The Greatest Generation - Girthy Eyeballs (TNG S1E10)

Episode Date: June 29, 2026

When Q interrupts the Entrepreneur on the way to an urgent rescue mission, the crew is taken off the ship and Captain Picard is left alone on the bridge. But after Riker becomes the hatable player in Q’s latest game, Picard wins his bet and Q gets taken away by the continuum. What’s on the new flag hanging at PraniCabana this year? When will the crew learn the most important thing about encountering a Q? How is a contact lens like a toilet? It’s the episode that asks a big question about billionaires.Support the production of our shows Members get benefits including bonus episodes and an ad-free experienceSign up for our mailing list!Get a thing at podshop.biz!The Greatest Generation is hosted by Adam Pranica and Benjamin Ahr Harrison The show is produced by Wynde PriddySocial media is managed by Rob Adler and Bill TilleyMusic by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaDiscuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen and find us on social media:YouTube | Instagram | BlueskyAnd check out these online communities run by FODs: Reddit | USS Hood Discord | Facebook group | Wikia | FriendsOfDeSoto.socialSupport the production of The Greatest Generation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Want to hear an ad-free version of this show? Go to greatest.supercast.com. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage. Welcome to the greatest generation, the next generation. It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys, just a little bit embarrassed about having a Star Trek podcast. I'm Adam Pranica.

I'm Ben Harrison. Are you doing today, Adam? You need a little more breath for that intro. It's a longer walk. to get to the landing site to mangle a metaphor. I like it. Yeah, a little more hang time maybe. Yeah.

It is. Yeah. Ten episodes in to our new independence. How are you feeling? Ten episode check-in. That's what this is. I'm feeling good. I am really enjoying watching TNG at this pace

because it was such a fucking sprint the last time I watched this. which like I've watched individual episodes here and there since we did our initial series, but I have not done a watch through and spending more time both, you know, in between episodes, but also talking about the episodes. I feel like I'm getting more out of them. And I don't know. Like I, I'm not going to argue that season one is like way better than people say it is. but I think there's more good there than has been generally known.

And it's good to have the time to figure that out. Like you're saying, I really like this experience this time through because like Jack Horner says in Boogie Nights, it's nice to set in it a little bit before moving on to the next step. This is good. It's really exciting when you watch TNG take it out. It's true. But thank you, Eddie.

No problem. Why don't we put it in to this episode, Ben, right away. Speaking of huge dix, let's talk about this Delancey episode. Yeah, there's your pivot. It's Star Trek the Next Generation, season one, episode 10. It is called Hyde and Q. This was before they came up with the idea that Q could be like a rhyming pun or something. Yeah.

hide and Q. What's hiding? I also had it a little twisted in my head because I thought the next time they ran into Q was when they would get flung out to J5 and meet the Borg. And that's going to be later. That's not now. People often forget about the Those Aren't Muskets episode. Yeah. Yep. There was a comedy, like a sketch comedy team, maybe on YouTube, like an early YouTube sketch comedy team called Those Aren't Muskets. and they used the like audio drop from that in their little in their little logo at the end of every sketch those are muskets i watched a sketch of theirs in you know when i was like in college and youtube was

new and i had like the most profound sense memory because i'd been like a long time since i'd seen any tng and i was like holy fucking shit there are people like me out there yeah i i thought we kept to ourselves for fear of embarrassment. It shocked and delighted me. One thing you get to know about this episode is that we dropped emotional bloodhound Deanna Troy back at a star base behind us. So she's not going to be a part of this adventure at all. They didn't really feel the need to say that they like dropped Worf off for something

in the episode that Worf wasn't in. No. Unclear like what that's about. Why she's doing trip home, whether it's important at the beginning of this episode that She's not here. There's no need for her at the mission ahead, which is to tend to some colonists whose mind has exploded. Like, we don't need emotional resources for folks who have been through a traumatic event,

right? Yeah. I mean, I can't imagine why they would need something like that. Not when you get wharf. I mean, you're not going to see Troy jumping over the horseshoe like that, you know? No, not at all. I felt like having looked at the title of the episode and pressing play and hearing like, okay, miners in danger, this feels more like maybe what the mission should have been

in Encounter at Farpoint. And for an episode that talks a lot about Encounter at Farpoint, both because it is kind of the sequel to Encounter at Farpoint and because we're not that far away from it, I felt like, for all of the things that are not that great about Encounter at Farpoint, maybe the worst is like the comparison to an episode where it feels like the mission actually matters that they're trying to do. Yeah, there's a lot of connective tissue between the two episodes. You could call it Encounter at Farpoint, First Blood Part Q.

You feel the importance of this right. away as Crusher is like marching down the hallway with blue shirts like scrambling the forces. I'm telling them like, we're going to need burn units. We're going to need this. We're going to need that. We got a lot of people to save. And Picard radio is up to her. And he's like, like, do you even realize how many people were talking about saving? Like 500 something. It's a big number. Beverly's like, don't you remember all these empty crew quarters we've been messing around in, taking meetings in randomly? showing past people their gods in these empty quarters with the open windows, I don't think that'll be a problem.

We're going to show some burn victims their gods pretty soon. Ben, you brought up an interesting point when we start cutting around the ship and seeing folks like Beverly prepare for the upcoming mission. It feels like there is a correlation between how often you see activities outside the bridge during an emergency and how great the emergency is. Totally. And people are fucking running our. around. It is intense down in the lower decks. We learn on the bridge that we're at 9.1 and it is

going to be a little over three hours till we even get to this colony. And this is another one of those like, is 9.5 not available? Like I don't know how much time that shaves off. I don't really know how any of this works, but like why are we not talking about top speed? What are we trying to save in going 9.1? What's the sort of emergency that would permit that kind of speed? I don't know. Anyways, we're not going to find out anytime soon because we pick up a force field and we're in the Q entity grid sphere. And Picard orders full stop and is just so fucking annoyed. Not now, damn it Q.

Shields and deflectors up, sir. It fucking sucks when you're late to a thing. and you're getting there as fast as you can and you're thwarted by some bullshit traffic or whatever and this is the vibe. It's like, yeah, like somebody decided to back out of their driveway across two lanes of traffic kind of a situation

and pretty quickly this ball of sparkly light with three cobra heads coming off of it. I don't think I ever put together that these were cobra heads. I thought that it was just like kind of weird fleur-de-lie shape this thing but they're snakes i mean you compare it to a floor delete this should be the symbol for something awesome it really fucking rules put this on a tapestry it's very light and dark like it has some like death metal to it but also some enya to it you know we should put this on a flag that we hang outside of prana cabana at stelv no one's got one of

those. And we have like a playlist that like goes from Orinoco flow to, uh, and trails ripped from a virgin's cunt just to throw out some, some metal titles. That one is not in my playlist, Ben. No. Why don't we, why don't we connect your iPhone to the Bluetooth speaker? How about new? I believe that's a cannibal corpse title, which I only know as a specific because I had a roommate that thought that the titles of their songs were hilarious in college, but we never actually listened to it. He just would tell me about the titles of songs. I bet you'll know what this is, Ben. What's the, don't they do music of heavy metal music for little babies to sleep? Oh yeah, yeah, kids bop. Yeah, is there a version of that for this song?

I don't know. I do know that maybe the meanest thing I ever did in college is me and my roommate, we're taking a class and we decided to go to lunch. There was like a break in the class and we were going to go to lunch. And this kid that we didn't like that much was like, where are you guys going to lunch? And I said, oh yeah, we're going to this place out in the East Village called lentils

ripped from a vegan's walk. And I said that mostly to make my friend laugh, but also to make this kid not want to go to lunch with us because the restaurant sounded bad. Jesus. Yeah. I have a lot of regrets. Adam, I don't sleep at night, you know?

I've done horrible things. I have a lot to atone for. That doesn't count as a horrible thing. That's pretty good. What's horrible is Q is keeping the ship from making their appointed rounds. And, God, they are so busy right now, too busy for this Q. Q is demanding that they change their priorities a little bit. and get on the program with Starfleet Admiral Q if this three serpent head sphere isn't doing it for you.

That was an aldebrin serpent before and you think you have bigger fish to fry, but you don't because your most impossible dream is on the table this time. You know, like unlike last time where it was entire human race eliminated or not as the stakes, this time there's actually some genuine upside. Like you could come out ahead and not just even money. After the theme, they have no other choice, really. But to hear Q out here. And Picard suggests that maybe they can do that after the rescue mission.

Like, hey, we'll play whatever fucking game this is, but like maybe order of operations this, right? He recaps what happened last time they met. And I think this is useful for a new viewer. But it also feels like it's something they'd don't have time to do, right? There's like a rapidity to the way Picard describes things where he's like trying to like get it out of the way. They do reestablish over and over again in this episode that the thing that happened last time when they went to the court in the post-atomic horror

and then came back is like nobody else experienced that as any time passing. Right. And I really wished Collumini was in here to reprise his role of being like, what? What are you talking about? Mr. No Short-Term Memory Chief O'Brien He was there, right? Just like, it slips off my brain. I honestly couldn't tell you. There is another moment that feels very much like,

okay, if we're setting up Q as an alien, this is going to be one of his big things, which is you say the wrong thing around Q and he will make an entire depraved, experience surrounding it because Riker says we don't have time for your games. Games?

Did someone say games? We will never learn that the one thing you can't do around Q is say anything. Anything at all. People should just shut the fuck up. So we arrived the bridge crew minus Picard at a planet with twin moons

and a green sky and data is just kind of like putting together like here are the observable things about this planet, but that doesn't really narrow it down. This literally could be anywhere or nowhere. And Riker's like, well, at least it'll be really fucking interesting because by that cue, quite the imagination on that guy. Interesting in a different way is Picard's experience on the bridge of the enterprise, which is now empty. And he goes around all the doors to see if he can open them. He can't. He like calls out to different departments to see if he can get a report back. Internal communications don't seem to be

working either. And it's a real quiet, thoughtful scene of a captain finally realizing that he's alone on the bridge for the first time. Perhaps I shall go for the record. Let me see if that shoebox is under my chair where I left it. I wondered what the crew at this planet. I wondered what the crew at this planet if they gave any consideration to having them talk about, where's the captain? Should we look for him? But they don't because there's Field Marshal Q and he's got an easy-up tent that you would see at a swap meet set up with some cannons and things and invites Riker over to help him plan out the game. You got to have a planning session before any important game and you got to have a beverage for the

planning session. What are they drinking? Delicious, ice cold lemonade. An excellent thirst quencher. Gets rather hot out here on this plane. Out of the kind of wine glass, beloved by mothers-in-law everywhere. And when Riker and Kew are the only ones that get drinks, it is a little awkward. So everybody else gets a drink also. Data's not going to drink his, but Jordy puts his green beverage.

right to his lips while Wharf is pouring his out with contempt. Didn't you want, you know like that episode where Yarr sees the cat and Warf sees the targ and like people see fire blocking them in a corridor? Like, I kind of wanted to know what these drinks were for each person. Probably a cocoa no-no for Jordy's. Is that the only thing he drinks? That's it. That's all it is. He's like the kid in college who only drank soda. Just like a synthetic lubricant for data. Couldn't have been blood wine for war. It looked too light in color.

I feel like blood wine is like thick and opaque, right? You probably dilute it for children, right? You know what? That's what it is. Like when you celebrate Klingon Shabas, you put a little water in there to thin it out a little bit. Yet another insult that Q does to wharf. watering down his flood wine.

What an asshole. Well, Wharf will drink not with his enemy. And Q starts waxing eloquent about how curious the Q continuum are in the human future. Like, you guys are on such an interesting developmental path. It's just got us wondering, like, where are you headed? Change is at the heart of what you are. Change into what? That's the question.

Riker is confused. Like, why would you take us to this planet and dress up like a Napoleonic field marshal if you're curious about our future? And Q's like, oh, this is just some shit from inside Picard's head. We're going to have a game and I will learn about you through this game. We don't know much about how it will be played first. Instead, we learn about the stakes. And the stakes being that winning it will result in the best possible future they can imagine lose. it's an undescribed opposite thing. And the point of the game is to stay alive. And when the idea of fairness is questioned by Tasha Yard, she is sent away to a penalty box, of which there is only one. And the thing about the penalty box is,

because there's only one, only one person can fit in it. And if someone else gets sent to the penalty box, it means whoever's already in there goes away. I really wanted one of the characters to say, interesting that you set it up that way and said like the thing about nothingness, could you tell us like, is that what happens when we die or is that like worse than what happens when we die? Could you give us a sense of like how bad a consequence this is relative

to death? You remember in the last episode where Picard, I think, said something to data that shut him up from rambling? Hey, Tim. Don't babble. I feel like this is an excellent opportunity. for data to ramble a little bit like that. That would have been cool. Yeah. Picard is still alone on the bridge and sits down and has the idea to do a captain's log, but that doesn't even work.

And suddenly, Yarr is there. And she seems to have, like, been given an understanding of what is happening to her in a way that is like, it, like, is in her head, but doesn't seem to have actually been communicated to her. one of my favorite parts of this absolute spaghetti salad of bullshit dialogue that they gave Denise Crosby to deliver is the sentence, it sounds strange, but it definitely isn't. And then she starts to cry at work. Oh, no, you can't do that, Tasha Yard.

What in the hell am I doing? Crying? Well, new standing order on the bridge. If you're in the penalty box, you can. There's also a second rule, Tasha Yarr. If you happen to be on the bridge and your captain is going for the record, you must ignore what you see and you'll hear. You cannot appear behind your captain when he is going for the record.

He needs to be able to see you coming as you see him coming. Kind of amazing that Yarr makes a pass at him. while he comforts her just before Q appears, yikes. This is the worst the dialogue has been in the show so far. It is like... On the other hand, Ben, shoot your shot if you think you're going to die. And it seems like Tasha Yar fully believes that. I think I kind of dogged Denise Crosby out for bad acting the last time we covered this episode.

And I really think she does an amazing job with just the most messed up. weird script that has ever been inflicted on an actor. Pretty tough, yeah. It is so frustrating to be controlled like this. But like Q then shows up and is like, hey, Picard, HR violation, you're touching your employee's shoulders. Also, Yara is no longer in the penalty box. Just another script choice that I just can't get behind.

Like keep the risk. Keep the danger for her, right? Does that not describe Q's whole deal, though? Like, rules sometimes for some people, for however long he wants them to be enforced and then dropped for whatever reason he comes up with at the time. It keeps everyone off balance. We compare it to Calvin Ball. I think it's a little bit more like just like any reality competition where like nominally there are rules, but for any storytelling reason, the producers can change them at any time for any reason. and it just feels so capricious and messed up.

And they have this conversation where, you know, Picard is again just mainly annoyed at Q. And Q decides to make the captain's log on behalf of Picard and taunts the enterprise as being like an insect stuck in amber. If Picard is thinking this is going to be some sort of test of him and humanity again, He is told to disabuse himself of that right away. This is going to be a test of Will Riker instead. And Bacard's like, oh, great. Prepare to lose if the test is manually docking and undocking the sassa section from the Stardrive. Don't worry, Q, I've already tested him and he's passed with flying colors.

But really, the bet stakes are if Riker wins, Q stays out of humanity's way forever, and if Picard loses the bet, he loses his command. Kind of lopsided stakes, I think. Lopsided challenge also because Q says he's going to make Riker an offer you can't refuse. I am L'Cute as a board. You will respond to my questions. I am L'Cutus aboard. You are bored.

We're back on the planet. Jordy is like he's using his visor in like telescope mode to tell everybody where Wharf is because Worf has gone on a little recon mission to see what else is out there. Think about the logic of this scene though Ben. Like doesn't it seem like Warf doesn't have to go out there if Jordy can see with perfect clarity what's out there? I also wondered like why can't data see just as well as Jordy? I think it's because Worf really wants to get it on, and he's been restrained for the entire season so far.

He hasn't had an opportunity to exercise in a long time, and this is a big open area with a lot of like bouldering and, you know, trail running type opportunities. He finds some guys with some pretty intense facial hair and loaf. I kind of wondered if they were tellurites. They looked a little tellerite to me. I think that they would species them if they were. As they are, they're just pig men. It's a pig man. You wonder what they're doing with them in that hospital, you know?

So Picard finds Q in his ready room and wants to know, like, what is the game? Like, let's talk about, like, what is even being, like, tested here? and Q's got his big old Shakespeare book open and starts dropping some bars. And basically what he illustrates is this is the way Q comes to understand species that it finds interesting. This is his way of being an explorer of all of space and time. And Picard particularly likes the description of this as being a story told by an idiot. You don't bring a knife to a Shakespeare fight with Captain Picard.

Because this Shakespeare measuring contest they have here feels a lot like how modern religious folks cherry pick the pieces of scripture that they use to prove their points, you know? And they both do this back and forth. Picard argues that humanity is on a path of becoming and becoming a more ideal version of itself all the time, bettering itself, and boy, does that piss cue off. Yeah, he doesn't like it when Picard seems to win, especially when he uses Hamlet to do it. Yeah. You know what never wins, though, Adam, is Hamnet. Hmm. Truly.

Not a big winner. Data explains to everyone what a projectile weapon does as the alien pigmen advance on their position with their muskets. And Riker's like, but we have phasers. So like musket doesn't really sound that scary if we have phasers. Keeb wouldn't do that. Like there's no way that he gives us such like weak opponents. Oh, maybe he turned off our phasers and he like blows up a boulder just to like test if his phaser works.

And I love like wharf just like jumping out of a shadow. reacting to it, a warrior's reaction. What I really love about this is that so often people on Star Trek are made to get into a fight involving their phasers before realizing they don't work. I feel like we've gotten very few scenes where someone tests the phaser first before battle, and it's great to see. Let's make sure this thing is still active, yeah. I love it. Are they or are they not muskets that they're shooting, Ben? Those aren't muskets. Oh, okay.

And Riker's like asking Data what he thinks they should do while the fighting breaks out. Data is actually Q as data. Fun little combat scene, mostly for all of the like kick flips and freestyle running parkour stuff that Jordy gets to do. Riker wastes a bunch of them and Data Q says, like, Like, here's the way you get out of this, Riker. You've got the Q power. Just do that. Just do what I would do.

And Riker's like, what? You mean like, uh, like jazz hands? Like, is that what I do? And Q's like, no. Why would I teach anyone to use jazz hands to do Q powers? That makes no sense at all. How about just like hold up one hand the way a surgeon holds up both hands after they've scrubbed up for operation?

Like, just do kind of that, but just one hand. I'm going to say the word. Fet and then you think of what a person does when they say that word. That's the hand gesture you need to use to cue power them away. Imagine you've just done the Italian fuck you where you like flick your hand under your chin. Just put your hand where it would come to rest after having done the Italian fuck you. I wasn't able to find the answer to this question, but I am betting. You know I'm a betting man.

You are a betting man. Betts, bets, bets. That John Delancey is wearing Brent Spiner's contact lenses when he's dressed as cute, because why would they make special contact lenses for a second person that they're only going to wear for one moment of an episode? Do you think that's weird? Like, do you think that that's too much to ask an actor to put someone else's contact lenses into their eyes? It's like the episode where Jerry's dating Charlotte from sex in the city and he drops her toothbrush in the toilet. It's almost exactly like that. It's like John Delancey has put Brent Spiner's toilets in his eyes. Too intimate. Yeah. That's what it is. That's what I think. It really gave me a visceral reaction to see because of that.

That is a very intense set of thought dominoes that went down for you. Yeah. Yeah. I've never worn contact lenses either. Isn't that weird? Like, I'm having that kind of reaction to something I've never experienced personally. Yeah, but I think that, like, the intimacy of a contact lens is evident even if you haven't put one in yourself. Fair. They get back to the ship. The grid disappears. Like, the ship starts coming back to life and... Picard and Yars zip back up again? Yeah.

Pretty fast. Picard comes out of his ready room, like, tossing a shoebox behind him. And they say the thing about this didn't happen. Like, there's no evidence that we ever even stopped. Like, the guy in engineering doesn't know what the fuck Picard is talking about when he calls down to say, like, let's get back underway. Chief O'Brien isn't seen as weird anymore. Everyone else has gone through the same thing. Everybody but Riker shows back up.

And they're like, yeah, I guess he must still be on that planet. Don't you love the vibe of this? It is not only that Riker has not arrived on the ship. It is also that, well, shit, we got all those colonists to save, and I'm pretty sure Riker's okay, given Q's heightened interest at him. Let's just keep going. Picard is pretty confident that the wager that he's made is in play, and that his confidence is not unjustified.

Riker will win. and almost to complicate this. We return to the planet where Rikers just having a grand old time hanging out in this dirty, rocky place. What was in that lemonade? I do not know.

You know, sometimes a drinkable edible, which is what I call them, is like it just fucking kicks. I got to really search out the smallest possible dose. You definitely do not want to open that can that's like 25 milligrams. and put the whole thing away.

That is a day-ruiner. The IPA of weed sodas. Yeah. My love is a creeper longing till for that which longer a nurse has that they see. Help me more. You'll have to go again. Q is in a commander costume now and steps to Rake. He's like, hey, pretty awesome gift, right?

What are you going to do? I get the feeling that Q is wearing all these uniforms and they weren't made for him. and from what we know, from what a lot of people have heard about John Delancey, I feel like when you loan your uniform to him and then get it back, it's going to feel a little more roomy

in some places after, right? Brent Spiner is putting in his contacts and he's like, why are these all stretched out? Exactly. He's got girthy eyeballs. Delancey's like, my eyes are up here

along with my penis, which is long enough to be up here as well. I don't know. I guess so. So he talks a little bit about the continuum and that Riker has like a real opportunity to go be there. Because the Farpoint thing really surprised him. Like we did not see you guys as having any potential. But now we're kind of thinking you might have some. and maybe even the potential to, like, jump past salamander and into some kind of future phase of evolution that is even beyond what the queue are like.

So hence our curiosity, hence the second knock at the door. And Riker's like, fuck that. I don't want to go be a cue. Like, I'm not interested. The idea that the queue exists so far outside of what we would understand to be linear time. or that their idea of linear time is so compressed that they would feel like getting out ahead of humanity's progress here

is where they need to do it is really interesting and fun to me because it makes me think why wouldn't they start now? Like why wait? There's no reason to wait. With the caveat that I really like a lot of new trick and this isn't a fuck all new trick kind of comment.

I do feel like this. This moment really makes me think that they suffered from a little bit of a failure to imagination when they pitched everything a thousand years past discovery for like new stuff that they were going to be doing. Like I don't think that that is as interesting a place as this episode posits we could be in in a way that like feels not like this is super well written, but this feels so much more potent than that does. The future is so much more interesting than the future's future. Yeah. Especially the version that we got. Totally. So we get everybody back to the planet and Riker joins them.

And this time, nobody is armed. Like, they didn't come with their dust busters. And Picard has come. This is his first visit to Green Sky Planet. And he seems a little cranky with Riker. He's like, where the fuck is Q? I bet you know about him. Like, spill your guts, Riker.

What's going on here? I mean, he was in the middle of the record when he was removed from the ship. I understand. My refractory period only lasts so long. I must get back. When the pigmen approach, there isn't much time for this particular argument. Wharf runs out after them solo. Like a dog off a leash?

Like he is just completely uncontrolled. in this moment. Yeah, like the, like the eyes roll back and like a doll's eye kind of a situation. This would be bad for any crew person, but it's an especially bad look for Wharf. It really calls back that moment in Encounter and Farpoint where he like almost shoots the view screen

because Q's face appears on it. Like, yeah. There's a way for the governor to come off, Wharf where it is like utterly irrational what he does after that point. Like the, like, incredible Hulk style. Like, he just becomes a force of nature. And yet there's no curiosity at this point, or I think anytime soon about, like,

how the first Klingon and Starfleet is actually working out as a program, you know? Like, are we keeping grades here on this guy? Wesley, for some reason, is the one that runs to Wharf's defense when he gets run through by a bayonet. What a brave move by, by Wes here. Weren't you impressed? Yeah, like what Worf needs is Wesley's mother. He needs like a field medic. Instead, he gets Wesley going, no, and then getting stabbed through his own gut.

He's never had something this long sticking out from his body. Well, he's no Delancey. Well, he's got us there, Captain. Riker throws up one of those queue fences to protect them. And Picard is really horrified by this. I think Picard sees, okay, like the great gift that will be impossible to turn down that Q was talking about was full Q power. And maybe I was wrong to place as much confidence in Riker as I did. Think about the Kevin Uxbridge episode in relation to this.

Now think about the restraint Riker had not to kill just these pigmen instead of the entire race of pigmen. in the entire universe. Are pigmen everywhere. I think Riker understands Kevin in a way that is completely unarticulated in that episode. Something to put a pin in. Let's see if it is, in fact, articulated, because I never really thought of it that way. And maybe there's some subtle nods to this episode. It's just funny that Riker's version of rage is throwing up the electric fence, you know?

Like, that's pretty restrained. They head back to the bridge. Because Riker sends him there. Yeah. And Worf is fine. Wesley's fine. Nobody even has a smudge on their shirt. And Riker is like sitting in his B-boy stance with flip-flops and socks and sweatpants.

And Picard knows all about how he got those cue powers. And so we cut to commercial. And when we come back, Picard is logging about how Riker will need. maybe just as much help as all of the miners that are trapped in a mine and presumably like asphyxating right now. Maybe his problem is just as big as theirs. I really like this conversation they have in the ready room because Picard kind of drops the rank pretense for a second. And he's like, look, dude, how am I supposed to captain you? Do you have any ideas for me about that?

the situation is so unprecedented and Picard is very upfront about that. And what he says to Riker is like, there is a wager at place and a godlike alien is holding our species in the balance. You've got this power. You can't even touch it. Like there's a marshmallow on a plate on a table in front of you and you're a three-year-old and I'm leaving the room. You can't fucking touch the marshmallow.

Don't touch it at all because, like, you are Jesus in the fucking desert with the devil right now. There's a warped kind of prime directive metaphor here too, right? Like, you're kind of risking ruining our natural development by using your powers, aren't you? So why don't you keep all that under a bushel? And Riker says he's strong enough not to use his powers, and he gives his word about that. And that's really all Picard has to go off of here. just then data reports that they've arrived at the planet it's time for a rescue mission and riker's on the away team they beam down there's like a door that he tries to open doesn't open then data goes and opens it i i love that like transporter beam but then door pretty hard to deal with we didn't bring any tools for door but we did bring beam down tool correct barely any survivors We were told there were like 500 plus potential victims of this.

There are less than half a dozen people huddled and bloody in this destroyed room. And Jordy finds a big heap of, you know, decomposed concrete slabs that have tumbled in through a doorway and says, somebody is pinned under this. And data comes and starts tossing the slabs of concrete. concrete aside like so many pieces of styrofoam and they find a little girl like a maybe like a six or seven year old girl under there fucking jordy doesn't bother to tell them that she's dead first like hey jordy data didn't have to do this or did she die like the moment like did was she like on life support and then they take the the stone away and that is when she breathed her last breathed

I think you're making my point for me because I think we don't know, and I think that we don't know, is a bad choice here. Well, anyways, RSVP, her. Yeah. Could Riker maybe resurrect this girl? Is the question that just hangs in the room? I couldn't believe the data was the one that actually said it out loud. Like, what the hell, dude? Why are you tempting him?

All the heads whip around a Riker, and he, like, slams his fists into the panel in front of him. You know what he says there. I can't. Not only does he say that, I think he says too much. You cannot say to this group of people that I think includes this girl's parents, that you promised you wouldn't use your life-saving powers. You can't say that, Riker. You just can't.

You just can't, guys. So back on the bridge, the away team returns after a pretty dispiriting rescue mission. and Riker gives Picard the hairy eyeball and does one of the most famous leans over the horseshoe that has ever been done. He's like, you feel good about this, Picard? And Picard is like, morally assured. You made the right call?

I'm a thousand percent sure you made the right call, not queuing it up down there. Riker's like, you think so, Captain? Why don't you hold up both of your hands? And then he does jazz hands, and there's this blood all over Picard's hands, all over his palms. So he's like, we're going to have a little meeting a little bit later.

I would like the whole staff to be here. Commander Riker, do you know what a personal improvement plan is or PIP? It looks like this, and he points at the fourth one on his collar. Find it within yourself. Just stand up telling the truth. You don't deserve to wear that uniform. Riker, like, steps off the bridge in a huff, and there is, like, a cut to the exterior and then cut back to the bridge with Riker coming back in. And I love the idea that that's how long it took.

He just, like, went and, like, grumbled to himself in the elevator, and then came right back out. And was like, all right, let's talk about it. Elevators are great for that. Calls the captain Jean-Luc, and we're going to talk this through. Wesley and Beverly show up. Riker tries to encourage Wesley to leave, but Wesley sticks up for himself using kind of the same logic that Riker used

to get him the field commission to acting ensign. Like, I'm technically a bridge officer. You said you wanted the bridge officers here. I love how that gets said and no one else on the bridge kind of like, bullshit. At this point, there is no resentment for Wesley. Like, I think that there probably would be

in any workplace? Any of the like full PIP Ensigns that have graduated from the academy and gotten stationed on the flagship and are like there as relief when somebody steps away from the con. Now they're not bridge officers. Wesley is though. Yeah. Do you think any of them want Q powers or a gift from the Q as it is? Riker addresses the team.

He says, listen, a lot of changes have been happening to my body. I'm feeling a lot of feelings that I've never felt before. but aside from the godlike capabilities, I am the same Riker William T. You've come to know and love. I'm not getting corrupted by absolute power, no way. I love how everyone responds to this. Well.

Sort of like bemused a little bit. Yeah. Huh. Everyone still looks uncomfortable. Picard and everyone else have noticed this change in him. He's become kind of a dick, hasn't he? and his defensive cue is also suspicious to everyone. I feel like this moment really,

they wrote so many ransom storylines on lower decks based on the way Raker behaves here. Yeah. And like really milked them for the comedy that they're worth in a great way. Because he is the same guy and he's horrible to be around. And I think that that's like a real superpower of freaks too. Like he figured out a way to play the character in a way that feels super authentic to Will Riker,

but also like the most hateable version of himself. And somehow like super hateable while arguing for like, I could have saved that girl. I could have saved all those people. Like wouldn't that be a morally defensible use of the Q power? I think what Riker needed to do was stay on topic with that little girl. I think he could have used that incident so much more effectively here. Right. The Q admire us is what Riker is advocating for.

And Picard is like, no, like they are looking at us like an ant with a magnifying glass. All they need to do is shift a little bit and that thing becomes a heat ray that scorches us. And Q shows up dressed as like a medieval monk. and starts waving his cross around. And like, this is where Picard is finally just like, you're a ridiculous cue. This makes Picard's point, too, doesn't it? Because his very appearance makes him seem to be there to manipulate

and to drive a wedge between them. He's jukeing the entire bet, like, in his favor. And, like, don't you see this, Riker? He's a fucking, he's a grifter. and I like that this is not the moment where Riker realizes he's been taken in. I feel like the most salient thing that is happening in this era and history is that we need to like recognize as a species that people do not like to admit when they have been suckered. And we need to find a way to like provide a path out of being fucking. taking for an idiot for like a lot of people, like millions of people.

Well, there's that and this scene becomes a example of, but what a public speaker? Or there are also good things billionaires do too, because Riker's like, but what if I use this power in a good way? Then you'll see that not all cues. Right. Right? This episode aged fucking immaculately from this moment on

because I was like, holy shit, this is like such a smart observation about the way we react and the, like, the way idiots act when they get power and the way it is like so fucking hard to, like, admit that you have been taken in without like losing like all of the respect of community and, and self-respect. And so like Picard is like, yeah, sure, here is all the rope you will need, Riker. and he starts going around the bridge with all of the great gifts. He's like looking around in Beverly's like, Wesley, get the fuck out of here. I do not want to know what like your deepest desire is. I am the mother of a teenage boy. The last thing I want to see is what your heart desires.

It would have been funny if it was the Klingon Lady and Fish Nets was also Wesley's dream. And now there's two of them on the bridge. Oh man. They don't seem to look. like each other. That must be one of those narcissism of minor differences things. So 10 years older Wesley gets hubba hubbed by Jordy. Hey, Wes. Not bad. He doesn't just get older. He gets 30 pounds of muscle, too.

Yeah. His jaw really squares out. He's got a big old body, Ben. His body is big beyond belief, right? It really is. Data does not want to be made into. to a real boy. He would like to slow roll the process. He's got to keep it 100. After seeing what Wesley got turned into, give me a moment of pause with data where he's like, fuck, pretty good body. You know what I'm saying? It's also just funny, though, in the, here from 2026 and seeing all of the permutations of Brent Spiner that we've had in Star Trek, like, this is an actor that ached to get out of the makeup and the contact lenses. And this was like the first chance he had and you turned it down.

He doesn't even bother to ask with Jordy. He just waves his hand at Jordy. Jordy's got eyes. Jordy's like, that wasn't what my biggest wish is, Riker. It's to be better with women. You got to make me less awkward with women. Come on.

Look at this. The second I take off my visor, the only thing I can think to do is hit on Tasha Yar. Total bullshit, man. It's just bullshit. Oh, that's rough. Like, hey, if you have control of space and time, Riker, can you give me another couple of runs at that one? Like, let's erase that from the tape and maybe I could try again.

But also, Jordy, people that live in glasshouses should not throw stones. For example, when you get all fucking morally outraged at what Worf's idea of sex is? Yeah, yeah. The Jordy react to all of these circumstances is very, very, funny to me. Like always go to Jordy for what he thinks of a thing is an adage that I will get behind fully. Maybe the most tragic thing of all is revealed after the Wharf, Fishnet, Klingon lady's scenario. And that is when square jaw, blonde hair Wesley steps to Riker and asks to be changed back in Will Wheaton's voice.

Like his voice did not change to match his huge chest. Like no timbre was developed in filling out the way he did. This is like someone who looks like Mike Tyson having Mike Tyson's voice. It's just, it just doesn't seem like what you'd imagine it would be. Nobody has ever cut from footage of Mike Tyson talking the way Mike Tyson does to Mike Tyson's mama being so proud of her boy making the right choice in a really hard moment like this. Right. Riker feels like a fucking idiot.

Like he has, he went so far past the point where he could have just stopped and said like, okay, this was wrong and I should have known all along. He feels like such a schmuck and he has really made a schmuck of himself in front of everyone. And Picard's like, all right, that's the deal. I fucking win. Riker saw this for the con it was and you need to fucking go and you need to hold up your end of the bargain. Actually, I should have asked for more in terms of stakes.

Maybe a second command could be mine. I've heard there's a captain's yacht. Will we ever see it? The Q continuum seems to intervene here and kind of like put all the pieces back the way they were. on the board before the game of risk got spilled on the subway. There is a very dark element to this reset of the episode at the end, Ben, which is like if Q placed them back on the timeline in a place that was just after their rescue

mission, what was stopping Q from placing them on that line a little before the rescue mission? perhaps when a little girl was still alive buried under rubble? Yikes. Too bad for her, huh? Nobody brings that up. Data's just like, that Q guy is a real dummy, right? And they're like, yeah, what a dipshit. Engage to credits.

This is becoming a speech. You're the captains, sir. You're entitled. I'm entitled to ramble on about something everyone knows. Ben, here's a question. in what I think is going to be a post-show kind of big question segment that this is becoming. It does feel like it's becoming that, doesn't it? A lot of people say absolute power corrupts absolutely.

And I think people say that because it's largely proven. But do you think that that's true or that's true for other people? My question for you has been, if you were given absolute power, do you think you'd be a piece of shit? or do you think you'd be one of the good ones? I think it is really hard to run that simulation in our moment in time. Oh, I think about it all the time. Because, like, Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk being examples of people who have as close to godlike powers compared to ours as Q does to the people on Star Trek. I think that you have to be such a broken automaton of wealth accumulation to the exclusive.

of all other things to get to that point, that it doesn't even feel like it's the power that's corrupting. It's like they came pre-built, corrupt, and like our system is badly designed and rewarded that kind of corruption with absolute power. Do you think, because this sort of wealth is going to be generational, do you think in a weird way, the way out of it will be generational? because the heirs that are given the wealth after their parents die

will not have had the experience of earning that wealth through all their terrible means. Yeah. I think about that a lot. I think about like in 300 years when people are writing about our time period, will it read to the like students of history then the way reading about like indentured servitude and like serfdom? in agrarian pre-renaissance Europe reads to us. Like it seems like everybody is being pinched in the same way that people who were like bound to their land

were pinched in that time period. And like I don't know like how to make the comparison because like I have like the experiences of living under the system we live under now and the like shrinking ground underneath me feeling that I think everybody is. experiencing so that those people can become more Q-like. But I don't, like, I don't actually know, like, if it's, like, even possible to compare that to the, like, landed gentry system. But all that being said, I think if I was given just to throw out a number, a half a trillion

dollars, I think I could get a lot of good shit done. And I think I would do a fucking awesome job giving my money away. Yeah, I have zero doubt that I would be an amazing billionaire, and I would be an amazing queue. Like, no doubt at all. It'd be incredible. You know what I fucking wouldn't do is like run for public office? Like, are you joking?

That's what the money's for. Hello? Like, idiot. Oh, you spent the amount on your campaign that you could have spent to wipe out all school lunch debt in the entire country? Cool. If you haven't read it, you got to read Noah Hawley's article about attending that billionaire retreat that Jeff Bezos throws in the Atlantic.

It is an incredible read that I recommend that you and any FOD go out there and consume. It's really something. It was written about about a month ago. So check it out. I heard about that and spaced on reading it. And I will put that right at the top of my list. All right, I want to go read some priority one messages. I do too.

Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on secured channel. Need a supplemental. Supplement. Supplement. Yeah, it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Hey, Ben, we've got a promotional priority one message here. All right.

Here's how that goes. This goes out to anybody. Going to STLV 60 in August, FODs want to see you. You. Join the away mission today by visiting greateststststlv.com to sign up for updates on events, peruse the ShadowCon schedule, and learn why so many FODs choose to go back to STLV again and again. See old friends, make new ones, drink, rope masters and teaky drinks, eat group dinners, all while hanging out with the friendliest folks on this side of the Alpha Quadrant. The ShadowCon has no wrath.

only fun. So this is from our pals Corey Ricky, Captain Lassoto, and Rustin. This is the greatest STLV shadow con squad and they have put together greatest STLV.com, which is a place that you should go if you are going to STLV

to see what all the activities are for FODs while you're out there. I feel like this group maybe like in an embarrassing way for us understands like how to schedule things around stuff that people will actually want to do at the con itself, like official things. Yeah. Like, I feel like one thing we have like, but one rake we have stepped on over and over again is like,

we're going to be an STLV and we're doing something at this time. And then like that time happens to be when like Scott Bacula is going to be on the main stage or something. Yeah, we're not coordinating with STLV actual for anything. I feel like they maybe have set that rake up for us a little bit. it. Oh, you think so, doctor? But yeah, a great group and they do great work and curate a really fun time. So if you're an FOD and you are also an STLV head or are going to be this year for the big 60th, look no further because these guys have got you covered. Yeah, and we're also

coordinating with them. Like when we have official stuff happening, greatestststlv.com is where that's likely going to be posted one of the places anyway where that information's going to go. Indeed. We've got another promotional P1 here, Adam. This one goes like this. Boss Meatery is excited to support the greatest generation on the new platform. Thank you for finding new ways to keep us laughing through a long day of bottling mead. And now we have our own format change to announce.

We are switching from bottles to... Cairns! The smaller, cheaper format will allow us to keep prices approachable and make it easier to bring your favorite Mead on any adventure. Our goal is to sell out of all our existing stock of bottles in 2026 and launched the new format in 2027. So go buy all bottles of Boss Mead everywhere. Drink them gone like they were Hoosnock's. That's from Colleen Bowdox. boss, who's the owner and head mazer of boss metery.

Yeah, if you're looking into this, this is boss spelled with one S, BOS, Meterie. Yeah, just search boss metery on the internet, and you will find the most, the medalist metery, I would say, in terms of their design aesthetic. They got like a tasting room, they got a whole deal. Yeah, they're great. They've sent us samples. We like their product. Go check them out.

Madison, Wisconsin. So I know that there's tons of FODs in the Madison region. And I hope you go live like a boss. Ben, our final priority when message is personal. It's from Giles.

It's to you and me and the TGG team. Message goes like this. Congrats on 10 years of TGG and ongoing independent. Here's to the next 10 years of brand new dick and fart jokes. From Giles. Thanks.

Giles. Yeah, maybe as much as anyone, I'm surprised at how many new dick and fart jokes there are to create and really appreciate the well wishes. Yeah, there's no limit to how many there are. And really appreciate the DAP, Giles. This has been a lot of hard work. Really glad you're out there appreciating the work. Thanks. Hey, if you've got a message you like to get out about all of the bottles of mead that you're trying to unload, or any other thing, you can head to Greatestrek.com

and get yourself a personal or promotional priority one message. They help a ton to support the production of these shows and you can get that Greatest Gen bump. So why not?

All right, Ben, it's time for a game. My body is ready. Shake, shake, shakes. Shake, shakes. Shake your booty. Ben, it's time to play shakes your body. Booty, a game of Shakespeare trivia.

Here's how it works. I'm going to give you a famous line from three different Shakespeare plays. As You Like It, Macbeth and Hamlet. These were quoted in that scene in the ready room between Picard and Q, when they were like throwing Shakespearean haymakers back and forth at you show. Each line will have one word missing. Your job is to tell me which of the three answers. is the correct word.

Now here's the thing. All three answers are going to sound like they could work. You're gonna need actual Shakespeare knowledge to get these right. Okay. And I'm all right.

And your reward is best serve cold. Going into the next episode cold, that is, because you won't have to write or bring notes at all. Wow. Get even one of them wrong? And it's a regular old episode for you and me.

Are you ready? I think I'm ready. Let's jump. jump right in. Ben, question one is about As You Like It. As You Like It is one of Shakespeare's most romantic and philosophical comedies centered on love, identity, and the refuge of the Forest of Arden. It also features one of the most celebrated speeches in all of Shakespeare,

the Seven Ages of Man speech, spoken by the Melancholy character, Jacques. Here's a line from that speech. One man, in his time, plays many, blank. Your possible answers are A, parts, B, rolls, C, masks. All right. And this is like, single failure, ruin. Yeah. And these questions only get harder. This is as easy as it gets. I really don't want to take notes next time. I'm going to say parts. You were correct. The answer is A, parts. One man in his time plays many parts. Question two, from Macbeth.

Okay. Macbeth is Shakespeare's darkest tragedy, a tale of ambition, murder, and madness. This next line comes from Macbeth's final soliloquy, where he reflects on the meaninglessness of life as he faces his doom. Here's that line. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty blank. A. Pace. B, walk. C, darkness.

Your answer, Ben. I'm going to go darkness. Ben, I'm sorry, the answer is A. Pace. Tmorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace. BART of Avon? More like BART of Lamevon. Let's do the third one just for fun. See if you get it. This one's from Hamlet. Could this be a saving throw? There's no saving throw here?

There's no saving throw. you, Ben. God damn it. Hamlet is the quintessential tragedy of doubt and revenge. This line comes early in the play when Hamlet tries to convince his friend Horatio that there are forces at work beyond human comprehension. Here's that line. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt in your blank. A, philosophy, B, understanding. C. experience.

understanding. It's going to be my guess. Sorry, that is wrong. The answer is A. There are more things in heaven and earth ratio than are dreamt of in your philosopher. Well, I will tell you something amusing that I've recently learned about Shakespeare, Adam, which is that the Shakespeare and the Park productions in New York City are going to start with Romeo and Juliet this year. and after every performance, a real couple is going to get married on stage.

Boo! You suck! You know that mutual suicide you just watched? Yeah, that doesn't seem like a good match. Does it seem like the right play for that, right? Ben, thanks for playing Shakes Your Booty. This is a game that I am going to try to implement every time something Shakespeare-related happens in an episode of the show. So I'm going to try to see if I can make this a thing.

But yeah, first time out. Wow. There you go. Well, thanks for humiliating me and my lack of Shakespeare knowledge. We should toss the episode keys to our trusty producer, Wendy Pretty, who can tell you about all the great folks who work really hard to make this show possible. She's the barred of our credits, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. She was in many ways the original rapper.

Bye-bye. The Greatest Generation is an Uxbridge Shimoda podcast. It's hosted by Adam Pranika and Ben Harrison, and it's produced and edited by Wendy Pretty. Next week, we'll be back with another episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, so rejoice the moment to stay as close at hand. It's season one, episode 11, Haven. Until then, thank you to all the members who are supporting this show. If you'd like to join them and get an ad-free feed, plus a lot of great bonus episodes, past and future. Sign up at greatesttrecht.com.

You can also just click the support link and the show notes right there in your podcatcher, and we thank you for your support. Music for the greatest generation is by Dark Materia. Social media is managed by Bill Tilly and Rob Adler, who also puts together the greatest newsletter every month. Visit Podshop.biz to get signed up for that. You can also book a P1 there, and, of course, that helps support the show too. So thank you.

And along with our official social media pages on Instagram, Blue Sky, and YouTube, you can also check out the great FOD run communities online. Those are on Facebook, Reddit, Discord, Mastodon, and Wikia. So go join a group of FODs and use the hashtag Greatest Gen when you post about the show. And over on Greatest Trek, we've got one more episode of the original series coming up before we kick off a little mini film festival centered on the year 1966. The first movie pick is from Bill, so search for Greatest Trek in your podcatcher if you're not already subscribed and check it out. That's all for now. We'll see you next week on The Greatest Generation. Anybody. Use Adam's first take for that.

That was a real John Mullaney kind of Anybody Canyon moment. Uxbridge. Shemota.