The Greatest Generation - Captain Potter (S6E7)

Episode Date: May 1, 2017

When a Previa containing Captain Picard, Ensign Ro, Guinan (and some other minor character) are transformed from the proud adults we've come to know into children, it becomes a great time for an enemy to hijack the Entrepreneur. Unfortunately, these hijackers are NOT smarter than a 5th grader. What is the worst ring tone? Why doesn't young Picard have an inner monologue? What's the market like for a used Galaxy Class starship? It's the episode that's working in shifts.

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

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

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

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

and season two of Star Trek Picard. We've set up a page where you can also contribute. It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdececoto for Labor.com. That's FriendsOfDecoto for Labor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Last time on Star Trek, the next generation. I hate this episode so much. I feel like I'm Picard right now with this. Why are there fucking kids on the fucking starship like I want to do real adult sci-fi shit I'm vetoing the episode then

Wait, are you sure are you really seriously trying to veto right now? Yeah, I am you are unprepared for this Why are you I I'm never prepared when you're trying veto I Kind of like this episode. I just like this episode so much that I don't know that I've seen it in a very, very, very long time. Well then, you've made my decision for me at a counter-vita. I think you should give it a second chance, and I think that that second chance would come at the cost of you ruining another season. I really, I really hate that I talk to you into the counter-vita. I wish I hadn't done that.

That's some bullshit right there. And now the conclusion. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage! Welcome to the greatest generation. A Star Trek podcast by two guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast, especially today. I'm one of your hosts, Adam Pranica. I'm your other host, Benjamin Harrison. Adam, what is happening?

I want to read to you a quote about today's episode and I just want to see see how that lives in the room. Quote begins, when Michael Pillar bought the premise, I thought he was completely insane. And a way team rematerializes on the transporter of his children with adult minds. I tried again and again to bury this idea, which of course meant that I would get saddled with the inevitable rewrite when the script came in. I just thought it was a ludicrous idea and wanted nothing to do with it. That was Ronald D. Moore then, about today's episode, like the last line of defense between the script and production, he could have stopped this whole thing. And I'm sorry he didn't. I had a conversation with a good friend of ours about how hard it is to really put things

on the line at work. Yeah. You know, like there's a lot of people that there's a lot of people that, there's a lot of mediocrity in the workplace because people don't rock the boat for fear of their job. So you wind up a lot of people that don't, you know, have much passion about what they're doing because if they did, it would be dangerous to their employment. Right. Yeah, isn't it interesting how much of that you had to suspend to stay

employable? Yeah. And I mean, I don't, you know, that's head cannon that's what's at play here. But that's that's pretty germane to our times too. Like, I think, you know, by the time this comes out out the whole Pepsi advertisement Debacle will be many weeks past. Let's invite Kendall to send she has a heart out in 45 seconds There's someone in that production Timeline that could step out and say no, but it's this it's the same thing you just described is that To be the person that says this is a bad idea often sees that as a career limiting move. And so they would rather see the train wreck happen

than attempt to stop it. Right. I mean, alternatively, they would be open to seeing if a weird idea works because often weird ideas do work on this show. Yeah. Well, maybe we should begin discussing whether or not this one does bin. Alright, I was worried that you had totally pre-judged the episode, but I mean, you attempted

to pre-judge it, but I put a stop to that, Adam. You always do. Ben, it's an episode that might as well be a cry for help At season six episode seven Rascals We start this episode in We start this episode in a bunk bed that is coming back from... Is this a Previa or a bunk bed? Or is it the new like in-between guy? It can't be a bunk bed because bunk beds only seat two.

Oh yeah. And this has got like... It's got the forward cabin and then some command chairs in the back. It's sort of a... It's sort of like a van on the inside. It's a little bit winnow bagoey on the inside. I got some room to move around. There's like a galley kitchen. There's a sink that you don't want to drink the water out of.

No, no, yeah. Put some gross water in there. Yeah, there's a composting toilet. It always just smells a little bit wet. Yeah, there's not really a way to manage the air inside this place. If you were to choose for more mismatched people for a road trip, more mismatched people for a road trip. I don't know that you could choose any worse than these four. It's Picard, Ro, Keko, and Gainon.

I feel like Picard and Gainon could do like a barbecue tour of the southeastern United States together. That's what I'm saying. Like, they should take a separate shuttle. Yeah, but Picard and Roowe is always gonna be awkward. Why would Rowe wanna be with these people? Gago is here and it's just very unusual

to see her not fighting with Chivo Bryan. So we don't quite know what to do with her character yet. Oh, I know what to do with her character. Alien Queen it? Yeah, it's not too late to blow her out the hatch. Oh, I know what to do with her character. Alien tweeted? Yeah, it's not too late to blow her out the hatch. So they're coming back from a conference, right? Before we even begin, I want to head-can and the invitations to these people. You got to imagine Picard and Guy in her first

and they're talking it over. And then, and then Keko overhears them or something, and they can't get rid of her. Who, yeah, what's the, what was the event? It was like a, it was a conference, right? Oh, you have to excuse me, I'm drinking just extremely hot whiskey. Really?

Yeah. I, with you, am sort of getting off of the beers on this show. Makes you too burpy. It means a lot of extra editing. Right. So now, I thought it's extra punishment. That would just go. Room temperature, rye whiskey.

Ooh. Because I hate myself. Well, that should make for an interesting episode at him. Yeah, I don't even think that they were at a conference. I think that they were all there for kind of different purposes, right? Yeah. So maybe what happened is that thing

that sometimes happens in school where like you bring an idea to the teacher and the teacher like opens it up to the room and you wind up getting stuck with a group project that you never never planned for because the wrong three hands shot up. That sounds great. You know it's like it's like like you were you were just like asking a question about something in history class, and now you have three remedial students who need some extra credit to pass the class doing a group project with you. The hierarchy here is really strange too because Keko is not in the same league as these three. At all. This is like putting Mott in the shuttlecraft.

What is she doing there? I can imagine like... I mean she's Brian like sheepishly asking Gynon if she can hang out with his wife like because she can't make friends on her own. I mean we joke about women often becoming potted plants on the show. I think that Keko is almost literally only here because of potted plants. Like, like, these plants wind up being a plot beat. And maybe that's it. Maybe that's why she's there.

The writers are like, oh you're complaining about a lack of female characters. Well, here's every single one of them. And here's the captain with a duffle bag full of broken terracotta. Look at these fragments. Just to really drive the point home. Witness how we diminish them further. Look on my words, you mighty. Drive the point home witness how we diminish them further Look on my words you mighty

So they are they're just just about back at the entrepreneur when they get word that there's an emergency on some other planet and they're like all right right, well, like get the engine warmed up and and punch it the second or a board and just then they swerve off the road into a space but What were caught in some sort of energy field? As you do, I mean they started hitting the rumble strip and then before they knew it, they were right in there. Yeah. And it's like, it's one of those tents, but not tents, because we've done it 50 times now. Are we gonna get them out of the shuttle in time?

And they throw the transporter into gear. The shuttle is explode and they materialize on the pad. But just before they materialize, O'Brien is radiating up to the bridge that... There's a 40% drop in mass and they have lost one of them. But instead what O'Brien's done is beamed aboard four children in their place. I know, it's cute, right? With slightly ill-fitting child-sized uniforms. Not terribly ill-fitting, though.

Not at all. Not as ill-fitting as they should be. Actually, they should be puddling in these clothes. Rose sleeves are way longer than her arms, but the rest of it fits her, right? Yeah, I mean, too well is my point. Yeah. Because if they got de-aged,

it doesn't make any sense that something would happen to their clothes also. You know, like Hulk's clothes don't grow when he gets, when he hulks out. Except like later on when they study the broken shuttle craft, they find all of the materials like the delaminated and turned into their component parts so they really should be beamed onto the shuttle pad in some form of gross undress.

Well, thankfully they didn't make that decision. The look on O'Brien's face here is the, I've made a terrible mistake face. Yeah. Like, it seems momentarily that this is his fault. Yeah, he's got the, the look of someone who knows what they did. Like, like, maybe it is his fault and he just knows more about transporters than anybody else so he can like make them all

believe that it was a, it was something beyond his control. That's exactly where I was going, which is like, this has always been about K-Ko. It's just unfortunate that there was some collateral damage and it happened to be Ro and Fakard and Guinin. Like, he wishes it didn't go down this way. Yeah. happen to be Row and Facard and Guy and End. Like, he wishes it didn't go down this way. Yeah.

Oh, baby, stop it, baby, stop it, baby. Quiet, baby, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don's okay. And the captain, and I think that this is the same kid, is this the same kid that played Renee? It is. Yeah, real Harry Potter-ish. Yeah. The young captain in his Ashkashbagash Starfleet uniform, like hops off the bio bed and is like, I'm going to work!

You've obviously got a lot of science to do. You can do it on these three. I'm going to work! You gotta go higher, Ben. Higher. I'm going to work. T.O. Greyhawk. Number one.

What's the status of the engine efficiency? Mr. Dator. I sure hope we don't run into any Ferengies on this mission. Everyone's looking at each other. Like, you can't be serious, right? Everyone who's not been rascalized. Yeah. They've just been rascal. Everyone who's not been rascalized.

Like, is looking at each other and they're like, you can't be fucking serious, right? Yeah. And baby Picard is the only one who is like incomplete denial about the situation entirely. He is ready to go to work. Right, and he like, he starts in on the bridge like, like everybody is gonna take this,

take this in stride, which is, you know. He's acting like he's been injured instead of mutilated, which is more like what happened. And so he just, he comes, he comes onto the bridge and starts barking orders, acting like he's been injured instead of mutilated, which is more like what happened. And so he just, he comes, he comes onto the bridge and starts barking orders like, put it in the wall, mate. Let's get out of here.

Pip pip, cheerio. Mr. Wall. Firefazes. And they're all just like, what the fuck? Yeah. And so the doctor pops onto the bridge and she's like, hey, Cap. I know you're busy explaining that you're the real Captain and everybody should just behave as normal, but let's have a quick private chat in your ready room

and she's like, dude, whether or not this is traumatic for you, like we don't really know the half of what happened. And if you start dumbing up like a kid, we're in big trouble if you're still in command. So maybe... We can't afford to have you pee your pants on the bridge. I've been out of diapers for six years!

So much of this doesn't make sense, Ben. Like a pre-pubescent brain pan is physically smaller than an adult's brain pan, so there's no reason why they should be as intelligent as their adult counterparts. Like they should be compromised mentally, right off the bat, shouldn't they? Hey, man, there's a lot that we don't know about brain science or transporter science. I'm willing to let that one slide.

All right. But yeah, so the doctor talks some sense into Picard and he sees the fact that that this is like You know potentially just the first step so he walks it's very a very adult decision for this little fella He walks out onto the bridge and says come on to rica I'm ready to make adult decisions. Take a nap now.

I'm going to go take a nap now. Take a nap in my place. And please send down that recipe for warm milk. Yeah. And like of all people are used to calling him captain. For some reason, data can't get it straight. Data's all squicked out about him too. Like you should be able to tell data something once, and it's stick.

But he's even having a hard time. Not calling him sir. Yeah. I mean, you know, data his pathways get used to somebody, and they... Right. He misses them when they're not there, so... Mr. Dator, call me sir! Captain, will you be sleeping in your bed or in the trunk at the foot of it. From here we do some around the whole. Yeah, we do some vignettes with the kid-ified crew people.

There's a solid like 15 minutes of fun and games with the different kid-ified characters. It's Kiko trying to be a mother and have a moment of marital intimacy with O'Brien, and he's like, get the fuck off of me, this is fucking terrifying, I don't like it, I don't like it one bit. As Dumb has Kiko has been written from the start, this is the dumbest she's ever been. Like, for some reason, she doesn't recognize that she reads as 12 years old. Yeah. Like, how could you not know that? It just happened. Like, when she starts cuddling up on him, like, I guess I understand like the, you know, like, she's going through something

so she wants a hug, anybody would. But like, yeah, she acts like completely shocked when he is having a tough time dealing with it. There is some great nonverbal acting by Kalimini in the scene. Like, he is just so physically uncomfortable. And like again, I wish they made a slightly different choice with him because all you see is his discomfort, but you don't necessarily see his guilt. And I would have loved to see just even a little bit on that side from that perspective out of him of like, oh my god, like, what have I done? about him of like, oh my God, like, what have I done? What did you think about the fact that he was also a little

unable to wrap his mind around this being caca? Like when she gets the drink and he, he like tells her it's hot as though she's a small child. I think they're doing that thing where they're not, they're not completely there when they're with each other. And I think this is a pattern of behavior they've had from the start. Like, Keko is not thinking when she puts her arm around him because she is sort of a burlesque of a wife in the same way that

that chief O'Brien like looks at her as a child because Because he's not really there. He's never really there when he's with her So he's not he's not mindful enough to put it together that that's Keko and so he treats her as a child who might Burn her hand on the on the hot coffee Dengson as a child who might burn her hand on the hot coffee. Dang son. I mean, this is the conclusion to a path they've been on for quite a while, I think. Little girl Kiko must be so bummed that she's not hanging out with Rowan Gainon

who are like drawing pictures and jumping on the bed. Yeah, like how cool is it to be single right now? Yeah, like probably pretty great compared to this. Like, they can't show this, but like, do they sleep in the same bed? And I'm not saying that in a sexual way, I'm saying like, it, like, where does she sleep? Well, it also, like, that that's gotta be very hurtful. I mean, like it also is one of these, like, it's one of these things that kind of defies

our understanding of like, what an adult mind is. Like, sexuality is part of an adult's brain and like, what they think about. And so like, if their brains are 100% the same, that's got to be like such a horror show, right? Like to be to be row and to like have a mental image of yourself as like a totally attractive like young person who could definitely get some if you wanted and who has nailed right over and over again. And then you look at the mirror and you are a child.

Rose youthful counterpart appears to be the youngest looking of all of them. I felt like she was pretty well cast. Maybe it's just the loaf like makes her look more like row, but the row and the guy in one's, I mean, like from a look standpoint are pretty good. It seems like maybe they replaced the voice on the guineon one to make her sound good too. I thought the same thing. And I, you know, occasionally the show notes

will have like, yeah, this was like a season one episode that one guy who is in charge of that town that like brought a water system into it You're talking about the ensigns of command the episode where data nukes the water supply right How they had a ADR that guys entire Dialogue it felt like they did the same thing to young guy and but I couldn't find any any evidence of that I mean it clearly clearly was not a thing for most of them. No, yeah, it's definitely looped in,

who knows if it's the same kid or not. I mean, she was great. The row was great. I think in descending order, the Keko was third great, maybe. Well, that's not necessarily the actress, but the material that she was given almost certainly. I completely agree. Like, this is not on them. Once again, the show really loads up some young actors with maybe stuff that doesn't really give him a chance to succeed. It's a crazy principle with top leading bass. Are you wrong, find it within yourself?

Just stand up, tell the truth. You don't visit the web that beautiful. I guess we should also talk about the scene where Troy comes and does some counselor with Picard. And he's like trying on the action jacket. And it's like dad's suit jacket kind of thing. This is fucking crazy. This is the next day.

They've decided that like the doctor is going to medically look into the situation, you know, see if it's reversible or whatever. And young Picard's like making plans for the rest of his life. Like he seems like he's pretty much resolved to choose a new life because he can't be Captain Potter. Do you think that they wouldn't...

you wouldn't have those thoughts though? Immediately? I feel like... I think my first and primary thought would be I wouldn't want to leave Sick Bay, like I would want to subject myself to all the tests and do whatever it took to get back to normal. Like, I would not be ready to give that up after a day. I just think that like he's not on duty,

he has a lot of downtime and that's a lot of like looking into your own thoughts, whether or not you're in Six Bay. I mean, I'd be world's youngest Dixon Hill at this point, like Eddie, I'd be in the holodeck. The one place where it's okay for its 12-year-old to do weird shit. Well, the fun and games come to an end when the entrepreneur shows up at this planet where they're going to be doing a rescue and instead of a rescue what they find themselves in is an extremely lethargic space panel.

Like two Klingon Jalapis decloak and start dropping bangers on a big time. But because there's two of them and the Enterprise was caught with their pants down. Like their shields are down, the warp is just your engines are down, like almost immediately. They're crippled pretty fast because they're outnumbered. It's just weird, because there's a sustained five-second shot of these two birds of prey converging on the entrepreneur, which is just sitting there in space, taking hits. And it cuts to the bridge and rikers like,

what's the status of the shields? What's the status of the phasers? Damage report. What's going on on level shields? Uh, what's the status of the phasers? Damage report. What's going on on level 42? God, I know. Fucker! Fire back! I felt the same way.

Like, this is like... Photons now! You could never say this about Kirk is captain. Kirk returns fire almost immediately, just about every time. If not first. He doesn't care about loss of life support in the Arboretum or whatever, like disable the attackers. Yeah. It's just, I mean, I think it's just bad direction, but are you laying this at the foot of Adam Neemoy, the director of the episode?

I am partially laying it at Adam Neemoy's feet. I mean, I think that there are a couple of partially laying it at a Neemoy's feet. I mean, I think that there are a couple of problems with the script, but I don't hate the script. What I hate is the editing. I think that there are a lot of scenes that play for cheese that shouldn't, because they're kind of, and I mean, like that could be coming from Neemoy. I mean, just because he's a Neemoy, doesn't mean

he gets treated with kid gloves. This is a this is an outside the pocket podcast, but But man there are so many scenes where like cutting out Like half a beat earlier would have saved it and they just don't this is something that we run into with our own Podcast like you can really affect the comedy of a moment by either cutting in an interstitial right away or like waiting that beat before you do, like there's a ton of comedy choices that you can make retroactively in the edit. That maybe, if you're on set, you just sort of shoot for coverage and then see what happens during the edit.

Right, but like, and, something we do on our show is sometimes you find enough pieces to make a joke that didn't actually happen when we recorded. I mean, like that doesn't happen that often, but like, I would say that like every 10 shows I edit, I am able to put in like an A plus joke that didn't actually happen when we sat down to record because I had like something that you said and

something that I said that sound really funny together, you know. And this could be a really fun, tight episode. And I think that the where the fun goes away is almost entirely in missing the timing of things. I think a major reason for that is because there is the need to cover so much. There are so many characters in so many different places and as the ship gets boarded, they have to show all of this in such a slap-dash way that in order to communicate an idea or a feeling, often it is just a stupid looking for Angi, looking like he got goose in the butt before we cut to a different scene. Like it's just when that's all you have, I

think they wrote themselves into this corner and I don't know how you you edit or direct your way out of it. I think you could do a lot of addition by subtraction. That's for sure. Yeah. Like maybe there shouldn't be, there shouldn't have been as many rascals, there shouldn't have been as many in the boarding party. Right. I mean, just for example, what if it was only Picard that had this happened to him and the and the gambit of using kids to take the ship back was him, you know, marshaling the other kids. I mean, maybe that's too much like disaster when he's like stuck in the turbo lift,

but like just, just spitball in here. Well, what happens if data is on that shuttle or war? Right. Like, what if we swapped in and swapped out some different characters? What's a young riker like? Mm-hmm. Young riker was actually my ramp name in the early arts.

Pretty dope. So yeah, like the rest of it is kind of just like the, like the Ferengy's beam on board. They've like, I guess they bought these two cling on chips and their idea is that they are going to sell the entrepreneur on the Romulan market. And it is, it's kind of like red dawn in space after this. Yeah.

Yeah. There's a lot of like the Ferengy's walking down a hallway and they've got a Wolverines spray painted on the walls. The Ferengi do not make a good boarding party from a physicality standpoint. You know, they're just sort of hopping from room to room. They're going in singles and doubles, like they're not for two ships. They beam over like eight people. Yeah, they do not beam over enough guys. And also like, I mean, like there's a scene where young young Picard is like, I'm going to get on the elevator and the door opens and there's a forangi there. And he is like, he's got like two inches on this forangi.

I love that young Picard doesn't have any intermodal log. I'm going to play the flute. No one can make me practice. No one can make me practice. Yeah, and there's there's like a bunch of scenes in here that are pretty fun like you know like they're Little gambit with the remote control car like having They have this idea of like a their contractual obligation to Brian Bonzal and the character of Alexander continues. God. Do you think Brian Bonsal has like compromising pictures of Michael Piller?

That can be the only explanation. It's a small child with an evil secret. Yeah. evil secret. Yeah. But yeah, the plan is that they distract the Ferengy that is in the the transport room and then they wind up getting communicator badges on all these Ferengy and this is after the Ferengy boarding party has beamed down a bunch of the crew to the planets are right there uh... they're like empty leaving the kids behind yeah yeah um...

and uh... i think that's an important detail because it sort of forces the kids into the position of taking back the ship where they can't partner with any of the adults they really have to to do it themselves. Yeah, and it's a good plan. Like, they're beaming the franguion to the transporter pad behind a force field and like one by one, they take them down. And it really does have like the guerrilla warfare scenes in Red Dawn vibes to it. Wolverine! or fair scenes in red-done vibes to it. Overage!

I am totally feeling the red-done vibe in, in like, theme. But there's something that's just off about it in practice, and I'm wondering if it's more than just because of their relative ages. These were older teenagers in red-done, and they were using lethal force. Oh Adam, I'm not really trying to debate this issue with you. I'm just trying to give you good drops to put in. Thanks. If you think I'm going to give this episode any kind of effort, you're mistaken.

Oh no. You have to try as hard as you can. Petronis. Fire condios, Adam. One of the scenes I thought that was pretty funny was Picard trying to use the children's computer. And it's totally like Mr. DNA. They don't use a major baritone voice.

It's like, hey, it's like, hey, it looks like you're trying to see a map of the computer. Press the red button if somebody's predating you. If you're married to an older man who sees you as a 12 year old girl, hit the blue button.

And Picard is just like, I don't like this. I need to make the computer work. And so he stages this tantrum out in the hallway where a where a is and he takes whatever ego or sense of command. What do you want? I need to see my father. Any sort of adult Adam in his brain. I need to see him right now. And completely destroys it. I need to see him now.

Just boils it away into a tantrum that this young actor's career might never recover from. I got a weird interest of turning his now, now, now, now into a cell phone ring. But I think it would just make me angry. So this this for Angie is like, oh my god shut the fuck up. Fine, I'll take you to your dad. Who is he? Smash cut to the conference room where Rikers up against his leaning window and in walks his quote unquote son who was just so happy to see him.

Dad! I've missed you so much! I guess, and I guess he's able to transmit to Riker like reboot the command codes, but only on the Kitty computer in the schoolroom. And, conveniently, the head for Enki gives Riker the order to, like, show the computer to one of the lackeys. And Riker uses this as, like, a distraction. So while he is giving, like, the most boring

techno babble to the lackey. He's like surreptitiously keying in the command codes to the other computer. Yeah, Rikers gotta do this because the head for Angi guys like look, you're gonna let us into the computer. We don't have the password. You're gonna let us in and you're gonna teach us how to use it or we're gonna kill all the kids starting with your son who clearly loves you and you clearly love him. Yeah, it's like going through customs and they make you

Unlike your phone, you know, right and rikers like fine and He goes through like an incredible bout of techno babble rikers got to be thinking about letting the Damon kill Baby Picard though, right? I mean, he's subjected Picard to what he thought was lethal force in the past. Yeah. He's got to be like, man, that's it's me. If these forengies get it. Yeah, it sounds like a pretty good way to advance his career. Do you recognize this diamond, the top forengie? I mean they all look alike don't they? This guy was the cop in the Big Lebowski who like shows him back to his car in the police impound. I'll just check with a boy down at the crime lab. They got four more detectives working on the case.

the God is working in shims. Leads. Oh my God. You know what? There was something about his enunciation that felt very familiar to me in that way, but yeah, that totally did it for me. Yeah. Oh my God. That guy's great.

I'll never watch this episode again, but it makes me wish I had known that before watching it. I might have appreciated it more Okay, well they get all the Frankies stuck in the transport room Young Picard walks into the ready room with a dustbusters and says I believe you're in my chair and says, I believe you're in my chair. And the Damien's like, you're gonna have to put me in jail and sheeps. I don't know what the fuck. The Damien's like, here's your ship back, the Side View Mirror broke off. And I think one of my men used it as a toilet. The button on the episode is some of the children assembled in the transport room where they will be transformed back into their older bodies.

They've solved the genetic mystery. Like there is a deep sea story buried in here where the doctor realizes that, but there's some genetic patterns and missing genomes and rhizomes and what have you. Like, they figure out how to beam the McGuffin out of these kids and make them adult again. Yeah.

The card steps off of the pad, newly balled. Rob's a hand over a skull and it's like, yeah, I'm back baby. What if he'd been like, I'm back baby. I'm back baby. We've, we're losing all of our British viewership. We've gone after this. We're losing all of our British viewership. We're gone after this. I was hoping to take a tour and hit London at some point

in the future, but we may have just foreclosed on that as an opportunity. Yeah, there's so little to joke about in this episode. Like we had to kill something precious. Like the hope of a tour. Yeah, weirdly, Roe is not in there and not exactly raring to go because old Gynon heads back to the school room and Roe is in there doing crayons and kind of inhabiting the mentality of the 12-year-old body that she is in. Like, Gynon is talking to her as though she's a child and she is kind of talking as though

she's a child. Very weird. This is a variation of a conclusion that we get all the time on the show, which is like the consequence of this could be really terrible for a certain sort of personality. And you know, there's a sweetness about this scene where Ro wants to hang on a little longer to her youth. A youth that the first time through was pretty terrible in a lot of ways, but they never

play it for dark in a way that it could be. Like Ro was a very dark character with a super dark past. And instead, it's a little twinkly toward the end. And by the time the episode's over, you know, you're confident she's going to have her time as a kid and then she's going to be an adult again. And then all four of these people are never going to mention it again. Like, they're going to get over it, but it would be interesting if, you know, notes of this were carried through. Right.

Because, like, I think we're both in agreement here, like the way that you grow a character in many ways is to damage it. It doesn't always have to be damaged, but the character has to go through things that are hard that change. Right. Yes. Maybe damage isn't the right word, and instead challenge is.

Yeah, I really think that the damage the character thing is something that I'm really tired of in contemporary television. I just started watching the expanse. Oh yeah. That's really, really good. Yeah, I've only watched like two episodes of it and I read the first novel and I really enjoyed the novel and there's like a, there's like an inciting incident in the first season of the show where the main character makes a decision that is definitely setting him up for it being revealed that he kind of betrayed everybody that he works with later on.

And it's not from the book. Like in the book, they're all just going and doing the right thing. And in that way, it's a very star tricky inciting incident. And in the TV show, the character has to have that damage. They have to plant things in characters now where it can have dramatic explosions later. And I'm not writing off the entire TV show. And I have really enjoyed the first two episodes so far,

but I'm a little tired of that being the default in character arcs these days. Well, it sure seems to be the default in origin stories. And I agree with you on many parts of what you just said. But like in this instance, like it's like, it's okay for stuff to happen in a series to have effects down line. I agree, I'm just, I think I'm just saying, it's a pendulum swing, you know? Like this show sort of is the high side

of the other side of the swing. Yeah. Did you like this episode, Ben? I did like the episode, Adam. I think it's very imperfect in a number of ways that we have elucidated here. But I think it's ultimately like a worthwhile experiment, and there's enough fun in it that I enjoyed watching it. How about yourself? The whole slash holes in the plot were just so big that I couldn't get over them. These were the stupidest hijackers in maybe definitely in Star Trek history, but maybe in television

history. Like, what was their plan? Like, their plan was to take over the Enterprise, check. Beam the crew down to the planet to mine for this valuable ore. Check. But I guess retaining control of the enterprise was not among their goals. Like the idea that the idea that the kids get the jump on them and then lock up the eight people in their boarding party is one thing. But how can they not be in communication with their counterparts in the Klingon ships. And as soon as they take control of the enterprise again, why aren't the Klingon ships firing on them again? Because, because Jordi says early on, it's going to take hours to get the shields and the warp drive and the weapons working again. Like, this is still a crippled ship. Yeah.

That for some reason they aren't able to retake because of their stupid A-plan. Like, oh my god, it just drove me nuts. It made me wish that we got an episode where the hijackers were competent and scary because we could have gotten a crew turned into kid story and also a very scary threat. But we can't have kids in a scary threat in the same episode. That would be too much. Well, Adam, do you want to see if there's some p1s to take your mind off of your troubles? You're trying to cool me off a little bit? Yeah.

Alright. I know that p1s always make your day, so. Yeah, they do. Priority one message from Star fleet coming in on secured channel Need a supplement on top alone Stop a man Yeah, it's extra the interest alone could be enough to buy this ship Ben our first priority one message comes from Jamie just for Sarah the better half of team bad ass robot

The better half of Team Badass Robot. The message goes like this, congratulations on your graduation. And more than proud of you and what you have accomplished. Just for our continuing adventures and many great away missions yet to come. And thanks for telling me about this great podcast for this old enterprise. Oh, that's great. Congrats Sarah. for this old enterprise. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha show them. Yeah, it took a long time to find that bit. Pretty glad we did though. Yeah. Wow, it is graduation time, isn't it, Ben? I want to think of all the bits. Why can't I think of the bits before I make my podcast? That's a great show title, but I could think of a better one. How about this old enterprise? Oh you got your dusting a little Kevin in there. Yeah.

That's creepy man. Yeah. I'm a man of special conscience. I killed them all. All the who snuck everywhere. No punishment to fit my crime. I love Rishon She makes the best tea Please read the next P1 bin next to her priority one message is a

personal message from de-helps to j-mac. And it goes like this Adam. A Klingon walks into a bar and orders a bowl of gach, pouring him some blood wine. The bartender sees the Klingon's been stabbed with a bat-leaf, pinning the steering wheel from a bird of prey to his abdomen. Uh, the bartender asks, what's with the wheel? Ha ha ha! It's driving me nuts! Happy birthday old friend! May you die well!

I want to do the hurrah laugh from Star Trek 6, you know What a delight that is fun. I don't know how to pronounce any klingon thing I like hearing you try. I feel like there's know how to pronounce any klingon thing. I like hearing you try. I feel like there's a correct way to write klingon, but maybe when you send in a P1, give a little pronunciation guide. Oh yeah, let's go, let's go phonetical. Write it out phonetic, yeah. Well, phonetical or not, you can participate in this P1 experiment by going to Maximum Fund or Dorg Slash Jembo Tron,

where personal messages are $100. Commercial messages are $200, and they most definitely help in the ongoing production of our program. Thanks, guys! program. Thanks guys. Ben what's that Adam? I'm afraid to ask. Did you find yourself a joke Shimoda? I did. Ben we were told that we didn't use the drop on a recent episode. Really? Yeah. No Shimoda dropped. Do you think that's true? I think we're pretty good at using the drop. I've definitely forgotten a couple of times when I feel like you usually catch it when I do.

Yeah, maybe I just didn't. Maybe that's bad QA. Maybe that's, it could be my fault, could be your fault. Either way, oh my God. I hope that people will forgive us. My remote in this episode was the forangi who got stuck on watching the transporter room duty. They drive that remote control car in there

and then he winds up chasing it down the corridor and grabbing it. And when he takes it back to the, to the transporter room, he sets it on the floor and then like crouches over it, brings his eyes within inches of it to inspect it. It's such a weird choice. It's like a choice made for composition instead of story. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That's not a good reason. Like, I don't want to bag on Young Mr. Neemoy. I think this is his directorial debut on the show. But the fuck is that about? As if there was any question about whose pocket we are or are not in The what the fuck was that about is About as clear of a statement

Adam did you have a charmota? I do I mean the cop out would just be to give the charmota to the episode and to all those Responsible, but I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna keep it in the story. I feel like data at times has got to feel like the gifted kid in the beginner's class. I know the feeling at him. So frustrated with who's with him. And when the ship is getting taken over, that's gotta be one of those moments. We talked about it earlier.

Like how long does it take to return fire so long? How long does it take to, to return fire on the boarding party on the bridge? Right. Cause there's just two guys in their fucking pajamas that show up on the bridge. Like worst should, worst should be good enough to, to take those two guys out very quickly. That's what I'm saying. Not only should warf be fast enough on the draw, but well, one of the boarding party materializes right next to data. Yeah. Data could have with his super fast reflexes reached out and

grabbed the guy's ears, ripped them off and torn off both the bizarre arms and flung them across the and torn off both the viz arms, and flung them across the bridge. In the time it took. In the time it took. In the time it takes for Wurf to do that, in the slow time it takes for Wurf to fire across the bridge, like downrange.

Right, like miss them, and then get hit. Like Wurf's got the high ground, and very badly misses, and also get hit. We're scut the high ground and very badly misses and also takes it. It makes me wonder if data has been compromised by spending so much time with the humans. He's just slow and maybe bored. But also, in keeping with how much we know he wants to die like he allows himself to be taken prisoner. He joins a party that gets beamed down to the surface more or less wordlessly.

Like of all the superpowers that they show data having, they never show his super speed other than as a typist. But you know if he's a fast typer, if he's got that Mavis beacon speed, then he should be able to Mavis beacon the shit out of someone. Yeah. And incapacitate them. So I'm going to give my Shimoda to data, long story short, for I guess going along with it. The same thing.

Failing to tie all the guns into pretzels. Yeah. Yomok and Jalat and Tanaga. Tanaga. A Greatest Gen Live Show is something you don't want to miss. Why? Well, it's a great opportunity to see me and Ben in person, but that's not all. FODs from all over gather at these shows to cosplay,

to do pre and post show hangs, to make friends, and share their embarrassment. Hey, let's make a pretty great name for a tour. Let's do it. The Sherry Reembarishment Tour is coming in August 2023, and we've got a bunch of dates in a lot of great places. Go to greatestgentour.com to get more info. That's greatestgentour.com for dates and ticketing information

for the Share Your Embarrassment Tour. I'm Jordan Morris. And I'm Jesse Thorne. On Jordan Jesse Go, we make pure, delightful nonsense. We were open awesome guests and bring them down to our level. We got stupid with Judy Greer. My friend Molly and I call it having the spaceweards. Pat Noswald.

Could I get a Balrog burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you. And Kumail Nanjiani. I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which is impossible to use. Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org. Look, your podcast apps are open. Just pull it out.

Give Jordan Jesse Goatry. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Oh rats, hey, I'm about to count you in line. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line and boy, what do I? These giraffes do not smell good. No, they do not and they have such short nacks. But I'm hearing we need to get on this out. Gotta get on the art. Yeah. It It is about terrain. It's about to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans. But we're actually, we're podcasters. We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ono Ross and Carrie? We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal, stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end,

so seem like something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came two by two. What do you think? Ona Ross & Kerry, available on MaximumFun and Outdoor. better episode coming up next time. Our next episode is season six episode eight, a fistful of data. A holiday fantasy goes awry sending Wharf and his son into a Wild West showdown with a villain who's a dead ringer for data. Do you remember this episode, Adam? If I still had a veto, I would veto this episode. This would have been a smarter one to save your veto for.

Yes, I remember this episode been. You're not excited to watch it? Not at all. You know what there were terrible clunkers in the first couple of seasons. There have been clunkers sprinkled about this entire series. Man, I don't know if there have been two in a row quite like this. You know? Need I remind you that we're not that far removed from Times

Aero parts one and two at them. Yeah, but they used a summer to break those up. We get these back to back. Can you imagine dabbling and star trek the next generation starting in the middle of season six? You know what I've heard about the star trek the next generation show? I think it might be time to give it a try. And the first episode you see is is fucking I'm Captain Picard. And the second episode is is a Wurf Alexander Wild West showdown.

I don't know if I like this show. It's a show that doesn't want to be Star Trek anymore. That's what it's going through right now. Yeah, it's having, it's casting about in a lot of directions. I know the feeling. Well, that's our next episode, whether we like it or not at them.

Indeed. Well, one thing we do like a lot is the continuing support from our viewers, both their support and their willingness to converse and at sometimes forgive, as made apparent through their conversations with us online. We've got the reddit and the Facebook and the Twitter. Forgive. It's made apparent through their conversations with the Sunline. We've got the reddit and the Facebook and the Twitter. All are great ways to talk about us in the show. Yeah. We should thank Dark Materia for our theme music and Adam Ragusia, who makes a lot of the

other music you hear on the show. We should thank the great folks that make some fun, that org for all their support. I feel like I've turned into a real, like, cannibal, the musical, audio commentary track. I do feel pretty buzzed from the Swisski right now. We should choose an episode into the future that we know we can't veto and just get shit house for it. Well, they're all really good after this, so it's hard to sign off on that.

Well should this be the one? The distri-ly date is? Oh, that's kind of tempting. Let's think about it. Let's ponder at Adam. Well, one way or another, we will be back at you next time. It was another great episode of Star Trek, the next generation. And an episode of the greatest generation that is going to stumble into work drunk the next day. Make it sound.

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