The Greatest Generation - Drain the Cave (ENT S1E4)

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

When there’s a big blue dot outside the Entrepreneur’s windows, Captain Archer can’t resist taking a team down to trample the Strange New World. But when camping Trip Tucker turns into acid Trip Tucker, T’Pol plays along for her chance to shoot him in the chest. Whose hair is an extra character in this story? Which Star Trek patter is not 5 by 5? Where is Archer currently on the likability scale? It’s the episode that knows it doesn’t have the right stuff.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

Here's to the finest crew in Starling. When it comes to my crew, you won't get any argument from me. This is a parody. Paramount owns the song. Welcome to the Greatest Generation. It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple guys who are a little bit embarrassed about having a Star Trek podcast. I'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pranica. Code 47 this week, Adam, we're opening some packages that were sent in by friends of DeSoto. Again, I am notorious at the post office. They were mad at me for having so many things there. They've escalated in their

passive aggressive post office behavior toward me. Last couple of times they've given me the like corrugated plastic bin full of packages. This time pushed an entire hopper through the door. Whoa, like you got the laundry hopper situation? Yeah. Yeah. Hamper is probably the word for it, not hopper. Fuck that shit! But like the, yeah, the wheeled thing with the canvas inside the metal structure.

Uh, and she was like, yeah, you can use this and push it out to the, to your car. Uh, just bring it back and leave it by this door. Yeah. Try to remember to come back and return it. It seems like something you have a real problem with. Yeah. That's a reliable way to feel bad for you. Just every couple of weeks ago, go to the post office,

check on the packages. You and I were talking the other day and I was like, I don't know if anybody likes this segment or wants us to keep doing it, but they keep sending us stuff. I know it's important for the people that send the stuff. And so that's why it feels like a meaningful thing to do, but yeah, I wonder if you're not one of the senders

if this does anything. Maybe we should move this to a YouTube down the road and just make that its own thing, I don't know. The thoughtfulness of the people who send this stuff in deserves to be recognized. And maybe shunting them over to the YouTube isn't fair either. Who's to say?

I would be curious. Like maybe Rob can put up a post this week taking people's temperature on whether they would like a Code 47 Marin to just be its own thing or if they like it in the show from time to time. Oh, Ben, Ben, I'm already looking at the poll and there's actually a third voting button. Did you know about this?

Well, does it just stop doing the show entirely? No, it's no matter what you choose, do we want Ben to still feel bad every two or three weeks? Is that one doing pretty well? That one's like 98%. I think we should probably get into this mailbag because there's a bunch here. Oh yeah, a whole laundry chute. Captain, I'm sorry to disturb you.

I'm receiving a code 47. Verify. It is code 47, sir. Starfleet emergency frequency. Captain's eyes only. All right, we're going to start with a letter. This one is from Rebecca, PhD PhD out of Chicago, Illinois. How does Rebecca have time to send us a letter? Dear Ben and Adam, last summer during a guided bike

tour in the Burgundy wine region in France, the guide told us we were going to stop at our first vineyard for a tasting. Apparently Chateau Picard exists. Luckily one other guy on the tour was also a TNG fan and equally excited so I didn't look like a total weirdo geeking out. The French tour guide and vineyard owner were completely confused. I tried to find some swag to bring back for you guys but all they had was this card and my husband refused to sacrifice one of our six allotted bottles to quote bring back wine for those guys from that weird Star Trek podcast who listened

to it. Yeah, that's smart. That's totally fair. Also, that's a fucking lie. There is no way anyone involved with Chateau Picard is completely unaware of the idea of Star Trek The Next Generation and Jean-Luc Picard. Are fans just not going there that much? That's like asking directions of a French person in English and then just ignoring you. Like that's what this is.

They're just being French at you. Oh man you can stay in the guest house at Chateau Picard. That's something we got to do at some point. You get to see the very spot that Picard's mom hung herself. Wow. Wow. This next one is from Stefan out of New York, New York. We have a letter here. Hi, Ben and Adam and Wendy and Bill. Sorry for the delay in sending this Xmas themed item.

I started making these ornaments in 2002 for friends and family and since you're such a consistent part of my week I decided podcasters were close enough. Thanks for all you do to make us laugh. Stefan and Yvonne maybe? Oh that's great. These are the ornaments They're like a like a circuit board with LEDs printed on it. Look at that Are the lights registering for you on they sure are they look great Wow. There's also a button here. What does that do mode? Thank You Stefan and Thank You Yvonne This one is from Kevin out of Cincinnati, Ohio. I think I found a letter here.

Dear Ben and Adam, a while back I sent in a P1 to you guys saying I was hoping to see you in Cincinnati for the Share Your Embarrassment Tour. Alas, as we know, that was not meant to be. Still, it was great meeting you guys at the Chicago show. Although you guys didn't make it, I did want to send you some things from the city that you can enjoy as a way of saying, sorry we missed you. First, you'll find some spice mixes and kits I got from Findley Market near downtown.

It includes some Cincinnati chili spices and kit. Second is some waffle mix from my favorite restaurant in the city, Taste of Belgium. Third, I wanted to send you some Grater's ice cream, but obviously doing that directly would be a bad idea. So enclosed, you will find a gift card for each of you. It has enough on them so you can cover an order of six pints as well as shipping. That is so nice. Dang. Wow. Amazing. Thanks for all the entertainment you guys have given me and the FODs all these years. I hope that in 2025, when you're on tour

with the one with the mashed potatoes whisk, that you can try again to make a stop in Cincinnati. But if not, then I look forward to seeing you guys in whatever city you can make it to. So that's from Kevin from Sincy. Kevin, you are so generous. That is amazing. Thank you for your kindness and thank you for reminding me of what our tour poster might look like for that next tour. Making the real

star of that movie, Central, to what's going on there. Yeah, absolutely. This next package is from Jeff. My name is Jeff. In Brooklyn, New York. Dear Ben and Adam, hey guys, this has been rattling around in my head since well before the pandemic. My friend of 20 plus years, Francis, started a certain Facebook group after Lower Decks Season 4, Episode 4, and everything fell into place, may these precious keepsakes contribute or not

to your good mental health. Thanks again, Jeff Brady, co-mod of the greatest Trek, Twaining. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Wow, all right. Okay, so... A Mark Twain bobblehead doll. Oh, my God!

These are code 47, greatest gen, limited edition, Mark Twain bobbleheads. That is not one of those cheap bobbleheads. That's... that looks, like, legit and good quality. It kind of looks to me like it may be handcrafted. Just look at him bobble. A nice silent twain is something I can really get behind. Oh yeah.

Wow, that is really great, Jeff. There's also one for you here, Adam. Oh, thanks. One final package, Adam. It's from Chris out of Maple Valley, Washington. The complicated pack job here. This is like when my mom bakes me a pie and my dad packs it in a box and ships it to me.

That's not how pies work. My dad is a dedicated architect of pie shipping materials. Here's a letter. Hey Ben and Adam, it was great getting to see you guys live again in Seattle. It was also cool to see that you were touring with one of the Riker Horgons that I sent you. I also caught a glimpse of the Action Galley play set I sent you on the video of the re-encounter at Farpoint.

It's gratifying to see that the stupid things I enjoy making have found a home on the road with you. That's why I will share my embarrassment hearing Adam say that his Horgon broke, spilling sand all over his stuff. I mean, they get a lot of wear and tear on the road, these Horgon. They do, but I'm usually very fastidious with the bubble wrap and the clothing wrapped around it and so forth. I can vouch. Like your dad and a pie.

So am I with Horgon. Adam said he would attempt to fix it, but now there's no need. I went right to work making a new one. Wow. Enclosed is a new Riker maneuver Horgon residing in my first attempt at laser cutting a box. Also enclosed as a small supply of posters, I created a Riker Horgan consent graphic in the style of the Obama Hope poster for a shirt, which I wore to the Seattle show Front Row Center. Thanks for all the laughs and keep making pod. I'd probably listen to anything you guys put out.

Heck, Factory Seconds is literally just a podcast about what you had for lunch. People seem to love that. All the best, Chris. When you put it that way, that kind of stings. The box is beautiful. It looks like an artifact. Really phenomenal stuff. And it feels a little bit more substantial. I would say as well

I want to bring one of those to Jonathan Frakes. I bet he'd love that Let's do it. Let's say I mean that I mean you're gonna have to do most of the talking I think but I'm down for that As an adventurer it goes without saying That's like your catchphrase been it literally goes without saying That's like your catchphrase, Ben. It literally goes without saying. Wow. Well, this has been a ton of fun. Thank you to everybody who sent us something.

If you're listening to the audio version of the show, go to our social media and you'll get to see pictures of all this cool stuff. Yeah. Follow us on YouTube so you can watch the video. With that, we should probably pivot into an episode here. We got a great episode of Star Trek Enterprise to talk about. It's season one episode four, Strange New World. We're in the mess hall for the cold open and we meet a couple of NPCs here.

I love this moment because this feels new to me in a Star Trek episode. Yeah. The idea of crew people going about their business, in this case eating Vulcan food, but something out the window catches their eye. It's a planet and it's a planet that looks a lot like Earth with a lot of the familiar geographical traits that you've come to love about the pale blue dot, right? Suspended in a sunbeam. I mean, I was just thinking about like these characters get as fleshed out over the course

of this episode as some bridge crew people on Discovery have over five seasons. And I don't know if we're going to see them again or not, but I thought that they were interestingly drawn characters that like give a sense of like what kind of person is also on board this ship, you know? I like the idea of meeting new crew people on a show that you've only seen for three episodes and not immediately assuming these people are going to die, because there's a pretty good chance that these might be

just crew people you come back and hang out with from time to time every eight episodes or so. Like these could be two crewmen carries, you know? This could be a voric here. Dodgson, Dodgson, we've got Dodgson here. They're not being set up like red shirts. They're being set up like part of the tapestry of characters on board the ship. I love the one guy in the scene points out the window and he's like, is that the polar

region? All right. And crewman Cutler is like, come on Novakovich, get your mind out of the gutter. Cut over to the bridge. And everyone's feeling good because the atmosphere on this planet is breathable. Oh, but there's no humanoids on the scans. But I guess the good news is also there's no warning laws.

Scan for marker boots. Beacons. Man-made satellites. It's an abandoned planet. It's unspoken for, so let's go ahead and put a pod down there. Yeah. There's some debate again, to Paul is like, Hey, maybe, maybe slow your role. I think this episode establishes what M class stands for.

It seems to be a Vulcan word. Yeah, sure. It seems that way. Mencharta class, meaning it can support humanoid life. And it's really like a, you know, she's saying like put Mars rovers down there and they're like, no, no, we're much more of a hold my beer type species. Like we're just going to go. T'Pol doesn't like moving that fast.

She likes, uh, probing the area first for a period of days before just going on in there. She wants to get the planet first for a period of days before just going on in there. She wants to get the planet ready for them. Be respectful, T'Pol says. That is not going to happen. And after the theme song, we're in engineering and it's the same lady as the first scene. Her name is Cutler and she's kissing up to T'Pol here about, oh, that Vulcan food I tried in the mess hall was great.

It was so good. I noticed it was not very piquant. Is that how you guys like it? Maybe we could have lunch sometime or whatever. She takes being selected for this mission very personally in a way that she should not. To Paul selecting her didn't have anything to do with how much she likes her.

It's about her being qualified. The kind of idea that I got of Cutler here was that she was a little bit of a careerist. Yeah. That's like a familiar kind of lower decker, I guess. Boimler, your record is spotless. It's freaky. I did not like how Trip so quickly compared to Paul to befriending a housefly.

Like, to Paul is a lower form of life. Yeah. Don't love that. Come on, Trip, that's not cool. Look, she's just more cut out for the task. That's the only reason she's attached. And we're in the shuttle. We're on our way down.

Things are happening pretty quickly here. This shuttle is stuffed. It's got Archer DePaul, Tripp, Mayweather, Cutler, that other guy from the mess hall, Nankovic. Novakovic. Porthos is coming too. These fucking dog owners, man. You can just, you bring them everywhere.

You bring them to the doctor's office. You bring them to a restaurant. You bring them on a, on a way mission. Cool. All right. Yeah. Guess Porthos is invited taking the spot of another crew person. It made me very uneasy to see Porthos just run across this lawn when they,

when they got down there. Like very cute dog. Loved the footage of the dog having a romp in the grass. It made me very uneasy to see porthos just run across this lawn when they got down there. Very cute dog. Loved the footage of the dog having a romp in the grass, but dogs famously eat things up off the ground that they should not eat. What if there's a mushroom on this planet? You don't know. What if in taking a dump, the grass dumps back?

You never know. T'Pol makes a terrible mistake assuming this is a work trip. She gets absolutely nut stomped by Archer for not just wandering around using your senses instead of that fucking tricorder. What are you gonna do with that? Smell the air. Take a minute to enjoy yourself.

Yeah, turns out smelling the air might not be such a great idea on this planet, but we won't get to that for a moment. Tripp takes a group photo of everybody, and then we just get kind of like a fun exploring montage. If you don't wanna take a picture of your subjects in full sun squinting, have everyone hold their eyes closed and face the sun. That way their eyes will get used to the brightness and then you have them open their eyes

again and then take that picture. They're not going to look like a squinty mess. Yeah. It only works once though, right? They can't then hold it for a bunch of pics. That's just a tip from me. You can get a good picture or two that way. I thought they did a nice job with this environment. It's got kind of like Swiss Alps, even though it's clearly shot in Southern California look to it. Like they like are able now to comp in a snowy mountain peak in the background and living plants where in Southern

California, everything's just dead and gray. You're right. It looks like a goddamn Ricola commercial there. and living plants where in Southern California, everything's just dead and gray. Hey, you're right. It looks like a goddamn Ricola commercial there. Ricola. And this away team splits up to investigate and do more damage that way. This is the moment where T'Pol hits Archer up

on his communicator later. Like, there's a passage of time, right? Everyone does their exploring. And later on, T'Pol blurbs in a message to Archer like, Hey, you up? And that's because it was time to rally back to the shuttle 15 minutes ago. No, there's no trouble. Archer says, I'm just oblivious. I'm just a bad captain is what he should say.

Yeah. Come on, man. Bad captain is what he should say. Yeah. Come on, man. If you don't respect time as the managerial figure of this entire enterprise, and I mean that word in all kinds of ways, no one who works for you is gonna respect it.

Here's the thing, the first officer's to Paul. So everybody ultimately reports to her and she's punctual as fuck. All right, I guess that makes sense. Yeah. He's got cover, you know, but it's like- He's off the hook. He's not providing good leadership on that subject. But T'Pol is like,

hey, there's nocturnal marsupials here and we would love to study them. And Archer's like, cool. Well, you and your buddies can hang out. I'm going back up to the ship. And so this turns into a camping trip really quickly. It's a camping trip Tucker, if you will. Pitch your tent commander. Thanks captain. Yeah, so it's not just to Paul. It's gonna be a Tucker and Mayweather

and Cutler and Novakovich staying as well. And that night it's campfire times. I mean, are you sure it's not sentient wood? There is so much we don't know about this planet. Like life forms they don't understand are being pissed and shit on by a dog. You know, it's like sentient until proven otherwise in Star Trek should be the way you proceed. That's not the scary part of the scene.

The scary part of the scene is the story Mayweather tells about this 60 year old space probe that they found one time and they thought there was a person inside it, but when they opened it, it was empty. But the guy who opened it, he went a little crazy. And then he got into a life pod himself and then he zoomed away never to be seen again. Wow.

And that's a scary Star Trek story right there. T'Pol has a bucket of ice water for this. She pokes holes in plausibility issues that she's found with the story. Let me guess. No ghost stories on Vulcan. She's got real podcaster energy about this story. It doesn't make sense that they would do it that way because... So everybody starts to get ready for bed and this is when the storm starts storming.

They're going to try and ride it out in their tents. I wanted to ask you about how intense this was. Like, you really need to put a lot of thought in how stormy it gets. Right. And I really think they nailed it. I've been camping a bunch of times. I never liked it, but I've been camping in storms.

Especially didn't like those. And like, this is the sort of storm where you leave the tent and get into the car. Right. It's that kind of deal. Yeah. And I think it's familiar to a lot of people who have spent any time outdoors, like this sucks, but it's not

blow your tent away in a tornado. Like they could have overdone it, is what I'm saying. And they didn't. Do you, have you ever been camping when you found a Seti Eel in your sleeping bag? Because I would have driven home at that point. That's like get it in your car and ride it out. I wanted this to be SETI EEL origin story so bad.

I know. Why did they design it to look like that if that wasn't a SETI eel. Aren't you completely okay with Cutler or Novakovich being taken by a SETI eel? And that is how it begins. Oh man, that would be great. Playing the long game. The tricky thing about this show is that being a prequel, they can't compromise continuity for later. So the SETI eel being a surprise in Wrath of Khan and that is in fact SETI

Alpha 5 in Wrath of Khan. Like, you know, if that was a SETI EEL, then they would have to write some reason that like it wasn't recorded properly in the, in the ship's logs. So nobody knew. Do you know? You don't have to make it that neat and tight. Like the paranoia that occurs later on in this episode could be Seti Eel related.

Trip acts hella weird in this episode and it could be nubbin. Crawl up into those mouths. Start acting weird. Sighting of an insect that looked like the Seti Eels from Wrath of Khan, like permanently made me wonder what this episode could have been in a way that I think is unintentional. Like, I was like, oh, like did they design that bug when the version of the script that they were working on was that this was Seti Alpha Five? And then like, you know, like.

What character has the head you'd most like to see explored? Like what character has the head you'd most like to see explode? Reed comes up to Captain Archer's, I can't tell if this is his ready room or his quarters, but Reed pops in and is like, Hey Cap, I guess it must be his quarters, right? He's like in bed reading when this happens. It seems like a big deal is made out of the water polo thing. Like the object being the water polo ball and the references to Archer wishing that there was a pool on the ship or whatever. And I think that means that this is going to be a running reference on enterprise, the references to water polo, which means it's time for our very first game,

brand new game for greatest generation enterprise. It is a trivia game, Ben. And the game is called polo versus polo versus poya. Come on. Come on. I told you, best sport in the world. versus Pollo. Come on. Come on. Yes. I told you, best sport in the world. One part basketball, one part swimming,

one part wrestling. I didn't know it was such a rough game. In this game, I will name three things. Each of these things is either a water polo thing, a horse polo thing, or a Pollo thing. Okay. Are you ready? Hit me. Okay.

Let's begin. Knock in, ball under, baked chicken chibi chongus. Okay. I think horse polo, water polo, poyo is going to be my answer. So you're saying horse polo for knock-in, water polo for ball under, and for some reason baked chicken chimichangas is poyo? Yeah, that's my guess. Ben, you're three for three.

Yes! Yeah! Wow. Okay. Next question. Okay. Here question. Okay. Here are the three things. Brutality, hook, sopes. I'm going to guess brutality is horse polo. Hook is water polo and sopes is poyo?

Sorry. That is incorrect. Brutality is water pol Sorry. Uh, that is incorrect. Brutality is water polo. Hook is horse polo. Okay. But sopes is Pollo. That's great. A brutality and water polo is a type of exclusion foul punished by the opposing

team being awarded a free throw. Ben, final question. You're one and one now. This final one will determine whether or not you will have won polo, the polo, the pollo. Here we go. Holgaard throw in a Rose con pollo. Okay.

Holgaard I think is going to be Pollo. Throw in, I think is going to be horse polo. And a Rose Ken Pollo, I think is going to be water polo. I'm sorry, Ben, that is incorrect. Everyone knows Holgaard is a water polo reference. That's a defensive player who guards the center forward or the hole net. I got worse and worse as we went along. And everyone knows that a throw in is the thing that begins to play at the

start of the game in a horse polo match. And a rose con pollo is delicious rice and chicken. I should have gotten that one. Anyway, look out for future segments of that new hit game. Anytime Archer for some reason brings up water polo. Wow. I didn't know it was such a rough game. So survey team hunkered down in cave.

So when they start setting up their stuff, they realized that they left all their food out in the field. Who on the away team decided that anything was more important than food as they evacuated the site? This did start to make me suspect that DePaul wasn't the greatest of leaders. Or that one of them was nubbin, right? Yeah. So Novakovich is like looking deep into the cave and thinking he's seeing stuff

back there and Travis Mayweather goes out to look, he catches like one MRE blowing around in the wind and saves it. But he also kind of thinks that he sees people like walking around outside. I thought this was really well done. These like little glimpses of people, like maybe in the bushes and stuff were very spooky. Did you think about how hard it must have been

for Mayweather to catch that flopping MRE around in the wind? Like that's like catching a napkin that's fallen off of your leg in an outdoor restaurant. Yeah, absolutely. It was like one of the most impressive stunts in Star Trek history right there.

I love how he dives for it. He goes out. So Novakovich is like, is totally panicking. And when Travis gets back, he's like, yeah, some spooky is going on outside too. Maybe it would be better if Trip Tucker put his face right up against his for comfort. That does seem like it would help, but it doesn't. Novakovich makes a break for it, runs outside. So Trip and Travis have to chase him. Novakovich makes a break for it, runs outside. So Tripp and Travis have to chase him. Meanwhile, to Paul, believing that Novakovich may have heard something, decides to go deeper into

the cave to investigate what he was responding to. This is also the moment in the episode where they start to distribute the weapons. Not being sure if there are any other folks out there. Right. Out in the storm, Tripp hallucinates a rock man. And I thought this was a very well done special effect because I just feel like the number of times I've seen the effects of hallucinogens depicted in media. It has typically not been anything like what I experienced on hallucinogens, but this fucking was. It was like, like that's a, that's like a thing that like, I could totally see somebody seeing on a bad trip.

When John Rambo covers himself with mud to hide from the Russian soldier in Rambo First Blood Part II, was that also a scene that evoked hallucinogenic fantasy from you? Kind of, yeah. Because that's what I thought of when I saw this rock man. I was like, John Rambo would be kind of envious of this. It's a great disguise. Faith of the fart. How are you doing on Extra Time for learning new things these days?

My pie chart goes like this. A great big slice for work. And the rest of the pie goes to the puppy and the wife and housework stuff. And maybe a little sliver for physical activity. Maybe. Which means learning new things isn't really happening for me. And learning how to make a website from scratch definitely isn't gonna happen, and that's fine,

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That's ritual.com slash scarves for 25% off. Hey, Sydney, you're a physician and the co-host of Sawbones, a meritorious misguided medicine, right? That's true, Justin. Is it true that our medical history podcast is just as good as a visit to your primary care physician? No, Justin, that is absolutely not true. However, our podcast is funny and interesting and a great way to learn about the medical misdeeds of the past, as well as some current, not so legit healthcare fads.

So you're saying that by listening to our podcast, people will feel better. Sure. And isn't that the same reason that you go to the doctor? Well, you could say that, but. And our podcast is free? Yes, it is free. You heard it here, first folks, Sawbones, Merrell Tour of Miss Guy the Medicine,

right here on Maximum Fun, just as good as going to the doctor. No, no, no, still not just as good as going to the doctor, but pretty good. It's up there. In 1979, singer Mickey Matsubara cut Stay With Me, a love song that hit big in her home country of Japan. The song has almost half a billion plays on streaming apps.

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We'll cover Miki's work and others in conversation with Devendra Banhart, Umi, Dane Funk, and more. Get Primer on MaximumFun.org or wherever you get your podcasts. And you will never take the greatest gin alive. Ben would rather die. There's something going on with Tripp's hair, which I'm not that familiar with yet, but his hair in this episode really did a lot to convey that he seemed to be in a bad place, psycho-emotionally. Absolutely.

I love the sequence here because it really feels like two writers who came up with an idea to scare these two characters and one of them's like, yeah, let's like do a rock monster hallucination. That'll really get them. And the other writer's like, yeah, let's like do a rock monster hallucination. That'll really get them. And the other writer's like, and they could also like come close to falling off a cliff. And those two ideas are so different that I feel like they're like, okay, well, let's shoot them both and see what works once we cut it together.

And I think for time, they just use them both. They don't feel compatible in a scarce kind of way, you know? Yeah, like were they both hallucinating the same thing or were they just so disoriented by the storm that they didn't know that there was a cliff like that nearby? I don't know. They give up on finding Novakovich

and head back to the cave. But when we cut back to the cave, Groom and Cutler is sneaking around and sees T'Pol talking to a couple of lo-fi aliens. And Cutler walks up to T'Pol and she's like, hey, who are those guys you were talking to? And T'Pol plays stupid. Doesn't know what Cutler is referring to here.

Who are you talking to? Talking to? There's no one here. T'Pol's like the friend at the bar who's hit it off with a couple of dudes and does not want to tell her friends that things are going well for fear of losing the chances with one of them. The chances are good. One of two might be hers for the taking. When Tripp and Travis get back, Cutler brings up this, uh, T'Pol was talking to secret aliens in the back thing.

And, uh, and this is where the tension really starts to ratchet up. Archer suggests going back to the cave. Like, uh, it doesn't seem like anything good is going on out in the storm. Yeah. Like, it doesn't seem like anything good is going on out in the storm. Yeah. So everyone kind of reconvenes there and, uh, Cutler is there to call bullshit onto Paul, like in front of everyone. Oh yeah.

There's, there's something in those rocks you're not telling us. Uh, you talk to some dudes. I want to meet those dudes. I'm single too. What are you doing keeping those rock monsters to yourself? You're trying to take both of them down in one night? You don't know if they're down for an MMF, you know? Like that's pretty varsity level to just assume

that you can pick two guys up in a bar like that. Check out how brave Cutler is in this scene. I was impressed. It was good. She wasn't putting up with T'Fall's guff. There were two of them. She's mistaken. No, I'm not.

Thinks she's a liar. Archer and Reed come down to try and rescue Novakovich in the pod and the weather is really weathering and Novakovich is not compas mentis to respond, but everybody from the away team comes out to get ready to get on board the pod and this does not go well. The wind shear blows them into a rock face and it looks like it was just a wing that hit but Malcolm is talking about how one of their thrusters is out and it's not safe to land without it. So, uh, This is straight out of a of a trip Tucker

Pilot manual, right? You'd think trip would be the one bonking into things with the shuttle, but it's Archer, right? Yeah Archer is is not Rated to fly off of instruments Archer is flying this shuttle like Reed fires torpedoes, man. It's not going well. They have to scrub the landing. Yeah, they are ordered to go make contact with whoever that was in the cave and ride out the storm in there. Did you get Pharaoh lands the drop ship on LV-426 vibes with the way they shot the shuttle

coming through the storm? Oh yeah. I'll never not think of that when a scene is set up this way. If it weren't Archer and Trip on that shuttle, it would have been a great opportunity to blow one of those up. This is one area that I think that Star Trek has always done its pilot characters dirty, is like they need more pilot pattern. Yeah.

Like she has in Aliens. Like all that, you know, I'm hitting the switch and saying the, the like jargon about hitting this switch and everything is five by five. We're in the pattern. They got a five by five this scene and they don't. Yeah. Back inside the caves, the scene is getting grim. Trip is down to put his face right next to DePaul's again to get a straight answer out of her about the rock people that he is absolutely sure exist and that she is covering up. And whoa, things escalate quickly because he pulls a dust buster on her and what the hell, Trip? I thought we were just talking here.

Because the whole world got crazy! I love the like, hey, you're becoming irrational accusation. Never works well when somebody is becoming irrational to hang a lantern on that. Yeah, when everyone's got dust busters, things are bound to be a little heated. On Enterprise, they're able to read Novakovich's bioscience and you don't need to read those bioscience to know he's not doing great because his

comm signal has been left open and it's just screaming. It's nothing but screaming. You don't need the bioscience to know that he's in trouble. Archer makes the tough call to use the transporter for the second time ever on a, on a people. And, uh, this time Reed is working it and has a little bit of trouble keeping all of the shit that's blowing around in the air on this planet outside of the confinement beam. Man, it is fucked up when this guy materializes. He's like impregnated with sticks and rocks and stuff.

Do you think Reed should have been more horrified in this scene? There is something like professionally cold about him that I think is good that is what you want in an emergency situation. I guess so, yeah. But God, for a guy who doesn't run this machine very often and for that to be the outcome, I also thought this plant matter came from him, like it shot out of his body because

the transporter interacted with the stuff that he had inhaled. Is that not right? It looked to me like the rocks and plants were just like, they like materialized in the same place as like they were blowing across and like just like became overlapped with his body in the signal or something. It's fucking terrifying. Like the loaf that they did for that like one second shot of him on the transporter pad was really impressive and disturbing.

Like I am starting to be very impressed with the like the galaxy has haunted energy that this show has. Back in the cave trip into Paul T'Pol keep arguing. And why is the carpet all wet, Todd? I don't know, Margo. He takes away her scanner and he starts hollering. They are right there, Trip.

You don't have to yell. You're in a cave. Keep your voice down. It bounces around a lot. On and on he's going with his paranoid delusions. And where are the nocturnal marsupials? Was a question I had. Uh-huh.

Yeah. When are they going to show up? They planted that. When's it going to pay off? Imagine how cute they would be with their big eyes for seeing in the dark. Oh yeah. And their pouches with their cute little babies hanging out inside of them. They're definitely not going to rip to Paul

and trip tuck your limb from limb. Ben, it's been less than a half a day and people are falling apart down there. Yeah. Does not bode well for their team cohesion. This is how I start to act when you take me camping after like just one afternoon. You've got the tent pitched and you just start losing it. We can't just not clean the pan after we cook food in it.

Are we just going to leave the pan in the campfire? It's not clean. So I guess what you're saying is you really identify with Trip as a character. Now more than ever. Godfrey's speech and guitars. In Sixth Bay, Flax has removed all of the twigs and berries from Novakovich's birdie and he feels like this guy's going to heal up, but he also lets the captain know that this dude's blood is absolutely loaded with hallucinogens.

Imagine you're reading for the part of Novakovich and you reach this point in the script. You set the script down, you look into the middle distance and you're like, finally, I get to do that thing I am perhaps best at. Which is act as though I am on hallucinogens. They never give him that opportunity. Ah, poor guy. Oh, it's so devastating. I mean, I guess he was acting as if he was on hallucinogens

when he was just like screaming and crying on the planet surface, but there wasn't much of that. No, I wanted it on the ship. Henry Lubati, they did it dirty. So the captain tries to radio this news down to T'Pol, who is like in media Mexican standoff when the news makes it to the Star Trek cave. Were you pimping me into another game of Polo Polo or Pollo? Come on. Come on.

Why didn't Tripp take her communicator away? I don't know. Yeah. He's not thinking clearly. Yeah, clearly. He also seemed to be fine with her reaching into her pocket and pulling a device out. So yeah, he doesn't buy the, you're on hallucinogens explanation. He very much believes what he saw and Archer's like, man, like remember your training, you trained on this. So they did anticipate this as a potential thing that could happen.

And I mean, no matter how crazy Tripp Tucker acts, he still follows orders generally. Because when Archer orders him to lower his dust buster, he does. Yeah. The orders from here go like, go deeper into the cave. That's what you got to do. You got to get away from the mouth of the cave where all of this crazy pollen exists. Get in there deeper, allow it to dissipate from your severity, ride this thing out. Yeah. Because what you've been breathing outside is what's causing this and presumably there's just less of it out there.

How badly did you want to cut back to Porthos, alone in Archer's quarters, tripping fucking balls? Because at Porthos' height, he's all up in those flowers. He's been in them the whole time. Yeah. Well, they said it was like blue down out of the mountains, so maybe he wouldn't have gotten it. But Novakovich like also held a flower up to his nose, so it was unclear to me whether or not it was the flower pollen that was the real issue. Tripp wakes up Travis and I love this like rubber soul shot of Tripp Tucker going like,

yeah, we got to go back further at the cave. Travis is not loving this. And they're both hallucinating still. But this is like when the trip is too heavy, at least Mayweather is able to like put himself down and to sleep like Cutler. Like they are, they're fine. Just give them like a glass of orange juice and a blanket, watch over them.

I guess camping Trip Tucker has really become acid Trip Tucker in the worst way. Yeah, because then Trip starts talking to the cave itself and then he starts shooting the cave. I love that he came up with a coherent conspiracy that he's accusing to Polov. He's like, you are talking to these aliens about killing everybody aboard Enterprise so that when the news gets back to Earth that our first warp five ship left and two weeks later everybody died and we don't know why, the Vulcans will have more ammo to unload in the argument of maybe humans should

slow their role and not start exploring the galaxy so quickly argument. How surprised were you at the Dr. Flock's misdiagnosis of Novakovich? He is now going to die according to Flock's and he feels very bad about this. I thought John Billingsley's performance here was amazing. Cause that like, that like rueful regret, like I didn't, like I missed a thing when I was scanning him that I should have scanned for and I didn't. And now like, like Novakovich is dying of like toxic come down off of the hallucinogen. And that feeling of regret was so palpable in, in flocks.

This also establishes a greater threat to the away team down on the planet. Like if Novakovich doesn't recover, that means that chances are the folks down on the planet won't either. They got to like, it's more of an emergency than ever to get them off. Yeah. So they're going to beam some medicine down to help them off. Yeah. So they're going to beam some medicine down to help them out. But at this point, Tripp is so fucking paranoid

that it's going to be a challenge to persuade him to take anything. At this point, T'Pol has also armed herself. So they are, you know, pistol to pistol. It's actually Hoshi that has to talk to T'Pol has also armed herself, so they're pistol to pistol. It's actually Hoshi that has to talk to T'Pol. And I wasn't clear on if T'Pol was talking Vulcan because that was like a side effect of the drug for T'Pol or because she didn't want Trip to know what she was saying. I have no idea what you just said, but it didn't sound very nice.

I think it was established in the episode that when folks get aphasia or whatever, often they will revert to their original language. Right, but they were kind of saying that four trips benefit when they said it, so. Oh, interesting. I like that it's ambiguous. Like, I'm not saying it's a mistake. I think it's kind of like an interesting part

of the episode is it's not, it's like bothering Tripp that he can't understand what T'Pol is saying to Hoshi. The idea of an inoculation is floated here and Flax has put all his grief into the creation of it. And as crazy as the ravings have become from Tripp Tucker, it's not a surprise that he comes out as anti-vax in this exact moment. Taking an injection,

ain't gonna change a damn thing. Don't you see that? T'Pol is positive that Trip is going to kill her and Archer is just like, take the injection first and then you can shoot anyone you want. It's gonna be great. It's weird that that doesn't work. So the Enterprise is able to beam the medicine

to the coordinates, which is like the doorstep of the cave. And on the bridge, Archer continues to talk to Tucker. If you can just keep Tucker talking, that's less of an opportunity he has to shoot to Paul, I guess. Yeah. And this is a great idea that he and the bridge crew have. Like maybe lean in to the paranoia, maybe create an even more paranoia filled story

for Tripp Tucker's mind to latch onto. And that story goes like this, there are rock monsters and DePaul was brought there on a secret mission to communicate with them. And these rock monsters are pedophiles. And they take kids and do terrible things to them. Also, they drink their adrenochrome for fuel. And they've threatened to destroy the Enterprise.

So T'Pol needs to be free to do her job. Because if she can't do her job, they're just going to have to nuke the cave from orbit in order to keep the peace with the rock people. You understand, Trip. You understand how all this works. It's the deep state. T'Pol's just trying to drain the cave. Yeah.

And T'Pol here is great because T'Pol is made to go along with this crazy plan. Even though in Vulcan she tells Hoshi, I don't know how good of an actor I can possibly be under these circumstances, but she does it. And as soon as Trip gets tricked into lowering his weapon, bam, he takes one in the chest. There is a half a second amount of time when Trip lowers his phaser slightly before he gets taken out.

It's great. Mayweather gets his neck Vulcan pinched and T'Pol administers the drug to herself and all of her crew members. She helps others before helping herself, which I thought was an interesting order of operations. Yeah, that's not how it goes on an airplane. Finally, it's morning.

Yeah. And everyone wakes up. I like that everyone got to get a good night's sleep after this experience. It seems like everyone remembers what happens. And I was like, is Tripp gonna apologize? It seems like the natural thing to do. Fuck no.

No way. We're going with explanations here, not apologies. Look, I know I kind of shut my mouth off last night. The like embarrassing morning after at the water cooler energy in the scene, but going in four directions was really amazing. And the like obstinacy of Tripp Tucker in this scene was really amazing. Like...

Yeah, it's great. If Falcons ever did this, TaPolla's heading back to her people with some stories, you know, like, boy, you guys aren't gonna believe this one. I was in a cave with these four human assholes. Did you think Novakovich's condition at this point in the episode was also a lie, that he'll

be fine? I wasn't sure whether to believe that or not. Are they still just feeding news to Trip Tucker to just like keep him chill? I mean, Novakovich does not seem to be dead by the end of this, but we had that whole moment with Phlox where he was experiencing the grief and the self-recrimination of somebody who could have saved a life and didn't. And now it's just like, yeah, that guy's fine. What? Here comes the rescue shuttle. And in the final scene, the crew of four wanders through the field of wheat toward it and toward the credits to the episode, Ben. Did you like it? I liked it. I thought that this was a really compelling episode. I mean, I think that a theme I'm starting to pick up on

is the inciting incident is an act of idiocy. Like you don't go into the haunted house, you don't land on the planet and let your dog sprint out of the pod without a leash. This is why the crew is the wrong stuff. You can't tell fun stories if they're the right stuff. Right. So as long as we're able to set that aside as a challenge that I'm experiencing watching

Star Trek Enterprise, like everything that happens after that I thought was great. Can I ask you a related question? Do you like Star Trek Enterprise four episodes in? Yeah, I think I do. I think I do too. And I think I would like it more absent the pilot episode. I thought the pilot episode wasn't as good as the ones that followed. Yeah, like last week's episode that we covered,

I felt like did a lot more to give me a sense of a lot of the characters than the pilot did. So, yeah, I think I kind of agree with you, but yeah, so far so good. Enjoying. I liked the episode fine. I think there was a lot of unintentionally funny parts of it. I want to go back to the Archer-like ability scale and bringing it back for this episode. I think we're up to five. It's half good, half bad, and here's why. I love Archer-like ability scale and bringing it back for this episode. I think we're up to five. It's half good, half bad, and here's why. I love Archer doing the subterfuge at the end on TripTucker.

I love that way of thinking. I love how he helps out his boy, you know, like, cause they're friendly. He doesn't want Trip to do anything stupid. He's doing what he can to save a life here and also resorts to trickery to make that happen. But that first half of the episode when he's addicted to Paul and he's just like swinging his arms and his legs and his dog through a strange planet,

that's idiot shit. That's bad captaining. That is unforced error business. I like this show more, the more Archer is de-emphasized as a character. I think that's where I'm at right now. Well, where I'm at right now is on the precipice of the Priority One inbox. You want to join me? Oh yeah. Let's emphasize those. Priority One message from Starfleet coming in on Secure Channel. Those. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secure Channel.

Need a supplemental income. Supplemental income. Supplemental. Supplemental. Yeah, it's extra. By the interest alone, could be enough to buy this ship. Our first priority one message here is from JMZ. It's to JMR.

It goes like this. Happy 39th birthday. You have made it to Voyager! Best part of my day is asking what ep you are on and reliving those silly absurd bits with you. Remember that time when I was in the car and I saw you crossing the road? You had such a goofy grin! I knew you were listening to the pod. Here's to many more missions, voyages, and strange new worlds. I love you. Aw. I love that goofy look. You know the look, the look of a person, in my case,

on a dog walk listening to a podcast, laughing about something dumb. That's great. Doesn't it feel good to give that to people? I feel great about it. The fact that what we do here does give that to people will never not slightly stun me, but I love that feeling too. I had a moment like that last night when I was cooking dinner and I went into the living room to get a dish and just like burst out laughing as I walked into the

living room and my wife was like, what are you laughing at? And I was like, something funny somebody said on a podcast. I would have to talk you through 15 minutes of backstory about why this particular joke was really funny, but. My wife would already have her phone back up as soon as I started that description. Then our next priority one message is from Logan. It is to you and me.

Their message goes like this. Uh, hi. Less coherent P1 and more, some disjointed questions. Do the McLaughlin Group issue number drops go above three? And if so, what's the highest? Issue four. When you say game of buttholes, the will of the caretaker,

do you pause for effect or is the space for the sound added in post? What's a drop in the catalog you wish you used more? Get a life. All right, well Logan's gonna go take the answer in the buffet line. Let's pick these up. I think we have four distinct

McLaughlin Group issue number polls. Yeah. We have a few different options for two and three, but I think there were very few episodes where they ever made it to issue four on that show. So I remember spending like an afternoon going through old videos of McLaughlin Group episodes looking for one with an issue four so that I could isolate that audio. Yeah, tough to do, tough to find. When we say Game of Buttholes, the will of the caretaker or the will of the reicher in this case, I would say I more often than not forget to put a pause in there and I feel like an idiot every time I have to edit one of those because I'm like god damn it

How many times do you have to do this before you remember to fucking pause? We have a very related thought on that Ben just in just in reverse yeah Finally what's a drop in the catalog you wish you used more? Oh, man. The Admiral Necheyev drop is one that I really have a lot of fondness for, and I think it was created for the last time she appeared on TNG. So we really missed the boat with that one more than it's like, you know, there's no excuse to use the

Admiral Necheyev drop because she rarely comes up. Admiral Necheyev and Valerian canopies? It's Admiral Necheyev. Are those Valerian canopies? Admiral Necheyev. Where are the canopies in my ass? We recently rewatched the Godfather trilogy in our household over the last few weeks. And I was reminded by one of the dialogue polls that you used for that.

Like, I didn't have it. I've had so many FODs out there, like, what the fuck? It's obvious what that was from. I hadn't seen Godfather 2 in forever. I've watched the first Godfather over and over again, but it's been a while since I saw the second, and I was delighted to be reminded that that's where that was from.

Yeah, yeah. That was one of those kismet things where I'd just seen that when I came up with the idea of that drop, and so it was fresh in my mind. Wendy knows what mine is, and I know she'll play it. Well, how do you expect me to type? And with your fingers.

With my nose? You would have definite advantages. Oh, it's typing everything I'm saying. And with your fingers. Everything? They're destroying you. Do you see that? With my nose?

There it sits. Stop it. Everything you have done. Stop. With your fingers. Stop. Thanks for the messages, Logan and JMZ. If you would like to have us debate a topic like that and answer some Q&A questions, that's a cool way to do it. Go to maximumfun.org slash jumbotron. Write us a message. Give us a topic prompt. We'll get into it.

Do it. We really will. Hey Ben. What's that Adam? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? I mean, to me it's gotta be Tripp on this one. I think just the performance was great. Like unhinged Connor Trenier is a mood. And like his hair also a character in this episode

getting, like, progressively crazier. It's really good. Um, and, uh, yeah, like, I feel like as an actor, it's got to be kind of a fun and interesting opportunity with a character you're just getting to know and just getting to play to have your third time out with him be a, he's tripping balls this time episode. That's funny.

How about you? Tripping in a different way, my pick is going to be Mayweather. Continuing a long tradition of black Star Trek actors unnecessarily diving for and under things. He absolutely Geordie LaForge's this MRE, doesn't he? Oh, shit, he totally does. I loved it. I want to know more. I want to go behind the scene on this scene. Was he directed into this? Did it just seem like, oh, it's getting away from him.

He had to dive for it? How many takes? This is the sort of practical stuff I'm so interested in. Yeah. I wonder if they had a piece of fishing line on that MRE so that they could control how it was moving around or... It looked so light and billowy. It didn't look filled with MRE. Didn't look like there was a lot in there. Maybe it was freeze dried, so it was light.

Yeah. I don't know. I love this scene. The Mayweather dive. That gets my drunk Shimoda. Face of the fart. All right. Well, next week, we're going to be watching Star Trek Enterprise Season One, Episode Five, Unexpected. After discovering the presence of a damaged alien vessel,

Archer dispatches Tucker to its aid, but the engineers encounter with a Xyrelean female has an unexpected side effect. Archer meets this Zyrelean female and he like turns to this guy, unexpected. You just Kevin Sorbos. Ben, you're on your way over to the game of buttholes the will of the reich or quantum leap

It completely randomized 100 tiles awaits so many dangers so many threats so many Strange ways to experience the next episode. It's a role of the 100 side to die that will determine our fate Yeah, what's it gonna be? You're required to learn as you play. Roll. Okay, well, we are currently on square 87, and I'm rolling. Oh boy, we just narrowly missed another square at a we're on square 48. Chula!

Did I win? Hardly. Of course, right next door to a breadstick power hour. Do you have to eat the entire breadstick every minute? That seems like impossible. I think you just need to choose your breadsticks wisely. Like, choose the super skinny ones that come in the cup at the Italian restaurant. Yeah.

God. That is a brutal square. Jesus. I'm so glad I missed that. There's so many fun things on this game board. And because it's totally randomized every week, you never know where you're going to end up. It's great.

It's just like enterprise. And just as terrifying. Well, regular episode next week. Thank you to all of the friends of DeSoto who support what we do by going to maximumfund.org slash join. You can also support by leaving a nice review on Apple Podcasts that really helps, or by grabbing some merch at Podshop.biz. Star Trek entrepreneur t-shirt in the style of the Star Trek Enterprise logo, anyone? Oh yeah, brand new shirt for the brand new series. We've got to thank Windy Pretty, our producer, who edits this show, and Rob Adler, our social media director, and Bill Tilly, our Cindy Warconciliary.

The great Adam Ragusea, who arranged our parody of the Star Trek Enterprise theme. We really appreciate all his artwork and the work of Dark Materia, who made the original Picard song. With that, we will be back at you next week with another great episode of Star Trek Enterprise and an episode of The Greatest Generation Enterprise where Adam and I are also altered by an encounter with a female. Well put. Cod, cod, cod. Maximum Fun, a workaround network of artist-owned shows, supported directly by you.