The Greatest Generation - Celebrity Pipes (ENT S4E14)

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

When evidence reveals the drone pilot to be a white Andorian, Archer and Shran beam down to the polar region looking for the Aenar. But after building a telepresence chair right in the middle of sicksbay, the crew’s tests eventually reach Gareb and end the Romulan attack. Who’s not the easiest person to work with? Why are Ben and Adam never going back to the U.K.? What’s a great strategy for resigning from a job? It’s the episode that’s The Silmarillion for Hemmer.Support the production of The Greatest GenerationGet a thing at podshop.biz!Sign up for our mailing list!Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Riker - Quantum LeapThe Greatest Generation is produced by Wynde PriddySocial media is managed by Rob Adler and Bill TilleyMusic by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaFriends of DeSoto for: Labor | Democracy | JusticeDiscuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen and find us on social media:YouTube | Facebook | X | Instagram | TikTok | Mastodon | Bluesky | ThreadsAnd check out these online communities run by FODs: Reddit | USS Hood Discord | Facebook group | Wikia | FriendsOfDeSoto.social Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Here's to the finest crew in starving. When it comes to my crew, you won't get any argument for me. This is a parody. Welcome to the greatest generation, a Star Trek podcast by two guys who are a little bit embarrassed. To have been recording a Star Trek podcast, low these 10 years, I'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pranika. You heard that right. This is the 10th anniversary episode of the greatest generation. I wonder how closely this coincides with the 10th anniversary of us actually recording together for the first time.

It's probably pretty close, right? Here's what I did. I was wondering what I was up to 10 years ago. Yeah. And I think this is one of the things about me that probably irritates you the most. I need a calendar to organize my life. So I went back 10 years on my calendar and I looked at what I was doing 10 years ago. Yeah.

Would you like to know? What was on your agenda 10 years ago today, Adam? I was making a handful of military helicopter videos for giant aerospace company. Like just a ton of that. Yeah. I was going to L.A. to visit with my wife. Yeah. I was going to a lot of concerts.

Like just so many rock concerts, you don't see recording Greatest Gen start to really appear with any regularity until February, which to me suggests, and I think you could correct me if I'm wrong. When we first started making the show, it wasn't on a schedule, really. It was like, hey, do you want to knock this down this week? And then we would do it. Right, right. I mean, this is pretty well-established lore at this point, but this was supposed to be the practice run until we, thought of a good idea for a podcast. And I think that's why the schedule for it was not professionalized until like a month or months later. Yeah, yeah. What were you doing 10 years ago? Do you know? Well, it was my wife, I mean, she works in like government. And at that time, I think was away a lot of the time in New Hampshire working the New Hampshire primary on a political campaign. So I was like kind of home alone a lot. And so like my time was super flexible because of that. I think I started

working at this like full time that I got right at that time because she had stopped working for a law firm to go work on a political campaign and and therefore went from making a decent salary to literally zero dollars and I had to come up with all of our rent for several months well. Anytime you have an opportunity like that, you got to do it. I mean, it's changed our lives for the better in many ways, but it was, you know, it was a little strain at the beginning and it was a kind of amazing decision to be like, hey, let me just add another little side project to my plate while I'm at it. Yeah, I remember I was in a basement.

in Seattle, a finished basement in Seattle. It wasn't like full of spiders and shit. It had a carpet. I think that's the only qualification for finished basement, right? I think like carpet and the drywall has been painted. It's not just that drywall where you see all the all the spots where the screws have been mudded over and only there. On the occasions that you would come over to visit, this was a head strike danger at every turn. It was a very low ceiling. Like to the extent that I could ever have the Conan O'Brien swoop to my hair, this, the swoop would hit it. Yeah, yeah. I remember early days you guys were redoing the bathroom down in that, in that finished basement. And you and I got really excited that your plumber was using pex tubing,

because we were such big, this old house fans, and we'd seen, oh, man, that's like the stuff from TV. Yeah, I had celebrity pipes in my basement bathroom. It was really great. Missed those things. We just did an interview with Saruz Faravar. He interviewed us for a 10-year look back on the greatest generation for Ars Technica. And I think his initial Ars-Technica article was a big part of the reason an audience found our show. And I was thinking back to like sitting on my phone.

I think we Skyped in for that call and I had to like Skype in for that call. and I had to like Skype in from my phone in the parking lot of a strip mall in New Hampshire, like, when it was like, you know, blizzarding out outside the car window. And man, what a what a difference 10 years makes. Yeah, it really does. I mean, it's easy to, like, have the revisionist history of, like, always knowing we would have made it this far, having the confidence in our abilities and our interests to like carry this all the way to where we've ended up. But like as you said, this was never supposed to be the thing. No. And until that article hit, I think it probably, if that article doesn't happen, I think we probably do the show for another few months and then try to come up with another idea. I really do think that. Yeah. Well, it's been an amazing 10 years working with you, man.

A thing we hear from time to time, like this is a genre of message we occasionally receive is I've been going through a really hard thing and your show has been a source of great comfort to me during that hard thing. And I've been in a little bit of a mental health spiral lately. and you and the show, Adam, have been a great comfort to me in this time. And all of the friends of De Soto who have been with us for summer, all of the journey and supported in ways big and small, just mean the world to me because it is something like pretty solid that I feel like I can hang on to when I'm being buffeted about in my life. And yeah, I love you.

tons and I love the friends of DeSoto and I love this show and I'm so proud of us for making it to the 10 year mark. I'm not the one that wrote this description, Ben, but you're a little more than a buddy and a little less than a wife. And that has come from 10 years of this long-term project and I am not the easiest person to work with. I don't think either of us are, but I think we're compatible in the ways that we do things. And I love you a ton, man. This is not anything I could have done with anyone else, nor would I really want to for just so many reasons. But as you say, our relationship has made this possible to a certain extent, but none of this is possible without the support we've gotten over the years. So top line thanks to anyone who ever spread the word about

the show or supported it financially or got an ad or anything else. Like all those things matter. And they continue to matter. Yeah. As we go forward another X number of years, you know, like one of the questions we've been getting asked at 10 years is like, what's next? What do you do? How much longer is it? And the answer, honestly, is I just want to keep doing this. Yeah. I want to keep doing this in whatever form it takes. I love taking time. every week to share some laughs at the friend, I know that that matters to people out there who enjoy this show. And I want to keep doing that, not just for you and me, but for everyone else who cares about it. Well, Adam, do you want to cut all of this sincerity and get into an episode

of Star Trek? Maybe an episode of Star Trek with the most appropriate name for the one that will be our 10th anniversary episode. I want to hear you say it. It's season four episode 14 of Star Trek Enterprise. The aner. Got free speech and guitar. So where we left things last time? Archer fought Tran to the death, and neither of them died somehow.

Reed and Tripp at one point seemed most likely to die. They were saved from the drone. ship. I was thinking about how amazing it must feel to be flung out of that ship at that moment. Like, it's like rocketing them around, like shaking them like nickels in a tin can, I think was the metaphor we were using. And then the second you hit space, it just feels like nothing, right? I've never been thrown from a moving vehicle during a car accident. Yeah. But I got to feel like, at least a little bit of that is pleasurable, right? Right. The moment before you hit the berm on the side of the highway.

Exactly. You have some peace. It's strangely enjoyable. Yeah, and I got to believe that's what happened to read and trip as they were thrown from the vehicle here. The tellurites and the Andorians are new allies against the ROMs. That's a fresh take. And we learn that the drone pilot is a white Andorian.

So in the control room, in the. Romulan Homeworld, that Senator guy is so fucking mad at Brian Thompson. He's like, we did this whole project to get all of these alien species fighting each other. I mean, you saw the last time

on there, they made a fleet of all of three different kinds of ships. What are you thinking? I think we've all been in this room before where like the group project is a failure. This isn't a failure. It's a setback. This whole thing

seemed like a good idea at the start. I knew we were fucked when the teacher handed out group assignments and Brian Thompson was on my team. Yeah. The thing is, when Brian Thompson's on your group assignment team, you kind of assume that he's going to be the presenter. Right. To the class? He's just too intense for that. We will hunt down Enterprise and destroy it.

There's a twist in this scene, Adam. There's not just one drone ship. Yeah. There's two. I mean, if what you're doing is licking your wounds after a failure with one, the vibes change almost immediately as soon as the second was introduced here. Like, yeah, man, I mean, the problem was just having one. But now that we have two, the numbers are on our side.

One drone ship is none. Yeah. I mean, with two of these babies, they can totally destroy Enterprise and then shatter the alliance between the tellerites and Andorians and the process. It's all right there. Not to mention the Vulcans, you know. Sure. There's a lot of species they want bickering with each other.

All alliances everywhere. That's what they want to shatter. Just wreck them all. So after the theme, we get a little captain's log, and we've ditched the Tellerite ambassador, but Tran is sticking around, and we're heading toward the Andorian homeworld. We have a McLaugh one. Issue 1. Well, we learn a little bit about the idea of telepresence.

This was, you know, not in the zeitgeist in 2002 or whatever this episode was made. But I couldn't help but think this is like Star Trek tackling the drone warfare, like Rick from the headlines kind of vibes. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. So there really was no one on that ship. And the people running at are back on their home world safe and sound. essentially. Doesn't seem fair. Yeah, like maybe you work in a trailer at a military base instead of going out into a theater.

Exactly. So this is the storyline. They're talking about like, okay, so they're controlling it from somewhere else. Like, is there a jamming signal? Is there somewhere where we could like take over the drone and turn it against them? This is when we learn that the pilot has some telepathic abilities. And they're like, wow, what species has telepathic abilities? I mean, the Vulcans do a little bit, but not so much so that it would do this.

I mean, the thing that really got my attention was that, yes, they got the brainwave pattern that suggests telepath, but like super telepath is sort of the idea here. Yeah, very, very good at telepathy. And Dr. Flax is the guy who has the leading theory in the room. This has got to be an Andorian, right? That's what he thinks. Yeah, I mean, Andoran's not known for their telepathy, but that's the genetic read he's getting on this. And Schran definitely looks a little like he knows a little bit more than he's saying in this moment.

Did you say genetic read? Of course, this is what I call the leavings. When I wake up alone in the middle of the night and must wash out. my pajamas. I need something to do on this shit, come on. Fair enough, I'm just hoping we don't keep you quite so busy.

The genetic reed is what I call them. When I'm awake, I catch them in my Nike shoebox. Because they call it Nike over there. Do they? Yeah. Wow.

That's fucking dumb. You hear that? The UK, we're never coming back to London. Fuck you. You hear that? The guy who never pronounces anything, right? Took off from the free throw line.

Slam dunk! Cote over to Romulus where they got the drone ship up on a lift, and it's going to need some repairs. That's not the only problem. Their pilot could really use a break longer than a few days, all right? The thing is they don't have that kind of time. Yeah, they're sort of like the lead scientist Romulan who's like thinking of, you know, he's like thinking about the health and well-being of their pilot and how long he might need to recover. And Admiral Valdor is like, no, I don't care about that at all.

Just keep him alive long enough to destroy the Earth's ship. After that, his health is of little consequence. This really read to me like the concept of, you know, the dolphin that finds the underwater mines. Like to a certain type of military personality, this. And Dorian is a piece of technology. To a scientist, it's an actual person. And that's the tension. Yeah, yeah. Brian Thompson definitely does not imbue personhood in this poor guy. I love the work of Brian Thompson, but I got to just say, when you look at his face, you're going to presume that I... He has some dehumanizing beliefs.

It's almost like you don't need the dialogue with him, you know? Why do they depend on the dialogue so much? Somebody should just make a re-edit of this episode where every time someone says something to him, you just cut to a react shot from him. Yeah. And that's all you need. Yeah. Two ships at the same time, that's what this pilot's going to have to do.

He's not even a millionaire. He didn't even win the lottery. Hell yeah, brother. But that's his job. Cut back to the clarinet rental closet. it on Enterprise. Shran tells Archer that the brainwave pattern, it's not Andorian, dude, it's aner. It's Aner. This is a subspecies of the Andorians, and they are blind ice dwellers. These were mythical people up until 50 years ago. And if you watched Strange New Worlds and you

enjoyed the character of Hemmer, then you would know what this race of people is. This is a race of being that I did not fully appreciate when I watched Strange New Worlds. I didn't have the benefit of this backstory at the time. I feel like there were like a couple of little tossed off lines about this that meant nothing to me at the time. Yeah. I've read that among many things, the Enar have a form of precognitive ability. I knew you were going to ask that. I feel like I'm reading the Simmerillion right now.

I was going to say exactly that. Yeah, so they come from the northern polar region. and they're pacifists. What is that? Talking about the urethra? Yeah, or is it the hole in the antenna that we were talking about? Oh yeah, that's the dog butt. Yeah.

The dog butt hole. Yeah. Yeah. So not only are these dudes blind, they're also pacifists. So kind of hard to believe that a pacifist aner is involved. involved in the drone ship project, given that it's a weapons platform. Yeah, involved in shitting all over the quadrant. Right.

Hard to imagine. Schran is really having a hard time synthesizing this new bit of information. Trip is in Six Bay with Tepal, and they have been given the task of building a shishming chair that will be used to create their jamming signal. Were you surprised at the scope of the project? It looked like they were building, you know, when you go to a company meeting, like a shareholder meeting, you get to build the stage. It sort of seemed like a stage to me. It's huge.

It's taken up a lot of six days. Like if they get in space combat and they need this room to maneuver, what are they going to do? Flax is going to be so fucking annoyed with them. Yeah. Yeah, they didn't think this through. or desist. Trip is supposed to be resting

after his ordeal on the drone ship. When Tepal walks in, he's able to kind of compare his near-death experience in a kind of near-death experience measuring contest with hers. And the way he describes his own is like, yeah, the very worst part

was like all the thinking about it. I'm getting shooking around in this can. And all I have time do is think. It's very clear that the way he has processed that is different from how to Paul has thought about her own, which is very focused on the work during. Yeah. Yeah. Work that she's not as good at as him. Like he gets to give her little pointers about how to install the various gizuming components in the chair. What did you make of the composition below the table shooting up? Because we get this a couple of times. And I was surprised at how imperfect it was. Like, you don't get both faces in the

frame at any one time. There's a lot of stuff between the camera lens and the faces here. Yeah. A lot of dialogue being delivered from a face you don't see. And they go to the shot a couple of times. To me, that shot was about, like, how chaotic it can feel when you're doing big technical work like this. Like, it felt like, you know, a mechanics garage or similar. Like, it was more about, like, the way they are fucking up six bay than anything in the subtext of the scene for me. I'm definitely not criticizing it.

I actually really like a unique shot like this. And I'm glad that they used it. I have too. We cut to an exterior and we're at Andoria. Yeah. I love seeing it. evidently the first time it's been seen on Star Trek. Amazing.

Reed is prepping Archer and Tran to visit the Aner compound. They're all bundled up. This is Aner Prep. They're working on here in this scene. You got to do prep. You got to do prep. Yeah. So he's like giving them poppers to take down there.

He's helping him clean out. This sure felt like vanity by Reed. Like, of course, he's like, yeah, this isn't safe, you guys. Pretty important to the rest of the mission being accomplished, but also like as security and weapons guy, I feel like he really wants to get it on. Yeah.

And he's pissed that he can't. They're talking, like, the way they talk about where they're going is so much like the forge. Yeah. Like, it's going to be a long walk in a place where we won't be able to communicate with you. And like, they even use the word forge when Tran says the ice forges real strong.

There's a spectrum here, right? There's fire forge, there's ice forge. And then in the middle there's Love Forge, which is just a place where you have complicated relationships with women. Totally bullshit, man. It's just bullshit. Who don't like you the way that you like them. Right, right.

And if they've ever found any of your personal materials, it could be terribly uncomfortable. That can forge a certain strength in and of itself. I love after Schran and Archer are beamed to the surface, how positively stoked Shran is to be there. He loves the cold. He was born underground in it. He also has that energy of like, I feel like you were like this with me. When I came to New York for a visit and you still live there, you were so fucking proud to live in New York.

And like, it's fun to go visit a place where someone lives where they're like proud to show it off. Here's all the cool things. And that's Schrand's energy here. Yeah. Taste that air. Really gets the blood running. We learn about ice boars. There's like these little little critters that go around in the caves and make little sparkly, twinkly holes in the ice.

It's real. Like they did some fun stuff with the lighting. There's like these kind of like blue and green washes of light against certain things. like the light is being refracted through ice crystals or something. It really looks good. They did a great job with that. It's a very plused up Star Trek cave. Cut over to Romulus, where we learn a bit about the cultural philosophy of this group of ROMs.

Because Brian Thompson believes that everyone in the room are soldiers. When you're involved in this mission, especially. Yeah. And he goes so far as to tell a story about how when he was once a politician so long ago, he got kicked out of the Senate because he lightly questioned the idea of unlimited expansion as an ideology for the Romulans. Like even asking a question about that, got him booted out. So even though the Rami's talking to has declared himself to be a scientist,

his advice is like, look, at least make it look like you're a soldier for appearances sake. Amazing that he was able to rise to the rank of Admiral after being drummed out of the Senate in this way. Like a uniquely capable dude is the Brian Thompson character. And also really interesting that that was his conclusion. Like he took that experience as like, I was wrong to question infinite expansion in infinite combinations. And what I should have done was tow the line. and I'm never going to make that mistake again. I think you see this a lot in like the person who pipes up with the dissenting opinion is like thrown out and pilloried or whatever and then unable to affect the change that they were in there to do.

Right? Like a better strategy is to shut the fuck up and get in there and do the work that you're trying to do because no one can do the work. if they were thrown out of the thing that they're trying to change. That's what I think anyway. Back on the ice, Schran is the tour guide pointing out all the little weird things

in the ice. And all the while, he's like a little bit of a drunken tour guide here. You know, his balance is failing him because he's got the one antenna. And, oh no. Schran really goes ass over tea kettle down these ice stairs.

Absolutely insane stunt. Like, full flip over as he eats shit going down the stairs. His leg is impaled on an ice stalagmite. I famously wrote a bit of slash fiction involving an ice desk. Not really stopping to consider how one would get from the surface of the ice down into Schrand's office where the desk was. This really gave me a lot to think about for future chapters. One can only hope we'll roll the dice onto that square anew. Yeah.

The J-slash-C-square, I believe it's called. Really amazing stunt work here by the stair-fall or downer. Yeah. A blue-glass dildo is what impales his thigh. This ice looks different from the other ice, doesn't it? What does he do? Turns blue. Well, it's coated in his blue blood.

Yeah. And he does that super awesome action movie thing. of getting himself off of the thing he's impaled on. So good. Under his own strength. Yeah. And Archer's like, fuck, man. Like my outfit doesn't have a belt.

I don't know what to do. Maybe this little, little like mini first aid kit that I bought at the gas station will have something in it. And he's like scrambling to think of something to do when we get a little peak that may be being watched. you are calling attention to the whole like action movie quality of like unimpailing yourself on the thing. Yeah. I'm so in awe of the restraint of the person who actually listens to the medical advice of like you're not supposed to pull it out. Yeah.

Because like on any medical drama you'll see the person wheeled on the gurney into the ER with the knife in their chest or the pencil in their ear or like the arrow through their head or whatever. And I'm like, I don't know if I have that kind of self-control. I really don't. Like, I would have to be handcuffed. And I probably will be. Let's let's be honest. Like when I'm taken to the ER with one of these injuries. I'm looking forward to that day in many ways. Yeah. I feel like it'll be good content for the show. Legally it's just a fart joke. You will never take the greatest chin alive. Ben would rather die. What?

Schran spots this aner who is not alone. Like a bunch of them kind of emerge from various cave hurdles around them. And one of them speaks. And she's going to help them get some help. In Six Bay on Enterprise, they're ready to light this candle with the neural interface. But it is risky for anyone who's going to try to use it. And by that I mean brain damage risky. Trips like, oh, sign me up then.

I've had 14 concussions within the last 24 hours. I'm just pancake battering there at this point. I don't think I'll be taking home the Nobel Prize anytime soon. Topal overrides him because she's like, dude, you're not even telepathic. Like, it won't be a good test. You're not telepathic. You're not empathetic. You're not someone who reads the room.

even generally, bad candidate for this. Well, at least we'll find out if it causes brain damage. I'll test the unit. Dr. Flox is so secondhand embarrassed by Tepal shutting trip down in this way that he gets that one brown ear anxiety response in this scene. Did you notice this?

His ear did look super duper brown relative to baseline. What happened to him? They were like rushing in the makeup tent and they, like, needed him on set and somebody, like, kicked the switch on the makeup sprayer into high gear. Accidentally. The thing is, like, we've seen John Billingsley

in real life. His skin tone is not this dark. So, like, someone browned his ear intentionally. Ooh, John, not cool. Not cool. Oh, you're saying he's got brown ear face? Yeah. Is that what you're suggesting?

I just saw him in a movie He's in the new movie Anaconda Oh really? Yeah, he's got a little part of anaconda Very funny movie Have that ear look Uh, yeah It's still brown, yeah

Oh Yeah, yeah I think he decided to make it a thing You know what he's not doing He's not listening, Ben He did not issue an apology No Saying that he would take some time away

He didn't take a step back Yeah You gotta take a take a step back. We cut over to an establishing shot of the vast Anar underground ice city. And I love this. It's so cool. I love seeing it. I could have flown around this thing another couple of minutes. Really cool. Absolutely not what I expected. Like when Fran described them as having been almost mythical and there's like maybe a few thousand left and stuff, I was picturing a very low-text society based on that.

And no, they're quite high tech as a matter of fact. And more than that, Ben, I don't think this is a controversial statement. But like, if your entire construction crew is blind, I would have expected some gaps in the construction a little bit, maybe some stuff not looking quite right. I mean. Some of the angles being a little off. For sure. Yeah.

We learn that the Ainer, it's Binar. Do not read minds without consent. That's nice. We meet Lisan, not Lisan al-Gai, but she is the leader. There's just so much about the ANR that is about consent utterly. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. You don't just get to go there without understanding that. No.

Yeah. They pick their leaders based on the needs of the moment, and this lady is that leader. It has been decided that a single individual will be selected to, speak for the aeneers. This aner lady has been chosen to be that voice. How about this actor having a credit?

One credit. Oh, I didn't know that. No other evidence of any performance in movies or television by Alicia Adams. I looked her up in multiple databases. She doesn't

have a ton to do here, but she has like a big enough role that I would have expected that she like did the little television in the early 2000s or something. You know, I was going to ask Alicia Adams, why the long face? I think I know why now. Her acting career didn't go anywhere past this. Crazy. Yeah.

But anyway, she's like, I told you the thing about the no reading minds without consent. I need your consent because I don't want to have a whole conversation with you, Captain Archer. I just want to know what the plot is up until now and make some decisions based on that. I basically want to telepathically watch some Star Trek on Star Trek. This is a quality I wish modern TV more believed in as a philosophy. You know, a lot of modern TV is made for someone just staring at their phones. So you get the recapitulation of the plot happening every five minutes in a way that makes me want to blow my brains out. This is not Stranger Thing season five is the opposite.

Yeah. So she gets read in on this pretty fast. She very quickly learns that there was an ANR controlling the drone ship, but she does not know who it could be really, right? I mean, I guess it could be that guy who disappeared a year ago. You know, we're talking about Garib, right? One missing person's report in the last several years, and it's Garib.

Couldn't be Garib, though, because... He's not like that. He's a nice guy, Garib. I mean, I don't know him personally, but when you see the missing persons report, get a little biographical information, seems like a swell dude. Yeah.

Yeah, he's great. Everyone loved him. Always smiling. That's Garib. She also knows about the jamming device that they're trying to create. And she's like, I mean, good luck trying to make that thing work with a Vulcan. Yeah.

No way. Yeah. For that to work, you're going to need an aner. You owe us that much, at least. And she's happy to bring. provide. On Enterprise, Trip Tucker runs into Topal in a corridor. And even though Tripp says the words about doing the work and keeping it professional, he says these things in a tone of voice that means it's not really believable. In tone and also like in where he's looking, it's like he can't

even make eye contact with her. He is really concerned about her safety. And she's like, I appreciate that, but, you know, at this point, it's like kind of beyond the pale professionally. Yeah. And, man, you could cut the sexual tension between these two, like a knife through butter. Really well-acted scene. You're right. Schran talks to this other Ainer lady, Jamel, in his bedroom. She's, like, they're very concerned with consent, except for when it comes to looming over people while they're sleeping.

If you're talking to two of these people in the room at once, is that double ainer? Adam, I believe that that is what that's called. Yeah. This lady mentions that Garib is her brother, and she knows that he'd never willingly participate in what's going on here. And she knows that both because, you know, she's close with your brother. She knows personality-wise that that wouldn't be the case. But she maintains a mental connection with him, even at this great distance.

He is begging her to rescue him. Yeah. She's getting his messages. Interesting, huh? Cut to Garib after his three-day break being put back into the big chair and having the big helmet lowered over his head again. I love the three-day break being introduced in a previous scene. and that Garib is the only one

wearing a breadbox uniform with short sleeves, as if he's just come back from warm weather vacation. And that's the shirt he got at the gift shop. It's pretty great. I'm with Romulan on the back.

Yeah. If we change the word, use all day long. So he gets put in this chair and then we cut to to Paul in her own chair, which is meant to tap into the same ether waves, but it is of a very different

design, which I liked. I like the two little LEDs over the eyes were very funny. I can understand the production reason for, you know, Garib, when he's put into the leather helmet. You didn't have to do makeup for him. Right. He's in the helmet.

Sure. I understand a little less on the enterprise side when anyone gets in this seat from here on because it is like a knight from the olden times, like a suit of armor style helmet is being worn here. And so what that does to the actor inside is like it really makes them have to make you feel something without their face. You know, like it needs to be an audible experience for you. Jolian Blayla can do that. Yeah.

And I thought she did a really nice job. It's interesting looking at this chair. Like a thing that popped into my mind, I have no idea if there's any basis for this was, I wonder if they worked up the design and built this as the original chair that the Aner was going to be in. And then they were like, eh, I feel like we could do better. And then they made the one that they actually have on the Romulan homeworld. I mean, if this is the first time you're going to do Aner, you want it to fuel it. special, right?

Yeah, yeah. You want to get it right. So they get it up and running, and it's working, but Topal is writhing, and this is very clearly uncomfortable, despite Topal saying, like, no, I'll be fine. I mean, this often precedes anything involving the aner. Right. Is, like, initially pretty uncomfortable. Yeah.

The sounds you make, maybe the only time you ever hear sounds like this. is during an experience like that. You wonder how anyone got past this, you know, because you're like, people talk about doing this. So, like, it must be a thing, but like this makes me think it's not doable. And then for the whole thing to stop and to Paul to be like,

no, actually, I do want to try that again. Now that I understand what it entails. Now I don't know what to think, you know. I'm not so sure I want to try it again. Honestly. I just need a moment. Whenever you're ready. So Archer is with the ANR leader,

and they're arguing about what to do here, now that they know that Garob was abducted. The ANR being pacifists, don't want to go on some sort of violent rescue mission to get him back. No. Right? That wouldn't work for them.

One thing in this scene that is so apparent that is apparent in every episode we've ever gotten with Shran and Jeffrey Combs, is that you are so rewarded by not looking at the actor-speaking dialogue and instead looking at him in reaction. Yeah. Because he is doing so much work.

He is a fucking professional actor because he never stops acting the entire time he's on screen. It's the best. So the drones launch from some dusty moon and are headed back toward, I guess not Federation space, but the space that will eventually be Federation space. And Jamel is leading Archer and Schran back through the caves. And she's talking about how like, yeah, I mean, I'm pretty into the idea of helping my brother. I know that the rest of my people decided against it.

But oh, look out. Ice Boar's coming down. And she saves them from being melted by these bugs that burrow through the ice. I think it takes her warning them about these things to fully understand that they are dangerous things. They just look like maggots in the ice, you know? Worms, they live in the ice. Yeah. But they will hurt you because they are superheated.

That's the thing about them. That is the thing about them. And isn't like, I think they said something about that's what they think happened to Garab. Sure. Like he got bored. He got super bored. I like that turn of phrase quite a bit If you're bored then you're boring

Triven flocks discuss whether To Paul should be allowed to even get into this Shizum chair again And once again Tripp expresses his concern for her safety And Fox is like Dude I know you're in love with her Everybody can see it

And I can also hear it with my one brownie It feels like it's been a long time since we've gotten the reminder that Dr. Flax is just a total bro. Yeah. And the like the friend you need at work or anywhere else that's just going to tell you what you probably need to hear. And this is one of those scenes. Like, look, man, this is why you don't dip your nacelle into a workplace nebula without some

consequences. You know what I'm saying? You'll have to suffer through it. Up top. I love the idea that all species everywhere are working on trying to figure this out. Like, we want to figure out a way you can fuck your coworkers. And just no intelligent species has cracked the code yet. I feel like no matter what kind of trouble you're in,

no matter how it feels to be in a situation that feels like out of your control, it always feels a little bit better to think that you're not the first one experiencing this, that actually many people have gone through it and whatever this is sucks. But like that whole like, yeah, man, join the club kind of vibe to the problem solve that Dr. Flax is willing to prescribe here

I thought was really great. You're saying I shouldn't take her to a cold play concert and wrap my arms around her? You know the risks. So does Commander Tompaw. All right. In the Ice Caves, Archer recognizes is the part of the cave they're in

based on the pattern of the holes that the ice force have made. And that's because the aner leader has been fucking with their heads and making them go in circles. So you can have to consent to having your mind read, but you do not have to consent

to having them trick your mind into believing shit that isn't true? Yeah. That seems like an incomplete ethical standard from my perspective. I agree. She then appears as a kind of mental

projection to them and she admits it. Oh my god. He admitted it. She's standing right. Like weird sound, like she looks perfect but her her voice is a little strange and she's scolding Jamel. Archer's like, is there something with the projection here? Because I've got to say your head is like really tall. Like I feel like maybe we could keystone the projection here a little bit to make it seem more favorable to your proportions? You sure you put in the right aspect ratio when you were working on the settings? She doesn't want to talk about that right now.

Instead, she tries to get Garib's sister to come home. Yeah. Because fighting war is bad. It is, but then Jamel mind melds with her, for lack of a better term, and Lizaun sees what Jamel's motivations are. And she's like, okay, well,

I guess if you're doing it for good reasons, I'll let you go. And she disappears. And what we thought was just more ice caves down that away is actually the exit. They were right there. What an amazing thing to be in conflict with someone and not have to argue, but instead just go, hey, you want to like do the mind thing? Like, blurt minds. Oh, yeah.

I understand where you're coming from. Okay. And I believe you. Like, more than anything, it's, it's, Jamel has said, over and over again that like she wants to save her brother. Her reasons for that are pure, but until her mind gets dug around in by the mission leader here, by Lassan, it doesn't matter. It's not convincing. Imagine being able to verify whether someone is acting in good faith. Yeah. Like that's what the ainer can do. I mean, once the aner is involved,

that's pretty deep, isn't it? Like, I think so. You really know a person at that point. That is a level of connection that two people rarely, if ever, achieve, you know. Yeah. So they get out of the ice and they're beamed aboard Enterprise. And back on board, we learned that a cargo ship named the Taekondyroga has gone missing. So we're going to head in the direction of that. And Jamel has already volunteered to get in the big chair. They fire this thing up.

She's doing stuff that Topol could never do. in that chair. And I've got faith of the far heart. It's still far joke. Archer tells to Paul, as an aside, look, we're really going to need

an improvement to our targeting systems given how this ship operates so that by the time we arrive, we can actually hit the target because he, like, put his hand on one side of his mouth. He's like, because Reed is already,

like, kind of struggling. Okay, we need to Give him some help. The guy could use a boost to reach that top shelf, you know? Yeah, yeah. RSVP, the Taekondroga, they've, like, tested the jammer, but they feel like it's too dangerous to Jamel's health. And she's like talking to Shran about this.

She's like, he's telling her they're headed into into this situation. She's like, I don't care about my own safety. Like, wire me up. I need to save my brother, and he expresses his admiration for her bravery. This is when a tellerite freighter drops out of warp, and Archer's like, he tries to call him up, tries to tell them their freighter's a huge piece of shit, as a tellerite would expect, but they don't pick up the phone, so he goes ahead and has Reed, target their engines.

It's a dang old drone, Adam. I love this moment. I love the certainty that Archer, operates with here. Like, we know that the drone ship camouflages itself as other ships. He said as much in this scene. Like, can we trust it?

I don't know. But I got to say, up until the moment he fires first, I'm not quite a believer that he's gonna. And I like that he did. Because it's very much a captain going off of a hunch. Yeah. And it paying off. He's going to treat every strange ship

as potentially the drone ship until it can prove otherwise. And we're in space combat. Reed is having a hell of a time getting target lock, but Jamel insists on being schizhered. So she's getting in the chair while the second drone gets sent in. To Paul and Archer are talking about how they're getting Jamel wired up. They're going to try again.

And inside her helmet, Jamel is able to actually make contact with Garib. and this is like proto like inside the Iron Man helmet footage here, the shots of these two going back and forth. Great comp, yeah. I thought it looked really cool in there, all of the colors washing over their faces as they communicate. And she convinces him to stop what he's doing

because she has on the ship that the drone is shooting at. So this, you know, pauses the drone long enough for them to destroy it. But Brian Thompson gets a gun in Garib's neck and is like, no, finish the job! And when he does not get his way, he shoots a hole right through that dude's larynx. RSVP, Garab. But that leaves the other drone ship just tumbling through space.

So they shoot that one. RSVP, the other drone. I do love, like, the sequence of events that leads to the drone's destruction. I feel like the pace of it is really good, the increasing tension of it as we go. The idea that someone that we're supposed to care about dies during, I thought was very well done. Yeah.

The way that Jamel feels that in the moment, I thought was also really well done. I thought this entire five-minute sequence, it paid off the promise of the entire three-episode story. It really did. I think that the one thing that I was a little annoyed with in this episode is there is suddenly a second drone, which is treated as like a huge twist at the beginning of the episode. It is barely commented on by the bridge crew when it shows up that like, oh, fuck, there's another one. And then it's just taken as a given that that was the only two that there ever were and ever will be at the end.

For sure. Yeah. They're like, all right, well, job done. We got the only two drones. Let's head home, guys. I mean, isn't that a quality of every movie and television show where there is a bad guy and a super weapon? Like, there is always ever a limited amount of these.

And when you destroy one or two, you can be certain that you've done the job. When that certainty should be impossible. Yeah. They're saying their goodbyes to. Jamel and Shran and taking them back to Antoria. And Shran is telling Archer like, you know, they don't usually give you another ship when you lost the last one with almost all hands aboard. So I may not be around much going forward.

I was shocked at how profoundly sad I was in this moment. And for Jeffrey Combs' specific read of this dialogue, I felt like he was moved by it. I felt a little less like Archer was. But as a viewer who really appreciates this dynamic between these two characters, I was like, fuck, man. I am going to be really sad if this is it for them.

And if you're watching this when it comes out and you know that there are only a handful of episodes left, like 10 or 12 episodes left of the series, you might presume that, yeah, this is it. And this is this character's goodbye. Big moment. It feels momentous. It feels like a real goodbye.

After he's kind of main charactering around for the last several. So you get the sense that there's something going on with Shran and Jamel, don't you? Yeah. Like that scene earlier in the episode where like he goes to visitor in the Six Bay, like, that's not just co-worker shit. Like that felt tender between the both of them. And I think that that continues on in this scene. where they're walked to the transporter. I mean, when they're testing the jammer on her,

and it looks like it's messing with her neuropathy, he sounds like John Taffer telling them to shut it down. Shut it down! Archer tells Tripp that the report that he filed about what went on while Archer was on the planet's surface was too self-critical. And Tripp is like, no, man, there was a mistake in the jammer. I should have count it. this is that thing, I feel like, if you work at a corporate job, you're occasionally asked to do, like that yearly review that is of yourself, where you do your manager's job, basically.

And I feel like the implication is that you should say something about yourself. That is an area for improvement that you could be coached on. that is something about you and your employment that may be actionable or in need of improvement or managing or whatever. It's so loaded because it's not like a therapist trying to see if you have like any insight about your mental health condition so much as like the people who guarantee that food is going to be on your table. These people are not your friends when it comes time to do yourself evaluation. That's what I want to say.

I promise you will be better off lying to. them and and polishing the turd that is your work before presenting it to them. Unless you're doing what Tripp is doing, right? Like if you're using your

end of year employee self-review to tender your resignation, I feel like then you could reasonably talk about some of the ways that you failed. Yeah. Yeah, the way I did on my performance review before getting pipped and then

leaving that company 15 years ago. Yeah, that was a strategy. Yeah. He wants a transfer. I don't want to have to like see to Paul around every corner transfer, basically. Like, it's too painful for him to serve on a ship with her is basically what I was getting from this scene. How about Connor Treeneer saying it with his eyes, though?

Like, it's never in dialogue. I think Archer understands what this is all about, but not even he says it. Really? No, and he wants Tripp to say it out loud, and Tripp refuses. Yeah. You know, my lady friend is the captain of the Columbia. I gotta believe Archer's thinking. And with Tripp's history of workplace relationships,

I don't know if I feel 100% great about sending my best friend over there. I need to hear it, Tripp. They need me more. Is this the member of our species that is going to crack the code of the workplace romance for all species everywhere? Yeah. The one with the arm nips? You're never going to let that go, are you? I don't think so.

This puts Archer in a precarious situation like Tripp is his friend, but also a co-worker. And as the captain, you need to either approve or deny this request for transfer. What else can he do? He approves the transfer. Absent to really good reason not to. Ben, did you approve of this episode, though? I can't pay. Couldn't for late.

Got no case. Tempting fate. Boy, did I? I thought this was a very fun conclusion to a very fun arc with some notes of genuine sadness at the end. I mean, I think that I was pretty bummed that they did back-to-back. I'm leaving the show moments for Jeffrey Combs and Conner. Right.

It felt like they were both really good moments, but one sort of cheapened the other by its proximity to it. And I don't think countertrennear is off the show, off the show. But it felt like the weight of that moment should have hit like super duper hard. And it would have if they hadn't had the Schran bit right before. So I think that was like my main gripe with it. But other than that, I thought it was really exciting and really. smart writing and fun and interesting to get to meet a subspecies. Like, I feel like we don't even know the Andorians that well to know the Aynar now.

It's Enar. But always exciting when they do shit like that on Star Trek. How about you? Yeah, I largely feel the same way. And if we're talking about the prospect of Tripp's character leaving the show, it makes me think about how much this show made itself about its top three characters. And absent one of those three, how little there is for characters like Reed or Mayweather or Hoshi, you know?

Like we've gotten so much story with Tripp that to remove him from this at this point feels like, well, who steps up? Who could step up? Yeah. I mean, I would bet at this point that Tripp is not actually leaving the show and that this is like a moment to set the dramatic table for next week's exciting episode. But I want to really feel like that is a possibility in this moment. Remember that episode where Riker did the Foreign Exchange project on the Pach? How could I forget?

There were moments in that episode where, you know, like you see Riker's face on the view screen, you know, as the two ships interact and how. how he feels so far away, even though it's like one episode that he's gone. Yeah. I think that episode does a really good job in creating that distance and the tension for it that I would kind of look forward to that. An episode where Tripp is on the Columbia

and we get some scenes with him over there and we feel the fallout of his absence on Enterprise. But we'll have to find out what the future episodes hold for us. Indeed. We have no way of number. at this point. Well, we also have no way of knowing what is in the priority one inbox until we open it, Adam. Should we go and do that? It's Schrodinger's Priority One inbox, isn't it? Sure is. Did I use that right? I think so.

All right. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Need a supplemental income. Supplement. Supplement. Yeah, it's extra. By the interest alone, could be enough to buy this ship. Oh, fuck, there's a dead cat in here. Ugh. I wish we hadn't opened this box up and collapsed the quantum state of this cat. You of all people making a dead animal joke. I'm just, uh...

He's healing. Ben, we got a promotional priority and message here. The call to action is buy a P1. Okay. And it is from someone who calls themselves shrimp ropes. Okay. Here's that message. What up?

It's your boy. Shrimp ropes. Dropping this P1 as a milestone for making it through my first series, Deep Space 9. Okay. Thanks for all the hard work that goes into this show. It's put a smile on my face through many work days and lets me enjoy my favorite space franchise while on the go. My message to anybody out there is to purport. purchase a P1.

I am in fact paying for this very message with Latinem earned from my previous P1. Wow. Adam, I gotta get more ROM voice. Maybe you could do a quick P1 promo as ROM. Oh, man. Shrimp ropes, I gotta tell you. I'd be really dumb if I did do that. You'd also be really dub if you didn't buy a P1 ROM.

That's right, Pan. Maximumfun.org slash Jumbotron is how you do like Shrimp Ropes. Shrimp Ropes mentioned getting this P1 paid for by a previous. That's because, do the vast size of our audience, you do something like a commercial priority one message for your business project you're working on. Yeah. It means kind of a lot of eyeballs hit it at once and you start selling that thing. that thing pretty fast from that point.

It's called the greatest jet bump. Yeah, you want that bump. Maximumfund.org slash jumbo tron is where you get it. Hey Adam. What's that, Ben? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimota? Incredible. Drunk Shimoda!

It's shran until it's not, Ben, quite simply. I mentioned it earlier. His non-verbal character work that Jeffrey Combs does here, It's just a delight every time. And if you, like I'll say this, if you have a favorite movie or a favorite TV show, one of the ways I like to watch the comfort programming or movies that I've enjoyed over the years is like, don't look at the person saying the dialogue.

Like, appreciate everything about what you're seeing in the frame. Watch the other actors and how they respond to different things happening. It's like a really rewarding way to watch media is to see everything that's going on. And I think Jeffrey comes in this episode is an example of that. What about you? I totally agree. But I'm going to give my Shemota to Lisan for the telepathic prank she pulls on them when they're trying to leave the cave. Because, like, she's wasted so much of their time just to answer a question that she could have answered before they left.

Like, oh, hey, Jamel, what, what's your plan once you get them to the accident? it. Going to go with them, huh? Let me, can I have your mind for a moment? Oh, yeah, that seems pretty reasonable. All right. Go sick, you two. Pretty great. Faith of the fart. Well, let's start talking about what's coming up next week.

I got to roll some dice and I got to tell you about season for episode 15 affliction. While Enterprise visits Earth for the launch of the Columbia, flocks is kidnapped and forced to help the Klingans deal with a great, threat toward their species. What an answer to the question, like, who steps into the trip vacuum, were he to leave? Dr. Fox, great candidate for this. Absolutely.

Fantastic candidate for it. Candidate for how we will be doing our next episode is anything on the Game of Buttholes. The Will of the Riker Quantum Leap. Our runabout is currently on square. 42 and when I roll this bone I could roll it anywhere, Adam. Anywhere at all. You're required to learn as you play.

Roll. I wonder if we'll go somewhere special on this, the 10th anniversary episode. We didn't, Adam. I rolled a 69. Nice. And landed us on Square 11. Wow.

Which is a regular episode. Chula! Did I win? Hardly. Right. As it should be. As it should be. And we really cannot say it enough, but we really, really appreciate the Friends of DeSoto for sticking with us all these 10 years.

Huge milestone for us. And we couldn't have done it without you. Very, very honestly. Grateful to all of the people who have ever helped us along the way, all of the guest producers, Rob Schulte, Rob Adler, Bill Tilly. I mean, like, man, like a real guiding light for us, a North Star for us as we do this thing.

The amazing, incomparable Windy Pretty who produces this show and edits it every week. Adam Ragusea, who has been a great, like, big brother to us teaching us how to be in the public eye in the weird way that we are. and also like just being so, so generous with his prodigious musical talents. So lucky to have the community of people that make this show and the community of Friends of the Soto that surround this show. Like a great big hug. We're just the two luckiest podcasters out there. It's pretty great.

Oh, and everybody at maximum fun. We've been chastened by some of their scolding this episode, but they've been a tremendous partner to us over the years. In particular, our buddy Jesse Thorne, who didn't have to take us on as a podcast on his network, but did and changed our lives in a big way. With that, we will be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek Enterprise, an episode of the greatest generation enterprise that we'll probably just keep talking about Ayners. It's Enar. I mean, once you go Aynar, it's kind of hard to go back, you know? Yeah.

Nothing else quite feels right after that. I love you, Adam. Happy 10 years. Escape, big. A work-owned network of artist-owned shows. Supported directly by you.