The Greatest Generation - Through the Prism of Water Ice (ENT S1E20)

Episode Date: March 9, 2026

When two scary character actors and a baby threaten a newly-formed coalition of planets, Trip and T’Pol go undercover to learn more about Terra Prime. But after Mayweather’s love interest turns out to be a honeypot, the mining colony launches and Paxton broadcasts his demands for racial purity on Earth. Where is Trip currently on the xenophobia spectrum? Who was on the bucket list for LeVar Burton? What’s a good strategy for staying in the game? It’s the episode with another Star Trek hair prop. Support the production of The Greatest Generation Get a thing at podshop.biz! Sign up for our mailing list! Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Riker - Quantum Leap The Greatest Generation is produced by Wynde Priddy Social media is managed by Rob Adler and Bill Tilley Music by Adam Ragusea & Dark Materia Friends of DeSoto for: Labor | Democracy | Justice Discuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen and find us on social media: YouTube | Instagram | Bluesky And check out these online communities run by FODs:  Reddit | USS Hood Discord | Facebook group | Wikia | FriendsOfDeSoto.social Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Here's to the finest crew in starving. When it comes to my crew, you won't get any argument for me. This is a parody. Welcome to the greatest generation. It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are just a little bit embarrassed about having a Star Trek podcast. I'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pranika. How are the brackets going, Adam?

People are following behind the paywall at this point, right? at first it's like anything else it is like literally anything else the beginning it's so exciting you think everyone's gonna like your big idea yeah and then it becomes a disappointment

to most people involved no I don't mean that at all I just mean like every time we break format or like try something new it always comes freighted with a little bit of like I hope people get it. I hope people are game. I hope we didn't ruin the show with some bullshit.

I think that's sort of like what I'm thinking about when we do our circle back around to the beginning of next generation. I want to make changes. I want to have it feel like a fresh new show. But I don't want to ruin the things that people have come to love over the years. That's such a thing. Like I think we've really been lucky. not lucky because the friends of DeSoto are awesome

but like we change the music every time we change series on this show and like I've seen other podcasts change their theme song and like just get like flamed to death about it and have to go back to their old theme song or whatever yeah and like you know a website you go to changes their you know like does a design update

and and people have a fucking and melt down about it or like there's a new icon for the thing and people hate it. People don't like it when they're, I'm just going to use the word recipes. Like people don't like their recipes changed. Yeah. But I think that like we've had, we have a uniquely chill audience about that. Oh, you think? Who are you interacting with?

These streets are rough, man. I'm just saying like when we change the music on our show, people tend to think it's really good, you know? Yeah, that's true. And, you know, like, I don't, I don't, we haven't even talked about if we're going to change the music on our TNG rewatch. But, yeah, we kind of don't have a lot of time to make a lot of these pretty big decisions. We should have been thinking about this month. This is some, this is something that we've been talking about a lot lately is like, why do we never anticipate future events that we know are coming? We just had our beginning of the year kickoff meeting as an Uxbridge.

Shimoda, you know, company in February. That's how it goes around here. It's madness. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we muddle through. I think that the brackets are a ton of fun. And I think the friends of DeSoto en masse are really enjoying it.

Thanks, dude. You know, the last thing I want to do is make work for anyone else. And it has made work for everyone else involved in what we do. I mean, you know, poor Rob, but also, like, that's his job. Do your job, Rob. He's great. We couldn't do it without him. You think I know how to make a bracket?

No. I'm printing that shit out when I'm sports gambling. You know, and for those who don't know, like, if you're, if you are a monthly supporter, you can be listening weekly as these competitions go down, find out where the bracket is at. I guess probably greatest trek.com will have like a link out to like so people can see the bracket online as it goes at this point. If you're an FOD, you're going to know about it. You're going to want to like keep your own personal bracket. I have a few young FODs are going to want to gamble amongst themselves. That's a good call. Yeah. Like the side bets. Like the office pool. Yeah. You know, I mean if your office is like, I don't know, people that make Starship models or

something. I should say, and maybe I'll want to edit this out by the time it happens. I don't always go to Vegas for March Madness, but I am going this year. So if you're an FOD that's going to be out there in the middle of March, keep your eyes open. Maybe you'll see a co-host of the greatest generation out there. I always seem to run into someone on the first day of March Madness. Really? Yeah, an FOD, I mean. I don't, but that's because my March tradition. as just rereading Middlemarch. God, I wish I could do anything with that. Ben, I'm not well read.

Actually, context clues would indicate that that's a book of some kind. That's all I got. Oh, yeah. A lovingly dog-yered book in my case. Lots of little marginal notes by yours truly. Do you want to get into the stonerist episode of Star Trek Enter?

prize, Adam? More than anything, I want to get out of the subject we were just in. Well, let's exercise those demons, Adam. It's season four, episode 20, demons. When you start your episode with a Peter Weller. Your move, creep. And the guy from the scariest scene in Mulholland Drive. I am locked in, baby.

These are two of the most intense actors in the game, I think. They really are. And like, Patrick Fisler is the character actor. Yeah. I keep waiting for him to try to get Peter Weller to follow him to the dumpster behind the diner. I know. I don't want that. I mean, nobody wants that.

No way. The Peter Fisler character who is named Mercer, but I don't know if they ever actually saved him. that in the episode. They don't, which is why I just named him Mulholland Drive. Well, Mulholland Drive steps to Robocop and it's like... Yes! The patient's health status is a bit of a concern right now.

And they go in and look down into some kind of... I mean, this looks like the kind of thing that you would wipe the frost away from, that somebody would be frozen inside of. Except there are holes in it. It looks like a salad bar sneeze guard. Like it's meant for reaching in. I guess so, yeah. She looks so innocent, Robocop says.

She represents something, something terrible. Yeah, and when you see her point of years, it's clear that what she represents is not human. It's a little baby. Yeah, where are the parents? That's my question. Can't be these dudes. No.

Two dudes in neckties cannot be left alone with a baby. Two scary character actors in a baby. Like that's... I love that movie. Some people say they can see a ghost in one of the scenes. That's our cold open. And after the theme, which is back to normal, thank God. Yeah.

The entrepreneur has been called home for an historic. event. It's the first meeting of the Coalition of Planets. The speaker today is Nathan Samuels. And this is like the first Federation Thanksgiving with all the alien species at this big long table. And the Enterprise crew doesn't get to sit at this table. They get to stand on the stairs in the back. At the stand on the stairs? Everybody's wearing these universal translators, which are real big honkers. Like, I love the idea. that eventually these miniaturize into the com badge in a couple hundred years, but for right now, this is a big piece of gear that you have to wear on your chest.

They look like gas station thermometers, like that old style kind. Yeah, and the Enterprise crew are pretty salty about the way Minister Samuels is talking, because it really feels like he's gathering up all the flowers and keeping them for himself and not giving them to Jonathan Archer and the crew that made this all possible. I think this was all his idea. It's not about who gets credit. I definitely saw that as the reason for the lack of enthusiasm, the crew shows. I also saw it as just fatigue for standing on the fucking stairs the whole time.

But also, I wondered if maybe Tripp just doesn't like aliens that much. And if that was at all part of it. He's still feeling a little bit of feelings after the Zindy weapon killed his sister, right? We haven't really checked in with where he is relative to the mean in terms of xenophobia. I mean, he does desperately want to smash an alien. Like on the spectrum, has Tripp experienced at all? Like, death of family member closest to him and several sexual encounters. Yeah.

One of which has left a lasting impact on his forearms. You're never going to let that go, are you? I mean, he's no stranger to smashing aliens. That's not what I'm saying. Yeah. Like, it's got to be a deep conflict within him. Yeah. And Minister Samuel steps to them after his opening remarks and is being all, you know,

he's glad handing everybody and complimenting Hoshi on the universal translators she came up with. And she's like, yeah, I mean, I guess we just like went on a bunch of death defying missions and met all of the people that made this possible so that I could learn enough languages to build this. It would have been nice to hear anything about that in your little fucking speech. There's something about the way Samuels is costumed that is coded as feckless bureaucratic dipshit

because so often on Star Trek you'll see like a high collar tunic situation, even if you're human. Like the dress, garment of a diplomat looks a little different that this guy just wears a normal ass suit and tie I think is a message that this guy is no good he's on the take or something there's something squirrelly about him something doesn't smell right with this dude yeah but he's an ambitious politician and he has set a six week timetable for hammering out a charter for this

alliance that has not yet gotten a name. Can't do the job without a universal translator. And communication challenges are top of mind for Mayweather, who is not happy to see Gannett, a reporter covering the event. This is someone that he at one time was very close to, and she wants to hang out. And he does that kind of agree to hang out, which actually means, Gannett. He does not want to hang out, actually. Yeah.

I hear you're going to be in the neighborhood. a while. At least until the conference is over. We should get together. I'll pretend. That was an enthusiastic yes. Why doesn't she pick up what he's putting down? He seems pretty salty with Gannett.

Yeah. There's clearly some history there. But yeah, she heads off, and it's sort of like back to work. And this lady with like a big coat on, hobbles through. Like, something that looks like they would have taken at a coat check, not really something you wear indoors this coat she hobbles through

and we cut over to Topal and Archer and Tappal's like I mean like this is bullshit like this fucking Samuels guy is standing in the spot like that should be you man she's kind of talking to him the way Prime Archer talks to

Mirror Universe Archer in the previous episode I know I know Hey I got no respect Oh God I promise I didn't write any more Jonathan Dangerfield jokes. Yeah, how many more do you have chamber? You just emptied the chamber on the last episode.

The elementary school I went to, the teacher asked me to prove a theory of gravity, and a kid dropped her out the window. Delightful. That's just an actual danger field joke. So this lady interrupts Archer and DePaul, and she passes them a vial with some hair in it. What is it with Star Trek?

in hair vials, by the way. Give me another example. Wasn't there a hair vial in that big arc in Voyager, where they were going through and, like, editing the timeline? I think you're thinking of the movie Slackers and the hair doll in slackers. Is this a hair doll? I didn't make that. It fell out of your hair that way, and I want it back.

No, it was the dad from that 70s show had like a triangle full of hair. That's right. I do remember that. Yeah. Yeah. So if you were to bid on auctions of props that were in Star Trek, there's actually like a section for hair stuff. Yeah. Amazing.

You know who's snapped all of those up, actually. It's totally cornered the market on Star Trek hair stuff props. Who? Garrett Wong. God damn it. No, they're not going to sue. They got no case. Because parody and damnifies me.

So anyway, this lady interrupt. Archer and DePaul's conversation, passing them this vial of hair, and warns them that someone is in danger of being killed. And when she kind of topples over, Tepal looks up at Archer and she's like, and why is the carpet all wet, Captain? I don't know, Margo. Because this lady's bleeding out on it. Yeah. She's got a big pistol wound right in the center mass. In Sixby on Enterprise, you think that's where she's going to be. Now, Dr. Flachs tells us, the senior staff that showed up that it's RSVP Susan Corey

she died elsewhere she's the lady with the phaser to the belly it doesn't seem like you would need to take somebody to a starship when you're on earth like they probably have a better medical facility like right there on the planet you probably don't want to put her through a beam a beam up situation

yeah anyway she was a medical technician and had been having some emotional trouble per her like HR report that they've been able to pull in her absence. And flocks has also gone ahead and analyzed this hair. And he says that this is a six month old baby's hair. And this baby is not just human. It's also a little bit Vulcan.

He produces quite dramatically a manila envelope from behind his back. And like, I feel like the senior staff looks around and there's actually more crew in Sixth Bay than there's ever been before. Yeah. And he really, like, he juices the moment. Like, he takes a really long time to unwind that piece of red string that holds it closed. Dr. Flux has the lab results. And it is tripping to Paul's baby. You are the father.

Oh, my God. And they're, like, they're so humiliated that they, like, run backstage. And the camera, like, chases them down. see the backs of all the flats that make the sickbay set. Very surprising. Yeah. We cut to DePaul's quarters later. I mean, what do you do if you're to Paul and you get this kind of news?

You got to, you got to go meditate. Go light a candle. Immediately. Yeah. Trip visits her in the midst of her meditation. And he's like, so are we going to talk about this? I love the tension in this scene because, yes, it is a futureistic science fiction space show and you understand babies can be born in all kinds of ways.

But like, Tripp isn't wrong for being suspicious about how this baby was born. Like, if I'm Triptucker, I only know one way babies get born. And that's, you know, through the whole. When she says she's never been pregnant, I also wanted her to say, but you have. Yeah, exactly. He can barely look her in the eyes, and that's because there's so much suspicion around this conversation, the DNA being wrong, is a hell of a take for either of them. Either of them, because they're both smart, science-based people. That's what makes to Paul's take even more surprising because she's like, when I looked at that result, I just knew that that was true.

Yeah. Yeah. She had a gut sense that she knew. And he's like, he's like, how can you just know? And she says, because I'm Vulcan. It's like, what? Where did the logic go? Like that is like just because there's never a Vulcan answer to anything. The idea that the conclusion that they're drawing from this conversation is that this baby is both theirs and not theirs. You don't know where to go from here. At least I didn't. Yeah. I'm all the way upside down. Archer meets Samuel's. for drinks later, and it's clear that Samuels does not want this little secret baby to get out for fear of it ruining the conference he's putting together. I thought when they were started talking about, like, I don't want news to get out because I don't want to ruin the conference, that the news that they were talking about was a woman walked in with a lethal phaser wound and died right after he gave his remarks, but no. Ben, that is exactly what I was thinking. How is no one talking about the lady that died on the carpet. How is that not a scandal? Does that happen?

Kind of a lot? There was press in the room with cameras. You know, the news doesn't report suicides so that there are a lot of copycats. Maybe they don't report ladies who die on the carpet for the same reason. Then it's a big, big problem. What is Gannett Brooks up to? What's her angle? I don't know. Samuels tells Archer about the like, the sort of like ebb and flow. of xenophobia that has been experienced on earth in Archer's long absence. There was a big spike post the Zindia attack and it has died off somewhat, but now like they're doing this conference and like it's back to a little simmer. And he's just like, I don't want to like introduce news to the discourse or whatever

that is going to, you know, potentially radicalize people and weird people out. I know what the episode's trying to do. It's fairly obvious the equivalency that they're trying to draw here. But Ben, tens of millions of people on Earth were killed not that long ago by an alien species. And for Samuels to be like, people still have hard feelings about that. You know, the carving of the scar into the planet and the tens of millions of people dead. Like, that happened in my mind just a few months ago. Why can't they let it go being sort of the energy of this?

I thought it was pretty inappropriate. It would take some time to get over that, would it not? Maybe I just have a little more faith in humanity than you do. Can't afford to operate on faith. It's also very unclear to me how much of the, like, insanely high concept backstory of why the Zindy mistakenly attacked, has been reported out in the press. Yeah, you know, that would be a great story for Gannett to be working on.

Like, did somebody sit down and open their morning paper and read about Zendia Tack leveled on Florida was done mistakenly by race being deceived by the bad guys in the temporal Cold War? Now do Jonathan Dangerfield in that voice. You know, I get no respect. I went to the urologist and pulled out my pants. He said it looked like Florida after the Zindy attack. You know, I get no respect. Here's the thing.

Archer wants to do something. He doesn't want to just sit back in the cut. He wants to be involved in gathering evidence or investigating what's happened. But he's made to wait for Samuels to give them an update. And that's a very uncomfortable feeling. There's something just off about this guy. When he turns to leave, I feel like Archer is rubbed the wrong way from this interaction. He talks to Reed and he's like, man, we got to find out what's going on.

Like this guy is boxing me out of the investigation. I want you to talk to an old friend. And Reed heads down to the misty blue part of San Francisco where the sight lines don't quite work. Yeah. I think we all know which part of San Francisco. Francisco, that is. And he's talking to that guy from Section 31. Things tend to get a little blurry in this district.

The Section 31 guy is like, if you're talking to me, you're back in the game, baby. And he does have some interesting information about Susan Coory. One, it is really amazing that a woman born in the 22nd century would be named Susan. because that just seems like a really old name. Two, she was part of an isolationist movement called Terra Prime and was potentially trying to become the leader of that isolationist movement. Yeah, I wonder why they didn't like her for that job. Yeah.

Well, anyways, if you find the kid that that hair came from, that will bring everything into focus and you'll have some answers. And I've got faith of the. We cut to a moonbase, has an answer for what Susan has done. They're talking about like she turned away from us and they're speculating like, did she get too attached to the baby? Like she was taking care of this baby.

Did she develop like maternal instincts toward it? And they're like, no, because like you've been with. the baby a bunch and you didn't do that. Robocop is like, their baby did not latch. Your breast, creep. That's good news. I'm both of you. Robocop is really going to miss this place.

He says wishfully as he looks out the window. The moon just seems like a cool place to work. It does. Cool place to look wistfully out the window anyways. Yeah. Yeah. Peter Weller's character doesn't have a lot of nice things to say about this baby. Anytime you throw around the word abomination when talking about a living thing, not a good feeling.

Not great. So he sends Mahal and Drive out of the room and in walks Daniel Greaves, who looks more like a soldier than a scientist. And the meeting they plan for later sounds like something pretty dark. And you're talking about a loose end that needs to be tied up. They need to do this in one hour. Guy that talks about abominations can't be talking about anything good when he's talking about loose ends. Yeah, he's not talking about happy hour. That's for sure. On Earth at HQ, Samuels is talking with a cordonite. Corridanite. Corridian ambassador. Yeah. Yeah. When Archer just straight up interrupts,

this Samuels guy can't have a one-on-one meeting with anyone without getting interrupted. Archer wants to know everything about the investigation to Susan Corey and Terra Prime. Before we get away from this ambassador, this is another just like classic Star Trek move of having a really famous actor buried in loaf so you can't see who it is. Oh, tell me who. This is Tom Bergeron. Tellerites only want to deprive us of valuable commerce. Corridan will never agree to any trade sanctions.

You know, I didn't clock him. A little too much shit on his face. Too much fucking shit on me. I can't breathe. God. Look at him. Yeah. Not the first time he's had a lot of shit on him.

No. And I'm sure it won't be the last. This is a LeVar Burton episode. Like, they must know that they're not getting renewed at this point and are just doing like the fuck it shit. Yeah. Is that what's happening?

I mean, I don't think that's a reason to get LeVar Burton to direct your episode. No, but I'm saying like, Like, is Lovar Burton like buddies with Bergeron? And he's like, hey, you want to come being a bunch of loaf for a day? Great question. We need to, we need answers to the Bergeron-Burton connection. Yeah, so Archer interrupts these guys to tell them that he wants Starfleet to turn over information from the investigation and everything that they have on Terra Prime. Because normal channels hasn't given them anything.

That's why he's going to submit this request. And, oh, Samuels was a member of Terror Prime at one point. That's a bombshell. I'm not only the hair club president, but I'm also a member. You're not going to shine me on when I know this piece of dirt about you. Is Gannett a bad reporter? Because it feels like every bombshell comes from a character that's not her. She's a bombshell, I would say.

She's not reporting the bombshells. Right. She's, you know, like there's all different kinds of reporters. Like the kind of reporter that gets scoops is but one of the many types. Why are you going to be doing an interview with a fucking infant, huh? He's not an infant. I mean, there's like not really any reporters left at this point. But in an ideal future where we have reporters again, like digging up dirt about the like people in power, you would hope that they would find out shit like this.

This revelation made me wonder how someone like Samuels ascends to the level that he does without this. ever coming to light. He was 18. Didn't you make any question more choices when you were that age, Captain? He describes this as a youthful indiscretion because his dad was killed in like a space accident and there was an alien pilot involved. A youthful indiscretion at 18 gets you sentenced as an adult, right? I don't know, man. Samuels agrees, though, to give Archer the case file. I guess because this would be such explosive news if it actually broke. I love that in two straight scenes, it's concluded with, yeah, I'll give you those case files.

How about in an hour? Hey, that's what that loose end is supposed to be tied up on the moon. So Mayweather gets a visit from Gannett in his quarters, and he's in his civilian attire. And she kind of slinks in claiming that she has been assigned to do a story. on Enterprise. Like she's going to shadow the crew and show how things work aboard the flagship of Starfleet.

Mayweather does that thing that is so natural to do when someone is wearing meta glasses around you and you just realize it. Just kind of withdraws like, like, ugh, what? I didn't consent to whatever this is.

Yeah, yeah. I'm not going to be your content. Take them off. Like, I will leave if you keep wearing those. Like, we're in a restaurant. this isn't cool with me. Yeah, there's a real energy to that, for sure. He is pretty annoyed that she's asking for a tour.

He's, like, pissed that she has, like, claimed that space exploration is right next door to colonialism. And she's like, no, I just said that to, like, make you not go because I love you so much. And I didn't want what we had together to be broken up by long distance or whatever. This awkwardness between them is played so realistically. I was just very uncomfortable with a lot of scenes where they talk about their previous relationship. I thought this is really well acted. I did too.

And, you know, just like last episode, how much we were talking about Linda Parks, just like incredible list of capabilities when it comes to acting. Like, this made me realize how much Anthony Montgomery was underused in this show. Like, this guy can do a lot. I'm not going to go that far, Ben, because Anthony Montgomery was not wearing a cutoff uniformed

top. Sure, sure. During any of these scenes. Nothing see-through on his birdie to make it that much more revealing and vulnerable of an experience for him. Exactly. He's nearly a Linda Park, you know? Can we say that?

Like, he's like a, he's almost as good. I don't know, man. Let's talk at the end of the episode. Anyways, she just wants to try again, get their relationship back on the tracks and see if it'll go the second time. I think that's part of the awkwardness that feels so real is like that are we a thing or aren't we a thing, tension? And when it's not really up to you, whether or not it is, is like, you really feel that in this moment. You do. Over in Six Bay, Dr. Flux tells Tripp that it's a baby girl that you're not.

you have. And I guess by that, I mean, you don't have because they're off somewhere else. And a viable one. Yeah. He believes that she's healthy also. So that's a good thing. And look, I know you're here to try to like break HIPAA. You want to know if Tupal had this baby in a conventional way. Is there any Star Trek podcast that talks about HIPA as much as we do? Do you think there's a certain accent where an old person, A breaks in my hippa! I went on a safari and I saw a hippa. He's there to do some fact-finding.

And Dr. Flax in that way that only Dr. Flax does is cool as hell about this. I feel like they had a very similar conversation when Tripp decided to leave the ship because he's still at the Hatsford-Dapal. Right. He does that cool, like, turn the chair backwards and sit in it and, like, gives him the pep talk that's like, look, we're on Star Trek, baby. All kinds of weird shit happens all the time. And I'm telling you, this baby didn't come out of her. I don't know where they got it, but it is yours.

She's not lying. It was kind of making me crazy that nobody had talked about time travel being a potential explanation for this. No one's talking about any possible explanations for this. Yeah. Yeah. What the hell? Legally, it's just a fart joke. You will never take the greatest chin alive.

Ben would rather die. Robocop is watching some, like, beloved old videos of fascists of Earth past. And this guy, Colonel Green was like doing a big speech about how they should. I mean, like, the implication is like, we got to like clean up our genetics as a people. And he is talking to Greaves about how that Colonel Green was misunderstood because after World War III, lots and lots of people had been irradiated and their genomes were all fucked up. And if they'd reproduced, humanity would have been plagued with genetic problems for generations.

and so it was good actually that Colonel Green euthanized swaths and swaths of humanity. I feel like we got a similar storyline in an episode of TOS that we watched, right? With that old actor guy? Kodos made a decision of life and death. Some had to die that others might live. This sounds like a thing that led to the augments and Kahan and stuff like that. Yeah. Graves is like, yeah, man, I'm all about it.

You don't need to tell me. Preach into the choir, baby. This is why Peter Weller never turned off the TV when you walked into the room. I mean, ordinarily when you're watching your racial purity videos, you want to, like, close the laptop or something when someone walks in the room. But no, like, Greaves is down. They're in agreement on what they're there to do on the moon base. And, I mean, what they don't know at this point is how history will view them after their plan is complete. Greaves is just like, hey man, patient is five by five.

Just thought you should know. All right, I'm out to tie up loose ends. And Robocop like crouches behind his desk and gets this crazy injection tool and injects something into himself. Heavily implying that he may be just what he seeks to destroy. The camera like racks in on the thing and it says newgenics. Like Frank Thomas walks in the room. You got to shoot this shit into your neck. It's going to make you feel like a young man.

Testosterone levels drop as your age. That's why you can't get hard anymore. I wish we knew more about what exactly was happening here because this never happens again this episode. It's just the one time. Yeah. By saying that, we're saying we're not sure how much he needs this, like, to live. Or if this is a recreational drug or what?

It really reminded me of that scene. in discovery where Captain Lorca injected something into his eye. It's like, what could that be about? And it takes a while to find out. And like, we don't find out in this episode. The choice of neck is such a great choice for the squick, right? Yeah. You always got to shoot it into the neck.

There's a tour going on on the entrepreneur. Mayweather is leading Gannett around. And he's warmed up a little bit, I would say, by this scene. and he's taking her to the shuttle bay and showing off the shuttles and he's like, yeah, these are like, we've really been through some shit on these. Like this one, you would not believe

how many letters Lieutenant Reed has written just sitting in that shuttle pod right there. And she's like, oh, wow, can I touch it? He's like, yeah, go ahead. Like any good tour, this one looks like it's going to end at the gift shop. And by gift shop, talking about Mayweather's pants. He's been thinking about her since the conference.

This is another scene where I totally got the bends because like until she like attack kisses him, I'm not seeing this as a possibility. Like they kind of go back and forth again in that very tension-filled way. Yeah, because he's like talking about his love of piloting these shuttles and how that's going away. You know the difference between sexual tension

and you screwed up our relationship tension? I feel like all of their hang has been the second version. So it's surprising when it turns into the first. Yeah, but that's where makeup sex comes from. And that's kind of what is implied happens here. Like, she drops the headset, so I guess we won't be filming the makeup sex. Yeah, when this shuttle pods are rocking,

come a knockin, read, fucking purve. I need something to do with this shit, come on. Fair enough. We cut to a McLaughlin group. Issue one. Where we learn barely any information has been derived about Susan. You really have a problem with that name. I don't have a problem with that name.

I just, I was just like, what year is it? I like Susan. Susan's a great name. It's a beautiful name for a boy or a girl, especially girl. Horrible. It's a nice name. It's just the name that every single friend of my mom's had when I was a kid. Okay. Easy to remember that way. Yeah. Not that you were allowed to call them by their first name. Yeah, no. It was like Mrs. Maximov or Mrs. Johnson. Your mom goes over to Susan Maximov's house and she's like, are you not to entertain?

There was a dream of Bunko. Once. You're basically describing my childhood, Adam. Anyways, they're talking about like, oh, she had this drug in her that implies she worked for extended periods of time in zero G. And Orpheus, a moon mining colony, is tossed out as may be there because that is low gravity and people go there for a long time. and that's the closest thing like that to the planet Earth.

And so maybe we should send an away mission to Orpheus. What do you think of that? Sounds like fun. As long as Tripp and Paul can go, that's the caveat. They say they want to go on the mission. And I was like, oh, so they're like going to be with the group that goes? No, it's just them. Yeah.

Yeah, that's such an interesting detail, like in dialogue. We want to go on the mission can so often mean we want to go with. But in this case, it means they are the mission. I mean, two commanders kind of, like it feels like they should have a detail with them. But anyways, we cut to that mind where it's a crowded operation, lots of people working. Some of it is very manual and some of it looks very high tech. But the manual part involves just like picking up boulders by hand and bucket brigading them off of a big pile. One of those boulders doesn't look like the others, though.

No. It's weird how they block this scene because DePaul and Tripp are like walking along and they like approach this rock wall and then they look behind it and it's Mahal and Drive's head that comes out and it'll give you a heart attack. You just never see that coming. No. No, it's so fucking freaky. Yeah. Archer's log tells us that Tripp and Tepal are going to work undercover at this place and they're looking for a felicity. They can't seem to find according to their map, the map that they've got.

on them. So they go off exploring through some tunnels that seem like maybe they're out of place, and as they walk, they get to talking. To Paul is like, look, man, I know you're suspicious about me in this pregnancy. I got to tell you, I'm being on the level with you. Tripp is like, I can't hide the fact that I've been pregnant. You can see it all over my arms. If there was some way you could show me that you had been pregnant, that would clear things up. That would really calm me down quite a bit.

But no, she can't show him. And they don't get to really resolve this conversation because they find a door. And they proceed to head towards that door. And we cut back to the Enterprise where I've heard of not going to a second location with a reporter, but they went to a second location mid-coitus, it seems like.

I won't cease or desist because you really think it's fair use. Imagine the walk from the shuttle pod to Mayweather's quarters. You know he's putting it in the waistband, like to keep himself from like just sundialing his way through a corridor. I was picturing them like wadding up their clothes and like holding it over their boobs and crotches while while like running as fast as they could. You gotta put the clothes back on, man. I know, but that's so much time, you know?

That'll kill the vibe. I mean, mission accomplished, the post gift shop scene in bed seems like everyone's happy with what happened there. Yeah. The reason that Mayweather lasted so long was that he was thinking about his friends

in danger on the moon. It was a little preoccupied about a thing that is classified and he can't tell her, I think that's a good tip for any FOD out there looking for strategies to stay in the game longer. Just think about friends in danger. Get top secret clearance. Send your friends on a black ops kind of mission. And then you can just be preoccupied with that.

You're not going to bust until you dismiss that from your thoughts. There is some post nut clarity between them now. she's admitting that, you know, she's not, and maybe never has thought about settling down. And that was a reason that they couldn't get on the same level back when they were dating. And on his part, he's wondering if staying in one place is a career choice isn't something that he should consider for himself. So while they are thinking about living their lives in different ways, they still don't seem to be compatible in those different ways that they're considering. Yeah, it doesn't ever feel like they're. going to boo up with each other

even if these like big life changes they're thinking about actually take place. They seem like two X's that are eventually just going to really root for each other to be happy. Yeah. It's a Jerry and Elaine situation. Yeah. You're a girlfriend? Well, actually we did date

for a while, but that's really not relevant here. So on the Enterprise Bridge, Hoshi hasn't heard back from Tripp and to Paul. And things are starting to feel a little stressful. The longer they to wait. Right. On the moon mine. Trip meets a minor. It doesn't sound as bad as you put it, though. Right. Yeah. It's not, it's not like he's like at the moon base's high school or something. He's not like trying to buy beer at the moon base commissary and like a kid in the parking lot.

I was like, hey, Tripp, you're Tripp Tucker, right? Will you buy me some ale? This dude is very openly anti-alian. And they're talking like, man, humans are getting to be an endangered species. And now we're talking about an alliance with all these guys. And they make me want to puke my fucking guts out. And now they're here on the moon. Trip very subtly rolls the sleeves down on his arms for fear of looking like he's some sort of alien hybrid. This guy's name is Josiah, and he invites Tripp to a big meeting that they're having.

And he's like, I think some of the stuff that we're saying in that meeting is going to resonate with you. After Tripp gets invited to this meeting, to Paul rolls up and tells him that the folks in the mind told her that the body they dug up worked in the same facility as Susan Corey. You know, the lady who stayed in the carpet. Did she say it was the same facility or the same complex at him? Oh, you know, I wasn't clear on the dialogue. I think it might have been Felicity. So we go to this meeting, and Josiah is actually the keynote speaker, which I didn't see coming. I didn't think he was going to beat the guy, but he's the guy.

You don't want to say that if you're the keynote speaker. It kind of makes you sound dushy. Like, hey, come to the big meeting. I'm also the president of the club. Yeah, it's like guy. Pearson, Merrill East Town. He's like, yeah, you know, they're throwing a book party for my, like, award-winning novel. I'm so humiliated, but would you like to come with me? Timely reference, Ben.

Jesus. That was a great show two years ago. Well, we're watching a show from 2002 or something, so I think it's fair game. Very uncomfortable moment when Josiah's doing the testimony up there. And he's like, guess what? You know how strong our position is? We're not alone in this. We got allies everywhere. For instance, this guy, who we just met.

You do know Commander Tucker of the Enterprise? Oh, man. Josiah just straight up doxism in front of everyone. You didn't tell me you recognize me? one of the most famous people on earth Planetary hero Trip Tucker I don't think I'll be taking home

the Nobel Prize anytime soon So while everyone's at this meeting Tepal sneaks off to investigate the crime scene where Mahal and Drive was was killed and she shot by Greaves Yeah Greaves comes out of the shadows

Takes her down Does it feel like Tappal's kind of been shot a lot This season? Yeah It's a good thing that stun works every time, you know? It's not like one of those less lethal kinds of munitions. It's like actually non-lethal. And yet, like, it wouldn't surprise me at all if there were a veteran football player

amount of traumatic injury taking place that's sort of compounding over the episodes and seasons. Hopefully her Vulcan biology is preventing CTE. but yeah we we cut back up to the entrepreneur where Travis and Gannett are still in there in his room and Archer barges in catching them and reveals that she is actually affiliated with Tara Prime. This has all been a setup. She's a honey pot. Oh, bother.

Empty again. Only the sticky parts left. Oh, it's so embarrassing. I mean, after you've gotten down, the very last person you want to see at the door of your apartment is the captain and crew, right? Very humiliating moment. Bad look for Travis Mayweather. But, you know, her feminine wiles, he was no match for them. This is what it costs to be in the A story, you know.

Greaves, it turns out, is friends with Josiah. and they have captured the away team and now the villain reveals himself. Robocop introduces himself as John Frederick Paxton and he's like, hey, got your kid, that little peanut is safe and sound. I was so surprised

that Peter Weller's character turned out to be the bad guy. And he proves it with this monologue. Not see that coming. He's the head of the Zee. xenophobes and you know it is like Britain for the British kind of thought that he's having he is returning the earth to its rightful owners the humans got free speech and guitar they're brought to the gazing window where the mining facility is put into launch mode all of this

was a complete shock to me yeah i thought he was going to just broadly to the mine and be like, I've run this place like a Swiss watch. The Swiss being the most careful and precise of all human beings. That sort of specific quality is something I'm going to assume is going to have broad appeal on the planet Earth. I'm going to make sure it happens. I actually got my hands on an early draft of the script for this episode, Adam,

and there was a line in which he said, my father built this place, but now it's mine. Pretty great. This mine takes off. It's a ship. Secret ships are so much fun. Why aren't secret ships more of a thing in Star Trek? Why is it only ever Peter Weller in charge of secret ships in Star Trek?

Great cough. Admiral Marcus, I wasn't expecting you. Yeah, I feel like this guy's going to come back at some point. Another bomb drops about Gannett, the reporter. It turns out she reconfigured her universal translator to record all of the delegates at the big meeting. And this is another huge scandal that threatens to blow apart the delicate beginning that is going to be the Federation. A beginning is a very delicate time. Poor Mayweather is like made to feebly argue in her defense as like Archer and Hoshi and everyone else is like dumping evidence on the table.

Mayweather doesn't even have a seat. Like he's just standing trying to help her. All of this evidence is damning. I mean, it's kind of like that scene in mayor of East Town where they're interrogating the girl that punched the dead girl in the first episode. and she asked a lawyer up, like immediately. Ben, I'm watching the pit right now. I'm like, I am 14 prestige TV dramas away from Merri-Vistown at this point. I can't go back.

So Gannett does that thing where she asks for a lawyer instead of answering more questions. That's why I brought up that scene in Marevistown because she asked for a lawyer in that. I'm presuming that's going to get cut out because no one's going to get the reference. How about new? I think this is going to have a lot of fun Pennsylvania regional accent drops in it as an episode. You know, a lot of, oh, she fell right down in the water. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Archer takes a radio call from the bridge, alerting him that you're not going to believe this. The mining facility is in orbit because it can fly. And not only that, it's going to war. And they call it a mine. a mite Holy fucking shit I love that it goes to warp

Like not Frisbee style Yeah But like throw a banana cream pie At a clown's face style I sure wish somebody would give me a banana cream pie Yeah I tell you I get no respect Stop

Stop it On the bridge of the Of the mine Starfleet hails and is ignored So the entrepreneur has to pursue them. And the mine arrives in orbit of Mars and is landing there. And they bring up the blast shield that they brought down in front of the front window. And we see this complex of satellite dishes.

Like it kind of looks like those like radio telescopes that they use to prove that we're alone in the universe. But yeah, they use a canadarm to grab onto. a big pipe leading to these things and tie into it and Greaves announces that it's theirs and this is a big moment. I touched it. It's mine.

It's like when Ariana Grande lick the donut. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So this is where it all begins, says Robocop. And we learn that what they're doing is taking control of the Verteron array

which is a like a system defense system. And they broadcast a signal on all bands announcing that he is in control of the Vrteron array. And unless all of the non-human people leave the system, he's going to start firing on any ship that happens to be in the system. And to prove that he's not fucking around, he shoots a beam at the Earth's,

moon for quite a long time. He should have shot it at Earth at the exact same scar that the Zindy shot. Right, because he's just shooting like what on the moon? It doesn't seem like there's anything there. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Terra Prime forever, Adam.

To be continued, Ben. That is our episode. Did you like demons? I can't pay. Could for late. No case. Tempting. I really did, but I want to ask you if it hits a little less hard in all of these racial purity themes.

If it hits a little bit hard after the Mirror Universe episodes, or if that is strategic and intentional? Like if you want this story butted up right after the Mirror Universe episodes. Oh, it felt very strategic and intentional to me because, like, all of the of that purity. They're drawing a pretty straight line in the equivalency of it. I guess by asking that question

and understanding that to be true, I am a little disappointed by that because I don't need the handholding. I don't need to be told to look exactly here to understand what they're trying to do. And it feels a little obvious in a way that I don't need, but maybe when this episode drops,

you've got a less sophisticated audience. That's what I'm saying, like, we're in 2026. This is before mayor of East Town back then. They didn't have the benefit of Mayor of East Town to like understand these kinds of things. You're true. Much less task. Now all we're doing is looking through the prism of Wooder Ice and understanding. Right.

In a way that that yeah, yeah. Look, you hire Peter Weller for one job to hit fucking dingers in dialogue. And he does that. if for no other reason than that, it's a pretty fun episode because he's the heavy in it. Indeed he is. And also, I guess, tripping to Paul have a baby. I'm curious to see how that ends up. Yeah.

Or they got it. And Anthony Montgomery got to do a ton of shit that he doesn't normally get to do. Yeah, special episode. I feel very similarly to you, Adam. And I also feel very strongly that we should look at some priority one messages. Okay. Hey. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on secured channel.

Need a supplemental income. Supplement. Supplement. Yeah, it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Adam, this is a promotional priority one message. It goes like this. Attention. Friends of DeSoto.

It's been a long road. Getting from there to here, but after 20 years of faithful service, Jaron Janeway, aka at the Andoririn, has taken the center chair as executive director at Out Youth, an Austin-based nonprofit, providing life-saving support to LGBTQ-plus youth across Texas. Now officially the captain, Jaron continues the mission, ensuring that youth boldly go into a better, brighter future. Hey, Ben and Adam, can we get... that at the Andoririn drop to celebrate these new pips. Of course you can. Of course.

And if I'm not mistaken, we spent some time with at the Andori Rin at this past STLV. Yeah, I also remember meeting them, had a great time, doing great work out there, important work. So visit out-youth.org slash Janeway to throw some scarves of support at LGBTQ plus youth. and wish Jaron well as they set off on the greatest trek of their life. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. The Andori Rin getting the greatest gen bump. The way that they should for LGBTQ plus youth.

Pretty great work there. If you'd like to get a priority one message on the show, we'd sure appreciate it. Helps keep the lights on around here. And it's very easy to do by going to maximum fun.org. Slats are available from now until the end of the series, so get in there. Hey, Adam. What? Did you find yourself a drunk shimota?

Incredible. Drunk Shimoda! I don't know, man. I mean, how is it not Peter Weller? Peter Weller, so evil. So good at being evil. You put a suit on him and you sit him behind a desk watching old cable news clips. that's all he needs.

Write some good dialogue. He's a really special actor. Just to draft on what you're saying a little bit. He looks like he's having fun without looking like he's having fun in an interesting way. Yeah, we talked a little bit about this quality at the end of the last episode,

which is, I think the description was like the mirror universe episodes that we just watched for Enterprise were like oddly fun because that version of evil was more palatable and kind of campy in a like 80s horror movie kind of way but this is a different kind of menace a Peter Weller kind of menace and yet because it's Peter Weller you're not grossed out by it and the presentation of it you know like the themes associated with all this very unsavory. I'm not for

anything his character is four, but I'm just for the way he's acting these things out. Yeah, he's my drunk Shimoda as well, Adam. Hard agree. And we didn't make him the drunk Shimoda because he threatened to shoot our dicks off like that

awesome robocop clip we talk about all the time. Yeah, which I think it's a lost robocop clip at this point. Like, Vimeo took it down because... Shut up! Yeah, it was using up too much band with and Vimeo. Because everyone was watching it?

Yeah. God. You can't put something like that on YouTube. Yeah, they don't like that. No. Faith of the fart. Adam, the next episode of this show is Star Trek Enterprise Season 4, Episode 21 Terra Prime.

A human isolation as leader threatens to destroy Starfleet command unless all aliens leave Earth immediately. Hmm. That's pretty fast. That's going to be coming right up to find out how we will be reviewing this episode. I'm going to roll this hundred-sided die over on our game board at gach.biz slash game, where you keep the game of buttholes. The will of the Riker Quantum Leap.

You're required to learn as you play. Roll. Here I go. Woo. Adam. I am so sad. to say, I've hit something. Oh, La Marine!

Fucking do it. We are on, I mean, a number that is very important in Star Trek, square 47, the breadstick power hour. I cannot believe that just under the wire, a thing we are definitely taking off, whatever randomization mechanism we apply to the show when we move on to TNG. We have to record a breadstick asode next time.

I literally don't know if it's medically possible to do what this is, this challenge. It might be a little easier using your fingers. Wilkins don't touch food with their hands. Grandma taught me never judge a species by their eating habits. All it says on the game of butthole is breadstick a sowed. What does that mean to you? I'm so impatient man can't wait to bring their bread out. Oh, do you want breadsticks?

A breadstick every minute full. an hour is not possible. I don't think that's possible. With proper discipline, anything's possible. Can we make it like a regulation bite of a breadstick every minute for an hour? I mean, even that. It's going to sound disgusting. The mesophones will destroy us.

Don't we have to veto this? We cannot do this episode, Adam. If we're talking about the breadsticks that are the super long stick kind that come in a cup, on the table at a red checkerboard Italian restaurant. And if it was 60 bytes of those, I think it's possible. But your point remains, it makes a bad show. It's going to be disgusting. We got to do something about this.

Do you think there's just time to think of what this is going to be before next time? We've got a few days to come up with what the fuck even is a breadstick power hour. And... What the hell? Is it something where we like check in with each other an hour before recording? And we and we're just independently start our breadstick power hours and then we start recording at the end of the breadstick power hour and report back on what it was like. Do we make a bread? Like we make a homemade loaf of bread and then we talk about it during the Marin, what we made, how we made it.

Sample it. But that's not a power hour. It's not because it's not a punishment. And that's what a power hour is. Yeah. I got a cough button. I could just hit the cough button every time I eat a bite of breadstick. But you're going to be chewing for longer than the 60 seconds.

Like, eventually you're going to run out of saliva. This is, you know? This fucking sucks. Hey, Wendy, leave all this in. Like, we are really, I think we have to veto. I just think we have to veto. Let's open the next show with what our decision is. I think there's a perfect idea here.

All right. With that, we got to go. And we have to thank the Friends of DeSoto that support on a monthly basis by going to maximum fund.org slash join. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. We have to thank the great Windy Pretty,

our producer and editor, who I'm sure is very glad. She does not have to participate in any such power hour. Mm-hmm. I got to thank Rob Adler, who I'm sure is preparing an article about this for the greatest newsletter as we speak. Yes. Like an oral history of the Breadstick Power Hour.

I can't believe that the Breadstick Power Hour is coinciding with March Madness stuff. Pretty big March for us. Got to thank Bill Tilly, the Card Daddy, who's making hilarious trading cards of every episode and posting them on the At Greatest Check social media accounts. Man, we've got to thank Adam Roussa, who made the parody of Faith of the Heart by Diane Warren, and Dark Materia who made the Picard song. With that, we will be back at you next week with another great episode of Star Trek Enterprise and an episode of the Greatest Generation Enterprise where the thing we are expelling from the system is saliva from our mouths.

Yeah, I think I'd just turn into a salt monster at the end of that episode. offer. You did it. I'm sorry. Terrible roll. I wanted the cheese plate so bad that we never got the cheese plate. Would have been so much better than this. Maximum Fun, a worker-owned network of artist-owned shows, supported directly by you.