The Greatest Generation - Lipizzaner Stallions All the Way Down (S5E14)

Episode Date: February 22, 2017

When the crew forgets who they are, an extra voice is added to the mix, confusing even the most careful radio listener. The ship is running silent on a critical mission to take out a hated enemy, but when Picard gets an itchy buoy-floating finger, the XO threatens mutiny. Is MacDuff using Riker’s battle bridge as his sleeping quarters? Who is typically armed when working on the bridge? Is the bad guy grosser, or less gross than Remmick? It’s an episode that can only be heard, and never seen.

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

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

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

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

and season two of Star Trek Picard. We've set up a page where you can also contribute. It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdecisoto for labor.com. That's friendsofdisoto for labor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage! Welcome to the greatest generation Star Trek podcast by a couple of dingus's who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast. I'm Benjamin R. Harrison.

I'm Adam Prenica. Hey Adam. Hey Ben. I would like to introduce because one of our kind viewers, Matt B, sent us the show Bible a few episodes ago. I would like to introduce a little segment that we can do from time to time called Bible Study. It's good to see you all in church.

It's cool to the Bible. That's the way God wants it. I don't know why, dude. All these questions? Is a little blind thing too much to ask? Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no.

Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, this is really going to please the many in our viewership that are like studying theology. It turns out. Like, we're receiving more and more emails and tweets from people who are like hardcore interreligion, which is surprising and interesting to me because we're such a filthy pod. Yeah. I would have assumed that most religions would have condemned what we're doing here.

Yeah. Well, the page that I randomly opened, the show Bible 2, is a kind of a wide view know, what stuff is in the bridge, you know, what it's used for, all that stuff. And it's, I guess for, you know, somebody who's going to write a script for this television series to refer to when they decide where to set some action. Right. The thing that jumped right out at me, Adam, is there is, I'm looking at the little vestibule where the captain's ready room and the turbo lift is. Just to the left of that in the show Bible is coffee slash food dispenser.

Really? Have we ever seen this in action? I think we've been all around that little pocket. But I mean like, the thing that's amazing to me, maybe most of all, is that it is in a perfectly analogous spot to where Mr. Coffee is and Spaceball won. Right. What's the matter with this thing? What's all that churning and bubbling? You call that a radar screen? If they were to get coffee there, where would they put it? There are no cup holders on the bridge. Yeah, that's true. Maybe they have like

like some some luxury cars, you know, you press a little panel and it and it slides out. Con would be perfect for cup holders, but toward where the command people sit. I don't know. There's there's much room up there for that. I don't think there's much room up there for that. The other thing that immediately leapt out at me and made me laugh was they've got, you know, the captain's chair and Riker's chair. And then there's the other chair on the other side. And it just says Troy and then parenthetically winpresent. It's important to note that it's only hers when she's there. It's basically a stool.

Like it's a backless stool, right? Yeah, I think in this illustration it's more of like a terracotta pot, but... Oh sure, yeah. Heracada pot, but oh sure. Yeah It's really uncomfortable to sit for long periods of time in a seat without a back on it and Unless you're one of the three in the middle. That's what you get. Yeah, you get a bleacher seat Looking around this the last thing I just want to I want to draw attention to is the is the back door that goes to the observation lounge. Yeah. So it also goes to the head.

I'd never considered that there might be a bathroom directly connected to the bridge, but of course there would be. For as much time that gets spent, you know, portraying Beverly and Troy gossiping, we never get that bathroom sink scene do it. Yeah yeah we're you know everybody sitting around on the bridge and Troy's like I knew I'll be right back and Beverly's like yeah I'll join you. I would love to see a really quick re-edit of people emerging from the conference room, like door, like doors open, doors close and you just hear the sound of a distant toilet flushing. F-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f- or when you're attempting to be human, I think that's a big, big part of it, right?

Like he's eating desserts and tend forward. He's a, he's fucking Tasha Yarr. I think you gotta take a great big dump to get the full human experience, right? Yeah, but that's gonna jam up the pipes if there's all that hardware in there. Oh man, if he's just, he needs one of those toilets that you see on infomercials that like flushes a bunch of golf balls

He needs the golf ball toilet to take on what he's put now is all It's like the handy cap toilet at the end in the office like he has a special data toilet in every public restroom It's not a yeah, it's not a bigger stall. It's not a- It's not a- In Androids. Yeah, it's not a bigger stall, it's just a stronger toilet. Yeah. That's fun. Yeah.

Well. We were deprived of those scenes, Ben. We can only hope that the new Star Trek series will go deep on future bathroom technology. I want to find out what those three seashells do. Oh man, is there anything that could found data more than the seashell code? Don't bring your Sherlock pipe into the bathroom data. Here end at The Liturgy, Adam. And let's get on with the show.

Peace be with you, Ben. It's a season five episode 14, Canundrum. The entrepreneur is doing a routine mission. They've picked up something on subspace that makes them think there might be some intelligent life in a system that they have not yet contacted. So they're headed out there to see what the dillio. And they come across this dinky little one man ship.

Well, actually, I guess we should probably talk about this chess match before we talk about the ship right. Yeah I thought you were gonna skip over it. I was panicking. And so on their way data and Troy engage in a little game of chess. Evidently data is not as good at chess as he is at Stradagema. Yeah, well, he didn't employ a strategy of just trying to prevent Troy from winning. Right. He attempted to win himself,

and that was a, he would think that that would be a lesson that he took away from Stradagema. But, so this is, This is interesting, right? Like, computers can beat Casper of a chest,

but in the 24th century and Android can't beat Deanna Troy at chest. Maybe there's something about three-dimensional chest that makes it more difficult for a computer mind to win than a human mind, or a half human, half-bade-as-oid mind. That's an interesting piece of head cannon, Adam. But in this depiction, like, if you were to pick two more poorly-paired people to play

three-dimensional chess against each other, it might be Deanna Troy and Data. Who loses to Deanna Troy? You have devised a completely unanticipated response to a classic attack. Yeah. And she's like there to teach him a little bit of a lesson, right? Deanna, chess isn't just a game of ploys and gambits. It's a game of intuition. Ben is this the most absurd example of Deanna Troy writer's room over compensation because they have now made

her Smarter's in deep blue. Like I think we've praised the writers of this show in season 5 about how they're pulling Deanna Troy out of the pot. They're making her a fully shaded character, But now I think they've crossed the line. I think it's okay to have Troy lose at chess to data. Yeah, she doesn't need to also be a chess wizard. Yeah. It's also really strange because he announces that she's going to have him at checkmate

in seven moves. But then they just kind of take the game apart. Yeah, what is that? she's declared the winner. Like, it's like she landed on boardwalk and they just end the game. Like, well, that's over. Yeah, I also like that their bet is that he has to make her a cocktail. Yeah, I do like bets that go like that. Yeah. That's a that's a that's the kind of bet I can get behind. Yeah, it's a, it's a Samarion sunset cocktail. Yeah. And it's a lot of fun.

Yeah, the way it works, I guess, is, I mean, we don't see the mixology happen. But it's a lot like drinks that end with lighting the peel and, and, and flaming the oils of, of a piece of citrus. But instead, he just sort of flicks the rim of the glass and it sets off sort of a color firework show inside the drink. Looks great.

It's beautiful. And it goes from being a clear drink to a pink drink, which is- That's your favorite drink, man, isn't it? I love a nice pink drink. Yeah. Anybody that comes to our live shows will typically see me drinking something pink.

Yep. That's your brand. So the sense that we get from the opening of this is that we're just getting some kind of slice of life's around the ship because the next thing we go to is a lovely young woman in a bathing suit who I guess was doing some high diving practice in the holodeck getting looked at in six bay by Dr. Crusher.

She should be friends with O'Brien, both in the water sports. But she wears a yellow uniform also. She'd be welcome in the presidential suite of the Moscow Ritz Carlton. They're working on fixing her shoulder up. There's some fun, like some fun shop talk. I should have, I should have laid out, I should have talked when I was supposed to roll or whatever. Dr. Beverly sort of wrenching on her. I feel like for someone who has torn legaments, she's getting her to move her neck to and fro and rotate her arm.

What kind of doctoring is that? I don't know. I was watching a reality television program recently and one of the characters had like a herniated disc in his back and they actually like took the camera into his doctor appointment where I got an MRI. And the doctor made him do a bunch of like, you know, point your toe and you know,

push on the gas kind of kind of movement and it like hurt him so much that he vomited. I know. I was like, is this really like how, like they got an MRI? Do they need him to do the thing that's so painful he throws up also? Oh. Have you ever been in so much pain that you've armed? No.

I used to get migraines when I was really young and they would make me vomit from pain, but I can't imagine like a Skeletal injury that did that seems like a totally different deal Yeah, that is I mean like if you imagine getting in a motorcycle accident and then vomiting from the pain That's get that's like double trouble. That's awful. Yeah. Yeah. Fill that helmet up with chunder And then you know fun and then you die from drowning. That's real dark shit. Yeah, that's no good. That's how rock stars are supposed to go out.

Not motorcycles. Yeah, that's how John Bonham died, right? I think a lot of rock and rollers have asphyxiated on their own yuk. Yeah. Yeah. How did we get on that subject? Oh yeah, we were talking about our diving girl in Six Bay. Yeah.

Well, we cut away from that and Riker is walking down the hallway, laying into Ensign Roe. walking down the hallway, laying into Ensign Roe. For some procedural flourish that she has changed without asking him. Navigators on this ship have been doing flamethrowering assessments the same way for years, Ensign. And I found a better way. Things have kind of changed between them in an interesting way. Like, whereas before, Riker would lay into her like, procedurally,

in a way that allows no harbor at all. And in this scene, he's laying into her in a way that sort of allows for some wiggle. Yeah. Because she makes the case for her decision and Riker's like, well, if you just would've asked me, I might've said yes. And that seems like something that Riker never would've said. Yeah. Because she makes the case for her decision and Rikers like, well, if you just would have asked me, I might have said yes. And that seems like something that Riker

never would have said. Yeah. When they, when they first met. So things seem to be cooling a little bit between them. Right. Like this is Ensenro punching somebody because he said that the Mobius Silver Surfer was, was the worst silver surfer kind of situation. You know, he's like, he's like, you know,'s like, you could get a commission like that, but if you keep punching guys, it's not gonna go well for you and dish man's navy. Right, right. He's being a little bit of a cool high school counselor

with her. The chairs definitely turned around in this scene. Yeah, the metaphorical uh, lunchroom chair is uh, yeah. He's sitting slater style on that shit. This is all the stuff that we get to see going on when the entrepreneur encounters a one-man ship that is floating in this sector that they've come to explore. And the ship starts scanning them and they're like unable to establish communications, so they're like, why don't we go ahead and throw the shields up and the scanning gets more and more intense. And then you see this crazy green light start to wash over the ship and it's like individually washing over people, including all of the people we've seen in these little vignettes ahead

of the action. Data has a little like hiccup in a speech, and the bridge crew, you know, like they put that like wide ass lens on the camera and go to a handheld shot pushing in on Captain Picard, and you can tell that they are very confused about what's going on. What happened? They use a technique that I think we're familiar with, both personally and just as the consumers of a lot of media, where you get a show that is shot very smoothly,

where that is shot either locked off or stabilized. Yeah. And then in order to underscore a character's confusion or challenge or stress, you go handheld a little bit. Yeah. And so what we get is sort of an around the horn. What the hell? Series of cuts where the camera is moving and shaking a little bit because that is how

our characters feel. Yeah, they have put the steady-steady cam down for this whole sequence and all of this stuff is handheld and on a wider lens than they normally use so it has this kind of surreal feeling about it and as they're kind of panning around the ship, we notice that there is another commander rank guy hanging out in the seat that Troy is normally in, when present. And they have all lost their memory of who they are and where they are, what they're doing. Like they have lost their identities. Yeah, he's a real like Paul Reiserie type of guy. And then the commander rank.

And I'm not gonna ring this bell throughout the episode, but like this was the moment when I was only listening to the episode and unable to view it when I was grounded as a child. Right. That just threw me completely. Uh-huh. Who is this voice?

Doesn't sound familiar. Who is this guy at the bridge? Yeah, try to imagine not watching this episode and only listening to it. Yeah, I mean, probably the worst episode to do that for. But who are we? And what are we doing here? It's really amazing, because I mean, I think that this is like one of the things

that this episode is remarkably good at is using this guy very sparingly. Like they do not smash you over the head with that there is an interloper. If this was the first episode of the show you ever watched, you wouldn't, they don't point directly at it in a way that you would realize. This show does a great job with this episode in having the restraint of not pushing the camera into the new crewman and then turning up the volume on the score before commercial.

The way that they did with the unions. Yeah. Like they let him listen in strings playing every time he graces the screen. They let the sky lay back in the cut. And it's so effective when they do it that way, rather than just beat you over the head with the idea that this guy is an interloper. Right. There's an amount of subtlety that would really confound a radio listener to the episode. Yeah, it's true. God, I wish everyone could experience this episode for the first time audio only. So we come back from the title sequence and they're just kind of standing around puzzled, you know?

They're just because they don't know who they are or you know, they don or they don't remember anything about the federation, they don't remember anything about anything, they're trying to just kind of figure out what the F. And one of the interesting upsets of that is that all of their status has been erased. And it is determined that because Wharf has a sash, he might be the boss of everybody. It's an interesting sort of like post-disaster element of rank stacking.

Like, if you were to wash up, it's sort of like the lost scenario, right? If you were to wash up on a desert island with a group of people, the first thing that a group of strangers does is sort of establish who the leader is, and that's what the senior staff does here. Yeah, and they decide to kill the pigs, spill her blood. Yeah. Because they really order of the hand this stuff.

Right, I really like the idea that the way rank works is you go up to four pips, then you get a sash and start over. Yeah. So, Warf kind of takes the role of Captain and everybody else kind of, you know, they're working in good faith to figure out what's going on, but they're concerned. I mean, I'm surprised Wharf points to the sash as a reason for a command instead of pointing to his loaf. Yeah, get a load of this. He's like, I too am decorated on my head.

Look at these nose ridges. You guys, none of you have that. Yeah, we were only second in command. Yeah. Everybody's face gets more weird, the higher in rank they get. And they're like concerned that there might be a boarding party, so they don't want to make announcements to the ship that are to, you know, that reveal too much about the fact that they don't know what's going on. We should be careful what we say. There could be a boarding party somewhere on the ship.

Bridge to all personnel. Select a representative from your group to contact the bridge and report on your status. Remain where you are. Stay calm. Bridge out. Well, that helps a lot. So they know how to operate the computer.

They know how to send a message ship wide. They know how to tell if they're drifting or not in space. The doctor knows how to fix the swimsuit lady's shoulder. Yeah. Kiko remembers how to make an awful dinner. And so like the kind of positions that everybody is standing in starts to be treated as potentially information about what role they serve, for example, data is assumed to be the bartender because he was making Troy a drink, but they're stumped. And the weirdest part of this is that all of the information, all of the parts of the computer that might be able to tell them information

about who they are and what they're doing are also messed up. Every part of the computer remains except for biographical information, which is super frustrating for everyone. Yeah. They kind of getting everything back together bit by bit. You know, they know what they're doing technically. So they start putting the pieces back together, but the hardest part to get to is identity and mission information. And-

It's sort of a fun writing exercise, isn't it? Yeah. Without a character's memory, isn't it? Yeah. Without a character's memory, all you have is their base instinct. So when you're working these characters through a story, I think it's got to be a fun exercise to just sort of go, you know, without mission, all you have is instinct. And how do these characters interact when that's all they have going on? Right. And like the, you know, like they, that's interesting with every single character. The way, the way they behave, the way they, the way they kind of piece their identities together. I mean, Troy discovers that she can do something that everybody else can't with sensing emotions.

that she can do something that everybody else can't with sensing emotions. And it's perhaps the most interesting description of that sense in her that we've gotten yet. I have a very strong sense of what other people are feeling. We don't get the scene where she interacts with someone else and tend forward. And it's like, are you feeling this? Like just sort of copying it off of someone else? Yeah, yeah. Well, one of the fun things that goes down with this is that Roe determines that she is probably in a fucking relationship with Commander Riker.

I have this funny feeling that maybe I spend most of my off hours here. She's so confident in this that she puts on some some civis and goes and hangs out in his quarters and waits for him. Part of the triaging of what's happened is they just sort of they delegate some tasks. I should say, Warf delegates tasks to the crew. They go out, pair off and sort of do them and and riker and row get the mission of just sort of going door to door and checking on people and like putting them to bed is the idea? Like they're just sort of walking down a corridor checking up on people and they're like, do you have a moment to talk about our Lord and Savior. I already gave it the office. Yeah, and they're like, it's sort of a retread of the pre-Logo scene where they're walking

down a corridor only this time. They're really enjoying each other's company. They're a great time doing this task. Yeah, it's an nice idea that they they without preconceived notions about each other do kind of have compatible characters. Yeah. It's interesting like without without story getting in the way, how that works when it's just instinct. Like when you, when you reduce a character down to base instinct, you realize their compatibility is in a way that you don't see when there's a bunch of filler in the way

day to day. Right. That's a fun realization. It sure is. And it's very astute writing, I think. It's very fun to think about the writer's room saying, okay, like, all prior narrative about these characters aside, what are their affinities? Who would like who, you know? Yeah, and it's not as flimsy as opposite to tracked, either. Right. Like, it's better than that. This is about when they get into a part of the computer that's at least able to tell them who is who on the ship.

Commanding officer Captain John Luke Picard. Executive officer Commander Kirin McDuff. Second officer Commander William Reiker. So they have established that this McDuff guy is a regular member of the ship and the second in command. Yeah, which I guess bumps Reiker to third in command, which is unfortunate. Yeah, and bumps and bumps data out of placing. Yeah, he's off the podium.

He's off the podium, data's off the podium. Ha ha ha. Warf has a really great scene in the aftermath of this, Placing. Yeah, he's off the podium. He's off the podium. Data's off the podium Warf has a really great scene in the aftermath of this where he realizes he's been a big dickhead about Taking command I regret my recent behavior. I assumed an attitude of authority that was Unwarned and Picard to his credit is like really cool about it. Yeah, like hey man No one knew anything at the time. It's okay yet that yet that big sash on anyone could have made that mistake It seems like a really nice sash. I hope we find out what it's deal is someday One of the other things they find out in this

Computer sleuthing is they've been at war. Yeah. They've been at war with the Lissians. Fucking hate the Lissians. And they're described as a genocidal race which possesses a weapon that is able to wipe the minds of the crews of ships that they've actually taken. So they'll capture federation ships through the use of this weapon.

And they sort of posit that this is what happened to them. Yeah, the federation has been in war with delicience for a long time. And the entrepreneur is part of a coordinated, like, multi-pronged, D-Day-like offensive, where they are going to take out the Lyccian Central Command. And the entrepreneur is both the Linchpin, but also just one part of a large, you know, like a clockwork of different military maneuvers. So they determine that this is some pretty important stuff and if we don't do it,

we're gonna be leaving a lot of people hanging. So we better fly with all deliberate speed toward the central command of the Lissian military and take that fucker out. Central command of the Lissian military and take that fuck her out. And it doesn't take long before people, and I guess specifically one person, has a real problem with the idea of flying blind into a mission like this. And that's DNA Troy. Yeah.

She's like, you know, I don't feel good about this mission and I can't really say why shouldn't we try to get verification of our mission. And Ben, this is when the story pivots into full crimson tied territory. Deanna Troy has become the Denzel Washington figure. No orders of valid combat if they're wrong. Yeah. In the story, she's like, why don't we- Denzel Washington figure. No orders of valid combat if they're wrong. Yeah. In the story, she's like, why don't we- Denzel Troy. Why don't we float the buoy and see if we can get order confirmation on this?

Yeah. And Picard sort of cracks this. Very well float the buoy. Chief of the watch, float the buoy. He turns toward this way of thinking himself. Do they take the time to verify their mission before going into Lyceum's base and destroying their home base?

Right, and the argument against this is that they have to maintain radio silence. You know, if they're broadcasting on subspace, then their position can be known. And they have a big McLaughlin group, if you want, without even knowing that that's what it's called to, to discuss this, right? Yeah, it's sort of the, the weapon is a perfect foil for their need to, to authenticate the mission.

Because if they stop to float the buoy, then they leave themselves open to having their minds wiped again and their ship taken over. Right, and they can't act on an improperly formatted message. No, no, they can't. They can't. They be firing blind. Blind and deaf. What you get there, Ben, is a nuclear holocaust. Right. I'm calm down, Mr. Hunter.

I am calm. You don't look purely calm. My love is a people's longing for that, which is longer than us at the PC. Tell me more, you're not the boy. Much like Crimson Tide, they have kind of, it's kind of a race against the clock. Like, the, you know, the launch order is impending

the, the Russians are fueling their missiles. It's Lipin's honor stallions all the way down. Right, and they have to like either verify the, the, the message that had the stand down order in it or, or launch, but, you know know like the radio's shot, they're fucking taking on water, there's an accoola-class submarine hunting them down. Like there's a lot of bad stuff going on. In this McLaughlin group, you start to see the fracture a bit because there is very clearly a Choram of people who feel that you know, they're gonna they're gonna

pursue the mission But with reservations and right their instincts are against it But MacDuff and Warf are sort of on on team war Yeah, and this is a feeling that is illustrated later on when they have their own separate McLaughlin group. In McLaughlin group inside of McLaughlin group in McDuff's quarters. They have to go deeper. And McDuff talks to Wurf. He's like, look man. Remember here, no, it seems clear that both you and I were born for battle, more so than the others. Where Tango is fueling his burst, now why do you think he's doing that? Why?

You don't put on a condom unless you're gonna fuck! It may come to a point when you and I have to be the ones to hit the button because these weak bridge crewmen aren't like us. They're gonna have doubts and they're gonna get us all killed. And Wurf sort of grunts his approval at this line of thinking and then leaves. I wondered where McDuff lives. You know, does he take one of the state rooms that they give

to Uber clients or... Or like, how does that work out? Does he take Riker's second quarters and get it cleaned up real quick? God, I don't know. There's a lot of administrative stuff that we don't see when they're trying to figure out their own identities. This scene with McDuff and Wurf is the moment

in the episode where we realize McDuff is a Trojan man. Up until now, he's been just sort of a guy that's been around, like your standard-issue bridge officer, but now we understand that he's someone who is manipulating the scene. Yeah, I mean, they have a confrontation with a small ship that they have to take out because the ship is firing at them. And McDuff speaks pretty forcefully in favor of taking it out because that's what their orders is. But he never yeah, the scene with Warf is where he really tips his hand that he is He's prepared to mutiny if the captain doesn't fire the birds he wants that whistle

Gotta get that whistle gotta get those those weird plastic cards with Seven letters and numbers on them. I know that's satisfied Charlie Charlie That's satisfying crack. When you call it, Zulu Tango. So you, you mentioned a scene that's pretty important. So as they're, as they're getting deeper into Lissian space, there's, there's beginning to come up against Lissian defenses,

which are as flimsy as like driving through a wet paper bag. Like, like there's no defense at all. This is a galaxy-class starship up against like laser guns. This is, they're sort of illustrating in a subtle way like the star trek versus star wars world and how easily Trek would destroy wars in any sort of face to face combat. Right. Yeah. This is, it's like a coast guard cutter not noticing that it's taking out a 12 foot laser sazo.

A laser dinghy. On its way out of port, you know. Yeah. Like, they, they analyze the threat that this ship presents, and it's just a joke. The destroyer has minimal shields. Their disruptive capacity appears to be only 2.1 mega jewels. They're no match for the enterprise.

And it starts to kind of chip at their buy-in to this reality that they're being presented with. Like, how can we have this decades-long bloody war with this hated, terrifying enemy if our hated, terrifying enemy is throwing this dinky little ship at us? And the counterpoint to that comes from McDuff again. He's like, look, it is not about their laser weapons. It is about this mind control thing. Like, when the weapon against you is not about how it could destroy physical material,

but instead about mental destruction, like that's the case he keeps making. And it's a case that makes sense. The destroyer is hailing us. Open a trap. No. They're new weapon. Whatever it is that erased our computers and our memories.

Maybe this is how they do it. So they take this ship out and they keep moving. Stick and move, stick and move. Which is also what Row and Riker have been doing. More and more throughout the episode. There's a fun scene where where Troy Goes to Riker's quarters after hours the clean quarters. Yeah Yeah

Riker Alpha Goes into his clean condo and it's like you know, I keep having feelings about you good feelings Riker's like you know, I discovered something in the computer that I have my own battle bridge. Yeah, Rikers Studio B. Troy's like, I got a feeling about you and it happens every time I touch your bangs. Got these good feelings. And Rikers like, yeah, I've got some great feelings about you. And before

they get a chance to talk any further, enter Row Laren. Yeah, she busts through the wall and goes, oh yeah! It's like I wasn't interrupting anything, was I? And sort of chases Troy off. Yeah, this is a real fun one. She big dogs Troy. She really does. She big dogs. I don't really know what Troy's rank is, right? Because she doesn't wear standard pipage. Yeah, she's got no pips. Yeah, so Troy sort of slinks away, bettered by row, who just like hops on Riker into the commercial break. This is a really fun relationship, Ben, and this is the point in the episode where I

become sad that it will eventually end. Like, you can't go on like this, but I'm really enjoying it quite a bit. The doctor has come up with a... I am a cute as a ball. You will assist us. I am a cute as a ball. You are a ball. The doctor has come up with an idea for how they can get their memories back, but she doesn't have access to the critical medical record part of the ship's logs that would enable her to make a totally safe choice about whether to use it. So MacDuff volunteers to be the first one whose memories they try and dig up. And this is a pretty shrewd move on his part

because he is the one person who doesn't have any lost memories for them to get at. Yeah, they sort of hook him up to a weird version of the Clip Show device. Right. It's a less invasive version. Clip Show device, Mark II. Yeah.

And he doesn't have a good time in there. He starts flopping around. Yeah. He looks like he's in some amount of pain. Yeah, they barely hang on to him and they're like, well, that didn't work. That was not a great way for us to try getting our memories back. So they're stumped and they're like, well, I guess we just have to do this mission and we're going to have to do it memories or no. So they finally penetrate to the core of Lycian space space bin and they come upon the home base of the Lyccians.

Right. And it's just like a corporate office space station. There's nothing there. Did you recognize this space station at them? Yeah, it looked like the thing that the Edo worship, right? Yeah, it's the same, I think it's the same model. Yeah yeah we only barely see it in that Edo episode but now we see it fully rendered. It's not a lit up in the Edo episode but this one this one's got some nice some nice lighting on it and they're they're just bedding that

anyone who watched the show in season one is not still watching it now. So it's a pretty safe bet I think. Yeah, anybody that watched the Edo episode is probably just watching that on repeat, you know. Right. Really wearing out the playhead on their VHS tape for that one. Oh, so sexy. Yeah, they found that tape in the woods. But yeah, they pull up and park and they're, you know, looking through their binoculars out the front windshield at this thing. And they're like, this has even crappier armaments than that ship we blew up back there. Yeah, and it would only take one torpedo only to destroy it. Yeah, so the captain who has had like a couple of chats with McDuff about just how weird he feels

about pursuing this mission without any moral context starts to get a little melee mouth. He's like, I don't know. I don't know if we're here doing the right thing. And this is when McDuff kind of takes the mask off. I mean, he doesn't reveal himself to be an alien here, but he does like go like, like, sorry, if you're not going to launch the missiles, I am. Yeah, he goes full gene hack man here.

Yeah. He walks up to the top of the horseshoe next to Wharf, and he's like, And at this point, we realized just how well armed the bridge crew is. Because phasers come out from nowhere and they're set to gore, Ben. They are set to make it lunch. They start hating him, and like his skin is momentarily rendered translucent, and the like gross loaf that is inside him is revealed.

Much in the same way that Picard never reveals how impressed he is at Space Magic. Like, no one is grossed out by what they see when they shoot McDuff. And I feel like they should be. I mean, yeah, this is another opportunity for them to talk about how bad the smell is that they miss. That stuff looks like it smells real funky. Yeah, they're like, they're opening them up

like a horse from the Revenant. They're totally revenanting McDuff. Yeah, and I thought they smelled bad on the outside. Yeah, he's real scary looking. I paused the playback when this was happening and it's like, do you ever see the movie They Live? Yeah. He's got a little see the movie They Live? Yeah. He's got a little bit of a They Live thing.

Totally. Do you think he's grosser or less gross than a remake when they blow him up in that season one episode? I mean, I think that because what winds up happening with Remick is real gory, he's less gross, but there's some, I mean. The thing is you can't blow up Remek on the bridge because they can't possibly clean that up.

Like they've got expensive carpet up there. Yeah, I mean, it's- They got a squeegee that guy off of all the panels. Yeah, but he does have, like there's some like HR giga kind of vibes to him. So it's not like he's not really upsetting. Yeah, he truly is. And they sort of phaser him down to the ground.

Yeah, he's one of those tough bad guys where you have to hit him a bunch of times before he relaxes, you know. Yeah, yeah. They hit him with the phasers until the stars appear. Mm-hmm. So the day is saved, the entrepreneur has gotten through this conundrum with only having wasted one innocent ship. I guess the Lissians do have a war and it is with

another species. What are they called? The... McDuff is a satirant and the satirants... The satirants have been at war with the Lissians for a long time, mostly over Creole rice mix. mostly over Creole rice mix. Yeah, I went there. The studio audience is getting up and walking out at him. You like those satirants? I sure do.

Delicious. You get invited to a dinner party. Satteran's is gonna be a big hit. It's the real for sure taste in the Orleans. Well, I hope I never get invited to a dinner party at your house. Yeah. Yeah. You'll be at war with my side dish.

Yeah. Everybody knows I'm a lissian, man. Well, there's a couple of little buttons on the episode where the first is, you know, Raker and Picard talking about how narrowly they avoided being some real big assholes in this scene. And then the last one is Raker accidentally stumbling into a triple date with Diana and

Ro. Yeah. Diana and Ro are our Eskimos sisters and they're sort of commiserating and tend forward about what Rikers like. Yeah. What rikers like? Yeah, and Rose got the green drink of jealousy. And Diana has the magenta drink of self satisfaction and victory. Yeah.

It's fun to think of them as friends. They couldn't be more opposite. Yeah. Yeah, and it's also fun to see Riker lean into the situation. A lesser man would see those two up on the elevated back area of 10 forward and just turn heel and walk out the door and handle this one-on-one with each of them individually. But he's like, you know, this is a little awkward, I I shit the bed. I've got to sleep in it. So it's great that they depict sexual regret in a way that is a little bit harmless. Like so often you see depictions of characters,

get it on and then have the sort of regret afterward that's like total and awful and awkward, you know, especially when work relationships are concerned. But it's great to see that like, there's an oopsie, people can laugh about it, people can continue to work afterwards, like it doesn't have to be like a socially nuclear situation. It's great. And Roe even has like a bit of a, like an SEG on like she's kind of winking at Riker. Yeah. This is maybe the most levity we've gotten out of this character.

It's great. Yeah. It really is. Yeah, it really is. It was a really fun button. The wrong writer would have made her really react to this in a very different way. The wrong writer would have had her do the tongue in the side of the cheek, like fist next to the face. Look. Are you saying we would have? Yeah, yeah, maybe.

Nice restraint, writer's room. Well done. Did you like this one, Adam? One of my favorite episodes, Ben. This might be up on the mountain for me. Yeah, it's a really good one. Yeah. And really, enjoyably rewatchable, too.

Totally. I've seen this episode a lot, and it grows no less enjoyable as I see it. Mm-hmm. Everybody is at the height of their abilities acting wise. It's kind of a bottle episode, like not much happens outside the ship, but you know, there's only one extra I think, but it's just, it's just good, you know? In that way though, like, it is not an episode that you would enjoy

if you were watching it as one of the first episodes you've ever seen, because what it's doing is it's paying off your familiarity with the crew. And if you aren't really sure who they are, or like if you walk into the story the way that the crew does, it's less satisfying. Like it's paying off five seasons of character building. Yeah. I think the only dark mark I'll give it is that we never find out what happens to that bathing suit lady. Yeah. Yeah

Yeah, well she's dead Adam I've got a I've got an indication that some subspace messages are coming our way We are not at radio silence. Do you want to float the buoy? Chief the watch float the buoy Priority one message from star fleetet coming in on Secured Channel. Need a supplement on top. supplement on top? supplement on top.

Yes, extra. How do you interest alone? Could be enough to buy this ship! Ben, our first priority one message comes from Lieutenant Commander Oliver USS Caligari. And it is four Commander Graves USS Ardmore. I imagine that these are real ships been and real people. Yeah. Message goes like this, though I am transferring to a ship in another fleet, know that you've been a great influence to me in my career. I've enjoyed our time together at work, and with our various strategy-amaz, even though I always win, and since this is sent over subspace, it is now true.

Hahaha. Is that like, you're mailing yourself something so that you have a copyright on it? Yeah, definitely. Hahaha. Farewell, my friend. If you're ever in need, I'm only a 100 scarf message away. Wow! This is a nice goodbye message from one coworker to another. I like that. I hope that this doesn't qualify as his two-week notice. Like that would be awkward, right? I hope Commander Graves isn't surprised by

Great. I hope Commander Graves isn't surprised by Lieutenant Commander Oliver's announcement here. Because Commander does outrank Lieutenant Commander, right? It's true. This is somebody talking to their boss, it would seem. Yeah. Yeah, I hope this is on the up and up with their HR department. Yeah, does this count as notice? Or like, what forms of communication are permitted? I almost read Lieutenant Commander Oliver Ship as the USS Caligula, and I'm very glad that I didn't. Yeah, that's got very different connotations.

Yeah. Yeah, almost as bad as the USS Salo. Oh, well, hopefully we've helped in your transition to a new job, Lieutenant Commander Oliver, and we've softened it's for Mike and Mark. You're welcome for assimilating you into the Greatest Gen Collective. Remember, any attempt to stop listening will result in you going straight to hell and or, Cal receiving a sears gift card. If you are not enjoying your new station as great as Jen drone, too bad enjoyment is a relevant and resistance is futile.

That's a fun one. Yeah. I see what they did there. I like that the person the person that this is from self Self-appelates as shrimp Yeah, I mean that's a term of endearment that isn't always taken as endearing Hmm. Yeah, exactly. I've wonder about the relationship like Lincoln Box seemed to have been forced into listening to our show, and while we appreciate every viewer, we don't want resistance as futile to be our message, we hate the Borgs. We sure do, and because we're also enthusiastic,

uh, people who are very enthusiastic about consent. We don't want anyone listening who doesn't want to. Right. That said, if there's some kind of kink play going on with uh, Karey Star, Kohlgarde, and this is all negotiated prior to the play, uh, have had it guys. Just make sure you know your safe words. Uh, if you have a workplace, uh had it guys, just make sure you know your safe words. If you have a workplace conflict or a change in career that you're hoping to announce using

RShow as its mouthpiece, you can go to Maximumfund.org slash Jumbo Tron, where employment announcements cost mere $100 and a commercial announcement cost $200. It's a great way to support the show that you love. It sure is, Adam. Well, uh, all that said, on with the rest of the show. A Greatest Gen Live Show is something you don't want to miss. Why? Well, it's a great opportunity to see me and Ben in person, but that's not all. FODs from all over gather at these shows to cosplay, to do pre and post show hangs, to make friends, and share their embarrassment.

Hey, let's make a pretty great name for a tour. Let's do it. The Share Your Embarrassment Tour is coming in August 2023, and we've got a bunch of dates in a lot of great places. Go to greatestgentour.com to get more info. That's greatestgentour.com for dates and ticketing information for the Share your embarrassment tour. I'm Jordan Morris and I'm Jesse Thorne.

On Jordan Jesse Go, we make pure, delightful nonsense. We were open awesome guests and bring them down to our level. We get stupid with Judy Greer. My friend Molly and I call it having the spaceweirds. Pat Noswald. Could I get a ball-rock burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you. And Kumail Nanjiani.

I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which is impossible to use. Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org. Look, your podcast apps are already open. Just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goatry. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Whoa, Russ.

Hey, hey, I'm about to count you in mine. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line and boy, what do I? These giraffes do not smell good. No, they do not, and they've such short neck. But I'm hearing we need to get on this off. We've got to get on the art. It's about terrain, about a spout to destroy humanity.

Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans. We're actually, we're podcasters. We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ono Ross and Carrie? We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal, stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so seem like something for us to check out.

We would love to be on the boats. We came to by two. What do you think? Ono Ross and Carrie, available on MaximumFun and Outdoor. [♪ Music playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background Mine is going to Worf, just for a little bit of silent acting that Michael Dorn does when the computer is reading out the names and ranks of the command staff. And it washes over Worf, but what he has done. Yeah. I think it's good.

I think it washes over him in an awesome way. Yeah. Redret watches over him in an awesome wave. Yeah, Michael Dorn performs that moment beautifully and in a way that gave me a genuine belly laugh. I also wanna give him a special citation for the most morally confused warfies we've yet seen in the scene when McDuff pulls him aside and suggests that they think about mutinizing if the captain doesn't have the stones to complete the mission.

Great eyes. How about yourself Adam? You have a drunk Shimoda? I do, but going off of yours a little bit, God. Warf got to do a lot of cool things this episode. He got to sit in all the chairs, He never gets to sit in. He got the Ready Room chair, he got the bridge command chair. It was just neat to see him get to experience all of that. Yeah, and fun to see that character put on some status. Yeah. Yeah.

My Shimoda, I feel like we give Shimoda's to Picard quite a bit, but I have to give him the Shimoda here, because much in the same way that Picard gradually increases warp speed on his way to a mission, he does a thing here with the shields that is totally in keeping with that whole sensibility. Like, so when the pre-open they come upon this mystery ship and they're doing the things they do when they come upon a mystery ship, they don't want to raise shields, they don't want to look like assholes about things by going to red alert, so they very gradually increase their level of alert status throughout. And they do that in concert with what the mystery ship is doing, so mystery ship's not doing anything. Entrepreneur's not doing anything. Mystery ship increases the degree to which they're scanning.

Entrepreneur does the same. Mystery ship does something vaguely threatening and then Picard sort of like with the flip of his hand goes like, well, I guess we raised the shields or whatever. like, well, I guess we raised the shields or whatever. In a very blase kind of way, like in the way that he likes to gradually increase the speed on his way to an emergency. And so for that reason, I'm giving it to Picard, who is a as a command figure, just sort of laying back in the cut, not being very threatening in any particular way here. Yeah, fun. He is the most chill during a time of threat.

That he is, Adam. What are we watching next, Ben? The next episode is season 5, episode 15, Power Play. Inhabited by alien spirits, data and Troy over through the bridge of the Enterprise. Do you remember this Adam? Is this where we get deep voice Troy? Oooo. Every time Troy gets taken over I think it's going to be a deep voice Troy,

but I don't think we've gotten that episode yet have we? I think we might have already had that episode. I mean, they're all starting to blend together for me now. They really are. I like it when Troy gets a deep voice and throws people around. Yeah, well, there was the time that like she broke Warf's wrist, right?

That was deep Voice Troy episode. Yeah, and data was lying to everybody? Yeah, yeah. Does she do it again? This seems like a very similarly plodded episode. Yeah. Well, we don't have any vetoes, so we are watching it. It's true.

Well, that'll be the next one, Adam. Fun. Fun. You know what else is fun is when people bury bad reviews on iTunes by leaving really nice reviews. Yeah. There are there have been a growing number of deep voice reviews to our podcast. Yeah. And I mean, I think I think you need to have at least a few of those so that you look honest. Right, exactly. Positive reviews are one of the ways that new viewers find our show on iTunes.

They also find out about us on Reddit and on the Twitter's using the hashtag GreatestGen. Yeah, there's a great Facebook group, which is always a lively place for discussion. And all of those online things have been known to have interactions from AdWin and myself. So we definitely try and keep an eye on those things and joke around with everybody. It's a lot of fun. Yeah. We should thank Dark Materia and Adam Regusia for our music.

Thanks Jents and the Great Folks at MaximumFund.org for helping us make this show possible. So with that we will be back at you next time. Another great episode of Star Trek, the next generation, and another, and an episode of the greatest generation that may or may not have very deep voices from a couple of mentally controlled hosts. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so.

Make it so. Make it so. I get so scared every time I do one of those throws to the end, because I never have a plan when I start saying it. If it makes you feel any better, it always sounds like you don't have a plan, but it's always very nice. It's always fun. I should think about coming up with a plan, Adam. I enjoy it every time. It's a lot like the Marin Open.

We don't have a plan, we just do it. Yeah, that's true. Fuck it, let's do it live. Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture. Artists Don't Listen or Support it. Maximumfund.org

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