The Greatest Generation - So Zesty (S4E16)

Episode Date: November 30, 2016

When the woman who unwittingly modeled for Geordi’s favorite real doll boards the ship, the Chief Engineer is scrambling to understand why she isn’t as receptive to his romantic overtures as her lookalike. To make matters worse, an alien pot pie has been tossed at the ship, and the crew is having a heck of a time cleaning it off. Why won’t the Captain ever let Worf raise the shields? What ever happened to that calzone? Is this whole thing Guinan’s fault? It’s the episode where TNG goes full MRA.

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

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

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

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

and season two of Star Trek Picard. We've set up a page where you can also contribute. It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdececoto for Labor.com. That's FriendsOfDecoto for Labor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Here's to the finest crew in Trek podcast by two guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast. I'm Ben Harrison.

I'm Adam Pranaka. Ben? What's that Adam? The unthinkable happened to me recently. Really? The day that we had always hoped and also feared occurred while I was out in public. I was in the public sphere. Uh-huh.

I was out with a buddy, our buddy Phil, having an afternoon coffee, having a freelancers coffee as you do. Sure. Uh-huh. And. I don't have anywhere to be right now. So I'm here with you. Having a booktaz meeting on my calendar. We're sitting down in the coffee shop in a corner

and one of the employees of the coffee shop comes up and he's like, Hey man, love your show. What? Download it every Monday and Wednesday at midnight, like on the button. It's my favorite show ever. Thanks, thanks dude. Thanks for making it. Wow. And I was confused and delighted. Oh man.

That's great. It was so great. It was so great. You want that to happen in front of someone though too. Like, I'm so glad Phil was there, because no one would have believed me. I feel, here's how I feel about this. I feel like you wanted to happen

in front of someone not your wife. Right. Because if it's your wife, it's just gonna cause friction. There's a million different ways that can cause friction. But if it's just a friend, it's like, hey, can you believe that this just happened?

And your friend can just be happy for you. Oh yeah. Well, and in my case, just takes the piss out of you entirely. Like, as soon as he was out of earshot, Phil was like, what the fuck? Really? Which made it even more delicious. It was so cool. That's probably having a Phil, right? I mean, he's a touring musician. He is. But I think, I think it's different

for him because like music is a viable way to be known and what we do is not. And there was no way for him to know who I was. Like, did he look at my dumb face? Was he at the Seattle show? Did he hear my voice? Did he hear your voice? Yeah, I don't know. It was weird, dude.

It was weird. Was there a shot of him looking in from the employee break room through the little port hole in the door, holding up his copy of our tour poster looking at the illustrated version of your face then looking back to you and back to the illustration then back to you. Like all you can see because of where the window is cut is just like his shoulder doing

like shoulder rolls holding the poster. Cool did you get the guy's name? I did. I don't know whether he wants to be shouted out or not. He reached out on Twitter later in the end. That would be very embarrassing. He was like, hey, great to meet you at the coffee shop next time coffee's on me, which is also great. Free coffee next time.

That was great. Yeah. Big ups. Save two, three, maybe even four dollars. I know yeah, man I I recommend it. I hope it happens to you. I can't wait to hear your Seen out in the wild story the Star Trek podcasters. They're just like us column Ready to see your part of that. I gotta say I'm a little surprised it was you first Me too just because of the kind of town I live in where you know there's people walking

around everywhere. And also the fact that I don't get out much. Yeah, you're a basement dweller. Yeah. Well, shall we transition smoothly into this episode. Adam. A smooth as possible. It's season four episode 16, Galaxy's Child. I don't know if they've given up Uber or if they're like diversifying. You see those those guys that drive around They've got the Uber logo and the lift logo in their front window. Yeah, it's a little flip sign Yeah, so the enterprise is gonna do some door dash They're picking up some medical supplies and taking them somewhere and I guess like part of the Part of the convenience of this trip is that certain someone is going to catch a ride on the ship.

She's going to, what do they call that when pilots, like, what are they, like dead dropping or whatever? Well, it's dead heading to, to take an empty plane from one place to another. So, empty plane from one place to another. So yeah. But yeah, like Leah Brahms has got her, her Calzone out. Looking for a ride. Yeah. And it's, it's funny as hell when the card breaks

the news to Jordy. Are you saying she's like, she's like, she was hitchhiking by the side of the space road and she's like, I better undo this Calzone and let my hair down so that, so that people will think I'm sexy. I didn't paint a detailed enough picture of what I was talking about. I'm glad you went back in behind me and shaded that in. I just wanted to make sure that I was understanding what you were saying Adam. I think we're on the same page here. Did she did she do like Peewee and put on a a rubber thumb enlargener? She

lets her crust out a little bit in this episode. I'll tell you what the hair is not so calzone like this episode. It's a little less severe. Yeah. Which sort of runs counter to her manner, which we'll get into a little later. But Picard calls Jordy into his ready room and he's like, hey buddy. Someone is coming on board just to see the engine modifications you've made. Who can't? The senior design engineer, the theoretical propulsion group Dr. Leah Brahms. So clear your schedule. And he sort of says it with a smirk like Picard knew how

fucked up Jordy was in making that whole simulation. Yeah, Picard's side. Yeah, he scolded him about it. Leah is coming here. Ha ha ha ha ha! Who? Well, this is terrific! It is. And it's a little bit of a retroactive continuity situation because Picard is like, huh, you seem to be really excited about her coming on board. And George is like, yeah, well, I... I've read a lot of her work. You know, and he's like trying to play it off like he didn't have holosex with Liebroms,

which we have to assume he probably did. Yeah, it's awkward when everyone in the room knows the truth about something, but they're not saying it. And that's what this meeting is like. Yeah, so Jordi is like, he's in a celebratory mood, wanders down to 10 Ford, starts tilting them back and Guinin is like, this is fucked up dude, and she's like pretty friendly about it, but she does a pretty classic Guinin which is, I think she can see where this is heading.

And for her own amusement does not do anything to persuade Jordy to delete his browser history so that this can come off without a hitch. She's like, let's see how this unfolds. This is going to be fun. The lesson that she knows Jordy will learn is more valuable than her attempt to stop a train wreck from happening. She knows will happen because she exists out of time. Right, yeah. Gainin is a... Gainin's in this one for the lulls.

When someone only knows someone through a picture or an idea of what that person could be. This seems like a very modern dating booby trap to fall into. Like, Jordi knows his version of a girl that he's never met and he has made her into something that no one could possibly be. And Geinen's advice to him is like, dude, like you don't know her. You know a version of her that you made up. So maybe you should quit with the projection and go into it with some fresh eyes.

And like everyone else on the crew, Jordy doesn't listen to Guy Nyn's advice, even though Guy Nyn's advice should be the only advice anyone takes. Let's establish a little bit what the deal is with this Leab Brahms character that exists on the holodeck. Because I think we sort of cleared Jourity's name a little bit in the last episode that this comes up in. In BoobyTrap, the computer sort of without asking creates this character. And it's definitely like one of the weirder things the computer has done, but it's not like Jordi went in there and said, make me a fuck kitten and make her smart as hell

about the same thing I'm smart about. And we'll solve a problem and then get off on it. Whatever the, whatever the metadata is that allows someone to be creeped out by someone else, dial that back all the way. Right. Like, Gerald that back to zero. Jordy didn't do the bad thing. And when he gets scolded by it, it's super unfair. You know, yeah. Everybody on the ship has done something similar or worse. This current episode, Galaxy's child, goes a long way to undo all of that name clearing we did in the last episode.

Oh, I think rightly all that shit comes back home to roost on him like right on him. So, Jordy then with a belly full of beer as he always does when it's time to go to work. He heads down to the transport room and I think Jordy may now be even more of an alcoholic than Polesky. He is always heading off to do some sensitive shit after having spent a little time on 10 forward. Yeah, I hadn't put that together, but I think his problem drinking is coming to a head here, especially. Starting to be a bit of a pattern. He ends up in the transport room and she beams up

and he's like already way too casual and way too levy devy. He almost calls her like boo. It's so levy devy and she's like the opposite of what he's expecting. She basically dumps a bucket of cold water in his head. She's just a professional. And compared to. She's a, she's, she's just a professional. Yeah. And compared to Jordi's familiarity, she's a combative professional. Like she's,

she doesn't like the way he runs the show. It's because she doesn't like what he's done to her ship. Like it's, she's very possessive about the ship and the way it's engineered. And to her, Jordi is fucked all that up. Yeah. And she just has questions about that. And her questions seem sort of hostile to a person who is in love with you. Yeah. So they get the party started.

It's a lot of like, Jordy touring her around the ship and her going like, why did you put the dilithium crystals this way? Why is the deuterium manifold plugged into the plasma injector? That doesn't make any sense. And there's a lot of like fun, you know, bullshit shop talk that they get to go through. But the basics of it are that, Jordy is expecting the woman of his dreams and she is there on like a bunk inspection,

like a drill instruction. She's running her finger along the underside of every surface, trying to detect dust, trying to make sure that there's, you know, good hospital corners on all the bunks, making sure everybody's, you know, button placket lines up with the fly of their pants, all that shit. And along the way, Jordy is just driving into every conversational pot holy can by going like, uh, accidentally, he'll accidentally say like, well, you and me actually came up with a solution in the hola.

I mean, I came up with this solution alone completely without a weird sex doll version of you in the hola dick. And he does that like a handful of times like slipping up. And this puts Brahms onto the scent that like his cozy familiarity might have a little bit of something sinister behind it. Like she feels a little threatened and this especially comes to a head when Jordy's like, look, maybe we should just like start over a little bit. Like, I feel like you feel like I'm stepping all over your ship. And, and I want you to know that that all of these design improvements I've made on the ship should not be a threat to you. Like, let's just talk it over over a nice dinner. It'll be great. So come over.

Yeah. And, and it's at that dinner that Brahms is like, I only want a professional relationship with you. This dinner might have been a mistake. I'm married. Is this the scene where she also says that? I think that that comes a little later. Maybe when they're crawling around in the Jeffries tube, but before we get too far into the A storyline, I wanna talk about the fact that the B storyline in this episode is the existential crisis to the ship. Just a fun inversion, you know? Like usually there's an A storyline,

which is like we're caught in a rift and you know like the last episode that the Leobrom's character A storyline, which is like we're caught in a rift and you know like like the last episode that the Leopold Brom's character was in was was a very similar premise where the ship is caught in this in this existential crisis and there's a B storyline of Jordi getting to know this girl of his dreams character and they work together to solve the problem. This one is all about Jordy like dealing with this unexpected reality of who Leah Ram's really is while the ship in the background is in big fucking trouble. Yeah. There are long swaths of him and her just arguing or bickering about something and engineering

and then they'll cut up to the bridge and data will be like hey there's like a weird animal or something in orbit of that planet. Should we go check it out? Oh weird it's shooting radiation at us. Oh we should shoot this animal and see if that makes it stop. Oh we killed it. There are all these little teeny tiny story beats about this, like, thing that is the title of the episode, but it's not the storyline by any means. Yeah, it really diminishes the stakes in a weird way by flip-flopping those. You're right. Yeah. I mean, I think it's great though, right? Like, it's like, Jordy, Jordy in the last Leabrom's episode has the fate of the ship on his shoulders.

And in this one, it's just like, let's like see how tough it is to be Jordy when you're like, as bad as girls as he is. And you know, let's throw in an existential crisis while we're at it just to keep things zesty. So zesty. Speaking of Zest, they're in the middle of ferrying Leobroms across the galaxy when they pick up this signal out there from a space pot pie. Like I think there's a life form that's orbiting this planet. Let's go check it out.

And everyone is super excited. They pull up alongside it and they're like, oh shit, this thing is alive. The card even says, can you imagine living in space, space is your playground. You just live, breathe and eat. The universe doesn't that sound great? There's a moment of pause where they take in just the magic of what it must be like to be this space pot pie. And the moment passes almost immediately

when this thing attacks the ship. What transpires as they kind of work everything out is that the space creature attacks them because it was pregnant. And they do like a space phaser cesarean section to free the unborn infant from the inside of it. After the enterprise kills it. Right. Mind you. Yeah, they have to defend themselves.

And Picard has this real bad dark night of the soul because he's so horrified at what they've done in defending themselves. Mount he to explore. Yeah, look at what we have just done. Like, we met this one and just shot the hell out of it. That was weak. Not a good first contact this time, you guys.

That's good. We keep bungling this. Uh, right, or did better last week. Mm-hmm. I would say that we're kind of jumping around. I guess it doesn't really matter. This is kind of a formless episode in many ways, but the basics of the B storyline or this infant comes out of the alien and like glues itself to the side of the ship and it's

like sucking energy out of the ship and they've only got so much time to figure out how to get it off before you know the ship is compromised and everybody dies. I always thought shuttle bay two would be the nipple of the enterprise. And that's where this thing is glued itself on. Yeah, I guess it's kind of like on the back there. And there's a real fun scene where they attempt to just blow it off by depressurizing the shuttle bay. And you actually get to see the like the giant fin

of the creature from inside the shuttle bay as Jordy works that project. Yeah, it just kind of flaps around in the breeze. Yeah, fun stuff. The, yeah, so at some point, Jordi and Leah are crawling around in the Jeffries tubes. And she starts to kind of like her icy exterior starts to melt and they start to kind of, she starts to see the genius in some of the modifications,

the dirty is made to the ship. Previously, she's been really irritated by them and she's like, this is actually pretty smart, like you should write a paper, like this is pretty cool stuff. You're not so bad and he cool stuff. You're not so bad and he's like you're not so bad yourself and leans in for a smooch and uh and that's when she drops the married bomb on him which uh I was talking to my wife about this uh recently we saw that happen in that trope happened in some other television show we were watching and I was like I don't think I've ever had the situation where somebody didn't get the idea that I was married since I've been married Like how did I never gotten the impression that anyone was interested in me first of all that's part of it, but I also just feel like

Like all my stories involve my wife. So like, it's never gonna not come up. Like you're gonna know that I'm married within 10 minutes of meeting me. I didn't, I didn't keep a ring. I wasn't looking though either. Which, was she wearing a space ring? Who knows what the customs are.

I mean, I have a ring, I don't wear it all the time. That doesn't, that doesn't mean any more or less that you're not going to know about the fact that I'm married though. Yeah, that's true. I just don't know how it works, you know. Like, she doesn't mention it, but then she's also not like, not into the polyamory thing. What's the deal, Leah? Are you obligated to drop that in to casual conversation when you spend enough time with someone? I think it's the polite thing to do. All right.

I guess I don't like being in a social situation where I feel like I have to do something like that, like where there would be a rule of that kind. Like, oh, I better drop this in. Otherwise, people will get the wrong idea. Like there's a... I feel you. I just, it's not, I don't think it's a general rule.

I think it's a personal rule, but I also think that like if you're hanging out with a guy who put on his nicest kuji sweater and invited you over for fungili Like you should fucking drop that in early and often so that the dinner And this is not this is not Leah Brahms blaming here. I do. Like, I don't, I don't fault her actions for what is very clearly a Jordy centric problem. Yeah, I think that's fair.

I think it's more just, there are some things about the way this episode is, the way this episode is written that are weird. Right. I think that the centerpiece of the entire episode has got to be the scene where she like goes into holodeck 3 and runs the simulation that Jordy created to get them out of the booby trap episode. And it's probably the premise for which the episode exists, right? Like they probably had the idea for this scene and wrote outward in either direction. The scene right before it where she's like looking through some old logs of like modifications, Jordi is made to the warp engines looking for a solution to getting this this alien baby off of the ship. There's

some like ensin down in engineering. She's like, what's this here? Oh, that looks like a holodeck program. You could go check it out on holodeck3. It's like definitely something that Jordy would have wanted to to wipe from his browser history, but she goes and finds it and he gets catches wind that she has discovered this program and is in the holodeck running it and runs in and program and is in the holodeck running it and runs in and in the holodeck is Calzone edition Leah and and Baye, but additionally a standing right next to each other and it's like the most goopy romantic part of the simulation playing right right, as he comes in and presses pause and they really

have it out. Yeah, I believe Jordy walks in right at the moment where Calzone, Lea Brahms is like, Every time you look at this engine, you're looking at me. Every time you touch it, it's me. Computer freeze program. It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me.

It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me.

It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me.

It's me. It's me. It's me. It's me. It's horrifying. How can Jordi, how can Jordi have not deleted this program from the ship's computers before she beams on? I would have excised the holodeck itself, jettisoned it from the ship and then shot torpedoes at it versus risking the idea that somehow she could wander into a situation like this. Yeah, that would have been the smart move for some reason he didn't do that, or at least just put it on like a thumb drive so that nobody can find it, right?

Yeah, I mean, this is emotional ground zero for Jordy right now. Like, it's so fucked. Yeah, and she basically accuses him of Creating this for his own titillation and then you know and then you know poses the question like after this What else was there? Did you? Did you Did you put this character in other simulations and he's like? No When you say no like that you really mean yes What are you talking about watch? I'll show you Mitch. Did you ever rob a bank? No?

Did you ever climb Mount Everest? No? Did you ever say that you can see why women find Sean Connery sexy? No? What is Lea Brahm warp core simulation version to underscore final, Georgie. Yeah. Yeah. It's quite a scene. Georgie goes full MRA at the end of this, right? He does and like...

And like, they weave Jordy's seduction community philosophy, like throughout this episode, and really within booby trap too, because they make it seem like he's somehow deserving of her affection, just by virtue of his interest. His whole tack is like, oh, how dare I have a romantic interest in you Fucking sue me for having biology, you know, and it's like it's yeah It's totally paint it totally paints over the fucking creepy shit that he's done Yeah, and the worst part and This is like the most non-linear episode we've ever recorded, like as far as how we retell the story, but they fucking forgive him at the end, like they pay it off.

Yeah, it's bananas. Yeah. Yeah. Everything after this scene makes zero sense. I mean, she is falling over herself to forgive him and apologize for how she reacted to discovering that he had like Photoshopped her head onto a naked lady on his computer. Yeah. It's like you know like this is not the utopian future that I imagine because in any future I could conceive of Lea Brahms marches down a Federation HR and gets Jordy dragged into a prolonged career threatening situation.

Yeah. I mean, you would think this would be in the news, you know, like lead war propulsion specialist in the Federation sexually harassed by a chief engineer of flagship, like that's a fucking headline that is going to move some newspapers. Yeah. And instead it's like, it's very like simply solved by 100% of the blame for the awkwardness of this situation falling on her, her falling all over herself to apologize

and prop Jordi back up. And then they just get to work on solving the problem that the ship is in. And it's like they're back to old tricks. Like they worked just as well together as the simulated Leah did with Jordi in the first episode she appeared in. And that is that is supposedly that's when they turn the corner on the friendship.

Like like many workplace relationships that begin rocky, like the successful completion of a project can often repair those professional relationships, but I'm not sure there's any version of professional victory that can forgive sex doll in the holodeck. And that's what we're made to believe. The forage and Brahms real quickly, like the forage and Enliobroms, like they they solve the problem of the potpies stuck to the enterprise. By souring the milk, this baby has been sucking off the energy

of the enterprise, and that's what puts them in this existential danger, because once they run out of power, they're going to run out of air to breathe, and then it's going to be ashes. So they sour the milk, they drive the baby into an asteroid field full of this baby's ancestors or whatever, right? Other creatures like it. Yeah, they soured up, the babyber trip for Leah. I think the last scene is LaForge and Leah chilling in the cozy corner of 10 forward, having another drink and talking about the relationships that only could have been if she hadn't been married. And they're basically like inches from smooching when she's saved by the bell and her husband calls, right? Personally, I do not find a real doll to be a deal breaker in a personal or professional relationship. Gertie, you can keep your real doll.

Leah will keep her real husband. Everybody can be happy. I don't see the problem here. This is a scene that totally kneecaps the rest of the episode. Like, it takes me out of it completely. Jordy does the unforgivable and is forgiven. I wish that the camera had just like, instead of like fading out on this scene, I wish that the camera had just like, instead of like fading out on this scene,

I wish that the camera had just panned over and had a guy and back behind the bar with her hands up. Like, what the fuck just happened? What the fuck? Leah like walks herself to the transporter pad and like big existential side before transporting off the ship like oh god finally yeah yeah I can take the longest shower taking a silkwood shower on

whatever the next ship is yeah so Jordy does not learn his lesson I guess is the moral of the story I guess not is this what Gainin wanted from the start because if so this is sort of Gainin wanted from the start? Because if so, this is sort of Gainin's fault, isn't it? I mean, I think that the episode is definitively Gainin's fault, but is not what I would have expected her to engineer, given the powers she has to potentially engineer situations. I just can't believe how this is how the show paid off Jordy's actions. I'm just blown away by it.

4 things up and off, 2 things up and off, 2 things up and off, 2 things up and off, Did you like this episode, Ben? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha There's things I like about it. I mean, there's some cool things in it. I think that they, the alien, the big giant alien. It's the first time I can think of that a complicated CG character is used on the show. And it doesn't look great, but it looks pretty cool. I'm kind of curious. I kind of want to like fire up the SD pre HD remaster version just to see what that looked like for the original airing.

Because there's no way that didn't look garbagey. They must have had to re-render it in HD. And I can't imagine they had the scene files from whatever CG they did originally. It looked fairly good. Yeah. Do you think they went back around for the dead body and they towed it to a starbase?

Like after they dropped out the baby? Well, yeah, that's the other thing is they had these like medical supplies, which you know, you think would be kind of an urgent thing. Like they never really like make much out of that. No. It's a, and that's like a, that's like a story premise that's happened before. Like we have these medical supplies that, you know, only going to last so long.

Seymour castles like writing our ass to make sure that this is gonna work out. But, you know, some other problem arises in between here and there. And they totally get distracted from using that. There's not really any stakes other than just like figuring out how to pry this thing off the ship. I mean, there's nothing stopping them from just using

escape pods and letting it, you know, wear the ship out and then leave, right? Yeah, I sort of felt like if they, if they send a bunk bed out there with a giant cigarette lighter, they could just sort of like burn it off like a leech. Yeah. Like, did they, for one moment, actually just considered killing the baby to save themselves? I don't feel like they did. Yeah, because it's too butthurt over the fact that they killed the mommy. It's a tough choice, but it's a choice you have to make. If you're a Picard, like, burn that thing off, like a tick. Yeah.

I kind of wish we didn't have this binary atom of like or don't like. Yeah. Because the, the flop house guys, they have a great like, it's a good bad, a bad bad or a movie we kind of like rating system. And just, have only ripped off enough things from that show. Apparently not. But this is, this is an episode that I think like tilts on the I don't like it side of the ledger, but there's a lot to like and yeah, that's that's like almost the hardest

kind for me because I feel so like skewed out by the message and the plot and the writing and yet like there's so many cool elements in it. and yet like there's so many cool elements in it. Is this the second in a seduction community trilogy for Jordy? Like, am I not thinking of the third? Because this is definitely part two. Which one's the third? No, that's what I'm saying. I can't think of what the third might be. But I know how we like to speak in trilogies.

Yeah. Well, he does bring her up at some point in an episode where like he's like they're in the future or he's back from the future or something and he talks about his wife, Leah. So she definitely like gets divorced and remarries Jordy at some point? Oh, Jordy. In the timeline, which is like further insult to injury. But I don't know if that quite rises to being a trilogy, and I don't even remember what episode that happens in. I didn't look at who wrote the episode because we don't do research, but I can't imagine there was a woman in the writer's room

that as they're breaking the story like they get to the end and she would let that shit go Yeah, so you mean to tell me that they're friends now The guy who was photoshopping her face on to Pamela Anderson and she's forgiving this Yeah, I and she's forgiving this? Yeah. I do like the episode because it's foundational to Jordy's character and it is so cringy that I tend to enjoy cringing at other people's mistakes in a way that I enjoy Jordy doing it here.

But it does walk right up to that line of, of being just really bad. Yeah. To a woman character in a way that I just can't stand. So. Well, I think that the show at this point is on balance, good from episode to episode. So this is like a bad episode in a good show. from episode to episode. So this is like a bad episode in a good show. Where as I think in previous seasons,

we've had like good episodes on a bad show. So I think that that's maybe why we're having such a tough time with this. Yeah, that's Dalmok and Jaland 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 Sherry Reembarishment Tour is coming in August 2023 and we've got a bunch of dates in a lot of great places. Go to GreatestGenTour.com to get more info. That's GreatestGenTour.com for dates and ticketing information for the Sherry Reembarishment Tour. I'm Jordan Morris and I'm Jesse Thorne. On Jordan Jesse Go, we make pure, delightful nonsense. We were open awesome guests and bring them down to our level.

We get stupid with Judy Greer. My friend Molly and I call it having the space weirds. Pat Noswald. Can I get a ball-rock burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you. And Kumail Non-Giani. I've come back with Cat Toothbrushes, which is impossible to use. Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org.

Look, your podcast apps are already open. Just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goatry. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Oh, rats, hey, hey, hey, oh, I'm about to count you in line. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line.

And boy, what do I? These giraffes do not smell good. No, they do not and they've such short neck. But I'm hearing we need to get on this all. We've got to get on the art. It is about to rain, about to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans. We're actually, we're podcasters. We are podcasters. So it's different. Have you heard of Ono Ross and Carrie? 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 boat. We came to by two. What do you think? Ono Ross and Carrie, available on MaximumFun.org. Hey Ben!

What's that Adam? Did you find yourself a Drunk Shimoda? Drunk Shimoda! I did! Drunk Shimoda is the award we give to the character whose funny action was most memorable in a given episode. And for this episode I've decided to award my Drunk Shremoto to Wurf, the Klingon Security Chief.

There's a scene when, so they first encounter this alien in Wurf is like, let's put the shields up and because, like, no, no, we're gonna see what this thing is first. And he's like, well, we don't know what it is. And pick our, like, no shields. let's go in for a closer look and then the things start shooting at them and Picard is like raise shields and it cuts to like just a close up of Worf rolling his eyes because at that point it's too late they can't get the shields up.

It's really funny it really pays off this constant struggle that Wurf is having with trying to institute security policies that people shoot down. And it's also consistent with his hate of children, right? Like he wants Troy to abort her space baby. Yeah. He wants to shoot the space baby in this episode. Yep.

He's against space baby's been He's a guinea Did you have a Shimoda For me it I'm giving my Shimoda to Leah Brahms for not going to Federation HR Immediately yeah, like there there are several scenes in this episode that she could have watched right into HR and gone, what the fuck? Uh, this guy, this guy is inviting me over for, uh, QG dinners.

He's making holodeck, real dolls of me. That seems like a fireable offense, by the way. Yeah, that's a, that's like, they don't even have to take a pass through a view board. You can just be instantly fired for something like that. It may be wonder like, is she covering for him because he's got some shit on her in the engineer community, like,

like maybe there's a Kim Trail thing going on with these starships. And, and Joradi's involved and he doesn't want to blow the lid off the whole thing. Shit. So maybe they're covering for each other. Like she's forgiving his myriad character flaws. Well, he covers for her.

Damn. And also, there's no way building Sefin could have collapsed without... I don't know. I'm tired at him. You doing okay? Uh... Uh, long week, long week. Um... What do we have coming up on the next episode?

The next episode of season four is episode 17. Night Terrors, trapped in a rift in space. The crew of the Enterprise is plagued by unexplained paranoia and hallucinations. Do you remember this episode, Adam? I do. Very clearly. Really?

Let me give you a note that I just read. Director Les Landau blocked this episode out and prefers not to discuss it for reasons he won't elaborate. Isn't that amazing? According to Les Landau, this episode does not exist. Wow. That is remarkable. I think this episode's cool. You got your doctor in the morgue with a bunch of bodies that are sitting up. Yeah. You got a wharf attempting suicide.

Yeah. It's on a fun thing. This is a cool one. I'm looking forward to reviewing it. There would not be any way to avoid watching this episode at them because we have burned-dollar vetoes this season on Previous mistakes, but it doesn't sound like either of us would have vetoed it anyways, so let's go ahead and watch You got Troy flying around in space lots of fun. Yeah

Lots of fun. Yeah. Well, the other fun thing that I would encourage people to get involved with is going to maxfunstore.com and grabbing one of our two block-busting t-shirts. We've got the West Hot American Summer shirt, which commemorates the time I went to summer camp and introduced myself to everybody as Wesley. And now we have the hotly anticipated Drunk Shemota shirt, which is a picture of the assistant chief engineer Jim Shemota stacking up isolinear chips. And just as Drunk Shemota, it doesn't even say the greatest generation, so you can just appear to be a fan of Star Trek and won't ever be confused as a fan of our show unless

people are in the know and then you can just you know give them war fives and keep walking. That was some of the feedback we got on our first shirt. They were like look we love the design, we love the colors. We love how soft this garment is. We love how it doesn't shrink in the wash, but guys, I wish it didn't have the name of your show on it. It fills me with a deep sense of shame. And so with our second shirt we've decided to lose the name, keep the Shimoda. I think that works in everyone's favorite. Yeah, go get that shirt. Wonderful holiday gift, isn't it? You can also help support our show by going to maximumfund.org slash donate.

Our show is supported largely by the kind contributions of our viewers. And if you'd like to become a monthly donor, that's the way you do it. Thanks to Dark Mater material for our theme music and our beloved Adam Ragusia for our priority one music. Use follow us on Twitter, use the hashtag greatestgen to talk about the show. Adam is at Cut for Time. I am at Benjamin R.A.H.R. also on Reddit. GreatestGen.Reddit.com and Facebook.

Facebook.com slash the greatest generation. Hey, boy. That's not a bad word, right? Yeah, that's not a bad word. Yeah, you can't get into too much trouble if you just go there anyway. Yeah. Sign up for our mailing list, dot dot biz slash mail. And with that, we will be back at you next week with another great episode

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