The Greatest Generation - Complex Capitalist (VOY S5E1)

Episode Date: November 28, 2022

When Voyager is two months into traversing another space obstacle, the crew is struggling with the idea of two more years in the void. But when they meet a Captain Planet villain who offers them a shortcut, Captain Janeway weighs the vortex against her own need for redemption. What kind of person would marry a bit murderer? Were the Hirogen wrong about everything? What makes Janeway’s ready room classy? It’s the episode that never misses an issue of Kojak Fancy!Support the production of The Greatest Generation.Friends of DeSoto for Democracy.Friends of DeSoto for Justice. Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Caretaker!Music by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaFollow The Greatest Generation on Twitter, and discuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen!The Greatest Generation is on Twitch.Facebook group | Subreddit | Discord | WikiSign up for our mailing list!

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

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

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

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

and season two of Star Trek Picard. We've set up a page where you can also contribute. It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdisotoforlabor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage! Watch your bad shot. Hello. I'm Captain Captain Bringengwe. The U.S.S. Border. Captain Captain. Bringengwe the U.S.S. Border. U.S. Captain. Captain.

Welcome to the greatest generation to Star Trek Podcast by a couple of guys. Just a little bit embarrassed about having a Star Trek Podcast. I'm Adam Pranica. I'm Ben Harrison. Hey, we have a little bit of business top of the show. Uh-oh. Then we'll get into some fun stuff. But uh... A serious business? There was an incident with mail call.

Few episodes back, folks might remember. Might remember. Remember? Uh-huh. The most part, the glitter has been abated. As much as glitter can be abated, you know? You're gonna want to call up a trade for glitter abatement before selling your property. Yeah, they're gonna come have to test trade for glitter abatement before selling your property.

Yeah, they're gonna come have to test the glitter, see if it's got lead in it. Any home inspector is gonna test for glitter. We've taped off the entire area with sheets of plastic and we're using a negative pressure system to make sure that no contamination gets into the rest of the structure. All surfaces that have ever touched glitter

have been cut with a sawzall placed in a two heavy duty lawn bags and then taken to the dumpster. Yeah. I mean, just getting the certification for glitter abatement is a big deal. It's a lot. So to avoid future glitter incidents, we're gonna reopen the PO box.

So if you want to send something, we love opening stuff on the show. So we want to get that back going. We love opening stuff on the show. Friends of DeSoto, fine with listening to us opening stuff on the show. Well, they keep sending stuff. So I take that as a vote of confidence in the segment. Yeah, they can always stop. And we've gotten such great stuff, you know? Like the shelves in my office are a monument to the wonderful generosity of the friends of DeSoto.

But just do like add a layer of security. What we're gonna ask you to do is take a picture of the package after describing it to Bill. So you slide into the DMs on one of our at greatest Trek social media accounts. Tell Bill what you wanna send. If it passes, muster, he will give you the PO box address, but also send him a picture of the box

when you put it in the mail, just so that we don't get any rouge boxes that are from people that are potentially malicious or people that are just having a bad bit moment. You are thinking just a picture of the box. You don't want a picture of the person or maybe like I've been watching a lot of the VAL on HBO and like a big part of the cult sensibility of it is collateral. I'm thinking maybe you should also, in addition to a picture of the box, send us a picture you would not like us to share. Oh, yeah.

Or maybe you write a letter to a family member admitting something deeply embarrassing. Maybe we should add that on the show. That sort of thing. You put that in an envelope with a stamp addressed to that family member and include that in the box. Yeah, I think that's really the level we want to be with the code 47 now. I'm looking at my microphone and I'm seeing a piece of glitter on it still.

Yeah. I don't know how that's still there. I've gone over this thing so many times. It'll be with you forever. Yeah. Anyways, speaking of bad bit moments, Adam, I've had a couple lately that I wanted to share with you. I'm just happy you're getting out of the house. I thought this would be very difficult for you to achieve, but I'm very excited to hear your bad bit moment. Bits, bits, bits, bits, bits, bits, bits, bits, bits, bits, bits, bits, bits, bits, bits, I was doing bits. Bad bit moment. Bad bit moment.

So, these folks, lovely friends also just had a baby and they happened to be taking the same baby class down at the community center with us. Where plumbers like to gather. Yeah, so this is, I thought that this was going to be sort of a mommy and me that is open to dads as well. But it's more of like an infant development thing, like the lady that leads the class is has like a degree in like infant neurobiology or something like that. So she's talking about like, you know, stages of progression and milestones and things that we can do to, you know, manage the very complex nature of having a new baby.

And I was describing trying to put our son to bed as being like he's having a heavy metal party and I'm trying to change the vibe. And the instructor in the class was like, yes, you're kind of the RA in this scenario. And I was like, yeah, we've got the box full of condoms and dental dams on the door. And she's like, yeah, you're like going down the hall,

like knocking, telling, telling them people are trying to study. And I, like she and I are batting this back and forth. Wow. This is the third class. And a dad that has not been at the first two classes, but is here for the first time just interjects. How long is this bit gonna go on?

Oh no. Yeah. A bit killer. He killed the bit, he just like murdered it dead in the middle of the room in front of everyone. Strangle it even. Fortunately I didn't have to defend the bit like the room in front of everyone. Strangle, didn't even. Fortunately, I didn't have to defend the bit. Like, the instructor was like, I will drive a bit into the wall. And we had already crossed the my wife rolling her eyes threshold, but I was having a ton of fun and so was the instructor.

And this guy just came in and curbed stomped the bit. And I don't know what to think about this guy, because I was like, like his wife. What that guy was there for serious business, not this bit of flirtation. I know, but like his baby, Obama, his wife, I think has been one of the people that we've like had nice interactions with after class.

Like I could see a friendship growing there and this guy just like came in and took me. Not anymore. Murdered my fucking bit. No fucking double date for you. after class, like I could see a friendship growing there. And this guy just like came in and thinking, not anymore. Murdered my fucking bit. No fucking double date for you. Yeah, you can't wanna hang out with him anymore. Also, I think you questioned the judgment

of her given she married a no bit. Yeah, a bitless man. Yeah. Oh, that's brutal. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a very Lucy Goosey class. It's a class full of babies. Like most of the time, there's brutal. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a very Lucy Goosey class. It's a class full of babies. Like most of the time, there's crying,

somebody's getting their diaper changed. Some like, they're multiple boobs out getting suckled on in this class at all times. What day in time is this class? And where is it? Like, you don't need to kill the bit. This is like all we have, man. It really is.

Yeah, your options for comedy, you're pretty limited. Why would you just kill the bit like that? Get involved in the bit. Don't kill the bit. That's my message to everyone. Enjoy bits. That's a fun. I mean, that guy sounds like the real me of the class.

Like, not, yes, ending you at all. Just like watching that comedy hack you sack fall to the ground. Yeah, like denying it, like coming in like of the class, like not yes, ending you at all. Just like watching that comedy hacky sack fall to the ground. Yeah, like denying it, like coming in like an NBA player, like no! You've only got room for one of those people in your life and fortunately that's me. Yeah.

So I've been having my own bad bit moments lately. Damn. I mean, like that one had all the potential of being a good bit moment and it just crashed and burned. All it takes is one bad baby class student to spoil the broth, huh? Yeah. Yeah. The bit broth, if you will. Indeed. And all it takes as one freighter to spoil the expanse. Yeah, that's really true, if you will. We meet one of the real low lives

and all the Star Trek this episode, don't we? No kidding. Do you wanna get into this episode of Star Trek Voyager? Before we do, we should probably say, we're watching this episode in a specific way, aren't we? Oh, good reminder, yeah. We, at the end of the last episode, landed on a square that told us, we were going to have to argue most of this episode, more than normal, even.

The measure of a man square is where we are in the game of buttolls. And that means we need to flip a coin and then based on the coin flip, vehemently argue the pros or cons of the episode. Someone takes the positive, someone takes the negative. Yeah, and we don't know yet who is going to be pro the episode. Tell up on it for a while. It brings a sense of ordering stability to my universe to know that you're still a pompous ass.

Portram is a crucible and if we burn away irrelevance, we are left with a pure product that's true. When people of good conscience have an honest dispute, we must still sometimes resort to this kind of adversarial system. Hopefully we can make some good law out here. And for good measure, fit on this. Alright, I've got a coin here. This is the first challenge coin we ever did.

This is the Dustbuster Club challenge coin from our, was this from our first contact tour? Yeah, I think so. Two captains, one, Nexus. What's heads and what's tails? All right, so I think tails is this side. It's the Cross Despusters, yeah. It's the entrepreneur with Cross Despusters, and I'm Tails is this side. It's the... Cross-despusters, yeah. It's the entrepreneur with cross-despusters,

and I'm gonna call this heads. It's just... We didn't put a face on one of the sides. It's just the name of the show. Okay, and if I win, I get to choose whether or not I want to go positive or negative? I guess so, yeah. I can't remember how we've done it in the past. But yeah, I'm down with that. Or do you want to flip it for me and based on the flip, whether it's heads,

it's positive tails, it's negative. Okay. So I'll flip for you. And then after that, you flip for yourself and it's possible for us to be both one thing, but we still have to argue. Right. All right. Flipping coin. It's heads, Adam. You are for this episode. I am fucking pissed about this episode. All right, let's get into it, Ben.

It's the season premiere of season five of Star Trek Voyager. And the name is Knight with an N. Yeah, not a K-N. Right. Reaver, of course. Unless you've got something a little bigger in your torpedo Yeah, not a K-N. Right. Breaver, of course. Unless you've got something a little bigger in your torpedo tubes, I'm not turning around.

Oh! Adam, one of the dumbest opens. How dare you? I mean, we come back from a summer away from the show, and it's like, what are you trying to throw us off, trying to make us think that this is some kind of 1950 sci-fi cereal? Give me a fucking break.

It is a very jarring open. It's first of all, like this is a show that's presented in TV format. But the black and white four by three footage of like an old timey TV, even smaller than what we're used to. Yeah. This is like one of those TV channels you can only get over the antenna. I'm familiar with this. I've been watching the antenna TV for like 10 years.

You get like channel 7.9 or something. It's a station you've never heard of. Mm-hmm. The only place like Kojak, like 24 hours of Kojak. It would think that it would not pay back, but money didn't, it cost to invest in getting a television channel and broadcasting it to just like Kojak. One of the arguments against cable is like

with a thousand channels, you could have a channel about anyone specific thing like magazines, right? Like specialty magazines, but it would seem that antenna channels could go the same way, right? Why, why limited? Give me all the antenna channels. So you're stuck on channel 7.9, Kojak Fancy. Yeah. Kojak Fancy is my favorite specialty magazine, $10, an issue, though. Oh, yeah. When the circulation is that low, like how else are they going to make money? No ads.

When I go to the vet, there's the same issue of Equis Magazine on the table, the magazine for horse enthusiasts and Ben, I've never seen a horse at this veterinary clinic. I don't know why it's there. And it is from 2007. Does it review Harry Potter's dick at any point in that magazine? It really should. Harry Potter should be on the cover of that magazine for certain. So yeah, this is like, I don't think that there's much appeal for me personally

in the nostalgia of bad sci-fi, like the heroic white hero complex guy rescuing the fair maiden who's been taken captive at his buddy, you know, like the... I love the Harry Kim is the millhouse of playtime, and it's like the guy tied up to the lady hostage. Like, what is in this game for Kim? Yeah, like, he definitely is being a solid friend to Paris if I'm gonna look at it charitably. Right. You'll never get away with this.

Oh, but I shall. Are you telling me that they underwrite the character of Harry Kim, Invoidger, and then within his own fantasy life, Invoidger? He is also underwritten? Yeah, that's a painful realization, I think. He was stating the obvious again. We could meet Captain Proton, who was the hero that fights Chaotica, the arch nemesis in this context,

Captain Proton played by a Tom Paris with a much tighter haircut than previously. Yeah, I was totally on the lookout for the newness of a episode one in a new season, right? What are the changes? Yeah, what's been upgraded? I think one way to sneak a change in is to have your opening scene on the holodeck.

Like, is this holodeck hair for Paris? Or is this season five hair for Paris? Yeah. Remains to be seen at this point. If the holodeck can make you pregnant, it could probably make you have a different haircut, right? Just thinking, just resting in the statement of if a holodeck can make you pregnant. Big questions.

It's subtle. Yeah, a lot of interesting implications for what the holodeck is capable of in this episode because the dot walks it and he's in full color. Everything else is in black and white. He's breaking K-fabe by walking in in color. They've got to order the computer to adjust his saturation.

He's like in a Toby McWire movie, where things seem too good to be true. Yeah. And then you start to see in like the reality of a circumstances. Spider-Man. This is like getting a tennis court at the park. You've got a window, you know?

Yeah. And then you got a leave. Yeah, he ran his light. That's a pair of stick. Can't do that. Yeah. Yeah. This is not the tightest set he's ever done.

Yeah. And the doc is pissed off because he wants to practice his opera, which apparently he can't do in his office. And yeah, so we get the idea that the holodeck is in high demand at the minute. It's kind of an amazing moment, low key. Like, we breeze through it without really recognizing that Tom Harris has to treat the doctor like a person and not be like, Doc, you're a fucking hologram. And mentally I'm falling apart, I need this program to like for my mental health.

So fuck off. That never happens. I think by saying that, I'm saying that the doc has achieved total humanity equivalents, right? I think so, yeah. I mean, I don't want to get in the business of defending this episode because it's bad. Also, the very name is racist, I get it.

I guess the implication here is that the docs, mentals are just as fragile and just as important as paruses. I think that does strain credulity. Come to think of it. Thanks for pointing that out. Thank you for helping my side of the argument. Wow. I didn't mean to do that.

Yikes. So another thing that's strange, credulity is up on the bridge, we see what's on the main viewer, and it's just blackness. And they've been in this for a couple of months. What my theory of presupposes is, they could just point the camera backwards

at the star systems that they're leaving and still see those, right? I thought about this so much, right? Like, you can get on a modern airliner and hit a button beneath your window and it changes the opacity of the window. Yeah. You're telling me on the Starship Voyager,

you can't project anything where the window is, like you can't make it an aquarium out of a dentist's waiting room through all the windows. You couldn't make it fun or interesting. It has to be black. It's gotta be black. I guess transparent aluminum has some limitations

with what you can do with the projection, right? Yeah, yeah. I was very disappointed in this technology. So it sort of seems like Chicoete is just in charge here. And the argument is boiling over down in the holodeck where Paris is trying to make the case that they're studying sociology. This is like in Calvin and Hobbes when you get convinces his parents to buy them stuff from the

museum gift shop like all the dinosaur toys because they're quote unquote educational. Several jobs ago I tried to make the case that Max Funcon as a writer, I was doing a lot of comedy writing, would be good for me and that work should pay for my attendance. They did not see it the same way I did. And they refused to pay. Yeah, that sounds not super dissimilar from the way the expert Shimoda Corporation treats, you know, covering expenses for employees. Yeah, still paying my own way to Max Funcon. RSVP Max Funcon. Yeah, covering expenses for employees. Yeah. Still pay in my own way to max fun con RSVP max fun con.

Yeah. It will be missed. Starting here, Ben, did you notice how unusual all of the camera movements were and really like the lensing was like you used to see in chicotes face look a certain way. And that's because you use lenses that are very flattering to faces when you shoot television. But these were not portraiture vocal legs. And when the cameras floating around these characters starting here and for the rest of

the episode, I thought it made everyone look not their best, but in a way that's intentional, right? The stress of being in this void is meant to be worn on our characters. I guess so. I mean, I sort of interpreted it as just a mistake. Oh, yeah, you would. But yeah, the ship experiences a banger. Like, Jakote is off to tell the captain about sevens findings that they're alone in this

part of space and they're going to be for a long time. There's a finger banger, Ben, because when the doc in Paris are fighting over the controls in the holiday, this is something that Chico Tay picks up on on the bridge. Yeah, yeah, he wants to know what gives, because he is worried about this from a crew morale standpoint.

If we go down to one holiday, when it's in this high of demand, we are going to have a fucking mutiny on our hands. Yeah, it's not good. I'm giving you an order. I'm giving you an order. It's bad under spurt. I'm giving you an order. I'm giving you an UF just crossed the line.

This is another no choice but to cross it. Like, this is a warmed over that nebula from one or necrotic spans experience. Kind of an antinebula though, right? This is just voyage or dipping back into the same goddamn six fucking scenarios they ever encounter. With the new twist, I'd say. No choice but to cross it. We learn in this scene, there are two months into this transit and the entire trip through this thing, supposed to take two years.

They're already falling apart. It's gonna be a long trip. They have a, I'm a Glockflin group of nothing. Uh, we are now out of time. Bye, bye. I mean, why even have the meeting? There's not even any issues to discuss. Yeah. Imagine tuning into a Glockflin group

where issue one is just room tone. Yeah, it's just like talking about the weather, you know. Yeah. It's not good. That's not what you tune in for. Eleanor Clifft saying that she had a pretty good tuna fish sandwich for lunch. Pat, you can immediately taking that in the direction of like the price of tuna, running out of control.

It's these damn liberals trying to keep the dolphin meat out of tuna. So at this meeting, there's no new news, including the news of them having to ration their power, right? Right. Like, that's a problem that's not going away. They're having to use these power cells and ration the energy during transit. They're certainly not going to find a planet with deuterium in the void. No.

They've got to survive on what they've got for two years. And there's also a little discussion of like the crew morale issues. And Nielix is trying to come up with ideas, but they seem sort of self-serving. Nielix is like, yeah, put people on different rotations. I, for example, could train with tactical. He is always trying to get into fucking tactical. He really is. Why does he want this?

Moral is Neelix's job. Hey, Neelix, why don't you do that job better and then maybe you can get a crew rotation? Yeah, yeah. Check in with me when Moral is at 100%, then you can learn how to fire the phasers and shit. One great idea gets floated here. The construction of a third holodeck in cargo bay, too.

Yeah, that is a good idea. You should make holos deck all sorts of places. Yeah, the herojin maybe weren't wrong in trying to convert as much of the ship as possible. Did they leave those emitters up? They should have. You don't want a reminder of the bane. So it would sort of be kind of a drag, right? Especially when they're Nazi banes, like You don't want a reminder of the Bane. So it's sort of be kind of a drag, right? Especially when they're Nazi Banes. Like you don't... Yeah, you come home and find yourself

in a in a Nazi occupied French village at the end of a shift. It's like, oh, fuck, come on! Again! Do you think that's morale neutral given what we're learning about how how people are feeling at this moment in time? Yeah, yeah, it's like, well, at least it's different. Something's brought up in this meeting about where Janeway might be. And at this moment in the episode, I had the same question, where is she? What's she up to?

They kind of treat the subject as a sore one, though. Especially Chicoete. Chicoete is mega defensive about where Janeway is and why she's squirreling herself away. It's pretty odd. You've got to admit it. It's her choice. She can run this ship from wherever the hell she wants to.

Understood? If you need to ask the captain a question, you can do it after she gets out of the bath, not before. Yeah. Harry would say or do anything to stay out of the Captain Proton program at this point, right? He's like, look, I think we should just treat this whole thing as a fun adventure, as a nice little break, maybe approach it with a positive mental attitude. Yeah. BLT is not having this. BLT smashes his fucking clarinet on the table and the meeting ends.

And the camera follows in a very floaty fashion, follows Chico Tei from the meeting back onto the bridge. I don't think we've gotten a transition like this before. Yeah, I wonder if they moved the set or something because I don't think I realized that the door to the meeting room was just a door on the bridge. Yeah. I mean, that's convenient, right? Because bangers mostly drop when you're in a meeting like this.

It seems to be in the same spot as the card's ready room is on the D, right? Right, but that was a ready room, and this is a conference room. Yeah. Yeah. Janeway's ready room is on the other side, is it not? Right, it's like perfectly opposite on the circle. Janeway's ready room also has a step down, whatcha' like? Yeah, that's classy, you know?

You know, 70s kind of way. Yeah, it's all carpeted. Let's get down in there. Who knows what happens in the step down? The morale officer wakes up in the middle of the night having a real morale problem of his own. Yeah. He says to himself, he's gonna replicate curtains

after he looks out the window into the inky blackness. Uh-huh. We just found out that they're low on power. How is this episode trying to have it both ways? That Nielix can replicate a frivolity, like a fucking curtain, when we know he has extra blankets, and yet the power is super limited.

Yeah, he's just move a bookcase in front of the window or maybe hang a framed picture of Kess. Up in front, that would make him feel better, right? Actually, that's two versions of emptiness. They're probably just like looking at the same thing, right? Yeah, yeah, that's it. Well, I'm glad you agree with me. I'm glad you're taking my side on this one.

I would not let that black window stand though. Like, it's already been two months and he hasn't put anything in front of it. What would you put in front of your black window, Ben? Mm. Probably a poster of Cass. Yeah, it was a great idea, wasn't it? Because it's not emptiness for me.

It's just the lovely Jennifer Lean. In the Messhol, it's 3 a.m. And Paris and BLT are playing a game I did not recognize before this episode. It's called Terrada. And it's like a more subtle game of checkers. Like, going on checkers? Is that what it is? Yeah, maybe. Yeah, I mean, you want to play with two boards.

If it were a Klingon game, did you understand it to be of Klingon heritage? Well, there's the board that's there in front of you, and then there's the board in your mind. Right. Yeah. I don't know if it's like this in your house, but playing games like this can lead to a fight in your relationship. And sure as shit, this starts one up between Paris and BLT. You don't want to start a fight with me right now, not at 3 a.m. 3 in the morning, 4 in the afternoon. What's the difference? You're angry 24 hours a day.

Peter sort of takes the opposite of what I do in this fight, like the like, let's go ahead and fight all night. Kind of thing, like, I'm always like, I'm too tired to do this right now. Can we like address this in the morning? Yeah, 3 a.m. Absolutely.

And he's like, we're already up. Yeah, that's brutal. A lot of people are up. Yeah. I was surprised at how many people were in the mess hall at this moment in time, Nelix. I would assume has walked there after having his tea. Like, he just couldn't sleep,

so he goes into work and breaks up, or at least tries to break up this tension, except he's more intense than anyone. Yeah. I guess his medical emergency is the thing that really dumps the bucket of ice water on the fight, which, you know, like BLT is supposed to have that hot, clean on blood. I don't think she would care. I think she would continue the fight.

I think so too. But I guess everybody's out of sorts. Nielix is not someone who should be hyperventilating what with his one lung? I know. It seems like it should be very dangerous for this to happen and instead it's never treated with any lethality. It just seems like an inconvenience. Nobody talks about replicating him

on another hollow lung in this context. Now it's beyond their means, beyond their energy probably. Neelix looks around the ship, he sees all these power cells, like that could be my long. That could be my long too. He used up his his power a lot and replicating curtains so he doesn't get a long. In six bay where Neelix has taken, the dot gives him something for the hyperventilating, but not for the one lung. And he's diagnosed with niallophobia, the fear of nothingness. And then he starts a nothing measuring contest

with Neelix because he goes into the void multiple times a day sometimes. He doesn't even feel it anymore. He's desensitized to the void. Man, Nielix would be really terrified of that band in the Bigelabowski. Yeah. He believes in nothing. He believes in nothing, LaBosch and nothing. And tomorrow, if he comes back and he cut off your chonsen, excuse me, I said we cut

off your chonsen! He needs so much more void to pop. Like, this is just nothing to the doctor. Yeah. My point is, you'll get used to it. Tuvac is using a lot less energy than the rest of the career. He doesn't need the holodect to entertain himself. He's entertaining himself in the ass lab by meditating with a, I guess

it's just like a simulated image of stars or like a old photograph, like a file photo or something. Yeah, this is great. This is like old-timey masturbation, right? Like, he's just got a magazine stars, the magazine stars. they're just like us. Yeah, you bought it from one of those like dispensers that used to be out on like corners in urban areas, you know, you can buy like a copy of the the evening post. Yeah, a copy of stars magazine. stars. Stars, Jags needless to say, the view from Mike Waters has been less than stellar lately. Seven walks in and it is like meditating in the ass lab. Now I've heard everything and this is when they get the radiation spike. Barely legal stars. Is that one of them? A way to focus their mind. This is the moment when we finally cut over to Janeway's quarters.

Chico Te reports this radiation spike to her and she's got the lights all dimmed and she's just staring out the window into the void. Up until this moment I always thought like you want a condo with a bunch of windows. That's the best quarters to have on a starship. But when you see how low Janeway is, how mega bummed she's become. And then you see all those dark windows. Well, it's like she had a view and then they put up a building right next door and it's just a brick wall now. It sucks. Yeah. She's looking at the wall of a parking lot. Yeah.

Did you think she'd be disfigured? The way that she's lit? Like it sort of seemed like a phantom of the opera style of lighting. Oh yeah, she would turn her face into the light and you'd see the McRibsauce everywhere. Grylde Pork and at Sassy Solves. Tempting her.

I can't let them see me to co-take. You're the only one who loves me for who I am. And still I reject you over and over again. All this time in this boring part of space, it's like really what it is is that there aren't any problems to solve, any like emergencies to dump water on. So Janeway has had time for the first time in four years to ruminate on what she now believes was a huge mistake in how she handled the situation with the caretaker in the opening

episode. This scene confused me and it's because, and I played it a couple of times and maybe, maybe I'm just fucking dumb and I didn't hear it, but they're talking about this thing without giving it a name in this scene and I was confused about what exactly she was talking about. Like it's clear later on they call it the caretakers station or whatever that they destroyed, but in this scene it did not seem clear what they were talking about, and that was a hundred episodes ago.

Yeah, we had the means to get home, and instead we didn't use it because it would have, I guess because it would have fucked up the Ocampa, right? Yeah, I guess so. And now, like there's not even an Ocampa on their ship to care about, so like, who even gives a fuck? I had an idea in this scene that I thought might be a good idea. And then later on, it was confirmed to be an amazing idea.

Do you want to hear it? Okay. This shirt that Jane was wearing, I'm going to refer to as the captain shirt, kind of like the action jacket that Picard used to wear or whatever. Right. Or the action vest from first contact. Is this just what's under the garment that they wear on Voyager? It looks that way, but it's just a shirt.

Like, there's nothing special about it. Right, it's just a gray t-shirt. We should put that in podchap.biz as the captain's t-shirt from Star Trek Voyager. No design. Maybe you do the little Uxbridge Shimoda, like, shoulder thing that you're into, but like, it's just it. Like, that's just...

That's I'm into. We get the color, like, just the color, and it looks exactly like the captain's shirt, and that's it. I tried to, like, put a little bit of branding, a little, like, class up the items in Uxbridge in PodChap.biz, a little bit, and I'm getting dragged for it on this

episode. I'm not dragging you into. You're into. I cut the sleeves off of all of my t-shirts. It's just not a thing I think about. Yeah, uh, uh, suns out, lack of guns out. Yeah. No suns, no guns. No sons, no guns. So, you know what, except for me, it would be no sons, S-O-N-S. Mmm. Yeah. No guns, right? Yeah. I should be the one cutting the sleeves off of my shirt, because I've got one.

Chico Te is trying to cheer the captain up here. He's like, you know, like you can look at it as this huge mistake that didn't get us back, but we've gathered all this great data, like the scientists back at a Starfleet commander gonna love this shit when we get home. Where explorers aren't we? Haven't we been exploring? By some measure, this is a great success.

Yeah, I don't think she's trying to hear that issue. Too much re-examination of choice's time has not been kind to the captains' mentals. And she really blames herself for this whole situation. It was shortsighted and it was selfish. And now all of us are paying for my mistake. It seems like she's sort of in seclusion as a way to punish herself for that thing that she has now decided as a mistake. What do you make a chakote basically having being a captain thrust upon him, like all of the duties of being a captain, both to please that booty and to like functionally be the captain of the ship?

Like, he does not complain about it at all. It does not seem like it bothers him. No aspect of his argument with Janeway here is about like, you know, I'm doing first officer and Captain shit pretty much all the time. Like, I'm picking up your slack and that's pretty unfair. That's never a part of what he tells her. Yeah, I mean, that's, I just found that relatable because I usually have a hard time sticking up for myself as well.

And telling other people that you're taking on most of the work? Yeah. You know, like coming up with great ideas, like putting the Huxbridge tomato logo on the sleeve of T-shirts and then- Yeah, go back and get it. Getting zero respect for that great idea. Definitely bring it back up. That's a good idea.

I think it's cool. I think people appreciate having, I think it classes the shirt up. I love it. I think it's my favorite thing. And it's one of the reasons why the captain's t-shirt is gonna be a hot seller at podshop.bizbin. Let's get it in there.

Up on the bridge. Another just like totally implausible moment in this episode. Harry Kim just alone on the bridge playing clarinet. Two Vock walks in and is game to hear Harry's clarinet playing. I mean, this I think suggests how low two-vac is feeling. He clearly doesn't care if he lives or dies if he's saying yes to listening to Harry Kim's concerto about the void.

Got a minute. Too many, in fact. Yeah, I mean, it's like when you're depressed and you listen to sad songs instead of happy songs, you know. Right. Is Harry Kim the emo of the crew? Yeah, except for his haircut is also higher in tighter. He should have grown it out longer and had a little bit across one of his eyes, you know, it's hard to play a wind instrument while reclined. What an interesting choice of Harry Kim to just sort of kick his legs up on the side of

the chair. Yeah. Yeah. He's chilling the most and yeah, he must have really incredible lung capacity if he's able to pull his concerto off from a recumbent position. Yeah. Back in the holodeck, the Captain Proton program continues where Paris

has either invited seven to be a part of it or Seven is just humoring him. Like, maybe she's there to do work, but Paris has invited her to come one of these characters and her character is meant to participate a little differently than how she does. When she meets this robot in the program, she like tears its guts out. The robot has been neutralized.

May I leave now? She doesn't do that thing that actors are supposed to do, which is try to kind of figure out the motivation of the character she's going to play. She just stays in the character of herself. You know, it'd be like, view and eye got cast in an episode of Star Trek and we're going gonna get blown out

of an airlock or something. It seems like a fantasy. But I'll have much time left. We should all be different. And instead of saying our line, we're just like, hi, I'm Ben. This is so exciting to be on Star Trek. My favorite show. Aren't you excited, Adam?

Yes, very excited. And then they just left that in, you know? We, like we say, are lions just looking at the spike tape the whole time. Ha, ha, ha,. It's probably why we haven't gotten that call, right? That's gonna be great when we're in the deep background of a scene, and that's exactly what we're saying. But the dialogue's been looped, like, with the main characters, you just never hear us. Right.

Right. That platinum gets that old metal archer and cheater. I've got to get that black wood knife. Are you selling a heist? Gold. A greatest gen live show is something you don't want to miss. Why? Well, it's a great opportunity to see me and Ben in person, but that's not all. FODs from all over gather at these shows to cosplay,

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

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

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

Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Whoa, Ross. Hey, hey. Oh, I'm about to count you in line. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line and, boy, what do I? These giraffes do not smell good.

No, they do not, and they've such short nacks. But I'm hearing we need to get on this off. We've got to get on the art. It is about terrain, about a spout to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans, but we're actually, we're podcasters. Yes, totally. We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ono Ross and Carrie?

We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal, stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so seem like something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came to by two. What do you think? Ono Ross and Carrie, available on MaximumFun.org. I'm Captain Captain Brinjen Web, the UOSN, for Benjker. I'm Captain Captain Brinjen Web, the UOSN, for Benjker.

Seven is supposed to be Constance Goodheart, the Secretary of Captain Proton. Yeah. She's in the process of Captain Proton. Yeah. She's in the process of tuning up this hilariously bad robot. I don't even know why the scientists make them. When a banger gets dropped on the ship, we cut around all over the ship. We see Nielex's restaurant, which is like in full dinner service.

We see Harry Kim on the bridge. We see like lights go out all over the ship. One of the things that happens with the way the ex-tiriers are depicted in the void is that no light is falling on the ship. So it's just the light of the windows and a couple of like port and starboard lamps and that one light that lights up the name and registry of the ship. It looks really cool, I think. I think it looks.

I don't think you can argue that it looks bad. It looks cool. I think that it's form over function, though, Adam, because this is what it would look like all the time unless they're in direct proximity of a star. That's fair, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so it's bad, actually. It was my argument. That's an interesting point. When this So it's bad actually. It was my argument.

That's an interesting point. When this banger gets dropped on the ship, Kim hops over the rail while holding his clarinet to get back to his station. I love his sense of priorities there. Like the ship is losing power, do not drop the clarinet. Yeah, big time powertrain

and one of the things that does not stop when the power goes out all over the ship is the hollow grid, that's still on. Are you kidding me? I'm briefly going to take your side on this moment because in the darkened holodeck, seven is able to explain why somehow life support and the holodeck are on the same circuit. This is like having your furnace tied into some random light in your closet.

Like, they wouldn't wire your ship this way. Except for they would because. Except for they did. Yeah. So yeah, they're stuck in there. They need to get like a crowbar to open a big metal hatch and the captain proton ship. Chicoete finds Nelix having a full blown panic attack in the hallway somewhere.

And he's wearing an action t-shirt, right? Now available a pod-chopped app is. Oh, yeah, Chicoete is. Look at how good he looks here. Yeah, is this the commander's t-shirt? It is. Yeah, we're going to want to list two different items. Two different items, and it's just the same item.

Yeah. Ha, ha, ha. See, these are the sorts of fun ideas you can have when you have your own pod store, right? Yeah, a lot of people don't get the enjoyment of having their own pod shop.biz. Yeah. I think podstore.biz also gets you there.

Oh, good. So Chico Tay takes a very scared knee-liq to safety, but on the bridge, Kim is picking up a kind of dampening field as the cause for this power outage. And Tuvac is like, you know, we've got a dozen torpedoes left. Torpedoes primarily are used for the defense of the ship. Maybe we should use one for illumination. Seems like you're kind of taking my side again.

It's a great idea because what else do they have? Torpedo flare is the thing that is floated. I would have maybe used a boi instead of modifying a torpedo, I would have modified a boi. Now they have an inexhaustible amount of boi's on this ship. And they're also encountering like invisible Jordi aliens all over the ship. Like there's one in the holodeck, there's one stalking Chicote and Nielix in the hallways.

It's impossible not to think of the Jordi alien when you see these guys, right? It's impossible not to think of the Jordi Alien when you see these guys, right? It's impossible. One of them gets tagged by a phaser fire from Janeway who has gotten back into the swing of things. She's back in uniform. She's gotten herself a rifle. She hits this guy, but it seems to have no effect.

And Tuva launches the torpedo, and we see a bunch of strangely designed ships floating around outside Voyager. Yeah. Janeway enters the bridge ordering power to be turned back on. But power kind of spontaneously comes back on anyway, right? No, I think she, Chicote and Neelix, got one of the power cells down to engineering. Oh, yeah. And that's how they get it back. When the lights come back on,

two Valk reports that there are 17 intruders on board. Yeah. And all of them are Jordy. Hey, act on instinct alone. How did he get out here? Yeah, and they show like shooting one of these ships with phasers and the phasers just go right through. I mean, that's why you want to use a torpedo for all things here, right?

Like phasers going right through your ship Seems like it would be a thing that would be really bad But it doesn't seem to affect these guys at all and that's never explained like are they slightly out of phased with our reality or something? That's never explained. Like, are they slightly out of phase with our reality or something? But the thing is, Janeway shot an alien Jordy with a phaser rifle and it hit them. Right. So maybe a ship's phaser goes through the ship but hits the people inside. Yeah.

But then are they hurt or are they not hurt? Because it also didn't seem to hurt him. He just ran away. I think it just melts the ganache that all of these characters are wearing on their body suits. They're birdie suits. The only weapon that seems to really work against these guys is the Captain Proton Reagan. Yeah. This is quick thinking by seven to turn off the safeties and light this guy up.

Yeah. So she gets a badly singed Paris down to Six Bay reports that there's still an invisible Jordi alien in the holodeck. And just as these mysterious ships are about to wipe Voyager off the map, a heroic third type of ship comes into the space and shoots a bunch of chaff and it scares these little guys away. They all run and we get on FaceTime the captain of the rescuing vessel and he is kind of a gray-faced baldman with let's like lesions all over. Like some of this is loaf and some of it looks like he has sort of like damaged to his Barney. Didn't it seem like he came from the Dune movie set?

Yeah, he really has like very hard-cone and e-vibes and... Very much so, yeah. ...in costume and disposition. Do not show the slightest busy on mercy. He wants payment for the charges that he fired at those other guys. Seems totally reasonable. That's the first thing he asks for.

Yeah. Second thing he asks for is explanation like, who the fuck are you on? What are you doing out here? Yeah, in the transporter room, they invite this guy over where we learn his name is impk. Impk. Impk. impk. Impk. Impk.

Impk. Impk. Contola impk. Of the mail-on. He's a mail-on man. Right. He's wearing a leaky suit. This is why they keep him up on the pad, right?

You don't want to track that around. Your carpeted starship. Yeah, he's going to irradiate everyone. His still suit is for keeping radiation out, not keeping water in. This guy has a very dark warning for Janeway, and that is, I know how you guys just saw three of these ships, but let me tell you, there are thousands of them out there, and they're stronger than you, just like I am.

So you better turn back around and get the hell out. Or you could use a spatial vortex to get to the other side. I don't know what which you'd rather do, but uh, but those are your choices. And you get the idea that there's also going to be a cost to that too. Right. And there's like very appreciative of both the help that he provided in scaring away their assailants and also the help he seems to be prepared to provide in getting them to this vortex. But Janeway is like, I think just for want of challenge in her life, extremely suspicious of this dude and starts putting the wood to him immediately. And I was like, Janeway, give tourists mouth like, what the fuck? Well, I mean,

it all starts when imp gets like, so you got one of these jordies on board and he's still alive. I'm going to want that one, by the way, maybe that's part of what you can give me an exchange for transit. But he won't say why. And that's because he doesn't have to. He has the ultimate position of power here in this negotiation. And he's like, not only do I not have to tell you why I want the things that I want, I don't have to stay on this fucking ship. Be me out. I'm finished here.

Yeah, he's leaving in two hours. And if they want to come with him, they are welcome to. But he wants that creature. Kind of gross that he just refers to this other alien as a creature. Like is everything a creature to you, Emke? Yeah, really makes you think. So Janeway goes and visits this Jordi

in the Six Bay and the lights are down low. Because he's an invisible Jordi and you got their photosensitive. That's one of the things about invisible Jordies. His ganache is very, very glossy and melty. Yeah, yeah. It hasn't hardened up the way you like it. One thing I thought was pretty smart about the way

they did the toys, the action figures for Voyager is that they just had a bunch of leftover invisible jordy toys from the TNG line. And they just repackaged them as Voidman. I see a Jordy toy. I want a painted black. No purple Vainy things. Just paint them all black. This guy's got quite a story he's telling in his biopad. He says that the ships are poison, the ships that impk and his kind fly around in.

And he and his people are sick from them. Also, he's very sorry for attacking Voyager. Yeah, he seems so reasonable. They're trying to help him. And the second he and Janeway start talking, he's like, show your friends with the mail-on and she's like, no, we just met the mail-on. We don't know them. Yeah. And he's like, fuck, man, I feel really bad about attacking you now.

Because we just assumed that was a bad assumption on our part. Janeway's like, cool. We're going to return you to your people and to Kote's like, wait a second, what? I thought I was the captain. And my evidence for that is the last two months. Like you're seeming a little disturbed to be making all of these decisions right now and it seems like a dangerous thing

to re-engage the jordies in an effort to send this guy home. And Jane was like, look at me. And Chico Te is like, I literally can't look at you that lights are off. I, if I could look at you, I would, but I can't look at you. It seems like you're trying to make the case

for some sort of rank, but we're both wearing the same shirts, all right? Hey, you know what? Here's the thing about this shirt that we're gonna sell in the pod chat bin. Yeah. Deep down. Hey, you know what? Here's the thing about this shirt that we're going to sell in the pod chat bin. Yeah Deep down We're all wearing the same shirt underneath, right? Wow. Yeah, that's that's heavy Yeah, I wish our society could recognize that

It's all the other problems. I mean deep down. We're just all a gray shirt, aren't we? We're just all a gray shirt, aren't we? I really don't want to do it. Coffee, black, make it yourself. I'm trying to help you see this as an opportunity to grow. Make it yourself. Chico Tay is spooked enough by this moment to have a side meeting with TuVoc. Where he's like, hey, have you noticed? We've both noticed what Janeway has been like the last few months.

TuVoc has picked up independently on what the captain is going through. Yeah. Despite being the captain's closest confidant, he has not actually had a conversation with her. Mm-hmm. But he's done the math. He's just a student of the human condition. And he realizes that the captain is racked with guilt over getting the crew stranded for 75 years in the D Quad. They both agree on two things about the captain, right? She's motivated by redemption and she stubbornness hell about it.

Yeah, yeah. And in a situation like this where she's clearly bummed about not taking the shortcut home four years ago and motivated by this type of redemption, like what would she do in order to make it right? And can they agree to stop her from making a rash decision in order to do that? It's my job to tear this episode apart

and lay bare what a flawed premise it is. And I think that this scene is really emblematic of that because they are trying to retcon a very like operatic scale of motivation for Janeway that she is the guilt and redemption captain. But she's not. You're right. So I win the argument.

You win that one. Do you think Philip Elufau likes me more than she likes you? At this moment in time, but it's not the end of the trial, is it? No. So on the biobed, the majority is like in communication with his ships and they're hopefully not going to attack Voyager and they all kind

of like come out of cloak and there's a ton of them. And as he lies there, he's about to get beamed out and he's like, you've got to help us. Will you help us with the mail-on? But he beams out before the captain can even answer him. They should have cut over to the other ship and they're like, hey, did you ask? What did they say when you asked for help? It's like you fucking idiots.

Give me like 30 more seconds. Jesus, son of a... Couldn't you have waited two second, captain? He was just about to explain the whole thing. In the As lab, Janeway, Seven and Chico Tear, watching footage of either imps, either imps, imp, imp, but there's no p. It's just m, m, m, m, m, m, m, m, m, m, m, m, m, m, m, m, m, m, m, is it his ship or a ship like it just dumping a bunch of this radiation in this space?

It's his because they, they get him up on FaceTime. Yeah. You know, you're, we're starting to realize that he's basically just a Captain Planet villain. This region is a perfect disposal site. How convenient for you. What he does is he comes to this part of space and dumps a bunch of industrial waste and then leaves. And he doesn't really give a shit

that it's having a negative effect on the invisible juries. Okay. You know, like he's got a bottom line to worry about. So if it hurts invisible juries, who gives a shit? The idea is to teach a man to dispose of toxic waste properly so that they can then dispose of toxic waste properly going forward. Yeah, Janeway's pitch is like, hey, our species had the same problem, but we figured out how to recycle.

We also reduce and reuse, but mostly we recycle. For a long time, there was a part of the body politic that was all about allowing businesses to do whatever the fuck they wanted. Once we got past that fucking dark ages of society, started prioritizing a clean planet. Things got a lot better for us. Maybe that can be the way for you. There's coffee in that antimatter waste. And he's like, I'm skeptical.

And they're like, well, come on over and check it out. And they beam him over to engineering. Suddenly, they're not worried about his suit getting everyone sick. Yeah. They just, that's just not a problem anymore. And BLT takes him on like the eco conscious tour of the warp core. And explains how their conversion technology that takes the theta radiation and uses it to power everything else on the ship could be adapted to the way his ship works.

And he's like, well, that sounds nice and all, but I make my living as a garbage hauler and this would put me out of work. So I'm not really interested in working with you on this. Yeah. Are you really pitching me the idea of taking my job? The answer is no. Yeah. And what's so interesting about this conflict is that he remains in a position

of power. He has the ship with the bigger guns. He is more familiar with the area. He not only says no, but he says, fuck you and you can't threaten me. And that's the end of the conversation. He beams back and BLT is fucking furious that she had to go through the process of explaining anything to him. Yeah. And now they're looking at going rogue.

Like Chico Tay approaches the captain with a, hey, like, what if we try and like go through the vortex and just like go over this guy's head, talk to his government, see if they're into it. And she's like, no, no, no, like the amount of lobbying power that the theta radiation industry has, like you'll never overcome it. You know, they can't mobilize a popular uprising the way good, good guys can't, but.

No, I mean, even though policy like this is wildly popular, the way that the districts are drawn just makes it impossible to make any headway in this area. And you know, they've also funded 70 years of, you know, fake news and bullshit that kind of muddies the issue and makes like low information voters think that there's a debate when there's really a scientific consensus about this. Yeah.

The scene earlier, really foreshadowed this moment. You knew what was coming, right? Janeway asks Chico Dei if he's ready for the big chair because she is about to do something rash and sacrificial. Yeah, they keep pulling out the big chair for Chico De, and you kind of wonder when he's going to take a seat. If I were you, I'd kick him in the rear end for his own good. Sounds great.

Yeah, because the, the math of this is like, they got this vortex, they have the ship that's more powerful than them. Can they get into the vortex and then destroy it? Well, yeah, they can, but they can only destroy the end of the pipe that's proximate to them. They can't destroy the other side of it. And in doing that, that would be very dangerous because it would possibly destroy the ship that remain to do it in Janeway. It's like, fine, you take Voyager through the vortex. I will stay behind in a shuttle and do it myself.

She comes on to the bridge for the first time with like seven minutes left in the episode to make this pitch. And she sees this as a dilemma that is very much parallel to the decision that stranded in the D Quad. If she sacrifices herself, she can get everybody else through the vortex, save them a couple of years, she'll try her luck in a shuttle craft. And to go to it's like, no, no, no, no, do you realize how easy those are to blow up? I've personally blown up a dozen shuttlecraft on the show. You never survived. He is the wrong person to pitch this idea to. Didn't you get the chills in this scene, Ben, when one by one, every crew person at their station denies the order by slowly unzipping their uniform tunic and revealing a captain

shirt underneath. Yeah, it's a real Spartacus shit in this scene. And one by one, she looks around and she's like, I can see that everyone is wearing the captain shirt. I mean, if podshop.biz has its way, that's what's going to happen. I think what you're saying is there's a third shirt in the PodShop store that looks exactly like the Captain's shirt and the first officer's shirt.

It's called the Mutiny shirt. Right. And you can buy all three. And PodShop.biz. And for some reason, we make money on these. Oh yeah, a lot of money. For some reason, it's the most expensive shirt of the store. I don't think just to buy $50, but there's not even a design on it.

It's how it makes you feel. Yeah. So, with the Spartacus moment in the rear view, they're like, oh, well, we could just like leave torpedoes behind and blow it up like that. And we don't need to leave the captain. We can just blow up the opening after we go through it. So it seems like the captain's like big grand self-sacrifice was totally pointless. Yeah. How many torpedoes did the ship have left at this point also? I think we're down to single digits, right? I mean, they fire a fuck ton of them at the end of this episode. How sad were you to hear that hanging from utiny is still a thing done in Starfleet?

That's also deeply disturbing. I couldn't, maybe that's a bit. Yikes. Maybe that's a bad bit moment. I've really got my mojo back. I'm also doing bits. Even Jane White can have a bad bit moment. Yeah.

Oh, that's no matter what. Yeah, so this is the new plan. We're just going to fight our way through. And the Mail-On chip is trying to position itself across the aperture to the space butthole. And they do like a metallurgical analysis that says that all of the radiation has degraded the hull of the male on ship, but the shields of the male on ship are pretty impervious to their weapons. So it's not going well. They've let a lot of torpedoes go and the phasers aren't getting through. And it's starting to fuck up their warp missiles.

Yeah. But the night aliens come in, they're kind of the cavalry riding to the rescue. They're sort of the night man's avalians. They're eight, nothing's making me. Yeah, saving the day men of Voyager. It's true. They get the shields the day, men of Voyager. It's true. They get the shields down on the mail-on ship.

Voyager goes for the kill. They take this guy out. Very unstarfleet of them. Like to murder someone because of a political difference. Target their cargo hold. Time to take out the garbage. I kind of love this moment because you could wave it away by saying, yeah, the garbage scale was already damaged

and didn't know how strong your weapons would be and also didn't really work this out with the Jordi aliens about like, when to fire at what point? And so forth, I think they have plausible deniability is what I'm trying to say. It seems like there are other male on garbage point and so forth. I think they have plausible deniability is what I'm trying to say. It seems like there are other male on garbage scouts that don't know about this space but whole. So by killing this one guy, they do solve the problem for the night men.

Yeah, maybe they don't have to blow this thing up, but they do. But they do anyway. And despite not having word power, they're able to surf the shock wave, it's like going into a space butthole without a flared base. They go all the way in. You can also turn away from the wave. Basically, oh, manner of surfing can be done to a check wave. And they come out the other side. They're not, they didn't quite make it all the way. They're 200,000 kilometers from the boundary.

Yeah, that sucks, right? Yeah. But then that gives them that moment where they kind of come out of the void slowly. And this again is so silly. Like why wouldn't they be able to see these stars? Like we on earth can see stars that are way more than 200,000 kilometers away. It doesn't happen very often. Like I think Voyager is a better Star Trek series than most at this quality,

but like the whole wonders of space moment. Yeah. Is something that I think the Voyager crew is pretty good at vibing with. And this is like maybe one of the peak moments of that at the end. It's like, they're looking at the inky blackness and there's nothing and then there's one star. One star out there. And then there's another, and then it's like a full-on, fucking telescope picture.

It's like the most stars and the most nebulars and the most clerards, like, it's all out there. It looks pretty lively. And then that's the final there. Looks pretty lively. And then that's the final scene. They did it. Janeways, like, moved. Both speed ahead. You see your face?

I feel like she's gonna be all right. It's like Gilton Redemption Captain was just a this episode thing. You know, I would have felt good, just anyway, with the success of this mission, but I have to say the softness of my captain's shirt has made this moment all the better. I love it. And you can get one of your own podshop.biz.

Podshop.biz! That's when the credits roll on the episode. Did you like this episode, Ben? You know, I'm really easy to get along with, close to this time. But I don't like bullet, I don't like red, and I don't like you. I'm just joking. No! This episode sucks at him. It's dog shit, it's trash.

The math is all wrong with this 200,000 kilometers thing that they wouldn't be able to see stars beyond that. The Captain Planet Village is just like such an obvious metaphor that my eye muscles were so strained from rolling them back in my head. Yeah. And overall, yeah, just an F minus from me. How about you?

I like mixing my heart Conan in with a Star Trek. I think I think it's neat to see someone dirty in Star Trek, right? Yeah. You never see that. You never see dirty. This guy's a real pig pen type in like a diving suit. He's great. And I love how fucking capitalist he is. Like we need more of this in Star Trek too. His monstrousness feels, God, just as present as ever. This fucking guy. The guy that just spent the entire episode vlogging our merch store is now

roasting a character for being a capitalist. I know, yeah. I'm a complex capitalist. Look, and in that way, I'm like every other capitalist. Good for me, bad for everyone else. I loved the visual language here. I was uncomfortable by it in a way that felt intentional. The camera floating around like they were shooting a documentary almost.

Really heightened the tension for me. And not to totally kneecap the joky jokiness of you not liking the episode. A real feeling depiction of depression on Star Trek in a way that I don't feel like we maybe have ever gotten on a series. Like we've seen the Barclays of the World, we've seen Nero, a typical characters, but we have not seen someone with a true blue bum out, like Janeway is going through. And I think for someone as great as her to be feeling that kind of way

is probably a good thing for people to see, and to see someone recover from such a way is probably a good thing for people to see and to see someone recover from such a thing is also a good thing. So try hating this episode now, Ben. Jesus fucking Christ. Philip Louvre, why just flipped on me. I just totally lawyer-adombed this episode. Ha ha ha ha ha.

You're guilty, Ben. Guilty of being wrong. I win. God dammit. So fucking close to getting to sleep with Phillipa. Is that what you get if you win? Yeah, measure it, my man. Ben, you know what a sure thing is. You can sleep with any priority one message you want.

Boy. They love wonderful. Why don't we see what they got over there? Yeah, let's do it Priority one message from star fleet coming in on secured channel Need a supplement on top of the month stop a month Yeah, it's extra the interest alone could be enough to buy this ship Then our first priority one message is of a promotional nature, and the copy reads like this.

Are you a grown-ass adult that still plays with Lego? No. I enjoy building Lego. I enjoy throwing Lego off of a stage. If so, then check out Brick Rock Press for some custom pad printed Lego. From a fellow FOD just trying to quit his dayjerk. Wow. We've got all kinds of fun stuff from poker chips to classic space computers and zombies. Serious AFLOs can even grab a one by eight FOD badge brick to show off at cons.

Check out our annual brick rock Moab calendar featuring Lego minifigs having fun in the desert. It makes a great gift. Wow. So here's your call to action. Visit brickrockpress.com. That's spelled like it sounds. And use the code scarves to say 15% off your order and follow brick rock press on Instagram

and TikTok at brickick Rock Press. Man, this is a, there's an FOD one. Yeah, I want that FOD one. Oh, man, it's four dollars. It's printed right on the thing. Andrew Payne needs to take a picture of the FOD Lego, take a picture of the box it sent in and then send us some collateral, something embarrassing.

And then we can open that on the show on a future episode. Man, cool. Yeah. There's, you know, in the Mandalorian, that television program about Boba Fett. Uh huh. Uh huh.

Uh huh. You know how they pay for everything with Baskar? Like he's always getting Baskar to make new pieces of armor? Yeah. That's one of the things you can get from Brickrock Press. It's a Baskar bar. That rules. Yeah.

It rules. Brickrock Press. Good job. I'm all for FODs getting to quit their day jerps and do something that they really love. That uh... Agreed. Yeah.

If you're into Legos and you want some custom printed ones, go there and do that. And don't send me letters about how you're not supposed to say Legos. Fuck off. Hmm. I don't know why you got glitter bomb, dude. Hahaha. No idea. Our next priority one message is from Jeb Kush and it's to worm queen.

Goes like this. Beep, beep, beep, beep. Computer, please replicate coffee, Earl Grey, like a handful of macrodose gummies. And of course, some burnt cream cheese shapes. Anyway, happy birthday, worm queen. It's been years of this burnt cream cheese shape, chicaneery, and your boyfriend has needs and explanation.

He is too afraid to ask. Thank you, Ben and Adam. I'm really hoping we did the job there. The job that Jeb Kush wanted us to do. How are you familiar with the concept of burnt cream cheese and what it means? A burnt cream cheese shapes sounds like it might be code for something or it might just literally be burnt cream cheese shapes? Yeah, I'm gonna have to do a little internet searching with the privacy filter on yeah, that's about you want to fire up your VPN for you put that into a browser sure do Yeah, well

Happy whatever that was jib cushion worm queen your enthusiasm is really gonna sell future p1s Thank you If you'd like to get a priority on message on the show, we would super appreciate it. It's a great way to get your commercial message out or say something nice to your worm queen. Yeah, get that greatest Jen Bob. Hey, Ben. What's that, Adam? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda?

Drunk Shimoda? Incredible. Drunk Shimoda! I think I want to give it to the captain for just showing up in uniform with rifle in the hallway. Like no call of distress goes out to her. Like I guess she could feel the bangers, but it's kind of amazing that when she feels the bangers and the power goes out all over the ship,

her first instinct is not to go to the bridge, but rather to get a rifle and start hunting in the hallways. I think she's going to be my Shimoda. Yeah, it's an interesting choice, right? Because like Jean Hackman feeling bangers and crimson tide. Like you don't cut away to her quarters when she feels them. She just shows up in a moment of triumph. Totally. To shoot this guy, I'm gonna make her my Shimoda 2 for that, for very similar reasons. Like, never knowing where she's at on the board in an episode is just a very unusual position to be in as a viewer.

Totally. And not really knowing what your expectations are about her makes her a total wild card in a very Shimoda-esque way. So yeah, I think that's gonna be my pick two. I dig it. Well, do you want to talk about the next episode? We're going to review Adam. It's right, Bennett's episode two of season five of Star Trek Voyager. What do we got? It's called drone. An accident merges seven's Borg Nano probes with the doctor's mobile emitter and an Ensign's DNA to create a 29th century Borg drone. Is this a Borg's 2vix episode? Yeah, except for somehow the back of the head is less upsetting.

And like you wouldn't think because there's some body horror stuff with With the Borgs and and the way they look you know the way their skin looks kind of necrotic There are still scenes at the FCC where they use the back of two vixes head as an example of what we can and should still censor Yeah, absolutely Adam why don't you had to go.biz slash game and talk us through what way we will be reviewing this episode. All right, Ben, we got a great big bump last week. It is maneuvered our run about to the second row from the top at square 87. A few squares ahead. we've got the traveler episode, which would move us five squares ahead. Yet again, a couple of squares after that is a...

Neelix's Galley episode, which is an episode where you and I just drink some Tulaxi and champagne. Which is a code for regular champagne. You're required to learn as you play. Roll. Good things ahead. It looks like. Mm. Mm.

Ben, I have Roll Day six. Shula! Did I win? Hardly. Which has halved us over both of those who are currently on Square 93. It's a regular Roll episode, but what it does do is it puts us on the top row.

Yeah. And seven squares away from a Mornhammered episode. Boom. Man, I was a little disappointed because I was kind of hoping for some champagne. But if it gets us to a Mornhammered, I mean, it's been a long time since we've done one of those. Can you do a power hour with champagne, Ben? Boy, that sounds really dangerous. The headache the next day, a champagne power hour is really something. I bet. Something to think about anyway. Wow. Well, I just had such a blast dragging this episode through the mud with

you today. Adam, I'm sure you little disappointed in the in the conclusion when I clearly lost and Philip a luva Decided that she loved you more than she loved me not a surprise to me whatsoever, but you know Sometimes you take the L. We got some people to thank before we get out of here. Isn't that right? It's the season of things, isn't it, Ben? When I look around our podcast dinner table and I see all the friends of DeSoto there, I'm filled, I'm brimming with thanks

for all of their support for making this show possible. That support comes in a variety of ways. First and foremost is the financial support we get at maximumfund.org slash join. That is support that actually makes the show possible. It gets windy and you and I paid a living wage. True. And health benefits and all that.

That's great stuff. But really growing the show, almost as important. Telling friends, rating and reviewing the show. Telling family members at the Thanksgiving table. What you like to listen to, yeah. Without shame, no shame. Maybe you stand up from your seat, and during a toast, you tell your friends and family, yeah, yeah. What shows you like? I think this is actually like, I mean, it feels risky as hell, but it might get you out of an awkward political conversation

at the Thanksgiving dinner table in a way that I think is kind of cool Yeah, the podcast godly throw it down You can also head to pod shop dot biz where if we have our acts together be captain shirt the Commanders shirt and the mutiny shirt will all be available. I'm so excited about this. Gonna be a lot of work explaining our idea for this to the store guy, but... You know what's gonna be great is going to start Trek Las Vegas or any convention and just seeing someone wear a gray t-shirt,

asking them if that's the captain's gray t-shirt, and they're like, no, like I'm in a casino, like, honking on the arm of a slot machine. Like I'm not here for the convention, on the arm of a slap machine. Like, I'm not here for the convention, I'm just wearing a gray shirt. I just, for some reason, came to the Rio. I can't see it. Oh, yeah.

We gotta thank Adam Ragusea, who makes our original theme music. He's got a great cooking channel over there on YouTube as well as Adam Ragusia podcast. We're gonna be on there pretty soon. Hope so. Review in a movie, right? Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. Great, Chef. We gotta thank Nick Dittmore, who does all of our artwork and helps us out with the

store. I think Wendy Pretty are an intrepid producer who keeps the lights on and keeps all of the machinery working for this show. We had Wendy start a little experiment. We're putting episodes up on the greatest Trek YouTube channel. It's at greatest Trek is the handle. I don't know how YouTube works.

I think you just put that in as the handle. YouTube.com slash greatest trek. Is that possibly be it? Is it slash at greatest trek? It's one of those. If you know how YouTube works and you would like to consume the show on YouTube, it's available there next.

Yeah, so if you're in an office maybe and you're working through the holidays, maybe you have this on in a tab in the background and you got your eardroads. Yeah, maybe you can listen to the show at work finally. That'd be nice, right? Make it look like you're working. But you're not. Whoa. And you don't have to worry about laughing. That's the best part, right? You'll never give yourself away listening to this show.

Yeah, if you bring a sort of an atom sensibility to this proceeding. Yeah, it's gonna be fine. Yeah. Now one has to know. We gotta thank Bill Tilly, our card daddy who runs our social media accounts at greatest trick on Instagram and maybe still Twitter? Who knows? Yeah, probably.

Yeah, he's probably gotta set up on like Gab and Parler now. I'm surprised that we didn't run Twitter into the ground. It took someone else to do it. Well, with that we will be back at you next week with another great episode of Star Trek Voyager. And an episode of the greatest generation voyager, where the back of our heads are upsetting, but they're not that upsetting. Make it show. Yolk, be caught, caught, caught, caught. Maximumfun.org Comedy and culture

Artistone, audience supported.