The Greatest Generation - Tentacle MAN (DS9 S7E14)

Episode Date: November 16, 2020

Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Prophets!Support the production of The Greatest Generation. Music by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaFollow The Greatest Generation on Twitter, and discuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen!Facebook group | Subreddit | Wiki Sign up for our mailing list!

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! The god of the universe, the death of the world, Command of Benjamin, says God, the better is the start, please, in space nine. Welcome to the greatest generation, a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast.

I'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pryanaka. I'm drinking some miscal that you got me, Adam. Whoa! I didn't know it was that kind of episode. I mean, it is now. It wasn't, we didn't roll Ben drinks some mezcal. Yeah, but I mean, that's the implied roll, I think, every time.

Yeah, right. It's never, there's no square on the board that says Ben doesn't drink mezcal. Right. This is delicious. It's become a thing that you and I have done on the occasion of our birthdays back and forth. I think the last couple of years we'll get each other a bottle.

And this time it was your turn. It was my turn. Yeah, there's another episode that we are recording pre-election. So just, you know, who knows what chaos this episode will be released into or not? Who knows what chaos this episode will be released into? Or not? Who knows what bottles will be used for in the not-too-distant future? I know.

I might be using my last source of fuel very foolishly. You might be using a future bathroom, Ben. Oh, boy. Wasn't it fun to hang out in person last night? I feel like since I've moved to Los Angeles, I have seen you less than a handful of times, I think. We've probably seen each other less this year than we have in previous years,

many of which we lived more than a couple thousand miles apart. Yeah, we did one of our favorite things last night. We went and got a distance Korean barbecue dinner together. Yeah. It was fun. I liked it because it was a nice wide table. So you and your wife were on one end and my wife and I were on the other. So it felt like we had good distance between us.

But then also the barbecue in between us, the heat. That's guy. We'd be just cooking those virus particles, right? I hope so. I hope so, because I'm feeling a scratchy throat that I don't like. Oh, boy. Hopefully that's just char from the delicious Korean barbecue

we had. Yeah, or just that your throat's a little scratchy from breathing outdoor air from Los Angeles. Oh, yeah Yeah, that's been a thing very harmful to human health really doing a lot of dusting Yeah, these days. Yeah, yeah, it's neat It's one way to put it when you're in production here. You don't have to use any fogger Right. Yeah, just like anti-fogger production here you don't have to use any fogger. You have to use anti-fogger. My wife was supposed to be gone all day working at a local polling place, which is cool, which is great. But what happened

while she was gone was that I received a package that I was hoping to just open and use before any interference could happen. Oh. What happened? Like you didn't want her to know that you'd ordered whatever the thing was? Yes. So, and unfortunately, I left it right by the front door and she came back for lunch

because the polling place is only a couple blocks away. And she said, hey, what's this box that says, not penis cream? Yeah. Yeah. And she said, hey, what's this box that says, not penis cream? Yeah. Yeah, got the, get the, get the creaming done earlier. But I, what I did is I took JK Woodward's two panel comic that he sent us, slash me.

Yeah. And I had it framed up nicely by a previous sponsor of the show, Framebridge. And it is, it's like a two-cut big frame display situation of these panels. And I don't know if you remember the size of these things. They're kind of big. I do remember the size of them because I have a number of them that I have been meaning to frame.

So I'm curious to see what that looks like. So I got it back and I haven't opened it because I had to hop on the mic with you, but I had intended on opening it and hanging it and then having that be the end of it. And now I'm afraid. Now you have to ask permission and not forgiveness. Yeah.

I wall mounted my television the other day in a way that I was like pretty worried was not gonna Was not gonna be received well like it was it was where we had discussed the TV living in our house But it's such a permanent thing that if you like put it up and then you're like That's not quite what I had hoped it would be. It's like, you know, you've put like major holes in the wall to do that Yeah, I mean, these are screws, the size of bolts going into studs to hold a TV up. If you're doing it right, it's,

I mean, you can need a lot of putty to fill those things if you can make a different decision. Yeah, an amount of putty may be equal in volume to that of a man, which is a nice coincidence because today's episode of Star Trek, Deep Space Nine, features a lot of discussion of putty people. You know what's great about when Odo rents an apartment? He waits until he gets the security deposit back and then all of the holes reappear that

he's covered up with his own body. I win again. All right, it's been a pleasure. I've left my forwarding address. I won't really miss any of my neighbors. I didn't take the time to know them. Well, you're renting it just feels different. It different, it doesn't feel like a permanent thing. Yeah, how about an odocentric episode here?

Let's get into it Ben, it's season 7 episode 14. It's called Kainera. You realize how incredible this is? Ah! Ah! Ah! No, of course you don't. Adam, this is an episode that starts with a couple of our cast coming back from a conference and a runabout.

And what's worse is one of them fell asleep. That's the most dangerous thing you can do in transit. Yeah, when O'Brien comes back out, Odo should be like, hold on chief, I've got to hit you with a phaser on a low setting to make sure you're not an imposter. Odo should make the sunscreen that you've devised that we've done a mock-up of and haven't been able to sell. That makes it look like Odo and Obrayan are awake and operating the runabout. That way, if you look at it from the outside,

it looks like no one's sleeping. Right, right. Odo is the guy who could fall asleep in class and you'd never know it. Yeah. He doesn't have to draw eyes on his eyelids. You can have actual eyes on his eyelids. Yeah.

Do you think this is the last time we'll get this setup of a Star Trek episode? Because in Voyager, they're never coming back from a conference. They're in the fucking Delta Quadrant. There are no conferences over there. I didn't expect to feel nostalgia this strong so soon. Episode 14. Maybe there are conferences in the Delta Quadrant. Is Jane way ever confer with Delta Quadrant Species?

If you get squishy with the terminology and you start calling meetings conferences, then I think that plays. Yeah. Anyways, this could be the last time we ever see this. So today we stand a legend, Starfleet officers coming back from a conference and something surprising happening on the return trip. Yeah, that surprising thing is kind of a eel-looking octopus thing. I wondered if it was supposed to be what the gormagander in Star Trek Discovery was meant to look like. It kinda looks like a tin man with tentacles. Yeah.

Tentacle man. This thing comes up on them and they're like, they're a little concerned about it. They don't know whether it's got hostile intentions or not and then it disappears from sensors because it's millennium falconing their ship. I have your moments. It's on the roof, and O'Brien gets out a machine gun

and just shoots, zillions of holes in the roof of the runabout. You bastard! Help me back, B.O.L.A. Killing this creature, it drifts away in space, and that's the end of the episode. Big mistake by O'Brien, because he gets sucked out through the holes. Through a bunch of little holes, yeah.

He doesn't even go out in one piece. He gets cheese-gradered through there. It's awful. It happened too fast. I only, you might think I have an infinite amount of fingers to stick in an infinite amount of holes, but I'm going to tell you. It doesn't work like that, jeep. Sorry. RSVP O'Brien. Interesting bit of like, I know what they're trying to do here. Like, you're trying to experience this from the inside

and you're here in all these scary sounds. You're never going back to the exterior of the run about. You're experiencing this moment as Odo and O'Brien and they're hearing things that are looking around. I love what has to be in the script as Angle on beam. They keep cutting back to this angle and in the corner of a wall, that is like a static shot. Like, like your second gear. The other is like, did you guys not get any other coverage of the inside of the run about? Your second unit guy is going out and shooting coverage is like, really?

You don't want this twice, do you? I'm, because I'm just going to give it to you once and you're just going to use it twice. That's what's going to happen. That's what happens here. Gold comes gushing out of the heat register near the floor. And a shape shifter takes shape in front of them. A shape shifter played by J.G. Heardslur.

Yeah. He finally found a two-eyed character to play. I didn't recognize him with both eyes open. It was it took me like half the episode to put it together. The voice though. Yeah, hard to hard to disguise that voice. So great. One of the great voices in Star Trek. Indeed. He's going by a different name though, which is fun. Yeah, he calls himself a Metamorph. He calls Otto a Metamorph. And Otto's like, fuck you, changeling.

Changeling or nothing. Yeah. You're wrong. You two use that terminology. He's one of those changelings in a bottle. It's the story, like one of the hundred. As legend says, Otto's met one of these guys before

and what he thought was one of them. Back when he did experiments on little guy and the little guy died at the end. That was sad. This guy lived. He lives. It's a good thing I didn't find you earlier two seasons ago.

That would not have worked out. He realizes that this guy can't be a founder pretty early on because this guy does not appear to be a pile of dead skin cells. It's not flaking away. Yeah, the angle on the floor register would have looked a lot different if like just a bunch of cornflakes came out. He chills the bones.

Yeah, you only shoot that scene once. I mean, I think that that's good writing though, right? Like you can't quite tell this story unless Odo is a thousand percent sure he is not with the baddies. He's one of the hundred. I'm sure of it. Getting that established right up top, I feel like it was the right move. Like the script had to do that or this would be a different and worse episode, I think.

We cut right to the scene where Odo asks his dad if he can keep the puppy he found. I'm asking you to trust me on this. And Cisco trusts him. I mean, as a symbol of the trust you were just describing a moment ago. All right, Constable. We trust his judgment on these things, and so does Cisco. Yeah, I mean, I think that you get in this scene that Cisco has concerns about this situation.

Like, he wants to be reassured that this dude is not a founder, but more than that, I think Cisco can see the potential problems that this could present because everyone else is hellessous, vicious of founders, and rightfully so. Founders are always infiltrating and killing. But even Ben Sisko knows that we haven't had an episode that's autosentric in quite a while.

So he allows this adventure to begin. He gets that trust extended and he is able to go spring his new Metamorph buddy from jail. And we learned a little bit about this guy's story. He is way older than Odo. We get this story via an exposition walk on the promenade, which has a very interesting cut in the middle. This is a very long runner that goes on for like,

I feel like a minute and a half. And then I feel like I'm familiar with this technique by doing it myself, like in college. Like you need to have a cut because your actors aren't going to be able to produce dialogue, 10 pages long. And so you just sort of float the camera into a natural transition. But what's weird is in this scene, they float the camera at the window and they cut back

to what almost looks like back to one, where they continue the action and the exposition. One thing I always wonder about the promenade set is how much of a ring it is. That's what the scene made me think was that it's not long enough to do all of it. It's not a complete circle. You couldn't run all the way around it. For kids. Is it like a quarter of a ring or is it a half of a ring? I feel like it could be a half. I don't feel like they got super far on this walk. This is like one of those on camera walks

where in real life, you and I would be grinding our teeth at people who walk this slow. Yeah, you're in Manhattan, you're late for a meeting downtown and somehow you get stuck behind Odo and Loss and you're just like, give me a fucking break guys, come on. Yeah.

Yeah, except Loss is walking around New York saying very disparaging things about all the people he's seeing and they're in ear shot. So it's starting off on that kind of foot. Loss has a much more developed sense of anti-monoform slash anti-solid slash anti-humanoid bias. And he considers Oto to be kind of a naive idiot because Oto's only been in the game for 30 years so he hasn't learned just how treacherous the solids can be. Yeah. It's all still so new to you.

It's interesting. Like these are both very like strongly opinionated guys. They both like really believe in their worldviews and Odo's like really making the pitch to loss at the beginning of this scene. Like, Hey, there's this war going on. The species that we come from started it. I don't agree with what they're doing. I hope you will join me in thinking that it's an unjust and unnecessary war.

Well, that's the thing about two people who have very specific and strong worldviews when one of them has an open mind. Like, this is that kind of conflict. Gold to cotton, the cotton, gold to cotton. So. Odo also has a pretty exciting party trick to show lost to sweeten the deal. Let me show you where you'll be staying. They go back to Odo's apartment, which Odo hasn't used in a long time. And he's like, you know, pulling all the all the bed lin ins off all the furniture that's been there. Because it has been in Kira's quarters for so long. And this is when Loss sees the frame photo of, it's not major, it's a...

Colonel. The frame photo of Colonel Kira on the Odo's one piece of non-shape shift furniture. There's a, we see the angle on the frame and's one piece of non-shape shift furniture. There's a, we see the angle on the frame and then the bucket just below. And I mean, we know Odo's not in it, but why is there all that fluid in the bucket? Yeah, what is that coming from?

Yeah, weird. So this is where Lask gets very, very dismissive of the attachment that Odo has made to a non-shape shifter. And it also kind of puts him in the mind to start asking a couple of questions about like what Odo knows about shape shifter biology. He's like, so, do we fuck? And it was like, as a matter of uh, do we fuck? And

I was like as a matter of fact we can fuck right now You don't even have to go to the bathroom first or anything like like right here Yeah, put her there pal They get down baby they. They go full gold. Is this the first time we've seen, because I think every other time we've seen this happen, it's been between change leader and Odo. Yeah. Or Odo and an entire lake, which are two characters played by opposite genders.

I felt like this was a unique moment because these are two actors of the same gender doing what I think the episode is signaling as a closer than intimate, closer than, than corporeal sex kind of activity. It's, yeah, it's really interesting because to the extent that when I saw this happen, I was like, here is going to be pissed. Like, this is the same thing. Like, and I was surprised when she wasn't. I was too. Maybe she's just like really evolved and they hadn't had like a specific conversation about

that. You know, like they hadn't had the talk about. I was expecting the next scene for Oda to walk in and cure it. It'd be like, let me smell your arm. Hahaha. I actually, I need to go wash it. Hahaha. I actually have some psoriasis on it. I'm using a bit of a cream. Yeah, I helped quirk clear out

an incinerator in the bar earlier, and I forgot to wash my hands after. So you really don't want to. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting that to you and me, this feels like cheating. The episode never really explores that, though. Like it seems to head faint toward that and then not engage with that for some reason.

Yeah. Last appears to achieve some insight by linking with Odo. And that is that Odo would be a founder if it weren't for Kira. Yeah, he's Odo's anti-war talk is all talk. Yeah. Kira's the only thing keeping him on Deep Space 9. Hey, Odo, why don't you save Linking

for the second or third date or whatever? This guy knows everything about you now. Hahaha. I think that's an interesting thought experiment too. What if Kira had hard rejected Odo and had turned him into a villain? I don't know if I believe Loss because of that, like it's hard for me to imagine him

be like, fine, then I'm going to be with them and you can all fuck yourselves. You know what the unfortunate outcome of that decision might have been is that Kira gets nothing to do instead of very little to do in season seven up until now, you know? Right. She was such a central character to the thing that I don't know.

She feels very on the margins now and just a love interest type figure. It's very strange like taking DuCott kind of out of her sphere of conflict and I mean no question Doot-Cott is coming back, but it doesn't seem like he and Kira are two antipodes that are always fighting anymore. It seems like he's kind of more a more a villain to Cisco that to her. Right. Odo makes a crucial mistake, which is, I mean, he makes a lot of mistakes this episode. The first one bonding too soon.

We already talked about that. And then he goes and introduces someone that he's just bonded with to your group of friends like later on that day. He's moving too fast. A lot of pressure to put on loss to be charming and loss kind of doesn't play his cards that well. He walks into the bar.

He's up on his golden high horse. The second he comes in. I prefer the so-called primitive life forms. You gotta get a table if you're the gang though, right? Like I don't, I'm putting a lot of this on loss. But also like, there's nowhere for him to sit. They aren't exactly physically welcoming to him. It's also a little bit of a fuck you

to invite loss and Odo to a hang at a bar. Two guys that can't consume anything. Yeah, yeah, where should the hang have been? Anywhere else? Out in space, where he could become tentacle man. Hahaha. Hahaha. What if they'd all put on spacesuits and just enjoyed loss and odour being tentacle men?

Mr. Wolf, do you remember your zero G combat training? Loss has that affect of a kid who just came back from their first year in college. Who thinks that they are very smart about everything in the entire world and can't wait to throw that back into their friend's faces who went to community college or whatever. Dabbling in vegetarianism makes it make, makes a busier feel bad about ordering a steak. You better keep that warm. Yeah, he's got that kind of vibe.

The social obligation does not go well at your prize. I love seeing this gear in in Hearthslur, though, a an actor who plays a character that is very on the surface at all times. And with loss, he's he's almost like casually aggressive at these people where where he's overtly aggressive as Martak on this show. Yeah. I especially loved the interaction he had with O'Brien in this because like this is their

second interaction since the first one where O'Brien had him at gunpoint. And he basically implies that O'Brien is doing speciesism at them. Like, yeah. And like, O'Brien has to do that. Like, what are you saying, bro? We're not the ones who can disguise ourselves as anything we want. If you want to say something, come out and say it. And he says, what you're saying is that shape shifters can't be trusted.

And O'Brien flips that shit back in his face. A trust auto. Bishir tries to like change the gears of the conversation by stammering. He's like, I'll drink anything. Hahaha. And Loss kind of like his eyes find Bishir and then he kind of backs away.

That's kind of how the scene ends. Yeah. Odo and Loss walk out of there and losses like so you want to fuck again and notice like we're walking in the middle of the street. What do you mean? I'm actually really tired from the first time. I have a bit of a headache right now. It's just it's not the good it's not a good night for me.

losses that kind of libertarian that is like, yeah, everyone should be free to do anything they want. Period. Like, without thinking about how your actions could could have an effect on anyone else. He's making the case that like, hey, if the other founders are assholes, we could go off and start our own link.

With Blackjack and Hookers. We could start off and start our own link with blackjack and hookers We could start a kitty pool you say and then you find a changeling and then they find a changeling and on and on I'd like to tell you about an organization. I've become very excited about it And it's an opportunity to rethink the way links work in general. We may need to brand your your bucket. This proposition is really interesting to me. The idea of starting a new link, I think is fascinating and it's fascinating to Odo. He doesn't, like, there are a lot of things to dismiss about loss, like having sex

with them on the promenade and full view of everyone. Right. But this, this has got his curiosity and his attention. And later, he tells Kira what happened on the promenade, and Kira's like, did you fuck him on the promenade? That'd be weird, like, in full view of everyone. I think he- Never fucked me on the promenade. And Kira's like, did you fuck him on the promenade? That'd be weird, like in full view of everyone. I think it- I think it-

I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it-

I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- I think it- a thing we're dabbling in. It's post public and private at the same time. It's very zesty.

I mean, I would say that Kira is... Link curious? But is she Link positive? This is the scene where you expected the... you didn't link with Lost, did you? I told him I'd think about it. I didn't want to dismiss it out of hand. He would have taken offense. Like, we need to talk about boundaries. This is when I expected that to happen, but no, Kira, instead, Kira feels bad that she can't know him the way that Lost does. And there's the introduction of,

I think envy is probably too strong a word, but I don't know, I think a lot of relationships have this, like that feeling of, too strong a word, but I don't know. I think a lot of relationships have this. Like that feeling of like when your partner has a very best friend, and you see how much joy they get out of being with that person, you're like, yeah, I know like I'm with this person, but also like you can't help but feel some feelings about that. And that can manifest in a lot of ways. Like, with Kira, I think they manifest in kind of a healthy way. Like, like, she's not taking this poorly the way that

a jealous person would be like, I don't want you to hang out with loss anymore because you and I are supposed to be the best friends in the world. She is remarkably unthreatened by this. And I think like, what she's trying to do with Odo is get to the bottom of where his identity crisis is coming from. I, yeah, I mean, I really love how you turned the camera for that too. It's nice. I was about to say identity crisis

and I realized I could say something much better. You know what, there was so little time, like I didn't think that you came up with an idea in that little, in that little pause you took. Oh, I did. Didn't seem like enough time to do it. I came up with an idea, Adam. It wasn't a good idea, but I came up with it.

I love it. But the pitch that Loss has been making is like, hey, like this all sucks, but also like, the deal you have here is incredibly confining. Like if you don't feel like you can just be yourself in public, you can't fuck me right here on the promenade, then these people are putting a restrictor on your freedom. And if you're, if they've made you feel shame about public linking, then that's something you need to like, deprogram in yourself. And I think Cure is like trying to get Odo to like actually reckon with that in this scene in a way that

I thought was cool. It's an interesting tension because I mean, there's the tension he feels with his special person about the situation, but then there's also the tension with loss who is like far more worldly and experienced. Like there's an excitement that Dodo feels by being with this person. Like when Loss turns himself into fire in a kind of stupid changeling trick. Loss is like, have you ever become fire before? It's great. Trust me.

That's something you'll be talking about on the ride home. Paul Schaefer plays a little music riff to get him off stage. All right. Yeah, and in the next scene, Odo walks out into the prom and I didn't see his like, an aquariumarium filled with watermelons dropped off the top. Hahaha. Losses like have you ever been in Aquarium full of watermelons? Hahaha.

Odo, it's fucking great. Odo who didn't kind of confronting loss, drags loss for his lack of social skills. Hmm. He's like, you've been around for 200 years. Are you meet your first other changeling and your addicted me? I don't feel super confident for your ability to just start another link, frankly.

Or to lead a cult. Like, if what they're going to do is make the new link, the NU, um, L, I N, L Y NU, umlaut, L-I-N, L-Y-N-K. Like he's gonna be a terrible leader of that. You need people skills to run a call. He's gonna pick terrible colors for the sashes. He's not gonna come up with compelling names for the different thought technologies. Now, Loss is like, so,

got time for a little afternoon link. Oh, it was like, cut it out. I'm so tired. I am not walking right after the last two times, and honestly, I need some time to recover. I can't hold my arm out straight. Loss is going ape though, with all of the different tricks he can do.

And the next one is turned into a knee-deep mist on the promenade. This looked like the funnest day on set at Deep Space Nine, right? Yeah, and honestly, these scenes were a delight to watch. Just the idea of becoming fire or becoming mist. Like, big fun. This really sets people off like this mist. This, this, this, this. There's like a kid who walks into frame

and it's like, I've got the mist in my mouth. Hahaha. Some, some other ladies like puking in the corner, mist coming out of her nostrils. Dr. Bashir is like scooping it into his mouth desperately. Hahaha. Try and get as much as you can. It's condensing on top of my tongue.

Hehehehe. It's all fun and game until it stresses O'Brien out about work. He tells Odo like, hey listen, this is like making me feel like I broke something with the environmental systems. I'm gonna go see what the problem is. How about the chief? There's nothing wrong with the environmental system.

Where's all this fog coming from? And Odo tells the minister, all right, you've had your fog take human form again. What's he doing? Being fog, what's it look like? Another instance of last wanting to do whatever the fuck he wants, no matter what the consequences are to anyone else.

Yeah, so he takes shape and this is when some local cling on warriors come up and start threatening loss. And this turns into some of the greatest shape, shifter, special effects. I feel like we've seen because loss will just like snap his fingers. And suddenly there's a sword in his hand. And then the sword like it's super long.

And he stabs a guy in the chest. Yeah, it's very Terminator 2, Robert Patrick style. Right. In a way, I thought we'd see so much more out of Odo for the entire run of this show. Yeah, like these, these effects are sold more subtly than Terminator 2 because he just does it. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Like this, like Odo was sort of set up to be doing like two or three of these party tricks

every single episode and they sort of didn't for whatever reason. But I feel like it makes it feel special when you do see it. It does feel special when you see that knife go straight home. And then that guy's, and then that guy's chest, it feels good. It feels good to watch it. I like to watch. These klingons, I feel like they could be cameo, random klingon people or whatever. These guys are great. Your hands are stained with the blood of klingon warriors.

As cool as Losses and what are you doing in this episode, I feel like sometimes you get a klingon that doesn't quite look right in the loaf. He really looks, he just looks off somehow. Both of these guys, like they might look like their Star Trek, the experienced actors. Like, yeah, we must have that recent mirror universe episode when we were talking about how the Klingons all seemed like they had like been

Directed to just play it as straight as possible. Yeah, like not not Kling on it up at all Both of these guys I just I wanted to call attention to them I thought they were great in this scene. They they've looked and sounded and acted the part Yeah, there's the two guys in front, and then I think at the background, I spotted Tolairee Kadevin. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Do your respect, knives.

Ha-ha-ha-ha. I saw you stab that guy. Bitty, bitty, bitty good. So, I mean, what do you do after there's a murder on the promenade? You have to have a McLaughlin group about it. If you're a walk. And in this meeting, What do you do after there's a murderer on the promenade? You have to have him a gloffing group about it. Is your walk? And in this meeting, Odo is pretty indignant about the whole thing.

He feels like this is the law coming down especially hard on someone who murdered a cling on on the promenade. I love how wharf is in this scene with one line. He's just there to look, to be in soft focus as a person who represents the Klingons in this matter. And he's fucking pissed about it. Yeah. Because this dude died, even though he was like,

probably 50 feet from the infirmary, he couldn't be saved from a knife wound. Right. Maybe that knife like split off in a zillion directions when it went into his chest. There's just a pink blotch on the carpet where he was. Yeah. They're talking about extra-diting loss. There's going to be a hearing to take him back to Kronos for proper Klingon style punishment.

I'd like to know what that is. Like, what did the Klingons have in mind for executing a changeling? Yeah. He's taken to Rura Pente, and he gets his own, his entire own tunnel to mine in. Yeah. So he can shape shift to be multiple miners.

Yeah. Welcome to our, to our prison planet. There is no electronic frontier. There is no bucket I'm not a kid, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, I'm not a car, None of our officers wear body cams. You're just gonna have to take my word for it. Jesus. She shouldn't there be cameras in the promenade? We say this all the time. The idea that Will Riker could watch an entire episode of Star Trek in the pilot episode of TNG. And then it's just the Klingon's word versus a gold.

It's very frustrating because even if they had the video footage, I think it doesn't, like it does not negate what Odo is saying. His perspective is his perspective on a factual matter. And I think seeing it doesn't quite change it. He is pretty worked up about this. And he has a conversation with Quark, who is there to give voice to the hey it's just in our nature as humanoids to hate and want to kill anyone

that isn't just like us. Watch your step, Odo. I mean, you might disagree with what he's saying, Ben, but I'll defend to the death is right to say it. I really like this moment for Quark. I feel like every once in a while Quark will parachute into an episode with a monologue that is very thought provoking. Well, I like that they put it in his mouth because he is a, he's a bad.

He is a villain most of the time in him making the rational case for speciesism is very thought provoking. And I think like what it made me think about was especially because it was so personal to him, right? Like he has a lived in experience that makes this feel less hateful and more experiential. I mean like he is projecting something pretty big on all humanoids that is something that he personally feels. Mm-hmm. But I also think that it kind of highlights something that is problematic about the way Star Trek in general sets up conflicts, which is that it winds up being species versus species.

So it does kind of feel like it can dip into like, well, our race has got to wait because because we're better. Kind of, kind of stuff. Like, you're right. Star Trek is deeply racist. This is exactly my point, Adam. Yeah. And they can't help it because it's there.

It's in their DNA. They're only humanoid. If you could only hear yourselves. Odo goes to visit Loss in the Brigh. Inspired, I guess, by Quark's words. Can the Brigh even hold him? I guess it can. So far. I wish that were an added element to It can. So far. I wish that were an added element to this thing, like the underpinning of loss allowing himself to go through the joke of being prosecuted about this. Like he's already got such an attitude problem against monomorphs that like this could be an added level of emphasis of how he

detests the solids in their way of life. Well, it actually asks the guard in the jail like, how is it going as far as keeping him in there? And the guard is like, he's been attacking the fences systematically. He never attacks the same spot twice. He remembers. When you see the last in front of you, you also fail to see Loss' left hand

way over there in your field of view. And Loss' right hand, almost entirely in the opposite direction over there. There's no field of view that any humanoid would have that could see all of loss at once. Clevagold. We're dumb. Anyways, Odo can't meet with this guy without security present.

Yeah, he needs a shaperone this time. They're not kind of fucking front of the shaperone. They have kind of one last confrontation before loss is inevitably taken to Gronos and put in a blender or something. And loss kind of like, he remains convinced of his worldview, right? He's like, the people that you've chosen to live your life with are all gonna die. They are afraid of you and they probably would hate you if they knew about you, what I know about you.

This scene acts as like, Odo has stood firm throughout the episode about how he feels about the world and how he feels about the people. I mean, as firm as I can stand given the nature of my body. But last kind of tips him over here, a little bit off balance. And Kira finally knocks him over in the scene that follows because Kira interrogates whether or not the love that they have with each other is real. If Odo isn't sure about who he is and how he fits into the world. Maybe you do belong out there.

What is Kira in love with is the question. Is it the real guy or is it who he presents himself as? Is it the shape that he appears to be? Yeah. And she is trying to make the case for, like, I love and trust you, and that's authentic and genuine, whatever is happening. And he has to admit, like, yeah, like being with you has been the happiest I've ever been to, but now I'm starting to wonder if I'm foreclosing on a much bigger destiny for myself because I am not embracing the changeling part of my life. It's hard to avoid all of the real life comparisons

that a moment like this can invite. But I wonder how hard it is as a writer to distinguish this in some way from what I think many, if not all people, feel in their own relationships. Does anyone ever really feel like who they're with knows them 100%. And introducing that kind of doubt in this scene made me doubted in myself. Like, it really made me think about it. I mean, like, the cultural, the like, fractional cultural differences between my upbringing and my

wife's upbringing have led to conversations like not quite this intense, but like, I feel like anybody can see themself in it, you know? Like, oh, Oh, this was something that I thought was really important to me and I have changed it because of my relationship and like, what does that mean? Does that mean I've erased myself or something or am I asking my partner to erase something about themself? And it's a conflict that doesn't really end because Odo kind of boils over and Kira walks out of the room and presumably walks

straight to the brig where she is in fact allowed to meet with the prisoner. I love that moment. A chaperone. Anything for you, Colonel. Yeah, I got a I got a smoke all I go blow a button on the promenade. Sounds good. Yeah. And she lets last go

Oh Last walks out of the brig knocks over a row of parked motorcycles and leaves the station. The scene in the aftermath is really interesting to me tonally because I think you could argue both sides of whether or not Cisco is taking this moment seriously as seriously as he could or should or if he's just going through the motions. I wonder what Cisco was doing other than this on this day. You know, like was Cisco dealing with like a major diplomatic incident with the a Bedurin provisional government or having profit experiences or something else. Because it does sort of seem like he's like, uh, I guess we got to find him or something. You could forgive Cisco for calling back the earlier scene in the episode where he's like,

Oh, no, you told me things were going to be fine. What the fuck? Like I have other things to do here. Look at this wall of names. You broke your promise to me. Oh well. I will trust you just as much next episode. I think it's okay for Cisco to be specifically angry at Odo here.

But even if he were, Odo is not betraying the feelings of someone who has bad feelings about this. Odo is like glad he escaped. Yeah. And he can barely hide it. This is something that Kira calls him on on the lift afterwards. You didn't hide it very well. That you're glad he escaped.

And she gives him some good news. She's actually arranged for a loss to go hide on some deserted mining planet where Odo can meet up with him in some Star Trek caves. They're keeping them on Ruru Pente. No stockade, no wall. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Odo shows up and kicks lost in the nuts and lost as like, come on man, that doesn't work here. You know that. Not everybody keeps their genitals in the same place kept. Hey, can we call them KNUTS when we're talking about the nuts of the guy who keeps them in his knee? Kicks them in the in the canettes. Yeah, I like it.

All right. In five years, when we're able to tour tour again and we've gotten through other Star Trek things and we're touring undiscovered country, look for that joke, folks. I think an audio medium is the perfect place for a spelling joke. It takes a lot of effort. I don't route it. Anyway, this is the scene that if you didn't know, now you know, here's a great person. She did that thing that you're supposed to do, right?

If you love someone, let them run free, and if they come back, it was meant to be. People have been letting me go my entire life. That's how I know so many people love me, Ben. They just do nothing but let me go. Over and over again. And you don't test the proposition by trying to go back everywhere. Now, I mean, they've proven their point. They love me. Yeah, I think I think that's not quite how that works out. I think that's what you'll find. Loss is like, hey, cool. So we're off to start our own

link. And I was like, actually, not so fast loss. If I feel like Kira really reaffirmed our thing, so I'm gonna go back and do that. Goodbye is a dish best served cold and in person. Pretty classy move by Odo here, I thought. He could have just left last hanging for like hundreds of years. How long would loss have waited? He could have left last hanging, but loss does leave him hanging because

Oto tries to good bye fuck loss and loss walks right past his proffered arm. It uh boy when uh when the good bye fuck is offered and not taken that is a very painful moment. I really feel like I made myself vulnerable there and the fact that you just walked past me. I really don't think that we're gonna be able to ever be truly friends after this. Does last turn into tentacle man,

at least as he leaves, does he fly up into space? How did he even get there? I don't know. They said that he turned into plasma to like get off the station, I think. Oh yeah, so I guess you can be plasma float up into the atmosphere and out into space and then turn into tentacle man.

I mean, when you're lost, you can do anything. You probably turned to a cloud first and just did a pretty chill ascent to the stratosphere and then turned into plasma. Very chill ascent. Jira is praying for Odo when he comes back. And her prayers are answered. Yeah, prayers are answered in the moment. Like, she's in that good with the profits that they deliver exactly what she's asking for. I mean that's how you get a follower right there. She's in for good now.

Totally. And the button on the episode is the steamiest sex scene in Star Trek history. Yeah. See what I did there. I do. I like it. Odo becomes a glowing mist of pleasure. Frickira. And there are... God, I feel like 49 out of 50 reactions here. Look cheesy and bad. Yeah. But the Navisitor is somehow able to find the one that is neither and is like good and sexy and not creepy and not weird and bad. Yeah, like it, it's, she seems to be experiencing genuine pleasure and it's just a woman on a

weird spaceship set walking in circles with her hands above her head. She should have won an Emmy just for this moment. I agree. Yeah. The direction must have been, uh, watch the sex candle episode and don't do that. Because I mean, I wonder if the director of this episode, if they had the chance to direct Gates, if she would have made different decisions. W. Slash, R. Slash, T. The Candle. This episode is distinctly uncorny in the way of sex candle episode. Yeah.

Could it be in? In a couple of spots. Yeah. So, I guess the question, Adam, and now that we've entered our refractory period, is did you like the episode? You really want to do this. Here, now, okay, okay, let's do it, do it. This sure started out like an episode that I wouldn't like by the end, but by the end I did really like it quite a bit.

I think if you don't get lost right with the right actor, I think this episode could really sucked. Yeah. I wonder how they picked actor because it's not obvious to bring another recurring character actor. I mean, like they do it with Brunt and Waiyoon, but... What I, well speaking of them, what I, what I read was that they thought to bring in Jeffrey Comes and even Andrew Robinson to, to play this role because it felt like a little bit bigger than just a guest actor of the week type of character. So they, so they wanted to audition some of their own.

And I mean, Andy Robinson is a great actor, but you can't obscure that voice. He's always gonna sound like him, and I guess Hurtzler had that gear in his voice where he could, and that's why they chose him. I'm really glad they did, because I think the episode is good because of that choice. The episode is good, not just because of that choice,

but it's a big reason for it. Yeah, I thought it was a really solid episode. It feels like it is meditating on like big issues like racism and xenophobia and identity and the way those things collide with your romantic relationships in a uniquely start-track way, but in a way that is also like sophisticated and not kind of like pulling the punches and not and not failing to fully reckon with some of the implications of those things. Yeah, that was really good.

I always a surprise and our priority one male inbox. What do you say we go check out what is waiting for us there? Let's do it. Only occasionally the interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Out of our first priority one message is of a promotional nature. And it goes like this. Wine miles are dangerous. Hi, Blondie. Sorry, grind fairy. Hi, marbles. You just promised we'd do a power power to riker and becard being cooler than every on.

If I bought a P1, I did. You lied and only did a minute. I said I'd upgrade to a promotional if we did the enniter hour. Which I clearly have. I blacked out after buying this. Shout out to Daniel for allowing me to make edits. What edits? I don't see any evidence of edits. When will GGC-IV colon the journey out of your home?

Come to Boston. You'll get real props and mullord. On, on. Wow. I love it. A post-power hour P1. That is... Strong work.

Yeah. Did not detect the edits and... And that's fine. I can't wait to get back to Boston on tour. Boy, Boston is one of the great places to do a show, that's for sure. If our cruel and shitty government hasn't allowed all of the local independent venues to go out of business, we'll be back. Absolutely. That's a promise.

The call to action here is the Friends of Desotto H3, led by Wiki and Blondie, is announcing that we will do a virtual power hour to Riker and Picard being cooler than everyone. Virtual power hour. I guess that's a power hour you do by yourself and hope that other people are doing it at the same time as you. Sounds like a Thursday to me. at the same time as you. assurance that it would probably be funny. Ben and Adam said that you were keeper for that, but I already knew. And now you're a friend of DeSoto as well. Wow! Can't wait until you're back in NYC and for Dax Cat to start acting more like her namesake unless like a Wamp rat. In parentheses, it says the show was funny. Wow. Another Boston area P1 coming through.

Got a two pack from Boston. Boston is representing. Wouldn't you love for your city to be representing the way Boston is representing? If so, head to maximumfund.org slash JemboTron. And a schedule, a priority one message where I see June Jembo Tron scheduled on this calendar. So if you want a 2021 Jembo Tron You're looking at the back half of 2021 at this point, but it's filling up. I'm just warning you 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. 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 Reembar the Share Your Embarrassment Tour. I'm Jordan Morris and I'm Jesse Thorne. On Jordan Jesse Go, we make pure, delightful nonsense. We were open awesome guests and bring them down to our level. We get stupid with Judy Greer. My friend Molly and I call it having the spaceweirds. Pat Noswald. Could I get a ball-rock burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you. And Kumail Nanjiani. I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which is impossible to use. Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org.

Look, your podcast apps are open. Just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goatry. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Whoa, Russ. 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 nacks. But I'm hearing we need to get on this. So, gotta get on the art. It is about terrain, about a spout to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans. We're actually, we're podcasters. We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ono Ross and 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 boats. We came two by two. What do you think? Ono Ross and Carrie, available on MaximumFun.org. Shemotos? Incredible. Drunk Shemotos! I thought I knew who it was going to be until the very last scene. And then, I mean, you got it. I had to change my mind. The last scene.

When you get off to Odo as Aurora Borealis, you're my drunk Shemotos, baby. That, there can be no doubt in my mind. Great moment. That's, uh, that is such a compelling case at him that I'm, I'm drawing a line through the name that I had on my notebook. I'm going to join you on the Kira Square. She is my drunk Shemura as well. Yeah.

Odo was positively glowing and then, and then Kira was, but Odo was glowing first, which is not something that I agree with normally. Yeah. Right. But at least she got hers. Right. Not too long after, also. Honestly, if he can glow first and still get her there, like, that's awesome.

Yeah. The important thing is that they both got there. Yeah, that's the important thing. Well, we both got to the, almost end of the episode. Ben, we're gonna figure out what's next. We do. The next episode is season seven, episode 15.

It's called, but a bing, Butter Bang. They could have called this episode that. It's supposed to, yeah. I mean, but that would have given away the ending, right? Yeah, yeah. Anyways, a glitch in Vic Fontaine's Hollisweet program leads the crew to attempt a daring heist

of a mob run casino. I love a heist. I love it when you get the gang together to, uh, to play a little jazz horse or a grand theft auto online. I imagine they're going to, they're going to get the crew together and then they're going to get griefed for an hour. Yeah. Oh, yeah. The, the, there's 13 year olds on there that do nothing but jazz horse and are way

better than you. Yes. 13 year olds on there that do nothing but jazz horse and are way better than you. Yeah, 13 year olds playing, playing Vic Fontaine every hour of every day, using really foul language and then like squatting on your dead body after you die and Vic Fontaine's lounge. The only thing 13 year olds love more than crooning is tea bagging. It's true. Wow. Well, how are we going to watch it, Ben? It's up to what we roll at the game of Buttholes. We roll at the profits to determine.

That's true. We are on square 44. Presently, out ahead, we've got a cocoa no-no, and I think we could hit that space butthole. So I'm gonna go ahead and roll this bone. You're required to learn as you play. Roll. I want to go forward, not backwards. Shula! Did I win? Big roll, Adam.

I got us all the way past the butthole on the square of 50. I rolled a six. All right. Yeah. Good. Good six. All right. Yeah. Good. Good job. I know.

We're halfway through the board. I think Mornhammer is within range, given the amount of episodes we have. Could happen. It could still happen. Don't give up on us, everybody. Yeah, people really want us to be hammered for a super sincere, sad, serious finale to Deep Space 9. I'm sure everyone would love that.

Yeah, indeed. Well, I think that's just about all we have for the folks today. Hey, I want to say something at the end that we don't normally say that I want to be a little more emphatic about. Thank you for listening to the greatest generation. I've both been and I really really appreciate everyone out there who who subscribes to and listens to and enjoys the show. And I know we usually usually use this time to encourage people to support it, which we still do, we still need your support to

continue. But like, first and foremost, thanks a lot. Yeah, you're all. Thanks also to our buddy, Bill Tilly, who runs our social media accounts at greatest trick on Twitter and Instagram, and thanks to Adam Magusia, who made all of the custom theme music for the show off of dark materials lead Adam Garcia now of course a massively successful food YouTuber go go check out his channel. Hey thanks to everyone who wrote into the Drunk Shemota email box Ben and I are gonna be checking that anymore that's just gonna be we got too hard. Too many, too many emails.

We appreciate the enthusiasm, but it just became too big of a thing. So, sorry about that. If you do really, really need to get our attention, slide into the DMs on Twitter, I suppose, and Bill will make us aware. Yeah, that's a good way to be. Yeah. And with that, we'll be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek, Deep Space 9, and an episode with the greatest generation, Deep Space 9. Just probably going to put on some fun vintage wear, right? Oh, yeah.

That would be great. That's good. Nice outfits would really make the next episode fun. That's the fun of doing the jazz horse. Get to choose your costume. It's great. Yeah. I've been playing Japanese jazz horse lately.

What is that? That's with that. Ghost of Tsushima. What? It's like a katana samurai sword fighting game, but it's like also you ride a horse around this island. Oh, wow. It's really fun.

Cool. Alright, I'll look into that. Make it sound. Maximumfun.org Comedy and culture you can show. Maximumfun.org. Comedy and Culture. Artist Oat. Audience Supported.