The Greatest Generation - The Paul Reubens Screening Room Theater (ENT S2E11)

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

When Commander Tucker gets voluntold to repair an alien cryo-chamber, the beautiful woman inside turns out to be both a prisoner and a prissy storybook princess. But when they make their escape and la...nd on a bog planet, a roll in the mud gets them to a place of mutual affection. When is Archer a good captain? What’s the next step after the international sign for choking? Who is guilty of Bob Dylan decision making? It’s the episode that contains a Menk, a Padma, and a wolf.Support the production of The Greatest GenerationGet a thing at podshop.biz!Sign up for our mailing list!Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Riker - Quantum LeapThe Greatest Generation is produced by Wynde PriddySocial media is managed by Rob Adler and Bill TilleyMusic by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaFriends of DeSoto for: Labor | Democracy | JusticeDiscuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen and find us on social media:YouTube | Facebook | X | Instagram | TikTok | Mastodon | Bluesky | ThreadsAnd check out these online communities run by FODs: Reddit | USS Hood Discord | Facebook group | Wikia | FriendsOfDeSoto.social

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Starting point is 00:00:00 In the vast expanse of podcasting, seven shows unite for one extraordinary mission. On January 25th, the boundaries between shows will blur and the greatest minds in Star Trek podcasting converge. Their goal? To boldly support the future of science education. Prepare yourself. Greatest Generation presents Star Trek Podcrawl. Star Trek Podcrawl.com. Here's to the finest crew in Star Trek. When it comes to my crew, you won't get any argument from me.
Starting point is 00:00:50 This is a parody. Paramount owns the song. Welcome to the Greatest Generation. It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys. Little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast. I'm Adam Pranica. I'm Ben Harrison. There are some squares on the Game of Buttholes game board we have never hit. Some squares we've hit multiple times.
Starting point is 00:01:19 And for some reason we have gone months and months and months without ever having hit the Naomi Wildman square. And now I think we're in the span of a handful of episodes. We've hit it twice. I mean, the fates have artistic aspirations for us, my friend. I thought after the first one, they would, they'd suspend all hope.
Starting point is 00:01:42 Right, yeah, the fates would be like, okay, well, these guys don't have it, so. The fates were like, good to know. Okay. It happened again. For those who are new to the show, we randomize our podcast a little bit and we have a board game we play at the end of the episode that determines how the next episode will go. Very few people listen to the end, so I think it's smart and important work by you, Ben,
Starting point is 00:02:06 to introduce what we're doing here. We look at the stats and we can see that drop-off that happens 30 to 45 seconds in, when people realize what it is they've downloaded. It's crazy. Once we learned about the fall-off, we started saying the most fucked up shit at the end. And guess what? We get away with it. Like, nobody even at Maximum Fun listens after the Maximum Fun stinger.
Starting point is 00:02:30 So, I mean, we fucking go off back there. The network doesn't know anything that we're doing over here, and haven't for a long time. The Naomi Wildman Square is a directive that the co-hosts must each create a piece of artwork inspired by the episode we watched, and then we have to share it and post images of that artwork on the internet. So that is what we're going to do today in the show open. I wonder if you'd like to go first or do you want to go second? How do you want to do the order of this? Well, Ben, after watching the episode, I thought about all the different sorts
Starting point is 00:03:11 of art projects would be available to me. Last time I built a model. Yeah, you worked in three dimensions. That was cool. I didn't really want to do that a second time because it was so good. You know, like I'm ready to lay down my cynoacrylate adhesive and, and consider my work done in that area. You ate and left no crumbs.
Starting point is 00:03:33 You have nothing left to prove in your model making skills department. Very interesting choice of words you just use there, Ben, because when I saw how much Padma Lakshmi screen time there was in this episode, I thought fondly of my time watching her hit show, Top Chef, a show that I enjoyed for many years, not every year, but I would say for maybe like 10 years. That show was on for like 20 years, right? I think it may still be on and she's just not anymore, but yeah, that is a juggernaut.
Starting point is 00:04:09 That show legit helped me get to know and appreciate cookery at the highest level. It popularized celebrity chef culture in a way that I think you could argue is good and bad, but it helped me get a better sense of like what was possible out there. Yeah. Like I learned about the Voltaggio brothers from that show, which are like two really fairly famous chefs who I followed like ever since those episodes. Okay.
Starting point is 00:04:41 Chefs whose restaurants I went to specifically because of the top Chef experience that I had, watching that show. So I'm watching this episode and I'm seeing Padma and I'm thinking about food and I'm like, what is food if not a form of art? Wow. I know. And I'm looking around at my larder.
Starting point is 00:05:06 I'm looking around at my ingredients and I'm like, what is, what is something that could express both my interest in cooking at the highest level and also where we are in the calendar year? Cause I don't want to just cook something to cook it. I want to cook something special and maybe even something I can give to my friends. So here's what I did. Okay. I went to a grocery store, a premium grocery store,
Starting point is 00:05:32 and I went to the bulk nuts aisle. Okay. And I got two cups of walnuts, two cups of almonds, two cups of pecans, two cups of cashews, two cups of macadamia nuts, all roasted, not salted. And I brought them home. And I did with them something I haven't done for many years, which is I made my holiday spiced nuts.
Starting point is 00:05:59 I melted down a bunch of brown sugar. I added some clove and some cinnamon and some nutmeg. Okay. And I made a nice syrup and I coated them. Yeah. And I made two entire punch bowls of my holiday spice nuts, Ben. Wow, look at those.
Starting point is 00:06:19 Here's a picture for you and also- Not to import a term from another cooking celebrity Ming Sai but those look GB&D golden brown and delicious I went to a local craft store and I got a bunch of jars with wooden lids and here's what I did Ben I put a bunch of these nuts into these jars with lids this one one's for you. Oh! As a gift from me. That's delightful. Those are very festive. I know, yeah. So my art project is food,
Starting point is 00:06:51 and I also created a gift for you and a bunch of friends. So that's tremendous. That is what I did. Thanks to Padma's inspiration as a food celebrity. I love it. I'm delighted to be on the receiving end of your art project. I usually make these with candied bacon, but I know in your household that would be a no-go. So I did not do candied bacon this year.
Starting point is 00:07:16 I mean, I appreciate that as much because then I would just eat all of them and it would go straight to my hips. But yeah, that's very kind of you. I also worked with something sticky today, Adam. I had a mind to do a shoe box, what do you call that? A... Talking about a diorama. A diorama, that's the word I'm looking for.
Starting point is 00:07:41 Last time when we rolled the Naomi Wildman Square, but I kind of chickened out. And what I started sketching to lay out the idea for the diorama in my mind just kind of became my art project. I made a drawing last time. Did you really want to like buy a new pair of shoes? I imagine that could be part of the obstacle too, right? Like just for the box, is that what you would do?
Starting point is 00:08:03 That was part of the challenge was that a Nike shoe box had not availed itself of me. And I went and like looked around and I actually found one in my closet, but it had a pair of my wife's shoes in it. And I wasn't going to like, you know, she had put them away in that way and I wasn't going to pilfer her shoebox to do my stupid Star Trek podcast. Yeah, you don't want to inflict that kind of rage upon yourself. No.
Starting point is 00:08:31 One does not simply go into a wife's closet. Yeah. I would need Gimli's axe and Aragorn's bow or whatever to defend me in a Ben fucked with the shoes situation. But I got lucky and recently we've been kind of clearing stuff out to get ready for Dorone's little sibling that's coming. And that shoe box was in the go out to the recycle bin pile.
Starting point is 00:09:00 So I set it aside in case and provenance shone on this decision because we rolled in Naomi Wildman Square not long after I discovered this shoe box and in the Wow Grand tradition of drug dealers everywhere. The value I bring is kept in a Nike shoe box. This is my diorama Okay, then you you've got the bottom part of a shoebox. You've turned it over onto its side. And now what I'm looking at is a trip tucker standing over a cryo chamber.
Starting point is 00:09:33 There's Padma inside underneath what looks like a little clear plastic window. Yeah. And all around you see the set dressing from that location. We've got the netting of a seafood chain restaurant, holding up a bunch of props on either side. You've got ship damage as we come to see it later on. Sure, sure, yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:57 Really great. And what I love most of all, hold it up even closer to the camera, Ben. Tripp Tucker has nipples on his arms. Yeah. Had to honor the fact that TripTucker has arm nipples. You're never going to let that go, are you? You're really good at drawing cartoon faces. I really mean that. I feel like I got closer on Trip than I did on Padma. And I think that there's something
Starting point is 00:10:23 about drawing somebody's face in profile that makes it really hard to capture their essence. And I like went around in the episode and paused on several shots of Padma in profile, but almost always she was like moving so there was some motion blur on the shot. I'm not as happy with her likeness as I am with his. I think it totally works, especially, you know, inside the pod, eyes closed. Yeah, yeah. I think you're good.
Starting point is 00:10:54 Yeah, and I also wanted to honor the pushing the frost away from the glass moment in this episode that, you know, makes it a canonical cryo chamber episode. I was like, man, should I go like buy like the stuff that people spray in store windows to make it look like it's snowed at the barber shop or whatever? The flocking. Yeah, but I wasn't sure if that would stick to the plastic
Starting point is 00:11:17 and I didn't want to risk like owning a can of that shit if it wasn't for sure going to work. So I just use paper. That's inspiring. I want to go get some of that stuff. I love it. You should, yeah. shit if it wasn't for sure going to work. So I just use paper. That's inspiring. I want to go get some of that stuff. I love it. You should.
Starting point is 00:11:29 Yeah. I mean, it's probably perfectly good to breathe that stuff in while you're applying it. Yeah. So that's my little diorama. I had so much fun making this, but I had drawn all the components and kind of planned the layers out. And then I realized, oh, fuck, like the only kind of glue I have is like
Starting point is 00:11:49 Gorilla Glue Epoxy or Wood Glue. And I was like, wood glue would probably work, but I don't, I'm not like a hundred percent confident in it. So I went, I like raced to the art materials store in Pasadena near my house. And just a great time of year to do that kind of run by the way, uh, as someone who recently made that trip themselves. Yeah. I would, I would argue December, November and December, absolutely do not go to a
Starting point is 00:12:20 craft store unless you're ready for what that's going to be like. I hope that the people working at the art supply store are getting hazard pay because man, there were so many like Pasadena moms that were like yelling at them that their sticker stock wasn't detailed enough. Like what? Just leave these people alone.
Starting point is 00:12:38 They don't order the stickers. If you ever in the wild, and this isn't for you Ben, cause I know you would do this. If you're in the wild and you see a retail employee being accosted by a dipshit with a bad opinion, I think it's your duty to not only please that booty, but get in the way of that. Yeah. To run interference because so often an employee is not empowered to defend themselves in a way that they really should from that bullshit. You can say something like, did you know that they give stickers out to children
Starting point is 00:13:09 at Trader Joe's and it's just down the street? I was at a Costco one time and I saw some dipshit get into it with a front end supervisor going like, these lines are too long. You know, I own stock in this company. And I like heard this, I walked by and I stopped and I was like, who gives a shit? I own stock in this company too.
Starting point is 00:13:30 And I'm not being a jackass to a supervisor. Get a life. Get a life. Get a life. Well, I really love your art project, Adam. And I want to see if you love this episode. Right back at you. You're going to be eating my art project.
Starting point is 00:13:46 I'm not going to be eating yours. Actually, I'll probably eat a little bit of yours. You know, only eat until you're full. You know what, if you use construction adhesive on that, eating it would have been pretty life-threatening. Would have been a great deal for you, I think, in the end. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:02 Like mixing up some adhesive out of a two-stage process for the purposes of poisoning my co-hosts. You know, had occurred to me, but I kind of decided to take the project in a different direction. You agent Smith me. Ha ha ha. How are you going to do the podcast if you cannot speak? Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. All right, Ben, that's enough Naomi Wildman.
Starting point is 00:14:30 Let's get into the episode today. It is Enterprise Season 2 Episode 11, Precious Cargo. And in the cold open, Trip Tucker is honking on Bobo in his quarters. Are you sure he's not chugolin? He could be chugolin. He's honking on Bobo. I think you're right. If he's bonking on hobo, that's something else.
Starting point is 00:14:55 I really love the, I don't know if they still post on X, but formerly a Twitter account, now a blues guy account, no context Star Trek that posts images of Star Trek with the parenthetical or closed captioning. Recently posted harmonica plays with the establishing shot of the entrepreneur. And it delighted me to no end. Pretty great. I don't love harmonica music, but I do love the moment where Tripp Tucker, this is such
Starting point is 00:15:26 a Star Trek moment. When your back is to the window in a Star Trek context, it means something ominous is going to happen. Yeah. Back to window and trying to do something musical that's screwed over elite Starfleet engineers for time in Mimiriam. And warp drops, you, this has got to just be like terrifying when you're the chief engineer to have the ship drop out of warp when you're not expecting it to.
Starting point is 00:15:54 Yeah. You don't love that. We can see as much outside the gazing window that he's got. Hey, nice quarters, TripDucker. I like them a lot. Not only has the ship dropped out of warp, it has dropped out of warp next to a doorstop class starship. And this thing is going to need some repairs and Archer has radioed Trip to ask him to
Starting point is 00:16:13 meet him in the docking port to negotiate that. Yeah. They are some aliens who, T'Pol knows about these aliens, but Trip has never heard of them and they're telling them they're having challenges with one of their life support systems, which is sort of an interesting construction. Cause I just think of like a ship as having life support, but one of their life support systems. And these guys come aboard and I was delighted that the one playing golf was played by Scott Clase,
Starting point is 00:16:46 who of course everybody watching this will know as Mank from the hit prime TV show Bosch. He's Sergeant Mank. I wouldn't have known unless you told me. I've not done the Bosch yet. I was more excited to see Mank than I was to see Padma. I think you're either a Mank or you're a Padma when you watch this episode. That's just how it splits.
Starting point is 00:17:11 Inside of every Star Trek podcaster, there is a Mank and a Padma. And, you know, it's just which we express more freely. There's a Mank, a Padma, and a wolf. The wolf is kind of trying to keep them, you know, it's like a peacekeeper wolf, you know. Right. These ships are now joined and Archer and T'Pol and Tripp make their way to the hatch. And once that hatch is open, they meet two retaliants. And sadly, I could not tell these retaliants apart at just about any moment.
Starting point is 00:17:45 Yeah, well, the easy way to do it is to notice that one of them is played by Scott Clace, who played Mank on BOSH. I mean, I didn't have that going for me, is what I'm saying. If you don't have that, you've got nothing. Oh, you know what? He also plays Mank on BOSH Legacy,
Starting point is 00:18:02 which is the follow-up show that they probably did. I can't start with Bosch Legacy. I gotta go back to the start. Yeah, you gotta start with Bosch One. Flynn and Goff. Yeah. That's who these guys are. And they're like, hey, you gotta help us with this stasis pod that's breaking down.
Starting point is 00:18:23 We have been hired to bring someone, we're on an Uber mission of our own, but it's a very long Uber mission. And this stasis pod needs to last for five more months. And it's just not gonna make it without some maintenance. And we really appreciate you stopping and helping. Yeah. It's just your classic stasis pod repair job.
Starting point is 00:18:44 You think you can handle that? Trip? He sort of volunteered for this job. Voluntold? Yeah. We call it sometimes. He's led into that other shit by plan. And then the other guy, Goff, he gets to stay behind and he asks about taking a bath. No problem! He's invited to shit shower and shave while he's there. And also enjoy a fresh meal prepared by the chef.
Starting point is 00:19:07 Ben, I have been very, very, very down on Captain Archer for a long time, but this moment and this episode illuminated something for me. Captain Archer is a great captain if he just gets to host. Like as a cruise ship captain, sure, he is great. And that's where he's got to be as a character. As long as you just keep him in the whole, like make people happy and get reciprocal gratitude from the people he's extending hospitality to, He's great.
Starting point is 00:19:45 I think that's a high compliment coming from you because you're a person with a very considered sense of hospitality. Sure. But I'm not a mess in every other way that Archer is outside of that context. I hope. Yeah. I mean, you hope. He is like the manager of a mid-market hotel.
Starting point is 00:20:03 Like once he goes to work on the hospitality, you're like, yeah, this guy's good. He's on. He really takes pride in that stuff. And I mean, like it's easy too, when you've got like one of the best chefs in the game. Chef's the best in Starfleet. It's funny, like he does relatively little, you know?
Starting point is 00:20:23 Like he's got a chef, he's got a trip tucker, he's got people. Right. But that's like, that is a quality of a good leader. Like knowing which person to hire as the chef for your ship. Like, I never really bought Picard as a leader until I saw that he had Mott working in the, you know, in the barber shop on board the ship. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:43 It did take until season three to figure that out. So Tripp goes aboard this junky ass ship and is kind of getting the lay of the land from Flynn who's like, oh yeah, we, you know, cobbled this thing together at a parts from a pick and pull and you know it's junkyard in the form of Starship but the pieces are being held together well enough to keep this stasis chamber alive. Looks very creative. Trip is a little bit like at a loss for words when he wipes the frost off of the tube and
Starting point is 00:21:21 sees the robo-babe inside. Sha-wing! Any actor has to be thrilled to do the legally binding obligation of wiping the frost from a stasis tube. Yeah. What a moment. Yeah. They went and got the flocking at the hardware store. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:21:40 You know? We've got a Padmélaxmi in there, and she does that thing that great models do, which is she does not close her mouth. She's there with like the tiniest open mouth. Like here's what that looks like. Can we see that in profile just so I can get, so I can capture that for my next diorama? Oh yeah. That's what I missed. The mouth is closed on my diorama, you know?
Starting point is 00:22:09 You blew it! Fuck! You blew the Padma! I guess I could just add a little bit more pen, you know, make the line slightly thicker. Yeah. Hold on, I'm gonna do that right now. All right, good call.
Starting point is 00:22:21 Oh wait, I can't, no, cause it's under the plastic. I can't do it. Fuck! You put under the plastic. I can't do it. Fuck! You put it under plastic. She's gonna stay in stasis. Later on in Archer's clarinet rental room, Goff arrives. He's so grateful for the shower. I hope I didn't deplete your water supply.
Starting point is 00:22:40 I'm sure we'll manage. He has to apologize for absolutely blowing up that bathroom though. Like, wow. Woo! It has been a long time since he's taken a dump unencumbered by sharing the one bathroom with his one crew person. Do you think that he and Flynn are really synced up in that? Like, they're both kind of finishing their cup of coffee?
Starting point is 00:23:03 Like, well, think about a head for the head right at the same time. I thought a lot about Flynn and Goff's relationship this episode. Do you think they like each other? Not a chance. No. I don't either.
Starting point is 00:23:21 And there is some question toward the end whether or not they're even on the same level in any way at all. Yeah. And how easy it would be for one to sell out the other in any situation. I think that maybe the one thing giving me pause there is that Flynn is pretty resistant to selling golf out. Yeah. Yeah. But like, maybe that's just like species courtesy.
Starting point is 00:23:44 Mm-hmm. I don't know. I had this problem because we're a one bathroom household and there's some stage management to having a small child where you kind of need somebody in the room a lot of the time. And I found myself in this situation for a few months where like finishing my cup of coffee seemed to always coincide with my wife being in the shower.
Starting point is 00:24:06 And I'd be like, well, there's just nothing to be done. I'm going to have to suffer in silence for a while. I also can't like move my morning cup of coffee up to an earlier time because I'm not going to go into the bathroom and do that right before her shower. Kind of like that move. E.D.H. Hey, fans already on, honey. before her shower. Kind of like that move.
Starting point is 00:24:27 Hey, fans already on honey. Archer has a pitch for golf, which is like, hey, you guys are going to a planet we've never been to before. Your ship is a piece of shit. It doesn't move. Ours does. How much does he love this, Ben? He's like, Hey, I couldn't help but notice our ship is faster.
Starting point is 00:24:53 He never gets to say that. He's like, he's like, uh, you guys don't really have a lot under the hood. Do you? He's like the guy at cars and coffee. Who's just got that big car energy. Yeah. He knows that he's got the fastest engine and he, uh, who's just got that big car energy. Yeah. He knows that he's got the fastest engine and he's like, what do you say?
Starting point is 00:25:13 You bring your little stasis pod on board. We can keep it running with our power system. We'll get you there in no time at all. Archer can do this weird thing where he's like offering something of value to someone else while at the same time being extremely needy about the offer. Because what he wants for Goff to do is to introduce them to a species that they've never made first contact with, kind of like greasing the skids for humanity to make a first contact that is not a disaster as has become Archer's custom. The moment that made me really like Goff was when he turns down this generous offer.
Starting point is 00:25:49 I'm sure you'll do fine on your own. But pivots into, I'd love to take you up on that meal that you mentioned earlier, if that's okay. Like hell of a pivot, Goff. Good job. Yeah. It's so fun whenever you think about, like, Gough is sort of coming from another sci-fi universe, almost. Like, you never get the feeling that Enterprise is, like, running out of food or anything. But Gough is like, you know, if she has to be awake and walking around the ship for five months,
Starting point is 00:26:18 we will all starve. Right. So, we can't do this trip without her stasis chamber being functional. It's almost like something out of the aliens universe that you would have to do it that way. So the offer of a meal is a huge deal for this guy. Understandably, they've been at this for months. They've got months ahead.
Starting point is 00:26:40 How long could you eat MREs without wanting to blow your brains out? I think that's the level that this guy's on. I was a little distracted in the scene and this almost became my art project, but I wasn't sure if my skills as a colorist would be quite there. I believe the term is a person who uses color. Excuse me.
Starting point is 00:27:00 Sorry, I'm a little old fashioned and I'm trying to catch up. Yeah. Sorry, I'm a little old fashioned and I'm trying to catch up. When the shot is of Archer over Goff's shoulder, you can see right where they stopped putting makeup on this guy. Like his skin tone is like alien loaf and then his neck is just like human skin. Yeah, like he was driving the truck too long on a sunny day and got a little bit of a neck
Starting point is 00:27:26 burn. Yeah, yeah. So in the cargo area of Goff's ship, Hoshi shows up because Trip has requested some help translating the computer panels on the thing he's fixing. And she's like, whoa, working on a babe, are we? It's not polite to stare, Commander. I wasn't staring. Leave Trip alone.
Starting point is 00:27:48 Of course he knows she's a babe. They're both staring, though. Yeah. Padma is objectively beautiful. Yeah. People like looking at people that look nice. Yeah. Yeah. Stop shaming Trip, is what I'm saying. How is she?
Starting point is 00:28:03 Trip, are your nipples hard? My sleeves are down. Yeah, but they're, they're taut, like in a way that they aren't normally. She goes off to do something that I'm not clear about, she's, she's out of the scene. And almost the moment she leaves, Padma starts thrashing around inside the stasis pod.
Starting point is 00:28:26 Yeah. Ben, are you all right, is what Tripp asks a thrashing around Padma in a failing stasis pod. Mm-hmm. I think you can skip past that question, Tripp Tucker. Yeah. I mean, in a panic, he's just trying to be polite to the extremely beautiful lady. And who among us hasn't chosen some awkward words when we're around a total baddie? You're supposed to do that when someone's choking, right?
Starting point is 00:28:56 Like the person does the international sign for I'm choking. And then your check question is, are you all right? Are you good? Yeah. And then you're able to give aid at all right? Are you good? Yeah. And then you're able to give aid at that point. Maybe that's what's going on. She is awake and this triggers an alert on Goff's like pocket pager.
Starting point is 00:29:16 And he gets up from the fancy dinner party that Archer has thrown for him. Which was spaghetti and red sauce. I came very close to making this as my art and craft. I did not want to mess up my studio by eating spaghetti and red sauce, but how about that being the special meal? I mean, if you're an interstellar freighter captain
Starting point is 00:29:39 on a months long voyage, probably pretty good. I wanted to see the moment the plates hit the table, because there is no fucking way that Plymouth and Goff know how to work a fork into long noodles. How, how unintentionally funny would that have been to see them confront this problem? If they'd done the Riker maneuver with their nudes. Yeah. Which would be natural, I think.
Starting point is 00:30:09 Yeah. Anybody who hasn't before, that would be the first thing you would think of. Anyways, Goff runs back and catches Trip in the act of trying to smash open the stasis chamber. And Trip is explaining like, she is starved for oxygen in there. We need to get this thing open. And Goff is like, no, put her back to sleep. But that, you know, that can't be done at a moment's notice, apparently. So...
Starting point is 00:30:33 They do a good job blocking this scene. Like, it really does look like Trip is fucking up the stasis pod. Yeah. When he walks in, you kind of understand why Goff would think this. He has some crazy kind of tool that he's trying to use to wedge it open, jaws of
Starting point is 00:30:48 lifestyle, and he gets it open. For some reason he's straddling it during. Yeah. Don't have to do that trip. And kind of rhythmically working the hinges. Goff hauls off on him with a crowbar and knocks Tripp out cold and then radios up to Plin that he needs more help.
Starting point is 00:31:08 So, uh, both of these dudes have now rudely left the captain's table. How do you like this radio call, Ben? Just the, uh, Hey, just non-specific, non-problem happening over here. Just thought I'd let you know that something is happening. I'm not going to say what.
Starting point is 00:31:26 Yeah. Something is happening that shouldn't worry any of the people that are around you, but you should come and Archer's not buying that. So he radios Tripp the second Flynn leaves the room and it's like, the second there's no answer, he scrambles security services and Reed, very slick, very unaccustomed to Reed
Starting point is 00:31:48 being this slick, the way he, uh, he steps to plin in the hall and he's like, I'll walk you back. It's got real secret shopper energy, doesn't it? Totally. Like retail security, like, huh, this guy's been looking at the same cans that I have.
Starting point is 00:32:04 Yeah. Yeah. But it's funny, he, uh, he been looking at the same cans that I have. Yeah, yeah. But it's funny, he was like in the like first three or four rows in the parking lot and happened to get out of his car right after I walked past. Good moment for Reed, I like this. And he's got an absolute unit with him also. This dude looks like no nonsense. And when they find golf in the hallway, it turns into a firefight.
Starting point is 00:32:27 And Absolute Unit does a great job of covering Plin while Reed goes and chases Gough back into the ship. And he's trying to get the docking clamps to bite down on Gough's ship while Gough is attempting to get his engines going and escape. I really love the implication of having a firefight in the umbilical between the ships. But I don't think a lot is made up of how dangerous it is to be in there during a moment like this where one ship rips loose from it.
Starting point is 00:32:58 I kind of wish it was a little more dangerous in that way. There's one layer of danger here and that's the phaser firefight down this range. Yeah, but the proximity to the hard vacuum feels like it's also really dangerous. Do you think that they just didn't do it because they didn't want to ring the executive decision bell a second time?
Starting point is 00:33:15 Like, they already have shown on this show people in an umbilical flying out into space when the ship departs? I mean, I love the tune. Yeah. You know? Yeah. It's very, very pleasant music to me.
Starting point is 00:33:30 You know, when you go to a concert, you like to see them play the hits, you know? Yeah, they choose not to here. Very upsetting Bob Dylan kind of decision-making by Star Trek Enterprise. Setlist is what? Enterprise does not play Watchtower this episode and that's a bummer.
Starting point is 00:33:51 Actually, you know, they might be but I just can't tell what it is. Like, I guess that's their version of it. Yeah, like they changed the time signature, what? Why do I have to learn that I heard executive decision in the parking lot later from someone else? They're chasing this ship and it's like, oh, well, like what does Goff think he's going
Starting point is 00:34:20 to do? His ship is way shittier than the Enterprise. But then he kind of squid inks them. He sprays something out the back that compromises their warp drive and he jumps to warp. He's gone, baby gone. I so rarely think of space as a place where you can dump stuff like this. a place where you can dump stuff like this. Like I'm used to it being a canvas where you shoot laser beams or grapplers or something. But this feels like almost spy hunter-esque,
Starting point is 00:34:55 you know, like dropping the oil slick at the ship behind you and then punching it. Or jacks. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and it's such a nice reminder that like, oh yeah, you could dump stuff into space that gets caught up in the intake of enterprise and then floor it again. And that's what they do. The Basards are collecting the wrong stuff.
Starting point is 00:35:15 Yeah, yeah. And the ship is gone. What's scary about this moment is in dialogue, you learn that this ship quickly gets out of sensor range. And that's a problem when you've got a trip tucker. And at this point, I thought maybe Hoshi also over there. Where the hell did she go? Oh, I didn't even think about that.
Starting point is 00:35:33 I'm always thinking about Hoshi, Ben. Is she okay? That's kind of you. The show certainly isn't. I'm doing what the show will not. In the cargo area, we learned her name is Kaitama a little bit later, but Kaitama keeps hitting Tripp with this same crowbar. What the hell did you do that for?
Starting point is 00:35:56 I guess Goff was like, here, you take the crowbar, keep an eye on this guy or something. And she's still tied up. So he is like taking these blows while trying to convince her to let him untie her wrists, but the universal translator is not working. So initially they cannot communicate. I'm just going to keep calling her Padma. I'm going to do it. Sure. That's what I'm going to do.
Starting point is 00:36:22 It's fine. She reaches down and finds. Cause if you call her Kaitama, you might think she's like a Bajoran religious figure. Right. I might be scolded for pronouncing it Kaitama instead of Kaitama also. I just, I don't want to step into that.
Starting point is 00:36:37 You don't need that smoke. Yeah. She finds the universal translator on the ground and Tripp negotiates it its safe return in the moment using a bunch of hand signals. The universal sign for talking is Pac-Man in your hand, right? Yeah. He thoughtfully never does the loop of two fingers with the other finger going into it.
Starting point is 00:37:00 I mean, this could also mean like words coming out of mouth, right? And for those not watching at home, I'm doing, like, the OK sign with a finger going through the O. Yeah. I believe that. Yeah. You know, like, if the Temerians can communicate in metaphor, we should be able to communicate by making that hand gesture. Yeah. That's what I'm saying.
Starting point is 00:37:20 So, Koth, his eyes open! It takes a little bit of time for the Universal Translator to grab onto what they're saying, but it eventually does. And I love this moment in Star Trek where you get like half gibberish, half English. And now we're in it. Now we can talk. They realize that Armageddon is the one word that their languages have in common. Yeah. And then the camera starts zooming back out from his mouth and suddenly we can understand
Starting point is 00:37:50 each other. Yeah. And we get to know this lady. She is a prisoner. She's not being transported, you know, for good reasons. No. She's a prisoner and a princess. She's a presences, as Snoop Dogg might put it.
Starting point is 00:38:08 And she's being held for ransom. And this does not come as a surprise to her. Almost expected is what she thought the situation would be. So chill is she about being taken as a hostage for ransom. She's like, you know what the plan should be, Tripp. Let's just wait this out. Wait for our captors to get paid and then we'll be on our way.
Starting point is 00:38:30 Getting them paid should be no problem. And he, as a non-party to the ransom, is of no use to her. She's like, I don't want you to even try to rescue me or do anything that would stop this ransom from getting paid because that's the most efficient way for me to get back to chilling in the throne room or whatever. Tucker does not just want to lay back and see what happens.
Starting point is 00:38:54 He wants to go find that escape pod he thought he saw earlier. And so he starts taking off panels and monkeying with the circuitry inside in order to escape this room. Yeah. I mean, Goff has like come back with his gun at some point. Goff may be the stupidest alien we've ever encountered because he's like, hey, hey, fix the pod. It's going to take a while.
Starting point is 00:39:17 Okay, fine. I'm going to leave you to do it. Yeah. And then he turns and leaves and does something behind the scenes. I guess he's the ship's only crew person, so I understand if he's got to be at the controls or whatever. But wow. Huh. This is his strategy. Leave him alone. Together, untied.
Starting point is 00:39:36 Yeah. I mean, this has got to embolden TripTucker about his plan though. He's like, all I got to do is avoid this dipshit. Great. Were you at any point looking at her spots around her temples and wondering if she was supposed to be Trill? Because she has very Trill like spots, but it's never addressed. And I guess they wouldn't like the Trill weren't even in contact with the Federation until TNG, right? Remember that, that episode of TNG where Dr. Beverly falls
Starting point is 00:40:07 in love with the guy with the Ankylosaur? Ankylosaur. That's like the first Trill that they ever met, right? It would seem as though there would be more than one species with the spots. Okay. But also these spots look like Trill spots. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:40:23 Oh, cause there was that lady that was very much like this Padma Lakshmi character destined to marry Ulrika Vaal, right? You're talking about Kamala. Yeah. The Famka Jensen character in TNG. So yeah, I guess you're right. There are other species that also have drill spots. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:40:44 I just pulled up a picture of her. Same spots. Same spots. But this is not a perfect mate. Like this is not that. No, she's gonna lead her people. Yeah, exactly. I am first monarch of the sovereign dynasty
Starting point is 00:40:59 of Creos Prime. Oh, she's not just human chattel the way Kamala was. No, and she's also not a trio. Ha ha ha. I couldn't feel anything down on the planet. Yeah, yeah. So like he's making the case for we should escape and eventually kind of has to like compel her to do it
Starting point is 00:41:24 because she does not wanna be left alone with Goff either. and eventually kind of has to compel her to do it because she does not want to be left alone with Goff either. This is a very familiar Lone Star versus Princess Vespa kind of conflict that we have between these two characters, right? Is your entire species so ill-mannered? Nope. Just me. Good call. And I think by depicting this, you're also conveying
Starting point is 00:41:48 to the viewer that this is not an episode to take seriously in a serious drama kind of way. This is supposed to be a fun, silly episode, right? Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think that just the way Padma Lakshmi is playing the character is a very like arch, like prissy storybook princess is meant to heighten the comedy. Like she is not playing this for realism per se.
Starting point is 00:42:13 Yeah, and I think that's important because if you were gonna try to like judge this episode for its serious conflicts, I think you're just projecting something onto this that it's not trying to be. They have a little interrogation moment with Flynn. If you agree about the conflict between Trip and Padma being what it is and sort of jokey, I think to go from that scene into this scene with Archer to Paul and Flynn,
Starting point is 00:42:43 I think it has to be in this kind of sequence, right? Yeah. Oh, this is a fun and funny episode. And then when we get this interrogation scene, it's like, oh, cool. Everyone's playing this kind of jokey game. Right. It's so heightened.
Starting point is 00:42:57 Like Archer is such a bad cop interrogator. He's trying to get like the warp signature. And Plin is like, I barely know Gough. Like, I don't know what he's up to on that ship. Like, as far as I know, we're just doing an Uber mission, but maybe there's something else going on. Who's to say? When he lies about saying he does not know the warp frequency, this is maybe the worst lie I've ever seen depicted on television. This was incredible acting. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:43:27 Yeah. Nice job by Leland Crook, who played Flynn. Yeah. This is the worst bluffer at the poker table. As he kind of demures on giving them any actionable intelligence about where they might find Goff and his ship and therefore Tripp Tucker. Archer orders him sent to the brig, which doesn't exist on Enterprise.
Starting point is 00:43:47 So they send him to the airlock and put him in with the door to space unlocked. That is so fucking savage. If you decide to leave, you know the way out. I love that, that rules. Oh man. Do it every time, Archer. That would make me so paranoid.
Starting point is 00:44:03 Archer's hard as fuck in this episode, right? I mean... This is what I'm saying, though. That silly scene before this one means everything, because if you get this without that... I don't know if this is believable. Right. It just isn't. You have to believe
Starting point is 00:44:19 that this is silly from jump. You'd be like, this is not the same character as the Archer that we have seen in other episodes. Check this guy for parasite or something. Yeah, absolutely. Faith of the fart. I know that feeling when you check your bank account and think, where did all my money go?
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Starting point is 00:45:45 Go to rocketmoney.com slash scarves today. That's rocketmoney.com slash scarves, rocketmoney.com slash scarves. Hello? Hannah? Yeah. It's Clint McElroy. Hi, Hannah Ruggs. Oh my God.
Starting point is 00:45:59 Hello. I don't know if you know who I am. Oh, I do. I love the Adventure Zone. It is probably my favorite D&D podcast. You've been a great host. I've been a great host. I've been a great host. I've been a great host. I don't know if you know who I am. Oh, I do. I love the Adventure Zone. It is probably my favorite D&D podcast. You've been a faithful member of Maximum Fun since March of 2019,
Starting point is 00:46:15 and this is them rewarding you as our Maximum Fun member of the month. It's awesome. I love it. So what made you decide to become a member of Max Fun? You know, it was so long ago, I'm not sure what the exact moment where I decided was. I think I've kept it up intentionally because a lot of those different podcasts
Starting point is 00:46:38 have been there for me when I felt really alone and sad and just needed something to laugh at. Well, that's Hannah, thank you so much. Thanks for being a member. Thanks for being a Taz fan. Thanks for all the nice things you had to say about me specifically. And I guess my kids, if you're a MaxFun member, you can become the next MaxFun member of the month. Support us at MaximumFun.org. Join. at maximamfun.org slash join. Jackie Cation, hi, and welcome to the maximumfun.org podcast, the Jackie and Lori show where we talk about standup comedy
Starting point is 00:47:13 and how much we love it and how much it enrages us. We have a lot of experience and a lot of stories and a lot of time on our hands. So check us out. It's one hour a week and we drop it every Wednesday on nexamafund.org. And you will never take the greatest gin alive. Ben would rather die. Padma has now started following trip around the ship and they're you know climbing through little duct work and dirty little shafts in between bays.
Starting point is 00:47:47 And his plan is to get to an escape pod and along the way, scramble the internal sensors so that Goff doesn't even realize they're gone until they're long gone, baby. Pretty good idea. They finally make it to this escape pod and it is an escape pod built for one that they're going to have to squeeze in there.
Starting point is 00:48:10 And I'm just checking to see who wrote this episode really fast. Okay, so it's Rick Berman and Brandon Braga. So it kind of makes sense when Padma reaches down to her dress and tears your skirt into something far more revealing. You can just... Yeah, you can just feel them grab the episode. You can feel their hands on it all of a sudden. Oh, here's some factual information. Executive producer Brandon Braga
Starting point is 00:48:38 performed a rewrite on this episode. There you go. No kidding. Did he also make the blocking and lens choice when they get in the pod so that they put a wide ass lens on her long leggy legs? Yeah, unclear how much of a heavy hand he had on set that day.
Starting point is 00:48:58 The first day he was like, who the fuck is this guy? Where did he come from? Probably had a heavy hand in the screening room, you know what I mean? Oh yeah. I love where your voice went with that. I like the idea that like any movie theater, there is a guy in the screening room also jacking off.
Starting point is 00:49:19 Yeah. Crash zoom up to the doorway of the screening room and it says the Paul Rubin screening room theater. So the pod leaves the ship. There's some bangers as they cross the subspace threshold. And I like that detail. Yeah. Like when you get dumped out at warp,
Starting point is 00:49:43 you got to cross the threshold to fall out of warp and that's a rough ride. It's gotta be a rough ride. Fortunately, they're near enough to a planet that they can go hide on it. Tripp has a lot of little maintenance tasks that he's gonna have to do over the several hour trip to that planet. And this is another just like, okay, I guess Tripp has to get like grabby and physically uncomfortable with her the entire time they're going to this planet. We got a bunch of these scenes throughout the episode. I don't think we can go through
Starting point is 00:50:15 them all, but like particularly the like, you're going to have to sit on my face so I can get at that panel behind you. And if you could just, these little bumps along the forearms, uh, if you could just tweak those as, as I'm doing this. God, what the fuck? She's presented as being like such an uptight bitch about this. And it's like, no, he's like completely invading her personal space the entire time. You know, like she has a right to be completely uncomfortable with this.
Starting point is 00:50:49 Oh, I don't agree with that at all. I think here's what I want to say about that. They made the choice between staying on board that ship, accepting certain death and rolling the dice on survival. And now that they've rolled the dice and they're in this tiny elevator, like smaller than an elevator size escape pod, they need to make some choices about how to live on. They're gonna choose a planet
Starting point is 00:51:16 that may or may not be okay for them. They gotta make adjustments to the ship to allow it to be steerable. I don't think it's coming from a place of offense that Padma has. I think this is coming from that Princess Vespa and Lone Star perspective. This is like blue collar, white collar conflict. Yeah. Gold collar even. Right.
Starting point is 00:51:38 Yeah. Cause as unfrozen cave woman monarch, she is just used to getting her way all the time and everybody sort of being her subject. So when she talks to him in that way, he's like, I am not in your power structure. None of that shit means anything to me. I'm from a fairly egalitarian society as a matter of fact. And that's the divide that they have to bridge to be a team. And, you know, he makes that case to her, like, let's try and make nice.
Starting point is 00:52:11 Let's try and like be kind to each other as we, you know, have to be in this Honda fit with each other for another nine hours. We're stuck with each other. Back on Enterprise, Plin is brought to Archer in what looks like an empty mess hall. And it's here that Archer tries out his competent interrogator personality. Yeah. This looked a lot like the briefing room on Deep Space Nine to me. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:38 I wonder if it was a redress like that. Yeah. T'Pol is playing this game, this new character game that Archer's playing. She's put on some robes, which I think evokes a sort of judicial kind of vibe. Flynn has been told, you got to watch out for T'Pol. She's a total hard ass. We are scared of her. She kills people.
Starting point is 00:53:03 That kind of energy. We started out with 83 crewmen on board. We're down to 76. Yeah. What he's telling Flynn is that T'Pol is here as the business end of the Vulcan justice system and he is scared enough of Vulcans, I guess, that he buys this and T'Pol comes in and plays the role admirably. A lie?
Starting point is 00:53:26 A choice. The setup for T'Pol is that she's going to be this extreme hard ass, like you're saying, but I love that almost her entire line of questioning is about establishing the dimensions of the, uh, of the coffin that they're going to build for him. Like there's no trial style questions. There's no examination or cross examination. This has already been decided. This is a formality now. That part was so hilarious to me.
Starting point is 00:53:55 There's a scene in the novel of Clear and Present Danger where they get the killers from the yacht aboard the Coast Guard vessel and to like extract a confession out of one of them, they make it look like they hang the other one from the yard arm. Like they make him believe that he's undergone some kind of military tribunal at sea
Starting point is 00:54:15 and has been executed to just scare the shit out of the other guy. And it's really reminded me of that. I feel like, hey, listen, we give Brandon Braga and Rick Berman a lot of shit for being sexist pigs, but they also reference Clear and Present Danger, which we like a lot. We're using windows in Star Trek in such a specific way. If Archer and DePaul are interrogating Flynn
Starting point is 00:54:40 and one of them points out the window, and there's Goff swinging from a fucking grappler out there. How fucking rugged would that be? That would be great. He's like slapping against the hull. Like, hey, hey, your buddy fought, he fought hard, but guess who's undefeated? The grappler.
Starting point is 00:55:02 But guess who's undefeated? The grappler. BOTH LAUGH So a little further conversation between Trip and Kai Tama on their way to what sounds sort of like Planet Hawaii. Like he's describing this, this like ocean planet with just nice, nice beachy vibes. And she's like, she used to be in the dating pool, but is not anymore now that she's going to be
Starting point is 00:55:28 the leader of her people. He feels kind of bad for her that she's so lonely. I mean, we get that single brass instrument of lost adolescence that she describes, you know? Yeah. How sad. Yeah. I think this is important.
Starting point is 00:55:43 We must feel empathy or sympathy for her, right? Yeah. Yeah. How sad. Yeah. I think this is important. We must feel empathy or sympathy for her, right? Yeah. Yeah. A little bit of a bumpy descent, but Tripp pulls it off and they land on a bog planet, Adam. A bog planet. A bog planet. This is gonna have to do, Ben, because it's not like they can take off again.
Starting point is 00:56:04 Like they were kind of committed on the way down, weren't they? Yeah. There's not fuel in this thing for, uh, for breaking orbit or anything. So, uh, once the bog mud has you, you can't break free. Bog mud is strong. It'll suck your boot right off of your foot. Uh, they find a little bit of high ground to make camp. And she notices that Tripp is bleeding.
Starting point is 00:56:27 So she would like him to dump them out and he obliges. She fixes them up and then she's like all pissed off that he puts her on gathering dry sticks to make a fire. It's like he's fucking injured. Like, can he, can he take a breath? He just landed you safely on a planet, lady. This is classic black and white movie. Two opposites hate each other and then start making out
Starting point is 00:56:52 after a roll in the bog mud. Kind of screenwriting, isn't it? It sure is, yeah. And then you see one of those sticks go into the fire pit and you're kind of like, oh, I see what the metaphor is here. Hey, Hey, I can tell you she's not a drill. I can confirm not a drill.
Starting point is 00:57:19 I do believe I would have felt a drill at some point. I got pretty deep up in them guts. And if there had been an ankylosaur in there, ankylosaur, I would have felt it. Hey Ben, they're getting along better. Yeah. That's good, right? Nothing like little fucking to bring people together. Yeah. I don't know if it was just like the way
Starting point is 00:57:35 they did the night scenes, but did it look like she was in a different rippy dress to you in this post-coitus scene? It seems like she had a slip on underneath her fancy dress. And that is this. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:57:50 I was like, how did she do a wardrobe change into something equally tattered? Yeah. But that makes sense. They did the fallen samurai hair for her, which is also coated, freshly fucked hair. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's just, it just means has, freshly fucked hair. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it just means has been stabbed, right? Yeah. Yeah, it's true.
Starting point is 00:58:18 A little bit later, Tripp is woken up by a beeping sound and it's not a smoke alarm that's running out of batteries. Even though it sounds that way, it's coming from the escape pod and Tripp smashes it with a rock, probably like how he smashed Padma earlier that day. And the danger now is that the retaliants are going to come for them. It seems as though like the message got out and was received. So this is a dangerous moment. It was a homing beacon and it is not long after this moment that Goff finds them in the bog and he like sneaks up on their camp and thinks he's shooting Tripp, but he really just shot Pumpkin Tripp.
Starting point is 00:58:58 Padma was like, it was like bait. I was going to say human bait, but... Why the very name is racist. If this episode were a little longer, I think you'd know that, uh, this was a Padma doll that Tripp was making in case they weren't able to get along. Uh, we could repurpose this as a trap. Padma's like, why does this gourd have an open mouth? An open mouth that's also kind of shattered the gourd already.
Starting point is 00:59:31 Why did you leave the seeds and everything inside? A little more verisimilitude on the feeling that way. So real trip jumps out of a tree. Great shot of him jumping from height onto Goff. And then they stand up and like, get in like Marquis of Queensberry boxing stance and box each other a little bit. I think that helps to remind us that this is comedy too, right? This couldn't be a serious Star Trek fight.
Starting point is 01:00:00 No. Padma is the one that does the actual knocking out of Goff. She bonks him with a log. And then they hear that somebody else is coming through the brush and they're briefly worried until they realize that it's Archer and T'Pol and Reed. You know who's also briefly? Trip Tucker.
Starting point is 01:00:19 Hehehe. Wearing those blue briefs. Yeah. Good bonch on Tucker in this episode. I mean, I guess he had to get out of his uniform for fucking, but then it was like, hey, this is great. I'm already out of it and I can put the uniform on my gourd, Kitama, so that we can trick golf. The suggestion here is that it's not what it looks like.
Starting point is 01:00:39 It is what it looks like. It's just unfortunate that Archer and T'Pol see this, right? Right. It could be good for Tripp's, you know, maybe relationship with T'Pol. Like she's, she sees that he can bag a baddie and that can kind of make the case for him. All he does is bag baddies.
Starting point is 01:00:57 I know. Tripp Tucker is a stick man, isn't he? Kind of is. Yeah. I mean, she was the stick gatherer, but he's the stick man. You know, she came back to camp without any sticks and he's like, I got one for you.
Starting point is 01:01:12 I can provide at least one. Why don't you rub this on something and see if you can make a fire. They meet up with a very interesting looking ship, like kind of more vertical orientation than we've seen linked up with the entrepreneur before. I like that. They've gotten Padma into an enterprise jumpsuit.
Starting point is 01:01:34 It's like when the lady borrows the dress shirt from the gentleman and is cooking breakfast in it the next morning, is kind of the energy here. It really felt like Letterman jacket vibes. Yeah. To me. She looked great in it.
Starting point is 01:01:48 She looked really good. And a very, a very horny goodbye between these two characters. I was surprised at how game and sincere Padma appeared to be in this scene. I thought for sure this would be one of those walks where Tripp's heart gets broken because this was just a summer fling. Right. I got to go back and do important government business because that's what my job is as a princess. This was fun and she kind of taps him on the head and leaves. But this scene reads to me as sincere. She's like, look, I know the odds aren't good for us, but like open invitation. Yeah. Isn't that a like a Rick Bermane kind of like,
Starting point is 01:02:31 I wanna believe that I can get the babe writing flourish. Like I think it's much more fun if she pats him on the head and says, it was nice knowing you, but I gotta go back and do serious shit now. I think it's nice that they arrive at a place of like mutual affection and an effort could be made down the road. Like there's no reason if they both really like each other
Starting point is 01:02:54 to pop the balloon and be like, well, this is over. Like it's fun to have a little hope, right? And that's kind of the tone that this ends on. Like even if it's false hope, it's kind of neat to have a mutual feeling of optimism from both of them. Indeed. Even if it's never gonna happen.
Starting point is 01:03:12 Well, did you like this episode, Adam? ["The Last Supper"] Tell you what, Ben, if I took this episode seriously, I would have hated this episode. But this episode did a great job in telling me as soon as possible, this is a silly episode. Do not take me seriously. And for that reason, I liked it a lot. I think when you do Princess Vespa and Lone Star, you set up the Vespa character to be hated. Right.
Starting point is 01:03:48 And in that way, like, I really didn't like Padma Lakshmi's character for that reason. And I think in saying that, I'm saying she did a good job in portraying her. She was, she was shitty to a person who was trying to help her. Yeah. And it took a little work to dig her out of that hole.
Starting point is 01:04:06 But by the end I liked her because Tripp liked her. And I think that says a lot about what they're doing for Tripp as a character on the show. I'm really, I'm really on his level. I'm enjoying the work he's doing as an engineer and as a stick man. Seeing the universe through his eyes is making me appreciate a character like Padma's a little bit more. Thought it was a fun episode. I did too. It's very interesting that we don't like her at first because of the way she's
Starting point is 01:04:33 acting around him, but we also see what he's falling for in her despite that, you know? Like it's a tricky character. I think she did a great job with it. And yeah, it has a very specific tone, a very unusual tone for a Star Trek episode. Like, David Livingston shot this, and it really felt very distinct from his other directorial outings on Star Trek. Like, interesting choices, both in terms of, like, lensing and camera positions across the episode,
Starting point is 01:05:03 and also, like, the... Wet set. The wet set, like the sound, like whenever they're in that cargo bay talking, like it's so like reverby and boomy in there and in a way that I feel like they're at such pains to not have in Star Trek so much of the time. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:05:21 Yeah, it was a very different kind of episode in that way. Well, let's see if we get any different Priority One messages in the inbox, Ben. Let's do it. Priority One message from Starfleet coming in on Secure Channel. Need a supplemental income. Supplemental income. Supplemental. Supplemental.
Starting point is 01:05:39 Yeah, it's extra. By the interest alone, could be enough to buy this ship. Ben, we got a promotional Priority One message here. Yeah, it's extra. By the interest alone, could be enough to buy this ship! Ben, we got a promotional Priority One message here. Here's how that goes. When not watching Star Trek, are you dreaming about an away mission to Walt Disney World or Universal Studios? Hmm. Are you a theme park enthusiast?
Starting point is 01:06:01 Would you simply like to help out a fellow FOD if the answer to any of these questions is yes And you have room in your life for yet another YouTube subscription We invite you to follow the theme park antics of two childless Millennials FODs and unapologetic Disney adults on YouTube at adulting in theme park land, okay? So you're gonna wanna go to YouTube and find Adulting Theme Park Land as the channel. And guess who you're gonna find there? You're gonna find Captain Lizoto and Chris Shimoda.
Starting point is 01:06:36 Whoa! Here's your host. These are FODs that we are friendly with in real life. We paled around with them a bunch in STLV. Got to know Captain Lizoto a little bit and what her professional interests are. As an enthusiastic appreciator for theme parks, we talked a lot about our mutual love of Disneyland. She's just great and if you need tips on how to enjoy theme parks, I would go to her and them first.
Starting point is 01:07:06 I love that. Gotta check this out. Yeah. As a person who is staring down the barrel of probably a decade or so of theme park experiences of my own, I need to start boning up on what I need to know to be ready. Are you or are you not a theme park person generally? I mean, I'm not anti-theme park. I just, it's like arena concerts. It's just not something I have a lot of experience with. It's not that I have some aversion to it's.
Starting point is 01:07:37 It helps to have a Sherpa. It really does. My wife is my Sherpa for Disneyland. She's got that thing fucking locked. Yeah. Like we have a strategy. And I think, I think if you go in not having a strategy, she's got that thing fucking locked. Yeah. Like we have a strategy. And I think if you go in not having a strategy, it's easy to be overwhelmed. I think that's why a adulting theme park land style show will help you out there.
Starting point is 01:07:56 Well, I hope people check it out. Our next P1 here is from James and it's to Marcy and it goes like this. Happy potentially late birthday, roll errand drop. Thanks so much for introducing me to TGG slash TGT. Now we can waste even more time talking about Trek instead of working. You are my favorite drunk Shimoda for life. Ben and Adam, you are the best
Starting point is 01:08:26 podcasters in any universe, mirror or otherwise. Keep up the great work. Hey, thanks, James. And thanks to Marcy for sharing our show with a pal. That rules. Strong work by you, James and Marcy. Thanks a lot. Wow. Well, if you'd like to get a P1 on an upcoming episode of the show, we'd sure appreciate it. Keeps the lights on around here. Go to maximumfun.org slash Jumbotron to book yours today. Hey, Ben. What's that, Adam? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda this episode? Incredible. Drunk Shimoda!
Starting point is 01:09:00 I'm gonna give it to my girl, Padma Lakshmi. She is a very fun presence in this episode. And yeah, like I think that before I quite caught on to the tone of this episode, I was like, what is she doing? Like the way she's playing this character is fucking wild. But then like, as I realized, like everybody was kind of playing it in a very like arched pitch.
Starting point is 01:09:25 Yeah, I didn't like her at first until I realized I wasn't supposed to. Yeah. It was that kind of revelation. Candidly, I watched this episode to take notes for it, and then I had a jazz gummy later and watched it to think of ideas for my art project. And I feel like I really got it the second time. So yeah, she's gonna be my drunk Shimoda because it just seems like a ton of fun was had by her in making this character what it was.
Starting point is 01:09:52 How about you? For me, I'm gonna make it Flynn for just staying as cool as hell while the stasis pod situation is breaking down. He's not rushing over to it. He's fine staying behind to finish his plate of spaghetti. Like he has to be secret code style asked to return to the ship. And I just think that's hilarious.
Starting point is 01:10:16 Like if he and Goff are in on whatever this is, the kidnapping and the ransom and so forth, You need someone sturdy like plan to like present as the nothing is wrong guy. And by staying behind to eat spaghetti, you are that. And I just thought that was a great job by him. Like he's working here, eating spaghetti, trying his best to throw them off the scent.
Starting point is 01:10:40 Good stuff. Yeah. I mean, he's also like probably having Parmesan for the first time in his life. And that's got to be an amazing experience. Big moment. Big moment. FACE OF THE FART Well, Adam, a big moment at the end of every episode
Starting point is 01:10:54 of this show is when we talk about what's coming up next and how we will be experiencing it. Of course, our next episode is going to be season two, episode 12 of Star Trek Enterprise, The Catwalk. When a lethal, neutronic storm approaches faster than Enterprise can escape,
Starting point is 01:11:14 the crew take shelter in the maintenance shafts inside the warp nacelles. They also provide refuge to a group of aliens who aren't exactly honest about themselves. The catwalk, you say. I mean, they couldn't name this episode the catwalk, given the famous model Padma Lakshmi's in it. Sure. On the catwalk, yeah. Archer shakes his little tush. All right, Ben, I've gone over to gach.biz slash game, where we keep the game of butt holes
Starting point is 01:11:46 to the will of the Riker quantum leap. We're at the very top row of this game. The runabout is on the Naomi Wildman square. Will we roll another Naomi Wildman? It seems possible. This time around, maybe it's all Naomi's Wildman forever. Troubling to think of. You're required to learn as you play.
Starting point is 01:12:11 Roll. All right, I've got the die in my hand. Here it goes. Oh, and I've landed it on a square 24. Chula! Did I win? Hardly. Okay. So achingly close to a Starship Mine episode.
Starting point is 01:12:28 Kind of makes you wonder how terrible an episode would be just listening to us fuck around with X-Acto knives and super glue while just white-knuckling a conversation about a Star Trek episode. Yeah. Probably not good audio. Building a model while inhaling industrial solvents. Yeah. Probably not good audio. Building a model while inhaling industrial solvents. Maybe compromising, but maybe performance enhancing
Starting point is 01:12:54 for a show like this. Who knows? My algorithm feeds me a lot of Starfleet, Starship model builders, like professionals. Ooh. They build them, and they put them together, and they put lights inside. Starfleet starship model builders, like professionals. They build them and they put them together and they put lights inside and then they like
Starting point is 01:13:08 shoot them on those Edelkoney like motion control things. I don't wanna make a model while that's out in the world. It's humiliating, you know? Just little dick, my fucking reliant with the My unpainted reliant out in the world. No, thanks. Come on man. Like we're dealing with fucking Gatorade bottles over here Yeah, I think you and me and everyone else is looking forward to an episode absent that yeah And that'll be next week right here on The Greatest Generation. Thanks to everyone who supports the show at maximumfund.org slash join. Much appreciated.
Starting point is 01:13:51 You're who make the production possible around here. Thanks for your support. Speaking of the production, we got to thank Wendy Pretty, our producer and editor, who keeps the calendar and keeps all of the edits moving around here. She does great work. We also appreciate our temporal Cold War time consigniary, Bill Tilly, and Rob Adler, who runs the at Greatest Trek social media accounts and helps us get the greatest newsletter out every month.
Starting point is 01:14:20 Definitely sign up for that newsletter. Really great stuff in there. Yeah, for sure. All kinds of surprises. News before anyone else gets it. Indeed. Offer codes to PodShop.biz. The whole thing.
Starting point is 01:14:31 Much appreciated to Adam Ragusea, who made the original parody theme song for this show. A person with whom we have expanded our collaboration considerably by starting a new podcast. It's called Wholesome. It's a Patreon only show, so patreon.com slash wholesome underscore pod is where you go to get that. And it's just a show where we share stuff that we really like with each other. It's a lot of fun. I've been having a lot
Starting point is 01:14:58 of fun getting to know some of the different sides of my two buddies, Adam. Yeah, you get Adam in stereo, don't you? Yeah, it's a little tricky for me to on that show to figure out how to refer to everyone, because I'm not used to calling you by your last names necessarily. I mean, I call him Goose, that's easy. But then, you can't keep like, I call you Pranika?
Starting point is 01:15:20 Give it a try, it's a different thing. Yeah. That's what I'd say. Also gotta thank Dark Materia for the original Picard song with that We will be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek Enterprise and An episode of the greatest generation enterprise that is too sexy for its shirt That's what we should have rolled that one where we have to like come in our underpants or whatever Yeah, no, thank you I'm glad we haven't hit that one yet. I Think we're watching quantum leap if we ever hit that episode. Oh interesting Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so.
Starting point is 01:16:05 Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so.
Starting point is 01:16:13 Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so.
Starting point is 01:16:21 Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so.

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