The Greatest Generation - The Bathroom Cloaca (VOY S1E1)

Episode Date: February 15, 2021

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Starting point is 00:00:00 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,
Starting point is 00:00:35 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,
Starting point is 00:01:01 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
Starting point is 00:01:25 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
Starting point is 00:01:55 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 that nebula. Make it yourself. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage.
Starting point is 00:02:33 Watch your back, shot. Hello. I'm Captain Captain Brinkingway. The U.S. is for the intercom. Captain Captain Captain Brinkingway. The U.S. is for the intercom. Welcome to the greatest generation, Voyager. Uhhh!
Starting point is 00:02:48 It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys. Just a little bit embarrassed about having their third Star Trek series Star Trek podcast. I'm Adam Prantica. I'm Ben Harrison. You made a big mistake not canceling us two series ago. I knew that that greatest generation colon Voyager was coming, and yet it came as a total shock. Yeah, it doesn't spill out of the mouth. The way that DS9 did.
Starting point is 00:03:20 It's going to take some getting used to. Yeah, it's been one of those series that's always had an awkward three-letter abbreviation, boy. Boy. Yeah. You see people write that on the internet. It's like, boy, what's boy? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:03:36 Yeah, what does that even mean? I think Kirk spent an entire movie trying to figure out what that meant. The O-Y-A-G-E-R. You sure did, didn't you? I don't know what we do on new series day. Yeah, do we have any traditions here? I don't know. I mean, we end a series with a bottle.
Starting point is 00:03:57 Yeah. That we did. But I don't know if we've got a new board game, right? Oh, we do have a new board game, but we should probably save board game, Convital, the board game portion of the show. I'm just trying to make sure that all of our things are where they're supposed to be.
Starting point is 00:04:13 We do a show. Right, I think it's probably gonna take us this entire episode, we'll be talking to each other, but we'll also be like separating all the parts for the board game from that tree of plastic that they come on, right? What I love about my terrible run of luck lately is that I've gotten the last two. Let's figure it out as we record it episodes to edit so
Starting point is 00:04:36 I'm super psyched about the week. It's going to take of me editing out us punching out plastic pieces Yeah of this model podcast while we put it together on the fly. It really reminds me of just thinking back, way, way back to season one episode one of TNG, which I think our episode about the first episode of TNG is like 25 minutes long or something. It's like totally. I missed that so much.
Starting point is 00:05:05 Yeah, I think if there's one thing we learn from this, it's that we can't promise it's going to get any better. For a long time, I kept a field note, snow book in my back pocket, back when I was actually out in the world doing things. And when Stimulai came across your transom? A friend of the show Grant picked up a kind of whiskey that I had a fun cocktail recipe for and I was like, where did I have that written down?
Starting point is 00:05:39 Sure enough, it was in one of these notebooks and I save all these notebooks. I went into the shoebox, found the notebook, pulled it out, and inside bin, were the notes that I used for, I think it was season three of Greatest Gen. Oh only bits I could think of for survivors. And that was it. Maybe we constrain ourselves too much by writing lots of notes now. Maybe we should return to a simpler way. It would be great if we could only get back to those days, but I feel like this is a path in one direction, you know?
Starting point is 00:06:23 Right. You can't go back. That's kind of the whole premise of voyage, right? That should be a square on the game board is a is season one amount of notes. Four bullet points. It's all you get. Yeah. Right. It's like, it's like when you have like a test in college that's not open book, but you're permitted one note card. Here's the thing. I think you and I could do a great, greatest gen using our five best bullet points every episode. I think we could totally do that. But I think the sound
Starting point is 00:06:56 that people would make over a skipping a scene for some reason and just jumping around to whatever delighted us. It'd be, it'd make the internet impossible. Yeah. Not that the internet is anything but impossible these days. I was going to say, my experience the day that we dropped the finale episode of Deep Space 9 on social media was nothing short of delightful. The friends of the soda really came out and celebrated that episode and uh... Oh, that's sweet. It was like one of the rare days on social media where I was just like everything everything I look at makes me feel like fortunate and happy and
Starting point is 00:07:45 Nobody is sliding in here to like bum me out or if they are they've been muted and I'm missing it Yeah, the mutant block hammer has been I'm going to hands with the with one in each hand Yeah, for some reason I made the double jack-off I'm looking away. I missed it. Ah Double Jack Off. I was looking away, I missed it. Ah. That's not what you do with those hammers. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:09 You and I are people, pleasers. I think the friends of DeSoto know that, but I think they also know that we're the Ivan Drago of Star Trek podcasters when he finally realizes that he's in the fight for himself. We do this for us. We do this for us. We do this for us. And we're super greasy. We're very oiled up men. Yeah, I mean, I've never been as cut as I am right now. Yeah. You just need the flat top buzz cut and you're basically a hundred percent drogo at this point. If I had got a flat top buzz cut right now, I think four pounds of hair would fall off my
Starting point is 00:08:50 head. You seem to be getting all your growth out of the front and I'm getting all the mine out of the back. My back is pretty heavy at the moment. I think between the two of us we'd make a pretty great Joe dirt, but I'm missing the front and you're missing the back. And I'm doing 100% of the eating french fries off of a frozen sphere of airplane poop. So.
Starting point is 00:09:16 You know what? I fucked up, man, because I referred to a movie I'd never seen, and then you came in with a specific reference to that movie movie and I'm like, cool. There's a part where Boeing bomb lands in the desert near him. And he thinks it's a meteorite. And then he squirts out his ketchup packet and in a divot on it and is eating the french fries
Starting point is 00:09:39 and then later learns what it really was. Oh no. I want a meteorite. Yeah. I think it would also kind of terrify me to have one in the home, right? Because I'd always be suspicious of its magic powers. Oh yeah, or that maybe its friends would come try to rescue it. I think I would always feel like if anything bad happened it would be the meteorite's fault and conversely if anything good happened it'd be the meteorite's fault. I'd grow to covet it and fear it. Yeah it would be the one ring to your golem and you'd waste away and get turned gray and wispy. Oh I'm
Starting point is 00:10:21 already on my way there. I don't need the media right for that. You would forget the taste of food and you would only be able to eat fish. That doesn't sound too bad. Uh, Adam, this is a, this is a major major episode. I know. We need to do a good job here. Ben, this time. We've got to do good. It would be the first time in our podcasting careers that we did good. But I think this is the one. I think it's worth trying. What do you say? I'll try it with you. It also be the first time we tried. Shall we get into season one, episode one, caretaker, and gauge?
Starting point is 00:11:04 Reaver course. Unless you've got something a little bigger in your torpedo tubes, I'm not turning around. We get our classic Star Trek title scroll now, fam. The Mayquees speak! I thought the Mayquees were long dead. Yeah, here's what I love about this setup. We're on the makuies ship. We're introduced to our three makuies.
Starting point is 00:11:29 And they're all wearing like the western wear uniform of a makuies, like the leather, the biker bar stuff, to make them look like they've been, you know, in the ship for a while. But they all have super fresh haircuts, Ben. Like you. Like fresh out of the chair. I can't get any more out of it. Be creative. They're looking high and tight in a way that few guerrilla fighters ever do.
Starting point is 00:11:57 What you love about joining the Mayquise is that each Mayquise ship has a barbershop in the back where the Mayquise just like to get together and talk about things. You should change the name outside to the three pups. Do you think that it's like a cult where like when you join, they give you a haircut and like tell you what kind of clothes you can wear?
Starting point is 00:12:16 Oh no. Like it's heaven's gate, but for people that live on the border between the Kardashian Empire and the Federation. Why are there so many haircut-centric cults? Did that start with Heaven's Gate or were there other cults that did that? The look is so strong.
Starting point is 00:12:33 I love the idea of the Mayquise being a cult. We don't know if they're branded, we don't know if they have different color sashes to indicate different levels of advancement within. Everyone is just way too good looking to be in a cult. Is there some good looking peeps? Yeah, I'd like to imagine that if I was in a cult that I would be in a cult with good looking peeps, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:12:58 Hey, I guess why else would you join one? Right. I joined for all the eye candy. What are you guys in for? You'd probably be the first cult member to get the big snip, huh? I don't need this junk. Yeah, I'm just desperate for a haircut Adam. That's what you're talking about, right? Right, right. I want very severe bangs and then very severe bangs. and then very severe bangs. So they are being pursued by Gully Vick, nice to see him make a little appearance. This is all tell and no show, but what is described is a very like explosion of praxis style shockwave coming toward them. Yeah, Chicoet puts down his cup of tea and stands up from his command chair.
Starting point is 00:13:51 Very familiar scene. Yeah, like we don't see outside the ship they're just going like, it's coming right for us and it cuts around the bridge and maybe shows like a graphic on a screen. And that's our cold open, like them getting consumed in white light. Hey, let's talk about the timeline of this moment for a second, right? Because when we finished Deep Space Nine, Cardassia was in ruins. Right. The Cardassians had recently turned against their dominion collaborators and they're rebuilding at the end of Deep Space Nine. But this is many years before before this is before the dominion
Starting point is 00:14:27 Right in this moment that we're seeing yeah guileveck last time we saw him was a a Grestain on the ground that That gentle Admiral belt buckle was pouring his blood wine out on because he couldn't handle his blood wine And yeah gully veck is a slurry of blood wine and spoons And Gully Vek is a slurry of blood wine and spoons. This came out kind of like mid-season four, am I right? Yeah. About that, like mid-season four DS9? I always think of Voyager as a 2000s show, 1995.
Starting point is 00:14:56 Yeah, it was like they finished making Star Trek the next generation. They made the movie generations. And then like, I was reading that there was a really stressful period of like breaking down every set from generations and clearing out those sound stages on the Paramount lot so that they could put up the standing sets from Voyager. And I mean like it sounds like that also was like, maybe they were rushing it too much because they cast somebody in the role of Captain Janeway
Starting point is 00:15:30 that didn't work out after two days of shooting and they had to shut down production for a week. When you know, you know, after two weeks. That's so, Eric Stoltz is Marty McFly to think about what a different, like the fact that you can find the footage of the other actress in the role and comparing contrast in the same way you can with the Eric Stoltz footage. I mean, it's obvious.
Starting point is 00:15:59 Kate Mulgrue works better as Captain Janeway, but the footage you see of Eric Stoltz's Catherine Janeway is compelling in its own way, I think. Right. I'm reading a coherent tetra on beam scanning. Origin, Mr. King. I'm reading a coherent tetra on beam scanning. Origin, Mr. King. He doesn't quite understand the humor of the character, and I think that that's kind of the main reason they maybe walked it back from him. When you see the button on the episode, and when Janeway puts the Lieutenant Pips on Tom
Starting point is 00:16:32 Parris in a quick stabbing motion, it really brings it all home for me. We get our opening theme. I really like the theme song, Employee. I like the ship flying through space stuff. It's like it's so much more tranquil than the opening of TNG ever was. It sets the mood. It's the mood that we're not in a hurry. Weird way. I think it reminded me a lot of the lower decks opening because the first that I had the very first shot of the ship is the Voyager going through a solar ejection.
Starting point is 00:17:17 Right. Yeah. Which is a thing we've seen in Star Trek episodes and movies that is a thing that destroys starships. I guess they're showing that to persuade us that Voyager is a pretty rugged ship. It's just been commissioned. It's a good ship. It seems like a beefy design, right? It's not as delicate looking as the D. That's true. I'm sure it'll grow on me. I don't know if I love how it looks.
Starting point is 00:17:43 I feel like I love how the D looks. Yeah. That's a handsome ship right there. You love the D. I maintain my love for the D. The intrepid class ship looks like a tool you use to create smooth cock lines around a toilet or a bathtub, you know? It looks like it's more utilitarian. Right. Yeah, you dip it in some It looks like it's more utilitarian. Right. Yeah, you dip it in some denatured alcohol first so that it doesn't stick to the tool as much. And then you pull up your green masking tape and it lines up here and straight.
Starting point is 00:18:18 Also with the show, a woman on the executive producer team, it's Rick Berman and Michael Piller, and also Jerry Taylor. And I think that's a Star Trek first. I think it's important that it's in that order, Jerry Taylor is separated by Michael Piller's name from Rick Berman. Yeah, right. Probably a good idea for a lot of reasons.
Starting point is 00:18:41 He's doing her a solid and providing a literal human shield. We come back from the the opening credits and discover that New Zealand has been settled in the future. This is the Federation Penal Settlement New Zealand. You may want to try and leave this Penal colony but basically everywhere else there is so much coronavirus. This is the only part of Earth that's safe. If you're going to do time, doesn't seem like a particularly bad place to do it. This is where we meet Tom Perris, who has an interaction with Captain Janeway. That is straight from Rambo 2.
Starting point is 00:19:24 Tom Perris? Captain Janeway, that is straight from Rambo 2. Tom Paris, Catherine Janeway. I wonder if we could go somewhere and talk. About what? About a job we'd like you to do for it. And Janeway is like, you want to win the Vietnam War this time? It's straight from Rambo 2 if Rambo had gone to like a great clips and picked a haircut out of the binder right before that scene. I'm so glad you brought this up. Every haircut in this entire show is like peak mid to late 90s, dime size drop of hair gel, put into some wet hair and then combed back
Starting point is 00:20:07 once with a severe part. It really is. That's not the only similarity to Rambo, too. Both Rambo and Tom Parris are in the deep V security wing of the prison. He's got the house arrest, Anklit, and they go on a walk. He has a tiny, tiny amount of make-wease on his resume. He says he was only with them for a few weeks after kind of an ignoble, starfleet career. He mentions to Janeway that he might be running for Governor of Arkansas. I mean, it's one of the few statewide offices you can be elected to while still under house arrest, right?
Starting point is 00:20:47 Right. This is a really long walk to camera. Yeah. This is almost a minute of just grabbing the whip and slowly dragging it. So Paris has some history with Chicote. He's like, I'm not, I wasn't in the make-wee slung enough to help you find this missing ship you're looking for Captain Janeway. But, uh,
Starting point is 00:21:10 but I do know Chico Te, and Chico Te thinks I'm dog shit, he thinks I'm like a total opportunist who has no real beliefs of my own. I'll just take a gig from whoever will offer it. And uh, I'm down to help you, but I want to know what's in it for me. I'm going to tell you all the ways that Chico Te hates me while reserving all the shit. I would talk about him and his culture for much later. You'll understand when we get there. Ha ha ha.
Starting point is 00:21:36 Trouble is he was right. This is the offer, right? Come along with, you're going to be there to observe, but don't count on doing too much. We just need your help finding this guy. And Paris looks around at just a terrible situation that he's found himself in. This verdant country club of a penal colony. The suffering is unimaginable.
Starting point is 00:21:59 He takes this deal immediately. She gives him a camera and says, now Tom, I have your word. You're just going to take pictures, right? Officially, you'd be a star fleet observer during the mission. Observer. Tom Paris squints at Janeway and he's like, am I going to be able to get a haircut while we're going? Janeway looks at Paris and she's like, this time, it's up to you. Janeway looks at Paris and she's like, this time, it's up to you. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:25 And then they both look at the camera. Hey, speaking of Rambo 2, I feel like the ship gets its own Rambo resume as the Shuttlecraft approaches it. There's a... The Khan officer who's piloting the shuttle is a nice-looking young lady who Paris weighs no time hitting on and she starts kind of laying down
Starting point is 00:22:51 the bona fides of the USS Voyager NCC 74656. It's got some real fancy features and they take like a nice leisurely orbit around the ship on the shuttle. They do not head right for the shuttle bay. Like they come up from behind and do that, like almost like a Star Trek film. Like they really wash this ship in some loving camera moves.
Starting point is 00:23:17 I love that they arrive via bunk bed. Yeah. Haven't seen a bunk bed class shuttle in a while. It's been too long. Oddly, the ship is a mix of Indian German descent combination Kind of a strange description for this as an
Starting point is 00:23:33 Use but okay Paris also gets us used to the idea of close TV talking in this scene And this is a quality of him and many other characters That we get throughout this pilot episode like closer than TV close. I feel like a lot of him and many other characters that we get throughout this pilot episode, like closer than TV close. I feel like a lot of people are. Yeah. There are some moments where he addresses the captain specifically where his chest is like two and a half inches from her chin and it's just like, dude, you are towering over her
Starting point is 00:24:00 back up. It's fun to be back at Deep Space 9. This seems to be a quality that they learned about in the premiere of that show, which is like you want to have some baton passing if you can possibly do it. Deep Space 9 started with our pals on the D being docked there. And in this way, Voyager is docked at Deep Space 9. Well, and if you're going to go to the Badlands, hunt some Maquise. This is a great place to set up base camp. And so the, I guess the ship is kind of in a shake-down mode.
Starting point is 00:24:34 They're double-checking all the scruzer on tight before they embark on their mission. But we catch up in Quark's bar with another main cast character, Harry Kim, getting bullied by Quark and buying some keep sakes. There is a line that Armin Schumer and Deliver's here that is maybe my favorite from the whole episode. Maybe laugh with delight, which is, what's your name, son? And it made me wonder, like, are you able to say that because of class or because of age? How will do I have to be to say something like that
Starting point is 00:25:08 derisively to anyone else? Oh, yeah. It was such a great moment. I've never said son to anyone. Yeah. I love this scene. Like I loved seeing Quark kind of out of context. He's not interacting with characters we're familiar with.
Starting point is 00:25:21 And so it's a new way to discover Quark, but also a way to discover Quark, but also a way to discover Harry Kim, who is like very book smart and has been told to like keep watch for con artists and for Angie specifically, but also like not street smart yet. Like he, not at all. He's green. More? Please. You need this scene to set up his greenness because I think there's a quality about Garrett Wong that is mature and a little unflappable in a way that like so many ensigns we've ever met in Star Trek have been like, like they're face first in the exploding panel when the bangers get dropped and when Quark tries to sell him the jewels
Starting point is 00:26:09 Harry is a mark, but he's not an idiot. Right. Yeah. The way many Ensign's are made out to be. Yeah, I mean, I think it's so fun that Quark is the character that they chose for this Beton passing. There is no the scene where Janeway receives her orders via for this baton passing. There is no the scene where Janeway receives her orders via Captain Cisco or... Right. I wonder how much they entertain that though. Yeah. Because that was like such a major part of Cisco was how much they set him up in opposition to Picard. And I don't think that Janeway feels like she is being set up in that way. No, I think that's really smart, because it stops you from making any comparisons right away.
Starting point is 00:26:51 It allows her to begin on her own in a useful manner. It's a much more wide open field for her to play in. I mean, we're going to get over that real fast when she punches Q in the face in the second half of this episode But for right now she's allowed to choose her own destiny. Okay, I get it So she's just another kind of Cisco type captain gotcha right well Tom Paris kind of intervenes in order to keep Harry Kim from losing his shirt to quirk in this moment, which is kind of like a, I don't know, it's not quite a save the cat moment for Tom Paris, but it is a meet cute for a friendship
Starting point is 00:27:31 between him and Harry Kim. And they go together to the Six Bay of Voyager, where I guess they're supposed to check in with the Chief Medical Officer to report for duty. And the Chief Medical Officer is Rogadenaar, the super soldier from TNG. Mr. Dana, I hereby grant you field promotion to full medical officer.
Starting point is 00:27:54 Really nice to see him transitioning into a different line of work. Get out of there, Tom Paris. Captain asked if you were on board, you should check in with her. He's not afraid of fighting in a hallway. No. He does not like Paris at all.
Starting point is 00:28:08 Yeah, yeah, withering is how I would describe his attitude toward Tom Paris. Yeah. And Harry has spent a fair amount of time with Tom Paris at this point and is kind of putting together a picture of how disliked he is by just about everyone. You know, it's like showing up at school and making friends on the first day and then discovering
Starting point is 00:28:32 you made friends with the kid in class that everyone hates, you know. When you showed up to class the first day and made friends with your teacher, that had the same effect, right? Yes, absolutely. But you've always had someone to eat lunch with? Yeah, nobody else wanted to. No one else wanted half of your tuna fish sandwich. We get a little insight into Captain Janeway's personal life
Starting point is 00:28:56 via a FaceTime with her husband, Mark. Oh, hi, Mark. A Mervin's Cadlug Sportcoat model. I like seeing this dynamic. It's a dynamic that I think is probably very familiar to you and me, which is that Mark is kind of a goofball that doesn't have a serious job and she has a very serious job and is like semi-destracted when she's talking to him. Yeah, very familiar. She never really asks what he's up to or what he's he's been doing. I like this guy. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:29 He's the one that takes the dog to the to the vet and stuff, you know. He's got the free time for it. I like Mark. I do too. Anyway, not gonna see that guy again. No. I'm gonna miss him. I don't want bother anymore. The ship is just about to head out. Tom and Harry show up in the captain's ready room to say what's up to her. They learn that she prefers to be called captain, not sir or ma'am.
Starting point is 00:29:54 Ben, did you notice that Harry and Tom enter via the same door that they exit to go to the bridge through? And I love like, Kevin Janeway's like, hey, let me show you the bridge for the first time. And what Kim and Paris don't do is look at each other like we just walk through the bridge to... There's only one way in here.
Starting point is 00:30:14 What are you talking about? And I love that Harry Kim actually acts like he's never seen it before when they walk back out that door. I think that's a really funny choice and I think it's on purpose. Yeah. You want to make the Captain feel Captain-y in this moment?
Starting point is 00:30:29 Yeah. There was a lot of taking the ship out for the first time stuff in the first episode of TNG. And famously the part where they just cut to theme song while they show the saucer separate for two and a half minutes moment. We don't get quite that much of that in Star Trek Voyager, but we do get the like, you know, clear all morings, you know, set the launch sequence stuff, and that stuff gives me
Starting point is 00:31:00 the warm fuzzies every time. Do you like that quite a bit? Engage. Did we ever hear Sisko say engage? Is that, does he have a catchphrase? Oh no, I wish you hadn't asked that question. Engage. Ow! Ha ha ha. The bridge tour offers another opportunity
Starting point is 00:31:18 for Tom Paris to just get repeatedly kicked in the balls over his choices, W slash R slash, T the make-wease. And then Harry finally confronts him about this. It turns out Tom Parris is the son of an admiral. Just an old man's fantasies. Yeah. And learning about his dark past doesn't really deter Harry Kim at all.
Starting point is 00:31:40 Even though that scene happens in the in the commissary, where like a bunch of people who hate Tom Paris have been eating with Harry Kim Yeah, and then they get up and leave I thought for sure when Paris ordered the tomato soup That was check-offs tomato soup like that was gonna get dumped over his head by someone Yeah, Rogadaynars should have dumped the tomato soup on on Paris's head I would have bet anything that he was gonna Paris Paris, he's a character that makes it really hard to like him, like his approach to addressing this like demon from his past with Harry
Starting point is 00:32:16 is to say like, yeah, I'm a piece of shit. Who cares, like, are you gonna stop being friends with me over it? Person I met 30 seconds ago? And Harry's like, no, I've always been friends with fail sons and you're no exception. It's kind of a fun cheat code to the whole gene raddenberry, all star fleets are good people
Starting point is 00:32:37 and there are no conflicts among star fleets because Paris isn't one really and none of the make-weezer but when you combine them together, you're able to create the conflicts that you were kind of not permitted to create in Rodinbury lead series, right? Right. It's a very different approach to that than Deep Space Nine took and I think that that's really smart. Two things happen when Roddenberry isn't at the creative wheel. The conflicts get more numerous and the skirts get longer. Right.
Starting point is 00:33:12 The female characters have agency and are three-dimensional. Kim and Paris are interrupted by the bridge. They're about to enter the Badlands and so they've got to make their way up there for that. Yeah, the Lieutenant Commander Toast says, anybody that might have some tomato soup is invited to bring that with them to the bridge. Coffee, black, make it yourself. I'm trying to help you see this as an opportunity to grow.
Starting point is 00:33:39 Make it yourself. So they enter the Badlands, and they need to initiate a Graviton field to try to disperse the wave that Chico Te Ship ran into before. And Rollins is back there initiating the Graviton field like he's playing a piano. Did you see this take? He's like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
Starting point is 00:34:01 blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, the Graviton Wave does not go well, enterprise, and the ship is overtaken, and we get like the dip to white edit where when we come back, the ship is fucked up. And I thought that this was interesting, like we're so used to, you know,
Starting point is 00:34:22 the crew, you know, grabbing onto their chairs and shaking and the camera shaking to make it look like the ship is shaking. Like nobody is getting yeeted over their control panels. There's no, like we don't experience the action. We experience the precursor in the aftermath and it's like Lieutenant Commander Cavett is dead. Like the ship is in deep distress, nothing works. We're trying to get visuals back on the view screen.
Starting point is 00:34:53 Jane weighs hairs down around her shoulders. Yeah, the bun is tussled and that's how you know things are pretty dire along with the dryer vents and dead bodies strewn about. Right. I got the feeling that Paris stole Cavitt's seat and that's why Paris lived and Cavitt died. Oh man. There was a sort of mortal version of musical chairs happening.
Starting point is 00:35:16 Cavitt caught a girder that had Paris's name on it. Yeah. Wow. There's no guilt about that. The town of Paris feels at any point. Nor does he feel guilt about the pretty pilot that he was hitting on in the shuttlecraft being dead. She's also gone. Rollins set up that graviton feels so well that he has the bridge. Camon Paris had to sick bay. Oh, is Rollins the guy with the like real impressive jawline?
Starting point is 00:35:46 The Ensign? Yeah. Yeah, he is. They give a lot of people the con in this episode that I would not expect. Yeah. Unexpected con giving. That's what Janeway's known for.
Starting point is 00:35:59 Yeah, I mean, if you had to be on your toes, Ben, she might give you the con. Are you ready? He ready. I'd be the person at the station needing to alt-tab my screen back into something useful if she ever gave me the con. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:36:16 I would not be ready for that. Speaking of alt-tabbing, Kim gets the view screen back on and there's a big space station in front of them and he's saying, we're over 70,000 light years from where we were. We're on the other side of the galaxy. This is a big mess and everybody leaves the bridge to go like deal with various disasters emerging on the ship. Janeway heads down to engineering. Harry and Tom head to a fire somewhere that they're putting out.
Starting point is 00:36:46 I guess this is in six Bay, right? Yes. Yeah. So this is where we meet the emergency medical hologram who is the doctor. I love that he has that quality that many TV doctors have, which is just walking around with his hand out, so that a nurse or a nurse-like figure
Starting point is 00:37:09 can place something into that open hand. He was programmed with the assumption that a nurse-like figure would be present, which seems like a bad assumption in an emergency context, you know. Doctors prescribe nurses provide. That's the saying, right? And in this case,
Starting point is 00:37:23 nurses provide something for that open hand. Or not. Yeah, because the nurses did. Everyone's dead. Yeah. Meanwhile, Janeway is an engineering looking over her mechanic's shoulder while he fixes something with the carburetor. Warp core micro fracture. Breach imminent. She's in there. Yeah. She's not that person that drops their starship off with the garage and it's like, oh, the timing belt needs to be replaced too? I guess so. Cruise control fluid, you say. Interesting. I don't think so.
Starting point is 00:37:55 No. No. Janeway is not going to get fucking screwed over by this asshole. Lock down the magnetic constrictor. They're looking at a warp core catastrophe unless they act pretty fast. But who's gonna fix it, Ben, when all of them are beamed away? Yeah, it seems like they just get it patched up, right? Like, in the nick of time. Yeah. If they'd been beamed away, like 30 seconds earlier, the ship would have exploded. Kind of a brown beam, if you ask me.
Starting point is 00:38:28 Yeah, yeah, that's gross. This is a gross transporter, I think. It takes everyone off the ship, leaving only the doctor, who is like tending to a severely wounded woman it looks like when she is transported away. And I wondered, like, what about all the injured people when they get over to the array? Like they get to, we cut to inside the array and it's like verdant pastoral scene with horses
Starting point is 00:38:58 and corn that's ready for harvest and a lady bringing a picture of lemonade out onto the porch. And I wish that they were just like walking wounded, like, oh, God. He would be so much more of a mind-fuck if after being beamed to Herschel's farmhouse from Walking Dead, they're confronted with like the scorched bodies from Six Bay,
Starting point is 00:39:22 like draped over the railing. Pretty sick. Yeah, I love this though, like this is peak, weird Star Trek. It's also not creepy in the way that they are going for because everyone in this scene is white. And there's banjo music. He's a hell of a combination. That's before the hollow farmer's daughter
Starting point is 00:39:49 takes a shine to Paris and wants to show him her root seller. He only had one rule, the farmer. If they wanted to stay there, he just had that one rule. And Tom Paris couldn't follow it. I mean, the farmer's daughter is always presented as the promiscuous type. Yeah. But I think you gotta save the root seller always presented as the promiscuous type. Yeah. But I think you got to save the root seller for at least the fifth or sixth date.
Starting point is 00:40:09 What's down there? The Titus onions, but it's real private. There's something in the barn that's blowing up their tricorders, and this is something that the hollow farmer's daughter is trying her best to keep them away from. Right. There's an old man working the controls behind the curtain and she would like to distract them, look over here. Paris hits Triangle to dismiss the farmer's daughter from the presentation of her mission
Starting point is 00:40:38 and then goes inside and finds a carbine repeater and a weapons locker. It's one of those things though, where you think hitting triangle is just gonna kind of dismiss a side quest that you don't wanna engage with, but what it actually does is turn that person into a red dot on your little radar. She's now his enemy and starts beating the hell out of him
Starting point is 00:41:00 and causes a bunch of the other farm folk to appear with very scary looking pitchforks. Yeah, literal pitchforks. That's what they've got. This kind of breaks the spell that everyone's under. And they throw the doors at the back of the barn open and look down a long hallway with... It's full of make-weasts with super long needles in their bellies. And it's a real creepy scene, kind of a make-wease abattoir kind of vibe.
Starting point is 00:41:33 And in other color palette, it might be Borgie, you know? It had that quality too, it especially like something about the arms hanging back. Yeah, that arms hanging back thing is so creepy, right? Yeah, that's such an idea in the room where like, imagine this guy's there's a really long hallway and then a bunch of people have needles going into their chest for some unknown reason. And then the client person in the writer's room is like,
Starting point is 00:42:00 yeah, and their arms could be back like this. And then there's like a super long pause and everyone realizes like the quiet one in the writer's room has got some really fucked up ideas. Let's make sure Gary gets the script for the midseason horror genre episode. Those belly needles really reminded me of skisimsh. Yeah, yeah, very much so. A lot of Star Trek tropes being reused in this episode, that like a very cute kind of idea being flung far, far from where we came from and it would take decades to get back. It's kind of builds on a new Star Trek adventure out of old Star Trek pieces in a way very similar to Deep Space 9 saying, okay, now it's a space station and you know, there's
Starting point is 00:42:58 a wormhole and like using kind of barzan wormhole episode ideas and ideas from other episodes to kind of like set us off on a path using some familiar building blocks. There's a lot of information conveyed very quickly and elliptically here because we're introduced to this setting and then we see that the Voyager crew has joined them on these beds and then three days later they wake up on their ships and by day I mean the the Mayquise and the Voyager crew except for Taurus and Kim who remain missing. And it seems like the Mayquees are up and active a little bit quicker than everyone else because by the time Janeway is coming to an engineering,
Starting point is 00:43:54 she's getting reports from the bridge that the Mayquees are like trying to get away in their ship. And she makes a deal over the radio with Chicote that maybe they should beam over and compare notes because they both have the same problem. Up until this point, you might be forgiven for thinking Catherine Janeway is kind of a different type of Starfleet captain. She does things her own way, but when she's Starfleet's Chicote here, you know she's cut from the same cloth. Yeah. As all great Starfleet captains.
Starting point is 00:44:26 Commander, you and I have the same problem. I think it makes sense to try and solve it together, don't you? That's a real strong training program, but one thing they missed from the training program is deactivating the weapons of people that you're beaming directly to your bridge. Fucking Rollins is back there, and he is two seconds too late on the, hey, they've got guns. Rollins, what are you doing? Ralland is back there and he is two seconds too late on the hey they've got guns Rollins, what are you doing? You can see that in the pattern buffers At least like fumble fucking around try to get his own phaser out and Janeways like we're all perfectly safe
Starting point is 00:44:57 Tuvak was one of us the entire time. Hey guess who's never gonna get the con after this? Rollins Hey, guess who's never gonna get the con after this? Rollins. Hahaha. This is a great reveal here because once the Mayquise crew is beamed aboard, Tuvac does that thing where he's standing with the Mayquise and then he stands with Janeway on the other side
Starting point is 00:45:15 and reveals himself to be a double agent physically. Yeah. He takes off his longer sideburns, revealing his darkly sideburns. Hahaha. He moves his comp edge up a half an inch. Oh, shit. So this reveal comes as a shock to Chicoetay, who my phone constantly auto-corrects to chocolatey.
Starting point is 00:45:39 I think it'll take four seasons for my notes app to finally come around to Chicoote from Chocolaty, but all I'm reading in my notes is the word Chocolaty over and over again. Chicoote is a character that we don't know much about yet other than that he is Makeways, but he's very striking with his face tattoo. And I think it's important to talk about the fact that he is meant to represent the Native American type of character that we've met a few other times in Star Trek, but that this show leaned heavily on the advice of a man named Jamaic Highwater, Jamake. I don't know how to pronounce that first name. The point is he isn't actually Native American
Starting point is 00:46:27 and like completely made a lot of this stuff up. And so I think going forward, like we're gonna have to deal with the fact that Voyager has some stuff that is like really regrettable about this character and about the culture that he is theoretically there to represent. Sort of stolen representation valor, you can say. character and about like the culture that he is theoretically there to represent. Sort of stolen representation valor. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:49 What he does represent fairly accurately is the face tattoo community, all of whom make a strong choice about doing a thing that disallows you from entering most normal workplaces as an employee. Like, I see a face tattoo on a make-weez and I know they're not ever going to go back to Starfleet after that. I sort of wonder, should I get a face tattoo now that I'm a podcaster? It's not like I'm going to go get a Joe job somewhere. I think a podcast is a face tattoo in its own way. Yeah, you can't really rub this off, can you? I mean, you look at our resume for the last five years.
Starting point is 00:47:28 It might as well say face tattoo. So the plan is to go back to the array. Yeah, and this time it's not going to be them getting, you know, brown bean over there. They're going to kick in the door, waving the four or four and... They're not there to take pictures, Ben. No. They literally go get their rifles out. There's a cool new ray gun for the Star Trek universe.
Starting point is 00:47:54 I feel like I missed a scene because when Paris is packing, since when does the observer get a gun? There's never that moment of truth where they're passing out the guns. And Tom Paris is like, well, if I'm going, I should get a gun. And Jane was like, well, I'm not sure about that. You're supposed to be an observer.
Starting point is 00:48:14 And Chico says, well, I'm make-wis. I should get a gun. Like, there's never the argument about who's deserving. And so much about Tom Paris' character in this first episode is about like slipping right into being a professional starfleet again with very little scrutiny. Yeah, it would have been great if they said, okay, we'll give you a phaser. We'll give you the key fob phaser. We'll see if you're deserving of the rifle phaser later.
Starting point is 00:48:43 And then the first thing he does with it is shoot his ankle it. Yeah, he goes and finds the farmer's daughter. I'm ready for your root seller. I'd hate to see anything happen to Harry. We also catch up with Torres and Kim, who are in a medical environment being tended to by some low-feared aliens, and they've got these big, like, pussy lesions on their chests and wrists and stuff. Where's my money?
Starting point is 00:49:17 Don't worry, Bitsy, you'll have it by next week. Torres does not want to be in here and start Star Trek fighting everyone and has to be subdued by some orderlies that come in. Like most Klingons in Star Trek, she really has a hard time with this door. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha You would think since she's only half-cling on it, it would be like twice as easy for her to open a door, but it is not Kind of two different flavors of the same gross feeling is Is the disfigurement that Kim and Torres are subjected to like like seeing the needle go in? Yeah, then seeing seeing the things on their wrists and neck, it's a bad feeling.
Starting point is 00:50:07 It feels more dangerous seeing these lesions. Your mind goes in so many different directions and my mind immediately went to, is this transmissible? Can they give it to the crew? What is protecting the people in the room from getting whatever they have? Do you have to have the needle go into your chest? Why just them? Like so many questions that I feel like this episode doesn't even tiptoe up to answering. If they both have it, they could probably fuck and not really have to worry about it. Yeah, right.
Starting point is 00:50:39 No! What they've come up with with the caretakers that he seems sort of unwilling. He's the old banjuman and he feels like he owes something to the people, the Ocampa, the people on this planet. And he is not really willing to push the vacuum into reverse and blow them back to the alpha quadrant. So they realize that they're going to have to go rescue Harry and Belana on this fifth planet in the system, which is being fed by like energy pulses from the array. Those are pulses that are quickening in speed.
Starting point is 00:51:20 That's a bit of news that Tuvac tells Captain Janeway about. Yeah. Tuvac, the first full-blooded Vulcan in a main cast on Star Trek. Tim rested such a great job in Star Trek generations. They saw his performance and were like, we're gonna make you a character on a series. Yeah, that's gonna be so weird. Like, he just kept getting to come back to the same two sound stages that he was in when they were filming generations. He knew just where to park. Yeah. He's got a family back at home and Captain Janeway makes a promise to him in this scene. She says she will
Starting point is 00:51:56 get him back to them. This is a classic captain's lament. Right, Ben. I need to know these people and their strange musical instrument choices so that I can be a better captain to them. And too bad because like you should probably get some sleep also. You seem a little bit loopy. Yeah, I can tell you're loopy because you're a close talker too. Janeway gets right up in there. Why not call me directed this episode. Kind of some interesting
Starting point is 00:52:23 staging choices. The plan at this point is to take the ship to the target of these energy pulses. That makes sense. It's not too far away. It's a planet where they're going. And in order to get there, they get a pass through this debris field.
Starting point is 00:52:38 And that's where they encounter a man named Neelix, who is a antiques and thrift store shopper. And since you're not interested in my debris, I'm delighted to know you. He's the star of a show called Tlaxian Pickers, where he goes from debris field to debris field and finds treasures that would have been lost to the dust heap of history. He's good for Intel. He's a new guy we're meeting that lives in this part of the galaxy.
Starting point is 00:53:08 So he seems like a good guy to have around when you're headed to this planet. And so they beam him aboard. And he takes to the ship right away. Right. Got tickets that knock them. Get them all better large. Let's you.
Starting point is 00:53:21 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.
Starting point is 00:53:44 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 Reembarishment Tour. I'm Jordan Morris. And I'm Jesse Thorne. On Jordan Jesse Go, we make pure, delightful nonsense.
Starting point is 00:54:08 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 spaceweards. Pat Noswald. Could I get a Balrog burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you. And Kumail Non-Giani. I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which is impossible to use.
Starting point is 00:54:26 Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org. Look, your podcast apps are already open, just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goat try. 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.
Starting point is 00:54:44 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. We gotta get on the art. It's about terrain, about a spout to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans.
Starting point is 00:55:00 We're actually, we're podcasters. We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ohno 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.
Starting point is 00:55:14 We came two by two. What do you think? Ono Ross and Carrie, available on MaximumFun.org. I've got to get that luck. We're not. Are you selling a horse? Gold. Yeah. Yeah, he is he's gonna be kind of their local fixer. He gives us some some sense of like what this quadrant is like because he's really interested in getting some water. That seems to be a scarce resource here. And he has also never heard of a transporter.
Starting point is 00:55:46 So these are going to be like things that are special about Voyager that I guess other people will prize about them. And he's also a total goofball. He's maybe the biggest tone setter of all the characters. Yeah. I think that it's very fun that Tuvak is the one that goes down to the transporter room to meet him. Tuvak says some pretty disparaging things about Nielix's personal hygiene though. Perhaps he would care for a bath. Well, he doesn't get water. He needs to take a bath.
Starting point is 00:56:17 He has another bath in his whole life. Oh no. So the Ocampa, the people who they're going to go visit, are a society of mull men and mull women. And non-binary mulls, I suppose, they live underground. You might have an assumption about the way that mull people live. You might think that they're dirty and dusty and it's a real, real pit down there. No, that's not how it is at all. They stay in the caretaker trade and conference center. So happens to be underground.
Starting point is 00:56:54 Everyone is wearing white linen and using escalators. And it looks like a new terminal at a hair airport. It really does. I think this is the LA Convention Center that they shot this in. It's very nice. The disease that they are suffering from there told is fatal.
Starting point is 00:57:13 That the caretaker has been bringing ships around here for months, from all over the galaxy and every ship that he brings, a couple of people get sent to the Okampa for care because they've got these lesions on them. And one of the Okampa dudes that is kind of giving them the grand tours is like, yeah, bad news, you're definitely going to tie from this. We believe he must have separated you from your own species for their protection.
Starting point is 00:57:41 Yeah, it's not just a social disease that makes hooking up difficult. It's actually fatal. So, sorry. We get Belonatora's eyes to commercial. Out of the commercial, we realize that a two-vac is a character that enters your quarters without knocking. Yeah. He goes right into Nielix's quarters.
Starting point is 00:58:01 Well, Nielix is taking a bath. Yeah. Yeah, and he just continues on in, on into the bathroom. Then is this the first bathroom we've seen on a starship in I can't think of the last time I saw one. Can I get back to you, Mr. Warf? I feel like we see people like have a sink. It a couple of times in TNG, but I don't remember ever seeing a shower
Starting point is 00:58:23 or a tub or a toilet. I mean, what kind of what does a 24th century toilet look like that can accommodate all types of aliens? It is very complicated. A hole in the floor is the universal toilet, right? What they should have done is a little bit here where Tuvac comes in and sees Nelix in the, you know, foamy water of his bubble bath and Tuvac comes in and sees Nelix in the, you know, foamy water of his bubble bath and Tuvac goes, Mr. Nelix, you have found the toilet of this room. You are not using it for its designated purpose. The 24th century toilet is the tub. The tub is the toilet.
Starting point is 00:58:59 Right? You just put an insincurator in the drain and that's going to be able to deal with all comers. It's the bathroom cloaca, right? It's one hole. It's one drain for every use. Yeah, that's the dream, right? That's the best that we can hope for. So a dustbuster club beams down to the surface of this planet. It's Janeway, Chico de Paris, Nielix, freshly out of his tub and Tuvac, where they are introduced to the K-Zone. The K-Zone are a race of beings that look like the alien designer had a very
Starting point is 00:59:33 limited budget and was turned loose on the pine cone aisle of a Michael's craft store. This species is one of the main things I want an HD remaster avoidger for is just to see what that hair looks like in high death because it's always been so vague to me like is it hair or is it like gray foam rubber or something like that like it like have you read about that affliction that that causes you to have like wood, like things to come out of your skin. I can't remember what it's called. Epidermotus plasia varusiformis. That's what it reminds me of. It looks like wood in roots. It does look kind of inexpensive to me, but it's also more inventive than like nine out of 10
Starting point is 01:00:20 aliens on TNG. Then a piece of putty between your eyes. Right, like I feel like they aren't maybe as well designed as a species as like the klingons or whatever, but they're a billion times better designed than the barzans. You know what it does though, it's got to scale. And when you see how many k's on there are in this scene
Starting point is 01:00:42 and things that follow, you're like, you need 30 of these get ups. Right. This wig has to be able to be reproduced on mass. This is the Agla tribe of the K-Zone. And these are people that Neelik seems very familiar with. He sort of launches into leading this bit of diplomacy. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:01:01 He really takes charge. He does until they likearm the Dustbuster Club and put him up against the wall and get ready to summarily execute him. But they're very impressed when he demonstrates that he's able to make water materialize out of nowhere. This is like technology as indistinguishable from magic because it's sufficiently advanced stuff for them.
Starting point is 01:01:24 And what he tells us is that they're different factions of Kazon and Summer Richard and some resources and Summer Richard and others. You know, I'm sure we'll meet like these Zerg Rush Kazon at some point, but these Kazon are poor in water. So causing a couple of vats of water to be beamed down from the ship is all of the leverage anyone would ever need in bargaining with them. Nielix goes kind of wangrow on the lead of the case arm. Because once he shoots the two barrels, what's the difference at that point?
Starting point is 01:02:10 He starts going ham. Yeah, he shoots, jab, and he shoots everybody. They do not make a great first impression with these people. But they do recover, Cass, a young woman that the K-Zon had been interrogating quite brutally from the look of it, she's got some pretty bad bruises. She's been brutalized so much that she only speaks in ADR the rest of the episode. They don't have any way to get down below the surface, they basically say it's impossible and she can kind of corroborate this because she came up from under the surface.
Starting point is 01:02:48 The Ocampa live behind some kind of energy field that has obscured their settlement from the ship's sensors even. There's an entire airport terminal down there and they can't even detect it. Kim and Torres are exploring this airport terminal, kind of the areas where the airlines that no longer exist did business, those taking encounters are all dark. They're like in kind of a side tunnel when they're approached by a mysterious stranger. They ask this person if they're carrying and of course they are. This person offers them some shakeweed as a cure for their lesions. This is chronic, okay.
Starting point is 01:03:27 Let's go click your daddy's eyeball problem and shit. That little plastic box is like exactly what pot in New York used to come in. Like, yeah. I like this scene because it sets up the idea that not everywhere in this world looks like an airport terminal. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:03:45 There are other places, and the suggestion of tunnels is also made around this point too, like how else did Kess get out? And that like the O'Compare, not like a homogenous society where everybody believes the same stuff, like Kess left for ideological reasons,
Starting point is 01:04:02 and there are people that don't love the way the elders run things. And she's like, you know, elders is a bit of an exaggeration. They're not that old, but they're elder than I am, I guess. The Shakeweed strangers like, you know, you might be able to use those old tunnels to get out, except, you know, there's like meters of rock that you need to get through. Kim and Torres don't see this as too much of a deterrent. They're like, cool, give us the tools to do it. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:04:29 And the Shakeweed dealers, like, it's probably gonna take a while. Like, I basically just traffic in Shakeweed. Yeah. And that's actually, yeah, that's all I can do for you. I'm sorry. And that's what inspired Belana and Harry to found the boring company. I love that in the scene previous, Nelix has taken charge and just shot up a bunch of
Starting point is 01:04:56 shit before they get beamed away. We cut into 6 Bay where the Dustbuster Club has convened. And Nielix gets a very stern talking to you from Tuvac about his actions on the surface. If you had told us what you had planned, we might have anticipated your irrational behavior. That's the slap on the wrist, he gets. Yeah, yeah. Tom Paris was not the one we had to worry about giving a weapon to.
Starting point is 01:05:20 Yeah, I love that the EMH has a de-bruzing device that he uses on Kess. Yeah. Which made me, I wonder if you can use that on fruit. Hmm. Get one of those shit apples. It's made of our shit, you know. And de-bruze it?
Starting point is 01:05:38 Yeah. Sounds good to me. There are breaches in the security barrier where it's begun to decay. There are ways to get down into this. If they could find one of the breaches in the security barriers, they may be able to beam through. So they're just back from their away mission.
Starting point is 01:05:57 They're already planning their next one. It's like coming back from a really great vacation. The pace of the problem-solving in this episode is so brisk. It's almost startling how they go from Nelix wanting to fuck out of here. We're leaving this system together. But Cass sort of feeling indebted to the crew. It would be wrong not to help them now.
Starting point is 01:06:18 For saving our life. And then they talk about the idea that maybe you could use the tunnels to get back down to the airport terminal. And then you just cut there. They've done it. They've done it. Like, there's no greeting party. They're just like walking through like the settlement. It's like nobody seems particularly surprised to see strangers of a different species, even though they've been isolated down here for 500 generations. Janeways like you grow nothing but rainbow chart.
Starting point is 01:06:47 Like, that's it, that's all you eat. I mean, it's a, tas up beautifully if you have a little garlic, but just by itself, I can't imagine subsisting on that. What it does is it looks really nice in a home garden. Yeah. Get that rainbow chart growing. It's a real feast for the eyes.
Starting point is 01:07:04 It's a hardy plant and it's a real, it's got some wow factor. You know, if somebody else is coming over and taking a look at your garden. Enter Toskitt, who is someone who's familiar to Kess. The two don't see eye-to-eye on their relationship to the caretaker. Toskitt is more of an orthodox ocompah
Starting point is 01:07:21 and Kess is sort of a, sort of more of a free thinker. And I guess you assume that given that Kess used a tunnel to get to the surface. Right. Yeah. One of the things they discuss here is the cognitive abilities of the ocompah being in decline. They repeatedly had cognitive abilities that they have lost in their time underground being taken care of by the caretaker. It's it's vitamin D deficiency. Yeah They sort of remind me of the humans on that spaceship and Wally Like yeah, no pressure on them to to make them keep their minds sharp I guess they didn't sell rainbow chart at buy and large, that's for sure.
Starting point is 01:08:05 So we see this argument take place and Cass basically storms off with her way team friends to go find Belana and Harry and leaves this guy in the dust. We catch up with Belana and Harry who have found one of these ancient tunnels that goes up to the surface. It's kind of like a big shaft where they're going to have to climb up like thousands of flights of metal stairs, but they're really starting to suffer from this illness that they've been given by the caretaker.
Starting point is 01:08:40 So it's not going to be an easy ascent. Yeah, the shake we didn't do anything. Yeah. That lady did get themed didn't do anything. Yeah. That lady did get them some flashlights and stuff, though. Like, they have some equipment now, which is nice. Maybe they traded the weed for equipment. Oh, yeah. They've read paperclip the weed.
Starting point is 01:08:56 Yeah. That's great. Do you think they blogged about it? Oh, yeah. You got to do that. You got to turn it into a movie. You wonder if it would have worked without the blog? Is it possible to do anything interesting
Starting point is 01:09:09 or have any interesting conversation if it's not a blogger or podcast? I don't know. I don't know. It's a real tree falling in the forest situation. Yeah. We learned a little bit more about Belonator is in this scene.
Starting point is 01:09:23 Yeah. She went to the Academy. She's got a little starfleet this scene. Yeah. If you went to the Academy. She's got a little starfleet in her, which comes as a surprise to Harry Kim. Yeah, she did not graduate, but she's got some stories. They had some professors in common. She just didn't get along with school and school didn't get along with her.
Starting point is 01:09:40 Are you surprised that at this point in the story with all that Harry Kim and Ballonetour has been through, there is not even a whiff of attraction between them? We're not finished yet. I thought about that, but then I realized they're both sick, and I don't think they had any time together before they were sick, so maybe they're just like too fucked up to get horny. No one feels amorous when they're sick. That's a great point. Except for me.
Starting point is 01:10:08 They notice that the pulses are getting faster, which indicates to me that the array needs to start thinking about baseball pretty fast to prevent an overload. Yeah. The array is not going for longevity. It's just trying to pump it out. And it's just a jackhammering away on this planet.
Starting point is 01:10:25 Yeah. Can't be very pleasant for the planet. Ensign jawline for some reason has the con and radios to Janeway that the pulses have gone from white to green. And the caretaker seems to be kind of cauterizing the energy inputs of the settlement. Keep me informed, Janeway out. That station's gonna need to see a urologist
Starting point is 01:10:45 if that's what's happened. That's in jawline is fucking up. They left him in charge again and again, he's blowing it. The reason you don't put that in jawline in command is in the event of a K-Zone attack in orbit.
Starting point is 01:11:00 Yeah, that would not be good for him. When the erase switches from white to green, it's not just a sign of a potential infection. It's that it's begun shooting a weapon at the planet, a weapon that is meant to seal up the cave openings. Yeah. What's going to happen all those casements we saw on the surface? They're going to be fucked up, right? Tuvac kind of puts the pieces together here. I believe that the caretaker is dying. It's hard to take Tuvac seriously while he's eating a wetzel's pretzel, as they have this conversation.
Starting point is 01:11:34 Well, it was between that and Baja fresh, which he used to like, but like has not had good experiences lately. I mean, he doesn't know the bathroom situation on the surface, so probably best to keep it easy to digest. So Tuvac has it all figured out. And Captain Jane Wade does, too, except from her perspective, the caretakers declining health means that they're not going to have a way home soon. Yeah. Were they to die the caretaker is kind of like wrapping up
Starting point is 01:12:08 his his Operation here at this planet and and And they basically need to get out of the Ocompon Settlement before before the seal is sealed. Do you think they call it an O camp? Yeah, probably I don't think they do. That was dumb. I feel like I'm having a bad show. We tried so hard to make this a good show.
Starting point is 01:12:34 And they're in a great show. Ocamp, like an idiot? I liked it. I thought it was good. Thanks, Ben. Camp is right in the name. You can't spell OcampCompo without the word camp. I love that Kim and Torres are in, are in the cave. Yeah. When they're found and Kim doesn't yell
Starting point is 01:12:52 at all. Like, like, they have to look up and see them. Yeah. You got a yell, Kim. The groups kind of catch up with each other and yeah, and Kim does, does not seem too incapacitated to yell. Because when they get to me, he's like, Hey, welcome to, welcome to the O'Campa camp. I expected for sure. Like they, they get to Ensign Camini's like, I smoke too much shakeweed. And said he says, welcome to the O'Campa camp. And Tom Parris is like, O'Campa camp, is that really the best you can do, dude? This is a comedy show. What are you doing? This is the part of the story where Cass becomes kind of instrumental in leading them out of the cave. They have to sitle past a part of the shield with a hole in it,
Starting point is 01:13:36 which she describes as something that will kill you if you were to touch it. Yeah, melt your skin off. I looked at their knees as they were creeping through. It looked like a little bit of a kneeburner to me. Yeah. We've been told it'll bring your skin off. Ah! Torres seemed like she probably would have gotten singed, IRL. So the site will pass that shield hole,
Starting point is 01:14:00 and then they shoot through the ceiling of the Star Trek cave and emerge where Wesley and Picard crashed their shuttle in that episode of TNG. But then Wesley and Picard walk across the desert and they find out that that guy has alcohol, that he wasn't sharing, they breathe through their nose because if he breathes through your mouth, you get dehydrated faster. Just go back to that episode of Greatest Gen. It's a great one.
Starting point is 01:14:28 Just check that out. Here, we'll stop right now. Go back and listen to that episode, and we'll be right here when you're ready. Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh- the final mission. Tom Paris, a character with a big attitude, a lot to prove, but he's also got to be a member of this crew. He's got to save the cat. We got to we got to feel like he's on our side. So there's a farmer's daughter in there. He goes back and saves Chicoete, who's like broken his leg and is stranded on this, this walkway. It almost looks like the end of Captain Kirk kind of a moment there. I was just going to say the most dangerous place in Star Trek is a metal scaffold because
Starting point is 01:15:20 this is a show willing to kill its most important character on one. They shot this right after shooting generations. I wonder if they thought about changing this moment to something else just because it's like so similar. It's almost shot for shot. Yeah. The cut to the bolts loosening. Totally. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:15:36 So Chicoete ends up falling to his death. But not before Paris greets him at the bottom, where Chicote tells him how much fun the mission was before dying. We cut to Paris making a little mound of rocks on the surface that we can infer as Chicote's grave. Yeah, kind of fucked up that he'd moves the rocks around into a face tattoo kind of shape. Like, I wasn't really sure what his religion was, so I thought this was the
Starting point is 01:16:05 most appropriate thing. I mean, Karen's your Native American right? Like just totally spitballing ideas about what might or might not constitute Native American culture. I mean, how interesting that you bring that up and talking about the scene where Tom Harris saves Chicote, because that is where the like casual anti-Indian racism really starts to rear its ugly head and it is so surprising because it feels so outside of the tone of Star Trek. You don't hear people going like, hey, Jordy, you're a black guy, right? Bullshit, man.
Starting point is 01:16:41 It's just bullshit. Even commenting on somebody else's race is something that is treated very carefully in Star Trek typically and Except alien race wise because alien race stereotypes feel like are Are traded back and forth conversationally a whole bunch. Yeah, specifically like Ferengian Klingon and Romulan stereotypes specifically like a forangi and cling on and Romulan stereotypes. Slurs about my people. Yeah, and this does feel more like the way Harry Kim was talking about.
Starting point is 01:17:11 I've heard about I've heard about forangies at the economy stuff than than anything else. And he says a few things that are like pretty offensive this moment and it's like it's so surprising that they included that in the script. It's so surprising that that passed muster in 1995. It's like sometimes when people say stupid shit like this they call it a joke and more shit comes out that's even worse than the earlier shit. Right. There's a victim in all this. You know, I'm really easy to get along with, close to this time. But I don't like bullets, I don't like friends, and I don't like you. I love this too. Chicoete lives. Ben, in a very heroic scene. Tom Paris saves Chicoetay, makes it off the stairs as the stairwell
Starting point is 01:18:07 falls into the Star Trek cave. Get out of here, Paris, before the whole thing comes down! I intend to, as soon as I can chew up. I really got the bends after this scene, because we're back on the ship. Yeah. Suddenly, Ensign Kim has his uniform back on And and like was he beamed into it? Yeah, and and like he and Torres don't seem to be sick anymore like yeah And to Kote and Torres are wearing their leather gear from from the make-wee's so like they're back in uniform Ensign jawline was like really trying to make up for fucking up previously
Starting point is 01:18:43 He's like not only am I beaming everybody back with their weapons disabled, but I'm also beaming them back into the uniforms that they should have been in. That's how good I'm gonna be this time. In his head, jawlines like they're gonna love this. They're gonna really appreciate the thoughtfulness. Yeah, I'm gonna get one of the best adabois in Starfleet history and instead like nobody notices. What sucks about being jawline is that on the one hand you beam people back into their uniforms. On the other hand, you've left the ship's pants down as the K-Zone ships approach.
Starting point is 01:19:13 This is ridiculous. Yeah, so they get in a space battle with a couple of K-Zone ships kind of right around the array where the caretaker lives. And Janeway and TuVoc are going to make one last plea to get the caretaker to send them home. So the make-wee ship and Voyager fight these case on. Well, they beam over. They leave Tom Paris with the con this time and Ensen Jail line is like,
Starting point is 01:19:44 oh, God dammit. Paris with the con this time and ensingialinus like oh God damn it No, I tried so hard to make up for the earlier thing and now that the got the observer He doesn't even have one pip what what about the uniforms did the uniforms mean nothing to you? He withers and shame I love love the two-shot like Paris and the foreground, Ensign Jolline and the background just squinting, grating his teeth. This the conversation with the caretaker. He's kind of, when 400 years old, you reach, look as good you will nodding them. And Janeway is like, come on, you gotta send us back. And he's like, I can't do it.
Starting point is 01:20:35 I can't do it anymore. I've set self-destruct. Like this thing is going away. Like the machinery will no longer exist because I've got to make sure that the case on don't get access to this array because then they'll kill the alcompa and their camp and Jane was like really their camp come on let try try to put the words together barely enough strength to complete my work
Starting point is 01:21:01 I know you can figure this out. That's like reducing fractions. Take a couple of letters out. There's a logic in the joke somewhere, but it's just, it's not working. I can see that there's a preface. Banjo man's like I'm too old, I'm too old, and I'm too tired. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:21:19 He admits that this entire charade was about searching for a replacement for himself. He didn't want to just leave the O'Compah without a caretaker. That would be irresponsible. He needs a substitute caretaker. He was trying to reproduce. He was trying to find somebody that was like biologically compatible with himself. And Janeway's like, listen man, like I know that it's 1995 and not 2021, but like you got to ask before you reproduce with people.
Starting point is 01:21:47 You even bring in ships from all over the galaxy? Really glad Banjo Man's idea of reproduction wasn't the old-fashioned way. Yeah, so he's like a character that feels this huge amount of guilt for having destroyed the biosphere of the planet the Ocampa live on. That was the death that could never be repaid. Oh! I killed it!
Starting point is 01:22:11 And so like all of this has been in service of trying to save them from destruction at his own hands, but it seems like he also sort of knee-capped their progression as a species by making them his pets instead of like letting them somewhat self-determined their own future. They're children. Children have to grow up. This is like an object lesson and why you don't violate the prime directive, I guess.
Starting point is 01:22:41 And it's also about guilt. Ha-ha-ha. Guilt for making a big mistake. Very advanced species occasionally steamroll less advanced species or eliminate them entirely. It just happens. I really chuck it up to a version of a super species nursemaid elbow situation. You can really just play too rough. I thought they're who snuck we're having fun, until I accidentally exterminated them. You might say that Chicoethe thought that the caeson were having fun when he parlorated
Starting point is 01:23:20 his maquise craft into their ship, but then their ship destroyed itself and destroyed the array. I did not get this part to Cote's on the ship and he goes from zero to what I thought with suicide mission very fast. Yeah. Was this part confusing to you too or just me? I was like, whoa.
Starting point is 01:23:40 What is he such a true believer about? It's Starfleet shit, right? That's like needs of the many like deep DNA kicking in. I wonder if do we need this scene because of him becoming the exo at the end of the episode? Like does he need his hero turn in order to make that credible? I sort of wonder like if that's why we didn't get the who's gonna get a phaser before we go on an away team. Yeah, yeah, because... I wonder if that's why we didn't get the who's gonna get a phaser before we go on an away team. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:24:06 Because... This is writing a backwards stuff, too, right? Like, if you know that's coming, you gotta place these markers in the road. So we feel like we can trust Chico Tay because he was willing to risk everything to save everyone else and So the huge case on ship that has showed up is like taking out parts of the array as it as it burns up in space pretty fun effects here I thought yeah, and I really like the effect of the hologram failing inside the array where they're like in the barn and then they're in a technological space with this big like CG
Starting point is 01:24:48 non-humanoid alien that is what the caretaker was. Banjo Man is like we can't let the K-Zone have this tech. That's why originally I set self-destruct, but now self-destruct doesn't gonna work because the K-Zone ship crashed into the array. Yeah. You're gonna need you guys to do it. But the K-Zone need water, which they don't have, and yet they have giant starship building technology. I don't get them. Yeah, it's been a really long time since I've watched Voyager,
Starting point is 01:25:15 and I don't remember how much they go into about that, but I guess they wouldn't have replicators if they don't have like, transporters and replicators seem like very close technologies to each other. I think it's interesting also that the caretaker does have all of this technology, and yet nobody else that they've encountered
Starting point is 01:25:34 so far has ever even heard of it. If the K-Zone present such a threat to the Okampa, and it's all about water, why doesn't the caretaker just give them some water so they go away? It seems like you could do that. Yeah, but he's just so old. The caretakers original form kind of looks like a clear lips sofa Or like what are those things that they're like couches for music festivals that you fill with air by kind of like Yeah, yeah, yeah, like kicking them out and rolling up an end. And then you fold it in half, yeah. That's what he looks like.
Starting point is 01:26:08 Yeah, he looks like he would be a really fun thing to bring to the beach. Right. But, uh, when he turns into this husk, I love the sequence of time between husk and captain Janeway walking over, reaching down, and then thinking about picking him up, and then actually picking him up. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:26:30 Do you think he's a paperweight in Janeway's office at the end of the episode? I kept looking around that scene. I wanted to see him. They go back down to the planet and in the, like, right next to the pile of rocks where they buried Chico Tay, they bury this other rock. You're going to meet the caretakers counterpart, the lady caretaker out of space one day. They're going to invite her over to Janeway's Ready Room and she's going to see the husk. Like that is not going to be a good tone set or at all.
Starting point is 01:26:59 It's on Janeway's desk behind her and they're like sitting in the couch area and Janeway like reaches behind her and like kind of pushes it pushes it behind her so that the other caretaker can't see it She's not gonna like that So they everybody beams back to Voyager They shoot some tricobalt devices at the array over Walt devices at the array over Bologna Torres' objections. I mean, this is the, this thing still has the technology to send them home,
Starting point is 01:27:31 but in order to save the O'Campa, Janeway decides to destroy the array and cement them being stranded in the D-Quad. There's like so little time for Torres to be like, uh, what? Who is she to be making these decisions for all of us? She's the captain. Fire. Before it's torpedoes away, that you can't tell me that there isn't a lot of resentment
Starting point is 01:28:01 about this decision to come, right? Yeah. Torres and Chico Te are the only make-wice on the bridge, but you get the sense that there were kind of a lot of them because we saw a lot of them in that hallway. But like one thing that I think is a little confusing about this episode is that ship that they're on looks really tiny. So when you see just them to and two valk in the cockpit in the beginning, you could be forgiven for assuming that's all
Starting point is 01:28:30 of the Mayquees there are. But I think that I think that it's like a bigger crew. Right. And Torres is kind of there to represent hardcore Mayquees. In a way where like that Chico Tay is more of a pragmatic, I think, than she is. I'm really looking forward to the episode where the A-story conflict is Torres being unhappy with her quarters given that Nielix was given a giant suite with a soaking tub with a bath tub cloaca in it. Yeah, yeah. It's a great big explosion in space when they destroy that caretaker array. That looks great.
Starting point is 01:29:13 The lead case on has a comment that does not seem commensurate with the explosion because boom goes the dynamite. Lead case on gets on the FaceTime and is like, you have made an enemy today. And transmission. All right, bye. Yeah. Like, it seems like he's more upset about the array than his giant ship that was destroyed. I don't know how many thousands of people on board. Kind of a lot of people just died. Yeah, Paris reports to the Ready Room and is informed that he will be receiving a field commission to LT. Congratulations. There's some strings attached, one of which is they will be reporting to the new first
Starting point is 01:30:00 officer, Commander Chacote, who he was recently racist too, and is very upset about it. But his racism was forgiven because, for some reason Chicoetay has pledged his life to Paris as a result of his life saving measures. That's like the funniest way to dunk on the racist, right? It's being like, yeah, that's real. Yes, absolutely.
Starting point is 01:30:22 Yeah. I owe you my life or whatever, you fucking piece of shit. Yeah, Chico Tay can actually turn into an eagle. He racist asshole. Yeah, so he's gonna be pipped. I wanted a pipsine. We don't think it would have been nice if she'd gotten up and put the pips on him, but No such luck for him. He's leaving and Nielix and Kess come in. And they announce that they want to be kind of brought into the crew. They want to be like fixers, dequad fixers for the Voyager crew.
Starting point is 01:30:59 They really make the hard sell here, especially Nielix. He's not taking no for an answer. This is the sort of used car salesman that I try to avoid. Just stop, Nelix. Leave me alone. Yeah. He does have like quirk style fancy costume and he does have like, I feel like they really like use the idea of a quirk type character in coming up with what Nelix was going to be. I wonder if there is some wardrobe swapping between them.
Starting point is 01:31:29 I wonder if they're the same suit size. Yeah, the button on the episode is a pretty long captain's speech to the new crew. We're alone. Mr. Paris, set a course. We've got Chicoce in his uniform and Janeway walks around the bridge. And I really like this. Like she basically is making the case that like we are going to live by our starfleet values.
Starting point is 01:31:58 We're two crews that are merging into one and like our our top line goal is get home and get home faster than, you know, the war pension would do at top speed if that's all we were relying on. She does that thing though, where she's like, let's talk about solutions, how we can come together and fix the problem that I created by blowing up our only way home. Guys, I know you agreed to come on this road trip, and we're currently on the side of the road next to the smoking hulk that I personally blew up.
Starting point is 01:32:33 What I want to talk about now is, you know, not looking back at mistakes of the past, but looking forward to it opportunities for the future. Did you like this first episode of Star Trek Voyager, Ben? Objection noted, we'll do this without you. If you do it, if you do it, if you do it, if you do it, if you do it, if you do it. Boy, I really did. I think that there's some stuff that feels a little hand-wavy a couple of moments where I wanted to know more and I just couldn't because it is really breathless. Like, we move through so many story beats in this episode.
Starting point is 01:33:10 And I was pointing out to you that the memory alpha page about this episode is hysterically long. Like, it would probably take me a week to read all of it if I did. But the thing that is funny to me about it is that in recapping the plot, they have this episode broken into an eight act structure. Classic Robert McKee's eight act structure. God help you if you use voiceover in your work, my friends.
Starting point is 01:33:40 There's a reason that he's got the screenwriting Bible. Yeah, yeah. I mean, what movie can you think of that isn't an 8x structure? I'll wait. And so I think that, like, while that is true, like this really, like, gets my interest, I think it's a great introduction to the characters. They have already started to explore kind of the comedy aspect of this show,
Starting point is 01:34:04 which a lot of, a lot of which centers around the doctor being a hologram man who is treated as sort of less than by the captain in one scene, you know, he's like, he's like dismissed and a piece of equipment drops on the floor kind of unceremoniously in one scene. Like, I feel like we really know know most of the characters and what they're about in a way that is really hard even with a double episode. Robert Picardo's face is a really great character on the show already, you can tell. He's got a great keen and reacts quality about him.
Starting point is 01:34:40 Yeah, how about you, did you like this episode? I did quite a bit. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed being back on a ship again and how meaningful that was to my enjoyment, you know? Yeah. You need to be on a great big ship with a brand new crew and getting into spaceship type adventures again. I was confused by the whole Tom Paris-Niclicarno thing, though.
Starting point is 01:35:03 Yeah. Like, especially when he's introduced in prison. Right. And especially when the dialogue used to describe his backstory could have been Nick Lacharno's backstory. Like, the stuff about the desks of some Starfleets, like, it lined up with Nick Lacharno's story up into a point where it really didn't. And I wonder why they didn't just do it This may be a powerful, but what I've heard is that the that it was supposed to be Nick Lekarno
Starting point is 01:35:30 And it was they cast him because they wanted him to basically reprise that character But they would have had to pay whoever wrote that character every time they use the character in the new series And if you do it seven seasons, if the character, you're gonna go broke. Yeah, I don't know, who knows how WGA rules work on something like that, but if it would have prevented them from reasonably being able to budget for episodes,
Starting point is 01:35:59 I could see making the decision to just change the name, making sense, but also I wouldn't put it past Rick Burman and be like, what? We're not giving that guy a thousand dollars every time we say his name. You know. Nice to meet you, Harry Kim. I'm lick macar no. Yes, lick is a name that rhymes with nicks that everybody knows. There's no other ones I can think of. Feels like a pretty good start here. Yeah. As far as premiere episodes go. I'm excited.
Starting point is 01:36:37 Yeah, yeah, I'm excited for three and a half more years, Ben. I'm also excited to see if we have any priority one messages in the inbox, Adam. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Stop a little, un-pump. Stop a little. Yes, extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. And we do, fortunately, Ben, our first one is of a promotional nature. And the call to action is this.
Starting point is 01:37:05 Join the Friends of Disotto Discord at drunkshamota.com. This is one of the social media sites that Friends of Disotto have gathered at. Yeah, what a cool URL too! Yeah, how did we not get that? That was really dumb by us. Message goes like this, we are reaching out to all friends of DeSoto everywhere to join us for consensual fun on our discord server Our server features daily suck disk discussion Beautiful sprockets and Darwin emojis. Oh
Starting point is 01:37:37 Sassy compromising photos of Adam you've heard about If you're a fan of any of Ben and Adam's works, please grab your Horgon and join us. Wow. Fun. Maybe we should do like a office hours there or something like that, like hang out for a little while and say what's up to folks. I like that idea. Let's do it. Yeah. That's also something we should incorporate into our end of show Suggestions for folks because I know that there's a lot of cool FODs over there. Yeah drunkshamota.com is where you can find that We have another priority one message here Adam. It's from Aaron and it's Tamirium Goes like this. It's been 17 years since you introduced me to the pleasure of falling asleep to the ambient DVD menu sounds of TNG and DS9. And 13 years since we've had our first dance to Cisco and VIX do it.
Starting point is 01:38:35 Yes, we pulled the audio from a DVD for our wedding. Wow. To love you more than I do. It would be a war crime! Ben and Adam thanks for... The L.O.O.Ls and Leia Minifig. Wow. Very cool. That is a great run, Aaron and Miriam,
Starting point is 01:38:53 and that's a really fun first dance. Yeah, really is. That's a bold choice. A deep cut. So was there first dance a minute? That seems like a great length of time for that. Yeah, that first dance. Sometimes you go to a wedding and the first dance is like
Starting point is 01:39:09 November rain or something. That's just too low. Yeah, we chose rapper's delight for our wedding. And by a minute, 13, you could really start to see some of the older relatives lose their enthusiasm for the whole affair. Well, everyone got tired holding your chairs over their heads. To set you down. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:39:34 Grats to Aaron and Miriam. We missed your anniversary, I guess, by a couple of months, but that's a good reminder for folks to get your P1s in early if you're trying to hit a specific date, can head to maximumfun.org slash jumbo-tron if you would like to get a priority one message of your own. Hey Adam. What's that been? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? I feel compelled to give my Shimoda to Rollins,
Starting point is 01:40:08 because I have a suspicion that we're never going to see him again. I don't know, I just get that first episode of a new series vibe from Rollins, that he's going to be a little bit our guy. Like, he may pop back in from time to time, but I don't know if he's going to be a going concern, and when he plays a station like a piano, I like that quite a bit. So he's my Shimoda for that.
Starting point is 01:40:31 What about you? At the risk of putting him out to an unbeatable early lead in the Kalen Dinsmore Shimoda power rankings, I'm gonna go as Nelix, and it's for that, for that just like, I think that he engages with the future the way most of us would if suddenly you were in the future, like when he gets to voyager. Which is, have as much of the future as possible all at once. Yeah, he is not, hey, how do you cut on this TV? Yeah. Mr. Data, he is like replicate everything, jugs of water everywhere.
Starting point is 01:41:06 I'm like spitting water out, like suddenly the most valuable thing in the world is free to me and I'm going to enjoy the hell out of it. Nelix, $8, $10, $5 carnival guitars before two- entered discord. Alright Ben, what are we going to be watching for the next episode of Star Trek Voyager? The next episode of Star Trek Voyager is season one episode two, Paralax. Tensions rise between the merge Starfleet and Make We Screws when the ship
Starting point is 01:41:51 becomes trapped inside a star that collapsed upon itself. They get into some big trouble real early on here. Yeah, big conflict about the tabs, I'm sure. Well, uh, why don't you head over to our new Game Board, Adam? What are we gonna call this game? Because before it was called a game of buttholes, we'll have the profits. And I'm going to propose game of buttholes The will of the caretaker.
Starting point is 01:42:23 Wow! Okay! So many neat updates to the game by our friends, Philippe Sobriero and Craig Anderson. I'm looking at a couple of changes to our game, Ben. Yes. Maybe primarily the choice of a six-sided die or a 100-sided die.
Starting point is 01:42:42 Yes. That's interesting. And then we have a couple of new spots on the game board. What we've got is Nielix's Galley, which is the host drink a Tlaxi and champagne. That sounds like a fun square. Yeah. We've got the caretaker, which is the caretaker sends the run about to a random square on the board. Hence the 100-sided die. So if we land on a caretaker square, you roll the die again, and it will put you somewhere else on the board.
Starting point is 01:43:12 It randomizes the game. Very cool. And we do reset here. So we're starting at square one. The runabout is on square one. One other big change to the game is that there are a couple of delta flyers now on the board, which serve as the ladders to the space butthole snakes.
Starting point is 01:43:34 So if we hit square two, for example, that hits us onto a delta flyer that would take us up to his eyes uncovered square on Square 21. I see how it works so we can go up and down. Yeah, and around Big changes Why don't you go ahead and roll that bone my friend? You're required to learn as you play roll I've hit the button, Ben. I rolled a one. Oh, lovery! And we are jumped up to square 21.
Starting point is 01:44:11 Wow. Which is going to start us right away on his eyes uncovered episode. That's you and I are during parts of the episode going to pitch 10 Tamarian style metaphors to describe the action during the episode that we've watched. I'm really excited about this. This is the rare time when you rolling a one yields an exciting result at them. Yeah, most of the time it does nothing. Another role for me. Good job there.
Starting point is 01:44:47 Very, very fun. Well I am looking forward to this next episode. And I can't wait to get into Voyager in a big way man. This is great. Yeah it's a new start. A new start. A new start. Whether you're a long time viewer of Greatest Gen who has coasted along on these past 350 or so episodes or someone
Starting point is 01:45:13 starting the fun now that we're about Star Trek Voyager, this first episode is a great time to make sure that you're supporting the show. So go to maximumfund.org slash join to make sure that you are. For everyone already supporting Greatest Gen and for those who are just about to thanks a lot. Yeah we'd super appreciate that. We got a great great big thanks especially on this episode to give to our buddy Adam Ragusia who has created all new interstitial music for these Voyager episodes of the program.
Starting point is 01:45:49 For some reason this is not what he's most famous for either. He's so good at it. Yeah, he is most famous for being a really fantastic YouTube chef. He can find his YouTube channel by searching Adam Ragusia and he's gonna teach you some really great, like, you know, weeknight meals that are easy and fun to cook that don't take a ton of time, but maybe, maybe, you know, stretch your skills a little bit, but also, like, show-stopping meals you might make
Starting point is 01:46:20 if you're gonna do some entertaining. And he's also really sharp about the kind of science of cooking. So you kind of like learn why something works when you're learning how to do a dish. There are a ton of friends out there waiting for you. We call them the Friends of Desotto on the Greatest Generation. You can find them on our longstanding Facebook group,
Starting point is 01:46:43 filled with great folks making Facebook a better place to be. The Discord server at drunkshamota.com, you can also make new friends by following our official Twitter feed, greatest trek and Instagram feed, also of the same name. Those places are run by the great Bill Tilly, the card daddy, our social media manager. He's making funny trading cards about every episode of this show and the greatest discovery and he retweets those and he posts really fun stuff on Instagram. We really appreciate everything Bill Tilly does. Just as we appreciate everything that Philippe Sobrero and Craig Anderson and Andrew Wong Hoyer have done to make the
Starting point is 01:47:32 Game of Buttholes will of the caretaker so much fun for us. Thanks guys. And with that, we will be back at you next week with another great episode of Star Trek Voyager and a episode of the greatest generation that I really hope doesn't collapse in upon itself. Hmm, glad to have you back on the conclusions. It will get me off the hook. Feels good. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound.
Starting point is 01:48:17 Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound.
Starting point is 01:48:35 Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound.
Starting point is 01:48:43 Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture Artist Oat Audience supported

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