The Greatest Generation - Perfect Warburton (S7E5)

Episode Date: July 24, 2017

When Picard turns up alive, he "kills" Commander RIker before taking command of the pirate ship. But when the Enterprise puts Data in charge of the rescue mission, workplace conflicts arise for both crews. Is pain a good leadership style? Where does Picard keep his dog tags? How do dye packs work? It's the episode where we run out of torpedoes.

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, Star Trek Podcast. Two guys are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek Podcast. I'm Adam Pryanaka.

I'm Benjamin R. Harrison. Bennett's hours after we recorded the episode for Gambit Part 1, you having just seen Gambit Part 2. It's fresh in my memory. We're finally on the same level. It feels good to finally be on your level, Adam. Get on my level, Ben. Oh, having a little pod fluid, are we?

Yeah, I figured that may have been the problem that we thought we were having in Gambit Part One. Oh, not burpy enough. Were we having awkward pod? I hate it when that happens. Yeah, maybe we were just in a bad mood or something. I'm feeling great right now. How about you? I'm feeling good. Yeah.

You know, excited, nervous. got the big tour coming up, talking greatest Jincon stuff and that's, you know, there's nothing more excited or nervous making than the idea of throwing a big event like that. Yeah, I thought big events were in the past for me. Yeah. You have a wedding and that's over. This is like a nerd wedding. It's

like a nerd wedding. It's so different but so similar. And the, you know, like the joke with weddings is that if they find out it's a wedding, every all the prices get multiplied or whatever. Right. We have, we have been working on a way to do greatest Gen Con that makes it so that it doesn't have to be a way to expensive type of deal. That is the tension in the system. Like every argument I have about greatest Gen Con is about what can we do to lower the price? Right. And the real killer app of that is that we have a friend with a space now.

So we can defray a lot of the like, huh, what's this? There's margin built into the question of, what do you want to do again? Right, exactly. And so things are looking good for it, but there's still lots of details that need to be hammered out. I mean, we talked a few months ago about how like great, the greatest generation is kind of a one day a week job for the two of us.

Mm-hmm. Certainly feel like more than that. Oh, I completely agree. I mean, for the past few months, I haven't had a lot of video work and I don't know if it's like this for you, but I either get a lot of video work all at once or I will go six weeks with relatively little to do. Yeah. And now it's like July into August is going to be,

I'm gonna be totally slammed with both tour and con and actual real work. So I'm gonna be so ready to go out on tours, what I'm saying. Yeah, I mean, I think that part of it is that like when you have free time as I have as well lately, it's really easy to just kind of like fill a day with like, oh, now I'll check the Facebook group

and now I'll work on that edit, now I'll like try to come up with a merch item. Now I will email somebody about up with a merch item. Now I will email somebody about a sponsorship. It's one of those things where I can kind of always think of something to do with relationship to Greatest Gen, but also maybe I'm being a little excessive. I don't think so. This is the sort of project where it always feels like something could be done at any given moment. I, man, this might be like getting too dark or deep for you,

but like I don't feel like I have had a successful day in a very long time because like the way I define success in many ways is like getting it all done. And there's just too much to do to get all of it done. Yeah, I mean greatest gen is not that. It's more of a, I mean it's like, um... Right, I mean I get the satisfaction of finishing an edit just like you do and that feels like those little wins along the way really help, but these longer term projects like tours

in the con are something else entirely. Yeah, and I think we both, you know, gotten used to careers where our projects are relatively lots shorter than what we're doing now. Like, like, planning a tour several months in advance, like, like knowing what I'm going to be doing three months from now is a totally alien experience to me. You know? Yeah, the rewards are far different too. I mean, I've never completed a video project that felt as good as a crowd laughing at a

dick joke. I know. Yeah, it feels really good. And I really love video projects. So yeah, that feels really good. And I really love video projects. So, yeah. That says a lot. It does. It feels a little bit like wrenching on an engine or something to draw a comparison to something I know nothing about. Like, to some extent, making the show feels like maintenance

where I can kind of just walk around and like tighten a bolt here and check the oil there and like, and it kind of runs itself. But there's also always. This is tinkering. Yeah, there's always tinkering to be done. Suzanne and the Art of Podcast Maintenance. It's ready. Let's write a best-selling self-help book. That's our next project. You know like there's been the proliferation of podcasts and

podcast people but one thing I haven't seen in you know whenever a new thing gets zeitgeisty there's always the person that builds a career around consulting about that thing Yeah, you don't see a lot of that in the podcast space. I don't think or or am I just not seeing it like there's not I think that's a leech There's definitely a few companies that are like we will you know take take a $300,000 retainer to make a podcast for your sinister banking organization or whatever.

Well, at the expense of giving away $300,000 in consultancy fees, I'll just say this. If you're interested in doing a podcast, get a couple of mics and find a buddy and make your show because it's about the greatest thing ever. It is. I was thinking about what makes our show work. And I think that one of the things that's most important to me about it is just getting to belly laugh at shit you saying all the time. Like if you have a friend that you can't stop laughing when you're around them and by

some stroke of luck, the same is true in the other direction. Like you've got something magical there and you can bottle it. So other people can enjoy it. I feel the same way. And like the thing with what has been bottled for this show that is strange is that we are not proximal friends, we are long distance friends. And so I wonder how much of that is critical to the success of our show. Like if you and I were hanging out all the time drinking porch beers and shooting the

shit, like I'm not sure if the show would work as well as it does because this is our porch. It's possible, but we've also had extended hangs now on our tour last year and we went to Max Funcon. I mean, it's... I'm best friends with your parents in law. Yeah. I feel like that hasn't... I don't think that that's diminished the show.

It's just given us more in jokes to say out loud on the air that nobody but us will understand. So true. Well Adam, I feel like we've beat around the bush quite a bit in this fairly useless marion open. Do you want to? Yeah, we never go pod on pod, do we? I mean fairly masturbatory. Perhaps we don't do it because it's two masturbatory, two self-referential, not interesting or funny enough. So unlike the episode we're about to watch Ben. Yeah. All of those things in spades.

It's season seven, episode five, almost a fifth of the way through the last season. It's Gambit, part two. This is becoming a speech. You're the captain, so very entitled. I'm not entitled to ramble on about something everyone knows. Never given me the fraction, Adam. Yeah, I mean, what I've done is invited 30 emails. Hahaha.

Um, actually. I'll tell you where you can take that correction. 206-984-4-FUN. Hahaha. Oh, poor Brian Fernandez. Sonny D's gonna have to have to screen a lot of math correction phone calls. I feel like the gambit, that the the eponymous gambit in this two episode arc is this Riker and Picard kind of wordlessly playing at let's get in a firefight data like play along and data plays along. So much of the deep behind enemy linesness of this episode are is just communicated with clanses.

There's a little bit of like Picard and Riker in a condo on the ship, you know, talking about real shit and how they're going to conduct themselves going forward. But so much communication is happening non-verbally in a pretty fun way. Like there's code breaking on both sides. I totally agree.

It's fun to see data like I you know like this is subtle But it I think it's real character development for him that he is able to catch what they're throwing at him It's the sort of thing that you only get with a crew that's been together for a long time Like you could not expect Jellico to grok this. I don't like you Yeah, Jellico is the guy that you like bring on to the improv team, but he hasn't played with you guys before, so he doesn't really know who to pampe and what strength to play to and the different members of the group.

Jellico's weapons are always on 100%. So they do the thing where they They make it look good release a nurse old dampers and cut power to decks 31 through 37 I said set phasers to 25% They scored out a bunch of ketchup to make it look like they've been hit yeah and Galen aka captain Picard is explaining that like doing all this shooting is taking a toll on the mercenary ship as well.

Because they've had like some engine problems and stuff. So he's saying like, maybe we should just bug out right now and not push the ship too hard. Like, we've scored a hit against the flagship of the fucking Federation in our little dinky tick. Let's get the fuck out of here. Yeah, get out whether they're ahead, right? Yeah, and the Romulan lady agrees. She's like, if we remain here, we will be destroyed.

And so Captain Beren is like, all right, well, let's get out. Like they didn't get all the relics that they came to steal, but he's willing to, you know, bug out and fight another day. I think that's appropriate because their ship looks like a tick. I think this marks the, this marks something of a streak for Beran who has at every turn offered up a course of action and then been rebuked by his crew with a better idea. Like I can't think of an idea that Beran has had where everyone's like, oh yeah that makes sense. Let's do it.

All his ideas are wrong. He's only can't think of this stuff. All these got us the shot collars. Yeah, and that's been discussed. I think even in last episode, Picard is saying to the Romulian lady, the shot collars, the only thing keeping him in power. He's the power grows from the barrel of a gun, Maoist, captain of this ship. And, you know, maybe in some ways, like a thing that this episode of ARC Explores is that a good leadership style, and I think fairly compellingly comes down on the side of no. Yeah, you're not going to find Burrans leadership book in an airport bookstore.

The art of the steel by Arctis J. Burrann. How to win friends and influence people using shot colors. Yeah, Burrann, later in his career, got in big trouble for defrauding a lot of students of his Burrann University. It turned out to just be a big scam. Brands pretty hip to the idea that he's not very well liked. So he's like, he's like sort of groom's riker. He's like, look man, this gale and guy has been a problem for a long time. I think he might be stirring up some mutinous vibes.

What's the deal? Picard was like doing a, he was like on vacation doing some archeology when he got kidnapped by these guys. That's just it. That beginning is so thin. He's valuable enough to have a secret service detail around him in all times, right? Yeah. It's captain of the flagship. It's kind of nuts that the, that brand and everybody else is not aware of who Captain Picard is. It seems like if you're going to be running some pirate shit in Federation space, you should know about like who might be hunting you. There's no vacation you can go on where you don't bring an ID, right? Yeah, does he have his dog tags up his butt or something? I don't know.

He did another fucking vacation with no combat, didn't he? He really likes to go off the grid. It's not a smart move. No, and it's not like wherever he goes to do archaeology, he's taking a shuttlecraft, right? Right. Like, how does he not have Federation material anywhere around him? Yeah, you would think that he would have even a runabout or something.

Doesn't he have a captain's yacht? Or is his yacht? Yeah, we never see that yacht getting used. But all that is to say, Beran is not at all aware of what the cards Bonafide's are, but he does think that Riker is this kind of like disaffected starfleet guy. And so he thinks that Riker can be useful for doing shit that is starfleet related, but

also like he says, he says to Riker like Galen aka Picard hates your guts, but maybe like get to be friends with him because if there's a mutiny, he's going to be on team mutiny. I want to know who else is on team mutiny. You find that out and then once you've found that out and we finish our mission, I want you to kill him. This is information that Riker is happy to share with Picard as Galen later on. When Picard as Galen tells Riker, you should get close to Perran. Figure out what that guy, what makes that guy tick and see if we can't between the two of us figure out how to you

Serve his leadership and record like wait a second my on Am I on team baran or am I on team Picard or am I like secretly on team Picard and throughout the episode They're punching each other in the face like that's fun. Yeah, like They have to really enjoy that as characters. They spend a lot of time beating the shit out of each other for brand's benefit. Yeah. That's good times. They never talk about it. Yeah. Do they, is, is Riker pulling his punch and Picard just selling the shit out of it? Yeah. I mean, and then like later they go like, that was a nice one. Like, I think he really bought that or, or are they really punching each other?

Neither of their faces look like they've been hit In a way that is credible like there's no nose bleeding. There's no cut across The the cheek right. I mean That's hard. It's hard to know whether that's just you know TV cannon or That they are in fact pulling their punches because as we discussed in the episode where I talked about my former roommate who stole art and got beat up for it, your face stays really fucked up very long time

if you hit punched really hard. There are varying degrees of severity when it comes to getting punched in the face. Yeah, I got punched in the nose one time and it didn't really damage me much, but it did break my glasses. Maybe my glasses ticked most of the force. God, getting punched in the face wearing glasses seems so dangerous. Yeah, I didn't even have time to say,

you wouldn't punch a guy wearing glasses, would you? Did you wear them home? I cannot see at all without my glasses. I am very very Here's said it so You the actor who had to wear glasses on stage What do you mean tell me an acting story Ben? No, no, I didn't I didn't get a prescription until I was in high school which was

Well after the majority of my school play career was over I see I mean I wore them in college when I was taking that acting class was well after the majority of my school play career was over. I see. I mean, I wore them in college when I was taking that acting class, but... I didn't like glasses when Brad Pitt wore them either. Fuck you. I was just gonna see how long you kept that ball in the air before snatching it. The other crew that is having tension is the crew of the entrepreneur.

Warf is not super pumped about the way data is running the investigation. Warf is champion at the bit. He wants the fucking ride out and cut some heads off. He wants to hit some dudes in the chest with batlets. He's sort of feeling the Riker Vengeance vibes. Yeah, if data had gotten abducted in the next round of hijinks and Wurf got left in charge, like the ship would be at full war mode, you know, they would be like-

It'd be just indiscriminately shooting torpedoes all over the place. Yeah, separate the saucer section. We're fucking killing everybody. I'd kind of like to see that episode. The episode where Warf gets just totally unhinged and goes on a vengeance quest. The episode where we run out of torpedoes. What they realize is that there was some data hidden in a carrier wave that Riker used when they had their little phaser battle in space. I guess they had Riker try to use his command codes to take over the entrepreneur, but the

command codes had been changed, which is like the first time, maybe in the history of the show, I've heard of the Federation having a good security policy. Yeah, good job. I've worked for a couple of media companies at them, and when I stopped working at one of them, all of the passwords to everything changed, and it wasn't that I was like trying to get back into the system, but like there was some like employee thing that I had to fill out and I like couldn't even get back into their HR thing to do it because all of the passwords changed.

I've worked with other media companies that have no such policy and it's like, oh, I can still fucking administer your Facebook page that millions of people go to? Like guys. Yeah, ridiculous. Not smart. This is a good policy. Change the command codes when somebody is out of pocket. And so they find that the command code thing was in fact a gambit. How do that's why they call it that?

To conceal some coordinates for another planet. So Warf is pumped because they have an actionable clue and they know that they can beat the bad guys to the planet. The second data agrees to pursue this clue. Warf is fairly gleeful. Finally. That they're not sitting around doing science the way data wants to anymore.

This precipitates a pretty intense showdown in the ready room where data kinda has a talking, like a pretty on point talking to with Wharf that like Wharf is being like fairly disrespectful of his authority and fairly blatantly in front of the rest of the crew. I think part of it is that under their breath to Warf means something totally different to most other people. Like Warf basically does a full volume.

Jesus Christ, finally. Like in full view of everyone. This is the scene I was talking about before. This is the scene that I ruined in part one of this podcast, which was like the different ways that you can be a first officer for someone. Like the argument that your job involves covering for the captain, providing alternatives for the captain, and doing so in a way that maintains like decorum

and the chain of command is a thing that I know Warf understands. Sure. But his way of doing that is just very different from how data did it. And from after talking to data, how Riker does it? And Warf really realizes how off he's been. I think that it's such an interesting scene

because Worf is justifiably pissed off. He's probably embarrassed that he let Riker get grabbed. And he just really wants to get the problem solved as fast as he can. And I think data is looking around the bridge and he's going, there's a bunch of yellow shirts on this bridge. This is not feeling right to most people. So, we've got to like kind of manage, like we got to make them feel like this is okay.

Like cooler heads are prevailing here. Right, this is like Secretary of State as President. like how fucked up does it look on the bridge? To see command fall to the third in line. You've got to be even more rigid in How you treat people and situations at that point. It is a really interesting position for data to be in and this is the scene and that explores it And I think the scene is really well written And this is the scene that explores it, and I think the scene is really well written. Oh, great. I like that, when Wurf is leaving and data, like, as an aside, says like, I am sorry if I've ended our friendship.

And Wurf turns around and says, no, like... It is I who has jeopardized our friendship, not you. It's big of them to call attention to it and move past it. I think so often in the work environment that we frequent, you just don't work with that person again. If you can help it, like you don't crew them anymore. Yeah. And in that way, like,

I am very familiar with that choice. I am very familiar with that choice. Like the stakes are higher there, because you don't have the conversation, you just don't get a phone call. Right. And this is a better way to address that. But great scene.

Great scene. Captain Picard is doing his little, his little, you know, he's like running around the ship trying to convince people about a mutiny plan. The guy that invented the hackie sack, I think his name is Nerik, is like, yeah, like Mutin, he's a great idea, but I'm gonna follow you. It regards like, oh really, who will we be following? And he says, well, my money is on T'lair. And Smash Cut to Picard alone in his science room and T'laura, the Romulan, comes in with a dustbuster. And she is, she's like, I've got you dead to rights.

You're not who you claim to be. I want to know who you are and what you're doing here. She found the secret message. Picard is in a pinch. And the only thing Picard can do is cop to it. Yeah. There's no there's no other way to play this. Yeah. I mean, I guess I guess he could have blamed it on Riker and let

Riker get fragged, but that would be a dick move. Yeah. That's what you do if you want to live, though. I think its chances are diminished by making his admission. But by making his admission, T'laira also admits her truth, which is that... He pulls down his pants and then she turns around and pulls down her. She's like, yeah, I'm not T'laira at all. I'm T'Paul.

And I'm on this hunt. Are there any female Vulcan's not named to Paul? Yeah. What the hell is going on with that? Yeah, very common name. I love the T'Lera tells Picard that her name is to Paul and then Picard calls her T'Lera like in the very next breath. Did you notice that?

I did not notice that. So they have this conversation and she is Vulcan Intelligence and she is tracking a group of Vulcan separatist extremists who have hired a baran to get all these artifacts and what they're trying to do is assemble this thing called the Stone of Gaul, which is a terrifying, vulcan weapon that works on the principle of psionic resonance, and it can do bad things. It's like a super weapon. And that's what Picard's been scanning all that pottery for. And so, she's basically counting on

Picard, like they're like, all right, eye to eye, like we're both on the same side, we're both undercover in this thing. Let's fucking make sure that these maniacs on planet Vulcan don't get this terrifying weapon because if they do, it's back to the battle days. Like, they are trying to isolate Vulcan from the rest of the world and they're willing to be violent to do it. It's a tiny principle with the free space. Have you gone find it within yourself? Stand up, tell the truth. You don't deserve the wealth that you love all. Okay, so they have one piece of this item and they need three total to put it together to complete the puzzle to make the weapon. Right. Enter from stage right a Klingon on a Shuttlecraft.

Klingon on a very distinctly non-Klingon-looking Shuttlecraft, too. It looks like a 1920s elevator car. I want want to know everything about the shuttlecraft. He's still it from Willy Wonka. Yeah, it looks great. It is piloted by the six foot nine James Worthy. You played basketball for the Los Angeles Flakers. This is what I want Klingons to look like. I want them to be way bigger than everybody else.

Agreed. It's really for scale too, the way they shoot them, they make them look nine feet tall. This is what I want Klingons to look like. I want them to be way bigger than everybody else. Oh, great. It's really for scale too. The way they shoot them, they make them look nine feet tall. Yeah, he's always like three feet further in the foreground than everybody else. So he looks extra big. They also do some great like over the shoulder.

Well, he's still on the ramp to Dr. Crusher. So, you know, he's like essentially up on an apple box talking down to her. and really towers over. It's great. The one thing you want if you're using a non-professional actor is to give them a minimum amount of dialogue, and that's what they've done here, James Worthy. They've given him a Patrick Warburton amount of dialogue,

and it's a... Yeah, that's right. You're not gonna read anything on the flight? Yeah Perfect warburton That's a real nice P-war there, Ben That's a real nice P-war there, Ben. They've used a provision in the Klingon Federation treaty that allows them to take his ship on board the entrepreneur to do a health and safety inspection and amidst that they are tossing his ship looking for relics because they know that that's what Berane is after. They don't on the entrepreneur

have any clue as to what's going on with the Vulcans like they're just trying to figure out how they can get Ryker and Picard back. So the entrepreneur crew is tossing this ship, data and Troy take the, take the Klingon guy up to the observation lounge to like entertain him well while this search is taking place. And that is when a mercenary crew led by Riker beams into the shuttle bay and Picard runs into the shuttle and is like, Relic's not here. We gotta go find the Klingon. He must have it on his body. They beam up to the observation lounge. They find the relic on the Klingon. And then to ensure their escape Picard calls Riker on his shit. And he's like, you have an ad-ar back the whole time. I'm gonna

end this right here. And Picard shoots Riker in the observation lounge and then beams away with the boarding party. Yeah, it does be badass. Doesn't- isn't there some shit where like this is where Riker is gonna theoretically kill Gaila? Yeah. I love how Riker apologizes for shooting Wharf and Beverly on the shuttle bay for that, but that front zips that takes one's to the dome, like as soon as they beam on, gets no such apology. No. Like, he is dispatched immediately.

Super disposed of. And dispassionally. Yeah. Fuck that guy. Yeah, so Riker stays stunned on the ship and Picard and the other aliens. They've got the guy that invented Hackey sack and two kind of randos. They all beam back to the mercenary ship and the game is afoot because now they've like mostly assembled this terrifying weapon.

I feel like many, many times in this two-parter, they have the choice to follow the ship and they're like, let them go. We'll figure this out from here. Yeah, well, they've got Riker, so he's gonna know what's up, right? A Riker that they know to be alive, but that the Raiders believe is dead.

Yeah, which is great news. Like that's a great little edge Breaker that they know to be alive, but that the Raiders believe is dead. Yeah. Which is great news. That's a great little edge that they've got. And the other edge they've got is that the entrepreneur is at full warp capacity, well, the bad guys have a greatly limited top speed. Yeah, they kind of have a gelapi. Yeah. Always have an engine problems. Their bridge looks really good, but the ship have a gelapi. Yeah. They always have an engine problems.

Their bridge looks really good, but the ship don't work so good. I think Baran just isn't on a good maintenance schedule. He just drives right past that 10,000 mile oil change and does not take it into the dealer for a servicing. You know, you're not going to get a hundred thousand light years driving your starship like that. No you know it's just about building it into your monthly budget. You got to assume that you're going to have some some maintenance costs with any starship. I read that this was a battle bridge redress. No way. I

hate that they redress the battle bridge because it means the battle bridge probably isn't coming back. Mmm. I love that battle bridge. Yeah. Battle bridge good. I love the battle bridge because navigation and con are in the most reclined positions. They're like basically lay flat beds. Lean back.

Yeah. That actually, there's something in the show Bible that lists the sets that they keep built. And then there's other sets that they can build or rebuild, but they cost money. So they... Oh, Ben, can we do a little mid-episode Bible study? It's good to see you all in church. It's cool to the Bible.

That's the way God wants it. I don't know why, dude. All these questions? Is a little blind thing too much to ask? I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, know, I know, know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, know, I know, know, I know, know, I know, here, how interesting. No, this is not a standing set and costs money to reconstruct in extreme emergency situations. The saucer section of the entrepreneur detaches from the warp drive section of the ship in order to seek safety, enabling the captain and minimum crew to face the danger. Control of the warp section is maintained from the battle bridge, a much smaller auxiliary bridge as compared to the main bridge.

Like the main bridge, there's a captain's ready room adjacent to the battle bridge. Who knew? I don't think we ever see that secondary red room. I think so, either. That would have been fun. No money in the budget. It's all across the street. We're using it as a blindfold for the bust of Gene Roddenberry. They get back to this bridge and Galen aka Picard

is ripshit about the fact that Riker betrayed them over there and he says he suspects that it was Berand's idea and this is the mutiny scene. I have something else for you, Barat. And Berand is like, well, I'm gonna have to zap you then, because I can't have you mutinying in the middle of this important mission. And he very dramatically presses the button and not Picard but

Beran succumbs to the pain ray. Picard totally snoop dogdom because when you try to zap Picard you zap yourself. Another way of putting it at him is that Beran got scissored. We're really supposed to believe that Beran allowed his belt buckle to be taken and reprogrammed so that it would zap him instead of anyone else. It's pretty big leap. Why would Beran even have the fucking implant? That's ridiculous. Don't get the implant if you don't want to accidentally zap yourself, Baran.

If you can't take the implant, he get out of the implant kitchen. Don't do the implant crime if you can't do the implant time. Don't fake the funk on a nasty implant. Sure, one of those will stick. They're all stayin, Ben. I love it. It's a piece of fucking chill, a battle, which long does that let me see. Tell me more, you're not the whole yeah. So they're heading to Vulcan and Picard slash Galen is now in nominal command of the mercenary ship.

And that's kind of a surprise. Like, Tallerah was the one that had the crew's faith when she wasn't in command, but Picard is a compelling leader. Like, he gives orders with utter self-confidence and they really just fall in line. He captains not like Galen, but like Picard. I would argue that he is Picard, as Captain of the ship. Totally.

Like, he acts exactly the same and commands the same amount of respect because of it. It's funny because his character, he is definitely playing a role as Galen. He is not acting the way Picard would act, and that is for Brand's benefit, but the second Brand has gone, all of that artifice falls away. And the natural leadership that he never let the rest of the crew see just comes in and full effect, and they're like completely helpless in the face of it. They maintain our present course and speed for now.

I'm going to find out when and where I was supposed to deliver our cargo. I kept it. So they're heading off to Planet Vulcan and Riker gets on FaceTime with Vulcan security and he's like, hey guys, I have some bad news. The bad mercenaries that you've been tracking are on their way to Vulcan.

The good news is that your secret agent to Paul, I'll let you do the math on which lady that is because apparently all women on your planet are named to Paul. But your secret agent that you have on the mercenary ship is keeping track of the situation. She's there with them. It's all good.

And the guy is like, well, see, that's just the thing. While there are millions and millions of Vulcan women named Nepal, we don't have anybody stationed on any mercenary ships undercover. The administration it would take to figure that out. I can't imagine. Yeah, like, could I have the last four of

Nepal's so to confirm this? And then on the mercenary ship, Picard is like, he's putting all these little pieces together. He's got the two relics and he's like, this relic is really weird because it's got the Vulcan God of Death and what's the other one? God of uh... yeah God of War and the God of Death but there's like a very obvious place where there's another piece that's missing and I wonder what goes there like can you shed some light

on this given that you've been on this case for so long, you must know what's going on. It's Paul's like it's probably nothing. No bigs. Yeah, like Picard plays this very well, but he's got her dead to rights, right? Like right in this moment? Yeah, because she at this point has been as transparent as one could hope her to be when you're in like a group of thieves. Like she seems to be somewhat credible up to this point. But but the moment she becomes unwilling to share what knowledge she clearly has, that's when she becomes untrustworthy.

Well, there's not just that. If this is if these are pieces of a very dangerous weapon, let's replicate some fakes and take those down. You know, like, oh, good thinking. and let's replicate some fakes and take those down. You know, like, Oh, good thinking. What the fuck are we doing assembling this? You know, why are we carrying water for these terrorists if what this ultimately builds is something

that will have no control over? Yeah, these guys are really bad mercenaries. Okay. They pull up to planet Vulcan and they beam down to this like secret cave that had some significance in the last civil war on planet Vulcan from way back in the day when the Vulcans were a war like people and to Poles got the other pieces. There's no other Vulcans there, right? No, it's just a box full of cash. Yeah, they, they, she pays the, the mercenaries, but it's, it's substantially

less than, than they were expecting W slash R slash T, remuneration for all their trouble. It's just all dipax. I like it's spin this. The thing that we talk about with heists is that the more of your guys die, the better for you, and a lot of the guys have died. So they should be like, well, it's less than we expected, but each of our share is worth more. So at least there's that, right?

Yeah, but when there's a box full of cash, you need at least one bill to cover the dipax. And this is when it's all dipax, there's nothing to spend. I wish I knew someone who worked at a bank. I want to know more about that stuff. The secret dipack stuff? Yeah. Yeah, they must train you to do the dipack, right? Yeah.

They don't keep that thing... Yeah, and it's in so many movies. They don't keep that thing armed, sitting around, right? Like, you've got to... You must have to do something to it when you're putting it into the money bag. I don't know. That's why I thought, you know, in so many heist movies, they say leave the, leave the bottom half of the pinch of bills you're gonna take out of the till. No bills off the bottom of the jaw, please. That would seem to indicate to me that the dipack is always armed. It's just in there. You don't want to, you don't want to move it or jostle it or take it out of the thing. Maybe removing it from the till arms it. Whoa.

I think the only way we're really going to be able to get to the bottom of this atom is if we rob a bank. I'm prepared to do that. It'll be a tax rate off because it'll be research. It's one of those things where the conclusion forgives all of the crimes that led up to it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So this is like the guy that invented hacky sack and the lady that looks like a bad guy in double dragon down here in the cave with them and they're like, nah, like we're not letting you take your little relic without giving us the full amount that we agreed to And to Paul is like all right. Well now that this is assembled

Let me show you what What the downside of being Ungrateful for your small amount of money is and she aims this thing at them and this like blob of like Miss butters worth syrup comes out and hits hits the guy that invented the hacky sack and it like tosses him like 30 feet back. Like it goes from being like one of the worst digital effects to one of the most violent wire effects you've ever seen. These guys really get kicked.

Yeah. And I think the first guy actually, like there's a piece of rockery in the back, he sort of rolls over on top of it. Yeah. Like it's sort of a compound stunt. I can't have been fun. No. Yeah. There's no way that feels good at any point. It's the slowest weapon in all time though,

right? It kind of is like just fucking step out of the way. It's like, it takes like four, four Mississippi before it actually hits you. It also like the defense for it is the Ghostbusters 2 defense. Like, think happy thoughts. Get in that statue of liberty and walk around a while. And the most unlikely outcome is the idea that Worf would have enough happy thoughts to keep this thing from killing him, because this thing I guess feeds on, amplifies, and redirects violent and negative thoughts towards the victim.

And so by being super chill, Picard is able to shrug off its effects. Riker is able to shrug it off. Obviously Riker just thinks about fucking for a second. That's what I was thinking. What if on Riker, it just sort of coalesces around his groin? Hahaha. And just start tampering that groin. And you're just like speed-backing it?

Just ECU of his face, his eyes crossed, and his head catch his little smile on his face. Like the time he got the suck disc rig put on. Hahaha. Warp is like, I'll have what he's having. me get the suck disc rig put on. Warp is like, I'll have what he's having. It's a Paul just keeps trying, though. She's grabbing this in harder. She's crossing her eyes. It's not having any effect.

Yeah. And and Picard, who is still calling her Tallerah at this point, is like, don't you realize like the reason this thing doesn't work is because it became useless when Vulcans went to the peace plan. Like, if it only works on people who are violent and if you're, and you have logic and, and you're peaceful at heart, it's, it's not useful anymore and that's why it was disassembled. Yeah, so why don't you try to be a nice fruit change? It turned out she was one of the bad guys all along, Adam.

That was the big reveal, wasn't it? Yeah, so whatever happens to her, do you think? I don't know. Like her move when she realizes that this is not gonna fly as an attack is so like bad guy in Scooby-Doo. She literally clenches a fist and goes, go! Oh!

Yeah. The parenthetical in the script is axe defeated. Disappointed! I don't understand her plan. Like, was she supposed to be chief baddie if she was able to get this weapon to work? Was she actually going to sell it? Were there actually other separatists that were part of her plan or was she like a solo actor? That's just it. I don't know if we can believe any of that.

I think she was the solo actor. I think she brought everyone down to the planet surface to kill them. She was either the solo actor or the budget was too tight to hire a bunch of other people to play Vulcans that were part of the plant. That's fair. Because if you have Vulcan budget, you want to make sure you spend it all on that one Vulcan from Star Trek 3 and 4. Yeah. Instead of like 4 or 5 anonymous Vulcans.

Right. So the button on the episode is there's kind of a walk-and-tuck in the hallway with Picard, Data, and Riker, and they're kind of summing up all of the exposition of how the episode is being wound down. The bad guys are in custody. The artifact is being taken apart again. There's like lots of historical value to it, but... First thing is to check it into you know the weapons locker at the precinct and Picard is like all right well I'm gonna

I'm gonna take care of some personal shit and then I'll catch you guys on the bridge. And data's like, well, and then, and Rikers like technically you're not actually in command of the ship right now. Captain, Captain Picard is like, well, you actually have a point, but if we're being truthful, neither are you. Are either of them wearing the neck thing in this scene

or if they already been removed? I think they're... I think they're removed too. Yeah, the card still has his Renfair costume on, but they don't have any neckpips. You never know when you're going to want to wear that again, you probably throw that back in the closet. Yeah. You're just a ball gag away from a complete uniform. Yeah, if he meets another astrophysics officer that he wants to bang, he's got some kinky shit that he can get into with them.

Yeah. God, how great do you think that shower is for Picard after all this? You're right on that leather. You got it good. That leather doesn't breathe. There's nothing that feels better than a shower when you know that Riker is being taken to the Brig by your humorless Android second-in-command. So satisfying.

Speaking of satisfaction, Ben, were you satisfied with this episode? I was. I think it's a much better episode than the first part. And I like the first part pretty good. So yeah, I liked it. Yeah, I mean, in totality, it's pretty good. I think that maybe the biggest knock against it is that the villain winds up being a little dumb.

Like she should have had a plan for, like, and I don't know how to solve for this, right? Like how do you have the artifact mostly assembled on the mercenary ship and convince Picard that the thing to do is to take that stuff down to the planet's surface and reunite it with the other part of the artifact? Yeah, there's a math to that scene that I don't think they got right. There's a way to make that work that in its current state it doesn't hang. Yeah, like maybe you replicate a fake, but then you do a switcheroo with the real piece.

Yeah, and it doesn't take more than another bit or two of dialogue. You don't need to add cast to this to make that work. Yeah, but if that hadn't been, if that hadn't popped into my head while I was watching it, I think it would have been pretty solid episode all the way through. Yeah, I think mostly the thing that I like the best about these two episodes are the characters acting

against type. Like it's sort of meta-acting. It's an actor acting as a character who's trying to act like something else. And that's very satisfying when in the hands of such good actors. Indeed. Ben, one thing that would satisfy me greatly

is to read a couple of P1s. Do we have any of those? I assure you that we have P1s. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Need a supplement on it. supplement on it. supplement on it. Yes, extra.

How do you interest alone? Could be enough to buy this ship! Adam, we have two priority 1 messages here. The first one is from Matt and the ragged remnants of humanity, hiding in the West Virginia Hills in late 2019. And it is two Adam and Ben in mid-2017. Oh no, there's another message from the future. Please give us advice. It goes like this.

If you're reading this, there's still hope. Ben, Adam, it's about Razzin plevim. They're you, you from the mirror universe. The gross one with bare arms becard in the goatee's back. Their p-wons are really coded messages to their minions, giving orders for launching a doomsday plot that begins and you're upcoming live. Oh, Jesus, they found us beware!

And the message is cut off. Oh, no. That is chilling news Adam. Well the thing about messages from time travelers, Ben, is that I mean it doesn't help to change course because what if by changing course we run into the same problem? Yeah, I'm fairly convinced that whatever is going to happen will happen. Oh, so you're a Calvinist. I swear I'm not. Ben, our second priority message is from J-Mac. It is for...

D-Helps. Because like this. This life getting it down. Does it have you wearing a frown? Do you feel like the gravy train is left you behind? Don't worry about a thing! I've got the cure for all your blues. Just perform the J-L pipes maneuver and have a great birthday. Oh

That is a A little bit of a belated birth that says here The goal was around June 11th, but Hopefully that belated birthday is is no less heartfelt hang in there de helps There's no reason for those blues. Just grab the bottom of your shirt and yank over and over. That'll get you through this You know happy birthday. Well, if you'd like to wish somebody a happy birthday or warn them about a

Transdimensional plot to destroy everything You can go to maximumfund.org slash Gembo Tron where a personal message is 100 bucks and a commercial message is 200. And those things are a great way to support the show. Hey, Pan. What's that Adam? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? I did. We've talked a bunch about data's very evident advancement in his understanding of social situations and this episode, the fact that he picked up on the subterfuge that Riker and Picard were engaging with. But one thing we have not talked about

is the fact that he cracks a joke and not just any joke, kind of a dead joke. Ha-ha. Ha-ha. Ha-ha. When Riker takes the phaser blast and the rest in, you know, Galen and the rest of the hair metal band beam off the ship.

They've got Raker on the floor and somebody says he's only stunned in data's responses. I am experiencing a similar sensation. Zing. Oh, geez. Yeah, that's pretty great. How about yourself? My Shimoda is going to Keral, the James worthy Klingon, who is a great

scene in the observation lounge. Data's like, you know, while we're killing time here, maybe you would like to sample some of our blood wine comma Klingon. I believe you may enjoy this very much. A beast sandwich comma Philadelphia. Yeah. And Keral takes his chalice of wine, holds it out from his body, and slowly overturns it, dumping it onto the floor.

And they didn't show the carpet, which was probably a good idea because that carpet be expensive. But I wonder what was actually happening under the table if he was reporting those into a bucket or not. Yeah, I was picturing like a... I was picturing one of those great TSA bins

with like a towel folded up in it. Yeah. But yeah, because you don't want the splash out to stain the carpet either. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Um, that cellist that he had there looked unmistakably like one of the ones from the reception in Starship Mine. Yeah, that was full of yogurt raisins. Yeah. You know, that's something in in Starfleet. Like they just have a warehouse full of those raisins. Yeah. You know, that's something in Starfleet. Like, they just have a warehouse full of those and they outfit ships and stations with them. Yeah, I love when you see that shit.

The television show The Good Wife is shot like two blocks from where my apartment is and I guess now they're shooting the good fight over there. But every so often you'll walk by and like the doors on the sound stages will be all up and you'll see the backside of all the sets. And at one time I was walking my dog past there and I walked past, but I guess it was the properties department.

And the garage door was up and the shelving system most near to it had just like every vase that they use on the show. And I loved, I wanted to snap a phone pick and then like watch the show and like play Bingo with all of the like 30 phases that I saw that day. Thought I would have been fun. There was an auction in Portland after the show Grim went off the air. And it was in like a Boeing-sized hanger. And the auction wasn't for film gear.

It was for housewares and lights and light posts and mailboxes and knives. And and like you could probably outfit several homes with what they were selling at the auction. It's sort of it's the thing you don't really think about when you're when you're staffing up a show doing locations for a show that art direction stuff you got a you got a house at somewhere and there's a lot of it. I had a shoot last year. I did a bunch of videos about barbecuing and at the end of it we had like a ton of nice kitchen stuff and two barbecues and like you know all this like patio crap that was like nice stuff that you would like, I don't want to quite spend that much for myself kind of stuff.

And I got direction from the executive producer, get rid of this stuff. I don't really care what happens to it, but we're not storing it. Nice. And so I got to give a friend of mine a $200 barbecue. Excellent. Excellent. Yeah. That feels good. I love it when shit works out like that.

Dabok and Jalat and Tanaga. A greatest gen live show is something you don't want to miss. Why? Well, it's a great opportunity to see me and Ben in person, but that's not all. FODs from all over gather at these shows to cosplay, to do pre- and post-show hangs, to make friends, and share their embarrassment. Hey, let's make a pretty great name for a tour.

Let's do it! The Sherry Reembarishment Tour is coming in August 2023, and we've got a bunch of dates in a lot of great places. Go to GreatestGenTour.com to get more info. That's GreatestGenTour.com for dates and ticketing information for the Share Your Embarrassment tour. I'm Jordan Morris. And I'm Jesse Thorne. On Jordan Jesse Go, we make pure, delightful nonsense.

We were open awesome guests and bring them down to our level. We got stupid with Judy Greer. My friend Molly and I call it having the spaceweards. Pat Noswald. full nonsense. us at MaximumFun.org. Look, your podcast apps already open, just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goat try. 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. 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. Yes, probably. We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ohno Ross and Kerry? We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal, stuff like that.

And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so seem like something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came two by two. What do you think? Ona Ross & Kerry, available on Maximum episode. The next episode is season seven episode six phantasms. Data's first bad dream turns into a real-life nightmare for the rest of the entrepreneur crew. Do you remember this episode, Adam? Is this the one where Troy is a cake and there's a phone inside data. Oh, is it?

God, there's not many episodes left. That would be... I know, that seems like this would be the one. That would be the one I would imagine. It's like knowing someone's face and knowing someone's name at this point and I rarely am able to connect those two if someone's asking me about so and so. And I'm like, I think I know you're talking about.

This is what we're talking about with these episodes. It's like, I don't know episode names, but I'm fairly confident that I can describe an episode's story. Maybe that's it. A couple years ago, I met just like randomly at a party a guy who knew all of the episode names, numbers, and seasons. Oh, God. And I was like, I was like really blown away by that, because that is just not a kind of information that my brain can hold onto. That is a special kind of knowledge that I just don't have. Yeah.

Little intimidating. I was like, maybe I'm not a Star Trek nerd. Well, do you want to watch that episode, Ben? I do. If it's the episode where Troy is a cake, I want to watch it. It better be the Troy is a cake episode, because I'm into watching it too. Okay. Well, it sounds like no visors will be deployed in this instance. There are people screaming into their podcast devices right now about this not being the Troy cake episode I bet. Guys, that's not how podcast work.

It's kind of a one way medium. It's not like talking on the phone. Well, one conventional way that our podcast ends every time is by reading our credits, which include thanking dark material for our theme and interstitial music as well as Adam Ragusea for all of our great extra music. We should thank all the beautiful viewers who have gone on Apple Podcasts and left us a nice review or whatever you leave reviews for podcasts. If you could leave us a nice review, that really helps raise

the visibility of our program and helps us find new viewers to embarrass in public. Yeah, there are a lot of ways to support the show, like those reviews. You can go to MaximumFund.org slash Donate to help support the ongoing production of the show. You can go to Maximumfund.org slash Donate to help support the ongoing production of the show. You can get a priori one message there. You can get a t-shirt or a glass. Yeah, one thing that we're doing with our upcoming tour is we're just going to do the tour t-shirt on the max fun store because we figured that the amount of shirts that we would need to take around would just be like totally impossible for the two of us to slip. So there will be a merch table with other stuff on the tour, but our tour t-shirt will be available on the Max Fun Store, so that will be available to everybody.

Oh, that's great. I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. So, uh, go do that and with that we will be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek the next generation and an episode of the greatest generation that we kind of think we remember but dreamlike it's kind of slipping away as we try to access it and it just evaporates into thin air. Make it sound. Maximumfund.org

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