The Greatest Generation - We Get Worse in Both Directions (DS9 S2E4)

Episode Date: March 19, 2018

When Quark prays for bandits to take over the station, he gets more than a sticky gym sock. But when they come for Jadzia’s ankylosaur (anklyosaur?), the crew has to make fists with more than their toes. Are these Klingons seeking the right thing? How much are they charging these days at Vulcan supercuts? Are there any good tricks for finding Mareel’s loaf? It’s the episode where we trade honey sticks for latinum. Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Profits!

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 generation Deep Space 9. A Star Trek podcast by a couple of guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast.

I'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pryanaka. It seems like we're kind of stumbling over the open lately. Why is that? I don't know, was I stumbling? I thought I was pausing for dramatic effect. Oh, well, I guess one person's drama is another person's stumbling, I guess. Well, that's not what I was going for.

And I think that being misinterpreted of what I was going for is kind of a, enough of a routine thing in my life these days that it doesn't come as a big surprise to me. That's your brand. Yeah. I love it. I love it for how it makes me look in comparison. You don't think that the same thing happens to you? Oh, absolutely.

Yeah. You can more so. Yeah. Ben, I stumbled around Emerald City Comic on yesterday. Hey! It was the first time I had ever gone to that, even though I've lived in Seattle for 25 years. Uh-huh. Longer than that, probably 30 years. It was, yeah, I don't know why I haven't gone until now I think part of it is is that it's gotten to be such a big thing It is it occupies the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, which is one of the like outside of the Boeing factory

I feel like is one of the biggest free-standing spaces factory I feel like is one of the biggest free-standing spaces in or around the city. And I impulse bought a ticket to Thursday and God I spent almost the whole day there. It was great. When was the last time you have been to a con of any kind? I went to the Los Angeles Auto Show for work this year. That's a car con. A bit of a con.

Yeah. Wasn't, I mean, I've not gone to many cons, not for work. I got a max fun con every year. But that's one of the kind of, you know, I do the video there. So it kind of feels like it's for work, but it's also just the flunnest and greatest thing. The scale of this thing was bonkers. The first thing that I kind of stumbled into was a doctor

who panel, there were 5,000 people in this space, and they were screaming at the top of their lungs for the panel to come out and be introduced. And I knew Doctor Who had a huge following, but I had no idea until confronted with its size and volume that it was like that. It was incredible. Holy shit.

Yeah, I like walking my way through there, like to get there, you know, you're surrounded by people in costume and like the sort of joy that comes with being surrounded by people with the same like interest and attitudes and stuff. And for a moment, I was like, oh yeah, these are our people. This is like, this is a good place to be.

But as soon as I went to that panel and saw that, I was like, this place is way too big for us. Like, we could never do this. But that feeling initially pervaded the whole thing, like the idea of the tribalism of being a nerd or someone with very strong interests in fiction or science fiction specifically or action fiction or comics, like it was great and it was so positive feeling, like there's a thing I think in culture now that is like, that the gaze is a bad thing, but there, but like there's such a supportive gaze at a Comic Con.

Like, when people were rocking around on costume, it felt so positive and good. Right. Yeah, the, the cosplay is like, people who are specifically calling attention to themselves, but the attention of other people that are like-minded in a specific space. Yeah, and that felt good and pure and nice. Like, all of the... there were so many booths, there had to have been like a thousand booths. I ran into our good buddy Brandon Bird there. He had a booth at Comic Con. Oh man! He was selling his artwork.

His artwork is amazing. If you're not familiar with Brandon Bird's artwork, I think one of his most famous paintings is a deep space nine themed painting, right? Yeah, yeah. But that- I've got a Brandon Bird original that I got for him.

Really? The two riker faces. Like you can see the pen strokes and everything. This is not a reproduction. This is the real thing Damn, he's he's so talented and great and he does really fun things like combining combining pieces of Pop and TV and movie culture together in a really fun way really cool That's awesome a couple of my. Really cool. That's awesome.

A couple of my favorite booths I wrote notes about. There was Fez O'Rama, which does what it says on the tin, Ben. It was a booth that sold nothing but novelty fezes. That was a thing. Another booth. Did you get one? No, I did not. I'm sorry. I wanted to do the loop and then buy everything on the way out because I didn't want to be

carrying a bunch of shit to the first. Yeah, you were trying to practice good buffet practice. That's right. Get a load of what's available before you start putting things on your plate. It's a good strategy. It's a strategy I stuck to. Not far away from Fezo Rama was a booth that sold food manga books.

And I didn't flip through these, but I heard two people talking about them, which was like, if you love manga, this is food specific manga. Wow. So this is food, comics about people cooking food or fucking food? The take that I had was like a cookbook

you have to read backwards, right? Oh, I get it. So you go. How to prepare food or fuck food? It takes you from the finished product of food back to its core ingredients. Do you ever you listen to the Jackie and Laurie show? One of my favorite podcasts yeah. This is stand-up comedians Jackie Cation and Laurie Kil. So, what am I? What are my favorite podcasts, yeah? This is Stand Up Committee on Jackie Cation and Laurie Kilmart and just talking about what it's like to be a working, you know, headline stand up from week to week.

And one of them was talking about being booked for a gig that they thought was gonna be like a very suburban, like plain Jane crowd. Like they couldn't do their edgiest, newest material. Uh-huh. And so she was like preparing for the gig by listening to her old albums for like the most milk toast jokes that she could do.

Wow. But she listened to her old albums in reverse and she's described it as listening to herself get worse at standup. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. That was so funny. Wow. I think the same would happen for us if we listened to our show.

Right. Yeah, exactly. If you listen to the greatest generation and reverse order, it's about inside jokes going away. I think I would also argue we get worse in both directions. Yeah. Yeah. Paradoxically, it gets worse all the way down.

I have to admit one thing to you. I wore the badge that I was given at the Star Trek Discovery premiere. It's like a mini shield. Like it would be the communicator badge, but it's just the badge. Oh wow, they gave you one for attending the premiere? Just a miniature one.

And so I pinned it onto my jacket as I was walking around I It's neat and a couple of the booth people like like said hey starfleet. What's up? And that felt really good to hear I Don't know why it gave me such a jolt It felt like any of them friends of DeSoto. I'm sad to announce that I did not meet or run into any friends of DeSoto. The entire time I was there. Man. Here's another disappointment Ben. So few Star Trek things at the con. I thought for sure there would be a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one.

That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one.

That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one.

That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good uniforms. That company was there and they had a few of the Star Trek movie uniforms and also the disco uniform. I was looking at those the other day. I was like trying to talk myself into having one for doing live shows in. But then I was like, eh, they're like $2,000. Yeah. They break. They look amazing up close. Really neat. And I mean, there's a cost associated with how intricate they are.

But yeah, dude, like there was no no Star Trek action figures that I saw. No books or comics of any, like, and if there were, they were in the boxes, you know, like there's a lot of comic shops that roll up to Emerald Cindy Comic Con and then you can like kick through the boxes. But there wasn't a presence for Star Trek in any way at all.

What would you say is that, is what's at work here that Star Trek has its own con? And so the people that would do Star Trek shit at Comic Con have already done their Star Trek shit at Star Trek Con or are they just missing the mark? I wondered that myself. At first I definitely thought, yeah, they have their own con and that's why. But I also wonder, is there just not that much crossover between Star Trek and regular con or comic culture? I mean, Star Trek fan is the kind of er nerd fan.

Right. Like, we invented this shit. I saw, I think two people total wearing Star Trek uniforms. Wow. And they were original series uniforms. Now, like my sample size might be different because I went on Thursday and Thursday is typically the less trafficked day of the con.

It grows in size as you get to Sunday. I'm sure there will be much more to see. I was only able to get Thursday tickets because those were all, those were the only ones available. But yeah, I was a little surprised, a little, I was a little surprised and disappointed in how little Star Trek there was, but I was super pumped and excited by the culture

and how positive and fun it was and and the experience itself was great and I hope to do it in the coming years. I definitely plan on going again next year. I thought it was cool but yeah kind of a weird disconnect between the two cultures that I hope changes and I'm thinking maybe like if disco gets some more traction, it'll be more of a thing there, but not a thing for now. Well, it's pretty bonkers to think, like, you know, our show has had a small modicum of success,

and it is very successful in terms of the goals that we had for it when we originally started, like radically more successful than that. But to think about the idea of like having a panel about our show draw 5,000 people, it's so unthinkable, it's so far away from anything that will ever happen. Yeah. Yeah. It was the excitement was infectious. Like there's a crackle to that amount of people that are just going bonkers that feels really good. It's great.

Very fun. Yeah. Thank you for sharing your Comic Con experience, Adam. Yeah. If you're in and around Seattle, I would recommend going if you can possibly get tickets. I think it was a cool way to spend a day. Good times.

Should we get into the episode? Yeah, let's do Ben. Let's talk about a pretty dark episode coming up on Season 2 of Deep Space 9. It's episode 4 four invasive procedures. Just an episode title that calls it what it is. Do you realize how incredible this is? No, of course you don't. It's Christmas at Nakatomi Station and most of the building has gone home for the holidays but they're having a Christmas party.

A lot of people don't realize that this is a Christmas episode, Adam. No, I know. I'm ashamed of it. Oh, oh, oh. Did you have a hard time watching this episode and not thinking about, on the back end, production aspect of it, how there were so few cast members on the last episode, like, why don't you extend the break and not bring them back for this one? Like, the cold open is, we've evacuated the station.

And no one is here. Yeah, it's like, you mean the thing you did the last episode? Yeah. Playing all the hits in season two, huh? last episode. Yeah. Playing all the hits in season two, huh? Yeah, it's another, I feel like this happened a bunch last season where like the same basic premise happened over and over again on repeat.

When you live on Deep Space 9, you just better keep a small backpacked. I think that's the message you're getting here, right? Yeah, if you live on Deep Space 9, you better learn to make fists with your toes. Yes, sir, better than a shower and a cup of coffee. I love the idea that everyone got back on the station unpacked and then had to pack up again. I would watch half an episode of How Upset that makes everyone.

Can you imagine how explosive the fight is between K-K going, O'Brien? This time? They could have just had the exact same dialogue and repeated it. Yeah, no shit. Geez. Very pretty. A lot of couples have the same fight over and over again, you know? You know, when you go and visit family, there's sort of a relief when you leave, right? Like, finally going to go back home.

Yeah. there's sort of a relief when you leave, right? Like, finally gonna go back home. Like, everyone who left the station during the Bajorin attack, during the Bajorin invasion, has to go back to where they came from, I guess, again. It's not a good look. This is all because of a plasma storm and they're you know batting down the hatches and just kind of trying to ride out the storm just the skillets and crew and O'Brien. I am Chief Miles and with O'Brien. This is fucking spectacular. And Odo are going around doing some maintenance, you know, tightening bolts and things.

And while they're walking around, it didn't be deserted, far reaches of the station. Odo hears somebody moving around and they open the airlock door and find quark. Quark, what are you doing here? Praying inside the airlock. And I guess Quirk's job was to stay on the station, ride it out and make sure the bar is okay. Gotta tell you, Ben, when you're caught doing something, you shouldn't be doing.

Hey, Marty. Oh, hey, Dad, what are you doing back from Pluto so quick? Pretending that you're praying. It's a pretty good excuse. Ha, ha, ha, ha. No one's gonna question that, right? I went back from Pluto so quick. Pretending that you're praying. It's a pretty good excuse. Hahaha. No one's gonna question that, right? You know, if there's two people and you're potentially gonna get caught,

you start making out, right? If there's just one of you, it's either crank it or pray. That's a form of prayer also. Hahaha. It's a terrible thing. I know, these's punching one out. That's what I was getting at, Ben. One hand on the dick, one hand on the ear.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. What did you want to do? Not too fast, Quirk. And like, Quirk didn't get off again for the same reason as that he doesn't have wheels on his money suitcase. The only reason you volunteered is because there wasn't enough room on the evacuation shuttles for 600 bars of gold pressed Latin.

He should really go to a cashless form of money, right? He doesn't trust the banks, I guess. Quirk's bars should really pivot to blockchain. Yeah. I think if there's one thing this show is proven is that blockchain does not take off. Well, try explaining that to him. And the end of this scene is like an ominous camera push into some device that Quirk has left on the wall. It's just a blinking pad. Right.

And it was like, the camera pushes in on it ominously enough that that blinking we just have to assume is bad. I think that like a problem here is that deep space 9 is designed with a lot of gigas stuck to walls. So this doesn't necessarily look out of place if we don't have an ominous camera push in. You know, like this thing would pop if it was stuck to a wall on the entrepreneur, but here on deep space nine,

it just kind of looks like the light switch. Right. Yeah. And like because it's quark, it's unclear how ominous this thing is. He doesn't present any danger to the station at all. He's, his guilt is always fairly innocent, you know? His guilt does seem innocent to him. And that is our, our throw to theme music. So it feels like there's a phone amount, and it's so short.

There's a phone amount of camping during a storm, or like you're in the cabin during a storm, batting down the hatches, sort of vibes between the crew at ops. Like it seems like they're tucking into something interesting and fun. Like these dogs are very rare. It doesn't seem to present too much of a danger with a cap on the, but they still evacuated the station anyway. When I lived in Brooklyn, I was there for two big hurricanes coming through. And hurricanes that were very cataclysmic for some people but for the part of

Brooklyn that I was in were just big storms and I remember them being kind of fun hangs like me and my roommates sitting around like watching the the local television news coverage of the storm and just just kind of like you you know, riding it out. Comparing creams. Yeah, exactly. Sneaking off to the vestibule to crank one out. Oh, man. Take that again and say, pray.

I'm going to punch you up. You can get a lot of praying done during a storm. Yeah. Then I'll tell you that. Yeah. Just don'll tell you that. Yeah Just don't pray too much. You can like you can kind of over Overwork it if you know what I mean. Yeah, I mean overwork the wrist. Your prayer stop getting answered This is episode just

Gold to cotton. So, does this episode just leak of we blew a lot of money on Lenzella and we need to dial it back a little bit and have a little bottle episode? Yeah, I gotta tell you, who's a lot cheaper than Frank Lenzella's, Tim Russ. Who's working for scale here, I guess. Yeah. So they get like a distress call and a ship is stuck in the storm so they pull it in on the tractor beam and Odo and O'Brien go down to help them out. And the door opens and like the first person and Odo and O'Brien go down to help them out.

And the door opens and like the first person that comes out of the smoky smoky ship is a woman in distress. And O'Brien, Gannellantly tries to help her, but a couple of klingons, one of whom is portrayed by Tim Russ, come out and take O'Brien and Odo with guns and they make Odo with guns,

and they make Odo get in a lockable bucket. Yeah, it's sort of like the containment trap from Ghostbusters. They open up the doors of this thing and they make him dive into it because if he doesn't, they're gonna shoot O'Brien in the head. These klingons look different to me from other klingons, and I think it's because they aren't wearing the battle armor,

they're wearing these furs. They're kind of form-fitting. They're like civilian klingons. They're not part of the klingon military. Yeah, and there's something about that makes them look less threatening in that way, too. Yeah, they're putting Odo in the bucket and O'Brien turns to one of the Klingons and's like, who do you seek? And he turns and says, GURL-EURSH! The fourth person that comes through the door is a trill.

And he's the one operating the bucket and he's kind of a melee mouthed and timid guy. I really got Barclay vibes from him, did you? Yeah, he does kind of have Barclay vibes from him, did you? Yeah, he does kind of have Barclay vibes. Stalin wanted to take over the entertainment industry and he started back in the 30s. Like not start a right-wing radio show vibes, but like, you know, a little unsure of himself, a little, you know, talented,

but without self-confidence kind of a thing. Little bit of an eight dollar haircut, kind of a squirrely guy. I've been getting a ten dollar haircut lately and it's great. I look, you can get a great haircut for ten dollars. Yeah, I was like on, I was on like a forty five dollar haircut train for a long time and I, and I went to the ten dollar haircut and I, I couldn't be happier. What I'm trying to say is that your chances of getting a bad one increase at the $8 level

and I think our pal Varad might need to go see another stylist. Yeah, it's a little vulcany too. He has a bit of a vulcany bang. Yeah. Then clear if that's something he's going for, if he's just not really up to the task of making himself look good. At Vulcan supercuts, they have a bunch of the permanent, what are those little buckets they put on your head

to like dry the rollers. But they just use that as the line they has the line to cut the bangs, right? Yeah, and also they have that binder of the different styles that you can get, but it's all just page after page of the same haircut. Who's the first Vulcan to get a perm? That's got to be a thing, right? It's logical to reduce how much maintenance I have to do on it every day.

That's right. That's the thing about the Vulcan haircut. It looks like it's so much work to maintain. Yeah. I mean, speaking of perms, these klingons really have amazing volume compared to some of their military brethren. They look great. So the first stop that they take is to Six Bay, where they get the doctor to put the odocontainer in stasis.

There's a pretty funny, there's a pretty funny interchange where one of the clickouts is like holding a gun up to the box, he's like, put this in stasis or I'll shoot it. And the doctor's like, I don't know what that is. Why am I so scared? Why am I so scared? Why am I so scared? He's like put this in stasis or I'll shoot it and the doctor's like I don't know what that is Why would I care Yeah, that does a nice bitter writing then got Odo in there. Yeah, that's really great writing So often they would have missed that part of continuity right

Yeah, like oh my god is that Odo in a box right and there's no reason for him to know that. Right. Yeah. So it was good to see them know that that is going to be a point of confusion for the doctor and be like, play it for the laugh that it can be. Right. It's a funny moment without breaking the reality of the episode. Exactly. And then they head up to Ops where, you know, they, this is everybody that's on the station, I guess. And I guess Quark is not among them. But it's discussed kind of under the breath by the Starfleets that they're pretty sure Quark has something to do with this because he was

caught doing something in the airlock area immediately before these bad guys came aboard. Kira's scorned face becomes its own character in this scene and it is so withering. Yeah. You really, you know, you feel bad for Quark in a way. He is going to get his ass so kicked. Yeah, it's not a good look, Quark. You for Rengie. You think you're so clever, but you're stupid. So what we've got in Ops is, is a four person takeover party. And the numbers are interesting here because like they are outnumbered by the star fleets that remain. So they have to be very careful about either always having the upper hand in terms of armament or numbers in any situation. Yeah, and they've used the element of surprise very well, but it is a small team. It seems like this is a very shoestring operation, and it becomes clear that the trail, the nervous

guy, is the mastermind, which doesn't add up initially, and there's a long push in on Daxis. She kind of stares at him and tries to puzzle through what this might be about. And what it's about is Verad wants her ankylosaur. Damn. Verad wants her ankylosaur. Is what is ankylosaur? Ankylosaur. It's ankylosaur.

Ankylosaur? Yeah, it is. It's an empty right. I've been saying Enkylosor my entire life and some fucking viewer wrote in and said you've been pronouncing it wrong the whole time. I'm a paleontologist and you're besmirching the work that I do. And so now I'm trying to, I'm trying to to linguistically correct a lifetime of poor pronunciation. Yeah, Enkylosaur? Enkylosaur. Enkylosaur. Enkylosaur.

Man. Virad's goal here is sort of morbid because by taking Dax's ankylosaur, it would kill her. It's not like you can just transfer the ankylosaur to and fro and have that be a consequence free surgical situation. The host cannot live without the trill inside her. And so that's a bad scene. And so at phaser point, Bichier is made to go to Six Bay and perform this surgery.

And meanwhile, we have a little interaction between Quark and the other, the Nantimress. Who we've got is Tic car who's the long-haired Klingon that's Tim Russ and then yeto is the other guy with the shorter Bob down and down in the bar quark and and yeto have a little little interaction it seems like quark is also supposed to be selling these Klingons some honey sticks and is very nervous around this dude but wants to get his money and says that he doesn't see any money. Isn't that one of the rules of acquisition is like

dope on the table, money on the table? But so he starts trying to kind of like hardball with Yeto and Yeto is like you're a idiot, and pulls a gun and takes Quark up to the Ops as well. So we have like Quark and the gang up in Ops, well Bashir and Dex and Verad go down to Six Bay to do a pretty major surgery. Hork's plan here was nog-level stupid. I think. What did he think was going to happen? Here's the thing, the episode doesn't make clear what you think was going to happen? Here's the thing, the episode

doesn't make clear what he thought was going to happen other than honey sticks for latin them. Right. But like, if he did any sort of pre-arrangement to what the drop was going to be, he would understand how dangerous a situation he was getting in, right? Right, and like, you would hope. I mean, like this is taking place in the future. You have to presume that this was all arranged on some dark web platform where there's like a reputation engine, you know?

Like you don't buy from somebody on eBay that has a really low score I am tore network of none Who do we follow? How do we get on it with a VPN? The night of our modem's guidance! Who do we seek? Suttoshinaka Moto! It's a little deep web humor.

It's nice to try new things. Yeah, one of those franchise jokes that just never catches on. We'll remember that joke wistfully. Yeah, remember when we thought we were funny. That was a funny fantasy. So, splits the group up in an interesting way, right? The doctor and Jadzee attacks and Yeto go into Six Bay for the procedure and that leaves a Cisco quark, Kira, and Tacar in Ops. And not only that, but Mareal is there and And Marielle is the special lady friend of Varad. And he kind of fell in love with the labia that sit above her nose. Her loaf has a certain familiar look to me, Ben.

And it's like I can't quite find the middle of a eyebrows. Well, that's the part you want to stimulate the most. Let's put it that way. She has a great big bun in her hair. It is not just a cinnamon roll, it is like a tray of cinnamon rolls. It's a bun to bun. Yeah, she's full cinnamon. And she's like, she's full synabon. And she's like, she's up there and Cisco's tacking Duran. And he's like, you know, this doesn't make a lot of sense. Like, if you love this dude, this dude's your boyfriend,

why are you helping him become not the guy that you're dating? That seems like not great for you. And she's like, shut up. You don't know what you're talking about. This is where the episode fails for me, right? Like you ideally you want all of the characters acting in a realistic self-interest. And we get from jump that that Maria loves this guy. Love's him so much because he liberated her from a bad circumstance, but doesn't stop to interrogate her lover about what's going to happen post-procedure.

Well, it seems like just kind of ignorance and naivete. Like, she's kind of bought what he told her, which is it's gonna make him smarter and better and more complete. And when Cisco goes, no, it's gonna make him a totally different person. She's not willing to consider that as a possibility. That had not occurred to us, dude.

She doesn't buy it for one second. She really trusts Virat, because she doesn't do any of her own research. Cisco should just be like, hey Siri, play a documentary about what happens when trills get joined on the main viewer. And then she would see. I mean they're in this fancy space station. Why not use some of the resources to prove the point? I cannot think of a single instance where either your wife or mine would be like,

I need to go in for some pretty major surgery. And I'm not really gonna be clear on what that is or what's going to happen after. And not asking a bunch of questions in the interim. Don't get the sense they're very close. It's definitely a sex-based relationship, right? Well, it's one of these Star Trek relationships where you're like, have you guys talked? Right.

I mean, it's the same, Keko and Nobrian have the same problem. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and instead they talk to the viewer. And this is the thing that's so aggravating about this episode, is like we're recapitulating conversations that should have happened already for the sake of viewer knowledge. Yeah, we get this enkylosaur transplant scene and it is a lot more rugged than I remember

from TNG. They're like physically snipping the tail off the thing. With not laser scissors, but with like, like sewing scissors. Yeah, real gnarly. Where do you get those scissors? Seen a so rugged band. Like what you get is sort of a C section, couple of blankets over the abdomens

of the surgical patients. And then here's one thing I couldn't figure out. Like, do the trill people have a kind of kangaroo pouch? Like, cause I know that there were incisions made into them but they also look like they have an extra flap of skin that sits up higher than the rest. Like, they sort of look like they have action figure, like, hip and thorax situations, you know?

I wanted to know why Bashir didn't have that maroon surgery costume that you're the Shriners costume. Right. Well, where was that? Yeah, I don't know, because like at least wear a hair net this year Jesus Yeah Like she's dax is gonna die of sepsis before she dies of Of her trip of her symbiont being taken out

Yeah, it's speaking of hair. They didn't shave verad's belly at all I was like that you know when When you give a dog, you know when you take a dog and to get fixed, they shave the belly. Right. And shave is belly. Which is why after surgery, when for ad goes into ops, he's wearing that cone around with a waist.

He also opts for the non-anesthetized version of the surgery. He kind of goes for a civil war level, trail surgery. Yeah. I don't want your advice. And that's pretty intense. Like, he really goes through a lot when they're sticking the symbiont all up into him.

They don't give him that bite down on this leather belt scene though. So it's hard to tell exactly how painful it is. What you do get is the euphoria of this thing taking hold. He kind of rolls his eyes back. And before the procedure's over, he gets a better haircut. Right. Before going out to ops.

That's important. They're like, hey, before you present your new self to everybody, would you like to put a little gel in? They do the surgery like facing away from the mirror and then they turn the chair out and he sees himself and he becomes very emotional. Yeah. So yeah, he comes out into the opstick and it's a really wild reveal. He's a very different guy. He's got a different way of styling his hair. He's very familiar with his surroundings.

I know this place. And he and Cisco are back to old good time buddies. And I know you, Benjamin. They're doing the secret handshake and they're talking about old times. And basically, different sexual hijinks they've gotten into together. He basically just zaps Marielle.

Like he regards her as familiar and probably not much more. Yeah. That's got to hurt. Right. And it's like the spouse that starts working out and taking care of themselves, like something's wrong. Yeah, what?

Why are you looking so good all of a sudden? He has a distended tummy all of a sudden. There's a massive scar over his belly. This is really good, like psychology for Ziska, right? Because he's he really like sprinkled the shit out of these seeds on Unreal and then when Verad, now Verad DAX shows up, Ziska really leans into, like everything he can do to display

what a different person Verad now is. Yeah, he does that and then pivots into leveraging Dax, the Dax that he knows, the Dax that he's become so familiar with for his entire life, leveraging that part of the personality into putting the trill back where it belongs. Come with me down to the infirmary, but the simpion back where it belongs. Come with me down to the infirmary. But the simpion back where it belongs.

Yeah, it's like how can you be a party to killing Jetsia? Like you know this is wrong, and now you're a part of the, you're a part of the joint entity that is Verad. Like let's talk, Dax to Cisco about how that's bad. And when Verad resists this idea, Cisco lip-quiveringly ends their friendship. And that's the end of the episode. We cut back to Six Bay and we get Empty Jadzea, who is emotional and sad and scared,

like the early 20 is her old that she is. It's actually a very interesting acting challenge for her. Like, she carries herself totally different when she is dax. And as Jadzea, she is dax and as Jadzia she is She's basically a child Yeah, and she's kind of slipping in and out of consciousness. I think she's Pretty pretty knocked out from what's been done to her and it seems like

But sheer is good enough as a doctor to keep her alive for longer than would be normal for somebody who's been separated from their symbiote, but not. Right. He's not going to be able to save her life or anything. He put a puppy inside her just to like keep the space open. To keep it warm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha and wait. We've gone down to the local SPCA and looked at what dogs they had available.

We considered this chihuahua but it is infract and adult and not appropriate for this operation. I like to use something with a certain length like this khagi. A kagi slang tawso is going to be a just perfect nestled in between the digestive system of our patient here Jetsy attacks. I like to cut into her torso with a cutting disc of an angle grinder. Go slow. You don't want the disc to bite. Gross. You know what, in season one, Bashir would have been a big fucking creepo about this.

But I think one of the things about this episode that I liked is that he kind of turns the corner. He's shown as a totally competent surgeon in terms of like his the skill that he demonstrates, but also his bedside manner. And he shows that he's a good friend to Jad Sia because he never, it's a little creepy that he like is touching her face the entire time. Is that not what you do when you're with someone who's scared? I mean, he's got their face. That makes people feel better, right?

Yeah. Oh, I guess you're right. You got their face and you give them a big shake. Yeah. I'm gonna suggest maybe do a little praying. It works for me. Yeah. So back in Ops, Quirk pretends to be brave by jumping onto the back of Takaar and doing

that thing when a little kid tries to fight a big brother, just sort of like, get them around the neck and the big brother in this case just dispatches him with ease, like bangs him against a railing and then throws him into the ops panel and quirk bellows in pain. Yeah. He bellows so loud that it's and so annoyingly that they have no choice but to take him to six bay. Yeah, it's a kind of pissed off here because he keeps saying that he's been waiting for

somebody worthy of his attention. Quirk clearly doesn't fit the bill. But yeah, Quirk goes down to 6 Bay and but she's like, yeah, it doesn't seem like your ear is that hurt. And Quirk is like, it's very hurt. Doctor. But she's like, oh, yeah, this actually does merit some extra tests. So he starts really going to town on Quark, and that is the like getting enough manpower

down in six bay that they need to start to turn the tide in their favor. So meantime, up in ops, it's revealed that the reason that everybody is still hanging around is the storm is too dangerous for them to leave. And Verage plan is to go through the wormhole and like, abscond with the ankylosaur to the Gamma Quadrant. It's a pretty flimsy plan, right? like abscond with the enkylosaur to the gamma quadrant. It's a pretty flimsy plan, right? Like, I'm gonna go start a new life out there and I'm just as reachable there as I am anywhere else. This is one of the questions I have,

is going through the wormhole tantamount to going to a non-extradition country because for Radd seems to that like once he's through the to the other side he's got free. Right, he's like disappeared off the grid or whatever. I mean, yeah, it's, I mean, Verad is a, like, winds up, you know, Jeddia winds up really like pittying Verad. And I think that this is also pittable. It's a very unimaginative

plan. It's not like like he is set all of his self worth on the idea of having a symbiont and it doesn't matter where he is or what he is doing as long as he has one. Right. Which is just a really stupid way of thinking about the world. Like, satisfaction and contentment don't come from, you know, taking off a single box. It's like it's about having a, you know, a good life and a satisfying career and good relationships and all of that stuff. And this guy is just so mionpically obsessed with the idea of having an ankle also or that he can't see any of the other stuff. Even his girlfriend, it's very obvious that he's just using her for getting advancing

that goal. He doesn't really that moment in a way that Like she does not She doesn't seem very sad about it. She just seems more resigned, right? Yeah, like she she almost has a Like a blood oath of I'll do anything for this guy because he got me out of a bad situation That's the difference between obligation and love, isn't it? Like, like, he did a thing for her.

She feels beholden to him, but that's not true love. A relationship of mutual respect and adoration. Right. So down in 6 Bay, Bashir winds up hypospraing Yeto and knocking him out. And so he and Quirk, jailbreak, Odo, from the box he is in. And that, you know, that depends entirely on Quirk being

an amazing locksmith, which he apparently is. I guess he's using his ears to like see if the mechanism is working. His super hearing. Yeah, I guess to have heard the code be entered, it's like a dial tone on a phone or the keypad on a phone. If you're familiar enough with the tones, you can re-key the pass lock. And up in Ops, Cisco is talking Marielle into joining team put the symbiont back in Jadzia.

He doesn't need me anymore. I know, you're wrong. He doesn't need you now more than ever. Yeah, because she is sort of a neutral party now. I mean, she's neutral in the sense that her only way to get Virad prime back is to get this thing out of him. And it becomes clear that Virad doesn't really have any plan of continuing with her now that she's been useful to him. They discuss a rendezvous and he's like, oh yeah, like whenever we're gonna meet or whatever. And she's like, hey wait.

So Cisco's like, hey listen, we can finish this day with Verad living, but being in custody and also you aren't a party to killing my friend, Jadziah. And I think you should consider helping us do that. And so Odo has released the clamps to their ship and when Verad tries to get to it to escape, there's nothing there to escape to. And so Cisco walks around the corner and is like, hey, not so fast, we get to get that thing out of you. And Verad's like, no way. And not only that, I know you're not going gonna shoot me because I've known you for so many years

right and this is after Odo and Kira have have Star Trek fought Tim Russ right into into a pulp and Yeah, it's one of those moments of like you wouldn't have the guts to shoot me. And it's, it really looks for a minute like, Brad might get away because Cisco is unwilling to take the risk of shooting him with the ankylos or an inn. It's a real biff calls Marty chicken moment because Brad calls Cisco Benjamin and that pushes him over the line.

Yeah. Finally, phasers him down. You want to aim high when you're shooting at a trill, right? You don't want to hit him really. Yeah, I mean, this thing is like, it's not really clear how big of a risk it is. Like is it 50, 50? The trill is going to survive, is it like,

1% chance of killing it. Why take any chances? Why wouldn't you just headshot him? Yeah. I don't think- Shoot him in the head. The only guy we've ever seen shot in the head with a phaser is Remick.

Like, bring back that, I know that putty exists in storage somewhere on the Star Trek lap. Break that head out. It'd be pretty fun to shoot him in the head, have it explode on full gore and then have the ankylo, so I'll come up out of the neck and go, ah!

Ah! Ah! Ah! That'd be great! This goes like, hello old man. Ah! Ah! Redels it into his arms,

then runs it back to six bay. Redels it into his arms, then runs it back to six bay Greatles it his arms lets it suckle at his teeth for a second to regain its strength In it goes back into Jadzea We have the scene of Rad waking up and Jadzea waking up and for rad kind of mirroring the feeling of emptiness that she had and then kind of realizing what he had and how close he was to having it and the fact that he's lost it. And that feeling you have after a great big stake dinner and you take that shit the next morning

That 10 pounds of empty feeling yeah And Judzia Dax is saved and she gives Cisco big hug and it's a me a moment of reflection because she's like she had all like a moment of reflection, because she's like, she had all, like, through the symbiant, she remembers those experiences as verad and really feels bad for a guy that's as lost and as obsessed as that, you know, not getting what he felt like he wanted. You don't get the sensors a lot of givebacks in the trail community, right? No. But it's an interesting episode, because it really makes you hate this guy and then makes

you pity him at the end. Yeah. I mean, I'm 80% hate, 20% pity. That's the wrap. And much like the last episode where it was left sort of half finished. You don't see what happens to Marielle. Cork, I guess, is unpunished for putting the station at risk to invasion and his friend's lives at risk.

Yeah, was it enough of a redemption that he tried to start track fight a Klingon? I don't think so. I don't think so either. Like, he should not be able to walk the station of free man. Yeah. At court, kind of has a rich history of doing things that make us not trust him, so...

So what the f? Yeah, I don't know. What the f indeed. Well, did you like this episode, Adam? I think because those threads were left undone, I don't know what the F indeed. Well, did you like this episode Adam? I think because those threads were left undone, I don't. I mean, I liked how much more backstory we got into the... the Trilverse. If that's the king of the trio, go tell them.

It seems to be non-canonical ankylosaur here, because it's a different sort of, it's a different sort of goo monster that they're taking on out of people this time than what we got in TNG. Looks a little sophisticated as a thing. Everything that involves Terry Farrell, I thought, was well-acted and good. Yeah, and it's kind of fun to flesh out to acts as a character. I mean, we were talking about this on the last episode, how she hasn't had much to do yet. And this is, well, she still, like,

doesn't get much to do as a character in this episode. She is, we know more about her and have more to, like, to think about her. There are redemption stories that are told with the the guy who double crossed his friends redeeming himself in a fantastic way. That is that is unequivocally heroic in a way that gets him off the hook and cork doesn't do that. And that is a missed opportunity for me. Like there's a chance for Cork to be a huge hero, but instead he sort of buffoons his way into being the hero

in a way that you can't blame the success of the mission on. And I didn't think that's right. Like, and I know they're just gonna go into the next episode, not talking about it. For as good of a job as the show does, carrying story from episode to episode, like there should be consequences here and they should be real. Yeah.

What about you Ben? I like the episode and I kind of disagree with you that Marielle's the problem at the center of it. It sounds to me like the situation she came out of is so bad and so desperate that I do kind of believe that she would feel a great need to repay that debt. So like that didn't break it for me. I do feel like you know maybe structurally it could be a little tighter and and Quark, Quark coming out the other side just A.O.K. don't mind him is ridiculous, but uh, but generally I like the themes and I like the, uh, I like the arc a lot. I like the idea of, you know, Cisco's best friend, uh, like becoming the villain that Cisco is fighting.

And, like, that's such an interesting game of, like, how does Cisco, like, now that he has best friends with the villain, talk the villain into not being such a bad guy anymore. Right. And I bought that, you know, I thought that was fun good Cisco app. Yeah Should we check for some priority one messages at them. Yeah, let's do it Priority one message from star fleet coming in on secure channel Supplement Supplement

Yes, extra the interest alone could be enough to buy this ship? Adam, our first priority one message is of a commercial nature, and it goes like this. Nerdrage. The Great Debates invites the Friends of Disodo to join Nerd Comics from the Comedio Comedy Network for a no-hold-barred debate of the hottest topics in all of Geekdom. The rage levels up this March for the Tournament of Champions. 32 comics defend their favorite fandom in a March Madness single elimination bracket's tournament.

Star Trek vs Star Wars. Batman vs Inspector Gadget. Raz vs Plavim? All will be settled. Are you ready to rage? Find us anywhere you get your pods. Check out the competing pod from SF sketchfest, Nerd Rage, the great debates. Wow. This is cool. Uh, Christy from the, from Nerd Rage emailed us when we were at sketchfest that she was like really bummed out that she couldn't come see her

our show because nerd rage the the great debates was having a show like right at the same time as ours. Oh man that would have been fun. Yeah and then she was like but maybe I'll see you guys at the after party and and we were like it wasn't as far as we know we have not been invited to any parties. That was one thing that was like totally insane about sketch rest. We kept hearing about these after parties. We were like, when were we gonna get told about them? Our after party night after night was just finding the one remaining restaurant open in Japan town. And being the last customers. Yeah.

They're like, these guys want more fried chicken, Jesus. Yeah, yeah. Fun. I'm really, you know what's great? I love a commercial message that speaks our language and uses references from our show. They clearly listen to our show and that's fun. Yeah, they're great debates.

I would highly recommend anybody to Google it. I'm not sure the the matter of Razz vs. Pulvim will ever be settled. Yeah, that seems like almost unsettled. Ben, our second priority one message is of a personal nature. It is from Lieutenant Commander Oliver of the USS Caligary. He's for Austin Harper. The message goes like this. Austin Harper of Facebook fame. My rhymes split you in Mark Twain. You can't wake up.

It's a bad dream. Go back to sleep with the rest of team Plavim. Come at me. Come at me. I'm the Alpha Rascal. Your name means a verbal hospital. I'm closing your comments, there's nothing to gain. I'll solve all your lyrical puzzles, alemarane. Hashtag Rascals, Hashtag Facebook, Hashtag, GRIEATS.

Well there you have it, two top notch priority when messages from our viewers to other viewers. If you have a priority when message of your own, you can take it on over to MaximumFund.org slash JimboTron, where we have both a personal and commercial message option there for you. F-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f- 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 GreatisGenTour.com to get more info. That's GreatisGenTour.com for dates and ticketing information for the Share Your Embarrassment Tour. I'm Jordan Morris. And I'm Jesse Thorne.

On Jordan Jesse Go, we make pure, delightful nonsense. We were open awesome guests and bring them down to our level. We got stupid with Judy Greer. My friend Molly and I call it having the spaceweirds. Pat Noswald. Can I get a ball-rock burger and I call it having the spaceweirds. Pat Noswald. Could I get a Balrog burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you. And Kumail Nanjiani.

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Hey, baby, 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 have such short nacks. But I'm hearing we need to get on this off. We've got to get on the art. It is about terrain, about a 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 Kerry? We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal, stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so same life, 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 Maxim the side. Hey, Adam. What's that been? Did you, in your viewing of today's episode, find yourself a drunk Shemota? Shemota!

Yeah, it's Odo. It's Odo because if he truly cared about the security of the station, Cork would be in prison forever and probably not on the station anymore, right? And also, he would notice that there's a weird, like, airsats, light switch on the station anymore, right? And also he would notice that there's a weird like airs at light switch on the wall in the room that they find Corkin. He has reasons to put up cameras every episode and he never does it.

He lets Cork walk the station unpunished. He's sort of terrible at his job. He, right now, I think he might be as bad at security as a wharf. I'm just going to say. What about you, Ben? My Shemota is Dr. Bashir for his hilarious technique of hypospraing

that cling on without the cling on noticing. He comes up, you see what he's gonna do, right? He like fills up the hyposprae and he's coming up behind Yeto and Instead of just doing hyposprae into Yeto's back He he goes past Yeto Tordkork and then turns the hyposprae around and does it right into Yeto's like Adam's apple Like Jesus man, she's fucking knock him out.

Don't kick him in the balls also. Does the hyposurray not go through hair? Was that his reason? Like he doesn't wanna go through the bob? I don't know man. I think the hyposurray can get through just about anything. It's, yeah, it was one of those scenes that was blocked for camera

and not for what should probably actually happen there. Right. And in like in a modern TV show, they would cut to a close up and it would be a very dynamic, you know, or like the camera would follow the hyposprae or something like that. It was a very traditional framing and kind of unimaginative and bad framing on that scene. So it just made it all so silly. The camera department's on vacation with the rest of the cast episode. What do we have coming up on

the next episode? The next episode is season two episode five, Cardassians. A young Cardassian orphaned in the war and raised by Bajorans, causes turmoil on the station when his people attempt to reclaim him. Or as Netflix puts it, Bashir is surprised when his friend Garrick, a Cardassian tailor, is attacked and bitten by a Cardassian boy. I like that one quite a bit. Fun. Hey, a Garrick's back. that's good. I like that guy.

You want to see if we're going to be doing a special episode for this one? Yeah. Do you want to do the honors with the dice? Yeah, we are on square number nine right now, but it right up against the cocoa no-no square. Very exciting. And I'm going to roll these bones. I got a one. Oh no. I legit did. It's a Coco Nono app. It is gonna be, we're gonna have to, do you gotta, do you

gotta go to Tiki Drink recipe? I don't. We're gonna have to discuss that before, before we spool up for the next step. So maybe we can come up with something special. I'm excited to finally use these coconuts that Ann Kilser sent us on an episode. Yeah, you and me both. Awesome. Well, support for the show comes from a bunch of different places. Some of them don't even cost you anything.

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