The Greatest Generation - Tragically Low T (VOY S7E5)

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

When Doctor Mark gets stolen from sicksbay by an unscrupulous feline trader, he’s sold to an alien hospital and put to work immediately. But when he takes great umbrage with the Dinaali health insurance system, he John Q Publics a heartless administrator by using his own rules against him. What’s the best way to write a Star Trek character? Who hates Gregory Itzin? Which host admits to light embezzlement? It’s the episode that swore an oath to great sauce!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. Hello! I'm Captain Captain Brinke, the U.S.S. Boardman. Captain Captain Captain Brinke, the U.S.S. Boardman.

You're Captain Captain Captain. 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. I'm Adam Pranica. I'm Ben Pranica. I'm Ben Harrison. How you doing, Adam?

Great. I got cats in my yard today. What happened with that? I was walking outside toward the studio with my favorite dog, Ripley, not expecting to encounter a cat in her backyard. She loved that quite a bit. She did that thing where she chased it and tried

to tree it. But this cat, this is a known cat, I should tell you, this is the neighbor's cat. She tried to tree it up a wall and what ended up happening was the smoothness of the wall was such that this cat could not get purchased with its claws. And so, like, jumped and then slid down and then jumped and then slid down again and then jumped, just straight up into some bushes. Oh, man. By the time I got Ripley and brought her back inside. Boy. Save that little cat's life.

That is, that's scary, man. From an afternoon a play, Ripley wouldn't have killed the cat. She just wants to play. Eh. Heh. I mean, you also probably saved Ripley from some like pretty intense cat-based facial lacerations, you know? I think that is way more likely.

Yeah. Ripley just wants to get in there and lick Yeah, I don't think the cat wants that right, but he's a little bit of a bider though. She's got some she's got some chomp to her Oh, these are bird dog bites. These are just let me let me stick you in my mouth bites. Yeah, yeah You choose a gentle bider, but But an enthusiastic one Yeah, nothing wrong with little teeth I can choose a gentle bider, but an enthusiastic one. Yeah, nothing wrong with little teeth.

How are you doing, man? I'm okay. I was making myself a salad for lunch today. I've been trying to live right, eat a sad desk salad like the rest of you sinners out there. And that was going to be my lunch today. And I was pulling some Worcestershire sauce out of the fridge to make the dressing. And I have a bottle of Worcestershire sauce that's been in my fridge for, you know, a couple of months now. And what has happened to this bottle of Worcestershire sauce

is that the label kind of came unadhered to the bottle, but it is somehow adhered to the part of the door that it sits in. So when I pull the bottle out now, what happens is I just pull out the bottle and the label stays there as a little tube. And then when I go to put it back, I try to put the bottle back in the tube.

This has been a lot of fun for me, but I've been thinking a lot about how much you would never, you would ever tolerate tube stuck to refrigerator. I don't understand why you choose to live like this. I mean, it's not so. It's not sticking to other things that they shouldn't be stuck to. understand why you why you choose to live like this. I mean, it's not sticking to other things that they shouldn't be stuck to. Yeah. It's within your power to make this right, right?

Instead of being constantly frustrated by a thing, it's not really frustrating to me. It's kind of a fun game. It's like, oh, I get to put the the round peg in the round hole every time. Here's that I don't like. the round peg and the round hole every time. Here's what I don't like. Stickiness relating to food items or containers where that stickiness does not belong. I've taken a pretty good look at this and it does not appear to be a food dribble

and stick on situation. I think it's the adhesive of the label itself just sticks better to plastic than it does to glass. It's a glass bottle and that little bottom bit has just tacked it on to the shelf in the fridge and it's left the bottle behind. It's like, I like this better than I like that. This is also an affront to my general need

to peel a label off of a thing that I'm handling, like a bottle of beer. That label is as good as dead in my head. I'm ripping that thing right off or I'm like scratching it on both sides. I used to have a local, when I lived in Brooklyn, it's no longer there. It was called the Brooklyn Ale House.

I would go down there, usually broke as a joke, so I'd be drinking Miller High Life. You'd be parading it around trying to get some free drinks. Yeah, the little like upper neck label on a Miller High Life. Love digging my fingernail through that as I'm drinking the beer. This is what I'm saying about this bottle in your fridge. I could never, like, I'm an inveterate label peeler or whatever. Like, how do you know what the things in your fridge are then? Because it, because it's that bottle. Only one thing looks like Worcestershire. I have more than one brown glass bottle in my fridge. I have other shit that looks like Worcestershire. That sounds gross.

You know, got fancy soy sauces probably in there. I don't know. There's different sauces. I got a whole bunch of is probably in there. I don't know, different sauces. I got a whole bunch of different sauces in there. I guess every kitchen you know what you have. Yeah, I think I'd probably make this as the Worcestershire bottle if I wasn't sure. But it's not one you want to like do a taste test on.

You know, you don't want to like hit the Worcestershire straight just to make sure that's what you're pulling out. I bet you got sauces in the door of your fridge. I've never even heard of by brands both foreign and domestic. I swore a no. You swore a no to great sauce. Yeah. And you always have. It's your strongest dance, I would say. Oh, yeah. I do not truck with a mid-sauce at all. Yeah. That's true.

Yeah. Well, anyways, it was just a eight lunch break before we sat down to record this. Now, it's just thinking. If you had sat desk lunch, you're going to need another lunch by the time we get to the P1s. Well, do you want to get into the episode so that we can get those P1s over with soon or rather than later at them? Oh, yeah. Weird one today. And it's going to be done in an unusual fashion, Ben.

If you remember, the end of the last episode, the role landed our run about on the measure of a man square, which means you and I need to flip a coin to decide which one of us will vehemently argue either the pro or the con of this episode. This is sort of like a forced review as we go. Like you will either really love this for a bunch of reasons the whole way through or really hate it and I will then take the opposite side based on this coin flip. Yeah one of us is the riker the other is the Picard. Elephant of the world. It brings a sense of ordering stability to my universe to know that you're still a pompous ass.

Portram is accrucible and if we burn away irrelevance, so we are left with a pure product that true. When people of good conscience have an honest dispute, we must still sometimes resort to this kind of adversarial system. Hopefully we can make some good law out here. And for good measure, fit on this. What I've got in my hand is the challenge coin from this year's share, your embarrassment

tour. Okay. Real fancy. So why don't we say, if it lands heads, I am the pro and if it lands tails, I am the con. That sound like a fair way to do it. You flip the coin and it determines. That sounds great.

Our head side will be a hurrah with the fans of the fan dance. That will be the pro side. Right. The tail side will be the name of our tour, the Sherry and Baris mature, and a nice thick relief of the entrepreneur. It's one of my favorite challenge coins that we've ever made. This coin is a thick king.

I'm going to do that. I'm at the 50 yard line, Ben. I'm going to flip this coin. I'm not looking. I'm going to do that thing where I put it on the top of my palm and I reveal it to you and the friends of Jisoto at home. Heads, okay. I am pro season seven,

episode five, critical care. Rebirth course. Unless you've got something a little bigger in your torpedo tubes, I'm not turning around. Oh, boy. Boy, if you ask me, the thing that needs critical care is the quality of this episode. That's a life support from job.

I really enjoy how much they are doing with their newfound ability to do CGI at the beginning of this episode, because it's a really cool establishing shot of a kind of Star Trek place that we just haven't seen before. It's a sort of a modern-looking city on a very lightning-intensive planet, and a ship coming in over the mountains, and it docks at a much bigger ship that kind of looms over the city's shape. Kind of reminded me of Independence Day a little bit. I mean, modern, if modern is like refinery chic,

just what this seems to be in its skyline. A refinery class planet. It's not Paris. You know, no, it's not. It's one of those places where the weather outside is always frightful. Coming in from this weather, we find ourselves in a trauma unit of a field hospital kind of setting. Yeah, there's people getting gurneyed around and you get the background audio of any ER situation. And this dude walks in, got a lunchpale under his arm.

He gets stopped by a light on the wall that starts kind of Giving his stats what diseases he may or may not have We learn that he's a Drailian. His name is Gar Drailian Drailian Drailian I've made you out of loaf out of loaf. Get kind of feline loaf aesthetic here, I thought. The more I looked at Mr. Gar. Yeah, it's that line between the nose and the top of the upper lip, right? That cats have.

I'm thinking of Gina Gershon, you know, that kind of a feline lips and face aesthetic. Did you get that? Well, I've already won the argument at him. Gina Gershon is a human, not a cat. All right. Yeah, I guess that's how that goes. I thought from here, this computer was going to play a pretty main character in this whole thing in determining what's what and when the computer scans Mr.

Gar we learn a little bit about him. He's in great health. You know, he's living right. He's probably sad desk salads for lunch also, you know. As neutral as the computer may be about a gar, this administrator of the hospital has grown tired of guards entire deal and the shit that he constantly tries to sell him guards like not this time you're gonna love this let me show you the doctor and after hitting the holo emitter there he is oh hi mark and he is very surprised to be there i love his performance of please state the nature of the medical emergency. Like, he's had so many runs at saying that

and he finds new ways to do it every time. It's great. But this is... This is hack, right? Like, let's just cold open an episode with the doctor appearing in a place he's surprised to be at. We've seen this a thousand times.

Come on, Mark is a great performer and he does an amazing job in this moment. And what other way are you supposed to open a Star Trek episode of not in media, alien trauma center? Yeah. After the theme, the doctor recognizes some of the beats of what's happening here, you know,

folks being wheeled in on gurneys, bunch of meat on legs. He can't help it can involve, involved when he sees meat on legs, you know? Meat on legs is a temptation he could never resist. You gonna cure the rest of that? Says the doctor, he walks right over to a gurney, gets to work, and he cannot believe how primitive these instruments are. He's gonna deal with this meat with these.

This is terrible. My God, what is this, the dark ages? I love the call back the Star Trek 4, you know, the federation doctor horrified at the privitive quality of care. When you've been programmed with the Hippocratic Ghostbin, you have to get it on. At that point, what's the difference? Why leave a living witness? Yeah. He kind of does this to the astonishment of the people around him.

And this is going to be a theme for him for quite a while. Yeah, I thought it was interesting the way administrator, Chellick, kind of, is at first a little skeptical of the utility of Dr. Mark, but then is willing to just kind of let him go sick for a while and see what happens. Gotta say, man, I know I'm supposed to hate this episode, but I'm gonna say that I love Larry Drake. I guess face really fills the frame, you know what I'm saying?

You know, I thought for a second, it was the same actor that played Leon Rippy. Yeah. Just had like put on a ton of weight. You know what, that's a great call. Yeah. He does a bit look like a guy who would enjoy drinking a martini while watching a TV. Well, I might just get to like this place.

Yeah, he does look like a Rippy. One of the greats. They said, get me a Rippy type. Yeah. Just a totally believable portrayal of an administrator in a bullshit situation. He really nails it. Absolutely. Back on Voyager, we find Harrison Kim walking through the corridors wearing Missy Elliott's costume from Super Dupa Fly.

Let me play hockey. If that expects a few loves. And this, I know is a recurring theme. The whole water, Paris and Kim, going to be walking out of the holodeck wearing this time. I want more of this. I want it every other episode. What are they gonna wear this episode?

Something crazy. That would be great. I was really curious about whether there were actual hockey pads under their sweaters or just foam shaped to fill it out. Because the way they're moving, it doesn't quite read the way hockey pads do. Yeah. I played hockey for years. I know what to look for. And this was not quite what I was expecting. I really appreciate the choice in colors for these uniforms. Like, you ever watch a major league baseball game where they do that. Seattle used to do this. The back to the future night where they wear futuristic uniforms, except their version of the futuristic uniforms

are the most god-awful uniforms you've ever seen, like ugly future. The sports sunglasses of the future. That's what these hockey uniforms look like. They look like those baseball uniforms to me, just really awful color combinations. Awful color combinations, like totally ass textures on the fabric. And, you know, like the piping around the yolks on the sweaters is like flattened out because

the material that shows doesn't round off nicely. Speaking of piping, Harry Kim as a black eye. And they are talking about what they're going to say to the doctor when they go to Six Bay. And once they're in there... He ran into Tanya Harding's boyfriend, and... Yeah, in the holodeck. Harris does that thing, that Eddie Haskell thing, where he tries to explain what's happened here, and that something's just not right with this doctor?

Yeah, he doesn't need all this explanation Please take an analogy so it can return in 24 hours. I think if this was a season two episode They might just leave the doctor as is I think there's a fair amount of people on Voyager who would be just fine With this being their doctor from now on. I mean, he just keeps asking what the medical emergency is, right? Like he doesn't actually have doctor skills, right? I thought he did.

I guess you don't see him try and fail because we cut right over to the conference room after this where they're like mid-meeting. Yeah. And the whole senior staffs they're talking about what to do about this problem. In medium a gloffing group. If you want. They are discussing how it is even possible

that their doctor got stolen and they didn't realize it for a long time. DuBuck is like quad boxing his apology before he even really has an acknowledgement of how he fucked up. I take full responsibility. He doesn't really know what he did yet, and he's trying to get out from under the, you know, like Janeway is not interested in playing the blame game, but also you should know how this happens to you.

There's a couple schools of thought here by the characters, right? Two Vox ready to admit the mistake and try better next time. Mm-hmm. He's taking a step back. He's listening. There are other people who were like doing that thing where when you make a mistake or or someone gets one up on you you you make the one upper into someone great like boy to get one over on us means this guy is a real smooth criminal, right? Like, gotta be one of the best. He's gotta be good to have taken the doctor right out from under our noses. Nothing but respect for my fevery king. Exactly. I probably fall into that category more than two bucks. I fall more into the Nielix category

because he runs after the captain in the hallway and he's like, I just wanna make sure you understand that this is actually my fault. I love Jane Ways whole management deal here I'm just saying this once. Boop. I love Janeway's whole management deal here, because there's Nelix just like kissing the fucking boot about this. And Janeway knows from a long history of working with both

Nelix and everyone else as Captain, that no one's going to work harder to fix a mistake than the one who caused it. So she's more than happy to let Neelix take the blame for this. What she's got here is a motivated person. There's a loose blame grenade rolling around on the floor. If you want to jump on it, be my guest, Neelix. I'm sure you'll make the most of it. Pretty great. So, yeah, she gives him basically carte blanche to figure out how to atone for this grave

error that, like the error is that Gar claimed to be not enjoying his food, so he really spiced the shit out of it, and then Gar got sick and spent the night in Six Bay, and that's how he got on to the existence of the EMH and the mobile emitter and got the idea for stealing it. Neelix is the restaurant tour that puts someone in the hospital, which I can understand making you feel bad. It's a tough job to cook for every type of person. Still, I can't marshal any sympathy for him. I'm not at all.

He's great, come on. So we cut back to this planet. We got another look at this hospital ship that kind of hangs in the air over the city. You're in those buildings down below, hoping to fuck that Chellik's people really have their anti-grave thing figured out 100%. Boy, you're not kidding about that.

I would not sleep well under the shadow of that thing. And so we cut back up and the doc is providing treatment and this med tech guy that he's been working with is pretty impressed with his skills of a doctor. And the doctor is kind of interpreting the low resources nature of where he's been stationed as being an indication that this is a low resource planet, and the whole hospital must be like this. This guy, Vogyogy seems pretty plugged in and he's a great person to get the lay of the land

from. Seems like as bad as the patients have it on this floor, the administrative hellscape that they have to deal with as doctors is somehow worse. Yeah, which I think the medical professionals that I know will tend to agree with that being just the case on our planet as well. You'll have to submit a formal request to Chalik and support it for Mait3W in Triplicate.

We got to meet Tebus, the patient where made to feel sorry for. He's a non-player character in my mind who has a weird infection that Vouji recognizes. But Vouji doesn't treat it as an emergency or like snap into action or whatever. And that's because Tebus doesn't have the TC that would necessitate treatment.

You got an HMO, right? Yeah, well there's your answer. And Chellic pops in to say it in this very moment, at the moment where we might have a question about what TC is, that he owns the dock now. I own you. Yeah. Says Chellic. Please come with me. I will not. The dock doesn't want to play ball here. Chellik's like, hey, don't play me. Play me the allocator. Yeah, the allocator is that computer we heard from earlier.

Right. The Denali is the name of the people that live on this planet, but Chellik is from another species and they've been like hired in by the Denali to run this hospital. Between Chellik and the administrator, that's where all the power lies within the hospital ship.

Yeah, God, there's just so many layers to this. Like red and blue. We take the turbo lift up to the blue level and the differences are very apparent, Ben. The blue level is clean. The red level is not. I really like the, there were subtle things about the design of the blue level that made it look like a federation starship.

I mean, some, some subtle, some not so subtle. I think that the, just the lighting is a very, you know, starfleet ship of this era. But yeah, it sort of feels like we're back in civilization when we get up here. You know, it's not as crowded, it's quiet. There's like mood music. There's still no fucking privacy though.

Yeah. I mean, there's curtains. They got curtains. They should have done something with the gowns. Like on red level, those things don't tie in the back at all. You're hanging butt on the red level. On the blue level? You get to wear a nice robe.

Something that maybe has never been worn before. Mm. New garment, real soft. Like a waffle knit. Oh yeah. Hotel robe. I've never had waffle knit anything. Is that really the superior knit?

I like it on a robe. My bath robe, a lovely gift that I received from my wife is a waffle knit robe. Very luxurious. Do you have waffle knit towels? No, I've always wanted them, but they don't ever get good reviews. You know, when you go on like wire cutter,

whatever, you say, what are the best towels? What's the difference then? Like the best of the thing that makes robe should also make best towel, right? Well, this robe has the Terry cloth texture on the inside. Does your robe have a liner? Yeah, I guess it does. Well, I think it's too ploy, you know?

There's the waffle and then the Terry and they sewed them together. I don't understand this garment at all. You should get into fancy robe lifestyle. Like, I don't. You spend a lot of time poolside enjoying the pleasant weather. I do. You gotta get yourself a nice Japanese robe or something.

I could get into that lifestyle for sure. Yeah. You live in the West Village. There's probably a store dedicated to like fancy poolware that, you know, that would set you up perfectly. I should do that. And all that stuff's probably on deep, deep discount in December. Yeah, exactly.

I myself in there. This is the time. Peruse the clearance racks. Yeah, get yourself a speedo and a robe. That's a look, baby. That's how I want to go through the winter in LA. Ben TC means treatment coefficient. Yeah.

Has this little knob on the front so you don't wreck your shirt or hurt your hand. This is important because everyone on level blue has a higher TC than the patients on level red. And treatment coefficient roughly means like certain professions or skills or accomplishments mean more to a society. So these folks are viewed as more necessary and thus get better care to continue those myrium contributions to society. Right. Unlike those dirty, dirty, level red folks who don't contribute shit.

Let's hope extra-trust feels qualified for Medicaid. It'd be like if triage included a check of your, you know, medical insurance if you went into a contemporary hospital. Yeah, hey, just at the moment you're trying to process this, there's Gregory Itzim. Just a perfect moment to introduce Gregory Itzim. Yeah. One of the greats.

Are you in charge of what passes for care on level red? Because those people are suffering. Intriguing technology. He is playing a Dr. Dysic in this episode. Can I tell you that if you go to Gregory at Sinswickapedia page, you will see one of the worst photos of all time. Oh, really? Is it a... He got did so dirty.

I don't know who gets to decide what photo goes on your Wikipedia page, but what the fuck is this? If it's any worse than the one on his IMDB. Oh man. Check out the one on his IMDB. I think it might be even money for which one is worse. Doobie, I think it might be even money for which one is worse. Who is Gregory Itzen's agent? This is, you got to get, oh, yeah, this is no good. No good. Hey, Gregory Itzen has the same birthday as my dad and Hitler.

Wonderful. Good. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So.

So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So.

So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. He sort of explains to Mark, like, oh yeah, we were a dying race. You know, everything was fallen apart here on this planet before Mr. Chellock here came and set up his hospital. They figured everything out for us. Like this, this really solved the situation.

I just got totally pulled into Gregory Itzins. I am. He paid. Okay. Dude, just should we take five and you can read up a little bit more on Gregory Etzin there? It's just 30 miles long. It really makes you forgive the photo they choose up top. Like with a resume like this,

maybe you don't need a great photo? Oh yeah. Incredible. Yep, yep, yep, yep, do it, do it. Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, high and low for Gar, and Gar is the guy who sold Mark to Chellik earlier, and the guy that got all sick off of Nielik's cooking, and they're following his warp trail, and the warp trail goes cold. They find a phony baloney warning boi floating in space.

It's emitting a false warp signature. And everyone who isn't too vach is like, see, this guy's good. We're the fucking adversary. Good. Worthy fucking adversary. I see he stole a lot of valuable things. He didn't steal my mop. Seems like they could use a mop like this on the red level.

And that hospital ship. I know I'm not supposed to know about that yet in the course of the episode, but I know a lot of body fluids need mopping on the red level. However, they are keeping it pretty clean up on blue level. Comforted Florida bears and they got to. Comforted Florida there, so they got to. Nifty bit of business that Tuvac suggests here. He's like, look, he's got a ridium, this gargai. And we know that there's a half life to this.

It's fairly short. So if he's looking to pedal this somewhere, he's gonna do it in a place close enough that it wouldn't have expired. Right. So they find a planet that's two hours away. This has got to be the spot. That's where they go.

Local a Rydium hookup. It's a mining operation. They pull in and they get this guy up on FaceTime and he's pre-pist and wants his Rydium back. Turns out Gar's been grifting people left and right. I don't know how often this ever happens to anyone else but Janeway. But like, you get on the phone with someone and they're just pissed immediately. Janeway is so used to this because she's like, hey, we both have something to be pissed about. You

clearly very pissed. Why don't we work together? You can get your iridium back and and we can get gar. Gar's got our doctor. There's coffee in that similar experience. Maybe we can help each other. And this guy decides to play ball He's like, what else am I gonna do? Just be pissed? Enemy of gar is my friend. Here's what I gotta tell you. go to Velos. Yeah, that's where you should look for him. So Velos is the next stop and we cut back to the hospital where Mark is learning about how patients on level blue are getting optional treatments.

Treatments that are just there to prolong their life, that don't actually need urgently, using drugs that are being denied to the poor people down below, Adam. But you hear the description of this stuff and how unnecessary it is. It's only necessary for life extension. This is a dream of Chrome, right? Yeah, I think so. I think they say that.

Yeah. Are you having a bunch of kids in the basement here? Yeah, just grinding them up, extruding a bunch of a dream of Chrome. The richest guy on our planet found out about this, believed it. And so yeah, that turns out to be how we set our society up for the

rest of history. The doc observed something very useful about this whole transaction. The nurse asks the computer for a drug, the computer scans who the patient is and goes, oh yeah, this guy can get some adrenal chrome. And this thing gets vended out. Give him an idea, doesn't it? It does. So there's that boy down below on red level. You're talking about tebbas. Tebbas, I...

That sounds like such a scrabble word. Like, what are you gonna do, Ben? Challenge me? Yeah. 27. Tebbas. Here's how I know that that challenge would work is that it kept auto correcting to tennis. Um,

because it's, it's a T E double letter, I S, you know? So many alien names are just regular vocabulary words said with the stuffed up nose. That's how you write Star Trek characters. Sure it is. With a sinus infection. So Mark gets this idea like, oh man, we could be distributing

these optional ass drugs down on red level. Yeah, where they're really necessary. I mean, because that's a version of life extension too, right? Indeed, it is Adam. He's got this idea like, oh, what if we, I mean, this kid is tragically low T. What can we do to kind of juice that up? Like buy something at the checkout area of a gas station

to help, but he comes up with, what if we load some extra information about him into the database and he tries to trick the computer into thinking that Tebus has like skills and aptitudes that he does not in fact have. Yeah, but Vouji is such a fucking dope. He's like, uh, computer. Did you know that Tebus is good at books? Like his judging up of the file is so stupid. You got to do better than that.

Vouji? The allocator can read right through Vouji's bullshit. Yeah. I feel like the doctor watches this happen and is like, Vouji's not the guy. And when you think more broadly about like how the society is structured, like if you're on red level and you don't have the TC to get, you know, up to blue level, wouldn't that also presuppose that the doctors on red level aren't their best? Aren't they're smartest?

They did not send their best to red level. Now, you can only work on a red if you are a red. Did you get the sense that Vogy is actually a doctor or is he a tech or a nurse or something? That part is a little squishy to me, but I feel like he's the best that they have. Yeah. He's either a doctor or a doctor de facto. Yeah, because my general practitioner is, I believe, a PA, and this is something that my white...

A production assistant? Doesn't believe, should qualify him to be my medical practitioner. Go on. I don't know what the different, like, it seems like... Your doctor is a Pennsylvania. A physician's assistant. He can prescribe, he can provide, he can do the whole thing. That's what you want.

Yeah, he just doesn't have an MD. He has a different qualification that isn't as murderously difficult to get. Is there something about your level of care that your wife has taken over with? I don't know. My level of care being bad is mostly about me not wanting to go to the doctor them. Well, there's your problem. So Voguee's amendment doesn't work. And here's what I want to say about Tabis.

He seems really happy with his condition. And I was very curious about this choice in making tebbas so optimistic and cool, given he's about to die and could be in some pain about that. Like, it's weird when the sick person is more okay with things than the doctor. There's this like reversal in this scene that it kind of clanged for me. Well, I think that Tabis weirdly like believes in the rules of his society, despite how obviously they are fucking him over.

And the MH doesn't. The MH has been dropped into this situation, not believing in the way they have set this society up at all and openly going around criticizing it. But I feel like that's kind of realistic thing. Like you see all the time, like the news report, like isn't this sweet, this little girl is selling lemonade to raise money for her dad's cancer treatments. And, you know, and then people quote, tweet it and go, no, this is not sweet. This is evidence of how fucking screwed up our society is, you know?

But, like, I don't think that the person writing the isn't this sweet article is writing it in bad faith. they just aren't taking enough of a step back and considering the implications. It is about the implications isn't it? Maybe they're writing it in bad faith. I mean, I don't know. I don't know what anyone's up to anymore. Back on level blue what they're up to there is the doctor challenging a nurse about that extra sight of globin. I felt kind of bad for this nurse. She seems caught up in some bullshit that she couldn't understand. She wouldn't understand. She shouldn't understand.

I don't understand. Maybe the thing I hate most about her situation is that she's made to take all this shit from the new guy on day one. Oh, she's been there forever. She has seniority. Just because this guy has an MD and she just has an RN, he can fucking walk in and treat her like she's scum.

Yeah, I don't like her situation at all. Yeah. He's trying to get this adrenochrome injection for the kid. And so what he does is he goes, you gave this blue level patient their extra adrenochrome, right? And she's like, what?

I didn't hear about. And he's like, I have to do everything myself. And he gets the computer to replicate it. And then when nobody's looking, he palms it and runs right back to the elevator and goes down to red level. And there we see the doc make his way to Tebus

and in goes the injection and the camera pans up to a really happy doctor. There's nothing more thrilling than nailing an insurance company. I tell you what, if I were in a hospital, in a hospital bed, and I had just woken up to the face of my doctor, and my doctor was making this face,

I'd be terrified. Like, you want the consistent good care of a trained medical professional, but I also very rarely want any emotion out of that same person. I'm gonna take the other side of this, not just because I have to, but because I believe it, Adam. If I saw a look of smug satisfaction in my care provider,

every time they injected me with something like, yeah, I just did the right thing, even though everybody around me thinks it's the wrong thing. That's only giving me more confidence in the care I'm receiving. I don't want a doctor near me who is doing something that everyone else tells him is wrong. Maybe your wife's on to something about your medical choices. As this ever happen to you, you get interested in a business, maybe you want to buy something, or see what days or hours they're open, and the link just takes you to a social media site? I hate that! I used to think that it was lazy because making a website used to be hard, but not anymore, was Squarespace. There's

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Ginger-Rail, daytime television, don't lie, I know you love at least one of them. I'm Sequoia Holmes, Pop Cultureist and host of Black People Love Paramore. Contrary to the title, it is not a podcast about the band Paramore. Each episode, I, along with the special guest co-host, dissected one pop culture topic that mainstream media doesn't necessarily associate with black people, but we know we like. Tune in every other Thursday to the podcast that's dedicated to helping Black people feel more seen. Black people of Paramore is now on the Maximum Fun Network.

Check out the most recent episode featuring Shar Jacelle today. Hi, I'm Jesse Thorne, the founder of Maximum Fun, and I have a special announcement. I'm no longer embarrassed by my brother and my brother in me. You know, for years, each new episode of this supposed advice show was a fresh insult, a depraved jumble of erection jokes ghost humor, and frankly, this is for the best, very little, actionable advice.

But now as they enter their twilight years, I'm as surprised as anyone to admit that it's gotten kind of good. Justin, Travis, and Griffin's witticisms are more refined, like a humor column in a fancy magazine, and they hardly ever save Bazinga anymore. So, after you've completely finished listening to every single one of all of our other shows, why not join the McElroy Brothers every week for my brother, my brother and me? We get a parade of guys who got swindled by Gar on the screen of the Voyager. Some of the radiest loaf we've ever seen, Star Trek.

There's the one guy and then there's the next guy and then there's the next guy's ex-wife who left him for Gar and would love to imagine that, you know, Gar basically cucked this guy, took his wife with him, like so much a ridium. And now the wife is convinced that Janeway is trying to move in on her action with Gar. And Janeway has a tough time explaining that she has no romantic interest in Gar without sort of insulting this woman.

So she claims to be already set up with somebody and she reaches out of frame. And you're just like, ah, this is Chico Tay's moment, this is where it happens for him. And we cut to the wide shot and she is grabbing two-box hand. What? I believe it moved. Great moment. She goes, just sitting back in this chair box of Dixon Ticonderoga. It's taking them out one by one. Loved having a jimmo hair sighting in this parade of victims. That's fun. memo hair-sighting in this parade of victims. That's fun.

I should have known it was a mistake, but you see, I have never been able to say no to my wife. Yeah, it was a good parade. The wife sucks, though. I don't like the way she talked to better husband. She's like, wouldn't you leave that tub of shit if you were me? It's really unkind.

Yeah. She did not marry him for the right reasons. It sort of seems. You know what? You know what I think about when I think of that husband? How much better his life is going to get now? Right. She's holding the back.

She's holding the back from happiness. He'll see it soon. This is short-term pain that's going to learn lead to long-term gain. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's gonna get back out there. He's gonna meet someone new. Yeah.

He's gonna, you know, he's not even gonna like think about Gar going forward. Yeah. Back in the doctor's planet. Tevis wakes up feeling great. And the doc is still standing at the bedside, grinning like a fool. And then Tabis goes from, oh, I feel great too. Oh no, you're in big trouble, aren't you, doc?

Yeah, he's fucking stressed. Doc's like, no. Now we just worked up your TCs through the roof right now, Tabis. it's gonna do wonders for your whole life. And Tevis is like, well, that's cool for me, but what about everyone else on level red? Can you do the same for them? Another look of smug satisfaction.

Yeah. I did not know how to interpret this in this moment in the episode. I was like, is he smugly satisfied that he's like, no, I don't care about them because Tabis demonstrated merit and potential. And therefore, I'm willing to save his life, but I don't really care that. I kept wondering over the course of this episode whether the prime directive supersedes the Hippocratic oath or vice versa for the doctor. Yeah.

I sort of wish that they had addressed that directly, but. Yeah, they had the tension of that for sure. But I love the reveal that this look of smug satisfaction is that the doctor has a big plan to start smuggling drugs down from blue level to red level that he's just not letting on about yet. You remember the take it to the limit montage from Scarface where they're like counting the money, Highland Macauke and all that? This montage is almost exactly like that except the doctors is keystering these vials. Just one after the other. What are you doing? Yeah, trying to get you

the proper medication. He prints up a bunch of bumper stickers and t-shirts that say reallocation is not a crime. Yeah. And they get to work. And they start taking a greener chrome around and just injecting it willy-milly. God.

I mean, Voguey's like, I don't want to be a part of this. And then Tebus is like, I do. And as soon as Tebus does, Vouchy's like, all right, let me in there. Come on, give me some of those vials. Yeah, from now on, free health care for everybody. This has got to be what it's like for Chet and Colin Hanks, you know? Like when Tom Hanks is like hitting the Adrenal Chrome hard,

and they're like, you know, like when they've got a really furious game of ping pong in the basement of Comet ping pong. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, it's even, you know, Chets, like not really into it at first, but when he sees that Collins going for it, he's like, oh, come on, I'll get some, a dream of chrome to. Yeah, got to, got to when it's flying around.

Yeah. You think Chet and Colin get along? I mean, do all siblings get along? I don't know. They just seem so different. I just feel like Colin Hanks is like, let's do, I don't know, like, bow tie summer. And Chet's like, I got a way better idea. Yeah, really something to think about. Yeah, real. What a thing to think about.

Back on level blue, you couldn't have expected this con to go on for long. Greg Itzen figures it out pretty fast and confronts the doctor about all these unnecessary injections, suddenly flying out of the computer. And this is a great scene for anyone who works at a company because the doctor patiently explains how accounting rules for department's at company's work. Yeah. You got to use it all.

Well, you got to use even more than all of it. Or else next fiscal year, you're going to get fucked. I'll admit to some light embezzlement on this program, Adam. This better be it a previous company. And I was the president of the Comedy Magazine in college. It worked like that. We got money from the Student Activities Committee or whatever. And if you didn't use your budget, they cut your budget the next year,

but if you used it all, you got 10% more than next year. It's so fucking stupid. It's so fucking stupid. Our entire economic system is based on growth for all time, higher budget for all time. Yeah. Yeah. What are we doing?

Our hack for this was take the remainder of the budget at the end of the fiscal year down to a liquor store that did not give itemized receipts and throw a big party. Well, at least that's a positive to come from this. Yeah, exactly. So that's kind of what they're doing. They're throwing a party for red level to a pad out blue levels budget. And Dr. Itzen loves this idea. I love, oh, I can't love it. Shit.

This doesn't make any sense. Shut it down. Hey, Adam, you tell me the thing and I will love it for you. I will hold that love and carry it down. Hey Adam, you tell me the thing and I will love it for you. I Will hold that love and carry it through Here's the thing about the the it's in Confrontation he seems to get it like he seems to be down with what's happening back on level red Things are looking livelier than ever like look those first scenes, people are laying in the halls on the floor.

Even in now, people are up and moving around, and that's good, right? It's great. It's a good direction. Like the mise en scene of these shots has totally changed. And even though they're not lit differently, they feel really different. There's a performance characteristic

to the actor who plays Tabis, Dublin James, that I'm going to call Wheatening because when Will Wheaten was brought to Lower Decks to play a younger version of himself, he famously did like wet mouth acting to sound more childlike. And I feel like Dublin James is kind of affecting his voice in that same way to sound like a sick kid. He's like 30. Yeah. Dublin James is his first and middle name, but I think that's what he goes by professionally. Oh, yeah. Last name, Wahlberg. What? Yeah. Get out of town with this. I'm not kidding. His real name is Dublin James Walberg.

I'd change my name too, I guess. Yeah. How strange is that? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha but have the spell broken a little bit by like this quote unquote kid. Hmm feeling better again, but no, he doesn't want to be discharged. That would mean going back to work the refinery with dad. Do you think that Dublin James ever considered endorsing a male growth supplement and going by Dublin Jimmy instead of Dublin James. I don't know. Maybe.

I think you should give some thought to that if he's listening. I think that would be a fun bit. Crocky to it. Black to trophy. Black to make it. Make it. Make it yourself. Tevis is sort of sickness edging here. He's like, look, what if you'd made me just sick enough to stay, but not like real sick, you know?

Like sick enough to where you can't send me home. Right. That way I can stay, I can learn to do medicine shit with my friends and Voguey and like learn from the best, learn from Dr. Mark. That's good, right? It does seem good. It does seem way better than the manual labor that he would be doing otherwise. So what's the worst part of working at the refinery? Is it the manual labor or is it dad?

I could have used a little more detail because because that description, it's pretty short, but he didn't have to say working with his dad if it wasn't kind of the worst part, right? Let's just assume that his relationship with his dad is very much like the one that you are projecting onto it. Back on Voyager, they found Garship and they drop out of warp right on top of it. I love this moment. In an episode I hated and it sucked, but this moment was fun to me. It zooms right up on it and blam. Like hits it with the tractor beam.

Why don't they do this all the time? It's a great moment for Chacote in particular. It was his idea. And like he gets like an adaboy from the captain for it being such a clever way of playing it. Yeah. It feels like Voyager can do stuff faster than the DKAM. Like there's so many times where the D was like,

put a tractor on him. Like, gotcha, captain. Let me do that. Peep, peep, peep, peep. And then the tractor goes, you know? Yeah. Three cords in a tractor beam. That's how the D work.

Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Uh, yeah, they've nailed him and Gargets on screen. Totally smug for a guy whose ship has just been lassoed for all intents and purposes. I thought we were friends, Captain. Why am I being treated this way? I think I deserve better.

I gotta say, kind of like Gar. Your team Gar? Liking the bad guy is part of the coin flip for me. Okay. Gar's cool! Look at that cat face. And I don't sense it. And I don't sense it.

Oh, I hate him. I hate him so much. He's trying to upset the tractor beam, but Harry Kim's on that shit. He's not going to let him get away with that. Yeah. Gar's got that confidence of a guy who knows he's going to get out of this jam, but he doesn't. He's transported to the brig directly. Yeah.

We cut back to a really beautiful night time shot of the hospital ship up from below. It's just dumping sewage out of the bottom. Just like medical waste. Just like medical waste. You do not want to park your car underneath that thing. Terrestri. I only did that once.

Like that time we parked under the one tree and echo park where all the paratang out. Yeah. Never again. Yeah, lost the deposit on that rental. So, uh, Dr. Mark is going around with a tube of neon light looking for tebus. It's a blue light. What does it do?

Transplume. And asks the allocator where he's at because the the cot that tebus had been in has got a different person in it. And it tells him that tebus is now on level white. So he turns to Vodry and he's like, so what's up with level white? Sounds great. Sounds nice and clean and crisp. Gotta be better than blue, am I right? Yeah. Like even even higher, right? The T.C. went through the roof. We cut to below the floating station and it's just A body bag with tevis's body drops from below

It drops onto a car and sets off with its alarm It's like that scene in con air where they dump Dave Chappelle's body out with a note written on him Haven't seen that movie in too long. Oh, man. Count Ayrs should be a bonus, eh? Yeah. Yeah, we should do that. Be good. Chellic initially sort of plays the fool like,

what's the complaint? Like, a patient died? I mean, it happens all the time. This is a hospital where most of our patients don't have enough money to pay, and therefore don't get treated. Let me look them up. And then, you know, it turns out

he actually knows who Tepis is and what he represents to Dr. Mark. Chelyka is very pissed off about all of these unauthorized injections, and so he sort of saw to it that Tepis would succumb to a secondary complication that would have been easily treated if anybody had noticed. Let me ask you a question. Do you think that Teppis did succumb to a secondary issue and died from it. Or do you think he was murdered by Chellik or one of his henches? Or behind door number three, like he was given too many injections by the doctor,

and that is what caused him to die. Oh. Like, what do you think of either of those options? Because I think Chellik is intentionally murky about what exactly happened, but I feel like if he was more specific about what happened and specific about the doctor being the reason, that would have added some real sauce to this episode. Yeah. Yeah, didn't know he was allergic to this.

You pumped him full of it. Yeah. You're pumped and full of it. Yeah, I guess I don't have a super clear read on that, but I also kind of love that this episode lets you live in that ambiguity. I think there's some bravery in that. Hmm. Yeah, I don't think so. Your honor, I rest my case. Chellix like, hey, I rest my case.

Chelix, like, hey, I'm trying to run a society here. Yeah. I mean, and I'm the one to make these decisions. Oh, and also everyone on level red is being sent home. And the doctor really doesn't like this. It's a great illustration of the idea that crime is a social construct, right? If you steal $200 from your job, you get arrested and thrown in jail. If your job withholds $400 from your paycheck, you don't really have much recourse on that.

Yeah, man. Me too. Anyways, yeah. So the other shoe drops in this conversation and Trellick explains that the allocator is going to now be paying a much closer attention to what Mark is up to moment to moment. Here's what I think. The allocator is the worst boss I've ever had. Holy shit. The allocator has like a stopwatch?

Yeah. And it's moving the doctor around all willy-nilly? The medical hologram will now come in treatment on level blue. Can you remind me of that episode of Lower Decks where Captain Freeman put everybody on timers? Oof. Yeah, if there's a timer involved, get out. I hate those levels in video games

or like you have like five minutes to complete this task or whatever. Yeah. Fuck that. Give me a break. That level in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles where you had to defuse the little bombs. Oh, yeah.

You're underwater. You can't get to them all. There's a ways. Too many. Too many. It's not fair. I always got stuck there. That was my Kobayashi Maru. Yeah, I never got past that. So back on Voyager, Gar is in the brig and he's being interrogated by Tuvaku who is threatening torture by Mindmeld.

And then Nielix rolls up and you're like, oh, thank God, Nielix is here for some reason. It's chow time, that's why he's there. Except the food makes gars sick. And it's then that you realize that this is torture too. They're both there to torture garr. Relax, you're just having gaspates. Do you think that this is a consequence of two vicks?

Like somehow like the willingness to torture, the willingness to commit crimes against humanity? If you could only hear yourselves. Came out of that combination of them. I don't think either of them was a torturist going into that experience. Torturist? Yeah. I like that. What an artful term. Jesus, Ben.

Like, who's more unethical? Is the food poisoning or the forced mind-melder, like the worst person in this scene? I can tell you who's moron, and that's Nielix. But he's moron like a fox, because this amount of gas does not agree with GAR, and GAR will do anything to get this gas out of him. Like tell them where he took and sold the doctor. He's literally like ripping ass on the floor like begging to be saved from this. Just a brutal, brutal torture scene

that will haunt me for the rest of my days. Yeah, that's, that is a, a key fear of yours. Can you imagine death by gas? You know that's happened. I'm sure. I just wish I could fart. I'm giving you an order. I'm giving you an order. I just wish I could fart. I'm giving you an order. I'm giving you an order.

It's bad under spritical. I'm giving you an order. I'm giving you an order. If you have just crossed the line. Gars played by John Casseur, who you know as the voice of the crypt keeper, Adam. Wow. Yeah.

Good pull. Yeah. It pull. Yeah. It's your lucky day, fella. Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah Hey, that's a good limb. Fun that he got to put on some loaf and rip some dirty farts for a Star Trek Voyager. Back over at the red level, Vogy, he's just fallen apart. He can't deal with this. He's got all these dischargers to manage. And this is the worst possible time to get called to level blue to help with the surgery, but there he goes.

But it's a trick, because the doctor's there to greet and it's clear Vogy's never been to level blue He's blown away by this place. Oh man. You guys really got it made in the shade up here. It's almost like a Federation hospital up here Yeah Doc's got a plan. He's Vogue to you to agree to smuggle his mobile limiter out of there and Vogue's like already unzipping his pants The doc's like no no no, I've got this case. Put it in the case, not your keyster. Yeah.

Keyster, not necessary for this one. Also, it's kind of a tortilla shape and size. I don't think you want this in your butt, dude. Yeah. He gets with the program, like just as the allocator's about to move him along into that case, he gets with the program, like just as the allocators about to move them along into that case he goes. And on level red, we find the doctor working just like normal and Chellick rolls up and

he is pissed. I love the swagger that Larry Drake has when he walks up catching Mark. You know what you're hiring when you're hiring Larry Drake. That kind of swagger. Oh man, this guy can walk, man. You wanna know something that I read is that the artist known as Drake took his name from Larry Drake.

Like so inspired was he by Larry Drake and his many great performances. Oh man. Is this an nth degree? Yeah. Sneaking into a measure of a man. So every time you hear something by Drizzy, just think of Larry Drake.

Yeah. And that gravitas. Not so much gravitas that it saves him from getting knocked the fuck out by the doctor. Yeah, he gets an injection for his trouble. And this is like a neural blocker plus virus. It's the thing that the adrenal chrome treats on red level that he's been injected with. But it also has tebbas biomarkers in it. So when the allocator is consulted about what kind of medication cell it can get, it's like, no, this guy has low T. Can't give him a drainage

room. And it's a pretty vivid illustration of how unfair this whole situation has become. illustration of how unfair this whole situation has become. I mean, we're just getting come up and after come up and like all over the place, from here until the end of the episode. Isn't it a little hypocritical though for the doctor to make it seem as though Chellik's life is not worth saving in order to save other people? Hmm. I wonder if the episode will interrogate that any further. Hmm.

Hmm. Janeway gets on the phone with the allocator and, you know, it's like when you call like an airline and it's just nothing but AI, phone tree, bullshit. Yeah, you can never get a real person. Your wooden medallion isn't speeding you to never get a real person. You're wooden medallion Isn't speeding you to the front of that line No

It really sucks and so they they kind of decide to take matters into their own hands Meanwhile Dr. It's in shows up at Chellic's bedside and is like oh man. What's wrong with this guy and Chellic is like you're the head medical guy, you gotta get me that adrenal chrome injection, man. I was like, man, I wish I could. This is peak itsen, isn't it? Like, this was the president he played on 24 season

after season, like this type of twerp. Like, I think what's so great about this performance, again, in an episode that I think is dog shit, because that's what the coin tells me to say. Is that I'm not sure I entirely believe that he believes what he's doing here. You know how like in every awful administrative machine, there has to be those who just go along with it? Right. I feel like whatever is happening to him, seen to see, is what be those who just go along with it. Right. I feel like whatever is happening to him seen to scene is what he's going to go along with.

It's like, like, he is doing this because it's how the game is played, not because it's what he bullies in his heart of hearts. He's going to be fine in the end, and he's making those decisions the entire way. God, it's like a straight white guy voting. Sure, everyone appreciates that. I'm not saying straight white guys shouldn't vote. Just say don't do bad shit when you vote. How great is Larry Drake from this moment all the way until the end because, you know, he's been sitting upright or standing up most of the episode, but you get him laying down on the bed, fighting for his life.

Really great performance by Larry Drake. So Janeway is like, we gotta send somebody down there because we're not getting anything through this phone tree. She orders Torres to be on the away team and then she turns to Chicoetay and she's like Chicoetay. You go too. And he like almost can't believe it. And he stands up and like all of the like halves of pencils fall off of his lap and he like dusts off a bunch of sawdust and you know, graphite powder and stuff. Walks through the pile of other broken pencils that are on the floor all around him.

He's kind of limping because one of his legs fell asleep. He's been sitting in that chair for so long, not doing anything. Chick-O day, you get to do something this episode. Sounds great. So the away team beams down, dust busters out. The doctor's like, cool, I'll be with you guys in a moment. I'm in the middle of some shit.

Yeah. And the shitties in the middle of is attempting to murder Chellik. To make his point. Can you imagine being about to die and having Gregory Itzen start explaining to you about quarterly budgets. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha level blue from now on and because he has it he also gets to go and get treated doesn't really solve the problem of the ills of his society. Yeah, do you get a sense for how many of these ships exist around this planet too? I feel like they it gets like

Number checked as like number 42, so maybe there's lots and lots of them, but I don't know. I hate that about this episode. I kind of liked it. I got a big problem with that. That's another bit of ambiguity that I really appreciated as brave. Yeah. They warp away. Now the doctor's on board, and he's giving seven of nine a checkup. And then turns the tables on her and asks her to give him a check up. She gives him a

surprisingly clean bill of ethical health. He is quite troubled by the behavior he engaged in down on that planet. But it turns out, like for all of the debate about like, oh, like, you know, we have limited resources, so this is the way we've decided to meter them out for the greater good. Turns out, Mark was greater good in better than all of them. It's really true. Seven of Dines, like, cool. Take your lollipop.

Like... And that's when you realized the episode was told in reverse, because the lollipop is super big in this scene, but it was really small at the beginning of the episode. It almost got past me, the whole idea of all the way up until this moment, it's been the doctor that's been so flip about sevens, many problems, and you reverse the two here, and it's seven being like, eh, fine. Rub some dirt on it. Nothing wrong here. And that's the end, Ben. Did you like this episode?

Have a feeling you do. You know, I'm really easy to get along with most of the time, but I don't like bollies, I don't like friends, and I don't like you. I love this episode, Adam. I thought it was a searing indictment of the horrible inequities of our current medical system. And I say current because even though this episode came out 23 years ago, we still have many

of these same problems in our society. Despite major legislation that has tried to tackle some of these issues, it's still a big, big problem. And I salute the writers for tackling it in a really inventive Star Trek UA. And I especially salute the casting director of this episode. Man, what a fun cast of guest actors. Holy crap. Yeah, can you imagine getting both an,

it's an end of Drake on set. And the fucking, like they got the crypt keeper for this one. The crypt keeper. Yeah. Got to imagine pretty popular around the craft table. Oh man, do some more crypt keepers stuff. Well, man, I thought this episode was a pile of shit. Yeah, I kind of got that sense.

And the coin makes that true to me. It's an episode about torture, isn't it? The doctor torturing Chellik, being maybe the most surprising form of it, Tuvak Anelik's earlier in the break, obviously, participating in their own former torture. Veteran of performing on 24 Gregory Itzen is no stranger to being in TV shows

that celebrate the use of torture. Yeah, I thought that show was a big amount of fun at the time. I mean, it introduced me to the great Gregory Itzen. It can't be all bad. Like most very special Star Trek episodes that ask interesting questions, this episode doesn't answer any of them because that is what Star Trek does. A lot of the time is they don't have any solutions to our problems.

This is the depiction of one of the major ones in our society. Why don't you fix something, Star Trek? It's like you're just standing around. If you got time to episode, you got time to clean. That's what I'll say. Case closed. I just read an amazing piece of trivia about this episode.

The prop for the allocator that was on the level blue part of the hospital ship was used as the drink dispenser in the Enterprise NX01's mess hall on Star Trek Enterprise It does look drink shaped when that little door opens up. Yeah, looks like you could grab a can out of there Guess you could say it's been a long time getting from there to here It's been a long time that we've taken before getting a priority one messages. Why don't we get over there? Let's do it Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Need a supplement on that. supplement on that. supplement.

supplement. Yeah it's extra. But the interest alone could be enough to buy this ship. Ben, our first priority one message of a promotional nature, that message goes like this. All your episodes are gold, but Mornhammered episodes are platinum. Wow. Currently, in game of buttholes, if you roll past Mornhammered, there is no power hour. In this P1, not selling stuff, I'm selling the idea to reprogram the game

where rolling past Mornhammered equals landing on it. I too am an aging human. I understand the physical toll and the disruption to your production schedule in life when you get that drunk. But what? My theory presupposes is. A slight increase of your suffering is worth it for our entertainment? One less thing. Mike is an idea salesman. And on his commercial P1, he has sold the change to the game of Buttholes that would make rolling past the Mornhammer Square possible.

Wow, so you have to do it if you get to the end of the board game. Interesting idea, Mike. I'm okay with it. I gotta say, I'm fine with that. The call to action is I accidentally listened to a Mornhammered episode at point seven speed highly recommended. You go from slightly drunk to 2 a.m. dive bar after divorce drunk. Wow. That's great. Wow. Wow. Gonna have to crack up on an pack of divorce dad trading cards. Yeah, you got to.

Gotta get the house. Oh, come on, house. I don't want to ask Colin Anderson to do any extra work on the game of Buttholes, but I'm for this proposal. I think this is a good proposal. I would say remove the tub square and add another moorn hammer square. Maybe that's how we resolve this. What do you think? There's gotta be squares we don't wanna do or the game isn't fun. I think we should make this project as enjoyable as possible.

No suffering. no suffering. Hmm, I don't know. That doesn't seem like you're way. You'll, Adam, come on, you're gonna find a way to suffer. Oh no, man. I've changed. Wow. Our next priority one message is from Chris

and it is to ban an atom, goes like this. Came down with COVID two days before your Denver show. Hmm. I remember meeting you Chris at that Denver show. Big hug! Here are the scarves I would have probably spent on taxis, dinner and drinks. I would try to pass my take it on to a friend but I'm a little bit embarrassed about having to take it to a Star Trek podcast. Break a leg, come back to Denver soon. Oh Chris, you missed a great show in Denver. Yeah, that was a really

great one. Really, I think sold to us that we had been away from Denver for far too long. Yeah. And we'll be back soon, I hope. Sorry you got COVID. I hope you're feeling better, buddy. Yeah, you missed just an awesome show. When I think about that show, it's hard to think of a better one we've ever done. No, I think that was the best one, you're right.

Yeah. Well, I hope you feel better now, Chris. Ben, we've got a final priority when message, and it goes like this. I and my senior officers would like to congratulate both of you for completing your international tour and sharing your embarrassment with friends of the Soto around the world. We raise our hooves and salute you. In an honor of your accomplishment, Chief O'Brien tried. I am Chief Miles Edward O'Brien. This is fucking spectacular!

And also since there are still more characters left, Moopsy! Moopsy! Awwww. So this was sent in by Captain DeSoto and the crew of the Friends of DeSoto Master Don with the requested date of being after when the tour is over. Hey! What a nice thing to do to celebrate the end of a crucible of live shows that we've done. It has been a really fun tour.

We got one more early next year in San Francisco. Yeah, learned a lot. Did a lot of great shows. Gonna feel great when we tie a big bow on this one. So thanks to everyone over at the Mastadon for observing that achievement. Thank you. Hey, are you trying to assuage the feeling of missing a live show or maybe you have great ideas about the board game

Maybe you want us to do an impression or you want to celebrate a relationship or a beloved pet go to maximum fun Diodoric slash jumbo tron put some words in our mouths Help support the show. It's easy to do do today Hey Adam tap in did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? I just think that everything about Jimo Harris' performance as Cuck husband is great.

He is 10 out of... He gets 15 seconds in this episode and he takes it. He takes it for himself. He goes 10 out of 10 on this performance. He's really in a way. And it makes me in a way with him. He's just the best. I'm going to make him my drunk shimota for that. What a performance. I'm gonna make him my drunk Shimoda for that. What a performance. Oh man, yeah, I agree. I also thought the costuming that they put him in was just really funny.

It was like kind of a bad shirt that had just some like space shit on it. What I didn't like was the adulterous, like her setup is just nothing but plants. Like, here's potted palms. Right. She's like on Rysa or the Delta Quadrant equivalent. Yeah.

You know, she's just like a sex pot that's like, ooh, wouldn't you? I mean, nothing says sex like potted palm, right? Uh-huh, uh-huh. The sexiest plant. Always makes me horny. Is this your idea of sex? So what was yours? Was yours also? Yeah, I joined you on the Jimo hair.

Okay. Square. Hey, great. Good place to be. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead.

All right, Adam. Next week, we've got to find out how we are going to be recording. And let me tell you what we are going to be recording. It's season 7 episode 6, Inside Man. Starfleet Lieutenant Barkley's hologram convinces Janeway to pursue a dangerous, untested plan to bring Voyager home. What's the title of this episode? Inside Man. Oh, is Knight your college nickname? Pfft.

Pfft. Pfft. Absolutely brutal off the top rope. Jesus. Ben R. Runabout is pulsing on the face of Philippa L'ouvoir. Mm, all right. Reminding us that we both just did a measure of a man episode. Is pulsing on the face of Philippe L'ouvoir? Hmm, alright. Reminding us that we both just did a measure of a man episode. That square 87 on three squares ahead.

We've got the traveler episode. That would propel us five squares past his face. You're required to learn as you play, Role. But let's see what Roll. Let's see what happens. Let's see. Ben I've rolled a two. Two-law! Did I win?

Harvey. That puts us on square 89. It's a regular old episode. It's also the doorstep of the traveler square. That's it. OK. Regular app. All right.

Regular app next week. Looking forward to it. Yeah. Thank you to it. Yeah. Thank you to everyone who supports the show. Maximumfund.org slash join. Thanks to everybody who shares the show with a friend or leaves a nice review on Apple Podcasts or whatever app you use to listen to podcasts. But especially Apple Podcasts.

So a lot of friends on tour, wasn't that fun? Yeah. Folks bringing people to the show to expose them. Yeah. So that whole thing, that's always a trip. It's great. Hey, hope you have a great holiday season, restful holiday season.

We're going to keep bringing the episodes. They're going to be an episode next week. I haven't checked what day it is, but it's happening. It's the 18th of December today. Yeah. That's where we're at. So what's one week from today? Is that a big date or not?

Yeah, for a lot of people. Oh, unremarkable date. I think it's great. Cool. Yeah, well, so if you like, you know, need to go take a very long poop and avoid your family, we're gonna be there for you. Yeah, well so if you like, you know, need to go take a very long poop and avoid your family, we're going to be there for you. Yeah, we really will.

We're not going anywhere. That's because of the friends of Disotto who support at www.maxandandbund.org slash join. Rain or shine, thicker thin, holiday season or not. Five bucks a month keeps this thing going. We gotcha. I also got a thank. Adam Rucius for all the original music on this show. Dark Materia for the original theme song.

Bill Tilly the Card Dandy for running the act greatest track social media accounts. I got to think Nick did more for our artwork. The whole crew. Yeah, go check out all the many communities online. Buy something to potchop.biz. Check out other shows on MaximumFund.org. For example, Greatest Trek, our new Star Trek podcast. Greatest Trek.

Love that, Chef. Yeah, good one. With that, we will be back at you next week with another great episode of Star Trek Voyager and episode of the greatest generation of Voyager. It's our Denzel in a great hat. How do you feel that way? You'll look at God of the U.S. and get the right. Get the right. You'll look at God of the U.S. and get the right. Make it show. Make it show.

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