The Greatest Generation - The Deep End of the Pool (S6E6)

Episode Date: April 26, 2017

When the Entrepreneur’s new internship program is announced, the first participant is a brilliant orphan who fits right in. But when she starts showing off her I Dream of Jeannie impression, the crew’s most hated god-thing shows up to reprise his role as judge, jury and executioner. How did the costume department spin cloth out of cotton candy? What does being adopted have to do with fighting a warp explosion with your bare hands? Why does Gates get all the hair? It’s the episode we’ll be a little bit embarrassed to talk about at our high school reunions.

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

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

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

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

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

I'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Prenica. We are your hosts. Adam. are your hosts. Adam, I had a pretty funny and sort of embarrassing interaction with a dear friend from high school recently. That you went to high school with or you have friends who are in high school right now? I went to high school with her. And yeah, we stayed in touch, stayed friends, a couple of good high school pals that I've stayed in touch with over the years.

She heard the great John Hodgman mention our program. I think there were like three Judge John Hodgman episodes in a row, like a month or two ago, that name checked the greatest generation. And which was great. Like we definitely saw a little uptick in our listenership and really appreciate Hodgman doing that for us. That was very kind of him, something he didn't have to do. And Dana is a listener to that show. She was like, Ben Harrison, I know a guy with that name. And so I came up with what I was doing,

but I was like having some conversation with somebody that I kind of needed to be focused on, and a friend from high school who had never heard me say word one about Star Trek the next generation starts texting me like, since when do you know anything about Star Trek and how do you have a huge podcast about it? Oh yeah, well what have you been doing since high school? Yeah, it was a bit of like awkward high school reunion conversation, but also just like, I knew you for all four years of high school and we've never talked about this. And so I had to explain to her why I kept that under my hat all those years. And she said she loved the show, but it was, yeah,

it was a weird, I think since high school, I liked TNG, but I didn't necessarily wear that on my sleeve because in our high school anyways, would have really limited my social opportunities. Not that I had many to be good with. You don't say. Yeah, but like I, you know, like I didn't want to only have one group of people I was allowed to hang out with and because like, you know, who knew if they would take me or

leave me, right? Yeah, you want to give yourself as many options as possible. You don't want to put all your eggs in one social basket. So, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I just, I totally, I have a vivid memory of making an active decision not to engage in a Babylon 5 conversation that was happening in the school bus on the way to freshman orientation. And I look back at that as a pretty savvy decision from a kid that was otherwise pretty bad at high school.

You could have ended your high school career before it even began on that bus right there Ben. Yeah. And the fact that friends from that era are now aware of how deep the rabbit hole really went with me is, you know, it brings up a lot. There are a lot of like feelings from high school that are so potent and present when you're in high school. And like they came raging back. My 20 year high school reunion is coming up this year. Whoa.

And this conversation has given me a lot to think about in terms of how much I would like to disclose about what I do professionally. Because like in real terms, in real life, like the effort and time and amount of thought that I've given the show has been on the massive upswing to the relative exclusion of what I used to do professionally, and still do. But you know what I mean? Like the pie graph is changing and it's changed over the last few months. And so it would be a little bit dishonest to say that like all I do is video production.

And I mean like that's, I mean like we don't, we make a little bit of money off of this show. Yeah, and that's not to say that it's like that's not a, that's not a financial description. It is just in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a,

in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, in a, like we basically make enough money to make this make sense now, which is a great plateau to have gotten to with it. But that also kind of means it's part of our career. Yeah, very weird way. Yeah, like this has to go on the resume now, in a way that unpaid internship doesn't make it, you know? Mm-hmm. Uh, yeah. Well, speaking of doing things in the manner of an internship at them, do you want to talk about today's episode?

Let's do it, Ben. Let's talk about season six, episode six, true cue. There is a some planet in crisis and the entrepreneur is loading up supplies. And what they also load up is a fetching young co-ed who got an internship in the medical, I guess she's like a biology student and so she's kind of gone, got into like the Dr. Crusher flagship internship. It's got to be a pretty sweet gig, right? Is this the Rhodes Scholarship of the 24th century, like getting to do what Wesley got to do on the entrepreneur? It seems like an academic style,

catch a rising star situation with her. Like, she's really on the come-up. Mm-hmm. And the place to be when you're a gifted person is the enterprise. Yeah. So, yeah, they're excited to have her aboard and I think the doctors is going to really put her through her paces, let her do the NBC page thing where she gets to try all the jobs, to one extent or another. And like, she's a big enough deal as a prospect

that she's like getting introduced to the captain the moment she comes aboard. Right. And like, I remember when I was growing up and I saw this episode, it was really, there was a little bit of whip last year because like the last time you see Olivia Diabo was like as Fred Savage's sister in the Wonder Years.

And I also like had the superhots for her from that show. But like on Wonder Years, like she was sort of a hippie and like the pot-smoking cool sis. I didn't realize she was in there, that's great. But here they've like, they zipper into a uniform that like I sort of imagine the costume department had was like right next to catering. And catering had a whole bunch of those like pink

frosted cookies. Like the super popular like grandpa's pink frosted cookie. And the super popular, like, grandpa's pink frosted cookie. And they're like, let's just... Are these the ones that are like animal shaped sometimes and they come in white and pink? No, I'm talking about just the big sugar cookie with the pink frosting.

Oh. Oh. They're terrible taste of cookies, Adam. And they're like, and they're like, that's Olivia's costume for the entire episode. Let's suit her up. She's gonna look like a birthday cake. Whether she likes it or not. She doesn't have a costume change, does she?

She does at the very, very end, but most of the time, she's just wearing a feather bow of cotton candy. And the thing about early 20s year old Olivia Diabo is, like, it doesn't hurt. You know? Yeah, she can make anything look good. Yeah. So she doesn't get instant hospitality. She gets commander riker treatment.

He takes her down to her quarters and shows her around a little bit. The second he leaves. I have to get back to cargo mate too. She turns around, you know, like I interpret this turn around as like the moment the the Bellman leaves your hotel room and you're like, where am I going to throw my pants right now? I love that moment. Yeah. Like you've been traveling all day, you're in a hurry to make fists with your toes. Yeah, make fists with your toes and let your underpants

dry out a bit after a sweaty, sweaty airplane seat. Yes, a better than a shower and a hot cup of coffee. Yeah, yeah, I mean, assuming... She turns around and that. You don't have that problem if you're wearing Mac Weldon underwear with a silver thread. Oh yeah, that's a good point. They didn't even pay us for that one. She turns around in the place is full of puppies. Oh no. It is a riot of puppies, Ben. No, no, it is a riot of puppies been. Yeah, it's like If it was rats, this would be like about the enterprise really letting itself go and becoming kind of a Kind of a slum in all but name

But it's puppies. So it's cute Amanda gets right up on the floor with them starts picking them up Rassinland around a little bit and you get so what else do you do with puppies? You get so close to the floor in her apartment Ben. Did you notice who was made out of? It's like carpeted with with like Lego base station material like you know those those green Squares that you build Lego stuff on yeah, they're like 10 inch by 10 inch square. Yeah, like she's got red Lego tiles all across the floor. Yeah, well how do you think they affix all those glass tables to the area? Man, the future is awesome because when you're a kid that's what they carpet your apartment with. Pretty awesome. Yeah, good times. Yeah, and she's a little dismayed by these puppies. Like she wants to snuggle a little bit, but she's not thrilled about the fact that they have appeared here.

And what she does is she starts kind of like making significant eye contact with them. And one by one, they wink out of existence. We changed the shot up a little bit and we see the window to space. Slowly fill up with these puppies. Yeah, it's actually really sad soon. Super fucked up, dude.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, they're just kind of struggling to run, but you can't run in space. No, yeah, and they don't understand why they can't breathe. Yeah, yeah, a little babies. They don't know why it's so cold out there. And they're scared, so it makes them pee a lot Oh so evil She just establishes herself with the as the most sickening villain right from the jump. Yeah Yeah, pretty dark pretty fast. So then John Wick decides to go on a revenge spree

He hates people that fuck with dogs. I love John Wick. So we got all these dead puppies floating out the window. And so the idea is Amanda is like getting a tour of the ship. She's going to see her time there is about exploring all these different career paths. Because while she is incredibly smart on an academic scale, she's a little bit indecisive about the sort of specialty she wants to get into as a career.

So she's using her time aboard the Enterprise to just sort of experience all these different things. And the first place she ends up is in the shuttle bay, where she meets Jordy. Yeah, I mean, I think she did a little six bay stuff, but yeah, she's like, she's helping Jordy load some stuff up into a Previa because this planet that they're doing their rescue mission on has a atmosphere that is no good for for transporter beams and I guess the idea is that they pollute the shit out of their atmosphere and then like do something to it to like neutralize its effects or something is that the basic idea?

It felt like a real catheter cowboy kind of contemporary problem in the future sort of situation. Been cowboying for 25 years. And that this planet is a fucked up ozone layer. And why don't they just stop putting carbon into the atmosphere instead of trying to deal with it after the fact? If they were only more proactive,

they wouldn't be in this problem. You get that, right? Right? You get that. Right? It's a little didactic. But while there... See, that is a super efficient way of saying what took me four minutes to tell you.

Thanks, Ben. A little podcast fluid there, huh? Yeah. Well, I just got through talking a lot, so I'm very thirsty. Um... Kind of jealous. I'm not really allowed to have podcast fluid right now. What? I'm on anti-malarials because of my trip. And I didn't even realize this while I was on the trip,

so I may have completely fucked myself, but it's just a low dose of antibiotic, and I guess you're not supposed to drink while you're taking antibiotics. Oh, so I think I have to lay off the podcast fluid for like two weeks so that I can make sure I don't get one of the scariest illnesses. Whoa, wow, well, I mean, I'll drink enough

for the both of us, how's that? Deal. Well, while they are loading this Previa up, some barrels that are stacked in a knot Oshra approved way on the second level of the cargo bay tumble off, and one of them nearly hits one raker william t, but Amanda, the intern, manages to do some, some like... She's got... She's got... ...jazz hands?

She's got like the, um, I dream of genie thing a little bit the way, the way she does hand movements when she's doing magic. Yeah, it's I Kind of don't like that as a directing choice or maybe she made that choice, but like I mean Q will snap his fingers every so often But it doesn't have to but it makes it seem like she's really got to like wave her fingers to make magic happen Anyways, she saves Commander Riker from being killed to make magic happen. Anyway, she saves Commander Riker from being killed. It looks to me like the workplace barbecue. You know the one.

Like every workplace has the shitty barbecue. Like, it's not a Weber, it's like the Sears Kenmore rusted out. Like octagonal. Who knows if that tank has any propane in it at all. I'll tell you one thing, for sure, the lighter isn't going to work. You're going to want to use a flicker stick on it. Yeah. It's not really anybody's job to maintain this barbecue, and that's really the problem. Yeah, exactly. And all that falls on Riker is the ash. Exactly. And all that falls on Riker is the ash.

Yeah. Amanda saves his ass big time. Yeah, I mean, this is like a, this is the kind of thing that would have put worth in six bay with a crushed L3. And as- Is this a practical? The effect? I played it a bunch of times and I couldn't tell.

It's a practical, right? I think it a bunch of times and I couldn't tell. It's a practical, right? I think it is, yeah. I mean, it's not like a CG thing. It's so far away. Yeah. Like that wide angle, you can hide a lot of shit. I wonder, did they shoot it in,

did they shoot it on like an inter-volometer and and reverse it? Yeah, I was thinking because the because when the barbecue jets out of the way that's the thing that That made me think It was a comp. It's weird that it falls right like it's it's an unmotivated fall Yeah, there should have been just somebody that like walks by it and bumps it and it would have made all the sense in the world. I mean, they've got plenty of extras wandering around. We find out later that it was bumped, Ben.

It was this one, one of the ones that was bumped? It was, it was cute that bumped it. I thought he did the warp thing, but not this. Oh, he did both. He mentions it later. He's like, I had to give the warp thing, but not this. Oh, he did both. He mentions it later. He's like, I had to give you a more, I had to give you a test more befitting of your powers. Okay.

Well, I wasn't paying a ton of attention because Q was in the episode. So I was mostly focusing on rolling my eyes without hurting them. You, I'll tell you what you were focused in on, Ben. Ha, ha, ha. Yeah. eyes without hurting them. You outtell you what you were focused in on Ben. Yeah, so the next thing that happens is that she goes down to engineering and the warp core goes critical.

And it's actually really fun. They have a lot of fun showing the metal, start to glow and bulge on a warp core. They're making steam vent out from all over the place. And... Jordy is deprived from the ability to put down that door and then roll under it, though. Yeah, they love doing that. They start talking about doing the isolation door

and they're like, well, this is going so fast that that isolation door isn't gonna do shit. Yeah. And it's well shot. Like they do a real fun kind of like shot reverse shot push in on data and Jordy is there trying to, trying to stop the problem. The warp core us blowed. And Amanda reaches her hands out and stops the explosion. And pushes the plasma or whatever back into the warp core and it restabilizes.

And Fritz Fighter is a great take. Temperature in the reaction chamber has returned to normal. Weird. Slightly, I mean, the graduation in challenge here is a real hockey stick, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. We got puppies, we got barbecues, and then we have full warp core failure 10 feet away.

Yeah. Like, you would think there'd be something in between the barbec barbecue and the warp core, but there's not. No, yeah. It's like, you really threw her into the deep end of the pool. Yeah. So, yeah, they have a little McLaughlin group to discuss what the hell is going on with

our new intern. You said she was adopted. Did she be an alien? You know, they're like, oh, well, she's adopted. Maybe there's something, maybe it's something to do with that. Like any horror movie, it always starts with the kid who's adopted. Yeah. And there's a fun reveal of Q, where he's revealed voice first.

Everything was normal, and then suddenly it's like the laws of physics went right out the window. And why shouldn't they? They're so inconvenient. And the camera turns around and down there at the other end of the big conference table is a very casual cue. Casual and yet dressed up in a slightly baguier than it should be, Starfleet uniform.

Yeah. You know, for a man who's been on the show as often as he's been, you'd think that he'd have a better tailored Starfleet uniform than he does. Yeah, I wonder how that works. I mean, do you think that they just like cast guys with roughly the same measurement whenever they want somebody to play a captain and they are thinking it's going to be a backsypt type of part so that they don't have to make one more of these. I tell you what, if the difference is $3,000 in budget, you bet your ass you do.

Like casting for people within 5, 10, and 6 feet tall, like 190 to 210 pounds. Like I think you're definitely keeping it in that window. Yeah. So this is like the 44 L that they made. Yeah. And they'll put you in it even if you're like a 40 L. Yeah. Or a straight 42. But, uh, but yeah, that is, that's a big cost savings. Yeah. It's the Joseph A. Bank of uniforms. Totally disposable. But sort of not because it's got to be reused, right? It's like the, yeah.

It's more, it's less the Joseph A. Bank of uniforms, it's more the Friars Club jacket. All gentlemen are required to wear jackets in the dining room. Yeah. Like they will issue you this jacket if you're dining at at Shay TNG tonight But if you leave the restaurant with it, you're not getting into the club

Take off your jacket my jacket. Yes, the jacket. What do you say ladies and gentlemen? You can't argue with that your credit card is gonna be charged $3,000 Plus a 20% gratuity. Right. My love is a piece of clothing, silver bag, which is longer than us at the PC. Tell me more, you're not the boy. Q explains that Amanda is, in fact, a Q, or at least part Q,

which, who knew that was even a possibility. But he's here to assess what her deal is and if she proves to be full Q, he's going to want to take her back to the Q continuum. This is a really fun idea, I think. Like, how are cues made? Where do they come from? We're going to find out, right? Are they like originally humans and they've evolved to be super advanced? Or are they energy-flur-del-e that take on human form so that it makes sense?

So when they're interacting with us, what is baseline queue? And that feels like it should be the B story, but instead it's a what happened to a man's parents and why? Like, it's a very pedestrian investigatory, B story instead of like, I feel like we're hitting this drum over and over again. It is a writer's inability to commit fully to answering a question like this.

In this context, I really forgive them though, because the one thing about Q is that he's super annoying. So, like, I would imagine that any crew that encounters a being with the kind of powers that Q has would be intensely curious about what kind of a thing Q is and like how he came by these powers and what other Qs are like. But they mainly just want to get rid of him. Yeah, yeah, that's true. They're writing to the truth of the universe that they've built, Adam.

Yeah. You've convinced me. Yeah. So yeah, like he goes down to Amanda's apartment to like, you know, check her teeth and see what she's, you know, just gets a nowhere a little bit. Did you, did you, this is the scene that I first noticed this in because there's a kind of intense shot of him like looking into our eyes where the back of her head is like the main part of the frame. That bun on top of her head is like the worst fake hair.

It's like Halloween store level fake hair. You know, this is a comment that might get me in a trouble bin. But I found her just so pretty that I never even looked at her hair. Well, somebody's got to do it. This is like half of what we talk about on this show, Adam. I know, I know. And I, like, I know that the hair cast is my first duty,

and I failed, then. The first duty of every greatest gen host is to the hair, whether that's scientific hair, or historical hair, or personal hair. It's true. It's the guiding principle on which great is Jen is base. If you can't find it with whom yourself to make fun of some hair, then you don't deserve to wear that uniform.

I don't deserve to talk into this microphone. Well put, Ben, you've really drill-instructored me back into shape. All my corners are sharp now, from here on out. Yeah, well, if you fail again, I may have to unscrew your head and shut down your neck. Get on your knees, come back! You get tossed by him, and he's trying to kind of big-dog her and she literally flings him across the room. Yeah, Q does this thing where he like tries to get her into his van. He's like, he's

like, hey girl, I'm taking you back with me to the Q continuum. I know before you sort of were given the impression that like you had some free will in the matter, but like get in my van. Yeah. And Amanda, like, it doesn't even try the gambit of like get in my van. And a man to like- It doesn't even try the gambit of like I've got a broken arm and this, and this, this is the furniture. Yeah, it's too much for one man to handle. Yeah. Yeah, and he, and she, she forced Poshism,

like into a thing holding a plant. What was that thing? Little corner table. Yeah. Let's go. We've been alone. Pretty fun stunt. This is the kind of stunt that Marina services usually get nasty to. But perhaps her butt was not in the mood that day. I think her wig is still in beta. They're not ready to subject it to a bunch of rip

cord stunts. They are back with this bad wig on Councillor Troy in this episode. You think she had some wig envy with with gates and was like, why does she get all the hair? I don't know. She's got to be looking at Olivia Diabo, going like, woof, there but for the grace of wig God go I. I bet even Dorn has more wigs than poor counselor Troy. The thing about the hair on Amanda is that she has very lovely hair. There's no reason for this fake looking bun on top of it. Well, of course there is, man, and that reason is future. Everybody has much more volume

than we do here in our pedestrian present time. Extensions are gonna be more of a thing in the future. I can feel it. Yeah. Well, everybody in our time that sees how much fun it is when an extension gets pulled out in a cat fight on a daytime talk show, you know, was just taking that and building it into our plans for the future. There's sort of a lot of talking about Amanda but not talking to her directly. And this, right? Like... Yeah, I don't know.

Like people are having all sorts of meetings about her. And she, for the most part, is kept under the dark. Kept under the dark about what all this is about. Yeah, and part of the topic of those meetings is Q intends to snuff her out if he discovers that she is like, miscellinated with humans. Yeah, the stakes are with humans. Yeah. Yeah, the stakes are pretty high,

and they decide not to tell her that the stakes are that high, so that her observation can be, I guess, more natural. Yeah, and so she's got this weird path to lock of, she knows that she's become the subject of cues curiosity and she knows that she has cue powers but she doesn't really know anything else so she kind of makes this this decision to just kind of try to live her life the way she was living it before all this happened and you get

you get a series of vignettes that are like angel versus devil, you know? Like, like, why are you making the gifted students who could perform surgery to like bio 101 homework? And like, it becomes very clear through these vignettes that like humanity, humanity can't help but hold someone of her capabilities back. Right. Like, she does not want to wait for the medical samples to age naturally. You know, she wants to cue them into shape and then get on with her ability to fly outside of the ship. Right. And not die in the process. Like, there's fun to be had as a cue.

Yeah, there's fun to be had. And so much of being a human is like administration. Yeah, it's like winning the lottery and trying to stay normal. Well put. It's not really possible to be the person you were before money stopped being a problem. I think we can.

And so it's a noble impulse. Like I think we all understand the impulse she has. And I think we also all understand the mistake she makes. When she does the biology project way too fast and just gets the samples ready to go. Like what she missed is that there was something about the process that the doctor needed to learn from in order to have that be an experiment worth doing. Yeah.

And I mean like by the same token she wants to, she wants to jump Commander Riker's bones and she like goes from zero to Romeo and Juliet with him. Like, she like literally steals him out of a different date he's on and takes him to like a fantasy gazebo where she's in a very rippable bodice and he's in a top hat and she's like, let's get it on, baby. And he's like, no, no, no, no, no. I am into consent and you have already gone way too far with this. This whole scene is like, if you were to tell me that we're going to make an episode about Q finding another Q and then there being a whole bunch of personality and magic tests associated with that, if you were to tell me that my favorite scene would be just like a

desperate house-wife style fuck Gazebo scene, like with with Riker and a Abraham Lincoln hat, I would have been like no way that's not gonna be my favorite scene. It's my favorite scene. This is so great. And what's great is how it starts. Riker walks in a 10 forward. Hello ladies, Beverly and Troy. On his way to a date that happens. Hello ladies.

Not just at the next table, but facing them. Like as if they are the audience for the date. It's incredible. We know the kind of games that Riker is bringing to the table. If you're gonna, if you're gonna mag on a chick and you're talking about like the universe is reflected in her eyes and he wants to fall, like that's expert mode, magging, you know. Like this is, it's not that he has anything to be ashamed of, but it is so utterly shameless. Like it's shameless in the way that he's not even thinking about how it could be perceived.

It's amazing. It's incredible. If I served on this ship, I would make sure to be in 10 forward anytime, Reiker, was having a date and get a table as close to the action as possible. They probably issue like a Gallagher concert like the front front two or three rows get sheets of Painter's plastic to hold up in case the fluid start flying before anybody expects Oh, man sort of like

Another riker minefuck in progress though as like he resists He resists as the cool teacher though, as like he resists, he resists as the cool teacher explaining to her about consent. You can't make someone love you. And then she turns the chair back around on him and goes, and goes, like, what if I just program you to be more loving? And then she quickly realizes the emptiness in that. In a way she learns Riker's lesson by hijacking Riker's mind.

She realizes that yes, consent does feel better. Yeah, consent is the sexiest. Yeah. And yeah, yeah. I mean, not before she has kind of like, I mean, she's flipped this bit in his brain and he is, you know, like autonomously started like kissing all over her neck and like grabbing at her chest and stuff.

It's like, it's really weird because I think that they also really haven't established like how old this character is and I was interpreting her as like a younger girl then I guess she must be but I definitely was like I definitely had like major throwback vibes to some of the weird stuff with Wesley back in the day where they like they're kind of intentionally vague about how young a young character is so that and that causes a lot of problems in the kind of implications that get made about what that character is up to with the other

Gruman. Frakes has this switch as an actor though, which is like where he's where he's under mental duress or he's being hypnotized like he goes slightly cross-eyed and robotic that I just love, that switch gets hit in the scene. And you can tell, but he is not himself. Yeah. It's great. Yeah.

She sends him back to 10 forward, and she has like a, just kind of like a... What do you think Riker tells his date after that? Do you think you can continue the date? It's like, I'll be on holiday for. Ha-ha-ha. Maybe we can pick this up next weekend. Holodeck 4 isn't even a holodeck really. It's code for the shower with the sprayers on all the walls. Like more sprayers than you think are necessary. Yeah.

Yeah, that can be really dicey when you turn it on for the first time if you've never done it before. Yeah. That water could get everywhere if you don't know what you're doing. You gotta keep that door closed. No consent and moving, but not big, no, not big, so that no one had the chance to think the perfect was really quite hypnotic, not hypnotic. Picard and Q are talking about the situation and Q is like, yeah, no, I have to kill her if she doesn't come back to the continuum.

And he's like, is that what you guys did to her parents? Because it's come out that her parents were in fact kind of ex-pat cues who were living on earth in Kansas of all places. They were like, we're giving up our stupendous power and our ability to go anywhere in the universe to play house in Kansas as humans. And what Q reveals is that they were given dispensation to do that

by the fact that they like agreed never to use their powers, right? Yeah, they said, look, we're just gonna lay back in the cut. You'll never even know we're here in exchange for being left alone. I guess they weren't given dispensation, but that's what they were suggesting is, like, leave us alone, we'll stop doing Q-Shit. And what, like, the reason they died was that the Q considered that a threat for whatever reason. So they sort of like, they sort of get reverse upsprigged. Like, they were targeted by a stupendous power and were the only ones killed. It was like a tornado that touched down just on their house.

Could you imagine a universe in which you are given the omnipotence of Q powers? You decide to forsake them. You then decide to live in Kansas. universe in which you are given the omnipotence of Q powers. You decide to forsake them. You then decide to live in Kansas. That's what I'm saying, man. What the fuck? Also, people are crazy. Also the fact that the Q who are, you know, unendingly powerful, they're literally omnipotent.

They missed a spot when they decided to kill the cues living on Earth. Like, how did they not know that there was a third cue? Yeah, yeah. If you love canzes so much, why don't you make your own canzes? Right. Yeah, you could literally make all the real dolls who want to rachon around your fake

Kansas. It just doesn't add up, man. It's really bizarre. So bizarre. Oh, the deal is made that she can decide what her fate is. Like, she either goes with Q and does continuum, or he kills her, or she pretends to be human for the rest of her life on the deal that she not use any of her supernatural abilities.

Your parents were given this choice, and they were unable to resist the temptation of using their power. And like she has made the deal to be human for the rest of her life, like right as the situation on the planet that they're rescuing goes all pear-shaped, and there's like a reactor that's gonna blow up, and like Jordy and Riker are gonna be killed, millions of people are gonna be killed by this thing going nuclear. And it's just too much of a temptation for her. She stops the reaction.

I don't know what's happening, but the reaction is stabilizing on its own. She cleans up the whole planet atmosphere and one fell swoop. I'm reading a massive energy fluctuation in the planet's atmosphere. It's a great effect, like it cuts to the, uh, cuts to the, the view screen and the, uh, the brown, dirty atmosphere is replaced by, you know, green mountains and crystal blue

oceans. Yeah, problem-solved. Mm-hmm. It's the hockey stick going up even steeper. Like this is a planet wide warp core breach that she solved. It's also kind of like the dilemma that Raker faced when he got cue powers. It's like, yeah.

Like I kind of feel like we saw this episode a bit. Right. I mean, this is like obviously brings a few original ideas to it, but maybe none of them are that good. You know what's interesting is that they don't even refer to that at all like who best who could best council Amanda with this problem, right? It's right. It's so right. And instead they stick Beverly on her as the counselor figure the whole time. Yeah, I mean, I thought that there was a lot of good Beverly stuff in this episode. Like they give Beverly more and better stuff to do than she usually gets.

Like good character development, good grappling with the issues, but yeah, like it could have and perhaps should have been Riker once the Q thing was revealed. Yeah, that would have been neat. That would have been a nice callback, but. Instead they're calling back the entire time to encounter it at far point. Yeah.

Like Q is saying, like the jury is still out, reminding us that the entire premise of this show is that Q is observing the ship and seeing if he thinks humanity deserves to continue existing, which is like, yeah, yeah, remind us of that terrible episode, guys. Yeah, they missed the target on the reference, I think. So Amanda in using her Q powers has made the decision.

She's choosing the gifted school. She has a little round the horn on the bridge, saying her goodbyes. And then she goes off to wherever Q took Vash. Like, did you think it was weird that Picard never asked about her? He's the first time he's seen Q since the whole vash incident? Yeah as long as we're digging up old episodes, what's up with Vash?

Yeah, like why does Q keep coming on to the ship and stealing the girls? It's a little problematic. Yeah, the less shot of this episode is crushed It's a little problematic. Yeah the The last shot of this episode is It's Crusher looking real bummed out Why do you think she's so bummed? I don't know. I mean, I guess she like saw a lot of potential in that girl

I mean, it's also weird because like like one of the big character things that Crusher goes into is like, it's like it's basically like what would you buy first if you won the lotto and Amanda is really curious why Crusaders isn't necessarily bring back Jack. Yeah. And I'm curious why they didn't spend any time on Amanda, like lobbying to grant one wish to Dr. Crusher for helping her, you know, through the transition or whatever, you know. Well, because Riker explicitly did that when it was his turn to be cute, he was in

wish granting mode back then. So I see how they couldn't exactly retread that, but your point is still super strong, which is like, that was a larger character moment than I think we were meant to realize at that point. To me, it read as Beverly has moved on. And to bring back Jack Crusher would only mean to somehow relearned to love him again or turn on whatever thing in her, she's had to set aside

you know, in the aftermath of his death. Like she can't, she can't have him back anymore. And I think if he came back, it would be super fucked up. Like that wound has healed and it's over. And I think if he came back, it would be super fucked up. Like that wound has healed, and it's over. And that's why she chooses to be if granted the wish, the person who's able to cure sick people. I thought that, you know, and just a single question and a single answer, I think that was a pretty big character leap that we're given there. Totally. And that's sort of what I was thinking in that last shot of her is like, she, it's a wordless shot, but I kind of feel like her character is doing the list

of things that were possible just then in her head. Yeah. I also think that she really found Amanda to be a Wesley proxy, you know, super gifted, uh, really ambitious and fun to be around the same age-ish, you know, like if she can't have Wesley, you know, she could be sort of a mother figure to another gifted child. Like, yeah, I think there was an itch to be scratched there too. And I think she's really gonna miss that opportunity to be that for someone else.

Because I don't, like for all of the things that Beverly Crusher's good at, I don't think she really has a lot of fulfilling relationships with people, you know? I don't think she has very many friends. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the captain is kind of her friend, but it's a very, it's a very arm's length relationship. So, yeah. I mean, this was, this was an episode where we really get to see her talk about feelings and

connect with somebody in a way that is pretty unusual. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I thought this episode had a really interesting magic trick involving John Delancey's character and how he plays Q, which is you mentioned it before, he gets really in Amanda's face, he gets really in a manned his face, he gets really touchy with her. Yeah.

He's sort of orbiting her in a very close way. And there is a hostility in him that is almost totally non-sexual. And I thought that was fascinating, like how that was done, especially because she is very attractive and he is not an unattractive man and like and it could so easily I feel like be skeevy But it's neither violent nor sexual. It's it's

Almost purely scientific in a way that like I don't know how you do that There's something about his performance and her performance off of it that is like, you know, even in a joky way, I didn't think to go there. And we go sexual places with the jokes all the time. Like, and like there was no handhold, there was no toehold there for us

to make a joke out of even. Like, I thought that was really great and interesting work. Yeah, yeah. I'm down with that assessment. Yeah. Did you like the episode, Adam? Yeah, I really did. I really like Q, and I really like John Delantis' performance as Q, and I'm still going to ride for that guy. I know it's going to get bad. It's gotten bad before it will get bad again. But this may be one of the high water marks for Q episodes. It's just like if Q has never been based on the actual character or John Delance's portrayal, both of which I think are pretty fun. I think it undermines the whole premise of the series I think it kind of undermines the whole premise of the series in a way that I think is kind of tragic.

Yeah, I mean, in the same way that Amanda is faced with the conflict of using her powers or not, like the show has that choice as well in using the character or not. Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, I think on balance, I kind of like the episode too. I think especially for the great achievements it has in not putting the female characters in terracotta pots the entire time. Yeah. And for having some like legitimately interesting sci-fi questions that it raises, it's a good one. I didn't wind up being as sprung on Amanda as I remembered being.

Oh. Yeah. Man, there were times, dude that that I forgot a little bit about Ensign row Adam don't say that no, I know I feel bad even saying it But this is the sort of show that will never bring Amanda back and I know we're gonna see Ensign row a few more times here So yeah, I'll be able to rekindle my infatuation with her shortly. Good.

Speaking of things to rekindle, Ben. Yeah. Are there any priority one messages waiting to be lit? I don't know. You're asking whether you think we have pleviem and ras business to attend to or not? Oh, yeah. Yeah. You're asking whether you think we have pleviem and ras business to attend to or not? Oh yeah, our new segment called pleviem messages ras. Let's check it out.

Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Need a supplement on top. A supplement? A supplement. A supplement? A supplement. A supplement. Yeah, it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship! Ben, the first priority one message is from a personal nature. It is from Amity.

It is for John. It goes like this. Happy anniversary. I've loved sharing this first year of marriage with you. Adam and Ben. Oh wow, I didn't realize we were in a quad marriage arrangement. Yeah. It seems like we are though. Man, yeah. How are you going to tell your wife, Ben? That's an interesting thing to think about, like the way you kind of like keep track of the passage of time. If this podcast factors into that and it's meant to be one of the most romantic parts of your life,

that could be problematic. Wow. Well, I, uh, I for one, uh, am happily married to as many people as possible, so. I feel like we haven't been getting the fringe groups ex-benefits off of this quad that we deserve at him. Yeah, I expected a far more shag carpet and fish bowls full of key rings. So, isn't that sort of thing? Yeah. Well, we have another priority one message here.

It is from Tina Fey, and it is to Jay Balls. Hmm. You, my dear Jay Balls, are an amazing person. And listening to you laugh in the shower to this podcast, and hearing your observations 40-year-old ensigned and builer-esque running. Echoed by two-like minds has been a lot of fun for me. Happy birthday and thank you, Ben and Adam,

for helping the person who means the most to me just be a little happier twice a week. Ah, that's great! That is great. I didn't realize that Tina Fey, the great comedian, was a viewer, but that's great news for us, right? Because we're always trying to work our way into a writer's room. Absolutely. I don't know that you could pick a better writer's room than a Tina Fey writer's room.

And how about that, Ben? We got people in the shower, shampooing their crutches to our voices. Pretty amazing. Let me think about it. And I do fairly often. There's nothing that gets a butt cleaner than if you're laughing while scrubbing it. Yeah, really, really opens things up. Really accommodates the Lufa.

Ha-ha-ha. Happy anniversary to John and Amity and happy showering over there for, uh... For J-Balls. Yeah. We'd like to send a priority one message. It's a hundred bucks for a personal message and two hundred for a commercial message. We're able to keep the show going because people keep doing this and we really appreciate it.

So go to Maximumfund.org slash JemboTron if you'd like to send one. Thanks, guys. A greatest gen live show is something you don't want to miss. Why? Well it's a great opportunity to see me and Ben in person, but that's not all. FODs from all over gather at these shows to cosplay, to do pre and post show hangs, to make friends, and share their embarrassment. Hey, let's make a pretty great name for a tour.

Let's do it! The Sherry Reembarishment Tour is coming in August 2023, and we've got a bunch of dates in a lot of great places. Go to greatestgentour.com to get more info. That's greatestgentour.com for dates and ticketing information for the Sherry Reembarishment Tour. I'm Jordan Morris. And I'm Jesse Thorne.

On Jordan Jesse Go, we make pure, delightful nonsense. We were open awesome guests and bring them down to our level. We get stupid with Judy Greer. My friend Molly and I call it having the 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. Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org. Look, your podcast apps are already open. Just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goatry. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Oh, raps.

Hey, hey, hey, oh, I'm about to count you in line. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line. And boy, what do I? These giraffes do not smell good I hate having to stand in line and boy 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 off gotta get on the art. Yeah, it's about terrain. Got us about to destroy humanity Hey, oh, sorry, sorry. Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans. Oh, 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 boat. We came two by two. What do you think? Ono Ross and Carrie, available on MaximumFun.org. Hey, Ben. What's that, Adam? Do you find yourself a drunk Shimoda?

I did. Um, the scene where the top of the webber nearly takes out Riker. There is, there are a couple like fun background people in it, but there's also a foreground guy that like is, I just feel like they didn't give him any direction. They're like, I spotted this guy too. There's like, there's an accident and you're gonna rush in and that was as much as they gave him. So he knew that like just for you know camera blocking, he couldn't he couldn't rush all the way in and be just in front of the the body of Riker because he would obscure the thing we want to see in the scene. So he just

stops short and holds himself there and I got a nice big laugh out of that. and holds himself there. And I got a nice big laugh out of that. You know, sometimes you'll play a video game and the video game has got like you running around with a gun or something, but you're on like a squad of computer-played characters. And those characters are running around into things and they're helping you out.

This guy's performance read to me as like a computer-performed character where he's like sort of running in place. Yeah, not doing anything Yeah, it was super bizarre Like he's just sort of like he's sort of heaving from stress. Yeah, yeah He's definitely got the like the loop of movement that they give a character to show that they're not frozen It's not a glitch in the game, but he's not going anywhere. Yeah.

So that's my, my Shimoda. How about yourself? Do you have a drunk Shimoda? I'm giving my Shimoda to Riker, but not for the scene you may think. They're about halfway through, and if you're following along at home, this is at minute 26 26 at 24 seconds.

Riker has walked into the science lab where Amanda is doing science with Q. And he basically falls in the door. Like, like he's, you know, you don't see him do this, but he's out in the corridor. He's on his way to the science lab. The door opens and he walks in. But his take is, it's like, it's like he trips over a piece of carpet or he sort of spills into

the room. I can't interpret it as he, you know, like when you want to make somebody think you were really in a hurry to get to where they are. You weren't actually, you kind of like put it on a little bit, right, as you come through the door, like you might breathe a little heavier than is strictly speaking necessary. It's sort of the opposite of guy who's come in late to work, but is acting like he's been there the whole time, like that's sort of in the same league. Yeah.

Yeah, that might be it. But why does Raker need to do that? I don't know, I feel like maybe... Riker knows that they're trying to get rid of Q, but he's worried that getting rid of Q might also mean getting rid of this fetching young lass. They haven't had their run-in that would turn Riker off in the biggest way possible yet. So he probably still thinks of her as like a prospect, right?

I don't know. I never got the feeling that Riker was interested in her. I didn't either but You know like he's got some dates lined up So he's not he's not putting the moves on prematurely. There's one thing about Riker. He's never premature What do you think dating is like and ten forward? Like, you can order anything. There's probably so much judgment placed on what you order, right? If you could order anything at the restaurant? Yeah. God, I would be paralyzed with that choice. It's 40 cheesecake factory menus like stacked on top of each other It's too much. Yeah

Yeah, that's a that's a challenge man It made me think too like the one-time SNL made fun of Star Trek the next generation They had Farley play Riker and the only thing Farley did as Riker was walk around like that, like leading with his head, like a bowl. And it made me think like, was this the episode that Farley watched? Did it get that? Yeah. That's a, that's a pretty remarkable thing. I'm always trying to figure out a way to get clips from that into our show. And it's, it's from a weird era of SNL where like,

the comedic premises of sketches really didn't need to be anything. Yeah, yeah. It's like there is a model of the enterprise with the love boat glued very obviously onto the top of it. And that's about as far as they got with the idea for the sketch. Right.

And yet, if you were to ask me, what is your favorite era of the show? Like that has to be my answer. Like many people's least favorite era of SNL is my favorite because that was the time that was the most important to me Like I was the most impressionable. Yeah, that that high school era SNL is I think Lauren Michaels has said this before like that is everyone's Everyone's that's that's the imprinting time that the show does is during that time in your life. Yeah

Yeah, it's true Now I'm too old to ever be able to stay up late enough for it. Dude, except for this Saturday when they played it live on every coast. Oh, except you had to watch it live, East Coast time. I got to watch it at 8.30 bin. It was a delight. Well, man, that's great. Yeah. Yeah.

Lucky, Lucky sucker. What are we coming up on the next episode, Ben? The next episode is season six episode seven, rascals. It bizarre transporter mishap transforms Picard and three other staff members into children, just as for Rangies, invade and disable the ship. So maybe the two worst possible things in one episode.

Do you remember this episode Adam? I hate this episode so much. I hate what they do to row here. I'm vetoing the episode then. Wait, wait a second. Let's not be rash Adam, I'm vetoing the episode then. Wait, wait a second. Let's not be rash at him because it's not great for rope, but there is also a... They stick a kid in Gain and Hat.

That's gonna cause developmental neck injury. Can't do that. It's too much hat. Are you really seriously trying a veto right now? Yeah, yeah, I am. Okay. Let me think about this. What do you mean? Why do you try to ask me if I'm really seriously trying to do that? I do not joke around when it comes to the veto's been. I know you don't, but I'm just thinking about like, you are unprepared for this, weren't you? I, I'm never prepared when you try and veto.

Because you would be like crazy things. Like I think that this is, the last couple of veto's I've had have been counter vetoes. So I realize this might, this might be a real surprise to you. I don't know what to do with this man. I usually shoot your bullet out of the air. Like there were a bunch of things before this that would have been like vetoes that we could have talked about but I don't think this is the one.

I kind of like this episode. I mean it's like as close as the show ever gets to somebody like being a miniature person walking around on a desk next to a giant stapler. You know? Like, that's always fun. I feel like- I feel like- I feel like I'm pecard right now with this.

Why are there fucking kids on the fucking starship? Like, I want to do real adult sci-fi shit. I'm tired of the kids in season six. Why are there so many kids in season six, Ben? Too many kids. I don't know, man. I, I, like, there's a lot to like about this season. To be, to be TBH, Ben.

Yeah. I dislike this episode so much that I don't know that I've seen it in a very very very long time So well then you've made my decision for me Adam counter veto I Think you should give it a second chance and I think that that second chance should come at the cost of you Rooting another season. I really I really hate that I talked to you into the counter veto. I wish I hadn't done that That's some bullshit right there

Well that will be our next step at him Sorry to say buddy, but I hope you'll I hope you'll come to it with an open mind and not be a dick about the whole thing This is some real fucking George Lucas sing-as-our-favorite characters right now fucking George Lucas singeth our favorite characters right now. Oh you really like you really like Geinen and want to know about her origin story? No we're just gonna show her as a kid. Yeah fun fact, nobody has a dustbuster in this episode it's all it's all hand radios. Jesus Christ. I'm dreading this I'm dreading this. I'm dreading this more than more than any episode more than the fucking Robin Hood episode. What were the other ones that we vetoed? Like I feel like we should play a montage of all the videos. Like all those terrible dressimups in the holodeck episodes.

This is the one I hate more than those. Well, fucking rascals. Sorry, pal. That will be our next episode. One thing we don't hate Adam is all of the great support we get from our viewers on the internet. People go to the iTunes podcast store and they put in five star reviews for us which raises our profile and helps new people find the show. They tell their friends to give it a whiz. They post on Twitter using the hashtag GreatestGen. They go to our Reddit and Facebook pages and engage and joke around with us. It's just a lot of fun. They drink their beverages out of drunk Shimoda glasses.

Yeah, I gave my wife an iced coffee and one of our drunk Shimoda glasses recently, and she's like, I have never used one of these. Ha ha ha. Did she say that in a way that was like, she would never use one of those or just as a matter of fact like like we don't have a million glasses in our cupboard and sometimes the other ones are dirty like she has been avoiding using them. She drank the coffee but she uh yeah

the implication doesn't want to be seen with one of those glasses. I would never voluntarily grab one of these. Thanks. If you'd like to get in touch about anything you heard on the show, write us at drunksremotaatgmail.com. We do our best to get to all those. It's gotten to a point lately where it may be more than we can handle to write back to every single one of them, but we do read them all. So it don't hesitate to write in if you want us to know about something.

Yeah, that has been particularly guilt-making, especially while you were gone. I should have dedicated myself more to that. There's a further reason to punish you with an episode of the show that you really hate Adam. Rascals is the belt that I'm whipping my own back with to repent for my lack of email replies. What's that, you in like the opus day equivalent of track fans? We should thank dark materia for our theme music. Aren't you glad you hung around for the credits

for your viewer? So you can get that cool Opus Gage hook. Yeah. Add Ragusia for a lot of other music you hear on the show. And with that, we will be back at you next time with another great episode. I'll start with the next generation. Add an episode of greatest generation that's jumping on the bed. Go rate! Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound. Make it sound.

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