Yet Another Star Trek Podcast - Ep 041: (PIC S03E05-E06) Imposters & The Bounty (Dual Review)

Episode Date: March 28, 2023

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 rolls on as Jean-Luc Picard, Beverly Crusher, William Riker, Geordi LaForge, Worf, Seven of Nine, and more team up to tackle the ongoing thread of the Changelings. Who is an Imposter? How will they deal with The Bounty on their head? Listen in to find out! Be sure to check out our website, social media, and join our Discord! Links for all are listed below: Website | Discord | Facebook | 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. I'm Drew. I'm joined by Brad. But geez, not here. Drew, you're too loud for me right now. I have so much energy and I shouldn't. And I'm so sorry. I think we're like the polar opposite at this moment

because I am so tired from my darling daughter not wanting to sleep last night and you have apparently all this energy from your preparation of your 5K that you're doing this weekend. Yeah, it is not a marathon, sir. Let us clarify that right off the bat. I am running 3.1 miles, which I've done before, but poorly. And I'm attempting to improve my times. The last year I ran this, the same 5K.

And I wanted to run the entirety of the thing. And about halfway through, I ended up having to walk for a little bit, and then I got back into a run again. This year, my goal is to run the entire thing non-stop, which, you know, there's a very large hill at the end of it, and I know that's gonna be a challenge. But if I can at least run to the hill and then when I get over the hill,

could run the rest of it. Like, that'll be a good victory for me. I just picture you the little engine who could, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. That's accurate, man. But here's a thing, like we're supposed to get rain and sleet on Saturday. Oh, man, I hope your shoes are waterproof. They are not.

My wife was also supposed to run this with me and she has elected not to. But I also have a friend who is absolutely batshit insane and he will be joining me and. He's already made it clear that he intends on running this thing but he's done marathons and he's you know technically blind so I don't think a little rain or sleet's gonna stop him. So what you're saying is you're like, man, if this crazy mofo was gonna do it, I have to do it. Yeah, yeah, I don't have a choice. I don't have a choice. Well, hopefully, hopefully my energy will leak into your end of the recording because I know you are absolutely exhausted. Yeah, I think I can tell you this much. I don't remember the hours of 230 to 430, so I'm pretty certain I may have slept

during that time period. And then I think around 6. No, no, no, yeah, it was six o'clock. I was able to get some sleep from six until nine with a little break when my wife woke me up. But yeah, I'm tired. I'm so sorry. I will try to absorb some of the energy that you put off to not dull our listeners too much. Well, so right now, like baby Bradleyna is teething, right? Well, no, it's sleep progression. It is where her body is growing. Her brain is developing.

So therefore, it is causing her to have interruption in her sleep. Sounds like painful. Is this like when when baby spock turned into teenager spock and Star Trek 3, the search for spock? You know, I wish I could say that was the case, but my daughter is not going to be going through that speed of a growth. So no pun fire is what you're saying. It's more of like, hey, I can now crawl. And I'm like, okay, okay, that's sweetheart. That's sweet.

Just just please stop crying. We're making all these crazy sounds at three in the morning. We are here to talk about Picard, season three, episodes five, and episode six. Pretty excited about this lot is happening. We have a number of new slash returning characters in these two episodes. So I want to start with thinking about the previous episodes. So far we know some sort of insane weapon was taken from the day Sherman's to you. We've learned that there's change links that are involved.

We don't really know how, we don't know why. I know from my experience, the one thing that I was truly worried about is that there is some sort of catastrophic event that they're trying to prevent. But I'm, you know, kind of like an unrealistic catastrophic event, just like some of the other shows. However, I've been pleasantly surprised that they're not really going that direct route, at least yet. So far has been pretty, pretty good, pretty bangin'. Yeah, I mean, the catastrophic event that they keep alluding to seems more like terrorist

activity. To me, you know, it seems like it's on that spectrum. It's not like this galaxy ending or shattering thing, but it seems like terrorist activity targeted at the heart of the federation But it seems like terrorist activity targeted at the heart of the federation in a way that could potentially cripple the federation for decades if not centuries to come. And that seems like a reasonable threat to me. Yeah, you know, it's not elder than a possibility. The changelings are certainly known for infiltrating Starfleet. They've done that before. So this has precedent. This is all very much a logical story so far. You know, and yes, it does have a little bit of an excuse baked in and bringing in some older characters

Denon on bringing in some some older characters from TNG, but it's all been flowing quite naturally so far. And I've been enjoying it. I'm always skeptical. Anytime they take the nostalgia out because it's easy. It's an easy way out, right? But they're nailing it. So, so the one thing I want to comment to you is that I don't know about you, but every single episode I'm watching, for some reason on the back of my head,

I got the dialogue of, we're getting the band back together. It does feel that way. It the entire time I'm watching it, it feels exactly like that. Every single episode, it's like the Blues Brothers going to somebody else and be like, we're getting the band back together.

Let's get the guy to come on. We're on a mission from God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. And I can definitely see that Metro, please stop biting my hand. Buddy, I'm sorry. I'm sorry listeners, my cat is very needy. But he's a good boy. He just wants to be your own daddy. That's all. Yeah, all the time. Every single waking moment of every hour of every day. But he is cute. All right. Anyway, so what do we talk about in Poster, shall we? Yeah, let's get started. So with the most recent episode and posters, we have a lot of stuff going on. We have Jack kind of seemingly going crazy for a lot of the weather word. He's seen like this red door,

seeing himself kind of lose control and like shoot up the bridge. And I think that's where we started in that episode is that we see Jack going to the bridge and then pretty much kills everybody on the bridge. Yeah, so they didn't have any of the main characters on the bridge. And this scene, it was all like, you know, the Helmsman, the science officers, things like that, all the secondary cast for the Titan. But Jack is basically going crazy. He sees the same red door that we've seen

in previous hallucinations, the roots that he seems to kind of like see takeover certain hallways and the ships and it looks like he's basically been you know, winner soldier here and start shooting up everybody. You know what, it kind of reminds me of event for Ryzen, like with the CD Fulucinations. You know, it has like a very horror-esque aspect of it. I, you know, I honestly, when they started doing this, I didn't expect it because that felt so out of

place for Star Trek. It did. And sure enough, it was because all of this was just a hallucination. But Jack is standing in the middle of his quarters. he's got a phaser in his hand and he starts like, his hand starts shaking. He's obviously not in control of the situation. And then when he snaps to, you know, like he's in shock. Yeah, and it's a whole big mystery to like how he's like, or what's going on with him. He, it also feels like he does even really know

what's wrong with him. Right, right. And that'll come out to play a little bit later around the episode as well. But after the credits, right, we go back to Picard and Reiker and Shaw and Seven, right? They're in the observation lounge and they're trying to figure out how changelings got on board the ship. Yeah, you know, it's the whole change of the changelings.

They really are making changel, changelings a bit different than what we saw in DS9. And, and quite, quite honestly, it is a logical step for that direction because they're, they're so embedded into like, Starfleet, that they're not normally detectable by the, the, the means that they used to be in DS9. Yeah, so I mean like they kind of address this because they're showing that the change links have evolved biologically, right? And we've seen them change appearances and it's you and I have commented on this in past episodes where it's very like fleshy. Yep. You know, in a way that it had never been before. And later on in the episode, we find out that we know why, you know, Beverly was able to do an autopsy on one of them. And she found out that

like they're not just like like it's not just their just they're they're quote-unquote blood that is you know changeling material but they also are basically mimicking the internal organs of humans and like it's it's gone beyond just goo. Yeah yeah so it's it's a very it's a logical progression it's still kind of creeps me out a little bit, but I mean, it's kind of like a modern day version of the blob, I would say. I'm all for, I'm sorry to interrupt, but like I'm always for an opportunity for them

to explain improvements in computer graphics, in a production standpoint, in a way that also relates to the in-universe. It makes sense because if you think about like that metallic goo that we saw from DS9, it really is a big shift. But you can also remember like that, that goo from DS9 was to totally CGI'd

and you could 100% tell. Right. Whereas this one, you know it's CGI, but it's a lot harder to tell that it's CGI. Right, exactly. So we cut between Rafi and Wurf and the crew on the Titan. They're still trying to figure out who to get in contact with to identify more information about what's going on with the whole situation. They come across, I believe

it's a Vulcan, right? Yeah, his name is Krin, played by Kirk Asivato, who is another 12 monkeys alumni, but you may also remember him from friends. That's what I was gonna say. Yeah, this guy is like sci-fi. He plays a lot of sci-fi stuff. I really enjoy his acting. I think Kirk Sivado is a fun actor and I think it was a pleasure seeing him in this role. Yeah, it's funny.

I think I was, it wasn't as favorable for me only because I know the character so much from fringe that I was the entire time I was watching it. I was like, why does this guy look familiar? And until you mentioned it right there, I was like, that's where I saw it from. And it just felt off for some reason, something felt weird because like I recognized the voice, I recognize the face a little bit, but it couldn't place it. And then when she said it, I was like, okay, that's probably why it felt a little off, but he's phenomenal as an actor. I love the love him in French. I think it's just kind of a little spoiled for me on that way.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like he says, you know, quite a list of credits. You know, he's he's been in a ton of stuff. He's been in Arrow. He's he's been in 12 monkeys. I guess he's been in a couple episodes of agents of shield, blue bloods. You know, a lot of one-off parts, but you know, he's he's also done, you know, extensive, uh, work in, in series as well too. So definitely worth checking out his stuff. I, uh, probably most famous in, in my mind for fringe, uh, some people might know him from

Oz. I've never seen Oz, uh, but I guess he was in most of that show 46 episodes. Oh, wow. I didn't realize he was in Oz off the, uh, have to pull it up and then see who you play. I used to watch Oz, well, years ago. But anyways, like when they were trying to, the Raffian Warp tried to identify the next point of contact, they identify him and they start signing up and meeting.

I know I'm probably going a little bit out of order, but they go back to the same freaking district and apparently everybody's scared of them and they're now the new Elphidogs. So it's this kind of, to me, it's a bit of a stretch and it's a bit comical at this point for me. I feel like there's so much budget on the other aspect of the show, whereas this part they're just like, yeah, we'll use the same set for each, the first five episodes.

Well, to be fair, they're using the Titan over and over again, the same set and the Titan. Yeah, but I think it works to the story, whereas this is just, it's like, but like I think it works to the story where it's like this is just it's like, man, I guess like like to me, it's like, does this planet have no cops? Like, no, I guess not. So because like they're killing people and all this other crap, but there's apparently no law enforcement at all. It's like a just a criminal planet. So it's it's a bit, to me, it's a bit ridiculous. I'll give you that. Yeah. So we go back to the Titan though. Um, and we get a surprise.

We have a, a call back from the original TNG. We have a guest star parents of role-learn. Yep. So, she hitches a ride on a ship called the USS Intrepid, and the Intrepid shows up to basically interrogate Picard and Riker, right? But they have no idea who's interrogating them. And Ro insists on coming over in a shuttle. She refuses to beam over for whatever reason. She shows up with two other officers, security officers. And when Picard sees her, it's like he's looking at a ghost. The last time he saw Row Laren, she was betraying the uniform. She had been assigned to be a secret operative to infiltrate the Machee, and she turned around and joined them instead.

For those who are not aware, the Machee is a group of bejorns radicalists who were truly against the Kardashians and trying to, they were essentially like terrorists, I guess you could say. That's how I think Starfleet classified them. Yeah, but they were basically fighting to keep their homes or at least that's how they saw it. That's, there's a whole big, there was a whole big thing in, um, I think DS9 more so to like discuss for it. And it, it's, a, I think it's a very good conversation point for it. But it's, I think to me, to this though, it's, it truly showed the betrayal that she did to Picard in this episode. And, and how much it affected him, too, right? Because we didn't really

get that in TNG when, when that episode was over, Roe Lairn was gone and you never heard about it again. There was no lasting repercussion on that. But during the context of that episode, when she betrayed him, you could tell he was pissed, right? And not just angry but heartbroken because he genuinely cared about her. And, and I don't think it was in like a, a romantic way or anything. It was more like in a, in a mentorship way, like he felt like he could fix her, you know.

And so to see her back in uniform, obviously there's a lot of questions, a lot of, you know, speculation, is it actually really raw? For example, is it just a changeling that's imitating her? I think at that point, seven takes, it goes to Jack and says, hey, you need to hide in like plain sight. And so she gets him to put on the uniform and so that he can blend in with the crew and that like the the people that are are on there that they are not sure of if they're actual federation or if they're changelings. So they won't get caught, or at least they won't find him.

Right. But, but the thing is, is like he's putting on this, this uniform, and it's the same uniform that he was wearing in his, his flashback or his, his hallucination at the start of the episode. So now, now it's like, oh no, this is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yep. And so that's the question is, is it really that he's just hallucinating, or is he just seeing the future?

Right. Exactly. And so there's a lot of potential questions that are starting to arise from this thing. What is really going on with this with with Jack? Right. Um, so we cut back to uh, uh, Raffi and uh, Wharf, they are devising a plan to um, uh, I capture, what was the guy's name the the Vulcan Cren Cren yeah, and and so I have to admit I kind of geeked out during this section because you see Rafi and Worf they're in the the streets no cover no nothing and

You know all of a sudden we see a bunch of like you know You know, all of a sudden we see a bunch of like, you know, criminals come around them with Kren and he's like, you're looking for me. And they end up, I think they end up shooting Raffi. But it really wasn't Raffi. It was a mobile emitter. And I totally geeked out for my days of Star Trek Voyager, of knowing the mobile midter that is basically

a portable holographic unit type thing where you can slap it onto a hologram and they can walk around outside of a holodeck. And then it turns out Rafi is like on the rooftop. However, Kryn was aware of that and was prepared for that type of behavior. So they got, they both got captured. Yeah, I thought that was a little cheesy.

I don't disagree. I just was geeking out so much over the mobile of Mitter that I probably didn't care. That's cool, that's cool. Like, I mean, it was, it was certainly fun, right? It was, you know, I think I remember the doctor from Voyager was being like one of my favorite characters. Um, so I kind of probably jaded a little bit, but yeah, it was super cheesy.

Yeah, and, and he was, uh, he was great, you know, oh, yeah, definitely, definitely. But we go back to the Titan. Um, the, uh, Roe is, you know, meeting with Picard trying to interrogate him, so to say. And they're trying to figure out, as you know, she eventually is like, you know, it tells the two other offices that are there, Leaver alone, how with Picard, and they kind of do this whole big conversation. That's when I think Beverly sends Picard the test results of the autopsy for the changeling. And he reads that without row knowing. And he sees that it's near impossible to identify the changelings through normal methods. So that normal was it cutting the hand

and laying the blood spillers with that? Yeah, which row did? Which she did to prove that she was in a changelink. However, that is no longer a valid test. Right. And so I probably go in a bit out of order, but eventually Picard and Roe leave the conference room and Roe takes him to a holodeck, the 10 forward holodeck, they always love him. They are getting their

money's worth out of that set, man. I know, I know. It's funny. I'm not complaining about it. It's just, it seems more realistic to me than the other other set. But Picard disengages safety protocol in the the holodeck without row noticing. And the, so that's when Picard and Rose start to have full-on conversations about what's going on, about the hurt, about everything that transpired between them.

Yeah, they lay it all out and the broken hearts are revealed. And, you know, basically, they come to an agreement that they trust each other because the things that they were saying to each other were so raw and so emotional that there's just no way that a changeling could have known. Yeah. You know, like you can impersonate somebody to a point,

but when you start getting into that deep kind of that emotional level of things, that's a game changer. And they both realized that and they agreed that not only would they put down their phasers, but they would trust each other from that point forward. And I think that was a nice turning point for the episode. It was in that moment where Picard hesitates

before he says yes. Like you could tell like that was a moment of him like really dropping his guard with her for the first time since you boarded that ship like, yeah, like even even if he didn't believe that she was a changeling from that point forward. Like he wasn't sure that he would be willing to trust her again just based on how she backstabbed him last time. how she backstabbed him last time. And that's when we really learned the extent of the changeling threat. Because she's back, this is back, the changelings are throughout Starfleet, that they've infiltrated the highest levels. She's been trying to, and she's also been working with Section 31. She's working with Section 31, if I remember correctly.

I don't know. I don't remember that. I'm not going to say no, but I don't remember that. I think I think she was only because that's how she got back into Starfleet. Oh, maybe. Um, and that she rose through the ranks through that. If I remember correctly. Okay.

Um, but anyways, she has lost has lost suspicion about multiple different people. And apparently there's like, she indicated that there's like 12 incidents where changeling showed up on ships. And they're not being reported because it's a super hush-hush type thing. And so we're right then and there. That's why she doesn't trust the transporters. She doesn't really trust the people on the the other ship that she came on. And what the I think it's also when we find out that they're the people from the Titan are being transported over to that other ship in like a skeleton crew type of aspect of things. Yeah, so she's, she ordered that apparently,

if I'm not mistaken, because she's anticipating that the Titan is gonna need to run. And she doesn't want to endanger anybody else if possible. And by taking the crew off, it leaves it a small number of individuals. And then also, it helps prevent potential other changelings to infiltrate. Right, right. There's fewer people on board, so there's fewer people that could be, you know, impostered,

right? Yep. All right. We cut back to Wurf and Rafi with crin. Um, crins like, Hey, you know, uh, I, I, I'll, I'll trust one of you guys, uh, but you gotta do a fight for the death type of, uh, situation. This is so, yeah, it was so, so horrible. Um, so I'm sorry. There wasn't a single part of this entire scene that had any logic.

And this is a Vulcan. Yeah. Where was the logic, crryn? Well, shoot them both. Cause it was, was it because they killed his brother, um, Sneed, I think it was. Yeah, yeah, him and Sneed are like best buds or something, right? So, Sneed was the forangi they got beheaded in the, uh, the second episode. Yeah. So like, I could have seen, like, it would have been logical to have them fight to the death and then kill the other person. Right. Come but but he didn't do it that way and yeah, and he's a bad Vulcan. Yes, he is. I think it is a bad Vulcan. They're clearly because he's

a criminal. He doesn't have the brains to be a good one. But they fight and the Raffi stabs Worf, supposedly killing Worf, which was, did you for a second think that Worf was dead? No, gosh no. Okay, okay. And then because it's like, it was not a thing of glory of like it was not a meaningful death. No, no. Um, when, when, when Warf goes and I hope he does not go in this, in this season, I do

not want to see it. Like I was okay with Ro getting, getting killed because she hasn't been around and it gave her a chance to like redeem herself. But yeah, I'm going to be real mad if anybody in this crew bites it. I know, I know. And that includes Captain Shaw. At this point, yeah, Shaw has been, yeah, you know, Shaw has been actually like really driving like as much as I hate him or dislike him, I should say at this point, like he's been really growing on me. Especially today's episode too.

Oh man, we can get into that when that we get there yeah, well, I want to get I want to get through this one pretty quick. So then so then yeah, Rafi Stabs worth and then like, uh, Crim is like, oh, you can join my crew this type of thing and then all of a sudden like the lights go out and like all the other criminals are certain dying because you know, Warp was a badass and just killing everybody. Yeah. It was, it was so ridiculous, man. Yeah, yeah, I wasn't really a fan of this, but thankfully warf is still alive.

He is. He was a little less blood in him, but you know, he used that K-Less technique of slowing his heart to imperceptible levels or whatever. You know, never mind the fact that Klingons have two of every organ. I know, I know. You know, whatever. Never mind the fact that Klingons have two of every organ. I know. Whatever. It was convenient. They told the story that they wanted to tell, and they got around the loopholes of it, and that's fine.

You know, whatever. But they go back to their ship to try to contact Wurfs handler from there. to try to contact Worf's handler from there. So back on the Titan, stuff just kind of keeps happening. People are getting pulled off and then row after the conversation with Picard. Actually, before I get into that part, we find Jack, like goes to the transporter room and the transporter chief like tries to talk to him and he has another hallucination where he's like kills the guy and had no recollection and so then he ends up freaking out

and just like leaving, trying to not use the transporter. But a row and precarred have a conversation, rows like, okay, we're good, we just need to go back to the the tie-in work without without not today with the other ship Without Jack and calls for security So they're flying back on the on a shuttle over to it The other two security guards are like, why are we doing this? What's what's going? We haven't found Jack and she's like, you know I can't remember what she said, but she's like, it's don't worry about type of thing.

And made away through the transportation, the two security guards, one like throws this device on the ground, activates it, and then the two of them beam away onto the Titan. Turns out it's a bomb. Was it a bomb or something like that? Yeah, no, it was a bomb.

It was also a transport inhibitor, so they couldn't get row off. Yep. But that was going to explode. Yes. And so what Roe decided was that she would make the ultimate sacrifice and ramming the shuttle into the starboard and the cells of the other ship.

Right. And disabling the other ship, allowing the Titan to leave. Now, I think before that occurs, though, the two security office transport onto the Titan, and they end up coming across Jack just like that, because it's that easy. And they identify, they comms over to the other ship and just like that, because you know, it's that easy. And they identify, like they, they, they, they, they comms over to the other ship and say, hey, we found Jack,

we need more security. And then two more, um, changelings be more. Right. And that's when Jack kind of goes full, born, uh, yeah, he goes Jason born on that. Jason born on it and just, yeah, destroys all four of the, change links. Now before we go any further, I would be remiss if we didn't talk about the intrepid. First off, what a cool ship. I love that ship. And when when row crashes into the Nassau,

and that ship starts like wavering and like kind of, what do they call it? Delisting, I think it is. And then when she recovers enough to like, straighten out, like, I don't think I've ever seen a ship look so angry before in my life. You know, it was a pretty bad ass ship. It was. Oh my God. That scene where like,

you're looking down the center of the Titan saucer section and all of a sudden, the intrepid just like rises up and and and straightens out and looks at it. Oh man. That was like, that gave me chills, dude. I was I was thoroughly impressed with the design. I'm Brad. I apologize. Do I need to buy you one of those ships for your collection? I get you a little maybe one of those little Christmas tree ornaments. I have my Eagle Moss USS Europa on my desk. I'm holding it in front of you right now in the webcam, but the listeners are not able to see. But behind me, sadly covered in dust is a wall full of other starships. What you need, what you need to do, Drew, is you need to be a real geek and get an enclosed display that helps get rid of the dust. Trust me.

One of those glass ones. Yes. Or the IKEA display cases. I can tell you from my wife who is a designer, things they're actually stylish. And they, while she doesn't agree with the things I put into them sometimes, she's like, yeah, it's an acceptable display case. Okay. I'll have to consider that because the idea of having like this gigantic display case that's made of glass just scares the hell out of me. I have two cats and they like to fight. I can tell you this much, man. I've had display cases like that for years with one cat and who love to jump on the top of it and do these crazy maneuvers and I never had an issue. All right, that's good to know.

All right, well, I'll have to circle back on that then. So do you want to keep talking about the ship? Are you good? I'm good. I had to think for a moment there. Yeah, yeah. But, but yeah, so then the, I think at that point, though, the Titan, I'm good. I had to think for a moment there. Yeah. Yeah.

But, but yeah. So then the, I think at that point, though, the Titan, you says like, shit, peace to get out of here. Yeah. They peace on out just as like two torpedoes are about to smack them in the engines. Yep. I think that's, oh, that's like them transporting away. And then we cut to them, find or no row ended up giving Picard her earring, which was like some sort of like

sentimental thing to show, at least that's what Picard thought turns out it's not. Rikers like, dude, that's like data device. Yeah, my earring is also a flash drive. Pretty much. And it included all of her information and apparently her cell phone number because when Lone behold an incoming call came up and it was Warfare and Raffi trying to get in touch with Warfare Sandler. Yeah, yeah, that was that was interesting. Just like, uh, where's Roe?

Yep. And fortunately she's dead. Yeah. Yeah. I think that covers everything of that episode. Pretty much. I mean, you know, we've, let's see here. Well, we do have that one moment at the very end where Jack admits to Bev that, oh, yes, something is wrong with him and he's not sure what. And that's that's where the episode comes to an end. So before we move on to the bounty, what are your overall thoughts on this one? Um, I enjoyed it a whole lot of nothing happened, but a whole lot of story progression occurred. of nothing happened, but a whole lot of story progression occurred. Yeah. I think I've kind of felt like there's this notice of the episodes. It's like one episode pushes the story. The next episode pushes a lot of stuff that happens. So yeah, yeah, it's kind of a pattern so far because the

next episode a lot of stuff happens, At least in my mind it happens. Yeah, I mean, I felt like this was more than the action-packed story, whereas the next episode is kind of more dialogue-heavy. I guess that's not really true, though. It's, I don't know. I know, I understand what you mean. I think the next episode, like things actually progress. They do more things and accomplish more things

in the next episode. Yeah, and now all the different parts, all the different characters are starting to kind of converge on each other as well, too. Yep, you know. But yeah, I mean, like, I really like this one. I'm all for any time we get to see a new starship. I'm a starship geek. I don't know if you noticed.

I never would have guessed. Never would have guessed. But yeah, I mean, I love a good starship and I love a good starship fight. And seeing that the intrapid show up and be like, hey, Titan, you wanna fight? And the Titan's like, nope. Like that was really cool.

That was really cool. It was like Adios. Let's move on to the bounty. The bounty we start off with three starfleet ships and the, what was the other bad guys ship to Shrike? I think it was. They find a transponder floating in space, so it's presumably the Titan drops their transponders so that they're not found. And so that deck, I think the Helmsman of the Shrek was like, that's why we can't find them

is because of this. And so the Helmsman gets shot, I'm pretty sure. Because that's the most logical thing to do. Well, yeah, I mean, you shoot the guy that's pointing out what's going on, you know. So we start with the Titan, where Beverly is speaking to Picard, you know, saying that, you know, Jack confided into her, that he's been having these issues, and that had been terminally diagnosed of erromatic syndrome, erromatic syndrome. Aromatic syndrome. Yeah, so this is the same disease that Picard was diagnosed with in the TNG finale,

all good things, which is why in the future, in that episode, everybody was calling him crazy, because it was the aromatic syndrome. But it turns out, in reality, he had it. And in Picard season one, spoiler alert, it kills him just out of nowhere. So Picard is dead. And we are actually dealing with the robot of Picard synthetic body. Yes. I don't want to get into a, I don't, I don't, I don't think we need to touch this topic. It's a bad story. But if they're going to own it, they're going to own it. And guess what? Jack's got it now too. I feel, I feel like unfortunately TNG set this up to, to be a, a be something that they had to address.

And unfortunately, there was really, I think that the way they went about addressing it didn't really hold true to something that would satisfy most viewers, at least my opinion. They never had to address it. They never had to address it. Okay. In my opinion, because it was in the very last episode of the series and it happened in an alternate universe. So they never had to address it, right? Beverly said she did a scan on Picard in the present and said to him in the TNG episode, well, there's something there. It might be nothing. It might be something. We don be something we don't know. And we won't know for another 80 years.

And that could have been it. That there literally could have been the end of it. But in Picard, they dropped a little crumb, little bread crumb in the middle of the episode when he met a doctor that we've never seen before, who we apparently had this deep past with, and is like, oh, well, the ero-matic syndrome's getting worse and you might die at any second now. And then he's perfectly fine for nine episodes

until suddenly it's convenient for Picard to die. Yeah, that is fair. Okay. I'm sorry. I feel confident that we've finished our little Drew rant here. I think we can. Oh, I have not even begun to peak. All right. So let's move on to to Jack is diagnosed with this this stupid disease. And that's what's causing his hallucinations. Fair. Fair. Fair. So Picard finds Jack drinking himself under the table in the holiday, because that's also fair. Yeah. Yeah. Um, you know, he's doing the whole self pity, yada, yada, yada stuff. Um, then we move on to the most important thing, wharf and raffi show up.

And it's a lovely reunion. It was, it was nice to see wharf call everybody by like their rank instead of like their names, you know, ever the professional. That's how he is. And Seven and Rafi had a very awkward reunion. Yeah, well, you know, existential. Yeah, yeah, that's that's how it has to be, you know fun fun times. But so the the crew of the the tie and they they want to try to figure out what's going on. So they try to devise a plan on trying to get more information. They really feel that the whole thing is something else was taken from the Dacia from Institute other than this portal gun something much more important. And so they devise a plan to go in and infiltrate the daystrom Institute. I miss anything between them there.

I don't think so. It was pretty straightforward. Yeah, they have like some sort of like virus or something like a key to get into the daystrom to break in and all this stuff. I have to admit though there was a scene that was hilarious to me. It was this scene. I'm sorry to interrupt. I believe that was the key that they got from Kryn. Oh yeah, that was it, there's a scene where Raffi and and this is before they're about to go into the the

day from Raffi and seven and Wurf are together. And there's clearly this whole big tension between Raffi and seven for the relationship. And Wurf is trying to make some sort of comment towards, oh, you can, it's so difficult to deal with this type of thing. And then seven's like, I'm not going. And Wurf's like, oh good. Because it's, he's like, I didn't want to deal with that stuff.

Yeah, yeah, that was hilarious. He's like, oh, you guys are X's. I don't want to have to deal with this. It'll be a burden. Best that you don't go. It was, that was hilarious. He's like, oh, you guys are X's. I don't want to have to deal with this. It'll be a burden best that you don't go It was that was hilarious Michael Dorn what a comedian I Love what I love him. I you know, it's funny like I feel I've been having mixed feelings about his performance in this really Yeah, it it feel it just feels a little off from the way, like I remember the character versus to what it is. And you know, it could just be like, you know, the past being jaded. But I think, I think some of this stuff is a bit cheesy the way they're doing things. And it's, it's okay to me. Fair, fair enough.

But so ends up going raffee, riker and wharf, beam down to the ancient institute and break into it. There's this mysterious whole thing. They, they come across like a like a Raven I think at one point some strange sounds are playing then out of nowhere we get more yard Yeah more yard was gonna go down like this? Nope. I'm not sure. I have not yet processed how I feel. I'm glad that he wasn't a larger part of this though. So I'm gonna kind of just focus on this part of the story if that's okay until we get to the reveal. Okay. And so we get a, so basically more already is like shooting at them like holographic bullets that are actually, you know, doing damage to the station. And the strange, like, these tones are playing still in the background. And eventually corners, riker, raffi, and wharf, and it just dawns on Riker. They heard those sounds before,

and it does a flashback to, I'm pretty sorry, and it was the first episode. That was, yeah, that was the very first time that Riker met data. It was an encounter in Farpe. And it was, it was the whistling song, was it shaving a haircut? Yeah, it was,

pop goes to a whizel. Pop goes to a whizel, that's what it was. And, and Riker whistles the rest of it, and that deactivates the Moriarty defense. And he just kind of goes away. I mean, I never see Moriarty again. So, so the R your comments on that. And he's like, hey, there's something

that's related and that's how I figured out the whistle. And they go into another room and turns out there's an entity that looks like data, but an old man. Yeah. Yeah. They have elected not to CG Brent Spiner in this and they have elected not to cover him in makeup. And instead portray him as this new entity that is a combination of data and lore and before and soon. They didn't, I don't know if they specified if it was,

well, it wasn't, you know, data's father per se, but it was all in soon. Was that the one that was from the season one? Yeah, I think it was that one. Okay. So it's hard to keep track of all these soons because they all, they're all played by Brent Spiner. So they all obviously look the same.

So, so they so they they they integrate like the memories of all of them into one. And it turns out that this this unit is the one that's actually controlling the security system for the day stream Institute. Right. So I had mixed feelings about that. Let's hear it. Well, to me, it was kind of like, you have a being that is clearly, or at least it appears to be clearly aging. It's not like a true artificial synthetic being where it's like, say the same age forever. And unless there was course that was designed specifically that way. Yeah, I mean, in the voice memo that Alton soon left, he referred to it as having the quote,

true human aesthetic of age. So basically, this is as human as a synthetic can get supposedly. Supposedly. In reality, it's just a way to make sure that Brent Spiner doesn't need a ton of CG and makeup. And I'm fine with it. These these poor actors don't need all that makeup. They can get away with it. Yeah, because I felt like with him, unfortunately, he has like, well, the shittiest possible situation

because of his character. It's an Android. It does an age. And I I personally would have liked them to handle it differently. I felt what they should have done to bring back data is that they could have made a sense of like, oh, this was like a years ago, like 20 years ago, somebody made like an actual body and transferred the information to of data like into it or something like that,

because they could have brought data back that way. But you know what, just, it's, I'm fine with it. It's okay, it's an acceptable way of bringing him in. Well, it's also a way for Brent Spiner to play all of his legacy characters at the same time. That's true, that is true. And not all of it, but most of them.

Most of them, yeah, and we'll kind of touch on that in a little bit, but yeah. And so going back to the time, and I know I went a little off a little ahead of the story. Back on the time, the Titan is, is still being hunted by Starfleet. And they end up warping away from the datum institute because ships start calling it there and following. And of course, I think I have to admit that security system sucks because they they know somebody's in there, but they just don't know where. And so they're searching the entire thing.

And it's so freaking stupid, man, because it's like, how bad is your Starfleet security? Is it bad? Yeah. Anyway, so the Titan, they Titan goes, like, hey, we got a final place to hide. And they go to the most logical place I guess they could go. And it's a museum of ships. Yeah. And it's like the most famous ships that have like been

retired over the years and all that wonderful stuff. That's what's cool. It was actually pretty cool. I geeked out, you know, Mr. Mr. Starship over here. Yeah. Oh, man, Brad, Brad, Brad. This is great. And guess what? Who, who was actually the person in charge of this station?

I don't know who. I think, I think you do know, I think you're lying. I'm lying. And it was Jordy LeForge. And apparently his other daughter. Yeah, so I think I incorrectly spoke a few episodes back when I said that the helmsman of the Titan was portrayed by LeVar Burton's daughter.

The daughter that he arrived on the Titan with in this episode is actually his daughter. Really daughter that he arrived on, you know, the Titan with in this episode is actually his daughter. Really? It was? Yeah. Yeah. I got, I got them confused. That's on me. But yeah, this, this daughter whose, whose names I still don't know, but this is, this is played by Meika Burton. Okay. Okay. That, that would a linger. A linger is the character. A long for the forge. This is played by me. A bird. Wow.

I totally did not catch that. I should have called that. Yeah, it's okay. We've been thinking wrong for, you know, yeah, the entire. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, man, I'm surprised. And over listeners like flipped out on us already.

Right. Well, nobody, nobody listens to this podcast. Brad, clearly, clearly, clearly. But anyways, it was, it was absolutely, you know, it, not that you mentioned it, you know, when you said it, because I actually remember meekaburn before she was, or least least I remember her from like this gaming YouTube channel that I used to watch and I would always like watch and I remember her and then when we saw her in like the first like the first episode or the Lava or the Wichmer call it the the

Jordy LaForge's supposed a daughter and I was was like, oh, she looks really different from this. I guess she like did her hair or something different or make it. Yeah. No, no relation, no relation to love, Arbor and then that one. Uh, but, uh, yeah, no, this is, this is her, uh, this is his actual daughter. And she has been a very active in the gaming community, both, uh, video games and tabletop games and, um,. And obviously, it's gotta be like incredible. Acting side by side with your own father in a show that's got such popularity like this.

Like, that's so cool. That's so cool. And also on top of it all be like a fan of this type of thing, like, you know, like, like a nerd, you know, like, like, she's a nerd. She's one of us, Brad. And that's so cool. I do know that I remember hearing comments about the cast and crew very excited to work with her because they, they essentially like, they're big family, you know, the actors. And they've seen her grow up over the years. And so it's kind of

like, you know, having that family, the true family of the Star Trek there. Yeah. As a side note, I don't want to go off on too far off script here, but I found out that Todd Stashwick, who plays Captain Shaw, is like a huge D&D nerd. Oh, really? Like, like he has like a cave that is just decked out in D&D stuff and he runs campaigns on the regular. Wow. Yeah, this guy's legit. Anyway, sorry. I had a moment that I needed this shirt. I mean, we're all nerds here.

It's okay. Yeah. But anyways, yes, we see LeForge with his real daughter. Sorry, listeners, we stand corrected from our previous statements. And clearly, so there's some, I would say probably not very happy relationships right now with Jordi and Picard, I guess. Yeah.

Yes. Jordi's a little salty. He's like, how dare you come here with all your crap and all the shenanigans that you've got going on and endanger my family. And he's like, I've been debating from the time I stepped on this transporter, whether to give you a stern handshake or a friendly hug. Well, he gave Sean Luke neither if we're being honest.

That's true. He gave, um, he gave Bev the hug. You gave Bev the hug. He gave Bev the hug. That's right. That's right. And nobody else got hugs that I saw. Yep. Yep. Maybe it was, maybe it was cut for time. I don't know. But it was, it was a nice getting the band back together moment. Yep. We're on a mission from God. Um, clearly yeah, like Picardin and LaForge have a very wonderful conversation together.

When I say wonderful, I mean, a bit tense. I'm so like, how could you do this? LaForge's daughters, on the other hand, are kind of expecting this. They kind of feel like, hey, you know, this is dad being traditional dad. Yeah. The journey's changed.

He has. And I think it shows the impact of having a family. Yeah. It seems logical that you would want to protect your family. You know, I don't have children, but I think that most people can identify with how you know, Jordy feels, right? Yep. And the, the whole of his daughters were kind of like, hey, you know, we, you know, this

is how that is. So Jack and the two LaForge daughters decided to make their own decisions. Yeah. Yeah, they go and steal a clocking device from the HMS bounty. Oh, you know, do we do we want to take a moment, Drew, and just talk about all those ships you saw when we went to the museum. I can do that. We saw quite a bit, man. We saw the Voyager. We saw the Klingon Bird of Prey that went back in time. Yep, so that was the HMS Bounty, which they found.

They actually spelled it out. They found it in the waters beneath San Francisco. That was the one that crashed the Star Trek IV. They brought the whales back in time with. We had the Defiant, which is legendary. We had the Enterprise 1701A. And then I think this said it was the USS New Jersey, which was an original Constitution class,

but not the original Enterprise, because that ship got destroyed. Yeah. Yeah. So you couldn't do that one. But like I also saw in the background, like there was a nebula class. I don't know what I didn't get a chance to like really dive in. I have to find some stills. I'm sure they had a ton of good ships that I'm sure very memorable ships. And it's ships. And it's, um, and so when the, uh, the daughters decide to take the cloaking device from the, the bird of prey, I know it pissed off Jordy and is like, they broke international, like treaties. Oh, yeah. Well, it's fed, federation is not supposed to have cloaking devices. I assume that's still true. Yeah. Um, they made an exception in deep space nine for the defiant because of the dominion war.

And the Romulans were a part of that decision. You know, but that was the only ship that was authorized to use it. And then when the original defiant was destroyed, I don't believe the the Sal Palo had a cloaking device on it. You know, it was the original defiant. That was it. You know, man, like I swear to God,

the people who ever, whoever's running the federation, like their idiots. Yeah. Um, you, you, if you have like a ship museum, you leave only the essential things there. You take off like the warp drive, you take off like the cloaking, you take the weapons. So essentially it is just a like a shell of a ship that is only there for display.

Correct. 100% 100% so I mean I don't I don't want to say this bad writing. I feel like it's lazy writing. I don't want to say this bad writing. I feel like it's lazy writing. Yeah, I mean, this was this was them like throwing a bone to the fans. This was fanservice. I completely agree and I get it. Um, it just to me, it feels like it's lazy writing as far as like them trying to be like, Oh, we got a solution here. This is all we can do. We're going to steal this clothing device. Um, and then integrate it a solution here. This is all we can do. We're going to steal this cloaking device. And then integrate it into our ship, which is not supposed to have. Right. Exactly. And then it breaks things. Oh, yeah. And apparently, by taking it out of the ship, it just sets off all these alarms. Right. Right. Which, another thing to they they did comment as to how the the ship is or the other ships are finding them is that apparently all the ships are connected.

And that they are communicated to the cloud apparently. Yes, yes, and like Jordy made a comment is like how he was against the whole like the whole thing entirely. is like how he was against the whole, like the whole thing entirely, which I can totally see him being that person me like, yeah, this is a bad idea guys, why are we doing this? Well, it's like, as if you introduced a virus on one, now you can potentially spread that virus every year. Oh, completely, completely. That's kind of how, like, I think the whole aspect of the, everything is kind of connected and mess crap up, you know. Um, but, uh, they did that and it's all connected now. And so, yeah, there's that. Yeah, here we are. And then they've decided finally to, uh, use that clocking device for good and head back to go pick up their, uh, friends at the Aström. Yeah. And they, uh, so, uh, they're the process of trying

to get the three. Well, I should say four out, um, because they want to take data's, I don't know, I don't know what, what, what am I going to call this thing? It's not data. It's not lords. Not soon. It's not before. Just calm, Brent Spiner. Yeah, they'll grab Spiner and they'll bring him back. But the security teams finally find where they're located and Ryker makes the heroic of, I will go, hold them off while you guys escape. I was so nervous that they were going to kill him. Oh, I know. I know. I was really nervous that they were going to kill him. Oh, I know. I know.

I was really nervous at that point, but they don't. They only shoot him with like a tranquil dart that prevents him from getting a transport it off. Right. I don't remember what the hell it was. It was just something glowing in the back. Yeah, it was like a transponder, a transporter, like inhibitor or something.

So, but it was in the dart. Yeah. Everybody beams aboard, Riker Goods capture. And then we cut to the crew, they're like, oh, they cloaked and they leave. And they're, they've hooking up data or spiner, I should say. Yeah.

And he's bits of a schizophrenic. Yeah. So how did you feel about this? Um, I don't know. I was, it was okay. Like I, I got the situation they're put in. Like they, they, they killed off data,

which I think, I think truthfully was a big mistake. When they killed them off in the movies. Yes. Do you. When they killed them off in the movies, do you know why they killed them off in the movies? Because they had a bad director. Oh, jeez. I really don't know. I mean, I don't know what the rationale was.

I don't know if it was. The guy that was in charge of nemesis was widely confirmed to have just not been a good fit for the show or for the movie. And he made a lot of decisions that even the actors were very negative with. Yeah, I can see that. But yeah, Spiner being dead, it's kind of hard to bring back data. I mean, the whole idea like before kind of encompassing his memories,

it would have been nice if they just been like, oh, yeah, before is actually data now, because like, data's memories took over before. Right, but the thing is, is that like an emphasis, like they pretended like the Lord didn't even exist. Yeah, I know. Oh, they made like a casual comment, I think, from Remember Crackley.

Did they? It was like in passing, it was like so minute, it didn't even registered. Okay, but but the whole schizophrenic data lore before and then some conversation was kind of weird for me. Yeah, it was, uh, I don't know. I'm going to hold my opinion to the next episode only because I feel like we'll we'll get more of what's going on the early So the direction towards it. So I'll give it the benefit of the doubt Yeah, it's it is a little tough to say right now like with with you know barely 10 minutes worth of it, but uh Um, I will say that when

Uh data Turned and looked at Jordi and said Jordi's name. Like that kind of hit me. Oh, give me that gave me shivers. It gave me chills. And I got a little, a little misty eye. I'm not going to lie. Well, because Jordi and data are like, we're BFFs, man. They were best friends, which is another problem I have with season one of Picard. But anyway, um, oh yeah, because um, data and um Picard were like never really that connected, but yeah, they were connected. But they made it seem like they were, but anyway, I'm getting off, I'm sorry.

So yeah, like they're BFFs, right? And that was really moving. And then watching Brent Spiner do what Brent Spiner does just shift from personality to personality like that. From an acting point of view, I thought it was pretty cool to see. Well, he did great with it. When I say like my possible negative feeling towards it,

it's not towards Spiner. I think he was phenomenal in the current situation that they have him in. I just want to see how they take this new character. If it says this jumbled mess of like splitting between personalities or is it something that's going to melt together into eventually just be one character? Right. Yeah, I don't know. So we'll see.

So we'll see. I think that's where we left the crew of the Titan. I can't really remember anything else from that, but we did have a cut. Well, there is one more thing. They identify what was stolen from Daystrom. Oh yes, they did. And it was the more powerful weapon is the body of Jean-Luc Picard.

That is not a more powerful weapon. Yeah, not into this. Not into this. So when they did that reveal, I was just like, are you freaking kidding me? That's the reveal is that Picard's body is the key WTF. Yeah, how are they gonna figure this out? I don't know, I mean, are they gonna use the body? Are they gonna weaken to Bernie's John Luke Picard?

Well, no, wasn't itmesis where they did the clone. Nemesis was a clone, right? Yeah, well, it was supposed to be, quote, unquote, his son, Shenzhen. But yeah, it ended up being like a clone. Yeah, so what's the whole point of it, though? Like, what did Picard do in the past that they need his body? And then why the freak is his body like classified in the Dacia Institute? Well, they did the same thing with Kirk's body. So I guess like maybe, maybe special

people get entombed there. I don't know. I don't know. I have no idea. All right. We'll see. We'll see. However, one last thing, Riker is captured. You have like three crew members, Starfleet crew members, me like, hey, you know, what's going on. And then this lead crew member turns around and kills the other two crew members. Yeah. It's a shape shifter. And you know, honestly, man, at first, I was excited and I was like, oh my god, are they gonna bring Odo? And then I was like, nope, it's, it's the, uh, the woman from the Shrike, the capture from the Shrike. And I was like, dang it. Um, so disappointed. Um,

I'm okay with it. I really didn't want them to, uh, to try to bring Odo back. Oh, are you kidding me? I think this is like the perfect time. But, but, but Renee Obershawen was dead. So, oh, yeah, he, he did. Oh my god. I didn't realize that.

Yeah. Yeah, he passed away a few years ago. So, man, I, another act I absolutely loved. Um, yeah, he was, he was great. All right. Well, never mind. I said correct. Sorry. Sorry, Brett. No, no, no. I'm a horrible Star Trek fan. I didn't know this. You are. But they, they bring a riker back to the Shrike. And lo and behold, they have captured his wife.

Yeah. Trey is on the Shrike. Yep. And, uh, well, crap. That's a good way to put it. That is a good way to put it. So, we leave everybody in a situation where things are a bit awkward, man. Yeah, we have Riker in a compromise state. We have Jordi LeForge having a turn of faith and joining the crew and

doing engineering things. Can we talk about Shaw about, oh my God, watching this man who is so sure of himself and just like constantly having the upper hand in every conversation that he's in. Just stand there in front of Jordy LaForge and stammer like a starstruck fool. And Brad, we've both been there when we've met somebody that we're like, we idolize, right? You and I, we go to conventions. I'm sure you've met a star or two where like, I just don't know what to say to them. So, okay, you know what, let me dive into my old Brad Past of going to comic book conventions. I remember going to San Diego Comic Con.

And I'm, there was a video game that came out. I think it was like X-Men Legends or something. This was years ago. And one of the voice actors was Armored Shimmerman. Oh, wow. And I was standing in line to get this giant poster signed by him. And I was expecting just a quick, hey, no, thanks for, you know, common sign. Here you go. Have a good day. This man looks at me, looks at my badge. See's Shelton, Connecticut. And he's like, oh, no kidding. I used to act at the playhouse in Shelton Connecticut.

Or, no, no, listen Shelton, it was a shrapher, shrapher, Connecticut. That's what I was like. Yeah, yeah, the Shakespeare House, man. I was like, oh, no kidding. I live like, that does, like, right down my, that's to my house. Like, I live like a five minute walk from that.

And, and honestly, guy, man, man, like he starts like chatted me up and I'm like the bumbling full room. Like I can't believe he's talking to me. I don't really, I can't come up with more than a few words for sentences and comments, but he was super nice. The like the most nicest guy ever. And I was like, I thought he was a phenomenal conversationist where I was just a bubbling, bubbling fool.

So I can kind of relate with Sean this. You meet somebody who you truly love and admire and you're like, oh, I don't really know what to say. Yeah, yeah, that's such a cool story, man. Thank you for sharing that. I love that. That's so cool. Yeah, yeah, that's such a cool story, man. Thank you for sharing that. I love that. That's so cool. Yeah, yeah. George, I met George the K at Dragon Con. Oh, man.

Maybe 15 years ago and I had a similar experience. You know, it's funny with some of them, like you just you're so star-struck, I would say. They just you don't know what to say. And I think that's what happened with Shaw. Because if you think about it, it's such a polar opposite of what we saw with him. Picard, he loathes. He hates Picard for the actions of that day. But Jordy, despite being on the same ship, despite being a part of the crew that saved him, he loves. Yeah. despite being a part of the crew that saved him, he loves.

Yeah. I mean, it's kind of akin to like, you know, Jordi running into Scotty as an example. Oh, yeah. Although, Jordi was not a starstruck. No, no, he wasn't. That same level of appreciation. Yep. You know, it was, that was a pretty funny interaction, remember back in that?

A humanized, it just humanized Sean away that I was not expecting. Yeah, yeah, I agree. It was funny like, Jordi was like, you know, we can, you know, if this is a normal circumstance, we can talk about this all day, but we need to get movement. Come on. Right, right. And I appreciate that. So I'm looking forward to seeing future interactions with them.

I want to know if, if they're going to have their their moment to to geek out about engineering and stuff like that. Oh man, that's the dynamic duo. I did not know I wanted. You know, you know what? They were planning seeds for that too, because two episodes ago, they had Shaw tell everybody how he was an engineer. Yep. Yeah. They were setting this up and I love it and I can tell because they was a he was the one that had to Modify the ship to do because it's like none of these young engineers have ever seen anything like this So it's pretty pretty funny, but yeah, I know I agree and I really do Shaz really like warming up on me man like that guy. Yeah You know, I think a big part of it is, you know, the actor has brought this,

this human side to this character that I think we weren't really expecting. We normally get, whenever there's like a, a Starfleet officer that's on the opposite side of our crew, whatever crew that is. They always come off as the bad guy. Oh yeah, right. You know, and look at all the admirals over the years, or even like Jeleco, you know, Jeleco is a prime example of a captain who he took over the Enterprise. And while Picard was on that covert like operative mission,

right? Yeah, yeah. Jeleco comes across as this hard ass who doesn't give a crap about anybody but himself. But that is the furthest from the truth. He just has a different way of doing things than we're used to, and he expects everybody to do things his way as well. Whether or not that's the right approach, it doesn't matter. But that's how it's perceived. But at the end of the day, he cares. And I would make the argument that Jeleco was a good captain. And I think

in Shaw, we have a good captain as well. We just haven't really had an opportunity to see it yet. Because if you think about the interactions that we've had with Shaw, the first interaction was was Picard and Riker meeting, trying to, you know, smooth their way into like, hey, let us take your ship and do what we want. And like our first interaction was like, Shaw being like, no, get the heck out of here. Right. Can you imagine if Shaw came up to Picard and asked to take control of the enterprise? Oh, you would have been the same, Oh, you would have been the same conversation. It would have been the same conversation. What are you doing?

It's like, no, this is the most ridiculous thing ever. Exactly. And so, and, good. Yeah, I was going to say, like, the only time that we've ever really seen different shades of him where like he's actually like, captaining is like when, like, the crew had been up for like 36 hours straight on the bridge And he told him to go get some rest and everything and you know things like that like you get these little dribs and drabs of him being like a person That cares. I think they kind of did it on purpose to be like we want we want you to to not like this guy

And we want you to see like you shouldn't judge him based upon the interaction. Right. Well, it's like he's earning that good will. It just wasn't handed to him. Very much so. You know, so I'm on board for it, man. And like I really hope like I'm always like on edge with new Star Trek about them killing off characters. I hope they don't kill off Shaw. Like nobody in this, nobody in this cast needs to die. Let's just get that out of the way. We hope they don't kill off Shaw. Like nobody in this, nobody in this cast needs to die. Let's just get that out of the way. We don't need to kill any of the TNG guys, and we don't need to kill Shaw. Like, you know, okay, so, so this is, I know it's going to be

controversial, but honestly, man, like I would rather have them kill off TNG crew, then like the newer people. And the reason why is that the TNG crew have, they, we've had our time with them. We've heard their stories. And I, I'm okay with them retiring from that. It's kind of like, I love, I love data. Data was, was absolutely one of my favorite characters. I love, I love, um, data. Data was was absolutely one of my favorite characters. Um, I think the only reason why I accepted his death is because I, I was okay with them moving on from that character.

I, you know, you think about, um, some of the more, uh, seasons one and season two, I think those are good examples as to reasons why you shouldn't keep stories going because it's sometimes you don't, if your intentions maybe well, you know, maybe well intended, but you end up with garbage. Right. Yeah. So that's kind of why I'm kind of at that point

whereas with newer characters, you don't, like, you need to develop them and continue to develop them. And that's kind of why I would rather them get rid of a TNG person, as opposed to one of the newer, newer characters. But, caveat, I have a big butt there, is that if you get rid of them, get rid of them rights. Don't do it. That's them rights. Don't do it.

That's the thing. Don't do it meaningless throw away. Warf gets stabbed in the stomach because he was fighting Rafi kind of vatitude. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's 100% like I agree. I agree with that.

But I'm sure there's a way to do it where they don't have to do it. I don't think they'll probably do it, but that's just kind of where I stand for it. So what do you think of this episode? I actually enjoyed this a lot better than the previous one. I did enjoy the previous one. Don't get me wrong. It's, I have to say, while there are things that I disagree with, the series itself as a whole has been phenomenal and it is, it keeps impressing me with each

episode. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're doing a great job. It really does feel like a, the TNG movie that we never got to me, you know. And it's just, it's just being carried out over, you know, a series of one hour episodes, rather than a two and a half hour film. Which is fine. Like I'm fine with that. It gives us some breathing room to kind of get to know the characters a little bit and

have them flush out the story in an interesting and compelling way. But I'm along for the ride still. I'm still on board. I'm so thankful that this is going better than I expected because I was dreading this show. And even like after the third episode, like I was ready for this to just nose dive, but it hasn't. It's been consistently good episode after episode. And if this is any kind of an indication of what we can expect from the future of Star Trek, like I am, I'm there. I am there. I would love to see this production team continue forward because they have the love and the care and the respect of the franchise.

And I think they're in tune with what people who loved TNG and Voyager and DS9 want, you know. I think that's your point though, is this is, this season has been very much fanfare. And if I am okay with it being fanfare, as long as it's done right. But that's the thing, like as much as it being fanfare, as long as it's done right. But that's the thing, like as much as it is fanfare, I think there's a fine line that you have to walk with that

and I think they've been walking it. Oh, they have been walking it well because I just think about seasons one and two and like there were fanfare parts that just fell flat. And I think right now they're in that, they're in that good spot. And I hope they keep this, say that way. And I'm so far, if they do, this is gonna be the best, one of the best Star Trek seasons I've seen in a while.

Yeah, I would agree. So anything else you wanna wrap up with this or I'm gonna call it a day. I think we covered everything buddy All right, man. Well in two weeks we'll be back again Talk a little bit about Picard season three. Well, thank you for tuning in listeners and we'll catch you next time later, everybody. Thank you for listening to this episode of yet another Star Trek podcast, we're part of the Retro Sessions Network. This episode was recorded on March 23rd, 2023, and was hosted by Drew and Brad, but Jude was not here, he's a lazy bum.

I'd like to thank Brad for coming up with a synopsis for this episode and Majid for handling all of our social media and artwork. And I'd like to thank me for editing this thing. Thank you, me, your good editor. We'd also like to thank William Grubelar for his original music warp speed and to the stars.

You can find him on SoundCloud, and we'd like to thank George Rutao for doing up some cool artwork of us as lower deck characters. Check him out on Fiverr. We have links for both in our show notes. We've also got links for all of our social media including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, our YouTube page. We have a link for our Discord room. Come on by and talk about Star Trek, video games, movies, music, show us pictures of your animals, your pets, not your like your strays. You know, we don't want to see pictures of like a stray cat that's like just hanging out in the parking lot at Walmart.

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