The Greatest Generation - Embarrassment Miners (TNG S1E17)

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

When a group of children are taken from Enterprise, the crew is obligated to get them back for some reason. But when the kidnappers give them an offer they can’t refuse, it will take more than a medical intervention to reverse the damage. Is there anything greater than a quad box apology? When is it too late to start your social programming campaign? What happens if you’re not one of Enterprise’s best children? It’s the episode that gets right in your nook!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. It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are still just a little bit embarrassed about having a Star Trek podcast. I'm Ben Harris.

I'm Adam Pranika. We are very much still in the embarrassment business. And I think over the years we've come up with technologists. to either like lean into that depending on the company we're keeping or like separate ourselves from it also due to company we're keeping. Yeah. And something really interesting happened just today that I wanted to ask you about because I feel like you know what this feeling is like specifically.

Okay. We were meeting with our counterparts at the company that hosts. our show and we were having a really productive meeting. When you mentioned that I wrote erotic fiction to our work counterparts, I just want to ask, how did you think that would go? And in what way did you think that was appropriate in a group setting with work people? Oh, called out onto the carpet, and I deserve it. I can't dodge those charges in that kind of context. Like, they're true charges, Ben.

They're true charges. I didn't need to say it in that context. And for that, I apologize. I'm going to be stepping back and reflecting on my role and listening. I got an erotic prompt for your quad box apology. If you need one. Yeah, if your apology goes for more than four screenshots of the Notes app, consult a position. Yeah, I didn't expect the embarrassment to come from inside the house in that exact moment.

Exciting. We were on with three people from that company, two of whom we've got a rapport with and one of whom we'd never met before. She is who I was thinking of specifically. I think I kind of blacked out and forgot that she was there for a second. Dude, yeah, I suck. I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

We're in the embarrassment business. I feel like there's a paramour song. We could do a parody of. You know what they say, like the people who really made it rich in San Francisco in 1948, 1949 were the people who sold. equipment, you know, like if you could outfit somebody with a pair of dungarees and a shovel and a pickaxe and a sluicing basin, that's where the real money was, right? So what we are are embarrassment miners trying to strike a claim and what they are are embarrassment mining

outfitters. They sell those sluicing basins, et cetera. And I don't, I don't, I don't need to remind them what business they're in. They know what business they're in. So you're thinking was to reveal me as the writer of erotic fiction to minors? You know, I hadn't considered this metaphor just yet. If I had, I'm sure I would have brought it up. Sure. Hey, I'm speaking of miners. There's a whole bunch of them in today's episode. Hey, do you like kids in your Star Trek episode? How about news? I feel like George Lucas would love this one. It's season one episode 17 when the bow breaks. This cold open's really fun to me. I feel like this has got to happen to you a lot in the

house when you got little ones who were only yay tall. Harry, come back here. They're constantly running into shit and people. It's your hurry, Harry. They are not yet looking where they're going. Great stunt by Harry here. Because when he runs into Commander Riker, it looks like a football field forearm shiver is doled out. And Harry needs to get checked for a concussion. The kid that bumped into Riker, we follow a little bit as Riker heads off to the bridge. Harry talks to his dad about how he fucking hates calculus. He doesn't want to go back to that bummer-ass school.

I disliked Harry right away for a number of reasons. At one, watch where the fuck you're going, Harry. And also, I remember taking calculus in freshman year of high school. Is that same accurate? I didn't get to calculus until junior and senior year. Okay, maybe I'm wrong about that. But what I'm trying to say is, like, I was much, much older than Harry when I started in on the calculus. And this guy's a little doogie, clearly.

Yeah, I think that this is early TNG. telegraphing of the society of the future is so much more advanced that get a load of what a child of this age is going to study in school today. Can you believe it? You fools. Failing spatial awareness is what Harry is doing clearly. Yeah, he skipped over geometry, didn't he? He did. Up on the bridge, almost everybody is scrummed up back behind the horseshoe with Picard. They've all gone up there to look at some interesting, faint energy readings that they've been following. If you're Riker and you're limping, why don't you get off the turbo lift that's at the back of the horseshoe instead of the one at the front? Do you think you get a choice? When you get on a

turbo lift and you say, bridge, that it just drops you off at whatever turbo lift it wants to take you to, or can you go top a horseshoe, bottom of horseshoe? If we are taking what turbo lifts do in Star Trek Discovery as canonical and that most of the ship is a chasm of indescribable mechanical systems flying all around doing God knows what and the turbo lifts are just floating pods

that dodge and weave through that. I think you could pick which door it lets you out on, you know? God, I hadn't thought about that until this moment. Wow. It really beggars belief when you think about like, isn't Discovery like a pretty small ship? Yeah. Yeah. And yet it's like a human being being 90% water or whatever.

A starship in that era is 90% turbo lift. Yeah. Yeah. Why the limp is a question. Riker kind of brushes off. If you're him, I'd think you'd walk around with the limp kind of a lot given his reputation. No? Don't you think Riker's coworkers know enough about?

about him by now not to ask. Yeah. They're at the Epsilon Mino system, and that is really fucking exciting, specifically to Will Riker, because that's where Al-Dea is, baby. Aldea. What's so interesting about this system?

If you haven't heard of it, the story is they got a cloaked planet, and the reason they cloaked it is because they came up with all this great technology that served them and freed them up for their artistic pursuit. that they did after. So they came up with all this tech that provided for them in most major ways.

And then they just became painters and sculptors and artists of all kinds. And because they had all this great tech, they needed to hide themselves from folks who might want to take that from them. Hence, the cloaked planet. Cloaked planet. It kind of feels like the, like cloaked planet here, enterprise here. Like if they didn't all stop when they did, they would have just bumped into it. Yeah.

Because, you know, they're like, oh yeah, there's definitely something out there. Emotional bloodhound counselor Troy can't help but pick up all of the minds down there. What's going on there? The cloak doesn't work on that. Troy can feel something that feels like a lot of people nearby, a planet amount of people. and yet once we finally meet the Aldeans we get to know six of them

it never really feels like a full planet does it? Was their whole idea that they would repopulate the planet with six kids? That's a little gross, isn't it? That's not what is in their family. I have a bunch of questions and we can ask them throughout. I mean I think it's obvious

from Jump that where they aired first and foremost is and not having Ron Canada to help run this ideal place, this masterpiece that is a society. Yeah, and also if I'm like taking kids for repopulation purposes, I might want to choose the ones that are post-pubescent. That doesn't make me gross. That's just someone who knows things about biology.

Well, there's a having new babies. angle to this, but there's also a social reproduction angle to this. They want to see their values promulgated, and those fully baked, youthful people might reject some of those social customs as we see. Yeah, you want to get your programming done a little early on with the kiddos. After this planet reveals itself like a mirage in the desert, we go to theme. And when we come back, we get on the FaceTime with Rochella, the brawless wonder. She is there to greet them and welcome them to Aldea.

Like many species in season one of Star Trek, the crusty old man always puts forward the younger woman to greet first. And that's a great idea. Because we got a Jerry Hardin here. And as great as Jerry Harden is, not a great first. impression is what he makes. He is really doing the exact same move that the guy at Haven did. Picard is a little tongue tied, and I couldn't tell if that was because, like, wow, Rochella is really dumping him out, or if it's more like Aldea, like, I can't

fucking believe I'm actually talking to one, or maybe it's a little bit of both. She looks forward to talking about that conversation later. no one realizes until it happens that later is now when Rochella and Radu transport themselves aboard the bridge quite suddenly and there's an alert claxon that goes off and everything because there are bogeys on the bridge and they let that alert claxon ride for a little while like nobody is telling Siri to turn off the timer on this

but they explain, oh yeah, we came up this way because our method of transport is the only way on and off our planet. They seem a little like uncomfortable on the bridge. They're kind of wincing and like touching their temples here and there. But we're a little distracted from that because they know things about members of the crew. They know Riker's name. They reveal they've been tapped into the entrepreneur's comm. for quite a while and they've been learning all about this ship and who's on it. It's what puts us on uneven footing from jump.

Like these folks, these strangers seem nice enough, but there is a disparity in ability and technology here that doesn't feel super comfortable. It doesn't feel super comfortable and it's also a little galling when they don't seem to really treat their awesome power. with any kind of respect. They're like, oh, yeah,

we've just known about you and have been, like, looking through your shit, you know, like, and no one likes a drop-by either. Yeah.

No, yeah. They, they, uh, they didn't even knock. So they're like, all right, your, uh,

your lights are up a little bright for our taste. So we're going to go, but, uh, we'll, we'll see you down here soon. And away they blip. And Picard is just tripping off of,

like, I cannot believe that the rumors were true. This was really. there. Like we've talked a lot already this season about planets with legends that have dubious truthfulness about them. This one's actually a thing. Holy shit. I kind of wish that Troy's instrumentality was more about distributing nutshots to people with preconceptions. Because she comes right in here with, yeah, but also they're wanting something of, of extremely high value and they're pretty afraid

that we're gonna give it to them. So why don't you hold back on the excitement just a little bit? Like you know that thing about how you realized that the extremely faint signals that you've been following for a while were just to lure us here? Put that together with what I'm telling you and try to decide if we shouldn't just fucking hit it at warp nine and get the fuck away from this place

as fast as possible. The guiding principle and we start beating base Have you got to find it you don't deserve to wear that uniform The discomfort. The discomfort with the

Aldean technology continues throughout the entire episode because you only get a moment to consider what Troy's saying before the Aldean transporter blurps on again and it takes Riker

and Dr. Crusher and counselor Troy with him to the surface. Picard is like Game recognized game radoo nice choices. While they're on the surface, Aldea points this golden beam at the bridge, and it's kind of dodging around like a spotlight

to different people before landing on Wesley Crusher. And we learn that this scan is going on around the entire ship. They can't put the shields up. They can't do anything. And Wes is kind of trapped in it. And we learn after it goes away that all of the kids on the ship were subjected to these yellow beams. Hey, wouldn't it be great to know in any kind of specificity what that felt like to Wesley Crusher or like what his experience was during the beaming? It takes him 10 seconds to say maybe a two second nothing thing as a result. It was scary at first.

But I didn't really feel anything. I feel like he's more embarrassed that he doesn't have anything specific to report. It's like almost like he lost time or something. Yeah, yeah. On the surface, Radoo has introduced Duana, another member of their society. And they're like, yeah, hey, so we're just this like super non-materialistic, chill group of people.

All we do is sit around all day and make beautiful stuff. And we live a simple life, you know, like one in, one out. You know, we, there are no, like, Sam's clubs or Costco's down here. Like, everybody just kind of, like, you know, eeks by, but we make beautiful art. And, you know, all we need is a younger generation to follow in our traditions. And so that's why we've brought you here. Isn't it sad that this always means cult nowadays? Like, whenever you get a group of adults together who just want to make some art and chill the fuck out,

it ends up being a cult thing. Yeah. And that was the read that I got on this, even though that would be completely incorrect. I occasionally fantasize about like, what, like, you know, just like, it would be kind of nice to just go off, like, get a compound. A bunch of people you like being around.

You're not surrounded by fucking assholes all the time, shooting their fireworks off or whatever. You know, like that, there's some appeal to that. Like, I'm not saying what the L Danz are doing, it doesn't have a certain. appeal to it. Oh, there's more than appeal in it. My wife and I are actually putting that plan into motion. That's happening. Okay. Well, uh, I hope it's not like a, like a no technology cult, because we do tend to record this over the internet. Now, there will be a carve out for that.

Okay, cool. Uh, but yeah, they're, they're children of mening down here. And they explained that Rochella is the last person that was ever born on Alden. and now they can't have kids. So they're like, awesome trade. We are going to take your kids and you are going to get a really neat set of encyclopedias. Whenever you watch like period media, there is a really unintentional comedy to like the unmarried woman who doesn't have kids that is beautiful. And like in her 30s and everyone around her is like, look at her. She's a spinster.

Oh, there's nothing worse than that. I can't believe it. She's in hell. I feel like there's a little bit of that baked in here with Rochella. Like how she's got to be miserable, right? The horrific indignity of being Rochella is evident to the viewers of this episode. And they will all consider that to be like maybe the worst thing that can happen to a person. We need some of your children.

I really love Riker's ability to flat turn this down, but not in a fuck you know kind of way, just in a very practical, factual kind of way. Not a chance. And that's your final answer? That's my only answer. Good job by him. It is totally respectful, but Radu is like, hmm, that is a shame. and he like pushes the little button on his mobile emitter and sends them right home. And no sooner has the negotiating away team returns to the bridge then Wesley blips away.

And then we start cutting around the ship and seeing all kinds of kiddos blipping away. I had to watch this sequence and then maybe for the next five or ten minutes. I had to watch this over a couple of times because initially I thought, all the kids were taken. And I was like, ah, that's great. Could you imagine?

But then I saw that it really was only a group of kids and how I ached, Ben, for the C story we didn't get this episode, of the kids that remained who were unchosen and what they had to be feeling. By this planet of desperate people deciding that,

Nah, they weren't Enterprise's best. We're gonna go with these ones and not you. Could we write a like surprisingly dark and bloody C-story, like, addendum to this as a comic book? Like the leftovers, but it's the kids on the D that didn't get taken. Now you're speaking my language. I love the leftovers. Yeah, that's great. Evidently, when you scoop up a half a dozen kids off the ship, it triggers another red alert.

So we get one of those section reports six more children are gone. It's the children. So we get one of those on the bridge. And Radu appears on the FaceTime saying, hey, we've got them. Yeah. And the idea is we will accept payment for them at a time of your choosing. And this really sets Picard off, the idea that this is a transaction that he's approved of. And Radu is like, Daddy, chill.

And turns off the call. Like, I'm not going to talk to you while you're this angry. had my act of barbarity. This is such an interesting distinction between season one episode one Picard and the Picard we get here. I feel like season one episode one Picard would hear that a handful of kids

were taken from the ship and he'd be like, all right. We'll talk later. Everyone accepts a certain level of risk when they come aboard a starship. Yeah. Commander Riker, on to. the next mission.

It is extremely unusual to see Picard blow up like this. You're right. He has sent Troy off to gather the parents of the kids who've been taken. And she's like, you know you're going to have to talk to them too, right? And that happens right before he speaks to Radu. So I kind of feel like maybe his anger is somewhat informed by the fact that he's going to have to go be called out on the carpet by a grieved. parents. As dangerous and scary as it must feel to be kidnapped, I feel like a quality to that

is knowing that you're a young person and Wesley Crusher is your leader. And that's definitely the feeling on Aldea when this group of kids is gathered around him while Redu and Rochella come out to greet. I am always so uncomfortable when somebody makes a promise like this. He's like telling the kids like everything is going to be okay and nothing bad is going to happen to. Like, fuck, man, there are societies in this, in this quadrant that put a little kid in a box and like use up their life force to power their entire civilization. You can't make promises like that, Wesley. These kids don't know that they will eventually become box kids or not.

That could be on the table here. I mean, when you hear about the custodian, you've got to put that even higher. on your list of likely outcomes. Yeah. And it's the custodian that has given the Aldeans all this information about the ship and the crew. There is a little kiddo who's brought herself, who's brought her pet tribble down here. And I feel I feel like this would have been a funny direction for the episode to turn. Like she brought plague and pestilence on the Aldeans that they could not have predicted

because they did not know. Yeah. She trades blankets with the Aldeans pretty quickly here. She goes up and shakes the hands of the captors, not really understanding what's going on yet. And in the observation lounge, we get this meeting with the aggrieved parents. And Beverly, despite being one of the aggrieved parents,

is really standing on Picard's side of the table and putting what's happening in context for the other parents to calm them down. And it's because when Picard says we will continue to negotiate for the return of your kids, no one wants to hear that it's even up for negotiation or debate

if you're a parent. And Beverly kind of helps Picard soften this message with a, like, no, by drawing it out, this is actually good. Their opening negotiation offer is all the kids. kids and ours is none of the kids and we're going to go back and forth and do a little bit of bargaining and see if we can't reach a number somewhere in the middle you know maybe wesley and

alexandra stay down there and katie can come home on aldeia all the littles are going to be sent off to all of their families and they're going to be paired very specifically so harry has been tapped as an artist so he's going to go hang out with the artist family I'm not an artist. Do you respect what you will be? Just like Katie, the musician of the group, is going to go hang out with the old musician Melian. Did you recognize Katie as Jandy Swanson, who played Jenny Drake, Best Bud of Hobie in the first season of Baywatch? Sure did.

One of the greats. One of the greats. Wow. That leaves Wesley picked last on the playground here. and he's told off to the side, look, the kids aren't going to have a choice in the matter here. And you need to get with the program and maybe help the kids do the same. It's interesting. It kind of makes the case that Wesley wasn't really brought down to be one of the kids. He was kind of brought down to sell the kids on behalf of the Alteans of this being something that they should embrace sooner rather than later.

We don't have a choice in the matter. And Radu kind of implies that like none of us do. We all do our little art projects or whatever, but essentially our society is dictated to us by the custodian. And we we didn't even, this isn't even our plan is kind of the implication. That's not to suggest that there is like a true unified front by the Aldeans, though. There is a little bit of crack in this. When Rochella refuses to give up Alexei. Alexandra to her pre-selected family unit saying, you know, this one's mine and I'll never give

her up. That's the first little splinter in this thing that I think provides a useful bit of leverage here. I think that they must be so cowed by their constantly being under the thumb of the custodian that like the idea of thinking a thought that would go in defiance of the custodian is almost like, impossible for them. I kind of wish there was more custodian in this episode for that reason, because I think what you're saying sounds true, but I also know as a projection. Like, there's a scene we don't get where the custodians like, Harry is going to go with the artists and Katie's going to go with the musician, that I kind of wanted a little more direct line between like the orders and the authority that the custodian has and that everyone has to eat it.

It doesn't seem like Rochella faces any retribution or punishment for her going against the plan here. Right. Up on the bridge, Reiker kicks it to Picard and he's like, okay, well, we've got a couple of things going. Data has discovered a potential weakness in their planetary shield, and we may be able to put away teams through it or pull the kids through it. But there's some specifics that need to be worked out. Picard also wants Riker and LaForge to work on that problem, like, independently. Jordy, maybe you could go to some sort of window and see if there are holes in the shielding we could exploit. What Picard believes he can rely on is that the Aldeans think that they are doing a moral thing here,

but they're only going to be able to believe that if they can execute the rationalization part of the plan, which is give us this big and pretty impressive set of encyclopedias that they have gathered over the millennia. And so I just got to kind of, I got to let them spin their wheels, got to keep them talking, got to keep the ball in the air, and make them not think that I'm keeping the ball in the air so that they don't get frustrated and kick us out. Right, because at any moment, this more powerful species will be able to cloak their planet and then they would be fucked at that point. Down on the planet, Wesley actually gets to check out the custodian or like the computer interface to it. They give him some permissions, you know, like not root level permissions, but he's got some

clearance and getting third level clearance can be a big deal, you know. In Scientology, that could cost thousands of dollars. Wesley seems more interested in how the computer works than what it can do or do for him or show him in this scene. And this is really irritating to Duwana, who is incurious as it gets. He's like, have you never had like your internet go down? You have to like unplug the router and plug it back in. She's like, what do you mean? He's like, how long has this thing been running? Hundreds of years? Quite the amount of cash that hasn't been cleared. Seriously. It's also like got the the major creep vibes of a total surveillance society because he can just like beep boop up some live footage of Harry learning how to carve wood,

which just feels like, Like another thing that goes uncommented on here. Yeah, isn't it interesting how little of a threat that feels to the Aldeans or to even Wesley, knowing he has this ability? He should be like, I am in the prime of my teenage years. I'm going to need like at least some privacy, some of the time, preferably like three to four hours a day. Like, where can I go that the custodian isn't going to be peering around the corner at what I'm getting into with the pump bottle of Juergens? Imagine how humiliating it would be. Like, Wesley's flipping through the slides, and it's like dolphin making, weird musical instrument, bathroom stall without a door on it.

That's no good. Terrible. This conversation that Harry's having with his caretaker, though, it's. It's interesting, right? Because it sounds so much like AI. And Harry quite naturally has that sort of guilty feeling of like, I'm not actually doing anything here, right? Did I really do this? Oh, yes. Like I'm holding this magic wand and wood is flying up off of this block. I don't know what I'm doing here. And he has to be reassured that like, no, you are an artist. You're an artist just like any other artist, even though you don't know how to do anything.

And you're never going to have to do anything to get better. You're just, you just point the little wand at the thing and out the result comes. Later on we learn, I think that there's a little more to it when it comes to the music thing. And I think that's a more elegant metaphor for, like, how AI can be used in a way that isn't gross and bad.

But yeah, this initial experience with it doesn't feel good. And that's because Harry knows that his good feeling isn't earned. These people are totally incurious about why their society has what it has and doesn't have the things it doesn't have

and that I feel like is where all of the tension between Wesley and Duana is coming from. He's like, what's behind the door? Like, what's going on with the computer? And she's like, I don't know. Nobody ever asks this. It's weird that you're asking. Wesley's like, why didn't I get a hot mom also?

This kind of sucks, Duana. Yeah. Speaking of, like, Do you have any pictures of Rochella that I could just like have for for my own personal use? Hey, pay no attention to the wall over here in the custodian room, Wesley. Duana's not going to know what that's about or what's behind it or anything. Picard lets Radu know that he and Beverly will need to be a negotiating team per Starfleet regulation. The second the call is over. Thank fucking God. Data kept his yap shut until

the connection was terminated because he's like, that's not a regulation, Captain. I feel like any of the first five episodes, he would have spoken up while the line was still hot and it would have been a complete fucker

of a situation. He's learned, he can learn. So Picard and Dr. Crusher arrive on Aldea and they want to see the kids first. Get a little proof of life would be a good idea. Request a number. denied on that. Redu's going to be the hard ass here, the bad cop to the good cop that is Rochella.

I mean, it's a little bit like an episode of To Catch a Predator. You're not going to talk to the kids. Why don't you sit right there? Yeah. I mean, they have different styles in a lot of ways with respect to negotiation because Redu is like, you will never see the kids again. We are keeping them forever. And Rochella's like, but they're going to be cared for and loved and no child. will be left behind. Also, like, why are you so mad? You can just go fuck and make more kids. When we fuck, nothing happens.

We're children of menning down here. We can't do it. It's pointless fucking. The worst kind. So I want you guys to just think about this, there's this fucking set of encyclopedias. You've never seen half the shit in this. You're going to love it. You can look anything up, A to Z.

Dr. Kresher being the doctor in the room. And thank God there is one, by the way. She's like, look, we don't know how you became unable to have kids, but like what makes you think that bringing new kids here won't mean that the new kids that you've brought won't also be unable to have kids when they age to the point of presumably being able to have one? Like, maybe whatever's going on on this planet could spread. Have you ever thought of that?

Our inability to bear children is a genetic dysfunction. It's not contagious. Beverly has allowed to go, to where Wesley is. And Wesley is just not slick, man. Like, it's so, so fumble-fucky when she hands him the medical tricorder fob. And he's like, huh? What?

Oh, let me put this in my pocket. So that lady right over there doesn't see it, mom. I really, really feel like the subtext here is that Duana wants to give this one back on exchange. Because, like, Radu was super hardcore. about like, nope, not seeing the kids, not any of them. And I feel like he's maybe got a pad that he looked at with a text from Duana that's like, oh, I guess you could see Wesley, the one we care the least about. It's not going well. See, if there are any other kids out there. When

Crusher comes back, she's like, everything's fine, safety-wise, and makes a kind of significant look at Picard. And Radu's like, well, anyways, the encyclopedias are our best and final offer. So, why don't you go give us some thought? We'll give you a little time to think it over. And when they go back up to the ship using the Aldean transporter, he FaceTime's up and he's like, in fact, I'll give you three days. And something flies around the planet at the entrepreneur and fires it off into space.

This is the first time you see the frisbee of the enterprise effect on this show. And I remember the first time I saw it being totally blown away. Like you're used to seeing your hero ship cruising in straight lines, going in orbits around things. Yeah. Seeing it spin was just a terrifying moment. And it still is. The effect is still amazing. We watched an episode of Strange New Worlds recently on our other smash hit Star Trek podcast, Greatest Trek, where the enterprise in that show gets flipped around in the bordices of a interstellar storm or something. And it's so much more flipped around in that.

But part of what is so cool about this effect is like this is a real model. And like they had to figure out a way to make it look like the physics felt right. Yeah. And like in CG, like you can do whatever you want. Like you can have it go anywhere and shoot it from any angle and have it spin as much as you want. And I feel like that's its own challenge, like making the enterprise look like a leaf on the wind was a really neat effect in that episode. But in this, like, you feel the weight of the ship as it, as it is flung off.

Like, it's a, it's a fucking discus at the Olympics. The mass of this matters. It's so much more enjoyable to watch this happen at this scale than, I mean, no one is saying that the effects on New Star Trek are bad. It's just that, like, you feel it differently. It hits differently when you see a ship manipulated the way it is when it's a model versus when it's an effect. Ben, one final warning to the crew while they're so far out here. They're like, hey, it's going to take you three days to get back.

But if you fuck with us anymore, by the time you get back here, your kids are going to look like Admiral Jameson when you arrive. And they're like, which version of... Before the medicine. Oh no! Oh! Oh, oh, so we go around to some of the kids.

Katie got paired with a very old man who's a musician, and he teaches her how to use one of their weird instruments that kind of looks like, kind of looks like the game, Simon, but like a little bit more advanced,

you know? You want to know what science fiction has been? It's when a young person, drops a possession of an old person and the old person doesn't get super pissed off about it. Oh, that's fine. Yeah, I believe his that's fine here. And that's weird. He should not be okay with what's happening.

What he isn't okay with is her choosing to play a sad song. Feel the notes inside your head. Play something happier. It's too emo for this elder Aldean. to handle. But she doesn't know how to play anything different. This isn't a phase for her, Ben.

It was like, I really only connect to songs about like holding hands at the sock hop. Can you do something like that? And she's like, nah, bitch, you're old. It's going a little better

for Harry as he sculpts. And I get such weird vibes from his dad figure in his unit, though. Yeah? Tell me more. Like all up in Harry's nook and like hands on shoulders all the time.

And I was just like, I'd rather learn calculus. You know what? That's so interesting is like none of the kids have a recoil response to these adults at any point. And they are all up in all of their nooks. There's a lot of touching. And this is, I guess, a passage of time sequence because we cut back up to orbit where the entrepreneur has returned. So these kids have been down there for quite a while. And Picard radios up to Radu.

And he's like, well, we've had some time to think about it. And I do think your opening offer is very interesting. So we're going to want to negotiate. And Radu is in no hurry. He's like, okay, well, you guys can get ready to come down. And we'll be really excited to talk to you about that. They got to be careful about this, though, right? because like it's not like the Aldeans are asking ahead of time like is it cool if we beep you down now

okay here it comes like Picard makes this arrangement and then like has a bunch of discussions that it's like you know that they can monitor the comms on the ship like how how secure do you think the conversation you're having with data about punching through their shield or Beverly about their chromosomal damage really is it's an interesting point and this isn't a perfect comparison but this is like when, I mean, my grandparents are dead, but like when one of them would call, RSVP, your grandparents. When one of them would call, I'd be like, fuck, do I have an hour? Because that's what it's going to take if I pick it up.

Like, that's what talking to the Aldeans is kind of like, like, I'm going to get blurped down there just by picking up the phone. And you don't want to not talk to your grandparents, but it's like sometimes you're like, I got a 30 minute lunch break. I'm halfway through this sandwich. which, like, they're going to be offended if I cut it short, you know. Dr. Crusher arrives on the bridge and tells the card what she learned from the medical scan from earlier. Duana is dying.

I think that much we could grasp by looking at her. She has a five-year plan. What is it? Don't die? But the thing is, everyone is dying from chromosomal damage. Its cause at this point is not clear, but everyone is running out of time in a number of ways. on Aldea. Harry has completed his first sculpture and is polishing some, uh, some, you know, Dutch oil into it or something.

It's the sort of thing you find at a fancy shopping mall that sells art that's printed on giant pieces of sheet metal that are very glossy. Sure. Or like a vacation town art gallery where you're like, this is not like, uh, like, this is not art that, you know, important collectors and museums are trying to get into their permanent collections. Right. This is art as commerce here. This is like, we're trying to drill you for 10 Gs before you get on the flight home. He explains that dolphins are from Earth and his dad is an oceanographer and they're like, oh, man, yeah, our oceans used to have stuff living in them too. Little ominous. Yeah, no one wants to hear about dad's old job either. It's kind of a source of. subject. So yeah, the kids are starting to really feel it.

Alexandra is telling Rochella how much she misses her mommy and Wesley is having dinner with Radoo and Duana and they're like, babe, what's wrong? You've hardly touched your plate of fruit that was clearly bought at like an Asian supermarket in Burbank. Fruit for dinner just doesn't sound great. I'm with Wesley on this. Yeah. It's not what I want on my plate. at dinner time. The thing that Wesley tries to articulate here is something that I truly understand, which is the more you tell me that I'm happy, the less happy I will be. And Wesley's like, you keep saying this. I don't think that word means what you think it means. Like, none of us want

this. I am never going to sell these kids on this being what we would prefer to do. So you can put that out of your mind right now. We were happy before we came. We're going to do bad things. We don't want to be here. And we're going to do a lot of them. And we will not cooperate. So buckle up.

That's the line of the trailer, right? And then they like cut to like a bunch of explosive, uh, bloody knuckle action. Cut to, uh, Harry Milton. It's funny to do bad things. What Wesley goes and does is sneaks around late at night and goes to the computer Lab and the custodian gives up the locations of all the other kids. He then sneaks into Katie's room and wakes her up and tells her, he needs her help. And the next morning, the kids have gotten together to organize passive resistance against

the Aldeans. And Rochella comes in, sees them all together. And it's like, no, you guys shouldn't be talking to each other. that is not what we want. No freedom of association. This is like a boss going into a breakroom at a company and seeing a union card on the breakroom bulletin board. Like, oh no.

Can't have that. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Bricel is like, I got to go make some calls and she has like the Pinkerton detective agency on speed dial. I am the cutest aboard. You will respond to my question. Questions. I am L'Cutus a bored. You are bored. On Enterprise, Dr. Crusher tells Picard that it's radiation poisoning that's made the Aldean sterile.

Let me guess. Can't get hard anymore? Yes. And that condition could be reversible. But data has bad news. Like, you might be able to reverse the sterility. We can't break the code of the shield that you had us working on. but Riker and Jordi have an alternative. Like maybe identifying and exploiting the weaknesses in that shield is something they could do with the transporter. We might be able to get somebody down there

and that is the plan we're going to pursue. The idea being they send Riker and data down there, they shut off the shield entirely, and then you can start beam kids up. Down in the resistance movement, a big platter of fruit is offered to the kids. And they're like, what is it with you guys in fruit?

Like, is this all you have to eat down here? What's going on? Doesn't it seem like a greater sacrifice if the food looked more appetizing? I think so. Yeah, I mean, I'd be curious to try a lot of it. Looked like they had some Roma tomatoes. Those could be nice, you know?

Nah, but it's not kid food. That's not kid food. Yeah, it should be dino nuggets and, like, ketchup and string cheese. But even Alexandra is hungry enough to break the hunger strike. And I'm kind of feeling like maybe the really little kids get to not do the hunger strike, Wesley. Maybe that should be okay. No, I think you need unity among the kids, Ben. Oh, okay.

I think he's right about this. No scabbing by Alexandra, the five-year-old. Yeah, no one can eat, not even her. But you know, she's about to eat a bag of dicks, Ben, Radoo. once Riker and Data beam down. Ooh, I love this white-ass lens on Wharf, getting ready to punch the button when Picard and Beverly go down.

It's great. They're coordinating something with the transporter room so that when the Aldean transporter goes, Data and Riker can go down as well. And they arrive pretty close to the custodian room and go in. And they're like, well, we can't like override it,

but we can fuck it up so no one can tell it new shit at the very minimum. It's weird how Data brought a sandwich with him to the room with the custodian. And he tells Riker, like, this thing requires a specific voice command that I, for some reason, at this moment in time on Star Trek the next generation, am unable to do. Hands are tied now. If only he'd heard Radu's voice, you know, a little bit more, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. reasons impossible for data. In the negotiation chamber, Radu is like, hey, so something's come up since we last talked, and I'm pretty exercised about it. These fucking kids are doing something called a strike, and they say they all signed this union card and they're going to have an election. We're not sure what this is.

Can you go, can you go like bust some melons and fire things? the ringleaders so that this dissipates and we don't have to deal with it. You know it's actually part of the story I experience on the holodeck. There are several books

about union busting. Picard is finally allowed to go speak directly to the kids and I like this scene because he comes with like an idea of what he wants to talk to them about but he doesn't really

get a word in edgewise because they keep interrupting him. Wesley's like, hey, I know how to work the computer. And Harry's like, hey, tell my dad, even though I hate math class, I still love him. And I know that we fought the last time I saw him about that. But if I never see him again, I just don't want it to, you know, worry him. And Alexandra wants a hug. And he's just like, all right, why don't you guys just come back to the negotiation room? We'll tell Reddue where he can shove it together. Once everyone is together in the same place, this is where Dr. Crusher dropped

some science. Their inability to have kids is about the radiation and the shield that protects them has allowed that radiation to give them this poisoning that's made them sterile. Let me guess. You can't get hard anymore. And if the kids stay long

enough, you're going to suffer that same fate. I love Gates McFadden's performance in this moment because it's a feeling that I feel like I've had so many times where I'm like, if I can get the full scope of my idea out, it will be persuasive to everybody that hears it. But I can't do that if I get interrupted. So I have to like have the wording just right and like squeeze it into the conversation. So everybody hears what a good idea I have. And it is not persuasive to Redu initially. He's like, that's just bullshit. Like they're just trying to get their fucking kids back. But. Rochelle is like, well, what if they do get irradiated? Like, what if, uh, like, they did talk about this in the first conversation. Like, they did raise the specter of like, maybe if there's something going on on this planet where no one can have kids, there might be something going on on this planet that would make it so that no one could have kids.

Well, we don't get as like three seconds of Duana reaction where she's doing the math. Like, there's a chance I could get stuck with Wesley and get nothing out of it. come on radu listens to rachela's perspective that maybe this is a position they consider and he's like no i don't think so i think i'm kicking these guys out of here and sending them across the universe so they can come back when their kids are grandparents and he goes to push his little button and it doesn't work and piquard has the upper hand he like checks in with with the away team, which I guess, like Radu wouldn't even know that they're necessarily down on the planet. But it's like, okay, stand by to send everyone home.

I just have to get some final words in about what assholes these guys have been this entire time. It's actually more positive than that on the way out. Harry wants a moment with his family in particular. He wants to give them the polished wooden dolphin that he made earlier. And this family is like, this dolphin is actually working. worth like $5,000. Are you sure? Like, in some towns,

you wouldn't want to put this in your checked luggage. You know what I'm saying? I'm going to just recommend hand-clean and hand-dry. Don't put it in the dishwasher after-use. That will degrade the quality over time. And you might get splinters, you know. You are trying to confuse the issue. This is rock bottom for Radu.

After the kids beam away, he believes their way of life is over. on Aldea, but Picard promises that's not going to be the case because look, man, this is all the fault of your power source, and we can get in there and help you repair it. So there's like a pivot point suggested for this society. Like everything that happened before now and everything that's going to happen after has to balance on this decision you make, Redu. So they go open up that door that Wesley was so good. curious about and into the giant space where the custodian computer is kept. And it's this huge

like rotating column of light and structure. I don't know why I loved this effect as much as I do. Like the forced perspective of it, I think is cool as hell. I love the idea of opening up a door and it is a giant dark, dark, creepy room. That part of it tickles me. I just love it. They have this this awesome computer and this awesome power and sort of like the scientists in Jurassic Park, none of the discipline to use it. And so it's very interesting how Radu has like completely turned around on his convictions. He's like, yeah, you know, maybe abducting children wasn't the right path. Maybe what we should do is like learn about how this was all accomplished and how how we can use it more safely in the future.

And I was very proud of Radu. Like way to have your priors completely torn apart by lawyer Picard. And instead of just being a petulant little asshole and going off in a huff, going like, okay, you know what? I was fucking wrong. Probably shouldn't have done all that. I mean, he's like, if he was a Federation citizen, like the binars, like he would be heading off to the tribunal right now.

But like, like, what Radu has done is a, the binars, with the small exception that they don't have any like political affiliation with the federation. It's really interesting how, like for a story about procreation, how little sexual undertone to this story there is, it's completely absent is what it is. Like, there's no suggestion that Picard is like, let me tell you about an old earthman named Al Pacino, who was able to make children at a far older age than you, Radu. Like, there is no sexualization to any of these people.

No. It's kind of crazy. The denouement is a little bit longer than your average in a TNG episode. We catch up with Harry and his dad, and he's like, Yeah, I mean, like, I just want to do art. I don't want to do calculus. And his dad's like, well, you have to do calculus, but you can also do art. And Harry's like, all right, dad, cool idea.

Does Harry's dad work in cetacean ops if he's an oceanographer and he's on the D? Do you think that's his specialty? Because what the hell is he doing there, if not? I mean, they talk about like he studied the ocean on a different planet than Earth. So maybe he, like, studies the oceans on planets. go to? I don't know. But maybe he does work in cetacean ops. I mean, maybe that's the most sexual thing going on in this episode. Data has receded the ozone layer of Aldeia, and Dr. Crusher has cured the entire population of a handful of middle-aged people. They can't do their

force field and cloaking field anymore, but they have come a long way and their society is not going to collapse now. So that's good. Yeah, they immediately start sucking and fucking. Alexandra and Wesley come onto the bridge and Picard is initially like, what the fuck, Wesley, you've been told over and over again, no children on the bridge. We had to make an entire, we had to commission you as a fucking officer to get around this rule in your case. why are you testing me right now?

But Alexander just wants to thank Picard for rescuing her, getting her home. And she's brought him a flower and a hug at a dribble, which gets stuck to his back. I kind of wished for gift continuity going forward.

Like, I don't feel like Picard receives a lot of flowers. And I mean that metaphorically and literally, for all the things that he does. He saves a lot of lives over the course of his career, I bet. And I bet he also receives very few tangible gifts in exchange for that. I would have liked to have seen this little sprig on his desk in his ready room

or like pinned to the wall behind him or something. I think it would be neat to see this from time to time because he gets so few of these. This is a pretty good captain's trinket. Yeah. Well, big laughs when he turns around and reveals the trivelstuck to his back, like a kick-me sign. And that was the episode. This is becoming a speech. You're the captains, they're entitled.

I'm entitled to ramble on about something everyone knows. I have a question that I wanted to pose to you here at the end. Do you think that the progenitors were misguided or either? evil or like a mixture of both. Because this society has lasted a really long time and it doesn't seem like for the most part people want for anything, but it also like dumbed them up. So my question is like the progenitors who put this all together who said, okay, we're going to build a custodian computer and everyone will do art and the custodian will do every other thing for society. was that like a really good idea that just like eventually ran out of steam? Or was there something kind of evil about dictating a society be an exact way forever?

I don't get the sense that this was dictatorial. I feel like in so many ways the parallel is toward a founding father's sensibility and an originalism argument. I don't think past people could possibly think far enough ahead about their decisions to make rational decisions anyway about things like making the custodian or things like right in the Constitution. You cannot imagine the future for your society when you are constructing its earliest moments. So, like, yeah, the folks, the progenitors here, I think. meant well, but I think the society means terribly. And it's their responsibility for the screw-up. Like, you've got to keep evolving as a society. And it's one of the reasons why I think originalism is so flimsy and intellectually lazy. You've got to keep improving and trying to

get better. And this is what happens when you don't. You just turn into the fucking wallification of your society, having the progenitor feed you soylent in a squeeze bottle day and night, and carving dolphins with a laser that you don't really know how to use. To answer your question, I don't think the progenitors were evil at all, because I think that sort of evil would suggest a form of planning they were incapable of. Like, I think you can only just plan for the next generation. And that's the best you can do. And you can barely even plan for that.

Like they set up a society that was their ideal, and it stayed their ideal for such a long time that no one remembered, you know, anything before or like why you would have a society set up this way. Like, even in a scenario where you've got a the custodian and there's no like amendment process to the custodian, like you still have to keep your wits about you. Yeah, for sure. The idea that Radoo is like a slave to this thing is clearly bullshit because they can. they can actualize agendas in the star system around them and lure ships in, you know? Yeah, the progenitors are long dead. Just like the founding fathers are long dead. They don't care.

Are you on the side of the pretenders being evil? What's your answer? I mean, I think I generally agree with what you're saying, but I do think that, like, maybe the failure to imagine a, like, you know, Amendments are our available comp to this. But like a version of the custodian that can be adapted to the use of different eras of a society, feels like it would be a little bit more generous to your descendants. Like a thing a friend of mine sometimes says is try to be a good ancestor.

Like whatever we are doing now and leaving for subsequent generations, like, you know, try to leave the campsite a little better than you found it. Yeah, that's a great way of thinking and of being. Well, always great are the Priority One messages. You want to go check the inbox before we play our game, Adam? They sure do ring throughout history, don't they? Priority One message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Need a supplemental link.

Supplement. Supplement. Yeah, it's extra. By the interest alone, could be enough. to buy this ship. This is a promotional P1 and goes like this. Do you possess that particular flavor of fixation that makes you scrutinize every button on a tricorder?

Do you long for the days when our personal communicators seemed like more than the fulfilled dreams of a fun Federation future than soul-sucking Ferengi slabs? Check out Mr. Mobile on YouTube. It's a tech review channel by an FOD who remembers the time when phones were fun. There's at least one Star Trek ref purvid, and it's made by a guy who once met Ben in a Brooklyn restaurant. Thanks for the El Pinguino Reco, man. So give Mr. Mobile the bump.

And now, let me get that pump. I take it you're in charge here. Team leader, Brown, fourth-border defense contingent. I got to get a pump. That's it, get it. Wow, so this is a YouTube channel, and you can go to YouTube.com slash the Mr. Mobile. Don't forget the the. And if you like the videos, toss them a scarf in the form of a subscribe.

That's a free scarf. I'm checking out this channel right now. Michael Fisher does great work here. 1.2 million subscribers on Mr. Mobile. Amazing. Wow. This is great stuff. You know, I think we all feel like the duality of phone these days.

Like there's so many things about it that are so amazing. And when I'm like, maybe I should get a dumb phone, I'm like, but what about this thing, this like use case that is like an unambiguous good? And what about this other use case that's an unambiguous good? And it does feel like there was a time when it wasn't such a Faustian bargain. Tell you what, man, as soon as dumb phone becomes reliable in a thing, first in line. Can't fucking wait. Ben, we got a personal priority and message here from your loving wife, Steffa Steff. This one's to Alex, aka. Alexandra, aka Rosie, aka Z.

Here's their message. Happy second cancerversary. Wow. I think we can agree that Dr. Russo and Motzer can join the ranks of McCoy, Crusher, Bashir, the doctor, flocks, and Embanga, two years cancer-free, And many more. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Hell yeah, Alex. Love to hear it.

Way to whoop its ass. Yeah, keep it up. Thanks to doctors, Russo and Monsor. And hey, Steph of Steph, a non-trivial load on you when you go through a big thing like that with your partner. So congrats to your family for having two years. in between you and what I can only imagine was a fucking nightmare. August 12th, the actual cancerversary date, this message being just a few days after,

but a big day recently in that household. So congratulations. Keep it up. This one's to Ben, and it's from Jen and Josh. Goes like this. Dear Ben, season one, episode six, the USS Curious. We suspect that the beloved Alaskan, of eat we sent you ended up being

one of your foremost loathsome shots at the start of the episode? Oh no, Ben. A scant and mortification aside. We have to know for sure. Was it? And if it was, did you ever try it

in a two to one to one lime slushy? On a hot day it can't be beat. Unless you don't like Carraway, in which case, best just save it for a display or future punishment. Loving the rewatch. You guys are better than ever.

Cheers. Thanks, Jen and Josh. Thanks for pointing out the danger of accepting gifts, especially consumable gifts from viewers, and the risk of one of us not liking it. Wow, that's tough. Well, I can speak directly to this question, Jen and Josh.

I do not have any more of your Akavit on hand because your Akavit is delicious. The bottle of Akavit I took a shot from is a different, much bigger brand of Akavit as far as I know. And I've had that

bottle for a really, really long time. I moved cross country with that fucking bottle because I'm too much of an asshole to throw something away if I spent $30 on it. But Yeah, it's just the flavor balance in yours is tremendous, and the flavor balance in this one sucks ass. So worry not, still love you guys, and I still love your product.

Too much caraway, too little caraway and the kind that you hated. Help us understand what the problem was. It was a, like an anus nut stomp is maybe how I would put it. It's the way I like my fah. I'm like becoming much more licorish positive as I get older. Like I, here's a fucked up thing that happened after 40 for me is I like the black jelly bean now. But I have not achieved a Swedish level of appreciation for that Fliffer profile.

So like I really have to take it as it comes. Like sometimes in the example. Yeah, I can't do absence. Yeah. Yeah. But I've had absence that I really liked. others that I absolutely couldn't abide. And so it is

it's very case by case. Just as our priority when messages are case by case, I'm talking about the one case that's promotional, the other case that's personal. We've got a version of each. On this episode, you can submit a message of either, or both even, by going to Podshop.biz, and you know, doing so goes a long way in supporting the production of our shows

and we thank you. Okay, Adam. This is a game I'm calling two truths and a that guy lie because we had a bunch of that guys in this episode that I wanted to talk to you about and what I did was a little bit of research on the careers of some beloved guest actors in this episode and I thought I would challenge you to determine which thing they didn't actually do. There is a downside to failing at this game,

but I will not reveal that downside until such time as you have failed. So, we're going to start with Jandy Swanson, who we all know did three episodes as Jenny Drake on Baywatch. See if you can spot the lie among these other credits of hers. Credit one, she played a young Dorothy, the B. Arthur character on an episode of Golden Girls, Credit two, she was Penny Pester in the Rodney Dangerfield soccer comedy Ladybugs.

Credit three, she replaced myambiolic for the part of Christine Wallace in Pumpkinhead 2 colon bloodwings. The jokester in me wants to point out that any time you can replace a myambiolic in a thing, you should probably do it. That's probably a good choice. So I'm going to make that my answer. Yeah, let's stick with the joke. That's the false one. Uh-huh. Okay.

Yeah, she did not replace myambiolic in Pumpkinhead 2, Cullen Blood Wings. She was in Pumpkin Head, though. She was in the original Pumpkin Head. I remember when I worked in a video store, I remember holding those VHS cassettes in my hand. Yeah, what is this? Yeah, yeah. I never saw a trailer for this at the theater. Yeah, never watched them, though.

Well, we love Brenda Strong, the indelible Sue L. Mishke from Seinfeld, but she's had a long career in Hollywood, including two of these three things. Credit one, she's had more than one role in the Starship Troopers film series. Credit two, she came from the pageant world competing in Miss America in 1980 against Susan Powell who went on to play Marla Astor, the slain mother of the slickback in the TNG episode, The Bonding. Whoa. Credit three, she was in the leading cast as Mary Magdalene in the Christian devotional film called Leaving Golgotha, colon the revenge. That middle one is so detailed that I got to decide whether or not you scooped up all that detail because it existed or because...

Right, or if there's like one little detail that's not true, like... Yeah, and that would count because I know that's how you run these games. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. The trip wires are everywhere. Yeah. But yet, like one thing I do believe, she is Starship Troopers material through and through. Like that is, that I'm going to say absolutely correct. And that leaves the second and the third one.

I'm going to make the third one, the one I don't believe again. Wow. With that, you have avoided what was going to really suck as a punishment by correctly calling that she was not in a Christian devotional film called Leaving Golgotha colon the Revenge. You know what? That should have been the tip because that sounds way too cool to be a CBC movie, that movie title. She did star in a trilogy of Mormon devotional films called The Work and the Glory. All right.

That's a technicality, I guess. All right. Give me a Jerry Hardin. All right. Here's your Jerry Hardin question. This one's just for bragging rights. What can we say about Jerry, but he hasn't said about himself in the guise of Samuel Clemens, such as in these following credits. Credit one, a 1990 episode of Matlock about a stockbroker who engages in Twain-based sexual role play and is murdered for it by his wife.

Credit two, a film called At the End of the Santa Fe Trail, a 2025 film about a nun in the Wild West, which is an original thing. for the industrious family streaming service, credit three, a stage show called Mark Twain, colon one man and his world, which he co-created with TNG director Les Landau, and performed live for 15 years after his TNG stint in the character. That first clue was very funny to me. I think I'm going to go for the first one.

I thought that was great. That was it. Your punishment was going to be, you have to watch at the end of the Santa Fe Trail, which is a real movie that came out last year on a real streaming service called the Industrious Family, which is for people who don't want to see any non-Catholic messages in any media they consume.

Wow. Yeah. Holy moly. I cannot believe that is a thing. Yeah. And actually, I can utterly believe it's a thing. I was like, I found this credit and I was like, I got to look this up and see if I can like make out and watch it anywhere. And like whenever I put it into those websites where you put in all the streaming services you have access to, it was like, sorry, can't help you. Because this one streaming service is too niche to even be represented on those websites. What a terrible fate that would have been to have to have to sign up and play that movie. Wow. Dodged many books.

bullets there. It feels like. Many, many bullets. But, uh, but I had a lot of fun playing with you and... Me too. Good game. Good, uh, good times. Can't wait for next week's episode of TNG.

Really can't wait to hear the credits, which you all enjoy. Right. Now. Bye. Bye. The greatest generation is an Uxbridge Shemota podcast. Hosted by Benjamin. Harrison and Adam Pranica. It's produced by Windy Pretty and edited today by me, Adam Pranica.

Next week, we'll be back with another all-time classic episode of Star Trek The Next Generation. It's season one episode 18, home soil. That's the one where humans are called Ugly Bags of Mostly Water. Remember that one? And be sure to stick around at the end of that episode. We play a game. You're not going to want to miss. Anyway, we want to say thank you to everyone who supports the shows that we make. If you want to join them, get an ad-free feed, plus a lot of great bonus episodes, including our brand new role-playing game episode, sign up at greatesttreck.com or click the link in your show notes. Thanks to Adam Rugguccia, who composed our theme and interstitial music. Big thanks to Rob Adler and Bill Tilly for running our social media pages. Sign up for our newsletter at Podshop.biz.

That's also where you can get some great show merch as well as get a priority one message. And thank you for listening. See you next week on The Greatest Generation. Make it so. Captain Rick's Breach, Shumoda.