The Greatest Generation - Trucker Hand (S6E25)

Episode Date: July 3, 2017

When Picard, Troi, Data and Geordi return from a road trip in a Federation RV, they discover that the show’s leitmotif of bad conference luck has befallen the Enterprise. But when they find their ship and crew buffering in space, it will take contributions from everyone - yes, even Deana Troi - to save them. Have you ever been "pigeon happy"? Do older ensigns begin their training at Art Instruction Schools? Is there such a thing as impression creep? It's the episode that's suffering from temporal narcosis!

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

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

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

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

and season two of Star Trek Picard. We've set up a page where you can also contribute. It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdececoto for Labor.com. That's FriendsOfDecoto for Labor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Here's to the finest crew in Trek podcast by two guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast on one of your hosts Adam Prenica. I am your other host Benjamin R. Harrison.

How's today then, Ben? Today is okay. Lovely relaxing day. I was just walking my dog and I decided to pop into a coffee shop and get a nice cold brew to walk around the neighborhood and sip on and he saw a pigeon about five minutes after I bought it, bolted at it and it slipped out of my hands, crashed on the ground, totally un-salevigable. Oh, yeah. Like end of usual suspect style? It was a mess.

So I got home and I have made myself a margarita. But just kind of the opposite of that, isn't it? Have a nice coffee. Yeah. Have you ever been pigeon happy, Ben? My dog is singularly obsessed with the idea of catching a pigeon. And I don't know if, like, I feel like if I was a parent,

and I was at such pains to tell my child that they would never succeed in their goal. I would be a terrible parent, but like every time I walk in my half to tell him, you're never gonna catch a pigeon and every time you try, I will stop you. Are pigeons everywhere in New York? Isn't that sort of a problem

if you have a pigeon obsessed dog? Yes, Adam. New York is an urban place. You really take great umbridge with any stereotypical statement I make about New York. Yeah. I do. It's not that I'm making fun of it. I'm just, I'm just telling you what I've heard. Yeah, we have, we have them here, but enough bullshit, Adam. I was going to, I was going to ask if you had any interest in going card diving with your friend Ben today. I've got a great interest in that, Ben.

The game is five cards, the game is exceeding. It's simple. What are the suggestions? It's not there. Time to plug a pendulum. Adam, I have two orders of business before we start ripping into packs. The first is...

Okay. Let's eat count where we're at so I can tell how far behind I am. I have a... Seven packs here. I have 14. Okay, so I'm seven behind you. But... As recently, looking through my series 2 cards, and I discovered that I had a special

card that I did not initially identify as such when I opened it. I have a card here that is the card for ethics, the War of His Paralyzed episode. It was personally signed in pen by one or T's. But I didn't spot it as a special when we were opening. So I don't, can we say I'm merely six packs behind you? I don't know, man. It sounds pretty sketchy to me. Well, I'm just, I'm offering this to you as a fig leaf

and also so that your little victory doesn't have an asterisk next to it. Oh, I don't want any asterisk's victories, that's for sure. Alright, well should we open some cards? I accept your terms. Yeah, let's do it. Alright, we got a special in the first pack. Damn it! And it's a good one.

It's one of those cartoonified crew members. Uh-huh. It is. Role-erin! Ah! We haven't seen it in a while. I don't know if that she might not be on the show anymore. That's my row.

I've got row envy. Yeah. Oh, I got a special card. In your first bag? God damn. Number two. I have a signed Gates McFadden card. What? This limited edition autograph has been personally signed by Gates McFadden, so it's not one of the whiteboarder B character signature cards that we've gotten before. This card does not have a number. It is horizontal in its aspect ratio. Damn. And let me see if I can look this up. Is it a photo of her?

It is. Fuck! Unless I get whoopi, you basically won the whole thing at this point. Yeah, it's signed in Silver Pen. I don't see anything like this online. I'm seeing a lot of other signed Gates McFadden's on the eBay. But I don't see this one. Well I'm oh there's I see one 65 dollars. Damn! That'll buy us a few more boxes bin. That'll buy us one more box I believe. Yeah unfortunately that's the truth. Did I tell you that I saw a thousand dollar Yager on eBay not too long ago? The Yager bubble is still in full effect. That's beautiful.

I wouldn't, I sure hope it isn't somebody that got one at one of our live shows last year. There is something about the cards that I gave away at our live show? Something only I know that does not diminish their value in any way, but I can tell you that none of those have been put on eBay. Whoa. I could recognize all of them. Unbelievable, Adam. Yeah.

You're a diabolical maniac. Fucking yeagers. I could put a kid through college Off of that stack of Jagers I have What kid too bad that'll never happen Well, what do you say we get into our episode Adam? Yeah, I think it's time time to talk about season six episode 25 Time scape.

This is becoming a speech. We're the cat concept, very entitled. I'm going to type a Ram-Belon about something everyone knows. We start this episode, Rikers in Six Bay. He's been boxing with the data's kitty. Let's put it down to Bola Food. The next thing I know is a hissing Bola fur coming at my face. And he's got a big scrape on the face to prove it.

I hate cats. Will Riker has been subject to a lot of headscrapes this season. Yeah. I like how he says that he was trying to feed spot and like, on cue. Dr. Crusher's there to provide exposition to anybody who doesn't know who spot is.

They does cat. It is the cat equivalent of Wesley, my son. I hate cats. They does cats. Spot. I love cats. Yeah, not great. Also not really believable, because every time we've seen spot the cat, spot the cat has just been

like laying there, not an aggressive cat. Hissing ball of fur. Yeah. And also that's ensign work, isn't it? Yeah, why bother? Why bother? Why bother? You get commander-wiker to do this job.

Yeah, you definitely don't ask up when you're asking co-workers for favors. Boy, is that the truth? Like, this scene is here to establish that data is not around. And, uh, Riker, like, Riker, it's called up to the bridge. The doctor offers to take over in the role of cat watcher and he chucks a phaser at her, as you're gonna need this. Just like, man, like, just tossing a phaser seems super dangerous. It really does. I mean, I guess they must have safeties, but still.

It's not good firearm technique, you know? It doesn't sound like credible firearm policy either. You mean that there's just one in like a random drawer in Six Bay? No, I mean, like when you're the commander of a starship, like there should be some lockout, tag out action happening, like to even withdraw a phaser from Six Bay should require a little bit of effort. Yeah.

But I guess they're just laying around like tricoters. Yep. They never have aliens that they don't necessarily trust fully in six bay ever There's never a phaser around when they get boarded though That is true So we So Riker gets up onto the bridge and the warf is explaining that there's a Romulan distress signal. They are still 13 hours away from rendezvousing with the captain. And so Reiker makes the decision to go look into this Romulan

situation. So we cut to a runabout class starship with Jordi Troy, data and Captain Picard aboard. And they are coming back from a conference. And so far, they seem to be more or less unscathed. At first I was thinking of the runabout as just a Previa XXXO. But like it actually has an NCC number. Like the Winnebago size Previa is a starship. Yeah. And it is really big. Yeah, it's roomy as fuck in the back. Like there are definitely not maximizing

the use of the space. It is designed for comfort. Yeah, and it helps, it's sort of like how you stage a house that you're putting up for sale by making the furniture small. Like, there's a giant back room in this thing, and there's like a tiny banquet table and chairs around it. Really makes the space look big.

It really does. There having like a nice crew dinner, Troy is humble bragging about some, some scientist that was hitting honor at the conference. I'm doing a thesis on inter-species mating rituals. Would you care to join me? Just fun. Yeah, they're sort of doing that post conference gab sash. Yeah, I'm sure we'll do one of these when our tour is over. Sure. You have to. This is the scene where Captain Picard famously mimics the guy who just keeps talking

in one long, unbroken sentence. I always thought he was talking about data in that scene, like hearing the song for the first time. I was like, oh, yeah, like he has to be describing him. And so when this line of dialogue came out, I was pleasantly surprised that it was just about a random one. Why would he be doing that Eastern European accent if he was talking about data? Yeah, is that what he's doing? I think he's doing like a, yeah, like a Russian accent or something like that. It's fun to do impressions, isn't it?

It is. Especially if people that are just a different culture from you. Oh yeah. He's not being mean about it. The meanness is about the rambulon. It's not necessarily about his speech affectations. Yeah, well he definitely has like a pretty insulting expression on his face when he's doing it

Like if if this guy was in the room You know it or saw a recording of this. I feel like you'd be really embarrassed and his feelings would be really hurt Yeah, not nice, but it's okay to not be nice sometimes, right? Like this is not a point in the show where K did not be nice sometimes, right? Like, this is not a point in the show where the Roddenberry Maxim of no interpersonal conflicts still holds. Like, I think this is realistic and fun.

Making fun of people doesn't make you a bad person. That's what I'm trying to say, Ben. Well, it makes you a bad person, but it doesn't make these characters bad people. Thanks. Cause you're so relentless and mean about it. Those are the most popular ways the people describe me. So, as they're sitting here gabbling, Troy looks up and everybody is frozen in space.

And she stands up in shock. And then they kind of unpause. And they're all, what happened, Troy? Why are you all of a sudden standing there with a shocked look on your face? And she explains to them that everybody was just paused. You just stopped and then started again, I can't explain it. Technically, they mix up the shots here in an interesting way when they pull this off, right? So, you get the shot, the single of Picard, and he is clearly digitally frozen.

But then when you go wide and you have Troy's movement, you have to do that practically. And so everyone is acting still in those angles. I think that now... And so, holding back and forth between them is the still in those angles. I think that now- And so, holding back and forth between them is the thing that sells it. Yeah, I think nowadays you could digitally freeze everybody in the shot, but because of the era and the copying techniques they had available to them

and they could have frozen them, but it would have cost a lot more in these days. So I thought the actors who were asked to be still did a great job throughout the app. Like you didn't see the chest movements, you didn't see the hand wobble that so often gives it away. Yeah, I feel like I caught like one or two little mess ups, but generally speaking, like they do this, they do this a whole bunch of times. This is the main thing that happens in this episode, is people being frozen, and it's

fucking great. It's very well done. So we come back from our opening theme, they're looking into this and they're taking it seriously. Like, they're kind of trying to see if this happened in Troy's mind or if it happened in reality. And they're like exploring that when she freezes. And so they get to see what happened

from her perspective. It's a weird sort of like buffering that happens, that everyone gets to experience. Yeah, did you see that she was stimming the way she taught Barkley to tapping behind her ear? Yeah, that was a nice callback. It seems like a uniquely star-trick thing to take someone at their word when they say, this has happened to them.

Yeah, this crazy, crazy thing has happened to me. Yeah, as soon as Troy says this, there is not even a second of, really, maybe something's wrong with you. There is never any point where they accuse her of being ill or having a problem. It is very specifically and right away a what is happening to all of us if that's the case. Yeah, they treated it as like she had an authentic experience. She's telling her truth.

And so like, it's pretty quick that they get evidence that something is going on. And what they figure out is that there are these bubbles all over the space that they're in that are like time moving at different speeds. So like, at one point, they like catch one of the wheels in the mud of one of these and it like burns through all the fuel and their left engine. The use of statistics here to prove the hypothesis is really great.

Like they're out of fuel because according to their instruments the engine has run for like 40 days or something. Which is nuts, and then like in another scene, Picard reaches into the fruit bowl, and retracts it in horror and pain, and he's grown like five super long coak nails, because his hand is aged.

It's pretty gnarly, it's a... You imagine having one old hand. Like, uh, like a, like a trucker, right? Have you seen, like, stories about truckers who always have their left arm? Like, you'll see pictures of their left arm, the arm that, that hangs out the window being super tan and old looking compared to their right that stays inside the cab. Oh, man. The card's got that forever now. He's got trucker hand. Yeah, that's gross. How quickly do you think he's got to clip those nails? Well, he clips it super quickly because they all run back into the cockpit in the next scene and his nails are trimmed. Yeah, not great nail continuity in this episode.

Yeah, not great nail continuity in this episode. Like, I really need to see him in the run about bathroom, like huddled over the bathroom waist basket, like a clip. If it was really realistic, I would show him like looking in 10 different drawers before he figures out where the thin-ale clippers are. So they figured out like more or less what is happening, which is that there are all these like fucked up bubbles of space time around. The entrepreneur is not where it's supposed to be, but they figure out where in space it is and they pull up to it and they look out the window and there is this frozen scene in space of a

Romulan warbird firing shots at the entrepreneur the entrepreneur has like some kind of energy beam going back to it They ask data if he can tell what that energy beam is and he says it's impossible to tell from a visual inspection. And so like they're a little bit stumped. Like Picard is this is like a really emotional moment for Picard. He's looking at his ship on the brink of destruction and He's like we got to get we got the fuck on there like Remember remember that terrible episode times arrow and how we like made arm bands that let us travel in time for that can we do that for this? This is an Adam Neemoy directed episode Ben you may remember him as being famous for the hit episode

Rascals. I think he had a lot better source material this time around. Super complex of a production, it feels like on this one. And if you look back at our review of Rascals, like the two things I think we thought were the worst, were the script and the editing. Yeah. And this is a much more challenging script to throw at a director who turned in kind of

a clunker last time in the chair. And like I would say that the editing is great and the directing is great. I didn't notice that it was heavily directed. It was not stylized as much as rascals was to me. And I mean that as a compliment. Yeah, and the editing... Like nothing you did took me out of the story. Right, and the editing never calls attention to itself.

Like the best editing is not necessarily you know, whiplash where it's like cutting on the beat and like adding to the rhythm of the scene. Like sometimes the best editing is editing that like just moves the story along without calling any attention to itself. Like you don't even notice when the camera cuts. Rick Berman says, my feeling was that nobody should be asked to be judged on a work that was so unusual in terms of having to come in and direct these kids.

I basically said I would like to give him another shot to work with adults. Is that real? That's magnanimous, Rick. Nice. Geez. So they put on their little Hitler youth arm bands and they turn them on and

Troy like almost passes out the Explanation for this is real fun. It's almost like like going invisible scuba diving They're like put on these our bands. It'll keep you safe from what's gonna happen over there. It's a suit without having to wear a suit. Yeah. But the effects still present themselves. They say that the the force field is like skin tight so that they can manipulate objects and stuff. Yeah. It's interesting. And so they beam over and they beam directly onto the bridge and what they find is like pretty surprising there's There's blast marks all over the place. There's

You know it kind of looks like Riker is being killed is you know like frozen in time Looks like he's being killed They're able to look at computer screens, but not, you know, push buttons or anything. It's a bit like the episode where Ensign Ro and Jordy are dead. It made me think a lot of that episode. There's a lot of tropes from that episode borrowed here, but they're all kind of used in different ways. Picard's attitude about this is strangely neutral. Like he goes into full detective mode here where I think a little bit more emotion would have been

welcome, you know? Like he has returned to his ship and his ship is mid being fucked up. And a bunch of his crew is being thrashed. And there's never a moment where he's like, oh God, this is terrible. There's no emotion to what he's seeing. And what he's seeing is fairly emotional to witness. He's also just like confused as fuck. Like they've got Romulans in Six Bay shooting the doctor, but then in the transporter bay,

they're transporting Romulans over and they look like refugees, you know, they're transporting over Romulans that look like they need help and aren't bad. And in engineering, they find a big hole blown out of the side of the warp core, and a bunch of smoke pouring out of it. And data explains, like, time is moving forward at an infinitesimal rate. And that cloud is getting bigger while we're standing here. Right. And that introduces the countdown on the episode and spur some action, right? Because now they can't just linger. They need to see if they can do something about this, otherwise they're definitely gonna lose the ship.

Right, and I mean, they have to also grapple with the idea that they've already lost the doctor, which is not really dealt with from a feeling standpoint. Like, Trey goes and looks at it and reports back, but they're not like, oh my God, is not really dealt with from a feeling standpoint. Trey goes and looks at it and reports back, but they're not like, oh my God, no matter what happens, she's dead. Yeah, I mean, the cat basket phaser

that was shot at her hit, hit her in the abdomen, and then you can see through her. Yeah, it's really death becomes her ring. Yeah. The cat basket phaser was set to become her. I thought it was a statement that no one outside of the show would ever have a guess about. So at this point in the story Picard succumbs to what is called later temporal Narcosis and the way that the viewer is supposed to understand this is with a data turned to camera

as he explains that it's like getting the bends when you're deep sea diving. It's not like getting, he says it's like nitrogen arcoses, which is a real thing. I know that's a real thing, but there is no way that is anything like what is happening to Picard. It is only a bit of trivia to help the viewer understand what's happening. I mean, yeah, like this is a weird part of the script because I guess they need to motivate them getting back

to the runabout and like re-recanoid during the situation a little bit. But it does kind of, you know, like they basically ask Picard to just like flop around in the Shimoda corner going nuts out for 30 seconds. Well, data explains this, right? You get a real fun take from Peastu here. The crazy person laugh is a special type of acting, I think.

It's like acting drunk. You don't need to tell me that. I mean, it's why I don't act anymore. I didn't like it when Patrick Stewart did it either. You're going to twist that knife again, huh? Know your place, Ben. You got a face for podcast. And that's about it. So yeah, they, they, yeah, they talk this over and they're like, well maybe we can figure out what's going on. We go on the Romulan ship.

So they go over there and they open up the Romulan warp core and they discover that there is a, like kind of like a living organism in it, right? Yeah, they pop open a hatch. It's like a mini space butthole. Well, as they're scanning this thing, the time in this place starts moving again. The, the Romulans that are all frozen around the engineering section like move back into action and they're kind of desperately trying to

stop their ship from blowing up and they're saying that the power transfer from the entrepreneur is what's causing it there's a systems overload and They're trying to shut it down. They're trying to you to pull the plugs so that it doesn't blow their ship up. And this Romulan runs in and he's definitely not with the others. He's like, he's observing the action from a remove in the same way that the star fleets are. And when like time reverses and goes back to where it was, he like freezes in place and they like catch him, right?

I'm trying to think about what this is a callback to, but it's a callback to that same Romulan episode, right? It really is. Yeah. Oh, and the other thing that happens during the scene is we cut back to the runabout and Picard is the only one there and he's just looking out the window as time kicks back into effect and all of the Romulan disruptors rip into his ship and destroy it. So you see the like flash on his face as he watches his ship us blowed. And then like the Romulan's put their thing down, flip it and reverse it.

And the explosion goes in reverse order and the ship comes back together. They really chose the right ship to be on at that moment, right? Sure did. Yeah, what was happening to them? Let me ask how much have been. Yeah, if they had been on the entrepreneur when it exploded, would they have come back on the reversal?

I bet they would have. Would they have like suffocated in space? Well, it was exploded. Right. That is some weird can of. Well, it's a good thing that they were where they were. Yeah. Jority is like looking at one of these consoles

in this other weird Romulan. It's like looming over his shoulder and they're like, was this guy here? When we came here the first time, and he leaps out, he grabs Joradi, Joradi's force field disappears, and they both go down on the floor and Joradi is convulsing. Yeah, he's not in good shape,

and his vitals are going in the turret, and they rip off his arm band. Yeah, this is pretty cool thinking on Troispar, right? Like, she... are going in the toilet and they rip off his arm band. Yeah. This is pretty cool thinking on Troispar, right? Like she... Well, it's also totally fucking batshit. Like, Trois is not qualified to make this call at all. And in the moment, she's like, rip.

I think it would be a good idea if we left him in this time because ripping off the arm band freezes the person who was without the arm band. So they're like, well, we clearly don't have the resources to save his life. If we just put him on ice, maybe there will be a chance to save him. Which is really complex thinking for two seconds for Deanna Troy. Well, yeah, but it's like one of those, you know, you have to make a snap judgment. And she's kind of, we've got the mechanics of this problem down There's some bubbles were time moves super fast and some bubbles were time moves super slow and she's like if this arm band comes off

He will be in the super slow time and he won't be dying Yeah, like he won't die instantly. That's a great point like she is not just die instantly. That's a great point. Like she is not just a plot adjacent here. Like she is instrumental to the things that this away team is doing. She is not a potted plant at all in this episode, I don't think. And I mean, her abilities are also useful

in interesting ways in this episode. Like they talk about when the gang freezes up while they're having dinner, how they go blank to her from an emotional standpoint. That's cool. That gives a dimension to this that would be hard to describe otherwise. The last time people went blank to Troy, Troy went crazy. So it appears as though she's better able to grapple with that

idea this time around. I had to go blank to her. I had to use the music box. It was the only way I could think to protect my house from her prying abilities as an empath. The real estate market is, it. Makes a man do desperate things. In this overcooked market, your Kevin has changed. What happened to your Kevin? I think our Kevin, our both of our Kevin's have changed at him.

I listened to an old episode recently and we both sound super different. Kevin, maybe this show has changed us. Whoa. In ways we can't push it, we understand. Hahaha. So they get, they leave Jordy on the Romulan ship and they take the Romulan back to the runabout and he's got like tweaked, he's got like tea-pain vocals.

Like he's on a, he's on an auto-tune machine. And he's like, Captain McCun... I'm an alien from a different time period. I'm trying to protect my young. There's another one of me still abroad. Yeah, so these aliens thought that the warp core of the Romulan ship was a great place to shit out a bunch of kids because the way they give birth is via black holes and Romulan ships are run on artificial black holes, I guess.

It was my understanding that you couldn't get pregnant by going into a black hole. But I guess miracles happen. Do you care about these unborn, space-butt-hole children? That's a good question, because the episode really doesn't. Right. That's what I'm getting at. The episode it treats these aliens as intruders that have you know put the lives of the Romulans and the people on the entrepreneur risk and must be stopped at all costs which is kind of

an uncharacteristic choice for Picard to make, but he also doesn't normally watch his ship get blown up in the course of making a decision about how to deal with a new life and new civilization. And I wonder if that kind of factors into the way he plays his hand here. He's a little bit like a guy who's gone out to a car that he's left outside for a while and squirrels have made nests Under the hood He's got to get rid of those squirrels if he wants to drive the car and he doesn't really care what happens to him in the process

Yeah, I mean also like by the time they Reverse all the explosion the Aliens that the grown-up aliens have both died. So I don't know how they would save these babies when they don't really know who or what they are. Because they're like trans-dimensional beings. They have no way of like phoning up some more of the aliens. We're like, hey, listen, like year, you're two little buddies bought the farm while we were trying to unfuck this situation.

Can you come get your kids? Like, that's not within their power. So once those two guys are dead, they don't have any recourse on the baby saving, right? A long time ago, I made the case that the crew and Captain Picard in particular should and could show a little bit more wonder in their circumstance. And I think this is a part where it would be okay for him to emote that. I mean, he watched his ship get destroyed and everyone he knows on board die a moment ago.

He basically just noted that event while watching it. Diana tells him that his main love interest, his unrecoited love interest, has been shot point blank with a phaser, he notes that. And in SpaceBudhole babies, he also just notes that people are making babies inside warp cores. At no point is he ever even bemused by that. Like he's so sober in his absorption of this information that it, that I think it cuts against the idea that I wanted to feel something for any of these points in the story, and it was hard for me too, as long as he didn't.

Hmm. Well, I just, yeah, I mean, I got a lot of emotion in the scene where he watches the ship blow up. So, you know, my head cannon on this is just that it's like, it's a, it is such a devastating idea that the ship and all souls aboard would be lost for him that it kind of overrides a lot of his more compassionate instincts. But yeah, I mean, it would have been nice to get a beat of Picard talking through those feelings.

Bavaller. Must say, Bavaller. I can see you, it's almost there, Ben. Come on. I can't do it. I can't you it's almost there, Ben. Come on. I can't do it. I can't do it. That'll be the day, Adam. The day that you get me to do a cheesy impression.

Rudy. So we have this fun climax where they beam back over and they kind of, I guess data is running this show from from engineering Picard goes to the bridge, Troy goes to six bay and they're kind of trying to set themselves up so that they can bay and they're kind of trying to set themselves up so that they can they can intervene in all of the nasty shit and but you know what they learned when they were aboard the Romulanship was that the Tri-Corder can cause time to go in reverse for a little while before it starts back up and and so like their

plan is like shut down the power transfer which has something to do with the warp core blowing up. Get that Romulan to not shoot Beverly and get whatever is happening to Ryker not to happen so that Ryker doesn't die. And luckily they have just enough people to cover all these bases. Yeah. So they all get in position and they like watch as Beverly gets unshot. The warp core gets unbreached and the end riker gets unknocked down.

And then they like hit the button and it goes back. And just as it's about to, as they're about to like start saving the day, a female Romulan grabs onto data and she is the second secret alien. And they go down and data is not quite fast enough to get back up on his feet until the like, Ensign Engineer age appropriate to not initiate the power transfer. I couldn't believe my eyes had them. They found somebody not in their late 50s to play in Ensign. It's like a job training program on the flagship. Like, are you ready to have a second career in the Starfleet?

Call this number. Complete this art test, draw this? Call this number. Complete this art test. Draw this turtle, this pirate. And this cling on. And if your art is good enough, we'll station you on the flagship of the Federation. I'm sure that's how it works. Yeah.

So they can't get the power transfer unset up, but they manage to get the controls of the runabout rerouted to the bridge of the entrepreneur. You have to precarred pilots the runabout into the power stream, which causes the runabout to usblow the power transfer to stop and they've like beamed out the Romulans fast enough to save everybody. Troy managed to like slap the kitty cat dust buster out of the Romulans hand before you

could kill Beverly and he's like oh I, I wasn't trying to shoot her. There was a bad alien here, which is never really explained, right? Like, why was he trying to shoot at this lady that's trying to save her babies? Fuck is wrong with you, Romulan? Yeah, that was a little over the top, right? That's that's why it's so dangerous to have open carry Romulans around. Like shoot just pops off in a way that it doesn't have to All right guys

We are happy to save you from your warp core breach on your on your war bird But everybody has to leave their kitten basket behind you cannot beam over with those It's like leaving a cell phone outside of a conference room. Like, can't bring those in the six bay. Yeah. I thought the idea of blowing up the runabout was interesting because it really prevents them from having to answer the question, where the hell did they park that thing?

Yeah, I don't think there's a shuttle bay big enough for it. Maybe there were some deep space nine people hanging around on the ship and they were gonna like take it back to deep space nine when they're done with it. Or maybe it just fits in a shuttle bay, who knows? That main shuttle bay is really big. I was looking at those schematics.

It's so much bigger than it's ever shown to be on the show. Yeah, and like I want to get the scene where the Enterprise is given a bunch of runabouts at a star base. Like they do some refitting of the ship. They swap out a bunch of their bunk beds for these runabouts. They embiggen the shuttle back.

Great upgrade. Yeah. Now you're a starship that has starships in it. It's admiral exhibit. I heard you like starships, so we put some starships in your starship, so you can starship your starship while you're starshiping your starship. One more button to do up before we've concealed all our cleavage. And it is data sitting in his quarters boiling water and watching the pot. Raker comes in and he's giving data the

new duty roster or schedule or whatever. And day to explains that I've been testing the aphorism, a watched pot never boils. But whether or not he is staring at this kettle of water at boils exactly the same amount of time every time. Yeah, he's clearly got one of those cooktaps, the boils water in 90 seconds or whatever. It's really nice. Dude is kind of an idiot though, right? Yeah, well, Riker suggests like turn off your internal chronometer, because humans don't have those. I mean, it's a weird suggestion, it's a weird,

everything about it is weird. It's a real cute button. Didn't really stick with me. Yeah, you almost didn't remember it happened. I didn't remember it happening. I just watched this episode. Didn't really have an effect. Riker sort of slinks into Data's room

as if he's supposed to be afraid of his cat. They should have done that thing where they throw the cat at him from off screen. Now that would have made an impression. Yeah, I would have remembered the button on this episode if that had happened. Did you like this episode, Ben? I did. I think that it is not mountain worthy for all of the reasons we have discussed, but it's a fun premise and it moves nicely, it maintained my interest. And I thought, while it kind of waved its hands to get past a couple of the issues with

the aliens, it was an interesting one. Like that scene where Picard draws the smiley face and the cloud of smoke is so memorable to me, you know? It's like one of the great Picard moments, even though it's like, even though the explanation of it is really weird. That may be the main takeaway of this entire episode. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,

did you like the episode? That and the street value of a lost runabout. Sure. I'm not sure that I did. And I think it all comes down to the amount like these characters are proxies for the viewer. And if the characters aren't emotional or caring about their circumstances, then it's not satisfying for me to watch them interact with those circumstances. So I came away from this episode just feeling a little bit numb about it. Like, I wanted to feel more than I did, and that might just be a me problem.

But I'm going to choose to believe that it was an episode problem. There's nothing wrong with me, Ben. I'm doing great. Alright. I'll take your word for it, Adam. Yeah, I'm not sure anyone believes that. Do we have any priority one messages? I'm sure that we do.

Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. Need a supplement on that. supplement on that. Starfleet coming in on secured channel Supplement Yeah, it's extra the interest alone could be enough to buy this ship We have a personal priority one message here. It is from Samuel Clemens. Oh, no And in front of this is it's complete. Please read in crustiest, jerry-hardened voice possible. Don't! It is for Matt Gifford. Message goes like this.

I fear the hosts of this new fangled audio newspaper Have missed the incalculable opportunity to employ my legendary witch. Humanity! Send our money back to this person and not air this? Lost in the vastness of comic frerry! But I feel it essential to inform you that in-between scenes I fucked Deanna Troy! And remember, the only person that can write your story is you. This person is a maniac.

I can't believe that this even got through the filter. There's a little bit of walk-in creep in my Jerry Harton as Samuel Clevver's impression. There's an impression creep all over the place in all of your impressions. We talked about this several times. I hate that impression. There's no unmolisted impression. Like, there's no purity to any impression that I have. I hate that impression so much because it's a bad impression

of a bad impression. Do we have another P1, Ben? I do. It is from Marbles from the Boston Kennel of TGG-H3. It is for the greatest generation HASH-HASH-HOUCE Harriers. It goes like this. This P1 is to announce that we'll be hanging a trail at the greatest GenCon 2017. Details to come, but we can promise, pack and hares in the shiggy, pack and hares on the ice, a trail worth can solve, and all the drunk shimotas, dustbusters shots and no This secret ninja trail at the Boston show, Rage! Horns.

There's a lot here to unpack then. Yeah, I mean, or not. Something is happening at this Boston show. Yeah, the Boston show has sold like it as fast as about any of them. Seems like people are really excited about that one. A lot of hairs in the shiggy for that one Ben. Yeah. Is that like cats in the cradle? I have no idea. Well, one trail that even Wurf could solve is the path to maximumfund.org slash jumbo tron where you yes you can have a priority one message just like this for the low low price of $100

commercial messages or $200 and they're a great way to support the ongoing production of this show thanks guys, guys. I already won, Lizzie. Bandage, find yourself a drunk Shimoda. I'm ready for you. Drunk Shimoda! I did, but I would love to hear yours first. It's super obvious, but it's Picard's temporal narcosis scene. It is so close to Shimoda corner, even.

Yeah. It is so close to Shimoda corner even that one could almost draw a line between the two and make the case that maybe Shimoda corner itself is haunted. It haunted with drunkenness. It's slathered in temporal narcosis. It's narcotic in nature. It's it I'm saying. Maybe it's not drunk Shimoda. Maybe in this in this episode it's high Shimoda. Is that what makes Jordi so weird? He spends a lot of time there. Yeah, he sure does. So that's my Shimoda. No one no one is acting bigger than P. Stew in this scene. Yeah, that was mine.

I didn't I just like I just like... I was gonna like... I was gonna change horse's midstream if you came up with something much more interesting than that, but that's like the obvious drunk Shemota in this episode. So, we've got a daily devil. There are very few active characters in this story because of how it's constructed and what's happening. Like, because everyone's frozen,

you have a very small sample size of Shemotas that it could possibly be. That's true. It's an and what's happening. Like because everyone's frozen, you have a very small sample size of tomatoes that it could possibly be. That's true. It's an interesting way to get out. So I don't feel bad about this selection. Yeah. I mean, maybe we give it honorable mention to Ramielan who shot at the desperate alien mother

who's just there trying to save her children. Yeah, like, this is why. And didn't check his like the like direction he was aiming his weapon for people behind who could potentially get hit. It's why you're not supposed to shoot like towards a crowd. Yeah. Like you got to check what's down range of your weapon. Yeah. check what's down range of your weapon. Yeah. Not great. Darmak and Jalat and Denarga.

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

Let's do it! The Share Your Embarrassment Tour is coming in August 2023, and we've got a bunch of dates in a lot of great places. Go to GreatestGenTour.com to get more info. That's GreatestGenTour.com for dates and ticketing information for the Share Your Embarrassment We're going to show you guys a new video. We're going to show you guys a new video. We're going to show you guys a new video. We're going to show you guys a new video.

We're going to show you guys a new video. We're going to show you guys a new video. We're going to show you guys a new video. But with Judy Greer my friend Molly and I call it having the spaceweirds Pat Noswald Could I get a ballrog burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you and come here on non-giani I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which is impossible to use come get stupider with us at maximumfund.org Look your podcast apps are he open just pull it out give George Jesse go try being smart as hard be dumb instead go try. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Oh, rats. Hey, hey. Oh, I'm about to count you in line. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line. And, boy, what do I? These giraffes do not smell good. No, they do not, and they've such short necks. But I'm hearing me need to get on this

arc. Gotta get on the arc. Yeah. It is about terrain. Gotta spout to destroy humanity. Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans, but we're actually, we're podcasters. We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ono Ross and Carrie? We investigate spirituality,

claims of the paranormal, stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so seem like something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came two by two. What do you think? Ono Ross and Carrie, available on MaximumFun and Outdoor. What do we have coming up on the next episode then?

The next episode is season six, episode 26, Dishinck Part one When the Borgs return to do battle with the Federation They boast a new individuality and tempts data when they help him feel his first emotion Do you remember this episode Adam? I do I do remember this episode and I remember really liking it. Yeah, me too. The Borgs are back in town. Welcome back Borgs.

Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back. Man, there's just so many little songs that we can do about the Borgs. It's a real musical episode. Man, that, that time that I sang my little shower song about Buddy Hussnack, fucking so divisive. It's like 80% of what we heard back was people thought that it was an amusing and then like, oh, they were just 20% of people

that were so fucking mad about it. I hate your joy, Ben. I hate it so much. That's not why I tune into this show. Seriously. Yeah, he's up. It was it was some wild shit. Well, you're a divisive figure on our program, Ben. Yeah, I think we've always known that. Yeah, no kidding. Well, one way that our viewership is not divided in the least is they're interested in talking about our show after the fact, talking about it after Ben, in places like Twitter using the hashtag greatest gen, got a Facebook page, Facebook group, Reddit page,

and a maximum fun Reddit page. Yeah, there's a lot of fun hangs out there for people who are interested in having internet hangs. But also, I'll go. If you've got complaints about Ben's joy, it's probably a good place to take it. Yeah, sure. Or just write an email to go fuck yourself at clownpenas.phart.

I want an email address at clownpenas.phart. I had a friend of mine and I had a scheme where we were going to do a kickstarter to raise the money to register the top level domain.fart and then make it like a public good institution like we would form a like a trust that would administer the.fart domain. The fart trust. Yeah.FartDomain. The fart trust. That's related to the Annanburg Foundation. Right, exactly. We support some public radio shows and stuff.

Get the name out there. Also supported by viewers like you. Yeah. I think it just proved to be way too much work when we looked into it. But it's an idea. It's too much work for not a great joke. Right, a joke that we didn't even originate. Right.

So anyways, we should thank Dark Materia for our theme music and Adam Ruggusio, who makes a lot of other great music for us because he is such a nice guy. And with that, we will be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek the next generation. In an episode of the greatest generation where now Warf's battle tunic is on lore, what? 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. Now it seems the ship over there. Oh no. Haha. Might be on the verge of exploding, Captain. God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture, Artistone Listener Supported