The Greatest Generation - Going Number Three (S1E15)

Episode Date: March 14, 2016

When the Enterprise pulls into a starbase for some maintenance, the Bynars are there to help with some Holodeck upgrades - which Commander Riker is all too keen to experience first hand. Unfortunately, Captain Picard crashes his party, and it turns out three is too many for Riker's 'bone. Meanwhile, the Bynars have taken the ship on a test drive back to their homeworld, with Picard and Riker becoming accidental stowaways. Will we ever know what's in the weapon's room? Why isn't it harder to set the self-destruct sequence on a starship? And why can't Starbase 74 keep their ships from being stolen? It's the episode where we unequivocally define "moose knuckle," once and for all!

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

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

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

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

and season two of Star Trek Picard. We've set up a page where you can also contribute. It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdececoto for Labor.com. That's FriendsOfDecoto for Labor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Hey, this is Adam and Ben with a special message for you. Thank first of all, we just want to thank everyone for all of the nice reviews we've

received over the last week especially, but something was brought to our attention Ben and I think you're the best person to address it. I'm very upset about this Adam. Some person has gone on iTunes and left a review that takes exception to our usage of the term moose knuckle in the episode about the Edo in which Wesley is running around with the kids and falls into the flower patch and is put to is nearly put to death over it. Let me read to you the message bin that we got on our iTunes review with subject line moose knuckle one star by Jimbo 925 Hey, beevison but head moose knuckle is used for a woman's private parts not a man's think about it I really don't agree with that. I think that if anything moose knuckle refers to any situation in which pants are bunched up around genitalia in an amusing

way. And if you go on Urban Dictionary, I feel like that corroborates what I feel about the term. I mean, yeah, you actually have an Urban Dictionary account. You actually have to log into Urban Dictionary. That's how into it you are. I just feel like this is a huge miscarriage of justice. And if I just don't think that we should have to suffer this one star review because some idiot

doesn't like our usage of the term moose knuckle. In many ways, it's my favorite review we've ever gotten. But I don't like that it's only one star. All right, the only way I can see to claw back at some justice for us is if everybody listening right now goes to iTunes and leaves a nice five star review to bury this essentially. Yeah, let's hold it underwater until the bubble stop. Yeah, and go ahead and go find that review and it asks if the review was helpful.

Click no and report a concern. If anybody is rock and knuck, it's this guy. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, uh, so let's get this thing wiped off the page. I think it's a bunch of bull crap. Do the right thing, listener. Go to iTunes, help the greatest generation, write this horrible, horrible, wrong. Alright, we'll get you back to the show now.

Thanks, guys. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage! Get to your new become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the you become the greatest generation podcast by a couple of people who are a bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast. I've been Harrison. I'm Adam Pranaka. I'm recording this episode from across the country today. I took all of my podcast crap on an airplane so that I could sit in the back of my plane so that I could sit in the back of my mother and father in law's house and record a Star Trek podcast. Boy, they must be so happy to have you in the family. Yeah. Yeah. It's a.

Did you have to tell them everything? Well, yeah, because yesterday I was trying to watch the episode that we're discussing today. And I couldn't figure out how to get Netflix going in the TV in their living room. Oh no. So I wound up having to watch it on the TV in their master bedroom. And everybody was like coming home and like wanting to like put their stuff down. And I was like, I'm just in here doing something terribly embarrassing. And the only place I can do it is my parents

and laws bedroom. It's the only place I can feel anything. It was so bad. Wow. Oh my God. That's awful. And now their Netflix is totally fucked because you've made it known to the Netflix company

that your parents, yeah, their algorithms are going to be out of whack. Now they're going to get recommended a whole bunch of old Stargate episodes, all that crap. You might be interested in watching Babel on 5. Oh, those four people. No Netflix, nobody is interested in that. How long are you there? I'm pleased that you're on the West Coast.

I mean, we are, we have never recorded an episode of this together in the same room. Yeah. I mean, I'm here for a week. So the reason I ask is you're going to be going to that bedroom quite a bit to watch more episodes, aren't you? Not if I can avoid it. But maybe, maybe the next episode, we'll see. Have you noticed the parents are doing a lot more laundry after you go in there? This is becoming a speech.

The captain's doing kite food. I'm tired of ramble on about something everyone knows. This is a episode 15-1100-001. It's the title of it. I think I read it in the Wikipedia article that it was like a different string of ones and zeros originally as scripted and a changed at some point. That doesn't surprise me. But I was like, and I was like, why?

Who cares? Is this supposed to be meaningful? I guess it's probably binary for something. When I was also doing my research on the episode, I typed in TNG and then jogged my fingers on the one in the zero a bunch of times to have an auto correct in the Google field. I found my way there eventually.

That is a pretty prime Google. Yeah, so this episode was awesome because I think this was the first time we see a starbase, right? So the episode starts with the enterprise pulling in to base, pulling into the garage, right? Yeah. And I love this stuff. I pulled my, I called my pulling into the garage, right? Yeah. And I love this stuff. I called my wife into the master bedroom and said, get a load of this. This is like, when I was like 11, this stuff made my head fly off.

She was probably so disappointed to hear you calling from the bedroom saying, you gotta get a load of this. And then, and then it's you sitting Indian style on the edge of the bed Watching old Star Trek episodes Probably the most benign thing I've ever called her into a bedroom to get a load of right Hey, oh, no, maybe she felt like bullet dodged Oh, and so many ways So the captain is recording a captain's log as

As the ships pulling in and he is like, yeah, we're returning the starbase for a little bit of a retrofit. We've had some issues with the holodex recently, but... We're just hilarious because I think we both know there's been a bunch of ship-wide problems throughout the season. Not the least of which is the door lock issue. I mean, they don't mention that as one of the refits that they're in for, but I think whenever you go to the auto shop, that's going to be something that you bring up with

the tech. Yeah, absolutely. So they pull into the garage and we get introduced to a new alien species and they are the binars and these are little pink things. Yeah. Who are walking around with some Sony Walkman devices. They look sort of like the gymnasts of the Angel One planet in size. They're little tiny things. But they're also antrogenous. Right. Yeah. Riker at some point says like, who are these gentlemen and is kind of quickly

scolded by the Starbase commander. That scene is great to me because Riker is like a guy at a bar, casually asking a girl if there's a man in the picture. So you go to home to your husband or whatever? Just like he can't outwardly ask. Is there a Mr. Baber Hamlincon? he can't outwardly ask is there a mr. Babe ham Lincoln, he can't actually ask like so is there a mr. Zero one in the picture for you like he's got to just sort of Suddenly drop that in so he's got to be pretty disappointed at that point

Yeah, there's also a pretty funny scene pretty early in this episode where where raker Wonders into the observation lounge and data is working on a painting while Jordy stands next to him. And Raker's just like, this is fucking hilarious. A blind man teaching an android out of paint. Fuck you. And then like walks out.

And they look so insulted. You can see Jordy is super pissed. Yeah. It's like, why did they write in this scene where Reiker is just a complete dick to the second officer and the helmsman for no reason? I feel like Lavar Burton went back to his time shooting the movie Roots to like really draw inspiration

for his just utter disgust for what Reiker said. Like it looked like he even hit in the face. Yeah. Not many of the crews left the board. They've all kind of gone onto the star base and Reiker and Captain Picard and just the skeleton are all kind of like engaging in some leisure activities. And of course Ryker is going to go check out the holodeck if he has some time off. It's like when the parents leave the house to a teenager, all of a sudden, like holy shit. I've got all this beer

I've got the parents liquor cabinet and Right and I have all this time to masturbate Right. Yeah, the odds of somebody walking in on me while I'm in the holodeck have dropped through the floor and That's about as good as it gets but he gets down to the holodeck and there a couple binars working That's about as good as it gets, but he gets down to the holodeck and there are a couple of binars working outside it. And so he have to call up a program under observation by strangers, which I feel like really limits the kind of creative license that he would otherwise take. You can see him, like, sort of searching his brain, improvisationally like New Orleans.

Yeah. Jazz Club? Jazz Club. Yeah, Jazz Club. That seems innocuous enough. So he calls up a Jazz Club. Calls up an audience and a combo up on stage with a trombone for himself or his, he calls it... The Anobasian drums and a bone for me.

The computer's got to be so confused at that request in that moment, like... Yeah. Consexual error, please re-request. Yeah. The, they had to cut this for syndication, but originally a huge dildo is materializes on stage and he goes, no, no, no, I'm not that kind of bow. I'll be providing the bow and around here.

Now I'll need someone to play with. He doesn't want it to be crowded, so he has the computer dial it back so that there's just one super hot blonde babe in a red dress. And then he says, blondes and jazz, seldom go together. So the blonde, I guess he's not really up there. It disappears and a red head appears at a different table.

He's pretty pleased with that, but decides to dial it into a more sultry woman. My name is Minuet and I love all jazz except Dixieland. Why not Dixieland? You can't dance to it. My girl. Boy is she easy on the eyes. He could have just told the computer I want a girl that looks like one of the mobsters

wives from Goodfellas and could have saved himself a bunch of the request time there because because while she is very easy on the eyes she is very clearly like mobster's wife to me. Yeah, yeah. All of these women that appear are just like you know big hair kind of you know. We hair kind of, you know, they definitely, this is 80s hot. I don't know what we expected, but they're very 80s hot. Yeah.

We should go easier on these ladies. Yeah. We're really beating them up. Yeah. Well, there's a lot of fun classic Sleazeball pickup lines and recontextualize them for the 24th century. Like, what's a knockout like you doing in a computer generated gin-jog like this? Waiting for you. And through the whole episode,

Riker's infatuation with Minuet constantly gets kind of broken and then he'll talk about her as though she's not there. Like, boy, she's really terrifically sophisticated as a simulation. Yeah. And he and he and Picard do that quite a bit. They like talk right. They basically talk over her head in the middle of a conversation. I don't know.

It feels rude to me. It's the same way they occasionally talk about data in the data lore episode. Yeah. It's the kind of kind of ascension that like I feel like was like much more normalized in the 80s. Like if you're, you know, talking about a woman or a person of color

in almost any context in the 80s, it wasn't considered like that offensive to be just casually kind of sending about them. Yeah, we've come so far in our society in terms of how we condescend. Certainly. Yeah, we're much slottler. You won't even know it. I'm really based. Are you gone fighting within yourself? But stand up, someone too. You don't deserve the wealth that's beautiful.

Eventually, Rikers in the holodeck smoochin' it out with Minuet and Picard wanders into the holodeck. You can't be serious. And is also quite taken with her because she greets him in French and that's all it takes to get to Picard's heart. Picard makes that that key mistake of walking into one of Reicher's holodic simulations unannounced. Right. I don't know what it's gonna take for these people to learn not to do that but Picard shows up right at the moment where they're they're sharing a warm embrace and a make-out sash. And so they're like, oh, let's have a drink instead.

Hello, captain. And they start doing the banter over Minuet's head. Like Picard and Minuet will have a conversation in French and then Picard will break into English and be like, dude, Ryker, this thing is amazing. I can't believe I've hesitated it is. And Ryker will talk over her head like, yeah, no,

like look at her hot bod and listen to how, listen to how smart she is. Like, it's amazing. So they're in the holiday and they're having this conversation and meanwhile shit is going down just outside the door. Yeah Things are getting tense. It turns out the biners have set up a Situation where there's a warp core breach eminent if the any matter is released the ship will be destroyed and Jordy figures this out through You know the computer warning the computer is like hey estimate release of antimatter in four minutes 18 seconds, 17 seconds. Yeah, and so data is like based on all of the available information, like,

like the ship is going to explode, it's gonna blow up the ship and not only that, it's gonna blow up the starbase that the ship is docked in. So we need to set it to automatically like warp out of the system and get a safety distance away. And they order an abandoned ship. Yeah. Data does that thing where he gets on the inner comments and says, a abandoned ship. This is not a drill. Right. That was a fun scene. They recycled the scene with John Cho wearing the skirt, though, did you notice that? I did notice that.

There are a bunch of shots that they definitely shot for the generally human episode with the traveler. And we find out that Wesley is Mozart, but for Whorep. All of those shots of people walking around the ship, like listening to an order to abandon ship were shot like several, several episodes ago. It's a bunch of the same actors and everything. Sure.

So you see people scrambling around. Kids trying to keep up with parents. They're all trying to get to transport or rooms or to the tunnels leading to the starbase. Data and Jordi get back to the starbase and they're like, where's Captain McCard or his Riker? And they're like, well, we thought he was always with you. Where is he?

They soon come to realize that Riker and Picard are still on the ship, there's no time to go look for him like Well, I guess they're fucked like we got to get the ship out of here before it kills us all So yeah, and this is all ahead of a pretty neat sequence where they very sadly, you know Hit the button that backs the enterprise out and The enterprise goes to warp away from the starbase and they think that they've They've saved the situation. 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 Sherry Reembarishment Tour is coming in August 2023, and we've got a bunch of dates, in a lot of great places. Go to greatestgentour.com to get more info.

That's greatestgentour.com for dates and ticketing information for the Share Your Embarrassment Tour. I'm Jordan Morris, and I'm Jesse Thorne. On Jordan Jesse Go, we make pure, delightful nonsense. We were open awesome guests and bring them down to our level. We get stupid with Judy Greer. My friend Molly and I call it having the spaceweirds. Pat Noswald.

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Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Whoa, 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. But I'm hearing we need to get on this

I gotta get on the art. Yeah, it's about terrain. Got us about to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans. Oh, we're actually we're podcasters. We are podcasters. So it's different. Have you heard of Ohno Ross and Kerry? We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so seem like something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came two by two. What do you think? Ona Ross and Carrie, available on MaximumFun.org. So, you know, Picard and Riker start to realize

that Minuet is not gonna bang them. She is just stalling. And... Rekker's like, what are we here for? Yeah. Yeah. What good is this relationship? He kind of devolves into Dirk at the end of Boogie Night.

He's like, it's my big dick. Somebody get ready to fuck it now. Yeah. This, this holodeck program is broken. I thought this was an upgrade. Yeah. Um, and they, they walk, walk out and realize that the ship is on Red Alert, but like in the control room on the star base, you know, the senior staff are all like dang, like, you know, who didn't also get off the ship was those binars, so they must be involved in this somehow, but they can't find any ships that are, you know,

fast enough and near enough to go hunt down the enterprise and see what's actually going on. Yeah, and that was a brutal piece of information. Like, you've got the Starship Garage setup where ostensibly there's a bunch of ships that are going to be in it. And none of them are able to go chase down a ship that gets stolen. I got to believe that that changes, that changes the rules from, from here on out. Like, you're going to want to have a ship ready to go at all times if you're

a job base. Yeah. Oh, yeah. This is a, is going to get going to really shake the Federation to its core in terms of starship policy. I mean, I haven't seen the third star track moving a long time, but when they steal the enterprise, there's another ship available to chase them down. Like, yeah, like, I think that this is the same star base that they steal that enterprise from too Will they ever learn? Yeah, come on star base 74. Yeah, get your shit together Another wackadoodle Starship caper on star base 74. Yeah

So they look around and not only not only are riker and Picard gun, but the biners are gone too. So that's when they start to put it together, right? Yeah. At least from from the star bases angle, they figure it out on that end on the ship's angle. When riker and Picard realize that they're not going to have sex on the holodeck and and minuet's acting all weird trying to keep them behind, then they're like, okay, we got to get out of here. We got to get out of here. They open up the door to basically all the sirens on the ship going off in their faces. And they they discover that the chip has been abandoned and the you know the computer

tells them that there was a warp core breach and that it was somehow stopped but doesn't provide any clarity on that. And so... They had the good sense in this episode not to actually play back the scenes on a screen for them to watch. They just... they asked the computer some simple questions and the computer answers and then we get the news that we need. I think... I think that's good practice. That's good show. Yeah, that's good show. So they had down to engineering pretty much straight away.

Captain Picard says, like, listen, we don't know what's going on. We don't know who's stolen the ship yet. And this is the flagship of the Federation's Starfleet. We're not going to allow for the possibility that they might be doing something innocuous. We're gonna set this shit to self-destruct, and then see what's going on. So they go down to engineering,

and it turns out setting self-destruct is much easier than I remembered. I thought that they were gonna have to put in a bunch of codes and stuff, but it's literally like they stand on either side of the engineering console, and Picard says set the ship to self-destruct and the computer ask Riker if he's down with that and he's like, yep. And then that's it. They don't have to put in Omega O1. It's easier to launch nuclear missiles in crimson tide than it is to

to destroy a starship in the future. Yeah. They've got to do those codes later on. I remembered it differently too. I was full on expecting like... I distinctly remember there being codes. Yeah. I don't know what happened.

They could've edited the mouth, could they? No. That'd be a weird choice. There's plenty more that they should've edited out than that. Dommok and Jelad. And Denarger. Dommok and Gens. And Jelad, and Denarger. Dommok, and Genish, Angela, and Denarger. There's a shot where Riker asks the computer

what the ship's position and heading is, and it just gives out a string of like three or four, six digit numbers, as though that's interesting at all. Riker, does that I twitch to this information? Like, yeah, I know where we are. Yeah, yeah, give me a break. Nobody, like, in a potential amount of space as large as a galaxy, like that,

there's no way that that's actually illuminating for anyone. Yeah, what they should have illuminated, I thought, was the weapons room that they only show the exterior of. Right. Like, one of their big crescendos to commercial was like, we got to get the ship back will at any cost. And then they go into what we find out is a weapons room.

The only reason we know this is because there's a sign on the outside that says weapons room. Yeah, camera pans over to the sign instead of showing the inside of the weapons room. And then after the commercial break, we come out and they're holding dustbuster fasers and that's all we get to see of it. I want to see what's in the inside of the weapons room. I know. There's got to be so many cool things in there. It's a real missed opportunity.

Yeah. It's a real cost savings on the budget though. Yeah. So we should talk about these binars. They are their little diminutive aliens. And they come, they always come in pairs. We only see two pairs of them in this show, but they're like joined at the hip

and they wear kind of, each one wears an outfit that is sort of symmetrical with its partners. And they, when they're talking to each other, they're making these like really high speed, little digital sounding noises. What do you like to try to enhance? This is all because they are heavily linked into each other via computer networks.

So what we come to understand is that they have been loading just scads and scads of information into the enterprise's computer banks as the enterprise warps toward their home planet. And when Picard and Riker make it onto the bridge, the... Let's talk about their plan to retake the ship for a second. Okay, yeah. So they go to the weapons room, they get their dust busters, and they're like, they get on a turbo lift,

and the turbo lifts like, nah, nah, this is locked. You can't get on the bridge, try again. And they're like, okay, plan is we beam on to the bridge and Take them by force and cards like well One of us is probably gonna get killed in the process so maybe we should beam to opposite ends right and and good luck and That's like the time between when that plan is hatched to when they beam on at the bridge is maybe 15 seconds It's a breathtaking amount of time. I'd say that's generous.

And what's great is when they finally beam on to the bridge, Riker's Beams onto the upper part and Picard Beams onto the lower part. But Riker's Beam done with his back turn to anything that might be useful that he might see. Right. I don't know. I feel like you got to have a better plan than that if you're be that he might see. Right. I don't know. I feel like you got to have a better plan than that

if you're beaming onto the bridge. Right. You could, you could beam up their crouch down, right? Yeah. There are a couple of times in the series where they like know that they're beaming into hostile territory and they'll get on the transporter pad all facing out with their phasers drawn,

which seems like pretty good, right? Like, no matter which, no matter which way the attack comes from, one of us is gonna be facing it and, you know, pointing a phaser at it, and they do not that. For this moment. But they get onto the bridge and these binars are passed out, all kind of, all kind of pure-mitted up against each other on the floor.

And they're just kind of barely conscious enough to ask for help. So Riker and Picard discover all this data in the computer and start to realize that it's got something to do with the binarworld, on which everything is turned off. Like, all of the central computing stuff, all of their equipment is turned off, which is causing the entire society to die because they're so dependent on their computers. So, they realize that they don't really know enough about how to restart the binar's computers, but perhaps someone does. Yeah, they have a real clear moment there where they're like, oh, so this is why you

don't patch an entire world into a computer system. Like, the binar's dependency on their computers, they're undoing. Like, this is, this is the warning that were meant as a viewer to take heat of. I feel like in 1987 they had no idea just how much worse society would get in terms of computer dependency. So I thought that was interesting. They accidentally saw it coming in real life. Totally. So they're like, well, we got to figure out what we need to do now We aren't smart enough to decode what what the binders are wanting us to do They go back into the holiday can ask me you at I don't know

I don't have those answers and she's like they didn't tell me what to do here I'm in a fucking jazz club like right right. I'm here. I'm here to distract you I'm not here to tell you how to solve this mystery I know that this is great like I'm not here to tell you how to solve this mystery. I know that this is great. I think the actress' performance was really good. She sort of has gone from being just incredibly charismatic and compelling to pretty flat in her delivery

as they kind of ask her these questions. And there's parts where they get sort of computer-sounding response. Like, I don't have any information for you about that subject or whatever. She's also like physically acting to far different than she was before, like she's not live and fluid. She's sort of like, she's got her arms up on the table, on the cocktail table to sort of stiff and robot-like.

Yeah, so they get in touch with the starbase finally, which I feel like they should have done earlier. Like, hey guys, just so you know, we're okay. We set the ship to self-destruct, but it turns out that it's not as dire as that, so we stop the self-destruct. But we do have one problem. We don't know how to start up. We don't know how to access this data that they've put on the ship. So speaking of data, data talks them through, getting on, and putting in a password, and

they try a bunch of binary numbers, one of which the title of the episode winds up being the one that works. Data's help is like so quote-unquote helpful. Like, he's like, passwords are frequently people's birthdays or the names of their wives. Yeah. I don't get why Ryker Picard don't roll their eyes at his responses.

They're very sincerely like, oh, oh, right. Like it's supposed to be something simple, something we could understand. Like thanks, data. And then they realize they both have to be doing something at the same time to make this work because that's how the binars think. And how they think and work, they're always there always in pairs, working in pairs, talking in pairs. Right. They figure it out eventually, they reload all this data. And what has happened is that the biners had to shut everything down because there was

an EMP coming from a supernova that went off near their home world. And it was going to, you know, it was a choice between letting the computers be destroyed completely or turning them off until the danger had passed and turning them back on again and hopefully finding a way to load the information back in, the Starship Enterprise is the only mobile computer big enough to serve this function. And so when they get everything back up and running, the binar sort of come back to life

off of the brink of death and Picard asked them why they didn't just ask for help and they say you might have said no. Yeah, makes total sense. But I feel like the federation would definitely have said yes. Like they're not dicks. Yeah, you get to know who you're asking a favor from. Especially if you work for them, you know, like these binaries work at the starbase. They know these people. Yeah, they're computer contractors. Right. Where does the federation keep getting these contract laborers? Like, I want to know more about this.

Yeah, do they get health and dental? Or what are the benefits like? I am a future ball. There are full lights. So the episode is ending and you know the Starship Enterprise returns to the starbase and everything is cool. I think the binars are going to get subjected to some kind of military tribunal because they did in fact steal a starship, but they're prepared to face whatever punishment is appropriate.

You know who else needs a court marshal is Conteros. Yeah. The leader of the starbase for letting another one get away. You should have seen this coming. People are always trying to steal enterprises from your star base. But Riker wanders down to the holodeck to hang with Minuet one more time. And he walks in and she turns around and it's a different shittier looking woman. And he's very disappointed. There's still a really hot lady, but like...

I think Riker probably took it out on her before returning to the bridge. There is a movement in time in between those two scenes. And I mean, you don't think Riker just left, right? No way. It's not Riker's way. Exactly. It's not his steal, though. He's going to go number three in the holiday and then he's going to come back to the

bridge. Well, that ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Yeah, this is Mopi Riker. Yeah, he's like hangdog, just sort of leaning into his walk down to back to the captain. And he's like, she wasn't there. I tried all the combinations, all the combinations I know, and I know a lot of them. Yeah. To that holodeck. Couldn't find her. Emo Riker. Yeah.

Sad Rikin. Actually, that probably means something else to, uh, to another group of people. Yeah, I thought that the scene where the enterprise returns to the star base was great, because they show all the senior staff in the control room watching the enterprise come in. And they're like, super excited. And it's really infectious. Like it's a great, it's super well acted when all the people probably had to act against was just looking off into the nebulous depths

of the television studio that they shot that scene in. But they all look like, like they have a total emotional connection to the starship that they live on. And it's really effective, I thought. It worked, it worked all three times that they did it. Like, they did a great job with the reverence for the ship. Like when the ship pulls into dock, everyone turns around to see it.

You get a sense of its scale again. You know, I think for a lot of episodes, it's hard to really grasp how big the ship is. But when it pulls into the garage and everyone everyone's around it like the music swells Like the ship is back home. It's really it's really triumphant and cool and you get that same That same buzz when they've got to back it out for for its destruction Like they pull the ship back out fly it away. That's that's another head you seen and then when it comes back You get that scene that that you just described like you Like you get a three for there that I thought was

effective every single time. Absolutely. Hey Ben. Yeah Adam. Do you have a drunk Shimoda? I do. Drunk Shimoda of course is the time in the show when we recognize an achievement in character development. Well, the voice cracks. My direct Shemota is data. For one thing that data does in this episode, that I thought was so silly, which is when they have pretty much accepted the fact that the enterprise has been hijacked, data kind of needs to make the moment about him and he says, I should not have been painting

while we had some time off. And everybody's like, no, no, data. It's not your fault. It's totally not your fault. People have time off. It's normal. And he's like, I don't need time off. I'm an Android. And it

seems like real self-pitying for a man that is supposed to not have any emotions. So that's my drunk shimata. How about you? I mean, you might think I'm going to give this one to Commander Riker, but you'd be wrong. I am instead going to give it to Conteros, the leader of the star base. I think there is a, there's no better example of a person who may or may not be drunk than just losing control of your faculties, your literal faculties in this case being the star base that you're in control of and haven't shit stolen out of it. Like, I think we're told that this is star base 74, but I think around the fed federation everyone's got to understand that this is the base that that the enterprise got stolen out of originally. Yeah it's got to be famous for that.

Yeah it's it's got a bad name. You got to lock up those ships man. Yeah to me that is that that's all on Conteros. Yeah. Pull it together, man. I am La Cute is a board. You will respond to my questions. I am La Cute is a board. You are a board. So our next episode coming up is episode 15,

two short a season. This is an episode in which the Enterprise escorts an admiral to a planet to negotiate the release of hostages, but the planet's governor wants to kill the admiral in revenge for a previous hostage crisis that ended in tragedy. How much do you remember this episode, Adam? Not a single second. I really don't remember this one at all. And maybe it could be that 1-1-0-1-0-1-0-1 was so great in my mind that it just sort of wiped out a few of the episodes that came after. But yeah, this one doesn't register at all to me.

Yeah, it would be nice if it could have wiped out that Waxonetroy episode that came ahead of it, but... It's too bad our videos are wiped out, because this might be a good one to skip over if neither of us remember it. Do you remember it at all? I do remember the Admiral, like, D aging. I think I kind of confuse this with the one where they discover that there are like insects in the brains of the top brass at Starfleet, and they like have an Admiral on board

that has like a weird bug in a briefcase. I love that episode. I can't wait until we get to that one. I feel like those two, like anytime there's an ad, like, and. I feel like those two, like, anytime there's an ad, like, and the funny thing about the first season is that anytime there's an admiral, there's like a new costume for AdRoll. It's like, it's like the fucking...

It's always the dumpiest, dumpiest uniform too. I feel like they're really trying to embarrass these old people because they don't want to give them a tight uniform, like the risk of the crew gets. They're like, okay, 68-year-old character actor, we're not going to cram you into this scuba gear, we're going to give you something a little more flowing. And it actually works against them every time. It's real bad.

It's that classic mistake of putting on a huge hooded sweatshirt to cover up the fact that you have a huge gut. I think that was the mistake that Wesley made early on too. Like he had those big kooji sweaters, and once you got into a tighter uniform, I think that's a better look. Yeah, started rocking a little bit more knuck. That's all you got to do.

They don't want any of that old man knuck though. That's for sure. No, no, no, you do not. Well, we don't have any of that old man duck though. That's for sure. No, no, no, you do not. Well, we don't have any vetoes, so we are definitely watching it. Yeah, hooray. An episode that has been described as going for triumphant, but ended up being simply horrible

and creates no impression whatsoever. No impression whatsoever is actually pretty in line with our memories of this one that we just talked about. So that that jibes accurate very accurate. All right, well, that'll be the next episode of the greatest generation. I've had a fun time talking with you about episode 14, Adam. I've had a fun time talking with you about episode 14, Adam. Yeah, this was great. I think when we first started this show, for me, it was all about like, could we get this far? Yeah, can you talk about a good episode in a way

that does amusing as talking about a bad episode? Well, I think this has been an unqualified success in that regard. I will qualify it only into so far as we just wasted like 35 or 40 minutes talking about Star Trek and you spent almost another hour in your parents-in-laws bedroom so congratulations! They can have to do another load of laundry after this one. Oh. I've been Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pranica.

See you next time. Make it sound. Make it sound. Y'all look like God.