The Greatest Generation - Foam Stone Holocaust (S7E4)

Episode Date: July 19, 2017

When Picard turns up dead, the Entrepreneur’s new captain is a vengeance-motivated Riker with total mission discretion. But it’s not long before Riker himself is captured, leaving the ship in Data’s capable, detachable hands. How much disbelief can this show get us to suspend? What’s the best way to maintain your Rimforest? How deep in the lineup do they go before the Entrepreneur doesn’t have a qualified captain? It’s the episode where we tie a red bandana around our bust of Big Rod.

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 friendsofdecisoto for labor.com. That's friends of Disoto for labor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage! Welcome to the greatest generation. It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have

a Star Trek podcast. I'm Benjamin R. Harrison. I'm... like Adam Pranaka. What does that mean? I just responded to a tweet that was like, hey guys, maybe you should stop using the word like so much. Well, that person can like lick my like anus hole. I sent him a I sent him a picture of a guy doing that. You've seen that picture before of like the guy reaching into the robot butt,

the Proctology exam simulator. And I was like, sorry, I file all vocal critiques in a special greatest gen branded cabinet. Thanks for listening. That's a robot, but. We got a funny letter from a listener atom that I thought I might read for our Marin Open today. That'll make me feel better. Captain, I'm sorry to disturb you.

I'm receiving a Code 47. Verify? It is Code 47, sir. Start lead emergency frequency. Captions dies only. This was couched amidst a bunch of other stuff that I'll leave out because it's just business business. But uh, oh yeah.

Listener Justin sent in the following story. I have been with you and Adam from the start of the greatest generation. Back when it seemed like a low-budget pod that my friends and I could do if we were not so lazy. The show is amazing now and has been great seeing it grow. Anyways, one day I was playing it at work when a coworker asked me what the hell I had on. I told her about the show and then Manja cappent. A little backstory. I have worked with this person in different jobs over the last seven years. And I've come to know her very well. So after I told her about your show and she said she had a story,

I know it would be good. Do you remember Will, the guy I dated that we worked with? He once told me that he was in Star Trek. He said he was really young and all he did was hold a chicken. Ha! That's right. She fucked the chicken boy from up the long ladder. Made my day and I hope it makes yours.

You know how bad, you know, like occasionally people ask us, why do you say you're so embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast? The answer to that question, Ben, is that this guy would rather be known as Chicken Boy than a person who was on Star Trek. I hope this doesn't end Justin's friendship with his co-worker. I hope she doesn't... I hope she hasn't become a listener, I guess is what I'm saying. If she hears this and then feels like super insulted. I think when we can be fairly certain of that then.

Well, this show has ended many friendships at him. It may even end our own. Oh yeah, it's definitely put it through as big a stress test as you could ever possibly imagine. Yeah, indeed. Who is the extra that would be the most exciting person to discover if somebody had had an intimate interlude with. I don't know, like I like the idea of Kaki Pants guy being a great stickman. Like just a legendary stickman. That would be hilarious to me. That's why he's wearing those baggy pants, Ben. He's got a lot of meat to conceal. What about you?

I don't know. I mean, there's some... One of the ladies from this episode that we're reviewing today would be a fun one. A lady with the kind of like, a Prague Rock haircut and side of headloaf. There is some amazing hair in this episode, that's for sure. Yeah, well maybe we should stop imagining having sex with people other than our wives.

I'd get into the episode, Adam. What do you say? I'm into that, Ben. Talk about it. Season 7 episode 4. Gambit. Part 1. Well Adam, we have another episode here that starts in a Star Wars Cantina. And another episode where one of the female characters is in a Star Wars Cantina using sex to get something. That's right, Ben. We're inside a bar on Desika 2, which is obviously the planet that makes those packets you see inside of beef jerky.

I was in a movie with a friend one time and we had bought like a pack of trail mix or something at the concession stand on the way in. Uh-huh. And in the darkened theater he assumed that he had discovered some flavor packet. Oh no. Ripped it,ipped to open the desiccant and dumped it onto his palm and then licked it. No. Oh, you're not uncomfortable. I mean, I can only assume the dry mouth that followed. Yeah, have you ever dumped table salt on a slug? Yeah, that's what he looked like when the lights came up.

Oh no. Your friends did? Yeah, he died. I just be peeing my friends. Yeah. When our favorite bridge crew people go undercover, they don't really bother to change clothing too much. Like, these are things that they, I think, have found in their own closets. Yeah, they're just civilian garb.

They're not blending in with the local Hoy Palloy in this bar at all. They look too clean to be in this bar, you know? That's what I'm saying. Like, you gotta read the room, right? You don't go into a dive bar wearing a suit, you know look like a bunch of Pweas in a biker bar. Yeah, they do. I'm sorry to use that phone. It would be it'd be really fun if there was a shot of Warp like leaning against

Somebody's shuttle parked outside and it knocks over the shuttle and then like like a domino effect all of the All of the shuttles knock over. I would love to just see a shuttlecraft parking lot. That would be great. That would be a nice little, a nice little mat painting. I never get. It's probably the sort of establishment that doesn't have a valet though.

No, yeah. This is a gravel parking lot kind of place. Yeah, totally. They find this lofihoget looking guy. Yeah, he's the second Eritian we've seen, right? Yeah. They're looking into what happened to a bald man. And it's pretty clear from the way they're talking

that they're looking for the captain. And this guy basically, he kind of has the same gambit that Lovie Hogget had with Worf, which is I have information, but I want to be compensated for it. I feel like Euridians might be diet-faringy a little bit, right? But they're not, they're not just comical. Yeah, they're, they have the same shuffling gate, but they're not, and

they have big ears. Yeah, yeah, these, this Euridian looks a lot like the, the Euridian that told Wharf that they were living Kiddahmer klingons on that one planet. Lowfie Haga. Yeah, but this Euridian has like honey glazed loaf. He's got like brown face while lowfie Haga was pink. It has a swartherer loaf. And he has a lot more hair if memory serves. Yeah, the hair is really not doing to many favors in the Luke's department. I think, you know, you get to a certain point with a hairline, you might as well just shave it off.

Yeah, he's got kind of like a Larry David type of situation where it's just a real mass of curls on the back of his head. Yeah. He left his laptop on a table across the restaurant. He asked someone to look at it for him. Well, he went to the bathroom. It's a real problem. Yeah. The proprietor of the bar is not excited that this guy is going to tell them what he knows, right?

Yeah, it's a real don't-snitch type of environment. Like Troy started using her sex appeal on the bartender, Yeah, it's a real don't snitch type of environment like Troy Troy started using her sex appeal on the bartender and that didn't really work There's a like everyone sort of split up and and used their their guile to get information Riker has left a conversation like back slapping and high-fiving, like he's obviously getting along fine. Right, or was sort of made for this kind of mission, right? Yeah, I mean, right here can charm the pants off of just about anybody, and that includes, you know,

quasi-criminal element type people, like the folks in this bar. Right. Bartender, as they're playing the Aridian for information, kind of comes up and goes, you know, gives them the stitches, gets stitches line. And the Aridians like, do you think a scar would show up on my face as anything other than just one of my wrinkles? I don't care about you, I'm telling them.

I'm a man of 200 face folds. Like do you really think that's gonna read? I bet he got through puberty just fine. I don't think Ackney's the top of his concerns. Either that or it is the only concern he has. Yeah. It's fairly clear that this guy is willing to exchange bald guy information for money. And I feel like this is a little bit of deep space 9 leakage, right?

We're getting more and more conversation about currency in this universe, more than we've ever gotten before, especially around the Euridians. Goldpress Latinum has become a thing that everybody wants. Right. What's the deal with it? The idea is that it can't be replicated, and that's why it's valuable. I would have to watch Deep Space 9 to really have that trivia. Like, I don't know.

Because their communicator badges are made at a gold rate. Gold is like a cheap commodity in the future. Yeah, yeah. The Euridian tells them that he watched the bald human they're looking for, get knocked down in the corner and shot on the gore setting. And the doctor goes over and she's finding all of these kind of corroborating details about that.

I'm picking up starfleet fiber traces and human cellular debris. I guess they decide to leave with the Oridian, right? They take it with them because they want to. Yeah, the Oridian's copying this whole attitude of like, well, you know, the bartender just threatened me copying this whole attitude of like, well, you know, the bartender just threatened me about the whole snitching thing. And, you know, if you want more information out of me, maybe you could take me to your ship, put me up in a condo and then drop me off

a couple blocks over, that way I'll be safe from these assholes. The crew is really easy to, is really easy to manipulate in this way because they are convinced that their captain is dead. Yeah, and that's our cold open. Pretty good cold open.

I don't know if the Eurydians can be trusted, Ben. I'm just going to say that right now. They seem to have kind of a track record at this point of providing information that is adventure starting, but not necessarily true. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know what? Any sort of exposition by Warf here would probably be welcome. Like a quick turn to Riker and going like,

I don't believe these radidians can be trusted. You remember that experience I had exactly three episodes ago? Didn't work out great. He got left me in the lurch. He was my getaway driver. You know how we're calling back to previous episodes sometimes now? Well, listen to this. Well, we come back from our title sequence. There's a pretty emotional scene between

Riker and Troy. How are you doing? I'm alright. She's kind of trying to talk him into setting up a memorial service for the captain. The crew is pretty shaken up. And he's really dealing with his emotions by pushing them to the side while he hunts down the people that vaporized the captain. The mission, as it is stated at this point, is all about bringing these fugitives to justice. There's something very exciting about a vengeance motivated riker. What does it mean?

It means, a matter. It means, re-winging. He goes so far as to ask an admiral to not report to class that day and to go do independent study, basically. Admirals like, yeah, go for it. Like, I'm going to cut you loose from your mission. You go do you. His line is your mission is at your discretion. I love that. That's the best kind of mission I think. Yeah.

Ben, how soon after your reported missing would you prefer to have a funeral? Well, he's not just reported missing. I mean, they have an eyeball wit that's saying he got gourd. That's just it, man. Like, can you hang a funeral arrangement on the word of a Euridium? I don't think so. I think you need a corroborating witness, and I don't

think they have one. Well, don't you think that the behavior of the bartender makes them believe that what this guy is saying is true? This shit wouldn't fly on law and order, I don't think. I think that the narrative rules of law and order are substantially different from the narrative rules of Star Trek, just going out on a limb here. Troy and Riker do big work at the beginning of this episode, just sort of teaching the viewer how to feel about the situation.

I know you're angry. You're damn right. Because if neither of them peg the needle in their respective ways emotionally, I don't feel like you could believe for a second that Picard's actually dead. Like you need them to go all the way in their, in how they manage their grief to go along with the presupposition that he's dead. We're all hurting and we're all angry and whether you like it or not, you have a responsibility to this crew. Like any sort of half measure there, I don't think does the job.

Yeah, it's a substantial ask of the viewer to sit through a title sequence where Patrick Stewart's name is the first one that pops up on screen and then come back and have two characters talking about how Patrick Stewart is dead. Yeah. I am the kind of viewer that is willing to extend that suspension of disbelief, but let's be honest, like this is as suspended as disbelief can possibly get full disbelief

suspension It's a suspension bridge of disbelief Ben You know the engineering it takes to build one of those yeah, it's like you suspend your disbelief from one end You get to the you get to the other, you go back and you start over, you're constantly resuspending. Like painting the golden gate. Uh-huh. But I agree, like they really take it to 11.

She's, you know, he's saying like, I don't want to do a memorial service until I've sorted out the justice thing and she's like, Captain Picard was Jewish. You have to hold it a memorial service until I've sorted out the justice thing. And she's like, Captain Picard was Jewish. You have to hold it a memorial immediately. And then you sit shiv of her seven days. And he's like, well, that's not how we do it in my family. He's like, well, that's not how we do it in my family.

He's like, well, that's not how we do it in my family. Warps like Jewish, you say? I'm not hearing a no. That's it over here. My love is a piece of clothing, till for that which long does not say that this is. Tell me more, you'll have to hold it. The whole crew is a little out of sorts here. Like that scene sets a tone and, you know,

we get like data trying to kind of figure out how to be first officer, and he's not having an easy time. As I think first officer, I must question your decision to accompany the weight team. If Captain Picard were here, he's not. In a way, like, this is where data should always have been. He's a great first officer. He was a great first officer to Jeleco, and I feel like he's much less sure of himself being a first officer to Riker.

Because I think Riker doesn't care about the rule book quite as much as Gehlico did. Yeah. The first conflict they have is Riker announcing that he's going to lead in a way mission and data, kind of trying to feel out like how he's supposed to level a an objection to that. Not really sure what footing he's on with Riker. It was a great move by him to find out though in private. I thought it was really interesting to see him have a tough time with that because it's,

in a lot of ways, a very similar job to second officer, I'm sure a lot of department heads report to him as head of ops. I don't know how deeply this show thinks about stuff like this, but this scene mirrors a scene in part two where Warf is a terrible second officer or Warf is a terrible first officer and does it exactly wrong and exactly the wrong way In exactly the opposite way that data does here. Now, how would you know that, Adam? Well, all I'm saying, I think it is okay to consider part one and part two part of the same thing when you're talking about a review and critique podcast show. Hmm, well that's... That presupposes that we don't have vetoes that may get brought to bear at them.

You may have... It sounds like you went ahead and washed an episode with little regard to whether I would veto it or not. Whoa! I stopped carrying a batch of feelings long ago, Ben. You're tearing me apart, Adam! Oh boy, Adam and Ben are fighting again.

The other thing that happens early in this episode is the, the Eritian is like hanging around in the condo that they give him and Riker stops by in the Eritian's like He's got like everything he can possibly fit on a table replicated up to eat Like he's really got a spread for himself and he's like, hey listen this this place isn't decorated that good I was wondering if you could move me to better quarters and Riker really puts the screws to him He's he's, how about instead of nicer place, I don't turn you over to the Klingons. Yeah, how does Klingon prison camp sound as an upgrade to you?

Punishment means exile from prison to the surface. And the guys like, oh, I get so cold mining for D'Alithium on Rura Pente. I'd really rather prefer a place with stockades. I'd like to stay around species where I know where they keep their genitals, please. He spills some more dirt about where they might find the baddies. So they jet over to this planet that's kind of like the, you know, that actually kind of reminded me of the part of California that Max Funcon takes place in. Yeah, open Lake Arrowhead. Up at a planet Rim Forest.

Yeah. That Rim Forest is out of control up there. Yeah, they really do consider a little bit of man-scaping with their Rim Forest. I don't know, man. You start clear-cutting your Rim Forest. That solves one problem and starts another. They find a lot of scorch marks on the earth where, you know, they're like, what the hell, what the hell are these marks?

They don't really look like phaser blasts, but something's up and somebody finds a bunch of pottery on the ground and immediately gets phasered. What proceeds is the missingist fire fight of all time. Like, more shots are fired that don't connect than any other time in this show's history I feel like. This is a foam stone holocaust. This is crazy. It's a 70 shot phaser fight.

This is what I read, this is the most phaserific fight in Star Trek history. And yet, only one guy takes one and he's the guy that buys it for looking at some pots right beginning. Like, everybody else gets to cover pretty quickly and then it's just phaser phaser phaser nothing nothing nothing. This is such bad sniping by the guy who took that shot. Like you you basically have a guaranteed kill here by taking the first shot from cover and you get the front zip? Come on man. Let me get that that extra that doesn't have any lines. I see a guy in a

front zip with a bad haircut make an example of him. Yeah it's like a like a marine in an island campaign shooting at everybody but the guy with the sword. Is it just me or are the background actors and extra actors even more obvious this season than any other? They really stick out. I feel like they have like one weird wig for everybody. Yeah, yeah. I don't know what it is. They are not fading into the periphery like they usually do. Well, the people that they are in this firefight against are a Romulan, a lady that looks like a,

I don't know, she kind of looks like she could be a bad guy in the double dragon video game. And then a guy that looks like he probably invented the hacky sack. Yeah, he looks like the mind blown meme guy. Yeah, with like his two hands by his head. You know that guy? Yeah, he could only be, yeah, he's from Planet Santa Cruz. Yeah. So it's kind of a motley crew, but they they managed to blow up a Styrofoam rock that riker is standing near, which knocks him out. They'd run over and flip raker

over and they're like, well, let's get out of here. And let's take this guy with us. And the rest of the away team watches in shock as their commander slash acting captain disappears with these bad aliens. Cut to Worf who has been firing indiscriminately for the last minute. And not hitting anything. Suddenly like hold his fire just to watch this scene. Like everyone stands still for a good five seconds and he doesn't take a shot. Come on Worf.

There's a lot of jaw on floor shit happening here that is not, yeah, like this is bad directing, right? Get in the game, wharf. We're just going down the chain of command here. As one by one, enterprise senior staff are being taken or killed. Not a good look. Yeah, data is now the captain of the ship. I wish we got a scene of field promotions every time. Like as a recurring late-want, heath, that would have been fun. That would have been fun. That would have been fun.

Like, with different decorations in the ready room. Every time, too. Yeah, like, like, data comes in and, like, clears out all of Riker's shit. Put Spot, Cat Box. I hate cats. Davis Cat. Spot. I love cats.

Up on the desk. What's the deal? They can't track the ship because the ship is... The bad guy's ship is like that matte black paint, so it disappears when the lights are off. Yeah, it's like the sci-fi equivalent of a stealth bomber ship, you know?

Like, the enterprise radar can't really pick it up. It's not cloaked, but it's real hard for their sensors to get a lock on it when it's out of visual range. Right. Which seems like every ship should have that, right? Yeah, it seems great. That seems good. I think that's what you want in a mercenary ship.

Or just the flagship of the Federation. Like why give them any opportunity to shoot you? The stealth plating goes a long way towards forgiving the idea that the ship looks like a tick. You now face the tick and his fearless side kick Arthur. You're saying the Patrick Warburton tick or the actual insect atom? Yeah. You're saying the Patrick Warburton ticker you the actual insect atom. Yeah

Good Patrick Warburton atom That's that's all you have to say to do a great P war Man no one does a better Patrick Warburton than Jordan Morris for my Well, yeah, guy's the best. I mean, Jesse Thorn is no slouch, but, uh, yeah. That's one of my favorite recurring bits on that show. Yeah. They have a McLaughlin group.

Is your walk? They talk about how this ship is gonna be hard to track and they're gonna have to come up with some other creative ideas for how to get the commander back. Like they're not positive that Commander Reiker is alive, but they want to do something about it. And I feel like this scene is where it is revealed that the job they really want is not first officer, but captain.

Yeah. He's loving us. He does that like tending his fingers pensively move. Like the leadership tent is what that is. That move with your hands. Like that's unquestionably a power move. He's like jacked his seat up a little bit higher

than everyone else. He's running the whole playbook. He's running around with his seat up a little bit higher than everyone else. He's running the whole playbook. He's running around with his chest puffed out. Warf is like, come on man, we gotta go chase those guys. And he says, on the contrary, what we're gonna do is investigate the surface of the planet and see what these guys were up to down here. And that'll give us insights into where they might be going. He is so decisive here, it is refreshing.

He's not pulling the crew. He's got an idea in mind and that's what they're gonna do. It's great. Yeah, he's no joke. He has ruling with an iron slash polycarbonate fist. He's ruling with a detachable fist. We cut to Riker on this mercenary ship He's ruling with the detachable fist.

We cut to Riker on this mercenary ship, and he gets to meet the crew there. Some of her are made up from the people we saw on the surface, and then he meets this leader. This guy who is sort of cosplaying as Vigo, the Carpathian, from Ghostbusters 2. I want Warp 8 available in 5 hours, and I don't want to hear your excuses. What was will be, what is will be no more? I kind of thought it was like if Con Nune and Soon cosplayed as Vigo. Yeah. It's got some real hair metal vibes.

I love how weird this alien crew is. Like everybody's a different weirdo. The con vibes are totally legit because everyone's got a torture device attached to their neck that ensures their allegiance to him. It's a lot easier than implanting ear bugs, right? Yeah, I was wondering if you got this thing from the Kardashians.

It's a lot like that thing that an English Kardashian guy had, right? Yeah. Yeah, it's familiar. What was that guy's name? Morlek. Go. Go Madrid. What's that? Madrid? Yeah. That sounds right. You can just leave the one in that we got right. Or the goal soup that we made and trying to remember it. They do the around the horn where Riker gets to meet everyone and then guess who wheels around in his office chair. JL pipes as Galen who is a brown leather daddy. Yeah, that's kind of like the red fair version

of a leather daddy. Yeah. Speaking of Jail Pipes, Adam, did you see that a couple of our viewers got a dog and named her Jail Pipes? I did see that. Isn't that the greatest? It's funny sometimes how dogs look like their names. And this dog really does, like I don't know if it's the eye width and spacing or what, but

I can totally see the resemblance. She's got a real jail pipes vibe to her. Yeah. Real cute dog. Really doesn't get close to women, as a dog. Sort of prefers solitude. Let really like digging for antiquities and bones. Yeah.

I think it's a great name. Can quote Shakespeare at length. Heights mother-in-laws. Awesome at flute. Yeah. The deal here is that these guys are like mercenaries, slash, kind of Indiana Jones types, like they're like relic thieves. I totally dig the idea of space pirates bin.

Yeah. I wish there was more of them in this series. Well, the reason that there aren't is because it's a Roddenberry edict. He said very specifically, like that was one of the rules. No space piracy depicted. Isn't that fucked up? It's strange. I mean, I think that in Deep Space 9, especially they really go hard in the other direction,

because there's like organized crime and shit in that series. Ben, I've got an anecdote for you. Lay it on me, brother. Game bit grew out of a spec script, but it broke one of Gene Roddenberry's long-standing Star Trek taboo, specifically that there would be no such thing as space pirates on Star Trek. So Rick Berman, aware of the taboo, was willing to consider the script, but he tied a red bandana around the bust of Jean Roddenberry that he kept on his desk. Which is the most fucked up part of that story, the whole idea of there being a ban on space piracy stories, or the fact that Rick Berman kept a bust of Jean Roddenberry on his desk.

I'm so sick of you, right? I'm so sick of you, Jean Roddenberry on his desk. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy.

I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy.

I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. I was a sick weird guy. Do you think when Gene Roddenberry was pitching the story, he was like, yeah, we'll call him Bapt in Picard, because you know how bloods always replace seas at the beginning of words with bees. I did not know that, Ben.

Oh, yeah. You sure do know a lot about gangs. Yeah. I don't know. They're so willing to throw out the Roddenberry rules, like other Roddenberry rules here. Why be so precious about the piracy thing, especially if it opens up so many more stories? I mean, this is a... It's interesting because it's definitely a very fun and interesting storyline, but feels a little like, oh, we don't quite know what

to do with this. Yeah, it feels like they don't really want to commit to the world building. It would take to convince us that there are lots of pirates out there, and that this is a culture. Or even that there's some pirates out there. Yeah. I mean, what about the guy that has data as a trophy? Yeah. What's, is that guy not a pirate? What about that whole planet full of wrestlers that they found

that were nothing but pirates? That was like a season two episode. Yeah. I feel like this rule is a little bit weird, a little bit inconsistently enforced. I think maybe the bust belongs on the lobby, instead of on your desk. Well, maybe it's like the trigger to like, to the like secret sex dungeon. That's on the other side of the bookcase or whatever. Yeah, you just tilt his head back. Yeah. and then forward and then back and then forward I Got you So real big surprise in this reveal Riker is Relieved to see him but not Not emoting that he needs to figure out what Picard's deal is and who said he's on

Yeah, cuz Picard is talking kill this dude. I say kill it They're talking to raker and like trying to get some some info out of him and Picard is like this guy used to be on the hood. He's bad news Ask the sodo he'll tell you what a a record might that be? Come on to the enterprise, formally assigned to the USS Hood. That shouldn't intimidate anybody, but maybe these guys don't know what the Hood's reputation is. Cut to the ready room in the in the hood and DeSoto's like got his feet up on his desk, like whatever the ship equivalent of the phone is, it's just ringing and ringing and ringing.

He's got no time for that. He's like filing his nails. We're going to put the spurs in this episode, Ben. I know. We're fucking around too much. I just want to talk about the soda's's collection of emery boards though so much Did you recognize the Vulcan person on this crew? Should I have yeah that was Savak from the third and fourth Star Trek movies. Oh no shit

Yeah, the the woman who replaced Kirsty Yally. Yeah. That's interesting. She's flexing like she's Romulan, right? Yeah and she is. She's repping Romulan. She is and she also like if there's such a thing as co-leaders on this ship, I mean it's baran and it's Tallerah, really. And she might actually hold more power than even Burandas. Yeah, she doesn't have the neck pain zap gizmo, but she's got a lot of woofie on the ship. And she seems to be playing her own game. She's not necessarily an underling as such.

She at least has the ability to... Like she has her own agency, right? She can go talk to Picard if she wants to. She can go talk to Riker if she wants to. Like she can sort of slink around to her own ends. The way Riker gets out of getting fragged by Beren is they realize that they're having some engine trouble and Rikers like, well I know how to solve this exact kind of engine trouble And there's some kind of like wink wink happening between him and Picard

I've had a lot of experience with this sort of systems failure. I might be able to do something He gets on the on the ship's computer and fairly swiftly sorts everything out and they're like wow You're actually pretty useful. So we'll keep you around for now so at this point like I think we cut to Picard as Galen doing his duty on this ship, right? He's taken pieces of pottery out of boxes. He's sticking them on a computer table, the computer tables telling him whether or not

it's a positive or negative for what they're looking for. At this point, we aren't exactly sure what it is they're looking for but we can tell based on the number of storage racks in the cargo bay and the amount of work that Picard has to do in scanning them that they've been at this for a while and they haven't found what they're looking for yet. It seems like fairly automated work though right. He just puts the thing in and the computer tells them thumbs up or thumbs down. Yeah, the ship has the stealth plating, but it doesn't have the robot inside that does this work. Yeah, the Romulan lady comes down and he's like, I'm super useful. You know, like I'm still...

Like you can't kill me in the heist hit list yet, I'm still doing something that you guys need me to do. And she tips a part of her hand a little bit in this scene where she says, maybe not, and maybe I have some of my own agendas here. And maybe I think Baran is shitty, but I don't necessarily think you're like leadership material yourself. It seems pretty clear that the only thing holding this crew together is the torture devices on everyone's necks and the promise of becoming paid at the end of this mission. Like everyone's being kept in the dark about what they're doing.

Have you ever had a job where you felt like the client had a torture device that you're going to be subjected to until the job was done. Yeah, the torture device is always the deadline. Yeah. There's something about this that felt kind of familiar. Yeah. Well, anyways, the kind of climactic scene in the episode is the bad guys The bad guys plus Riker and Picard run into the entrepreneur in orbit over a colony. And it's a Federation colony that, and so like the, I guess like they've gotten Riker to kind of like get on the FaceTime with the lieutenant that's running the colony and try and convince him to let them, to let them steal everything in peace, like drop your shield so that we can beam up your artifacts.

Well, ten, it's not budging and it's pretty clear that he's buying time. If you'd like, you can remain an orbit until you contact the Science Council, but we're experiencing some communication difficulties right now, so that this isn't working. And so they wind up with the entrepreneur like running up on them and they get into a firefight with them. One of those fire fights though, where like people on each ship are dialing down the strength of their weapons, it's like sparring and boxing. Yeah, like data picks up on this pretty quickly that Raker is

sending him some kind of Subterfuge, which is kind of the first time data has ever picked up on Subterfuge. I feel like but he realizes what they need to do and and meanwhile like I guess Picard is probably like dialing down the strength of the mercenary ship's weapons. This is all for Beran's benefit.

Like they are making it look like they're in a real firefight so that Beran doesn't destroy the colony. But the end of the episode is literally like a freeze frame on lasers hitting the starboard in a cell of the entrepreneur. Yeah, it's not what laser freeze frame. That's a real sensitive part of the ship, man. Those are the testicles of the ship, aren't they? So sensitive.

Taken one in the stones. If you're cutting a comedy trailer about this episode, you're going to want to include that, that shot. That's people's expectations. And the commensurate sound effect. So with that, we are left with yet another midseason cliffhanger. I feel like they're kind of in a rut with these cliffhangers. Like this feels like it steals a lot of the tropes from best of both worlds where

there is a untested acting captain on the bridge of the entrepreneur. You know, it's just shifting down the ranks one and doing the exact same thing as best of both worlds, right? Yeah, but for whatever reason, the stakes don't feel as high as they were in previous cliffhangers. We know that there are agents on both ships in a back channel way fighting to ensure each other's survival because of the value that they play us on what's going on on the other ship.

So at no point do you see even during the freeze frame that this is an event that could kill everyone. It does not look like this phaser to the Nacell is doing any actual damage. Right. It's a weird no-stakes to be continued. Yeah, that's what I was getting at. Pretty weird, but I mean way too much story for one episode. Like, has to be two. Glad it's two.

Glad it's two. Did you like this episode, Ben? I did. I mean, I think that it is not perfect or even great. But it's fun to watch and it moves. Like, a lot of stuff happens, a lot of star trekky stuff. I think maybe where like the two places that I think it really fails are the combat scenes and

the kind of establishing a suspenseful set of stakes. Yeah, it kind of nukes the fridge like the captain being dead and we're gonna go ride for him is a much higher set of stakes than Everybody's play fighting slap boxing at the end. That is a great point because the promise this this episode makes you in the beginning Is that you're gonna get a vengeful riker, you know, burning down the universe, trying to get to who took Picard. Some men just want to watch the world burn. And you're almost immediately deprived of that when data takes command of the ship, you

know? Yeah, and data is never going to burn anything down for anything. He's a good captain, but he's too measured to give any kind of excitement. I wonder if there was ever a version of this episode where it wasn't Riker and it was someone else who was taking prisoner and Riker got that chance to burn the world down, you know, chasing them down across the galaxy. That would have been fun. That is a variation of the Cannonball run theme that could be super fun. But I have a feeling you'd have to blindfold the bust of Gene Roddenberry to get that one approved. Yeah, you might have to hide the bust of Gene Roddenberry in your butt so that it can't

see or hear. Yeah, I'm with you, Ben. Not sure I can give this episode a full like, because of so much promise, unfulfilled. Like, you know, it's one thing to say, like, 70 shot, phaser fight in the first 10 minutes and to think that that in and of itself means fun and success. But when the fight itself is just like, is 70 shots that go nowhere? Like, that's not satisfying. That's not. You're right. Also, really needed a grenade there. Where's the phaser grenade? Yeah, where's the rocket launcher? Hey, the weather girl is going to be on. But first, possibly the rocket launcher. Yeah, need one of those.

We also need some priority one message, Ben. Do we have any? Yeah, we sure do. Let's go check them out. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. I need a supplement on that. supplement on that? supplement. supplement. Yeah, it's extra.

How the interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Ben, we have a personal priority one message here. It is from Matt Grasso, it is for Natalie Grasso. Goes like this. Natalie, you just turned four. So obviously your mom and I are not letting you listen to greatest gen yet. But.

Oh, thank God. But if I do my job right, you should be hearing this in about 14 years. Having followed in love with TNG and then this show. If you do hear this, I just want you to know that I'm proud of you and I love you. If not, I guess I blew it. Love your dad. I love the idea of hiding a message that will only be meaningful if the person finds it. Message in a podcast bottle.

Yeah. Pretty fun, Matt. Good job. Raise her right, Matt. Sounds like he's on the right track. Yeah, I think so. You get your Mr. Rogers when it's age appropriate. You get your streets of sesame when it's age appropriate. You got your streets of sesame when it's age appropriate. And then many, many years after that you've got your greatest gen. We'll get you through puberty, Natalie. And we have another one here and it is from hashtag Rascals.

Sam Razz, Elle Kimberley, Josh, AJ, Michael, Amy, Brittany, The Gooch, Jason, and other. I love just hearing the Gooch. And it's for plevim. Now when you're telling plevim to go fuck himself, you want to be sure to attach your safety harness to a secure location. The pure force of your hatred is liable to cause you to lose your footing a bit. I recommend Miladir Reflex Python Harness, which is both flexible and fully ocean compliant. Join the team that hates plvee, Rascals. Hashtag Rascals.

Rascals are a thing. Man. I love that just starting a sentence with the word now forces us to start talking in Boston accent. It's true. We are such victims of the success of that... that bit. Ha ha ha. If supporters of Razz are named Razz Ghouls, what are the supporters of Plavim called? Oh man, I don't know.

Plavim afiles? Ha ha ha ha. See See that's just making fun of Plavim again. I can't help but be a rascal. Wow I kind of fall in team Plavim just because Plavim has been so much more money supporting our show. Yeah I also have a soft spot for the GOOTCH. Yeah, that's a fun one. Well, if you have a soft spot for the greatest gen, one of the greatest ways to support the show is by filling out a priority one message form

by going to Maximumfund.org slash Jumbo Tron, personal priority one messages are $100 and commercial messages are $200. They are a great way to support the ongoing production of our show. Thanks guys! A greatest-gen live show is something you don't want to miss. Why?

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Oh, rats, hey, hey, hey, 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 are mine? These giraffes do not smell good. No, they do not, and they've such short knots. But I'm hearing me need to get on this arc. I gotta get on the arc. It is about terrain, about a spout 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 Carrie? 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 two by two. What do you think?

Oner Ross & Kerry available on MaximumFun and Outdoor. Hey Ben. Oh what's that Adam? Did you find yourself a brown leather clad drunk Shimoda? I did not. I found a different one. Yeah. You know, Adam, we give out the drunk Shimoda or to cite the character that is having the most fun or doing the silliest thing. That's the rule. But I am going to give a special charity Shimoda in this episode to the character that's sort of furthest from that ideal, just because I felt so bad for her. When data first takes over as as captain, there's a new Ensign at the opposition, Ensign Juisty.

And boy, does this character get a thankless task of just kind of like describing the alien ship getting away. Like there are no model shots or any special effects to make this fun to experience. Like she just has to sit sit there and pretend to tap away at the control panel and describe how the bad guys are getting out of there. I thought Ford has done a bit of script as this was. She did a perfectly good job delivering it, but boy, what a thankless task. Boy, what a thankless task. Ben, I would have expected someone with your Cosby expertise

Would have recognized her. I mean, yeah, but I As as the actress who played Sandra Huxable. Yeah, I'm not trying to shoehorn every possible Cosby reference into the into the show I had I think that's good because I don't think she should be typecast as a Cosby actor. No. That is a stink you don't want at this point. She played this part well, I think. I want to know more about this character. I wish we had any indication that she was going to be a recurring character.

Ben, I think she's emblematic of what's happened in season 7, which is any peripheral actor either getting really bad dialogue to read or maybe only being given one or two takes to deliver it, because I don't feel like anyone outside of the crew, senior staff, is believable in delivery at all this season. Like, it's not working for me. Am I just too sensitive to any non-senior staff actors right now? I don't know what it is, but I feel like they're really slipping. I feel like you've got a Roddenberry bust up your butt about this particular performance at it, because I liked Sabrina LaBuff's performance here.

All right. I'm just saying I'm just saying the the script the chunk of script that got dropped in her lap was a turd. Yeah. Yeah. All right. That's forgivable. When there's a turn your lap. How much of a you have a Shimoda Adam. I do Ben. It's it's a scene slash Jordy Shimoda There's a scene early on I think it's like almost as soon as the away team beams down to The planet the planets The first planet and yeah the Rim Forest planet. They're doing their archaeological investigation, looking at scorch marks and stuff. Rikers talking to Jordy and he walks up and he puts his leg up on a rock.

And then Jordy does the same thing, talking back to him. And that just struck me because the scene was outside, like, that's exactly how Rikers in the wild greet each other. Like, put your leg up on that rock. And it also struck me as like, when you don't direct an actor, a lot of times what they'll do is mirror the thing that they're seeing in someone else's performance. And I was wondering like if in that exact scene, like, Levar Burton just sort of like, what am I going to do with my legs?

Frakes is putting his leg up, I'm gonna do that too. So that just seemed funny to me to see two actors talking to each other, mirroring the right-year leg move. I mean, if I'm in a head cannon, what, what, Burton's, what Burton's motivation is there, it's not, what am I gonna do with my leg? It's like, oh, you're putting your leg up on a rock? Well, too can play at that game breaks Yeah, yeah that riker lean He'll find a way to do it at any situation. Yeah, whether or not there's a thing to put his foot up on he will somehow do it

What do we have coming up on the next episode, Ben? Next episode is season seven episode five, Gambit Part Two, Carden Riker Mosquerade as mercenaries in order to retrieve a potentially lethal Vulcan artifact. Do you remember this episode, Adam, that you already watched apparently? Do you remember this episode, Adam, that you already watched, apparently? Yeah, I do, because I already admitted to having seen it. So I remember it as early as hours ago. What are you going to do about it?

I don't want to waste your time by dropping a veto on it. You watched it. Like we might as well fucking review it at this point. Yeah, I mean that was that was poor form by me. It really puts you in a spot, doesn't it? We're like past 150 episodes at this point Adam. He got to be more careful. There are rules here. Yeah, this is not none.

Yeah, I'm sorry Ben. I'm glad we could come to an understanding. Well, I'm not vetoing an episode I watched. That would be dumb. It'd be hosting yourself on your own Picard. Yeah. Are you? No. Fine, let's watch it. I've already seen it. So you go and watch it yourself. Okay, and we'll meet back here and we'll review it on the next episode. It's what we do. It is. If you feel like reviewing our show yourself, you can take that 140 character review to Twitter using the hashtag greatest gen.

I'm on there is at Cut for Time. Ben is on there is at Benjamin R. A. H. R. We also accept five star reviews on Apple Podcasts. If you have four or fewer star reviews, you can send them to DrunkShremota at gmail.com and we will attempt to address your complaints. Where we will stick those complaints into a plastic butthole. We've got people working around the clock scanning complaints to see if they are the artifact that we're looking for. We should thank Dark Materia for our theme music and Adam Ragusia for our other music. Got great Facebook groups, Reddit groups. There's a weekly. And great moderators for both?

Yeah, great moderators all around. That all being said, I think our job is done here, is it not Adam? Yeah, I feel extremely satisfied with what we've done here, Ben. Extremely, huh? Wow. I feel better about this episode than any other. Oh, God. Well, with that, we will be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek, the next generation.

And an episode of the greatest generation that really puts theard's leather-deady prowess to the test. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound.

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