The Greatest Generation - Chekhov’s Nose (DS9 S2E6)

Episode Date: April 2, 2018

When Dr. Bashir tries to give a new ensign “The Brahms Treatment,” he actually manages to charm her. But when she and Dax are taken hostage with Quark, she briefly turns her weakness into a streng...th. What’s the worst bodily substance in microgravity? Has Dax just been jackin’ it for the last 150 years? How does science work? It’s the episode that retrofits as much of the podcast as possible for ADA compliance. HELP SUPPORT US IN THE #MaxFunDrive AT MAXIMUMFUN.ORG/DONATE! Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Prophets!

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 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,
Starting point is 00:00:35 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,
Starting point is 00:01:01 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
Starting point is 00:01:25 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
Starting point is 00:01:55 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. Here's to the finest crew in Deep Space Nine, a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are a little bit embarrassed to be doing a Star Trek podcast well-making, uncomfortable eye contact with each other.
Starting point is 00:02:44 And welcome to the Max Fun Tribe. Also, I'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pryanaka. We are looking at each other during. I'm the only one of the two of us who's wearing a, a wirework piece of underwear. Yeah. You're the only one that's floating in the room.
Starting point is 00:03:02 Yeah, feels good. You'll never know the freedom that I'm experiencing right now, Ben. This is an exciting timing and work travel lined up in a way where we could do our first Max Fund Drive episode for 2018 here together. Yeah. And I know that like, I mean, when I look at the numbers, the way I interpret the T-Leaves is that like much more than half of our audience are in the back catalog, they're not staying current with the newest apps necessarily.
Starting point is 00:03:35 Yeah, there's a good, I think there's a good spread of people. So those, I feel like those episodes get their own pledge breaks, but if you're listening to this, and it is between April 2nd and April 13th of 2018, this is the max fund drive. It's happening right now, all around us. And it's really exciting. The network is going for 25,000 new and upgrading donations. And we have some like really cool
Starting point is 00:04:06 Bonus content planned as of this recording. I don't think we quite have a plan for how we figure out What triggers bonus content, but we really want to do a lot of stuff for the donors this year so in the last year we did like a little surprise holiday episode and So you know last year we did like a little surprise holiday episode and We've got our Star Trek first contact episode up there and our Star Trek generations episode up there So if you want to hear those our our takes on those movies like those are those are bonus content that you can get right now by going to maximum fun I don't or just slash donate and we we'll break in maybe later in the episode to talk about the other awesome gifts
Starting point is 00:04:48 that everybody gets for taking part in the fun drive. Well, that'd be fun. You just can't take anything sincerely out. What makes doing the show in person difficult is that for most shows, you can't see the look on my face. I can't see the strain you're putting on your eyes as you roll them. I'm now wearing a hooded sweatshirt backwards to obscure my true feelings about what's going on here. Yeah, if Adam's voice sounds just slightly muffled it's because it's going through a couple of
Starting point is 00:05:24 If Adam's voice sounds just slightly muffled, it's because it's going through a couple of ply of cotton. Are we gonna do some cards here? Is that what the plan is? Yeah, I was thinking, for the first time in a very long time, we could bring back sort of the classic card game bit because a generous viewer sent us a box of the complete Star Trek Deep Space 9 trading cards. From what I understand, there are signature cards in this box just like there were in the original next generation box, which is special cards in here. This looks like the box that you would buy
Starting point is 00:06:06 if you were the comic book store owner, and then it would like, like part of it turns into a display. A little bit. Yeah. And then like people buy them, piecemeal, their packets in there. Is that how this works?
Starting point is 00:06:19 Well, I will open it up. And it is literally ripping cellophane as we speak and we'll see Hope the mics are picking up that sweet sweet cellophane noise Just got to cut through this foil Hey, Pinyton knife there, buddy. This is oh your bigger nose are very sharp box 5571 out of 8,000 been so Box 5571 out of 8,000 bin so we're very fortunate to have this box I'm just gonna break you off half of these cards because that's are we gonna go like full card bukkaki here? No, let's let's do what do you say we open? Three packs each okay, we see if anything fun happen
Starting point is 00:07:03 So I'm leaving you half the box so that we can continue to play the game These stacks live here. Yeah, look at me. These are my stacks now So what are we hoping for out of this? I'm hoping for a signed Kira, right? Like that's clearly gonna be the one that I'm going for I'm going for a natural mourn Oh, my cards are stuck together, her ears. Yeah, my cards are a little stuck together as well. What does that mean? Someone's enjoyed these cards before we have. I can't believe they sealed them back after they did what they did.
Starting point is 00:07:32 They are one big, I mean, we both really enjoyed those TNG cards because they were sort of artful depictions. Yeah, they were, they were, they were, one, artist one or T's. Yeah, they were, they were, they were, one, really enjoyed those TNG cards because they were sort of artful depictions. Yeah, the episodes. They were, they were, Artis won Ortiz's kind of
Starting point is 00:07:51 throwback movie poster style posters of episodes. What I'm gathering from having opened this package is that these are, uh, these are like full bleed photograph cards. Yeah. They're very glossy. I think that's why they're sticking together, right? Yeah, some of them are a little damaged by the sticking together phenomenon.
Starting point is 00:08:12 Oh no. I'm getting like little bits of the ink that came away in peeling them apart. It helps to like opening a fresh pack of playing cards. It helps to just sort of bend them up a little bit. Yeah, right. Yeah. So most of my cards appear to be episode specific, much like those TNG cards. So I've got a card here for Q less. That's one of the season one episodes. And I also have the Forsaken, of the episode, that's one of the season one episodes and I also have the forsaken, which is a really nice picture of fan favorite Luxana Troy.
Starting point is 00:08:51 Nice. I'm seeing a lot of pictures of them in the uniform that they had in Star Trek first contact, the gray mantle on a black jumpsuit with the color just on the turtle neck or whatever. Yeah, I wonder when they drop that look on the show. I have checklist one here which is I guess the card that tells you what other cards you can find in these packs. It's got cards 1 through 99 listed. Mmm. In front of it is a four-panel picture of
Starting point is 00:09:28 Bashir, Warf, O'Brien, and Quark. I really like how these cards look. It is really disappointing that the ink pulls up based on the stuck-togetherness. This happened to the photo album of my wedding photos that my mom made. Oh no! The pages are stuck together now for reasons having nothing to do
Starting point is 00:09:53 with any biological function of mine. Yeah, Ben, you're jerking it to your own wedding photographs? You sick fuck! That what my mom had in mind wedding photographs? You sick fuck? That what my mom had in mind when she put that together for us was an anniversary present that she thought would bring my wife and I closer together but it wound up just bringing me closer to myself Who knows your masturbatory predilections better than your mother? predilections better than your mother. Oh, I got a special card.
Starting point is 00:10:30 Oh really? In my second pack bin, check it out. I've got a, it's a special allies and enemies card for Molly O'Brien. Can you guess which side of that description she falls on? I guess I'm guessing that description she falls on guess? I'm guessing That they put her on L.I. side. She is on the L.I. side Good guess it's card B20 Molly O'Brien
Starting point is 00:10:55 Yeah She dabbled in fascism early in her in her career, but she wound up on the side of freedom and justice. Yeah, I'm just finding a lot of episode cards. Oh, I do have an... here's an Allies and Enemies card. Adam, it is Ishka. Looks like a Ferengy lady. Oh, check it out. Oh, it says her son is quirk. So this is quirk and Ram's mom. Do you want to guess whether she's an L.I.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.R.E.E.R.E.R.E. Hehehehe. Uh, she appears to be clothed, so uh, looks like-
Starting point is 00:11:46 Oh, that's strange. Looks like the rules are being bent for television. Alright, one more pack? Yeah, let's do it. I already have a duplicate card here, by the way. Oh. I have two of the cards for the magnificent Farengi, one on each pack. Uh, the packs themselves say something that the box doesn't
Starting point is 00:12:05 been, which is look for randomly inserted autograph and costume cards. I wonder if, uh, is that going to include a scrap of fabric? Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Like, uh, like some premium baseball cards will give you a postage stamp-sized piece of a baseball uniform.
Starting point is 00:12:24 They smell horrible. It's just the crotch section. Yeah. It's the lucky, lucky playoffs underpants section. Yeah, given this latest pack a nice bend. Yeah. To bust the cards loose. Okay, Adam, I have one more special card.
Starting point is 00:12:44 What? Yep. And it actually kind of continues a theme that we already started. It's another Allies and Enemies card for Keko Brian. Woo! She is an ally. I mean, it'd be pretty fucked up to put her on the other side of something from her own daughter. I don't really know what she's an ally of. I guess the Federation? Is that what that is? She's an ally of foreign foods, I guess. I've got a card for Shattered Mirror, famously
Starting point is 00:13:18 one of the Mirror universe episodes onto yes 9 that I'm excited to get to. I have one for the Make Wease Part One, and it's a picture of Quirk trying to apply a Romulan or Vulcan lady with some booze. Ooh, she's got a lot more of a bold eye than your average Romulan or Vulcan. Like she's really going with like an editorial makeup look on that eyeshadow. That's something you would wear to work is what I'm saying. One thing I'm noticing and flipping through these cards so far is the myriad costume choices that they're giving a Navisator.
Starting point is 00:13:59 Like I'm seeing ballgowns, I'm seeing a crazy leatherware. It looks like there's a lot of fun textures and colors coming up. I'd say put that back in your pants. Very exciting. I love and fun. Let's open another pack. Yeah, I mean another thing that is super clear is just how much more show there is Yeah, to see like they most of these cards are unfamiliar to me because I have not seen these episodes Yeah, there's a lot
Starting point is 00:14:33 We have a lot in store I want to get a costume card. I want a sig I want a signature I'm kind of feeling like I want to really go through these cards to get some signature. Yeah Oh, I got another ally. Oh boy I got a signature. Shit. I've also got some really stuck together cards here. Okay well what do you got? We got in a little bit of trouble last time we had a spoiler so I feel like we should Say that this is a Main cast character that is a later season situation
Starting point is 00:15:12 So if you're like if you're watching the show fresh and you don't want this spoiled Maybe hit the skip 30 button a couple of times my signature card here is Nicole de Bohr the plays Isri Dax. Hey, wow, very nice. Really signed it, I think. Yeah, that's a real ink signature. Looks like actual blue sharpie on this card. Wow, very cool.
Starting point is 00:15:40 I feel like the blue sharpie is like what they use, you know? Like that's definitely the same pen that they used for the signatures on the On the other cards that we've opened when we sign posters after our shows we've been using a gold and a silver Pen like a paint pen though because yeah usually our posters have tended to have kind of dark colors so the paint pen Pops maybe this time we bring the blue pens out. Or uh... Let's see how our poster looks for our next tour. My ally card is Tora Ziyal, who looks like a person of Cardassian origin.
Starting point is 00:16:20 Daughter of Golducat. Wow. She's got kind of a mullet in that picture. Yeah! She's a... She's a business in the front party in the back kind of Cardassian. Another special card I got looks to be one in a series, like... Like, maybe a puzzle piece.
Starting point is 00:16:39 Oh yeah, it looks like there's a... There's cut off text on the back, so you have to put it next to its... It's counterpart to text on the back So you have to put it next to its its counterpart to reveal the Sintillating secret message. That's fun, right? They're asking you to stick these cards together in a way that is a little different than how they come to you You're going for another you can't be stopped. I thought I thought we were both going into a signature. Oh Really?
Starting point is 00:17:09 This could mean a very lengthy pre-roll for us. Good. I got a repeat of the Q-list card. I have another signature. Oh, shit. Well, that's it then. I think there are two signatures. Are there really two signatures per box? So I think you got it man. Damn. You got both. It seems stingy. What's that sig? Oh you're not going to believe it Adam. It's another Ezri's axe.
Starting point is 00:17:38 It's a... It's a... Bajoran guy played by Lawrence Monson. Hovath! Okay, so I'm reading the box and it says, autograph cards are one every 20 packs. Oh. So this gotta be one of the packs.
Starting point is 00:17:55 Oh, so check it out. Uh... The costume cards are one out of every 100. Oh. Allies and enemies cards are one out of every three, so we're doing pretty good on Allies and enemies. Yeah, we're punching hard on these Allies and enemies cards are one out of every three, so we're doing pretty good on allies and enemies. Yeah, we're punching hard on these allies and enemies.
Starting point is 00:18:09 Oh, I sort of like our rate. Having already gotten two autograph cards. This box is going to get a lot less exciting. The further we go. Well, who knows what, like, maybe we got a box that's just full of them. Like... Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, that's like the randomness overall, but...
Starting point is 00:18:32 Yeah. Alright, I want to open up one more pack. Or a pack until I get something special. Okay. Because I'm not feeling very special. Then... Adam, you're very special to me Wow, oh
Starting point is 00:18:49 You know what's fun about the duet card is the image that they use for it is Is a gall-dare heels dead body on the ground on the promenade and like you don't see any faces It's just his corpse more in standing over him yeah just a great great moment from that episode that's the the defining image of that episode I would say yeah there's a real sound it uh it makes me feel bad. Oh, I got a special card here. Yeah? It's a ships of the Dominion War. Oh.
Starting point is 00:19:32 Is the card and it looks like one of the built-tilly hollow card effect cards. It's very folly. Oh yeah? Got a folly card and for Cardassian warship. Looks like a great big gallery class spacecraft on it. Oh wow, yeah. This is a nice foiling on this card.
Starting point is 00:19:56 Right? Did a nice job. There's some delicious foil work on that. I got one from... Wrap my leftovers with that card. I got one from me. Wrap my leftovers with that card. I got one from that episode that was based on the movie Predator, Captive Pursuit. Oh yeah. That's dudes the show up and just shoot the promenade up and everybody's like,
Starting point is 00:20:15 Alright well that's just their culture. I am, uh, I'm frequently surprised at which shot they choose for the episode. Like the episode for the Nogas, you may be surprised to know it does not feature the Nagas. It's Jake and Nag eating lollipops. Like clearly the most memorable part of the Nagas episode. Yeah. I have one last allies in enemy's card atom. Yeah. It is Admiral Bill Ross! Buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh! It's just a...
Starting point is 00:20:52 Just a ponchy... High status white guy from what I can tell. Once you make it to Admiral, you can begin to let yourself go a little bit. Yeah. Around the midsection. Yeah. All you do is roundhouses and chow down. Once you make it to Adam roll you can begin to let yourself go a little bit. Yeah around the midsection. Yeah You just all you do is roundhouses and chow down All right Adam. What do you say we get into the episode that we came here to talk about today? All right, I can do that
Starting point is 00:21:17 Let me put my cards up with my other cards My customizable playing card game cards. Oh, that was fun. That was fun to do again. That was great. It felt old school in a fun way. We came here to do, though, and talk about season two, episode six of Deep Space Nine, Malora.
Starting point is 00:21:38 What? Do you realize how incredible this is. No, of course you don't. So we start with this doctor's log. And Bashir is really excited because the first elation in Starfleet has been stationed on Deep Space 9. She's a cartographer. And he's been like getting ready for her arrival. The brewing planet of Elysia known for its super low gravity, right? Yeah. And he has kind of done to this lady what
Starting point is 00:22:17 Jordy did to Leab Brahms. I'm guilty of a terrible crime, doctor. In that he's kind of pre-fallen in love with the idea of her, without actually having met her? Yeah, this filled me with that creeping feeling of dread. Yeah. Like, how do they ever pay this off that isn't a woman arriving to realize that she's been spied on? For most of her life. Yeah, it goes over well. No, I have been invaded, violated. And like the issue is she comes from a low gravity planet.
Starting point is 00:22:53 So she needs a wheelchair and they have to do a lot of ADA retrofitting around the station. I mean, the station was grandfathered in because it was a pre-ADA construction, but now that they're bringing somebody in that actually needs to wheel around the station, they've got to put ramps in. We've done the best we can with the ramps. The Kardashians obviously didn't ever in mind if they built this place. I guess it sounds like there's just hover technology that would work on a Federation starship but because of the like metals that the Cardassians use, it just won't.
Starting point is 00:23:30 They take a lot of time to tell the viewer why they're doing it this way, basically. And the Federation people are doing that cheerful, over-helpful thing where they're like, we're doing a good job for a good person. And this person is bound to appreciate this. Yeah, it's even like, it's even got some of that like, like we make fun of it, but that kind of, there's something endearing about it too, that TNG naivete, like when, when, when word comes down on the radio that her ship has pulled into dock. Yeah. Like Bashir and Dax look at each other like, yay! A new friend!
Starting point is 00:24:10 And like from that perspective, I really get Melora's vibe and being like, God, can you just leave me alone? Like I'm just trying to, like this is a work trip for me. Every time you're touching the engine, you're touching me real professional. Because when she comes on board like she's really struggling you know she works walks of the cane until they get her in the in the chair but from an emotional standpoint the walls are up she's not interested in being helped over the threshold she's not not psyched that Bashir took it upon himself to modify
Starting point is 00:24:47 the wheelchair in any way. I'll just have to adapt. I feel like by and large people who are in the Federation in their yearly reviews are graded on a number of things, but one of those things that they're graded on is like how easy they are to work with. And one of the things that strained credulity about Malor's character for me was like, you know, there's a completely understandable feeling that she has about being coddled. Right. But also she's kind of adjourned. And I think she needs improvement in that aspect of her review.
Starting point is 00:25:22 Otherwise, I don't think she's going to go very far. She's an Ensen and she's big-dogging people. Right, she big-dogs look to the commander. Like she's, I guess she's fresh out of the academy, which maybe excuses some of it, but also she's been at the academy for a few years, right? Like, what happens when you go to the academy?
Starting point is 00:25:39 Because when Wesley came back from the academy, he was super angry and an asshole, too. Hahaha. Everybody just feels so bad about failing that Kobayashi Maru test. It just ruins their mood for years. So she throws a wet blanket on the moods of these helpful crew people right away. I mean, she's also expressing something that I think a lot of people that are differently abled feel,
Starting point is 00:26:09 which is that they don't want all of that attention of people stopping what they would be doing otherwise to help because it kind of feels like, I mean, I imagine it feels like you just have the entire focus of the room on you at all times, every time you go try and do something if you're Yeah, wheelchair or whatever and That has got to feel like a bad, you know, like if you can't get out from under that
Starting point is 00:26:34 I can imagine that being really oppressive. I think mostly she just might be disappointed at her shitty looking wheelchair Like they they rented it from a drugstore on the promenade and fixed. For some reason, aerodynamic wheel covers to the wheels. It's a regular wheelchair that they got some garbage can lids to put over the wheels up. Malora observes that there's been some changes to the chair, is that a fucking bike bell? Give me a break. She's super pissed about this. She's like, I gave you the schematics to this chair and my room. Did you fuck with my room too? Or just the chair? Yeah. And that, that stings a little bit. Yeah. So, that's our kind of a story. We introduce a B story, which is that Quark is in the process of selling some kind of,
Starting point is 00:27:31 I guess they're bracelets or, they're like napkin rings or something. They look to me like mom-bangle bracelets, you know? Like chunky and fun, and you just sort of mix and match them. Right. Yeah. Taking some pottery classes down at the community center. Yeah, I'm really just trying to get out there. Yeah. Get some hobbies.
Starting point is 00:27:53 You know, a lot of my friends have moved away and I don't want to be lonely. You know, me and your father have grown apart a little bit, but I feel like I'm finding myself. Thinking about trying to have sex with a lady. I thought I'd miss my one chance in college. But Facebook has put me back in touch with some people that I never thought I'd see again. Anyways, all this jewelry is just my way of saying, I'm feeling like a new me. But yeah, so this alien, it's that lofihogget kind of alien, which I forget what their species
Starting point is 00:28:34 is. California raisin. Is this species, I think? So quirk and that guy are in the midst of elbow bumping the deal for to exchange these napkin rings for 199 bars of gold press latinum. Quark is totally feeling like the contemporary something in 99 cents salesmanship. Right. Yeah. Feel like a tremendous value. Yeah, this guy feels like he's
Starting point is 00:29:03 just giving up 100 bars. In fact, he's more like he's giving up 200 bars. But a very sinister alien with T. Kettle handle loaf on his face, walks into the bar, and it really changes Quark's mood. Quark is pretty concerned about this guy's arrival. He's threatened by a dick nose who does not beat around the bush about his interest in killing him. Yeah, this guy has a weird approach to murder,
Starting point is 00:29:42 which is his stated intent, is that he states his intent. I think Cork also has a strange position with regard to having been threatened with murder. He does not bring this up with Odo until like many, many seems later. Right. Yeah, and it's just another example of how crime on Deep Space 9 works really differently from everywhere else. Like, Odo is always going and telling Quark that he's aware of whatever Quark scheme is. People are coming to Quark and telling Quark that he's in for it, but then just like hanging
Starting point is 00:30:22 out and like, I guess buying drinks and stuff like, I'm going to order dinner at your bar, but then I'm going to dump the soup on the floor. Yeah. Yeah. Really took a page out of the, the Klingon Playbook on that. The story with him is that he was involved in some sort of prohibition style, stealing of Romulan ale. Yeah, they were space age rum runners,
Starting point is 00:30:48 and Quark did not get in trouble and sent to a labor camp, but this dude did. You ever do that? It was a valid cut. Yeah, it feels very much like the thing you did in school that you weren't caught for, but your friend was. It's not a great feeling. Oh man, yeah. I was always the one that got caught.
Starting point is 00:31:11 Yeah. She refers to it as the Malora problem. She shows up in ops and she's like greeted very kindly by Cisco and she throws a ton of dude back in his face. Where are you outraged by this? Because she doesn't like that he was conferring with Dax and Bashir in her absence because they were discussing something
Starting point is 00:31:39 that had to do with her. To Cisco's credit, he's like really not flapped by this. He's like, yeah, they're my senior officers. I talk to them all the time about a lot of different things and it's not really your place. I don't need to run by the minutes from my meeting past you before we start this one. Melora describes the Melora problem
Starting point is 00:32:01 as her challenges becoming other people's big deal. But the Melora problem to me seems more like she's just not very fun to work with. Yeah, yeah. It's not fun to be treated as though you're ill, but also like the solution to that is not to treat everybody else as though their assholes for considering you at all It's so weird to see like you see aliens of different personality traits a lot Yeah, but it feels rare to see a Federation jerk right most of the time the problem with Federation people is
Starting point is 00:32:46 They're maybe a little spectra me like Barcl, or maybe they're clumsy, or whatever, very innocent problems, personality-wise, but Molora is aggressively almost cruel in the defense of her different abilities. It's kind of the racism problem, where if you are a person of color going around, anytime somebody is an asshole to you, you have to wonder whether that was because racism problem where like if you are a person of color going around like anytime somebody is an asshole to you you have to wonder whether that was because they're being racist or not. Yeah. Like every time somebody makes any
Starting point is 00:33:12 consideration of her she had she's stuck wondering is this because I'm in a wheelchair or because they would have just done this one way or the other. Exactly. So she's you know justifiably defensive. She just also, like, you know, could use some better tools for dealing with this. Bishir seems either uniquely interested or uniquely able to, like, crack through her exterior. Right. And he's in love with her the way Jordi loves a stranger and yet Melores attempt to bronze him into leaving her alone fails. Yeah, he does not play it the same way that Jordi does. And he also
Starting point is 00:34:00 doesn't I mean it's like what he has done is not quite as ski-vy as what Jordy did to Brahms. How many other programs did you create? Perhaps dozens of them won for every day of the week, won for every move. So in that way, she has less to be concerned about, but also he's able to get under skin and to convince her that she can be vulnerable around him. You've decided I need a friend Is that an attack and she starts to be like she starts to admit that the walls she has up are because she
Starting point is 00:34:35 really values being able to achieve What she's achieved on her own terms and without you know a bunch of Assistance from other people. Like, she wants her accomplishments to be her accomplishments and not something that she would never have been able to do without assistance, which is a tricky tension to have, you know?
Starting point is 00:34:58 I just wish that his interest in her felt less like she is a medical problem for him to fix. Yeah. And like there's a scene fairly early on when they're getting to know each other where it's just fucking bishir praddling on about himself and about his great failure at curing someone. Right. He's like, why did I become a doctor? We'll let me tell you and take up all of dinner telling you this. Yeah, they're...
Starting point is 00:35:26 Super self-centered story. Their intimacy becomes more believable to me. I think if he is more interested in her and her deal, rather than sharing himself with her, but though maybe that's true to Melora's deal because she's such a hard nut to crack anyway. Maybe if you're on a date with her, all you can do is talk about yourself. But it is like, I mean, this is her story.
Starting point is 00:35:49 She's definitely the main character in this episode. And I do want to know more about her. Like I feel like if he'd had a quicker answer to why did you become a doctor and then asked her, why did you become a cartographer? She probably had an interesting answer, you know? She's the first of her species to join Starfleet to leave this planet and go to, you know, live in a society with much more gravity than she's used to, like that she's got an interesting backstory that we don't get any of. Yeah, I wish we got a little more of that.
Starting point is 00:36:26 It's an interesting, like we have not gotten to know Bashir very well over the season and a half. And so maybe they just saw it as another. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting the way he kind of kills her with kindness. Like he really won't take asshole for an answer. Whatever it was in him that made him leterus and creepy with Dax, he appears to have a better handle on now. Yeah, I really think that they took him back to the drawing board for season two. And we talked about that a little bit in a recent episode,
Starting point is 00:37:00 but the character seems really different. Yeah, I agree. So they go to her apartment at one point and like she has it rigged up so that she can go low G when she's off work. Because otherwise she has to have like a structural, like she has like an exoskeleton on her uniform. She's mostly in the wheelchair,
Starting point is 00:37:22 but can stand up and like walk with the cane for brief distances. But when like Bashir starts to really appeal to her as a hang and not just as a colleague, like she takes him back to her room and shows her, shows him her, her bouncy castle. This opened up a ton of questions about like, the first question I had was, how can Bishir not be familiar with the idea of zero gravity? Like, it does do the lives in space. It's so fucked up. Like, he's like someone who works at SeaWorld
Starting point is 00:37:58 who falls into a pool and doesn't know how to swim. This should be the easiest thing for him to rock. Yeah. We know that Wharf had low gravity combat training at the Academy. Yeah. It feels like everyone should have gone through that. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:14 But that movie came out, this predates first contact. So they did the same. So that's a red card. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe, I mean, it's the 24th century and they've had artificial gravity forever. Maybe it's just like, nobody likes free fall.
Starting point is 00:38:29 We like the gravity. Yeah, yeah. What do you think zero G sex is like? It's gotta be very difficult. Because you need that sink and bounce. If there's one thing I know right now, having done the show for the time that we've done it, you need the right sink and bounce to
Starting point is 00:38:46 To a sexual Escapade you need to be able to push off something and not fly across the room It's like if you're waitless. I bet it's like when you're both in the swing, right? I mean, I'm speculating. Yeah, there is a great book by Mary Roach called Packing for Mars that's about the science of humans going to space. And she could not go to the bottom of this, but there is some speculation that either NASA or the Russians have actually tried this out,
Starting point is 00:39:30 but nobody knows what the result was. The result has got to be difficulty in cleaning the capsule once you return to gravity. Like that is. Yeah, you don't want to use the rhythm method. I don't know how you get it out of the buttons, right? Yeah, no, you don't want to use the rhythm You get it out of the buttons right? Yeah, no, you don't want to use the rhythm method in Micrographically because it gets everywhere. Yeah
Starting point is 00:39:53 Not just landing on the lower back I'll be taking my food out of the straw pouch from here on out Not gonna expose it to this mist of whatever this is. Yeah, that's actually one thing that you learn in that book is how nasty it gets up there. She has transcripts in that book from the Apollo missions where in the middle of discussing how some experiment is going with Houston or whatever, they comment about how a turd just floated by. Oh my God. Yeah, because the bathroom on in 0G
Starting point is 00:40:38 is like literally like suction cups to your butt, and it tries to suck the material down. Sure. But gravity does a lot of that work. And if you don't get it just right, I think called pop corn kerneling can happen where the fan blade kicks it up and sends it back the wrong way.
Starting point is 00:41:00 Oh no. Yeah, yeah, space is gross, dude. This is why Bashir doesn't like around in microgravity. Yeah, just the poop implications of it alone as a medical Professional he probably knows more about that than anyone You've got to be just like pig penning skin flakes around in that environment too, like the dantriff cloud alone. Yeah. He's got to be awful. Yeah, people with allergies need not apply to NASA.
Starting point is 00:41:33 Good. It's fun time of year for us. It's Max Fundriftime. Yeah, it's still Max Fundriftime, even here at this part of the episode. The thing to do is ignore everything we're saying and just go to maximumfund.org slash donate and get it out of the way because you know we cannot really do this show without the support of our viewers. Like the friends of DeSoto are the customer. We're not, you know, we like when you listen to our show, you hear a couple of ads usually, but they are after like usually an hour of content with no ads.
Starting point is 00:42:32 And the reason we're able to do that is because we're making this show for you guys and you guys step up and support in a big way. It's the way I like to listen to podcasts, you know. Like I don't like a lot of ad breaks. I want to keep those to a minimum and keep them toward the end of the thing and it's a real privilege and honor to do that and the way we incentivize folks to donate to the show is we do the Max Fund Drive every year and the network has put together some awesome gifts for Monthly donors and we want to spend some time talking about those right now One of the things that I think we're especially proud of is the extra content that we make not just around
Starting point is 00:43:19 Pledge drive but for the entire year and as a supporter of the show at the $5 level, you can get access to those special shows. Yeah, and we haven't completely planned this out, but I think that we can say that, I mean, we do have a live episode about Star Trek First Contact that went in the bonus content coffers for this year's Max Fund Drive. But I think if we get to the network goal of 25,000 new and upgrading, Jonas,
Starting point is 00:43:49 you wanna go ahead and say it right now, we'll do a hunt for red October episode. Sure, why not? All right, you heard it here. We are going one ping only this year if the network hits its goal. Once it's planned, it's planned. Russians don't take it up, so I'm so glad.
Starting point is 00:44:06 I think we can do it. And if the Friends of Desoto help that, that'll make a really big difference in our ability to do that. We've got a, an enamel pin for the show, for the $10 per month level. And these were super popular last year. The enamel pins pins people really went crazy for them. So Megan Linncott is back with all new enamel pins for all the shows and
Starting point is 00:44:34 can't wait for you guys to check those out. And if you want to like look at pictures of these gifts go to maximumfund.org slash donate and donate. At the $20 level, Ben, there's something I think our viewers are really going to like. And that is a Max von Family cookbook. You and I have both submitted special recipes to this thing. Yeah, I love this. I can't wait to get this cookbook and try some of the recipes because it's all hosts from the shows contributing recipes. You contributed your legendary meat dip.
Starting point is 00:45:10 Yeah. That you've, I've had it, I went to a like a Super Bowl party at your house random years ago. I only make it once a year. It's medically unfit to be consumed more than once a year. Yeah. That meat dip really helped me avoid being the guy who walks around the super bowl party going, what's this? Sports Bowl?
Starting point is 00:45:31 Yeah. That's the direction I'm naturally drawn to go. You get hostile when you're hungry, so I wanted to make sure I filled you up with delicious meat and cheese dip. At the $35 per month level, you get all of that stuff plus a rocket engraved juice carafe. This is like one of those, one of those caraves that you get with, with water at like a nice French restaurant or a house wine even in an Italian restaurant. Yeah, I mean they say juice carafe, but you can put something a little bit more powerful in there.
Starting point is 00:46:02 Anything in it really. Yeah. Any liquid substance will bit more powerful in there. Anything in it, really. Yeah. Any liquid substance will go in this. Maybe we're not going to ask too many questions. Maybe the bathroom's too far away. I don't know. Look, once it gets to you, it's out of our hands. Yeah. I think the $50 per month is a new level that they've added.
Starting point is 00:46:22 I've been at the 35 level for a few years now so I'm really excited to be upgrading this year myself to the $50 per month level or you get a maximum fun membership card made out of metal. Oh really? It's the metal one Adam. Oh I like that. There's something very satisfying about paying a restaurant bill and throwing down a metal card. Yeah, I don't think this one is a monetary instrument, but- Confuse your waiter by attempting to pay for a meal with your brand new metal engraved Max Fun Membership card. Yeah, it's not gonna get you into the admiral's nest lounge
Starting point is 00:46:58 at the airport, it's not going to get you any discounts at a restaurant. It will just commemorate your support of Maximum Fund out of it plus you get all the previously mentioned gifts. And that's how these levels work. So, Maximumfund.org slash donate, there are also higher levels if you are rich. Also, if you are, you know, between work or a student or whatever, like we don't want this to feel compulsory, we want this to be-
Starting point is 00:47:24 We also don't want it to feel like support starts at $5. If you have $8 or $2 to contribute a month, that really goes a long way in supporting the show. So don't feel like you can't do anything. Yeah. Free ways to support the show include five star reviews. Yeah. And a nice tweet about it or something
Starting point is 00:47:42 to get the word out about the show. All those ways really help. Yeah. But whatever is in your budget, and we hear from people all the time that the show means more than just a thing that they listen to. It's a show that people have really formed amazing connections with and built friendships around. And if you can contribute financially to support its production,
Starting point is 00:48:08 like you help other people find it and you help other people have those positive experiences as well. And that's been like one of the most rewarding parts of doing this for me and Adam. And if you step up by going to Maximumfund.org slash donate, you can ensure that that happens for more people going forward. Spread the positivity around if you can afford it. Maximumfund.org slash donate, get it done now.
Starting point is 00:48:37 Yeah, and then come back and we'll continue our discussion of this episode. Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, so I had him the big high stakes problem that is... Before we continue, can we, I don't think we finished space sex? Oh, okay. So it's clear at this point that Bashir and Melora have had space sex. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:59 It's interesting how little is made over the idea of a supervisor and subordinate. Right. Right. And also a doctor and patient doing that. Yeah. Did that feel because they never, because things never got weird as a result, do you think that is a way for the show to telegraph to the viewer that it doesn't need to be weird?
Starting point is 00:49:22 This happens all the time. Yeah. that it doesn't need to be weird. This happens all the time. Yeah, I mean, I think the only time it even comes up is Molora talking to DAX. Like, do you think romance can work in Starfleet? Right. And DAX is only a only positive experience with that as a 150-year-old example. Yeah, poor DAX, right? Yeah. DAX is just straight jacking it all the time. Yeah, if anybody has karate stands being flicking at this point, it's DAX. Yeah. So the big high stakes A storyline tension is around
Starting point is 00:49:59 Malora wanting to go on cartography missions in a run about solo. wanting to go on cartography missions in a run about solo. And I'm so glad you reminded me Ben because her mission there is almost completely forgotten for large parts of this episode. She's really pissed off that the commander is insisting that she take decks with her. But she's, you know, she pretty quickly reveals that she can't really be trusted alone because she, you know, takes on too much and she gets distracted going down to some supply office and trying to get something and like bailed out on her, on her walker and I guess smashed the controls of her exoskeletan so her like arm's legs are moving without without any control. Yeah. For this character
Starting point is 00:50:53 specifically that seems like a terribly humiliating experience. Yeah the embarrassment of it I thought was was well. And I was fairly impressed by Dax's ability to just pick her up. Yeah. She does seem light, right? Yeah. She must be if she comes from low gravity planet. Yeah, and the way that they made that physicality.
Starting point is 00:51:17 And would she be the same? I don't know how science works. I'm reading the expanse novels right now and they don't really do anything with this in the television show because it's probably still too expensive digitally but the characters that grow up in like the outer planets and like in the belt all like have grown up with less gravity than most people. So they are tall and have like weird shaped heads because their bodies have never had like the relentless pull of Earth's gravity on them. Oh yeah. They haven't
Starting point is 00:51:51 had their turds sucked out of them the way they are here. Yeah. They're used to popcorn turds. I think it's I think the actual term in that is fecal popcorning is the term. I don't know. I think popcorn turns is just a fun spin to put on it. You know, like sometimes it's fun to eat just a big ol' bowl of popcorn turds instead of just the one big turd. Yeah, that a shrimp preference.
Starting point is 00:52:20 Yeah. Sure. But her work situation couldn't be less interesting to either the show itself or to the viewer really. Like, it only serves to move the characters around. Yeah, well, you know, but she starts working on this way. He can like augment some part of her brain to send stronger signals to her muscles and she'll be able to walk around like she grew up in closer to 1G of gravity but
Starting point is 00:52:53 You know, it's like it's fleeting and it's like a treatment that's gonna take a while Do you think what bishir is prescribing has a sexual benefit to? It's interesting. What if I told you I could make you stronger down there? He's like, yeah, it just be nice if you kind of push back every so often. I don't want to feel like I'm the only one doing work. Don't worry deep space 9, where you've, where you've staff making Bashir a creep, we will do the heavy lifting for you. We will never forget. Her character changes so much from the first five minutes, she's like really recalcitrant
Starting point is 00:54:00 and prickly, and by like halfway through the show, she's vulnerable with Bishira and confiding things in him about what it feels like to her to have this difference of ability from other people. And it's pretty radical and I feel like pretty well acted and pretty well written. It's like more of a character change than I feel like a lot of one-off characters get. Right. Like Lieutenant Toast never had anything to do. Now, RSVP Lieutenant Toast. Lieutenant George Pryman, Starfleet Security.
Starting point is 00:54:33 POST POST MEN! Any excuse to use the Toast Drop? When she started like showing that you wanted to bang this year, I was convinced that she was going to buy the farm by the end of the episode. Right. Well, maybe we should discuss a little more of the B story as it relates to the A story because they do wind up crushing paths, don't they? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:55:01 Like a friendship bracelet of plotting where we're braiding the two together towards the end of the episode because Fleetcott breaks into Quark's apartment after hours. The Kardashians clearly brought a similar ethos W slash R slash T locks to their design of Deep Space Nine that the Federation brought to designing the entrepreneur. The doors aren't locked, the runabouts aren't locked. He coerces quirk by the throat to hop onto a runabout, which coincidentally happens around the time that Malora and DAX are coming back from a mission, yeah? Well, yeah, I mean, this dude is in the bedroom looking to do the murder that he's promised
Starting point is 00:55:51 to Quark. And Quark is like, why not instead of murdering me, I give you a bunch of money that I am expecting to be receiving shortly. You never want to roll up to a drop with an unannounced buddy though. And this is the problem with the California raisin does not realize is happening. Like, there's a stranger here. Yeah. And he's not feeling the stranger danger to to analogize the California raisin is one of the nihilists and caught his Walter you know and cork is the dude and the drop does not go well. One way in which the drop goes extremely well is is when the raisin gets phasered.
Starting point is 00:56:43 The bracelets go directly into Cork's arm. He flies back while pushing the purse full of napkin rings out, and it just lands right in the numbers for Cork. Very elegant. Yeah, I heard that raisin was all state in high school as a QB. It was really good. Some people thought he could go to the show, but then he heard his arm. Oh, you're right in the numbers.
Starting point is 00:57:12 I still got it. This is all happening as Malura and Dax are like, you know, just talking girl talk, talking romance in Starfleet, getting off a runabout when Quark and the, and Kot come around the corner and Kot, you know, he hostages them all into the runabout and tells them to take off. No one thinks to Star Trek fight Kot. Like they have the numbers.
Starting point is 00:57:40 Right. There's never an attempt to resist him. That gun must be very scary, but no one even talks about the idea of the gun being particularly scary in the way that the Gore weapons have been that we've seen previously. Yeah, I don't know that you necessarily need to like sell being scared of a gunman, but they also, I mean, it's one of those Star Trek security problems where it's like, why don't you just beam that guy onto the pad in the, in ops and disable his weapon in mid beam, which we know is a thing that can happen.
Starting point is 00:58:15 Yeah. And then like, it's all good, right? Yeah. One would think. I mean, like, they're aware of this abduction happening. They're like watching it on the screens and stuff, right? Like Odo is Odo is watching the progress of it and reporting on it. So, uh, yeah, it's one of those I'm just wave our hands and get past it, but they're on the I guess they're on
Starting point is 00:58:39 the oranoko and sisco and chief of brain. I am Chief Miles Edward O'Brien. This is fucking spectacular. Get on the Rio Grande to chase them through the wormhole. A lot of people feel like the Oranoko ruin the Beatles. Yeah, turns out that's just a hateful way of people marginalizing a woman who's an artist in her own right. It was so much fun to see that thought come together in the room. That B-joke was more entertaining to look at than here.
Starting point is 00:59:18 I could see like if you became the meme like I could see the scientific formula come together to create that joke as you stared off into space creating it. And we should say that like before this, Malore has expressed a little bit of buyer's remorse on these treatments that are helping her walk around. Yeah. Because one thing that she's really talked out whether or not she wanted to go through with them. How could I possibly have second thoughts?
Starting point is 00:59:46 The thing that she's really not loving about it is that she can't go back to her apartment and turn the gravity down at night. Because I mean, I guess it must be the same thing where like astronauts that come back from long periods of being stationed on the International Space Station have like brittle bones and weak muscles
Starting point is 01:00:05 because you're just atrophy up there. Yeah. She's like, my tits are getting super dumpy in this high-gravity environment. I thought I was rocking cannons. Yeah, I came in here looking like Madonna. Now it's just over the shoulder boulder holders. That's not what I want.
Starting point is 01:00:24 That would have been an interesting place to take it. Like, there's a certain vanity associated with how her body conforms to a gravity environment that changes, that has to change. It must. If she had the dick nose that Cod is rocking, like her dick would be on the ground. Her face would be fucked up.
Starting point is 01:00:41 I felt really bad for that actor that played Cod, having, like, I was picturing what, craft services. Yeah. You know, like, he's restricted to celery and carrots as his foods. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:00:53 Or like, taking a hot dog out of the bun and sliding it inside ways. Yeah, let us straw drinking for that guy. I guess the reason I brought up the lack of resistance from the people to him is that I wanted that used against him. Like I wanted someone to grab his face like it had a handle on it. Yeah. And like wing him into a wall, but we never get pay off that way. Yeah, that that check-ups T-Hettle handle never pays off. He's got check-ups nose.
Starting point is 01:01:33 So they go through the wormhole and, and, and, and, and, and, O'Brien are like hot on their heels and, and they're like, they're on the face time and God is like, I'm going to start killing hostages unless you fuck off. And, and to demonstrate that he is serious, he blasts Melora and she like bails out off the chair that she's sitting in and off screen. Like you basically shoots her out of the television. I love how they cross cut ops with this scene and basically no one flinches. Like they watch someone basically be executed in front of them and Bishira especially is like, hmm damn. But like emotion is like, hmm damn. But like, emotion is appropriate in this moment. Yeah, they should have been horrified. Like, Starfleet's don't get abducted and murdered like this.
Starting point is 01:02:15 Yeah. This is crazy. Yeah. I mean, think about as many times as somebody was like kidnapped or hijacked or something in TNG, and nobody ever got killed. Fili caught is like as evil as it gets on the show. And for some reason I never felt threatened by him, was it because he looks ridiculous?
Starting point is 01:02:37 Because he has dorky loaf. I mean, maybe that's, maybe that's what it took. Yeah, I think he might be right. Like he's got that, he's got that like 70s feathered hair that covers his ears too. Yeah. Like, it just looks silly. Yeah, the episode asks you to fear him, but if you don't, I think the episode falls apart a little bit.
Starting point is 01:03:00 Yeah, I mean, he's not scary. And the episode may be asked you much. It turns out Malora did not, in fact, you know, the rumors of her death have been wildly exaggerated. And she manages to kind of like back herself up on the floor to some control in the back of the runabout. There's apparently a button that turns the gravity off and on that back panel there. Yeah, you got to get to that button. Yeah. So once she does that, she is able to do a single act of Null G Star Trek fighting, which is kind of torpedo herself across the room at this guy. Did you ever play Mortal Kombat?
Starting point is 01:03:53 I thought that looked like a Raiden move, like the Raiden spear across screen. Raiden brings the Lollis Victory Baby Paladin. Except for she didn't like blast out his back, just spying in her hands or something. Right. That would have been great. They cut to the exterior of the run-of-out
Starting point is 01:04:11 and the windshield just looks red. Just painted red. Right. Yeah, it's like, I wanted to see this fight scene. Yeah. I wanted them to, like, they did a lot of wire work in this episode showing Bashir and her, you know, piling around in a confined space having a 0G combat scene would have been really cool.
Starting point is 01:04:32 Yeah, and I was reading about the production of this app because I was interested in, because it was so unique in its wire work for a Star Trek episode, like what they did to do it. And the reason they didn't use wire work more than they did was because they hand painted all the wires out frame by frame. And I mean, on a show with a production schedule like this, you just don't have the time to do that. That is so time consuming to do. Yeah. That they basically had time, I think, for the three scenes that they did wire comps on, and then that was it.
Starting point is 01:05:06 But they did believe that Melora was going to be a character that returned, and so they kept all the gear for the wire work. And they never ended up using it. I think around season five or six, they ended up throwing it in the garbage. Like, yeah. They're like, we don't have room for this thing.
Starting point is 01:05:20 Let's get rid of it. Did you see anything about why Melora never came back? They just didn't wind up having a storyline that they felt like she fit in? Yeah, I think, you know, she's relegated to the dust heap with lieutenant toast. Yeah, this show is incredibly cruel. It's its characters in that way. The end of the episode is the cut gets taken into custody and Malora and Bashir go have Chow at the Klingon restaurant and she breaks it to him that the treatments that she's
Starting point is 01:05:55 been doing are not going to work for. And it's not, like they don't leave it like she's leaving or anything, but it does kind of feel like a good goodbye in a weird way. This was one of the best parts of the episode to me because when she was shot and then revealed to be alive, I felt like the decision that was given to her earlier would be taken away. And so like the result of having been shot would mean
Starting point is 01:06:20 that she could not continue the therapy and then her agency about that decision would be lost. But I was very satisfied that she was able to keep that agency and make the decision for herself. And that made it seem to be like an earned thing. One thing that was clear from the scene for me though was just how deeply uncomfortable a mariachi of any kind is when they approach your table at a restaurant like Especially when you're trying to have a deep conversation and it gets loud. Yeah, you know
Starting point is 01:06:50 Yeah, you've never heard one ton of made unless you've heard it in the original cling on yeah Yeah, that never gets less comfortable as the centuries pass, huh? Yeah, yeah I really liked that the Well, I remember that there was a Klingon restaurant on this show but I liked that it was like there's a new Klingon restaurant on the promenade. Let's go try it. And then she does like my uncle spoke fluent Chinese and it was real fun to go into Chinese restaurants with him and have him like order from the you, construction paper signs on the walls and not on the menu.
Starting point is 01:07:25 Yeah. Like he's seeing stuff up there that's not in English on the menu and ordering that stuff and like blowing away the staff because he doesn't look like a, he didn't look like a, you know, a cosmopolitan dude who was fluent in her language. Yeah, like Mongolian beef is delicious, but there's some stuff on the special menu
Starting point is 01:07:49 that you just don't know that you have access to without a person like that. And that's Malorra. She can go toe-to-toe with the Klingon restaurant tour. She does not want the rawt that's half dead. She wants the good stuff. There's a great Chinese restaurant, a few blocks from my house that has the two menus.
Starting point is 01:08:08 And on the alternate menu, there's like the stinking tofu. And like the flowery described, like hardcore Chinese dishes that are so delicious. Yeah, right, but are not exactly crowd pleasers in this country. Like, much like how I've always wanted to be the regular at a bar, like the respect nuts from the kitchen at a restaurant like that, I want so bad. Right.
Starting point is 01:08:38 Did you like this episode? I did. I think it's definitely like a, in some ways, a very special episode. You know, it's kind of a bout a thing. But I think Deep Space Nine is better at this than TNG was. You know, when TNG had an episode that's like telling you a thing, it wants you to have values about or whatever, it's like, Wesley, some people take drugs to get, you know, to, because they make you feel good. I would anyone take drugs. Yeah. Deep space nine is, is less ineligant than TNG was in that way, because it does not turn
Starting point is 01:09:18 directly to camera with those opinions. The writer of this episode was confined to a wheelchair. Like this is coming from a very personal place that I think is important to call attention to. Well, and I think that that's like, there's a little bit of courage in depicting Malora as prickly and unlikeable initially, because it makes it a little harder
Starting point is 01:09:41 to wind up empathizing with her as a viewer. She comes in a little bit as an antagonist and winds up being the one you're rooting for. And the one you want to make the best decision for her. You want her to do what is going to be good for Malora in the end. And that's a really cool way to do that, I think. I think that in TNG, like they would not necessarily have had the guts to not start with a likable character. Right. I mean, when you look at the construction of a story as a series of problems that need solving, it is a very efficient way to solve a problem with attitude to have the conclusion be a smile, for example. It's very tidy to do it in that way. And so when
Starting point is 01:10:36 we like her at the end, that's a fast way to end her story in a way that we can understand. Indeed. I think I like the episode to, you know, what like at the end of the last episode, when you were telling me about this one, it was easy to come into it, thinking that it was going to be one of the preachy Star Trek shows. Yeah. I was surprised at how much it did not take that route towards its lessons. It's pretty cool. Well, I guess we don't have P1s, right?
Starting point is 01:11:09 Oh, that's right. Episodes during the Max Fund drive do not have priority one messages. Or advertisements. Or advertisements. Got it, got it, got that, got that, got that, got that, got that, got that, got that, got that. Go, press like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, like a rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, rock, no rock, no rock, rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, rock, no rock, no rock, rock, no rock, rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, no rock, rock, no rock, rock, no rock, rock, no rock, no rock, rock, no rock, rock, no rock, rock, rock, no rock, no rock, rock, no rock, no rock, rock, rock, rock, no rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, no rock, rock, no rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, episode to find one. Yeah. Um, I am going to go outside the context of the show though and into its production. Okay. Which is Nanaa Visitor is in this show. You may have blinked and missed her. But she went through the effort of going into, no reply, understood, and energizing.
Starting point is 01:12:11 She's basically just responding to people. And then that's it. I'm just here in the cheap seats, but I counted five there. No reply, I believe. Just, it's true. Send your corrections to Jordan and Jesse of J.J. Go. I, that was, that really stuck out to me as a like she's on screen and I was like oh,
Starting point is 01:12:31 hello. And then I was like oh she's gone. That's it. That's all we get. Goodbye. Yeah. How about you, Ben? My drink Shemota is Bashir just for the way he reacted when she described turning the gravity down as like getting into a hot tub. Yeah. Because he's like, oh, like the erotic potential of it is the only thing that he does in his performance. Like his performance is 100% about processing the erotic potential and 0% about anything else. And that so funny to me like I laughed out loud in that moment and the episode. There are a few other things that can elicit a response like that just by by a description of a possession that you have hot tub is one of them water bed is another. Like it's almost almost purely eroticized. It's
Starting point is 01:13:27 soon as it's discussed. Yeah. So for that reason, Bashir gets my drunk Samota. What are we have coming up in the next episode? Adam, the next episode is season two episode seven, Rules of Acquisition, a Farenki female who has defied the law and disguised herself as a male, risks it all when she falls in love with Quark. Or as Netflix puts it, while engaging in a game of Tango with Rom, Dex, and a young Farenki waiter, Quark is hailed by his leader, Grand Nega Zek. Who has good news for him? I feel like the only thing a Farenki female has to do to pass as a Farenki male is put on clothes, right? Yeah, we'll see. Yeah. The only Farenki female that I have a recent memory of seeing is that picture of Quark's mom.
Starting point is 01:14:26 And she's pretty much the same. Real feast for the eyes. Yeah. It's like a aged fringy loaf is especially upsetting. Yeah. Hey, Adam. So we are on square 14 of Game of Buttholes, the will of the prophets. And you're required to learn as you play. Roll.
Starting point is 01:14:50 We could potentially hit a Quarx Bar if we roll, I think, a four, right? Yeah. Yeah, so shall we roll? Let's do it. Shula! Did I win? Harvey! We roll the six.
Starting point is 01:15:07 So a six overshoot squarks bar a little bit and we are on square 20. A standard issue episode, but a special episode like this one for it occurs during the Max Fund drive 2018. Yeah, and we're so appreciative to all the people who have already stepped up and supported. It made a big difference in my life this year to have supporters at all because, you know, my wife and I moved across the country and I, you know, like I'm in a new city with not the same clients that I had previously. And I didn't need to put the greatest generation on hiatus so that I could focus on developing a client list
Starting point is 01:15:50 because the greatest generation is not a time suck at this point. It's a source of stability in my life. And if it hadn't been that, like I really honestly think we would have probably had to take at least a month or two off. And the fact that we have people supporting the show I really honestly think we would have probably had to take at least a month or two off. And the fact that we have people supporting the show on a monthly basis made all the difference in the world on that decision.
Starting point is 01:16:15 So that's the kind of thing you're paying for. It's like continuity of show and quality of show and our ability to take it really seriously and make it the best thing we can make it. In the way that you depend on us to deliver shows every week, we have come to depend on you to help make sure that that's possible. I know personally, I am really excited for the months and years ahead, what we're able to do weird, fun, interesting things, things that involve risk, both financially or otherwise. And I'm excited for the ability to do those things. And I think the only way that we're able to do things like go out on tour and pay people
Starting point is 01:17:01 to design merch for us. And all the other things that we love doing to make the show more than just the show to make it into the larger... I don't know what I'm trying to say, like... Yeah, it's just a larger ecosystem to the show than just the show and that's all made possible through the support of our viewers. So we really, really greatly appreciate it and if you'd like to join the
Starting point is 01:17:24 the hordes of people who have already stepped up to the plate, it's maximumfund.org slash donate. And there is a level of contribution that's right for just about anybody. So thank you to everybody that does that. And with that, we'll be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek Deep Space 9
Starting point is 01:17:46 And an episode of the greatest generation deep space 9 That may or may not be wearing clothes Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Y'all pick out of God, God, God, God. Maximumfund.org Comedy and culture, artist owned. Listener supported.

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