The Greatest Generation - Sinister Turtlenecks (S3E15)

Episode Date: August 29, 2016

When a butthole in space expels a version of the Enterprise from the past, the crew we've come to know are changed in ways no one can perceive - except for Guinan. In this alternate reality, the Klingons are eating the Federation for breakfast, and Captain Picard has to decide whether or not to send the visiting ship back to its own time. Could Worf be a "secret old"? Shouldn't Yar be due for a promotion by now? Is Ben's dog okay? It's the episode with no logic in it at all!

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 finest crew in Starfleet. Engage! Welcome to the greatest generation. Star Trek Podcast by two guys who are a little bit embarrassed at the Star Trek Podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Adam Prenica. I am unfortunately your other host, Ben Harrison.

Sounds so sad about that, Ben. Well, I'm just still like kind of, you know, even though we're three seasons in. The embarrassment is real, man. Ben, I think occasionally I like to open the kimono a little bit of this podcast for our viewers. Show them a little knuck. Yeah, show them what we're dealing with. And I just want upstairs to get some podcast fluid for our show today.

Sure. And happened upon the thermostat, which says 87 degrees in the house. Woo. We're in the middle of a heat wave right now in Seattle and it's pretty rough. Is it a tropical heat wave? Well, it would all be the heat wave by making your seat wave? I could really use a teaky drink. Tell you that much.

Yeah, that would be nice. I have been having a teaky drink lifestyle around my house this summer. I bought some passion fruits for something else recently. I had enough of them around where I was coming home at the end of a day and making a cocktail for myself that had 18 ingredients, including fresh passion fruit pulp. And I was like, wow. This is fucking great.

You're taking yourself out on a little date there, Ben? It's nice. It's a lot like that event in Las Vegas that we did not get invited to. Mm. Well, I bet you're drinking better drinks than those. Those drinks were probably served in a plastic teaky glass, unlike yours. No.

Great glassware. I have tip top glassware. Speaking of glassware. So you start the episode? This is becoming a speech. You're the captain, so very entitled. I'm going to type a ramble on about something everyone knows. Yeah, let's comes to very tightly. I'm going to type it around the lawn about something everyone knows. Yeah, let's keep our intro brief.

Let's really get into this one. This season three episode, 15, yesterday's Enterprise. And speaking of Glassware, Warf is hunched over a table in 10 Forward. This is the table that data played Stradagema at. Yeah. Best table in 10 forward. Yeah. This is like best seat in the house. Wurf is in a real mood from the look of it. Guynen comes up, puts a brown beverage in front of him. This is like one of the most memorable scenes from the entire series for me.

It's an Earth drink, from juice. Warrior's drink. This is comedy that we've been mining for the entire run of our podcast. It's true, we love making fun of olds. Yeah, man, this shit made me laugh so hard as a kid. It still makes me laugh. I think Michael Doran's performance in this is hilarious. I think that Gynan is hilarious at this.

And it's one of the few moments when we get to see Worf laugh. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Without it being like a joke about Worf not laughing that much, you know. He laughs as loud as he sneezes. Totally. Real loud.

Shakes the shit. Tell you what though, Warf drinks a lot of that prune juice. He's gonna be having some warrior shit. The conversation he's having with Guy Nandes, Guy Nandes all like, you know Warf, you should, should really start spending some time with some females on the ship. I think it'd be good for you.

And Warf says, I don't think these women here could handle me. Right. Too much of a rowdy player in the bedroom. This line, I feel like, is almost directly recycled from a season one or two exchange of a very similar kind. Yeah, I agree. It was it was familiar territory. But I like the idea of Gynon doing work on morph a little bit. Yeah. Like, she picks people to do some bartender doctrine, you know? Totally.

Like, she has the power to manipulate and to counsel like any good bartender. And I think it's cool to see her do that. You don't get to see her do too often. Yeah, she's not just back in the office flicking the old bean. She's out there. She's out there managing the mental health of certain members of the crew. She doesn't make her case especially well because I don't think Wurf comes around to the idea at all. Yeah. Well, she doesn't have much time because they look up at a certain point and there's a big Look up at a certain point and there's a big, there's big butthole in space and Wurf is called up to the bridge moments after they notice this.

They run a scan on the butthole. They search its rim and its interior. It appears to have neither. It's really throwing their sensors all off-kilter. You know, like most space buttholes of this type, it appears to have something to do with the space time continuum. Ben, this is a concept that you're a big, big fan of. It's a start strike, right? Yeah, this is a rift in time, and they start to get a different reading off of it,

and something is coming through the rift, like a catcher coming through the rye. And... Exactly like that. Yeah, and what should come through but a slightly older-looking model of a similar type of starship? It is the Enterprise C.

And we're close on Picard's face when this happens. And there's this crazy blurring blending effect. And suddenly the bridge just feels different. It's darker. There's different color choices in the wall and floor treatments There's extra tactical stations everywhere. Everyone's wearing dust busters. Everybody's wearing a silver belt with the dust buster in it The card has been unmalibu'd He like he's become halor and more serious like yeah, like he's aged It looks like and they all look like a little Evilor like I think it's what they did with the colors.

Like the colors instead of having a little notch in the front, like where you would zip it up presumably, they just go, they're flat all the way across and it somehow makes them look kind of sinister in a way. Sinister turtle necks. Yeah, everybody has a new uniform and like Wesley is in, is in like a full like crew uniform. It's not in his in his like pajama uniform and

orphan Troy are not there, but Tasha Yare is and she is rocking the slick back I do which can mean she has been close to death. Yes, she's loved and lost in this timeline. So Yars done the scan on the ship and she calls out its call sign and reads those as slow as possible. For maximum dramatic effect. Totally. We come to understand that they actually have some concerns in that respect because this is a version of the Star Trek universe in which the Federation has been in a bloody war with the Klingons for like 25 years or something and they're like really worried at all times

about the possibility that a Klingon ship will show up and start picking a fight with them. And we see all the different sets all over the ship and it's like what if the Enterprise was a warship and not a ship of exploration. They didn't do anything to the outside of the ship. Like the model of the ship is the same. But the bridge is very differently configured. Even 10 forward is really different. It's more warlike.

And we see a few new sets as well, like different parts of the ship where a guy in a Picard have meetings are like, everything is more tactical, more functional, and darker. Yeah, it's darker everywhere, but what light there is is really hard light, right? Yeah, the lighting in this episode is basically as good as we have ever seen.

Yeah. So, the Enterprise C is tow up. It's a better rough ride. Every time we get close to the model, you see that there's like tons of scorch marks on it and chunks bitten out of it. So, the tension is huge for a couple of reasons, right? Yeah. The enterprise is poo bearing around with its pants down, just kind of waiting to be attacked by klingons.

And then the enterprise C is totally defenseless and far from its own time. It's pretty heady. They understand the consequences of polluting a timeline. Yeah. It always makes me so upset when Winnie the Pooh gets attacked by Klingons. Right. Yeah.

Yeah, it's the same crew, so they're going to be cognizant of a time space continuum issue in the same way that they would be, but they're warriors too, like they're thinking about the Klingons. And so they see this as like potentially an opportunity because they're like, this isn't a great ship, but it's a ship. And we could use one, if we're gonna throw things into the Klingon woodchipper,

like here's one more thing. And so they're like, Yeah, have nine hours. You can get it on the way by then. Well, it's calledorted to starbase 105. If not, we'll evacuate the survivors and destroy the ship. And so they're like,

they'd be moved to the bridge of this other ship and everybody has blood coming out of their heads. It's real smokey, like someone left their popcorn in the microwave, the office. Yeah. It's pretty bad over there and everyone's doing that lean over their console.

That's how you know they're dead, right? A lot of girders and beams down. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's good. If your bridge set falls apart, you're gonna want to reinforce it. The nice, thick, girder, strong, a strong, deranium beam going across the center of the bridge.

Yeah. Yeah. The away team, as soon as they get over there, Duranium beam going across the center of the bridge. The away team as soon as they get over there, they meet Captain Garrett, Captain of the Enterprise C. And the first information they give her is, oh, the rest of the bridge crew's dead. You gotta come with us. Yeah, and they're like real cryptic the whole time about what ship they're from.

Like, she keeps, she keeps, she just kind of takes their word for it that they're from the Federation. They're here to help and they keep saying, like, we're from a Federation starship. There's a lot of concern about revealing too much about what's going on to the other ship, which I feel like maybe sells another crew

in the Federation short. Like if the decruque can handle this being a time issue, why shouldn't the C crew be able to handle that? Like they're the fucking flagship of their time. Like they're not cut from the same cloth. Right, they're probably the best and the brightest of the era from which they come, which is not like that deep in the past.

So a weird choice and they sort of abandon it. Once Captain Garrett wakes up, she's pretty hip to the scheme that she's not in the timeline that she's used to. She comes to in Six Bay and Picard sort of goes to her bedside and that's where that's where he reveals the truth of the situation. She's like, she's like, I've never seen a sick day like this before. Look at all this barbicide and these different colored jars and look at the wig on your doctor. Oh my God. Pretty incredible, right?

And Picard's like, you have come 22 years into the future. And Garrett replies that we were responding to a distress call from the Klingon outpost on the render three. They were up to the same type of shit that the Enterprise D gets up to, which is they heard a distress signal, and they ran toward it as fast as I could to see what was up, and then their, their era's version of Tomlock

started destroying them. So like, they literally came through this butthole like at the last moment for their ship because like everybody was passing out and I guess the idea is that some, in some way the explosions of the Romulan torpedoes hitting them caused the the rift in time. Look, Ben, it's dark, it's loud, you're disoriented, things are going every which way, stuff's exploding sometimes. Yeah, you can see how someone would accidentally go into a butthole in that situation. Lord knows I've done it. It happens to the best captains. It happens to the best captains. Well speaking of holes, on the bridge as they're trying to pick up all the pieces,

Shooter McGavin comes climbing out. I guess he was hiding under a desk or something? Yeah. Not really sure. Or was he was hiding under a desk or something? Yeah. Not really sure. Or was he in a Jeffries tube? I think they lifted off a piece of metal from him and he dusts himself off. And he is Helmsman Castillo.

And boy, he just has a lantern jaw and a dozen. Oh my God, this guy is fun to look at. Just a great looking dude. Yeah. Easy on the eyes in every way possible. He's got kind of a curly slick back. Yeah. And he and Yarr fall in with each other pretty quickly. Yeah. Zampi Tasha really takes notice. Yeah. They're fast friends and they're like the same rank and she's a tactical officer and he's a helmsman and it's real cute, it's a meat cute. Yeah, it's nice.

They're able to find love in the middle of war. Yeah, meanwhile, they've sort of pieced together the timeline. The Enterprise C was not listed as ever having been in a battle with Romylans or Klingons in their history books, but they realized that this battle that the sea was coming from when it slipped into the butt was very specifically kind of an inciting incident in this war

with the Klingons. And like if the sea had either succeeded in defending the outpost, you know, or they'd all died in the process of defending it. The Klingons would have seen that as like an act of great honor and would have had more respect for the Federation and maybe it wouldn't have gone to war in the first place. So they have some weird feelings about the fact that they're here and Picard pretty quickly, like lays the entire war at Captain Garrett's feet. One more ship will make no difference in the here and now, the 22 years ago. One ship could have stopped this war before it started. The way he lays out the story and the sultan at timeline, they're fucked. Everyone's

fucked. The war is going very badly for the Federationeration, far worse than is generally known. Like, if I told everyone how badly it was going, people would get off the ship. Right. They would just go out the airlock. They'd be so freaked out. They're going to lose this war. They're going to be either killed or enslaved

by the Klingons in a matter of months. Yeah. And not the kind of like fun, you know, cops and robbers and your underpants kind of slave type thing that Picard is into. Right. This is non-consensual slavery. It's the worst kind, Ben. Without this moment, it doesn't make any sense

to send the ship back. You need this scene. Yeah. Otherwise sending the ship back is ridiculous. So this is the underpinning of the entire decision. And either it's the one B or the B storyline is Gynon's relationship with Captain McCard. So we saw her in the cold open, but she sprinkled throughout the episode as someone throughout the episode as someone who is able to sense that the timeline that they exist in is not right. And her relationship with Picard is such that she can walk onto the bridge during a situation

like this and get the captain's ear. She can call a meeting with him and tell him some crazy shit. I can't explain it to myself so I can't explain it to you. I only know that I'm right. Stuff that if she was not gayening, and if he wasn't pecard, and if they didn't have that relationship, would not fly. Right. Like, you have to really respect the bond of trust that these two characters have,

given the whoppers that she's laying on him. Because she's like, I don't really have any evidence to back this up, but the timeline is wrong. Tashiya should be dead. Everything is not as it should be. And the only way to solve this is by sending all hundred and whatever people on this other ship to their deaths. Right. And so not long after this conversation with Gaiden, Picard calls him a glothlin group and he's like, all right, here's the plan. We got to send him back because I think it's important.

And I think one ship in the past could make up more of a difference than two ships in the present. And that's my decision and it's final. And his senior staff are appropriately confused by this. Wait, you're listening to the lady with the crazy hats? Yeah. What? Yeah, all of them have their moment to argue with Picard.

And he's like, no, this actually isn't a meeting that we're going to go back and forth on. This is a meeting where I brief you. Right. And that's how it's going to be. And it's interesting. Like the next time he checks in with Captain Garrett, like she tells him, yeah, like most of my crew checks in with Captain Garrett, like she's,

she tells them like, yeah, like most of my crew is actually pretty keen on getting back as well. Like we don't feel right here and we kind of want to go like do what we were supposed to do. I mean, I guess they're just choosing which hopeless situation is best. I think given the newspaper card gave them, they know they're not long for this timeline. They're certainly not long for the butthole timeline. And if they have a chance to make their demise matter in some way, they're going to choose the butthole. Well, that's sort of the question that I had watching this episode was, did Picard truly believe Geinen or was the story that she was telling him that they could unmake this war so seductive to him that he wanted to try, like he wanted to believe

in it so bad that he just kind of fell in love with the idea of changing history and kind of, he kind of threw rationality out the window. It comes down to the trust you have in someone. Is there anyone in either of our lives that could tell us a story like Guy Nans and we would take it at face value? It'd be really hard. Yeah. Well. And yet, one of the privileges of not living in the 24th century, I guess.

Sure. But I think you bring up a great point, and that is, do we know enough about Guynen and Guynen's relationship with Picard to make this a credible moment in their story? Yeah. Like, this is the most significant moment in their relationship to the viewer because he makes such a huge decision based on her intuition. And nothing like this has happened before now.

And at some point, he's asked to back his decision up and he says that there's no logic in it at all. Like, that's a direct quote. And I felt like that could be like the tagline for the whole episode. I've considered the alternatives. I'll go with Geinen's recommendation. Dismost. I feel like at that moment, Riker could have taken command and relieved him on the spot.

I don't know how a crew follows that order. Right. It's kind of incredible. Banana kicks. But everybody gets on board. My love is your people long and chill for that which longer than us at the PC. They get the crew onto the Enterprise C. Like it's fixed up enough to make it go of going back when a Klingon bird of prey comes out of nowhere and starts lighting everybody up. And for some reason the Klingons are kind of focusing their attack on the weaker of

the two ships. And so- That doesn't seem very honorable to me. Yeah, it's a dick move. And the Enterprise D is able to like get a couple of good phaser shots at this thing, but it, but it cloaks and it's, it's gone before they're able to destroy it. Unfortunately in this attack, Captain Garrett takes a throwing start at the dome. And she did. Yeah.

Now, if you have a construction accident, you should always have the number of the authorities, on hand, at any construction site. Now, in any OSHA approved bridge environment, you're gonna wanna wear a hot hat. Yeah. I like a five glass hot hat with the logo of my show on it. Oh boy.

Oldie Bikitty. Yeah. And so this is like not great news because basically the one person that they could trust to like make a good show of this fight with the Klingons has bought the farm. It really hurts because you know her for all of, I don't know, 10 minutes and she's a great character.

I really liked her. She really sold that she was the captain of the Enterprise. Like that is an amazing achievement. I think Patrick Stewart did that in about six episodes. She did it in 20 minutes. She is so much better if I capped in than Cameron from the Enterprise B. So much more. So the highest ranking Enterprise C. Krueman is, wouldn't you know it, Helmsman Castillo.

I've worked hard my whole life, paid my dues and now it's Shooters Turn. Yeah, he's the last man standing with a commission. Which is just Bakers. And he wants to keep the mission going, right? Yeah, especially Bakers because he eats pieces of shit for breakfast. No. He wants to continue with the plan, but they have more repairs to make now

that they've taken a couple of super advanced cling on disruptor hits, you know. Like they're armed for a quarter of a century ago. And so they're back to trying to fix this ship up and get it ship shape for heading back through the rift. And so now they've got like, they've got like a ticking clock because if this Klingon ship got away,

they know that it would have alerted the Klingon high command and whatever's coming next is not gonna be as easy to repel as one little ship. After the captain dies, after the captain of the Enterprise C dies, there's sort of a leadership vacuum, call it, on the Enterprise C, a vacuum that Tasha Yare wants to fill. I request to transfer to the Enterprise C.

She has a conversation with Gynon after getting some weird looks from her earlier. And Gynon's like, girl, you aren't even supposed to be here. And watch this scene again. Denise Crosby does some capital A acting here. She's doing things that aren't on the page. Things here that really gave me some feels. Like, non-dialogue stuff.

It's almost especially interesting, given the fact that she sort of wanted off this show as an actor. And I think that she had been given some bad stuff, some bad text to deal with, some bad lines to deliver in the past. But it was only natural to want off this show at the time she wanted. Right. But she comes back. She comes back and she is totally chewing the scenery I can see it in your eyes, Gynon We've known each other too long weren't meant to know each other at all

She does great in this scene and also Oliver scenes with Castillo the Homesman, yeah, they have great chemistry. Yeah, you really feel it. You know, it made me really miss her. Like, I had gotten used to her being gone for a couple of seasons, but seeing her again and seeing how great her character was in such a short amount of time.

Like, man, they really redeemed her. And Gainin is like not really able to give any kind of detail about the timeline that she perceives them to have come from, like where they're supposed to be. But she does tell YAR that the death that she died in that timeline was meaningless and empty. And that's like a heavy thing to lay on yarr and so that motivates her to like want to take Take over at tactical on the enterprise C so that she can like she knows she's gonna be dead either way She like like the rest of the enterprise C she wants it to mean something and Because because the captain has died it kind of makes sense for her to go there

It has to be in this order though like Picard has to believe before Tasha believes because Picard has the benefit of his relationship with Geinen as being like sealed. Geinen is utterly credible to him, she will always be believed. To Yarr, she doesn't have that benefit. Like, it is really going out on a limb to believe her, but she does. Yeah, and uh. But she also feels like something's off to, like, it's not just Gainin in that scene. Like, she's a little, she's feeling a little spacey about it, you know what I'm right.

Well, and it's especially interesting because Gainin became a character on the show after YAR was gone. So... Yeah, they were never supposed to know each other. Yomok and Yelad and Danaga. A greatest-gen live show is something you don't want to miss. Why?

Well, it's a great opportunity to see me and Ben in person, but that's not all. FODs from all over gather at these shows to cosplay, to do pre and post show hangs, to make friends, and share their embarrassment. Hey, let's make a pretty great name for a tour. Let's do it. The 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.

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Give Jordan Jesse Goatry. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Oh, rats, hey, hey, oh, I'm about to count you in mine. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line and boy, what do I? These giraffes do not smell good. No, they do not, and they've such short nacks.

But I'm hearing we need to get on this horse. I've got to get on the art. It is about to rain, 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 two by two. What do you think?

O'Neill Ross and Kerry, available on MaximumFund.org. They get on the long-range sensors. They discover that three attack cruisers are headed toward them, and they're not even bothering to cloak They're like brimming with confidence that they're gonna be able to take the enterprises out and so they get the enterprise see like back Operational just in time to like start going through the rift and the D has to kind of like stand in between it and the

Klingons and try and stave off this attack Enterprise C approaches the but holeole in like very slow. Yeah, man, it is moving slow motion. As you should, but still, like they're trying to survive. Yeah, I mean, just put a little bit of personal lubricant, make sure it's compatible with whatever form of protection you're using. I would recommend sticking a probe in first to check it out.

And then you drive the ship in. This is such a weird scene to me because for as much tension as they've built through this episode, this battle scene is so slow. Every time they cut to like out exteriors of the ships moving around, they're just moving slow motion. Like the the Klingon ships are moving slow. Both enterprises are moving slow. It seems like it takes like 20 minutes for them to turn

the enterprise D around, which is like, when like they've turned it around much quicker in previous episodes. I don't know why it's taking so long. If this is- I didn't pick up on that. I didn't get that feeling. Ah, it just seemed slow to me. I mean, there's some exciting stuff with it lighting the

Klingon ships up. You know, like you see like three or four laser beams coming out of it at once. That was cool, but to enterprise D's credit, like it blows up one of the Klingon ships. up one of the Klingon ships. Not before Riker takes a throwing start to his neck. Yeah. Like, shits just popping off on the Enterprise D bridge and they are not long for this world. Like, they're getting the shit kicked out of them. Picard has to like vault over the tactical station to go back and operate the weapons. Yeah, he dukes of hazards over the horseshoe. Yeah, no time for backup. It's pretty clear that the D is like about to get taken out when we see the sea going finally into into the butthole.

Like, it's, you know, there's like a very wide shot of the two Klingon ships converging from either side of the Enterprise D, Cut to C entering the butthole, and then Cut to Picard's face going like, what was that little thing that we just saw out there? Yeah, and Morph's like, well, we momentarily saw something, but I guess it was nothing. And he's like, well, we'll leave a class one butt plug here to monitor the situation, just in case. And the episode ends with Gynon sitting down in 10-4, and asking Jordy to like tell, tell her about Tashiar.

That was a real nice ending. Yeah. I mean, a quick little scene, but super evocative. You can really do a lot with just a single line and they've done it a couple of times. This season, especially like doing a lot of character building with just a single line of dialogue. Yeah. Good stuff. There's a lot to like in this episode at them. And as much as much in tip of the is I have

toward time travel scenarios in Star Trek, I think that this is Star Trek time travel at its best. It still doesn't make any sense. Like it's very easy to punch holes in it. Okay, if we're in an alternate timeline now, then why would changing the past alter this timeline or make it into the other timeline? What are the mechanics of that?

How does YAR reappearing in the current timeline and then going back to the previous timeline, mechanically work? How does that not break the universe? To enjoy science fiction at all, means suspending some amount of disbelief, though. I guess so. I mean, but the, I think some of the fun of it is like the plausibility of the sci-fi and,

I have a tough time lending any plausibility to this kind of stuff, but the way it's executed is so, so top tier that it's easy for me to forgive in this episode. It feels like the show has become fully formed in this episode. All of the characters are acting based on information we've been given up until now, like the effects are first rate. Yeah.

You're feeling things that you're supposed to feel. Wesley's hair cut looks okay. Yeah, you know what, there were a couple of things different in the alternate timeline that really had a big effect. One, no chief O'Brien in the alternate timeline. Two, Wesley has great hair. And I think if you're Wesley Crusher,

you're a little bit sad to send the Enterprise C back through the butthole because you're back to the bufant. Yeah, I did miss Troy. Yeah, I guess it's like, I guess their idea was that it didn't make sense for there to be a touchy-feely person in a worship scenario. But I don't know, I thought it would have been interesting to have her in the mix. I feel like they could have figured it out a way to make that work. This was a great Geinen episode. Totally.

It makes me, every time they give Geinen anything to do, I just want more and more of it. Yeah. Makes me want to ask you a question though. What's that? In the, in the duos, ex machina power rankings. Do you move Geinen up a little bit? Do you move her up above Q and Kevin Xbridge? Huh.

Because she demonstrates some shit. Like she, she can exist out of time. I'm not sure if you can do that Yeah, where was she when Kevin X Bridge was around she was you was she not in that episode? I don't think so He never went to the bar seems like she would have been wise to his shit, right? You imagine Kevin X Bridge in ten forward ordering drinks Gainin like a very specific drink.

Gainin, I'm not sure you've heard of this cocktail. It's called a sikhs on the beach. It's called a slippery nipple. Ha ha ha ha. It's based on the rubber that I used to make the nipple on my wife. Ha ha ha ha. Oh man, yeah. You get that one interaction between Gynon and Q last season.

But there are very few interactions between these ultimate characters. Yeah. I could go for a little bit more of that, right? Yeah. Because it's hard to of that, right? Yeah. Because it's hard to rate them without that. Yeah, I mean, at some point somebody will have to figure out who would win in a fight. I mean, I think for the long term,

we know Kevin wins. Yeah. Obviously. Adam, I believe we have a message coming in over subspace. Oh, I also got that flashing red light on my dash. Wanna pull over and listen? Let's pull it over. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel.

Need a supplemental link. Supplement? Supplement. Supplement. Yes, extra. How do you interest alone? Could be enough to buy this ship! This priority one message comes to us from Membrane Software, who invites our viewers to download and play the Star Commander video game.

This is a completely free game with no ads or in-app purchases. That's like the best kind of game, man. Yeah, I think it's one of those kind of pay- pay what you think it's worth, type of deals. Right. Did you ever play escape velocity when you were a kid? I don't know. Was that a Sega Genesis game?

No, it was a Mac game. Uh-huh. It may have been on PC as well, but it was like a flyer ship around the galaxy. And I got total escape velocity vibes when I went to the membranesoftware.com page and took a look at what this game looked like. It looks really cool. Yeah.

It feels like a throwback space video game in the best possible way. Yeah, like back when you go on a shareware downloading website and get some shareware. Share. Remember shareware? Bagley. Yeah, so here's the copy. and get some shareware. Share! Remember shareware? BAKELY! Uh, yeah, so here's the copy. Have you ever wondered what it's like to build a fleet of spaceships, explore the galaxy and wage interstellar war?

Star Commander is a video game that gives you a chance to try it out. Deploy fleets and build star bases to gain control over the Arctic resources. Assign the best officers to your starships and guide them in combat to achieve victory. BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM! HA HA HA! I like a game where you get to decide whether or not it sucks and then pay, also, because I have so many

like examples of a time where I paid like 25 bucks for a game for my playstation and just completely hated it, even though it was well reviewed. And so this is like, you know, you have nothing to lose if you like the game, which we gander you might given that it is made by greatest gen viewers. Sure. Throw them a couple of shuckles. Yeah, and this whole deal with membrane software is that they say we want people to use our software and monetary barriers getting the way of that. Therefore, we don't place a cost on anything. Play the games, decide what their value is to you, and then give us a little bit of a tip.

That's sort of like our model for podcasting, right? I love it. Yeah. Anyway, visit MembraneSoftware.com on your PC or Mac to download and play Star Commander. It's completely free as we said with no ads or NF purchases. Yeah, looks like they even have a Linux version. It's got all the versions. Yeah. All the versions you could ever need are thanks to Membrane software for helping to support greatest generation. We have another personal message on the Jembo Tron. It is from Future Tom Regan. Regan? Regan? And it is two present day Tom

Regan. And the message is we require you to proceed with the secondary penis. Please respond This is the second time in a row that I feel like people mainly just want to contribute to our show Yeah, which I am more than happy to accept but There is a possibility that this is legit and it's actually being sent from the future, which is pretty exciting. Ben, I have so many questions. Yeah. What does secondary mean in this context?

Is it an additional penis or is it a replacement penis for a future damaged penis? Right. And I mean, what's the time travel mechanic at play here? Is it like in Looper where you can, you know, send somebody into the past and kill them? Or is it like in yesterday's enterprise when you can, when you can like, send a ship back and avert a war? This message is specific to a body part in a way that it's like, the way data tries to destroy his own body parts yeah what's Tom Regan doing with his penis in the future yeah whatever it is

it seems pretty dangerous yeah he's into sticking it into places where my kid might slip into another dimension well I think if present Tom Regan had a message for future Tom Regan it might be hey future Tom Regan. It might be, hey future Tom, once you cool out with the penis stuff Yeah, sounds dangerous. Whatever you're into. Yeah Well present day Tom Regan. I feel like you have a lot to think about and Maybe this will guide the decision to make going forward. Yeah I think it's given us a lot to think about all of us. Yeah Well, thanks Tom Regan's both future and present for your support of the greatest generation.

Yeah, thanks. And if you listening at home would like to send a priority one message, go to maximumfund.org slash jembo-tron. Personal matches, messages are $100 and carpet or business-based messages are $200 and helps us keep the lights on around here We don't change the prices based on if those messages are going to future versions or past versions. Oh, yeah What about like inflation? It's one low low price. Yeah We're really getting we're getting the short end of the deal here. Yeah, future Tom paid for this one in scarves. Hey, Ben.

What's that, Adam? Did you find yourself in this timeline or any other timeline? You drunk Shimoda? I'm going to have to give it to Shooter McGavin. No, he definitely like falls for y'all and they have a great like on screen kiss and then she kind of surprises him by showing up on his bridge and saying like, I'm gonna go die in battle with you guys

and he very half-heartedly tries to convince her not to. He's just like, dude, this shit is super transparent. Yeah. I feel like it's a tough episode to find a Drunk Shemota in, but that was my Drunk Shemota. How about yourself? I am also going to give it to Castillo, but for a different reason. Oh, I love it when this happens. All right.

So the deal is- Is it because he eats pieces of shit for breakfast? No, he might as well be with the amount of hubris he shows. So check it out. Castillo is the last surviving bridge crewman from the Enterprise C. Yes. Tasha Yar is a lieutenant commander. Let's just say she is.

Let's say it doesn't matter what her rank is. She has future experience. She is from 24 years in the future. They stick her over on the Enterprise C and makes fucking Captain Shooter McGavin. Those are the rules. I didn't write them. That makes no sense at all.

Yeah. If I'm Shooter McGavin, I'm begging Tasha Yard to be the captain of the Enterprise Sea. Like all your future tactical skills have got to be amazing compared to my stupid helmsman skills, which are going to serve me exactly zero against attacking Romulan ships. I don't know. I just, that part to me, like, it would have been a small tweak to the story that would have meant a whole lot, but credibility wise, Tasha's got to be captain in that moment. And not only does she have to be captain, Castillo needs to make that happen. Castillo needs

to insist that he's not, because that's just dumb. He can be captain in the chin department, but no others, no other categories. He definitely can't be captain in the chin department, but uh, but no others, no other categories. Yeah, he definitely can't be captain in the slick back department when Yara is walking around. I know. Hey Ben. What's that Adam? What episode are you watching next time? The next episode is season three, episode 16, the offspring, data becomes a father when he creates an android using a transfer of his own neural programming. Do you remember that episode? Ben, the gravity of the usage of my veto this season has fully bloomed because this is

one of the episodes I hated most of all the episodes. It's another example. I feel like this happened last season when they unveiled the Borgs. The episode right after it was just a real lighthearted turkey of an episode. Yesterday's Enterprise is so like stakes is high high and like it's it's like a totally like Huge fully realized episode with different sets and different costumes then They're just gonna follow it up with like, oh, what if data was able to reproduce This is as low as it gets for me. I really don't like this episode when it's come on on

don't like this episode. When it's come on on reruns in syndication, like I will go find something else to do and typically I will watch any next Jan episode. Yeah, wow. This is on Mount Armas for me. Without having seen it since I saw it the first time, not looking forward to this. Okay, well that's the next episode we're watching because neither of us has vetoes to use. I know, it's all my fault, Ben. Well, you can tweet at us using the hashtag GreatestGen. Adam is at Cut for Time. I'm at Benjamin R on Twitter and we're on there all the time. Goofing off and talking about Trek, you can go to our subreddit.

I think it's Greatestinn.reddit.com, is a way to get there. So you can know more. Our last greatestjinn. Yeah, you can also go to the Maximum Fund subreddit. And there's also Facebook groups aplenty for you to get involved with. We're basically on all the social media except Snapchat.

Yeah. I don't think you'd like what you saw if we were to be on Snapchat. Let me be disgusting. One really cool thing that happens with our show is that our listeners go to maximumfund.org slash donate and they step up and they support our show with their own hard earned money. If you feel that this show is worth listening to, perhaps you feel it is worth supporting financially. We hugely appreciate everybody that is involved with that part of it. We are professional podcasters, Ben. I think you can taste the difference. Yeah,

and our viewers help us make the show. People that support get to listen and know that this partly exists because of them. It's the truth. I think we would have quit long ago. I would quit before the offspring. This would be a great time for me to bail out. But now I'm obligated. Yeah. Well, we should thank Dark's Materia for our theme music and Adam Wigousia for our priority one music.

And with that, we will be back at you next week with another great episode of Star Trek the next generation and an offspring episode of the greatest generation. You gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be, you gotta be you, you, you gotta be you, you gotta be, you gotta be you, you gotta be you, you gotta be, you gotta be you, you gotta be, you gotta be Take three. Maximumfund.org Comedy and culture, artist owned Listener supported.