The Greatest Generation - Rhetorical Bathtub (VOY S4E21)

Episode Date: October 17, 2022

When scans detects the Omega phenomenon, Voyager pulls itself over for a dangerous, need-to-know mission. But even though Seven finds spirituality in the particles, Captain Janeway opts to leave a planet and its people without their salvation. Does the Omega Directive need better PR? Why aren’t just-in-case goodbyes more common? What happened to the Greeks? It’s the episode that woke up like this!Support the production of The Greatest Generation.Friends of DeSoto for Democracy.Friends of DeSoto for Justice. Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Caretaker!Music by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaFollow The Greatest Generation on Twitter, and discuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen!The Greatest Generation is on Twitch.Facebook group | Subreddit | Discord | WikiSign up for our mailing list!

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

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

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

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

and season two of Star Trek Picard. We've set up a page where you can also contribute. It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdececoto for Labor.com. That's FriendsOfDecoto for Labor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage! Bringing weather U.S.S. border Captain Captain Captain Bringing weather U.S.S. border

Captain Captain Welcome to the greatest generation It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys It's a little bit embarrassed about having a Star Trek podcast I'm Adam Pranica I'm Ben Harrison And I'm Mary Coco Nono to you too, sir Wow, yeah Coco Nono-Wave

I almost forgot Another Coco Nono Koko no to you too sir. Wow yeah, Koko no no whip. I almost forgot. Another Koko no no. Credible! Koko no no. It's a hell of a combination. Drink will be gone. I think I've had enough already.

This is gonna help me. Another Koko no no. Who's she? Koko no no. Koko no no. Koko no no. More is better. I don't know. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no you run upstairs, grab yourself a canned. I'm not gonna do that, Ben,

because you're just gonna talk shit about me while I'm off mic. I'm not going to. Do you promise? I promise. You promise? Look at me. What I lie.

All right. Sometimes you have to buy your co-host canned. Like I don't like the idea of pre-canned cocktails. Sometimes you have to buy your co-host, canned, I don't like the idea of pre-canned cocktails. I make my own cocktails, but I bought Adam pre-canned, I bought them over to his house for a party, but they didn't all get drunk and I was glad because I knew that he could break glass

in case of cocoa, no, no, emergency. And that's what he's going to do and these actually were pretty good i tried one and i i thought they you know held water it's not really the right term is it? all right i'm back chief hey quick call him a chief all right i got my drinks here okay tell the people what you're drinking because i i forget what the the brand was uh sort of adjacent to the new term you have people what you're drinking because I forget what the the brand was Sort of adjacent to the new term you have for when you're very drunk. I think

This is a beverage by the company known as smooge smooge, so it's not smush sm. Oh, oh, Jay is what this can says and it's a piniacalada hard silzer smoothie. Just Tid G8. I haven't had one of these and you said there was kind of a thick king, like a thick silzer and I don't know. Yeah. I have no idea what that means. It pours out the way that Ramos Gin Fizz does where you can't quite wrap your mind around how much head there is on this non-bear beverage. I like that you're packing for a trip. I stole for myself.

I stole a broad from future me. You had broads in your bag and you just turned out to get broads out. I myself am drinking a homemade pain killer, which is kind of a twist on the pina colada that also involves orange juice. My new trick, this was a little home innovation of mine. When I'm making a blender beverage with a coconut element to it, not getting out the

canned, creamed coconut, not getting out any canned coconut product, we got coconut popsicles in the fridge. And I'll just like get a paring knife and like cut the popsicle part off the stick into the blender. That's all you need. And that's also the perfect amount too because no matter what kind of canned coconut you get,

you always have too much or too little. You're never getting through like a full can of coconut for cocktail making purposes. Well, while we sip on these, Adam, I thought we had some boxes left over after our recent Code 47 that went disastrously. Yeah. I will say I almost spilled my drink walking into my office today because I left the vacuum cleaner in here and my foot caught the cable. And I did like the dude getting thrown into a... a limousine.

Hey careful man, there's a beverage here. I managed to control my fall, so I fell on the couch and I held my drink up. I didn't spill a drop, baby. You really dick-van-diked your drink, didn't you? And so this first package here is from Daniel in Wadefio, get back, Canada. I couldn't possibly begin to spell the first word that you said based on your pronunciation.

Uh, yeah, I wouldn't want you to try and spell it. Either. Dear Ben and Adam, thank you for five years so far of amazing pod. Two that I have been to Toronto shows and countless hours of giggling on my way to and from work. Included in this package is the 2022 vintage Quebec Maple Syrup. Wow! The canned ones are from a family friend's in-laws farm just south of Montreal. The jars are from the high school where I work just north of Montreal. The work-study students tapped the trees themselves this January. In DeSoto we trust Daniel

from Quebec. PS, oh I brought the Montreal bagels in 2019. They were fresh from that morning. I remember those bagels, Ben. I remember that trip. I remember having two bagels in 2019. They were fresh from that morning. I remember those bagels, Ben. I remember that trip. I remember having two bagels for breakfast because we couldn't bring them to the next place. Those bagels were good. Yeah, they were so good. I have two cans of syrup, derab, pure. I love the can format. Yeah, it's a Purdue de Canada.

This was made in March this year. Wow. Amazing. I love the French Canadians just fucking stroking your French language skills. That's great. That's great for everyone. It's great pod. It's good stuff. I just want to call out the bravery you're displaying here by opening up any packages after the incident. Yeah, yeah. Wow, and these are, we got more maple syrup in Mason jars here. These are 100% tasty. And I guess I'll leave out the campus name just for anonymity. Say, I don't want anybody to lose their job presenting us school maple syrup.

That's fair. Yeah. All right next pack These are all things you're gonna try first right? Yeah Great that's the deal all right. This one does not have a sender on the outside Sent to acting Ensign Harrison care of Ben Harrison and Adam Prantica So I'm guessing that this is to my baby Based on that didn't care of Ben Harrison and Adam Prantica. So I'm guessing that this is to my baby, based on that address E, let's see.

It's a, yeah, this is for sure for my baby because it's too Ben and Ensign Harrison. So you get to listen to me just open something up, it's not even for you. Love it. This is like a siblings birthday just made to watch. Mm-hmm. OK, here we go. Dear Ben, we all know Facebook is infamous for terrible parenting

groups, but at least at the next great generation, our egos aren't too big, and fart and poop jokes take on a different meeting. We are so excited for Baby Harrison to join the crew. Welcome aboard, little shipmate. The boy, your son! We needed to make sure the boy has the best reading material a young kid could ask for.

We got a bigger size for the outfit because we know priority one message is take some time to get there. Hope it still fits. This was shipped the day after the acting Ensign made his arrival. You and she who is your wife are going to be great parents. Your life might seem like something out of the mirror universe for a while. Remember to be kind and patient to each other. Try to sleep whenever the

baby sleeps. Ask friends and family to do a chore too when they come over to see the new recruit. Now you've been doing that for years. There's no shame in ordering from the replicator instead of making a Cisco style meal. If she who's your wife is choosing to breastfeed, make sure she always has a snack and stays hydrated. The best advice us trekky parents can give? Buckle up and enjoy your magic carpet ride to the moon. You got this.

Love the next great generation. PS, all new parents need some holiday time. Don't let others convince you that it's being selfish. It's so important once the newborn phases over, make sure that she who is your wife gets him alone time and you and Adam get some jazz gummy hangs to blow off steam. All right, wow. And there's a gift card to a popular baby product store.

Wow, this is amazing. Got some, oh boy, there's a comic book here. Oh, this is the you, Adam. There's something in here for you. Do you want me to read the letter? Hey! I just snapped back into attention. Uh-huh.

Yeah. This looks like a JK Woodward comic book covered here. It's great. Hey, Star Trek, the next generation, Mirror Broken comic. Those are my favorite comics. The ones that JK does. I'm gonna break federal law and read this letter

on air to you. All right, okay, that's fair. Dear Adam, you might be wondering what to expect when your co-host is expecting. Maybe you're worried that Ben won't love you anymore, or if you'll have to change diapers. Of course not, and maybe? Just because Ben is replacing Cocoa Nonos with saying no, no, that doesn't mean, I guess I'm not technically.

I'd rather... What a day to open up that letter. That doesn't mean you're not still his boy. Sometimes he'll have to pay attention to the baby, but he'll still make time to make pod with you. We got you a comic book to comfort you when you're lonely. Okay, okay. It was sitting in my house, not being loved, and needed a good home. So I hope it's not a duplicate.

On the nights that you can't sleep, Ben will probably be awake with his baby. So Jackie and Laurie have a picture of what you're up to. As the boy gets bigger, you'll have plenty of chances to help. You'll be a role model for the acting engine. The bits you do will be the bits that Baby Harrison learns. You'll show him where it's safe to play, where a mist-throened ball results in the death sentence, and of course, you're on the hook if baby hairs and ever becomes a slip back. So enjoy this special time, and remember, then we'll be a little bit embarrassed to tell his kids he has to start track podcast with you. We'd love the next great generation. That is really funny, man. I'll add stuff in those letters. The next great generation. That is really funny. Oh man, solid stuff in those letters. The next

great generation also included some Star Trek books, some of these little golden books from the Star Trek universe. That does a great those golden books with the golden spines. Yeah, great stuff. We just got the bookcase built in nursery so, so I've got a spot for these. And, uh, hand made with love. It looks like they sent some, uh, some baby outfits. These aren't great. There's a onesie with a Starfleet Academy College of Engineering logo on it. That's great. So on the days where your wife is out of town, your baby will have something to wear. Exactly.

These are great, and these are for nine months, so I got a little while to get him into those. I can work on warming my wife up to the idea of him wearing some of this stuff. You need more than nine months to do that, man. I mean, you can get a lot done in nine months. I recently learned this. Mm.

Yeah. This is from Kalin in Washington, Iowa and Kaelin has used red duct tape to seal this shut so very intense tape job on this Reused Amazon box. There's a two letters in here. One says read this first and another says read this second Two letters in here, one says, read this first, and the other says, read this second. Goes like this. Hey y'all, it's me, Kaelin McCain, from the Southeast Iowa Union newspaper. I interviewed y'all over the summer for a column we ran Friday before Trekfest in Riverside, Iowa. I remember that? Yeah, that was fun!

I started listening when I first moved to Washington County, hoping I'd learn enough Star Trek trivia to pass as someone in the know when I was in Riverside, the future home of Captain James T. Kirk. I did not learn any of that trivia from the pod, but I liked it enough to pinch my way through TNG and DS9 in under a year to improve my listening experience. I'm now working my way through Voyager and I'm almost caught up. I thought I'd share some Trekfest goodies to express my support for the show. The Sector 47 beer is named after a part of Riverside shipyards that the Enterprise was built in, according to the 2009 film.

Yeah, the Enterprise in the 2009 Star Trek film was built on the ground in Iowa. Of all places to build a spaceship. You need that scene where Kirk rides his motorcycle to the spot where it's built. It's to look. What's he gonna look wistfully at if not a... Yeah, there's nothing to look at out there if they're not building ships on the ground.

Okay, that goes on to say, I think it's a special edition can. It's also pretty tasty, but like it's Star Trek beer, I drink it anyways. Also included two card packs, a cool guy at the merch table through and for free, plus the additions of the paper, in which I covered Trek Fest and the one that featured the column I interviewed you for. Last but not least, I included some Trek-related selections from our publication Style Guide, which we had to get in writing because Riverside is in our coverage area. Hmm, thanks for the last, the interview,

and for inspiring me to start my own news podcast, Composed of Drops. Y'all are great. PS, sorry for openly disagreeing with you in my column, by the way. P-P-S-S. Apologies for sending this month's late. I'm overworked, and the post office here closes at 4.30 Overworked and underappreciated like like many in the what is it the third pillar? What pillar is the press? Oh, well, they're the fourth estate. I don't know what pillar they are

Maybe that's what I'm thinking of yeah, yeah being in a regional newspaper is really noble work And really glad that smart and gauge folks like Kaelin are doing it. Kaelin's local news podcast is called Washington Weekly Review and it's available on most popular platforms. How about that? There are new episodes on Saturday mornings. Let's see. Oh, so the read this second is the style guide stuff from the local paper there about how to refer to stuff in Star Trek. James T. Kirk, middle initial preferred on first reference, CIPT period is the title

preferred on first reference unless specifically referring to the character in a movie in which he is not a captain. Hmm, there's three entries under Wurf slash Wurf and that's wh-a-r-f slash capital W-o-r-f Sure. To disambiguate what people are referring to. I'll let people's imaginations do the rest on what a style guide might have referring to Star Trek. Oh no! Is that another Gl bomb? Only one of the beers survived. I've got a

ziplock bag with one intact beer and one not intact beer and the bag is full of cloudy former beer. That's why you bag it up. Because everything else in here is intact. We've got copies of the paper, the Southeast Diablo Union. Oh that's cool. We got some clippings, some actual clipp intact. We've got copies of the paper, the Southeast Iowa Union. Oh, that's cool. We got some clippings, some actual clippings. We've got some news clippings for once in our careers. Yeah.

We got some collectible card game cards. Not the first time you've held up a Ziploc bag of golden liquid to the camera. Yeah, people send us Ziploc bags full of gold and liquid all the time. But yeah, thank you so much for these lovely gifts, Kaelin. I hope this one other beer is in okay shape. I'm sure it's fine.

Alright, Adam. Final box. We're gonna see if we got through this entire thing without a prank. This one is from Nick in Las Vegas, Nevada, Adam. I love the fact you're a car. A city you're always sort of running from and running to. At the same time. Boy, that's well put.

Alright. We have a sheath of paperwork here. Hello, I'm a long time viewer. But I haven't been able to catch a live show yet. So I had no idea that you were seeking Jemaharone and tell you mentioned it on a recent show. When someone sent you Horgons, I got into crochet over the pandemic, so make little stuff toys and immediately I wondered if there were crochet Horgons floating around.

It turns out there was no pattern available, so I started creating one. I've never created a pattern before and happened to be Pride Month, so I used some rainbow yarn I could never find a use for. I hope you enjoy the resulting horror guns as much as I've enjoyed listening to the pod over the years, although it may not attract the kind of drum-a-ron you're looking for. Can't wait for the online show, and I'm also looking forward to the next time you land, pod, and Vegas, L-O-L-I-P-N-I-K PS. I've never put any patterns online but I'm happy to give it away if you get requests or just want to make it available on your own. Wow, so yeah, Nick has included a very detailed

list of the supplies you need and like, I've never crocheted but I assume that this is sort of the procedure for making it and it's like 93 individual steps. Alright Ben, read them off. I hope Wendy just fast forwards through that. Ben, we received a crocheted Horgon many years ago and it's one of the many Horgons that we bring to our live shows on stage. It is. So yeah. we have been appreciators of the craft for a while, but yeah, look at that. That is a totally new spin on the concept. This is a beautiful rainbow horgon, and we have some 3D printed rainbow horgons now too. So this one will be a very unique one up on stage.

It's also got some beans or something in the base, something heavy to make the base heavier than the top, which I really appreciate as a design choice. Yeah, that's great. This is awesome, Nick. Thank you so much. Thank you. I love it. I love the expanding, infinite,

horgon diversity and infinite combinations has always been something that we've believed in. So I'm really excited. The next tour we go out on, this will be out on the table with us. Yeah, I mean, soon our entire table will be festooned with Miriam kinds of foregands. Mm-hmm. Well, Adam, I'm enjoying my cocoa no-no,

but there's nothing I enjoy more than talking about an episode of Star Trek with you. Do you want to get into the episode that we came to talk about today? I don't know, man. Do you have 20 more minutes of gifts to open? Are you really want to do this? I think I want to do it. All right.

Let's do it, Ben. Star Trek Voyager Season 4, Episode 21, The Omega Directive. Breaver, of course. Unless you've got something a little bigger in your torpedo toots, I'm not turning around. We start in the alcove where we get to experience 7 of 9's morning routine. And this is an enviable amount of energy that she's got from jump. Like try to imagine if she weren't in the alcove, if she were a different type of person who slept in a bed, what she's doing is throwing the sheets off

and steps from bed, getting right to work, because she steps out of the alcove and records her plans for the day without needing to shake off the cobwebs in any way, without needing a coffee or a rat cajino. Yeah. All 600 hours, regeneration cycle complete. Daily long, seven of nine.

There's no time in between sleep and work. I woke up this morning and like we needed to call the power company about a thing and there was some other, I don't know, like some, some beer. I get smoothie on my fucking keyboard. That's great. Now I need to turn off my keyboard to smush the keys to clean it.

You weren't using that keyboard. Come on, you're never type. Guess what? I certainly didn't turn off my keyboard by hitting the buttons. I just did a bunch of crazy shit. I'm still recording though. Oh good.

Yeah. And my wife asked me to like place these calls as I was like trudging out to the kitchen to get myself a cup of coffee. And I was like, Hey, can I like wake up a little bit first? And she was like, yeah, of course. Sorry. And then I sat down and watched this episode to prepare for what we're recording right now. And I was like, man, my wife would love it if she was married to 7 of 9. Who's wife wouldn't? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha right up to the top. I'm looking at a meniscus of cocoa no-no. It's very foamy. Yeah, right. It's foamy and thick.

It is delicious. Do you like that thick, daddy? I do. It's good. Good. I'm glad. Look, this seems to be like an abomination, the idea of a smoothie seltzer.

But it works. I didn't know what to expect. I really bought it on impulse, and I was persuaded by the claims on the package that it contained legit fruit and that when you look at the box that it comes in, there's a hole on the bottom that shows that the cans are being stored upside down so that the fruit redistributes when you open them. Shit. Well, I mean, I certainly didn't do that. But and you can tell, like when you get down to the bottom,

it's it's a lot slurperier. It's a real, I haven't blasted in a week. Kind of look, kind of look to things. Hmm, toward the end. Wouldn't know how that is. Anyways. I love the dish. She's recording her plans for the day she tin mans the words Christmas Carol Love this moment. Yeah, it's good stuff. She

meets up with Kim in the lunchroom. I was very distracted in this scene because we've talked many times about that espresso urn, thing on the bar and the lunchroom and how beat up and shitty it looked. Yeah. In this scene, suddenly it looks like a piece of star track technology. What is, how much you get my espresso machine? Yeah, they spiffed it up, huh? When did this happen?

Is this new in this episode or has this been this way for a while? And I'm just noticing it. I think this is an episode notable for a lot of visual changes. And I think hair is a big part of it. Like Kim's hair looks different. Hair is his hair looks different. Janeway's hair looks different.

Yeah, I was tripping. So maybe the hair and makeup department got a hold of this espresso machine and got to work on it as well. Kim is playing Calto with two-vac and I never knew that there was a competitive element to this game. Yeah, I mean so competitive Is it that they've been playing all night and when seven walks into the mess hall She just fucking completes the game for Kim Kim is is on the doorstep of beating two Vogue. This would be a big moment for him.

In the annals of it would be logical to pick up sticks the game. And it's such a weird react because I think part of it is that they have been playing all night, Kim can't even take proper umbrage with the moment. He's just sort of flabbergasted by what's happened here. Yeah, I mean, the dude is exhausted. Yeah, he's just sort of flabbergasted by what's happened here. Yeah, I mean, the dude is exhausted.

Yeah. He's not thinking straight. He's not really in a solving calto state of mind, but we just watch seven leap out of bed and instantly start working. So she clearly is and really drags him when she describes what a simple, I mean, she drags

both Kim and Tuvac in her description of this game, I would, she, she drags both Kim and Tufok in her description of this game, I would say. Elementary spatial harmonics. Are you ready now? Yeah, and drags in a different way because she needs to drag Kim to work. It's time for him to clock in. Sure is. And while they're out in the corridor walking, they experience a banger. There's a banger and we cut right up to the bridge where Paris is at the helm and Chicoeté is in the captain's chair.

And the ship has slowed down, sensors aren't giving anything. And just every screen on the bridge suddenly has this embossed omega symbol pop up on it. And nobody knows what's going on. And the captain comes on the bridge and is And nobody knows what's going on. And the captain comes on the bridge and is clearly aware of what's going on, but is being cagey as hell about what it is. That would be for me. It's a real code 47, but nobody even knows the code 47 thing. I have recently pledged Omega sorority. Unless you're in the sorority, you are not permitted to know

what the messages mean. The final sorority after this, there will be no other. She strides onto the bridge and she's like, I got this. Yeah. Give it to me in my ready room. And also while I'm in the ready room, don't talk about this with anyone. And don't talk about my new haircut either, you fucking assholes. After the theme, I love how Janeway sets up the ready room for masturbation. And Peter sealed the doors to this room.

Yeah. Now I'm here with my authorization. Dores are sealed. It's subtle. You were recently asking me about how you're moving, and you're going to have a new home office, and you were asking if I had any things I learned the hard way that I could save you, the trouble,

and setting up your new home office. One thing I failed to talk to you about is like setting your office up so that no one can sneak in on you masturbating. And, yeah, Danway has a real good setup, you know, desk facing the door, so there's no surprises there. And you can also just announce that the door needs to be locked out loud as she walks into the office. Pretty great. That'd be good, right? Like, hey Siri, make sure I'm not disturbed for the next 45 minutes.

Janeway uses some codes. I don't recall her using before. These are special Omega codes. Yeah, they give even even harder codes than self-destruct ones for the Omega directive. And once she passes all the tests, the computer tells her that the Omega phenomenon is close by and that she must do the Omega directive.

Mm-hmm. All other priorities have been rescinded. She doesn't want to do it, but she's got to do it. And we cut down to engineering where Chico Te is briefing a small team, it's BLT seven in Paris. They're being briefed on like some modifications that need to be made to the ship and to shuttlecraft. He's giving a lot of command authority to his orders here

and getting a lot of lippy questions back. Like why are we doing this? What's the data that supports doing this? Like modifying the shields in this way should be tested before we just commit these commands and he's taking none of it. He doesn't know anything that they don't know. Like he's not being given any special insight

into this by the captain. This is the last we see BLT this episode because Roxanne Dawson goes on to give birth to her baby. Right after he went straight from set to go give birth and that is why later on she does not attend a very important meeting about what they're going to do on this mission. This doesn't happen very much in Star Trek, right? The in the darkness that these crew people are in, and that includes Chicoote,

because in this scene, BLT's like, yeah, you know, I'm hearing some things. Maybe you could tell me if I'm right or not, about what I'm hearing, and Chicoote is like, look, I don't know anything about this. And also we should stop talking about it. That's one of the orders we received. Yeah, and orders is orders.

So, you know, let's be cool here. Yeah. And so they get to work, but nobody is like especially thrilled about this. Chevin is the first person to take her displeasure straight to the camp. But the captain has surmised that Sevin actually knows Kevin is the first person to take her displeasure straight to the camp. But the captain has surmised that seven actually knows what's going on.

Right, and that's because as a Borgs, she has absorbed all information that starfleet captains have, secret or otherwise. And so there's sort of a dilemma here. The captain can enlist Seven's help in this or confine Seven to the cargo bay. And it's an interesting situation because Seven and Janeway have had a pretty contentious and conflicted relationship up until now.

And this is an opportunity to work together that Seven takes sort of in spite of her misgivings about the plan that Jane Way has and in spite of like the kind of way she thinks about Omega having been a Borgs. Right. And this is a moment in time this episode where we still aren't super clear about what it is they're talking about. No. It's basically a concept in name only, and that's what we get. And we also gather that because they have different opinions on the matter, like it's interesting, there's two toggle switches in the scene, right? It's the on, off of whether or not seven of nine joins Janeway in the mission.

And then there's the on, off of save or destroy whatever Omega is. Right, and it's a debate. Seven is like, yeah, well, as the borricks, we made it one time. It blew up like half a million drones and like a bunch of ships and stuff and it was like a total catastrophe but we were like, wow, we're really onto something.

Yeah. And Janeway is like, well, the Starfleet party line is destroy it whenever you detect it. And that's what we're going to do. And I think Seven basically decides to help out because otherwise she won't even get to look at this thing. She won't even get to see any data about it, right? Yeah, she makes it clear that the perfection that this thing

represents is so tantalizing to her that, you know, being along for the ride even if she disagrees with the direction the ride is going, like, is worth it to her. Yeah. It's something that the boards really fetishize. They think Omega is really, really cool. Somebody who doesn't think this situation is really, really cool. Somebody who doesn't think this situation is really, really cool is the doctor

because the captain goes down to six bay and it's like pump me full of stuff to prevent radiation poisoning. And he's like, why? What are you planning to do? Stroll through a supernova? Something like that. This felt to me like such a drug dealer

with a conscience scene. Like, Janeway is about to buy way more than she usually does. And the dealer's like, whoa. This isn't usually what you get. And in the amounts you usually get. Everything all right? Did you like find a briefcase full of cash in an alleyway or something?

What's going on? Hey, look, you're one of my best customers. So I kind of want you to stick around. She pulls rank and, and you know, gets him to commit to helping her. And then she gets the sense that the doc knew what Omega was by virtue of him being kind of the computer incarnate. Like, there is no discussion of what it is specifically, but there is mention of it and the doc is like, all right.

Don't tell me, the Omega directive, whatever that might be. Yeah, I mean, I guess like if you say it's the Omega directive, and it's like a serious enough thing that the ship automatically pulls itself over. Everybody on the ship can kind of imagine that like whatever the Omega directive is, is a really big deal. But also, if you're trying to stifle any knowledge of the Omega particle, maybe you shouldn't call it

the Omega directive. Yeah. I don't know if it's like a perloined letter thing, like we'll hide it in plain sight, but everybody on the ship knowing that they're doing the Omega Directive right now really kind of hangs a lantern on this secret thing. The Omega Directive needs better PI, right? Yeah, it really does. It's like section 31. Does everyone know about it or does no one know about it?

Right. What's the deal? There's a poignancy to the end of the scene because the doc has a Justin case goodbye, which I think more people on Star Trek should have before just about every mission, right? Like one third of all scenes in Star Trek would be this and I would kind of like lose its poignancy.

Every time someone gets on the transporter to like transport down to Boston, would be this and I would kind of like lose its poignancy. Every time someone gets on the transporter to like transport down to Boston, maybe like, hey, just in case this transport doesn't go all right, it's been real. How fucking dark would our show be if during the credits every time was like, hey, Ben, just wanna say I really enjoyed doing this with you.

And in case it's the last time, good job. I mean, good job by you, man. We have co-hosted on podcasts in the past that probably should have had that kind of sign off. Yeah, yeah. I'm not as worried about this one. No, exactly. Back in Seven of Dianne's Alcove, She has picked up not just a single particle, which is sort of what we thought had occurred

in the beginning, but hundreds of particles. It's so many particles that Jane Ways like, I can't even wrap my mind around this. Because initially the mission, and again, I need to emphasize, we know nothing about the particle or, or its power or anything at this point. January is like a single shuttle isn't going to do it, huh? And she is made to come around to the idea that the ship and the crew may be necessary to solve a problem of this scope, because contextually, you believe that up until now, it's only been a single particle problem that a captain's made to solve. But with these hundreds of particles, there's just no way one person can do it.

So let's get this data down to the ASLAB and get a group on this. We catch up with Harry Kim and Tuvac, who are doing a little bit of surgery on a photon torpedo. And Kim is tripping out on the size of the warhead that they're putting in this thing when the captain comes in and is like, double it. Yeah. Do you remember Fat Man and Little Boy? I want them both.

I want in this at the same time. I want this torpedo D.P.T. with Fat Man and Little Boy. Gotta come down out of the cloud, gentlemen. Get into the business, a win or a war. I want DVDA, torpedo energy. I love how she just storms in and storms out immediately after saying this. Like she just drops this bomb and leaves.

Yeah, it's big fun. And then Kim is like speculating about all these different things it could be. And like, oh, maybe it's a way home. Maybe it's species 4.2069. Tuvac does not care for this. This is a game of mental calto. He is not interested in playing.

He just wants to build the bomb. The bomb, Dmitry. He wants to set them up the bomb. I mean, they are both equally my curious as admission curious, but Tuvac isn't the one putting it out of the streets. Right? Right.

Hey, I expect your support for shit like that. What the hell, man? I say, all your shit is good. This is a point in the episode where like, it's clear everyone is gossiping about this. But I began to think where is the town gossip? Where is Nielix on this? Nielix should be a part of this episode throughout and he's nowhere to be found. He's notably absent from this episode and Chico Te catches up with the captain in the ass lab and he's updating her and she's kind of vaguely updating him and that's when he's like, all right, this is fucking getting really frustrating.

And it seems like you're trying to solve some huge problem with almost no help. And where did the fucking D Quad help us help you? Yeah. And this is persuasive. Yeah. I thought for sure when they cut to the, okay, I'll tell the senior staff. This is persuasive. Yeah. I thought for sure when they cut to the,

like, okay, we'll just, I'll tell the senior staff, like, you've talked me into it, but it just gotta be the senior staff. I thought for sure when we cut to the briefing room that Nielix was gonna be there. And it was gonna be like, oh, come on!

Yeah. Not really the senior staff. This is really a crucial scene in the whole episode, though, right? Because this is one of those moments where Chicoete is both commander and friend Yeah, friend who wants something more. Yeah, also is a part of this he sort of opens up a

rhetorical bathtub for her to use herself into and And she accepts, you know. I love a bath. It's my favorite way of relaxing. It's not too hot for her to lower herself down into. No, it's just right. I mean, it feels like it might be too hot, but that's actually just right, you know. Yeah, the rhetoric feels good on the birdie.

Of course, it's locked in. Do it. Listen to me, don't be careful, because I'm on my who's seen this once. No way. So we cut to this breathing, and this is like where, you know. I hate how much better rhetorical bathtub is than my curious. I hate it.

I'm seething right now. I have another pinoclata. It'll make you feel better. So we cut over to the conference room where it is proven that Janeway has come around to the idea of a group think about this. Everyone besides BLT and Nelix is at this table. My favorite part of this briefing is when she said, oh my guys, the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

Oh, really? Is it? I didn't know that. I didn't know that it starts with oh. Why are the Greeks so fucking stupid about this stuff? Yeah. You know what if the Greeks were so smart, they'd still be around, right? Yeah. It's an empty place now. Yeah, it's an empty place now. She explains to them what it is to pledge, Omega. I can't wait to read the 200 comment reddit thread. That's titled, it was at a really dumb

or is he just playing dumb? For laughs. Yeah, yeah. Ironic that you chose to wear a t-shirt with the NASA logo on it today. Yeah. Yeah. Ironic that you chose to wear a t-shirt with the NASA logo on it today. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah.

The Omega particle is this particle that's like both a enticing potential source of infinite energy, but also has proven to be a threat to the entire galaxy. And also the coolest sorority on Greek row. The girls are all tens. They only date members of the football team and the basketball team. They only wear pillowcases to Toga parties. I'd love to tell you about what it was like to pledge for them, but it's a total secret. A total secret that will get Greek life banned on this campus if it ever comes out. She shows what happens to the starbase where they did the Omega particle experiment on screen.

And it's... Dr. Kitterex, big mistake, huh? Yeah. It's kind of hard to see what's going on. It sort of looks like they tie-died Starfleet, science outpost. Like it's the same place as they did the Genesis device on, right? You'll look at the way this room is configured. You have your front row where seven is sitting. But then you have your back row further away

from the screen. I'd want to punch in on this a little bit. Like if I'm sitting in the back row, like if I'm in Paris's seat, like, hey, can we enhance a little bit, baby? Why didn't we spring for the 65 end screen? Why the 42 inch? I don't understand.

This is a nice big wall. Yeah. Dr. Kittarack really fucked this up. He blew out the side of his science station and killed a bunch of people in the process. Yeah. And then we learned what the Omega particle does. It destroys subspace when you don't handle it, right?

Effectively ending star trek as we know it. I don't have to tell you what it's taking. And nobody don't handle it, right? Effectively ending Star Trek as we know it. I don't have to tell you what's it's taking. Nobody has ever handled it, right? Like, when this explosion happened, it made warp travel impossible in the sector, and Starfleet's big concern, yes. If anybody else tried to mess with this shit, they would make warp travel impossible for everyone.

So those are the stakes, right? Do your job right, and you're still 80 years from home. Do it wrong, and you're stuck on the 405 forever. So. Yeah, pretty much. And I really liked this scene

because it does a nice job of kind of showing a little bit more of the hand that the captain is playing with in a, you know, it's like a very expository scene, but it carries the weight of heightening the stakes for the whole crew. And I think that that's a pretty deft way of doing exposition like this.

To get a little Star Trek hair cast with it, is that why Janeway's hair feels a little flat this whole episode? Like is it carrying the weight of the mission? Yeah, Paris is too. I mean, we've talked about the lift and bounce sort of leaving him. And yeah, I think that they've both kind of

gone a little flatter. Yeah. I don't know what that's about. No one has show hair this episode. I would disagree. I would say that Harry Kim for sure has show hair. You know what, you're right. Yeah, He is the one who has gotten the gel up. Yeah. He's carried long like slipped a $20 bill to the person in the hair and makeup trailer.

And was like, all of the stuff you're spraying and everybody else's hair, I want it all. Everything goes in my hair. I constantly underestimate how much time it takes to get show hair myself. Like, if I really want to get the height, you really got to be willing to spend the time. It takes dedication, it takes focus. You can't be doing two things at once, you know? I really got to tell you that this smooge is disgusting.

I don't recommend pouring it into a glass. You don't want to look at this. I mean, you could just be drinking it from the can, I suppose. Yeah, I could, but they've been sitting on my desk now and I want to get it over ice, which is what I'm doing. Yeah, that's smart. So everything is in place. The crew is now helping with a little bit more context and

when 7 of 9 and the captain catch up in the cargo bay they talk a little bit more about what the boards know about the omega particle and it turns out that a bunch of species know about this and the boards have assimilated a lot of them and pretty much all of them have a sort of mystical take on what the significance of this thing existing might be, including species human. Like, Janeway's like, yeah, it's like the particle

at the big bang and, you know, the Borgs believe it's the perfect particle. And so that's why they're so interested in it, because it kind of represents the thing that they aspire to. And there's a spiritual element that, you know, seven is sort of dismissive of everyone else's use of a spiritual framework to think about this. But the Captain points out that maybe the Borgs conception

of the Omega particle is not that far off of it It's so interesting that seven has sort of taken the spot that Nielix used to occupy like remember how many episodes Nielix was on the bridge as the map guy like oh, we know who these aliens are and here's the backstory and in this scene Seven is doing exactly that like giving that kind of backstory the And this scene 7 is doing exactly that, like giving that kind of backstory. The anthropological, like Xeno anthropological backstory, Xeno sociological backstory. The very term is racist. You know what I mean. I see we have a long way to go.

Yeah, she knows more about the species that they're going to encounter. Yeah. Because when they got to that necrotic spanse, that was the end for me, Lex. I know. Yeah. I mean, that's how it is so many times. As soon as you see the necrot, everything changes. Yeah.

It's very exciting to see the necrot. Yeah. On the bridge, Voyager has arrived at the star system where they picked up the Omega particles. Yeah. And we are told that this is a system with a pre-wort planet on one end and kind of an M-class moon somewhere else. And on this moon there's evidence of a Dr. Kittorak style explosion. Yeah, the atmosphere of this moon is very omega-ish.

And we get like a punch in on the view screen of the facility where this is centered on and it looks like a disaster. It's a really cool like orbital visual. It's just a bunch of blindfolded 18 year old girls and they're just being paddled by another 18 year old girl. Yeah. Yeah.

They're like standing on boxes and they need to jump off of those boxes onto what they think is broken glass, but it's actually like Doritos or something. And you think that like this is how you build like social bonds like this is how social cohesion develops. Yeah. I still remember the Doritos you made me step on before joining the show. Yeah. Cool ranch.

Well, yeah, I would never make nacho cheeseier Doritos suffer the indignity of having somebody walk around on them. Yeah. I don't have any use for cool ranch. I don't care for that flavor. Real, uh, Dorito diehard. This is what I was made to do. I got to get that. Lucknow put your luck number your mouth.

I got to get that. Lucknow or not it's just a goal. 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 Reembarrishment tour is coming in August 2023, and we've got a bunch of dates in a lot of great places. Go to GreatestGenTour.com to get more info. That's GreatestGenTour.com for dates and ticketing information for the Share Your Embarrassment

Tour. I'm Jordan Morris. And I'm Jesse Thorne. On Jordan Jesse Go, we make pure, delightful nonsense. We were open awesome guests and bring them down to our level. We get stupid with Judy Greer. My friend Molly and I call it having the spaceweirds. Pat Noswald. Could I get a ball-rock burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you. And Kumail Non-Giani.

I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which is impossible to use. Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org. Look, your podcast apps are open, just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goatry. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Whoa, rats, hey, they're gone. I've gotta 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 neck, but I'm here and we need to get on this I gotta get on the art. Yeah, it's about terrain. It's about to destroy humanity Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans. We're actually we're podcasters We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ono Ross and Kerry? We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end so

seem like something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came two by two. What do you think? Ono Ross and Carrie available on MaximumFun or dot org. There are three hints to it, one of the bad things that I should catch. Get through, get through, get through, get your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship, and go through it, get through it, get through it, get through it. So instead of just like bombing the site from orbit, they're going to put a rescue team together because there are life signs down there. Yeah. They're going to transport to the surface and beam the casualties up to Voyager

and the captain is going to be on the away mission. I didn't think that was even allowed in Star Trek. There's no stopperner. Don't even try to code day. It's not gonna happen. You have the pitch. Sounds great. We cut to the facility and there are just bodies

strewn everywhere. Yeah. And they find a survivor in the survivor tills, Janeway, that some omega remains are in the test chamber and kind of gestures with like the claw finger. Uh-huh. Yeah, I mean, like I don't blame this guy for giving it up like this when he doesn't know

when anybody would be coming to his rescue other than these people, but this does sort of smack of the nuclear codes are over there. Yeah, it's hard to tell how smart or dumb these guys are. Like, or if fucking with Omega, just always is gonna statistically result in a big accident, no matter what. Like I wish we knew how smart these scientists are,

because when he just reached to the chamber, we're like, oh yeah, look at how thick and strong this chamber is. Like, at least they have the good sense to do that. And TuVac turns to Janeway and is like, you know, we're about to violate the prime directive. And Janeway tells TuVac that for the rest of the episode, they're gonna be running a fucking train

on the prime director. Yeah, wild. They haven't even busted open that box and they know what's gonna happen. The Omega overrides the Alpha atom. Yeah. I also like speak a good just like amazing utterances. Once they beam down, the way team seems to be primarily composed of red shirts, like people we've never seen before are running around with tricorders and medkits and stuff. There are so many pre-deads here. And they're just talking openly about the Omega Particle and like all of this shit that they've spent

the entire first half of the episode being so secretive about. And it's like, does this, does Ensen know name like really just get to overhear this stuff? Yeah. What's going on? I, they talk around this, but like when you're so far from home,

and there is no one near you whatsoever, the democratization of knowledge and information here should be unique. Like even the lowest person, there is a lowest rank on this ship and that person should know a little bit about what's going on. It'd be nice.

Is that Naomi Wildman? Is she the lowest rank technically? Because she's a kid. Yeah. Yeah. So seven has been left up on the ship building like a containment unit for the Omega particle. Like a containment and a eradication unit.

It's a sphere that they'll beam the particles into and it'll neutralize them. And we cut back up to her giving someone a nickname. Your new designation is three of ten. Yes, ma'am. And the whole team that's been tasked to the seven detail are being kind of pulled into her Borg's collective and Kim is taking great umbrage with this. He's not into this. He immediately complains to Chico Te about having been given a Borg's designation and it just doesn't feel good about it overall. This is such a fun moment of what happens when a middle manager gets a little too much authority

over a situation. And suddenly the manager manager comes in and it's like, whoa, and everyone immediately starts bitching at the manager manager about how the middle manager is doing it. And the manager manager can't take the blame for this. He's like, yeah, whatever they say goes, all right? As long as it's working, I don't really care.

Yeah. Because they can't take the L on that. No, no. Kim bitches at anyone within your shot about what's happening here. Doesn't matter if it's Nielix or Ticote. And Kim gets demoted for this. Yeah.

Now he's two of ten. That seems like better than six of ten, but I guess it's worse. Yeah. Is ten of ten the best? Gotta be. Ten out of ten, baby. Wow. I want to meet that person. Who is it? Man, a perfect ten.

Did seven give herself the rank 10 of 10? I was just gonna say that, Seven would. And sometimes it's confusing because she refers to herself as seven of 10. Yeah. You know what I mean. Yeah. I'm seven, but I'm also a dime.

You know, you do the math. Yeah. Yeah. In LA, I'm a 10 on Voyager. I'm also a dime, you know, you do the math. Yeah, yeah. In LA, I'm a 10, on Voyager, I'm a seven. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Yeah. Seven catches wind that there is one of these aliens that was at the experiment in Six Band.

She goes down there with the cop that is going to interrogate someone in the ICU, energy, from movies and television. And the doctor is like trying to stand in between her and him. He has knowledge I require. And trying to ride for, hey, be nice to that guy. What do you talk to him? But yeah, he looks a lot better.

He had a lot more blood and guts on his face when they first met him. And he's all patched up. He's just kind of resting up in the bio bed. And he tells her about how many of these molecules they synthesized in their experiment. And it really puts the borgs to shame. Like the borgs should be fucking humiliated that a pre-warp species made 200 million omega particles

when the borgs made one for a trillionth of a nanosecond or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. These guys really pulled down the borax pants on this one. Yeah. But your approach is innovative. And they want this dude to help them destroy the particles. And this guy is pissed at the idea. Yeah. does not care for this. Yeah. He accuses the being like primitives that can only destroy that, which they don't understand or whatever. That's a fun part of this,

is like that he is pre-warped and he's condescending to them. Yeah, but like you kind of get the sense, it's not illustrated like super vividly, but you kind of get the sense that this is sort of a species running out of time. They've used up their biosphere and need a limitless energy solution and don't know about or don't have access to dilithium. So the prospect of destroying the molecules he made in his experiment also is a civilization killing act for him.

I kind of wish this episode grappled with that more. Like the prime directive override of this episode does doom these people if you believe this one guy. The future of my people depends on this discovery. I know you don't want to do it. Perfect black. Make it yourself. I'm trying to help you see Do it. Coffee, black. Make it yourself. I'm trying to help you see this as an opportunity to grow.

Make it yourself. The problem of the quantity is apparent in the insufficiency of their solution, right? Orbital bombardment isn't going to destroy this many particles. So the idea is that they need to use both chamber and missile in order to complete the mission. Yeah.

And we finally get the chamber open down on the surface. And I love the way they lit this shot and like put the camera at sort of a Dutch angle. The eerie blue light washes over the captain and two vox faces as they look at this, you know, wonder of science. Yeah. And it's just, it's a really great moment. They don't pulp fiction this moment in a good way, right? Like, glowy thing that people are looking at is kind of a, it's been done, right?

And this looks different. The Omega particle is not just a McEuffin. It actually has like a use, it is described in much more detail than the briefcase in pulp fiction. And by that nature means more to the characters and therefore more to the audience. And well put,

its potential use is so tempting in so many ways. And it's kind of spiritual significance is so interesting all throughout this episode. Only part of that is the point that Seven tries to make to Chicoete later, because she's like, look, we could destroy, but I also have the technology to stabilize them. Yeah. What would you say if I told you that we could do that instead and Chico Te starts out a little pissed like this isn't part of the mission. Our mission was destroy what the fuck is this but then he gets curious. He's like, all right, well, give me the demo. Like, you want to pitch me,

pitch me. He's omega curious. Yeah. And so after getting the pitch, the question is, how do we test this? And seven's like, well, yeah, we obviously need to test this on Omega itself. And I would really appreciate it if, as a personal favorite to me, you allowed me to do that because as she goes on to describe her relationship with this particle, she's practically in love with it. Yeah. Does Seventh want to fuck the Omega particle? Particle zero, one zero.

Take off your clothes. Seventh's like, look man, a kuchamoya or whatever. It's like, right? I want to a kuchamoya this. The deal that they make is like, check out today is like, all right, well, it seems like you've thought about this more than anybody else. I'm gonna take what you've said to the captain and see what she says.

But in the meantime, let's do the original plan and it's tough, like he totally gets where she's come. Like he's like, yeah, if I could like look at the face of Haku-Chi-Moya, I would. I'd pursue it with all my heart. And I understand that this is your Haku-Chi- moya and you want to look at the face of it. Yeah. I mean, it's a great way for him to end a conversation by just going, all right, I'll ask her, like,

fine, fine. I mean, it's a parenting thing, right? Like, I'll run it by your mom, but I'm not making a final decision right now. Yeah, exactly. But he doesn't really get an opportunity does he? Because at this point, ships from the pre-warp civilization are headed this way. And because of the subspace damage that the Omega particle has wrecked in this area, they can't run away faster than these people can chase them.

This really feels like a leap to me because as soon as we learn that these ships are approaching, I'm like, well, yeah, they're no match for the Voyager. But like, once we learn that they're actually faster than Voyager, I also didn't quite believe that. What is that about? How tough can these ships be and how fast can they be? Is this just like the smaller ships are more maneuverable thing? I wish we knew for sure, because this episode's really asking you to believe that there's a threat here. Yeah.

Yeah. This pre-warp civilization has really good impulse engines and phasers that are strong enough to damage Voyager. Yeah. So in order to sort of expedite the beaming, they move Voyager into the atmosphere to complete this transport, to transport the fuels to the ship.

I feel like if you're a cool scientist, that's what you call them. Yeah, let's get these fuels in the confinement beam. Yeah. And this is the moment that Chico Te tells Janeway about the alternate plan. I was like, when is this gonna happen? There's no good time to say it.

And then when he does, Janeway is like, I'm going to go to seven and jerk the leash. I'm glad we put that pinch collar on her. Yeah. It's going to help greatly in training. Yeah. I'll be in cargo bit too. It's a danger close mission.

It's like, we gotta like jack these particles and get them on the ship and get out of here as fast as we can. Mm-hmm. And they're like taking shots, the phasers from this other ship like actually do some damage to them. Mm-hmm. And so they've got to like clear deck four, which is where sevens quarters slash the cargo

bay are. And they've got this like huge dome full of omega particles that seven is built. And the captain persuades seven to start neutralizing particles. Yeah, omega must end here. We both know that. Man, it's a really intense scene. Like Man, it's a really intense scene. Like, it's seven being brought to heal in some ways. But it's also seven sort of deciding not to fight Janeway on this, even though on a really deep level, the most important thing to her in her whole life would be the knowledge she could gain from these particles. Like, it is seven making a choice for the greater good of the ship

and for the benefit of her relationship with Janeway that really harms her. And in the background is the ticking clock, right? And the approaching ships. Like, there's a lot of stress placed on the scene. I thought it was really well written and really well-acted. Like, this is Jerry Ryan and Kate Mulgrew like trading very subtle barbs with each other, but ultimately coming to unagreement

and like being scientists with each other at the same time. Yeah, I like this moment. Yeah, so they're basically gonna alien queen the remaining particles because they haven't been able to neutralize all of them. Prepare to decompress cargo bay two on my command. Once we've jettisoned the chamber, fire. And when they alien queen this thing, it's going to like go back in space behind the ship

to the pursuant craft and explode in between them. Yeah. So I was like, damn, that's fucking cold as hell. Like these people are fighting for the existence of their civilization and you're just gonna fucking bomb them. Yeah. There's coffee in that rather metric torpedo. It's pretty rugged. I love the audacity of a pre-warp rub

to get on FaceTime and tell Chicoete to prepare to be bored and. I know. I know. We cut back and forth between what's happening on the bridge with these approaching ships and what's going on in the alcove next to the chamber. And inside the alcove, we get the apex scene of the whole thing, like they're just about

done. The omega scene, would you say? Yeah, yeah. What seven glimpses here is that the molecules inside are spontaneously stabilizing and she's seeing this through kind of a Spockmaster style hood that we've seen on like the original enterprise Yeah, and we get some real promised shots here of seven taking this in Yeah before they run out of the room and dump the chamber and shoot it Seven does get to see the omega particle stabilize for a brief instant and then they got to run.

Yeah. And she does get to see the face of God. Hey, that's great. Yeah. Yeah, it's awesome, right? Good for her. They dump it out, they shoot it, it explodes, they go to warp, and the threat's over. Mission accomplished. She did it. Yeah. Not bad. She did it. Not bad for it.

Shoot. They get those guys back to their planet and like, hey, sorry about the collapse of your civilization. Okay, bye. Sorry about destroying your lifelong ambition in front of you like while you watched. That sucks, right? Yeah, pretty sad, but there's like a captain's log

where she's like, yeah, we deleted all the data that we gathered here, which I was like, really? Yeah. Why? That seemed like useful data. I know. Is that really the rule? Seems like it.

There are a lot of unusual rules having to do with Omega. Yeah. And then we cut to Da Vinci's workshop. Da Vinci often pairs, so he's not here. Yeah. It's seven looking around the laboratory, looking at all the jack-off machines, and also the crucifix. She tells Janeway when she walks in. Jane was like,

what are you doing here? I was expecting to be alone. And seven's like, I'm studying religion because what I saw through the Spockmaster cannot be explained by science. And Janeway's like, well, if you could just keep looking at the cross, I'm gonna be on the other side of the room doing something. Please do not turn around. This is a very abrupt ending to the episode, like a mom telling their daughter about her first period. Yeah. And the mom telling the daughter, that's what that was. Yeah.

And then we're like into the credits, that's it. And the fact that they use the TNG credits music, I was like, what the fuck? Yeah. Did you like this episode, Ben? You know, I'm really used to get along with most of the time, but I don't like bollies, I don't like friends,

and I don't like you. I'm just too. I did like this episode. I think that I wrote down a abrupt ending as well. I felt like, you know, there's something like this episode. I think that I wrote down a abrupt ending as well. I felt like, you know, there's something about this episode that sort of reminds me of the movie Contacts. Like, a movie that has a really like trippy, almost spiritual element. Like, you know, we joke about they should have sent a poet, but like, yeah, I've always admired that movie,

like, wrote its way into showing the stuff that's hard to show in a film. Yeah. And I think that this episode writes its way into showing the stuff that's hard to show in an episode. And it doesn't really seem like it's a seven of nine episode after that first scene. Like, you know, we start the episode with her and end the episode with her, We seem like it's a seven of nine episode after that first scene.

We start the episode with her and end the episode with her, but it doesn't hit as though it's a, this is a seven episode and it's about seven's sense of spirituality all the way through. Yeah, you only ever get that in the very last moment. Yeah, and I think that that was like the one area that I was a little disappointed, was like I think that it's a really interesting moment to meditate on and that the abruptness of that felt like,

yeah, we got a cut for time, like we're already at 45 minutes, we gotta go. And I wish that there had been like two more minutes for them to talk in the day new month. Yeah, I think that would have made a big difference. I think I feel the same way you do is this is one of those episodes that was adversely affected by its final moments. And I wish you could take away a little bit from something in the

middle or the beginning in order to make room for a more satisfying ending. But as a concept, I was very excited by it. Like I like it when there's a secret mission. I like it when captains know a thing that no one else does. Like some of my favorite TNG episodes involve, like what is the captain doing? Why is he keeping this a secret? Why is this so affecting to everyone else?

Like it felt like a real throwback in that way. It was cool. Yeah. Well, do you wanna see if there are any throwback in that way. It was cool. Yeah. Well, do you want to see if there are any throwbacks in the P1 inbox? Adam, sure do you, Ben? It's head in there. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. You need a supplement on it.

A supplement on it? A supplement. A supplement. Yeah, it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Ben, something came up on my screen and it's covering every other thing that's on it. It's a P and a 1. Oh boy. I can't tell you about it.

Yeah. I'm gonna have to take these in my ready room. Okay. Hey, do you mind if I tag along to help? Yeah, that's fine. Okay. I didn't know you liked to Yeah, that's fine. Okay. I didn't know you liked to watch P1's Ben.

Our first one here is from your nibble. And it is for he who is my nibble. The message goes like this, apparently we make Ben and Adam say some embarrassing gay stuff along with the Sappy stuff. So here goes. I can't believe how lucky I am to have such a caring husband, who persistently pushes me to be a better friend, husband, engineer, citizen, and bottom. Here's to another year of bettering ourselves and the rest of humanity. I'm in the garden.

Oh, you nipples. Yeah, they're just a pair of nipples. Taring up that ass and the rest of humanity. Check out this pair of nipples. I'm not embarrassed by the gay stuff. That's great. No, I'm not either. Yeah. Persistently pushing someone to be a better bottom though.

Hmm. I might persistently go for some lubricant there. If it gets too persistent, you might need a little help. Right, right. Uh, well, uh, that's just good, clean fun. Is this an anniversary? Do you think? It has a specific request to date in that date's October 19th, but... Hey, we got really close. I know. It doesn't say anniversary, so I don't know. The tone of the thing

suggests that that might be what it is, but you know what even if it's not, what a nice thing to say to your partner. Yeah. On any day. You know what? What? This could be a coincidence, but one of my college roommates, a great friend, one of the first gay people that, you know, was out in my life and was a very good friend. You're talking about Derek Nibble? I actually did have a college roommate named Derek, but that's a different story for a different time. Uh-huh.

His birthday is October 19th so I wonder if listen, long shot. I don't think he listens to the show. I know he doesn't listen. I love the idea that nibble could be this couple's last name And like the Dormat is like, welcome to the nibbles. Casa de nibble. Yeah. Yeah. In the nibbles house, we believe. And so on and so on.

Right. Well, happy, whatever you're celebrating nibbles. Happy day. Our next P1 is from Patrick and Virginia, and it's to Ben and Adam! Sounds like this. I'm traveling for the Labor Day weekend and wouldn't you know it? I left my prescription glasses on a bus.

They're goners! Yep. Thankfully, when I packed, I thought I should bring my backups. You know, two is one and one is none. Yes! So thanks to the pod, I don't have to wear my prescription sunnies inside like a maniac the rest of the trip. Thanks! I'm just so glad we're helping in any way with this show.

Oh man, I would really be done if I left my one pair of prescription glasses on a bus. That would ruin a trip for me. I'm not a glassisman, but like the first time you get fitted for glasses and you get glasses, I'm imagining as a child this happened to you. Are you given to? Are you given one and then the second one is a secret that your parents know about?

No. How does that work? No. I mean, when I first got a prescription, my prescription didn't need to be that strong. So sort of optional, whether I wore them or not, but at this point, my eyesight has degenerated to the point that I am pretty severely impaired without my glasses.

Like I will be standing in a small room going, I can't fucking find my glasses and my wife will be like, they are right in front of you. Yeah. God, my eyesight's really fallen off a cliff too, man. I don't know what it is. I could guess it's standing in front of a monitor for an entire day at a time and for years at a time.

Maybe you need to take it easy. Take a seat. You think it's the standing that's doing it? Rest those peepers. Just to be able to read a clock radio from a chrasse gymnasium. And now, like, I don't know how I used to do that. I want you to go get your eyes checked my friend. Damn it.

It's worth doing. Even if you're not a glasses person, make sure you don't have like early signs of glaucoma or anything like that. I mean, that's a good note. You're popping the jazz gummies off and enough that I'm not worried about your ocular pressure. Ha ha ha. Yeah, that's a good note. Maybe I'll go check them out. Get those peepers checked.

Yeah. Put that on the company cart. It's on us. Wow. Yeah. Thanks to Patrick and Virginia for this important reminder on IHealth. And thanks to everyone who got a priority one message on today's show. If you'd like to book a priority one message, head to maximumfun.org slash jembo-tron and set one up today.

Do it today just like I'm going to book myself an appointment with the optometrist. Yeah, I am too. It's a good reminder for me. I haven't been to the optometrist since before the pandemic started because there's a lot of things I haven't done since before the pandemic started and I need to get that back on my on my regular schedule. Yeah, you're going to go see an optometrist in a van in a parking lot. And you have a better reference than than one of those. I've got a guy, but you know, it's on the east side. It's of no use to you. I'm not going to do that. I got to drive an hour to have somebody tell you your eyes are fine.

I'm going to go to a fancy Beverly Hills eye doctor. Where I'm gonna sit in a waiting room with a famous. Oh, yeah, yeah. Gonna be great. Martin Scorsese will be there, but you won't be able to tell it to him. Even with his distinctive frames and shock of white hair. Are you Mandy Patan?

Oh, awesome. and shock of white hair. Are you Mandy Patakin? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha What's that, Adam? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? Granamon! Granamon! Granamon! I think I'm gonna give it to Harry Kim. Like, I don't think Harry Kim is wrong in this episode when he complains about Seven's leadership style. Uh-huh. I do think he's wrong when he gets caught having stayed up all night playing Calto.

Like, dude, you got work in the morning. Like, knock it off. But overall, just the you got work in the morning, like knock it off. But overall, just the like kick and the nuts of like, I've been in Ensign this entire show. We're now ending the fourth year of this mission. I remain in Ensign and I've been subordinated to seven of nine's team. And I don't like the way she's running things.

It's just such a fucking indignity. Shouldn't he be looking for opportunities to distinguish himself positively? And by that, I mean, maybe getting a good night's sleep and showing up for his duty shift on time. That seems like, yeah, like I wonder if he is going the way of a Tom Paris when Tom Paris is trying to convince the ship, he's getting ready to jump. Like, he's like, fuck this, like nothing I do,

gets me a promotion around here. So I'm just gonna, he's quiet quitting or whatever they call it. Kim's got no time to fuck if he's spending all his time stacking sticks with a two-vac in the mess hall, right? Maybe he's torn his way through the whole ship and this is the only thing that interests him anymore. Also, there are episodes where we're made aware

that the mess hall has hours. Yeah. So did they keep the mess hall open just for this Calto game? Is this a Friday or a Saturday night? Where maybe it goes 24 hours? How does that work? When you're a bridge officer,

you can probably tell me like, oh no, we'll lock up. Don't worry. That's the most fun thing is when the place locks up and you're locked inside. Yeah. Drinking. Did you have a drunk stromota, Adam? I don't know. Your description of Kim made me wonder why Tuvac didn't maybe give him a little help out the door. Like, hey, Tuvac, why don't you help out your bro? Maybe tell him to get some sleep.

So he wakes up fresh for his duty shift. Would that not be logical? Yeah, so I'm going to say Tuvac here. Though I do want to say honorable mention to Janeway? And basically the federation in general, because the idea of this Omega thing being kept a secret, such a secret that only captains know it, captains and the borigs, I guess, by virtue of their assimilation of Starfleet captains. Yeah. I don't, I don't like it.

I don't like secrets like this. What are they so afraid of? Like any old crew person and their knowledge of this thing's existence is gonna make it more dangerous? I don't know, why don't we get all the minds involved to destroy this thing? It seems very limiting as a policy.

But like when you think about like a Michael Editington knowing about this, or. You know what, you're right. You're Calvin Hudson's like, thank goodness, Cal never got that fourth pip. Yeah, yeah, you know what? This, we talk all the time about how few bad star fleets there are, a policy like this recognizes that they're a thing

to worry about. They are a thing to worry about. Like, you also hope that they're not giving this information out to admirals because they seem to have a pretty high rate of turning on everything the federation stands for. So it's like, there's like a thin layer of people in Starfleet that are allowed to know about it. Captains, but nobody above Captain and nobody below Captain.

We should have tied nubin bugs into this story somehow too, right? Because it's borgs, it's captains, it's admirmurals, it's Captains and Above is what it is. But also Nubbin Bugs. Nubbin Bugs know about the Omega particle. And for that reason alone we should fear the Nubbins. Yeah, I still do. I'm never not fearing the Nubbins. Well Adam, I don't fear what is going to happen next

Well, Adam, I don't fear what is going to happen next on the game of Buttholes, but I do want to tell you about what will happen on the next episode. It's season four, episode 22, unforgettable. A mysterious but comely female alien claims to be in love with Jocote and requests a silent aboard Voyager. Not enough people are described as comely, right? Is comely a gendered adjective or can anyone be comely? Depends on what your partner has done to you recently, I think. I want to be comly. Mm, gross.

It sounds good, right? No? Yeah, I mean, if you were cumly, I would definitely throw you a rag to clean yourself up with. Pleasant to look at, attractive. And in parentheses, typically used of a woman. Well, that's not fair.

Is that one of those definitions that has the word archaic next to it? Yes. I love it when they have that. Archaic slash humorous. So the dictionary knows, this is not a serious description of anyone. You're saying this with a with a rye smile, hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum hum No, no square. God, we really took a tumble, didn't we? Back to the second row of the game. Yeah, who's bad? Six squares away is a quark spar episode. That's the only thing in range for this dice roll. Okay, here it is. Ben, I rolled a six. It's a quark spar episode. All right

Big fun the game of Botholes, just about every time, especially today. Yeah, every time. Well, that will be great. In the meantime, we really appreciate all the folks that support this program over at MaximumFun.org slash join. That is a great way to keep this thing in business. Keep it going. Yeah. We appreciate Wendy Pretty, the producer of this show.

I mean, without whom at this point, I don't think it would really. What's what to do? No, it's really financial support and windy. That's it. Yeah. It's not us. We're like a distant third or maybe even fourth in the hierarchy. We got to thank Bill Tilly, great card daddy of this program who runs

the social media's at greatest track on Instagram and Twitter. The recently married Bill Tilly. Gratz Bill, we got to thank Nick Dmore, who made the show art for this show. We've got to thank Adam Ragusia, who made our original Janeway song of the inspiration of Derek Matierria, who made the Picard song. Of course, Adam Ragusia's, Adam Ragusia podcast,

tearing up the charts over there on your pod catcher. Make sure you're subscribed to that. I am. It's really good. We're gonna be back on there soon. Adam Ragusia's podcast, one of the rare podcasts that I listen to. I don't have room in my life for all these podcasts,

but his is one of them. Mm-hmm. I was talking to him on the phone the other day about some like real shit that he was talking about on the podcast. Yeah. I thought he'd just like hung up on me because I got too real,

but it was that his phone ran out of battery God that sucks. Yeah, I really went into a paranoid and dark place for a minute But it was okay. It was fine. It was just a battery thing. Yeah, man. It's a good thing. We're such good friends Are you still there? Yeah Yeah man, it's a good thing we're such good friends. Are you still there? Yeah. Anybody! You got anybody, that's what that is. I really did, I didn't even realize I was anybody canyons.

I'm so out of there. But with that, we will be back at you next time. In another great episode of Star Trek Voyager and an episode of the greatest generation Voyager where we are drinking the 61 Shreval Blanc out of a Styrofoam cup at a greasy spoon out by the highway. Hell yeah, delicious. Get to your movie car to the U.S. Get to your movie car to the U.S. Get to your movie car to the U.S. Make it sound.

Make it sound. Get to your movie car to the car to the car to the car to the U.S. MaximumFun.org Comedy and Culture Artistone, audience supported. Artistone, audience supported.