The Greatest Generation - Velcro Check! (ENT S3E5)
Episode Date: June 9, 2025When the Entrepreneur picks up a distress call from a Vulcan ship, a severely under-resourced away team heads over in a shuttlepod. But when T’Pol starts showing paranoid symptoms and her former col...leagues are beyond help, Archer and Tucker barely get their only two shuttlepods back to the NX-01. Who isn’t going commando? Which crew member is like a licorice jellybean? What does this show really love? It’s the episode that’s broadcasting in 3D.Support the production of The Greatest GenerationGet a thing at podshop.biz!Sign up for our mailing list!Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Riker - Quantum LeapThe Greatest Generation is produced by Wynde PriddySocial media is managed by Rob Adler and Bill TilleyMusic by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaFriends of DeSoto for: Labor | Democracy | JusticeDiscuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen and find us on social media:YouTube | Facebook | X | Instagram | TikTok | Mastodon | Bluesky | ThreadsAnd check out these online communities run by FODs: Reddit | USS Hood Discord | Facebook group | Wikia | FriendsOfDeSoto.social
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Here's to the finest crew in Starling.
When it comes to my crew, you won't get any argument from me.
This is a parody.
Paramount owns the sun.
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 Franica.
I'm Ben Harrison.
A way game for you today, Adam.
I know, I am in our nation's capital,
taxation without representation on all the license plates.
Coincidentally, I think you'd love this,
you'd get a kick out of this.
Cop week.
Oh boy.
In Washington, D.C. There's some sort of convention
where hundreds and hundreds of our nation's police officers have descended upon the city.
And brother- Are they lining the hotel hallways with cellophane to keep the blue smudges off
of everything? That's a great call back to our Pittsburgh show where the halls and beds were covered
with cellophane to protect from the spray tanner and the oils used there.
Because what cops do is the uniforms are painted on, right?
You know what?
This could be a stripper cop convention.
Right?
I didn't check the Velcro status of these uniforms.
Go around, grab the fronts of some trousers and pull outward, not down.
Just say, Velcro check.
I can't fuck with you.
Yeah, pulling outward sends a far different message than pulling down.
Pulling pants down is bullying.
This happened to me in middle school.
Sure.
You ever get pantsed in middle school?
Fucking sucks. My beautiful boy, Doron, the other day had a natural pants fall off moment in a way
where like a bunch of parents were watching him like run across the playground as they dropped.
And it was so cute and charming and silly that like nobody could help laughing.
And he's at such a like beautiful innocent stage in his development that there's no embarrassment
yet.
So he just thought it was funny too.
Do you think, and I think you're in a position to answer this question almost expertly.
Do you think embarrassment is nature or nurture?
If it's nurture, that kid is fucked.
I don't know a ton about kids, but what I know about their clothing is that a lot of it is
elastic bands.
Yeah, yeah.
How did Doron's pants fall off given that?
I'm not totally clear on what happened because also the
diaper usually provides like a big hump that that
elastic band would need to get over.
And this kid's got a bit of a thang on him, you know?
His thang is thanging.
He outran the hump.
But it's also enhanced by diapers, so.
So when his pants dropped, he revealed diaper, not baby dong and baby butt, right?
No, yeah.
And he's not going commando.
Hey, he's Doron, not Officer Brone.
I take it you're in charge here.
Team leader Brone, fourth board defense contingent.
I gotta get a pump.
That's it, get it.
Wouldn't the world be different
if the chance of pants falling off
happened to adults more
often?
I think we'd be a little bit more forgiving as a society, you know?
I don't think we give enough credit to the inventor of the belt and suspenders for really
changing the scene out there on these streets.
Yeah, like I had to block a bunch of people on social media the other day because I did
a post that was like, pretty soon it's going to be back to HBO Go and Obama's going to be president again. And all these
people were like, that war criminal? I hope you're happy with wishing for that. And I
was like, I did not wish for anything. I just made a joke about it being 2008 again, about time being a boomerang.
Was this on the social media site that you said was good that I should join?
This sounds bad.
It's one of the rare posts I've had, like, find its way into the gaze of the professional
scold community.
And I blocked a lot of these people, but I also got blocked by one where I was like, hey, maybe consider adopting a lifestyle where you don't go around scolding people whose
joke you didn't understand in the first place.
I think it's clear that this example demonstrates that it's not about the social media site
specifically.
It's about how you tend to your garden there and make it a less shitty place for yourself.
I think that's all it's ever gonna require
for the rest of our lives.
My filters are better for that moment.
Hell yeah.
Hey, you remember when I told you,
back in the early Twitter days,
I had a list of 50 words that just never come through?
Can you do that in these new social media sites?
You can do that.
And you can also, what Blue Sky has is like,
they've got their own moderation thing,
but there's also a second layer,
which is like community created moderation.
So somebody can be like, I made a list of 300 assholes
that you can just click this button
and you'll never hear from them.
Oh, like they kind of sell it as a patch.
Yeah, like I have one installed on mine that is just don't show me screenshots of other social media websites.
And so that never comes across my feed.
Like I never see somebody screenshotting a truth social post and I don't ever have to worry about that coming up.
About that.
Yeah, it's nice.
Sounds like you're thickening up your bubble nicely, as you gotta do.
I've put the Solifane all over my social media to prevent the blue stains from getting on everything.
What about the bronzer? You gotta allow the bronzer through.
I'm keeping the bronzer. The bronzer is, yeah, it's a special like material science kind of solifane
that allows bronze but prevents blue.
Well, I'm fitting in great here.
Oh, yeah.
I have a suitcase full of Untucket shirts and Oakley brand sunglasses.
I'm going from place to place, totally unchecked.
It's wonderful. You're using from place to place, totally unchecked. It's wonderful.
You're using the phrase to wit a lot and, uh, throwing a lot of extra words in as
you, you know, like the suspect would appreciate a martini with a splash of the
olive juice to wit over here right now.
I'm going to be just over on the other end of the bar
adjudicating the menu.
It was determined by the subjects that not sufficient number
of tequila and sodas had been delivered at that time
and therefore felt threatened by the situation.
You can speak to us normally.
Okay. No, thank you, sir.
I got to tell you, Ben, as weird as it can sometimes be
on this trip to D.C., we have so many F.O.D.s out here.
Our very own Windy Pretty lives out here,
got to spend some quality time with her and a few other F.O.D.s.
It's been a really short trip.
The only reason I'm here is my wife booked a business trip
here and then changed jobs.
So the business trip went away and I got kind of stuck
holding the plane tickets.
Like, I don't know.
I don't have many reasons to come to DC.
Why don't I just do it?
Yeah. God, and let me tell you, brother,
negotiating that with a wife, like the maybe I'll go any
wayness of it, fraught.
That was a trip negotiation that somehow worked in my favor.
I'll drink to that, bud.
And I'll drink to zombie falcons as well.
Let's see if they can put some cellophane up on the walls of the ship to prevent the
green smudges this episode.
Absolutely, Ben.
It's Enterprise Season 3, Episode 5.
Its title is Impulse. Very hot, cold open. Got free speech and guitar.
Very hot, cold open.
Yeah.
As T'Pol is being brought to Sixth Bay
in the arms of her captain,
but she'll kill that motherfucker.
This is a real throwback to the ER style procedural
that was so popular for a time,
which I think is having a resurgence now.
Everyone's telling me to watch the pit, Ben.
Everybody says, watch the pit.
I know you've got feelings about people telling you,
you gotta watch things.
And I'm starting to feel a little bit Benjamin R. Harrison-y
about people recommending the pit.
I'm like, I know about the pit.
Who doesn't know about the pit?
Everybody knows about the pit.
We've all seen a bus in the last six months. Like, I'm sure, I know about the pit. Who doesn't know about the pit? Everybody knows about the pit. We've all seen a bus in the last six months.
Like, I'm sure it's great.
And I don't want it to be overhyped.
Like, at this point, if I watch it,
it will inevitably disappoint because, you know,
too many people have recommended it.
Everyone's rooting for Noah Wiley.
Yes.
It's gonna be great.
Everyone loves it.
It's doing fine without us for the moment.
We stan a medical king.
One thing about those shows that you don't often get is the patient trying to kill the
doctors and that is clearly what T'Pol is trying to do with her thrashing and screaming.
She is positively writhing as they attempt to administer a hypo and...
Ben, sometimes the show kind of struggles with T'Pol's writhing.
It's coded as fairly sexual a lot of times.
Would you classify this as sexual writhing that she's doing?
I didn't get a horny note off of it. It felt scary and...
They're learning!
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's... which is, like,
I think that the cat suit that they always put her in
is hard to get around,
but like people go to the ER in cat suits, you know?
Yeah, I mean, you get to Paul laying down in the cat suit,
sweaty and writhing.
I mean, often it goes a certain way on this show.
In this episode
Fairly terrifying up to and including the scream
Let me think of the last time I screamed just as loud as I could like that's probably a roller coaster, right? I just don't get many opportunities to do that and
Kind of a scream queen is what Jolene is.
Yeah, it would almost be worth being in this level
of medical distress to go to the ER
and really let one go, scream wise, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
Really great scream, really effective,
right on into the theme.
And after the theme, we're picking up right where we left off. T'Pol is a little more coherent in her paranoia and her fear and she is seeing Dr. Flax as the
enemy and as someone who's tried to kill her. The hypospray eventually gets into the neck and
calms her down but Flax is describing the damage as being more severe than expected.
And I was just thinking, man, she is lucky that, I mean, they're all lucky
that the solution to whatever is causing the screaming isn't one of Phlox's
frontier medicine leech applications or similar, you know, like if there was a
wriggling beastie also involved in this situation,
what would they have done?
I mean, it's very much not in her head if that's the case.
If he's making with like two lobster style leeches
to attach to her.
How useful is the imaging chamber for a moment like this?
This is effectively a straight jacket.
Yeah.
You know, you put T'Pol onto the table, you chamber her like she's a torpedo and you let
her thrash around in the chamber.
Yeah, she'll calm down in there eventually.
She can't hurt anything in there besides herself.
One day earlier, we have a scene of Tripp and the captain working late at night
on some stuff and they're just kind of like
idly chit chatting as they computer together.
And Trip relates to the captain that he was talking
to the legendary chef of the NX01
about the morale issue that is plaguing the crew.
Like the crew just doesn't seem right to Chef.
Trip thinks that the captain should know about this problem,
and he floats the idea of, like, you know,
we haven't done a movie night since we entered the Expanse.
Archer is initially against this. He's like, no way.
Movies are for closers only.
You know?
You kill some zindies, then you get a movie, basically.
closers only, you know.
You kill some zindies, then you get a movie, basically.
Did you detect what could have been a little bit of the chef being like, huh,
I'm scraping a lot of plates into the trash.
Can't be my cooking. Morale must be low.
It's definitely not me. Chef's the best in Starfleet. I went to the steam tray and
people were taking mac and cheese right out of the middle
and not getting the corner pieces.
Yeah.
Something's wrong, something's up.
I had some real feelings about this scene
because there was a moment in my corporate life
where I made a terrible mistake
and maybe this would be educational
for anyone else out there with an office job.
But morale in my department was extremely low for a time.
And there were all sorts of reasons for this. But when an executive came through, kind of after hours, I was working late one night.
This dude rolls up and shoots the shit.
See how I'm doing.
I made the mistake of telling the truth.
I made the mistake of saying,
yeah, like we're getting stuff done,
things are going fine or anything,
but like morale has been a little low.
It's a little weird around here.
And his reaction was not favorable to this.
Wow.
I made a terrible mistake by saying that.
He was fairly confrontational about it and said that I was naive for believing that to
be the case and that I shouldn't really be concerned about matters like morale when it
is about getting the fucking work done.
And you thought to yourself, it is kind of late.
This is, it's just him and me here.
And you reached out and grabbed the front of his pants
and pulled out and yelled, Velcro check!
Yeah, that was really the problem that sent me to HR
was the Velcro check.
It wasn't the admission of low morale.
Maybe he's planning on turning morale around personally.
Yeah, that was tough.
I learned a valuable lesson that day, Ben.
Yeah.
So, okay, movie night can come back.
We'll watch a comedy.
I was hoping it would be dirty work or something.
You know, when they say a classic comedy, yeah, you want them to work in a Paul Blart
mall cop or, you know, something that would be delightful to find out is considered a classic comedy in the future.
Especially because, just to give a little glimpse
of the end scene of this episode,
there's no pies to the face,
there's no slipping on banana peels in the footage we see.
There doesn't seem to be much comedy
in the film clip that we get at all.
Nary a Yakety Sax.
Yeah.
And this wasn't true at the time,
but Rebecca Romaine is canonical Star Trek.
She's in dirty work.
Yeah.
Yeah.
As the bearded lady.
I'll be in my trailer, honey.
If you want it, come and get it.
Enter non-maniac to Paul,
who finds out that they've been doing some work that she is also a party to.
It's a group project. They've been working on it without her, and she is very annoyed about this.
I would have helped you do that.
Archer splits and Trip again tries to trick T'Pol into having to come to movie night.
Did this feel conspicuous to you?
The way that, like, when a group of people have an understanding that there may be a
crush between folks in the group, there's a lot of, like, let's leave them alone.
Let's not interfere in whatever this is.
There's a moment where Archer's doing some work and then for no reason at all
leaves the work to go be on the other side of the room.
I don't feel like the writers' room have made their minds up
about which of the male leads of this cast
they want to have a crush on to Paul
and which they want to write toward with that yet.
Like, it seems to bounce around a little bit.
But yeah, like, Archer leaves in a way of like,
okay, well, I'll be organizing my sock drawer. You two kids have fun.
Jared Sussman They get just a moment together alone before Hoshi blows in a call. Hey,
we're picking up Vulcan distress out there. And on the bridge, they're able to recognize the ship
that sent the call. This is a Vulcan ship that had gone into the expanse
nine months ago.
And that is a lot of time to turn inside out in my mind.
It is.
If we change the words, then it's fair use all day long.
We get an establishing shot of this asteroid field
that is fucked up.
It is so kinetic. The rocks are banging into each other.
It seems really fucking dangerous.
And then we cut to a very unusual for Star Trek,
like very far away, top-down shot of the ship approaching this asteroid field.
Yeah, it looks like that war table that you see in movies
sometimes where the ships are in the ocean
and you're moving them around with crap sticks.
The shuffleboard wand, yeah.
Yeah, I love that shot quite a bit.
The reason they've pulled up on this asteroid field
is the Vulcan ship with the distressed call is inside.
And wouldn't you know it, kind of a fortunate situation.
All of these little asteroids are full of the Trillium
or that they could use to make their insulation.
Yeah.
So they got to wake up Mr. Reed to get a shuttle trip
together so that they can go in there because too dangerous
to bring the entire ship into this field.
And damn, this is fucking stressful.
Like it is like multiple people actively working
on navigating as all of these rocks fly around them.
Like if you've ever rented a car
in the Midwest during storm season,
like this is the terrible feeling of the hail
starting to come down on your rental car.
Like this shuttle will never be the same after this mission.
And you know, T'Pol offering to drive is not helping, okay?
Maybe on the way back.
We're both on the rental agreement, all right?
T'Pol, I happen to draw the short straw
being in the seat.
We're not pulling over right now.
You've got to believe that if you ever rented a car
with a Vulcan and they were the driver,
it is speed limit in the left lane the entire time,
absolute madness in attention to all driving rules
and regulations.
Ten and two, yeah, like letter, not spirit of law,
in all ways.
They've never heard of making up time on the road.
That's just not gonna happen.
I was driving in New Jersey recently,
and I don't know if this is a change
with the New Jersey turnpike,
because I remember it used to be that occasionally
I would drive to New Jersey from New York
and miss one little thing on the GPS,
and I'd be on the express side of the turnpike
and you could get fucked for like 10 miles.
You know, you'd go, you'd be like,
there's no way to get out of this
and I am so far past where I was trying to get off.
But what they have seemed to have done
is made it a truck side and a car side now.
And I got on the truck side.
There's trucks plus cars. There's like a little
like parenthetical plus cars. I barely used a sip of gas all the way to
Pennsylvania because I was just like drafting behind huge big rigs the entire
time. It was amazing. Like it was like one of those rental cars where they're like
return it as close to empty as possible and I was like I got a day of driving. I
don't want to put anything in this tank.
I don't have to.
Sure, sure.
Fucking amazing.
It's weird to find yourself in the wrong place
and trapped there in a car.
Like there have been times I've accidentally
driven into like the metro station part
of an airport rental car return.
Like that fucking sucks so bad.
It's so embarrassing to be a car where the buses are.
Yeah, and the guy in the yellow vest is like, what are you doing?
And you're like, ah, it's confusing.
I've never been here.
There's no reversing out of that situation.
The only way out is through.
Yeah, severe tire damage of your reverse.
That's sort of a metaphor for the whole expanse, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So Archer is asking to Paul what she knows about the Salaia,
the Vulcan ship that they are on the trail of.
And she's like, actually used to work there.
Captain Vorus, best boss I ever had.
Present company excluded.
I don't know what I make of this moment.
Are you ever irritated by,
it's not an intentional withholding of information,
but like you're working on a thing.
And like, T'Pol could just say
that she knows all about this ship
because she used to work on it,
and she knows all the crew,
and like she has experiences and so forth.
Like she could have offered that
before they got on the shuttle.
Yes.
Like, and it could have helped them prepare
for what they're about to do.
And instead you have to ask her?
And then all of a sudden this volume of backstory comes out.
No one reacts in that way that's a little bit pissed about like needing to extract the
information rather than it being given.
Right.
This feels like real Ambassador Saval shit.
You didn't ask.
Yeah. Yeah. feels like real Ambassador Saval shit. You didn't ask, yeah.
Yeah.
Which I guess maybe is like them writing
the Vulcans with a consistency,
like you didn't ask and therefore
we didn't offer the information.
Yeah, I get that.
But like I would have loved Reed going like,
wait, so this ship is why the other ship
with the Event Horizon Vulcans went into the expanse
in the first place and you never thought
to tell us about that?
You mean I don't have to share every thought I've ever had with an ex?
I should wait until my exes ask and then write them the weird letter? Meanwhile, aboard the entrepreneur, Trip and Travis are working on beaming rocks aboard
because of this ore that they might be able to get out of the asteroid field.
I like Trip and Travis as a work couple on this show.
I think they're a good match.
I don't like Trip and Reed. I don't like Trip and Read.
I don't like Read and Anyone, I think.
But I like these two together, they're fun.
You're like, why did they include the liquorice jelly bean?
It messes up every combination of jelly beans.
Yeah, precisely.
And it helps that I think that this project
is kind of silly too.
Like the beaming of asteroids onto the transporter pad
and like the cataloging and studying of them
in order to figure out, you know,
which ones are going to be most dense with ore.
Yeah, but this ore is fucked up
and it kind of throws off the transporter
and we get a, like a encrustification
of the interior of the transporter
when they attempt to beam a slightly larger rock aboard
and it just kind of like splits into pieces
and goes everywhere.
I didn't quite get the significance of this moment
until later, like removing the transporter as a device,
as an option for anything to come,
I think was very smart here.
And it was subtle, it didn't feel like foreshadowing at all.
Yeah.
But Mayweather is like, oh man, bummer, maybe we should go land on one of the big rocks and
do the mining ourselves.
I feel like whenever Tripp is involved, I'm feeling a silliness that maybe
isn't baked into the scene. Like, if I were working this shit job, I'd be like, oh, transporter's broken.
You want to hit the mess hall, Travis?
Why don't we take five and think about
what's going to happen next?
Yeah.
We finally catch up with the Salaia.
It is not in great shape.
A lot of the skin of the ship has been knocked away
by asteroid impacts and the skeleton
is exposed, but they get multiple biosigns aboard and they try hailing.
Nobody picks up the phone over there.
So it's decided that they're going to dock with the remaining workable docking ring that
the Soleil has and go board.
And onboard the ship, they find a condition
that is a very unvulcan ship-like.
There's a bunch of crud all around,
there's fallen girders, the lights are flickering.
I just felt like having your docking port
be a hole in the floor seemed also unvulcan-like.
Like that's not logical. Because ramp is far easier to navigate than ladder under any circumstance.
Generally speaking, ramp is easier. Yeah. Hey, here's a question about production.
Are sparks dangerous in this context? To actors?
Because why aren't they used more? They look amazing.
They look great.
Especially in this interior ship scene.
This is a Livingston, this episode,
and this is so atmospheric.
I'm like, this guy has been directing Star Trek
from the TNG era, and I feel like has so much range
in terms of directorial style.
This is like a great haunted house episode
with some really spooky effects.
And just like the atmosphere and the vibes
and the shot compositions are so unique and different
and like unconventional for Star Trek in so many ways.
And it's amazing that that such a Star Trek veteran
is behind some of these choices.
It's not like they brought in an outside director
with a lot of horror credits to do this.
Yeah, Livingston's got all the gears.
Like he's got every tool in the kit.
It's really working here this episode.
No, they're not gonna sue.
They got no case.
Cause parody indemnifies. They find an area where the Vulcans were trying to smear this ore on a door and make a shelter
for themselves.
But-
Is this an ore door?
It's an ore door.
And if that went into a undesirable neighborhood in Middle Earth,
you would call that a Mordor-Or-Dor.
Absolutely.
But the biosigns that they're picking up are not in there in the partially insulated part of the ship.
They're somewhere else.
It means that they did not succeed in protecting themselves from the Trelium.
With the Trelium, I should say. It isn't long before T'Pol opens a door and reveals a couple of hard pipe
hitting Vulcans.
God damn it.
And they've got to start shooting.
I had hard pipe hitting Vulcans in my notes too.
I just, I just for the record.
You don't bring a pipe to a phaser fight is what you learn real fast here.
And a bunch
of shots are licked.
It is really kinetic and scary and intense.
And when they've got these Vulcans stunned, they start scanning bodies and they're like
looking at the synaptic pathways going like, woof, that's not going to bang out and be
repairable with
Bondo. That is bad news.
What begins here continues for the rest of their time on the ship. The hard pipe hitting
Vulcans are a horde, a swarm even, and they just keep coming.
There are so many extras in this episode. It is, like, one of the most low-key impressive things
about this episode is how many extras they paid.
Like...
Yeah.
Because, you know, they talk about, eventually,
like, the size of the crew that they are potentially up against.
There's a lot of guys on this ship.
For there being so many guys on the ship,
there's a moment where it's clear that Reed hasn't run into anyone.
And, like, Archer blows in a call to him, and he's like, guys on the ship, there's a moment where it's clear that Reed hasn't run into anyone. Yeah.
And like Archer blows in a call to him and he's like,
Nope, I haven't seen any-
Oh!
Like the moment he's asked the question, the Vulcans appear and they have to shoot them.
You would hope that Reed and Omako receiving the news that keep your head on a swivel,
there are hostiles afoot, would be sufficient warning for them
to not get surprised by the hostiles showing up, but it is not.
This has got a real, could you defeat a hundred duck-sized horses kind of problem here, because
there are so many Vulcans and so many pipes and it's just Reed and the Mako shooting, it eventually devolves into close combat.
And there's some close range smashing and choking
and shooting, and eventually they get the upper hand
before the Dust Butcher Club is reunited.
But it feels like a dozen or more Vulcans have been
fought off at this point, and Archer has to come rescue Reed against the last one.
And the Mako guy is like low key,
like turning the knob on his gun to plus it up
to the kill setting.
And T'Pol is like, what are you doing?
We are on a rescue mission.
The Mako guy is like, cause I want to live.
You know, I'm sure that this probably isn't a popular idea in the hotel you're staying
in right now, but this is why you don't send police on a mental health call.
Like you get your city to fund the special van with a social worker and a mental health
professional and an EMT so that the worst guy in your high school isn't the one trying
to negotiate
somebody's mental health crisis.
Ben, I think you've misunderstood the scene
because the shuttle pod is the van.
Everyone in Starfleet is that.
Yeah, except for this Mako.
It didn't work.
Yeah.
It didn't work and that's why they're shooting.
And this entire scene turns the episode into that arcade game
with the air guns, like House of the Dead style.
It really feels House of the Dead from here on.
Yeah.
They're trying to get back to their shuttle now,
and they meet a slightly less crazed pair of Vulcans
that are over there trying to get into the shuttle
and Archer's like, finally, some people that aren't
immediately trying to attack us.
Perfect diplomacy opportunity for me, Captain Archer,
noted diplomat.
Doesn't it feel crazy that it's more threatening
to get these Vulcans standing completely still
in front of the exit to the ship here.
Like, oh, it makes my skin crawl.
They smash the button that closes the bulkhead
and locks the away team out of the airlock.
And oh boy, a ton more Vulcans start swarming them.
And they've got to retreat up a hatch.
There's a like Archer as Lex in Jurassic Park
almost getting dragged back down.
I really like that there's so many moments of retreat here.
It's not just them going forward,
figuring out a way to continue.
Like they're having to sawtooth their way
to their objective in a way that feels real.
And this set is so cool.
The fact that there are like different levels to it
and stuff, like, I mean, I know that they're probably
just crawling up into a crawl space
that's full of two by fours or whatever.
But like, there are so many times where they're coming up
through the floor or going up through the ceiling
or coming down out of the ceiling in this episode. It's a really great set.
It felt to me a lot like the terraforming station in Aliens. There's a lot of hatches
and crawling and escaping. Yeah, I thought this was just really effectively done.
Except for the Vulcans mostly don't come at night. They mostly come all the time.
Yeah. Yeah.
Mostly.
So I'm coming day and night.
I mean, it's terrific, right?
Yeah, they gotta get up seven decks
to get communications back by going to the bridge.
And they're like, shit, like there's over 147 Vulcans
onboard this thing.
So this is pretty scary.
How much ammo do you got?
Yeah, and the Mako got injured by one of the attacks.
So they decided to go to Six Bay first,
which is a mere two decks up.
And they start heading that way,
but it starts to become clear that T'Pol is not just angry
that that Mako set his gun to kill for a minute.
She's like being influenced by whatever has turned these Vulcans into violent
zombies.
Do you think one of the problems with what
happened here is that they underestimated the issue on the Vulcan ship?
Because they don't seem to be resourced correctly.
I mean, clearly they're not resourced correctly
for the problem at hand.
Like why not bring more Makos?
Why not bring the single Mako they've got,
but outfit him with all of the kit, like grenades and shit.
Like mechanized armor and a shoulder mounted
Gatling gun and stuff.
I think this is just a lack of imagination
on what the expanse can do to people
because I think up until now,
it's just like turning you inside out is the problem.
And I don't think anyone has even come close to imagining
that it could drive you crazy,
even though they saw video evidence of this.
Yeah, I think that the question
of whether the crazy is permanent is still open.
And so like, if like, it could be awesome for them
if they can help these Vulcans come back
and then they can have like an ally ship in there
with them potentially.
If you saw a video of Vulcans tearing each other's eyeballs
out as like the last known video transmission
from inside the expanse.
And then you have an opportunity to board
a different Vulcan ship inside the expanse.
That at least has to be discussed, right?
Right.
We should bring a lot of ways to stun, you know?
Like let's bring goggles.
Yeah.
So we cut over to the B story where Mayweather and Tripp
have taken the other shuttle pod out to land on one of the big asteroids.
There's some discussion of whether this landing is going to go okay.
It does not.
This is like one of those commercial airplane landings that like hits the bump stops on
the shock.
Like, okay, any landing you can walk away from.
Yeah. Hope you won't write that landing up in your log.
Are you kidding?
I'm gonna recommend they give you a medal.
Always awkward when you've had a little interaction with the pilot on the way onto the plane and
then you see them again on the way off and you're like, ugh.
You gotta always thank the pilot on the way out.
Yeah, yeah.
You got to.
I mean, let's just be honest.
Everybody at Starfleet Academy thought
it was a little bit weird when Travis Mayweather said
he didn't really need to learn how to land shuttles.
Do you think there's a no tipping policy for pilots?
Oh.
Like I know coming into Washington DC,
we orbited for like 20 minutes, weather was really bad.
And when we finally got down,
like people have feelings about DCA
since the accident that happened here a while back.
And he got us in, it was a good landing.
Wouldn't it feel nice to just give that guy a 20?
And would they accept it if you were to hand your pilot a tip?
Yeah, I mean, if we're talking about an A350
or a 6.7 or, like this is the captain
stands to make a pretty good chunk of change here.
I mean, famously flight attendants don't get paid
when the plane is on the ground.
They're all working for free.
I think tipping them is probably a great idea
if they're allowed to accept them.
It seems nice.
I mean, like the least you can do is, not taking stuff off the cart as they're pushing
it through.
Like, they can hand it to you, you know?
Be a fucking human being to the flight attendants.
Yeah.
Legally, it's just a fart joke.
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Actor Samantha Sloyan has played a lot of characters.
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Join me, Jordan Cruciola, for that and more on the latest feeling scene from MaximumFun.org.
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You will never take the greatest shit alive. Ben would rather die.
Rather die.
They make it to Six Bay, even that is crazy.
They got to stun a guy in there,
but they do some first aid on the Mako
and T'Pol does a little bit of science
on maybe the doctor who they stunned in there.
Not the doctor, he's the chief engineer.
She knew this guy.
Yeah, her version of getting through to him
is very Untepal-like with the volume of her voice.
Yeah.
Tell me what happened.
Tell me!
Desperation starts to seep through
as she attempts to get him to explain
what the fuck is going on, what happened to them.
And man, I thought Jolene Blaylock ate and left
no crumbs in this scene.
Like she, this is the moment where I think she goes
from being entirely in control to somewhat not in control.
And the way she shades that in over the course of the scene is so good.
I think there's something very familiar
about the idea of a person confronting a possible future.
Like anyone who has an aging relative
that's suffering from an ailment
that could be passed down to you
has felt this way a time or two.
Like part of my discomfort about folks with Alzheimer's
or dementia or whatever is that like that shit runs
in my family and the prospect of it is terrifying to me.
So like, there's this moment in the scene
where it's a version of that that will happen
to DePaul today.
Like that's what she's looking at.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
So the decision is made.
We got to get the fuck out of here.
And we need T'Pol to hold it together long enough
to describe to us how to get through this ship.
Do you feel like she's holding it together, Ben?
It's touch and go.
So they start Jeffreys tubing it back to engineering where they will maybe be able to get the like,
I guess get back to the shuttle via engineering or something like that.
Hey, Ben.
Yeah.
If you're Jeffreys tubing it, does that mean you're in a Jeffreys tube jacking off on a
video call?
Yeah.
Yeah, you're showing off your Jeffreys tube call. Yeah. Yeah, you're showing off your Jefferies tube steak.
Yeah.
What?
I didn't know it was still on.
Yeah.
Whenever we record these shows, I just have the one tab open.
Oh yeah?
I don't want to make that kind of mistake.
Yeah. I guess I probably to make that kind of mistake.
Yeah. I guess I probably should close my notes. That's a good note.
That's a good note by you. So yeah,
they make it to a hallway that looks a bit like a narrow street in Paris after a
riot. A lot of burned out obstructions in there.
That is so specific.
The Mako is like, I think maybe just trying to calm
to Paul down a little bit and he's like,
hey, I'm really sorry about that whole setting my phaser
to kill thing earlier. That was my bad.
Like, you're right. This is a rescue mission.
I didn't really think that through.
It's a hell of a way to translate,
I'm sorry I tried to kill all of your friends and coworkers in the last scene.
Good job by this make-up guy.
He's like, yeah, like it's just weird to me that these guys are also ragey.
I thought Vulcans didn't have that.
And she's like, no, we just suppress it.
A common misconception.
These guys have reverted to the murderous and violent Vulcan past that that's why their
brows have grown so so heavy.
They're basically Cro-Mag Vulcans.
Yeah.
What did you make of the cutting back and forth here?
Because like we get this scene, we get Archer and Reed going on kicking more and more Vulcan
ass as they go further into the ship.
I was like a little unclear on like,
did they get split up or like, are they too teaming it?
Cause it seems like so much of the fighting
is falling to Archer and Reed where like,
they've got a guy whose job is fighting
and he's just having a chat.
The division of this labor I thought was interesting
in that way.
I mean, it definitely feels like a military operation
where like they're meant to clear the room
for the others to come into,
but it feels like the Mako
should be one of the room clearers, no?
Is he still pretty hurt or did he get patched up?
I think that's the idea.
I think this is insane,
but I think a fully healthy Reed might be more of an asset
than an injured Mako in a situation like this.
Certainly seems that way.
It's a lot less bloodlusty when we cut over to Mayweather and Tripp Tucker.
I felt a little jostled by the cutting back and forth here.
Just two dudes doing manual labor, wiping the sweat off their brow, shooting the breeze
while they're digging up these rocks for mining.
Uh-oh, anomalous banger gets dropped
and a Hoshi blows in a call like right after it happens.
This is like an earthquake in LA
and then your parents call like after it hits the news.
Like, did you feel that?
Yeah, yeah.
Oh yeah, you clearly have CNN on.
When do you not?
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Unfortunately, this banger has kicked the asteroid
they're on on a different course
and it's heading for a more dangerous place,
a collision course with a much larger asteroid.
And so they run back to the shuttle pod
and they do one of those like emergency short runway
takeoffs before they get splattered
by this oncoming giant asteroid.
And sparks are flying, thrusters are going down,
and they just have just enough power to make it home.
It was such an interesting moment in the episode
because up until this point,
every time we cut to the B story,
I was like, this is one of those Star Trek episodes
that has like a 10 out of 10 intense A story
and a totally sleepy B story.
And suddenly the B story feels so desperate and crazy.
Drip is yelling into the radio that they're going to be making a bumpy landing back in
the docking bay and it's like, all right, it's on man.
You mentioned it earlier, like how great this scene of asteroid kinetic energy is just in
the wide shot. But when these two asteroids collide and explode,
I wonder if you're an effects person,
if two rocks smashing together is more difficult
to create than a ship explosion.
I mean, you get both of those things in this episode
and both of those things look fucking amazing.
Like as good as the show has ever done.
Yeah, I mean, I wonder if that's just something
that can be simulated in the physics engine of the CG program.
Like, you can just, like, drag and drop a rock explode effect
onto something that you've done.
Or if it has to be done a little bit more by hand than that.
I don't know.
I really wonder. Great work.
Whatever the case.
It looks good. So, Archer and the gang make it to this control room
and they're trying to access a transceiver
to, I guess, radio back to the entrepreneur.
Transceiver's damaged and T'Pol is really starting
to lose her grip on coherency,
but there's a backup transmitter,
and maybe they can use that.
And we cut back to Trip,
who's working on fixing up the shuttle.
Like, we're in the shuttle bay,
and the shuttle is fucked up when we cut to it.
And Trip is there, assessing the damage with Mayweather
when Archer's radio for help comes through.
It's great timing episode-wise because Archer's like, I need a rescue ASAP and
Trip is like, ehh. We actually took the other shuttle pod out to do a little bit
of mining and did not go great for the shuttle. Was it always ever understood
that there are two operational shuttle pods on
Enterprise?
Cause I have to admit I was a little surprised that this was the only one
available for a possible pickup.
It changes the math on missions going forward in my mind.
Like why would you ever send two out on two different missions,
especially when you've lost contact with your captain, you know,
over on that other ship.
Yeah.
And why do they have so many shuttle pod doors, but only two shuttle pods?
They are going to have to replace the doors on all of these shuttles when they return.
Archer's also going to send the bioscans of this Vulcan that they scanned in Six-Bay for flocks to
take a look at, see if flocks can come up with anything to help all these guys.
I like how they have this conversation in front of T'Pol. It feels like it's done with
some intentionality to try to make her feel better. Like, yes, the top line goal is to
flee the ship and get off.
T'Pol is falling apart.
She knows she's falling apart.
She's fearful about what that means for her.
But like in having this conversation,
we're like trying to give her a little comfort that like,
yes, also we're trying to figure out your deal too.
Yeah.
It's good faith to believe I can do parity. There's a scene where they're trying to get this other computer system working,
and Reed really pulls up Ben Harrison here where Tapal is like,
you got all those computer chips in the right order over on your side?
And he's like, yeah, absolutely.
Definitely sure that that is what's going on here.
And she like pushes the button
and a arc of war flightening rockets her across the room.
And she was like, really Reed?
You couldn't double check the fucking math on that?
It's funny you would assign yourself to the Reed figure
in this situation because I thought you were more of a T'Pol here,
given, like, what you turn into when having a conversation
with a customer service professional.
Like...
It's pointless.
It is very upsetting when they're unable to help
in certain situations.
And I thought maybe you were more of a T'Pol.
I think I'm the Reed of this scenario.
I think you contain Miriam. I... Boy, if I have T'Pol. I think I'm the Reed of this scenario. I think you contain Miriam.
I, boy, if I have T'Pol and Reed in me, I'm in trouble.
It seems like this accelerates T'Pol's symptoms though,
right, like getting shocked.
I don't think really, this is like when Bruce Banner
gets slapped in the face and turns into the Hulk.
Like that's what happens to T'Pol here.
She puts this all on Reed.
She thinks he did it on purpose.
And this has all been a conspiracy to fuck with her,
you know, from the moment that Mako set his weapon to kill.
And now she thinks Archer and Tripp were, like,
undermining her work on, like, the schedule or whatever
they were working on late night when she walked in
in that earlier scene. She is raging and now everybody's guns are out and T'Pol's is the
only one that's set to kill. Hypocrite much T'Pol?
Yeah, as a negotiator, Archer should not point that out. I've never really thought about it this way until I saw this scene. How much
worse paranoid is than mad? If you're confronted by a person who's going through some things.
Paranoid seems so much more dangerous than mad. Mad can be reasoned with, paranoia really
can't be.
No, no, it sucks. And it's like, yeah, like the moment you try to advocate against the idea that
the paranoid person has in their head, they are liable to throw you in with the thing
they're concerned about.
And then you're even further from helping them.
This is why like the first page of negotiating with a person in crisis is always like, if
I hear you correctly and then you repeat whatever
is, whatever fucking crazy thing they just told you,
you try to soften that up into something actionable,
and then you pitch it right back at them.
They hear their own words paraphrased back,
and they're like, this guy.
Are you making fun of me?
Are you trying to pull my pants down?
Yeah.
Archer tries to argue the logic with DePaul and it's not going well,
but a knock on the door lets him get the drop on her and get that set to kill
Phaser out of her hand. What it turns out is that the Trelium, we hear from from flocks, the trellium is a neurotoxin for
Vulcans and that is why they're all going bonko and the damage for these
Vulcans aboard the Solea is irreversible. It's been too long what they've been
exposed. Who could have predicted huffing insulation would have consequences for folks who were
near it?
And Archer's like, oh man, T'Pol, bad news.
All of these people that you're so dead set on saving, irreversible harm has been done
to their cerebrums and that does not calm her down.
Yeah, being told they're fucking dead anyway is not a comfort to T'Pol.
No. So at this point, the Vulcans shut down comms and start pumping poison gas into the room.
And yet are also banging on the doors, which is like, you know, like, what the gas do its work,
Vulcans. You don't need to bang down the door if the gas is coming in. Did you get a sense that there were Lenny zombie Vulcans
and also, who's the other guy?
George?
George zombie Vulcans involved?
Yeah, there are zombie Vulcans
that have a glove full of lotion on one hand.
Because like some seem to be the banging type,
others seem to be the hitting buttons
and switches kind of intelligence.
And I don't think one could do the other in my mind.
Yeah.
But they're working together.
Yeah, they are.
Yeah.
And that's dangerous.
They escape and Archer suggests that Reed overload the engines of the ship so that they can escape.
And T'Pol is like really, really mad at them, but like there's a moment where they're like,
you got to come with us. And she's like, all right, I will not stay on the ship. That's been
set to self-destruct. It's ask, gas, or evacuate for T'Pol here.
And the gas kind of helps her make her decision, right?
Yeah.
It's, I mean, like an indicator that she is not all gone
at this point.
So they get back to the shuttle and we see like an exterior
that the, they're like little explosions starting to erupt in the skin of this ship.
How great is the shot?
So cool.
Yeah.
At this point, Archer is like physically carrying a writhing and fighting to Paul.
But eventually she stops fighting him and they get to this spot where they're like
across a chasm in the ship from the entrance
to the docking ring and they have to make a balance beam
to get across it.
I love this.
As these Vulcans are like swarming in.
How narrow do you perceive this beam to be?
It is like, it's a smaller width than a shoe,
it looks like.
It's flat, fortunately.
Yeah, yeah. Carrying a writhing person across this is the scary thing about it, for sure.
Archer is an over-the-shoulder science officer holder, trying to maintain balance while crossing
this thing. I thought he was going over. I thought he would have to throw her to the other side and
then do that thing where he's hanging by both arms.
I love the moment when he decides to just shoot her.
Yeah.
Touch me and I'll kill you.
It's like, I mean, like at this point,
what the fuck else choice do you have?
You have to stun her and just attempt it, you know?
So Reed and the Mako are holding off the oncoming horde
while Archer and T'Pol make it across.
And then the Mako goes next, and then Reed is the last one across.
And Archer and the Mako wedge open the door to the airlock
with some metal shards.
They got to do that thing where they wiggle underneath
and make it to the other side.
It's one of many, many scenes in this episode
where it felt like Reed was the last one out of a room
that was really dangerous to be in,
which, you know, say what you want about Reed.
I thought he had a good episode, heroism-wise.
I think it kind of pays off his totally insane thoughts
a few episodes ago about, like,
I should really be lead in security matches. his totally insane thoughts a few episodes ago about like,
I should really be lead in security matches over the Mako.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like he gets to be that here.
So they can't release the docking clamps
once they get aboard the shuttle.
I don't know why this matters sometimes
and doesn't matter other times,
but this time it really matters
that they can't release the docking clamps.
We get a different version of this though.
They don't just rip themselves off
the way we've seen portrayed before.
No, Shuttle Pod 2 comes and cuts it away with a phaser.
This is fun.
We cut to the wide shot on the Solea RSVP, that ship.
And we get back to the entrepreneur trip. and now I guess we're kind of like post
the scene where Archer delivered to T'Pol to Sixth Bay and Tripp is like yeah so like
we got enough of the trellium that we're going to be able to make a little bit of expanse
armor for the hull.
We learned that T'Pol is healing and she's gonna be fine,
but she's got a couple days before she's gonna be entirely
in control of her emotions again.
And Archer goes in to give this news to her.
She's like very upset about the death
of all of these Vulcans.
And Archer's like, you know, like there wasn't anything
that anyone
could have done for them. And Flocks gets in there and tries to, tries to reassure her
that this was like the humane choice. And she's like, humane, if you could only hear
yourself.
Why the very name is racist.
It's in this moment that T'Pol's like, you know, it would also be humane dropping me
off on the nearest M class because it's clear I can't live and work on a ship
that's covered in trellium insulation.
And Archer's like, no, I can't do that.
I got to keep you here and potentially turn you crazy.
That's going to be my decision.
This is the moment when we find out that they do not have hospital gowns on Enterprise because
DePaul gets up and reveals full naked back.
This show loves her back.
It really does.
I mean, we stand her back.
He's not leaving her behind.
They're going to figure this out.
We cut to movie night, which is not exactly a laugh riot, as we mentioned before.
I mean, maybe if we could fucking hear the dialogue.
Jesus Christ, shut the fuck up, Dr. Flux.
You know, he's from a different culture.
He just doesn't understand.
To Paul doing hero work in this scene,
trying to get him to be quiet.
I had the thought, is she so willing to confront Flux
and trip in this scene because she's still afflicted
by the Vulcan virus that has her emotions kind of spiky?
Or is this just a good person
enforcing good movie theater etiquette?
It's impossible to say
because we don't know how much time has elapsed,
but we do get some indication
when a tactical alert triggers a full rubber
sole PTSD flashback for T'Pol and she is suddenly back on the Soleil and things are fucked
up and shit and we get a really awesome double jump scare wake up back in Six Bay.
Did you think she was back on the Salaia? I thought this waking nightmare was that Enterprise
had been infiltrated by the hard pipe hitting Vulcans.
I guess I interpreted it as Salaia just because of the lighting and the way they like smoked
up the hallways, but maybe it was the Enterprise.
It's got to be fun if you are Livingston to be like,
all right, get the weird lenses.
Yeah.
Time to get nightmarish.
Yeah, we're throwing those anamorphics on
and we're warping them around.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. That's definitely what it looks like.
Finally, T'Pol wakes up and it's clear that this is a recovery
that's gonna take longer
than we were told.
And the note that the episode ends on, quite spooky.
Did you like this episode, Adam?
I can't pay.
Could be late.
Got no case.
Tempting fate.
Absolute tour de force shit for Jolene Blaylock, I thought.
Really special episode for her.
And I think as a character, what I'm starting to realize is just how much more of a sacrifice
this mission is for T'Pol than anyone else on the crew.
Like she is made to endure the worst of the expanse because of her vulcan-ness. And when she very realistically and politely asks,
maybe she should get off this bus,
to be told no, under no circumstances,
will she be permitted to leave?
Like, I don't like the feeling of being trapped there
that she is ordered to experience going forward.
And I don't think she'll ever express that,
why does all this fucked up shit keep happening to me?
Right.
It seems like it will keep happening to her.
And that's just gonna be the price that she pays
for quitting the Vulcan military apparatus
and joining the crew of her own volition.
And like, this is all by choice that she's enduring this.
It's really upping her stock as a character to me.
It may just be that Mission Impossible
has been on my mind lately
as the new Mission Impossible movie is on its way.
And I've been like dabbling and rewatching
some of the later Macquarie Mission Impossibles
to remind myself of where the story is at to get ready.
But like one character note about Ethan Hunt is that, you know, he's like,
like a huge overarching theme across these movies is that like he won't sacrifice
anyone on his team for the greater good or the greater good.
Like he always saves
both. There's no needs of the many math in Mission Impossible as far as Ethan Hunt is
concerned because of that. But he's also not forcing his friends, colleagues and loved
ones into essentially prisons of being friends and colleagues and loved ones of his by doing
that. Like, and when that happens because of external forces that he can't control,
he regrets it in a way that Archer does not seem to.
Like, when T'Pol offers to be, like, let off the ship
and left on the next inhabitable planet,
it is, like, for her sanity and also for the safety of the ship
that she's offering to do that. And Archer saying, no fucking way.
But I won't leave anyone behind.
Not if I can help it.
Has some Ethan Hunt in it, except for essentially he's saying like, I'm imprisoning you here
aboard the ship on the hope that we can find a solution to this impossible mission, you
know?
Hearing you describe this makes me realize this was a hard Archer episode.
Yeah.
Like you remember that scene where,
where like Archer's back is turned to the camera
and he is clearly braining a zombie Vulcan
with like a rock and we don't get to see it.
Like he's up to some stuff.
Yeah. He got angry.
Yeah.
The trouble is I do like it when Archer's angry on this show.
It's working for me.
Well, do you want to see if there's anything in the P1 inbox that's working for you, Adam?
Nothing ever makes me angry in there.
Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secure Channel.
Need a supplemental income.
Supplemental income.
Supplemental. Supplemental income?
Supplemental.
Supplemental.
Yeah, it's extra.
By the interest alone, could be enough to buy this ship.
Ben, we got a promotional priority one message here.
Here's how that goes.
I've been a D&D DM for nearly 20 years and a Star Trek fan even longer.
Yet somehow, never thought to try the Star Trek TTRPG.
For shame, Zach.
I'm fixing that by starting a Star Trek Adventures group
and I need a crew.
All right.
If you're in the Salt Lake City, Utah area,
have Sunday afternoons free and wanna make new FOD friends
while boldly going where no one has gone before, this is for you.
Come join a Starfleet vessel on a mission
to follow ancient proto-Vulcan artifacts
to an intergalactic secret.
Whoa!
So check this out, this is like a call to FODs
to DM Zach Breger, a scary man
in the Drunk Shimoda Discord,
if you're interested.
So I like how this is like, you have to join the Discord
to get to Zach Breger.
This isn't like a broadcast to the entire audience.
He's not giving his phone number out in a way.
Like if you're in the Discord, you have access
to Zach Breger, a scary man, and then maybe you'll be
recruited into this fun D&D game that
he's setting up. I'm psyched about this. We've met Zack Brager and Zack
Brager famously sent in peanut butter booze to us with a scary man on the
label. I still drink that that scary booze from time to time. Yeah. It's great.
It can provide a great deal of pleasure. I can't wait for an update about this game.
I hope this goes great for Zack Breger.
If there's a Zack Breger type in LA that is running a Star Trek Adventures group, I'd
consider that.
Yeah.
I don't know what it's all about.
We just got the books in a recent Code 47, so we could...
Hey, how about we bring the books, you bring the booze.
We'll see what happens. Yeah. So we could, uh... Hey, how about we bring the books, you bring the booze?
We'll see what happens.
Yeah, something we should give some strong consideration to.
Yeah.
Snxp1 from They Who Are Your Person, Grove.
It's two, he who is my person, Chris.
Goes like this.
Chris recently packed a bindle and set off to the D quad
seeking addiction recovery and his
authentic self. You've got strength of the heart. I can't wait to meet you again after
all we will gain in the not sharing. Keep the bits coming. Grisp your whole life and
live the hell out of it and come home when it's right. You're so dear to me. Hell yeah,
Chris. Way to go. Getting that help.
What a great message of friendship and comfort here. Pretty awesome.
Yeah. A real tough disease and not an easy one to deal with. So we're all super proud of you
for going and getting the help you need, Chris. Strong stuff, strength with the heart indeed.
Indeed. Final priority one message here Ben is from Jordan and it's to Tyler.
Message goes like this happy birthday Ty you got me into the show years ago
during Voyager and it's been endless laughs ever since. Wow. Was fun seeing
Greatest Gens live show with you
in Salt Lake when they came through.
Let's go again next time.
Whoa.
Thanks for being such a great brother.
How about the proximity of these last two messages?
Amazing.
Could Jordan Tyler be the people
that Zach Breger is looking for?
I think so.
I think they're talking to each other
in the very same priority one segment. That's wild. It's wild stuff
Happy birthday, Ty
If you'd like to send a message of love and support or recruit dorks for your dorky game
Hmm, should I say advisedly as a dorky gamer go to maximumfun.org
Jumbotron and set your message up today. Why not?
Why not? Why why do it it supports the shows obviously?
Hey Ben, what's that Adam?
Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda
I gotta give it to
Paul this episode she's just I mean Jolie the Playlock just plays the shit out of this part.
And yeah, Tour de Force, I think is a great way to put it.
I feel like I try to be funny with these to the extent that I have the ability to be funny,
but this time I'm just, it's just a special citation in a great performance.
Yeah, we do those with Shimoto's on occasion
when someone just pops off the screen
the way Jolene Blaylock sometimes can.
I didn't think this show was broadcast in 3D,
but there it is.
There is something about that scene
between her and Hawkins,
which is the Mako that I haven't named
the entire episode. That moment where it feels a lot like that Starship Troopers, it's just
because I'm big and dumb. Like I see things through a militaristic lens. Like I wasn't
thinking about the fact that all these Vulcans are people that you knew when I sought to
kill them to save our lives. That's awkward.
And good on Hawkins for at least trying to articulate
some very conflicted feelings there.
I wonder where that's coming from though.
Is that Hawkins trying to comfort T'Pol
in a moment where she is totally freaking out
or is that more for Hawkins than her?
We might never know.
Hard to say.
But that scene stuck out to me in a way
where I'm gonna give Hawkins my drunk Schmota.
All right, I like it.
Faith of the fart.
Well, why don't you head over to gach.biz slash game,
fire up the game of butt holes,
the will of the reicher quantum leap.
While I tell you about season three,
episode six of Star Trek Enterprise,
the one we'll be reviewing next week, it's called Exile.
A powerful telepath makes contact with Hoshi
and offers to help Enterprise find the Zindi for a price.
enterprise, find the Zindi for a price. Fucking cold call by a telepathic solicitor.
How fucking awful would spam messages be if they were coming in directly into your brain?
Yeah.
Hey, we're doing telepathy in your area and if you like any telepathy services at your
home.
You know, it's weird. All of your neighbors are doing the telepathy services at your home. You know, it's weird.
All of your neighbors are doing the telepathy.
You're the last holdout.
You know you're left behind, do you?
Yeah, there's a 20% off for a limited time.
You just gotta sign up for the telepathy right here.
It's like, I feel like you're doing it to me right now.
Well, we're only on the square for a limited time, Ben.
Currently our runabout pulsing softly on square 87.
And at the end of this roll of the 100-sided die,
we will figure out in what way we will review the next episode.
Will it be weird or will it be normal?
Let's find out.
Indeed.
You're required to learn as you play.
Roll.
You remember how last time you rolled a one?
Mm-hmm.
I rolled a two.
Whoa!
Too-la!
Did I win?
Hardly.
And that jumped us across a special square,
the temporal Cold War square specifically.
Oh, thank fuck.
Now we're on the other side of it.
Square 89, it's a regular old episode.
That's a war I don't wanna fight in, man.
Yeah, how about that? A one and then a two.
All right, I like it.
Happy to be on a regular Square
for a regular episode next week.
We got some thank yous to give out.
Of course, the folks who make this all possible,
the friends of DeSoto who support on a monthly basis,
thank you so much.
We gotta thank Windy Pretty, our producer and editor, keeping the plate spinning
around here, having lunch with Adam yesterday.
The best.
She does so much.
She endures so much.
She endured lunch with me.
It's one of those things where like, we like her so much.
We don't want to put upon her other obligations.
When I'm in town, I'm like, maybe she doesn't want to hang out.
Like, she does so much for us already.
Like, why ask for her free time?
She gave it freely.
She was a great hang.
We enjoyed a Doughboy show last night together with a bunch of other FODs.
She's fucking awesome.
Fun.
Thanks to Wendy. We also gotta thank Bill Tilly.
We just found out Bill Tilly's also gonna be at STLV.
You do not wanna miss STLV this year
cause Bill Tilly's gonna be there.
Oh man, I'm so psyched about this.
Yeah.
You know, slide into those DMs on the social media handles
at Greatest Trek if you wanna talk to BT
about potentially sending something in
for an upcoming code 47.
Speaking of social media, we got to thank Rob Adler
for all the work he does over there on the socials and on the mailing list.
gach.biz slash mail if you want to get signed up for that.
And
Adam Magusea who made our
remix of the parody of Diane Warren's original theme song
It broke the internet for a time Ben the the reddit actually exploded
Yeah, no because a bunch of folks were asking are they gonna remix it? Are they gonna? I hope they will I bet they won't
They're too fucking lazy and dumb. Yeah, that sounds like the reddit and and look at us
it won't surprise
you to learn that the push notifications from Spotify were going crazy the day that episode
dropped. Not a wink of sleep for Benjamin R. Harrison that night. Not a wink. We've got
to thank Dark Materia for the original Picard song. With that, we will be back at you next
week with another great episode of Star Trek Enterprise and an episode of the greatest generation enterprise that
will make you laugh... for a price. Hey that sounds like our bonus feed. Oh yeah
shit that's what I meant to say. Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the U.S. 10th Center Prize
Make it so, make it so
Jean-Luc Picard