The Greatest Generation - Ghost Mom (S3E5)

Episode Date: July 25, 2016

When an away team accident kills a member of the Enterprise crew, it's up to Captain Picard to deliver the bad news to the newest member of the orphan club. Their grief doesn't last for long, because ...the fallen crew member reappears and promises a new life for the son she left behind. Is there such a thing as a bloodless Klingon ceremony? Why does Wesley (the boy?) have his own room? Is there more than one way to get a Natural Yeager? It's the first episode of the "Slick Back Trilogy"!

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 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,
Starting point is 00:00:35 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,
Starting point is 00:01:01 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
Starting point is 00:01:25 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
Starting point is 00:01:55 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 greatest generation. A Star Trek podcast by two guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have the top rated Star Trek podcast on the internet.
Starting point is 00:02:36 I'm your host Adam Pranika. I'm your other host Ben Harrison. Ben Harrison. Yes. I don't know if you have been checking our Drunk Shemota at gmail. Yes. I don't know if you have been checking our drunk Shimoda at gmail.com email box lately? I'm not as good about checking it as you are. We got a special emailer that sent us a message, Ben.
Starting point is 00:02:57 Oh, yeah, who's that? I'm going to read you the email and then I'm going to read you the signature and that'll be the big reveal. Okay. Oh, is it armist? Ha ha ha. Dear Adam and Ben, I may be an old man, but I'm working on being a dirty old man, so let him rip.
Starting point is 00:03:13 Ha ha ha. The jokes, not the farts. Ha ha ha ha ha. Signed, Biff. What? Is that the Biff. What? Is that the Biff? Look, is it... As in Yeager?
Starting point is 00:03:32 I had questioned the authenticity of the sender, but I will tell you that I checked into it. It is the man himself. What? Yeah, this Yeager reached out. That's a natural Yeager. That's a natural-yager. That is a natural-yager. That's one of the natural-yaggers that you can get.
Starting point is 00:03:50 Damn, that's great. Pretty great. It sounds like he's listening because he's pretty hip to the dick and fart jokes. I mean, you don't just say something like that unless you've heard the pod, right? Right, or he's any tweet about the show. Yeah. Anyway, that really put a hop in my step. I thought that was great. Mr. Yeager thank you so much for
Starting point is 00:04:11 writing in. We make a lot of silly jokes but we we really are true fans and it comes from a place of love for sure. We hugely appreciate it. That man that feels amazing. I know, right? And now that we have his email address, we can officially invite him to greatest GenCon 2017. Oh, snap. So there'll be three of us in that red roof in hotel room.
Starting point is 00:04:38 Yeah, we might have to spring for the two double beds room instead of just the big king, which is all we could afford initially. Yeah. Wow, really exciting stuff. Before we get to the episode, I have a little announce. I got to interview Zachary Quinto,
Starting point is 00:05:04 the Mr. Spock and the JJ Abrams Star Trek reboot series for a podcast that I am producing and co-hosting for my job called The Made Man Podcast. So go download The Made Man Podcast and give it a listen and you'll hear me talking to Zachary Quinto. You son of a bitch. You're plugging another podcast and you're bragging about interviewing Zachary Quinto, which by the way I'm not hearing about until this moment. Yeah, well I just kind of kind of got firmed up like on my way out of the office today, so. Wow. Wow. Congratulations.
Starting point is 00:05:48 Yeah. Or whatever. I'm a big fan of Zachary Quinto. I, you know, I think that our listeners have different feelings about the new films. I kind of like them. I think that he might be the best part or one of the best parts. Yeah, I feel the same way. I think he's great. With that, do you want to turn the page
Starting point is 00:06:12 to the first episode in the Slickback trilogy? This is becoming a speech. You're the cat monster, very entitled. Hmm, I'm going to type it around the lawn about something everyone knows. The bonding. This episode starts out with the B team of 18's. Yeah, it's really true. And it's like they're doing some sweeps of an archeological site.
Starting point is 00:06:38 And this is one of those like we saved a lot of money on no planet set. Yeah, you only get the beam back. You don't get the beam down. Yeah, so it's like a wharf and a bunch of nobody's are down there. And Troy gets real worried all of a sudden and says, like, get him out of there. And then by the time they're beamed back up, everybody's singed and smoking because an
Starting point is 00:07:05 exploto has gone off. Yeah, I mean the away team was was playing Indiana Jones down there and I don't know why the war fleets that away team. Like who's the guy who's gonna be the most handy in a situation where you're like banging around some caves and looking for things. It's gotta be Jordy, right? Why isn't Jordy on that away team? Oh yeah, cause of his ability to see through things and whatnot. Right, that's what I'm thinking exactly.
Starting point is 00:07:33 Yeah. Like if Indy had a visor, he could have totally seen that giant ball trap. Yeah, Niga, he may have been able to more accurately gauge how heavy the bag of sand needed to be when he took that one gold statue. Yeah, and he could have fired very accurately his gun at that guy whipping the saber around it him.
Starting point is 00:07:57 And when he found that girl in that bar in the Himalayas, he could have been way creepier around her. So, yeah, there it is. They beam right back up to sick bay, and there's a fatality on this away team. Yeah. It's Marla Astor. The Marla Astor? It is the Marla Astor who we have never met before. And so the feelings about her death are not immediately acute at this moment.
Starting point is 00:08:31 Outside of the idea that Worf is just covered in her gore. Yeah, it's pretty gross. Yeah. Yeah. So Picard runs to Six Bay to assess the situation. And he's pretty crushed by the idea. I don't get the feeling that he loses a lot of crew members on a way teams. No, and I think that maybe you can go into that situation having known it was a risk if you
Starting point is 00:09:00 didn't think that they were out spolunking and looking for relics. Yeah, like her, her, her job title was chief archeologist. So, which is, which is a super red shirty job title on the enterprise, like a job title you do not want is chief archeologist, her 20th century, history. But she was blue shirt and, and she bought the farm in the near term. They're like well who's her who's their next of kin and It's learned that she has a son and no husband and her sons in class. Yeah Jeremy
Starting point is 00:09:41 Is about to get spoken to in class today. Yeah, yeah I know they even like call down until the teacher like we're gonna come speak to Jeremy after class and They're kind of drawn straws about who's gonna do it and a warf is like it's gotta be me I was with her I led the team and you look at warf and he is covered in cherry jello like Like there is brain matter and hair and like he looks like a horror movie. He looks really bad and he does not want to change. He wants to go right to the classroom. Yeah, it probably like actually kind of tiptoed up to the line of what was okay to show on TV. Yeah. A lot of guts wise at the time. Like it's an upsetting bit of stage makeup they've got going on there.
Starting point is 00:10:30 They gave him the raspberry. There's only one man who would dare give me the raspberry. Pieces of him are smoking still. Yeah. And it's not Jeremy's vape pen So it is Picard that ends up having the conversation with Jeremy Yeah, and and and it's the timing of all of this early stuff is a little weird because they toss randomly in a scene of warf in like a blue place like of Worf in like a blue place, like using a knife to put out a candle. And you can tell that Worf is like already into some heavy like,
Starting point is 00:11:10 going on death ritual shit at this point. But he's like in that blue room and then Picard is sitting down with Jeremy to tell him the bad news. Right. You get, you don't get an official montage, but you do go around the horn a little bit with how people are processing the grief of this crewman's death.
Starting point is 00:11:33 Like, so you get wharf in what I believe is the holodeck, doing a little mini ceremony with a knife in the candle. Mm-hmm. And then you get riker in 10 forward, drinking the pink lemonade of grief, and confiding that he totally fucked her. We spent some time together. It's like I didn't know her, no her,
Starting point is 00:11:57 but in the biblical sense, sure. Yeah, like, it's pretty transparent that what Riker's talking about is a fling and that's about it. Yeah, I thought that the scene where Picard talked to Jeremy was pretty good. Like it's a child actor and this actor is being asked to portray a young boy who's learning that his mother has died and his father died a few years previous to that. And I thought his performance was really good. I thought the kind of emotional impact of the scene, it really worked for me. This is not an easy thing to pull off, I don't think. So as many silly things that happened in this episode after this, like, I think that
Starting point is 00:12:45 this was the thing that really needed to work, and it worked for me. Do you agree? Yeah, I really do. And it pains me to say it because I really like Will Wheaton a lot. I'm a big fan. But the way that the, that the Wesley character processes, but the way that the that the Wesley character processes grief and the way that this child actor processes it, I feel like the slick back kid does it better. Yeah. Well, it shouldn't be that way.
Starting point is 00:13:18 It's written, it's written better for the kid. They give them less to do, I mean, to be fair. Sure. I think they ask a lot of, of Will Wheaton to deliver some pretty shitty dialogue. Right. They also put like a four millimeter thick layer of pancake makeup on Wesley in this episode.
Starting point is 00:13:41 So he's got, he's got a big, a thick mask to act through. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, it's really trailed on. It is. It looks like the sets in the, in the Muntacan village. It looks like, it looks like a makeup version of this old house. Yeah, bad stucco job. Oh, you're gonna, you're gonna want to travel on this stucco, stuff oh really thick and really cover up some of that adolescent adolescent acne. Now you don't wanna put too much on there. Now if you're gonna build,
Starting point is 00:14:15 if you're gonna build a corner on the face you're gonna take some makeup, put it in a miter box and measure out a 45 degree angle. Oh man, yeah. You know, bad impression cast. Just isn't gonna stop. Can't stop won't stop. This old enterprise.
Starting point is 00:14:33 Yeah. Fun one. So what isn't long between the time that Jeremy's informed of his mother's death. You see the grief of several crew members. And then you go back around to Jeremy again and his mom appears in her quarters. Right. Ghost mom. You didn't expect me to come back as a mother, did you see all?
Starting point is 00:15:07 And the thing about ghost mom is that she is giving off way strong Pamela Voorhees vibes. The counselors weren't paying any attention. They were making love while that young boy drunk. You get on putting down here? You're gonna have to flesh that out. Like Jason's mom from the Friday the 13th movie, the original. And today is his birthday. Okay, that's a franchise that I never I never got into. Oh man, the original is pretty great, pretty great and pretty culty, but the actress who plays her in that old movie takes the cake for crazy moms. And Jeremy's mom, in this case, Jeremy's ghost mom, I should say, really has those vibes big time. Yeah, so let's talk about what is, what the two, like,
Starting point is 00:15:57 the A and the B story are unclear, which is the A, unclear, which is the the B I would say they sort of get equal time. They're kind of braided together. Right. So, so conflict one is, Worf really wants to get this kid roped into a Klingon ritual that will make the kid a member of Worf's house. Like he will become a member of Worf's house. Like, he will become a member of Worf's Cling-On family. And, uh... We added another orphan to orphan club. Right. Yeah, exactly. And thing B is what the fuck is going on where this
Starting point is 00:16:36 kid whose mom is definitely dead is creeping around the ship all the time. That's accurate. That's an accurate description of the A and B stories. Yeah. A C storyline that I sort of wish they would have addressed is there's a few times when somebody will come by to check in on the kid, I don't know, like war for Troy or somebody will come poke their head in on him,
Starting point is 00:17:00 just like see how he's doing with his grief. And they depict them as like sitting alone in his quarters, like with an iPad watching old videos of his parents. And it's like, is he, is, are they literally just letting him live alone in this apartment by himself? He's like, he's like nine, right? Yeah, I was thinking about that too. Like in any other context, in any other location, that doesn't fly, right? Creepy as fuck. You actually get to live alone when your parents die on a star trip?
Starting point is 00:17:32 That's a thing? Because that sounds great! I mean, like Wesley, a boy, has some demonstrated maturity at this point. It's less implausible that he got to live alone for a year. Jeremy's a little far away from getting a Jim Belushi poster in his condo. Do you think all the other engines on the ship fucking hate Wesley's guts? He had an apartment to himself. For a year?
Starting point is 00:18:02 God, I don't know. Because they probably all bunk together, right in like in like twos and fours They'd have to So so so they're looking at this kid not even not even a real Ensign he's gotten a Provisional field commission and he's living large and in charge in one of the corner office type apartments Oh, I think the bad and in Wesley's service outweighs the good in many cases. Ben, I don't think there's much for the other enlisted crewmen to be jealous of. Fair enough.
Starting point is 00:18:44 even in yourself. Stand up, tell the truth. You don't deserve the wealth that's beautiful. So, uh, Marla is the name of Jeremy's mom. Yeah. Lieutenant Aster. And she's out of uniform. Yeah. And she's just in, she's just in full on 80s mom get up. And in the, in the near term, after Jeremy's mom dies for her to appear, Jeremy is not surprisingly very happy to see her. Like he believes that the awaited mission was a liar or a mistake for some reason. He's totally willing to hang out with his mom again. You can't blame him at all. Because she looks exactly like her, she's really nice.
Starting point is 00:19:21 She's talking about wanting to set up shop on the planet. I mean, that part's weird, I guess. But in all other ways, she sort of recreates the old house. Yeah. Yeah. In their quarters. Their quarters become an earth-based home. Like, there's trees out the window and stuff.
Starting point is 00:19:39 Jim is not sophisticated to understand that he's being manipulated. All he sees is the advantages of being with ghost mom. And I think they're pretty numerous. I totally buy his interest. And also like in his defense, the special effects are super well done. Like every time the room like shifts, there's only like one or two or like it's not dead perfect. Well, the trick in doing that shift is not showing anyone's feet, because when they cut
Starting point is 00:20:07 back and forth between crew quarters and fake Earth condo, if they were to depict where the people are standing, they're like quite a bit above and quite a bit below the floor of the quarters. Right. So, like, you block that scene specifically so that as an editor, you take that out of play and it totally works. Yeah. It's sold and it totally works. Yeah, it's sold and purchased.
Starting point is 00:20:28 Yeah. So I guess if there is a C storyline, they're trying to figure out how this accident happened, right? Right. And so they send Jordy down, which they should have sent him down from the start. They send Jordy down into the caves. And he finds these little,
Starting point is 00:20:44 these little landmines down there, right? Yeah, they're like subspace shielded so I try a quarter wouldn't pick them up and this is a cool little piece of prop Yeah, I thought they're also detecting this like weird energy fountain coming off the surface of the planet and hooking the belly of the planet and hooking the belly of the ship. And it doesn't take a super long time for them to figure out that this is what is causing
Starting point is 00:21:14 finger flexions, Marla, to appear on the ship. So now there's this technical question, like, oh, can we remodulate something to get this thing to go away But it's like it's the the stakes feel real high because like Troy is Working super hard to help this kid process his grief and this Perfect fact-simply of his mother has appeared and that's thrown everything into disarray. It's sort of like a double jeopardy of grief. Like how many times are you going to make this poor kid go through the loss of his mom? Yeah, and like Wes is starting to chew back through all of the shitty feelings he has surrounding the fact that Picard was the one that ordered his father to go on the mission
Starting point is 00:22:00 that he'd lost his life on. And now he's like here, like being bossed around by Picard in a context in which this other kid is going through the same thing. And, and part of that is he's like, he gets to see it in retrospect and also see it in front of him, like to relive it again, to watch Picard tell another kid that their parent got killed.
Starting point is 00:22:23 Yeah. Like, it's gotta be a head fuck. It's rough. I mean, it's a... And they do that really well in this episode. Like, God, they are so fucking ham-fisted with so much. I think, but I think they get death really right on the show. Yeah, I mean, when it's not inflicted by Q or whatever,
Starting point is 00:22:44 like, if it's not inflicted by Q or whatever, like if it's like a, if it's like the personal experience of different people, like, like all of the characters have very well fleshed out, like, sides of their, of themselves, when it comes to, when it comes to death. Like, and like, Troy is super well written in this episode, I think. Yeah. Like, she is really like super professional and like really like feeling for everybody and trying to help them go through those feelings in a way that is not going to like cause long-term damage to their minds and stuff. And she's got so many plates in the air too. Right. Like, it's not just about this Jeremy kid. Yeah. It's about Picard and Wesley and stuff. And she's got so many plates in the air too. Like it's not just about this Jeremy kid,
Starting point is 00:23:26 it's about Picard and Wesley and Beverly and Wurf. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Wurf's easy to deal with because all you know, like she knows that all he wants to do is do this ceremony. And as long as she can get him to like press pause until the kid is like well enough to do it, it's gonna be okay.
Starting point is 00:23:47 At this point, we still don't know exactly what the ceremony entails, but you gotta believe it's gonna be fucking rugged. Yeah, all we know about it so far is that there's candles and knives involved. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure a power glove's gonna be around there somewhere. Someone's gonna bleed. Yeah. They see this piece of energy rising from the planet and they're like,
Starting point is 00:24:17 well, we have the ability to shut it off. Let's go ahead and modulate the shields and shut it off. Even though that's going to remove the Jeremy's mom simulation from the quarters, like that's the right thing to do. We've got to do it, let's just do it. And so they zap it, they take her away, and as expected, this kind of infuriates Jeremy.
Starting point is 00:24:38 Right. Who is sort of game to go live on the planet with his ghost mom. Right, well, I mean, all he knows is that that's what his mom was telling him they were gonna do. So he's like, what the fuck is wrong with you guys? Yeah, and little by little at this point, people are starting to chip away at the fantasy
Starting point is 00:24:56 that Jeremy is constructed in his mind. Like, they're like, would you real mom ever want to take you off the ship and set up shop on a weird planet somewhere? Like, does that seem like the actions of the mom that you remember? Like, they start planning seeds of doubt on him, which I think is a pretty good strategy. Yeah, I mean... Ghost mom doesn't do herself any favors either, because she acts weirder and weirder as time goes on. Yeah, I mean, and I think that like the main lingering question I had about this character
Starting point is 00:25:26 is was like what exactly is this character based on? Like how do the entities creating it know like what it's supposed to look like act like sound like what its values are supposed to be? Like all of that stuff is coming from a very specific viewpoint but I don't I don't feel like we ever really like got to understanding like why. Can we be sure it's not actually Kevin and disguise? Captain Picard have come back to help the boy. I'll take him down to the planet, I'll put him in a new house. I made another real doll, a little bit younger than my previous one.
Starting point is 00:26:12 Pretty easy on the eyes, isn't he? I can't stop breaking your rules. I'm a man of special conscience and special sexual appetite. So yeah, I mean, several episodes, season three, it's all about running into omnipotent, all powerful characters, isn't it? Yeah, so they were in this ruins and looking at this at the remains of a civilization that they were aware of. What they were not aware of was that this planet was previously inhabited by corporeal beings and also non-corporeal beings. And those non-corporeals are still chilling. And they are the ones that are shooting this energy fountain at the enterprise, and they're the ones creating Marla. And their logic is we like saw this tragedy happen to this poor woman, and it's like the last like senseless death in this war that totally wiped out our civilizational counterparts
Starting point is 00:27:28 in the corporeal aliens that lived here. So, which is like, holy mackerel, like, can you believe that this show actually like gets to that as the explanation. Like, what other television show is that like a reasonable solution to a mystery? Yeah. It totally, it totally, like, defies everything, except for somehow they like sell it in this. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:59 I don't know why it works. It just does. By the time they wrap up this conflict, there's really no time for there to be any other explanation. Like, Worf gets his Ruchtai time with Jeremy. Yeah, the bonding. The bonding. I suppose we could use its English translation if you prefer.
Starting point is 00:28:20 How would you describe the bonding, Ben? Mm. Can't candle hangs in the blue room? Yeah. It's a lot like a club environment. Yeah, I mean, I'd say that it was your average candlelight vigil minus sticking the candles through a paper plate.
Starting point is 00:28:39 Like they didn't have any paper plates around. Maybe they forgot to replicate them or something. Yeah, surprisingly blood-free for a Klingon event. Yeah, but the kid gets a cool Klingon over-vest to put on. Yeah. And Worf's got a ceremonial sash that's different looking than his normal sash. Michael Dorn does that thing where he opens his eyes really wide when he's doing something clinging on.
Starting point is 00:29:11 Yeah, I just love that. It's igniting his senses. Yeah, like someone broken ammonia capsule under his nose. Hahaha. I don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to this ongoing Jeremy Warf storyline. Yeah, it's gonna be great, right? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:30 A greatest-gen live show is something you don't want to miss. Why? Well, it's a great opportunity to see me and Ben in person, but that's not all. FODs from all over gather at these shows to cosplay, to do pre and post show hangs, to make friends, and share their embarrassment. Hey, let's make a pretty great name for a tour. Let's do it. The Share Your Embarrassment Tour is coming in August 2023, and we've got a bunch of dates in a lot of great places. Go to greatestgentour.com to get more info.
Starting point is 00:30:08 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 spaceweirds.
Starting point is 00:30:29 Pat Noswald. Could I get a ball-rock 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.
Starting point is 00:30:44 Give Jordan Jesse Goat try. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Oh, rats, hey, 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.
Starting point is 00:31:03 But I'm hearing we need to get on this arc. We've got to get on the arc. It's 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. Yes, 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, so seem like something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came two by two.
Starting point is 00:31:28 What do you think? Ona Ross & Kerry, available on MaximumFun.org. ["Makos and Rostin Carri"] Tom McCringish and Yolanda. What do you think of this episode, Ben? I mean, like, in talking to you about it, I have more respect for it than I did in watching it. Like, I don't think it's a great episode by any extent. But it helped to talk out your grief, didn't it? Yeah. I mean, and there's the scene where they're
Starting point is 00:31:57 the scene, the pivotal scene where they talk Jeremy out of believing this thing is his actual mother is real weird because it's kind of one of those group therapy scenes that used to just be universally bad in seasons one and two. Yeah, like the two-way mirror, the weird the weird box of toys, the the medical practitioners looking and taking notes. Yeah, this scene is like really well written for Picard and Troy and Wes is in there and it's like every time it cuts to him, he has some terrible line.
Starting point is 00:32:38 Like, and it's like, it's all he can do to deliver, like it's all well-weaten can do to deliver them with feeling, but like they're so badly written. I, on the one hand, I feel like our program is particularly harsh on Wesley's character, slash will as an actor, but I mean, the side card to that criticism every time is always the material he has is just not great. And I don't know if anyone can succeed in those conditions.
Starting point is 00:33:09 And I think, like, this is his last season, isn't it? His last season before the break or does he have a few more? Uh, I think it's... Mike got through four. Regardless, that has to be a reason that he leaves the show, right? Yeah, I mean, I can imagine it was pretty frustrating to get this script and have to go on set with it. Especially when you see the nuanced way that characters are being built all around
Starting point is 00:33:35 him. Like, God, that's got to be even more infuriating. You're watching Troy and Picard have their turbo lift scene and it's like crushing and great. And then you have to do your own scene with your character's mom in sick bay. And it's just like, trickle-y and gross and, God, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:34:00 It's a real bipolar episode emotionally. Yeah, it's a real bipolar episode emotionally. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's a weird one. Yeah. Hey, band. Hey, Adam. Did you find a drug Shimoda? Incredible.
Starting point is 00:34:14 Drunk Shimoda! Drunk Shimoda is the award we give to a character who's acting a fool. And in this episode, oh, we should talk about this. The Drunk Shemota got a little name check on an article written by Danny Roth on the 10 most hated Star Trek episodes of all time.
Starting point is 00:34:41 This is really exciting. Oh, the end of that headline is that deserve a second chance, which I think is, has to be said. Yeah, well, these are terrible episodes. Yeah, I think that maybe we have given the naked now the only reason it deserves a second chance, because now people have to watch it to find out
Starting point is 00:35:01 why we keep saying drunk Shimoda in every episode. Shimoda's described as acting like an inebriated baby, which I thought was great. Yeah, we should copy that phraseology. Yeah. Well, my drunk Shimoda was these non-corporeal aliens that created the Marla Astor projection. I just like, it's just like, seems like such a crazy plan that they had. Like, why did they think that this was going to fix the situation? Well Picard calls them out on it. He's like, so what do you do in this kid's a teenager? a card calls them out on it. He's like, so what do you do in this kid's a teenager or when he becomes an adult? Like, it's like they bought a puppy and didn't buy any pet food
Starting point is 00:35:52 or a cage or have a place at the backyard. Like, they're just in love with the puppy for some reason. They totally walked by one of those windows in New York City and saw the French bulldogs running around in the sawdust and we're like let's take one home. The slick back breed is just so cute when he's young. Yeah those slick cats are real cutie pies. Yeah but the hip dysplasia is just a real nightmare. How about you do you have a drunk charmota? I mean for me I really admire that Wurf takes it on the chin and goes like, yeah, it's on me. I'm the leader of the away team.
Starting point is 00:36:31 As the leader, I'm responsible for those in my care and everything that goes down while we're on a mission. But the idea that he could walk into a primary school classroom covered in goal or to deliver the news to Jeremy personally like, man, I totally get that he wanted to do it quick and to do it like right then and there. But man, you got to, you get a change of clothes, dude. Like take a shower. Think about what you're gonna say. Shower time can give you some good contemplative time.
Starting point is 00:37:09 It's just sort of figure out how you want to do this. And then go in there, a little April fresh. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So yeah, Drugs from Oda goes to Wharf for me. Very enough. I am a cute little ball. There are four lights.
Starting point is 00:37:23 What do we have coming up on the next episode? Next episode is season three episode six, booby trap. The Enterprise is caught in a booby trap. The titular booby trap? That captures the ship and converts its energy into lethal levels of radiation. Booms!
Starting point is 00:37:42 I remember this episode, Ben. I'm hearing the gasps from our viewers there. This is the first time potential I've ever said this. This is one of my favorite episodes. Oh, is it? That I can remember. Like, I should put that caveat in there. Like, I have not seen this episode since I was very young.
Starting point is 00:38:02 I remember really, really loving this episode. I remember liking it too. I mean, it's definitely the episode that fully takes a Creepa-zoid Jordy out for a spin. Yeah, they grab the keys to creep Jordy. Yeah. Put her in drive and take her around the block. Yeah. But yeah, I think it's a good app. I'm looking forward to it. And we might as well leave it at that since neither of us has any vetoes to attempt to use.
Starting point is 00:38:41 It's true. If you'd like to talk about booby trap, booby traps of any kind, or any of the other episodes we've reviewed already, you can reach out to us on Twitter using the hashtag greatestgen. I am on Twitter as at cut for time. Ben also on Twitter as at BenjaminR, A.H.R. We're on the maximum fun subreddit and there's also a greatest gen subreddit. Both of them are great places to talk about the episode, and please mind your pees and cues on the Maximum Fund one, so that they don't get mad about what creeps we all are.
Starting point is 00:39:19 You can be like Biff Yeager and send us an email if you want, where at DrunkShamotaGmail.com. Look, if you ask us for Biff Yeager's email address, we're not going to give it to you. So don't even try. Little update on t-shirts, I talked to a friend of ours today who's going to help work up the design and expecting proofs very soon, or drafts very soon. So, yeah, we're still working as hard as we can to get that done ASAP. And we are super excited to get it done. We just want the first one to be like really perfect, you know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:39:59 Yeah, got to come out of the gates hat. Yeah, I mean, this first t-shirt is going to be like a cut off mesh style t-shirt, right? That's a very nipple revealing. Right. We are on Facebook, we've got a page and a group, if you can find one you can probably find the other. Those are very active places as well and Those are very active places as well, and we really appreciate everybody that's gotten involved. This laundry list of credits is getting longer and longer. It really is. But what we're trying to say is, there's
Starting point is 00:40:35 nowhere for us to hide anymore. Yeah. Also, one last thing before we go, we should thank Dark Materia for our music. And listener named Nick Addison on SoundCloud as Mr. Nickel Music, and I see KLE. Sent in a song he made that is kind of,
Starting point is 00:40:59 it's like clips from TNG that sort of evoke the spirit of our show, and I thought it was really great. And so we're gonna throw that on the the spirit of our show. And I thought it was really great. And so we're gonna throw that on the end of the episode today. Yeah. So make sure you listen through to the end. I think one of the best parts of our show is when viewers send us things that they've made.
Starting point is 00:41:20 I think that's super fun. It's super cool. We really appreciate it. Thanks Nick and yeah, he makes like a kids music too. So I think that's what mostly his sound cloud is devoted to. But I'm sure everybody with kids will enjoy that. Yeah, hopefully you're not playing our show in front of your kids. Yeah, that would be a bad idea.
Starting point is 00:41:43 Yeah, definitely. Well, with that, we will be back bad idea. Yeah, definitely. Well, with that, we will be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek the Next Generation and a very booby episode of the greatest generation. I'm a cat, you're a little bit caught up in you I'm a little bit caught up in you I'm a little bit caught up in you I'm a little bit caught up in you Make it sound, make it sound Make it sound You're a little bit caught up, caught up, caught up
Starting point is 00:42:21 So, is to recognize I had only dreams. Dreams can be dangerous. Not these dreams. I dream of a galaxy where your eyes are in stars. And the universe worships the night. You are the heart of my day. You are the greatest generation.
Starting point is 00:42:44 Wait. I don't think this is my style. Shut up, Wesley. Shut up, Wesley. As you know, I've been given the responsibility of overseeing Wesley's education. No problem. We're women or concerned I am in complete control. Wesley, Crusher, what does he know about it? You're welcome ladies.
Starting point is 00:43:11 No, it's to recognize. I had only dreams. Dreams can be dangerous. Not these dreams. I dream of a galaxy where your eyes and the stars and the universe worships the night. You're the heart my day. You're the greatest generation. Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture, Artistone. Listener supported.

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