The Greatest Generation - Love Those Puffs (S4E26)

Episode Date: January 4, 2017

Worf’s honor and civil war hang in the balance when Captain Picard is called back to Qo’nos to be a witness on Gowron’s ketubah. But there’s a not-so-sneaky Romulan sneaking around, and the Duras Sisters are eager to ruin the big jacket-putting-on ceremony. Is that Klingon Jake? Is Guinan the best marksman on the Entrepreneur? Does ‘Romyarlan’ work? How does it affect the monitors if you sharpen a pencil on a Klingon ship? It’s Part One of a two episode arc about how close to death Ben can be and still record a podcast.

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 friendsofdecotoForLabor.com. That's FriendsOfDecotoForLabor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Welcome to the greatest generation, Rudy! A Star Trek podcast, my two men who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast! Ah! Ah!

Ah! Ah, that was a terrible idea! Ah! Oh, God. a terrible idea. Oh god. One of your hosts, Ben Harrison. Oh, that is so gross. What have you done? I don't, I just nearly killed myself. You're like Kurt Gibson.

You're two injured to play. We wheeled you out there to get one last step back on the Cosby and you gave it all you could Yeah Well, I think I'm just gonna have to carry this episode out of I'm your other host Adam Pranaka and I'm really glad that Whatever you've got is not communicable through microphone wires. Fire Skype. I definitely had something, if not influenza, something influenza adjacent, as they say,

in the real estate business, it was no fucking fun. In this new world of like blogging and being cool on the internet, you want to be an influencer, right? Like, that's, yeah. That's not funny. Well, it was almost funny. It was funny, adjacent. Adam, I think that the time has finally come to announce a winner in our big contest. We put out... Of course, we're talking about the contest to give away tour

exclusive merch to one of our 1,000 club review people, right? Yes, we wanted to deepen the live experience for the people that actually came out and saw us live by de-exclusivizing the t-shirt and poster that we sold at the merch booth there, but only for one lucky viewer. And we asked people to help us get up over a thousand iTunes reviews and they really came through in a big way. And 2016 was a big year for us. that that was in no small part due to the enthusiasm and and generosity of our viewers. It was mostly because of them. I think I think we became quickly

obligated to them instead of to us even. Yeah I think that's true. Well anyways we got a slew of entries. I think there were probably more people that left a review to help us get over the line than actually submitted an entry. So thanks to everybody who left one and thanks to everybody who submitted for the contest. I used a random number generator on the internet to select our winner and our winner is Crystal J She wrote a Review that was entitled colon meaning

Which is already great and she signed it as Keko O'Brien Which is also a lot of fun Ben and coho's dad and ms. Dilsett tones mixed with the bridge beeps and boobs helped me chill out while I was in the hospital for a while. Perfect combo max of comedy and track. Loving the this old house impression guys. I think that's what you're doing anyways. Much love from the Shimoda corner of my work drive harp. Keep it up. It just feels amazing to go look at our iTunes page and see how many people have been touched by this show. So, Crystal, please write in, tell us where we can send your T-shirt and poster and let

us know what size we want. And we'll get those dispatched as quickly as we can. Lucky Crystal has won our tour exclusive T-shirt which is engineer yellow and a poster which is unfit to be hung in public so congratulations Crystal. I saw somebody with that poster framed. I still can't believe that. Yeah I mean it's it's remarkable. I suppose if you're hard up you can sell the frame at some point Well Shall we get into the episode at yeah, let's do it Ben you've been sick for quite a while So this is one of those pods where where we will be recording our show a little bit after

We've seen the episode so we'll see how it goes. It's season four episode 26 Redemption part one You And Ben do you remember it's it's the end of season four when you were watching this for the first time yeah This is the season after The best of both worlds were you expecting a cliffhanger? Like for the end of the season and henceforth? I think that I was not sophisticated enough at the time

to expect anything, but I think that anybody that sees the episode title pop up on screen and sees the part one is going to be excited by that. If you're watching in that way, unfortunately, the excitement that they ramp up for you is like Picard's mission to put a jacket on a guy. Like, that's the mission. Yeah, so yeah, Picard, who earlier in the season served as arbiter of succession for the Klingon Empire. And also turned to blind eye when Wharf, cold-blooded murdered the one of the two guys that was vying for the top job in the Klingon Empire, is heading to Kronos to install Gauron as the...

What is it? It's not the Emperor, right? Contextually, he seems to be on his way to becoming the emperor, right? Yeah. That's sort of how we would understand it in our culture, I guess. I guess so. Or like, president for life, or something. But he's going to have Kimpex role, the role that Kimpex used to have.

He's going to become Klinga Noriega. Yeah, he's going to be the goat. And so, yeah, they're going to go, like, do this ceremony. And it seems like it's kind of just a rote thing. Like, all of the paperwork has been done. And they just have to do this little ceremony. And then it's official. It's sort of like, you know, they've signed the Katuba but they haven't had the like

step on the glass part of the wedding. Yeah, yeah, I get that. The husband hasn't walked around the bride seven times. Oh, that's tough. So they're headed out there. My favorite John Philip Susa instrument is the Katuba. Oh, boy. Well, this is why we need you at 100% Ben.

I can't carry the show. And I've shown that time and time again. The opening scene of this is kind of weird. It's like, wharf is hanging out in his quarters and Picard comes in and he's like, hey remember how you got your honor stripped from you? To be honest Chris, I'd kind of like to forget all that. That was awesome. Wurf was like, remind me and Picard's like, yeah, like you've been stripped of honor in the eyes of the Empire. And I think this is your big opportunity to get it back.

And Warf is like, are you a share cap? Are you sure that this is the opportunity? He happens like, I'm pretty sure this is it. Which I was really surprised back. Because it's like, all Warf thinks about is his fucking honor. And in this scene, Picard seems way more interested in it and seems to have more urgency around like turning the ownership around.

The whole tension of it really feels like, like, like when you run into your ex-girlfriend at a social event, like, like, you think it's not going to happen until you go out to a thing and she's there. Like Wurf in a not-way has not thought about this, even though he's about to go to this massive Klingon social event, Picard's like, this is going to be a great opportunity for you to put things back together to get back on cool terms with those klingons that you broke up with.

Well, maybe it's like, maybe Picard is just like sick and fucking tired of having to tell every klingon official that comes on board that they're going to have to deal with Worf as a Starfleet officer, you know? Because he had that ambassador and the ambassador was like, oh, it's very awkward for me to be around Wurf and Picard had to, had to, you know, like that's got to get old for Picard. Yeah. And it's pretty clear that everyone else working security on that chip is just not great at that job.

And that starts from the top, really. Yeah. Well, do you think Wf's quarters is a good place to practice Batleth? No, it's... He's winging that thing around. The quarters are pretty tight. Like, he has to have knocked stuff off of countertops

before, right? The only explanation for this is that Riker was using the holodeck right before Worf got there and he showed up and the doors opened up and he was just like, never mind. I'll just do it in my quarters. The triumphant return of Worf puffs occurs in the scene too. Oh yeah, love those puffs. So the Enterprise is getting into Klingon territory and a attack cruiser comes out and meets them and who should be a board but Gauron?

And um, Gauron is like... We will have to move quickly if we are to be successful. Successful? Yes. In preventing a K on civil war. All is the threat is the cling on civil war that the Romulans are going to be involved in somehow. It's been the kind of reflexive go-to threat all season.

So finally, you know, they're going to show us the shark, right? Like, if this season is jaws, we're finally going to see the shark pop out of the water in this episode. This shark happens to be the form of Klingon Jake. So, yeah, so Gauron comes aboard and tells him what's popping. And when Worf takes Gauron to a beam and back off the ship, he's like, he's like, hey, let me kick something to you. And Galron is like, I don't want to hear it.

I know about you. And so Worf has to send the transporter operator out of the room and explain that his disconvmentation was a lie of convenience to protect the Empire from duro's and like, you know, Worf and Gauron have the same enemy. So that's like definitely interesting. Worf kicks the transporter guy out so they can have a private conversation and like Gauron

is a super brave. And like, Gauron is super brave. Like, I think we all understand that you can't rise to the level he's at without having a certain amount of bravery, but man, I think if you're him and you're ready to transport away, I don't think I like warfoot the controls at that thing. Yeah, I could just beam you into space. You would have no defense against that.

There's a greater amount of leverage in this scene than I think we are really supposed to understand. Yeah, that's interesting. I also thought that it was interesting that Warp had to bring this up. Like Picard comes down to him and is like, Hey, time to get that honor back. And then Picard spends a whole bunch of time talking with the one guy who has any authority

over that. And then Worf was like, hey, I don't know if this has come up for you yet, but my disc commendation was a lie to protect the Empire. And Gauronron is like what? Worse has got to be like what the fuck did Captain Picard even talk to him about? He's like asking his boss for a raise when his boss really doesn't know what he does day-to-day. Yeah, I'm not sure if you've noticed But I've closed a bunch of these accounts. Yeah kicking a lot of ass and I'm staying late. And the boss is like, I don't even know who you are, man. Yeah. It's a, I don't know. A lot of, a lot of cross wires so far in this episode, I would say. Yeah. Warf's got to be real disappointed. Because he gets it up for this conversation and it totally backfires.

They get ready to do the ceremony and it's going to be the big ceremony with it, put a jacket on Galron. And it's like a combination cloak and girl scout vest because it's got a lot of badges. I'm sure that they're from different achievements. You know? It looks real heavy. Fire starting, helping an old lady cross the street. So selling the most cookies. Yeah.

But yeah, they're literally about to drop it on Garaon's shoulders when a record scratches and the music cuts out. And the two Dura sisters and their baby nephew, Toral, come in. And Toral is a brilliantly cast character I want to say because he's like Durras is here to for unheard of male air like nobody knew that he had a son He would have to have a son

for the person to be like have a legitimate claim on his seat on the council. And like, this guy is a foot shorter than all other clingsons and has zero charisma. Like, like he is asking to be the leader of a huge star empire and like has all of the charisma of a paper bag. I feel like to direct him, they just showed him all the scenes from Karate Kid of the guy Dojo and all of the kids who train there because that's how this guy acts the whole time. Yeah, yeah. The great thing and the terrible thing about Klingon storylines is that we don't ever get a significantly fleshed out enough look at how the Klingon universe works for any arbitrary change in the storyline to not just work. storyline to not just work.

Like they're exploiting some rule, I guess, where it's like, if anybody seated here can see a reason why Galron should not marry this vest, speak, speak now or forever hold your peace. And they speak up and it's like, well, we gotta take this seriously. So. like they speak up and it's like, well, we got to take this seriously. So the reason I called him cling on Jake earlier is because it's he's getting into a shuttle. He doesn't know how to pile it. Like he walks out into the middle of the of the of the hall of the great hall. And after every line that he spits, he looks around and he's like,

yeah, right? Right? Yeah. Like he has no confidence at all. No confidence, but somehow feels entitled to people's support, you know? Yeah. And there's one thing about the whole Dura's Yeah, yeah. And there's one thing about like the whole duoross threat is they are painted as a threat, but it's never really established like what makes them so powerful and what makes them so bad, you know? Like, I guess they're like down to align the empire

with the Romulans, so that's bad for the Federation, but it's not inherently bad for the Klingons. If they showed them doing something that was really distasteful in Klingon terms to achieve this kind of power, I think that that would have been a really good little tweak to this script. I mean, I think it's a pretty good episode. We haven't got any. To me, they're only a threat because of the Romulans, right?

Like, because we've seen them torture people, we've seen them do all sorts of bad things. All you see the duress sisters do is show a lot of middle boob. Yeah, yeah, they, they, they, and that's not evil. No, we should do everything in our power to support that kind of behavior Did you think that that was make up on boob or did you think that that was like a a rubber part of the costume that was made to look like boob?

I already I like boob. I already, I have always assumed it was real boob. Real boob was makeup on it. And to think that at any point, it would not be real is like that shattering a part of my imagination. Yeah, you don't want to live in that universe. No. Yeah, I think, I think you're probably right. I mean, I think it looks, it looks real enough that it's probably real. But so Gauron sees this fucking kid roll up right as the coach about to put on his shoulders and he's like, someone please kill him. Like, like, he just sort of dismisses him with a, of his hand. But, I mean, Captain Picard is the arbiter.

Everyone else in the room being real political wanks. Like, they've got to actually go through the motions of hearing this out. They can't just drop the code on him. They got to do the blood test. They got to see if things are correct. So, they sort of adjourn the meeting to go take care of this. Right. There's a few little things that happen in here. I think this is probably about in the episode where Gynon crashes worst target practice party. Yeah, and this is a real weird scene because Gynon comes in and is like, oh, like

you're only on level 14, well, I can slum it for a while and they do target practice. And they have this conversation and it's like, it's a classic, guiding moment in that they're talking about something, and like she, she like has found worth at a time when he needs advice and is giving him advice, but it's not about anything that's happening in the episode. It's all about him being a father to Alexander, which is an interesting choice.

I think it's not TNG's way to talk about characters that aren't in episodes. They definitely don't talk about Kim Peck at all in this Because they would have had to like explain who Kim Peck is and what right because his role is and and like rehashing that would be inefficient but worst relationship with his son is I think they're basically setting the table for that in this scene because You know, we know that Alexander becomes kind of a regular player later in the series, but not in this episode at all. She does that form of counseling where she or you're blasting away at dots floating on the wall

showing your superior marksmanship? Like sometimes the first step in getting past away your feeling is to identify the way that you're feeling. And then she gets wharf to sort of cop to not feeling like other klingons. And then they start shooting dots again. It's a fun scene. And it's the scene that you sort of want out of Geinen all the time because it's so, like, it's so true to her brand, you know, she will crash your party. You almost never approach

her on her turf. She always finds you when you need her. Right. And sort of a magical way. Yeah, she's like LSD in that way. I was disappointed she didn't bring the bargain to target. I know I don't see what level two was. Yeah. It probably it's probably incompatible with that target range. You know, it would shoot right through the wall. Punching holes in the ship. Yeah. The bar gun. I think this is when Wharf kind of makes up his mind to go like sort his honor shit out. So he goes and sees Picard and asks for a leave of absence. Picard is very eager to give it to him and then Worffin goes and sees Kern who is his brother and he's basically come up with this idea that if he can if he can be a big help to Gauron when Gauron is in a tight spot amidst all of this drama

and intrigue, then Gauron will be kind of forced to reopen the Worfs Honor case. It's a weird assumption that in Klingon culture doing the whole enemy of my enemy is my friend Situation like that that would actually work Like these are people who stab each other in hallways for for perceived slights. Yeah Yeah, and I mean I Think that I I mean, I think that, I mean, it went like, I think, current support winds up being the linchpin for Gauron being able to make the stand that he makes.

Right. But yeah, like it's interesting. It's really interesting how much the idea of honor and politics come into conflict all the time for Gauron and basically everybody on the council. Because to be honorable is to be truthful and forthright and to stand on principle and to like stand up for your allies and all that stuff and like all the fucking people in the council do is work to serve themselves and to like advance their own interests ahead

of others and work for power. It's a weird thing that this would be the group of people that are in charge of the Klingons. And I think that that sort of becomes a theme for Warf across both of these episodes is like, like, Warf has worked his whole life to like make himself as Klingon as fuck, but it's this kind of like,

it's this kind of idealized version of what a Klingon is. And that's sort of what Gynon's calling him on too. Like, she's saying like, Kling's laugh all the time and you never laugh and and so like Worf kind of is shown to be alien in both the Klingon, he's outside both cultures. Yeah. Jokes. Yeah, I mean, even in Clang-On culture, you rarely get the political leader that you feel like you deserve. Yeah, yeah.

And the person who rises to the top of that pile is often the one who's willing to do the fucked up shit to get there. Absolutely. Do you feel like when you vote for Gauron, you're basically voting for big guys, like straight, straight big guys vote all the way down, Valet? Yeah. His campaign slogan is like squinting into the commercial break. Squinting squint into the future with Gaurah. So we sort of see also behind the curtain of what's going on with the Duraz sisters, right?

So the Duraz sisters and Klingon Jake are paling around. And backstage at the high council chambers, we've got a couple bread boxes back there too, paling around, paling around with the Romulans. Casa de Duras is rotten with Romulans. And I think that this was meant to be, like she's meant to be in full silhouette. And I think that the like higher dynamic range of HD kind of fucked this up. Yeah, I remember this too.

But you can definitely see that one of the Romulans too, who is also in the Manchurian Jordi candidate episode is none other than Rom Yarlin. Rom Yarlin. No, I heard you. It works on the page great. Okay. On the page it's bold and underlined. Yeah, it looks awesome.

Sent with fireworks. Yeah. Sent with heartbeat. They've really done their best to Red Box China Phillips here. Yeah, so yeah, as sexy as a bread box can possibly be. Yeah. But yeah, the so the duras sisters are unimpiguously in league with the Romulans like this is something that's always been, you know, a, a thing that's been implied,

and like we know that Durasa's father was the one that betrayed the Klingons, the Ramilans and the Kittamer attack, but this is the first time we've seen like, yep, Ramilans are trying to start a Klingon Civil War so that they can change the balance of power in the quadrant. And the reason, I mean, one of the reasons this is so fucked up is that like, so that they can change the balance of power in the quadrant. And the reason, I mean, one of the reasons this is so fucked up is that like in a cling

on civil war between House Durass and House Gauron, like you would imagine it would be fairly even on both sides, but if the Rhyme Islands are running arms behind enemy lines to House Durass, like the Gaur on people don't stand a chance. Right, yeah. So what it's shaping up to be as a real like Romulan, Soviet Union, Federation as NATO and and Klingon Empire as Vietnam type situation and we got to make sure we're back in the right horse. So Worf is basically totally preoccupied because he's on his leave of absence, not with preserving stability in the empire or anything, but with getting his honor squared away. So he's using the Enterprise computer banks to find some of the evidence that they used to prove that and and Picard catches him and is like

that's actually not cool dwarf like that's that's like secret Federation information and you're using it to change the political situation on your home world. That's kind of the opposite of the prime directive. And I thought this was an interesting conflict as well because we know that Picard believes that the first duty of every starfleet officer is to the truth, right? Are you talking about scientific truth? Yeah, or historical truth or moral truth. Okay.

Yeah. You take your pick of truth. Starfleet officers are supposed to be into it. Right. And Picard... They're polytruthists. Mm-hmm. And Picard wants, uh, wants worth to focus on the non-interference part of his Starfleet obligations. So, um, so just Picard think he's talking to. I mean, Wurf stuck a batlet through Duraz's chest like six episodes ago. Like yeah, like there's no more meddling than

Like nothing meddle is more than a batlet through the chest Yeah, and it's also weird because Picard started this episode by going like wolf. This is your big chance get your honor back, dude Which is in itself sort of an encouragement to metal, right? Yeah. I can see how wharf is confused. Yeah. I'm sure the computers on the Clean On Homeworld suck. They're like green screen pet computers.

You remember those from like elementary school, your first computer? Yeah, they've got like zork on them. first computer. Yeah, they've got, they've got like, Zork on them. Like the sound of the monitors on that bridge, like that high frequency screaming, oh, it's going to be terrible. Yeah, you don't notice it until you turn the computer off and then you're like, oh, boy, Jesus, what the fuck? Oh, my God, I was straining and I didn't even

realize, yeah, if you go sharpen a pencil, it makes all the monitors shake. Because it dirties up the power on that power line. Yeah, that's a dirty power over there on the clock. Mm-hmm. Yeah, a lot of pencil sharpening going on too, I'm sure. I am a cute disaball. You will assist us. I am a cute disaball. You are a fool.

So Picard decides to kind of cut the baby in half and make the information about the kid-amer incident public to everybody, and Morph is like, awesome. But that sort of closes that story, right? Like, they never come back to that being a thing, and I would think that that would be like big news. Like that's like the wiki leaks of Star Trek, right? Like shouldn't the Klingon Empire be shaken to its core by revelations that Klingon John Podesta makes a really sweet risotto recipe or whatever?

Well, I mean, just like in contemporary times, you choose what is important based on your values, on your values, right? And what you would like to see happen and certain factions of the, the Klingon politic believe that to be insignificant, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, they, they would much rather have a honorless child take power than somebody who has bad email security like House Galron. It seems more and more clear that a civil war is going to pop off any moment.

And Picard at this point is like, yeah, so war if I should probably recall you back to the enterprise because we get a back out of this thing and go back to Federation Space. We're not really in a position to insert ourselves into this. So why don't you come on back now and we'll back away. Grab the bottom of the helicopter as we lift it up off this embassy. Yeah.

And that's very much the climate. Yeah, and it's funny because Gauron has just been there like asking for Picard to like take his side in the impending war. And so like Gauron and War for both like walking out of the room and Warf is in this tight spot. And Gauron looks at him like, you're not gonna leave me hanging like this, are you dog? And Warf is like, all right, well, that's it. Then I resigned my commission, other Starfleet officer. And he takes off his badge and tosses it on the desk.

And it's like the big climactic moment in the episode. This scene features another moment of Riker watching tennis. Like, this has happened a few times this season, even where Riker is just in the middle of of a sometimes two shot, sometimes three shot where he's like he looks at Picard then he looks at Warth and then he looks at Picard and then he's like he doesn't betray any sort of feeling while he does it either which is an interesting amount of restraint on his part but this massive thing happens in front of him,

and he is the coolest guy in the room. And he's also like, whorf's best but, you know? Like it's surprising that he doesn't speak up more here, or like ever have a scene where he is talking things over with whorf, you know, what's whorf going through. And that further highlights something that I think is very strange about this episode, which is like basically nobody but Picard and Wharf

have anything to do in it. Right. Like, it's all click on shit. And like, I think data has like a line or two, Riger has a line or two. You don't see anything from Jordy, Troy, the doctor, like, like none of the rest of the cast has any involvement really. I don't think that serves the story very well at all. I mean, the gravity of this moment could be

so much larger if it looks like it hurts Riker. Like, if the idea looks like it's going to be a massive, emotional trap door for a bunch of people, but not even Picard is in a position to emote anything at this point. He just sort of takes it like a boss who's had an employee quit. Yeah, I mean, maybe Riker's so upset by it that that's all he can do. But yeah, I mean, maybe Riker's so upset by it that that's all he can do but yeah like I mean

I also think that like Like the the point of in this in this era of television history the point of a big cliffhanger final episode is Make him want to come back next season and it's like it's like a different show, you know to come back next season. And it's like a different show, you know? This show has never been about make them want to watch another episode even. Well anyways, the war starts up and it's looking like Gauron is about to go down in the first battle. They managed to take out one of the two the first battle. They managed to take out one of the two Durace ships that are coming to attack as cruiser, but the other one is just about to put them out of their misery when Kern and his crew show up and scare him away. So Durace, the Durace sisters have their army and gauron and wharf and kern have their army and they have the fight that everybody's been spoiling for. Gauron was talking a lot of shit about not having much interest in giving wharf his honor back.

And like the second wharf saves Gauron's bacon once. Gauron's like, here, shake hands with this knife. You got it. You got your honor. It's yours, buddy. Like Gauron is cheap at the end of the day. Yeah, it's true. Shaking hands with a knife, man.

Yeah. That does not, I mean, anyone who's ever sliced their hand will tell you, that's gonna take a long time to heal. Yeah, skin does not I mean anyone who's ever sliced their hand will tell you It's gonna take a long time to heal. Yeah, skins always moving doesn't heal quickly and Really bad hand injury continuity also because for the rest of this episode and the backhand of the cliffhanger like His hands work and just fine. Yeah, that's true. It's not wrapped up at all. Yeah. Well, do you wanna talk about this big,

surprising final scene? So at the very end of the episode, House Durass is feeling pretty great about their chances. They're talking backstage about what's gonna happen next. We know that they're sort of, their military power is a lot of military power, is pretty far ahead of what Gauron is able to muster at the moment. Yeah, and with the convoys coming in, they're sort of toasting the idea that the enterprises

left the scene and that they're going to be left to Clean up this mess that they've created and install the leadership that they've always wanted. Yep, and out from the shadows comes comes Rimell and Tasha Yar Who is like look These these humans you may underestimate them because you think you think this Picard guy is gonna leave But I'm gonna tell you one thing humans pop up when you may underestimate them because you think this Picard guy is going to leave, but I'm going to tell you one thing. Humans pop up when you least expect them. And then we get the dun dun dun. It's like the way Tolkien would describe a habit.

Well, yeah, I mean, not the least of reasons is because Tasha Yars is looking very elvish. She sure is, yeah. She's got the the, she's got the Romulan haircut, but she's the one Romulan that's blonde. Right. I rewatched this scene over and over again when I was a kid and they don't show you the ears. Oh really? Yeah.

And that was a real head scratcher going into that summer. Like is she or isn't she? Yeah. And that was a real head scratcher going into that summer. Like, is she or isn't she? Yeah. Yeah, I wonder if they wanted to leave their options open. Yeah, I mean, right through the summer. She has nowhere near as much loaf as the other Romulans. I don't think she has any forehead loaf at all, right?

Well, she covers it up with bangs, which is a great way to cover up anything you got on your forehead that does not look in cosmetically tight. Yeah, I've tended to grow my hair a little longer when my acne flares up. Yeah, I think most of our viewers know up. So yeah, yeah. I think most of our viewers know what that's like, Ben. Well, that just about wraps it up for redemption. Part one. Did you like this episode, Adam?

I'm going to reserve whether or not I like it because I think it all depends on part two with how strong part one is. It's just a tee up for what's to come. There's not a lot of there there in this story. Like things happen, but... A lot of table gets set. Yeah, even in Best of Both World's Part One, a lot happens. And far less happens in this first of two

partners. Yeah, I was I was noting when I when I was like setting up our our little show notes here that like the plot descriptions of part one and two that I copy-pasted from Wikipedia are like, like part one and two has as much plot description as an average single episode of the show. Yeah, because it's very scenic instead of Plotty, right? Yeah, I mean, it's weird. It's an episode that sets a lot of table, but also just like completely baffles me in a lot of ways. Like, they're always beaming up and beaming down to the planet while war is brewing overhead.

And it's like, how free are people to just travel around this highly-contended planet? around this highly-contended planet. Like, and is it cool for Picard to just kind of like, buy himself, go visit the Dorasisters. Like, shouldn't he take like a Dustbuster Club with him if he's gonna go do that? There's so many things that I'm just like, the fuck is going on? They really dangle a lot out there, don't they?

They dangle the flagship out there near the Klingon home world. They dangle Picard and Wharf on the planet surface all the time. They're really willing to stick their dicks into a pencil sharpener like multiple times this episode. The screen shake. Yeah. In a way that typically you'd get Riker going like like, playing a little defense with the strategy here.

And he's so absent that you don't even get a scene like that. Yeah. If you're a cast member and you see the script to the season finale of season four, the most important season that you've had. And you see every cast member gets a single line of dialogue except for Patrick Stewart and Michael Dorn. Like, are you a little disappointed? Are you a little insulted? What's up with that?

I don't think the doctor, a Troy or a Jordi said anything. I mean, there's a scene where they walk, wharf off of the ship, passed sort of a parade, like everyone's a parade rest down this corridor to the transport room and the parade ends in the transport room with the senior staff. And you see Beverly and Troy in there, I don't think you see, oh and Jordy, we never see them in the rest of the episode and I don't think they have any lines. I watch that scene over again because I was like, did we even see Gates McFadden's face? Is it possible that they just put somebody else in that wig?

Yeah, we do see her face, but it might as well have just been shot from the back and a stand in wearing that beautiful, beautiful wig. Yeah. It's very strange. I like the episode though. It's fun to take I like the episode though. It's fun to take a break from Federation politics and splash around in Klingon politics

for a while. Yeah. I agree with you there for sure. And I do think that it has set up the table for an interesting next episode. Someone has set us up the table for an interesting next episode. Someone has set us up the table. Yeah. All your cronos are belong to us. I mean, getting back to that whole summer break thing,

you can't help but be a little bit crestfallen that this is the cliffhanger, right? It's a very shallow cliff. This is a survivable cliff to fall off of right Like it would suck for worth to be off the show Which is sort of implied is what's gonna happen. Yeah, but We'll live it's not it's not Picard becoming the enemy. No, a raker is not like fondling a pistol and Whether or not to fire it. Yeah

Do you want to do an ad Ben? Let's make some money Priority one message from star fleet coming in on secured channel Supplement Supplement Extra the interest alone could be enough to buy this ship! Adam, we have a couple of priority one messages here. First one is from Richard Dodson

and it's to Ben Conner. Sound familiar? I love those guys. Our old buddy, Richard Dodson. Yeah. Dick Dodson. Here's how it reads. Thanks, Ben.

It was awesome seeing a pod response. How do you think they'll read this? Kevin Pecosby edition of this old entrepreneur? By the way, Transparent Illuminum is a great ad to the inside joke about soundproof drywall. Ha ha ha. Adam and Benjamin would probably dig the joke too, but the 350 character limit is preventing

me from properly explaining it. What's great about this message is that Richard Datsen understands how important it is to explain a joke. Like, he's just not going to tell the joke, he knows it's crucial to explain it. They said the frog. I said the frog. I mean it's the greatest gen way. I feel like that's what we should have done to our tour t-shirts is like a few people

actually got what we were doing with that. And that maybe at the bottom of that we just should have done these are the names of the engineers. It would have been on brand. Yeah. Thanks Richard for continuing to send these. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha to people. It's the most expensive way of carrying on a two-way conversation and the least private. Happy to help. Our second priority one message is from Tim. And it is for Tom, parenthetically, my favorite gay nerd.

Do you know gay nerds love Star Trek? I think I do now. I had my suspicions. Message goes like this. Tom, thank you for turning me on to this great podcast, which has been a wonderful diversion while I've been recovering

from having my own artificial heart surgery. Whoa, even though I wasn't quite stabbed by a Nosykin. Hahaha. To Ben and Adam, how about Voyager next? Hair jokes alone seem worth it. Ooh. Oh Tim. There's some...

I see your point. There's some definitely... goofable hair. I think that Voyager, perhaps more than Deep Space 9... has the... has the examples of 90s hair that the 90s haircast would really be able to sink its teeth into. But then again, that also would be like signing ourselves up for 3,5 more years of this.

I keep going back and forth about that level of commitment bin. Well, people will find out one way or the other. Thank you Tim for sending that message. If you'd like to send a message, you can go to MaximumFun.org slash JemboTron to 100 bucks for a personal message, and 200 for a commercial message. People love sending messages, so why don't you do it? I imagine, uh, Tim is like recovering in a in a hospital room from his heart surgery and his

doctor walks in. Over here is some listening to this stupid fucking podcast. He's like, it's like Tim, you you wanted to live for this. I gave you this artificial heart for this. What a waste. Oh. He's not wrong. Yeah. Glad you're still around, Tim. That's kind of the kind of bedside manner that a doctor Polaski would have right yeah like if it's

Polaski caught Picard listening to the greatest generation She would never never have let him live that down You know like a guy who goes to a place where smoking isn't allowed so he dangles his arm outside the door to keep the cigarette lit Yeah, that's Dr. Polaski with a drink like Like doing an examination, but the high ball glasses outside the door. You hear the clinking ice. Yeah, Jordy walks by outside and makes eye contact with him and he's like, alright. A Greatest Gen Live Show is something you don't want to miss. Why?

Well it's a great opportunity to see me and Ben in person, but that's not all. FODs from all over gather at these shows to cosplay, to do pre and post show hangs, to make friends, and share their embarrassment. Hey, let's make a pretty great name for a tour. Let's do it. The Sherry Reembarishment Tour is coming in August 2023, and we've got a bunch of dates in a lot of great places. Go to GreatestGenTour.com to get more info.

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

Be dumb instead. Whoa, rice. Hey, hey, hey, oh, I'm about to count you in mine. These clouds are really freaking me out.'m about to count you in line. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line and boy, what do I? These giraffes do not smell good. No, they do not, and they've such short nacks.

But I'm hearing me need to get on this. So I've got to get on the arc. Yeah. It is 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 two by two.

What do you think? Ono Ross and Carrie, available on MaximumFun.org. Drunk Samota, of course, is our award that we give the character that is most memorable for whatever ridiculous arpeggio reason we select in an episode. My Drunk Samota was Toral, the Klingon Jake, for almost missing his window to stop Gauron from becoming Chancellor. He shows up late to the installation ceremony. Like the cloak is inches from Gauron's shoulder when he like runs in.

And I just would love to see the like montage of him getting out of bed and like realizing that he hit the snooze button one too many times. It's like a total back to the future open. Yeah. Like, Teral is like sleeping all folded up. Yeah. And his maroon vest.

Mm-hmm. His maroon life preserver. I would love to see the like scene where he's like racing through the hallways, like Ferris Bueller like, you know, running through backyards, walked back to say hi to the Duraz sisters as their son bathing and their bikinis, and then keeps running.

I would love to see him come around a hallway corner at like almost skid out, and then keep running. There's so much I wanted to see there. I feel like if they'd cut the scene with Geinen talking to Worf about Alexander, they would've had time for that. Yeah. I mean, not that I want to cut a Geinen scene,

but like, didn't try and store it. Don't you dare cut a Geinen scene. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Did you have a drunk Shemota Adam? I did and I do. I'm giving my Shoda to every scene that Picard chooses to speak Klingon. And the reason is, it's like going to a Mexican restaurant with your parents and your mom orders the chimichanga, like every time Picard says Keplah to war for any other Klingon,

they don't respond in Klingon. And I think that's very telling. It's because they are embarrassed for Picard having made the attempt to speak Klingon. Like, yeah. And Picard doesn't get the hint. He keeps speaking Klingon to people and they keep speaking English back at him.

They're like, they're trying to get him off the hook for the language barrier. And Picard just keeps soldiering through. Yeah. Yeah. I think they're a bearist for him. And I think Picard should stop doing it. Yeah, it's like, it's one of those things

where you don't know if it's going to be culturally, you know, if it's like a compliment that you are trying to communicate with them in their language or a little condescending that yeah, you want to use your worst version of their language, then they're as good as yours version of your language. Yeah. Yeah, there's, you know. That's the feeling, it's the wincing condescension that I feel every time I see a scene like that. Well, the one character that doesn't win is Worf.

Worf gives him like full warfies when he says Kaplot to him. So I think that just brightens up the line around how weird Worf is as a Klingon. Are we sure Warfies counts as approval? I think there's warfies for all sorts of reasons. I think in this case it's definitely approval at him. Fair enough. Ben, what do we have coming up on the next episode? Is it part two to this cliffhanger? That would be my guess. The next episode is season five, episode one, redemption part two. And this is the first episode where the veto power is back in the on configuration for both of us. And here is the-

Vitos are armed. Vitos are armed and dangerous. The card risks all out war with the Romulans when he involves Starfleet in a Klingon Civil War. Do you remember this episode, Adam? Again, as much as I remember any other Klingon storyline episode, this is the episode where we get a lot more of Romulan Tasha, though.

This is the payoff to the big reveal, the literal reveal. Yeah. Last episode we were talking about redemption part one, and I was like pretty sure that that was the episode where data gets to be capped in for a little while. Yeah. And like after this, I'm not positive that that's this one. Maybe it's like another, you know, like, like, is it all just going to be more clinging on shit, or are they going gonna get the other characters involved now?

I feel like you go into summer break as an actor having not done anything on part one. I think you've got to assume that you've got nothing to do in part two also. Yeah, you just show up fat and out of shape and with the wrong haircut. Yeah, they just got a mustache when he comes back. Like showing up for training camp out of shape.

That's what they do. Fun. Sort of protest fat. Yeah, this is my strike beard. Well, would you veto this one, Adam? As a matter of principle, I think I would like to watch both sides of a two-parter. Yeah, I think I'm right there with you, so we shall watch it. Oh, what a relief.

I'm looking forward to it. Adam, you know what? Relieves me every time I look at it is... I don't want to know what relieves you Penn That's talking about relieving myself. I'm talking about other people relieving me That's even worse How many people relieve you, Ben? Well, they like hundreds literally it relieved me every month by going to maximumfund.org leave me every month by going to Maximumfund.org slash Donate and choosing to become sustaining members Maximumfund.org and selecting the greatest generation as one of the shows that they are pledging

to support. It's money that really comes in handy when it comes to the justifying all of this time wasting to our wives' conversations. And we really appreciate the fact that people find enough value in this to put a couple of duckets toward it. We've also inherited quite a community as a result of this show. People talk about the show. And tell even better jokes than ours. Twitter using the hashtag

GreatestGen, we're also on Facebook in a couple places and reddit at our slash GreatestGen. Yeah, we should thank Dark Materia for our theme music and great Adam Rigusia for our priority one music and several other songs they hear from time to time on the show and with that we will be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek the next generation and an all-out episode of the greatest generation. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound.

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