Yet Another Star Trek Podcast - Ep 016: (SNW S01E06) Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach

Episode Date: June 14, 2022

This week, The Gang watched "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach", a plot twist infested episode where Sam Kirk attempts to encourage Uhura on her security training. Sam attempts to give good advice but gets intimidated by Singh. Will Sam be able to ever get to lift up Uhura to a point where she can't suffer... tune in and find out. Drew hosts by the way, and Brad and Majeed are a pain. Be sure to check out our website, social media, and join our Discord! Links for all are listed below: Website | Discord | Instagram | Twitter | TikTok | YouTube Drop us an email at [e-mail]! “Warp Speed” and "To the Stars" was written and performed by William Grobbelaar Music: https://soundcloud.com/williamgrobbelaarmusic Additional artwork by George Rateau: https://www.fiverr.com/georgerateau

Hey everybody, welcome to yet another Star Trek podcast where everybody is stressed out and never worked and never tired. My name is Drew, I'll be your host for the day. I am joined by the very stressed out Bradford. Brad, what's up man? Oh God, I don't, I wanna dig a hole and just bury myself.

I'll help you. Well, I mean, as long as you're with me. Can I have your steam deck when I bury you? Or are you gonna be buried with your steam deck? You can have it. I'll give it to you. I mean, honestly, it wasn't enough for me. You deserve it. I was gonna take it from you. Oh, I feel like you're gonna try and kill me now

and then just take it anyways. Just to make it formal, that's Majeed over there. Legally. Hang on. Legally. Legally Majeed? No, I'm saying Legally legally we can't say we have we have we have Bradford evening we have legally the jeede

is great yeah I'm Bradford evening folks drew what what is yours then I don't know it'll have to come organically though. Okay, you're true. Boom. Moom right along podcast done good night everyone. See you next week. GD how you doing man? I'm I'm so with five o'clock in the afternoon I sip lunch today I had a had a call that just ran really long. And I don't wanna say I'm running on fumes, but I think I'm still pretty pumped from whatever I, whatever pre-workout I took and put in my body.

I'm still pretty pumped. And I'm also excited, these things excite me, so forgive me. I got this big tub of protein powder, like way isolate protein powder. I am so pumped because this is how people pay me now according to Drew. It's true, and it seems like the perfect form of payment.

We were literally just talking about that. Like that's your dream. I'm sorry. You know what's funny? I was picturing myself opening the tub of Pro Team Powder and testing it like it was a drug deal. Is it pure? She's good.

You stick the knife into the bottle and you put it on the knife and you snort something. Do you have a little mini shaker that you use? Instead of snorting it, you just put it in a little mini body. You take a shot of it. No, it's good enough. I am scared though that the dog may somehow get into the protein powder, he's gonna get jacked. Oh no.

Yeah, he got into my fiber, my fiber one snacks, oh, a vacation in South Carolina. Um, that was bad, because, you know, he ate all my snacks. That's one. And uh, he, you know, he had the poops a bit. I'm sure that did not smell well when it coming out. I, Brad, I don't smell his poop, buddy. Well, how can you not, though? I'm not a, I'm not a sicko. No, no, you don't stick your face in this poop. It's in the room. What, no, you don't, you don't, you're dog never is being a crap. Oh, the way I get it, I get it.

I thought you had like the poop slink in the house. But regardless, like I've had dogs, you know, when I was growing up and you'll walk them and they poop and you smell it, even if it's outside. Like, you're not like sticking your face in it. It's like, oh my God, that stuff smells so bad. I mean, like any good dog owner, you should be picking that crap up and throwing it away, right?

Yeah, but you're not gonna smell it, Brad. Like, getting a smell up here is. It's like by proxy, you're in the vicinity of the poop. Of course, you're gonna smell the poop. It's not like you want to. I even after you wrap it up in a bag, I can assure you that stuff stinks. You still have COVID smell?

What is happening right now? Do you guys smell your own poop? When would you, is that the next part of the conversation? No, not because I want to, but the odor is present in the vicinity of me. I feel like the COVID, just kind of messed with his nose. And now he can't smell anymore. I know what, I know what poop smells like.

I'm not gonna go around actively smelling poop, Brad. I'm dumbfounded by the accusation and the audacity. Do you stop breathing when Kylo goes to the bathroom? No, he just maintains eye contact with me. I'm sorry. I'm do you stop breathing? No, no. So NRS.

So that's the way it is that he can't smell it. You're more true. Yeah. No, you know what? You got to call me. I mean, listen, he lost it. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, it's a six foot leash. Dude, he's't smell it or true. Yeah. No, you know what, he doesn't. You got a copy of it. Listen, he lost it. Yeah.

Listen, it's a six foot leash. Dude, he's six feet away from me. Um. His poop doesn't smell that bad. And you get it in true. You see my woods area. I have an infresh air. I don't have to worry about the confined space of his move.

So what are you saying he doesn't go and pick it up? Oh, it is his woods area. No, no, no. Listen, my grass is really is really coming in and uh, well, yeah, it's fertilized because you can't use it. It's fertilizer. No. Listen, anything is fertilizer if you're brave enough. So I'm going to drop the music bed and transition to the LAR episode talk. This week, we watched Lift Us Up, where suffering cannot reach. A plot twist filled episode with no shortage of action romance and tragedy. Pike and the crew of the Enterprise head over to the Magellan system where they find a shuttle

being attacked. The crew quickly takes out the ship, technically by accident, but you know, who's really counting. And they beam aboard the occupants. Upon their arrival, we meet Minister Alora, a young boy who is called first servant and his father, Elder Gamal. Turns out, 10 years ago, Pike had a fling with one of their expected guests. Not Gamal, more of the first servant though. You don't know that. Well, I mean, it was implied. So, Pike was really, like, tripping himself with with a lure coming in there. He even forgot number one's first name even.

Yeah, that was a little heavy-handed. I was not expecting that sort of behavior out of somebody who seems so sure of himself most of the time. That kind of fell a little bit out of Pike's character. Yeah. I think it was just written in for some comical humor over anything else. 100%. 100%. But I mean, I think it worked for the most part. You know, it established Pike as somebody who is very human. You know, it's a very relatable feeling to kind of... It did set the tone for the relationship and the being of the episode.

It did, it did. GD, any thoughts on Pike's former slash current slash? Love interest. I don't know where I was going with that. Love interest. I don't know where I was going with that. Love interest. I was gonna say love interest but I was looking for something after the slash. Honestly, it's about time.

You know, it really is about time. This many episodes into what would a, the original series didn't, Kirk have a couple of flings? Kirk had like a fling every other episode, but if you're using the Captain having flings as any sort of a barometer for quality of Star Trek, you're going to be real disappointed when you get to next generation. I mean, no spoilers, but I mean, John Picard just exudes sexiness. He also exudes, uh, don't touch me.

Discipline. He exudes discipline. Discipline. Okay, so, so then what about Riker in his low cut V's? Oh, right, right. Yeah, the breakers of, yeah, go ahead, Brad. No. No it's gonna say Rikers a dog. Riker is going to be the Rikers Rikers the man. Let's just leave it at that. Everybody on that ship has had a little bit of riker. I don't like that. I don't like the way you said that.

I'll get over it. I'll get over it. No, I thought it was adorable that Pike was falling over himself. He was obviously younger, right? He was lieutenant back then. Yeah. Yeah, lieutenant. Yeah. So he was a little younger a little more It's maybe baby puppy love So I want to know more about Pike as a lieutenant

You know, I wanted a more about that mission We need a full on new series that's upset 10 years prior. I would be on board. Give a chance to look it up. Has this character of Laura? Laura. Laura? I was right, Laura. I don't think she's ever shown up before.

Now, it's. Don't assume that I was gonna be my question, Brett. Okay, well, what was your question? Literally that, but don't assume that it was gonna be my question. Listen, I'll give you, listen. That's a Dmitri. Okay, what was your question literally that but don't assume that it was gonna be my question Listen, I'll give you this and that's a Dmitry Wow, that feel like that was like a real easy would a merit for this time like that That was just like not even me try it was you trying you trying to step on my toes and thinking that you know me so well, bro But no, no, totally I you're right. I didn't. I didn't, uh, I didn't look it up.

I didn't see if she had been in character before because I know that, um, oh my god. What is her name? Spock's, uh, Oh, to pray to pray. She's great by the way. Yes. I knew who. Sorry about that. Um, to answer your question, I thought it was cute, but it was adorable. And, um, I hope to see more of question I thought it was cute, but it was adorable. And I hope to see more of Alora because guess what? It ain't over. It ain't over. It has to be a part two about this. It's not like time travel. I gotta do it again. I don't think there does have to be a part two, but we'll get there. Sure. In any case, Alora explains the first servants ascension to the throne is in two days and she feels that the attackers were there to kidnap the boy and ask for ransom

She insists that no Investigation is needed on their attackers, but Starfleet regulations require it so I can't believe you wrote this bread For so so she is ship out of luck Hang on hang, hang on, hang on. I don't think we can hear it. Majeed, but thank you. I hear it.

I hear it. All right. As long as it's on the recording, this chord is probably doing some sort of noise cancellation. She ain't against it. No, I listen, I love it. Listen, no, I love that, Brad. That's not a dimmer. And that effect you get one there when the mayor removed that was really good

Shipp out of luck god that is actually Our friend Frank's will be proud the Frank's right that no, no, I was like you know what that sounds like a Frank's joke It doesn't have a Frank's joke. You're you 100% Frank's right. Right. The close to you are to becoming Frank's is more apparent by every day. Yeah. That's cool. Bravo, Brad. We take a quick trip to Sick Bay, and we learn that the boy has quantum bio implants that are helping him recover.

This later becomes a bit of a plot point for Manga, so hang in there with us folks. Meanwhile, sing an Uura enter the crashed vessel looking for clues. Laura finds a coin that makes her believe that there's a traitor in the military trying to kidnap the first servant. At the Magellan Capitol, a Laura confronts the guards quickly identifying the traitor. I mean, this happened like that. Before any information can be gained, the man is killed after he attempts to take a Laura hostage. So I have a question about this part. Yeah.

Like, she found the coin in the crashed ship, but then to identify the person, like, who's the traitor, she looks at all their coins, and the guy still has a coin. So wouldn't, like, technically technically he wouldn't have a coin if he was on that? Well, not necessarily. So obviously there were casualties from the ship.

So others could have gotten away. And if you were on that ship, escaped. And you were injured, your coin could be damaged. Well, but that's not the story they were telling though. The coin that he lost looked like it had been intentionally marked to me, right? Yeah. So the housing for the coin that he was wearing was what was damaged. So he still had on, I guess the same necklace.

Oh, okay, I got it. But without the gem. So it's like, it's like if you had a diamond ring and you lost a diamond, but you still kept the ring and just put a new diamond in it. What I got is another plot twist for me. Hmm, does it count on the plot twist? No.

I guess it can. If it makes you happy, yes. Hmm, does it count as a plot twist? No Yeah, I guess I guess it can if it makes you happy. Yes, it does Back on the enterprise sing interrupts are long awaited Sam Kirk cameo Number two folks To to disappointingly bring her a pile of data chips that she liberated from the crash site. Saying asked her to review the information off the records and we never see Sam Kirk again. Sam Kirk had to go back to Sick Bay because his concussion protocol had been cleared.

You had to go back into the coma. Right. I am so disappointed that we have not seen more of Sam Kirk. I really felt like they had an opportunity to lean into something really special with him. I thought it was like this whole big reveal where it's like, oh my god, Sam Kirk and he's like, I got to be a part of the crew. No, he's just like there once or twice. I wonder if he was a late cast edition and they had already written the episodes and

he's kind of added him last minute. Actually, I think this was like his third appearance, wasn't it? Yeah, he was in the pilot briefly. He got murdered in the second episode. And then it was the second episode, right? Yes. And then we haven't seen him since until until this one. So go Sam Kirk. She was like, he got murder in the

Oh, it's so sweet. But that way that's even better. Oh, that is so funny to me. I know what I said, I know, and I love you for it, because it's great. Back in sick Bay, and Bangalooks again, more information on the quantum bio implants from gum all It's a clear attempt to find a cure for his daughter again more plot points All right, I'm gonna have to speed this part up a little bit because it gets a little crazy guys so bear with me, all right Pike gets called back to the Enterprise after he had a real good time with Laura

Uhura starts to explain that she found evidence of the kidnapping plot But Gamal takes the boy and attempts to get, and attempts to beam him down to the planet. But then a ship beams him away, but then Gamal gets beamed back without the boy. Then the mysterious ship attempts to leave, but because the Enterprise tractor beam grabbed onto him, it then blows up, killing the kid,

only to find him hidden in some sort of storage pod. Whoa, where did that come from? You've never showed that kind of energy before. It was in the script. Oh, I should read those. You know, it would be beneficial if you guys actually read the shit I wrote. I wrote it. I read it last night. I read it last night.

I made edits. I made edits. Appreciate it. Well, I mean, I read it when I have to be the breath of the evening Sure thing legally magi Sorry organically drew let's go back to you They bring the kid back to the planet for his ascension and everyone is happy But it turns out the ascension is just code for hook him back to the planet for his ascension and everyone is happy, but it turns

out the ascension is just code for, hook him up to the matrix! Pike tries to fight against Alara but fails. This then revealed that Gamal was actually trying to help his son, but he failed too. The only person who is somewhat of a winner in this episode though, is Mbenga, who with Gamal's help, starts to work towards a possible cure for his daughter. To sum up this episode, Sam Kirk didn't get stunned or murdered. No one really wins, and I've probably got whiplash from all these plot twists. We had an A plot, a B plot, a C plot, and then arguably a bunch of little plots kind of sprinkled in between. Yeah, it kind of like caught my interest, but it was all over the place.

We had Uru partaking in some sort of security training, which we didn't even really discuss much in the synopsis, but that's like a whole story in of itself. Yep. And then you have like the manga story arc where he's interested in finding the cure for his daughter. And you have the Alora story arc, and you have the first servant story arc. It's, there's like all these different plot threads that somehow mesh well enough to become an episode. It's a good way to put it.

Any overall thoughts on this one, Mijid, before we start breaking it down? With every episode that in Beg a, in Beg a is in. He solidifies himself as being my favorite character. I'm not sure what it is. Again, he's not getting much. This one, he actually got a lot. But because he's strongly becoming my favorite character, aside from Pike and Spock and Sing, and you're her, God, the whole cast is. Yeah. Still not sold and or take us but

we'll get to that at different time. In Bangga this is not his first show like the character. He serves under Kirk, right? So my understanding of the character is he My understanding of the character is he was, he's in, I believe, two episodes of the original series, only two. Yes, he does serve under Kirk. He's the ranking medical officer behind Leonard McCoy. So when McCoy is not there, Embenga is the doctor on duty, apparently. And we don't really see him until, let's see here. So the first episode is a private little war. That's in season two. We see him in season two. And then we see him once in season two and once in season three.

And that's it. They took a character with like a very small thread. And you know, they've given him a huge story. Now I'm kind of curious to see what he's like in in the original series, what they had to work with to develop this character, you know? You know, they also did the same thing with Um, with Nurse Chapel. She was a pretty small-ish character. Nurse Chapel was more significant than Embangue, but um, but absolutely was a, you know, uh, I would say third-building, uh, on the crew or on the cast rather. But she was in 25 episodes of the original series. She had an appearance to two of the movies.

Looks like she was even in the animated series a few times too. So I think there's a little bit more for her to go off of. We know more about her coming into this. But to your point, I think the actor that they chose to play this character outstanding. I mean, he is just outstanding. And I don't know if you feel this way, Brad, but in a similar way that Pike has made his case for being favorite captain in Discovery, and Banga is making his case for being my favorite doctor.

And he's not even a bartender. He's not a bartender. This guy has better bedside manner than any of the doctors in Star Trek that I can think of. And their shovel's pretty good too though. Well, I guess it doesn't count as a doctor. But I would put it in the same category. Sure.

So I definitely agree that Manga has like probably one of the better bedside manners, but unfortunately my, my heart goes out to Robert Piccardo for the doctor. I mean, he is wonderful. Let's, let's be completely honest. So again, Frank's may not know who he is and other listeners may not know who he is wonderful. Let's let's be completely honest. So again, Frank's may not know who he is and other listeners may not know who he is. So you want to go ahead and expound upon that? No, that's a good point, Majid. A lot of our listeners may not be fully aware of the doctor from Star Trek forager. He didn't make a few appearances in first contact. I think that was the,

I think it may be made another appearance to one of this. He was a hologram that was the ship's doctor for the entire series. And they kind of had to use him because he was an emergency medical hologram. And so they just kind of let him go. And he kind of had a really rough

Maybe rough is a little bit understatement or really rough bedside manner Very abrasive didn't really cares like kind of why are you bothering me? I just need to get you cured and out the door Yeah, because even even McCoy has like a really bad Yeah, because even McCoy has like a really bad side manner sometimes, right? Oh, this guy totally puts McCoy to shame. Yeah, because he's a computer. He has no point of reference.

We've met computers before that have emotions. Star Trek has certainly done that. I mean, it's arguable. Everybody data was written to not have emotions in next generation. But, you know, I think there's an argument to be made that he does. He just doesn't recognize him. He's also really good at gambling. Yeah. The, the, the character though, definitely evolved. But he's probably my favorite doctor of, of all the Star Trek. I mean, I'm being as growing on me,

but I think I also like Bashir a little bit better. I'm team Bashir for the most part. Yeah, me too. I love it when you do things like that, because you have no idea what you're talking about. No, no, it's cute. It's cute. No, I don't know what you're talking about.

Like a man, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm like a man, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm like a man. But we're still early on to the series and I was really hoping this episode they would give him more screen time. I'm hoping whenever they finally do, they start to like work towards a cure for his daughter and like, I'm pretty certain that they'll probably get a cure before the end of the season.

Because to me, it's going to be one of those situations where if they don't, then she's going to either have to go away forever or she's in a die. I'm starting to think that it's not going to end well. Yeah, I'm thinking the same exact thing there, Brad. I think true. I'm thinking that he's gotta lead on a cure. He's gonna work on it with the information that he got in this episode.

And I don't think it's gonna end positively. I think it's gonna be a tragic story. The silver lining will be that for anybody else who has the same disease that his daughter is suffering from. We'll have a cure in the future. Right. So we, we already know that, um, in Bega is the, in Beenga is the founder of what the, what was that thing they put on the forehead Drew last week?

Oh, the cortical stimulus. I guess they did use something like that in Enterprise too. So I was mistaken. Yeah, so he's obviously important to the mythos in one way or another. And I think that when it comes to solving this disease and going forward in the future, he's going to be the key part of that. But unfortunately, that means that he has to suffer loss. I hope that's not the case, because

you know, I may just go to my roof and scream into the night, but it's a possibility. I mean, after this episode, it wouldn't surprise me if they did a very sad ending to that story arc. I mean, the ascension for the first servant was unfortunate, very unfortunate. Yeah, yeah, yeah, basically the other kid was a burned out battery. Yeah. And it's not often that we see in Star Trek, Yeah, yeah, yeah, basically the other kid was a burned out battery. Yeah, mm-hmm And you know, it's it's not often that we see in Star Trek

episodes where Starfleet loses and They lost this one. You know, I don't think this was a loss Pike well no Pike did not save the day That kid died Pike Pike didn't hand. I'm gonna disagree with you because Pike still has to operate within the confines of the federation law. So he cannot, there's certain protocols right? He can't interfere. He can't. This is how that planet operates. He is required to follow the law. This may not be the end of it.

He may try to appeal, but he can't go against federation law. Yeah. I understand what you're saying, Majeed, but the way like I'm seeing is that it's Star Trek couldn't do anything Even outside of their normal parameters because sometimes they they bend the rules sometimes to help and that's nothing new from Looking at other episodes. They do that stuff all the time. It just, this was a situation where they weren't able to win at all, even by trying to bend the rules, they just, they failed. Not either fault or anything, they didn't, it's not that they didn't try to help out. It just, with the information that they had, they were not aware with that ascension

met, or what it truly did. Well, the other thing too is, like, we have to remember, from a writer's perspective and a viewer's perspective, that the prime directive is a convenient plot point. Right. They rely on it when they want to, The prime directive is a convenient plot point, right? They rely on it when they want to, they use it as a way of either created conflict

or avoiding conflict or whatever you want to say. The end of the day, Pike wanted to save that child and he didn't, he couldn't. And I think in that term, I think he lost. It bothered him. Like you could tell it bothered him in the same way it bothered him when last week, you know, he lost the crew member or in the Gorn attack rather. Yeah. Two episodes ago. Two episodes ago. Time has no meaning. I don't know what week it is. Oh, it's a man may construct, but we're not going to get into that right now. Sound like my wife.

I don't know how to respond to that. She says stuff like that all the time. She's like, isn't it weird how we just created time? I'm like, she's totally right, though. She just create time. I'm like, she's totally right, though. We just create time. She kind of is. Yeah. And so just wait, really quick, because again, not everyone will know. Prime directive is the general, the guiding principle that's

starfleet prohibits its members from interfering with the natural development of it alien civilizations. Right. Now, now that's geared towards civilizations that don't have the ability to travel with warp speed yet, right? That's the main focus of it. So when they encountered, in the first episode, the species that had developed the warp bomb, they should not have been able to develop that if Starfleet had not had a huge war in their backyard. They basically influenced that culture's future. Or another example is do you remember the first episode of Discovery when uh, Philippa and Burnham are walking around on the desert planet?

No. No, I'm sorry. Listen, that's okay. I'm just trying to see if one in three of Discovery are fuzzy to me. Fair enough. But basically any any planet that doesn't already have interstellar travel, if the federation were to visit them and try to offer them technology or information or just make their presence known.

That would be considered violation of the prime directive. Let's pivot to talking about Ujra and Sink. We haven't discussed them at all yet. Another good pairing, by the the way in the show. So I thought that the ultimate pairing was it'd be Sing and number one, but you her and Sing was a good pairing. I think just Sing is, she's as versatile as a character. So she's paired with Spock already, right? Are they perhaps the real ones together? Yeah, every episode she's with somebody Spock already, right? Are they? Yeah, they have to be together. Yeah, every episode she's with somebody new, it seems.

Yeah, Hammer, I think, was... Hammer was with Yehura. Yeah, Hammer was with Yehura. And actually Yehura had a good pairing with Ortega too. They had a good back and forth when she was ribbing him about the... I read the interview with the actress who played her and she was they were saying how

It felt very eerie when she was like reading the scripts and everything like that because it was It was as if like the writers were like reading her diary Because like it kind of like got a very similar mentality is how she behaves and like in how her mind processes things just like the character. Interesting. And so it's it, you know, to me, like that kind of means like the writers are like really understanding the actress and how they want to portray the character and for the actress and how they want to

portray the the character and for the development and kind of connect with the actual actor and I think that that's kind of why we're getting such a good performance from the actress is that it truly fits her personality style It's a good point. That's good writing right there. That's really good writing. Yeah, if that's the, if that's, you know, it's probably the case, but we're also getting good acting from from sing, we're getting great acting from Pike. The whole cast. The whole cast has been, I think, they have great actors. The writing for the characters has been solid. And, you know, just just overall, like,

everything has been so believable. Like these actors feel believable in these roles immediately, which is not common in Star Trek. Is it though? Hang on. Every single character, true? Even Kirk. For the five minutes minutes he's been

Sam Kirk on the show. Yeah. Sam Kirk being on the show for five minutes. I don't think that's a fair comparison, because, no, no, no, that's that's not a fair comparison at all because the character hasn't, I wasn't even considering him in this. I'm talking about main cast.

Okay. That would be me like me saying, Oh, what about the helmsman? What about the helmsman? Don't do that. I'll do it myself. It's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I can't do merit myself. I have You have a numeric. I've given you a numeric. No, you're not controlled the merits. Sir. This is a this is not a democracy Oh my god, you have any rights. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. It's sir. This is not a democracy. Oh my God, you have any rights. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. It's not a democracy. I'm sorry, sir.

I'm so sorry, sir. Pad on me, sir. You don't mess with the editor. No, you don't mess with the editor, not at all. I'm sorry, Drew. I agree with you, Drew, I'm not. Like, I feel like the cast has done a much better job of finding their characters.

I'm sure it helped with Pike and Spock. Like, they were pretty prominent in season two. I mean, number one, she came in for an episode or two if I remember correctly. Yeah. Not like nothing crazy. But like I think that that really helps with, like, you know, stack it onto as far as getting

to know where they are at. But all the other ones, ones that haven't, I think it's been doing great. I mean, it's silly or maybe stupid, but like the transport or chief, like, I even like that guy. I almost get no lines from him. Yeah, but I like him. It reminds me so much of like Miles O'Brien. Yeah, he seems pretty cool. I want to know more about him.

I'm sorry, Miles, who? TNG and deep space night. Oh, okay. Yeah, if you can just put like a parentheses when you do that, just so I know. Cause my mind just, you know, it didn't go there. Like I again, I know who Miles O'Brien is. I just, I couldn't put two and three together real quick. who Miles O'Brien is. I just, I couldn't put two and three together real quick. Do you though? Like, do you know who he is? Legally Brad, I don't have the answer to that question.

Actually, Majeed, actually you do know who he is because according to Lower Decks, he's the most important man in Starfleet. Oh my God, that's right. I'm terrible. Oh my God, he has a, Boymore has a plate of him, is that no? No, that's Tom Paris. Didn't remember the statue At the end of one of the episodes. No, no, I'll come out of that means I don't remember which episode

I remember that one. Yeah, you know that means true rewatch of lower decks Yeah, I don't I don't see a problem with that. Yeah, but who has time these days Yeah, I don't see a problem with that. The whole time these days. So what is this? The show was going to evolve into is like once we finish, strange rules, we'll just start random watch from random watch, start trick episodes. And it was just like, yeah, there you go.

We're watching this episode today. It's easy for me to watch lower decks because it's only 30 minutes. And I can do laundry or whatever, or play on my phone while it did a background if I don't wanna search for something. But, sorry, Drew, I don't mean to derail you with talks of other shows. I love you.

Please don't edit me out. Please, editor and savior, do not touch Magiz thoughts. Editor and savior, it's editor and chief, bro. I'm good with either. I'm good with either. One thing I wanted to talk about in this episode when gaming pause and was a real moment was the father when asked if this was his son,

his response was only genetically. I think that was kind of to like prepare for the ascension because from from way it seemed as like they were far into the process of it seemed as like they were far into the process of getting the child ready for the ascension. Okay. And I think that's to help detach him, which makes me actually kind of wonder like how often they do this ascension thing. Well, if the other child was any indication,

they'd probably get a year or two out of them before they got to change the batteries Go go Brad go You're here Majid is losing her right now. No, it isn't in my mind. I'm like, okay, well, if the play does not working right there What do they do? They reboot the kit. They I'm plugging back in like what's happening? What's so bad stuff? It's hitting my head to get him working like the funds. A. Oh, gosh.

Oh, gosh. Oh, gosh. For God's sake. Oh, gosh. That dark moment just became funny. Didn't. You got to find the exact same. It's absolutely juice-followed juice.

I have a horrible, I'm a terrible person. If juice give credence to my battery comment earlier, I wouldn't be on this tangent right now. It's true, it's false. But to that, I kind of feel like it would be a lot longer than it is two years. That's the best. To me, the way they kind of portrayed it being like this great thing, transition to power,

I'm hoping like five years out of it. Something like that. But if they use two kids, you're probably like two 10 years out of it. But it's still it's pretty like the whole process is real messed up. Yeah, it really is. I don't know why what I was going with this conversation.

Like we've only messed it up and derailed it. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yep. I'm good. I'll take the blame, but um, you know, I don't think I think that originally What the heck's his name? Gamal I think Gamal Was intended to be a red herring for the viewer. You know, he comes off. He says,, oh yeah, I'm only his father biologically or genetically or whatever. And I think that was supposed to kind of throw us off as to where this was really going. So that when he kidnapped a kid later on, or it appeared that he did, we were like, oh no, that weirdo gamaul just stole the kid.

What's he gonna do? When reality, he was distancing himself from the child emotionally so that when he did have to give him up to be a diracel, it wasn't as painful. It wasn't as painful No, it makes sense to make sense. It's true I did I did goodness. I never I never I never suspected The father to be the yeah to be the bad guy. I always expected the mother like the I always expected the mother. Like the Laura. The Laura. Yeah. I always expected. The mother is not the mother.

No, I always expected Laura to be the culprit. I think it's implied that she was part of it. She absolutely was. She was a complicit party in this. Like she was, I mean, the whole planet is really. No, no, I mean, like she, she was implied that she was also like trying to stop this. I don't even think, no, I never thought she was trying to stop it. I never did. But you know, when they said essentially, yeah, when they said ascension, you know,

I thought of again, lower decks said ascension, you know, I thought of, um, again, lower decks, where they ascended to be, uh, true, who's the character on lower decks? Or what was the process in lower decks where they meditate for so long? And then they, oh, was that, oh, yeah, Fletcher. No, he was like, this guy with a call or something. Yeah, it wasn't his name Fletcher. No, it wasn't Fletcher. But I know what you're talking about.

Tendi was trying to like, the friend him so that he can ascend and then he actually ascends and he's like literally on fire and it's extraordinary. Right, and it's in pain. And that's what that's exactly what I thought of when they said ascension. I said, oh, okay, cool.

So, you know, they're doing one of those. And nope, it was just dark. It was Lieutenant's O'Connor. It was his- Okay, okay. Yeah, definitely wasn't what I was expecting. You know, I mean, I should have known, I should have known, I should have known because this sort of thing is a fairly common sci-fi trope.

Ascension, really. Well, it's just like the term ascension being kind of like a having more than one meaning. You know what I mean? Like, it's like ascending to throne but also ascending to another plane of existence So I kind of felt the ascension was going to be What it was yeah, based upon how they kind of talked about it It and based upon like the oh we got to make sure the the child is prepared kind of thing

It kind of thing. It kind of seemed like some sort of sacrifice type thing. By the way, I went into this episode completely dark. I think Drew, you sent me a trailer or something for it. I might have, I don't remember. Yeah, I wanted to do this completely dark. I said, nope, I'm going, I'm gonna breath it out. I don't remember if like what the trailer actually

contained. I guess I'm gonna always go back now. Yeah, figure it out. Yeah. Who else did we have in this episode that is is is not where you to talk about? Right, so we had the A storyline, which was the ascension and

the the kid as the Muguffin. We had the B storyline, which was, hmm, would the B storyline be in Beca, or would the B storyline be, um, Yehara and Sing? I think they're kind of on the same level. Equally? Okay. And then we also had in Vegas kid. Listen, I would be so sad if in Bangaloo's this is kid. Yeah. But I get it, you know, story, emotion, and all that. I think the tragedy will make for a stronger character going forward.

Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, that's how you break a character. Yeah. Like, I mean, like that, you'll be wrecked. You broke in. There's no, it really is no way coming back from that. Yeah.

Um, by the way, speaking of coming back from that, uh, Pike is opening, talking about his future. Yeah, he's been getting kind of loose he goes with that. I wasn't expecting him to do that. I was telling you guys yesterday that I hope this show breaks canon in some way. And what I mean is, we know in the menagerie, he ends up with the Tullotians. What I want is to see something happen on that planet, on Tathaus,

where Pike is fully restored, mine, body, and so. Like, it's not just illusion. Like, I want it to be real. Like, he gets fully healed. I really hope that happens. I don't, I don't. Really?

I don't want that. I don't, I don't want them to break what they've already established because otherwise this loses its meaning. You know, the time that we're having with Pike is borrowed time. And I think it makes for a compelling story, but I also think finding out about like a character after knowing what their fate is kind of makes you appreciate the fate a little bit more. Okay, so the icing on the cake for you, the epilogue is the Ben Ashery. Yeah, to me that's where his story ends. Okay, what about you, Brett?

I'm kind of withdrew in this one. To me, Star Trek is filled with happy endings and areas where things work out in the end because they find some sort of cure or solution. But it's not always about that solution. We, to me, it's seeing his journey, accept his fate and are in to live with it. We know it doesn't really end well for a certain amount of characters, right?

We know that it doesn't end well for for Spock, right? Technically. What do you mean? Spock is no longer in the original universe. Tennonically, Spock died. But other characters, Spock is not the first person to have died. And what I mean is he was old. Well, well not what I mean is so Spock was supposed to help fix the What what race was that? The Ramyus the Ramy he's supposed to help fix the Romance planet fails and in that explosion Everyone in the original

university, original timeline, think he's dead. But in actuality, he just fails using the, using the Kelvin universe. Right. So, um, I don't think so. And well for him. So that doesn't matter. I think the problem is like there with with all those understandings, those different paths, it runs the risk of going away from an actual legitimate story that has meaning, and then kind of crossing this border of, I don't know, maybe like what, fan fiction, where it feels so far out there, just a random stretch, grasping for, hey, you know, one more story, one more piece of information,

and does it really add more to the character other than it's just like a story? I mean, we see all the time with other movies, like the Batman stuff, where we'll just see another Batman movie, and another one, another one. And even in books, it happens all the time in books where you just keep going.

Eventually you start getting to a point where it seems to rehash the same story. There's nothing new. It's the same old, same old, and so and so, you know, fell down, they get get hurt and then it's never ending. So as as someone who feels that way, do you think that Picard season his show is fan fiction? Is that a story that needed to be told?

Kind of honestly like the way it was told the the their actual the actual story arc for both seasons one and two I would have been okay if they never did tell it it felt much more fan fiction than any type of search that I've seen in a long time but you couldn't it. Yeah, I would have been perfectly happy if they never brought it back. I mean, when they first announced it, I was like, oh, that seems cool. Like, I love the character.

I love Patrick Stewart. And when it finally came out, it just was like, okay, why am I watching this? It didn't do anything for the legacy of Jean-Luc Picard. The character that we saw in the show Picard was not Jean-Luc Picard, it was somebody else. I really believe that. And I don't think, I know there's a lot of people

that are arguing that it you know, it was, you know, 25, 35 years removed from the last episode of TNG. It changes the person. He's older. Nobody changes that much. I'm sorry. Nobody changes that much. It just doesn't work that way. Yeah, which is probably why I'm not going to go into that show until I've at least watched. Yeah, it's not the same character. Full stop. I'm sorry. It may have the same name.

It's not the same character. So I think Picard did some great things for the legacy of other characters. You know, I was very happy with seven for the most part. Oh, so like having Jerry Ryan, like, RuPraise or Roll, like, I was very happy with that. And then even Riker and Troy, with when they came back, I loved data, but they killed them off already in the movie and it just was, all right, cool. I felt that he had a good enough time in it.

To me, it kind of, it's cheap in the death. Yeah, yeah, it made the death feel a little bit less meaningful. Yeah, I would agree. All right, so again, we started this by saying I would love a fixed pike. And I think the reason for that, I just want more time with with Anson mounts as you have that time. Like how many how many years drew 10s between you have 10 years nine years left.

Okay. So so I mean, if they do a season a year, that's like nine seasons. Right. You have plenty of time with Pike. Yeah, and even that, they don't even have to go with like a season a year. They, we've got six episodes in,

like that could be just maybe like, you know, three months worth of work. Right. Time jumps when done right in shows are fantastic storytelling, storytelling. Oh yeah, definitely. And I don't disagree. I just really hope they don't change it. They just be like, oh, sorry, folks, all in allusion.

Right. Right. It's unnecessary. And then to me, like that, that actually kind of does the opposite to me, where it kind of betrays me because I have this impression of, you know, this is the journey to that location. And when, in fact, that, nope, that location never existed all along. It was all lie.

Yeah, imagine you've spent 30 years being invested in a story and a character and then Somebody is like, you know what? No, I don't like that and it doesn't count Because that's what's that's what's happened like Brad and I have grown up with this We think about the common books, Majeed, when they do that type of stuff in the movies where they pull a character and they just say, hey, you know what, we don't really need to do this type of background. I mean, the best example is what's the guy, Mandarin? Like the racist character. That was a really racist character.

Well, remember like they just completely destroyed the actual character itself, where it just, it was, no, it's just some British dude posing. And like to me, I felt I was like, you know, just don't even use that character. Oh, no, listen, that, listen, I think we're out. We, we're gonna board Drew, but listen, I thought that twist was, was brilliance. At the time, that was a good red herring. I, I, because again, we made up for it later on down the road. You know, with Hell to the King and, uh, and, and Shang-Chi.

Drew, I'm sorry. I did go that. You're good, man. Keep going. You do you. I'm fine. But to me, that just defeated the purpose. There was like, why do I even have this character? It doesn't make any sense.

And I think that's kind of the same feeling that I have towards with Pike, if they were to do something like that, is that it changes it a full direction. Yeah. I mean, he can easily just be, you know, reckless and suicidal until the day comes, you know. I'm totally fine with that. That sounds fun.

Because, because... Because... Because, you have to rephrase that. What do you mean? Having recklessness in suicide is fun. No, no, no, you said suicidal. Not suicidal. It's a different term.

Like let him do some crazy stuff. No, he's true. Yeah, yeah, why not? You know, that sounds like a good time to me It's gonna parachute off the ship Into outer space I can do anything On that note, I think we should probably go into the scores gentlemen. Yes

We've gone off the rails here good conversation though. I think we should probably go into the scores, gentlemen. Yes, we should. We've gone off the rails here. Good conversation, though. I think we had some nice topics. So like the overall story I enjoyed, like I have to say, there were so many plot twists where it just was kind of going back and forth. I felt that was a little bit much. They probably could have gone by with a lot less of the twists near the end of it.

The ending, I wasn't a fan of, but I think the reason I wasn't a fan of it was because it was sad. Like, Starfleet didn't win this time. They weren't able to save the kid. Um, and they didn't pick the right, the right side to, to back, which we've seen that before. Um, but I think ultimately, uh, thinking about this episode to, to how, you know, I, I would really grade in, you know, if I would come across or would I watch it? Yeah, I definitely would.

I think I would probably give this episode a seven. A very solid seven. It's not one of my favorites, but it was something that held my attention, drew me in, and it was something that was fun to watch. It's a pretty good way of putting it. You're, you stole everything I was gonna say, like word for word. Did it.

All right, Majid, you're up. I like the episode because I got some more insight on Impenga. His plate, his, what I think is going to be his character arc, right? We speculate it on it. And, uh, hey, this was a pike episode on, um, you know, on a surface. How many times have you been asking for a pike episode, right? You know, good, like, give me some more zeti pike. But, um, uh, I like the episode. I did not love the episode. And especially not as much as the last two, right? The Gord attack and the, I guess is the filler episode, which is them.

Yeah, the freaky Friday episode, with the shenanigans and hijinks. By the way, listen, what a turn, what a turn from fun light episodes to we're gonna ruin you emotionally What a horrible turn I'm gonna go I'm gonna go with an eight on this because it's still pretty solid, you know Got some really good performances. That's some really good pairings Your hurray is, uh,

she's showing those linguist skills. Mm, yeah. Uh, yeah, I'm kind of, I'm kind of, similar to Brad, I think, um, with, with this one. I, I like the episode. I thoroughly enjoyed the deep character

development that we have with Embangga, with Uhura and Lahn's relationship, kind of establishing those characters. I liked seeing a little bit more of Pike's backstory, although I don't think that we went deep enough with that. It was really just kind of a passing thought in a way. Sad episode, obviously. So a little bit heartbreaking, but I'm okay with those episodes if they make you think and they make you know the characters kind of grow from it. I did find myself kind of wavering with my attention span on this one though. It didn't it didn't hook me in the same way that meant to Mory did or Spockamuck even did.. So I'm gonna go a little bit lower than Brad.

I'm gonna go with a six. Oh wow. I would, I would, I would suppress me. I would leave it on, but I might not be 100% invested in it, but that being said, I do think it was a good episode. I think it was a necessary episode. Just I think for my enjoyment, probably not my... See, now I'm thinking about Ghost of Illyria.

I didn't like that one that much. Really? Would you give that one? Six and a half. Really? Yeah. I don't remember every you going that low. Well, that was my lowest until this

I'm gonna I'm gonna go with the seven on this one Hey, I think a seven is more appropriate You got a bit out Brad wait no hang on No, hang on, I said you're the other one out of it. Damn it. All right, so next week, we once again have no idea what the episode title is. Has not been announced yet, but I'm sure it's going to be a fun episode. I'm sure it's going to be lighthearted and not have any serious repercussions whatsoever. Supposedly, the name is the serene squal.

The serene squal. Oh, okay. I got a son word. I would have fun word to say. Squal. All right. Sorry. Not sorry.

Is Majita hosting next week? Because we're going to hear, no, it's Brad. Okay, thank God. No. I did. Yeah, because I feel like it would just be an hour of you saying squall. Squall!

Over and over again. Yeah, I just picture there was it, finding Nemo, mine, mine, mine, mine. Yeah. Yeah. But that's supposedly the name of the episode from Wikipedia, because you know, we trust Wikipedia, that's always right.

Well, they've actually were pretty good this week, so. I know, I know. This mouthful of an episode name was correct. Yeah. I had a question for you guys. So far, in terms of captains, legacy captains, right? We've got recast of, or even cast. We've had recasts of Spock, Yehara, Pike, James Kirk, and who else we, Scotty and obviously

everybody else. We haven't gotten recasts of anybody on next gen. If they had to do recast of anybody on next gen, and you had the say to cast whoever you wanted in those roles for, let's say, let's say you had to cast Picard and Riker all over again with actors today, who would you choose? Well, I choose Tom Hardy for Picard. Really? That's a deep cut for that Brad just totally didn't get. That was for you, Brad. Tom Hardy played the clone of Picard and Nemesis. Oh, that's right.

I remember that. Yeah. Oh, as Drew Hanks is heading sorrow. That was a bad joke. Dude, Nemesis was a bad movie. It really was a bad movie. I think the only one I really enjoyed was for his context.

All right, so you say Tom Hardy. No, it was a joke. It was a joke. Oh, okay. It was a joke. I thought you had this one locked in a chamber rate. No, no, I don't have this locked. It's not something I've actually really thought about.

I'd have to give it some serious thought. Listen, reboot's happened all the time, bud. I'll be honest, I'll be very truthful. I don't want them to keep recasting people. Like I want news stories. There's so much to tell. So like the one idea that I've always had would be like just like an outer limits style thing where

each episode is its own self-certain story that has different casts and they tell points of Star Trek history. They go through and the whole start of the Klingon War, that could have been just like one episode that didn't have to do an entire season for discovery for it. Or we're star like a you know tell about the origin of the board or something like that. I mean I'm tired. I enjoy Pike. I can tell you I can tell you the origin of the board. I am going to smack the crap out of you. Hang on. Drew, you're interested in hereness? I'm afraid, but go on. It was a corrupted Windows update. You're welcome. Good night folks. Hey, remember, let's just mute his mic. I'm just talking. Listen, Frank's would least appreciate it.

And so what I was saying is that I'm tired of just like the reboots and the recasting. You know, I'm accepting Spock, but you know, having Pike, to me, it's very fresh. Who are the actress based upon rewatching the original series? You know what, I'm okay with that. Getting an actual more history behind the character, things like that.

That's what I'm interested in more is like new stories about new characters, new areas, things we haven't talked about. They have such a wide universe that they don't really have to do anything crazy. And honestly Drew, I think I would have liked it if they just stayed in that whatever time career that we last left them. Was it Voyager? Was the most recent?

Yeah. Like if they just continued from there instead of jumping back and forth in time, I mean we have enterprise which jumped way back and then we have discovery which jumped us to this point. It's a way forward. Well, we'll discover, discovery started before, strange new worlds and then jumped way into the future.

Yeah, they jumped so far into the future that I'm not buying any of it. So, so I think that's the point is like just just pick a timeline and do continuous. Like if you want to jump around, I mean that's fine, but don't make that being like your your main gimmick because I mean we're talking about science fiction stuff. Like everything else is already there. It's akin to what Star Wars is doing with the Skywalker family. Oh, the Obi-Wan stuff? Well, just everything revolves around the Skywalker's.

Star Wars is such a vast world, a universe, but all the roads lead to Luke. Yeah, oh my god. You're right. So, and Mando did involve Luke. Can I say that without this being a spoiler? Yeah, that's fine. So, Maji, like, I know you were saying like you really enjoyed the Obi-Wan series. I can't get into it. To me, I'm feeling Exhausted from from the series. I couldn't even finish the Book of Book of Fet. Book of Book of Fet was horrible.

I'm sorry, I did not like Book of Book of Fet. The best episode of Book of Book of Fet did not feature a Book of Fet. I sadly enough didn't even get to that episode. I stopped watching, but to the point though, I'm kind of exhausted with all that stuff. Just tell us a new story from a new character's perspective that we haven't heard of.

I know it's hard to build up new characters, but you don't have to rely on the givens, like the easy passes, those have already been done. My dream, sorry, my dream series or movie for Star Wars would be old Republic, like when the Jedi were in the height of its power. Old Republic. So the old Republic basically.

Yeah, yeah. There's so many stories that can be told in both universes, right? Star Trek has established a massive galaxy with thousands of different alien races that haven't even been discovered yet, right? There's entire quadrants of the galaxy that they haven't been to. Right, there's entire quadrants of the galaxy that they haven't been to And and that shouldn't say that they've been to the quadrants, but they haven't explored them, right? So

Why not dive into that further? Why does everything need to circle back to the enterprise? It's because of Dollars at the end of the day, right? It's a brand they're trying They're trying to get the casual fans who frankly aren't going to watch anyway. So I guess I know my next question is going to be what does your dream start truck movie looks like. And there it is. Something that doesn't focus on. For a movie? Or is this? I think for a movie.

No, a movie I want to see the characters that I've come to love on on the big screen, but they have to earn it, right? Next generation earned those movies, in my opinion, Deep Space Nine and Voyager earned movies that they never got, you know, and even enterprise, like they would have earned it. The best, like the best movie would have been the Voyager actually getting home. Yeah for them because like they they they could have just ended the series without them getting home and then. They got home in the movie right. I'm sorry. Did Voyager not get back home like Sliders.

They got but they got back home at the very end, but it was all through a cop out of time travel. And yeah, future technology. It was, it was a hot mess. Yeah. But in any case, in any case, like, there's so many stories that could be told that don't involve characters that we know. So take the time to write the characters instead of being lazy and just using the existing stories and existing characters are recasting. That's okay. Well, just one last question and we can wrap it up. Promise.

Brad, would you be upset if James McAvoy took over the role of Bookhard? I could care less. Jesus. He missed that. He missed that one as well. Jay's masterful. I took over the role. Yes, he plays Professor X. I'm not that. But I swear, man, like to me, it's, again, it boils back down to the lower saying is, I'm okay with them not continuing the story of Picard. He's already an iconic character. You know what?

I'd rather not see a full seven season of McAvoy on in that rather just rather just get on with it. Different story. Okay. So I think that officially brings us into this episode Unless non-joggy Brad's gonna murder us It's a catch me first So folks, I want to thank everybody for tuning into this episode of yet another Star Trek podcast We hope you'll join us next week for the serene Squall and We hope you'll join us next week for the serene squall. And let us know on social media too, what you guys think about not only strange to world

so far, but what would you like to see in Star Trek? Do you agree with our points on this discussion? Or are we off base here? Let us know. Hit us up on our social media. All the information for that will be in the credits coming right up. So we'll see you next time, folks. Thanks for listening. Take care. Hey, folks. Thanks for listening to yet another Star Trek podcast.

We're a part of the retro sessions network. This episode was recorded on June 10th, 2022 by Brad Drew and Majeed. I edited this episode and Brad wrote the synopsis and Majeed. He took care of the artwork and this week that involved taking a lot of text is cramming it into a very small box. I don't know how he's done it yet. Special thanks go to two very important people to the show, William Grobalar Music, he wrote to Song, Warp Speed, and he also wrote to the stars which we used throughout the

show. You can find him on SoundCloud. And we also want to thank George Retau for drawing up the awesome artwork of us as lower-ducked characters. So we have a link for his Fiverr on our show notes as well. Would you like to chat with us? Come on by our TikTok, Instagram or Twitter page at yet another ST pod. Shoot us an email yet another ST pod at gmail.com or swing on by our website www.yetanotherstpod.com We also have a Discord room, there's links for that in the show notes, so come on by and

say hello. If you'd like to support the show, we would really appreciate a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to your podcasts. It helps support us for free. And that's pretty cool because everything costs money these days, especially gasoline. Thanks again folks, we'll see you next week. you