The Greatest Generation - Ronco Run Amok (TNG S1E21)

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

When a weapons salesman’s demonstration threatens the Entrepreneur and crew, it creates a (w)hole lot of trouble both above and below the ship. But after Geordi’s leadership is put into question by an ambitious engineer, his attention isn’t the only thing that becomes separated. Why is Ben on the casualty list for this week’s pod? What other products are made on the nitrile glove production line? When does the type of bit really matter? It’s the episode that didn’t get clean dirt.Support the production of our shows Members get benefits including bonus episodes and an ad-free experienceSign up for our mailing list!Get a thing at podshop.biz!The Greatest Generation is hosted by Adam Pranica and Benjamin Ahr Harrison The show is produced by Wynde PriddySocial media is managed by Rob Adler and Bill TilleyMusic by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaDiscuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen and find us on social media:YouTube | Instagram | BlueskyAnd check out these online communities run by FODs: Reddit | USS Hood Discord | Facebook group | Wikia | FriendsOfDeSoto.socialSupport the production of The Greatest Generation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Want to hear an ad-free version of this show? Go to greatest.supercast.com. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage. Welcome to the Greatest Generation. It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are just a little bit embarrassed about having a Star Trek podcast.

I'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pranica. Put me on the casualty list, Adam. Oh? What's wrong with Ben this time? Sustained minor injuries in the process of doing pod related business. Hmm. A couple of like abrasions on the back of this finger.

I got a, I got like nicked in the wrist somehow. Oh, that looks like a hesitation wound. Yeah. You know what that is? What is it? The fucking clamshell piece of shit packaging. that Mr. Stretch Armstrong came in. Yes, Stretch Armstrong.

Now stretching fun farther than ever before. Man, I didn't mean to hurt you. Well, I was trying to figure out a way to not hurt my son, to not hurt his fragile little four-year-old feelings. Sure. So let's wind this back a little bit. At the end of the last episode, we played a little game,

and the consequences of that game, whether you won or lost, were to procure for yourself a stretch Armstrong action figure. He bends, he stretches, even ties and knots. An action figure I see you have in your bloodied hands. Look at that guy. Look at him flopping around. Isn't he great? Should we do a stretch test? I haven't even done this yet.

Stretch him out. Look at that. How's he do that? He's been doing that since he was a kid. Now that's a stretchy motherfucker. Really is. His head is a hard plastic material now. You can't stretch that.

Yeah, and it's like you can feel the like flared base that's within the stretchy birdie. Uh-huh. It's like he put it in backwards, you know. Uh-huh. That looks like a ton of fun. Oh, look at that. He pivots. He can do a full 360 point of articulation on the head and then.

He looks squishy. He's squishy? He's very squishy. It's kind of, you know, it's kind of like the viral squishy toy. What's it called? Knee-dough, the needo cube. I don't know anything about that, but the way you squished it made it resemble kind of a stress ball situation that a stressed-out office worker would have at their desk. Is that you? That's me. I love a little giga to fiddle with. I spent a lot of my early adulthood resisting that urge. And now that Mr. Armstrong is here, I'm ready to embrace it fully. That's great.

So this worked out for you then? It did. I mean, I did open the package in the kids' room after everyone was asleep. So I think I fulfilled the letter of my punishment, if not the spirit of my punishment. Sure. But I guess the various abrasions to my hands count as their own form of ancillary punishment. That's what you get when you have to confront some childproof packaging. In the dark.

Yeah. In a very dark room. That's what you get. Amazing that all of my owes didn't wake my kids up. But here we are. I have a stretch Armstrong now. Why was it a Stretch Armstrong? I forget. Just hard to know where the consequences end and Ben's choices begin in a situation like this.

I just want to wish you speedy healing. I hope you're back to 100% soon. I'm glad that Stretch Armstrong is now a part of your life. I think it's, you know, you had to sacrifice a little bit in the beginning, like with all these wounds. Sure. To get there, but look at it this way. You're going to be with stretch for a long, long time, long after all of these hand wounds have healed. That's a good deal, isn't it?

He's covered with a thin layer of, like, the kind of dust that they put on the inside of a nitrile exam glove for a doctor's office. They probably make him on the same production line. Yeah. You think Howie Mandel could pop this head off and open the hole and stretch it over his head and blow it up with his nose? He knows how to do a lot of mildly entertaining things. I'm sure that's one of them. Well, Adam, did you find this episode of Star Trek the next generation, mildly entertaining? Let's find out as we jump in to season one, episode 21, the arsenal of freedom.

Ben, this is the beginning of not a mildly entertaining episode. I'd say it's a wildly entertaining episode. Holy moly. One of the best ones of season one, I think. Really solid. We've got to find this USS Drake. They went out toward the Lorenz cluster on a mission that it sounds much more interesting and flagship worthy than, hey, go look, see what happened to these guys.

They were trying to find out why intelligent life on the planet Minos just disappeared. They're gone. It's a great question, Ben. Which part of this mission is the also part of the mission? Is the primary part finding out what happened to the Drake? Or is the primary part what happened to all of the intelligent life that's now missing on a planet? The light cruiserness of the Drake just feels like maybe send something. with a little more umph to it.

And, you know, like these guys have a history. They were war profiteers in the Esselaropae wars. You're talking about the Minosians and not the USS Drake. Right. Yeah, the USS Drake,

as far as I know, did no war profiteering of any kind. But they were captained by someone that Riker came up with at the academy and in whom Riker has a lot of, esteem, you know, like this guy, Captain Rice. He's a risk taker. Really? I mean, they talk about Rikers being like one of the like, like young hot shots in Starfleet, like really rising through the ranks rapidly.

Rice got there before he did. I want to talk about the tone of this scene a little bit because they're looking for a missing ship. Its captain is familiar to Riker. The revelation that this could have been Riker's assignment that he turned down as part of it. But let's circle back around to Riker knowing the captain and knowing that that captain is missing and the fucking shit-eating grin on his face when he talks about turning down the mission. Weird energy, Commander Riker. Why are you smiling? Rice was the second choice to command the Drake.

Riker said, at the time, I thought it would be better to do a tour aboard the Enterprise. I was sure dumb then. He is a smiling devil here in this moment. Like, we don't know if this guy's alive or dead. This cheeky grin to Captain Picard and Captain Picard being like, you said it, Riker. You sure dodged a bullet wheel. The planet unpopulated, as far as they can tell.

What could have done it? What took them all out? And why are they being hailed? I love the eerie, base, as you re-do score as Vincent Chavelli pops up on screen with a recorded sales pitch. It is a fun greeting straight out of a local cable channel's commercial lineup. Like, you watch cable TV late at night, especially. You'll get the local studio city mattress store commercial.

And this guy's energy is straight out of one of those spots. He's great. We got it. You'll see it here on Minos. There's some misconception at the beginning. They're like, you know, trying to ask questions before they realize that this is just like the outgoing message on the answering machine. But if that's working, if the answering machine is working, like other stuff down there

might be operational. They might at least be able to get some intel on what might have happened. They go ahead and shut this pre-recorded message down and decide to send a Dustbuster Club to the surface. Tasha's like, hey, let's not fill up the whole transporter room with folks to send down there. Fewer targets that way. And I kind of get her strategy, don't you? It's one of the times when I can think of where the potential risk to life and limb that they are taking going down on a way mission is really highlighted like this.

Every time they beam down to a strange planet, somebody like Yarr has to think, how likely is it that we're going to die and what would be the best disposition of the crew that we take down to limit those risks? This should be a part of every pre-Dustuster Club moment, I think. Yeah, yeah, like a checkout like you have before you get on the plane to go skydiving, like you're all checking each other's rigging and making sure everything looks right. It sure does feel like you don't have much of a choice in the matter if you're were assigned to one of these, right? I can't recall anyone ever being like assigned to a Dust Buster Club and then going, actually, I got to stay and do this. This thing on this panel here

needs my attention. I can't do that. I am so sorry. I would love to go with you guys, but I have a prior engagement. I have tickets to see Chief O'Brien play his cello in 10-4 in about 20 minutes. So, uh, that energy of being in a conference room when a project is being put together and assignments are being given and like, how invisible can you possibly be at a conference room table? After the theme we beam down, this planet's nuts.

They've got birds of paradise growing on pine trees, little, uh, waist deep mist everywhere. The shaking, establishing boom shot showing the, Dust Buster Club arriving feels very college film to me. Very familiar. This is the best we could do at the time. Yeah, yeah. Like, no one knows how to counterweight the boom at that age. You're just like, put the camera out there and we'll like have a guy on the other side,

teeter tottering it through these bushes. Hey, this is weird. This boom came with a bunch of those circular disc weights that you see in gyms. What are these four? They want us to get strong. move the boom. Coms are being monitored. We learn.

They start the search and there's a lot of back and forth with the ship about what they're seeing. There's some wreckage. This wreckage is never like described as being potentially part of the Drake, but that was kind of where my head went. They're looking at some melted tritanium at like a big-ass ray gun covered in moss, various objects kind of strewn around the Sears Garden Center. It doesn't look like the bombed out like remains of a city or anything like that. What's important about what they're seeing

is that this is evidence of a weapon beyond their understanding or technology, both in the wreckage that they find and also the thing under the moss they uncover too. Yeah, yeah. If you were put in a state of mind based on what Tasha said when they were heading down that this crew might be expendable. I think you could be forgiven for making that assumption. You could. But they're not. Enten Zoo, such a familiar face, an even more familiar voice being Julian Nixon from Rambo First Blood Part 2. You look like hell, Rambor. Love how much dialogue she gets in this episode. She is all in it. It made me kind of mourned the TNG where she was a four or five times a season character on the bridge that, you know, like O'Brien kind of is this, right? Like the later, you see him

like from time to time, but he's not on every episode. Like I would have loved that. Anyway, as they go, Riker is intercepted by his old friend Captain Rice. And before they get very far in the conversation, he gets a message from Enterprise confirming that, hey, just to like confirm, like double confirm, you guys are the only ones alive down there, okay? So keep that in mind. And this is a great moment to have that confirmed because they are looking at who presented himself as Captain Rice straight in the face, straight in his big, bulgy, looks to be in pain face. He looks strange. He's kind of standing at a weird distance. You know, like every culture has their like norm for how far you stand from somebody when you talk. But I don't think any culture has this. It's weird. There was a time when I had painful, bulging, cystic acne that would just explode when you go to pop it. And God, Captain Rice has really got one of those on his cheek. Yeah. You look strange, Paul.

Maybe that's why Riker keeps his distance He's like, if that thing goes, I don't want like getting in my mouth or something That thing's going to blow big I love how Riker does bits on this guy As soon as he gets the information that this guy isn't real Good stuff I've been seeing social videos of this guy That's like getting pretty far along in a hiring process

Where he keeps being interviewed by various AI agents I've been getting that too Yeah, this is very related to that Felt a lot like that The other thing I noticed about Wright is the actor who played him chose to like whenever he blinks his eyes they kind of blink out of sync

which is a great way to make someone look like a character in Toy Story 1 or very strange Marco Rodriguez still a working actor he was in a bunch of episodes of Eastbound and Down oh yeah which is due for a rewatch in my mind it's been a minute I actually just started a rewatch of that show a couple of weeks ago I'm a I'm like

halfway through season one. Well, keep a lookout for our guy. I will. Data comes up and he's like, so just to reiterate what has already been established, no life signs on that guy. Rice is just trying to pump Riker for information. But he has like so little information. Like he knows, like whatever system figured out what Rice looks like

did not figure out what Riker's first name is, you know. As soon as the jig is up, Rice transforms into an Echo Papa 607 weapons platform and kind of floats above them. Riker gets surrounded by a force field and Yarr licks a shot at the drone, but that does not drop the field. They are able to destroy this thing in the sky, but destroying it doesn't free Riker. And that's a real problem because they can't beam them up. On Enterprise, they don't know his condition either, whether he's alive or not. And for some reason, knowing slash not knowing this information is all Picard needs to involve himself in the mission to such a degree that he wants to beam himself down there. He's like, this is awesome.

Riker cannot possibly tell me I'm not allowed to beam down. Perfect. Got it his way, the mice show play. Emotional Bloodhound, Deanna Troy. I know what you're thinking. registers her disagreement with him. Noted it is, and Jordy has the bridge before he takes off. Crusher and Picard get down there to scan the field,

and fortunately, data has done some deeper poking and has determined that Riker is alive. And they start talking about what was going on with this. The device is an intelligence gathering drone, So it mimics someone you know to build trust and then pump you for information. And then when it's done, it throws one of these stasis fields over you so that you can be collected and extraordinarily rendered to a black site to be interrogated even further, I guess. It makes a lot of sense. Even pre-interrogation can get you pregnant, though.

So we'll have to check in on that a little later. We want to see, you know, just how trustworthy a barrier this is, if pre-interrogation can get you pregnant. So, Data's going to try poking it with his facer, and he says, this could take a while. It turns out there are many, many settings on a dustbuster. I love the just, like, I'll be here. Like, you guys, you know, do whatever other exploring you want to do. I'm just going to be here sweeping my beam over this thing. On Enterprise, Jordie blows in a call to Picard warning him slash them about an incoming energy signal headed their way.

Could be dangerous. And it is. That's because it's another Echo Papa and it's shooting these green beams into the jungle at them. Picard and Crusher kind of make themselves bait to draw the drone off. You thought this was intentional? Yeah, because they wanted to give data cover so he could just stand there. idly phasering the stasis field. I guess so, yeah.

Definitely wasn't intentional that they fell down this hole, though. One of the most memorable stunts in early Star Trek the next generation is the, like, edge of the whole wavy arms thing, Dr. Crusher does, and then that she grabs a Picard that attempts to stop her and in so doing like flings him in before she even goes. It's amazing that this plays for not hilarious slapstick, you know. Yeah. I think objectively it is hilarious, but like that's not the tone it strikes in the episode.

I also really love the establishing shot that finds Crusher like buried up to her waist in loose dirt down in the bottom of the hole. I do love what the moment conveys visually in that way, in that, like, she fell from such a great height that she buried herself in the cat litter down there. Yeah. It's fucking high. Like, that pan down from the hole is pretty breathtaking.

I read about the production of this episode, and one of the main things about being down on the hole were the fleas, Ben. There were millions of feet. fleas living in this dust and dirt and it made Gates and Patrick's time down there miserable. What the hell? Were they not on a soundstage? Why would their fleas?

I guess you didn't get the clean dirt to bring to the set. That guy got fired. I doubt it. It's a union job. Yarendata team up to kill this second drone. And then they're like, all right, high five. Captain, we got it. And they turn to where they're expecting to see the doctor and the captain, and they're not there.

So that makes them realize that comms are also out. They can't reach anyone on the surface and they can't reach the shit. You know who's not reaching much of anything? Is Dr. Crusher down in that hole because she's got a broken arm? She doesn't even want to be moved. Her condition is so bad. This is like a moment where on Newtrek, would see bone poking out through the lab coat, right?

That's bone. Yeah, multiple open fractures of just about every limb is what we would get. The fleas would be big and they would be eating her flesh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so on the one hand, like on the surface, real bummer we can't communicate with Enterprise. That same condition transferred down to the bottom of the hole is given a far greater weight.

But some good news. We get Riker free. Yeah. He's okay. Yeah. Ironically, Captain and Doctor, who shouldn't have come in the first place are the ones that are in the most trouble. One of the things besides the Echo Papa that I found so memorable about this app was the bedside manner of Captain Picard. And how great he is with the injured Dr. Crusher down there.

You know, for a guy who says he hates kids slash is uncomfortable with them and has social difficulties in all these ways, time and time again, he kind of breaks through that kind of self-talk. Yeah. And he rises above it. And he turns out to be actually pretty good with kids. And his bedside manner here is great in a way that I found unexpected. Not to worry. Everything's going to be fine. And he also just seems to like know a lot of first aid.

Like he is definitely eventually starts to draw on Crusher's expertise as the episode progresses. Should I eat these mushrooms? How many fleas count as one serving of protein? On Enterprise, Jority gives the signal to beam them up, but what happens on Enterprise is pretty interesting, right? The Shields automatically come up when there's a bogey out in space. and that's because an Echo Papa in space has begun to fire on them, and it is really packing a punch. Big bangers, and Wharf is describing readings that are just so confusing. Like, they're detecting this thing all over the place.

They can't land a shot if they try to shoot back. And, like, in the midst of the mayhem, they're getting calls from engineering. and Chief Engineer Logan would like to know when, like, how soon they will be breaking orbit, because it would be insane to stay here and just get shot at by this thing that they can't shoot back at. There are windows of time where this thing is firing at them and then disappearing and they're unable to return fire. And one of these quiet moments is a moment that Engineer Logan chooses to visit the bridge personally to register his complaint with him.

Why are we still in orbit? We're taking a beating. We've got to hold out as long as we can. He has got a real problem with Jordy's sense of crisis management and would rather take command himself. Because it's two pips against one, right? Or one in an unfilled one. Yeah, he's trying to pull rank and wants command relinquished to him.

Picard wasn't anticipating this combat situation when he left a young pup like Jordy in charge. But it does really feel like a daddy said I was in charge. But it does really feel like a daddy said I was in charge, though, even though you outrank me. He didn't say. I don't know how any of this stuff works in the Navy. I'll take Jordy's word for it over Logan's. Logan looks like his hair was designed and cast in resin in the 60s and preserved until it could be put helmet-like onto this actor in the 80s.

This is a question I've always had about like Mad Men era men, which was like, Do you go to sleep that way? And what does your pillow look like in the morning? What does your face look like in the morning? And O'Brother, where art, though, he has like a hairnet to keep it all in place. I'm a dapper dan, man. But he also doesn't have like a nice starched pillow to protect. So I wonder if that's where, is that why people have like sleeping caps in old-timey things?

But I thought that was only for women. You see a guy with this amount of product in their... hair and you're thinking they're going to wake up looking like Ed Grimley times 40 with all the all the spikes shooting up you get up and the the pillowcase has to be like peeled away from your face and it's like you do it like rip it off like a band-aid or do you try to like minimize the irritation by doing it slowly it's gross as hell they don't have time to make a decision about who's in command I mean it seems like Jordy is not going to relinquish that but the bogey appears again and disappears and fires and disappears.

Logan would love to keep arguing about it, but Jordy's like, no, what you need to do is go back down to your little hole in engineering where I would never personally set foot because, ew, and get me some more power. Now, Mr. Logan. I always think about like the other coworkers in a scene like this because it's very awkward for them. I wonder how this is going to play out. Are we going to be taking orders from Logan in a moment?

and they keep cutting to emotional bloodhound Deanna Troy who was just staring daggers at Jordie. It doesn't quite look like she's concerned. It looks like she is mildly disgusted with the decisions that Jordy is making in a weird way. I don't know if I get much of anything off of her expression, but it certainly does pay off the interaction they have later, which makes clear how much intense observation she's given Jordy

throughout this moment. One thing that one thing that I wanted to talk to you about is a real inflection point for for Jordi's character and also I think for the actor who plays him because up until this moment, LeVar Burton was only guy from Roots and only host of Reading Rainbow. and I kind of feel like if those are the only roles you know him from

you may have doubts about his ability to convey a certain command authority fortitude necessary to like repel the hard ass that is Logan. I thought there was a very interesting you know use of a built in reputation for an actor here to like make that a real question in this moment

Did you think about that? I did, and I love how self-assured he feels in those moments, but the second Logan walks off the bridge, we get a big exhale from Lovar Burton, like, fuck, I'm glad that asshole's not here anymore, which I think is such a great choice in that moment in the scene. On the surface, Riker and Yara and Data are fired upon again, and Data throws Yarr out of the way so she doesn't get shot.

Great moment. Lucky she didn't fall down that hole. They were like up on that hill and he just chucks her off of it. They try doing that trick where they cross the streams of their phasers again on the Echo Papa, only it doesn't work like it did before. They have to get all three going to take this one out. How long would you let all three beams rest on this thing before you had enough information to give up shooting? Because this moment in this episode seems to know exactly the point where,

you would normally give up and it pushes past that by like two more seconds. I was shocked they kept shooting. It's like if you've ever put a masonry bit on your drill and attempted to drill through a piece of bathroom tile, like it's just like stunning how long it takes to drill that like three millimeters. You know like know what your drill does when you use it on drywall. So you're like, what is happening? This is insane. This does this is not working. It's one of the very specific instances where like the type of bit matters so much. That that diamond dusted tile bit is an amazing achievement in homeowner technology. It's incredible. I love it. And that's got to be how they're feeling, right? Like these things usually work like a regular wood bit on drywall. And

now it really feels like we're going through some ceramic. Interesting how Borgzish this strategy feels at this moment in time, right? They're facing an enemy that upgrades itself every 12 minutes. They feel like they are a good match for now, but they are very soon going to be overmatched in the near future, and no one wants to be around for that moment. They come out every 12 minutes, and it's like clockwork, so we at least know when the one that is going to be way stronger

but then that one we barely just got is coming. And we cut down to the pit where Picard is trying to keep Beverly from falling asleep. And he's like, I don't understand why you would be so sleepy. Like, I mean, you lost some blood from your arm, but I got the blood to stop. And she's like, why didn't you dig me out of all of this flea-infested fucking dirt? I have other wounds. The fleas are keeping her away. The thing that's putting her to sleep is Patrick Stewart's memoir on tape.

During my childhood, Merfield had a population of around 9,000. Come on now, stay awake. That's an order. Do fleas suck blood? Like, is that what they're doing when they're infesting or are they eating like dander? Are you asking me if fleas suck blood? Are they like mosquitoes or are they like, are they eating something else? No, they get in there and they eat your blood.

So they're probably happy as hell down there and then. dirt. Yeah, they're just waiting for a victim. It's full of blurred because her leg is bleeding too. How surprised were you that Dr. Crusher reveals herself to be a naturopathic doctor? She's like, hey, you know, you know while my busted ass leg and arm are buried in this flea-infested, coarse sand, there seemed to be some root material behind you, Captain McCart. Maybe you can bust some of that open and make a paste. He's like, no, no, no. Uh, Georgie's not down here. I left him in charge of the ship.

That's a bit of root material from me. Wow. There is a couple of things you need to do to find out if a root will clot your blood. Take a little nibble, see if it's bitter, and then see if it makes your skin turn yellow. And if it does both of those things, it is perfectly safe to introduce to an open wound. and we never encounter a plant on this show that does anything far scarier. It would be fun as hell

if when Picard breaks this root open, it stings him and then we get a and then we get a Shades of Gray episode immediately thereafter. You think you know what this episode is about. You don't fucking know. Surprise clip show. I was very surprised that,

at this moment, Picard chose to leave his patient to go look for a way out of there. But I guess absent any other medical supplies that can be used or improvised, like what other choice does he have? I mean, maybe he can find one of those wall box first aid kits and see if there's like a Mila blanket in a little packet in there. On Enterprise, there's the real calm before the storm energy of things like this thing could pop up at any time and start shooting and no one can do anything about it. They have been trying to get a sense of pattern recognition with how this thing is hunting them. And they've got a theory that they feel good enough about that they're going to do full spread torpedoes and phasers at a certain spot once the next bangor comes in. Doesn't work.

We wouldn't realize until much later how bad Jordie would be at hitting the spot. Total bullshit, man. It's just bullshit. They just miss utterly. It is a very frustrating moment. And this thing is hammering the ship. Shields are buckling. Logan is calling back up with more sass for Jordie.

Ensign Su is panicking. It's not great. I thought she held it together okay. Jordy calls Logan back to the bridge in a way that kind of feels like, okay, like he kicked Logan off, but now he has to kind of hat in hand go like, you were right, I was wrong. We need a more experienced officer on the bridge for a crisis like this. But no, when Logan comes up, we're getting out of here at Warp 5 and Logan immediately changes what his disagreement with Jordy is over. He's like, you're leaving, you're abandoning the entire away. He treats it as a betrayal, but what LaVorge explains is, I've actually got a bit of a plan here. We're going to get all the civilians onto the saucer, separate it, and then head back with the Star Drive section and fuck shit up. And the way he puts Logan in charge of the saucer is so reality show-coated. Like, what you've baked here disgusts me because I'm so jealous of how good it is.

You know, kind of like, he really, Paul Hollywood's Logan. Mr. Logan, you are going to take command of the saucer section. Backup crew, report to the main bridge. What a moment. I mean, Jordy is really playing 4D chess here. You're right. And the other aspect to this moment that makes me believe it is the 20, of his order of the ship out of orbit.

Because that suggests to me someone that's got very specific reasons for making their decisions. It's like the guy that sets up an automatic email to get sent at like 903 in the morning. Because no one sends an email automatically at 903. That's a manually sent email. Like the 28 seconds is just a bizarre choice. and to everyone on the bridge they've got to be like, oh yeah, obviously, 28 seconds. There's a reason for that. There is not.

It's episode 21 of this show. It has been more than half a year since we saw the saucer separation sequence. I know. So let's reuse those effects. Why not? No one is on board who knows how to either take a part or put back together these two pieces of the ship, though. This is a terrifying moment. They don't even play the right music for it.

I was disgusted. before the ship is separated Deanna Troy pays off that moment earlier where she's just staring Jordy down by giving me a little counseling in private in the ready room and she's like look man you're clearly handling this great no problems with you at all the issue is these young folks taking your orders are scared shitless and they're going to need a little bit of zhuzing from you the way Picard juge's just everyone else. The way the Picard is just you personally. So make sure, as you're doing the rest of this mission,

you sprinkle around the encouragement every once in a while of these folks. Much like I am constantly writing and rewriting the apology in my head that I know eventually I will be in a position to make on the internet. I think if you're a captain or acting as a captain, then you have to kind of constantly be writing the stirring motivational speech about rising to the occasion because we're Starfleet officers. And that's basically what she's counseling him to do. Like, you know, just you don't have to say it right now, but like at some point before the next bangor may be,

just like have something chambered, you know? So Jordy whips the Star Drive section around and they head to Minos and on Minos in the caves. Picard hasn't gotten very far in his search for an exit. He's not even out a speaking voice range. No exits? None that I can see. Crusher is pretty tired of his memoir. She's like, all right, well, if you can find an exit,

I would like you to take your leave. I don't need you here anymore. She's like, why is so much of this book about a Tommy's hamburger? They start talking about why she knows what to do with Roots. screen it for a social studies class. But her grandma helped colonize Arveda 3, presumably in between getting her back absolutely blown out by a candle ghost. She helped establish a colony that tragically collapsed, and they were forced to learn

about roots and herbs, not because they were like groovy and trying to like do it the old way, because they literally had no medicine, and this was the only way they could, like, save people's lives as things got worse and worse. Beverly, I've found a television. The subtext of this entire B-plot of Picard of Beverly down here is that they're just boring the shit out of each other. Like, he keeps telling her about the hamburger, and she's like, shut up.

She starts talking about Dr. Quinn, Candlefucker woman, and he's like, ooh, let's see if there's a rerun of the Simpsons. It's a real delight to see how closely the Picard character's framed when he hits the button on this tiny viewer in the floor. And then when we get to the wide shot and this thing is turned on, like it is an entire wall panel of flashing lights that we didn't notice a moment before. It's great. It is like the idealized home theater setup that we all,

saw like, you know, one rich dad in an 80s movie had like something amazing that would light up like this. Didn't come with Vincent Chevelli usually, but boy, it would just be awesome if it did. The salesman hologram appears and admits that this has all been a demonstration of the Echo Papa 607. It's clear that this thing iterates itself into a perfect killing machine. And guess what? It's about to reach its final form.

What's clear in this moment is that this is a device that killed its creators on Minos. These stupid fucking bastards. You know, it's the natural conclusion of Ronco run amok. You know, like it goes from just being something that slices and dices and kills ground troops and space vessels. You'll never have to scale, cut, or gut again. And eventually, it eradicates your entire society. So, Ron, what really great innovative product have you brought us today? I mean, if the Romco Corporation were at fault on Minos, I think they would have found evidence of dehydrated bodies.

Just strewn about the surface, right? They would have found like a PO box and they're like, look at this. There's only four easy payments of $29.99 when I would estimate the value at five or even six easy payments. It is very clear that the next attack is going to be the most brutal and the most difficult to defend against. And Picard is like, we got to stop this thing from happening before it starts. And the salesman hologram is like, this is the best part, man. You are going to love this. And those targets that you've put up on the surface are really going to get it this time.

Those targets are data in Yar and Riker. And they find the entrance to the hole from above. They yell at each other. Two minutes are left before this final boss appears. Picard yells what he's learned down there, up to them. There is not a lot of cover to take when you're up above the hole. And I love how there is sort of an agreement that like, well, no one's going to survive the jump down there except for data. We might as well save data.

I really questioned this because I feel like data has already shown himself to be really good in like an action. fire situation when the micro brain was shooting the laser at him. Yeah. Like, don't you think data could, like, come up with a way to, like, cover himself in mud to conceal himself from the heat vision of the Echo Papa 607 and then, like, jump out of a tree and break it in half? Like, Riker and Yar don't have the physical strength or speed that data does. I feel like saving data was a total mistake.

Do you think the very worst mistake was maybe destroy. the first Echo Papa, like, you keep the easy level going. Right. Because that's easy to dodge. That way it never, like, we never level up in a way that becomes more lethal. I wonder if that's a way they could have done it. But maybe it's like one of those games where it's like you have to finish the level in a certain number of minutes.

Like, it's not like the screen is scrolling inexorably so much as just like the developers anticipated this and it will just kill you if you don't. Remember that moment you played your first side-scrolling video game and you didn't move your teenage mutant ninja turtle and then they like look at the camera and they're like work, work, like with the like raised eyebrow. What are you doing, bud? Yeah. Also, they know that this fall is pretty survivable. Like, don't worry, the fleas will break your fall. No one mentions that Picard survived the fall.

Uninjured. Problem free. He's great. Just like if you could like shove some of the fleas and a little of the dirt into kind of like a mattressy shape, we could all jump down on that. I also feel like if Data goes down there first, he could do the catch. Oh, yeah. That would be so cool. He'd be great at that.

Well, he starts ministering to Crusher, but yeah, the killer robots are coming back. Data like waves at Tri-Corderover, Dr. Crusher. the look of concern is evident on his face for maybe the first time in TNG but we do know about the injuries to her arm and her leg what we don't know is that she's pregnant

Picard is like I mean maybe going through that waterfall over there would be an exit but I don't want to risk going under water falling at that rate I did fall on top of her landing on her briefly. I'm sorry about this.

Speaking of fleas, Jordy is back from his flight and he has kind of a Hail Mary idea to fight this thing and we're going to have to do it quickly. We're in the battle bridge

and finally get that stirring captain's speech about getting ready to fight this thing and down on the planet, we see that the last, the fourth and final Echo Papa 607 is out hunting the team. And Picard and Data are looking at the computer, like, can we set it to, you know, shoot at a mirror and then, like, have it bounce back at itself or have it shoot the computer that's controlling it? But it's all packed with too much stuff that would blow too big for that to be a good solution to the problem.

I love how it's Dr. Crusher's idea that wins here. Yeah, she's like, put a paperclip in that little hole. Just see if we can go back to level one. The hollow salesman conflates shutting it off with making a sale. And as soon as Picard hears this, he's like, oh yeah, I'm ready to sign on the dotted line. Let's do business. Like, I'm not going to pay sticker, and I do not want the undercoating, but I am very interested by I will buy today. if we can agree on some numbers.

Throw in a Tommy's chili cheeseburger. Jordy's plan is kind of awesome. We're going to go down into the atmosphere of the planet so that the space Echo Papa has to follow us. What is with these devices

not communicating with each other? You think shutting down the operation on the surface will mean the one in orbit is no longer a threat. That is not the case. The one in orbit is also number one, right? Or is this number four, and this is the one that took out the Drake?

I pray, I pray. Yeah. And they got through three previous space versions of the Echo Papa 607. Unclear. Anyways, the thing they're going to target is the atmospheric turbulence made by this cloaked weapon. And that works. That works great. They blow that thing sky high.

RSVPE-E-607. What a moment as Sue watches this whole thing happen. Yeah. And then he hits a trampoline for some reason. And like when she sees the Echo Papa explode, she's like, you did it, Jorny! And the music swells. I also loved that like once they hit it, he's folding the little flipouts on the captain's chair back. like he was doing something to help targeting or something.

Anyways, they got their man, everybody's safe, and on a very differently lit battle bridge, Picard and Riker returned. And a little bit to theme where Picard kind of roasts Jordy for delivering a separated ship back to a captain who left him with a whole entire ship. I like this analog for being like when you loan your tools out to a neighbor, you want them return to you, like, clean and ready for work again.

Yeah. This ship is not clean and ready for work for Picard. This is why you never let me use your pressure washer anymore. That's one of the reasons. This is becoming a speech. You're the captains, though. You're entitled. Hmm.

I'm entitled to ramble on about something everyone knows. Adam, I recently read this whole thing about tritium, which is a material that is used in nuclear weapons to, like, determine the yield of an explosion. Like the plutonium or whatever is the fizzile thing, but the amount of tritium can like up yield or down yield. And it is very hard to come by. A gram of tritium cost $30,000. dollars. Wow. That seems like a business to get into then. Yeah, we got to get some tritium. And it's like we can manufacture it, but you need a nuclear reactor to do that. And there are laws in the U.S. that say, like, you cannot create military nuclear things in civilian nuclear installations. I think,

I think this country is picking and choosing who can do that. Yeah. I mean, it's something that Russia and China do not have a constraint on. And so because Tridium decays very rapidly and we are now in a world where the non-proliferation regimes have sunset and we haven't like re-signed those treaties, I feel like we are maybe entering an era that is a little bit more like the Cold War era in which this episode was released. This episode came out years before the Berlin Wall. fell and was speaking to people living in a time where the nuclear deterrent was something that was something you thought about a lot. And I guess my question is like, has this idea aged well in your mind? Because it feels like the deterrence that they're talking about

in the arsenal of freedom is in itself destructive to society. I did not think about nuclear deterrence at all this episode because I thought the closest comparison to the sort of warmaking that we would find familiar is something having to do with AI. These are weapon systems that iterate upon themselves that improve themselves round after round. And it's pretty easy to see how like a thousand robot dogs given AI sentience can suddenly, you know, go around in packs and decide for themselves and fix themselves and improve themselves as they go in a way that would be a real problem. Like the Echo Papa

607ification of war, I feel like, is something that we're on the doorstep of right now. I mean, the like stuff that you see in Ukraine is very reminiscent of some of the ideas in this episode. And yeah, I mean, like, I think about like nuclear weapons as kind of like a, yeah, I guess you have to have them so that nobody else is tempted to use them. But it's like, isn't it just like isn't using them and what happens when you use them? disincentive to go to nuclear war in and of itself. But, you know, for as mentally ill as I am, I guess I'm saner than many of the people holding the keys of power at the moment. Yeah, I mean, we're fortunate. You don't have to make those decisions. I think we are just as unfortunate that those that can are the ones we have to trust with them. Well, we can always

trust our listeners to send delightful messages via the P1 inbox. We're going to go check that out, and afterwards, we're going to play a game. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. You need a supplemental. Supplementalment. Supplement. Yeah, it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship.

This is a promotional message. J-Tox TV is a YouTube channel where Jay talks about TV shows, usually obscure 70s and 80s detective shows. Although, they also have an episode recap show for Person of Interest, the show where Jesus from the Passion of the Christ stops future crimes with Linus from Lost. While they haven't covered Star Trek, they do frequently encounter Star Trek stars. Like that time, Kate Mulgrew got French lessons from Odo. as the famous detective's wife in Mrs. Colombo. Oh, yeah. So they think the FODs may enjoy it.

Your call to action here is go to YouTube and search for J-Tocs TV. That's J-A-E-Tocs TV, and give them a subscribe or a like. I love this kind of programming. This is the sort of show that won't let you forget that show person of interest. which I forgot almost as soon as it came out. And hearing the description, I was like, I remember Linus from Lost. I remember that guy from Passion of the Christ.

Whatever happened to that show? Wow. Is Jonathan Nolan related to Christopher Nolan? We're asking all kinds of questions that J-Tox TV will answer on J-Tox TV on YouTube. I hope you'll give him a follow. Thanks, J-Tox TV. Ben, we've got a personal priority one message here. It's to Bree.

It is from Xander. Here's how that message goes. In June, I was on an away mission at a psychedelic art festival in the woods when you spotted my communicator tattoo and asked who my favorite captain was. So I decided to try the code phrase, and you verified. Whoa. A natural FOD meeting in the wild. Thanks for making my day.

and I hope to see you around the next twist of the wormhole. X-O-X-X-B, Maggie O'Hallor drop. Would you like to hold my hand? Would you like to kiss me? Well, the morning, boys. The spirits have turned her into a cowlw. I'm not quite myself today. What kind of a girl do you think I am?

I'm a cagelma. I was walking around town with nothing but a bell around my neck. Everyone was staring at me. Damn, that rung. rules. I want to go to a psychedelic arts festival in the woods. That sounds totally rad. It is always awesome to hear how the code works out in the wild. People know how the code goes and they do it and they self-identify as friends of DeSoto. It's the best. I love that. And no one is embarrassed. Anyone overhearing is just like, fuck, I wonder what that was. That sounds cool as shit.

I stopped eaveshopping immediately. That's what they're thinking. Friend of DeSoto, who gives a shit? Here's one to Ben and Adam, or Adam and Ben from Alia. I am a former turned current listener who fell off during DS9 due to life. Recently, I found myself nostalgic for your TNG apps, so I was delighted to discover that you had looped back around only weeks prior. I reflect on what has changed for me since I first.

listened. A new job, new partner, new gender, and more. All for the better. And I'm excited to listen to more embarrassing content about my favorite series for my favorite pod hosts in this new phase of life. Congrats on Independence. Thanks, Aaliyah. Congrats on all of the great changes that sounds like are going on in your life. So glad to have you back on board. Yeah, I think the reason we circled back around and started from the beginning is that we've changed. We've changed too, you know? Like, part of the ways a Star Trek fan is a Star Trek fan is by rewatching it and getting a little something different out of it every time you do. And I think a big reason for that is that over the years, you can't help it see things with a fresh perspective. Yeah. Well, if you'd

like to get yourself a P1, you sure appreciate it, you can go to Podshop.biz and you'll see prayer or do you on messages right up there at the top of the page. 100 bucks gets you a personal. 200 gets you a promotional message and they go a very long way toward supporting this show. Thanks. Okay Adam we experienced something really fucked up as a result of last week's game. Did we? Something that could have harmed my relationship with my son. Something that did harm my hand when I cut it out of that fucking packaging. stupid-ass stretch armstrong. But here he is.

We have him. I've been tossing this back and forth in my head. Maybe I come back up over the top, do something even worse to you. I love that you think that this is something bad that I did to you instead of something that you did to yourself. Okay, continue. You wanted me to open a toy in front of him and tell him, no, you can't have it. Fuck you. Anyways, what I was going to say before you came in.

with that dishonest bullshit is maybe a war of attrition isn't what the show needs right now. Maybe the weapons we manufacture at each other will be what ultimately destroys us. Maybe we can take a lesson from what befell the maniacs who designed a sales bot that looked like the one in this episode. I have some questions about the Echo Papa 607, and you're going to have a chance for a big win, but should you lose, we'll need to come over here. and get the stretch armstrong from my office and give it to my son

and tell him it's a belated birthday present. Wow. Be thankful. You need not. Open the package first. I won't, Werner. Question one. The upper chassis of the Echo Papa 607 was made out of what item?

A, a mold of an ostrich egg. B, a Le Eggs Pante-Hose package. C, a plastic Easter egg. D, an egg timer. Hmm. This thing is big. Real big. This is one of the bits of trivia that I actually have locked in this dope brain.

And I've never forgotten. It is absolutely a le eggs panty hose container. You are correct. The other shape on the Echo Papa 6007 was created from what? A, a shampoo bottle. B. A. children's nursery lamp that was shaped like a goose.

C. A Sorian brandy bottle prop left over from TOS or D. A Dildo. It sure does look like sorry and brandy. But I know for sure that it's a shampoo bottle. God damn it. Because this is a related piece of trivia. I know about the Echo Papa model. Did you see the little picture of the little boy holding it?

It's like a puppy. Oh. I did not see that picture. Yeah. I'm annoyed that you did this research. I didn't do the research. I just knew it in my head and my heart. All right.

Well, let's see if you can run the board then. Okay. Models creator provided the movement for the special effects shots. He credits the smooth, natural movement of the drone to what? Hmm. A, a camera that could be overcranked to shoot at 60 frames per second. B, a system of elastic bungee. and a pole that allowed him to swoop it around smoothly.

C, his 30 years of Tai Chi practice. D, dumb luck because they ran out of time to do the stop motion shots that they had planned and they had to just do it live. You know, it's interesting about that last answer. And this is one that I don't have locked in my dumb brain. Is that I do know that they had to like stop down production for several days because they didn't have a script.

and I'm wondering if that impacted production in a way that meant they just had to like, fuck it, we'll do it live. The Tai Chi answer is the most fun answer. Also, I know you remember doing this with camera moves when you were in college and Indies, but like you think ropes and elastic and stuff is going to result in a smooth shot. And it never does.

Everyone makes that mistake. We're like, yeah, we'll just, hang the camera off of a rope and it'll be smooth and cool. You fucking dumb asses. It's never smooth and cool. Every little movement is magnified by the swaying of the front element of the lens, and that's what you're not accounting for with rope. Yeah, it's actually a worse camera move.

But this is not a camera move. This is an Echo Papa 607 move, like on a pole that's like bungeyed around so that you wave it in front of the blue screen. and get your shots. Let me ask you a question. Does it look good to you? Because I think it looks good to me. I think it looks good.

I think it's like one of the most impressive special effects in season one. You tried to make the case for option one. And I think I'm going to go with option one for that reason. Like don't just dismiss bungeys and... Oh, wait. Well, option one was the camera being overcranked to 60 frames. I was thinking of option B then. Okay.

The bungee's and rope. That's what you're locking out. Yeah, let's do that. All right. You lose, Adam. Hmm. It was his 30 years of Tai Chi experience that he attributed to the smooth movement. That's amazing.

30 years of Tai Chi. You know if we start now by the time we're old men. We could be doing practical effects when they re, re, re, re, reboot Star Trek. Yeah, I'll be 77. Evan, having done 30 years of Tai Chi. Unfortunately, la eggs just come in like a package that doesn't look like an egg anymore. Why can't we have fun panty hose packaging anymore? Everything sucks now.

Bad for the environment, Adam. In researching this, though, I did discover a book with like 99 crafts you can do with your discarded la eggs packages. See? it's good for the environment when you recycle for crafts. That's called upcycling. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. All right, so two out of three is what I did.

That's still a losing score. Well, just you didn't ace it. But you looked at the back of the teacher's version of the textbook before we got on mic. So I guess you don't have to come over to my house and give my son a birthday present, even though you should. I really should. That was a nice moment you were conjuring there. What do you think, Ben?

Could I do it anyway? No. That feels like a fun, nice thing to do? Sorry, you're not welcome over here. Wow. We're going to be out of town this weekend anyways. Bummer. All right.

I really lost that game Big Ten. Well, we're going to leave it in the capable hands of our producer. Take it away. Bye, bye. The Greatest Generation is an Uxbridge Shemota podcast. It's hosted by Ben Harrison and Adam Pranica, and it's produced and edited by Windy Pretty. Next week, we'll be back with a very special episode of Star Trek The Next Generation.

It's all about drugs, season one episode 22, symbiosis. Until then, we want to say thank you to all of the members who support this show. If you want to join them, you'll get an ad-free feed, plus a lot of bonus episodes and other benefits, including a new episode of Factory Seconds coming out this week. Sign up at greatesttrek.com or just click the support, link in the show notes right there in your podcatcher. And we thank you very much for your support. Music for the Greatest Generation is by Dark Materia. Social media is managed by Bill Tilly and

Rob Adler, who also puts together the greatest newsletter every month. Visit Podshop.biz to get signed up for that. You can also book a P1 there and find yourself some fun merch. All of that helps support the show too. So thanks. Follow our official social media pages on Instagram, Blue Sky, and YouTube, and use the hashtag Greatest Gen when you post about the show. And don't forget to subscribe to Greatest Trek and join us for ongoing coverage of Strange New Worlds Season 4. That's all for now. We'll see you next week on The Greatest Generation. Make it so.

Spridge. Shimoda.