The Greatest Generation - Rotten with Ziggurats (S4E13)

Episode Date: November 21, 2016

When "the devil" starts dropping bangers on an entire planet, it's up to Captain Picard to help fiddle their way out of a terrible contract. Unfortunately, his attire is completely inappropriate for the occasion. How many ziggurats are right for an agrarian society? Can an android get his tongue stuck on a frozen flagpole? Who's got Uri Geller vibes? It's the episode where the hosts go "fully-biblical"!

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 friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdisotoforlabor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Here's to the greatest generation. Star Trek Podcast by two guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek Podcast. I am one of your hosts, Adam Pranaka.

I am your other host, Ben Harrison. Hey Ben. Adam, our tour is over. And it went great, didn't it? Oh, it was the best. No disasters at all. I for one, and relieved. Yeah, it's over at this point. People thought you were hilarious, and they put up with me. And we broke even like we wanted to, we didn't lose a shitload of money

We will definitely go and do it again based on our experience. Yeah, it's awesome Now just to give people a peek behind the curtain We still haven't left for our tour as of this recording We're way out ahead out on a limb, you might say. And yeah, we have no way of knowing whether what we're saying right now will come to fruition or not. Well, we've never known of what we would say on the show would matter in any way at all. Yeah. And I guess that makes that makes this intro much of the much of the same, I think. That makes this intro much of the same, I think. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, should we get into the app? Yeah, I think so. At some point, we might be willing to talk about the tour that eventually we will have already done. But for now, we will live on. What tense is that, Adam? It's impossible, like, You ever take a foreign language class and you have to make those fucking tables

for the tenses of herbs and whatnot. This is an impossible table of tenses that I've constructed here. Yeah, this is like the 14th one in the binder. You've got your present, your past, your future, and then you start to get a little bit more in esoteric. This is like, this is the one that most French teachers don't even bother with. Yeah, and this is so past, even college coursework, that like a French teacher would have to

grab a big old bound hardback from like the top shelf of the foreign language library and like blow off all the dust. Yeah. Well speaking of Jesse books at him or about a review and episode that prominently features them. Oh yeah let's do it. It's a it's season four episode 13. Devils do So this episode starts with a Another Picard directing data scene and data is playing Ebenezer Scrooge in Christmas story

Yeah classic Christmas story. Classic bit of classic Victorian literature. Just to be clear it's a Christmas Carol, right? If you were if you were doing a Christmas story which I believe is still a movie you have not seen. God I'm really starting to expose what an idiot I am on this show. My mother had not had a hot meal for herself in 15 years. That would be a really interesting bit of acting here. Really really strange beginning to the show. Yeah. Oddly contemporary. Can an android get his tongue stuck on a middle pole? Or in the 24th century the value they place on that movie is far greater than what we could even predict right now. Still never seen it. I think Warf would make a great Scott Farcus.

I'm only laughing because there's a name. There's a name like Farcus. I can't play the game with you if you haven't seen the movie. Yeah. Sad. Sad. The idea that data is like, like they talk about this, right? Like they do some method acting jokes, and then they talk about the idea that data is simulating emotion, like trying to think about what emotion is like by play acting as though he has it. And there's definitely some, I don't know, like,

it's like one of those computer science questions where like, if you can't tell the difference between a computer and a person, like, isn't, can't, can't you say that the computer is as intelligent as a person? There's a moment in the scene where Picard sort of scoffs at the idea of, of data doing method acting before data kind of turns him back around into his whole deal making sense. And I maybe wonder if Patrick's Stewart himself was or was not a method actor. I don't believe he is, right? Why would you choose such an old fashioned approach? I don't know. Yeah, I think he's he I think

he did Royal Academy, right? Yeah, that's what I thought too. And so I wonder if like his scoffing was a little bit of his own. I wonder if Brent Spiner was a method actor though. Yeah, yeah, if only there was a way to figure that out. Mm. Anyway. So they get a distress signal from a Federation science station on Ventex 2 and they run up to the bridge and the receptions not coming in great.

You know, a wharf is up on top of the ship messing with the bunny ears trying to clean it up, but it becomes clear that this science station is being attacked by an angry mob, and so the enterprise, you know, they step on it and head off to Ventax too. They pull up to Ventax and shit has gone down. Yeah, they're a little late to rescue all of the scientists, but they're able to rescue the one old man's scientist, which is their favorite kind of scientist. The deal is, Ventax is a planet that is uncommonly peaceful given the level of technology they're at. And their history is that they used to be way more technically advanced, but a thousand years previous made a like a planet-wide deal with their devil character and their mythology to

have peace for a thousand years and then the devil would come collect their souls at the end. And so in that thousand years they reverted to an agrarian lifestyle and it sounds like kind of a hobbit planet, you know. Like they never really show any part of the planet other than the capital city. So it's a little like- Yeah, the capital city looks like Vegas or something. Like it looks totally modern and non-agrarian in any way. Yeah, there's like at least half a dozen ziggarats

in the capital city and it's like, you don't have that many ziggarats if you're just a just in a gray area in society, right?'re grain ziggarats yeah like uh like Ben Carson do you think Ben Carson confused his his whole mythology on this episode of Star Trek well that and he went to my website ventex2truth.org um what I you know I have a lot of theories about what's going on in this episode. The lame stream media will have you believe that this was all a con job, but I think that there's a little something else going on.

You don't say. They beam this doctor on board, Ben, this doctor, Dr. Clark, and he is costume as if he was a race car driver, if the race car was sponsored by Asperin. And the race car is also a bed. Yeah. Just a real plain Jane fire retardant suit he's got on. Yeah. Which asks the question, like, what kind of science is he doing down there?

Is that ever made clear? I think he is a social scientist. I think they're really curious about a society that stopped being as technologically advanced, like by choice. I think he says that at the beginning. Yeah, they're kind of born-again agrarian. Yeah.

They've done technology many times in college. Yeah. But as soon as they graduated and found jobs, they decided to be born again. Yeah. My love is a people longing to my back, which longed a nurse has a busy. The rest of the science team is abducted and being held hostage. And so they get on FaceTime with the leader of the planet and it's President Lo-Rent Tony Shaloub,

who tells them that President Monk. Yeah, who tells them that like, there's nothing he can do about it and everybody went ape because Ardra is coming back and she's you know just about due to arrive and the scientists explains that Ardra is their Satan and and they're just like, what the fuck is everybody talking about? Like, this doesn't exist. So they beam down and we get a nice matte painting of the surface of the planet,

which is, as we've mentioned, rotten with ziggarats. And burning ziggarats at this point. Yeah, yeah. And it's like, it's like, I don't know, like I feel like something. So you really need to put out their ziggarats, don't they? Yeah. Star Trek Releases.

For visitors arrived. Star Trek really struggles with having shit look messed up. I feel like this is a city that's supposed to be riding and it looks like 10 times better than any like modern western capital, except for there's like people running around in the foreground. It looks like the morning of Black Friday, like people queued up outside of a mall or like running towards a mall that's about to open. Their form of writing is somebody getting trampled so that they could get a PlayStation 4 on

Deep Discounter, whatever. Yeah, pretty terrifying. So they're having a meeting with President Monk and who should appear, but this kind of Marge Simpson-Hered lady who claims to be Ardra. And right off the bat, she's doing lots of like, sleight of hand, where she'll like hold out her hand, and a scroll will appear in it, and it's like, here's the terms of your surrender. Here's how, here's how it's gonna go, and she's real arch and haughty and, you know, treats everybody like they're her inferior and you can tell that Picard is like really not up for getting big dogs

by this stranger and he's like immediately very suspicious of her. Yeah, and the way David Blaine does street magic, Ardra is very clearly doing space magic. Everything she's doing is very impressive to the people, the ventax people, but none of it is impressive to Picard because he himself is able to do the same things if he wanted to using the ship's technology. Yeah, and yeah, I mean like the tricks that she's done are shake the planet and turn into like the Satan of Klingon, which is legitimately terrifying character.

Yeah. And like make a couple of... And gross too. Yeah, I mean she's made like a couple of people up here and disappear. Yeah, gross and yeah, worth definitely like, like data shits when this guy appears. One of the things that tips Picard off to her bullshit is like as soon as she arrives, she's like,

okay, you guys have done great fulfilling your end at the bargain, thousand years of peace that I've given you. Sounds like you've done pretty well there for yourselves. All I need to do is see your bank records. And if you could just provide those to me as well as everything you've been able to produce over the last thousand years, we can get this shit going. Yeah, make sure you include the routing number and the account number. Just, yeah, just smooth things along. shit going. Yeah, make sure you include the routing number and the account number. Just

a, yeah, just smooth things along. Much in the same way that Kirk asks what God would need with the Starship. I think Picard is also wondering what the devil would need with a past book savings account. Yeah. Yeah. You ever have one of those? Ben, when you first started out, your first little savings account with a bank? Yeah, I think I had a bank of America account maybe. Yeah. And it was a little kid. Yeah, and they give you a little deposit book and you're supposed to... They really indoctrinate you into the world of banking and the young age, don't they? Yeah. Well, if you go to a Ventax 2atoaric, you can see how there's a global

elite on Vintax two that want you to be enslaved by the banking establishment. And the Vintax pentavirate. Who run everything in the world, including the newspapers, and me try annually at a secret country march in incolorado not ads the medos i think you'll find uh... that very enlightening at them what happened is eager at seven yeah yeah the uh...

the vintaxi and bohemian grove might be the only people who can really tell you. They're doing ceremonies in Ardra's honor all the time. Yeah. And then they turn around and where do they work? The Oval Office. Dothik, dothik, dothik, dothik. Ardra, you sort of painted her with the bride of Frankenstein brush a little bit. Yeah. But I think they do a good job in making her fairly seductive. Yeah, I mean, both in manner and in dress,

like she's got a lot of charisma. And I liked her immediately in spite of her bullshit. Yeah, she has, she's definitely super charismatic. She doesn't have enough loaf to make her weird looking. Like they just like piped on a tiny bit of loaf with like a, like a detail piping device for a cake. What do you call that?

A detail, like a detailed piping fitting on their icing bag. Yeah. There's, you know, we were talking about before about the idea of method acting. I wonder if this actress sort of read the Waxana Troy book of acting because it seemed like she was run on some plays out of that book from time to time. She struck me as a very Waxana-like character. Yeah. Did she bug you in that same way?

No, because it's like not just wantonly obnoxious. It's like a character that like she's definitely got some obnoxious qualities, but it's it's to an end and and Yeah, she's got some like Yuri Geller vibes too like they keep they keep wanting to catch her with a trick spoon. But yeah, so there's a... We pretty early in the episode get the sense that Picard is 100% convinced that she is not in fact the supernatural being that she claims to be and is just looking to sort out exactly how she's doing it. And there's this super creepy scene where he's asleep in his quarters and he wakes up and she's in there and like-

She's wearing the Dana Ezul costume in the scene. Yeah, yeah, the like the like very sheer black lacy dress outfit that has like nude fabric underneath so it looks like she's basically naked. Yeah, and the teased out hair that's like two feet across. Yeah, yeah, she goes out hair that's like two feet across. Yeah, she goes pretty big with that hair. And it's kind of a frightening scene, right? Because Picard can't get in touch with the rest of the ship and he can't go out his door. And maybe wonder, is he on a holodeck on her ship? Like did she beam him off the Enterprise? Or is this happening on the enterprise somehow? That's an interesting question because like her powers up to this point have seemed very superficial but control of the door locks seems like a far more dangerous power to have. This is something that the enterprise's security chief would never be able to overcome. Our technology is far greater than his.

Yeah, they never answered what that was about, but Picard winds up beamed down to the surface at like, he's like in some science lab. He's in like, like captain's knuck outfit with like deep V major knuck Super short shorts just have missed the data fetch me in a shuttle and I'm gonna bring along a uniform It really doesn't look very comfortable to sleep in yeah, I feel like you'd come out of that deep V Just like by a single toss and turn right I feel like you'd wake up. I'll nod it up in that deep V. Well he's nodded up in one part already.

Yeah, because the past that she makes at him is fairly strong. Yeah. Like, if anyone made a pass at you, this strong, I think it would be hard to resist. She's like, I'll do things to you that would well It's also like vaguely threatening in a VD kind of way because I think the way she puts it is like I'll light a fire in your Loans that you'll never be able to put out Yeah, now without seeing Dr. Crusher for a course of shots. Yeah, a couple of months over. Prophalactic shots. Yeah.

Yeah, I kind of wish that she had pulled this on Riker because he would have been like, oh no, you don't. I'll put a fire in your loins. How little convincing do you think she would have had to do for Riker? All she had to do was be there. Actually, I think she'd probably be pretty disgusted if she'd be him toindorikers quarters.

Yeah, well it depends on which one he's in. Yeah. If he's taking the night off, if she could, yeah. But yeah, so data and Picard head back up to the enterprise and data's like, hey, by the way, I've been looking at these dusty old books that include the contract with Ardra and like Vintaxian law, and it turns out that when there's a dispute between a Vintaxian and somebody from another planet, you have to get an Arbiter involved. It's like outside their normal system of jurisprudence, and Picard is like,

their normal system of jurisprudence. And Picard is like, Lullier Picard is back at it again. And so they're flying back to the Enterprise, and they're looking out the front window of their bunk bed, and the Enterprise blinks out of existence. It's their one second, and it's gone the next. And there's not even like an effect. It's just like a hard cut on it disappearing.

And they're like, oh shit. And so they have to head back to the planet because the enterprise is not there. It's not answering radio signals. And so I think it's data, Picard, and Jordy are maybe the only ones left at this point? It's hard when you have to stay over some place and you aren't expecting to stay for a long period of time.

That's Picard right here. He only has his deep V and his one change of uniform clothes. He hasn't brought anything with him because he wasn't expecting to stay and now they get to turn the thing around. Yeah, and so they're like, they're basically stuck between Ardra and their ship, right? Like, they can't get back to the enterprise and Ardra has now claimed that she owns the enterprise and, you know, everything that was on Ventax or even in orbit of it. And so she now considers data among her property, the enterprise, all the people like everything. And Picard's like, all right, this is a bullshit

and I happen to be a pretty good lawyer. So let's do this arbitration situation. And she does something pretty weird here, which is she's informed that she has to select an arbiter and goes with data. Yeah, it's sort of implied that there is a possible dodgeball draft at recess scenario playing out. And Ardra doesn't even try to recruit anyone that isn't two feet next door. Right. She's like, oh yeah, who would be a great Arbiter? How about you? And Data's right there. And Data's like, I better go talk to Captain Picard about this. So they have a little pow-wow

off to the side. Data's like, look, you know, as an Arbiter, I can't choose sides here, and I can't guarantee that I'm going to give you a favorable opinion by the time this thing's all said and done. So, are you okay with that? The card's like, yeah, I'm a great lawyer. Like, don't you worry about this. Remember that time I established your personhood data? I'm awesome at this.

And the stakes were way higher back then. Yeah, I like everybody's reasoning in this, but Ardras. Because she can pick anybody. I guess they both have to agree on them, but she has a whole planetful of people that are basically terrified of her. And she picks the one person that works for Picard to argue this thing. And she also seems to person that like works for Picard to argue this thing.

And she also seems to know a ton about data. She's like, oh, he's in Android, so he can't lie. You've got to be able to buy that at this moment in the episode for the entire thing to work. Otherwise, the house of cards just falls apart. I mean, I let it slide, but it definitely bumped me. Yeah. Um... It gave you a little bit of a personal banger. Yeah, so they have their little trial and it starts with Ardra doing a few more of her little magic tricks and back off in

the lab, Jordi has been trying to figure out how she's pulling these tricks off. And every time she does one, he gets a little bit more data. And so the fact that she kind of goes nuts during the trial, like making yourself look like the devil, making yourself look like fecklar. She cuts herself in half and then turns the boxes to show you the inside. Yeah, she pokes an ice pick through Harrison Ford's hand. Yeah, all the hits. She locks herself in ice for like a month. She has done enough tricks that the pen and teller of old scientist and Jordy know how she did it.

And what they discover is a ship that is cloaked in high orbit around the planet is prosecuting all these effects for her. So Jordy goes and grabs the captain, gives him a zip in the courtroom and the captain requests a little pause in the action and they do like one of those cut to commercials that's like here's what I want to do. And then we come back and the captain basically does like a reenactment of all of the special tricks that are drupold and it's that's what we have to do. We have to do that. We have to do that. We have to do that. We have to do that. We have to do that. We have to do that.

We have to do that. We have to do that. We have to do that. We have to do that. We have to do that. We have to do that. We have to do that. We have to do that.

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We have to do that. We have to do that. We have to do that. We have to do that. We have to do that. We have to do that. winds up explaining it all. She has a cloaked ship and she is in fact a con artist and she's been doing all these tricks to try and convince them to give her their planetary wealth. And so she's like, well, I'll just be going then since I just lost. And- President Monk basically got to watch that magic's biggest secret show that was on Fox like five years ago. Yeah. Like Picard puts on a really weird mask and does all of her tricks in front of her. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and he's like, Yeah, it's actually not as fun to know how the trick works. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. This is terrible. So he goes and like presses a, uh, an invisible, I love when they do this on Star Trek where they're like, oh, we forgot to put a button

anywhere on this set. So we'll just have somebody press a button where you can't quite see what they're pressing. It goes like just to the other side of a column and like puts his hand against the wall. She's trying to make a break for the exit and a couple of space police come out from either side of the doorway and stop her going anywhere.

She seems oddly confident about her circumstances though. Like, she gets up to the doorway, the two security people are there. She sort of like turns her head over her shoulder and she's like, Till we meet again, Jean-Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise. Like, just fine with it. She is going to go to prison forever evidently,

and she's okay. She'll figure something out. She always has. This ending was so strange to me on that level in a few others been because like, there's no real button on it. Like, they pulled the camera back to the three chairs and were out. But I had a bunch of questions. Maybe you did too. Like does this whole experience turn the ventaxians back to our technology?

Like they had technology, then they went full biblical and the biblical stuff totally fucked them. Like, wouldn't you as a society go back to microwaves and hoverboards? Yeah. I mean, there's like the question of like, why would they turn to this in the first place? Like, if they're so scientifically advanced, like, how did an entire planet's population come under the sway of this religious edict, and then how, like, what

happens to a society that has been completely disabused of its religion in a totally undeniable way? Like, you have to assume this is like the trial of the century on Ventax, too, right? Like this is like the most important thing that has ever happened to their planet, and it would have been a matter of... If they weren't fully agrarian, this would be on court TV over there. Yeah, but at least they're probably like reading about it in the newspaper, right? Like, oh, like it turns out the thing that we've all believed for a thousand years wasn't true, and now we have proof. Like, oh, like it turns out the thing that we've all believed for a thousand years wasn't true.

And now we have proof. It's just strange how a few well placed people in a society can encourage the following of some crazy despot into a disaster, isn't it? Like you have a, you have, you have the government and the press and all of these things encouraging the idea of a devil figure. Yeah. Huh. I never felt like there was any true stakes to this. Did you? Like the enterprise disappears in front of Picard.

He and Data seem fairly okay with the circumstance other than having to turn their shuttle around. Yeah, they never like, everyone that they know is going. 98 people are dead. Yeah, they are so sure that they are dead. Yeah. Which is strange.

That is like real hubris on Picard's part, I feel like. I also thought the score totally defanged any sort of danger in this concept. Like it could have been pretty tense, but every time Ardra was on stage, her musical cue was fairy instead of devil, you know? Right, yeah, it was gazebo not ziggur off. Yeah, yeah, that was better put than I did.

All of this is by way of saying like I'm not sure I like the episode like I like the concept of it But I'm not sure if it was a great example of what this concept could be. What did you think? I think I like it more than you maybe I I liked the character. I thought the premise of the magic tricks that she pulled was really fun and like the the the shock of fecalar the Klingon demon was like really well played I thought you know like he's only on screen for like two seconds at a time, but it's this very fully realized costume with like, like mucus coming out of its fang-y mouth, and it's just like, oh, it's like a very disturbing image.

And, you know, the fact that they like took the details of this episode to that length, I thought was cool. Yeah, like that's where they dumped the budget. They dumped the budget on Feclar. Because basically the only sets they use are the room with three chairs and the standard enterprise quarters. And the science lab, but that one was basically

a blank white room. It was a pretty standard issue. Yeah, yeah, that Feclar was fun. Fun Feclar. Saving up for Fec feclar was fun. Fun feclar. Saving up for feclar is what they did. Go feclar yourself. And Michael dorm did more than just open his eyes really wide at seeing feclar.

Like he looked a little disgusted. Yeah, well feclar is without honor, you know? It's weird, you know, like whenever a wharf is faced with Q or some other figure that we know him to hate, he like runs around the horseshoe ready to kick its ass. He seems willing to just let Feclar hang out. Yeah, you gotta let Feclar be Feclar. And even Picard turns into Feclar, that must have been fun for him.

Yeah. When he's doing all of her tricks. Yeah. Yeah, good times. You think they put Patrick Stewart in the Feclar suit? I feel like his contract probably says that he won't be in any Feclar suits. He has a no adhesive hair contract. Yeah.

Like all of the bigs get, get to Hollywood. No brown M&Ms, no adhesive hair. Yeah, God, that's gonna take a million years to scrub out. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha message coming in on subspace. You want to check that out with me? Is it from Feclar? We've been talking a lot about him. There's a lack of ears or ringing. If you're Feclar and you're sending a subspace transmission, you need a heavy duty spitsy old friend of mine. Yeah, you're going through the foam like on a once a month basis. If you're a feclar.

It's just all shredded and wet. Feclar is a Klingon Devil podcast. I don't really find his production value commensurate with his powers. Yeah, it's disappointing. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. You need a supplement on that. A supplement on that? A supplement.

A supplement. Yeah, it's extra. But the interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Hey Ben, our first priority one message is of a business nature, a commercial nature Ben. Which means we need to take this very, very seriously. I don't like to mix business with personal, so hopefully the next one is also. The message goes like this. Hey you drunk Chamotas, need some additional escapeism?

Check out the feature length dock, a fat wreck. Hey, that's our buddy, Sean Cologne, right? Yeah, he's been a big supporter of our show from the beginning. And this is his documentary, his punk-umentory. It's the story of fat wreck cords. One of the largest and most successful indie labels of the 90s, half inspirational story of chosen family and community, the other half debauchery and occasionally involuntary drug use. Involuntary drug use. Did we mention that there are puppet reenactments? I don't think they mentioned it until now.

It's out of 1122 on iTunes, video on demand and Blu-ray DVD. If you want more information on this really cool sounding documentary, you can go to afatrec.com for more info. Sean sent us screener links, but we have been super busy doing our tour and various other things in the time period that we had to watch it. So I haven't checked it out yet, but I watched the trailer for a fat wreck and it looked really cool. Like the puppet, just like the idea of puppet reenactments, I'm jealous forever of him coming up with that, because they're really fun. And like they, you know, they're like these

legendary stories of like punk rock people, you know, trying to start a business together. And there's something like so perfect about about puppets like doing those scenes. It's great. Puppets using drugs voluntarily. As the producer of a failed documentary, I have a massive amount of respect for anyone in this game. Who gets it over the finish line? Yeah, so I'm definitely going to be checking this out. Yeah. Just watching white knuckles digging your fingernails into the palms of your hands with jealousy. I'm going to be voluntarily using drugs as I watched it out of envy.

Our second priority one message is of a personal nature. So this could get ugly, mixing business and personal. But it is from Ben Conner. It's to Richard Dodson. Thanks for the B-Day message. I didn't hit a car while riding my bike and washing the pod, but it was an awesome gift. As thanks, I will help you hang the soundproof drywall or transparent aluminum sighting. You've been anxious to get up. We may have to watch them this old enterprise for days.

How if you're hanging? Trans transparent aluminum, you downstairs basement. You may be tempted to use a resin bit on your screw gun, but in fact you're going to want to use a metal bit because transparent aluminum is as hard as it sounds. I'm really interested in knowing more about soundproof drywall. Yeah, what's up with that? What sort of sounds are you trying not to have escape that room guys? I'm just, I assume whale mones. Or a zipper mask sounds.

Is where I was going? Yeah. It's darker place. Yeah, but I mean, if it's either or transparent aluminum, come on. Netsk Nounds. Is where I was going? Yes. Darker place. Yeah. But I mean, if it's either or, transparent aluminum, come on. Can you imagine a whale-sized zipper mask? Isn't Richard Dodson the name of the character that gives Dennis Nendry the, uh, the, uh, Gillette, uh, canister in Jurassic Park?

I believe it is Maybe there's something much more sinister afoot I think that was a Barbousel canister though. Oh, it was Gillette in the book, but it was Barbousel in the movie So I was doing canonical canonical novel, you know, yeah You're good like that. Yeah Well, thanks for thanks Richard dadson and thanks Ben Connor for continuing this very important conversation amongst yourselves Yeah, this public hold hundreds of dollars so far conversation If you are interested in continuing a conversation or maybe starting a new one using our show as the main way to broadcast it You can go to maximumfund.org slash jumbo-tron, personal messages or $100. Business slash

corporate slash documentary film messages are $200. Yeah and thanks to everybody who bought one for this episode. It really helps us keep the thing going. As you were watching this episode band did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? I did Adam and we should say drunk Shimoda is I crystallized this the other day actually I was telling somebody about our show and I realize that drunkunk Shromota is the character that like makes the episode. Whether that is like the character that is like the

awesomest or like the most absurd, it's the one that you really took away with you. So mine is President Monk. Because of that like the like arc on that character is so silly. He is a thousand percent sure that Ardra is who she claims to be and then is a thousand percent disabused of that like the second Picard does like ten seconds of fairly lightweight demonstration of what he's been arguing. And President Monk is like, all right, have that woman arrested?

Like, he has no residual belief in what she claimed to be. It's like, why was he so credulous at the beginning? He's the most credulous person in the world. He'll believe anything anybody says, as long as they're like pretty forceful about it. Do you think that makes him a good leader or a bad leader? Because all of the evidence before the Enterprise shows up seems to point to Ardre's return. But he seems to his credit to be willing to change his mind on something.

Based on new evidence. Yeah, I mean, I like that about him, but I feel like he was too willing to believe it in the first place based on dumb evidence. Yeah, yeah, all that dumb evidence. Yeah. What do we do? What a weird leader. Weird leader. Where'd leader bro? How much is so? Nice leading you got there. My Shemota is a piece of acting that Patrick Stewart does. So he's been, Argers made a pass at him in either his quarters or what he's made to believe are his quarters. And Argers beams him down to the science station in his V and his short shorts. And the card does what I believe to be a boner lean into the counter space next to him down there. He kind of he beams down to the science station. He sees Jordy there. He's like, oh God, and he kind of turns away and does like a lean into his like away from his shorts. So as to obscure the boner that

I'm sure Ardra gave him. So my Shimoda goes to Picard for the need to deploy the boner lean in that moment. But that was great. Yeah. That was a bit of subtle acting that I really enjoyed. The mind was unwilling, but the flesh was weak. Yomok and Jalat and Denarga. 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, I'd make a pretty great name for a tour. Let's do it! The Share Your Embarrassment Tour is coming in August 2023, and we've got a bunch of dates in a lot of great places. Go to greatestgentour.com to get more info. That's greatestgentour.com for dates and ticketing information for the Share Your Embarrassment Tour. I'm Jordan Morris. And I'm Jesse Thorne.

On Jordan Jesse Go, we make pure, delightful nonsense. We were open awesome guests and bring them down to our level. We 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 Nanjiani.

I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which is impossible to use. Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org. Look, your podcast apps already open. Just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goatry. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Oh, rats. Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, I'm about to count you in line. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line. And boy, what do I?

These giraffes do not smell good. No, they do not, and they've such short naps. But I'm here and we need to get on the salt. boy, what do I? These giraffes do not smell good. No, they do not, and they've such short neck. But I'm hearing we need to get on this. So gotta get on the arc. It is about terrain, about a spout to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans.

We're actually, we're podcasters. We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ono Ross and Kerry? We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal, stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so seem like something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came to by two.

What do you think? Ona Ross & Kerry, available on MaximumFun and Outdoor. What episode are we watching next time, Ben? The next episode is season 4, episode 14. Clues, Picard and the crew are shocked to discover the data is lying to them. Spoiler alert. Huh, yeah. I don't think we can take anything off the table as far as the danger that data represents to the crew on any given moment. They still have not enacted any security protocols, W, R, T data.

That's probably going to be a bad day for them. If data is all of a sudden lying. Do you have any memory of this episode? Do we know for sure that data is programmed not to lie to them? Well, our dresser thinks so. Yeah. I don't remember this episode, no. Well, we don't have a veto.

So even if you felt some antipathy toward it, there would be nothing you could do and nothing I could do. I feel utterly neutral about it. Yeah. And I'm not lying, Ben. Well, that'll be the next episode. Ben, you've never lied to me on this podcast, have you? No, I think one thing that our podcast is kind of famous for is how gruesomely honest we tend to be.

Yeah, well put. You know what's almost gruesomely impressive to me on the daily ban is how generous our viewers are in making the production of the show possible and they do that in a number of ways One of which is by going to maximum fund.org slash donate and Consubiting to the production of the show. They're also buying t-shirts They're buying priority one messages. Yeah, they're doing all sorts of things to support the show and it really helps a lot Yeah, it's a big deal and we really appreciate it. We also appreciate dark material and Adam Riggustia, who made our theme music and our priority one and worth-door music respectively.

Yeah, if you'd like, you can talk to us on the internet, on Twitter, using the hashtag greatestgen. I'm on there as at Cut for Time, Dan is on there as at BenjaminR, A.H.R. We also have a whole mess of Facebook pages and groups. We're on the Reddit at our slash greatestgen. And also at our slash maximum fun. What I'm trying to say here is there's a lot of conversations

on the internet about the show. And there's people making fun pictures and memes. So pretty dank memes up there. Yeah. You got animations, you got videos of all kinds. So it's really quite remarkable. If you have something you want to say to us, question complaint, praise, send it to drunkSromota at gmail.com and leave us a review

on iTunes. Big help. And with that, we will be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek the Next Generation and a mysterious episode of the greatest generation. You ain't lying. I would never lie to you. Not sure if I believe that. Yo, look at Kyle, you can't fit in the box. You can't do, yo, look at Kyle, you can't fit in the box. Make it sound. Make it sound. Yo, look at Kyle, Kyle, Kyle, Kyle. Our next caller is from the Klingon Homeworld. Feclar, hello.

Hello. Does Feclar actually talk at all? Or is he? Yeah, he does, right? He says like, yeah, I believe he says I am Feclar actually talk at all or is he yeah he does right he says like yeah he's I believe you says I am feclar or something yeah My name is feclar Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture, Artist Owned Listen or supported

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