The Greatest Generation - An Actor of a Certain Boob (VOY S3E5)
Episode Date: December 27, 2021When Ferengi are found on a planet in the Delta Quadrant, the way they got there might get the Voyager crew home. But when Captain Janeway gets bogged down with exposing their megachurch, the path hom...e is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. What’s the most suggestive pants pattern? Who brings change to the club? Is there anything that beats hitting a gong? It’s the episode where the prep is no guarantee of success!Exchange scarves for goods at PodShop.bizSupport the production of The Greatest Generation.Friends of DeSoto for Democracy.Friends of DeSoto for Justice.Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Caretaker!Music by Adam Ragusea & Dark MateriaFollow The Greatest Generation on Twitter, and discuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen!The Greatest Generation is now regularly streaming on Twitch.Facebook group | Subreddit | Discord | WikiSign up for our mailing list!
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Priority 1 message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel.
Hey friends of Disodo.
Before today's episode, we just wanted to take a moment to talk about the historic labor
actions being taken by writers and actors in the American Film and Television industry.
If you're a fan of the work done by the people who make Star Trek, we hope you'll join
us in standing in solidarity with the folks who actually bring these adventures to life.
Over the past several years, the AMPTP, the organization that represents the American Film and Television Production
Studios, have reduced the profit from movies and TV going to workers. And in so doing,
they've attempted to weaken the labor unions that represent those workers. They wouldn't
even engage the unions on many issues in their negotiations. And so a strike was the only course of action to take.
Adam, Wendy and I have been having a lot of internal
discussions about how best to stand with the unions
and we are continuing those conversations
in a dynamic situation.
We're doing our best to understand where the picket lines
are in these digital spaces,
and we would never intentionally cross one.
With the information we have,
we feel like we can do more good talking about and supporting
the strike and continuing our show as planned.
We'll keep you informed about what all this means for greatest trek specifically.
Today we're making a contribution to the Entertainment Community Fund.
This fund exists to help all the people whose livelihoods have been put on hold because
the AMPTP refuses to negotiate
in good faith with the unions. It provides financial support for writers, actors, and all the
thousands of laborers who make the shows that we talk about here and without whom we wouldn't
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We hope you'll join us in supporting entertainment workers
in a challenging time,
especially after they've already endured
several years of challenges brought on by the pandemic
and season two of Star Trek Picard.
We've set up a page where you can also contribute.
It's at friendsofdecotoforlabor.com.
That's friendsofdececoto for Labor.com. That's FriendsOfDecoto for Labor.com. Link
in the episode description. Okay, now let's get on with the show.
Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet. Engage!
Watch your backdrop. Hello. I'm Captain Captain Bringing, what are the U.S.s?
Board of Ducco. Captain Captain Bringing, what are the U.S. is Boardman, Dr. Captain, Captain, Bringing one of the U.S. is
Boardman,
Duet,
Captain,
Captain,
Bringing one of the U.S.
Welcome to the greatest generation.
I'm Captain,
Captain,
Captain,
Captain,
Captain,
Captain,
Captain,
Captain, Captain,
Welcome to the greatest generation.
I'm Captain,
Captain, Captain,
Captain,
Captain,
Captain,
Captain,
Captain, Captain,
Welcome to the greatest generation. Captain dealing with right now. Yeah, we're in the interregnum right now.
Are you gonna take any kind of break at all?
Yeah, we're taking a little break.
My wife and I are renting a little cabin in the woods.
What?
Yeah, we're gonna go, if it's warm enough,
we might let the dogs swim in a river.
Whoa.
Yeah.
Come back with a fish in his mouth.
Ready for you to grill?
That would be the shock of my life if my dog caught anything.
It would be a shock if a fish didn't successfully attack your dog.
Yeah.
Bring him down.
The fish would come back with the dog in its mouth.
Much more likely.
You going up into the mountains where it's going to be snowy?
Not snowy, we're going to go to the Russian river with this.
River Dazfidania.
Yeah, I'm excited about this episode.
We're here to talk about Adam.
This is an episode that draws on the mythos of the barzan wormhole, which you don't think
about the barzan wormhole episode of TNG as being like hugely important in Star Trek,
except it's super is.
This Joe Manoski, the writer of the episode, like he took a long time off of Star Trek,
went and wrote a couple of specs, this being one of them, and like, it's amazing how you don't know at the time
what you can make out of an original idea.
Right.
And that Barzan episode made this possible
in a really interesting way.
I don't think that DS9 exists without that episode.
The wormhole is kind of the, like,
that's the first time we had a wormhole in Star Trek
and it's really like the foundational idea of DS9
is seated in that.
Like what if you had a way to get way across the galaxy?
Wouldn't that be a great economic opportunity?
You don't get none.
Yeah, there's a key discovery character that comes out of that episode.
Y'all, y'all.
All of DS9 and this episode of Voyager,
you start trick as none, none, without the war horns.
I know, man.
Now that we've watched this, we should like go back
and revisit that episode of TNG or something.
Oh, I'm planning on cutting in clips
from our episode of Greatest Gen into this. Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh a doubt, as I was watching this, I was thinking this was going up on Mount
Armus.
Uh, that sounds like a lot of work.
I don't, I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
Well, if I don't end up doing that, I'm going to cut that part out.
Okay.
Because I have a week between two that I'm hoping to take a rest during and, and we'll
see if that ever happens.
Yeah, yeah.
We got to take it easy on ourselves.
Look what's happening to us, man.
Your sofa is soaked.
Yeah.
My puppy's teeth are falling out.
It's chaos around here.
We could use a week.
Nobody's gonna know what either of those things
are in reference to.
Because that's before we heated the mics up
when we were talking about your dog's dental issues
and my wet couch.
But you guys can just use your imaginations.
I'm sure you can find a way to connect the two problems pretty easily if you
wanted to. But an episode here been about making connections, huh?
Connections from Star Trek Voyager to a previous next generation episode.
Every story is a homecoming story, Adam.
Really?
Somebody said that to me one time about writing.
Was it at your high school homecoming dance?
Yes.
You were at the wall flower and the jot comes up and he's like,
Ben, keep your head up, man.
Everyone's story is a homecoming story.
Yeah, I did not have homecoming at my high school.
I'm not really sure what homecoming is.
Oh, that's right, because you went to chess camp
as high school.
Yeah, I remember.
I've never gone to a institution of learning
that had a football team associated with it.
So it's homecoming specifically a football thing.
A giant popularity contest basically
Maybe that's research you can do while we're talking about Sturteric Voyager season three episode five
False profits
Unless you've got something a little bigger in your torpedo tubes
An episode that begins with a Janeway's log where she asks a fairly straightforward question.
What's up with this winking wormhole?
Yeah.
It's like wagging around all around here.
It seems like it opened six months ago.
It's not there now.
What gives?
It's all willy-nilly on their sensors, Kim and Chico-te, or observing some strange behaviors.
They can't figure this out, and either can Janeway herself.
It's wagging around the Delta Quadrant like a tail and a dog.
They find some evidence that locals in this system have had contact with the A Quad because
there's some energy readings that indicate a replicator has been used on the M-Class
planet.
And this is very interesting because it is starting to look
like maybe the Voyager has a way home.
The look on Janeway's face into the theme is a seductive
kind of intrigue.
Like it's a very unique facial expression she's got.
It is, yeah.
This is a type of episode I feel like they did a lot in season one and maybe a little bit
in season two, but I feel like we haven't gotten in a while.
Hey, maybe this is the way we get home and then it gets snatched away, like episode format.
What we get are a number of people excited at the prospect of going into this wormhole,
getting out on the other side in the Alpha Quadrant
and being home.
This episode is meant to be the broad comedy
that we end up experiencing,
but up front, I think it would have been interesting
to see people making the mistake of like,
like if it were Kim,
I'm throwing my replicated clarinet
into the fucking trash.
Like, getting rid of all their temporary shit and advance of making it home, dumping
all of their summer camp, girlfriends and boyfriends.
Too Voc, replicating a five gallon bucket of sexual lubricant.
The pal will not know what hit her.
She won't be able to walk right for a week.
I will be melding with that ass.
Jordan.
Making awful decisions based on this expectation.
No one does that because that wouldn't be funny the way this episode needs to be.
I appreciate your enthusiasm.
Nearby this wormhole is a Class M planet.
You know what that means?
They're gonna have some people down there.
And who knows what sort of loaf they'll be wearing.
Any kind is possible, literally any kind.
Any all or none are our choices.
We get a launch of probe to take pictures
of what these people are wearing
if we're ever gonna go down there and explore.
Yeah, yeah.
They launch a high resolution outfit surveillance probe. what these people are wearing if we're ever gonna go down there and explore. Yeah, yeah.
They launch a high resolution outfit surveillance probe. The episode is split into two missions.
There's the mission to figure out what the hell is up
with the replicator being on this planet.
And how do we get ourselves up inside this wormhole?
Yeah.
Shkotay and Paris are on the planet mission.
Kim and BLT are on the wormhole mission.
To Gotay and Paris beam down in a pretty classic Star Trek town square, fairly dirty clothes.
I guess the local fashion is to wear a very dirty clothing.
You fall into some crud or something?
They're doing that surreptitious tricordering that Starfleet's due when they're among the primitives and
you know trying to keep a low profile but they run into a local bar played by that guy
that played the hotel manager in Ghostbusters.
Hey everybody, it's Michael Lenson.
Yeah.
I have no idea to be so much I won't pay it.
He is one of the classic that guys.
Is this really his first Star Trek appearance?
Because his name sort of lends itself to being on Star Trek.
Yeah, really does.
He's a bard that's sort of on the grift.
The first versus free, but then you get a pay
if you want to keep hearing the mythology of this world.
He just walks around telling the origin story
of this point to everyone.
He's the guy I hate running into in any major city who's handing out CDs, but if you make the mistake of being handed one, you're kind of railroaded into having to buy it.
You can't give it back. Right, right. It's a powerful gift and he's very interested in their shoes.
A lot made of the shoes that Dakota and Paris are wearing.
And I was infuriated at how much the camera refused to reveal the shoes. Every, like, in
this, in this first scene, he's like, boy, those are some amazing kicks you guys are rocking.
I really respect the height beast game. And it's like cut to the shoes, cut to the shoes,
I wanna say what he's talking about.
We really don't see them hardly at all.
And what is almost as infuriating to me as that
is how often we see the shoes belonging to Arador and Cole,
which are like the CurlyQ Court gesture style shoes.
No one comments on them. Yeah, no one amazed by those.
And when we do finally get a cut to Tom Parris' shoes,
they're just like marbles.
I don't know what that is.
Totally unremarkable trail shoes from REI.
Hard to believe, isn't it?
They have to exchange these to buy some ears
because everybody in the town is required to wear ear
necklaces. This is explained to them by another businessman who happens to have a bindleful
of ears and ticotas like so that's how they do it in their tribe.
Yeah, evidently the leaders of this town are really obsessed with the movie Dear Hunter
and specifically the POW Camp scene.
Must be some sort of fetish. Back up on the Voyager, BLT and Kim
are coming up with ideas for how to catch a rising wormhole.
They got to figure out a way to kind of fix it in space
for long enough for the Voyager to go through it.
That's the thing about wormholes, right?
Yeah.
You want to set up the conditions just right.
You want to polarize the instability.
You definitely want to have the third glass of wine.
And finally, and most importantly,
you want to take just an incredibly good shower,
like the best shower you've ever taken.
And then you're ready for some wormhole action.
Yeah. If you're lucky.
Yeah, I mean, more often than not, you're just going to have a hangover from that third
or fourth glass of wine.
The prep is no guarantee of success, you know.
Yeah, so this is the challenge, right?
They've got to catch this thing.
Catch it if you can.
We haven't figured that part out yet.
So it's exciting.
I mean, it does seem like they may be able to actually make this work.
They've got an idea to kind of shoot some kind of particles and polarize space to like
magnetically draw the wormhole to a fixed point.
But we don't get much more on that.
I think you've brought this up as a conflict point, but we don't get much more on that.
I think you've brought this up as a conflict before Ben,
but like the idea of a make-wee is working on the project
that may get them home and put that same make-wee
into Federation prison.
It's a conflict unregarded here or at any point.
I feel like this episode is too light
to really engage with that,
but it would be nice to have Bialty go like,
so you're gonna put in a good word for us,
right Captain?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Back on the planet,
Paris is rightfully pissed about being barefoot
before there is a gong banger dropped in the town square.
And this is the thing that announces
three extremely stacked women and an MC introduced the holy sages.
Yeah.
It's just unrelenting bangers between the gong, the women, the MC, the forengi, and then finally the replicator.
That's the mic drop there at the end.
And Chico Teh has to radio up to Janeway to let her know that shit is going down.
And it's...
Oh shit, those are foreing, yeah, it's too commercial.
This is a event that happens fairly often.
The Sages invite one lucky town's person
to approach them to both ask a question
and also to get a better angle
at the prodigious underboop happening on stage.
There is more underboop in this episode than I feel like has ever happened in the history
of Star Trek.
It's a lot.
The Ferengi love their underboop.
They really do.
Big fans.
These actors are from Baywatch.
I look them up.
Oh yeah.
They've got Baywatch credits. I mean, not a lot of minor television actors in the 90s didn't have Baywatch credits,
but...
But if you're an actor of a certain boob, you're going to get work on two types of programming.
Right.
Baywatch.
And for Rengie-centric episodes of Star Trek.
I don't think that the dudes playing the foringies are the same
guys that played the foringy in the barzan wormhole episode.
One of them is.
Oh, one of the guys.
Okay.
Yeah, the one with lines in that TNG episode
was able to come back, reprise the character.
The other guy in the TNG episode had no lines and was a stand-in.
And has been a stand-in on Star Trek for years and years,
like has hundreds of episode credits being
like Robert Picardo's hand stand-in.
A figure, John.
We don't think the same way as a face and body boys do.
And like back of the head or like leg stand-in,
like he's a guy, he's like he's a working guy
But he's not yeah, I should I look I'm on memory alpha. Um, it says why they didn't
Cast him to reprise this role here. Did you see this? It says they didn't want to give him lines because his voice sounds like this
He wouldn't make a possible prank because his voice is just like this.
Poor JR Kenyanya's cursed with that voice.
Sorry!
Leslie Jordan Abley steps in for JR Kenyanya's laptop And a perfectly reasonable voice. You're like a good boy.
You're a good boy.
This guy that's grappling to the sages
as the friend you have styled themselves
is a sandalsmith whose sandal business is failing
because he has to divert too many of the profits
toward feeding his large family full of small children
and elderly parents. And none of them are being
exploited and put to work as free labor.
Is this a shoe-based economy that we're witnessing here?
It really seems that way.
There is so much attention given to the footwear and its importance and trading for them.
I don't know if you noticed that this was a guest script by Quentin Tarantino. Alright. Yeah, exploit thy family is the lesson that they take
advantage of this moment to spread to their faithful flock and they replicate
him a copy of the rules of acquisition. They charge him for it and then they go
back into their temple.
I mean, this event lasts less than two minutes.
Could you imagine if this was your work day?
Yeah, I mean, exploitation is a great way to have a pretty easy life.
There's a post-event McLaughlin group.
Is your want?
Where Chico Te tells everyone about what they saw down there.
These, for Angii have created a mythology
that centers them within it.
And this idea just grosses out the whole room,
including Nelix who gets his own react here.
And I didn't know why he got his react until much later.
I thought at the time I was like,
oh, that's interesting, like why would he care?
Especially because he's not, like, they give him an insert,
but they don't give him an expression.
Yeah, yeah.
Before we're off to the rest of the, to the people.
I wanted Picard to just pop into this episode periodically
to show on his body how deep of shit they were in.
W slash R slash T violations of the prime directive,
because it's pretty deep right now.
This population had a uniquely vulnerable mythology for the Ferengy to exploit and they've co-opted
it and are now using it to kind of turn the entire planet into just a profit extraction
operation to benefit the two of them.
Well, it's interesting you brought up the Prime Directive Bend because TuVoc is there
to remind Janeway that the Ferangu are not a part of the Federation and they don't give
a shit about things like that.
And she goes, shut the fuck up TuVoc, just shut the fuck up about the Prime Directive.
Obviously it doesn't matter.
The Federation is partially responsible for what's happened.
And therefore a duty bound to correct the situation.
You know who would be great to have at a meeting like this?
You know someone who's just a chill fucking hang who isn't trying to ruin my ideas or my
programs?
Two vicks.
Two vicks would be great right now.
Who gives less than half a shit about the prime directive?
Yeah.
Yeah. So they get two Vock to quiet down and then they arrest
these two for Rangie by transporting them off the planet's surface.
I think this is great.
I loved it.
They bring them right up into the transport room
and the confrontation takes place in the transport room.
I loved seeing they like dropped jaws of the people
in the holy vault or whatever
when the Frankie disappear.
Yeah, this guy, Caffir is their like main valet.
Yeah.
That works for them.
And as soon as they get beamed away,
Caffar kicks it on their tucked velvet couch.
Caffar doesn't have like a ton to do,
but he does get like some character development
in scenes like this,
which just reveal him to be an absolute opportunist.
Yeah, I mean, Caffar is there to relish in the couch
and also get hit in the face by pillows.
Yeah.
That's his job and he's great at it.
He loves it.
So in the transport of room,
Cole and Erador are confronted by Captain Janeway
who is very angry with the horrible thing
that they have done in positioning themselves
as deities to these primitive humanoids. And Eridor is actually pretty shrewd in how he argues
against this. He makes the case that maybe their cosmology is true, maybe we are in fact predicted
by their prophets, and maybe these profits are in fact hours to keep.
You've taken these people's religion and manipulated it for your own selfish purposes.
My wealth doesn't come from offerings alone.
I was shocked by a couple of things in this scene, Ben.
First, I was shocked that Janeway told them straight up about Voyager being stranded
in the Delta Quadrant. Like, why even disclose that to them? I'm not saying lie to the
Ferengy, but you don't have to say that they're stuck there too. You could just say, your
Federation starship in the Delta Quadrant and our job is to take you back. Right. Right.
But the idea of like finding common cause in their both being stuck,
I didn't like that at all, leveraged wise.
And two, it reveals too much.
Artore's pants pattern points directly at his crank
in a way that seems totally intentional
when he's up on the transporter pad.
They're these waves in his pants pattern
that like gravitate toward the center of his junk.
Yeah, I thought I interpreted those as more like emanating out from his junk personally.
Well, I mean, they drew my eyes. That's for sure. Where else are your eyes supposed to go
with a pattern like this? Yeah. When you're a costume designer, you know what you're doing, right?
I think so. That was also in Quentin Tarantino's script.
Huh, see, that's fucking it. So Janeway tells the Faringie that they're coming
with when they leave and go back for the Alpha Quadrant and Cole is just
devastated. Cole is like the the Lenny of the Georgian Lenny here and our
door steps up and makes the case here that maybe they are sages. Yeah. And he does this with all the panache of a mega-church televanjulist.
Right.
Like he's practically clapping and inviting organ music behind him.
What would you be leaving them with?
Tell us, I'll read your tell us.
It's a scene that ends in such a way that it kind of made me think that he changed Janeway's
mind.
And they get beam back down.
He did.
He basically says, prove I'm not a sage.
And she's like, well, you got me there.
Let him go too.
That scene for Janeway.
Not a great Janeway scene.
I was shocked.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I like the...
You can't let a Ferengy beat you in a bore of intellect.
Yeah. You can't let a forrangi beat you in a bore of intellect.
Yeah, like trying to match wits with a Sicilian when death is on the line.
So there's a McLaughlin group after this.
Yeah, it's you too, where they got to discuss, they got to discuss the plan ahead because our door made such a compelling argument.
They can't just kidnap these gods, right?
Right. Because it will almost surely lead to chaos among the locals if they just run
away with their deities.
These are job creators, Ben.
We got to keep them happy.
Right.
We can't tax their capital gains that would disincentivize them from making investments that stimulate
the economy.
Chaos would happen if you tried.
Right.
So the idea is to just compel the Ferengi by making it more of a profit motive for them
to leave.
Right.
It's a sort of profit inception.
They want to convince the Ferengi that it'll be better for them if they come with the
Voyager and it's one of those classic TV tropes where they solve the problem off camera.
If inception involved like the spinning of a piece of platinum, instead of a top, that's
what's happening here.
Coffee, black, make it yourself.
I'm trying to help you see this as an opportunity to grow.
Make it yourself.
So our door and coal are back in their Scrooge McDuck treasure room.
When they get a knock on the door, they send Keaffir to go check who it is, and in thrusts the unmistakable cane
of the grand negus. And holding this cane is a farangu with Nielix's voice who introduces
himself as the grand proxy. Shave the groveling for the ne's himself. I was kind of hoping for a wall of Sean cameo here.
I mean, I don't know how you could possibly have explained it.
You know, given the rules of the world, but that would have been fun.
Fun bit of business for Ethan Phillips to put the
Ferengi ears back on again.
Yeah.
He makes a pretty convincing argument in his own right about who he is.
He's in deep cover right now. Yeah. He makes a pretty convincing argument in his own right about who he is.
He's in deep cover right now. Yeah. This is tough stuff. And his cover appears to be working
because our door, you know, pushes back lightly at the idea of being recalled back to
Ferenganar, but eventually Nielix as Grand Proxy, fairly persuasive and they're forced to
capitulate to him. Yeah.
I mean, initially they're trying to argue for like of somehow the Ferenci have figured
out a way to send this powerful representative of the government.
So we'll make a deal to pay 20% of our profits to the negas to keep this this sweet deal
we have going here. But Nelix says that no, in fact, you have to come back with me.
You have to see the negus in person.
Got to write a speech also to these town people.
And we're seizing all of your dough on top of that.
And he grabs a couple of bags with dollar signs painted
on the outside of them.
And he says, you've got 20 minutes to write a speech that will explain all of this to the
robes that you've tricked into this deal out in the town square.
That way it's easier to exploit them the next time.
I'm going to come back in 20, that speech better be ready.
You know, you should probably begin with the under boobs
and your list of apologies and thanks. You're handing out.
Yeah. All of those princess layers you have running around here. They're the ones that you
need to apologize to the most. Let my under boob go. When he looks was in Tarkar land. Let my underboob go.
It's crazy. Kaffir has been listening to all of this. And there's no Kaffir react.
He just gets taken out into the town square with the Grand Proxy.
Yeah, he's like, that guy's an even bigger sage than y'all. So deuces.
Yeah. Yeah.
That guy's an even bigger sage than y'all, so deuces. Yeah.
Out in the town square, Nelix is giving away coins
like he's an old throwing bread crumbs to pigeons,
tossing it all around, making it rain out there.
It's like he's in the club throwing frangs.
Nelix would bring change to the club.
Yeah, the townspeople cannot fucking believe this.
Like the sandal maker guy pulls Gaffar aside and he's like, what the fuck is going on?
He's got the opposite problem from before now.
Now he's got more demand for his footwear than he can supply.
Yeah, both things, a real challenge for a business.
Yeah.
I thought it was interesting that the Sandelman did not go, hit Neelix up for a fistful of
money, though.
Agreed.
So maybe it was a lie.
Maybe he was just there in the beginning to just get a glimpse of that underboop and maybe
get a handout.
Yeah.
Maybe he flipped his copy of the rules of acquisition for more than 10 frames. There you handout. Yeah, maybe he flipped his copy of the Rules of Acquisition
for more than 10 frames.
There you go.
That makes sense.
Yeah, he's a more shrewd businessman than he lets on.
Inside the vault, our door and coal
are furiously trying to figure out a way out of this.
Like certainly there's something in the Rules of Acquisition
and all of the addenda that would, you know, provide a rebuttal to this. But what they come up with finally is that there
isn't anything in the text, they're going to have to come up with something themselves.
And you are just allowed to make up rules. And the rule they make up here is kill the messenger.
Yeah. Pretty clever, guys. What do you need the rules of acquisition for
anyway if you can just make shit up? This guy came all the way across the galaxy to
shake you down and you think that killing him is gonna stop people from coming across
the galaxy. Yeah. These guys aren't very smart. This episode is meant to be light and kind
of funny, but I did kind of think they should do the math on that.
And they should also do the math on like,
what a weird coincidence that the federation
and a proxy of the grand naga showed up right at the same time.
This is little green men ask in terms of tone
and seriousness, right?
I guess so, yeah.
So you're asking uncomfortable questions, Ben.
Yeah.
Questions this episode doesn't want to answer.
We'd rather see Arador and Cole swinging swords
at the Grand Proxy once he goes back inside the wall.
Yeah.
What do they need swords for?
I don't know.
I guess they didn't have whips to whip him with.
I wish we saw the crashed shuttle.
Yeah.
To understand just how much tech they were able to pull from it.
Yeah.
I don't know if we mentioned that they've erected a new field
around their temple that will prevent
beam outs from now on.
So this is a sword fight where Nelix does not have any defenses
and does not have any way of just escaping quickly.
And I did think he kind of gave it up too quickly.
Like he kind of had them on the fences
just throwing metal objects at them from across the room
and then he's like, I give up, I give up.
You don't send a Nelix to do a two-vac job, you know?
I lay this at the feet of Janeway
and yet another poor decision.
Like, Nielix totally fucks this up.
He's the worst. Why, why choose him for this mission?
I guess he's a better actor than Tuvac would be.
That's fair, but Tuvac would rather die than give it up here the way Nielix did.
Right. I kind of thought based on the staging of this scene,
that what was going to happen was that they were going to keep swinging on him and eventually hit their field generator with a sword and knock it out.
Because it's kind of pushing toward that side of the room, but instead,
Nelix confesses that he's there in disguise, he's not really a forangie, they give him a big tug on his lobes to verify that he doesn't keep his balls in the same place that they do.
Doesn't that hurt? I can't feel a thing.
Yeah, you're gonna have to go lower, guys.
Yeah, and slower.
He has to flee, and they've won again.
Right. Got a ticket, then.
Not no, get that roll, but a large match.
A greatest gen live show is something you don't want to miss.
Why?
Well it's a great opportunity to see me and Ben in person, but that's not all.
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Hey, let's make a pretty great name for a tour.
Let's do it.
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Oh, raps, hey, hey, hey, oh, I'm about to count you in line.
These clouds are really freaking me out.
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These giraffes do not smell good.
No, they do not, and they've such short nacks.
But I'm hearing we need to get on this off.
We've got to get on the art.
It is about terrain,
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Hey, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.
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Yeah, I know we look like humans.
We're actually, we're podcasters.
We are podcasters, so it's different. Have you heard of Ono Ross and Carrie? We investigate spirituality
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We would love to be on the boats. We came to by two. What do you think? Ono Ross and Carrie available on maximumfun.org
MaximumFun.org. I've got to get that black wood knife.
Are you setting a highest?
Gold.
Outside the vault, Neelix has to tell Paris and Chicoeté how badly he sucks at this away
mission.
And then, right on cue, that poet busker from the beginning of the episode starts his
shit again.
But he's so bad at his con that he can't even keep the eye patch things straight.
Come on, man.
It almost seems like he's forgotten that he's tried this on them.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, he's running this con on multiple people a day, so it's possible that
he's just, you know, doesn't have a great memory for who he has and hasn't tried it on.
This idiot is pretty useful to them in the moment, though, right?
Because he knows all of the lyrics to the poem
on which their entire culture is based.
And so Chico Teys, can you skip to the end
and tell me how the last lyric goes?
Yeah, the part is like, hmm, I don't seem to remember.
And Chico Teys, like, would some marbles jog your memory?
Yeah, they certainly do.
Yeah.
And he goes on to describe something magical
that Voyager could make happen pretty easily
with their technology.
Three new stars appeared that night.
And with the ringing of the bell,
the sages knew where they must dwell.
Paid off with the shoes,
he reveals that the sages knew where they must dwell. Paid off with the shoes, he reveals that the sages from the heavens are meant to leave
with the holy pilgrim.
So this is a new role to cast Nelix as.
And it's kind of a weird scene where like at night time, and Nelix gets up on the days
in front of the temple and announces to anyone that will listen, which is no one,
that he's the Holy Pilgrim.
Yeah, and it takes Paris and Chicote to be the hype man for this moment.
They're the guys watching the three-card Monty that put the big bets in up front to help inspire more of the robes. So the sages come out of their
temple and they're like, you're no pilgrim and he's like, prove that I'm not. It's kind
of the same logic that they used with Janeway.
And there's a bit of business where they've got to synchronize what Neelik says with
the things that the town's people see, right?
Right. So part of the religious story is that there will be three stars that appear in the night's guy.
Yeah.
And so when Nielix mentions this,
Cote's on the blow are asking for some torps to be shot in an arrangement that looks this way.
Yeah.
How many torpedoes do they have?
God, waste in three on this.
Three last torpedoes.
It seems like you could just shoot three Bois out there.
And emergency complete.
And stick something in Cendiary on them
and not burn three torps on this job.
Maybe they can fire them and then go collect them later
because they didn't actually explode.
Good call.
I like that.
Just a thought.
They should spend a lot of time on this episode, scrutinizing that element of it.
Yeah, that would be cool.
So as the ledger demand of establishing Nielix's bonafides as the Holy Pelgram is being
advanced, we also need to get the field shut down,
at the fringy setup so that they can beam the mount of there. And Tom Parris and Chico
take you to lead them back, chant going among the crowd. This is really got the crowd whipped
into a lather. Nothing like a three-syllable chant to really whip up the domes into a lather. Nothing like a three-silliple chant to really whip up the domes into a lather.
So effective.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They start gathering kindling and erecting poles so that they can jone of arc of the
perengue back to wherever they came from.
Because the prophecy says they leave on wings of fire specifically.
How far is so excited about this? He starts banging a gong. He's almost as excited as
Ardor is because there's a three shot here. Like it's a really nice composition where like we get
torches on either side and the threes hide up in the middle of the frame. Yeah, yeah. And Nielix is
like facing camera freaked out and Ardor is behind him, like, almost relishing this moment.
Yeah.
Ardor, as we have established a total opportunist,
and, you know, if he inherits the temple,
we cross the line to a conversation Ardor has with Cole,
kind of Soto Vochay like, where he's like,
man, we really had a great run.
Seven years of fucking underboob and umox, like hell yeah,
and Cole's like, ready to die.
We died doing something we loved, so that was cool.
Yeah, I liked the payoff from the expression we get, though.
That was neat.
I also liked that tying up the fringy and getting the fire going
was such a chaotic scene for the townspeople
that Chicocha and Paras are basically able to talk openly
about getting the rest of their plan done,
like without anybody going like,
hey, where are these guys?
And what are they talking about?
Yeah, they're able to operate out in the open,
a little easier, which is what allows them to go inside
the temple and phaser blast the shield
that's been stopping them from beaming.
If I was one of those townspeople,
I would be going into the temple too.
Like get some looting done while everybody's distracted
with the whole burning these guys alive thing.
Yeah.
If there was ever a time for looting, it's now.
I had to say, I mean, I understand why Caffar
is working so hard to get his bosses burned
alive, but he did sort of take his eye off the prize.
Like, he should have locked the temple up behind him.
I mean, when you are the ancillary percussionist in a band of any kind, it's a real thrill
to hit the gong.
Anytime you get gong opportunity.
Gong opportunity, if you will. That's your whole focus to hit the gong. Anytime you get gong opportunity... GONG EARTUNITY, if you will.
That's your whole focus. That's the dream. And that's, I think, why Kaffir isn't paying much attention
to anything else. He's the gongman. He is the gongman and uh...
I gotta feel like the way he hit that gong is like somebody quitting their job like,
fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, you're cool, fuck you, I'm out.
So they, Paris and Chicote, phaser, the field generator,
it blows not real big.
And the Voyager is able to beam the Ferengue out just in time before the flames start lapping
at their legs.
Which kind of sells the prophecy in its own right too.
Right.
It really sells the prophecy.
The people believe that they have seen what they have been predicted to happen.
You know, it wouldn't have worked in this scene.
The Star Trek Discovery style flash beaming.
It would have been too fast.
Yeah, yeah.
A nice slow beam is what you want.
Everybody heads back up to the bridge and they, after, you know, Janeway scolds the
Furnigi one last time.
And up on the bridge, they get word from six bay. Are one shot with the doctor in this episode
who seems to be totally fine and not compromised in any way
as we were wondering at the end of the last episode.
This is what they're gonna do, huh?
They're just gonna sideline the doctor
until we've forgotten about what he's been through
and then bring him back like everything's fine.
Yeah, cool. But one of the security guys that was on until we've forgotten about what he's been through and then bring him back like everything's fine. Yeah.
Cool.
But one of the security guys that was on Ferengi Dudi
got bonked on the noggin.
The Ferengi are escaping in their shuttle craft.
And...
Did you get this?
Like, why is it the Ferengi shuttle?
Like, they crashed.
They crashed, but I guess the Voyager beamed it up and put it in their shuttle bay.
I watched this episode fairly closely.
If that was a moment in the episode,
I missed it completely.
Yeah, I think Chico Te says,
we beamed up your shuttle and also we fixed it.
Oh yeah, I guess I missed that bit of dialogue.
Yeah.
They may have cut that part for time, but...
Yeah, so the Ferengear trying to go back to the planet.
They're not going for the wormhole, but they do some sort of graveton pulse to foil the
voyagers.
Tractor beam.
So the voyager can't grab their shuttle, can't beam them out, but it causes
their shuttle to be drawn into the wormhole, and not only that, it screws the wormhole
up.
It is now destabilized at both ends.
Which means it's all fucked, Ben, it's over.
There's no getting into the wormhole now.
For an episode that is so bad for Janeway.
This moment at the end is a great Janeway moment.
She basically gets up, dusts herself off,
straightens her fucking tie, and gets back to work.
Like the awful truth of this moment,
barely registers on her face,
before she gets back to setting the course back home again.
Yeah.
Pretty great captain moment by her,
but by obscuring how heartbroken she's gotta be.
Yeah, and- Because everyone else is. Everyone else is, but this obscuring how heartbroken she's got to be. Yeah, and because everyone else is.
Everyone else is, but this is like one of those leadership moments.
We just have to resolve to keep trying.
And probably the most crushing of the, we got the rug pulled out from under a style of
episode of Void, or that we've gotten so far at the end.
Yeah.
Like it goes from being like a pretty silly light episode to feeling real on far at the end. Like it goes from being like a pretty silly light episode
to feeling real on we at the end.
I sort of wish that's where it ended
because we do get one final shot on the service of the planet
where Kefar's giving away money from the vault
and the town square and they all watch Voyager leaving
via warp, like do we need this?
And he's also like making, making it rain again,
and I just don't buy that for Keflar.
I don't think that his character was established
as being the kind of guy that just, like, makes it rain, you know?
Yeah, I mean, that's pretty much in the Robert McKee book
that, like, the character getting hit with pillows in Act 1
is never going to be the character giving away money and act three.
It's flassen sloppy writing.
Everyone knows that.
Right.
So yeah, I didn't need the button either.
Because I wanted to sit in the on-wee.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a it's a subscription by addition as you sometimes put it.
Hmm.
Yeah, that sounds like something I'd say.
What would you say to the question,
did you like this episode, Ben?
You know, I'm maybe even together long with Post-opicide,
but I don't like bullets, I don't like friends,
and I don't like you.
I'm just stupid.
I do like this episode.
I think it's really fun to conclude a story that is implied all
the way back in TNG. I think you can enjoy it whether or not you've seen that episode,
but it's more fun if you have. I kind of wish they'd found a way to have an episode of
DS9 that involves the return of these guys or something,
you know.
I still have hope that we'll see them again, given that we didn't see the destruction
of their shuttle, and they just went off to wherever the tail of this thing ends up.
And given how many Star Trek shows are being made at this moment in time.
That's what I'm saying.
I mean, we're making every Star Trek show.
So the Cole and Arador series.
Yeah.
You gotta believe that's been pitched.
I mean, I feel like a lower dex could really capitalize
on a Cole and Arador showing up.
Yeah, except you don't want JR Kenyones
in there as a voice actor.
Hey, how many takes do you want me to do?
Do you want me to do some efforts
like my character's running?
Mike McMahon, big fan of your show.
Yeah, I like this episode too, Ben,
for exactly the same reason.
I mean, you check in your brain at the coat check
before watching this one.
You have a great time for 42 minutes.
Then you put your brain back in and you get along
with the rest of your day, you know?
Like we're good for one of these every season.
A weird, forrangi episode.
And I think the only downside to it is that we might have
cashed this one in. Yeah.
For maybe the series.
Like I don't know anything about what we're going to get for the next few seasons, but
we might have burned up the Farenki for, like, that's a wrap on the Farenki for Star Trek
Voyager is a thing I hope they're not saying.
I think they may well be Adam and I agree that's kind of sad.
Maybe we'll find a version of that in the Delta Quadrant.
Yeah.
That's what I'm hoping for.
The Delta Quadrant contains multitudes, so who knows?
Yeah.
Well, the Priority One Message inbox contains
multitudes of messages, Ben.
You wanna go see what we have over there?
Okay.
Priority One Message from Starfleet coming in on Secured Channel.
Need a supplement on.
supplement?
supplement?
supplement?
Yes, extra.
The interest alone could be enough to buy this ship!
Then our first priority one message is from BIF!
It is to Ben and Adam.
Message goes like this, don't job.
Keep it up.
And then the request to play whatever your easiest drop copy paste is at this moment
of editing.
Oh, that's interesting.
So like whatever we've got chambered in the cache of copy paste is gonna go there
That'll be interesting or confusing depending on what happens there
Hey, Biff that's two coats of wax on the P1
Our next priority one message is from Maureen and it's to David and it goes like this
As a mom who has watched every series of Star Trek first run, it was important for me
to share my love of TNG with my three sons as they were growing up.
Now I am having so much fun finally sharing my love of DS9, Voyager and this podcast with my youngest and
obviously best son David. Don't tell your brothers but you are my favorite love
ma. It is me Maureen who is now a mother of many sons. I do not remember how I found myself in this circumstance.
All I know is that I like David the best out of the three, which would be very
hurtful for the other two if you reveal this terrible information.
Well, thanks, Marine and Biff for those two messages. And thanks to everyone who has submitted a priority
one message for the entire year of 2021,
a basically full inventory of P1s.
That was cool.
The whole year through has kept our show going.
Slots are available for 2022. You just go to to Maximumfund.org slash jumbo-tron
to get yourself in the queue.
Do it.
And doing so goes a long way
in supporting the production of the show.
Hey Adam, it's that been.
Did you find yourself a drunk Shimoda?
Granabal, drunk Shimoda!
God, it is so hard to not make it. Arador make it. I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make Ardor and Cole for me. What about you? I'll join you on that square.
I don't know.
I mean, the moment for me is the one where they like,
decide to kill Nielix without really thinking
through the ramifications of his presence
on their planet.
Yeah.
Just profoundly dumb guys, these two.
I think if you're casting them or bringing one of them
back as it was like casting for
laugh, it's got to be part of this and you get a you get a number of mustache twirling
laughs here in this episode that are really big fun.
These are actors clearly enjoying their work and characters enjoying their dirty work.
So I think between us between our half
Shemotas, each of these characters gets one full Shemota. Hey good for them. Yeah
It's really nice really nice to see characters get Shemotas when they deserve them. I'm really glad you didn't give your Shemota to J. R.
Kenyones a guy who probably doesn't deserve it. Hey, what gives?
Adam, why don't you head over to the Game of Buttholes?
The Wheel of the Caretaker at Gach.BizslashGame.
I'll tell you about season 3, episode 6.
Remember. I'll tell you about season 3 episode 6. Remember, Torres is troubled by a series of dreams
in which she seems to be reliving another woman's life.
That woman is being held at the top of a cliff
by a young Tuvac.
Tuvac is who's trying his best not to drop her.
Save me Tuvac. You fucking coward.
That what she says?
I mean, if it was Dora's it would be.
Yeah, totally.
Well Ben, I am excited to see that episode and I'm excited to be over at the Game of
Buttholes the Will, the caretaker, where a new square has been added.
I don't know if you saw this, but it is the JR-Kinyonia Square.
Oh!
If we land on it, it means we have to do the entire episode in that awful voice!
Oh no! Nobody will live, let's listen to our show ever again!
You're required to learn as you play, Role.
I'm very glad that's not true.
We're currently on square 25.
Couple squares ahead.
We've got the naked now bath tub episode.
Ooh.
Which, I mean, I'll probably end up making the J.R. voice.
Yeah.
That whole episode has the water cools.
That was the challenge last time.
I got too hot and then too cold.
And that's pretty much it.
That's the only square we're in, Janger hitting.
Here goes nothing.
Roll that bone, Adam.
I landed on it, pun.
I'm in the rain!
I'm in the rain!
I really don't want to land on it.
I never want to do an episode like that again.
Adam really, really hated doing the naked now last time. And now we have to do it again.
I mean, the reason for the game is that sometimes we do things that we don't want to do.
Yeah, I mean, after a year like this, it's super fun to be reminded once again.
Sometimes you have to do something you don't want to do. Cool.
Wow. Yeah, we're going to, we're going to start 2022 in a bath.
Which will mean it'll start just as poorly as 2021 did.
I'm sure glad that's 20 year edits been.
Oh, yeah, yeah. It does fall to me, doesn't it? Um, yeah, yeah, wow well
I mean fuck us right yeah, we get what we deserve we do we we made this
You know if we didn't make so much fun of J our canyons. I think we would have been safe, but I think
Carmically, yeah, we invited that on ourselves.
Oh, boy.
We have our new producer starting very soon.
I don't think it would be fair to have an employee
edit an episode recorded in that way.
Yeah, how soon do you want this person to quit?
We should probably just say that we're hiring a producer again now. I can't believe that you're the one of us that gambles when you roll so Yeah. Well, that'll be next week here on the greatest generation.
In the meantime, we'd sure appreciate folks leaving a nice review for our show on Apple
Podcasts or their pod catcher of choice or recommending the show to a friend, helping
us grow the size of our audience is a great way to support what we do.
And it doesn't come in. I do Yeah, I mean you with thing
This being the last week of the year
Thanks to everyone who's already done that it really means a lot to us
Thanks to everyone who supported the show throughout the year at maximum fund.org slash join
Thanks to to everyone who sent us a nice message
Over the last 12 months 2021 the worst year of my life.
Yeah, it's fucking sucked in a lot of ways. I'm sure a lot of people can say the same.
We are hoping that things get better in the year ahead in that regard, so.
Yeah, thank you to the Card Daddy Bill Tilly who runs the At Greatest Trek
accounts on Instagram and Twitter for us. Maybe he'll start the At Greatest Trek accounts on Instagram and Twitter for us.
Maybe he'll start an At Greatest Trek TikTok someday.
Who knows?
Really?
We're getting into TikTok now?
Yeah.
I'm just suggesting it, you know.
As long as it's just Bill Tilly doing fun, Bill Tilly thing.
Yeah, probably just be like showing different Star Trek figurines he has.
You know what? It'll be a great channel. Who knows if it'll blow up the way Adam
Ruggusius YouTube channel did. He went from from hobbyist YouTube cooking
enthusiast to incredibly popular millions of viewers YouTube. Yeah.
kitchen enthusiast and he's a great friend to
DeSoto. He has been for many years and he's the one who makes the music for the
show. Also on TikTok Adam Ragusia. His TikTok is good. He's really good at
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greatest gen, join the Miriam groups of friends of DeSoto all over the internet.
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so look for me on there.
I'm at Cup for Time.
Thank you so much to everyone who listens,
and we hope you have a great new year.
And with that, we will be back at you next week
with another great episode of Star Trek Voyager
and an episode of the greatest generation Voyager
that dreams that it's reliving a podcast
that isn't set in a bathtub.
Hey Adam.
Not looking forward to this. Maybe we can go over to my in-laws and
use their jacuzzi. Record it that way. I don't want to be in the same tub as you.
Oh you're saying jacuzzi instead of tub? Yeah instead of tub. You'd be like, some of these bubbles are smelly. Hey, it's your edit, man. I'm happy
to do that. I was just trying to find a way to make it more palatable for you, buddy.
How long is the longest you've ever been in a jacuzzi, though? Like, could you do 90
minutes in a jacuzzi? I don't know. I think we'd die die It's a good thing that we can't land on a naked now and a bucket. We'll do it live square
That would be really bad
Yeah, that would be an awful surprise for the programmers of this game to make possible and I'm grateful that it hasn't happened. Yeah
Lucky us Happy New Year, Ben.
Happy New Year, Adam.
I can show you.
I can show you.
I can show you.
I can show you.
I can show you.
I can show you.
I can show you.
I can show you.
I can show you.
I can show you.
I can show you.
I can show you.
I can show you.
I can show you.
I can show you.
I can show you. I can show you. I can show got it, got it, got it, got it.