The Greatest Generation - More Labial Than Chihuly (S4E21)

Episode Date: December 19, 2016

When a non-OEM part installed during their last starbase visit leaves the Enterprise by the side of the road, the crew looks for someone to blame. But when the crew's investigation moves a patsy into their crosshairs, it turns out that he's guilty of something totally unrelated. Is an elephant's foot the most unlucky foot? When is it appropriate to show your ass in court? Do you have to pay extra for dialogue? It's the episode that's all ends, and no means.

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 finest crew in Starfleet. Engage! Welcome to the greatest generation. A Star Trek podcast by two guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek

podcast. I am your host, Adam Pranaka. I am also your host, Ben Harrison. Ben, it's come to my attention that you have created another podcast. What are you talking about? I'm talking about your Westworld podcast that you put out there a couple weeks ago. Yeah, well, so I put out the first episode and then I recorded the second episode and you're not going to believe this Adam, but the second episode was the exact same wave form as the first And so I was like do I really like upload this or do I just tell people like just keep listening and it'll okay

It's like you know it it The more you rewatch it the more you'll like get out of it You know, it's like Hamilton, you know like every time you hear it you'll have new things kind of occurred to you about it Do you have to go to Chipotle before recording an episode? Is that part of your like every time you hear it, you'll have new things kind of occurred to you about it. Do you have to go to Chipotle before recording an episode? Is that part of your practice? I felt kind of bad because a couple of people, like it was such a random and like nihilistic joke

that a couple of people were like, oh, I'm really excited to hear that. Ben, I really do want to take a couple of minutes to discuss this. Why do you hate Westworld so much? This is not what I was making fun of at all. I was making fun of the premise of starting a Westworld podcast, which I could just as easily make fun

of the premise of starting a Star Trek podcast. There are two things that there are too many podcasts about. Really, man, I took that in exactly the wrong way then. I just thought you hated Westworld. I don't love it. I think that it probably doesn't deserve all of the love it's getting, but I don't know. I've watched a few episodes, it seems fine. Oh, so you haven't finished the season.

Hmm. Well, maybe you should finish the season and we can revisit this topic. Okay. Maybe at some point we could actually do a Westworld podcast. Everyone else has one? I have a little prediction at him for what the first episode would sound like. I think it

would be a little something like this. Well, I think we know what rock bottom is on our own podcast. Why don't we do what we do best, Ben, which is talk about Star Trek, the next generation. Today's episode is season 4, episode 21. The Drum Head. Today's episode is season 4, episode 21, the drum head. This is becoming a speech. Do the cat consider very entitled? Hmm. I'm not entitled to ramble on about something everyone knows.

They've caught a... Klingon exobiologist doing some... some... some espionage. Ben, is it racist that I think... I find it far-fetched that a Klingon would ever be an exobiologist? That's racist, right? There's an episode coming up in,

I don't know, I don't remember what season it's in, obviously, I don't know anything, but there's an episode coming up where there's like a Ferengy scientist and everybody's super suspicious of him for the same exact reason. It's like, no, you're a one note race. You guys don't do this, you do that, you know?

It's, I mean, we laugh, but like, that's what racism is. It made me feel bad. But it's also like, one of the ways that the world building of this show really falls apart, the Farenci only care about money, the Klingons only care about honor and war, and it is really hard to imagine somebody like going for their doctorate in particle physics in a society that only cares about honor and war.

Right. Or exobiology for that matter. So anyways, this guy is a spy and they caught him spying and also the warp reactor has blown up. And all of this has happened before the episode starts. We opened the episode in an interrogation room and this biologist named Judan is being questioned. I liked Jay Dan's first album, but I thought the ones that came after were not as good.

That's bullshit Adam. He's one of the hottest rappers in the game. This interrogation does not go well for Jay Dan He is he just keeps going not guilty y'all got to feel me like part of part of the way that the crew is Tipped off to his involvement is not that he is a Klingon science officer that he is a Klingon science officer, but is instead that he's someone with a special medical condition that requires regular hypospraise arranges, get administered to him. So he's in the he's in the six bay all the time. And so he's getting these these hypospraise on the regular and someone thinks to examine the syringe itself, and it turns out that in this world, you can steal information from

isolinear chips, you can turn it into biological information, spray it inside of a body, and then like that information will live on as like proteins in the body, swimming around in your bloodstream. So it's a pretty awesome idea for this sort of, of spike raft here. It's totally great premise that is so season 4, you know? Like, this, just as an idea is as good as the scene where Jordi solves the mystery of the shadow in the holodeck. It's just cool as fuck.

And they have a cool prop to show. It's great. Yeah, and this guy finally, he cops to it in his own cling on sort of way. And the cards, like,lingon sort of way. And because I get him out of here, so Worf escorts him back to his quarters. And along the way, J. Dan is just spit talking him

the entire time. Like, hey, I heard about your dad. Sounds like a real jerk. You know what, no one even talks about your dad. He's so lame. On the cling on home world. And Wurf is just like grinding his teeth. Finally, finally, they're walking through the halls

and Jay Dan's like, look man, you know, things are looking too good for me right now, but I'm telling you, I can help you out with your whole dad problem. Let's just jake a shuttle and get the hell out. It'll be great. Yeah, to work with his for tech because it's like, it's like, hey, you're...

Yeah, do you start with the making phone of him? That's not the way to start, is it? Yeah, he must be like one of those seduction community guys. He's like, I'm in a, I'm in a neg warf. And then I'm gonna see if we can go to a second location together. Yeah, you know the other interrogators were doing it a lot better than you. I mean, you're trying and and everything and that's cute, but

What do you think this is a much much better job? What do you think of this feather in my hat? So Warf gets him into his quarters and what follows is an into his quarters and what follows is an amazing no look elbow and punch to the face. Yeah, it's a double JCVD move. And Worf's like body language with whenever he goes into fight mode, he gets like super stiff and like choppy, funny as fuck. I watch this scene several times and They take it from outside the hall Like it's sort of a longer take than you'd think so it starts from outside they walk in

Keep in mind Worf never looks at him So Worf is assuming his position behind him when he throws that elbow and the back fist, like he just as easily could destroy that replicator. That would have been great. Yeah, the outtake when he like puts his fist through the control panel. Yeah, you got to be sure about positioning. Can we get another replicator in here? Let's get it back up, guys. Gonna go for take two.

No, no. You know what's interesting about the aftermath of the scene, too? Is they never call back the idea that wharf fucking beat up a prisoner. Yeah. And that's wrong, right? You're not allowed to do that. Yeah, like, he didn't even take off his communicator badge first. Yeah, he didn't put his badge and gun on the desk, on Picard's desk before he did it.

Yeah. So, uh, so the enterprise is... The worst at Loose Cannon. Yeah. Yeah, he does not play by the rules, but he gets results. And if you want to clean up the crime in this town Picard, you'll let me run this investigation my way. Yeah, speaking of, on board comes a police commissioner who begins very by the book, doesn't she?

Yeah, so this is Admiral Sati and she's a retired rear admiral from Starfleet and so she's not in an admiral uniform. She's in kind of a vagina-colored robe. Just by a deal to Huli is what I wrote down. Yeah, I mean, both in terms of the compromised eyesight, it would take the design it, but also in like the very glass, vase, neckline that she's got at all times. Yeah, fair enough. I mean, I think it's just, jokes are always funnier when you explain them, I find. Yeah, it's more labial thanuli, which is saying a lot.

Yes, renowned labia artist Dale Chouhuli. But anyways, she's been dispatched by Starfleet's security to get to the bottom of this because this is a big deal, right? Like the flagship of the Federation caught a spy downloading information about the warp core. And then a few hours later, the warp core blew up and it's now out of commission.

Like the enterprises is not moving because of this situation. And then they in fact go down and take a look at engineering and like there's like a anti radiation door sealing off the warp core room and the window in Shimoda corner is like all fogged up because there's so much gas or whatever in there. And they've got a, they're waiting for the room

to like deradiate for a while before they can get in there. Ben, I recently read a story about the Chernobyl accident. Mm-hmm. And the scientists there, like the first ones on the scene, found something called the Elephant's Foot. Have you, have you read about this at all? No. Are these the guys that pretty much Committed themselves to dying of radiation poisoning, but save the disaster from being coming much much worse If they committed themselves to that they really didn't have a choice because the story with this elephant's foot is amazing you should look it up after the show

It's a part of the core that melted and it sort of melted itself into the shape of an elephant's foot and the statistics on this thing are fucking nightmare-ish. Like evidently it's the most radioactive spot on the planet. And I guess like three seconds of exposure will make you sick for two weeks. 60 seconds of exposure will kill you in three days. And I guess like a minute of exposure is the equivalent of 500,000 x-rays. Like, it's some, it's, that, those are accurate statistics, but they are as nightmare-ish as the facts are. Like, it's- Cheers. Well, yeah, so that's what's going on in the Warpcore. And it's a, it's, that's an interesting problem.

I mean, it's like a more interesting Warpcore problem than we usually get. And it's also told in a more interesting way, you know, like whenever they're having a Warpcore difficulty, it's something that happens in the middle of the episode to heighten the problem. And this is an episode that starts with the work core out and a man caught with, you know, some circumstantial evidence pointing to the idea that maybe he sabotaged it. So, so they're pretty freaked out about Jadan, but they extract a confession on the stealing information confession on the stealing information charge from him.

But he insists that he didn't have anything to do with blowing up the core. And one of the people that sati has brought on board in addition to her lightly loafed court reporter is a betazoid investigator who is like, yep, Jadann is telling us the truth. He did not have anything to do with blowing up the warp core. I can tell you that for certain. This begins a story through line that seeks to compare to me the credibility of information you get from a Betasoid interrogator and what Contemporarily you would get through torture, right? Right.

Was I the only one who sort of saw this parallel? Like throughout the rest of the episode Satis position is that the Betasoid Way of getting information is going to be accurate and must be actionable. Right. Picard's contention is that that can't be enough. Like his intuition can't be enough to prosecute someone for a possible crime. Or even to like limit their movement. Like that's not even, it's not even probable cause.

And, and I mean, that is an interesting comparison you make. It really made me wonder what criminal justice looks like on beta-Z. You know, if you can get into anybody's head and everybody's just kind of in the heads of anybody that they're in a room with, like what is that? What is that? What are the ramifications of that? And I feel like they kind of avoided Dealing with that idea at all. Yeah, I wonder if it if betasoid The betasoid justice system is like minority report a little bit. Yeah, so anyways We're done with Jeden in this episode and the seti

goes and changes into a whole new vagina color and She a whole new vagina collar and she's having a meeting with Picard about how they're going to have to continue to figure out the situation because they found out who stole the information but not who did the sabotage and so not everything has been solved here. It's a crazy thing, what was thought really based? Are you going to find it within yourself? Stand up, tell the truth. You don't deserve the wealth that the Univol has. Satis relationship with Picard starts pretty great.

Yeah. Like, they're familiar in the way that Picard is familiar with Satis' father, great judge, the best judge. Some one that he's read about, both at the academy and thereafter, Picard's got a lot of respect for that Satie family line. And Satie herself begins her relationship with Picard going, look, like,

I'm used to being the big dog, when it comes to these investigations, I'm used to working alone. I don't have any friends. Like, this is what I live for. What I was wrong, we're going to be quite a team. Yeah, and that sort of runs in parallel with the Betasueid guy hanging out with Wharf

and saying the same thing. Like, you know, we were a little bit worried coming aboard that there would be some kind of conflict of interest where, you know, your dad is a snake who collaborated with the Romulans and this is a Klingon being accused. And I just, I'm here to tell you that we are not concerned about that at this point. We really like the work you've been doing and we really trust you. The rest of the episode goes great. I mean, people work as a team,

they come to the right conclusion, and then they go on with their day. Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? Very inspiring episode. Ha-ha-ha-ha. So they have a brief meeting with the doctor in the interrogation room where they're asking about, they're trying to establish what J. Dan's movements around the ship looked like,

what he was up to, who he had been interacting with, because they think that there's somebody else aboard that he was in league with. He can't have done this by himself. And she's like, yeah, well, he would come in, he has this weird, he's got the beatis, and he would come in. You know, he has this weird, you know, he's got the beatus and he'll come in, you know, every six hours or so to get his injection. Insulin, pills, doctors, visits, believe me,

it can be scary. Liberty medical delivers straight to six bay. Yeah. And, and uh. Look, those, those, those catheters are very comfortable to install. To be honest, doing a routine injection like that is a little bit below my pay grade, so I have one of my lackeys do that type of work, and that's all I can tell you.

So they bring in the lackey, and it's this guy, Simon Tarsus, who is an enlisted crewman with a teeny bit of loaf on his ears, but generally speaking human. And this is a great performance, I thought. Like, this guy's, he comes in and is interrogated on, on, on the stand and is nervous in a way that you can't put your finger on why he would be and that's like the perfect tone for this because there's a big reveal with that. He feels real ed Nortony to me. Yeah. And I mean that extremely complimentary. Yeah. And he's like a young guy, you know, he's maybe, you know, maybe

supposed to be 25 or 30 and he answers their questions pretty straightforward and they're pretty straightforward questions and he leaves and the bet is like, that's our man. And then, and then everybody else in the room starts going, lock him up, lock him up, lock him up. His guilt is made apparent through his discomfort on the stand, basically. And the beta's always like, the guy's covering something up. He's gotta be the guy.

That's how you can tell he could really read minds. Meanwhile, we're back in engineering where Jordy and Data have completed their investigation. Meanwhile, we're back in engineering where Jordy and Data have completed their investigation of the warp door blowout. And have come to the conclusion that This wasn't sabotaged at all, it was nothing more than an accident. They replaced the hatch with a non-OEM part

at the last star base. And that foids the warranty on a Galaxy Class Starship bin. You can't be doing that. You try to save a little money, go on Amazon and get the aftermarket. They say that it's just as good and it's like a good 30% cheaper. It's never as good. People always bitch about going to the dealer and getting high prices on service. But you get what you pay for I guess right and the fit and finish on the on the dealer installed stuff is just so much better

It's true. Yeah, so I think they learned a valuable lesson. Mm-hmm. Meanwhile Admiral Satis back to vagina collar number one and She does not want to stop the investigation just because they found out that the Whorep Corblowout was a total coincidence. Just because there was no sabotage, doesn't mean there isn't a conspiracy on this ship. Yeah, kind of a surprise. She poses this question to the captain. And the captain at this point is starting to be a little bit uneasy about how she is just kind of rolling roughshod over due process at this point. She poses this question like if it means defending the existence of the federation, can we afford not to see

this thing through? And that is like in direct contradiction of what they have just learned. She does not care at all that a crime hasn't been committed with the Warp Corps. It becomes clear that she came on board to prosecute someone and she's not going to leave before she gets the chance to do that. Yeah, and this is like Freak's directed this episode and I think that he did a great job of kind of Freak's directed this episode and I think that he did a great job of kind of you know turning the potential amateur on this character and her little entourage as as the episode goes so she's more and more uncomfortable to be in the room with

The when she comes on she is you know, it's like what if Luxonetroy wasn't obnoxious and stupid and Like by this midway point, you know, they start to kind of pose these challenging questions that like seem to be logical or at least internally consistent but have kind of spooky ramifications and like other things like know, the captain will be talking to to Admiral Sati and the low-fi court reporter lady will just be kind of like idly in the background typing out everything he says. Yeah, there's some blocking stress. Yeah. To what's happening, and it's very subtle. Yeah, they don't comment on it initially.

They let you kind of notice those things without beating you to death with them, which is that's directing and that's like good-ass directing. Yeah, a less competent vision would have had a cutaway to the third person in the room. Right. You don't need that. So Picard shows up to Simon Tarsus's next hearing and the interrogation room, which is normally a pretty a pretty private feeling space is full of people. She's invited everybody.

It's like that meeting in the conference room that has free food. That you don't really have to go to. It's totally optional. Yeah, there's some bagels. Yeah, there's turkey cutlets and wilted lettuce and gross mealy tomatoes and somehow that's getting people out of their cubicles. When it's free, that's enough of a reason. It's such a fucking insulting thing that businesses do to their employees. Yeah, gross. This hearing gets a lot more hot, and what comes out is that Krumantarsis lied on his application to enlist in Starfleet

by saying that he was one-quarter Vulcan. When in fact, he is one-quarter Romulan. And Sati is satisfied that that is enough reason to hold you know, hold him responsible for the warp core explosion or not hold him responsible, but to continue to consider him, you know, suspect number one and whether or not he's convicted of that, he's like definitely ruined as a as a as a member of Starfleet. Like he can't, he's lied to a board of inquiry and he lied on his application He's done. It's interesting and not surprising how The addition of an audience to something like this

Increases the gravity of what's happening. Yeah, you know like things seem pretty benign when it's just like a casual interview and it's just two people sitting on a desk asking about things that happen, but you add some witnesses to the fray and it gets super heady. And, uh, Tarsus does a great job in emoting that. Like this is terrifying for him. Uh, the beta betazoid is not wrong that he is hiding something. He's just wrong about what he's hiding. Yeah, and that's, it's so interesting that they let that just be a conflict that remains unaddressed, like he was wrong about what he's hiding. That doesn't, which tends to, you know, which between that and the fact that they know that the Warp Corp blowout was an accident

should just have everybody like step back and be like, all right, well, we kind of blew it on this one, but instead they just like keep twanging away on him and keep running the investigation. And it's around this point that Worf is just like, he's like a pig and shit. Like he's fucking holding little mini McLaughlin groups of his own in the conference room,

like putting security officers on these crazy tasks. You and Krumann markers will coordinate to track Tars' his movements over the last five years. And Picard has basically come to the end of his room. I need to speak with you. Like he is not happy having this big dog running around his ship in Adderall Sati and he stops Worf at some point

and he's like, hey, this is actually gone way too far. Don't you agree? Worf is like, no, we gotta, like, people are blowing up the ship. We gotta stop him. And Picard is like, people are blowing up the ship. We gotta stop them. And Picard is like, actually nobody blew up the ship, Warf. That didn't happen. And this is a drumhead trial here in the 24th century.

And shit has gotten pretty crazy. I'm not sure that Warf got it. By the end of that conversation, like. I think he just followed the order. Yeah. I really wondered that too. I think that there's a lot about this episode that feels very contemporary in terms of the issues it's addressing to our time. It made me wonder if Worf was persuadable and it made me wonder if anybody is really persuadable

that they might be completely wrong about what they're doing. You know what I would have been interested in is getting Jordies take. Like he works in engineering, he could have been killed by this. Yeah. He helped prove that it was an accident,

but also like, can you be 100% sure? Yes. Like, when you're so close to that explosion, I don't know. It would have been neat to get a little bit of a throw away from him. Yeah. Because if someone like him still had reservations about accruement and suspected that a conspiracy was happening, like that, all of a sudden, elevates it into a crazy level that I think could

have been even more effective than what we get here. Yeah. It's around this point that I think Picard has his little like T for 2 with Simon Tarsus, gets to know the guy a little bit and uh... He's put the Horgon away. Yeah, the Horgon is. When you have this sort of thing. To spiculously not in the room.

But you think Riker has like a French press Horgon? Like, you push the head down. Yeah, but what comes out, that ain't coffee at him. Gross. Simon Tarsus gets fleshed out a little bit. And he's like, yeah, like I really love Starfleet and I always wanted to be in it and I thought that my grandfather's heritage was going to be a problem on my application and so I kind of fledged facts a little bit

and I really regret that. It's maybe the worst thing I've ever done because now I can't be in Starfleet and like for the rest of my life I will have this horrible regret. Yeah, he was pretty fucked because if he wouldn't have a Starfleet career if he told the truth and now he doesn't have one because he didn't. Yeah. Do you think Picard has the power to have, you know, put in a good word for him? Maybe. I don't know. It makes me sad to think that this guy is truly fucked and his career's done. Yeah, but I think that that's how you like, I mean, that's how you tell a story like

this, right? Like things, things like this do have bad consequences for innocent people. And things like this do have bad consequences for innocent people. And that's like you have to have the stakes like that. I mean, it like I think that the degree to which they let us sympathize with that character is really good. But anyways, so the captain like after this meeting is like, well this is fucked. Like we're we've gone completely off the reservation here. I gotta go see what kind of vagina collar satia's in and tell her to call off her dogs. Do you think there's a correlation

between vagina collar height and mood for sati and the way that health of the ship is telegraphed through Rikers hair? Yeah, I think that the more like, the more like, design-y and structural one is like when she's in kind of a big-dogging mode and then the more like like Lacey and Labiel one is more like, is more like, is like I'm kind of putting on a good face and like, you know, telling you I think you're great while I plot your destruction. You know, Lacey and Labio was the first porn movie I ever watched. Well, anyways, this is, I appreciate that you are bringing jokes up every so often. I feel like I have not done one joke in this entire fucking episode and I feel really bad about it. It's a real serious episode.

It is a real series and it's like so well written. It's hard to make our signature wisecracks about. So yeah, so Picard has sati come and do his ready room and he's like, hey, like guess what? The hearings on Simon Tossies will stop and she's like, the hearings are not going to stop. And she proceeds to Big Dog, BOOF BOOF! Out of him. She's like, Oh yeah, I've actually had Starfleet on Speed Dial this whole time. And they're bringing an Admiral in to observe the rest of my witch hunt.

So, you can sit down and shut the fuck up. Yeah, you remember your old friend Admiral Henry? He's coming over here on the hood. And the only way the hood caught up to the enterprises because it had that warp core problem, that blowout. There's no way a full strength hood is going to catch up to a full strength enterprise. They're like, listen to Soto, you've got to ferry this

admiral out to the enterprise and he's like, not my problem, guys. There's no way the hood can catch the enterprise. They're like, listen to Soto, you gotta ferry this admiral out to the enterprise and he's like, not my problem, guys. There's no way they could catch the enterprise. They're like, get this. Engine is down. You might be the nicest ship in the fleet right now and Soto had like a total existential crisis on that. All of a sudden, Soto has the de facto flagship

of the Federation. I never wanted this. It's total Peter principle, like you just failed up. I've become what I set out to destroy. DeSoto doesn't even want to have communication with the Enterprise. They just sort of drop off Henry and fail. I am a cute, just a ball. There are four lights.

So they continue the trial. And the first person they call up to the stand is Picard. And they're gonna like, freed him the riot act. Like they've got all of the failures that Picard has ever had, like on a little, on a little like quarterback wristband,

on Admiral Sati, like she's like, you've violated the prime directive plenty of times. She's reading it from the inside of her cone. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you were a borugone time. That was pretty whack.

Like, everything he says, she's got a mistake he made. That Jake guy stole a shuttle. Right out from under you. Yeah, you let ginger Jesus take a blaster to the face. There's sort of a long list of pretty big no-nose that Picard's been involved with. Yeah, and Picard rises to this occasion like only lawyer Picard could. Like, he gets up on that stand and it's like, it's like he forms lawyer Picard Voltron.

Like, he starts hitting him with this shit and he starts laying little rhetorical traps for her and letting her step in him and eventually pulls out like a beautifully written quote about the chains of bondage and how every time some freedom is abridged, it wraps the chains tighter around all of us and and drops this in and it like really causes Sati to lose her shit and she does like she does that thing that only happens in law and order,

where people break on the stand, and I'm like, yeah, I did it! So what if I did it? She basically admits that she's been running a total witch trial. And... I will expose you for what you are. I brought down bigger men than you, Picard!

And Admiral Henry is sitting there and just gets this look of disgust on his face. He like, he like, you know, sets the fork down on his tray table, pushes his piece of pie away from him. He is not going to be eating today. He gets up and he walks out of the room wordlessly because we're not paying any extra to have any spoken lines in this episode Adam. I feel like Sette moves to flip over the table, but the table's anchored down. She just gets totally unhinged. Yeah.

And she shows her ass. Yeah. Total capital A acting too. Yeah. It is scary to see her go off like that. And everyone around her is sort of scared of her in that moment. She seems capable of anything. It's a real have you no decency, sir, moment? Yeah.

And it might be, have you no decency, sir, might be the last time in modern history that somebody was actually exposed in that way? I feel like there's a certain level of fantasy to this episode because I'd love the idea that people realize somebody like that is actually a bad actor and doing bad things but they never do. The people we disagree with stay on the other side of issues now.

But the end of this episode is Wurf comes into the conference room and Picard is standing there having a bum out by the window and Wurf is like, man, like I really fucking blew it, man. Like I didn't even agree with you when you came and tried to talk me out of this earlier, but Now I see her for what she was and I can't believe that I was so whipped up and so ready to you know put on a mega hat and Follow her around I did not see what she was and

And a book artist like the Jules Mr. Wolf That is the price we have to continually pay The Germans, Mr. Wolf. That is the price we have to continually pay. What is he truly advocating? I mean, I think he's saying that there is, like, living in an open society is worth it, but you basically never get to rest on your laurels. Like, you always have to be working toward it

being an open society. Because people who act the way that CT act, who have the motivations of someone like her will never stop working to those ends. So the other side must remain vigilant. She believes that the ends justify the means. Like if we protect the federation by any means necessary, then we will live in safety and comfort.

And Picard's point is through the whole episode, this is the thesis of his argument against her from the second he realizes what a snake she is, is like, there are no ends. Like it's all means. We never get to the ends of anything. And so to live in a just society, we have to practice justice every day. And she is not about that. Like she is completely convinced that like she is the defender of the faith. It's so weird for her to feel that way when she's not even a member of Starfleet anymore.

Yeah. It's a, well, I mean, like she's been giving, given a long rope, it seems like. And I wonder like who at Starfleet Command was like, let's send this lady out, she'll live on ships and subtle craft and have no friends and just go around kicking everybody in the balls and whipping them into the shape all the time. Yeah, I find less fault with Citi than I do with the person who put her in that position.

Yeah. Because they should have known better. Yeah, that's a person that needs a lot of managerial supervision. I have a feeling I know the answer to the question, but did you like this episode, Ben? I love this episode. It's one of my faves, definitely in my top five.

Wow, on the mountain. I'm worried that by the end of our series, people will be like, Ben, you actually had seven episodes in your top five. Well, you just have a very big mountain, that's all. Yeah, this is a fantastic episode. And I guess I wonder a little bit, like, there's the the Jed Bartlett fantasy, you know, like, we have, we're watching the West Wing during the Bush administration

going like god I wish this was how the president was and instead he is not and I think that Sometimes I worry stories like this make it seem like people Act, you know like there are a few bad apples, but mostly people act rationally and in their own best interest and but mostly people act rationally and in their own best interest. And people that aren't doing that are generally getting carried away. And there's like a few strong voices that are in fact malevolent. I wonder sometimes if that's actually the case or if it's like we're all just the blind man trying to describe the elephant.

Well, people rarely reveal themselves to be who they truly are, you know, until they're in a position to actually do something either great or terrible in the moment, you know. Absolutely. How about yourself? Did you like this episode? Yeah, it was great. It was one of the best for sure. I was happy that they threw the keys to this episode to Freaks too, because I think even on the page, you've got to know that this is a really important episode.

And I thought he did great from a directorial standpoint. He makes a couple of visual choices that I've come to recognize as being Freaks. Like, he goes high a lot, with shot in top position, like sort of like God perspective type stuff, high and wide. And I really like that. I think those are shots that you get from him that you don't get from anyone else.

And so I like that he's sort of cultivating his own vision on the fly here. They shoot this show in a very specific way most of the time. And then when they occasionally let a director kind of show it to you from another angle, it definitely gets your attention and it's always really fun. And I think that- I am appreciative of it more than anything. Like God, thank you for not giving me the one quarter shot off of the side of the conference room table again. Thank you for putting the camera up high. Yeah.

Yeah. It's just, it just makes it more interesting. Yeah, look at these cool sets we built. Let's fucking show them. Hey Ben, I've had a light flashing on my keyboard for the last couple of minutes. You want to check out what that is? Let's do it. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Need a supplement on it. supplement on it. supplement on it.

supplement on it. Yeah it's extra. How do you interest alone? Could be enough to buy this ship. Our first of two priority one messages begin with a message from Sarge. And it is four. There's a couple of different names here been Honey Bear slash Nuckrocker 69 Nice nice

The message goes like this And all the chaos your birthday came and went without much fanfare so happy birthday honey bear I can't wait to spend more life together. From your loving wife, Sarge, scramble's for life, all hail string. So the first half of that message were things that I understood in the second half was in code, Ben. Yeah, and that scramble has like some asterisks

and some exclamation points. And it's got a K where you wouldn't expect one necessarily. There's definitely like a deep deep inside joke and or code at play here. You know those pictures, those ASCII pictures like with the symbols and stuff. I'm trying to figure out what three asterisks and an exclamation point mean. I think that's somebody with a third testicle. Mmm. Mmm. Oh, I can see that.

Yeah. They're hanging behind the, behind the shlong there. They're hanging back in the cut. Yeah. You know, they're there if you want to get them involved in the action, but they don't need to be. You've got to be really into ball's play to go for that third test, do you, don't you? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, there's someone out there for everyone. Uh-oh. Uh, this next one is from Roder, and it is to Joe, Dan, and Leah. It says, the following, when I worked at Camp, we had a game that involved asking, do you want to buy a duck as its central feature? So Joe, Dan, and Leah, introducing me to this podcast has warped that for me. Do you want a rock-a-knuck?

It's the essential question. I could see, do you want a rock and knuck, being a fun game at greatest JenCon 2017? I could see that. I could see a consent being a big, big part of that game. Yeah, I hope everybody coming to greatest JenCon 2017 is as big a fan of consent as Raker. Absolutely.

And Nuck, to be quite honest. So, to Roder, as well as Sarge, we thank you for placing your ads with us. Placing your ad trust with us, really. I mean, because it's not just about writing your message, it's about trusting us to deliver it in a way that works for you. I hope we've done that in this case. Indeed. If you would like to place an ad of a personal nature, you can go to maximumfund.org slash jumbo-tron where personal messages like these are $100 and corporate slash business messages are for 200 and they really help us produce this your podcast you're listening to right now. Yeah much appreciated everybody now back to the show.

Hey Ben. What's that Adam? Did you find in the course of your harsh interrogation? of your harsh interrogation. A drunk Shimoda this episode. Drunk Shimoda! I was down at Admiral Henry. Just good. That guy just puts on a look of disgust and walks out. And that's like basically all he's there to do. You know, he's there to be a gold star on set.

He until he decides that she's doing the wrong thing. And I thought that the guy just took that very simple wordless role and knocked it out of the park. And that guy was also in Crimson Tide. Oh, that's a great callback. Yeah. Good spot. Ben, this is one of those episodes

where we have a rare double Shimoda. Yeah! I also chose Admiral Henry. His no-diolog-ness was, it definitely stuck out to me as a financial choice more than anything. I feel like if you're the actor who plays Admiral Henry, you've got to be excited to be a part of the show. You get the script and you're flipping through it and you're like, I don't see any highlighter in here. Yeah. I believe there's been some sort of mistake. I mean, I'm wearing an admiral's uniform. Nothing. Really? I'm getting

paid as an extra. And I wonder if he wasn't a subtle jab at Clarence Thomas because he played the Clarence Thomas role to a T in his wordlessness. Yeah. 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 got 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 Camille Nangeani.

I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which is impossible to use. Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org. Look, your podcast apps already open. Just pull it out, give Jordan Jesse Goatry. Being smart is hard, be dumb instead. Oh, rats, 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've got to 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, but 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 to by two. What do you think? Ona Ross & Kerry, available on MaximumFun.org.

Ben, what do we have coming up on the next episode? The next episode is season 4, episode 22, Half a Life. Is this season almost over yet? 22 Eps. I think there's 26 in this season, maybe. Ooh, there's a lot of it. Picard Risks War, when he offers an asylum to a visiting scientist Whom wishes to escape the ritual suicide

Mandated by his society who breaks this shit. Oh, whom wishes Whom watches the watchers This is a little walk-sana episode Adam. Do you remember it? No, oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Is there going to be a suicide booth in this episode? I love those. Like Bender and uh, yeah. Future Rama. I think that this guy is like a brilliant scientist who doesn't quite take it over the finish line with his brilliant science career and then he's like well. So he's clearly old, right? Because those are the only scientists we get on the show yes and male and white right but hot wife

Yeah, it's like a fucking CBS show that way mostly it's walks on a trying to Trying to have sympathetic phone loves with him and yeah, this this would have been the second veto for me. Ooh, man. If I wielded both vetoes. Excited for season five. Already, as we wander through this shadow of Laxana, you know what gives me confidence in addition to my rod and staff? Ben, it's the uh, it's the continuing contributions from our viewers.

Yeah, there are a couple runneth over when they go to maximumfund.org slash donate. True. God, that was... We don't plan this stuff guys. It also runneth over when they go to maxfunstore.com and buy our beloved shirts It may be wintertime, but I'm telling you you put that you put that t-shirt over a long sleeve shirt. It's a great look That is a good look. Look a Henley Yeah, I Notice something on reddit the other day

Somebody was saying that they kind of didn't didn't love that we were using the likeness of a real person in our Shimoto shirt without any kind of permission or anything. And I think that's maybe a valid criticism that hadn't really occurred to me before we did it. But it made me think about, like, we had a conversation a few episodes ago by about an iTunes review that was, in my opinion, really uncool because it compared us to the alt-right. And the person who wrote that also put up a post and said, like, hey, I was totally joking and I really feel badly that it was interpreted as being as offensive as it was.

And between that and the comment about this remote assured, it just reminded me that we always kind of approach these things. Like, I think all people kind of approach their actions under the assumption that they're, you know, good people doing good. And occasionally, like, and I think that for the most part, that Drunk Shemoto shirt has been really well received, and I think people think it's funny, and I think that we weren't thinking about like exploiting somebody for personal gain or anything when we did it. We like the character and we want to

celebrate the kind of joyful nature of his performance and that's what the segment is about on our show and I think that's what the shirt means to us and to the people that have been excited to get it. But I think that you are totally as valid in your reaction to it as I was in my reaction to the alt-right iTunes review. I just want to clarify that we're doing that as a celebration and you know like our show is about our love of this thing and if you're not crazy about it like if you're not crazy about every decision we make like know that

we're trying to get better at this as we go, and I still think it's a really funny shirt, and I hope that you'll forgive the perceived crassness of it. And I hope that you'll forgive the tone deafness of it, if in fact it was tone deaf. Yeah, well put. If you've got comments on any of the decisions we've made on either show or merch, we're easy to find.

You can use the email address drunkshamota at gmail.com. We're on Twitter as atCoverTime and at Benjamin ahr. Yeah, that email address is also how you enter our contest. Not much time left to get us over the thousand review mark. And I'm really excited to do it. So, we should thank Dark Materia for our music and Adam Rebucia for our other music. And we should thank the great folks at MaximumFund.org for providing so much support to our show and with that we will be back at you next week with another great episode of Star Trek,

the Next Generation and a carat city and old and white and scientific episode of the greatest generation. Yeah. Serious Star Trek cast. That was like, uh, that was real serious a bunch of times. Yeah. Serious Star Trek cast. That was like an episode of Mission Log. Yeah, but more vaginal. Alright, I'm going to hit stop. Maximumfund.org. Comedy and culture. Artists Don't.

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