The Greatest Generation - I Got Into Loaf for This? (ENT S1E20)

Episode Date: September 23, 2024

When Tom Bergeron comes aboard for a segment of Hot Ones In Space, he tells the crew about a crashed vessel that has the raw materials they need. But when the away team shuttles down and T’Pol discovers a grow-op behind a panel wall, the marooned survivors they meet have a secret in need of a punch-up. What’s the Mike of the Alpha Quadrant? How should Kes hair be interpreted? Which allium knows things about you? It’s the episode with an impromptu taste test.Support the production of The Greatest GenerationGet a thing at podshop.biz!Sign up for our mailing list!Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Riker - Quantum LeapThe Greatest Generation is produced by Wynde PriddySocial media is managed by Rob Adler and Bill TilleyMusic by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaFriends of DeSoto for: Labor | Democracy | JusticeDiscuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen and find us on social media:YouTube | Facebook | X | Instagram | TikTok | Mastodon | Bluesky | ThreadsAnd check out these online communities run by FODs: Reddit | USS Hood Discord | Facebook group | Wikia | FriendsOfDeSoto.social

Madison, Wisconsin, we are coming to you and we are bringing the TNG episode that sort of feels like if Anne Rice wrote it, Sub Rosa. We are on our second contact tour, a very, very short tour of only three shows. We already had a great time at the London Podcast Festival. Now we are headed to the London of the Midwest, Madison, Wisconsin to talk about Sub Rosa. And then later in November, we're going to be talking about conspiracy in Los Angeles, California. So if you are anywhere near Madison or LA and would like to come see us in person on stage this year, These are your only two opportunities to do it. Head to greatest gentour.com to get tickets right now.

Here's to the finest crew in Starling. When it comes to my crew, you won't get any argument from me. This is a parody. Paramount owns the song. Welcome to The Greatest Generation. It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are just a little bit embarrassed about having a Star Trek podcast. I'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pranica.

Good morning. Good morning. It's an early one. I appreciate that. One of the rare morning records. Yeah. But you're cracking a brew dog nonetheless and ever too early for bubbly water yeah I bad at calendar and

then in within a day also just bad at day I think I got too many things going on today I remember asking you very clearly yesterday, do you have a grasp of the calendar? Because I would like to make plans this week. And you're like, yes, yes, I do. And then I go out with Chuck last night and he's like, yeah, I'm going to hang out with Ben for a couple hours tomorrow. And I'm like, looking at my own calendar,

looking at when we're supposed to record. And I'm like, cool, that checks out. Yeah, you know, part of the problem is my abundance of confidence. Overconfidence some would call it. That's the problem. It's not your effort in calendaring at all. It's the confidence.

Like what we're doing is we're following this river all the way up to its source with you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We were texting calendar change things at nine last night and then again at nine this morning. It's great. It's how you want to do it. Yeah. You know, it keeps you on your toes, right? It does keep me on my toes. I aim to please. Big week this week, you're right. Not every week Chuck Bryant comes to town. Great friend. Not an FOD. He doesn't listen to this show, but he's a good real-life friend to you and me.

I mean, he's listened a little bit. He's been to a couple of live shows. He knows what the vibe is. Many of my friends subscribe and listen to the show, but only up to the point where we start talking about the episode and then they dip out. Yeah, I get that from a lot of buddies. Like, hey, I know we're all so busy now that we're having families and living on opposite coasts and stuff. So the first five or 10 minutes of your show

are a great way for me to stay in touch with you. It's nice. I only wish my parents did that. So I'd have to call a lot less. I'm kind of on the other side of that issue. I kind of wish my parents wouldn't. Oh, wow.

Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Harrison. Yeah, grass is always greener, et cetera, et cetera. Oh, speaking of greenery, Ben. We've got secret greenery in this episode of Star Trek Enterprise. Yeah. An oasis, if you will. Season one, episode 20, oasis.

["Oasis"] I'm gonna go with the bassist. ["The Greatest Showman"] With a title like this, I was expecting something neat and amazing, you know? Like when that door opens, not to cut to the middle of this episode, but when that door opens and it reveals the grow-up, I'm like, oh, this episode really took a turn for the fun. It does not. You know, have you seen that Guy Ritchie program, The Gentleman on, I think it's a Netflix original series

about a, it's an English Lord who, you know, he returns home and inherits his father's title and estate and comes to discover that a massive marijuana grow-up is happening on that estate and was happening with his father's blessing because the like landed gentry don't have a way to make money anymore because just being a landowner doesn't do it in the modern era. And so he becomes an enthusiastic drug lord in the UK. It's a pretty fun show. I like, I mean, I'll say I liked original Guy Ritchie movies. Those were a lot of fun.

This is like, if those were kind of a show in a lot of ways. I mean, once Dennis Farina died, I sort of stopped watching Guy Ritchie movies. Yeah, I mean, I stopped watching movies altogether because you're never gonna get lucky anymore. No, no. But yeah, there's a guy that works the grow-up that is a really delightful character. He's, you know, a little bit dopey

because of his prolific use of getting high on his own supply and a great comic relief on that show. And this episode kind of needed a guy like that, I think. I think so too. Ben, there's a picture I got to show you in an old photo album of me and my brother in front of like, I don't know if you ever did this in your backyard, but like we grew corn, me and my brother. Like we planted a corn and then two corns grew. And we took a picture in front of it as toddlers. And then as an adult, I flipped through this album

and noticed that there was like, very clearly a weed plant back there too. My dad had been growing while we were growing up, like growing his own supply, which was baffling to me given how draconian they were in their anti-drug stance when me and my brother were getting into high school and college. Oh yeah, but it's not the same as when we were teenagers. Yeah, yeah. I mean, as you- So you have to smoke less of it's not the same as when we were teenagers. Yeah, yeah, I mean as you-

So you have to smoke less of it to get the effect? Yeah. Oh. You know what would have helped? With some parenting and direction. In this picture of you and your brother as toddlers, does your brother already have the full sleeve tats? That would be great.

Yeah, already drawn in crayon. Speaking of enjoying the gustatory delights of the world, Trippin Archer and DePaul are having a meal with Lofi Tom Bergeron, an alien who is letting them sample the spicy delights of his people, spices that are designed to test the courage of the people consuming them. It's sort of a hot ones but in space situation. Didn't you want more of that? Like, I feel like TNG did a great job with Wharf specifically in the tests of gustatorial strength or whatever. Like, like TNG did this a lot and repeatedly,

and I feel like we're missing a couple minutes of this scene where Damar, like a lady who brings her own hot sauce or salad dressing to lunch with her friends, like makes with the sauce. Yeah. And you get a trip in an archer asking what that's about. And like, I like the buildup to a moment like this instead of just the scene itself.

You know what I mean? I think that Star Trek of today understands this better. That having a sauce bottle is just a license to print money. Like I have right over my head here, a bottle of Ketrusel White Hot. I got that ice cream and candy that grew on it, white, white, white. From Star Trek Lower Decks. Ben.

Yeah. Do you want to have some with me? Because I've got mine too. Let's have some Ketrusel White Hot. It's never been opened. I want to see how it does. It'll take me a minute to go back and forth. Okay.

Doodle-loo, doodle-loo, doodle-loo. Okay, Ben, I've returned with my bottle of Ketrusel White. It'll take me a minute to go back and forth. Okay. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do- So I'm gonna, I'm just gonna chug it from the bottle. Uh, what's your, how well do you understand the Scoville scale? Because this claims to be 17 million Scoville heat units on the bottle. Sounds like a lot. Mm. Nice little kick. Ah.

I feel like my understanding of the Scoville scale is, uh, better than my grasp of the metric system. Does Rory Scoville, the beloved standup comedian, have anything to do with the scale, or is that just a coincidence? I hope so, because I'm sure this isn't going to age poorly at any point in my entire life. My favorite standup comic ever.

Wow! He's so great, I love him. Okay, so let's describe, we got Ketrisil White Hot Hot Sauce Wow! He's so great. I love him. Okay. So let's describe, we got Ketrusil White Hot Hot Sauce in a Star Trek Day box, I believe, right? That sounds right to me, yeah. Or maybe like a premier party box for one of those streaming premieres they did of Lower Decks episodes in the early seasons.

I have taken the little, I forget what these are called, the little flow restrictor thing off of my bottle. This is in Talladega, where we're ripping off the restrictor plates. Right, yeah. And we're racing fast. Yeah. Shake and bake.

What? You know, rubbing is racing, Adam. Okay, let's, I'm gonna show to camera how much hot sauce I put on this Chica's chip. Okay. Chica's the official tortilla chip of my household. There we go. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. It's a slow burn, but there's some heat in that. It's good. I like it. I do too. It's very cayenne and not, like I tend to go for a habanero hot sauce when I'm buying one for the house.

Sure. And this does not contain habaneros. This is a cayenne based sauce and I liked it. I should probably stop eating on Mike. And the reason I want to is because this hot sauce is really good. Yeah. I'm sure that the, yeah.

You're going to refer to Mesa phones as if that's a real thing? Oh, I didn't even think about them. Why would I? Oh, Mesa phones, you got binned! Boosh! I mean, like, I wanted them to break a sweat. I wanted their faces to get red and to pull to roll her eyes at them.

I wanted them to have to shit. I know, I know. And nobody does any of that, but Lofi Tom Bergeron is a trader and he tells them about this crashed ship that he could have made a mint off of, but he's a little cagey about this. He says the crew wasn't having it and they're like, I thought you said that the crew was dead. And he does not give them super actionable information, but they do arrange to buy the location of this ship

off of him in the sum of a bunch of coffee. He likes coffee. This is excellent. You doing okay there? I had a wrong pipe situation. It's not a spice thing. I thought maybe you got a little spice in the eye. Holy shit. Good looking out, Ben. I thought maybe you got a little spice in the eye. Holy shit.

Good looking out, Ben. I wasn't even thinking about that. But my eye is heating up from touching it. I shouldn't have done that. All right. I think we're going to be all right. Ben, how do you name a guy, Demar, in Star Trek at this moment in time?

That was a great question. A question I wanted the answer to, especially a guy drinking a dark brown substance. Yeah. The casual brutality of it. Is Demar like Chris? Like, is that just a very common Star Trek alien name? It's the Mike of the Alpha Quadrant.

That's what I'm saying. If you think that this is the first of many scenes where we're going to hang out with Damar and get a sense for how squirrely he might be as a traitor, let me disabuse you of that right now. We never see Damar again. And I wanted to, right? Yeah, Tom Bergeron, one of many celebrities

that have come and done a very brief cameo on Star Trek in so much loaf that they are unrecognizable. Why work so hard on making him suspicious if he's not gonna come back at all? They really do a lot of work with the whole, oh, weird traitor guy, weird story. It seems like a trap. It's not. I mean, it's classic misdirection, right? Like, we suspect him until we suspect the guy that's actually behind the mystery of this episode. But it does feel like he's very much written off the show because after the opening credits, we're at this planet and we're scanning the

surface and it's like, oh, I guess they didn't bring him with them like there's not another ship in orbit so he's not gonna be like oh man he led us here into a trap so that he could like salvage our own ship or something. Dimar had the good sense to do the deal and then bounce. Yeah. He wasn't gonna stick around. Mm-hmm. He hit it and quit it. 🎵 🎵 There you salty long. 🎵 it.

So they pull up to this planet and they find the ship on the surface. It's got no life signs. And Mayweather is the only bridge crew person who's ever seen Event Horizon before. He's the only dissenting opinion on whether or not to go down there. That ship could be a tomb. I know, it's funny to hear Event Horizon words come out of the mouth of a character whose vibes are so different from Event Horizon. He's like, what if the place is a tomb?

Yeah. I liked seeing that classic TNG triangle ship crashed on the surface. Like when we get the top down, it's like we have seen this ship before So many times. Yeah. Yeah, so they got to take a shuttle pod to the surface and Onboard it's a ship that sounds Very haunted right with what they do to the to the sound of the wind outside the hole

I think it really sounds that way It looks that way more and more when you're using flashlight beams and when you're splitting up the away team. Like you're doing all the haunted house tricks that you do in a movie and a TV show with this sort of subject matter. Yeah. Were these new action jackets? Or was I just noticing them for the first time?

I love these jackets. They're so cool. They're good. That quilting? So nice. Yeah, they look neat. Mayweather has an observation that I thought was... At the time he says it, suggests the haunting that people either believe or don't believe to be happening. That traitor left in such a hurry.

Why'd he bother to close the hatch behind him? Yeah. Damar was not born in a barn, I guess. Right. Yeah. And why are the toilet seats all left up also? And why is the carpet all wet, Todd? I don't know, Margo. So, yeah, they split up to Paul, like, hears a bump in the night, and there's some concern about that, she assures a trip that Vulcans don't imagine things and therefore we have to assume that something is for real making noises but nothing comes up on the scanners when she sets the scanner for rat.

Yeah, she like tunes the scanner in and, like, through the static. It's like, rounded round. The rat song. Oh, yeah. What goes around, goes around. I'll tell you why. Any rat fans out there? Tripp suggests to her that maybe she's getting the creeps, which is a concept she isn't familiar with.

He could have just explained it as it, it's like the ick, like what you get around me. Willies, he be jeebies. But for fear. You remember that dude who unconsensually mind melded you? It's sort of like that feeling of being around him. Yeah. So don't fucking lie to me, T'Pol.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, for all the shit that T'Pol throws back at Tripp Tucker for getting pregnant by that engineer lady earlier in the season. You're never gonna let that go, are you? Why doesn't he throw any shit back at her? I mean, one could argue that she was like victimized

and it was just an accident in his case. There you go again, Ben. Making me out to be the bad guy. All right, that's fair. That's a fair point. I think that we're both the bad guy today because I pissed off the Mesa phones and you pissed off everyone else.

The Mesa phones are really single issue voters. I pissed off a real faction of our listeners, and you didn't. They're like, I don't understand why this ship is crashed. Like, the dilithium is in good shape. Everything seems to be basically functional. Like, we could probably fly it again if we, you know, put 25 minutes of

wrenching into it. Yeah. Do you get the idea that unless you were looking for this ship specifically, it would remain hidden forever? Like the idea later on about this ship not putting out a distress signal as a means to remain concealed. Like, so much of this story was a mystery to me because, like, yeah, this is a high value item on the surface of a planet. It really wouldn't ever be found for decades. Space is big, man. I don't know. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I guess so, yeah. And that's part of the question they ask themselves. Like, scavengers should have picked this thing over.

Like, there's a lot of stuff in really good shape. There's a lot of high-value stuff that remains like these dilithium crystals. What's the deal? Yeah. They start getting more creeped out. Uh, to Paul sees a reflection in a shiny panel and turns around and the, the face that she saw is no longer there. But then she and Tripp both see a shadow moving in a hallway adjacent to the room that they're in.

And so they, uh, radio into the other faction of the away team that something is going on. Look, I'm telling you, there's something moving in. It ain't us. The no life signs detected situation may not have been entirely accurate. And they go to pursue whoever made that shadow. They have to like use their phasers as like welding torches to open a hatch. That's fun.

But yeah, into a very verdant grow-up they go as they follow whatever made this shadow. There's a blonde lady inside who does not appear happy to see them and Annie Wershing plays Liana, this character, and there's something so haunted about her expression here and in so many other moments. It's like she's got permanent wide eyes. Like that haunted doll quality of like expecting something terrible to happen. I love the choice that she made there because in retrospect that reads as, I've never met anyone before. You're the first person that I've ever met.

But it takes a long time for that to be revealed why she's reacting that way. Do you think there's any part of her that's wondering whether or not her dad made new people for her to play with? As a gift or something? Right. Like, oh, a couple of new baddies just came in, one boy and one girl. Maybe he's going to let me explore some more adult themes in my socialization now. Yeah.

I mean, she is of age, clearly. That's gotta be a troubling proposition. So they're outgunned. There are a lot of people here and a lot of them are armed and one of them is Odo. I'm Mr. Bunkett. Bunkett's a guy. But he's got a beard.

Yeah, great to see Renee Abergen a beard. Yeah. Great to see Renee Aborigenois again. Yeah. It's been quite a while. This is, we learn from these people, your classic, we crashed here many years ago, three years ago, and Archer's like, cool, we'll load you up onto our ship and get you home. And they're like, no, this is our home now. And in a way that far too many marooned peoples in Star Trek have said over the years in my estimation. The vibes are so weird in this scene.

Like they appear grateful, but it's like smiling with your mouth without your eyes. Like it's false gratitude. It doesn't quite read as normal. It's the reverse Tyra Banks, isn't it? Yeah. I should have just said that. Later on, Tripp is working on some repairs and runs into that blonde lady again and her permanently fearful eyes are not a deterrent for him and not a deterrent for her.

Even though she looks full of fear, she's there to help. She's giving him tips on what wires not to touch so he doesn't electrocute himself. She knows all about how the ship is wired because her dad is the engineer. After those people trying to steal the enterprise in the last episode, I was like, oh man, like this happened twice in two episodes that somebody opened a panel in the engineering section and almost took themselves out with an electric current.

The mom is maybe the weirdest presenting person among the crew. Her vibes with her daughter especially are like protective like you would expect. Yeah. But also there's like a real don't look at the farmer's daughter vibe going on in scenes that Tripp Tucker is in.

Yeah. And I think it has so much to do with that episode earlier on in the season, like informing how we're supposed to feel about another possible romantic interest, you know? Right. And when you get a character with Kes hair as a guest in an episode, like I personally got the feeling someone was gonna be freshened up. Like when the mom drags Not Kess away, you wonder for whose protection

the dragging is happening, you know? Right, because it's not like everybody is going up to Tripp and saying, don't fuck Not Kess. Right. They're going up to Not Kess and saying, don't fuck Tripp. Exactly. And that coupled with the look of stunned fear in her eyes kind of makes you think that she's got an unspeakable power that may not be totally under her control or something.

She could be carrying at any moment. Yeah. Don't leave buckets of pig blood unattended on this ship. So Tripp and T'Pol take a look at this weird wiring that they've done throughout the ship in order to keep it running. And T'Pol has observed that Tripp has kind of a track record for falling for alien engineers specifically. Like this is a specific interest of his.

It's not just like lady alien randomly. It's an alien of a certain set of skills. Yeah. She's very competent. This is an awkward moment for Liana to enter with a stuffed squash for Tripp to stick his face in, right? Yeah. I mean, he takes one look at her gourd and thinks getting impregnated again might be worth it.

You could call this a horny of plenty, right? Oh, sure. I thought it was wild that these aliens who we've never met before, who have never had an interaction with human beings, have discovered the fork all on their own. It's amazing. How about that? Yeah. She likes to watch as he eats.

Why do I feel like it's feeding time at the zoo? I like how it's squashed three ways, right? It's the interior of the squash cubed, and then there's like spaghettiification of that squash surrounding the cutout gourd itself. Really nice presentation. It's fun, it'd be like if you served clam chowder in a clam shell, like a huge clam shell.

That would be so fun. Yeah. Toss the bread bowl, who needs that? It's all soggy by the end. There's enough bread in the chowder. Yeah. He's chatting with her and makes sure she's aware that he's super available if that's on the table.

He steers this conversation in that direction with great intent. Very much so. But also kind of, you know, wants to talk to her about the prospect of going home, because, you know, after three, she sure must miss it. And she doesn't seem particularly enthused about that idea. Yeah. The scene's interrupted by Kulan, an authority figure among the crew who takes them over

to the computer core, a place that we're told is damaged and is getting worse as time goes on. And Tripp's pretty confident that he can fix it because he can fix any alien computer if he's given a high enough dose of psychedelic drugs. Oh my God, it's full on. I'm wondering what was in that squash at this exact moment.

Yeah, he's like, now was I imagining the nipples on my forearms? That does seem like a thing you would hallucinate, right? I'm covered in nipples. They're so sensitive. All I gotta do is blow on my forearms. Look at him. Get rock hard right away. He needs some tools from the ship and he's like, you know what? If I go back up to Enterprise, it might be a good opportunity to take Liana with me. That way we can have a meal in the mess hall and hang out a little bit more.

And Coulon shoots that idea straight down. Thank you, Commander, but we still have a lot to do here. Net interested. And once Trip fucks off, there's a sort of a counseling session at Leona that's like, hey, that guy seems cool and everything, but you shouldn't go to the ship and you shouldn't really fraternize. That would be bad. And she promises in this scene not to say anything, and that's suspicious, right?

Ooh, I want to know what the big secret is. Yeah, I know. She's a gas. I thought this was an interesting cut to McLaughlin group. Issue one. Because suddenly we are just in a meeting on The Entrepreneur about a bunch of new things that are also suspicious about what's going on down there. Reed does not believe that they were shot down three

years ago. In fact, there's no evidence of foul play in the scans that he's done of the ship's hull, like no scoring from phaser marks or explosions from extremely weak missiles that a ship might've shot at them. The steel beams appear to have melted in a way that's highly suspicious. Doesn't make a lot of sense in this meeting. Yeah, and at the end of the day, the math isn't math-ing.

They have a grow-up, but there's dozens of them, and the grow-up is only so big, it's not going to be able to produce enough calories to keep that many people alive. Did you think, like I thought, that the big secret that they were covering up is that they're eating each other? Oh, man. In this exact moment, I was like, well, they're eating each other. Obviously. Why are there no babies on this crew? Why wouldn't they see other crew members from the Enterprise?

Do they keep licking their lips? Yeah, my mind went here immediately. For sure. I got a hot plate. I'm gonna get some beers. That would have made so much more sense for why they keep telling Leanna, like, don't fall in love with Tripp.

You're just gonna have to eat him. Don't play with your food. It's gonna be so sad. Yeah. And that storyline is legitimately scary and haunted and spooky and all the rest. Like that's consistent with what Tom Bergeron told us in the cold open.

Yeah. Oh man, I love this punch up. Way scarier. I know, I know. Like that's consistent with what Tom Bergeron told us in the cold open. Yeah. Oh man, I love this punch up. Way scarier. I know. I know. I had forgotten that they grabbed a couple of hard drives off the ship when they were first exploring it,

thinking that nobody was there. Yeah. And I guess they brought those up to Enterprise and didn't tell the crew of the ship that they'd taken some data with them. So they're like, well, let's crack those suckers open, see what's going on in there, and maybe that will answer some of our questions.

We don't get to find out what's on these things quite yet. Instead, we're over in engineering where Tripp is giving Leanna a tour and telling her about all the different kinds of species there are on the ship. And they seem to be getting along great. Well on their way towards one or both of them becoming pregnant, I would say. Yeah.

It's very flirty. She doesn't really want to answer any questions about her home planet, which he is surprised she doesn't seem to miss very much. Yeah, it's going to be awkward when he gives her a ride home and she's like, no, you can just drop me off here. But this is a mall. Yeah, I like to get off right after the highway exit and just walk from there. Yeah.

Will you speak with some experience? This is a fire station. Really? Why do you have a note taped to your chest that says, I'm surrendering myself? What does that mean? Faith of the fart. You take your vitamins, you watch what you eat, you get exercise, you're doing the little things that add up to a better lifestyle.

But what's your website situation looking like? Are you just using social media? That can lead to bad business long term. And while you're making the smart corrections in your lifestyle, why don't you consider building a beautiful new website for your project or band with Squarespace. It's the all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online. They make it easy to create a beautiful website, engage with your audience, or sell anything from products to content to time. All in one place, all on your terms. They've been a super loyal supporter of the greatest generation, and we think you should

have a super good website that will, you know, make you live long and prosper. So go to squarespace.com for a free trial when you're ready to launch. Go to squarespace.com slash scarves to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Are you ready to take your embarrassment to the next level? to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Are you ready to take your embarrassment to the next level? Get your hands on the hottest merch from the greatest generation and greatest Trek podcasts over at Podshop.biz. From mugs to t-shirts to beach towels to bags

and even exclusive stickers, we've got something for every FOD and every budget. Imagine sipping your morning coffee from a mug that proudly declares your love for Trek, or having a mouse pad that your coworkers are too indifferent to ask about, or wearing a shirt that makes a stranger avoid eye contact. Experience a lifeguard ignoring your struggle for air when they see your hot Cylon summer beach towel in the sand.

Hey, buying merch not only tells everyone you're an FOD, but it also supports the production of our shows. We're always adding and removing stuff to the store, so head to Podshop.biz right now and grab your favorites before they're gone. Hello, internet. I'm your husband, host Travis McElroy. And I'm your wife host Teresa McElroy. And this is a promo for Schmaners. It's Extraordinary Etiquette. For ordinary occasions. Every week, we're going to tell you about a bit of culture, a bit of history, how etiquette still applies in the modern day, all that stuff.

We also love to do biographies and histories of and, you know, general procedurals, how to do etiquette in today's society. So come check it out every Friday on MaximumFun.org or wherever you find your podcasts. Manor shmaners, get it? My name is Doug Duguay and I'm here to talk about my podcast in the middle of the one you're listening to. It's called Valley Heat and it's about my neighborhood, the Burbank Rancho Equestrian District, the center of the world when it comes to foosball, frisbee golf, and high-speed freeway roller skating. And there's been a Jaguar parked outside on my curb for 10 months. I have no idea who owns it.

I have a feeling it's related to the drug drop that was happening in my garbage can a little over a year ago. And if this has been a boring commercial, imagine 45 minutes of it. Okay, Valley Heat, it's on every month on MaximumFun.org or wherever you get podcasts. Check it out, but honestly, skip it. These are the Chronicles of the Rancho Western District in Burbank, California. These are the events taking place in my house, around my house. And you will never take the greatest gin alive. Ben would rather die.

Tucker and Reid have another meeting in Archer's clarinet storage room. I love how defensive Trip is right away. He opens pretty hard about there being no funny business between him and Leona in a way that everyone else is like, whoa, that's not what this is about. Nobody asked to smell your dick when you came into this room, TripTucker. Do I still have nipples on my forearms? Let me roll up my coverall sleeves, take a look.

No, so they've looked into these hard drives, and what they have uncovered are records about an onboard accident than in fact, is the real reason their ship ended up on the surface of this moon. It was 22 years ago that this happened, and this jibes with the metallurgy on the hull, like the way it's oxidizing or whatever.

And they've also found escape pods in orbit. So they're like, Tripp, you've been working the most closely with any of them because you clearly want to fuck Liana. Has anything presented itself as seeming odd? And he's like, no, man, like, I swear I'm not pregnant. And they're like, but what about the escape pod we found in orbit with the crispy critter on board? Yeah.

This scene moves really fast, but there's one really important detail to it, which is if this ship is 22 years old, the idea is that these people are more advanced than those on the enterprise and the technology there. I think that is a detail that matters right now. Yeah. They pull this escape pod on board,

and I thought that Flax's energy at this scene was very, very on point. He was like, I don't know why you pulled me down here to do this, this seems gross and weird. I don't know what you hope to find when you open this thing. I feel like they maybe didn't even give John Billingsley any dialogue. Like they walked him out there

and what you're seeing here is a John Billingsley going, I got into loaf for this. And then turns around and leaves. And what you're seeing here is a John Billingsley going, I got into loaf for this. And then turns around and leaves. Yeah, because when they open this thing up and there's a desiccated corpse inside, he's like, all right, well, like I said. Yeah. The mummy alien looks great.

It really does. And gross. Really good job with this. I was really surprised. I've been using this app, Call Sheet, as my, like, you know, look at the cast and keep track of all their names. And the character from the ship down on the planet surface that this is the mummy of up here in this pod was uncredited in this episode.

He has a bunch of lines, but did not get credited at all. And as such, is not credited in the app. And then I was like, oh, like, let me go check IMDB to find out what this actor's name is. Uncredited on IMDB. I had to go to memory alpha. And he's like way down the list, like, below a bunch of unspeaking parts

in the like memory alpha list of people in this episode. It was like, they made a whole mummy of this guy, and he didn't get a credit? Donald Sage McKay. Yeah. Huh. Can you imagine having been cast in something that was serious enough that they made a mummy of you,

and then watching it when it aired on television, and just nothing. If you don't want to be credited after the fact, is that something you can do as an actor? I don't know. To withdraw? Maybe. Yeah, maybe he wasn't happy with his mummy's performance. Yeah, I guess not. Yeah, this poor bastard. I did actually find out what happened to the mummy though, Adam.

Oh, no. Garrett Wong bought this at auction a few years ago. God, his menagerie of mummified alien corpses just grows in number. It really does. He was stating the obvious again. So elsewhere, T'Pol is working in the computer core and makes a strange face. We get like a 10 second scene of this happening. But over in the mess hall,

Liana is making a different face, ice cream headache face. She's taking this ice cream to the dome by herself and things become awkward when Tripp sits with her. So rather than just kind of sit in that awkwardness a moment longer than is necessary, he comes right out and asks, how long she's been on the planet? It really seems like your ship's been down there 22 years. So what gives with you guys telling us three years over and over again?

Yeah. Also, your buddy, Shallot, was in that escape pod that we found in orbit. Why is his name Shallot was in that escape pod that we found in orbit. Why is his name Shallot? Do you got another guy down there named Ramp? Is there a guy named Leek? What other alliums do you name people after in your culture? She doesn't take kindly to all these questions.

She wants to leave actually. She gets up to go and she's being fairly insistent that she wants to leave the ship immediately. It sucks to be stuck on a ship that you want to get off of and you can't like, like they have to get a shuttle pod and take her, you know. It's a whole thing. It's got to be awkward. You don't see that scene either. The wordless descent back to the planet surface. Yeah. On the surface, in the ship with T'Pol, she's going around with the flashlight

and is finally confronted by several of the aliens we saw before. Including Shallot. Yeah, including Shallot. She probably should have noticed that he was nearby because her eyes were watering. Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're really upset with her

about being in a place where she shouldn't be and investigating things that are kind of, uh... Yeah. ...outside of the scope of her work. We saw the face you made when you looked at that computer screen. Yeah. We know you know things you're not supposed to know. The comedy of this scene has to do with the costumes, right?

Because all of these aliens are wearing, like, the multicolored jumpsuit of a PBS children's show. Ha ha ha. Made in the 90s, right? Like, very bright colors, very geometric shapes. Yeah. The loaf itself, very non-threatening. Like, it's got some slim good body vibes

a little bit to these folks. Sure. It reminded me of that episode of Voyager where they were incognito on some planet where there was a bunch of nuclear protests going on and everybody had big bright sweaters on. Yeah. Yeah. These guys are not the scary muggers that they're trying to portray them as

when they sort of jump everyone. Like when the shuttle returns, like everybody from the shuttle also gets jumped. And it's like, I guess presumably T'Pol is a prisoner now, but I was never stressed about, you know, T'Pol is a prisoner now, but I was never stressed about, you know, T'Pol's safety or anything like that. The dampening field is referred to early on in the episode as a way to hide the grow-up, but I guess that dampening field extends to the rest of the ship, right?

Because in the following scene, Archer and Reed and Leona and Trip are looking for T'Pol as if they can't pick her up on a tricorder or a sensor at all. Yeah, so they take Trip off and they're like, you're gonna finish repairing our computer core at gunpoint essentially. And when they take him out, Leona turns to Odo and is like, hey, like, this is wrong and you can do something about it,

which is kind of news to us as viewers because it doesn't seem like he's in charge. Captain Coulon seems like he's in charge. But yeah, like, Trip is trying to fix the computer. Nobody will tell him why that is like the most important thing for him to be doing. And up on the ship Archer is like, well, they've got this, this dampening field. So like we can't see in, but they can't see out.

So like perfect opportunity to mount a tactical rescue mission. And it's an urgent situation because it is suggested that T'Pol will die if Tripp doesn't fix the computer. Yeah. But I was just never worried about her. Because they didn't show her. Yeah. She's not tied up, you know. Archer isn't falling on her boobs. There's no evidence of threat.

She's not eating gruel with her face. Using her manicure as a little spoon. Yeah. So in the grow up, Liana and her mom, her weird mom, argue about the situation. And if I'm Tripp Tucker, the more I get to know Liana's mom, the less interested I am in Liana, to be clear. Yeah, that just seems like, you know, not worth the price of admission right there. That's where all this is headed, right?

Yeah. Liana's mom assures her daughter that everything's gonna be all right once these enterprise folks leave. And those enterprise folks have gone back to Enterprise, Archer Reed and Mayweather anyway, and they're planning a return trip in order to rescue T'Pol in a shuttle pod. So Leona goes to see Trip and kind of spills the beans about what's going on here. The question has been, are you ghosts, basically, based on the spooky story told

by Damar? And she's like getting ready to start contextualizing Tripp's situation for him. When we cut away to the raid in progress and, you know, Archer and Reed are shooting guns at people and getting shot back at, and Reed takes one to the shoulder. They shoot a couple of beams at these guys and beams go right through. They seem to be invulnerable to phaser fire. There is specifically work that music is not doing in this moment. Like, this reminded me a lot of, like, the first time we meet the Borgs, and they get shot and fall, and then the next Borg gets shot, and there's like a personal shield that goes up. There's like a music cue to, ha! You're fucked. Captain, they've adapted.

I know this is a sound you're familiar with, but like when a plan doesn't work and you're like, oh shit, now you're really fucked? Yeah. The way this is shot is like dark hallway, phaser beams being the only light, phaser beams cutting through people that should stop and cause harm. There's no, like what I really wanted

was that moment of danger in the musical score that suggested like the lethality of what we'd learn later are holographic people, but like I wanted a more Borgs-ish kind of threat. Like their weapons do not work and they're coming. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like whatever music for Horde is, like that's what I wanted. And it would have been thematic, right? Because they're like a digital version of zombies, so if they just keep coming in that way, yeah, that would have been cool.

Because it's scary looking, but it's not scary sounding to finish off the feelings of this. When they walk through walls, that should be like bone chilling. And it's just like, whoa, neat. Yeah. Yeah. Seeing the peril that her new pals are in, Liana takes matters into her own hands and starts unplugging computer chips.

And as she does this, all of these dudes threatening the enterprise crew start to vanish And as she does this, all of these dudes threatening the Enterprise crew start to vanish until only Odo is left. I like how their phasers fall to the ground after they disappear. That's a neat touch. Real phasers.

They were all holograms and they have been Leanna and her dad's only community for the last 22 years. The rest died in a crash. And that is the end of the episode. Can you fuck the holograms? Is a question I heard. Like it just turns out the dad, like the daughter has come into age, like as an adult woman,

but the dad has made all these holograms for he himself to fuck. No sharing with the daughter. When I put the music box on outside the door to my room, don't come in. Yeah. So he has been on a two decade guilt trip basically. He starts to admit all of his wrongdoing. They were on the ship, they got hit by an ion storm. He was the chief engineer and he did not stay at his post.

He went down to get his infant daughter out of the bottom deck of the ship because in a crash landing, he knew that that would get crushed. And because he left his post, he feels that is what made the difference between the ship staying flying and the ship crashing. I mean, if he stayed on the bridge, he could have rolled the ship to the other side for crash landing. We're gonna roll it, okay? What do you mean roll it?

That would have been nice, and then all the people in the top get squished. Yeah. You don't know those people. Fuck them. Fucking bosses. Very few children up on the top deck. They don't care about you. You shouldn't care about them. Yeah. So the Enterprise crew were like, okay, but like you could have fixed the ship and flown home.

And he's like, no, too guilty. And they're like, well, oh, you made a community and like raised your daughter and like, you did her a favor, but like you're gonna die eventually and she's just gonna be stuck here. Like, is that really a good long-term plan? Yeah, that is a great question. A question that goes unanswered.

Instead, Archer's like, well, I guess we can make repairs. And once those are done, like you have the amount of time it takes to make the repairs to consider the offer of leaving or the idea of leaving. And finally in Archer's ready room, this is the scene where you learn why René Abbergenwa took this part. This moment is great for him. He explains that he doesn't want to leave. He's happy living like he has, but that engineer guy with the nipples all over his arms has

been fairly persuasive about maybe prioritizing his daughter's happiness instead of his own personal comfort. So for her, he will accept Archer's help in getting a ship fixed. And he and his hollow crew and his daughter are going to return to his home planet. And the idea that this just plays out in your imagination, his return home, what that's gotta be like. I so wanted the denouement of what would be a post-credit sequence in a modern TV show of a year later, they arrive home

and he's got to turn off all the hollow people before getting there, you know, one final time. Mm. And then he like goes and knocks at the door of a woman he knew before all this happened and she's got a husband now and he's like, damn it. And then, you know, it ends with him just standing at a literal crossroads.

As the Incredible Hulk theme plays. God, we punched this episode up hard. We really have. We did the thing. Yeah, so he just has like a list of stuff he needs and he's like, we can take it from here. We'll turn on all my holograms and they'll take care of the repairs. I've known all along everything that needed to be done for us to get home. Tripp gets a little kiss goodbye.

And I did notice that she kind of gave a little, a little tweak to a couple of the nipples on his forearms. What it would have been so great if, if Tripp had kept the nipples as part of his character for the rest of the series. I love that so much. People think that Enterprise is like minor Star Trek. It's not that good. I think that mostly that's overblown

and Enterprise is pretty good. It would have been best Star Trek ever if he had kept the nipples. They make me wanna roll up my sleeves and get to work all the time. Did you like this episode, Adam? I really didn't, Ben. I felt manipulated by this episode. I didn't like the little tricks it pulled to make me believe something that wasn't true. I don't like not seeing T'Pol being kept prisoner in order to have us remain on the side of

Ezraal and these aliens. To keep our feelings for them ambiguous to the extent that we could finally like root for them in the end and approve of Ezral's choice. It felt like I was being jerked around a little bit there for that. Like, show me to Paul getting taken prisoner. Like, trust that I will come to my own best conclusions about how to feel about these aliens. It felt to me like putting your thumb on the scale emotionally a little bit in a way that I didn't like. That's where I'm at with it. I mean, I love a René Aboriginault

and I love his performance. Totally. But like in a number of ways that we've described in recapping the episode, like make it harder. The performances are all really good in this episode and the setup is so interesting and I just feel like it's the second two-thirds of the episode that just kind of fall flat in the story and in the writing. So yeah, I kind of agree that this one is a bit of a mess.

But like we're 20 episodes into Enterprise now. I feel like this is like the worst episode, maybe. I agree. Yeah. And it's not that bad, you know? Yeah. And not in a God, this was shit kind of way. Just not as good as the rest. Totally. Demonstrably. Yeah. Yeah. Well, do you want to see if there's anything that is less disappointing in the Priority One inbox? Pretty good chance of that, Ben. Priority One message from Starfleet coming in on Secure Channel. Need a supplemental income.

Supplemental income? Supplemental. Supplemental. Yeah, it's extra. By the interest alone, could be enough to buy this ship. We got a commercial Priority One message here. It goes like this. If you listen to only one recap podcast about a decades old sci-fi TV show, make it The Greatest Generation. If you listen to two such podcasts, then look up Greatest Trek. But if there's room in

your podcatcher's heart for three such podcasts, why not check out Closing Crawl? The Closing Crawl podcast recaps Star Wars The Clone Wars animated series. We welcome all clones, gonk droids, bachelors, androids, rebels, and friends of DeSoto. So search for Closing Crawl on your podcatcher. Wow. I've not seen the Clone Wars show. I've heard it's great. I saw the Clone Wars movie in theaters when it came out and really enjoyed it and enjoyed

the art style of it tremendously. Yeah, it looks neat. I kind of like, I'm in this like weird limbo period where my son is not really old enough to like watch any TV or movie things yet. And there's like occasionally things like that where I'm like oh like I would love to check that out now that I have an app with all of the episodes on it but I don't I'm gonna like watch it right now you know because I'm gonna have an impacted ass full of that shit in like three years so like maybe I'll save the ones that I'm actually interested in to watch with him

yeah that's a understandable kind of math you're having to do. Yeah. But like, you know, I love Pixar movies and I haven't seen like the last couple because I'm like, I'll just save it for later and kind of makes me sad. So maybe maybe I'll start listening to the Closing Crawl podcast and do this one for me. Yeah, I mean, traumatizing your kid with Pixar movies is something that's gonna have to wait. Yeah, looking forward to it though. Ben, we got a personal priority one message here from Hans. It is to you and me.

Their message goes like this, guys. When are you coming to Bill Gray's regional ice flex? I'll tell you when. Never. That's because it's now Tim Horton's ice flex. Oh man. RSVP Bill Gray, whoever he was. Dang. Descending in scarves at Enterprise episode four. If I watch one more ep, I'll be the farthest away from not watching Enterprise I've ever been. Here's hoping it grows past conservative dads made a Star Trek. Oh, Hans, it's gotten better than that. Yeah, I just keep thinking about if Bill Gray's regional iceplex is the one iceplex to bear

the name of Tim Horton, that's a pretty huge vote in favor of Bill Gray's regional Iceplex. I mean, I'm pretty sure the Tim Horton's brand is pervasive across many, many, many ice complexes. It's got to be right. God, I was just thinking about how on the launchpad we were when we considered going to Bill Gray's regional Iceplex back in the day. To meet Biff Yeager. Yeah, it didn't end up happening. When he cancelled, we cancelled.

Yeah. It's too bad. And that was that. Our final P1 today is from Jadov. Jadov. I'm gonna go with... Yeah. It's to Ben and Adam. Goes like this. Adam, Ben, I've been listening to your goofy pod for about a year now. And I just listened to your episode of Star Trek Entrepreneur, where Tripp gets pregnant.

And you both somehow totally missed what my girlfriend and I found to be the funniest moment, where the Klingon on the holodeck exclaims, I can see my house from here. Fuck, that was funny. It was fine. It sounds like you. Fuck, that was funny. It was fine. It sounds like you got it, J'Adove. Yeah.

I mean, the very funniest moment of that episode are Tripp's arms covered in nipples. Yeah. Fun to get this P1 on an episode that is so referential of that one. Yeah. Yeah, big fun. Soft on this episode overall, but I was very enthusiastic about the fact that this episode was not gonna let us forget

the trip had arm nipples and got pregnant. Nope. I'm all for that, like. I mean, T'Pol's not gonna let him forget, or us. If that had happened to a character on TNG, it would never have been mentioned again. It's true, yeah, yeah. So maybe this episode wasn't as bad as as we reviewed it

for that reason alone one of the greats Just as all of those priority one messages were if you'd like to support the show via priority one message You can go to maximum fun org slash jumbotron Getting a message is a great way to support the show Getting a message is a great way to support the show financially. I'm sure you've noticed. Not every episode has an ad, but Priority One messages fill that gap where they're on Tinny and we appreciate it.

Hey, Adam. What's up, Ben? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? I feel compelled to make it a real person and not a hollow, right? Wow. And I guess as real as they get is Tom Bergeron's character. He was a real man, right? A real man.

A real man. Tin man. A real spicy man. He was piquant. I like characters like his. It's just a shame we didn't get any more scenes with him. I like the idea of him roaming around making trades and enjoying spicy food.

He seems like he's got a pretty good life. Yeah. Good guy. What about you? I'm gonna give it to Shallot. Poor guy didn't get to see his name up in lights on the episode credits, or even on fucking IMDB or whatever. Yeah. So I just want to do it for a guy who got a mummy made of him

but got no credit for the experience. We're a shallot household, Ben. We very rarely buy onions. Onions just too much. Onions is a shallot. What do you need an onion for? I mean, I find that the shallots make me weep a lot more intensely than onions. Oh yeah.

Yeah, they know things about you. They reveal those things in a way you're unprepared for. They sure do. Like an essential truth. Well, Adam, I'm going to reveal what our next episode is. Of course, it's season one, episode 21 of Star Trek Enterprise. It's called Detained. Archer and Mayweather are detained by the Tandaren's in a Suleyman internment camp. Learning of the Suleyman's persecution by the Tandaren's, Archer enlists the aid of

Enterprise and his crew. What you got there is the episode title in the description. I love that. How about this? Dean Stockwell is going to be in next week's episode, Adam. Wow. That's fun. That is big fun.

I love it. Getting Stockwell and Bakula back together. Give me a fucking break. That's great. Yeah, that had to be a riot on set. Oh, man. So many war stories for them to tell. Oh, yeah. Love that. Hey, speaking of Dean Stockwell, it's time to go to the game of buttholes... The Will of the Rikers quantum leap,

and find out just how we will be doing next week's episode. With the roll of the dice, we're on square 89, and we could land on any square. You're required to learn as you play. Roll. No, roll this bone, Adam. Do it. Oh my goodness.

I've landed on a Quirks bar episode, square thirty two. All aboard! Ah! Drink! It's the antidote! Wow. Drink if you got them next week. I do.

Right here on The Greatest Generation. Hey, that's fun. Yeah. Been a while since we've done just a regular Quirks bar. Not a variation thereof. Just a drinking hang. It's not a competition. It's not connected to a timer. It's not dangerous.

It's just two super cool California Star Trek dudes crushing drinks and talking about Star Trek. It's going to be great. It sure is. Hey we really appreciate everyone that supports this program by going to MaximumFun.org slash join keeping us in business and keeping our tremendous producer Wendy Pretty paid. We really appreciate all of her work as do we the work of Bill Tilly our temporal Cold War time consigniary, and Rob Adler, our social media director. Both of those guys help run the at greatest track accounts

we have on social media all over the place. Bill just wrote a great thing in the newsletter. And maybe Rob Adler will get a shot at that at some point. I think it's pretty fun what we got going on at the newsletter. You can subscribe for yourself. Where do you get it, Ben? Coq.biz slash mail. Coq.biz slash mail. Easy to sign up on podshop.biz as well.

That's where you do it. Go to the pod shop because each newsletter has a discount code for the pod shop also. So if that makes sense, right? All of that is super fun. Highly recommended, as is following At Greatest Track. We got to thank our boy Adam Ragusea, who made the parody version of Diane Warren's theme

for Star Trek Enterprise. Coached us through singing it. Love that guy. Yeah, he really made it happen. He really made something special there out of those raw materials. And with that, we will be back at you next week with another great episode of Star Trek Enterprise, an episode of the Greatest Generation Enterprise where we might accidentally get so drunk that we think we're watching quantum bleed.

Yeah, I want to find the limit of drinking and then go just past it to find out. Maybe the next drink will be the drink that drinks me home. That helps you meet God? Yeah. Make it so. that helps you meet God.