The Greatest Generation - Friends of DeSoto (S7E11)

Episode Date: August 14, 2017

When the Enterprise investigates a misaligned telescope on one of the great arrays, Worf begins experiencing some problems focusing. But when his issues at work spill over into his home life, his wife(!) helps him get back to where he belongs. Do amputees finish ahead of people who are bad at bat'leth? What kind of camping can you do in a shuttlecraft? Is there such thing as "the ultimate man-spread"? It's the episode that proves there's no floor drains in a shuttlebay.

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 friendsofdececoto for Labor.com. That's FriendsOfDecoto 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! You're the God of the U.S. And the Christ. Get it!

You're the God of the U.S. And the Christ. Welcome to the greatest generation. Star Trek Podcast by two guys. A little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek Podcast. I'm Adaprannica. I'm Ben Harrison. Ben, I took care of

Greatest Generation Business yesterday. It's how business gets done. T-C-B. I spent a good 90 minutes at a bank. This generation business yesterday, it's how business gets done. TCP. I spent a good 90 minutes at a bank. That's a thing the people do. They just sit there and they watch a bank person enter information into a computer on a screen with one of those reflective covers to it

so that you can't see what they're typing in. They're typing in they're typing in Bit of a dick. They're flagging your account They're like extra dipax for this guy Dipax all around You get a dipax you get a dipax you get a dipax Recently learned that the dipax was like an aerosol bomb I I didn't think that was the thing. I thought it was more paint-like like

Like ew, it's all over my hands and clothes, but it's actually like a poof Yeah, so what then they just know the ear That's just it's just evidence if you're if you're poofed, right? I guess I mean the answers are still coming in which is fun like I'm still reading tweet replies To that episode people have no idea what we're talking about because we are so far in the future Yeah, no, this is like six episodes ago. We should stop Anyway, I was at the bank taking care of company business because By the time this episode goes out, this will be the first day of our tour.

And we need to have a way to deal with the tour that is responsible. And banks are a big, big way to do that. The way we did it on our last tour was like, if we sold a merch item, we would take the money and put it in a box. And then at the end, we just kind of took a pair of scissors and cut all the money we had in half, and then you took one half and I took the other half. And it turns out that's not how money works at them.

It's not, especially when you cut through the dipack. Yeah, why were people paying us with dipax? The feeling of talking to two bank employees, telling them what the name of your business was, having them ask you what kind of business you're in, and then ask you what type of show you make. I mean, there's just nothing like it been. Like the confusion, the the the the quizzical Ferrode Brow, like, like there's seven steps of podcast business acceptance on the other end.

Like, we've talked a lot about about those steps for you and me, but like when you're trying to do business with someone and explain why it is you're there. Yeah. Like there's a good couple of seconds where the lady, like they're sort of pushed back from her keyboard, leaned back in her office chair and was like, can't believe this is our world.

Can't believe I'm doing this. What is it all for? I mean, these people must have to open accounts for pornography businesses and shit too, right? One would hope. Like some dinging got a $50,000 loan from his father and opened a dildo store with it. The scene was, I was very obviously working with a

trainee with a trainer sat right next to this person. Oh that's even better because they could be like this is not normal. This is not like a typical. This is I kept getting the vibe that the trainer knew and was a viewer. Oh and I kept wanting for there to be some sort of code between us. Yeah. Like, you know the whole friends with Dorothy code? Like, could there be like a friends of Shimoda type thing where like if you were in mixed company and you aren't sure

and you just wanna like be sure in a safe way. Like, all she had to say was like, oh yeah, um, I'm, I'm friends with Shimoda. Yeah. That would have put me at ease. So that wouldn't make any sense if you just like offered it. Yeah. But like they would have to offer it. Yeah. Would they say, would they say to you? Do you, uh, do you happen to know a guy in the biz named Jim Shimoda? That would have been great.

And then I could be like, oh yeah, we are business associates. We've taken meetings together. Great guy. Unfortunately, Shimoda is in the name of the biz. So that would have, that would maybe more of a tell than than the, than the banker would have wanted. What's, what's something else? Friends of the hood? That is a whole lot of, of different meetings too. Friends of DeSoto?

Friends of DeSoto could work. Friends of DeSoto seems nice and obscure. Yeah, it's, it's second-level knowledge. Friends of DeSoto could work. Friends of DeSoto seems nice and obscure. Yeah, it's second level knowledge. Like big, big fans of TNG don't even know who Captain DeSoto is. Yeah, I'm into that. Friends of DeSoto. Did you ever work with DeSoto? Oh yeah, best boss I ever had. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha answer to that question is best boss I ever had. I love it.

Fun. Fun! Well, best show I've seen in a long time, Ben might be this one. What do you say we get started with season 7, episode 11? Parallels. I could do that. I was I have seen this episode so many times that the cold open itself is like Get ready like returning from forkis 3 champion standing people getting maimed he paints a great picture and it's not supposed to be a surprise that Warf is so good at batleth,

because he almost killed Kaelis. Yeah. I mean, Kaelis was at this thing as part of his job as a cultural administrator or whatever. He was at Forkis. Where were you at Forkis 3? Were you in the shit? Yeah, I was in the shit. Yeah, man, if you can remember where you were at Forkis 3? Were you in the shit? Yeah, I was in the shit.

Yeah man, if you can remember where you were at Forkis 3, you weren't really there. Hahaha! These Forkis 3, like the Apex Batlet competition, or is it kind of like an adult tennis club, where it's like not about your USDA rank necessarily. It's just about staying active and having a social circle to be in. Is Forkus 3 like the all-valley karate championships? In karate kid. Like, is this a tertiary tournament that makes up a sort of round robin of that left tournaments. I want to know more. Yeah. Is this something that people bet on?

Oh, yeah, I didn't get into that. Did Warf have to safety pin a number to his back? Safety pin a number to the arm that's about to get removed by batleth. The trophy is pretty great. Yeah. This is another screen prop that I think would be real fun to own. Yeah. I don't I didn't check on that big eBay dump that happened a couple of months ago and they sold the nub in with Trapper Keeper, but having the champion standing are actually even better.

The like second, the like ninth place trophy. I feel like that's the one. Do you think that people who were maimed finish before the bad batleth people, like guys who were just shitty at batleth get like honorable mention, but even people who had an arm detached, like finish ahead of those people

do to warrior status. Yeah, I mean it's kind of amazing that they issue a trophy for somebody as far down the podium as number nine. I feel like the creative that went into designing this trophy is like two lines. It's like a ball with knives coming out. That sound good? Sounds great. Go with it. Very short meeting for that. Yeah.

So, Wurf is doing a log, a personal log, and we don't see this very often, do we? Yeah, it's interesting to think about what Wurf's private life is like. Is he a journalist? Is this implies that he is? I mean, maybe he's been into it from the start, from way back in the live journal days. I'd love to find that piece of internet archaea,

like the go on archive.org and find Worf's old personal blog. Yeah, it's also Worf's old personal blog. Yeah. It's also Worf's birthday. So when he gets back to the ship, Riker's sort of walking him back to his quarters. Yeah. Worf is, he's got, he's like as suspicious as he should be

in most other episodes, but isn't. Ha ha ha ha. Yeah, for some reason, he's acting like a security person here. Yeah, head on a swivel, like checking his six. And Riker's got back from Forkus III. I think that's understandable. Yeah, Riker's got some great swagger here, which is, you know, he's just kind of like

going over the business and kind of barks at Wharf when he realizes that wharf's attention is divided. Are you listening to me? Hmm. And wharf confesses that he's just a little worried that there may be some birthday surprise party hijinks a foot. Riker's response here is overly defensive in a really fun way. When a friend has to defend a position this much, it's almost certainly a lie.

A surprise party? Mr. Warf, I hate surprise party. I would never do that to you. Like, he repudiates it more forcefully than the time Warf said that sexist thing about the military dress uniform. Ha-ha-ha. That's a great point. We are seeing a lot of Riker War friendship in season seven. I like seeing that. Their buddy cop film would be amazing. Like cast,

dorn, and freaks in a like, like their characters have aged to the degree that they have aged in real life. We're in universe, like, you know, maybe Worf finished out his career as Captain of Deep Space Niners, I'm shit. Brakes is like an admiral retired, and they get like called out of, called out of a mothballs to like pursue some criminal element across the galaxy and they like have to buddy up again. It's like Starsky and an even more ugly hutch. Like they just go about, they go around and run about like a little bit.

Starsky and both. With a white stripe. Yeah. The amazing. Well, sure enough, Warf walks into his apartment, and they do a couple of headfakes, but sure enough, it's a surprise party. And they put a party hat on his loaf.

Always fun for a gag. And that is our push to title sequence. One of the lowest stakes transition to titles that we've seen. Warp doesn't want a surprise party. But his friends have other things on their mind. I mean, Warp doesn't even get the chance to shower the blood off of him after the batlethturnerman. Like, how chapped do you think he is? Can you take a shower in a shuttlecraft?

Can you take a shit in a shuttlecraft? This is the Vanagan question, right? Like, would you ever want a Vanagan that had the running water, or would you want the kind without, because I would always want the kind without. The ones with the water supply always sort of smell. Yeah. And I feel like the shuttle craft would be the same way. Right, because it's a closed system,

and then you're parking it inside another closed system. Like you can never air it out. We never see the scene after the shuttle parks, where they just hook up the plumbing. Yeah, where Jordy has to come with that big bendy blue plastic tube and... Get her with foam! Yeah, Jordy can... Like one of the awful consequences of having a visor is knowing when a shuttle craft is full of shit.

I meant that used to be a Brian's job. Oh yeah, yeah. And he'd prefer it over going home. And to pull a double down at the shuttlecraft lot, Kiko. Sure, you understand. I'm gonna be late for dinner again. That the texturally will be that distinct from the food you make.

They sing him a rendition of For Hesa, Jolly Good Fellow in flawless Klingon. They make some Klingon jokes. They announce that Picard will not be able to attend. They give him a gift that Alexander left for him. It's a cast of Alexander's forehead, the ridges of a warrior. And he starts to like notice that shit is weird. Like the cake that they're eating,

like when he cut it had was chocolate frosting on chocolate cake, and now he's like standing them, watching them all eat it, and it's yellow cake with chocolate frosting. And I'm not talking about uranium. Cut to a really hilarious drop of colon pal presenting Pre-Arrak war intelligence. We know that Iraq has at least seven of these mobile biological agent factories Picard is suddenly there like he's just been in the room the entire time didn't like didn't come in didn't say hi Didn't like didn't do any, getting his piece of cake, he's just standing there mid-slice, chatting with Wharf, and that doesn't jive with what Wharf was told.

Wharf is very confused. There's the business with this painting also, right? Data gives him a gift, and it's what you would expect a data painting to be. They make a big show of establishing the painting, like putting it very, very specifically on the wall next to the door. The sort of proof that they're trying to give the viewer in training the viewer for what the episode is going to be

is like, you can't just have, I thought Picard wouldn't be here in then he is. You need an actual physical example. You need check-offs painting. Yeah, they're planting hella seeds. Yeah. The ship is in a part of space proximate to Cardassia to check in on our old friend, the Argus Array.

One of the great Arrays, Ben. One of the top arrays. This is the array that had that probe near it that made barkly super smart. Yeah. I love this Array. I mean, when you're listing the Arrays alphabetically, this one's near the top. I mean, especially if it's spelled with two A's. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. It's us guaranteed. It's like, it was just trying to get a jump on the business section of the phone book, right? Yeah. So this is important trivia too because they're then being so proximate to Cardassian space

just sort of beds the whole geography with attention. Like, it's not just going to be about why is Warf sort of losing his grasp of reality, it's also a very dangerous place to have lost your grasp on reality. Yeah, so he keeps kind of, he keeps kind of like getting a little dizzy, little, you know, just a little headwrest, and then when he gets his wits back about him, finds that subtle changes have taken place within his reality. And they're small at first, like Picard showing up at his party when he wasn't expecting him,

you know, data and Jordi being on opposite sides of the engineering console. The Argus Array has been like retasked with doing surveillance on some deep space stations and like the utopia planesia shipyards where the Federation builds its new ships. Right. This is not good. It's like their own telescope has been pointed back at them, and somebody else is capturing the signals. So like a security concern and a tactical concern.

So something that Wurf should be on top of, but Wurf is not doing great. It's something that Wurf should be on top of, but Worf is not doing great. It's something that Worf should be on top of to the degree that Worf can be on top of anything. W slash R slash T security. And even a compromised Worf makes this worse. Like he, I think he goes to Six Bay because of the like, viziness he experiences in the engineering section. And like the Dr. Crusher is like, well, like maybe you got bonked on the head in your batlet competition,

because you know, you obviously suck at batlet. He's like, I don't suck at batlet. I'm great at it. I won that tournament, and I can prove it to you. And he takes her down to his quarters and finds the ninth place statue on the table. And that comes as a big surprise to him, but like everybody else on the ship has been under the impression that Wharf was terrible at batlets, apparently. The first mental banger that is visited upon Wharf is that whole trophy thing, and it's the logs not matching. That's creepy as

fuck to be absolutely positive that you did a thing, to have physical proof and recorded proof and to have those things be different. That is textbook loss of sanity. And the doctor is like, well, you know, your brain seems cool. So just keep an eye on it and give me a shout if anything happens. So while the Enterprise is investigating what happened to the Array, a Cardassian ship shows up where Picard and the Cardassian captain start chatting. They finally built a Cardassian bridge at him. Yeah. And the Wharf sort of chimes in at Picardin was like, well, that guy was lying. That ship was responsible for reprogramming the array.

Because we know from the conversation we had an engineering that the Cardassians boarded the array, aimed at the telescopes at us and have been stealing the information. And Picardin, Riker, wheel around at Warf, and you're like, Are you suggesting that you have evidence that the Kardashians have tampered with your Ray? And Warf is like, you know, in engineering. Like, earlier today, we figured that out. Remember? I haven't heard anything about this. Neither of mine. Picard's like, I was having breakfast with Beverly, like always. We're on to croissants now. Great. Much better breakfast, much lighter breakfast. The key to anyissants now. Great. Much better breakfast, much lighter breakfast.

The key to any breakfast companion relationship is communication. Well, if you might want to, you might want to tinker with what your breakfast routine is in the morning, but because this isn't working out, data even rebukes him too. Wurf is like, data, you were there, remember?

And data wheels around at the con and is like, no, no I wasn't, and neither were you. And Wurf has that look on his face like, I'm going crazy. This is it for me. I better go back to my quarters. It's great because this is like, you know, like we've had this episode for pretty much

all the other characters, but Worf has never been imbued with a kind of technocratic air about him, you know? Yeah. Like when the doctor is in a universe that is changing and shrinking around her, she's got some kind of established tools at her disposal to deal with it. And Worf is just not that character.

So it's really fun to have a premise where it kind of would, it's a premise that would fit another character being the, the alpha in a storyline and giving it to Worf is a, is great. Yeah, how interesting is that anyone else would have a little more medical acumen or an ability to address their mental circumstances in a way that would be far stronger than how Wurf is able to? Yeah, they have a mastery of like technical shit

that Wurf is, you know, it's just not as specialty. Just as every other person on the senior staff is a credible witness to their own reality, Wurf is given that same credit. So Troy is the first person and he really kind of like lays this on. Like I have this one concept of what's going on and reality seems to be shifting over and over again.

And he's like actually having this conversation with her while things are changing around him. Like he's like actually having this conversation with her well, things are changing around him. Like he's looking around his apartment and he sees that data is painting is not where it was very conspicuously hung in that first scene. And now it's not only not in the same place, but it's not the same painting. Yeah, the rate of changes seems to be increasing. Yeah. Because it's Jordi and Troy and Worf in his quarters now,

and they're all trying to figure out what's going on. And it's like the painting changes, Troy's clothing changes, the painting composition changes, Yeah. Not just position, and it's getting scary. Until Worf finally just sort of collapses into Jordy's arms Yeah, he sort of achieves full temporal arousal and

wakes up and like he is at his station on the bridge, but the bridge is a little different like There's some like different design choices at play and Picard is asking him to hit the trigger. Now, I'm a Bajorin ship that is coming in. And the Bajorin ship looks just like a Cardassian ship, and Worf can't find the shooting button on his panel. It's really, it's sort of shot like a bad dream too. Like, when a wolf comes to, we're tight on him. He's trying to figure out the keypad.

People are just yelling at him. The terror of this moment is so pronounced. Like, what are you doing? War if you're gonna kill us all. I love that tight framing because, you know, all you want in these moments when time changes is context like Explain to me what's going on as quickly as possible and when it's tight on his face You're robbed of that and it's like it like really puts the viewer in the same kind of emotional place as the character

Yeah, it's great technique it puts you in in this position in a way that makes you feel. Well, the other position that he's in now is one of having a wife, Adam. He was a Klingon and a single parent. I hate my shun. There's a very Kevany Warf, Adam. Yeah. Can you do a... You can't do a warf, can you? Warf seems pretty difficult.

Warf is hard to do. I mean, you can just go deep. Sir, I'm dressed as Warf, son of Moga. I can't, though. My thin, greedy voice can't go that deep. In an episode full of parallel universe changes, this might be one of the bigger leaps, right? Right. It's a really great scene because she kind of walks in like she owns the place,

what she does. And he just doesn't know what to make of it. She goes into the bedroom and he does that, you know, little rascals look around the corner. Hmm. Like, what are you doing in my bedroom, Troy? And she, she like calls him over and like takes his hair tie out and starts giving him a shoulder rub. It's interesting to see Marina,

Sirdus and Michael dorn that close to each other, like close enough to be touching because you really see how giant he is. Yeah. And how tiny she is by comparison. Like her tiny hands rubbing his giant shoulders. It's like, I can't even see that massage being especially comforting. Ha ha ha ha. Warf is like harder.

Harder. Harder. Harder. Harder. Why don't you go into your nightstand and get out one of your vibrators? Why don't you hit me with that music box you kept? Wurf undoes his hair and just sort of shakes it out and he has got really long locks. Very well. He's using that Neutrogena T-Jail. This episode of the greatest generation of course brought to you in part by Neutrogena T-Jail. It works.

When your mind is failing, it's got to be nice to have someone be nice to you in that moment. Because if he were alone, can you imagine retiring to your condo by yourself to try to figure this out? He really needs her. And she is sort of the perfect person married or not to go on this journey with him, right? Right. It's what makes this episode not full of terror and instead more of a straight mystery episode than a horror movie.

Yeah, and it's interesting to see him kind of accept that comfort even though he doesn't really understand it. Yeah. Like, I don't know why you're here rubbing my shoulders, but I appreciate that you are. So Troy and Worf go to engineering and work with data on some sort of scan to figure out if they're subspace anomalies that would account for Worf's shuffling through his own reality.

Worf is like, listen, I don't want you to take this the wrong way, Troy. But to me, we're not married. Morph is like, so, data, how did that happen? Data who has blue eyes in this scene. Yeah. He looks great without contacts. He looks just as robotic

It's it's fun like that that subtle little change is like it's just one of so many You know like it's it's hard to get attention to detail stuff right when yeah, you're just slamming through a 25 episode production schedule. Yeah, and you know, there's lots of episodes where the details totally get screwed up and this episode really doesn't miss these little bits, you know, that really add to the texture of it. Yeah. It rewards rewatching. Data's like, my understanding your romantic affiliation began shortly after you recovered from your spinal injury on Star Day 455-87.

And not long after, yes, yes, a riker, if it would be okay, if you could get down with that. You felt it to otherwise would be dishonorable. And then you got married. It was great to hear someone else describe your relationship story to you. Yeah. Has got to be so strange.

Yeah, I don't know many people that could describe mine to me. 10 years ago along the same stretch of road, I saw the worst accident I ever seen. Yeah, and that's sort of a way that on a baseline level it would just feel wrong. Anyway. Yeah, but keep in mind, this is like living on the entrepreneur is like living in a small town, you know, you know everybody Yeah, so your business has got to be out in the streets Yeah, or the the hallways as it were You got to believe that you're getting the straight dope from data to he's not sugar-coating anything

No, he's like I could tell you when I think you first had sex. Would you like to know that? I've thought about it many times. So they're like, well, maybe Jordi can help us figure this out. And Jordi has been taken to Six Bay because I guess in the in the firefight with the bejorins, they had like a plasma leak and Jordi was taken to Six Bay. So they go down to Six Bay and Chief Medical Officer Ogawa greets them and is very sad to inform them that he did. They could only pronounce him dead once they stripped Lovar Burton down to like an appropriate level of sidebutt. They really show a lot of Burton here. Jordy's character throughout this episode gets a lot of strange things to do. This is, I mean, like he's as nude as Picard was in that Picard gets tortured by the Cardassians episode.

The most nude of any of the main cast characters. The more Burton saw that episode and he's like, I'd like to get me a little bit of that. Listen, the part of my body where my leg connects to my torso is just as good looking as the part of jail pipes is. So let's get that on camera. Look, if I can't act with my eyes, allow me to act with my side butt. So they're like, down there, bumming out about this and Worf gets a headwack again, opens his eyes, and Ogawa has been replaced by Dr. Beverly. His shirt has been replaced with a red. They've gone to the pips as backing on the badge. Look, the bridge is super different again, and he is second in command of the entrepreneur.

And so like bits and pieces of different continuities kind of like keep coming in and out. Like now it's Ogawa, now it's Crusher, now it's the painting over in the corner of the Klingon ship. Now it's a more impressionistic painting of a Klingon battle. Like little stuff keeps changing. Riker is the captain. And they've determined that something to do

with Jordi's visor is the culprit. Every time Wurf is around Jordi's visor, it is knocking him into a different quantum reality. Mr. Wurf does not belong in our universe. What? And that is like the big clue that they needed to go find out what happened to him only. Like what part of space his shuttlecraft flew through to cause this. And so the timeline he's in now is dead Jordority, Will Wheatness Back, as a yellow shirt lieutenant.

Wessley, the boy. The boy. Young Wessley, Crusher. My son. With Slicked Back here, though. Yeah. So I was expecting him to lose a parent at any moment. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

It was fun to see him again, right? It's been a long time. Yeah. He's really grown up a lot since he was last on the show. You see him in the McLaughlin group. Issue a walk. Sort of participate in this PowerPoint presentation that Data has about what's actually going on with Warf.

And Data's presentation is one of the coolest presentations of an idea on this show. There is a theory in quantum physics that all possibilities that can happen do happen in alternate quantum realities. The quantum reality idea is something that really appeals to me on a business level. Like, there's some comfort I have in that for some reason.

The idea that that could be real. It also means that there are no wrong decisions. There are just different decisions. Well, it's a real theory in quantum physics. My hobby is a prism while my mind is putting them in Garnet. And, you know, I don't know how realistic this depiction of it is, but it's really fun when Star Trek takes these kinds of ideas.

Like, I guess you could criticize it for being like, I guess in 300 years, we'll have like more, a more nuanced understanding of it than they, you know, like data introduces it, like this is a new one on everybody, but like, but it is, it's a really fun episode that actually takes a real science concept and has Star Trek fun with it. You know, we're 30 minutes into the actual episode when this idea is introduced.

And this could be the underpinning for a lot of episodes. And I don't mean this concept specifically, but like taking a scientific concept like this can be the basis for a lot of fun science fiction episodes. And this was not a course that this show tended to chart very often. Right, yeah, letting the Tumblr's fall in place as it introduces you to a concept like this. Because they have not gotten to the climactic sequence at all. This is just giving you a little bit more context for what's going on and understanding, but they still need to solve the problem. So they show up at this spot in space and it's a quantum

fissure. And I guess basically the deal is that's worth kind of came unstuck from his quantum reality and something in the visor is enabling him to slip between them. And they're trying to, they're trying to like open up the fissure so that they can send wharf back through it, but it doesn't go quite as expected, it doesn't add them. They're attacked while they're shooting a beam into it. Yeah, those nasty pejorins come back. They've damaged our power system, sir. It's caused an energy surge within the subspace pulse.

The quantum fissures beginning to destabilize. The pejorins with all their out of uniform code earrings and whatnot. Yeah. And the fissure inverts itself. It pro lapses. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha dead lifter letting it go at the bottom of his leotard, the fissure prolapses, and the barriers between quantum realities are breaking down. Other realities are emerging into our own. Dozens and dozens of entrepreneurs start to seep into the reality that they are all in.

I like as an afterthought it's mentioned that like the bejoranship has left the sector like unwilling to take on the 200 enterprises. Yeah they're like oh fuck we gotta get out of here. They scan around for the correct entrepreneur, the one that we've been following for the last six and a half seasons, and they find it. And Captain Riker talks to Captain Picard on the FaceTime about what their plan is. And in this, in the reality of the ship that we're on, Picard bought it in the locuteus incident. It's hard for me to articulate why this was so affecting because we have spent 150 episodes

making fun of every character on the show, maybe mostly Picard himself. But when Riker, at the end of this conversation, just sort of turns back at the view screen and tells Picard. It's good to see you again Captain. It's been a long time. I was fully choked up at that. Oh, I'll tell you why it's so affecting, Adam. It's a Frakesist performance. It's amazing. Yeah.

Like fully commits to the reality of I have been captain of this ship for five years or whatever. It's the quantum reality we talked about when we reviewed the best of both worlds episode and we noted that it was so riker centric that it was a two-parter about rikers that we had wondered what the show would have been like with him as captain and like that haunting him for his career. This is what we get to see. We got a glimpse of it and and Friggs' performance of it was it delivered some of his best work. It was his finest moment. Yeah, it's super good. So they've got to get

Warf back in the exact same shuttlecraft that he was supposed to be on and sending back through the fissure. They've got to pump all the shit back into it. the fissure. They've got to pump all the shit back into it. We're gonna need a clean-up crew. That's just guys. Pump normally doesn't go in reverse. Just guys in hazmat suits everywhere. Just a slowly growing brown pool around the shuttle. There's no drains in the shuttle bay, so they've got to use those mop squeegees and push it out into space. Yeah. It's the only way to be sure. Yeah, it just turns into particles as it goes out the edge of the ship. Fucking hey! I like that in this universe. Warf was like promoted ahead of data. Like Warf totally leapfrog data in this universe. Yeah, how weird is that?

That's wild. I would say it's touching. There's an interesting good bi-scene in the shuttle bay. Like everyone in this universe knows that Warf doesn't belong there. And yet, there is a chance that wharf dies doing this. And the amount of emotion they prescribe to the goodbye is interesting in that there isn't much of it. It's almost as if the riker of this universe, everyone except for Troy, I should say, has just sort of come to understand that this isn't their wharf, and they don't treat them as emotionally as they would treat their own wharf? Did you get any of that? They just sort of box them up and send them away. I mean, there is that little final kiss between him and Troy, and he

kind of commits to it, but maybe six and a half seasons of the show in. These characters are used to somebody being not what they seem and can like compartmentalize and recategorize them really quickly. Yeah, I guess so. You and I know the stakes of this episode. If they're unable to get them back through the hole, then the enterprises are going to fill the sector and everyone's going to die. Yeah, they totally have one of those epidemiology maps where they show like, this is how many enterprises there are in the sector now. By this time next week,

they will have taken over all of North America by a month from now, the world. Yeah, it's zombie movie math. Yeah. So, uh, so they get them in the shuttle. He's heading back and... Captain, the shuttlecraft is under attack. The majority.

No sirs, one of the enterprises, they're hailing us. They get him on the FaceTime and this entrepreneur is not in good shape. You could say it's bedrackled. Yeah. Raker has got a great pushy beard. And Wurf is there. They're like pulling out strips of duct tape and like pushing components back together.

And they're basically saying like, you don't know what it's like in our universe. The federation's gone, the board is everywhere. They like it here just fine. They are gonna destroy the Shuttlecraft and not go back to the hell that they've been subjected to ever since the Locutus incident. It's an amazing moment. You've got to help us! I'm sorry, there's no choice. If this works, everything will return to you.

No, we won't go back! It's another mind-bending moment. Like, what happens if they do destroy the shuttle? Do all the enterprises get to stay? Is that really what would happen? It's sort of like the whole meeting yourself in a time travel movie thing. Yeah.

And also, like, the doom that they are going to be subjecting these people to is so awful, you know. Yeah. They're like, we've got to see all this fissure so that it doesn't fill space with entrepreneurs, but some of the realities that are getting restored in so doing are fucking terrible. The margins that Frakes gets to play in in this episode may be the furthest distance apart from any episode of the series because he plays the understatement of the, it's good to see you, it's been a long time, and he also plays full, feral, riker, ready to

kill Warf, if it means staying alive and staying in this universe. Yeah. Like it's great. What we could call Riker Prime, the Riker of our final universe, is forced to fire on Bedraggled Riker. Yeah, he orders tactical Wesley to return torpedo fire. It hits one of the many many ships in the in the frame and It it it explodes very easily Does this count as suicide if riker kills himself in this manner? I think at least at least counts as auto orotic asphyxiation I wonder if on any of these ships, Thomas Reiker, was its captain.

Well, that's interesting. If any possible outcome that could happen has happened, then there is a ship out there that's captained by Deanna Troy, or Wesley, or data. There's a ship that's captained by Rick. There's a ship that's captain by Rick. There's one that's captain by Morty. I like what you got. Good job. One of the reasons this episode could've been a two-parter is just to further demonstrate

what rich tapestry this is. I want to see more realities on these enterprises. They only give us a couple. It's gotta be pretty tricky to refit the bridge though, right? Like, oh, if you drop that thing and it hits the tactical console, like it costs us like $80,000 to replace that part of the set. Yeah, it's not like taking Brent Spiner's contacts out. Yeah.

These are substantial changes. So the threat is eliminated. Wurf prime is in the shuttle craft. And as he goes through the space butthole, there's a great scene where like the like multitudes of wharf that could potentially be in the shuttle craft are in the shuttle craft at the same time. There's just like a bunch of him standing around in the back, you know, one of them walking

from back to front. One of them furiously jerking it. Yeah, well, you know, you got time to kill on the road. It gets crazy on the road and awful lonely. That's why I love pornography. He wakes up on the floor of his previa and he's back on his yellow shirt. He checks in with the entrepreneur to see if everything is chill and then he finds his first place champion standing trophy and is very gratified to discover that all as well.

I was a little conflicted by the button on this episode because you could make the case that maybe this is not the same reality he left. Maybe he returned to a slightly different reality where he and Diana Troy were closer than they would be normally. Or this is exactly what his old reality was like and he decides to take a shot by pouring some champagne for Diana and them having some dinner together. Yeah, so he's gone back a couple of days in time. So nobody's aware of what happened. Yeah.

Like he walks in to his room, expecting the surprise party to be there, but it's just him and Troy. And yeah, like I think that there is a distinct possibility that this isn't quite the reality he left. I think that is a more interesting ending than what I think it probably is, which is just him getting back to his reality early enough to affect changes to it in such a way that Riker isn't a part of the walk back to the room. So in this reality, did the Cardassians still

compromise the Argus Array? That's a great question. I guess we don't get to that. That's still in the future from where the episode ends. Yeah. The resolution is personal instead of professional. Wolfpors, a champagne for my real universe, real pain for my sham universe. Nicely done, Adam. Did you like the episode? I liked it as much as ever. It is one of the ones that if I want to play random trek with myself and just watch something great and satisfying,

this is one of the ones. It's most definitely on the mountain for me. It sounds not so random at them. Yeah, but like, you know, if you want to flip through the library and watch something that you know will be satisfying, this after its many viewings is no less satisfying now. So fun. Yeah, I'm right there with you buddy. Any more to add than that?

I don't think I have anything else. All right. I have something to add to this. Priority one messages. Wanna check them? Let's check them. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel.

I need a supplement on that. A supplement on that? A supplement. A supplement. Yeah, it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Ben, our first priority one message is from Mock. It is four, Christar, Shrimp, Colgar, and Mike.

It goes like this. Mike, thanks for my Drunk Shemotorshirt. Christar, thanks for my other Drunk Shemotorshirt, and for tipping us out to this pot. Happy Birthday, Casey! You're the best! As badass as Ensen Row, and as omnipotent as Q and Kevin put together.

To celebrate your day, Cal has been made. There's an alternate universe here. Yeah. That is being painted with very bright colors. Our next priority one message is from your lemony wife, and it is for my newtally husband. Goes like this. Depending on when this airs and when you listen, Leave and it is for my newly husband.

Goes like this. Depending on when this airs and when you listen, happy birthday anniversary or Captain Picard Day, whichever is closest. Let's drive off into the sunset in our flat pack camper van. You pack your deepest V and I'll set the Horgon to stun. Thanks for being the husband I need, and the dodo are Goor's Deserve. I love you.

I didn't know that Horgons had a modular setting. You mean both. Yeah. I wonder if their flat pack camper van has the water supply or not? Oh yeah. Anything, and if they park it on a larger camper van, that's preventing them from being able to air it out.

Yeah. I think we might need more details here. Ha-ha-ha. Yeah, right in. Does, uh, are you pushing a runabout or more of a prep? And Newtley Husband, you keeping it out Dante over there? Sure, I'm sorry. Well, one way to keep our show perfectly out Dante

is through supporting it through the purchase of a priority one message bin. You can do that by going to maximumfund.org slash jobo-tron or personal messages for $100 and commercial messages or $200. It's a great way to support the production of our program. Hey, Ben. What's that, Adam? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? I did. Um, I'm going to give it to Riker for that first scene that he and Warfarin, um, Warf is

coming back from a batlet competition with a ball that has spikes coming out of it and a sword. He's clearly very jumpy and Riker is just going to let him walk into a room full of people waiting to surprise him. That seems super, super bad judgment. They are taking up also like a disproportionate amount of hallway with this walk. How do you get around worth? Yeah.

He's carrying five total pointy blades. That is the ultimate man spread. Yeah. How about yourself? Did you have a drink from out of Adam? Yeah, I did. And it's sort of making fun of someone in a way that is maybe more cruel than we usually get. But there's the scene where data is doing the McLaughlin group and he is explaining what should be like melting everyone's brains in the entire room about this quantum reality thing.

The only person in the room who is super hip to the idea and poor Tens to get everything that's happening is Beverly who you get a quick cut to her and she's like, got her thumb and crook of pointer finger on her chin and she's like nodding like, yes. Yes, I get this. I read Neil Stevenson's book, Anatham. I know the basics of this premise. Like the idea of like looking like you get it

when there's no fucking way you get it. Feels a little bit Shimoda-eat-a-me. So I'm giving mine to Beverly. The idea of, like, looking like you get it when there's no fucking way you get it feels feels a little bit Shimoda-eat-a-me. Some give him my debaverly. Fun. 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.

FOD is from all over, gather at these shows to cosplay, to do pre and post-show hangs, to make friends, and share their embarrassment. Hey, let's make a pretty great name for a tour. Let's do it! The Sherry Reembarishment 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.

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 got stupid with Judy Greer. My friend Molly and I call it having the spaceweards. 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 Goat try. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Oh, rats.

Hey, hey, oh, I'm about to count you in mine. 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 nacks. But I'm hearing we need to get on this. 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 same life, something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came two by two. What do you think? Only Ross and Kerry, available on MaximumFun.org. [♪ Music playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing? The next episode is season seven, episode 12, the Pegasus. Riker's torn when his former commander, now an admiral, orders him to hide the real purpose of a risky

mission from Picard. Do you remember this episode, Adam? I want to say they're like four really, really good season seven episodes. And I think this is one of them. This might be number four. Yeah. I remember this one being great. It's like the phone single line pitch of like, what if the federation had dabbled in cloaks? Yeah. Illegal weapons technology.

Yeah. This is a definite post-Roddenberry episode. Yeah. Yeah, and I love it. Well, that's our next episode. So tune in next time for that. In the meantime, you can go to Apple Podcast. It'll leave a nice review for the show. Helps us find new viewers and helps new viewers find us.

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Thank you for listening. With that, it 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 is occupying the same time and space as a giant rock in outer space. Make it sound. You'll be got to got to got to got to got to got to. Maximumfund.org Comedy and culture.

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