The Greatest Generation - To Smash His Hope Nuts (VOY S7E13)

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

When Voyager gets involved in an execution milk run, Tuvok shoots the hostage and starts building the cellblock of his dreams. But when Dr. Mark talks Seven into a nanoprobe donation, a killer with a new conscience only deepens her need for atonement. Who always looks like he’s on an emotional knife’s edge? What’s the secret to a great Keanu? Which was the hardest job of Yediq’s entire career? It’s the episode that totally forgot BLT was pregnant!Support the production of The Greatest Generation.Friends of DeSoto for Democracy.Friends of DeSoto for Justice. Friends of DeSoto for Labor.Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Caretaker!Music by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaFollow The Greatest Generation on Twitter, and discuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen!The Greatest Generation is on YouTube.Facebook group | Subreddit | Discord | WikiSign up for our mailing list!Get a thing at podshop.biz!

Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage! Watch your back shot, Luke. Hello. I'm Captain Cap, bringing what the U.S. has for you. I'm Captain Cap, bringing what the U.S. has for you. I'm Captain Cap. Welcome to The Greatest Generation.

It's a Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys just a little bit embarrassed about having a Star Trek podcast. Madam Pranika. I'm Ben Harrison. I'm giving you an order. Getting ready for Valentine's Day over here. What are you doing to prepare? I don't know.

Recording this episode? That's as far as I've gotten. How's that going over? Uh, bad. Um, how, what's your strategy on Valentine's Day? We tend to keep it pretty chill over here, but early in my relationship, I had a couple of things where I didn't technically fuck up,

but I didn't do a great job at Valentine's Day in terms of execution. Like I had everything on paper. Yeah. There was one time where like, we were going out to dinner and I was like meeting her at work and we were gonna go out to dinner and I had bought her some flowers,

but I was like, I'm not gonna carry these around to her job and then to the restaurant and then back home, they're just gonna get beat up and die. Oh no, Ben. So they were waiting at home in water. Oh no. Did you catch some shit for not showing up with flowers? I didn't really catch shit,

but I could tell she was like, she was like preparing herself for a little bit of disappointment on that mark. And so like, our strategy as a couple has been like, set goals that Ben can accomplish in terms of what Valentine's Day looks like. And so what that's become is I usually make a heart-shaped pizza,

which I've been doing since way before all these fucking pizza places started doing it. So don't come at me with I'm copying, they copied me. That's a hell of a thing to take credit for. And we just, we do a nice night at home, you know? Then I've always believed that Valentine's Day was for both people in the couple. You subscribed to a burden on one person,

and by that I mean burden on you kind of, wave B. No, but there's things that like, I wouldn't feel right not doing for her on a day that's about our connection. Sure. But I think we both get something out of the day. Yeah, I've fortunately found a partner that does not really care much about that particular holiday.

And I know I'm one of the lucky ones. Cause I look out on that Valentine's Day battlefield and I see a lot of bodies and body parts strewn around. Yeah, it is a day that seems like mainly about setting up disappointment. It's like New Year's Eve, but it's in February. It's like New Year's Eve for blowing relationships apart.

I mean, it is for many couples the one last hurdle after which you can finally break up with that person. Mm-hmm. Like, just got to make it to Valentine's Day. That's a thought that a lot of people have. Hey, if you're just, if you're out there thinking about just hanging on until Valentine's Day and then doing it after, just do it now. Just do it now.

Just get it over with. You don't want wanna go to that restaurant with that sort of relationship Damocles hanging over you? Because I know you probably already know this. Valentine's Day of Solo, fucking great. Yeah. You got no problems.

Yeah, smooth sailing. My wife and I have been together for 15 years as of a few days ago. Congratulations. Love that. Pretty good run. Yeah. We've had two seven year inches and we made it past them.

Geez. Well, speaking of the battlefield of love, let's talk murder, Adam. Yeah, very similar battlefield for so many, I guess. Yeah, this is not quite the episode I thought we were going to get when I read the description, but I'm excited to talk to you about this app of Star Trek Voyager, season seven episode 13, repentance. Reverse course.

Unless you've got something a little bigger in your torpedo tubes, I'm not turning around. Hard. I feel like there was a time in television history where you would get a very special episode kind of treatment to the preview for this one. Like when an episode hues very closely to a current event or a topic in the zeitgeist. I seem to remember all of the previews a current event or a topic in the zeitgeist.

I seem to remember all of the previews for Star Trek episodes on Channel 44, having a real like, this is an action show about people punching each other, kind of energy to them, like next time on Star Trek Voyager. Yeah, that really was that kind of emphasis to just about every trailer for an episode. And that voiceover guy didn't have the special episode mode, I don't think.

I know for Greatest Gen it was, I thought it was Goularty. I thought it was Paul Thomas Anderson's dad that did that voice. Oh, really? Yeah. Man. I don't know if he stuck around for Voyager or Deep Space Nine, I mean. Maybe Wendy can find a snippet of the trailer for this episode, and we'll see how our recollection of that compares to what they actually ran.

Wow. The galaxy's most dangerous criminals just escaped all aid of murderers. And Wednesday, they're taking Voyager hostage. They're where, our killer! An all new episode. We have a very brief cold open in this episode. We start with looking out the view screen over Tom Parris' shoulder at a ship in distress.

There's venting plasma or something. And they beam survivors out of this ship to whose distress call they've been responding. And the first group we see is a whole bunch of people in the cargo bay, and there's kind of two different types of uniforms on the people that appear. And the ones that are in the foreground are very worried that they did not materialize with their weapons in hand. It's a very natural reaction for any Starship captain for the Federation, right? You got to beam

the injured directly to sickbay, you got to get the uninjured just in a place where you can keep them, and the cargo bay makes a lot of sense, but for the people in the cargo bay, they are horrified to learn that a few of them are missing. They're most dangerous, you could say. And those people have been sent to Six Bay due to injuries. And when we cut to Six Bay, we see one of them on the floor, on that beautiful carpeted floor of the Six-Jay.

And then we whip Pan up to the other who has a scalpel to Seven's neck. And he's taking hostages, man. Make a move and the bunny gets him. I love the idea of casting for this part because this part is, I'm gonna do it man, back off. Like that energy, you gotta have that, but not in a cartoonish way. You gotta have it like all the way, in a serious way. The actor who plays this character, Jeff Cobur,

is so good at this. He really is. He has sort of like a Thomas Hayden church-ness to him. Yeah. Like, you know how Thomas Hayden church always seems a bit like he's gonna cry? I have never thought that about him. Okay.

But I'm gonna yes in this, okay. I recently watched the Peacock series twistedisted Metal work, Thomas Hayden Church plays a psychotic police officer in a post-apocalyptic car-based future. Is he just someone with wet eyes, or was he hanging tear drip? I don't know if he's doing it on purpose or not, but yeah, like, I mean, ever since sideways,

he's just seemed like a guy who's like emotionally on a knife's edge every time I see him in anything and uh-huh and this guy really like gave me that in this scene Like to the extent that I was like is that Thomas Hayden church under that loaf? Yeah, yeah, Jeff Cobra I mean Thomas Hayden church also a man who has a great great boys voice. Yeah. Like a Jeff Coburn. Stay where, I'll kill her! 45 second cold over, like we are in and out. Don't you feel like Seven is maybe the worst person to take in the grasp like this?

Because what's stopping her free arms from like, tubule, tubule, right into this guy's nuts. Like, you'd never see that coming. You'd never see it coming and like tubule doesn't seem like it would take you down that fast, but tubule to the nuts for sure would. Absolutely, yeah. Could you use the tubules as like a whip,

like a whipping device? Like not just to insert the nano probes, but like to whoop, whoosh. Yeah, or like to garot somebody. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like could she whip it around the back of this guy's neck and like, wha? Yeah, there's that guy in Johnny Mnemonic that has the fingernail that he can pull out

and it makes like an electric garot. I wish we were drilling down a little bit more into the tubules and what they can and can't do. Yeah. Like, could the tubules drink your milkshake? Sounds great. That'd be fun.

You mean from all the way across the room? It doesn't have to be violent tubules for violent purposes. It could be fun. You could do bits. More bits on tubules, I think, is a new rule of greatest gen. Yeah, I'd like that a lot. So we get Tuvok and the main guy that they beamed over that isn't one of the prisoners. When we come back, they march into Six Bay.

This guy's named Warden Yedik of the Nigerian detention force. And they're trying to talk this maniac down. He wants a ship, he wants food. The food part's pretty important as a detail here, I thought, in retrospect. It's not duffel bag full of money, it's duffel bag full of food. Right, a duffel bag full of soup, if you can get it. If Mieleks can make enough.

Do you like ramen? It is rather, the comp. Here's something a scientist type person in our FOD community could answer, is like, cause famously heat made those duffel bags full of cash, so cumbersome, cash is heavy, especially when you have all those bricks. If you have a heat-sized bag full of cash

and you have a heat-sized bag full of soup, what's heavier? Ooh, man, I gotta guess the soup is heavier. I would say so, but I don't think it's by much. You need a piece of luggage with a really high tensillary strength. Yeah. Also like the slosh energy of it would make it even harder to carry

because cash doesn't have slosh energy, right? No, it doesn't slip slosh around. You know who has sloth energy? The monster from Goonies. I haven't seen it so I don't know. We got to sneak that into the pilot project over on this track. Oh shit. Just do that randomly.

Seven gets away from this guy and so he grabs Mark. Oh hi Mark. And I love Mark's take here. He's just like rolling his eyes from the second he's grabbed. And Tuvok just shoots right through him. Like, you know, not even wearing the mobile emitter, you don't even have to aim. Tuvok shoots the hostage in a speed parlance.

Sure does. Fantastic. You think there's a moment where Tuvok forgot Dr. Mark was a hollow? And he was just willing to cut through him? And Keanu Reeves' character is right there and he's like, whoa man, I mean I said that you, I knew you said that's what you do when I asked you what do you do but I didn't think you'd actually do it.

Is the secret to a great Keanu the you? Yeah, I think. Because I heard that a bunch in what you just said and I was like, God damn, that's a great Keanu. And it's about jutting your jaw out. When you say, what did you do? What did you do? Well.

So we get a little McLaughlin group. Is your one. In the captain's office with Yedik. He explains like, oh yeah, these are the worst of the worst. This was a prisoner transport. And we didn't use the escape pods on our ship because you can't let these guys just get away in a life raft. You can't risk them getting free. This is a situation that needs to get unfucked right now.

Yedik talks about this very casually. He's like, look guys, I'm sure you understand these are dangerous criminals. Couldn't risk escape in those escape pods. You know, we're doing an execution milk run and I'm sure you know what that's like. We gotta take these murderers off to be executed. And if you could help us out here by meeting up with one of our transports or, uh, I don't know, turning around, uh, that would be very

helpful for us. Yeah. And I think whether or not Chico-Tay or Janeway, like believe in the cause or whatever, they do have a really great reason to say they can't do that. Like, no, that's actually in the other direction. There's coffee in the opposite direction. We can't just go in reverse. Yeah, that's not happening.

Yeah. Not for you, buddy. Yeah. Our course is locked in. What? Listen to me very carefully, because I'm only going to say this once. Do it. Be careful because I'm on the understatus once. Oh! Warden Yedik is played by Tim Duzarn, who has one TNG credit, one DS9 credit,

and a couple of Voyager credits. And I just love that for him. Yeah. Yeah, I just came back for each series. Maybe he gets a little pinned every time he does a series. Yeah, so he's like, all right, well, I'll get somebody to come out, pick him up then. If you guys could just pause for a little while

at the very least. And Janeway seems okay with that and they leave. And there is a little bit of a conversation between Chicaute and Janeway like, God, like these guys are going to capital punish these people. That is something that we vehemently disagree with as a people.

What about that? And Janeway's like, hands are tied, prime directive. Yeah, she's eating a very messy sandwich at her desk and using tissues as napkins. They never give you any napkins in this place. What am I supposed to use? We could have offered to turn around, but you blew it. You blew it.

Down in Six Bay, we learned that Mark is glitching out a little bit. You're damaged. I thought that this Mark glitching out from getting hit by the Phaser was going to turn into more of a storyline than it did. No. At a certain point it's just not an issue anymore. I mean, what it is, is an excuse to get Dr. Mark in seven in the same room. I guess, but it seems like it should have been more an excuse to get BLT in the same room with Dr. Mark and Seven in the same room. I guess, but it seems like it should have been more

an excuse to get BLT in the same room with Dr. Mark. Who I feel like would have very different opinions about capital punishment. Yeah, it would have been interesting to hear them talk about this as an issue, because I feel like they would be of similar mind. Yeah, actually get Mark out of there. Yeah.

Get Mark out of there, maybe replace Mark with Tom Paris, get BLT in there. Oh man. All of a sudden it's domestic and professional. It's danger clues for Tom Paris. Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm saying. I go, it's like, I murdered folks

and I am really uncomfortable with what I'm seeing in the sixth bay right now. Like, if you could just drop me off to be executed, that would actually be very helpful for me. This is like one of the only two rooms on this ship that I've seen. Do you have private quarters that you could go talk this through in? They've really rolled the red carpet out

for the Nigerian detention force people that they are hosting because Tuvok has constructed a full cell block in one of the cargo bays. In record time, each guy gets a cell and there's a big long row of them and the Nigerian guys will be watching them. They can't take their guns out of the cargo bay, but when they're in there, they can be armed. This comes together so easy and fast. I kind of feel like TuVox wanted this for a long time.

Yeah, it was like, I happen to have the plans drawn up. I can just feed them into the replicator now if you'd like, Captain. Wife goes away on a work trip. Suddenly the guest room has turned into like the golf simulator or the pool table room. Like, how did you assemble this so fast? Yeah.

There used to be a height of bed in here. You know what he's been doing? He's been eating Nelix food the entire time and saving up all of his replicator rations for this one big splurge. I love the scene that we don't get here, which is Tuvac deciding on the finishes and the configuration here,

because it's not just like cubicle walls, like in the Federation Brig parlance or whatever. Like there's like chain link and stuff. Like he made choices here. You know that there was like a book of swatches. You know that like, you know, he like put different colors of paint up on the wall and stood back

and like took a look at them. Yeah, the montage hit the cutting room floor, sadly. And what we're left with is just the result. And the result is pretty cold. Nelix enters with a bar cart with a couple of big pots on it. And he's preparing to give rations to the prisoners. And Yannick takes one look at this and is like, no way, man, they don't deserve nice food.

And everybody's like, have you checked out what Nelix serves yet? Like you haven't been on board the ship that long. Like before you prejudge what he's given them, like this is pretty close to bread and water, man. You know what's messed up is like, we've had people on death row on Voyager before and they actually don't want a last meal.

It's kind of fucked up. At the end, they're begging to go. Two fuck kicks Yedik right back in the nuts. and it's like, if you're on our ship, like these guys are eating the food that we have prepared for them. And you know, to his credit, Yedik is like, all right, well, you know, your house, your rules. And they start passing this out. The first person that gets some is the guy in the cell

across from Ico, the guy that took seven hostage. This guy is named Jolig, and he's the first to get served his food. And he seems real nice. He seems like a nice guy. Yeah. I like the little hole that they open up in the force field. I didn't know they could do that. It kind of seems like it could be a glory hole force field situation for visits.

Yeah, but you don't want to be still in it when the force field snaps back to full coverage mode, right? You want to be super aware of how much time you have left. I lasted 22 minutes. It's so sad though, right? Because he's like so appreciative to be getting this bowl of food. But that's before he eats it, right? It's the bitter irony of a prisoner thinking

that they're getting a good thing. It's almost like a country song, Adam. It's almost like, Joe leg, Joe leg, Joe leg, Joe leg. The old roots are in this prison food. Joe leg, Joe leg, Joe leg, Joe leg. The other roots are in this prison food. That sort of thing, you know? It is exactly that. Not only does he appreciate Nelix for the food,

he kind of likes Nelix for standing up to Yedik, right? Yeah. He's like, we've been taking shit off of that guy for years and look at you. You just roll in here with a cart full of soup. Look at how brave you are. Instantly, Nelix has found his 11 biggest fans. Yeah. Yeah. In Six Bay, Dr. Mark and Stefan are working on fixing the hollow matrix, I guess, and having a little debate about whether killing is bad and whether killing killers is bad. And it's pretty mathematical for Seven. She's

just like, you know, you can't do anything to make this better for the families of the victims other than executing them. And that also like has the benefit of ensuring that they'll never re-offend. So I have no problem with this. And Dr. Mark is a much softer touch about this. I think it helps with them being in proximity to ICO, right? Because you can have this argument about what you believe. And then in the very same scene,

you can be confronted by a guy giving a totally unhinged performance about how badly he wants to murder all of you as soon as he's able to get free from his cell, right? Yeah, we kind of cross cut from this back down to the cell area and he's like, Ico is telling Yedik about like the names of his children and stuff.

Yeah. And it's like, man, like I don't like Yedik at all but this Ico guy is really scary. And he's also like, we learned from Jolig that he's like been stealing food from all the other prisoners. Like he's like really the alpha scary guy in the prison. I just could not take my eyes off of Jeff Kober as I go.

I thought he gave one of the best performances from a guest star I've ever seen in Star Trek. Yeah. I feel bad about bringing up Thomas Hayden Church. I don't want to take flowers away from Jeff Kober. He rules. There was a thing I was served on Instagram lately. I get a lot of short video snippets from like film studies or film interview type accounts.

And one of these clips I just saw was so interesting and it made me, and this performance made me think of it. It was Martin Landau talking about what a great actor does. And his point was like, great performances are about an actor resisting the natural impulse that a person would have, and then having that fight through the resistance. Like Thomas Hayden Church.

Right. And when I see like what Ico is doing here, there's like something seething under the surface there that makes his performance so compelling in that Martin Landau kind of way. It does a great job, but boy does he piss off Warden Yerik who has the force field dropped and they start, you know, hitting him with the butt of the rifle and curb stomping him and stuff. And the like Federation security guys that are down there

have to come down and stop this beat down at Phaser Point. These are hard pipe hitting Nigerians. Hey, don't call them Nigerians, come on. Is that not what Yettick is? It's just not your word, Adam. Oh, okay. Hey, don't call him Nigerians. Come on. Is that not what Yedik is? It's just not your word, Adam. Oh, okay. I know you don't want to do it.

Coffee black. Make it yourself. I'm trying to help you see this as an opportunity to grow. Make it yourself. They have a meeting about this in Janeway's office. Yes, you do. Yedik is like, yeah, like we had to beat him up because he was threatening my kids and he's he's a really bad guy like you have no idea what this guy is capable of. Like he murders without a thought for no fucking reason. Like he didn't. You want if somebody's gonna murder to like have had motive, you know, he didn't even have motive.

You think you're so in control, Janeway? What if he had said something about Tom Mervins, or one of your many iris setters? What are you capable of then? Janeway just grabs a phaser and goes down and shoots him while he's unconscious on a six-fabric. Chigote is like, I confront those feelings in myself all the time, and here's what I do, and the camera goes down to his hands me snaps pencil I

Immediately feel better The urge to kill is completely gone at that point You should see my quarters. It looks like a dive bar, but it's pencils instead of peanut shells Janeway tries to get through to Yedik here that like a forceful response to an asshole, even if it's righteous, it makes a bully into a victim. Yeah. And that's exactly what they want. Someone like Aiko doesn't learn anything from that, even if you're on the right side of a conflict.

And not only that, she's like, yeah, Yedik, you and your guards can get the fuck out of the brig. This is two bucks area now. Did you think it was weird that there were weapons in the brig at all? I got a small arsenal in the belly of the plane, a pistol in the cockpit lock box, that's it. I felt like it was weird that they ever let Yedik's men

do this job at all. That's so too. Like arming them and like putting them to work in this way felt like a weird choice. These are their guns. But now it's Tuvok's job and Tuvok is gonna do it right. And Yedik's like, he doesn't know anything about running a prison. And she's like, I think you'll find that he had the plans for this in the back page of his notebook for a long time, Yedik. He may have had one slip-up where he shot through our holographic doctor,

believing him to be a real man. I think he'll be fine from now on. Believe me, he's qualified. So down in Six Bay, I go down there for the second time with big, big injuries. And seven is called down there by Dr. Mark. And Dr. Mark has done a brain scan of Ico and found that he has some, some brain injury where Nana probes would be a great way to fix it.

Otherwise, uh, he's going to succumb to the, the beating that he took. And she's like, well, what's the, like he's going to death it. Otherwise, he's going to succumb to the beating that he took. And she's like, well, what's the, like he's going to death row. Like what, how hard do we need to work to save this guy? And Dr. Mark Toxer to do it. Toxer into a nanoprobe donation to repair this brain injury. A couple of things about this. Do you think that there are a finite amount of nanoprobes for 7 to be giving and that is in any way part of her reluctance? I feel like she must make new ones, but like... Cuz like there was that like Ferengi heist episode where they were trying to get the nanoprobes and there was like a lot of them.

Uh-huh. But like she's given them so many times. I gotta believe that she's replenishing her supply over time. Are nanoprobes like the stem cells of Star Trek Voyager? Cause it really seems like they could do anything. They do, they fix everything. I'd be making smoothies with them every morning. That's a thing now when our baby was born, we saved stem cells from the,

I guess from like the placenta or something. Oh yeah, are you keeping cord in your freezer? Yeah, we've cord blood like in a cryogenic facility somewhere, I don't know where it is. They probably keep that stuff separate from the ropes, right? Then the heads. Different shelves.

Cause you know those cryo facilities probably keep everything. I mean, you go into any commercial kitchen. They do a real good job of putting a bit of masking tape on the cambrow and labeling it, you know? It's Ted Williams' head. It's Benjamin R. Harrison's preserved ropes. It's Daron's cord blood.

I may be shocking people to say this. I've never frozen my ropes. Huh. Yeah. So, Neelook's back down to do another meal service in the Houskow, and he starts talking to Joe Legg again. This is the delight of the second time the flight attendant goes through the aisle. Like, you're on a three hour flight, you basically only expect them to go down one time,

but you get that second surprise trip where you get that second bag of sunships or something. Yeah, that's nice. I know they're tequila soda, incredible. Okay. Jolig is pretty surprised by this because they've been lucky to get one meal out of the Nigerians. And he is not the same type of loaf as some of the other people that they got off this ship.

He is a Ben Karan. And to hear him talk about it seems like Jolig may have been wrongfully convicted. He was just around the murder. He didn't do it. Just happened to be in the area and they scooped him up and pinned the crime on him because of his background. Yeah. I love that while they're having this conversation, like guys down the cell block

are, are like shouting like, stop talking and make it with the food. We are fucking hungry. I love all the piping up from the other cells. That's big fun. Joe leg, Joe leg, Joe leg, Joe leg. I'm begging you to shut up so we can eat. There's two forces working here that I think work well together.

And that is Neelix kind of being a Rube and a Mark. But also, Joe Lake having Riz. Yeah. Another really superlative performance by a guest performer, I think. This actor's name is F.J. Rio, and I thought he did a great job. It really tugs at the heartstrings. Like when he's talking to Nelix about this, it hits,

I love the lighting in the Brig area. It's like, it's so dark and moody. And like when you go into the closeup on Nelix, he has, it's just like blackness behind him. So he feels really isolated, even though there's like a guard standing right next to him. Like when he's talking to Joe, it feels like he's really alone with this interaction.

Yeah, I like that a lot. This is a great set. They did a nice job with it. And this starts to really eat at Nelix. But meanwhile, we cut back to Six Bay where Mark has patched Ico up. He's doing a lot better They're like, yeah, we we put Nana probes in here. He's like, what are those and They're like, I don't know like if you haven't heard of the borigs like I don't know

I don't know what to tell you man. They they point to sevens two Buells and he's like, oh Those were in me. Bleh. Like super hardened quadruple murder prisoner, like cannot take the idea of a simulation, a simulation tubules. Yeah. Gross. He's really taken with seven, not because he has like a romantic interest in her, but

because she looks back at him with no fear in her eyes. Like there's no, there's nothing about her, him that intimidates her and he's just not used to that when interacting with anyone. He's like, I don't love you, Sevin. I love the way you look at me and what that's made me become. And then he starts singing, the soldier boy to the war has gone. This is fucking spectacular.

Back in the mess hall, I feel like Neelik's is gonna burn something if he's cooking and reading about anything else besides the recipe or whatever. Yeah. I also love the partition between the cooking area and the front of house. That's great.

Yeah. I thought it was such a funny reveal with BLT and Tom threw it open to like a cute couple alert. We're opening up the partition because we're ready for dinner and Nelix is like, oh yeah, it'll be ready in 15 minutes. I'm just like deep in the law books about Nigerian slash Benkaren politics. And did you know that the Nigerians do not have a like equal justice under the law thing totally figured out the way we do back in the Federation.

And they're like, fuck, what a trip. Anyways, what's for dinner? I love BLT and Paris's attitude here because I feel like you see this a lot. Like the latest cause from someone who just read about it on the Wikipedia has like turned it into like Whatever the Coney 2016 is of of like today like yeah, they look at nilix and they're like you're such a fucking rube man

Like it's always like this with you. You don't know what you're talking about You're a chef and you're barely good at that. I really envy like I think that Dom and Polana's politics are not mine in this scene. Like they're like, yeah, like whatever, that's their system and you can't question it, man. And like, Nalux is like, yeah, but they, you know,

convict at a 10 times higher rate and like it's all clearly tilted just based on the data. I love how BLT shuts the fuck up because I have a suspicion that the Klingon justice system is not much better. Yeah. What I admire about the two of them is the like, hey, we're at dinner and we're not trying to make every problem in the universe more important than that right this second. We'll go fight for what's right later.

Right now we need to eat is basically where they're coming from. This has been a feeling in my life for maybe the past several years. It's just the like, we can't fight every problem at every moment. Like let's have the dinner. Nelix is doom scrolling in this scene is what's happening.

He is. One country, two country, do it. Do it, do it, do it. Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it. Over in Six Bay, Dr. Mark is explaining why he wasn't hurt earlier to Ico. And his explanation makes Ico talk in song lyrics here. I loved his dialogue. We are made of light. I wish I was made of light.

Ico is having a whole different experience of the world right now because Seven walks in and Mark is like, Hey, like so the the nanoprobe thing went so well. I want to get some more out of you so I can put more of them in him. And she's like, yeah, okay, whatever. Does she need a refractory period for this? No, she's like, Marky Mark, you know, she can just go right away.

That's awesome. So they're like doing they mark, you know, she can just go right away. That's awesome. So they're like doing the extraction and, you know, they're talking about the possibility like, you know, Ico seems all sensitive now, but maybe he's just doing that to trick you and they hear him from around the corner. He's getting personal bangers dropped on his belly. And after the doctor scans him and can't find anything medically wrong with him, they come to the realization that he is experiencing clinical grade guilt. This seem familiar to you in any way?

Yeah. I mean, I've never done anything as bad as what Ico has done. But like I do feel like I feel as bad as Ico does in this moment when I think about the time when I was seven years old and my family took a trip to Yosemite and I was walking around in my hooded sweatshirt, cinched all the way, closed around my nose, pretending I was an astronaut.

And I just walked through a room in the hotel where a black tie gathering of some like rich people was happening and an entire room full of people in tuxedos turned and pointed and laughed at me. That's a thing I think about, you know, every night as I'm falling asleep and makes me feel as much pain as Ico feels in this moment. What an amazing boy you were. and makes me feel as much pain as Ico feels in this moment. What an amazing boy you were. Just incredible.

I didn't feel like that at the time. Tell you what. So there's this tension between Seven and Dr. Mark that I feel like Neelix got a little bit of in the previous scene. Seven is thinking that Dr. Mark is being manipulated in the same way that Paris and BLT felt Nelix was. Right.

And her take is like, when bad people are being nice to good people, just to get what they want or like they make themselves into the victim towards certain people in order to get like support against people who might have very credible reasons not to trust them. Just so that like they can effectively launder their bad reputation through someone's good reputation. That's how a sociopath moves through the world, right?

Yeah. This is what she's trying to convey to the doctor. He is much more just curious about what is going on than thinking about this from a like higher level, like interpersonal strategy standpoint. Do you feel like the doctor is more able to get this though than Neelix? Like the doctor being a self-avowed student

of what we'll have to agree to call humanity. Why the very name is racist. Yeah. I meant sociology, like being with people and stuff in the world. Yeah, I do, but he's also just distracted. Like he gets the brain scan info back and like they're looking at this and he's like,

man, this brain is rewiring itself in a bunch of ways that I did not plan on when we put the nanoprobes in. And Ico at this point is like, you gotta get these out of me. Like I do not like feeling bad about what I did. Like this is fucking the worst. Like going to my certain death was better than this. There's a transition here

because the doctor originally kind of ties it to the Hippocratic oath of like, I don't think people should be executed for any reason. And then there is determined to be like a medical reason for why that might have been the case for Aiko, like why he was predisposed to his violent tendencies and now he may not have that due to what's going on in his brain.

It's like, do you wish that the doctor was either one or the other? Or like maybe he was never the first one and only the second one? Because he seems to be like having it all ways with his reasons. This episode zigged when I thought it was gonna zag so many times.

Yeah, that's what I'm getting at. Cause like the next scene is like, not about what the doctor is doing, like trying to get to the bottom of like, what is normal for this kind of brain, like by, you know, transmitting data with Nigerian medical science people or something. It's Ico and Seven talking about

their kind of shared love of stars and like Ico thinking back to his childhood. And I mean, like he's never gonna love stars as much as seven does. She's cataloged six billion of them. Like you can't fucking compete Ico. She's kind of gatekeeping the stars thing. Yeah, yeah.

She's kind of girl bossing in the scene. And it's like a little unfortunate. Interesting that Ico, you know, feeling the feelings of a guilty conscience as a result of the nanoprobes, like, once the nanoprobes out, don't give me more, take out what I've already been given. Yeah, and he and Seven connect on this kind

of emotional basis that seems to give him some comfort despite all of that. We cut down to the detention facility where Nelix and Jolig are playing a game of Coddyscott. Nelix is like to Jolig, you want to play a game of Coddyscott? And Jolig is like, I mean, well, some people call it a bed, but to me, I Coddyscott. And Nelix is like, no, I mean the game, some people call it a bed, but to me, I caught a Scott and he looks it's like no I mean the game like with shapes. Yes, and Joe like is like I know I caught a Scott a rectangle I guess and he looks it's like no, it's for children

And Joe leg is like not this one look at you can't caught a Scott for kids. It's too big. I Coddaskot for kids, it's too big. I really like that. Yeah, because like triangle in Star Trek, totally normal for a coddaskot. Exactly. They're playing a nice game. They're talking about, you know, the research that Nalix has been doing.

I've been doing my own research and I've learned a lot of disappointing things about the way Ben Karns get treated. When people begin a conversation with an illusion to doing their own research, that's usually a good time to just sort of punch out of that conversation. Yeah. This poor guy cannot leave because he's in a cell.

This might be the most cruel and unusual situation. Yeah. Joe Legg has ever found himself in. You hear one of the other prisoners down the hallway singing. Joe Legg, Joe Legg, Joe Legg, Joe Legg. Nigee and Justice leaves a lot to be desired. This justice system in his specific case seems especially cruel or unjust because we heard earlier that he was just around a murder and the victims of that murder are able to determine the level of punishment for the criminal that's found guilty.

So like in this case, that feels like, oh man, he didn't even do it, he was just around it. But like in general, thinking about it broadly, I don't hate it. Well, it's this doctrine that they have in Nigerian law called favor the victims. And it like leaves a lot of those decisions to them. Instead of a dispassionate judge or whatever,

like a judge, like the Coddaskot game is like made an example of this, like and Nelux's feelings about it. Like a judge could never understand how precious an object or a person could be to a person or a victim's family or whatever, like the victim or the victim's family could. And so one might find it more just to have the victims

decide what the punishment is. Right, but there's also like a pay to play element. Yeah, that's gross. Where if you're rich enough, you can like financially compensate the family instead of, you know, coming to their punishment. That sucks. And another thing that Joe Leg has to stand on

that makes Nelix kind of admire him is he's like, I would never admit guilt, so I'm not gonna pay them off. Like even if I had the money for it, I wouldn't do it because that would be copping to this thing that I didn't do. Got any more soup? Nelix is like, I'm gonna go down to the mess the mess on check and I'm also gonna write a letter to your brother to let him know what's going on. That seems very innocent at this moment in time.

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Listen and subscribe to Soundheap with John Luke Roberts, now! Oh darling, why won't you accept my love? My dear, even though you are a duke, I could never love you. You, you, borrowed a book from me and never returned it! Save yourself from this terrible fate by listening to Reading Glasses. We'll help you get those borrowed books back and solve all your other reader problems. Reading glasses every Thursday on Maximum Fun. Over in Six Bay Seven thinks she's doing a nice thing by bringing Ico an astrometric log I love the take here for Ico. He's like what the fuck is this? words and numbers I

Can't read I Can't jack it to this Ico is fully in the throws of Ico is fully in the throes of both guilt and that sense of like just get it over with, just kill me because he looks at sevens dolphin and it's like even looking at you makes me think of all the hurt I've caused and I've deserved to die for all that.

And this is a conversation that's interrupted by Dr. Mark because he shows both seven and Janeway a scan of a healthy Nigerian brain. And in this healthy brain, there's this node that makes having a normal moral conscience possible. And ICO was born with a birth defect that left him without this thing. And the nanoprobes or what repaired it and that's why he's having these stomach problems and I mean with this thing repaired

He's now in control of his bad murderous impulses like it seems pretty clear that he'd be incapable of Murdering over and over again, the way he used to. But should we risk it? Is a question that they put to Yedik in the next scene in a great big McLaughlin group. Issue three. Where he's like, what? Yedik who we have not seen in quite some time on screen.

Yeah, ever since he got in big trouble for ordering Ico to be beaten nearly to death. Don't you wish we saw a little bit more of Yedik's life on the ship? Because he is also a prisoner in a way. A prisoner to this life, this punitive life. Like, what does he do? He is very skeptical of this pitch that they have.

Like, they're saying like, Ico is a new man. Like because the conscience has been activated and plugged in, it is very unlikely that he will do the kinds of things that he has done before. And he's like, I don't care. Yeah. And this is another valence to the... They're just deceiving you argument.

Right. This time it's at Tuvok and Seven and the Captain. But Janeway believes that an appeal and having this new situation evaluated in the Nigerian form of due process is the way forward. And so she orders Yaddik to sit down with Tuvok and draft the appeal. And he talked about wanting to see what Yaddik has been up to in the meantime since he got kicked out of jail guard duty.

I wanted to see him and Tuvok having to collaborate on writing a letter together. It sounds like a nightmare. Yeah. As anyone who's tried to write anything with anyone else collaboratively would agree with, like especially when one person's looking over the other person's shoulder. The worst. That doesn't work.

Yeah. So, off-screen, I guess it happens, but we cut back to Six Bay where Seven and Ico are having another conversation. This is the scene where she reveals to, like he asked her if it was like painful when they installed the dolphin and she denied it earlier and she reveals that it was super painful in this scene and also reveals that like body count wise, he does not have shit on her. Yeah. She knows from murder, she knows from wanton cruelty and she kind of connects with him on the basis of because he didn't have a conscience, because she was in the thrall of the Borgs,

neither of them are responsible for the bad things that they've done. You're a different person now. You don't deserve to be executed. I think this is a really interesting moment in the episode because it sort of sets up this thing where you can tell that Seven is really living through Ico's experience by proxy from here on in. Like, can she be absolved of the horrible things she's done via him seeking absolution in the Nigerian justice system?

And the stakes are really high for her in that way. Yeah, she goes through a great character arc this episode. Yeah, I thought so too. In the Briggs area, Ico does this thing because he's been transferred back there. He didn't want any special treatment in Six Bay anymore. He does this thing where he does pull ups with his fingers using the grate above his cell.

Yeah. I gotta get a pump. That's it, get it. And this is the second time he's done that, this episode. It is so intimidating. It's great. I wonder if that was in the script because like, the set design department had to build it strong enough for that to be possible. But you never see his whole bar to you, so I think he's probably just standing on a thing.

Like, faking it. I love the idea that the actor came in and was like, I'm gonna make a choice here and like grab the set and just like rip the part accidentally. Really great. This is the scene where it is really revealed what a new leaf Ico has turned over because Nelix is trying to give him his shit on a shingle

and he's like, hey, don't give it to me. Give it to that guy that I used to steal my food from. This is the time thatingle and he's like, hey, don't give it to me. Give it to that guy that I used to steal my food from. This is the time that Nelix is like, I'm not sure if I have trust you, man. But he gives the food to the other guy and the other guy flings come at him and it's like dripping from his hair. Jesus. Makes you stupid fuck! Where did that come from?

Like that scene in Silence of the Lambs. Oh, okay. God. I think about a lot of scenes from that movie I don't think of that soon. Really? Yeah. That's like the most crazy moment in that movie.

A lot of crazy moments. Isn't it crazy how often Silence of the Lambs was shown on on television, like cable television, and by that I mean not HBO. I mean like TBS or whatever. Did they show that part? No, that's what I'm saying. Like I watched that on on TNT dozens of

times. And so I so like the memories of that film are largely without the come-throwing. You're like, why is Clarice so upset by that other guy? And why did Dr. Lecter talk him into biting his tongue off and swallowing it and killing himself? Yeah, a lot of questions. Very mysterious movie to me. Spoiler alert for silence of the lambs.

We cut to Janeway's office where Seven shows up and Janeway's like, well, they sent the letter in that Tuvok and this guy Yatec worked on together. They sat down in a room together and wrote a letter. And Yatec didn't even really believe in the letter. He didn't want to appeal this, but I made him and he worked with Tuvok on it and they sent it. And Seven's like, yeah, yeah, we established that. And Janeway's like, no, I know, but it's just fucking nuts that they actually did that. Anyways, they

sent it and the family's not into it. Janeway and Yedik just talk a lot about how weird and difficult it must have been to even draft the letter to begin with. Yeah. And Yedik's like, no, it's like honestly, like I've had a long career as a prison warden. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I mean, and this kind of gets Janeway off the hook for making a decision.

That decision was taken out of her hands. They're just going to abide by what the family said here. And so Yattick fucks off and leaves Seven and Janeway to discuss the situation going forward. And Seven cops to the idea that she and Ico are similar. Like, aren't they both deserving a chance to atone for their crimes? And if Ico is guilty, does that also mean seven is guilty?

Seven is like, I had this opportunity uniquely to reclaim my humanity. And doesn't he deserve that too? And Jane was like, oh, seven, I wish you hadn't put it that way. That's really offensive. If you could only hear yourselves. They don't get to conclude this conversation here

crucially because they're interrupted by this banger. Yeah. And that's because they're being attacked by a mystery ship, an attack that's working so well, power is failing all over the ship, including where this brig has been built. And that means those force fields holding the prisoners in are now gone.

And these criminals are escaping and they're overpowering the guards and taking the weapons. This is why you don't have weapons there. No weapons on the aircraft, period. You can't have webs, Ben. Webs is not the key. Yeah.

I know that we're in Star Trek and they beam the poops out, but this is a prison riot. There are two things you need in prison riot scenes. One is guards in like SWAT outfits running in and getting immediately overpowered by the marauding prisoners, which we don't have the outfits, but we have the marauding prisoners and the guards getting overpowered. But the other thing you need is wads of toilet paper flying everywhere.

And there's no toilet paper flying around in this scene. And I was like, this is, this does not a prison riot make. I've seen prison riot scenes and this ain't one. I go, just can't get in the mood for this. He just backs into his cell and sits down on, what would you call it Ben? You'd caught us, wouldn't you?

Yeah, I would say that he caught us caught as he stepped backwards. There you go. So now I feel like the luckiest man alive. Captain's been killed. Captain's been killed. Captain's been killed. Captain's been killed.

Captain's been killed. Captain's been killed. Captain's been killed. Captain's been killed. Captain's been killed. Captain's been killed. Captain'sBord. Captain, the talent of the U-Bord. The U-Bord says U-Bord. Tuvak has left the bridge at this point and Chacote's taken over a tactical. It's like one of the few moments Chacote gets in this episode.

But I feel less bad about it in this episode because like Tom and BLT and Harry don't have anything to do either. They really don't. So yeah, they scare away this attacking ship. It seems like, you know, we don't know anything about that ship at this point. Except it's beam and away prisoners. Like that's what it was there to do.

It was trying. Yeah. And it fails. And well, it succeeds for some of them. I think only two of them. Oh, doesn't. Yeah. I thought they got some off.

Oh, man. I didn't realize that. Because it comes to a head like by the shuttle bay where Joe Legg and another guy are trying to shoot their way out. How badly do you wish they got to the Delta Flyer? They get in there like, what the fuck are these analog knobs about? What nerd designed this? And it cuts to Tom back up on the bridge of the voyagers with like finger in his collar going, yeah, yeah, they don't make it in there, but that's where they were headed.

They get confronted by Yedik and Jolik easily takes him prisoner and drags him back to the Briggs area. And this is an intense scene. Because when the prisoners take the wardens or the guards during a prison riot, it usually doesn't go very well for those guys. Yeah, and they like weld the door shut with a phaser. Yeah, welcome to Con Air.

This is all like coming to a head where Jolig is like getting ready to shoot Warden Yettick while he's like lying on the floor and from down the hallway you hear Ico and he's singing and he goes Joe Legh, Joe Legh, Joe Legh, Joe Legh Killing hostages is hard to come back from Hey, killing hostages is hard to come back from. Great moment for Ico here, right? Ico saves Yedik? By taking the dustbuster from him,

he's like, look, let me do it. I gotta do this one, man. After all he's done to me, come on. Yeah. So he does, except Ico gives the dustbuster to Yedik. And then Yedik shoots Jolig. Yeah. So he does, except Ico gives the dustbuster to Yedik. And then Yedik shoots Jolig. Wow. Oh, Jolig's gotta be pissed about this.

So this instance where Ico saves Yedik's life, leaves such an impression on Yedik that he decides to get the victim's family to hear Aiko's appeal for leniency. I love his take, like Tim Zezaren's performance in that moment, like they, holy shit, he gave me the gun? And it is like smash cut to Ico apologizing to this family and going like, whatever you decide, just know that there's like no amount of sorrow I could possibly express for what I've taken from you.

This is how it is though. And I'm not saying that it's right or it's wrong. I'm just saying this is the way it is. A person changes their opinion because a thing personally affects them. And this is what happens to Yadakir. Or they're smart and they like understand the data on the thing.

Yeah, that's not this. I thought it was amazing that we get to watch the leniency plea happen on the bridge. Can you imagine working on the bridge at a station not related to this? Like you're just doing science over at the science station and you're here and this guy pleads. I'm just going to put in my airpods. You're trying to like lower the volume on your computer so that the life form song doesn't drown out his plea.

You precious little life. If you let me live, I will never hurt anyone again. Another great performance here. Boy, felt real bad for the extras that had to get put in all that loaf to just sit there for one shot so that we could then cut back around to the ECU of Ico doing this plea. And it is gut-wrenching, but they don't know him like we do. Like they haven't seen the journey he's been on.

And they don't know who the fuck Voyager is. Like this irritates me so much. Ico gives this family more information than they can use or understand. He's like, you know, I've changed. My brains are different. And it's all thanks to these people here, the Voyager crew. Yeah. I'm gonna now thank them all by name.

And this family is like, what is a Voyager? Yeah. Who are these people? A politician with like a sex scandal standing at a podium with his wife and kids behind him. And it's like, we don't know who they are. They seem innocent in all this. It is a great performance. And it's all tied up with a, look, whatever you decide,

I'm gonna go with it, but just know, I'm sorry, no matter what. I feel like he should have applied more pressure in order to save his life in this moment. Oh, like gone with the hard sell. I just want to say, I think killing is wrong, no matter who does it, whether it's me or y'all or your government. I don't think that's the time for a whatever you want to do, whatever. Like, when your life is involved, I think you got to try a little harder.

He slaps the hood on himself and says, this thing really feels bad. He pulls a Benjamin R. Harrison from offscreen. This baby really feels guilty a lot. The emotion of that scene is so, so interesting in conversation with the emotion of the next scene where Nelix feels so used by Jolak. He's like down in the detention area going like, man, that was your brother's fucking ship. I transmitted that message to him in good faith

and like you were fucking tricking me the whole time. And Joe looks like, hey man, like, I don't know. I didn't know he was gonna do that. How about give me some nano probes? Maybe I'll feel bad about it. I don't give a fuck, fuck you. Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft. Yeah, he's the scorpion Danilixus rug. Fuck you. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft.

Yeah, he's the scorpion to Nelix's rug. Mask off, Jolig. Damn. Do you think that Jolig, by doing the stomach ache stunt, was making fun of Nelix? Or was he actually trying to pull a legit stomach ache stunt the way Ico did? Could he have known that that's what Ico went through? Because that happened in Six Bay. I like the meaner version of that read.

Like, he's doing this at Neelux, but I don't think that's what the show is doing. It would have really made me hate his character. I like that there's some ambiguity with his character, but it would have been kind of fun for him to like, really be an unredeemable villain at the end. I liked seeing Dark Neelix here too. Dark Neelix with the glowing red eyes. Like you rarely see this version of this character, but he is disgusted by Jolig here.

You make me sick, Jolig. Jolig, Jolig, Jolig, Jolig. Joe leg, Joe leg, Joe leg, Joe leg. I eat a lot of fliola root, but you make me sicker. Oh no, man, maybe go with the second draft on that one. Okay, well, I didn't write these down ahead of time. I cannot believe how much more episode there is in this episode because in the ass lab, I cannot believe how much more episode there is in this episode because in the ass lab,

Ico has been permitted to look at the stars while he waits for the results of the appeal. This seems like a nice thing for the crew to do for him. And there's this moment of hope. And this moment of hope is important to give because what you wanna do is make someone feel something at the end of this episode and this is how. You give him a little bit of hope and then you take it away because he's got this hope and they start making plans.

Seven's like, maybe you can get a job here. Like, look at that guy. He's the guy we picked up along the way. Look at me. I'm important. Hey, Egypt! I got a job! I like looking up at the stars, too.

It's better than looking down! And like the moment they start making plans in Wax Janeway and Yedik, to smash his hope-nuts, to smithereens, the families denied the appeal, and, uh, before I go goes, he's just got to look in Seven's eyes one last time. They're the only eyes that look at him without hating his fucking guts.

Yeah. So they drop him off, Janeway checks in on Seven in the ass lab at the end, and 7 has not been sleeping or recharging as it were. 7, I'm glad you're still awake. The Nigerians are broadcasting the execution on subspace. I really want to watch it in here because it's a really nice screen. It's the only screen on the ship with HDR, and I've heard they're broadcasting it in 4K.

Really gets the tone wrong at the end of this episode. I thought it was an interesting conversation that like, Seven didn't get like, atonement by proxy, you know? Right. Which whether or not like his sentence was commuted or whatever, like, it wouldn't have been possible either way. But this almost makes that easier of a sell, right? And I think it's a better move for Seven as a character from a writerly standpoint,

like that she is still a little torn up about what she represents to others and what was done by her body, even if it wasn't done by her conscious mind. Seven, you must understand. Ico killed one or two people her conscious mind. Seven, you must understand. Ico killed one or two people and you killed thousands and thousands of people.

There's nothing similar about your circumstances at all. You think anybody would be satisfied by you being put to death? There's no law to fit your crime. It's not like that for you. And that is the scene the the episode ends on Ben. Did you like this episode? You know, I'm really easy to get along with

most of the time, but I don't like bullies. I don't like friends and I don't like you. I really liked this episode. I thought it was a chewy treatment of a pretty intense, difficult set of subject matters. Like it didn't, there were a couple of times when I did feel like it was sort of dodging away from going deeper into one of them specifically.

Like there were a couple of conflicts that didn't resolve super well for me, but all three of the key guest performers did really amazing jobs with their performances. And I think I was like worried that it would just be like, hey, well, there's nothing we can say about, like the death penalty, we could just feel bad while we like help these people go get killed kind of episode. And it was so much more three-dimensional than that and

played so nicely in the ambiguities between light and dark and gave me a lot to think about and like and did it well within like the context of a couple of characters that have become really important to me over the course of watching this show. So yeah, I really enjoyed the episode. Yeah, I usually flip shit to this show for asking a lot of tough questions, but not really having the conviction to like have a strong opinion either way of the show. And this is an episode that does not also, I don't think,

but in a way that makes it a better episode. This is a moral question that is really, really difficult to adjudicate effectively whatever side you're on. And what I appreciate maybe more than anything is that this wasn't an episode that was telling me how to feel a certain way. This is an episode that showed me how characters were feeling about the issue and allowed me to experience all the sides of that thing. In a way that I really liked.

Like, don't tell me how to feel, show me how you feel. That's what I like about good television writing. And I found a lot of it here. In addition to those great performances, like those guest stars this episode, absolute killers as actors. You know, killing it in the game, not like murdering. Right. I don't think. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm It's up a little. Up a little. Up a little. Up a little. Yeah, it's extra. By the interest alone, could be enough to buy this ship.

Ben, we got a priority one message here. It's of a promotional nature. It's from Ellen. Hmm. Ellen's message goes like this. Thin mints. Tag alongs. Samoas.

Yeah. I love this. Are you looking to buy some Girl Scout cookies and support a future FOD at the same time? You are killing me with this. Look no further than my daughters Lizzie and Ally. We're working our way through TNG and learning Girl Scout ideals like inclusivity, caring leadership and STEM. Damn! Cookies sold in Colorado are still only $5 a box.

They can be ordered online and shipped directly to your door. Ben and Adam, because it deserves a replay. Let's hear the Maggie O'Calleryn drop. Would you like to hold my hand? Would you like to kiss me? Well, good morning, boys. The spirits have turned her into a cow. I'm not quite myself today.

What kind of a girl do you think I am? Bitch, I'm a cow girl. I was walking around town with nothing but a bell around my neck. Everyone was staring at me. Wow. Ellen, one of the great promotional priority when messages here. I cannot believe the audacity of You selling Girl Scout cookies on a P1 message Fantastic incredible. Here's how you can do this. Yeah, how do we do it go to tiny url.com slash

Lizzie cookie sale. Okay. That's L-I-Z-Z-Y-C-O-O-K-I-E-S-A-L-E. Or tinyurl.com slash Ali Cookie Sale. That's A-L-L-Y-C-O-O-K-I-E-S-A-L-E. So. Look at me, I already preferred buying cookies from Lizzy and not Ali. I think they're both good. Yeah, how about this? You buy cookies from Lizzie, I'll buy cookies from Allie.

We hope that the friends of the Soto distribute their purchases equally among the two. Let's not like make one feel bad and the other feel good. Let's make Lizzie and Allie big winners in their troop, you know? I had forgotten that it was Girl Scout Cookie season. I have no Girl Scout cookies in my home. I'm gonna change that. I'm gonna go to one of these URLs. Got to. LizzyCookieSale or AllyCookieSale at the end of a tinyurl.com.

Get those cookies. Man, amazing. Get your thin mince tag-alongs or Samoas. Really the trinity of Girl Scout cookies you need to be concerned with. I'm a Samoas guy, always have been. I could eat an entire box of Samoas. Have you tried thin mints?

Yeah, I have, and we always have thin mints, and they're great. But I can't eat an entire box of thin mints. Oh man, I could eat multiple boxes. That's a stomach egg stunt that Joel egg wouldn't even do. What about the dosy dose? That's a solid one. That's the peanut butter sandwich one, right? Get that out of here. What? Yeah, can't do it. You're fucking crazy. Man, I am. I'm Loco. Don't you know I'm Loco? Well, good luck to Lizzie and Ally and thanks to Ellen for getting a P1. If you'd like to get a P1, it's maximalfun.org slash jumbotron.

Yeah, they go a long way towards helping us make this show possible, so we really appreciate folks like Ellen for doing a P1. Hey, Adam. What's up, Ben? Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? Incredible. Drunk Shimoda! I mean, in terms of a like, what are you doing type character?

What are you doing? Who is that character in this episode? I have one. Who's yours? Maybe that'll help me. What are you doing? Who is that character in this episode? I have one. Who's yours? Maybe that'll help me. There is a moment when those bangers start getting dropped on Voyager where they're on the bridge and they're like, stuff is going on also down in our makeshift prison and there's just a shot of Tuvok leafing the bridge wordlessly.

Yeah. And like when we come back to the bridge, Chacote has taken over a tactical, but like you're getting shot at by a ship also Tuvok. Like you gotta delegate. What's the greater threat? You gotta delegate. Like you either delegate going down to the prison

or you delegate the tactical station. But if you're delegating the tactical station, which you are, you gotta tell somebody about it, you know? I don't wanna tell anyone how to do their job, but Tuvac, I think you could probably stay put, hit a couple of blurbs on your keyboard, release just a shitload of Neurazine gas down there. Yeah.

Put this riot down. Put it down. Get people high at the same time. If I was in Starfleet security, I would tell my boss, like, if I need to get Neurozine a few times per quarter because a riot breaks out and you just need to put it down, I'm not complaining. Like, I'm down for that shit. Yeah. Knock my ass out. So, Tuvok is my drunk shemota in this episode. I think I'm gonna make mine Tuvok just for the amount of choices he made

with his build a brig setup in the cargo bay. I love that. You know that wasn't off the rack. He's customizing those cells in a big way. And I like to think about him doing it. He doesn't have many joys in his life. Gotta believe this is one of them. You'd never know it though.

Do it, do it, do it. Do it, do it. Ben, I'm so excited to know about what the next episode is gonna be. Oh boy, the next episode is Star Trek Voyager season seven episode 14, prophecy. A group of Klingons separated from the rest of their race believes Belana's unborn child is the savior foretold

in their sacred scrolls. I can't believe I completely forgot Belana is pregnant. Holy shit, so did I. I guess when she was in Nelix's mess earlier, she was just cropped to the window. Yeah, yeah, must have been something like that. Hmm. Well, I've gone over to the game of buttholes, the will of the caretaker. Keep that over at gachtabiz.com.

Hmm. See how we're gonna watch this next episode. I'm pregnant with anticipation. Tell you that much. Hmm. Let's see how we're going to watch this next episode. I'm pregnant with anticipation. Tell you that much. Ben, our runabout is currently on square 13. Okay. Five squares ahead.

A quarks bar drunk-assowed square. Oh, shit. Could do without that. Could do without that. You're required to learn as you play. Roll. That's it, Ben. That's the only danger ahead.

I'm going to roll the die. Okay. You know what I did. Roll to five. Oh, Leverain! Drink! This is antidote. This is what we deserve.

We deserve bad things. Yeah. Okay. Wow. I feel like you've rarely... I'm looking at the FODs on the camera right now, watching us record this live. I feel like you could really hear the disappointment of Ben's voice there in a way you've maybe never heard before.

I don't know what's going on with me, man. I was like... You're too sick for drinking. I stopped drinking for a long time. Yeah. For your health. Because my stupid belly... Yeah.

And then like I had like four little drinks on Friday night over the course of five and a half hours. Yeah. And I'm still fucking hungover. Yeah. So, man, I don't know what's going on with me. I'm falling apart. Maybe you're allergic.

Like what you told everyone in high school when they invited you to parties. Yeah. I'm allergic to hot girls. I mean, is there a variation of drunk-a-sode that we could get you through? No, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna get my birdie ready. It's gonna be fine. Drunk-a-sode isn't power hour.

Drunk-a-sode is just drinking hard, yeah? I'll make a couple of martinis. It'll be fine. All right. It's gonna be fine. I'm not gonna suffer. We're not recording this one until next week. It's gonna be fine. I'm not gonna suffer. We're not recording this one until next week. You're gonna feel fine then.

Yeah. Well, we'll see. Oh, is there something I don't know about? I mean, not to timestamp this episode, but we're going to fucking sketch fest in between now and then, and we're probably gonna do a little bit of drinking in San Francisco. So I'm just, I'm gun shy is what's going on. All right, well, I've taken drinking episodes off before, a fact that you've never let me forget.

Yeah, I don't do that. I don't fuck our listeners over like that. Whoa. Okay, well, looking forward to whatever that turns out to be next week. Geez. Looking forward to it, Adam. Are you? Are you sure about that? In the meantime, we got to thank all of the friends of DeSoto who support this show on a monthly basis, maximumfundfund.org slash join. Get your butts ready for the Max Fun Drive like a month away.

Oh yeah. It's coming down the pipe. Yeah, I'm pumped. I've never been more pumped for a Max Fun Drive. Hey listen, tomorrow the 13th of February, it's the card daddy, Bill Tilley's birthday. If you encounter him on the socials tomorrow, make sure you show some love to that guy. The card daddy does a great job for us.

Nobody puts more love out into the world and deserves more back. The card daddy, Bill Tilley. He deserves all his flowers. God bless that guy. Happy birthday, Bill. Thanks to Adam Ragusea, who made the original theme music of this show.

Check out a online community of friends of DeSoto on your social network of choice. People on Facebook, on Reddit, Discord, drunkshmota.com, Discord, all lovely communities of like-minded FODs. And hey, we really appreciate everybody that gets together and has fun with this thing. With that, we will be back at you next week with another great episode of Star Trek Voyager,

an episode of the Greatest Generation Voyager, where some long-lost Star Trek Voyager, and an episode of the Greatest Generation Voyager, where some long lost Star Trek podcasters come in contact with me and Adam and think that the next episode of our show is the great episode that has been foretold in their prophecies, and they think that they should get it and not us. Man. That was great. I think that like they should get it and not us. Man. That was great.

You really tied it all in. Yeah, I tried to. I don't know. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so.

Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so.

Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so.

Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so.

Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so. Make it so.

Make it so. Make it so.