The Greatest Generation - Shopping Cart Is Cloaked (ENT S4E4)

Episode Date: November 17, 2025

When a Klingon Bird-of-Prey brings aboard a couple of disheveled humans, their ass-kicking and ship-stealing behavior has the High Council super pissed. But after Starfleet figures out who these augmented augments are, the Entrepreneur picks up Dr. Arik Soong and brings him along on their mission to avert a war. How is Captain Archer like a UPS driver? Which character has a cry-after-sex vibe? What’s an extremely bad sign in a holding cell? It’s the episode that missed its one chance to ask a Soong about a Singh.Support the production of The Greatest GenerationGet a thing at podshop.biz!Sign up for our mailing list!Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Riker - Quantum LeapThe Greatest Generation is produced by Wynde PriddySocial media is managed by Rob Adler and Bill TilleyMusic by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaFriends of DeSoto for: Labor | Democracy | JusticeDiscuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen and find us on social media:YouTube | Facebook | X | Instagram | TikTok | Mastodon | Bluesky | ThreadsAnd check out these online communities run by FODs: Reddit | USS Hood Discord | Facebook group | Wikia | FriendsOfDeSoto.social Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Here's to the finest crew in starving. When it comes to my crew, you won't get any argument from me. This is a parody. Paramount owns the sun. 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.

What are you doing today, Adam? I had to reschedule my vasectomy. You know, this is a This is a real trend on the show We've said it many times This is nominally a men's health show That is also occasionally about Star Trek I scheduled it

And then my wife took a business trip That very same week And I got a 35 pound dog That I need to lift, carry and move around Like kind of often Every week And I was talking to the snip doc, and he's like, yeah, why don't we just reschedule it? And I'm going to Japan the week

after my vasectomy. And I was like, what if I, like, I don't want to, I don't want to bust a nut lifting baggage and stuff. And I'm like, yeah, all right, we'll do it after the Japan trip. Do it after the Japan trip. You'll be much happier. Yeah, so that's what I'm doing. Take it from me, someone who took a toddler on a railroad trip three days after mine. Yeah, what'd you do, just refuse to lift? No, I mean, I was- Or did you lift in risk? my doctor, you know, I think he gave me the broad range of potential recovery things, and I just assumed that I'd be in the, like, it will be easy and fine. Because, you know, me, health things tend to go great for me.

Just imagine. The sheer fucking hubris. Imagine betting exactly the opposite that I would have bet on that. Incredible. This is why I'm not a betting man, you know. It's true. Yeah, so I shaved my nuts for nothing. Oh, buddy.

That's the big takeaway. But at least having all those manscape sponsorships a year or two ago finally paid off, right? Yeah, it's really true. Our ad stores are as bare as my balls right now. Well, hopefully by the time this airs, that will not be the case. But you're feeling nice, like swooshing around? around in there? Oh, it's fine. Yeah. It's fine. I mean, I'm going to, I'm going to go to Japan and I'm going to do a bunch of, like, uh, onsen stuff. So, you're saying you're going to leave a bunch of,

you're going to leave a bunch of impregnated chicks behind a Japan. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And that's all right by me. I don't know what your arrangement is with your wife, but if you're into that E&M knocking up strangers in Japan lifestyle, you know, who am I to judge? It's a whole thing over there. Excited to find out. I heard the hot tubs actually kill all that stuff, so it's not going to be a problem. Yeah, it should be. It should be fine.

You're sailing into barely charted waters, as is the entrepreneur on today's episode, Adam. I know. Do you want to get into Season 4, Episode 4 of Star Trek Enterprise? Oh, you're talking about the one called Borderland? That's what I'm talking about. Our cold open is on a Klingon bird of prey, and it feels like it is Star Trek law to have a J.G. Hertzler on the bridge. Send a squad to the docking port. This is his last live action portrayals of a Klingon.

How about that? One of my all-time favorite STLV memories is from this last year when you and I were on stage and I couldn't stop the show, wouldn't stop the show for this, but J.G. Hertzler on like a hover round with the guy that played Gowron in tow came into the hall that we were in and I just watched him circumnavigate our crowd so that he could go get himself a hot dog at the lunch table. What a moment. The guy's a fucking legend. Crowdwork of the dead! Anyway, this bird of prey picks up a mysterious transport shuttle out there. It's got two humanoids inside,

and what else are you going to do besides dock up to this thing? See what's going on in there. Oh, man. Were you thinking about how pissed Malcolm Reed would have been? if he'd just been able to see what happened here with the with the tractor beam yeah fuck these guys don't have a grappler either everyone has tractor beams the missed opportunity is that i feel like you should reverse the technologies cling on grappler would look so fucking badass it would it would look so it would look like four cling on boots with that single giant toe like

yeah yeah boots as the grapple and then the toe stick to you, the four toes? The chain would be all rugged and, like, and have, like, hooks and shit in it, you know, barbed. Couldn't a Klingon Bird of Prey spare a chain? I think they could. A chain in four boots.

I did like that the bridge of this ship looked exactly as we've come to expect the bridge of a Klingon Bird of Prey to look. Yeah. They get these people aboard, and they're humon's. What about that? They're dressed for, like, a screamo show. They've got, like, like, lots of rips and cuts in their black

body con t-shirts very rock and roll and brother do they kick some fucking ass these two humans the Klingons do not notice the jerk cables that have been attached to them and they go flying

holy moly these two humans make short work of this grip of Klingons into the theme like the establishing shot is Starfleet headquarters but I don't think that's where this prison is, right? They don't, they don't like keep the worst of the worst, right, under the same roof as

sexual icon, Admiral Forrest. The way I thought if it was like how when you go to a baseball or a football game, there is like a little jail in the stadium for people who get out of hand. I kind of feel like at Starfleet H.Q, they've got that kind of situation. Okay. And that's where they keep Eric Soon. He had a little too much to drink at the big heroes. welcome that Archer had in the last episode. Couldn't quite handle it.

All right, sir, sir, you've been over-served. You cannot have another M.G.D. Eric Sung, you threw a couple too many batteries at Reed. Don't tolerate that kind of behavior. Oh, man. How would the Star Trek universe be different if they'd established the Federation HQ in Philadelphia instead of San Francisco? It'd be great. Yeah. I mean, they'd build that stadium over the wooder if that was the case. Right?

Probably would. His handcuffs, like, magnetized to each other. Very face-off, I thought. Yeah, when he's going to get a visitor. And his visitor is Captain Archer? What are you doing here? I need to ask you some questions. I'm kind of in the middle of something.

You think Archer has a hard time getting into prisons? like he's a he only goes one way that's out yeah he's like a guy that can only turn left he's the uPS driver of prison escapes i like that eric sung is dunking on him like what why are you here are you gonna get the building named after you i want to preface this by saying i like and appreciate and admire brent spiner's work AI soon reads like lore to me you know

like he's just got that bully lore vibe to him in this character yeah he's an asshole and he's been locked up for a long time he's been doing mad science longhand so there are pieces of eight and a half by 11 printer paper taped up all over the room with

what he claims are revolutionary concepts in science written on them in pen and ink and he says that occasionally they come in here and vaporize everything and he has to start over or come up with lots of new inventions. Eric's like I wish they'd come in

and vaporize the things I've left in the toilet from time to time. Am I right? I bet if you're a mad scientist you can come up with some pretty awesome toilet wine if you're incarcerated, you know? Indistinguishable from a brown wine. have from time to time instead of a normal bottle, I bet. Uh-huh. Really nice. Archer explains that the Klingons, I mean, this guy seems to keep up with current events.

Like he's aware of what Archer's deeds have been, and he's even aware of this Klingon ship situation. And the Klingon High Command is very pissed off that humans took over one of their ships. And it's kind of turning into a bit of a diplomatic kerfuffle that could lead to war between the Federation of the Klingons. Last thing they need. Yeah. I mean, they're just now, like, licking their wounds after the Zindy thing.

Yeah. Don't need that kind of heat. And so one might wonder what brilliant, mad science criminal Eric Soon would have to do with the situation like that. Turns out the people that stole that ship were actually augmented humans. They were oggy-dogies.

And he is locked up because he stole a bunch of augment embryos from the science facility he used to work at 20 years ago. And so he might just know a little something about it. Seems like Eric Sung might be a little bit of a seaman demon. They'll put you in jail for that. Ben, were you at all bumped at the detail of the augments, stealing the Klingon bird of prey and then blowing the Klingon bodies out into space and I'm just going to say dot dot dot those bodies were found in space somehow

how the hell did they do that yeah I don't know yeah that's that's a great question I mean are there sort of like implied space highways in the way that like commercial air traffic flies like on the same routes like maybe these ships fly these roots and that's how you sometimes run into bodies that have been blown out there. Either that or like when the ship went missing like they knew exactly what its coordinates were.

And they could like trace an ion trail to the spot, something like that. Because I send constant logs of the dead. Captain Robert O'Reilly always keeps in touch. So we get a McLaughlin group where almost everybody but Archer is in their civvies and they're hanging out on the bridge of the entrepreneur getting brought up to speed on what's going on here.

Soon, it turns out, may have raised the children born from those embryos until they were 10 years old when he was imprisoned. And so the implication is that there may be more augments out there. And he claims he doesn't know what godlike humans need with a starship. But we're going to take him on a mission to see if we can hunt down this bird of prey and get them to surrender. The weirdest thing about AI Soon is not that he's a seaman demon. It's that he wants to have this many kids. My God, man. Why would you do that?

Like, you have a career. Yeah. You're supposed to be this big scientist. Do you think you could have time for that when you have 80 kids? I mean, people go into this with some naivete inevitably. Like, my wife's mother is a twin, which makes her a person with a very high likelihood relative to the baseline of giving birth to twins. And when we were first trying, we were like, oh, wouldn't that be rad if we had twins? And then like the second we had a baby, we were like, oh, my God, I'm so fucking glad we didn't have twins.

That would have been hard as hell. but is there also an energy of like if you know you want to have a couple of kids might not just get it over with like all in one go yeah just rip the band-aid i like that is totally logical but it's also like very hard to have a kid so yeah you know i don't know i think a fun mind game to play with derone might be i wish you were two kids mm-hmm i wish there was the evil version of you and the good version of you and we could transport or accident you back together. Yeah.

Sui has also been to the area of space they're going to, which is called the borderland, and it is between the Klingon Empire and the Orion Syndicate. What a place. Just based on those two cultures. Lordy. Yeah. He does say that it's like the good parts of both cultures that wind up interacting in the, in the friction there, right, Adam?

Why is this section all bathed in red, light, if that's what they're saying. If we change the words, then it's fair use all day long. So their mission at this point is find these augments, bring them back fast, because with the whole mobilization of Klingon ships that want revenge, that's not going to be good for anyone in the borderlands. Sure leave canceled. We're going.

We're the experience crew do. we're the fast ship this is our problem to solve. It's just too bad that the episode didn't begin with Tripp and to Paul being at her honeymoon and there being like a magic show and

like a bunch of kids yelling abracadabra when their pages go off and Richard Valeriani on the Starfleet news network talking about the buildup and the borderlands. But how could he on the deck of the USS Enterprise if they're going in the USS Enterprise.

That's where this all falls apart. I know. I know. Did you clock to Paul in this scene? Like, looking really sad? There's something that Jolene Blaylock does throughout most of this episode, which is just looked deeply unhappy to be there most of the time. Yeah.

She is not her chipper normal self. Well, that's the magic trick, right? Like, when your baseline is neutral, anything under that is really noticeable. Yeah, yeah. But it's subtle. So the guy that stole this ship is named Malik, and we learned that he is going to get in a little bit of trouble with Rakhine,

the leader of the Augmans. Rakeen comes aboard and is like, nice ship, I'm really glad we have it, but this was really fucking reckless, and I didn't approve this, Malik. Like, what the fuck do you think you're doing? The vibe is Lord of the Fly. up in there. A lot of infighting, a lot of recriminations

going back and forth. I mean, the ship is cool as hell. I was struck by just how paranoid they are to have it given that this ship has a cloaking device. Like, no one wants to be found. No one wants to be chased. Do they not know about the cloaking device?

I don't know. Does it have one? They never use it. Yeah. Do you think some classes of Klingon Shep? don't have a cloaking device? That's such an interesting question. I don't know. Like even transport ships and on down to the lowliest Klingon tug.

Like they can cloak. They all can cloak. Yeah. You're at the used car dealership on Kronos and you're like, it's got working tape deck, but does it have cloaking? You're in a Klingon grocery store and like you accidentally hit some, like the back of someone's ankle with your cart. Shopping carts!

is cloaked Where does it end? Yeah. If you put your kid in a cloaked shopping cart, does the kid look like it's floating or does the kid also get cloaked? I think the answer is

the crew of a cloaked bird of prey is cloaked along with the ship, right? Everything's cloaked. It's not like Wonder Woman where it looks like a crew flying around. A backhand slap to the face is what Mallet. get from Reichen and it appears even though there is some animosity between them they will continue

to work together yeah their family you know i mean at this point you don't know that yeah i guess done anyways soon comes aboard the entrepreneur and uh he is escorted he meets a couple of the crew members he meets reed and to paul has uh her same cat suit from before but has added a rank insignia and a patch on her shoulder. So it seems like her matriculation into Starfleet has continued a pace. It's weird how no one has a good first impression of Reed when they first read them. Yeah. And that's the case here with AI, isn't it?

It sure is. Weird energy between them. Weird dunk on Reed. Like, you're not very famous. Maybe there's a reason for that. Yeah. But Zung-in-Beyer's Dr. Flox's name rings out. Dr. Flox's reputation rivals my own before I was in prison, of course.

And he'd like to set up his lab and do the work of finding these people in Zix Bay so that he can confer with the good doctor. Archer doesn't say no to this request. Yeah, but he also doesn't say yes. It seems like it's a maybe. Maybe's not a no. on the bridge trip asks to Paul about the honeymoon that he assumes took place in the two weeks that he left her back on Vulcan and she doesn't answer the way Archer doesn't answer in the last scene

and she walks away out of that situation pretty fast when Archer enters the scene we get a brand new Riccaro Racing command chair installed on the bridge and it's got all the bells and whistles been I felt like those blinky lights would be really distracting. If you're in the middle of a scene and you've got those, like the little part of the armrest that faces back up at the captain, there were just so many things blinking on those. That would drive me nuts. Like the little bit here the trip's got about not touching the one button, the one button

that is not defined in any way. Yeah. Pretty great. That's good. Yeah. I hope that pays off. It's got to. Did they recycle the taking the ship out of space dock footage?

I have to admit that I know eventually the NXO1 is going to look more like an enterprise constitution style ship, like, with a neck and a secondary hull. And I thought they were doing a little bit of business with, like, hiding that part of the ship as it's in space dock. Oh, interesting. And I was expecting a reveal of, like, that birdie. This thing has been upgraded? Yeah, but when like the ship pulls out a dock, I was like, oh, this is the same ship. It looks just the same. It gets another refit in this season?

I didn't know that. I've seen pictures of it that make it look like it's got a neck, but that's the extent of my knowledge. I'm trying not to do any research about what's coming. Yeah, I would never, but we get like a little captain's speech. It felt like minimal fanfare for taking a ship out of space dock. Wouldn't have it any other way. I mean, the music barely even. moves during this moment.

Very strange, very strange feeling. It's been like 20 episodes, Ben, since we've seen Enterprise not looking like a chewed-up pencil. How did that make you feel? Oh, that was nice. But it looked like low-res. Like, that's why I thought maybe they recycled the footage because it was, it was, like, from the SD era of the show or something.

Interesting. Anyways, in the clarinet rental closet, Archer tells to Paul about an intelligence report that they've got about like where the ship might be. She explains that the Vulcans are still trying to find a way to cool the Klingons down diplomatically but we're not going to

hold our breath for that working. It's important anytime someone gets a new job that they're given a gift. At least that's what Archer's thinking here. Once you give to Paul Pipps you have to also give her a box with a brass compass in it. Yeah. This is nice, right?

I thought it was going to be a rig so she could like do her drug habit in a little bit more style, you know? Archer decided against the joke gift of like, now that to Paul is married, you give her like a totally blown out box like just barely held together.

It was like chewing gum and electrical tape holding it together. Yeah. I don't get the sense that Koss is the box blowing out type. It wasn't the vibe I got from him. Koss very much has the cry after sex vibe. I know I'm not supposed to

show my emotions as a Vulcan. It's just that I feel a totally overwhelming combination of guilt and shame. Yeah. Dr. Soong down in Six Bay is

shown the DNA samples that they got off of the Klingon corpses. And I guess he like recognizes is Malik's DNA, just like on site. He sees the sequence and he's like, I know whose DNA that is. He like draws a finger

over it and then like Yeah, I know what that is. A father always knows. That's the rebellious one, just like me. Dr. Flachs also not exactly hitting it off with AI soon in this scene. That's because they kind of disagree.

with what AI did and making all these genetically engineered people in Dr. Flox's judgment he learned no lessons from the eugenics wars Yeah Soon further

augmented the augments like in a way that like he leaves a little bit to the imagination about what exactly he did to mute the muties but In Tsung's defense though is that not an example of him learning something from the eugenics wars in a i don't want to repeat those mistakes i'm going to

keep iterating on genetic engineering so as to prevent another eugenics wars this is like a two dot oh version of the guys that we fought so maybe they're better yeah they are in the middle of not really hitting it off when we get a banger and up on the bridge we learned that Orion Interceptors have started shooting at them at Warp, and they drop out of Warp and are absolutely getting rocked. This has got to be so irritating. This is like cleaning up a kitchen and then deciding to do like fried chicken sandwich night.

Like everything was just so clean and perfect. And now it's like it smells like cooking oil. Splatters are everywhere. Like that's what Enterprise has got to feel. like her they just fixed it just fixed it and a bunch of people get beamed away that's I mean like all of the PTSD

flashbacks of the Ziddy conflict must just be so intense Hoshi's got to feel so fucking great seeing people beamed away and none of them are her she's like oh woo okay

you see her like buckle her seat belt yeah Legally it's just a far joke You will never take the greatest shit alive Ben would rather die So the Interceptors buzz off And Archer goes and talks to Soong and Zung does not seem particularly worried

About the nine people that got objected He yeah he takes the news laying down He's like Oh yeah like there's a process Center for New Slavey's pretty nearby. We can go look for them there if you really care. He's like, look, they only let legitimate slave traders in there. And luckily for you, I am a legitimate slave trader.

I am in good standing with my dues to the slave trading society. He's very clear about this, though. He's like, I can get you in, but no promises about getting the crew out. Yeah. Did it ever bother you in this episode? I have no idea if this is going to be like a character that we see a lot of in season four. Candidly, I've not watched season four of this show. Did it ever bother you that this is where you would ever have a chance to ask a soong about Singh? Like, Khan Nunian Singh, Eric Nunian Sung. What's the deal there? Like what are we talking about? Like any relationship at all or just? Is Eric Nunian? I thought it was AI. Oh, I don't know. I thought AI was his name. Oh.

Like Eric I. I. I didn't get the middle name. But the question is still apt. Like, like, things related to the eugenics wars are not unrelated to a con. Yeah, and Data's creator is a new Nyen Suing. So there's got to be something, right? I don't know.

Yeah, Archer's not interested in all that. He just wants to get his people. Yeah. So we cut over to the Klingon ship where Malik and the lady he stole the ship with Persis are talking about how their leader is looking now for a planet where they can go live their lives in peace. And Malik is like, fuck that. I don't want to do that. That sounds weak as hell. The vibe you get from Persis is that she's definitely fucking Rakin and Malik wants to fuck her.

Yeah. So there's a lot of sexual tension going in multiple. multiple directions here. Yeah, Malik tries to kiss her and she does not want to kiss right now, sir. Yeah. If Malik only knew how weird and upsetting that should be for him, given where she's been previously. Now is not the time, Malik. That's basically the point of this scene between them. At the Arrayan slave bazaar, Tepal gets thrown in a cage by The big show? Is that the big show in the Orion makeup?

Break the rules and you will suffer. Follow the rules and you will suffer less. It's the big show. He's so great. He's so big. Man. He's got to make sure she's fitted with the neck thingy that all of the folks in the station

getting processed have to have. This didn't feel like a promotional tie-in the way The Rock on Voyager did. That's the thing that the rock, is selling, the big show has nothing to sell, and that's what makes his appearance pure. It's really good. Ben, I get to tell you, if you're ever

taken from where you live and put into a place for non-specific processing, hay on the floor is an extremely bad sign, right? Yeah, yeah. That is not good. It really isn't. Hey on the floor means

you are pissing and shitting on the floor. Your hospitality leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. She and another ensign have been fitted for clip show devices on their necks. And these seem to be sort of like the restraining bolts that droids get in Star Wars, where the slavers can use them to affect discipline. This is a hell of a first day for Ensign Jeffrey Pierce. Yeah.

And Ensign who assumed that getting stationed on the Enterprise would be far less exciting? I don't know what he expected. I mean, is it like a, I thought your like most exciting stuff was behind you and this was going to be like kind of a getting back into the meeting new lives and new civilizations thing that we set out to do? I think when you join Starfleet, the last thing you expect to see is hay on the floor. Yeah. That's why it was so upsetting and up the long ladder. Yeah. You know? On Enterprise, we're in orbit of Verix 3 and Archer and Dr. Soong prepared to beam down to the slave auction. Dr. Soong is fitted with a transponder of his own. It's not attached to his neck.

Not that we can see. And this is a thing that's going to keep him tracked. Well, it's installed inside his neck. Yeah. So they're going to go down and look for the missing people. And meanwhile, Topal is going up for auction. And it seems like a popular item. I mean, who wouldn't want a woman that you can pick up by grabbing her her torso and just and just presenting her to the crowd the way the big show does what an unbelievable shot look there's a lot of obvious reasons why the depiction of slavery and slave trading deeply upsetting however on the other side just to argue the positive for a second if you're up for auction as a slave and you basically blow out the top of the price,

that's got to make you feel pretty good on some level, right? That's a little pat on the back. That's a little pep in your step. Yeah. Right? She's got to feel good about this. I mean, if she indulged in emotions. There are so few things to feel good about in this situation.

I'm just trying to say that, like, you hold tightly to any good in this situation. You brought it up earlier that Julian Blaylock has been playing it like a little bit like she's sad. so far this episode. I think at this point, you see that her eyes brighten a bit and she's got a little bit more optimism and a little more self-worth going forward. I mean, the thing is, the tellerite who wins the auction, probably unaware of the blown-out box that she was given not that long ago. Archer and Soon show up and they immediately see that there are a few of their crew still there. They also see that the Orion's are not above enslaving each other. There's another slave on the block, a member of the tribe. They go find to Paul, who is sitting in a cage,

and they get in trouble with a guy who doesn't like that they're talking to the merch. There's a take here from Brent Spiner that's really, really fun and interesting, just because, like, we've heard his voice for 20 years. and to hear him like try to play it cool the way he does in this scene like with the guard it kind of breaks my brain to hear his voice say these words in this way

you know we made a wrong turn thank you so much though thank you for your help really thank you let's go like street smart is never a characteristic that he's ever had to portray in Star Trek

you said it yeah yeah back on the bird of prey is it Raken or Racken? I keep saying it both ways. Yeah. Rakeen? Rakeen? Well, there's the third version.

Rakeen, the leader guy is who I'm talking about. And Pursis, they argue about this whole Malik situation and why when Rakein has done so much good for them that folks still want to act so messed up toward him and want to follow Malik's lead. Yeah. And also, why in the hell does Malik even want to do a mutiny? It seems, though, like in this scene that Persis is kind of a double dealer, she's playing both sides to maybe her own benefit in my mind.

Malik is scheming for the leadership and Persis is ratting on him, but also seems to be like taking a step back so that she could see how things play out and make sure that it goes her way, most importantly. This is the scene where we learn that they're brothers, Rakeen and Malik. And they keep talking about their, like, their father's principles and whether we're betraying them or living up to them. And Racken is like, I'm going to, I'm going to betray a principle, not killing your brother. What's unsaid here is that A.I. Soon is the father figure they're talking about, yeah? Yeah, heavily implied, but not said. Back in the slave auction, Archer buys back, ends in Pierce. That's got to be a big relief for him.

I mean, yes, but also very disappointing price if you're Ensign Pierce and you get bought, but like basically at a close-out deal value. Does this hurt as an actor? Like, I think you know when you're standing next to Jolene Blaylock that you don't measure up. Fair enough. I just like the idea of the agent going like, so there's something about the part that you should know. And St. Pierce is like, I can fuck. I can fuck too.

I know I don't look like much, but that means I really put in the effort. They take it back to Six Bay, and it's explained that they bribed a guard to leave the restraint on Pierce. And I guess this is so that they could, like, study the restraint and see if there's a way to disable them remotely or something. We don't have time to rescue everyone the way we rescue. Piers, especially since a lot of them have already moved and... I mean, nor do we have enough ore to, to bribe or buy with this point. Because they've been using that as the currency. Right.

But fortunately, like a antique store, all of the merchandise is still sitting around just with tags on it that say that they've been spoken for. So we're heading back down. And I've got faith of the far heart. Legally, it's just a far joke We cut back over to the Klingon ship Where Persis is now turning around and telling Malik Oh yeah, I told Rakin all about your little plan

He's pretty mad Oh, look at that, he's right here And he's got a really big gun This gun doesn't shoot though And then when more of the mutineers appear And Persis stays by Malik's side It turns out Malik's side it turns out malix is the superior intellect yeah

Rakein sees this double cross for what it is is this a mutant on mutant mutiny are you saying this is a I was going to say mutiny but that's uh that's like a tiny manatee mutinity a mutinity yeah a mutintintity a mutant tintity

I think it might be that I mean I think it might be the first documented case of that As long as we don't have to say it again Yeah that's what it is There's a kind of TV death that I love Which is the two guys faces really close And you just hear that a knife has gone into the guts of one of them I like that

You don't even have to see it You don't even need the prop you know Yeah RSVP Rakeen Persis is they're looking shocked and sad I guess she doesn't have to choose anymore that choice has been made for her Yeah this made her whole situation much easier

Yeah She should be happy about this Don't cry for that asshole Persis Anyway at the Verix 3 slave auction Archer and Sung have returned To free the slaves But first they have to take out a random guard In a very slow and wobbly way

Yeah What did you make of this pop of comedy in this exact moment I don't know it really worked for me I thought it was funny like I like the idea that

oh yeah he's just fucking huge and the sedative is taking a little longer than you expected for it to work there's just something about a big person wobbling before falling that is television law it's always how it goes

it doesn't seem like whatever they studied about the transponders was necessary because they just use like a local computer to turn off all the clip show devices. They're like working on this and this squirrelly dude is reporting

Archer and Sune to one of the guards and Topal is about to be delivered to her tellerite buyer when it is revealed that the restraining devices are not working because she is able to kick that fool's ass across the room. Yeah. Powerful

nutshot distributed by Topal here. You know she hits them both, too. That is a wide boot. Archer gets got by Soun with a pain stick. And Sune thanks him for the ride as he scurries away. Like a whole riot has broken out. Like all the cages have been thrown open.

The slave revolt is in full swing. The hay is flying. Oh, man. So much hay in the air. In the way that a prison riot often accompanies a bunch of toilet paper rolls being thrown, Got to do that. Yeah, a lot of paper on fire flying through the air. Sure.

I wish we had gotten that scene of the, of the irons in their, like, helmets and their riot shields and their nightsticks, like, getting ready to, like, hard, hard, ho through a door. That would have been fun. Yeah, we don't get that. Instead, we get a scene of soon turning the painstick on himself, shocking himself in the neck. And this is what knocks out the transponder signal that he's been injected with. with. This makes it harder to find him. And Archer kind of moves through the riot trying to do it. Eventually, like, seeing him across the riot. Yeah. He's like chasing, I mean, chasing someone

through a slave revolt has always been a challenge for anybody that's ever done it. Yeah. The only thing Archer has to help himself out is his scanner can turn on and off Zoom's electromagnetic manacles. So he manacles soon. and in a quieter part of the market, we catch up with him trying to climb out of it when Archer then turns the manacles back off and he falls from whatever scaffolding he was trying to clamber up.

We get two to beam up, and there's a great shot in the brig where Suing is facing the camera and Archer is in the background behind him and the camera's kind of tracking back and forth as Archer paces and, rants at him. Yeah, it's a real riot act reading from Archer to Sung here. Sung says he feels bad about how things went down there. Just wants Archer to leave the

augments alone. Look, they're not hurting anyone, joyriding in their bird of prey. Yeah. Just let them go have a good time. They're kids. They're not bothering you, and you don't need to bother them. But Archer kind of suspects that this was all Soon's plan all along. If you're a Klingon, you've probably only ghost-rided the bird of prey once. Like, that's a lesson you learn one time and then you decide never to do it again, huh? Like, because once you step out and that cloaked bird of prey starts moving, like, you're not getting back in ever again. No fucking way. Yeah.

Michael Burnham probably kills you. Yeah. Six Bay is absolutely full of rescued slaves on bio beds and cots. You got to feel pretty good about getting a real bio bed when they've had to break out the cots, right? Like DePaul's up there looking down at everyone else and it's like, this is two in one day. I was like the winner of the slave auction

and I get a real biobed? I mean, on the occasions you've had to go to the hospital, how much of a relief is it to like have a room that you don't have to share? Like that's kind of the energy when we're talking about cot versus biobed. Totally, totally. You want to have some comfort

while you're being uncomfortable. Yeah. She's upset, but she's returning to work because she's a trooper. Also, Tripp, Vulcans don't have honeymoons. She spent her time after her Vulcan wedding, meditating, alone. And it's like, so what was with the symbolism of the blown out box that the captain gave you? I don't get it. Bangers interrupt this conversation.

It's an Orion interceptor. A couple of them, actually. And on the bridge, they have told Enterprise that they want their property back. Yeah, very cranky. Do you think Reed can fight off two of them? Doesn't seem that way because everyone drops out a warp. Yeah, but then who should come to their rescue but a Klingon bird of prey? They blow up one of the Orion's and the other one bugs out.

And the Klingons are requesting to dock. This seemed momentous, a Klingon ship docked onto the side of Enterprise. Yeah. Pretty big moment. This all leads to a conversation that Malik has with Archer and Reed in the clarinet rental room. He knows that Dr. Sung is on board. That's why they're there. He wants his daddy.

To Malik, Enterprise kind of owes him, right, for saving the entrepreneur's ass against the Orion's. Archer does not want to play ball with all of that. No. That doesn't seem to matter to Malik who grabs him by the neck, even after telling him he's about to do it. And that puts Reed and the Mako in the room in a pretty uncomfortable position, right? The idea of going through everything they've just gone through and then somebody Macroobering your captain right in front of you for Reed specifically. Well, to some people, this is a McGrubering.

Two others, this is a Brad Wesleying. But we're talking about the same thing. Much in, like, world religions are often talking about the same entity. Right. Like, there's almost an etymology to it. Like, they all have a common ancestor. Sure. Yeah.

Persis and her gang are going to go invade the ship. They get the door down in between the two ships and pretty quickly take care of the makos that have been stationed there to try and repel any such attack. I guess you could say Persis is quite the persistent one I like that she can just like push the door open she's so augmenty strong I thought this is a really sophisticated

plan like between the human shield and the boarding of the ship by the others and the way that they meet together at the dock at the end Archer just gets fucking thrown across the room once they're done with him and after Dr. Sung sees this he's like hey

we don't want to fight you guys anymore We just want to go free. Like, let me go on to mess around with this baby batter. You go off and do your exploratory missions. You don't need to start shit with us. I mean, it seems like you're going to have your hands full with the Klingons who appear pissed enough to start a war with you. Not my problem.

That's a YP. Yeah. Practice your Klingon later. Yeah. And on the bridge of the bird of prey, Dr. Sung makes a toast to his crew. where he makes it clear that they are going to have thousands of brothers and sisters very, very soon. And they're like, who's going to take care of them? Is that going to be you or like, what are we talking about here?

Because I'm like, I'm really hot and I'm in my 20s. Like, I don't really want to be tied down like that right now. That's the thing about being an older sibling. It's just assumed that I'm going to be the babysitter. I don't want to do that. I want to do fun things with my friends. Did you like this episode, Ben? I thought this was a lot of fun. Yeah, it felt more sophisticated than season one enterprise,

but also kind of a return to form in some ways. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, I looked at the, I looked ahead at the episode names, and they have a lot of numbers after them. So I think this is going to be a little bit of an arc. Oh, interesting. But not like a huge one that takes, you know, the whole season or whatever. Yeah. I think it's a little three-ep trilogy. Yeah. So, yeah.

Curious to see how it goes and what happens. And I mean, I like the characters a lot. Like the augmented augments is maybe a little two Star Trek Enterprise. Like maybe just leave them at augmented. Sure. But yeah, I enjoyed it. How about you? I mean, I love a jailbreak that's central to a.

episode and I feel like in this episode you get two. You get the jail break from, no, man, I mean, maybe even three. I mean, one of them isn't a jail break, but like getting sung out of prison the first time to go on this other mission to then jailbreak people who are going to be slaves out of the Orion auction. And then the third jail break of sewing off of the Enterprise brig. I just love this stuff. You can't have too many jail breaks in an episode. And this episode was full of them. I liked it a lot. Good times. If you can get over Brent Spiner's

like inherent loriness anytime he's not playing data I think you're going to do fine with this app it was a lot of fun. Well, do you want to see if there's anything fun in the Priority One inbox? Hell yeah.

Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Need a supplemental. Supplement. Supplement. Yeah, it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship.

This is a promotional Priority One Message Adam goes like this. With Lava Lounge Hoodies, we believe that Paradise is a state of style. So whether you're taking shore leave on Rysa, walking through the Hamar Mountains of Kronos, or generating your favorite Dixon Hill Hollow Novel at home, find a cozy fit to suit your vibe with lava lounge hoodies. Apparel made for those who missed the sweet smell of high. hibiscus, the orange pink haze of a sunset, or an ocean breeze. Know the vibe is real, even if the hollow suite isn't.

Lava Lounge Hoodies, now also available in polos. Wow. I've got to check this out. I'm always in the market for something that makes me feel extremely chill and beachy. Ben, I've gone to LavaLoungeHoodies.com as instructed, and I'm taking a look at some of these. floral patterns Yeah

These are great This is like A Hawaiian shirt In hoodie form It very much is Yeah They're very beautiful patterns Yeah

And done in like An all over print style They've got Crunex sweatshirts Hooded sweatshirts And polo shirts Yeah look at that Really cool

Really cool I like it a lot And I think Anybody who Who enjoys a teaky hang Could find something that they would enjoy at lavalounge hoodies.com. Yeah, you know, you can drink a teaky beverage any time a year,

but as it gets colder, it's harder to do in a short-sleeve wine shirt. Why don't you get yourself a lava lounge hoodie? That way you're set up all year-round. Take care of business. Pretty great. If you'd like to get a priority one message on the show, it is maximum fun.org slash jumbotron to set one up. Hey, Ben.

What's that, Adam? Did you find yourself a drunk schmota? Incredible. Drunk Shimoda! Oh man, I'm going to give it to the big show. Just like the belly laugh I got from the shot of him holding up Jolid and Blaylock, like a doll. He is so much bigger than her. It is just unbelievable that they're like the same species.

And I thought that that was like one of the things that was really great about this episode is all of these Orion dudes are fucking huge and really dwarf the other. actors, you know, and other like humanoid species that they're around in a way that like I kind of always wished the Klingons would be cast like, you know, like, just like make them fucking huge and superimposing. Yeah. It was really fun

to see and just what a performer. What a joy to see him in this episode. Pretty great. Yeah. I'm going to make mine trip who really drops the bag here, I feel like. He's been back on Enterprise for a couple of weeks.

to Paul shows up after the honeymoon. Trip does not make any attempt to find out what happens until they're working the same shift. And even then, just like in a real fucking beta kind of way, all mealy-mouthed around like what may have happened during the honeymoon. You love her, Tripp. Like, you didn't take action during the wedding. And I think we all understand how difficult that could be.

But like, if you want to, to have a relationship with this person of any kind, you need to be brave enough to, like, greet her when she returns to the ship, ask how she's doing, figure it out all at that point. But this whole idea that she returned to the ship totally unmet by trip, that's hurtful. It really is. I think you got to do better than that trip, and I'm rooting for you. It's just got to be so hard when you're, like, trying to do some engineering, trying to, like, put the finishing touches on the captain's fancy new chair, and then you're, you're,

your crush walks in from her honeymoon and every nipple on your forearm goes all erect. You're never going to let that go, are you? She's carrying a blown out box to the bridge. Where'd she get that? You have an idea. You don't want it to be true. I hope that symbolism isn't literal. Faith of the fart.

And we've got to talk about what we're doing on the next episode of the show. Of course, we'll be watching Season 4, Episode 5, Cold Station 12. Eric Soong leads his band of augments to a medical facility where hundreds of genetically enhanced embryos are still stored intending to retrieve them and bring them to life. To find out how we will be reviewing this episode, I am going to gach.biz slash game where we keep the game of buttholes

The Will of the Riker Quantum Leap. Currently our runabout is on square 35. and could go anywhere. But, you know, you remember, it's right next to that eyes uncovered square. So if I roll a one, it's that. You're required to learn as you play. Roll. Whatever happens, I won't blame you.

I'm blaming the 100-sided die. Fair enough. Woo! Narrowly missed a looking at each other during. Now, can't have that. Jumped us right over it. We're on square 67. Hmm.

Chula! Did I win? About that. That looks like a regular old episode to me. That's a regular old episode for next week. All right. I'm sure looking forward to it. Before we go, we got some people to thank Adam.

Who? The Friends of DeSoto who support the show at maximum fun.org slash join. Oh, yeah. Those people are great. Got to express our appreciation for Windy Pretty, our producer. and editor, who keeps all the plates spinning around here, gets the show out on time and under budget every week. Got to thank Rob Adler, our social media director,

and the editor of the greatest newsletter available at greasgen.com. And Bill Tilley, our peacetime consigliary, making hilarious trading cards that you can catch on the At Greatest Track social media accounts. He's also started to supplement with cards for our TOS coverage, which he's just doubled up the work all of his own accord and those TOS trading cards that he's making

are fucking fantastic these are the cards Bill Tilly was born to create You're talking about the TOS episodes we're doing on our hit New Star Trek podcast that's currently about old Star Trek that show being greatest track

That's the one You don't want to sleep on that We're having a great time over there on that feed covering the original series of Star Trek The music for that show and the music for this show. We're created by Adam Ragusea, with whom we make the wholesome podcast.

Check it out on Patreon. It's a patrons-only show. You know, it feels like hanging out in the green room with us. Like a new topic each week, but it's the three of us being a little bit more vulnerable behind the paywall than we might be in public. And it's a really good show. Also, we've got to thank Dark Materia for the original Picard song.

And with that, we will be back at you next time with another. Great episode of Star Trek Enterprise and an episode of the Greatest Generation Enterprise where we're thawing out some embryos too, man. I don't know what that means. You got to keep them frozen until they're ready to use. Yeah. You can't just leave them out on a counter for them to get in the danger zone.

They cool a drink off, nice though. Gross. That's why Ben's freezer privileges have been revoked. Make it so Maximum Ficada Maximum fun A worker own network

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