The Greatest Generation - Constipation Ray (ENT S4E18)

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

When Commander Archer stages a mutiny aboard the ISS Enterprise, Captain Forrest gets thrown in the brig and T’Pol gets promoted to first officer. But after a Tholian warp signature leads them to a TOS-era Defiant, the Dustbuster club restores power just in time to see their ship get destroyed. Who is definitely picking up the phone in this era? How is the CrossFit of pain different from the Orange Theory of pain? What’s the worst thing about the agonizer booth? It’s the episode that definitely had crack out of frame. Support the production of The Greatest Generation Get a thing at podshop.biz! Sign up for our mailing list! Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Riker - Quantum Leap The Greatest Generation is produced by Wynde Priddy Social media is managed by Rob Adler and Bill Tilley Music by Adam Ragusea & Dark Materia Friends of DeSoto for: Labor | Democracy | Justice Discuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen and find us on social media: YouTube | Instagram | Bluesky And check out these online communities run by FODs:  Reddit | USS Hood Discord | Facebook group | Wikia | FriendsOfDeSoto.social Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Here's to the finest crew in starving. When it comes to my crew, you won't get any argument from me. This is a parody. Welcome to the greatest generation. It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are just a little bit embarrassed about having a Star Trek podcast. I'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pranika. Is Mirror Universe episode the most embarrassing kind of Star Trek episode?

I mean, I am not a merry man, but I will say it's up there. It also, you know, we always talked about how Star Trek is the most cost-efficient sci-fi franchise. Yeah, and these are just like, you don't have to get any, like, this one has one speaking part that isn't a main cast member, and it's Von Armstrong. a guy that's already been on the show a bunch. Like, you just trim the midrifts off of a few of the uniforms and you slap a couple of knives stabbing into the planet Earth logos up on the walls. And you get yourself a whole new setting and vibe. I like it.

I know you don't as a type of episode. I like a format break. I like seeing actors act out of character like this. I don't like when it's leaned on for like a lot of episodes, like an entire arc. But I don't know. I like a little dabble into this. All right. I mean, I'm not saying you're wrong.

These are matters of personal taste preference. No one's wrong. It's just opinions. I was just born with perfect taste. Hmm. Yeah. I know you believe it. this episode has a reputation as being like a real favorite for those that love Enterprise as a show.

So when I saw this was coming up, I was like, oh, we're finally here. I'm excited to know what everyone's on about when it comes to Enterprise Season 4, episode 18, in a mirror, darkly, part one. Do you think they thought about, like, TNG happened well before this in production. But I think it would have been funny if TNG came after this. They could have called all the Reginald Barkley episodes in a Mirror Berkeley. Hmm. Right?

Yeah. I could work. Yeah. In a Mirror broccoli. Poor broccoli. And it's like Stefan Urkel, Reginald Barclay. Like he's so fucking cool. He steps into that agonizer booth and he steps out totally changed.

What a glow-up. I'm proud of you, Reg. I thought this episode started out in that way you were describing in the Marin. Like props to Star Trek for making it cool to just recycle what you got. You own all this footage. You have it. Footage from Star Trek First Contact. You have it, you own it.

It's probably not hard to get and repurpose. I loved the peppering in of a couple of shots of bedraggled Montana extras. Yeah. That weren't in the movie just to like help them cut around a little bit and use this for what it is. Because like our whole cold open is made up of like those like those like those. The shots of new extras in clothes that are made to look like the kinds of clothes that other people in Bozeman were wearing in First Contact. Footage that they already have and then like one shot of a guy pulling a rifle out from under his jacket and a Vulcan flying backwards. I love how we sit in this moment for like over a minute.

Like we're watching the end of First Contact the movie. The Vulcan ship lands. Zepham Cochran goes out to greet. We get the hood thing and the hands thing. And when Zephrm Cochran rolls out and can't do the finger thing right, oh, this pisses him off. He's so mad. He's been made to look like an idiot out there.

And he can't have that. So he pulls out a shotgun from under his coat and shoots the Vulcan and the rlequin and the babble go up and board the ship. Ben. It seems like they have a plan too. They're like, get everything that isn't nailed down. Ben, I always try to avoid like, I've got a note for that. Here's an idea of what could make it better. Like, because I don't listen to those sorts of shows. But in this case, I think you got to stay in the scene a little longer. Maybe elliptically cut to later. Where Zepham Cochran is celebrating his plunder.

put some quarters in the juke and it's not ubi-dubi the question I have for you is what is mirror universe ubi-dubi what's the song to celebrate what just happened I think it's welcome to the jungle could you imagine

the beginning guitar sting to that into theme it'd be killing I was thinking like kill a man to watch him die kind of vibes I was noticing that one thing that they weren't doing was cutting to the React of Alprey Woodard

and the TNG crew as Zephyrum Cochran went up because I think once they shoot the Vulcan you would also need to have them going like hey yeah fuck yeah you know how great would that have been that would have been great if they'd you know like Franks is picking up the phone in this era we know he's picking up the phone in this era

We've seen Mirror Universe TNG characters in comics before. J.K. did a great job in depicting them. Like, in my mind, I can see them. I know. React to this moment. In my mind, I can see them killing us. Yeah. We go into a theme, a reimagined mirror universe depiction of darkness of the heart, I guess.

And it is real Man in the High Castle. it with the visuals throughout. Did you ever watch that show? I watched, I think, the first season of that, yeah. Like, doing a good job of using stuff that was already in the series, but also like some new effects shots and stuff and some, you know, archival footage of war. Recontextualizing, you know, pre-existing shootouts and stuff. Yeah, suddenly it looks like the beginning of an evil show.

Is this show awesome now? Because it's so over the top. Like, it's just, it's amazing. I don't remember what the opening credits package for space above and beyond looked like, but I can't imagine it looking super different from this. If you played the score from that theme underneath this visual package, absolutely.

I think that's what you get. Big fun. So we get a captain's log, and it's a different, Captain's voice than we're expecting. It is evil sexual icon, Captain Forrest. Sorry, John. He and Major Reed and the doctor are having a little confab to check out their new invention. It's the agonizer booth.

Archer's there too, but he's the first officer. They're showing this great new technology for making people feel horrific pain. And they're demonstrating it on a teleprison. crew member who we don't even think maybe even did anything. I got to say, if you're just coming up with creative ideas of what sort of alien could be your guinea pig. Ah, fun. Tellerites it, right?

Because they got those pig noses. Do you think when tellurites are excited, they say, whoee, whoee, whoee, we. That is not the sound coming from this agonizer. I think you enjoy your word too much, doctor. And we learn a little bit about it, you know, ordinarily. You torture a person. The brain can kind of shut it off.

You reach a threshold with it where it like, it stops being painful. This agonizer booth has a technology where it makes it different. As soon as you get tired of it being one way, it's going to change into a different way. So it always keeps you in pain. It's the crossfit of kids. keeping you in pain. If it was the orange theory of keeping you in pain, like as soon as you stopped feeling the pain,

like you'd get a phone call from the agonizer operator. That's like, hey, are you coming to the agonizer booth? We signed you up for a session. You can't flake out on us. As they break up this meeting, Archer grabs his captain's elbow in the hallway and is like, hey, I got a line on some tack. that will give us a huge tactical advantage in the war against the rebellion.

And all we got to do is a little trip into Tholian space to get it. What do you say, Cap? I love Forrest here because his react isn't about whether or not it's a good idea. It's the why. He thinks that Archer is being a little bit of a tryhard and a ladder climber. Yeah. You see, this is your big chance, don't you? The only reason he wants to do this is to look cool in front of the admiral.

This newfound ambition is not a good look in Forrest's opinion. And he doesn't like that Archer is not accepting the first no also. Like, you know, he's like, no, like we're not going to do that and starts walking away. And Archer's like, but wait, let me try and convince you one more time. And he's like, no, shut up. I got to go to my quarters where Hoshi is slinking around in a nighty. You know, we just came. from an agonizer booth demonstration?

Like, do you want to be next? Do you want to trade with that pig man? I walked into the wrong room and there he was. A pigman. A pig man. A pig, half pig, half man. You know, we don't do any sort of cleaning between sessions, right? You know that. That is a sufficient threat at that point.

Archer wants no part of getting booth time. How often do they do cleaning, though? Like, it's not between sessions, but do they, ever? Or do you leave it dirty? That's what just makes it so awful. It's got a stink in there. It smells like the last person in there. Everybody's like fear pheromones?

Fear pheromones and piss. That's part of the conversation that flocks is describing what the machine does. And he's like, one interesting thing about it is that one cannot evacuate their bowels during. They must hold it. for hours and hours. Thus adding to the torture. It should say constipation ray at your lower extremities. That's worse, right?

It's got to be worse. After 10 hours in the agonizer, you are begging to shit yourself. And what if you couldn't? You're as backed up as the 405 at 5.30 p.m., man. Yeah, brutal. It's good faith. to believe

I can do parody. So we do go to Forest Quarters where he's hanging out doing some work and Hoshi is there dressed as some kind of love person. God, you try so hard

not to say Hooker. Jesus, Ben. Love person. Person who makes love a lot. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. Love is her job and she does it well. One person on this ship that I don't mind giving it to. She is really in him. Ben, this is like one of those scenes and we get a couple in this episode that I wonder after four seasons, four 26 episode seasons, if it just might feel a little weird to be working with people for this many years and then finally have to kiss them on screen. Yeah.

Like we get this a little later between Scott Bacula and Linda Park. Like, it's cool. You're an actor. It shouldn't matter, but does it matter a little bit? I have to think it matters, you know? It's got to feel different in a way than just like kissing a co-star. Like, I feel like you've established what your relationship is up until then as co-workers. Well, let's just say Linda Park doesn't have the most dignified role to play.

in this episode, but I think she does it really capably, and is a very interesting version of Hoshi, I think. Linda Park's portrayal of Hoshi up until now, in the regular universe, we could say, made me feel as though everything she did had an angle because she's a smart, capable person. Yeah. Like, when she's trusted with information,

like, in this scene, Forrest is, like, sharing results of military conquest with her. I added in the back of my mind, I'm like, oh, she's going to use this somehow to better her own position. So I never, like, felt sorry for her in that way. Like, I always felt like she was, she had something working. No, she's, she's happy to be here. She's the only person on board that doesn't want to kill Forrest and is disappointed when he tells her that the war is going far worse for the empire than is generally known. But that doesn't make her any less horny for him.

No. Later on, Forrest is just trying to go to work when there's an assassination attempt in the corridor. This one's led by Archer and some Makos, and Reed and Mayweather are there. Yeah. Reed just wants to kill him once they have him in custody, but Archer wants him taken to the brig alive. And this... Everyone's haircuts in this episode are a little different, like Archer's got that short, spiky look. Tripp's got a longer spiky look that we see later. Huge amount of gel gets used. Mayweather has got what I'm going to call Widow Maker's Peak.

It is just like a pointy point on his forehead. It looks like it could poke your eye out. It looks like an S&L sketch that Chris Rock is in, like back in the mid-90s. Like the hairpiece is unintentionally funny here. Yeah, yeah. I almost didn't recognize Mayweather as one of the Makos. Yeah. And then we go to the bridge and we meet long hair to Paul with all of her midriff on display.

I feel like she is wearing a uniform with pants so low cut that Britney Spears would turn them down in this era of TV. Yeah. Like they are so fucking. They are like what everyone was going for in this era. Like only Topal was able to actually achieve a pant cut this low. Like I'm both aroused and impressed. And it's probably 50-50. I just can't figure it out.

How is this possible? It's a miracle of engineering. Yeah. Archer assumes command and sets course for Thelian Space. and Topol is taken completely by surprise and is like, what is happening? And he claims that it's something that is coming from the top. Like I was told by command to relieve Forrest and do this mission.

If you're Archer getting on the one MC to gas up the crew, you have to do it right after your mutiny, right? Yeah. Like you do the mutiny and then you get to tell people, guys, I just love you so damn much. Y'all are the best torturers I've ever encountered. You know I wouldn't mutiny any of you, right? It's just that one time.

You want to know why I mutinyed? Because I want to be your leader, that bad. I want what's best for you and me. And we cut around, we see like, Hoshi and flocks and tripp hearing this and scowling. Yeah. And to Paul saying, like, there's no fucking way. you have orders that allow you to do this. Is Tripp scowling or is that just his face being melty the way it is?

I don't think we know that yet. He's going to have to answer with one beep or two. Yeah. Topal is ordered to go to Cargo Bay 2 to grab a Sulaban cloaking device and then head to engineering and help Tripp plug it in. And we learn from a Captain Starlog that the new captain has been, welcomed with open arms by the crew. You got to say that into your log, right? Even if it's not true, Captain's Log, they love me, obviously.

It's pretty great. This is really going good so far. Yeah. What do you think the mirror universe version of the clarinet rental closet is? Like what's the evil instrument version of beginners, Woodwind. Is it obo? Oh, you know what it is?

It's recorder, because it's just annoying. I think it's got to be bassy. Like contra-base clarinet. It's got a lot of loops in it, a lot of pipes. Suzaphone, there's just like barely any room to actually have a meeting in there.

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Piled high with all those cases. Paul's in there to confirm the authenticity of the orders that she mentioned needing to find earlier and gets a face full of monologing for mirror universe archer.

Did you know that he has a collection of firearms in his office? One of them is the very weapon that Zephram Cochran used at first contact. Amazing. He uses this to underscore a point that I think I needed to understand, which is, the Vulcans became enslaved by the humans, and she is not enslaved, but because she's Vulcan, she's never going to have the social status that he does. It seems extremely far-fetched that, like,

if this is the inflection point where humanity gets over on the Vulcans, like, how did they do that? We know that the Vulcans are technologically superior than these fucking guys in Montana with machine guns. How did the Vulcans allow this to happen? It's an extremely bad look that the Vulcans let these guys win and enslave them, I think. You let one car hijacking happen and, you know, that can snowball into the collapse of your whole society. That's what happened here.

Yeah. Anyways, he's making her first officer over Reed because Reed is not reliable when it comes to following orders. I love how in any universe that Reed can't be trusted to do his job well. Pretty great. You know, it's like, it's about how these characters are evil versions of themselves.

Right. And Reed's true nature is to be just not that good at his job. He's always writing letters to girls he murdered. Yeah. Yeah. She's not the only one getting a promotion here to Paul being elevated into first. officer, Mayweather is being upgraded to Archer's personal guard. And when he's dismissed from this

promotion, inwok's Hoshi, who throws in on the midriff measuring contest that this episode becomes from here. Yeah. I got to say, like, really good effort here by Hoshi, no one's beating to ball. It's just so low. In terms of lowness, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, The pitch that Hoshi has is, you know, like I'm, I'm a real sex enjoyer and property of the captain transfers when a new captain comes aboard. So, you know, consider me as available for that. I mean, there's a moment in the mirror universe where, like, the other captain has to put his hand on one of her breasts and then the new captain has to touch the other breast and then they both have to say the command authorization codes to transfer ownership of her.

You don't see that scene in this episode. Turn your key, commander. Like there's clearly been something between them, some like jilted feelings by him towards her, but now they're back together, or are they? She goes into a brave, him and starts pulling a knife out from the back of her crop top. But he's wise to this. And he grabs her knife and hand and disarms her. I love the detail of this.

He doesn't disarm her right away. They keep kissing. Yeah. While he's got her hand with the knife inside, like in the grasp. It's very kinky. There's something to be said for good old-fashioned flogging. Is now a good time for Tepal to blow in. to call?

I suppose that doesn't matter. That's what she does. She's saying that they've arrived at the warp signature that she was told to find. And so Archer goes to the bridge. Two straight episodes of Archer tucking it into his waistband. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. About that. The ship that they are tracking is a Tholeon ship, and it seems like they're shot to disable it,

maybe hit a little too hard or something. Or maybe the occupant started whispering. bring self-destruct commands into the computer because there's a reactor overload and we get one of our classic beam the pilot out just in time for the ship to blow up. We've got a tholeon in the decon chamber. Dr. Vlox is told to make preparations for them and Archer goes to greet and interrogate and along with Dr. Flox and Hoshi outside the decon chamber, they get a look inside real insect ghost rider visuals to them. Don't you think?

Yeah. Looks to be a little bit on fire. It's got to be 400 degrees in there for the Tholian. They have really extreme life support needs. But they can understand human language. So Archer steps to the window and tells this Tholian that he is looking for a captured ship and the way they torture this information out of the tholeon is by lowering the temperature in the room, like freezing him out, basically.

So I think we know a couple of things about the tholeon, and one of them is that they are very old because this tholeon is very sensitive to any changes in the thermostat, especially in the downward direction. Truly could not be more sensitive. finally they get this guy to spill. What they have to say is that this thing that Archer is after is it an orbital felicity in the Ventec system. Yeah. And then there's this weird noise,

which is interpreted as being a short-range distress signal. They can't just have a Tholiot on board emitting a short-range distress signal, and it seems like it may be coming from his birdie, so flocks going to knock you out. Where even is the keister on this thing? Yeah. If they keestered a distress signal, I didn't see it.

Not everyone keeps their keister in the same place, Captain. I know. Legally, it's just a fart joke. You will never take the greatest chin alive. Ben would rather die. Whatever flocks is told to do is done off-screen. Because we cut over to engineering next, where Tripp Tucker and Paul are at work on the Zindy Cloaking Device project.

Tripp's face has been fucked up by Delta radiation. That's what put Pike in the beeping chair. This is what it does. Delta radiation primarily attacks the face. Yeah, I mean, we don't see what's going on on his forearms. I mean, I imagine based on what happened to Pike that it's a primarily face-based impact, but I would hate to think that it could have messed up all his arm nipples too.

You're never going to let that go, are you? Great call. Or would that have even happened in this universe? Maybe. I like to think so. Anyways, we learned through context clues that DePaul owes him big time because he deigned to have sex with her

during her pan far that one time. And so he feels like he can lord this over her. The energy between them isn't the only thing that's got sparks Because a short circuit goes up the extension cord leading to this thing and shocks the hell out of Trip Tucker It does He's like pulling the cable out of the cloaking device as the surge happens You got to use a stick for this, right? You can't just go up and yank it

Bad engineering by Tripp But it's also just suspicious as hell Hell, like, why would there be a power surge that specifically disables the cloaking device that is so crucial to this mission? And Archer goes to the brig to ask former captain, sexual icon, Mr. Forrest, who would have had access to wooden shoes on the ship? Hence the word sabotage. Forrest denies being involved at all in this situation. There's like some talk of like there must be other spies on board the ship like people that are loyal to the Admiralty that report back to them independent of the captain to make sure things are going the way they're supposed to be going. This is something that seems unlikely to Admiral Forrest here also.

He's like not on my ship. Everyone loves me. I mean outside of the one mutiny that just happened recently, like I want to say most people have been down with me as captain. To a man, minus all of the mutineers, I am mega popular as captain. And Archer's like, all right, well, we'll just toss your quarters. And orders Mayweather to head to Forrest's quarters to see if he can figure out who the former captain is working with. And when he does this, Forrest threatens Mayweather of like, with like, you're going to be in way more trouble if you keep helping him versus if you just stop now. I wonder if this is motivated at all by someone quite naturally not wanting a stranger to go through their things, not wanting them to find maybe a certain stuff that could embarrass you.

Go to his quarters, search his personal files. Follow his orders and you'll be executed as a co-conspirator. Now, they're going to look like clarinet cases when you go into my room. Just don't open them. I promise that there is no evidence of anything in there. It's a horny universe, Ben. Yeah. Consider the potential of that. Big floppy clarinet-sized dildos

in those cases. Archer opens the door to the brig, and that's a weird choice, given that Mayweather's out of there. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Archer starts choking him out, and then takes a knife to his head, threateningly.

And the thing that saves his life is talking about host. never forgiving him if Archer kills Forrest here. Pretty big leverage, I think, if you're still in love with Hoshi, if you're Archer. This is convincing. I also like the theme that runs through their relationship between Forrest and Archer being that, like, Forrest liked Archer because he was not ambitious. It was like capable without wanting anything for himself.

Yeah. It just seems like you would have to be nuts to believe that about anybody in the mirror universe. Very true. Yeah. Anyways. Reed knows how the saboteur worked, but not who. He's like, there's, you know, somebody disabled this one thing. It seems like the kind of thing Tripp Tucker would have done.

So we smash cut to Tripp Tucker in the agonizer booth being accused of working for the Admiralty. which is what Archer suspects. Did this make sense to you at all? Tripp electrocuted himself. Why would he do that? Why would you do that? Why would you throw Sabo into a machine that then almost kills you in the process?

The point of sabotage is to also survive the sabotage, right? Yeah, I mean, maybe their suspicion is that he pulled the cable out like to look, to make himself look innocent when in fact he is not. Because there's a little bit of dialogue later that mentions like this wasn't even that good of a job of sabotage. Trip, if he were really into it, would sabotage much better. Yeah. He's skilled.

He's a skilled engineer even in this universe. And he denies all of this. And so he's going to get just all the agony he can eat. and we catch to a post-coital archer at Hoshi. It hasn't been that good in a long time. Talking shop, though, like, they can't get their mind off their work, even after sex. I mean, they've got transmissions on their mind, I guess. Like, not just between each other, but, like, what Hoshi sent to Admiral Black, like, you wanted her to do.

She says she did that, and that's good. Because whatever message was sent is going to be a sort of insurance policy for Archer. What could it be? I like how often in this episode you're not meant to know what people are talking about specifically. Like there's a plan and there's components to this plan and you're understanding that the gears are moving, but you don't quite know what any of it means until the end or an area. you toward the end. I thought that was nice. It is so pre-netflix in that nobody is

articulating what the plot is every five minutes. Yeah. I had a hard time following the story because I was on my phone constantly. I know. What the hell? It's basically worthless. I can't watch shit like this anymore. They want to find to Paul, but she cannot be located because internal sensors are offline. And this may have been another piece of the fallout of the sabotage.

But we cut to her when she and two Vulcan officers go to break Forrest out and this results in a big firefight in the hallway where Archer has like armed himself and run down there to chase after them and then like gets away by hopping on an elevator

while Forrest and the Vulcans go their own way and they just step onto the bridge, licking shots left and right. But discover that even though they've retaken control of the ship, they can't take control of the helm. Archer pops out of the turbolift to explain this. He says they're on autopilot, and that's not going to disengage

until the ship arrives at the coordinates that he preset in there. It will take so long for Topal to, like, override the encryption that they're basically stuck doing this. And the passage of time involves Archer being in the booth for 10 hours. Could you imagine not pissing or shitting for 10 hours? Just awful. That's the real agony. No one talks about this.

This is why it doesn't burn out your ability to experience pain because the initial stuff is just about knowing that the, the discomfort is coming. Yeah. Which is his own form of torture. And then you're in that discomfort the entire time. Yeah. Yeah.

It's mental and physical. You're right, Ben. It's like being in a middle seat on a transcon airplane, you know? Unbelievable. I won't cease or desist. Because you really think it's fair use. Ten hours. He's been in there until Forrest arrives to check on him,

to check on his done. And also, like, hey, we only got one of these, and I'm kind of jonesen to stick Reed in there next. Seems like he deserves it, right? That's the implication. I need something to do on this ship, commander. Forrest tells Archer that Admiral Gardner ordered his release. He didn't want to do this. This is all in the Admiral.

This insurance policy has to do with a mystery ship. And for now, it means that Archer is free to get back to work, put on a uniform, and attend a McLaugh. Offlin group. Issue one. They talk about the existence of this alternate universe, and DePaul is quick to say that the Vulcans have looked into it and don't believe it can possibly be true. But what Archer describes is that the Tholians detonated a tricobal warhead inside of a dead star, and it created a rift that you can go back and forth between the universes through. And the Tholians did. brave going the one way, but they coaxed a ship through coming the other way. And we get a

little bit of surveillance footage of what appears to be a TOS-era ship from another T-Ran Empire. Ben, I'm really glad that you were able to articulate all of that, because all I could think about during this scene, a scene that has Hoshi and Tappal sitting at this take is like, I mean, there was an era where even for men, the pants were lower cut. And what happens when you wear a pair of low cut pants and sit down in a chair? Very uncommon. You're hanging ass and a lot of it. Yeah, yeah.

Consider the blocking of this scene. You have, you're shooting down a table where Topal and Hoshi are on either side of it. They're sitting in a chair. You can see them in profile, but somehow they're not sitting in such a way that has pulled down their own pants in a realistic way, in a way that would happen if they were to attempt to sit down. It's totally magical. I mean, this is the technology that the future promises, Adam, like the advances in stretch and bounce in our clothing will be amazing. Both of those. And they're excited about the promise of the ships of the future, which this one appears to be.

It seems like it is a hundred years more advanced than theirs. And so they're like, damn, like think about all of the cool guns it will have that we can use to kill the rebellion. Yeah, imagine taking 2026 technology back to 1926. You'd kick a lot of ass, wouldn't you? Yeah, except for my phone wouldn't be able to connect to the network and I'd be useless. Imagine how much more productive you would be, Ben. Undistracted. Yeah, it would be ready to shoot.

Undistracted by my email or slack. Forrest is not like super psyched that this is their mission, but it is their mission. So he orders them to get the cloak up and running despite the earlier attempt at sabotage. And we go down to engineering where Tripp is super angry with DePaul that she was the one that got him agonized. to, like, it seems like she set it up so that it looked like he was the one that did it, but it was actually her. I spent four hours in the boot because of you. Perhaps you should direct your anger, Eggmanor Archer.

I love how this moment is about Tripp blaming her for what happened and how he is correct to blame her, but not for what he thinks. It's so great because, yeah, it's her fault, but not like that. she melded him into being the saboteur and then melded him again to make him forget that she melded him the first time and then she had to meld him again to make him forget that she melded him the second time

and then she melded him a fourth time to get him to forget the third time and so forth and he was like, I was wondering why you melded me and she just reaches out and grabs his face to make him forget that time. It's kind of a big job for DePaul and it's never going to end. Yeah, but the,

The cloak is ready, so they go ahead and turn that on, and they arrive at the coordinate, and suddenly the ship controls revert back to the people on the bridge. And we get a closer look at this future ship that the Tholians found. It's the USS Defiant, Adam. It blasted a hole right through that crazy space fabric, and only heaven knows where it's sent a defiant. Exactly. I love seeing this ship. this show. I totally fell for it. Yeah. Great moment. Great moment. Something that I did not realize

Discovery was referencing when there was a mention of the Defiant being missing in Discovery. I was always like, why didn't they ever do anything with that? Because it was from this. Yeah. Yeah. Does it change how you feel about Star Trek Discovery now? I think that was the last problem that I had with discovery and that's been solved now. Great. Yeah. We get a second McLaughlin group. Issue too. Where to Paul reports that there are only a few aliens aboard.

No humans that they can tell. And the aliens seem to be concentrated in the drive section of the Defiant. So yeah, no sign of the crew. And they're looking at some specs on this ship and they're like, damn, this thing can really move. Pretty exciting possibilities here. I mean, you gotta assemble an assault team to go over there.

And who better delete it than Archer? But the thing is, forest orders are to destroy it. Not to take pictures. Yeah. Not to bring back technology. This is awful. Just get the database and come back. And he's like, you fucking idiot.

But that's not up for debate. What Archer doesn't know is, that Forrest is going to stick to Paul on this mission too to make sure that Archer doesn't survive it. It's looking pretty grim for old Archer. It's also looking grim on the Defiant. Like when they beam over there, the Dust Buster Club is wearing the EV suits.

They find folks in TOS uniforms on the ground. They've got TOS weapons. Everyone's dead. It's dead and dark over there. Yeah. Archer gets himself a super phaser from the future, which I like to read offering to carry that for him. No, thanks.

I'll keep this one. Yeah. Back on the Enterprise, Fox is doing his best to try to keep this Tholeon from broadcasting, but the drugs that he'd been administering just aren't working anymore. So he has to freeze the Tholian to death, which he does, but unfortunately too late, it has alerted the Thulean ships. Yeah, they're headed that way and one of them is hailing. On the defiant, they've reached the bridge.

The captain's dead. A few other people are strewn about on the ground and TripTuckers pretty sure he can turn the power back on. But with those Tholians on their way, forest would rather just abort the mission at this point. And out in space, we kind of see why, because the Tholian web starts to be constructed. Yeah.

And you know what that means, Ben. I actually don't know what that means. Once the Tholians get you in their web, you can't get out? Yeah, you can't break free because the Thelian web is made of lasers and are strong. I don't even know why the scientists make them. They're kind of fish in a barrel once they're in there. Even though they're cloaked, the Tholians can just shoot right through this web. Yeah, which means their cloak doesn't make a bit of difference at all.

Yeah. On the defiant trip gets the reactor up and running. And on the entrepreneur, we learned that the pummeling that they're getting is going to lead to a reactor breach in three minutes. And sexual icon, Captain Forrest orders his crew to abandon ship. And on her way off the bridge, Hoshi's like, what are you doing? and he's like, I'm going to buy you some time. Seems like a very selfless and heroic act for a Mirror Universe batty.

Yeah, it kind of made me wonder if Mirror Universe Admiral Forrest couldn't be given a movie of his own. You know? Like maybe there's enough goodness in this character to redeem them in some way. I think he's done a lot of horrific shit and I don't really want to see that movie,

especially if it's, super duper half-baked, but, you know, we'll see. I love how it doesn't make any fucking difference at all because these escape pods are shot out of space as soon as they leave. I'm going to tell you, if I'm ready to put down like the roller coaster over the chest brace of the escape pod, and I'm looking out the window and all the other pods exploding, I'm going to go ahead and try to like slide out from underneath mine

and not go out into that. You unbuckle the bare paws in, yeah, across your lap. Leave me out of that. Did some of the escape pods not get cut up, or are they all just cut the fuck up? I feel like the implication is that they're all eventually going to get destroyed. They couldn't show us all the footage.

Yeah, yeah. I'm just wondering if, like, Hoshi is going to be dead in the next episode or what. But, uh, yeah, RSVP, the ISS Enterprise. Yeah. Yeah, because on The Defiant, they're able to watch it explode on screen. So good job, Tripp, getting the power turn back on. We can watch the big game out there. Just in time.

Just in time. Can you imagine if Tripp got the power turned back on a little too late? Where did Enterprise go? Where is it? A ride didn't even wait to pick us up. Well, Adam, did you like this exciting? first part of in a mirror darkly. I can't pay.

Could for late. Got no case. Tempting fate. Like so many two-parters, it's really up to the second to deliver on the promise of the first. It's fun to see our characters with weird haircuts and different costume choices. One serious thought I had about this though was how Dark Archer and our experience with him up until now narrows the gap

between his character and what a mirror universe version of him could ever become. Right. It's a little less jarring because Dark Archer also kills. Sure. He can fuck when he chooses to.

And I think that's unfortunate for a type of Star Trek episode that seeks to shake you as a viewer to make you fear the captain that up until now you've admired. In a way that I think we would have if Picard ever had this option in his character in TNG, like a dark Picard would have been especially jarring to experience because there was very little darkness to him up until Star Trek Picard, a series that seemed to relish in that character's

darkness for many seasons. So if Archer is a better and more inspirational captain, I think this episode hits a little harder. But as it is, if you only dip into Enterprise once in a while and you only saw the episodes when Archer breaks the rules or kills someone or whatever, you might not perceive much of a difference. And I thought that was interesting. Right. Right. If you didn't catch like the opening sequence of this one, you'd be like, man, strange episode, but, you know. I do like Mirror Universe episodes,

and I think they're campy and fun, and this one is definitely an example of that. What about you, Ben? Are we supposed to be rooting for anyone in this episode? Like, these are all bad people doing bad things to each other for bad reasons. Like, I have to assume that the goal

will be to pay this off in a way that involves the Prime Universe crew or something. That is such an interesting point you bring up, because it made me reconsider what I'm actually hoping for here. Yeah. And my knee-jerk response to that is, I want to see Defiant Fly and Kick Ass. And what a weird thing to be rooting for

because it's completely separate from any character being involved at all. Like, it's hero ship related. Yeah, it's just. It's just like payoff of setup. And like I don't necessarily have a problem with it being that. Like I feel like that could be a totally fun direction for them to go with this. And there's lots of movies that have like fucked up politics or whatever that I still like. And I'm just wondering if Star Trek wants to have two episodes with fucked up politics or if,

they will turn this on its ear in an interesting way in the second part. Well, you'll be here to judge those politics during part two. I'm ready to be an audience for that. I am ready to be an audience for our audience who like to send messages to each other using the priority one inbox. Let's go find out if they are mirror universe messages or prime universe messages, Ben. Let's do it. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on secured channel.

Need a supplemental. Supplement. Supplement. Yeah, it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Some P-1s on the show today. This one's a promotional one. Friends of DeSoto, greetings.

From the Trek-themed fitness Facebook group, Jim Shimoda, spelled GYM. Hell yeah. Inspired by Ben and Adams Pod, We're a spot to share your fitness progress in an inclusive, positive environment. Want extra motivation? Join our monthly Section 31 challenge and stack chips by earning isolinier chips you collect at home. Or do one of our fun group challenges like Planks Giving, where we engage our core and get stronger through the month. Join us and bring fitness to all friends of DeSoto everywhere.

The call to action here is just join the Jim Shimoda crew on Facebook. I'm also seeing here that there's a plank of the heart song that exists. Did you see this? Oh, man. This got sent to BT, so I guess we have to ask him for that. We say it all the time. Send it to Bill Tilly first so he could taste it or hear it before we do. I can only assume that because he didn't send it,

along, he is dead. And, you know, just because this is the cross I bear in life, I just want to apologize for the toxic masculinity coded live read I gave to that copy. I know that the Jim Shimoda group is not about like that kind of fitness. It's about everybody and it's not just about super Jimbrough fitness. What are you talking about? That was in the copy. Are you saying this is something that you gave?

This is a spin that you gave to them? I just, I felt like I was putting a, I was putting a stank on it that maybe they didn't intend. I think you did great. I love Jim Shimoda. I love, I love that it started as an idea on the show and it just became a real thing.

I think I'm going to do Plank's giving. I've, I felt a little, like in my core, like my core could, could use some more shred. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, here's what I'll say about Jim Shimoda. It is the one thing that makes me wish I still had Facebook. I've been off Facebook for nearly a decade. That's the one thing I would go back for. Well, if you're on Facebook right now, join Jim Shimoda. And if you don't have a Facebook account, listen to Ben. Start a Facebook account now and join Jim Shimoda. Ben, we've got another promotional priority one message here. So that goes.

FODs, hire me, please. I'm a Nashville area engineer with over 10 years experience and system administration, cloud engineering, devsec ops, and site or liability engineering. I'm open to local or remote opportunities. And the call to action here is you can check out Josh Cooley's resume at Hire.coley.com. Tech. That's H-I-R-E-D-O-O-L-E-Y dot T-E-E-H.

And you can contact them at Josh at cooley. Dot Tech. Those are the same spellings that I just gave a moment ago. Yeah, it doesn't have an alt spelling of his website for his email handle. You were just talking about how self-conscious you were about your read for Jim Shimoda.

I feel like I made mine a little too sad. Josh shouldn't be sad. Anyone would be lucky to have Josh Cooley on their team? I should have said FODs, hire me or you'll regret it. Don't let this opportunity pass you by. I don't know anything about technology.

Like I have friends that work in tech, but I don't personally have a lot of contact with it. So when I see something like DevSecOps, all I picture is like a guy with like a Mountain Dew T-shirt like creeping through the

jungle knifing Viet Cong, you know? Yeah, it seems like it's video game related, like a call-a-duty thing. So if you're into somebody that can get your database cleaned up and do some wet work,

Josh at coolly.com. Yeah, don't miss out on this exciting opportunity to get in on the ground floor of Josh Cooley. I think this is great. What a great use of a promotional priority one message here, Ben. I hope Josh Cooley gets the greatest gen bump. You know why it's called promotional priority and message?

The use that Josh has right here. He's looking for a promotion in his career. Yeah, yeah, perfect. Perfect for that. Our last message here is of a personal nature. It's from your frog prince. It's to Ben and Adam and all FOTs everywhere. And it goes like this.

I'm a big believer that politeness includes pushing your chair in when you leave a room. During my latest TNG watch through, I noticed no one pushes their chair in when leaving the observation lounge. What's up with that, future utopian people? Rude! Roll-Aren drop? Here's a hot take, Adam. Uh-huh. Maybe everything is secretly a little bit of a robot.

in the future and the chairs like go back to one after you leave the room. I love this idea. I love it. Like there's a lot of fear in modern society about like the robots taking over the

intelligences of an artificial nature enslaving us, taking over our society. What if all AI is or should be is just the little stuff? Just push my chair in. Claude.

I think that's worth burning down a few rainforests for, you know? I know. I mean, it's better than burning them down for nothing. Yeah. Let's get something out of it. Let's get something out of it. I don't have to think about where my chair goes after I leave a room. That's handled.

I always push my chair back in. When I'm in a movie theater or a baseball game, I always try to make sure that the little bottom seat flips up. That's very satisfying. I know you're walking out of there with your, your empty popcorn bucket and sody pop and putting it in the trash receptacle. One thousand percent of the time. I'm packing it in and packing it out.

I'm not a monster. Leave no trace. Don't be a monster. Go to maximum fun.org slash jumbotron. Get a priority one message for yourself, either of a personal or a promotional nature. I think you've seen the vast breadth of possibilities available to you. Maybe on this episode more than ever. And every kind of them goes a long way

in supporting the production of our shows. Do it. Hey, Ben. What's that, Adam? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda this episode? Yeah, I think I'll give it to Tripp for not noticing that second meld. I mean, I don't know how melds work, but it seems like you'd have to erase forward a little bit.

Yeah. He would remember your fingers coming off of his, face. I love how the story is so emblematic of just how much power to Paul has over someone who might have a crush on her. It's so fucked up. I think that's what makes mine to Paul. Okay. Look at her. Diabolical. Fun with the long hair too. Like a fun change up. Long hair, short pants. Sort of makes you wonder why the Prime Universe Starfleet didn't go for outfits like this for the female officers, you know? Yeah, really does.

Make you wonder. Show off the prowess of Earth technology with pants that don't show crack when you sit down despite how low cut they are. I still can't believe. There was no crack in that scene. You know there's crack.

You're just not seeing it in the frame. Mm-hmm. Faith of the fart. Well, let's see if there's a crack in the next episode, Adam. That'll be season for episode 19 of Star Trek Enterprise. It's In a Mirror Darkly, Part 2. In the mirror universe, Archer commandeers the 23rd century defiant from the Tholians

and uses it in a nefarious power grab. Wow. All right. And I'm going to go to Gach Thatbis slash game. Game of buttholes. Will of the Riker Quantum Leap to roll this bone, see how. we will be watching the aforementioned episode.

I just feel like we're due for something fucked up. Yeah, I mean, not too many rolls left in the game as currently constituted. Don't wreck our show, Ben. I'm just, I'm not, I, I have no say. I'm just rolling the fucking dice.

You're required to learn as you play. Roll. I feel like we're at a craps table and like everything's been going good. And then like someone, someone rolls in with just the wrong energy. Like buying into the middle of the table when the points already established. Like, whoa, we had a thing going here.

Well, Adam, you'll be pleased to know that I just rolled a 65. Tulah! Did I win? Landing us on Square 49. Okay. It's a regular episode. Woo! Yeah.

I'm going to cash out and, uh, and, uh, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, turn my chips into money and go have a drink. I feel like we got away with one there. Well, excited about next week's app, excited about all the friends of DeSoto who support us every month by going to maximum fund.org slash join and very grateful for those people.

As we are for the hard work of Windy Pretty, our producer and editor, Rob Adler, the editor-in-chief of the greatest newsletter, which comes out every month. You can sign up for that at greatesttrecht.com. Tom. Got to thank Bill Tilly, the Card Daddy, helping Rob run the At Greatest Trek social media accounts.

Hey, we're looking for stuff for an upcoming Code 47 if you've got something you'd like to send in. Slide into the DMs on one of the At Greatest Track accounts, and Bill will assess what you've got. And if it sounds like the right thing, he'll give you the address to send it into. I love that. I love those episodes. The Epodees are so creative with what they send us. Indeed. we got to thank

Adam Ragusea for the original parody of Diane Warren's Enterprise theme and Dark Materia for the Carthau. And with that, we will be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek Enterprise and an episode of the Great Generation Enterprise

that, you know, we're probably doing a nefarious power grab of our own. I don't know, taking over maximum fun or something. What would be the most nefarious power we could grab? I mean, would they even put up a fight? Yeah, I mean, maybe you've talked me into it. Let's do it. Yeah, okay, yeah.

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