The Greatest Generation - It Puts the Antimatter Into the Injector or It Gets the Hose Again (ENT S2E24)

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

When Captain Archer gets bad news involving A.G. Robinson and a mountain, his solo away mission to a dark matter nebular turns into story time with T’Pol in the the middle seat. But when she learns about their rivalry and how Robinson influenced Archer’s career, she suggests naming their big beautiful nebula after him as a fitting final tribute. What’s the best method of birth control? Who does this show think we care about? How can copyright infringement be avoided? It’s the episode with an embarrassment of bar towels.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

Here's to the finest crew in Starling. When it comes to my crew, you won't get any arguments 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.

How you doing today, Adam? Great. Great. I see you're rocking your Beverly Crusher t-shirt. Yeah, great band out of Seattle. A band that gave me a bunch of shirts when I rolled up on them at a music festival many years ago. That's awesome. Still active, still rocking. Yeah. Go see them.

Is the implication that they're crushing Beverly's or? Oh, that's a good question. I don't know if it's a reference to anything unseemly. Yeah. I'm not going to blow up their spot if that's what it means. Yeah, but I was just going to say, it could mean like- Fucking Benjamin R. Harrison going like, um, yeah, is your band name in reference to something illegal or druggy?

I was picturing it being that they had a great big crush on Beverly. Oh, okay. Oh, I thought maybe the Beverly was the drug and you're like using the bottom of a bottle to crush it up. Oh, man, I thought you were saying that the bottom of a bottle to crush it up. Oh man, I thought you were saying that it was crushing as in like crush and puss, which was not the meaning I intended, but where I thought your head had gone. Now only ghosts crush that puss.

Ghosts and evidently, waterfall soaked Captain Picard. Beverly, Beverly. Waterfall soaked Captain Picard. Bebele! Bebele! He's so old and feebled, he needed the pressure of the water to provide the thrusting action. You must trust me. There is so much water flowing over my body. There's no chance you'll get pregnant with all that water about. It's like doing it in Jacuzzi. It's a natural birth control. Look at us stand up 69ing under this waterfall. There is no possible way, with the pressure

per square inch going into you, that any seminal fluid will remain. So he came inside her and then they stand up 69 after that. Yeah, got to flip her upside down. Wow. That's the Picard maneuver right there. No kidding. That's like, I mean, to do that in your refractory period is really the stuff of legends. I mean, he was a younger man back then.

Not that much younger. Babaloo, would you like to know how I too have the nickname Tin Man? Tin Man. Much like the Mark Wahlberg character in Boogie Nights. He could just go again. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, ready to go. In the context that it's a drug, you're saying like, pill that we're snorting and the street

name of this drug is Beverly? I want to be clear. I don't know what I'm talking about here. And I don't know if that's how they came to a decision about naming their band. Yeah. Yeah. about naming their band. Yeah, yeah. But I'm saying, if you had a drug or a method and you wanted to give it a jaunty name. Yeah.

I mean, Beverly Crusher is fun, right? We talk about this all the time, the number of sci-fi franchises that have crashed against the rocks, so to speak, of trying to come up with a name for the drug in their sci-fi world. Yeah. It's a long list.

I think Beverly is a great name for a drug. Hey, man, can I get two doses of Beverly? I think it'd be cool if Beverly, post-Federation career, maybe became a cool doctor. Like hey, doc, kind of feel a little throat and lungs thing. Maybe you could hook me up with something powerful and narcotic. And Crusher's like, you know, I actually have a thing. I was thinking about naming it after myself. The naming rights of a major discovery go to the discoverer, right?

It's actually an inhaled drug. It's a green gas. She just can't stay away from those green gases. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. But like I was saying, the discoverer of a thing gets to name it as we discover in this episode, Adam. It's true.

Who discovered this episode and what did they name it? Well, to my knowledge, it was directed by LeVar Burton. And let's go on and get into it, Ben. It's Star Trek Enterprise Season 2, Episode 24. First flight. ["FIRST FLIGHT"] So we are detecting something. Maybe background radiation, that's what T'Pol is suggesting, but Archer thinks, no, this

is a dark matter nebula. This is very exciting. Nobody's ever gotten to study one of these up close. My understanding is that space is pretty big. I've heard this. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. The idea of a dark matter thing being in space around your starship seems to be sort of like a proving of a negative.

And given the vastness of space, how on earth have they rolled up on this thing? Just dumb luck. Like it has to be a situation where they almost ran into it and then stopped, right? Yeah. It doesn't seem like it would hurt to run into, right? It's just, it's matter, but it's not like solid matter. Like me and Beverly, you wouldn't even feel it. The question of what to do with it is proposed in the room. Archer and Triptucker and T'Pol kind of batted around.

And finally, the plan is why don't we shoot it with torpedoes if we think it's a dark matter nebula? That seems like a good scientific plan, right? Yeah. And that seems to be the plan of action that they agree on when sexual icon Admiral Forrest blows in a call to them. Archer gets called away for this into the clarinet rental closet and he's just busting, Jerry. He's really excited to tell his boss,

sexual icon, Admiral Forrest, about the possibility that they're gonna torpedo a neb. This is good timing, Admiral. You know, it's like, it's that thing where you like, you get a call and you like, you're not in the mood that the person on the other end of the line is in. It takes a second to synchronize. Like, hey, actually, this isn't a for funsies call. This

is bad news. I mean, I don't think Archer gets calls from Admiral Forrest that often when it's great news. I can't think of a time when that's ever happened, actually. I think Archer needs to be ready for this to be the vibe of the call. How about Admiral Forrest here, managing to get through the news of this without laughing? AG Robinson died by Mountain. Yeah, yeah. Accident on Mount McKinley claimed A.G. Robinson, and that is a shocking revelation to Captain Archer. One of the rare RSVPs to theme that we get.

RSVP AG. Yeah. After the theme, we're in the shuttle bay where we're readying the mission to shoot a nebula and Archer has just checked out mentally. You know how sometimes you'll, like back in the days when you do a lot of video calls and meetings and stuff, one of the boxes would have a person in it not looking at the camera. Maybe they're just looking down. Maybe they're just looking away. This is what Archer is doing in a real life. Maybe they think the camera is off and they're jacking it, you know?

Yeah, I mean, Trip is the one who's locked in, giving him the lowdown of the armaments and stuff that he's gonna have. Archer has assumed that he would be going on this mission on his own, And I think this is a prospect he kind of relishes. He needs some alone time to process the idea, the very how a mountain could kill the great A.G. Robinson. Yeah. I mean, I think that he would have been happy enough to have Trip along for it prior to the news, but he wants to go on like a little solo sad road trip.

I mean, can you believe he died? Mountaineering? What are the odds? I still can't believe it. Yeah, and I mean like Tripp knew this guy too, so it feels a little bit unfair that Archer's like, no, I gotta go be alone with my grief and not yours. You know whose opinion I wanted the entire episode and whose we did not get? Mountaineering expert Travis Mayweather. Yeah, where's he?

It's like being back in the womb. Who are you? Ensign Travis Mayweather. Parents must be very proud. When I was a kid we called it the sweet spot. Who are you? I'm the helmsman. I guess growing up a boomer has its advantages. And your mom? Very proud. That's true. Takes practice. Other than keeping into Mayweather up at night, I'm not sure what we expect to accomplish here. Hey Travis, how the fuck do you die mountain climbing? Is he like,

I wouldn't know, I'm a caver. The mountain thing is like a totally different ball of tricks. There's no crossover at all. Also, I haven't and will never die. Archer has pretty much shooed Trip away and he's like inside the pod, there's like an archer from inside the pond waving goodbye from the window.

And then we get the reverse shot and T'Pol pops into the window and she's like, I'm coming too. I think there's a moment in every commercial plane flight where you're seated in your row and you have an empty in the middle and then maybe there's someone on the aisle or the window. Yeah. This is what my wife

and I call like winning the seat lottery, right? This is like low class first class is like just having an empty next to you and the moment you know that you have it is when the door closes. I was shocked that the door to the shuttle pod closed here and was opened by T'Pol. There's FAA regulations against that. I mean, there used to be FAA regulations against that. Incredible. She just opens it right up and gets on in there.

That's because it's regulation. The captain can't go alone. This is like the encounter at Farpoint conversation between Picard and Riker. She's not gonna let the captain put themself in undue danger. So they hit the road. Archer looks down at his duffel bag

that is just absolutely full of lube and flashlights. He's like, okay, well I'm gonna have to actually switch bags for a moment. Archer was zipping his bag up and T'Pol's like, okay, well, I'm gonna have to actually switch bags for a moment. Yeah, yeah. Archero is like zipping his bag up and T'Pol is like, were you planning on visiting Diddy's house after? You know he already has that stuff. Yeah.

I mean, T'Pol isn't the sort of character that I think grasps how uncomfortable it might be to have already thought once the door had closed you were gonna get this form of first class. She's up in there feeling fine about settling in for the trip. Yeah, they're two hours out and they start talking about Captain Robinson and we learned that he was on the Warp 2 team back when they were looking to break the Warp 2 barrier. And we go into our flashback. To Paul asks Archer, like, how did he die? By mountain.

And Archer was like, well, I think the story is best conveyed in song. And it goes a little something like this. They said you'd freeze A.G. Robinson, but you didn't bring a coat to climb that day. Hey, hey, hey. And here's to you, A.G. Robinson, the avalanches covered you in snow. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I was picturing more of a cliffhanger thing where he was rescuing somebody else by stretching ropes across a bottomless ravine and the weight rating of the of the clip was wrong, that just failed. Well, this is an interesting distinction because very little information is given about the circumstances of A.G. Robinson's death. Therefore, it's left up to you and me and anyone else to figure out how it happened. I presume that he died of exposure and you're saying there's some sort of peaton carabiner accident. Yeah. I mean, it could be anything. It could have just been an avalanche.

And that's something that Archer talks about. He's like, this guy was in a lot of risky situations in his life. It's kind of crazy that mountain is what finally got him, given how many times he was, you know, had his ass strapped to a nuclear bomb flying through the cosmos at warp two. I mean, based on his risk taking behavior, I just always sort of assumed that the mountain of venereal disease would finally catch up to him. You should have seen how much Beverly this guy used to crush. I know. I know. So they start talking to him. You should have seen how much Beverly this guy used to crush. I know. I know.

So they start talking about him. We go into our flashback. Sorry I'm late, Commodore. I came straight from the test bay. At ease, Commander. Way back when it was sexual icon Commodore Forrest who was breaking bad news to Commander Archer. You could call him Commodore 60 Forest.

Maybe. Wow. What the? Okay. Yeah. I think that's fun. I think people will like that. I love that this flashback is what? Like less than 10 years ago.

Like what's great about the flashback is you don't have to change the makeup. Yeah. You don't have to change the hair. You. You don't have to change the hair. You don't have to change anything. They're not doing like a weird digital filter to make it look like their skin is way smoother than it is now. Why is Archer so sweaty is a question I had in this scene.

Is this a sort of situation where Commodore 64 snaps his fingers and wants a meeting and you just better fucking run? Oh yeah. I mean, I think I got the sense that it was like they were doing a lot of training and Archer is, was just like in the gym doing something, got called up to the Commodore's office and he is like, this is either going to be great news or terrible. And the Commodore is like, sorry to cut you off, but it's the, it's the worst one. Going with Commander Robinson.

You know, I feel like if I didn't cut you off there, you would just kind of keep spinning and spinning. And like, I actually have a lot of folks to break this too. Yeah, there's a bunch of people on this team. AG will be doing the test flight in which the warp to barrier is broken. He just seems like a guy to me that could handle himself in a situation of great height or altitude. I don't know, I just feel like I'm a good judge of character and ability this way.

He seems like a guy who will always be safe if he's just out there exploring on his own in like a low oxygen environment. He's a guy where you don't feel like you need to show him the ropes because he understands the ropes just intrinsically. Yeah, also his academy nickname, the ropes. What do you do when you get bad news, Ben? You gotta take it to the bar where we see the 602 club, a place that has an identical neon sign inside and outside. What are the chances that that's the same sign? You probably get a break on the cost when you buy two.

Right. This bar looked a lot inside like the bar from 2009 Star Trek, or Pike pitches Kirk on entering Starfleet. It looks great on camera, but in real life, the idea of a bar that is in fact a light That is maniac shit No one wants to sit at a bar and like have a light source Shooting up at your face. Yeah. Yeah, it would hide nothing also Every every little spill. Yeah, every peeled off piece of a Miller Highlife label Being backlit. Ugh.

It's a great first day. It looks great on the first day. It looks terrible ever since. Yeah. So Archer is getting himself good and wasted. He spots AG at the end of the bar with a bunch of the other candidates and goes to give him kind of a grudging congrats. And they get to talking. And this is of course the half brother of David Carradine playing this part. It's Keith Carradine. Right. And...

If you're Keith Carradine's family, are you just always hoping he's not jacking it? Like, you don't want to leave him alone in a hotel or a room or anything. Yeah, like if you are on like a family road trip or you're checking to a Motel 6, you make sure you like take all the neckties and belts out of the room before you go down the hall to the vending machine.

It's like he's going to prison. Oh, is that a shoelace? Give me that. So he kind of scolds Archer for being such a tryhard. He's like put everything in his life aside to devote himself to the NX program. And AG is like, dude, they're trying to get a captain, not, not a fucking science fair winner here. Like, you can't just be a good pilot and get this job.

That's why you failed. I love the way they are with each other. Like this is a fun friendship that is built on a foundation of ball kicking and professional respect. Like it's a real tone setter for the winner of a competition to talk shit to the loser the way that AG does. Totally. And I think that's made okay because Archer throws it right back at him.

DePaul comments on this. She's like, your relationship doesn't seem fun or friendly, but adversarial. I don't know why you're so bent out of shape about this guy dying from mountain. Archer's like, T'Pol, you know how much you enjoy kicking me in the nuts over and over again? Yeah. Can you understand why anyone else would like to do that also? That's me in AG.

Remember that time we were both in jail and you fell on me? I almost died from two mountains that day. That's how I want to go out. This could happen to anybody. AG was a fucking sucker. One mountain got him. That's it. I survived too.

What a disappointment. So I love how T'Pol, like in this very same scene, loads up the ball-kicking machine by immediately taking AG's side. Yeah. He did have a point. It does take more than piloting ability to command a starship. This is so great and so her. It's also so Archer, like the idea that him being a tryhard wannabe overachiever is a thing that has held him back in his career is like, yeah, I can see that. And that's like, there's a tone woven throughout the episode that this is something that he's

gotten over and they can kind of laugh about like, boy, wasn't I a nerd back then? I'm a fucking dork. I used to be and clearly am not now. He does not have a lot of insight on this issue. No. So we cut back to the past where we get to see the ship that they've built to go warp to. And I really liked how it looked a lot like the Phoenix from First Contact but just with like

bigger more permanent nacelles attached to it. Yeah fewer movable parts. Yeah they're getting ready for the launch and it's AG solo piloting this thing in a great big orange space suit and you know there's like a couple of little like, ooh, is this reading okay? But he gets the go ahead and Archer is running mission control. He is like the man on the ground with the radio talking to him as he goes to warp and very quickly breaks the warp two barrier.

And then is like pushing past it and pushing the 2.1, things start to get a little shaky. He's pushing like 2.15 and it's really getting bumpy. And this is when Commodore 64ist orders that the stop the test plane. This is too bumpy. Maybe a bad time for a bit by AG.

He does that thing where he's like, can't hear you guys. Yeah. And the two like robed Vulcans in the control room, like start rolling their eyes. They're like, yes, we have this technique on our planet as well. We are familiar with this bit. This thing drops out a warp and explodes in a cloud of beer bottles and cowboy hats. Unclear what has happened to AG at this point. It's a very dramatic moment because like we cut away from the explosion back to mission control.

And this is the moment that you love and like all the Apollo program documentaries like that pregnancy of the distance and the time it takes to know if something awful has happened. Yeah. I mean, it looks really bad. We see what they don't, which is that ship just coming apart into a million pieces. And we cut back to the shuttle in this pregnant pause. And they're kind of on the fringes of what they think might be a Dark Matter Nebula. They are packing as many torpedoes as they can bring on this mission and they're like, all right, ready to shoot? Let's shoot. And if you were expecting something dramatic and

amazing after shooting a torpedo at a thing on the show Star Trek Enterprise. I'm here to tell you that that never happens. You have not been watching the show. Yeah. Absolute duds. I really like the proximity of this moment to seeing the NX alpha blow up because we just got a pretty spectacular explosion scene. So the dudness of this is only further underlined by that. And it seems like these special torpedoes

that Tripp rigged up to light up the nebula and reveal it to sensors didn't work. And that's a great big disappointment. But they decided to keep going further into this area of space. And T'Pol asks him to continue his little story. Where we learn that AG did eject from the NX ship and on the ground he is pressed on why he didn't abort when he was ordered to.

And AG tries to make the case that it was his call to make. He's the pilot. And we've got Tripp Tucker on the scene to inject a little attitude. There's nothing wrong with that engine. And then the Vulcans argue that maybe humans are moving a little fast through this technology tree. It's fun, it's a fun moment.

The scene ends though with AG on the side of taking risks. And speaking of risks, is Ruby going to risk it all for a night with Archer or Tripp Tucker in Club 601? That's what I was wondering. Yeah. The barmaid has given Tripp a potential cheat code, which is that she knows what she intends to name the children that she is going to have someday and is perfectly happy to marry the first man that can guess them. So he's just tossing names at her all night.

Which feels like cute in screenwriting, but I can imagine this getting so fucking annoying if you're actually around somebody trying to do this one night, you know? How unattractive is it for someone to be like, I already have the names of my kids picked out. You don't get to be involved in that decision. Yeah.

Oh, so you just need me to bust? Yeah. And that's it? Okay. Do I have any further responsibilities after that or nah? What I do want to say about Ruby is that she is given just all of the standard server dialogue, but also she is a legend. Like the Shuttlepod 1 episode laid a foundation for Ruby as being magical.

Yeah. A magical pixie dream bartenderess. And she doesn't really do anything like that in this episode. Like, all of that is baggage that we bring into it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, she doesn't get much screen time, so I don't know what they could have done to like further enhance the legend of Rosie, but... Well, I mean, Sass, I think, goes a long way in an interaction like this. And... I guess so, yeah. I would say there's very little of that. There's familiarity,, I think, goes a long way in an interaction like this. And I guess so, yeah.

I would say there's very little of that. There's familiarity, but I think it takes a big step back from something sassy and fun. True. Faith of the fart. NX01 Enterprise? What a piece of junk! It's like one of those self-coded HTML websites back in the day with like a You know ten sections listed and five of them when you click on them

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That's AuraFrames.com. The promo code is SCARBS. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Hi, is this Kelly? Yes, this is Kelly. Hi Kelly, this is Jesse Thorne, co-host of Jordan Jesse Go.

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I actually saw you guys at the Bell House in Brooklyn in 2019. Was seeing us the reason that you started listening to the show? No, I had been listening for a while. Why did you end up becoming a member? It's really just been such a dependable source of laughter and joy and comfort. I just appreciated that and I didn't want to take it for granted. So I wanted to contribute and show my support because I don't want it to ever end.

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And you will never take the greatest chill alive. Ben would rather die. Forrest shows up and has some news based on the little show that Archer and Trip put on. This is kind of like the origin story of Archer and Trip's friendship. And it's forged in fire because Commodore 60 Forest is like, well, first of all, you fucked up, Trip, lippin' off in front of the Vulcans like that. We don't care for that type of thing around here. Second of all, my presence here is definitely going to derail your plans of

getting laid because I'm a sexual icon and who the fuck are you? Third, we're shutting down the NX program for now because, you know, the safety concerns that the Vulcans are raising have been pretty persuasive to Starfleet command and we're just gonna, we're gonna probably like reimagine this, this warp drive from scratch. Like do it over, do it in a way that doesn't have as many safety problems. This scene totally gave me the bends because Forrest arrives a little disheveled, like necktie out of place, collar a little disheveled. He does a bit on trip when he sits down, like the beer buying bit.

I don't think you can do bits on subordinates in a quasi-military environment the way that he does. I didn't like that. I don't know. I thought he was kind of fun bossing it a little bit. The other aspect that I thought really blew me away was how lucky he was he didn't arrive during the origin story of the Tripp Tucker nickname.

Because that's, I mean, we finally learned the origin of it where Tripp's like, see, my granddad loved Silence of the Lambs and he would tuck his penis between his legs and do a great James Gumb impression. And then my dad started doing it and then I eventually did too. So, uh, Triple Tuckers is what we became known as and, uh, that's a name that stuck. Would you hire me to wrench on your warp engine? I'd hire me to wrench on my warp engine. It puts the antimatter into the injector.

Or it gets the hose again. So after all of this bad news from Commodore 64, who I guess had his beer and then left. Yeah, was that a roadie? I don't think he was there enough time to polish off what was clearly like a 16 ounce or. Yeah, it was a big beer. That was like, uh, that was like an imperial pint. Yeah.

AG comes in and now it's last call and, uh, he gets a couple of stiff shots and he and Archer and Tripp are talking, Tripp and Archer are pretty pissed at him because he has just spent a bunch of time getting debriefed about the flight and telling everybody what happened. And Tripp and Archer firmly believe that user error is part of why the Alpha blew up. And if the Vulcans are hearing from him that it's actually a problem with the warp drive itself, then that's exactly what they want to hear

so that they can pressure everyone to put the program on ice. And they're like, if you just admitted that you fucked up, dude, we might still have an NX program, but you didn't. You let your ego get in the way of the whole program. I think ego is a problem not just with AG, but with Archer in this scene. I thought it was so strange and off-putting that, like, in the conversation with Commodore 64ist,

a lot is made of Archer's dad's life's work and how unjust it would be if this thing isn't given a proper chance. And then you know that's kind of interrupted by this AG scene where AG is blamed for being too much of a cowboy and putting the program that has Archer's dad's life's work as a central component of it at risk. Like, who gives a shit about that? Are we scientists or not? Like, the vanity of whose design it was does not work for me at all and is totally off-putting in arguments like this. Like, yeah, I get the AG might be a little too much of a loose cannon to be a pilot, but to like couch these two scenes in a

my dad would be rolling over in his grave if he knew his life's work was being treated this way. Like, Right. Wha- Does the show assume that we care about Archer's dad? Because we really don't. Yeah, I mean, it becomes fighting words. Like the dogging out of Archer's dad and his lousy engine provokes Archer to throw a punch at AG.

And we get a surprisingly long bar fight. Like a bar fight that goes through several phases of like rolling around on the floor and then getting up into the pugilist stance and throwing punches at each other. Like the barmaid yelling stop comes like two minutes later than it should have in the sequence of things. I think that's cause Ruby kind of wants this to happen.

Yeah. There are so many shots of a fist hitting center mass of a face in this. Both noses are shattered instantly. This should be one of the bloodiest fights we've ever seen on Star Trek. And as it is, I think Archer's the only one with a little drip of blood out of his nose. AG has got the beginning of a Shiner. But they're absolutely throwing on each other. It's pretty brutal. And finally, the other patrons of the bar step in and pull these

guys off of each other. How much did you want a bar weapon to be brandished here? Oh, like somebody smashing a bottle and stabbing him or? No, I mean like- Oh, you're saying Ruby pulling the Guinan gun out from behind the bar and shooting a couple of rounds into the ceiling. Yeah, that's what I'm after. Yeah.

That was setting number one. Anyone want to see setting number two? That would have been fun. And then like cut to trip, like being clearly aroused by the site of Ruby wielding a long weapon. Yeah. Yeah, that would be nice. Yeah.

Keep trying, Decker. But that's not what we get. Instead, we go back to the shuttle pod where the lights are flickering. And does that mean they're getting close to dark matter? They still aren't in agreement on that. So Paul's not detecting anything of that kind. Should we just keep firing torpedoes all willy-nilly? Not yet.

It turns out AG was the one that got the program back on course. And we cut back to our story in the past where Archer comes up on AG like packing up his locker and getting ready to ship out. And Archer has a like, this thing looked like the kind of like personal organizer that you would get for starting a bank account in the mid-90s. But I guess it's like the data pad that he's done some calculations with about,

oh, like the intermix on the warp core, something, something, something. I think we can do this again and do it right and get this project back off the ground. I was distracted by the large rubber made storage bin that AG is packing his shit into. They did not even try to obscure what this was. Yeah. The rare opportunity Star Trek takes to have a practical looking container for

somebody's personal effects. Is this a Section 31 locker? Because that is a lot of container for a locker, don't you think? Yeah, I mean, who's to say how deep those things go? Yeah. I love the continuity of bruising that begins here and continues throughout the episode. Yeah. Because there's a fair amount of episode left,

and you gotta do the bruise makeup for every scene with them. Oh, man. This is like one of the hardest thing makeup departments deal with, because like most of the time, you're not shooting in sequence, so from setup to setup, the makeup department has to like remember like how far along the healing process might be and like do the wound as that. I worked on a set one time where they were doing this and it was a feature and the makeup artist had eight pieces of reference on a huge card, and like which scenes, like that was meant to be

what the wound was gonna look like in that scene for. Like, because it took place over the course of like four or five days, so it would be healing. It was nuts. Like the actor had to have the makeup taken off and put back on in so many different variations throughout the shoot. It was crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what's going on here. Yeah.

AG argues, OK, you're kind of persuading me that there's something we could be doing, like twisting knobs in a certain way to make this warp drive work better. But they already shut the program down. This is not a time to go make a case with a trifold presentation board in front of a committee, we need to show, not tell.

Like we need to take the other NX ship up and fire it up and actually go to warp and do this. And this is exactly what he's been talking to Archer about the whole time. Like you got to, you got to take big swings if you want the big chair. No risk, no reward. I love that the choices are do the book report or steal the ship. And stealing the ship is where they land. Stealing the ship is a long Starfleet tradition starting here.

I know. Also traditional, at least in this episode, the firing of torpedoes at nothing. On the shuttle pod, they shoot again. And again, the effect is the same. Two torpedoes left though. And so that built-in scarcity makes this B story just as intense as it's always been, I would say. Ha ha ha. I can't do the parody. So they're going to go further in and we cut back to the past where Archer, AG and Trip sneak into the NX hangar at night and get ready to steal the other ship.

So I guess Trip is going to be kind of like a one man control room from his computer in the station there. And AG and Archer are actually going together this time. They're going as a two man team. Mm-hmm. And they get this thing in orbit and Commodore 64 just gets word pretty quickly from one of his staff that it would seem that one of the NX ships has gone into orbit, but sensors are

indicating that it's actually in the hangar. Maybe we should go take a look for ourselves. You can't help but think about Kirk stealing the Enterprise in the third Star Trek movie and how so much is done with so little dialogue by the hero, by Kirk. What I wanted so badly was for there to be Archer's moment in that very same way because Commodore 64ists essentially does the, if you do this, Archer, you're never gonna be captain again.

Yeah. And instead of Kirk's response in Star Trek III, there's just nothing. Right. And I think that's a missed opportunity, especially for a character that really needs a win, I think, in Riz. Right? Yeah, win, I think, in Riz.

Right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, Because he's telling to Paul about how he's changed and he's not bookish anymore. We're supposed to be going into these flashbacks and understanding what a dope he used to be, but the reality is he's exactly the same back then. Yeah.

And big star fleet nerd is an accurate description. If he did seem cooler in this moment, like if he had a Kirk-like Riz in this moment, like, I feel like it would undercut his point even more, right? I mean, what made that moment so great in Star Trek 3 wasn't that it was like some sort of Asta Lavista baby. It was just a command to go to warp.

But it was done with such style. Yeah. That like, that was the moment. Warp speed. I see. Yeah, and the riding crop dipshit on the Excelsior being totally humiliated by his ship not going to warp after they make the big show of everybody like strapping themselves in. Yeah. What we get here instead, just before they go to warp,

Archer is freaking out. He's like, ah, where is it? It's gotta be somewhere. Yeah. AG, we gotta go back. Nope, nope, nope. Here it is. And then he pushes the tape into the player and it's I LIKE TO DEEE HEEE

HEEE HEEE ROCKIN' BOWS AND FURTY TURN GONNA SONDETURN THE PITTY PURR GONNA SAY DUNNIT BE OVER HOPPIE HUSHIE

YOU DON'T KNOW BUT GONNA BE A BEAL DURR GONNA MAGIC CAREFUL You don't know what a big, big girl, on a magic carpet, right? Minutes and minutes the scene goes. Yeah. It's amazing that you actually obtained the lyrics to that song because that's exactly what he says. Yeah. I mean, that's how you get out of copyright infringement. I didn't copy it.

We're going to be able to play the whole thing. So again, the ride is a little bit bumpy as they push past 2.1 and this is something, something, intermix, something,, something warp field destabilizing. And AG is kind of like on the wheels of steel, like turning, turning giant knobs to try and get it dialed in. And Tripp is like in the midst of getting arrested by some Tufts in the hangar bay when Archer Radio is up to say that they've made it to 2.5. I love the idea that Tripp Tucker is hiding in a giant hangar in the corner of it

as his one-man mission control. He doesn't even use a janitorial closet or something. Anyone who opens the door on the far side of the hangar is gonna see what's happening. There he is! Go get him! So everybody gets hauled in front of Commodore 64-ist. By the time Starfleet Command gets through with you, you're gonna wish that you had never come back. And like crucially the Vulcans are here. Like they also showed up in the control room for the breaking of the 2.5 barrier

I feel like you and I know how it feels But like how does it feel if you're a Vulcan and you enter a room and everyone's just disappointed like Because this happens constantly on this show like these humans are just trying to do something. Oh god on this show. Like, these humans are just trying to do something. Oh, god. Really? These fucking guys.

Great. Yeah. Yeah. How'd you like to bum out every room you go into? That's these Vulcans. It's them. That's their whole thing. And they dress so fancy, you know?

It's like, it's so festive and pleasant. You'd think that people would be excited. No. Opposite. Nope. So, called out on the carpet are Trip, A.G., and Archer, and this is not where the consequences stop, but where they start.

Like, there's going to be inquiries, like, you'll be lucky if you ever fly again. When he says what they did is maybe even criminal, I laughed and laughed. Yeah, maybe. Huh. Not for me to determine. I'm just a Commodore. Can't be sure stealing, like,

highly classified material from the military is technically illegal. Somebody will have to look into that. Maybe it's one of those black box programs where, like, if it doesn't exist on paper or programmatically like maybe there is no crime. Right, it's just like nobody ever thought someone might try to steal a starship. So they've never actually written it down.

Or like the program is so secret that to prosecute criminally would mean to unveil its existence in a way that they wouldn't want to do. Wow. Well, Archer stands up for them in this scene. He makes what might be his first recorded captain speech in defense of what they did to validate the program. And we cut back to the shuttle where Archer explains

that this was in fact persuasive. They only got grounded for three months, but the program was reinstated. When I was a kid, I've been grounded for three months and I didn't do anything close to stealing a starship. Three months. I mean, it's kind of his dad's Starship, right? It's like not that bad. I was outraged by this.

Yeah. But yeah, I mean, this was just a few years before they started building the NX01 Enterprise, and the rest is history, Adam. Also history is this nebula. Cause when they rocket two torpedoes into it from the shuttle pod, oh no, it's another two duds, isn't it? Or is it? Oh, a big, beautiful nebula is revealed.

A BBN. Yeah. What a thing. Yeah. It's breathtaking. And this is why they worked so hard to get out here, Adam. This is why AG and Archer took the risks that they took and did the things that they did. This is a moment that would fit so perfectly into contemporary society.

Oh, hey, to Paul, why don't you look up from your screen and appreciate the world out there and all of its beauty? Try to be present in the moment instead of beep boop beep boop beep boop on your device? The black mirror that we all stare into? Hey, hey, these colors? Way more vivid and beautiful than Candy Crush is capable of making. You know what I'm addicted to? Looking out this window.

Archer also got named captain of the NXO-1, kind of leapfrogging over AG. And we get the sort of reverse of the earlier scene where it is now AG toasting Archer, her being named Skipper. There's some ball busting crossing the streams here. Yeah, it seems a little less petty and bitchy though than when Archer did it, you know? They could have done a lot worse. Anyway, I'd rather wait for the NX-02. Glad you make all the mistakes.

As they part ways, there's clearly a mutual respect there Anyway, I'd rather wait for the NX-02. Glad you make all the mistakes. As they part ways, there's clearly a mutual respect there and a recognition that they will always be very different, up to and including how they eventually die. Archer and T'Pol head back. They have also now done another world's first mapping a dark matter nebula. And when they get back aboard, the entrepreneur T'Pol suggests that, hey, since you kind of discovered it, you get to name it. And he's like, what do you think I should name it? The T'Pol Archer Nebula? She's like, no, you fucking idiot.

I was thinking the Robinson Nebula would be more appropriate. They cut out the original ending of this episode. Did you see this? Oh, so I read something about this too. What did you read? The very last moment was like the argument of like, yeah, T'Pol Archer Nebula sounds cool, right? No, it should be A.G. Robinson Nebulabula. But when they look at the, like, post-mission briefing that came from Command, it's actually been named the Admiral Forrest, Nebula. Fucking bureaucracy.

Yeah. I'm glad they cut that out. So the thing I read was that an earlier version of the script, they just talked about A.G. by first initials the entire time and never said his last name. And then in this scene, when she says you should name it, you know, after him. And he goes, I like the sound of that. The Mutara Nebula. I thought that too.

I thought they were going to tie this into a familiar nebula. Yeah. The Paulson Nebula. Yeah. Like give us a famous nebula. There are a couple there's a couple to choose from Anyways, what are we gonna name this area of space with the stars arranged in kind of a grouping of wolves Feels like a great intersection of the galaxy where a great battle could be fought. But this is the moment in the episode where the intersection of our opinions takes place.

Ben, did you like this episode? I just say I didn't, I didn't love this one. I think that there were a couple of areas where it kind of dragged. Like I felt like that bar fight was like way too crazy of a bar fight for the scene that it was. Like it should have been like one or two punches and then them getting pulled off of each other. Not like a compound, like we're fighting for our lives with Nausicaa's level bar fight. Because when you fight this long in real life, someone dies.

Or is like disfigured terribly or hospitalized for an amount of time. Like, fights are short for a reason. Because people get really hurt during fights. Yeah. Like, getting punched once is something that like takes a couple of weeks to recover from usually. Can you imagine getting punched at this age? Like just a bunch of times.

Like, yeah. Oh yeah. Or like if you're A.G. Robinson's age. Yeah. That was the other thing. Like I like this actor. I'm, he's like a pretty successful actor.

He's been a lot of things. I just didn't like him for this part. Like, we talked about, like, the lack of Riz that Archer is bringing to this show. Like, he just didn't seem like the right stuff kind of a guy, you know? Because what do we know about those guys? Kind of boring.

Yeah. Like, boring but brave and cool. Yeah. And brave and cool didn't really feel like things that this character had in great amounts. So... I kind of wish he was a better pilot also. Like, I wish he was better in every way.

Yeah, yeah. So, I don't know. Yeah, he didn't quite do it for me. I think it was just a casting thing. And yeah, so I don't know. This one he didn't quite do it for me. I think it was just a casting thing. And yeah, so I don't know. This one was a bit of a miss for me. How about you? I like going back to this moment.

I don't know if the way this story is told realizes the potential of it, though. In the way that you've described, I think. Like, it needed double the tension. Cut this fight scene down to two punches and instead give me three more lines of dialogue about A.G. Robinson stealing Archer's girlfriend. Right. Right. Or something. Like, there wasn't enough conflict between them. Yeah. And the yin and the yang-ness of them, you know, in terms of like pilotness and risk-takingness, wasn't sufficient. It did not feel like Maverick and Iceman in any way. I mean,

you could transpose those elements onto these characters and I think it would have worked a lot better than what we got. Yeah. But I do like going back in time and like living through this moment. Like totally. Let's hang out with the with Tripp and Ruby more. That's what I want. Yeah, sounds fun. Yeah, I think there's potential here. Well, I think there's potential in the Priority One inbox. What do you say we get into that? 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. Adam, we got a promotional P1 right here. It was like this. Are you into indie games? Are you into indie games? Are you into classic games?

Would you like a relaxing video game stream to listen to or watch while you're drinking your morning tea or pretending to work? You should totally come check out my stream, twitch.tv slash PoHunterMew. Am I saying that correctly? PoHunter Mew? That's spelled P-O-E-H-U-N-T-E-R-M-Y-U.

With everything going on in the world, I wanted to see if I could make people smile with my terrible video game skills and bad dad jokes. I hope I can make you smile and make your day just a little better. Come check it out. 930 a.m. Pacific Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Jeez. Wow. What a schedule. We got to check this out.

Pose Good Morning Gaming is what this channel is called. And the call to action is come out and support a burgeoning twitch streamer. I want to check this out I've been doing some streams on the greatest trek channel lately nowhere near as frequently as Poe hunter me you yeah That's crazy. That's a lot, but yeah, maybe I'll start my mornings that way going forward You know what I like about pose plan here? I don't associate video games with mornings at all. Like video games to me are an evening activity, after work activity, at least. Yeah. Imagine waking up like Poe and playing video games. Well I guess you could get in on that if you want to watch Poe play. Yeah sounds like

a great way to start your day. Yeah. All right Ben, we've got a second priority one message here. It's from Po. What? What are the chances? It's to you and me. Here's that message. Thank you both for this show, especially in these less than stellar times. TGG and GT has really helped keep me and I'm sure a lot of us sane. I've been listening since nearly the beginning and it's been amazing listening to the show mature and watching you both grow as entertainers. You've even inspired me to try to do the same in my own way. What are you talking about here?

Hmm. Yeah. Kind of a mystery. Yeah. I can't think of, I mean, I wish Poe had specified. Poe clearly talking about the twitch.tv slash Poe Hunter M.Y.U. account. And yeah, thanks for sharing that message, Poe. Yeah. I would take umbrage with the whole idea that we've grown as entertainers. I think our technology has gotten better.

Our we as a business, we've grown more efficient. We've hired excellent people, but grown as entertainers? If anything, Adam and I are getting worse at this. Yeah. Hey, we got another P1 here. This one's from Eric, and it's also to Ben and Adam. Goes like this. Hey guys.

Yesterday, we had to put our nine-year- old Frenchie Hooch down as he was ill. But such a good boy. This morning your Marin was about your dog's stomach problems and despite my sadness you guys made me laugh as you always do and totally lifted my spirits on a day that I really needed it. Thank you so much RSVP and all ordinance drop. Hey RSVP and all ordinance drop. Hey, RSVP, Hooch. You are missed.

Eric, I know Hooch was lucky to have you in their life. Yeah, that's a tough day for any animal person. Yeah, and sorry you're going through it. Yeah, well, if you'd like to commemorate a beloved pet or promote a Twitch stream, head to maximumfun.org slash Jumbotron and get yourself a P1 today. Hey, Adam.

What's up, Ben? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? Incredible. Drunk Shimoda. Yeah, mine's gonna be Ruby for letting that fight go on. Yeah. It's got to be, right? There's a moment in Rocky IV where Balboa has the towel to throw while Creed is getting

killed in the ring by Ivan Drago. And he waits. He waits to throw the towel and it's what gets Apollo Creed killed. And I thought this might happen in this scene. You got to throw the towel, Ruby. You are surrounded by bar towels. Throw any one of them and stop this fight. An embarrassment of bar towels here.

Yeah. What does she do? Nothing. She'll be my drunk Shimoda for this one. How about you? Yeah. I must join you on that same square. I was gobsmacked at how long she let this play out before she even

spoke up and said anything. Yeah. Like, it's not even, like, she doesn't even throw a, she doesn't do anything. She just says stop eventually. Yeah. How often does that work in a street or bar fight? Almost never. Yeah.

Well, Adam, we gotta get to our next episode and talk a little bit about how we will be doing it. The next episode is season two, episode 25. It's called Bounty. Archer learns the Klingons have put a price on his head when he's captured by a Telerite bounty hunter. As Enterprise pursues, a virus causes DePaul to go into premature pond far. Oh man, when it rains it pours, am I right? Sure does. Telerite? Yeah does. Tellerite.

Yeah. That'll be fun. Yeah. To find out how we will be reviewing this game, I've gone to gach.biz slash game, where we keep the game of buttholes, will of the reative term, because last time we rolled, you landed on a Starship Mine episode and vetoed it. Sure did. Because it sounded bad to you. Yeah.

So our runabout is currently on that square 23. Well, what that means by doing the veto is that either right now or very soon, there will be a Quantum Leap episode in the bonus feed. Yeah that's coming right out. MaximumFun.org slash join is is how you get that bonus action if you aren't already. Yeah but I'm gonna roll this bone and see if the dice gods frown upon us again. You're required to learn as you play. Roll. Ooh, came so close to a breadstick power hour. We are on square 46, regular episode next week.

Chula! Did I win? Hardly. Wow. Looking forward to a regular episode. Really makes me think, would I veto a breadstick power hour or not? You don't have another veto this season.

That's the rule? I mean, it's gonna re- yeah, everybody gets one veto per season. That's right, that is how it goes. Ben, that was like, eight years ago. We were fucking around with vetoes. I don't remember that. I don't remember that shit. Yeah, but I'm looking

forward to a regular app next week. What about you? Absolutely. Let's leave the people with some thank yous. Got to thank all the folks that support maximumfun.org slash join. I think Windy Pretty, our producer, editor. Yeah. Got to thank the social media team, Bill and Rob, who keep the greatest Trek social media channels alive and thriving. Speaking of social media, special shout out to drunkshmota.com and the Discord. Yeah, doing great work over there.

We were just over there during the drive and what a nice reminder it was of all of the great things that they do over there. Adam Ragusea Great group of people. Got to thank Adam Ragusea, our co-host from the Wholesome Podcast, which is at patreon.com slash wholesome underscore pod. He made the original parody of Dianne Warren's Enterprise theme with us and also thanks to Dark Materia for the original Picard song. 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 that causes Adam and me to consider wouldn't it have been better if we'd done the breadstick power hour because we could have made Tellurite tusks out of the breadsticks and like, you know, done like some visual bits? It would have been perfect for next week. What the fuck? Yeah. What the fuck indeed. You exist, and you're fine. Captain John Picard, You exist, and you're fine. Make it show. Make it show.

John Picard, John Picard, John Picard, John Picard, John Picard, John Picard, John Picard, John Picard,

John Picard,