very recently, Ben. I've been having, like, really bad headaches. Like, every day for, like, the last five days. Dang. Tolerable, like, work-throughable, but, like, irritating. And, like, I'll get morning headaches. by like being super tensed up. So I've been,

that's been my morning for like five mornings. Dang. Until yesterday morning, it's like five in the a.m. And like I feel something a little like crunchy in my pillowcase

and I reached my arm into the pillowcase and I pull out a fucking dryer sheet. Whoa. And I was like, oh, I wonder if this, because I don't like strong smells,

especially like strong... You've been like... Inhaling dryer sheet? And we have specifically, like the lowest stink dryer sheet you can get. Like they're hippie dryer sheets or whatever, but it still has a fragrance to it. So I yanked it out and I threw it away and I was like,

oh, I wonder if this is why I've been feeling so bad. Went to bed last night, woke up this morning, feeling great. Wow. It was a fucking dryer sheet in my pillowcase. Just like this stargazer is affecting Captain Picard. The dryer sheet was my stargazer. I have a friend who thought she was a lot.

allergic to chocolate because she had a little like ceramic dish of chocolates in her apartment. And every time she had one, she would get like violently ill. And then she found out that the ceramic had like like the glaze had cracked and had had crazed. And so all of those little crevices had become a site for some bacterium or something to take hold. Yeah. Like she could just eat chocolate out of the package and not get sick. And she's like, oh, like I have been poisoning myself. It's crazy

It's really satisfying when you get to the bottom of something though So rare I was ready to go to the doctor Because you're not supposed to have a headache for that many days in a row You really aren't Wild So Picard is now back in Six Bay He's under the bed arch

On the bio bed And shouldn't the arch be up over his head I was thinking Yeah Is that to keep him down He doesn't want to do more tests but he has to. Remember that time a few episodes ago

when you were controlled by purple lightning and taken over the ship? This is just a precaution. Kind of losing his sense of whether he is in a memory or in the present in a way that seems like it should be troubling. And then Beverly goes, well, I'm just not concerned at all. Let's go have a meeting up in the observation lounge. Not seeing anything to worry me here.

The detail of Beverly going with, I think is important, right? Like, Picard's acting weird. He needs some monitoring. She will be that monitor. One of our first really, like, full compliment McLaughlin groups here. Issue one. And Picard is describing the events of Maxia, this attack where a ship just kind of like, at warp, took a couple of sucker punch shots at them.

and they were really thrashed and it was going to be the end of them and then he invents the Picard maneuver on the fly and now it's textbook and he has like a couple of slip-ups even in this description where he like sort of starts talking about it

in the present tense to like somebody named Vigo who isn't there there was a time the Picard maneuver was to occur beneath a waterfall with a certain Doctor. Not so impactful

but rhythmic instead. Imagine you're going to warp for a very short distance, maximum warp we're told. And by doing that, you make your ship appear in two places at once. And that's very important when you've got an enemy trying to destroy you.

They don't know which one to hit. It's like boxing someone who's become very dizzy. Like, which one do you aim for? Like, that's the confusion you're presenting in a situation like this. Good thing, this mystery ship fired on the wrong Stargazer.

That gave the Stargazer the opening it needed to destroy this mystery ship. But Stargazer was really badly hurt. Like, they had to abandon ship. It was all on fire. They sort of let it drift in space and bailed into a shuttle craft

that they stayed on for weeks until rescue. Can you imagine what it smelled like when they opened those shuttlecraft? Pretty bad, I think. So data is like kind of, all right, we've all read the textbook at the Academy, right? Can we get back to the subject of the meeting? The question is like, are we actually going to accept this gift? Seems weird. It seems like this guy's really got some kind of axe to grind and we're not quite sure what it is.

I wish someone in the McLaughlin group was like, how is there any question? It's an entire Starship. Yes, we're accepting it. I want to go over to her. I understand, sir. Riker wants to make sure it's safe. Beverly wants to make sure Picard is sane. Meeting adjourned.

And we go over to the bridge of the Stargazer where the R&Data enter. And Jordy, this is like the Starship Carfax team that you want to check out a ship before you take possession of it, right? Yeah. Make sure the dedication plate has the correct VIN number on it. Starfleet Registry NCC-2893. Boy, that's how you know right away if the numbers don't match. That's going to be a pass for me, Doug.

Yeah. They, you know, want to see if the odometer has a plausible number on it, doesn't look tampered with. They've got power, like they're emerging. emergency backup cells that still work amazingly. Which is important because we're getting the Rob Bowman light treatment here. All of the vibes on this ship are just great. I think because of the choices he makes his director.

Wharf walks in and he's like, rest of the ship is clear. He appears to emerge from what looks like a turbo lift, right? It looks like it is. I think Jordy also came out of there. That's what I think is weird. It looks ruined, right? Like when the door opens, like it doesn't look like it's a good turbo lift that is in good shape.

Yeah. I mean, but like, Jordy is psyched. He's having so much fun looking at this old ship. I'm cool with gendering ships and cars and stuff. I find that kind of charming in its way. But the way that Jordy says it here, the whole like, God, I read about this ship in the academy, but I never thought, I myself would be on her like this. Did not enjoy that description by Jordy.

Well, Picard and Crusher beam over and he clams up. He's not going to talk about her like that in front of him. No. No, good thing Beverly comes to keep an eye on him. Yeah. Data has found the last log entry of Picard, you know, wishing the ship well as they abandon her. May she find her way without us.

Apparently she did so How funny was this unintentionally Like Ben put yourself in the moment of abandoning ship Fire is everywhere A red alert claxons going off Definitely Dirt being strewn all over the The seat bottoms as we've seen

Rocks coming from the ceiling Imagine everyone's like All right Captain we got to go Like last shuttle out of the bay We got to get out of here And Picard standing in his saying something as poetic as like, I hope one day

someone finds this great vessel and gives her a proper burial. Or whatever he says as the last log is so poetic in a moment of what had to be terror before they left the ship. This ship and her crew will soon become. I mean, if you're at the door to the shuttle, there's a moment where you're like, we got to go.

We got to fucking go. Extremely canonical Star Trek Captain behavior, though. We've seen Kirk being like the last person gasping for breath with life support failing, making a captain's log like this. So I buy it. Yeah. So we're going to double check that this thing is going to hold together if we throw a grapple on it and download the computer. and Picard heads to his old quarters, which still have some old personal effects in them.

Like the books didn't burn up. There's lots of trinkets on the walls. This is amazing. Like to be reunited with your captain's trinkets has got to be such a great feeling. Oh, my old shoebox. I'm given more siblings to Picard than he usually gets. Yeah. It'll take a minute to get back into my Picard.

but I think it's close. Not many people would have thought that the Nike corporation would last this long into the future. What we can't help but notice here isn't just a lighting choice by Rob Bowman. This glowing red orb is something nefarious and it corresponds to another red orb that Bach is working on the Ferengi ship. And this makes Captain McCart do that thing where he's in so much pain. He stands up like rigidly. and then collapses in pain. If these are the quarters on the ship that he was in during that battle,

would this make it his maxia pad? Mm-hmm. They really would. And if it was a female captain of the Stargazer, on the bridge of the Enterprise, Riker makes the final arrangements for custody of the Stargazer, and Picard arrives out of the turbo lift. Looked pretty ragged.

I was surprised to see him there. Why does no one want to relieve him right now, especially so soon after the purple lightning incident? Seems strange. Seems like if I felt this bad, I would say like, hey, maybe you take it from here. Well, it also seemed, I know so much of this episode points to that one, but this really seems like a season of Star Trek interested in demethologizing the idea of a flagship starship captain. Like, they really do weaken Picard in a number of episodes in season one intentionally. Yeah. You know, this show went through its own Not My Star Trek phase when it first came out.

And I think that that was a really dramatic shift for the faithful, like to have the kind of swinging dick character be the first officer. And the captain being like this man of letters and frailties was like, what the fuck is this? shit. This whole situation is a recipe for a Starfleet tug job, which is going to be dispatched to take Stargazer away at some point in the future. For now, Picard needs to go to bed or something because he's dragging. Yeah, he's going to go have a lie down. And that crate that the big, glowy ball was in is now in his room aboard the entrepreneur. So he he like lays himself down to sleep and shoots awake. And it seems like this thing has still got a pretty severe hold over him.

In the ready room, data shows Riker a personnel log from Picard that suggests that he may have knowingly attack the Ferengi ship at Maxia. What? Unprovoked? Impossible. Well, in command of the Stargazer? No way. Oh, this is a scandal. Maybe this hero turned by Picard that got him the gig of captaining the flagship was not as reported and was actually bad.

Not a chance. Rikerized to commercial. The crew react to this, I think, carries a lot of weight because at no point does anyone believe this to be true. It just doesn't comport with their understanding of Picard. And after the commercial, like, we're towing the ship and listening to this confession. and Riker's like, well, obviously this is fake, but I don't think I really have any option but to report this to Starfleet. Good news. We're really, really far from home. So it's going to take a day to get there and their response will take a day to get back. So we have some time

to get this all figured out. But Picard is pretty stressed. He's like, if this becomes persuasive to people, if this fake audio tape is seen as authentic, like Starfleet's not going to want me captaining the ship anymore. They're going to send me to Siberia, man. Picard's also like, you're not listening to other logs, are you? Will? Like they start scrubbing backwards the tape a little bit. It's like, Captain's Log, we must abandon ship, but I happen to be mid-record. Very awkward situation I find myself in.

You know, between the first and the second attack by that unidentified ship, I did, in fact, go over my personal best. The Nike shoebox has never seen numbers like this. I am the cutest of all. I think a second or a third audio log, also having been tampered would have been really interesting in a moment like this. Like, how many more are there? How much time did they have to doctor these tapes?

There could be weeks of material that they cooked up, you know? Because I think if you're the Ferengi and you're doing the doctoring, isn't it better to do a bunch of doctored logs instead of just the one? Yeah. Like one of the logs is like, is straight out of Jim Kirk and Star Trek 6th. He's like, I've never trusted Ferengis, and I never will. How long were you standing there? Yeah, exactly.

What is sort of implied in the next scene makes me think that Bach was the only person working on this. So it might be that he had time to do one of them without anyone noticing. And this is underscored when Riker blows in a secured channel call to the Ferengi first officer, Kazago. And he's like, what do you know about? this Maxia thing and he's like, oh, I know all about it. I just learned about it. It seems really fucked up what your captain did to our ship. Why would you call me about that? Like, other than to apologize and Riker's like, I just want to plant something in your head. Why would

your captain give the ship back to Picard if the story of Maxia is as your captain says it is? there's a couple of things going on here and I want to know which one you think is is winning. Is it Riker's charisma or is it truly a fraternity of first officers carrying this scene? I think it's a combination of both, but I think it's so interesting that Riker would presume that there is that kind of, hey man, we're just we're just exos, right? Like, let's drop the shit. XO to XO. Let's just, uh, let's see if we can get to the bottom of this thing. It's a quality. I don't feel like you get again going forward after this season, and I really love it.

I love it too. It gives like a format of communication with aliens that feels really untapped by so much of the rest of Star Trek. Because it's untethered to anyone's culture. Everyone understands rank and duty and what you need to do in professional and military situations, completely irrespective of what a culture's values are, you know? And also the idea that this could be done in a non-surreptitious saboteur kind of way, it has so much potential in it. And I feel like that it's almost always saboteur shit that's going on

when somebody is blowing in a call to not the captain of a ship. For now, though, Kazago's, like, insulted that their gift is being treated so ungrateful. and basically hangs up the face time on Riker. Crusher is in Picard's apartment again and still hasn't gotten to the bottom of these headaches, which are really flaring up. And, man, I just, I was like, we should all be so lucky to get as much pleasure

and satisfaction from our work as Bach does from using his box get ball. I mean, it should be illegal to have this much fun without making a profit, you know? I think Patrick Stewart's, doing great work with his performance here. The look of someone with a headache feels very specific and feels very real in this episode.

There is this suggestion. Does the Stargazer and like the memories and stuff have something to do with the headaches? And he's like, no, because I was getting him before the Stargazer showed up. So I don't think that's possible. Yeah. And he's also starting to lose his confidence in his own sense of what is and isn't real.

Like, was I out of my mind then? And I, like, actually did the thing that they accused me of and I, like, misremember it or am I out of my mind now? And I misremember it because of that. Like, how do you know if you've lost the plot or not? Rob Bowman does point of view here where we see Beverly look at Picard and then we see Picard look at Beverly, but it's just a shoebox where she's sitting. And, you know, not a shoebox that's in good shape.

No. Dr. Crusher can only shoot him up with sedatives at this point to help him sleep and then physically tucks him into bed before putting a couple of clip show devices on his forehead. This is one of those scenes and we get a couple of them where Picard's face is extremely close up to the camera in bed. And I want to call attention to how unique this composition is. I feel like bald actors are not often shot from above like this. And it is unique and interesting to find an actor willing to participate in a shot block like this, I think. One of my favorite close-ups of Peace 2, I can remember seeing. It is such a cool shot. And we have another one of these little senior staff meetings where Data is telling Jordy and Riker about how he's definitely one of the two versions of the logs from the Stargazer is a forgery. either the one that Picard is a hero in or the one that he's a villain in. Couldn't say which is a forgery, but definitely one of them is. The absolute worst time to be walking in is when Picard chooses to walk into the middle of this meeting.

And he is strutting. He feels great. What a restful night. He's got that Kaczynski strut, doesn't he? He's got the no dryer sheet in my pillowcase strut. Yeah, for real. He basically disbrizzed. dismisses everyone from this meeting. Once everyone's dismissed, Picard tells Riker to release the Stargazer from the tractor beam. And Riker's like, why would we do that? And Bacard's like, well, because obviously now that the Stargazer has inertia, it doesn't need us to drag it along.

Let's just let it float. Riker does not ask any questions. He just leaves and goes and does this. After the Purple Lightning, you got to ask a couple more. A couple of follow-ups. You know, you're... It's only right. It's a private situation.

You're not like undermining his command in this moment. Yeah. Speaking of undermining the senior ranks, Crusher and Troy are in the Six Bay talking through this weird mental situation that's going on with the captain. And Wesley interrupts. He has found something similar to the brainwave patterns that they've been studying coming out of Picard with his sensor experimentations coming out.

coming out of the Ferengue ship. This is an epiphany to Dr. Beverly and also Troy. And it is also the second scene in this episode where Wesley Crusher has just been off doing his own shit and bringing new information to light for the senior staff that they are initially resistant to wanting to hear, but after hearing it, they're like, oh yeah, good job, Wes. At a boy. I mean, it's a thing that I'm really noticing in season one is like how much they are thinking about the off-screen lives of these characters. And I feel like there's an entire episode about what Wesley is doing in this episode. But he only like pops in for these little moments to like divert the plot in an interesting direction. There's a quality to Wesley in this episode that I think is one of the reasons why so many people found his character grading, which is, I wish I had more to compare this to, like, other child actors of his age in shows of this era. There's just a way he speaks that is very like, Mom, I was doing a study of these waveforms, and what I found was really shocked.

talking. Like, I think the Ferengi have taken control of Captain Picard. There's like a roundness to his line delivery. Right. It's really hard to describe, but like if he was just talking like a student instead of Beverly's son, I think it may read as less grading in these moments. I think the fix is if he was making more tuna fish sandwiches for people the way a Brandon Calwood in the role, I think you got a much better situation on your hands. I cannot believe you're comparing Brandon called a Will Wheaton. And yet, I think that's right to do. Every show had this, right?

Like the precocious youngster in the cast. What you don't have to do is have Wesley spike the football at the end of this scene once Troy and Beverly leave. Like, what are we trying to do there? That is a little bit more celebration than is. necessary. Yeah. Hey, Wes, they don't respect you. Like, they weren't ready to believe you and they're taking credit for your information here. So maybe keep that in mind before you celebrate. Adults. When this information makes it to Riker, he does a, where's Picard? And Picard is like actively

beaming off the ship. And he has himself a nice seat. on the bridge of the stargazer. Aren't you glad they didn't show the beam off, which would have been exactly what he did in the Wharf Lightning episode. Yeah. He meets Bach. Bach's there with his boxkit ball.

We throw the shields up and we start zapping that chrome dome. He's playing box it ball. He's playing box it ball. I love boxcett ball. It's my favorite sport. I love the way they make you have headaches up and down the court. There's a part of the story that we don't see,

which is a corresponding Bach beamover from the Ferengi ship. Like, who cares about him being gone over there? Not many people, it seems. Jordian Data find the other one, the mini edition that was in his quarters. The Papa shot box at ball. Yeah. Baca shot?

Is that better? I think Baca shot, yeah. Okay. Bach is just like, this is the culmination of nine years of work, and he reveals why this is what he has done. Like, why he spent his life savings doing this. His son was the daemon of that ship, and Picard deserves everything he's getting. You murdered my only son. Your son.

This is Omerta. This is Rewangay. What is it mean? I really like the idea of revenge being financially expensive, like financially prohibitive to him. Yeah, before you go on a journey of revenge, dig a grave for the person you're going to kill and another where you can bury all the money that it will cost.

Absolutely. You said it. Pretty creepy when Stargazer is now moving under its own power and then goes out and does that turnaround thing in front of Enterprise. Really good, like another moment that really made me, think about Rappacon in a great way, like in a way that didn't feel like it was just like fan service or like ringing a Star Trek bell for the sake of ringing it, you know? Star Trek Picard did that in season three. Also, when a ship looks angry and menacing, this is

the move that it makes. Riker wants to know, like, what can this thing do? So they go over what the armaments and capabilities are. It's such a great question because this thing looks like a piece of shit compared to Enterprise D. It really doesn't seem like it's a threat. Right. Like the Reliant versus the movie refit ship felt like a fairly even match. Yeah.

Yeah. This not so much. They also just have the ball that they found on the bridge and Jardy is like visoring it. Like, oh yeah, there's like a bunch of circuits in there. Don't take it near the warp court. Don't take it on the bridge would be maybe my suggestion. I'm surprised you didn't call this out. Ben, but, like, the fact that the only black actor in the cast is the one made to mess around

with the box at ball is like, come on, guys. Yeah, why does he pass it to Wharf and then Wharf slam dunks it into a, like, since when is there a over-the-driveway hoop up there behind the science station? What's great about shooting hoops on the bridge is, like, there's an automatic ball return. It just goes around the side of the horseshoe. Back to the free throw line. It's an unfortunate artifact of the age that the show was made in. Very true.

Cazago picks up the phone and Riker's like, hey, you know, hold on. Hey, Worf, can you throw that over here? He's like, hey, Kazago, do you know what this thing is? And he's like, that's device forbidden. It's a thought maker. He's like, God damn, those things are expensive too. I've never seen one in real life. That's wild.

If your captain owns one of those, he's going to have a lot to answer for. For real. That is illicit material. Picard gets on the phone now, and he is warning them off, urging them not to attack. He raises shields and gets ready,

and we learned that he's arming torpedoes. He's got the ghosts of his old crew people around him to help. This is very Ghostbustersy Ghost effect work here, I thought. Didn't this look like the old lady in the library? It did. Where are you from?

Originally. It's kind of a midpoint between that and Force Ghost. Yeah, yeah. And it's interesting because there's like some camera movement. I read that they shot this all on Steady Cam and they shot each of these actors individually and then put them all together in the scene. Cool.

And they like, they like tried to make the camera move to like have, have the tracking not be perfect so that it would feel creepy and weird. It does. It does feel like that. This was Bowman just trying shit. And this worked for me.

It's one of the things that makes him my favorite early season TNG director. Really interesting choices. Troy reports that whatever Picard is going through, he is fucking pissed. And Riker's like, okay, what we need to do right now is figure out how to repel the Picard maneuver data. Why don't you get on that?

Beverly's like, I have an idea. And then she's like, uh, that's not what we're talking about, is it? Okay. Riker turns around and you see his POV and she looks like a Nike shoe box. Yeah. So Kazago calls backup with just like tons of phone calls here in the climactic moments of this episode. And he's like, hey, I don't know what you guys are doing with your balls or whatever. I don't really want to be involved. You should just know, we're all really pissed at Damon Bach because we didn't make any money on this trip. And he has been relieved of command. This is good news, but not the news they need right now, because the threat from the Bacard maneuver

is very present. The plan they devise to defend against it is to use the tractor beam to snare the second stargazer that appears. Yeah, and like anticipate where it's going to be based on like the compression of trace gases in interstellar space. And I think there's something in dialogue about like sort of aiming it in a way that even if it does fire, it'll miss the enterprise if it does. Yeah, it feels good enough for Riker. So he tries to explain to Bacard what's going on.

he describes the basketball as a silver sphere yeah we're gonna need to loop that dialogue guys that is not the primary descriptor I would use for that no it's like describing a basketball as a as a black sphere right because of the black lines in it

yeah that's uh that's detail not the not the main course riker gets on the face time to tell him like you gotta shoot the red ball man shoot it with your phaser that I know you have, right? You wouldn't have just beamed over without a phaser, would you?

Of course he has a phaser. Yeah. One of the little guys. There is a 30-second shot, reverse shot sequence of Picard kind of figuring it out. Like, ball, Picard, ball, Picard, ball, Picard.

And then we finally get a stunt guy flying toward the camera, which is another really interesting choice. It is a really scary-looking explosion, too. Like, that guy is danger close and flying toward the Karen in such a fun way. Yeah, we got to see the Picard maneuver. I love that they, like, do the old style warp lines from the movies.

So good. So pure. Picard comes to disoriented and doesn't know where he is. And they catch him up real quickly. And he's like, okay, like, are we kicking box ass? Like, what's going on? Bye, by there. Do you know what else comes with the old warp lines?

me let's see if you can anticipate where it's going based on compression of trace gases you could say my ropes are TOS era no profit in Rewengay our final shot is of

towing the Stargazer home and that's our episode This is becoming a speech. You're the captains, though. You're entitled. I'm entitled to ramble on about something everyone knows. I wanted to talk to a little bit about the character of Picard. This is a real Picard, capital A acting episode.

Yeah. And I've always thought of him as being uniquely unhaunted as a protagonist, especially on this show. Like, it doesn't seem like his primary character need is like wrestling with the demons of his past. before Mamon hung herself in a Borg basement. Sure, yeah. We never had any inkling that he was like deeply troubled or anything. But the way Picard experiences the stargazer,

like there's obviously the thoughtmaker playing a huge role in this, but like this is very much what PTSD is described as is like your amygdala is treating the triggering event as being exactly the same. the traumatic event that that caused it. And so, like, he is, in fact, kind of, like, reliving it in the present in that way. Like, do you think that this episode makes the case for Picard being, like, deeply wounded by the loss of the Stargazer in a way that is meaningful? No, and here's why.

Because the end of the episode is just Picard getting beamed back to Enterprise and then, like, nothing made of, like there is no real button to this episode that would suggest that Picard is like that for this ship. I mean, at least throughout the rest of the episode,

it's unclear whether or not his feelings for the ship are completely generated by the red ball. Yeah. Or if any of that is coming from him, or if it's a mixture of them. And it would be nice to have resolution there because I think it's totally natural

for someone to have, that kind of affection for a place that they used to live or a place they used to work, or in this case, it would be both for Picard. But I think what we get in this character going forward is from time to time, we do get references to Stargazer and his time there. And we do get that model in the ready room. And we do see and hear how important this era was for him. The model that we saw of the Stargazer, it was like established as a model that's like in his question. in an earlier episode, like the gold spray-painted one. And that is a kit bash of the, like, the off-the-shelf plastic make-it-home model of the Enterprise

refit for the movies and, like, Gundam kits. That's so cool. Yeah. And then they made the four-foot shooting model of the Stargazer based on that. And I'll tell you a little bit more trivia about that after the P-1s. And we'll also play a game. But for now, why don't we get into the Priority One inbox? All right. Let's do it.

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

It goes like this. Ben and Adam, after 10 years of Talking Trek, You probably know better than anyone that every sex ghost candle or Mayan Temple Starship makeover has a real world connection. My podcast, The Prime Detective, explores the true crimes and strange cases where Trek and sci-fi brush up against reality. Like Star Trek's bizarre connection to the Jean-Benay Ramsey case. New listeners can jump in anywhere. Most episodes are under 10 minutes, and all 26 episodes of season one are, are ready to binge.

So your call to action is search for The Prime Detective wherever you cast pods. This is from Grayson, who does a really nice job on this show. I've actually listened to several episodes of The Prime Detective. And I think it's a great concept and very enjoyable. And like a type of podcast that I'm really into is the little shorty like this. Like you get in, you get out. so satisfying to like pop one on like for my drive home from dropping the kids off at preschool. I really appreciate how much respect Grayson has for the listener's time.

I mean, we've gone on tangents that are longer than 10 minutes. Wendy cuts most of them out. This episode. Pretty great. Pretty great idea. And look, Star Trek connects to just so many things. Of course it connects to bizarre crimes. So yeah, give this a try

And look, if you're hesitant to give new podcast a try The threshold of 10-minute podcast is pretty low So you've got to give this one a try The Prime Detective, wherever you get your podcasts Ben, here's a priority one message here It is to she who is now my wife, CJ, And it is from, he who is now her husband, Anakin. Wow.

It's been a long road getting from there to hear, but we did it. We're finally married. I'll forever be thankful that eight years ago you were hungry enough to swipe my Tinder profile so you could ask me to buy you dinner. And even though you had a cold and got me sick, it was totally worth it. Being with you has been wonderful and you've helped me grow and do things. I wouldn't have bothered to try if you weren't around, including Star Trek. I'd never seen it before until we watched Lower Decks together. So then of course, we had to watch all the series after that so we could understand the references. I'm so grateful that you found this kind of embarrassing podcast by a couple of guys just a little bit embarrassed about having it,

listening to Ben and Adams' high-quality impressions, and erotic ice desk literature has significantly enhanced the Star Trek viewing experience and made car rides much more fun. Also, I don't think you would have made it through Enterprise without them. I love watching Star Trek with you after work. past few years and I'm excited to watch it all over again now. And with our future subunits, I love you so much. Thanks for making a trekie out of the Star Wars name Nerd. Maggie O'Hallor and drop, please. Would you like to hold my hand?

Would you like to kiss me? Well, the morning, boys. The spirits have turned her into account. I'm not quite myself today. What kind of a girl do you think I am? Bitch, I'm a car. I was walking around town with nothing but a bell around my neck. Everyone was staring at me.

P.S., thank you, Ben, Adam, and Wendy for all the laughs. Oh, thank you, Anakin. What a great message. Really nice. Describing a really great relationship there. And an entry point into Star Trek through lower decks, which I like to see. Amazing that somebody named Anakin got married to CJ, which I can only assume is short for Captain Janeway. Oh, I was thinking.

that was a Baywatch reference. Oh, could be a Baywatch reference too. We have one more P-1 today. It's two. All FODs everywhere, but mostly Jake, Wendy, Brie, Rustin, Laura, Henry, Liz Soto, and the rest of the Cabana crew. It's from Michael Rizzo. Who else?

The best. It goes like this. Now that the pod has boldly gone independent, 100% of the scarves we send remain firmly on Uxbridge Shimoda next after taxes. Join me in continuing our expensive telephone game until we're Poolside again in August.

Live long and prosper. Tuvix deserves to die. And then, Airlock Neelix. Ha! Oh, shit. Yeah. Rizzo leaves no crumbs. It is zesty, isn't it?

The idea of turning it into a double homicide. Two crew members were killed in the breach. Stand on, Red Alert. I like that the... separation is done in one place on the ship, and then we're just going to take kneelicks and blow him out of an airline. Hey, why don't you come down the hall with me? Hey, there's a party in your honor. Now that you're separated, sort of a welcome back thing. We got new quarters for you.

He's like Pesci and Goodfellas. I'll see you at the cabana. Everyone listed here and also Rizzo. Going to be great. Looking forward to it. Yeah, we're going to be there. That's Monday at Star Trek, Las Vegas. Well, that just about does it for the Priority One messages on the episode. If you'd like to get one for yourself, go to Podshop.biz and order one today. Yeah.

And if you've got a high-tier membership, you get a permanent discount on P-1s. And P-1s go a long way in supporting the production of our show, so that's another reason to do it. Thanks. All right, Adam. We've alluded to this several times, but some interesting trivia. In the production of this episode, some scenes were shot before the final design of the Stargazer was set, and the Constellation class designation was decided upon after the fact. The ship was in the script as a constitution class, but when they slapped another two nacelles on that baby, they needed to dub something else in, and Constellation fit pretty good with the mouth movements that LeVar Burton had made. Thus the creation of the constellation class.

They kind of did it on the fly the way Picard invented the Picard maneuver. Now I'm going to ask you for questions about things to do with constellations and you'll have to answer them on the fly. It's a game we're calling the greatest constellation. Oh, no. Oh, I'm going to be really bad at this.

Adam, I know you're a betting man. I am. So this game has a twist. You have points that you can bet based on your confidence in your answer. You can bet with two points, four points, six points, or eight points. You can only bet the quantity of points one time, and each quantity must be bet. If you have 14 or more points at the end of this episode, you win. Oh my God, that means I must get a six or an eight point.

are correct at least. You save your eight for your high confidence answer. Are these questions going to increase in difficulty, or is it all over the place? We'll just have to wait and see. Fuck, fuck! I'm so screwed here! I don't know anything about constellations. Well, good news.

You get unlimited hints, but each hint costs two points. Fuck. Who's my hint giver, you? That doesn't seem fair. I've got good hints. These are good hints. I feel like, why would you give me good hints? I want the Glengarry hints, Ben.

The Glengarry hints are for closers, so we'll see. All right. Here's the stakes. If you win, I will introduce you as the star of the show, as in the greatest generation, starring Adam Pranica for the next four times I host. What the fuck? But if you fail to cross that 14-point threshold, that appellation goes to me for your next. four episodes. This is extremely

high stakes. These are the sort of stakes that I love. Okay. You're gonna feel it. Fuck! Oh, man. Question one. The constellation, known as the Big Dipper, is useful in locating which star vital to celestial navigation? I'm gonna make this eight points.

Okay. And I'm gonna say the North Star. You are correct. Right off the bat, tagging that eight points. That is the beginning and the end of what I know about stars. Question two. Orion Pictures, named after the Hunter constellation, is a subsidiary of Amazon now. But before, when they were good, they had a history of big wins, including four films that won Best Picture Oscars.

Name one of them. Aririte. You can picture the logo, right? Oh, absolutely. It's one of the great logos. It's one of the great logos. Can you give me the years of the... Give me a hint.

Oh, and each hint costs two points. Yes. Okay, give me a hint. All right. One of these films has a famous lotion scene. Okay, so we're back down to six points. You have six points. I'm now going to bet six points.

Okay. And I'm going to say Silence of the Lambs. You are correct. You have 12 points on the board, Adam. You're getting real close. This is a well-made game. I like this. Question three, there was a constellation class of U.S. Navy frigates based on a design used by both the French and Italian navies.

Construction of ships in this class was canceled by which presidential administration. I'm going to need another hint for two points. Okay. This president served two non-consecutive terms. I mean, I'm thinking, okay, so I need to say... You got to place your bet before you. tell me your answer. So we're at 10 points now. If I say four, does that get me the win? It would get you the win, but you still have to answer question four. I mean, I guess,

I guess, yeah, you could technically not answer question four and be fine. Okay, let's go, let's go four and let's say the current occupants of the office. That is correct. Congratulations, Adam. You have put 14 points on the board. You are the star of the greatest generation. For bragging rights, do you want to hear question four? Absolutely. The zodiac is a series of constellations associated with the ecliptic coordinate system in astronomy and the horoscope in astrology.

It's also the namesake of the notorious zodiac killer who is currently a U.S. Senator. Which Senator is the Zodiac killer? There are so many to choose from, but I think, I think you're talking about Ted Cruz, right? That is correct. Yeah, Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer. 16 points.

Allegedly. Allegedly. Congratulations, Adam. You were the star of the greatest generation. Really fun game. A game that really made me panic initially. Good questions. I will find it very galling to introduce you as the star of the show.

You know what's fun about the stakes here? is that, like, I might have won, but the spin that you can put on this for the next four episodes is going to be... It's going to be brutal. Like, it's going to be brutal for me. I mean... No one came out a winner in some ways today.

Yeah, that's great. Looking forward to next week and hearing that. Always a winner are the Friends of DeSoto, who we really appreciate making this show possible. Thanks for listening. We're now going to throw the keys of the episode into the capable hands of our... our producer, Wendy Pretty,

we'll tell you about stuff coming up next week and all of the great people who work really hard to make this episode show up in your podcatcher today. Take it away, Wendy. Bye, bye. Thanks, Wendy. The Greatest Generation is an Uxbridge Shemota podcast.

It's hosted by Adam Pranika and Ben Harrison, and it's produced and edited by Wendy Pretty. Next week, we'll be back with another episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, so grab your gong because the trial never ends. It's season one, episode 10, hide and cue. Until then, thank you to the members who are supporting this show. If you want to join them and get an ad-free feed, plus a lot of great bonus episodes, sign up at greatest trek.com, or you can also just click the support link in the show notes right there in your podcatcher. We thank you for your support. Music for the greatest generation is by dark materia. Social media is managed by Bill Tilley and Rob Adler, who also puts together the greatest newsletter every month. Visit podshop.biz to get signed up for that.

You can also book a P1 there and find yourself some fun merch too. Over on Greatest Trek right now, we are coming to the end of season one of the original series of Star Trek. We have a little mini film festival on the horizon for three weeks before Strange New World's season four premieres. Search for Greatest Trek in your podcatcher if you're not already subscribed and check it out. And along with our official social media pages on Instagram, Blue Sky, and YouTube, you can also check out one of the great FOD run communities online. Those are on Facebook, Reddit, Discord, Mastodon, and Wikia. Go join a group of FODs and use the hashtag Greatest Gen when you post about the show. That's all for now.

We'll see you next week on The Greatest Generation. Oxbridge. Shimoda.