The Greatest Generation - Deeply Fundito (ENT S3E15)

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

When the Entrepreneur happens upon some expanding space queso, they rescue an alien pod and find a hotboxing party guy inside. But after various types of tension start boiling over on the ship, the new mystery alien disappears with a vaguely Xindi threat. Where are there no rules about having a crock pot? Which kind of alien never gets considered on Star Trek? What has Dark Archer started calling the airlock? It’s the episode that’s exciting, but also shocking and disquieting.Support the production of The Greatest GenerationGet a thing at podshop.biz!Sign up for our mailing list!Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Riker - Quantum LeapThe Greatest Generation is produced by Wynde PriddySocial media is managed by Rob Adler and Bill TilleyMusic by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaFriends of DeSoto for: Labor | Democracy | JusticeDiscuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen and find us on social media:YouTube | Facebook | X | Instagram | TikTok | Mastodon | Bluesky | ThreadsAnd check out these online communities run by FODs: Reddit | USS Hood Discord | Facebook group | Wikia | FriendsOfDeSoto.social

Adam Pranika here for Creation Entertainment, the Star Trek Convention Specialists. Powered by Star Trek stars like William Shatner, Kate Mulgrew, Anson Mount, and Jerry Ryan, and in cities all around the country, it's a series of Star Trek conventions that'll keep your crippling travel anxiety out of the airport and into your hometown where it belongs, as long as those places are Orlando, New Jersey, and Chicago. tired of boldly skipping out on a good time like Star Trek Las Vegas? Well, here's your second chance. Watch as Creation Entertainment's powerful convention-producing action

goes to work on your Star Trek fandom, penetrating deep into the most embarrassing pleasure centers of your brain. Go to Creation-E-N-T dot com right now for tickets to conventions in Orlando, August 23rd, and 24th, New Jersey, September 6th and 7th, and Chicago, November 27th. second and 23rd. Go right now and we'll give you 20% off on all admission passes for these events using the code greatest. That's right, this regional Star Trek convention experience is yours today. As long as he used the code greatest today. 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 just a little bit embarrassed about having a Star Trek podcast. I'm Adam Pranika. I'm Ben Harrison. We survived, Adam. If you say so.

We survived the STLV or, well, I mean, we're recording this way before STLV, so who knows? I know you not to be a betting man, and here you are. Yeah. Betting that we will have lived through the experience. I'm flying back, you're driving back somehow my plane goes down and your car goes off of a cliff

that isn't even present in between LA in Vegas I doubt that I'm a survivor I'm living through this wow in the here and now we are a couple of weeks before STLV

and like the main concern I've had seems to be becoming more assuaged you can speak to us normally with every passing day. And that is like more and more people are reaching out going, hey, I'm going to STLV. See you there.

Let's hang out. And that feels good because what I don't want STLV to be for us is eight hours at a vendor table and then going to night parties at STLV five times in a row. I want there to be cool and fun hangs. And it seems like enough folks that we know. are going to be out there where it seems like it's going to be a pretty fun time. I'm really optimistic, and I think, you know, we've got to have each other's backs. We've got to be each other's vice buddies.

This is just you wanting to make sure I tell you about all the parties that I end up going to. I know what you're doing, Ben. I don't want to be at those parties. Not those parties. I'm perfectly happy to wander aimlessly around the Rio, wondering where everybody went. Sure. Yeah. It's going to be great. We're going to be surrounded by folks that we really like and a few that we really don't. And people are probably sick of us talking about this at this point, right? Are we salting a wound for the people that didn't get to go? I mean, I think once they find our bodies, they're going to want to listen to this for clues about what happened. I think there's a real chance that this gets replayed in court. Yeah, yeah, the voices from beyond the grave. So ironic that they said that they survived at the beginning of that episode.

Wendy's on the stand and a lawyer's like, Wendy Pruddy, do you recognize the voices on the tape? Are you sure? It's not more of a, no, Ms. Priddy, if that is your real name, do you recognize the voices audible over this digital black box record? And the voice is getting played are ours And we're just saying the stupidest shit Just the fucking worst

Like like oh Like the one clip you don't want Being representative of us and our work Is being played in a courtroom And Wendy's gonna be like She can't perj her herself No, no She would never

How about no I mean I guess it's not our problem We're dead We're dead anyways Hey, listen, I'm going to look to the camera when I say this. If we die at STLV, just make sure Wendy and Rob and Bill are taking care of. That would be good, right?

That's what's important. Yeah. Yeah. I look forward to hearing Greatest Generation, the Greatest Generation, posted by those three. That'd be great, right? Just a bunch of fucking complaints about like, this isn't my greatest generation. the ship looks weird. The voices aren't what I'm used to.

It happens every time. That is how it would probably end, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's hope that this Marin isn't a harbinger in the way that maybe today's episode is a harbinger. Yeah, that's nice. That's how you do it.

That's how you pivot us right into today's episode, Ben. It's Enterprise Season 3, Episode 15. And it is indeed called Harbinger. We got free speech and guitar. We got a last time on. This one, I don't know why, but I got real, like, Chris Farley show energy. It's like, hey, remember the spheres and remember the makos? And remember, Reed thought that the makos were a threat.

to his primacy as the security guy. That was kind of the energy of this one. It's weird how unusual these had to have been at the time when you can't watch a TV show on any network these days without a package like this up front. Yeah, it's really true. This is the language of television, but back in the day, back in 2004,

maybe not so much, and especially not on Star Trek. When you got the last time on on Star Trek, it usually meant something fucked us. up happen in the previous episode. Not so much the case here. It's just serialized. Remember, all those times Tripp went to Tepal's apartment and got

a rub down? We open on one of those. We sure do. It's footstuff, and Tripp is really attentive to that foot stuff. Then the camera pans up. That foot is not attached to the person I was expecting.

No, instead it's Buxomeyco Corporal Amanda Cole. and you know how there's like TV close versus real life close like when two people talk to each other in real life you know you're you're like a couple of feet apart or whatever but when you're on TV talking to someone you're like in the frame together so you're more compact it it looks natural on TV in a way that it would never look natural in real life my point is that when trip is doing foot stuff to this foot his face is way closer to a foot than any face would be. to a foot while you're rubbing it.

Yeah. You know? Maybe I'm doing this wrong. Maybe we should try another position. I mean, like, the, the ECU on foot with Tripp Face close in there is, like, that's a Quintino shot, basically. I mean, we'd see the underside of the foot if it was Quintino. But my point is a huge amount of foot stuff in the beginning of this.

They are talking about work, which means this massage isn't going to lead to anything. And when they start talking about Reed, especially so. I mean, there's no more assured way to have blood drain out of your privates than talking about Malcolm Reed at any point in time with a romantic interest. There is kind of a, yeah, we agree that Malcolm and Major Hay's buttheads more because they're similar than because they're super different energy to this conversation. But, yeah, like, a strange thing to bring up in a, I brought the pretty girl. from class home to study for the test, quote unquote. Bucksum Maco Corporal Amanda Cole is so grateful for the neuropressure session from Tripp that she gives him a thank you kiss, which doesn't happen after every massage, but happens

after this one, and it kind of sends the message that it's on. There was a like, wow, can't wait for a next time kind of energy. at the end of this. The second she said anything about Can't wait for next time, I was like, oh, fuck some make of Amanda Cole is fucking doomed. I thought the same thing.

She's as good as dead at this moment in time, I think. That is the redshirtiest statement that has ever failed to produce a red shirt. There is going to be some blood on that decalitage in about 32 minutes. I know. We come back from our opening credits, and we learn from an archer's law.

that it is December 27th, and he has pulled Lieutenant Reed into the clarinet rental closet to talk about a new initiative whereby Major Hayes will provide some combat training to beef up Reed's team, and boy, does this go over badly with Lieutenant Reed. Yeah, Reed's defense, if you could call it that, is that his team is already trained up. Has all the training they need, actually. If anything, we should be giving them makers the benefit of our experience. Even though, according to Archer, the instruction that Hayes has gotten is years and years ahead in terms of advancement. Yeah.

From what Reed has been able to provide. Fuck, he's so defensive. Like, as much as anybody else's episode, this is Reed's episode, and it is Reed's episode to look like a giant fucking piece of shit the entire time. I was going to ask this question later, but might as well ask it now as we're talking about read stuff. Does the episode want you to like read during or side with his position during this episode? This seems like an episode written against him in many ways. Absolutely. He's so prideful, so spiteful, like defensive and small and petty as fuck.

When's the last pro-reed episode we ever got? Can you think of one? Uh, I think there was like a comic book that came out before the pilot aired, you know, to like introduce the characters. I guess it might have been the episode where we learn his parents suck. That was the moment where my needle toward disliking Reed kind of flurped a little bit, like back toward neutral. Yeah, he does not like this idea, but it's kind of captain's orders. And so that is that. did you notice that the selection of very unusual camera angles continues apace as we cut over to six bay

and then for some reason ceases i thought maybe this was going to be an episode that was fiesta of unusual camera angles like at every introductory shot and i feel like it more or less ends in this moment but you can't do it for three scenes and then stop can you anyway i'm I'm trying to say, like, I missed them after they were gone. Like, it felt like this was going to be more repetitious than what we get. It's like when you're watching a movie and you're, like, introduced to a bunch of new characters and you're just delighted by how inventive it is. And then, like, the second and third act get, like, more and more paint by numbers.

And you're like, oh, man, this had so much potential on the blocks. And just, like, it ran out of new ideas. It's why you're better off so many times just stopping a movie halfway through and going and doing something else. It's kind of my strategy these days. Yeah. I'm following you on half-letterbox right now. I want you to know.

Yeah. It's weird, though, because you write your review, and then it kind of finds the halfway point and cuts off the back part. It's a nice little creative constraint in writing, you know. Yeah, it's like hike instead of haiku. In Six Bay, to Paul. learns from flocks that Bucksum,

Mako, Corpull, Amanda Cole, has been getting headaches. And it's not something that she's telling Tucker to get out of further neuropressure sessions. In fact, it may be caused by the neuropressure sessions. Yeah. Uh-oh. Dr. Flux is like, maybe you could rein in Tripp Tucker's freelancing with the neuropressure. That would be good. And also,

the destruction that he has rotted. on Buxa Mako Corporal Amanda Cole. The only chance for reversing this damage could be your own Europressure session with her. So maybe you could schedule something like that with her. Instead of doing this whole Vulcan Europressure telephone that seems to be happening to Buxa Mako Corporal Amanda Cole. Does this feel like Flax is like pushing them together

going like, now you two kiss? It's just so fucking clear that this is a Berman and Bragha joint. It really is. Like, right from jump. Yeah. It's fucking crazy, like, how transparent that is. Don't put that on flocks.

Like, Fox is a good character. Leave him out of it. Berman and Braga are, like, the kids with the two Barbies, like, smashing them together on the playground. That is literally how this scene feels. Yeah. If we change the words, then it's fair use all day long. We cut over to Reed and Hayes, marching around in the hallways,

negotiating, like, time and date of training cadence. And, God, Reed is so fucking touchy about this. Just needs to get his special boy away at every turn. And has no chill in expressing that. Yeah. Reed thinks Hayes has circumcised his authority. I wasn't aware I'd done that. And what did you think you're?

were doing when you went to the captain with this proposal. If I'd come to you first, you'd have turned me down flat. You're probably right. Hayes just wants a successful mission, man. That's the only reason Hayes is here. It's so interesting as a storytelling device that you give Hayes very little dialogue proportional to read, right? Right.

And in that way, you make him the guy that you root for. Like, Hayes has done nothing wrong. There's the suggestion that he, like, went over. over Reed's head by taking this to the captain instead of bringing it up to Reed directly. That is not a reason to have like a full meltdown in the hallway, though, Reed. I mean, place is another interesting part of this, Ben. Like, to do this in public also makes Reed seem like a fucking child who doesn't know to take a conversation like this into a room somewhere. So you're not overheard for being the bitch that you appear in public.

Like, why didn't Reed have this conversation with Archer first? Like, I don't like the fact that he went to you with this. Like, what are you doing, Reed? I think the reason is the scene that we got before where Reed was just sort of brought to heal about taking instruction from Hayes. Absolutely. Well, there is an agreement, and it's just what Reed wanted the entire time. That's the only thing Hayes can get him to agree to. and on the bridge, Archer is talking to Travis

about some navigational challenges they're happening. It's like the stars are just like moving. Real weird. What Mayweather says makes clear that the ship steers by stars, right? Yeah. It uses the stars to navigate. Yeah, to know where it is.

Yeah. And absent the stars, or if the stars are moving around, that's a big, big problem, huh? Sure is. I might give Mayweather a few. field sobriety test here if if he says the stars are all willy-nilly like he seems to be the only one that believes this right yeah well topal comes in and backs him up but yeah like it would have been nice if he was like doing the thing where he like you know reaches reaches in to touch

the tip of his nose and to paul's like nope you can stop i actually do have some evidence of a gravimetric disturbance over here think he's sober when you think of gravimetric disturbances. I'm sure you have an image in your mind of what that might look like. Gravometrically. Did you at any point when Enterprise drops out a warp

in front of this thing? Imagine space casso. Because you do not want to touch this plate. It is very verbally. It is very viscous. It looks hot. Yeah. It looks deeply fundido. And it's not what I expected at all.

It doesn't seem to be... It seems like you could lance it and, like, goo would come out, you know? You know what I like about it? It looks like nothing else we've seen before on Star Trek as far as a field of something in space. Yeah. And there's something in the something. They pick out a pod with a humanoid biosign. Maybe some rotel peppers in there floating around a little bit.

That's always fun. You don't want to drain those. You just want to put those right in. You know, like, you hear highly processed food getting knocked all the time these days, but without a high amount of processing. Tell me something more delicious than that. Come on. You can't get that texture, you know? No, you can't. I mean, sure, YouTube food celebrities will come up with all sorts of ways to turn your cheese into something that's more velvita-like.

I don't want any of that shit. Right, but it's like, I'm not ordering sodium citrate off the internet and pretending that that's better. than just getting the processed thing off of the grocery store shelf, you know? Like, it's still a fucking science experiment at that point. Look, man, the Super Bowl is once a year. I'm going to eat absolute shits for 12 hours out of the year, all right? Give me a break. Listen, the next day is going to be rough, but it's one day, you know?

Yeah. I'm happy to pay, you know, later for enjoyment now. I'm happy to pay toilet tax for Super Bowl Sunday, that's for sure. You know, this is late breaking, but make sure you come by the Greatest Generation booth at STLV for a scoop out of our slow cooker. You're not going to regret it. There are no rules against bringing a crock pot to the merch hall, right? We have got to have some meat dip at the mark table. Remain impulsive carnivores.

Yeah. Ben, you're on to something here. This isn't a bad idea. We've been talking about, like, what? we do to gamify the booth? This is it. Anyone who comes by the booth gets one tortilla chip

to dip into the crock pot. No double dipping. And we film it, and we say relish in your body as you eat it, and you do your best Riker putting food in his mouth impression. Rob just puts together a reel of reaction shots from other booths looking at our booth, like disgusted.

So this is your first time. I'm doing one of these, huh guys? Oh, how did I know? I don't know. Just a lucky guess. All of our merch has like grease stains. This is going to be a disaster. Anyways, they do lance this giant space boil and they pull the pod out.

They have to grapple a couple of times because there's some refraction. This is like shooting an arrow into a river to catch a fish. It is very difficult to do. Yeah. I like this effect. You got to aim where the fish is going to be, but also where it's not going to be. Yeah. So, yeah, they start pulling this thing out, but then because of the disturbance in the anomaly, the anomaly starts to get cranky, you know.

Festering is maybe what you could say. Yeah, and it touches the ship and kind of gets like halfway up the saucer to the point where it's affecting. the bridge. The bridge is starting to lose breathable air, and it's all purple and sparkly in there. Enterprise is not a fully loaded starship at this point

of the Koso. And I like that about this scene. So often in Star Trek, a ship is enveloped completely by the thing. Yeah. I like that the saucer is in the Koso, but engineering and trip, like they're not breathing the poison gas. The systems over there aren't getting fucked out.

they're experiencing this in a very different way. Tripp is able to hit some switches and back them bitches out of the anomaly. And they pulled their pod into the shuttle bay and open it up. And man, that guy loves to party. He has been hotboxing this shit out of his space pod. Just an absolute excessive amount of catheters coming out of this guy. How many is the most amount of catheters you can have in a person? Now, triple it.

That's what this guy's got. Well, it's like, you know, we have two different kinds of waste that come from us. But, like, his species, like, it's pee-pee, it's poo, and so many other things. Like, that's one of the kinds of alien that you never consider in Star Trek is lots of different kinds of biological byproduct alien. All cloaca. Mm-hmm. All those little creases and folds in his. in his loaf. Every single one

of those leads to Kloaka. We get a better look at this guy in Six Bay. And under the light, the harsh light of the bio bed, he looks like a skinny the thing from the Fantastic Four. Yeah. He also looked a little bit sullabonish, and I wondered if there was going to

be something with that. Yeah, yeah. He does not want to answer any of their questions when they wake him up. He's not interested in whatever they have to offer. He's like, put me back. He's uninterested, but he's also in a lot of pain. Like, have you ever been in so much pain that you just don't want to talk about it? That's also this guy's deal. Yeah. Archer drives right through the stop sign here. He's

like, he wants to talk to him, gets right up in his face. On and on he goes, but no, he just wants to go back to his ship, this guy says, and then he goes into shock. And I love that as soon as this guy goes into shock. Put my catheters back. This is such a great moment for us. Archer because he's like, okay, and he just leaves. He does not stay to see how it turns out. He just goes to the command center where Topal has learned that the space casso is growing fast. And it's interesting that it is so centrally located between five of the spheres. And Archer asked DePaul and Tripp to inspect the pod for more information about why this could be the case.

of the far legally it's just a far joke We cut to a training bay where Major Hayes is demonstrating some MMA techniques to the assembled entrepreneur crew It's like a lot more bridge crew members

than I was expecting. I kind of thought that this was going to be Reed's red shirts And I mean like Trip is there You know like then Buck some Mako Corporeal Amanda Cole is there. Like, is she there to help train or is she there to be trained? Both because of where this moment lands in the episode as a timeline and because of its

content, it feels like it would be a montage and a Baywatch episode instead of hearing the fighting happen in this way. I thought the Starfleets were pretty badass. I expected to see the Makos just absolutely wipe the floor with these folks. But it isn't the case at all. Like, everyone except Bucksum, makeo corporal Amanda Cole wins their fight. They're doing pretty good. Yeah.

Yeah. So Tripp and Buxem, Maco, Corporal, Amanda Cole have played some contact sports with each other before. And the point of this seat is that Tepal is really distracted and gets a pretty rough one to the kisser because she's too focused on what Tripp and Buxham, Miko, Corporal, Amanda Cole are up to. I get why you don't put the actors in helmets. You don't want to cover up their beautiful faces. But like the idea that they're just wearing UFC gloves and fighting without wearing headgear is just insane to me, especially when there's no explanation of a like medical thing that happens after that makes all of this fine. Like you can get punched in the jaw as hard as possible and be fine after because of something Dr. Flax has a. available for them. They do like a one-on-one demonstration with Travis and Amaco and he's like

Travis does some fucking awesome stunt choreography here. Like he looks great doing it too. It's a pretty savage fight. Yeah. The scrap that Mayweather gets into. He gets knocked down and he's bloodied up and this this pisses Rudolph and he ends the training session and in front of everybody kind of big dogs the shit out of Major Hayes. How big of a big dog is this? when your big dogging is just basically saying, we quit, we want to stop doing this. And it is my order for that to be so. I'm taking my ball and I'm going home.

Yeah. Cut over to the launch bay where Tripp and DePaul get right into the freelance neuropressure sessions topic that he's been doing. Yeah. Quite naturally, she disapproves of a novice doing these techniques. We knew this from jump. Like, this isn't something that you could just do.

This takes specific training. It'd be like, you know, somebody that's like, you know, I've like been the nurse during several brain surgery sessions. I think I could probably do it. I basically know my way around in there. It's like, no. I think maybe a better comparison would be like having physical therapy done on you for an injury and thinking that you could do that to someone else.

Like, oh, you have hamstring soreness. Let me. Oh, no. Oh, God, what have I done? I'm a Star Trek podcaster, but I have spent some time in physical therapy myself. I'm a bit of an expert. Yeah. There's a moment here where Tripp is like, maybe if you joined us, it wouldn't be so bad, which I'm surprised.

He didn't just get shoved out an airlock in that moment. There's a moment between Berman and Braga where this line is written, and one of them is like, that's too much, right? And the other's like, nope. Keep it. If we're thinking it, they're saying it. Yeah. So look, she's suggesting you gotta end these sessions with Bucksomeiko Corporal Amanda Cole. In addition, I just gotta say, me, to Paul, I have noticed how friendly you've become with her.

And maybe you don't want to put that out on Maine, right? Because Buxomeiko Corporal Amanda Cole is not Starfleet, Tripp Tucker doesn't see any problem with it There's nothing inappropriate about it We don't work together She's not in the chain of command Yeah It's just good clean fun

Yeah Where there is a problem Is in this pod And when the computer starts beeping They need to go tell Archer what they've found Yeah Turns out this pod is made of the same kind of metal As the spheres

And there's some discussion of like what this alien is and archer suggests he might be a canary in the coal mine they sent him in there with all those catheters plugged in to see what kinds of juices come out of him and somebody was getting telemetry from that pot and studying those juices there's a relationship drawn between this knowledge and maybe what the religious fundamentalists said a couple episodes ago right and uh maybe oh no But, I mean, this guy was put into the casso, and a lot of testing equipment was connected to him. There must be a reason why.

Yeah. And in Six Bay, it seems like the best way to find out is to continually interrogate this guy. And unfortunately, he's dying painfully. Yeah. Archer wants to wake him up anyway, no matter how painfully is, because he's Dark Archer now. Yeah. Vlax doesn't really know how to deal with Dark Archer. Flax has not developed strategies for Dark Archer yet.

He hasn't. No, he just takes the Dark Archer orders. He's like, this isn't ethical. Archer's like, I don't give a shit. I blew ethics out the airlock. Until I get the answers I need, we're going to have to bend a few ethics. I love what he does with, like, Bacula changes his voice. He suddenly has a five o'clock shadow in this scene.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's like when Bail's in the Batman costume, you know. So in Tappal's quarters, guess who's at the door? It's Bucksamako Corporal Amanda Cole. Reporting for Vulcan Europressure sessions, Tepal. Reporting for duty to apply pressure to that booty. About this point, I started, I mean, if you didn't get the vibes by now, you definitely understand that this is a Berman and Braga production.

And it made me think about the Stephen J. Connell production logo. And how instead of ripping a paper off of a typewriter, the Berman and Bragha production, is two ladies about to give each other a massage, like ripping off of their bras and throwing them in the air? Carphing. Thank you, ma'am. Like the art style's the same? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's pencil-drawn, buxom figurines tearing off each other's bras, throwing them in the air. Yeah.

Berman and Braga production. It's amazing because they're those kind that clasp in the front. Yeah. Whoa, you never see that. Yeah. What are the odds? Extremely low. This is a scene where we learned that sub-commander is just a rank.

Hmm. Yeah. I like how you put that. There's some interrogation here. What, look, what is your interest in Tripp Tucker, Bucksum, make a corporal Amanda Cole? As a construction, it's so hard to say. I regret it.

She and Tripp grew up less than 50 kilometers from each other, which I was shocked by. I didn't think that they had kilometers in Florida. I don't know how far of a distance that is. But yeah, like a lot of places in common and no hometown left in common. So, you know, that's just really put them on similar footing. They're very close because of that. I mean, one area where Buxham-Maco Corporal Amanda Cole has the upper hand is she has living siblings. unlike Tripp Tucker.

And she really likes to rub that in his face. Speaking of things being rubbed in faces, we're back in the training session, and Major Hayes has a new type of combat training, which is phaser rifle target practice, and he puts Reed on the hot plate by making him do the first session. This is so mean.

This is the one part where I, I was like, all right, Major Hayes. This is a little fucked up. Because he does not demonstrate the thing he puts Reed through. He's like, hey, try out this thing for the very first time. And, like, Reed has no idea what's going to happen. Like, you can see his surprise when he shoots the ball once and the ball turns into four balls. Like, nobody told him that there was going to be four balls all of a sudden.

No one expects four balls when they see four balls. No, it's an impossible amount of balls. It's exciting, but it's also shocking. and disquieting, you know? He has a really hard time shooting the little balls. Yeah. But Major Hayes has no problem getting Reed's balls, which he stomps on in front of everybody.

Not bad for a first go, but you might schedule a little extra practice time. Yeah, Reed failed at level two. Major Hayes dominates a level four. I like that Major Hayes gives Bucson, Maco, Corporal, Amanda, Cole heard flowers when he says she's even better than me at level four. You'd never believe how many balls bugs to make a corporal Amanda Cole can take on.

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A cozy show about enthusiasm for animals of all kinds, real and unreal. If you greet the dog before the person walking them, or wander around the party looking for the host's cat. This podcast is for you. So come for the comfort and stay for Alexis's wild story about waking up to her cats, giving birth on top of her. So if that sounds like your cup of tea or coffee, Ella, we're not all brits. Then join us every Thursday at maximum fun.org. You will never take the greatest chin alive. Ben would rather die. In the mess hall, read and trip are kind of post-gaming the day's activities. Reed is absolutely

ruining their situation while eating some mashed potatoes. He's rueful and paranoid that the security of the ship is going to be given to Major Hayes taken away from him and

as gently as Tripp Tucker suggests that maybe extra training is good. Reed is not trying to hear that one bit. No. Reed doesn't care for that take at all. He sees Hayes is a threat to his job. Like not just as like a professional rifle but like he thinks that Hayes wants to be

head of security for the whole ship and Tripp is like I don't know man I mean not even in Starfleet reads like oh so subject change what's up with Bucksomeicoke for Amanda Coe I've noticed a certain tightness in the sleeves of your uniform whenever she's around

you're never gonna let that go are you this subject is as sore as her shoulder Oh, shit. Yeah, how about that? And as sore as the security situation with Reed. Neither of them like this conversation. The pivots just keep pivoting into pressing of bruises. Yeah.

The rumors are flying, which is news to trip. Like, he did not realize that everybody assumed he and Tepal were fucking. Yeah. He did not realize that everybody assumed that he and Bucksum, make a corporal, Abanda Hazer fucking. Right. You're all just friends That's right

What did you make of Tripp's Defensiveness here I mean he is telling a version of his truth Which is like nothing's happening Nothing really anyway Something to worry about None of his reaction to this is Who gives a shit

And I kind of wanted a little bit of that out of trip Like be above it He could be above it Let the people say whatever they want Yeah I mean, maybe it's because he and Reed have this, like, this closeness and this friendship that, like, he can tell that Reed is genuinely worried about how many letters he thinks Tripp is going to have to write if they're ever in any kind of mortal danger in the future. Like, you can't go through this many women this fast. You'll just create so much paperwork for yourself.

Oh, poor guys. They're really in the hurt box at this table. Cut to Six Bay, where Archer is interrogating the alien. And finally, he gets answers. I don't know why he gets answers, but here they come. This dude is from a transdimensional realm. And he was sent there against his will. all he did was respond to a call for volunteers in the jail he was in for an experiment

and then he woke up there on that little ship. The experiment is very important to whoever it was that sent him and it's also his ticket to freedom. So he's like, plug me back into all the plugs, put me back in the pod and send me in there or I'll die. And they're like, you're going to die in that pod. That pod doesn't work. we gave you a bedpan

you don't need 2,000 catheters they put them on like a like the type of table that you do the Y incision on for an autopsy

because like that's there's no bed pan really big enough on the ship you know that is a bed pan like yeah

bed pan yeah the pan is the bed right yeah as he begs for his life like he is absolutely in agony at this point. He reaches out his hand, and the hand starts getting all

glitchy. What is that about? We don't learn in this scene. Instead, we cut to later, where Archer records a log saying Enterprise is back underway toward that red giant they were headed for in the beginning of the episode. And speaking of something red and giant, Topal is doing Euro pressure to Trip Tucker. And is she acting messed up towards him? She denies it. Is she jealous? she denies that too but Tripp doesn't believe it and finally she tells Tripp that Sim admitted

that he had feelings for her yeah I love this game of I'm not attracted to you or you attracted to me attraction chicken that they play oh it's so juvenile yeah the jealousy runs both ways also you know yeah he's jealous of her with Sim

she's jealous of him with Bucksum Mako Corporal Amanda Cole it's like something that they have to set aside these two just simmering pots of jealousy they set those aside they set their clothes aside and uh looks like Tripp and Topal are going to do something

that involves more than just finger stuff verily this is a Berman and Braga production gaze upon that upper half of a butt and know it to be true I did like In that shot, you do see Connor Traneer like do an up and down. Do you think you're directed to do up and down if you're Conor Traneer, or do you just naturally know that that's what you need to be doing for the camera to capture that moment?

Do we have an intimacy coordinator? Should I be doing an up and down, or should I just kind of try to maintain eye contact as well as I can? Do we have any extra napkins of the kind that we tend to drape over a few? female actors' breasts and genitals? I'm going to need one for myself. We do not get to see it going in. What a cut to the engineering section of the ship and the warp cord just absolutely pumping.

Then we get interstitiously before going back to Six Bay. This alien guy talks to flocks about mortality and they're just kind of shooting the breeze morbidly when the alien comes behind Flax and is like, got him in like a half Nelson and he's going to choke Flax, but then his arm goes right through Flax's throat killing Flax.

RSP Flax. Yeah, I wanted to know more about what exactly happened here. I'm almost positive. I know the answer to this question. If you pass a solid object that is semi-solid through a person's neck, that kills them, right? The lady in the floor of the D is dead, right? Yes, yes, yeah.

It must be completely non-solid or solid. There is no in-between, because in-between solid is solid for the purposes of neck. You're fucking wild about Star Trek the next generation? I can picture that lady's exact facial expression and hairstyle, that lady in the floor of the D. I can draw it from memory. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing.

Yeah, it really sticks with you. Oh, Copacchi alien can go through walls now. That's another thing we learn in this scene. Yeah. And that's where he goes, somewhere through walls. Right on through. Think about this. He is in an unfamiliar place, an unfamiliar ship.

He's just found the ability to go through walls. By putting his hand into the, like, morgue cooler, right? Like, that's, like, where he is is the freezer that they put corpses in. there is no way he knows where he's going and I think it is just funny to think about him going through this wall at the end of this scene but the scene transitions away

before we see him coming back out through the wall and going through a different wall not that way that's actually not where I was going if he accidentally goes through an exterior bulkhead can he breathe out there or like I don't know he's got to be careful as fuck doing this he really does

No, they're not going to sue. They got no case. Because parody and damnify. Cut to them gymnasium where read a shadow boxing in a way that is just so obnoxious. You see this guy in the gym? Give it a fucking rest, man. You can do that at home. You really can.

You don't need to do that in front of everybody. Hey, we've got mirrors at home. Would Major Hayes be down to spar when he walks in with bare knuckles? Oh, yeah, he would. And it has got to be so humiliating to have your opponent describe and critique your moves during a fight. Oh, this is rough. The implication from Hayes is that he is so much better of a hand-to-hand combat practitioner that he is judging Reed. And when Reed kind of comes back and gets a couple of good licks in, Reed is trying desperately to match this condescension.

the only thing more condescending to me is I'm sure you saw this you're you're more into viral videos than I am I think I get served a lot of golf fight videos which are fights that happen on golf courses between people who are upset at each other for playing slower too fast and one of the ones I got served this week was a fucking drunk dip shit getting into an argument with a guy he didn't know was a retired Canadian hockey player and yop yep Gap, yap, goes this little dog at this Canadian hockey player, until finally the Canadian hockey player, sick of his shit, grabs him in the center of his chest by his shirt, and starts punching him. But he says, boom, every time he hits him. That is... Like a Costco guy raiding a chicken bake? Is that more condescending than having your moves criticized mid-fight?

The bang! bang as he hits him is just hilarious and he's fine like he wasn't hurt my point being is that like when you say stuff during fights it really brings it to an absurd level i really like the choice that dominant keating makes here to make reeds attempt to match hayes condescending energy feeble and laughable yeah like he is he's trying so fucking hard to be like i am just as good of a fighter is you, and he is not. I love how this fight has that they live quality that just kind of spills out of the gym into the corridor. As soon as it does that, I had no guesses about where and when it would end. In my mind, it could go on forever. It is a totally over-the-top

insane fight. Like, Reed takes a flying spin kick to the head, which You're done fighting if you get a flying spin kick to the head, like, you know, without sparring gear on. Very flashy. Yeah. Like, he's down and then Hayes tries to leave and, you know, Hayes made one mistake. He left Reed alive. Mm-hmm. It really feels, I mean, like, is this as horny as anything that's going on between Tripp and the various ladies on the ship?

I mean, I definitely assumed there would be a grudging respect at some point at the end of this, but it does not happen soon. like the fight gets broken up by a tactical alert, and on the bridge we learn why. Invisible Kapachi is walking through walls and disrupting ship systems, and here's the thing. Capacchi is on B-deck, but Capacchi won't stay on B-deck. They deploy with the Makos and various Starfleet security guys and a bunch of rifles, and they're on to Kopachi alien pretty quickly, but phasers don't work. No. Now they're just going through that guy, the way he goes through walls. It seems selective, right?

Like he can climb up a ladder so he can, like, be corporeal when he needs to be. I love this moment of urgency, and it happens so fast, when Kapachi gets to engineering and climbs up the ladder and rams his hand into the warp core, the bangers are maybe as big as we've ever seen them. Real cause and effect stuff. It's great. Yeah, I also love that, like, POV. pushing shot.

It was like a very Sam Ramey shot where when Tripp was like, oh no! And he's getting got by Copacchi alien. It's up to Reed and Hayes to work together to bring this guy down. And they do some engineering. They hit some buttons and hit some switches. And Capachi gets zapped off at the top of the warp core

and hits the ground. Attack over. And it's like the next morning, Trip and Topal have the weird moment by the coffee machine of two co-workers that fucked after the company picnic. Some night.

Eventful. It's an interesting moment because you're like, oh, so like Tripp and to Paul fucked and then Tripp went back to work. Like, he left her quarters and went to like hang out in the engineering section and got attacked

and now they're nervous around each other. It's interesting how they do that swirl around the topic, right? Like, They start with the awkward quietness of two people not knowing what to say. And the first thing they talk about is what happened in engineering, and that's awkward. Yeah. But all Tripp wants to talk about is the other warp core that got blown out. Right.

Hers. The neuropressure of the penis that they were practicing. How about to Paul's blogger face she gives while she's holding the mug of tea? There is something about this composition of her holding the, and if she were wearing glasses she'd be looking over the top of them at him. She explains

this away as having been a satisfaction of her own curiosity about human sexuality from a scientific standpoint and they sort of agree to pretend that this little dalliance never happened

actually. Speaking of expressions, I think Julian Blaylock does a ton with what she's permitted to show in her face. The character of Tripp Tucker in his own right gives an expression, I'm not sure I've seen from him before. Connor Traneer is giving that embarrassed and taken advantage of type of rejection feeling

that feels very real and maybe familiar. You know? Like, I look at this guy and the way the camera rests on him during this realization. Yeah. And I felt gutted by this. Like, oh, man, I really like this guy. This guy might be my favorite character on the show. And his heart got put in the ball kicking machine really bad here.

It's one of the many aspects of your species, which I've been meaning to explore since I left the high command. It's tough because he is trying to, like, save some dignity. by acting like, hey, no big deal, right? And it's clear from what we know from Sim that it really does have strong feelings for Topal. Yeah. And Talks his way out of this having been more meaningful than it was.

We get this scene instead of the scene from several hours before where Tripp is spooning a Topal that is just laying on her, back still and rigid and like Tripp is John Lennoning, uh, her Yoko, you know. And they's like, oh shit, I got to, I'm on shift. I got to get down to the warp core. Yeah. Yeah. Archer calls Reed and Hayes onto the carpet and is really mad that they let things get so out of

control in their little sparring match. Great makeup here on both of them. Yeah. I mean, I would not want to get lippy with Dark Archer. And this is a very dark archer scene, you know. Oh, man, that is such a great point. Absent anything else we saw this episode, I'd be like, this is the fucking scene out of Top Gun,

where the captain's laying into Maverick and then telling him afterwards that he's going to send him to Miramar, you know? Right, right. But with the scenes that came before, yeah, it feels like they're in real danger. Nobody's going to Miramar. Like, closest you're getting to Miramar is going out the airlock. Yeah.

It's actually what he calls the airlock. Yeah. Blocks summons Archer to Six Bay. And there's a great little beat where we are left with Hayes and Reed still standing at attention in the clarinet rental closet, not really knowing what to do. Yeah. Just like Maverick and Goose. Like, it even looks like as a composition, Maverick and Goose. Yeah.

and we learned this alien really wanted to fuck their ship up like he came to fuck their shit up and he tells Archer that once the human race has been taken care of by this Indy it's going to be all about him and his people yeah he seems almost happy

to tell Archer this knowing that he's been fucking with him the whole time and when he blurps away there is a real cool beat the seat moment that happens once he's, he's gone. Like, like, we, the camera rises up into a wider shot and Archer just fucking

reins a fist down onto the padding where he once was. And that's the end of the episode. I'd love that if like, you know, like when, when Yoda fades into nothingness on Thagabai, Luke had been like, no! He's pounded his little bed. I don't know if that moment worked for me. It was a little cartoony. It was a choice. But did this episode work for you, Adam? I can't pay.

Couldn't belate. Got no case. Tempting fate. I am surprised to have been introduced to a new mystery man so far down the road of the Zindi story, you know? Who is this guy? What's his dark secret? How is he so happy to have done what he did? It seems like his mission was a failure.

It does. Kapachi did not succeed in destroying him. enterprise. All he did was scare people a bunch and walk through people's quarters in a way that made them uncomfortable. I mean, significant episode, we saw a butt, and Tripp and to Paul finally consummated whatever their relationship is. Big episode. Yeah. Kind of a lot happened. I think I liked it. Also, I got to say this. The Livingston of it all felt like hand of director was apparent this episode. Very flourishy, very stylish

in a way that I definitely appreciated. Yeah. Like, inconsistently stylish, I would say, but like, interesting. The end of the episode made me wonder if this guy was somehow Sulubon affiliated, like if this is a

future Sulabon or something like that, or like a client species of the Sulabon. Yeah. Had that thought myself. Because, like, the Zindy War does feel like a proxy war in the temporal cold war it's a proxy war

it's a bug war yeah but it's also a reptile war and an arboreal war yeah aquatic you know et cetera et cetera um well do you want to see if there's anything in the priority one inbox Adam oh yeah I head that way see if there are any

bug P1s in there or aquatic P1s or arboreal P1s P-1s. Hmm, could be. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on secure channel. You need a supplemental income. Supplement.

Supplement. Yeah, it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Then we've got a promotional priority one message here, and it is from the nerdy blogger. So that goes. Hey, guys. Thank you for your nine years of dick and fart jokes. I've listened from the first.

Wow. You got me through some tough times. My brother and mom are passing? Aw. Thank you. Now, listen to the nerdy blogger, Roel Aeron Drive. She rocks. And team plebeam.

You both keep me on this side of the earth. Thank you. Wow. How about that? Is this from the nerdy blog? blogger? Is this just somebody that likes the nerdy blogger also? Maybe it's on behalf of. Yeah. I'm unfamiliar. I got to

get hip to the nerdy blogger. Thank you to Clayton for getting this P1. And hey, I'm looking at our upcoming P1 inventory. There's actually a lot of availability on the greatest generation, which is unusual. It's crazy because this show keeps getting better and better.

But if you'd like to be involved in an episode, go to maximum fun.org slash jumbotron and set your P1 up today. Hey, Van. What's that, Adam? Did you find yourself a drunk shimota?

Incredible. Drunk Shimoda! I gotta give it to read this episode. I think that this is in the script. This is like Dominic Keating doing a great job with a very strange ask, which is to take a character

that's already been pretty unlike so far and just dial it up to 11 on every front like make his choices so obnoxious just universally um and i think he does a good job at it i thought i thought he made good and funny and interesting choices with that so um you know not a good episode for read but a good episode for donovan at keating hmm yeah how about you I'm going to make mine to Paul. I think it's because if you are to believe what she says at the end, that she's just running sexual experiments that she can learn from, I mean, what is more drunk Shimoda than that? The problem is you need to tell the people that you're doing experiments with that you're doing an experiment so that it's consensual. This is the heartbreak that we see on Tripp's face.

He doesn't know this. He doesn't know that he's been an experiment. It's as if he's been told he was a bet. Yeah. Is Tripp a bet? Am I a fucking bet? I wouldn't use that term. But that's the general idea.

He's got bet face. He's got Laney Boggs' face in this scene. It's very painful. It's amazing, though, when he takes off his overalls that are flecked with paint, puts on a dress, what a fucking dime he is, you know? I know we're going to hear more about this in the episode. to come, but like, I don't like this move by Tepal. I think it's a mistake, and I think they're in a bad place.

Yeah. As pals. Yeah, not a great choice. Yeah. Faith of the fart. Well, let's start talking about what's coming up, and next episode is season three, episode 16, Doctors or Dairs. The fate of the enterprises in Dr. Flax's hands as the rest of the crew must be

induced into a coma in order to survive a transdimensional disturbance. Oh man, transdimensional two episodes in a row? I got to say, Ben, I feel like enterprises and great hands with Dr. Flux. Yeah. I'm not feeling stressed about the next episode at all. Yeah, that sounds great. Let's see if we will be enjoying it in a great way, Adam. Let's see if we're going to take our shirts off for the next episode, Ben. That seems to be the only thing. The Game of Buttholes.

The Will with the Riker, Quantum Leap, wants us to do lately. You can follow along on our progress at gach.biz slash game. Currently, I runabout is on square 39. And at the end of this roll, we'll find out in what way we'll be reviewing the next episode. You're required to learn as you play. Roll. God damn. Ben, I've rolled a 28.

Chula! Did I win? We got so close to another decontamination chamber. We're on square 67. Oh, man. If we landed on decontamination chamber again, I might just veto it and we'd have to do a Quantum Weep episode. I'm all out of Al-O-Para, man.

Yeah. It's expensive. I think people would also rightly question the legitimacy of the roles in a sense. scenario like that. I think you'd have to, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. But as it is, regular old episode for you and me. That works for me.

I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. Hey. What? I really appreciate all of the people out there who support the show, maximum fun.org slash join. Keeps the lights on around here. It keeps us growing and evolving into a better show.

It keeps us paid as it does all of the great folks that help us make this thing for you. totally does. Not least of which is our amazing, hilarious producer Windy Pretty, who edits just about every episode of this show. We got to thank Bill Tilly, the Card Daddy, the social media director,

Emeritus. And we're going to thank our boy, Rob Adler, who runs the At Greatest Trek social media accounts and writes the newsletter, sign up for that at gach.biz slash mail. Got to thank Adam Raguseia.

for our parody theme music and dark material for the original McCard song. Get something for yourself at Podshop.biz, you know? Hey, do you want to get a know us a little better? We have a show called Holsom that is mostly about us and our feelings about certain things. Yeah. Patreon.com slash wholesome underscore pod. We do that with Adam Ragusea.

It's a really good show. With that, we will be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek Enterprise and episode of the Greatest Generation Enterprise where Adam and Ben consider whether this show would be better if they were put in combs. Might be.

Let's try it. Captain Jean-Lucre Carre of the U.S. Enterprise. Captain Jean-Loupic Carter of the U.S. Enterprise. Make it so. Maximum Fun. A worker-owned network of artists-owned shows. Supported directly by you.