The Greatest Generation - Measure Twice, See if You’re Cut Once (DS9 S4E22)

Episode Date: July 22, 2019

After the station’s pylon gets cut right off, the crew will have to team up with some extremely unlikely allies to hoo ride on the Jem’Hadar responsible. But as the mission progresses, the alliance only serves to highlight divisions between the Federation and the Dominion. Does Worf subscribe to a three day rule for missions on the Little D? Is Weyoun a jealous boyfriend to Omet’iklan? Why does O’Brien have boobs in his final letter to Keiko? It’s the episode where we get obsessed with straw-ripping. Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Prophets! Support the production of The Greatest Generation.

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

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

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

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

and season two of Star Trek Picard. We've set up a page where you can also contribute. It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdececoto for Labor.com. That's FriendsOfDecoto for Labor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Here's to the greatest generation. Deep Space Nine, a Star Trek podcast. A couple of guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast.

I'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pranica. How you doing, Adam? A little cranky today. I'm trying to figure out why I'm doing that thing that goes like, have I had enough water? I've had some water. You're going down the crankiness checklist? Yeah.

Did I have a good night's sleep? I think I had a good night's sleep. Enough protein in your diet? Yeah, just had lunch. I don't know what it is. You know what I realized, Ben? Was it? I had not yet done a Star Trek podcast with you. I don't know what it is. You know what I realized, Ben? Is it?

I had not yet done a Star Trek podcast with you. Oh man, the next thing I was gonna think was maybe you were like a little late for your Ketrasel white. Yeah, that's not me. I'm clean. Oh shit. You're a straight-edge Star Trek podcaster? Yeah.

Well, I mean, not really. I've got a- I've got the crazy straw going right into my neck. Geez. Tiki drinking on one end and neck on the other. Yeah. Not gonna lie, I do have a Cremdubanand-based cocktail in my hand today. I have not heard that name of a lacour in a very long time.

Yeah. Cremdubanand was like one of the beloved repeat guests on my cocktail podcast. Let's drink about it. No, that was Cremdabinan as one of the reasons that we're friends. That's what I think. Yeah, I think it is too.

I discovered a twist on a my tie that uses cremde bnan as one of the sweet elements of it. It's called a banana hammock. I really like it. That's a pretty good name. I was going to guess my bnan. As in, get your hands off my bnan. That's my bnan.

You can invent a cocktail and call it that. I would encourage you to do so. That would require me going and getting a bottle of crim to banan. And I haven't had one of those in the house in a very long time. Yeah, probably not since I left one there for a long time, right? And then I took that thing to the dome as I remember. That's how I finished it. Pretty rough. That's, I mean, to me, that's how you show respect to Big Benan. Yeah. Is you, you tip it up. Well, there are. That was a bottle of the like, of the kind of Krem to Benan that comes in a plastic bottle.

Uh-huh. And that was a, a neon color scheme. Like, I mean, we're going to relate this back to Star Trek. One of the things that is crazy about Star Trek is the colors of beverages are often incredibly synthetic looking. I think that these people that live in a paradise would not put up with these super fake looking drinks. I come down on the other side of this. I feel like if you are in that kind of universe with the abilities to make things look beautiful, wouldn't you, wouldn't you press harder to make the things that you eat and drink as beautiful as possible?

I just, I don't think that they're beautiful. I don't, I don't think I've seen a single drink on Star Trek that was really aesthetically pleasing. Oh, I think the standard of beauty is done changed. Yeah, it's probably what it is. I think I'm all about that natural beauty in a cocktail. That drink looks great without makeup. So yeah, but the cream to banana used is the fancy stuff, the banana-dubre seal, which

tastes like bananas foster, not like laffytaffy banana flavor. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't even know. I think all I've ever had is laffytaffy banana. Oh, man, you gotta come over. I really do, huh? You gotta get down here so we can thrash this millennium falcon. That's what you gotta do. I was just talking about that project with our DP last night.

Yeah. Who asked about it? And I said, here's what I told him. He asked where we were on that. And I said, well, for a a while we were at the script phase and now I think where we've thrown that out and instead are just into a more of a technical short film. We need someone in the greater Los Angeles area who has a drained pool in which to do the experiment in. I think that's the... When I think about the location we need to do this project,

that's the only idea I have. We need a drained pool. It's got to catch all the pieces. It's got to catch all the pieces, except for... The problem is we've introduced glass to the equation and nobody likes glass and pools being combined. I know. I know. Should we disintroduce the glass?

I don't know. My primary association with this is the time in high school. I was like at some kids house party that I probably wasn't technically invited to, but I was there and walked past their parents' hot tub where a bunch of kids were in the hot tub. And I, my shoe grazed a bong that was on the, on the pool deck and knocked it over, shattered, shattered the bong and dumped all the

bong water into the hot tub with a bunch of, you know, kids that were far cooler than me and now had a reason to hate my rotten guts. I, you know, at the same time, and I think you understand their hate. Oh yeah, no, they were right. They were hot. Bong water is probably the worst thing I can imagine. and their hate. And that exact moment. No, they were right. They were hot. They were hot. It's probably the worst thing I can imagine. They were cooler than me,

and I was a bad person that night. Were you carrying like two two liter bottles of chew spit and like fell into the hot tub along with them? Yeah, I had a two liter of chew spit in one hand and a flaming paper bag full of dog poo in the other hand. Yeah. He flipped ass over teacaddle, went into the hot tub, and then just started violently throwing up.

And pacing. Yeah. You're not going to make many friends like that, then. You know what, man? We just rent a studio. There's going to be, there's gonna be some studio that has an open floor and we can, and we can just, you know,

take reasonable precautions to keep the pieces together. All right. All right. The pool has gotta be taken out of the equation because it's a dime holding up a dollar. Well, I mean, one way the pool works, and then I'm totally up for turning my back on the pool idea, is if this is a pool that has been drained and ahead of its own decommissioning, like, if this is a pool that's going to be redone or filled with dirt or whatever, like that would be a pretty great situation.

Then we can do what we will in the pool or like a skate park, like a skate park bowl, wouldn't that work? That kind of pool. And then we sweep out the pieces and then we're good to go. How about this? For less than $300 on Amazon, you can get a 15- foot diameter above ground pool. That's not too costly given what we're into this project for. That's less than the fucking Lego kit.

And less than what we're paying the DP. I really tried to get his number down last night over. Yeah. Over an evening of Dacaries. Yeah, what is what is this going to cost us? I'm hopeful that it's not much. He doesn't know that though. Wow, the I'm really excited for what happens to my online shopping algorithm. Now that I've put above ground pool into the search bar on Amazon. You can't control forces outside your ability, Ben.

And that's really, I think, what this episode is about today, as we discuss Deep Space 9 season 4 episode 22 to the death. And it's another Lavaer Burton episode, Ben. Yeah, I noticed that. He's been getting a lot of work. Of course you've done. The little D has been harassing brine pirates around some... some bajoraian planet. Did you get the sense that they were in the G quad here?

I did. This is one of those. I think they ever come out and say it, but. Yeah. But we know that the pejorians have done some colonizing on the other side. Yeah. This is one of those opens that makes me want

to watch that episode. Like driving away, brain privateers. Yeah. I wanna see brain ships. I wanna see them driven away. The little D is in perfect shape. So maybe it wasn't that interesting of a dilemma. Right.

They just went and showed the flag and the brains all shit themselves in the way. Yeah, and the tone in the mess all seems to be pretty positive also, which we'd indicate that wasn't a big deal to them. I wouldn't sit there if I were you. Why? I'll spill something again. It is really business as usual.

Like, we're just having lunch, no big, no big whoop. Do you think Worf hates everyone moving in to his basically his quarters when they go out on missions? Yeah, do you think he's got like the three day rule for missions on the little day, like, okay, you guys can come over and fly the ship around, but you got either check into a hotel or you find something else to do after the third night.

I mean, that's what you or I would do. As evangelists of the three-day rule, absolutely. As missing throats that nonetheless have to live in society, like Wharf. Yeah, I mean, they make a little bit of this in this scene in that, you know, Bashir's sitting in Wharf's seat, what's he going to do? But like, I think this was an opportunity to talk a little bit more about how weird it

must be for Warf, that all of a sudden, from time to time, his apartment is full of people. Yeah. And in a fighting a pirate. Yeah. Ha ha ha. Warfsits down with his prune juice in the seat that Bashir has vacated. And with almost comedic timing, Cisco hits the red alert and orders the senior staff to the bridge.

And that's really when my confusion about the timing of this meal took a firm grip because they just got back to the station. Like this is not when the in-flight meal service starts. This is when they start stowing the carts and making sure everybody's seat back isn't an upright position. Right. This is a tray tables up period of time. I mean, in a perfect world, everybody's seat back would be in an upright position for the entire flight, but some people can't experience freedom without abusing it. I mean, in a perfect world, everybody's seatback would be in an upright position for the entire flight, but some people can't experience freedom

without abusing it. You know, I think I just realized why Warf is so upset. He's seeing everyone eat in the mess hall, and he knows they're gonna be back at DS9 in moments. He's gonna have to clean up all their shit. Like at the end of a party when everyone leaves, he's gonna take out all the garbage. You're sure there's nothing we can do?

On the bridge they look through the view screen and see that Deep Space 9 has had a pylon amputated and it's floating in space along with a bunch of other pieces of debris and inside it's not any better because it's girders and bodies all the way down. That's not good, because it's girders and bodies all the way down. That's not good. We got to replace that post. They have been attacked by the gem hadar. I really thought that this sequence was great. They really did a great job of establishing the fear and chaos of the immediate aftermath of a situation like this. You know, there's smoke everywhere and pipe stangling out of the ceilings, people running around in the background.

Like they threw as many extras at this scene as you need. Right. And that's like security people running back and forth, maintenance people running back and forth, people with hamburger all over them, lying against the bulkheads and we get to see like the doctor to leap into action. Kira's sustained a pretty gnarly looking arm injury and has nonetheless running the show

and giving updates to Cisco and DAX. Was it Jim, or our strike team? They beamed aboard from a civilian transport, disabled communications and weapons, set off an explosive device and upper pylon three. I thought it was interesting that Odo, like, you got to catch things like this, Odo. Right. It doesn't sound like they could have done much because the raid happened so suddenly

and because these are gem-hidar, you know, they sort of uncloak themselves and run around the station. And what they did is they stole a bunch of shit while they were over there. They basically slashed burned and stole and then left. And it was all over fairly quickly. Odo was in a Keko's classroom holding an upside down copy of the pet goat while all this was happening.

Mm. My pet goat. Isn't it the pet goat? I don't this was happening. Mm. My pet goat. Isn't it the pet goat? I don't think it is. Whatever. As a collector of 9-11 trivia. Ha, ha, ha. I could never forget that I just hope somebody tells me

I'm wrong on the internet. Oh. I love this pivot because it's like, DS9's been fucked up. Let's take the fight back to them. And they basically like back the car right out of the garage. We're gonna go fucking who ride on those motherfuckers. I need you help.

I can't tell you what it is. You can never ask me about it later and we're gonna hurt some people. Who's God we're gonna take? It's great. Yeah, and the idea is that there's like an ion trail that the ship would have left. And it's fresh enough that they can go,

that they can actually go track them. So they head right back out and they are spoiling for full-blown combat with this kind of terroristically oriented cell of gem hadars. Warf stops off at quarks before leaving and quark is like, what are you going to do if you find one of those ticks? And then you got this funny look on his face. He put down his prune juice, look at me right in the eye and then he said, I hope I do. But they do find a damaged tick.

And it looks like it's got one of his legs ripped off. Yeah, and even with one of its legs ripped off, it's still over 76% combat effective. Still very disgusting. It's not the ship that they're looking for because they were led to believe that the gem hadars that did the crime were kind of they were using like civilian looking craft and this is all very interesting that they would find a an actual gem hadar worship that's damaged like this.

It's about to go critical too so they got to rescue its crew. This goes super true to himself here as someone who misplaces his trust. Fresh off of the Eddington debacle, he's like, well if there are gem hadar survivors, the only thing that we can do is beam them aboard the little D. And so he does, and he rings the transporter pad with security people in a revolutionary war stance. Transporter protocol five. Front line on one knee and then back line standing up. Yeah, they're going for the volley fire technique. Yeah. And so they beam these gem hadara board and a tiny voice from behind speaks for the group and it's a it's way in then. I really like how the

gem had our beam aboard with rifle hands except for they don't have rifles. They're doing pantomime rifle hand. Even without weapons, we're more than a match for you. And Wei Yun's of Vorda, and we recognize people like him. They're sort of like of the three tiers. It goes gem-hadar Vorda founder. Right. What we're talking about, the Dominion hierarchy. Yeah, more of a diplomat than a gem-hadar could ever be, but, you know, kind of an operator,

kind of a con artist. The gem-hidar are like fruits and vegetables. The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, would be the founders, which I guess makes sense because they look like fats and oils.

Right. And unfortunately, the dominion pyramid was done with mainly industry assistance. Right. It doesn't actually have anything to do with the way you should set up your own society. The way you want your quadrant is going to be a little different if you do so independently. Well, and all the subsidies in the farm bill lead there to be a glut of jambadar, which really are kind of like the last thing that you should be considering eating if you can avoid it.

Yeah. Go to Kotlin. Go to Kotlin. So. To enjoy this episode, I think you really need to ignore the choices the Captain Cisco makes early on. to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut to cut Absolutely ruler. Well, that's an interesting description that wayune gives him because he sort of is President of the Federation at deep space nine in that area of the quadrant, right? And that's my main problem with him being alone with wayune is like the the threat of assassination would be Pretty deeply fell if he were to take a shot here

And it seems pretty easy to do. Well, you know, it doesn't seem like the assassinate and type though. Now he's playing 10 steps ahead. Yeah, I mean, what he would like to suggest is that they work together because what has happened is the terrorist gem hadar that blew up the station and stole all the stuff, have discovered, or have actually taken over an iconian gateway. And this is a throwback to a TNG episode. A problem has been launched from iconia. I'm going to capture it. No sir wait! This goes way back. Way way back. A star empire that existed long, long ago, and the way that

Iconians got around was not via starship, but via these gateways that they would put on different planets. And the concern that way you can has is that some gem hadar that have no loyalty to the dominion have taken over this gateway and are trying to kind of reboot it and If they do like nothing like nobody will be able to stop These like bad bad gem hadars that have no oversight from just taking over everything that they can get to via this gateway This is our concern dude and it's here that they mutually agree that this gateway needs to be destroyed and they need to work together to do it.

This gateway here and now being on Vandros 4. So they head out. And I guess come up with the plan to destroy it in route, which is great, right? Yeah, the planning is mostly done between wayune and the federations on board. Like it's, a lot is made of like don't tell the gem-hadas that we're with about this gateway because they might love the idea of having the gateway too. And so it makes that a that like an interesting information

imbalance between the star fleets and the gemhood are. It feels like every time the gem of our underestimated, they make you look foolish for doing so though, you know? Like they're treated like these third class citizens by everyone and like Velasa Raptors in Jurassic Park, like they always escape, they always kill, they always know more than they betray, you know? Have a girl. Yeah, I was really surprised to hear the description of them like having this

technical project underway of like stealing a bunch of complicated sounding equipment so that they could plug it into the gateway and see if they could get it working again. When you put a bunch of gem-hidar next to an iconian gateway, you can tell they're trying to figure it out. Yeah. There's also a bunch of the classic gem-hidar kind of like really eager to measure their dicks against whorfs. I think we've seen before like- You're gonna need to if you wanna do that.

The warrior curiosity. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, or they could just kind of like slotted in between his two. You know what, your measurements probably more accurate. It's a real measure twice. See if you cut once situation

That's how my father always did it Now when you measure in penises against another warrior race You're gonna want to measure from the base and by that I mean the base of your testicles We're gonna snap a chalk line to make sure our measurement is straight. Hahaha. Hahaha. Hahaha. My face.

Hahaha. But Wurf has like kind of an interesting role here because he's a TNG guy. I was on the mission that discovered the iconic in a home world. So he can talk about like what it was like when they first found iconiconian ruins in the episode that established the existence

of this phenomenon. And he's also like really against concealing the nature of the mission from the gem hadar. Right. It is not honorable. Which I can totally get with. This is, I mean, I love that sensibility. Yeah.

O'Brien doesn't give a shit. No, he doesn't. O'Brien's primary concern is that they might have like a get-to-know-you-buffet later. And he hates that. Reson the record is having, has having never become an officer because he hates that. He's on the record as having never become an officer because he hates that. This is a wharf episode that really reminds me of wharf episodes deep in the past of TNG

where he would often be the guy that other people tried to rile up. Yeah. And that is what the gem had our do throughout this episode. Let's try to get his goat. Get his goat. He's like the get his goat. Get his two goats. He's like the big guy at the bar that all the college boys are trying to pick fights with,

because they're hormonal and drunk. Right. They can't just roll up and orbitally bombard the Vandros planet, because the love is incredibly deep. I'll be with you, my love. And their quantum torpedoes would not be able to both destroy the Ziggurat base that houses the Iconian gate and destroy everything and everyone there. Like they just don't have the firepower to do it, so they gotta go in and beam down and do this personally.

It's the only way to be sure. Fuckin' hey. They are not sending them in with cameras. They're gonna be more than just taking pictures. They use the euphemism supply cache every time they talk about the gateway in the presence of the gem hadar. Yeah. And they start to have like joint meetings where they're discussing, you know, what, what they're up against.

And one of the, I think that the number one Gem Hedar guy says that like they're, they're up against a force of like 150 guys, which is pretty intense. That is more than they had in the mess hall earlier. Oh man! Omitiklán, the number one guy there, is played by Clarence Williams III, who is a great working actor. He was in Lee Daniels the Butler. Oh yeah!

He was like the Jamaican drug dealer and half-baked. Wow! Remember that guy. Yes What part of Jamaica? right near the beach He was that guy. Wow. What a great that guy. Lava. But he said he always wanted to work with him and was like What are you doing? Do you want to be on Star Trek? And he just made it happen. That's red

Yeah, and then he's and like happen? That's red. Yeah. And then he's like after our five eventually this guy has to say like, okay you guys, you guys are going to have a pretty major commando assault on your hands, so why don't we not fight for now and save it for later? Smash cut to worth beating the shit out of a GM Hedar in the hallway on the defiant. This scene really surprised me because seeing this guy in the hallway armed surprised me. Yeah, this is great, like narrative slight of hand.

I think it was a commercial break that they go to, and then you come back and you see a gem hadar with a rifle in the hallway and morph kicking his ass and then dax o'Brien and morph like running into the engineering section of the little d killing more gem hadar and I think at this point you realize this is an exercise there training but you know they can't find the the third guy they want to kill and the lights eventually go up and ometta clon and wayun and and and sisco are up on the second level going like you're all dead this did not go well. You and and there is like a there's kind of like a difference in in the fundamental combat ethos of the gem hadar

and the federation. Right. The gem hadar like, so you set the explosives and if you can't confirm that you've cleared the room of anybody that could potentially turn the explosives off, you just sit around and babysit them until they go off and, you know, Dax and a bryner like, uh, question. What if we don't want to get

blown to smithereens and ometiclons like, you don't what? I mean, this is part of the problem with having to conceal the true nature of the mission from people in that Bensisco knows and Omeda Klon knows that to allow the gateway to fall into the hands of the wrong people would mean like everyone loses everything forever. And for either side of the away team to not consider death to be on the line for the sake of the mission. Yeah. Is that's not what you want to do when the stakes are this high. Right. I mean, the stakes are super high, but I think part of the issue is that a Medicline knows more than why you and Cisco realize. Yeah, they get on that they get on that

Turbo lift and a medic line is like yeah, I know about the gateway duh. Yeah And and that does kind of like change the math on everything cuz like I think that Cisco up until this point It's probably considering the gem had our to be as expendable as possible like hopefully like a lot of them die on this mission so that I don't have to deal with having them on my ship ever again. Right. It's less irritating to dull out the milk from time to time. Milk was a bad choice. There is like a strategic advantage here, right? That, like, if there can be a joint federation dominion operation, maybe there is, that forms a toehold that a piece can be built off of.

Right. It's kind of a long shot, obviously, because the dominion are like an expansionist imperialist power and the federation are more of like a, invite them in kind of a deal. Sure. But, you know, it'd be good if they could at least have a diplomatic relationship. Right.

And this scene in the turbo lift is fairly crucial because once the playing field has been leveled for those at the top? Like one would assume that the true stakes of the matter are disseminated to everyone. Right. But like, Omediclan is like super loyal in a way that the gem hadar that have taken the gateway are not. So like the math is not, you know, like wayun was worried about him finding out about it because he's like, oh, if he finds out that the Gem Harada could just be like an independent takeover force for the whole galaxy. Right.

Why does he need me? And it turns out that that is not the way this guy is thinking about the situation at all. But the fact is, we're more loyal to the founders than the voter ever will be. It's hard for me to figure out the gem-hidar's allegiances, because it seems to me that it is more that they feel things very deeply and quickly. Yeah. Then it is they feel a greater allegiance

to the founders than anyone else could possibly do. Like if the gem-h had are on the planet surface, had at one time felt the same way about the founders and they changed their minds, like wouldn't this be a possibility for every gem had are? I think that this episode actually deals with that in an interesting and subtle way, which is, I think the previous time

we've seen a lot of Ketrasil white business taking place, it was like they were like withdrawing and then finally getting their hands on some white and you know suddenly like feeling okay. These are gem-hidden art that are accustomed to a steady supply of it because they are super loyal. And whenever we see them talking about going into combat or especially about when we see them having their Ketrocell white, it does not feel like junkies slamming heroin. It feels like members of a religious cult performing a sacrament. And I think that that goes a long way to satisfying that issue is they are true believers.

Like the white is a system of control, but they also are true believers on top of that. How long are we gonna have to wait before we see a fight scene where the strong gets ripped out of someone's neck and then squirts the guy in the face. Do you think we're gonna see that within the next season?

That would be the first thing I would grab for you know? That's what I'm saying. Like Bobby Hill saying. That's my purse! I don't know you! If it doesn't happen by the end of season five, I just don't even... I just can't even, Ben.

Just can't even. I really liked the scene with Dax and the one guy talking about their relative ages. And he's saying, like, oh yeah, I'm like, I'm like eight and 20 is pretty old for us. Yeah. And then he turns it around, like how old are you? I stopped counting at 300. This guy had been staring at DAX for two hours before she said something. Yeah, I think I got to speak up DAX.

I think her capacity for this shit is a little extreme. Yeah, but when 300 years old you reach, have as much capacity you will not. No sleep, no food, no women, no one to your so angry. I'm a man, come to a Ford, I'm a rain, come to a Ford, I'm a rain, come to a Ford, what are you doing? Come on, what are you doing now? Come to a Ford, I'm a rain, come to a Ford, I'm a car, I'm a car, I'm a car, I'm a car, I'm a car, I'm a car, exactly.

We cut basically directly to the mess hall, at a point where DAX has just told Warfobri in a no-do, all the shit that she's learned from this guy. And everyone is incredulous about it. Yeah. This is like a pretty long scene with a bunch of beats, and one of the beats is the Ketro-Soul White distribution. And one of the beats is a bar brawl

that breaks out between one of the gemmadas and wharf he starts swinging on him and like I kind of wanted to just see the circle form and you know Everybody let the two of them fight it out mono a mono. It's going down Yeah, but this isn't Star Trek Discovery. This is that muscle face guy I think. Yeah. Brian Thompson, the muscle, muscle face man from, uh... From ex files.

From ex files. This is one of those scenes that demonstrates the, the differences between the two cultures, militarily or otherwise, because, you know, it's sort of like, uh, the camp counselors break into the cabin and they're like who started this shit? Yeah, and both Wurf and Tormentorax raise their hands and they're like, yeah, we were the ones that fought and so a medic on brakes Tormentorax's neck then gestures to Cisco like your turn dude. Yeah, it's your turn to break Wurf's neck and then Cisco administers the neck break of administrative discipline by like sending him to his quarters.

Yeah. He makes him sit facing the corner for the rest of the mission. And Omeda Klan takes great umbridge with this. Great umbridge. I really like the actor who plays a medic on and his ability to just make his eyes wet. Yeah. When he's feeling a certain way because he is feeling that way at

Benz's go. I mean, I think it's a little bit of a like your buddy says like, hey, we're going to all go jump in this lake and you run and jump in and then you've turned around and realize that your buddy is still on the dock You did not in fact jump in and he's like, ew that water's gross Because Omeda Clon snapped his buddy's neck and Cisco sent wharf to his room. Cisco's looking at Omeda Clon Like he just broke a glass bomb next to it's a coosie Yeah, Omeda Clon's like what the fuck man? I thought we were disciplining these guys like he just broke a glass bomb next to a Jacuzzi. Yeah. Yeah.

Americans like, what the fuck, man, I thought we were disciplining these guys. Yeah. Send him to his room. That's where he wants to be. Yeah. And he issues a promise in this moment to Cisco. Like once, once we are done destroying the gateway and, and rating this cigarette, I'm gonna kill you next.

Ben, Cisco does not seem to take this seriously. Yeah, I mean, stillically, I guess is how he takes it. Right. I think that like threatening the life of the guy that you're teaming up with is not a great way to build, like Esprit de Kerr, but you could forgive a medicalan for being a guy that's kind of tactic subsessed at the expense of strategy. Right.

This is a part of the episode that has a lot of emotional leverage being put into play because there's a scene with a Medicine andisco, but there's also wayune at Odo. And wayune is convincing Odo that it might be a good idea to go jump into the golden lake. Yeah. Because they all really miss him there. And Odo is not even trying to hear that. Boy, I love the camera direction in this scene

because it is just like camera steadily getting closer and closer to each actor's face, the way you can pitch of like you should you should go reconnect with your people. And by the end it is like ECU's on both of them and Odo is just shutting it down. Are you ready to go home? No. shutting it down. Are you ready to go home? No. But I am ready to end this conversation. But like you can feel like the emotional heft

of every phrase in the back and forth. Yeah, it's pretty deft direction by Lovar Burton here. And it's on paper just two guys in a hallway, but he's able to evoke something powerful here with camera direction. And I think that shows a person who's growing more and more comfortable in the director role. I think it's both camera and performance

because I think Jeffrey Comes and René A. was Genoa gave very subtle facial performances in this scene. Yeah. And, you know, both acting through a fairly heavy amount of loaf. But, you know, Jeffrey comes an actor who has lived many lives on Star Trek and, you know know we know as as brunt but it's fun how how far from brunt this character is yeah how different of a of a guy they can trust him with yeah and yeah I really I really like that scene I think

that it kind of makes the case for that character in that moment. Wayoon is low-key, maybe one of the most interesting characters we've gotten in a long time, because he is stepping to someone that he regards as a god with a suggestion. And then he also tells Odo that he cannot be lied to by him. Yeah. And so don't even try. And yet at the same time is totally deferential in the next breath. And then with draws, there's so much going on here with him.

I really like that performance. Yeah, me too. There are a couple more beats before the big raid. One is Chief of Bryan and Dax talking over their various strategies for sending I'm deadletters to their families. And Bryan is kind of like, just keep having to write this, keep having to write this letter, keep feeling like the last time I might do it. And Dax is kind of like goofing on him a little bit and then she's like, oh yeah, I brought one too.

O'Brien's like, you know the worst part about having a pregnant wife is that you need to re-record your death letter in order to like say something nice about the unborn child. Yeah. I had a great one for years, and now there's another kid. Jesus. Every time you get a new haircut, you get to change that video message.

This is the one that's going to end up hearing. He does have a kind of a new haircut, and this doesn't he? Do you think he just deepfakes Tasha Yars video message? Like, Kiko watches the video, and's like why is why is he saying so much about data? Why is he have boobs? I like this moment. Dex supremely confident that O'Brien is gonna live and die an old man which doesn't give me much comfort the way that she describes O'Brien will die. I don't want to die in bed surrounded by my friends and family. I'm just going to put that out into the universe right now.

Wow. As your last will and testament this episode of your Star Trek podcast. That's awful. I don't think it's legally binding, my friend. Someone will put together a super cut of just all of the shitty things I've ever said in 280 episodes. This is what he was really like. You won't even need to show up, Ben.

Oh, thank you. It's good because I have something that. Yeah. I would love to be there, honestly, but I can't get out of it. Because I planned it ahead of time, you know, prior obligation. The rules of the grounding of Warf are fairly inscrutable to me, because then this next scene, warf has escaped his quarters.

It looks like you got a little laugh. In order to tell Ben Sisko that he knows that Omeda Klan is threatened to kill him. I didn't know that was public knowledge. And to promise Sisko that he will kill Omeda Klan if he's successful. And also to say, like, don't go on this mission. Don't be the dumb captain that goes on the away mission.

I thought for sure the punishment would be putting him in his quarters for the duration of the mission, like those words, and yet, Wurf goes on this mission. Yeah, I mean, he's been doing the training and when they beam down to the planet, Worph's utility as a sword fighter becomes immediately apparent, but I don't want to jump ahead too far. You don't want to jump past this next scene, Ben. Yeah. Everyone gets a phaser rifle. You get a phaser rifle.

You get a phaser rifle. Everyone gets them. Just look under your seat and there's a fully charged phaser rifle. The gemmeter turn off all the safeties, they don't want, they don't even, they're like, why is there even a stun setting? Who needs it? Do you think you can affix Bayonets to a phaser rifle? It seems like you should be able to do that. That would be great. So once a medicalan has given the order to deactivate safeties and turn the phaser rifles to 11,

he gives a little speech to this mixed task force of Gem Hedar and Sarfleitz. And the thrust of it is, we dead. Let's go fight to get our lives back. As of this moment, And the thrust of it is we dead. Let's go fight to get our lives back. As of this moment, we are all dead. Because we've heard them say victory is life, but I really like the idea that they consider themselves

to be dead before they go into combat. And if combat goes well, then they can still be alive. That's a great character detail for the Gemma Dhar. Agreed. It feels a little cling on warrior adjacent to in a way that I kind of wished I got more recognition from Warf in this moment. Yeah, like if he had whipped just one of them out and kind of stroked it while he was saying that. Yeah. Yeah. Just got one halfway there. Can you get one boner and one not boner going if you're a clingon or do they both go hard

if you're excited? This is deeply embarrassing. This never happens. I'm just nervous because you're so beautiful. I'm sure that you've noticed I've had much to drink. This is as they refer to it, blood wine dick. I love current has one blood wine dick. Just one.

Yeah. You know what, you can still get the job done with one. Yeah. One in your face. Oh, Brian, not to be outdone in the best man speech department steps up to the mic and gives his own. And it is, it is so in keeping with his character. I feel like our entire relationship with him has led to this moment because he totally rides that line of he wants to say something inspiring.

He knows he's incapable. He wants to take the moment seriously, but he also wants to be self-deprecating. And he somehow does all of this without really making fun of anyone else or himself. It's almost entirely neutral, but it is also hilarious. I am Chief Miles Edward O'Brien. I'm very much alive and I intend to stay that way. It's super well written. I loved it.

And it's an integral part of his character for a lot of reasons on this show. Morning, morning, morning, Steve, sweet, morning, morning, morning. Steve, sweet, morning, morning, morning, Steve, here buddy, morning, stop, have a time. So we get to see the cigarette finally. Right. And it looks like they built a big thing.

It looks like it's been standing always and forever on Vandros 4. Vandros 4. Vandros 4. Vandros 4. I want to know more about these icons, Ben, and this is not the episode for that. No. Really? It's not really the series for that.

No. If there had been another Iconian episode in TNG, you can bet. We would have learned a lot about them. Right. And without working rifles, they are immediately descended upon by the the gem hadar who are there and they've got edged melee weapons been. Yeah. Good thing. Warf brought his good thing. Warf is there. Right. I would say that this surprise attack is surprisingly easily repelled. Yeah. Given how badly they got the drop on them and how badly we know they're outnumbered, right?

Right. It seems like these guys with the swords were ready and waiting and yet they did not bring enough guys to totally overwhelm. You know, a couple of the gemmadares and a couple of the star fleets get taken out, but for the most part, it's like a minor setback at worst. But the raid really gets exciting at this point, because it is just a lot of running and fighting and providing cover for a group of people well, another group of people run down a hallway.

The music is really exciting. It's a really fun and well executed action sequence. It's great. I mean, this is an episode that promised something violent and bold here. And we get a lot of that, but I read about the production of this episode and the production of this scene specifically, and no one in production of this scene specifically. And no one in production was happy with it. Because for the first time on Deep Space 9 and maybe in Star Trek television history, this scene was censored for violence. There was almost a minute of it cut out for such explicit violence. And damn.

I wish we got a chance to see that version of the episode. It's a version of the episode that shows Dax killing 10 people, Cisco killing seven, and the depiction of 32 gem had our deaths were cut out of this episode. Wow. And I think, I think, I'll save some of this for the, did you like portion of the episode, but I think that really matters if you're

doing the math on the danger of this. And, and just how, you know, you, you front load the episode with how outnumbered you are, and then you're just able to tear through their defenses, the defenses of a superior army like so easily. Yeah, I mean, I think that the idea that they become stormtroopers that you can kind of easily mo-down is an interesting problem, right? Because the gem hadar have felt very scary. And I think that the way this episode works makes the case for this would have been tough to do.

If you did, like, if DAX and Warf weren't like, really seasoned sword fighters. Right. And there wasn't a bunch of gem hadars on the Federation side in this raid. This probably wouldn't have worked, right? Yeah. And so if they're just like, if they're just mowing through people, I feel like it makes the, it makes the threat of the gem hadar seem less scary overall. Yeah, it's true. And it just doesn't seem that's what the intention of this episode was. This episode was meant to raise the threat level of the gemadar. Right. It is the reason for our existence.

Well, they make it to this gateway, and it's doing the thing where it just kind of is cycling through all of the places you can go. It's always kind of like, it looks kind of like a drone shot of a bunch of different city skylines and mountains and stuff. It never looks like you could just walk through and be at ground level. It always looks like you would probably fall 200 feet before you hit the ground. They put up a cone or a road sign. Yeah.

Run of it. Watch for falling star fleets. Yeah It seems like in the Star Trek library they should have a hundred matte paintings for scenes To use in the Iconian gateway and it only seems like in this case there are I don't know five or six Flashy high and and like Seattle and Paris are definitely among them in a way that is like, hey, how likely is it that two of the nine things that the Iconians could travel to were just contemporary Earth cities? Right. That's too bad.

Yeah, if you could go anywhere in the universe, I don't think Seattle would be one of your picks. We would certainly be one of mine. I love Seattle. Warf has an Odo bag. And I love this scene. Yeah. You knew Odo was going to be on this mission somewhere. He was not going to stay back on the little D. Yeah. He knocks out some gem hadars and they've, that's probably got to be awesome for them, right?

Yeah, touched by God's tentacles. Yeah. Like, like, knock done conscious by God's tentacles is a great way to go out. Odo is really Benny hitting himself around inside the cigarette. You may not understand this, I don't either. Amidst all of the excitement, Cisco at one point

saves the life of a medicillon, which really impresses a medicillon. He's like, hey, but I told you I was gonna kill you later. Why'd you do that? It's like a pretty solid move on your part and Cisco's like, well, that's my bag. I'm a nice guy, even to ass holes like you. All I do is get my pants pulled down by people I trust.

And if I give you enough time, you'll do the same. Yeah. They set the explosives and they get out of there. And we get the off screen explosion where they like are back in the forest glade and they shake the camera. And everybody's phasers work again. It kind of looks like it's about to turn into a Mexican standoff, but instead wayune beams

down with a starfleet security guy and his briefcase full of catcher-cell white. They have a little kind of like final moment with each other. You've all done quite nicely. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like final moment with each other. You've all done quite nice thing Now if you don't mind I'd like to inspect the wreckage Everyone just kind of watches this mouth of the gate. Yeah, I like the one Gem and R runs over and grabs all the Ketrus all white and he's like well that guy's not gonna need this anymore That that's Starfleet security guy that beam down with wayune, like has a day. Because not only does he have to beam down together with him, which involves a little bit of small talk, I imagine.

Like are you ready to go? You have, you got your baggage and stuff. All right, let's go up to the pad and beam down. Like, they had to do all that. That's the Mariners game last night. And then they get down there. And the last person with wayune is that guy. And he does not react at all to him being vaporized.

No. I gotta say, as security officers go out, I like how stoic he is. He seems like he's gonna be a good one. Initially, I thought that might be munis. Yeah. The guy that works on O'Brien's staff, because I think he was just like far back enough

in the frame and he's kind of like got a similar haircut and looked to him. So he looks like a slick back who might have grown up. I think he's known the death of a parent or two in his past. So he's kind of like numb to the world. Yeah. Seeing a guy vaporize next to him, barely moves the needle. We just totally outline that guy's character. Nice work, Ben. Well, the gem and are declared that enough death has happened that day, so they're not

gonna murder all the Starfleets, and they're gonna stick around and mop up, kill all the remaining Gem-Hardars on the planet, and that's that. That is that, but did you like the episode, Ben? I did like the episode. I was surprised to hear the thing you shared about the production team being disappointed with the way the raid came out because I really liked the raid. I felt like, you know, like there's a couple of, you're never going to get as great of fight choreography in a television show as you will in a movie

just because of the time constraints of it. But I thought it was like really exciting in Connecticut and fun to watch. And I loved this set. I feel like there have been so many times when Star Trek has had ruins that were supposed to believe are super old, and it's just a bunch of studio flats with Giga's glued to them. And this felt like stone architecture. All the walls felt thick and substantial and I thought the set decoration was really on a new level in this episode. And I loved the music, I loved all the like

tension in the two crews of teaming up with each other, like the fish out of water stuff with the gem had are and the kind of accommodating this uncomfortable ally of the federation felt like a really interesting episode. So on the whole I really liked it. Did you think the gemhead are worth the jack lemon or the Walter Matthew? Oh for sure the lemon. Yeah, yeah, I think so. I'm with you on a lot of those observations. I like episodes that feel like Chain of Command and this one did, like I like the whole assemble a team and do a raid.

And I know you can't do that every week on this show. You can't even do it once a season, really. And I understand why, but I really love Chain of Command and this episode felt so much like it because I like I like the experience of knowing more about the gem hadar and I like knowing What they look like when they're like at their peak right because it feels like every time we've run into them before It's been that little kid like every time we've run into them before, it's been that little kid getting loose on the station

or it's like, or there was that planet of ones who were trying to kick the white. Candy makes you dandy. And so we've seen compromised versions of these guys or we've seen just a swarm of tick ships doing damage, like to actually get boots on the ground with them and see them like if they're more or less well run as a brigade. This feels like the first time we've seen that, like what that looks like. And that is something that really,

that is super fearsome. It's like the dude being chill, like the dude is, is, we know the dude is chill. That's one, one fact we know about him, but we never actually see it. Yeah. You know, because he's always upset about something. I'm perfectly calm dude. Yeah, we even the fucking gun around!

Common humor. We know that the gem had our terrifying and ruthless efficient killers, but this is the first time we actually gotten to check that out. Had I not read the thing about it being cut for violence, I think I would be more fully throated with how much I like the episode, but knowing that irritates me. I wish we saw the bloodbath version of this episode, and I wonder if on DVD or something

those scenes exist or on YouTube if they exist. Because I'd like to figure out how much differently I feel about the climax of this episode having seen them just lay waste to 30 more people. Like do I feel bad about that? Does it change how I feel about DAX or Cisco to see them like chop people's heads off. I don't know, but I wanna know. And I'm sad that we weren't trusted with that version.

So that's why. As a society, we weren't trusted. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. One thing we are trusted with Ben, is the reading of priority one messages. Why don't we go take care of that bit of business? OK.

Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Need a supplemental link. Supplement? Supplement. Supplement. Yes, extra. By the interest alone, could be enough to buy this ship. Adam, we have a couple of priority one messages here.

The first is of a promotional nature. Hmm, it goes like this. This is not actually a commercial message. I paid more to have another 150 characters. Yes, I know that I could pay 200 for 600 characters, but I am Shemota now. Please make sure that Adam and Ben read the info line this. I'm sure it will make the way. And then in the call to action section, it says, dear Adam. Oh no. So I think this person didn't use their full character allotment. Even for a personal message.

They just hoisted themselves on their own petard. Wow. And didn't promote anything. They didn't promote anything. They didn't run it to the end of the character limit even. Yeah. They were flagrant in the end of the character limit even. Yeah. They were flagrant in their disregard of the character limit. In an opposite way than I was expecting.

Yeah. Just chaotic, neutral, promotional message there. Really intense. Wow. This may be the most threatening message we've ever received. I'm going to be thinking a lot about this one. Yeah, yeah, it might be kept up at night. Thank you for the support to whoever this was.

This person did not leave any identifiable information. I already won. Wow. Okay. Our second priority one message is of a personal nature. Banit is from Portland Toilet Guide is for Ben and Adam and the message goes like this. Hi guys. I was at your Portland Oregon greatest gem con. I don't know if you remember me, but I was the guy who awkwardly emerged from the toilet you guys were meeting fans in front of.

I had some food poisoning that kicked in about three quarters of the way into the show and let's just say the Nemoy method acting bit hit very close to home to me. Wow! Loved the show. I think most people who left the greatest Gen Con show three quarters the way through would say that they loved it Um, man, that's wild We often do our pictures and autographs in front of bathrooms That's unfortunately just how things play out logistically at these venues

Yeah, like so many venues that are of the size that we can book and play them. For some reason, the merch table is set right next to the bathroom. Yeah. Or maybe that's just for us. That's probably just for us, right? I feel your pain, Portland toilet guy. I mean, that's it me. I've been that on more than one occasion of going to a show. So yeah, good job. I was that at Adams 40th birthday. So yeah. Indeed. Yeah, you left my 40th birthday three quarters of the way through. Yeah. I was brand-doing badly. Well, if you would like to tell us something that happened to your butt or promote something, only not promote anything at all, you know what to do. You head to MaximumFund.org slash Jembo Shron, where it's a hundred bucks for a personal message and 204 commercial message.

Both of which go a long way in supporting the greatest generation. 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. Can I get a Balrog 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 Goat try. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Oh, Russ. Hey, hey, hey, oh, I'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 we need to get on this off. We gotta get on the art. 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 Kerry? We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal, stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so seem like something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came two by two. What do you think? Ono Ross and Kerry, available on MaximumFun.org.

Go press like, get that, get that. Go press like, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, Go press like, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, no, rock, rock, no, rock, rock, no, rock, no, rock, rock, no, rock, no, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, Stairs at DAX for two hours. I thought about making DAX my drunk Shimoda for just allowing this. But instead, it's going to Viric Cara for just staring at her. I like to watch. Like, he's clearly very articulate. He has some things to share about his culture. Yeah.

I kind of feel like this awkwardness may be DAX's fault. Wow. Because, and I know this is going to sound like victim blaming here. But maybe... She doesn't really carry herself like she's being victimized by the awkwardness, so... Maybe culturally, Gem Hadar have a hard time talking about themselves and just need to be prompted with questions. Uh huh.

And so once Dax breaks the ice after two hours of staring, I feel like they get along pretty well. They do. They do indeed. So that's my drunk Shimoda. Who's yours, Ben? Ryan is Chief O'Brien for being so anti buffet. He works it into conversations and scenarios

where it's not even close to being an issue. He's as anti buffet as you are anti cold sandwich. Yeah, don't like him. Hard liner. I've designed my life around avoiding them. Yeah You got a lot in common you also give a great speech Just like just like miles of Ryan. Yeah, I can really rouse the troops Well, what are we rousing for the next episode of

Deep Space 9 ban we are rousing season four episode 23, The Quickening. Bashir tries to save a Game Aquadrant Society afflicted with an incurable terminal disease by the Gemhadar. It feels like it's been a while since we've gotten a Bashir centric episode, so welcome back, Bashir. Yeah. Welcome back, Bashir. Why don. So welcome back Bishir. Yeah. Welcome back, Bishir.

Why don't we see a... Welcome back. Welcome back. How do you think we're gonna be watching this episode? That is a great question. Let me dial up our beloved game of buttholes. We love the profits. We can follow along at gach.biz slash game.

We are currently on square 20 in the runabout. And it looks like ahead we have a space battle that would take us back to the Tamarion square. We also have a banger that would shoot us forward quite a bit. Oh no, shoot us back quite a bit, sorry. Kind of a lot of potholes ahead on the map. You're required to learn as you play. Roll. Dangerous waters right now, so I'm going to roll these bones.

What do you say? Do it. I'm gonna roll these bones, what do you say? Do it. Chula! Did I win? Harvey! I rolled the five at him, which jumps us past the spacebed hole on the square 25. About that.

Regular old episode for next week. Safe and sound, thanks to your die role. It were me throwing the die would be all over the place. It would be bad. So I'm glad it was your turn. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Well, I'm looking forward to next week.

In the meantime, I hope people will head to maximumfund.org slash donate if they like the show and want to support it and make sure it keeps being a going concern. It's the main way we support ourselves these days. So we really, really appreciate it. Free ways to support the show include going to your pod catcher of choice and leaving a five thing review. I mean, maybe some places don't use stars, I don't know.

Yeah, who knows. You can also connect with us online. Here's the hashtag GreatestGen on Twitter and check out Bill Tilly's hilarious trading cards that he makes about every episode and JJ Lendel's movie posters of every episode of Deep Space 9. He makes before we put our episodes out. Music consideration for the greatest generation is made possible by Adam Ragusia with the help of one

DJ dark materia. Check out Adam Ragusia's YouTube page. Check it out, make a pizza. Make a motherfucking pizza. Cook a steak. Check out all the other shows on MaximumFund.org, including the greatest discovery, which is our new and new Stratrich podcast, and friendly fire, where we review war movies with our buddy, John Roderick, and talk about history and culture and society and you know the nature of masculinity and stuff like that.

And with that we'll be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek Deep Space 9 and an episode of the greatest generation Deep Space 9 which takes a hard-line stance on vaccinations. Nations. Make it sound, make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Maximumfund.org

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