The Greatest Generation - Worf Don't Preach (S2E1)

Episode Date: April 25, 2016

When Counselor Troi becomes unexpectedly pregnant, the Enterprise crew has a ton of questions: "When did this happen? "Who's the father?" and "How quickly can we abort it?" Troi makes it clear she's keeping it, but there's no time for a baby shower because this baby grows so fast that it's born in only a few days. After another few days, it's tall enough to go on the rides at Disneyland! How big will this kid get? Where is Riker's "leaning wall" when he needs it? Why does Ben have a restraining order from the Olson twins? It's our season 2 premiere!

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

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

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

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

and season two of Star Trek Picard. We've set up a page where you can also contribute. It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdececoto for Labor.com. That's FriendsOfDecoto for Labor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage! Welcome to season 2 of the Greatest Generation, a Star Trek podcast by two guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast. I'm your host, Adam Pranica.

I'm your other host, Ben Harrison. Season from your time, Ben. You excited? I am excited. Adam, I want to tell you a brief embarrassing story before we get into the episode today. We're starting the season off with embarrassing stories. It's great. You took it upon yourself recently to go on electronic bay and purchase

a box of Star Trek cards and have them sent to my house. I did, it was a happy end of first season gift for me to you. Well, they got here and I'm actually traveling so I don't have them with me or I would be ripping into the box right now. Oh. But I got the box and I opened it and I set the box of cards down on my coffee table and

they sort of just blended into my environment and then I had a friend over who is not really the kind of friend who has any interest in talking about Star Trek with me. He's a much cooler person than I am. And he knows that and I know that, but we are friends. And it's understood. Yeah, I think it's just, it's a given that he's vastly cooler than I am. And like the Edgar Allen Poe story, the Perloent Letter, I was sitting there having a beer with him in my living room

and became aware that there was a box of Star Trek cards sitting on the table in between us, like a sore thumb, and it was all I could focus on. Like we were having like a total hang and I was like, does he notice this? Does he know it's there? Is there a way I can take off my ball cap and casually toss it onto the table over the Star Trek cards in the hopes that it conceals them before he notices them?

And- Like, can I come up with a medical condition as a distraction? Yeah, what's that over your shoulders? The good-year blimp? And? Wow, everything's on the table at that point as far as devising some sort of scheme. Yeah, well, I have to say, I don't have a very satisfying end to the story. He left without commenting and that might be a part of why he's such a cool guy. Yeah, that's how you get that cool. Yeah, but I mean, because I know that if I like went to somebody's house and they had something dorky on their table, I would not make a comment on it.

You're a friend to dorks, though, also. You're a safe place. I am a safe place, but I'm also going to make a make, I'm going to crack wise, you know. I mean, it's my way. You think this guy's off-telling his cool friends about your dorky Star Trek cards? Yeah. It was one of my groomsmen. Oh, jeez.

I don't know if he would be, if I'd asked him now. Is he a married person? He is. OK, because I was going to say it would be a big message for him to send if he didn't invite you to be in his wedding party after this. Yeah, oh yeah, that would be cold. Well, with that, why don't we dive in

to our season premiere of season two? It's season two, episode one, The Child. This is becoming a speech. Where the cat comes to, very tightly. Hmm, I'm not tight, I ran belong I lost something everyone knows. Ben, I think right off the bat, we should probably discuss just some changes to the show.

Yeah. This second season, I think you notice right away some pretty bold statements visually. Right. I think first and foremost, you just need to lead with the fact that Commander Riker has a beard now, whereas before, he was a clean, shaven fellow. Yeah, and a lot of people use the advent of facial hair as a demarcation line of when Star Trek shows get good. That's fair. Commander

Cisco getting getting a beard in deep space nine. He might be captain by the time he gets the beard in deep space nine. Sure. But he starts rocking a goatee and that's like when they stop with the childish games on that show. Right. Catherine Janeways, Post Menopausal beard. Yeah, she gets like a Fu Manchu in seasons 5, 6, and 7. Yeah. Looks really good on her.

Yeah, it's well groomed. It's not a distraction. No, not at all. I like the opening shot of this episode is the Enterprise alongside the USS Repulse, which is another starship. And it's a design that I don't feel like we see very often on the show,

but I always like seeing the Enterprise hanging out with another Federation ship. Yeah, we get like a protracted sort of prologue scene of the ship exterior with some fun or cast-real music. And then we duck into a shuttle bay and we get a really sophisticated CG scene of like a shuttle taking off and leaving the shuttle bay. And then we cut to the bridge and we get a winner.

Like, I think it's the first winner that we've gotten of any length in the series so far. And would it surprise you to know that our friend, friend of the show, Rob Bauman directed this one? Not in the slightest. Well, I think we're in good hands right away because right after we cut into the bridge

from the shuttle bay, there's a 42nd Steadicam shot from data at the science station, past war. Yeah, and this shot is all about revealing that warf has changed to a yellow uniform that Riker has a beard. It almost implies that Riker is the captain for a second because he's he's rocking the captain's seat. Yeah, like all you have to do is grow a beard and you're the captain now. Look at me. Look at my beard. I'm the captain now. In between season one and two, captain Picard beamed himself into space again, but this time we didn't bother getting him back. Yeah, we get a, we get a look at the bridge and those wood panels have been removed.

Yeah, things are looking good on the Enterprise. Yeah, and also, we're getting really production geeky about this, but everything's lit better. Yeah. I don't know, it just looks like a better show right away. I agree. I think that there's a lot that they're continuing from season one, but the fit and finish detail stuff is just noticeably better already. Yeah.

Yeah. You need to throw the keys to the show to a guy you can trust, and that's why you throw them at Rob Bowman. Yeah. So, here's what's going on. The enterprise is onboarding their new chief medical officer, the highly controversial Dr. Catherine Polasky, controversial because she's a marm and is incredibly bigoted against data and is not half as likable as Gates McFadden.

Yeah, I mean, I guess the backstory is that Dr. Crusher goes back to... Yeah, she's gonna head up Starfleet Medical, I believe. She's probably happy to get off that ship. After all of the emotional trauma of knowing that your son Wesley, the boy, is in the clutches of a predator. You just don't want to see it anymore. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's, you know, some parents would take their kid with them when they

fled that, but you can't hardly blame her. So, Pulaski's coming on board board and Jordi meanwhile is working out a Crazy containment system because the enterprise is once again going to be transporting some Medical shit from one place to another and this medical shit happens to be a highly dangerous MacGuffin that could you know kill everybody on the ship in 11 seconds if it gets out of containment. It's like viruses and stuff. Yeah, the best McGuffins are the most fatal and they're transporting dozens of them.

Yeah, so they have this weird like, there's like honeycomb pod that they're constructing in one of the cargo bays and Jordi's gonna need all this extra warp power to replicate everything he needs to replicate. And Ryker says, while the second you get it all replicated, I need you to slam as much power into those warp missiles as you possibly can.

Yeah, this whole scene takes place in the ready room where we get our second Riker maneuver, testicular safety sit down, that I can recall. Yeah. And then we get the very first reverse Riker when he pops up out of the chair and swings his leg over on the way out.

Which I feel like is almost more of a Riker maneuver because how unnecessary. It's so great. It almost puts his balls at more risk than he has saved them from with the frontward riker maneuver because you can't see what you're backing up into. Right. If you dangled them into a headrest on your way out, I think that could really cause some damage. I think he's considered that. So they get what they need from this ship that's pulled up alongside,

and they go off cruising to deliver their plague to wherever they need to deliver them to. And as they leave, a little beam of light like Tinkerbell appears and then follows the ship and then is cruising around the interior of the ship. Yeah, and Data's picking up some funky readings, but they never quite put it together that there's something entering the ship. There's a couple of funny scenes where it will sneak behind a bulkhead

while two people pass so that they don't see the tinkerbell light floating around in the hallways. Yeah, it's making that tinkerbell sparkly sound to you. Yeah, but eventually this light goes where basically anybody that boards the enterprise hopes one day to go inside the entire, that's so hard. Like I really like said that. Oh God. You know, I was hoping to take this scene a little bit seriously because it is actually like a depiction of rape.

Like the light cruises into Diana's quarters. It goes up under her sheets as she's sleeping and it sort of disappears at around groin level. And then she's a woken like Dan Acroid and Ghostbusters. I remember this scene being more chased seeming. Yeah. And it's pretty like it is pretty explicitly a thing going into her vagina. It's explicitly vaginal.

Yeah, which is like, yeah, that's pretty intense. It's a pretty intense thing to even imply on television, you know, at 6 p.m. on a weeknight. Yeah, kind of a lot to process. Two big things up, not big, go, not big. Quite a big, not big, not big, not big, not big, not big, not big, not big, not big, not big. We're back on the bridge a little later, and Captain Card's wondering where the hell We're back on the bridge a little later and

Captain cards wondering where the hell dr. Plasky is. I mean he hasn't even met her yet He doesn't even remember what her name is Dr. Plasky sir. Yeah, it's pretty standard protocol for an officer of her Of her stature to at least give a what's up to the captain So the captain decides to go find her. So he just goes on foot to hunt her down. And this is another season two surprise. We get a new location, which is the 10 forward lounge and a new beloved cast member, which is Gynon. That's right.

So the doors open and they reveal this rotating restaurant type scene. The 10 forward lounge is on the very front of the ship. It's a beautiful place. You get to see everything. Yeah. Lots of windows. And our friend, Wippy Goldberg, is tending the bar. A fun fact, same costume that she wore in Cyster Act.

People have made that joke a thousand times, right? I'm not, I can't be the first person to say that. No, no, not at all. I've never heard that before. So the card strolls in fully intending to big dog, Polaski, in a, where the fuck have you been, kind of manner. Strolls up to Polaski who's sitting with Troy, and he's like, what's up?

I thought we were gonna meet, and Polaski's's like Dr. Protocol may have been lacks in your last assignment But here on the enterprise and you better listen to this. Deanna's pregnant and Then it's done done done music. Yeah, and then what follows is the most awkward pregnancy McLaughlin group ever pregnancy McLaughlin group ever. Issue one. We're in the conference room with all of the bridge crew. And off by yourself is Diana Troy sitting at the very other end of the table. And what we get here is a really skin crawly conversation about what they should do with the pregnancy.

It's like all the dudes on the ship suddenly think that it's their place to weigh in. And you know, they sort of line up along very predictable character lines. Warf is like, kill it, kill it now, kill it with fire. Data is... Warf wants to basically like drop her off at Kaiser. Like, like, he is is so stone cold about this.

Yeah, don't date War if you're 16, ladies. Data is really curious and makes the case that this is an opportunity to interact with an alien life form. But there's some pretty intense debate that sort of gets drowned out in Troy's head. And she, at a certain point, just kind of like slams her fist on the desk and says, you all need to shut the fuck up my body, my choice. I'm going to have this baby.

Peace, bitches. Yeah, she's like, I'm going to have this baby. Peace, bitches. Yeah, she's like, I'm going to keep my baby. Yeah. Warf don't preach. I got to say, like, Riker's pretty cool about it. Like, he is not nearly as upset as he was when she was about to marry the aha guy. I mean, he's upset.

From take on me. He's like, he's like a little miffed that he didn't know that she was dating anyone, you know? Yeah, his first question was, who's the father? Yeah, he says, I don't mean to be an delicate and then ask the most delicate question he can ask. Oh, sure. I think if there's ever an episode

when Reiker needs his leaning wall, it's this one. Yeah, and it's nowhere to be found. This story has two things growing. It's got Troy's baby growing in her belly. And my love for Seymour Castle in a hazmat suit. I'm Lieutenant Commander Hester Del,

Medical Trustee. Oh God. Growing in my chest. Yeah. Our love for Seymour Castle could not be greater. Special guest star Seymour Castle, who joins the many senior actors who have been on this show with very, very ill-fitting

uniforms. Like, it could not be dumpier. So he is a Starfleet medical official who is personally, has personally taken responsibility for this highly, highly contagious cargo that they're taking on board. And so every, like, when we first meet him, they're, uh, they're FaceTiming down to the planet that he's on. And he's in like, he's in like a, a, a hazmat suit that looks like it's taken several steps back from what we had in the movie outbreak.

But it's somehow, you know, hundreds of years futuristic from that. Boy, they really don't give his character much to do, and he does a shit ton with it. Of course he does. He's one of the great character actors of our time. I love him. Oh man, so so fun to see him in this episode. So he's he's worrying with with Jordy about getting the samples and meanwhile Troy and data are worrying about getting a baby delivered because the thing about this baby is that it is developing at an extremely accelerated rate like you know they will they'll they'll do an ultrasound hours apart and the fetus is weeks or

months more developed than it was the last time they took a look. And so the delivery scene comes and it's pretty intense. Like data is sort of surrogate father character despite the incredibly bigoted protestations of Dr. Polaski. Dr. Polaski, the counselor Troy is going to need the comfort of a human touch and not the cold hand of technology. Yeah, if you're going to pick someone from the bridge crew

to be sort of the midwife, like you couldn't do better than data. No. So nurturing and fully functional. Yeah, you know he's seen that before. Yeah, Warf shows up with the Dustbuster Club and I don't know if you noticed this, but I think it was the same to Dustbuster Jocks that they had in the finale episode of season

one that were supposed to clear that Rich Banker guy off the bridge. It's their A-list Dustbuster Club. But strange to need armed guards in a delivery room. You know who else shows up in this episode for the first time since I think season one episode one is a transporter chief O'Brien. Right. He was sort of an anonymous bridge guy in the first episode of season one and he is back with a job title in this episode. It's hard for me to think of chief O'Brien without thinking of, are you familiar with the Chief O'Brien at work, comics? I've seen a few of them, yeah, they're pretty amazing. God, they are so great. I actually like them so much, I just got

like a comic book of them. Oh, nice. Yeah, they're created by this guy, John Adams, and like the life of Chiefifo Brian, it has interpreted by him, is just like a hilarious nightmare escape. Yeah. That I can't help but think about every time I see him on screen. So much pathos in that comic.

Did you notice that, you know, as Troy's pregnant, that she gets a scene where she kind of waddles around pretty much, fully pregnant at that point? Yeah, her space maternity garb. Yeah. She walks onto the bridge and takes her seat next to the captain's chair. And Picard asks how she feels and she goes,

oh, I'm fine. I'm better than fine. The look on Riker's face in that scene, and then he turns to the con, and he says, standard orbit. Like his voice totally cracks. Like that was such a throw away scene for me, but I had to rewind it and play it back again.

Like there was some real subtle character building there that I thought was just hilarious and play it back again. Like there was some real subtle character building there that I thought was just hilarious. That's pretty good. Can we talk about the upright pregnancy chair with stirrups? Yeah, space stirrups. Yeah, she's basically sitting in an upright,

reclined position, which, I mean, I've never, I've never delivered a baby, but that seems, that seems strange, right? Yeah, I mean, that baby's just gonna fall right out unless somebody is there to catch it. But Worf's there with Dustbuster Club, like they're gonna shoot it or something. Right.

They're gonna be ready for that. Right, just in case it's like a xenomorph or whatever. Right, but Troy is having the baby and is experiencing no pain at all. And that's another kind of spooky thing about this whole pregnancy, No pain ever. Yeah. Like her belly is growing by the hour and she's not hurting.

There's no stretch marks. She's a she's experienced no pain during the actual birth itself. And it's super cool. Yeah. She feels great afterwards. Yeah. And like I think, you know, a couple of hours afterwards, Paul Aski says, like, if I examined her now, I would not be able to tell that she'd had a baby

Recently or ever. Yeah, like it all snaps right back Which I think if you see Riker in this scene like he's sort of nodding like all right. Okay. Okay. All right. Yeah 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 Sherry Reembarishment Tour is coming in August 2023, and we've got a bunch of dates in a lot of great places. Go to GreatestGenTour.com to get more info. That's GreatestGenTour.com for dates and ticketing information for the Sherry Reembarishment 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 get stupid with Judy Greer. My friend Molly and I call it having the spaceweirds. Pat Noswald. Could I get a ball-rock burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you. And Camille Non-Giani. I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which is impossible to use. Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org. I've come back with cat toothbrushes, which is impossible to use.

Come get stupider with us at MaximumFun.org. Look, your podcast apps are already open. Just pull it out. Give Jordan Jesse Goatry. Being smart is hard. Be dumb instead. Whoa, rats, hey, they're gone. I've got to count you in line. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line. And boy, what do I? These giraffes do not smell good. No they do not and they've such short neck. But I'm hearing we need to get on this side. We gotta get on the art. Yeah. It's about terrain. It's about to destroy humanity. Hey oh sorry sorry sorry

are you Noah? Yeah I know we look like humans. We're actually we're podcasters. We are podcasters so it's different. Have you heard of Ono Ross and Carrie? We investigate spirituality, claims of the paranormal, stuff like that. And you have a boat and say the world's gonna end, so seem like something for us to check out. We would love to be on the boats. We came two by two. What do you think? Ono Ross and Carrie, available on MaximumFun.org. This episode is really at Marina Certis' expense, isn't it? God, it really is.

Yeah, they wrote this episode at the Dienicroy character. I feel like, but we are also riffing at her. I feel slightly guilty about this, but anyways, by the time Picard comes to meet this baby, it is by all appearances a four-year-old boy who can talk. Hello. And by the time he sees it again, it's like an eight-year-old boy.

Please don't worry, everything is okay. This is a situation which started as creepy and became creepier because kids with super intelligence is sort of the scariest thing ever to me. Like the kid from the pets' cemetery is like, is an example of this. Sometimes that is better. Yeah.

Like, he is definitely displaying the signs of pets' cemetery kid. Right. He stares at you deeply. He talks in a very sophisticated manner, older than his age, for his imagined age. It's creepy.

Yeah. And great casting on the two kids, because I guess they're probably brothers or something, but they look like damn near identical, but separated by four years in age. Like Mary Kate and Ashley Olson Wait, how's that work? You didn't know that

They're like four years apart I went to college at NYU at the same time as them and I Only saw one of them once and I don't know which one it was, but she got on an elevator that I was on going down from like the ninth or tenth floor of this building. And it was just the two of us and her two huge bodyguards. And the elevator got to the ground floor. One of them put his hand on my chest and detained me in the elevator until she could get off and get into the suburban that was idling on the curbside waiting for her. And I felt so offended that he had taken the liberty of preventing me from getting

off the elevator because, you know, like, I mean, he touched me. So weird. Yeah, right on the bathing suit area, too. So there was no eye contact between you? No, she was on her blackberry the whole time. I could have been your moment. Yeah, I know. Could have been a rich man.

You got it, dude. So our B story has to do with the virus samples inside the shuttle bay. And wouldn't you know it? Our McGuffin is gone cray. That McGuff cray. Yeah. So some unknown force is causing one of the samples to grow, which is I guess they're like supposed to be inert biological samples, and if they're growing the containment field can only hold them so long, and if they get out of the containment field, it's everybody's ass.

So it's a pretty full-blown emergency going on on the B storyline. And like you know it's a full blown emergency because you get a crash zoom into Seymour Castle's face. Like the cards on the blow are asking him how dire the situation is and they just like run from across the shuttle bay into his face with the camera. And he was like,

Very. The focus puller get on a letter and jump off of it and kick the zoom function on the camera on this way down. It was massive, it was so great. And because it seemed more casserole, like that only makes it better, I think. Oh man, it's so good.

Dommok, Angelo, and Denarger. Dommok, Kage, Angelo, and... ...Denogra, ...Domokrigage, Angela, ...and... ...Denogra. We should talk very briefly about the C storyline, which is... ...Wesley... ...The Boy. ...Undergoing...

...some Unwee, surrounding the fact that his mom is no longer there, and he is supposed to ship off to Starfleet Academy at some point. And you know, he has like a pretty long scene in 10 forward staring into the stars and Gynon comes up and talks him off the proverbial ledge a little bit. There's another scene where he and Picard are on the turbo lift and Picard is like really awkward and weird about it in sort of the way a jilted lover would be around somebody who's leaving for a long time. Exactly like that.

Like that was the direction. I feel like he got. Yeah, the whole idea is like Wesley's gotta go continuous studies off the ship and he's really gonna miss it. The place is great. The enterprise feels like the place to be for him. Yeah, and Guy's really going to miss it. The place is great. The enterprise feels like the place to be for him. Yeah, and Gynon's, uh, Gynon's seen with him is so, it's really nice. Yeah, because her point is like the expectations on Wesley are massive. He's, he's been called the,

the Beethoven of engineering. Like people are expecting him to go study and become this great officer. But like the conflict within him is that you know the enterprises kick ass He really wants to stay on there to get into all the adventures. Yeah, and and Picard's there Yeah, how's he got how's he gonna leave him? Yeah, he's got a little bit of Stockholm syndrome at work. I would I would guess Very much so so wouldn't you know it? They track the containment breach to something called Ikener radiation, which is coming out of the eight-year-old Ian, the son of Councillor Troy, who has been pretty coy about explaining what's going on, why he's there. At one point they ask him, why he's there and he says he's not quite ready to tell them. That was the scariest part, right?

He basically outs himself as a malevolent creature at that point. You know, like up until then, he's like playing with puppies and like sort of acting cute like a kid. But when Picard addresses him directly and is like, we know you look like a kid, But when Picard addresses him directly in this like, we know you look like a kid, but what's up? He's like, he says, I can't tell you yet in the child voice, but inside of him imagining like the devil voice inside him. Yeah.

In like the tongue of Mordor. There is no Dana, there is only Zool like that kind of voice. Yeah. And realizes that he is putting the ship at danger and decides not to be the evil ghost alien that he could and perhaps should be. And he sort of evaporates into a dust of clouds that coalesces into that same point of light.

And Deanna Troy cups that light in her in her hands and has a very emotional sort of goodbye moment with it before it disappears. Yeah, she completely falls apart and like ugly cries. Yeah. Pretty hard. Like, it's probably like she's more emotional at this than I think anyone on the show has been about anything, including the death of Tasha Yar. Yeah, and I thought that Marina's expertise,

for what this episode asked of her, I thought she really rose to this challenge. I thought her performance was really top notch in this episode. Yeah, I think so too. She did great. But yeah, so the ship is no longer in danger and all's well. The end of the episode is business is taking place on the bridge. And Wesley has confessed to Picard that he does not in fact plan on shipping out to the academy and would like to stay on board.

So Picard announces this to the bridge crew and says that Wesley is not going to be leaving after all, but he needs people to step up and fill in where his mother would have been. So like war volunteers to tuck him in at night. Can you imagine how tightly he tucks those sheets in on you? Oh yeah. Some people sleep with their sheets tucked in and some people sleep with them out, but I think a warrior sleeps with them tucked in right? Yeah. Those are warrior sheets.

Mm hmm. I sort of I sort of felt like maybe the implication of this scene was that Picard was handing off molestation duties to Riker. Oh, I don't think so at all. Riker is not into that. Riker could get anyone he wants. I don't know. What a growing up than that. It's my belief number one that you're best qualified to supervise that. You willing to serve? Yes, I can do that. Think it through for yourself. I think the implication is in there.

Oh, I sort of got it as a commander, Rikers can teach you how to be a man. And then, like, Rikers got that knowing look, like, oh shit, we are gonna use up all my holodeck tokens. It's gonna be great. Oh, man, at least just once they would show them putting the tokens into the little coin slot in the wall next to the holodeck.

Yeah. Do you think when Riker scores big, tokens into the little coin slot in the wall next to the hall of deck. Yeah. Do you think when Riker scores big, it gives him a bunch of tickets that he can go then redeem on the 10 forward? Yeah, he uses his tickets on Lube. I am the cute as a ball. There are four lights. So, yeah, I mean, it's worth doing the tux. Riker doing the flux

Like does data get a job? I think maybe data is on school patrol or something like that. I can't remember Oh, yeah pretty much the coolest latch key kid situation you could get yeah, right? Got a little bit of a commission and you maybe the coolest three dudes in the in the federation are Or looking after you. You can't help but be cool in a situation like that. Well, I really like this episode. It's a very unusual way to start a season of television once again, but I don't know. I liked it.

Yeah, I did too. It was real strong. The production values are still like a thing I keep thinking about. They are so much better than in the first season. Yeah. Just really great. It looks like a real show now.

A real show that people can care about. As you were watching the episode, did you come across any drunk Shimotas? Incredible. Dr. Shimota! I'm gonna go with Dr. Hester Delth, the C-more castle character. Oh, and by the way, we got taken to task

on our iTunes reviews for explaining what Dr. Shimoda is every time. Really? Somebody gave us like a bad review based on the fact that we take the time to explain what it is. I feel like the reason we do that is it's like the only kind of inside joke thing on the show that I don't feel like would be obvious to a new listener.

And since we don't know like which episode comes out we'll have a thousand new listeners or a hundred new listeners, we explain it. Okay. Yeah, how many listeners does that guy have? Right. So like there's plenty of precedent in podcasts for explaining what a segment is about. Yeah, we're trying to be an inclusive show here. Yeah. So the only revenge that we've ever successfully enacted on these types

of jerk faces is having everybody else go to iTunes and leave us nice five star reviews and bury their shitty attitude. Yeah, five stars for us, not helpful reviews for that guy. Geez, we're just trying to... Just trying to make a star trek podcast here and talk to people about the embarrassment that it inflicts on our lives as we do it. But Drunk Shimoda is our award for a character who's acting drunk silly, just having a great time. And Hester Delt is my pick because, you know, for all of the intense shit that he has on his shoulders and all of the like times that he tries to explain to everybody how serious it is that they maintain

containment on these samples. He never gets completely beside himself. He only seems like he's having a pretty good time. He's like, I'm on a cool space adventure. Yeah. With some cool, some cool biological samples. He seems real happy to be there. I like that. Could you have some more, Castle? This might be just recency bias, but he's also one of the first aged characters on the show that hasn't kicked another officer in the face. So that's kind of a streak that's been broken with this character, right? Yeah, nice of him to avoid doing a roundhouse and do any of the other characters grill.

Yeah, yeah, he resists the temptation to go full Gregory Quinn on someone. My nomination for Drunk Shimoda is Warf, which I think might be the first time he's been nominated for a drunk Shimoda. Interesting. For two reasons. One is the whole not even trying to be subtle about the idea that he wants Troy to abort her baby. Like, look, you can be classy about that position if you want to be.

And he is like, he is like talking like she's not in the room. It was kind of horrifying. Yeah, that is some some real mainline misogyny right there. Yeah, and look, he's told that it's not going to happen, but he still walks into sick bay with the dustbuster club and basically like three phasers ready to shoot a baby. So that's fun. Yeah. The second reason is this is the first time I can remember seeing dwarf puffs, which

are the puffs of chest hair sticking out of the top of his uniform. Did you notice this? I must have missed it. They shoot him really up close during the second half of the episode, and he is just puffing out. Yeah. Well, they shoot him up close because the makeup on Wurf is light years ahead of where it was last season.

Yeah, yeah, it's a much better looking meatloaf this time. Mm-hmm. Some well-done meatloaf. But yeah, Wurf Puffs for the first time. Woo! We get some Wurf Puffs and we get some reverse riker. Pretty great start to the season, I think. Indeed.

I am a cute and a ball. You are a ball. What do we have coming up on our next episode? Season 2 Episode 2 is called Where Silence Has Lease. The crew is held hostage in a mysterious void by a being who wishes to observe the many ways in which humans die. Do you remember this one, Adam? I do. I remember this one being a real creepy, like almost scary episode.

Yeah, I watched it the first time. I feel like this episode is almost the episode, I think of first when I think of Star Trek, the next generation, because there are so many episodes where they get caught in some kind of spatial anomaly. Yeah. And I feel like this really is like the wellspring of that. You know, in a way, they're like, oh, we can just do this.

Like, they don't have to encounter any aliens. We don't have to come up with any crazy makeup at all. Right. It's just the ship is in a trap episode. So I'm looking forward to it. Would you use one of our reinstated vetoes on this episode? Yeah, that's right. There's been a lot of chatter about whether or not we're bringing back vetoes for the season. I'm here to tell you, vetoes are here to stay. All right. It's a tension that we're keeping on the show. It's as tense of a situation with these videos as it is, a welcoming situation when we describe what drunk Shimoda is. So back off, I will not

veto this episode. I have, I'm really excited to see it. I haven't seen it a long time, and I'm interested to see if it holds up. Right on. Well, are you? I'm not going to see it. I haven't seen it a long time and I'm interested to see if it holds up. Right on. Well, um, are you? I'm not going to veto it either. Of course, now we've got Lux on a Troy episodes to see more. Yeah, and Q episodes too. I don't agree. All right, well, I'm excited to see it. We will watch that one and then we'll record another episode. Until then, that sounds like a plan, Adam. Yeah, that's what we do around here. If you have anything to tell us about how we're doing or just want to talk to other listeners of the show, you can hop on to Twitter and use the hashtag GreatestGen.

You can find me and Ben on there too. I'm at Cut for Time. He's at BenjaminR, a HR. Send us an email. You can follow our, find our email on our website, gach.biz. And if you're a true fan, you know how to spell that. That's right. We should thank Dark Materia for our lovely theme music.

The best theme music. Really? Really. Dark Materia's theme music that we stole. That's right. But I, I, I consistently think that it might be the best part of our show. Every time I dip into an episode to make sure everything sounds good, when it shows up in the feed, I'm like, man, what a great song. Really is. Well, with that, we'll be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek,

the next generation and another pretty mediocre episode of the greatest generation. We strive for mediocrity. See you then. Bye. Make it sound, make it sound.