The Greatest Generation - Diction Hill (TNG S1E12)

Episode Date: July 13, 2026

When Captain Picard is prescribed a study break, he chooses the holodeck as a place to relax. But after he becomes trapped there when (real) bullets start flying, he discovers that his distractions have real-world consequences. What’s the most efficient way to read quickly? There’s nothing wrong with human-face, right? Who should be first: good cop or bad cop? It’s the episode that leaves the holodeck through the back door!Support the production of our shows Members get benefits including bonus episodes and an ad-free experienceSign up for our mailing list!Get a thing at podshop.biz!The Greatest Generation is hosted by Adam Pranica and Benjamin Ahr Harrison The show is produced by Wynde PriddySocial media is managed by Rob Adler and Bill TilleyMusic by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaDiscuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen and find us on social media:YouTube | Instagram | BlueskyAnd check out these online communities run by FODs: Reddit | USS Hood Discord | Facebook group | Wikia | FriendsOfDeSoto.socialSupport the production of The Greatest Generation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Want to hear an ad-free version of this show? Go to greatest.supercast.com. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage. Welcome to the greatest generation, the next generation. The Star Trek podcast. A couple of guys just a little bit embarrassed about having a Star Trek podcast. I'm Adam Pranica.

I'm Ben Harrison. Feels like you're a little spicy today, Ben. I'm wondering if there's anything behind it. Father's Day was yesterday. day? Did you have a good Father's Day? I did have a good Father's Day. How were you celebrated in your household on this auspicious day? I hope you got your flowers. Yeah, we had a nice day. We went to the beach in the morning, which was really fun. There's been this really disgusting warehouse fire over here on my side of town in L.A. It was kind of stinking the air up. Ben, we got to give this

company credit the lineage logistics giant warehouse. fire is what it is and should be called. In order to protect my lineage, we thought maybe get the kids away from the smoke zone. Yeah, your AQI numbers and you're part of the city. Yikes. Yeah, yeah. I don't like them getting up anywhere near my IQ. Let me just say. I don't like them getting anywhere near my SAT scores. Yeah, no good. But yeah, the Beach was really fun and easier than I think I anticipated.

Like it can feel like a big lift to go to the beach when you're on the east side of L.A. But it took us like less than half an hour to get there on a Sunday morning. And it was lovely. And then I went out for dinner with some buds and caught the new Spielberg film in the evening. That sounds great, Ben. Happy Father's Day. Thanks, bud. I always think about you and my buddies who are fathers.

Yeah. And how hard do you all work? It feels like we maybe more even than mothers deserve a day, you know, of serving all of the sacrifices we make that are for sure equal in measure and count. You said it, Ben. But that's all of the past, Adam. I want to say goodbye to that type of shit. And hello, hello to an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation.

I didn't mean to walk into that quite the way I did, but... You're on fire today, and listen to you. I'm going to try to catch up to you as we recap season one episode 12 of Star Trek, The Next Generation. It's called The Big Goodbye. We're heading to meet with the Harada. You might think they're called the Girada, but no, that is a softened jay sound. When you come back from a vacation from there, you have to pronounce it that way so everyone knows that you know where you've been.

Well, I mean, they will take great umbrage if you don't pronounce it correctly, you know. Yeah. If you sit down at a table in a Herodin restaurant and ask for a jaritos with your meal, not going to be taken well. It sure seems like the whole idea of the Gerada species stems from that kind of tourism experience that one of the restaurants. that one of the writers had. Somebody has a real chip on their shoulder in the room and the rotter catching strays. But they're real sticklers for protocols. So Picard is working really hard on getting his greeting just right because otherwise it could be a replay of last time.

And last time was not good. Does it make sense that counselor Troy is the foreign language teacher of the ship? I kind of liked it in that, like, she is so often given the job of helping people understand the folks that are strange to them. And it also made me think about, I think in like the, in like the White House, there's a non-political role of like protocol expert. I think there was. You know, like somebody who can tell you exactly how to like greet the premiere of France or what. whatever, like what the traditional things that are observed are. And I have like no brain for that kind of stuff, but I'm always fascinated when I see people talking about it. So I kind of like,

I don't know if Troy is the right choice, but if you're going to pull somebody out of the main cast to be it, I think she makes the most sense, maybe. I'll tell you what. I took foreign language through high school and college, German. I know a little German. He's sitting over there. And boy, I really could have used a little more emotional support during foreign language lessons, which I found is just disagreeable for my brain. Like, it's really hard for me to pick things like this up. I wish I had someone like counselor Troy to tell me I needed a break, which is what she's there to do in the ready room. You think when you start this episode that there is pages of pages that Picard needs to go off book for for his intentions. interaction later. At least that's what you're getting primed for. What they are studying is the basics of

Haradin pronunciation based on like how it has been adapted to the Roman alphabet. And really what he needs to do is memorize a series of sounds. He does not need to be able to read Haradin unless, unless he's like looking at a teleprompter, which seems like maybe he should be given the stakes of this thing and the fact that he's not going to be. on camera for it. Yeah, it seems like it's all possible. They could put the teleprompter stuff up on the main viewer and have the Haradn be none the wiser. Go fuck yourself, San Diego. That could just be up there for him. Yeah, but he would know it. He'd know he was cheating. Yeah. And that's enough. It's a classic Star Trek setup of a caretaker officer ordering the captain to take a fucking break. You're too

stressed out. And so down to the holodeck, he is sent. And she tells him, she told him like Dixon Hill was, was ready to go. But it kind of seems like he has to program it a little bit. Like, he has to say, like, what year and like what kind of, what kind of environment it's going to be. It's funny to think that if he wasn't so specific with his instructions, we might get a Dixon Hill from like the 2000s or the 1910s or like any time frame. I guess it makes sense. in a context where like Dixon Hill was a franchise that spanned many years. Like if if you went into the holodeck and said, I want a James Bond story, that could be Connery-era James Bond or Brazenen-era, like, like, am I going to be wearing a suit that is way too small for me, like a

groomsman or Daniel Craig? Or am I going to be like slapping Moneypenny on the ass? Which is it? When you were growing up, did you ever play the 90s floppy disc? PC games by the Sierra Software Company. Like I'm talking about space quest or police quest or like all the quest games. I feel like we're a lot like this where they were basically the same game.

Right. They were just like in different places and times. Yeah, there was like they had like the software for the mechanic and they mapped new artwork on top of it. Yeah. Depending on. I think that's what we're getting at here is that like when you have a holodeck, you do have to be the specific.

Yeah. Enter when ready. So enter he does and we're in the hallway outside of the offices of Dixon Hill, private investigator. There's a lady mopping the floor. She should be cleaning the wall. Like there is a big streak of brown shit running down the wall right outside his office, which does not give you the sense that this is like an incredibly highly professional operation.

What is this? The Rio Hotel All-Suite? in Las Vegas? The secretary's in there, immediately clocks his silly bellboy outfit and makes fun of it. This secretary needs to be legally distinct from a Terry Gar, I think.

I think she's giving a lot of Terry Gar from Jump. She's repping Gar, and she tells him all his messages and says, you'll have a great time looking at the legs of the dame in your office. and sure enough, those legs are framed in the foreground when he opens the door and gets a load of him.

Her hair was the color of gold in old paintings and the kind of legs you'd like to suck on for a day. And they're attached to a femme fatal. And she wants to hire him because someone is trying to kill her. I cannot imagine anyone being this sexually forward in real life. Like this is such a trope in these kinds of stories Like this is not Star Trek making up this kind of lady This is the kind of lady that shows up sometimes

In these private eye novels Ben I'm positive someone has been as sexually forward with you You just haven't picked it up Anyways want to play Mario Kart Yeah After the theme we get one of those symmetrical beauty shots It's like a Wes Anderson ship shot of Enterprise here falling through the frame. One of my favorite shots of the ship.

Beautiful shot. I really love it. And Picard is doing a personal log about how much he loves this holodeck for him. Like he's enjoying the game so much he paused the game to write in his journal about how much he loves the game. He's like writing a review of a porn store when he records this log. You're like, the thing about the holodeck is. Everything feels so real. And dishwasher safe.

Then he like clicks published and he's like, do normal people read Yelp reviews or is this associated with my real name? What I like about Jessica Bradley is that she's not there for value. She's there for protection because she only turns on the charm after she negotiates the rate. I thought that was a weird order of operation. there. It's like, it's like, I'm going to pay you $20 a day and I'll probably suck your dick. I'll probably do that either way, though. Let's just be honest. Yeah, it doesn't seem like the value proposition is in any way important to her. What is important is Cyrus Redblock. The person she

suspects is the one wanting her dead. She doesn't know who's trying to kill her. She just knows that someone is and he is like on a list of potentials including like her kid. Do you think that when you're a private detective, one of your jobs is also being a bodyguard? Or are they two different jobs in a way that like you are definitely one or the other? I kind of feel like it depends on what level of the game you're at. Because my question has to do with what exactly is she hiring him for? Yeah, yeah. I recently watched the Peacock miniseries The Day of the Jackal, and there's like a billionaire character in that who has a very intense security detail. And they also sort of seem to be a like find out stuff that is going on detail.

If you're hiring, why not hire someone who's more of a Swiss Army knife type, right? Right. Yeah. And like has contacts, you know, in the in the clandestine world and stuff like that. But that's, that. that's definitely not what Dixon Hill is there for. He's there to receive sexual favors and get her $100 bill tucked into his bra. So she gets out of there after having hired him, and that leaves Picard as Hill to kind of explore the space a little bit. And when he looks out the window, he describes what he's seeing as remarkable. The remarkable thing about what he's seeing to me

is that there's an old-timey car about to drive right through the lower floor of the building he's in because this angle just does not match up at all. Like, they should have had him over at the next window so that he'd be like, maybe that was like the... Maybe that's like the end of the building and that's an exterior wall to his left, but no. I feel like this is a character trait of Picard's

because I feel like in season two, he does something like this about Dr. Pulaski. having to do with what she thinks of him and how great he is. Like he describes that as remarkable or extraordinary also, right? He's a big lover of the remarkable. Yeah. And he gets a knock on the door, does not want to let this person in because he is on his way out. You'll have to call again.

I'm just leaving. And so he goes out into the hallway and like saves the game. But this dude with an Italian accent comes in and, uh, comes in and, uh, is like alone in Dixon Hill's office. So I guess when they turn the program back on later, like the save state is that that character is in that room. I think there's a great squishness to the logic of the holodeck. Yeah.

Starts in a moment like this because there are passage of time jumps between when people leave and reenter the holodeck that are not consistent. Yeah. And like, I mean, and I think that that's true of games, right? Like there's some games where if you like kill a character that is important to the story later, like you can kill them, but then they just are like magically there again later. There's other games where like if you kill someone, their body stays there for the rest of the game, wherever it was.

Ben, what's the shortest amount of time you've ever played a video game? Because what Picard does here, I feel like is totally crazy. He basically gets like the introduction. cut cut scene moment of the video game and he's like all right that's enough for me and then shuts it down i hope i remember that it's triangle to duck and circle to shoot when i come back in two weeks like what the card has done is is he's played red dead redemption from the beginning and he's looked out his tent and he's like all right save game I honestly, like, haven't started a new game in a long time for that very reason.

Because, like, I have, I don't have enough time to, like, put the control scheme or whatever. They're trying to teach you about the game in the tutorial deep enough in my brain that it will still be there the next time I try to play the game. Yeah. It's just impossible. It's depending on you getting hooked. These new games are, right? It really is. And this presents an issue, right?

Because if you do get hooked and then you're like trying to describe what is fun about it to someone else, it doesn't work. And we see this in the McLaughlin group. Issue one. Picard has like opened this meeting with small talk about what he's getting up to in his leisure activity. And everybody just has to sit there and listen. And you hit triangle to duck. This is so tone deaf for the captain. Let's just say, I think I'm ready to say it.

Season one of TNG, not a great Bacard season. Also not a great writer's room season in terms of having figured out what would and would not be things people know about in the future. They've already called French an ancient earth language. They are not familiar with city blocks in this future. That's a foreign concept from deep in the past. They didn't have those. They don't have those in San Francisco of the 2400s. You were right on with the, like, Monday morning meeting where the boss talks about how rad his weekend was.

And he's like, all right. Thanks to you guys' team for coming in on Saturday. That was a big help. On and on. Card goes until he finally starts the meeting. They're all actually there to do the prep for the meeting with the Gerada coming up. And how, in addition to Dixon Hill, he must also be Diction Hill. Yeah. It is the most perfunctory meeting. And then it pivots right back to, let's go back to the

holodeck. That was so sick. And he invites Crusher along and would like the ship's expert on the 20th century to also join them. So it's not a date. It's very clear as soon as you involve Mr. Whalen. That's not going to happen. We're going to need a chaperone given the way Beverly was touching my face when she was wiping the live. lipstick off that I carried with me from the game. I cannot believe they refer to the idea of a recording of the last time a Federation Starship had an interaction like this with the Girada and that no one wants to play it. No one wants to hear it at all? It's too upsetting.

It's too gross. We are all aware of the tape of the last Federation Starship to come to contact with the Haradan. It graphically demonstrates what has. happened when that captain offended them. Are we sure that it's a video or an audio medium too? Like, who knows what it is? All we know is that it's a recording of some kind. The only person in the Federation that did see it was making a documentary about meeting

the Harada for the first time. And it was like, you must never watch the tape of what happened the last time a Federation ship attempted to make contact with the Harada. I won't Werner. That lady does not deserve an impression to be made of her. It's so fucked up. And yet I make it every time you do a Werner Herzog, every time. You got to.

I mean, it's not fair, but you have to do it. I mean, it's like a bear clamping on to an idiot's leg and a campsite, you know? I have to say my favorite part of this scene was the cutaway to Riker as Picard was describing how realistic the kiss was. He was like, oh, oh, neat. The visual language of it is like he becomes more erect in the recline. Fun to hear your captain talk about something like this. Yeah. So yeah, the meeting breaks up.

Data and Jordy are who we catch up with in the hallway, and they're talking about detectives. And Data is very curious about this. Like, he's very detective, curious in general, given his interest in Sherlock Holmes having been established. on the bridge we see data doing some research about Dixon Hill after this conversation and it made me think about how in this scene and so many others he's depicted as someone who does like the speed reading the wildly fast computations and so forth that we can understand visually but isn't it wild how data interacts with the ship's computer like a human only faster instead of directly connecting with the ship's computer at any point I mean he does later

by, you know, like plug and shit into his brains, but that comes much later. There's no, like, Wi-Fi hookup between data and the ship. Yeah. He has to do all his novel maxing the old-fashioned way. Right. My love is a peepa long in jail for that which longer a nurse has the disease. We cut back down to the hallway outside, and it feels like a little bit like an away team mission, but people are kind of joining at different rates.

Like, Crusher has some obligation, so she's going to join later. It's just going to be Picard and Waylon at the beginning, but data crashes the party. Let me check in with you on a thing right now. We are told that they're 11 hours until they meet with the Gerada.

Do you feel like Picard's ready for that meeting? Or is this like me going to a card room in college instead of writing that film paper? I don't feel like he's ready. I mean, sometimes, the best thing you can do in prep is like do something else like take your mind off the thing so that so that you can like clear up cycles or whatever like yeah you want to elasticize your brain right doing different shit so you know and like your subconscious can chew on on all those

pronunciations while you're distracting yourself that's the lie I tell myself also yeah uh yeah we're all we're all expert at rationalizing uh the ways that we procrastination tonight and Picard is no different. Pretty fun how everyone's dressed here, right? Yeah. Everyone's dressed for 40, San Francisco. So is data. They all get the hats.

That's fun. I love the door opening onto the street scene, and it's like a practical effect where they didn't walk out into a green screen. They, like, set the door up outside somewhere. Yeah. And wet down the street. Yeah, the wide shot for production has to be so fun.

I love it. And they start wandering around. It's like night in San Francisco. They're looking at all the cool cars and the like thousands of extras that they have populating this place at Murray Futterman is selling newspapers. You got to watch out for no foreigners

because they plant gremlins in their machinery. He actually thinks of Dixon Hill. Murray is happy to give a freebie to his pal Dixon Hill. And they're talking about what Picard is reading in his newspaper. paper. I think you should probably not program your holodeck to have the characters comment on the physical appearance of the players. Like, what's wrong with your skin? I think that probably

keeps you on costume if you're someone who's going to be doing holodeck a lot. Like, you really have to try. Like, they really should put data in human face for this episode. So he doesn't get this kind of guff, right? Yeah, but, you know, you put him in human. face and then like 30 years from now, Data's thinking about like making a run at Federation Council or something and the pictures resurface. Data is considering starting a Star Trek podcast

and really hoping the Agamemnon picks don't get leaked. Hey, we get our first Buck-Pokai reference, Ben. Not by name, but by reference. We all know that Buck Bo Kai broke Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak in 2026. Yeah. They don't name them though.

I'm gonna say fuck, okay? Yeah. Did the MLB and Paramount miss an absolutely massive branding opportunity, not creating an expansion team in London in time for 2026? So you're suggesting there was an opportunity for the Paramount company? Which has the scratch to own a baseball team. To do some sort of like organization, or creation of a fun other thing

in addition to the main thing that they're doing? Yeah, yeah. You know, just throwing ideas out there. Like if somebody on the inside ever wanted to like think about fun tie-ins that they could be doing. Yeah, if you're on the inside, our thoughts are with you. Joe DiMaggio is probably just sitting in a dinky donuts at this point, right? You know who's sitting in a grave

Is Jessica Bradley having been murdered This is not front page news I was surprised by this She went from femme fatal to femme fatality Very nice This suggests to me Ben That the program does run in the background When is not being played directly

Because this happened while they were all in the conference room, right? You would think that you would get like a push notification that something needs your attention in the game if it's that kind of game. Is that a real thing? I didn't even consider the idea that my PlayStation would bug me to play it. Oh yeah,

there's definitely games that are like running in real time that bother you. Oh, no. Phone games mostly, I think. But yeah. I mean, like the cops are pretty exercised about this murder and come up to them

as they are learning about it in the streets and Dixon Hill is going to need to provide an alibi because they found the clue of his business card on her person. It's like, I guess just never give out a business card is the lesson from that. Are we counting on the fidelity of the image in this year of production to bail us out of the clearly unproof-red business card we get on screen here? Did you see this? I noticed that there was a close-up of it, and I wanted to take a look, but I forgot to go back and pause it on screen.

Let's see Paul Allen's card. So the two cops want to take Dixon Hill downtown because of this bit of evidence. And meanwhile on the bridge, the Gerada probe is doing what probes do, probing them and dropping some bangers on them in the process. And that's going to be a problem when the holodeck doors start going on the fritz, doing that thing that old, like, autoes. grocery store doors could do from time to time, like opening up partways and then slamming shut. It also brought back the naked time door opening and shutting, or naked now, I should say. Yeah. Sorry, I get those episodes a little bit confused now that I've seen both of them.

But yeah, like, it's a full banger. Like, the ship has a rough time with this scan. and they call up and this is in English, then like, this is not the real meeting. You should just know that we're ready now. We're going to move the timetable up a little bit. And Riker is trying to stall. And they don't like that at all.

They don't like it one bit. When you call Enterprise and you get Enterprise Residence, Riker speaking, that would piss me off too. I always used to get, oh, I thought this was your mom talking. And then until I got, oh, I thought, this was your dad talking. And now I have this thing with my dad where if when they visit, if somebody says something to Siri, if I say something to Siri, it'll trigger shit on his phone and vice versa. Like Siri cannot tell our voices apart. And yet your voices are, I think, very different.

Not different enough for bug brain Siri. Like, you know, like if I set a timer on my on my phone, It's not turning on on my wife's phone, but it is on my father's phone. Amazing. So here's the problem. They got to go get Picard out of the holodeck, Pronto, don't they? Yeah. Jordy heads up to the holiday to do that, where Beverly Crusher is on our way in through a door that seems very dangerous to sneak through, right? This feels like a malfunctioning elevator.

Like you don't want to step down into an elevator that has not fully arrived at the floor. If the elevator is looking fucked up before you get on it, that is an unforced error if you get stuck on that elevator, you know. Listen to us. Just talking about the Rio constantly. I mean, this is why I bring a two by four to the Rio so I can jam anything open that seems a little bit suss. And that's what Crusher should have done. She should have laid down some scrapwood in the aperture just to make sure things are safe. The San Francisco Police Department Station is where she ends up.

and finds Mr. Whalen and Data, and Data is now, like, fully committed to the character of the times here. I kind of feel like Data went with three pretty different takes on this character in three different scenes where he's doing the, like, hey, Mac. It's pretty fun, and Brent Spiner's so hammy in every opportunity he gets to do stuff like this. He really goes all the way. And what Beverly Crusher learns is that Picard is being interrogated. as being a suspect in this murder case.

And everyone is so jealous. Beverly Crusher is so jealous about this interrogation happening. Isn't it sad what the Kardashians ultimately do to Picard, which is take one of his main pleasures of having fun away from him, turn it into a trauma? Like Beverly opens up the door, just a tiny gap and sees him just downing egg after egg of like almost fully formed chicken.

Taking it down. There are five light bulbs nakedly hanging on wires. You know, when he takes a look into that egg and sees it squirming around, he's so grossed out. But we didn't realize it was because he'd already done this contest before. This is why I have a hard time drinking Coors Light. It's like I did the Century Club so many times with that beer. It's not my favorite the way it once was. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, you and Picard kind of went through a very similar thing in that sense. I am look cutus aboard. You will respond to my questions. I am look cutus aboard. You are... She sits next to Dixon's whole secretary and does that hat and skirt measuring contest thing. Wait, is that his secretary?

I thought that was some kind of sex person. I thought it was the same person. Oh. I thought it was the secretary, but I could be wrong. Crusher is definitely taking all of her cues on how to perform womanhood in this era from this one NPC. And then we cut to like the interrogation room where Picard is not so much like going with the game as complimenting the character performance of the of the NPC that's doing the interrogation. Oh, I quite enjoy the way you wet the washcloth before draping it over my face. and mouth, rocking this chair backwards.

Oh, yes. And when you're using that raw copper wire to tie me to this bedspring frame and then connect a car battery to it, the Vesimilitude is so accurate. It's really funny how at the moment we realize things are dangerous on the holodeck isn't this moment. Yeah. And it could have been, I feel like, in a draft? They save that. And I was thinking a lot about like, what do the stakes feel like for somebody who is watching this for the first time in the late 80s? Like, do you give a shit at all about anything

that is happening yet in the episode? And I kind of wonder if you do. Yeah. But this is like also when we cut to the hallway and Jordy is like, yeah, I mean, like, the screen is off in the hallway and the door won't open. I don't know what's going on. Total bullshit, man. Those are the two main things, right? I kind of love that. You don't need to know anything about Holodex to know that like if if one of those things doesn't work, then you're really in a pickle.

If both, forget it. It's done. He's locked out. And it's funny how the captain's logs in Star Trek with their reset or restatement of what's going on in the story is kind of a pre-looking at the smartphone sensibility. for a passive viewer. I really got hit with that a bunch this episode and especially here

where it's like, we just saw the scene you're talking about. What are we doing this for? They're really ahead of the times, Ben. Yeah, they really were. So Breaker's like, okay, I guess, like, I guess Jordy doesn't know how to unplug and plug back in

the router, so I'm going to go down there and do it. And Wesley's like, I've read the manual for the holodeck you want to take me with you? And he's not going to let Wes Cove until Troy speaks up for him. But it turns out Wesley's like the,

like, Jordy does not seem to be written to have any like technical prowess in this episode. They do not give him any engineering tasks in trying to assess what's wrong with the holodeck. It's just bullshit. I wonder when we'll realize the moment the character of Wesley Crusher turns the corner between moments like these

where he seems to be almost apologetic for his own existence and his knowledge about his situation to when he becomes just a dude who knows things because this scene was so so awkward for Wesley Crusher like listen to how slow he talks this is an emergency situation and he's like

commander I happen to know things about the holodeck that may be useful in a time like this. I'm like doing the hand gesture of like, come on, let's go. Like I know what the end of your sentence is before you're done with the first half of the first clause.

This seems to be a quality to his dialogue that has been a big part of his deal for a while now. And I want to be on the lookout for when he shakes out of that. back in the holodeck, there was sort of like a good cop and a bad cop in the interrogation scene. The bad cop has left. And so the good cop is left. And he's like a really good cop. He's pals with Dixon Hill.

And he's like, yeah, like, maybe we should like get you over for dinner, see the wife and kids. Don't you think there's a right order to good cop, bad cop? And do you think this is that? I would almost want to lead with good cop so that bad cop is way more shocking. I don't feel like there's anything shocking about good cop here after bad cop. Have you seen this boy? I mean, what was shocking to me is how they are actually friends. Like bad cop leaves and it's like, wait, these guys are friends and what's a like,

then what's his deal? Like could he not have like had a little like, hey man, go easy on him. He's a friendly on the way into the interrogation room. but don't you want your person on the inside to keep that secret just for you? I totally get this. Like he does not want to out himself as a friendly to anyone else. Sure, but couldn't he have in the, you know, at the crime scene when they're like, look at this. She has a business card on her. He could be like, oh yeah, that's Dixon Hill. He's a private investigator. I bet he, I bet she was worried about getting killed and maybe was like thinking about working with him on figuring out who was going to do

but maybe he has some clues for us. Yeah, I don't know. It sounds like he's saying too much. Yeah, yeah, loose lips. Mm-hmm. The dinner invite is turned down because Picard has a date with a certain sex ship.

The name is Enterprise. Sounds like a working girl to me. So out into the lobby of the police station, he goes, where the romance vibes are really simmering when he sees Dr. Crusher. Really electric. between them. And I think this kind of seems to me like two folks who are just now realizing how into role play they are, like didn't have any idea before trying it, that it would be their

thing. But they both seem to have the expression of like, oh, oh, you know? Yeah, like we, we've been dating for six months, but we just came home from a Halloween party and this got pretty fun in a way that I did not see coming. I did not know I could be this sexually charged by Raggedy Ann and Andrew. They were supposed to be wrapping it up, getting back to work, but because Crusher just showed up, they kind of like, oh, okay, like, let's keep the game going for a little bit longer. You can come see the Dixon Hill office play set at the very least, and that'll be cool. The fucking look on their faces when they're like, oh yeah, let's go to. to a second location, clearly to fuck.

And for data and Mr. Whalen to be like, oh, yeah, I want to see is like so many times I remember in college, like you want to pair off, you want to go. And then it's like socially, that is not picked up. Yeah. And you don't, in college, you don't have the luxury of being like, hey, man, you want to head to the latrine with me and, you know, drain the main vein, talk about things. You can speak to us normally. I know we're roommates, but that doesn't mean we need to be in the room at the same time all the time.

Right. If I could somehow conjure a gym sock here and now that I could wrap around you, I would. Felix Leach is waiting for them in the waiting area of Dixon Hills office, and he is not willing to wait any longer. Ben, it's a stick up. The gang is delighted with the stick up. Like, everybody is, is pretty excited that this game has taken an interesting turn. And Leach is not excited. He's pretty pissed off.

And they're like, okay, like, this is cool. But we do really have to go, Felix. So they call for the exit. The exit does not happen. This is persuasive enough to keep enjoying the game. And Whalen kind of for the first time, like, tries to play his own character. a little bit. Like, I feel like Picard has been sort of half-heartedly, half-in, half-out, pretending to be Dixon Hill. Data has gone, like, all the way past 11 on playing whatever

character he thinks he is. And Wayland's like, what about me? I can, like, step up to this, this Felix Leach character and say, like, get out of here, Buster. Give me the gun. Oh, God! Bad time for a heat check by Mr. Waylon. And he isn't just shot. Like, this is a life, threatening gunshot wound. Good thing Dixon Hill is able to fight Felix Leach off. Like he sort of like slaps the gun away, it seems. Yeah. And then he runs away.

But getting Mr. Whalen to Six Bay is what they need to do right now. And it is a big problem when Picard yells for the exit and it doesn't appear. And no matter how loud and differently he yells it over the next minute, the computer does not make it happen, which has got to be even more crazy making. I have never seen a holodeck with two different exits, but they send data to try the other one to see if like the voice commands for this one aren't working. That doesn't work either. Crusher's starting to really get pressed and the entrepreneur arrives in orbit of the planet that they've been heading to. And Riker's like, all right, Wes and Jordy.

I know that you guys are working on fixing the holodeck, but we're out of time. Like, can you try like unpluging and plugging back in at this point? Or like, what are we doing? I think it's interesting that we don't see Riker sit in the big chair at all this episode. This is one of those scenes I thought for sure we'd find him there. Well, you know, Picard is a friend of his, but he won't sit in that chair. Not until later. Inside the program, even data stumped about why they can't leave.

And oh, no, Felix Leach is back. And this time he's brought Cyrus Red Block in a hench with him. And Red Block is Lawrence Tierney. That is crucial to know. Yeah. One of the greats. And he has a style with both clothes and words that is very enjoyable, very pleasant from a bad guy. Good manners, madam, I never a waste of time.

Really puts a lot of mustard on this performance and makes it an episode that I think is much more distinct than it would be. without this performance. Yeah. This is a tough scene. Red Block is here looking for an item, an item that he expects Dixon Hill to have recovered for him. And it's a little bit of a tricky situation because they're like, I mean, we started this game like yesterday evening in game time,

so we really don't know what the fuck you're talking about. And there's a lot of like pistol whipping going on. It's just, it's not a good deal when the safety protocols are off. what this scene doesn't need is another person joining the party. And when the good cop does, you kind of are made to wonder if, like, he's going to be the cop on the subway and taking a Pelham one, two, three. If he's going to be, like, laying back in the cut,

like waiting for his moment to strike. No. Now, that's not this. It's a guiding principle. I would stop beating face. And you can't find if you don't deserve to wear that uniform. There's an interesting moment where they're like, what's with this guy? And Data is starting to say the thing about I'm not from this game. I'm from a different reality.

And kind of gets corrected by Picard. Like, no, no, do the South America thing that you did with Murray Futterman earlier. And then sort of like in the middle of that getting kicked out of bed as an implausible explanation. by Cyrus Redblock, Picard is like, no, like, yeah, we are from a very different reality than the one you understand. And we're rich, so we could give you lots of money from that reality if we wanted to, but we'd have to want to. That's ridiculous. You're a dick. This has an unexpected consequence because in order to test this hypothesis in the room, Cyrus Redblock proposes maybe killing another person. If things are as bizarre.

is how you describe them. If we're just hollow people to you, if I'm a hollow man, tin man, then maybe what I should do is order the murder of Beverly Crusher. And the thing about Felix Leach in the moment where he holds a gun up to her head

is that Felix Leach is pointing this weapon, minding a four by three aspect ratio. Because the way he holds the gun with bent, elbows in front of his face, is the way you get a gun slapping into your face when you discharge it. I was wondering about that, because this is the James Bond gun, right? Like the P-22 or whatever, the Walther? Is that what it's called? Yeah, the Walther P-P-K? Yeah. And I was wondering if it's like small enough caliber that it just like doesn't matter. Like there's barely any kick on it. I don't know. Do you feel like Leach has a lot of forearm strength?

Doesn't really look like he's been attending to Arm Day. I got to get a pump. It's really weird, though, because they're like, okay, like, explain this situation with the item and, like, why you can't get it for us. And it kind of feels like they're setting up for a long night of holding hostages in Dixon Hill's office. Yeah. It doesn't really feel like what a guy like Cyrus Redblock would probably. we want to do at this time? There's a mania to Cyrus's character that is so interesting to me and it makes him so threatening because he begins by going like, yeah, let's kill Beverly Crusher.

Let's test the hypothesis. And then he's like, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm not that evil. I'm just a bad guy. I'm not an evil bad guy. But then he makes it clear that if he does not get the location of the mystery thing he's after, Dr. Crusher will be executed in this room. in front of everyone. Hey, I change my line. Shoot this piece of shit. Picard kind of turns it around on him and says, okay, well, if I'm going to give you the mystery thing, then you have to help us save Mr. Whalen's life by getting him out of this room.

And up on the bridge, Riker realizing that we really need to let the Haradin know what is going on at this point, does that thing where you like call the number that's listed? for the company, but it's actually a fax machine. You know, you get that horrible screeching noise back. This happened to me when I called home yesterday for Father's Day. I did not realize my parents disconnected their landline. Yeah. They're on cell phones only, which I want to say, for the older folks in our audience,

good for them. You don't need a landline anymore, I don't think. I don't think so either. What you do need to do is tell your family that you've done that. I think that's kind of an important step to the whole thing, right? That is an interesting omission. I think that says a lot about our relationship at this point. Yeah.

My mother-in-law is the only person I know that has an unlisted number. And so when I get a call from an unlisted number, there's like, there is a 20% chance that that's actually my mother-in-law. That sucks. Yeah. It's really rude. The fact that you're obligated to answer unlisted calls. I got to have a conversation with her about it. Yeah.

So, yeah, we're pretty stressed. And Jordy radio's up, but he's like, okay, Wesley has an idea to fix the holodeck. But like, outside chance it turns everyone in there into cat food in the process. And we just don't know. Do you need the stakes of the Geraden interaction to be more explicit in this moment? because as soon as I hear Wesley going, I could clip these wires, but everyone could be dead. I start thinking about how fast do we need to do this?

Like, do we really give a shit about Picard dealing with the Gerardin at the end in a way that makes threatening his life on the table? We also don't know what the risk factor is on clipping the wire. Is it like 50-50? or is it like one in a million that it turns everyone into cat food, including Wes's mom? I really want to know. Anyway, in Dixon Hill's office, stuff is getting crazy.

When they're momentarily taken to a snowy blizzard scene and then they blurt back into the Dixon Hill office scene again, that's got to feel weird. I love that moment. Very fun to get everybody standing in the same position and go, ah! And back and they got all the fake snow. flocking all over everybody's outfits. I really like that moment a lot. It was great. It is a real shocker to Red Block when the holodeck door finally appears. And he's like, I've read a little bit of, you know, I keep up with Marvel Comics and

I read a little science fiction. Like, what kind of portal is this? Does this, is it a two-way or can you only go through it? What are we talking about here? he's pretty sophisticated for a past person, not just in the way that he talks, but in the stuff that he talks about. Like he seems to get himself on the level of what this is in a really interesting way, in a way that made his eventual death feel kind of tragic.

It did because it was like, he is going through that door out of a sense, like exclusively out of a sense of curiosity and discovery. there may have been some dialogue to establish the idea that there are like there's wealth to be had through that door. But that is not the feeling I have about what Cyrus Redblock is going through with Felix Leach to experience. Like they're just like stepping into the unknown like an astronaut would.

And they seem like bad dudes, but this is a relatable moment where it's like, wow, they are, they are taking up the spirit of exploration and, and like drafting on that vibe from these Starfleets that have been in their world for a little bit. All right, ramblers, let's get rambling. It made me more curious about these characters than I ever expected to be by the end. And I understand when you hire a Lawrence Tierney, you're maybe probably only getting him for one. But what an opportunity there to know more, I thought. So they blurp away.

Ben, one thing we learn from this scene that we must keep in mind going forward is that the back door of the holodeck is really where you want to leave. Because when they go out into the corridor and Jordy and Wesley and all those other engineers aren't there, that's what this is. That's what this is. And it's not the one that they were trying initially, right? Like when they sent data out into the hallway of the Dixon Hill building to go try the other one, that was the front door. Yeah. You always want to leave the holodeck through the back. Always. I mean, it's like doing a live show, right? Like there's a stage door at the back where you have easy access to the green room and all that stuff. And, you know, your spot's not going to get blown up quite the same way. Where Ben shoves an FOD out of the way saying, get out of my way, you bad pig. Jesus. Maybe not with that term. That's the Sinatra story. Oh, okay. Did he say that? Yeah. Jeez.

Ben, I think we've told that story on an episode of our show. Oh, man. Did he then tip $100? No. John Mullaney told a story on Mike Barbiglio's show about his aunt meeting someone famous. And she was so excited to tell John Mullaney that, like, yeah, I met Frank Sinatra once. I waited outside the stage door for him, and the door opened up. And he, and he, like, shoved a bunch of us away to get into his limo saying, get out of my way, you fat pig.

and she was so thrilled. Oh, man. Just like you would say, Ben. I've been described as Sinatra-like in many ways. Back in the holodeck, we're pressed for time, but that is not going to stop Picard from enjoying a little epilogue to his adventure today with his friend, the police officer. And this felt like it was maybe written for Dixon Hill and a femme fatal to be having a conversation about like, this is the big goodbye Dix.

Like, I might never see you again. I love how unexpected this was. It's just two bros. Just two bros being bros at the end of the thing. Yeah. There's some like metaphysics in it. Like, so what happens when the power goes off? Are we still there?

And Picard's like, you're always here with me. in my heart. Well, I'll think about you from time to time. Which is also mechanical, I should stress. God, when he leaves and the interior goes black before the door shuts all the way, yikes, I think we get our answer to that question. Yeah, there is nothing. RSVP, good cop.

In wardrobe, Picard and Data show up on the bridge. Picard does his little song and dance. We know it went well because Troy seems happy. Wonderful. There's also a reaction shot from Riker, who kind of looks like it is actually Jonathan Frakes, not realizing that the camera is rolling. Like, couldn't be less interested in what's going on the bridge,

completely distracted, just staring off into the middle distance. I love practical claps. in a scene like this. Everyone's psyched. Everyone breaks out an applause. That's twice this season. A room full of people has clapped. I love it.

A new day dawns between our culture and the Haradin will become a very interesting strategic element to stories going forward throughout the Star Trek canon. It's true. And Picard orders the ship into the next episode at the end. This is becoming a speech. You're the captain, sir. You're entitled. I'm tired to ramble on about something everyone knows.

Ben, this episode is called The Big Goodbye, but now it's time for the big question. I took and failed a philosophy class in college. Wow. One of my few class failures, because I thought it would be cool and philosophical, but it was more like Van Diagrammy and Mathie than I ever anticipated. You take like a logic class?

I did. That'll fuck. your shit up. They really got to be better at telling you what that is because as a Star Trek fan I took a logic class and I'm thinking oh cool we're just going to like talk all smartly to each other about shit. Yeah. Nope.

Similarly I took a class called Men, Mines and Machines and Machines. It's subtle. And I thought it was going to be about like do animals have like measurable intelligence similar to people and the entire

class like every class period the professor would get up and draw a bird cochlea and a human cochlea on the board and say, like, why can these two things hear the same thing? And like, he was like completely out of his mind, was obsessed with cochleas. There was nothing about men, minds, or machines. It was all cochleas. Ben, in philosophy class, I did learn that there is a simulation hypothesis that comes from a philosopher named Nick Boastrum. And Boastrum's trium. This is not a dilemma. This is three dilemmas, according to my math. That at least one of the following statements is true. The human species will likely go extinct before reaching a post-human state. Post-human civilizations will lose interest in running computer simulations of their own history.

And we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. And in this episode, the good cop is confronted with this idea personally. And there is a real sadness that you get off of him just before the lights go out. So I want us both to answer these questions. What do you make of Boastrom's theory? And do you think you could ever be happy if you knew you were in a simulation, like given that knowledge the way the good cop is at the end? I don't think that we're in a simulation.

I don't think that that's a persuasive theory. And I've read a lot of science fiction that explores that as an idea. Is the science fiction you consume mostly about disputing that? I wouldn't say mostly. I mean, it's definitely an idea that a lot of books tackle. And in particular, like I've talked about my love of E&M Banks' novels on here quite a bit. And there's a, he has a book called the algebraist that is set in like not quite a dune like universe, but like there is a like police force that goes and like eradicates thinking machines in it because they're like way too dangerous. And in that book, there's also like a like a sort of galactic religion called the truth.

And that's the premise of it is that like everything is a simulation. And we should all just like accept that as our as our reality. I think the thing that makes it an unconvincing thought experiment for me is the rich tapestry that is life. Like seeing a simulation, you see how inherently limited it is. Like we talked about it earlier. Like different games have to take different approaches to constraining like what can and cannot happen. And if like a main character that is important to the plot gets killed in a scene, like does that change the plot of the game or not?

or are characters that are too important, unkillable or something like that. But I like that the characters in the simulation in this particular holodeck program are more curious and drawn to that way of thinking than I think is typical of holodeck characters. A lot of the time in subsequent holodeck depictions, people are like sort of unable to have awareness

of the arch or unable to have awareness of people, you know, like what people are talking about when they have a little side conversation about the realism of the program or whatever. And at this, they're like, wait, what are you talking about? Like, tell me more about that and a way that I think is really cool. And I think that while I think season one is rightly talked about as like being a hot mess in many ways, I think that the thing that Gene Roddenberry was like particularly interested in by the time he arrived at making this show as as like a humanist and like a person who wanted to think about how we get to a more enlightened future is like even character, even throwaway characters in the holodeck are curious and empathetic and want to explore. And like live into those values. Like even like the bad guy, Cyrus Redblock is like, he's a fucking astronaut by the end of this.

And sometimes, you know, sometimes Lyca the dog goes up never to come back down. And similarly with Cyrus Redblock, but maybe someday characters inside the holodeck will exert even more control over their reality. We just have to wait and see. But what a public speaker. Ben, one thing I want to say on the subject is that, like, I know the science community has, like, a list of qualities that, like, you need to check all these boxes to be considered life. Yeah. And none of these qualities is the desire to live or the fear of death that the good cop present at the end. And that's one of the strange feelings at the end of this episode that I got, which ends on kind of a positive note.

Like Picard solves the thing. They escape. he says the words, good job, everyone involved. But like, when the lights go out, it feels like a death takes place, and that is completely unregarded in a way that kind of gave me the chills. So I think I just want to say I would be happy being in a simulation if I weren't told it was a simulation because I think to suspect that you're in one would invite the desire to break it. Like, I'm going to jump off this fucking roof.

It's just a simulation. Like, I think the only way to determine that for sure is to do something completely crazy in a way that I would never want to do. Like the way you play your open world video games. Like, you want to get off the rails as fast as possible in a Red Dead redemption. And I think that, like, if anybody listening has pitches in with Paramount on making new Star Trek shows, Adam Pranica plays a holodeck game is an episode. I would fucking love to see. All right, Ben, let's play some priority one messages. Let's do it.

Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on secured channel. You need a supplemental. Supplement. Supplement. Yeah, it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Ben, here's a personal priority one message to all pet lovers everywhere. It's from Jason.

Here's that message. This is just a trick to see if I can get myself to randomly cry in public when I remember I sent this. We just said goodbye to our fantastic 20-year-old cat Jack yesterday. Jack. Jack didn't give a shit about Star Trek. His only flaw. But I wanted to honor him and support the newly independent Uxridge Shimoda at the same time. I know the pets are like family to Ben, Adam, and so many FODs, so this could kill two birds with one.

one stone. Oh, Jack loved killing birds, or at least trying to. Is there a spot drop? Jason asks at the end. I believe there is a spot drop. I hate cats. Davis cats. Spot. I love cats. Oh, Jason, I'm so sorry. RSVP Jack. Yeah. 20 amazing years. That's excellent. That's really, that's really something. And, uh, I am here from the future to tell you it does not really get easier. You and I are at very different places with this because my dog Sprocket died a few years ago. And I am filled with good memories of my times with him. Like, I felt very raw about it for a long time.

But now whenever I play with Ripley, I can't help but think about the times I had with Sprocket. And like that pain has been replaced. with like something warmer and better. And I hope Jason can get there too. I hope you can get there too, Ben. I know that time is coming. One thing I have felt is that like when I interact with other dogs, I can kind of feel him through them.

And I kind of feel like that's like maybe a little woo-woo, but I do feel that the animals in our lives are all sort of expressions of one big, beautiful thing that we are lucky to be able to connect with. That's the programming of the simulation. Maybe so. Adam, this is a personal one. It's from Your Frog Prince. It's to us, you and me.

And the message is this. Let's do this. Hey, your Frog Prince. Let's do this. Oh, man, I wonder if your Frog Prince is going to be at STLV again. I'm betting on it. Wow. You are a betting man.

Ben, our last priority one message is to all FODs everywhere. It's from, remember me? You work on commission, right? Here's how that goes. Hey, Reddit jerk faces. Remember when y'all gave me an OGFOD a hard time for asking about when Prodigy would be reviewed during hot silent summer? Remember telling me? Sounds like this free podcast is upsetting you.

Maybe you should listen to something else instead. Waves a giant bag of founder scarves in their faces. Big mistake. Huge. I'll bet that reference went over your heads too. row drop I like the troll of going to the Reddit to ask when Prodigy is going to get reviewed

and then mic dropping in the P-1s yeah that's great I feel like this one should have been on on greatest track though like small note to person who works on commission and also posts on Reddit lowest I can go is MSRP and you know if anything beyond that

Like, you're going to have to talk to my manager, and he is, he's probably going to add things. He's going to probably add the clear coat and the doc fee. Well, if you want a Priority One message, all you got to talk to is Greatesttrecht.com. Yeah, it's not a high pressure sales environment. You just go there, click Priority One message, decide the message for you. Decide the date. You want it to come out. Yeah. And we do the rest.

But you're on alert, Friends of DeSoto. Going over the 500 character limit could result in. you being edited on the fly. Yikes. Caviot mTOR, motherfuckers. Geez. Well, I just want to say priority ones help support the production of our show,

so I'll be the good cop. Thanks. I don't want to get supported if it means I have to do a lot of extra reading. Ben, it's time for a game. Are you ready? Oh. Ben, this game is called Bad Libs.

Would I say this game is hated? But it puts you to the test FODs haven't seen nothing Ben has to do his best This game is bad So bad, come on And Ben is bad He's bad

Ben really bad Ben is bad So bad Come on, you know And the whole world has to win this right now Just to tell you once again It's bad We have played Star Trek

MadLib before on our show and those times have been what I will call of modest entertainment value. I think the problem in those old versions of the game was the stakes. Sure. They were too low. Oh.

And isn't it interesting in this episode of TNG that we recapped that the message delivered by Captain Picard is perfect and accomplishes the mission of diplomacy he was there to carry out? We learned the risk of failure would have resulted in something very bad. they even have a recording of it a time when it went down like that for a previous crew

no one even wants to play it back the punishment is so awful much like no one wants to play back the Star Trek Madlib's marons of the past today Ben we will play a version of Madlibs for which there is a correct answer and you will only know the punishment for getting it wrong if you get it wrong

oh fuck fortunately there is only one blank to fill so it should be easy. Are you ready? Wow. Okay. So if I get it wrong, I have to do a bad thing and I only have one chance.

God fucking damn it. Here we go, Ben. Are you ready? I'm ready. In the statement Picard gives to the Gerada, complete this statement. Ard, clacks on these. Bligebon. Blank

Chodash Wrong I was pretty confident there Ben I think most FODs know that the correct answer is You know what Now that you say that

It's flooding back to me And I'm realizing If I just thought about it For two more seconds I probably would have gotten there I mean I think if the blank came after Ard

we both know cross-law like that's a that's an easy one but I felt like that was too easy for the show I was really hoping that claxon would be the part that you left blank because that's like the one part that is like uh that's a that's not just a word that's a brand name it's a hilarious word Ben you have lost this game of bad lives let's find out what the punishment is you must wear a suit including the hat the next time we record this show and make it look as old-timey as

possible, like the kind we saw in this episode. What do you think of that? Wow, so I have to go get like a, like a Trilby hat or something. I feel like you have something that could work for this purpose. In your wardrobe, I'm not asking you to go shopping for this. Okay. I'm saying, go into your closet and put on a costume that would be appropriate for the holodeck scene that we saw in this episode. Okay. This is next episode? Yeah. Okay. All right. I'm going to think about what I can think about what I can do It'll be fun, right? Misregard. Yeah.

Just checking the weather report for this week and Okay. It's going to be It might be a little bit noisy. With apologies to Wendy, I may need to run the AC in the studio for that one. How about new? Ben, that was super fun.

Thanks for playing bad loops. Thanks for doing a great episode of the show with me to find out about the fun. have ahead on next week's episode. Here is our producer, Wendy, to tell you and us all about it, along with our credits. Thanks, Wendy. Bye, bye. The Greatest Generation is an Oxbridge Shimoda podcast. It's hosted by Ben Harrison and Adam Pranika, who also helped edit this week, and it's produced by Wendy Pretty. Next week, we'll be back with another episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, so don't get your

robots mixed up. It's season one, episode 13, data lore. Until then, we want to say Thank you to all of the members who are supporting this show. If you want to join them and get an ad-free fee, plus a lot of great bonus episodes, sign up at greatesttrecht.com. You can also just click the support link that's right there in the show notes in your podcatcher, and we thank you for your support. Music for the Greatest Generation is by Dark Materia. Social media is managed by Bill Tilly and Rob Adler.

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That's all for now. We'll see you next week on The Greatest Generation.