The Greatest Generation - Yeomans are for Fucking (DS9 S5E16)

Episode Date: December 2, 2019

When Dr. Bashir’s parents discovered they had a Ralph on their hands, his paste-eating was cured at the genetic level. But when those same parents accidentally reveal their conspiracy at his workplace, he has a difficult choice to make. What’s the worst thing you’ve eaten at a job? Is service industry experience a prerequisite for having a kind face? How difficult is arguing a case before a “judge ex machina”? It’s the episode that’s the stuff of fantasy and/or nightmares!

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 friendsofdecotoforlabor.com. That's friendsofdisotoforlabor.com. Link in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show. Here's to the finest generation Deep Space Nine. Say, Star Trek Deep Space Nine podcast from a couple of guys who are a little bit embarrassed to have a Deep Space Nine podcast.

I'm Ben Harrison. I'm Adam Pranica. Well, Adam, the Coco No No episode is upon us. Yeah, big time. It's a very strange feeling because we haven't recorded this show in many weeks because we pre-recorded a lot to do the bulk of our tour. Right.

Which is now all of that is behind us. And now I'm trying to remember what the last thing that happened on the show was. And I was very grateful that this episode didn't really draw on my knowledge of any previous episodes in any big way. Yeah, it was nice to come back to the show with a great big drink. Yeah, what what are you sipping on tonight? I am on my second pint glass of Pini Kalata And there's I think two more of those in the blender that I will be going up for at intervals I deem necessary once I Finish this I'll go back up and get another

deep necessary. Once I finish this I'll go back up and get another. Peanuts halada is a beverage that you helped me appreciate and knew because I feel like when you're a college kid your experience with Peanuts halada is the plastic bottle and rum and a blender and that if that is all you know of a Penacleada and you haven't actually made one with coconut milk and pineapple juice. Yeah. You're really missing out. It's a great cocktail. It's famous for a reason. Yeah. I'm surprised to hear you're going pint glass because you recently went on a rant in my presence about how you don't want a bloody Mary in a pint glass. Look, I love a spicy cocktail. I love a spicy meal, but that is one cocktail that I want a short glass of. I feel like a pint glass of bloody Mary's is too much. It's kind of the standard these days.

I know, but it is just a pint glass of acid in a way that does not agree with me. It's just a personal problem. What did you think of those bloody seizures we had in Toronto? Well, the thing about that cocktail that we had in Toronto was that the lower quarter of the glass was basically a sludge made out of horse radish and ice and clamselon tro. So it wasn't even like drinkable in a conventional sense. It was just right. It filled the glass. It was sort of a semi-liquified salad. Right. Yeah, it was delicious. Had had great hangs there with friend of the show Chris Bowman. It's fun to catch up with him again.

Our good buddy. You're ex. He's not my ex. He and I talk quite a bit about what it's like to be friends with you post podcast. And he had a lot of instructive thoughts for me. Thoughts that are going to help me transition into a post podcast with Ben Lifestyle. Is that something that's been on your mind a lot lately? Well, we keep doing those LinkedIn ads. Ben, I mean, I can't help it. I could be replaced at any time once you find the right candidate. You're minding a lot lately. Well, we keep doing those LinkedIn ads. Ben, I mean, I can't help it. Think about it. Oh, yeah.

I could be replaced at any time once you find the right candidate. I was inspired by our last conversation about the Cocoa Nono episode to find a way to work cremde-banan into my beverage. Yeah. And I found a recipe on the Reddit cocktail sub for something called a banana hammock, And I found a recipe on the reddit cocktail for something called a banana hammock, which is essentially a banana miteye.

Oh. And I sort of mashed that up with my frozen daiquiri drink that I occasionally make on the show and replaced the water that I include with that drink with coconut juice. Get that water out of there. Not coconut milk, but like the kind of coconut juice you get in the juice aisle.

Yeah, the stuff that people drink after a workout for hydration. Yeah, it's, no, no, not even that. You're talking coconut water. Oh, yeah. I'm talking about, this is like adjacent to cranberry juice and pineapple juice. And I think the main ingredient is actually white grape juice, but it tastes like coconut. That sounds pretty nice. You know, I didn't go out and get the crammed

up an end that I promised I would because I am under strict rules not to purchase any more bottles of anything before we moved down to LA. Oh yeah. Especially one like that which is fun and funny to have but you're never going to finish it before you move. Yeah. So I went into the cupboard and the liquor cabinet to make this cocktail, and I'm happy I did.

We had all the stuff already. That was the right move. Hey, speaking of objects showing up in your life, we still have a PO box in Seattle, and I think the conch needs to be passed. I think I need to take over PO box duty for a while because you've been doing Yomans duty, the custodian of our physical inbox, but you're not going to be in Seattle anymore.

And as long as we're changing what the PO Box address is, I think it would be fair for me to be the person that is custodian of it going forward for at least a little while. Well, Yomans are for fucking, and yeomans get fucked on Star Trek and now my long nightmare of PO box checking is coming to an end. But not before I go through some of the packages we've received recently banned, why don't we get to those? Let's do it. Captain, I'm sorry to disturb you.

I'm receiving a Code 47. Verify? It is Code 47, sir. Stockly emergency frequency. Captions eyes only. Ben, right on top, we've got a postcard. Well, from one of our best friends of DeSoto, it's from Anne Kielzer. Hey! Didn't Anne move to Japan? She did.

Ann writes Adam and Ben once again. I am in Shimoda and by that, she means Shimoda Japan. She continues though I've fallen behind on DS9. I very much enjoy friendly fire. Hey! Thanks for making me laugh. See, that's a little hidden plug for our hit podcast,

Friendly Fire. That's great. From friend of Disodo and Kly Fire. That's great. From friend of DeSoto and Kildsar. That's great. It sounds like she's still doing great out there. That is a terrific country. I really enjoyed visiting it the one time I got to go.

Their second postcard is from Yvnian Bank. And it reads, open a new business checking account and receive the $350 bonus. Wow, a $350 bonus. Wow! A $350 bonus! Opera expires November 30th. So, uh... That'll make up some of the shortfall from our most recent tour. You know, you can only have a PO box so long before you start getting junk mail.

And, uh... There's our first piece of junk mail. Fuck you, Union Bank! Eat a bag of shit! Then we've got a... Third... Piece of mail here. It is from Zoe, from...

Somerville, Massachusetts. Hehehe. I do that thing, I don't know if you do this, but I open letters by tearing the side of them open. Instead of going in over the tap. And what I've done is I've torn the letter, but not the part that I need to read, it's fine. There's a letter and what we have here are a number of, oh these are great, these are, these are the fan sets pins that we saw at Star Trek Las Vegas, there's a bunch of these. Oh neat!

Fan sets pins of a bunch of different characters. Oh, these are very cool, I'm gonna now Jackie bunch of these. Oh neat. Fan sets pins of a bunch of different characters. Oh, these are very cool. I'm gonna now Jackie and Laurie these. Just a moment. But I'm gonna read you the letter and the letter goes like this. Hi, Ben and Adam. Thank you for all the laughs and the wonderful and often genuinely thoughtful commentary. It has been a delight rewatching this wonderful show with you and watching new Star Trek for the first time. Which brings me to these small gifts enclosed. Some fun pins enclosed to find Lurson Batur, Admiral Bob and Captain Killy. May you carry these strong women and their boob windows.

Long live Admiral Bob,, thanks for the laughs. Zoe. Admiral Bob's a hero. Yeah, she really is. I'm going to, I'm going to. She gave herself to save the ship. She really pulled a spock. She really did.

She just didn't get to download her contra end to anybody. Thanks, Zoe. That's super cool. I like the pins because they're super tiny and movable. Hahaha. Oh, man, these are great. Wow, there is another postcard in here that I did not see. Oh, it's a postcard. This postcard appears to be unsigned, so I'll just read it.

Somebody who like us is sort of hesitant about having their identity linked to this podcast. Postcard goes like this, do your Ben and Adam love the shows, long time greatest Gen viewer as well, as greatest discovery and friendly fire. Your podcast really helped brighten, adult day at work. Just please stop with the Bashir as a piss freak bit.

It's up there with Bacazby. Oh, I can see now why this person didn't sign. They're postcard, it's because they have a very unpopular opinion. Yeah, I think we'll talk more about that on this episode. So this may be where the person who wrote this postcard gets off board. Yeah. Okay, it's chance. Yeah, well, we lost this person.

Yeah. Thank you for the listening for the time that you did. RSVP that listener. Our next piece of mail, this is the penultimate piece of mail. Wow, this is from Jesse Thorn. Hey, it's Jesse Thorn. Did you get this? What? Hey, it's from Jesse Thorn. It's Jesse Thorn. I believe it's the same Jesse Thorn. Jesse Thorn. The instructions say do not bend And I have not Inside what we have is a magazine. It is the official magazine Star Trek the next generation makeup FX journal

Whoa, they post it note on the cover says hey guys. Hey, hope you enjoy this TNG makeup FX journal I found it in a thrift store in Chicago while I was listening to Greatest Gen weird huh love the show and friendly fire there is no fucking way Jesse Thorn listens to Greatest Gen I mean we would have been kicked out the network a long time ago he listened he he told me he told me recently about an episode he listened to and enjoyed. That's insane. Wow, well thanks for thinking of us Jesse. Well, you were out.

I'm gonna guess like, out doing the Judge John Hodgman live tour. That would explain why you were in Chicago. And the idea that he went into a thrift store while on tour tracks perfectly with what we know about Jesse. It's Jesse Thorne. So I believe it's him. He's a famous thrift'sman, and you can check out all of his great finds at the Put This On Shop, which you should definitely do. It's true.

It's a shop that I've even purchased things from, and I am not even stylish. So I got some cufflinks off of that shop recently that I wore to a wedding. Well, there you go. Thank you, Jesse. Final box box Ben. It's the end box Oh, I'll call it the music changes

the lights change Final box time this is coming to us inside a shutter fly triangular two box, you know what I mean? Oh like like something yeah, yeah, you know what I mean? Ooh. Like something, something central pulled up in there. Yeah, and yeah. Sure as shit, there's a rolled up thing in here. This is a picture of Morn wearing a pair of thumb underwear. It's a dipstick.

And if you're not familiar with that term, a dipstick is a photograph that has two halves of it. On the left is the front of Morn, wearing the golden, thong underwear, revealing very little to the imagination. On the other side, there is the back of Morn, which appears to show a, what is colloquially known as a tramp stamp of Deep Space 9. And is more than otherwise nude? Yeah, like there's the gold, the gold underwear is the only thing he's wearing and

more than is jacked. So I'm gonna go ahead and Jackie and Laurie you a picture of that Because I do not want these eyes to be the only one scorched by this Oh, hey, we know who this is from Ordered for you by Sam Tregar I don't know you know what I thought up until now Sam Tregar was a friend of DeSoto who liked what we did and we also liked him very much. Sam had been aggressively moving up through the power rankings, kind of going toe-to-toe with some of the heaviest purchasers of P1 messages, especially on the tour. Now, this? Really sends a message. It is quite a thing. Oh man. Wow.

Is it as I described, man? Jesus. I mean, I think that the thing that I wasn't envisioning about the banana hammock in question is that it looks very spaceship like, you know, it's got like a, it's got like knobs and dials on it. And also like from what we have posited about Morn, much much smaller than I was expecting. Is this the, is this the guy from Guardians of the Galaxy? I have famously huge turds. That Morn's head has been Photoshopped upon. Looks like there's a lot of stretch marks on Morn also.

Or a... or scarification? Boy, daddy thick. Morn is most definitely a thick king. Yeah, depending on the wiring of the viewer, the stuff of fantasy and or nightmares. Hey, I am taking a super long poll from IPnicalada after that. Oh man. And also expressing gratitude for everyone who sends even semi-newed posters of mourn to our greatest

Gen PO box, even you Sam Tregar. Thank you to everybody that sent something in. Bad. Yeah. As you tumble down the ranks of friends of Tisoto. Hope it was worth it. Well, Adam, we got a great big episode to get into. Yeah. And I feel we have terried too long.

Do you want to get into season five, episode 16, Dr. Bashir, I presume? Do you have enough drink to continue? I'm in myself a, like a big mixer tin, and I brought out a ice bucket full of pebble ice from my new pebble ice machine. That's so convenient. I'm like an idiot going up and down the stairs refilling my cocktail.

Like I'm in olden times. Huh, do you need to go refill? Go refill! Yeah, I'm gonna go refill. I'm gonna go refill and then never again. I'm gonna bring down a giant. I'm gonna like bring the picture. That's what I'm saying.

Yeah. What? Do you realize how many? What about this is? No, of course you don't. One thing that everyone on TV Space 9 knows is that Rom likes Lita and Lita likes Rom. And when are they going to get together? Lita broke up with Bashir to get with Rom.

Right. And this opening scene begins in Quarx, where ROM is creeping on leader, but is powerless. I wrote the word creep several times in my notes about this scene. Yeah. And I'm glad that you said it. I mean, what could just be a couple of brothers talking about a girl that one of the brothers likes. Really spirals into what in modern times, like here's the thing that we run into a lot, I think, on our hit war movie podcast, Friendly Fire, is that the time that a thing was made was made to be judged in the time that it was made

and so often the judgment of a modern time can be withering. And this is one of those scenes of Deep Space Nine that I don't think holds up particularly well. Well, this is something we've talked about all through Graze Gen 2, is that the TV depiction of the way relationships were this so weird in the 80s and 90s.

Like, I love you being like the first expression of two people getting into a relationship with each other, feels very alien to me here in 2019. Right, but at the time, like when I put myself back into an awkward high school and freshmen sophomore in college like fuck. I recognize a lot of what Ram is going through in in myself from those days. So I mean, hopefully ideally we've all grown up since then, but the ask out does not go well enterprise because ROM is sort of like siking himself up at the bar for the moment that he needs to do this and quark is there to encourage him and also be the audience

for this thing. ROM. You're regular poet. And it's hard to tell whether or not the audience is the thing that kneecaps ROM or ROM's lack of confidence or ability to do the thing, but he is unable to ask lead out. And it sure looks like this is something that's happened many times before. Quark very much Heisenberg's the the ask out where we don't know if it had happened in a vacuum whether it would have gone one way or the other, but by observing the ask out, Quark collapses the quantum state of ramen

lead his relationship into ambiguity. I don't know, Lita. Maybe he's just not interested in you. What makes the scene hard to tolerate now and maybe even then is that Lita is breathing hard enough to make you think that there is something sexually activated in her. Like there is nothing about her reception to Ram here that should make Ram feel like he shouldn't actually ask her out.

Like there is no deterrent. It's only Ram psyching himself out. And that's very difficult to watch. It is. And I think one of the things that feels old fashioned about this is that Lita is never even considering the possibility that she might be the first mover in this. Yeah.

And as a man who was asked out by the woman to whom he is now married for the first time, God, that just explained so fucking much. Jesus. I had a lot of these same nerves. And it was my wife that broke the ice, as it were. On a night, I must say that I intended to break the ice myself. I just hadn't, I hadn't

like gotten the gumption up. Yes. Right. Like the idea that like this episode never even considers that as a, as, as an option is. Yeah. Lita is ready to move away instead of ask a guy out that she likes. That's nuts. Right. Yeah. Maybe there is something going on in the writers room that they are trying to write this for a younger audience because it does feel very middle school, high school, in that way, but maybe it's just because it's, you know, 25 years old or something.

I mean, is this an all male writers room? One could make that assumption. I don't know. I wish I knew the answer to that question. It wouldn't be surprising. Quark is a loathsome character who should be in prison. You and I have agreed about this throughout our run of deep space 9. But his retrograde treatment of Lita here made me laugh and laugh particularly his line read of Show you do honey. That's why I argue just like

Leaning into the shit bag that he is in a way that like of course it's wrong of course. He's being a shit But that's what makes it funny. Yeah, the worst. Definitely peak quark in this scene. Leeda sits down to a break to three big slices of borsan cheese. And... Isn't that a hosporat? I mean, it looked like either cake or cheese to me that she was eating.

They didn't look like hosporat wraps in the way that we've seen them before. Oh yeah, because they're usually, the cylinder is usually on its side, not, uh, not facing up. What's the worst thing you ever ate on break from a job? Probably sandwiches. I used to make a bagel sandwich filled with potato salad.

From the grocery store that I worked in. Because you were on the Atkins diet? It made me feel bad. Very bad. But I'll tell you one thing, I wasn't hungry for the rest of the day. Was this a, like, a man-aisy potato salad or, like, a vinegar-y potato salad?

I mean, it's what you would get from a grocery store deli. Oh, boy. So, not good. Somebody brought bagels to our Toronto show from Montreal and I ate one of those bagels the next morning and I was very suspicious of them because they were given to us in plastic sleeves

like store bought bagels. My assumption is that good bagels come in paper bags and bad bagels come in plastic sleeves, but boy, that was a fucking great bagel and I didn't have anything on it. I didn't get I didn't toast it or anything I just ate it raw. I was gonna say the same thing you and I both raw dog those bagels and I think that's how you can tell the bagels really good. So if you'd like to kill us just come through the Merch line with a baked good at the next greatest gen live show We're doing a fine job killing ourselves as it is without any help from our viewers

That is true on the side of the scene is a dark scene between O'Brien I am chief miles Edwin O'Brien. This is fucking spectacular and she miles and would unbride. This is fucking spectacular! In this year, this is like the first scene of them together since Bishir's imprisonment on the gem-hidar, asteroid, and they have so much more in common now than ever before. Like, both of them have served very long prison sentences. Indeed.

How can this never be a topic of conversation for them? There should be a My Dinner with Andre episode where it is just Bashir and O'Brien talking about their prison experiences with each other. Honestly, like, Star Trek is very self aware about its greatest episodes I feel like. And when you get those, they feel like so much thought clearly was put into them.

This is right there to do. Yeah. And it's strange that it's left on the table. But, you know, we only have 26 episodes every season and we gotta move through this stuff. I know. Inter, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, who interrupts the Darts game with an exciting offer of immortality.

Dr. Zimmerman, of course, played by Robert Picardo. One of the greats and gets to say the title of the episode as his first line. That's fun. Dr. Bashir, I presume. And we Bashirized to commercial. Yeah. After the theme song, we come back and we get the explanation for his being on the station.

He is the Christopher Columbus of the Emergency Medical Hologram. You mean he killed tens of millions of Emergency Medical Hologram? That is exactly what I mean. He's sort of there and as a salesman in a strange way, he's taken this meeting with Cisco and he's like, look, there are a lot of benefits of these things. You know, like we're using them right now in stations and ships, but like consider

the idea of like the long-term medical hologram, the ones that would be stationed on isolated outposts and long-range exploratory vessels. Or ships that have been sent into the Delta Quadrant and are on a 75 year mission to get home. Guess what, doesn't have to hot bunk an emergency medical hologram. You just turn that fucker off. Yeah, there's only the briefest lip service pay

to the idea of like they're taking our jerbs reaction in this scene. And I really like that. That like these people that live in this post money future spend a moment considering the ramifications of that in terms of like people's careers, but it's actually not really that big of a threat in terms of like people's livelihoods. So there are practical use cases for this technology and the idea is, Beshear is going to be the model for the long term version of the EMH, which I think by this point there have been a couple of seasons of Voyager. So it's also sort of metacommentary on Voyager where like a big Running storyline is that they're finding out that the EMH is able to like grow and evolve as a as a full member of the crew on a long-term basis

But here in the alpha quadrant nobody knows about that Phenomenon if anyone's job is gonna be taken by a hologram of any kind It's gonna be opBrien's, right? Just the janitor of the station will one day be a hologram and you know this. So does O'Brien, but he never gives that voice. Well, well, programmer can tankerous hologram that has a bit of a weird relationship with his wife any day now. This is a long-term project.

Zimmerman wants to stay on the station for three weeks because he needs to make some modifications to the station that would allow him to begin the process of turning Bashir into this LMH as he's proposed. And it's a process that starts with a questionnaire of Dr. Bishir. You mean this program is going to include all his personal likes and dislikes?

And it feels a lot like applying for a job in the government. Like that's what it made me think of right away. Like it's a deep dive into a person personally, but they also do a background check that involves your friends and family. Right, it they also do a background check that involves your friends and family. Right.

It's like simultaneously a great honor and a very large scale invasion of privacy. And that's something that, you know, Bashir didn't gamble on. Like he's very enthusiastic to be showered with the, with the honor that this canotes on him and the, you know, the idea of being granted a form of immortality in the form of the LMH is very exciting to him, but the, you know, the other shoe drops as as the Zimmerman character starts to explain like all of the all of the prying that it is going to entail.

I don't feel like he's celebrating this at any point. He's just sort of like, oh yeah, obviously. Go to Kotlin. Go to Kotlin. So. This episode bounces back and forth between this A and B story fairly often, and that Bounce is fairly rugged because when we cut here to Quarks, we are at a very high angle shooting down to Lita as she sort of pit-bossing a dabo game.

And I mean, you can see her belly button through the top of her dress. Like that's how severe the angle is. As we pull back, we reveal that Bashir and Zimmerman are watching her from above. Zimmerman is regarding the delights that an angle like that can give to a person up in the balcony. Don't have anything like this on Jupiter station or like her. And they make eyes, Lita and Zimmerman. Also, mourn and unconsensual kiss and embrace here.

I thought for sure Lita was gonna slap that guy. Yeah. Here's the thing though, in defensive mourn, like when you win a lot of money gambling, you wanna reach for someone and embrace them. That's what I did to you in Vegas before we left Star Trek, Las Vegas. Right, you mourned me. I did. I was the Lita in that scenario. I didn't ask.

I just went on in. I felt weird about it. It was exciting. So I get it. This is the scene where Zimmerman kind of falls for Lita and who wouldn't at this angle? He asks Bishir, maybe the worst person he could possibly ask what her deal is. And this year's like, My name's Lita, my ex-girlfriend. And Zimmerman's like, cool. Was the end of their relationship the actual last thing Bashir experienced before being imprisoned? It's a great question.

I feel like we debated this a bit on one of the last couple episodes, but that has got to have been a rough time in prison. That's a real bag over the head punch in the face and then another punch in the face. Firstly, it adumps me now this. And then you get out of prison, like you think you're being showered with some super honorific thing

and the guy that's doing it is like, Hey, what's up with her? Odo steps in to interrupt the proceedings with a doctor Doctor? Oh, I see what you're looking at. Anyways, I'm a character on this show too. Bye-bye. Hey, guess what I can do? And he just like blows into his thumb, makes lead at its

Hahahaha Check these out. and he just like blows into his thumb, makes lead at its... BANG! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Check these out! Is there anything for ya? That was hard special! How would you like to see three of them? BANG! Wow. Odo drops an antidion reference here, which is great.

Going back to season one TNG, man. What a handsome voice. Back on the scene. I thought it was just amazing that they found a way to work the word titty into the proceedings. Lame. Anyway, the scene ends with Zimmerman getting the idea to interview Bishier's parents because Bishier says I would consider it a personal favor if you would sort of leave my parents out of it. And Zimmerman's like, I certainly understand.

And then Bishier leaves and he's like, note to self, interview Dr. Bishier's parents. It's a very dirty work moment, right? It is. Yeah. Note to self, making love to blow up, don't not as good as advertised. What did you make of that? Like, I wondered if the episode was implying that if Bashir had not protested so much, maybe his parents wouldn't have even come into play. It's like, it comes up and then Odo interrupts

and then Bashir circles back and that's, I feel like what sets the hook in Zimmerman to... Yeah, I mean, love him or hate him. Zimmerman's a professional and he wants to make a fully formed LMH Dr. Bersier. So of course, he's going to chase this down. That much was obvious and it didn't make me hate Zimmerman. There are other reasons to hate him, but that wasn't it to me. I'm not saying that it's something to hate him. I'm just wondering if the episode is implying that it was a bit on Bashir for making

such a big deal out of it. Yeah, and that's weird. Like if what you're doing is seeking to cover up a secret, the way to cover up a secret is not mentioning it at all. Like that's telltale heart shit right there. Yeah, I mean, you can either telltale heart it or you can perloign letter it, you know. You're either a telltale heart or a perloign letterer. Like, choose your side. Pick a lane, asshole. We get a couple of scenes of just like funny LMH versus

real Dr. Bishir scenes and like there's a scene where the hollow Bishir is like running into a wall and the LMH and the and the emergency medical hologram that we know up until now like the one that looks like Robert Bracardo like they have an interaction and they're super caddy to each other. Like, there's some comedy in this. That's pretty fun. Yeah, and the idea is that they're showing the LMH in early stages where there are a lot

of rough edges to sand off still. You know what I like? Is I like this for Alexander Siddick. I like that there's a scene here where his body is filled with the Robert Picardo version of the emergency medical hologram and he's sort of being a cat to the other one. I hope you're more interesting than you seem.

That's neat to see him act against his character a little bit. And then like there is a whole section of the episode that's just like singles on various main cast and recurring characters dragging Bashir as a character. Like, like, kind of doing all of the things that we have said about Bashir as their characters, like reacting to what he is like to be around as a guy. as their characters like reacting to what he is like to be around as a guy. And it's fun. David Livingston is the most prolific director

of Star Trek television programming. Yeah. And I think it's fun that we get all of these interviews, film straight to camera. I really like how it buss up this episode visually. It does a good job. And I think David Livingston is a director that gets that kind of latitude to get weird in an app. Yeah, you can, you can do a, an interior drawn,

right, Errol Morris set piece in, in there. And it's an episode that like basically doesn't have, you know, Jake or Worf. And it, you know, most of the main cast has almost nothing to do in this episode, but they all get their moments in this scene and it's a lot of fun. There's a real superpower to Chase Masterson that I want to call attention to here, which is not her brains or her other brains, but she has just a resting friendliness when she plays Lita. That is so warm and inviting that even during this interview scene,

where she's playing straight to camera, Zimmerman is being a creep in using a workplace situation to ask out what is a co-worker, basically. Would you have dinner with me this evening? But she is so warm in her reception of it that it kind of gets him off the hook. And this is the thing that she does constantly in this episode. Like, this is the difference between looking at an episode like this through a modern lens and what it would be to see it in 1997. Like, and I think it is Chase Masterson

that saves him a little bit if you were to watch this now. Like she is so accepting and fun and open and cool that if she were just even a little bit cold. Oh man, like it would be super withering. And would have aged even worse. It would be a bucket of ice water. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's a very like classic conundrum, like people that work in the service industry

and specifically women that work for tips have an affect that invites a lot of attention that is sometimes welcome, but is, you know, just as often unwelcome. And every dude I know has fallen in love with a barista that works at the coffee shop he goes to every morning. Right. Shout out to the barista that Ben's in love with. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha the fact that her character is receptive to it, you're right, totally excuses the advance

that he makes in this moment. It makes me want to know more about Chase Masterson in the sense that I wonder how many retail jobs she's had, or how many jobs she's had where she's worked for tips, because that seems like a quality of a person that you don't truly understand unless you've worked that kind of job. Yeah.

And she nails it. Whether or not she's had that experience, she's really got that. I'm a rain, come to a Ford, I'm a rain, come to a Ford. I'm a rain, come to a Ford. What are you doing? I'm a rain, come to a Ford. What are you doing now?

I'm a rain, come to a Ford. I'm a rain, come to a Ford. I'm a rain, come to a Ford. I'm a rain, come to a Ford. I'm a rain, come to a Ford. I'm a rain, come to a Ford. I'm a rain, come to a Ford. I'm a rain, come to a Ford. I'm a rain, come to a Ford. I'm down to the bottom of my second coconut here. And I believe Anne Kilser is the one that sent us these coconuts. Oh nice.

I've just put my straw right into the blender jar, so that's what I'm drinking out of now. Wow. I need to refill. You're going to do it? I'm refilling as we speak. All right. Don't you worry about me. You say you say the thing about Star Trek you meant you were about to say. Well, Zimmerman asks leaded to dinner and she accepts and it's a situation that ROM is able to eavesdrop on by twisting the sides of his ears to get reception.

Did we know that Fernaningys could tweak their ears into parabolic microphones before this scene? I feel like this is the first time. We knew that they had a good sense of hearing relative to other humanoids, but this like zeroing in on, you know, like the big clear, you know, half-dome microphone that you see on the sidelines of football games.

Yeah. Like, that is basically what he's doing, and he's getting a sense of what's going on in this date, which circling back to the word creep is super creepy. It emboldens him to interrupt their dinner I need to talk to you. And then fail once again at asking her out tomorrow. One would be a good time for me to fix a replicate. Oh,

Ram is second only to me in the self cock block. Yeah, but here's the thing. I don't feel like we would step up to the plate when it's time to ask a person out and then just eat shit. Like when it's time to ask, the ask is made. And Rom just cannot do it. Rom steps to the plate and then steps in front of the pitch. Mr. you gotta wear a helmet. Don't worry about it. He is eating shit here. Yeah.

And it's embarrassing. Later in Cisco's office, Dr. Bashir and Cisco are there talking about the situation when Bashir's parents drop in on them. Meet the Bashir's! What we got is a Brian George as Richard Bashir, who was a familiar with those who enjoy the show's sign-filled. You were late? Let me tell you something, Babu. You go back in that kitchen, tell your chef, I want the works.

Yeah. But playing Amshabishir is a non-professional actor named Fadwa El-Gandhi. And she was hired for this role. Like, part of the show notes for this episode are amazing, because everyone agrees that it is very difficult to, at this moment in time, this is 97, to cast and hire an Arab American actress. And it was very, it was a very specific choice. They wanted to hire an ethnically Arab actor to play Dr. Bashir's mom and they couldn't

find one. And so they hired Professor instead and that is this actor. This is her only credit. She's great. She's really great at this and it's not like they gave her throw away stuff to do. Like they didn't just give her a couple of lines later on in the episode. They actually give her a scene. Yeah. No, she's and she's really. I mean even when she's not speaking like I think that one of the big things that separates a pro from a non-pro is the moments when you don't have a line. And she is his mom.

She inhabits that character. When he is talking to his dad, she is going through what a mom goes through when a son and a dad have a dispute. A Shura Agdashlou does not exist in 1997. And so that is like a, that's like a way of saying we've come a long way, I think, and I hope, because she's a great actor. And I think it's probably someone like Fadwa here who blazed that trail in a strange way. Sure, Agdashlou has been an actor for a long time but was maybe a lot working outside the US. Yeah, that's what I mean.

Yeah. She has credits as early as 1976 and she has one in 1993 and then a gap until the year 2000 and she's been working very steadily ever since then. But yeah, this was not a time in Hollywood where, you know, and I think that's this may be a casting director problem. Right. Like, I think casting directors to their credit in the last few years have really started to change the way they think about the world. And I think are starting to encourage producers and directors to consider

underrepresented people for more roles. And obviously there's still a ton of progress yet to be made. But we're starting to see some movement in the right direction. And I've heard David Simon, the guy that created the wire talking about when they started to cast the wire that being a big problem, like people were saying, oh, like there won't be enough like talented actors of color to fill all the roles. Just fucking insane. And him just like railing against that that is fucking bullshit. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that like Ava DuVernay is doing things like having every single episode of an

entire season of TV be directed by a woman and stuff like like like people are really starting to rip down those really barriers that were erected by people's, you know, just failure to think past the thing right in front of them. Yeah, like some of the terminology used for casting this character was like it really blew me away. Like where do you find someone like a lady of Arab descent to play this role? Is there one even like it's insane to read about how they cast this role and how difficult they found it at the time Well, and I think that now you probably go to a casting director and say we need to cast a woman of a certain age

You know with air lineage that you know that will be plausible as Dr. Brashear's mom Right, and they might have 15 or 20 Options for you, right? So. So hopefully, hopefully, you know, the casting world gets better and better at this. But I think both of these characters are great. I think also to the writers' credits, like Bershier has been kind of an underwritten character and a weirdly written character for so much of this show. And to me, this episode spends a lot of time kind of sending up the old bishier, making some kind of right early amends for that, but also introducing these two characters

who are fucking delightful to watch, just true scenery. They are really Georgia's parents on Seinfeld, like not to keep calling back Seinfeld, but the cringe that a child feels when their parents are getting along and at your workplace and interfering in your work life just by being there like just by being themselves is such a specifically painful feeling and

And so well drawn here. Alexander Siddick is is really great at portraying that. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's really fun and like there's so many little moments like you know, he's like leading his parents out of Cisco's office and he like turns back for a moment just to look at Cisco and DAX and And you see that thing of being around our parents can sometimes just put us back in our adolescence, even as adults. And that is an instant that butts right up against

the scene where Zimmerman and O'Brien are messing around with the hologram version of Bessier and just having them walking to walls. Right. Yeah, it feels a lot like that when you're with your parents sometimes. It is really funny. Yeah. Morning.

Morning. Morning. Morning. Morning. Morning. Morning. This dinner with the Bashir family is something that sort of sharpens the comedy of the scene that comes before because it's not just that Dr. Bichir is uncomfortable with his mom

and dad being on the station. It's that Bichir's dad is kind of full of shit about a lot of things, but also they're covering for a dark secret. And it's a secret that Dr. Bashir is very serious about keeping. And it's something that he's encouraging his parents to keep as well. Like he's imploring them. Take this seriously. And in the scene, there's nothing specific said about what they're covering up, but it totally casts a cloud over all of the scenes to come. It's super good. Yeah. It's super dynamic and like

Bashir's dad is a bit of a charlatan doesn't have the same kind of professional esteem that Bashir enjoys and it blows up like Bashir winds up storming out because he thinks they're idiots and they are going to blow his cover. And what that could be is a bit unclear at this point. A couple of scenes ago, Zimmerman proposes that Lita move back to Jupiter station with him because they have a little sandwich restaurant there.

It's not very big. That Lita could run if she wanted to. And that first date went so well, even though it was interrupted by Ram, that maybe she should consider moving with him. And it's at this moment that Lita asks Ram what she should do. She flat out asks him,

what do you think I should do? If she has a reason to stay? And in this moment, I was hoping Rom would just put himself into a torpedo tube and shoot himself out into the Bajoran star because he's incapable of getting out of his own way about her. Yeah. And she's pissed at him about it. She is.

I mean, yeah. Like, it's very clear to both of them what's going on. And I thought that that was like pretty well drawn as well. Like doing something that hurts the person that you care most about because you are up in your head about something like that is I think anybody that's ever dated has probably slipped up and done something like that. It should make what happens toward the end of the episode impossible. Like I really don't find what Ram does here, forgivable.

Like he lets her go here. But that's the amazing thing about love right? There's a lot that you can forgive Yeah, guess so I mean isn't there But sheers parents come to see him in the hollow lab and they're like hey So what we were talking about at dinner at our private dinner? We need to talk about again in this lab with a lot of hidden corners and dark spaces. Anyway, we're never going to reveal the massive secret about you, which is that you're

genetically enhanced with DNA and sequencing that has been deemed illegal by Starfleet. And we're not going to drop the G-bomb. No, we would never do that. Anyway, see ya and then they leave and then like almost as soon as they round the corner, O'Brien and Zimmerman come from around the corner where they were and we're like What the fuck? You realize that they've been talking to hollow bishir. This is a moment that I think is maker break for this episode because a bad episode

would leave this moment as a thing that happened and this episode cuts straight to O'Brien having confessed this having happened to Bishir and Bishir fucking losing it. You let them stand there and make fools of themselves? Well, the two of you standing in the back room and laughed? It's exactly what we need as viewers. Like, of course, O'Brien would go tell Bashir that this happened. And O'Brien was in a weird, tough spot where this like, high status, doctor guy was there with him

and he couldn't just run out and say shut the fuck up. You know, there were circumstances at play, but what we now know is that Bashir is a con. Not white, domesticated. This is a really interestingly shot scene too because there's that two shot of Bashir in the foreground and O'Brien in the background and O'Brien basically has his head in his hands. Wow, Bashir monologues here.

Yeah, and paces and flips out. It's really fun and good. It's really well done and it's between the exact two characters that we need to have this kind of hard conversation. It's great. What we learned here is that DNA re-sequencing is illegal, and those who have participated in that kind of thing have been barred from Starfleet. It's such a serious rule that the fact that information is now in the Roman's head and now out in the world, the sheer is done with Starfleet.

Like he will have to, he will either be like ejected from Starfleet or he can resign with a little bit of dignity left to his name, but it's one of the two. One of the things that underscores have serious, this is is the single brass instrument of early retirement in the scene. Sad.

What do you think that is? Like a French horn? Yeah, you really feel it. Back at Quarx, Rom and Quark discuss Rom's first wife, which is a person we've never heard about, but a person we've probably made some assumptions about. His son is nugged, there must be a mother somewhere, and that woman is prenatura. She is a woman who was Ram's first wife, and it is prenatura's father who took Ram for everything, like everything else in Ferengi culture, there's a contract involved. And what happened is that prenaturaora's father took Ram for everything and what Ram got was

Nog and It is in the aftermath of that failed relationship that Quark is a little bit of a Told you so kind of brother Lita is not Trinadora. You're not gonna make this work. You shouldn't make this work It's obvious. It's not gonna work. Here's a Holliswee program to make you feel better. She's a female, Ram, and the one constant in the universe is females are trouble. It's basically like, Hey, it might as well go punch one out because you're a loser

and you're done. Yeah. And Ram is is in agreement with him about this. It looks like he's holding the honey stick of masturbation and thinking like, yeah, there's a good idea. Yeah. Sometimes it clears your head though, you know? That is a medical fact.

Beshear and his parents are discussing the strategy should there be one. And his father wants to fight it, but Julian is basically like, this is, this is like a centerpiece scene in the episode, because Julian is basically like this is this is like a centerpiece scene in the episode because Julian is basically calling his father the japetto to his Pinocchio like you are the reason that I am this way I didn't want this and then mom sort of hops in this is this is the moment that the actor playing Amshabeshir really gets her scene because she Defends the father and pleads for an amount of empathy that I don't think anyone watching the episode was capable of feeling at this moment She says that you don't know what it's like To stay up every night worrying that maybe it's your fault what they did is they watched Julian fall behind and

It's your fault. What they did is they watched Julian fall behind, and they felt so terrible about it, that they were willing to do anything, to give him a chance to succeed. And so that's why they made the decision to bring him to this hospital, to change his brains in such a way that made him a crime. We didn't do it because we were ashamed,

but because you were our son, I would love you. Right. I think this is such a insightful scene because it's not really something any of us have ever experienced, like the crime of having been genetically optimized by our parents. Oh yeah, that's impossible for either of us to think.

But I think what is familiar is the parent that is simultaneously made choices to put, put their child on the best path that they could, but it also has like weird resentments for the success of that child. I think that comes up in people's relationships with their parents quite a lot. It's one of the best parts of the episode

is because it feels familiar. Like this is a 24th century future, but this is a parent sharing a feeling that I think we all can understand. Whether or not you're a parent, like you can understand this motivation. Right, and like a lot of father-son relationships turned contentious in this way.

And a lot of mothers find the way to bridge that gap. And that's cathartic, you know, like understanding that the things you resent about your family, you know, like we carry all these things. And like resentment is one of those things that really builds over time and and like coming to the realization that a lot of the time things are done out of love rather than out of spite or or whatever or shame or whatever I guess I guess he's primarily worried that they did it because they were ashamed of him not being excellent

You know right out of the box. It interestingly reframes Bixir's decision because after that scene with O'Brien, he's like aggressively interested in retiring. And at the end of this scene, he's like sort of come to terms with accepting the idea of his retirement, which would happen in the next morning. Like that's what he says. He's like, tomorrow morning it's gonna be over anyway. I get it, like that's the only course of action left for me. But this is a great big surprise

because when Bashir arrives at Cisco's office in the morning, his parents are already there and so is a hologram of Admiral Bennett. And what's happened here off screen is that the parents have exchanged a short prison sentence for his continued career. Admiral Bennett has heard their deal and he's basically decided that, you know,

like the parents deserve a real punishment. Seemingly specifically for the dad? Yeah, did you get that? I got that too. But also it's hard to punish Julian Bichir for something that wasn't his choice. And though that is never said, that is really implied by what Bennett decides in this scene.

Like the parents will be punished because you can't just have people turning their little paste eaters into cons anytime they want. Like you need a deterrent for this kind of behavior. What if your chief wigum, he'd got a Ralph on your hands? Are you gonna turn to crime to fix that? Right. It was fun to get a con reference here.

Yeah. That hit it especially hard. And this seems like a fair deal to Julian Bashir. Like he, he initially is like, you can't do this. But he gets it. Bennett makes him get it. And that's so real also, right? Like the like, I have my differences with these people, but they are my family. Yeah. Like that putting family first thing that, that is his instinct in this moment is also very well Yeah. Like that putting family first thing that that is his instinct in this moment is also very well drawn. Like I don't think that I don't think a bad writer would get that into the into the script. It's a scene that made me wonder if I would have a

better relationship with my parents if they were thrown in jail for a couple years. Is that what it take? Maybe, maybe. This is a tough scene for me because it feels a little bit like a judge advocate, General X Machina, where the stakes of this episode are Bashir is leaving the show, basically. Right. And they are solved in this scene in a way that doesn't really involve Bashir at all.

And I think that that's inherently a bit unsatisfying as a storytelling strategy because it feels like, you know, the hero of the episode didn't do anything to save the day. The day got saved before he showed up at work that morning. Yeah, the day got saved by a hollow admiral. So. But at the same time, it does feel true to the story. And there are still consequences for him, right? It doesn't seem like he's going to be the LMH anymore.

And all of his friends and colleagues on the station are going to know this weird thing about him. Right. And maybe that's better in a way. Like, it can kind of live as his true self. He doesn't have a deep dark secret anymore. Do you think there are assumptions about him that go something like, does he have a Dr. Manhattan style giant cock?

Like, where does the genetic editing end for him? I want to know hard to say hard to say. I mean, we get some exploration of that in the button on the episode. We, we wrap these two stories up with a, a last minute, you know, ROM races to the jet bridge, to the Dell Soul class starship that Zimmerman is about to board with a trench coat and a boom box and wins Leeda's heart by saying how he really feels finally. And so Leeda's gonna stay and then we get the dart scene with Bashir and O'Brien. And so, Lita is going to stay. And then we get the dart scene with Bashir and O'Brien. And it turns out that Bashir, much like their earlier racquetball rivalry, Bashir could have been

cleaning the floor with O'Brien in darts as well. There's so much about this episode that deepens the mythology of Star Trek, like all of the genetic stuff, like the idea that there are charlatans like Julian's dad out there in this moneyless society that are still trying to get an edge on people, the stuff with ROM, like having a business contract with his wife's father that had a had a sunset at a certain point. Like, I'll be married to her for five years. And then if we deem that it is mutually advantageous, we can renew the contract.

Right. Like, there's so much stuff like that. And the fact that they also wrote in the idea that we could like project back in all of these episodes of DS9, where Bashir was an asshole that O'Brien hated and then O'Brien like came around to liking him over the course of seasons and seasons of television. And it's all been calculated bullshits. And Bashir has been falling.

Like he tried the I'm way better at you than Racketball thing and it didn't work. And then he was like all right Well like we'll do darts and I'll present to be roughly your equal Yeah, but it's all bullshit like it's all retrun bullshit and this is this is what I want to say for the did you like portion of the episode Oh, we're basically there Alexander Cidig was told the week of shooting that his character was genetically modified. And like everything that led up to this is just its convenient retconning, which is fun on the one hand, but I don't want to give it the credit of having the foresight of

doing all of this interesting stuff. Like it's retcon interesting, you know? It's interesting to consider that Bashir was blowing Rack-a-ball games and doing a bunch of other things like beneath his ability, but no one who wrote his character knew that until this week, until the week they wrote and shot the show. So I don't know if they get credit for that. I mean, I agree in principle with that as a criticism, but the fast and the furious was never conceived as a cinematic universe and they decided at some point like between four and five that it was and suddenly like, and found things in all of the previous works that they could form into threads that led to subsequent films.

And you know, like, like, there's a lot of dumb things about that universe, but it, like, in Fast and Furious 5, it really works. It starts to feel like, oh, fuck, like fuck, like they didn't have a plan and suddenly it feels like they did the entire time. You. Look, I mean, I think that that's like a cool writing feat in a way. It's cool to get the credit for retroactive continuity, but it's not a real credit. I'm glad it worked out for Fast and the Furious, and it really works out in deep space 9. It's fun to think about going back and watching all this stuff.

It's Dr. Bashir throwing three bulls eyes at the end of this episode. It's like it just fucking works. It works miraculously, but I'm not giving credit. Yeah. Glad it worked out, and it did, but you're not a genius for having done it You were in the right place at the right time and sometimes that's what it takes yeah Yeah, one thing that is in a couple of things actually that are in the right place at the right time for us are our Two priority one messages. What do you say we see what those are?

Let's do it, Adam. Priority one message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel. You need a supplement on that. supplement on that. supplement. supplement. Yeah, it's extra. The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship.

Then our first priority one message is of a promotional nature. Hey. Message goes like this. Do you like instrumental electronic music? No? Well, maybe you'll still like this album recorded at Watch Tower Coffee and Comics in Salt Lake City on a 4-track cassette recorder. Whoa. This is dev anything to do with Star Trek sure.

Why not go to RSP hyphen DJ Shanti.bandcamp.com to listen and if you want to throw us $4 or more to download We want to say no to that so the call to action is check out the watch tower tapes by red sky phenomenon and DJ shanti so once again that's RSP hyphen DJ shanti.band once again, that's our SP hyphen DJ Shanti dot bandcamp dot com. Wow. To listen. That sounds great. Very cool to record on an analog format, something that is digital. Four tracks, baby. That's always really fun. And then I've heard that band camp is like the last good deal that musicians have in the entire world, basically.

Right. Four dollars is not too much to spend to find some new music. So I would encourage you to go there and do that. It's for people making music, you know? Yeah. It doesn't get made if they can't make a living making it. It's the same deal as Greatest Gen. Like, we can't do the show without your support.

Musicians often can't keep making music without your support. So support the stuff that's good. Adam, we have a second priority one message and it is of a personal nature. It is from Captain Liss Soto. And it is to the entity known as the Diff. Goes like this. Help! Q has kidnapped me and is forcing me to provide offspring

to stop the destruction of his race. Do I give in? Starfleet Comtanels have been blocked, so I'm hoping this message gets to you in time. Send help and condoms. Who knows what kind of weird things these omnipotent beings have picked up? Hmm. Wow. I never considered the the STD issues W slash R slash TQ, but that is very troubling. Yeah, I'll say. I hope Captain List's so-to is able to receive the help they need from the death.

Well, one way to help the greatest generation is by going to MaximumFund.org slash jumbo-tron. That's where you and I'm talking to you. Mmm, can have us read a message just like these. On our fine program, personal messages are $100 and commercial messages are $200, both of which reach our wide, broad, vast audience right here on the greatest generation. Hey Adam! It's that Ben. Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda? It's hard not to choose Lita, and I think I'm choosing Lita because the very nature of her character in this episode is just sort of float from scene to scene.

Like she's just sort of there to take what's given and where nothing is given, she's not doing any taking. Like she's willing to move to Jupiter, to be with Zimmerman, because he's a guy that asked. And that feels like a very drunk Shemota kind of way to be, like, almost, almost like she's only remembering the last thing that happened to her in making a decision.

And I don't mean that disparagingly. I mean, just mean like like there are people in her life that are affecting her. Far beyond from you to disparage anyone who has affinity for the last person that spoke to them. Yeah, and she's living her best life, I guess, but she's making decisions based on people actually doing things around her.

I wish she had a little more agency. I wish she asked out the guy that she liked, obviously, instead of waiting until the last possible moment to allow that to happen. Like, that's not great. But if there's a Shimoda in this episode to me, it's Lita. What about you, Ben? The thing that made me laugh the most in this episode was the Single on O'Brien in the interview section where he's

terribly concerned that any of this might get back to this year and All he has to say are like the most glowing forms of praise and I feel like that's O'Brien projecting himself on to this year. Like, he's the guy that really does not want to be the center of attention, and does not want to be the subject of praise. And I think there are so many really insightful character moments in this episode. And that is like the briefest thing about O'Brien, it is so true to who he has been presented to us as. And I really loved it, so O'Brien's my drunk shimoto for this episode. Fantastic.

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.

We've got a bunch of dates in a lot of great places. Go to greatestgentour.com to get more info. That's greatestgentour.com for dates and ticketing information for the Share Your Embarrassment 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 spaceweards. Pat Noswald. Could I get a Balrog burger and some air-gorn fries? Thank you. And Kumail Non-Giani. 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, hey, hey, oh, I'm about to count you in line. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line. And boy, what a line. These clouds are really freaking me out. I hate having to stand in line and boy

These giraffes do not smell good. No, they do not and they've such short neck But I'm here and we need to get on this side. I gotta get on the art. Yeah, it's about terrain. Got us about to destroy humanity Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Are you Noah? Yeah, I know we look like humans. Oh, 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. Well Ben, what are we watching for the very next episode of Star Trek Leap Space 9 and how will we watch it? Well I'll tell you what and then I'll tell you how. How about that?

Great. That's the right order. Here, here as I finish my fourth cocoa no-no. Yeah, I'm down to the picture, personally. Yeah. Our next episode is season five, episode 17, a simple investigation. Odo falls in love with a mysterious woman

who has been targeted for murder. All right, and I now need to call up the Game of Buttholes. The Whale of the Profits. Which you can check out at Gach.bizslashgame. This is where we determine how we will be watching the next episode of the show. You're required to learn as you play. Roll. We are on square 46.

Alright Adam, I'm going to roll this bone. See where we land. It looks like we've got that notorious space butthole that will send us back to, fuck it, we'll do it live as the primary hazard on this roll, and I believe we've canceled that square, but we haven't actually come up with what to replace it with yet, so this is interesting. I have rolled a six. Tula! Did I win? Hardly. It jumps us over that hazard.

I've got us on square 52. And that is a regular ass episode. We are not going to be drinking any teaky drinks. Next time we record the podcast. That's good. I think I could use a break. I'm down to the bottom of my picture here. Very full of rum and pineapple juice and coconut milk. The amount of drinking that goes on on tour

is excessive. Excessive and we just came back from tour. So I really am going to appreciate a regular ass episode. Yeah, I thought I'd come home and we dry out but that is not what has happened here. No such luck my friend but one thing that makes me feel lucky every month is the monthly support that the friends of the Soto provide us are going to maximumfund.org slash donate. You think someone else is just going to take care of it for you, but that's not how it works.

If you love the show, if you listen to it weekend and week out, I would encourage you to go to maximumfund.org slash donate to support the production of the show. It is... It's gotta be you. It is difficult, it is expensive, it is more expensive every month. Yeah, the more people that listen, the more we pay for band with, etc. So, yeah, thank you for supporting. So many people help make the show possible, it's not just us, It does take a village. A village of nerds been. I think that village has got a village elder, a leader, if you will, who's that gonna be?

You think that's Bill Tilly? Before he double crosses us? Yeah, Bill Tilly will eventually betray us, but for now. For now he gets our gratitude for making the trading cards that he posts to multiple social media sites. You can find him on Twitter, for example, is Bill Tilly in 1973. He's one of the best in the business. Also I want to give a great big shout out to those who make the music of this show.

The original theme music for the greatest generation was made by Dark material that music Chaptain screwed by the great Adam Ragusia and turned into theme and interstitial music that you hear on The greatest generation and the greatest generation Devespace 9 and the greatest discovery. Yeah, guys. Yeah, it was prolific prolific and he has a great cooking channel on YouTube if you search Adam Magusia on YouTube.

You can find Ben on one of those episodes. Yeah, I made something for the YouTube channel and I think as far as I understand, the invitation is open for you to cook something for Adam Magusia's YouTube channel as well. And I would, I'll wait to hear it from him. Really like to see what you do.

I'll wait to hear it from him, but I, He told me to tell you. I'm gonna, I'm gonna get it from the Ruggusia's mouth. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna stress right here for second hand. It's crazy. I'm telling you, he told me, he's, friend, and I happen to be in contact with him because I was sending him this footage, and he said, tell Adam, I would love for him to cook something

for the channel as well. Well, I'm selling all of my camera gear, I'm going all in on podcast, so. You're moving to LA, though, and I still have my camera gear, so you could come, you could use my stuff. Thanks Adam Ragusea. You're the best. Thanks to the great folks at Maximum Fund, or thanks to all the friends of Tisoto.

Thanks to the people that run the Wikia. Yeah, thanks to all viewers everywhere, and with that we'll be back at you next time with another great episode of Star Trek Deep Space 9, and an episode of the greatest generation Deep Space 9, which really has a lot of questions about who Odo might have fallen for if it's not Kira. Yeah, what the hell, Odo? What do you, Lida?

Yeah, I don't know. I might, honestly, I think I'd keep the candle lit for Kira. I'm Odo. Yeah. I'd turn myself into a candle and remain lit for her. That's how great I think she is. You would attempt to Dr. Beverly her? Sure would. You're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're the God of the youth, and you're. Good thinking. Yeah, our friends at broad.ca,

we will give them a free plug here, post credits. Come on, come on, broad. Get those broads! If you buy a broad and you've heard about broad through Greatest Gen, make sure to tell them that's how you heard about them, because seriously, we're selling a lot of broads for broads on our podcast give me a break come on maximum fun.org comedy and culture artist owned audience supported