The Greatest Generation - Negative Inseam (TNG S1E8)

Episode Date: June 15, 2026

When the crew needs shore leave and the Entrepreneur finds a paradise planet, their first contact with some sexy humanoids leads to a second away team beaming down. But after Wesley’s clumsy fall gets him sentenced to death, the Captain receives a message from God and Lawyer Picard beams down to argue the case. Who is a noncombatant in this planet’s sexual war? What have we learned about Europeans and Klingons? How are Mintakan and Edo tapestries different? It’s the episode that can’t be comfortable while sitting down.Support the production of our shows Members get benefits including bonus episodes and an ad-free experienceSign up for our mailing list!Get a thing at podshop.biz!The Greatest Generation is hosted by Adam Pranica and Benjamin Ahr Harrison The show is produced by Wynde PriddySocial media is managed by Rob Adler and Bill TilleyMusic by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaDiscuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen and find us on social media:YouTube | Instagram | BlueskyAnd check out these online communities run by FODs: Reddit | USS Hood Discord | Facebook group | Wikia | FriendsOfDeSoto.socialSupport the production of The Greatest Generation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Want to hear an ad-free version of this show? Go to greatest.supercast.com. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage. Welcome to The Greatest Generation. It's a Star Trek podcast. A couple of guys just a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast. I'm Adam Pranica.

I'm Ben Harrison. How you doing today, Adam? Doing great. Just so much going on. I'm a house husband. been, Ben? One of those last-minute work trips my wife ended up taking at the beginning of the week that is just like spun out just about every day into a new adventure. Lots to do. We love when somebody else's thing has great implications for us. I think you've known this for longer than I have.

my specific temperament and instinct is to just always concentrate on the next thing I'm doing, like the thing I'm doing and the next thing. And I'm not looking down the road. Like, it's just this and then that. That keeps me from blowing my brains out. And it has just been a lot of, like, head down this and then next to make the last couple of days happen. Because behind the scenes, it's been like a lot of, a lot of show work. Yeah. But also, a lot of admin work too. Yeah. I think we've come to maybe the end of like

one of the busiest chapters we've ever had in the history of these shows. Yeah. I think now. Now we can kind of go back to normal, maybe a little bit, if there ever was a normal. We're just normal, man.

I'm going to appreciate normal so much after this couple months of abnormal. And really what has been like a couple months after over a year of pretty high tension stuff happening over here. Well, I just love watching this episode. Yeah. Do you want to slip into something more comfortable? Felt very lucky to be able to slip into this for my job today. Yeah. Maybe today more than ever. Yeah. Felt really nice. What a feast for the senses this episode is. Ben, let's get right in

to it. It's one of the great TNG episodes. One of the legendary episodes. Indeed. One of the most memorable, certainly. It's season one episode eight and it's called Justice. We have discovered a planet in the, it's not the Rubicon system. It's the Rubicon system. And I thought that that might be a piece to fancy pronunciation thing. And I did the thing where you go back and it gives you the subtitles because you went back. It's Rubicon. I can't call it the Ruba C-word system given what we see so much of this episode, right? That would be wrong. Well, yeah, I mean, he's an Englishman, so it has like a slightly different, you know, it doesn't have... It's all right for them. It doesn't have the same weight over there. Right. Oh, except for he's French.

In the show, he's French. So it doesn't... Does that take his plot armor off? You can see how confusing it is for someone like me who really wants to use that word so badly. They tiptoe right up to it, but they don't go over the line. So this is a first contact, and Picard is logging about how we just sent it away team. Seems like a really great planet. Just overall, just a spectacular spot, and we're very glad we found. it. And he's talking to Troy about how, you know, they're, they're shaped just like us.

Maybe they have all the same holes and everything. That's what you said a few missions ago, Captain. But Yarr got kidnapped. And we never talked about that mission again. So I don't know. There is that feeling threaded throughout the cold open here, which is like paradise could have been found, but no one's comfortable with the idea quite yet. There's some suspicion. Picard is deeply suspicious of anything that seems too good to be true. Dr. Crusher comes on the bridge and kind of interrupts their conversation and begins a vibe that she basically has for the rest of the episode, which is that every time she wants to talk to Picard, he is kind of annoyed that she wants to talk to him about something. That's because she won't get in fucking line. Yeah, she does kind of run roughshot right over Troy as she's starting to say something.

Sorry, Troy. The doctor has something very important to tell you, Captain. But yeah, she feels very urgently that the crew needs some shore leave because they've just been setting up a colony world, one system away. And that's not what this ship was designed for. Everyone's exhausted. She's really hoping that when Riker and Data and Yarr return, they will give the... planet below the thumbs up, and that her suspicion that it is a great candidate for shore leave will be confirmed. They come on the bridge looking like they've just come off a month of shore leave. They have taken a European vacation.

Yeah. Is it as good as your report suggests, number one, as per reports of a class M, earthlike, beautiful, it will startle you. Sounds wonderful for the children. They describe like, yeah, you know, they're very neat, and they do a lot of fucking. Kind of like the Jerry Seinfeld of Star Trek species can't recommend going down there highly enough. Not a bad thing to say by anyone. There is one bad thing to say in this scene, though, and it's data that says it.

I know everyone's busy talking about the good time that they've had or will about to have down on the surface. But the sensors have picked up something out in space. Can't really confirm what it is. could be a glitch. Let's hope this planet doesn't have the same glitch our sensors do. Yeah, and to make sure that shore leave will be appropriate for all ages. Wesley is dispatched as a scout to go down to evaluate. It's just occurring to me that data does not go down at all in this episode.

Yeah. I feel like he would be, he could replace the god of the Edo people, given the fact that he is fully functional and programmed in multiple techniques. That's a very interesting note for this episode. I think there are several ways you could break it, and I think that would be a really interesting conflict to begin. Like, you remember when, like, C3PO sits up in the ferns and all the Ewoks start worshipping him? It'd be like that if data went down there.

I wonder how close they came to that. if I'm Riker, who clearly got into some adult recreation down there, I would be so upset if Wesley were to go and to deem it okay for kids. Because the very last place I feel like an adult ever wants to vacation is a resort where there are kids around, unwrangled. Right? Is that just me? Tell me that's you too, Ben. I think different chapters of life, let's just say. You know? Yeah. That does have a great appeal to me now in a way that it may not have in a different chapter.

But we go to theme with like one of the most ominous possible phrases Picard could utter. It's just hope it's not too good to be true. When we get back to the planet, you know, the away team beams down. A couple of people start running toward them. I love Worf like, you know, putting his body between. them and Riker. This can't be a surprise given what Yard did several episodes ago. Like the security person does get in between the authority figure and a stranger.

And there does appear to be stranger danger here when someone's running at you with their junk hanging out. And also like these people are forward, you know? Like I accept that different cultures have different greeting styles. But like getting like a nuzzle. in your neck feels like too, too intimate for first time we're meeting. And Troy feels very uncomfortable.

She gets it from Leotor. Yarr totally for it. Yard knows Leotor, maybe biblically and completely appreciates the nuzzle. I think there's an interesting tension in Deanna Troy throughout this episode. That has a lot to do with the initial discomfort from how affectionate people are,

but the core. corresponding complete innocence that she reads off of these people as an emotional bloodhound. I know what you're thinking. Healthy sensuality, sir. I feel mainly friendship and happiness. She does not read threat off of this at all. She diagnoses it basically as like these people are really into doing things that feel good. And in a not, you know, in a way that is not.

extractive, you know. Everyone gets a hug that suggests maybe more than friendship, except for Wesley, who gets the friendship hug from Ravon, a hug in a style that Wesley would continue to receive for many years. What she says to him is, like, oh, we don't know your custom regarding love. And implicit in that is like maybe you're too young in your culture. Is that kind of what you gathered?

I think it's probably clear from Wesley's discomfort that even if he was of age, he's probably a non-combatant in whatever sexual war is being waged on this planet. Because, like, war could break out at any time. Like, that's one thing that they said when they got onto the bridge, and it's something that happens here. They're like, so, like, you guys want to get down on the grass and just, like, bone away for a bit, or do you want to go check out the council chambers? It is definitely not the choice between this or that.

It's a sequence question, right? Is it laid down on the grass before or after council chamber times? And it looks like that's going to be saved for later. It's council chamber first, which, once Wesley's out of the way, is looking so much like the spa at a fancy resort hotel. Yeah, it's like one part spa, one part dance hall. all sex club. Please, enjoy what we have.

What do you make of this challenge, though? Because I would argue that Enterprise is kind of a paradise too, right? But more of a business person's hotel for longer stays than this kind of island resort hotel that we get with the Edo, right? You wouldn't want everybody to be oiled up this much on the famous. famously carpeted Enterprise D, you know? Nor would you want to have the option for this sort of recreation

at a business person's hotel, right? When Rank is involved, this stuff becomes much more problematic just all the way across the board. And there's like a... Riker says when in Rome to Wharf. Wharf clearly does not know what Rome is, even though he spent a lot of his childhood on earth.

You know, Rome. You know, like Trojans. Like, you'll need some of these four. And then, like, like, drops a rack of cling on condoms that come not like one on top of the other, but one side by side. Yeah, I like that. There's still a sensor ghost up on the bridge, and Picard is like, all right, well, why don't we, like, point the camera at what you're picking up? And they, like, swivel the exterior camera over a bit, and there's nothing there. And unprompted data just throws a hail at the empty space there. And that works.

I didn't think he was allowed to do that. It seems like something you would run by the captain. but I mean, he's the second officer. I guess he has some executive functions. I also really like how the appearance of the rotating space base automatically triggers a red alert fire alarm here. I thought that was neat. That was neat.

One of the things that they do in the, like, in the scramble when they notice that this thing is out there is Picard orders Jordy to like go down somewhere where there's an actual window and go look out the window and see what that looks like because we are getting crazy readings on the sensors. The camera is showing something that is sort of translucent, which doesn't make a lot of sense. Let's see what's really out there. I feel like this is a quality to the view screen and Jordi's ability that they don't really turn into a thing that feels implied here, that somehow the view screen camera is unable to be experienced by Jordy in a way that would make his analysis possible. He needs to see it through his visor. Right. And not through a camera as seen with a visor,

right? Yeah. That intermediating optical sensor like reduces the amount of information so much that you don't get the benefit of the visor. This is also one of the, episodes where Enterprise feels so big because they're constantly ducking into random quarters that are unoccupied. From the Starboard lounge, you can see whatever is outside this vessel. This is, I think, the first of several instances where someone just pops open a door, goes to a window, and checks out what's outside. Data gets a response that takes a little while to translate and eventually he comes up with. It said stand by and then they see something very small rocket out of the structure there in space. And it's a little glowing light that kind of zips around and then goes up into the ship.

And this sort of transparent bowling ball makes its way up through the floor and like through bulkheads. You could just kind of go wherever it wants. It seems like when it arrives at the bridge It might speak in bangers As a language Do you think that this was just like An alien trying to communicate Whereas like I don't know what volume they're used to

So I'll try just like this one State the purpose Oh yeah that seemed to be way too loud for them Let me turn it down See if that's a little bit better State the purpose of what you have done It appears to be a mic technique thing by whatever's over there.

I'm sorry, what's that? What is that phrase you just said? Exactly. The bubble wants to know if they're going to do the thing that they just did at that other planet. Are you leaving your fucking life forms here? Did you just pull in

so that you could leave a bunch of life forms here? Is that what you're going to try? Picard as Captain and Diplomat tries to make the case. Hey, we're just explorers, man. and also we come in peace. We don't plan on staying and leaving folks behind this time, even though we did that at the last planet we visited. So you didn't have to worry about that.

This bowling ball is also very curious about data and whether data was constructed for information exchange. And pretty soon data like falls over on his back and the ball just kind of like, rests on his forehead for the next 10 or 20 minutes of runtime. Pretty good effect here with the way it is attached to his forehead and follows him to the ground the way it does. Yeah, it tracks him really, really perfectly.

I think we've seen really bad versions of this before, and this is not an example of that. Really good stuff. Speaking of balls, down on the planet, Wesley and the kiddos are running. around doing goofs, showing off their various physical capabilities. They also have a game of ball on this planet and would like to see what Wesley could get up to. It's funny how when Wesley tries to, you know, pivot the game into something he's familiar with, like baseball and then try to describe a bat to one of the girls. his version of baseball is not hers

because when he like makes the circumference hand around what he is suggesting could be used as a bat, the way she looks at that hand is very suggestive, right? It is and I think that this is just a classic lost in translation thing because what he's showing her, the hand gestures he's showing her,

she is interpreting as profoundly lurid. He's just trying to think about baseball so he doesn't pop a boner. in front of her. About this long, this thick. A very different kind of ballgame is being played all over the council chamber, Ben, which Riker couldn't help but comment on to Wharf, who I think could have told a sexual version of the story where he kicked a soccer player's head off to Riker here as a way

to convey how dangerous he is in a lovemaking situation. He only, he like, he pulls it back a lot and only suggests that Earth women could not possibly take him on at full strength. They are quite fragile, sir. For as Libertine as the Edo are, they don't seem to be like into impact play or like power exchange stuff, you know, at least not openly. Like, maybe that stuff does happen behind closed doors. Or like double T's inside orifices, the way. We now know Wharf would bring it. Yeah, I mean, like double penetration with a single partner feels like an adventure that some people might want to go on.

And Warf maybe just comes from a headspace that is too closed off, too prudish to see the potential opportunity here. And I welcome this huge one. Like, these people might be perfect for him. Oh, yes. It's funny how to Wharf. the two dicks has nothing to do with the danger he presents to the Edo. He's not thinking about that at all. No, no.

He's thinking about popping people's heads off. If he does, like, draw it back enough that he could do it with them, like, that's no fun for him. Right. So. Ben, does the rope go through both cling on dicks? Or is it just through one primary dick? There are four balls. So maybe there's two.

separate rope. Do they have two, uh, prostates? They do, don't they? They must have two prostates. They have redundancies all over the place. Just stick your fingers in both butt holes to massage both prostates. Yeah. And I think ropes fly through both cling on dicks. It would have to, right? It would have to. Because you must, uh, shoot the sperm at both cling on eggs on the other side, right? Uh-huh. Wait. Does that mean Every Klingon womb

Is actually twins? Lursa and Betoer makes so much more sense now We need to return to this Yeah And write a paper Or something Yeah Is

Is Kern Wharf's twin brother? Yeah And then I feel like the Klingons Would like Have a thing We're like

Yeah like if you are born With a twin Which is very likely You should probably Try to kill your twin because they're going to try and kill you, and we'd really like the stronger of the two to be the one that makes it to adulthood.

Ben, you would know what this is called. I can't quite remember it, but like when a family has two kids and the kids are born almost exactly nine months apart. Oh, yeah, the Irish twins. Are Klingon twins like that but different? That's not my term, by the way. I think Irish and space Irish are both beautiful cultures, and that is an unfortunate stereotype.

The way I pimped you into that was just like shoving you down an elevator shaft. Yeah. I mean, you're Polish. Like, you should be the one saying that type of shit. Yeah. When you're European, you can say anything. That's what we've learned this episode. It would just be Catholic on Catholic crime at that point, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. There's no comms with the ship. And Riker is like, all right, well, I was looking to drop a couple more nuts before we headed back. But maybe we should get the away team all together in a group just so we have eyes on. And Wharf wanders over to where Yarr is. and she is like just getting a load of the complete lawfulness that the Edo enjoy. She's like, have you heard this, Wharf?

This is like the opposite of the planet I come from. And this is when a bomb gets dropped. They're like, yeah, because like the mediators set up the punishment zone and nobody knows where the punishment zone is. So you have to assume you're always in the punishment zone. And that's why nobody commits a punishment zone. crime. The zone I really want to talk about for just a brief moment, Ben, is the zone of costuming on this episode. Because I feel like with what the Edo are wearing, running around and standing seems like one thing. But when Ravon and Leotor are sitting down with Yarr, it is

something else entirely to keep things contained. And this. This person should receive an Emmy for the engineering happening here to keep things from spilling out. I feel like friends bit this rhyme with the guy with the running shorts that were a little too revealing. Yeah. These costumes were only thought through for the standing and running version. I'm a fairly modest man. And when I sit down on a bench or something and I'm wearing shorts and the shorts naturally

like crawl up my thighs, I don't love that. I don't love that personally. And yet, I'm not wearing a two-inch inseam the way Leitore is, which turns into half an inch when you're sitting. If that, if you're lucky. Yeah. You're talking negative inseam at a certain point. I mean, if you're wharf, like, there's a lot that could get gobbled up, you know. You want to hope that concrete bench is at least a little warm.

Yeah. Oh yeah. I bet the Iido have like, have like hydronic warming built into everything, you know? Isn't there massage oil just on everything, though? Like every surface? They don't seem to be putting up the saran wrap everywhere, the way the Sheraton Pittsburgh was. I know. So like as scandalized as everybody is by the costuming of the Edo, they are also quite concerned about this thing that they're learning that you can. and get killed even for doing bad things that are little. Like, whatever Wesley might be getting up to. We better find that kid, ASAP, just in case he's in the punishment zone.

Kill walking a doggy. Here's the thing, Ben, and I don't want to make too much of a case for this. It really does simplify the laws on the books and the punishments for them, right? When it's all just gathered into death and your patrol zones are just very specifically, one thing and not any other thing, you just got to avoid those zones, it seems like. What do they do about like credit card fraud

on the Edo planet, though? If it occurs outside the enforcement zone, I think you're fine. That's what's so wild. It's like there's so much luck involved. Bad luck, I mean. But like the mediators aren't going to see you on your laptop,

like going on the dark web and doing identity theft, you know? Why would you need to on a planet like this? It's paradise. Yeah. Nobody needs to, like, order a bunch of crap off Amazon or whatever. Aren't the Edo really lucky that it's Enterprise who encountered them and not some other bad actors that we've met over the course of the entire run of TNG?

Could you imagine what Kivas Vajjo would do on this planet? What he would take? I mean, the capabilities of the thing in the sky remain unrevealed. and I do like the idea of Kivas or the Ferengi trying some shit and testing it out. Do not interfere with my children below. You know how fucking surprising it was when lore came back with the new Borgs in dissent? Like, what if instead of the Borgs, lore came back with the Edo as his army? It would be hard to take them seriously.

a pleasant day to you. Oh man, that ship would have had a totally different design, wouldn't it? It would, and it would be death by broken pelvis. Scary to think about. Yeah. Leotor and Ravon just like totally perplexed why the away team is so quick to run to see about the boy. And of course, Wesley gets into some trouble, goes through the, flower patch like a fucking dip shit.

Oh no. Oh, please no. When the mediators arrive, you sort of assumed that the rules would be more lenient when Thomas Keller is involved? I mean, if only this was Gavin Newsom crashing through the plants instead,

the rules of society wouldn't apply like they do here. Fair. Fair point. They ask him, and he's like, oh yeah, I'm fine. I fell through the little bug screen on your on your flower patch there and they're they're shocked that he is honest about what happened and yeah he's like oh you know what it's actually the guiding principle upon which starfleet is based

oh my god he i mean this appears to be an open and check case right we've got an apology that seems like a big part of it witnesses uh we got all the damage here the away team is running up as this is all being enumerated. Yeah. Yarr realizing that she may have dropped the ball even worse than Wesley did. I thought you reviewed their laws. But they listed nothing about punishment.

The death penalty by lethal injection has been authorized. And when Thomas Keller goes to administer the punishment, he's thrown down. And then it's keyfob phasers up in a sort of a standoff here. There's a line. that explains why the away team isn't in way more trouble generally,

and it's just Wesley, which is that you're all lucky that the punishment zone is over. So like in between Wesley falling through that bug screen and the away team showing up, the enforcement zone ended. And so Riker punching that guy and Warf and Yarr making the other guy drop the lethal injection. thing, not going to be crimes that are enforced by the Edo.

We're going to have to look the other way on those. I thought the same thing. And I was so curious about whether or not it was a time on the clock thing or if it was if you commit a crime in the enforcement zone, does it negate all other crimes within that zone once someone is found guilty there? Like, does it have to move to a different spot? I feel like that would just invite somebody saying like, hey, listen, man, you've got cancer, you don't have a lot of time left anyway. I will give your family a hundred thousand

Edo dollars if you'll do a crime in the enforcement zone so that I can go do an even bigger crime where I steal like $200,000 but nobody can touch me. It's like looting an electronic store. As soon as the brick is thrown through the plate glass window, everyone just rushes. Coms are still out. Data still comms. muning with the bowling ball. And on the bridge, they're like trying to figure this out. Crusher is like, you know, his vital signs or whatever he has in place of vital signs seem really good. But I don't know what to say, Picard, he's down. And he's like, well, I hope he's just like talking to them. Maybe that's all that's happening. It's clear there's a powerlessness to this

moment. Like, no one's moving to remove the thing from Data's head. But it's a good thing it removes itself. And it kind of blurps away here. Maybe he's like, living an entire life and when he comes back, he's going to have a flute in his hand or something. Let's explore that as a possibility. Season one, episode eight, becomes the most beloved episode of Star Trek the next generation ever. It was weird how it just began with a bunch of semi-nude folks and then turned into this incredible story of a person living their entire life in 40 minutes. perseverance and

elegiac nature of a society trying to memorialize itself when it knows that it's facing certain doom. Yeah. Coms are back and Riker's like, hey, so shit is going bad with one of the members of the away team

and I'm going to need you to come down here. here. Riker being non-specific, I think is smart because if he were to say Wesley was in trouble, what do you think are the chances that Picard would act as quickly as he is in this moment? I mean, I'm also thinking about Beverly being potentially on the bridge. It's like when you call somebody and they're in their car. Like, you don't know who else is in the car. So you are a little bit careful with what information you divulge. It is. so amazing that we both had very different reads on that moment, and yet they both seem like they could be very plausible. Yeah. Data and Crusher are going to go to Six Bay. Picard enters the

council chamber, and it is a decidedly less joyful vibe in there now. Like nobody is getting a rub down. Nobody is like pounding away on that ass in the background. They've converted massage tables into regular tables. You hate to see it. You don't want to set your drink through that face hole. So embarrassing every time that happens. And like when you put a table covering on, it's just like it is asking for that to happen every time, you know?

Ravon and Leotor make the case that the greatness of their society comes from the enforcement of these laws that have existed for generations. And it's something they're very proud of. Sorry it's bothering you, but that's just the way it is down here. We regret that our system of justice is troubling you. Picard does his best to find common ground with him. He's like, hey, we used to execute prisoners all the time. It was like our main thing for many years.

We loved it even. But we don't do that anymore. Leitur and Ravon interpret this as Picard kind of sub-tweeting them. It's like, oh, so we're the fucking barbarians down here. in our beautiful utopian society where everybody just fucks and has a good time all the time. We are not yet as advanced as they are.

I like that Picard is pretty careful about not doubling down on this. Like he could say like, everybody in our society does the same exact shit. Like we're all like uptight weirdos on our ship. But like back home, it's basically this. Just without the capital punishment part, you know? One of the main ways to break this episode, I think, is to wonder why consideration of the

Prime Directive didn't start at the very beginning. Like, they knew they were going to visit a species that had not achieved space travel. They knew that these were primitives, basically. And yet, they continued to intermingle with them without any consideration of the consequences. I feel like the no pre-war pre-war pre-war. contact element of the prime directive isn't there yet in the like in the writer's heads. Like I don't think that they've like quite described what the prime directive is yet. And I think it is smart that eventually they realize that like contact with a culture that

can't achieve warp is in itself like meddling with their development. Because it like really reminded me of the, uh, the mintockins, you know, like the experience that Rivan has going up to the ship is so much like the Mintocken lady that Picard takes up to the ship. You ever get a look at a Mantakin tapestry next to an Ido tapestry? Like the Mintacin tapestry is like almost a foot wide. And it's got like little danglies on either end. The Edo one is just like two postage stamps and then like a shoestring connecting to a third posted stamp. There's a lot less to it.

You'd not want to put that on the back of a chair. I don't think. Yeah. And also, like, when you pick it up, you're like, what is, there's like some residue on this. What is that? Yeah, there's some crust. You mentioned this earlier, Ben, but, but like the passive aggressiveness of a past person in this moment is so striking when Leotor's like, we're going to put off the punishment we want to do and put into the record that your advanced species prevented us.

from doing to him what he deserved to have. Like, this isn't a choice by us to be more lenient, at least in the official record. Like, there's a big deal made of this. Yeah, if, you know, he'll be, like, convicted in absentia, essentially. And if you guys want to use your vast superior technology and power to, uh, to take him away, like, like, go for it. We'll think you're giant assholes, but we can't stop you.

We'll give you until sundown to do that. We understand that this is very confusing, so you can have a few hours to think things over. And Picard is like, hey, maybe more important than whatever's going on with this ass wipe that you want to stick a lethal injection in. What's that thing up there? You guys know what that is? And they're like, oh, you're talking about God? The way Ravon and Leotor talk about God makes it seem like they have something to fear there. Don't they?

This is a vengeful God is very much the way they play their discussion of the situation with Picard. Old Testament space God is what this is. Yeah. Is that like ATM machine? Is that like, is Old Testament God also space God? I feel like he is. I feel like Old Testament God is flat earth God, you know? Hmm.

Maybe not. I don't know. I don't know what people knew. Ravon is invited back to Enterprise with Picard and Troy. And while they're there, she's given a tour, a tour that's interrupted by Dr. Crusher wanting an update on her son. But that gets cut off pretty quickly here. The tour is more important, Dr. Crusher.

Yeah, there was some, like, Troy, like, you got to tell him. Like, down, like when he was on the radio at Crusher earlier. And he's like, no, no, I want to do that in person. Like, that's got to be handled with kid gloves. I'm going to do it, like, privately. And somehow she found out in between that phone call and him beaming up. Yeah. They dip into some random crew quarters.

From the starboard lounge, you can see whatever is outside this vessel. And outside of that window is the god that she and the rest of the Edo worship. She drops to a knee in front of it, and she is scared shitless. Picard has a lot of questions. Like, how do you know what it looks like? And she's like, you know, sometimes it shows up. Are you, like, is something happening between you and it right now? Like, are you communicating with it in some way that I can't see?

And before she can answer, it starts to move toward the ship and demand that she get sent home. Pretty fast action by Picard, right? taking off the com badge, sticking it on her, getting her beam down. Yeah, his own com badge. The bangers are dropping all around them. It's urgent. He feels really bad about how freaked out she clearly was once she's out of there. Like, once she's out of the room, he's like, oh, man, I might not have played that exactly right.

Oh, Dr. Crusher, I presume you have something absorbent here for the carpet. Is there a steam mop in the closet? One unfortunate aspect of the Edo costuming is very little coverage of the place where feces and urine emerge. When an Edo is confronted with existential terror, it is very much like what our species does.

I was trying to put a Shakespearean spin on piss and shit, and I was like, just go clinical. Like the gears clicking. in my head who's like, it doesn't need any more than that. Yeah. When I was in the hospital recently and they did the CT scan, my nurse that had been taking care of me came in. He's like, yeah, man, we got the CT scan.

You're full of shit. Hmm. Exciting. It was like, thank you for putting it in those easy to understand terms. I love that. Give it to me straight. So, Picarda misses no beats. like, all right, let me go talk to Data who is now awake. I'll talk to you, Dr. Crusher, about Wesley

on the way. And this is like, you know, she has tried over and over again to engage with him on like what's going on with my son. And now he's like, listen, here's the deal. Like, the whole ship might be at risk. We don't know what that thing out there is capable of. I got to thread a needle. I understand that you're stressed, but you got to calm down. Calm down. I think it's interesting that at no point, and I'm not saying this is right, at no point does Dr. Crusher ever feel guilty or present as feeling guilty for being the one so interested in taking shore leave on this planet and her son going too,

right? Wouldn't you feel a little bit responsible for this if you're her? I mean, like... I know I'm asking Ben. Harrison, who would feel responsible utterly for this? But I'm talking about Beverly, who I think should bear a little bit of the blame here. But it's like, I mean, like, if you send your kid to summer camp and they fall off their horse or whatever, or like their canoe flips, it's not like your fault for sending them to summer camp. I mean, it's my fault. It's not your fault. It's

always your fault, but I think there is a type of parental personality that would reflexively go like, God, I shouldn't have sent them to summer camp. So stupid. I am the cutest of all. Lock face is on my best. I am the cutest of all. There are all lights. Data describes the communication he had with the ball.

There's not just one guy over there. It's like kind of a ship full of people, but it's like maybe a little bit not in the way we would think of that. It's funny how what Data describes is basically. a star base with people inside and yet can't quite get there in his description. He does say that dropping those other people off at that colony may have been a bad choice and those people may be doomed. Are the globals, the people that live there? Is that what your understanding is?

I interpreted that as some device that they sent over, but maybe they're global people. because it's a little annoyed with the way data is kind of over and under explaining everything in ways that are hard to predict and hard to understand. Of course, there are 3,004 other planets in this star cluster in which we could have colonized. The largest and closest. Data, don't babble. I've seen you be this annoyed in meetings before. You know, it happens.

How can you tell? You using the raise hand function in a Zoom meeting. That was one of my finest techniques. I mean, why would the button be there unless you're allowed to use it the way I did? Sometimes you have to use it. But yeah, I would never personally. Anyways. Got to try that button then.

They got a genuine conundrum here, which is like the very, very, very very very, Values and morals of the people, ball people, or whatever they are over there, are unknowable. They know about the prime directive because they downloaded everything that data has in his head. So are they going to be like pissed at us for breaking our own rule if we get out of here with Wesley alive? At Beverly does not give a fuck about that. She's like, stop talking about it in this academic way. This is my son we're talking about. My son.

And yet, you can tell. through this performance that Beverly Crusher presumes that the prime directive will be followed and it will be a death sentence for Wesley. Like she knows Picard. She knows what he's leaning towards before he leans toward it. Like this is probably going to be what he does. And that's probably what's going to happen because of it, right? I think so. I love that he's like walking around badgeless for these couple of scenes. It is never a priority for him to get around. replacement badge. This would drive me nuts. He must have walked past three dozen replicators on his way to Six Bay. He goes to, I guess, his quarters. I think this might be the first time we see

his quarters and he's sitting there just kind of like puzzling it through. I don't feel like these are his quarters. And here's why. Okay. Quarters are configured to where there's a, there's a corridor and then the quarters and then the window. Yeah. But the door that Data comes through. Seems to be like the sort of hotel room that has an adjoining room that you can open up a side door to go inside. Right. Like if you're going with your family and you need more than one room. That's why I don't think these are quarters like that because Data's door is not the door to the corridor. Yeah. From the starboard lounge, you can see whatever is outside this vessel. Do you call it a corridor door? Corridor door? I think so.

That little passageway in between the two rooms. I mean, when I was on the crew team in high school, like, we hotboxed that, you know. If you cut that entrance into four pieces, would it be a quarter corridor door? Oh, yeah. And if you, like, needed the burn rating on those apertures to be, like, pretty high,

you would probably go with a solid core quarter corridor door. Yeah. Yeah, we're cooking now. We're back, baby. We never left. Data is trying to chat with him about the thing that's out there. They never really come up with a name. Like they call it an object and like maybe a vessel.

They never really like name it. And Picard is like, hey, man, I know I was kind of short with you earlier about babbling. Like, that was not my finest moment. You were doing your best and I kind of jumped down your throat. but we got a real problem on our hands, a real conundrum. And the needs of the many argument comes up as like, are we really going to risk everybody on this ship

for one guy? And Picard fucking rejects it. Yeah. He is not going to think about it in those terms. The way he sees it, it's like, save the boy and spoil the ship. Because he knows that in order to save them would mean certain death by that.

thing out there? Yeah. Yeah. Sure seems on the table. Crusher comes in and she wants permission to go down there, which Picard has anticipated. You can come with me, Beverly. Also, just so we're clear, I know I've left you like hanging on this hook for 20 minutes at this point.

I'm not going to let your boy die. But semantically, it's interesting what he says, right? he will not allow Wesley to be executed is very different from he won't be executed, right? Yeah. Like, I think to hear someone say they will do everything in their power leaves open the possibility

that everything in their power will be unsuccessful, right? I mean, I think he has to qualify it that way because they don't know what the fucking thing out there can do or can't do. Yeah. So data gets left in command.

We're back down in the council chambers, Riker says like, why don't you go get him? Like, it's about time for you to do your horrible thing. And Picard and Crusher beam down. And Rivan has really had, like, a day. She comes and gives him his badge and does the same thing that Matakun lady does. She's like, oh, so like, you guys are like that other thing. You are also gods.

Like, we're a monotheistic culture, but, like, maybe we need. to like open our minds up a little bit. They gave Deanna Troy a Troy react shot earlier when they first bemed down to Ido that I feel like would be welcome here when when Rivan gets down on one knee in front of a card. Like to get a react from Beverly here would be pretty fun, I think. I think so. Yeah. I remember when Beverly used to get on her knees before the captain's yachts.

It was not a combat she was handing me, though. Wesley comes in. He's not like in handcuffs and leg irons. It just wanders in. Are you going to let them kill me? No. The mediators are just crestfallen to hear this. They're like, come on.

This is our way. You've got to let us do our way. Please. Yeah. Thomas Keller's laid in on pretty thick. Like he's got an off. set spatula. Mm.

Putting some frosting. Yeah. On a delicious dessert. You picture him like with tweezers putting microgreens on something, but it's not that at all. Yeah. You think he ever begs his sous chef to replay the thing? No.

No. He's fucking... He's getting in their faces. Yeah. He really wants to go gnomah on their ass. But, Picard is like, okay, like you've got your laws. I've got my laws.

Prime Directive is one of them, but I am also bound to protect my crew from bullshit, which this is. And they're like, well, I guess that's between you and God. And Ravon clearly is the only person that believes that Picard and his people have power, anything close to what they have. I like that Wesley brings the needs of the many thing back up like Captain like I know I'm like I've been like kind of a bonehead the entire time

like it took me a really long time to catch on that they were thinking about killing me in that earlier moment but like there is like a math equation here if you're putting everybody on the ship at risk for me like are you sure? Didn't you wish he made it

a little more about his mom here because she's one of the crew and she would die. I kind of wanted it to be a little more personal like that. Like, yes, crew, but also mom. Can't let that happen. And I guess like in that scenario, he would die too, right? Like he dies both both ways. Yeah. Yeah. Picard is like, all right, put the transporter on standby. We're getting ready to be him out. Leotor is fucking disgusted with them. Like, completely cheesed off with this grave disrespect that is being shown to the Edo. custom. Someone goes up behind Leotaur with like some massage oil, like getting ready to go. And she's like,

no, no, no. I'm not in the mood anymore. You know what? I'm going to, I'm going to say it for the first time in my life. I have a fucking headache right now. Okay. Can you back off? So Picard is like, well, really sorry about this whole situation. Sorry we fuck your day up. Energize. But no This is so embarrassing. The amount of seconds they let this go in an unbroken shot here, I thought it was incredible because I don't think they're supposed to present as embarrassed. I think they're supposed to present as being threatened by the God thing above them that's stopping them from leaving.

But to you and me and the people watching, this is deeply embarrassing what's happened here. Hugely humiliating. Yeah. Beverly is the first one that kind of realizes how embarrassing it is. And she's like, your God is so fucking arbitrary if your God won't let us leave. Like, fuck that. And this is when Picard has to make his appeal to heaven. And he literally looks up and we get the godshot of Picard looking up at like the ceiling of the council chambers.

And the lawyer Picard lines he spits here are absolute. bars. Like, justice is not about orthodox following of the rules. It is about the exceptions. And it's about the spirit of and not the letter of. And without a word, the OA team energizes. And they come back onto the bridge. And Picard's like, all right, like, maybe I should like double check. Like, we should like see if it wants us to like get rid of that colony that we just set up at least, right? So they ask, and the answer they get is a pretty cold shoulder. This thing just blurps away. And they interpret that as permission. The resolution to this episode is so fast. They're like, okay, well, I guess we're not going to turn around. Go ahead then. And Picard orders the

ship to leave, and so they do. And that's the end of the episode. This is becoming a speech. You're the captain, though. They're entitled. I'm tired to ramble on about something everyone knows. I have a problem in life where I like assume that like the best outcome is going to happen like a little too. Like I both know that I'm like deeply unlucky and lose at things all the time. But I also like, I'm like, all right. That is the answer we wanted. And like let's not ask for any clarification because we got the answer we wanted.

And that's kind of how I feel they went. with this. It's the sort of personality that makes you really nice to be around, but has also been a little too persuasive in situations where I needed to remain more neutral. Like, it's kind of a superpower you have in a weird way. And it has, I will say, on occasion, forced me to like put in a lot of energy in resisting your optimism and being more, not pessimistic, but just realistic about things. You and my wife both are very healthy checks on me in this department, but like the enterprise crew doing what I would do is something that often scares me.

And in this case, very specifically, I am deeply worried that they interpreted an equivocal answer as what they wanted to hear and left those poor colonists to their doom. incredible. Not their problem. It's in the rear view between the legs. This is Robinson. You're trying to seduce me. Ben, let's get into Priority One messages, and then after that, a brand new segment.

Priority One message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. You need a supplemental income. Supplement. Supplement. Yeah, it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Ben, we've got a personal priority one message here. It's to my baby girl who will probably never hear this.

And it's from Matt DX Prague Hackman. How great is it that you being born just happens to coincide with TG coming back around to TNG? You screaming for food at 3 a.m. will be a great excuse to re-explore the adventures of the D crew. Then listen to Ben and Adam re-dick and fart about it when we go out on walks. Can't wait to meet you and shower you and daddy kisses. The crying baby girl drop? A boy.

Holy girl. How about that? What a gift we are to just so many people needing entertainment at 3 in the morning. Not the first time we've heard it. Congratulations, DX Prague. This is the argument against all those folks who talk about falling asleep to podcast. No, we're keeping people awake. I've started to listen to like book on tapes when I go to sleep.

Is book on tapes attorneys general? Is that? Oh, books on tape. Yeah, you're right. Ben, I was willing to believe it. I'm wrong. You're right. Congratulations. Matt, that's great news.

And, you know, the 3am thing, it comes and goes. You're going to be out of it before you know it. I know it feels like the longest, craziest thing in the world. but it does end. Our next priority one message is from SV. It's to Ben and Adam. It goes like this. I'm excited to hear you starting over with TNG.

I think you should bring back the veto option. When you started, my fear would veto and you wouldn't have a complete library. So now you can veto and just repost the original show. Think it over while you play the O'Brien, then Harry Kim drop. I am Chief Miles Edward O'Brien. This is fucking. Spectacular. Something about it reminds me of being in the womb.

Get up, Harry. Who are you? Harry Kim. Parents must be very proud. Who are you? They come as a pair. Who are you? Harry Kim.

Who else is she supposed to get chummy with? Harry Kim and your mom? Very proud. Who are you? Harry Kim. I lasted 22 minutes. And your mom? Very proud.

Harry Kim. Who are you? Harry Kim. It is something to consider. I think Wendy would love that more than anyone. How about news? And yet, there's something that I'm enjoying very much about this second pass through TNG. Like, I want to do them all.

I'd be very disappointed to not. Yeah. It's fun to redo it. I don't want to discourage folks like SV from suggesting ideas for future shows, though. Like, bring them on. Bring them on. Slide into the P1s. Ben, our final priority one message is, to you and me, it's from Nick, from San Jose.

Here's how that goes. B&A! Congrats on finishing all Star Trek everywhere. I can't wait for the pod's second lap. Now, a humble request. Would you consider making a bonus app about the Star Trek novel The Good That Men Do? History says Tripp died defending Archer, but what that book presupposes is, maybe he didn't. Wow.

Maybe there's a redacted history, not told, by Rikers' Holodeck program. Okay. Like the idea of a book club that Nick is proposing here? Like the idea of Tripp and not Malcolm Reed being the more redacted historical character. I keep thinking about what a book club would work like in a podcast, you know? I don't think we could read it like an audiobook. Would we go chapter by chapter? Would we just read the book and then talk about it after?

We did that a couple of times with like the Star Trek Picard novel. that we did. I did that as a book on tape. I think you and I both randomly had a bunch of long periods of travel ahead of us, so we had the time to digest it. But yeah, this doesn't appear to have a book on tape version. I really like the idea from Nick. I think we just need a few more details about how we could possibly do it.

But yeah, it's something I'm open to and something I'm excited about revisiting, because a trip was a real favorite character of ours, and the idea that he might be alive and kicking is an exciting thought. So, yeah. I mean, just an opportunity to do the trip impression again. Almost too good to pass up. Well, the impression that I get is that you might be a friend of DeSoto with a message for us to read as a priority one message.

You can do that by going to podshop.biz. where we sell them. You can get in the queue and get something red on a show just like this one. And you know, doing that goes a long way in supporting the production of our shows. Sure does. And you can call your shot now. You can pick a date on Greatest Trek or Greatest Gen. Greatest Jen's filling up pretty fast, but there's lots of availability for Greatest Trek. And I encourage you to go get after it. Ben, a few episodes ago, I proposed a challenge to you that I thought would only happen once. And because of the type of episode associated with it could only happen once.

But I had so much fun doing that. And you did so well rising to the challenge that I just can't resist bringing it back as a recurring segment. So, Ben, it is time as implausibly. as it sounds for another edition of, but what a public speaker. If you didn't hear the end of the Code of Honor episode, I'm going to set up the challenge. Ben, we are at a big Star Trek convention, and one of the presenting panelists has dropped out. They're looking for a replacement for them because they have a slot to fill, and they are very bad at programming and organizing a Star Trek convention.

What? And some would say they have some kind of weird acts to grind against us in our shows. And that's weird too. Anyway, you've been chosen to be their replacement. Trouble is, we already have the PowerPoint set up and we can't change the topic. On the screen is the title page, Ben. The Edo, we're right. Your job is like a bad dream.

You must improvise a short speech, making the case for, one modern, minor legal or social infraction, not currently punishable by death, but should be. Okay. You must make this opinion sound sincere and convince me of your honesty. You can't betray your true feelings. You've got to act.

And I've got to really believe what you say. People will hear this and think, how can he possibly believe this? but also what a public speaker. Ben, I am instituting no stakes for this. I would just like to hear you do this magic trick again. I think like Kaczynski, it's only science if you can do it twice. So when you are ready, Ben, you must begin.

Tell me, what would you make punishable by death? There's so many tempting, infractions for me to address with capital punishment. And I know you may accuse me of pandering with this. One comes to mind that I think you may agree with me on, something that is so profoundly antisocial, so selfish that it implies a truly sick mind at work. That is this. When you are piloting a motor vehicle around the streets of your city and you are in traffic. It is a busy trafficy day and you decide that you are going to pull into an intersection and stop your car so that you can turn left when there isn't a turn lane and you are therefore holding up all of the cars behind

you. I think that that may be lethal injection time because what that is, theory presupposes is that whatever you're trying to get to is more important than what all of the other motorists on the road are trying to get to when just as easily you can make three rights and go around the block and and be pointed in the right direction and you're not holding anybody up you you have slowed no one down in the process of getting to your destination you know this happens to me like on a regular basis I've been behind the same car pulling into the same parking lot, like, that's a left across the street on my morning commute to drop my kid off at preschool.

I see this car, I know it's license plate, and I, like, get out from behind it with reckless abandon, because I cannot get stuck behind that guy ever again. I can't allow it to happen, and this person deserves whatever comes to them. I mean, it's probably going to be them getting teaboned by somebody when they pull into the parking lot of the workout center that they are going to every single day. But I just find it so profoundly selfish and galling. And while I don't necessarily support the Edo system of justice, I do find it very intriguing in this one instance. Amazing, Ben. Amazing to hear that you have come out in favor of capital punishment for one.

One specific person in the drop-off line. You know I'm on your side on this issue. I recorded a whole episode of Wholesome about turning left, our hit side project podcast that we do with Adam Ragusea. Yeah. If the Friends of DeSoto don't know, Adam is a passionate hater of the left turn. Like almost UPS level, if not a little bit more of a left turn hater.

I was persuaded, Ben. What a public speaker. you are. You have once again risen to the challenge set before you. Well done. I'm going to go celebrate by getting a hot dog at the catering line. The bar is not open yet. No, it wouldn't be. Why would it be? It's 3 p.m. on a Saturday in Las Vegas. We're more interested in some weird vendetta against our show. Well, that was a ton of fun, Ben, and I know we're going to have more fun ahead on next week's episode. Here is our producer, Wendy, to tell you all about it, along with our credits. Bye, bye.

The Greatest Generation is an expert Shemota podcast. It's hosted by Adam Pranika and Ben Harrison, and it's produced and edited by Wendy Pretty. Next week, we'll be back with another episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, so get ready to be in two places at once because we're pulling the Picard maneuver in season one, episode nine, The Battle. Until then, a big thank you to all the members who are supporting this show. If you want to join them and get an ad-free feed, plus a lot of great bonus episodes, go sign up at greatesttrecht.com, or you can also just click the support link in the show notes right there in your podcatcher. And we thank you so much.

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