The Greatest Generation - Five Dollar Carnival Guitar (S1E26)

Episode Date: April 20, 2016

When Data and Worf beam some popsicles aboard the Enterprise, the doctor thaws them out, which treats the whole ship to an unfrozen caveman legal drama. And that's not to mention all the starbases and outposts that are being disappeared, presumably by Romulans, along the edge of the Neutral Zone. Picard quickly gets to the end of his rope when one of his primeval passengers tries to get involved in galactic politics. Will Data and his new friend pick up any "pit woofies"? Will Troi manage her day well enough to be on the bridge for contact with hostile aliens? Will Worf ever learn to live in a world with locked doors? It's the last episode of the worst season of our favorite show, and we send it off in style!

Priority 1 message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Hey friends of Disodo. Before today's episode, we just wanted to take a moment to talk about the historic labor actions being taken by writers and actors in the American Film and Television industry. If you're a fan of the work done by the people who make Star Trek, we hope you'll join us in standing in solidarity with the folks who actually bring these adventures to life. Over the past several years, the AMPTP, the organization that represents the American Film and Television Production Studios, have reduced the profit from movies and TV going to workers. And in so doing,

they've attempted to weaken the labor unions that represent those workers. They wouldn't even engage the unions on many issues in their negotiations. And so a strike was the only course of action to take. Adam, Wendy and I have been having a lot of internal discussions about how best to stand with the unions and we are continuing those conversations in a dynamic situation. We're doing our best to understand where the picket lines are in these digital spaces,

and we would never intentionally cross one. With the information we have, we feel like we can do more good talking about and supporting the strike and continuing our show as planned. We'll keep you informed about what all this means for greatest trek specifically. Today we're making a contribution to the Entertainment Community Fund. This fund exists to help all the people whose livelihoods have been put on hold because the AMPTP refuses to negotiate

in good faith with the unions. It provides financial support for writers, actors, and all the thousands of laborers who make the shows that we talk about here and without whom we wouldn't have Star Trek to cast pot about. Those folks are all out of work because billionaires, company shareholders, and the executives of these companies don't want to compromise on the length of their yachts. We hope you'll join us in supporting entertainment workers in a challenging time, especially after they've already endured several years of challenges brought on by the pandemic

and season two of Star Trek Picard. We've set up a page where you can also contribute. It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdisotoforlabor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Welcome to the greatest generation, a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have completed a full season of Star Trek for the sake of making a podcast. I'm Ben Harrison.

I'm Adam Pryanaka. these are all going out, right? Like people know about this? Yes. So many people know about it. We're giving emails from all corners of the globe. It's hard to believe there was effort at time when we made this show that people didn't. Like, we... Our intention from the start was to just vandity press the shit out of this.

Yeah, well, and I think it was about episode five that our friends, Sarus Farvar wrote, I mean, he's our friend now. We didn't really know him at that time, but he wrote a very nice article about us in ours Technica, which really blew up the spot. And I guess the rest is history Adam. Sure is. This is sort of a celebratory episode, isn't it? The end of the first season for the show and the first season for our podcast. Yeah. And I mean, you know, looking back season one is is full of. Pretty rough episodes and we've had a couple, we've had a couple episodes where it took the

redemptive power of raker boner jokes to make, make fun out of what was otherwise pretty dismal television. But overall, I think Season 1 maybe gets a worse rap than it deserves. Yeah, I think sexualizing anything that is devoid of sexualization can make anything a little more fun. Yeah. And I think it's been very cathartic for me as well, like thinking about thinking back to my West Hot American summer, thinking back to your trip to the trading card dealer. Yeah. And various other embarrassing moments we've suffered, some of the new embarrassing moments that we've had since we started this show.

Sort of like the end of this episode we're about to review, you know, there are so many more adventures ahead for us in the realm of embarrassment that it's really excited to see what's out there, both for us and the show. It is a crazy experience when we start really fast.

Are you not finding within yourself to stand up so much too? You don't deserve the worth that beautiful. both for us in the show. Well, I guess we should probably kick it off, huh? Yeah, coming up for us is the season finale of season one, called the Neutral Zone. And it's your pretty standard, unfrozen caveman lawyer episode of Star Trek Connect Generation. I don't understand your complicated cellular technology. Sometimes when I get a message on my fax machine, I wonder, did little demons get inside and type it? I don't know. So the opening shot is kind of a circa 1990s NASA space probe looking thing flying around

in space outside of the enterprise. And they're doing some scans or like this is an old Hunk of Space Junk and normally like an interesting enough discovery, but the captain is coming back from an important conference and again with the conferences. Yeah. Yeah. Um, this time he remembered to take off his plastic name badge before he walked outside of the convention center.

Uh, hopefully he remembered this dot bag this time. Oh yeah. You know if you forget any toiletries you can just ring down to the front desk. They have everything up to and including a dental dam available. Which may or may not double as a shower cap. There are no dental dams in the future just like I'm pretty. There are no dental dams in the future. Just like, I'm pretty sure there are no dental dams in the present. They're called shower caps, Adam. But data kind of puts in a word with Riker and says,

hey, why don't, you know, we have a couple hours before the casting gets back. And I would love to poke around on this, on this, on this, on this junk that is floating around out here. And see what's what? He wants to poke the junk. Yeah, yeah. I mean, date is not above poking junk.

He is fully functional. Yeah, trained in every technique. And Riker's like, all right, as long as you're back on board and ready to go before the captain, before the captain's shuttlecraft docs, like go sick, do whatever you want. And data starts walking off the bridge and Riker's like, wharf, you go with him.

And this is a great moment for me because data looks so excited that wharf is going to get on the turbo lift with him. It's like Brent Spiner made very few choices to be visibly emotional with this character. This is like, and it's like definitely outside of what the character should be capable of, but it was so sweet like Warf is like walking over the terrible lift and data just has like a big ol' grin on his face like yeah my buddy Warf is coming

woo I Guess if there's one person who could Understand what it's like to be data more than anyone on the ship. It's got to be warf, right? They're the two outcasts. They're the two others. Maybe that's what data understands. I feel that. So they beam over to this thing

and there's kind of a lot more lights on than you would think for a 370 year old space probe. But the computer's still working. The solar generator is still working and they get it all fired up, and there's a big door, big circular door, and worth walks over to it, and does what I like to call the Klingon Prattfall, which is when you walk into an automatic door that doesn't automatically trigger. I was surprised that he didn't leave a big grease stain like where his forehead is. Or just make a cool-aid manhole in it, you know?

Like, oh yeah! He's a cling on, he's a tough dude. He's just bust right through that fucker. Well, he wasn't strong enough to open it. He gave that job to data. Yeah, well, he, you know, Wurf is taking his job as the muscle of the enterprise very seriously.

So he's not thinking too hard about. He wanted to blow the thing open with a phaser, which was a great instinct, I thought. Yeah. He's really like the spirit of Tasha Yara is alive and well in Lieutenant Worf. But they get the door open and it's full of these tubes that any seasoned sci-fi watcher will immediately identify as cryostasis chambers and they start like rubbing the ice and frost away from the windows and the first couple that they do it on have like ghoulish, desiccated corpses

in them. but the third one has a hot blonde inside of it. This, so this reveal was meant to be pretty shocking. They do that thing where they wipe the condensation from the window of the chamber and reveal a couple of dead guys, couple of crispy critters and then before revealing the live ones and This brought to mind Maybe a little game I can play with you Ben you want to play a game with me? I'll play a game

The game is called what can the enterprise sensors detect What can the Enterprise Sensors detect? And it's a simple game you can either answer yes or no to the following items and and you just tell me whether the Enterprise Sensors can detect the following things, okay? Okay, lay it on me ships Yes, I'll say yes. All right planets Yes Ships. Yes. I'll say yes. All right planet Yes Weapons

Yes No, that's actually wrong Sensors detect weapons and we know this from the many people that they've beamed on board the ship that have either Had weapons on them had weapons of weapons Like squirreled away on their person like parts of weapons or their hands were weapons themselves like Like those electric eel hillbillies that we got a couple episodes ago. It's true So wrong answer there and then finally life signs Yeah, here's why I asked that why the hell is this a surprise to anyone?

Like, I mean, you should have picked this up. This is clearly a problem with, I mean, they're able to detect signs of life on planet surfaces, which are much further away and through all these interfering things like atmosphere and magnetosphere's when they're in orbit over planets. But like a tin can that's been floating in space for 400 years with no real shielding of any kind. They're like, whoa, there's bodies. It should be the easiest thing for them to pick up on.

And it doesn't, I mean, that wouldn't do us any favors in the drama department, but maybe it would. Maybe it would be equivalent. You know, we're getting some life signs on this thing that's 500 years old once she goes to investigate. It would still be an effective reveal. Yeah, opening that door would be a cool surprise, you know. Sure.

Good point, Adam. This is becoming a speech. Where the cat comes, so very entitled. I'm not typing a ramble on about something everyone knows. That is the cue for the opening credit sequence. And when we come back, Picard is returning. And, you know, he's like docking in the shuttle bay and data radios up and says,

like, hey guys, I don't think we should just leave these bodies. This probe is headed for a sun. It's gonna burn up if nobody does anything about it and it just feels weird to leave these people here. So why don't we take them with us and we'll figure something out later. So, Rikers, all right, you can do that. You can't help but wonder seeing an episode

in a storyline like this. Would you want to be frozen and then reanimated in a 24th century future? Do you have a position on this? in a 24th century future? Do you have a position on this? I mean, you know, it's definitely something I thought a lot about as a kid, probably in no small part due to this episode introducing the idea to me. Yeah.

But I've never, I haven't thought about it so much as an adult, which is sort of when you kind of make those kinds of decisions. I mean, I don't even know if it's still a thing. Like, can you still get a cryonics package for when you die or? I think so. I think that's still a thing.

Well, I would look into it, but I don't think my wife would allow it. Oh no. When you die, she wants you to stay dead. Yeah. I think my wife would probably agree. So Picard gets on the bridge and he is like, got a real being his bonnet about getting under way and he gives Jordy some coordinates to head toward at Warp 8, which is almost as

warpy as you can get. And Jordy goes, Captain, that's, that's Neutral's own territory, your headness into. And Picard's like, yeah, Jordy, I'm the fucking captain. Like, I know what I'm, I know what I'm doing. But you know, no sooner has he had Jordy lay in this course than he calls a big meeting. And this is a bunch of the senior staff get together in the wardrobe and talk about the fact that stuff is up in the neutral zone. There are some outposts that they've lost contact with

and it's all along the neutral zone. There are some outposts that they've lost contact with and it's all along the neutral zone and the only thing that the Federation can kind of come up with is the idea that this is a foray into Federation space by the Romulans who haven't really been heard of in a long time. Like they've been out of the picture in a big way. Yeah, for like 50 years. I think it was, it was mentioned. Yeah. This storyline, you might think, is the A story to this episode, but it's not.

I feel like the whole neutral zone, Romulan storyline constitutes maybe 10% of the overall episode, which, I think it was an interesting choice. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's where all of the menace and tension in the episode is, like, I mean, this scene that we're talking about, like, you know, when they, when the second the neutral zone comes up,

Worf is like Romulans and Picard is like, yeah, that's what we're kind of thinking. And the music is tense, like the, I think the acting is really good. They're all like definitely like, oh shit, like things are about to pop off. And then it winds up being kind of a, like almost a stage play,

like almost all of this episode takes place in one room, which we'll get to momentarily. One of the things I was considering when I was watching the scene was like, how much planning was involved for an interaction that they were looking forward to versus how much of it they would just leave for the moment. Like they just sort of round table what they were going to do when they ever met up with

the Romulans. And you know, a good part of the room was like, we got to go in there and kick some ass. Like that's what they're going to respect. But it's Picard's thinking and it's the thinking of the people that he was in the conference with that they've got to go out there pretty chill. And they don't want to ruffle the feathers of these warbirds. Right, right. No one had the chance to pin the profit, but really, quite hypnotic, notic.

A greatest-gen live show is something you don't want to miss. Why? Well, it's a great opportunity to see me and Ben in person, but that's not all. FODs from all over gather at these shows to cosplay, to do pre- and post-show hangs, to make friends, and share their embarrassment. Hey, I'd make a pretty great name for a tour. Let's do it! The Share Your Embarrassment Tour is coming in August 2023, and we've got a bunch of dates in a lot of great places. Go to GreatestGenTour.com to get more info.

That's GreatestGenTour.com for dates and ticketing information for the Share Your Embarrassment Tour. Go ahead. I'm Jordan Morris. www.jordmouris.com For dates and ticketing information For the Share Your Embarrassment Tour Go into I'm Jordan Morris And I'm Jesse Thorne On Jordan Jesse Go We make pure, delightful nonsense We were open awesome guests

And bring them down to our level We get stupid with Judy Greer My friend Molly and I call it having the space weirds Pat Noswald Could I get a Balrog burger And some air-gorn fries? Thank you. And Kumail Nanjiani.

I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which is impossible to use. Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org. Look, your podcast apps are already open. Just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goatry. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Oh, Russ, hey, hey, I, I'm about to count you in line.

These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line and boy, what do I? These giraffes do not smell good. No, they do not, and they've such short necks. But I'm hearing we need to get on this off. We've got to get on the art. It was about terrain, got us about to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans. We're actually, we're podcasters. We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ono Ross and Kerry? We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal, stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end,

so seem like something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came to by two. What do you think? Ono Ross and Kerry, available on MaximumFun.org. The other storyline, uh, Crusher has thawed out the humans. And it's a pretty like pretty crazy executive decision. Like, well, we, these are a board.

I guess I'll revive them. Yeah, we got to see that too. Like, yeah, like, I don't know, that would have been fun. So this is also done completely outside of cards' knowledge as well. So, Crusher tells Picard that this has happened after the fact, so the captain rolls in a sick bay to check it out, and there he's confronted with our three surviving capsule people. Yeah, and he's like, yeah, it pretty quick

to hop on the computer and call data down to the bridge. And it's pretty evident that data is in big trouble. It's like, like, I almost, like, when data is on the bridge and like gets up from his chair, I almost wanted everybody else to be like, ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Yeah, we've got Claire, Claire, the homemaker, who was the first one that they wiped the condensation off of. That was the first one that they sell in the capsule. She's like, she's like a real mom vibe, lady. Yeah. I want to say she's like, she's like in her 40s,

you know, pretty average looking. I think they're all pretty average looking. We've got Ralph, the financier, who's played by Peter Mark Richman, who I read was a character actor of 500 TV roles. I didn't even know that was possible. 500 roles. Damn. He looks like...

He looks like... You know, our friend John Roderick in his famous roasting of us on his roadwork podcast, accused us of looking like people from the past. Ralph Offenhouse looks like a man from the past. Like he looks like somebody that like started a brewery in the 1800s, you know. He looks like if leather and tobacco could be a person. That is Peter Mark Richmond. I feel like I've seen him in everything too. He's a total that guy.

Absolutely, absolutely. And our third guy, his name is LQ Sonny Clements, who was a musician, who were told to die of a drug overdose, or at least he was in severe organ failure before he was put into the capsule. And he's another familiar to him. Yeah, I think much in the same way that Johnny Carson used to send monologue jokes to David Letterman, well after Carson retired. I feel like Nancy Reagan sent a few, a few like

bits for Captain Picard to get on his high horse about Sunny Clemens being a drug user. Right. And Sunny Clemens is played by Leon Rippy and you might know him from Deadwood. Did you ever watch Deadwood? No, we've actually talked about this off-air before. I never watched it. Well, it's fantastic. And he played Tom Nudall, one of the saloon owners in Deadwood.

And he is amazing in that show. He's amazing in an amazing show. Nice. So there's our three unfrozen cavemen. And they are a little shocked to be there. Yeah, and you know like I feel like this premise has been has been done in sci-fi a million times I'm actually reading a novel right now called ancillary justice where one of the characters has been frozen for a thousand years and is newly

Back to the living world and kind of trying to adjust to it. I feel like the moments of first sort of being, having the situation laid on them are not that like they don't really play up what a crazy head fuck that is, you know. The only one who seems shocked is Claire and that's just it seeing Warf's forehead. Right, yeah, she she she was like boy that meatloaf went real bad. The other two seem more or less okay. They just seem concerned about their surroundings and their possessions. Yeah, she didn't sign up for being put on ice.

Yeah, she was the only one there against her will, yeah. So these people were put on ice in 1994. It's now 370 years later. And they kind of each have different, a different agenda. Ralph Ovenhouse really thinks quite highly of himself and thinks he's super rich and that he's got you know, bank assets that are just going to be incredibly valuable at this point. I have to phone Geneva right away about my accounts by the interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. So that's his deal.

Claire is very upset that she's been disconnected from her family. I keep thinking about my boys. I mean, she also, I think these other two guys knew that they were dying when they died. And she had like a brain aneurysm or something like that and just kind of like dropped dead at the age of 35. So she's got a lot more to go through. You know, she had two sons and a husband that she's never gonna see again.

And at one point like Troy comes and kind of helps her try and look at the genealogical records that the Mormons have no doubt loaded into the memory banks of the Enterprise and that's like very therapeutic for her. And Sunny is just chilling, but he's kind of bored. What do you guys do? I mean, you don't drink and you ain't got no TV. Like, he wants to get a party going

and he calls data down to To like start making plans for a party and it's at this point that data kind of goes like Yeah, but like first we have to deal with these rameons and we won't be inviting these rameons to our party. We're No, that would not be appropriate. I think the three of these characters I think the three of these characters embody maybe the three most likely outcomes for anyone who has been frozen and then reanimated. That was my take anyway. There's three different stages of grief or adjustment based on that kind of knowledge.

Claire, very clearly, is the most emotionally rattled by it. Just in the context of like the loss of her family and everyone that she knows, the financier Ralph, he clearly is most concerned about his possessions. Yeah, I mean, it's really, it's like, it's, and it's so funny, like he's like, he's like, he's like, can somebody at least get me a copy of the Wall Street Journal, which is like, I mean, that's so fun to think about, right? Like the Wall Street Journal has been around for probably like a couple hundred years or like a hundred and fifty years or something like that.

Uh, impossible to know for sure, but something in that neighborhood. Is there a way to imagine a future 370 years from now in which the Wall Street Journal still exists? Well, if JJ Abrams is Star Trek movie reboot-proved one thing, it's that, you know, if a brand like Budweiser can exist, then I wouldn't put it past the fine newspaper, like the Wall Street Journal from surviving all that time. Yeah, well, let's hope that we're headed for the Star Trek the next generation future and not the JJ Abrams Star Trek future, because I don't want there to still be Budweiser that far in our future.

Yeah, I think that pretty clearly means that we have not evolved as a species. No, that should sucks. You know what, we better stop right there. We don't want to limit any sort of ad opportunities going forward. Well, you know, obviously Budweiser, not to our taste, but Bud Light Limerida is delicious and no. I'm going to remain disgusted neutral right now. Oh, is that one of the, with respect to any sort of Budweiser ad opportunity on our show? That's another D&D characterization. Yeah. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound.

As we're learning about each of these three characters, we also come to find that Dr. Crusher is cured all of them from whatever malady they had when they were put into the tube. So, clear symbolism, fine. Ralph's heart attack, no problem. Clemens total organ failure due to drug and alcohol abuse. Totally reversed and he's fun. Yeah. In fact, the first thing he wants to do is order a martini out of the replicateer,

which seems like a move that you and I could really appreciate. Yeah. I think this is the first time we see the replicator in action too. Yeah, I think that's true. Cool that it was a martini that got made. It's such a funny scene too, because he's ordering a big ol' barbecue meal, and then he's like, ah heck, I'll just have a martini. Which is like, I've never been in the mood for both barbecue and a martini. Pick one.

I guess if you're given the choice of choosing anything in the world ever to eat or drink in one moment, I guess you could go between those two. The sunny character, sunny Clemens characters. He's played for so much comedy. At some point he proposes that he and Data go find a couple of low mileage pit woofies. Why don't you come back later on and you and me will find us a couple low mileage pit

woofies and help them build a memory. He's speaking Reik's language with that. Well, that's the funny thing is that like, data asks Riker what he meant by that. And Riker like attempts to lie to data and say that that's one that's one that he didn't know either. Commander, allow my Lich Pit Woffee? This time you've got me, I have a clue. But clearly Riker is just like, no, like I'm going to tell data. I don't know what a low-wilded

pit wolfie is, and then I'm going to run back and see if Sonny wants the head of the holodeck with me. Right. I mean, they could put together two piles of pit wolfies. Yeah. Oh, man, there's going to be pit wolfies as far as the eye can see. Pit wolfie pile. No dental dams in the future, Ben. Nope. Yeah. Or shower caps. But often houses really the antagonist of this episode. And he's really like a full blown for Rangie. Like all he cares about is his

money and really like is super condescending to Captain Picard. He's like, you're a military man, and that's fine and noble or whatever, but it's not what a man of excellence, like myself, gets into to make a living. Yeah, you're no banker. Yeah, you can't possibly imagine like the kind of stress I'm under, but he can't, it starts to really get into

Picard's lack of hair because he wanders out of the room that they've been asked to wait in. Thus further cementing how important it is that at some point they get some locks installed in the fucking doors on the enterprise and wanders into a turbo lift and makes it onto the bridge while the enterprise is making contacts with a cloaked Romulan ship. Pretty much the worst timing possible. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, not only is there a significant

lock problem on the ship, but the idea that anyone on the ship, and we know this to be a ship of families and children, anyone could get on a turbo lift and go to the bridge at any point? That seems like a bad idea. Well, I guess it's not like the worst idea if you know that it's your ass, if you go to the bridge without being authorized, but like... Yeah, but a lot of little kids know it's their ass

if they fuck up in a grocery store. And it doesn't stop them from doing that. And especially on a ship where at least one of the little kids, who is absent from this episode, wandered on to the bridge enough times to get a field commission to Ensign. I would guess that a lot of the children on this ship are probably

trying to pull some shit where they go on the bridge. I'm sorry, it's a field commission to Ensign a euphemism for something. Yeah, there's some there's an ointment for that actually. You must be referring to Wesley. But yeah, so these Romulans appear on screen. One of them is, uh, is the actor who will go on to play GolduCot in the, uh, Deep Space 9 series. Um, yeah, I don't know who that is. But, uh, he's kind of the, uh, he's kind of the, um, multi-purpose criminal elements Cardassian guy. He's a guy that the

The makeup affects people already of the cast of his forehead and they just make different forehead molds for him Yeah, all the different aliens Yeah, this uh this scene with the Romulans is real weird because they're kind of, it's like a two shot with two Romulans sitting like hand in hand essentially on the bridge of their weird ship. And it's like, do these guys run this ship as like a couple or like is one of them in charge and the other not or are they like,

they're all captured in the show. Their bridge is sort of built around a love seat. It looks like yeah Yeah, I really like their whole attitude like I didn't find it Overly threatening or non-threatening like I just felt like they struck exactly the right tone of mystery and Audity I mean when they they decloke the ship, that was a real wow moment. That's one of the coolest ships that I think we see in the entire series. Yeah. That Romulan ship. It's hard to tell how big it is because they, you know, the couple of angles that we get

either show it like huge in the foreground and the enterprise like pretty small. And you can't quite tell if that's because the enterprise is very, very far away or because the Romulan ship is way, way bigger. Yeah. But it's imposing and it's like really interesting design and it's, it's a very cool model. The, in the moments before this though, the enterprise has been going from sort of outpost to outpost

and finding nothing. I think they go to three different places and the base or outposts that they're expecting to be there is either just, there's no evidence of it at all or there's evidence that it's been completely destroyed. I think that's an interesting bit of trivia because once they get into a conversation with the Romulans, the Romulans refer to their own bases and outposts as being destroyed and quote, carried off. Did you think that was an interesting terminology that they used for that? Yeah, and that's like, I mean, there's like, you think about TNG as being like every episode kind of gets

tied up with a bow and nothing changes from episode to episode. And I really think that that's misleading because this is like a huge storyline that runs through several seasons of the show. I mean, it's not like they're only focused and it's not something that comes up in episodes that aren't about this storyline, but this is planting like a pretty big seed. And it's interesting because this episode doesn't wind up feeling very plotty at all

because it's really setting the table for this becoming a big television series with like a whole bunch of seasons and, and a lot of plots to come. There's almost not an A storyline in this episode. It's hard to call the stuff with the unfrozen cavemen lawyers, the A storyline, and it's kind of hard to call the Romulan stuff the A storyline. Yeah, that's fair. But I kind of love that. I think it's kind of great. It's a weird episode,

but it shows some sort of confidence almost. Like, I still think that like our discussion of the conspiracy, of the episode conspiracy, I do sort of wish that that was the closer episode, but this episode is like, we're gonna make like a great series, and this is the end of, you know, a rocky season one, but we're about to fucking blow your minds. Yeah, I think that word is interesting.

The confidence word is interesting to me. I think you're right in the description of a writer's room, maybe throwing out a bunch of threads just out in the distance, like loose ends that aren't tied up, you know, with the expectation or the hope that they would chase them down and resolve them. Yeah. And this moment contains, well, this episode contains a few of those, the relationship with the Romulans, and the very thinly veiled reference to a Borg invasion.

Yeah, he winds up kind of getting them to agree to like sharing some information about what's going on, but there's such a great malevolence alien species because they end their communication with the enterprise by saying like, we've been distracted by other more important issues, but make no mistake, Captain Picard, we are back. One of their distractions is clearly not getting a good haircut because we've clearly cut their own bangs. Some of the most ridiculous haircuts on the show so far are theirs.

Yeah, if they got to get that bully barber, shipped off to the Romulan Empire for a few years, put them onto some of the newest trends in hair care. They're sporting the mushroom cut to the special needs child. I think that they sort of, the writers probably at this point are realizing like having the Franky be the only kind of antagonistic species is pretty boring and pretty stupid. So why don't we just have like a whole pantheon of other aliens that they can encounter? I think this is something that you could only do in a television series that's 25 episodes long in per season. Like they could create a storyline and then course correct either midway or at the end of a season

once they decide what's working and what's not. And you know, in the modern television era where you get 12 episodes, if you, yeah, you don't have that chance. If it doesn't work, then you're stuck with it. And then you're, you're on to either season two or cancellation. And I think there's a latitude here that a long episode run per season really gives. And I think that's, that's a beard out here at the end. I mean, we're just speculating that that's what happened but I mean

there's a reason that these that this threat is present and not and it's not another reference to the Ferenci. As strange an episode as this is, I enjoyed watching it. How about you? Yeah, definitely. I think it ends on a note that might be similar to our own. Like, there's possibilities that await new adventures that are out there. More shame that we can talk about from our pasts and presents. Yeah, I like that. I had a few things I wanted to discuss with you about this episode. Lamb on me.

Some incongruities. I thought it was strange that during maybe the most significant diplomatic interaction in, we're told, 50 years, that Councillor Troyes on Ancestry.com and some condo inside the ship instead of on the bridge. And on the bridge instead is fucking Ralph. And there's two security guys that have been like tasks with getting them off the bridge, but they're so odd by the fact that they're looking at a Romulan warbird on the view screen.

That they like take their hands off of his upper arms and just stand there, a gogg. This was an example of writing Kung Fu. In order to make a storyline work better, you remove someone from the situation to add to the conflict. I think the conflict still works if choice on the bridge. I think if anything, it's more interesting if she's there. Yeah.

But her absence is strange. It is weird. And it's not important that she's being a counselor to someone at that exact moment. No, I mean, like, I feel like they could easily just put these three people in stasis so that they're not above their will. They're dealing with a potentially incredibly dangerous military situation.

Right. Right. Yeah. Another thing I thought was strange was like, this is the only episode that I can remember that really addresses the audience and the audience's sensibilities directly. Right. addresses the audience and the audience's sensibilities directly. Everything that the Enterprise crew makes fun of with regard to the unfrozen people are...

The popsicle people. Yeah, the popsicles are contemporary issues. Yeah. And they basically laugh at them for them. Like, they're a punchline. Yeah. And I don't recall them doing this ever again. I wonder if that was a choice.

If they got in their licks in this first season episode and they were done with it or what. But. Well, it turned out a funny reversal of Star Trek IV, the voyage home. You know, where it's like a fish out of water, but in the other direction. Fish in the water?

Like a, I don't know. A water on the fish? Yeah. Rat in the water, I don't know. I'm trying to help you. A land animal in the water, rather than a fish on the land. Okay, okay. Yeah, that's the water rather than a fish on the land. Okay, okay. Yeah, that's the best animal the pick is though,

because I feel like a fish is like a generic whatever, but who cares, whatever? If you have any ideas of what animal should be in or out of the water in this particular metaphor, feel free to comment on Greatest Jinn. Or don't. Picard is pretty irritated by what a dick hole Ralph often houses.

And Ralph often houses very kind of sending to Picard because he really doesn't know his ass from his elbow. Were you sympathetic to all of them? I mean, I think that often has is really played as a villain and I nevertheless found there was something to sympathize with in his character. I mean, he had a few moments of vulnerability where you're like, wow, this guy is like, it's not that he's just a self-important asshole,

he's fucking terrified. Right, right, yeah, I felt the same way. This guy is like, it's not that he's just a self-important asshole, he's fucking terrified. Right. Right. Yeah, I felt the same way. I think I didn't like him, but I understood him. No. Yeah. As you were watching, did you come across a great example of being a drunk Shimoda?

Yeah, I mean, I have to go with Sunny Clemons, because he really wants to throw a party and get drunk while Romulans are buzzing around outside the ship. And what could be a drunker Shimoda than that, Adam? I'm sure you have an idea. His priority, as soon as he gets unfrozen, is to get himself a beverage and go shake the doctor down for some pills. Yeah, slap some doctor ass while he's at it.

Yeah, oh man, we have to talk about that really quickly. The fact that he very brazenly sexually harasses the doctor and she just kind of blushes and demures, was a strange moment, I think. I mean, I think that this is supposed to be said in a future where gender inequality is more or less defeated. I mean, like, I don't think that they do a perfect job of representing that,

but that's the stated ideal of the writers of the show. I think it's weird that Sonny is supposed to be from our contemporary future as well, like he's supposed to be... Right, this is 1989 and he was frozen in 94. So... All right, so I guess, like, but he's I guess pretty modern by our standards, but in that case, like he should know better, right? Do people do that now? I think there's a certain kind of asshole that still does that. Yeah, and he is a certain kind of asshole. I think it was so shocking to Beverly that that I think she was completely frozen. Yeah, much in the same way that he once was stupid. I think Tasha would have kicked his fucking ass.

I think Tasha would have broken him in half. Yeah. She would have dropped him over her knee. Yeah. I think Tasha would have beaten him up with that stupid guitar that he made on the replicator. Yeah, like $5 carnival guitar. It is one of the stupidest guitars you will ever see on television.

Who is your drunkest one, Adam? Oh, it's clearly sunny, but I referred to it a little earlier. As the only drinker in the episode, I think it could only be him. As we bring our first season to a close, do you have any thoughts on what we've done here? Well, Adam, this is not something I ever saw myself doing, but I've had a lot of fun doing it to be quite honest. Yeah, this has been a great success. I think we've really made each other laugh in talking about this show and at least a couple of dozen people have bothered to write us emails and a couple hundred people

that have been kind enough to leave us iTunes reviews have seemed to laugh as well. Yeah, I think it's important to acknowledge that and be grateful for it. I think it's been a pretty great experiment so far. And I think we should, there's one thing that we should call out that we're both especially grateful for. And we're recording these well in advance, so this is gonna be, you know, kind of old news at this point. But I think we can declare victory in our moose-nuckle controversy. The guy that wrote our iTunes review, the one star iTunes review, taking us to task for

misusing the term Moose Nuckle was kind enough to write in. He bumped us up to four stars on iTunes and admitted that we were right and he was wrong and Moose Nuckle is more conventionally used for when a dude's genitals are all bunched up in a funny way in the front of his pants. If we've accomplished one thing, in our 26 episodes of this show, it's that.

I feel great about it. I wanted to tell us what's up next for season two episode one? Episode one, the child while preparing to transport a deadly plague to a research lab. The crew is stunned by the announcement of counselor Troy's pregnancy. Oh, I can only assume that Raker is involved somehow. Do you remember this episode at all? No, I guess I don't.

There's two things that I do remember about this. One is that I remember there's a shot at the beginning of the episode that's like a weird, like, steady cam or handheld shot of walking onto the bridge and it's like a weird like steady cam or handheld shot of walking onto the bridge. And it's like somebody's point of view, but it really like pans around and you kind of see like Wurf is now in his gold uniform. Hmm, like it's like we are back,

the fucking crew is better than ever. And here's what's popping off. And so I remember that, and I'm almost positive it's in this episode that that happens. And the other thing is that Troy has this kid, and it's like a search for a spot situation where the kid every time the camera cuts away from the kid

and we go to another scene, we come back, and it's like a different child actor, that's like a couple years older. Interesting. Okay. It's like an accelerated growth period for this kid. Okay. But I imagine they use that to heavily overintroduce Dr. Polaski who we will be getting to know

quite well in the coming weeks. Oh, that's right. Do you think Beverly's inability to defend against sexual harassment is a reason that she was kicked off the ship? Oh man, that is the worst kind of victim blaming. I know, I'm sorry. This premiere of season two episode was described as uneven. And an inauspicious start to the second season.

What? Also, you could replace any main character in this episode with a parsnip and the outcome would be unchanged. Wow. Well, that is certainly not the root vegetable I would use to swap in for any stature character, but I guess that reviewer's prerogative as a writer. I'm more excited to see this than ever. We get our vetoes back, don't we? Yeah, well we should think about that. Do we? Or do we not? We've been we've been implored many times by listeners not to employ the veto because they want us to

do shows about even the episodes that we hate watching. Well, I think much like the Romulans in this episode, the threat should always be there. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Wow, well, would you invoke a veto on the first episode of a season? No, no, absolutely not. I'm not going to either.

So the point is for a choice mom episode for sure. Well, there's one per not going to either. So. I want to save it for at least. The point is for a Troy's mom episode for sure. There's one per season as far as I remember. So. Looking forward to that. With that we should probably cut this off and go back to doing something less shameful than recording a Star Trek podcast. I've been Ben Harrison. I've been Adam Pryan, if you ever want to talk about

any episode this season, you can use the hashtag greatest gen on Twitter. I am at Cut for Time, Ben is at Benjamin AHR on Twitter. We should thank Dark Materia for our wonderful, wonderful theme song. It's really Dark Materia's theme song. We just used it without asking and then asked for permission later and he was kind enough to say yes. Crime does pay.

And with that, we will be back at you next time with a great episode of Star Trek, the next generation, and a middling at best episode of the greatest generation. Bye! See you next season! God.